Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - SIMON REX Lives in a Joshua Tree Shipping Container

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Seth and Josh welcome Simon Rex to the pod! Simon tells them all about learning to swim in Hawaii, what it was like growing up in San Francisco, moving to LA and how he got his start in acting, the big change he made in 2020 moving to Joshua Tree, and so much more! Family Trips is supported by Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more at airbnb.com/host to learn about hosting. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/TRIPS and use promo code TRIPS at checkout. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Now go find your path, and enjoy the ride along the way.  Learn more at nissanusa.com

This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Here we go. Hey, Paji. Hey, Sufi. How's it going? Great. How's your summer? It's good.

It's hot. It's hot out here. Yeah. We've had some hot days, too. Yeah. We've been getting in the pool, though. That's nice. Yeah, father-in-law pool.

A little hot. Uh-huh. I think that we've gotten to a place where, you know, with kids, you don't want an ice cold pool. Right. I think we've maybe overheated the pool. Well, you can just start going, truly, by degrees. You can just- That's true. Adjust that, I'm guessing.

I'm guessing too. Yeah. Hey, I wanna share some feedback. Oh, yeah, yeah. About, well, we had a really, we had an Equestrian episode. Yeah. With Boyd Martin.

Boyd Martin. Yeah. And I received a lot of nice feedback about the, you know, he was a little bit outside the norm of one of our guests. I enjoyed talking to him a great deal. So a lot of people said, I really liked that one. Yeah. But there was a comment.

There was. Hey, Josh, this is a comment on the podcast. Hey Josh, after hearing you steer the ship back towards talking about trips countless times, I have to say I'm 25 minutes into the Boyd Martin episode and it's still all horse talk. Great episode. Don't get me wrong, but tsk tsk, Josh.

And I do appreciate when you get hoisted on your own, hoisted by your own petard. Yeah, I think I gave Boyd a longer leash than I would normally give a guest because I felt like the public was learning something new about a new thing that most of them, for the most part, I'm guessing, weren't aware of. I kind of agree.

And I think I was also, well, I'm different than you, because I like to let the conversation go where it will, free flowing, the way good conversations go. Whereas you're like, no, we're doing this. And so I wasn't upset. I enjoyed how we diverged into horse town. Yeah.

You know what's another word for horse town? What's that? Philadelphia. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, something. Yeah. Also on the Boyd episode, Mackenzie, my fiance, made a guest appearance.

And what, do you remember what I told Alexi, your wife at your wedding, that one piece of advice, the last piece of advice? Oh, you said it's about hearts? No, it was about sort of, well, it was, it was don't read the comments. Oh, don't read the comments, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because people on the comments aren't gonna be good.

So, but Mackenzie, since she's been on, now she's like curious about the comments. Also, she was curious about the comments because just Boyd Martin and she's a big fan. And somebody wrote something about like, why are Josh and Mackenzie like upset that people haven't responded to save the dates. Save the dates for a wedding are just to save the date.

They're not an invitation. And Mackenzie wanted me to address this because we're working on a very condensed timeline. Sorry, that's very nice. But I sort of don't really want to address it. I don't want to engage with a lot of, you know, little things that are just easy to let go. And that, but through this now, I've seen more comments

and I don't like looking at them that much because someone was like, I read one that said, I can't deal with Josh's negativity. And then I think about that when I'm going to sleep. And I'm like, am I that negative? I don't think you're that negative. I think to be honest, I think I'm comically, I'm trying to exaggerate your negativity

just to make me look more positive. Well, I don't believe you in any way, shape or form to be a negative at all, so. I think I can cut quick and sharp. Yeah. Yeah. I can get angry, I can cut quick and sharp. Yeah. Yeah. I can get angry. I can be.

Sure. I would say you're not, when things aren't going your way, you maybe don't gently steer it back. Yeah. I am. I am just a man. You're a wonderful,

did you say I'm just a man? I'm just a man. I'm an imperfect thing, but I'm doing my best. Have you seen that puppet meme? It's like a British show where it's a woman, it's the end of like a kid's show and they're transitioning to something else. And the puppet, it's something along the lines,

the puppet looks at her and says, we're just men, and the woman says, catches are so off guard. It's one of the great like trying not to laughs of all time. I've not seen it. I'll send it to you. It's really fun times. Josh has just watched it.

I mean, it's really good. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's great. You know Axel, he's your nephew. Yeah, I know. He's got a great move. He wants to play war all the time. You know, the card game war.

Oh yeah, great game. But the way Axel says war is whoa. And so every time our cards match, he goes, whoa. I know he's saying war, but it also sounds like he's just shocked that we each had a seven. Yeah, or that that would be what it's like when you play war with Keanu Reeves.

Yeah. Whoa. Simon Rex is our guest today. Yeah, different than Simon Rich. Yeah, we've had a lot of Simon Arts. So don't get tripped up on that. Simon Rex, neither of us had met him before. No, I mean, I feel like back in the day, back in the early, my early Hollywood days,

you would probably cross paths. You would probably have some crossover. But a lovely, lovely gentleman. Yeah. Wonderful conversation. He's gonna maybe when it's over, you might wanna buy a shipping container and live in it. Yeah, I mean, there's part of me that wants to. Yeah, there was part of me listening to it

that thought that would be a nice way. Yeah, he's got some wanderlust. He does have some real wanderlust. That's a good way to describe it. That I admire. So do please enjoy our new friend, our newly minted friend, Simon Rex. Yeah, yeah. How's it going? What's up?

Nice to meet you guys. Nice to meet you too. You could kind of slide right in to the Myers family, Simon, and you, I believe, are right between us in age. So we do enjoy, it's nice when we talk about family trips with people our age, because it's amazing how much of it is similar. I'm 49, I turned 50 in five days, four days, and that's a very strange number

to be on the precipice of 50. You start doing the math and you're like, okay, I'm past midlife crisis, I'm 50. So I'm lucky if the average age is about 75. So I'm two thirds over, if I'm lucky and the best years are behind me physically, it's a weird age to turn, is 50. I hit it in December of last year, Simon.

And I had a week where I thought, you know what, it's not a big deal. And then it really got me. And then his knee started hurting. Yeah, then everything started falling apart. Well, yeah, what's a perfect example is, I went out last night, some friends were in town from New York, we met at the Chateau, I'm in LA right now,

we met at the Chateau Marmont. I had one gin martini, and I'm fighting a hangover right now. I'm not kidding. One martini, and I'm fighting a hangover right now. I'm not kidding. One martini and I woke up like, you gotta be kidding me. Which is almost a relief in a weird way too. It's like, okay, I don't, you know,

I'm not chasing anything anymore. Like I used to like to go out and drink and I'd want to get, you know, what used to be a stone or all these things. And now I'm just like, I don't need anything. So that's the good part about this age is that I don't feel like I need much. I'm okay. I feel like you're a man after Josh's own heart because,

so during the pandemic you move at Joshua Tree. Is that still home? I live in Joshua Tree, but I rent a place in LA so I don't lose my mind in the desert. And I also, so I go back and forth. I tell people I either totally lost my mind or I totally figured it out. I go to Joshua Tree when I get annoyed in LA. I tell people I either totally lost my mind or I totally figured it out.

I go to Joshua Tree when I get annoyed in LA, and then when I get bored out there, I come back and I go back and forth. And so I just rented downstairs from a buddy of mine in Laurel Canyon, and I have my tiny house in the desert. So I have minimal square footage, but maximum life experience. And this kind of goes into your show.

The reason I moved out there was because I bought a RV. So this ties in because I love traveling so much and I live on the road. I live in hotels. I live out of a bag for most of my life. And I prefer to be traveling because I think it, I like novelty and I like, I feel alive when I don't know my environment

and it's sort of out of your comfort zone. So I got an RV about seven years ago, like a Sprinter van size RV and started traveling around California because I'm like, oh, there's so much beautiful nature. Let me tap into it more. And that's what, that was the impetus to me moving to Joshua Tree was me going out there

and saying, oh my God, this is all so close to LA, I could have all of this. And that's, yeah, I love traveling, especially in the RV, because it's basically like you're traveling around in your own little hotel room, in your own comfortable bed with your blanket and your pillows, and you're just pulling up

on these mountains and oceans and rivers, and it's kind of the best. Yeah, I've been in a campground, I was up at Yosemite, and we had a bottle of wine and we didn't have an opener. And I saw a dude in a Sprinter van and I was like, I bet he's got one and he knows right where it is. Yeah. And went over. And absolutely, like, it maybe took him five seconds

to go in, open the little drawer and pull it out and hand it to me. And yeah, you have to be organized in those situations. You realize it's like, you don't need a lot. And it's similar, I live in a shipping container out in Joshua Tree. It's a basically 450 square foot room. It's one big room.

And you learn that you don't need much. And there's something sort of zen about that and simplifying everything and not having a lot of clutter because you don't need all the stuff, you know? It sort of starts to own you in a weird way. And it's nice to not have a lot of stuff, right? You travel light, like traveling light's the best. I'll go to Southeast Asia for two months

with one carry-on that I put over my head and nobody, especially girlfriends in the past, they can't understand that. But as a dude, you don't need a lot of stuff. You could wear, you know, I've figured out sort of how to travel, especially if you're going somewhere where it's warm, you could really travel light. But I have figured out how to travel to like, you know,

Indonesia or Thailand with one carry on for two months. I've done it. It's been done. I have a, I have three small children. So I, the traveling light is never going to happen again, but I will say like, I love my kids very much, I wouldn't trade them in for anything. The idea of a shipping container just by myself really sounds nice. Well, it's worth it.

I actually traded three children to get the shipping container. Oh, that's what it goes for now? Yeah, that's what it goes for. So I could get one. I could get a shipping container for you. You could get one. No, it's funny, yeah, I don't have any kids, so that's obviously, it's easy for me to do that.

So that's another thing about turning 50 with no kids is like, I start looking at my watch. I'm like, well, if I have them, I better do it soon. Nowadays you hear about, and I think this has always been the case. A man could have a kid a bit older, but I better, I keep, I'm doing the math. I'm like, well, I got to spend at least a year with the

woman before I could know if I can have a child with her. I have to travel with her. That's a huge test to see if you can spend your life with somebody or have a child with them is what is it like when your flight is delayed? What does this girlfriend do? How does she handle that? Or vice versa? How do I handle it or a flat tire. There's all these things in traveling that are very revealing about yourself or your partner that I think is a good litmus test.

Have you ever had a moment where you realized it was not gonna work out with a girl based on a travel interaction? I think it's the opposite. I was the one that was exposed. Thank you for your honesty. Yeah, having a meltdown from a delayed flight. And it teaches a lot. That's another thing about traveling. You learn a lot about yourself. I can't remember exactly what the situation was. But I remember, I believe it was just a delayed flight. And

I unraveled and sort of had a mini anxiety attack. And I remember, I believe it was just a delayed flight. And I unraveled and sort of had a mini anxiety attack. And I remember her just looking at me like, dude, relax, it's fine. We'll get on to the thing. And it was like holding up a mirror to my insanity about how ridiculous I was acting. But that again, that's look, not to sound too woo, but that's traveling teaches you all this stuff. And so to answer your question, I was the one not the girl, you know? Yeah. So was this something that was baked into you at an early age?

Were you taking trips when you were a kid? So my parents divorced when I was two, and my dad always lived in these beautiful places. He lived in Hawaii. He lived in Santa Fe. I was about to say San Diego, it's not the most beautiful, but it was a new, you know, I grew up in San Francisco. It's pretty cool. I mean, it's like a beach town.

So growing up in San Francisco where it's, you know, urban cold city all the time, I love going to visit my dad in the summer because I'd be in Hawaii or New Mexico or San Diego. And I never thought about it, but maybe that's what planted that seed. I'm also an only child, so I'm used to sort of being alone. So it's easy for me to travel light. It's easy for me to, you know, live out of a bag on the road and entertain myself.

Like I think that's a gift and a curse in a way, because I'm okay by myself. Some people don't understand, they're like, wow, you really go out to Joshua Tree by yourself for days on end? I'm like, yeah, it's the best. And I import friends or family or a girlfriend at the time when I first moved out to Joshua Tree, I had a girlfriend, it was right before the pandemic started.

And it was awesome, but it was very, it was a very small confined, you know, again, it was a 450 square foot shipping container. So you're right on top of each other during the pandemic. And so we jumped in the RV and we did a three-month tour of all the way up to the Canada border and back and we'll get to the Grand Canyon. I know that's a theme of your show because we could wait for that till the end. But I basically went from Joshua Tree all the way up through Northern California, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Utah. And that's kind of where you get into the Grand Canyon ish area, and did,

we do like three month RV trips, and I swear I felt more alive and it was, COVID was almost a blessing in a weird way. I hate to say that because that sounds, maybe that's a, you know, not something you want to say, but for me I was very lucky that I had the RV during that weird time because I was able to just go explore. Yeah, I mean, there were certainly, there were people that did it well, that sort of, that took advantage of the unique circumstance and, you know,

were, yeah, fortunate to be able to have the means and, you know, to have an RV and be able to just sort of travel light and go off. Yeah, you're not the only one who did it well. And I don't think anyone should begrudge you that. I feel like anybody who had an RV before the pandemic were like people who had bought Facebook stock at a very, they were like,

I can't believe it's paying off. The RV is paying off, baby. We have a friend who rented an RV and like took a trip mid pandemic and then brought it home and got it all cleaned up and ready to be returned. And that night it got stolen from the street because people were like, I got to get out of my house and an RV is parked out front.

We're just going to go steal it. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They became, I remember a lot of my friends similar to when I moved to Joshua Tree. They're kind of laughing at me like, you weirdo, what are you doing? And then I got the RV and they're like, what to when I moved to Joshua Tree, they're kind of laughing at me like, you weirdo, what are you doing? And then I got the RV and they're like, what the heck's going on with you, man?

Like kind of midlife crisis. It was like, you know, right after I turned 40 and a little couple of years after I turned 40 and then all of a sudden my Joshua Tree property during COVID and the RV like doubled in value because everybody wanted that. And then they were like the same people were calling me up going, how much did you get that for? Yeah. And I got it for the price of a Toyota Corolla.

I mean, I bought this used, you know, 2001 Volkswagen Winnebago for not that much money. And it's the best purchase I've ever had. And it's just there when I want to use it. And I actually miss going out in it. Cause it's, I can't explain it. It's the best way to travel. There's so much beauty, everything west of the Rockies. You could go, you could be stuck in California

for the rest of your life with your RV and not see it all. I mean, and even if you do, you go do it again and have a different experience. So. Do you ever have, have you ever had car trouble with your RV? Yeah. And when that happens, are you handy with that sort of thing? Um, I, no, I'm not, but, you know, luckily in California, a mechanic would be not too far away.

One time I was leaving Lake Tahoe, and I just heard this clunk, and I knew it was bad, and I'm going down, you know, a mountain was bad. And I'm going down a mountain essentially. And with a buddy of mine that I've known forever, he had come with me on a little trip to Tahoe and the axle had essentially started to fall out and I had to pull into Sacramento and I just found a mechanic.

That's the thing, you sort of have to be crafty and improv and pivot and be on your toes. And I just found a mechanic and it was stuck there for three days. And me and my buddy were stuck in Sacramento for three days and you look up restaurants near me, you find a hotel and it's an adventure and you deal with it. So you got to surrender to the elements and just like, it's very spiritual in a weird way, you know?

I mean, it's very first world spiritual, but it's spiritual. And it's nice that you surrender to it when you're with a buddy, but if there's a delay when you were with that girlfriend. Yeah, bluster shit. Yeah. Yeah, she was a lot more chill than I,

I think all the girlfriends I date, now that I'm thinking about it, I date women who are more relaxed than I am to calm me down. So in those environments or those situations, they're the calming source and I'm the kind of neurotic one. So I think that makes sense now that I'm saying it out loud. I tend to date women who are more chill than me. I don't know if Alexi, my wife, is chill,

but she's hyper prepared and she's an incredible problem solver. So I think we both have travel stress, but my stress makes me immobile and useless, whereas her stress is like she merely goes to work. So I definitely, I bring nothing to the partnership in travel and I'm very lucky to have her. Yeah, I guess you, so is that dating an opposite or you guys both, so. I think we're opposites.

Wouldn't you say Josh? Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. Yeah. In that sense. Do you date opposites, Josh? No, I mean, I'm engaged now. I think we're pretty on the level. I think Mackenzie probably gets more frazzled

with a flight delay or flight cancellation than I do. I give myself over to it and realize that I have no power over the plane that didn't arrive that we're supposed to be getting on. Okay. So Mackenzie freaks out, you calm, and Seth, you freak out, and your wife is calm? Yeah, but I would also say there's sometimes

when a flight gets canceled, I will say, well, such is life, and she'll be on the phone, hustling, talking, you know, and the next thing I know, we're on a different flight. Whereas, and I think so she won't accept defeat. Right. Okay. That's good. She's a she's a winner.

Yeah, traveling is stressful. That's another thing like traveling as great as it is. It's also super stressful. I mean, you you you know but again that's kind of part of the adventure of it and I uh man I love it and as soon as I found out that that's what this pod was about I was like oh this is sort of my jam this is like what I do. Hey we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Family Trips is supported by Airbnb. Hey Sufi. Hey Pashi, what's up? I had a trip recently. I went to Oslo, Norway and Stockholm, Sweden and one of

the biggest differences between those two places is in Oslo we were in three hotel rooms and in Stockholm we were in an apartment and it was just so much nicer to be able to sit around with your friends at the end of the night after you'd been out, you'd had dinner, you maybe grabbed a cocktail somewhere, and then you got home and you got to sit around and just feel like you were in someone's house, feel like you were in your house maybe. And it just keeps the group together, which is what so much of travel is about. And when we were in Oslo, we were in those hotel rooms.

So when we said good night, it was good night. And that was it. And I really prefer being together with my family or my friends when I'm traveling. You like a chat zone. I love a chat zone. You love a chat zone. And maybe you're someone right now

who's thinking about your home. You know what? There's a lot of chat zone. You love a chat zone, and maybe you're someone right now who's thinking about your home. You know what? There's a lot of chat areas. There's a lot of areas where I've chatted with my family, and maybe people can come here and feel like this is their home because of this wonderful space. Your home might be worth more than you think.

Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Hey Sufi, let's play a quick game. I'm gonna say a word and we both say the first word it makes us think of at the same time. Ready? I am ready poshie. Alright, first word, cereal. Killers. Alright.

Alright, okay. We thought of different cereals. Okay. Yeah, that's gonna happen. But maybe let's try to lock in. Let's try to mind meld here. Next word. Museum. The Louvre. Gift shop as one word.

Okay. I said the Louvre. You said gift shop. I know we can be better at this. Let's try one more. All right, okay All right last one Rugged the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek where four meets function with stylish orange contrast stitching and water repellency material Wow, I thought I thought you were gonna say me Yeah But I thought you were gonna say me. For rugged? For rugged. Yeah.

Yeah. Posh, with the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek, you can flex your ruggedness from rocky trails and muddy paths to sandy dunes and snowy roads. Yeah, flex your ruggedness, Sup. I will. Don't, why, stop the laughing. Featuring 18-inch beadlock style wheels and style wheels and all three tires plus a tubular roof rack with up to 220 pounds of dynamic capacity for loading up your gear

The Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek is designed to be aggressive all the way up to the front grille And all the while you can stay connected while you drive with wireless Apple CarPlay allowing you to listen to unbelievable life-changing mind-blowing podcasts and also family trips. Why also family trips? Never mind. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Now go find your path and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.

Can I do the fast part, Posh? Please. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. Cargo and low capacity limited by weight and distribution. Always secure cargo. Heavy loading of the vehicle with cargo, especially on the roof will affect the handling and stability of the vehicle.

Compatible device service and consumer activation of Nissan Connect services package required. Use only when safe and legal, subject to third-party service availability. Apple CarPlay is a trademark of AppLink. That's what it sounds like when you read to your kids. Yeah, I just want to get to bed. Hahaha. Here we go.

I do want to get to your childhood travel, but I have a question about the shipping container, just because this is fascinating to me. Is this, are there windows in your shipping container? Actually, it's all windows. So one of the four sides, it's essentially a double shipping container, two side by side that are made into one big room. And the front of it is all glass.

I'll send you some pictures later if you like. It's basically like a box in the middle of, it's off grid, meaning that there is no infrastructure. I have a water well, I have solar power and a septic tank. And I'm about 30 minutes from Joshua Tree and half of that into town is a dirt road and then you get to my property and it's five acres but it's surrounded by a lot more so it feels like you're on like 50 acres with no one around as far as you

could see. I mean you couldn't be more as a city guy out of your comfort zone and in nature. And so yeah, it's a tiny box, all glass on one side. And it's the architect who built it that I bought it from did a really good job. I was looking at places in Joshua Tree for a while, saw some shipping containers and this guy did a really, really nice job. And it was surprisingly affordable, like the RV.

Like I think for, you know, I was like, I wanted to get a place and I was looking in LA and I was like, oh man, everything's so expensive to have a mediocre house with neighbors right next to you. I just, I finally hit the place in my life where I was like, I just want peace and quiet, you know? I've been living in New York, LA, San Francisco, my whole life in an urban metropolis, in the human zoo.

And I was like, let me just do the total opposite. And it's, I can't even tell you, it's like life changing. And I just go there, it's almost just like my getaway pad to go decompress. You know, for somebody like me who works on the road, it's really nice to go back to that after jumping into these different jobs and dealing with all of these intense personalities

in the best way, but, like, dealing with, you know, on a movie could be stressful. And you just deal with a lot of energy. And to come back to that afterwards, it's like the best thing I could have got for myself. You know? Last, but I have one quick question. Which direction does the window face,

and are you happy with that direction? That's a very good question. So the guy who built it did what I found out later. They've been, we have, we humans have been doing for thousands of years is that if you build your living space at a certain axis, it will get maximum sun in the winter and minimum sun in the summer. So it stays

cooler in the winter and warmer. It stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. So it's basically facing this big boulder. Like the view is this half dome boulder. There's a better view if you look to the left of these mountains, but he put it at this exact spot. Because in the high desert, it's really hot and you want to stay cooler in the summer. So truly the sun goes right over the house in the summer. And then in the winter, this, those big windows are facing the sun. So you get more heat in the winter. So good question. What is the longest you think you've spent in the Joshua Tree place without any guests, without leaving to go off on adventures,

just solo? About a week, which doesn't sound that long, but trust me, after three days by yourself. I'm sure, I believe you. Stuff starts to come up and that's sort of the experience you have, especially in the desert. It's like, it's so barren and devoid of life that there's this weird experience you have in the desert where you're sort of reminded of your mortality and you're like, I can't even explain it. It's like, kind of like Jesus goes to the desert for 40 days. this experience that's very intense. And so after a few days alone out there,

a lot of stuff comes up, it's like therapy, it's like self-induced therapy. It's like, kind of like, you know, you hear about these programs where you got to go out into nature by yourself with the minimal things, like you just get a tent and a jug of water and you hear, I've never done that, but I've heard of these programs where that, you know,

you do that to grow and become a man or whatever the purpose is. And that's sort of what happens out there. But again, I have Wi-Fi, you know. That was my next question. That was embarrassingly my next question. You're talking about finding yourself and growing as a man. And I'm like, but Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi.

You have Wi-Fi in comic books? Do you have comic books? So yeah,'m like, but Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi. You have Wi-Fi in the comic books? Do you have comic books? So yeah, so like, I don't mean to sound like I'm sitting out there meditating on a rock by, you know, but, you know, even those times when you turn off the TV, you know, which is, let's just say, let's just say you're not watching the TV half of the time.

That's a lot of time just sitting out there in the silence. And that was the first thing. It was so silent when I first moved there, I was so quiet that I would have to put on on YouTube like a sound of a city in the background to fall asleep because my whole life I had fallen asleep to the sounds of a city, you know. And eventually over time, I got to the point where I didn't need that. And I could just be in the quiet, you know. But yeah, I don't want to sound like I'm some monk. Trust me, I'm watching

movies and on my phone the whole time. But when I got the house, the guy who had built it, he purposely had no Wi Fi out there. And he said, Yeah, I built this place out here to get away from it all. And I come out here on the weekends with my wife and kid. And I purposely unplug and spend time with my family. So he goes, if you need to make a phone call, if you go up on that rock up there, you could get one bar. If you have Verizon, and I got Verizon, and he was right, I went up there and you could like send a text message like 50 yards from the house. And, and then I, you know, it's like, okay, well, if I get this place, I'm gonna need to get wifi.

And right after I got it, I think it was when the, what's it called, the satellite wifi, the Elon Musk satellite wifi. Earth slinker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly, had just come out because it was hard to get a signal out there. Anyway, so I got the wifi, I got the satellite wifi.

It's like I live on Mars. It's pretty cool. That's amazing. Now, parents get divorced when you're young. When you would travel to see your dad, were they putting you on a plane by yourself? Yeah, yeah, that's why I never thought about it. That's another reason why I probably travel okay by myself.

When I was a kid, I would get on a, I think before I remember, my mom told me she would come with me and fly me to Hawaii and go back when I was really young. And then when I was older, like seven, eight, nine, I would fly by myself. And do you remember that being stressful or do you remember that being? I remember it being stressful once when I flew to visit my godfather in New York by myself and this is back in the 80s when there was smoking on an airplane and I remember

somehow I accidentally got sat in the smoking section as a kid and these adults would come sit next to me and fire up a cigarette and smoke right next to me. I mean I can't believe we let this happen back then and I'm just sitting there as an eight-year-old getting secondhand smoke the whole flight because there would be an empty seat next to me in the smoking section. And everyone would come from the back and just fire up a cigarette next to a little kid, me.

The whole flight, just chain smoking. And I'm just sitting there even as an eight-year-old going, this can't be good for me. Yeah, I can't believe no one would have been like, hey, let's swap you out with one of the people who actually wants to smoke. Unbelievable. Yeah.

It's also very funny that we also thought on a plane, you could have a smoking section. I mean, obviously it does sound to be worse to sit next to the actual smoker, but it was getting back. The second hand smoke was getting everywhere. I mean, yeah, it's wild to think about that. And you still see the ashtrays on all the planes and you're like, yeah, how did we do this?

Yeah. Although at this point, I will say if I get on an ashtray plane, I do have a moment of like, I feel like I want to be on a newer plane. I think that all the time too. You know, when you walk onto an airplane, I'm not superstitious,

but then I'm lying because I am superstitious, because every time I get on a plane, I rub the exterior of the plane for good luck. I do, too. You do? I take a single finger and I rub two rivets. I rub the exterior as I go in, but it's the only thing I do that's superstitious.

Or I'm lying again. When my 49ers or my Golden State Warriors play, then all of a sudden I'm like, if I stand on the left side of the TV, we seem to be doing better. I'm insane. But yeah, I rub the exterior of the plane. And then if you look, there's usually a serial number right when you walk into the airplane. In the like the doorway, you can see what year the plane was built. And I always look to see how old the plane is because

essentially you're could be flying over the ocean for 12 hours in a 1969 Buick. Yeah. And that's scary. Yeah. My best memory of someone not moving during a sporting event, Josh and I are Steelers fans and the 95 Super Bowl against the Cowboys.

We went to college together. We were over to party. Things were not going well in the Cowboys. We were at a, we went to college together. We were over to party. Things were not going well in the first half. We then went back to my apartment and Josh lied on the couch with a terrible towel on his chest and he didn't move. And then the Steelers didn't win, but they slowly came back.

And I remember he would make me get him a water because he just had to be totally still. I get it. I get it. Yeah, I didn't want to be irresponsible. You guys are Pittsburgh guys? Yeah, well. Our dad's from Pittsburgh. Yeah.

So that was, we inherited it. So you grew up in Pittsburgh? No, we grew up in New Hampshire. So we're like Red Sox fans and Celtics fans, but the non-negotiable thing was The Steelers. Okay, yeah, yeah. It would have been a lot of great years to be Patriots fans in there, but we just weren't.

We missed out. I just did a movie with Kate Mara, and her grandfather owns the Steelers, and her dad owns the Giants. The Giants, yeah. Yeah, and I got to talk, I met Rooney Mara's mother, who's part of the Rooney family, which is the Steelers.

And I feel like she was very excited. I was the one person to meet Rooney Mara who wanted to talk to her mom more about the Steelers. Right. Yeah, no, she, yeah, that's some serious NFL royalty right there. Yeah. It's really the best.

It makes me very happy that they found each other. I know, right? What a trip. And yeah, yeah, so I'm a hardcore 49ers fan. Growing up in San Francisco, I had Joe Montana, Jerry Rice. I mean, I like one of my earliest memories was winning the Super Bowl and banging pots and pans in the streets when we won. And so that was a very hard Super Bowl for me to watch last year.

I'm still just recovering. That was tough. I'm glad I still have it, that it still makes you sad. Oh, it's I can't believe how many years are shaved off my life for the cortisol that courses through my body, watching my Golden State Warriors and my 49ers, who are actually winning teams most of the time. I'm so spoiled.

I got great sports being from the Bay Area. And I'm still like, it's, I don't know why I do it to myself. I have a year I tell myself, I don't know why I do it to myself. I every year I tell myself, why do I do this? Yeah, I haven't renewed my Sunday ticket for this next season yet. And I don't like, it's the first time I've ever considered not doing it.

And I just feel like I just don't, I still will love the Steelers, but I don't know if I'm gonna commit to every Sunday because there's some life to live on those Sundays if you leave the house. But if there are good games on, I love football. I love football. You say that now, Josh, but you know,

I do that every year. I'm like, you know what? I'm not even gonna tune in this year. I'm gonna live my life. And then all of a sudden Sunday comes around. Yeah, well, you've also been sitting around in the desert for six days and all of a sudden it's Sunday. That's right.

And I got wife from someone watching the game. Yeah, it's, yeah, I, that's, maybe that's another part about getting older too, is you realize why am I investing this much time and energy into something? But I think the reason we watch sports is because it taps into this thing that we never, it's almost like we're such domesticated house cats

in this modern day that we don't go out on the battlefield that we're almost living through these teams as if it's a, you start to realize too, I think Seinfeld had a joke about that. He's like, you're rooting for a color. These people aren't even from your hometown. What are you doing? Yeah.

I now, well, I'm very good at, if the Steelers have a one o'clock game, middle of Sunday. And like I said, I got a family, I'm not gonna at, if the Steelers have a one o'clock game, middle of Sunday, and like I said, I got a family, I'm not gonna just disappear for three and a half hours. And so, my plan will be to watch it later. And I do a very good job. See, I don't know how you could do that.

Some friends of mine, they're like, yeah, I'm recording the game, I'll watch it later. I have to see it live. It has to be in that moment, especially too, because social media, you got to put your phone away because you might be alerted of a score. So I got to watch it live.

And it's better, and I will say it's better live. It is. Because ultimately, if you're watching taped, you know there's, you know the rest of the world knows and it makes it less fun. That's right. My parents tape it and watch it on delay and my dad sings the praises of it.

And I feel like my mother just is, is crawling with nerves underneath because I'm guessing when he fast forwards to commercials, sometimes he goes a little too far. Yeah. And, and she probably would not take kindly to that, but that's for them to sort out. What made you guys, oh, sorry, can I ask a quick question?

This is me interviewing you guys, all right? No, please go for it. What made, what made you guys want to do this travel? Why travel? interviewing you guys, all right? No, please, go for it. What made you guys wanna do this travel? Why travel? Do you guys love traveling? I think we are so close to their parents and we sort of think, I think it goes back to what you're saying

about how you find out who you are traveling. There's no shortage of podcasts where people interview interesting guests, but we wanted to try to drill down maybe on something different. I love that. So yeah, we could talk to you about, you know, your process as an actor,

the next thing that you have coming out, but I feel like this is, these are probably questions you're not gonna be asked anywhere else. And I think that, yeah, that you heard what this was about and were like, oh yeah, I can talk about that. Yeah. That sort of.

Yeah, I dig it. It's a good topic. That's what I'm curious about. So you have a single mom then you're growing up with and did the two of you take trips together? So yeah, single mom. And then my mom remarried when I was about eight to a man with two kids. So all of a sudden here's your step family, right?

So from like eight to 16, I had weekend brothers come stay with me. One was my age, one was a little bit older. And it was great. I had all of a sudden, I had to share my toys. And I had brother, you know, instead of being an only child, it was like, oh, I got brothers on the weekend. This is cool.

I got someone to throw the ball around with. And I got, you know, someone to play video games child, it was like, oh, I got brothers on the weekend. This is cool. I got someone to throw the ball around with and I got, you know, someone to play video games with and watch the 49ers game with. So, um, I can't remember traveling too much, like just with my mom. We were, when I did travel, cause I was in school. So in the summer, I go visit my dad and that was my travel as a kid, you know? So we would obviously just do little, you know, weekend trips in the Bay Area and visit my step-family's family an hour away and go on these little road trips and stuff like that.

So that was the extent of traveling with that step-family. Then they got divorced. And then, I remember this moment when I moved out when I was 17. I was just ready to leave the nest. And I remember my single mom sitting there as I was moving out at 17 and she had been divorced from the guy with the step family. And I looked at her on the couch and she looked up at me and she goes, am I going to be alone

the rest of my life? And I was like, oh my God, I feel so bad leaving my sweet Jewish mom from New Jersey alone. Like, what am I doing? And then shortly after she got back together with a guy that she dated when I was three years old that I didn't even remember. And they, so 15 years later, they got back together and now they live happily ever after.

Oh, fantastic. Yeah. That is a, I mean, talk about the most Jewish mother thing to say before your son departs on his own adventure. Yep. Putting it on you in a way. I still carry the, oh no. Yeah, I mean, it's so funny when you're like, I'll never forget.

She's like, yeah, no, that was the plan that you would never forget that. That's right. I have a question just on the logistics of that middle, when you have step brothers who then that relationship ends, are you connected with them at all? One of the two I am, yes. Oh, that's great.

I stayed in touch with one of the two that I still stay in touch with. It's almost like friends in a weird way. Some friends, you kinda, as you get older, you sort of just venture off and part ways. And so I still keep in touch with one of them. And all the time we talk, you know, every couple months, we jump on the phone. I've even gone to see him in San Francisco. And so yeah, I've

stayed in touch with one of them. Yes. That's fantastic. Yeah, I hear that. It's always seems so I mean I guess it's weird because like you can have roommates or I mean there's people I lived with for two years so obviously I was with the more than weekend brothers that I don't stay in touch with so I don't know why I think it's so crazy to like like siblings of a sort for a short period of your life. That's right and it's a weird thing it's like plug and play into a family like here's your new family and at the time you don't know for a short period of your life. That's right. Then it's a weird thing. It's like plug and play into a family. Like, here's your new family. And at the time, you don't know for a few years, you know?

But I think it was a good thing looking back, because again, like, that's the stigma that goes with being an only child is like, oh, you're an only child. But yeah, I did have to share my toys and coexist with other kids in the house. So it wasn't it was a good thing, I did have to share my toys and co-exist with other kids in the house. So it wasn't, it was a good thing, I believe, for me to have Step in. So your whole summers would be with your dad? Yes, every summer I'd go visit my dad, Hawaii, Santa Fe, San Diego.

And it was always just cool to get out of San Francisco and go. Like I remember learning how to swim and ride a bike in Hawaii. Obviously in San Francisco, it's not a lot of swimming pools. It's like not even you know, I mean, for California people think but San Francisco is like an urban metropolis is no one had a pool. I remember going to Hawaii and learning how to swim at the YMCA with like the best swimmer kids in the world and being really intimidated with these local Hawaiian kids at the YMCA,

like learning how to swim. I was like the most fish out of water, literally you could imagine. But again, looking back, I think those things are good for you as a kid to be out of your comfort zone as an adult, you know? Yeah. And would you make friends when you would go to these new,

like when you drop into Santa Fe, what's the, like, is your dad still working that summer? Do you sort of figure it out? Was he remarried or? Yes, he was remarried and I would make friends wherever he lived. And I remember, it was kind of cool because I'd go visit my dad in Hawaii

and I was really embarrassed of my name as a kid. Simon was such an easy nerdy name to pick on. And I think everyone hates their name when they're a kid for some reason. And I remember when I go visit my dad, I was like, oh, I could be this whole other person. And I would tell everyone my name was Chris. For some reason I wanted to be Chris.

And as a kid, I could just go pretend and I'd be in Hawaii. And as a kid I could just, you know, go pretend. And I'd be in Hawaii. And I remember like once coming back with some kids to my dad's house and my dad finding out I lied about my name. He was like, why would you do, why would you tell me your name's Chris? Like, I don't know, because I can, I don't know.

Didn't Seth, didn't you, didn't you want your name at some point to be John from Chips? I was Chips, I was super into Chips and I thought John was a better name. What did, not Punch. Punch, clearly cooler name. But you would be Punch. It's a little bit, I think Seth to John

is a little bit similar to Simon to Chris. Like given all the opportunities, we really showed a lack of originality. That's right. You just wanted a normal name. I do want to apologize to all the Johns listening who might not know this, but dad, the way dad got me off it was he said it was

what people call the toilet. Oh, man. I don't want any part of that. Why is that called the John? I'm fascinated with the origin of certain terms. Why is it the John? Go to work, Josh, you got the internet. Yeah, I'm not gonna do it now.

I don't want to be tip tapping away here, but we'll- We'll figure it out for our listeners. We sure will. Also, did you appreciate, well, I guess Rex wasn't your last name, right? I was gonna say that's- That's my middle name. Oh, gotcha.

Rex is my legal middle name, and my first agent ever was like, what's your middle name? And I said, Rex. And he goes, oh, Simon Rex, that has a real ring to it. That sounds like a, you know, a snazzy name. So it's not a fake name. It's just my middle name.

It's a, I mean, it's interesting that you, you had that available as a young person to use. Cause if your dad heard you all of a sudden you were using Rex, he wouldn't have been offended, right? He gave you that one as well. Yeah, that's right. And that your first agent was from the 1950s saying it was a snazzy name.

Yeah, that's right. Maybe snazzy wasn't the word. I think that's just me being 50 years old. I don't know, you never know. But he was right. And looking back, you know, it does have a certain ring to it and it sounds fake, but it is my name.

That's great. Yeah. I think it's, and then did you, once you, once you used it, that was it, right? And, and they, did you also know like, oh, this is good. I like this now. I like, I like being Simon Rex. Yeah. I mean, so essentially when it happened was I, I moved to New York. I was doing, I know it so essentially what had happened was I, I moved to New York. I was doing, I know it's hard to believe,

but I was doing modeling because I'm six foot two and I'm skinny and the clothes hang off me like a hanger. And I was doing runway shows in Paris, Milan and New York. And instead of going to college, I moved off to Europe at 19. And I'd be in New York a lot. And I remember my modeling agent at the time was like, hey, there was a male supermodel in the 90s named Marcus Schenkenberg. He was the biggest male

model in the world. Actually, Zoolander was the movie was sort of based off of him and another male model. And it was just sort of a funny topic, like a male supermodel, like that's funny in the 90s. And that's why Ben Stiller did that, I believe. And so he was with the same agency I was. And so he was gonna be a guest on MTV with Kennedy, who was a VJ at the time, and she was gonna interview him like, "'What's it like being a male supermodel?' But he was too busy to do the rehearsal.

So my agent said, "'We should send Simon to the rehearsal because I bet you he'll get a job out of this. And they were right. Looking back, they were smart. So I went to the rehearsal and I was zinging and zanging with Kennedy and the producers were there and I was just a fill in.

And they were like, do you want a job as a VJ? And I said, I have no journalism experience, no music experience and I've never been on TV. And they said, perfect, you got the job. And next thing you know, I'm live with the red light on MTV interviewing Madonna and all these big celebrities live on MTV just thrown into that. And Simon Rex was like the perfect VJ name.

So overnight, you know what I mean? It was just like in the nineties and I'm interviewing Ts. And I'm interviewing to pocket and I'm interviewing all these, you know, these legends and I was kind of thrown into it. And, um, and Gus van Sant had seen me on MTV and he's like, I want to audition this guy for goodwill hunting. So I went in for an audition. He called MTV somehow through, you know, his agent or whatever. And I went into read with Matt Damon because I had no aspirations of being an actor.

I didn't even have aspirations of being a VJ. It just kind of happened. And I'm sitting there reading the lines with Matt Damon like a robot because I had never acted before. And Gus Van Sant stopped me, goes, Simon, I have to stop you. This is the worst audition I've ever seen. And Matt Damon starts laughing and looks at the ground

and I was like traumatized. I'm like, I know, I've never done this. He goes, go to acting school. You're not ready for this movie, but you have something, you're just not ready yet. So I started going to acting school in New York and doing these kinds of improv classes and these like serious theater classes.

And of course they hated me in the theater classes because I was the guy on MTV who was getting jobs, but they're like struggling actors off Broadway. And I was like, what are we doing here? And something about that got me work because I didn't know what I was doing. I just kind of got thrown into it. And this was 25 years ago,

I started taking acting lessons, and here we are. Now, did you, have you ever heard of, do you think Gus Van Sant remembers that? So, yeah, because I reached out to him recently. I got his phone number. I hit him up. I'm like, hey, man, do you remember me? He goes, yes, Simon, of course I do. Red Rocket was great, and I remember,

and I was like, thank you so much. Without you, I wouldn't be here right now. You were the reason why this all happened. And he's like, oh, that's very sweet of you to say. I don't know if that's true. I'm like, no, it's absolutely true. You told me to go to acting school. And I don't know if he remembered it that way,

but that's what happened. And so, yeah, 25 years later, I circled back with him. That's so nice. Did you ask in the last 25 years, have you hopefully seen a worse audition than mine? Or am I still number one? I didn't bring that up. It was just a quick text conversation, so I just thanked them and it was just kind of funny,

that full circle, you know? That's really great. Now we're going to take a quick break to hear from one of our sponsors. Support comes from Delete Me. Hey Pashi, how are you? I'm great, how are you? I'm okay. I'm a little bit better now thanks to Delete Me.

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I doubt it. They sell it to the highest bidders. They don't look into what their intentions are for your valuable information. And so I got a report from Delete Me that let me know exactly how much of my information was out there and I was taken aback and you know I'm not easily taken aback. Posh, you're not. And thank God because the

last thing I want to do is wake up find out my bank account has been emptied or get overdue notices for credit cards I never applied for. Or scammers. Once scammers get my information, game over, because I am easily scammed. Yeah. I mean, just on a real personal front, I've got my Delete Me report open right now. Yeah, lay it on us. 1,599 total listings reviewed. There were 83 data brokers who had my personal info.

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DOBSearch.com, DexNose, who are these people? Why do they have my stuff? Yeah, and by the way, Clustermaps, you don't even ask to be a sponsor for family trips. Yeah, hard pass. Posh, on that report, does it have your social security number, what's that? Well, I'm not gonna tell you

what my social security number is. See? Yeah. Because thanks to DeleteMe, Posh is not easily scammed. Yeah, they... The other thing is this isn't just a one-time service. Delete Me is always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet. To put it simply, they're doing the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal

information off the web. Because your personal profile is your personal. There's a reason personal is in the name belongs to you. It's not there as to sell. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for delete me now at a special discount for our listeners today, get 20% off your delete me plan. When you go to join, delete me.com slash trips and use promo code trips at checkout.

The only way to get 20% off is to go to join, delete me.com slash trips and enter codePS at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeleteme.com slash trips and enter code TRIPS at checkout, J-O-I-N-D-E-L-E-T-E-M-E dot com slash trips. Now, I, so, uh, the modeling life, I think to all people sounds glamorous. I'm guessing it's way less glamorous, but were those, I'm guessing it's way less glamorous, but were those, I mean, you're in fascinating places, Milan, New York, Paris. Were those great years

or were they sort of stressful, hardworking years? Again, now that we're talking about it, it feeds into this narrative of the travel show because when you're, and this is before the internet and this is before, you know, this is back when I remember being like in Europe writing letters, you know and waiting for the mail to come, you know to a girl I was dating and When you show up in Milan as a teenager and you just handed a map and you got to figure out the metro System in a foreign country in a language. You don't and you got to figure out the metro system in a foreign country in a language

You don't understand you got to figure it out. You know, you got to go. There's no Google Translate. There's no Google Maps You got to go walk in and like I feel like getting thrown into that gave me the travel bug Because it now nowadays it's so easy to travel I'll be in another country Google translating in Southeast Asia in the back of a taxi having a conversation with them on Google Maps. So back then you didn't have any of that. So it was sort of such an adventure. And you're just walking around Milan and all of a sudden you're like, oh, look, there's the museum Rodin. And you're looking at the thinker and you just happen to... Oh no, that was in Paris. That was in Paris. But stuff like that, like you just, you know, just get lost. You truly just get lost.

And I purposely do that now when I travel is I like to leave my phone in the hotel and go wander around a village in Indonesia and just get lost and figure it out. Because I miss those days of that feeling of being completely like what the fuck you know yeah yeah really great yeah yeah I would imagine you have to figure it out because I especially it doesn't strike me that the people in Italian fashion are patient with an American who's like yeah man I just couldn't figure it out no not at all and it but it was fun yeah it was fun I mean think about it instead of to college, I was living in model apartments with these beautiful girls and their parties.

And everyone's having these, you know, be like different. Sounds bad. It was insane. It was like, you know, truly living in a model apartment with all these beautiful people and, oh, let's all make dinner. I'll go get the pasta. You get the wine. And you're doing kind of like what you would be doing in college in a models apartment meeting these interesting people. And it was it was fun. Yeah, it was

actually I think those days also because of my age. But being in your early 20s on MTV and being in Europe was the funnest time of my life. It really was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the shipping container sounds great. But this this this Megan dinner with models thing. Yeah, I wanted to. Yeah. I mean, the shipping container sounds great. Don't get me wrong. But this, this, this Megan Dinner with Models thing. I wanted to. Yeah, you know, it was, it was wild. So yeah, that looking back as we're talking about it and realizing all these things sort of as a kid and that feed into why I like to travel because I've been it's sort of just my life.

I'm used to it. Right. Yeah. And that's where you find the adventures. That's great. I'm used to it, right? Yeah. And that's where you find the adventures. That's right. Do you have, do you have any memories of, with either of your parents sort of like going somewhere with just the idea of like, we're taking a vacation. We're going to, we're going to Disney

or we're going to, you know, stay in a hotel or resort. We're going somewhere where we don't live and where it wasn't just going to stay with your father for the summer, sort of people coming to you. Like, did you have any camping trips or? Yeah, one time I went to visit my dad in San Diego and he's like, we're gonna rent an RV. And he rented an RV and me, him and his wife went,

I don't remember where we went, we just went out in California, traveling around in an RV and camping. I don't know if that planted the seed in the back of my head of wanting to get an RV. I think I got that idea from looking at a buddy of mine more recently living in his van life going, wow, that's pretty cool.

And that's why I did it. But maybe that planted a seed because that was, I remember being a cool adventure. I also remember going to Hawaii once, years after my mom, my dad left Hawaii, me and my mom went to Hawaii, and going on the road to Hana in Maui. Yeah, I've done that.

Yeah, and just going on this twisty road and the destination was Hana, and it's like a famous drive, I guess. And I remember that one being really cool and just being lost in a jungle. And I feel like you just feel the most alive when you're traveling like that. You know, I get bored when I'm in one place too long. So as we're talking about all these stories, it makes sense why as an adult,

I do all of these things, because I think it was planted in my head at a young age. Did you stay out in Hana or did you do the drive and then turn it around and come back? I think it was just like from the hotel, it's like the island's not that big and the road was probably four hours. Then you go there and you come back. I remember there being like a black sand beach or something and being like, oh, that's cool. And you check out the destination and, but at not to sound cliche,

but it's not the destination. It's the road, right? Truly. But it really is. It's always the ride to the party with your friends is more fun than the party. Right. You get there and you're like, well, I had more fun hanging out at the house talking about the party with you guys in drive. And then we get here and like, that's quite often it's the journey. And I know that sounds like a bumper sticker but the bumper stickers are often right. Yeah, we dismiss them too often.

The bumper stickers are pretty much on the money. Our parents did the road to Hanna and just did an out and back. And my fiance and I went out and we stayed there for like four nights. And it feels like something, it's a beautiful twisty tourney drive, but I think it's better broken up,

I will say to anyone who's going out there. Like if you just turn around, then you just have, you have a four hour twisty tourney drive rather than to settle, enjoy, and then come back the other way. And I would say the worst outcome real quick four hour twisty tourney drive, rather than two, settle, enjoy, and then come back the other way. And I would say the worst outcome real quick is to go up and back with our dad driving.

Is he a bad driver? No, it's just twisty and tourney and dad does not. I think they did like they jumped in a bus or like an open air van or something. I don't think they were driving, but I'm not, don't hold me to that. So go backwards a second. Another bumper sticker, that's true,

is I'll go on a hike, like I live in Laurel Canyon here in LA and the five minutes away, there's these beautiful hikes that are just like, basically in this forest and it looks like you're in Oregon or something. It's just so great to tap into all that in LA. That's like the best part of living in LA is that you have the mountains, the ocean, these hikes,

because LA to me isn't the best city. It's not even really a city, it's like a town. But there's all this great nature and I go on these hikes and I gotta remind myself when I'm on the hike, I find myself like briskly walking through this nature. I'm like, just stop for a second and look around and appreciate the view and stop just like plowing through it. And it's kind of the same thing.

Like sometimes you got to just stop and look around. And when I do, I'm like, oh my God, this is so nice, you know? And it's kind of a micro smaller version of the traveling thing is it's not just getting there. You got to enjoy the whole thing, you know? I sound such like a, I sound like such a dork. You're a real Simon. I'll tell you that much.

Yeah, I'm Chris. Just call me Chris. No, too late for that. Hey, I do wanna, we've both seen the trailer for your movie, Blink Twice, which looks fantastic. We also like spooky, scary stuff, but this is also a beautiful island location, which looks fantastic. We also like spooky, scary stuff, but this was also beautiful island location. Seems like a little bit like people

who are lucky enough to work on White Lotus. It was very similar. Yeah, it was kind of like, basically shot in the middle of the jungle in Mexico. It takes place on an island and we shot it at this resort that they gave to us, the cast and the crew to shoot at in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula, which was so awesome. It's a place I'd never been before. It's kind of in the jungle of Mexico and there's these cenotes, which are these like,

I guess that's where the meteor hit that made the dinosaurs extinct. And there's all these beautiful swim holes and little villages we'd go to on the weekends. And it was, we had so much fun shooting it. Zoe Kravitz, who directed it and wrote it, who's not in the movie. Everybody thinks she's in the movie. When they hear about it, she just didn't want to be on camera.

And we had such a great time. And Channing Tatum, who's the lead of the movie, they were so great. Sometimes you show up on these movies and you're a little, I don't know if nervous is the word, but you're like, oh God, I hope these actors are cool. These like A-list actors that are super famous. And then I've been so lucky lately, I get on these jobs and I'm working with these amazing actors

and they're so down to earth and sweet. And I go into it with this kind of not pessimistic attitude but I think I've just had bad experiences in the past with actors where most actors kind of annoy me and I still kind of have imposter syndrome when I'm around actors because I don't feel like I'm one of them just like when I was in acting school back in New York I'm like I don't know if I'm one of you guys you know I don't feel like I'm in this frat, but I get on these jobs and I've been so lucky because they're so sweet and they're just normal people and it's so refreshing when you're like,

with someone like Channing Tatum, he's just one of the boys, you know? And. Yeah, it's really sweet. It's also, I think every smart actor who is in Channing's position knows that life is so much better for them too, if you get to be part of a team, part of a unit, and everybody relaxes if you're

chill and that's really nice to hear. Well, I imagine that's what it's like for you on your show, right? You have all these big names coming in and you're sort of like, it's your world and they're coming into it. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Right. You can't believe they're giving you their time. And so, you know, ultimately, just try to make it feel chill and comfortable and help you get the best out of it. So, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And so anyway, so your question about this movie, it's it feels like it's going to be one of those summer buzzy movies like a salt burn or something. It's a, you know, suspenseful thriller. And I play Cody, who's Channing's character's best friend and personal chef. He plays sort of a tech giant who has this private island. And we go there with these beautiful women and trouble ensues. And I don't want to give too much away, but all of a sudden some twists and turns happen.

And yeah, it's intense. I just recommend everybody check out the Blink Twice trailer because my appetite is wetted, as I like to say. Yeah, I think you'll dig it. It's a fun movie. And I feel like we shot this two years ago, you know, that big strike happened for seven months, it kind of backed everything up. So this is already two years ago. You know, that big strike happened for seven months. It kind of backed everything up. So this is already two years ago. And it's kind of hard to even remember. It seems like a lifetime ago shooting it.

But it's a, you know, Gina Davis is in the movie, and me and her hit it off. And we would be writing bad dad jokes in the middle of the jungle. And to this day, me and her still text each other, like, I'll just think of bad dad jokes and send them newer. And so he's formed these friendships. It's like going to summer camp, me and her still text each other, like I'll just think of bad dad jokes and send them newer. And so he's formed these friendships. It's like going to summer camp, you know,

again, again, tying into the theme of your show because I'm used to just traveling and showing up in some random country or place. I'm just used to it. So when I show up and plug and play into a new group of people, I feel like I'm built for this in a weird way. Because my whole life I've done this, right?

It's not weird for me to do that. You're just going to summer camp for a month or two on these movies and forming these deep bonds here with all these people who are 12 hours a day, essentially trauma bonding, because it is stressful sometimes shooting movies. And you make friends and you keep in touch

with some of them and it becomes like a network and you make friends and you keep in touch with some of them and, you know, it becomes like a network and you start, yeah, making relationships and then working with some of them again as you go on. It's really cool. That's fantastic. And this has been fantastic. Simon, I'm so happy to finally get a chance to meet. I hope the next time's in person.

Yeah, me too. And we're going to leave you with the questions that Josh is going to kick off. Okay, let's do it. All right, you can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous or educational? God, that's a good question. At this point right now, I want relaxing.

I could get educational wherever I think at this point, I wanna go chill out somewhere, which is ironic because traveling could be so stressful and quite often when you go somewhere to relax, it ends up not being relaxing. So if I could get a relaxing vacation, I'll take that one. Excellent. What is your favorite means of transportation?

Train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, sprinter van? Sprinter van. There you go. Absolutely, not even a question. Next question. If you could. Absolutely, not even a question. Next question. If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family,

what family would you like to take a vacation with? Oh, that's a really good question. That's a good question. Who would I want to travel with? What family? Not the Kennedys. Somebody? Not the Kennedys. Somebody just said the Kennedys. Yeah.

I would just be afraid of some disaster. Yeah, no, I think you're fair. I mean, I'm team you on this one. Yeah, I'm gonna say, how about the Shakespeare family? Great. Why not? I want to go back and I want to go learn from them.

So I guess it would be, that would be the learning vacation. It's really funny that you said the Shakespeare family cause it's funny to think like back in the day, someone said, oh, the Shakespeare's are coming up. Yeah. It's one of those names that seems crazy. Yeah. Bill's coming over?

Did William say like, yeah, William's friends be like, oh, is Mr. and Mrs. Shakespeare coming over for dinner? Did that happen? Yeah. Well, you could take a trip with them and then you could report back. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be?

Stranded on a desert island with any member of my family, who would it be? Hmm. Stranded on a desert island with any member of my family, who would it be? I would say, I'm gonna just be sweet and say my mom, because then I get to spend some time with my mom. How long are we stranded though? Right, that's a good question. Well, yeah, the TBD. I do know that if you had chosen someone else

on your way out the door, she would have said, so I guess I never get to come to the island. In the off chance my mom hears this, I'm just playing it smart. Don't tell it to get out at this point. And San Francisco is your hometown, would you say? Would you recommend San Francisco as a vacation destination?

Absolutely not. No. Not anymore, not these days. I mean, well, look, that's kind of feeding into this narrative that San Francisco has become this like shithole, which it kind of has been. If you did go there, I would have to tell you where to go. It's kind of similar to when I see people coming to LA and you see this like family from Switzerland walking around Hollywood Boulevard and you're like, oh my God, they must just think this is the worst. You know, it's just that there's

certain places in San Francisco that you need to avoid to go have a good time. So if I was to tell them to go there, I would have to sit down with them and figure it out because it could get tricky and you could go there and be like, this is apocalyptic, you know? Right, yeah. So, yeah.

But yeah, plenty of great places as well. Oh, plenty of great places. So I'll change my answer to, yes, I just need to sit down with you and have a talk. Okay. Okay. And Seth has our final questions, which we know the answer to the first one, but- Yeah, I think I'm very excited.

You're prepared. The Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon, have you been? Is it worth it? So, okay, so I didn't get into the details. So really, I just, when I went on that RV trip during COVID with the ex-girlfriend, we came down through Bryce Canyon

and into Mount Zion National Park, which I believe if you look at a map on like the west side of the canyon. So I haven't gone into like the Grand Canyon and like checked it out. So I just kind of got a taste of it. And so I actually wanna go explore it more because I really haven't gotten

into the nooks and crannies of it. So when you say you've been to Bryce Canyon and then you say I haven't been to the canyon. So you haven't been to the Grand Canyon. So I, but I see I'm confused because I was actually on the way here. I looked at a map to be like, is Bryce Canyon the Grand Canyon?

And it looks like if you look at a map, it's right on the far left of it. And it kind of all bleeds into the same. So I think I got a taste of it in Bryce Canyon and Mount Zion or Zion, not Mount Zion, Zion National Park. So those two places to me were some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. It blew me away. And I've also been in Arizona to like, I think near the Grand Canyon, even when you're in Vegas, if you go a few hours, like three hours, you know,

Lake Mead is almost on the west side of the Grand Canyon. So I've sort of tickled the left side of it and I need to get in there more. And I absolutely would recommend it because what I've seen is stunning. And I want to go explore it more. I do think you're gonna like it. Based on everything you've told us,

I think you're gonna be pretty. Why the affinity for a Grand Canyon? Well, because I wanna go and I've sort of been, but I haven't been into it and Seth doesn't have any interest in going. And it's a quintessential vacation destination for Americana Classic. It's also a quintessential example of for Americana Classic.

It's also a quintessential example of how Josh and I are different. You guys gotta document this and make a funny little thing about it, because it would be funny to see the both of you there fighting on the road and bring your dad. But, yes, so to answer your question, I need to go explore it more,

but I do recommend it based on the left side of it. Okay, great. All right. All right. Simon, this has been a delight. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you, Simon. Thank you guys.

I hope I didn't exhaust you talking about myself, but I guess that's the point of the show. It sure is. It absolutely is. And this has just been wonderful. Thank you so much, my friend. Thank both of you guys. I appreciate it.

Thanks, pal. A shipping container, Simon makes his home Told city, see you later, I'm a boy who needs to roam So we bought himself an RV, goes on three month loops Sees the world sometimes with a girl, Joshua trees where he wants to be He's got a separate tank for the poops And a shipping container, one wall is a window If he's a bad decorator, then everyone will know Well maybe just the coyotes, the rabbits and the bugs With the one around he plays city sounds There's no doubt I would get freaked out And he says he does it without drugs And they're shipping container Things that can get strange It's quite the isolator Alone out on the range

But Simon Rex can hack it Cause he's that kinda guy And we checked he can still connect He can watch TV, throw on a movie Cause he's got the Elon Musk Wi-Fi Thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.