- 4 months ago
Writer, producer, actor and singer Shaun Cassidy first stole our hearts as one of '70s' biggest teen idols. From climbing the charts with smashes such as number one hit "Da Doo Ron Ron' to acting on the popular show The Hardy Boys Mysteries. With undeniable talent in his DNA (he's the son of Tony Award winner Jack Cassidy, Oscar winner Shirley Jones, and half-brother of the late singer and actor David Cassidy) he admits he always felt more of an introvert acting as an extrovert. For the last 4 decades, he's been utilizing his talents behind-the-scenes, writing and producing and creating for acclaimed television shows such as American Gothic , Cold Case , New Amsterdam and others. Now Cassidy is grabbing his guitar and that gift of song and story-telling and taking it on the road for his first-ever 50-city North American tour, 'The Road to Us" and we are super excited. The multi-talented, still boyishly handsome 66 year-old star tells us all about it and more. This is a LifeMinute with Shaun Cassidy.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Sean Cassidy, and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:04He first captured our hearts in the 70s as one of the decade's biggest teen idols,
00:09from his singing to his starring role in the Hardy Boys.
00:15The son of Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy, Oscar winner and everyone's favorite TV mom,
00:22Shirley Jones, and half-brother to David Cassidy, major talent is in his DNA.
00:27Yet, he says he's more of an introvert acting as an extrovert,
00:32and has gone on working behind the scenes, writing and producing for television hits
00:36such as American Gothic, Cold Case, and New Amsterdam.
00:40Now this still boyishly handsome 66-year-old multi-talent is taking his natural-born gift
00:46of song and storytelling on the road for his first ever 50-city North American tour,
00:52The Road to Us, with a kickoff at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
00:57I caught up with him recently to hear all about it and more.
01:01I'm Joanne Butler, and this is a Life Minute with Sean Cassidy.
01:05Your first national tour.
01:08Well, it's certainly the biggest one by triple, I think, because when I was a kid,
01:13I couldn't go out very long because I was working on a television show,
01:16so I'd go out on weekends, or I'd do a couple weeks in the summer,
01:19but this is by far the biggest commitment.
01:21It's going to be over six months.
01:23Take me all over the country and on to Canada, and it's fun.
01:26Why did you decide to do this?
01:28I dipped my toe in the performing waters after not doing it for about 40 years.
01:34I stopped in 1980.
01:36I didn't know I was stopping.
01:37I did a concert at the Astrodome.
01:3955,000 people, and I said goodnight, and I figured I'd be back on tour in a month or six months or whatever,
01:45but I ended up writing, and I transitioned to writing and producing television.
01:49I'd been fortunate to have a great run in that area for four decades,
01:53but just as the pandemic was kicking in, I had impeccable timing.
01:57I decided maybe I'll go out and tell some stories and see if anybody shows up or wants to see me.
02:02Fortunately, they did, and I sang songs that I hadn't sung in a long time,
02:07and because I haven't sung publicly for so long, my voice is still pretty strong, maybe stronger, honestly.
02:13Honestly, gratefully, people showed up, and I didn't know if they would.
02:16I didn't know if they'd care.
02:17I didn't know if I'd like it, but I had fun, and I felt like almost a calling in that
02:23because our society is so fractured now, and we're so everybody's behind a Zoom link or on the phone,
02:30or just getting people out of the house, getting people off a couch, getting them into a theater
02:34to share an experience with each other beyond the performer, beyond whomever they're going to see.
02:40Just having the experience together, the communion of a group of people is incredibly important, I think,
02:46for our mental and emotional health.
02:48If I can be a conduit in any way for that, bring it on.
02:51Our first real full show is in Maine on the 17th of September in Waterville,
02:56and we're running around New England, and then we're going to go south,
02:59then we're going to go up to the lakes and work our way to the Midwest and the Southwest
03:03and then California, and then sneak up to Canada.
03:06So what are fans going to get? What songs are you going to do?
03:10Well, I'm going to do all the songs that they may have bought when they were kids,
03:14all the hit songs, and there's a few of those.
03:16I'm going to do other songs that are on albums of mine,
03:19and I'm going to do some songs from my family, both my mom and dad.
03:22My father was a Broadway guy, and my mother, of course, did a lot of movie musicals,
03:26and I'm going to do a little taste of that.
03:27I have a nice little section devoted to my brother, David.
03:30You know, I have to show storytelling, which is my real job.
03:33I mean, I started as a performer, but I segued into writing and storytelling,
03:38which is really my passion, and I couldn't find a way to commit to going on the road again
03:43without bringing that part of my life with me, because it would have felt inauthentic,
03:48I think, just to try and replicate success I had as a kid.
03:51But this is a way of actually taking all that success and taking my recent life
03:56and melding them together.
03:59And so it feels like very authentic to who I am now, and yet it still has,
04:03I think, all of the nostalgic component that people who may have grown up with me
04:07are looking for.
04:10And will you be playing some new material, too?
04:12I am.
04:13I've written some songs specifically for the show, because the show has a narrative.
04:17It really has a beginning, middle, and end.
04:19And it's not quite a Broadway show, but kind of.
04:22It's structured like one.
04:23And I had some stories that didn't have a song to support them, so I wrote two new songs.
04:29I'm actually recording those songs right now, and we're going to be putting out some new
04:33recordings, which is something I haven't done in a long time, either.
04:35Wow.
04:36And I heard some family members are in the band, too?
04:40Yes, my nephew, Cole Cassidy.
04:42He's been playing guitar with me almost since the beginning of this recent return to performing.
04:47And it's really important for me to have people I really love being with on the road,
04:52because the 90 minutes you're actually doing the show is important, of course.
04:55But, you know, the other 22 and a half hours a day, you're kind of living with these people.
05:00So you want people that are fun and a joy to be with, and he certainly is.
05:04I don't think a lot of people know that you're a writer and producer,
05:08and you've done all these TV series, American Gothic and Cold Case and New Amsterdam and
05:13a ton more.
05:14Tell us about that.
05:15When I was a kid acting on The Hardy Boys, I was already interested in writing, and I'd
05:21kind of fall into the writer's room and spend as much of my off time with the writers, because
05:25I found that, again, the storytelling component ended up being kind of like the magic for me
05:29of all of it.
05:30I mean, I was interested in directing and acting and singing, of course, but the idea that writers
05:34could make something up out of the air was like magic to me.
05:37Literally, and I had been a magician as a kid, as a really young kid.
05:41I just thought if I could learn that magic, that would be like a superpower, because I
05:46could like make work for people, you know?
05:49Forget about me.
05:50Like one of my favorite things, and I've said this before, is like one of the most incredible,
05:55most gratifying experiences being a writer is if you could have a dream or an idea or read
05:59a newspaper story or a book or something that inspires a script, six months later, you show
06:04up on a set and like 300 people have a job.
06:08You had this like epiphany.
06:10And that is really like, you know, magic in action.
06:14I just fell in love with that.
06:15Unfortunately, I was able to do it.
06:17And the minute I sold American Gothic, which was my first show, like 1994, five, I have had
06:24a show on every year or two since and hadn't stopped really.
06:30I was five years on New Amsterdam, a show I didn't create, but I was an executive producer
06:34and a writer on the show.
06:36And even as I was working in New Amsterdam, I started doing this live performing thing
06:40again.
06:40And I found that I not only enjoy doing both things at the same time, but I was better at
06:46time management than I'd been as a kid because I was less stressed.
06:48Because when you write your first script, you're like, that was like some weird accident
06:53that'll never happen again.
06:55Like, how could I possibly do that twice, three times?
06:58Because you think it's a fluke.
07:00Because when you're starting as a writer, you don't think you're really a writer.
07:03It's imposter syndrome, right?
07:04Everybody has.
07:05It's like, I'm a writer now.
07:06Well, who says, you know, I wrote this one thing.
07:10Well, good for you.
07:10Write a hundred things and we'll talk.
07:12But I have written a hundred things now.
07:14So I can call myself a writer, but more importantly, I can do it in a way where it is fear of not
07:20being able to do it again or writer's block or all the normal things that writers come
07:26up against.
07:26I don't have that anymore.
07:28I am certain that something will come.
07:31So I can commit to going on the road and doing concerts at night and sitting in my hotel
07:36room.
07:36And I wrote, I do most of my writing in the morning anyway.
07:39So I'll get up at six o'clock, go to the gym, come back to the room and I'll sit for
07:43four hours and write scenes or, you know, outlines or whatever process, step in the
07:49process I'm in.
07:50And then I'll go off to soundcheck and I'll do a show and meet people that I know and love
07:55often because they come.
07:56And same thing the next day.
07:58Once in a while, I get to see my wife and my children.
08:01How do you do it?
08:02What do you attribute it to?
08:03What's your secret?
08:04I have a good work ethic, I think.
08:07I just love it too.
08:08You know, I'm very fortunate.
08:09If you do what you love, you probably will be successful, but more importantly, you'll
08:14be happy.
08:15I've loved making things since I was a little boy.
08:17I would get up in the morning as a little boy in my room and I would draw a picture or
08:22I build a magic trick or let's put on a carnival.
08:27You know, I was the kid who always had the things going on at the house on weekends or
08:30the lemonade stand or whatever.
08:32I was entrepreneurial and I was creative.
08:34I don't know what I would be doing if I didn't do that.
08:37You know, people say, what are your hobbies?
08:38I said, well, this is my hobby.
08:39I make stuff.
08:40And what was it like growing up the son of two icons?
08:43I didn't have any other frame of reference.
08:45So it, you know, I was close to normal, I guess, as you can see normal as a little boy.
08:52I recognize now that it wasn't normal.
08:55I don't think I would have traded the experience.
08:58I, you know, my mother and father, wildly different people, had a wildly different experience
09:03in show business in terms of how they treated it, what it meant in their lives.
09:07My father was a more traditional performer in that he clearly had a need for the attention
09:12and the validation of an audience, you know, telling him he was wonderful.
09:15And he was wonderful.
09:16He was a great actor and really funny and charismatic guy and really complicated and ultimately not
09:22so happy.
09:23Whereas my mother had this God-given voice, this incredible voice, beautiful woman, had
09:29zero drive.
09:30And I don't say that as a diss.
09:32I just like, she was healthy.
09:34She was like, I want to live my life.
09:36And if people want to hear me sing, great, I'll sing a song.
09:38Or people want me to star in a movie, I'll do that.
09:41But, you know, then I can go up to my little cabin in the mountains and commune with nature
09:46and be with my family.
09:47Family was always really important to her.
09:49And be the small town girl she's always been.
09:52She's 91.
09:53She's the same person she was when she was 19 or probably nine.
09:56And I didn't know her then.
09:57And my father had an incredible artistry and appreciation for talent, loved writers.
10:02I suspect I'm a writer because he always told me how amazing writers were, you know, and
10:06that slipped in somewhere.
10:08So the combo play to the two of them, I think, was great because I feel like I kind of got
10:12the best of both of them.
10:13In terms of how it affected our lives as kids, the challenge when you're raised by artists
10:19is there's not a lot of security financially, even though actors, you know, they're all rich.
10:24They make lots of money.
10:25Well, sometimes they do or they go a year without working at all.
10:30And then it's like, oh, don't leave the lights on.
10:32And then, of course, I saw my brother David go through a similar experience to my own when
10:36I was young and having watched my dad and having watched my mom and then having watched
10:41David when it finally happened to me.
10:44I don't think I went crazy because it was weirdly normal.
10:48Isn't everybody doesn't everybody have a number one record, the first record they put
10:51out when they're 18.
10:52But again, that sounds I'm being cavalier, but I don't mean to be.
10:57I mean, to say it in a way that was like, because it wasn't a big deal in my family.
11:03It kept me like grounded, I think.
11:06Well, it's a good thing you were talented because it made it maybe could have been the
11:09opposite.
11:10Well, maybe.
11:11I don't know, but it was a good thing is I survived it.
11:16Yeah.
11:17Well, you sure did.
11:19How is mom doing?
11:21She's still beautiful.
11:22She is beautiful.
11:23She's doing great.
11:24She lives five minutes away.
11:27She was.
11:27I don't live in Los Angeles.
11:28We moved here like 15.
11:30We live in the wine country of Santa Barbara.
11:32Mom was living in L.A. during the pandemic.
11:34And I didn't see much of her then.
11:36And after the pandemic, I called.
11:37I said, Mom, we're still in the house.
11:39You're moving up here.
11:40So you're five minutes away from us.
11:42And she said, OK.
11:43And here she is.
11:44And it's great.
11:45We see her all the time.
11:45Have lunch twice a week.
11:47That's wonderful.
11:48Did you always know you wanted to follow in their footsteps?
11:51Or did you always know?
11:52I mean, it sounds like you did.
11:53You always know you're a creative.
11:54Here's the weird dichotomy with me.
11:57I'm very good at impersonating an extrovert.
12:03I'm not an extrovert.
12:04I'm an introvert.
12:05And I came from a family of people on stage, like doing stuff.
12:09And it's like, oh, I can do that.
12:13It's not really who I am.
12:14But I can kind of act that way.
12:17I honestly think if my family had not been in show business, there's no way I would have been a performer.
12:22I would have been a writer or an architect or someone draws pictures, you know, internal, my office, books, quiet.
12:32But because I was from a family of performers, and this is me reflecting back.
12:36I wasn't thinking about this when I was 18 or 19.
12:38But so many people were saying, you've got to do it.
12:40You're a cute kid.
12:41You come from a family of actors.
12:42Surely you can act.
12:44I don't think I could act, even on the Hardy Boys.
12:46It took me a while to figure it out.
12:48I hadn't done anything, you know.
12:49I did it, honestly, because I didn't want to be known as so-and-so's kid or so-and-so's brother.
12:55And it's like, all right, I'll be famous.
12:59And then maybe I won't be.
13:02And I did a good job of trying not to be for a very, very, very long time.
13:07I talk about this in my show.
13:08The only thing more ridiculous than being famous is being formally famous.
13:12Because you're not really formally famous.
13:14You're still famous, except people don't really know why anymore.
13:16But you're still, like, recognizable, and what are you doing lately?
13:20And the best kind of fame is writer fame.
13:22Because if you have, you know, John Le Carré as your name, and you write all these bestsellers,
13:28but nobody knows what you look like, you still get a nice table at a restaurant.
13:32But you can have a private life, you know.
13:34Right.
13:35And you still look the same, which is amazing.
13:37You haven't changed one bit.
13:39Well, thank you.
13:39I think I look like Sean Cassidy's father now.
13:42But thank you.
13:43Well, that's not so bad.
13:47Amazing.
13:47In high school, signed a contract with Warner Brothers.
13:50Did the Hardy Boys at the same time.
13:52A Broadway musical.
13:53Amazing.
13:54Yeah, that was with David.
13:54That was really fun.
13:55And that was kind of out of the blue, too.
13:57Because this is, again, early 90s, like 93, 94.
14:01I had already kind of transitioned to writing.
14:04And I had an office at Universal.
14:05And I wasn't acting anymore.
14:07And David called me and he said, hey, there's a show called Blood Brothers.
14:10It's a big hit in London.
14:11They want us to star in the Broadway version and Real Brothers.
14:16And it would be so great.
14:17And we'll be walking in our dad's footsteps.
14:18And there was all this sort of emotional pull.
14:21But I said no.
14:22I said no two or three times because I had finally, like, taken this big step to being
14:28perceived as a writer instead of a performer.
14:31And I was selling stuff.
14:33And I was writing.
14:33And they were paying me to do it.
14:35And it was like, I don't want to be Robert Goulet.
14:37I want to, like, you know, be Stephen King or David Kelly or somebody.
14:42You know, David was insistent and pushed and pushed.
14:46Please come see the show.
14:47Come see the show.
14:48I flew to New York.
14:49And I watched the show with him because they had the British cast over.
14:53The UK cast had brought it over.
14:55But the ticket sales weren't great.
14:56And they thought, get these American brothers in and we'll goose things up.
15:00And I have to say, the show was so emotional.
15:02And I knew that I would have a real life-enhancing experience with David.
15:07So I did it really to spend the time with him, not because I was eager to be a Broadway
15:12star, even though I had the fantastic time.
15:15And, like, honestly, the only acting I think I might consider again is doing another musical
15:19on Broadway because I had so much fun.
15:21And people didn't know if I could really sing because I was a pop singer.
15:24And who knows what's real and what's not.
15:26But I have a big, like, old-school Broadway baritone voice.
15:30And I got to sing like that every night.
15:33And that was fun, too, because low expectations have been my friend for a long time.
15:39How do you hone your voice?
15:41I have this little thing that I – it's literally – it's like a straw.
15:45You do – you do that and you have – I'm advertising – vocal zone.
15:56Try it.
15:59I – you know, it's a muscle.
16:01I lift weights.
16:02I also do vocal workout.
16:04And I think because I didn't sing professionally, publicly, night after night after night for
16:11years and years, I've managed to hang on to my voice.
16:13I'm actually a little hoarse today because I was in the recording studio very late last
16:17night and I was singing a lot.
16:19You have to rest.
16:20You have to – like, again, I did a Broadway show.
16:22When you're doing a Broadway show, you are literally living for the two hours you're on
16:25the stage at night because during the day, you can't talk.
16:28You can work out, but you have to be quiet while you do it.
16:31And No Kid Hungry.
16:34You're an ambassador.
16:35Yes.
16:36No Kid Hungry.
16:37Nice segue.
16:38Anyway, this is a wine called My First Crush that our family produces in concert with No
16:47Kid Hungry.
16:47To benefit No Kid Hungry, we have a wonderful winemaker.
16:51Again, we live in the Santa Barbara wine country and Steve Clifton has made a lot of extraordinary
16:55wines, makes this wine.
16:57It sells at Vega Vineyard.
16:58Mostly it sells online at myfirstcrush.com.
17:01The Santa Rita Hills in the Santa Barbara wine country are most famous for their Pinot Noir
17:05grapes.
17:06We have a very diverse climate.
17:09It can swing from like 85 degrees at noon to 45 degrees at 9 p.m., and that makes for
17:14a beautiful grape.
17:16So this has become a labor of love, and join our wine club.
17:20Why is it called My First Crush?
17:22There's a long story that I won't tell, but during the pandemic, when I was, again, just
17:26dancing around the idea of doing this show, I came up with another show to produce and create
17:33for Las Vegas called My First Crush, and I copyrighted My First Crush because Vegas basically
17:38shut down, as all the restaurants and businesses were during COVID.
17:42There was no call to do that show then.
17:44I may do it again.
17:45I don't know.
17:45But I just had this name, and Steve called me, and he said, hey, I've got like 500 cases
17:50of extraordinary wine that was slated to go to all these high-end restaurants, and all
17:54the restaurants are closed.
17:55Do you know anyone that might want some wine?
17:57And I said, well, I'd like it, but maybe I can help you sell it.
18:02And I said, hey, wait a second.
18:03I just copyrighted My First Crush, like trademarked.
18:07That'd be a great name for a wine.
18:09Let's put it on the wine because he hadn't even labeled it yet.
18:12You know, it was just out of the barrel.
18:14And I said, maybe I can sell it or help you sell it, like, off my social media.
18:19We'll build a website.
18:20And I said, I've been working with No Kid Hungry.
18:23It would be a great thing because it helps during the pandemic, like before the pandemic,
18:27four out of 10 kids went to bed hungry in America.
18:30During the pandemic, it was seven.
18:32I thought, hmm, feed some kids, help our farmers, grape growers, help Steve, help No Kid Hungry,
18:39and I'll have some fun and maybe get some good wine out of it.
18:43So check, check, check, check, check, win, win, win.
18:47Awesome.
18:49Who was your first crush?
18:51Who was my first crush?
18:52Yeah.
18:53Little girl in second grade who sat in front of me, totally ignored me, totally ignored me.
18:57And then Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman on the Batman TV series.
19:03Oh, boy.
19:05That was like holy hormones, Batman.
19:08That's a good pick.
19:10She was hot.
19:12Yeah.
19:12Yeah.
19:13Still is hot, by the way.
19:14She's, I don't know, like my mom's age, maybe younger than my mom, but not much.
19:19I've thought a lot about this.
19:20Actually, I wrote a song called My First Crush, too, that I'm going to do on the show.
19:23But, you know, the crush thing is, I think it's more complicated than people give it credit
19:27for, because it tends to be thought of as like frivolous or a teenage thing.
19:31But I still have a crush on my wife.
19:33And I've been married to her over 20 years.
19:35And I get that feeling when I see her that I can trace back to second grade or Julie Newmar.
19:41But, you know, the crush may go, but the feeling is timeless.
19:45I think it's got more power than people give it credit for.
19:48Yeah, for sure.
19:49I agree.
19:51I always wondered that since you were, you know, the poster boy for a lot of women.
19:55I always wondered who was your poster girl.
19:58But, you know, I've had others and everybody has.
20:00I mean, you meet someone who makes your heart go.
20:02So it's you can say it's a crush or whatever it is.
20:05It's an intoxication of some kind.
20:08But when you're little and it's never happened before, it's like, what's going on?
20:13And a lot of the audience that come see me tell me I was their first record or their first concert
20:18or their first crush, no accounting for taste.
20:20And I know the feeling.
20:22I can't be cynical about it because I've had it myself.
20:25And it's a powerful drug, man.
20:27And what's your favorite wine?
20:29Pinot Noir is my favorite varietal.
20:30Well, maybe it's because I've got so much, there's so much good Pinot Noir in our valley,
20:35but I like most of them.
20:38And we have so many friends who are winemakers who make different varietals that I've, I think,
20:44developed a taste for a wide variety of them.
20:46My wife loves a sparkling wine, a white sparkling.
20:51Rosés are really fun during the summer, like barbecue.
20:54And, you know, it's funny, a lot of young people aren't drinking as much wine as my generation
20:59or even a younger generation than me.
21:01And I think it's because this coming together, the gathering.
21:06Wine is a conduit to bring people to a table.
21:09And it, I think, can open the door to not only conversation and connection, but it tells a story that you can carry with you.
21:18And it has a romantic power that you can enjoy the rest of your life, the memory of it, those big events.
21:24You know, that's why people put special wine bottles.
21:26You'll see them in their dining rooms or kitchen or whatever.
21:30It's not about alcohol.
21:31It's about the ritual of it.
21:33And it's about the tradition of it and the fact that the stuff's alive.
21:36I mean, it was, I've had wines where the grapes were planted before I was born.
21:41And the fact that I can drink that wine and connect to a time before I was even on the planet is like magical.
21:47You know, I'm clearly a romantic though.
21:49So.
21:50And a magician.
21:52Favorite comfort food.
21:54Favorite comfort.
21:54It depends on the mood.
21:56It depends on, am I working out?
21:59Do I not care?
22:00Do I not care?
22:01Probably a pizza.
22:02A really nice steak is pretty awesome.
22:06That sounds so bad.
22:08That's good.
22:09What was your first album?
22:11I tell this story in my show, so I'll preview it for you.
22:14This is absolutely true.
22:16The first two albums I owned that I remember owning that I played on my Fisher Price record player, little, little kid, right?
22:23Maybe four or five years old were with the Beatles, which was the second Beatles album and the soundtrack to the Music Man, because my mother had starred in the Music Man.
22:35The crazy thing, and I've thought about this a lot since these two very different records, they both had the same song on them.
22:41Till There Was You, written by Meredith Wilson, recorded by the Beatles, Paul McCartney singing lead on With the Beatles, and recorded by my mom, the Music Man soundtrack.
22:52And I realized that this song and these two records were kind of the intersection of everything that I've followed musically since, because I have show tunes and movie music on one side, and I have pop and rock on the other.
23:08But this opened the door to soul music, which I love, to country music, because country music is storytelling, to rap.
23:16You got trouble, my friends, trouble, right, capital T, and it rhymes with P, and that stands for pool, and that is a rap song, right?
23:25In my, like, DNA.
23:28So even classical music, Meredith Wilson was a classically trained composer.
23:32So all of that stuff was in those two albums and the intersection of this one song.
23:38And I think about that now, and I was like, what a gift to have those entrees at that, you know, formative age.
23:47How old were you?
23:48Like four.
23:49Oh, my God.
23:50And I used to listen to them all the time.
23:52Aw.
23:53And the Beatles, obviously, were a profound influence, and musicals were a profound influence.
23:58My father, lots of Broadway musicals.
24:00My mother, movie musicals.
24:02David and my mother on The Partridge Family, pop musical.
24:04You know, music's so important, art's so important, so important for our, again, our soul.
24:11Yeah, what does music do for people?
24:13I recently went to Brian Wilson's memorial service, and I knew Brian a bit.
24:18I recorded a song that he had gifted me with, and I do it in my show.
24:22And Brian, who I do think was a genius, believed that music is the way God speaks to us.
24:30What do you like to do when you're not working, which is never.
24:34Well, here's my dirty little secret.
24:36I don't view this as working.
24:38People say, what are your hobbies?
24:40And it's like, what I'm doing.
24:42I like to write things.
24:43I like to sing things.
24:44I like to build things.
24:45I love architecture, and I probably would have been an architect if I weren't doing what I do.
24:50But I have drawn a lot of, like, drafts, drafted plans for housing and houses and home additions.
24:57And I bought and sold a lot of houses over the years and fixed them up.
25:00I really love doing that.
25:01My wife's really good at it, too.
25:02I also love nature.
25:03I love to hike.
25:04I walk or hike almost every day, run, bike, have a goal.
25:10You know, I'm more in shape when I know I'm going to be performing because vanity is a very good, you know, motivator.
25:16I don't know.
25:17You just feel better when you exercise.
25:19I don't love exercising, by the way.
25:20It's often boring.
25:21But I love how I feel after I've exercised.
25:24And walking is a really therapeutic thing for me.
25:28I know a lot of writers that walk.
25:30And I've had some of my best ideas come to me when I'm just on a walk through a wood somewhere, anywhere.
25:37What would your current self tell your younger self?
25:40Relax, have fun, have more fun.
25:44I was a very old soul.
25:45I felt like I was responsible for everybody when I was 18.
25:49Because it turns out I wasn't.
25:51Why is that?
25:51Why did you feel that way?
25:53Because I grew up with show folk.
25:54And show folk, you know, code for show folk is crazy.
25:58When you grow up with crazy, you either become crazy yourself or you learn how to manage crazy.
26:04And I was good at managing crazy.
26:07You know, also my parents were gone again.
26:08And this is not a diss on my parents.
26:10They were working a lot.
26:12So I was there as the oldest in my house with two younger brothers, feeling responsible for them and protective of them.
26:18I still feel that way.
26:19And I think that, you know, as a kid, no kid should be burdened with that.
26:24And again, nobody imposed it on me.
26:26I did it to myself.
26:27But fortunately, I met this woman I'm married to 25 years ago who was like under the, you know, her name in the dictionary.
26:34It says fun.
26:36Have fun.
26:36It's supposed to be fun.
26:38And if you say that to yourself enough, you start practicing it.
26:42It was not natural to me to make every situation fun.
26:47But I taught myself like, you know, I taught myself to play the guitar.
26:52And I think, by the way, that's one of the reasons I'm on the road, going back full circle.
26:56Why would you do this again?
26:58Because when I was doing it as a kid, I was doing it because I knew how to do it and because it had happened to me.
27:04But I don't know if it was all that much fun.
27:06I was very responsible and diligent about it.
27:09Now I'm doing it for fun, you know, and because I actually want to be connected with people.
27:14I've spent my life in rooms like this alone in a world in my brain, in my head, in my heart, creating, you know, characters.
27:21I like to meet real people and talk to them and find out who they are.
27:24And the nature of my show is such that it's kind of interactive.
27:28It's not just me up here performing, you know.
27:31Did I answer your question?
27:33Yes.
27:33And then some.
27:34It's fantastic.
27:36Another similar.
27:37What's the secret to happiness in life since this is Life Minute?
27:41Being in the moment.
27:42My mother always said that.
27:43It's hard to do.
27:44She's always been that way, though.
27:46She's that way now.
27:47My mother has never, like, looked back with a regret or worried about what's going to happen tomorrow.
27:52And one of the great things, I was actually on a walk yesterday reflecting on this.
27:57I'm really, really busy right now.
27:58I'm busier on paper than I've ever been in my life.
28:02I have, like, things going on in so many different lanes.
28:06And I have seven children.
28:08So just focusing on my kids and their lives would be enough to occupy a lot of my day.
28:15And they do occupy a lot of my day in all good ways, by the way.
28:18But the fact that I have so many things work-wise, I have three pilots I'm involved with.
28:22I've not stopped.
28:23In fact, that is blowing up now again.
28:25I've got this tour going on.
28:27I'm in the recording studio.
28:29I've got this wine.
28:31I have another job I'm not even going to talk about.
28:33But it's a good job.
28:34And I had this very big family and two boys, one returning to college, one going off to college for the first time, two girls still in high school, three adult children.
28:44But I was thinking one of the gifts of having a lot on your plate is I don't have time to worry about outcome.
28:52I don't have time to worry about, like, two minutes before I got on this with you, I was involved with a big thing with my son and a good thing for him for his life.
29:00And I was like, oh, I'm going to be late.
29:03So I didn't have time to think about what am I going to say to the life minute?
29:06What reason do I have?
29:08It's just me showing up and meeting you.
29:11And it's great.
29:12It's always better.
29:13Because if you've tried to write the script for what's going to happen or you're anticipating what's going to happen, you're trying to control what's going to happen, never is good.
29:20Just being there, showing up in the moment, enjoying the experience, not looking for any outcome.
29:26Like, just like, this is the gift of it.
29:28This is the win.
29:29It's like, actually, an old actor trick they taught me when I was young.
29:32It's like kids, you know, young actors go to an audition.
29:36They're all nervous because they want something.
29:38They want someone to hire them.
29:39They want someone to love them.
29:40They want someone to tell them how good they were.
29:42A director friend of mine calls it the cologne of desperation.
29:46Actor goes in, you smell it.
29:48You literally smell it.
29:48And it's off-putting.
29:49Whereas the actor that goes into the room with a gift, and I remember a director saying, what's my gift?
29:55What's my gift?
29:56The gift is you.
29:57You're bringing the gift of yourself into the room just to engage.
30:01That's your job.
30:02Not getting something.
30:04Not getting the part.
30:05If that happens, great.
30:06That's dressing on the cake.
30:08But the gift of this experience, this exchange, this isn't psychobabble.
30:13It's actually just real.
30:14Yeah.
30:15You know?
30:16Yeah.
30:16And it's very life-affirming.
30:18It's why we're here.
30:20It's a great way to look at everything.
30:22But it's what makes a great day.
30:23You have enough of these things.
30:25Yeah.
30:25It was great.
30:27Who knew what was going to happen?
30:29I met a guy on the street on the hike, and I got into a chat with him, and it was, like, illuminating.
30:33It's like, I didn't plan that.
30:36Yeah.
30:37What's something you want to do that you haven't done yet?
30:39Which is, again, another thing.
30:41Well, I mean, I am going to put out a record.
30:43And I haven't done that.
30:44I don't even know what a record is in 2025 or how you even put one out or if anybody cares about it.
30:51But I'm doing it for me because I like it.
30:53And people might like it, too.
30:54And if they don't, that's okay.
30:55And if they do, awesome.
30:57I'd like to do a Broadway show or write one.
31:00I've written one already.
31:01I may write another one.
31:02Theater, theater, theater, I really love.
31:05I'm having the greatest time, my wife and I, together.
31:08Here's the great thing about being married a long time to someone you're really happy with.
31:11When you have children and you watch your children go out into the world and, like, I can't even.
31:17I'm getting emotional talking about it.
31:19Watching them blossom, literally giving them the stage.
31:23Like, I'm going to step off now.
31:25It's your turn.
31:25I hope that you got everything we could give you.
31:30I hope we throwed the football enough with you.
31:35I hope we told you enough stories.
31:37I hope we told you how great you are and that you know how proud we are of you.
31:41And now go out and make the world better.
31:44Go out and have an amazing life.
31:46And that's happening.
31:47I'm watching it with so many of my kids at different stages.
31:50And to share that with someone.
31:52I can't share that with anyone else.
31:54I can be proud of them with other people.
31:56My brothers and my mom.
31:57But my wife, the woman who gave birth to these kids, to have shared the experience of watching them grow and then watching them go out into the world is just incredibly gratifying.
32:06And I didn't know that when we had them.
32:10I didn't, you know, people talk about it.
32:11But again, I'm the luckiest man you know.
32:15There's nothing more satisfying than that.
32:17So it's beautiful.
32:18Is there anything you could think of we didn't cover?
32:21Want to see me juggle?
32:22No, I don't.
32:23Yes.
32:23I can't juggle.
32:24No, I can't juggle.
32:25I promise.
32:26I promise.
32:27How about a magic trick?
32:28You know, it's funny.
32:29In the first incarnation of my show, the little show I was doing when I started this a few years ago, I would go out and do a magic.
32:35I told a story.
32:37You know, one of my first magic shows was for a little girl named Jennifer Aniston.
32:40When she was five, I would try to replicate the magic trick.
32:45I think one of the magic tricks I did during that show in my show.
32:48And it was terrible.
32:49But the Jennifer Aniston story was funny because years later, I'm at Warner Brothers and I'm producing a show and she's working on Friends.
32:58And they called me and they asked if they could use a poster of me for a flashback sequence in her character's college bedroom or something.
33:06And I said, sure, use my poster.
33:07And afterwards, she signed it for me.
33:09And she wrote, Dear Sean, thanks for the awesome magic show.
33:13Love, Jen.
33:14Oh, that's great.
33:16Do you remember what it was?
33:18Which you don't remember.
33:19The trick I did on the stage was awful.
33:21I couldn't even do it anymore because it was a little like that.
33:24What I realized is the reason, you know, David Copperfield and those guys do big grand illusions is you're on a big stage.
33:29And sleight of hand, which is really the masterful magic, in my view, trying to do that on a stage with 1500 people in the audience is not going to land.
33:39But again, the whole thing is a magic show.
33:41I think it's it's all a magic show.
33:43That's great.
33:43Some great stories.
33:45Oh, my gosh.
33:46What do you currently binge?
33:47Do you binge anything?
33:48I have so many friends.
33:49Not your own stuff.
33:50Television shows.
33:52And I try to keep up with theirs first.
33:55My buddy Dan Fogelman has a great show called Paradise that I've been watching.
33:58And we have other writer friends that are on that show and actor friends that are on that show.
34:02And that's a terrific show.
34:04Try and keep up with all of them.
34:05I can't always watch the whole series, but I like to at least watch the pilot and get a sense of what people are connecting with.
34:11I've spent so many hours of my life in editing rooms, like cutting television shows and writing television shows and be on sets of television shows.
34:18I don't always want to watch a television show.
34:21I like going to the movies.
34:22Went and saw Superman, which I really enjoyed.
34:24Again, the movie going experience is akin to what I was talking about earlier.
34:28Getting people out of our houses and into a communal space and having the shared experience of watching something together, I think is just so important.
34:38It's getting harder and harder for theaters to survive because people aren't doing it.
34:42Because you can sit and binge watch a show at home.
34:45But I hope to have more shows you can binge soon on TV.
34:50I'll binge them beforehand in the editing room.
34:53Well, you're amazing.
34:55You're an amazing guy.
34:56Thank you so much for taking the time.
34:59It was fun.
35:00To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.
Be the first to comment