Oscar Nunez

Oscar Nunyaz. You know me probably best from the office. And I have to count them. Two SAG awards, How many do you have? Hello everybody, and welcome back. Here too, off the beat. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. And oh no, here we go today. I am bringing on a guest who need needs no introduction, but probably would demand one anyway. He has my friend from the dandr Mifflin accounting department and also friend in real life, Oscar

nun Yez. Now, while you might know Oscar best from well our time together in the office, did you know that Oscar once worked in a laboratory. Yes, Oscar worked as a certified dental technician, which we all know is the gateway to comedy. H Oscar joined me from his closet today too well, to dive in deep about his start in the improv world and the incredible journey that brought him and his family from Cuba at a young age to the US. What I ended up with was

a totally new side to my old friend. I heard stories I have never heard before, including how Oscar feels about putting his hands in people's mouth. So, if you're up for a little sage, advice and a lot of very dry humor, join me in welcoming the Shall we say incomparable Oscar nun yez bubble and squeak. I love it. Bubble and squeak on bubble and squeaker cookie every month left over from the nab people. Here you go. Hello, there's Brian. What's up? Oscar? What's up? Man? How are you?

I'm good? How are you? Did your wife just say if you get bored, you can play with your daughter's toys. Yeah, because the computer is uh set up on a little stand that she has a little rolling table on the top, and the shells below are full of her little toys, her my little ponies. Yeah, and other things. Oh all right, Oscar, are you are you thought out? Oscar and I were just in Wyoming together. Are you thought out yet? Barely? Man? It was cold, It was very cold. Zero belows minus

thirteen Was that the lowest we got? Let me just throw out some numbers at you. Three, zero, ten, eleven. Those are the ones I remember. Yeah, we went down to zero. Yeah, I think we went below zero, but I think we did too zero. It's great to see you again. Thank you for coming and uh and talking to me. We talked a lot about the office last time. We're going to talk about some other things today. One

of the reasons I wanted to chat. I think a lot of people don't know you were actually born in Cuba. See see, yes, I was born in Cuba. You were born in Cuba, and you left Cuba and went to Venezuela. How long were you in Venezuela Just a year? Why

did you leave Cuba? Because the revolution took place, and that there was a lot of corruption in the government, in the presidency and whatnot, and so I think the time was there was like revolution in the air, and people weren't happy per se with the government, but it wasn't catastrophically out of control, but it was, I don't know, it was a volatile time. I think there were three things, like three revel Like there was a union unions, and the students were having a revolt and at that time

and Castor. Oh, these three movements started happening about the same time, which I think was I don't know, fifty eight or yeah, or fifty nine. And his revolution. He he left on a yacht from Mexico with like twenty seven guys or something, and it picked up steam in the Sierra Madre and the mountains, gathering people behind them, and they came into the city and Batista the president, unlike the president of Ukraine, who is a real patriot and a you know, wonderful person, this fella cut and run.

He had no qualms about leaving. He left with then three million dollars, which is astronomical. He left the country and that's it. And then the Castro swept in. And then he said he was going to, uh, you know, have elections and clean up the government, and he did, and he stayed in power basically, and then he you know, he went to the United States and asked for support, and they thought he was a flash in the pan and they said, get lost, you won't last two weeks.

We'll be back there, you know. And then he went to Russia and they did back him up, and then he came back and declared, we are communists now, and so there's no more private property, and they confiscated private lands and so they took a real estate and from us and all that stuff. And my uncle had a ranch. They came to take his ranch and he armed his ranch hands and I think they shot two communists and they threw him in jail as a political prisoner tilt eighty.

He was in jail from nineteen sixty nineteen eighty and we got him out in nineteen eight. And my parents, they were just starting their professional careers. My mom was a dentist, my dad a lawyer. And my dad's friend came up to him and said, uh, they just made me. This new government just made me ambassador to my scout. Do you want to be my assistant? Will leave with our families and go And my parents thought about it.

They're like, no, we don't want to do that. And then they're like, well, what do we have to leave. So they're like, we are leaving the country, and the newly formed government said we need professionals. You guys should stay. They said thanks, no, thanks for leaving, and they said, okay, you can leave. You can't take anything with you. Everything

stays here. So they left anyway. So they left. They left with me, and they took a ham, like a fifteen pound ham with them, and we took a boat to Venezuela like a cooked ham to like a cooked ham, and we for for us to eat, but we ended up splitting it with people on the boat. We took a boat to Venezuela. We were there a year. They didn't like it. My mom particularly didn't like it. You know.

