I had to drown. You're in a room, you know, the usual, and people staring at you, and I'm just like like floating, like making myself light in a fucking room and just like you know what I mean, and then like pulled over on the side of the road after you're just like, oh, fuck's the matter with me?
What's that doing? I know?
Hello, My name is Will Sasso and I will.
Welcome back everybody. Thanks again for joining us for your favorite podcast. I'm sure off the beat. I am your favorite host, Brian Bombgartner. We have a favorite of mine on the show today, the hilarious Will Sasso is with me. Will has been gracing your screens for now over thirty years, which is odd because he claims he's only thirty two,
but anyway. He first appeared on Canadian teen television, then in incredible movies like Best in Show and Happy Gilmore, and finally on the iconic comedy sketch show Mad TV. Guess what all of that was before the year two thousand. He certainly hasn't slowed down since then, starring on shows like Less than Perfect, Another Period, louder Milk, and Young Sheldon. He is also an accomplished voice actor. You've heard his
voice on animated shows like Family, Guy, Russell, Maniac, Murder Police. Also, he stole the role of Curly in The Three Stooges from me, so we're definitely going to discuss that. And as you will hear, he's a hell of an impressionist. Well at least he really makes me laugh. Let's hear from him now, My friend and yours Will Sasso.
Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak. I know, Bubble and squeak. I cook get every month lift over from the ninet before.
What's up? Will?
Hello, Brian? How are you?
I'm doing well?
How are you good? Chilling?
She's chilling. Where are you chilling?
I'm in Los Phelis. Where are you at?
Oh okay, that's my old neighborhood. Oh really, that is that where you live?
Yeah? Yeah, nice, nice to meet you.
By the way, it's very nice to meet you. I want to talk about I don't know if you've been reading the news. You've been in the news a little bit recently. Oh yeah, yeah, we haven't. Was it the uh, the show the show that I'm doing? The you got shows? You got you're you're basically everywhere. You're a man of all mediums.
Right, there's a television show sometimes exactly. Yeah, yeah, you know how it is.
But I want to talk a little bit about how you how you got started. You're Canadian a right, I am.
I am, I'm Canadian. I'm originally from just outside of Vancouver, Canada.
Yeah. We're heavy into research here. I want you to paint, paint a little bit of a picture of your childhood for me. Your parents, I understand, were Italian immigrants. Are you first generation? Well not American, I guess Canadian? You were the first ones born? Yeah, and how was that? How was that culturally for you? With your parents being Italian? They spoke Italian mostly I assume.
Yeah, yeah, they spoke Italian a lot, you know, to each other and stuff. And then uh, after I went to Italy as a kid, that I learned Italian and so that, you know, so then they couldn't hide stuff from me or speak over my head. But yeah, my my uh my brother and sister were both born in Italy.
And then shortly after that, my mom and dad decided to move out, brought a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins with them, and uh my dad had promise of employment out in Vancouver kind of you know, and and yeah, they made the big they made the big move. And then I was born like ten years later.
What were you as a kid like growing up?
Like?
Were you? Were you interested in sports or performing?
I was probably exactly like you, you know, yeah, you know. It was the class class, the typical class clown bullshit, right and uh and yeah, so I wanted to you know, act and ron only you couldn't shut me up and all this stuff. So I got involved in all the plays and and but I was also yeah, you know, I did jock and playing all the sports and stuff.
Which I went to a school that was really my high school was really friendly to the performing arts, and uh we had like great theater program and rah rah ron this and that. So it was nice that I could do both things. And there was you know, nobody bubged the theater nerds in our school because there were like a you know, also a bunch of jocks who were in all the productions.
You know, I don't know about the jocks thing, but you are right. We were very similar. And the school that I went to, yeah, exactly like there was no like stigma about being Yeah, no, exactly like what you're saying, Like, you know, there was a theater department and arts center with quite a good reputation, and I feel like it was sort of honored in that way by the rest of the community. But what I'm interested about for you, and I wonder if it's the same. I'm fascinated by this.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I ask most people this question. You know, when you're a kid, you grow up and maybe you want to be a fireman, or maybe you want to be an actor, or you want to you know, you have this sort of dream of what you may want to do when you grow up. But like the moment for you when it changed, or if it never did change, if it was always from the beginning, from like, oh this is a hobb this
is an activity. I guess like for me, there was a very clear line from when it turned from like this will help me get into college and I enjoy doing this activity as opposed to like, oh, no, this is what I want to do for the rest of was was there a moment for you or a line for you where that shifted.
You know, I was I was fortunate enough to sort of this is probably also like you and others in our business. I spent so much time in front of the TV sort of dreaming that I think I was conscious of I think I knew I wanted to be an actor before I was conscious of it, Okay, because and I feel like I was just when I say, like class clown I think you know, for a lot of class clowns, it's just your sort of seeing what
you don't understand. You don't recognize that there's a love there that you have for for what's happening, and there's something inside of you that's making you, you know, want to be funny or whatever that means to you and whatever that can facilitate in your life. That just sort of came out, and it was I wasn't conscious of it by the time I had already decided it was by the time I woke up to it. I was like, yeah,
you know what I mean. It was weird, yeah, and a pretty predictable list of influences and stuff from you know, the old you know, Senten Live and SETV and all the all the funny stuff Munty Python and things that I watched growing up, and uh, Yeah, I just wanted to be an actor.
