“Nota Bene” (w/ Mike Birbiglia)

Look Mayer, Oh, I see you. My own look over there is that culture yes, goodness, lost culture ding dong, lost culturistas calling. I think we can switch the count of lovely straight male guests that we've had on the show on two hands now skyrocketed with this one.

I just wanted too, he.

And I think that that that warrant celebration.

Like well, by the way, you know, I have got my coke sharrow in front of me, and of course it says bro and that had to be cosmic.

Absolutely. I have to tell you, I'm a.

Little distracted because Bone and I were eating something spicy today and our stomachs are in a place, and I think it put me on a bad moon or on a call we just had. And I'm concerned about the way that I actually I admired you on that call. I mean you were you were sort of like it

And I don't even I don't like being like I had a moment like that this morning with you, before we with me, know, with just the people in the room. Yeah, and I was just like I was just exasperated.

I think sometimes you get to a certain point where you're just like I have to vent frustrations and it's it's hard because like I feel like my modus operandi every day is like cheerful, want to leave places better than I that I came in. And then but sometimes you get a little human moment and your stomach is heard from reading something spicy, and things are kind of like getting to you and you express.

Can I point out something else? Your em O lately has been to say the full modus operandi rather than abbreviating it to m O. Because this is I think the second time this week that you've said the full modus operandi, And can I.

Tell you every time I say the expression modus operanity, I'm like, I think this is right.

It is, it is right, you know what it means. I actually did it. I didn't know that.

M oh yeah, I just I've literally been thinking of them as.

I kind of love that for you that you're saying the full that your modus upper randy, You're you're tripling the vale the syllable count.

I think it's such a beautiful phrase, modus upper Randy.

Think about like the peaks and valleys of that. Of course, you know what I want to kind of work in which is so insufferable as NB or not to benh What does that mean? Like you know, like when like when someone writes something and then go n B as in as in like A, it's like A, it's like a PS. But it's like within the same paragraph. It's like I went to the store today NB. It was crowded. You know, I don't know about n B. No whate ever uses Well anyway, that's Latin slash Italian. And we

I also, I know that I'm saying this from like a place of like having an upset stomach and also like a little bit ornery because of your ornery. I had a thing today, But like, what the fuck did people expect with them?

No? No, I'm not surprised. It's just like it's so funny. It's so funny the way that like popes are like ripe for like literal adulation from like internet people like, oh my god, that the new pope.

It's like, let's get together and watch the conclaven like what then be Immediately then you find out that they're Catholic. It's like you're you're can I be real, Like this's never gonna change, Like you're never gonna the pope is never gonna be like, yeah, I think gay guys should rock.

The fuck on. That's never what the pope is gonna say now. But we liked We liked Francis because he was kind of like gag guy should rock the fuck on and then still used slurs in a literally in a way that made me go I like him, really made me go, that is hilarious.

Gene.

Okay, I thought I forgot about that. It's as beautiful as modus operanda.

Absolutely.

Well, anyway, our guest is a real legend, truly, truly. This is his fourth Netflix special, The Good Life, The Good Life. It's really sublime. Might have shed a tear, but that's because I was at serotonin zero when I watched it, and that's exactly where the state in which I should have watched. I probably was like, my serotonin probably was a little bit higher than that.

But I also cried, Oh, I mean it's yeah, there's an incredible storyteller.

It was a sensitive, amazing man. Cute guy, guy, not bad, not bad. I'm not bad to look at either.

Well, don't make his head explode, everyone, please, Well, Miclia.

This is the best introduction of the podcast I've ever seen.

Was it? Cute guy, not bad, not bad?

No, Hey, hey, hey, it's great to have a front runner.

Front title of app.

Is his modus operandi.

Operan di Do you see die or D? I guess Latin is D Die?

I think die?

I like to get in the Latin in you like that modus operandi?

Can you talk to us about your current modus operandi?

My current modus operandi anything, the mode of working I guess is I'm in writ a writer space right now. I'm writing my next movie.

Yeah, yeah, how is okay? And can you share what stage you're out with it.

I'm at the stage of like, I want to film it next spring, and I've written drafts of it and I just want to get it to a point where it's an ensemble where all eight characters are like lovely and it's very like Don't Think Twice. And yeah, we've all talked about Don't Think Twice a bit because.

It mirrored the NYU improv life.

I mean in that movie. I remember I told you this one I came on the podcast. I'm sure you guys spoke about you Don't Think Twice as well. Like it shook me to my core when I first watched it, because I was like, I remember, it was like, I don't know how you felt.

We've never really talked about that. We hadn't really talked about Don't Think Twice.

Ye, maybe because it was a sensitive subject at the time, but like it really scared me. I was like, Oh, there's no way I'd be that much of a dick to my friends as the character you play in that movie. I was like, I don't know if this is like a depiction of what our community is really like. And then you go through that experience and you're like, oh, yeah, all sorts.

Of humanity can come out, you know.

Yeah, it's like an interesting life experience of like the first time for me, it was like in my thirties when you realize, like life isn't fair, like not everyone gets the same thing in your group of best friends from college exactly.

But then as this new film a lovelier bunch than the Don't Think twice group, you would say.

It's an I think mixed bag. Oh, I think it's it's a fun ensemble film. I'm really excited about it. I don't even know if I'm going to be in it. Like I'm excited to just write and direct.

And making movies is so fun and I just love it.

I love I'm obsessed with movies. I think that's my My lost cultures is kind of like way in movies we watch, for example, like we watch Wicked probably seven or eight times.

She would lose her mind if she knows I knew I was here right now. I don't think the kids care about me, no cares.

And she watches SNL and I think maybe you've been on it as a cake.

Is it possible I have not been huge folks cross over to That's huge for her, Yeah, and the same way that it's huge for me, because can I tell you the thing that breaks my heart about my summer is that I can't line up with the shooting dates.

Damn it.

I guess I gotta whatever it's got to. It's gotta wait, but it's coming back.

There's something you know, who I feel like would connect with kids and clearly has is my There's something very like infectious about his energy and childlike about it that I think, like to.

My daughter, Mikey is like my Steve Martin. Like sometimes I'll explain to her, I'll be like, so the way you see Mikey is like how I see Steve Martin, and she kind of gets it. I think you have.

This joke in the special where when people stop you on the street when she's with you, like a big fan of your comedy whatever, when they like when they like throw praise at you in passing. You know, you finally asked her one day, like how does that make you feel? When that happens and you spoil it? And she said, well, you you say it.

She goes, it's a waste of my time. Right, But then and I got that's the mean things ever said that. And I know Bill Burr great joke. But then when someone called me the other day and they go, who's like a friend of Bill Burr and they're like, hey, I think Bill Burr might have some concerns about that, I'm like, it's a compliments.

You think he's a sweetheart.

I don't know.

The reality is he is for so is like, you know, he's a ballbuster, right, That's the way it ran to me, And I misunderstood. No, no, I think let's just okay, we can just address this here and now let's address it here and now Bill Burr is one of the great sweethearts of the industry, so lovely.

The persona is ballbuster, I think.

So, yeah, unless I misunderstood all the special well.

I think that it's like to an audience watching your special, like I would imagine they watch his specials as well, and the persona is ballbuster. So you're speaking to the persona, you're speaking about this person with the you know, well.

I was a well, of course I overthink everything. So this person says this to me, and I go, well, what do you think he'll say? They go, well, he might call you. I go, well, if he calls me, here's what I would say. I would go, if it wasn't your name, it wouldn't get a last exactly. It's like, that's that's the meaning thing anyone's ever said to me.

