The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, This is Peter Scheger. This is the Season with Peter Schrager. And it is the third Tuesday in May.
When we're recording this.
And I'll tell you, usually this is like the dark dead time of the NFL offseason anything. But I'm joined here by my producer, Aaron wang Kauffman. Aaron, the league meeting is going on right now, and it is not the one in March. It's the one in Man. Usually the one in March is where all the big news comes out. But yesterday there was a few news items that I'm going to run through at the listeners, and I want to get your thoughts on one of them.
First off, the Super Bowl.
In a few years then Mech's site is going to be in San Francisco, Santa Clara. It's going to be at Levi Stadium at Super Bowl sixties.
That's news number two.
The Draft, which has been a great sensation for so many of these host cities that aren't getting Super Bowls in the near future. Next year's is in Detroit. That's been decided already the following year has been announced that it's going to be in green Bay.
Interesting.
Let me get your thoughts to someone who just got back from Kansas City for the draft green Bay. Let's see, three hundred thousand people came to Kansas City for the draft. There are one hundred thousand residents of Green Bay. There are not a ton of hotel options, and yet it is a football mecha. Your reaction to green Bay as the choice for the NFL for the draft.
Well, someone who went to school in Minnesota and loves the Midwest, I am all for like these smaller Midwest cities getting timed to charm people. So I'm all about it. I think it'll be It'll be a lot of people in a smaller city.
Though I've been to Green Bay several times for Packers' games. You drive up and similar to Buffalo, maybe even more, it's a town. It is an intimate setting in that there are people's homes.
Just a stone's throw from lambeau Field.
There's not a ton of you know, modern hotels where they're not there's no four seasons in green Bay, and there's no slew of chains.
I'm curious how they're going to do all that.
But I also know Peter O'Reilly, who runs the events for the NFL, uh has so many ideas and the league would not put their full strength behind something if they thought it was gonna be a logistical nightmare.
They will figure it out, all right.
The controversial news that came out late Monday night, and at this point in you know, the NFL news cycle, there's few things that are controversial or that are that are you know, even debated amongst the owners when it comes to like let's take a vote for it, and it comes of all things Thursday night Flex scheduling. All right, here's what it is. In short, Amazon had this great
first year. They put a great effort in. They pay a ton of money, and Amazon was not assured and late games of the season that are gonna be you know, total hits. You look at the schedule right now. Weeks thirteen to seventeen are all good matchups. They include New
England and Pittsburgh. They include you know, a Jets Browns game, They include big teams, and yet there was no assurance that these games are gonna matter late for them paying that money and for the quality of the product on television,
for the viewers at home. The discussion began really during the season and kind of bubbled up in March where they tabled it should Amazon and the league have the right to get flex scheduling rules like we see on Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football for those Thursday night matchups, and they needed twenty four votes.
They didn't have those twenty four votes. It was tabled until May.
Back in March and John Marra, the owner of the Giants, came out staunchly against it, on his premise being it's for the you know, the fans who pay money to go see a game on a Sunday. You buy four tickets, times, get a hotel if it's out of town. You invest your entire Sunday plan based on a schedule release that happened last week, and then you find out that wait a second, that game's not on a Sunday and it's not being flexed to the night time, which although an inconvenience,
you can adjust. Maybe you have to buy a new flight the next one. Whatever it is. No, this game is going to be seventy two hours earlier. It's going to actually be on Thursday night. Now.
Marrow was very outspoken about it.
I saw Mark Davis was outspoken about it against it. Quietly, there were a lot of people who were for it, saying, hey, this is good for the product of the game. The NBA doesn't have a set scheduled time until a day out. People seem to make a work college football. You know who you're playing and where, you don't know when the time of those games are, and we're a couple of months from the start of the season.
That's been some of the arguments.
The argument that really struck me, though, was what Jerry Jones said in a public comment and said that only seven percent of the NFL's fans are ever going to step into an NFL stadium, and that ninety three percent of NFL fans are watching at home. So whether we want to dismiss the fan that pays for the season tickets all that, and the owners would swear up and down, and the league would swear up and down, and I
agree they don't want to inconvenience anyone. The best product possible on that TV, and the best game possible might benefit the fans more from a greater, greater whole.
I'm not making that argument.
I thought it was really interesting that, you know, one of the key votes was Denver and that's the Penner family, and Craig Penner, the new owner of the Broncos, was kind of wavering and where are we going to go with this thing? And at the end of the day, it's the Walmart family that votes yes to assure the Amazon family gets this incredible Thursday night deal. Now here's part of the stuff that made sure it happened a and this is big. Twenty eight days in advance. The
teams are gonna be notified. So this isn't Sunday Night Football where ten days out you're like, you're gonna be playing a night game and figure it out twenty eight days.
I would think the schedule.
Makers are gonna be really really you know, conservative and saying that game is irrelevant four weeks out, especially with all those different games and I don't have them up now, but they're all good games on paper in May. You know, I don't think that's gonna be something where they're gonna
be rushing to make a change. Second part of it from what I hear, and these are come from sources and you can aggregate this and do whatever you want, Like the Sunday night requirements are gonna be one thing. The Monday night requirements to flex a game from Sunday to Monday are gonna be a little harder. And I'm told that the Sunday flex to Thursday, these two teams better be basically winless or have five wins, or it just must be a complete, complete bomb of a game.
And one of the games people are circling are that is a Rams Saints game and it's in LA and it's Rylands comes to the Rams. They're like, well, that there's a chance both those teams think next year and there's a chance that games flex out.