Yeah, I mean I read that you had an agent and you were booking TV roles by the time you were fifteen, which that is very much not me. But you was like film and television. Was that like what you wanted to do? Was that your early focuses? Because for me, it was theater for me and being on stage, and that was really all I thought that I was ever going to do. For you, was was it different?
I wanted to be in television and in film. You know. I grew up out in the burbs and a town near Vancouver and you know, a short bus ride in near downtown, and there was an industry and there is now especially, but in you know, the late eighties and early nineties, there was a lot of stuff going on. They were shooting you know, twenty one Jump Street out there, and a bunch of Canadian shows and American films would
come up to shoot. And there were agencies that was a really you know Vancouver or Toronto or where most of that is in Canada. And so there were these agencies and I was fortunate enough to get hooked up with one when I was fifteen, and then I started working when I was sixteen and just you know in that you know, my folks are you know, from Italy and they didn't get what I wanted to do and stuff.
For there to be an industry literally right next door was obviously a great, a great advantage to be able to, you know, go out there and crash some auditions and try to get represented.
And then were they supportive my folks?
Yeah, they were cool because they were like and I feel like, you know, they were the same with my with my older brother and sister, which is there was no mo of like you have to do this or you have to do that outside of you know, do well in school. That's what you know, because there was nothing before them in Canada, so there's nothing to sort of draw from to say here's how to do it here. It's just you know, love what you do, work very hard and let us know how it's going.
Yeah did you did you do? You feel like so they were hard working? That was important? Working hard?
Yeah, Yeah, they were hard workers.
Which you early did you know you did some early shows in Canada Neon Ryder. I was a huge fan of that show.
Yeah, aren't we all?
Yeah, Madison Sliders, tell me uh. And then I want to talk to you about your decision to move to Los Angeles. How would you say the work, the environment, the culture in Vancouver was different than when you finally moved to La.
Oh, you know, very different. It was. You felt like you could sort of see the ceiling on the community there. You know, there were many actors to this day that make an entire career there, and I can remember talk speaking with one in particular before I took off, and we were working together on this thing and you played my father, and I was I was such a you know, I was like young and full of piss and couldn't wait to get down to the States and all that. And he was like, I love it here.
You know.
He's like, you know, my kids go to school there, and I do this, and I thing and and he's and he's showing up as the heavy and all sorts of stuff that you you know, you watch you see some whatever movie and you Haarson Ford's the president or whatever. Oh, and there's so and so in that you could see who uh who was in town that were at the top of the industry. It did feel, uh, it was. It was a very nice sort of community and proving ground where you could feel like you were a part
of that community. And I was fortunate enough to work on the show Madison for a number of years, which was like like a de grassy kind of show or I sort of like in the style to like a
Canadian my so called life. It was like a you know, it was like a gritty show about teenagers and and this sort of thing, you know, with working with wonderful people, you know behind the scenes that we were all young, and we kind of came up and I learned from my cohorts, you know, really what I could about, you know, acting, and you could sort of feel like you were, yeah, a part of this community. And then moving down to La I don't know. I still don't know. I don't
know what the fuck is going on down here. I have no I know you, and we've never met. I'm but I'm sure we may agree that right, nobody knows what the hell is going on down here. I don't know what the ceiling is. I don't want to know what the ceiling is now, you know, walking into some sort of eyes wide shut, you know room where it's like here's a seven picture dale. No, no, none of that stuff. Happens everybody. But you know I still I don't know.
I have to break I'm skipping ahead here. I can't contain it any longer. So so you and I were I didn't even know if you could say we were up for the same role, because I don't know how considered at all I was. I assume not at all, and you got it. So I'm not putting myself in the same situation. But I have an audition at least for the Three Stooges. Oh, I'm slipping way ahead in your career, and I have to tell you this. I knew the director a little bit beforehand. I can't even
believe I'm telling this publicly. I have been debating about this for like three days. I still refer to the audition as the worst experience of my life.
Oh no, what happened? I kinda see.
I want to know if you had to do the same thing, and maybe it's why you got it. I can't speak for you. I was asked to read the Three Stooges role of Curly Three Stooges. Yeah, by myself, with physical comedy, with the with the physical stuff that you're doing with the other people who weren't there. Yes, I have found this to be I just referenced it
last week. By the way, I swear to you, I found it to be the most awkward four and a half minutes of my life, like maybe the only time in an audition where I was watching myself from outside of myself saying why. Actually there were two and the other one was a very smart, reputable some would call them geniuses. Or it was also asked to improv the front half of me being cut by a propeller on an airplane. So there you go. Yeah, so did you
do that? Do you remember improving as though Moe and Larry were there, but they weren't.
I did. First, let me say, Okay, if you're in a movie and you're cut in half by a propeller, we all know there's no acting past that. Why do you need to see it?
No, they had written that. They had written me, why you watch your guts spilling out of the front of your body.
There's stuff happening post getting hit with the Yeah, there is real quick. I auditioned for that movie Pearl Harbor, and okay, and I didn't get it, and I I did, you know?
I think I did? I don't remember what.
You remember being asked, this is like propeller death worthy. I had to drown in the audition. Does that ring a bell?