And I know Chris Rock he doesn't have that persona mean whereas other other Yeah, and there's something about the ear hit of Bill or that the sound of the pop pop pop. But then you say that your daughter okay, and I believe that your daughter has said to you that that is a waste of It's a waste of her time. It happens, But does she understand that, you know, her dad, being who he is and doing what he does, ends up like is the reason why she gets to go to Rome, or that he gets to be in

I'd like to think so, But you know, it's like you and I make the joke in the special, it's like we're my parents were not physically affectionate with me, and like Jenny and I are the opposite, which I'm gonna we'll find out what problem actually is when she's a grown up, right, so it's like you know you're messing up something and you just try to do your best.

I'm starting to see like a micro generation under us, like we know people, Okay, perfect example, friend of the show Natalie Roder Lateman and then another friend of the show, Celeste Jim says the reason they love Natalie so much is because Natalie is someone who is a product of their parents loving them so much. And she's just this wonderful, chill, like just like care free kind of person and in a way that is like so unfettered, and I feel like, hopefully that's where gonna ends up.

I think so.

Yeah, I'd like to think for her to be able to say it's a waste of my time, hilarious.

Yeah. I showed her the trailer the other day and then this week I'm gonna show her some clips kind of easy. Some of this stuff is a little over age ten Yeah, you know what I mean in terms of in terms of like heaviness or in terms of heaviness. I think, yes, the stroke stuff is pretty heavy. Yeah, this is for people listening like it's about my dad having a stroke and kind of yaling with that and yeah, it's pretty heavy. Mm hmm.

Would it play the same in every iteration that you would do the show, where like there are there are these really quick shifts in room tony even not even just like your tone as a performer, but like the room hush falls in the room so quickly and then you immediately break that and picks back up. But like, what did you see the peaks and valley every time in the same way.

It definitely varied and over you know, over time it's like calibrating how do you signal to the audience and quickly that I'm gonna say something serious?

Yeah.

Yeah, A lot of it is like honestly just silence. Like there'll be moments where like I'll just walk stage right and just not say anything for a second. I think at this point my audience is like they kind of know from the old man in the pool and the new one that like that's in there. Yeah, and that's like actually, like one of the coolest things about making these shows now is that like it's not out of nowhere to there's drama.

I feel like the drama in the past is always I don't know, maybe my memory is bad, but it felt like it like lived a little bit longer. And in this one, it feels like in the Good Life. It feels like it's the rhythm. The cadence is like a little bit more contracted in a way that I'm like, oh, this is really interesting, Like you kind of like toggle between them in a quicker way.

I feel like that. Yeah, I think part of it is My other shows were about kind of pain that I experienced in the past, and this one, for the first time, it's about pain I'm experiencing in my present. My dad is like still hanging on after having a stroke fifteen months ago. It's like it's devastating.

Yeah, Like it's like every week it's just really really hard.

And we have moments. Right, It's like, and I talk about that in the special. Is like going to celebrate his eighty fourth birthday, was beautifully surrounded by his children and his grandchildren, and like I gave him rosary beads from the Vatican that the that the last Pope blast and it's like, I mean, I'm hoping that that's the rawness of it. Yeah, is what connects with people and you guys are saying like you're a little choked up

Me, Yeah, what's your favorite?

James L. Brooks broadcast news?

Absolutely and in terms of endearment number two terms is wild.

So I have a question though, because you talk about like how there wasn't a lot of affection from your parents, like were you always someone? I have two questions. One, you went to Georgetown, right?

Yeah?

Do you think if your parents had hugged you more you still would have gone to Georgetown?

No?

Probably not right? Right? So that thank you for answering that question.

So way.

Who for thought out there and Another thing is were you always seeking out emotional outlets as a kid, or is that did you arrive at wanting connections with emotional films and media a little bit later because you felt maybe delayed or lacking in that.

I think I found it.

When I was a kid. I would write like poems and songs like I have these ridiculous like a joke book, a poem book, a songbook, and then my you know, I still have and they're ridiculous, and I had no real outlet for it. I did a little theater in high school, and when I went to college, I auditioned for the improv group and I didn't know what improv was.

I'm a bad friend and I have yet to be a one of those, but they've asked me multiple cots do it?

I love both of you. Come, let's do you guys got to come Uprose.

It's so we've been doing We've been doing with Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. It's it's been like, it's so fun.

Yeah, I'm afraid of that one. But it's too I feel like the Bellhouses it's too big.

It's amazing.

It's like that feels weird for a second, but then it kind of becomes part of the bit.

The thing with them and the thing with like I feel like.

It's got to be with PDD two because there are such little joy bubbles I feel like is it's like

That's right, It's so true.

I mean it's literally it's like it's funny because I did a lot of team sports when I was growing up. I was a big athlete, and then I didn't want to do that anymore, and so I went to college and all of a sudden it was like, oh, get on the improv sketch team, or like take classes at UCB, where it was unfortunately a team sport and you could

Yeah, even because in high school, was it like a team structure, was it a ladder or something? In tennis, yeah, yeah because you had because you had like a wrestling thing too, or tennis and soccer. Those are my high school sports. And in all those situations, it's just there are so many opportunities for someone to be like, hey, you're not good at this or something, just making me.

Feel one hundred percent. And also I think you most people me, I didn't have the presence of mind in high school to be like, they're right, I should relax, you know what I mean, Like when you get older, you're like, no, no, you should relax. Yeah, Like that's how you do things. Well.

You can't tell a teenager or a young person to chill out. No, they don't have to.

They can't do it.

Yeah, it's like they haven't experienced enough life to not know that it's end all, be all right.

That's why it's so weird when you see someone who's like fifteen years old and they're like amazing at a thing, yes, and you're like, who told you, but.

You know they how do they know? They're so fucked up later in life?

That's why I love like Queen's Gambit though, Like I was watching that recently the first time, late to the party, Like it's fun to watch a prodigy, Yeah, even though it's fake, you say, it's fun to watch.

Like, oh, what would that be like if you were a prodigy you get addicted to drugs. That's one of the few pieces of media where it does depict the full arc of prodigy and then it all falls apart, right, yeah, and then comes together and then comes together, which is yeah, which is the best case, thank god, thank god.

It's also really interesting because different adults relationship to her power and success.

It really is.

Really it's very good at exploring that as well, you know what I mean, like her adopted mother and then you know, like all the things that go on with that. Yes, it's yeah, really that like that actually was way better at It was about so much more than.

That one situation, And I got great art that made me think to watch show my daughter searching for Bobby Fisher the other day I've ever seen, Oh wow, great one. Yeah, And then the other day for my daughter's ten birthday, five person sleepover and they watched Clueless. Oh no, some of them had, some of them had DoD They like it. What do they think? I think they loved it?

Oh good. Oh that makes me so happy to hear, because I'm like, does this will Because one of my curiosities is will this work on a younger a way younger generation. Yeah, and I'm so glad to hear that it has or that it might.

They seem pretty happy.

I think I think it will.

Wonder we want to know why, because what's what makes that movie work so well is that it's a shared language in the movie that like you may not understand, but they understand itself.

Fantasy is so fun. It's such a fun world. Yeah, it really is. There's definitely some things over the over the kids heads.

Sure.

I remember watching it the first time and being like, I remember the moment. I was an astro van on a road trip with my parents and you know how they put the like big TV in the back of the astro vans and my sister I was I think I was nine and she was six, and we watched the list and it ended and we both just stared at the screen and I said, I don't know if I vocalize this, but I was like if something to the effect of like I think I love that, and my sister who's six goes me too.

I want to watch it again right now. Oh wow, you know what.

And it's speaking to what you just said about. It's visually so fun. They're so confident doing it. It feels like it still feels after it's tried to be copied so many times.

It feels like it's doing its own thing.

And also Alicia Silverstone just in like a magical period it something Sometimes stars are having it. Like Val Kilmer is a good example passed away recently. You look at like real genius. You just go, I don't know what was going on.