But mind this worth noting that's Christmas weekend. Are you really gonna.
Be so occupied you got to flex out of a Christmas weekend Thursday night game and change all these fans. Is the NFL gonna say, yeah, I know, Saints fans, you bought this ticket for Thursday, but actually that game's on a Sunday in LA.
You gotta figure it out. Sorry, I don't know.
And the other part of it is the Chargers have a Saturday night game that weekend, I believe against the Buffalo Bills that's already being played Are you really gonna flex a game out from Thursday night and say the Chargers are gonna play on Saturday night and the Rams are gonna play on Sunday.
Highly unlikely. So the thresholds and.
The barriers are different, and they're stacked differently for Sunday night flex from a Sunday game, from a Sunday flex to a Monday game, from a Sunday game to a Thursday night game. I'll be honest, we're here in May. If there's more than one, I'd be shocked. Aaron your thoughts on the Thursday night deal, and we didn't even get into the player safety and some of the real concerns there.
Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the games right now. So just going from week thirteen on, we have Seahawks at Cowboys. That should be a great game.
They're not flexing the Cowboys. Sorry, I'm drinking my coffee. They're not ever flexing the Cowboys. Amazon is not like, oh yeah, take the Cowboys away, go on.
Like you said.
Week fourteen is Pats at Steelers. There's I could see that being a really exciting game, especially.
Steelers national brand Belichick face of the league. They're never gonna well, I shouldn't say never, doubtful.
Go on week fifteen, Chargers at Raiders. That seems like two teams that will be somewhat relevant and be competing for, you know, seating.
Justin Herbert and the Chargers six different primetime games. The NFL is banking on that team being a big game. And you know, again, Amazon, they say, we don't want Justin Arbor given us someone else.
No, I don't see it.
Sixteen is that Saints at Rams game you were talking about, and then seventeen is Jets Browns and that's another game that could have huge playoff implications. So I mean, I think it's good in the sense that, hey, if Aaron Rodgers, god forbid, gets hurt and has to miss the entire season, yeah maybe then things will be different. But I'm not looking at any of these Thursday night football games like I don't want to watch that. So these all look good.
I don't think it's it's as big of a deal as as you know, the media is making it out to be right now, and the same people and this is my here's my you know, my moment. I know I work for this shield, but the same people who moan about the you know, this.
Game sucks, Why is this? Why is this on? Why am I watching this?
You know, are going to be the same people that say, well that you can't do flex, so just take it
for what it's worth and let's see. Let's see it for a year, and it's only a one year deal, and it might be a colossal disaster and they might flex out one of these games and then one of the teams wasn't prepared and they're knocked out of the playoffs because of injuries and whoever knows in twenty eight days in advance, and they were playing Thursday and Sunday, and it was just too much quick of a turnaround
from Sunday to Thursday. I get it. All that stuff. Really, that's why eight teams voted against it, and that's why everyone's up in arms. But I would say, let's give it a year and let's see and realize that, you know, the media partners, they pay a lot of money, and it sounds like, you know, for the better of the entertainment product on the on the couch as opposed to the fans in the stadium that tipped the scales real quick.
Before we get to our guest, which is a different kind of guest for us, and I'm curious see how it goes. I wanted to talk real quick about the biggest sensation right now in football stadiums around the country, and I'm not talking about OTAs and I'm not talking about this Taylor Swift thing is legit, man, Like I said before, we got on air, and we've got our friend Jason English from iHeart here as well and Aaron.
I have never never, in all my years working for the NFL gotten so many texts from friends in the industry outside the industry. Got one from a guy who you know, knows me sort of way, not close enough to even ask this. Hey, bro, I know you're tight with the Jets. I know you're tight with the Giants. Bro, I know you work for the NFL. I'm sure there's a sweet I'm sure is there any way to get tickets to these Taylor Swift concerts?
I did not see this coming.
I did maybe I am just it's a gap in my pop culture knowledge. I had no idea Taylor Swift is as huge as she is. To the fact that I'm not talking one friend, two friends, I'm talking best friends who know who do want to ask me for Super Bowl tickets.
They don't ask me for Giants.
Raiders in the middle of September where they would love to take their son because it's just too big of an asks weird. The text always started this, I know it's a long shot and I feel awful asking, but do you have any The answer is I don't.
I have made calls.
I called Robert Sala, I called Joe Shane, I called the PR guy from the Jets, Eric Gelfind. I've called several people just to see, Hey, everyone's willing to pay face value, probably more. And the answer is a hearty laugh from all them. There is nothing we can do. And it's not because they don't hook ups. The tickets today they're all spoken for, Aaron, did you have any idea? Taylor Swift is the sensation that she is And there's been trends pieces about the dads wearing all this stuff
and it's it's become a whole thing. Every weekend at a different football stadium. Met life is Memorial Day weekend and I am zero for twenty with friends asking me for tickets. What do you say?
Yeah, I mean, she's beyond huge, like no one else I think really at this point could have a tour like that. I have friends who went through the whole ticket pre sale fiasco where they were trying to sign up and use credit card. You sign up for a credit card to get early access and didn't get the ticket still and now have this credit card. And I personally am not like a huge Taylor Swift fan, like.
Are you apathetic or like not a fan like to the point where I know all her songs, like I just wouldn't buy a ticket, or are you like I don't know if you want to upset?
Like there's the Beehive with Beyonce, like are we doing this?
So I personally like, I'm shooter.