No, I don't think that was me.
I had to drown. You're okay, you know the usual and people staring at you and I'm just like like floating, like making myself light in a fucking room and just like you know what I mean, and then like pulled over on the side of the road after the audition, like the matter with me?
What's that doing?
I know it's auditions, Like it's auditions like that that that you know then you walk into it's like, yeah, we want you to be the three suges you by yourself. Of course, of course you do. Of course that's the way to audition this. Yes, I did. I remember coming up with some stuff where I'm just you know, getting hit and then wanting to hit but curly never lands one.
And then I did some dumb thing where I smacked myself or like I went in to poke myself and thinking with and you know or like I but that was it. Like I didn't do too much of it because I was My opinion was like you guys don't want to see a lot of this you want to oh.
Side, Yeah, I know, I know, I'm sure I played it just totally wrong. But I now it has become the code word for me when I get a script that is asking me to do something which is like, dude, you're covering this in a close up. You're not going to see anything right now that resembles anything like my brain goes to like producer, actor, like director, where it's like, you're not this is not serving you any purpose, and it's only making me look absolutely ridiculous. Not that clearly
by my work. I don't mind looking like an idiot, like that's not a problem, but I just yeah, I that one. Who I mean, God bless you because you clearly nailed it.
Oh cheers cheers was fun.
Yeah, But I just I remember that. I remember that day. I remember those days and just going like what what am I just let me play with somebody else, please for sure.
And then by the way you show up, you know, we go out there and literally just smack the shit out of each other for a couple of months, like there was no there was barely any acting, Like it's like, how are we going to do this? I was like, well, they slapped the snot at each other, So that's what we're gonna do. Yeah, right, Yeah, Curly got so messed up that they were taping his head shut and Moe's going like, this doesn't look so good, and then he
had to retire. That's what we're doing, okay, falling down real holes and hitting each other with ladders and all right.
Okay, yeah it sound sounds about right. Yeah, well that's not where it started for you or ended. You joined the cast in nineteen ninety seven of Mad TV. You talked about SNL SCTV as being early influences. Was this a dream for you? Was this absolutely? Absolutely?
To do sketch was just I always grew like I grew up watching sketch, feeling like this is an incredible medium because these people get to do so many different things and you know, scratch all those comedy itches and I love that aspect of it. I love this kid. You know, you watch dan Aykroyd, He's one guy in one sketch, In the next sketch, he's a completely different person. And had always watched sketch. It was my favorite thing growing up. So yeah, to end up in the cast
of Mad TV, was incredible. I was so blown away that I got to do it still am, and it was one of those things also because the show was I joined in the show's third season, and I was really stoked to be a part of something that was new and didn't have where Obviously Sara Night Live is
the big daddy and has. I mean, you know, I could talk for five days about how great SNL is, and certainly anyone who shows up on Siren Live, it's it's on them to bring who they are and bring a new thing to it, and that's the only way
the show can continue and has continued, you know. But there was an extra layer of the unknown at mad TV where we don't even really know what the show is, you know, it was I don't know if we ever figured it out, but you could kind of do all sorts of stuff that in hindsight I kind of go, well, that was that might have been something that you wouldn't have even been able to do or have been allowed to do on other sketch shows, right, And of course your mind goes to comparing things to sound It Live
because it is the sketch show. I still can't believe we got to do that it was just too much fun.
You know. You talked about having that sketch being one of your favorite things to watch. Did you do Did you do long form improv as well? Early on? No? I didn't, So this was sketch.
Yeah, I I I kind of you know, came up you know, doing a lot mostly everything scripted, you know, and by the time I had moved to LA, I was really just pursuing acting and didn't do any live stuff at all.
Really before I showed up at man favorite impressions to do.
I like, you know, I have a bunch, you know, a bunch of the impressions I used to do at mad TV, which are a lot of fun to do. And uh, nowadays I kind of amuse myself by being able to do smaller impressions that I didn't know that I could do and maybe I can't do like lately I've been doing this is uh yeah, see you no, you're not going to know you know what. I'll just do it and then you tell me if you have any idea who I'm doing. These are the sort of
things that I annoy my wife and my friends with. Okay, ready here it is you must be Jimmy. Here I'll do it again. Hold on, ready, you must be Jimmy. Right, okay, This is, of course Harvey Kaike Tell in Pulp Fiction when he shows up at Quentin Tarantino's house and he says, you must be Jimmy. Now, my friends are like, well, you sound absolutely nothing like him, and that that's not a good impression, and I go, not yet, not yet,
but you must be Jimmy. And as I'm doing that, I'm sounding I'm just sounding more like Robert de Niro and probably confusing the two in my head.
You're getting closer.
Yeah, stuff like that. So, yeah, favorite impressions like I suck at as many impressions or more, uh than I do ones that I'm like, oh it sounds.
Like that sounds pretty good. You must be Jimmy. You must be Jimmy. Jimmy.
Feel free to use that.
I'm going to.
Actually, you have no idea.
You guys did a reunion season. I'm like, how was that after so many years getting back together? Was that so fun? Did you did you first off? Did you know it was just going to be one bit or did you were you kind of like, oh, let's see if this still works?
Well? They they had a new cast. Actually they did it in twenty fifteen, I think sixteen.