Something was something was happening.

Yeah, with Valculmer in that movie is like magic is that person?

Yeah, it's so aligned with the era. Yeah, it's when it Yeah, it's when a performer isigned with the era. But I mean it's like Tom Cruise, like risky business. It's like I don't know what you're doing.

Yeah, but I would say Lindsay Lohan too, I was gonna say.

I was just saying, and like who else for like a for like a longer period. That was like a five six year period.

But I was just so Aaron Stapplindsay Lohan is fantastic and my daughter loves, oh my god, the best. Yeah.

Have you seen this play?

John Proctor is the villain. I wanted to make sure I brought it in today and they can even use this. It's about a classroom in high school in twenty eighteen who is reading The Crucible under new eyes amidst me too and everything. It's fantastic. Oh, we'll go see it for sure. But it got me in a work. Oh she was one of the best. Abigail Williams is in The Crucible.

Oh yeahs another one.

Yes, magical in that era, like be Beatle, Juice, Heathery, Yeah, Age of Innocence. This is the thing I always have to remind myself about living in New York. Sometimes you with New York, you're like too many people, this is just too many people. But then you see a show like that, you go, oh, right, Like we we went for UNA's birthday to see Wicked. After She's in the movies at times and I'm just losing it, like dancing through life, just like.

That ending unbelievable.

That's me gets me.

But what you're saying, there's too many people in New York and there for you don't want you want to go and go to the theater exactly.

We're going to take advantage of what we have to it.

Honestly, I'm on my kick again right now. Obviously it's like it's like Tony sees it, well now you have more time time soon. But and I'm seeing a lot, and I try to only come here with like the highlights because I see a lot. So I just saw maybe Happy Ending, which was amazing. And this John Proctor is the villain is my favorite thing I've seen in quite some Oh wow, yeah it's it's and Sadie Sync is the star and I'm like really excited that she used.

Her star power from Stranger Things to highlight something like this.

That's great.

The player at is Kimberly Bellflower. She's amazing. Yes, yes, yes, and the whole cast is fantastic. It's just it's really I thought like at first, like when I saw like it marketed, it looked like girl Boss the Crucible and I was like, okay, interesting, but.

It's like which we would still gladly see.

You know what I'm saying, But you never know what like mainstream theater is going to do, of course, but they've been impressing me every time I've gone out lately.

I'm just like really excited about what's on stage.

Love, I love, good night and good luck George? What else? What else is upright now?

As you see, I'm not the person to ask this is your guy, But now that I've got time, I've said the things I love.

Okay, you know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah, are you read the subtag? Read the subtext?

Are you pre dreading the questions you'll be asked about the Pope and about how this special kind of presciently focuses on the pope pre conclave, pre election.

Yeah, it's like it was like a year ago. Jim Gaffigan calls me, who was on behalf of Stephen Colbert, asking me to go made the Pope. But I was very torn. It was older boy as a kid, and you know in the eighties, like Spotlight.

You know what Spotlight was about literally in Boston.

Yeah, Massachusetts. That was a movie that Tom McCarthy's movie Spotlight, that hit me so hard. Incredible movie. But but like, yeah, so I've always had like deep concerns about the Catholic Church, and and I thought about it, and ultimately it was just like this is very important to my parents, Like

Yeah, so that's like he just he just kind of like kind of like googled himself or something or no, he just looked at it though.

He like, look, yeah, he just googled Comedian and he's like, I'm a bit of agodio. It's my he's got to be here. We gotta make sure he's in the room. But uh, you know, as far as popes go, he was pretty good, I thought, right, And yeah, he bus gay couples and he was open. This is what would big Goldberg pointed out because she was one of the people who was there with us. She was a big fan of Frances he welcomed divorced couples back into the church.

I mean, all I know is with the way that queer media was up in arms about him being not up in arms, but you know what I mean, like people had something to say and expressing disappointment about him, saying that marriage is between a man and a woman. And unfortunately, I would I would remind those people this is the Catholic Church, Like it's kind of that's that's what that's their modus operand so it's it's like, I don't know, maybe I was more irritated at it being like a news item headline.

There's might take on all major world religions because I like to disrespect, disrespect all religions equallyam is. I think a summit we could have it, the three of us call a summits all the major world religions. We'd like to talk about sexuality and gender. How do you feel about gay people? How do you feel about women? Yeah, there's like open open forum, talk about it. Put it

They don't let women be priests.

They kind of do, but only sometimes sometimes in Europe. It's okay, whatever, and I'm like, no, let's have a summ up.

Yeah, let's record feel and then put that on a one sheet you know what I mean, put it on a Google doc. Put it on Google doc, and then have lead PR and.

Send that out.

Yeah, I DPR, get involved, get involved and send that out to Conde nasten Hers. Yeah. People who are religious of any religion, yeah, like no, no, we're are our religions okay.

With women, I'm like, well I've heard some things.

Yeah right, you know what I mean, It's like we're okay with game for something.

Yeah.

I guess it's like if anyone did gymnastics, you know enough, like you could you could justify anything. Like I understand that people find, you know, a lot of peace and solace and you know, community and these types of things. But it's like, let's just not pretend they're not what they are.

Yeah, I mean every religion is a structure of structured meaning, and then people like seek out meaning in religion and then they just have to like reconcile how much of themselves is compatible with like that meaning. I'm being so general. There actually is.

A good there's a really good documentary about the Pope Francis who passed away, called the man, Pope Francis a man of his word, and it was interesting because he actually did like meet with a lot of different religious world leaders about the religion. And I do think that that is at the moment we're in world history, Like I never.

Talked about this ship, but like no, but like that's what we should do.

I think the religion should be that because it's like they have more in common than not. Yeah. Yeah, it's like you look at all the religions they're arguing with each other. It's like, no, no, you all believe the same kind of totally fake thing, totally like and no, no, fa Like maybe it's fake, maybe it's not, but it's very similar. What you guys believe in is very similar. Right, So maybe we'll get on the same page about like human rights. I don't know, just an idea. We have

The movie Jerremyguire.

Oh wow, because when it came out I loved it and it made me feel a thing. And then I went and studied screenwriting at Georgetown and my professor John Glavin taught it like it was a text, like it was a book in a class. We read the script, we watched the movie, we broke down the beats, and I started to understand, like, oh, this is not magic, and this is not just a popcorn movie. No, Like that's the thing is like even Wickeds another examples, like

Yeah he has he has formative stuff. Formative suff with dry Maguire one of the one of the first movies we got from Blockbuster. I think way too young to be watching it. Yeah, sure is watching Tom Cruise, fuck Kelly, Oh my god.

Yes. I was like, don't ever stop sucking me as ever stop.

And then and then later and then later.

Post eat like no, no, no, like like eating something strawberry.

No, no, she like disnounced them. She goes, I'm gonna get some fruit. It's like a tight, close up, tight sing along Kelly Preston so crazy Wall.

Yeah.

But that movie Mede, Yeah, kind of a perfect movie, a perfect man in many ways.

And also you know what I was just thinking, so many elements come together to make it good. Like the song Secret Garden. Oh my gosh, fuck off, I know y right, I'm on the radio. They would play that song with clips.

Oh you had me at hello.

Literally I would be listening to like whatever radio station one to six point one b L when I was younger, and like they would play Secret Garden with Renee doing it. And they also did that for sometimes My Heart Will Go On in titan Y.

Yeah, there was certain movies they.

Did this with and it was always always those like emotional peaks of the movie that created lore. And this is a time too when I feel like soundtracking was speaking to movies in such a specific way, you know what I mean, Like it would like I remember having like the City of Angels soundtrack because yeah, you remember the image of her Meg Ryan riding the bike with her arms out like this. It's like there was that you kind of need music to They still do that.

Oh yes, Barbie did that.

