Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - J.K. SIMMONS & MICHELLE SCHUMACHER Bought a Mini Van on a Whim

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Our first official married couple (besides the Meyers parents) join the pod! J.K. Simmons and Michelle Schumaker talk to Seth and Josh about how they met during a production of Peter Pan, what road trips with their family look like, their favorite board games, and more! NissanThanks again to Nissan for supporting Family Trips, and for the reminder to chase bigger, better, more exciting adventures. And enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at nissanusa.com

This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder with seven drive modes. The Pathfinder is built for even the most epic journeys. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Here we go. Hey, Pashi. Hey, Sufi. How are you, my friend? I'm great.

I feel like, I hope that's not weird for people to hear me say, my friend, but I do also consider you a friend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think it's a lot of like, Mackenzie keeps saying, she's like, I hate those people at their weddings

who say, I'm marrying my best friend. And then she's like, but I feel like that. But that's insane, because I'm your best friend. Okay. So she could marry her best friend, but you can't marry your best friend. She can't marry her best friend, but you can't marry your best friend. If she can't marry her best friend, then she won't be marrying me, unless she's,

I am her best friend. I think that's her point. I think it's true, but like we unfortunately have established on this podcast that I'm your best friend. I don't like the term best friend. I'll say that. Oh great, here we go. You know what I wish one of our sponsors was?

A soap box. And we could say, hey, it's time, Flindersen Soap Box, now sponsors, go ahead, why don't you like best friends? What a dumb term. Because it makes you assign status to one of your friends. I've got a lot of friends. And you're my friend, you're my brother.

I'm gonna jump in and say I do have, I do a thing that I don't like where I go, they're one of my best friends. Because of course, best does not imply that there's a bunch of them. Right. So you're wrong there. I'm wrong there. Yeah. And it's just like- By the way, the longer this goes, you're no longer my best friend.

I like ones that are a little bit less pedantic about the use of best friends. Go around to all your friends who aren't number one and tell them who your best friend is, and then see what those other friends think about you. I just think it's a dumb term. Okay. Well, I even forget where this is. Oh good, you're getting married and it seems like you're going to be a real catch. That's where we were. Um, how, uh, some of our very good friends,

Andrew Moskos and Saskia Moss, who started Boom Chicago, our theater in Amsterdam that we got our start at, they were, they're in New York City, and when this is done I'm gonna go have lunch with them, very excited about that. Awesome. They, I did gonna go have lunch with them, very excited about that. Awesome. I did one of my shows with John Oliver at the Beacon Theater in New York City last night.

They came to that, which was a delight. Nice. And John and I each do an hour, and then we do about a half an hour of Q&A, and the very funny Brooks Whelan opens for us, and he does 20 minutes. So it is a, I feel cognizant of, my God, it's so lovely that people are,

stay for this whole thing, right? It's killers of the flower moon. It's killers of the flower moon yet without, you know, an act structure. And I do, my new standup is I do it all in Robert De Niro's Southern accent voice. Oh wow.

I'm very proud of Robert De Niro for pulling out late in the game. He was like, I'm going to do Oklahoma now. I mean, he's got chops. He does have chops. It's great. I like it. Yeah.

It's my new, when I do De Niro now, I'm like, have you heard my De Niro? Hey, you listen to me. My new impression is I do the Oklahoma De Niro. So, but it's this you'll know about Andrew Moscos, who's a straight shooter. One of our dear friends, also a straight shooter. I, you know, he came backstage, and I've always said to people after the show backstage,

I'm like, it wasn't too long, was it? And they're always like, oh my God, no, it was, we were invested the whole time. And I said to Andrew, I'm like, it wasn't too long, was it? And they're always like, oh my God, no, it was, we were invested the whole time. And I said to Andrew, I'm like, did it feel too long to you? And he's like, eh, a little. I'm like, you're the best. Yeah.

Somebody had to be the first one to say it's maybe a little too long, but a lovely night. While you were hanging out with them, I was hanging out with their son, Finn, who is back out in California. He is, Andrew and Saskia their son, Finn, who is back out in California. He is, Andrew Ansosky's son. He is definitely a Dutch kid, but his German grandmother lives in Santa Monica.

And I had an improv show with some Boom Chicago alum, Susie Barrett, Jim Woods, James Kirkland, and Finn showed up. And it's so great to talk to Finn and realize that he has, like, his father, Andrew, is American. Does not speak, speaks the way Andrew speaks, but it's definitely an American accent.

But then you ask Finn, you're like, well, what are you doing, like, these next couple months? He's like, yeah, well, just sort of, you know, gonna be feeling it out. And I'm working at a, be a bartender at this like hip hop club for, yeah, a couple nights a week. And it's, yeah, he could have sort of threaded it one way where he's like, I'm not gonna have this Dutch accent,

but he's so Dutch, it's so great. And everyone loves him. And it's cool, I think in LA, right, you wanna, you want your Dutch American bartender to have that accent. Otherwise, what's the point? Yeah, yeah. You know, that's a value added accent.

This is one of my favorite stories about Finn, because the Moscoses and the Myers, for years, would flip Thanksgivings. Either they would come from Amsterdam and spend it with us in New Hampshire, or our whole family would go to Amsterdam and we would do thanksgiving there. Real country mouse, city mouse style.

It was very nice. Finn, when he was little, he was about two, maybe three as I'm thinking, I'll say two. He was at our house, and again, his mom Saskia only spoke to him in Dutch, and his dad Andrew only spoke to him in English, and that is the best way to be bilingual. But it became very clear that as a two-year-old,

he was mostly talking to his mom, because his Dutch was exceptional, and he only spoke a few words of English. And I remember one night, his mom was carrying him up to bed, and it was just a kid who didn't want to go to bed. And you, I apologize, Posh, you will know this is, this isn't the real Dutch, but he was a mile away

and he was like, no, Ick niet wil slapen, Ick niet wil slapen, wie, mama, mama, nien. Like, just like, and then he looked at us and something in his head clicked and he was looking at us over Saskia's shoulder that we only spoke English and that's why we weren't reacting. And so he went to the well for what he knew in English.

And he just looked at us with an outstretched hand and said, help me! But he also knew like we were all laughing and it wasn't a protest of like, I'm gonna cry. It was, he was playing it up for comedy, even at that young of an age. Yes. Yeah.

I remember another time where, he's older now, back in New Hampshire, and remember there was a, and now that I have kids, I realize, oh, this sort of thing happens all the time, where they have a single-minded idea of what game they want to play, and they don't want any of your help,

and they just want you to do it exactly the way they want to play, and they don't want any of your help, and they just want you to do it exactly the way they want to do it. And remember the year he wanted to play Seekers? It was a version of Hide and Seek, but he goes, no, we will play Seekers now, and you will all hide, because I think maybe he had a headlamp, or there was something he had that made,

in his head he's like, we're going to play Seekers. And we're like, what, do you mean hide and seek? He's like, no, Seekers! And it was. But he's all growns up now. He's all growns up now. Another trip we took that actually just got a bit of a call back on our show,

we went to Scotland one year. Yeah. Do you remember? A bunch of SNL people, you and Mackenzie, went to Scotland one year. Yeah. Do you remember? I do. A bunch of SNL people, you and Mackenzie, went to Scotland in August. It was probably nine years ago. And we, the Kleins, Rob Klein and his wife, Lucy Madison, brought a game.

Do you remember the game? I do. This game has been shared around and I, yeah. It's fantastic. This game is called, and I invite everyone who is listening, if. It's fantastic. This game is called, and I invite everyone who's listening, if you want to see how the game is played, Will Forte was recently on my show

and we played Under the Blanket. Under the Blanket is maybe the best party game you're ever gonna play. And let's say you have eight people, the best, the classic way to play Under the Blanket is four people leave the room. That is their team. They pick one person to crawl back into the room

under a blanket. Big blanket so you can't see your feet. A big blanket, you can't see anything. And they silently crawl in. And let me just tell you, this is the part you can't wrap your head around until you see it. Nothing's funnier than a person on all four, an adult on all fours under a blanket,

slowly shuffling into a room. Yeah. That's kind of the most delightful part. Yeah. It's also delightful because if you're the group that goes into the other room, if you're the group that stays in the living room, let's say, you just continue having a conversation.

There's nothing for you to do in that moment. So the party doesn't stop or the gathering doesn't stop. And if you're in the kitchen, let's say, and part of the team who's putting someone under the blanket, it's fun to be like, who should go under? That little negotiation moment is fun. And anyhow, continue.

But then the person comes in, and obviously the key when you're under the blanket is to not make any noise, because that would give away your identity. And so then the four people keep asking you to do things in hopes that they will hear something from you. Also when you're under the blanket, there is something inherently funny about how hot it is

and how dumb it is. And it is infectious. And so you're trying to be hard on them and they're like, shuffle to the right, shuffle to the left. Now like, raise your butt in the air. And it's really, it is really just a delay. Yeah, and then you don't take too long

and you guess who it is. And then that person under the blanket reveals themselves. Then either you got it right or wrong and that's it. Then you swap. I played that years and years ago at a, like, pre-hangout to a high school reunion at my friends Chris Dion and Jen Raz's house. And I was just back in Bedford, New Hampshire and went to a baseball game, a high school baseball game of a buddy's

son. And Chris Dion was there and his, like, young son who had been there is like, I mean, this is five years ago and his son's very young and he was like, oh yeah, I remember you from Under the Blanket and he's played it at like sleepovers and things. Yeah. Also last night I was going to bed, Mackenzie got in late and I was like trying to fall asleep because I had to get up very early this morning and she comes out of bathroom and said, "'Do you know your brother played under the blanket

on his show?' And I was like, I'm trying to sleep. Like all the lights are out. She's not going to be at full volume. I've already told her like, I got to get up so early, please like, It was new, it was breaking news. She knew that you'd want to see it right away.

Yeah. We had a wonderful conversation. Our first married couple, J.K. Simmons, ooh. Probably best friends. They certainly seemed like it when we talked to them. With J.K. Simmons and Michelle Schumacher? Yeah, they seemed like besties.

Yeah? They'd be very funny if we interviewed a married couple on family trips, and the takeaway was, it's not a going well. You will be able to hear over the course of the podcast that it is not a going well. They were a delightful conversation. We do hope you enjoy it.

But first, why don't you give a listen to Jeff Tweedy. Family trips with the Myers Brothers. Family trips with the Myers Brothers. Here we go. Hey! Whoa! Look how cozy. Here we go. Here we go. Hey. Whoa. Look how cozy. We're very excited because we've only had one other married couple on our podcast and it was our parents.

So. Wait a minute. We're not that old. We have very high hopes that this will be less stressful. For you. For you. Yeah. Exactly. You guys will be fine, but for us, this is already a lot easier.

I will say, you guys have worked together and had our parents work together, they would not still be together. So I think that says something about your longevity and dispositions. Oh yeah, we met working together. So it's kind of come full circle. So you were doing, you met doing Peter Pan.

We did. And this is a, this is a stage production of Peter Pan. Where was it? It was the, I'm pretty sure the most recent Broadway revival with Kathy Rigby as Peter Pan. And it ran for quite a while. I joined about a year into it, and Michelle joined shortly after.

We went on tour. We came back to Broadway. So it was, yeah, it was over a year for us. I was in the hook, and she was Tiger Lilly. So the Paris Indians got together on that one. Yeah. A good example. How soon into the production did you guys think Tiger Lily. So the Parisian Indians got together on that one. Good example. How soon into the production did you guys think

that you were gonna spend the rest of your lives together? I knew right away. It took a little while to figure it out. No, I also knew right away, but yeah, it did take me a while to, I don't know, grow up. Peter Pan, it's a little, there's a little synchronicity there, yeah. I was in my mid-30s by then, but just at the end

of my Peter Pan syndrome. And I was 24, I think I was 24. She was, shh, shh. It's a little, a little fatal robbing. Well guess what, J.K., I'm gonna let you off the hook here because I was 34 and my wife was 24 when we met and I also was still Peter Panning it pretty hard. And I didn't even have the excuse of being in a production.

Yeah, yeah. It works though. I think that's, well, she is what cured me actually. Of course, it does take, sometimes it takes the right person to solve that. And how old are your children now? Joe's 25, he'll be 26 in November, and Olivia's 22.

Almost 23. In July. She's graduating from PACE. That's amazing. Now I do wanna ask something, because we're gonna to ask about trips you guys took as kids, but because you've also been on trips as parents,

do you guys feel when you went on family trips with your kids that you were a good team, or did you turn against one another? Oh, no, there's been no turning against each other on family trips or really otherwise. I mean, there's, I think the teamwork aspect has been, and of course I've been the absent member of the team at times.

So, you know, a lot of times it's been a team of one, you know, when I was on location or somewhere, but no, we haven't had any of those horrible meltdowns that you hear about. Or that you, I don't know, I didn't see the interview with your parents. Maybe you experienced that. Oh yeah, we had the opposite.

If my dad just said word for word what you had said, I think Josh and I both would have just unplugged our headphones. I was wondering, because I was playing golf, I'm home right now, this is my childhood bedroom. It didn't always look like this, but now this is what it's become. Fantastic. And we were playing golf, I'm home right now, this is my childhood bedroom, it didn't always look like this, but now this is what it's become. Fantastic.

And we were playing golf, and I was wondering at what point do you start to talk smack about your partner to your kids? Because both of my parents will now do it, but I feel like when we were little, there was very much a sort of a wall around like, we're not gonna run down mom when we've got you in the car with dad. But now it's pretty regular. So I don't know if that's a situation

that you have or if it's still you're a united front. We're kind of, I don't want to say boring, but in that way. We've actually really gotten to the point now with these adult, you know, kids where we can all give each other, you know, a certain ration of crap, like with the four of us sitting around the table playing a family game and call each other on our little idiosyncrasies and, you know, mostly have a sense of humor about it. Or sometimes, like, you know, it gets deep and then it's like, oh, wow, we were just having fun and now a family therapy session that we've initiated ourselves and, you know, that's a beautiful

thing too. Yeah, it's really cool because we'll be playing a game and then it branches off into just like really, really, like you were saying deep stuff. But what's interesting about it is, as parents now are adult children, right? You have to change the relationship as you guys know with your parents. Yes, we're not it's no longer you need to listen to me, you need to your your your equals your adults. And so it is interesting to, you know, because they have stuff they want to talk about from the past and work out and, and you have to kind of sit there and listen and not get, you know, no, but I did the best I could. And, you know, all that, and they all didn't

ask to be born, you know, all that stuff that you hear about, you just kind of have to go, okay, you know, I, you know, you know what I, at the time, I thought that was the best decision I, you know, based on what I had. And, you know, but it is it but they can go really deep sometimes. And it's but it's cool, because they trust that they can tell us anything, anything. And there's been some stuff, it's like, because I thought it was a perfect mom. Come to find out, you know, I wasn't so perfect. But, of mom come to find out. But you know, I wasn't so perfect. But the fact that they trust that we love them unconditionally, they can tell us anything and talk about anything. And it's okay. In fact, it's good, right? Because you just keep clearing away, clearing away, clearing away. So you

can keep having that positive, healthy, loving, you know, boring, but great relationships. So it's fun, but also sometimes like, and then I gotta go sit in the bathroom. I feel like it wasn't perfect, I didn't mean to score it. We famously still play a lot of hearts as a family, it's because it's just Josh and I and our parents. And we're the opposite. I feel like we've never gotten deep during a card game.

And sometimes my wife will say, what do you guys like talk about during hearts? And I'll say, we talk about who made a bad move in the previous hand. And we ask them to focus up and not let it happen again in the next. I mean, when those conversations really go there, it's like, it's such a generational thing because our parents, my parents, God knows, knew nothing about my, you know, love

life or dating or, you know, any of that. I mean, that was, they were the last people on the planet I would talk to about any of that. And that's like, it's like our kids are talking to their friends when they talk to us about- That's good. That's a very good reflection on the kind of parents you have. It took a little getting used to. Like, oh, wow.

I guess that's the one, the one thing you're not allowed to say to your kids is TMI. Like you do have to say, you have to take all the I they're willing to give you. Yeah, I have a lot of friends with like teenage kids right now and the sort of, not explicit, but just how plainly they speak about sex is shocking to those parents, my friends and to me. And it does seem like it's a generational thing that's become like, no, I'm gonna talk to my parents

about this because why wouldn't I? And that's great. Yeah. Although I will say, then if I start talking about sex. Oh. Oh my God. Yeah, we prefer if you don't. We prefer if you don't.

You talk about, I'm like. Yeah, don't think you can unload it on us either. You're telling me about your sex life. I'm not allowed to tell you about it. Don't think you can unload it on us either. You're telling me about your sex life. I'm not allowed to tell you about it. Look, there's plenty of podcasts for that, Michelle. This is not that. They have haywalls and they're weirdos.

Now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is supported by the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder. From muddy jungle paths to snowy trails to rolling sand dunes, the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder has the capability to take you to some of the most epic destinations on Earth.

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See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner's Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo. Here we go. What games do you guys play as a family? It's you know, she'll have to remember some of the names because

we've gotten so advanced. Mostly our son is the leader of huge fan of the game nerd domes that we've dove into. Viticulture, Clank, Westband. Who's the one? They played one lastetta, they go from like, you know, super simple fun, just like, there's

a called Vendetta that Joe just found. They're mostly Euro games, but where you use your car, it's like a Mad Max Thunderdome. And we have like, go ahead. I just remember the one we played last night, which they had, the three of them had already played a couple of times and I learned last night and they get, it's called Veil of Eternity. OK, and I'm still not sure I know how to play it. Well, you get the first time we played it many times before. But what's really fun is that we have actually like a Spotify,

like a playlist for games. So like Clank will have the Hobbit, you know, because it's, you explore the, like dungeons in the, and then for the Vendetta, which is like just a basic slam. You slam into each other. It's like a Mad Max. We have Mad Max and the Thunderdome. We have that playlist.

It's just great. I love it. Those are elevated games my personal favorites are the co-op games where you know all four of you or however many people are playing are working towards a common goal it's like a hippie commune kind of mindset that have you played crew have you guys played crew we played Crew. Dude, we played the Crew last night. We love Crew. That's his favorite game. And now there's a user generated third version of the Crew that you can find.

Okay. Like even more difficult than complicated. I feel like people right now might be thinking this is a deep, like board game nerd stuff, but I will, I'm also gonna jump in because I sort, like board game nerd stuff, but I will, I'm also going to jump in, because I sort of sometimes. You're calling us nerds now? No, I'm saying that I would, I embrace it.

Anybody who's got kids old enough to play, this crew is a wonderful game. And I just, I highly recommend it. I would have, although I would have preferred JK if you jumped in and said, but my favorite games are like, Hungry Hungry Hippos. Have you taken it way back? Operations, a lot of fun.

Go fish, yeah. What are his favorite games? You said we can talk about it on this podcast. Oh, right, right. Thanks. All right. Oh my God. Stop alluding to it.

Now, where you guys both grew up in the Midwest. Is that an accurate description of your child? No, she was no idea. She was born in the Midwest, but doesn't remember it. Well, I was six months old when we moved to California. So, okay, gotcha. So you're in California. And, JK, your parents were educators?

My dad was a one. We were little kids. He was a public school music teacher. And then when I was 10, we moved from Michigan to Ohio and he was at the Ohio State University in the music department. And my mom was, you know, all the three of us were growing up, she was the stay-at-home mom. And then once my younger brother went to kindergarten, she started her career of arts administration and then in the business world after that, after they moved to Montana. Montana, a place I think a lot of people

would love to go for a vacation. Was it as idyllic as it sounds to live there? Absolutely, yeah. My sister and I, who had both been away from home for a while, went out to, you know, visit. And shortly after that, you know, Yeah, my sister and I, who had both been away from home for a while, went out to visit. And shortly after that, I went back to Columbus and loaded up a U-Haul truck and we cruised across.

We were like, why would we not go to college here? So the three of us ended up graduating from the University of Montana, where my dad was teaching. That's amazing. where my dad was teaching. And we go back. I mean, one of our family trips that we do almost annually now is a road trip from usually from California up to Montana to my old summer theater area up on a big, beautiful lake up there. And is that something you would do with the kids,

that annual road trip? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we do with them still. We're gonna do it again this August, and they're still humoring us by usually going on lots of family road trips with us. How long a drive and how many days do you do it over? It's varied somewhat. It's usually a two-day thing because it's,

what is it, like 100 plus miles. Um, we've had some much more dramatic, like the road trips where we've, you know, pedal to the metal, but, um, yeah, we usually stop in Utah somewhere, spend the night, get a nice dinner, chill, play a little crew in the hotel room. Right. And then now in Vegas, because that's,'s, you know, another off the strip in Vegas. Uh-huh. Another place that's kind of a little sort of getaway oasis for us. So Vegas to Flathead Lake is, that's a pretty long schlep,

but we've done that in one stretch. I've stayed on Flathead Lake. It's great. Up by, yeah. Which shore or west? I think the east. My fiance is an equestrian and competes in Kalispell. There's a big tournament up there, big show up there. Which we, in the little town where I did summer theater,

that was, Kalispell was Dodge. We referred to that going into Dodge because that's the big city. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, nice. When, when the four of you are in the car for a road trip, what is the, are you a family that listens? I'm going to guess based on the fact that you score your own board games, you listen to music. Yeah. I mean, mostly we, the kids plug in kids, whether kids or adults, they plug in, sometimes we'll play Joe or live, we'll put a comedy album on, you know, album. Yeah, that's very funny. Yeah, so yeah, there's some time I mean, a lot of times it's,

you know, it's the 2020s, right? So a lot of times it's, you know, it's the 2020s, right? So a lot of times it's everybody's and I honestly, whether I'm driving by myself or with the family, I've gotten gotten used to, I just kind of focus on the drive and often don't listen to anything just like let my mind do that. Yeah. And then we're going somewhere beautiful. I still do that. Get off your screens and look at the beautiful mountains. You know? He will though, he'll get 10 hours and just nothing.

Like I'm listening to audio books, I'm working on something, I'm watching a movie, kids are just music, music, music. And he'll just be driving. I'm napping, honestly. It's a self driving car and yeah. the kids are just music, music, music, and he'll just be driving. I'm napping, honestly. I mean, I am- It's a self-driving car and yeah. I'm not napping, but I will say like,

it feels very restful to not have to answer questions. And again, my kids are a great deal younger, but you know, when they're all engaged in their own thing, I'm like, this is just two hours of not having to engage, not have to talk to them. And I love them very much, but sometimes I just don't want to talk to them anymore. But enough with the questions.

Yeah. Why? Why? Yeah, why? Are you at the white stage? I don't know how old your kids are. Eight, six and two. So we're, yeah.

We're in the heart of why country. Oh wow. But we, it is funny, we, sometimes that we listening to, you know, we'll play like an audiobook of a story, you know, so it's almost like a fairy tale. And sometimes I had all three kids a few weeks ago, and I forgot that they'll say, Hey, what did what just happened? And I have to say, Oh, I'm completely tuned everybody in the car. I have no idea. I can go back, but I don't even know

the context of what this is. I think they might have just lived happily ever after, perhaps. Yeah, eventually, well. What was the longest road trip you guys did as a family? Well, that was probably the great escape from New York. Mm. Yeah, just when COVID had really hit in earnest in the March of 2020, we were all here in

New York, which, you know, kind of felt like the scariest place on the planet to be. 100%. And, you know, we still had our house in LA, but it was Olivia's freshman year. She was in the dorm. better house in L.A. but it was Olivia's freshman year. She was in the dorm. Joe was in his studio apartment that he'd just gotten. We were in our apartment several blocks away and finally we just thought we got to get out of here. It was also New York is going to shut down. That's what we were talking about. We thought, oh my God, we can't be homebound. Right, yeah. We can't be.

The mayor said basically after tomorrow, They shut down. You can't do anything that's not, you know, go to the drug store. So I- I remember with like, texts were going around from pretty reputable people I know in news saying they might close the bridges in Tunis.

Yeah, no really. Yeah. I mean, that was legitimate concern about I got, you know, we're in Manhattan in the West Village. I get on my bicycle right out to Queens and go buy a minivan, which we, I mean, we've been planning on buying a minivan anyway, because we didn't have a car in New York. And it's like to get away on the weekends book. And I go and it was like that scene from a movie that I never believe when you see, you know, the guy, when he goes to the car dealership and just goes, give me a car and drives away. Yeah. And so what I literally had that, you know, the poor salesman was like, what?

Silver or blue? And I was like, just the closest one you have. They say J.K. Simmons on a bike in Queens is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Well, the 59 feet ridge was, you know, it was the first time I'd done that, yeah. Did you bring the bike back in the van or did you- Yeah, I know, threw the bike in the back There you go.

And came back and then I'll let my wife wife Michelle MacGyver did her thing. Because our son Joe, his roommate, was one of the first people to get COVID. Oh, wow. And he still, four years later, cannot taste or smell anything. A young man, what was he, 20 at the time? Maybe he was 19. And Joe, we didn't, and they were living together in a studio apartment, a tiny studio apartment. So we didn't know, oh my God, because that was when all that was coming out, we didn't and they were living together in a studio apartment, a tiny studio apartment. So we didn't know, oh my god, because that was when all that was coming out.

We're like, what if Joe has what? So I took a, you know, like a big movie poster, how it has the plastic, you know, it's not glass cover. So I took I took one out, I put it in the back of the minivan, I taped it all it was like bubble boy. It was like, you know, that bubble, we put him in the back, and I taped it all it was like bubble boy it was like you know that remember the point bubble we put him in the back and I taped up the holes but I could put food down in it and close it up when we'd stop for bathroom break breaks the minivan the back would go up and then he'd have to jump out the back go to the bathroom but it was like we don't know if he has covid if he doesn't

have covid you know we don't know if they're going to shut the bridges down or not shut the bridges down. He drove nonstop. What was it 36 hours? 35 hours. 35 hours. He stopped once. We went to a hotel, right? From New York to LA.

Yeah, we got up in Albuquerque, finally, and went to a hotel in Albuquerque finally and went to a hotel in Albuquerque that was, it had 400 and some rooms in the hotel. 12 of them were occupied because everybody was, I mean, that whole drive was like a post-apocalyptic, it was us and 18 wheelers on every highway we were on. It was bizarre, terrifying, but like sort of bonding and weirdly fun also. Hey yeah not to uh not to brag but my in-laws were the 11th and 12th people in New Mexico to

get COVID. Fantastic. You might have met them while you're out. Oh you probably did yeah yeah thank you yeah you know they're pretty they're a pretty special. Oh, I'm sorry, so not top 10? No, not top 10. I mean, obviously we're pretty disappointed, but yeah, next pandemic. They learned a lot of lessons. They learned a lot of lessons. When you guys, what about when you guys were kids?

I mean, if you're in, what is it, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, what were your trips, JK? Were you the kind of family that took you? What were your trips, J.K.? Were you the kind of family that took you? All the family trips, and yes, we were in Gross Point. We were the slums of Gross Point, like my cousins here were in the slums of Scarsdale, where it's like the Post Office box, but they weren't living in the lap of luxury. I actually shared a room with my brother.

I'm trying to, I was talking about this recently. The first time I had my own room was the first time I moved, when I moved back home, when my family was in, had moved to Montana and I was 19 years old, the rest of my life that I remember, I was sharing a room with my little brother. So yeah, we would take vacations, which were always road trips. I wasn't on an airplane until I was 16 or 17 years old. And it was always driving to see one set of grandparents

or the other. And where were they, the grandparents? When I was little, up until age nine, my mom's parents were with us in Detroit, Gros Point. And then my dad's family, he was a farm boy from central Illinois. My mom had been born and raised in Chicago, south side of Chicago. So we would go do the long, you know, oh my God, so long for my beleaguered parents, you know, with three of us in the backseat, the road trip to Berwick, Illinois, and, you know, stay on the farm with the, you know, the outhouse in the back and like very, very old school.

And then we would alternate that with, after we moved to Ohio, we would drive, you know, four hours or so from Columbus and back up to Detroit to visit my mom's parents. And then we would go, we would sometimes come all the way out to New York and visit my five cousins and my mom's older brother who lived up in the Byrds.

And he was an ad executive at Gray Advertising here in New York. Do you think it's easy for you to drive 35 hours nonstop because you know you're not going to a farm with an outhouse? That ultimately that's not gonna happen. That's part of it. You'll do whatever it takes. It will be plumbing and heat. Yeah, when you're, yeah.

That I think is the other thing about being a dad and driving now is I know it's, no matter how bad it is, it's still better than how much I hated being in the backseat as a kid. Like, I still know I have the cat birds. Yeah, oh, absolutely, yeah. And our dad was, our parents were, you know, very, our father was a pacifist and actually served in the Army,

but as a conscientious objector, so he didn't have to shoot guns, you know. Oh wow. But you know, a very kind and gentle and peaceful soul but the road trips man, with three kids in the back wouldn't bring out that, you know, he would be this, he'd be turn around and he'd like let off the gas, you know. It's really funny that he managed to make it through

arm service without cracking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that was no problem compared to, you know, three teams. Under the El Rojo with three kids. Was the farm a working farm? And would you be put to work when you went there on vacation? No, I wasn't. We were never there during hay baling season, you know.

Okay. My cousins, God knows, did plenty of that. Yeah. It wasn't a working farm. My grandpa, my dad's dad, Guy, Guy Bold. Oh, great name. He had a small herd of cattle. He had a small cornfield, you know, adjacent to that pasture. And he was also, because the farm wasn't really big enough to sustain my grandma, had a giant vegetable garden where she grew everything.

And they had chickens. And then he also was the mailman, the rural mailman, who, I think, by the time I was aware, he was driving one of those jeeps with the steering wheel on the right like you're in the UK. But prior to that, he rode a horse and did the rounds of dropping off the mail and occasionally like, oh, Ma Kettle is in labor again, go tell the doc and he, you know, get on his horse and let the doc know because the party line was busy. So it was very old school at grandma and grandpa's farm. That's great.

Yeah, that's, I kind of wanna, in my mind, I want a guy named Guy Bolt to have to get on a horse to deliver news. My cool cousin Kenny was the one that called him Guy Bolt. He was the one that assigned, he and his dad, where my uncle Dell were the ones that assigned all the nicknames. But his real name was Guy.

His real name was Guy. His real name was Guy. Yeah, Guy. And now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is supported by the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder. Hey Pashi. Yes, Sufi.

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Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. Towing capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner's Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo. So you were in California, did you have your formative years, Michelle? I grew up in San Diego.

Another place that's a real good vacation destination, you guys sort of ended up in nice places. Yeah, SeaWorld, the Wild Animal Park, the zoo. How often does a person who lived in San Diego go to SeaWorld? Yeah, I was wondering. I was wondering if you go to like field trips or? Statue of Liberty, you know.

No, actually, no, actually, you know, a couple of times. We went to the zoo a lot. We'd get gear passes to go to the zoo a lot. But we didn't have a lot of money growing up. And we did have a small, small, small boat and we would drive our station wagon to Lake Mead outside of Vegas. You know Lake Mead? Yeah.

When it was a lake. Hot, hot, hot desert and you're pulling a boat with an old station wagon so we couldn't have air conditioning. Sorry to interject. Five kids. five kids. Five kids. Oh my god. Seven cramped into, you know, no seat belts.

I'm like laying on the ground. It was just, and couldn't use air conditioning because otherwise the car couldn't pull the boat in the back. So, and then we'd go to Lake Mead and play in the water. And you know, only years later we found out that's where like they dump all the bodies and everything. I was like, but that was it. That was our vacation.

You're really on a knives edge when the tipping point of being able to pull the boat is the AC being on. Like I feel like that's real. I mean that is true. Like, oh God, please, we would pray don't break down. Don't break down. Yeah, you're really asking for it. Everywhere, that whole drive is like the worst place

to break down. It's horrible. Don't worry. A miracle that they didn't end up stranded on the side of the road, you know, passed out from heat. And then would the, so how long was that drive? It's, well, with the pulling a boat,

it was like, you know, five, six hours. And then would you stay in a hotel? You would stay at Circus Circus, because you could get like two rooms for 25 bucks or something. Gotcha. And, you know, it's filled with kids and families and then, you know, some other types. Yeah. I'm sure it's great now. It's still Vegas.

And guys who just got back from what they call the dumping in the lake. Exactly. When I read about that later as a grownup, I was like, oh my God, like we've been swimming in that water and they, you know. Yeah, don't people camp along the sides of Lake Mead as well? I feel like, I feel like we have friends.

I think why, not back then. Actually there weren't a lot of people there when we would go there. Gotcha. We're talking, this is decades ago, Actually, there weren't a lot of people there when we would go there. Gotcha. We're talking, this is decades ago, but yeah, there weren't a lot of people there. Was that a speedboat? Was that like a motorboat that you had?

It was a little, it was like a, it was like a little speedboat. We'd go water skiing, but you could only pull like, you know. Fast turns. You could, yeah, I guess it was just an old, you know. But it was great. You couldn't have the AC on in the boat

or else you couldn't water ski. No AC in the boat. Wait, but it's so, you keep saying small boat, but I'm imagining could fit seven, right? No. Okay. No, no, no. And my dad was short and really fat.

Like, I'm sorry. Stout, don't tell him. He was stout, stout. Yeah, okay, got it. He had a huge stomach. He was like, and so him alone, you know, and you wouldn't let anybody else drive the boat. So the boat would be a little bit like that. And you couldn't really get it was so hard. I don't think a water skiing, but you need a little you need a little to get up. Yeah, of course. Right. So you'd be like, oh, if your skis would be, you'd be like halfway in the water, halfway out, because the boat just couldn't.

Even, and we were kids. But eventually you'd kind of get up. But as they- You're basically being dragged through the water. You're being dragged, basically. And so if you couldn't all fit in the boat, would the rest of you like wait on the shore, wait for your turn?

And then- You couldn't wait, yeah. And then he'd do one and well, one or two, the little ones, that's younger ones could go two at a time, but my elder brother and sister, they'd have to wait, you know, one at a time. Wow. But it was fun, you know, I mean, it was fun.

It was a family, you know, it was a family. And so, that was a trip you would look forward to. It's like, we're gonna take a boat out. Oh, that's great. I did, yeah. Except the heat, you know, going was a family man. So that was a trip you would look forward to, if like we're gonna take a boat out. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's great. I did, yeah. Except the heat, you know, going through that valley. Yeah, that was hard. It was so hard.

We're almost there. It was so hard. That's a, yeah. A hot drive, they can get worse. I just have to finish it with this though. One time my sister said, I said, mom, you know, I'm really thirsty. Can I have some water?

And we didn't, I don't know why. I don't know if we drank it all. I don't remember the story. I was young, but my mom goes like this. My mom holds up her hand and she pours, she just mimes pouring a glass and she goes, here you go. And she gave it to her. And it was like, actually, you know what?

Maybe I need some therapy. I don't know. Oh, that's really funny. If we had the extra weight of a liter of water in the car, we wouldn't be able to use the windshield wipers. Windshield wipers? We didn't have those. I was going to say, you probably didn't need them.

When's it going to rain? We weren't rich. I love that she says, whenever she's telling old family stories, she consistently says, my sister or my brother. And I'm like, you have two of each. I do, I have two of each. Who am I talking about?

There's one of each of them. You should know from the way, the intonation, which one she's talking about. Oh, that's true, yeah. Sometimes it's clear, yeah. Oh, you can tell, especially between the sisters. JK, when you went to go see these cousins in New York, would you stay out in the suburbs

or would you ever go into the city? I remember going into the city for the 1965 World's Fair. That was a big treat. I was 10 years old, huge trip. And we went to Chinatown and I had saved up enough money. My parents had incentivized us to get spending money for the big trip to the World's Fair. We got paid for how many laps we could swim in the pool.

We went to the public pool and where we'd learned how to swim. And my sister and I, she's two years older, we had to swim lengths of the pool. And my brother who was six had to swim just widths of the pool and that's 25 cents per, you know, whatever lap. So I had enough money to buy a little mini wooden chess set, traveling chess set that closed up with little clasps in Chinatown, which was the highlight of my entire childhood to that point. And then I don't remember anything else about the World Fair, the train trip in from from Westchester down through, you know, the Bronx

and Harlem and upper Manhattan and better than and then and then the I assume the subway up to Queens. I don't even remember that. But we usually and oftentimes we would also incorporate with my five cousins, their family vacation out to Long Island. Where the, so the seven, 11 of us, you know, our parents would rent two little cabins that were supposed to seat four people, or sleep four people, and we'd cram in and cuddle in and go play in the surf on Long Island,

which was a gigantic treat. Oh, absolutely. I remember the first time I went into New York City without my parents, I went, and you'll be able to tell me, JK, actually, exactly when this happened maybe, but my friend and I went into New York City on our own. We were in high school and we went to Broadway

and we saw laughter on, I don't remember the floor. The 23rd floor. The 23rd floor. And you were in it. And I only, you know, at the time I just remembered, I had remembered seeing you because then when I started seeing you and other things, I was like, wait, I think I saw.

1994. 1994, I think I saw. 1994. 1994, so there you go. And that's actually another job that we, after the Broadway run, we did, you know, there's usually the national tour after that. And that was another job that we did together. Michelle joined the cast for the, you know, for the wonderful Jerry Zaks and Neil,

and played the secretary. Oh, wow. That was 30 years ago. That was 30 years ago. There you go. So now you guys, real quick, I think for people, even I have a great curiosity about these touring productions.

When you take a show on the road, how long are you in each successive stop? Well, that varies a lot. You know, there's like the top-top tours, you know, you're sitting for months in only the big, like LA, Chicago, you know, and then the bus and truck tours. I mean, we've both done both, you know,

like the pretty high-level tours and then the bus and truck tours, which is a contract writer with the actors equity, you know, where you do split weeks, you know, where you do, you know, three shows in Frankfurt, Tennessee, and then four shows in Memphis. And you know, you're literally on the bus on Thursday, get to the theater, do the show that night kind of thing. So it's, but still at the time, I mean, for a theater actor, that's gold. I mean, you're getting paid, at least for me,

a lot more than I was used to doing regional theater and things, plus you get to per diem and you're, you know, you're, and if you're, you know, if you're shacking you're, you know, you're, and if you're, you know, if you're shacking up with, you know, Tiger Lily or, or the, what was it? We never shacked up on the road.

No, we did on the laughter tour. What was your, I mean, we were almost married then. Yeah. What was your character in life? Oh my God. The second Jared. It was 30 years ago. It was 30 years ago.

It was no one. Between the two of us, we have the memory of like, you know. We're one of those couples where when you bump into somebody and you go, Helen, Helen was the character. You bump into somebody that you're supposed to know their name. Like neither one of us, like. Oh, no, Helen.

You look to your partner and go help me out and eat them. Yeah. Oh, I do. That's me. When you were going those tours, did you feel like you experienced the cities at all? Do you feel as though that was a good way to see the country or were you so zeroed in on doing the shows

that you would be in and out and never get the texture? Well, I mean, I felt like we got, you know, because by that time you're doing eight shows a week, which, you know, kind of is a lot, but not really, because you're only doing two matinees usually. So, you know, you have dinner after the show at 11 p.m., you sleep until God knows, noon. Right.

And then, you know, you have the whole afternoon free. So yeah, we did a fair amount of it. And especially on that Peter Pan tour, Michelle and her little group of lost boys and Kathy, who played Peter Pan. Yeah, we did all kinds of, and I was a part of that group oftentimes where we'd go do all kinds of fun outings

and yeah, really experience the city. And for me, that tour, I went to like seven or eight, at least, major league ballparks that I'd never been to. You know? Anytime we had a, you know, a Monday night off in Chicago, I was like, you know, Wrigley one time and then the Comiskey, the old Comiskey the next. That was not a nice stadium, Comiskey.

But you were there. I'm glad I saw it, and there's some that you're sad, they tore down, and there's some where you're like, this is for the best. Yeah, yeah. So, this is going somewhere, I promise. So, I first saw you in that Neil Simon play, and then I think the next time I saw you was in Oz,

and it really spoke to your range as the actor, because the first time I saw you it was very light, and the next time it was very dark. And talking to you, obviously you have this incredibly loving relationship, it was very sweet to see you together. And then Michelle, you just, so you directed this film that JK's in,

You Can't Run Forever, and J.K. is just a terrible person. Judging from the trailer, which is all I've seen. Judging from the trailer alone, and I'm guessing there's not a twist here. J.K.'s a real bad guy. Just misunderstood. Unhappy. No, but it must be such a funny moment when, I don't know if it's funny for which one of

you, when you're like, JK, I have a part you're perfect for. Well, I mean, it was because her previous film, I'm Not Here, she also wrote a part for me in which I did not speak a word the entire film. I was on camera. Fantastic. Fantastic. Oh, thank you. I was on camera. Fantastic, fantastic film by the way. Oh thank you.

I love that movie. And you, I mean these are again, I guess I don't know. Based on the movie, I would not have expected, but again, shame on me. Obviously artists are able to be two different things. But you're drawn to a certain kind of work. Well I'm certainly drawn to whatever she's doing. And then the added benefit of You Can't Run Forever that's coming soon to a theater near you is that both of our kids were also

professionally involved in it as well. Olivia is in the film and our son Joe, who recently graduated from NYU Steinhardt Music School, did the entire score. Wow. And depending on which trailer you saw, I don't know if you saw, there were two versions made. Okay. And one of them that has this the singer in it, I don't know if you saw that one, that Olivia wrote that and sings that, and Joe produced that song. That's great. Yeah. So it's just really cool.

It's so, you know, I love working with people I love. I love working with my family and my friends. My brother Randall produced the movie 100% by himself. I mean, usually you see, you know, associate producer, executive producer, line producers, we had none of that. We had, you know, it's a tiny budget, although it's, you know, it's all up on the screen.

We use all the money, you know, is on the screen. And my brother Randall, who's produced all of them, he did it entirely by himself, which I still don't know how he did it. I mean, we had helicopters, you know, we had, well, we had bears and moose and a family of snakes on set, not intentionally. And he just, I mean, it's like-

Yeah, not part of the cast. Not part of the cast. Free moose, free moose. Yeah. He's got it in Western Montana. Montana, we could say. I was gonna say, yeah, I was gonna it. It was giving off some Montana vibes. Yeah.

Now, Josh is the, of the Myers Brothers, Josh is the outdoorsy one. And I will say, where this movie takes place looks very beautiful, but it is, that is kind of how I perceive the outdoors, is that if you go there, at some point, you're going to get chased by a crazy person. And there's gonna be no cell service,

and you're gonna twist an ankle. Or a bear or a moose. Or a meth lab squatter family in the middle of the woods. Well, that was fun. That was a good day, yeah. Oh, wow. You came across that while shooting? I did.

I was there with my DP and my first AD pre-call time because it was just crazy schedules and weird stuff happened as, you know, happens on these things. So we were there pre-dawn, pre-shoot scouting, and we were walking deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, and there's a woman in a truck coming down and she's like, what are you doing on our land?

And I knew this whole like acres and acres was this guy we know and it was his land and we were paying for it. And I was like, oh, well, we're here to shoot and we actually have, you know, I've got this. Shoot, not shoot. No, no, not shoot. Shoot a movie.

Yeah, the meth labs tend to hear it the other way. Oh yeah. And I turned around and her son comes up on a motorcycle and hi on something. And he's like, are you talking to my mom? I'm going to shoot you. I'll kill you. And I'm like sitting there with my first AD, you know?

And I'm just like, you know, we're good. We're good. I start back out. I go back down. Fortunately we had a couple of really great security guards. Like, um, um. Names, names, names. They were awesome. N names were so good as advertised

i'm just impressed you remembered your grandfather was guy at this point he was a guy he was just a guy an old guy now i'm starting to think it was yeah the national guard had to come in uh we had we had no we lost shooting the range now the The Rangers had to come in and they actually, they had like, there was a meth lab, a homemade, I don't know how you do that in the middle of woods. Oh, never do them homemade. You, yeah. I get all my, I get all my meth labs from Etsy.

Yeah. I mean, the moose and the bear were nothing compared to. Growing up in San Diego, did you ever go down to Mexico? Was that a draw? All the time. Yeah. He wanted to go all the time. Actually Chula Vista would just throw a stone

and you hit somebody in Mexico. You could just barf. Not that they would do that. Right, no, right. There was no stone throwing. Would you go down as a family? Or would you go down with siblings? Or was that something you'd do with friends

on like an afternoon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you could, you know, yes, you could drink down there when you were like 16 or something, not that I did. Yeah. I did partake in that, maybe my brother did once or twice.

Possibly. And we take my grandma down there cause just the shopping and the food and that it was so easy. And it wasn't crowded. Yeah, the border was like- The border, you could walk back and forth, back and forth.

Yeah, I did that all the time as a kid. Fun. My family. And it was cool. It was fun. Yeah, I would think it would definitely be a drone. You would do the Canadian version of that across the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor.

Oh, yeah. You know, it was international travel, you know. Go get some pancakes in Ontario. Yeah. It is fun. Years ago, I did a show in Ontario. Yeah, it is. I'd read, I years ago, I did a show in Niagara. And I remember like, I'm like, I'm gonna just walk to Canada.

And then like, you kind of get there and you're like, all right, no. Yeah. A little bit less. You don't always put all the nice stuff just across the border. Yeah. I don't know that we do either for the record.

Right, no. Yeah. Well, T-Pona does though. T-Pona, have you ever walked across? I haven't, I've not been there. Yeah, I mean, I don't do either for the record. Right, no. Well T-Bone does though. Have you ever walked across? I haven't, I've not been there. Yeah, I mean I don't know now, this was a long time ago, but it was all right there. Yeah. It was all right.

Yeah, it was easy. Fun. All right, this has been very lovely talking to you and we now are gonna ask you the questions we ask all of our guests on Family Trips and we invite you each to provide an answer for the questions that ask all of our guests on family trips. And you each, we invite you each to provide an answer for the questions that Josh will ask. Okay.

Here we are. You can only pick one. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous or educational? Wanna go with relaxing? You can only pick one? Yeah, unfortunately. Adventurous, adventurous.

What is your favorite means of transportation? Train, plane, automobile, small boat. I know JK's is bike too many things. Yes. Well, I mean, we like going to sort of interesting fun. We have another trip to Iceland coming up. So I'm a big fan of getting on a plane and go somewhere really different.

I love ships. I don't travel that you say, you know, I love ships. I love, I took a world cruise last year, not with him, with another guy. I was gonna say another guy. With your boyfriend. It is a guy, and he's a friend. You know what, actually, now it changed my mind.

Let's talk about the sex stuff. Let's talk about the sex stuff. Let's talk about the sex stuff now. No, no, no, no, no. No. This is getting exciting. No, no, he co-wrote, I'm not here with me. All right. And we're putting another script.

But it will improve, I love a ship. This one's a little trickier. If you could take a family vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to go a family vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to go on a vacation with? Alive or dead, real or fictional? I think I'd like to go with you guys and your parents.

That's a great call. Wow. I wanna see what's going on there. You're not wrong. I mean, we're just gonna play cards and not talk about the deep stuff. Yeah. But it'll be fun.

I think like a good eight person crew, that's gonna be fun. Yeah. Right, yeah. I was gonna say, she could teach you some more, you know, some more hip games than hearts, I'm just saying. Yeah. I would, I would, I would want to go with Atticus Finch and his family. Excellent.

Good pick. All right, there you go. This one could get a little, a little dicey for you guys being together. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? Yeah. All right, good call. JK, arm around.

Well, the kids aren't here, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say my brother Randall. And I'll tell you why. Okay. I'll say why. Because he would find a way for us to get off the island. Okay, yeah. That's a smart pick.

Well, I think actually it would be MacGyver here. I know based on that. The instructor who would find a way off the island. Where do you consider your hometowns then? San Diego for you, Michelle? Hometown San Diego. Yeah, and JK, what's your hometown? I have no idea. I mean, depending on who I'm talking to, it's Detroit.

Okay. It's Columbus, Ohio, or it's Missoula, Montana. And, you know, I mean, like, like when I'm in Montana, I feel at home in all of them. But I don't feel like any of them is, you know, I mean, I feel like having three of them is kind of a good news, bad news thing. But yeah. Well, would you recommend your hometowns then Detroit, Missoula, Columbus or San Diego? Would you recommend those as a vacation destination? 100%.

Yeah. I mean, like you said, San Diego has everything. Beautiful, perfect weather year round. You've got the beach. You're not that far from even like the mountains and woods and it has everything. It's great. I would say most people in Montana, certainly my old friends who are you know back there, would ask me not to recommend Montana because Montana always they'd have put up a fence 50 years ago and all the Californians, there were bumper stickers when I was in college,

when Montana first started becoming kind of a, oh, Peter Fonda bought a ranch, you know, those kinds of things. There were bumper stickers that said, don't Californicate Montana. Yeah. And that's a prevailing attitude there. Gotcha.

I feel like you can kind of tell, whenever I talk to, you know, people in show business who have places out there, you know like exactly when they made their first money. Cause there was a time, like obviously there was a time in California where the word got out, but it was like, that's where you want to end.

Yeah, yeah. Well, at first it was just like, like the retired transpo guys, you know. Oh wow, they got there first. The crew guys that would move up and, you know, they're not buying a thousand acre ranch up there. They're like, yeah. But yeah, there's definitely a lot of Hollywood

out there now. Yeah. That's great. And then Seth has our final questions. Have you guys been to the Grand Canyon? Yes. Yeah. Is it worth it?

I mean, if you're in Maine and you're getting in the minivan, I don't know if you want to just for that, we were kind of, it was on the way. Oh, okay, so it was on the way. Yeah. Well, no, I went there. I was touring a show and we were close, so I went. I mean, it's hard to get perspective, right?

Like in a way you go, I'm not big on helicopters, they scare me, but that's the way to see it probably, or from a perspective, because when you're right up there, it's hard to get perspective. I mean, it was cool, but it's hard to really, really understand. I'm going to put you guys down as two no's.

Okay. Thank you. You guys are hedging this so hardcore. I'm like, just, all right, so two nos. I mean, Instagram Canyon, it's like, you know. Well, it's just been a delight to talk to both of you. Congratulations on the movie. You can't run forever. The entire family. It's a family affair.

If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast, how can you not go see this movie? And I hope to see you both in person again soon. Thank you so much. Thanks guys. Thank you. Bye. ["Sleepy Town"]

In the sleepy town of Berwick there was a little farm Some cattle and some chickens, not much to do you harm If you had to send a message, the farmer'd hop upon his colt And it would be delivered that farmer was Guy Bolt The farmer was Guy Bolt. The farmer was Guy Bolt. Now many years later, in a town called NYC Michelle Schumacher and J.K. Simmons felt that they had to flee A pandemic was a-brewin', it gave the world a choke

J.K. said, we can do this My granddad was Guy Bolt His granddad was Guy Bolt He hopped upon his bicycle and rode on out to Queens They needed to get moving, but they didn't have the means The bridges and the tunnels were threatening to be closed He brought the van, the minivan, they quickly hit the road They quickly hit the road

They headed cross the country, their son in the back seat. They feared he was infected, so they hung a plastic sheet. And if you trace the origin of the great Zimmin's revolt, That seed was firmly planted by the man they called Guy Bolt. The man they call Guy Boll