THR's Full Uncensored Comedy Actor Roundtable With Jim Carrey, Henry Winkler and More [Full Movie]

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The Comedy Actor Roundtable brings together Jim Carrey, Henry Winkler, Ted Danson, Don Cheadle, Sacha Baron Cohen and Timothy Simons. THR Roundtables air every Sunday on SundanceTV.

Transcript

00:00:08Hi and welcome to Close Up with the Hollywood Reporter, comedy actors. I'm your host Lacey

00:00:13Rose and I'm here with Timothy Simons, Sacha Baron Cohen, Henry Winkler, Don Cheadle, Jim

00:00:20Carey and Ted Danson. Dive right into this. Okay we're gonna start with- Hi Lacey. Hi Jim. How are

00:00:27you?

00:00:27See, he already got points. No, really. How are you? You have a beautiful home. Thank you. Great. Alright, complete

00:00:36this sentence. I act because... I love it so much I don't know what else to do. Starting with Timothy.

00:00:48Because there is no ceiling to the amount of attention I need, positive or negative, and this is a business

00:00:54that provides that. Pretty good.

00:00:56Because I can do nothing else? Really? Nothing else? Not really. You write. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Apart from writing.

00:01:04And direct, you direct? Cage, very running. Apart from writing and directing. You guys?

00:01:09I act because if you did what we do anywhere other than a place where they pay you to do

00:01:16it, they would arrest you.

00:01:18Fair. I act because I'm broken in a lot of pieces. And acting gives me a chance to reconfigure those

00:01:28pieces into a thousand different things that are positive for people to watch.

00:01:34And eventually I will be ground down into a fine powder.

00:01:38And snort it? Is that how you want to go out? Snort it.

00:01:41For those of you who are watching, there is a guy that you will get in the mail for Jim's

00:01:45answer.

00:01:46No, that was clear as a point. This is acting in other words. Remarkably truthful.

00:01:51Yes. Yeah. Wow. We're all broken, let's face it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why we're here.

00:01:54Why are you looking away? I don't know. I don't know. The mice. I was looking through you, actually.

00:01:58What about you, Ted? I'm with everyone else. A little bit broken and wouldn't know what else to do, literally.

00:02:05I'd be a butler, maybe. But other than that, I have no other real penalization.

00:02:09I would be a child psychologist.

00:02:12I'd be a child. And you two would have...

00:02:14That's right. I think it's begun already.

00:02:16I have a call. I have a call.

00:02:18Beforehand, everybody's going home. What should we talk about?

00:02:20What should we talk about? Henry's sitting there going like...

00:02:22A noble fucking profession. I love actors. I love writers, directors. I love going to work through a studio.

00:02:29I do think we're curing cancer, and it's an amazing thing to make people laugh.

00:02:35So, it's a great profession. Well, for sure, we illuminate life.

00:02:38I mean, that's the reason that we do what we do, is that we hold a mirror up to the

00:02:43rest of society.

00:02:45So, I want to talk a little bit about...

00:02:47You guys have had tremendous success in this industry and the fame that comes with that.

00:02:53What do you guys wish you knew about navigating fame and success when you were first starting out?

00:02:58I wish that someone had told us about how much of it has to do with that.

00:03:06Navigating the business of it.

00:03:07And how much you have to do to get to the point where you get to do the thing that

00:03:11you love to do.

00:03:12How to manage your time. How to manage your relationships and your family.

00:03:16And how to do all the things that you need to do to stay a whole person while you're trying

00:03:21to continue to give all of that out when you're on a set.

00:03:25You know, it's a lot to do and I don't think...

00:03:28I think we just take it for granted.

00:03:30You know, we look at it and go, wow, that's so exciting.

00:03:32I want to play these different people and these different characters.

00:03:34And you're like, what's all this other stuff?

00:03:37And it's a lot of other stuff.

00:03:38I'm sorry, man. I went blank halfway through that. Can you...

00:03:40Yeah, I'll go wrong. Which part?

00:03:42When I did it start at I?

00:03:46Two of us said I, you were like, yeah, I.

00:03:49I, me.

00:03:50What about for the rest of you guys?

00:03:52I wish I knew how to not worry as much.

00:03:56To navigate to where I wanted to go or I dreamt of going without eating myself alive from the inside.

00:04:03What were you worried about?

00:04:03I was worried about everything, about losing it, about not getting it, about not being good enough.

00:04:10What about you guys?

00:04:11Sam Malone, cheers, it's so big, it's...

00:04:14Whatever the comfort level I've gotten, either because I'm 71 or some degree of success or whatever it is,

00:04:22I like that I'm actually having fun at a table like this, whereas years ago I wouldn't have.

00:04:26I would have been too full of ego, full of embarrassment, or full of...

00:04:31I'm now finally enough to be able to sit at a table like this and enjoy people.

00:04:36When did that happen?

00:04:38A couple years ago.

00:04:40Almost literally, when people started calling me Mr. Danson.

00:04:43Uh-huh.

00:04:43It was like, huh.

00:04:45All right.

00:04:46So what do you wish somebody had told you earlier on?

00:04:48Relax and enjoy it.

00:04:50This is an amazing ride.

00:04:51He said that he was afraid before we went on the air that people would be watching reruns of Cheers,

00:04:56and then they will tune into this and be frightened.

00:05:01What the...

00:05:02Half of you, you face.

00:05:03I want to...

00:05:05Scared.

00:05:06Someone scared him.

00:05:08Shock white.

00:05:09Bam!

00:05:10What Ted said is exactly correct.

00:05:15that about last Tuesday, you find out that just relax and enjoy and you actually fit at the table.

00:05:25That's a great feeling.

00:05:26This side, probably more than that side.

00:05:30By the way, you are the comedy legend, so...

00:05:32What about you, Sasha?

00:05:34Oh, you're gonna go there, huh?

00:05:35All right.

00:05:35No, but listen, I mean, firstly, three of you I grew up on, so it is slightly intimidating to be

00:05:44at the table with these guys.

00:05:45Particularly Jim.

00:05:46I was scared of becoming famous, but I managed to get away with it because I was lucky enough to

00:05:53have my characters be famous in England.

00:05:55So, for a few years, no one actually knew what I looked like.

00:05:58So, basically, I was able to have the success without any of the...

00:06:05Can I call it hassle?

00:06:07Yeah.

00:06:07Because I couldn't really see the great upside other than if you were single as a guy,

00:06:12you would generally be able to date girls that were better looking than you should have been able to date.

00:06:17That's a fair...

00:06:17Apart from that, I couldn't really see the great benefit of being famous.

00:06:21But, I was saying, so I got away with not being famous for many years.

00:06:27I think that fame thing is a tricky thing.

00:06:29I mean, I still struggle with it.

00:06:30Absolutely.

00:06:31It's a weird thing.

00:06:32You want to be able to turn it on and off, you know?

00:06:34Yeah.

00:06:34I'm telling you, kids, don't come to Hollywood.

00:06:36I'm serious.

00:06:37Your camera's there.

00:06:39Is that me?

00:06:41Jim, what about for you?

00:06:42I mean, you had it on such a grand scale.

00:06:45All of a sudden, you were the biggest movie star in the world and your paychecks and all of it

00:06:50were public.

00:06:52And I imagine getting out of a car, it was being swarmed with people.

00:06:56And 90% myth as well.

00:06:59So, that's a tough thing to deal with.

00:07:00What does that feel like?

00:07:01People create your life.

00:07:03Yeah?

00:07:03They take elements that are true and they put it in an article so the article looks legit.

00:07:08And yet, there's so much of the article that isn't true.

00:07:12So, that's something to kind of teach you that, hey, you know what?

00:07:16In order to go forward, I have to let go of what this creation is.

00:07:21And I ultimately found that even the me I created wasn't real, so that left me in an odd, vicarious

00:07:29situation.

00:07:30And I've been writing and creating about that for a very long time.

00:07:33Uh-huh.

00:07:34Many of the things I do have to do with the disappointment of creating a winning personality in the world.

00:07:40And then, eventually, you know, for your own sanity and freedom, letting it go, you know?

00:07:46Is there some...

00:07:47I mean, there's the Fonz sitting right here.

00:07:49Yeah, right.

00:07:49They're gonna speak to that, right?

00:07:51Right, okay.

00:07:51Don't look at me.

00:07:54But what you're saying is exactly right.

00:07:56And it's not only what is written.

00:07:57People come to you thinking you are other than you are.

00:08:03And you just have to remember, because it is so...

00:08:07It's like a drug.

00:08:08You want to believe them.

00:08:10You want to believe you can walk on water.

00:08:12And you have to just hold on and realize you are not any taller.

00:08:17You don't know mass any better.

00:08:20You are not smarter because people think you are wonderful on television or in the movies.

00:08:26I've seen some parts of the bad version of it.

00:08:28But, you know, mostly it's somebody stopping me at the grocery store to tell me they like the thing.

00:08:32I'm like, oh, cool.

00:08:32You know?

00:08:33Like...

00:08:33I'm not jealous of you yet.

00:08:36You can go ahead of me.

00:08:38Yeah.

00:08:38Yep.

00:08:39The thing that I think that I've sort of struggled with over the last couple of years is like,

00:08:43where I grew up, I grew up in a really small town.

00:08:45One of the things I didn't like about that is the fact that everybody kind of knows your business.

00:08:49And so when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was get to a city and get to

00:08:53anonymity.

00:08:53Uh-huh.

00:08:54And then I started doing this.

00:08:55And at the same time that I got a job that I absolutely loved and I get to be in

00:09:00this experience with people that I admire,

00:09:02part of that is sacrificing anonymity.

00:09:04And that's a really weird thing.

00:09:06No one understands what that is.

00:09:07It is like you can't.

00:09:09It's like walking on the moon.

00:09:10You can want to walk on the moon all you want, but then you get up there and there's no

00:09:13gravity and there's no air.

00:09:15Yeah, no one told us about that.

00:09:17Right, right.

00:09:17And it's really impossible.

00:09:18Who knew the main head of my grandmother?

00:09:19Yeah.

00:09:19So if you guys had anonymity for a day, what would you do?

00:09:24Oh.

00:09:25Yeah.

00:09:25I'd pass out.

00:09:27Basically.

00:09:28I am so used to, you know, that it'd be like.

00:09:32What isn't anybody you're talking about?

00:09:34I went down to Amazon once with my family.

00:09:36I've been lying at a restaurant.

00:09:37Yeah.

00:09:38Yeah.

00:09:38And almost passed out, Mary.

00:09:40Being faint from no one recognizing me.

00:09:43I did something smart early on during the Cheers years that I took all the fame.

00:09:49Because fame is like being a five-year-old kid surrounded by adults and all focusing on you.

00:09:57You can drive that five-year-old kid to bounce off the walls.

00:10:00And I learned to take that, hey, cheers, and go, thank you so much.

00:10:05I'd like to introduce you to this marine biologist that I think has a really important thing to say about

00:10:11oceans.

00:10:12And so, boom, I would use that energy.

00:10:15And so, I've actually really enjoyed making use of my fame.

00:10:22You know?

00:10:23I like that.

00:10:23Just like other people might.

00:10:24I get to use it too.

00:10:26And I use it that way.

00:10:27And it's very effective.

00:10:29What would you guys do with anonymity for a day?

00:10:31What's the thing?

00:10:33I mean, I feel like I kind of have it.

00:10:36You do?

00:10:37You don't.

00:10:37I have it when I sleep.

00:10:38Yeah, so what would you do?

00:10:39Yours is a little tricky.

00:10:41So, Jim, what would you do?

00:10:41Even my dog makes a big deal about it.

00:10:44What would you do, Jim?

00:10:44He's home, he's home.

00:10:45If you had a day where nobody would recognize you?

00:10:48I don't think I'd be that different, honestly.

00:10:50I operate.

00:10:52I dropped the whole trying to be something for somebody a long time ago.

00:10:56So, I pretty much walk through the world except when I want to be funnier.

00:11:00I want to do something outrageous.

00:11:02You know, kind of tip the boat.

00:11:04You know?

00:11:05I don't have any trouble being myself.

00:11:07And I don't have any trouble saying no when I mean no.

00:11:10I don't feel there is a, you know, pressing responsibility to please everyone.

00:11:16I'm not unkind to people.

00:11:19No.

00:11:19I love people.

00:11:20I would much prefer saying hello and who are you and what are you doing today than giving

00:11:26a selfie because selfies stop the world.

00:11:29You know, they stop life.

00:11:31You then go like that.

00:11:33And it's going on Instagram to give people a false sense of relevance.

00:11:40I picture Steve Jobs sometimes.

00:11:42Everybody's so gaga about Steve Jobs.

00:11:43I picture him in hell running from demons who want a selfie.

00:11:50And that's something I have to kind of live with.

00:11:54You know, nothing to do with the person that comes up.

00:11:57Because they're programmed to react to celebrity that way.

00:12:00They don't even think of another way to react.

00:12:02I see it completely differently.

00:12:03When people come up and you look them in the eye and you look them in the eye for three

00:12:07seconds.

00:12:08Presence.

00:12:09They believe that they are with you.

00:12:11Yeah.

00:12:12And when they meet me and I'm really now calm enough to be present, they are very happy

00:12:20because of something I've done.

00:12:22I've made them laugh.

00:12:23They sat with their grandmother.

00:12:24They sat with their dad.

00:12:26They sat with the family.

00:12:27They were whatever it is.

00:12:30And that is a lovely thing.

00:12:33So I'm an asshole.

00:12:34Is that what you're trying to say?

00:12:35I'm an asshole.

00:12:37Is that what you're trying to say?

00:12:37I'm an asshole.

00:12:37No, I would not say that.

00:12:39That's not what I want to say at all.

00:12:41It's crazy.

00:12:41I think you're very interesting.

00:12:43But if you say, but if you say no to the selfie or no, or like I just don't want

00:12:48to take in, are they, because I've done that.

00:12:51That's what I've found.

00:12:52I get that and I get the likes.

00:12:53Presence is good.

00:12:53No.

00:12:54Because I was going through it.

00:12:54Because I always tell them why.

00:12:57I say, you know what?

00:12:57I would love to, but I cannot take it in this restaurant because when you walk away,

00:13:03everybody saw you do it and I will never finish my meal.

00:13:06So thank you so much for asking.

00:13:08I get an eye roll if I say something like that.

00:13:10You do.

00:13:10I've just gone on.

00:13:11I'll look at whatever.

00:13:12I will go with you and I will be your friend.

00:13:15It was my birthday.

00:13:16I will be your wingman.

00:13:16Well, if they come up with an iPhone, I say, oh, I have a contract with Samsung.

00:13:20I would love to.

00:13:22Oh, I'm using that.

00:13:23I like that.

00:13:24Just throw it down and dance on that.

00:13:26A lot of you have played these really sort of indelible roles on iconic projects.

00:13:31I'm looking at you, but you, I mean, there's many of you at this table.

00:13:34What are the sort of unexpected pieces of the moving on process?

00:13:39I was on Happy Days for 10 years.

00:13:41Wow.

00:13:42I committed hubris.

00:13:44I thought, not that I was great, but that it was such a big show and it was so international.

00:13:51It was everywhere.

00:13:51That I was going to go from mountaintop to mountaintop.

00:13:54I was going to beat the system.

00:13:56Yep.

00:13:56I looked down and there were grass stains on the knees of my jeans because I slid right

00:14:01into the valley.

00:14:03It was very difficult to get hired as an actor.

00:14:05And I had no plan B.

00:14:08I was seven years old.

00:14:10I dreamt of doing this thing.

00:14:12I did it and I did it with an explosion.

00:14:15Now it's over.

00:14:16And I had no idea how or what to do next.

00:14:21Was the show being so syndicated everywhere on all the time, was that a reminder for you?

00:14:28Was that a feeling of like, I mean, I'm sure you felt blessed by it.

00:14:32I was blessed by it.

00:14:33But at the same time, it's reminding you, this may not be able to move on.

00:14:36No, they did a good job of reminding me all on their own.

00:14:39Did you need it?

00:14:40No, thank you so much.

00:14:41It was a big reminder.

00:14:43Because it was everywhere.

00:14:43I didn't need a rerun.

00:14:44It was ubiquitous.

00:14:46Sunday, Monday, happy days.

00:14:47Tuesday, Wednesday, happy days.

00:14:48Tuesday, Friday, happy days.

00:14:50Tuesday, Friday, happy days.

00:14:53What about for you?

00:14:54I was lucky because my character's job was to look at the crazy, wonderful, extreme characters around me.

00:15:02I was the audience's way into the show, Sam was.

00:15:07So I wasn't playing such an iconic character.

00:15:10That allowed me to move on.

00:15:12I wasn't wacky Sam.

00:15:14Not that you were wacky, but you were iconic.

00:15:16No, no, I totally get what you're saying.

00:15:17And I was the eyes in.

00:15:18I totally get what you're saying.

00:15:19So it was easier, I think, for me.

00:15:21Hollywood likes to sort of lock people in lanes.

00:15:24They want something, a specific thing from you.

00:15:28Most often it's because you've given it to them before.

00:15:32What are the things that you get approached for that you just say,

00:15:35oh, not this again?

00:15:37I'm grateful for every opportunity, but I will tell you I have turned down a bunch of offers

00:15:42and or auditions for things that are just bad versions of the thing that I'm doing already.

00:15:46Like if there's just too much of a Venn diagram overlap, I do somewhat reject it out of hand.

00:15:51Oh, here's like a sort of gangly guy who's going to say sexually inappropriate stuff in an office.

00:15:55And he's going to wear it.

00:15:55So like, okay, well, I'm doing that already.

00:15:58And also this version of it is not as funny.

00:16:00And also this version of it is not as funny.

00:16:00So like, I do like, I mean like I'm sure we all try.

00:16:03I've done several of the parts you turned down.

00:16:07That's not bad.

00:16:09You know, I mean, there is that thing of like I do, although it does involve like saying no to

00:16:15work,

00:16:15which I never ever thought I would be in a position to do.

00:16:18I have tried to be cognizant of it since the beginning of the show.

00:16:22Do you know what I mean?

00:16:23Absolutely.

00:16:24Yeah.

00:16:24I think I went through a period of getting multi-character ideas.

00:16:30So there'd be films where, hey, Sasha, here's your idea, which you're going to play 10 characters.

00:16:35I get 10 characters.

00:16:36One of them is Eddie Murphy.

00:16:38Exactly.

00:16:39Okay.

00:16:39This takes a long time.

00:16:40You know, so there were, there was a period where, you know, multiple character movies that I think there was

00:16:44no understanding that it takes time.

00:16:46And obviously some of them are going to work and some aren't.

00:16:49And then weirdly enough, at one point, I think after Borat, because Borat was the first openly anti-Semitic character,

00:16:56that I suddenly started getting Jewish characters as if suddenly I was the only Jew in Hollywood.

00:17:01So there was a lot of, you know, will you play this Jewish character or this Jewish character?

00:17:05I think somehow Borat being anti-Semitic made me appear that I'd be very good at being Jewish characters.

00:17:12All of a sudden you were really religious.

00:17:13I was Mr. Jew, yeah.

00:17:14Yeah, yeah.

00:17:16You killed it, man.

00:17:18Can I ask you a question?

00:17:19Amazing.

00:17:19I love that movie so much.

00:17:21And I love you.

00:17:22I love your approach to uncomfortable people and subjects and the way you...

00:17:28And scaring the crap out of us.

00:17:29You just lay bare the people who are supposed to be in control and aren't.

00:17:34And I love it.

00:17:35Thank you very much.

00:17:37That's a huge...

00:17:37What would you like to play?

00:17:39What, I mean, in your fantasy, what would you like to play?

00:17:44Probably the things I'd like to play, I probably wouldn't be very good at playing.

00:17:47But I don't know.

00:17:49I think something that is...

00:17:51When I was at university, because obviously you're not in a box there, I would play in the

00:17:58amateur dramatic stuff.

00:17:59I would play this genre that was called tragedy comedy, which is something like Cyrano de Bergerac,

00:18:05or even like Fiddler on the Roof.

00:18:08You have the character starts off as really funny, the audience love them.

00:18:12And then the second half tragedy happens.

00:18:15Right.

00:18:15And then, because the audience love you and are engaged with you more because you've made them laugh,

00:18:23they transition really quickly into getting sad and crying.

00:18:26So my eyesight's not very good, and I remember playing Cyrano de Bergerac,

00:18:29and I didn't know what these white...

00:18:31I'd see bits of white coming up, and I go, what are they?

00:18:35They were tissues.

00:18:36People were starting to cry.

00:18:38But it's a genre that you don't really see much anymore, which obviously existed back then,

00:18:43which is the idea of funny people who can then, because you've kind of got the audience

00:18:49by the kishkas, you can then turn it around and get them crying.

00:18:52So I think something like that would be...

00:18:56Can I coin a phrase?

00:18:57Please.

00:18:58Calamity.

00:18:59That's what I look at it as.

00:19:01My show is calamity.

00:19:03Yeah.

00:19:04It's about a calamity.

00:19:06Is there a...

00:19:06Oh.

00:19:06And it's handled with humor.

00:19:09Yes.

00:19:10And levity.

00:19:11And pretty much, that's what I do.

00:19:14Yeah.

00:19:16Every trauma, and I could build a ladder to the stars with the things that have happened

00:19:22or the things that I've had to endure, but they've all turned into something really creative.

00:19:30That's great.

00:19:31The worst injury I've ever had, I went to the art studio and I made a painting.

00:19:35You know?

00:19:36And I sat there and I went, I wish people could be here to see what that process is.

00:19:43What happens to an artist when they get hurt.

00:19:46You know?

00:19:46They don't try to lash out most of the time.

00:19:49They try to turn it into a bouquet of flowers.

00:19:53That's what I want to do.

00:19:54I want to turn it into something that...

00:19:56You know, I think that's a good answer probably to some degree for all of us here.

00:20:00That you do get to work through your life and your emotions and through your art.

00:20:06It's pretty cool.

00:20:07Yeah.

00:20:07That's what I meant by we are a mirror.

00:20:10Yeah.

00:20:11Because the more you are...

00:20:13I mean, I finally defined cool by cool as being authentic.

00:20:17Mm-hmm.

00:20:17And the more authentic we are as the character we play, everybody, no matter man, woman,

00:20:24child, they all say, oh my God, I see myself.

00:20:27Mm-hmm.

00:20:28Because we are all the same.

00:20:29Yeah.

00:20:30And so that really is positive.

00:20:33That you take all of that pain and make it into an art that people then can thrive from.

00:20:39Yeah.

00:20:40I think I'd say that the show that I just did, Here's America, like Donald Trump got elected

00:20:45and I was upset by it.

00:20:47And that anger and disappointment and revulsion, I was expressing it by sort of sending friends

00:20:55emails, you know, sharing articles, look at this and this.

00:20:59And then in the end I felt, I was so angry, I felt I actually have to channel that into

00:21:05some characters aimed at who could sit with some of those people.

00:21:11You know, because I wanted to sit with those people who were his friends.

00:21:16Right.

00:21:17You know, and that was actually, you know, what you sometimes do through other artistic means,

00:21:21I was like, it was strange because I'd come out of a period of doing a bunch of movies

00:21:26and like, I have to go back to this old style of comedy that's, you know, difficult for me

00:21:32to do, but I have to do it because I'm so upset, you know.

00:21:36Yeah.

00:21:37So that was my, it was like a way, I actually didn't really care how the show went down.

00:21:43I mean, I showed I'm going to be upset about this, but I said to him, okay, I'm not doing

00:21:47any publicity because I just had to, I had to get it out of my system, you know.

00:21:53Today, we're going to teach you how you can stop these naughty men and have them take a long nap.

00:21:58That's right. And that's why you're going to meet a friend of mine.

00:22:03His name is Papi Pistol. Now, Philip, will you show us how to feed Papi Pistol?

00:22:10To feed him, take his lunch box and push it into his tummy like this.

00:22:16Just remember to point Papi Pistol's mouth right at the middle of the bad man.

00:22:21I'm curious, if you're sitting with the various people you sat with,

00:22:25when did you know that you had struck gold?

00:22:29I mean, I know in the case of Sarah Palin, you felt like you didn't have it.

00:22:32What made you realize, okay, in this one, got it.

00:22:35What were you looking for? What was success?

00:22:38You feel it in the room.

00:22:40I mean, the difference of kind of doing stuff on stage and stuff that we do is,

00:22:45we kind of know when it's funny because people aren't allowed to laugh around us.

00:22:49Otherwise, they ruin the take.

00:22:51Now, obviously, you know, I'm, there's no one else around.

00:22:54There's just the cameraman.

00:22:55But you instinctively know if it's funny and also if you've got enough.

00:23:00But is funny the goal or is exposing somebody the goal?

00:23:04What's the goal?

00:23:05There's two of them.

00:23:05It has to be, for me, I love being funny.

00:23:09So it has to be funny.

00:23:10And then if I can get something that interests me, then that's, you know, I'm very satisfied with that.

00:23:19I wouldn't say happy, but, you know, if a politician drops his underpants and charges it.

00:23:27It's unbelievable what you are able to do and how you are able to get people to, or maybe it's

00:23:34not unbelievable because these people are just waiting for an opportunity to share their truth.

00:23:41That the amount of truth, the amount of touching the nerve that you're able to do that we can watch

00:23:47at home.

00:23:48I'm just cringing when I watch your show in a great way.

00:23:50Yeah, thank you.

00:23:51Yeah, laughing and cringing.

00:23:52And yet you've said, and you get O.J. Simpson sitting across from you and you're disappointed that he doesn't

00:23:58confess to murder.

00:23:59I didn't say I was disappointed, but I had an absurdly ambitious aim.

00:24:07Which was to get O.J. to.

00:24:12A Perry Mason.

00:24:13Damn it.

00:24:13I mean, it was, I shot that right at the end of the show.

00:24:17And I had to achieve some things that I was surprised by.

00:24:20So I didn't, I never thought that a politician would get his buttocks out in charge.

00:24:24I never, I was surprised by a lot of this.

00:24:26The art dealer with the pubic hair.

00:24:28Oh my God.

00:24:28It was just too much for me.

00:24:30Okay, so much.

00:24:30I do like the idea that a bunch of people are like, has anybody just asked O.J. if he

00:24:34did it?

00:24:34Has anybody just asked him?

00:24:35But I, that's why I thought I'd go, could I?

00:24:38Just get him wrecked.

00:24:39Well, could I?

00:24:40Damn wrecked.

00:24:40Shit face.

00:24:41Well, he can't get wrecked because once he gets wrecked then he's violating the terms

00:24:45of his parole.

00:24:46Oh, I see.

00:24:46So I did try to.

00:24:48But I still trained up with an FBI interrogator.

00:24:51Oh, wow.

00:24:52Because I thought, and again, this is, you know, reaching too high.

00:24:57But I thought, let me try it.

00:24:59Yeah.

00:25:00Because it was hidden camera.

00:25:03I thought, would he, you know, if he's ever going to admit it, it would be in a hotel room

00:25:08where he thinks he's going to earn a lot of money.

00:25:10And so I trained up with supposedly the greatest FBI interrogator.

00:25:14And eventually he goes, well, who's this for?

00:25:17And I go, it's for O.J.

00:25:19He goes, that's going to be tough.

00:25:20But okay.

00:25:21And then he sort of trained me up.

00:25:23But I wasn't managed to, didn't manage to confess to the alleged.

00:25:27He's not in your ear.

00:25:28He's not earwig.

00:25:29You went in and just did it.

00:25:30Well, they have, the FBI have a way with people who are finding it hard to confess to actually

00:25:36get them to.

00:25:38Wow.

00:25:39To give it up.

00:25:39To admit to stuff.

00:25:39So there is a, there is a sequence that I'd memorize to try and get O.J. to confess.

00:25:47Oh, wow.

00:25:47But it failed.

00:25:48You know.

00:25:48But that you'd gone through that much, because it doesn't look like that.

00:25:52That's the other thing.

00:25:52It doesn't look like, wow, he's checking off a bunch of boxes.

00:25:56It just looks like you're having a conversation.

00:25:58Yes.

00:25:58But it's, it's clearly a, a real skill.

00:26:02Because these people just very, with no, you know, very fastly just move into these

00:26:07places where you're like, I would never say anything.

00:26:09I would never say anything.

00:26:11I mean, obviously.

00:26:11Any of this shit.

00:26:12Well, obviously, the sequence is.

00:26:14You just say, come on.

00:26:15Like, come on.

00:26:16Yeah, come on.

00:26:17There was something.

00:26:18A lot of it wasn't.

00:26:19Come on.

00:26:20He said, yeah.

00:26:21That's a, that was based on part of the thing.

00:26:23Part of the thing was, you know, he said, I didn't kill.

00:26:25I'm like, come on.

00:26:26I didn't kill my wife either.

00:26:27She just got really depressed, walked into the body bag, zipped herself up, filled her

00:26:32rocks, threw herself up the yacht, you know.

00:26:34And then, so part of it is being blase about the murder.

00:26:39Right.

00:26:39And then part of it is there's a kind of incremental series of questions where you say, you know, how

00:26:47did you get away with what you did that night?

00:26:51And then you go, how did you get away with what you did to them that night?

00:26:55And then how, it's sort of an incremental ask, but you never admit it.

00:26:59I'm really sort of nervous now to be sitting right at the table.

00:27:01I know.

00:27:02We're going to start asking questions.

00:27:05I'm hoping you'll tear me open.

00:27:07I can't live with this anymore.

00:27:15When was the last time you guys were sort of genuinely nervous to tell a story or maybe

00:27:21it's how the story would be received?

00:27:23Yes.

00:27:25Yes, and.

00:27:27Yes, I mean, yeah.

00:27:29If you're really going to be honest and truthful, I think you've got to put yourself out there.

00:27:34Give me an example of when that was for you.

00:27:36Do you mean like real life or work-wise?

00:27:39No, work-wise.

00:27:39Work-wise, okay.

00:27:40I've only ever been disappointed when I wasn't authentic.

00:27:44When I had reached for something that was not based in some authenticity, even if it's a

00:27:51wildly animated character.

00:27:53What did that look like?

00:27:55If it isn't based in some sort of reality, then I feel I've raped myself.

00:28:01Which is painful.

00:28:02Yes.

00:28:03It's difficult.

00:28:03Yeah.

00:28:04For some.

00:28:06But, you know, that's when I feel really uncomfortable, when I'm on a track that isn't authentic.

00:28:13But it takes a while to get to that realization.

00:28:16I've never been disappointed ever with authenticity.

00:28:20Right.

00:28:20And I was really frightened about it, you know, until a few years ago when I started kind of

00:28:25sharing how I feel about things and my truth.

00:28:28And there was a voice telling me that if I actually didn't score, if I didn't hit a funny line

00:28:36every

00:28:37at least 30 seconds, they would think I was pompous and they would turn against me and say,

00:28:43who the fuck do you think you are?

00:28:45And I've never had that reaction.

00:28:47Ever.

00:28:48I'd like to ask a question actually to you, which is that you, your style of performance

00:28:52was completely unique.

00:28:54Like you'd never seen somebody give, I mean first it was absolutely roll on the floor funny.

00:28:59But you'd never seen anyone give as, put as much energy into a performance.

00:29:05Yeah.

00:29:05Physical, vocal, all of it, yeah.

00:29:06I mean physical, vocal.

00:29:07I mean it was like seeing a, you know, electricity somehow unleashed.

00:29:12Dervish.

00:29:13Well, so I'm interested in, when you were in the middle of performance, were you,

00:29:18did you, did your state change?

00:29:20What was the feeling when your...

00:29:23It was like a fugue state, really.

00:29:25It's like a fugue state.

00:29:26But you know, I grew up.

00:29:27Like a what, sorry?

00:29:27Fugue state.

00:29:29Like you wake up afterwards.

00:29:31Yeah.

00:29:31You know, and go, what happened?

00:29:32That's what it looked like.

00:29:33But it was, you know, Ace Ventura was, was a way to rip down arrogance.

00:29:41And that, you know, the powers that be in any case.

00:29:47And at the same time, it's pure love.

00:29:51There's so much love in it, in that mocking, except for the one I'm mocking necessarily.

00:29:59But even them, I just want to go, you know this is bullshit, right?

00:30:03I know you're full of it.

00:30:04You know, and, and the, but the performance is love.

00:30:08It's a dance for me.

00:30:09Yeah.

00:30:09And I, I, I loved actors who employed every bit of their instrument.

00:30:15You know, I mean, you look at James Dean.

00:30:18This is a man who was expressing everything with every, you know, he didn't just get emotional.

00:30:24He was, he was emotion.

00:30:26It was tearing him apart!

00:30:27You know, and it was everything was in it.

00:30:30And I love that kind of thing.

00:30:32So I, I always think of myself as a, it's a kind of painting.

00:30:36Yeah.

00:30:36You know, and it's a, an abstract painting a lot of times.

00:30:40So I, I know the method.

00:30:43I know Stanislavski and I know Meisner and I know what's good from them for me.

00:30:50Is, is, I use it.

00:30:52And, uh, at the same time I'm painting.

00:30:55So don't tell me the eyes can't both be on this side of the head.

00:30:58I think it's sort of unlike any other comic performance, I think.

00:31:03I think in television film history, I've never really seen that kind of energy exuded.

00:31:10And I mean, it's hilarious, but I think it's completely, completely unique.

00:31:14It was so, for me, it was so unique that when I first saw it, I went, oh no, no,

00:31:17no, no.

00:31:18Turn it off.

00:31:19And then I came back and went, turn it on and go, oh, I, I mean, it literally took me

00:31:24a while to go, oh, fuck.

00:31:26This can't happen.

00:31:28It was so new in my eyes.

00:31:30It was like, it took me.

00:31:32I had the most wonderful experience before Ace came out.

00:31:37I was in Chicago doing a live gig.

00:31:39My manager sat me down at a restaurant in Chicago and they said, we got kind of bad news.

00:31:44Cisco and Ebert killed you.

00:31:48And don't know what, what's next from here.

00:31:51This was before Ace Ventura.

00:31:53Before, three days before it came out.

00:31:55They had the words on a page.

00:31:57And I just looked and it said, the worst movie ever made, the worst actor ever made.

00:32:04This is the end.

00:32:06This is whatever.

00:32:06It was completely original.

00:32:08No one had seen it.

00:32:09It was so scathing.

00:32:10I mean, I've been disappointed so many times in my career.

00:32:12I have an automatic downshift.

00:32:14I go, well, okay.

00:32:17Don't know how it's gonna happen, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to break a basement window or something.

00:32:21And what happened to my just absolute delight was that by the time I had done Truman Show, Siskel and

00:32:32Ebert did an entire episode just about me and called it Jim Carrey Clown with Class.

00:32:39And I get emotional thinking about it.

00:32:41It was, it was incredible.

00:32:44Like they just said we were wrong.

00:32:46And I've never seen a critic say that.

00:32:48Both of them said we were wrong.

00:32:50We didn't know what we were seeing.

00:32:52And that's just a wonderful thing.

00:32:54So I had asked about, you know, what makes you nervous.

00:32:57I'm curious, in your case, I mean, you took on, I guess it's the antidote to the Me Too movement

00:33:02with the not-me movement.

00:33:05But I am curious in that, and I believe that started on some level as your idea.

00:33:11Do you get nervous?

00:33:12Do you think about sort of where that line is?

00:33:14What is that navigation?

00:33:15Well, I mean, I think like sort of specifically to the show, I've never worried only because the writers involved

00:33:21are so good at handling those kinds of things and always making sure that the joke is on the right

00:33:26person.

00:33:27So I never, I think having a backstop of talent like is in our writer's room is incredible.

00:33:34But as a performer, I never really have gotten nervous about it.

00:33:38Just because ultimately the joke is never on any of the people that he is saying terrible things about.

00:33:44It's always on how terrible of a person he is.

00:33:48Yeah.

00:33:50Yeah.

00:33:50Go ahead.

00:33:52Yeah, no, you have to.

00:33:52They love it.

00:33:53You have to.

00:33:55Look at how hot she is.

00:33:57Yeah, I get strong.

00:33:58Oh my gosh.

00:34:00Thank you all so much.

00:34:01My Joni, he just swept me off my feet.

00:34:03And I know that when he's elected president, he's going to sweep all of the dirt out of Washington.

00:34:09So we're just going to need to find a room that's tall enough for him.

00:34:16I just want to make it clear that she does do all the housework.

00:34:18I do.

00:34:19Because it's politics and not only US politics, but then world politics, there is not a single

00:34:23thing under the sun that we can't be cynical about.

00:34:26And moving forward, like I think I will miss that a little bit.

00:34:30There's no side to it either.

00:34:31Yeah.

00:34:32Everybody's on the frying, in the frying pan.

00:34:34Right.

00:34:34Everybody is in there.

00:34:36I will miss that level of cynicism, but at the same time, I am looking forward to

00:34:41not being so cynical about every single thing that you come to contact with.

00:34:45But yeah, I do think that nobody in making the not me joke wants to have the joke on

00:34:50the victims.

00:34:51Nobody would think that was funny.

00:34:54So I do think that from the beginning, it's just like, oh, they found a really good way

00:34:57to do that.

00:34:58I just had a dumb, I was in my backyard.

00:35:01I was raking.

00:35:02And it was like, I had a dumb pitch and I called up our showrunner and pitched him like

00:35:06the very beginning of it.

00:35:07And then they built it out into what it became.

00:35:09Ballsy.

00:35:10With you, I've heard you say that your showrunners sort of take storylines or jokes and they

00:35:16take it as far as you could possibly go.

00:35:17And then you sort of rein them in and you say, you can say that.

00:35:20Yeah, if you're on camera, you can say that joke.

00:35:23You want to come in and do that one?

00:35:25I got to walk around in the face of that.

00:35:27No, I'm not.

00:35:27I mean, can you give us some examples of that and where your line is?

00:35:32And ruin it right now?

00:35:33Yeah, let's go with Seth and Evan.

00:35:34Yeah, set your career on fire.

00:35:36No, they just push hard.

00:35:39And I think they do it because you don't really know where the line is sometimes until

00:35:42you've stepped over it and then you go, oh, that was the line.

00:35:45I guess we're over here now.

00:35:46But I think that the protection is always that the joke is always on the people that

00:35:51are saying the line.

00:35:52It's not we're not making fun of the people that are the subject of it.

00:35:56It's that these people are so blind to they have no self-awareness that they they are hilarious

00:36:04because they're trying to process this through their prism of blindness.

00:36:08And that's why they are hilarious.

00:36:10You know, they're the people who are the joke.

00:36:11Both of the writers are Jewish and they like to throw in some anti-Semitic jokes.

00:36:16And I'm like, I'm not doing that.

00:36:18You can say that one.

00:36:20I'll make up the black joke.

00:36:22Another thing that happens in your show is a tremendous amount of drugs, of cocaine.

00:36:27And I remember hearing Seth Rogen, one of your producers, say that cocaine in the 80s

00:36:32is much funnier than cocaine today.

00:36:35Correct.

00:36:35A, why?

00:36:37And B, what are the sort of unexpected challenges of playing high?

00:36:42And I'm guessing there's other people at this table who have...

00:36:44Oh, yeah.

00:36:45I'm so blasted right now.

00:36:47I didn't mean now, I meant...

00:36:49You're freaking me the fuck out.

00:36:52Can we move on?

00:36:53You look like a talking sponge.

00:36:56That's why this came up, isn't it?

00:36:57Yeah, for sure.

00:36:58Sorry.

00:36:59No, it's...

00:37:00Sequencing.

00:37:00Yeah, I think it's funny then because we're now, because we're here and we can see where

00:37:06it's headed and going, that's not gonna work out well for you.

00:37:10Fair.

00:37:10I know you think now that this is brilliant juice, but it's not gonna work out.

00:37:14It drove the industry.

00:37:15Exactly.

00:37:16I mean, I know people that were, when I started, I'm not gonna say who in the show,

00:37:21but they were getting their per diem in coke.

00:37:23Yeah.

00:37:24The prop truck was where you got coke.

00:37:26Yeah, of course.

00:37:27What?

00:37:28Absolutely.

00:37:28I'm not trying to be a square, but my God, I feel like I have a half a glass of

00:37:34wine

00:37:34and I worry about call the next morning.

00:37:36Oh, I know.

00:37:36Like, I'm such a loser.

00:37:38It was just the culture of it.

00:37:39You gotta be deep into the addiction to actually be able to handle it.

00:37:42Yeah, that's true.

00:37:44You'll get there, kid.

00:37:46Okay, but what about playing it on screen?

00:37:48There's hope for you.

00:37:49Is that?

00:37:50You'll get there.

00:37:51Fawn easy, or is that harder than?

00:37:55It's, you know, you're kind of wired already, and the B12 doing it over and over again,

00:38:02it can kind of get you on a...

00:38:04That's what you take?

00:38:04Approximating the high.

00:38:06Yeah, it's B.

00:38:06Or coke.

00:38:07Or actual coke, one of the two.

00:38:09Like Jem said, if you're already there and your tolerance is so high that you need a little

00:38:12help, then you know.

00:38:13Powdered elephant tusk.

00:38:15Exactly.

00:38:16That line you were talking about.

00:38:17That's the line.

00:38:18Yeah.

00:38:18Oh, I just stepped over.

00:38:20It's back there.

00:38:20And it's about that big, and it's a rail.

00:38:22It's not actually a little.

00:38:24Yeah.

00:38:24Jim was talking a bit about the sort of validation of hearing from the people who perhaps earlier

00:38:31in your career didn't have the same things to say about you.

00:38:34I'm curious, you got on stage having won the Emmy.

00:38:37You pulled out of your pocket a speech that was one that you had written sort of decades ago.

00:38:43How much of that was career validation for you?

00:38:47I loved winning it.

00:38:49It sits on my dining room table, which is directly opposite the front door.

00:38:54So when the man delivers my Lipitor, he gets to see it.

00:39:03But that's it.

00:39:05I never thought, oh, I deserve it.

00:39:07I never thought, oh, it took so long.

00:39:09I thought, okay, in this moment I've won it.

00:39:12I'll tell you what I was not prepared for.

00:39:15When you're nominated, you think that is great.

00:39:18Everybody says, oh, my gosh, I'd just be nominated.

00:39:21It's an honor.

00:39:21Which only lasts until your tush hits the seat.

00:39:25And then you won it.

00:39:29But people treat you differently when you have won it.

00:39:34How's that?

00:39:34I don't know.

00:39:35They literally treat you differently.

00:39:38Oh, my God.

00:39:39And I'm talking about on the street, in the industry.

00:39:42When you are an Emmy winner, there is something, a patina they put on you that I thought this is

00:39:53strange.

00:39:53Did you get a car?

00:39:54Huh?

00:39:55Did you get a car?

00:39:56I didn't get a car.

00:39:57Oh.

00:39:57I didn't get a car.

00:39:58I had a different, I was nominated nine times in a row before I won.

00:40:03Right.

00:40:06And when I won, people would say, well, you have like, what, ten of them, right?

00:40:11Right.

00:40:12People don't know.

00:40:13Right, yeah.

00:40:13People don't.

00:40:14In my experience, it was like.

00:40:15They didn't know you didn't win before.

00:40:17Yeah.

00:40:17And the mantle of you were robbed was taken from me when I won.

00:40:23And you were robbed was kind of a nice thing.

00:40:26It gets tiring.

00:40:26No, I don't know.

00:40:28The you were robbed thing is a little bit tiresome.

00:40:30Oh, that's right.

00:40:31Yeah, you know what I, I have to say.

00:40:33Because you don't enter this business for awards, you know.

00:40:35Tell some other boy tonight that you were robbed.

00:40:38But I never felt, I never felt robbed.

00:40:42I was just happy that I won when I won.

00:40:46Yep.

00:40:46And when I turned around and I could feel the warmth and the pressure of having almost no time to

00:40:55give the speech.

00:40:56And the only thing that I wrote 43 years ago was, kids, you can go to bed now.

00:41:00And of course the kids are now 35, 37 and 40 and 47.

00:41:04They were already in bed.

00:41:06Yeah, they were already in bed.

00:41:07Exactly.

00:41:07I was there that night.

00:41:08I was robbed.

00:41:12In these characters that you are currently inhabiting, what are the pieces of yourselves, consciously or not, that you have

00:41:20sort of infused into them?

00:41:22The demon that I played?

00:41:24The eternal demon?

00:41:25Yes, that one.

00:41:26That seems like a one-to-one for me, just having this for a few times.

00:41:29Where's the performance?

00:41:30When people ask, you know, what's your process?

00:41:32Nowadays, I try the words on over and over and over and over again.

00:41:35And slowly, if the words are really well-written words, which I've been blessed with, the words start to inform

00:41:42me.

00:41:42It becomes a dance that comes out of doing the words enough time that you then perform it.

00:41:47I get to play this character, Michael, and if I do the words well, then some sort of character comes

00:41:55out.

00:41:56And I'm enjoying it in the moment, so I guess I'm there in the moment.

00:42:01But I can't say that I...

00:42:03There are pieces of you in it.

00:42:04Because I just found out this week that underneath my human skin suit that I have made to make myself

00:42:10more palatable to the humans.

00:42:11Yep.

00:42:12I'm a two-story, fiery squid.

00:42:15So, you know, that's what I would guess.

00:42:18What draws you to that role?

00:42:20What do you see?

00:42:22It wasn't the role.

00:42:23We signed on to Mike Schur's idea.

00:42:25He literally talked to us for two hours in a room.

00:42:27There was no script.

00:42:28And we went, okay.

00:42:30Mm-hmm.

00:42:31And I'm really glad I did because it's about something.

00:42:33It's about decency.

00:42:35It's about there are ripple effects.

00:42:37You know, there are consequences to your actions.

00:42:40And in this kind of day and age, it's really...

00:42:43It's a lovely...

00:42:45It's disguised in nine-year-old fart humor and lots of visual magic.

00:42:49But we are talking about something that matters.

00:42:53Who are you?

00:42:55Really.

00:42:56All right, all right.

00:42:57Fine.

00:42:57Just give me one more second.

00:42:59One.

00:43:00Serious question.

00:43:01Should we kill them?

00:43:03What?

00:43:03It might work.

00:43:05We kill them, go back through the door, somehow grab them before they get to the bad place and regroup

00:43:10from there.

00:43:10I could kill them right now.

00:43:12You know, it would be easy.

00:43:13Their bodies are very poorly made.

00:43:15They're mostly goo and juice.

00:43:16You just take the juice out and then they're dead.

00:43:19Jim, you said if the Jeff Pickles role were presented a few years before it ultimately was, you wouldn't have

00:43:24been ready for it.

00:43:25Why not?

00:43:25And what made you ready when it was?

00:43:28The struggle to maintain your innocence, maintain that wonder and that divine spark in a world that's seemingly cruel and

00:43:39out of control.

00:43:40Also, the grief aspect of it.

00:43:43The, uh, how do you keep that together when you've been hit by a freight train?

00:43:49And, uh, you know, I have.

00:43:52And I know what that's like.

00:43:54I don't believe that any actor can really do a part unless that part finds them.

00:44:00Uh, you don't find parts.

00:44:02They find you when you're ready to do them and when you're informed and, and you have those feelings.

00:44:08I want to do a show about death.

00:44:11Something special.

00:44:12I don't think we want to do a show about passing on.

00:44:15No.

00:44:16Not passing on.

00:44:17Death.

00:44:18I don't want to say my son is off cloud surfing or hula hooping with a halo.

00:44:23I want to say death.

00:44:25Well, it's brave of you, but I don't think you're ready to talk about this.

00:44:28I don't think I'm not ready like you think I'm not ready.

00:44:31I think we need to heal.

00:44:33Who's we?

00:44:34Ray, what about you taking on this role?

00:44:36What was it about this guy, uh?

00:44:40I love him.

00:44:41I've only taught four or five times and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

00:44:47It is written so well that I don't know what to do.

00:44:52Um, and again, everything is, we are blessed with wonderful writers.

00:44:59Because if it's not on the page, it ain't on the stage.

00:45:03I love the people that I work with.

00:45:05They, uh, are an incredible ensemble that make me better.

00:45:11And I am, I just thoroughly love going to work every day.

00:45:15Mr. Kuzno.

00:45:17Hey, Private Pyle.

00:45:18How you doing?

00:45:19Oh, let's not call me that.

00:45:21A story.

00:45:23Just an idea.

00:45:25There's an embellishment called the Dennehy Balloon.

00:45:28Actually, it's a colostomy bag filled with blood that Brian Dennehy used during Death Trap.

00:45:32When he was shot, he would-

00:45:36To piggyback on what everyone has said in that you will then ape and act like you came up with

00:45:41it.

00:45:46You know, it's true, you cannot, there's, you are bringing yourself to these roles.

00:45:51We don't, we don't completely shut off and then, you know, we're not there.

00:45:55We're, we're there and you're, you're, you're exercising and you're accessing different parts of your, your personality, different parts of

00:46:01your pain, different parts of your joy, and, and trying to find where you and this character meet.

00:46:08And sometimes you're reaching for things that are out there beyond you that you're trying to scaffold to.

00:46:13And other times you're like, that's a little too close. Can we not, can we not do that beat right

00:46:17now?

00:46:18But if you're really honest, and I think all of us probably have a good relationship with the writers that

00:46:23we're working with that, you know, you can, you're in a, you're in a conversation.

00:46:27It's not just like they stick it all on the page and go say all of that.

00:46:30You know, you're always in a conversation and when you're in that conversation, you're trying to get to the best

00:46:36iteration of what that thing is.

00:46:37So you are bringing yourself to these moments and that's when it's, that's when it sings.

00:46:43I mean, my writers are perfectly happy for me to improv a scene and they go, that's good. That was

00:46:48better. Move on. You know, best answer wins.

00:46:51I'm going to call an ambulance.

00:46:55What kind of car you drive kid?

00:46:57Oh, cause I drive a Honda and you drive a Porsche. I don't drive shit. I get driven in a

00:47:02Lamborghini limousine, a.k.a. a Lambo limo, a.k.a. a limbo.

00:47:07So you get none of the speed of a Lamborghini and none of the comfort of a limousine?

00:47:11Yeah, but it costs twice as much as both. This guy's not a car guy. You're not a car guy.

00:47:15I don't like your fucking tone. You don't know shit about cracks. Who are you, Faf?

00:47:20Who are you?

00:47:21What were the moments when it's, it's too close and it's, I don't know.

00:47:24Well, you know, it's, it's funny. I've done, I've done, it's, and it's, and talking about the too closeness is

00:47:30not just, there's other people that it affects.

00:47:32So sometimes I don't talk about it because it's very personal, but I have had more than one instance in

00:47:38jobs that I'm working on where you're like, why is this storyline happening?

00:47:42That's also happening in my life that these people didn't know anything about.

00:47:46Oh, interesting.

00:47:46Or this is something that's, that I'm getting to work through and getting to play with these other great collaborators

00:47:52around me. That's really something that I'm dealing with in my personal life.

00:47:56And there is, yeah, it, it, it very, very often happens to me. I've found in my work and you're

00:48:02going, what am I pulling toward me? You know, it's not just that things are out there for you to

00:48:06go get. A lot of times these things are kind of coalescing around you.

00:48:09And you're like, wow, did I pull that in so that I could work through this in some way? And

00:48:13it, it just feels like that a lot of times. So I always feel like there's a lot of me

00:48:17in whatever, whatever I'm doing.

00:48:25Sasha, I have to ask you, what are the sort of wildest circumstances under which you secured or perhaps didn't

00:48:32secure an interview for the show?

00:48:34In some cases, you're undercover for a while as you're trying to get it. In some cases, you're trying to

00:48:40sort of pass through major security.

00:48:42Yeah, to get in the room with the person is already a terrible ordeal. So we, we were, we managed

00:48:50to secure an interview with Ben Carson, but it was at the, um, at a hotel in DC.

00:48:55I'd been living undercover for three weeks in DC because I didn't want to have any sightings of me.

00:49:02Wow.

00:49:03Because if somebody interested in a picture of me.

00:49:05What does that look like then? What, what is living undercover?

00:49:08It means that no one can see your face for three weeks.

00:49:13Is it masks, wigs, or is it just staying inside?

00:49:17I don't want to go into what I was wearing, but it's mainly staying inside and you're never going through,

00:49:22you're trying to avoid being seen.

00:49:24Okay.

00:49:24Um, or you can't use your credit card or anything for as long as you're undercover.

00:49:29Because the first person we interviewed when we got into DC was Bernie Sanders.

00:49:33Uh-huh.

00:49:34Yeah.

00:49:34They were concerned.

00:49:36His team actually were great, great because they immediately called up the channel and they said, what's going on?

00:49:42But the channel didn't know that we were making the show.

00:49:44So they actually honestly said, well, you know, it's fine.

00:49:48They then, they then said, well, how do we know this isn't a terrorist group that are trying to, you

00:49:53know, attack politicians and we might have a congressional hearing.

00:49:57Uh-huh.

00:49:58So there was a game of cat and mouse.

00:50:00So I knew I had to kind of stay undercover.

00:50:01But then we were sitting with Ben Carson, we managed to get an interview.

00:50:07And the hotel that we picked, there was a problem because there was a conference of other politicians.

00:50:14And there was Condoleezza Rice there and a bunch of other kind of high-end politicians.

00:50:18And the place was full of secret service.

00:50:21So me even getting to the room was a kind of huge problem because there's secret service.

00:50:27Because you had to be Sasha with your ID.

00:50:29Yeah.

00:50:30Well, no, you don't have to present your ID at a, at a hotel.

00:50:34But yes, he came with his own secret service.

00:50:37I'm in the other room saying, you know, and there were probably about 50, 60 secret service there.

00:50:42He comes with two secret service, but, you know, we'd made a mistake.

00:50:46We'd gone to the worst hotel ever to interview him where all these other secret service are around to make

00:50:52sure nothing happens.

00:50:53Right, right.

00:50:53And, by the way, the secret service there, it sounds like complete paranoia, but some of them disguise themselves as

00:51:01staff.

00:51:02Uh-huh.

00:51:02And I'm obviously disguised.

00:51:04Wow.

00:51:04Oh, my God, balls.

00:51:06And so I'm in the other room and I realize he's got his own secret service.

00:51:12And I get on the phone to my lawyer and I go, what happens if they ask to see ID?

00:51:15Yeah?

00:51:16Yeah.

00:51:16Like, if they go and see my ID and they find out it's me, I'm blasted, you know.

00:51:20I said, listen, I've got fake ID, can I present my fake ID?

00:51:23And they go, no.

00:51:24And the phone goes, no, you're going to go to jail.

00:51:26Yeah, exactly.

00:51:26I go, what happens if the fake ID falls on the floor and the secret service pick it up?

00:51:31So you're not actually presenting it, okay.

00:51:33Yes, and he goes, all right, there may be a way out of it, but he goes, but you might

00:51:37get arrested.

00:51:38So you're going into a scene knowing that you're trying to work out the percentage of something bad happening.

00:51:45Right.

00:51:45And then we booked another room, which was in case we got busted by the secret service, that I would

00:51:51go to.

00:51:52So we kind of, his team, I made one slip up.

00:51:56This is the kind of, this is the problem of the stuff that I do, which is that you make

00:52:02one mistake and the scene is dead.

00:52:04Right.

00:52:04So it was tragic for me because he was, you know, so high up.

00:52:09Yeah.

00:52:09But Ben Carson, literally, his foot was stepping on set and the White House press secretary pulled the interview.

00:52:18Because I was playing this Finnish unboxing character.

00:52:22Right, right.

00:52:22And I had these kids toys and he said, why have you got all those kids toys?

00:52:26And we're like, well, you know, we're going to do some unboxing.

00:52:29And he said, unboxing, why?

00:52:30And he suddenly realizes that a member of the cabinet is coming in to unbox.

00:52:35And he had great instincts, this guy, and pulled it.

00:52:38So the secret service pulled Ben Carson.

00:52:41But then the rest of the secret service in the building are alerted to the fact that something's happening.

00:52:48And obviously they have to treat it as a serious thing.

00:52:50So I then go to the second room that is booked under a different name.

00:52:55Oh, my God.

00:52:56But then we have an ex-secret service bodyguard and he's like, they're listening in.

00:53:01I actually thought that the bodyguard was paranoid.

00:53:04Uh-huh.

00:53:04But it turned out that he was right.

00:53:06And then we're playing cat and mouse with the secret service.

00:53:09They're trying to find you and you're jumping around.

00:53:10Yes, they don't know who I am because they have to treat it as a crazy thing.

00:53:14Oh, my God.

00:53:14And then we're trying to work out how do we get...

00:53:17You get killed trying to just do it.

00:53:18Oh, it's the comedian doing that.

00:53:22And then also you're trying to keep it undercover off your evenness.

00:53:26And then it's how do I get me out of...

00:53:28We know that the secret service in the building are looking for this guy.

00:53:32Right.

00:53:33This Finnish guy.

00:53:34They don't know what's happened, but somebody's trying to do something.

00:53:36How do you get out?

00:53:36To the cabinet minister.

00:53:37And then we're working out how to get out the hotel.

00:53:40And, you know, we've got a back route.

00:53:42We always have escape routes.

00:53:43But then actually we say...

00:53:45Now you're going to get the interview.

00:53:47Then we find out they're at the escape route.

00:53:48What are the escape routes?

00:53:49They're at the escape route.

00:53:51Yeah.

00:53:51So we ended up going through the front door.

00:53:53The main.

00:53:54The main entrance and the guy with me, he said,

00:53:56if anyone comes towards you, I'm going to stop them.

00:53:59I go, what does that mean?

00:54:00He goes, I'm going to stop them.

00:54:01I go, is that legal?

00:54:02He goes, yes.

00:54:03And he goes, you just have to get from here, from the elevator to that car.

00:54:08And so a lot of, you know, 80% of what I do is this getting in and getting out.

00:54:14Wow.

00:54:15Of situations.

00:54:15Do you get nervous?

00:54:16I agree.

00:54:17I'm absolutely terrified.

00:54:19And yet you go back for more and more and more.

00:54:21The junkie.

00:54:23I don't know.

00:54:23Yeah.

00:54:24I don't know what it is.

00:54:24It becomes addictive.

00:54:25I mean, we did this scene where I pitched building a mega mosque in this town.

00:54:31And they, we knew they'd be upset.

00:54:34But you have, you know, you have the other stuff.

00:54:37They were really upset.

00:54:38They were really upset.

00:54:38But then you're, you're in this situation where you say, okay, we want to make sure that even

00:54:44when they get upset, we know they're probably going to get upset because they probably hate

00:54:47the idea of Muslims coming into their town.

00:54:50We want to make sure that nobody's going to pull a gun.

00:54:53And so we had a security guard there and he, he said, listen, you know, the great thing

00:54:58is I've, you're right because I've, I had like a clipboard.

00:55:01He goes, I've made you a bulletproof clipboard.

00:55:04And I go, what do you mean?

00:55:05You're wonderful.

00:55:05He goes, if someone pulls a gun, you know, someone snuck in a gun and they're going to

00:55:10try and shoot you, pull out, use the clipboard and just, you know, cover yourself.

00:55:14Just deflect the bulletproof.

00:55:14I go, it's this big.

00:55:16I go, what do I put it over?

00:55:18Like their heart or their head or?

00:55:20Cinemass.

00:55:21They usually go for cinemass.

00:55:21Yeah.

00:55:23He goes, I don't know.

00:55:24That's a size clipboard that I was tossed.

00:55:26So I go, it's not really an effect.

00:55:28An actor's choice.

00:55:29An actor's choice.

00:55:30Wow.

00:55:30So we had like a scene like that and it got fairly aggressive at the end

00:55:34and somebody, he said, you know, you know, it got nearly violent because I accused somebody

00:55:40of being a Muslim.

00:55:41I said, excuse me, sir, are you a Muslim?

00:55:42And they go, you say that again.

00:55:43I'm going to come up.

00:55:44Yeah, he said they're going to kill you.

00:55:45Yeah.

00:55:45That's on camera.

00:55:46And then, so, you know, I go, but you seem, you're a Muslim, you know, which, and they

00:55:50got very offended and it became confrontational actually.

00:55:54And what's going through your head?

00:55:55I'm going to risk this and I got my clipboard?

00:55:57I go deep into character at that point.

00:55:59If it feels like it's going to get violent, then I, you can't, the worst thing you can do

00:56:05is crack and then realize that you're playing a character.

00:56:08So you don't go, hey, I just want to mock you and expose your racism.

00:56:12Right.

00:56:12Then you're really in trouble.

00:56:14And then we're, what I'm doing in my head, and again, I'm English, not really fully aware

00:56:20of what's going on, but I'm trying to edit the scene.

00:56:22So I'm trying to, I know the beginning of the setup to the joke, the joke, the following

00:56:28joke, and then I need the out.

00:56:30How do you get out?

00:56:30Yeah.

00:56:31And then I need the out for that.

00:56:32Well, the shot fired is probably your answer.

00:56:35That's a classic.

00:56:35I want to get out before.

00:56:37It has the end on it.

00:56:39I want to get out before.

00:56:41That's a stat.

00:56:42I have fucked up so many scenes where the only threat was, like, rolling into lunch.

00:56:48That's the only shit that was going to be on the penalty.

00:56:51My biggest problem is overhead lighting.

00:56:54I'm 57, man.

00:56:55Who cares the hell out of me?

00:56:56It's interesting, in a scene like that, so we then go, okay, let's do the scene again.

00:57:00And we know that it's got, and the guy at the end, he goes, you know, now I know why

00:57:04you took your guns off us, because we took their guns off them, weapons off them, before

00:57:08they got on a bus, they took them to the room.

00:57:10Then we knew that the next group that were coming into the room, because we wanted to

00:57:15do the scene again, do another take, we have to get another, they would have their cars

00:57:20outside the hall, and we were concerned that they would go out, get upset, get their guns

00:57:25and bring them in.

00:57:26Sure.

00:57:27And so, at that point, you've got to act as the producer, and so I had a meeting with

00:57:31everyone and just said, listen, we're now aware of how angry people are getting.

00:57:37I want you to opt in to the next scene.

00:57:40In other words, I'm assuming everyone's going home, unless you say now, I'm going to

00:57:46stay, because we're aware that, you know, we can't guarantee that we're not going to

00:57:51be stuck in this hall, and everyone with their guns outside and not letting us out, you know.

00:57:58So we had, it was a kind of...

00:58:00Do people stay?

00:58:00I mean, how many stay?

00:58:01How many go?

00:58:02In the end, I forced quite a lot of people to go home.

00:58:05You did?

00:58:05Yes.

00:58:06Because everyone said, we're staying, and I said, no, actually, you guys are going.

00:58:09You know, and obviously you have an escape room or whatever, but we're, at the end of

00:58:12the day, we're in a situation where violence has been threatened.

00:58:15We know that most people had their own weapons, and we knew that it was a possibility that we

00:58:22might be on lockdown, we might have to stay in the building.

00:58:26How do you deal with people?

00:58:27Do people have to sign off yet?

00:58:29That I can't get into, but...

00:58:30Okay.

00:58:31Well, that scares you?

00:58:32Come on.

00:58:33Come on, do the FBI.

00:58:34Come on, man.

00:58:34Because your faces, as he's telling these stories, is gone.

00:58:39No, it's wonderful, but it is, the comedy is dangerous.

00:58:42It is dangerous.

00:58:42Comedy is dangerous.

00:58:43It truly is.

00:58:44I mean, there were many nights at the Comedy Store where I ended up on someone's table

00:58:48with a broken beer bottle.

00:58:49You know?

00:58:50I mean, it got crazy.

00:58:52Insane.

00:58:53No, I'm sure.

00:58:53Oh, absolutely.

00:58:54Yeah, I'm sure.

00:58:55Or drove the entire audience out because I stayed up too long.

00:58:59When they hated me, I would go at them.

00:59:02It was not, okay, you don't like what I'm doing.

00:59:05And you used to stay up there for hours, didn't you?

00:59:06There was one particular night, in fact, where I stayed up for two hours because the audience

00:59:12hated me, so I just made it an exercise in self-punishment and punishment for them.

00:59:17And it's Calvin Maness.

00:59:18But what drives that?

00:59:19Why?

00:59:20I just, anti-authority, you know?

00:59:24I'm that way.

00:59:25And I'd rather get hit than back down.

00:59:28Wow.

00:59:29And, uh...

00:59:30I jumped to the floor.

00:59:32How about you?

00:59:33He's not gonna be on this side.

00:59:35So, yeah, one night I stayed up so long that chairs were flying through the air.

00:59:39It was like New Year's Eve.

00:59:40There was swizzle sticks and whatever and glass and things like that.

00:59:44And then I said, well, I guess the comedy store.

00:59:46It was a Saturday night in the main room.

00:59:49250 people paying top dollar and whatever.

00:59:51And it became a war.

00:59:53Were you on carry yet or was this on route?

00:59:56It was on route.

00:59:58Do you feel like you ultimately, did you win the war?

01:00:01Well, I'll tell you how the war ended.

01:00:03So, I finally got off stage to huge applause just because I mentioned that I was going to leave the

01:00:09stage.

01:00:13And I left the stage, then I crawled through the audience on hands and knees, popped up behind the piano

01:00:21during the host's part and started banging on the keys and singing, I hate you all, you gave me cancer.

01:00:28And it was an entire improvised song.

01:00:32No, they got up one at a time.

01:00:33The tables got up.

01:00:34Did you write it on the spot?

01:00:35Yeah.

01:00:36Yes, you did.

01:00:36Yeah, I was just blaming them for the cancer cells that were being formed.

01:00:40And so I, you know, I did that until the entire audience left, literally the entire audience, except for five

01:00:49people who stood around the piano.

01:00:51And when I was done, in a sweat, they said, this is the greatest thing we've ever seen in our

01:00:58lives.

01:00:59Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:01:00And then I got in the car and I cried all the way home.

01:01:04You did.

01:01:04Yeah.

01:01:05Wow.

01:01:05Because I don't want to make people unhappy.

01:01:07I'm here to make people happy.

01:01:09Yeah.

01:01:09But I do have a rebellious nature, so sometimes that gets out of hand.

01:01:14What a connection.

01:01:15This is a bit of a left turn, but I want to ask, why do you guys do comedy?

01:01:21You have a thing in you where it literally pushes you to say the joke, either at a party or

01:01:29on the soundstage.

01:01:31You literally have timing.

01:01:33You cannot teach it.

01:01:34You can't read about it in a book.

01:01:38It is in you or it isn't.

01:01:40And that's just the truth.

01:01:41It is more difficult than, I think, than doing just straight drama.

01:01:47And we get less respect for, because it looks so easy.

01:01:54And much less respect all to today.

01:01:57Gosh.

01:01:58No, but it's like being a surfer.

01:01:59It's like being a surfer.

01:02:01You're in the water and there's a wave that's coming and it's an opportunity to be funny.

01:02:06And if you have that instinct, you're sitting there going, am I going to ride this wave?

01:02:10It's a bit dangerous, but am I going to ride it?

01:02:13I don't know that you make the decision.

01:02:15The image is exactly right.

01:02:17Here comes the wave.

01:02:18And I don't think, well, for me anyway, I don't think sometimes I have the choice.

01:02:23Yeah.

01:02:24I think that wave is coming and I'm on that board.

01:02:27Well, maybe I'm kidding myself, but I always feel like, especially if you're saying something

01:02:31that's slightly dangerous, there's that Cliffs of Acapulco moment.

01:02:36Right.

01:02:37Where the tide has come in, you either dive or you don't.

01:02:41Right.

01:02:41And if you don't dive, it's gone forever.

01:02:43But, you know, most of the time you got to go.

01:02:47Yeah.

01:02:48You got to go.

01:02:49And I also think it's something that, to piggyback on something that Sasha said, it breaks down

01:02:54walls and it's immediately, it hits people.

01:02:57And when you know when people feel like something's funny and even if they don't want to laugh,

01:03:00you're like, nah, that one got you.

01:03:01Yeah.

01:03:02And once you're in there, then you can turn it and you can make poignant moments

01:03:07and you can make them feel things deeply because they're unguarded.

01:03:10They've let down their defenses and you're in there and you can move around in there.

01:03:15And it's easy to do.

01:03:16But you've excelled in both spheres.

01:03:18I mean, it's.

01:03:19I guess, I mean, it just, I never saw a separation between it when I was coming up,

01:03:25which is where we all probably, it's still that, you're still that kid, eight, nine, ten, whatever,

01:03:30years old, it was like, oh, this is cool.

01:03:32I can play this character.

01:03:33And people laugh and then people are sad.

01:03:35And then it's still kind of that, although I'm 55 years, it's still the same thing.

01:03:40Except it's more disarming for me, I feel, when you come at it from a comedy standpoint.

01:03:46Because people.

01:03:47I don't know, Hotel Rwanda, I remember just that being so impactful.

01:03:51You know, however much we can do in comedy.

01:03:53I mean, that really changes your mindset.

01:03:56Yes.

01:03:56And even in that, I mean, even in that, at the beginning, we really, he was disarming,

01:04:03the character was telling jokes, and he was cabuliant, messing around and cracking jokes.

01:04:09You get in with him because you're like, oh, I like this person.

01:04:12Yeah, right.

01:04:12This person makes me feel comfortable.

01:04:14My guard is down.

01:04:15And once your guard is down, now you can take people everywhere.

01:04:18To me, I think comedy is not always the end game.

01:04:24People like Bill Maher and Colbert, and they're attacking this subject in a comedic way.

01:04:30But I do believe that when it comes down to it and the wolf is at the door, there ain't

01:04:36nothing funny about that.

01:04:37And if you give them a joke about it, that's fine.

01:04:42It heals in that moment.

01:04:44But it also is an out for the audience and for the enemy.

01:04:50And the enemy goes, it's just a joke.

01:04:53I want people to know how serious I am about the threat that faces us.

01:04:59And if I make it a joke, I can, that's part of it.

01:05:02But if I make it a joke, it's not as serious.

01:05:07Okay, well, I watch Stephen Colbert and Seth at the end of the night because it is like an antidote

01:05:15for the day.

01:05:16And let me just say, underneath those jokes, they are serious.

01:05:21Well, there's no joke unless you're on the nerve of the thing anyway.

01:05:24You know, if it's just frivolous, and that's something we talk about on the show.

01:05:26It has to really be about something that's grounded and that's impactful or the joke has no power.

01:05:31So there you go.

01:05:32You are completely correct.

01:05:34When it is frivolous, you are so right.

01:05:36Then you're missing the whole opportunity.

01:05:40But boy, when you walk that edge.

01:05:42It's right on the nerve, yeah.

01:05:44Yes, but I think there's a time to say things straight.

01:05:46So they know what you mean.

01:05:48I just feel like, I don't know that I had much of a choice in the matter.

01:05:51I have always been somebody, I think from when I was a kid, was able to see the serious things.

01:05:57I just have only ever been able to deal with them through this lens.

01:06:01And they're like this lens of like, oh, I need to make myself comfortable in this by coming at it

01:06:07sideways.

01:06:08And there is, I don't know if you guys do.

01:06:09I had a conversation with a friend of mine about this recently that like,

01:06:12it's like sometimes when stuff comes up with your family.

01:06:15I don't know, like if you're a bomb thrower.

01:06:17Like sometimes throwing bombs, sometimes they explode.

01:06:20But it just, I don't know when it happened.

01:06:23But just ever since I was a kid, in whatever situation it was, it was like,

01:06:27all right, well I'm just going to put this in here and see how that goes.

01:06:29Like it is fun.

01:06:30Absolutely.

01:06:31And I do feel like you can.

01:06:32But taking that risk is great.

01:06:33There is a risk there.

01:06:34But like the reward sometimes is like, this is an impenetrable person.

01:06:38Right.

01:06:38And you got in with that.

01:06:40Right.

01:06:40That is a really amazing thing.

01:06:42And whether or not it's able, you can get to it a different way, certainly possible.

01:06:46But my way into it has always been through that.

01:06:48Let's complete this sentence.

01:06:50I knew I made it in Hollywood when?

01:06:53I wasn't dead yet.

01:06:57Interesting.

01:06:58When you weren't dead yet?

01:07:00Kinda.

01:07:01I mean, really people ask that question and I really feel like, they say, well your careers.

01:07:04I'm like, well, let me get, let me look back when I'm done and go, okay, I did that.

01:07:10I felt good about that.

01:07:11I felt good about that.

01:07:12Yeah, careers are something you look back at.

01:07:13Yeah.

01:07:14Right, right, right.

01:07:14I feel like all of us, you know, there's a bit of imposter syndrome I think that comes

01:07:19up for many of us.

01:07:20And you're like, at some point they're just gonna go, yeah, we've had that flavor.

01:07:25Next guy.

01:07:26I feel like everybody that I've met, like outwardly you look at them and you think,

01:07:31oh, well that person's fine.

01:07:32Crush.

01:07:32They're perfect.

01:07:34They're sailing.

01:07:34Like they're never gonna have to hustle.

01:07:36And then you meet them and they still hustle.

01:07:38You bet.

01:07:38And they're still after it and it doesn't matter.

01:07:40And so that feeling of like, I've made it in Hollywood.

01:07:43I don't know that that actually exists.

01:07:44Okay, but you do have your sort of first dose of success and feeling like, oh, I can make

01:07:48a career of this.

01:07:49But it's flipping.

01:07:50I did get to meet Steve Buscemi at a party one time and I will fucking tell you that

01:07:54was amazing.

01:07:55That was some great shit right there.

01:07:58I love it.

01:07:59I knew that people were watching Happy Days when I went for my first personal appearance.

01:08:03I got off the plane at 11.30 and there were 3,000 people in 50s clothes.

01:08:09Wow.

01:08:09And I thought it was a party and the stewardess said, no, I think that's for you.

01:08:15And I went, oh, people are watching.

01:08:17Yeah.

01:08:18Okay, so the rest of us have not made it.

01:08:20Yeah, definitely not.

01:08:21Well, we just discovered.

01:08:23A lot of times it's the people you meet, the people you get to hang with.

01:08:27I mean, I grew up with Dick Van Dyke and I was a complete lunatic for Dick Van Dyke.

01:08:34Me too.

01:08:34And I've been able to meet Dick Van Dyke and he wants to hang out and them saying that

01:08:40they love what you do is really meaningful.

01:08:42Yeah.

01:08:43I just drew him a cartoon that I sent to him of RCA television from 1969 and a black and

01:08:53white version of the opening credits for the Dick Van Dyke show where he trips over the

01:08:59Ottoman.

01:08:59What a great show.

01:09:00And I did a cartoon of myself tripping over the Ottoman in front of the television.

01:09:05And those are the types of things that keep happening to me.

01:09:10I'm constantly being reminded, oh, I made it.

01:09:13Oh, my gosh.

01:09:13That's wonderful.

01:09:14And the first time, I think, and Living Color was huge.

01:09:19It was a huge thing for me and it was like they planted me, you know, my seedling in the

01:09:24garden and I had a chance to bloom on that show.

01:09:27So I got a taste of it there.

01:09:29And that time in Chicago when Siskel and Ebert hated my movie and then Friday happened

01:09:37and it was a giant hit and the hotel staff where I was staying put a dog bowl in my

01:09:43room

01:09:44with candies in it.

01:09:45Oh.

01:09:46And I went, boom.

01:09:47Did it.

01:09:48Never going to be the same.

01:09:50I love that.

01:09:51I think it's a balancing act for me to, because careers, if you celebrate your career in the

01:09:57moment, then it feels like you're slowing down.

01:10:02So you're always looking for what's next or what can I do better or one of these days,

01:10:07literally, I'm going to be good.

01:10:08You know, that kind of thinking, you know, as opposed to celebrating.

01:10:12But you also don't want to be a schmo and not go, thank you.

01:10:16Look at this.

01:10:17But it is a delicate balance.

01:10:18You bet.

01:10:19At a certain point, you have to pick up the crown and wear it well.

01:10:23Absolutely.

01:10:24You know, whatever that crown is, that wherever your place of fame is, it's like there's two

01:10:29choices.

01:10:30You reject it.

01:10:32You push it away.

01:10:33You don't think you deserve it.

01:10:34Or you go, you know what?

01:10:35I'm going to wear this as well as I can.

01:10:37Right.

01:10:38And it's usually in the eye of the beholder.

01:10:39Fame is not, you know, you don't sit around going fame.

01:10:42Right.

01:10:42Someone comes up and says you're famous and you are gracious.

01:10:46Right.

01:10:46And you meet them at whatever level they're talking about.

01:10:49But was there a pinch me moment for you?

01:10:52No, but I'm going to have one.

01:10:53I swear by the time I'm through.

01:10:55It's coming.

01:10:56It's coming.

01:10:56It's coming for you.

01:10:57Can I go back and celebrate Dick Van Dyke for a second?

01:11:01Because I grew up with no television in the country.

01:11:04I'm still doing his stuff.

01:11:05Oh.

01:11:05By the way, Sonic is coming out and I've got moves in there that I can't wait for him

01:11:10to see.

01:11:11That's one.

01:11:13So the first thing, I got a black and white TV, Stanford University, freshman.

01:11:18And it was my first TV literally ever.

01:11:20I tapped into a teacher's cable, crawled out of the thing and I turned it on and it was

01:11:2611 o'clock in the morning and it was a rerun of Dick Van Dyke.

01:11:29And that was my first and I fell madly in love with Dick Van Dyke.

01:11:34And then years later on, Becker, he played my father.

01:11:37And it was just this full circle thing of just awful.

01:11:40Yeah.

01:11:40He was my hero, my physical.

01:11:43Yeah, he was amazing.

01:11:44There was one time where Paul McCartney, in like a Twitter question and answer session,

01:11:49somebody asked him like, what were his two favorite shows?

01:11:51And one I think was just like a UK reality show.

01:11:53And then he mentioned our show and it's like, those are my two favorite shows.

01:11:57And I do think there was a moment of quiet in the room.

01:12:00It was interesting to know in that moment that you were a part of something that a Beatle noticed.

01:12:05Yes.

01:12:06Like that seemed like a gigantic thing.

01:12:08It didn't mean that we get to take the rest of the day off.

01:12:10But there was the thing, like I grew up, I lived my entire life and it came to this moment.

01:12:15And a Beatle knew something that I did.

01:12:18And that seems in itself insurmountable.

01:12:20Like that was a moment that was cool.

01:12:22John Cleese for me.

01:12:23I loved that.

01:12:25When he knew cheers and who he was high.

01:12:28What's the moment for you?

01:12:29There were a lot of moments.

01:12:31I mean, connected with this table.

01:12:33I used to do a character called Ali G.

01:12:34I was shooting in L.A.

01:12:36And then I met Jimmy Miller, who was Jim's manager.

01:12:39And he said, Jim loves your stuff.

01:12:43He wants you to come over to his house.

01:12:45At that time in England, there was an assumption that no one would ever get to Hollywood.

01:12:51You know, it had been 30 years since Sellers or 25 years since Python.

01:12:57There was just an assumption that English comedy will never travel across the pond.

01:13:02And I remember the next night I turned up at Jim's house.

01:13:06I was invited.

01:13:07I wasn't just a star.

01:13:08I broke in and I molested.

01:13:12And he opened the door.

01:13:14And, you know, he was the biggest movie star in the world and obviously brilliantly talented and hilarious.

01:13:19And he knew what I was doing.

01:13:21And my other hero was there, Gary Shandling, who unfortunately passed away.

01:13:25Yeah.

01:13:25I couldn't believe that I was there.

01:13:27And I was completely terrified because I remember Jim and Gary started making jokes.

01:13:32And at one point, you made a joke.

01:13:34You won't remember any of this.

01:13:35You did a really funny joke.

01:13:36You went like this.

01:13:38And I thought, oh my God, at some point they're going to expect me to make a joke.

01:13:42Get on the board.

01:13:42I got a joke.

01:13:43Get on the bill, a idiotic joke.

01:13:45But that was an amazing moment for this guy who'd grownup in a suburb of London, who never thought, you

01:13:52know, I was

01:13:52going to be a lawyer or something like that.

01:13:55I never thought I could actually get a career out being funny.

01:13:59Yeah.

01:13:59I had two choices with you.

01:14:02Admiration or jealousy.

01:14:04And I chose admiration.

01:14:06That's very powerful.

01:14:06I assume that is a navigation you make.

01:14:08Yes.

01:14:09Yeah.

01:14:09When a new voice comes along, and you've been the voice,

01:14:13and you go, ooh, there's a part of you that goes,

01:14:16wow, have you lost your place?

01:14:20Or something like that, but it wasn't that.

01:14:22I've always tried to make the choice of like,

01:14:24what's this person doing

01:14:26that is making me feel uncomfortable?

01:14:31And laugh my ass off, and it's admiration,

01:14:35and it's the only way to go.

01:14:38Two things.

01:14:40This is, I guess, knowing that you're,

01:14:43whatever you want to call it, that you've made it,

01:14:45is who you get to hang with, who you get to meet,

01:14:48you know, who are playing at relatively the same level

01:14:51is really exciting.

01:14:52Do you remember the People magazine,

01:14:54who's hot and who's not, do you remember that for sure?

01:14:56I never was who's hot, and I was always on who's not.

01:15:01I kept thinking, well, didn't I have to be hot at one point?

01:15:08Yeah, I never got to be hot, I'm just not.

01:15:11You're really blowing apart the logic

01:15:13of this People magazine.

01:15:16Thank you guys so much for being in this conversation.

01:15:19Yeah, I bet.

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