I think, oh, that song's great, so good, and so many of those songs. But I was gonna say the last time that like maybe I'm maybe I'm misremembering this, but I feel like with Star is Born, when they would play either Shallow or like always remember Us, this is the way they would cut in some bits from A Star is Born.

It was like there was a there you could listen to, like the radio version of Shallow, or there was like a movie version, and you know what you're thinking of is at the end when it's I'll Never Fall. They sometimes will at the end, she's like singing the last chorus, and then they'll cut to him doing it from the movie and that way, which is what it is in the movie.

She doesn't because.

There's a version of that song where she literally just belt her tits off for the last remainder of it and it ends like like when those ballads does. But then the movie just literally cuts to him finishing the song and then it's back with her crime.

Yeah, it's amazing.

The other thing about Jerry Maguire is like it has a love story that's not perfect, it's kind of beautiful. It is beautiful because you're just like at the end, you go, well, maybe they shouldn't be together. I don't even know. Yeah, and you're like, that's kind of sweet, like they're they're taking the leap together.

Of course, and talk about the other kind of unless it's hard to capture with language, like talk about the magic that you felt watching it growing up, that like was dispelled once you got to college.

The magic was I'm laughing.

It's the thing that I try to achieve in my shows.

It's like I'm laughing, I'm crying, I'm feeling emotions. And then somehow you just think because it's a quote unquote popular movie, popcorn movie, you're just like, well, that's not important. Oh, it's so important.

I know.

It drives me crazy when culture things that are great are viewed as not important.

Because snobs come in.

Yeah, and you know a great example Wicked, the original Broadway production. People always say this. They're like, you know, it's been running for what twenty years or whatever. It's like the first reviews were like snobby, They're like it's not good, and it's like well, actually, let the audiences decide, because audiences are crushed by it.

Yeah, I am crushed at the production of Wicked.

I'm just like crying. Yeah, my wife and I were crying, and are you know our daughter was just like great, you know what I mean.

I'll never forget.

You know, she'd loved it. She loved it, but it's not like that, not like that.

Well also because not for nothing, but she doesn't understand. She's not old enough yet to understand maybe why. It's like, I think that young girls obviously respond to that movie because of friendship and because of you know, what it feels like to feel outcast or to accept someone and to really work hard on, you know, proving loyalty and like that. Though all those things are really beautiful, and I think that's why young.

Girls love it.

But also like when I saw with my parents, I took my dad mom to it. I saw it five times as well. I thought her you know bias aside, like I also fucking loved the movie. And I turned to my dad and I was like, well, it's about fascism, he was like, and he just sat there and he was like, yeah, it is.

And I think that that.

Is something that's like also part of it for an adult man is it's like, wow, Like this movie is literally about speaking truth to power and paying for it. She she's just an example of someone who is not strong enough and is not willing to make the sacrifice.

That she does in the end.

She does in the end, but where specific specifically talking about that movement, that moment of defying gravity. It's like, I'm sorry, I cannot give up all the things that make me me to join you.

Even if I know it's right.

And that's that she is in process because she's been so protected and the privileged, and it's going to take a while and she's gonna have to lose real stuff, yes spoiler alert for act two for her to do those things. And even then she doesn't really do it publicly, you know what I'm saying. So that is complicated ship for an adult and it's it is very moving and.

It's not and by the way, it's not just similar to the thing I'm saying. It connects me with Jerry Maguire, the imperfection, the drawing out of the imperfection of just being alive and how nothing is cut and.

Dry, and Tom Cruise has never looked better, never looked better.

Also, Yeah, I mean here's here's what I'll say, Fucking Renee. I think Renee is the reason why. It's just because of her line deliveries, which are spectacular. It's just it's an example of perfect casting.

Yeah, the first kiss thing and he's like snaps her bra by accident. They laugh, and this charming Tom cruise way. Yeah, I'm gonna watch that tonight. It's perfect.

You you're you've really Jenny.

And I have my wife and I Jen's a poet and we both have this obsessive thing with movies, which is great. Movies are like songs. It's just what you can watch them over and over again, and there's something peaceful about it.

Yeah, it changes your parameters as you're consuming this.

Yeah, it's not.

Wearing shirt that I got it at Vito. This is what I havorite movies, Thelma and Louise. And it's the same thing, same thing. It's this, it's it's and also there's this which they don't do in movies that much anymore, where they'll end it on a real curveball. That's like, yeah, makes it art, you know what I mean. Like I feel like there's something non traditional and weird about her stopping him in the middle of his sentence to be like stop doing the proclamation.

You had me at hello, right, you know what I mean.

And also, like you said, maybe they shouldn't be doing this, like the relationship has been a little toxic, but it's like, but they're gonna try anyway.

And in this movie Thelma and Louise.

Obviously spoilers, but if you're into this podcast, you probably understand they choose to die. They would rather drive off a cliff no get caught. And so I remember when the movie rock it is And also it's just it's not it's clearly ignoring what I'm sure our studio notes, you know. And by the way, they probably shot it both ways. That probably they definitely they probably shot it without them going.

Off the cliff.

Yeah, it's a good question. We should find that out.

Yeah, but you know, this has made me realize it's like you're saying, like, what's the epiphany thing for me in culture?

The other one was Maybe Say Anything, which is another.

Cameron Crow movie. Did I Not Say Anything When as a kid, and I remember quoting it with Michael Cavanaugh, my best friend, like back and forth and doing the this you know, the boom box in the air, and we were like ten, yeah.

I mean, Cameron Crowe was, I'm gonna come up here and say, Elizabethtown underrated movie. I love Elizabeth can say I love this. I love that. I think it's so.

I think Elizabeth sounds great. I think almost famous is fantastic.

Course of course that's just that's really that's quite a good And also he wrote a Fast Times Oh I wrote, didn't direct it.

Oh God, I got it. And I think Fast Times

Have, but it feels like it. It feels like it speaks in that world. I can't say what designer it.

Was, but there's this stuff that you go out of your way. You have to go out of your way to make it memorable and iconic. This to say anything thing, it's like who holds a like that doesn't move no one.

But but it made it iconic drama. It's so good, it's crazy.

And then the other ones. I mean, like I'm obsess with that whole seventies eighties movies.

ET is like that, just like I could watch it over.

And over again. It's super emotional. You watch ET now, it's like it's an indie film, right, you know what I mean?

Looks like the biggest block like an indie.

Jaws feels like an indie film.

Oh, Jaws is It's unbelievable that that's the huge of a blockbuster as it is because of how slow moving it is.

Yo, there's this great story about the the director who who did Paper Moon Bugdanovitch, we run Peter Banianovitch runs into runs into Stielberg at like the Boston like Logan Airport and Pteielberg had just shot on Martha's vineyard, shot Jaws, and he's like, how did it go? And he was just like, there's a shark. It's a disaster. We don't have the movie. Oh, it's just like one of those funny stories where like they leave the movie set thinking they don't happen.

Yeah, right, right, right, right right. They were like, well, this was.

A huge catastroph and I think they found it a lot in post in editing, and then it changed the movie industry.

Yeah, I mean we had that we don't think twice to some degree. You know, there's that speech where Chris Cathery goes, I think your twenties are about hope. In your thirties are about realizing how dumb it was to hope. We added that in post because Ira Glass, one of our producers, we were watching the movie and he goes, the audience doesn't get when we show cuts to people. They don't get that. They know they're losers, they know

Yeah, but also such a smart way to convey all of that. That's a lot to communicate, and you did it all in that one and that one scene.

Thanks. It's a funny thing, like even writing my movie, right now that I'm writing, it's like you really have to toe the line. I mean, how much do the characters get what's funny about them?

That's a really interesting idea.

