Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 105: Buddy System Stories ft. Rhett, Link, & Director Steve Pink | Ear Biscuits Ep. 105

Episode Date: July 31, 2017

Rhett & Link sit down with Buddy System Season 2 director Steve Pink to share on-set stories, favorite foods, and more on this week's Ear Biscuits. Listen & subscribe at: Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/29PTWTM Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2oIaAwp Art19: https://art19.com/shows/ear-biscuits SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits Follow This Is Mythical: Facebook: http://facebook.com/ThisIsMythical Instagram: http://instagram.com/ThisIsMythical Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThisIsMythical Other Mythical Channels: Good Mythical Morning: https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettandlink2 Good Mythical MORE: https://youtube.com/user/rhettandlink3 Rhett & Link: https://youtube.com/rhettandlink Credits: Hosted By: Rhett & Link Executive Producer: Stevie Wynne Levine Managing Producer: Cody D'Ambrosio Technical Director / Editor: Meggie Malloy Graphics: Matthew Dwyer Set Design/Construction: Cassie Cobb Content Manager: Becca Canote Logo Design: Carra Sykes Featuring: Steve Pink To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. Right now at the table of dim lighting, we've got Mr. Steve Pink. We usually don't do this. We usually don't start with our guest, but we're in what is called a time crunch, and so we are just hitting the ground running. Welcome, Steve. Thank you. The director of Buddy System Season 2. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

We just wrapped, man. I know. Just the other day. Like, we frickin' just wrapped just a couple days ago. Yeah. And we literally just walked off of the photo shoot. They call it the Key Art Photo Shoot. Yeah. Link is still in character.

Yeah, I haven't changed back into Link. I'm still just Link. I'm Buddy System season two Link. Right. Which is kind of the, that's the Link that you know. That's the Link I know. You pretty much know a Link with a mustache.

That's all I know. So when I shave this thing off in two hours. We're gonna be complete strangers. And then we're gonna be strangers. And we go to the wrap party, everyone's just gonna be talking about how I look different. I might not shave the mustache until after that because I don't want that to be the thing

I have to talk to everybody about. Wow, you don't look as good without the mustache. That's not what I wanna hear. Right, well they might not say, they could just go, oh, it could be slightly worse because it would be more generic. Like they might just say, oh, you shaved off your mustache. Right, no comment. Oh, hey. Again might just say, oh you shaved off your mustache. Right, no comment.

Oh, hey. Again and again and again. You shaved off your mustache. Like a non-conversation conversation. Yeah, because they don't know what to say. They can neither say, and it looks worse, and if they say, oh and it looks so much, well some people might say, and you look great,

but then that also implies. I've been looking horrible. Right. For this whole show. It does give people something to talk about. Which I know I have. But I don't want something to talk about. Which I know I have. But I don't want people to talk about, which I think is, I think giving people something

to talk about is a good thing for a party. I'm personally, as soon as we finish this, I'm going to a doctor's appointment because I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my throat. I think it's just stress. I think we just overworked ourselves. Yes, slash.

And I think I'm coming down from it. But I'm going to see a professional before we leave to go to New York just to make sure that everything's okay. But I'm afraid of like party talk. I'm afraid that I'm gonna go to a party, have a party talk situation and lose my voice. So if you shave your mustache, all the attention will be on you

and I won't have to talk about anything and people just come to me and I just point at your face. So I think you should shave it, that's my personal opinion. Which ironically, we've gotten very good at that. Pointing at each other? Not speaking and communicating. Not that that is a major part of a buddy system episode. I'm also gonna take my headphones off now.

So you don't need them you're saying? That doesn't mean I'm disengaging from the conversation, it just means, I mean, I like what you got going with the hat and the headphones, but mine is not really sitting really well for me. Mine are kind of drawing my ears back in a weird way. You don't want it either? I'm gonna try taking them off now. Yeah, you should.

Now that you know how it sounds, now you can monitor. Now I'm in charge of keeping you guys on mic. Not necessarily. You can't self-regulate anymore. You'll be back here and no one will know that you're just being, ugh. Can we come up with a hand signal that you can unleash? Yeah, yeah like.

Bring it in. Bring it in. Okay, it looks like counting money is what it looks like. That's right, because I get paid every time I tell you to bring it in. I just thought it would be, you know, it's funny, we didn't have that many times, that many windows of opportunity to have like, to just talk

when we were on set because, so we can talk about that, but there were certain moments when we'd have like this flash in the conversational pan with Steve Pink. Yeah. Where I would, where I'd learn something, learn something about the guy and be like, we gotta podcast that up. And then we gave you No Way Out because we ask you

in front of everybody, like right before you're like, all right, is everybody set? You're about to call action. And we're like, oh, will you come on our podcast? Yeah, I didn't. And so we didn't give you any out. You didn't, although we were talking about this. Except the word no.

Yeah, could I have said no in front of everyone? I don't think I have that kind of courage. That would have been a bold move. Yeah. That would have been a great set story for all of those, the whole crew. Yeah. You got to listen to this one time,

I had these two guys making this show and they asked the director to be on their podcast and he said no, just in front of them. And immediately afterward, action. No, action. No, no I don't do that. Great. Oh man.

Yeah, well that's, you know, I perhaps should have done that, you know. No, you shouldn't have. Because I've been traumatized, well, because I was saying like, oh yeah, I'd love to be on their podcast and then I've, you know, been in, you know, I've had an anxiety attack

ever since that moment. Oh, don't do it. I was talking to my wife, like why would I do that? Why would I be on a podcast? Because there are other people who I recognize as being extremely good at it. But it's so dimly lit, Steve. I do like that, and this is properly shaded.

Oh yeah, perfectly. So I feel like there's some protection in that as well. And Rhett is with you. Is that why you wore your hat? Because you knew Steve was gonna wear his hat? Yeah, definitely. I don't even own one of these hats, guys. The reason I wore my hat is because knew Steve was gonna wear his hat? Yeah, definitely. I don't even own one of these hats, guys.

The reason I wore my hat is because I've got this going on, which once you take my man bun off, it's like cutting my testicles off, you know? It's like then I've just got this weird eunuch cut. So you're telling me that in normal life, in your normal look, you don't have testicles. Right. I agree.

No, when my hair goes up, it's like, I don't wanna keep going with the phallic analogy, but it's like a penis. Don't. It's like a lot of penises. Take it back off one more time and just look at Steve. The back is, look even further, look past Steve. There's a thing happening for you audio-only listeners, which are the superior version of this show.

You're not missing anything except some weird back, back, head, hair situation. back, head, hair situation. Back, head, hair situation. I remember we talked about, in one break, we didn't have a lot of breaks. I don't wanna complain about the nature of our show, but I mean, I'm sure the three of us could sit down and commiserate forever about how hard we worked.

We could. And, but it was, it was a pleasure working so hard for you and alongside you. Thanks, likewise. But at one point, we were talking about the classic question of if you're stranded on a deserted island, or if there's dessert there,

it's a dessert island. And you can only take an unlimited supply of one particular food, what would it be? I don't know if that's the classic question, but that's the one you answered, and that's the one I cared about. But you had two, you weren't there. I insisted on two, I know this answer very well.

Because I insist on two for some reason, which breaks the rule of the game right away, like right off the bat, it makes the game less challenging. And before you answer it, the thing that I loved about it and the thing that, one of the many things I love about Steve that I could tell when we talked, it came up in conversation, but it wasn't like I just posed the question to you

and you thought of an answer. No, this was something you had thought about previously. I think actually this was something you were pitching to us. Maybe. Which with all the pitching we do to other people and like stumping people, I really enjoy when someone's really thought about something thoroughly and then they bring it up and we get put on the spot.

But give us your answer now that I've built it up as being so well thought out. Well, like. Well like I said, I cheat the moment, I propose the idea, right, the concept. Only one thing. Right, yeah, you can only have one thing. If you could only eat one, I guess, type of food,

a category of food on a desert island, you were on a desert island and you only had one category of food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? Like would it be cereal for me just because I love cereal? Right and that's it, you get cereal and milk and that's it for the rest of your life on a desert island and so.

I love peanut butter, could it just be peanut butter? It could be. Could it be peanut butter spread upon anything that I could spread it upon? Sure, sure but then you couldn't change it, right? So if you went with a graham cracker, that's it. Although like I said, since I cheat almost like the moment I propose the game, then I think you could probably have not only any type of cracker,

but you could also have maybe a different kind of peanut butter or even an almond butter. What about a buffet? Is a buffet a category of food? See, for some reason, yeah. Well, I get, you know, in some buffets, sure. Because there's some buffets which are just that thing that everyone's like cottage cheese, like canned fruit,

salad. Mine would be like the biggest like Golden Corral, like everything. Right. I'd have access to a Golden Corral. That's not an answer. That's not, can you take a restaurant to a deserted island? What restaurant would you open on a deserted island? Golden Corral.

Do you even know what a Golden Corral is? I do only because I went to one for the first time this year actually, I went to one and I was both judgmental and snobby and superior about it and then massively enjoyed it. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's. I was like this is one of the best experiences of my life from a food perspective. Yeah't, you can't do it on a,

I mean, there are people that we know from back home in North Carolina who could go multiple times a week. I mean, I can go, I can go once a year to a Golden Corral and then Golden Corral out, you know? So maybe it's not a good answer because I'd have to eat it every day on this island. Right, that would be it.

That would be it. So even, that's the thing. That's the kind of tricky and fun thing about the game because even when you say, okay, I'm gonna cheat and have all this variety as my answer to the game, once you start to really consider it, right, then you feel limited by it. Right.

Even Golden Corral, suddenly it's not enough options. Right, it's interesting. You can't escape the dark heart of humanity. I still don't know your answer. Mine is sushi and cheeseburgers. Oh, okay. Right, because I want sushi, I want the fine, because I like the freshness of fine cut,

finely cut raw fish, is that how you say it? Finely, yeah. Sushi cut fish with rice and then there's all the fun kind of rice and fish combos that sushi provides. But then I'd be like, oh, I'm really still hungry. I want something greasy and filling. A guilty pleasure, thank you. I don't wanna be so refined.

I want a cheeseburger and fries and a Coke. From where though? Because I'm cracking open a whole other can here, but, I mean, if you're going to have only one cheeseburger, you should probably choose where it's from to make sure it's exactly how you want it. Where would that be? That's a whole thing in and of itself, which I think has emerged as a more difficult question to answer over the last few years, right?

With the Kraft Burger or whatever they would call it. You have to pick your category. But do you have that answer? You know what? I would say whatever they dropped call it. You have to pick your category. So you don't know, but do you have that answer? You know what, I would say whatever they dropped off the C-130, like if there was a plane that dropped it off, you know what I mean? But if you could choose. If I could choose.

I mean would it be In-N-Out, would it be the Steak and Shake, Shake Shack? I haven't had a Shake Shack. Is that all it's cracked up to be? It's been a long time since I had one. I remember enjoying it. It got, Lily went with a friend the other day and she came back with a magnanimous report.

She did. Where did they have one? Glendale, homie. I would probably default to In-N-Out, but I would like to reserve my right to taste Shake Shack and then revise my answer. Right? I love a good cheeseburger. I think I'd do Five Guys. You would taste Shake Shack and then revise my answer. Right? I love a good cheeseburger.

I think I'd do Five Guys. You would think, and a lot of people would say pizza because you might shift what's on the pizza and you got a Hawaiian pizza. If you're talking about that categoriness and you won't let me do Golden Corral Buffet, pizza is the one I would choose because you've got. A lot of loopholes with the pizza.

Yeah, you got a lot of food groups in one. Same question. And I will point out with the sushi that, I mean, you can probably just swim off your deserted island and, like, hand-spear a fish and, I mean, that's pretty much sushi. Yeah. It's gonna ruin it a little bit that there are all these fish swimming around you and you're just eating raw fish.

Right. It's being delivered by a plane. Right, I'm unnecessarily giving away a category. Right, because I could say pizza and cheeseburgers and then secretly be like, and I'm gonna catch some Delivered by a plane. Right, I'm unnecessarily giving away a category. Yeah. Right, because I could say pizza and cheeseburgers and then secretly be like, and I'm gonna catch some raw fish and eat it. It's like, right, it's almost like saying

I would like on my deserted island to eat just sand sandwiches. You know, then you realize, oh, that was a little bit short-sighted on my part. Right, as intrigued as I am by this conversation, I do think we do need to talk about buddy systems some, really, right? Let's do it.

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Now back to the biscuit. So I remember the first conversation that we had, right? We had a meeting, it was right in here in this room over here in our office. Because we had to decide who's gonna direct our, you know, our baby. Yeah and we wanted to have a meeting with you for season one but you were unavailable on another project

at the time and so and then your name came back up and we're like, he'll never do it, he'll never do it but we should at least have the meeting with him. So we had that meeting and then I remember you didn't, a lot of people, you know, you have a meeting with them and you can kinda tell that they did the like, you know, the 20 minute skim before the meeting to kinda know how to meeting to kind of know how to talk about

what they're about to talk about. But correct me if I'm wrong, you had watched the entire first season. I watched the first season, yup. Yeah. I watched the first season that I read. And beyond. Well. You had watched other stuff too.

Yeah, and then videos and some sketches. Well then it was random, right? I watched the first season and I was like, what else is all these cats about? You know, and so then I just random video or sketch. So I just logged time because I couldn't, after a while I couldn't figure out what logical order to watch things in,

so I would just watch videos. Because I remember saying to you, oh, that was awesome. And you're like, that was six years ago. I was like, oh. All right, yeah, okay. So some things I watch. We're ashamed of that.

It was like, yeah, we don't do that anymore. So I watched some older stuff and some newer stuff and then read the Wiki. That's when we talked about Portmanteau. Yes. Is that how you say it, Portmanteau, remember? Wiki is extensive man. That thing is out of control.

Yeah I read the whole thing. I don't remember the Portmanteau. I believe. The whole thing starts with that. Yeah someone should look it up. First of all I'm not sure I'm saying that word correctly. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right. Internatainment?

It says you're a portmanteau of dot dot dot dot dot. Yeah, and I was like, I don't know what that word is really. Internatainers. It means putting two words together, right? Is that right? Is that what that portmanteau is? I think I probably looked it up prior to that meeting but have since forgotten.

I do that a lot. Well yeah, I was gonna ask you. But you had an assessment. Yeah. I mean the thing that, I think it's hard to assess yourself and when it comes to buddy system season one, I mean honestly one of the things we were disappointed with

was it didn't get enough attention from, I'm not saying we wanted like critical attention, but I guess I am saying that. I was very curious what if someone who is critical for a living assessed our show, what they would say about it. And I would say that when you came in, you kind of, you gave your take on it

and it was, it was very, I guess I enjoyed it. I enjoyed having someone that I respected their work who took the time to look at our stuff and then had thoughts about it and who, you assessed our style in a way that like when you're in it and you live it and you just make it up as you go along and you find yourself style in a way that like when you're in it and you live it and you just make it up as you go along and you find yourself creating stuff

that you can never step out of yourself and assess what you really think of what you've done. So it's nice when someone that you respect that you don't know, I mean you could've said, you could've said anything, it could've been lip service, but I could tell that like you had actual thoughts about it and we really appreciated that. And you had good ideas to build upon it.

And that was, I probably mustered all I could muster for that meeting, I was like, oh these are all the good ideas I have. Well it was plenty for us. I put them together in a half hour and hope I get to work with you. It's a lot to decide in one 30 minute meeting, so okay, we're gonna get in bed together creatively.

I don't remember. I wasn't there for that either. Creatively. You know, it's quite a commitment. Talking about what you're going to enjoy on a desert island and sleeping together, and I'm just out in the cold. I guess it's a commitment the other way too, which would explain why you actually watched our stuff.

You don't want to just jump into a creative bed with um somebody with two guys and then have to make their thing or direct it you know it could be it could be really bad well yeah it could be bad but i mean i think beyond you know whether you know well yeah i guess i wouldn't go to the meeting if i was like it's not creatively my thing but also then you know i'm always like i always feel feel like we try to avoid a situation where you want to kill the people you're working with. And if you don't like their stuff and they don't like what you're about, then you're just going to try and kill each other

for most of the time you're together, which beyond the creative process is just not a wise choice. But I feel like, and maybe you can tell me what you feel, I felt like it was always trying to be deeply funny without trying too hard and also be deeply interesting, which is a tough combination. Like there's plenty of stuff that's just so funny and you just get it. And a lot of the stuff that we did this season and that you do is just kind of like readily hilarious. that we did this season and that you do is just kind of like readily hilarious. But then there are other things that are readily hilarious

and also something that you have to really kind of, you know, absorb. Or when you absorb, find that there's other kind of levels to it. And that was what I liked most. I was like, oh, you guys are trying to figure something out. I don't always know what it is, but you like the ideas and you want to explore what they are.

Well, it's funny because we, you know, I kind of have, I'm of two minds about this because there's the like, there's the thing that I want to believe, which is like, yeah, I think this is a legitimately original approach to comedy. This is an original, like we like to maintain a sense of originality and not have anybody be too,

not be too referential. I mean nothing, you know, everything's remix of course, but to not be able to just have people point out you guys are just like this or just like that or you're a combination of this or that so that there's a sense of originality. But then I think that there's this other part of my mind and I'm sure Link has the same thought which is just like,

when are people gonna figure out that we're just posers? You know, I think every professional in entertainment business feels that way. I feel like I'm posing right now. Right, exactly. You're like, when are they gonna figure out that I don't have any idea what I'm doing? Or we've kind of felt that our entire career. It's like, when are they gonna figure out that I don't have any idea what I'm doing? We've kind of felt that our entire career.

It's like, when are they gonna figure out that we actually are just really good at making you think that we know what we're doing? Right, but I think that's probably a. Which is what I'm saying when Steve came in with like a very intellectual assessment. Like you really thought about the way that we had made the stuff we had made

and I was like, oh, we fooled him. So that we were doing the right thing. We can fool other people too. No, I mean, like specifically, I remember you made, you made an observation of something about how we would choose to make left turns in things. I can't remember exactly what you thought of it. Maybe you remember, but it resonated with us.

It was like, well, we never thought about it that way, but yeah, we do try to do that. Yeah, like the commitment to a deep dive digression, I guess is how I would say it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which sounds kind of cool. But that is just kind of an area of comedy that I've always been interested in.

And people have done in the past, and when I was super little, that the things that I thought was, what made me laugh beyond the jokes. Like you'd see a scene and it's really funny and then you'd laugh. And then the scene would take you to another place, which would not only make you laugh, but you'd realize you were going down some rabbit hole of the comedy you just enjoyed. And now you're being forced to enjoy it on another level and then on another level, all within the same laugh, kind of. So like Monty Python did that, there was like a famous pet store sketch where John Cleese goes into a pet store and says, I think it's to Michael Palin that his parrot's dead and

it's demonstrably dead. It's just like a stiff parrot, like stuffed parrot. And he bangs it on the counter and is trying to convince the pet store owner that the parrot's dead and the pet store owner that the parrot's dead and the pet store owner refuses to believe it's dead because he doesn't want to give the guy a refund. Right. And then that, at the end of that sketch, turns into a song

because I believe, and my memory is vague on this because it's been a long time, but I believe the pet store tries to sell him in return instead of giving him a refund, a half a bee. Like literally a half a bee. A half of a honeybee? A half of like a honeybee. A half a bee.

Yeah, a half a bee, which turns into a song entitled Eric the Half a Bee. Which he took home? I think that's the point. Yeah, and I don't remember. You're asking the question, did you, because at that point it's a song about a half a bee named Eric? Eric the Half a Bee, I believe.

And it's, you know, all the people listening to this can check my facts on this, because it's been, I mean, I was eight years old or nine years old, so, but that's that's just what i remember now they could have been totally two different sketches and i can i put it in my head as something that was connected hopefully not yeah hopefully not um but um when i start when i saw you know when i saw your work and i saw that you would you know take these left turns and then go down that road as far as possible leaving behind anything you might have set up to begin with to me was just you know great

right like the belly button song. I don't even know if you watched that one, but, yeah, I don't know why we did it, but it was like, all right, if we're gonna add a second verse to this song about two guys discovering in their late 30s that they have belly buttons for the first time, if we're gonna continue that song through a second verse, well, something else needs to happen

which involves selling coal plants door to door to children. Right. And I don't, you know, it's like if you look at point A and point B, it's like how on earth could this happen? But it's like, you know, okay, we got them along for the ride as long as they don't click away. So it's weird how I think there's two factors

that brought us there, it was one, you don't want people to click away, so you don't click away. So it's weird how I think there's two factors that brought us there. It was one, you don't want people to click away. So you can't retread, you can't sing a chorus again. The chorus has to be new lyrics every time. But then also, I just don't like, I don't like knowing that the audience feels like they know where this is going and then it does. I like them expecting it to go somewhere

and then it never does. And I think that's true of hopefully every episode of season two is this like, that opening scene is not really gonna be, I don't know how you could figure out what the closing scene is gonna be based on the opening scene. Even with the setup you don't really know what the overall punchline's gonna closing scene is gonna be based on the opening scene. Even with the setup, you don't really know

what the overall punchline's gonna be. But I remember one of the things that. But even that, just to close the loop on that, when you, this was the conversation we were having the first time we met. It was like, okay, yeah. But then you went, you started talking about a movie that was like a digression.

Well, I wanna talk about that in a second. Okay. Specifically with this, back to that same conversation. One of the things you said that we didn't realize, again, having somebody that you respect and who has done a lot of work in this field that we kind of feel like, again,

like we're kind of like posing our way into, and I think that's how anybody who's kind of come up on YouTube feels, because there still is this, from a critical standpoint, and sort of industry standpoint, there is this, is this actually legitimate? You know, there's still this struggle for legitimacy. But when you analyzed it and you said,

you take these left turns, but your characters are always kind of just like shrugging, shrugging those left turns off. You never make a big deal out of it. It's like you face this thing without any sort of fanfare at all, it just seems like, oh this is natural that we would suddenly be here and this is where we would be going.

And I think that there's a number of reasons, mostly just instinct and it's unintentional that we did, I think most of it was just like, oh we just think this is really funny and it'll be, it wasn't really well thought out to be like, oh and then when we go there we won't have much of a reaction to it. Well we thought hard about it but it wasn't,

I don't know that that was calculated. Yeah that particular element wasn't calculated. But then we go back and look at everything we've done and we're like, oh you're right, we always approach things in that way. The gloss over the absurd. Right, the characters aren't fazed by the increasing absurdities that you surround yourself with

or any increasingly absurd situation you put yourself in doesn't necessarily or correspondingly affect your character in some way. Like you're willing to accept the new circumstance, like instantaneously. Yeah, and we always want that new circumstance to come from a relatable circumstance, which I think that, which is what, Link, you were about to talk about, which is when you began to tell the story about, what is the movie?

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Yes. Like Louis Bunuel, yeah. Yeah, and you just, because you were talking about left turns and. That has some of the greatest left turns in movies ever, and I was amazed when I saw that movie again. I don't know what I was doing watching this movie when I was, you know, I guess in high school.

So by that time I was like, oh, I want to be cool and intellectual, so I'm gonna be cool and intellectual, so I'm going to watch cool and intellectual things that are above my intellectual abilities. But what happened? What was the digression? Well, it's about this aristocracy of characters. I think they're related in some way.

I think there's a husband and wife, but there's a collection of aristocrats who go on this crazy journey, and there's these constant digressions. I think the one I told you about was when, once again, I hope my memory serves me correctly, because I'm sure now that I'm saying it out loud on a podcast, someone's going to go, it's not even right,

which is actually okay with me too, I guess, because if that's what I've... It only matters what we think. Or what the application was. Yeah, what the application was. But I think they're at dinner, and some waiter comes up and starts telling them a story, It only matters what we think. Well, what the application was. Yeah, what the application was. But I think they're at dinner, and some waiter comes up and starts telling them a story. And, you know, you cut away to that waiter's story, and you think, okay, this is going to be like a two-minute story,

and it's going to have a little beginning, middle, and end, and then we're going to cut back to our main characters. But you don't for, I think, almost a half hour. It seemed like a half hour. To the point where you're on another journey entirely and then I was kind of shocked when we returned to the restaurant where the waiter says, oh and thank you for listening to my story and walks off to take their order and then you're back with our main characters.

And when you told us that story, we don't even have to communicate about things like this. Like we know, we love that kind of thing. So when you're telling that story, we're both already thinking, okay that's happening in an episode. So when you're telling that story, we're both already thinking, okay, that's happening in an episode. And when you're dealing with a 22 minute comedy, we're basically already thinking,

okay, so we're gonna have an episode where someone's story becomes the episode. And that's where the whole, Right. Episode six. The Lucy episode. Episode six. Episode six came from. Which is, I don't know, we haven't seen any post, we haven't been in the editing bay yet.

Well actually we saw a little sequence of that one because we didn't know if we needed to pick up a shot. That is preemptively my favorite episode but I don't, I'm withholding judgment at this point. I know it's just. And we didn't need to pick up the shot. No, I didn't think so. So there we go, we saw that thing.

You didn't see it, you didn't see the little sequence. No, but I. You didn't? I know I didn't. It's pretty exciting. It's kind of rude of me not to show you. But when I heard that everyone was happy with it, I was like, well I'm not gonna care. And then the other,

because then the other similar idea that we had, which was can we do an episode where we don't speak to each other? And when we told Michael and Sievert that, Michael and Sievert who were our head writers on the show and showrunners and kind of along with us ran the writers room, you could kind of see the fear in their eyes

when we said we wanna do an episode where we don't speak to each other. And of course, it's not necessarily completely not speaking to each other, but it takes not speaking to each other about as far as you can take it. Yeah, in both cases. Like it becomes many things.

Right. It does. It becomes many, many things. It actually became many things that we then had to rewrite because they were too many things. Right, it's true. You and Stevie busted it and you were like, guys, act three, that whole thing was the.

Yeah, that can't be a thing. Of the many things it can be, that is one it can't be. And I think we made an improvement by it too. It was a parody of American Ninja Warrior and some other reality competition shows. Which, which, incidentally. And it was, but like with a crazy twist and weird constraints.

Well yeah, so we. And stuntmen. This is one of those things where we throw ideas up on a board and then when episode ideas get filled in and we see that we've got two ideas that we wanted to do left over and there's one episode left, we put them into the same episode.

That's all that will happen. Yeah, that was a bit. We wanna have a reality show parody of like American Ninja Warrior and we wanna have an episode where we don't speak to each other. So we originally put them together. Which incidentally, then when we were shooting

our flashback episode, every morning in Santa Clarita, we passed the Ultimate Beastmaster. Yeah we did. That's what that huge thing was, which was another one of our references. The Netflix, Sly Stallone produced, you know, American Ninja Warrior ripoff. So what you're saying is, we could have shot on their actual set. We could have just gone

into the Ultimate Beastmaster. We should have gone down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we would have been fined, because you almost got fined just running around. Yes, I did almost got fined and I almost was fined and it was not funny. It wasn't like I was almost fined.

Was it a guy on a horse? Because there were horses around. It was the modern version of a horse in that it was a gator. It was a low torque, very, I asked him how much, I was like how much is one of the, you know, because you're driving. You tried to divert him from the fine with a. Let's talk about your gator. Yeah, like how much does one of the, you know, cause you're driving. You try to divert him from the fine with.

Let's talk about your gator. Yeah like how much does one of those things run ya? You know like how much does that cost? You're backing away slowly. Yeah yeah it's like 20 grand. I'm like wow that's an expensive piece of equipment. Yes I was almost fine because. My mom has one of those.

Really? She's a high roller. Ah she is. Well it's pretty low to the ground. Yeah so we were at the movie ranch basically. You're not allowed to wander. And wander is the technical term. That's not just a word I'm using to describe it.

It's wandering. That's what it says on the side. That's right, you cannot wander. And I needed to scout out that location, scout the location of the opening shot of that flashback. And so I wandered. I just didn't, I had to go and wander. And I didn't really think about

it it wasn't like I was like oh I'm gonna be you know I'm gonna be contrary and you know and wander you know I'm gonna be rebellious and you know flaunt flaunt flaunt flaunt flaunt flaunt flaunt the rules is that I don't think that's flaunt I think is the word I'm looking for yeah um the rules I wasn't that I was just we were working quickly and i needed to go so i did and there was a you know i come down the mountain and there's a guy with that classic you're in trouble smile you know the classic like i'm gonna find you yeah yeah like that and he didn't have to say anything because he's got the smile on his face that says you're in trouble and i'm like what am i like this is what like but you got you right? Well, there was a 24-hour discussion about it, actually,

because he, I was super nice. I was like, you know, I just, you know, I was like, hey, listen, I'm sorry. Like, right off the bat, I'm coming down the mountain, and I'm like, I am sorry. I know. I'm not supposed to be wandering. And you know that I'm not supposed to be wandering

because you're here to catch me. Like, you caught me. Right, yeah. Like, I don't know how you caught me, but clearly, you know, I mean mean I guess I could have said, hey I got permission, but there was no radio from locations to them, so they knew whatever. This is a big source of revenue.

This is like a small town cop catching a, this is like a speed truck. It was $100. Yeah right. That's not small, that's $100 cash for walking 200 yards off the designated area. And that's on you, because it was on the call sheet. I'm not paying you 100 dollars.

Yes, and on the bathroom door. Yeah, it was everywhere. Yeah, it was everywhere. I did read it on the call sheet. I don't usually read the call sheets, but I read that and I kind of laughed to myself and I was like, who would, how would, like that would ever happen.

Who's gonna wonder? Right, and you know, where you guys, remember when we were in the river bed, I don't know how much we can describe, but when that very last shot, we all ran to the river bed? Yeah. That was almost a company find.

That was like an en masse wander. Oh, really? Yeah, because we were losing light and the location we chose was not gonna work because it was too under, we were losing light and it was, the place we had chosen for that was under trees. It was all under the canopies, yeah, couldn't do it.

So we're like oh, and so then we just ran over to the river bed and there was a massive scramble and then, I don't know, you guys were maybe changing. You guys were changing because you had to get into the change and I went over to the same guy, I hope his name's Pete because that's my memory, and I said, we need to wander over there at the creek bridge and he was like, looks like you already have.

Oops, Pete. I know and I was like and I apologize for that. I really do, I'm not trying to. Again, now tell me again how much that gator is? What is one of the, can we still talk about that? Yeah and you know. You got out of it twice though? Well and this time I, yeah because the first time, yes you got out of it twice though well and this time i yeah because

the first time yes i got out of it twice the first time um i could see being like the hey i'm just gonna make this all in good fun did not work because i was saying it was 24 hours that you know they came to me later and said you still might be fine because i was trying to be all jocular like when i came to mom i was like oh i'm so sorry i yeah i wandered that's all just a joke isn't it i'm going back to our location. So sorry. That did not fly with that guy because he went on to maybe find me. And so then the second approach was to be very serious about it,

very serious and professional. Listen, I'm sorry. And penitent. I was. No joking around. One knee, both knees. The whole thing. Like not, hey, I'm going to make light of this stupid rule,

but hey, aren't we just friends and isn't this a funny rule, that's, it's not. It's not funny. And so then yes, I worked him in that way and that worked, I was like listen. Both of them, I'm sorry I cut you off. Yeah no, no, no, no. Both of them, great shots, right? Yes.

You got that establishing shot, that was the first wonder when you got the establishing, right, or you were looking for it. Yeah, yeah, that's where you guys come down. That's one of the biggest shots. Yeah, with that big, big, giant lens, yeah. With the classic. Oh, that's the biggest shot of the whole thing, maybe.

Probably. And then you got the night, well, I mean, let's see, the creek bed closer. The creek bed closer was really good. That was like an act two closer type thing. Right, yeah. Because it turned out to be a location that looks really crazy and almost like on another planet.

Yeah. It was very craggy. Star Trek-y. Yeah, it was very Star Trek-y. Yeah, and so then when you guys revealed yourselves in that location. Yeah, we were very down and out. Yeah, yeah.

We were up the creek. Right. Am I right? It's true. A very dry creek. One of the things that we were talking about was, you know, Link and I carpooled together out to our location in Pomona,

where we shot most of our stuff out in Pomona. And so we would talk on the way and talk on the way back and it kind of hit us a few weeks in that we were like, now what's different than season one because I feel like we're working harder. Let's see, we're like, I just feel a lot more tired. I remember coming home in season one, even though we were working 12 hour days

and telling my wife, I was like, this acting thing is, these guys got it easy. I was like, this acting thing is like, I was really nervous about it, but you know, I'm not saying I'm necessarily good at it, but I'm saying it's not, it doesn't really tie you out unless you're doing like a revenant thing and you're like DiCaprio jumping off cliffs

and stuff like that. Which we did none of. Right, but we were trying to figure out what is it about this season, we're like well maybe it's, maybe this was pretty ambitious for 33 days. Yeah. You know, so season one, 29 day shoot,

14 minute episodes, going to 22 minute episodes, we're going up at least 50% in content, but we're also, I think scenes per minute, scenes per episode or whatever, way up. Like just the pacing, that was something that came, that was kind of Michael and Zeevrit pushing us to keep the pacing up more so than we did in season one. It's great, all this is great for the final product

but extremely ambitious for the parameters we had in terms of time and money. Right. Yeah. And there's no way you could have fully appreciated what we were throwing you into when we started this thing. I did not fully appreciate it. Although you did mention it several times.

I did. This is what I would see, this is what I would hear in your voice and see on your face. There was a, you would say things like, now, this is really ambitious, but then I could hear in your voice, you're like, but of course, I mean, we're gonna get more days, we're gonna get more money.

You believed that that was gonna happen. I did. And that did. I did. Sorry, sorry about that. Well, maybe not necessarily more days, but I didn't actually realize that not a single minute of overtime would be allowed. And that's not an exaggeration either when I say not a single minute.

I actually mean not a single minute. And I actually, as you could tell, rebelled against that greatly for the first week or two because I actually couldn't conceive of a world where one single minute of overtime could be the collapse of the season. And so I was like, oh, I have to adjust because I have no, there is no fail safe. Even an extra 20 minutes, say, would be enjoyable, no buffer. And so I had to adjust to that, I think. But the thing that I always keep in mind when I'm doing anything,

and certainly with this show, is we have to achieve it. I know it's kind of an obvious thing to say. We have to achieve it because no one's going to know nor care what we faced nor what goals we set once it starts getting cut and it turns into episodes. No one cares. No one cares. We could say we literally, this entire thing took place on the moon. We actually were the first, you know, movie production or television production

to actually fly to the moon, create an atmosphere on the moon, and then shoot a comedy series on the moon, and then we came back. People would be like, oh, great. Yeah, it's not so funny. Right. You know, so it's like it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. You have to achieve it. And so then, you know, I just, I always keep that in mind so that we can, you know, we can try and, you know, create something great every day. And I thought that you guys – I don't know. Can you compliment? Can we compliment you on your own podcast? Is that a thing without it just seeming too obsequious?

No one's done it before. You guys are super prepared. You know, like you guys – it's good you drove together to the set because there's no – I mean, you guys were putting away two and three pages in an hour sometimes, and that's just not a thing I experience in other shoots and other shows because you either have a little bit more time or whatever, but if you guys didn't actually know everything you were going to do pretty much all the time, we wouldn't have made it.

And so that's really a testament to your hard work. I was amazed, and that's why I kept saying the last couple of days, like, they're going to bail us out of this one. We have 10 seconds. They're going to bail us. Don't worry that we got this. As long as I put up the cameras, then we'll get something because you guys were ready for it.

And I was impressed by that. I something because you guys were ready for it. And I was impressed by that. I was impressed that you were ready for it. Sometimes it was fun to know that we just had 10 minutes and we were gonna try to get two setups. So we had one take at this thing from each setup. So then it was like, you know, because I mean it's to like, to stay so aggressively on point,

it's like okay, I can't flub a line and I wanna hit these marks type thing. Right, you. That was fun, a few times that was fun. Right, I mean you actually couldn't flub a line. Like that's how, we were in situations where Right, we gotta. You actually couldn't flub a line, not once.

We talk about that all the time. I think this is just rooted in being executive producers and creators on the show and kind of feeling the weight of like when we say there's no overtime, it's like we're saying there's no overtime, right? So it's not us against them. We have to kind of put ourselves on both sides of the line and so we always say don't be the problem,

be the solution, right? Where I think a lot of actors, you know, just almost instinctively, it's like they're gonna be the problem, right? That's, somebody who's super talented and has to get. Because they have to do good work. They have to do their thing really well. And there's a natural give and take, right?

And if you're really great at that, you've earned the right to create a ripple effect of problems that, as producers, you start to appreciate how it ripples through everything. And then it costs X number of dollars. And so we know that intimately. So it's not that I'm saying that I would think normal actors would be annoying.

I haven't worked with that many. But yeah, we never feel like we're actors. We're something else that then we have to act to pull it off as part of it. We're acting because we have to do it. Yeah. Right? I feel like that's what's like,

whoa, we gotta make this, we gotta be in it. That means we have to act as well. Oh okay, we gotta figure out how to do that. But we definitely can't be the source of the problem. Well it's not that we don't wanna act. No, no, no. I mean we wanna act in it, but we want, but we're never fully actors.

I think with the pressure of time, we were always thinking about three other things at the same time. The final product. One of which is how quickly do I need to get this? Don't be the problem. The whole thing, the whole thing is what is in view most of the time.

Yeah. And acting is a part of it, right? Finishing on time is a part of it. Sure, but you have to be good sports too because there were times where, you know, because actors, you know, you need space to kind of do it right and do it well. Right? So there were times where

despite the fact that you had your executive producer hats on, sometimes it's just like life isn't fair, guys. Life isn't fair to any of us. You know, like we have to just put it away. So that was good that you guys were good sports about it. Because it is still something that's important and you want to do it well and it should be funny

or it should be good and it also can't be wasted. You know, it can't not work. You know, and it, I mean, part of the fun of acting is discovery and sometimes that doesn't happen until you're actually doing it. I mean, we're so calculated and we work so hard at every step that we're intimately acquainted and we had certain expectations of ourselves

and each other and everybody else in the scene and even you and so it's more of we gotta execute what we expect but there's a lot of fun in discovering something like a different angle or how to tie two shots together or a nuance to an accent or just perform in a different way. Right. Like oh this is a lot funnier than we thought

because I'm crying now. I didn't think I was gonna be crying. Or I thought crying would be funny but now it's not. So I think there, you know, because it was so aggressive, I certainly missed that experience of like figuring it out because what would happen, like if I'm to over generalize the thing, we would work really hard on a scene, you get it done, you get it done and then immediately,

like immediately be like all right, next scene and then we would go and it would, you know, you'd physically move over just the actors and producers and you and we would rehearse. And that was a fun moment. But it was very high pressure because you didn't, there wasn't much time allotted for it. But the rehearsal was the time when you figure,

you block it out, where are you gonna step? Where are you gonna walk? Where are you gonna walk? What are you gonna say? How are we gonna say it? We're saying the lines and we're seeing who laughs at what in the room, but we're not even giving a full performance yet. Because you wanna save it?

You give like a half performance, but you gotta give enough to have proof of concept or make sure something's not broken or needs to be fixed. But it's when everybody's making decisions like DP's making lighting decisions, mood decisions, you're making all these cut angle camera decisions, directorial decisions, blocking, all this stuff. Everybody's making all these instantaneous decisions,

bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop, bop, bop, bop, all at once. And it's like, okay, and we need to be done with it. But it is so that we can just shoot it. But that is a fun moment because, I'm trying to think of an example, but you don't really know if it's gonna work. That's a big moment. Or when you have someone come in,

it's like Garrett Morris, a legend comes in. From the first season of Saturday Night Live and like I knew this, you know, I have images of this guy in my brain from like the earliest memories of comedy, it's like this guy's a part of it. And then all of a sudden he strolls onto the set and the first time you see him in action is this rehearsal when it's like all right, is he going 50%,

is he going 90% and this is true of everybody. Right. And so then we're kind of, you're assessing like all right what's he gonna give us? Is he gonna, I mean is it gonna be great, is it gonna be horrible, is it gonna be somewhere in the middle? So you're like discovering all that,

knowing that you know 20 minutes later, after you've rehearsed, they bring in the cameras and they set up the lights and everything else and the props are set and everything, you're gonna do it, no matter what. It's like you've jumped off the cliff and you better hope that squirrel suit unfurls. But for you, I mean it was,

the whole process is obviously something that you've been involved in for a long time. But the limitations. How much did we mess it up for you? The limitations that, you usually don't have these limitations, like, because you did us, you did us a solid in saying yes, you'll work on this based on your level of experience and the size of the projects you've done before.

So talk a little bit about recognizing those limitations and how that's, has that changed the way you think about directing it all? Oh, yeah. I mean, to me, well, the main thing I had to remember was to continue, was to have fun. Like I'd be in a situation where I was like,

you know, I have to change the way I work in order to make sure that we execute properly. And then I'd get all mad at myself or mad at everyone. And then I'd have to realize that this is deeply crazy what we're doing. And therefore it should only be fun all the time. Otherwise, why even stand where I'm standing? So I had, that was first.

So like, okay, just remember that this all should be kind of fun. I mean, on a technical level, I, I started thinking about lenses differently, you know, because what is the best frame if you don't get two of them?

You know, if you don't get two sizes, what's the best frame in any particular situation? I know it's probably, this is where, this is what I'm about to say is like the cure for insomnia for most of your listeners. But I would say,

give it to me. I'm interested in this. Well, lenses are a big thing. You know, like what, you know, are a big thing. When you get to cover things and when you know you have, say, three hours to shoot a three-page scene versus 45 minutes, say, how best to cover it and what are the ways in which... When you have that much time, you can shoot it many, many ways and you get lots of coverage and you get lots of angles. So I had to figure out how to kind of efficiently shoot something and still make it good and still make it funny,

or at least funny in the lens. You guys were funny and great. And so I had to figure out how to best capture it because you can't be too wide, you can't be too tight. You have to tell the story visually. So I'd say I learned some stuff. I learned some stuff. I learned some stuff. You know, I learned some stuff.

You know, gags are gags, though. To me, that didn't change. You could probably see my, like, I always got a lot more, you know, I don't know, whatever, intense when we were doing gags as opposed to scenes. Because when you guys are, you know, when the floor is yours and you guys are doing character work and being funny and it's in dialogue, you can cover that a bunch of different ways. It's going to be great.

Right. When you're doing gags that are really specific, they need very specific shots. If you don't have those specific shots, the gags don't work. Right. Period. So I would always get more kind of intense, you probably noticed when we were shooting gags,

because they have to be shot properly. And we had a lot of them. We had a lot of gags. 14,000, I think. I think 1,470 gags. That's insane. And it was great, but that was great. I think 1470 gags. It was great, but that was great. So those have to be shot well. I didn't, you know, those just have to be shot well.

So those take extra time. Speaking of which, shall we talk about the Texas Switch? Yes. Because to me, that's like. That's my favorite. That's like the vanity bumper sticker of Buddy System season two is Texas Switch. Texas Switch.

You take the valves out and you make it into a vanity license plate. Yeah, T-X-S-W-C-H. S-W-C-H. You could put a T in there. Yeah, you could. I have to go back to what I just said for a second and say please cut that all out.

Why? Well, because it seems very boring, doesn't it? No. No. The Mythical Beasts, man. Choosing the lens? They care about this stuff. So boring. They care about it.

Really? Yeah, they're all creative minded people. Yeah, well then they're maybe ahead of them. And aspiring directors. Many of them. And current directors. Ooh. Ha, we got it all, baby.

All right, I had never heard the term Texas switch until you said it 4,000 times. But it's our fault because it's a lot of prop gags. Right. So explain it. Okay, so the Texas switch. To me again

because I still don't understand. Well, and then there's also the Hollywood it in, which is a kind of variation of the Texas switch. Let's use a specific example as a case study. Do you remember a Texas switch that we can talk about? We can talk about any of them, I don't care.

Well yeah, so okay, Texas switch. Pick any scene, we had one. This is one of the situations where we had a gag we were trying to get with the soup. Right. So we've got the box that has the food in it, and I bring it in. I didn't think that's the one we ever wanted to talk about, though. And I do my...

Just because it was so hard to shoot. But I treat it very roughly, and we set it down, you open it up, and it's a perfectly steaming hot bowl of soup. Liquid in a bowl that can't sustain being flipped around in a cardboard box. So I come in with an empty cardboard box, set it down, Texas switch, bring in the one with the soup in it and open it up.

That's a Texas switch. That's right. But it just means that you keep rolling, but then in the edit it can mean anything. It means you cut to another shot. That's right. But it just means that you keep rolling, but then in the edit it can mean anything. It means you cut to another shot. Yeah, right. You cut to another shot and then when you cut back the thing that you wanted switched in.

Switched in and then switched out. I guess in like a theatrical setting, it's like hey look at me over here while some stage hand over here replaces mine with his and now there's blood in that. Don't do that. It's like a visual, look at me over here while some stagehand over here replaces mine with his. And now there's blood in that. Don't do that. It's like a visual sleight of hand, if you will. Right.

Yeah. And then we had the Hollywood in the soup, right? Which was also a Texas switch. You know, I'm a little bit, someone out there will have to kind of clarify. Because there is Hollywood in something in, which is also kind of a Texas. Hollywood is just a janky way to like, or like the non-technical way to get something in its place. Right. Right? That could be some sort of lighting shield.

To me it's when you've got like a bounce. That someone's just holding versus putting on a stand. You're gonna let a grip hold the bounce, or are you gonna put it on a C-stand? Right. So if the grip is holding the bounce, they're Hollywooding it in. That's what I always thought.

And I learned that from Ben. Because I think it means that like, in Hollywood, you can afford to just have a person hold that as opposed to prop it up against something. Right? But in Texas, you gotta switch it out. Right, in Texas. So Hollywood, Hollywooding something is a broad term, but Texas switch is a narrower term,

which we used many times for prop for lots of things. And Hollywood at the end has too many syllables, and it also is not as fun to say as Texas Switch, which has a very clear idea behind it, which everyone gets instantly. You get what that is. Let's do that right away. But now the real fun starts.

I mean we're gonna have our wrap party here just a little bit. And then you're gonna get in there in the editing bay very soon. I looked at episode two today. Oh you did? Almost all my notes are being done in episode two right now.

Oh really? Well tell us, it's fine if you say this because whenever we see first edits Oh, really? All right, well tell us, because, all right, it's fine if you say this because our expectation, I mean, whenever we see first edits and we try to, like, we try to protect who sees it so that we both don't see it at the same time so someone can have a preserved first look at something that's further along.

Is that how you do it? Yeah. Like, you won't look at it at the same time? We try to have, ideally, no. Somebody wants to have a fresh perspective, yeah. Okay. To be like, okay, I thought this, let me see if he thinks this.

But we're used to first cuts of anything, there being that let down, like, oh, I feel disappointed. We've never been encouraged by a first cut of anything. Sketch, music video. So it's okay if you tell us that right now. We're always like, mm. How did you actually feel? Well, I have that problem too. Like I'll say, like, what was the point of any of this? You like, hmm. How did you actually feel? Well, I have that problem, too.

Like, I'll say, like, what was the point of any of this, you know? But, you know, but that's not, but it's not personal, right? It's not anything I've ever seen. Yeah, I say, you know, I'll make a sandwich and feel that way, you know? Like, I'll make a sandwich, I'll look at my sandwich, and I'll say, well, that's not in my, you know, like, my idea of this whole operation was that some perfect thing was going to emerge and now it's just a sandwich. Can somebody Texas switch in a better sandwich?

Yeah, like you have to get past that. And yeah, so that's all just, yeah, that's all just stuff like in your head. So you have to just figure it out. So what happened? How much of it, you saw the majority of episode two? I thoroughly enjoyed episode two. I thought it was really, really funny.

And first I looked to make sure that I got all the shots I need to make it, you know, like I live in fear of that, right? Oh, we better have this shot because to me this shot is what's going to be crucial to, you know, making it good. So I'm with the editor, I'm like, go, I'm always like, go there, go there, go there. I want to just stream.

I just kind of. Oh, you were over his shoulder. Yeah, I went over there and I just said, I want to see all these beats and I want to see what shots I have. Just to see if these crucial shots. After seeing the cut. Like you sat there and watched it. Yeah, and then I was like, I want to, I wanna see all these beats and I wanna see what shots I have. Just to see if these crucial shots. After seeing the cut. Like you sat there and watched it. Yeah, and then I was like, I wanna know that we have all these crucial shots

so that to me will make it 40,000 times funnier. And when most of those shots I got, I felt good about that. And then performance is good. And it makes, you know, because I'm like, does this make sense? Do I understand? Is this the Michael McDonald episode?

No. No. This is the Glenn episode. Yeah. Okay. You know, like that crazy day when we had 14 seconds to shoot that big set piece at the end. Like is that gonna work? Right. You know? Like how is that?

That's the whole point of the episode. That's the whole big deal. Like if that doesn't work the episode, uh oh. Yeah. But yes, that was great. I was like, let's go to, I was like watch the end scene first. Oh you did? Let's work backwards. Watch the scene you're most nervous about first. Yeah and then like there were things that was great. I was like, let's go to, I was like, watch the end scene first. Oh you did? Let's work backwards. Watch the scene you're most nervous about first.

Yeah and then like there were things that really worked. I don't know, I can't really say things, right? You're not supposed to say things. You can indicate so that we know. The diner, can I say diner? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay so that scene is, yeah, that whole sequence from the moment you enter the diner to that end of that.

And then where we go. And then where you go. Oh really, okay. That's all just tremendous. That was a difficult day. Yes. A difficult day getting what we needed. Yes, it was tremendously difficult and it was tremendous.

The basement stuff. Amazing. Oh yeah? Amazing, yeah, it's amazing. It's, yeah, it's extraordinary. Whoa. It's extraordinary. Yes, it's extraordinary.

And the diner itself is kind of, the whole setup to that is pretty extraordinary too. What about my pants joke? Is that still in? Pants joke? Putting on your pants one? Yes, that's in, yes it is. You didn't cut that yet?

No, no, no, no. I'm fond of that. I did not cut that. Try not to cut it. And are we gonna be short? Are we good on this? That episode's good on time, yeah. I mean, most of them are long. That's actually closest.

That episode is closest to time. Okay. So yeah, if you cut a lot, then you'll be short. Okay. Because it's closest to time. Because that was the thing I was worried about because our AD, Jill, kept coming back and saying, this is all just too ambitious.

We're not gonna make our days. You guys gotta cut more stuff. And so Michael and Sievert would go and make proposed cuts and pages and pages and pages continue to come out of the script as we moved along. And we just kept thinking, we gotta be too short, we gotta be too short, but okay, we're not gonna be too short. No, most of the episodes are probably long,

which is great. That's good. Yeah, I mean, in that way. And I'm so excited, by the way. I mean, these are proper episodes versus season one was just like webisodes that made up a movie, which was, I'm proud of what it is, but as an experience for the audience, I'm super, I mean, we got,

what do you predict is your favorite episode? I mean, certainly the one we talked about, the one that might be your favorite episode is certainly up there. Episode 7. Yeah, episode 6. Episode 6, yeah. 6 is up there. People are going to love it because it's such a left turn.

I mean, it's crazy different. I mean, it's a period piece. Yeah, but where you're not talking to each other, that one has... That's interesting. That's pretty... I mean where it goes is so... It just takes these exponential leaps.

Like these exponential leaps. Yeah. Especially, you know, like the... To me, what made me think maybe it was going to be my favorite episode is when the character Dylan makes that proposal. He comes out of the bathroom. And it's like, hold on, wait.

You talk about a left turn. Right. He's like, okay, I see this in a way that not only no one else in the whole universe could see, but certainly not the audience. And I see it very clearly, and that's going to be the next move. And that's a great move. It's a pretty great move. So that one I'm interested in. They don't know what we're talking about. No, they don't. It's going to be so frustrating. They can wait. No, that's gonna be the next move, and that's a great move. It's a pretty great move. So that one I'm interested in. They don't know what we're talking about.

No they don't. They can wait. No that's so right, yeah. I tend to forget about the music, because it was like, but I mean, that reggae thing we shot on the last day looked so great. I mean that's gonna be. That's gonna be cool.

Yeah. My hope is that when you watch an episode, it's one of those, I think it's, I want people to feel like when they finish watching an episode, they think back to the beginning of the episode and it feels like how we felt when we were shooting. Like whenever we were shooting, it was like,

I remember what we shot at the beginning of this day and it doesn't feel like the same day because we're shooting so much and we're working so hard. But even from a viewing experience, I think story-wise that'll translate. It's like at the end of an episode, they'll think about the first of the episode

and they'll be like, that can't be the same episode. And then they'll be like, I remember there was a song in the middle of the episode, but that feels like a different episode too. It's like, I think we take people on a great journey. Big adventure. And I'm interested to see how the characters that you guys created, how they evolve

over the eight episodes. Yeah. In terms of like- Especially because we block shot the whole thing. I have no clue. Yeah. Like what your characters believe at the beginning and what your characters believe at the end. I trust the writing.

I trust the writing too. We try hard but like from an acting standpoint, it was difficult to plug back in. Like we shot all the scenes in the dining room. So it's like the call sheet would be like, episode one, episode four, episode eight, episode four, eight, one and we'd shoot it in that order. Yep.

But I mean, as much as we, we do change. Yeah, I think you guys do change. We do change. Physically. But at least our accents don't change, because then that would have been really bad. Right, except for that one day. Oh, new character on the fly. Oh yeah, that was fun.

You heard about that, you weren't there, but you heard it subsequently. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I was getting changed. Yes. I was like, oh gosh. That was a good move, that was a good work. It was a good move. I mean, it's good to have people, I mean, here's the story.

We both, Rhett and I both had characters that we were playing independently that were basically gonna be cut together at a certain sequence. And we kinda conceptualized the character that I played and then yours where I wasn't in the room for that. I wasn't in the room when you conceptualized the Cajun guy but the southern gentleman, I thought I was supposed

to be a southern gentleman. And we thought that they were different enough. And you were to be a Cajun guy. They weren't. But then when we rehearsed it, like the you were to be a Cajun guy. They weren't. But then when we rehearsed it, like the more that you were the Cajun guy, I was like, I feel like this is messing with my mind. I can't be here, so I left.

I couldn't listen to you doing your character anymore because it was messing with my character. So then I went off the whole time you were shooting it and I was like rehearsing the freaking Southern Gentleman. Meanwhile, I didn't look like a Southern Gentleman. They made me look amazing and very funny. But you never, that character never left the East Coast. And that's a lesson, that was a lesson learned

that I should have assessed that the moment I left. The Northeast Coast. The Northeast Coast, that's right. Once you put on hair and makeup and costume, that's the moment, you gotta reassess everything in the mirror. And that was a mistake I made, I'll own that. But I think the thing was, so then I was off rehearsing

this Southern Gentleman, and then I show up after you left and I knew in my heart of hearts that I didn't think it was, I thought it was too close. But I wasn't willing to say anything because I didn't wanna be the problem. And then, you weren't there, so Stevie and Steve were over at the monitor with their backs turned to me, I'm watching them watch me on the monitor out of the corner of my eye, so I'm performing to the right of lens

and over here I can see their backs and they're like, -"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop." -"You know something's coming." Yeah. Stevie and Steve are huddled. Stevie's the one who called. Oh yeah, I heard it. She clocked that so fast, oh my God. And she's learned how to, she knows when she can come in and correct course.

It's a precarious spot. It is. We depend on her for that. Yeah, she had to make a big, that was a bold move. Right, it was the last day, but the two of you conferred and you were like, the characters are too similar, they sound too similar. And I was like, well, they're from the same place,

they knew each other years back. Please, accept that. Please, yeah. And then you were like, yeah, he doesn't look like he talks and you guys were talking about it and I was like, all right. I mean, I have no clue, I never looked in a mirror. If we had time, I would've been like,

all right, give me 30 minutes, let me go in front of a mirror again. We don't have 30 minutes. So then I just did some different stuff on camera and I was like. It's fantastic. Okay, yeah. And it wasn't the most pivotal thing

in such a crazy episode that I'm not concerned about it. Right. But I think the takeaway, the main takeaway was you got people you put in place to be able to redirect and override and shape something. And you gotta trust those people. And that's what we hired you for. And you more than earned that trust after, you know,

a few days of working together. So then by the last day it was like, I just wanted to be able to pull my weight and take the direction. But I never questioned whether you guys were right. And you know we got long standing track record with Stevie and that certainly helped but I mean even if it was you saying that just alone it was like I would've

totally trusted but I was like okay, I can't blow this. I've gotta change this character I've gotta change this character. I've gotta change this character entirely. How many characters did you do, do you know? I lost count after a while. I don't have any characters, but we did, we discovered that I had 58 costume changes and Link had 60 costume changes.

So at least 20% of those were different characters. Yeah, and eight episodes of television, which is just stupid. of those were different characters. And eight episodes of television, which is just stupid. It's just a, and yeah, so I don't know how many, I feel like I kind of exhausted my accent ability. The Cajun accent is not really, I mean it was, it was like, it was, again, it was,

I was going off of what I'd seen on Swamp People. It wasn't really Cajun. There wasn't any French in there, it was like, I don't know, because that wasn't there. It was kind of like, get me out of here, because I don't want it to mess me up. Yeah, you were just kind of like, I'm off the ledge on this one, you know? Like, it was just like, you just,

the way you looked. I had a few root words that I kept going back to. Yeah, you just cracked, and I liked that, because it was the end of the shoot, and I'm like, okay, that, you know, because all of them were really cohesive, you know, up until that point. Right, right, right, right. You know, and then it was just like, okay, you know, because all of them were really cohesive, you know, up until that point. Right, right, right.

You know, and then it was just like okay, this is good because it's completely, it's completely cracked open. This is all going the way it should go. And then we immediately ran to hair and makeup and we turned into 80s hair metal singers. Which we know that well, we know that well. We know the world well.

That was comfort zone. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I'm gonna have to cut this short, guys, because I gotta go to the doctor and figure out what's wrong with me and if I'm dying or not. Not to worry. Let's hope the verdict is not.

You have a sore throat. Yeah. Just tell us at the wrap party that everything's okay. Well, I might not be able to speak. I might be on vocal rest at the wrap party. Just write a note. I'll bring a sign. I'll bring a sign and put it on my chest.

And you could do this, are you doing the mustache, what's gonna happen? Are you gonna help him out and shave and then that will, right, just point at it and be like, he was gonna shave that, talk about that. What's the question? Are you gonna shave your mustache? Yes.

He's gonna shave it. Oh there you go. This is the last thing with the mustache. This is it. Yeah, within an hour it's gonna be gone and I'll have my wife back. But. Did I say wife, I meant have my wife back. But, oh gosh. Did I say wife, I meant life.

Oh gosh. Well, man it was a privilege to work with you. Likewise. This is, like Link said, we would have enjoyed to be able to kinda stop and reflect and just carry on a friendship throughout, even though we did. But it was very much work, work, work, work, work,

just like Rihanna. But it was totally worth it. And it still was a great experience, but it was tough. It's nice to, I mean, I'm exhausted. And now the friendship begins. I think, right? Right, we can start. It's nice that you're saying that, that we're friends.

When you said that to me in the trailer, I was shocked. You know, you were like, we consider you a friend. I'm like, oh man. That's a big moment just snuck up on me. Because I was saying to my wife. Well, when you go through a near-death experience together, I mean, that's the best way to.

That's the thing. But yeah, I said to my wife in preparation, I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna say on this podcast and all that. And I was like, because I don't think we've had this long a conversation ever. Like our longest conversation prior to this one was what you mentioned before, is when we met.

Right, yeah. And we got to talk for 30 minutes Yeah And then that was it And then yeah I think we had the desert island thing And then now this We had the car thing

You told me about your car Oh right That was nice I was like wow The subject matter is not that interesting But the fact that we're actually Talking about something Yeah that was nice

That was pretty interesting Yeah yeah So I'm happy to We'll talk about the car when you come back. Yes. Because our friendship will only be conducted on our podcast. Right. That's good.

No, no. This is a form of stopping and celebrating. And, you know, I am trying to... Like you said, you try to be aware, and I am wrapping this up, because I know you've got to go to the doctor. Just leave. We'll keep talking. I can tell that's what's in your eyes right now.

I actually went around the bases again after he said let's wrap it up, so that's on me. Stopping and celebrating, I feel like this is a component of that to reflect on what we made together, and it's important, and like the wrap party, it's important. We're gonna go with everybody who we made this thing with, and if it's the last time you see some of those people, hopefully it won't be, but it's the last time you see some of those people, hopefully it won't be but it's like,

at least we commemorated it. That's right. That's right. That's what we're gonna do. So that's what you're saying. But our friendship. We're never gonna see each other after the wrap up.

Our friendship will continue. As well as our working relationship. Thanks for having me, it was great fun. Thanks for bringing. And thanks for listening. We're not gonna have another wrap up other than this. We're just gonna toast. Here it is. Come back next gonna have another wrap up other than this. We're just gonna toast. Here it is.

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