She was, like, I said, a dentist in Cuba. She got to Venezuela, my dad was hanging out with some friends, and I don't know, one of his friends, his new friends, says something to the effect of, you should be in the kitchen. Why are you here, Why are you discussing this with us? And she's like, oh, no, no, no, and she's like, we're leaving this country. So they did. They left and we went to Massachusetts. We were there

a year. My sister was born there. Now it's and all their friends were in New Jersey, and Massachusetts was fine, but they were the only Cuban family there and they're like, let's go to Jersey where all our friends are. So that's what they did, and that's where I grew up.

That's like a thumbing sketchy. Yeah, you were telling me this story while we were in Wyoming, and the idea of them knowing that it was a bad situation fairly quickly and making the decision to stay with their stuff and their land and their property or having the option to leave, and the boldness that that must have taken at that time. To remember, they knew the couple. They knew the guy. He's not like some who was this man. They were at school with this guy. My aunts graduated

college with him. They knew him from school. It's like you went to high school with that Helms, like Ed Helms took over the country what And they knew he was an asshole from schools And they're like, oh no, this isn't good right, you know, he wasn't a good guy. He wasn't a cool person. So they were like, oh my god, we're in trouble. He's volatile, he's unpredictable, all those things. He's got an inferiority complex. It's it's crazy,

it's not good. It would be like, if you were taking over, you'd be like, oh no, but but free tacos for the nation every Tuesday, free tacos, free Cuban sandwiches. He was not. It's not like, oh, we knew Bill Clinton in school or Hillary Clinton or Bob Dole. How was he? Oh, he was studious and serious, and he was he was okay, and they volunteered a lot. He wasn't a volunteering helping children read. He was a whole May he rest in peace? Is he? Daddya? Castro is dead?

I find that so interesting. By the way, your mom was a dentist. Yeah, what of it? I don't know if I just learned this or not. I don't remember this. But in this research, you know, we we research extensively our guests. You mean you go on Google? You you I am dB You're a certified dental technician. Is that right? Yeah? I'm afraid. Really, I'm not good. I am I'm not good at it? Is this because your mom was a

dentist that had something to do with it. Yeah, I was floundering and I'm like whatever, and and my mom's like, you know, you know your cousin Julio is a dental technician. He has his own laboratory. I'm like, yes, of course I know that. She's like, did you ever think And I'm like, yeah, okay, because the thought being I could work for for my cousin Julio who had a dental laboratory, and it's a wonderful trade. It pays well. And I'm like why not? And so you went to school and

you got certified. Yes, I wouldn't for two years Magna Institute of Dental Technology in Manhattan. How did I not know this information? Because this is the greatest Did you ever consider running the scheme? You know Angela famously she talks about it all the time, worked at one dentists. Did you did you ever think maybe she could refer people to you, like, go to this address if you want your teeth clean, and then it would be you there. You guys could split the money. That would have been

a good thing before the office. Yes, had it been dental hygienist but not dental technician. Oh wait, what's a dental technician. Well, what's the dental What does the dental

technician do? Then, if you go in for a bridge or false fake tooth or whatever, and you know when I was doing this, it was the eighties, when you went for a ceramic bridge or whatever, and they take a form from your mouth and impression, they'll send it to the laboratory and they make the bridge in porcelain, and you get a wax thing and you make you carve the tooth out and you bake it and then you send it back to the dentist and he puts

the bridge in your mouth. The person who actually makes the bridge or the fake, the fake teeth, the implants is a dental technician. So they you never see a patient. This makes way more sense. You never put your hands in a patient's mouth. That's that makes way more sense. Because I thought you had your hands in people's mouth and in their face. That did not make any sense to me. No, no, okay, So you were a craftsman. Yeah, it was a craftsman. I wouldn't be able to put

my hands in a person's mouth. I find it highly erotic and it wouldn't work for me professional work for anyone so yeah, I was. I was a dental signition, and then I wasn't good, but I was very funny and charming. But they would always have to do my work over again because it wasn't too good. And then I would be there for a while and then they're like, oh, Oscar, we have to get rid of you. And I'm like, I know it's not working, but here did you hear

this one? And you know, you would just tell jokes as you were trying to make the would be funny. They like, they liked having me every job, liked having me around up to a point and like, oh, that's all he's got. I would plateau and they're like, oh, you don't really know what you're doing. And I'm like I'm like, I really know, but why when? Why did you just see that? You know, you're watching Harvey Korman.

