Welcome back everybody, Thanks for joining me for another triumphant episode of Off the Beat, where I am proud to be your host, Brian Bumgartner. You know one thing that really characterized twenty twenty three for me and well for everyone else who works in entertainment or who simply enjoys
entertainment was the writers and Actors strike. It was a historic moment that changed the landscape of film and television, and it also changed this podcast just a little bit because we were not allowed to promote or talk about our work. Now, this was a curse, and it was in fact a blessing for me because one, I couldn't get to intervie you as many of my fellow actors,
which I typically do. But two, I was allowed to lean into my love for and my rolodex of great athletes and sports figures and learn more about how they climbed their own ladder to success. So to get back to our best of for this year, let's start with well the goat himself here is Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso. There's a lot of discussion, I feel like, in football about schemes, how an offensive coordinator works, what their plan is, defense the same thing having to make that adjustment. Is
that similar? Do you think in basketball? I mean, I feel like what people think about in basketball is like you got game or you don't, and you can more easily walk into another system. But how have you found or watched with other guys coming in and trying to learn a different offense or a different a different way of approaching the game.
Yeah, no, I think I think to the untrained eye, it looks like basketball is just go out there and make more shots or put up the other team right than the other team.
But that's just the All star games.
Yeah, it's just the pickup at your local lifetime. Like, there's so much detail and timing that go into the schemes of basketball that that people just they probably don't see as much because there's less players, you know, which which is kind of a you know, it's kind of almost backwards. You think it'd be easier to see with
less players. But football they have such defined roles too, Like you know, the linemen are going to block, and there's different schemes for them to move, you know, you know with the quarterbacks that they're going to do with the timing and the receivers and stuff like that. But for basketball, it's just it's so free flowing.
You have to.
Understand what you're trying to do to such a such a high level that you're not thinking while you're out there playing. Because if you're out there thinking while you're playing in the NBA, you're you're getting beat because guys are too good, they're too fast, they're too athletic, they're
too smart. It's the peak of professional basketball. It's so detailed people don't really understand, and it's probably hard to have that conversation unless you have a certain level of basketball intelligence because there's just you know, you'd have to break down so much and talk about so many things, and it just moves so fast.
Man.
People don't realize how fast the NBA game moves. You know, it looks slow on TV, and the guys don't look that big. They're monsters out here that are moving.
Oh it's oh yeah, you get in the building and you see it instantly. How fast? How physical? Yeah, yeah, the speed of it is. How fast?
How physical?
And people don't realize the size of some of these guys that are moving around. That's that's the number one thing that people tell me when they see me when they've never met me before and they recognize me that Oh wow, I didn't know you were that tall. Yeah, I'm I'm six four, six ' five, and I'm the small guy.
That's you look small to me. Yeah, you look small to me, So I could take Yeah, I got that guy, give him my fade away fade away jumper. When you're watching a game on TV, are you breaking it down? Are you looking and watching at what they're trying to do to the other players? Yeah?
I can't watch for like pure entertainment anymore. I just my brain doesn't work like that. Like I've lost the ability to just sit down and watch a basketball game. All I do is see the flaws of what they should be doing, knowing actually like what teams like to run in certain plays and being like defense didn't push them to the right spot. It's it's very analytical, but that's kind of my job.
So I do you put yourself there, like, are you like, okay, I'm him, and imagine yourself moving within either an offense or a defensive play. Do you go that far?
Yeah? For the most part, Yeah, especially defensively, just because that's kind of how my brain's wired. I get really upset watching certain guys in the league because they do their patent move whatever it is. You know, I know that if they're in their left hand, they're going to go between the legs and step back, or it's in their right hand, they're going to go downhill. And I'm
like calling it out. I'm like, he's gonna go right, He's gonna go right, and then the guy gets blown by right and it's just it's it's hard to watch, but that's that's the perfectionists, and the competitor in me is like, I just don't see anything else.
Uh. By twenty nineteen, you're playing pretty damn well. You are the only other Laker besides mister James to get a game thirty points, ten rebounds, five assists. Did you feel walking into Staples Center how much everybody loved you?
Uh?
Yeah, for sure?
Why did they? Aside from the fact that you're good.
