Episode 280 - Danny McBride
Guest:Are we doing this?
Marc:Really?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Are we doing this?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:What the fuck?
Marc:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Marc:What's wrong with me?
Marc:It's time for WTF!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:With Marc Maron.
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you?
Marc:What the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fucking ears?
Marc:What the fuckaholics?
Marc:What the fuckstables?
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:Shalom.
Marc:Shalom to you all.
Marc:I say as a Jew who just went to his niece's bat mitzvah.
Marc:I was at a bat mitzvah.
Marc:I was at a Jewish family event.
Marc:And I got to tell you, as a Jew, I'm all filled up with Jew for the year.
Marc:I'm done Jewing it.
Marc:For the year, I am putting a moratorium on the Jewness for me outside of the Jew emitting from me always that I try to keep under wraps.
Marc:I'm going to I'm going to taper off a little bit.
Marc:I'm all filled with you right now.
Marc:And I had a good time.
Marc:I learned some things.
Marc:I was surprised at some things today on the show.
Marc:Danny McBride is here.
Marc:I'll talk about the Jew thing in just a second.
Marc:I'd like to tell you about the first 100 episodes on DVD.
Marc:Still a few left.
Marc:It's available now.
Marc:That's 100 episodes, MP3 files, with a hour-plus video of a live WTF we did in Brooklyn with Ira Glass and Artie Lang.
Marc:That's available from AST Records.
Marc:You can go to astrecords.com slash WTF, or you can go to wtfpod.com and pick that up.
Marc:A lot of good feedback for that.
Marc:Glad you enjoy it.
Marc:Love the packaging.
Marc:It's exciting.
Marc:oh i just wanted to throw this out there this is a an unsolicited uh promo from my heart a friend of the show hannibal burris maybe you remember him i've had him on live one i've had him on a one-on-one uh his special is on comedy central tonight if you want to watch that um he reminded me of that and i thought well okay sure man hannibal's funny let's throw him a bone
Marc:Chris Cooper, Coop, the artist, the amazing poster artist and painter, did a poster for me, a sort of odd rod pic of me in a Plymouth with smoke and fury and all of that.
Marc:The t-shirts are available now.
Marc:At wtfpod.com slash merch, the bitchin', kick-ass, hot rod, 70s retro.
Marc:I think they are.
Marc:I remember buying these when I was younger.
Marc:T-shirts are available at the site.
Marc:You can get them in a baseball jersey with black sleeves or just a plain white T-shirt.
Marc:Very proud of those shirts.
Marc:Very excited.
Marc:Which sort of...
Marc:Kind of segues in to the Bat Mitzvah.
Marc:How does a hot rod segue into the Bat Mitzvah?
Marc:Well, I went out to Phoenix.
Marc:I rented a car.
Marc:But the last time I was in Phoenix, I remember they had these cool cars on display.
Marc:They had three or four of these beautiful new.
Marc:They had the Mustang 5.0.
Marc:They had the new Camaro.
Marc:They had the new Charger, the new Challenger.
Marc:Just fucking hot.
Marc:Just motorized cock cars with the big engines, the V8s.
Marc:I look at those things.
Marc:I'm like, oh, that's interesting.
Marc:But what kind of guy buys a car like that?
Marc:A douchebag, right?
Marc:It's a douchebag car.
Marc:That's a that's a guy with a tiny dick.
Marc:That's a guy that, you know, just is trying to impress people with his his motorized high powered cock extension.
Marc:I condescended those cars, but they stuck in my brain, man, because I went back this time with Jessica.
Marc:And before I even got off the plane, I'm like, I'm going to ask about those cars this time.
Marc:And I went up to the gold counter.
Marc:I said, what's it take to get one of the one of the one of the toys out there?
Marc:And the guy said 50 bucks a day.
Marc:And I don't know what the fuck I was thinking, but I'm like, yeah, let's do it.
Marc:Which one do you want?
Marc:He says, I'm like, I'll take the Mustang, the one with the stripe.
Marc:I want the one with the stripe on it.
Marc:I want a race car.
Marc:so i got the mustang and i'm not a car guy man i got a camry it's beat up when i buy cars i want reasonably priced cars that i don't give a shit about so when it starts to turn shitty i don't care that's the way i am with automobiles all right that was until i got into this mustang this cobalt blue mustang with a white racing stripe down it leather seats you just turn that thing on i don't even know what a 5.0 is don't have no idea but
Marc:But I pulled out of that garage, I got that thing on the road, and it was asking me to drive it fast.
Marc:There was just something about the engine, the way it sounded, that I just was like, I would just put my foot on the gas pedal and was like, let's do this, man.
Marc:Don't be a pussy.
Marc:Fucking push it out.
Marc:And I got on that highway, and it just went from zero to 100 in like six, seven seconds, and I was flying.
Marc:And I felt great.
Marc:And then I thought, am I that guy?
Marc:No, dude, you're not that guy.
Marc:You're in the fortunate position where you just rented a full blown midlife crisis.
Marc:You got the young girlfriend.
Marc:Fine.
Marc:You don't have a lot of money.
Marc:Fine.
Marc:You're kind of.
Marc:subverting your midlife crisis a bit you're in denial that you're having it but you're renting a full-blown midlife crisis for the weekend enjoy yourself you're supposed to say fuck it let's just keep going man let's just keep going let's drive through the south let's go up the coast let's take it in let's just run out of gas and live there wherever we run out of gas yeah until hertz calls
Marc:But I found it tremendously exciting.
Marc:So I went to this bat mitzvah and it was I tell you, when you're a Jew, if you go to large Jewish family events, it's almost especially if you're not a Jew like I'm not.
Marc:It's almost like you're observing the full life cycle of the Jewish person.
Marc:You're actually seeing like, hey, I wonder what a sense of entitlement looks like at every phase during its development.
Marc:And, you know, you start with, you know, whining that you want things and then you start it just sort of evolves into you whining about everything and then whining about things going away.
Marc:And then again, whining about wanting things.
Marc:Very interesting.
Marc:The evolution of the sense of entitlement through the years is all on display.
Marc:But my niece had a great time.
Marc:It was actually very exciting for me to see a bunch of 13-year-olds dancing with sort of no cynicism.
Marc:All the girls danced together and were singing.
Marc:All the guys danced together.
Marc:There were those few bold guys that would kind of try to move into the girls' area.
Marc:Not really sure what they were doing there, but knew that it was important.
Marc:Were feeling the beginnings of urges that would most likely later destroy their lives one way or the other on both sides.
Marc:Just...
Marc:uncorrupted, childlike bliss.
Marc:Just teenagers, not quite blossomed, having a good time before everything turns to shit because of what's in their pants.
Marc:And it's interesting to be in a sanctuary, in a meditative place, in a religious space, but in a space that's designed for a community to ground themselves with a God that they believe in.
Marc:Now, I don't have a God I believe in, but I always loved the melody of the Kaddish, the mourner's prayer.
Marc:And I found myself sort of just doing it.
Marc:I mean, I like to sing it.
Marc:And I started thinking about some of the people I've known that have died over the last couple of years, comics I know, Patrice and Greg and Robert and Mike and people that I've known in my past.
Marc:And I just sort of let myself and let my heart and my thoughts go there during the Kaddish.
Marc:And I thought like, wow, I'm actually using this religion right now.
Marc:I'm taking the tools and I'm applying them and I'm meditating with this prayer that I don't understand for the reason it was used for.
Marc:It was cathartic in a very subtle way.
Marc:Then I went outside and I got into my Mustang.
Marc:Go right from morning into, you know, just overdrive.
Marc:So needless to say, I've had enough Judaism.
Marc:I'm not going to buy a Mustang, though I'm tempted.
Marc:I do not have the money, but it was enjoyable to do that.
Marc:It was fun.
Marc:Like there was moments in the Mustang where people would look at the car, look at me as if it were my car, and I didn't shrug and go, it's a rental.
Marc:I just owned it, tried to feel what it would feel like to own a car like that, decided it would feel ridiculous.
Marc:And the beautiful thing about that car was when I returned it, I was wondering when I had it, how many people went ahead and upgraded.
Marc:And I returned it, and there were no less than three dudes about my age with their wives returning this car.
Marc:And I saw a dude returning his right next to mine, and he was sort of looking at it, and I was looking at him.
Marc:I go, pretty fun car, huh?
Marc:He goes...
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it was almost there was a moment in his eyes where I could tell that he it almost it almost looked like he was breaking up with somebody that they just had no choice but to lead separate lives.
Marc:And I kind of felt the same way.
Marc:So that's that's my touching story about Judaism and and cars.
Marc:But that's what happens.
Marc:You start off an innocent 13-year-old excited about making a few bucks, getting through the prayers, dancing with your friends in an almost blissful innocence that has not become permanently corrupted by desires you can honor.
Marc:And then it ends up in a Mustang, sort of sublimating those desires.
Marc:And then it just eventually ends up with you sitting down, holding onto your chair.
Marc:All right, let's talk to the star of Eastbound and Down.
Marc:And he had a tremendous role in Tropic Thunder.
Marc:He was great and up in the air.
Marc:Very sweet guy.
Marc:Transcended all my expectations.
Marc:Lovely conversation.
Marc:Let's talk to Danny McBride.
Mm-hmm.
Marc:You need those?
Marc:Those are old cartridges.
Guest:Printer cartridges down here.
Marc:It's good.
Marc:I like to keep an array of shit so people can kind of play when they get nervous.
Marc:A wooden stake.
Marc:No, this is half a hammer.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Of course it is.
Marc:Yeah, that makes more sense, doesn't it?
Marc:Got some guitar strings.
Marc:Anything you need.
Marc:A brand new phone.
Marc:Sure, you can make a call on the old-timey phone.
Marc:I like it.
Marc:Do you even have a phone anymore?
Marc:Do you have a home phone?
Marc:No.
Marc:Walkie-talkies.
Marc:Oh, good for you.
Marc:Yeah, so the house is that big, you're doing all right for yourself.
Marc:Getting it going, yeah.
Marc:You just, like, I appreciate you coming over.
Marc:Danny McBride is in my garage.
Marc:Do you like it?
Marc:You all right with it?
Marc:It's the shit.
Guest:This is how garages should look.
Guest:I like it.
Guest:Did you expect it to be like this?
Guest:It's even more magical than I had imagined.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:This is my entire life in books and things I haven't read.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:This is a life lived with aspirations to read things.
Marc:It's nice.
Marc:This is a good place to hide from the rest of the world.
Marc:I like it.
Guest:It's cozy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Guitars.
Guest:We're ready to go.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:So now, where do you live?
Guest:I live in Hollywood right now.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Me and my wife live in the middle of Hollywood.
Guest:We have a five-month-old son.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So you're not sleeping.
Guest:No, we have a loft, so we know that we need walls.
Guest:That's the one thing we've learned with them.
Guest:With the kid?
Guest:That artist lifestyle goes out the fucking window when you have a five-month-old.
Marc:You're like, we have to stop this noise somehow.
Guest:We need a partition.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Maybe walls would be good, yeah.
Marc:So you just live in one loft?
Marc:It's like a, what is it?
Guest:Is it a house or is it the top of the building?
Guest:No, it's in that old ****.
Marc:Oh, right, right, right.
Marc:I'll bleep that out.
Marc:I don't need you.
Marc:You don't want.
Marc:My address is 16.
Marc:We heard you on the podcast.
Marc:Hold your baby up.
Marc:But you don't come from.
Marc:You come from the South, right?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I grew up in Virginia.
Guest:I was born in Georgia.
Guest:And we actually have a place back in Virginia still.
Guest:We try to get back there as much as we can.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because you got people back there?
Guest:I do.
Guest:My family's all back there.
Guest:A lot of the guys I grew up with still live back there.
Marc:See, I have a thing with the South, because I've spent time down there.
Marc:I'm fascinated with it.
Marc:I've decided that people that come from the South have a more defined personality because of their regional affiliation with that whole fucking trip down there.
Marc:Am I making sense?
Marc:No, you are making sense.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:You're a guy, you arrive on the scene, you're like, he's fully formed.
Marc:He's got a point of view, he's got an attitude, and it seems to have something to do with the South.
Guest:Yeah, well, you know, there's not a lot to do down there, so you have a lot of time to focus on how you're going to be presented to the world when you arrive.
Marc:It just forms through driving around in trucks and drinking.
Guest:Yeah, exactly, and drinking, lots of drinking.
Marc:But you grew up in which part exactly?
Guest:I grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is about an hour south of D.C., a big Civil War town.
Marc:Right, they do reenactments, right?
Marc:They do, they do reenactments.
Marc:Or is that, that's where that happens?
Guest:Yeah, the Battle of Fredericksburg happened there, and then like, you know, I think combined all the wars there, it's like the bloodiest ground in North America.
Marc:Right there?
Guest:Right there, yeah.
Marc:Just drenched with American upon American violence.
Guest:Comes through the cracks of the walls.
Guest:Do you know anything about the Civil War?
Guest:You know, when you grew up there, you're forced to like learn about the Civil War.
Guest:I mean, it's like, that's kind of lame living in a historical town, because when you're a kid and you go on field trips, you literally go like five minutes away from where you live, like
Marc:We're taking a field trip to this guy's house.
Marc:His backyard was a scene of an amazing execution.
Guest:But there's all sorts of crazy history there.
Guest:I mean, I bartended down in that town for a little bit when things weren't going so cool in Los Angeles.
Guest:And I met this guy that had graduated from college there.
Guest:He lived still in the downtown area.
Guest:And him and his friends one day digging in their backyard started to find all these fucking corpses, like bones of humans.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they had like one of the guys was an archaeologist and he realized that like this was a hospital where they had like, you know, this is where they really had buried some dead soldiers.
Guest:And these guys had such a good rate on their rent that they didn't like let their landlord know until they were ready to move because they knew it would be claimed by the government.
Guest:so they just when they get high they bring people out like don't tell anybody about this man there's nothing but bones in here yeah there's a lot of weird stuff like that like there's another big deal down there's like all those battlefields are there and it's you're not allowed to go metal detecting on battlefields it's like it's against the law against all you can like lose your home and everything and then i would know these guys who would like invest in these night vision goggles go out in the middle of the night and just try to elude these rangers and like to find belt buckles and bullets did they find
Guest:shit?
Guest:Oh, all the time.
Guest:And they would risk losing their homes just to find the bayonet of an old musket.
Marc:That's a whole new angle.
Marc:Usually with the metal detector, you picture the old guy on the beach, but these guys are like, no, we've got to stay down.
Marc:That's hilarious.
Marc:But okay, so
Marc:But what, like, I don't know much about the Civil War other than, like, from my point of view, the right side won.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:But down there, it's not always the point of view.
Guest:Well, you know, it's like, I think the South definitely gets a, you know, obviously, everyone knows what the South was fighting for, and everyone in the South isn't proud of that.
Guest:The South is a place definitely that isn't the same as it is portrayed, like, you know, 50, 60 years ago.
Guest:It's definitely grown.
Guest:A lot of people that live there aren't from there, didn't grow up there.
Guest:right right i don't even you go down to the south i like i have a younger sister who's just now like 19 years old and she doesn't have a southern accent it's like really no they all you know like that's something that also disappears do they give classes now to get rid of it to get rid of it from from the gate i think they just watch mtv and they all just like they're from the fucking hills that's what everyone no matter where they live sounds like that's true
Marc:I think the characterization of the South, and I try not to condescend to it too much, but it's always, if someone's going to do a dumb character as a stand-up, it's always like, what's up?
Marc:It's always that guy.
Marc:Did you ever know a comic named Killer Bees?
Marc:No.
Marc:There's a regional comic named Killer Bees that only works the South.
Marc:He had a tagline.
Marc:It's, save up.
Marc:You better save up.
Marc:Like, after everything.
Marc:Better save up.
Marc:You better save up.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So wait, now, you were bartending when things weren't going well in L.A., so how many times have you taken a crack at this thing out here?
Guest:Tons of times.
Guest:I moved out here in 99, and right after I got out of film school.
Marc:But that was before Foot Fist Way.
Guest:That was.
Guest:The Foot Fist Way was the last escape from L.A., and then it was like, that's the one where it was like, I literally moved out of Los Angeles, like, fuck this town, I'm done with this.
Marc:Right out of film school.
Marc:So is that where you met your crew?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, that's where I met all the guys, Jody, David Green, all the guys that I worked with.
Guest:Yeah, we all met there.
Guest:And that was where?
Guest:That was the North Carolina School of the Arts, this little film school that we were like the third class to graduate from there.
Guest:So it was a brand new film school there.
Marc:And was that, okay, so that was undergraduate, right?
Marc:Yeah, yep.
Marc:So you moved out here like right after film school, like, fuck it, I'm doing it.
Guest:Here we go.
Guest:We moved over like 30 guys, and after the first six months, there was like 10 of us left.
Guest:how did they fall off like how what was the timing like one guy last a month like this is i can't i equate it to like uh what it must have been like for the soldiers to storm the beach at normandy where everyone's just quiet in this you know waiting like this is going to be all of our dreams in the amphibious vehicle right before the gates and then you see guys get shot in the water guys don't even make it to the beach and that's that was kind of like what it was like for a lot of my southern friends and they moved to los angeles yeah
Marc:You always feel bad for the guy that takes the bullet before the thing even drops open.
Marc:Just about to get up.
Guest:Boom, he's done.
Guest:He never made it out of his waiting tables job at Crocodile Cafe.
Marc:It's a hard town.
Marc:Can you put your finger on why it's hard?
Marc:I think it has to do with expectation.
Marc:I mean, guys who can't handle it within months, I don't know what they were expecting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, especially at that school, it's going to school with a bunch of people from that area.
Guest:You're so far from the entertainment industry.
Guest:You have no idea what it's going to be like.
Guest:And you're also kind of like in my town.
Guest:It's like I was the only kid I knew who wanted to make movies.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And suddenly you move to a town where every single person you meet wants to make movies.
Guest:And that takes a little bit of getting used to.
Marc:It's a sting, right?
Marc:Yeah, it is.
Marc:Because you're special where you come from.
Marc:But out here, you're just like, yeah, get online.
Marc:Time it doesn't.
Marc:Did you write anything?
Yeah.
Marc:But that guy, David Gordon Green, and your other friend, who is it, Jody West?
Marc:Jody Hill, close.
Marc:Jody Hill?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Watch, I'm going to fix it right now.
Marc:And your other friend, Jody Hill, he just cut that shit, man.
Guest:I love it.
Marc:But you guys all, you graduated at the same time and you came out at the same time?
Guest:David graduated a year before Jody and I, and Jody and I graduated the same year.
Guest:Yeah, David, he graduated a year before us, came out to L.A., so he kind of was the scout mission.
Guest:He kind of gave us the lay of the land.
Guest:Then we came back and shot George Washington, and that's the movie that kind of launched David's career.
Marc:Well, it's sort of interesting with him because he was heralded as the next Terrence Malick.
Marc:This guy's an art filmmaker, and you dragged him down into comedy?
Marc:I fucked his whole thing up.
Guest:You know, at school, he made these really fucking weird, strange comedies.
Guest:My first year of film school, the first thing I ever saw at that school was his film called Will You Lather Up My Rough House?
Guest:And it was about these two dudes who live together and make soap.
Guest:And it was just like the strangest, weirdest comedy ever.
Guest:And so when he got all these accolades for these art films, it was kind of funny knowing that underneath it's like, this guy is going to make some crazy shit that people are not going to be able to get their heads around.
Marc:Did he know that?
Marc:Is he happier doing comedy?
Guest:You know, I think he's the type of guy where I bet you he doesn't do comedies for a while.
Guest:I mean, he has so many weird ideas and stuff.
Guest:He wants to do Suspiria.
Guest:I mean, he just wants to kind of bounce all over the place.
Guest:Suspiria?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You remember that?
Guest:Remember, there was like an old Italian film, and he wants to do a remake of an old Italian horror film.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:really yeah and so i don't know i feel like he's gonna i wouldn't doubt him doing a western a weird sci-fi i mean he he just wants to be like paul thomas anderson he's a fucking weirdo yeah yeah yeah so when you're in uh when you're growing up in the south there
Marc:Well, I'm just trying to picture you, because I only watch you on television.
Marc:I see you in movies, so I've decided who you are.
Marc:Okay, of course.
Marc:So I picture you like, come on, fuck it, let's go.
Marc:And you go out in the truck, and you knock mailboxes off and stuff like that with bats.
Guest:This is going to be super disappointing to you.
Guest:I drove a Ford Escort.
Guest:Oh, boy.
Guest:Red Ford Escort.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I did drama in high school.
Marc:You're not the man that I...
Guest:musicals and no musicals all right well at least those dudes that that that drove the trucks they would fuck with me oh really yeah yeah i was i was not i was not uh no like a junior version of kenny powers when i was a kid so yeah well that's what i think that's what makes kenny powers so appealing is that the little drama guy inside at the core of all that badass a little nerd
Marc:Drama, really?
Marc:So you were at war with the jocks in high school?
Guest:You know, I was just a kid who was like, I was just into movies all growing up.
Guest:I wasn't into sports or anything.
Guest:I mean, I had like one other buddy who loved movies as much as me.
Guest:And, you know, I would see movies all the time.
Guest:And drama was just like a weird way of like, all right, this is somehow connected to what I want to do ultimately with, you know.
Guest:But I kind of always saw myself more like behind the camera.
Guest:I never really thought I would be involved with any sort of acting at all.
Guest:Really?
Guest:No, never.
Guest:And even when I went to film school, I was going there to...
Guest:you know direct and write and uh and i ended up just acting in things for david and ultimately foot fist way for jody literally because we just didn't know actors we had right right no connection any actors and you know i had written the script so i was like well i can memorize the lines that will be one step you know we don't have to worry about that part of it so you had no sense that you were a comedic powerhouse no not not at that age but now i'm fully i fully realize this
Marc:You've made some other people money.
Marc:That's a coronation.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:This guy's guaranteed laughs.
Marc:But what was your family like?
Marc:What was the racket there?
Marc:Did you grow up with any drama?
Guest:No, no, no real drama.
Marc:I mean, it's like entertainment.
Guest:No, no entertainment.
Guest:I mean, like the closest thing to entertainment was when I was a kid.
Guest:We went to church like all the time and my mom like what did like puppet ministry.
Guest:She liked it.
Guest:Like she would write like these little like, you know, two minute little like Bible lessons and then do puppets in front of the church for the kids.
Guest:Were they puppets that she made or?
Guest:There were puppets that she purchased.
Guest:Bought puppets.
Guest:But I think she chose their outfits that they wore and stuff.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's pretty cool.
Guest:What religion was that?
Guest:We grew up going to a Baptist church.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So both your folks are Baptists?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But my parents got divorced when I was in sixth grade, and we tried to go back to church, but then everyone was just kind of ... In the South, they're assholes when you get divorced.
Marc:Oh, you didn't hang in.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:stick it out it was a slow drop off like we noticed that my mom was just dropping me and my sister off at church for a few months and then then it just sort of like well if she's not going why the fuck do we have to go and then it was all over if she's lost her faith well how is she gonna try to convince us that's the right thing to do the judgmental churchgoers won so yeah do you have a relationship with both your parents uh i do yeah i mean i'm i'm closer to my mom i uh i see her more often but uh by my dad lives down in florida and uh
Marc:Oh, that's already a Florida's.
Guest:Yeah, it's gross.
Guest:It's the poor man's California.
Marc:I don't know what it is.
Marc:I have no idea what's going on down there.
Marc:My mother lives down there, too, and I fluctuate between like, you know, this place has got its own thing.
Marc:It's fucking weird.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Between that and like, I got to get the fuck out of here.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I did some time there for a little bit in sixth grade.
Guest:I lived in a weird place called Deltona, which is like halfway between Daytona and Orlando.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It sucked.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:it was terrible what's his what's his business uh i don't know what he does now at one point he was like a manufacturing crossbows i think and i'm not sure what what the hell this gig is now that was a booming uh you know business idea yeah it really was he a big ideas guy my dad's a big ideas guy because i don't that sounds like one of those ones you don't follow through on no you don't i'm not sure how well you manufacture crossbows it's gonna be the next big it's bigger than nunchucks
Marc:It's true, they are.
Marc:Well, there's that whole world of hunters that believe in that.
Marc:Like, it's the righteous way to kill something.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:With a crossbow or just a regular bow.
Marc:Of course.
Marc:A crossbow is the one that you shoot, right?
Guest:Yeah, a crossbow, yeah, you shoot it.
Guest:Did you have those in your past?
Guest:I didn't.
Guest:I want one, though.
Guest:I've always wanted one.
Guest:Like a double-barreled crossbow I thought would be cool.
Guest:And your mom still lives in?
Guest:She lives in Virginia, yeah, with my stepdad.
Guest:And my sister lives there.
Guest:And I have a younger sister who's in college that goes to college in Virginia.
Guest:So life is pretty much exactly how it was when I left there.
Guest:So there's a few more Best Buys and Targets there.
Marc:Isn't that weird, though, that you go, like, I've noticed that a lot because I travel, that there's no place that has any sort of indigenous feel to it.
Marc:You've got to go hunting for, like, the barbecue place.
Marc:You've got to find, yeah, there's one at this guy's house.
Marc:You're like, great.
Marc:Yes, that sounds unique.
Marc:Yeah, that.
Marc:But you can't find unique experience anywhere.
Guest:You can, and especially that area of Virginia.
Guest:It's like all of northern Virginia.
Guest:It's like one exit to the next.
Guest:The towns mirror each other.
Guest:They just put in these humongous shopping centers that all have the same exact stores.
Guest:Yeah, Walmart.
Guest:It's in 10 miles.
Marc:Walmart every 20 miles, and that's where everyone congregates.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:Yeah, it's sad is what it is.
Marc:But so you're living here.
Marc:All right, so let's go back.
Marc:So you come out here with the crew the first time and just watch your friends lose sense of their selves.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I got to go home.
Marc:And then you split after that.
Marc:How long did it take you to leave?
Guest:Okay, I lived here for, I managed to stay in for like two years, and then I went through a really bad breakup with the girl I'd been dating since college.
Guest:And then that threw me back.
Guest:That was the first trip where I went back.
Guest:Was she here with you?
Guest:Yeah, she moved here with me.
Guest:And then she started wearing slinkier clothes, and everything just went downhill really fast.
Marc:You were here to make it.
Marc:She was here to find somebody who already made it.
Guest:Yeah, and that's the thing, too.
Guest:When you move here as a young kid, you're right out of film school.
Guest:You're 21 years old, and it's like there's guys who are 28 and have some real money, and you're still kind of living on like a $25 a week sort of like – And you realize that you're just there to provide them with new girlfriends.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:You bring out your – Fell for the trap right out of the gate.
Guest:And so that was the first hit the wall of like, geez, this is tough out here.
Marc:This is brutal.
Marc:Heartbreak and no way in.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's like you didn't have an agent or nothing, right?
Guest:Oh, nothing.
Guest:A couple ideas.
Guest:Just a few shitty scripts that I came out with.
Marc:And you're eating fat burgers and wondering how many people were living in the house.
Marc:At that point, there were four of us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, so that was no good.
Guest:In an apartment in Burbank.
Guest:And I can remember still the day when I found out that it was over with her.
Guest:I was working at the Crocodile Cafe in Burbank, which is no longer there.
Guest:And I went into the manager and just told him, like, I don't think I can do my shift today.
Guest:I'm just...
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:My girlfriend just broke up with me.
Guest:And I was there.
Guest:I'm like, don't cry.
Guest:And I start crying in front of this guy who doesn't give a shit.
Guest:And he's just looking at me.
Guest:And he's like, all right, just get yourself together.
Guest:Like, go take some time off.
Guest:And he puts his hand out.
Guest:And I assume that he's going in for like a hug.
Guest:But he wasn't.
Guest:He was going for a handshake.
Guest:And I'm just like hugging him crying with my apron from Crocodile Cafe on.
Marc:i remember just walking back to my apartment just like with my apron like wrapped up in like my white polo shirt with my name tag just like fuck la i hate this out here this is like the worst there's so many bad there's so many beautifully poignant bad parts of that story the misjudged hug and then the walk back with the work clothes
Guest:Terrible.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:And that walk back with your apron, you're just sort of like, oh, that's it.
Marc:I got to go.
Marc:And how long before you split?
Guest:So I probably lasted about another two weeks.
Guest:And then I was back to – I moved back to – but this was just temporary.
Guest:I just knew that I needed to – I knew I needed to get my swerve back on.
Guest:I was having a really hard time doing that in Los Angeles.
Guest:So I went back to Virginia.
Guest:And hung out there for the summer, basically, and then kind of saved up some cash, got ready to move back out here and assault this town one more time.
Marc:So you went back, you got the bartending job, you got laid, you got your confidence back.
Guest:Back in the swing.
Guest:And then moved out here.
Guest:And then things were kind of looking up.
Guest:I got a job as a cameraman doing motion control for History Channel and VH1, the type of thing where you're just zooming in on my phone.
Marc:So you're still all about directing.
Guest:Trying to get in there.
Guest:And at this point, because I'm getting paid to even operate a camera and I have health insurance, it feels like I've made it.
Guest:I've come a long way.
Marc:What were those first scripts like?
Guest:Well, the first one I wrote was called Most Scariest.
Guest:And it was about these Jersey frat boys who move into a haunted house.
Guest:It was brilliant.
Guest:It would have been awesome.
Guest:It was like years before Jersey Shore.
Guest:I knew that those guys would be hilarious.
Marc:Yeah, so you had a parody of them before they became a parody of themselves.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:I was ready.
Guest:Had you had experience with New Jersey?
Guest:No, I hadn't.
Guest:You invented them?
Guest:Yeah, I knew.
Guest:You were prophetic.
Guest:It was the Nostradamus of reality television.
Guest:I knew that they were going to be a hit.
Marc:Now, have you called that X yet just to say, like, hey, what's going on?
Marc:Remember me?
Guest:No, I haven't wasted any time.
Guest:Oh, good for you.
I know.
Guest:There's just too many things that are embarrassing about that point in my life that I just pretend like it never happened.
Guest:Each time I move back to L.A., it's like, this is my first time in this city.
Marc:I did not exist before this time.
Guest:You ignore all the people that you used to work with.
Guest:Like, no, you have the wrong Danny.
Guest:I'm out here for the first time.
Guest:I just moved to town.
Marc:I heard about that guy that used to work at Crocodile Cafe.
Marc:He cried.
Marc:Yeah, that's hilarious.
Marc:You're not the dead enemy pride that cried at the Crocodile Cafe.
Marc:It's not me.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I've heard that story before.
Marc:That stands out as a real downfall.
Guest:That's your bottom.
Guest:That's your first bottom.
Guest:I hit rock bottom with that, definitely.
Guest:But when I came back that second time, everything hadn't necessarily wrapped up with that ex at that point.
Guest:Something even worse happened with her, which was I got back on my feet in Glendale.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:Moved one town over from Burbank.
Guest:Starting a new life with me and two of my other buddies who were still out there.
Guest:And one day, you know, I'm starting.
Guest:I got a job.
Guest:I've got things going.
Guest:I get this phone call.
Guest:One of my roommates answers the phone, and it's the ex.
Guest:And he was not supposed to give the phone to me.
Guest:I mean, that was a solid rule.
Guest:But he smiles.
Guest:He's like, hey, the phone's for you.
Guest:And this has been about six months since we broke up.
Guest:She is on the phone, and she's crying.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:danny you gotta come get me the guy that i'm seeing just threw me down the stairs and like beat me up you gotta come pick me up i'm just like oh i'm you know i don't want to be with her but you know i still am like tortured over this sure i'm like okay you know i'm all like you're like 21 yeah and i'm ready to do this i get my two roommates like we got to go over there and kick this guy's ass we're gonna go save her and we get golf clubs out of my roommate's car and like we're driving to burbank and i remember like satisfaction was like playing like we can have no hesitation we have to just like pull up and smoke this fucking guy
Guest:And we roll up to where she's at.
Guest:We're looking for the street.
Guest:It's in Burbank.
Guest:And we pull up, and she's just standing there on the corner with this dude who's fucking 6'5".
Guest:He's a personal trainer.
Guest:He's this huge, muscle-bound dude.
Guest:And all of us just stay in the car.
Guest:We're just like, okay, just come on.
Guest:You can just come on in the car.
Guest:You can just get in here.
Guest:a couple of these sorry man she just needed riding we're here to pick her up so she goes to the car he doesn't let her in he grabs her back and so i'm in i'm in this weird position where it's like fuck i gotta you know okay i guess i have to get out so i literally get out of the car i'm like none of my roommates come out they just hand me the golf club through the window and so i'm just standing there with the golf club just like come on man we gotta we gotta let her get into the car now man and uh
Guest:The guy just looks at me, and he's like, what the hell are you going to do with that golf club?
Guest:And he comes up into my face, and I'm like, I can't believe you'd hit a girl, man.
Guest:What's wrong with you?
Guest:And he's like, what are you going to do with that golf club?
Guest:It's like this big challenge.
Guest:So he had challenged me, so I had to do something with it.
Guest:So I fucking swing back and crack him in his knees as hard as I can, and I just hit him with the shaft.
Guest:And so it literally just breaks.
Guest:And he's just standing there looking at me, and I'm holding just the handle of the golf club.
Guest:And instantly I just try to change something like, oh, man, I mean, how messed up are you that you would hit a girl on?
Guest:needs to say that dude just fucking pounds on me i mean that was it yeah he's got my face i'm on the ground i'm getting the shit beat out of me my roommates are still sitting in the car just like watching it on the ex-girlfriend like gets on there and she's hitting him gets me off and then finally i'm trying to get everyone in the car we get everyone into the uh at this point it's a honda elantra i had upgraded from the oh good yeah because i moved to la i needed a cooler car
Guest:And the dude just walks over to the passenger seat, who my buddy, who's sitting there with the most useful weapon, which is a baseball bat, is sitting there shaking in the passenger seat.
Guest:The guy just comes over, opens up the door, and just grabs the baseball bat out of his hand, and then just starts going to town on my car.
Guest:And it's just like, oh, Jesus Christ, this whole thing failed.
Guest:And...
Guest:and so we we get her in the car and like get out of there yeah and then it's like on the way home it's just kind of like who the fuck are you dating like what is this like what's happened and that's what she tells us that this guy knows where we live and all this stuff so it's like we're screwed it's like we find out that this guy has like a criminal record and he's like coming for us and so me and my friends basically like i'm trying to calm my roommates down they're pissed like why the fuck are you getting us involved with this shit and uh
Guest:And I'm like, it's going to be fine.
Guest:Nothing's fine.
Guest:This guy's not going to mess with us.
Guest:He has his own deal with her.
Guest:We were just picking her up.
Guest:Helping out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No bueno.
Guest:Next thing we know, we look out our window.
Guest:There's a fucking car of six SUVs circling the front of our place.
Guest:Get the fuck out of here.
Guest:Oh, it was nuts.
Guest:And so my roommates are in this really weird apartment complex that was backed up to the LA River.
Guest:right and so these guys apparently she had taken him on a date to uh there was like this parking lot on the other side of the la river where there was like a little carnival or something so apparently they had been on a date before so he knew where our house was from across the river but you had to drive down like a mile to get across and come back up so we look out there's all these suvs they're screaming and looking up at us and they burn out they're going to try to find the place my roommates are gone
Guest:They're out to their car, and I just grab a handful of stuff and a kitchen knife, and I'm moving to this fucking apartment complex.
Guest:We're the only white guys who live in this apartment complex.
Guest:It's all Asian families, and it's just me.
Guest:They're all eating dinner, and I'm crawling around with this knife looking for my roommates.
Guest:End up getting into the parking garage, and I get to my car, but my roommate's cars are still there.
Guest:I was like, fuck, these guys, they haven't got out.
Guest:This is my responsibility.
Guest:You've got to go back for them?
Guest:I've got to go back for them, looking for them.
Guest:We all run into each other, scaring the shit out of each other.
Guest:And it's like, we got in there and literally left and never went back to that apartment for six months.
Guest:Like, we were paying rent there.
Guest:All of our stuff was there.
Guest:We were so fucking scared.
Guest:We just never came back there until we had to move because our lease was up.
Guest:Even to that day, it was like tiptoeing in in disguises, like trying to take things out.
Marc:Like that dude had a guy there every day.
Guest:We didn't know how far-reaching his criminal enterprise was.
Yeah.
Marc:Where did you end up staying?
Guest:We ended up crashing in Hollywood with some buddies that we went to film school with.
Guest:And that ended up honestly being the best thing in the world because we were just living in the valley on the outskirts.
Guest:And if you're going to move to L.A.
Guest:in your early 20s, you've got to do a little time in a shitty apartment in Hollywood, at least for a few months.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And some people start in the valley.
Marc:I think the valley is that weird area where you're either going to survive that or you're not.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And you left once.
Marc:Now, did you stay in town that time?
Guest:I stayed in that time until the first acting guy got, which was All the Real Girls.
Guest:So I was there for like a solid year, left to go do All the Real Girls, and that was the first thing I had ever acted in.
Guest:Great Green had got that film, and he had an actor pull out at the last minute.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so he just called and asked if I would come do it, and really only based on the fact that we would act in each other's student films, and so he knew that I would at least have my lines memorized.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's really what the extent of all my acting jobs have been is that I could memorize lines.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:And then you left again.
Guest:And then I did all the real girls, which shot North Carolina.
Guest:And that was great.
Guest:Came back to Los Angeles.
Guest:And and then that's when Jody was like, look, I really am sick of he was working in reality TV at the time.
Guest:He was doing like road rules, real world stuff.
Guest:And he was like, I'm going to blow my brains out.
Guest:I got to go make a movie.
Guest:And that's when he pitched me the Foot Fist Way and was like, would you have any interest in writing this with me?
Guest:Like, let's you know, I'm going to go try to pull this off.
Guest:And yes, then we wrote that script and went down to North Carolina and shot it.
Guest:And I just between all the real girls and Foot Fist Way, I just had such a good time being back in the South where when you fight people, it's just over and they don't send, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:caravans and SUVs to finish the deal.
Guest:And so I was just ready to kind of get back there and live back there in the South.
Guest:So after Foot Fist Way, I packed myself up in LA and was planning on just trying to make it back in the South.
Marc:Well, what was the plan there, really?
Guest:I mean, looking back, there wasn't a good plan there.
Marc:It was really just like, you're like, you know, I can rest my laurels.
Marc:I did one part.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was kind of like also just trying to, I didn't know if I was on the right path.
Guest:If I was like, maybe I just need to be a writer and just like, you know, I don't need to write in Los Angeles.
Marc:Like, did you have the thoughts of like, sort of like, well, there's gotta be a local film business here.
Guest:Maybe I get in the community theater.
Guest:Who knows?
Guest:I can, I can shoot industrials.
Guest:Who knows?
Marc:So on some level you'd had enough again.
Guest:Yeah, and I think it was just because we had such a good time being back in the South.
Guest:There's just something for me personally.
Guest:Every time I get off the plane back in the South, I just feel at ease.
Marc:Because it's where you grew up, and you understand things.
Guest:You understand how things work.
Marc:Like, oh, that guy's an asshole.
Marc:Here he comes.
Marc:Sure enough.
Marc:But out here, you're like, okay, they're all assholes in hiding.
Marc:And somehow or another, I've got to learn how to talk to them.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And it's exhausting.
Guest:And so I moved back that time, which I thought was going to be for good.
Guest:And then as soon as I moved back, I found out in November that Foot Fist got into Sundance.
Guest:And so then it was like, oh, well, you know.
Marc:That was the beginning of the role.
Marc:I mean, in the sense that you hadn't heard anything about it.
Marc:You made the movie.
Marc:And then Jody went and did the paperwork, and it got in.
Guest:It got in.
Guest:And then as soon as it got in, everything started to change then.
Guest:I mean, we got into Sundance, and...
Guest:Next thing you know, we're hearing that, like, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay saw the film.
Guest:And that's really just when everything started to take off.
Guest:We started, like, that movie just kind of – even though it didn't have a distribution deal from Sundance, it just started getting passed around through town.
Guest:And we just started – I don't know.
Guest:People were just kind of starting to be interested in the stuff that we've been trying to do for years.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So then all of a sudden it's like you're taking meetings.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Taking the couch tour.
Guest:Getting lots of free bottles of water.
Wow.
Marc:Coffee?
Marc:Anything you need?
Marc:Coffee?
Marc:Water?
Marc:Okay, we get you water.
Marc:In terms of integrating into the comedy intelligentsia of this town, so it was Will and Adam that championed that movie, and then did you have any, because there's a couple of camps.
Marc:There's the Will and Adam camp, there's the Apatow camp, there's the Stiller camp, and you seem to be roaming freely through them all.
Guest:Well, you know, with Apatow, it's like they invited me to the set of Knocked Up.
Guest:And, you know, I'd been a big fan of Judd.
Guest:How'd you meet him?
Guest:It was, once again, just through that film.
Guest:Like, you know, we had met with Adam and Will, and then Judd had seen the film.
Guest:And I had been honestly following Judd for a while.
Guest:I mean, things like Cable Guy, I loved that.
Marc:That was a good dark movie.
Guest:And...
Guest:So, yeah, he invited me to the set and that was mind blowing.
Guest:You know, it was pretty crazy.
Guest:And, you know, at this point, like Will and Adam are like the only famous people I've ever met in my life.
Guest:And then a week later, I'm like meeting Rogan and, you know, Judd and all these people that I, you know, I've been a fan of.
Guest:And then it just started, everything just started happening like super quick, like met those guys, clicked with them and really dug them.
Guest:And, uh,
Guest:yeah it was not it was it was nuts it was all happening really really fast so what was it what was the the order of events so you did foot this way you're on Conan and you did the character yeah and then and what was the first big casting the first big casting was hot rod that was like the first thing I got and so I go to Vancouver to do hot rod and then while I was there I got a
Guest:uh like a supporting role in in heartbreak kid and drill bit taylor so i came back from hot rod and did both of those films so yeah so it was like in the course of literally like nine months i went from you know smoking weed and sitting on my couch watching these people on tv to like just being thrown into scenes with them and uh yeah it was it was pretty nice so what direction did you take your uh your your spite and disappointment i mean when you're sitting on the couch smoking weed were you the fuck that guy or or the uh i'm fucked guy
Guest:I didn't hold any anger towards anyone for my failures at that point.
Guest:I was still enjoying what they were doing.
Guest:So you were like, I'm never going to.
Guest:It was just lying to yourself.
Guest:I could be a teacher.
Guest:I wanted to do other things.
Guest:I'm a fool for thinking I want to get in entertainment.
Marc:So you did that too, the teacher thing.
Guest:Yeah, I actually subbed for a while.
Marc:In your mind.
Guest:Oh, you did?
Guest:I substitute taught for a while.
Guest:When I moved back to Virginia that one time, I was bartending at night and substituting in the daytime.
Guest:Yeah, and I was making an honest living.
Guest:I was doing it.
Marc:Look at you.
Marc:I was a real guy for a little while.
Marc:This is not all Hollywood bullshit.
Marc:I substitute, teachered, and I bartended.
Guest:And I think the substituting gig is kind of what spawned Kenny, because the first day that I was a substitute teacher, I was in there and it was just kind of feeling weird.
Marc:Kenny Powers, you had spawned it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was like, you know, I was in there and for some reason, like the very first time I like the first group of kids came in, I like had written my name on the chalkboard doing the shit that I remembered people would do when I was in school.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, like, I just started unraveling with the first kids.
Guest:I was, like, kind of introducing myself.
Guest:And then all of a sudden I found myself, like, having to justify to these kids why I was a substitute teacher.
Guest:Just telling them, like, I got real plans.
Guest:You know, I'm like, this is a fucking stop on the block for me.
Guest:I'm on my way back.
Guest:I got to L.A.
Guest:after I saved up some money, and these kids are just looking at me just like, we don't give a shit.
Guest:We're not even listening.
Guest:No.
Guest:What year were they?
Guest:They were high school kids, so those were probably like ninth or tenth graders.
Marc:So you felt like you needed to get some credit?
Marc:Like I needed to justify that.
Guest:I was like, hey, you know.
Marc:This isn't my full-time thing.
Guest:Yeah, all they cared about was like, Mr. McBride, you smoke weed.
Guest:All they cared about was if I smoked weed and what kind of car I drove.
Marc:Did you give him that information?
Guest:I wouldn't.
Guest:I mean, I would answer the question about the car, which none of them were.
Guest:And they all just thought you were like, what kind of car do you drive?
Guest:And it's like, oh, a Hyundai Elantra.
Guest:And they're like, psh, motherfucker thinks he's a movie star.
Marc:so the weed thing you kind of deferred i don't think that's appropriate but i do drive a honda elantra yeah yeah didn't impress him no they didn't they weren't buying so that so that would be the natural evolution of that that's a hilarious moment that you know you feel that feeling like you're still a guy that's that self-obsessed yeah that he's still competing with anybody a baby yeah it just shows where i was at in my life
Marc:so that didn't last long it didn't last long no that's funny because i mean that that's weird plan b because i i you know if i in my darkest moments that that's where i go like well i could teach something like where where's like now now that everything's going good and it doesn't look like it's going to stop i mean i imagine that plan b shit kind of fades right well it's no i'm still like well you know at this point if it all was over i could at least teach some sort of college course maybe about screenwriting you know it's like
Guest:You still think that?
Guest:Yeah, I still think about that.
Guest:Well, if it goes tits up, I probably could get at least a gig at a community college.
Marc:You could probably get a pretty cush gig at a real college on a seminar course.
Marc:You could just show up once a week, hang out.
Guest:I would be happy with that, too.
Guest:Did you play ball?
Guest:No, not at all.
Guest:It was terrible.
Guest:It was one of those weird things, too, with the show.
Guest:I think Jody and I never even really thought about the baseball aspect until after we set it up.
Guest:And it was a week before we were filming the pilot.
Guest:Jody's like, you should probably work with a real pitcher so you can see how to throw.
Guest:And I was like, fuck, I never even thought that I needed to know how to throw a baseball.
Guest:Ever.
Guest:And then we saw, and I was like, oh, and I don't know how to throw a baseball.
Guest:You never did any sports in high school or anything?
Guest:I ran track, and then I was a soccer player when I was a kid.
Guest:In the South, I feel like everybody grows up playing soccer, but for some reason, they don't end up watching soccer as adults.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You can watch it, apparently.
Marc:I don't know where it is.
Marc:I know it's a global sport, and we're the last ones on the wagon for that.
Marc:How did Eastbound and Down develop, though?
Marc:You just had this character?
Marc:I mean, what was he?
Guest:Well, it was, you know, with Foot Fist Away, we definitely, you know, Jody and I shot that thing so cheap, and we shot it, I think it was like in 17 days altogether.
Guest:And it was really the first time, we had written lots of stuff, but that was the first time we had kind of tried to write a comedy together.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because a lot of the stuff I would write was all over the place.
Guest:I mean, I'd write weird fantasy stuff or horror stuff.
Marc:Like fantasy stuff?
Marc:Like what?
Marc:Fairytale?
Marc:No, no, not fairytale.
Guest:Like weird movies about dragon hunters.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Weird shit.
Marc:You got a dragon hunter script somewhere?
Guest:The Draven, yeah.
Guest:He's half dragon, half man.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Pretty exciting.
Marc:That's the name of the... Yeah.
Guest:This would be a huge franchise, of course.
Guest:The guy who works at Crocodile Cafe wrote this.
Guest:This would be a huge franchise, Hollywood.
Guest:The Draven.
Yeah.
Guest:gonna have to get some t-shirts for that at least the draven what was the horror movie uh the horror movie was like this weird which i still think is a good idea it was like back in the you know back in new orleans uh in the day when there would be floods the uh the coffins would like rise up from the uh from the ground they would like float out into the because everyone's buried above sea level yeah and so they would hire these guys to basically go out in the swamps and uh
Guest:and like retrieve these coffins.
Guest:And so it was this like really fucked up apocalypse now sort of dark horror film about these guys who like.
Marc:Right, who go out into the swamps.
Guest:To go find this rich man, the body of this rich man's daughter.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:They're mercenary corpse finders.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:In the 1800s.
Guest:So there you go.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:So it's dated.
Guest:It was a period piece too.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:All the kind of shit Hollywood's looking for from a 19-year-old kid.
Guest:Period.
Guest:In an apron.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In an apron.
Marc:Crying.
Crying.
Marc:Hey, Mr. Spielberg, the crying kid.
Marc:He just really wants to talk to you.
Marc:Something about his girlfriend and the Draven.
Marc:Well, fuck, man.
Marc:So in terms of working with Jody, you guys had not written a straight comedy.
Marc:He had written some?
Guest:No, he hadn't written them either.
Marc:Other than The Foot Fist Way.
Guest:Yeah, it was just something for us.
Guest:With The Foot Fist Way, when we started, it was the world.
Guest:Jody had grown up doing taekwondo.
Guest:He's like a black belt.
Guest:And I had taken karate growing up as a kid.
Guest:So it was definitely a world that we were kind of used to and we knew about.
Guest:And I think at the time, too, both of us really fell in love with the British office.
Guest:We were obsessed with just how funny it was, how awkward it was.
Guest:And I think for us, it was like, we want to make something that has that sort of tone where we can balance that line of...
Guest:of drama and comedy.
Guest:And that was really kind of when we started the foot this way, we were just sort of like, you know, kind of showing this world that we had both been exposed to this world of Taekwondo and in the South.
Guest:And we had such a good time kind of writing a character like that.
Marc:That was, you know, just the world was in the world was very established and specific and kind of unique.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And then as we started writing, we were making the main character such an asshole.
Guest:And that really wasn't even our goal when we started.
Guest:It was just kind of coming out when me and him were working together.
Guest:And we had such a good time kind of dealing with that, with trying to find a main character that is such a shithead, but trying to figure out a way to find an audience to dig him, that we really wanted to do it again.
Guest:Because our time when that was so tight and small, we just felt like we could do something more with it.
Guest:And instead of trying to set up another movie that would just be like a remake...
Guest:that's the first thing we kind of pitched to will and adam we met them we're like we want to do like a tv show where this is the kind of character that you would get behind ultimately and it just all started to kind of fall into place from there we you know we were we kind of used the idea of me substitute teaching and that sort those sort of weird thoughts i had there like all right well what if it's a guy who comes back to his town and he was like a hero at some point it's like well what why would he be a hero and we went through all these different scenarios and finally we kind of landed on you know that he was a pitcher and
Guest:To us, it was just like this is a position where the guy's in the middle of center of the game, all attention's on him, and all that goes away.
Guest:And now he's just at the center of a classroom, and he's just trying to act like it's the same thing.
Marc:But in terms of being an asshole, it's weird because that character is such a – like his –
Marc:And I, you know, I mean, just talking to you now, I mean, you just play it straight like you're just but, you know, he's clearly at odds with himself and that nothing's going to really work out.
Marc:But he just keeps plowing along.
Marc:And that makes him a sympathetic character because an asshole wouldn't be appealing.
Marc:No, because the guy is so cocky, despite the fact that he's delusional is what makes it good.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a lot of fun writing that as well.
Marc:I mean, just trying to like did you have those discussions, though, about like, you know, how is this guy going to remain sympathetic?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:At the time we wrote the first series, we didn't even really understand enough about what we were doing to kind of think that that would even be an issue.
Guest:We just figured, oh, it'll be funny.
Guest:People will get along with this.
Guest:And then as we started going through it, just in the natural process, we started kind of being drawn to the moments where there was like, oh, there's weakness here.
Guest:This is kind of interesting.
Guest:And so it was something that kind of definitely developed as we were doing it.
Guest:We weren't really sure what we were doing at that point.
Marc:But is that something that some part of your brain in terms of writing scripts and having studied film –
Marc:that you started to kind of formulate.
Guest:I mean, I know you're performing and there was funny there, but in order for it to have some humanity, you kind of, you start finding those moments of weakness and that's the kind of stuff that starts to make you feel like you're, you're onto a story that's like worth telling because it's like when you're right, you know, when you're finding these like, well, what would make this guy upset?
Guest:And like, what, you know, how does he show that?
Guest:Uh, yeah.
Guest:And that was kind of like for us, what kind of showed us there was like some depth here that we could get away with what we were doing and, you know, and actually have a human story.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And how did you, like, the dude who plays the sidekick.
Guest:Oh, Steve Little, yeah.
Guest:Where'd you find that guy?
Guest:We found him casting here in Los Angeles.
Guest:I mean, he read for it.
Guest:At the time, we wrote the pilot, and we really wanted to shoot it in North Carolina because we wanted to have all basically just like locals.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:and so we did a little bit of casting in los angeles but he was a guy who came in and read and just blew us away i mean we loved him instantly thought he was hilarious and at the time we didn't even know what that character's arc was going to be he was just going to be kind of like a sycophant that was there at the school and we just dug working with him so much and he just honestly made me laugh so hard and we'd work with him that we just started kind of creating this weird like you know sidekick don quixote sort of like relationship between these two guys and you know
Marc:Yeah, it's like that line between kind of tragically sad and hilarious is really, that's a tough one to ride.
Guest:It really is.
Guest:And he is just like, Little is just amazing.
Guest:He's like fearless too.
Guest:We just love writing stuff for him.
Guest:It's like, do you think Little will get naked and fuck this prostitute?
Guest:He's like, yeah, let's write it.
Guest:Let's put it in.
Guest:Let's see if he will.
Marc:You sit there and go, he's doing it.
Marc:He's doing it.
Guest:I can't believe it.
Guest:The best thing is, like, in the second season, like, when his character's introduced, he's, like, having sex with, I guess, Sugar Snap, like this prostitute.
Guest:It's the first time we've seen his character.
Guest:And when we're shooting it, I mean, it's all, like – that's the most hardcore thing at that point we had done in the show.
Guest:We're like, man, this is crazy.
Guest:Like, Little's naked.
Guest:He has, like, a sock over his penis, and he's really just kind of, like, going to town on this chick.
Guest:And he –
Guest:When he started doing it, he started improvising.
Guest:He was saying, look at me, Mom.
Guest:Look at me.
Guest:And it was just the weirdest thing to go to.
Guest:We're like, that's insane.
Guest:And what kind of makes it more insane is when you're at the premiere of the show and Steve Little's mom is there in the audience just watching her son saying, look at me, Mom.
Marc:It's just so awesome.
Marc:But she doesn't necessarily know that he improvised that.
Marc:That was all scripted, Mom.
Marc:That was a message to her.
Marc:Nothing to do with you, really.
Marc:The fact that it was improvised makes it even more...
Guest:how'd you come up with the baby device i mean where did that how did you when you were like okay we got to do another season we got picked up where the did we go with this guy you know are we the whole time we kind of did this you know for jody and i was like we really even when we set the show up we didn't want to do a uh a movie version because we thought it would kind of be retreading what we had doing we that 90 minute structure of this kind of story we thought like the beats that he would have to go through would be too obvious like okay he's an here
Guest:He learned something here and he's better here.
Guest:And so for us, we were like, well, this could just be a crazy way to tell a four or five hour story, which we could never get a comedy greenlit that'd be four hours long in the movie theater.
Guest:So for us, we weirdly were pulling from shit like Lonesome Dove and Thorn Birds.
Guest:We were like, this is our rich man, poor man.
Guest:This is this insane thing.
Guest:Insane miniseries.
Guest:And so we kind of always had, like, we never kind of thought we would ever be able to do more than the first season.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we kind of wanted the first season to stand on its own.
Guest:But we had this plan, like, if we get to do this to the way we want, it'd be three seasons long.
Guest:The first season deals with what it deals with.
Guest:The second season is fucks everything up and goes to another country.
Guest:And the third season, he basically has to deal with the repercussions of, like, getting this chick pregnant at the end of the first season.
Marc:So that was all on the table from the beginning.
Guest:That was all on the table.
Guest:But we never thought we would ever even get to the third season.
Guest:We really thought the first season would be all that we'd be able to do.
Marc:So the other country, was it vague how you would get him there initially?
Guest:Yeah, it was kind of vague.
Guest:We kind of imagined him in the Dominican Republic, and then we went down on a scout there, and we're like, yep, fuck shooting down here.
Guest:Let's go somewhere else.
Marc:And you ended up in Mexico?
Guest:We actually ended up in Puerto Rico.
Guest:I shot Heartbreak Kid in Cabo, and we were there for like a month, and we all lived with the Fairleigh Brothers in this awesome resort.
Guest:I mean, it was like one of the best times shooting ever.
Guest:So I was like, man, we should write this shit in Cabo.
Marc:What'd you shoot there?
Guest:The Heartbreak Kid.
Guest:Oh, right, right, right.
Guest:And I was like, we should shoot the whole next season in Cabo.
Guest:I mean, it would be good living down there, but then all that cartel shit's going on, so HBO wouldn't let us go down there.
Marc:Yeah, it's not good for Americans down there, or anybody, really.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, fuck.
Marc:That's scary.
Marc:But Puerto Rico is fun, right?
Marc:Puerto Rico is a blast.
Marc:We had a great time down there.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So, all right.
Marc:Now, in Tropic Thunder, I thought you were – I love that role.
Marc:Oh, it was a lot of fun.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I love that movie.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that was a smart fucking movie.
Guest:It was really smart.
Guest:I mean, the moment I met Ben on Heartbreak Kid and he told me about Tropic Thunder and, like, let me read the script.
Guest:And I was just like, damn, this is going to be amazing.
Guest:And, like, then once the cast started lining up of all the guys –
Guest:He had involved.
Guest:I mean, it was just insane.
Guest:I mean, you know, just just incredible.
Guest:Where'd you guys shoot that?
Guest:That was in Kauai.
Guest:So I was there for like three months in Hawaii.
Guest:And, you know, that the first scene of that movie, you know, where it's like you reveal that it's a movie that was like a three week shoot.
Guest:And everybody was on set every single war scene.
Guest:yeah the war scene yeah yeah and i'm standing up in a tower and it was like that was the craziest thing for three weeks i had no idea whether they were going to get to me or not so like every single day is like waking up nervous just like not stomach and not your first scene yeah for the first scene what movie was this is like your fourth movie or yeah yeah this was this was yeah this was the fourth movie yeah but this was big this was big and there were a lot of big stars yeah yeah and uh they didn't get to me to literally the fucking last day of the
Guest:So it was like three weeks.
Guest:I'm just like, can't sleep at night.
Guest:I can't eat any food.
Guest:Wait for your joke beat.
Marc:Basically, it was like, no.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:And it was like, that's what I was afraid of.
Guest:What the hell's wrong with me?
Marc:And what was it?
Marc:You had some scenes with Nolte, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I remember that.
Marc:That was the relationship you had with him.
Guest:That was honestly my favorite part about doing that movie.
Guest:It was like Nolte and I had the same schedule, basically.
Guest:And we were staying at the same resort.
Guest:So in the daytime, when we were off, it was like, well, Nolte's off too.
Guest:Maybe we'll see if he wants to go snorkeling or something.
Guest:Did he?
Guest:Yeah, we hung out definitely on our off times.
Guest:It was amazing.
Guest:And he's such a cool dude.
Guest:I mean, I've been a fan of his forever.
Guest:Right, yeah.
Guest:And just nuts.
Guest:I mean, he comes onto the set and it's like, you know, I mean, he's like doing his own stunts, like running around, jumping.
Guest:And as soon as the cameras come on, it's just like...
Marc:glaze comes over his eye and he's just you know in it yeah it just pretty insane to watch did you were you a fan of north dallas 40 do you remember that movie he did with mac davis about the football players no i what's some of your nolte one i mean like the other like he's been around for so long he did that beatnik movie where he played uh he played neil cassidy and heartbeats and like he's been around so long yeah what'd you guys talk about
Guest:I mean, you know, he would talk about – he talked about how he got arrested when he was in his youth for, like, making draft cards, fake draft cards.
Guest:And, I mean, he has a lot of pretty insane stories.
Guest:And he – God, what was – Did you go snorkeling?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we went snorkeling.
Marc:So you're underwater.
Marc:You saw Nick Nolte just sort of – Sporting to puffer fish.
Guest:I see it.
I see it.
Marc:That's awesome.
Marc:You got to keep a straight face with that shit.
Guest:You got to be cool.
Marc:But did you have that feeling?
Marc:Because I get that feeling a lot in the garage.
Marc:You're sitting there next to your hero, and then all of a sudden you're like, just a person, just a person.
Marc:Remind yourself, just people.
Guest:Exactly, exactly.
Guest:And he's just such a nice guy, too, on top of it all.
Guest:He really is.
Guest:Have you been watching Luck?
Guest:I have been watching Luck.
Guest:I feel like with all those big dramas on HBO, doesn't it feel like it takes a few episodes and everyone all of a sudden... Sometimes it takes for it to be off the air after five seasons.
Marc:Yeah, and everyone's like, I watched The Wire in two weeks, the entire thing.
Marc:Because it was one of those things, and the same with Luck or any of them, I never did Deadwood, but sometimes you're like, I'll try this out, and you're already in the middle of the third season.
Marc:It's like, there's no fucking way that I'm going to get back and I don't know what's happening here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And there's no way to pick up on it.
Marc:It kind of excludes you sometimes, yeah.
Marc:So I talked to, I might as well just get your side of the story.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Give it to me.
Marc:Well, no, because who was it?
Marc:Bill Hader?
Marc:Was it Hader who was on the podcast?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:He told that story about me smoking weed in the limo.
Guest:this is a very good story it really showed who you were what what happened there uh i think you know that we we were like watching some movie or for some reason there was a limousine involved i can't really remember why yeah we were out for the night somewhere and andy and akiva had hooked up this limousine and we were pretty drunk at this point we've been drinking all night and i don't know what happened i mean someone had given me a pipe or a bowl sure
Guest:I'm in the back of the limo, and I hit it, and the driver comes out, and he's just like, no, no weed in here.
Guest:And he's upset, as he should be.
Guest:I shouldn't have been doing that.
Guest:But he just kind of yelled so much, and it just – I don't know.
Guest:Something snapped at me, and right in front of him, I just smile at him and just hit it again.
Guest:And he was like –
Guest:get the fuck out of there and I instantly I was like you're right I'm so sorry I can't believe I just did that to you and got out and all no one stayed with me all those guys left in the limo and I'm literally just in Vancouver by myself with this bowl get it out here by myself now it's funny was that one of those moments where you're like I'm fucking Danny McBride and like within seconds it dissipates you're like oh I'm just an asshole yeah this is just like one of those cocksucker Hollywood movies what's happened to you laughing
Marc:Oh, it's so lucky you caught yourself.
Guest:Yeah, I know.
Guest:I caught myself.
Guest:Pulled myself back from the brink.
Marc:Yeah, you didn't cry either.
Marc:I didn't cry.
Guest:I had grown up a lot.
Guest:He went in for a handshake, and I hugged him and cried on his shoulder.
Guest:Oh, fuck.
Guest:Vancouver's cool.
Guest:I was just up there.
Guest:I love it up there.
Guest:How long did you stay up there?
Guest:I guess we were up there the whole summer.
Guest:We were up there for almost three months, I think.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's so cool, man.
Guest:Yeah, it's pretty.
Guest:It's a nice city.
Guest:Everything shoots up there.
Guest:We actually just did some pickups last week.
Guest:We shot that down in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Guest:So that was familiar.
Guest:Great.
Guest:We love working down there.
Guest:It's awesome.
Guest:You know, when you shoot in Wilmington, too, there's no direct flights from Los Angeles.
Guest:So just that layover is enough to scare executives from coming to check up on you.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:So you got free reign.
Marc:They're not going to make it down here.
Marc:They got transferred to a little plane with no special treatment.
Marc:They're not going to.
Guest:That was almost kind of what the deal was the first season.
Guest:HBO really left us alone the first season.
Guest:They never came down to check on us, really.
Guest:They didn't really fiddle with us too much.
Guest:And we came back and started delivering the episodes.
Guest:And we delivered the first three, and it was just radio silence for a week and a half.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Was that after, like, because they were transitioning at some point?
Marc:I mean, Carolyn Strauss was leaving and Sue was coming in.
Marc:Who were you working with over there?
Guest:Well, we sold the show to Carolyn, but then she was gone.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it was, you know, there was a whole new group of people who, you know.
Guest:That's always scary, right?
Guest:It is scary because, like, at least with Carolyn, she knew what we were going for.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, it was one of those things where we delivered the first episodes and they were basically like, what the fuck is this?
Guest:This is like this character sucks.
Guest:No one's going to want to watch this.
Guest:And they were really pushing for us to change it.
Guest:They just like I don't they didn't really know what we were kind of going for.
Guest:I don't think they thought that it would work.
Guest:And we kind of got into this little bit of a showdown with them where they were just kind of like, you know, if you don't want to make these changes, then, you know.
Guest:We might not promote the show.
Guest:It's not going to be a priority of ours.
Marc:So they're not like, we're not going to pull it because we paid for it, but we're going to hang out to drive.
Guest:When they gave it to the press, I think we had heard stories that they just gave the pilot in with the Kevin Bacon movie.
Guest:It was kind of jammed in the back.
Marc:Like an additional DVD.
Marc:Here's this little thing.
Marc:In the press package.
Guest:It's like a B-side.
Guest:But then we started kind of getting some positive reviews for it.
Guest:And I do think as the season went on and they kind of saw what we were doing, they started to get it where those first few episodes are pretty rough.
Guest:And they don't really have the arc of the character in there yet.
Guest:So as they saw that, they started getting behind it more.
Guest:And then when we kind of got an audience, like come the second season, they were literally just like, you know what?
Guest:We had pegged this show wrong.
Guest:We really dig the show.
Guest:We support it.
Guest:And they've been amazing to work with.
Guest:They let us do whatever we want.
Marc:That in and of itself is an amazing moment to hear an executive say, we pegged this wrong.
Marc:Clearly, we waited long enough for people to make up our minds for us.
Guest:And it's like, I thought for sure then, well, the next season, they're going to say that they had misjudged it, but they're still going to probably give us the same sort of notes.
Guest:And it wasn't at all.
Guest:I mean, their notes were always like, out of working with different studios, HBO's notes are like the best.
Guest:They're never notes about like, this is too far.
Guest:They're literally just notes that are,
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What's with his beard?
Guest:It's a legitimate note.
Guest:Like, yeah, this beat doesn't make sense.
Guest:And it's the first time I've ever had that with anyone I've ever worked with where the people we're working with completely get what we're doing and they're collaborators on it where some of this other stuff we've had to develop is like you get these notes and you just look at each note.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:You know, when we were developing Your Highness, I can remember, and maybe they were right.
Guest:We probably should have listened to some of their notes.
Yeah.
Marc:But then you were at a different point.
Marc:You're like, fuck that, man.
Guest:Well, I think whenever you're doing something that's filthy, that's kind of the point of it.
Guest:It's like if you start trying to water it down, it's like, well, you're just going to end up with something that once I chop the Minotaur's dick off and wear it around my neck, we're going to lose anybody who's not into the filth at that point.
Guest:So why trim the filth down throughout the whole thing?
Right.
Yeah.
Marc:We've got to push it all the way out.
Marc:Come on.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What is some of your, like, in terms of that, like, you seem to be a horror guy and, like, a fantasy guy.
Marc:But, I mean, are those, in terms of your comedy and pushing it to that level and staying out there, I mean, what inspired you?
Marc:What are some of the movies?
Guest:When I was a kid, I mean, like, my favorite movies when I was growing up were things like, you know, like The Goonies or Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Guest:I love the original Bad News Bears.
Guest:It was, like, one of my favorite films of all time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:God, what else?
Guest:I mean, Ghostbusters, like everything that any kid in the 80s grew up on cable television.
Guest:You loved it?
Guest:Loved it.
Guest:I mean, I used to like do weird shit where it's like I would always, I would like take a tape player and we didn't have any of the paid channels.
Guest:And I would just like record, audio record the movies that would play on TV and just like walk around my neighborhood just like listening to Mr. Mom.
Guest:Seriously?
Guest:Yeah, I just like loved it, loved it.
Marc:It's interesting how many people I talk to who have gone on to write comedy and perform comedy have done shit like that.
Marc:Like, Apatow used to transcribe SNL sketches.
Marc:Who else was it?
Marc:Like, there's so many people that did this weird, obsessive shit with comedy.
Marc:Like, because there's some part of you that thinks, like, there's some sort of magic to this.
Guest:Yeah, if I can just, like, flood myself with this all the time.
Marc:Yeah, and also the relief of laughing is amazing.
Marc:Like, were you an isolated kid?
Marc:Were you, like, that kid who was like, I'm not gonna, I'm just gonna.
Guest:I had friends and shit, but yeah, I definitely had my alone times where I was just like, why is he listening to Mr. Mom?
Guest:Listening to it.
Guest:Yeah, listening to Mr. Mom, and for whatever reason, Hot Lead and Cold Feet with Don Knotts.
Guest:That was the other one that I would listen to all the time.
Guest:Loved it.
Guest:Don Knotts?
Yeah.
Guest:He was funny.
Guest:He was funny, yeah.
Marc:But what about serious movies?
Guest:I didn't really start getting into serious movies until I started getting into college.
Guest:I was definitely- Were you had to study them?
Guest:Yeah, we had to study them.
Guest:Intolerance.
Marc:D.W.
Guest:Griffin.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:The montage.
Marc:Oh, Jesus Christ.
Marc:Is this right?
Marc:It seems like he wanted the Confederacy to win.
Marc:It's not about that.
Guest:Don't worry about it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's amazing he pulled this off, right?
Yeah.
Marc:But Chaplin or any of that shit, did you have to watch all that in school?
Guest:We had to watch that stuff.
Guest:But the stuff I kind of gravitated towards is a lot of the films, like the 70s, like Robert Altman.
Guest:The best, right?
Guest:The best.
Guest:I mean, things like Nashville and Match.
Marc:McCabe and Mrs. Miller?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:McCabe and Mrs. Miller, I fucking watch over and over again.
Guest:He's just so good.
Guest:And really, his style, I think, that's kind of what we really wanted to do with what we were doing in comedy, with that level of improv, where you could just let these cameras go and just let people kind of just go on these long runs.
Guest:And honestly, with...
Guest:Do you do that with, uh, with, uh, with, with Eastbound?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, we just, almost every single, uh, scene we do, we'll, we'll set up, uh, cameras on two different Dolly tracks and just like let the cameras roll back and forth and we just run out each mag and just really, and you just improvise most of it.
Guest:We, we, we, we work really hard on the scripts and make sure it's all there on the page.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And once we get like a take or two of that and then we just open it up.
Guest:I mean, it's, you know, a lot of the stuff, you know, it's a lot of stuff that comes in the show definitely isn't stuff that we had written when we first set out.
Guest:And, uh,
Guest:That's why guys like Steve Little and stuff, these guys who can just improv naturally, it just kind of adds this element to it.
Guest:As long as those character arcs are there, we're never precious about anything we've written.
Marc:He's a Groundlings guy, right?
Marc:Yeah, yep.
Marc:And he comes from that.
Marc:I mean, how are you with improvising?
Guest:I think I'm good at improvising.
Guest:Maybe it's just the writer in me, but yeah, I mean, I prefer it.
Guest:I like it better.
Guest:To me, it keeps it exciting.
Guest:It's like saying the same lines.
Guest:I just don't have any...
Guest:I don't have any training, really, professional training.
Guest:So to me, it's just like saying the lines feels like, all right, get this shit done.
Guest:OK, now we can start doing it for real.
Marc:Where do you think that came from, though, your ability to perform?
Marc:Was there a moment in your life where you're like, I'm fucking I got this?
Guest:No, it hasn't.
Guest:I haven't found that moment yet.
Guest:I still on everything.
Guest:I'm just like, they're going to find out.
Guest:I don't know what the fuck I'm doing and I'm out.
Marc:I think that everybody creatively thinks that on some level.
Marc:Have you tried any really serious shit?
Marc:Because it seems like you could do it.
Marc:Because you talk about Michael Keaton.
Marc:You like Michael Keaton?
Marc:Love Michael Keaton, yeah.
Marc:I mean, I ran into him recently.
Marc:I've been in touch with him.
Marc:I ran into him at an airport.
Marc:And people forget just how fucking huge he was.
Marc:And the amazing thing he did from really moving from comedy into almost anything he wanted.
Marc:He was the best Batman, really.
Guest:Yeah, he was the man.
Marc:Wasn't he?
Marc:He was.
Marc:So do you have any... Have you been offered anything where you can...
Guest:I mean, I think Up in the Air was probably the closest I've come to really doing something kind of dramatic, even though that's like... That was a sweet part, though.
Marc:I mean, that really played to your kind of like the cocky but humble guy.
Guest:Yeah, and that was a lot of fun.
Guest:I mean, I definitely would be into doing something different.
Guest:You acted the fuck out of that.
Guest:I tried to act the fuck out of it, yeah.
Marc:I mean, it definitely read because you have that.
Marc:There's something that you have, which is this kind of like, you know, that.
Marc:And I think you're very aware of it there there because you're not a bullshit artist, but you can play them pretty well.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I can.
Marc:And that there's that bullshit artist, the bullshit artist with a heart.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like the guy.
Marc:That's the quarter.
Marc:The guy is tired of his own bullshit.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And that thing was one of those other experiences where it's like, that scene with Clooney is the first day on the set.
Guest:At the bar?
Guest:It's the one where- Or in the school room?
Marc:In the school room.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'm literally walking on the set like, Danny, this is Mr. Clooney.
Guest:And it's like, and here we go.
Guest:And it's just like-
Marc:And that's the roughest part where he's talking you back into the marriage.
Guest:And so for me, some of the hardest parts about these roles are just not looking like a starstruck idiot when I'm being filmed talking to these people that, you know.
Guest:And you feel it?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it feels nuts.
Guest:You're just the whole time like, what the fuck am I doing here?
Guest:This is insane.
Guest:That's George Clooney.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's hilarious.
Marc:What were you thinking of that scene?
Marc:That's George Clooney.
Guest:The whole time, yeah.
Guest:This is Clooney.
Guest:Imagine if I really was afraid to get married and George Clooney was helping me.
Yeah.
Marc:Did you get along with him already?
Guest:He was great.
Guest:I mean, super nice guy.
Guest:I mean, everything that you've heard about him is totally true.
Guest:I mean, he was just, you know, couldn't be nicer.
Marc:Yeah, he's one of those guys that's sort of like, you know, I can't believe I still love this guy.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:Like, you know, it never ends.
Marc:You know, like, what's he going to do to make me hate him?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Nothing yet.
Guest:Nothing at all.
Guest:Did you see that Descendants?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I saw it a few times, yeah.
Guest:Amazing, right?
Guest:Great, great film.
Marc:All right, so you seem like you guys had a good time.
Marc:What's the baby thing?
Marc:Was that planned?
Guest:The baby thing was planned.
Guest:Me and my wife got married a little over a year ago, not this past October, but the October 4th, and then I planted my seed in her in January of the following year.
Guest:Do you remember the night?
Guest:It was the first time we ever had sex before.
Guest:Only once.
Marc:The only time I'm doing it.
Marc:This is the weird part about me, Mark.
Marc:Just fuck once and that's it.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:The night was wonderful.
Guest:Thank God.
Guest:But it's been a trip, man.
Guest:It's been insane.
Guest:I mean, I love it.
Guest:I mean, it's, you know.
Marc:You were ready for the, I mean, I don't know what kind of party guy you were.
Guest:You know, I partied a lot, but it was, I think it was, I was just like bored out of my mind.
Guest:I was ready for, I was ready to stop thinking about myself and start like focusing on something cooler.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Was that conscious?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, it was just, I've always wanted to have kids and I, you know, and it's like, I'm not getting any younger doing this.
Guest:And so for me, it was like, I was, you know, I was, I didn't want to be like the guy who's like dropping his kid off at preschool.
Guest:I'm like 65 years old.
Marc:I'm going to be that guy.
Marc:I mean, I don't have any kids.
Guest:I mean, those guys are fucking cool.
Marc:No, no, no.
Marc:I have the same issue.
Marc:You know, my issue with it is, is cause I, I've been married twice, but I never had kids, but now I'm with a girl that, you know, she's younger than me.
Marc:She wants to have kids, but I have that fear because I remember that kid when I was in like first grade.
Marc:Do you remember the kid with the old dad?
Marc:Completely.
Marc:Where it's like, I don't want to spend the night in his house.
Marc:His parents are like grandparents.
Marc:It's weird
Marc:Are we going to have to help them?
Marc:What's going to be expected of us?
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it seems to be popular now because these weird, selfish boomers who were completely careerist, all of a sudden are 50.
Marc:They're like, my life is empty.
Marc:So you see a lot of them around.
Marc:I'm just trying to make myself feel better.
Guest:so you have a little girl or a little boy yeah so that's good yeah and uh you know it's like all my friends i keep in touch with all the guys i grew up with and like i'm way to me it's like this is brand new but like those dudes are all so far beyond me they have like kids getting ready oh really you got you got you got people on the on the phone where it's like what do you do when they're yeah exactly you know they you know back in virginia like people start having kids younger there oh yeah like when you're 15 usually right yeah it's like you're we're weird when we go back to los angeles and kia and i like my
Marc:When you go back to Carolina?
Guest:Yeah, and it's like, we're not married, and we're in our 30s, and we're just dating each other.
Guest:It's just like- What's wrong with you?
Guest:You have a girlfriend?
Guest:What the fuck is wrong with you?
Guest:Like, you're in your 30s.
Marc:Step up.
Marc:Man up.
Marc:Buy property.
Marc:Well, wait, what kind of- So you did that, right?
Marc:Well, that had something to do with it.
Marc:You're a little more settled.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:I mean, you didn't want to have kids in Burbank.
Marc:Didn't want to have kids while I was waiting tables at the Crocodile Cafe.
Marc:Put daddy's apron down.
Yeah.
Marc:oh he messed up can i have a clean apron yeah that's a that's a sad moment but uh well now i'm gonna get emailed about like how i said a boy's good girls are good too but yeah they're all cool you're gonna have another one yeah i i'm definitely gonna have another one you know that way they can just entertain each other and yeah i kind of just want this so that i can not have to do chores around the house that's like sure that's a plan since i think that's a dad's plan but what kind of calls do you make to your friends about the what have you panicked about with the kid
Guest:You know, he's been a really chill baby.
Guest:In the beginning, he wouldn't cry a lot.
Guest:At nighttime, he would never wake up crying.
Guest:We'd wake up, and it's like, what is that noise?
Guest:That dude is talking to himself.
Guest:What the fuck is he saying?
Guest:He's like two months old.
Marc:Doing Mr. Mom.
Guest:He's listening to Mr. Mom.
Guest:He's listening to Mr. Mom.
Guest:But he definitely has found his personality.
Guest:But it's just strange.
Guest:Today, I was driving in the car on the way over here, and I smelled my fingers like, oh, some fingers smell like Declan's puke.
Guest:It's like weirdly stirred my heart.
Marc:Well, man, well, congratulations on all your success.
Marc:I appreciate it.
Marc:And you're a good guy.
Marc:Thanks for hanging out.
Guest:Well, thanks for having me on.
Guest:I appreciate it.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Now you know him a little bit.
Marc:I didn't.
Marc:I completely thought he was the guy that I saw on TV.
Marc:What a sweet guy.
Marc:Great stories.
Marc:Enjoyed it.
Marc:As always, how about a little of this?
Marc:Can we?
Marc:Let's do it.
Marc:pow look out yep i shit my pants justcoffee.coop available at wtfpod as are a lot of things go to wtfpod.com get on the mailing list kick in a few shekels pick up the app pick up the new first 100 episodes on dvd box set pick up the new t-shirt the new coop uh t-shirt the hot rod t-shirt
Marc:Make a few comments on the comment board, but be fucking nice.
Marc:Jesus Christ.
Marc:Don't be a dick.
Marc:Could you not be a dick?
Marc:God damn, man.
Marc:Anyways, do that.
Marc:Fight the dicks.
Marc:Fight the power.
Marc:WTFPod.com comment board.
Marc:Do whatever you want.
Marc:Everything is there.
Marc:That is me related.
Marc:I'll be at the Guga Mooga Festival this week.
Marc:I think that the tickets that they have there are only expensive now.
Marc:It was a special gig.
Marc:I had no control over that stuff, but maybe I'll see some of you over there.
Marc:What else?
Marc:I guess that's about it.
Marc:Coming up next week, we got Paula Poundstone and Killer Bees.
Marc:Killer Bees.
Marc:A very renowned regional road comic who's been around forever, who I'd never met before.
Marc:Only plays the South and the Midwest primarily.
Marc:He's been around since before I was around.
Marc:And it was something.
Marc:This is a world.
Marc:This is a part of comedy that you don't always know about.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I have to entertain myself somehow.
Marc:Stupid.
Marc:I'm just sitting there, man.