You were involved with that at all?
I was, I was, oh yeah, yeah, but there was a there was a brand new cast and then some of us, you know, they brought in some of the old gang to do bits here and there. Pretty much every show there was one or two of the old guard, really creepy getting back into it, like, you know, because I don't know it had been uh uh, I guess six eighteen.
Well like twenty years did you started it?
Yeah? Yeah, pretty real weird, So I don't know, Like I was doing a bit which used to be very physical, and I get hurt and stuff, and I'm like, I don't want any of that. It won't even look good. But then you do it and it doesn't look good and it hurts. But yeah, that was bizarre when some of the old casts were like around each other like in our old get ups, there's no way to not go like like there's just no way because it's like we're older and it's like look at you, what are you?
What are you doing? And the ones who out of the old cast were like, ah, no, thanks not for me. You later go like smart and you know, and the show only lasted one year, but they were in a shitty position. They were on the CW, which is not where the show used to be. The show was on Fox, and they put them on. I'm pretty sure this is correct. I know it was the middle of the week. I'm pretty sure it was Tuesday nights at ten and it's.
The come on on the on.
The W, which means you can't do anything.
Geez.
Yeah, you would sort of, you know, you would sort of cover some of the old stuff, and you were told like, no, we can't, we can't go there. And it's like, yeah, okay, I'm doing why are we doing.
Let's do a season twenty years later. Yeah, of a groundbreaking show that even though networks standards and practice is much looser now, you're going to do less what you did twenty years before. That doesn't sound like a great idea.
No, No, it didn't. It didn't work. And I feel bad because the cast was fantastic, the writers were fantastic, and a lot of the old writers came back, a few of them to you know, really make sure that it was mad TV. And uh, yeah, it didn't work.
You you a lot of times, I'm jumping all over the place. I usually go chronological with people, but I feel like you've been working for thirty years with amazing actors and comedians. I'm kind of cherry picking here with you. And this one is personal for me because I just spent eleven am to eleven pm with Catherine O'Hara up in Napa, California. We let's just say this will We had a day. We did have an hour on that day alone. I know you worked with her in Best
in Show? Did you know Christopher before this? Christopher Guest? No, okay, no, so this was just an audition, no Canadian connection, okay, no, no, okay. How was that experience like for you?
I mean, so I showed up to do Best in Show and I was like, Christopher Guest is one of the funniest people ever. And I was a huge, huge, and still am a huge spinal Tap fan and see a movie so many times this is spinal Tap. And I loved waiting for Guffman and this was this was.
Like the third one, right there, spinal Tap, there was Guffman. Was this his third one?
Yeah? Okay, I of those of that genre, yeah, you know. And I was such a geek for it. I was like, oh, there's Karen Murphy, the producer of Spinal Tap, Like this is insane. We were shooting this scene that I don't think any of it is still in the movie where the one fellow is explaining to me these more these fishing lures, and and mister Guests was just like, so you don't get it. You just don't get it. You don't understand why we're putting fishing lures on a map.
And it's like okay, and he's like, see, you wake up in the morning and you want to go fishing. And I'm like, well, go go back, go back further to the day before. Well, I don't know why you need Okay, it's the day before and you want to go fishing. Wait, why would you be a fisherman to
begin with? Or whatever? Playing dumb And then I keep touching this stuff, and there was this shot overhead and Christopher Guest keeps slapping my hand out off of the thing, and the bit like keep slapping my hand away, and
I'm laughing. I keep cracking up, and he goes like, just dry as hell, right, because if you laugh then then then we can't we can't use that, and I'm like, and I did a few years later or whatever, I did a scene for Mighty Wind that didn't end up in the film where I'm I'm a balloon delivery guy and I'm delivering these balloons to to Larry Miller. And the balloons are red white and black, so they're they're wrong. They're supposed to be red white and blue. And I'm like, here,
balloon's sign here. Larry Miller's like, what what what is this? What? What kind of red white and black? What? I'm like, I don't know, sign here? And he's like, what country is that?
You know?
We're doing the scene and he cracks me up. He's in the middle of his thing, you know, I don't even know what Bulkan country or what. And I'm like, I start to crack up. And Christopher Guest, who now in a Mighty Wind, has this like, you know, bozo hairdo you know, with this like red hair in a you know, in the horseshoe hairdo you know, like us here?
And he walks over, he takes the headphones down and he walks over very serious, and he goes, I don't know if you'll remember this, but a few years ago we had a conversation and like just but you never you never get he's a very sweet man. He'll write you like a like I've gotten like a handwritten note, you know, like from the desk of Christopher Guest. You know, based on whatever you'd worked on with him or whatever, you get this nice note. Extremely wonderful giving guy and
great actor to work with. But I feel like I never, like everyone that I talked to that has worked with him has that sort of review of like it's intimidating, you know, I mean he's it's yeah, it's very Yeah, it's it's intimidating and and a lot of fun.
You did four seasons on Less and Perfect playing Carl. Now this is back on network television, obviously very different from Mad TV. How was how was that experience for you?
Oh? That was That was a lot of fun. I loved doing that show and it was just this Yeah, it was a show about It was an office comedy. I don't know if you're familiar with that sort of genre, but yeah, it was an office comedy. It was a multi camera office comedy that not as many people watched as the one, but yeah, it was it was a blast.
You know what can I say, And I was, you know, doing mad TV where I remember there was one day where I was on the cast of Less Than Perfect and I went to Mad TV to do a couple of bits. This is a two or three years after I had left the show, and the the you know, Mad TV got sizable budget cuts every year for the
fourteen seasons that they did the show. So on this particular day that I came to do a couple of bits for the show that week, I was walking back stage or just on the stage and there's you know, cables everywhere and stuff, and the lights were only on on the set that they were shooting on, so like
you almost needed like your own flashlight. You go like where And I didn't realize this, and I just go walking onto the stage and just completely you know, I trip on a bunch of cables and fall over and I'm like fuck, they didn't even turn the lights on anymore here. And I remember going back to Less than Perfect later that day, you know, you you know, you're
fortunate enough to be working on the sitcom. And I was, I don't know, I was over at you know, craft service, eating a you know, coffee cup ful of bacon or whatever, and the and the producers were there, the showrunners Nina and Jean, and I remember, I very sincerely was like, you know, this experience is so wonderful and you guys and I somewhere in I said, you know, you're keeping the lights on and I said, and they were looking.
At me like, what are you talking about?
What the fuck are you talking about? And now I can't go further and go, well, you know, so I used to be on the Sketch Show and they're really cheap over there, and you know, you got to be and they keep getting their budget is you know, it's like, why are they even doing the show anymore? And I tripped on some cables earlier, and I just really appreciate the fact that you guys have devil eggs or whatever, you know what.
I mean, there's something to say.
Yeah, there's nothing to say with what we do. If you're if you can be on a network show or any show. I'm just like, there's no work you can do as an actor that justifies how grateful you you should feel to be doing that sort of stuff. So that show was an absolute Yeah, it was a gas and I loved everyone that I worked with. Sarah Rue, Sherry Shepherd, Andy Dick, Andrea Parker, Zach Levi, Patrick Warburton,
and Eric Roberts. I don't think I'm missing anybody. Yeah, it was a fun show with a great group of people.
And yeah, your guest star Roles. I'm saying all of this really to get to the end. Your guest star Roles, the marvelous missus masl Curb your Enthusiasm, Gray's Anatomy, Modern Family, How I Met your Mother, Entourage two and a halfy blah blah blah. But I want to talk to you about maybe your greatest guest role. You were on ww e oh SmackDown a few times, so now I need
to understand. I understand it started as a cross promotion with Mad TV or something, but then you ended up with an arc there and you had matches talk to you were a big wrestling fan. Yeah, I'm told so this was your This was all you're doing. Was this like your dream? Your total dream come true?
Yeah? Yeah it's I'm I'm a huge wrestling dork and uh okay and still am, and it's like that's my thing. I really still love professional wrestling. So right on Mad TV, we had Brett Hart come on. At which time he came on, he was the world Heavyweight Champion in the
WWF back in the day. And then he comes on the show and we did this bit and at the end of the bit he comes back in and surprises me legitimately and the thing and we're dorking around and then I put him on my shoulders and I like spun him around a bit in an airplane spin, which is not this is the world heavyweight Champion of the WWF.
And I'm like, OUI you know so, But Brett's so mellow and cool and we're talking about it, and our producer at mad TV, Brian Hart no relation, is also a big wrestling fan, and his gear started turning, like what could we do with this? And it was really his idea to have Brett back the next year and do this thing where he attacks me in front of the cast and in front of the audience, and only a handful of people knew about it, and in hindsight,
that was shitty to do. But we did this sort of fake you know, this sort of whoops, don't say fake, but because he hit me as hard as he could with this folding chair, he goes, do you want me to pull back on the you want me to hit and pull back a bit or what do you? And I was like, because I wanted it to look good. I was like, oh, and we're pals at this point. I'm like, don't worry, Brett, you can't hurt me, knowing that he could kill me if you and he hit me so hard I had raised welts.
On my back with a real folding chair.
Yeah, it was one of those folding chairs though that isn't metal. It was you know, it's got plastic bits, but the the the framing is metal, so it still connected and hurt. It just weighs less. Okay, yeah, it's still hurt, you know it. It was a terrible thing to get hit with that hard, but it just stung so bad. And then I was wearing like a gator pad on my knee and I fall down. He starts smashing my knee. Then he puts me into the sharpshooter his hold and we go into this Andy Kaufman Jerry
Lawler arc where you know, cut two. I end up on Monday nightro He's with w CW now and we have a match where it's like before that, I'm like on like a couple of entertainment magazines going, yeah, I'm gonna sue the guy and blah blah blah, and people are buying it. And then it's like, it's all leading up to this match. I interfered in a match the week before in Buffalo and helped interfere and Rowdy Roddy Piper took the US title from Brett that night, which
that that's mind blowing. And I could go on about all of it and.
Then we have a Ye, this was a year's set up for you guys to actually have a match. This was all leading to this.
Yeah, it was leading to having a match, and it was God and Brett is, you know, the greatest and and uh some say, you know, and I would say the greatest in ring performer ever and they call him the you know, the the best, you know, the best ever was best, best there is, best there was, best there ever will be, and the excellence of execution. For a reason, he could have a match with you know, a bag of flour and he did that night. He basically he took me in there in the afternoon, you know,
just to get used to the ring and stuff. He gives me a side Russian leg sweep boom. We both hit the ground this thing, and I go okay, and then he just goes, you know, you watch this stuff for your whole life, you get it. I'm like, uh no, I don't, no, no, I don't. What do you mean? And he says that because he's that good, and he goes, just don't move unless I move. You you'll know what I'm doing, and I'll tell you if I have to.
I was like, okay, and it went off without a hitch because I just did what he said.
Like are you are you getting shots off on him or no?
Well, this is the thing that makes it very easy. We showed up and we go backstage, you know, and we're hanging out with some of the wrestlers and you know, the bookers at the time, and we're talking with Brett and Brian, our producer and Mad TV. We're flying over and he had he was like because my thing was
like and his thing too. It's like, I hate it when you have these guests from the world of television and film come into wrestling and then they're getting one over on them, Like why does Jay Leno have Hulk Hogan in a headlock like that makes no sense, right, So anyone who steps in the ring with these guys should just immediately get the shit kicked out of him, right, That's what would happen. And that's what you know wrestling is,
is the illusion. So we pitched that to Brett. We're like, you know, we don't know how it starts or whatever. Maybe Will kind of pisses you off because he's even just in the ring. This makes no sense. You're like, why do I have to do this? And you just kick the shit out of him for how long is the segment? Eight minutes? Okay? And Brett laughed, Yeah, good, good,
And that's what we did. So at the beginning, Brett's like kind of frustrated, and he puts the hand up for like the test of strength where they go, so it's like, you're gonna have a test of strength with this TV actor. You know, it's big, out of shape dude or whatever, and so he just goes like this and he kicks me in the gut and goes against the ropes and clocks me and and he just beats the shit out of me the whole time, which I thought was hilarious.
Minutes you got your ass kicked.
Well that's the uh, that's the segment time, so I guess it was that included the intros in the outro, so like five minutes five minutes. And he did fun stuff like he goes and grabs a chair and it's like, oh no, he's gonna hit him with the chair again, but just to put the chair in the middle of the ring and like drink a bottle of water and go, okay, what are we doing here? And it was the playing out of my dreams, not just being in a wrestling ring,
but being in there with Brett Hart. It's still to this day makes no sense. And uh, at one point I was literally again He's like, I will pick you up, I will do the next thing. You know, don't don't move, and Brian Hart wanted him to do this one move that he does, the quick leg drop, and at one point I'm laying there on the ground. I didn't know that he was about to do it, but like he said, don't move, and I remember literally time slowing down and I was looking up at the lights and I'm just
going it was unbelievable. I'm on wrestling, I'm on ww this is crazy. That's crazy. This all happens within a second of me thinking this, and I go anyway, I start to get up. He's in the air when I start to get up, so my head is now up, you know, with the length of my shoulder to the ground, and he's coming down with the leg drop and could break my neck. And only Brett Hart and you know whatever, a lot of them. They're incredible performers and athletes and actors.
And he bent his you know, he bends his leg, bends his knee at the last second, creating this perfect cradle from I would have broken my neck easily. And he's you know, he's tossing me in the corner and stomping me in the chat and you don't feel anything.
And I remember walking outside afterwards, just like taking a breathe and going like he's getting away from all of it, like and just going I just had a you know, I mean, a shitty match that everyone was like, Boo, fuck off, for real, nobody wants this, We like this show. You should know that nobody wants this, Will Sasso, and
you should know you're a wrestling dark Boo. And I'm walking out there going I can't believe I just did this and and Brett Hart, you know, tosses me around and nothing hurt and it was unbelieving, unbelievable.
You're coming to the end. I've had the opportunity to work with Chuck Laurie a couple of times.
Great.
I know you have played Jim mccowis der Mandy's dad on Young Sheldon. How does it feel that it's coming to an end.
Yeah, it's incredible to be a part of something that to come in at the end of an incredible run like that that they've had. They've been going for seven years, and I've been playing Emily Ousman's father, myself and Rachel bay Jones for the past couple of years, and I mean, it's lovely to go onto a Chuck Laurie set. First of all, everyone's very happy to be there and just what a nice group of people. And I've been fortunate enough to work on a couple of other of his shows,
and it's the same across the board. And to be in this, you know, you know how it is. They say it's a TV family, it's like family, but it really is. I mean, it's the easiest job in the world to come into a well oiled machine and just hit the ground running and hopefully if there are no snags there and it makes sense and you're an addition to the story that makes sense. I mean, what else
what can I say? It's been It's been wonderful, and it's also really interesting to be there at the end of it because you know, these kids, Ian, Reagan and Montana grew up together. They grew up together, the three of them, and Zoe and Lance and Anti Pots. You know, they are like the parents and grandparents are these kids in a way that's you know, it's very interesting, you know, like just seeing seeing them grow up must have been
I don't know. I don't know how those kids sort of separate from each other and from this experience, you know, you and I know that. It's like you work with people, you say you'll keep in touch, you don't, you know, we all move on to other things and there's this
high turnaround. So it's always special to be a part of something that has its has its legacy and is winding down, and to be there at the very end of it is is something to observe, you know, because I don't I feel nothing right, I feel nothing, no, I uh Yeah, I'm you know, I'm observing, going like this is this is incredible?
Yeah. Will Ferrell, who came in right around the time Steve Carroll left. He came in, he did four episodes with us Steve was leaving. He was like, it's the weirdest thing. It feels like I was invited to a funeral of someone didn't know. Like everybody everybody's perfect, We're making a comedy, but everybody's kind of crying. It's sad, and it's like this weird, uh, this weird experience. But I get, at least in one level what you're saying. Yeah,
the throwback you finished the throwback? What seventeen years ago?
I yeah, something like that.
A long time ago.
I was right before Mad TV we got on with that.
That's what I That's what I hear. No, it was a long time ago, right.
I think we shot it a couple of years ago, and you know, like, isn't it weird? Like we'll do something and then what happened to that? And then it comes out?
Yeah, but it's getting unbelievable press. My crack research team meaning me, saw ninety six percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Everybody's watching it, everybody is loving it after so much time. Are you happy with the reception that the movie's getting. Do you remember it feeling good about it when you shot it a few years ago?
Yeah, no, I did. It was it was Justina Machado is starring in the movie, and I play her husband, and she's an old friend, she's an old palace.
So it was so oh you knew okay, I knew.
Justina, and yeah, we have had the same manager for many many years, like twenty five, twenty whatever years, and Justina and I did something similar similar, meaning we played husband and wife in this short that I made a while back, and it worked. It was it was great. It was a first time director, and you know, Mario the director was a very sweet guy and not hiding the fact that it was his first time directing a feature, and so it was cool to just kind of go like, well,
you know, we just got to play these scenes. And I don't know until he says cut, which sometimes he would forget to do because he's a first time director, and then he goes he's kind of looking around. You have to say cut, you have to say and then we're on set going what do we do? Should we I don't want to say it? Can you say it? And as we know, you have to stay in your
boxes with regard to your union. So sometimes we would just keep rolling into the night and they would waste a lot of money that way and go horribly over budget. But two years later they got that. They didn't get their money back, but they got, you know, enough money to put it out. It was a fun movie.
You have a podcast. I don't know if you knew that or not.
Yeah, I'm in the studio right now.
Yeah, there it is, Dudsy. Tell me about well, first off, tell my listeners about Doodsy. The podcast.
Dudsy is a podcast with an AI bent to it. There's an AI theme to where myself and my good buddy Chad whom I've known for over twenty years around that and he's a writer, producer primarily I'm an actor, and so it's these The idea is, here's two guys that have that have been friends for a long time. We've worked together, we've written things together and done shit like that. And the conceit here is that somewhat malevolent AI has has procured us to do this podcast together.
And there's there's elements of it that are all too real and there are elements of it that are not because it is a comedy show, right, and.
The AI this Duji acts as your producer, your boss.
You're pretty much comes up with all you know, like is feeding us segments saying do this, do that, which is a fun way to come about things like if it's like you know, in a podcast, it's kind of one thing to go, I'm gonna do this impression and bore the you must be Jimmy and then everyone's bummed out. But it's another thing to go like, well, hey, you know like podcasts about news or big business, will you
won't stop doing your hul Cogan impression? This is info mania And it's like, well, let me tell you something about the news, dude. We got all sorts of news out there, brother, and I'm gonna so it's a it's a way to get all these you know, bits going and stuff. Yeah, it's a very thick, weird delivery with it's very it's a very complex delivery. That is. Look, I love professional wrestling. I don't know if we've mentioned.
That, Yeah, we've mentioned it.
Yeah, And so you know the idea of k fabe there like, well, what's real? And I don't fucking like AI at all, and Chad digs it. Of course in our business, we don't. I don't want to have anything to do with it, right, And Chad really like he digs it, but he's like a futurist and a weirdo tech dorc and he loves that stuff. And I'm like, I don't need any of it. I like acting with people and I like it. And to me, art is useless if it's not person to person, if a person
didn't come up with the art, it's useless. But the podcast sort of comments on that and sort of like, you know, what is it that AI can do? And yeah, more recently, is what is it that people will will believe? You know? It's it's odd, It's certainly odd. It's been an odd thing.
I read somewhere. Is this part of the lie that dudes he has access to your text messages? Is this a bit?
Have I mentioned how much I like professional wrestling? All right, Dudsy, Well, the thing what you're describing is in order for Dudzy to do the show where it is able to bring stuff up from our past, come up with the best concepts for us, and in its function, it promises to make each episode better than the last episode because it
is currently it is constantly gathering data. Why wouldn't it have all of our passwords, search histories, purchase histories, access to all of our hard drives and clouds so that it can make this show possible. If there's a video that dudes he wants to show from my past, it has access. If there's a bit of writing that dudes he wants to highlight from Chad's you know, and then other things happen and people go, you know, man, I
don't know. People like, uh oh, it's ai. It's like it's so interesting to kind of to me to be like, yeah, but you know, isn't everything I haven't said too much? So it's yeah, it's uh.
I don't know if you were going to say anything at all. So I like it.