Yeah, yeah, because like Gilmore Girls is like that super witty right, like they're in on it, but they're almost not exactly they like they they know that they're codependent or whatever.

But yeah, and yet to what extent or something.

It's like a really interesting thing that you bring up that these women like, we don't like the movie because they're losers. Because I actually think one of the things about Don't Think Twice that shook me to my core so much when I watched it, and now I see it, I see it now looking back, and I fucking love the movie and I appreciate it in a way I didn't at the time because I felt so defensive. Yeah, because I think your movie Don't Think Twice, it really makes you think about yourself.

And especially if you were doing comedy in that time, doing improv and yeah, yeah, like.

I just remember thinking, like, this is a mean depiction of our community.

I couldn't believe that your character.

I'm gonna use an explicit word that upsets people, but You're a character calls Tammy Sagre's character a cunt, and I remember I was just like, I can't believe.

But now I think that that was such a brave, bold thing to do.

Weirdly enough, because it really showed ugliness and envy and in like a very abject, painful personal way. And I'm not saying that like anyone that we knew or even us went as far or as shallow as any of this.

Everything else breaks down.

Yeah, And friendship's so intense, like every when I was writing that movie, I was hosting a Q and A with Noah bombback for the movie While We're Young, I think it was, or maybe it was friends. It's I Forget, And I said to Mike, I'm writing this movie about an improv group and they're best friends and one of them gets on SNL and there are some don't. I go, but the people giving me notes are like, the stakes

I think there is that.

I'm like, we should spend more time together. Well, you you are good with the gays. Oh yeah, the gaze. You know.

He is old friends with Jordan Ardino.

Really Gilmore Girls. Yeah, is high school and college friends.

Yeah really Massachusetts.

Yeah, in California, California to Massachusetts.

Yeah ah yeah, Yeah. Jordan's amazing. There's a great writer. He's a great writer.

Yeah.

He and I were that in That's great same screen writing class in college. Oh really, we were close friends.

In high school and then he came to visit me when I was in college. He was at Tough and then he was just like, I just want to go here. Yeah, and so we transfer. We went to college together. Yeah, we wanted to go to Georgetown. A lot of not hugs. That's a lot of.

That's a really number thirty.

I don't want to go to Georgetown.

That's a lot of hugs.

I would say you. I don't want to speak for Jordan, but I think I can say it's a lot of Man, it's a lot of hugs.

You and I both well, we don't have to bring in that's nothing.

I don't want to talk about ny you necessarily.

I was gonna say you and I you you not got very different amounts of hugs growing up. I would say, well, it's funny at the same school at the same as well.

Yeah, n Yu was different, But I think we're I think we were both there for different traumas.

That's not related to hugging or not hugging.

But I think that something that's so clear is like, it's good that you hug.

Your daughter a lot.

And I don't want you to think about it.

Because I think what you're doing is you're teaching her what real love is. And a lot of people have and something I don't think I understand because I'm privileged to genuinely know what real love is because my parents have always shown me real love and have always been very good with me in terms of that is a lot of people just.

Don't baseline know that.

They don't baseline know what it really is to be cared for and to have someone at the end of the day that's going to say I love you. And I think that I didn't realize that was such a privilege, you know what I'm saying, Like until I was you know, having like conflicts with people later in life or you know, things work out, I don't work out whatever with different people, and you're just realizing, oh, I'm operating with a different emotional deck.

Yeh, thank god.

No, you're right. It's funny when you, yeah, if you get into like a petty disagreement with somebody and sometimes they go so hard on it and you and you have to step back and just be like, no, no, we're all just doing our best, right, you know, But yeah, I agree with you, like it's yeah, no, it's.

Definitely more better to love more than less, right, And even in the moments in the special, I'll say where you're like, a huge part of my life is going to children's birthday parties. I like, oo when I can grow up and hear that and think, oh, like my dad is making is like exasperated by this thing that he had to do for me, and he's like, is that something resentful? But no, even in that, You're like,

Yeah she can.

I think it is so clear with that messages to her, which is my dad loves me.

He takes me to these birthday parties.

Yes, showed up.

I had to talk through a joke with her the other day that was in the special because it's going to be seen by a lot of people, and you know, I had to be like, because there's a joke, I say, she doesn't have it. Yeah, yeah, explain that.

Explain that to that, because I remember listening to it. I was like, Oh, that's it, that's a that's a pretty.

Rough So I said to her, I go, there's this joke, and I say. We went to my wife and I went to our daughter's ballet recital and we're in the audience crying, crying because she doesn't have it, you know. Then I go, no, we're crying because she's not going dollars on the lessons and hundreds of hours going to rehearsal and she's not going properly. And then I go, I go, no, No, we're crying for the right reasons. And then afterwards I'm squeezing O. You know, you were

And the and the true thing about this special is the way a parent loves their child.

Yes, yeah, And understanding my dad after he's had a stroke and realizing when his defenses are down and he doesn't have the anger that he had before the stroke that I do think like he meant.

Well, of course, that is a whole can of worms, because especially because you know, men as they get older and the estrogen creep up, you know what I mean, Like, it's they get more emotional, and I think they get more contemplative.

And I think it's just harder for.

Men to look back on being men like because so much of it is just not cruel, but it's rough, and it's speaking to this idea of what a man is, which can never really be justified in the way that we accepted it for such a long time.

But I think that's.

Really hard for men as they get older, as they look back and they they have regrets about trying to attain that idea of what it means to be a man and no absolutely and all those things. And I've had a couple emotional conversations with my dad about you know, one time, it was after we taped my special and he was expressing I think we had had a few drinks and he was expressing some regrets about you know whatever, like it like having a gay son and not feeling like you didn't get it right.

And I had to like tell him, I was.

Like, you got to let yourself off the hook, because nothing you ever did was because you didn't love me.

You were trying your best and like, and it is.

A moment that I think, I'm I'm obviously very happy I had and I and I will have can continue to have because of that moment. But it's really hard, like men relating to each other in that type of way. That's why I think it's so beautiful that like you have that like open channel with your with your child, because it's like it takes some people a really long time. And I always heard I love you from my dad. I always heard proud of you, always heard those things.

Yeah, but we talked about that when you were on my podcast a lot with your parents, because you had the challenging stuff, which I really hope you should do a solo show someday.

We'll see. Yeah, that's thing there. There's there's definitely. I mean I did even do it underground, so such a jumbled mess of the show. I don't even know what I was trying to do with it, but uh, there's there's something there for sure.

Yeah.

I just am still making sense of it, and we're still talking about it as a family, and it's all it's all okay, it's all, it's all true.

Do they say I'm proud of you?

Now?

They do?

Do they now they do, but it took them a while and they came to the show a few weeks ago and just I took them out for Mother's Day and a lovely we have a lovely time now. I also want to say your show was not a mess.

You were just you. It was not a mess. You were just in process. On you were so in process and the feelings. It's kind of like what we were saying last week about like Marsha P. Johnson not having correct recollection of Stonewall because she was Stonewall. It's like you were literally going on. I was was the pit. You were all those experiences and emotions at the time.

That was me squarely in the zone of what I here Glass talks about, which is there's that gap between like the taste that you have and like what you can accomplish, yes, as someone who makes things.

And so anyway, when I remember doing a completely messy version of Sleepwalk with Me my first solo show, which eventually years later was off Broadway and Nathan Lane presented it and it was just a real beautiful thing that I was lucky enough to do the movie and I

Was this Anthony King who was this I.

Can say he's a great guy.

I owned Burke and I feel like we've talked.

About He's like you figured it out, yeah, But it was funny like sometimes when you were in the wilderness artistically, like it's not because you're not going at the right thing like I was going at like I want to make an emotional show, but also I hadn't figured out the joke side of it. I have figure to your nice thing you were saying about my shows, how it's like silences and then jokes and then serious moments.

