Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - NICK OFFERMAN Stayed at a Spartan Cabin Resort

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

What doesn't Nick Offerman do? This week on the pod Seth and Josh talked to the self-proclaimed Mr. Megan Mullally about his time spent in Minooka, IL, his woodworking skills, how his dad is now mayor of his hometown, how he memorized the capital of Tasmania, and so much more! Airbnb.com Thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips and for the reminder to find your more. Learn more at NissanUSA.com Find your new favorite fits and get 15% off @marinelayer with our exclusive link -> marinelayer.com/TRIPS. #marinelayerpod

This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Here we go. Hi, Pashi. Hi, Sufi. We had a Halloween. Yeah, we sure did. We all had it, but I feel like I actually experienced Halloween. You and Mackenzie do not dress up as adults, correct?

We don't, really. I've decided this year what I need is I would like one good costume that I will wear every year for the rest of my life. Oh, you're going to lock into one. Yeah, because I don't like thinking about what I'm going to be and I don't like chasing a costume and I don't like spending a bunch of money on a thing that's just going to like take up room in a closet that I don't have room for. Yeah, I'm not anti-Halloween, but I'm just like, I'm not into it enough and I'm not ever prepared when it arrives. So I'd like to be prepared so I can be prepared.

Alexi and I got invited to a Halloween party and realized that costumes were required. Now, if it had been any gray area, I would have gone without a costume. There wasn't. So I had to, I had to figure out a costume and I wore a, I sort of have one of those lumberjack, all red pajamas. You know what I'm talking about? That one piece that one piece yeah yeah so i wore that and i had a does it have a flap does it have a little like it doesn't have a flap okay but it has sort of a hole that would reveal uh you know i think we can say this on the podcast your underpants sure yeah you can beat that if they want so i said but there was a hole but i i solved that problem because i wore one of the kids had a superman cape so i had a superman cape and you know a lumberjack i thought that was

passable what were you superman oh that's superman well all right so the way you said that is very in line with what axel my five-year-old said yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm just imagining you're in like you're in a onesie. Yeah. And a cape. Yeah. Is that the extent of it? Yeah. I mean, what more would you want for Superman?

Was there an S on your chest? No, but that's good. That was a... Could have used you. Could have used you last weekend. Was it indoors? So it was a half oh, could have used you. Could have used you last weekend. Was it indoors? So it was a half and half-er. So there were cocktails out on a porch, and then we moved indoors.

Were you too cold every time you went outside? I was. Yeah. I was cold right away. It wasn't even when I went outside. The minute it started, I was too cold. And also, Alexi just wore, Ash, the seven-year-old, as a wasp this year,

and his wasp shirt was big enough that she could fit in that. So she went as a wasp, and I went as what I'm now realizing, based on your reaction, was a bad Superman. And Axel was very upset when I went out the door because axel said this is axel has a lisp i'm not you know what i don't need to shame axel with his list he's the best he's the best but you know what his list break up he was like daddy that is a bad superman here's what you need to do get go get blue pants and a blue short and red underpants and then we

will put an f on your chest and he so he basically explained how to dress up like Superman, which I understood. But the point was we were out of time. Right. But the other thing I was going to say is, so I was a Superman and she was a wasp. Maybe only 5% of the people there weren't couple costumes. Uh-huh. Yeah. And so people were like, who are you?

And I was like, Superman and a wasp. And they were like, and where, so which is that? Yeah. Comic book, you know, and so, yeah. Were you hands down the worst costumes at the party? Alexi's was good. Alexi was a very good wasp. Had I, so in retrospect, here's what I should have done.

I'm wearing a red onesie. We had an extra pair of like antenna and I should have cut out black circles of construction paper and made myself a ladybug. Yeah. But then now there's a problem. The cape was the only thing covering up my, and again, cover your ears, kids, if you're in the car, my underpants. So I think in the end, I'd rather be a bad Superman not worrying about, so i think in the end i'd rather be a bad superman not worrying about uh you know my underpants showing yeah then then a good ladybug with uh the whole underpants situation yeah we got two dogs debbie and woody we had debbie and pickles pickles sadly passed over a year ago he was 18 and a half great run but i for years i've had two dog costumes and similar to sort of what I want.

Like they're just the only costumes I feel like we ever need for the dogs. And yeah, so I gotta, I gotta get those cleaned up, but they're great. Like the dogs are so adorable when they're in those costumes, there's a jack-o'-lantern and then there's a dinosaur that has a caveman on the back because pickles and now Woody are creationists.

And they think that the cavemen and dinosaurs lived at the same time. Yes, they've always been hardcore creationists. Frisbee, we've dressed up a few times. One year, Frisbee was a giraffe that bit me. Another year, she was a giraffe that bit me uh another year she was a pumpkin that bit me seth's dog frisbee will she's very sweet but when she bites she snaps so fast yeah she's part rattlesnake it feels like a rattlesnake bite also fr, Frisbee, and this is true of a lot of Italian greyhounds, as they get older, they lose their teeth.

And Frisbee now has very few teeth left, but I feel like she knows exactly where they are. I think if she bit the way she used to, you would get a lot more gum action, but I think she's like tilting her head the other way because she's like, if I'm going to snap, I'm going to make it count. I also feel like your kids are the only people in the world who aren't afraid of being bit by her, but she will bite them. But they just sort of like laugh at it.

They're like, what are you doing? Whereas like mom and dad and me, we all like leap back as if we have been just bit by a rattlesnake because it's so shocking how fast she moves. But your kids are just, they blow it off. I also think if you asked any of my kids, do you have a dog? They would say no. I don't even think they think of her as a dog. We had her first.

So they have no ownership over her. I think they just are constantly like, what? All right. Yeah. I guess you've realized after this, this is bad company and you should have kids. Speaking of good company, this gentleman, Nick Offerman, who I was lucky enough to know a little bit in New York before he played Ron Swanson, one of the great performances in television sitcom history. And I sort of know

him to be everything you would hope him to be. He's a genuine person. He's an outdoorsman. He's somebody who is a firm believer in the value of work and the value of Mother Nature, and I just love talking to him. Yeah, his voice is so unique and soothing. His vocabulary is a little bit elevated. I fully intend to go down the Nick Offerman audiobook rabbit hole because it is just, it's listening to him is a good way to spend your time.

And if you're on the fence, if you're listening to us right now and thinking, how good could his voice be? Good news, you're about to hear it. But first, you have to hear a voice that might be a little bit better. It belongs to Jeff Tweedy. Family trips with the Myers brothers. Family trips with the Myers brothers. Here we go.

Yes. Hey, hey, hey. Hello, Nicholas. Hello. How are you? I'm good. Nice to see you, fellas. Nice to see you, too. Good morning.

How often have you crossed paths with my brother, Nick? Have you done that often over the years? I don't know. I'm not sure. I feel like we've perhaps never met because I didn't know. You guys aren't twins, are you? No. No.

No, I'm two years younger, but I'm two inches taller, and I think a little bit stronger. Yeah. You look more vibrant. Although I do need glasses to see you here so josh is by far the outdoorsier more nick offer many of the two myers brothers i'll take that as a compliment as you should no as well you should and i do too even though uh yeah i don't know i wish i wish my little brother was here he He's seven years younger, and he's kind of the king of the family.

But I'll just tell you about him. Yeah. And you can record it, and then people can listen to it. It's almost like if podcasts hadn't been invented, you just did it. If I read the email correctly. So you have two sisters and a brother. That's right. I'm 53. I have an older sister, Lori, who's 54. My little sister, Carrie, is five years younger, so like 48. And then Matt is seven years younger, so about 46. So there was a gap there between the older

two and the younger two. There was, yeah. Mom and dad, they got married early. They grew up on farms a few miles from each other. And so their high school was our junior high. So we go pretty deep in Minooka, Illinois. They had Lori and I. And when it looked like we weren't going to burn the house down, then they had a couple more. Oh, that's good. Did you maintain a closeness even with that age gap?

Were the top two close to the bottom two? The whole gang is exceptionally close. We feel incredibly lucky. In fact, my three siblings live within a block of mom and dad. It's a very small town, although it's gotten much larger. When I was growing up, it was about 2,000 people. And now I think it's up to 12,000. The commuters of Chicago have reached our town and it's no longer a sleepy sort of Mayberry feeling. And now it feels like a farm town that desperately wants

a mall and suburbia. Yeah. Is there a train that you can take to get into the city from where you are? You have to go to Joliet to catch the train. Okay. If you'd gotten your car in Minooka and drove to Chicago, how long would that take you? Well, when I was growing up and we'd go to the Cubs game or go into town to see the Nutcracker at Christmas, it would take about 50 years to get to the city. And then when I went to college and then moved to Chicago and would go home to do my laundry, I discovered it actually only took 45 minutes. Which is, I mean, in Los Angeles, 45 minutes is a trip to the grocery store.

Yeah. We were similarly like an hour. We were like an hour from Boston growing up in New Hampshire. But those drives did feel like they were forever. In hindsight, it speaks, I think about it a lot. It speaks to the frugality of my parents and my farming family. I guess, hang on one sec. I have my do not disturb on, but someone's knocking on the hotel door.

Oh, funny. Just to abbreviate this interruption. I would not want to be the room service person you ignored. Because knowing Nick, he probably like hewn a do not disturb sign out of wood. Yeah. Probably the most beautiful. He carves his own and hangs it on his door and maybe they just don't look.

They were thrown by its craftsmanship. Yeah. Hello. Wait, do you feel like it was worth the interruption that they blew by your do not disturb?

Well, some asshole asked the front desk to print a script, something Malali. Which is coincidentally the name the room is under, so I guess the carpetbaggers can go scratch. I guess the carpetbaggers can go scratch. So, oh yeah, we were saying like an hour drive is interminable when you're a kid. How were you guys traveling back in the day?

When you got four kids, two adults, not a lot of options, right? No. My mom and dad, you know, once I reached adulthood, I speak about them very regularly in my writing about how exemplary they were and are as parents living lives of service. They grew up on these farms, but dad decided to become a school teacher and mom became a labor and delivery nurse. And so, two sort of heroic vocations that don't involve a great deal of income. And so once I began to have to pay my own bills, I've never ceased to be astonished at their frugality and the joyful lives they provided us on pretty small paychecks. We had a suburban from about 1980 that was a three-speed on the tree that dad had gotten used.

And that behaved like a pickup truck slash giant station wagon. So they were incredible at orchestrating. And we lived about 12 miles out of town. So eventually when you have four kids with sports and the arts, and we were all very active and involved in scouting, and Dad would take extra jobs. He taught junior high, but he would also drive a school bus and coach sports teams, anything he could do to get bonus income. So it was quite impressive that they managed to get us all to school and back with the help of the big yellow school bus. Did they seem tired when you look back at your parents when you were kids? They lived these wholesome lives. I mean, I really idealized them and see them in a sort of little house on the prairie in the 70s light.

And so they seemed exhausted, but their faces were still beautiful and not haggard. They didn't seem like coal miners. They just seemed like they had made the choice to live the strenuous life, as Theodore Roosevelt puts it. And so they were happy and ready for a nap. Yeah. That sounds like farm kids are tailor-made for that kind of life. Like growing up on a farm, I imagine there are just so many tasks that you have to tick through to get through the day. I mean, there are, I'm always careful to point out because people in this day and age want to shorten things. And so they'll often refer to me as a master woodworker because I'm a woodworker

who also has been on television. I grew up in the middle of a cornfield in a house that my dad got. He traded some cabinetry to this farmer who was going to tear down his big old two-story farmhouse. He made him a deal where the guy said, well, if you can get this house out of here, you can have it for about five grand. And so dad hired some people. I was five years old. So we jacked it up and put it on wheels and drove it a few miles down the road and plopped it on a basement that we poured.

That was where I began my shoveling career. But so we grew up in this incredible farm atmosphere and our family's farms, which are still extant, are all around us. And so I grew up working on my family's farm and it was like Disneyland to me. But I'm just always careful to say I, like my cousins, didn't grow up on the farm and we didn't have dairy, for example. So when you have livestock, that's where you really get into having to get up at five. As soon as milking comes into the picture, things get a whole lot more committed. Nonetheless, yes, we did have chores. We were brought up in an agricultural sensibility. And I mean, it gave me an incredible work ethic and tool skills by the time I was

ready for junior high. And did you take to it in a way that maybe not everyone who was introduced to it at your age took to it? I don't know. Did people notice early on? Oh, he's really quite good with these tools. I would say no. Again, looking back, I know kids around farms, and they're pretty anomalous these days, sadly, but I know kids that take to it, that say, boys and girls, I'm going to grow up and be a farmer just like mom and dad. I loved working with my family, my aunts and uncles and grandparents and parents. And my favorite thing to do was drive all the vehicles. If you're remotely competent and coordinated, you're driving a pickup truck, pulling like wagons full of grain by the time you're like 12, like as soon as you can safely operate a truck. And it's actually legal in a lot of farming

communities. There are these sort of loopholes where they're like, if your kids can keep it between the ditches, then they may go to town, just stay off the highway, I think is the legalese. But they taught me assiduously, everybody. They taught you in the kitchen to use the tools. They taught you in the barn. They taught you in the garage. So I learned simple mechanics. I learned carpentry. We built houses and barns and roofed them. And so I really loved it. But I just always remember my uncles and my dad, you know, teaching me to

shingle or teaching me to hammer nails, just coaching me enthusiastically saying, hit it, come on, hit it. And we were also athletes. And so all of that stuff tied together, you know, where you sort of aspire to adulthood in your strength and in your capabilities. But I, for whatever reason, I don't know, physically, I really always wanted to be good with tools. And so that was a lifelong pursuit. It never occurred to me that it was a calling or a vocation. I knew I wanted to go into the arts. I knew I wanted to be an entertainer and also perhaps a musician. And so I went to theater school and I sucked. I hadn't figured out naturalism remotely, so I couldn't get cast, but everyone valued me because I could choreograph fights and build all the scenery. And so my tools,

I said, well, all right, since you're not, for some reason, you're not casting me as Hamlet, I will happily build the parapet on which the ghost walks. And so, I don't know, into my 20s, into my early adulthood, I came to really turn around and value like, oh, thank goodness I have this work ethic and I can build things because it's paying my rent while I'm waiting to figure out what Ringo was talking about in that song. I am not good or handy, but my father-in-law is very good and handy. He was a home builder for years, and I feel very lucky that my kids spend most of their summer around him, because I can already tell they are more comfortable with a hammer, a handful of nails than I have ever been in my life.

My father-in-law to be is also equally handy, like has fixed everything in his house. And it's strange, I think now for both of us to look at our father and to be like, oh, he did not know what he was doing. He has a workroom, room but it's like he shouldn't have been doing anything down there i don't want to say i don't want to be negative about dad so i will just say my wife's father-in-law is a fucking disaster with tools he was if she were here uh yeah we i think i wonder if that is the trauma of us because every time dad tried to do anything, like I remember, you know, installing floors or something, it was just the rain of, you know, expletives. It made you think this is not something that people of our bloodline are meant to be doing.

Well, it's interesting. I mean, to hear your initial description, I am empathetic because everybody has their calling, you know. Your dad is obviously good at some things sure i don't know i would always vote for a dad who's at least going to take a swing at putting in his own flooring and even if it's flawed which all of our work invariably is as human beings i'm always rooting for people to try instead of dwell in the comfortable ignorance of consumerism where it's like, well, it'd be easier to just call somebody. It'd be easier to press a button on my rectangle,

the plumber button, and let them come install the thing. Because I love to hear that. I love to hear that your kids are spending time with a handy grandfather, because that's one of my own in the channels and readership that I have found myself with. That's the heart of the messaging I try to get across is I feel like it makes us better citizens and family members and neighbors if we just live a life where we learn to use a pocket knife or how to tie a knot and just be capable so that if and when the shit goes down, we can say, well, I know several knots and I'm great at waterproofing things or whatever. Yeah. That respect the effort thing. One time where that was not the case is I remember my parents were on vacation. They left us in charge of the house.

First time they left us in charge of the house. And I had a friend over, and he was very upset. And he was upset because about something his girlfriend did, and he punched his fist through the wall in our hallway upstairs, right next to my parents' bedroom. Brent Crouch. Brent Crouch. And he did that, and then he said, don't worry, I can fix it.

I remember we had two days, and he went and he did that and then he said, don't worry, I can fix it. I remember we had two days and he went and he bought paint and he bought some plaster and I remember being so, thank God, of all my friends who did this, it's a guy who can fix it.

And then Nick, he did some stuff and then after about an hour, he looked at me and said, I can't fix it. And so then, my dad home, and I basically said, this happened. I'll pay for it.

I'm so sorry. And he looked at it. He goes, you know, the part that irritates me the most is that you fucking thought you could fix it. Because he could tell the effort it made, and it was a different paint that didn't match at all. Oh, God. Sometimes it's better to not.

I think if you're a 17-year-old with no skills. Yes, absolutely. And to chase this apology in live time, I would say our basement is well-tiled. Yeah. That was one of Dad's biggest. Yeah, he did a good job. He worked his way down. He started at the top floor of the house.

Disaster. Then he did the middle floor. Not great. And then eventually got to the basement, and he took what he learned from the upper floors to make a beautiful, well-tiled basement. I mean, who among us is bad at 1,000? That's right. Oh, boy. Not me.

So you have these frugal, lovely parents. And again, you grow up in a very pastoral setting. What were family trips? Well, the family was and is great. Right now, there are about 40 of us in an eight-mile radius of this town of Minooka, Illinois. And my dad's dad was the mayor for a time when I was a kid. And now my dad has become the mayor of our town just in the last couple of years. Wow. With good reason. He was always voted like the kid's favorite school

teacher. And he and mom both, they just, whatever they set their hands to, they're just the good kid where they make sure everybody has an equal portion, whether it's a classroom or a family. And so the whole family, it's a beautiful sort of agricultural area. We have a few rivers coming through. So we grew up, everybody has a boat of some sort, usually a fishing boat, but there's water skiing, there's canoeing. Uncle Don was the Han Solo water skiing motorcycle guy, snowmobiles. And then down to my family is very much more fishing oriented. We're not into adrenaline maybe as much as the Roberts side. And then all the way down to me, which somehow became like a Walt Whitman wannabe where I was

like, can't we just sit in silence and appreciate the sycamore leaves? So we did a lot of stuff locally and still do. We know where to put the boats in and we know where to go regularly hiking and walking. But then frugally, they did a great job of expanding that mainly up in Wisconsin and Minnesota, which are vacation wonderlands, especially if you have fishing boats and like to go fishing. So our main thing every year, which we still do every summer, we go to Minnesota fishing to a Spartan, in parentheses, crappy cabin resort, where that's the beauty of it is all you need is your family and a deck of cards and some beer and some worms, and you've got a week or two of bliss. suburban where you put the seats down and fill the entire back with your supplies and your luggage and sleeping bags, creating a window level bed that was just completely dreamy for

four kids. And of course, dad in proper Midwestern dad fashion would get us on the road at three in the morning. And so, you know, you'd wake up, you know, crossing the state line into Iowa and it all had a Willy Wonka quality. And then, so the biggest one we did, we drove all the way to Yellowstone and that thing, which, you know, again, looking back on it is mighty impressive. So you got four kids in the back. Do you have any recollection of how you passed the time? I do. Eventually, you know, the Walkman came around. But pre-Walkman cassette, you know, portable cassette player with headphones for you kids. My mom and dad did a great job of doing two things. One was just like songs and games, spotting stuff out the window, you know, like keeping track of all the different states of license plates that we would see,

or makes of cars. And then dad, in his sort of overarching teacher persona, had a lot of great trivia. In my third book, which is a woodworking book called Good Clean Fun, I talk about how seeing my dad hand make his quizzes and tests for his social studies class, eighth graders. And this is in the 70s and 80s, he would hand write and cut and paste these tests with pictures of the presidents cut out of calendars. And again, then later thinking, God, how did I come to love making stuff so much? And that was just a great example. I always just loved these things.

And one of his main trivia questions at the end of the year was always, what is the capital of Tasmania? Which I always then knew was Hobart. And so with that sensibility in mind, we would be quizzed as kids, you know, and so we'd like keep track of license plates, but then we would be asked things of like, well, what's the capital of that state or what's the state bird, things like that. And then much more specifically, Things like that. And then much more specifically, we obsessively, and still are, but not to the same extent, we would know every statistic of every Chicago Cub on the field or on the bench. you know this is this is a old guy you know pining for days uh gone by but whatever our information delivery systems were were finite in a way that i really miss you know i never dreamed there would be things like q war or bop uh you know these uh that's sorry that's a hit song bebop yeah but i i refuse to get on board with sharon posnanski

with the yeah the the money ball analytics for this re for this reason you know yes fip dad could say okay who are the who are the top 10 batting averages in the national league this week or whatever and so they did a great job i mean i'm you know i'm sure there was like my he he kicked me and he shut up you know that kind of thing but they they did a great job. I mean, I'm sure there was like, he kicked me and he shot up, you know, that kind of thing. But they did a really great job of keeping the caterwauling to a minimum and keeping us interested. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Posh, these days too many people have to settle for the next best thing, especially when it comes to choosing a car. Yeah, but at Nissan, there's a vehicle type for everyone, for every

driver who wants more. Whether you want more adventure, more electric, more action, more guts, or more turbocharged excitement, Nissan is here to make sure you get it. Because Nissan is all about giving people a whole spectrum of thrills to choose from with a diverse lineup of vehicles. Sports cars to sedans to EVs, pickups, crossovers with Nissan's diverse lineup. Anyone can find something to help them reach their more. What are you looking for more of, Josh? I like a nice ride. I like a nice sound system. I like something that's, yeah, that's comfortable. You like to have room to load up a bunch of gear, go somewhere, do an adventure. I do. I'm never happier than when I have sort of a full car, a roof rack on my car.

Makes me happy. And all I need is a cup holder for an iced coffee. And Nissan can provide you with both of those things. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. And for the reminder to find your more. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Hey, everybody. We're very excited.

Josh and I are going to be going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with our parents. We're going to stay at an Airbnb this time. And I can't wait, Josh, just to be under the same roof with mom and dad is very exciting. Yeah, and in a roof that's not,

you know, our childhood roof. It's going to be fun to be in a house. And yeah, it is a good roof. And one of the things we do when we get together is we play Scrabble. There is going to be fun to be in a house. And yeah, it is a good roof. And one of the things we do when we get together is we play Scrabble. There is going to be a Scrabble tournament. And that is one of the comforts of an Airbnb is, you know, you're going to have the room, the space to do the things you would do at home with the excitement of knowing when you walk outside, you're in a different city. And also it's just nice to wake up and come down to the kitchen and make coffee.

And as people wake up, they join you and you feel like you're at home. Yeah. If they don't understand the coffee machine, there's going to be trouble, but I'll handle the coffee. I'm up earlier than them. It's amazing how late mom and dad sleep these days. Yeah, that's true.

They do sleep very late. So thanks to Airbnb. We're looking forward to doing that very special episode. My dad would do a thing. Our dad would do this thing where we play Family Feud. And he would just make up a category. He wouldn't plan ahead. He would say, top five answers on the board, most popular name for dogs.

You know, Josh would go and he'd say Rex. And my dad would in real time decide where that landed or if it landed. You know, he didn't have a list in his head ahead of time. He'd go, that's number five. And then. That's pretty fantastic. It was amazing to think that he could drive and sequence a family feud game in his head. Those were really, really fun to do.

I mean, and it's bananas then that you became a highly intelligent improviser. Exactly. Alexi, to her credit, has come up with a very good shout out to my wife because I would have caved. The boys do not look at tablets in the car. And we do a lot of long car rides. Wow. We were on a three-hour car ride the other day, and they were miserable, and she would not cave. And they had sort of like

not quite a natural sketch, because there was a pen where you could draw. And the kids had to draw something, and then she had to guess what it was. And they were so excited by the idea that they could give her hints. And it was amazing. Then it kept their attention. And then you're a family. And it's so much nicer than just watching them. This has been one of my favorite exchanges on any podcast.

Because it's the first parent I'm hearing of that hasn't caved. That is so refreshing. I mean, because we don't have kids. But we're all complicit. That's what's so insidious about consumerism is it's all great. It makes things easier or it's more delicious or fast food makes sense. Gasoline engines make so much. Obviously, we thought it was a great idea until eventually the waiter brings the check. And we say, oh, shit. We've created tiny narcissists. Just to sort of bolster Seth's point, I did ask.

I don't know if he's ever said this to you, Seth. But I asked Axel, my five-year-old nephew, Seth's middle son, what he wants to be when he grows up. And he said he wants to have a farm. Yeah. And I was like, well, that's great. Like, that made me feel better about where his head was at. Fantastic. I also should make a call, but I go on the train every weekend. I take the boys on the train when we leave the city.

And it's about two hours and 15 minutes. And it's just me and the two boys. And they watch iPads the whole time. So I want to give credit where credit's due. True. Because I do, you know, look, and I think part of it is that, hey, I don't know, like, a lot of our growing up was in a good way. And I know it's hard to make this case. Like, we watched television as a family, right?

And I just remember things like watching Cheers with mom and dad felt like a family activity. It felt like gathered around an old radio. Whereas I think Alexi, in a good way, was a lot more outdoorsy with her family. And I'm glad she's bringing that to our kids. These conversations do require nuance, too. Like, I could never even, you know, weigh in with any kind of judgment being completely ignorant to having kids on the train. But it would be easy to pick apart parts of our childhoods as well. And I think ultimately, we humans are doing our best to arc towards progress and evolution. And if that involves

some Bob's Burgers episodes, then so be it. These sort of Spartan cabins in Minnesota, would you go to the same one every year? We owned one for many years, which wonderfully, the janitor. And we went there to stay with him and his wife to go for a fishing vacation. And a few doors down, this crappy little cabin was available and we bought it for, you know, was available and we bought it for, you know, I think like six or 16 grand or something. Wow. We kept it for many years until eventually the Department of Natural Resources needed to flood the lake. Still not exactly sure exactly what like political skullduggery brought this about.

The lake was partly on a reservation. this about. The lake was partly on a reservation. I should go back actually and find the biologist to explain to me why they had to dam the lake. The water level came up 30 or 40 feet. So our cabin is still there underwater now for a couple of decades. But meanwhile, another friend of ours from 12 hours south in Illinois had bought this cabin resort. So we started going there and we said, wait, we're doing a little better so we can afford the luxury of spilling out cash for this cabin. So we've only gone to two places the whole time. That's amazing. It is.

I mean, it's a wonderful tradition. to two places the whole time. That's amazing. It is. I mean, it's a wonderful tradition. There's a lot to be said for the excitement of adventure and jetting off to Nepal, but there's also a lot to be said for the sense of tradition and getting into the same, just like playing Family Feud on a trip with your, like it's something that is quantifiable and we all know to relish it. And among all the things in any given year, my agents know you don't mess with the section of July because that's the fishing trip. So you still go and how many offermans is it now? Like how much of the extended family makes it? It's more on my mom's side, which is the Roberts family. And it's interesting.

When we started, it was my mom's folks. They were the main farmers, and it's their offspring. So mom also had three siblings. And so that's all the farming side of the family that's still working. And so we all would go back then when it was grandma and grandpa and their four kids and their families. Now those four kids have all become the grandparents of their own branch. So each of them now have their own. One of them is in Indiana. One has a cabin in Wisconsin. And then my mom's sister and her family still come with us. So the factions have sort of split off,

but we still managed to put up about 20 people every summer. Wow. Growing up, were all the Offerman kids equally excited to go up to Minnesota? I think so. Yeah, there was one sibling, and I won't point them out, who was generally less pleased with the state of the world than the others. In fact, that person didn't come for a while because there were some inconveniences like mice in the cabins. You know, but that person has come around and is now having a blast and living his or her or their best life.

Utilizing nature. And has hundreds, hundreds of mice as pets now, even. Yes. She or he raises mice for sale and has a whole recipe book. You mentioned a deck of cards. What's the game of choice? Euchre is the number one. Very Midwestern.

Very Midwestern answer. Such a good game. But closely followed by cribbage, depending on how many players you have available. But probably, I think if my family were here, they would grouse. Because euchre is what I love to play with my dad and my brother. And it's a tradition with my dad and my brother. And it's, it's a long, it's a tradition from my dad's side and his mom. Like if you cast Ian McKellen,

no, no, sorry. If you cast day Maggie Smith as an evil Nazi who killed her victims with devastating card play, uh, that was my, my dad's mother.

She could bruise you physically. She had this move with her killing card in the game of Euchre, where she would wrap her knuckle. I mean, she would make a playing card sound like a gavel. But if the family were here, I would be made to say a much bigger group game called Liverpool Rummy, which is, it's a rummy, you know, it's based on sets and runs, and it's, I can't think of the proper adjective,

but it gets harder, it's progressive. The hands are progressive, so the first hand is seven cards, and you need two rudimentary sets. All the way up to the final hand, you get 13 cards. You need two sets and a seven-card run and no discard. So the pressure mounts, people have two or three decks going. So that's the biggest family screaming good time. Yeah. We were a hearts family.

And the first time Alexi came, because my parents still live in the house, Josh and I grew up in, first time she came in, I've heard her say to people, the kitchen had the smallest kitchen table with four chairs. It's as if they never even thought a fifth person would come over. You couldn't fit a fifth chair at that little kitchen table if you tried. But our entire childhood, we spent almost every night sitting around this four-person table playing hearts. And when Josh gave his toast at our wedding, a toast so good, I think I cried five times,

and one of my best friends said, we decided to have a second kid during the toast. We thought we were done with one kid, and we watched Josh give the toast and said, we can't let, we have to have a sibling for our daughter. That's fantastic. But Josh talked about the fact that we're this very insular group, insular group of four people and we played hearts every night, blah,

blah. And then, um, at the very end, I, I hope I did not miss quoting you too badly, Josh, but you said,

uh, give it a go. You basically said like, and we just want you to know, Lexi, we're so happy you're in the family and, you know, you're welcome anytime unless we're playing hearts because that's a four

person game. It was a real, that was, those were my last words. game. It was a real... Those were my last words. Yeah, it was a real... It was the most lovely speech about her, and yet he did want to end with, like, one... And just, there's no way to play it with a fifth person. Yeah.

And if there is, it's just not how we play, so... Yeah. You might look elsewhere. I don't want to run out of time before i ask about i mean i'm so deeply jealous about uh the trip you took to a national park i believe with two of my heroes two of your heroes george saunders for my money the greatest living american writer jeff tweedy yeah i mean i mean right up there with our greatest living American singer-songwriters. And these are guys you get to be friends with.

And how long a trip did you take with the two of them? It was a week. It's amazing. It was bonkers. Yeah, it's crazy. It keeps me, you know, just like waking up and seeing Megan Mullally on a pillow next to me. like just like waking up and seeing megan malali on a pillow next to me i mean 23 years in i still shake my head and just think what what how how is this happening well like whatever whatever uh veil has been pulled down over her eyes let me just tiptoe around and try to try to keep it down. And in a similar way, in 2014, Jeff and George and I all met each other

separately in three disparate meetings. And to this day, we just formed this organic three-way bromance. And I'm the youngest and also, I own a mirror. So when I examine them and their works and their talents and their wisdom and their beauty, I say, you guys, thanks for including me. I feel like they're my big brothers driving a cool Firebird playing Frank Zappa. And they're like, hey, Nick, you want to go get ice cream? Hop in. And they insist that I belong in the Troika. And I'm like, eh, only if there's luggage to carry or attire to change. But we took this trip that was, I mean, you know, it's such a crazy life pinnacle to get to do something like that in all the hustle and bustle of all of our lives that we managed to pull off this beautiful trip

full of inspiration and high-flying conversations and collaborations, and also just total, like, and collaborations and also just total like pants shitting, you know, falling down, middle-aged guy stuff. Are they outdoorsy at the level that you, at the bar you've set? Well, you know, again, people call me master woodworker. Yeah. But I love to be outdoors, but I'm no great outdoorsman. I'm not a survivalist.

I know things. If it comes to it, just because I think it's prudent, I believe I can start a fire. Look, I won celebrity poker on Bravo, and I know that doesn't make me a poker player. But you also, when I met you, you were making your own canoe. So when I sort of jump to conclusions about you being outdoorsy i do have data points that i'm basically okay i'll i'll take that uh i'll take that to to share but so to answer your question yes they are both george is one of these guys i once taught a woodworking workshop at like a seminar thing where Graydon Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair was there. I don't know him. I just met him at that, but he struck me as sort of a character

for maybe a Wallace Stegner book where I knew who he was and I had been to a lot of Vanity Fair things, but he also then stepped up and part of this workshop was I had slabs of maple. And if you wanted to, you could pick up a handsaw and cut off your slab. And then we made stools out of those slabs. And he was wearing, I don't know, like a three-piece suit or something. And he loosened his tie and just got in his vest and his shirt sleeves. loosened his tie and just got in his vest and his shirt sleeves. And I stood on two saw horses in the slab to hold it from being rickety while he muscularly sawed off the slab of maple. And I thought, this is what I think is a true Yankee. Somebody who has a house in the Hamptons or Kennebunkport or something, but can also not hesitate to step up and use a tool and

get a bunch of sawdust in their hair. And George is not that, but when you think of the winner of the Man Booker Prize or the celebrated Syracuse professor and New Yorker luminary, one of our main bonding things was he grew up on the south side of Chicago and he just could not be a more normal sweetheart. Like he could go to anybody's family birthday thing and you wouldn't even know he was there. But then the next day your aunt would be like, who was George? He was so nice. You know, he taught Bill another way to tie his work boots. Or like, he's an incredibly subdued wizard. And so he also, if you've read all of his nonfiction, when he was writing, he went to

the Colorado School of Mines because he hadn't figured out how to be the writer he wanted to be yet. And so then he started writing like technical journalism and he spent time in South America going to visit like mines or power lines, just different like utility. He was working for some big company writing up boring, dry stuff. And so he has stories where he like got sick because he was swimming in a river in Guatemala and discovered later that it was full of monkey shit. And so George's low key, he has a great piece. These are all in his, I think, book of essays, Brain Dead Megaphone. He has a piece

where he was writing about the homeless problem, but specifically in Fresno. And he goes and just lives in this homeless camp under an overpass for a weekend or a week. So George keeps himself completely under a bushel, light-wise. But I think he is as tough as anybody. I think he could go be a wartime journalist without needing to go to the store. And then Jeff, at the same time, again, a beautiful poet, you know, like just singing with such talent and courage and depth of thought is also just a cool badass, like central Southern Illinois, the son of a railroad worker, you know? And so in my book, I talk about one time Jeff slipped on a rock and took a hard fall. You know, we all were like, oh no, the rock star is hurt. We're going to have to carry him out. And he laid there. I mean, and it was, I was right behind him him so i had the best seat to see it

heading down wet rocks we had been hiking for like nine hours it could have been any of us it was very treacherous his foot slipped in a way just that his weight brought his like right buttock fully down on a on a rock it was just like shit. We were all surprised he didn't break anything. And he laid there for 10 minutes and was like, no, I think I'm good. And he got up and walked another two hours down a mountain. So that's the answer is, again, that always makes me want to say to everybody, you'd be surprised. If you think you can't go up and down a mountain, I think you'd be surprised. We monkeys have pretty good thumbs. And that was in Glacier, that trip that you guys took? Yeah, Glacier National Park. Were you hanging bear bags at night? We weren't tent camping. I mean, this was just a few years ago. And I would have been 49, I think.

And so they would have been mid-50s to 60 years old. And so we agreed as one of the conditions is that we would hike in the most beautiful place we could that had hotel beds to sleep in it. Yeah, gotcha. Fair enough. And now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. Hey, Pashi. Yes, Uvi. You love Marine Layer.

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For a limited time, get 15% off at marinelayer.com slash trips. That's marinelayer.com slash trips for 15% off your entire order, saving your closet one shirt at a time. for 15% off your entire order, saving your closet one shirt at a time. Josh and I, with our significant others, was Dolomites. No, wait, we did Tour Mont Blanc together. Yeah. And that was my greatest vacation of my life because I don't think I would have thought I could hike nine hours a day.

But you do, and it's crazy how much you just think in a way you're not accustomed to thinking. And I just echo real quick about George and Jeff, because I think it's worth noting. Because I think they're unique in this. I feel like I've met geniuses. Their humanity is such that when you spend time with them, you forget they're geniuses, because they're such normal, good people. And that it's only after the fact that you remember, oh, that's the guy who wrote this. That was the guy who wrote that. And it's just, I'm very, again, I'm very jealous.

I can't imagine two better people to be in that circumstance with. I agree wholeheartedly, and that's exactly why. I'm minding my manners so they'll let me keep riding to the ice cream shop. George and I, we got together just the other night. George and I met up with Jeff at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles and had a meal. It was the first time we were all three together since the glacier trip. And part of it, I think, is in both cases, is they're both great husbands and dads, which is not to say they're saintly. They're great husbands and dads because despite the foibles that any of us have and necessarily bring to a relationship or a family, they work through it in a very human and courageous way.

They face their shortcomings and even write about them and talk about them. And so it was so wonderful to be together again. And then George and I were both being very COVID safe for a variety of reasons, mainly that we don't want to get COVID. But so we chose not to sit in the audience, even though sometimes I do if I have a mask on. But we were just being extra careful. Sometimes I do if I have a mask on, but we were just being extra careful. And so Jeff's road manager, the heroic Eric Frankhauser, we said we were just going to stand off stage. And they said, well, the sound is bad if you stand off stage at a concert.

So one of their tech guys named Cash brought us headphones so that we could get through our cans the house mix with a volume knob. So, I mean, the dream. Then Eric shoved us on stage in a shadow. So the band is arrayed on the stage, and it was so funny, because my friends the next day were texting me pictures they took from the audience, and I didn't have the heart. were texting me pictures they took from the audience.

And I didn't have the heart. In each picture, I could blow it up and faintly see me standing just upstage of Pat Sansone, the keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist. So George and I were just to have this sort of friendly hang and then see Jeff bring his powers to bear on a live audience and backed by his extraordinary band, just reinforced what you're saying is they trick you into thinking we're just a bunch of dudes. And then he's like, hang on, let me step to the microphone real quick.

And that kindness, that humanity, I found in the times, the very few times I've interacted with them and that band. It runs downhill, right? The people backstage are as nice as Jeff. They see you and they think, oh, I want to make this experience as good for you as I possibly can. I'm not going to ignore that there's somebody here who loves this music. Exactly.

And it's arguably not disconnected from the ability to take your family on a road trip and play Family Feud with them or have the wherewithal to take a raggedy old three-speed on the tree Chevy Suburban and show us the ultimate generosity of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Getting back to some of that stuff with your trip to Yellowstone, do you have any specific memories of that? Were you guys camping back then? No, we're not a camping family. I've been camping a few times with aunts and uncles and loved it. Camping a few times with aunts and uncles and loved it. And frankly, camping is kind of like golf for me in that I think I would have a great time doing plenty of it.

But I've been such a workaholic my whole life. stood out to me because it was the first time at age 49 or 50 that I said, oh, I can give myself the gift of a week of hiking in a national park. And it was incredible. And the reason for that is also a very happy reason. It's because I love what I do for work. And so I very rarely say, let me get away from this life that I love to do something else that I love. But when I finally reached the point, it made me very happy. And now Megan and I are doing more of it. And I do love it. Do you travel differently with Megan? What are you guys? What's the optimal vacation for the two of you? I mean, we travel differently. Megan loves the outdoors, but not to the extent that I do or for the duration that I do. She would love to go on a hike up to two or three hours, but then she's good.

The last third of this book is the answer to your question, which we love to travel. We've been all over the world, and we're very, that we won the TV series lottery twice in our household. And then we keep picking up quick picks every few months. And so, you know, we've been to Paris and we love it all over the UK and Ireland. But we've also just been all over the world to many places. But in the pandemic, I was so charmed that Megan had the idea with an eye towards pleasing her man. Actually, she wanted to get one of those little sprinter vans that Airstream is collaborating and making these cute little sprinter vans from Mercedes. So you get a Mercedes chassis and engine and an Airstream tiny collapsible camper inside. And she said,

let's go get one of those now in the lockdown in 2020. So we can go see my people in Oklahoma and your family in Illinois for Thanksgiving. And I said, this is one of the greatest things that's ever happened. That this is your idea. I love it. And so we went to shop for one of those and they're incredible and they're a little snug. And as we were checking it out, I saw a doubt on her face. And I, as I sat on the toilet and realized that I could cook my morning eggs while taking a dump, which, so it seemed like a good bachelor situation is what I'm driving at. So we immediately said, this is a young person's game is what this is. But we were on the same lot with the Airstreams, the classic gorgeous land yacht. And so Megan said, well,

let's just sit in one of these. And so we sat in the end of an airstream. It was a hot Orange County summer day. And we just tipped up the windows, the screened windows, and the breeze was coming through. And it was lovely and cool. And that was the magic. We said, we can take this idyllic climate anywhere. We can pull this thing. And so we got a beautiful airstream and that's become a yearly thing. Now we take a big airstream trip and Megan also in the pandemic has become obsessed with cooking. And so it's an alchemy where we find places to go. She'll do a couple of hikes with me, but then I also get to do my jackass like, okay, I'm

going to start at four in the morning. That way I get the three quarter moon coming over the Douglas fir stand. And meanwhile, she obsesses with like, what amazing meal can she cook in the little, you know, ship's galley of a kitchen. can she cook in the little ship's galley of a kitchen. So we found the ingredients to make our own favorite way to get out to the parks and also have fresh homemade pizza. It's a very nice partnership you guys got going. Congratulations.

Oh, thank you. And I should note real quick when you say chapter three, the book is Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside. It's a beautiful book that I think hits on a lot of the themes that we very happily also hit on. I think so. Thank you for that. And I mean, that's the thing. I never dreamed I would write a book or tour as a humorist. I just wanted to get good parts and plays in Chicago.

But things went a certain way. I ran into Mike Schur. Yep. We've all been very lucky to run into Mike Schur, everybody here on this podcast. I mean, among other things, it was thanks to Mike that I directed an episode of Parks and Rec and was able to cast Jeff Tweedy. Ah, you cast Tweedy. Yeah, but it was the idea of Harris Whittles. Through his association with Flanagan at Largo,

a great comedy and music venue in Los Angeles that has, on any given night, it could be Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Amy Mann, or it could be Adam Sandler drops in and plays some songs or Amy Schumer or just you name it. It's the Vienna, you know, coffee clutch, the Bertolt Brecht. Actually, a fun fact is it was where Bertolt Brecht opened his final play was at that theater in Los Angeles. The new one, the new Largo? Yeah, at the Coronet Theater. Wow.

And so, yeah, thanks to Mike Schur that I also learned the lesson fulsomely that any production or family or collaborative effort, the vibe, the empathy, the affection, or conversely, the fear, the avarice, the bullying, it all starts at the top. And so if you got George or Jeff or Mike Schur, then everybody is going to have the same number of slices of cheese and crackers. Got to come out even. Should we move on to questions, Josh? Yes. All right. These are the questions we ask all our guests. Thank you so much for doing this, Nick. It's just a joy to talk to you.

It's my pleasure. Absolutely. All right. Here we go. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational? God damn you. Educational.

All right. Very good. that's a good answer what is your favorite means of transportation train plane automobile boat bike on foot canoe canoe canoe canoe yeah there you go if you could take a vacation with any family other than your own they could be alive or dead they could be fictional which family would that be it's a large pool from which to choose it certainly is we really we didn't cut off any avenues there for you vacation with any family they're they're much on my mind so i'll say the tweedies because they're specifically i mean i love jeff and suzy his heroic wife, but their two sons are two of the most beautiful young men I've ever come across. And as scions of a rock and roll family, they're impossibilities.

They know more about Chicago school board politics than I know about the back of my hand. We saw Jeff once. I can't remember if it was one or both of his sons. But when Josh and I went to see Book of Mormon, we saw Jeff coming out with his kids. And I remember, I didn't have kids yet, thinking, now that's the life. You bring your kids to a Trey and Matt musical in New York City,

and you know it's going to be that hard laughs, and you can't believe your dad's the one who brought you. That's it right there. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? I mean, I resent that question. I guess my brother, because I think he probably has the most meat on him okay okay we won't we won't take it with no follow-ups we're not allowed to ask follow-ups um i want to throw a new one into the mix here just because uh i've thought of it but what's it what's a trip you've always wanted to take there are many but, but I'll say one of these two-week canoeing portage

trips up in the boundary waters. I daydream about backpacking, about doing the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail, but I think two weeks in a canoe packing all of your stuff might have to scratch that itch for me. I don't know if I'll ever have the four or five months to get all the way up the East Coast. Yeah. We did a week in the Boundary Water, me and my college friends, a couple of years after college. And it was a trip to remember. And I'm still very close with all the mosquitoes I met. We stay in touch. And I want my pronunciation on this right. It's Manuka, Illinois?

Yes. I mean, like all things, when I was a kid, there was a fight song that involved the lyric, ooh-ah-men-oo-ka. And so I think that's what mainly formed mine because we're Illinoisans and there's a lot of schwa at work. People sometimes argue that it's Manuka and some young people there have taken to calling it the nook, which as you can imagine, upsets me and so i i'm not willing to go to like who am i to to say which is right i don't know but i say you just know the nook is wrong that's that's correct

would you recommend manuka as a vacation destination absolutely not uh okay no not. Okay. No. That's fair. And then Seth has our final question. I feel like it's crazy to even ask it. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? I have been, I think three times, which is funny that I... I don't, yeah, that's the one in Arizona,

right? The big one? No. It's like extra, what's the word for extra good oh great grand grand it's the grand king yes i first went there with my brother no yes i have been there three times the reason it took me a second is because the first time i was on acid okay with with my my good friend mike when we road tripped from la to chicago and then i drove when i moved my help my brother move from manuka to la which he has since rescinded we stopped there and then megan and i went but i've never been down in it and and that could also be one of my

answers for what's the trip I'd like to take would be one of those boating trips down the Colorado River. There's a wonderful book I read recently called The Emerald Mile. I can't think of the writer's name, but it's a wonderful, ripping good yarn about some guys boating down the Colorado. All right. The follow-up to that question was, is it worth it, the Grand Canyon? Sure, absolutely. Yeah, nothing like it. I will say, I'm not dying to go, but if I went,

I feel like On Acid might be the tipping point. Sure. I mean, it was pretty swell. I mean, the way Megan and I do things like the Grand Canyon or, you know, any national park is first and foremost, we just take the peak two or three months and throw them in the garbage. Like just don't go when you're just going to sit in line in your car trying to get into Yellowstone. But then also, so for example, the Grand Canyon, I mean, the whole Flagstaff area is higher altitude. Hometown of Ted Danson, by the way.

He grew up the son of, like, biologists, which stands to reason both his height and his demeanor. It's a beautiful place to wear flannel. And you don't think of that when you think of Arizona. But if you go there when it's a little chilly, that's the way I would try and do it. Then at least there's nothing sweltering about if you want to hike partway down or all the way down. Thumbs up to the Grand Canyon. Well, I believe you're, you know, Ron Swanson. Your great character, Ron Swanson, maybe had the quote about the Grand Canyon.

Well, I would argue he had one of the two great quotes, which was, I'm not good at recalling Ron Swanson quotes, but I think this one is, I've only, or crying is only acceptable, or I've only cried. You're doing great. I don't know why you're being so hard on yourself. This is almost word for word. Only acceptable.

In two places. In two places places funerals and the grand canyon is that it there you go and what's the other great quote are you going to do as good with it yeah uh chris pratt and aubrey uh april and andy go to the grand canyon and they're they do like an overnight jaunt and it was similarly they came up with it in the writer's room. It was all a last minute thing where they were like, fuck it, let's go to the Grand Canyon. Like, let's leave right now

and take two cameras and just shoot this little thing. So they kind of did. And they're there, you know, and it's like the sun's coming up and it's incredible. And it's April and Andy, who we love it's incredible it's april and andy who we love so much the cutest puppies ever on tv and they turn to the camera you know the office talking

head style and they're in awe of the grand canyon and chris pratt says where are the big faces? Calling them the big faces is the best. Oh, my God. Well, this has truly been a delight. Thank you so much for joining us, Nick. Thank you. I can't believe I got to see you two times in a week. I concur. I'm so grateful.

And it's funny. When I mentioned that I'd never expected I'd be a humorist, I immediately remembered one time, it must have been the Moon Tower Comedy Festival in Austin. You and I, I did my show and then you were next. And so we ran into each other in the basement. in the basement, that kind of thing makes me feel so tall. And I just always think, I wish my mom and dad could see me running into Seth in a basement as though we're pierced. Because I still, I mean, I'm fine. It's going okay. But I have, you know, just coming through theater and then getting to work with all of you comedy pipeline people makes me still feel very grateful. And I cling to that because it also keeps me learning. But when I get to participate in comedy with a capital C, I didn't set out to do that.

And so I'm very grateful when I get to. You are firmly one of us, Nick. And don't for a second think you're not. Well, thank you. Just wait. All right. I love you, buddy. I love you guys. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Bye, man. Nick grew up in Minook, Illinois. Crawled at the Nook and Nick would get annoyed. In summer they were certain to hop in the Suburban and they'd drive. Singing in the back, playing road games. Up to Minnesota to a fishing cabin. Stopped to take some whizzes, answered daddy's quizzes.

It's Hope Art. some whizzes, answer daddy's quizzes, it's Hope Art. It was that thunder, what's that sound? Granny Knuckle Crackin' that you could kill car down.

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