I know you're a big fan of a Harvey Corman and the Carl Burnett Show, and you're seeing these fake teeth and you're like, oh, let me make these fake teeth. This will be funny, this will be Is that what you did so funny? So funny? Ah? So your family arrived essentially with nothing into the uses and you moved to Jersey because they knew there. But it was a

different time. We were welcomed in Massachusetts with open arms by the Catholic Church, and there was a family that sponsored us, Bob and Jane I want to say Mayfield h They have two daughters. But anyway, the man owned a lightbulb company or something in Boston, and they had a yacht in Marlboro Head and they had a big house with a big yard. I was four years old, but I remember all this, and they they helped us. They gave he gave my father a job as a

warehouse manager in one of his warehouses. They were well to do and they were very wonderful and charming, and they helped my family and the Catholic church. There was a father, Soto Longo, who took us to a Chinese restaurant. I remember that in Boston, and um, he was very nice to us. So we were welcomed by the I was not putting a cage. We were welcomed by the

country and by this and by this wonderful family. And then but after a year my parents were like I think they were kind of lonely, and all their friends, as I said, all their friends from university, all their attorney friends and doctor friends and dentist friends. The first wave of immigrants who left Cuba, the professionals in nineteen sixty approximately, We're going to Florida and New Jersey and

they're like, come on down to Jersey. You guys were all here, and that's what they did, and you grew up there right across from Manhattan. Did you go into the city a lot as a kid, Yes, as a kid with my parents, and then as soon as I could, when I was like seventeen sixteen, seventeen eighteen, I would go as often as I could. It was a bus

right away. I think it was sixty cents or something like that to take the bus across the Lincoln Tunnel right out of where Tony Soprano comes out of at the beginning of uh right there, take that right into the Port Authority. You went to not just the Magnet Institute of Dental Technology. You went to a lot of colleges. I went, I bounced around a lot. You went to Fashion Fashion Institute of Technology. You were interested in fashion.

That was the first school after high school, was f I t I should have gone to a regular college, but I went to f I T because you were interested in fashion. Yeah, I wasn't, and still am. It fascinates me that whole world. So yes, I went to f I T for a for a minute. I went

to F I T because I liked fashion. But my cousin Eddie, who was I think five, he's five or six years older than me, he would go clubbing a lot, and he would go to Student four and fitted in all these clubs, and some guys saw him at Studio fifty four, and somehow or other he became a model for Don Robbie, who was a fashion designer in New York City. And Don Robbie worked for one of these houses, either the or or um Cardan. I don't know which one. I don't remember, but it was one of those. There

are two big, huge houses. I wonder which one. It was so a long time ago, but Eddie worked for him, and he was in g Q magazine back in the day. And one time I visited Don Robbie's offices, which were six Avenue, which is one of those big iconic buildings. Whenever they showed New York City and they show sixth Avenue or Fashion Avenue, it's the same Avenue. It's it's in front of It's in a lot of movies because of the fountain in the front and all that right

across kind of across from Radio City Music Hall. And I went up to the offices and the elevator opened up and everything was pink and gray, and there was disco music blasting in the offices as if it were a discotheque. But it was a place of work, and everybody looked cool. It was like the double worst product, like that Eddie was there, Don Robbie was there, and it was it was party. It was insane and I'm like, holy sh it, And so I can still doodle, but

back then I was better at illustrating. And I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna go to f I T it's right across the river. Uh And it's a good school. Calvin Klein went there. Did Bill Blasco there? I don't know, but Calvin Klein might be their most famous Alma Mado but I uh so I put together a portfolio of sketches of fashion of shoes and clothing and whatever, and that's what got me into the school. And I was eighteen.

I went straight out of high school. But it was basically because you wanted to work in an office like this is this? Is this the idea? Yes? And I like this yeah. And also it was you know, Brian Disco was big at that moment, and I had one ft in rock and roll and one foot in the disco world. I had like American friends at high school and they listened to Neil Young and leads up on all that ship and I would party with them. But my Cuban friends they would like to go out clubbing.

So I was like, like in both places, and I like doing both things. And so I'm like, yeah, sure, way not I could do this. But in f I t it's a serious place, and I go there. I'm eighteen. I never took home at school. You know, in high school you could take like cooking or sewing or any stuff like that. I didn't. I didn't not the days. Yeah, so my parents, yeah, I'm like a little older than your parents, just to set things, to give people an ideas. So so I didn't know how to sew at all.

And they're like, so then you know you'll have illustration. I'm like cool art history, cool textiles, cool marketing, cool draping, and sewing and tailoring. I'm like, what that's class? And and you go into that class, they're not showing you they're in it there to go there, like here's the material, cut it draping, and everyone's doing it. Everyone's like all these people, first of all women, and then the few guys who were there knew what they were doing already

because they were doing this as they were kids. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm not gonna embarrass myself. Better skip this class and just go hang out in party. So eventually they're like, well you really haven't done anything. I'm like, asta, Leavista, I know what's coming next. So I left there and then I was doing a couple of jobs and then that's where my mom's like, look, you have to do something. You have to And that's

when I went to dental technology school. And now when I was in dental technology school and I graduated and I started working in the field, yeah, Magnet Institute of Dental Technology is a Yeah, that's where I went, and now I'm a dental technologist. Right, So when I started working that summer as a real dental technologist, six months in, I'm like, oh my god, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. And then I'm like, all right, Oscar, you know and and I never Junior and senior year

for me, my parents were getting a divorce. It was a mess. I never and still I'm just learning how to ask for help from people and use resources. So I was like, So I finally asked me. I'm like, oh my god, what do you really want to do? Just say it, don't be afraid to say it. Say it. And I'm like, well, I want to do stand up. I want to be a comedian. I want to be funny. But that was too scary for me, so I'm like, I want to be an actor. I could ease my

way into comedy. So I'm like, all right, I'm gonna learn how to I want to take acting lessons. So that was less scary for you than to say I want to be doing stand up. Stand up is terrifying. Still is to me to this day. I like sketch more than stand up. To do like improv, that's what I like. So I gotta I picked up a backstage and started looking through it and signed up for some classes auditions, started doing commercial classes, went to some drama classes.

Eventually maybe a year later, I was working in retail, which I love retail in blooming Dale's and I auditioned for an improv troupe in the village and I got in and I was like, Okay, this is cool. And that's when I started, you know, doing what I really wanted to do. I wasn't doing it in high school. It took me forever because all through grammar school in high school, people were telling me not to be a wise ass. They're like, what are you doing. They weren't

saying this is good, work on it. They're like, don't what are you doing? Were they telling you like be in your place, you know, don't cause a scene, be good and not encouraging you, or no one had the idea for you, like maybe you should perform or do a play or no. My friends would say it, and you know, God help you. If you tried to help me, I was like, oh, you didn't know what you're talking about. Or I would go the other way. I'm like, you

know whatever, people tried. People my friends were like, you're funny, dude, do something. But I didn't go out for drama. I wasn't helping myself, you know. I wasn't helping myself until I was like, oh no, this is this is for real. Now I can't skate by anymore on charm because now I'm moving out of the house. I need to pay rent and bills. I you know, I've got to get a j O B. Right, And you wearing the white coats as a dental technician. That was not the life

that you saw for yourself. Horrible in a laboratory, but look, it's a great profession if you want to do that, but it wasn't for me. There's no applause, there's no groupies, there's no cocaine. All the things that you we've talked about. This what you went that's why you went into the business. That's why I went into the business. And there was none of that in the in the laboratory. So you get this improv troupe in the village. You're excited. I

presume you're still working at this point. You said retail. You're still working during the day and then trying to perform get better at night. Is this that we had. We did a lot of shows. We would perform Friday and Saturdays on St. Mark's Place, a stret between First Avenue and Avenuay. There was a lot of fun. Why did you make the decision to move to Los Angeles? Well, A lot of stuff happened between moving out to l A and New York. What did I do? I lived

in DC for three years. I did theater in d C, lived with my brother in law and sister, I think, for a year in Florida, and then from Florida I moved out to l A. I didn't want to go back to New York. New York was fun. I was single, I had no responsibilities. What makes it, which makes it more easier to live there, But I wanted I wanted to come out to l A just because New York was just hard. It wasn't it wasn't working. I'm like, I don't want to have two jobs. I don't want