And then jokes. Uh, Like I didn't figure that out yet.

Sure, it's I'm also like, I'm really feeling very seen by you talking about like and like true false true false true false, and then it ends on a false or true, Like my special the one I've done ends on a false, and I think it's and I'm so happy about it. Yeah, that being said, like, I do think that that's one extension of myself and I want so badly to say something real and true about myself, but.

It's the hardest thing to do.

I think that's why you had strife with it all those years ago, doing that, because you were deeply trying to say something true about yourself, which is fucking hard, especially when you're at like a comedy festival, but yet also tasked with like this thing of like this is a solo show and opportunity that you're being given, right, And it's like, I think we all want to be poignant, but it doesn't always happen.

Right.

If there's a question here that I'm saying, is it's like how uncomfortable is your process?

Very uncomfortable? Yeah, Like, like every step of the way. Like some nights I'm on stage and I'm like, like, there's that moment in the show where I go, I didn't have a sex talk when I was a kid, but when I was twelve, I had hard nipples.

Yeah, and suddenly you're exposed out there with your hard nipples again.

Yeah. And then I go, exactly right, and so I go, I tell my dad because I thought I was hypochondriac as a kid, and so I told my dad, like, I think I have cancer. Right, He's like, take your shirt off. We're in like my living room.

It's like a truth, completely true story.

What's weird, Actually, I'll tell you the very I'll tell you the variation on it is like I had to take this part out. It wasn't in the living room, it was in his bedroom. But it was so weird because the audience was reading. It's like always got to get the less yeah, right, you had to walk them

Affection the family. You were being reassured by a doctor and your father.

So the first few times exactly the first few times I said that, first forty times I said it, it was just like this is so uncomfortable. Yeah.

I even had people like in my inner circle creatively be like they.

Got the nipples part, because you do get that sometimes where even people who are close to what your process is or like I think the audience is not here for that, but then you got sometimes you just gotta be like, no, this is like this has happened because it fully happened is like part of the story I'm telling.

But what you're saying with like sleepwalk with me like you were you were in the wilderness. It's like, well, process in general for anybody is just a wilderness.

Yeah.

Yeah, the movie I'm writing right now, I'm in a wilderness.

Great, Yeah, that's all part of it. Yeah.

I think something too, And I think I often when we have like music artists in this chair too, this question comes up, and also with reality stars or anyone that's like exposing the part of themselves, which is obviously anyone in that chair probably is. I don't think I ever really understood the stakes of what happens when you involve a depiction and of someone else in your life,

So it's like it's never someone in the middle, you.

Know what I mean.

It's like I either really care about this person and therefore they're worthwhile including or this person.

But even even fiction is that. Like I had people in my life come up to me and be like I'm the character and don't think twice, who's the.

Rich girl and you're like yeah, No, I was like, no, you're the gilly.

And sometimes they wrong, they're wrong.

Sometimes it gets wrong.

To My parents saw Sleepwalk with Me the movie Yeah, and Carol Canon James Rebhorn as my parents say these lines that literally my parents said in real life, and and I was worried about my parents seeing it.

And they came out of the movie and they go, they're nothing like us. Mmmmm somehow like we can't even see ourselves.

Well, yeah, you never can.

Yeah, only you have the real bibliography on your experiences with them because you saw it.

They didn't see it. They were it right right, But either like someone comes up to you and like validates or like I don't know, like entrenches those things even more where you were like, oh, I like had it was a huge decision to include you in some way in this like depiction of reality, or it's your parents being like that wasn't that was enough. It's like it's it's it's like you can't really even win with that there. It never goes the way you want it to.

You guys have a lucky thing, I think, which is your close friends and you have like a creative partnership with this show, which I think is so lovely because you get to share that people like I love the show, like everyone, like I know tons of people love the show. It's like you guys get that together, which I think is not less lonely. I think we're very fortunate and being a lone wolf, I pultn't do it. You really do it alone?

What do you mean Like like I couldn't. I can't have my own podcast where I was just kind of riffing on culture and then the commenting on things and then like like I like you're always my gut check in terms of like do I share this little anecdote, Yeah, it is. It's it's kind of nice to like it.

It's it's really interesting because because we're also so close like that we we have this, we protect the same things pretty much, but also like in terms of like the sharing of it all, like you know what I mean, Like it's also like you can never I can, we can never give everything about like about everything. But you know what I'm saying is it's like it's that's I think that's like why they don't think twice of it all.

It just recalls such a specific era that like it's it's it's it's a trauma. Of course it is, But I think that's why I love it now.

Meanwhile, like I wanted to live your life like I when I was at Georgetown, I was like saying to my parents, I want to transfer to n y U and be a theater uh huh, And they're like no, you.

Know when I got a full No, you got a full note? Well good, I mean, I know it's good.

Everyone wanted to be someone else exactly still literally still dies. But I remember, like I was in school at M y U and I wanted to be doing something else, and everyone's always like, I'm sure you because.

I was pre mad. Of course I was, but I was doing improv, you know what I mean? Like I wanted to be something else.

You knew that.

Of course when I was a kid, I wanted to be like I would.

I would be like I want to go to Boston an audition for commercials. Yeah, are like, fuck, no, Boston audition for commercial What the are you doing about?

Commercial audition? Tell that you don't know what the fuck it is. It's like, looks at the camera and half smirks. It's like, that's the audition.

I'm going to go into rooms and do bite and smile exactly, ye smile smiles. Have you never done a Biden smile? No, I've never done. You want to see a sip and smile?

Yeah?

And that was probably too big skill noted?

Is that that was something else?

Perfectly? I feel like Duncan don't did you ever book a commercial.

I'm trying to think. I think I was a spokesperson for like a cable and internet company in the South for a while.

That's crazy.

Yeah, they're not.

I don't love it.

I don't love it.

I don't love it.

I kind of wish you didn't. So yeah, fine, it's fine.

Straight up commercial. I never did a straight up commercial. And then I went to one commercial audition because like someone at uc B was like, yeah, I'm going, I'm going on this thing if you want to come, And it was so humiliating.

It was really impossible to leave feeling good.

And you've become straight and I've become straight and I never thought that happened.

But Jordan Nardina texted me last night just crying, laughing at the boat inside.

It's the only it's the only one I can barely watch. For some reason, when I watched him make up with women, I have I have an outrage.

Why I don't like it? I want you again.

That gets me is her showing up at your place and you're playing video games two in the morning. It's so funny.

Well, by the way, that's tim and then hiding in the lost school trees, so sure and honestly it is. It is my favorite sketch because it's clearly it's it's like, but it's just like we were watching it.

We were in his dressing room for the finale, and you were watching it with us in the room. I wanted to say, I want to surprise Matt with the Lost School Trees to sure.

I wanted to see it was so fun.

And then he comes in making out with sorry checks notes Scarlet Johanson.

And I just go like I should, like it's a horror movie. I'm like, I can't believe it.

Like maybe it's because college just gonna have a twenty twenty five because it's Lost Culture Awards too, that's right. So it's in that sketch. It's Lost Culture Award. It's gonna be huge.

Yeah, I mean we're we're we're putting it together now and it's gonna be it's gonna be something.

Because Lost Culture Awards you campaign huge.

I'm gonna campaign.

Can I do? What can I do to campaign? Did you guys have a strategy? Hen strategize with me? Yet be able to do as step one? Best dat Award? Oh, I'm a brainstorming category. There was a Daddy Award, the Father Award, Daddy Word Father Award, and the Daddy Award was won by Pedro Pascal. The Father Award was uh who who won the Father Award last year?

It wasn't Seth Myers. It wasn't. I don't think you have to campaign necessary. I think being on this episode of campaign like you're absolutely top of mind with special and with the listeners being and then you're in the mix of yes, yeah, yeah.

I just feel like this was an amazing six straight man to have. Absolutely this is the straight mail guess straight.

It's huge, it's a deep honor.

It's six. It's not eight. Yeah, it's not eight. It's six or seven. And we're not listening. We don't want to make a big thing out of this, but but it's a big dealer. Gays, do you feel like gays come up to you on the street they're like, hey girl. I think I get a lot of gays impression.

I think, like the thing that's hilarious about my audience is sometimes when people come up to me there and it's like it's like some like para shaped middle aged ogre dad. It's just like I totally relate to everything he's like, come on, I want that.

I want the dad.

I know. But sometimes wouldn't it be great if someone came up to you and they're so hot and like, I totally relate to everything you say. It's just like my pilates class.

That's why we have the Kyles.

Now we have we have a new subsect of a fan community called the Kyles. And sometimes the Kyle will come up and I just can't believe that they almost drop their weight to the gym. They laugh so hard exactly, which is what they say.

They say sometimes, so you should, you should come up with your own buckets of of your fans like like like like really visualize the person, give them a name and then and then you will start to see them. But you know what it is. It is Katie. You have a ton of Katies.

Yes, yeah, Katie's is twenty eight year old twenty eight to thirty five year old communications major from the Midwest name Katie.

They're all named Katie. Okay, started asking them their names. I know I'm most proud of.

With my audience is I always say like it's age twelve through one hundred and twelve, Like.

I see, I was gonna say, you are really for a quadrant, whereas we are people who are constantly approached by men and go, my girlfriend loves you, which is so sweet. But also it's never like I'm a fan, which which is okay.

You know what, though, a lot of them I've been noticing because they're they're excited to initiate the conversation because their girlfriends are nervous, and but they come up and they initiate the conversation and I can tell it gets

I'm just saying, don't be shy. Boys, it's okay to like lost culch.

It's okay, that's right.

Look, luc who's here. You know who's great at a great straight male who will all often say how much he loves the show. John ham Will Steven, writer of Bonus Straight. But sometimes with August White, that's a real ally.

We love you.

Well, Okay, it's time for I don't think so around.

We're gonna go first, did you type it out?

So we wing in here?

I have something that you know, I didn't realize was a thing until last night. I was at dinner and I was made aware and this has rocked my world. I can't wait to go after restaurant cure here.

This is Matt Rogers. I don't think so money. As time starts now, I don't think so honey.

When mocktails are almost as expensive or as expensive as cocktails, I am not even a part of the sober community. And I am outraged on behalf of the sober community because let me tell you what the expensive part of a cocktail is the alcohol. So why for grenadine, orange juice, bitters maybe and like a little bit of soda water? Am I paying twelve dollars? I don't think it's fair. I don't think so honey.

I also want to directly say.

Where this is happening, which is where I have my new home, Lower Manhattan. I don't think so honey. This is a lot of you guys. I'm telling you, you know a rock you had a fourteen dollars mocktail, and I.

Don't care how big.

The orange is no, because I'll tell you what's only a couple bucks in orange a whole thing.

So I don't care that the slice is that big. Yes, you made it look expensive. That's so different than being expensive.

I mean, for example, I could walk in here wearing a white suit. I'm not Zendea or Anasy. At the medgala, they cost a million dollars. I cast six. I don't think so harm and that's women. You are more than six dollars. Yeah, but you know what, though, not not really. And I'm saying that like these these cocktails in Monk's infuriating.

It's infuriating.

Well, I mean I feel like they are maybe offsetting that by like, no, actually there's no explanation. I'm only and you know what. It's like, it's like, I'll tell you what.

The alcoholics don't miss paying for the alcohol, right, Okay, So it's like they might miss the alcohol, they can't have it.

They're not missing the prices.

It's not like, oh, you know what, I really miss hitting it hard and paying nine dollars for a Heineken You know what, it would be great nine bucks for a Heineken zero, which is essentially piss.

They should be like, here's an orange juice and an edible honestly fifty really good ideas. Do you even something else? Yeah?

Yeah, or it's you know what, it's like, what would that even be? I mean, you know it's like they I guess you know what they try to get away with. They're using the nice glassware too. Yeah, but but you don't care for that.

No no, no, no no, that's not part of the experience.

Or you get to keep it.

You get to keep it like a souvenir glass.

Yeah, okay, I used to be big into souvenir glass culture. And then I'll tell you what. You have a lot of huge cups you never drink out of use.

That's really what I on a shelf, Maroon mug. That's totally that.

That's really good way I want to think. Maru magg And you're talking about in LA like you always struck me as pure New York but I am, I am. But you do have this this really good world and worldliness about Los Angeles that I like.

Then, you know, I've been in show business for like what twenty three years, and you just you know, where go back and forth and and you know, I have my spots. I like a loose felas Marou. I mean I have places I really like aspirational. Yeah yeah, aspirational it is. But you are in New York, Okay, yeah, no, I'm through and through New York. I can't imagine living

Park and it's great. It's like that I love New York.

It's like it's like and I have frustrations with it, of course, but also you know, look, we're all in it.

It's so funny coming back to New York and being like a New Yorker again too, because the first thing that happens is you start to be real opinionated about New York shit. I am ready to crack skulls about the subway by the way, like I'll get up my one time, I'll get political. I can't believe Cuomo is this far ahead.

It's fucking crazy, It's fucking insane following that race, is he ahead? Oh sixty forty? Oh? Really?

Yeah? But like I think it's just it's just name recognition. Is what's kind of it's name recognition.

I've got, I've got I've.

Got a frivolous one friller. Yeah, maybe that's a good dragon, that's a great tech.

No, this is what I wanted to say, the only good dragona that I've come up with. And this is what I wanted to say, the most annoying sentence in the world. This is what I wanted to say. At the end of my Criterion Closet video. My drag name would be Janis Films. Okay, oh Janie Films.

I just opened my calculator instead of my tim around ten million, I want or like I just added five million to five million.

You were just brainswimming what Kevin Hart makes the movie seven figures?

It was like, it's probably this is Bowen Yang's I don't think so, honey, his time starts now, I don't think so, honey. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Plastic hooks on gift bags that you purchase at the gift store. You buy a little paper gift bag and there's a plastic thing to make it hook. You cannot take that off, even with all the gorilla's strength in the world, even when there's a perforated little thing there that mocks you because you try to tear it off,

Little paper source.

Please find a better way to hang gift bags, maybe I don't know, by these string handles that are already on them. Rather than put a useless, single use plastic, might I add element to these things? And that's one minute? Wow? Really clean? Oh my god?

You know what I mean.

You know what I'm talking of course we do.

I don't even not I didn't know that they were four hanging.

Really.

I kind of thought it was one of those just annoying things about like.

There's no classic single used yes plastic sneak attack because it doesn't even seem like it's part of it. Nothing.

It's like that thing is going to go in a landfill for it. Absolutely, it's never it's or it'll go to our brains. I don't know.

Like, you know, what's also crazy when you go to CVS and get a receipt like just talk just crazy to talk about how much how much room it takes off or like how much you don't need it. It's like those receipts are still it's crazy, and I'm.

Like, I'm just gonna throw this out and they don't even give.

You the option to the receipts. And I feel like with these things, it's like what is the what is it?

It's weird, Like I think in our lifetime it has been this thing where we're like we're going to recycle, We're gonna save the planet to like the planet's fucked, Yeah, we're gonna try, and it's such a bummer.

I've never been angrier than I feel comfortable saying this a few years ago. We were on Fire Island and a friend of ours had a new boyfriend, and this boy and he walks back to us. We're sitting at the canteen and he comes back and he goes the gaze at the at the at the the docks were so annoying.

Guess what just happened?

