Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - VINCENT D'ONOFRIO Loved Magic Shows at Disneyworld

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

This week on the pod, Seth and Josh welcome Vincent D’Onofrio! Vincent chats all about being born in Brooklyn and spending summers there with his grandfather, his family opening the first Italian re...staurant in Hawaii, going on a trip with his dad and grandfather to Napoli, bodyguarding at studio54, his excitement for the magic shows at Disneyworld and his very “boring” magic story that turned out to be the best part of the podcast! Plus, he also chats about Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again returning to Disney+ on March 24th, 2026! Pocket HoseFor a limited time, our listeners can get a FREE pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of ANY size Copper Head hose. Just text BROTHERS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. OlipopGet a free can of OLIPOP:Buy any 2 cans of Olipop in store, and we'll pay you back for oneWorks on any flavor, any retailer go to https://drinkolipop.com/TRIPSOLIPOP is sold online (drinkolipop.com + Amazon) and available in the soda aisle and with the chilled beverages at thousands of retailers nationwide, including Walmart and Target.ShiptDownload the app or order now at https://shipt.comShopifySign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at https://SHOPIFY.COM/tripsDeleteMETake control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/trips and use promo code TRIPS at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Pashi. Hey, Sufi. Very exciting. We saw each other on the road. I know. It was a true family trip. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:10 I was doing stand-up in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mom and dad were about to go to golf school. Yeah. Which was your, wasn't that, your Christmas gift? I was my Christmas present to send him to golf school. Yeah. And then my, the gift to mom was that they were supposed to keep dad there. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:29 The whole thing was a trap. The whole trap to keep in. They were going to black bag him. Yeah. And then, but I was doing stand-up, and so they came down a little early, and you knew this plan, and you decided to make a surprise trip. Yeah. I did a one-day, one-day bounce out to Phoenix, Sky Harbor, rendezvous with you guys at Talking Stick, where you had a couple shows one night. Yeah, and talking stick casino.
Starting point is 00:00:57 And you showed up in, again, the burden you carried. you went straight and golfed with him for, I don't know how many hours. It was a very hot day. It was very hot day. 92, something like that. Which is so crazy for Arizona that you're like, it's not that bad.
Starting point is 00:01:11 No, it's not bad. But, yeah, it was great. I found out that they sort of had a threesome with not that kind of threesome. Yeah. No, God, that would be a horrible... And by the way, if that is how you found out, you said it very nonchalantly.
Starting point is 00:01:25 Also, this is the first I'm hearing, and I'm like, what? Huh? Huh? No, so there was a spot to join their golf foursome. And so I grabbed a very early flight, showed up. Mom and Dad were having breakfast at the hotel, and I just showed up and said,
Starting point is 00:01:47 hey, I heard you guys need a fourth, and hurry started crying, and I started crying, and I was hugging her, and Dad had to look around to other people having breakfast and say, it's a surprise, it's a surprise, because people thought, something just awful had happened. Very nice of you to, and by the way, like, it again speaks to where I am on the pecking order,
Starting point is 00:02:08 which is when she saw me totally dry eyes. Well, yeah, I had her cry out. She was prepared. Yeah, you had her cried out. Yeah. Classic pos, you'd jump in and wring all the tears out before I get to see her. Yeah, but then I got to, you know, I got to spend four hours was around a golf, but I got to spend four hours in the cart with hurry.
Starting point is 00:02:29 chatting and yeah it was great and by the way this you were not a you know you weren't snubbing dad the fourth was one of his oldest friends yeah so i think john granada johnny granada johnny granada is good guy yeah who's crushing scott'sdale these days he's just crushing it he's just doing uh johnny granada is absolute 100% matches his name yeah you know what i mean he's got real johnny granada vibes yeah uh if there was a quote from johnny granada over the weekend it's It's, yeah, man. The number of times you'd say, yeah, man. They met when they were really young and made a pact to have the same mustache for the rest of their lives.
Starting point is 00:03:12 It's held. It's held. Two guys with some real nice looking mustaches. Johnny and Lear. Yeah. So, yeah, it was really fun. And then they've got some other friends from college days who rolled out to go to the show. show, their daughter named after our mother was also there.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Hillary Lace. Yeah. And, oh, I don't know if that's our last name now, but that was certainly when I met her. Yeah. And then stand up, I had a couple new jokes about mom and dad. I'm not going to burn him here on the pod. But how were they received? You know, obviously I'm a little, I'm a very, as I'm sure you are, I'm hyper aware
Starting point is 00:03:52 they're in the audience. Yeah. You know. And that's because of like, you know, because I care what they think. and it comes from a place of love, you know. Yeah, they, I will say each of them laughs at the jokes about them. Oh, that's good. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:10 So that's good. Also, I don't know if this is intentional on your part or not, but Brooks Wheelan, great guy, great comedian, opens for you. Yeah. And Brooks goes at his parents so hard. Yeah. And I feel, I don't know if it is. is to cover for how you're going to go at our parents,
Starting point is 00:04:31 which is like so gentle compared. So maybe I feel like they're prepared to be like torched. And then it's like, oh, it's so tame when held side by side. Brooks torches his parents so hard that when he did it on my show, it like didn't work. My audience is like, oh. Yeah. Oh.
Starting point is 00:04:52 Brooks is great because Brooks is a fantastic comedian and who we should really have on this podcast because I think he could do based on how much he travels like a five straight episodes. It could be like a five, it could be like one of those like history podcasts that does like 10 episodes on like Dunkirk. Yeah. But he, he's the best and dad has seen him a few times opening for me. And Brooks was spinning out because after the show, dad came back into the dressing room. He was like, you were great. Man. And then dad looked at me and goes, how good was Brooks? And it was just that way that it made it very clear that Dad had been underwhelmed last time he saw Brooks.
Starting point is 00:05:34 And then Brooks was like, oh, yeah, I guess it's been a while. When was the last time you saw me? And Dad, it was basically like four months ago. Also, Brooks' favorite story about Dad is they came to see us. Brooks opened for me in Pittsburgh. And the next morning is when I was getting ready to shoot my first special. And the next morning, we all met for breakfast. And dad, no surprise here, was giving me notes on the things
Starting point is 00:05:56 he didn't, the parts he didn't think were up to snuff. Yeah. By the way, I appreciate that from dad. You know what I mean? But Brooks didn't realize the dynamic, and he kind of felt like he needed to step in. Yeah. And so at one point, Brooks goes, oh, I like that joke.
Starting point is 00:06:13 And dad just turned to him and goes, I got notes for you, too. You know, we played golf, and then we were, you know, we were going to see you. and hang out with you a little bit before your first show. And we were going to dinner and we're coming back for the late show. And so we finished golf and it was hot out there.
Starting point is 00:06:35 And but we had about an hour to sort of shower up and then we were gonna come down and spend a half hour with you. But I went to mom and dad's room and I had truly just seen them. We had like just left the golf course. And mom was in bed as if she was in a sarcophobes. I guess.
Starting point is 00:07:00 Dad's on his phone and the chair and the hotel room, like, doing puzzles, which is not unsurprising at all. And I, mom was really like, huh? She had to, like, knock cobwebs that had, like, somehow formed on her. Immediately formed. Yeah. But, yeah, she gets the flux in the heat. She does.
Starting point is 00:07:19 Yeah, there's too much heat. We'll knock mama out. Was it, oh, I also, you know, one of the great things about traveling with is he's a he's a great wingman for like really good food and so we were like leaving palm springs we'd done a show there and he found like a strip mall like a mexican restaurant had outstanding breakfast burritos we were eating in the car also he was a good dude because he was like he was trying to like get some hot sauce on my burrito he's like a he's like oh oh hot sauce that for you you buddy because i think also he didn't want me to like crash off the side of the road yeah
Starting point is 00:07:54 i'm like holding a burrito between my knees and trying to get the hot sauce out of its little packet. But then he and John Oliver had been in Phoenix once, and Jimmy Kimmel has a really old friend named Chris Bianco, who has a place in Phoenix, a couple of restaurants in Phoenix, and now one in L.A. I don't know which one is in L.A., but Pizza Bianco is this famous Arizona Pizza Place.
Starting point is 00:08:15 He's another guy from Brooklyn. And so I texted your buddy Kimmel, and he's like, great, just let me know what time you're showing up, texted that guy. And so we just had fantastic. Arizona pizza, which was very, very New York in its style. So it was just a great time, great weekend, although I'm so tired. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:34 I did one snow in Palm Springs. I did two shows in Arizona that night and then had a beacon show on Sunday. Yeah, that's a lot. I have shows coming up. I feel like I don't do a good enough job. Can I say some of my shows that are coming up, Posh? Yeah, sure. Will you allow that?
Starting point is 00:08:49 Yeah. All right, hold on. Real quick, before you get to. Yeah, yeah, you buy me time. after your show, Talking Stick is a casino. Yeah. And Johnny Granada had valeted his car because that's how he rolls. And he's like, you know, the valet line's going to be long.
Starting point is 00:09:07 So I'm going to gamble for about a half hour and just let that line fade. You guys want to play some cards. And dad definitely just wanted to go to bed. And then hurry he hears there might be gambling to do. And she's like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So we got to go. I didn't know this. Of course, this makes sense. Yeah, so we got to go to an ATM because we didn't have cash,
Starting point is 00:09:30 and then there's a line for the ATM. And dad is doing this just because he's getting dragged along. It doesn't want to do it. Right. And busy night at a casino, Saturday night. That place was packed. It was packed. And we somehow, we find this blackjack table, a $25, you know, minimum bet table.
Starting point is 00:09:51 We get four seats because some people are. are getting up. Maybe we sort of edged in front of, or we got there at the same time as a couple of these girls, but I was like, I don't know, I'm here with my parents and Johnny Granada, I'm not gonna feel bad about this.
Starting point is 00:10:04 So we sit down. I got 200 bucks, dad's got 200 bucks, mom's got 200 bucks, Johnny's probably got 500 on the table. Maybe 20 minutes for me, mom, and dad to all lose all of our money. And we're leaving in hurry. He's like, that was fun.
Starting point is 00:10:22 And I was like, we said, nothing to each other for the last 20 minutes. We lost $600. She's like, well, it could have been worse. We could have lost $2,000 each. I was like, I get, okay. But truly, it was maybe my worst time at a blackjack table in my life just because the cards were so bad for us.
Starting point is 00:10:44 I feel like I transitioned into a very healthy place, which is when I used to do shows at casinos, I would like feel the pull of the tables right after the show. Yeah. And now I really am like, you know what? The casino has just given me money. Yeah. And I ain't giving it back.
Starting point is 00:11:00 Yeah. I, I mean, I didn't enjoy it. I only went really because mom wanted to go. Also, we sit down and Johnny's like, you guys want drinks and, like, talks to the pit boss who says they're sending, you know, a server over. We never saw a server. We didn't even get our round of free drinks that used to be. Well, congratulations the good people of the talking stick casino, because they've, They just made bags of money that night.
Starting point is 00:11:25 Yeah, yeah. Where are your shows, Sufi? April 10th, I'm going to be at the factory in Chesterfield, Missouri, near St. Louis. April 11th, I got a couple of shows in Kansas City, Missouri. May 8th, I'm at the Paramount in Denver, Colorado, and May 9th at the Route 66 Casino Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. All right. Route 66. It's 100s, the centennial.
Starting point is 00:11:52 Tosh did a whole podcast. podcast about it, check it out. Over on California now. Here's my question. Would you do this? Denver to Albuquerque, six and a half hours. Would I drive it? Yeah, or fly it.
Starting point is 00:12:04 I don't know. I feel like it's right at the cusp of maybe making more sense to fly. Yeah. You and Brooks have a good thing going on. But I would, I don't know, I'd look at what you're driving through, I imagine. Yeah, that's pretty. That was the Palm Springs to Arizona was beautiful. I will say Brooks also
Starting point is 00:12:24 He was like hey man let's build a pre-show playlist because a lot of times People are filing into your show It's just whatever the venue is playing And Brooks had a very good road trip game When you're with somebody which is He's like I'm gonna play a song And while it's playing you think of a song
Starting point is 00:12:39 This reminds you or like inspires So we just went back and forth For like a four hour drive Yeah really nice Good game Coming up next Posh I mean one of my favorite episodes I'm just going to say it.
Starting point is 00:12:53 Yeah, we were, yeah, we were sort of... We didn't know what to expect. Yeah. I mean, I know what this guy's like on screen, and it was just fantastic to talk to Vincent Donofrio for the first time. Neither you or I had ever met him. Charming as All Get Out. He's fantastic in Daredevil.
Starting point is 00:13:10 He plays Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, one of the great villains of the Marvel universe, and just buckle up. Yeah, this is, for me, this is an early... recording we recorded this 630 a.m. my time so I had to get up at 5.30 and I was happy to be awake the second he came on our screen. Also, I don't ever like to give spoiler alerts, but no one has ever said this is going to be boring and then told a better story. Yeah. So please enjoy Vincent Dutafrio and thanks for listening, everybody. Hello. All right. Yes. How are you, man?
Starting point is 00:14:10 Look at these two brothers. Yeah, we're giving up full. It's morning. I had to take my glasses off in because we thought that was just too much for you. It was. Thank you for me. We want to give you some way to just. No, actually you put them on and I immediately broke a sweat, so I'm glad you took for me.
Starting point is 00:14:30 I need them. I got to keep mine on, whether you sweat or not. It's so lovely to see you. We have never met. None of us have met before. I know. This is so exciting for me. And I want to say, like, you give off such New York vibes to me.
Starting point is 00:14:43 So I was shocked to see that you spent your early years, some of your early years in Hawaii. Well, very, very early, yeah. When my parents got divorced. So what happened was is my both, my mom was raised in Hawaii. Gotcha. And my dad was stationed in Hawaii in the Air Force. And she, my grandfather, believe it or not, okay, opened the first Italian restaurant in Honolulu. It's unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:15:12 In the 40s. And my mom was a waitress there. And my dad met, they met that way. And then years later, they got divorced. My mom, we were living in Florida. My mom took us back home to her home in Hawaii. And I went to part of my elementary. school there. And then when she got her life together and saved some money, we went back to
Starting point is 00:15:40 Florida and I was raised in Florida. But I spent literally every summer with my grandfather in Brooklyn. And I was born in Brooklyn. Got it, got it. Yeah. So that's basically it. And what were those summers like? Was it, it was just understood that the minute school ended, you would go to Brooklyn for the summer? Yeah. Yeah. It's not a famous summer destination. for children. Do you summer in Brooklyn? Huh? Do you summer in Brooklyn?
Starting point is 00:16:08 Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think it's because my mom had her handful. She was a single mom with three kids. I have two older sisters. I had three older sisters when my mom remarried, which was when I was about 11. And my stepdad was my father figure. He was an awesome dude.
Starting point is 00:16:30 and his name was George and you know so I was I think she needed a break and she sent me I was the easiest but the girls she had her handful with the girls they were hippies and yippies and the whole deal and so yeah
Starting point is 00:16:49 did they said did the girls come with you or was it just Vince it would go to Brooklyn no I mean they would visit because we have we had lots of relatives back then in Brooklyn but I would spend literally and go his workplace and I eventually started working at his place. He had a place called General Drapery in New York, did all the hotels and stuff. What would you do for General Drapery? What was, if you were working? Well, first, it was like sweeping floors and, you know, just doing the labor stuff for everybody. And then as I got older, I eventually, you know, started to go on the trucks and
Starting point is 00:17:26 drive the trucks and deliver stuff and, you know, help the carpenters, help the guys who used to actually hang the drapes. It was also an upholstery shop, so there was always tons of things to be done. He even did things for the theaters on Broadway and most of the hotels. But in Brooklyn, you know, I have a whole other set of friends. I had a set of friends in Florida and a little gang of friends in both places. So this was something you looked forward to going to Brooklyn for the summer? Yeah. Yeah. I love to. I always loved. New York, and I loved going into the city, you know. It was the first impressive thing that happened to me in my life was crossing the bridge
Starting point is 00:18:04 and heading for New York City, you know, every morning. I'll say now I don't drive in New York very often, but anytime I do, still to this day, driving across a bridge into New York City is a thing. And then it's great because you have like this incredible feeling of like you're going into the city and then you just immediately, the traffic slows down and like goes. It's very contradictory around. your energy. What was the first Broadway show you saw? Do you remember?
Starting point is 00:18:31 That would have been, my dad, my real dad was into the arts. It's the only thing he ever really did for me was introduce me to the arts, which is a big thing. Yeah. And so I think it was like something like Mano La Mancha or something like that.
Starting point is 00:18:52 Wow. Yeah, it would have been something that. that he liked, something that he wanted to see, and it would drag me along. And was it, did you feel like when you first saw a play that did you know right then, like, oh, this, I like this a lot? I was attracted to it. Yes, I remember always being attracted to it,
Starting point is 00:19:13 but not as an actor, just getting involved in it somehow. And so everywhere my dad moved, because he was always getting fired from his jobs. He went to Parsons School of Design. He was an interior designer, But, you know, he was, you know, he couldn't keep it in his pants. And so he was constantly, you know, moving. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And everywhere he lived, he would start a community theater or join a community theater. And so I was building sets and hanging lights and running sound on shows every night. in Coconut Grove, Florida, and all over in Colorado, like many different places he was. And yeah, so that's what was my involvement. It wasn't until after high school, I hitchhiked with my best friend across country to San Francisco. It wasn't the plan to hitchhike. We had a Toyota Corolla that we bought, and that broke down immediately on the way. How far did the Corolla get?
Starting point is 00:20:22 Oh, Texas. Oh, that's not a pretty good. That's decent. Halfway? Yeah, halfway. And then, so what happened was my sister, who always went to acting, always did acting in high school and stuff, she told me she was, we were talking on the phone. She said, I'm going to New York to study and acting.
Starting point is 00:20:44 I'm like, wow. When the day after she told me that my friend, Elio Medina, that I traveled with, walked into a, a Navy recruitment center and joined the Navy and left. It's like disappeared. And so I got on a bus and went to New York and started studying acting with my sister. That seems like a very, I don't know if that feels like it breaks brocode to hitchhike across the country and then immediately join the Navy. Just like, I thought we were doing this together. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:18 Well, that's exactly what happened. I think it was daunting, the whole experience for him. You know, he was also a Cuban kid, and he, you know, he had a lot of pressure from his parents. You know, they're very, they're helicopter parents, you know. And he was being pressured. I wasn't being pressured at all. My mom and my stepdad trusted me completely. So you never thought, like, oh, my God, I'm such a bad road trip companion that it's easier to join the Navy.
Starting point is 00:21:51 I did. I still believe that in myself, actually. I will say about your dad, like, it's obviously funny. I mean, not funny, but interesting that he keeps losing jobs, but it's kind of nice that every place he lands, he starts a community theater. It's almost like good for those communities that he can't stay in one place. He's like the Johnny Appleseed of community theaters. You know, the truth is that he was definitely not the best father in the world,
Starting point is 00:22:20 but he was full of arts and the arts. Still to this day, I have to, you know, he's the reason why I know anything about the arts. Did he attend your stuff when you started doing things? Was he always there supporting that part? Yeah, but he got dollar signs in his eyes from it. Yeah. Interesting. That's not great. With his community theater, was he directing things, producing things, or was he like, I'm always the leading. Directing, producing, designing sets and doing the whole thing. Is there a performance of his that stands?
Starting point is 00:22:55 out to you? The rainmaker. Wow. Okay. It's really cool. Yeah. I helped to someday maybe play that part just for the hell of it. Was Hawaii a place that became a vacation destination?
Starting point is 00:23:08 Like would your mom take you and your siblings there? Not a lot. We had very, you know, she didn't have any money, you know, to travel and stuff. So it was, we were, I mean, we did, they either came to us or we went to them maybe a couple of times. maybe a couple of times. And we've always stayed in contact with the Hawaiian relatives. But no, we didn't travel there a lot. Is the Italian restaurant still there?
Starting point is 00:23:35 It was called Rucco's. I'm named after both of my grandfathers. Vincent is my dad's father's name. And Philip is my mom's father's name. But like a lot of Italians coming through Ellis Island, his name were, they wrote down Frank. So he was Frank Minicola. And then nobody called him Frank anyway,
Starting point is 00:24:08 or nobody called him Philip anyway. They called him Rocco. So he had like three names. Yeah. Yeah. But it was named Rocco. No, it's not stuck. Okay.
Starting point is 00:24:16 Yeah. Meyer is actually like our, what is it, our great, great grandfather's first name. Yeah. So George Meyer was my stepdad's name. Meyer was my stepdad's name. Yeah. Gotcha. And his family was from the Catskills.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Got it. Did Rocco's do gangbuster business, I imagine? Like when you open the first Italian restaurant anywhere. All the celebrities. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it must just be so exciting to have that cuisine. It's so obviously now it's impossible to imagine any community that doesn't have an Italian restaurant.
Starting point is 00:24:50 But when one shows up, you must be like, whoa, how have we been missing out on this? Yeah. But they had like, you know, all the big stars when they were in Hawaii. This is what I heard about. I obviously don't know if it's a fact or not because you know how Italian families can be. They can exaggerate. Embellish. But supposedly Abin Costello used to go there and people like that.
Starting point is 00:25:14 Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Oli Pop. Can I tell you the fantastic story about Oli Pop and my family? What's that? When my kids went out to dinner with another family, and everybody had Shirley Temples. So now they got in their head. They get a Shirley Temple at dinner, right? Now, you know my family.
Starting point is 00:25:35 We're not going to be a Shirley Temple family. That's a big sugary. That's basically just a soft drink, right? Yeah. So our solution has been to have Oli Pop Shirley Temple. in the fridge at home because this is a Shirley Temple the both delivers the nostalgic taste and also we feel good about our kids having. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:54 I mean, I feel good about me having this cherry cola right around now. Yeah. It is a new kind of soda, Sufi. It's a new day in the soda marketplace and the soda world. Also, two out of three Americans say they suffer from digestive issues. 95% of Americans don't get the daily recommendation of fiber. Those two are connected, Pashi. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:16 I don't have to tell you. Those two stats are connected. Oli Pop is tackling both of those issues, Sufi, with a drink that tastes just like soda. Also, look at these beautiful cans. Yeah. Hey, Sue, if you can get a free can of Oli Pop, just buy any two cans of Oli Pop in the store, and we'll pay you back for one. Works on any flavor, any retailer. Also, you get like six free cans if you have a podcast and they're your sponsor.
Starting point is 00:26:39 Yeah. Also, when I say, we'll pay you back. I mean, Oliop's going to pay you back. I don't say, yeah, we're not on the hook for that. Yeah, you just got to go to drinkollipop.com. Slash trips. O-L-I-P-O-P-L-P-O-P is sold online, drink-Ollipop.com, also in Amazon, and available in the soda aisle, and with the chilled beverages at thousands of retailers nationwide, including Walmart, Target, Costco, and Whole Foods.
Starting point is 00:27:03 Alliepop! Yollipop! Where comes from Delete Me? Hey, Bashi. Hey, Sufi. I don't want my personal data online. You don't? You don't?
Starting point is 00:27:14 No, I don't. And data breaches are common enough now to make everyone vulnerable. Me included, Posh. Yeah. No, I think you maybe even more than some other people. That's true. And you know what? I want to do with my data, I want to make a profit off it.
Starting point is 00:27:27 I don't want strangers. I don't want data brokers to be doing that. Because then all of a sudden it's identity theft, it's fishing attempts, it's harassment. So I'm going to protect my privacy. I do protect my privacy would delete me. Yeah. You know, I do trust the good folks over. at the New York Times Wirecutter.
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Starting point is 00:28:12 for our listeners. Tell them about the discount, Posci. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.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 code trips at checkout. That's join delete me.com slash trips code trips. Support comes from Airbnb. Hi, hurry. How are you? Hi, I am great. You know, we have taken a lot of trips in our lives. And most recently, some of the best trips we've taken are annual trips to Pittsburgh. And every time we do, we stay in an amazing house through Airbnb. It's the best. It is the best. It's home away from home.
Starting point is 00:28:59 You've got your couches to sit on. You've got your kitchen to fix snacks. You've got, yeah, everything. You're in a neighborhood. It's wonderful. I mean, originally, back in the day, we would stay sort of in hotels downtown in Pittsburgh. which we liked, but there is something about being able to stay in a neighborhood and also a neighborhood that, you know, dad grew up hanging out in. You know, he was a teenager walking down Walnut Street and Shadyside near where we stay. And also this last year, we had, you know, my nephews, your grandchildren, Ash and Axel joined us. and something that we were able to tell them,
Starting point is 00:29:44 which is something that you and dad were also always able to tell Seth and I when we were growing up, which you couldn't do in a hotel, which was go play in the basement. Right, right. And you just get so much more time with each other. At a hotel, you'd say, okay, we'll meet for a drink. But you're sitting around the hotel room for, you know, hours every day on your own, because you can't, you know, sort out every minute, schedule every minute out. But when you're in a house together, you just bump into each other.
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Starting point is 00:30:43 Stories about our survivors. Watch this. The most dangerous planet. Family, retribution. Murder. Prophecy. Beer and propane. How we do it.
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Starting point is 00:31:21 Like, do you go long stretches with certain people? Any memories of that trip when you were? I mean, I remember meeting, I remember one couple and their kids. I think mostly the minute we got a ride from somebody, it was usually in the back of a pickup truck. Yeah. Or something that wasn't very comfortable, but we would immediately fall asleep. Okay, gotcha. That makes sense. Yeah, we weren't sleeping anywhere safe.
Starting point is 00:31:50 Yeah. We ended up on, at one point we ended up where the car broke down, we ended up on Stenson Beach in San Francisco. I think we got a job there for a while at a gas station or something like that, and then we eventually moved on to San Francisco. What was waiting for you in San Francisco, or what was the goal for when you got there? for when you got there. There was no goal. Just to be in San Francisco. Just to get as far away from Miami as we could, basically.
Starting point is 00:32:20 Okay. I'm actually from a smaller town. It's not so small anymore called Hiaalia in Florida. Okay. Is that by, do you feel like you still have that in your DNA, that wandering spirit or has just, okay. Yeah. And does that, I mean, I guess that makes acting a perfect job
Starting point is 00:32:40 because I'm assuming you move all over work. Yeah. Yeah, I'd never been afraid to try. travel. I, you know, I was one of those kids, like a lot of us where once I left, I left. Once I left home, I never went back where my sisters revisited home a few times, you know, and stuff like that. Like, I was, the minute I was out the door, I was out the door. But I was still very close to my mom and my stepdad, very, very close. And did you go straight from, like, ultimately, so you take this road trip and then you end up in New York and you start studying acting? And is that basically,
Starting point is 00:33:11 that took right away? That was just it from there on. out? I sat in on a couple of things and thought to myself, you know, I'll bet that if I really put my mind to it, I could do better than what they're doing. You know, I was lucky to see some really bad actors performing. It's such interesting. It's so funny. It can be inspirational. Yeah, you think you want to see good actors, but those sometimes can make you think, oh, I'm never going to hit those heights. Yeah. You want to see some duds. Yeah. But yeah, you want to see some people that really blow it. Like, they're this far away from getting it, but just don't get it.
Starting point is 00:33:52 And then if audiences are applauding for them, you're like, well, wait a minute. Well, you kind of are, in a way, plotting for them because you're like, God, they're really, really good. And then now they suck. You know what I mean? It's like they showed me, it's like they did half of the work for me. like they showed me how to be good and then not so great. Right. And so all I needed to learn to get to be good and then just keep being good and never fall into the not so great category.
Starting point is 00:34:23 When you, were you close with your grandfather, Brooklyn? Obviously, he spent the summers with him, but was he a good hang? Was he like an important, like father figure as well? Yeah, yeah. He was a, you know, I needed somebody. It was in my, the father figures in my life. were very important, very, very important, because my dad was the dark side of it and not a good father. And I really needed that kind of understanding.
Starting point is 00:34:53 And so the man around me, I was very lucky to have adult man around me that acknowledged that I needed some help in that area. And this was your paternal grandfather in Brooklyn? Yeah. Got it, got it. What was his name? He was Vincent? Vincent, yeah. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:35:11 All right, great. And I imagine if, you know, you own a business, he probably works pretty hard, but when on weekends or after work, like what would leisure time be like with your grandfather? It was a good question, actually. I haven't thought about that in a long time. It was, he was a really good cook. He cooked for my grandmother every night for dinner. So as soon as he would get home, he'd wake up in the morning and he would prep dinner before he went to work.
Starting point is 00:35:46 So everything was laid out. Everything was ready. So when he came home, I would help him put everything together in the kitchen. And then he would tell me to go away. And then I would hang out on the front stoop until some of my friends passed by. and then we'd hang out. And then like my mother did in Florida, he had a bell on a handle to ring outside the door.
Starting point is 00:36:18 And I could hear it from wherever I was in Brooklyn. And I'd come back. But my mom used to do that in Hyaliyah, too. She used to, for all of us kids, she had this big gold bell on the end of a wooden handle and she'd step out the back door of the house and ring this bell. And we could hear it from blocks.
Starting point is 00:36:37 I bought a bell for Seth and his wife for a house that they have just because they've got three little kids. Yeah. And if they're out, I was like, well, here, this is your dinner bell. I don't know how often it gets used, but I see it. It's interesting because it does not work on my kids, but then they'll use it if they want to get my attention. Like, if they can't find me, they just start banging the bell, and I'm like, this is really
Starting point is 00:37:01 backfired. So when they hear the bell, they just go further away. I don't think they even hear it, Vincent. To hear them tell they don't hear it at all. Nice, nice. Are your grandparents from the same part of Italy? Everybody was from Napoli. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:37:20 So have you done Napoli? Yeah. And when was the first time you went there? And who did you go with? My dad and my grandfather. Oh, great. Just the three of you? There were others with us, but yeah, that was like the main reason.
Starting point is 00:37:35 so that I could meet who was left. And how old were you then, do you remember? I was older. I was probably 27, 28. And now you're a professional actor at this point, right? Yes. Gotcha. Yeah, I started when I was 20. How old were you at Full Metal Jacket?
Starting point is 00:37:54 24. Okay, gotcha. So are they, is this a place where they can sort of show you off a little bit to enable us? Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. That's very nice. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:07 I mean, they didn't know who I was or anything, but, you know. Right. Yeah. They brought the poster along. I mean, now when I go to Italy, it's, I rarely go. But if I have to go for press or if I just end up there with, while we're traveling in Europe or something, it's, I get treated so well there. It's so sweet. I mean, they're just amazing.
Starting point is 00:38:30 Like, they love Americans that make it, you know, Italian Americans that make it. Yeah. It's like great. I would say, I bet any American whose name ends in a no. They don't even look, they don't even like do the work to check. No, exactly. Well, let us embrace it. With that trip to Naples, are you sort of just going to people's homes?
Starting point is 00:38:54 No, we all met at a restaurant. Okay. Yeah, that seems appropriate. Kind of a thing, yeah. And do you go see the sites? Are you a tourist as well, or it's really just about the people? We did a little bit of that. It was the first time I'd ever seen Pompeii, we traveled to Pompeii.
Starting point is 00:39:10 The first time I ever had a, you know, the main train station in Napoli is the best pizza you'll ever get in the world. Okay. You know, it's like it is known as the place for pizza, the birth of pizza. That's fantastic. Train station pizza feels like, I don't know, that's the dream. It's the dream. You know, they served it on a plate. You know, it was so good.
Starting point is 00:39:37 Yeah. No, it was a good trip that made me feel more Italian than I ever felt, had ever felt previous. Because I don't really, you know, identify with my Italian heritage a lot. But especially when I was younger, I just grew up and, you know, raised in the South. And then my grandfather was very, very Italian. But I just never, all of my friends and the culture that I was used, used to in the arts and stuff. I never really waived the Italian flag, you know, a lot when I was a kid.
Starting point is 00:40:12 But then as I've gotten older, I've appreciated it more. I love Italy and I love the people there. I'm sure. I was a kid. Yeah. I mean, I bet if you were, if you'd been a kid in Brooklyn the whole time, it would have been different. But I guess probably being in Hawaii and Florida, there's less flag waving in general.
Starting point is 00:40:29 Yeah. Did you, was your, when you were a young actor in New York, I'm assuming you were living in Manhattan. Is that a safe bet? Yeah. And would you go see your grandparents in Brooklyn ever when you were there? Oh, yeah, all the time. That's great.
Starting point is 00:40:43 For meals? For meals. I would imagine as a young actor in Manhattan if you got a free meal in Brooklyn. Yeah. And my grandfather, Vincent, he used to, for me and my sister and my other, the roommates. We were all living on Fulton Street in this. It was a one-bedroom. but it was a big one bedroom on Fulton Street.
Starting point is 00:41:07 So I knew how to, you know, build sets and all that stuff already. So what I did is without asking permission with the building, I brought in lumber and plywood and I sectioned off the apartment. Yeah. Into how many rooms? How many people got their own private spaces? I turned it into a four bedroom, one bath. You turned to one into a four.
Starting point is 00:41:33 That's a real. And did the other roommates, I mean, again, this is an incredible act of generosity on your part. Were they appreciative of this? Nope. They didn't give them fuck. Classic actors. They were like, where am I sleeping? Over there.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Yeah. Okay, great. Do you have nostalgia for those early acting years of sleeping in a one that's been turned into a four? Yeah, I do. I mean, it was rough. Sometimes we're rough. You know, I... It wasn't always that comfy.
Starting point is 00:42:06 I remember a couple. It doesn't sound comfy, Vincent, just that way. But compared to what I'm about to tell you, it was pretty comfy. Okay, very well. I remember there was this couple, this guy, Nigel Ballard, who was a photographer and his girlfriend, Cheryl Rixon, who was, believe it or not, a playmate of the year. Okay. And they were a couple in New York during the disco era, you know, Studio 54 and all that stuff. That was one of the places I actually had a job.
Starting point is 00:42:45 I worked there at the back door for a while. Wow. When I was a kid. But they, I met them because they found me in the park, Central Park. I was sleeping on a bench. I had a 10 speed and I would wrap my legs around my 10 speed. go to sleep in Central Park sometimes. Now, wait. How old were you then?
Starting point is 00:43:07 I would have been 19, 20, maybe 18, 19, 20, like right after high school, right after I left San Francisco. Gotcha. So they saw you with your legs wrapped around a bike. We're charmed. They thought this is just the roommate we're looking more. No, I think they felt bad for me. It took them two days to disqualmie.
Starting point is 00:43:31 side. They met me. We had a conversation and they sat, talked to me for about an hour. And then they came back the next day and they were leaving town and they said, hey, you know, we're willing to let you stay at our place. And I'm like, that'd be great. Wow. Yeah. And I ended up staying there, you know, I got had a job and everything, you know, like a job. I used to do, I used to bodyguard sometimes and work at clubs at the door at clubs like the Ritz and and uh xenon and studio 54 all those places you know was it as uh i would imagine you know books could be written by somebody who worked the door at studio 54 was it as memorable as i want to believe it was yes none of those stories can be told. Of course, but I just want to know that you have those stories. No, no. I'm just not that you'll
Starting point is 00:44:34 tell them, but that they exist. I think the biggest story is that none of those stories can be told. Yeah. It is really, the biggest story. It was, it was a crazy, crazy time. I was, I had no idea that things like that happened in the world. Yeah. And that people behaved like that. Well, they didn't. Those things didn't happen in the world. They only happened to happen there. I think that's a good point. That's a very good point, actually. Yeah, you never, it wasn't like Planet Hollywood. They didn't open at other places. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:06 It was also like, I feel like a shorter run than based on its cultural impact all these years later. Like Studio 54 wasn't around for too long. I mean, it had to reopen for a little while and then closed again. Yeah, it was like a few years. That's it. And when you bodyguard, who were the, what sort of people would you bodyguard? So, I mean, mainly, was like I would get pulled in on like,
Starting point is 00:45:32 with like a bunch of other guys doing rock stars and mostly rock stars and some actors and stuff like that. I was working, I got a job at the Hard Rock Cafe when it used to be on 57th Street after the day. You were in New York, right? I was in New York, not until 2001. Oh, okay. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:45:56 But anyway, Hard Rock is now. now on Broadway, but it used to be on 57th Street. There was this Cadillac coming out of the front, back of a Cadillac coming out of the back of the building. And, you know, Ackroyd and a couple other guys, you know, they owned it with the main owner. And so I got connections through them, and then when there would be advanced there,
Starting point is 00:46:19 they would, I would work for them kind of a thing and stuff like that. And later, Ackroyd and I ended up in the same movie together, called Feeling Minnesota, where he played the, I played Keanu's brother and, uh, Ed, with Cameron Diaz. And, and Akroyd was the cop, the detective in the, in the movie. And so we were on set one day and got to, you know, together and got to talk about that. And that was nice. I was going to ask if you ended up ever work with somebody, Akroyd, probably one of the better ones to work with, because that guy, It was a lovely person to have a conversation with.
Starting point is 00:47:00 Yeah, absolutely. You know, but there were actors that I ended up in movies with that I used to, the couple that I threw out of clubs and stuff. Yeah, did that come up again? Did it ever come up? Yeah, I brought it up once, yeah. How did they respond? We're not going to ask you to name names.
Starting point is 00:47:16 How did they respond when you said, hey, I threw you out of a club once? Well, I brought it up right as the camera was rolling. To help, to help with the dynamic in the scene? Of course, only to help. Right, of course. You would never undercut another actor. No, I would never undercut anybody. I'm all for helping.
Starting point is 00:47:36 It was all Stanislavski. It's part of the method. He would famously say, if you know something they don't remember, bring it up right before they say it. In fact, that's the title. It was one of his handbooks. Yeah. So would things get physical in those sort of bodyguarding?
Starting point is 00:47:58 or work in the door years? Yeah. Did you throw punches? Did you get punched? Yeah, I mean, I don't want to get too dark about the whole thing, but no. But I still have flashbacks. Okay. Wow.
Starting point is 00:48:10 Yeah, we were unfortunately involved in some, you know, bad nights, especially at the Ritz. The Ritz was... Where was the Ritz? The Ritz was on 11th between third and fourth. Gotcha. It used to be Webster Hall, which is Webster Hall now. Oh, got it. into the Ritz. It was Webster Hall first, then the Ritz, and then Webster Hall again.
Starting point is 00:48:35 But you can hear this on YouTube, actually. There's actually a live recording of one of the biggest riots that ever happened there. It's only audio, but Public Image Limited, Hill, P-I-L, they did a concert there, and they decided without telling anybody, the Ritz had a 30-by-30-30-foot video screen that used to come down in front of the stage. And they decided to play behind it in silhouette. Yeah. And that didn't go over it very good. And the mosh pit turned into a few platoons of soldiers.
Starting point is 00:49:17 And they tore the screen down and jumped on the stage. And it got very, very dangerous. It's interesting. I like sort of a shame on me, but I, you know, I'm thinking bouncers. I'm always thinking like one trouble, like one person causing trouble. But of course, the bad nights are everybody causing trouble because then you're immediately outnumbered. Yeah, no, it wasn't pretty. I mean, there's hospitalization and yeah, like bad stuff.
Starting point is 00:49:49 And also, you know, people waiting for you outside because of a confrontation they got to and that they got thrown out or something. They would, sometimes, actually a lot of times, people would wait for you afterwards and jump you and stuff like that. I had a moment recently that was so depressing. Not depressing. It was nice, but I was walking and, you know, obviously I'm a lot older now, but I used to go to nightclubs in New York City.
Starting point is 00:50:16 And there was a bouncer that used to work literally 25 years ago when I was going to nightclubs. And, like, I walked by, and we made iconic activities like, hey, and I was like, hey, man. I was like, hey, man. I go, you're going to let me in? He goes, you're too old? And I'm like, ah. What a coincidence. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:50:34 I know, it was great. It was great. I think he was like, I think he was a well-known, to this day, very well-known, famous bouncer. But I was like, oh, I'm really glad. At least he remembers me. He won't let me in. Yeah, I always wonder if people have put two and two together when it comes to me.
Starting point is 00:50:48 I mean, I had like my, I had my NPR toad. I had a lot of things that would not, you wouldn't want your nightclub. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by pocket hose, the world's number one expandable hose. Hey, Pashi. Hey, Sufi. Pocket hose is fantastic. Old-fashioned hoses get kinks, they get creases at the spigot, but the copper heads, pocket pivot swivels,
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Starting point is 00:56:01 Back then? Yeah, I mean, as a child or in the early days. Disney World. Okay. All right. And that's with your sisters? With my mom and my sisters. And would you do it many times or was it a one time only?
Starting point is 00:56:16 One time a year. Okay. Yeah, she would save up. My mom only. saved for two things in her life, a swimming pool, and she eventually got a little kidney-shaped swimming pool in the backyard. Gotcha. And I think she had to save like $9,000 or something. Above ground or actually dug in? Yeah, dug in like a cement pool. Good for her. Yeah, it was her dream, and she got it, which was very sweet. And then later, when I became successful,
Starting point is 00:56:46 I bought her a house in Cape Coral with a bigger pool and all that stuff. But she, she did did all that on her own originally. And she was quite something, my mother. She was a real free spirit. She was an awesome lady, actually. And she would save for us to go to Disney World every year. And was that a drive there, go and drive home that night? Well, no, it was like a stay over, like, two nights at, like, one of those hotels that are sort of in Disney, but, like, far away.
Starting point is 00:57:20 Yeah, right. Yeah. And did you, was that something you looked forward to? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I still look forward to it. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:29 And what were your, what was, when you were thinking, when you're driving to Disney, what is the thing that you were most excited about? The magic shop. Oh, interesting. And was that something that you had to save up money for if you wanted to buy something in the magic shop? Yeah. I did.
Starting point is 00:57:43 Like, mowed lawns. Yeah. Great. And was it, was it actually, when you would buy a magic thing at the magic shop, Was that something that you would then show to your friends at school? Yeah. Yeah. So what happened was you really want to, magic is so boring.
Starting point is 00:58:04 I guess that's true. Like to see it's great to talk about. I mean, so many little kids. Josh and I are going to do a new podcast called Magic Tricks, where people just talk about what you see. We're doing an all. audio magic show. I think a lot of young performers start with like magic shows at birthday parties.
Starting point is 00:58:27 It's exactly the way I started. Yeah. It's exactly how I found my comfort on stage. Right. Like I stopped having, like I never get butterflies in my stomach, like before performances or anything. Still to this day, I never do because of those years of the pressure of a trick going bad on stage.
Starting point is 00:58:46 Right, because it's not just being in front of people. Like that's, I think for a lot of people, you would think that's, hard thing to get over. But I would imagine doing a trick, like, in a weird way, gets you, I don't know, does it get you out of your head as a performer? Because you're focusing so much on executing the... Yeah, well, there's that, right? And which is, which is your spot on. It's, it does preoccupy, preoccupy, but it's similar to acting in a way, because if you, if you are the kind actor that uses a technique, then that also is keeping your mind off worrying, judging yourself and all that stuff, because you're just doing the work. You're struggling through the work. And then
Starting point is 00:59:19 And afterwards, you're like, you know, what just happens? You know, like, whatever. But back then, what happened was I'm going to be brief because, again, it's boring. So it hasn't been boring yet. Well, it has not been boring yet. It's been very interesting. Okay. So my mom only sent me to camp once in my life.
Starting point is 00:59:38 And I went to camp. Where was the camp? There was a camp in, I think it was in North Carolina. Okay, gotcha. It was somewhere in the Smoky Mountains somewhere. Okay. The second day I was there on the bus, I was sitting next to a kid who had these sponge balls, and he was doing these tricks for everybody on the bus.
Starting point is 01:00:00 And I was like, I wasn't really interested in the outcome of the trick. I was interested in how he was doing it. Right. Like I could see he was doing something and that it was not easy to do. And I wanted to figure out what that was. So I had a few dollars on me, and I bought it. the trick from him right there on the bus. He gave me $2 for the sponge balls.
Starting point is 01:00:26 And he gave me the instructions that he had. He had it in his little backpack. So I got really good at that in camp. And then just by coincidence, I was washing dishes at a diner where my mom used to work that was attached to like a grocery store and like this little outdoor mall thing in Hyaliyah. And I was riding home on my bike one day after work.
Starting point is 01:00:56 And in the same mall, there was this truck backed up to this store with this Cuban couple unloading the back of this truck. And the boxes had, like, designs on them and things. And so I stopped and asked them what they were doing. And they told me that they were magicians. And they had just come over from Cuba. And they were opening a magic store in the mall. And so I asked them if they needed any help. what they were doing and they said, sure.
Starting point is 01:01:22 And so I went back to my mom and she was at the diner. She came over and met them and then I helped them, you know, with what they were doing. And befriended them and used to go there every day and I didn't have any money. But what he did was he would lend me the instructions from tricks and then I would take them home and I would build them myself or make them myself. Wow. Yeah. And so I started doing shows. and this is where it gets really boring.
Starting point is 01:01:50 By the way, this has been fascinating. It's not boring at all, yeah. So I started doing shows, and he gave me this book about Houdini, and I read this book from cover to cover in one sitting. I read it outside in my shorts and got like second-degree burns on my legs reading this book. I swear to you, this is all true.
Starting point is 01:02:17 I believe it. Where would you do a show? We're parties, bar mitzvahs, like the whole deal. Oh, so this wasn't like you would set up a folding table in your backyard and have your friends come over. You would actually be for hire. So this is what I did. This is what I did. I took one of the tricks, the mailback trick that Houdini did.
Starting point is 01:02:35 Okay. Which is you get into a mailbag that a person can fit in. And it's got grommets around the top, gold here, right? And the chain goes in and out of the grommets and pull tight. So they cuff you. You go inside. They pulled the thing, they cut, they locked that, and he was pushed in the water. So in this book, it taught you how to do that, exactly how to do it.
Starting point is 01:02:59 So I had one neighbor that used to build billboards, and another neighbor worked for a boating company. So I had, I asked him for free if he would build me a sack out of what they use, the material they used for sales. Yeah. for boats and and asked the other guy if he would put the grommets in and my other friend at you know the sale guy put the grommets in it and stuff then I asked the other guy to build me these shackles the kind that that Houdini used and so with this trick and my mom's friends who were cops that she because she was a waitress so she met five five
Starting point is 01:03:40 that's in fact where she met my stepdad um The cops came over. They locked me in the thing, pushed me in the kidney-shaped pool. And live at 5 recorded me, and I was a working party magician. Oh, my gosh. First of all, every mother's nightmare is you finally afford a pool and your son starts doing hoopdini tricks in it. She's like, oh, we got me in a bag.
Starting point is 01:04:09 Put me in there. She was so awesome. She would sit with me there. I remember just sitting on the cement next to the pool and watch me do this thing. And I explained the whole thing. I explained to her how I could never get hurt
Starting point is 01:04:23 and stuff like that. But the fact is, in hindsight, I look back and I could have actually killed us. So the local news came and filmed it? Is that a live of five? Yeah. So they, how old are you when you're doing your magic tricks?
Starting point is 01:04:37 That would have been like 14. Oh my God. So you're 14, the local news does a story and then you just start getting hired to do magic shows? Yeah, yeah. And I was doing so good that the magicians ring, it's like a union, international union of magicians. I don't know if it still exists or anything.
Starting point is 01:04:58 I'm not in that world. And you stop paying your dues, obviously. It's probably that. You're in arrears. They invited me, and I got to be the youngest magician, I guess, in Florida at the time. I guess. To be in the studio.
Starting point is 01:05:17 So I went there and I even learned more and I could actually borrow illusions from people and do them. They were based in Florida? Yeah. That's fantastic. What other boring stories do you have? Yeah, I was going to say,
Starting point is 01:05:30 like, Vincent, that story might be my favorite movie of the year. Like the fact that the whole community pitched in, the cops came over. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. But it was something that was normal because during the Vietnam War, my sisters, I took their lead, of course, they were older than me, but we used to put on these shows in our backyard and people from the neighborhood would bring canned food and stuff that we would then send to Vietnam and stuff like that. So we were used to, like I was used to doing that kind of a thing. And what kind of shows where would those be?
Starting point is 01:06:06 Variety, variety shows. Variety shows. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Music, sketches. Would you write your own sketches or would you like copy sketches? Oh my God. Even the music and, you know, my drum set was three garbage cans turned upside down and some buckets. How many people, what's the most amount of people that showed up for a performance? Probably like 10 or 12 people.
Starting point is 01:06:29 That's pretty awesome. I mean, you were set to go. Yeah. As a performer, like it feels like these are incredible building blocks that you had. Yeah, you know, when you look back at it, it's definitely. was in the cards, I guess. You know, some kind of version, some kind of version of the arts, you know.
Starting point is 01:06:48 How many times did you perform the mailbag trick? Once. Okay. Just that time. Oh, so you just did that, so then that got you into the game. Got it. That was the plan, yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:00 Fantastic. Were you at all nervous during the execution of the mailbag trick when you were in the water? Okay. Yes. Which I assume is not what you want to be feeling. No. I mean, if you knew how the trick worked, it's only dodgy for a few seconds.
Starting point is 01:07:19 Okay. And if those few seconds passed by, you're good. All right. Have you ever been to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles? I have a couple times, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely still that society, but it's, yeah, it's a fun night out. But, you know, to get back to the point, the point is that by the time I was doing, helping my dad in community theater and stuff, like that, I always felt comfortable on stage.
Starting point is 01:07:43 I was never acting, but I was, the stage was never seemed like a barrier. Mm-hmm. You know, like I, I remember the first time I did do a play, I couldn't believe, like, how comfortable I actually was. Yeah. On stage, you know, I was uncomfortable with other things about it, but I was not comfortable uncomfortable being on stage, coming on my cue, you know, the whole technical aspects of doing a play, I was always very comfortable with all that.
Starting point is 01:08:19 Did you, could you tell that that was unique, that there were other people in those productions that were nervous? Yeah, which is why I was able to recognize something different in myself. Yeah, that you were maybe wired for it. Well, then I was, that, that, I think I knew, I think I've always known that those, early years of helping my dad on the stage and meeting all those actors and seeing a lot of bad acting like I was saying. And then the magician, I think all of it, I think I was, I've always been aware that all of that has been extremely helpful. Yeah. I mean, I was, I would imagine being
Starting point is 01:08:56 in a mailbag in a pool. You're like, how hard can the rest of it be? I do, you mentioned, you mentioned, like, the, uh, trauma and nightmares of like rough nights in New York. I, um, I, I, both want to blame you and applaud you. One of my favorite episodes of television of all time is The Subway, The Homicide. Oh, wow. Life on the street. And because I live in New York City,
Starting point is 01:09:19 I also think about it literally every single time. I'm on a subway platform. I highly recommend. One of the great episodes of all time. Yeah, Andre Brower was amazing to work with. And what a piece. That was extraordinary. I think the script won like a Peabody Award.
Starting point is 01:09:36 Yeah, it's really. I mean, Not for the fan of heart, and they just started streaming that show for the first time, and you couldn't get your hands on it, but it's on Peacock now, and it's one of my favorite shows of all time. Oh, wow. That's cool to know. I didn't know that. And you're just such a tremendous Wilson Fisk as the comic book fan. You don't actually watch. You don't watch that show.
Starting point is 01:09:58 I love that show. I love show. No, you don't watch that show. I love that show. He's very comic forward. And I like, I'm going to say something. Just, you know what? I'll say it for you. Everybody, all, you know, I like the TV shows a little bit more than the movies. In the current, you know, Marvel Universe.
Starting point is 01:10:19 Well, I think we have a long, we have a better shot at getting it right. Well, because that's comic books or, you know, they have that, you know, sequential thing. So, it's very nice. Well, I'm glad you like it. I'm surprised that you watch it. I do. I like that stuff. It's, you know, and also it's very fun now to, you know, I got boys who are into that kind of stuff.
Starting point is 01:10:38 and once you can find stuff to watch with them. I've always been, and I truly mean this, this is not bullshit. Like I've always been completely fascinated by what you do for a living. Oh, thank you. I'm delighted to be doing it, I'll tell you that. You know, your whole trajectory and I just, it's so foreign to me. You know, it's, there's a couple of things that, that kind of, confuse me about it. Like, I don't, I don't know why I've never done a talk show at night.
Starting point is 01:11:14 Have you never done a talk show? No. I'm sure they'd have you. That's the craziest thing ever. Yeah, by the way, get ready for a call. No, I did. I, you know, I see all my friends doing them, and, you know, they actually have personalities. I find that you do have one. You're being a little hard on yourself. And and I find it, I just, I love when they succeed. I don't know. It's a crazy thing to think about. But no, I think the closest, you know what I did do back way long time ago was like one of the first John Stewart comedy central shows.
Starting point is 01:11:59 Right, right, right. He had like a popular, yeah, yeah. Like really, really early on when it wasn't quite the show, it turned out to be later on, when it Because it was more of a culture show with Craig Kilbourne, and then John took a while to shape it. I did the Kilbourne shows once to, and then I went back and did it for John Stewart. Yeah. And that's the closest I've ever come. It's mind-boggling.
Starting point is 01:12:22 It really is. What is it like when we, you know, when you pop up on the Zoom, I was like, I don't know what his, like, vibe is going to be. And I think very friendly, very engaging. Yeah, we're very. For someone who can be very menacing on screen. How old are your? children now? So 30, going to be 34, my daughter, I think. My son, one son, 26 and the other 18. And are they nearby you, or they spread a field? They're all circle around me constantly.
Starting point is 01:12:56 You know, my daughter's name is Layla George. She's a very successful actress right now. Oh, that's great. It was very nice. She's doing really well. She's just doing job after a job. It's fantastic. See, it's in your DNA from your dad on down. I hope so. It happens. It happens. My oldest son, the 25-year-old, is also getting into it now. Hopefully, he'll get a shot like his sister did.
Starting point is 01:13:21 And I don't think my 18-year-old, I don't think he's going to do it. I think he's going to do something different. I hope he does. I had all three of my children as guests on my show for the Thanksgiving Day episode. Oh, that's nice. And they're 9, 7, and 4. So if they can do it, you can do it, yes.
Starting point is 01:13:39 Was that fun for you or nervous? It was, I was very nervous, and I had not told them it was going to happen. But it turned out so wonderful, but also, like, I fully just gave them the bug. You know, like the minute it was over there, like, we got to do that again soon. Like, they just loved it.
Starting point is 01:13:59 They loved it. Yeah. But again, it looks like it's fun, and it is. So when your kids are like, I think I want to do that, You're like, yeah, I can't blame you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:09 This has been fantastic, and thank you so much for being here. Now, Josh, though, before you go, is going to ask our speed round questions. Oh, got it. Here we go. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational? Relaxing. What is your favorite means of transportation?
Starting point is 01:14:29 Oh, wow. I'm driving a truck. 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? Wow, that's cool. Other than my family? Yeah, can't be your family.
Starting point is 01:14:48 Well, there's probably hundreds of them from history. But honestly, the first one that comes to mind is Dax and Kristen's family. Oh, yeah. Great. Very good choice. Because they're friends of mine, and I love them to death. and I stay with them when I'm in L.A. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:07 And also, I just feel like it's a lot of like, I don't know, like party boats. I just feel like they have like a real, you know. They know how to have fun. Yeah, they're like people of means who aren't fancy. That would be a good description. Yeah, I like that. But they all, you know, the thing about the way I like to leave my life and I believe the way that they leave their life is that the way to have fun can be really simple sometimes.
Starting point is 01:15:39 And with all the right people, it's just 10 times more fun. But that's the answer to that question. Is that all of them? No, no, no, there's a couple more. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? Other than my wife? No, your wife works. You can take your wife.
Starting point is 01:15:56 Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. How much, yeah. What is your dream destination for a family vacation? Disney World. And then what's your hometown?
Starting point is 01:16:06 Hyalia. If you had to get more families to come visit Hyaliyah, what would you tell them about the town? This is the hardest question we've. Based on Vincent's reaction, this is the hardest question we've asked. There's really not much. There's just really not much. There's one, there's at least one kidney-shaped pool. The kidney-shaped pool, this will be very exciting for everybody.
Starting point is 01:16:36 There's the old house that I grew up in. Sure, okay. That we could drive by and look at it. I don't think they would allow us in the yard or anything, but we could just sit in the street and look at it. That's great. I think that would draw. I think there's a draw there.
Starting point is 01:16:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll just say, like, there's going to be a lot of traffic on the road to Hyalea now that this is out. Yeah, 78 Street's going to be. bumper to bumper. Then Seth has our final questions. Vincent, have you been to the Grand Canyon? I haven't. Would you like to go?
Starting point is 01:17:07 I would. It seems like you're a guy who would enjoy the Grand Canyon, basically everything we've heard so far. I mean, I would probably get bored after a few minutes, but you can't really do anything, right? You can just look at it, right? Well, you can go, you could hike into it, you could camp, you can... Yeah.
Starting point is 01:17:22 But I think for people like you and I, Vincent, and you look and get bored, but then the rest of your life, at least people aren't breathing down. on your neck about how the fact you haven't never been. Yeah. Then nobody's going to get me to hike into the cranky. I don't think anybody should try.
Starting point is 01:17:36 They haven't yet from the sounds of it. If I ever get asked, I'm going to, you know, I'll give them your number. Okay, good. I'm very excited about season two of Daredevil Born Again. That premieres on March 24th. Thanks so much for being here, man. This has been just the best conversation. All right.
Starting point is 01:17:53 Well, I appreciate it. It's so nice to meet both of you. It's so great to be. Lovely to talk to two brothers. That's so awesome. Anyway, take care of you guys. Thank you so much. Thanks, man.
Starting point is 01:18:04 See you. Summer, go to Brooklyn, hang out with his grandfather, who was also Vincent. He worked at General Drapery, started by sweeping up. But as he got older, Got to drive the trucks and made a couple bucks.
Starting point is 01:19:11 Sometimes he worked the door, Studio 54, turned a one bedroom into four. But back when he was 10, summer he went to Kent. And then at Disneyland into magic would buy some tricks. Was good at magic, got good at magic. and he studied it They put him on the news Had a big plan with the mailbag trick Come a magician
Starting point is 01:19:57 And impress the tricks Neighbor built him a big sack Inside it he was stuffed A chain through the grommets All so he was cuffed To the pool was shoved Was filmed for live at five Only had to survive
Starting point is 01:20:28 And he emerged alive so tight A new day it had dawned No more mowing longs He had it going on Abracca Dabra Vincent did magic On stage he didn't panic A big debut
Starting point is 01:20:48 Vincent did magic Fomits the magic Vincent did magic Vincent did magic

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