to do that. I just want to act. And I can see that happening more in Los Angeles. In New York? Does that make sense? People seem to have careers. So you start working, you start doing improv in New York, but then you start acting in shows, Like you moved to d C and you're like doing shows. They're like, like, are you a working actor at this point? No? No, No, In New York. I did uh we were doing a shock of the Phony. I did Um Street Theater and

then I got somehow into a touring company. It was a children's touring company toured and it was touring at the Smithsonian Institutes ind in DC, and I met a young lady there and kind of started dating her, kind of left New York to go and be with her, and ended up being there like for three years. I worked for the Cuban American National Foundation and I waited tables. Also also did theater at the Wooly Mammouth and DC has a lot of good theater down there, so I

was doing a couple of plays. I did my first I think it was a not a student's film, but a film for students. It was an industrial yes, yes, yes, like an educational something about I know what had something to do with library, how to use a library in general? How do you use a library? The Dewey system and yeah, yeah, something like that. I remember doing that and that movie is still being shown today, it is. And I did a commercial, but mostly theater. I had a good time.

I had a nice time in d C. I was there as long as it could. I was when I think the Redsicans won the Super Bowl. Riggins was the um. That's how I can tell time by what the sports was, what was going on. And then my friends called me from New York. I said, hey, we're doing a play. Come on, we wrote something. You could be in it. And I decided, Okay, I'll go back to New York. And when I went back and moved in with my father and found out he was gay, I didn't know.

And that was a big fucking crazy shit happens? Is this true? Yeah, You've never said this before and never to all you this. No, So you moved back to New York, You're you're now working in the theater, you go back to do a show, you don't have a place that you move in with your dad, and then you find out he's gay. I thought a big cool Yeah. I moved in with my dad and he was drinking a little too much, and I'm like, why is he

drinking so much? And it was because he was conflicted and oppressed and all that ship and and he was being gay. And I found that. I'm like, oh my god. And then I told my sister and she's like, yeah, I kind of knew that. And then I told my old family friends that I grew up with Felix Man. I found out my dad's game. And he's like, Oscar, you didn't know. I'm like no, and he's like everyone knew, we all knew. And I'm like really, He's like yeah, and I'm like oh man, And then I started thinking

about it. I said, okay, yeah, I can see that, but I didn't know. You know, I didn't know, and so we were okay with it, but he was not. So yeah, So that did happiness? Did he was he able to come to a no? No? I told my mom and and my mom's like, this is what happened. So when I was like seventeen, sixteen or seventeen, he had a friend. He was really cool, attractive guy, tall guy, Ernie, and he would come over the house and we loved them. And he had a minister snauser, which is why my

sister and I love ministerial snausers. And he knew that he was like my dad's friends. They would come over the house. My mom knew him, and we would go over his house for dinner too, and he was a bachelor. He had what we would call back then, I guess a Penthouse Briant, and it was kick ass. He had a grand piano, he had like the zebra sk in like a fucking playboy, you know, like a cool like plants, and I'm like, this is fucking cool. And he's my

dad's friend. Cool. And by the way, that guy got me. He got me a job I called by Boyer and associates as a messenger for like three years. So he was a good guy. He got me a really cool job. But when I was in high school, you know, it's fucking life. So that was happening. That was happening, and my mother goes, okay, so when you were in high school, she's like you remember, and I'm like, yeah, he wasn't

coming home some nights and she's like, yeah. He would say he was working Landing was and she's like one day, I'm like what the fuck and he said now I have to stay late or whatever. And she's like okay, And I remember this her going on. She was very cool about I remember how on the phone being go and celebrate. You gotta raise, celebrate, go with your friends. So my mother goes, look, I called your dad's work

and I'm like, can I talk to him? He's working late, and they're like, what do you mean he's working late? The offices are closed, And then like the next day, she's like, funk this. So she got on the bus and went to New York to confront him, to talk to him because something was off. And she went to his office and she's like, where where's that's his nickname? And they're like, he went to lunch at such and

such a place. So she's walking to the place, right and she's at the corner and she's waiting to cross the street to go to the Delhi where the restaurant wherever he's gonna have lunch, And she looks across the street and my dad's across street and he sees her, and they look across the street at Ernie's on the other corner. Each one's on the corner and they all look at the sh other. My mother's like, that's when I knew these motherfucker's were having we're having an affair. Really, Yeah,

that's a that's like a movie. Yeah, that's like that's a shot from a movie. So she knew at that point, and they yeah, but that's time, I mean my early twenties. They now and then she goes, so wait, they go to the restaurant. Of them, they sit down, she knew him. They all it's Arnie and she's like these So they go and they sit down and she's like, what then is going on? And Ernie says, I don't have a dog in this fight. And he gets up and he leaves.

My mom's like what are you gonna do now? And he and she's like, you gotta come get your ship and leave and he's like, I know, I know. And that was basically it. And then Ernie passed away a couple then after this or no, they were they weren't couples. They were older men. They sneaked around, they weren't proud, they were fucking embarrassed and weird about it. They were in the fucking closet, Brian. So it's a different the whole different thing. I mean, I'm sure there were older

guys who were cool and but not these guys. So now too fast forward. When I so when I go stay with my dad, he's got a duplex and I go inside and it's Ernie's furniture. He left it to him. Oh my gosh, I didn't know this. Yeah, Ernie, Ernie passed away, and and my dad dated another guy, a Puerto Rican man. His name was Pedro, and he was super nice. He was cool, he had a family, he got the worst. It wasn't just like us the same thing. Only problem is Pedro wasn't so he wasn't filled with

self hatred, so he wasn't an alcoholic. And he tried to save my dad and we're like sorry, Pedro, and after a while he's like, I can't do this thing. I'm like, dude, I don't blame you, save yourself because he was a cool guy. But my dad was and he never drank before. He never was like this fucking crazy alcohol, like fucking crazy crazy. I'm sorry, dude, and this is like one eight. Growing up, he was funny, smart, witty, but that whole thing just fucking fucked him up. Sea Yeah, yeah,

no matter what you tell him. Anyway, I stayed there for a while and then left, and then that's when I came to l A, went to Florida and then went out to l A. Because you wanted to be an actor, yes, I wanted to be an actor. I could be an actor. I wanted to be in comedy. I wanted to be in comedy, whether stand up or sketch, it doesn't matter to me. Comedy is what I love. So that's what as you can tell from this story,

the hilarity. So so yes, I wanted to come out here and I did, and I joined the Groundlings as soon as I was old. When we were shooting The Office and well there's the gay witch hunt episode and Oscar gets to leave from the Office because of what Michael has done. Well this was because you actually got another show during this time with a lot of your friends from the Groundlings. Halfway Home. You actually shot a full season for Comedy Central while we were shooting The Office.

I mean you were so you were the only person I think who had another show happening during the run. Can you talk about that show a little bit, the experience of doing that show for Comedy Central, because when it rains, it pours. I did an episode of Rene, and those kids were they were so cool John, Tom and Carry that they made my episode of double episode and they said, not only that, we went to the executives at Comedy Central and told them they should meet

with you. So that was already kind of happening. We already had meetings scheduled with Comedy Central. How did I get on their radar? Oh? I think when I was in the Groundlings, And I'm gonna go backwards a little bit. When I was in the Groundlings, our troop in the Sunday Company was really cohesive and we all loved each other and we were very funny. And we went ahead and did a show outside of the Groundlings. We got a review, a good review. The Groundlings was not pleased

with that. They're like, you guys are in the Sunday Company, what are you doing? We were like their competition because we were a separate show outside of the Groundlings. Anyway, we performed that the HBO workspace, and I think that's where some people from Comedy Sound to had me into chat about Wooks show or what I would be interested

in doing something like that. So I got together with my friends from the Groundlings and Damon Jones and Cheryl Hines and a couple of other people, and and we put together a sketch variety show just like the pilot,

like a little fifteen twenty minute thing. And I took it to them to Comedy Central and showed it to them, and they said, Wow, this is really good, and we would do this, but we just signed the guy to do a variety show, this guy, Dave Chappelle, we just signed him to do a variety show, so we can't have two variety shows. Do you have something else? And then we came back with ten ideas and they liked

Halfway Home. And then while we were doing the Office, that show was scheduled to happen, and I'm like, do I have to choose? This is awful? Right? Oh? Yeah, it's lable, Like I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh my god, I told you this. Steve Carrell. Correll was crossing the parking lot at the office where we used to park our cars and a lot of stuff, and I caught up to him, like, hey, Steve, I told him what

was happening. I said, Steve, I love the office, I love being here with you guys, but we just I just got offered to do a job on Comedy Central. Do I say no? What do I do? And he said, Uh, it's not your job to say no. Say no to jobs, oscar Your your job is to get jobs. Don't say no to anything that's not your problem. Let them work it out. Let NBC work it out. With your managers. Don't do everything you can, don't say no to anything.

I'm like, oh, thank you. So we went ahead with both things, and Greg Daniels, being the wonderful, wonderful mentions that he is, worked it out and he's like, we're gonna give you an escape hatch and then you can come back. Is there anything you request? And I said, in honor of my father, can I make out with Steve Carrell before I leave? And he said, yes, we will do. That's terrible, that's not true. That's that's not true. Halfway home. If you haven't seen it, anybody out there,

you really should check it out. It's so fun. Octavia Spencer that was in then. Oh, she's a real actress woman, she was a real actress with it. She's crying what she's crying in a scene she's using sex memory Octavius Spencer, all my friends and it was improvised. The improvised. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. And then I came back to the office. How cool is that? The best? I have to ask you? Also, during the office you shot it's a really underrated comedy of the of the odds.

Isn't that what we call it? The two thousands, the proposal you shot with Betty White, God rest her soul, truly an American treasure. Talk a little bit about working with her. I had the opportunity a few years after you to work with her, and UM, no greater thrill for me in the business for sure. Well, there's a lot of reasons, Betty White being one of them. I got to work with her. I can't believe it. There are a lot of reasons the movie was a hit.

Timing was a big reason because there was a movie that was number one before us, a crazy ass funny, funny, funny movie, number one at the box office for three weeks in a row. Do you know the movie I'm talking come about? And then the fourth week we were able to beat it. If we would have premiered in its third week or second week, we would have been

number two or three or four or nothing. But we were number one when we premiere because it was this movie's fourth week and it was already in its way down. It was The Hangover, Is that right? It was, which our friend at Helms was in. Yeah, I didn't realize that. Unbelievable. When The Hangover was in its fourth week, we came out and then we were able to usurp it because it was his fourth week. But anyway, anyway, what was her husband's how Lindon from a password? That's where I

first knew her password, and she just killed it. And Mary Tyler Moore absolutely killed that. Mary Tyler Moore was an amazing show. She was Mary Lou. She wasn't a main character, but when she came on, she just tore it up and and with her and she was happy, go lucky, but she she was smiling, but she would say horrible eve things, and she was dangerous and would

threaten Mary Tyler Moore, but she would smile. She she just comes from that school, that borderline Vaudeville school where it's just it's just a little bit too much, it's a little bit too presentational. But they get away with it because they fell it and they push it and they don't give her ship. And that's where she came from. And I love that school. I love that old school that Tony Randall Harvey and she's right up there and

she's beautiful. And then on top of that, she really really loves animals, and my family we love animals, and she puts her money. She had it all. What did you do with her? Hot and Cleveland? And had a few episodes of Hot and Cleyland right right right, right right, Hot and Cleveland. Sure. Yeah, it was just amazing, truly a master class. Even if she was six, she's been

nineties for fifteen years. Yeah. I mean when I worked with her, I mean it was just the audience came in, she got on stage and it was like, just delivered every take. We're lucky, We're lucky. Um. You have been working on Mr. Iglesias that show. I know it is not coming back, but now, oh boy, did I just tell you? How did you find out that it wasn't coming back anymore? I don't know. I think the paper. Why do I keep saying the papers like like it's the fifties. I don't know how I found out. And

I know you don't read You don't read anything. You don't read anything. What do you mean I don't read anything? I read stuff? Yeah? Do you emails? Do you read emails or do you have them read to you? Be honest. I read the headlines of the email. What it is? You played a theater teacher? Yeah? Three cameras sit com in front of an audience. How was that? Did you have a good experience? I mean, it's it's much more like live theater. Well, you have to wait for the

last to the last to die, and every line. We had to wait because it's it's just what it was not you you didn't have to wait, right, No, because because there were no lefts now there were. We had to wait. Man, we had. It's it's throws off your timing and whatnot. But it's a different experience. You know, it's not theater. I prefer to work either theater one take all the way through or like on the office