And he goes what he goes, I threw my plastic cup in the bay and they yelled at me. We were like, excuse me, excuse me. And the guy goes, yeah, like I was done with my drink and I threw my plastic cup in the bay and they all yelled at me. It's like, okay, the planet is dying already. And then our friend goes, yeah, isn't that crazy?

And I had to walk away.

I was like, I know, love is blind, I know, dick feel good and whole. But no, they didn't break up, Thank god, my god. That was That was a moment where I had to check my respect someone.

Proudly I proudly being a litterate nuts. I hate littering. It drives me nuts.

And also, you know there's the fish in there, the fish. You know that, you know there's a fishing.

Well, it's what he said. They're gonna die anyway. Oh God, okay kill me then I'm on my way out at some point that that is actually text book. I'm sorry to get a little academic here. This is n YU maybe and I think they taught this at Georgetown as well, metabolic rift theory, where it's it's the human disconnect between the discarnacter between between man and nature, and it makes use.

You need to connect to that anyway. Microbiglia, you have a written I don't think so, honey, and we are very and there's a reason for this at the end because it could have been on your phone. This is micro Bigley is I don't think so many and it's time starts now.

I don't think so, honey. Hating on people who try hard, Literally, everyone good at anything tries hard, you know, tries hard? Tailor you who else? Beyonce?

You know who else?

Reygun? The breakdanswer, I'm more suspicious of people who don't try hard, or people who lie and say they're not trying hard when they are. If someone does something amazing and they say it was easy, be suspicious. Not only are they lying about it, they also committed crime. Remember when Anne Hathaway and James Franco bombed so Hard hosting the Ass. James Franco just left. He's a loser and I'm hashtag team anne Hathaway, your hand, Hathaway.

You know who else tries hard? Fantine and lay mish.

Cy Andrea Saxton, Oh my god, working from her into priests hard. She has to show up to work every day, sacrificing her relationship with Adrian Greeney's character Nate, who I think is a chef but never has to go to work for reasons it's never explained. I'm reaching the end of my minute, but I want you to know this is my fifth draft of this. You know I'm telling you because if you're a fellow try hard, you deserve to know.

Yeah, that's one man is.

Really good, and you know what, You're right? And I never liked Meate and Devilworth.

I never liked It's ridiculous, outrageous character outrageous. And this is the thing, this is I'm gonna misquote Dorian Gray. But the people who are not in the arena don't know the pleasures of don't don't know the triumphs, and so therefore how could they know anything about defeat or something like that, you know what it is?

Yes, And also it's just like it's like you talking about your hard nipples on stage or having strife emotional strife about being vulnerable. It's like it's because you know it's going to take work to get there, and then you are exposed. And it's like it's so easy for people to be like fuck her about someone who tried I because they're trying.

I know. It's like I'm so over that.

It also takes so much effort to hate on people. Yeah, got to create a log in.

Yeah you know there's a workaholic Charlie XCX.

Literally noted admitted workaholic always has to work. And it's just like maybe that can help, like people stop being such assholes. It's like someone who's effortless and cool looking is working to be that, you know what I mean? Like I can't stand that because I am a try hard and type a millennial and it's like for that to be uncool, it's like, okay, ridiculous.

That was a wonderful, wonderful I don't think so. Honey, draft, Why do you have to ask why why print it printed?

Just because it's like draft over draft over draft And then I like the paper. It's like a touch draft thing. I like, that's good. You're in a way touching tree. Yeah, I'm touching tree. I wanted to. I wanted to get it right because I'm a huge fan of the segment and I just wanted to lay something down that felt that felt true to me. Thank you.

That was really I feel like we we're taking it back then there, I really do think because the thing about people that don't try hard having the narrative for a second, they didn't work hard enough to keep the narrative.

So now it's just like it's gone.

You know, power can be wrestled very easily from those who wieled power carelessly and thoughtlessly.

What is that from?

That actually was our guest last week, Tormaline Tourmaline there from incredible biography on Marsha P. Johnson, and that was the educational moment of our sect.

Also, if we try harder, maybe we'll win the next election. Interesting, I think maybe we need hard enough. Yeah, I think it's part of it. That's probably part of it. It's in the mix, in the.

Mix, it's I think I think it's in the mix. Do you think AOC will win the presidency.

I think it's possible.

AOC's fire could be pretty cool. She has a message that hits.

I also think Budage is great.

I mean it might be controversial.

I love him.

Yeah, I don't think controversial.

No, Sometimes people, oh whatever, they think he's too moderate, this, that, whatever. They think he's trying too hard. They think he's trying too hard. But I like how he mixes it up on Fox stuff like that. I know, like he's willing to he's willing to keep it, willing to go there. And so he's AOC by the way, and Bernie and Bertie, and Bernie's.

Obviously kind of a legend.

But like, yeah, I think both of those people are phenomenal.

Yeah, yeah, it is interesting. They can catch a wave. Yeah, I think they are catching waves. It's just like I think, after everything that's gone on, it's like I don't want to be that person that's like oh, I'm nervous to put up a gay guy or I'm nervous to put up a.

Young I agree, you can't be the nervous person. I refuse to be.

But it's like there's truly people out there who just solely think I'm a lost because she's a black woman or black Indian woman. And it's just like, I feel like we need to I don't think that's why she lost. And I do think we need to stop saying that because if that's the ideology that we go down, like we're just gonna end up with cuomos forever.

I Also, I think if we knew for a year out the whole thing with people googling day of who's running, Yeah that's real?

Was it really real?

Millions of people googling who's running.

And some of us didn't know, okay, and some of us just had to. Some of us just like had been how busy he is busy? I mean, I don't want to hit him.

I don't want to hit Biden while he's down because I'm sympathetic to the hellstep. It's like, yeah, I think there's a lot of things he could have done for the four years also to safeguard democracy. Like there's a lot, I mean there's a lot going on, pandemic luck going but still and just introducing Kamla everyone.

Hey, yeah, hey, I don't think he knew she was there exactly.

I'm I'm one hundred years old. There's this other lady who's fandastic.

You know.

Anyway, go pick up Jake Tapper's book Everybody Who, by the way, was shaming people for suggesting that there was something wrong maybe not or maybe not right with Biden for a while.

And there's a book.

So I love that. Love that guy. I love that dude on Jake Tapper. Yeah, for Jake Tapper's book. The Good Life is on Netflix May twenty six.

Yes, you're gonna love it.

We loved it. We loved it.

I mean, you're just the greatest. You really are such you're one of the pre eminent storytellers. You're just so good up there. You feel so safe when you watch you. You always have, and you're getting better to blind you.

I love you guys so much. This is such an honor to be here. If I could only be on one podcast, it would be this and this whole thing.

But this hasn't been so beautiful for me because I love bonding.

Also on all of these movies. I know it's like so deep to me. All these movies are so deep to me.

Yeah, Jorenymy Guard is gonna be a good watch for you later. Yes, I can't wait. Thank you for bringing that in. And we love you very much and there is love and there is friendship. And we're all in New York now, so let's let's hand yes when return return.

When Bowen wrote an email on me about my special last night, it made me covel and I wrote about my journal.

Oh the email that we were all one. I'm sorry I did an email. I wanted it this morning. Yeah, it's okay. I'll send you an email.

Okay, I'll write about my gerald tonight that I never ever sad of the song.

I wish I was off booked to Secret Garden.

I know.

Anna to see me because the old thing, the DA say what everything's made to be broke.

I just want you to know why.

I drews watch you to know w how the song ends. I jos watch you know. Yeah, it's so good. Hi, you're funny. Last Culture Racist is the production by Will Ferrell's big money players and the Heart Radio.

Podcasts created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen, yet executive produced by Anna Hasnier and produced by Becka Ramos, edited mixed by Doug Bamian and Niko Board and our music is by Henry Birsky

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