I just can't go.
No.
She has some really great pop songs. I think I don't like her lyrics generally, Like she has a song where she rhymes cardigan and car again, and I think that's lazy. She has incredible pop songs. She's worked with some incredible artists, and there are songs of hers that I love, but I'm not like, oh, every single song I love, love Love, So yeah.
I think I was starting off because I imagine, you know, okay, Beyonce's on tour.
Everyone goes and sees it.
I would think, like Lady gagas on to where everyone goes and sees it, and then you got like your old heads, like Bruce is at the you know we're going and everyone's going to see Springsteen or even Dave Matthews too. I guess that's really dating me, Dave Matthews. But I've never in my life seen something like this Taylor Swift thing. So Taylor, if you're listening to the season with Peter Schrager, you're welcome to be a guest. Aaron will call him sick that day, we'll fill in
for a different producer. I appreciate your music. I think you're pretty good. I dig it, I think you're fine. I like it. So I won't be going to the concert, and nowhere will any of my friends who asked for tickets because I couldn't hook him up.
And I feel kind of bad about that.
Aaron our guest. I'm super excited. One of my favorite comedians, one of my favorite actors in the mini shows and movies he's been in. But I don't know him. I don't know if he likes football. I don't know if he knows who I am, and that makes for really good spontaneous podcasting. Actor comedian David Cross is up next. All right, As I mentioned the monologue, huge fan of this guy, have long been just an admirer from afar.
And when Aaron and Jason we got to the off season of the NFL season and said, let's have a lot more guests who aren't necessarily NFL coaches or players general managers. Who do you want? And I said, I want X y Z And one of the names was David Cross, who I have just I just I'm a huge fan of And sure enough I was blown away.
We got an.
Email response back saying, yeah, David Cross is willing to join you guys, actor comedian, a long time guy who's been entertaining you for years. David Cross, Welcome to the Peter Schrager The Season with Peter Schrager podcast.
Thank you. Yeah, usually it's an actor comedian bon vivant. So if you want to add that, maybe go back.
And you know, I think that's what I ultimately want to do with my life. Yeah, Like I want to be able to say bomb and what are the end to just launch see a show at night, just go to a gallery, like, what do you what is the life of a bon vivant?
You think you know, it's a lot of air ballooning, and it's a lot of charity work for animals with only three legs. And you know, I'm I'm really deeply ensconced in the fashion industry. I do just cuffs. I do a lot of different cuffs, and I only do cuffs, and it's just all kinds. It's it's crazy, it's all over the place. But you know, it's a it's a tough but enriching lifestyle.
It's good. Look, your career goes through obviously arrested development and and your stand up career. But I started with Mister Show, and that's where I think, you know, I started. Night Live is always there. But then when Mister Show came with you and Bob oden Kirk, it totally broke the mold. And I think anyone who's a fan of comedy and comedians today, especially in the sketch world, will point to that as you know, such a groundbreaker. Do you still get that, I mean, do you do you
get that being stopped for you? Like, do people still stop you mister Show? Or now we're so many years remove where they you don't get that as much.
You know, sure, Like I mean, it's you know, it's all over the place. Some people have no idea about mister Show, don't know, don't even know it existed, but they know me from these other things. And other people know mister Show but don't know the other things. So it all depends. But I still definitely get a lot, and I'm on tour currently and so meet a lot of people who are bringing in kind of mister Show. Yeah, minusha that or what a femura I guess is the
right word. Things that I've forgotten all about, Like Okay, can you sign this, you know, weird hockey stick model thing I made? It's from the whatever sketch and like, I don't remember, I'll sign it, bring it over.
Uh, you know. I listened to Odin Kirk had his his memoir that came out last year.
Listened to the audiobook and I loved it.
And he takes us through the origin of that show and this like HBO and then taking a risk on you guys, Can you take us through it from your your lens? Like here, you guys are obviously established sketch guys, and you've got different paths, but to come together and be given that kind of platform on HBO at that age, what was it like?
Well, I mean it was amazing and life altering. And I was not nearly as established as Bob was. I. Bob was on SNL briefly and then he was a big part of The Ben Stiller Show as an actor and a writer. But I was just a writer and I was brought on midway through and Bob and I started working together just doing shows in La just you know, with our friends, for our friends. With no we didn't have an eye towards the future. Bob did eventually more
than I did. I was still like, well, let's get drunk and have fun, and Bob's it was more focused. And then we were doing these shows and they were clear, very very successful immediately, like people in the audience really liked them, and it started to become a thing where it was it felt like an event, like you wanted to go to these shows when we put them on.
And then Bob, through his manager Bernie Berlstein, we started bringing you know, and also there was a little bit of buzz so ABC is there and HBO's coming and.
Set the stage first, Is it like one of these like small clubs, like I know that Luna Lounge is like a big thing that everyone talks about, Like, is it like one of those like small cafes. You guys are doing a little underground and then all of a sudden, why is Lorne Michael's in the crowd?
Like that kind of dude?
It was even better than that. It was. It was this place on Sunset right off of Librea called the Diamond Club, and it was it was this cheesy, like super cheesy Hollywood club where you know, it's like half as people or people who had just moved to La who were way too much makeup and clone and stuff, and then half like Russian and Eastern European and Armenian dudes and like we you know, just that kind of crowd.
And then so there's this club right it's like at disco dance club and in the back, like if you walk through this thing while everybody's dancing whatever, there's a side room and it probably had a little stage, and I think it held I'm going to guess at the most it held maybe one hundred and twenty people at tops.
