Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - JOSH GAD Went On a Houseboat in the Everglades

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

This week Josh Gad joins Seth and Josh on the pod to talk about how Epcot shouldn’t exist, seeing comedy shows in the Catskills, watching rated R movies at a young age, his parents taking him on vacation 20 minutes from their home, goin got a houseboat in the Everglades, reconnecting with his father, and more! Plus, Seth and Josh talk about a very special (and long-awaited) trip they took to…The Grand Canyon! DraftkingsScore big with DraftKings Sportsbook - the number ONE place to bet touchdowns. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code FAMILYTRIPS. That’s code FAMILYTRIPS for new customers to get $250 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks AND get one month of NFL+ Premium! Only on DraftKings LinkedInStart converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We’ll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/familytrips to claim your credit. Terms and Conditions apply. Everyday DoseGo to everydaydose.com/trips for  25% off plus 5 free gifts with your first order.

Hi Pashi. Hi Sufi. This is very nice because I am seeing you right now on Zoom, but I saw you in person just a few days ago. Yeah, at the draft. At the draft. This is an annual event. This was our 18th year of our fantasy football draft.

It is me, it is Pashi, it is 10 of our college friends, some of the best human beings I've ever been lucky enough to meet. Hands down. We get together once a year for our in-person fantasy football draft. And the most wonderful thing about it is whoever wins the previous year

gets to pick the location of the following year's draft. And let's be honest, if there wasn't a Family Trips podcast, we wouldn't have been where we ended up. Yeah, because our good friend, Derek Vandervoort, And let's be honest, if there wasn't a Family Trips podcast, we wouldn't have been where we ended up. Yeah, because our good friend Derek Van Der Voort, who keeps winning, he won three years ago, he won this year and actually pitched an idea

where he thought the loser of the league should have to host the draft because it's a lot of work. Yeah, right. I should know, right, you don't just pick the location, you then are in charge of organizing a draft. Right, but he proposed that rule and was shot down forcefully by the rest of the people. We decided we only wanted drafts hosted by winners.

We didn't want a weekend hosted by a loser. But Derek also listens to the podcast and has listened to you kind of run down the whole idea of the Grand Canyon since we started this. And he sent me a message early on in his planning and he was like, what if we went to the Grand Canyon for the draft? Never occurred to me that I could get burned this way.

I felt I was so Grand Canyon proof in the way I was living my life. How would I be forced to go to the Grand Canyon? And by the way, when we started this podcast, people said, oh my God, you should record one at the Grand Canyon. And I said, no, I don't have time to go to the Grand Canyon.

I've got three kids, I got a full-time job. I'm not taking a leisurely trip to the Grand Canyon. There's only one time a year where I leave my family and that's for my fantasy football draft. And that's certainly not gonna be at the Grand Canyon. And then DV, that's what we call Derek, Derek pulled the rug out from under my feet and sent out an e-vite to the Grand Canyon.

Yeah. And it was, we didn't stay at the Grand Canyon. We weren't camping. And we didn't stay at a hotel because that's not our style. We like to sort of, we like to just be together as much as we can be. And so he rented this ridiculous Airbnb and Flagstaff,

ridiculous because of what a playground it was. It was incredible. There's a volleyball court, bocce ball. Axe throwing. Horseshoes, Pool table. Hot tub. Ping pong table. Golf simulator. Golden tee.

Two sets of like sit down driving video game things. Screening room. Screening room? Yeah. We did it. We went to this screening room and watched a little bit of the new Adam Sandler special. So funny.

So good. Yeah. It was a really a perfect weekend. And on Saturday, which was the day of our draft, we piled in 11 of us into a Sprinter van. We drove about 90 minutes to the Grand Canyon. And then thank you to Lawrence Cisneros. Lauren Cisneros.

Lauren Cisneros who works at the Grand Canyon Conservatory, a former guest on the pod. She hooked us up with this special area that people who work, park rangers, when they have wedding ceremonies, this is where they go. Yeah, a permitted area. Permitted area. And we went up and we all piled out of the van

and we went for the most beautiful, basically what, a mile long hike? Yeah, mile out, mile back, I'd say. Mile out, mile back, along the rim. And I just was sort of toggling back and forth between laughing and getting seriously choked up at the idea that I was at this incredibly beautiful place because Derek was fucking with me.

Yeah. It's one of the greatest pranks of all time. Yeah. Because my favorite thing of the year is the fantasy football draft. Obviously everybody who listens knows how I feel about the Grand Canyon. And he basically tied the two together and dared me to go and I went and you know what, you guys?

It was fantastic. Yeah, I feel like when you get pranked, what you don't often say afterwards is thank you. Yeah, but this was, you know, you got tricked into going. Yeah. And it is truly awe-inspiring, the Grand Canyon. It is, it takes your breath away. And it's bigger than everyone imagined.

Sort of as the fellas walked up to the rim and saw it, it was taking people's breath away. And it's, yeah. We did have a shout out to our friend, Brian Stanchfield. He was our, what was he, our safety? Safety and security expert or chairperson? Officer, yeah. He was, so he was very, made it very clear

that we were not to get within sort of 10 feet of the rim. Yeah. That's due to a lifetime of clumsiness that he's witnessed. Yeah. That's due to a lifetime of clumsiness that he's witnessed. Yeah. Also where we were had this little sort of jutting point that sort of shuts into the canyon called Shoshone Point. Shoshone Point, Google it. And there's a little like rock formation out there

and you could take a small trail that gets you out to the point and then you could sort of stand at this rock formation and be surrounded like 270 degrees by sheer fall off. Now, before you say what kept us from going out there, I also wanna stress I wasn't going out there. Oh yeah. That looked way too precarious to me.

Yeah, I definitely wanted to go out there, and I was headed, along with several of the fellows, we were headed right out there. Not only was I not gonna go out there, had you gone out there, I would have had to turn my back. For real, even talking about it now, the fact that some of us wanted to go out there, I was so happy for what happened that both prevented it

and was cool to look at. The floor is yours. So there was a small single trail to get out there and there's a flat rock sort of right as it opens up a little bit when you go over the sort of skinniest part of the trail. And laying on that flat rock was a ram with the big old curled horns.

I hope it was a ram and not something else, but it sure looked like a ram. A grown ass ram. We're gonna throw it up in the show notes. We'll put it on the Instagram for family trips. It was beautiful. It was majestic. And it was basically saying, this is my point.

You're not coming out here. And it was as if it this is my point. You're not coming out here. And it was as if it had been trained by the conservancy to keep dumb ass tourists from walking out to Shoshone Point. Yeah. Very effective too. Yeah, we also, we were, we got to see how this audio is, but we were recording a little bit.

We had our gear and we were recording when we saw the ram for the first time. And then the ram stood up and walked towards us and it was 12 guys scurrying away as fast as we could, but the ram couldn't have moved slower. They're so animals in those parks are so used to people. But it was not, they say don't poke the bear. And I think the same rule applies for ram.

Just ram, yeah. And also when you're near the rim of a canyon, you don't wanna be near any species that's known for their budding ability. Yeah, yeah. You would be rooting to be hit head on so that you were just knocked straight back because if you were knocked right or left, certain death.

Certain death. We also, when we were on our hike, a couple of times a group of horses came by. Those were mules. Mules. And they would say, excuse us, mules coming through. And we would stand to the side. And the guide who was leading the group, the second time, excuse us, mule's coming through. And we would stand to the side. And the guide who was leading the group

the second time she saw us, because they passed us twice on the way there and on the way back, she said, what are y'all doing? And our friend Jake said the one thing that I never would have said, he said, we're here to do our fantasy football draft. And it was like he said to her, banana toothpaste hockey puck. Like she was like, all right.

Then we started drafting and the sky looked a little ominous. The wind picked up and we heard some distant thunder. And our buddies are, we've got hunters in the mix. We've got some real outdoorsmen. There's a lot of like- Mount bikers, campers, hikers, fly fishermen. These are robust people. Don't try to like take me and scale it out 11 more people.

Right? I'm the city slicker of the bunch. And these dudes were so afraid of the possibility of rain and lightning. And so we had just started our draft. And I have to sort of check myself sometimes because I mean, I feel like when we get angry, it can get ugly real fast.

But there was a sort of like borderline universal movement to like pack it up and get into the van when we had just started drafting. And I was so excited to be at the Grand Canyon. And I definitely turned into a little bit of a baby. And I was like- Not more of a baby than the people who wanted to leave because it was a light rain. Right.

And people were talking about the dangers of lightning. And I was like, but what lightning? Like just because there's thunder doesn't mean there's lightning. I do believe Stan Shil pointed out there were like a hundred trees that had clearly been hit by lightning at some point. Sure, but we were-

But there was no lightning at the time. There was no lightning. Look, I'd be afraid if I was a tree, but we good. Yeah, we also, we were under protection. We had like the Shoshone Point little picnic area. We were covered. It never really opened up in terms of rain. It got a little windy, but we never like,

there was never a big thunder rumble right above us. It was sort of always in the distance. And yeah, I was really taken aback with how afraid our tough guy friends are, or were of rain. Yeah, yeah. Well, since you mentioned tough guy, we are now going to play for all of you,

the moment Josh and I saw the RAM. And we want you to tell us if we sound tough, and also while you're picturing a slow moving RAM, picture Josh and I in headphones carrying microphones, just so many wires. Oh my God. And like so many wires. Oh my God. And like so many wires. It's just a disaster.

I put the gear in like a little backpack so we could sort of be hands free, but then we'd put things down and then everything was tight. It was like Christmas lights that you took out of the box. It was like if you took out Christmas lights, spread them all over the street,

and then a mugger started running at you. And you couldn't leave your Christmas lights. But the mugger was just slowly walking towards you. Slowly, yeah, but yeah. All right, so this is it? Yeah. Have you looked? I've looked.

Okay. Because you were taking too long in the car. Well, somebody had to get the gorp. And then we're passing a series of picnic tables. And Seth is going to walk to the edge of the Grand Canyon. Well, I mean, it's spectacular. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like a lot of our guests have said this, but it's really, it's massively big. And yeah, you do kind of have to be here to appreciate the size. This is a tiny piece of it. You can see just across the way there, those hills, there's so much beyond those. Yeah, but at the same time, I feel like what I'm seeing is enough. You know what I mean?

You, yeah. Yeah. I'm really happy I'm seeing it with you. Yeah. Yeah. So here we you. Yeah. Yeah. So here we are. Here we are. We're gonna go have our fantasy football draft

with these dopes. We're gonna go for a hike and eat some gorp and then have a fantasy football draft the edge of one of God's great creations. So, what are we on, the South Rim, Posh? We're on the South Rim at Shoshone Point. And there's a really cool rock structure that we'd love to go visit.

It looks like a miniature version of those, Easter Island. But why do you tell our listeners why we can't go visit it, Posh? There's a ram. There's a, oh, and the ram's moving. So we're moving. The ram's on the move. And the ram is... Back in the car. Somebody get a, and the ram's moving. The ram's moving. The ram's on the move. And the ram is, somebody get a video of the ram,

but then show it to me, email it to me later. You need to move now. And then if we could just, Sam, can you edit this audio to make us sound brave? So now we're taking a different vantage point on the ram who is standing. We open the beef jerky. The ram is going down a hill.

Oh yeah, he's gonna go down the cool way. Or he's just getting some snacks. Well here we are, it's really quite beautiful. But it was truly, it was truly something else. I also, you know, the drive there, the drive back was great, just being in a car with those dudes. And this is something you started doing at the draft, which is why this podcast ends the way this podcast does.

Every year at the draft, you play, you write, and record a song about all of us. Yeah, I adapt a song. You adapt a song about the draft, and so there's the annual playing of the draft song, and it's so funny and so special, it's one of the reasons I told you when we started doing this,

I think you have to write a song every week. Yeah. I feel like it was maybe one of the best received songs you've ever done. Yeah, it was a good one. It was a good one. They're certainly not safe for work. I try to clean them up for the pod.

And the guys have asked if I can send them through and I might record a clean version if they want to play it for their kids. Oh yeah, interesting. Yeah, they are a little dirty, but you know what? Come on guys. But that's, I mean, look, we're 12 guys. We're 12 guys in a fantasy football draft.

All we do is make fun of each other. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, the fact that we played a lot of pickleball, I just kind of assumed that I'm going to come home and say, you know, I popped my ACL. But don't be mad, it was during non-competitive pickleball. And so everybody kind of came through unscathed and it was really something.

I mean, shout out to Derek, shout out to that entire group of people. Yeah. Thanks to Airbnb who set us up. It was really a cool place to be. And had we known the host's name, I would sing your praises. But yeah, it was really cool.

And this is also really cool. Josh Gahad, somebody whose work I've known for a long time, just had him on the show this last year for the first time. Lovely in person. Oh my gosh, yeah. Even with all that, I was taken aback with how fantastic the stories are about his life. He's got a memoir coming out.

What would we, in Gad, we trust. In Gad, we trust, it's coming out. Which based on the stories he told us is gonna be a must read. He also has a fantastic children's book out right now called Picture Face Lizzie. And it's a wonderful book for your kids. And also if you're the kind of parent who it seems like

maybe every parent is concerned about how our kids interact with screens, it's got a great message about that as well. Yeah, so pick up Picture Face Lizzie and give old Josh Gaddell this and that. Axel walked in at some point and I said, this is Olaf from Frozen, couldn't give a shit. It's actually nice.

It's healthy for me when I see Axl ice other celebs because obviously he's icing me 24-7. Yeah. It's a great conversation, do enjoy it. Listen to a little bit of music first. Family trips with the Mice Brothers. Family trips with the Mice Brothers. This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Here we go. Hey, Pashi.

Hey, Sufi. We're in the middle of our annual fantasy football trip. Yeah, we actually just finished the draft. And we came to Flagstaff, Arizona. And what's really exciting is we got an Airbnb very near the Grand Canyon. Yeah, it was a little bit of a drive, but also we drove past another place

we were maybe gonna stay, and this Airbnb was so much better than that. And we've been doing this draft now for 18 years, and we wanted to do a quick segment called Airbnb versus used to be. If you're hearing some background noise, there's some ping pong, maybe it's beer pong being played in a game room.

But this Airbnb, it has a bocce ball court, a pickleball court, basketball court, a volleyball court, a golf simulator. Also, if you're wondering why we're playing beer pong, we are 22 years old. This would actually be a case where Airbnb and what it used to be are very much the same when it comes to playing beer ball.

One of the biggest differences, of course, is we can all hang out in one room, which is very nice when you're in Airbnb like this, that it's obviously built to entertain. We've got 12 people, so spacious, and everyone has their own bed. And you know, there were a lot of times we stayed in houses that had a lot of beds, just not quite enough for 12 different people. And what used to be is that when they had to pick two people to share a bed, they just picked the siblings. They just assumed we would be the natural fit. And they weren't wrong.

They weren't wrong, but I will say, I have preferred at this Airbnb, and I love you very much, and I think our listeners know I love you very much. It was very nice not to be in the same bed as you. much. And I think our listeners know I love you very much. It was very nice not to be in the same bed as you. Yeah. In the past, we've slept in a lot of, like, children's beds. I remember definitely when you take over a child's bedroom,

you don't feel like a good person. Yeah. And then there's a lot of just delicate constructions. I remember staying in a room where there were so many Lego sets fully constructed. And that did not make for a nice chill, relaxing vacation for me. Yeah. To be amongst the Legos.

Yeah. Well, our friend Mike was at our friend Derek's house a couple years ago and stayed in his daughter Bree's room and Bree had left him a note that said, you please don't cuddle with my stuffed animals, but you can read any of the books. Yeah. Which is nice. That's very nice. And Mike has since regaled us with all the books he read.

He was just telling us about this new one he picked up, where I guess it's about saying good night to the moon. Oh. So yeah. Yeah. He didn't ruin the ending for us. It's a good way to close the day. And of course, the most famous, of course,

is our friend Stanch once was in an air mattress for three straight nights, and every night he would go to bed with it fully inflated, and it would just slowly deflate, and he would just wake up on what was a very thin piece of plastic. Which, he's such a nice guy that he always, he would tell our host, this is great, this is great.

You know another thing I love about being in an Airbnb versus all staying in one of our friend's houses? What was that? The labeling on where to put stuff back. Like we're at a house right now where every single drawer in the kitchen is labeled, you know, utensils, cooking gear, pans. And I'm going to admit something,

I'm very embarrassed about how things used to be when we were at our friend's houses. I was so embarrassed about not knowing where the silverware went that I would just take it with me. I would just throw it, yeah, I would just throw it in my luggage and take it with me. Huh. That, yeah.

That's, uh, that's unusual. And you know, it's nice to have a fridge again. This is something you can't do in the same way when you're in a hotel. I mean, you might have a fridge, but it's probably gonna be tiny. And it's gonna be filled with stuff at a price point that I'm not comfortable with.

Right. Whereas here we had an empty fridge, you know, you stop at the grocery store, you fill it up, and it's just been a wonderful way to spend the last few days. Yeah, and we, you know, we share around the sort of the cooking and the cleaning up, and it lets us sort of live and be on vacation

in a way that we like. Not that we don't like other people, but we sort of don't want to be around other people on a weekend like this. I have always thought you just don't like them. I love people. I love people, but being at a house where you don't have to leave and we're making food

and we're sort of cleaning up, but I like it. I like it so much. And again, this place has so many different outdoor activities, but in general, just fantastic to spend a weekend with all our friends. But you know, annual trips, I highly recommend an annual trip. And it's a great thing to look forward to on the calendar. We've had a really special one. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh my God. You are just, I mean, I feel like you're showing off with your palm fronds behind you. Well, I figured because of the theme of travel, I really wanted to give you guys like less to leave to the imagination.

Yeah, I was gonna say, it looks like you're at some Florida resort and you are a Florida boy, aren't you? Sadly. I was hoping we wouldn't start there. We can back up. But no, I am. I am a Florida boy, technically.

I was born and raised in Florida. But this is, everything you see before you right now is Southern California. Amazing. It's just none of this is here. You're at a restaurant, aren't you? And, oh, beautiful. I am, I am.

I'm at a private booth at the Grove. And it's very, very low key today. Nobody really coming for any food. How you guys doing? It would mean the world to me if I found out after the fact that you had the palms shipped in just for the pod. And as soon as this is over, everything behind you.

What if I had a mini budget for podcasts that ranged from like 20 to $50,000. Just for like the quick video bites that you guys need. And everybody, it's made you a very coveted guest because everyone was like, you know, he does, he puts the time in. His backdrop is something to see. You're gonna have 30 seconds to promote

that are gonna look more beautiful than anybody else's. It's you're going to have 30 seconds to promote that you're going to look more beautiful than anybody else. It's going to look incredible. Now we have talked to so many people on our pod, Josh, who their big vacation was- Thanks for making me feel special. Yeah, I mean, we're really, we've just, everyone we ever wanted. And then we were like, now who? No, but no, Josh, so many people, us included, right?

The big trip was to go to Florida. You grew up in Florida. Did you were you aware growing up that it was a place the rest of the world came for family vacations? I was hyper aware. So like because what happened is you guys ruined our spring break. OK. Like like there was a certain period where like, I would actually be able to go and use my ocean front at Fort Lauderdale Beach. And instead, you assholes came and, you know, wore 1980 Speedos and walked all over our sandy, beautiful beachfronts. But it was, it was one of those things where like a lot of times I remember, especially when I was younger,

we used to do staycations. So we would go to like Marriott, the Marriott beach on like in Fort Lauderdale and like just stay there and pretend to be like tourists ourselves. I'm not sure why my parents thought that that was the way to play it, but. How far was the drive from there to where you lived? It was like 20 minutes. Oh, that's just so weird.

But like, but my parents really gaslit me into thinking we were getting like a hell of a vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like they're like this, you guys, you have no idea. Were you gaslit? Do you remember that being something you were excited about when it was time to go to the Marriott?

I remember I didn't know what the word gaslit was until 2016. Yeah. But I had the sensation. I had the sensation that I was being gaslit. You just didn't know what to call it. Right. Because my friends were going to the Caribbean and I knew they had to get on a plane.

And instead like a 20 minute drive felt wrong compared to that. All that time they were on a plane though, you were sitting poolside sipping on a... That's just like that. This is me trying to relive my childhood right here. That's what this is right now. And then we would go to Disney World all the time. Got it, nice. So like we would, I was born in 81

and we would go like at that time Epcot Center was like new and I remember like at a very young age, we would go to this like weird 1980s concrete version of a utopian society. And, but I but it was incredible. And back then, there were all of these other weird Florida parks, there was a place called baseballball World, I think, that we used to go to. That's a good name.

It was like something like that, like Boardwalk and Baseball, something like that. Yeah. It's all a fever dream at this point. It was like another like alligator park that we used to go to. It was just weird Florida shit. How long a drive was it to Disney World? Four hours.

Wow, okay. So, but would you drive there, drive back the same day, or would you stay? No, we would usually stay. We would stay at the Contemporary. And the Contemporary is that like white, you know, almost like rectangular building that has a monorail going through it. And I remember as a kid being like, oh my God, we're vacationing into the future.

How do we do this? Yeah. Now, way most drive by my house all the time and it's much less cool, but I vividly remember being like so unbelievably like, I was so drawn to that visual and so excited by it. Like it was just so cool. Yeah. And just to set this up real quick, you've got two older brothers, a stepbrother and a step sister.

Yes. Very good research. So you guys do the work. Well, we have people who do the work. Okay. We have producers. If we're interviewing somebody who's going to do the work on their visuals, we do the work on the research.

You guys want to do the work? Yeah. Okay. I'm really impressed. I'm really impressed. Thank you guys for going the extra mile. And their names are Dan Barbara Lewis and Jacko That's what our research is yeah, I feel like you guys may want to start paying

Palm style rates for your right. Okay, so I I have two older brothers Jason and Jeff Jason is 53 Jeff is 51. So there was like 10 years older than me, eight and a half years older than me. Okay. And so like, my brothers were like how I experienced everything from music to movies to travel. So, you know, the first album I remember listening to, or the first song I remember listening to vividly with my brothers was,

It's the End of the World as We Know It, R.E.M. And I remember watching the first Nightmare on Elm Street at like four. So like that should give you just like some idea of the influence that my brothers had on me. But we used to travel a lot. We had a big family. My parents got divorced when I was six.

And prior to that, we used to go on these like big trips with my dad's family and a lot of those trips involved going to Las Vegas. And I remember like being four years old and staying at circus circus and feeling like I was like on the inside of Pennywise's like brain. Like it was a very, even back then it was terrifying to me, just staying where clowns were running rampant. Yeah. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors.

Support for Family Trips comes from LinkedIn ads. Hey Pashi. Yeah Sufi. You know, for a business guy like me, I'm familiar that B2B means business to business. And as a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the ad space can be. If your message isn't targeted to the right audience, it just disappears into the noise.

It's like, why did you even run an ad to begin with if you weren't going to B2B it? Yeah. Using LinkedIn ads. Because with LinkedIn ads, you can precisely reach the professionals who are more likely to find your ad relevant. With their targeting capabilities you can reach them by job title, industry, company, and more. Stand out with LinkedIn ads and start converting your B2B audience into high

quality leads today. Yeah like if we're trying to target family trips we don't want that ad to go to agoraphobics. No. Is that the right word for people who don't like to go outside? Yes it is. All right. Well done. Thanks. You know what? My whole goal with these ads is never to Google things, just to boldly state them and hope

that you'll correct me if I'm wrong. You're doing great. LinkedIn ads allows you to build the right relationships, drive results, and reach your customers in a respectful environment. You'll have direct access to and build relationship with decision makers, billion members, 130 million decision makers, and 10 million C-level executives. You're gonna work with a partner who respects

the B2B world you operate in. 79% of B2B content marketers said LinkedIn provides the best results for paid media. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com slash family trips to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com slash family trips. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Support for family trips comes from everyday

dose. Hey, Paji. Yes, Sufi. I love love coffee. Yes so do I. And you know what? Maybe coffee is not the best for me, which is why I'm very excited about the next generation of coffee, Everyday Dose, which combines delicious coffee, functional mushrooms, nootropics, collagen protein, boosted focus, that's one of the things it gives you, clarity, energy, sleep, and immunity. Those are all great things. It has lion's mane. That's a mushroom that stimulates the intestinal immune system, regulates gut bacteria. Chaga, that's another mushroom, is rich in antioxidants and it aids in immune support. And the collagen protein helps maintain skin elasticity, volume, moisture. It also helps make up proteins

such as keratin that form skin, hair, and. It also helps make up proteins such as keratin that form skin, hair, and nails and make them stronger in addition to your skincare routine. And Posh, I just like it. I like my job and I like my job to help me out, you know? Yeah. Making me a better guy from the inside to the outside. Everybody likes that.

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plus five free gifts with your first order. I will say of that rechargeable frother. Yeah. Mackenzie fired that thing up today. She said this is like a super powered frother because we had a frother and that old frother is gone. Gone. You frothed it.

Yeah. You frothed it right in the garbage. We, yeah. We're going to recycle it. Yeah. But, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeahed it right in the garbage. We, yeah. We're going to recycle it. But, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Ah, throw it in the garbage.

Ha ha ha. Here we go. Were you aware of being maybe introduced to things at an earlier time than your actual peer group? Like, did you, at what age did you realize, oh, because I have siblings, especially brothers who are, you know, eight and 10 years older than me, I was getting a crash course and stuff

that other people weren't seeing for years. I think to a certain extent, that's true. I also think, and I'm not sure if you guys feel the same way that like growing up in the eighties was just different. Yeah. Like I don't, like, I think that that would be more apropos now than it was then.

Like I remember going to Blockbuster, I just got like carte blanche to get whatever the hell I wanted to get. And like my parents just sort of, it was out of sight, out of mind, not in like a non-loving way, but in like a just just that was the traditional way of like raising children back then. So I never really had the sense that I was like more

advanced than my friends because I think all my friends with older siblings had the same experience. We were all sort of like just probably immersing ourselves way too early on in pop culture that we shouldn't have touched. But it was also really exciting. And it was like the forbidden fruit. And, you know, I remember, especially going back to like when we would travel and stuff, my parents would leave us in the hotel room and, you know, my brothers were ridiculous. We would like, they would make like prank calls and do like just dumb 80s shit that kids would do. Like before you had cell phones and had like ways of keeping yourself busy, you created

them. Um, but, but no, I never felt like, oh, this is, I'm more advanced. Yeah. It's interesting how we're, as parents, and yours are actually, I think, a little bit older than mine, so I'm sure you're concerned about social media and what kids can watch on their phones. Big time.

But, you know, when people say kids look at their phones all day, I just looked at a television all day. Like, just nonsense. Like the things I would watch to fill my days. I almost am like happy that my kids have some selection towards their own interests, you know? Oh no. And like, I was watching like Halloween and I was watching Friday the 13th. Like my girls are 10 and 13. I only just let my daughter watch her first rated art movie. A part of me is like, that's ridiculous.

Why am I doing that? It feels like I'm being hypocritical, but at the same time I'm like, what the hell were my parents thinking? No wonder, no wonder I have lifelong anxiety now. Like what was happening in the Gad household? But if you were watching things like Halloween, you know, Nightmare on Elm Street,

I almost would feel like you would be fortified against sort of the fear of clowns at Circus Circus, but you were afraid of all of these things, but you continued to consume them based on who you were around, your brothers primarily? Yeah, I think that like I was terrified, but I also, there was nobody to complain to. So I just like held the fear in. And like if Freddy Krueger was going to come and haunt me in my dreams and massacre me, then that was just going to be something that would happen. And I would have to stay up and avoid sleep and REM at all costs.

But but no, I guess like again, like growing up back then, we didn't have like we didn't talk about that stuff, right? It was just like, oh, this is so cool. My brothers and their friends are all sitting on the couch watching Nightmare on Elm Street, and they're letting me watch with them. So I'm not going to complain because then I can't do it again. Right. You don't wanna be the baby. No, I don't wanna be the baby.

I mean, I saw Fast Times at Ridgemont High when I was like, again, like three or four years old. Like, it's a little early to, you know, be watching movies like that. I saw that too young as well. A real movie that, again, I don't want to spoil it, because it's such a great movie, takes a super dark turn in the last sort of 30 minutes.

And you just think, you definitely as a kid, thinking here's a fun sex romp, even though I don't fully understand sex. And then it has a real like, that's a real like sex education movie as well. I don't think we talk enough about the fact that Judge Reinhold taught so many of us what masturbation was. And that's it.

That's like it could have been we could have had a better tutor. He and we both taught us. Well, what he really taught us was like, lock that door, man. Yeah, lock that door. That's right. It was a great one. It's true.

I wish that character was in the new Axel Foley movie. I wish they just, he had a twin brother who was that guy. I was very happy. So interesting. I know this isn't a podcast about the new Axel Foley movie, but I was very happy to see Judge Reinhold. I thought it was. It looks great.

I know, he looks great. I was very happy. When you would go to Vegas, what would, as a four year old, what were the activities? Cause I know, I feel like Vegas is a very family friendly place now, but I think that's like in the last decade or so. It was not back when I was there.

I mean, you know, like Circus Circus was probably the one hotel on the strip that was like conducive to children, but like, I just remember it being really dark and skeevy, even like as a place for families. It didn't cater to families. It just happened to have like circus themed, you know, lots of gambling tables and slots. There wasn't like a, they didn't go out of their way to like, here's a circus show, kids. It was like, here are people smoking

in front of a circus themed slot machine. Doesn't this make you happy, Charlie? Who was the, the dream destination for it? Was it your dad? Did he want to go to Vegas? You know, we had a bunch of family in California. And so we would, I just remember that we would come out here like once a year and we would do, we would basically do like all of the like national ampoon vacation things.

Like I remember going to the Hoover Dam and I remember water skiing. What's that lake right next to Hoover Dam? Like Powell? Is it like Powell? So I remember like we rented a boat and we would go water skiing and we would go to like Universal Studios in Disneyland and we just sort of like, you know, did the whole California, Nevada thing. But it wasn't like, uh, I gotta go to Vegas years later. I talked about this in my book, by the way, this is perfectly on theme. I have a Brock, a bronchial infection that I just caught on vacation. So it's really, it feels really nice. Yeah. Thank you.

So my dad, after my parents got divorced, my dad once took me to Vegas by myself. And I remember at like seven going to my first burlesque show. And it was such a dark and like, scary thing. Like what should have been like, so oh my god, this is so titillating was like, I don't why are they letting me in here? A. B. What happens now?

Like, I remember like those two thoughts. Does your dad have a conversation with you afterwards and say like, hey, what'd you think, Josh? No, no. I mean, it was like a, it was very much a, hey, isn't this how fathers and sons bond? And I was like, no, this is not. This is not the way it's done.

And for him, the birds and the bees, the bees stands for burlesque. That was- Yes, yes. The bees stand for breast and burlesque. Yeah. Those are the two. Check out these birds at the burlesque show. In general, I feel like Burlesque is a really good way to like almost de horny

a young man. Yeah. You know, I I definitely I definitely like that was not that was not the introduction that would like, you know, pave the way for me to be like, man, women are. I was just really like scared. Yeah, it's like that. Have you ever seen the movie Chaplin? Like it's like that early scene in Chaplin where like his mom has taken him like backstage

and like all these women are in dress and it's just way too young. And then he just like, I guess essentially becomes a pedophile the rest of his life. Like these things don't end well, they like just backfire. Like, and it was just traumatic for me. I was, I wasn't titillated at all. I was just like, this is really dark and scary.

It'd be funny just all these years later, if you just always were wearing tassels and people said, why is that? And it's like, he went, he saw Burlesque at way too young an age. There was that, I don't know what the cartoon was, but that cartoon where the wolf is watching Burlesque and his like eyes pop out of his head.

It's a Tex Avery cartoon, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like to me, that's what- Oh yeah! That's what Burlesque, like that's the first I ever saw of it. And then I've like, maybe like 15 years ago, I went to like a proper Burlesque show and I was like hooping and hollering

like I thought you were supposed to do at Burlesque shows. And everyone was like, hey. And I was like, I need to like respect the craft. Isn't the whole thing? Yeah, it's a very formal event. Yeah, and I was like. It's a very formal event. Yeah, and I was like... It's a very formal event. I wanted to like stomp my foot and like...

Mid-2000s, it was a thing that was happening in LA and I felt like it was almost like a... It was the long dying tale of like the swing dance movement. You know, that like, there were like that. Yes. There were like swing dancing and then people were like, ooh, burlesque is also a thing that nobody likes anymore that we can trick like that. Yes. They were like swing dancing. And then people were like, oh, burlesque is also a thing that nobody likes anymore that we can trick into thinking is good.

Yeah, I think that was also like post Moulin Rouge. Like everybody was like, yeah, we should we should have a place where women can die of consumption without, you know, any regrets. With nothing like we as they cough out their last breath in an alleyway, but nothing but a feather boa to keep them warm. with nothing like we as they cough out their last breath in an alleyway but nothing but a feather boa to keep them warm. When you just back to Epcot real quick I've never been to Epcot so what is oh it seems like and Seth I don't know I've never been and, I don't think I'm confident. I've never been. And can I say it before? I'm gonna let you say your thing.

Even as a kid, it sounded dumb to me. So if you go to Disney, I feel like we went to Disney World, but we didn't go to Epcot. Would you sort of split your time between the two or were you guys like, it's Epcot or bust? You know, it was, Epcot is the most surreal theme park ever built on planet Earth. Like it is just, it should not exist. You like the rides back then were like, you go explore time and see cavemen and see the

evolution of telecommunications. And then another ride is explore the future of like, the land and sea and space. But like, these were like slow rides that made you pontificate life and existentialism. None of them were like thrill rides. This isn't like a park that had like space mountain, but there was something about it that was so addictive because it was so strange.

So I think that like anybody who grew up with that going to like that original park is obsessed with it because there's nothing else like it in the world. Yeah, it's it's nothing else like it in the world. Yeah. It's the craziest. There was a ride that took you through. It was like literally sponsored by Chevron and it started with you going through like the realm of dinosaurs and ended with a film about how dinosaurs are now fossil fuels and how that was like the future of like transportation was formed by these beautiful creatures that are now extinct. And it's wild.

Like it was, it's the most bizarre park ever made. And I love it. I think one of the reasons I wasn't, I felt like I could see that it was some sort of educational scam. I don't think I saw that it was like corporate education, which is a great detail that of course, but you know, at the same time,

there is something cool of it. It feels like the last moment where we still believe that you could be educational and entertaining at the same time. Like I do tip my cap, and I'm sure there's like some dark underbelly to the history. They called it edutainment.

And like I really bought into that. I was like, yes, edutainment and like I really bought into that. I was like, yes, edutain me. I want this. Yeah. I need this. This is, and by the way, far more like entertaining version than like going to school. But also your brothers are, you know, significantly older when you're going to, are they going to Epcot?

Are they over it when you're sort of enamored with it? They're like, where the hell are the roller coasters? Why are we here? Yeah. And then what happens to the, when you do go to Disney World, I imagine that sort of the desires are certainly maybe there's rides you can't even go on because you're not big enough. Like is that?

Oh, I definitely had that. I had the Tom Hanks big syndrome where like I remember cause I had two significantly older brothers. I was so pissed every time they could go on like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain. And I just had to like sit and wait. That is that gap. I would say that gap might be most painful at an amusement park or a fair. Oh it sucked. Yeah. It sucked. I mean like I was just

like really? Like I have to just sit and wait as they like have the time of their lives. Were they this sort of older siblings who were sympathetic or just fully taunting you for the age gap? Oh no, they taunted me. The taunters? My middle brother, Jeff, had this messiah complex, especially after my parents got divorced, where he was like,

I'm gonna assume the position of your father now. And like, it just, that did not, that did not go like well for him or me. And then he used to tell me that if I pursued acting, I would fail and I would be the person who ends up putting pimentos and olives. Like this was the ongoing threat. What a fantastic thing. Presuming that there was like a person who does that job and not a machine, I would be that. It's really, yeah, that's the one thing, they're like, that's the one thing we can't teach a machine to do. Yeah, it's too intricate. Yeah.

What, it's such intricate. Yeah. What? It's such a funny thing for a kid to think is a bad job, but a really good one. Yeah. By the way, when was he aware that this was an itch you had, the acting itch? How old were you? I think it happened, my first visceral memory of getting the bug was my mom and dad took us, and I don't even think my brothers were with me at the time. They took me to the Catskills

because my grandparents were celebrating their 50th anniversary. So we went to the Catskills and we went to see a Borschbelt comic. And I was like five and I was laughing harder than anybody else and I had no clue what the hell the jokes were even about but I knew I loved whatever was happening

and I was like, oh God, I have to do this. Whatever this is, I have to do this. When is the end of the Catskills as a place that families would go? I keep thinking about this. Cause like that was my first and only experience. But I experienced it. I would think those were the dying throws, yeah. That was it.

I must've been like 86, 85, 86. Yeah. And I feel like that was like the tail end of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I do, right? There's something, I like the idea that they saw a young Josh Gad and they were like, all right, we can close up shop now.

We've passed along the essence of what we do. We've done what we needed to do. He will carry on the tradition in different forms. We've just found the next generation's Jackie Mason. There's nothing else to do here. Do you have any recollection of the name of that comic? Hell no. Billy Crystal once asked me,

Billy Crystal has like an encyclopedic knowledge of everything related to the Catskills to the point that he did a movie and a show about it, called Mr. Saturday Night. But so he kept asking me, and I was like, dude, I was four years old. I don't know what you want from me. I just know what I liked,

but I wasn't jotting down notes. Yeah. Or if you were, your penmanship probably was so bad. Yeah. Ter. Or if you were, their penmanship probably was so bad. Yeah. Terrible spelling, terrible spelling. Especially with Yiddish names, it was awful. You said Vegas, sometimes you had like a lot of family. Would the California family and Florida family

like converge on Vegas and would you roll deep? Like how many people would you have on a big Vegas trip? There were probably close to 20. Wow. So there were like four families and we would roll up in like, you know, we would come from Florida. One of the families would come from New York

and then the others were all based in California. And so we would just, yeah, we would, it was awesome. I mean, it was like, it's, post the divorce, we kind of like lost touch with that side of the family, but I have very fond memories before my father cheated on my mother of a, a really swell times with the whole, with the whole gang. of really swell times with the whole gang.

Would you sort of stay together as a unit, like with 20 people on those trips? The kids would, yeah, the kids absolutely would. And so are you at the pool? Like what kind of trouble do you get up to as a group of kids in Vegas? I remember vividly we would go to the pool. I have another memory. So my dad of all places worked in Columbia.

Okay. So my dad, right? Just go with it. Weirdly our dad has done some work in Columbia. So you're a mother. Is that true? In Medellin, yeah. He's done some coffee, some coffee work.

Coffee, some hard-porked quotes on coffee. Weirdly, my dad continues to live and do work in Columbia. Does he really? Does he still spend time? Yes. So my father was in the Emerald business. Okay. And when I was very, like again, when I was four years old, I remember we went there again with like the whole family.

And I just like have these vivid memories of like being in the jungle with my brothers and the family and we would just play like, there were these toys that came in like, I don't even know how to describe them. They were like these green eggs and you would open them and there would be like a surprise in them. I just have this vivid memory.

Do you remember that? Yeah, you'd get them like, a lot of like grocery stores, you'd put like a quarter in a thing that was like next to a dumbbell machine and yeah. So like that's the kind of shit we were doing when my father wasn't taking us on like open door helicopters, which is a real thing, where I literally thought I was gonna die. How old was that? How old do you think you were for your first open door helicopter ride? That was four. I was four. I mean, for mean, I, that for me, that would be great.

When you were too like small to ride a whole, a roller coaster, you must've been like, motherfucker, you know what I've done? Yeah. Tell me I can't go on your roller coaster. Freddy Krueger's a pilot. With a seatbelt. And my dad's brother was,

was flying the helicopter and he stopped the ignition to fuck with us and then the helicopter started like just doing the craziest things. I come from a band of psychopaths. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. That, I mean. Like now that would be a lawsuit.

But back then, it was like, oh, yeah, having fun. How long had your uncle been a helicopter pilot? In Colombia, no less. So weird. I don't know. I have no idea. By the way, no part of that. Every detail about it also makes him less trustworthy.

My uncle's a pilot. Bear with me. In pilot. Bear with me. In Columbia. Stay with me. He's in the Emerald business. Where are you going? It's so true. It's very safe. There are no doors. I can't remember the story, but he got his helicopter from a very famous actor, but I don't remember, like, it was like John Wayne or something crazy.

Like, he bought the helicopter that was, like, one of these guys' helicopter, Paul Newman or something, nuts. But, yeah, I mean, I had a strange childhood, guys. Where would you take the helicopter from point A to point B, or was it just, let's go up in the helicopter for a ride?

No, I remember he took us to the mines. Okay. So he took us to like go see the Emerald Mines and that was also terrifying. I like this trick. Orange guards outside of us. He just needs smaller people. Hey, whoa, well you're here since we're here.

Yeah, throw this headlamp on. Put this headlamp on, go in that tiny hole, and when you find green stuff, if you find anything that's green and glowy, put it in a sack. Ah! Oh, it's so true. And if you see anybody who looks like a police officer, you don't speak.

Make sure they know you don't speak Spanish. What a life, my God. If you find green rocks, we'll give you a little green egg with a toy inside. Make sure they know you don't speak Spanish. What a life, my God. If you find green rocks, we'll give you a little green egg with a toy inside. By the way, this is why people, this is why like when people are like, what made you decide to write a book? I was like, oh, there's just wait, like there's so much crazy shit you don't know about. This is, so this is fascinating, you you don't know about. This is fascinating.

You have a memoir that's coming out in January. What's the name of your memoir, Josh? In Gad We Trust. In Gad We Trust. And I'm also, I mean, again, I would be fascinated to read your memoir if and only if it talked about your career on stage in front of the camera.

And now I totally get it. I'm like, oh my God, this is gonna fill out. You probably won't even get to Book of Mormon. No, it's like Jewish narcos. Like, it's wild. Like, there's a very weird sort of like backstory to how I got here that nobody knows. And that even for me was like shocking in the things

I didn't know until I started researching and just going back into the dark hole of my childhood. But the one fond memory, and I talk about this in my book, and it's really strange in terms of how it all played out, but post the divorce, my happy place was Disney, because that's where my dad would come home,

and he would come once every six months, and he would take me to Disney as a father-son bonding thing. And in my mind, that was like, that represented the love that my father had for me and like our relationship. And it's just very fascinating that like now my name is synonymous with that brand.

Yeah. But I talk a lot about that in the book and just in terms of like, we talk about travel on this. It was, that was a very significant like experience where like that was, that was it. The time I spent with my father was traveling to Disney and driving back and like, that would be the extent of our bonding and that I guess at that point your older brothers are That's not his bonding with them. So it was just unique there in college right there at uf

They're done gotcha and I was because of the age gap They got to grow up with like the full family intact, right? I got I got the full family intact. I got the broken shards. How, is your dad still around? My dad is still around. Are you guys close? I hadn't spoken to him. I hadn't seen him in 20 years.

Wow. I saw him in college. And then a couple of years back, I started talking with him again, but like, very much on my own terms. And during Gutenberg, the musical I did with very recent, very recent, I get a call. And it's my father and he says, I saw that you're on Broadway. I'm in New Jersey. Can I come see it?

And I realized my father's never seen me on stage before. He never saw me in Book of Mormon, never saw me even as a kid, never saw me do stage. I have the most incredible mother who did everything. She was like the most badass single mom, an amazing stepdad, but my dad wasn't really a part of the picture in that way. So I said to him, yeah, you can come, but just you.

I don't want like your new children, whatever is going on in your life. And why don't you spend the night and let's catch up. And so he comes, he sees the show. like a six hour sort of, you know, sitting down together, getting to sort of reacquaint ourselves. And it was. Hard. It was heartbreaking. It was profound. It was at times beautiful. And necessary.

And he left the next morning. And I don't know if I'll see him again, but like that was, it was a really, it was a really important thing that I, I think I didn't even realize how much I needed to close that chapter. Yeah, I can't imagine how much you get out of something like that. Just the curiosity that gets satisfied and yeah.

Now, having said all that, the guy could not have been more fucking confused at Gutenberg the musical. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

English is not his first language and he was lost. He loved seeing his son on stage but was like, what's happening? What was he speaking when you were growing up? Was he speaking... My dad... So this is crazy. My dad is a Jew born in Afghanistan. Gotcha.

By the way, not every detail more crazier than last. Love everything about this story. Isn't this, I know. Yeah, okay. This is what my book is about, it's insane. So my dad was an Afghani Jew, had to flee at the age of 13. Growing up, he spoke a mix of Farsi and Hebrew.

And so like English was was his third language. So he always spoke English in the house, but it was always difficult at best. But he's this gregarious larger-than-life man. And he's just, like, loving and arresting. And, like, I got that side of him and not the bad side, not the, like, shitty stuff. I would imagine over the course, first of all, it's interesting that you said how that long conversation was to close a chapter,

which, as opposed to, like, start a new one. And I think that's really, it must be very good to know what the purpose of that was for you, as opposed to worrying about what it was for him. I also imagine that's a six hour conversation where you're constantly assessing how it's going. You must both be in it and also watching it from the outside a little bit.

I can't emphasize enough how true that was. I did feel like I was outside of my body assessing not only the moment that was happening in front of me, but everything that led up to the moment happening in front of me, like reverting back to my childhood. A lot of regrets, a lot of like regrets, meaning like this is a man. He's my biological father who has no relationship to my children, no relationship to like the events of how I got here, of how I'm now where I am in my career. No relationship to it.

He's a voyeur at this point. He's a fan. He's somebody who knows me as well as my fans do as an adult. Does that make sense? Yeah. And that's very vulnerable to then like let your guard down and be intimate and be like open and be honest. And it was really scary. A part of it is because I also don't know this version of this man.

Similarly, I haven't been a part of his life for 20 years. You know, he has three new children that I don't know and don't really care to know. And so in many ways, it was like reconnecting with a stranger. And now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. Hey Pashi? Yes Sufi? You know what I love when I'm watching football? What's that?

Touchdown. Oh. TD. A teddy. A teddy. Taking it to the house. What is your favorite way to say touchdown? Touchdown!

You know what I call it? What's that? Ted Danson. TD! Oh, not bad. Tony Danza! I like to name it after other famous TDs. Uh huh.

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Terms and you know what's really exciting about the Steelers? What's that, Sufi? They don't score touchdowns, they just win football games. Yeah, not bad. It works. Here we go. Hey friends, Ted Danson here and I want to let you know about my new podcast. It's called Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, sometimes.

Doing this podcast is a chance for me and my good bud, Woody, to reconnect after Cheers Rap 30 years ago. Plus, we're introducing each other to the friends we've met since, like Jane Fonda, Conan O'Brien, Eric Andre, Mary Steenburgen, my wife, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And trust me, it's always a great hang when Woody's there. So why wait? Listen to Where Everybody knows your name,

wherever you get your podcasts. ["Here We Go Again"] -♪ Here we go again... -♪ How old were you when your mom got remarried and you got also... And the stepbrother and stepsister, where do they fall for you in terms of ages? So the stepbrother was a byproduct of my father

having another family while we were his family. Okay. And so like after my parents got divorced one day, he takes me to a hotel room and literally is like, surprise and I meet like a two year old. That's my brother. Which completely traumatized me. He should have put that baby in one of those green eggs. And been like, open up the egg.

What are you doing? What? 100%. And my stepdad, Stan, came into my life when I was around eight years old and completely turned my life upside down. He represented everything I didn't even know I had longed for in a father figure. And like, whereas we were doing vacations to like Vegas and like all of these other places, Stan grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida.

And so like his idea of a vacation was a houseboat in the Everglades. Like, so I started having like all new experiences that that opened my eyes to just a different way of life. And his approach was just love and smothering me with affection. And it was beautiful. It was incredible. That's such a wonderful thing to step into

the life of a kid and be able to do that. And did he have a kid at that point? Did he come with one? He had been divorced. So his daughter Monica became my stepsister. And she's incredible. And so once my brothers were in college, we started traveling together. We started becoming like a family. And I sort of got like time back a little bit because of it. Yeah.

What's a houseboat like in the Everglades? Oh, this is crazy. So in 1992, we took this trip where we took a houseboat and we went like down the coast and we stopped at like clear water springs, which as it sounds, it's like this beautiful pristine body of water you can see like down to the bottom. At night we would tie the boat to like mangrove trees and you would just see eyes lighting up all over the water because there were just gators everywhere.

But on the trip, my parents had said no TV. We're not going to do any TV. And one day I was like, I said to my stepsister, I was like, you know, I'm done playing Scrabble for like the 50th time. Let's turn on the TV. Like, I just want to see what's on. Turn on the TV. Category five hurricane bearing down on Hollywood, Florida, which is where I'm from. So there was a hurricane called Andrew that yeah, I remember Andrew and because we were on this boat we had no idea that the hurricane was two days away from hitting. So we turned the boat around, we start going back to the port, we get in the car and we're driving back to Hollywood.

And at the time, the hurricane was literally supposed to go over Broward County, which is where I lived. And as we're driving down, we see everybody's driving north and we're like, what the hell are we doing? So we instead decided to go to Universal Studios and chill in Orlando as we like left the rest up to fate and the hurricane notoriously ended up shifting and going over Homestead, which is like Miami Dade and it was one of the most destructive hurricanes in history.

But that was our experience during it. Yeah, if you had been on the water, like kind of game over. I know. Stone, next time your child says, I think it's time to watch TV, it's probably time. Pay attention.

The, I was in Hollywood, Florida last summer. I'm so sorry to hear that. Oh, wow. I'll explain what happened. You might remember there was a writer strike, Josh. Yes, I do. And I called my agent and I said, get me any gig you can get me. And he said I got good news.

Wait, wait, can I predict where this is going? Please. Does it involve a hotel with a giant guitar in front of it? Would you believe it does? Does it involve the words hard and rock? It does. Go on. I mean, it was the dream, man.

I got to do in August, which is when you want to be in Hollywood, Florida. I don't need to tell you. I got to do Hollywood, Florida. And then the need to tell you. Oh my God. I got to do Hollywood, Florida. And then the next day I got to do Tampa. And it was just. Oh, where my brother lives. Yeah. That's the two-fer. Yeah. That's the two-fer. I saw, I saw, who did I see down there?

I saw Pete Davidson and I saw the same show, John Mulaney. Oh yeah. A couple of years back. Yeah, they were down there. My buddies and I, we were having a high school reunion, and we were like, let's just stay at the Hard Rock Casino. And... I should note, I want to stress, great crowds both places.

Great crowds. Great crowds. I was, to get from Hollywood to Tampa, you know, it's ultimately, you know, based on when you get to the airport, I was like, I'll just drive, you know, it's four hour drive. Not I would say if you're looking for the prettiest part of Florida, it is not the straight line. Just just call me next time, man. I'll just walk you through it.

I'll just walk you. It might have been better to walk. Did you take alligator alley? I believe based on the number I saw. I'm just talking. It might have been better to walk. Did you take Alligator Alley? I believe based on the number I saw, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. It's a tough drive. That is a tough drive. It wasn't a bad.

That's great. And so, where you are, so your mom, you talked about her being an incredible single mom, and obviously the two of you had a lot of time where it was just the two of you before. A lot of time where it was just the two of you before. A lot of time where it was just the two of us. She must have, I would guess, been incredibly supportive of your performing career.

To an extent that's almost unnatural. Like, when about three years out of Carnegie Mellon drama, I was ready to call it quits. I was just sort of like struggling to like break in. I couldn't get arrested. I had a dream of being on SNL and I kept sending in tapes and like every time Ayala Cohen would get a tape, she'd be like, oh, this guy again. So like I never, I just could never break through. And I don't know why I decided to go from like

four years of training in the conservatory to thinking I would get on SNL. But so like, I had just kind of like shit away three years. And I call up my mom, I've met my girlfriend who would then become my wife. And I was like, you know what, I think I want to settle down. I'm tired of struggling. I want to be responsible. So I said to my mom, I'm going to apply to law school. I'm going to like, I'm going to like my brothers. I'm

going to go to law school. I'm going to get serious about like, you know, being an actual professional and she starts crying. I was like, Why are you crying? What Jewish mother isn't like, thrilled that their son is telling her and she says, I'm disappointed in you. I said, Why? Because you've spent 15 years dreaming of becoming an actor. And only three years trying to live out that dream. And I think that's an act of cowardice. I mean, I was like, what mother says that to their child? So she was beyond supportive.

And then a month later, I got my big break on Broadway, which I wouldn't have even put myself out for had it not been for her. Is that, is Mormon the first? No, it was a show called the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Oh right, of course, of course, of course. Yeah, in 2005. And then what year is Book of Mormon?

Mormon was about five years later later in 2010, 2011. I had been like, after spelling bee, I had been doing like working nonstop, but I wasn't creatively satisfied at all. You'd done a lot of movies in the break between the two. I did like, I did a movie called 21. I did a movie called The Rocker. I did a TV show called Back to You.

I was working- The Rocker, The Rocker a deeply packed 21, I did a movie called The Rocker, I did a TV show called Back to You. I was working. The Rocker, a deeply packed cast, let me know. It's insane. It's insane. Bradley fucking Cooper, Will Arnett, Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, it's an Emma Stone, it's a crazy. Emma Stone, that's what I always thought, it was, yeah.

And then Rainbows. And it's like, it's good, it's nuts. It's great. It's nuts. Rainn, it's crazy. Also the movie that brought down a mini studio. Weirdly, when you look at it, you're like, and it must have been great. You're like, well, movies are hard. What happens is movies are hard. Do you know who randomly talked about it being his favorite movie?

This is going to be the weirdest. James Gandolfini, God bless his soul, did a New York Times interview that Rain sent me where he was asked what his favorite movie was. And he said, hands down, The Rocker. My son and I watched that movie nonstop. In a way, it made me lose a little respect for James Gandalfini. I want to believe that later he said to his son,

what's that movie we always watch? And his son's like, The Godfather. He's like, oh, I thought it was called The Rocker. I just did an interview. That really says something. When somebody likes your work and it makes you happy, I just did an interview. That really says something when you when somebody likes your work and it makes you lose respect for them. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. So I was kind of like, just looking for something different. And I get a call one day from Bobby Lopez Lopez who had written a musical called Avenue Q. And he's like, I'm working with the South Park guys on this new show about Mormons. And we would love for you to do a reading of it in New York. This is like 2007. And I said, Okay, great. And I'm thinking to myself, like, it must be like that South

Park episode about Mormons. You know, like dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. So I was like, I'm thinking they want me to play like a live action version of Cartman. I have no idea what the hell it is. And they send me the music and I start listening to it and the first song is Hello and I'm like, this is genius. The second song is two by two and I'm like, okay, this is brilliant. And then I get to this song that is like a take on Akuna Matata that is the foulest shit

I've ever heard in my life. And I called my agent and I was like, I can't do this. And he's like, why? I'm like, I will get assassinated by anybody who is like a God fearing human being. And I, you know, I took a flyer on it and I came to New York and I just remember white knuckling it as we were doing that part of the musical. And at first there was just like an audible gasp and then like slowly

I remember one person laughing and then like it invited everybody to start laughing. And then for the next three years, we workshopped it. And then in 2010, we opened on Broadway and the rest was history. Yeah. Is it Hasidiba Ibuwai? Is that the word? Hasidiba Ibuwai.

Hasidiba Ibuwai. It's like a good musical, you leave and you like remember things about it, but that I can remember a made up word is like, is just sort of a testament to how good that musical was. And we saw it with you and Rannells. We saw the original Broadway cast. And I had seen it and Josh, you know,

doesn't live in New York and he was visiting. And I don't think of it, I can't remember the last thing I've seen twice, but I was like, I didn't just want Josh to see it. I wanted to see him see it. Yeah, that's the kind of show it was. It was so good. Yeah.

It was unbelievable. And the fact that it's still running 14 years later, I'm gonna be honest, I thought we were gonna close in three weeks. Yeah. I genuinely was like, we're going to close. And I'll tell you a quick anecdote. As we were in like this second or third preview, I pull Matt Stone aside and I go, all right,

I got to ask like, is it possible to maybe lose one of the fucking the babies in the ass like lines? And he's like why and I go I just think it's making people uncomfortable Like I'm watching them. I'm on stage watching them watch us and he goes you're right You're absolutely right and I'm like, oh thank God and he says We got to add more Thank God. And he says, we got to add more. I was like, what? That's not what I was saying.

He's like, no, we got to add more. And I was like, are you being serious? He's like, a hundred percent. I'm like, why would we add more? He goes, because if the audience is still uncomfortable, that means we haven't haven't walked them far enough down the line with us so that we break their discomfort and make them feel comfortable with it. And it was such a brilliant lesson in comedy. My god. And it's why they're, I mean, I think the best satirists of the last 40 years, like they're just, they understand in a way that like is just like next level.

Yeah. Did you, only cause you mentioned Carnegie Mellon and our dads from the Berg, did you enjoy your time in the Berg? Obsessed. Great. Most underrated city in the country. By the way, if we answer if the answer had been different, we would have edited it out.

No, it doesn't have to be different. I love the Burg. Pittsburgh. I don't love the dialect. It's the craziest thing you'll ever. It's the craziest thing. You get down town and all that. I what was the what was the Kate Winslet filly show, Mare of Easttown? Oh, yeah. That's it. I once did a joke that the accent in that, or should the Pittsburgh accent makes that sound like the crown? What?

100%. It's the strangest dialect I've ever heard. But the best for us is we go to go to a Steelers game every year. And that's when the dialect is like in full, you know, full effect. And it is a perfect... You know that they closed the, they closed the O? Yeah. Yeah.

The original, that was the original hot dog place. Best hot dogs in the world. I'm so happy you know. And that was like the price. Worst thing, I mean, outside of the worst thing, one of the true prices of COVID for us is the O did not survive COVID. No, but Primanti Brothers did.

And, in fact, during COVID, I ordered Primanti Brothers sandwiches through Goldbelly and had them shipped to my house and would make it for friends to keep that place afloat the oh for the for the sadly Uninformed is was the greatest hot dog restaurant in America the greatest and the great and I think they had the greatest french fries as well like and and you know students Who went to either Carnegie Mellon or you pit?

literally who went to either Carnegie Mellon or UPIT, literally lived on the O. Yeah. I don't even know what it would be like now without it there. Our dad's friend, Denny, has restaurants and he tried to get, like whoever made the hot dogs for the O, he called and he was like, hey, I wanna sell these.

And they were like, no, it's like, it's a secret. And like, you can't, so whoever made them, that's it. You'll never have them again. I mean, I'm sure someone's sitting on that recipe and they'll reveal it somewhere. It's called the original, but everybody calls it the O and, or the dirty O. Or the dirty O.

I did stand up in Pittsburgh once and I said, they also called the O because that's its health board grade. Well, I mean, this has just absolutely been the best, Josh. I'm so excited. I love you guys. For your book, In Gad We Trust is a fantastic title. I will also offer that when it comes out in paperback,

you should call it Jewish narcos. Because I do think a lot of people do. -"By the way, absolutely." I actually agree. -"Ever since you said Jewish narcos," I'm like, oh, my God, that is either the best or funniest show that will ever be on television. -"Yeah, I mean, essentially, it's uncut gems, isn't it?

Like, that is sort of Jewish narcos. But it's 100% right. And also, quickly, I want to plug my children's book, which is coming out. It's uncut gems, isn't it? Like that is sort of Jewish narcos, but it's a hundred percent right. And also quickly, I wanna plug my children's book, which is coming out. Oh yes, please. There it is, look. Picture Face Lizzie. Picture Face Lizzie.

Picture Face Lizzie, I read it yesterday. Did you like it? I did. I liked it a lot, yeah. I will say when they were like, hey, Josh is gonna come on the pod, do you want a copy of his book? And I was like, I'm not gonna have time to read his book, but like, yeah, send it over.

And then it arrived and it was a children's book. And I was like, oh yeah, I got it. Yeah, it's- I'm gonna sit down right now and read it. Seth, you were asking me earlier about like my kid's relationship to technology. And that was the foundation for writing this kid's book. Is, you know, I think that like

It's really it's a discussion that we don't have with them a lot and I wanted to write something from their point of view That also spoke to like the power of imagination versus the power of technology and It's it's amazing and like talking to so many parents How many people are like dealing with that right now of just trying to get their kids to hang on as long as they can to tactile play. That doesn't involve just being a, like it makes me so happy that your kids are coming in,

not for their iPad, but for their Legos. Yeah, no, they came in and they had a full Disney star on the Zoom screen and they couldn't care less. They don't know, they can't process that. Your youngest BuzzCard kid couldn't give a shit. No, he really couldn't. Frozen, yeah, no, I want Lego, yeah. All right, before we let you go,

we have a quick series of questions we ask all our guests and Josh is gonna take the lead. Great. All right, you can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous or educational? Adventurous, hands down. What is your favorite means of transportation?

Train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, walking, monitoring? I love driving when I go places. I also love renting a boat. So like, I think if I'm traveling like someplace where I can drive, it's driving. Great. This one gets a little trickier.

If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to take a vacation with? I wanna go with the Myers clan. You guys sound like a good pick. Love to have you. I wanna go with Papa Myers and like Bond over Pittsburgh.

Yeah. Oh, I mean. Love it. I mean, you know, he listens to every episode. I think he had, I think he valued you very highly, but you just shot up the charts. Great, done. Let's plan the trip.

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? Probably my youngest Izzy. She's the funniest human being I know, but she's also like really resourceful. So like, I think like she could probably do more to help me survive than I could. Okay.

Great, funny and resourceful. And I feel like just the way you've answered some questions, I feel like I know the answer to this, but you're from Hollywood, Florida. Would you recommend Hollywood, Florida as a vacation destination? Oh God. You know what, all joking aside, I would.

It's actually a great place. I appreciated growing up there. Maybe, you know, stay away from the Hard Rock Casino, because it can get very packed and smoky. Great place to do that. You could see Seth Meyers do that. Yeah, I know. I mean, you could see John Mulaney and yeah, David. But we have great beaches, great food. Yeah, go down to Hollywood. Great.

And then Seth has our final questions. Josh, have you been to the Grand Canyon? Yes, many times. Is it worth it? It's 100% worth it, Seth, but I'm gonna tell you something. Great. I went, we did a Route 66 trip with the family last year.

I decided that we were gonna walk down the canyon and we did it. But what that means is that you then have to walk back up the canyon. Right, right, right. And that's a- A lot of people don't need to actually do a canyon to remember that.

That's about as close to dying as I think I've ever come. Wait, with your kids? Well, it was the sheer amount of difficulty breathing that I thought was gonna end me. So my kids were like just spryly running back up. I could not catch my breath. I was like, I was literally like, there got to a point where I was like, leave me here.

It's okay, go on without me. You guys have everything you need. Yeah, I was, it was awful going back up that thing. Well, all right. That's a good cautionary tale. We have a friend that we've spoken to from the Grand Canyon Conservancy and her line is that hiking down is optional,

hiking back up is mandatory. Yeah, it's... I'll take a donkey next time, I think. Okay, good. This is fantastic. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. It's been better talking to you.

Sorry I have no voice. No, you're great. Usually a useful commodity in podcasts, but adore you guys. Let's open green eggs together. All right, wait, until the next time. All right, bye, friend. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Josh. Thank you. I thought he'd get a staycation, thought he'd get suntanned Tourists everywhere acting like they own the sand

Tried boardwalk and baseball, it really missed the mark But nothing really bites like the alligator park Sometimes they stand at the Marriott, but other times they'd hit a real cool spot. Everyone out there knows Disney, but do they know the Contemporary? When Josh was little he was super into it, and Scott and Montero that goes running the street through it. From there it's all aboard and away you go Checking out some rides that go real slow Questions about the future will all be explained

You won't be educated, you'll be edutain'd Don't act the fool, it's so freaking cool Dinosaurs are fossil fuels Josh went to Epcot He says that it's the spot Josh went to Epcot says that it's the spot Joshua to Epcot better than a Vegas slot Joshua to Epcot might be a Chevron plot

Joshua to Epcot what the bomb o'clock you