Just to start? Staple Centers is like Staple Center and in the Garden, those two places, it's it's different than everywhere else because they it's almost like the court is lit up, you know, like like a like a like a performance, you know, like it's a stand up comedy special,
or it's a it's a concert, like it's dark. It's dark in the crowd, all the lights are pointing towards there, and there's this atmosphere about it that that just makes it special to begin with, So that that already, you know, gets the juices flown as a basketball player in general.
And and then.
I'm fighting for my life at this point, right I'm on, I'm on two way contract. And the way that I viewed it, like a lot of guys, you know, they might get a two way contract or they might get you know, the even the first deal I got in LA it was a two year, five and a half million dollar deal I had I had the awareness to understand, like this isn't a guarantee into the league, Like this is still like you get you gotta you gotta prove
it contra. And so every time I played like I already have the mindset of being super competitive just because I like to play like that and I just love basketball. But now I have like almost a back against the wall mentality going into it as well, to where it's like, all right, I have to perform or else I'm not going to be here, Like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have a job, and you mix those two things together and you just had you had me playing at a high level that I think a lot of NBA
players don't play at every night. And I was taking advantage of guys taking plays off. And then even once you know, I had the reputation, I think it was still like a there's a lot of guys in the league that didn't believe that I could play a little bit, and it was still one of those okay, you got to prove it things, And so my motivation just kept
moving and changing. And I think, you know, Lakers fans are one of the more spoiled fan bases in pro sports with as much success as they've had, you know, but they they have high expectations and they just we talk about and them we drink the kool Aid. Lakers fans drink the kool Aid hard, and and they are they if you go out there and you play to win, and you play and you play hard, they just have
a certain appreciation for it. And this was you got to remember the time, this was for the franchise, right, this is coming off of after Kobe left. There wasn't a lot of success. They had young players and they were trying to find teams. It was it was a really low period. They're bringing big names Bronze in a, DSN, Rondos and Dwight, all these guys, the whole, the whole team, and then you had me that was just you know, kind of sprinkled in there on top, and it's like,
who's this. Who's this crazy white guy that's out here just running around dunking on people getting steals, like playing with this fiery energy. In my opinion, I think I represented, you know, what a winning culture and winning is about. And I think that they recognize that and appreciated it.
Well, I know that I appreciate it. I love that fiery energy. As much as Korusi loves the game of basketball, This next guest loves the game of soccer. Here is the US goat of soccer, Landon Donovan, talking about trying to get the whole of the United States to care about soccer as much as he does. Talk to me a little bit about what you just talked about about the fans. I mean, we are obviously in close proximity to Mexico, but this documentary Good Rivals, now it is
if you haven't checked it out. Came out last year or earlier this year on Netflix. It is about the rivalry between Mexico and the United States, greatest soccer rivalry in the world, which is incredible because of how new or young soccer is in the United States compared to so much of the world. A lot is made about two thousand, two thousand too, and beginning to change the pendulum,
beginning to switch from Mexico to the US. But how difficult was it at the time to find fans and support here that cared about what you guys were doing.
Yeah, incredibly it was. It's it's hard to compare the fandom of the Mexican people with the fandom of the American people at that time. Now it's it's pretty level now, but at that time it just it was non existent. And so I think the analogy, I mean, obviously you're a baseball fan, is if not all of a sudden, but relatively quickly, in the next five years or so, Mexican Mexican baseball was way better than Major League Baseball
and way better than our players, American players. It's our national pastime, right, So that would flip things on its head and that would cause some problems. So what happened in the early two thousands is a rivalry that was completely one sided for a long time, with Mexico always winning and them just dominating us, started to change and we beat them in that game, that two thousand game.
We beat them a number of times over the next decade, and that started to change the mentality of everybody involved. Everybody looked at the rivalry differently. And then what's happened in the last we'll call it seven years is there are a lot of great rivalries around the world. What makes this one unique and why good rivals? Is I think so important that that film to watch and I'm glad you watched it. We didn't even talk about that,
but I'm glad you watched it. Is there's also the political component, right that's been exacerbated over the last seven years. And there are so many Mexicans in our country, and especially in southern California and where we live in San Diego. There's a lot of Mexican Americans, a lot of American Mexicans,
and we coexist in a really harmonious way. But in a lot of places in our country it doesn't happen and so it's this rivalry is just it's heat it up over the last seven years, and on the soccer field, that's been a good thing because it makes it that much more interesting for everyone involved.