And that's where we start doing these shows. There's a guy named Dave Wrath who was Now he's a huge, big time manager, but he was a huge fan of comedy and very helpful and manager at the time for all kinds of like people that are very famous now
that and most of the people in that scene. And we, as I said, we were just doing shows with each other for each other and we would all have a different night and you know, we were a very tight group and you know, it had there was everybody from and a lot of musicians too, so like Maynard Keenan and Jack Black would be hanging out and we all used played with each other, you know, and and so that's it was just a weird because you had to go through that other.
Yeah, the Eastern European Nightclub a.
Little room in the back and it was it was really it was really funny, but it was cool, you know, and it was like a cheap We got a space and we just did these shows and.
You put these shows on. And we've had Paul Rudd on this podcast and I've gotten to know him just living in the neighborhood and he talks like with great lore about those years in la and like going into being told Hey, TENACIOUSD are performing at this place at this time, and like just the entire everyone who is anyone would be there and it was like going to that was kind of the the buzz around mister show
as well. And then HBO says, we're going to give you guys a progress and what was that like, We're going to go and do this on the Home Box Office after you know, whatever show was on before you. I don't know if Sex and the City or Dream On whatever else was on at the time, but you know.
What, I think it was dream On Ben Be. It was.
Uh.
Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot back then, and we were part of their you know, the comedy block with Chris Rock and there's some other stuff. And they said to us, they were very specific about we don't want TV, we don't want regular stuff that's going to be we don't want SNL and we were not interested in that kind of thing at all, and uh, and they encouraged us to, you know, do what you want to do. And we in four years, we only got one note that we had to take kind of a standards and
practices note. That was it. And uh, they were very I mean, there's a complete lead new regime there now. But the people that we were working with that ushered us in were really helpful, really amenable. And again, I mean it was a cheap show to make. I mean we barely got anything, and we made it look better than it actually should have looked for the budget we had.
And you know, we were what Friday at twelve thirty in the morning or something like that, so it wasn't we didn't have to do much to attain success for that kind of slot at that time with that budget, and you know we were critically successful and that's kind of all they wanted. So it was a good deal. And yeah, it was great.
You know, the aresa development gig.
The story that is like urban legend or maybe true you can confirm it is that you were dating a young woman and you got this audition out in LA and he said, I'll go for one day, but this girl's in New York. I'm not going to be moving my life out to LA. I'll try out for arrested development. I'll just do it, see where it goes. You get the job, and the rest is history. Tell us, really the story and what really went down and when you walked into is that is that a.
Good or it was? So the context to it was I had been in LA for nine and a half years. I moved there from Boston. And my joke, which was based in truth, was like I moved to LA to make enough money to move away from LA, you know, which is I eventually after being there for nine and a half years, and I had a bit of a pause in work and I realized because I'd been saying for years, like I want to get out of here. I want to go to New York. And I had this break where I had nothing coming up, and I
was like, I don't leave right now. I'm going to wait here another month and then another job will come and I'll be here for another two years. So I took this opportunity and moved to And I didn't have a lot of possessions. I still don't, I never did, but I moved, put all this stuff in a one of those little U haul things, moved to New York, had a great time uh York and UH and doing stand up and stuff. And then I met this woman who we had a really good relationship and it eventually
lasted for like three and a half years. We're still friends. And our kids play together. But you know, we were in the in the midst of it, and I got an offer for rested development and I didn't even look at the script. I wasn't interested.
It was like, there's no way, no audition.
Nothing they offered you is like guy.
Initially they wanted me to look at job and I and I read the script and I did not have a handle on job at all. And once you see will Arnett our net, it's and I did not have a handle on it. But Tobias, who was meant to be a you know, uh, part time I'm forgetting whatever the phrase is, you know, but not a full time cast guest star. Yeah, like a you know, six out of eighteen episodes kind of thing, which already was appealing, like oh, I'll just fly to LA We're not going
to one or two episodes out and go home. But also beyond that, I just immediately knew who that character was and and had a sense for it, and I said can I And I was talking to Bitch for Wits and the Russo brothers, the directors, and we were talking on the phone because I said, I'm not I don't you know, I'll do it if it's part time. I just can't and they were like, yeah, that's great,
that's meant to be part time. And then I came out to shoot the pilot, which was you know, you always take longer to shoot the pilot, and I was probably like a ten day shoot, and I realized around the third day that it's really something special. This is just from the pilot. And the cast was amazing, the dialogue was great, the direct it was fun. They let
us play around and improvise. And I called my girlfriend from the little bridge thing that's in the Beverly what's across from the Beverly Center, the Beverly Connection, right across the street is a smaller one. I was up on this little bridge thing and I called her and I was like, hey, so good news, bad news, And I
basically said I have to do this. Yeah, and you know it's really special and so yeah, I think I could speak for everybody that we all felt that thing when we were shooting it, like this is something special.
I mean, such a cool cast. And obviously Sarah is a kid at the time, and you know, you got obviously Baiton and Arnett and all go through it. It's every story you hear, and I know that Bateman obviously has the SmartLess podcast where we talk about it off and with our nett It's like, it seems like it was just a really fun time and you guys had a blast, And isn't that the best working environment you could possibly imagine?
Just a fun experience working.
And I'm at the place I'm and I even before I was at the place, I guess I just always had the attitude. I do not want to work on anything that's not fun, you know, unless it's going to pay a crazy amount of money. But my whole life
is too short. I just want to have fun. I want to be able to play around and be in a set that is there's laughter and joy, and that SAT always had, you know, there was a lot of laps, a lot of laps on that, and it was a really fun privilege that a lot of actors don't get to have, you.
Know, And look at that show. And again, now you've got mister Show and you've got a rest development. You're stacking these huge hit shows that everyone loves, cult favorite one of them, the other one is a massive mainstream favorite. All this stuff, and yet you're still on the road and you still do the stand up comedy and you're on tour right now, and I'm sure the audience comes for all of it and they come from all the corners. But the life on the road, I mean, you've got
your father like it is. It is a grind, and yet you're still doing it. Do you have a passion for it or is this one of those things where you're like, it's just in my blood that I've got to be.
On the road.
It's just what I do. I'm a stand up comedian.
It's I mean, it's both. It's uh, it's I had this revelation not too long ago that I was talking to my wife about it, like I've realized, I'm I do all these things. I do, I write, I act, I produce a direct, I do stand up, but I've realized, like, oh, I'm a I'm a stand up Those other things are
fun things to do. But I'm I think it. I felt it when I had to cancel the last tour that I was going to do because of COVID and I had the set was already and I was looking forward to going out and h and then had to cancel it, and it and it hit me more more
than I expected it to. Was really disappointing, really, and I miss it and I and I'm out on the road now, and as you said, it's a grind, and it kind of you know, I used to go out and I have the whole family, or before I had a daughter, just go out and have a tour bus
and it was easy. And because my daughter's in school and I want to be here as much as I can, I basically am going out, you know, three or four days, and then I'm home for three or four days and I'm out for the weekends and you know, Thursday through
Sunday whatever. And it's it's hard because you just got some ear either in a car for six hours my next gig the next morning, or you're getting up and you're in a small airport making a connector through Charlotte to get to Omaha or whatever, and that part is a grind. And you know, I do an hour and a half and then I'm doing these meet and greets later, so I'm white by the end. I drink a lot. I can't not in an alcoholic way, I just in a I can't stop drinking. So yeah, it's it is
a grind, but I love it. I love I love this set I'm doing now. It's probably my favorite set I've done in a long time. And what we've done like forty two shows, I think, and we've got another thirty five or so. I'm gonna take the summer off, but then I'm back in September October and I'll go to Europe for a little bit. And it's the thing that if we lived in some weird world where they're like, you can't do pick one thing, you had to pick one thing, it would definitely be stand up.
Let me ask you, as a stand up for many years without kids and without children, and would you ever roll your eyes at like here's my parenting set or here's my bit on kids youth sports.
And then now it's like, oh.
No, no, I totally get it, and like that is where I'm going with this stuff because everyone can relate.
Oh, I mean I would only roll my eyes at like an hour of that. I hate those those things, like I would the idea of like an evening of comedy about being a parent is that sounds awful? And I have, you know, I have plenty of jokes or bits or observations about having a kid that I well, I have because I have a kid. But I mean that's probably no more than thirty percent of my set. And it's really about other things. It's not about simply like my kid did this thing and no, no, no,
it's really about the things around it. You know.
You grew up in Georgia. Yeah, football allegiances college and pro would be what well.
Pros the Falcons. Of course I was going to. I was gonna I know this isn't this is just audio, but I was gonna wear my one off limited edition ABC.
Steve Barkowski, who were rolling with what do we got? What are we talking about?
Matt Ryan?
Yeah, I mean, I he was not the issue with that team, and it's true he wasn't. And I really I've gotten a lot of arguments. Yeah, it was a big Steve Barkowski fan. You know, there hasn't been a whole lot to be excited about as a Falcons fan, but cautiously optimistic about the coming years, you know, yes, Desmond does and you know, we'll see.
It's cool like the Falcons fandum is like you've had this Super Bowl year in ninety nine where it's kind of out of nowhere and it's a dirty bird and all that. And then at twenty sixteen with Matt Ryan, he goes and wins the MVP, and obviously the super Bowl goes as it goes.
We don't have to go down that road.
It's funny you say, Matt Ryan he just retired or he's taking a job at CBS. He might come back, He's gonna be an announcer. And we had a debate on our morning show on NFL Network. Is Matt Ryan underappreciated? And my case is he's been wildly underappreciate because the first thing out of everyone's mouth is twenty eight to three, how he lost Super Bowl, not the fact he was an MVP and a starting quarterback in the league for fifteen straight years. One of the hardest things to do is durability.
He didn't lose the Super Bowl, the choice to pass three times Super Bowl, the head coaching lost defense. I mean, it's a team sport, but would I would totally blame the coaching on that. I mean, that was crazy. We all sat there going, what the Yeah, that's not Matt
Ryan's fault. And the only knock I can give Matt Ryan is he's you know, not very mobile, right and shut, and in this in the certainly the latter half of his career that there was a shift to that kind of quarterback and offense, and it was like he straddled two generations in a way. But again, like I said, he was not the problem or certainly not the sole problem of that team, and getting rid of him for Marcus Mariota is like, Okay, what did you why? What
what are you doing? And you didn't get anything? Yeah, I mean he's he's underappreciated certainly in that context.
You know, Yeah, did you have college football? I know it's a huge college football time. You were what Roswell Georgia is where you from?
Yeah? I mean I didn't. I wanted to go to Uga and all my friends went to Uga after high school, but I wasn't accepted there. It actually became the premise of a mister show bit. That's a real thing. The guy, this guy Moe Phelps, who's dead, but he was a dean of admissions, and this whole thing became a mister show bit where we quote him for real what he told me about going to Uga, and because I drove up there to have it, what did he say? He asked me what. Uh. And this is after you know,
they won the Sugar Bowl. There was a championship with herschel Walker and everything. And he's like, you know what did what do you want to major in? And I said acting? And he said acting. He's just all southern just you know, the old Selden, good old boy a ball and short sleeve Polly Astra shirt. You know when he goes, uh, what's acting? But just jumping up and
down on stage and yelling and screaming a lot. And you know what, I and I just drove up there, you know, and just before Athens was all kindect accessibly he had to go through these small towns everything get there and paying the ass and and I just I was like, I don't I don't know what to say to that. There's no I mean, I could say a logical response, but it's what kind of conversation would go.
I was like, okay, did you start list actors like there's this guy, Marlon Brando, you know, like these are great.
It was clear that this was kind of a feudal thing, and I know, I just sort of we had another probably five minutes of talking. Thank you very much. Please consider my application, and then I left. I was like, well, they're not gonna me. I ended up taking a year off and then going to school in Boston, which was just as well.
Yeah, it worked out a couple more things and one of the deals. It's not like a fun topic, but for our listeners who follow the NFL, like the writer's strike is going on right now, I saw you were out there on the front lines, just top line.
If you were someone to say, hey, give me the.
Main points of this, of where the writers are coming from, and I know you've been obviously you're not the voice of the Writers Union by any chance, of the Writers Guild, but just so that we know if the viewers are like, where the hell are my favorite shows in the fall?
What you guys are fighting for?
Yeah, I mean, very simply put, just fairness, a fair A lot of this is not about hey, I want you know, one hundred dollars an hour. It's really it's much like the last strike in two thousand and eight. It's about new technology and new things that have come up since the last negotiation that nobody had planned for the last time, it was about DVDs, like our writer is going to be compensated since all their work is coming out on DVD, you know, akin to actors residuals,
you know. And this time a big part of it is about AI and making sure that writers aren't replaced by robots. And it's just about fairness, not necessarily right now, but before what we are looking for in the future, which has always been it's one hundred percent of the time. You have to anticipate what is going to happen it's ten years from now, and be prepared for it and be compensated and just fair. It's just I can't make it any more simple than saying it's about fairness. It's
about paying. Without writers, there's no show, all right. And I don't care how many computers you get, you're not going to write, you know, Succession and that's all and Arrested Development and Severance and all these you know, Breaking Bad and Sopranos and all these shows aren't going to be written by computers, you know. And and you don't have those things without the writer, and the writers, like the has always been like the least kind of celebrated
but arguably the most important part. Nothing exists without the concept and the idea and the story and the dialogue and all that, and you know, we've never been compensated correctly, and this strike is just about getting to the bare minimum of fairness. And these studios and the streamers and the producers have literally hundreds of billions of dollars and they're not willing to. It's the it's the age old problem and and so really it's it's about the future.
It's not about right now. It's not about we want, you know, mansion and it's not about that. It's about protecting ourselves for what is going to happen to four, six, eight years from now.
It's chilling because you say the AI thing, and I think a lot of people who aren't in the room are there, like Robot, they're not going to And the response from the studios, apparently whatever their union is, was we'll revisit it once a year. And you're like, whoa, that's not a you know, And that's a chilling response.
That's scary. The other part is I listen to a different podcast in Danny McBride on it yesterday and he said, just out of curiosity, he was like, chat GPT make a righteous gemstone script and he's like, and it sucked He's like, it sucked, and it really sucked.
And just so you know, the equality will not be what you want it to be.
It's not not even going to be close. Come on, it's not. It's it and you know it's so yes, it's about protecting ourselves from that because the studio. I mean, look, this is a free market, capitalistic society. They're going to throw stuff out there. It's why we have so much reality TV is because of the two thousand and eight strike, and it's way cheaper to produce, and you wouldn't have, you know, nineteen versions of vandr.
Pump Love Island or vander Housewives.
I mean that may be satisfying and entertaining for some people, but other people want a story, you know, and as I said, chat Ai is not going to do it.
You and your wife are both actors. You guys are so the thick of it. Like, do you guys still find time to watch other shows? Like yeah, is there in your Like you're like Successions tonight, Like we're watching.
Yes, we we are. My wife has to catch up from last week's we'll watch tonight. We'll watch the last two. But Succession, for sure, I just did season four of the Umbrella Academy Cool, which I had I was familiar with as like a cultural thing, but I didn't. I'd never seen it. I knew people loved it. I knew that it was popular, you know, And so I started watching it, and like both my wife and I became
hooked and we're all caught up now. And then I got my sister hooked on it, my mom, who's eighty five. So we binge watched that. We watched, we watched Succession, Severance, waiting patiently for that.
Patient that if that's your boys still are, tell him like, bro, like at.
Some point like like, let's.
Got all the writers strike affected them too, you know, but they're all pro, right, all these you know, almost everybody is pro on the writer's side.
Yeah.
And oh and Top Chef, big Top Chef fan, really big Top Chef fan. Yeah.
I love it all right, my last one. You've been asked about it before. I heard you with Mark Maron years ago, and I like loved the competition on it, and I've tell you I have Disney Plus it was height of the pandemic. You're looking for something, bro, you might not want to talk on it. I love the Chipmunks movies, dude, and you're great in them and you were clever and you're fun.
And I don't know if you run away from that talk or not.
No, no, I have no. I mean it was.
I'm you're great in them. You understand that, right, Like you're great.
I when I get hired for something, I will talk to the director, producer, whatever, and I assume I bring it up, like you guys are hiring me in part because I I play around and I be right and I offer things up and I improvise and I assume that's what you want. And they were no different, and it was It wasn't a bad experience. It was just sort of an interesting thing. And everybody I worked with on the first two films were great. And then the
third film was I don't know why. I mean, i'll write about it.
Tell me everything.
I don't know this, so tell me.
I just know.
Honestly, I know the first one, and I know the squeakl those are my chance.
Schipwrecked was chip wrecked.
I never saw chipwreck.
That don't don't. It would be weird if you did, now that your your kids are grown or whatever. Like I'm just ha hanging out. Honey, I'm just gonna watch chipp tonight.
So what was the promise plot and tell me take us through Chipwreck?
It was, uh, my character. Well, first of all, I know that they're was this really blatant gross product placement thing with Carnival Cruise line. It takes place, the whole thing for most most of it takes place on a carnival cruise in which the people that were on the actual people that were on the carnival cruise did not know that we were going to be shutting down big sections of the cruise.
Oh you guys, did it rent out the cruise ship?
You did it while the actual cruise.
Was going on?
Oh yeah, yeah. And then I had this slide show
that I made. I used to do this and it was called It's Just Fantasy Versus Reality, So you would see I had tons of pictures of the extras and set the people who were acting, you know, like they took over like the water slide and the pool, the strengths, and there are these hot like twenty something early thirties kids, and then you just pan over to the real and it was just oh boy, it was like the worst of the worst of Florida and it was I it was really it was.
Pretty How long was the shoot?
I think we were on the boat for ten days. I think we were shooting for like seven of those days, and then there were we were stuck on there and there was no That was another thing. They one of the first things you get in your room, which is tiny. I don't know if you've been on a cruise.
I've never been on a cruise.
But there's the first thing. He is this little we we got these little packages from production. There's no internet on the boat. And if you shift to short calls, if you need to make calls, like ninety dollars, so you know you're you're kind of on this boat, which from from the outside you're like, this is huge, just as massive, but only half of that you're looking at is accessible, like the rest of it is the inner workings of the ocean liner and the and all that stuff.
So it's it's way more cramped than you would might imagine. There's no and if you're a guy like me who is one of those like, hey are you famous? Like I get that a lot when I'm out. You know, people don't know who I am.
So and then they recognize you, but they just what do I know you from?
One of those and then they just want to know, like how do I know you from? And I'm like I don't know, no, no tell me. And so it was ten days of that where it's like I just I just would like to get something to eat. I want run through my IMDb page.
Oh I loved you in the ten Yes, let's talk about it. Let's go, Yes, you wish it was that, you wish it was that? Oh my gosh, all right, and then the movie wraps and you're like, I'm done with this or you did have another one after that?
No, I was contractually obligated to do three, so I did. That was my last one. That was. But they also treated me very poorly. I don't know why. From the very beginning, it was very strange. I was in London to do the second series of Todd Margaret and Great Decisions Tod Margaret. I don't want to bore everybody with this. It's just we don't have to, you know, And I'm producing the show. I'm not just you're the guy.
You're the producer or the actor everything.
The only reason I say that is to say that I was responsible for about sixty jobs, you know, And we have been asking for at least a year whether I was going to be a part of the third thing, because again I'm contractually obligated to do three. And they kept saying no, I don't know, and they weren't very helpful or forthcoming. And then I will never forget this
as long as I live. I was it was like Christmas, and we're going to start shooting at about I want to say four weeks, maybe three weeks, three or four weeks.
Scripts are done, actors are hired, we're.
In pre production. We're already, Oh we.
Have You're in London, You're like, I've.
Been there for months, and we're We've got sets being built and people are hired, and again, you know, responsible for roughly sixty jobs, and you know, and a lot of these are friends of mine. Now we've we've been doing the show. We did the pilot, and we did the first series and now we're getting ready to do the second. And I was at Herod's with my wife, and which is kind of one of our little Christmas traditions when we're in London, you go to the food
hall whatever. We're there, my phone rings and it says like the team or uta team or whatever, and oh and I just had a bad feeling immediately, you knew.
Like the agents are calling on Christmas?
What is going on?
And I answered the phone and it's and it's David. I have She runs through my lawyer, my agent, and my So that's only good or bad news, and it's never anything in between.
When you're either in a Marvel movie or something's happening.
It's either really good news or really bad news. And then my manager says, where are you? I explain. He goes, okay, can you get somewhere, can you sit down somewhere? I know, I know what it is. I know what you do.
It's been looming in the back of your mind, like it's a chance. Yeah yeah.
And it's a long, boring story, Peter, but it's it's it was awful and they were so unpleasant, so weird. And then I get the script. Of course, Oh the other thing. I will just say this, so not only is the movie going, they want me to be in Hawaii for rehearsals on January third, and I'm like, you know, and my wife's not going on this trip right to visit friends in Southern aw who were in the Peace Southern in the Peace Cort. Yeah, so we're gonna yeah,
and and I'm like, I can't. I don't even get back. I would have to go I can't even go get to Hawaii from London and I have no clothes. I would have to go to New York and stop in and get proper clothing. And I'm also like, rehearsal, are you.
The animatronic?
And then it became clear pretty quickly they're just trying to screw, trying to screw. Yeah, And there was this whole thing with the trailer, like everybody had a nice trailer, like a regular trailer, and I had this moldy, beat up like hard thing.
That was on the on the ship or in Hawaii.
No, in Hawaii for the rehearsals for and the guys saying like that's all. You know, there's a lot of production Hawaii, that's all. And it's just clear there with me and I've.
Ah was Jason Lee Was he in that one too? Or did he drop out or not?
He was?
He was still Dave And you know, we had a bunch of scenes together and yeah, and look I did I was professional and I did what I do and I tried to make it as good as possible. I tried to add things and I don't know, I don't know what. I'm not sure what their issue was. They never were very forthcoming about it. I have no idea. But then they withheld a bonus from me.
Stop now we're getting to it now, I'm angry.
Yeah, they withhold the bonus that it was supposed to get because contractually there was some language in there where I did something where I quote unquote disparaged the movie. And yeah, they're they're just there. It was strange. It was very odd and it's the only only experience I've had like that. I've never ever.
Yeah, you've been in a million things, You've never yeah, like beloved, it's amazing.
Real quick, before we wrap, what do you got going on now besides the tour?
What else is shaken?
And is there where else can we find you?
I mean, as I said, the tour is going to be Uh, that's that's taken up most of my time. And if you want to see the upcoming dates again, we're going through October, but it just go to official David Cross dot com. That'll have all the dates coming up. A couple of places we're hitting again because they sold out really quickly. Good and the set has kind of evolved since I was there, So like, I'm in Denver a week from today, and the.
Day after Memorial Day, you'll be in Denver.
And that and that is the second time I'm in Denver and we've been doing I'm going back to Chicago and so you can take a look on there and and also Europe as well.
Any movies.
No, oh, yes, what what am I talking about. I just went to the screening last night. I'm out of it. I'm very tired.
What's the film?
You hurt my feelings? And it's really good. It was. That was the first time I had seen it, and it was really fun to shoot. I enjoyed it a lot. It was it was cool. And my wife and I play a couple in therapies. And my real wife and I Amber Tamblin play a couple that are in therapy, couple's therapy with this guy played by Tobias Menzies. We're just we're you know, we're supporting cast. It's really Julie Louis Dreyfuss and Tobias Menzies and it's a Nicole Hollup
Center film and it's it's really good. It's really good. I enjoyed it.
Awesome. That's cool.
And then I'm going to be on Umbrella Academy Season four. Super great experience, really great set, really fun character to play, and just what a treat and an honor to be a part of that show and that experience that they were great. And and then also I'll be in Justified Primeval, which I don't know when that will be coming out, Okay, it's coming out shortly. And that's that's what I got in the pipeline. Come out. And again I'll be touring.
I'm taking the summer off, but I'll be I'm on the road until July and then I will be back out in September.
Great, dude, you're awesome. I so appreciate you taking the time. And know it's the first time we're meeting. It's always awkward, like, hey, good to meet you. We're going live on a podcast and an intimate thing about try But I appreciate you so much for taking the time, and I hope you enjoyed it too.
I did. I did very much. And let's go watch a Falcon Saints game together.
Yes we will.
We'll go watch Falcon Saints their new coach, Arthur Smith. I don't know if if you're.
A great dude, smart guy.
And they drafted a running back eighth overalls guy Dejean Robinson, who he might be the best running back to inner the league since like Sakuon Barkley. So I feel very good about the Falcons, but I always do in May. So that's my feeling of confidence for you.
I was with me all right, guys, thank you so much.
Dear Cross is funny, Aaron. This is the goal of the podcast. We're going to get you the Arthur Smith interview. You're craving. We're gonna get you the you know, the offensive line coach of the Saints someday. But I also want to bring on guys that I love who have entertained me for years. David Cross is hilarious In Arrested Development, he was down playing it almost there, and yet I
think that just scratches the surface. You hurt my feelings movie was talking about, which he was like, yeah, Julia Louis Dreyfus is the star. That's a major star that opens May twenty sixth, Justified City Primeval airs July eighteenth, and then he's on tour Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day. He's in Denver, where he said he's been sold out. But Aaron David Cross cool as hell. Yeah, I loved it.
I also love as an actor from arrest Development. He's a Falcons fan, and I think Falcons. This is I'm pushing this wordplay a little too hard, but I think Falcons might think their offense is in a state of arrested development. And there we go. We tied it in perfectly.
Why I love you. I don't even know what the state of arrested development would be, and yet it works. Guys, Till next week, We've got more of these kind of guests that are comedians, actors, entertainers. We're proactively seeking them out, like this is the off season and I'm bringing on guys and gals that I think are interesting.
And I don't know if you're getting.
That Chipmunks three chipwreck story anywhere else, but I'll take it. Unbelievable behind the curtain, David Cross, nowhere else in podcasting are you going to hear about Thursday night Flex scheduling right into the Mister Show, Mister show. I was gonna say chip Wreck, Yeah, Chipreck Carnival Cruise Lines. If you want to be a sponsor, we're open and amenable to it, if you want to be Just so it is until next week.
Because my name is Peter Schrager. This is Aaron Wan Kauffman. Our guest was David Cross, the incredible comedian and actor. Jason English is here back in la We got Matt Schneider, Jason Cleman, and Meredith Batton who they all run the show and all the stuff that you're seeing on digital. But gosh, couldn't be happier with today's episode. We got more to come. Thanks for listening. The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio.
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