It's an interesting thing. Look, I I really enjoy, you know, working. I love the illusion of what we get to do. Yes, and to me, you know, nobody watches an episode of their favorite show and goes, well, why is that person being mean to that person? Or why does this It's like, well, because it's a it's a show it's like and it's like professional wrestling, where it's like, well, we all know that behind the scenes, there's a show here, there's a
show that's being produced. Chad and I are messing with each other constantly in our lives, and some of that can come into the show, which is a lot of fun, right, and there can be a lot of surprising ourselves and one another. You know, I guess it's so, I guess it's uh, I guess if I don't know. Do you have a question past that? I don't know how much I really don't you know? To me, it's clear, you know, I don't know. All I know is that I love doing the damn show.
You love doing the show, ye, And you know there has been some conversation about the show, which, by the way, may not be terrible for the show that you guys have used AI with. I don't even know how you say it, Tom Brady and George Carlin over the last year or so. Are you surprised by the flack that you have gotten from that? Is it totally understandable to you? And are you planning to AI me anytime in the next year.
I'm surprised by the flack but it does make sense. It makes perfect sense to me. You know. I read this one article that was from Ours Technica that I thought was very good, and it pointed out it kind of went through some of the stuff that has come out of the show, and this is a person who clearly understands AI and what the parlor trick is. Because I always say, like, AI is not AI can't really do.
It is not sentient. It's just zeros and ones and it mimics and it predicts, and it is capable of so many things artistically that we are capable of, and that to me is hopefully it just sort of settles into being a tool. I think that my brain right now can't understand. I am the guy screaming at the horseless carriage right now going no, we don't want this. You know, my Palchad will say, it's not like that. It's just going to settle into being a tool.
You know.
Think think of the the film camera and how people rebelled against that, the radio, the printing press, whatever, anything calculator. So we're in this bizarre time in AI where it is growing exponentially. You know, it's interesting. We used to do mad TV. There are parent impression that yeah, you're doing impressions and it's like I never heard anything. But first of all, I have reverence for pretty much everyone
that I ever impersonated. It came from a real love of you know, talking like them or doing their stick or whatever, or having them on my mind and wanting to do and impressions. But certainly at mad TV, we wouldn't get shit for doing an impression of someone because
it's understood that it is. It's just ease, apparently, I guess when you when you put a different paint job on it and and put it out there, but all you really have is is jokes that you know Chad wrote, and there is no there's no it's an open secret, you know, like people who enjoy the show are like very to the whole delivery of it. Oh and on that note, I should say that I am currently the The Dude's Undisputed Episode Champion. Recently I got a hold
of there I am right there, there you are. And so if you need any more of a clue as to what is happening over here, you know, you do something and you kind of go like, well, here's this bit, and the fella at ours technica what he had written in this pieces, like, am I to believe that these two dudes got a hold of an AI that is way way more advanced than anything that anyone at MI
T even could get their hands on. At this point, that is me saying too much because to me, all I want to do is, you know, make some people laugh and stuff. So when there's a reaction, I'm like, oh, oh fuck, h oh okay, well, m I don't know, but we got to try stuff. To me, it is, you know, it is. It's it's understandable because we don't know what the uh, what the future holds, you know, right, even with the stuff that is total nonsense.
Well, I think it's fascinating. I think it's a discussion, as is everything in art, a discussion at least worth having and sussing it out. But I appreciate you being so candid about it, and I hope that people will check it out.
You know what, can I tell you this? Yeah, let me tell you this, Brian, real quick. Sorry. I kind of feel like, so long as you know, when people tune into Dudsy, which is you know, YouTube and all your podcast platforms, by the way, when people watch Dudzy. So long as they are enjoying that hour of dudesy and the weirdness that happens. To me, that's what it is. And I say everything that I've said here with in
my I'm keeping in mind. You know, our beloved pods as we like to call them, the pals of Dudsy, people who are very engaged in the show and really love it, and you know, they're lighting up our discord and keeping this community alive. And what I've found is a bunch of other comedy nerds that really dig being a part of this weird thing. And I tell them all the time when we do the show where we do this dudeesy after Dudsy where things kind of chill out and we talk a little more real, and I
go like, I just love that experience of it. And it's the same for me coming in here and doing doing this dumb stuff. And that's what I want people to understand, that that it's a silly goose time and we're we're doing silly shit. Certainly, this is nothing new. People are going to have their own reactions. I have. I really don't have anything to say about that.
I really am well, that is art and that is comedy and that is a good thing.
You can take that. Yeah, it's it's it's it's yours to interpret, of course.
That's right. Well, it's been so great chatting with you and getting to know you a little bit. I've been such a fan of yours for such a long time.
Oh, cheers.
Likewise, everybody check it out the throwback Young Sheldon finishing next month and of course available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Dudesy Will, thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
I'm disputed episode champion of the world of or at least of dudes. It's only it's only you were chat congratulations man, maybe my dog.
Remember that time you almost won?
Thanks Will, Thank you so much.
Cheers, Brian, thank you, Thank you, Will.
That was a lot of fun and no, I will never get in the ring with you. Listeners, check out Dudsy podcast. It is an interesting watch and listen to be sure wherever you get your podcasts. Also you can see will Well Finishing up is run on Young Sheldon and of course on Netflix the throwback check that out as well. Come back next week for another, well, another exciting episode with a very exciting guest. Until then, everybody
have a great week off. The Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Ling 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 Sahim. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton.