Episode 227 - Adam Scott
Marc:are we doing this really wait for it are we doing this wait for it pow what the fuck and it's also what the fuck what's wrong with me it's time for wtf what the fuck with mark maron
Marc:Okay, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what-the-fuckers?
Marc:What-the-fuck buddies?
Marc:What-the-fuckineers?
Marc:What-the-fuckingistas?
Marc:What-the-fuckterians?
Marc:What-the-fuck-you-pie-wall-streeters?
Marc:What-the-fuck-a-mollens?
Marc:All right, all right.
Marc:This is Marc Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:Thanks for coming.
Marc:Thanks for being here.
Marc:A couple of things before I get going.
Marc:Neptune Theater, Seattle, November 25th, right?
Marc:Yeah, day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday.
Marc:Come see me on Black Friday.
Marc:Tickets are still available for that, so do that.
Marc:Also, if you don't have my CD, please do that, would you?
Marc:It's called This Has to be Funny.
Marc:You can get it on iTunes.
Marc:I don't know if you know that.
Marc:I am overwhelmed and anxious and full of panic.
Marc:surprise i know a lot of you think like hey things are going well yeah they are things are going all right but that just means i have more things to do and that means more things that aren't going to get done and more things that i can worry about getting done that's just the way i roll hold on maybe i shouldn't be drinking two pots of this a day pow look out
Marc:I just did it.
Marc:Maybe I'll switch it to that.
Marc:JustCoffee.coop, available at WTFPod.com.
Marc:Do that, if you will.
Marc:I don't know how the hell people get things done.
Marc:I know that once you start to do them, everything's okay.
Marc:You know, I'm working on my book.
Marc:I'm writing my book.
Marc:I'm doing that every day.
Marc:I just got that Dragon software from my computer where I can talk to my computer and it writes things down.
Marc:Man, that is one step away from being too close to your computer.
Marc:I think it's only a matter of time before we can share our problems with them, maybe talk to them about what's going on, because it's certainly getting sort of difficult to talk to some people in the world.
Marc:I am so fucking sick of people that preach positivity.
Marc:It's making me nauseous, nauseous.
Marc:Adam Scott is on the show today.
Marc:He's a very nice guy.
Marc:I believe a thoughtful guy.
Marc:We'll talk to him in just a minute.
Marc:But all you people that you think you're positive, you know, hey, man, Marin's too negative.
Marc:That guy's too negative.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, let me tell you something.
Marc:Negativity and positivity are almost exactly the same.
Marc:In most cases, they're coping mechanisms.
Marc:Neither one imply that you're a better person or a more decent person.
Marc:The positive people, the thing that actually the people that actually preach this idea of positivity.
Marc:Hey man, I'm positive.
Marc:I'm not negative.
Marc:They're doing the exact same thing.
Marc:Positivity implies intolerance 90% of the time.
Marc:That means you're just like, hey, get the fuck out of my space, man.
Marc:You're negative.
Marc:Positivity, look, I know negativity can be draining.
Marc:I know negativity can be bottomless and there's not a lot you can do.
Marc:And I know that positivity can be bullying and intolerant and arrogant in its way.
Marc:Because you think you're a better person because I'm just doing everything I can to be positive, which means excluding negativity from my life.
Marc:Where's the empathy there?
Marc:Where's the caring?
Marc:There's no caring.
Marc:You're not putting better things out into the world.
Marc:You're just coping in a different way and being a little bit more easy to be around.
Marc:But you're no better.
Marc:It doesn't make you a decent person to be positive.
Marc:It's just a different type of denial.
Right?
Marc:To actually get to the core of the humility of who you are, man, that's a whole different thing.
Marc:I don't know why I'm worked up about it.
Marc:Because probably somebody said that I was too negative.
Marc:You think that could be it?
Marc:I don't think I'm negative.
Marc:I don't think, you know, sometimes I'm positive, but I just try to be as present as possible and help people when I can.
Marc:And sometimes I get a little stressed out.
Marc:It was weird.
Marc:I was at this coffee shop the other day and I don't have any.
Marc:I'm not equipped to do a service industry job if that happens, if I have to do that.
Marc:If I have to become a barista again or attempt waitering, my hat's off to you if you can do that and keep your shit together.
Marc:Only because I go to a coffee shop and sometimes it takes a really long time to get my coffee and I get aggravated.
Marc:And this is a mundane problem.
Marc:But then recently...
Marc:This is this process that I do in order to find empathy in myself as I try to go back in the history of me to put myself in a similar situation as the person I'm getting aggravated with so I can at least understand where they're at.
Marc:And I can do that.
Marc:I have to train myself to do it.
Marc:I have to do it on purpose.
Marc:I'm a little, sometimes I'm a bit empathy deficient.
Marc:I can feel people.
Marc:I get a sense of what's going on, but I don't always put myself in their shoes.
Marc:So I actively try to do that.
Marc:And I'm watching this guy make coffee.
Marc:And then I remember when I was making coffee, when I never wanted to make coffee, nobody wants to do that for a living.
Marc:You do it to get by.
Marc:You do it because you need a job.
Marc:And when I was in the service industry of any kind, when I was a barista back in the pre-Starbucks universe,
Marc:The coffee connection.
Marc:I mean, from from the second I got to work and made my first coffee, the first customer would come in and I'd make him his coffee and I'd see another guy walk in for a coffee.
Marc:And before he even got to the counter, I'm thinking, oh, fuck, are you serious?
Marc:Are you fucking serious?
Marc:Another guy?
Marc:What's he going to want?
Marc:That's the beginning of the day.
Marc:And then another guy comes in.
Marc:Oh, this is fucking bullshit.
Marc:When is this going to stop?
Marc:How many people are going to come in and require coffee at this coffee shop?
Marc:Jesus Christ.
Marc:That's not positive, but that was my attitude.
Marc:Positivity, man.
Marc:Hey, just be positive.
Marc:Just focus.
Marc:Just put out good energy in the world.
Marc:Positive energy.
Marc:Be a leader of men.
Marc:Be a leader of women.
Marc:Be a leader.
Marc:Be positive.
Marc:Be a team leader.
Marc:Years and years of positivity.
Marc:And still that guy, that Penn State guy, submerged and repressed and pushed down inside of him.
Marc:All that horrible, violent sexual hate.
Marc:And then it just came out in horrible little incidents of rape.
Marc:He was a team leader.
Marc:He helped people be proactive, be positive.
Marc:Hmm.
Marc:Anyway, positive or negative, all I'm trying to do is stay open to the experience of the life I'm living.
Marc:That's all I can do is try to keep an open heart and an open mind, knowing good and well that as we move through life, people are going to shit in my head, life is going to shit in my head, and people are going to hurt my heart.
Marc:But what are the choices?
Marc:You're just going to shut down and say, fuck that?
Marc:You're just going to shut down and say, just be positive, man.
Marc:Positive.
Marc:Either way, you're closing it off.
Marc:How about be humble and open your fucking heart?
Marc:Where's my mind today?
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Full of anxiety.
Marc:Full of it.
Marc:But, you know, pretty soon I'm going to fix the door.
Marc:I'm going to fix my kitchen.
Marc:I'm going to call the guy that fixes the wood and I'm going to make it all work out.
Marc:That's what I keep going in my head.
Marc:Nothing is stopping.
Marc:Everything keeps coming at me.
Marc:Nothing has.
Marc:I'm incapable of compartmentalizing.
Marc:Everything is coming at the same intensity.
Marc:It's very hard for me to prioritize, but I hang on to a hope.
Marc:I hang on to the hope that if I just call that dude who does that thing, he's going to fix it all and my life is going to be better.
Marc:The dude with the tools is going to make it all right.
Marc:You can pull that mic into your face.
Marc:It's a radio mic, so it needs to go close.
Marc:You've done voiceovers, haven't you?
Guest:Not really, but I've done podcasts and stuff.
Marc:Do you audition for voiceovers?
Guest:I went through a period where I was auditioning for voiceovers, and it reminded me too much of when I was starting out and the humiliation of auditioning, so I just stopped.
Guest:I was like, if somebody wants me to do a voiceover sometime in the future, then I'll do that, but I'm not going to go and...
Marc:slate my name and all it just it just made me feel terrible again again you thought you'd pass that yeah so it would brought you back that's hilarious but when did you start doing that acting thing um the fall of 93
Marc:All right, so it's been a while.
Guest:Yeah, it's been a long time.
Marc:So that is a horrible thing.
Marc:And there's almost something when you do a voiceover, because I've done voiceover auditions here, and I do my voice all the time.
Marc:But when you're auditioning for something, then I become very insecure about the fact that I have a mush mouth that I wisp.
Guest:Yeah, you can hear yourself.
Guest:And the copy is about a Prius or some bullshit.
Guest:and they keep telling you to like brighten it up or smile and it's just like i'm i'm gonna disappoint you this is gonna be fucking terrible and i'm not gonna get this and it's just gonna so i just stopped it was too much you say that is there is there taped uh evidence of you saying you know maybe we shouldn't do this i wish i wish i was that cool i i i was like thank you very much and just like kissing their ass and oh awful
Marc:I remember that thing.
Marc:I don't audition much, but I have.
Marc:It's taken me a while just to realize that if they don't want me, it ain't going to happen.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:So how old were you when you started acting?
Marc:I mean, you've been 93.
Marc:You must have been, what, 20?
Marc:I was 20.
Marc:And you came out of where?
Marc:I grew up in Santa Cruz.
Marc:Who grows up there?
Marc:That's like weird hippies and vampires.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Did you have hippie vampire parents?
Guest:Well, you know, they were hippies, but they were also...
Guest:They were hippie-ish, but they were raising kids, so they didn't have time to commit to being hippies.
Guest:But they certainly cultivated, you know, health food.
Guest:If you're in Santa Cruz, you're just hippie-ish, especially in the 70s and 80s.
Marc:Well, there's sort of like a mystical thing.
Marc:By the way, Adam Scott is in the garage.
Marc:See, sometimes I forget to do an intro.
Guest:That's good.
Marc:From Party Down, from Parks and Rec, from Funny Movies.
Marc:I can't list all your credits.
Marc:Can you?
No.
Guest:I don't want to.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Do you have some embarrassing ones?
Marc:Are there ones that you're like, I can't.
Guest:Oh, yeah, there's some awful.
Guest:I mean, I started in 93, so there's bound to be some shitty.
Guest:I mean, it's been a while.
Marc:What's your greatest shitty memory of doing something that you now wish was not evidence of what you did?
Guest:I had some little part in something where I had to pretend like I was jacking off onto a...
Guest:a girl who had passed out at a frat party and go through like all this dirty talk to her and then like, and then like, you know, come on her.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was so awful.
Marc:It was one of your first jobs.
Marc:So you were like, gotta do it.
Guest:It was like,
Guest:It wasn't, but I still needed a job and I needed to make a good impression.
Guest:I never said no to anything until I still feel like I should do everything that is asked of me.
Marc:But that's hilarious because there's this idea that when...
Marc:There's something that happens very quickly when you get into show business where you're like, oh, I'm an actor.
Marc:And then when you're jerking off on a passed out girl and trying to play Cumming in one scene, you're like, well, maybe it's not acting exactly.
Guest:Maybe it's just, I don't know what this is.
Marc:It's paid humiliation.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's making me feel terrible.
Guest:And there's no way it's making her feel good.
Guest:It's making everyone uncomfortable.
Guest:Oh, it was terrible.
Marc:Well, that's kind of funny about a party down is that that is what that guy comes from.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But let's get back.
Marc:Before we get to that, I mean, in Santa Cruz, I'm sort of fascinated with because I used to do gigs down there.
Marc:There was a bar called The Crow's Nest.
Marc:Oh, yeah, man.
Marc:You remember that place?
Marc:Oh, totally.
Marc:It's still there.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So are your family still there?
Guest:Yeah, they're all there.
Guest:So you go there?
Uh-huh.
Marc:Yeah, they used to have a comedy night there, man.
Guest:Oh, they did?
Marc:Yeah, and when I was starting out, when I moved to San Francisco in 92, you'd go there.
Marc:And I always felt like even when I'd stay the night in Santa Cruz, you'd walk around.
Marc:I know there's a big school there, but there's something weird and kind of creepy hippie about it, isn't there?
Guest:Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, they kind of...
Guest:Found a little of that in Lost Boys.
Marc:Maybe that's what put it in my head.
Guest:That's why you said the vampire thing, right?
Marc:Well, yeah, kind of.
Marc:Maybe it is, but I always get the sense that there was sort of a kind of progressive, hippie, Wiccan, bordering on strange shit stuff.
Marc:kind of witchcraft thing down there.
Marc:Well, you know, a lot of that is the school and the students.
Marc:Is it one of those really, it's kind of a progressive college?
Marc:It is, but it's the University of California, right?
Marc:It is.
Guest:I mean, it's an expensive school, so all the kids that go there that are...
Guest:hippies are, they also have like their parents' credit card.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So, you know, there's a lot of- That's how all new hippies start.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I certainly went through that.
Guest:I was really into the Grateful Dead.
Guest:Were you?
Guest:Oh, totally.
Marc:I still love the Grateful Dead.
Marc:Well, I'm happy to hear that because I, here's a beanie right here.
Marc:Oh, nice.
Marc:I'm not a heavy, deadhead-y guy.
Marc:My brother is a little more than me, but I had roommates in college and I liked that whole thing.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:So were you like a little jigging, long-haired-
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Played a little hacky.
Guest:Oh, totally.
Guest:I was terrible at hacky sack, but I tried and I certainly went to dead shows.
Guest:Did you follow them?
Guest:You know, it's weird.
Guest:I was thinking the other day, because when I was 14, I was really into the Grateful Dead and my mom...
Guest:And let me and my other buddy, who was also 14, take the Greyhound up to the Oakland Coliseum to see the Grateful Dead.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then go to a friend of his parents in San Francisco to spend the night at her place, take the Greyhound back the next day.
Guest:Now, this was 1987, so it was a different time, but...
Guest:Can you imagine a more trusting mom than letting... I mean, I would freak out if... I would never let my kid do that.
Marc:How old are your kids now?
Marc:Three and five.
Marc:I was talking about this to a friend of mine recently that when I was a kid, we used to take the city bus up to the mall at like 13.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like they would just let... It's sort of sad.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You just can't do it anymore.
Marc:I guess.
Marc:I mean, the odds are probably still in your favor that something horrible won't happen.
Guest:It's either you can't do it anymore or we've...
Marc:been led to believe that that's just something it's just impossible you just can't do it in 14 i mean i was driving at 15 in new mexico i guess 14 is not that big of a deal but i mean still you have kids and i you know like i don't have kids and i'm with a woman that wants to have kids and i'm getting old and i can't handle just the thought of having a child yeah i'm worrying now for a child i don't have and probably won't have i'm worried about him yeah i was watching i went to my daughter's ballet class today and i was
Guest:watching her and all I could think about was her getting hurt.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:And she was doing the most beautiful thing you could ever imagine.
Guest:The cutest, most beautiful...
Guest:incredible thing, and all I could think about was I went through a whole fantasy scenario of tearing some guy apart who hits her in the face.
Guest:What?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Wait, let's play that out exactly.
Marc:So this is Adam Scott watching his daughter to ballet class, and you're like, well, look, she's really doing a great job, and it's so vulnerable because they're young, and they're excited, and they're doing the best they can, and it's very touching.
Marc:And what happens in your head?
Guest:Well, last week, another little girl had...
Guest:pushed her face down into a gymnastics mat and she got a scratch on her face.
Guest:So I guess it's kind of fresh that I feel protective of her.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I just had this fantasy of a grown man shoving her aside or slapping her across the face or something.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:And so I went through this whole thing where I just beat the shit out of him.
Guest:And it was a visceral, like I started sweating and getting... While the recital was going on?
Marc:Yeah, while I was watching her dance.
Marc:You're sitting there beating the shit out of a guy you made up who just pushed your daughter out of the way.
Guest:A fictional person.
Marc:It was entirely... Did something lead up to it, or you just appeared out of nowhere for no reason and pushed your daughter down?
Guest:Yeah, it was at the gymnastics place, so it had a setting.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:That's what I was thinking about.
Marc:You know, I used to have more of that where, you know, you get those weird revenge fantasies.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You just sort of like, you know, you feel like somehow or another you're being victimized and then you kind of play this thing out.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It usually happens in my mind with bullies or people that, you know, are more successful than me.
Guest:Right.
Marc:I picture their downfall.
Marc:I've gotten much better with it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know, I've actually been able to accept people's success without thinking, you know, hoping that like, you know, you might have a heart attack tomorrow.
Marc:Sure, sure, sure.
Marc:It's all lost.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it was sort of spontaneous.
Marc:Did you feel, I guess it's probably because you felt powerless.
Marc:What happened with this?
Marc:Was it just some girl her age that pushed her down?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I wasn't even there when it happened.
Guest:I just heard about it.
Marc:Is that a nicotine lozenge?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You need one?
Guest:I have them in my pocket.
Marc:You do?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How long you been on them?
Marc:A year.
Marc:I haven't smoked in like 10 years.
Marc:Oh, well that's great.
Marc:What kind do you smoke?
Marc:I've never met anyone else who does them.
Marc:These?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I know it is weirdly rare, isn't it?
Marc:It is.
Marc:I mean, people do the gum, but the lozenges, they seem like sort of an abstract.
Marc:They're way better than the gum, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I think they're better than the gum and I fucking love them.
Marc:Me too.
Marc:Like to get up in the morning and have coffee and a lozenge.
Marc:Oh, a coffee with the lozenge is incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It really is.
Guest:It's so good.
Guest:But wait, do you fall asleep with them in your mouth?
Guest:Sometimes.
Guest:Do you have fucked up dreams?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:yeah but it's sort of sad like the moment when i i'm not doing that as much as any anymore because i got very self-conscious about my gum line because i decided that the gum and then the lozenges were fucking my gums up really no you can that's a new thing you can get paranoid about is that true though well you know if you google things you know apparently i mean i have bad gums anyways because my teeth my bites off is a long story but uh i got paranoid about it you maybe you can get paranoid why would you get bad gums from your bite being off
Marc:Because your teeth meet in different places.
Marc:So where there's tension, wherever your teeth are working more, it's all about even and whatever.
Marc:And so your gums are receding?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Do you have that?
Guest:That just happens when you get older.
Guest:It does?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Did you already research it?
Guest:Yeah, because I saw a picture of myself and I was like, holy fuck, I look like Don Knotts because my gums are... And then I kind of researched it and was like, well, first of all, you need to floss because that helps your gums.
Guest:But secondly, it just happens when you get older.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Yeah, because I mean, okay.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, I'm okay about it.
Marc:But oh, yeah, falling asleep with nicotine lochenges.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:How long did you smoke for?
Guest:I smoked for solid like 10, 11 years and then quit and then started again and then quit.
Guest:And now I'm just like on these.
Guest:And then if I'm at a party, someone's smoking, I'll just go ask for one and have one.
Guest:I can't imagine having one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So you haven't smoked in 10 years.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Not really.
Marc:I mean, I'll smoke cigars occasionally, but I haven't... I've inhaled maybe a cigarette twice in the last probably 11 years.
Guest:Because I remember... When I first started listening to your show, I think Dane Cook was the first one I listened to, and you were on there talking about... Getting off these.
Guest:Oh, that's what you were doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I've considered going to this hypnotist to get off of the lozenges.
Guest:Do you want to, though?
No.
Guest:Well, my wife is convinced that they're bad for me and they're harmless.
Guest:See, the tobacco things, those can give you mouth cancer.
Guest:These are harmless.
Marc:I think so.
Marc:I mean, they're not burning your lungs, but I imagine that nicotine in and of itself and the processing of nicotine in the organ area has got to be bad somehow.
Marc:I guess, but there's no health warning on the package.
Marc:Yeah, but that's the same thing I do.
Marc:It's like you justify it.
Marc:Right, because like, well, it's in a package.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, and it's made by a company.
Marc:They sell it at the store.
Marc:How can it be bad for me?
Marc:Your brain is in that denial mode.
Marc:I mean, how many fucking products are shitty for you?
Marc:I mean, it's just, I don't want to let go of the nicotine.
Marc:I know that apparently my brain and my body can function without it, but I don't.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's so fucking fun.
Guest:It is.
Guest:It's nice.
Guest:Do you ever double... Do you throw two in?
Guest:Sure, man.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Are you on four or two?
Guest:Four.
Guest:Always four.
Guest:Oh, you're on four?
Guest:I'm on two.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Because I don't want to go to four, man.
Guest:Because then there's no backing down.
Guest:But you're doubling up on twos.
Guest:Well, I throw two in at, like, the...
Guest:last night I fell asleep with two in my mouth and woke up at like three in the morning with, because they don't dissolve unless you work on them.
Guest:Yeah, I know that.
Guest:So if you fall asleep, they're still fully formed at four in the morning when you wake up.
Guest:So I woke up this morning and I- Do you tell your wife though?
Guest:I mean, does she know you got a mouth full of nicotine?
Guest:She knows and she just thinks I'm an idiot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:especially when I wake up from a nightmare induced by... Take out two lozenges.
Guest:Ugh.
Guest:I have, like, gross, like, half-dissolved ones on my night.
Marc:Oh, yeah, save them, yeah.
Marc:Oh, it's so gross.
Marc:I picked one up off the floor.
Marc:And ate it?
Marc:A half-dissolved one, and I'm like, oh, that's still good.
Marc:I mean, what the fuck is wrong with me?
Guest:Absolutely.
Marc:It's not like it's cocaine or something.
Marc:Well, it's more powerful than cocaine, actually.
Marc:It's more addictive, isn't it?
Marc:Well, I think it's more addictive, yeah, and it's certainly... But I'm starting to think, like, I don't know, man.
Marc:Did you ever... Were you ever another drug thing?
Marc:Did you ever...
Guest:you know you're not compulsive in any other way no i mean smoking and coffee were really my things but you know i was a big stoner for a while but when you were in high school high school and and then like my 20s but now i every once in a while but you know i have to wake up early so yeah you got a job yeah but yeah well these things like i'm starting to think like um
Marc:It's anxiety-related, I think.
Marc:Do you?
Marc:With these?
Marc:Well, I think I'm self-medicating a certain amount of, like, because these are really steady and consistent.
Marc:They're almost a little more defined than cigarettes.
Marc:Like, I know, like, if I smoke three cigarettes, you're dealing with the smoke, and the smoke's coming out of your face, and, you know, you feel.
Marc:But this, like, it's not dirty.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, there's no smell or anything, and you just put it in your mouth, and then you just kind of wait.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You can really feel it.
Guest:Yeah, and it's cool because it's your own thing.
Guest:People don't have to know that you're doing it.
Guest:So it's your own private little dose you're getting.
Marc:That's what everybody thinks when they do any drug by themselves at first.
Guest:No one knows.
Guest:No one knows.
Marc:I'm high on fucking crystal meth just because I'm talking about drawing a maze.
Marc:But all right, so there you are, the Grateful Dead show.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, and did you trip?
Yeah.
Guest:You know, I was never a big I would just smoke lots of lots of pot.
Guest:I did do mushrooms.
Guest:I would do mushrooms like right after I was out of high school.
Guest:I kind of did mushroom.
Guest:I remember doing mushrooms at the Grateful Dead show in Las Vegas or when Sting opened.
Guest:And if you take enough mushrooms, I learned sting is awesome, but you have to take a bunch of mushrooms.
Marc:You have to take a lot of mushrooms just to get over his horrendous personality and that transcendent arrogance that he has.
Guest:I do remember his guitar had a Grateful Dead sticker on it, and I was like, come on.
Guest:Yeah, that's not.
Guest:Don't pretend.
Guest:The police were amazing, though.
Guest:so i i somehow or another you've been kind of like uh you know rotating around the community of like cool comedy people when did that start uh about four years ago oh really i mean you know back in early 94 i used to go to un cabaret every sunday night beth lapidus yeah and that thing and i would go and watch because a friend of mine
Guest:was Karen Kilgareff's roommate, so I kind of heard about it.
Guest:Do you know Karen?
Guest:Sure, yeah, I had her on the live show.
Guest:Maleva Barbula, do you remember her?
Guest:I do know, I remember Maleva.
Guest:How do I remember her?
Guest:What is she now?
Guest:I think she moved to Sacramento like in 97 or something.
Guest:She got out?
Guest:She got out.
Guest:She was really cool, and we were really close friends for a while, and so she told me, so I'd go and watch every Sunday night, and
Guest:I remember just thinking like, that looks like it feels great.
Guest:Yeah, to be on stage doing that.
Guest:Yeah, and no defined, because it wasn't always stand-up, it was like, and Odenkirk and David Cross doing like,
Guest:pre-Mr. Show bits.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, Lapidus, I think, really, I don't know if she gets enough credit for sort of being at the forefront of alternative comedy, but the Un Cabaret was really the first one that embraced comedic actors and comedians to do other things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was extraordinary.
Guest:And then I remember they also did some shows.
Guest:It wasn't Un Cabaret.
Guest:It was over at the corner of La Brea and Hollywood.
Guest:Remember that place?
Guest:Like...
Guest:La Brea in Hollywood.
Guest:There is some room back in an old bank.
Guest:Oh, really?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I can't quite remember.
Marc:It sounds like it.
Guest:Do you remember who was there?
Guest:I remember seeing Kathy Griffin one night, Andy Dick.
Guest:Anyway, I would go to UnCabaret and watch everybody.
Guest:And I even came up with some bits in my mind.
Guest:But I was never even close to...
Guest:going through whatever channel I would need to, to go do a bit on, I would never.
Guest:You were never close to asking Beth Lepidus.
Guest:Good Lord.
Guest:I mean, I was like, I just, I was like wanting to be Ethan Hawke or whatever I was doing at the time.
Guest:I was just starting out trying to get a guest spot on,
Guest:Whatever.
Marc:Was that the thing for you?
Marc:Was that like you wanted to be a leading man?
Guest:Oh, I thought I was.
Guest:Yeah, I wanted to be like, because I went to acting school after Santa Cruz.
Guest:The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Guest:It was in Pasadena.
Guest:And so I went there for two years and then moved here in 93 to like, you know, yeah, to try and, you know, act and stuff.
Marc:But were you kind of being moved in that direction?
Marc:I mean, you know, you're a good looking guy and you did some TV stuff.
Marc:I mean, you know.
Guest:It wasn't until four years ago when, just by a fluke, I got the part in Step Brothers that I even kind of entered that world at all.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That was the beginning of it?
Marc:You weren't friends with those guys or anything else?
Guest:I mean, I've been buddies with Paul Rudd for years and years.
Guest:And so through him and Shauna Robertson, who was producing Knocked Up, I got this little part as a nurse in that movie.
Guest:I remember that.
Guest:But just figuring I would...
Guest:It was just a couple days.
Guest:It was just another one of these little tiny jobs.
Guest:I didn't really think of it as being a bridge to anything else because I still thought I was a serious actor because I was on this serious TV show.
Guest:Which TV show?
Guest:Tell Me You Love Me, the HBO show.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was about marriage and sex.
Marc:Yeah, that's right.
Marc:Oh, you were in that horrible marriage.
Guest:Yes.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we were trying to have a baby, me and Sonia Walger.
Marc:That was a, you know, I remember watching some of your episodes.
Marc:That was like painful.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:I mean, that was a deep part.
Marc:You did a good job with that.
Marc:Oh, thanks, man.
Marc:Because didn't the marriage come apart?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, yeah, it did.
Guest:We did.
Guest:We split up at the end of the season and then she got pregnant, I believe.
Guest:And then the season ended.
Guest:But that was what the path I was... That's what I thought I was... Like, I got that show, and I was like, okay, this is my thing.
Guest:But then I got the part in Step Brothers just like as a fluke, and it was super fun.
Guest:I mean, I wasn't... It was a really tough thing to do.
Guest:Like, I wasn't great at it while I was doing it, but I also...
Guest:Felt like this is... By the end of it, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it.
Guest:Of Step Brothers?
Guest:Yeah, by the end of the shoot, I felt like I started to get the hang of improvising a bit, and it started to really...
Guest:feel fun and i and i when it ended i felt like i don't know if i want to go back to the other way trying to do that yeah like even because it was improvising so we're like coming up with stuff and having fun but whether it's improvising or not uh just the idea of
Guest:There's no wrong answer.
Guest:You just throw everything against the wall.
Guest:Why not?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because it's just tape or film or whatever you're using.
Guest:Try everything.
Guest:And if it sucks, just don't put it in the movie.
Marc:Well, this is interesting because I was talking to somebody else about this.
Marc:I talked to Rainn Wilson about this.
Marc:That coming from what you come from, that to do a part like you did in Tell Me You Love Me...
Marc:That you're drawing from emotions that I mean, there's if you are able to as an actor to access that stuff and to get deep and to get heavy and to get dark and hold those moments.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, not everybody can do that.
Marc:But I mean, it's probably on some level as a trained actor, easier to do that than to do comedy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it seems to me that because like in Rudd's another good example, though, he sort of figured out, you know, what is funny about him.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Somehow.
Marc:But he's sort of a straight, good looking guy and straight, good looking guys are straight playing.
Marc:I'm not judging anyone's sexuality, but but guys who play a straight man or can play straight acting roles.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Or are attractive people.
Marc:They're almost have a lot.
Marc:It's almost a liability in doing comedy.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it seems to me that a lot outside of Step Brothers, the sort of comedic groove that you've gotten into is, you know, either kind of a guy who's a little, you know, maybe a little bit of an asshole, but not like a mean asshole, but an asshole because he has to be.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Or someone who's sort of beaten.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you do play a straight man a bit.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you also have a comedic voice.
Marc:Oh, thanks.
Marc:In terms of how you handle things.
Marc:And I can't really get at, you know, what you do to do that.
Guest:Yeah, you know, I think it was the first day we were shooting Party Down.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which, by the way, we didn't know what that was going to be.
Guest:It was just a bunch of, we were just all friends and stars, the network stars are the ones that like gave us the money and...
Guest:and we're going to air it.
Guest:So we didn't know if anyone was ever going to see it or if it was even going to end up being any good because we were just starting this thing.
Marc:So it was a group project?
Marc:Was it all hand-picked?
Marc:I mean, Paul Rudd co-wrote the first episode or all of it?
Guest:The first episode, he and some other friends of mine, Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge and John Enbaum.
Guest:So you were part of the beginning of it?
Guest:Well, no, they wrote it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then we made a pilot in Rob Thomas's backyard like a year and a half before we made the show.
Guest:We just made like a homemade thing.
Guest:You shot a party scene?
Guest:Yeah, we did.
Guest:It's essentially the first episode of the show now.
Guest:We did kind of a bootleg, like a lo-fi version of that at his house.
Guest:With that cast.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:lizzie kaplan wasn't in it um andrea savage played her part and then couldn't do the series because she was pregnant when it got picked up um and then there were a couple other castings but jane lynch and ken marino and i were all in it and martin and martin star was in it yeah no he wasn't actually not in the original pilot um and uh
Guest:So anyway, I remember the first day we were shooting the show, and we weren't all totally sure what we were doing yet.
Guest:I remember the director, Fred Savage, was directing it.
Guest:I was shooting the scene, and he was like... I think I was really playing it like... Because I was used to just playing...
Guest:little parts where you try and get everything in to your one or two scenes you have.
Guest:And so I was really kind of leaning into it and playing it nasty or just trying to pick one thing and trying to play it.
Guest:No, it wasn't even that.
Guest:It was just I was...
Guest:I don't know what it was.
Guest:It was just what I had been doing for the, you know, 15 years up to that point.
Guest:And I remember him just kind of saying like, look, you're going to, you have a lot of time to do stuff in this show.
Guest:So why don't you just relax and just enjoy talking to this girl and we'll worry about all that other stuff later.
Marc:So you were just loaded up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was like it was a good lesson that if you're going to be like kind of the straight man or the guy at the center of something to just sort of relax and let yourself into it and let yourself, you know, not not that you're playing yourself or whatever, but just kind of react to stuff as you would and just kind of.
Guest:Relax.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Make a couple of choices around the character and then just let it breathe a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was a good lesson in just trying to just sort of let go and let stuff happen.
Marc:I think you're talking about the energy that, you know, because I think when you get used to acting and you go out for these auditions, even when you have a name for yourself, that when you go into an audition, the intensity you bring to it to be memorable is
Marc:is so fucking amped.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And I would imagine that there was probably the same energy around shooting your own pilot thinking that every one of these minutes... Counted.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he had the foresight to say, you know, let's just treat it like, you know, this is going to live.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, just don't be so precious about it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which was another nice lesson with working with McKay and Will Ferrell and those guys was just fuck it.
Guest:Just fuck around.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Let's just screw around.
Guest:And if it's funny, great.
Guest:If it's not, then let's just keep going and find something else funny.
Marc:Was it hard in Step Brothers because you're a dick?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you don't seem like a dick.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it was a pretty broad character.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you tell me that it took you a lot to get there?
Marc:It didn't take a lot to get there because they had written this awesome part.
Guest:It was just really hard because I had never really done improvisation at that level.
Guest:At all?
Guest:I mean, padding a line here and there in movies or TV shows or whatever, but, like, we shoot, like, two scripted takes, and then you just fuck around all day.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, and I was in, like, scenes with those two guys, with John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell, and we're just making stuff up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was, like, I was terrible.
Guest:Like, I was terrible.
Guest:Like...
Guest:I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:At all.
Guest:Like, after my first scene I shot, which was kind of a big scene, this is a scene in a treehouse in the movie, it was a Friday, and then we finished, and over that weekend, I...
Marc:freaked out and i i was convinced i i was because we had only shot like two days so they could easily replay like it was no big deal they could get it also must be intimidating for for you i mean you know this is a i i mean fuck riley won an oscar didn't he uh he he was nominated a couple times yeah and and then you got pharaoh who i can't even look at without laughing so how much of that baggage did you bring into the scene were you all of that baggage i
Guest:Every single piece of baggage.
Guest:You were sitting there going, I can't fucking... No, I had written things on a piece of paper to remind myself of bits I had come up with, and then I would read the paper and then try and do it, and I would fuck up.
Guest:I mean, it was embarrassing.
Guest:I was really bad.
Guest:Uptight.
Guest:But they're really cool and supportive, and they're great.
Guest:They stood behind you, though.
Guest:They let you stay in.
Guest:Yeah, they did not...
Guest:fire me you know what finally made you relax did we'll do something or did they do something it was just being there for a while and and I remember by the end you know John Riley and I were like improvising about a boogie board or something and it was really like flowing more and and I was like all right I kind of feel better about this and then the movie ended but it was it was it was a very you know I equate it to learning and
Guest:how to learning the shot put at the Olympics.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like in the Olympic stadium, everyone watching.
Guest:Here's the ball.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Here's the lead ball.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was terrifying, but it was a real, it changed the way I kind of look at
Guest:my work and the way I want to do things.
Guest:And, and, uh, and it was, I mean, they're, they're, you know, I think you've, you had McKay on the show.
Guest:I mean, they're, they're great guys and, and they were very, very nice.
Marc:It was like a baptism into, uh, performing modern comedy.
Marc:It kind of was, I guess so.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And they, and they chose you and they stuck by, and they stuck by you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was very nice of them to choose me in the first place, but to, to not get rid of me, it was, it was, uh, very nice.
Marc:Now, in retrospect here, what do your folks do?
Marc:Was it the life they planned for you?
Guest:No, they're teachers.
Guest:They're both teachers.
Marc:Like public school teachers?
Guest:My mom was a public school teacher.
Guest:She's retired now.
Guest:High school teacher.
Guest:High school I went to, actually.
Guest:And my dad was a biology professor at the junior college in Santa Cruz.
Guest:He's retired as well.
Marc:So wait, so your mom was a teacher at your school?
Guest:Yeah, she was a special ed teacher.
Marc:Oh, so you can't take many shots for that.
Guest:Right.
Marc:You know, like if your mom was the horrible bitch of a teacher of math or English, but no one's going to be like, yeah, no good stories there.
Guest:No, I was not in any of her classes, although I probably should have been.
Marc:And what was your, like in high school, what was your, were you an athletic guy or what?
Guest:No, I mean, I did, like, school plays and stuff.
Guest:So you're an actor?
Guest:Yeah, but I was embarrassed about the social strata of it, so I kind of, like, wouldn't hang out with them.
Marc:It was a little too musical-oriented?
Guest:They were called drama mags at our school.
Guest:Mags?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't know where that came from, but that's what they were called.
Guest:Drama mags.
Guest:And that was not a good thing?
Guest:No, not for me.
Guest:I wanted to, like, get girls.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I hung out with, like...
Guest:um, the popular kids, but also with dabble in the theaters.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, like when you do something like, um, like party down, you know, now was there a sense, because this is one of these shows that not unlike freaks and geeks is, is sort of celebrated.
Marc:It's got a cult following.
Marc:You know, I've watched a few episodes and it's very funny and very specific and it didn't get to live.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And it upset a lot of people because it was a very sort of, um,
Marc:It was a comedy nerd's dream a bit, especially the Freaks and Geeks crew and the state crew, and it was sort of a hybrid of what's going on in comedy now.
Marc:What was the reaction?
Marc:It sounds to me that from the beginning you guys thought, well, how is this even going to live?
Marc:How is anyone going to see this?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, why'd they choose stars?
Marc:Well, because stars were the only ones that were interested.
Marc:And that was really at the time where they'd switched head executives, right?
Guest:No, they switched head executives right before we got canceled.
Guest:It's the new guy that canceled us, actually.
Marc:Really?
Marc:The guy from HBO?
Marc:Yeah, Chris Albrecht.
Marc:Well, that's odd.
Marc:Well, I know that they do that, but that seemed like a... I mean, there's no way not to see that that was an inspired bit of comedy.
Guest:We thought it was weird, too, just because he comes from comedy.
Guest:Yeah, he built HBO.
Guest:Yeah, and he was a stand-up at one point.
Guest:But our numbers were...
Guest:super low.
Guest:Like our series finale got 16,000 viewers.
Guest:And what's their big hit there, though?
Guest:Well, we thought our numbers are low because we're on Starz, and then Spartacus debuted and they got a million viewers.
Guest:So we were like, well, I guess it's not.
Guest:I guess it's us.
Guest:And then we got canceled.
Marc:See, I don't fucking understand that because Starz, it's sort of like TBS.
Marc:I mean, Conan O'Brien's doing a great show over there, but I don't know where the fuck Starz is.
Marc:Do you?
Guest:No.
Guest:But, you know, they were cool because the whole time we made the show, they didn't dabble at all with our show.
Guest:They didn't tell us to do anything.
Marc:It sounds like they were in turmoil in terms of changing things.
Marc:So they were like, just let the kids play and we'll see what they come up with.
Guest:Yeah, I think also they just hadn't made a lot of shows, and so they just kind of trusted us to do.
Guest:I mean, every once in a while they would ask us to have more boobs on the show or something.
Guest:Really?
Guest:That was a note?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:More boobs.
Guest:More boobs.
Guest:And we were like, okay, so John wrote an episode about us catering a porn awards after party.
Marc:Good idea.
Marc:So got a bunch of boobs.
Marc:That's pretty inspired.
Marc:I know.
Marc:That's a good thought.
Marc:Now, was there a lot of disappointment when he got canceled?
Marc:I mean, was there some sort of rallying cry to try to get it somewhere else?
Guest:Yeah, it kind of like petered out more than... I mean, when it got canceled, it got canceled.
Guest:But up until then, I got...
Guest:parks and rec and party down looked like it was going to get canceled right so i tried to see if they were really going to cancel because if they weren't going to i wasn't sure about if i was going to do parks and you know it was like a whole messy thing and then um they just wouldn't answer the question so i was like all right they're canceling it and so i and at that time were you jaded enough just to realize that that's just part of what we do
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's horrible, isn't it?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Now, was Paul an active producer all the way through?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, he was.
Marc:Was he pretty disappointed?
Marc:Was there anyone upset?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, we were all really upset.
Guest:It was really, really sad.
Guest:But we also...
Guest:got to do 20 of them, which is more than we ever thought we were going to be able to do.
Guest:We got to do two seasons.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And now it's become way more popular since it got canceled.
Guest:So we're going to probably do a movie.
Guest:Is that true?
Guest:Yeah, like a low-budget little thing.
Guest:But with the same cast?
Guest:Yeah, with everybody and just kind of wrap up the story.
Guest:And who's going to produce that?
Yeah.
Guest:There's a company that is interested in it, and they said they want to do it.
Guest:It's just a matter of getting stars to completely sign off on it, and I think they're going to.
Guest:They've been pretty cool about it.
Marc:The original cast?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, who would be hard to get?
Marc:Lynch?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I don't know if Jane will do it.
Guest:We'll certainly invite her, but I'm not sure.
Guest:But definitely the season two cast, which is all of us and Megan Mullally.
Marc:Yeah, she's funny, huh?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Hilarious.
Marc:Now, okay, so now moving into Parks and Rec.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So now do you feel like you've established yourself as this type?
Marc:Do you think you're going to be the sort of straight kind of, you know, either, you know, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out a word that describes the character in Parks and Rec.
Marc:You know, that you've got a heartless job, but you've got some heart.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Now, how did that contract pan out?
Marc:What season are they in?
Guest:Well, we just started season four, but season one was only six episodes, so it's kind of like not a...
Guest:Not a real... So it's season four, technically.
Marc:You were in every episode?
Guest:Of season... I started at the end of season two.
Guest:Okay, right.
Guest:So like the last two of season two, and then I was in all of season three.
Guest:So you're a full cast member.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And when you do... What is your position exactly?
Guest:Now I'm assistant city manager.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which I don't even really know what that means.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And now do you feel how much of that stuff is improvised over there?
Guest:A little bit.
Guest:I mean, we do like, you know, a few takes of, you know, just pure 100% scripted and then we screw around a little bit and then we do like a take that's all like whatever you want to do.
Guest:But they write great scripts over there.
Guest:Like it's an amazing group of writers like Chelsea Peretti and Harris Whittles and Dan Gore.
Guest:I mean, they're all awesome.
Guest:And so we just we just do believe in the script.
Guest:Yeah, so we don't really need to improvise, but it's nice.
Guest:I think it's just a nice thing to do.
Guest:I think it just makes everybody really engaged.
Marc:Do they use some of the improvised stuff?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, and Step Brothers, how much of the improvised stuff was used?
Marc:A lot.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah, a lot.
Guest:I mean, they had a full script, and a lot of that is in there, but there's a lot of bits that are...
Guest:And watching it, do you feel a little more proud of yourself?
Guest:I do.
Guest:I mean, they very generously cut me together in that.
Guest:Because I am telling you, for a good portion of that shoot, I was a disaster.
Guest:So they were very, you know, they cut me together.
Marc:Was there a lot of nights of yelling at yourself in front of your wife?
Marc:Like, what the fuck am I doing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And driving home, just like, what am I doing?
Guest:Like, you think of all the fun things you could have said in the drive home.
Guest:And, you know, again, it was my first time really doing something like this.
Guest:Did Adam have to talk you off the ledge a lot?
Guest:No, I didn't really show.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, I kept it to myself.
Guest:But I was just kind of in a constant state of embarrassment.
Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God, because that character is so not that, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was never really said this much about it, but it was kind of a weird thing.
Guest:But I have to say, by the end, I felt a lot better about myself.
Guest:Good.
Guest:But still, I was like, oh, boy, I don't know.
Marc:So now tell me about this idea that...
Marc:You're finding, like, because you are definitely in the upper echelon of the film comedy community now.
Marc:So you don't, you're losing your drive to perhaps do weighty, more disturbing roles?
Guest:Not necessarily.
Guest:I mean, it's weird, though, because, like, there's a whole community that I've...
Guest:a whole comedy community that's really lovely, you know?
Guest:Like, I met Paul Scheer doing Piranha 3D.
Guest:What was the angle on that?
Marc:Like, I know it was... What was the angle on it?
Marc:Well, I mean, the angle was we're going to redo this movie in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, right?
Marc:Yeah, I guess so.
Marc:But it didn't pan out that way?
Guest:It did.
Guest:I mean, I think it... Did you see it?
Guest:I didn't.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's... A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek and a lot of it is really gory and scary and gross.
Guest:And I think it's a really weird, cool movie, but it was a hard one to explain to the public, like, what is this?
Guest:Why are they doing this again?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Because it wasn't old enough for it to be camp in a pop culture way.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like, it wasn't a good, bad movie, necessarily.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So it was sort of like a little too soon.
Marc:It's like, why are they doing this?
Marc:Again.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And so it was someone's big idea.
Marc:Who was that big idea?
Marc:Was that?
Guest:I think it was Dimension, the Weinstein company.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Like Horror Wing.
Guest:And, you know, the movie itself is really cool.
Guest:Are you wanted for something?
Marc:Because I think that airplane's been circling for about 10 minutes.
Guest:Did you steal a car?
Guest:They're really curious about how I felt on Step Brothers and everything I was doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But anyway, I met Paul Scheer there.
Guest:And it's just kind of this great, like, if I'm on my way home from Parks and Rec and somebody's doing something at UCB or, like, the Doug Benson podcast or something, you know, stop there and jump on stage for a quick thing and then get in the car and go home.
Guest:Like, it's really fun.
Guest:Like, it's really great.
Guest:And it's a really terrific show.
Marc:community of people yeah it's not like in dramatic acting you have a community of dramatic actors who no there's none of that you can't stop by and do a little shakespeare right or stanley kowalski or whatever um well yeah there's a couple cats that are like that that are actors because i mean i don't talk to a ton a ton of actors yeah yeah yeah most of the people i talk to are sketch dudes or comedians or this or that but
Marc:I had, you know, like Jon Hamm's another one that seems to love hanging out at comedy places.
Marc:Are you friends with him?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, we've been friends for a really long time.
Guest:And used to go to comedy nights all the time.
Guest:Yeah, totally.
Guest:And so, you know, once we've both obviously kind of, him obviously way more than me kind of got our shot, it's great to be able to kind of embrace that and sort of...
Guest:I try and jump in.
Guest:I mean, I'm certainly not at the level of any of these people, let alone the people on the show that I'm on, but it certainly is fun to, you know, jump in there sometimes and just kind of feel like I'm a little bit a part of this.
Guest:You are a part of it.
Marc:What is it with this weird low level of...
Guest:confidence around being a comedic performer you seem to dismiss yourself an awful lot well it's not uh uh false modesty no i know i don't feel that yeah yeah it's i feel like you're genuinely insecure okay um it's uh it's i still feel like i'm it's kind of a new thing for me and i and i'm kind of enjoying um
Guest:my work really in a way that I, I, I, I'm enjoying my work kind of for the first time, like for the first time I feel like I'm doing something that I really feel like I, I, I finally know why I, I'm, why I came down here.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Like I realized the other day I've been down here longer than I was in Santa Cruz.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm, I'm here and I finally like, feel like I'm doing something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like you found a niche.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You're kind of like the go-to straight guy.
Guest:Yeah, I guess.
Guest:I mean, just being a part of something is nice.
Marc:But to be like the guy that is sort of anchor to clowns is an important job.
Marc:I guess so.
Marc:And I'm not trying to diminish anything you're doing.
Marc:No, no, no, no.
Marc:Believe me, it's nice.
Marc:But people forget that in a comedy where you're... Like even in Party Down and even on Parks and Rec, that you have...
Marc:You have a comedic, you know, persona on that show.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you're surrounded by very broad, you know, like, you know, comedic actors.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Or characters more so.
Marc:I'm not saying that anyone's a better actor or what.
Marc:But some of those characters are huge.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And yours is fairly grounded.
Marc:I mean, you're the guy going, come on.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Marc:Can we just please?
Marc:Right.
Marc:And that's an important, you're the anchor.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, I guess.
Marc:And Party Down, too.
Marc:You were this sort of weird sage of bitterness that had a certain amount of retrospect.
Marc:You were the only one that had any success and made a very profound decision to stop, which is everyone's biggest fear in this business.
Guest:Yeah, that was a challenge.
Guest:First of all, I think the cool thing about Parks and Rec is that Amy's character and Nick Offerman's character are both...
Guest:they they pull off the hat trick of being um the you know wildly kind of comedic and everything but they're both anchors as well which is really really um um interesting and really difficult um right that they make look incredibly easy but they're both really grounded i think you know all the characters on
Guest:on the show have a really grounded side, but you see Amy and Nick really holding it down while doing insane things.
Guest:It's really amazing to watch.
Marc:I guess what I mean is you're a good foil, because you get to be like, no, can we not really?
Marc:Guys, let's do some paperwork over here.
Marc:Yeah, and that just is sort of like a fuel for broad comedy characters.
Marc:So what happens now?
Marc:I mean, when you...
Marc:It's interesting to me, this whole, like the pressure of not coming from comedy and then being in these big comedy movies.
Marc:I mean, how crazy do you drive your wife with the insecurity?
Guest:You know, it's kind of calmed down.
Guest:I mean, you know, there's a thing that happens, and I'm sure it's the same with stand-ups as well.
Guest:I'm not sure, but you can tell me if it is, where...
Guest:It took me so long to get any traction whatsoever, but along the way from 1993 on, I kind of deluded myself into thinking it was just the opposite and that I was actually exactly where I wanted to be.
Guest:Well, you have to think that.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Yeah, but it's a powerful thing because you really do believe it, or I really did believe it, and it isn't until you kind of...
Guest:Get to a spot where something is actually happening that you look back and think like, wow, not only did I trick myself into thinking I was actually doing well when I was actually quite destitute and had no career whatsoever, but all the people around me.
Marc:went along with it, all the people that love me.
Marc:This whole business is fueled by, oh, you mean like your parents?
Guest:My parents and my wife and my friends all protected me from the truth of the matter.
Guest:Which is, what do you think that was?
Guest:The truth?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Was that I...
Guest:was nowhere and I could easily stop and no one would care and it might be a good idea.
Marc:So they believed in you.
Guest:I guess that's what that is.
Marc:And you see yourself as just delusional as opposed to maybe just believing in yourself.
Marc:Oh, man, I don't know.
Marc:I'm sorry, buddy.
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:Maybe that's true.
Marc:No, you have to.
Marc:I mean, I've talked about that before.
Marc:There is a large amount of delusion that is necessary to pursue a career in this, whether it's acting or comedy.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I mean, because on paper and in everyone else's minds, most people's, they're like, that's fucking ridiculous.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And even when you do make it, I've talked to people whose parents are sort of like, you sure you don't want to get a job that has a little more security?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, you could be on a TV show for a year.
Marc:They're just worried.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I think the fact that you found some success fairly early on, whether you liked it or not, it's enough to keep moving forward because a lot of people don't get that.
Guest:Yeah, I guess.
Guest:I mean, I guess success is a relative thing because I guess if I got a guest spot on Boy Meets World in the eyes of my family in Santa Cruz, that was success.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:It was like, OK, but what else?
Guest:Then I don't work for six months and I'm just like sitting in a dark apartment.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:We're sort of in a unique position that, you know, you're a good actor.
Marc:And, you know, it's it doesn't happen that often that, you know, people find, you know, you seem to be part of what you're doing up there.
Marc:You have a thing.
Marc:You have an Adam Scott thing.
Marc:And I think it took comedy.
Marc:to sort of reveal that.
Marc:I guess so.
Marc:Because in that HBO thing, I mean, you were great in that, and I remember you, because it was a painful fucking bit of business.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you definitely had chops.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But this other groove is good.
Guest:It wasn't that much...
Guest:fun to play a guy whose marriage is falling apart because they can't have a baby yeah i mean that sounds like fun but it wasn't it wasn't that much i mean it was fun working with my friend sonya and we became friends but um the show was you know it was kind of you know it's depressing but i think it's good i think it's good that it's there i i