without people there, without the audience, without the audience. Yeah yeah, Well also during this quarantine time, I know you told me a lot about your experience. I mean, spoiler alert to those of you out there. You're going to be in a big Disney movie coming out here. Do you want to you want to reveal the news? Well, not that it matters whatever, it's just work. It's just I mean, why don't you just say is that one movie? Why

don't you just say what it is? I ask you a question, why is it like I'm in two movies. I'm in two movies. I'm going to be in two movies coming out. Oh, sorry, two movies. You don't have to be so you don't know. Even it's too movie, not that it matters to zero two it's the same, or five, it doesn't matter, it's too The Law City and the Disenchanted. Yeah, Disenchanted we shot in in Dublin, and The Law City we shot in the Dominican Republic

and it was very cool. It was very cool. I went with my family, saw Sandra Bullock again speaking of the proposals, so it was yeah, it was very fun and and got to work with our coworker on the office, right, Amy Adams, and Disenchanted. This is the this is the sequel to Enchanted, right, Yes, it's funny because like we're talking about the Proposal earlier, these two movies, The Law City.

I think Sandra Bullock is responsible for me being in it because she called the senor you want to be in this movie because she remembered me from the Proposal and the other movie Disenchanted. The director of that movie is best friends with the director and flesher of the Proposal, so he called me up and he's like, as my friend, she's my best friend, and we had a wonderful chat and Amy. Of course Amy was there and my Rudolph is in the movie. So yeah, we had a great

time in beautiful Ireland. We're going on a little tour ourselves, Oscar coming up soon. Oscar and I are going to speak to some colleges about the office and about life. Right. We're going to Indiana coming up here soon, Oklahoma City very shortly as well. What is it like working with me on stage in a live environment? What's the experience for you? I can only get into work with me again.

I love vaudeville and I'm a big fan of like Mahoney likes someone who has e ventriloquist dummy like I have, Like I have a voice and I'm speaking and then I'll like I'll throw to you and then you know, you speak. But we've worked out hand signals and and it's working out well, and I kind of guide you. And not that you're like a ventriloquist dummy. You're much

more than that, because you're much more expressive. But it's that kind of feeling like I'm oh, he's really gets what I'm saying, and you're really listening and pay attention to my directions and you do really well, and it's seamless. People watch the show and they think we're just having a conversation. They don't know that I'm guiding you with hand signals and that you've got your hand up mys I was making it nice and now you just burn

the whole thing. You burn it to the ground. No, no, no, Brian, It's so much fun. It's so much fun because boy, we've talked about the office a lot and people are interested in it. But we have the freedom to go and take them off the road and then come back again and kind of weave and have fun, and it's it's very enjoyable. I have to say, how do you feel about it? Oh? I love? I mean, I truly it's the best, right, it's the best. And I you know, I've said this many times when people say who is

your face person to work with? It's you know, I mean, come on, it's obviously like Krasinski or krel I mean I have to say, obviously me too. Yes, really, I was making a joke. Well yeah, we were, Oh me to Don Krasinski, what a rube? I was about to give you a compliment. I don't I I'll let you, but you know what, they know what you're gonna say, I'm the fun you know whatever. Look, the truth is, Brian.

It's so cool to see the faces on the kids, right they light up and then when you talk and then it's live, so we can we can mess with them. And I like that too. We called back on them and we point them out, and it's it's it's like a show. It's like having a show. Anyway, Hanover Indiana, Hanover College. We'll see you soon, Oscar. Thank you so much for coming on and chatting. I really after our conversation about your parents, moving from Cuba and just your

start as a dental technician. Really, I had no idea about your father. So you're you're full of surprises. There are still I still get stories after all these years from you. I did not know that. How about that? Yeah, it's um, it's a thing, Oscar neun us quote, it's a thing. Thanks, Oscar, life is a thing. You're welcome, buddy, I'll say, so, I'll talk to you soon. Well what else could I say that Oscar hasn't already? Thank you, my friend, for truly for giving us a glimpse into

your history. And uh, well I can't wait to see what we get up to on our college tour. Also, keep your eye out for Oscars too, new movies The Lost City and Disenchanted with our old friend Amy Adams. And in the meantime, don't forget to like and subscribe to this show wherever you get your podcasts. Also, you can follow us on Instagram at Off the Beat Until next week, everybody, thank you so much for listening. Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,

alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr, and Kristen Vermilion. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski