Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 54 Rainn Wilson - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: January 30, 2015

SoulPancake Co-Founder and star of 'The Office,' Rainn Wilson, joins Rhett & Link this week to discuss how he prepared for his dramatic role on his new FOX show, 'Backstrom,' his adolescent struggle with and current devotion to his Baha'i faith, and his personal collection of animals including a zonkey (donkey-zebra hybrid)named Derek. *NOTE: This conversation contains adult themes and language. 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, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits season two. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. Joining us today and kicking off our new season is TV star and internet tone setter, Rainn Wilson. Yes, we are happy to have him at the round table of dim lighting.

And I'm happy to be back here with you, Link, at the round table of dim lighting and I'm happy to be back here with you, Link, at the round table of dim lighting. Oh yeah, and thank you for being here with us, bringing your ears to be biscuited. Yeah, the lighting is dim or dimmed. That was, the funny thing was a second ago, right now we're just discussing, maybe we're a little rusty, but I refer to it as the round table of dimmed lighting.

And then you were like, hold on, we've never caught it that, it's the round table of dim lighting. D-I-M, not D-I-M-M-E-D. But you might be technically correct. I mean, is dim a word or is it always dimmed? Is it like stupid lighting? I think is what the implication is.

I'm gonna go with dim. Well, that means we're gonna stick with it because that's what we've been doing. But it doesn't mean stupid, it just means dimmed. But it is a lot different in here in this room because we used to be semi-surrounded by the Good Mythical Morning set, which is now moved to the new building.

We are in transition. If you watch Good Mythical Morning, you already know this, but we're moving into a new building, but it's not happening quickly. And it's not just because it takes a long time to move, but there's work being done at the new building. Right, the round table has not moved from its original location under the unmoved dim lighting,

the dim light. So it kind of feels like- Empty in here. It's almost like we're in an abandoned doctor's office, like a weird doctor that did bad things to people. That's what I feel like this room feels like. Bad like he would conduct experiments on people? Yeah, well, the reason I'm thinking that

is because I watched this, we're watching The Blacklist on Netflix and last night's episode was about this nurse that was taking people into his home and inflicting injuries upon them, the same injuries that they had inflicted on other people. It was very, it was a- Isn't that thoughtful? It was a difficult episode to watch

and now I feel like our studio looks like that place where that guy tortures people. What kind of tone does that set, Link? I haven't watched it, now I'm not gonna watch that show. But you wanna, I told you what I've been watching. Vikings. Yeah. On Amazon, because it's now, it's on Amazon Prime.

And there's some disturbing, violent stuff in that show. I'll just go ahead and tell you. If you don't. You're saying it with a smile on your face. And there's some disturbing violent stuff in that show. I'll just go ahead and tell you. If you don't- You're saying it with a smile on your face. There's lots of blood and like ax work. Lots of ax work on bodies. I'm a fan of ax work. So, but I'm into it.

I like it. Well, I'll be checking that out. Let's keep just talking about the shows we're watching. But we had to, we felt, you felt the need to apologize to Rain when he came in here about our place. Well, because we- And then he started playing into it, like how bad it was. We care about the aesthetic.

I mean, we care about aesthetics. But he knew no different. I mean, you know, if you didn't- Exactly. If you didn't apologize, okay. You know, exactly. I guess that's your point. He thinks we work in a doctor's office torture chamber. I don't want him to think that about us.

What? Well, I think you cleared it up. Okay. With your repeated apologies. Okay, well we were super excited to have Rain on the show and to kick off season two. Of course, you already know Rain as Dwight, the pompous assistant to the regional manager

on the Emmy winningwinning sitcom The Office. What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany's at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No. I go for the chandelier. It's priceless. As I'm taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It's her father's business. She's Tiffany.

I say no. We make love all night. In the morning, the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico, but I go to Canada. I don't trust her. Besides, I like the cold. 30 years later, I get a postcard. I have a son and he's the chief of police. This is where the story gets interesting. I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She's been waiting for me all these years. She's never taken another lover. I don't care, I don't show up. I go to Berlin, that's where I stashed the chandelier.

Okay, but before he was Dwight, Rain spent many years on stage in the New York theater scene, on Broadway, doing all types of stuff. The dude's got chops. After he made his move to LA, he started to get film and TV traction. His first big recurring role was on HBO's Six Feet Under.

I actually haven't seen that yet, but I bet it's got some ax work in it, or some blood work. It's in between, kind of like, well, those people are dead. I watched a little bit of it. In that show. Of course, then he moved on to the TV behemoth, The Office, for nine seasons. I remember that one. Of course, then he moved on to the TV behemoth, The Office for nine seasons. I remember that one.

Oh yeah. I mean, being very obsessed with that show. I think at one point, I know at one point in the conversation with Rain, I went into a little Dwight and he called me on it and I didn't even realize I was doing it. You know, it's just a subconscious thing when you're talking to a guy that you've watched

on television all these years. Right, and you're kind of being self-conscious. You're like, I know that he's known as Dwight, but I don't want to make it seem like I feel like I'm talking to Dwight. And I feel like I did that. You didn't, you didn't do it well. But I feel like at least one of us did.

You're joking, right? Did I do okay? You did fine. Okay, good. I need to know that I did okay. And we in particular were really interested in talking about SoulPancake. It's kind of where our worlds meet on the internet.

That's his website slash book slash YouTube channel that he co-created that he describes as a place where young people can connect to talk about life's big questions. So, and you get this, if you have ever heard Rain talk just candidly, you know, outside of one of his characters, you already know this, but you're gonna learn it today. He's a thoughtful, philosophical guy.

He has a very strong worldview and thinks about things deeply. We were fascinated to discuss that and also talk about his Baha'i faith, which he's been really public about. And also to discuss the intriguing animals that are his family pets. So- That may or may not be

Link's favorite animal. Yeah, my mind gets blown at a certain point in here, but life after The Office, I think the bottom line is that it's looking good for rain. Backstrom, his new TV show, just premiered on Fox Thursdays at nine, DVR it. We'd like to thank MeUndies for helping to make this episode of Ear Biscuits possible.

You may remember me talking about MeUndies last season passionately and I will say that since that point, I have slowly but surely replaced every single pair of underwear in my underwear drawer that was not a MeUndies pair, and now my entire drawer is all MeUndies. I'm not making this up. These are the most comfortable thing

you can put on your body, well, especially underwear. Maybe it all, you know, including anything you can put on your body, but definitely underwear. Christy got me some for Christmas, and I was really pumped. So we're happy to have them as a sponsor. They have styles for men and women.

My mom got me some other kinds of underwear for Christmas and I took them straight to the thrift store. Don't tell my mom, I don't think she listens to your business. No way. My mom got me some too and I couldn't do that. So I'm wearing them a little bit, but I think I'm gonna go the eradication route, just like you.

And you should too, go to MeUndies.com slash RhettandLink and get 20% off your first order and free shipping, people. You can save even more when you buy a pack of them. But yeah, MeUndies.com slash RhettandLink, get that 20%. We also wanna take a second to help you get prepared for Valentine's Day, because that's coming up. If your sweetheart says she doesn't want anything for Valentine's Day, that is code for get me something

for Valentine's Day. And listen, don't get her a potted plant. I made the mistake of getting my wife a potted plant. Not roses, but a potted plant. It makes sense to me. She said that's the most unromantic thing you've ever done for me. Ouch.

But it lives forever, it doesn't wilt. I don't know, either way. But we have a solution this year because we're bad at this, we're assuming that many of you are very bad at this. Berries.com, go to Sherry's Berries, get giant, freshly dipped strawberries. They got strawberries, big, big strawberries

dipped in white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, they top with chocolate chips, something they call a decorative swizzle, Link. You can get a decorative swizzle on these berries. Get swizzle on my nizzle. I don't know what that means, that's not their slogan. They didn't ask me for that and I shouldn't have offered it. Strawberries good, chocolate good.

Put the two together, add some swizzle on my nizzle and there you go. I don't know where you're going with that, but assortments start at $19.99. That's over a 40% savings. Go to berries.com, click on the microphone, and type in our code, RhettandLink, and they'll know that we sent you,

and you can also use that to double your berry order, the number of berries, for just $10 more. Yeah, click on the microphone, retinlink.com, not retinlink.com. Let's go to berries.com. Yeah, do that. We're not selling berries on our website. Not yet.

We don't have the capability to put swizzle on anybody's nizzle, so go to berries, B-E-R-R-I-E-S.com, and then use our code, retinlink. Now enjoy our ear biscuit with Rainn Wilson. I was just apologizing for how lame this place is. You guys are really, there's so many, I walk in here and there's so many apologies happening

for this space. Just like, yeah, it pretty much sucks here. It's pretty, it much sucks here it's pretty it's pretty awful and bare bones and lame but it's okay man it's okay but look that way it's DIY man it's punk rock

YouTube podcast comedy music anti-establishment F the man okay kind of Rhett and Link kind of bull

up in here in Burbank so that's can you feel Elvis the king can you feel his stare because we left him

I love Elvis I my son who's 10 years old he used to be obsessed with Elvis because we had the Elvis channel on the Sirius XM.

So we would listen to Elvis, go take him into school. So preschool, kindergarten, first grade, he just loved, I knew all the Elvis songs, sang along. Because you liked Elvis, you listened to it, and he just assumed that's what music was? It was one of many channels that we listened to, and then, but he would always request Elvis. He's got good taste.

Yeah, but now he likes Imagine Dragons. Well, I have a 10-year-old son. It's really strong with the 10-year-olds, the Imagine Dragons. Yes. I have a 10-year-old. You have a nine-year-old son, so we're all in the same. Okay, good.

Now, my son, huge Imagine Dragons fan, but he was just telling me, he's gotten into this stage where he begins talking and I'm like, you sound like an adult. Like the way that you're forming your sentences and your opinions, very adult. And he's like, Dad, I'm not gonna get the new album. I've just been disappointed with what?

He's already sounds like he lives in Silver Lake. And I don't even remember what he was disappointed with. Yeah, did he finish it? Like their live performances or... That he hasn't been to. Their new songs are not as good as their old songs. Yeah, right. Yeah, we all know that, right?

I wish you would go, just like our videos. Our old videos always tend to be better than our new ones according to the comments. Yeah, how come you can't be funny like you tend to be better than our new ones according to the comments. Yeah, how come you can't be funny like you used to be? Can I tell you a funny Rhett and Link story? Yes. You don't know that we have a history. Yeah, let's do that.

Give us some history. This is good. So I'm gonna say. I'm still trying to figure out why you're here, honestly. Five. For your own sake, I love Burbankbank i love all these streets out here in burbank like the victory the straightness of the street yeah and it's just like sun baked and and sad and it's it's uh there's an oldness to it i love i love it out yeah right i love it out here

no so i'm gonna say five or six years ago when did you guys have your very first viral video about the car at the car dealership or the furniture store? Yeah, the Red House Furniture. Red House Furniture. Yeah, 09. When was that? 09, right? Yeah.

Yep, 09. So right when that came out, I saw it, and I emailed everyone at my agency and at my management company. I'm like, you guys sign these guys immediately. Really? These guys are super, super talented. I'm not making this up. I'm not bullshitting you. For real, I did that.

And they all looked at it and they're like, yeah, that's pretty funny. I don't know really what we do with them. They're so funny. There's got to be something you can do with them. I mean, that's as far as it went, but I just wanted to let you know that I was- Well, thanks for the effort. From the get-go.

Wow. I wish we had like a reciprocal story for you. That's all right. It's like I watched you on television and I thought many times that it was great. I made a lot of phone calls. So there you go. Uh-oh.

Was that you? Yeah. Hanging up on my- I'm sure I told family members throughout the years to watch like The Office. Sure, okay, okay. You don't need to pay me back. It doesn't need to be quid pro quo.

Just give me a price. $1,400. Okay. What is the price for? I don't get it. Is that the time value of money? I don't know what the price, what's the price? For the plug to your agents and people.

Oh, about $1,400. Okay, okay. Do you remember the time value of money? I never understood that. Understood that, no. Now what is the time value of money? I don't know, like, was this the seventh grade? Well, it's inflation, I guess.

I don't know. It had something to do with inflation, and it was, okay, well, this is $1,400 in 09, but it's... Oh, right now. Yeah. The time1,400 in 09, but it's. Oh, right now. Yeah. The time value, that's an actual thing that they teach you? Okay, I never learned that.

Yeah, it's like a thing you learn in a class. We owe you like two grand, probably. Oh, probably, yeah. No, I was assuming he already took that into account. Oh, okay, it's 1,400. Now, we met, like the first time that we actually met and shook hands was on a plane, well, it was a year ago, on a plane to Sundance.

Sundance, yeah. And you know we. You were doing your show. From the beautiful Burbank Airport. You were doing a show there in Sundance? We were, YouTube had its own set up there and we did a Q and A. Okay.

So we went to Sundance, it was great, but so we saw you in the Burbank Airport. Okay, Star Trek. I think you were with, you were with your family. My wife and son, yeah. You great. So we saw you in the Burbank airport. Okay, stalkers. I think you were with, you were with your family. My wife and son, yeah. You know, so we gave you your space. Leonard Maltin was also waiting to get on that plane. Fantastic.

And Sam Rockwell. Right. Sam Rockwell was on, he sat across from me. Right, and so then we're walking, you sat down first and then you passed Rain. Yes. But then I stopped and then you passed Rain. Yes. But then I stopped and said hello. Oh.

And that was our meeting. This is a great story. And then it gets better. I stopped. I stopped and said hello. It gets worth telling a little bit here. Okay, good. So then we weren't sitting together,

I was sitting with Sam Rockwell. Yeah. The thing that really got me was I was looking over at Sam and he was reviewing a script. He was memorizing his lines. And so I didn't wanna bother him, but at a certain point we got into a conversation. I started talking about his technique

and he was listening to a read-through of his lines. That was his technique for learning his lines, was listening to them repeatedly in kind of a monotone, un-act-y kind of a way, which I understand is an actor's technique for learning lines. So was he listening to the other people cueing the line? No, he was just listening to himself reading. He had two versions, he had himself.

Himself monotone and then he had. And then he had a dialect, like a southern dialect guy read it. It was just some guy from Tennessee, right? a dialect, like a southern dialect guy read it in a southern dialect. It was just some guy from Tennessee, right? Who owns a funeral home that his dialect coach found and got him to read the script.

Some funeral home owner in like Alabama. Do we even know what this movie is? It's a Jared Hess movie. Jared Hess movie that, I don't know what's happening with it, but he's a biblical archeologist. Okay. It's kind of tongue in cheek, I think.

It sounded hilarious. But it, you know, I was just fascinated kind of watching him work. He was, Sam was listening to the guy. He let me listen to it, it was hilarious. And he's, you know, he's underlining certain words and then circling other words. And it was almost like his printed out script

became this scribble of kind of something I would wanna keep if, you know, I took it from him. No, I didn't. But I'm wondering, like for you, I know you got like a theater background, what's your technique? How do you learn lines?

Because literally, I Googled, because I can't learn lines for crap. You Googled how to learn lines? I Googled how to learn lines. And that's where I read about the audio listening thing that Sam was doing and that's why I knew what he was doing because I googled it a few months earlier. You've never done that?

I've never done that. What I've done sometimes before is read the other people's lines and leave a space for my lines. Okay. So I can hear the cues. Yeah. Because I'm more, I don't want to hear my lines. I want to hear the other for my lines. Okay. So I can hear the cues. Yeah. Because I don't want to hear my lines. I want to hear the other people's lines,

so then I respond accordingly. I wouldn't know what to do with that technique. And that's why it's read monotone, so at least you don't get the acting cues. Right. And you get into some ditch of, well, this is how I got to say it. Right.

Maybe I should try that. A divot. I think I'm going to try it. For real, I I got to say it. Right. Maybe I should try that. A divot. I think I'm going to try it. For real, I'm going to try it. But you don't have a problem. But how do you remember what you're going to say in those gaps? Just whatever? Well, I have like the script and I'll kind of be half on, half off, just kind of saying

them. Do you know what I mean? Because to me, I think there's this weird thing about repetition. And if you just say the lines a ton, a ton of times, like it really, it does really help. And you say, and make sure you say it in a lot of different ways. Don't just say it the same way every time. That's one thing that helps me is just repetition, just going through it, the script or saying it out loud, saying it, saying it, saying it. It's, you know, it really is like, what's my technique?

I don't, this is a heavy question um i don't really have a technique per se um on the office it was pretty easy because it was uh short um scenes and usually you didn't have to memorize a ton you could improvise and kind of go off the script and and and go And it was super, super fun in that way. Backstrom was so hard, this new TV show, because I'm the lead of it and it's an hour-long TV show and I would have seven or eight pages of dialogue per day to work on. And I'd have to work.

I'd memorize a scene or two at night before. And then I'd memorize a scene like driving in and going through makeup. So then by that point, I'd have two or three of the scenes memorized. And then I'd like memorize one at lunch. So it was constantly memorizing. So that was a little bit different. But this time on Backstrom was the first time I ever worked with an acting coach. So that was crazy.

This guy, Larry Moss, who's a very famous acting coach. I mean, you got a lot of experience. What led to getting an acting coach? Well, this one specifically because I was going from the office, and then two weeks later, I was shooting a really complicated character. He's an alcoholic, and he's addicted to all these different things, and he's self-hating,ating and he's kind of twisted and he has a very warped worldview. And so it was a lot of work. And also like a cop, like, you know, I'm this pudgy suburban character comedy guy,

you know, and I don't, you know, how am I going to be believable as a cop? Like, how does this work? I don't want tovable as a cop like how does this work i i do i i don't want to act like a cop i just want to um but i want it to feel real but i don't want to put on anything and i don't want to you know there was a danger with the role that it could be kind of like one of those um who's that guy in nypd blue caruso no the guy, the tough guy with the pockmarked face. Oh, yeah, the one who-

That guy, that, rah, rah, rah, rah. I know you're talking about. Who always gets them to, no, that's- He's got his hair on the side of his head. Yeah, yeah, the bald guy, he's a really craggly-faced guy. Google him, you have computers. Yeah, we do, we do, you're right.

Oh my God, you guys. I thought that would be rude. No, that's what we should be doing. I don't want to lose my tab how to remember my lines. You've got it up. I don't want to Google anything else. That was months ago. I'll show you how to.

But you didn't want to be him. Are you Googling it, Rhett? I am. You gave up. But apparently someone upstairs is uploading a video to YouTube. This is terrible. You would think that guys who make YouTube videos for them. Everyone listening right now is going,

they know who it is. It's a Rondo, it's a Rondo, it's Rondo, no, no, no, no, no, no, God. We'll just edit that out. Okay, you know who I'm talking about. We'll add it back. And I'm gonna tell you in less than seven seconds. Okay, I should wait for it.

Dennis Franz. Dennis Franz. Thank you. That's it. And everyone listening is like, finally. I did not know that. I blanked. Senior moment, okay? But I didn't want to be like Dennis Franz, a tough cop guy,

and I didn't want to be like, there's just a lot of, there were a lot of pitfalls to be had in the character of Backstrom. to be had in the character of Backstrom. When you're playing like a messed up police detective, tough talking, self-hating guy, there were easy traps to fall into and I didn't want to fall into them. And I wanted to, and I also really wanted to make sure

that I was doing it very different than Dwight, that there wasn't any aroma of Dwight at all in playing the character. So I worked with this guy who was really cool. Was there like one big takeaway, like in a moment of epiphany, or was it just more of like walking through the paces with this coach and you arrived somewhere?

I think that there was a big takeaway. It's a pretty basic acting thing, but he was really on me about how does this guy see the world, see the world through his eyes, and how did he get that way so he sees the world through his eyes in that way? So it's really all about how does he see the world and how did he get that way so he sees the world through his eyes in that way? So it's really all about like how does he see the world

and how did he get that way? So it was a lot of internal adjustments to think about that emotionally. This guy's obviously been very abused. He has a dark past. He's had a lot of abandonment abuse and neglect in his uh in his in his life so there's kind of that dark underbelly that that's why someone sees the world in a way so you can't you can't put stuff like that on from the outside and just be like a blustery i didn't want to be like a blustery old i'm a blustery old cop hey book them get down there. Get the evidence. You know, I wanted to like really find him.

I can't reload. I got a jam. My gun's jammed. Oh, damn it. So, yeah, so that was interesting. I don't really have a technique. It really depends on the role that I'm doing. There was a part I did.

Well, you want to send this guy work. I mean, you don't want to give all the secrets away. Maybe I need to go to the guy. He's expensive. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm $1,400 lighter. Yeah, and lighter.

Exactly. So good luck. It's probably not justified for YouTube sketches anyway. But I mean, you mentioned, it sounds like this is maybe a calculated move given how you're seeing in your history with Dwight. I mean, what's your current relationship with Dwight as a character? You know, I feel like on my tombstone it's going to say, here lies the guy who played Dwight. You know, I think I'm always going to be known as Dwight.

It's going to be who I am. I'm totally at peace with that. I get it. I knew that as soon as The Office took off. And yeah, I'm happy that Dwight was put to bed. I'm happy that the Dwight spinoff didn't work out and wasn't picked up by NBC because I wouldn't want to still be playing

that same character ultimately and I'm happy to be moving on. Now, were you part, you know, the story goes that the cast got together and said, hey, let's end this show. Is that? Yeah, that's pretty true.

I don't know that NBC would have continued, but the cast, all the leads of the cast were kind of like, let's make sure this is our last season and make sure every episode really builds to a great ending and let's do it right and let's bring in all the previous characters and let's have a big parade in Scranton

and do our final season the way it really should be done. But the fact that it became the final season was kind of a groundswell from the actors. Yeah. And I think that Greg Daniels was the only one that was kind of like, really? Sure. Is there a way to continue the show maybe without some of you or a new cast of characters he had a lot of like plots in his head and he's a great guy and very loyal to us but he was just thinking he just didn't really completely want to give it up

but uh you know so we put a lot of work into that final season and then no one really watched it and it's it it's a really good season like the final like five or six episodes of our final season were as good as anything we had ever done but everyone was like oh so much better when steve was on yeah so it was a lot of that and our finale was great i thought we want to talk about the period of time between you know when the office ended and then now Backstrom, because you've done a lot of interesting things that sort of have some overlap with our world. Okay.

You know, specifically talking about SoulPancake. Yeah. And I remember seeing that happen. It was a part of a bigger movement where some traditional celebrities were coming in and we're like, uh-oh. Well, it was the original YouTube fund. Right, and guys like us were like, oh, this is it.

We've had our party, it's over. Real talented people are coming into the space. Well, traditional media, you got NBA stars. Like Shaq had a channel. Yeah, Amy Poehler had a channel. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of named people had channels. And Rainn Wilson's in the mix here.

How did that come about? Was this the kind of thing that like, you were a fan of YouTube videos or was somebody like, Rainn, you gotta get in on this online thing. Get on this cash cow. Right, they're throwing around millions of dollars. They were.

And that's a fair answer if that's the answer. So we were scrambling to find our identity, what SoulPancake was. We started, remember, as a website to discuss life's big questions. And that was fun for a while, but it didn't really take off. It didn't really go anywhere. So we made an app that went with it, and that didn't really go anywhere. And then we did a book, and that was good.

It was a bestseller. But we were just kind of struggling for identity of what's next for SoulPancake. We have this mission. And who is we at the time? Me and the founders. There's really four of us. Me and the guy I started with, Devin Gundry, and then his wife, Golriz Lucina, who still works there, and our current CEO, Shabnam Magarabi, who I think you guys know her or met her. Over email.

Yeah. Okay. She's awesome. She's super, super awesome. And the other two suck the um just kidding so we we're like what do we do we have this great mission we have people behind us we we know that we've we're nowhere on to something we want to do uplifting content that's not sentimental and treacly and stupid we want to do something edgy and cool and funny and outrageous, but also makes the world a better place. And it's philosophy. It's part spirituality. It's

all about creativity and being an artist and expressing yourself. And so, you know, we were scrambling for money and then, oh, YouTube is giving out money for channels. And we're like, what about that? We'd already done some videos for the Oprah Winfrey Network. And they were very popular. They were like the most popular thing on that whole dumb network. And then so we're like, yeah, let's go down here. So we just came up with a bunch of show ideas based on our philosophy and our worldview. And we pitched it and went great.

philosophy and our worldview and we pitched it and went great and and then really we're so grateful to that experience and to YouTube and the YouTube channel phenomenon thing because that's where we found our voice and our identity and our YouTube channel has taken off and We're really see ourselves more of a media company So we you know, we produce videos either for our YouTube channel for television or for commercials and They have a certain, you know magic mojo in them produce videos either for our YouTube channel, for television, or for commercials. And they have a certain magic mojo in them. And you've gotten involved personally, I mean, hosting a few of those shows. Yeah.

So my show is Metaphysical Milkshake. And now that YouTube money has dried up. So we are trying to find other ways to fund what we make. You know how that goes. It's a crazy business, the YouTube game, the YouTube channel game. And I mean, how much of yourself are you able to put into SoulPancake, the channel, at this point, you know, with the new show

and everything else that I assume you got going on with your life? Are you watching every video that's on the channel? Are you? I watch most of the videos on the channel. I won't say I watch every single one, but I've really stepped back over the last year. And I was very involved early on in the shows and giving notes on the cuts and who, you know, casting Candice here and giving her a show. Thank you. The little girl from Ohio that you stole from us. And, you know, I was very involved in doing a lot of promotion for it, trying to get the

viewers, trying to get like my Twitter followers to head over to the YouTube and watch some of our videos and subscribe and stuff like that. But now it's going gangbusters and Shabnam, our CEO, she's just awesome and running it and we're moving from our lame space to a really cool space too. Only we're in Hollywood. Yeah, you are.

The wrong side of the hill. That's not straight up. The seedy side of the hill. Now, an interesting thing about doing any sort of content that has any kind of spiritual theme. I mean, we've noticed that anytime anybody senses that you're making some sort of religious statement or statement about anything metaphysical,

that just starts like a YouTube argument in the comments. It's just, and they can be just the most inane arguments. But have you- Yeah, religious argument in the comments. And they can be just the most inane arguments. Have you- Yeah, religious conversation in the comments plus the comments equals trouble. I mean, you basically, in one sense, you started a conversation around spiritual themes on YouTube, a place where there's not a lot

of mature conversation about spiritual themes. Like, have you, like, what's your experience with that? You're like, oh, well, yeah. Well, let's back up a little bit because you've you've thrown out a lot of words yeah so you throw out spiritual then religious then metaphysical um and they're all very different and it really depends on how you define them so religious we don't do anything religious on our channel. So it's not religious. It's not about religion. It's spiritual in a sense, yes, but how do you define... Everyone defines spirituality different. I mean,

some people it's like talking to the ghosts and the beyond. Some people it's crystals and yoga classes. Some people it's their Christian faith. Some people it's kind of Oprah and Deepak Chopra and kind of new agey podcasts and stuff. Like everyone has a very different thing. Like we define spirituality differently. So it's spirituality is just anything that's beyond the material. That's it. And the creativity is and being an artist is the main part of being spiritual.

So it's expressing yourself and it's making cool shit and it's making the world awesome and being of service to people and making people laugh and uplifting their spirits and telling beautiful stories that make you remember what it is to be a human being and connecting people and building bridges and having fun along the way. spiritual. It doesn't have to go down any kind of sentimental road or new age road or religious road. And that's the kind of the juicy stuff that we explore on SoulPancake. Well, and I guess that's just it, is regardless of how well you state it and how well you present it, I mean, 75% of all YouTube commenters are still gonna misunderstand and think that you're saying something that they want to be offended by, which then causes a conversation. Or at least opinionated about.

Yeah, right. I'm picking up on you guys hate your YouTube commenters. No, I'm just saying that, okay, here's an example. So we got invited to the White House two months ago as part of the- It's on us campaign. It's on us campaign, the campaign to address sexual assault on college campuses.

Okay. And so the Obama administration's been doing this thing where they get YouTubers involved. They want more of it or less of it? I think less. It was a little confusing. It was confusing in the meeting. I just wanna make sure we're on the same page.

And we were like, this is a cool, cool opportunity. And we're going to go and part of this is going to be how can we be a part of this movement? Sure. You know, things like, well, I'm gonna change my Twitter icon to the It's On Us campaign icon. But hey, let's tell the story of us going to the White House because there were some funny things happening.

We thought we were gonna get to shake hands with the president, but it turned out we got like a foot from him and we missed this opportunity and some weird stuff happened, but. He didn't give us a foot, we were that far away. Yes, we told this story. He didn't hand you his foot. Right, when we tried to shake his hand.

Right. But you're a foot away, I mean, you couldn't get to that last foot. Right, and I had an awkward. How come you couldn't close? I had an awkward moment with a secret security, a secret service guy. Secret security guy.

Yeah, and it was like, I got in this stare down and I was. Did you get to shake hands with him at least? Nope. Oh man. Damn. But just telling this story. Yeah, snake eyes.

And also plugging the campaign, which you would think that reducing sexual assault is a everybody can get behind. Across the board-ish kind of a. Yeah. And I had hope. What an important and noble cause. Still.

And still, you got a lot of haters. They were just like, what would you guys even want to meet this guy? And I'm just like, and we weren guys even want to meet this guy? And I'm just like, and we weren't even making a political statement. Sure. But they wanted to make their political statement. And it wouldn't matter if it was a Democrat or Republican

in the White House, this is a great campaign, they invited you to be part of it and sure, yeah. Right. And I mean, we observe across YouTube that the same thing happens. If there's anything that, okay, if there's anything that people can interpret as something in the religious realm,

then they're going to start throwing their baggage out there. Sure. That's not, that didn't happen on your channel? You know what, I'll tell you something. On our YouTube, on our soulpancake.com, there's definitely a lot of arguments there, but it's still pretty civil. And on our channel, you know, we just,

I guess we kick off those people or something, but it's pretty civil. You know, people get, it's pretty civil. People get along for the most part. We try and create just a really positive atmosphere and community around SoulPancake. around SoulPancake. And this is not the place to go and say, there's no God, or say, you're going to hell, or whatever the black and white diatribe of the day is, or Obama or Romney or whatever. So yeah, we've been really lucky that way, honestly. Check out our comments. I mean, go look. They're pretty civil. I mean, that's encouraging. I think that's a testimony to the tone that you guys set.

And even though there's so many different things that you hit on, but there is that, there's an across-the-board tone that you know what you're going to get with SoulPancake, that it's going to be thoughtful, it's going to be sincere that it's gonna be thoughtful, it's gonna be sincere, it's gonna be, there's a positive motivation behind it that then activates you to the same end. Yeah, which I think is pretty great. What are you gonna go on SoulPancake and be like,

Kid President's a douchebag! Right. I hate that little. Yeah, right. Oh yeah, well you're a dickwad. You know, as if the channel that brought you Kid President is gonna be that, I don't know. But I'd love to go back in your story

and then kind of derive what brings you to a point to want to create this kind of community and this kind of channel. We know that your Baha'i faith is something that you're very vocal about. Well, yeah. So I'm a member of the Baha'i faith and my religious faith is really important to me and it's a part of my life. It's part of my daily life and it means a lot to me. And there's a lot of ideas in the Baha'i faith that I try and bring forward in my work. So I don't really, I never want to be any kind of Baha'i

spokesperson or a Hollywood Baha'i spokesperson or anything like that. And I really don't want to do that. But people ask, I'll talk about it. And it's, you know, here's things I love. I love Radiohead. I love the Seattle Seahawks. I love the Baha'i faith. You know, I love sushi. And if you ask me about these things, I'm going to talk about the things that are part of my life. So I'm just not really shy about it, and a lot of people are going to think I'm weird or in some weird cult or that there's something freaky going on there, and there's really not. But people are just going to think whatever they're going to think. And no matter what your faith, I think that there are certain important things. I think just making the world a better place and uplifting people and serving people that are less fortunate than yourself is something, whether you're an atheist or an agnostic or Christian or Baha'i or whatever, or Muslim, those are things we can all get behind,

and that's what we should all be doing, regardless of our belief. So SoulPancake has some inspiration from the Baha'i Faith. There's certain things about SoulPancake that we were inspired to bring to life, like that idea of creativity being a form of prayer, of making art as a sacred and a beautiful thing, the individual investigation of truth, finding the truth for yourself, engaging in life's big questions, that's a core tenet of the Baha'i faith of not just taking what your parents believe or what your culture believes but really finding the truth for yourself. So some of these things have like definitely influenced Soul Pancake, but it really is just ultimately like I believe and I think that most people believe no matter what their belief system that we should just try and make the world a better place. And we just try and find ways to do that. And as I became a celebrity, a lot of doors opened and I was like, here's an opportunity.

Let's try and do something really cool on the internet that brings people together, gets them talking about big ideas, inspires them, uplifts them, celebrates art, creativity, and awesomeness. And let's do it in a way

that is not treacly and stupid and syrupy and dumb. So that's really what it was about. And you described the Baha'i faith as faith of unity, right? So how do you engage with all the individuals out there? I mean, a lot of people will say, well, religion is the number one cause for disunity in the world today, right?

We see it all the time, whether you're talking about a Christian who says that it's, you agree with me or you're going to hell, or it's a Muslim who says convert or die, or all the horrible things that we see happening. So how do you engage with other people of other faiths when you're trying to say, you're a part of something bigger, but I know that, and they're like, well, no, I'm not.

Well, first of all, you just got to ignore the haters no matter where they come from, whether it's an atheist or a born again. And like I just said, it's about finding that commonality. We work with Muslim crew members at SoulPancake. One of our top employees is very devout in her Christian faith. We had a channel manager who was a devout atheist. But all of these people wanted to make a difference. And it's about finding that commonality. And I get it. You know, people think that organized religion causes much more disunity and pain in the world than it brings solace. And for the most

part, I agree with that. And it's really awful what's being done in the name of religion. And it's sickening. But we have to, as a culture and as a species, not throw the baby out with the bathwater because there are some spiritual truths that Muhammad brought, that Jesus brought, that the Buddha brought, that Baha'u'llah, who is the founder of the Baha'i faith, that he brought. And these kind of basic truths, spiritual truths, can really, can help heal the planet. You know, they're a healing message of love and unity underneath all of this rancor and

bulls**t that you read about in the paper all the time. In fact, I just read, remember that best-selling memoir of that six-year-old who was in a coma and went to heaven and frolicked with the angels? He made it all up. He made it all up! Dude made it all up.

I don't know, did he do it with his parents or was he just- I don't know, I just saw the article today too. Yeah, it just popped up on my phone. I was like, holy- How old was he when he wrote it?

I think six and he like dictated it to his parents. Yeah, it was like a two-month coma. And then I frolicked with the angels, and then they took me to see Jesus, and then we went over here, and we saw God, and we said hi. Is that the one that a movie was made about, or there was another kid that... I don't know. There was only at least two books.

I should have done more research before I brought this into the podcast. But you hear stuff like that, too, and you're just like, oh, man, come on, this is all bull. So, I don't know. Well, how is the Baha'i faith different than Buddhism? You guys are way more handsome in person. Oh, really? Yeah.

Well, I could say the same about you. Just be more specific. I changed my mind. Okay, you see. Weirdo. We listened to the USC commencement speech. Yeah. We weren't students.

We just watched it on YouTube. Yeah, yeah. A couple of hours ago. It's a big YouTube video. I mean, you talk about eliminating desire, which is a Buddhist principle, but so I was curious how the Baha'i faith was different than Buddhism. The Baha'i faith was different than Buddhism.

The Baha'i faith is different than Buddhism because Baha'is believe that there's a God, first of all. In Buddhism, there's hints at something higher, but the Buddha didn't really talk about God so much, and that's a longer discussion about why that was. But Baha'is believe that God, and there's only one God, and that all the religious faiths worship this one God, and that God sends down every once in a while these divine teachers, or divine healers, really, that are there to uplift mankind and teach them these spiritual truths, and that's, you know, Muhammad and Jesus and the Buddha and Krishna and Abraham and Moses and these, and now Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah is the most recent one of these divine

teachers, and they bring a message for humanity to, for their spiritual healing to that particular people in that particular time. You know, Muhammad's message was for the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in the year 600. You know, there's still a number of universal truths there in what he spoke that are really beautiful if you really look at the Quran. But a lot of it was for his audience. You got to know your audience, right? Your podcasters. So Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah's teachings, so how is Baha'i faith different than the Buddha? We believe that Baha'u'llah's teachings are the way to help heal the world.

And there's- In its current incarnation. In its current state, in this modern world, and that unity is the key word, and unity of the races, equality of men and women, universal education, elimination of prejudice, seeing the unity in all of the religions, eliminating extremes of wealth and poverty as we see more and more. That's a spiritual teaching in the Baha'i faith, eliminating the extremes of wealth and poverty, but not through communism, but spiritually tackling this issue. Okay, so the Baha'u'llah. Baha'u'llah, yeah.

Baha'u'llah. I know it's a tough one. Baha'u'llah. Baha, like Baha Peninsula? Baha'u'llah. Baha'u'llah. There you go. And that name means the glory of God in Persian. Is he hanging out in Agora Hills?

Or where is he right now? He is in Agora Hills. He's in my basement. Oh, gosh. No, he lived in Persia in the mid-1800s, and he died in 1890 or so. Okay. Yeah.

But Baha'i faith spread from there. He was tortured by the Muslim authorities and tens of thousands of Baha'is were killed by the Muslims in the early days. And he was banished from country to country. He ended up going to like Syria and where Jordan is and then over to Turkey and then down to Egypt. And then he was in Palestine where he spent his whole life in prison. But now the Baha'i faith is very –it's the second most widespread religion in the world. There's about five or six million adherents around. And I hope that people have positive experience with Baha'is.

Baha'is aren't allowed to proselytize. They're not allowed to try and convert anybody. That's a law to not try and convert anybody. That being said, we talk about it like I'm doing right now. People are interested in checking it out. That's totally cool. But we don't go to people's doors and grab them and shake pamphlets in their face or anything like that. Got it.

Your parents are Baha'i faith. You were raised Baha'i faith. I was raised in the Baha'i faith. My parents are kind of hippie, bohemian types in Seattle. And then when I went to New York City, I was 20 years old. I went to acting school and I basically rebelled against everything I'd grown up with. And I became an atheist. Did something happen or it was just that? You know, I just didn't want any morality. I didn't, yeah, I didn't want any morality. I was angry at my parents and I just rebelled against all of it. And so I, you know, I just didn't want any morality. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't want any morality. I was angry at my parents and I just rebelled against all of it.

And so I, you know, I wanted to drink and use drugs and I wanted to have sex and I wanted to be a bohemian in Greenwich Village in the 80s. And I went to acting school and dyed my hair black and smoked filterless cigarettes and talked about Bertrand Brecht a lot. And and so I was a really annoying young man. How long did that phase last? Ten years. For reals. Yeah. So it really had nothing to do with any kind of spirituality or faith.

And I really just focused on being an actor, and kind of in a weird way, theater and acting became my religious faith. So I really thought that we could change the world if we did really important, cool theater. So we could do the right Chekhov play in the right church basement to the right 14 people that we could like blow their minds. But you were, so you were, you didn't become a bad person. You just started doing things that were kind of outlawed,

but you still wanted to make a difference, but it was through the power of theater. That's it. That's exactly right. Yeah, I wasn't a bad person. I was an annoying person. I'm probably still an annoying person a little bit, so there's that.

Did you become hopeless? Yeah, so that was, I really did. That was, you know, I was in, all of a sudden, so this is when I talked about that at the USC speech about happiness. I feel like I learned firsthand that we think about happiness as like, oh, if I get this, then I'll be happy. Or if I get X, Y, and Z, those puzzle pieces fit together, then I'll be happy. And basically I had everything I'd ever wanted, which was I was a working actor,

playing great roles, working with great directors in New York City, living in New York City. I had a beautiful girlfriend, now my wife, Holiday Reinhorn. And she was awesome. And here it was, I had the woman, i had this career that i'd always wanted i was living in in the coolest place on earth and i just was really unhappy i just found you know just at night i was just waking up super unhappy and unmotivated and i was like what is going on and it was kind of that deep thing of like is there's got to be some other meaning to this i can't just you know because, cause I realized pretty soon you

realize you do any art like, Oh, I'm not going to change the world with the theater. I mean, I'm going to do some really cool plays and people are going to be jazzed. I'm going to do some really plays and people are going to be pissed that they had to come see me in them. And, um, and, and so, um, I realized that the truth was not to be found there. And that's kind of when I went on a spiritual journey of sorts and read a lot of spiritual books and holy books and did a lot of meditating. So that was an interesting time. Did you maintain a dialogue with your parents at that time

about deeper issues? I didn't really talk to them about it. Really? No. But there was a moment when you said, I'm back, to yourself. Yeah, well I- To God. This is a very long story.

I didn't know we were gonna get so heavy in this podcast. I thought we were gonna joke around about the new Star Wars movie or something, you know? We'll get there. Okay, no, I mean this is- You're digging on this. This is good stuff. Oh, you like this rich stuff? Okay.

I mean, I know you're just like that six-year-old. You're making it up as you go. It's pretty obvious, but I'm buying the book. Okay, good. I saw angels in heaven. Man. Yeah, man. Basically, I was reading a book about Native American spirituality,

and it described the Lakota Sioux definition of God as wankantanka, and this idea that God is everywhere and it's within us and without us and coursing through all of nature. God is beyond time and beyond space. It's all loving, that is reflected through nature and in the four directions, and our ancestors are part of this experience and the animals. And I was reading about Wangkentonga, and the name literally translates as the great mystery. So the Lakota Sioux translates as the great mystery. So the Lakota Sioux called God

the great mystery. I was like, wow, I could totally get with this. And that kind of led me back to God. I went from atheist to agnostic. And I was like, I can get with the great mystery. I feel that in my heart that there's something more. There's some higher purpose. We're not just a random assortment of molecules who somehow gained consciousness on this ball of mud up here and then when we die it's just the end and then when the earth blows up it's just this matter floating around in space and i i just really felt like there was something more and that's kind of what led me to read the the holy books of the world. I read the Quran and the Bible, and I read the works of the Buddha and the Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism,

and I just really dug in. And then I found my way back to the Baha'i writings, and I read them again, and I was like, you know, this just makes sense to me. It just makes the most sense. And, you know, it was a long, slow journey kind of tiptoeing back, but it's been nice. Yeah.

And how long have you been married? 19 years. Wow. Yeah. Going on 20. Yeah. I mean, so going on 20, this has gotta be like a special celebration.

I mean, you can't screw this up. What kind of expectations do you have and does your wife have about stuff like that? Is it like 20, okay, we're going to Italy? Because I think that's what my wife has already said. Oh, really? Yeah, she, my wife, it's so funny, she, like now, like things mean a lot,

like her birthday and the anniversary, we never celebrated like Valentine's Day, that was never like a thing. And now all of a sudden, it was kind of almost started like last year, like, I hope we're doing something special. Like she's got, I don't know.

I thought you got older, that stuff went away, but she's very like- Well, it's like a midlife romantic crisis. Well, yeah. There's not a crisis, but she definitely wants- I don't recommend that being your response. Honey, you're just going through a midlife romantic crisis. I'll be waiting on the other side.

Birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, that's, yeah, it's good. It's almost 20 years we've been together. Been together 23, 24 years, all told. So it's great. It's awesome. She's an incredible person. She's a great writer. She wrote a book of short stories and went to the Iowa Writers Workshop and she's writing a novel

right now and she rides horses. She does dressage riding and horses competes and stuff. Well, you can do that kind of thing when you live outside of town. Yeah. Is that why you're out there in the far hills? Yes. The way far into the valley kind of thing when you live outside of town. Yeah. Is that why you're out there in the, like the far hills, the way far into the valley kind of thing? Yeah, there's horse country out there. Exactly. Well, you know, there's rednecks out there too. We went to a Merle Haggard concert at the Canyon Club.

Oh, that's very close to my house. And we're huge Merle fans, and we've kind of developed a connection with him and his son who's in his band. Nice. We've been fans forever so we got invited to the concert at the Canyon Club. We're like, Gore Hills, that's right down the road.

Canyon Club, you ever been there? I've been there, yeah. I saw Courtney Love there, I saw X there. Well when you see Merle there. Yeah, I wanna see Merle. I mean, you gotta see. Did you have the dinner? It's like a dinner theater.

Yes, yes. What'd you have, like the spaghetti or the steak? We just got drinks because they were like, we're gonna find you a place and we ended up, they put us in the way back and it was, he was about to start. But we're from rural North Carolina, so we're very familiar with what a country bar looks like.

But I was just like, this is right outside of town and these people are for real. Yeah, oh yeah. But you're out there for your wife to have the horses. Yeah, and I like- Do you ride a horse? No, no. I like the countryside too. I mean, we have like owls and foxes.

We had foxes outside our house. Not coyotes, foxes. But a fox and a tree. Really? Yeah, we also have a zonkey tree yeah we also have a we have a zonkey link we have a zonkey like personally you own a zonkey we own a zonkey it's in our backyard oh my goodness it's a it's a horse and a think about it a zebra zebra and a donkey yes yes what why do you need the horse at all no there's no there's... I'm sorry. I said horse. It's donkey zebra mix. Derek the Zonkey, he lives at

our house. What does he do? He eats and he sh**s. How did you acquire Derek? He's kind of a dick. Can you take pictures with him? Yeah. You guys want to come out and take a picture with Derek the Zonkey? Absolutely. For your next album cover or something?

Yeah. That's why you set up this whole thing. And now we're to it. Yeah, that's the nameonkey? Absolutely. That's, I mean, that's what I'm getting at. for your next album cover or something? Yeah. That's why you set up this whole thing. Well, incidentally. And now we're to it. Yeah, that's the name of the upcoming album. Yeah. Zonkey. Derek the Zonkey.

So. No, how did you get Derek? Where does one acquire a zonkey? Okay, okay. Did you breed him? Okay. My wife saw a zonkey. She fell in love with it.

She said, I want a zonkey. I was like, yes, dear, whatever you want, dear. Of course, dear. So she went to Zonkey's. No love with it she said i want a zonkey i was like yes dear whatever you want dear of course dear so she went to zonkeys no she went to zebras are us.com i'm not kidding google it right now i am not on your computer i will i'm not kidding zebras are us.com riverside california and she plunked down like three grand and they delivered a Zonkey to our house and my son named him Derek. Now if I may, imagine being the first donkey

in your group of donkeys to mount a zebra. I mean, just think about what you're thinking at that moment. I'm sexing a zebra, guys! You haven't seen that video? Well, it's the stripes, man. Just think about the elation of this is working. Oh my God! I think it's working. First of all, it says, welcome to your trusted source.

For zebras, I guess. Is it trusted? Yeah. By you. For sale, this is just a top menu. For sale, what we do, meet and greet. There's a donkey and a zebra. Photo op, see? For hire, I'm just a top menu. For sale, what we do, meet and greet. There's a donkey and a zebra. Photo op, see, for hire.

I'm interested, meet the herd. Meet the herd. How much of the Derek has stripes? Is it? Just his legs. Just his legs? Just the legs. Yeah, the legs are stripey, but his mane. He dipped in zebra a little? Yeah, exactly, perfect description.

But his main is um zebra-esque but he's got a big donkey head what's his temperament man we should have started with this he's been really sweet um he was really sweet but now he's kind of being a dick like to me he's to he's like territorial so i'll like feed him and he'll like push me out of the way To get to the bucket And get his head in there And kind of like swing his butt around He won't like kick at me But just kind of like bullying

So we have to do some training Assish I mean my mom has five donkeys Yeah And once I tell her about this zonkey thing I knew they existed But I never brought it up to her And she's gonna

She's gonna go nuts. But donkeys are sweet mostly, right? She's got some mean ones and they have to be separate. You can't have two Jacks in the same pen because they'll, you know, they'll fight. Yeah. And they're partial. Like princes. You can't have two human Jacks.

Like Jack Black and Jack Bauer could never be in the same room. No, that never works. I can't think of one example that would work. Though he was up for the role. Wow, didn't know that. Wow. Fantastic.

Did you say fact as a testament to Dwight just then? I think it was subconscious. No, it wasn't intentional, but it was- Yeah, but it was definitely- It was there. Should I apologize? No. No, it was great.

I love it. Oh, fact. Were you on Lopez tonight? I see you got it was. Yeah, but it was definitely. It was there. Should I apologize? No, that was great, I love it. Oh, fact. Were you on Lopez tonight? I see you got the mug. Oh yeah, I was hoping you would notice that too. We were both on Lopez tonight. Oh really, yeah. That's another thing that unites us.

Yeah, that was. Let's talk about how great that was. I liken it to when I first made love to a zebra. You know, you were really excited but it was a little confusing. It's like, this is working! Yeah. He's really energetic.

He's really, the audience was so loud. The audience is loud. It was, and it was our first ever late night appearance. They're not like that normally. They're not like that, where you kinda go on and like, hey, look it's Ray Wilson! Hey, nice shirt! Thanks George, and the audience is like,

ha ha! And there's a lot of them. It was a big,'s Ryan Wilson. Hey, nice shirt. Thanks, George. And the audience is like, ah! And there's a lot of them. It was a big place. It was scary. It was scary. Yeah, it was not a good first experience. The show's not on anymore. I don't know if you've.

I noticed. But the mug still works. Lives on. It's a beautiful mug. Do you have any other animals? Because we should've started and stuck with the Zonkey thing for the whole hour. Just do some editing.

Do some editing on this. Put it back at the top. We really don't. Stick it at the top. We really don't edit. You know, it's just, you get what you get. It's a, we have a- Do you have any other ones? We have a miniature horse, we have two people's- Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh my gosh. Hold on, hold on, hold on. You gotta understand what just happened. How many, what? I can't believe this. Miniature horse, no lie, is Link's favorite animal, so much so that we have miniature horse Monday on our Instagram. No.

Every Monday. Can I buy a ticket to your house? Yes. And we have tried. $1,400. We have tried many a times. In fact, we were trying to get a chariot pulled by miniature horses recently

until we were told that that was inhumane. But how is that inhumane? I don't know, that's what the Humane Society told us. It's inhumane to have miniature horse pulling? They were like, oh, they can't do that. A grown man. They're miniatures. They can do that? And we were like, it's wheels,

and he's like 150 pounds. They're as big as a donkey. You'd have donkeys could pull a chariot. Well, oh yeah. It could be a small chariot with a small person on it, child. What do you use? Have the chariot pull around that kid who made up the story about the angels. What do you, oh, bring it. This around that kid who made up the story about the angels. We'll bring him.

This is really gonna be fun when we come out there. Yeah, right. I am so inviting myself. You guys are so, you have so invited yourself to my house. Definitely. Mission accomplished. What's the miniature horse's name? Reba.

Man. She's a little feisty little gal. Wow. And what is, what utility does she serve? Because they can be seeing eye ponies for some people. She does come in the house. She has shoes.

What? She has miniature horse shoes my wife puts on and brings her in the house. Does she like it in there? She looks around. She goes over to the refrigerator. Yeah. And she wants carrots. Oh, she's a carrot eater. She has carrots to the refrigerator. Yeah. And she wants carrots. Oh, she's a carrot eater.

She knows there's carrots in there. That is great. And your son can ride Reba? No, you can't ride Derek or Reba. They're too difficult. Okay. My wife likes them. She loves animals, and she's also got some horses, and it's fun, man.

It's fun. And I don't touch them really, I don't really have much to do with them. Well it sounds like Swiss Family Robinson at your home. It's a little bit, yeah, it's a little bit. It's a fun place. Wow. What else, any other odd animals?

Just some fish and some guinea pigs. Yeah. Link's got a couple of hermit crabs. It's a sore subject because, well, I don't anymore. You have zero now? You ate them? Well, he neglected one until it died. Oh.

Sorry to hear that. It's my kids, man. Yeah, he was left in charge when they went back to North Carolina and one of them died. Oh, oh. Yeah, it's not good. That's not good.

That's not good. That's why I said it's a sore subject. I'd rather not talk about it. Okay, and you just went for it. If we just go back to the zonkey, let's go back to the zonkey energy to wrap up. Yeah. We don't even have to talk about it,

I'm just feeling that energy as a wrap up. As opposed to the hermit crab energy that really brought this down. Yeah, I'm sorry, I really. Really brought it down. I took the crab right out of the shell of this room. Yeah, and this pathetic room. Let's bring it all the way back to the beginning,

this sad, pathetic room in Burbank that you're leaving and apologizing for. Yeah. Zonkeys, zonkeys are fun. Yeah, he makes a crazy sound. He goes like this, he goes. He goes. And he looks, I bet he looks like that too. You've seen that practice.

It's kind of monkey-ish. It's got a little orangutan in it. It is like Planet of the Apes. It's like the, yeah, the orangutans in Planet of the Apes. Well, we'll let you know when we're coming out. Okay, yeah, yeah. You can borrow my Lopez mug until then. We'll send up a flare. I'll take you know when we're coming out. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Please. You can borrow my Lopez mug until then. We'll send up a flare.

I'll take it in trade. Lopez Tonight mug, and you can visit the Zonkey. Okay. Deal? Yes. Deal. Rhett and Link, thanks for having me on your show. Yeah.

Well, thanks for being here. Thanks, man. Cool. And there you have it. Our Ear Biscuit with Rainn Wilson. I'm super appreciative that Rainn came and hung out with us and let us get to know him in this dimmed lighting atmosphere. You should let Rainn know on Twitter what you think. Tweet at him, Rainn Wilson.

Of course, there's two Ns in Rainn. At the end. Well, no, it's in the middle of Rainn Wilson. At the end of Rainn. R-A-I double N Wilson. Yeah, I think they know what I was saying. Yeah, I know what you're saying too. Anyway, just tweet at him

and tell him what you thought of this Ear Biscuit. Use hashtag Ear Biscuit. I gotta say, it made me feel a little bit better about myself when I found out that Rainn Wilson knew who we were in 2009 and was making phone calls, Link. Yeah, that's a thrill, and I'm gonna add something to that right now. I'm beginning to realize that

there could've been even more to that that he didn't know. There's a connection here, Rhett, think about this, okay? He sees the Red House furniture commercial and he said that he shares it with all of his people and says somebody needs to represent these people in the industry. What happened to us? Totally independent or was it,

we started getting calls from production companies which eventually led to us turning our local commercials on our YouTube channel into the show on IFC. Getting the IFC show, which led to us moving to LA, all of that happened. And the most significant phone call that we got was from Reveille. Which is the production company,

which was also behind what show? The Office. So I don't know if, he obviously didn't realize it. We didn't realize it right when he said it, but now I'm thinking. Well, we just gotta call Todd. Is, yeah, we could ask Todd. Is Rain.

Todd is the producer that reached out to us. He worked for Reveille and helped to produce Commercial Kings. Was it Rain's email about our Red House furniture commercial that got the ball rolling with Reveille which led to us getting the television show which led to basically everything, the fact that- Which led to this moment right here.

This conversation with Rainn Wilson. Does it all go back to Rainn? We can die now. Is that what you're saying? Like the circle's complete? No, I'm just saying we need to go back to Rain and tell him, hey, thank you even more because you may very well be the missing link

in us getting our television show. Maybe we shouldn't call Todd because if he's like, no, no, no, no, then it ruins it, it's not as romantic. Let's just assume that the reason that we got a television show is because of Rainn Wilson. Thank you, Rainn. Thank you, Rainn.

And thank you for introducing us to zebrasrus.com. Yeah, we've been spending a lot of time there. Talk about life changing. I think he's about to send our life in a totally new trajectory of zorse care. Or zonkey. Hey, they sell Zorses too. All I want is a couple of horses,

a couple of donkeys and a couple of zebras of various genders and I wanna breed Zonkeys and Zorses. That's where the money's at. The money's not in just, you know. Having one? Having one. It's making more. It's making more. We can make as many Zonkeys as you want. In fact, that's the name of our website,

allthezonkeysyouwant.com. Allthezonkiesyouwantforless.com. We're gonna undercut Zebras R Us. Okay. We'll look into that. Okay, guys. Please leave us a review on iTunes, it certainly helps. Also, you can comment along with the conversation on SoundCloud, give that a shot.

And we'll see you again next week. We will be on the backs of two zonkies. For another biscuit.