Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - SCOTT AUKERMAN’s Parents Got a Hotel Just to Watch Him on HBO

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Scott Aukerman joins Seth and Josh on the pod this week! He talks all about growing up in Cypress, California, his parents' deep involvement in church (and making him go three times a week), his love of comic books, and his competitive family game nights. Plus, he shares hilarious stories about his dad renting a hotel just to watch him on HBO (only to turn it off five minutes in), how he once chose Merlin over Cats on Broadway, his A-Team obsession on a childhood trip, and the Route 66 road trip he planned—but never got to take. And of course, Scott spills behind-the-scenes stories from Between Two Ferns and writing for the Emmys, Golden Globes, and more! Support our sponsors:NissanFamily Trips is brought to you by the All-New 2025 Nissan Armada. Take youradventures to new heights. Learn more at NissanUSA.com Maker's MarkThis episode of Family Trips is brought to you by our friends at Maker's Mark. You too can celebrate the spirited women in your life with a free personalized label to go with a bottle of Maker's Mark. Head to makersmarkpersonalize.com and fill in the details in order to create and mail your custom label. MAKER'S MARK MAKES THEIR BOURBON CAREFULLY. PLEASE ENJOY IT THAT WAY. Maker's Mark® Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, 45% Alc./Vol. ©2025 Maker's Mark Distillery, Inc., Loretto, KY.   BluelandBlueland has a special offer for listeners. Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to www.Blueland.com/trips Executive Producers: Rob Holysz & Jeph Porter Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Coordinating Producer: Derek Johnson Mix & Master: Josh Windisch Episode Artwork: Analise Jorgensen

This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada. Take your adventures to new heights. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Hey, Baji. Hey, Sufi. Happy 100th episode, my brother of mine. Yeah, not bad, hey? Yeah, flew by. Yeah, it's nice to hit a nice round number. Nice hundo.

And I think, you know, after 100 episodes, one thing is crystal clear, Grand Canyon, ripoff. That's not clear. Yeah, I think so. It's certainly been my goal to establish that it's a big old scam. Yeah, well, it's certainly been your goal to ask people if Disneyland will be fun for your kids too.

Oh, I'm sorry. Do you think my kids will like Disneyland? Poshy. Yeah? I took another family trip home, like 10 days after my first one. Yeah. So I took Addie, surprised dad.

Uh-huh. Then Axel really wanted to go. So me and Axel, once again, help from mom, went and surprised dad, same, literally same place. Yeah. Super fun. Well, they don't go to, it would be, he would be, his spidey sense would go up

if mom wanted him to deviate from his normal patterns. Right, so it was the right place to go. And bar seating, Axel, couple of funny things about Axel's entrance. We're in an Uber and it's pulling up and on the way up, Axel looks at me and said, I keep feeling like this is a dream. Which is like the sweetest thing to say.

He was so excited. Yeah. Then we pull into the parking lot and we're just jumping out of an Uber, right? Yep. And I can tell that the Uber driver is gonna go all the way, Then we pull into the parking lot and, you know, we're just jumping out of an Uber, right? Yep. And I can tell that the Uber driver is gonna go all the way, look around this entire parking lot for a spot.

And, you know, we're right at the door of the restaurant. So I say, oh, you can just pull into this spot. And Axel goes, oh, it's a handicap spot. And I go, it's okay, we're just jumping right out. He goes, I will walk with a limp. Oh, clever. Yeah, so we got out of the car and Axel limped to the front door,

which is both very sweet and very funny. Yeah. And then we went in and Axel found out and also pulled his hood up on his jacket because he wanted to be more of a surprise. Yeah. But it turns out unlike Addie where dad had to double clutch for a second,

there's no mistaking Axel. Yeah. He currently has teeth like a piano and the biggest glasses in the world and the biggest smile in the world. Big long hug. Fantastic. Great.

Yeah. And then, yeah, I saw some videos of Albert kissing Axel, just like licking his face a million times. Axel loved Albert, loved checking in on Albert, loved going to see where Albert was, asked Albert a lot of questions. You know, Albert, you know, if we haven't established, never answers a question, but Axel kept asking him,

which was great. Axel played a ton of Uno with Dad. We played a guess who? Very fun game, War, which is what Axel calls war. But here's the thing, and I hope that people who listen to this podcast know that you and I love our parents. Yeah.

And we feel incredibly grateful. No notes. It sounds like the way you're talking now, it sounds like you're going to undercut them a little bit. Yeah, because you just mentioned, you mentioned that the last time you went, you saw my old stuffed animal popsicle the polar bear. Oh yeah. Yeah. So as I've already complained,

they got rid of the one file cabinet that had my treasures. Your comic books and baseball cards? Lost to the world, or maybe given to me and I lost, but they, well, it's on point fingers right now. Okay. Especially because I'm, well, you don't point fingers because I'm about to. So I'm in your room,

because again, I can't be in my room because there was a leak and I can't be in the spare room because that's where they moved all this furniture from my room. So once again, I'm sleeping in your bed with one of my children, not a good night's sleep. Yeah. My mom, and then mom walks in with Popsicle.

She's holding Popsicle. And I'm like, oh, look at, I felt like this real love of the fact that she'd taken care of popsicle all these years. You know what she says to me? What? I think it might be time to throw him out. I mean, he's definitely seen better days.

Yeah, but he's a treasure. Yeah, it's not to be thrown out. He looks like, I feel like every now and then when they wanna prove how bad it is for wildlife when glaciers are melting, they show a picture of a polar bear that looks like Popsicle. It's just like gray, he looks more like a piece of charcoal at this point.

And so I'm not ashamed to say it, I ripped Popsicle from Harry's her his hands. Uh-huh. And then I said, no. And then I opened your closet and I just shoved him in the top of the closet. Oh, okay. And I was like, is this all right? Are you gonna be able to live?

Are you and dad gonna have enough space? Well, I mean, that's my closet. So I don't know if, Oh yeah, heaven forbid. Next time I'm home, I might have to get him out of there. That's my closet. Guy who keeps an old ponytail, all of a sudden it's gonna get picketed. Yeah, ponytail's in the sock drawer, that's mine. It's not in your room there. That's my closet. Guy who keeps an old ponytail, all of a sudden it's gonna get picky about what-

Yeah, the ponytail's in the sock drawer, that's mine. It's not in your room, it's in my room. Thank you very much. I'll tell you this too, it was daylight savings on that trip. So Axel had a real, real early start. Oh, yeah, yeah. And mom and dad, cause mom and dad also,

and I'm assuming they still did with you there, but they'd sleep with like their door open so Albert can come in and out as he pleases. Right. And it is a weird, like, it's a weird scene to walk past a door where both your parents are sort of sleeping. Yeah.

They, I think because they were so worried that Albert was gonna wake up Axel and they knew that when Axel's sleeping, that's a very valuable time for everybody involved. They did keep their door closed and they kept warning me to keep my door closed. Did Albert get on the bed with you guys? He did, he got on the bed.

When Poncaieri was telling a story to Axel, Albert got in bed and Axel just again thought it was the funniest thing in the world. Albert will do this thing where he like tries to like, he like nips at the blanket when I'm in there. And it like, he gets to a point where he's like gonna pinch your legs and he's a very big, strong dog. And he's pinched me a lot of times and it's,

I really don't like it. And he gets more aggressive when I get into bed than I've ever seen him in like, he like wants to like play but it's, he sort of is really chomping his teeth pretty hard at me, right? As I'm trying to go to bed and I'm like, not now. He's a fascinating dog. Another observation I wanted to make

about mom and dad and the home we grew up in. There's a lot of photos of us on the wall. Yeah. Maybe too many of them are headshots. Oh yeah, there's a, yeah. I mean, there's a ton of our headshots over the years. Now again, these are professionally taken photographs. We look very good in our headshots. It's a little bit like you feel like you're

in a casting agency that only has two clients. Also, when you say we look very good, I would say we looked okay for the time. Yes. And a lot of them are very dated. Yes. And like now looking back, probably some were ill-advised.

You have one where your hair is really up. Yeah. I feel like it's a headshot where you're telling Hollywood, I'm a little bit fun. I was, I was letting them know. You were a little bit fun, but it is, you know what I mean? It is one of those,

you kind of wish it was one of those headshots where there were four different pictures of you to show that that was one of the four things you could do. Yeah, those were mad TV days, and that was really like, it seemed like my name should have almost been spray painted onto that headshot. You're right, they are very,

maybe we'll get some of our headshots up on the website for people to look at. Yeah. Also, you know, if you're casting, give it a look. If you're casting someone in the mid-90s, early 2000s, yeah. Mid-90s headshots. It was fascinating when we went to work in Amsterdam, everybody had their headshot on the wall.

Do you remember that? Yeah. So, you know, the office in Amsterdam, and there was like one guy who took the headshots in Chicago named Brian McConkie. Yeah. And it's really, I mean, it's an iconic mid-90s Chicago headshot.

Yeah. And it's amazing to look back on it now because it is a lot of people who went on to, obviously have a big impact on comedy through the years. And we all have the same lame, not lame. I mean, Brian took a great picture. We all just look lame because we're in the nineties and a lot of us, a lot of the guys are wearing

like V-necked Navy sweaters with a white t-shirt underneath. I know you like, I feel like sitting on a chair backwards with like your arms over a chair, over the back was a very popular look. Well, that was a lot of shows in the nineties. People, most of the people were sitting backwards in chairs. So they wanted to make sure you could do that.

Oh, the other thing, can I say something about going home and seeing mom and dad? Yeah. I don't know why I'm asking you for your permission. I'm the older brother. I'm the older brother. I decided what we talk about. What do mom and dad, mom and dad watch a couple of things every night. Yeah, they watch, pardon the older brother. It's our podcast, but yeah. I'm the older brother. I decide what we talk about. Okay. What do mom and dad,

mom and dad watch a couple things every night? Yeah, they watch, pardon the interruption. Yep. Where they have a beer and some chips and guacamole. Yep. And then they watch Jeopardy. Yep. And then they watch the nightly news.

I forget what network it's on, but we know it's- I think NBC. Yeah. And then they'll watch some of your show. They also watch sometimes a rerun of a television show and that show, do you wanna guess? Everybody Loves Raymond? Everybody Loves Raymond.

Yeah. And let me just tell you something. I watched about four or five Everybody Loves Raymond. It's so good. Yeah. It is so good. Everybody. It is so good. Everybody loves Raymond. Jokes.

Jokes. You like jokes? They got jokes. You like jokes? Literally no one's ever talking to do anything except set up the next joke. The actors are, everybody's in the pocket. Everybody's wonderful at what they do.

Flies and mom laughs as loud as the laugh track, as loud as the live studio audience at every joke. It crushes, everybody loves her. Also, she, Robert, the brother, every time he says anything, mom laughs like she's never heard him talk before. Oh yeah, she'll also very often, she'll like hit you in the leg

if you're sitting next to her. Yeah. We also watched, there was a new Wallace and Gromit, which is, you know, by the way, we were adults when Wallace and Gromit came out, but we watched them with mom and dad because we knew even as adults, they love him. And Axel sat next to dad on the couch

and they were so cute watching it together. Except the one downside is Axel does a lot of kicking when he's like sitting. And he likes physical contact with people. Dad was not having it. And I would say dad went from, there was a real strike one year out with Axel. The first I heard of it was, stop kicking me.

Well, he's got a different parenting style. He's got a different parenting style. I do think that was also the last time I heard it. So I should probably say that it was also very effective. But it's great to be home. Mom made party mix. Oh, great. Yeah.

Also Axel was very excited to eat, but there was only one thing he liked in the party mix, and I love the way he pronounces it. And at some point, your kids outgrow their childhood pronunciations, and it's very sad, but he calls pretzels, Prentzels. And so when he says, I just want the Prentzels, it makes, puts me in really. Yeah. Yeah.

And he calls, he calls Prent he calls pencils pretzel. All right. What's, if pret, wait a minute. If pretzels are pretzels, then he would call- Pencils are- Petzels, he would call pencils, petzels. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, which is a, petzels a company that makes like headlamps and whatnot.

So I wonder what he calls- Oh yeah. Petzels. Yeah. Headlamps. 100 episodes, Pashi. 100 episodes. And as such, we've got a guest on today who probably has a podcast with, I don't know, like 700 episodes.

A thousand, probably. Yeah, so we ain't nothing compared to this guest, but he's shown us the way. He has shown us the way. He's lovely. Do enjoy this conversation, and thank you so much for being with us for 100 episodes. We love doing the show, and it would be nothing

without you listening. family trips with my brothers. Family trips with my brothers. Family trips with my brothers. Here we go. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. There we are. So I'm immediately, Scott, I'm gonna immediately irritate my brother and diverge from family trips. Okay.

Because there's something I'm desperate to ask you about. It's one of my favorite things to ask Andy Samberg about. Your praises are often sung to me by Andy Samberg. Oh, that's so nice. Help me make sure I'm right here. You were the head writer both when he did the Globes and the Emmys? The MTV Awards, I was the head writer for that.

Is that right? I was definitely a writer. I can't remember. I think I was the head writer. And then the Emmys, yes. The Globes, I was in Tokyo, so I only got to go there for the show. So I basically like-

Okay, but you were there for the show. I was there. I sent jokes from Tokyo, but yeah, I was there for the show. So were you there? I was so happy at the SNL 50th because at the Radio City show, it began with Andy dressed up as Jackson Maine from A Star Is Born.

Do you know what I'm gonna ask about from the Golden Globes? From the Globes, wow. Maybe it got killed before you got there. He told me there was a bit where he would come out as Jackson Maine. He was co-hosting with Sandra Oh. And he had a rig set up where he was gonna wet his pants.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. During me. Because that was in Starsborn, Bradley Cooper's Jackson Maine, like basically pisses himself during the Grammys. Yes, I do remember this. Did it happen on the show? I feel like-

No, NBC killed it and Andy is still mad today because he's mad because- He's still mad. He's still mad because the pee rig he claimed didn't work and then the reason NBC killed it was it seemed like it was technically impossible. And he thinks that they killed- Peeing yourself on stage is technically impossible.

Very easy. The rig, the thing that always makes me laugh is the joke was that they were him. Peeing yourself on stage is technically impossible. Very easy. The rig. The thing that always makes me laugh is the joke was that they were gonna be double rigs. So he was gonna wet one leg and then later wet the other. I remember that being talked about in one of the early meetings before I left for Tokyo. Yeah.

And then I feel like, did I see it actually happen in dress or something? I can't remember. You did. I think they did it in a dress and that was where it got killed. And it really, I mean, he's still so mad about it.

I think you were very lucky to get to Tokyo. He's still mad. You were very lucky. I mean, we definitely had our share on the Emmys of things that I know there were a lot of jokes that were cut. There was one joke in particular that we were very mad that it was on Fox, right? of things that I know there were a lot of jokes that were cut. There was one joke in particular that we were very mad

that it was on Fox, right? Yeah, so who's the guy who does American Horror Story and all that kind of stuff? Ryan Murphy. Ryan Murphy. So there was a Ryan Murphy joke that I wrote that killed. And I think it was something to do with The subtitles of all of his American Horror Story shows were just things. He said whenever he had an orgasm, right, right and

absolutely slayed and They the Fox executive sent it to Ryan Murphy before the show to say is this okay if they say this because Fox had so much money invested in Ryan Murphy. So much business, yeah. And then he ended up leaving for Netflix like three months later. But they told us like, there's no way you can't have this in the show.

And the great thing was, was they had forced us to cut Andy Samberg sticking his face in the ass of the big Emmy and like doing a girl's impression and like motorboating it. And they forced us to cut that. And we said, well, as long as we get to do this, as long as we get to do this joke.

And they traded that joke for that. So that was it. Oh, that's it. I mean, a little horse trading. That's not that bad. Yeah, exactly. And I think the motorboating, the Emmy's butt probably went better than my joke. Right. I remember when I hosted the ESPY, the Emmy's butt probably went better than my joke. Right.

I remember when I hosted the ESPYs, there was this wonderful producer who has sadly since passed named Maura Mant, rest in peace, but we had jokes and she always said, I'm gonna tell the athlete and we would say, no, no, no, please don't. Right. And she was like, trust me, they'll know,

we'll cut to them, they'll laugh. It's just so much better than catching these guys off guard. And so it was never a case of we're gonna cut it. She just understood that audience better than I think showbiz people did. And she was always like, no, cause I was like, there was a joke about, you know,

Reggie Bush, I remember that like it worked so much better because of the way he laughed. That's nice. So that was better than- So that was something where they were managing it in a proper way. In a good way. They were managing it for the purposes of comedy as opposed to what Fox did, which was- Exactly.

That's right. I remember- All right, wanna talk more about the Espis? We are done, we're done. We're gonna talk about- We're done. And now on to family trips. The Espis?

And I- So Scott, I wanna say my favorite thing about your bio is that your parents' names are Bert and Linda because I feel like Bert and Linda are, Please? So Scott, I want to say my favorite thing about your bio is that your parents' names are Burt and Linda because I feel like Burt and Linda are, I think of subversive comedians, I think like 85% of them have a Burt or a Linda as a parent. It just feels like...

Yeah, and so they have two? Wow. Yeah, I mean, you were bound for the world you ended up in. Yeah, they really had some old school shit going on. Yeah, definitely, you know, those typical, they fell in love in high school and then got married right away. You know, just one of those.

When a birch meets a Linda, you know, follow your heart. Sparks fly. You were born in Savannah. Did they meet in Savannah? Were they Georgians? So they were Los Angeles adjacent. Okay. My dad was in the National Guard during Vietnam,

so he flew helicopters, my grandfather flew helicopters as well. So Savannah was where we were stationed for like six weeks. So I just happened to be born there. Okay. Our dad was also to be born there. Okay. Our dad was also in the National Guard during Vietnam. Really? But it seemed like based on what he talked about,

his job was dodging work. You say that's accurate Josh, based on his story? I don't know. Dodging what kind of work? Like going to war? No, I mean, I don't know. I think like he was certainly wasn't flying helicopters. No, I know that. Yeah, yeah. I think like he was certainly wasn't flying helicopters. No, I know that.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. I think my dad signed up for Vietnam early so he could fly helicopters. He didn't wait for the draft. Got it. Yeah. He really wanted to learn how to fly helicopters,

knew they would teach him if he signed up before the draft happened. So yeah, he was there for a good while. That's fantastic. You never caught the bug. You never caught the- Caught the helicopter bug? My grandfather and my father would take me up

and I got so air sick all the time that I was like, oh, I hate flying. Oh, gotcha. Which I think was really disappointing to them. I mean, I was never involved in anything manly that my dad wanted me to be a part of. Like fixing cars, he'd love to do that. He would fix everything around the house.

I hated doing chores. He taught me how to fight just cause a younger bully was bullying me when I was in junior high. Someone who was in elementary was following me around on my bike and beating the shit out of me. So yeah, I was not that kind of guy. Gotcha. Did he then take that helicopter learning

and do it professionally or was it just something he did recreationally? He did for a while. He came out of Vietnam and then was with the National Guard Reserves. Okay. And then he started working for a corporation where he would be the helicopter pilot

to like basically be on call to fly the president or the CEO around. If the CEO wanted to like basically be on call to fly the president or the CEO around. If the CEO wanted to go down and golf in like 30 miles south, as my father explained it, it was because his time is so valuable to the company that it was worth the expense of a helicopter dedicated to him to shave off 20 minutes out of what would have been a drive.

Because that 20 minutes then could be spent doing company work. It doesn't make any sense at all, but it's how he explains it to me. It's definitely how the president explained it to the accountants. Yeah, exactly. He's like, it made its way to your dad.

I don't wanna get political on this podcast. Uh... Uh... Uh... Um, but yeah, then he had an air, uh, like a machine parts store business and then he closed out his, uh, work life making basically overhead compartments for airplanes, uh, in a, for a company and the, and the, the emergency doors, uh, in between the cockpits and the passengers. So yeah, he was in the-

He made the overhead compartments just a little bit too small. Yeah, that was his idea. He was like, people are gonna love this. That was the most like you he was, that famous prank where he made them a little too small. Because otherwise it seems like you massively diverged from the path your father had laid out.

Yes, was never really interested. He never understood really what was going on with my career. I think at a certain point he just let go of it. I think when I was 26 or so, I was still waiting tables. I hadn't gotten my first showbiz job yet. And he was like, you know what? I look around and everyone seems to like you here at this restaurant. He goes, even if you don't make my first showbiz job yet. And he was like, you know what? I look around and everyone seems to like you

here at this restaurant. He goes, even if you don't make it in show business, I think you'll be okay. Which was like the nicest thing he ever said about my career. That's really sweet. It was sweet. I mean, I got it. Yeah, then I got on Mr. Show and the first show I was on,

he and my mother rented a hotel room because they didn't have HBO, but the hotel had HBO. And I didn't know this was happening. They called me, my mother called me the next day and told me this. And I went, oh, that's so sweet. What'd you think of the show? And she said, we turned it off five minutes in. And I said, well, how did, how did I do? And she goes, looks like you've gained weight. So that was pretty much how they felt about my career. It would be very funny to me if they went to the front desk of the hotel and were like,

I, well, this is very embarrassing. We do need a refund. We only got this for our son's show and it's very bad. And he's very fat now. And I know it's not entirely your fault, but it's ridiculous to charge us for this room. I mean, I will, again, I'll always, not the best review. I still support any parent who,

I mean, that's a outlandishly sweet thing to go get a hotel room. It is nice. I think they, at a certain point, they told me they were not gonna watch the show anymore. It's very expensive to get a hotel every time. And then I finally worked on something that I was like, oh, they'll be proud of me finally.

I wrote some of the movie Shark Tale. Yeah. And I took them to the premiere at Man's Chinese. And we watched it, the credits roll. My dad turns to me and says, well, that wasn't very good, was it? So I worked on that for two years, I think, just trying to please them.

The was it is the best part. It's not that he didn't even think, he didn't think it was good and he also assumed you knew too. I mean, I agree, but come on, give me something. If it's any consolation, I did two years on MADtv and when I left the show, my dad was like, oh, thank God we never have to watch

that terrible show again. So it was two years of like being on, you know, 20 episodes. What happened to the types of parents who like, it's just thrill, like it's a thrill that you're even in this magic box. It's amazing how quickly, and again, again, I'll put our parents up against anyone as far as how supportive they've been,

but it is incredible how fast they get used to it. I would put mom above dad in terms of supportive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would. In the rankings, almost no one has gone with the one, two of dad, then mom. Do they still watch your show? They watch my show every day. Every day?

They watch it the following day, and it's very rare. Sometimes they'll go on a vacation and they'll come home and I can tell they're maybe overwhelmed by the backlog and they will say, is there anything really good we should watch from last week? And I'm, which by the way, I embrace and, is there anything really good we should watch from last week? And I'm, which by the way, I embrace and I'm very impressed with their ability

to keep putting it down every night. Yeah. So. I don't even tell my mother really ever if I'm gonna be on anything anymore. Although she did on her old TiVo keep my TV show. It was taking up the entire hard drive, I think, because we did so many episodes.

So she just kept all of those, which was very nice, I think. And that was IFC. Yeah, that was hard to get. So that's impressive. I mean, at that point, they were like, we gotta get cable. Yeah, there's no hotel room that has IFC. There's barely living rooms that have it.

I also had a show on IFC, and I will attest to the fact that... I think you were the last show on IFC. We maybe were the last show on IFC. You will attest to the fact that- I think you were the last show on IFC. We maybe were the last show on IFC. You were the last straggler that they still kept letting make sure. And they were, I mean,

I don't know how they were for you to deal with. They were wonderful, but it was funny because I think we did an upfront where that's where we realized, we kind of looked around and there was like nothing else. Usually they introduce multiple shows at the upfronts. We had the best upfront where basically they had introduce multiple shows at the upfronts. We had the best, you know, upfront where basically they had the most shows on the air.

And then Fred Armisen put together a super group of all of us playing old damned songs and Clash songs, just because he wanted to do it. Like suddenly I had to learn how to play Clash songs on the guitar. And so it was like Mark Maron, you know, soloing and me on rhythm guitar and the birthday boys in the back, like, you know.

That is, I mean, when they talk about when was peak TV, it was like when the IFC upfronts could put together a super group. Yes. So you, you were only born in Savannah and then after the National Guard, your family goes back to California and then- California, yeah, Orange County, yeah.

So was there not in the same house, but was there yeah, Orange County, yeah. Gotcha. So was there, not in the same house, but was there until I was 20, yeah. Okay, gotcha. And what was your, and were your parents fairly conservative people? Yes, so they were churchgoers, very involved in the church. My father was a deacon, sort of Baptist church.

My mother- What is the role of a deacon? Like for those of us who are maybe not fully up to speed on the Baptist. Have you ever seen Conclave, but with incredibly low stakes? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah. Just like sort of making the decision-

Is it like who's getting the coffee? Is it like- Yeah, exactly. Like who's bringing donuts this Sunday? It's dinner, theater, Conclave. Yes, exactly. But yeah, so he was a deacon. My mom ended up being the church secretary after a number of years.

So yeah, they were very, very involved in it. And I had to go three times a week. Wow, so when are the three visits to the church? Obviously it's Sunday. Sunday morning, nine to 1230 probably. And then Sunday evening evening seven to nine. Double on Sunday. Double on Sunday.

I hated Sundays. You catch a nap between those two or? If I was lucky, I mean, I think my father, when I was much too late to have this affect my life, he realized, he came to me, he was like, oh, I just read a study that kids need to stay up really late and sleep in really late. And it was like, I was already 27 at this point. I'm like, yeah.

He was doing like army tricks on me, like throwing pails of water on me to wake me up and stuff like that. Oh my God. And then Wednesday night from seven to like nine, I think. Now is that, are you sitting for the entirety of those hours or is it? So the morning on Sunday was broken up into two things.

So the first was what they call Sunday school, which was whatever your age appropriate grouping was, you would go learn about Jesus there. And then the last hour and a half was in the big church with trying to pay attention to the older man speaking for a long time. And then at night it was that as well, but with more music, more people playing guitar,

I guess it would be the one difference. Did you at least get your taste for music there? I mean, I definitely learned how to sing and sort of like, because you would, so boring, you would just sort of like try to do anything to entertain yourself. So whenever the hymns gave you an opportunity to stand up, it would be like, all right, let's mess around a little bit

and try to figure out a weird harmony for this or something like that. And I was in the choir there and I did like, it's actually where I started acting, I think, is we would do shows for the congregation. And I think my mom tells a story about when I was eight years old, doing some sort of Noah show

that I said something and the audience laughed and my eyes got really wide and I looked at the audience and she said, I knew then that that's what you were gonna do with your life. Isn't that great though, that you just know based on the one? Yeah. Yeah. So crazy. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by our friends at Makers Mark. Hey, Pashi.

Yes, Sufi. I don't have to tell you that we're partnering with Makers Mark to celebrate spirited women. No. Like Margie Samuels. You definitely do not because I made the trip to the Makers Mark Distillery in Laredo, Kentucky. The same Makers Mark that Margie was the co-founder of? Absolutely, that's the one. And you, I believe you brought a spirited woman with you.

I did, yeah, my wife Mackenzie, who, you know, is one of the strongest, toughest gals I know, and inspires me with her work ethic every day. She, you know, she moved out to California to work at a barn and do some training, and then that barn eventually was gonna get sold, and she struck out on her own and now has this thriving business

where she trains people and rides horses and she works her tail off. It's really something else. Also Margie, shout out, original designer behind the iconic red wax dip. Yep. The label and even the Maker's Mark name. You did some dipping while you were there, right Posh?

I did do some dipping. We were there for a long tour and we dipped our own bottles, which was very exciting. You too can celebrate the spirit of women in your life with a free personalized label to go with a bottle of Maker's Mark. Head to makersmarkpersonalized.com and fill in the details in order to create

and mail your custom label. Don't forget to grab a bottle of Maker's Mark to go with it. Maker's Mark makes their bourbon carefully. Please enjoy it that way. Maker's Mark Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, 45% alcohol. 2025 Maker's Mark Distillery, Incorporated Loretto, Kentucky. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan.

Hey, Pashi. Yes, Sufi. Let's talk about some things that never go out of style. Ooh, I love this game. Like, uh, pasta. Bomber jackets. High top shoes. Jean jackets.

Baseball hats. You know what else that never goes out of style? What's that? Going big. That's why we at Family Trips love partnering with Nissan because they know that going big never goes out of style, especially when it comes to the 2025 Nissan lineup. And the Nissan vehicle we want to give a huge shout out

to today, the all new Nissan Armada Pro 4X. No terrain is too tough for the all new Nissan Armada Pro 4X. No terrain is too tough for the all-new Nissan Armada Pro 4X. It's the most capable Armada ever built. With a new powerful engine, incredible towing capacity, and adventure-ready technology, this is the first Armada to earn the Pro 4X badge. It's built for the most rugged of terrain, thanks to the fact that it's powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine,

which means it's ready to give you the freedom to explore further and to propel your adventures to new heights. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Explore further with the Nissan Armada Pro 4X. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. support comes from blue land. Hi, Paji. Hey, Suvi. As a parent, yeah, you want to make sure you don't have toxic materials in the household. Oh yeah? You don't want that? No, you don't want it. You've got your kids, they're running around, you can't keep eyes on them at all times. You just have to be

more peace of mind when you know that the stuff you have in your home, especially even when it's cleaning supplies, is safe. And it's not gonna make them have a bad case of the drink and the soap. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, I agree. I mean, it makes sense now that you say it.

Blue Land is certified safe, cleaned by the EPA, and they get the job done without worrying about the impact they have on your family, your parents, or you. They're on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and the planet with the same powerful, clean you're used to. It's very affordable, which you like as well.

I like it a lot. Because then I can use the rest of that money on Legos, man. I've just got to put money aside constantly for Legos. You use it as well, don't you, Posh? I do. I love it. I will say it's pretty, don't you, Posh? I do, I love it. I will say it's pretty, which I appreciate, and my wife certainly appreciates.

You get these nice little tablets and these nice little tins. You know, there's no waste. And so it's nice to just like, take your toilet tablet tin, walk around the house, drop a tablet, and eat your toilets, you're done there. Use it in your laundry, Use it for your dishwasher.

Just a shout out to how you said toilet tablet tin so cleanly. Oh, thanks. Yeah, I was like, I was just like a song in My Fair Lady. Blue Land products are effective and affordable with refill tablets starting at just $2.25. You can get even more savings by buying refills in bulk or sending up a subscription. Blue Land has a special offer for listeners.

Right now, get 50% off your first order. By going to blueland.com slash trips, you won't want to miss this. Even more savings by buying refills in bulk or sending up a subscription. Blueland has a special offer for listeners. Right now get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com slash trips. You won't want to miss this. Blueland.com slash trips for 15% off. That's blueland.com slash trips to get 15% telepathy off. So the conservative parents, what were your, did you have grandparents around? So my grandparents, one, my mom's parents, they lived, it felt like an eternity when we would go visit them,

but I think it was like an hour away. They had a farm in California. And then my father's parents were in Arizona, which I spent a lot of time in because we would go there for like, sometimes I would be there for a summer and at least a week at a time, every holiday during the summer. And so yeah, it was kind of,

those were a lot of our family trips, I think were, I was driving to the mountains this weekend because it was my daughter, the first time she saw snow, right? We took her up to the mountains. And we went up to, I don't, I honestly do not even know because nowadays I just, you put an address in

and then you just go on a bunch of freeways and you're there. And I was, I was kind of like, where am I? I don't even really know. But it was in the mountains here in California somewhere. But as I was driving it, I was like thinking about the drive to Arizona that we would make several times a year from Orange County through Indio, Indio where Coachella is basically is where we would always

stop for lunch. And then sometimes we would do it with a dog in the back and just, you know, just terribly long. I think it would take 13 hours to get to Arizona. It was just so long, but my parents were not well off. We were simple country folk and they didn't have a lot of money. So that was the only way they could do it.

Must burn a guy who knows how to fly a helicopter to have to drive 13 hours. I know he's tethered to the ground, cursing gravity. Just constantly like, if it wasn't all you ground dogs. What kind of dog did you guys have? We had like a little sort of Dawson, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, who do you think I'm not?

Dachshund. Yeah, Dachshund. Yeah. Dachshund. Named Alice and she was our family dog until maybe, and they told me he died. They were honest about it. So I think I must've been- Alice was the boy?

Did I say he? Alex. Alice, sorry, it was a she. Okay, okay. They told me he died. They were honest about it. So I think I must've been- Alex was the boy? Did I say he? Alex. Alice, sorry, it was issue. Yeah, okay. They told me she died. Yeah, gotcha. So I think I must've been- She probably did.

By now. I mean, I'm gonna say can confirm. I guess what I'm trying to say is I was old enough to handle it when she did. It's really funny, like that's the opposite. It's like, yeah, like instead of being like, yeah, my parents told me the dog was living in a farm upstate instead of being like, yeah, my parents told me the dog was living in a farm upstate.

It's like, yeah, my parents told me the dog died, but I never believed him. Yeah. She was still at the house. Yeah. Yeah, so we had a dog. I remember my father would get really mad at the dog being on the furniture

whenever we would leave the house. He figured out that the minute we left the house and that the car drove away, or the dog could hear the car door slam, that she went into the room that she was forbidden to go in and then immediately plopped on the couch that she wasn't allowed to go on. So at one point he concocted this whole fake going,

all of us going to a restaurant thing where we all had to pile into the car and he slammed the doors really loud and then snuck in through the back of the house and scared our dog who was on the couch and then like punished it. Yeah. Now, did your dad do that with a sense of play

or was that a very serious? Very serious. That was how he was going to handle this problem. Great. Was there any follow-up after that to see if Alice was still going in there or if the scare had sort of scared her out of there? I think he would do it a couple of more times to see if it had happened, but I think she wised up to it.

But, you know, I mean, I don't think they knew anything about how to care for dogs at all either, you know, because I can't tell you how many times we would go to a restaurant, come back, and there would be just a big turd on the floor. It happened all the time. And that has happened to me with, I have two dogs, that has happened to us like over the past five years,

maybe thrice, you know? But it happened to us almost every single time we ever went anywhere. Yeah. It sounds like Alice and your father were in a real sort of, yeah. Teta-tet. It was a real will they won't they?

Yeah. Shit on the floor, jump on the couch. Would you always stop at the same place in India? Did you have like your spot? Yes, it was called, and I apologize to your listeners, but it was called Sambos. Okay. I was curious as to what the apology would be for

and that one deserves it. It was culturally insensitive, but I have to say that I loved it. It was culturally insensitive, but I have to say that I loved it. It was like a Denny's, but the themed like the now incredibly offensive book, and then incredibly offensive book about a little boy who turns animals into butter, but they had like the pictures everywhere,

and it just was very fascinating to me. And they had, I would get a bacon cheeseburger all the time. It was the only place I could ever get a bacon cheeseburger. Interesting. Now was there, again, I'm trying to guess based on the previous vibes you've established

about your dad, was the drive a fun drive or did it feel like very much we are on a journey? It definitely, I was, okay, so when we went up to the mountains this weekend, my daughter was screaming for the last 20 minutes, I would say, just saying like, I want out, I don't even want to go here. It was at a certain point.

How old, sorry? She is 29 months. I'll make you do the math. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, we'll do the math. So two and a half. So yeah, almost two and a half. And she was just, you know,

as much as for a month she's been saying, we go build a snowman, we go build a snowman. Then it turned to do, I don't even wanna be here right now. So I- How long had that drive been? The last 20 minutes was- We went up in the middle of traffic,

so it was two hours and 10 minutes. That's still, that's not that long. It's not incredibly bad, but she has not been a good traveler all that much. So I was thinking about how my dad would have handled it, and it would have been definitely with anger. I, you know, you're always trying to course correct with what you feel your parents did wrong to you, you know?

So I definitely am trying to go the other way and be very understanding. But at a certain point, it does feel like at what point do I just turn off the road and stop this and say like, all right, we're not moving another inch until you quiet down, you know? I don't know. But my daughter's not a good traveler.

The one time we went on a big long plane ride to Hawaii, which now our Hawaii trips are, we had to go to a Disney hotel, you know, that had a lot of kid activities. This is the first one of those I've ever done. She just, at a certain point, the switch goes off where it's like, I do not wanna be sitting in this seat any longer.

And I have, at a certain point she was like crying, but then she just started singing really, really loudly. And she started singing the song that was in her head, which is all about instructions of how to sit on the toilet and shit. So she's at the top. This is an existing song or was she improvising? sit on the toilet and shit. So she's at the top. This is an existing song or was she improvising?

This is a song that she, I think my wife found on TikTok or something and was singing to her to try to get her into toilet training. So at the top of her lungs she's just singing this, it's a parody of a Hozier song, just like singing I sit my booty cheeks I sit down on the toilet seat. I go poop and pee I go poop and pee and it's like funny for oh, yeah 30 seconds very briefly and then just so annoying to the other travelers. I think yeah Cuz they all know how to do it at this point. Yeah, I think, I mean, I hope so. It's not educational for them. Although if I had to pick a song for a kid to sing, I might want something new out of the child canon like that. And Hozier is, you know, he's a popular artist.

Oh yeah, I mean, cross-generational, everybody sort of likes Hozier. So it's a lot like, it's like listening to a weird Al song. You can appreciate it on the comedic level as well as appreciate the craft of the original song. Right. Did you go on a, when was the first airplane ride you took? Was it with your parents?

Yes, it was 1982. And it was the first, we'd gone on tiny trips, I think before, like a camping trip for a couple of days, or we would always go to a Christian camp in the middle of the summer for a week where we were split up. So it wasn't like a family trip necessarily. But the first big vacation we took was

when I was 12 years old, we went to New York and the East Coast is how it was built, was the East Coast. And they kind of asked us what we wanted to do because they wanted us to feel like we had some sort of agency in this trip, I think. So the first thing we said was East Coast, well Disney World, you know, which they agreed to at first

and then had a big conversation with us where they had to break it to us that that was so far away from New York, that there was no way we were gonna, it was gonna take up the entire time. And you were close enough to Disneyland, it seems weird. I was three miles away from Disneyland, we went all the time.

I ended up working there. Oh, but there's a different one? Yeah. So we went to New York first, and they gave us the choice of, one of the things was we were gonna go to a Broadway show. So they gave us a choice between two. And they said, you can go to this musical that Doug Henning is starring in

where he plays the magician Merlin and he does magic tricks. Or you can go see this thing called Cats. Okay. And we said, Merlin, of course, what are you even talking about? And this Cats, I think it was like, had just come out, would have been a sensation,

would have been something I could have talked about for years, but we saw instead, Doug Henning doing magic tricks, along with a young Christian Slater was in that show. Wow. Yeah, one of his first jobs, I think. Although I don't remember him. So we went to that, we did the Statue of Liberty,

we did the Empire State Building, we went up the Twin Towers. I'm told that I'm one of the last people who actually was up on the observation deck. Yeah, this was 1982. And then walked around, I remember like, I think I had $20 that they gave me to spend however I wanted to spend it.

And this is 1982. So I had a eyes odd shirts, polo shirts were very, very in. It was the preppy look. And so I found a street vendor who had a white sweater with a fake eyes odd logo on it, I think. So I bought that for $5. It was like so much of my money. And my parents were like,

are you sure you want this color? Like looking at the white color. And of course the day I wore it to school, I went into shop class and someone with a brush of stain, wood stain, just like. I would. Just slapped you with it? Just slapped me with it, yeah. Then we tried to dye it to a brown color to match it

and it didn't work, so. Oh my God. Oh boy, yeah. That is not only, your dad's like a handyman and you're walking into shop class in a knockoff IZOD and getting stained right away by the local bullies. But I remember going to New York, and getting stained right away by the local bullies. But I remember going to New York, the big, we were staying at a Howard Johnson's hotel

and then we were driving from that to I think Virginia or something like, somewhere around there because we saw a lot of the civil war sites as well. Might've been to Philadelphia too because we saw the Declaration of Independence, all that kind of stuff. But we were traveling to a bed and breakfast that took about an hour to get to.

And I remember sitting there stressing so much because the A-Team was my favorite show. It had just come out. First- Loved it as well. Somehow, I don't know how, I missed the pilot episode, which was a two hour movie.

I caught up to it episode two. I never got to see the pilot episode. I heard there was someone different playing the face man. It wasn't Dirk Benedict. All of this was fascinating to me and I needed to see this. And they were repeating it. And back then, this was a huge deal

because you couldn't see repeats of shows unless they were aired. There were no VCRs. So I was sitting there stressing and my parents all knew that part of this trip was whenever we hit the bed and breakfast was I was going to find the nearest TV and watch this A-Team pilot.

And they were, my dad was getting lost and couldn't find the right off-ramp and I'm sitting there stressing out and it's giving him stress because he thinks this is stupid and why do I need to even watch this show? But he's trying to do it for me. And my sister has lost her blanket on this trip. She left it in the hotel and she's crying.

And we had this rental car that anytime the door would open, it would talk and it would say, the door is ajar. Which is like basically Knight Rider. Yeah, that's exactly, yeah, I was fascinated with it. And we were always like trying to make jokes about how could the door be a jar? It's a door. Anyway, so we had been living with this car

for a couple of days and I'm stressing out. My brother is yelling. My sister is crying and my dad says, all right, I'm spanking you. And he pulls the car over, throws the door open and it says, the door is ajar. And we all laughed and he said, all right. And we got back in and then everything was cool.

Um. Same by the car. I guess. Yeah. So, so we get to the bed and breakfast and then they didn't really have a working TV. They had to hook it up for me and all this kind of stuff. Anyway, I got to see this 18 pilot

pretty much like a half hour late, but I got to see most of it. Okay, that's great though. I mean, this is what I'm about to say is very embarrassing because it's like recent history. Like I wasn't a child, but Josh and I and our current wives who were maybe not our wives yet, we did the tour Mont Blanc,

which is like a hike through the Alps. And it was during the World Cup and I was dead set on us watching this game. And just we were on the most beautiful hike through a field of flowers. And I remember Alexi and Mackenzie wanted to like stop for pictures and I'm like, come on, come on. I feel like Alexi is still very mad about it.

I hate feeling like that. I'm trying to let that go. Like anytime we have plans to go see a movie, and now my wife will get stressed on my behalf because I used to get so stressed about being there on time. And now I'm just like, honey, it doesn't matter. Like who cares if we're there five minutes late, you know? So I'm just trying to let all that go

and not worry about all that kind of stuff. But yeah, that's a bit- I think I'm getting a release valve. That's great. Yeah. Do you feel like your wife and you are good travelers together? Do you line up the way you travel? I think so.

I mean, I'm- Compatible was the word I was looking for. I couldn't find it. Thank you, Seth. Are you compatible? Yeah. I think so. Compatible was the word I was looking for. I couldn't find it. Thank you, Seth. Are you compatible? Yeah. I think so. There's been a couple of stressful times. I know when we went to Mexico recently,

there was a piece of paper that they gave us at the airport that apparently we were, I didn't understand this. We were supposed to bring it back with us to the airport. Like what kind of a system is this? Yeah, it's a bad system. A tiny piece of paper? Like how about I have a passport? Yeah, a piece of paper that.

It is so funny to be like, enjoy Mexico, relax, if you lose this paper, you can't go home. Yes, and so when we got back to the airport, she goes, where's your piece of paper? And I didn't understand the system. I'm like, I threw that away the second I got it. And it became a big, big stressor. And then the solution was, oh, you have to pay for it again.

Who gives a shit? So I just stand in line for 10 minutes and get a new one. And that was it. Yeah. I mean, I get though, I will like jump quickly on your way side. She certainly is allowed to be a little frustrated that you threw the paper away.

Oh, sure. It's a bad system. It's a bad system. a little frustrated that you threw the paper away. Oh, sure. It's a bad system. It's a bad system. But you can't just throw the paper away. But also, I think she's more mad that I'm not even paying attention to it. Like when we go traveling, I'm more of a like, okay, have you taken care of all of the arrangements

is sort of how I deal. Like my wife's responsibilities are, have you booked the hotel? Do you know where we're going? Like she does all of that kind of stuff. And what are yours? That's a good question. Yes, I think that's, those are the big ones.

What are we doing? Where are we staying? When I go on tour, like I'm in charge of all of that. So it's like, I know how to do it all, but somehow on vacation, it's just become like her kind of responsibility to take care of all of that. So I think any deviation from what is supposed to happen is very upsetting to her because all I had to do

was follow the rules that she's laid out and I couldn't even do that. When you used to go to Arizona, what was that like out there? If you're out there for a week or a summer, like what are you doing? I remember the summer I was out, I know my parents weren't there.

So I think it was just me and my brother. And we were, I remember the one thing that we were tasked with doing, and this is in the middle of the summer in Arizona, was going around to every business in the town. It was a tiny town, Safford, Arizona, and asking them on behalf of some club that, I think the Lions Club or something

that my grandfather was in, asking every business if it was okay if we put up a flag holder at their business. And then on the 4th of July, the Lions Club would go around and every national holiday would go around and put up an American flag in these flag holders. So these were tiny metal brackets. And I had no idea how to install any of these. It was basically me just kind of watching my grandfather do it and him saying like, here, hold this.

And you know, me trying to go, ah. And. Um. But that was what I had to do the entire summer was go around to every business. I think I was the, I feel like I was the front man for it because my grandfather didn't want to talk to people. So he would go, go in and ask him.

And so it would be- Well, it's also like sending a kid to do that job, it's easier, it's harder to say no to a kid. Especially a kid who's a patriotic child. Yeah. It's an incredibly patriotic child. It's in Safford, Arizona. Yeah.

But I feel like as a kid, I felt like it's easier to say, to take me not as seriously and to go like, no, we don't want that. Whereas if an adult comes in and says, hey, we're doing this thing where we're putting up flags, then you take that person seriously. I don't know. A kid, yeah, it would be a really embarrassing prank

to fall for if they put up like, you know, if the flag then said something offensive and they were like, how did that even happen? It's like, well, a kid came, I gave him permission to put a flag over it. Suddenly the Nazi flag is in front of my business. So obviously I've miscalculated, I made multiple miscalculations.

But I was, I mean, I was really just into comic books and reading a lot, you know, at the time. So the only thing I really remember was doing this in front of a bookstore and then going into the bookstore and finding the comic book adaptation of the movie Creepshow, Stephen King's Creepshow. And then like just reading that for the afternoon, not buying it, just reading it after I'd put up a flag holder at this person's business, just sitting there and reading his thing.

And then leaving. But so we would do that. They had a pool table, so I would try to figure out billiards, but I could never really figure out the angles. Support for Family Trips comes from AirBnB. Hey, Bashi. Yeah, Sufi. You know, some trips are better in an AirBnB. Let me tell you what I liked most about the last trip we took with you and mom and dad. We didn't have one bathroom.

Oh, yeah. We had three, maybe even four. You know what? We had a bathroom situation. Dad was so impressed with the master bathroom that he kept telling us we should go take a shower in his room. Yeah, which I didn't, I never did. I never did.

He kept saying, you gotta, it was really good. You know what? When dad visits us, you know what he does with the kids that Alexi's not crazy about? What's that? He lets him eat toothpaste right out of the tube. So that's why I didn't take a shower at his Airbnb bathroom is I didn't know if I could resist that sweet, sweet toothpaste snack. Yeah.

Look, it's really nice. I love our proximity to mom and dad when we're with them, but I also enjoy, there's a little bit of space that a hotel room does not provide. And then, you know, it's great to have a living room because a living room is yours and it feels like home and it's not a lobby. Yeah.

Also, Dad is prone to sprawl. Yeah, he's the original man spreader. He's the original man spreader. If he was getting residuals every time somebody man spread, the guy would be a billionaire. So it's nice. The way dad sits on a couch in a lobby, I think would be sort of unbecoming of a gentleman his age. But you know, get him in an Airbnb living room.

Go nuts, dad. Yeah. And the other thing is, sometimes you might, you know, hey, does this Airbnb look as good as it seems to look in the pictures? Why not try a guest favorite? Those are the most loved homes on Airbnb that can give you that extra sense of confidence. Book your next awesome trip today at Airbnb.com. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Hey Sufi.

Yeah Pashi. What's that thing I always say about going big and it never going out of style? Oh I remember, going big never goes out of style. Yeah that's it. And that's why we at Family Trips love partnering with Nissan, because they know that going big never goes out of style, especially when it comes to the 2025 Nissan lineup. The Nissan for the all-new Nissan Armada Pro 4X. It's the most capable Armada ever built. Yeah, that's right. It's like your catchphrase.

Yeah, I'm known for saying that, and how could I not? With a new powerful engine, incredible towing capacity, and adventure-ready technology, this is the first Armada to earn the Pro 4X badge. It's built for the most rugged of terrain, thanks to the fact that it's powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine, which means it's ready to give you the freedom to explore further and to propel your adventures

to new heights. And my favorite part, the Armada's premium interior seats up to eight passengers. That means we can bring our six best friends with us on our next adventure. Let's name them right now. And we're out of time. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Explore further with the Nissan Armada Pro 4X. Learn more at nissanusa.com.

Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. Were your siblings companions on these trips? Were they like, did you hang with them or did you guys not? Not really. I mean, I think we had to because we had no one else,

but it was just kind of, yeah, me and my brother trying to play pool against each other. I mean, it was a very competitive family where we always wanted to win games. I've never been able to lose that. That's part of something that I feel terrible about. But if we're playing a game in my family, I want to obliterate everyone.

Gotcha. And that's- How does your wife, so Alexi, my wife, doesn't like playing games with my family because we are, I don't even think it's about hyper competitiveness, but we're real rule followers. Followers, yeah.

And so there's a real looseness to the way the Ash family plays games. Yeah, they don't, I don't know how you play a game if there aren't rules, Ash family. It's not a game anymore. I guess the term, like, I think the term they use is fucking cheaters, is that maybe? It's a lot of like, I closed one eye. That's like, you know, just real.

When I went to Hawaii with a group of friends, we were all playing mafia and it's become a sort of part of the lore of how competitive I was at Mafia. And to the detriment of everyone, everyone's fun, basically. Just like far too wanting to win. And so it's a real flaw of mine that I am trying to sort of,

especially now with a daughter, we haven't started playing games yet, she's too young for that. Seth, I don't know if your daughter's three, is that? She's three, but the boys are eight and six and we game it up a little bit, but nothing fun yet. There's no good games yet. I mean, I was playing Scrabble at like four and five

with my mom. That was like her idea of having fun with me, you know? So, and Monopoly. Definitely a Scrabble. I mean, we've done Monopoly and it's such a bummer. I feel as though Ash would not take the Scrabble, but the idea of money to him is so alluring. This is my eight-year-old.

He loves Monopoly. He loves it. Yeah, it's, I mean. And it's not as bad as everybody says. I think Monopoly has this rap of, it takes forever to finish a game. But if your kids engaged with it, it's totally fine.

Well, we have nothing to do, but just sit around playing games. So like a game that took three hours is great. Totally. Yeah, what were your sort of the classic games that you played in your house? Monopoly, Clue, Clue was big. There, there, Parcheesi, there was a There was a big thing.

The two rules were winner puts away the game. So basically you never wanted to put away the game and clean up. So that was something where like, okay, you feel bad, you're losing at least, you don't have to put away the game. And then cheating was an automatic win for the person who was cheated against.

So those led to a lot of fights where I remember my brother throwing a Monopoly board at me because I won and saying, well, now you have to clean this up. And he threw it in my face. And so, yeah. And so, yeah. We play Uno and Old Maid. Those are fun ones.

Yeah. But the kids, the amount, their anxiety when they get the Old Maid, they like tense up and crunch it up. And so now it's so obvious what the Old Maid is. It's like the one card that is just like this gnarled card. And so when you fan them out, it's just lost all the joy. We had all these weird 70s games where I remember

we had something that was based on stocks where I'm far too young at six years old to know what the bull market and the bear market are, but it was all based on stocks and trying to figure out how to gain the most stocks. And just like all- That game Life, I remember as well, which was all just about like getting dependence

and how the tax bracket changed. It was like such a drag. It was none of the fun things about Life. It was all just like, it's not the party you think it's gonna be. But then we have the 70s games like the Happy Days game. Like tie-in games were really big back then. So the happy days game,

but none of those have the gameplay really that a professional game like Monopoly had. But I got very into Monopoly. I had a book on strategy and my signature move was hiding $500 bills underneath the game board so that everyone would think I was poor and then I would whip them out. So yeah, I was very, very into games and reading. Do you remember any strategy you learned

from reading a book about Monopoly? Not that I'm gonna use it against my kids, but just, you know, give me a taste. Well, sad. Yeah, come on. I think there was something about not trying to spread your houses and hotels around, basically like trying to pile them all on one property

because the chances of people landing on that one property are high and the rents go up exponentially. Whereas if you only have one house on each of your properties, that's not gonna bankrupt someone. Yeah, you're getting 80 bucks here and there. Exactly. You're getting 450.

Yes. Does that do it for you Seth? I played, yeah, that's great. That's a game changer. Literally. I mean, the one I'm gonna steal is 500 and it's under the table. I mean, that's obviously the move. I did play a game of Monopoly recently

where we sort of grew up never playing the rules where if you didn't buy a property, it right away got auctioned off, which really speeds the game up and that's the way it should be played. But once you start like having to mortgage properties to, you know, because you're in the red. Now that I have a mortgage,

it's just like, you start to feel terrible. You start to feel like you're just going bankrupt. And one guy had like all the power, three of us played, and two of us were miserable. And one guy was just like laughing all the way to the bank. It was a weird- It's very rare for anybody to bounce back a monopoly. Yeah.

Once you start bleeding out. It's so different that the comic books and board games are so different in the sense of these board games are all about the crushing anxieties of life. And then reading comic books are all about these, power fantasies of what if I could fly and beat up everyone? Why aren't board games like that?

I, when I think back to what I loved about summer as a kid, it was just being in my bedroom reading comic books and not having to go to school. Yeah. And it was, it was kind of, I think, looked down upon as not taking advantage of the warm summer months. But to this day, that's all I would really like

to be doing with my time. Were you guys left alone a lot? I feel like I, I basically was, you know, from, from during the summer, from morning till 5 p.m., it was just basically do whatever you want. I don't even wanna know. And just be back by 5. Our mom was a school teacher.

So she was home, but like nobody cared. Like she was, I mean, she would go out and do stuff and we would be home alone. Yeah, and we were outside. Like we, you could get on your bike and just ride through town and, you know, disappear with your friends for hours at a time. Yeah, I remember my friends would play baseball

and I was terrible at it. So I would do the play-by-play. Just trying to get into broadcasting. It's so funny when you reveal so early who you are. Just having a microphone in front of me, I was just at my happiest. Didn't you do some like cable access thing when you were young?

Yeah, when I was 16, I think my friend who had this really kind of boring and staid cable access show for the high school, basically, he was a debate guy. He really wanted to be into politics. He ended up being a lawyer. And so he was part of the debate team. So he was given this sort of like news. It was like, how can I put this

into a way you would understand? It was like weekend update. Okay, sure. Okay, so you get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm starting to get it. But where they would read real news stories, but about the high school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm starting to get it. But where they would read real news stories, but about the high school.

And so we had this like little cable access show. And so they asked me to come on and do a piece for it. And so, and they gave me this article that had been in the local paper about how our city of Cyprus got its name. And it was just like, it was four paragraphs about how the founders of the city, there weren't a lot of Cyprus got its name. And it was just like, it was four paragraphs about how the founders of the city, there weren't a lot of Cyprus trees anywhere. Why was it named Cyprus?

And they said, can you do a piece on this? And I was super into Letterman. And so I did a Letterman-esque piece about the mystery behind the forefathers of this town and why they would give it a name that wasn't representative of what the town is all about. And I did super dramatically and almost like it was unsolved mysteries or something.

And so, and by the way, I did a show at the UCB here in LA a few years back where they said, bring in something that you did when you were young and so we can all laugh at it. And I brought that in and the host, Jen Kirkman got mad at me afterwards and said, you were supposed to bring in something embarrassing, not something you would do now. But so that-

Did it hold up? Do you think when you watched it back? Yeah, it was still pretty funny. I mean, I'm 16 years old, but. So that led to me just like being one of the hosts of the show. And so for about a year and a half, I just had this like cable access show

where I was doing a blatant kind of Letterman ripoff and doing viewer mail and, you know, man on the street stuff. We had like a business fair come to the school. So I took a camera around and just asked really sarcastic questions of everyone to try to get comedy out of it. So it was, yeah, it was something that I think

Zach Galifianakis and I really bonded over when we started doing the Between Two Ferns videos is he had a cable access show and I had a cable access show. So when he told me the title, Between Two Ferns, I started laughing really hard because I knew exactly that ferns were the one thing you could put on a stage to sort of fill up the space and not make it look really blank.

That's really good. Between Two Ferns, I cannot stress to you how much my YouTube algorithm is telling me like, you wanna watch this one again? What about this one? Yeah, I really never tire of it. It is such an exceptional. Oh, thank you.

And that was how it was basically just Zach had the idea and brought it to you. And did you know each other previously? Yeah, so I'd known him since he was here in LA, since he moved to LA, doing shows at Largo and stuff. So we had done stuff together. He did something on Bob Odenkirk's pilot that I was producing.

And so we knew each other. And so I had a pilot to do a sketch show that was supposed to go up against the mighty Saturday Night Live. Oh, wow. I'm on a different network. And so I put it together and I talked to Zach and I said, hey, do you want to be on this show?

And he said, well, I don't want to be a main guy, but I could do a video for you. And I also was talking to Michael Cera about doing a video. And I said, why don't the two of you do something together? And Zach said, you know, I have this idea about doing a cable access show and it's called Between Two Ferns, which made us laugh. And so we just improvised that in a basement

in our writer's compound. And Ruben Fleischer, who is a huge director, he directed Venom and everything. He directed the first one and it was just us basically shouting jokes at Zach and the two of them improvising it. And we didn't really think much of it and the show never got picked up. And so we put it up on this new website, Funny or Die,

just so people could see it, you know, cause everyone who saw it laughed. So we said, all right, maybe people will see it. And it became this huge thing. And we thought that was it. Cause we were like, why would we ever do another one? Like we did it. And then Jimmy Kimmel reached out and said,

hey, I would love to be on that show. And we went, another one? What are you talking about? What show? Yeah, exactly. So we made another one for Jimmy and then just got into a groove where people we knew like John Hamm, we did one with him.

And then people we didn't know started wanting to do it. Natalie Portman was one of the first people who was like, hey, can I be on this show? And none of us had met her before, but she was very cool. And so it just kind of turned into this thing we would do occasionally for fun, you know? Yeah. That's great.

It really is wonderful how well it holds up. I mean, there's some jokes in there that don't necessarily hold up, but you know, you can, you know, I don't know that those are the ones being shared these days on TikTok, but. I mean, you know, what I see the most is people breaking. Oh yeah, yeah. Which is, I mean that.

The outtakes from the movie, those were, is people breaking. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean that- The outtakes from the movie, those were- So good. That was actually a weird point of contention between Zach and me because Zach really wanted to do it. And I was feeling like I didn't wanna let people in on the process all that much, you know? But Zach, I think was thinking that the movie

that we did was maybe the last time we were ever gonna do it. And so said, why don't we show these? And I was like, oh, I grumpily said, all right. And it's the thing that's like the most popular out of that movie. It was just so joyous. Yes.

And because, you know, I love, and it's so nice to hear that Natalie wanted to do it. It's so fun when people, when you see people are game. Like that was one of my favorite things about that Radio City show was like watching like, like Lady Gaga or Bad Bunny or Eddie Vedder like wanting to do something with Sandberg. I'm like, oh, right.

Everybody wants to, everybody wants to be a part of comedy, which is great. Yeah, it was super nice. I mean, there were, I'm trying to think, everyone pretty much would come to us. It would almost be a drag at some points when you would hear supposedly someone wants to do it. And I remember Oprah was the big one, right? Oprah wants to do

this. She wants to do it. She wants to have it be part of, she's going to air it on her show as part of comedy week. And then you put all of this time and energy into writing the jokes and figuring out the logistics of going up to Montecito to film it. And then you hear, okay, we're gonna bring it to Oprah today. And you're like, what? What does that mean? Like you told us she wanted to do it. It's like, oh no, we want her to do it.

We're gonna bring it to her today because this is gonna film in a couple of days. So we need to pitch it to her. And it was like, in a couple of days, so we need to pitch it to her." And it was like, what? And then of course she doesn't wanna do it, you know? So the people who wanted to do it, like Bruce Willis really like called Zach personally to ask him to do it and stuff.

Those were always the best where it was just like, someone really wanted to be there, really wanted to do a good job, wanted to put their mark on it, you know? Those are so fun. That's great. It is a fun thing to play too. I to put their mark on it, you know, those are so fun. That's great. It is a fun thing to play too. I think for a lot of actors, they think,

oh, if I just play it serious, it will be very funny, as opposed to being asked to like go outside their comfort zone. I think everyone sort of says like, how am I gonna do this differently? And my thing was always like, you know, just acting offended is always good. You know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel on these.

Just like getting offended at his jokes and playing it straight is always good. Famous people being offended is, yes, it's a wonderful template. Yeah, some people did some really funny stuff differently like Steve Carell. We pitched him an idea where he, before Zach could insult him,

he had a list of insults that he, of how fat Zach is, you know? And he, once he wrapped his mind around that, he did it so well, but there really doesn't have to ever be anything other than two people getting really mad at each other, you know, it's very fun. That's great. I apologize, Josh, we opened and closed with showbiz. Are you so mad? I'm so sorry.

That's okay, I'm so sorry. That's okay. I'm not sad at all. I'll also just say, how long has the Comedy Bang Bang podcast been going now? Wow. It'll be 16 years coming up. That's crazy.

Yeah, how long has this been going? Two? Two-ish? Two-ish. Two, coming on two. I wanna personally welcome you to the podcast community. Thank you. It's so wonderful when big Hollywood stars start doing podcasts.

We love it because, you know, all high tides rise boats. How does that saying go? Yeah, that's it. Close enough. That's pretty much it. It's not true, so you might as well put it. Exactly.

And I was listening to an episode today and hearing the wonderful sponsors that you get with your show. And was I feeling jealous? Not at all, because I know that it'll trickle down to me. Eventually. Well, I just pulled up the Ike Barinholtz episode and was laughing out loud at Dr. Heimlich

walking around the kitchen this morning. And my wife was like, what are you laughing at? Because typically I'm listening to some news in the morning and it was kitchen this morning. And my wife was like, what are you laughing at? Cause typically I'm listening to some news in the morning and it was not this morning. It's the opposite of news, yeah. Yeah, but it's, I mean, it's better for your soul in a lot of ways. Do you, can I ask you a question?

Because it is like, you're with such funny people. Do you, are you always excited to do it? Because I always like love doing the podcast, but I will say like knowing one's coming, you're always like, oh, I gotta go. You know, like, yeah. But you, I mean, you're with people you know, and people make you laugh, but is it always?

The only time I got weird, and this was on the TV show version of it too, was when it's someone that I don't know, and it's like a Hollywood person. I've had guests run the gamut of being just such a delight and being so game to do it. And then the opposite of that, like flipping out and getting mad and throwing their headphones off and walking out of the room, right? So it's like, you just got to, I get very in my head about like, which one is this going gonna be? And it's never even really the people you expect too.

But if it's someone I don't know and have never met, I just get in my head about it. So like, for instance, one of your coworkers, Seth J. Farrow, I had never met. And Bobby Moynihan told me, oh, he's a sweetheart, you'll love it, but I still get in my head about like, what if he thinks this is stupid while it's happening? Right, right. And then he has a fun time and is a great guest and I go, oh, thank God, you know,

but I've just had weird guests over the years that think they're above it and don't like it and that can always lead to a bad show. So I'm trying to streamline. 15 years. Yeah. You're gonna get some. And it's been so few of them,

but I'd still get nervous anytime at someone that I don't have like a personal relationship with, I don't know if it's like that with you. Like Bill Gates was on recently, right? That was, I felt more tension going into that. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's- He was great on Comedy Bang Bang though.

Oh yeah, it's amazing. It was one of my favorite episodes. We came up with the idea to put computer chips in the vaccines, I think. I like that. Yeah. You know, I like knowing that, you know, if I get lost, there's a way to track me. Exactly.

Which is with my vaccine chip. I don't need to have to go through like an app, find my phone. It's like, no, just like. Just like blink three times real fast. Gates knows. I always say to my wife, Gates will know. Yeah. All right, before you go, my wife, Gates will know. Yeah.

All right, before you go, Josh is gonna ask you questions. Okay. All right, some quickies here. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational? Relaxing.

I feel tense most of the year. So I think educational, I know everything I'm gonna know at this point, you know what I mean? Like I watched March of the Penguins the other day for a podcast and it's like, I have enough problems in my own life. I don't need to hear about the penguins, you know? I agree with you. What is your favorite means of transportation? What is your favorite means of transportation? Definitely not helicopter, cause I would get sick.

When I go on tour, I usually like to do the driving. So I think, oh no, train. The train rides are always, those are my favorite. Great. Getting 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 family vacation with? Wow.

So I think for some reason, the Royal Tenenbaums is just popping in my head of just to watch Gene Hackman work, you know, the entire time. Yeah, rest in peace. Yeah, I think- My wife just asked me, she was like, who would you go with the other day? But we were talking about Royal Town and Balms

earlier in the day and it was just stuck in my head. I was like, I think them, right now it would be them. Yeah. I think that would be fascinating. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? I have to say my wife, right guys? You don't have to, but it's a fair answer.

Yeah, it's not a bad call. You're from Cyprus, California then? Yes. Would you recommend Cyprus as a vacation destination? Oh, absolutely not. I mean, if you're staying there to go to Disneyland, it is close. Okay, three miles.

Yeah, but other than that, no, there's absolutely nothing to do there. Okay, and Seth has our final questions. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? I was supposed to go in 2021, right when everything kind of supposedly was opening up for COVID. And my wife and I planned a trip,

this was right before our daughter was gonna be born. And so we were trying to get stuff out of the, we ended up going to Italy as well, but trying to get things out of the way before that happened. And so I set up an entire Route 66 trip from Los Angeles to Chicago, and we were gonna end up in Chicago

where Jason Manzoukas was filming something and like hang out with him. And then COVID started just getting weird again. And so we decided not to go and ended up having to pay for all the hotels anyway. But then weirdly enough, someone that Jason Manzoukas was filming with was in Chicago and started seeing someone locally

in Chicago, this guy, and they struck up a romance and then the filming was gonna stop. And she was like, well, I guess I'm gonna stop seeing him because I live in LA and he lives in Chicago. And Jason said like, why don't you, let me pitch you something, drive back from Chicago to LA. My friends have this route that they were gonna take to come see me. Let me pitch you something, drive back from Chicago to LA. My friends have this route that they were gonna take to come see me.

They have it all planned out. Just drive back with them, see how the trip goes. And then maybe, you know, you'll see if you guys are a match or not. They used our exact route, fell in love and then got married. Wow. Wow.

Did they stay in your prepaid four hotel rooms? I don't think so. Okay, that would have really been, yeah. So they've seen the Grand Canyon, but I have not. But have you guys seen it? We have, yeah. Is it, I mean, is it worth it? I can't tell.

Well, that's- I think Josh feels strongly yes. And I think like, you know, I feel, yeah, you know. It's, I mean- It's kind of what you can picture. It's more of an indoor kid. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, I don't, you know that movie, The Grand Canyon, or I guess it's just Grand Canyon.

Sort of like- The Steve Martin one? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Where the end of the movie is everyone looks at the Grand Canyon and all their problems are solved. Yeah. I just- It didn't happen. Yeah, I just don't buy it.

Yeah, I don't buy it either. Yeah, I think that's over-promising if that's your expectation of the Grand Canyon. I should see it once though, right? What about- You should definitely, you should see it once and not from an airplane. A lot of people say like,

I see it from a plane and that ain't it. Thank you, Scott. It's wonderful to have podcast royalty here. Thank you so much. I was very pleased and tickled that you asked me to be on. So I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And either of pleased and tickled that you asked me to be on. So I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And either of you, please come do Bang Bang at any point.

I would love to. I know it will be very low on your list of things to do, but it's very fun. No, I would love to do it. You kidding? All right, thank you, Scott. Have a good one. Thanks, take care.

Thanks, guys. See ya. I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy

I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, When they got back she'd a drop to deuce She loved the couch that was forbidden Everyone got in the car Slammed the doors till they were not ajar Snuck around the side, tried to stay here, Dad Dad, he tried to trick the dark sun, oh yeah Or maybe it is pronounced Dasha Yeah!

To keep her off the furniture Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa And then they told Scott that she died