Episode 585 - Alex Karpovsky
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fuckineers?
Marc:What the fuck sticks?
Marc:What the fuckadelics?
Marc:What the fuckaholics?
Marc:I am Mark Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:Welcome to the show.
Marc:Thank you for being here.
Marc:Today on the show, Alex Karpovsky from Girls.
Marc:Yeah, that guy.
Marc:Actually, the season finale of Girls is on next Sunday, and I'm on it in another scene with Alex.
Marc:So that's exciting.
Marc:He's going to be right here in the garage talking to us.
Marc:Yeah, the guy who plays Ray.
Marc:Some of you saw the scene I had with him a couple weeks ago where I took umbrage.
Marc:But yeah, we got another little bit coming up at the end, I guess.
Marc:Maybe they'll bring me back.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:But it was great talking to Alex.
Marc:Got an interesting story.
Marc:So that'll happen in a few minutes after I do this thing.
Marc:You know this thing.
Marc:If you hear some noise in the background, it's my neighbor.
Marc:He's hammering away on something.
Marc:He's in a little discomfort over there.
Marc:There's, I guess, a sewer line problem.
Marc:And I'm starting to wonder whether or not that's what's been causing the smell up here on the slope for the last year or so.
Marc:Something back in there, so maybe that'll magically disappear.
Marc:It's weird when you live in an area where there's sort of an unexplainable smell of sewage that kind of happens at random times during the day, and it's got nothing to do with your house.
Marc:It's disconcerting.
Marc:And then a plumber says, yeah, well, you know, if you live on a hill, all houses have vents that vent the sewage line.
Marc:So sometimes that comes uphill on you.
Marc:And I'm like, I never heard of that.
Marc:I don't even know if it's true.
Marc:I'm just, I'm hoping to God that maybe it was something next door.
Marc:I'm sad that he's going through that, but maybe it's going to, maybe, who knows?
Marc:Maybe the weird mystical smell of sewage that randomly takes over the area will now recede after he does whatever he's doing over there.
Marc:Again, Mahuk goes out to him.
Marc:Shitty to have a house that starts to, you know, right when you get everything just the way you want it, boom.
Marc:You've got a room full of poop or something like that.
Marc:Never ends.
Marc:My house, I think, is falling into the... It's being eaten by the ground.
Marc:I was going to do some work on it.
Marc:I was going to renovate.
Marc:I was going to add on.
Marc:I was going to make it a whole different house.
Marc:And, like, just telling you that, just telling you that just now has gotten me wracked with anxiety and overwhelmed and tired.
Marc:I just need to do something because there are parts of it that are literally falling apart, and that's how I'm living, and I don't need to live like that.
Marc:Am I right?
Marc:Am I right?
Marc:Still off the nicotine lozenges.
Marc:Getting a little sick, but I think that's because we wrapped Marin Season 3 on Friday.
Marc:We did it.
Marc:I spent the entire day Friday directing the last part of my episode that I wrote and directed.
Marc:It was very thrilling.
Marc:It was an amazing crew.
Marc:It's really an amazing thing to be involved in a process.
Marc:Obviously, I had a lot to do with everything.
Marc:The writing, the producing, and even some directing, and the acting.
Marc:But there are just all different levels of production crew.
Marc:There's gaffers, there's ADs, there's second ADs, there's the...
Marc:Sound guy, there's producers, line producers, locations.
Marc:I mean, transportation, it's a big undertaking.
Marc:And I got to tell you, man, everybody in the Marin team, and we had a lot of new people this year, were just amazing.
Marc:Not only was it painless, but it was fun, and it felt like we made something.
Marc:Hair and makeup, amazing.
Marc:Wardrobe, spectacular.
Marc:It was just incredible.
Marc:I had an amazing time, and I don't get to appreciate or really notice a lot when I'm in it, because all I'm doing is we're doing 9 to 13 pages a day, and I'm just trying to keep my head filled with lines.
Marc:We don't barely have rehearsal time at the schedule we're on.
Marc:We're on a schedule.
Marc:We're doing...
Marc:One episode every three days.
Marc:There's no time for table reads.
Marc:There's no time for thorough rehearsing with actors.
Marc:So I don't know what people would do in that production schedule if they could not memorize lines.
Marc:I just have sort of a facility for it.
Marc:But I would love to have more time to rehearse.
Marc:And I think it could be an even more amazing show.
Marc:Last couple of episodes were gnarly.
Marc:And I can't even tell you why.
Marc:I had to do acting.
Marc:I don't consider myself an actor.
Marc:I think I've gotten better at it.
Marc:I am a comedian who acts, and I am playing myself.
Marc:There was a bit of a learning curve, but I think I've watched the cuts, and I believe that I'm doing a better job at it.
Marc:I think the writing is, everything's better.
Marc:This season, but the last couple that we did, I mean, we're draining.
Marc:I had to shave my face to play a younger me.
Marc:It was pretty fascinating.
Marc:They put a little color in my hair.
Marc:I shaved my face.
Marc:I got my old glasses frames, and they found some clothing from 10, 12 years ago, and I wore it, and I...
Marc:It was bizarre, man.
Marc:I'm still like, because I have no mustache or beard right now, I'm wearing old shoes and an old shirt of mine because I enjoy the time traveling.
Marc:It's nostalgic, but I really think that I've gotten younger.
Marc:And it's weird because I'm actually not treating my girlfriend as well as I did when I had my beard and mustache because I'm old to me.
Marc:You know, I'm being a little snotty, a little fucking nasty.
Marc:And maybe that'll have something to do with it.
Marc:Maybe that has something to do with it.
Marc:But I took a picture of myself and I sent it to my mother, you know, in the dated garb with that beardless with old glasses.
Marc:And she's like, she wrote back, what did you, how did you do that?
Marc:Just shaved, put a little color in the hair.
Marc:That was it.
Marc:I'm going to do a couple of Trippany House dates just to get my brain back into the hour or so I was working on before I started shooting Marin, the Trippany House at the Steve Allen Theater here in Los Angeles.
Marc:I'm going to do 331.
Marc:That's March 31st.
Marc:That's a Tuesday.
Marc:I'm going to do April 6th.
Marc:That's a Monday.
Marc:So if you want to come to those, they're usually pretty inexpensive.
Marc:I do it all as a benefit for the theater.
Marc:Yeah, go to trippingthehouse.org and the whole schedule is right there and you can get some tickets to me.
Marc:And it's a good place to come see me.
Marc:It's a good place to have a nice... It only seats like a few people.
Marc:It's just going to be me and you and a few other people.
Marc:The Rochester dates, I know that's happening this Friday and Saturday, the 20th and 21st.
Marc:I'll be at the Comedy Club.
Marc:I guess it's in Webster, New York.
Marc:So come out to that if you're in that area.
Marc:Could you?
Marc:Nice.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com slash calendar and see all the full tour dates.
Marc:I can't wait for you guys to see the new season, though.
Marc:I can't wait till we get it all edited and stuff.
Marc:I got to go in this week and edit mine.
Marc:And I'm telling you, the cuts look great.
Marc:It's a lot of great stuff, a lot of great co-stars.
Marc:Judd Hirsch is back.
Marc:Adam Goldberg.
Marc:Andy Richter.
Marc:Patton Oswalt's on the show.
Marc:Andy Kindler, of course.
Marc:Dave Anthony.
Marc:Who else?
Marc:Bruce Bruce.
Marc:Got Bruce Bruce in on an episode.
Marc:I do not want to spoil anything.
Marc:Maryland Rice Cub.
Marc:Hmm?
Marc:Hmm?
Hmm?
Marc:Very exciting.
Marc:But now I'm going to start living life again, so I'll probably have more things to talk about because I'll be out in the world and not just on a TV set.
Marc:So look forward to that.
Marc:Me being in the world talking to you about that.
Marc:I'm so curious as to whether the floating cloud of sewage stench that randomly occurs on my hillside is going to go away after my neighbor fixes whatever problem he has over there.
Marc:Things to look forward to.
Marc:That and Marin Season 3, premiering in May the 14th, I believe.
Marc:Let's talk to Alex Karpovsky now.
Marc:And we might have a little bit of an obsessive problem.
Marc:I understand.
Marc:I do.
Marc:I do have an obsessive problem.
Marc:But with sound of your voice in general?
Guest:There's an underlying reservoir and it trickles in all sorts of ways.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like full on kind of like you have rituals around?
Guest:When I was a kid, I was an obsessive tapper.
Guest:And I couldn't, I had magic numbers and good numbers and bad numbers.
Guest:And, you know, it was magic.
Guest:It was a way of keeping the world safe and somewhat controllable.
Marc:That is magic.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's OCD.
Marc:I have often said, Alex Karpovsky.
Marc:Is that right?
Marc:You got it.
Marc:That, you know, those are rituals.
Marc:Those are magic.
Marc:That's how you control the environment you're in and make things happen.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And at that time, I think it was a way of negotiating with a really acute separation anxiety that I had with my mom.
Guest:And I felt every time she'd go out, something awful.
Guest:This is before cell phones, too.
Guest:Something awful has happened to her and I can't get in touch with her.
Guest:So I tap and have these magic numbers to make sure that she's going to return in one piece.
Marc:How old were you?
Marc:Was this like a couple years ago?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:This was when I was a kid.
Guest:But, you know, it's interesting that you say that because I think that whatever that hole that has been created and will always be there has then been filled by other things like a death anxiety or something.
Marc:Oh, the hole of separation anxiety.
Guest:The hole of just like chewing on an anxiety.
Marc:No, I know.
Marc:I'm full of dread and weirdness.
Marc:And you have to be careful not to let it turn into morose rumination or depression or paralysis.
Guest:Paralysis is probably the biggest fear of all those that you mentioned.
Guest:Oh, you get it?
Guest:No, but it's the biggest dread that I have.
Guest:It's the biggest fear of those that I mentioned is just stagnation, paralysis, not moving forward.
Guest:And ultimately, the paralysis will turn into like a gangrene, emotional increase.
Guest:Emotional gangrene.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Where you have to cut your heart out.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right?
Marc:It's a tricky surgery.
Marc:It's very tricky.
Marc:You can do it, though.
Marc:You can do it with your brain.
Guest:Just cut your heart out.
Guest:But I wouldn't do it myself.
Guest:I'd want to have a surgeon like a professional.
Guest:Well, clearly you've done some work on yourself.
Marc:You've thought about this.
Marc:You've thought about the root...
Marc:Of your tapping.
Guest:I've done some drilling, some fracking, some emotional and spiritual fracking.
Guest:Are you guided or unguided?
Guest:That's what I was going to say is I've never gone to, I say this with a very small asterisk, but I basically have never gone to a therapist.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's not something I'm proud of.
Guest:But you've done some reading.
Guest:I've done some reading.
Guest:I've listened to your podcast.
Guest:I think when I first met you, Phil Stutz had a big impression on me.
Guest:Did he?
Guest:Yeah, he did.
Guest:You introduced me to Phil.
Guest:I didn't really know about him beforehand.
Guest:You can go see Phil.
Guest:Where?
Guest:Oh, yeah, he practices in L.A.
Marc:right now.
Marc:This is your way to pop your therapy charity.
Guest:This could be the year of psychotherapy for me.
Marc:But you seem pretty well adjusted.
Marc:Well, let's keep talking.
Marc:Let's see what happens.
Marc:I could unravel.
Marc:But where did you start?
Marc:What drove you to put those pieces together?
Marc:Because putting the pieces together between OCD tapping, separation anxiety from your mother, when did you first notice that?
Marc:How old were you?
Guest:I don't remember these actually.
Guest:I would guess around six or seven or eight.
Guest:It's another weird thing too, Mark.
Guest:My parents are immigrants and they never... I just talked to them for the first time about this last week.
Guest:I don't know why it took so long.
Marc:Where did you talk about it?
Guest:We had our girls premiere.
Guest:They've never been to anything that I've done.
Guest:They're in Boston.
Guest:I'm from Newton, Mass.
Guest:So I kind of bought the Acela train, got a little hotel for them across the street.
Guest:Both parents for the premiere.
Guest:Yeah, for the premiere.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I've never invited them to anything before.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They won't ever listen to this, so I love them to death, but they're a little bit of a liability.
Guest:I guess everyone's parents, but my parents are really, I fear, as a liability.
Guest:They could always say they're immigrants.
Guest:They haven't really made any attempt to integrate themselves socially or culturally.
Guest:You're embarrassed by them?
Guest:I'm embarrassed by what they could potentially do.
Guest:Yeah, I guess I'm embarrassed by them, but they're great people, and when people meet them, they always say they're very sweet, but they don't really speak the language, and they don't really get all the customs.
Marc:Which ones?
Marc:What language do they speak?
Guest:They only speak Russian.
Guest:And I'm just so nervous that they come from the faux pas.
Marc:They're Russians.
Guest:They're Russians.
Guest:And they don't speak a lot of English.
Guest:My mom speaks virtually no English.
Guest:And my dad speaks, yes, some English.
Marc:And they, how have they insulated themselves this long?
Guest:You can do it.
Guest:You can do it these days with satellite television, you know, all of their news.
Guest:So they can watch all their Russian stuff?
Guest:They watch the Russian stuff instead of the American stuff.
Guest:All of their friends are Russian friends.
Guest:And, you know, there's enough Russians.
Marc:Did they wrong for Russia?
Marc:Did they come over with the massive expulsion of the Jews?
Guest:They came with the Jews, yeah, in the early 70s.
Guest:At that point, I think.
Marc:Like, that was the sort of, like, you can go.
Marc:Just go.
Guest:Yeah, fine.
Guest:Get out of here.
Guest:Yeah, here's your window.
Guest:Stop nagging us.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, yeah, they don't miss it, but at the same time, they made no attempt to integrate themselves culturally in America.
Guest:So you invite them.
Guest:I invite them, and that was the first time in my life that I've ever talked to them about my tapping.
Guest:We're not a very open, like, we don't talk about a lot of stuff, you know?
Guest:We don't talk about my childhood.
Guest:We don't talk about this and that.
Guest:I was an only child.
Guest:I never had a babysitter.
Guest:That's what we didn't talk about.
Guest:You were an only child.
Guest:Only child, and I never had a babysitter.
Guest:So when they were, like, they'd go away to go to, like, restaurants or parties or whatever when I was seven years old, and they'd leave me by myself...
Guest:What do you mean by yourself?
Guest:Yeah, that's the thing.
Guest:They would leave me by myself and then I'd get really fucking freaked out.
Guest:When you were seven, they left you alone in the house?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, that's not right.
Guest:Well, that's what I was trying to tell them.
Guest:And my dad just realized that last week and I was told, he was like, oh, that's not correct.
Guest:I was like, no, I'm still recovering from that.
Guest:There's a reason I'm in my 30s and I'm fucking single.
Guest:And I don't like being alone in my house.
Guest:Yeah, and like, you know, there's still this sort of, that fear, that sort of neural pathway that has been really deepened since I was a child and that I'll be negotiating with the rest of my life.
Guest:It's no longer pulsing around this sort of separation anxiety anymore.
Guest:I think it's been filled by other things, but it'll always have to be filled by something.
Guest:I don't think I'll be able to rewire that.
Guest:I don't think so.
Marc:Well, that's like a terror because I had some of that when I was a kid.
Marc:Like my parents, if they go out of town,
Marc:I would be sure they would die in a plane crash.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But like I'd get nauseous.
Marc:I threw up.
Marc:Like I'd be paralyzed at school.
Marc:But I'd have a babysitter.
Guest:Did you have siblings as well?
Guest:Yeah, I have a little brother.
Guest:Did that help?
Guest:Well, being an oldest probably doesn't help.
Marc:I just don't know.
Marc:It's just like I got so consumed and sad with the idea that their plane will crash.
Marc:That was how it manifested.
Guest:Me too.
Guest:For me, it was car crashes.
Guest:And I was absolutely convinced it's before cell phones.
Guest:I would try to call restaurants that they would go to and just beg the manager to put them on.
Marc:Did they put them on?
Guest:Sometimes, if it wasn't too busy.
Guest:But, you know, it was always, like, incredible dread.
Guest:I'd be crying all night.
Guest:And I think it messed me up.
Guest:But they're great parents in other respects, too.
Marc:Was your mom, like, a completely overbearing, panicky person?
Marc:I mean, why was the connection so strong?
Marc:Because I'm not sure why...
Marc:Like, I just couldn't, the worry was something I got from them.
Guest:I don't think she was panicky, but she was smothering.
Guest:She loved me a lot, and that's a great problem to have.
Guest:Well, you're the only one.
Guest:That's a lot of pressure.
Guest:And she was 35 when she had me, too.
Guest:Oh, so she was mature.
Guest:She was mature, and this was the last hurrah.
Guest:So I think there was some of that.
Guest:And I think my dad countered that by being a stoic, introverted, Soviet intellectual.
Guest:I think he countered that by saying, you're giving him too much attention.
Guest:You're giving this too much.
Guest:So we need to harden him by giving him some alone time.
Marc:What kind of intellectual?
Marc:He was a scientist or a professor of what?
Guest:Computer science at Boston University.
Guest:I went to Boston University.
Guest:Yeah, I know.
Guest:I went there too.
Marc:Oh, you went there too?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because he worked there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I know that- Have we talked about that?
Guest:No, but I saw-
Guest:The Jerusalem Syndrome.
Guest:Oh, you did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In New York?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was a big fan of yours, man.
Guest:You didn't know that?
Guest:No.
Guest:There was this like a quote-unquote alternative comedy scene at the Luna Lounge on Monday nights.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you were, you know, a big heavyweight there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was a fan.
Guest:And it was like a black box, like shoebox thing somewhere.
Guest:In the back, yeah.
Guest:There weren't that many people there, but I really enjoyed the show.
Guest:But at the beginning of it, there's some sort of like slide, you know, there's a little screen.
Marc:Oh, you're talking about Jerusalem Syndrome.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You saw it upstairs.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:At not a 45.
Marc:So that was in like, it was on like 46th Street or something.
Guest:That sounds about right.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That was before I moved it to the West Bath Theater.
Marc:So you saw it in one of those like two or three hour marathon things.
Guest:I don't remember the duration or what floor I was on when I saw it, but I do remember.
Guest:But a small theater.
Guest:It was a small theater.
Guest:Nobody was there.
Guest:Seven or eight people there.
Guest:And at the beginning it said, it's Mark Merritt, something along the lines of it.
Guest:Mark Merritt, sponsored by, brought to you by, and then it was like, there's all this stuff coming out.
Guest:And one of the things was Boston University.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I was like, I went to Boston University.
Guest:I just remember that.
Yeah.
Marc:You saw one of the early Jerusalem systems.
Guest:You know what's weird about that show?
Guest:I mean, I really like the show.
Guest:There was this guy, this corporate Friday guy, and he kept yawning.
Guest:And I don't mean small yawns.
Guest:I mean like... And he wasn't being a dick.
Guest:He just had no fucking grip on common sense.
Guest:And it was annoying.
Guest:It was like a small room.
Guest:I feel like you were noticing it, but you were being a professional.
Marc:It's surprisingly that I didn't say anything.
Guest:And then the show ended and this woman who was sitting next to me the whole time came up to him, just berated him in the lobby.
Guest:She's like, you have no, you have, you have, you're, you're an asshole.
Guest:You have no sense of common decency or common respect.
Guest:And the guy was just like befuddled.
Guest:He didn't, I really remember that after the Jerusalem syndrome for some reason.
Marc:So your dad was just a professor of beat.
Marc:When did they, he still is.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When did you, were you born here?
Guest:I was born in Israel.
Guest:My parents left Russia.
Guest:My mom left Moscow.
Guest:My dad left St.
Guest:Petersburg.
Guest:They met in Israel.
Guest:They'd stayed there for six years total.
Guest:But in the middle of that.
Guest:They weren't together when they met in Israel?
Guest:They weren't together.
Guest:But there was like a Russian community.
Guest:I think it was easy for Russians.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:They didn't leave together?
Marc:They didn't leave Russia together?
Marc:Yeah, they didn't know each other in Russia.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:They met in Israel.
Marc:They met in Israel in the 70s?
Guest:They married.
Guest:Yeah, early 70s.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then they met each other, boned.
Guest:I came out and then I came here when I was three.
Guest:Upstate New York.
Marc:So you were in Israel for three years, the first three years.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you have citizenship in Israel.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But you got to go fight.
Guest:You know what happened, man?
Guest:When I was 20 years old, I went to school.
Guest:I went to Israel when I was 20 years old.
Guest:And now when I came in the country, but I was leaving the country, they ran me through and they said, you have like a working equivalent of a social security number because I had dual citizenship.
Guest:And they said, technically, we have every right to put you on a bus and throw a uniform on you.
Guest:And I was like, well, this...
Guest:surely there's a mistake and so they i missed my flight they took me into a room and i signed a stack of papers most mostly in hebrew yeah a lot of initials a lot of signatures and i don't know what i signed that day man i could have been confessing to terrorist acts i have no you really don't know i really don't know but you don't read hebrew i wouldn't i don't read hebrew i wouldn't be shocked if i somehow forfeited my citizenship i've never been back since that day so i don't know you know you could probably find out
Guest:Yeah, I probably could.
Guest:I've never had an opportunity to visit Israel.
Marc:You were 20 and you went to school for a year or what?
Marc:No, no, no.
Guest:I went to school in England and we had a break so I thought I would check out Israel.
Guest:Actually, I had a great trip.
Marc:All right, let's back it up.
Marc:All right, back it up.
Guest:Yeah, we did kind of just cannonball right into my separation anxiety.
Marc:We went from like you were seven and sad calling restaurants and now you're leaving Oxford for a year.
Guest:Yeah, this is like the structure of a New York article.
Guest:You're going to dive in, then you back it up.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:But, all right, so you're in Israel for three years.
Marc:You don't really remember that.
Marc:Do you have relatives there or nobody?
Marc:Nobody.
Guest:I had a grandfather, but he died, yeah.
Marc:He was in Israel?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:So they all went to Israel first.
Guest:They went from Russia to Israel.
Guest:Russia to Israel, yeah.
Guest:I think there was three paths at that point, Israel, Italy, or U.S., and it was a lottery system from what I understand.
Guest:To get out of Russia.
Guest:To get out of Russia, yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:My dad was a refugee.
Guest:My mom won.
Guest:Well, they both won the lottery.
Guest:But ultimately, yeah, they went to Israel.
Guest:Israel took them.
Marc:And okay, so then you move here when you're three to upstate New York?
Marc:To Binghamton.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That's where he got his gig?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:First gig?
Guest:His first gig, yeah.
Marc:So he's got to speak enough English to teach fucking computers.
Guest:Yeah, but you've heard these professors like, you know, like it's like really fucking broken.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, he's saying the same shit over and over again, so it's kind of like rote memory.
Marc:But he's been there for, what, a couple decades?
Guest:He must be doing a good job.
Guest:He's got his little speech down, but, like, get him outside his comfort zone, it breaks down pretty quickly.
Guest:Oh, really?
Marc:Like talking about movies or something?
Guest:Or anything, yeah.
Guest:But that's the thing, man.
Guest:They have an integrated social culture, so he can't talk about movies, he can't talk about TV shows, he can't talk about music or anything like that.
Guest:Does he have those interests?
Guest:No, no, he's a very solitary man.
Guest:After work, he goes upstairs to a study and he's just in front of the computer, like reading Russian news on the internet.
Marc:Is he responsible for any amazing things?
Marc:Is he known for something as a computer guy?
Guest:Fault-tolerant self-diagnostic electronics.
Guest:Oh, and also cryptography.
Guest:He got his PhD in cryptography.
Guest:But I don't think he's like... Is that maps?
Guest:No, that's cartography.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:I think it's code-breaking.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:I just saw the movie about that.
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:This is a big code-breaking movie.
Guest:Did you see it?
Guest:No, I didn't see it.
Marc:I didn't know anything about that Turing guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Did you?
Guest:A little bit because of my dad.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, so he's like a Turing fan?
Yeah.
Guest:well he's a mathematician code breaker i think turing's like the holy grail so cryptography your dad was a code breaker he went to he got his phd in cryptography i don't know if i can say in russia in russia yeah and then he taught it in israel and then he taught it in the u.s he was supposed to go to the u.s for a year or a semester and then he fell in love and they stayed how are you doing can you break a code no i can't break a single code you didn't say give me some tricks you didn't you didn't have those kind of interests
Guest:Even if I asked my dad for tricks, I would be really surprised if he gave me anything.
Guest:He would be withholding?
Guest:He'd be withholding with tricks.
Marc:Like you got to go learn it on your own?
Guest:I tried to get him to teach me chess a few times.
Guest:And he's not a patient man.
Guest:He's like, he's an incredible chess player too.
Guest:Well, isn't that part of Russian culture?
Guest:It's part of the whole jam.
Guest:But I would ask him to teach me stuff and he'd be so frustrated.
Guest:I'm like, dude, I'm fucking nine years old.
Guest:Like I'm starting to know...
Marc:Oh, he should have taught you chess.
Marc:Maybe he would have, you know, he might have changed your life.
Marc:There are a lot of things he could have done to change my life.
Marc:Like what else do you think he could have done?
Marc:Teach me about chicks.
Marc:You know, teach me.
Marc:Does he know about chicks?
Guest:He's a computer guy.
Marc:Why don't you stick within his realm of expertise?
Guest:Your cryptography in chess seems reasonable.
Guest:He managed to marry a very beautiful woman and my mother.
Guest:So he knew enough to pull that off, you know?
Marc:Well, why do you think that this separation anxiety has kept you single?
Marc:How old are you?
Marc:39.
Marc:So you're almost 40.
Marc:Almost 40.
Marc:Well, 39.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Do you have a girlfriend?
Marc:No, man.
Marc:Have you ever?
Guest:Yeah, but I can't ever say like it was, they've always been, I don't know.
Guest:I'm going to sound like everyone else now.
Guest:I've had girlfriends, but I've never been in a relationship that I ever thought was really, really perfect.
Guest:I've never, and I guess anybody could say that, but there've been moments in my life outside of relationships where I felt this is perfect.
Guest:This is great.
Guest:I would love to live this way forever.
Guest:Like if I could freeze time and just hover in this haze, it'd be great.
Guest:But I never felt that way in a relationship.
Guest:That's not the way life works.
Guest:But I felt that way, man.
Guest:Even last winter, I spent like January, February, and March here last winter.
Guest:I live in New York.
Guest:I spent in LA.
Guest:And it was blissful.
Guest:It was really great.
Guest:Really?
Guest:I could have lived that way for a few years.
Marc:You try living out here for a year straight.
Marc:Yeah, that's what they say.
Marc:See what the bliss does.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Pretty soon, it'd be like, nothing.
Marc:This is the temperature?
Marc:No, there's no variation on this except for 10, 12 degrees.
Guest:I guess every type of bliss has a shelf life.
Guest:But I never felt even that way that I felt last winter in a relationship.
Guest:That's all I'm trying to communicate.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:Well, you know, having poetic sort of, you know, nice, deep feelings about weather is different than, you know, having that with a person.
Guest:Well, my love for LA isn't just weather-based.
Marc:It's not just weather-based.
Guest:No, it's a big part of it, but there's other things.
Marc:You have love for LA.
Guest:I've never lived here.
Guest:I spent three months here last winter, but it was a love affair.
Marc:And you're back.
Marc:How long have you been back so far?
Marc:A week.
Marc:All right.
Marc:And you're going to spend another three months.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But this could be it.
Marc:You're like, I was wrong about that bitch.
Guest:I could be.
Guest:It wouldn't be the first time to be wrong about a bitch.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:LA, fuck me this time, was not good.
Guest:What was nice about LA last year is A, I dodged a brutal winter.
Guest:B, I knew it was temporary.
Guest:C, I wasn't here hustling, trying to pitch something or go to meetings.
Guest:I was just, I had a little house that I found on Craigslist in Echo Park, carved into this hill, beautiful view.
Guest:I just wrote, played tennis and occasionally went on a few dates and it was awesome.
Guest:It was a really nice time.
Marc:Played tennis.
Guest:Yeah, I'm a big tennis player.
Marc:You play tennis?
Marc:No, I don't play tennis.
Marc:My brother plays tennis.
Marc:Yeah, it was nice.
Marc:He used to play all the time.
Guest:It's so easy to play in LA.
Guest:It's really hard in New York.
Marc:All right, so you're in upstate New York, Binghamton, for how long?
Marc:Five years, three to eight.
Marc:So you're eight and you leave.
Marc:But Binghamton, that's cold.
Marc:Gets cold up there.
Guest:I've been cold my whole life until last year.
Guest:How's your Russian?
Guest:Pretty good, right?
Guest:It's pretty good.
Guest:I speak fluently, but I got a thick accent.
Guest:So you'll know, like a Russian will know within half a sentence that I'm an American.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you grew up speaking it.
Guest:I grew up speaking it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I can't answer that.
Guest:And I can't read it and I can't write it.
Guest:I'm stupid with language.
Marc:Because I was looking at your credits.
Marc:And your second credit after the film you made was a voiceover.
Marc:Is that a true credit?
Guest:Oh, Grand Theft Auto IV?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I did that.
Guest:There was a... But they were Russian guys, right?
Guest:I played a different... A set of Russian gangsters.
Guest:A set of Russian gangsters.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What were the variations on those, Alex?
Guest:There'd be a tough guy, then there'd be a kind of a nebbish guy, then there'd be a guy who's... Give me a taste.
Marc:Tough guy.
Guest:Tough guy.
Guest:Why do you want to get him?
Guest:He has nothing for you.
Guest:You know, when I walked, this is the thing is like, I thought I'd be doing one thing.
Guest:So I practiced one thing.
Guest:When I walked in, there was a little like five foot two guy with a clipboard.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he walked into the sound booth and he's like, okay, so the first thing we're going to have you do is, um, you just, you just fucked a prostitute and then you killed her to get her money.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So we're going to start.
Guest:You want some hot water?
Guest:You want a lemon?
Guest:This is a brutal game.
Guest:Have you played it?
Guest:No.
Guest:I didn't play it either.
Marc:I haven't played any video games.
Marc:I don't know anything about modern video games.
Guest:You didn't grow up playing video games?
Guest:Legend of Zelda?
Marc:I'm 51.
Marc:I'm 51.
Marc:My video games were a little before Donkey Kong.
Marc:I was around when the first ones came.
Marc:Space Invaders, Asteroids.
Marc:Are we talking Atari system?
Marc:No, we're talking at the bowling alley.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:I'm talking about quarter machines.
Guest:Nothing at home.
Marc:Well, they had Pong, but I mean, I don't know.
Marc:I mean, a lot of grownups play them.
Marc:I just, I can't maintain interest.
Marc:It takes too long.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I can't, I don't, I can't, I can't do it.
Guest:Well, they sucked when you were growing up.
Marc:Now they're- I know, but I know grown people that play them.
Marc:Do you play them?
Guest:I don't play them.
Guest:No, but that's my point.
Guest:It's like, now they're really, really- I want to hear the Nebeshi Russian guy.
Guest:I'm not going to do party tricks for you here, Mark.
Guest:Sure you are.
Guest:Excuse me.
Guest:I would like my money back.
Guest:I enjoyed fucking you, but can I have my money back, please?
Marc:It's kind of Peter Lorre-ish.
Marc:That's not a party trick.
Marc:That's a skill.
Marc:You're exhibiting your amazing... My reign.
Guest:So when did you end up in Boston?
Guest:How old were you then?
Guest:Eight.
Guest:We went from Binghamton to Boston.
Guest:My dad got a job at BU.
Guest:So he's been there for a long since.
Guest:Where'd you grow up?
Guest:What part?
Guest:31 years.
Guest:Newton Mess.
Guest:Newton.
Marc:That's where Louis grew up.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I saw that episode where I went back home.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And tried to talk to his dad.
Marc:So you're almost 40.
Marc:39 years.
Guest:Well, you keep saying that.
Marc:He's older than you, so you didn't know him.
Marc:So you were there from eight until you left.
Guest:Yeah, 8 until 20, which is when I went.
Guest:20 or 21 is when I went to grad school in England, yeah.
Marc:Okay, so did you do stand-up?
Marc:Did you do acting?
Marc:What were you doing at PU?
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:I did a neuroscience and anthropology.
Guest:I was a huge fucking introvert.
Marc:I mean, I still am to some extent, but I was like a clinical... Undergraduate neuroscience and anthropology.
Guest:Were you there... You know, when I was at BU, there was a program called Uni, University Professors Program.
Marc:Yeah, for Smarties, right?
Guest:It was a little bit for Smarties, but you can kind of do your own thing.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Like, you just write a little thesis, kind of a bullshit thesis, and whatever the thesis is about is what they put on your... Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Guest:They shut it down, by the way.
Guest:That's no longer the program's no longer there, but I did that so it's kind of like a I don't really know that much about neuroscience I didn't really know that much about anthropology, but you know what I mean?
Marc:I just kind of wrote the thesis more or less on those subject I sort of bullshitted my way through yeah with my degrees like what do we got at the end?
Guest:Yeah, I mean what do I what do I really know that I could you must have done all right to get into Oxford and
Guest:I really, you know, yeah, I really, I worked hard in my undergrad years.
Guest:Noon South, which is the school I went to, it was, I didn't realize until I was done with it just how difficult it was.
Guest:Were it Oxford?
Guest:No, going to BU relative to Noon South.
Guest:BU is really.
Guest:What's Noon South?
Guest:It's just a really like good public high school.
Marc:Oh, you went to, oh, Newton South.
Guest:Noon South.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I grew up in Newton.
Marc:I heard that was a good school.
Guest:It was.
Guest:I didn't realize how tough it was until I left it and went to BU and everything just seemed a lot easier.
Marc:Really?
Marc:So you studied hard in high school?
Guest:I know I studied hard but I only got decent grades and then at BU I studied hard I think to impress my dad yeah that's what you do I did that for a semester then I'm like fuck that yeah it took me a few years but ultimately I did say fuck that too I think you know weed did you impress your dad weed really helped me I smoked my I did everything late like I lost my virginity late how old I'm too embarrassed to tell you really no it's time to fess up no man I'm embarrassed seriously no I'm one percenter like I'm a one percenter what like last year
Guest:No, it wasn't that bad.
Guest:But it was like, I can't tell you, man.
Guest:I'm not ready.
Guest:I'm not ready.
Guest:What are you talking about?
Guest:I'm not ready to tell you.
Guest:Like 25 to 30?
Guest:A little bit lower than that.
Guest:Okay, I was 23.
Guest:That's not horrible.
Guest:That's a one percenter, I think.
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:You don't think so?
Marc:No, man.
Marc:You just said you were socially awkward and introverted and it was difficult and you're not that great at it now, it doesn't seem.
Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Marc:What?
Guest:What do I know?
Guest:What do you know?
Guest:You're right.
Guest:Was it great though, the first time?
Guest:No, because I was so old, I had to pretend like I did it like 50 times before.
Guest:So I had to pretend I'm all smooth, but ultimately I had no moves.
Guest:I didn't know what I was doing.
Guest:I went down on her for like, I think three hours.
Guest:So she'll always remember it.
Guest:Hopefully, hopefully.
Guest:And I didn't come the first time.
Guest:Really?
Guest:It was too overwhelming.
Marc:That is not a one percenter activity.
Marc:I mean, most people, I came within seconds.
Guest:You did?
Marc:Sure.
Guest:Prophylactic?
Guest:Did you use one?
Marc:No.
Marc:Sorry to ask.
Marc:So offended.
Marc:Well, it wasn't necessary then.
Marc:When I lost my rigidity, you didn't need barbers.
Marc:How old were you?
Marc:17 or 18.
Guest:That's right in the sweet spot.
Marc:I guess, but it didn't go well.
Marc:It did not go well.
Marc:Did she know you were a virgin?
Marc:Yeah, I told her.
Marc:Everything was out front.
Marc:Was she a virgin?
Marc:No, she was older than me, and she was like, okay, we're going to do it.
Marc:And I was so nervous.
Marc:It took me forever to get it up.
Marc:And when I finally did, it was like, oh, God.
Marc:And then it just paralyzes me with anxiety.
Marc:It was a lot of pressure.
Guest:And how long after that experience did it take you to have sex again?
Guest:Was it immediate?
Guest:Did you want to wash the bad taste out of your mouth?
Marc:Yeah, no, I kept trying to have good, successful sex, but I don't think I really got rolling until I was maybe 20, 19 or 20.
Marc:And then I figured it out.
Marc:I figured it out.
Guest:Your junior year at BU, you got no groove.
Marc:I was doing okay.
Marc:I did all right.
Marc:Developing the game, like knowing how to talk to women.
Marc:No, I had nothing to do with that.
Marc:Just developing the skill of sex.
Marc:It's just sex, okay.
Marc:I don't know if I ever had a lot of game.
Marc:I mean, the ones that came around came around.
Marc:I would get obsessed with girls and I would focus on them and I'd put a lot of attention on them and that could go either way.
Marc:Either you could frighten them or they're like, wow, this kid means business.
Marc:It's very focused.
Marc:Then it could go that way.
Marc:But the problem with that being obsessive like that, then once they're like, okay, I'm in, you're like, no, I guess I'm done.
Guest:The hunt's over.
Guest:Yeah, I understand that.
Marc:Oh, you're talking about weed.
Guest:Yeah, well, that's what I was about to get to.
Guest:I think weed really injected me with perspective.
Guest:It forced me or allowed me to look at myself from a completely different vantage point, which is really helpful.
Guest:I think if I didn't smoke weed when I was like 19 or 20, I would have been a very unhappy academic or scientist or something.
Marc:Really?
Marc:It opens you up?
Guest:It opened me up, man.
Guest:I didn't have any therapy beforehand.
Guest:I had very little life experience.
Guest:I didn't have a lot of close friends.
Guest:I had no fucking relationship experience.
Guest:I had no sort of reflection upon myself.
Marc:What did it do exactly?
Marc:Did it relax you?
Guest:I saw myself from a removed point of view, from a completely unfamiliar vantage point.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that's what meditation can do.
Guest:That's what psychotherapy can do.
Guest:That's what a great close friend can do.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I didn't have any of those things.
Guest:All I had was a bong.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it really, really, really helped me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It really helped me.
Guest:Do you still smoke?
Guest:Like once a month I'll smoke.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But like back then, were you like hitting it like wake and bake kind of stuff?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I never waked and baked.
Guest:But I would do it at the end of a night.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would just lie down on my bedroom floor and just close my eyes and just go, go places.
Marc:But when you were BU, did you live at home?
Yeah.
Guest:uh first year i lived at warren towers do you remember warren towers you were down the street and you were and you went and lived in warren towers well there's no way i'm gonna live like that's i didn't get to like go away for college at least i'm gonna go and live in the dorms i mean i'm not gonna oh but those dorms i know it was brutal horrendous it's a lottery you know i didn't i didn't ask for those dorms but yeah it was horrendous it's it's almost like prison and then my first semester of sophomore year i did live at home
Guest:And I was very unhappy.
Guest:And then I went, I lived in Alston since then, basically.
Guest:Right.
Guest:For the rest of BU.
Guest:How did Oxford happen?
Guest:I got good grades at BU.
Marc:But did you learn about anthropology?
Guest:A little bit.
Marc:What do you mean a little bit?
Marc:You got into Oxford.
Marc:You majored in neuroscience and anthropology?
Guest:I mean, that's what my thesis was on.
Guest:I hesitate to say major.
Guest:Did you study theater or film or anything?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I would never even- Can you do algebra?
Guest:What did you study at BU?
Guest:I'm curious.
Guest:Because it was hard, I think, unless you were like a SFA, School of Fine Arts student, it was hard to do plays.
Marc:I did stage troupe.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Were you an SFA kid?
Marc:No, I was at College of Liberal Arts.
Marc:I was an English lit major.
Marc:I minored in film studies, which was an art history minor.
Guest:Did you do stand-up in Boston when you were in undergrad?
Marc:I did a little stand-up very early on on campus, but I started doing it after my sophomore year that summer, and it killed me, and I stopped until I graduated.
Marc:So I did stage troupe, though.
Guest:What exactly is stage troupe?
Marc:That's for the non-SFA drama club.
Marc:So I did Indian Wants the Bronx, and I directed Woody Allen, two plays by Woody Allen for stage troupe.
Marc:I was in Don't Drink the Water.
Marc:I was in that Woody Allen play.
Marc:And I was part of that.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah, that wasn't anywhere near my radar.
Guest:So why'd you apply to Oxford?
Marc:Whose idea was that?
Guest:I went there my junior year abroad.
Guest:I took the entire junior year.
Guest:I went there from BU.
Guest:I fell in love with it because I could finally go away from home for the first time in life.
Guest:And I could truly be whatever I told people I was.
Guest:Are you a religious Jew?
Guest:Not religious, no.
Guest:Were you bar mitzvahed and everything?
Guest:I was bar mitzvahed, yeah.
Marc:So you went to temple in Newton?
Guest:Went to temple.
Guest:Yeah, sometimes I still visit my parents and I time my visits with high holidays so we can go to temple together.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you're not Jew on your own time?
Guest:I'm not Jew on my own.
Guest:No, I don't do Jew on my own time.
Marc:You don't Jew on your own?
Guest:Well, you know, I actually, one or two Yom Kippur's ago, I went to a temple in New York on my own time.
Guest:So yeah, but very rarely.
Marc:I did that, then it went away.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Why do you think it went away?
Marc:I don't know, I just, I don't know that it was, culturally Jewish, I don't know if the religion, outside of feeling like I had to do it at any, it didn't resonate.
Marc:I mean, I don't know that it, I don't pray, I mean, I got a warm feeling sometimes going to temple, but I don't know that it really, it just felt like something I did with my family.
Marc:And when I went alone, it felt sad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Lonely?
Marc:I don't know if it's lonely, but it's just sort of like, what am I doing?
Marc:Is this just a habit?
Marc:Am I really praying?
Marc:Am I really repenting?
Marc:Did you repent when you went by yourself?
Guest:I made a list on a piece of paper of all the things that I was apologizing for.
Guest:So yeah, I atoned.
Marc:Yeah, that's what I meant, atoned.
Guest:Yeah, writing everything down in a piece of paper.
Guest:It was kind of helpful.
Guest:It actually was very helpful.
Guest:And then I created my own ritual.
Guest:I burned the piece of paper because I wanted it to like, I don't know, just go away.
Guest:That's some magic.
Guest:I guess it is magic.
Guest:Magic still trickles through me, I guess.
Marc:No, I think that's actually a magic thing that you burned the list.
Marc:Burning the list.
Guest:It felt good.
Guest:It felt good to see it go up in ashes.
Marc:Well, that's all that's necessary.
Marc:That's how you change your feelings about things is taking ritual action.
Marc:And if it was effective, it was effective.
Guest:If you felt like it was good closure to burn a list like a lunatic in like an alleyway behind the temple trying to get the flame going in the wind.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So Oxford, what do you study there?
Marc:Anthropology.
Guest:More anthropology.
Guest:More anthropology.
Guest:Ritual and myth was my concentration.
Marc:That's exciting.
Marc:So that must have helped a little bit with the writing of the screenplays and the thinking about the drama.
Guest:In a way.
Guest:But, you know, when I went to Oxford, that's when I really that's when I started.
Guest:I don't know exactly how this happened, but I started kind of going on auditions and doing sketch comedy, improv comedy in Britain.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This is what I was trying to say a moment ago.
Guest:It's like when I went there, no one knew who I was.
Marc:Right.
Guest:I went to like a lot of kids from Newton South went to BU.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My parents, my dad is fucking on campus.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I could run into him at any moment.
Guest:Did that happen a lot?
Guest:Yeah, it happened every now and then.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But like it could happen at any moment.
Guest:So like mentally it was always there.
Guest:So just the notion that I can go 5,000 miles away or whatever and wear whatever clothes I want and say whatever I want, it allowed me to finally reinvent myself.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Long overdue.
Guest:Come out of your shell.
Guest:Yeah, very much so.
Guest:And as an extension of that, I started kind of doing stand-up and sketch comedy and improv comedy and other things that I wouldn't have dreamed of doing with the past still kind of wrapped around me, so close to me.
Guest:And I really loved it.
Guest:After being at Oxford for a year for my master's degree, I took a leave of absence to go to London just to do it full-time.
Guest:Stand-up?
Guest:Due to stand-up and sketch comedy.
Guest:I was obsessed with Andy Kaufman at the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was kind of prankish, comedic performance art stuff.
Guest:A lot of it didn't work, but it was really, really fun.
Marc:Give me some examples of a bit.
Guest:So one bit was I would... It's kind of hard to... I don't know if it'll... Okay.
Guest:I would have a boombox...
Guest:with two cassette players and i would introduce and i would introduce my brother who couldn't be here tonight because of an illness so i'd play like the best of his tapes and then i had a box of tapes and i would sort of try to make it i can't explain it that one that one killed that was a good one
Guest:It was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then another thing was I played a Russian comic where a guy tried to translate my jokes.
Guest:It feels so outdated talking about there's a stoic comic, a guy who like frightened himself on never being able to laugh and this other guy would tell him jokes.
Guest:But, you know, like the thing that I found was it was really hard to like.
Guest:Did you work with other people when you.
Guest:Yeah, there's a guy named Quinn Burke who's just a brilliant guy that also an American guy that I used to do.
Marc:Is he still in the racket?
Guest:no he shut it down um and i've lost touch with him um but it was hard to like you know widen that like you do like a five minute thing that may eventually work but you can't really like yeah no stand-ups like like you do an hour yeah you slowly bit you get best subs and best subs and you tighten up and you get it longer i couldn't do that but you were never a joke guy it was all sort of like you know you got to go up and commit to these lengthy things that might go nowhere
Guest:Exactly, and most of them are rooted in some notion of you're playing a character where the audience doesn't know you're playing a character, and then you slowly reveal that you're playing a character.
Guest:And once the jig is up, the jig is up, and you can't play another character after that.
Marc:But what kind of improv were you doing?
Guest:Just regular sort of college-based improv, which means bad improv.
Guest:We would just go up there, and it was mostly with me and my friend Quinn.
Guest:We would just go up there and do long-form improv, which you have to be really, really good to do.
Guest:Later on in my life, I met these two guys named TJ and Dave who do long-form improv out of Chicago, and I made a movie about them, and I was like, Jesus Christ, I should have never even... After seeing those guys, I was like, what the...
Marc:Well, you just didn't go further with it.
Marc:What are you going to do?
Marc:You tried something.
Marc:Yeah, I tried something.
Marc:So which movie was that?
Marc:Trust us, this was all made up.
Guest:And it was just following those guys?
Guest:It was basically a live concert performance film.
Marc:Of them.
Guest:Of them, yeah.
Guest:They do this show at the Barrow Street Theater in New York.
Guest:They're Chicago guys, but they come to New York to do this show every few months.
Marc:And you shot a concert movie.
Guest:Concert movie.
Guest:It's exactly what it is, yeah.
Marc:And were they happy with it?
Guest:I think so.
Guest:They were very wary about the whole endeavor.
Guest:In fact, they said no repeatedly, and I slowly kept nudging them.
Marc:Why, because of the intrusion?
Guest:Well, one or two botched efforts in the past, A. With you or other people?
Guest:No, with other people.
Guest:And ultimately that led them to feeling B that this, it couldn't be translated.
Guest:This fundamentally 3D live theatrical experience couldn't be translated into a flat cinematic 2D long time experience.
Marc:And that was the challenge that you wanted to take.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah.
Guest:So one of the things I told them was like, you know, we're not just going to launch into the live concert.
Guest:We're going to have like this 20 minute documentary type of buildup.
Guest:So we have a little bit of, you know, right.
Guest:Three act structure.
Guest:We're going to make the audience nervous and hopefully exhilarated.
Guest:But ultimately, what I'm getting at is I gave them final cut.
Guest:And if they were embarrassed by the movie and if they felt there's something they didn't want to get out there, they could shut it down.
Guest:So the fact that it's out there is some sort of sign, I guess, that they didn't they weren't horribly embarrassed by it.
Guest:It premiered at South by Southwest.
Guest:It played a few other festivals.
Guest:They traveled with the movie.
Guest:They did shows with it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So that was very nice.
Marc:So is it available now on DVD?
Guest:Yeah, I think on Netflix, Amazon.
Guest:Still on Netflix?
Guest:iTunes maybe.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:I'm not sure.
Guest:All this stuff is up?
Guest:One of those.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:All right, so let's go back.
Marc:So you're in London.
Marc:You took a semester off.
Marc:You did the stand-up.
Marc:Took a year off.
Marc:A year off.
Marc:And then you go back, you finish.
Guest:No, I think I asked to go back.
Guest:I asked to take a leave of absence and to come back in a year.
Guest:And then I ultimately didn't ever want to go back.
Marc:You didn't finish your master's at Oxford?
Guest:I got, they have a master's.
Guest:They have MST, which is a Master of Studies, which you get after a year, and I got that.
Guest:Then if you stay another year, you get an MPhil, Master of Philosophy, which is like an Advanced Masters, which I did not get.
Guest:And then if you stay another three or four years, you get a DPhil, which is basically our PhD.
Guest:So I got the lowest beginner stage Masters.
Marc:So it's useless.
Guest:Completely useless, yeah.
Guest:I've done nothing with it.
Guest:I've never once, you know.
Guest:What was it, Myth and Rituals, you said?
Guest:Ritual and Myth, in Amazonia.
Guest:But that's interesting stuff.
Guest:It was great stuff.
Guest:I loved it.
Guest:I had a great time there.
Guest:I had a blissful year there.
Guest:I was doing comedy in the evenings.
Guest:I was having these really, really fun lectures and study groups in the daytime.
Guest:It was blissful.
Guest:It was really, really great.
Guest:When did you go to Israel?
Guest:When I was 20.
Guest:So I went there doing my junior year abroad.
Marc:Oh, so that's before that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So now, all right, so you got the bug.
Marc:You're doing Andy Kaufman stuff.
Guest:Move to New York.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Go into the universe that you're kind of hovering around, the Luna Lounge, Monday Night's Luna Lounge universe.
Guest:Heavyweights, you know, Todd Berry.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Guys I really love.
Guest:Rick Shapiro.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Sarah Silverman.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Janine Garofalo.
Guest:Louis would do stuff.
Guest:Tons of other people.
Guest:Oh, Slovan and Alan.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:I thought were really funny.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Yeah, so that was sort of the scene, and it was hot.
Guest:Where were you living?
Guest:I was living, I was subletting on Craigs, or I don't know if Craigs, I don't even know how I did this, but I was subletting place to place, so for a while I lived on first and first.
Guest:I lived there longest, and then I would just hop around for a long time.
Marc:Yeah, so you were Eastside guy.
Marc:Yeah, East Village guy, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, East Village, I was at second and B, between A and B. Yeah, and yeah, it was something, right?
Guest:Yeah, like it was packed on Monday nights.
Marc:It was crazy.
Marc:It was fun down there.
Marc:I don't know if it doesn't feel the same anymore down there.
Guest:I'm so removed from the scene, I don't know what's going on.
Marc:No, but I mean, just I don't, like the area doesn't feel the same anymore.
Marc:Like, you know, there was still sort of like the tail end of whatever happened in the 70s and 80s.
Marc:You know, it was sort of like there was still, it felt gritty still.
Marc:It doesn't feel gritty anymore.
Marc:No.
Marc:Almost anywhere there.
Marc:No.
Marc:All right, so, but you're not doing stand-up?
Marc:I didn't see you do stand-up, did I?
Marc:Are you doing it in New York?
Guest:I don't know if you saw it.
Guest:I would do it like once every, I would have to wait like five months to get back on the stage at Luna Lounge.
Marc:Did you ever meet Eugene Merman at that time?
Guest:Eugene I know well.
Guest:I actually started doing stand-up, like really like my own stand-up in Boston at a comedy studio upstairs in New York.
Guest:And he hosted the Friday night show.
Marc:When did you do that?
Yeah.
Guest:So yeah, there was like a six month period between when I dropped out of Oxford and when I moved to New York.
Guest:And I lived in Boston with my parents.
Marc:So right when you got back from Britain.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And that Friday night scene was fun too.
Guest:It was Eugene and Brendan Small.
Guest:Yeah, I love Brendan.
Guest:And this guy named Patrick Borelli.
Marc:I know him.
Guest:And Louie would come up from New York every now and then.
Guest:It was a fun night.
Guest:It was good.
Marc:Yeah, it wasn't there when I was there.
Marc:So do you and Eugene speak Russian together?
Guest:I think we've exchanged a few Russian words together.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Is his family from a similar place as your family in Russia?
Marc:Did you ever have that conversation with him?
Guest:I'm sure I did, but I don't remember.
Guest:He's from Lexington, Mass., which is really close.
Guest:And my mom knows all the Russians in Boston, so she knows.
Marc:She knows the Mermans?
Guest:She knows the story.
Guest:I just don't know it.
Yeah.
Marc:She knows all the Russians in Boston?
Guest:She's a social butterfly.
Guest:She kind of arranges all these charity events and stuff.
Guest:She knows everybody.
Marc:All right, so when did you make the first movie?
Marc:At what point?
Marc:So you didn't stick with stand-up, obviously.
Guest:No.
Marc:You had bigger ambitions.
Guest:I had bigger ambitions, yeah.
Guest:And I was working as a caterer.
Guest:And then this guy who I went to Oxford with was editing corporate videos and industrial videos and karaoke videos.
Guest:And he's like, do you want me to, it's like a small post house, like five or six people.
Guest:He's like, do you want me to see if I can get you a job here?
Guest:And he said, it pays better than catering.
Guest:It's also more interesting.
Guest:And it's also a daytime job, so you can go and do your thing at night.
Guest:And I did and I loved it.
Guest:I was editing rubbish, but it was absolutely fascinating.
Marc:So you learned how to edit there?
Guest:I learned how to edit.
Guest:I edited hundreds of karaoke videos.
Marc:I don't even know what those are.
Guest:Well, you know, this is sort of more back in the day, but you would kind of go to a karaoke bar and there'd be like these cheesy videos of couples holding hands while they're walking on a beach in the sunset.
Marc:Oh, those?
Marc:They play behind the songs?
Guest:Somebody has to cut those together.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's hilarious.
Guest:They don't just come out of the box that way.
Guest:No.
Guest:Someone has to- Someone got to do that work.
Guest:There's a narrative there.
Marc:You did some of your greatest work.
Guest:You probably have seen my work.
Guest:Sure, maybe.
Guest:Your listeners may have seen my work.
Guest:But that was sort of my film school.
Guest:I mean, I fell in love with editing.
Guest:I fell in love.
Guest:They had like a few cameras and cheap microphones and I went off and made my first movie with their stuff and it's about, it's called The Whole Story and it's about a karaoke video editor who has bigger dreams.
Marc:How'd that movie do?
Yeah.
Guest:good I think I don't know I mean I think in many ways it's a movie I'm proudest of like I cared the most about how it turned out and you wrote it and you shot it I wrote it directly with no budget yeah it took me two years I didn't know what I was doing we shot it in Minnesota and then we'd have to like fake it in New Hampshire and stuff it took forever it took two two and a half years to finish and I was editing my parents basement I moved back in with my parents because I just ran out of money and I really cared about that movie like I haven't
Guest:so you left new york with the with the raw goods with the tapes yeah with the dv mini dv tapes yeah and i went up to boston and i spent yeah about two two and a half years in the hole in my in my parents basement were you doing stand-up then no no you're just kind of going a little nuts yeah and just editing the stuff and uh we smoking cigarettes
Marc:No.
Guest:Weed?
Guest:A little bit of weed, yeah.
Guest:Drinking?
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:I've never been a big drinker, but maybe a little bit.
Guest:I was seeing a girl.
Guest:I was in a relationship.
Marc:She was up there?
Guest:Yeah, she was up there.
Guest:She was in Jamaica Plain.
Guest:That really helped.
Guest:Oh, it would have been impossible without that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Absolutely impossible.
Marc:Still friends with her?
Guest:No, but she lives right near me in Williamsburg.
Guest:I see her sometimes.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Is it weird?
Yeah.
Guest:No.
Marc:No, that's good.
Marc:So you finish that movie.
Marc:And then what are you doing?
Marc:You go back to New York?
Guest:I finished that movie.
Marc:And what are your parents thinking now?
Marc:Like, what are you doing?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:In a Russian accident.
Guest:Yeah, my mom has been always so supportive and patient.
Guest:And my dad is, he just, you know, he's...
Guest:I understand his position now, but he was very nervous about me.
Guest:He thought- They could worry about your security.
Guest:Yeah, I wasn't making any money.
Guest:I was toiling away in the basement type of thing.
Guest:So yeah, they were nervous.
Guest:I had to borrow some money to move to New York and get another shitty apartment.
Guest:Yeah, like kind of back to where you were.
Marc:After you finished a movie.
Guest:But the movie did okay.
Guest:Obviously, it didn't make any money, but it played enough festivals for me to feel like it wasn't a total failure.
Guest:But you know what?
Guest:I really was excited about every festival, like the Sedona International Film Festival.
Guest:I was pumped.
Guest:And I'd go there a week early and plaster the town in flyers, and I was just so excited.
Marc:And you're starring in the movie.
Guest:Yeah, starring.
Guest:I did everything on that movie.
Guest:And I met all of these people through the festival circuit.
Guest:That was the best part of it because they became really close friends.
Guest:That became my new sort of social circle in New York, all these sort of indie filmmakers in New York.
Guest:And since then, we've collaborated on millions of movies.
Guest:I have a life because of the people that I met.
Marc:on on the whole story on the festival circuit of the whole story yeah wow yeah so that was good so you did you've done what five features on your own i did i didn't see any of them yeah is that wrong no i think i apologize you're in a vast majority huh no but i gotta go look for him because this interview happened pretty quickly and i don't know if i would have known about him woodpecker what was that about
Guest:That was about two bird watchers looking for a bird that was thought to be extinct, but apparently is flying around the swamps of eastern Arkansas based on true events that happened in Arkansas.
Guest:So what the whole story is not what it's about, but what we try to do with it is we basically injected a fictitious character in a fictitious story into a fictitious character into a real life situation.
Guest:So there's a weird lake in Minnesota that didn't freeze over in the winter, despite the fact that hundreds of surrounding lakes are coated in three to four feet of ice.
Guest:So we threw like a real person with a real, sorry, a fake person, me, with a fake backstory into this real situation.
Guest:And we did the same thing in We.
Guest:I did the same thing in Woodpecker.
Guest:There's this real search for this real bird, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
Guest:And we just, I found these two actors that I really liked and we just injected them into this real life search that was happening.
Guest:And I was really excited about that at the time.
Guest:When I made the whole story, it felt like a kind of a semi-new, semi-unexplored terrain, and then Borat came out not long afterwards, which you're basically injecting a fictitious character into real events.
Guest:And they did it way better, way more spectacularly and funny.
Guest:Were you trying to be funny?
Guest:Yeah, but in a more like slow and meditative and existential way.
Guest:Like this guy like cries in the movie.
Guest:He goes on these sort of like, you know, there's these little sad montages.
Marc:And then you did Trust Us.
Marc:It's all made.
Guest:That's the documentary.
Marc:And then what's Rubberneck about?
Guest:Rubberneck is the only movie that made that isn't really a comedy.
Guest:It's about it's a psychological thriller about a scientist in Boston who slowly unravels because he can't get over this girl.
Guest:He's completely obsessed over her.
Marc:And he wrote and directed that?
Guest:Wrote, directed, and acted.
Guest:Yeah, he has this tryst with this co-worker.
Guest:She's beautiful, out of his league.
Guest:She was wasted.
Guest:She just kind of surrendered herself at this office Christmas party.
Guest:And she basically said, that was a mistake.
Guest:It's not going to happen again.
Guest:He just can't get over it.
Guest:And it's like Chinese water torture every day at work.
Guest:He sees her.
Guest:She's pretty.
Guest:She's not reciprocating his infatuation.
Marc:Does he kill her?
Guest:It gets ugly.
Guest:Is it on Netflix?
Guest:No, I think that movie's still streaming.
Guest:Rubberneck?
Guest:My first three movies were streaming and then they made them DVD only, which means like no one ever watches them anymore.
Guest:But I think Rubberneck is streaming.
Guest:Red Flag?
Guest:Red Flag is streaming, yeah.
Guest:That's my last movie.
Marc:Are you in that too?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're in all of them?
Guest:Not in Woodpecker and I'm not in Trust Us.
Marc:Right.
Marc:What's Red Flag about?
Guest:It's basically a caricatured version of myself.
Guest:I made Woodpecker a few years ago, and there's this organization that puts these obscure movies on tours of the South, where you play these small little art house theaters.
Guest:So I agreed to go on the tour, because it's flattering to show your movie anywhere.
Guest:But the thought of going on a two-week tour in the South and playing these small venues was really...
Guest:I wasn't excited about it.
Guest:I was dreading the loneliness of... The allure of the American highway has evaporated for me.
Marc:Yeah, the interstate is not an exciting place.
Marc:No.
Marc:Even the country roads have become less exciting.
Guest:I wasn't looking forward to being alone by myself for two weeks, driving from one rinky-dink place to another and staying in crappy motels.
Guest:So I tried to make a story about a filmmaker on tour showing his movie, and Red Flag is about that.
Guest:It's about a guy showing a movie that he no longer really is attached to emotionally.
Guest:These all sound so good, I have to watch them.
Guest:Some of them, yeah, you should watch some of them.
Guest:But, you know, like what you do in your show, like I play, in a lot of these movies anyway, I play, if this is fair, I feel for you, I feel like I play a caricatured version of myself.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's sort of, you know, the comedic thing that we reverberate off in most of these.
Marc:But it looks like you did a lot of acting in small films.
Marc:Now, are you considered to be part of a movement?
Marc:Are you part of a mumblecore movement?
Guest:It's a really sloppy term in some ways.
Guest:It's just such a wide umbrella.
Guest:There's so many different types of movies that could be... Who are some of the directors you work with?
Guest:Well, I think one of the people who are labeled in the mumblecore camp most prominently is a guy named Andrew Buzalski, which is a great filmmaker out of Austin.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And the first thing I acted in after the whole story was his movie, which is called Beeswax.
Guest:So I think because of him, if I have any affiliation to Momacord, it's because of that movie.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So I emailed Lena today.
Marc:I said I was going to interview you.
Marc:Did she email you back?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You want me to read it?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Marc:She said, here we go.
Marc:She emailed me back immediately.
Marc:She said, I met him as he was wandering drunk across the road in Austin, Texas in the morning.
Marc:I was hungover.
Marc:I wasn't drunk.
Yeah.
Guest:big difference and she capitalized mourning what it's true i mean like a lot of the people that i've ended up working with and and um you know collaborating some way i met at film festivals she was there with her first movie that she made before tiny furniture and i was there with trust us my third movie and yeah i was i guess crossing a road and
Guest:A mutual friend of ours named Bob Byington was driving his car, and he pulled over because we're friends, and Lena was in the car, and he gave me a lift, like literally one block.
Guest:And I talked to Lena for a moment, and I was just immediately impressed by her.
Guest:This is a 22 or 23-year-old girl with a feature-length film, a very personal feature-length film at a major film festival, and she's really just funny and cool.
Guest:She's impressive.
Guest:Yeah, but immediately impressive.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so I got her information, and we kept in touch.
Guest:We did DVD swaps.
Guest:She showed me all the stuff that she's done, Delusional Downtown Divas, and these web series that she did beforehand.
Guest:And we just became fans of each other.
Marc:And she put you in Tiny Furniture?
Guest:Yeah, later that year, in November.
Guest:I met her in March at South By, and then in November, she wrote a problem for me in Tiny Furniture.
Guest:That's so sweet.
Guest:She's the sweetest.
Marc:And she's championed you ever since.
Marc:She's a real sweetheart.
Marc:And it seems like the role of Ray...
Marc:in girls is kind of close to you.
Marc:It's not a caricature, is it?
Guest:It feels... Well, you've seen the show, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you've talked to me for an hour.
Guest:It feels genuine.
Marc:You told me.
Marc:It does.
Marc:It feels close to you.
Guest:Yeah, it does.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I feel like he reminds me a lot of who I was like five or six years ago.
Guest:I think...
Guest:When I think of him, I don't really think like, oh, he's a little bit like this guy and he's a little bit like Gary and a little bit of Brian.
Guest:No, it's just like mostly me, but five years ago.
Guest:Like nurturing a lot of unresolved issues, negotiating with a pain in a way that he doesn't know how to make constructive, overthinking things to a detrimental degree, getting in relationships that aren't gonna move him forward emotionally or spiritually.
Marc:So this is stuff you're all beyond now.
Marc:That was five years ago, you.
Marc:I just talked to you for an hour.
Guest:I haven't conquered it, but I hope I made some fucking progress.
Guest:Jesus Christ.
Marc:What are you, sad now?
Guest:Reflective.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Meditative.
Marc:What are you thinking?
Guest:Just looking over my life, you know, where I was when I was 33, 32, which is where I kind of look at Ray.
Guest:It's like a 32-year-old Kropofsky.
Guest:What do you mean you're doing good?
Guest:No, no, I'm not singing any sad song or I'm not throwing a pity party.
Guest:I'm just reflecting.
Marc:You're trying to convince yourself that you're different now, much different.
Marc:I've evolved.
Marc:What's the indicator of that?
Guest:Yeah, maybe you're right.
Guest:Maybe I haven't grown.
Guest:I have no fucking evidence.
Guest:I'm not trying to corner you.
Guest:Look, I feel like I've grown and I think I have.
Marc:What are indicators?
Marc:Maybe if you tell me your indicators, I'll know what to look for.
Marc:I don't freak out about the same shit I used to.
Marc:I freak out about less shit.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And, you know, I feel like I can, I take it a little easier on myself.
Marc:And, you know, I can usually stop myself from engaging in the type of panic or anxiety that I used to, you know, that used to just happen naturally.
Marc:Because I was very in my head and very paranoid and, you know, and defensive and weird.
Marc:And, like, when I really look back on the things I used to obsess over, I don't do it anymore.
Marc:Those things.
Guest:And what was the greatest aid in that evolution?
Marc:Trying to stay in the present, trying to figure out the difference between reality and what I'm manufacturing in my head, either voluntarily or not.
Guest:But in a practical sense, how did you go about obtaining that perspective?
Guest:Through therapy, through meditation?
Marc:Well, I mean, no, not meditation, but I was in recovery and a lot of those ideas.
Marc:resonate.
Marc:Sort of like engaging with other people and helping them to get out of yourself.
Marc:Saying things like what color is the rug to get myself into the present.
Marc:Therapy I didn't do for a long time.
Marc:It was scattered.
Marc:Recently I've done some therapy and that's helpful.
Marc:But I think most of it has just been hard knocks.
Marc:And staying sober.
Marc:But really just trying to be like, is this a real fear?
Marc:What are you doing?
Marc:Why are you freaking out?
Marc:Are you making this up?
Marc:Is your brain making this up?
Marc:Can we turn it off?
Guest:Yeah, if that's an indicator, and I think it is, I do think I'm much less prone to get lost in a stress spiral than I was a few years ago.
Guest:And I have a slightly more...
Guest:well-fitting, a slightly tighter grip on gratitude.
Marc:Gratitude is very important.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think that's something that I was completely oblivious to.
Marc:If you don't like check in with gratitude, people are going to find you irritating.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:You know, because it's sort of like everything's going good for you.
Marc:Nah, I got things to do.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You and I did a movie together.
Marc:I know.
Marc:Sleepwalk.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But we had no scenes together.
Marc:None.
Marc:But I saw you and I'm like, that guy.
Guest:You saw me when?
Guest:When the movie was made?
Marc:Well, I saw you in a, like, I don't think we had met.
Guest:Why the scowl when you say that guy?
Marc:Because you look familiar.
Hmm.
Marc:You look familiar to me.
Marc:And I know there was that immediate, my immediate feeling was like, why didn't he cast a comic as a comic?
Marc:And then it was like, who's this comic supposed to be?
Marc:I know comics.
Marc:I don't know this guy.
Marc:And then I was like, oh, he's pretty good.
Marc:He's a good actor.
Marc:And then I saw you on, I think probably on, it was around the first season of Girls, right?
Marc:I'm like, there's that guy.
Marc:It's his time.
Yeah.
Guest:He's doing it.
Guest:That guy's doing it.
Guest:I mean, there were plenty, not plenty, but there were a handful of cameo comics in that movie.
Guest:I think he just didn't want to sort of carpet bomb the place with like, you know, real comics playing comics.
Guest:I think he wanted to kind of intersperse it.
Marc:I guess there was a few around playing comics, you know, but... And also, I thought it was good to use an actor, and I think you did a good job.
Guest:How did you like being... So you're on our show this year.
Guest:Yeah, with you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My scenes are with you.
Guest:Can we talk about that?
Guest:Okay.
Guest:What do you want to talk about?
Guest:I want to talk about how you felt working on the show.
Marc:Was it fun for you?
Marc:Yeah, I was very excited.
Marc:I was excited to do it.
Marc:I was... You know, when I got there, I was hoping that...
Marc:I didn't know what we were going to do.
Marc:I didn't know if I should shave my face.
Marc:How we were going to make me look less me.
Marc:Was your mustache bushier?
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:I did his comb over, which I think was relatively effective.
Marc:And they sort of unhipsterized my clothing.
Marc:And it was good.
Marc:It was loose.
Marc:And the improvisational element was good.
Marc:And I think the character was right for me.
Marc:And I think you and I had a good time riffing.
Guest:I had a great time riffing with you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was really fun.
Marc:And the whole sort of city council thing, the borough council, all those other actors, once we all started, once they kept letting us go, it got kind of exciting.
Marc:Did you do research?
Guest:Did you watch any two videos about council board meetings?
Guest:No.
Guest:No?
Guest:Well, don't be so offended by the question.
Marc:No, I'm not offended.
Marc:I could tell by the tone of the script that he was sort of territorial and over it, but kind of dug in.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I knew that my particular energy or what I've been honing my whole life as not an actor, but as a human, would fit this guy.
Marc:Right, you were cast for a reason, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I had a great time.
Marc:I'm very grateful that I was part of it.
Marc:I would have liked the entire episode to be about me and you.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But that's just me being greedy.
Marc:I'd like to try to do more acting.
Marc:But then they brought me back.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:For my position, let's not be a spoiler, but who knows how that's going.
Guest:Your character is basically a lazy and corrupt incumbent.
Guest:I saw him differently.
Guest:That's what you are.
Guest:And basically, I let everyone know.
Guest:What's your character's name?
Guest:No, I remember.
Guest:Corrupt?
Guest:Yeah, you're a corrupt incumbent.
Guest:You've got some parking space bullshit, right?
Guest:I can't remember all the details.
Marc:I don't know if it's corruption.
Marc:I think maybe he took a little bit of advantage of his position, but I think at the level that he was operating at, maybe he abused his power a bit, the small power that he had.
Guest:That's corruption.
Guest:That's basically a corruption.
Marc:Right, well, this is your self-righteous character that is very exciting, this idealistic...
Marc:guy that just wants to do good by himself in the community.
Guest:Yeah, he has a lot of, he's driven to some degree by ideological endeavors, but he also is nurturing a tremendous heap of inner demons.
Guest:And oftentimes, you know, that gets in the way of his ideological pursuits most of the time.
Guest:It certainly does later on in the season.
Marc:Well, I'm excited.
Marc:I'm excited about it.
Marc:What else are you doing?
Marc:You're doing a movie?
Yeah.
Guest:I came, this week I did the new Coen Brothers movie.
Guest:They're one of my favorite filmmakers.
Marc:I love to work with those guys.
Guest:Never done it?
Marc:No, I don't.
Marc:No one thinks of me as an actor, really.
Marc:It is a little sad.
Marc:I'd like to do more.
Marc:I auditioned for a Coen Brothers movie.
Guest:Which one?
Marc:I auditioned for Serious Man, for the lead.
Marc:Did you really?
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:I never got anywhere.
Marc:I just did casting agents.
Guest:Were they in the room when you auditioned?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:I didn't make it that far.
Marc:But you were in their last one.
Marc:I remember you on a couch with a wife.
Guest:Yeah, it's nice to be an Asian wife.
Guest:It's nice to be invited back, you know?
Marc:And they're out here doing it?
Guest:Yeah, that's what I was saying.
Guest:So this week they're shooting a movie called Hail Caesar here in L.A.
Guest:And it's in 1950.
Guest:Really funny script.
Guest:Kind of more wacky and zany than their last movie.
Guest:They do that sometimes.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:And yeah, and I got to play one of the roles.
Guest:It's great.
Marc:What's it about?
Guest:It's about a fixer played by Josh Brolin in 1950 Hollywood and just putting out one fire after another in the studio.
Guest:Like a studio fixer?
Guest:Yeah, studio fixer.
Guest:And Clooney is one of the studio actors and he gets embroiled into a situation that needs fixing.
Marc:I like it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I like Josh Brolin.
Marc:Who is your scene with?
Guest:Clooney.
Marc:All week with Clooney.
Marc:Really?
Marc:It's fun.
Guest:that's amazing yeah not just me and him me him and like a group of other people yeah yeah how's the good guy great guy like generally a great guy like yeah it's easy to kind of say everyone's great but like he's like he's like he would never go to the trailer he would always like hang out with us you know between breaks and show us like these really like elaborate pranks on youtube on his iphone and stuff and just joke around and yeah
Guest:He's just like a really, really easygoing dude.
Marc:I like that guy.
Guest:Yeah, me too.
Marc:Great movie star.
Marc:He's a great movie star.
Guest:Great movie star.
Marc:Classic.
Guest:I know, right?
Guest:That's what I'm about to say.
Guest:He's a classic movie star.
Guest:They can still exist.
Marc:He's one of them.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Brolin's pretty good, too.
Marc:I don't know if he, like, he seems to have some demons, but I think he looks great on screen.
Guest:Yeah, he does look great on screen.
Guest:But, like, Clooney's also making movies.
Guest:He's involved in all these other sort of humanitarian projects.
Guest:No, I love the guy.
Guest:Love the guy.
Guest:He's a big deal, yeah.
Guest:And he's humble.
Guest:I think he's very humble.
Marc:Yeah, he's the guy.
Marc:He's the movie star.
Marc:He's it.
Marc:On the Golden Globes, they just gave the award for being an amazing movie star.
Marc:Amazing guy.
Yeah.
Marc:yeah the lifetime achievement for being amazing that sounds like a great uh i'd like to interview those guys i'd like to work with them i don't know they don't like to talk no i know it's fine yeah directors are hard to get and they're the guys that have the most to talk about sometimes yeah like you're a director you got that means you're well versed yeah in things you think about what do you think the high point of this conversation was
Guest:I think we started strong.
Guest:I think we started really strong.
Guest:For me, I enjoyed talking about where my separation anxiety went.
Guest:I mean, this is right out of the gate.
Guest:I enjoyed that.
Guest:I enjoyed talking about marijuana.
Marc:See, for me, the editing karaoke films, I enjoyed that.
Guest:Oh, you enjoyed that, yeah.
Guest:That's kind of a dark part of my life, so I guess I didn't enjoy it for that reason.
Marc:But we didn't really cover what do you fill this separation anxiety with now?
Marc:You said sometimes you just fill it somehow.
Marc:What are you filling it with?
Marc:What do you do with that terror?
Guest:Well, it's replaced by death anxiety.
Guest:And I think everything, this red flag kind of goes.
Marc:Death anxiety is always there.
Guest:I know, but everything that I'm doing is some sort of reverberation or negotiation with this anxiety.
Marc:All of us are doing it.
Guest:All of us are doing it.
Guest:And I think it's unhelpful to be conscious of it to a large degree.
Marc:That you're negotiating with your death anxiety?
Guest:Just to be thinking about it.
Guest:It's horrible.
Guest:I think it's in people's subconscious for a reason.
Guest:It stays there for a reason, largely there for a reason.
Marc:Most of my life's work is about what you're talking about.
Marc:negotiation with your death yeah you and phil studs really got into it well yeah it's like the denial of death stuff yeah exactly yeah well you know one thing i can't do think about organs can't do it can't think about kidneys livers have a real problem when i start thinking about organs working why what happened thinking about your pancreas right now what's happening oh i don't know i don't know what it's doing but i hope it's okay yeah yeah it's just like i don't know what i don't i don't know where it even is on my body
Guest:Yeah, I can't locate the pancreas.
Guest:But if something's wrong with it, you are fucked.
Guest:I know.
Guest:Like really fucked.
Guest:See, this is exactly that.
Guest:Steve Jobs, I think, died of a pancreatic condition, I think.
Guest:Yeah, I just don't.
Guest:All the money in the world.
Guest:I don't do that.
Guest:I don't do that thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We talked about another high point for me was talking about gratitude and that being sort of a litmus.
Marc:Need to do it more.
Marc:Need to do it more.
Guest:Of growth and emotional and personal.
Marc:I'm not as grateful as I should be.
Guest:I go on gratitude walks every two weeks for about an hour.
Guest:And I think a lot about my health.
Guest:And I get a lot of airtime goes to my organs.
Guest:I really do think about my organs.
Guest:Not the whole time.
Marc:And how do you think about them?
Guest:I'm grateful that my liver works.
Guest:I'm grateful that my kidneys work, that my pancreas works.
Guest:I'm grateful that my GI works.
Guest:I'm grateful that my dick works.
Guest:I'm grateful that my lungs work, my heart works.
Guest:I'm just grateful.
Guest:And it's so easy to forget it.
Guest:Do you thank God?
Guest:Sometimes I feel like there's like, I don't know if I use those words or kind of look upwards, but I feel like it's in the ballpark, yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The spiritual ballpark.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Looking upwards in gratitude for your vessel operating properly.
Guest:It's easy to forget how lucky one can be.
Marc:Fine way to close.
Marc:Thanks.
Marc:Thank you, Alex.
Marc:That was Alex Karpofsky.
Marc:I enjoyed talking to him.
Marc:He's a bright guy.
Marc:Interesting story.
Marc:I may not be a great actor, but I definitely committed.
Marc:And there's a couple of episodes this year that are pretty intense.
Marc:And I really let myself go and I really immerse myself in this thing.
Marc:That's the only thing I know how to do is just go all in.
Marc:Go all in.
Marc:So look forward to that.
Marc:Boomer lives!