Do you feel like there are fans of the American team in Mexico or is that one sided?
That's a good question. I wouldn't say in Mexico. But what I saw over and over and over in my career is we would go into a stadium against play against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, right and by the beginning of the game, it would there'd be you would say, like seventy five percent of fans were Mexican. And then as we would the end of the game we were winning two zero, you'd look around and somehow and we figured out later what it was,
but all of a sudden, it was flipped. There were seventy five percent American fans. And what you realize is they would walk in with a Mexican jersey.
Over a USA jersey.
Once the US started winning, they'd pull off the Mexican jersey be American fans. So's the epitome of fairweather fans right there.
Yeah, you do something that takes balls. But you know, you talk about England and Europe. Obviously Central America where soccer is so big. You're playing in Germany already. You get offered a contract at seventeen, But in two thousand and one, shortly after you begin playing for the US national team, you return to the United States and essentially, with some brief exceptions, you play out your entire career at in the MLS in the United States. Talk to
me a little bit about that decision for you. Was that difficult for you to make? Okay?
No, No, So what happens is in our sport, what happens a lot is Europe is the holy Grail of places to play, right. It's for the longest time, the most money, most prestige, best competition, most eyeballs watching, et cetera. And so for almost every player, that's where they want to play. Whether you come from Argentina or Africa or California, everybody wants to be in Europe, somewhere, France, England, Spain, whatever.
I never subscribe to that theory. I agree with all that, but the most important thing to me was playing was actually playing games. It'd be like they're like Brian for the next decade. You're gonna you know, you're gonna go to acting class and you're gonna practice, but you're never gonna be on a show. You'd say, well, that's not right, that's not why I do it.
I don't want to do that right.
And so I always wanted to play. And what the mistake a lot of players make is they'll go to Europe and I'm using quotes, they go to Europe. So you go to a team in Europe and then you sit on the bench and you never play a game, and then you get three years into your career and you go, shoot, what am I really doing here? Like the paycheck's great, but this is my this is my life. So I always say to people, you're not a soccer practicer, You're a soccer player, right. Do you want to play
or do you want to practice? So my decision was I just wanted to play, and we had this young league at home that I think needed all of us to help lift it, and it was it made sense for me. And then I also got to play at home in front of my friends and family in LA
and to me, that was a no brainer. You know, a lot of people disagree with that and thought I left some stuff on the table and I could have, you know, played at a higher level in other places, but I wanted to play, and that that's where I got.
My joint right. The MJ Michael Jordan, the goat of US soccer, six time MLS Cup winner, fourteen consecutive All Star. I mean, the list goes on and on. Two time MLS MVP, two time MLS Cup MVP, Golden Boot, blah blah blah blah blah. Clearly, you had opportunities to go other places once you had established yourself. By the way, what you say makes so much sense, like go where you can play. Clearly you could have played anywhere at
a certain point. But did you feel a loyalty. Did you feel like you were starting something that was important with the MLA. I mean not that you started it, but you know what, being a part of growing something that was important here because you you know, you essentially decide never to leave.
I did.
I felt like it was I don't know if responsibility is the right word, but we grew up in a time where we were all ambassadors for the game. So it's not like in San Diego when Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis show up to the baseball park play, they go home, and you know, they do their thing. For us, it was like go to practice, go to an appearance afterwards, go talk to the media, go meet kids, to help sell tickets. I mean, we were constantly my whole career trying to sell the sport.
And it was just part of it.
Not complaining, It's just that's what it was for us, and so I enjoyed that. It was exhausting, but I enjoyed that. And when I look at Major League Soccer today and the national team today, knowing that I had a small part in that, you know, makes me prideful because we worked hard to help build that.
I love that. We'll be right back here we are again. And I have just a few more snippets for you, and they're really good ones. This first last story is from my new bestie, the amazing Eric McCormick, featuring some other names that you might know. This is one of my favorite stories all year. You talk about your piano. You told me an amazing story I have to bring up.
Before you went to Ryerson Theater School, you went to Sir John A. McDonald Collegiate Institute WOW, with a few other notable people, Mike Myers being one.
Mike was there.
David Furnish.
David Furnish, Yes, David Furnish and I were in a theater class together tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade and part of a real little clique of three guys and my friend Helga, and we did God's Spell and Pippin.
And the Fantastics together, and eventually he moved. We kept in touch a little bit, then he moved to London, we lost touch, and when we finally sort of reconnected again, I was just starting to date my wife and he was just starting to date Elton John, like mid nineties, and then shortly thereafter Will and Grace happened and they
were the first. Elton and David were the first people, I think in the UK to see it because it didn't exist there yet, and I'd sent him a bunch of videotapes of season one which they quite enjoyed, which led eventually to Elton being on the show. My favorite story that I'll tell till I die is is just that I.
Elton asked me to host an event for Yamaha and Yamaha's some payment to me. They paid me in piano, so I was given a baby grand piano that.
Sits in the center of the living room to this day. And shortly thereafter, and we'd only ever seen David and Elton in the world at a restaurant and David call said he was in town.
And Janet, my wife standa, said.
Well, tell David to come over. He said, well, why should this come over see that house? He said, sure, We'll be over at eight and I said, Janet, he said we, He said we, did not say I he said we, So sure enough, Elton and David came over for dinner. My son was six months old at the time, and I eventually just said, Elton, you know you're going to have to christen the piano. He uh, Without a second, Doot got up, walked into the living room, sat down
at the piano, looked up at me. He's wearing a sweatshirt like a vluor a sweat outfit, and I said, what would you want me to play? And I thought, this is it. This is my chance.
It's my chance to show him that I'm serious here. I know my shit. I'm not going to say rot your band. I'm not going to say Rocket Band like some schmuck. So I said, okay, I've.
Seen that movie too, from Goodbye Ellwick Road, and he looked up at me and said, oh, fuck off, I don't remember that song.
And I remember the moment, feeling incensed as a fan.
I was like, maybe you don't remember that. You're supposed to know every song you wrote it.
You wrote it.
So he didn't play that song, But I tell that story in my act occasionally, and then I do, I've seen that movie too, which people don't remember, which.
Is a great song.
What did he play?
He played, Actually, he played another obscure song for me because my son was There is a beautiful song called the Greatest Discovery. It's about a little boy waking up and hearing all this commotion, realizing that he has a brand new baby brother, and it's I feel like it's an impossible song to hear and not cry at the end. It's just so it's Bernie Toffs' greatest lyrics, I think, and I do that I've seen that one occasionally too.
But he sang that song at the piano. And then the next day I saw my neighbor Thomas, and he was aware we had this new piano.
We didn't know each other that well at the time, but he'd seen the piano arrive and he said, I couldn't help it over here last night. You're getting pretty good. Thank you.
Yeah. I don't know how you keep that lie going, but I kind of hope Eric never confessed who the real piano player was. Now we're going to hear from two people that I was so happy to talk to this year, longtime best friends, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden. Let's just say Jason really bared his soul or his head for this one.
If you're listening to this and haven't seen Jason on stage, he's my buddy, He's my best friend. We argue all the time, we have the podcast, we've done shows together. I'm still in awe when he walks on stage, even if I've helped write the piece. There's a different power that happens. He just it, just this thing happens. And you knows, Brian, how amazing that is to own a piece of that stage for X amount of time and it's yours. You own it and you can do with
it whatever you want. And not everybody succeeds and It fascinates me when I watch him go out there and he transforms into this thing. It's goosebump time. He does it every time. Is really powerful.
Thanks Pety, and thank you Peter for not mentioning the hairline that Brian and I.
Well, yeah you both have.
Okay, we both haven't, I don't, thank thank goodness, but both which, by the way, must have played into both of your psyches growing up young, because I remember everybody around me. It's that age. I remember asking this this girl who I was dating at the time, constantly at the back, the back, standing. It's standing in it. It's standing, isn't it. She say, you're neurotic. I go, no, I'm sinning.
I'm sinning. And she ran into me like thirty years later and I said, look see she said, it's the same. It's the same. But what age, Like, what age did it happen to you?
Yeah? What? What? What about you? Jason?
I remember it almost of the day. I had braces for nine years. I got them onf I came off. I was seventeen, and uh, I remember the braces came off and I had a date that evening. So I went to the gym and I'm in the shower and I'm, you know, coming out of the shower, and I'm drying off my hair and I look in the mirror and I see something like a thin spot at the very very top, about the size of a quarter. And I went, I literally said, are you freaking.
Didn't me I don't get a day one day?
And it was it really was the beginning by the time I got to college, you know, my sophomore year of college, I had you know, like like a solid drinkcoaster spot up there, and you know, and and I panicked over and I cried about it, and I really
really thought it was the end of everything. But you know, if you always say, what do you want to tell your younger self, if it hadn't happened, my career would not have happened the way it did because I kept getting cast much older than I was, which was far more interesting roles, right, and I had an energy about those roles that guys that age didn't have, so it made me kind of unique. I met my wife when I was twenty, so it wasn't like I was looking
good and she got fooled. She's was gone on with that.
Hell, did you ever I mean, this is I guess this is personal. Did you ever or consider doing something to change it?
Oh my god, you kidding.
First of all, I was one of the first rogaine users. But rogaine, you know, rogain now comes in two forms. There's a there's like an oil base and there's a foam the oil base. Back in the beginning, it was like all oil. So if you have thinning hair and you put oil on your head, you look like you belong on the street, you know, So that was not good.
Then I went to hair club for men for a year and they had the thing where they make fishing line and they take your hair and they make a braid and then they sew the tupe onto that braid and you have to go every four weeks to have it to have the crud the cottage cheese scraped off your head because you can't shampoo under that.
So, by the way, if they want to use that as they're out. Yeah.
Right after Seinfeld, there was a period of time where people where I got really close to a couple of roles and they ultimately didn't go with me because they said, he looks so much like his character on Seinfeld, And I'm going you.
Honestly can't see me.
Like if I grow a mustache and I put on a wig, you can't figure that out. So as a sort of fu.
I wore to pay for two years publicly making no bones about it, going see see it changed nothing right, So if I could have changed it easily, I probably would have.
But nothing was going to be easy.
And frankly, who you know, nobody cares anymore.
No I know. I mean, I'll tell you briefly mine because it's similar in a way. Now, I already was playing older roles. I'm convinced that it was sped up by that old makeup company ben Nye. Remember ben Nye does the theater makeup. And I convinced that cutting thinning for older roles and putting makeup on did something because it was right after that where it really took a turn. So I went in the I got the prescription. I
had to get a prescription for the ro game. My dad was a he is a doctor, and got a dermatologist that was his like buddy, and got me the stuff. And then it was explained to me that it could have no effect. It could stop the loss, or it could reverse like a clock. But then what was explained to me was if you ever stop, the clock speeds up to wherever you would say it leaves up. And I thought, am I going to do this forever? Like
that was for me? That was the decision. And yeah, it was oily back then at the time, at least it kind of had a alcohol yes, kind of smell anyway, So I stopped.
Did I blame the jew fro phenomena of nineteen seventy six where every ouk joy was getting an afro? And I did it? And that's what I noticed the spot. Oh sure, I burnt every follicle. I ascid and heat and I killed every follicle.
Look at us now, Jason, we get more beautiful with age. Maybe a little more bald too, but definitely more beautiful. I want to leave you all with one last clip from Rosie O'Donnell. I still kind of can't believe I got to hang out with the Rosie O'Donnell. Obviously she's an icon who has made a lasting impression on a whole generation of people. But don't take my word for it. What do you see now as the show's legacy, after it's it's now done.
I would say it was the time of the legacy of the show. I think is love, because I think the reason that I was successful is because I really loved Florence Henderson. And when I had her on the show, it was trippy to think that I would dream that she would be my mom and that here she is
sitting next to me and being motherly. Florence Henderson would come over to my house and play with Parker and these older women who knew that I was a motherless child, motherless child, you know, and stepped in in in a magical way almost, you know, there was something magical about the show. It was pure, and it was it was kind, and it was it was fun. I think we had fun, you know, and everybody wanted to be in the audience. It was a tiny little studio with like two hundred seats,
and everybody wanted to be there. And then when I did Tickle Me Elmo, I remember getting a call from Aaron Spelling. Aaron Spelling, like one of the richest men in the world, calls to ask me if I had four Tickle Me Elmos for his grandchildren. I was like, okay, sir, well listen, thank you for Dynasty. I enjoyed that so much when I was a job. Let me get back to you. And then I go to my assistant find four fucking almost for Aaron spelling, like, and then I think,
whose life is this? This is a crazy life. You know, it's a crazy life. And I never really believed at the height of like when oh, you're the most influential, You're on this list, You're on that list. You know, I usually didn't go to the party, you know, I like, I didn't always believe it, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like I have a healthy amount of reality in my show business. I don't know, is that weird to say?
No?
I think I get it. But but you must be aware, or you should be aware of the countless doors that you opened in your career for other people in the LGBTQ community. You opened up a lot of doors during this time and after for people that came after you. Do you are you proud of that? Do you acknowledge that to yourself? Yes?
Yes, I definitely do. And I you know, I feel that some people are marathon runners and some people are sprinters, and I knew that I'm hardly a jogger, right, I work very very hard, but I'm tired, you know, like I want to lay down and watch something like I don't have the kind of energy that that I did back then, and it was a very large amount of work. But I do realize that. And you know, I was at Nobu yesterday and this is.
It's so funny because you're so not this. I'm going to totally interrupt you that that is like the most like Hollywood.
I know, I know.
Yesterday anyway, so I've never seen it.
You like the opposite of that, So I had to at least call it.
You have to. I've never seen a Kardashian there. I just want you to know. I go there like three or four times a week. It's almost like my my neighborhood restaurant. I'm right on the beach in Malibu and right next door is Noboo.
I just ate at Nobuo two nights in a row in Vegas.
Now, if I could eat it every day, I would eat it every day. But can I read this to you? What this this note that happened at Nobuo?
Yes.
So I see this family sitting in front of me, and they're very young. I thought at first they were teenagers, but very kind of good looking like like he looked like an artist to me, Like I thought he had one real funky clothes. I bet he's a fashion designer, I thought to myself, and what a pretty wife. And I go to get the check and the guy says, oh, it's paid for. I said, what do you mean. He said, well,
there's a note for you. And apparently this young man paid my bill and left with and never bothered me, but he left me this note. Rosie, thank you for being you and setting an example of what it means to be yourself in the face of adversity and negativity. Because of your strength and bravery, a little boy found the light in a childhood riddled with violence, drug abuse, and depression. And now I'm one of the biggest rappers in the whole world. Thank you, with unconditional reverence. Logic
Bobby Hall. Now, I had no idea who logic was, but I felt like this is the legacy of the show, that there are millions of artists and they were inspired and they knew to go there, and they knew what we were selling was membership in this world. And uh, I was so blown away. I go on to my son who's twenty three, and my daughter who's twenty and I send the copy of it to both of them and they both call me screaming on the phone, screaming, I am going to use this for the next three years.
Like Blake was like, do you want to keep it? I'm like, yes, I'm keeping it. He's like, I want to show my friends. I'm like, I'll send you a picture of it. You know. But I was so, I was so moved that.
Is I'm you know what I'm so that makes me so happy. Yeah, for you, that makes me so happy that that happened for you, obviously for logic as well, that he was able to come out of a difficult situation in part because of you. But for him to tell you that.
And to buy me a very expensive dinner as well, a lunch with a friend of mine who I knew was a comedian years ago and I hadn't seen in forty years. We had a lunch and talked about doing stand up in the old days. But he did, And I thought, you know, and I think to myself, every time that somebody writes to me or ops me or tells me, you know, is a gift. It's a gift.
And my children make fun of me because of the difference between when they were little and we used to go to the mall and going to the mall now, and or we go to a baseball game or a football game, and and my sons would totally rag on me, like, mom, nobody recognized you.
The whole game.
You know.
I'm like, well, honey, Mommy's lost it. I got gray hair now, and I don't know what to tell you.
Nobody knew you.
You know. I think my favorite thing about this job, about art and entertainment in general, is how deeply it can impact people. Television, film, music, they can change someone's life. Rosie apparently did for Logic. You know. I was on the Little show The Office. I have always said the greatest gift that the show ever gave me was hearing from people how much that work affected them. I consider it a gift to me, the idea of making someone's life better, even for just a day or a moment.
And you know what made my life better today listening back to these great moments from twenty twenty three, with all of the incredible guests that we've had, I want to thank everyone who was a part of this podcast this year, not just the guests, but the incredible crew and production team that I get to work with, and all of you, the listeners who truly allow me to keep doing this. So Happy New Year to everyone, and yeah,
we'll see you next year. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali Amir Sahed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton