00:00The Paper Is was one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2025 for comedy fans.
00:06How did you land the role of a lifetime as a writer-actor on the series?
00:10It was kind of out of the blue. I had just signed with a new agency.
00:14Right when you sign, they're like pushing your scripts and all your stuff up pretty hard.
00:19And I think they just sent it to Greg.
00:21And, you know, he's reading piles of scripts and he read my script.
00:25And so like Christmas 2023, I did an interview with him and Michael.
00:31And I had heard that they were like maybe thinking about me interviewing me as an actor-writer.
00:37And so we had this great long talk. I was so nervous.
00:41I was like watching interviews with him on YouTube right before to see like what his vibe was.
00:47But it went well. I called my mom and dad and I was like, I think I can't tell, but like I think this might be good.
00:53And then I didn't hear a word for like five months.
00:57Didn't hear anything.
00:59So I took this job at Nordstrom Corporate.
01:02And I worked there for a long time and they didn't know I did comedy.
01:05And then I got a call out of the blue like in April.
01:08And they were like, Greg wants to talk to you again.
01:12And I took the call and they were like, we want you as a writer, but we're not sure about acting.
01:16You know, they like weren't convinced.
01:18And so I joined the room as a writer and then I kind of auditioned for Travis throughout.
01:25But my real audition came at like the table.
01:27I didn't like, you know, this is like months of not knowing what's up.
01:30And then the table read was kind of where I learned that I was auditioning for real.
01:37And so I was like shaking, you know, the cast was taking a picture.
01:40And then Greg tapped me on the shoulder and he was like, why don't you get in the picture?
01:45But then PR had to pull me out because they were like, we don't know if this is like legit.
01:49Well, you also got to be in the writer's room with the iconic Paul Liberstein.
01:53You know, what was your biggest takeaway from working with him?
01:56I'd never been in a writer's room before.
01:57And so when I walked into Greg's office, it was like the first person I saw was Paul.
02:04You know, I grew up like watching The Office.
02:05So it's crazy to see like this person that you know from TV and you know his character.
02:10And, you know, I was like, damn, I can't leave Toby's like right ass there.
02:15And then he's so normal, so nice.
02:17I don't know what I thought a comedy writer's room was like.
02:19I kind of thought maybe it was like spitting jokes and like crying, laughing every minute.
02:24But it's actually like quiet sometimes.
02:28And sometimes the best pitches come from a kind of a quiet place that are like premeditated.
02:33And Paul, Paul's really good at that.
02:35So, yeah, I learned a lot from Paul.
02:37Travis seems simple at first, but as the season goes on, the layers are peeled back.
02:44Can you talk about the trajectory of his sort of fishing, enthusiast, standoffish, toilet paper warehouse worker turned whistleblower, photographer, babysitter?
02:55Well, he's, yeah, he's a man of all trades.
02:57I think that I just wanted to play him and write him like a real like guy, you know, who has a different interest and you can't really tell where he lies.
03:06I feel like you can't tell where he lies politically.
03:08You can't tell anything about him.
03:09He's kind of an enigma, hopefully.
03:10And it's fun to throw and just like my favorite thing that got in was that he's wearing that brandy shirt.
03:17There's a there's a part where I'm at home recording myself taking melatonin gummies.
03:21And I really fought for him to have that brandy T-shirt.
03:24So I think he keeps you guessing.
03:26That's the episode you wrote of the churnalish.
03:29You know, I was wondering, how did you decide what products the Torledo Truth Teller team was going to test?
03:35There was just a pitch meeting where everyone was shouting out every like Instagram like wellness product that they could think of.
03:43So I guess we just picked our favorite ones, you know, out of like a hundred that we had pitched.
03:47In episode seven, Travis creates the mouse nudger.
03:50Oh, yeah.
03:51To thwart Ken's efforts to police the team's work time.
03:54I call it the mouse nudger.
03:56Watch this.
03:57Hmm.
04:02Whoa.
04:03Oh, man.
04:04Oh, my God, look.
04:05Where did this idea come from?
04:06You know, I'll claim it.
04:09I'll claim that I won't claim the mouse, you know, but it was inspired by my life in the corporate world.
04:15And when I did work corporate, I did have a mouse mover.
04:18So if my old bosses are watching, I'm sorry.
04:20But I think they could tell.
04:21They could have.
04:23But basically, on Amazon, you can get these little things that you put like a physical mouse on.
04:27And it's like a little platform that like spins around.
04:30So it moves your mouse around the screen.
04:32And I did have one of those.
04:35And I remember telling Greg like day three about it.
04:38And so then.
04:39But then they made it like something that Travis had designed to stick down the throat of a frog.
04:44So I guess it was an in-character tool.
04:46There's been some great cameos on the show.
04:48I know he spoke briefly about Josh Holloway.
04:51I'm not Jarson.
04:53I'm Josh Holloway.
04:55I'm not your boyfriend.
04:57I don't know how our wires got crossed.
04:58I just say what they tell me to say on here.
05:01But we're not in love.
05:03I'm in love with my wife, Jessica.
05:04How did you guys get him to play himself?
05:07I think he, you know, there were other actors that were mentioned.
05:11And then everyone just started fighting for Josh Holloway so hard because he's so sick.
05:16I think he was just down.
05:18It was like, I think we were like afraid to reach out, you know.
05:21And then he was like immediately like, yeah, I'm down.
05:25Has that cameo experience inspired anyone, yourself, to get into the game?
05:31You know what?
05:33It's going to.
05:34Down the road, yeah, I'm going to be on cameo every day making millions.
05:38I am re-watching Lost though because of this.
05:40I just started watching last week.
05:42Is Sawyer your favorite character?
05:43Yeah, he's so good.
05:45Charismatic, sexy.
05:48Obviously, everyone is shipping Ned and Mare.
05:51The Office made us wait until the season two finale for Jim and Pam's first kiss.
05:56We only had to wait until the season one finale for Ned and Mare.
06:02Was that a timeline that was discussed in the writers' room?
06:06Yeah, constantly.
06:07I don't even think, you know, I don't know how much I can reveal,
06:09but we didn't even know until the end what was going to happen as writers.
06:13I remember leaving the show being like, I'm not sure exactly what they landed on.
06:18So I didn't know what happened until I watched the 10th episode like a few weeks ago in the writers' room.
06:25So, yeah, it was kind of kept from us.
06:26Season two of the paper is already greenlit.
06:29Yeah.
06:29You know, I don't think you can say anything much, but is production starting soon?
06:34What can you tell us?
06:35Well, we're back in the writers' room.
06:37I think that's all I can say.
06:40But, yeah, we're working on it, toiling away, writing it up.
06:44Do you have an idea how Travis will evolve in season two?
06:49I think he starts caring about the, you know, like all the employees or all the volunteer reporters,
06:56they start caring about the paper more, and they're more invested in it.
06:59And I think that'll be fun to see what they all are interested in covering.
07:04And you mentioned you were an Office fan before the paper.
07:07Is there a character from The Office you'd like to see pop up on season two?
07:12Who would I like to see back?
07:14Let's see.
07:17Out of the classics?
07:18I mean, I'm just such a Steve Carell fan, you know?
07:24I would just love to see Steve, see Michael up in there, see what he's up to.
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