Good Guys - Brian Baumgartner: 'The Office' Bloopers, BBQ Delights, & Being #1 on Cameo

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

'The Office' star, cookbook author, Cameo superstar and new friend Brian Baumgartner joins the Good Guys this glorious Monday! Brain discusses his favorite BBQ, writing his new cookbook, how he feels about being #1 on CAMEO, auditioning for The Office, improvising, and he indulges in our favorite segments: best bite of the week and what are ya nuts!? Enjoy! Brian's book: https://www.seriouslygoodbarbecue.com/ Leave us a voicemail here! Sponsors: Visit Dentek.com to find your local retailer and shop all of Dentek’s products - sold at Target, Walgreens, Amazon and Walmart Drinklmnt.com/goodguys for a free LMNT sample pack with any DRINK MIX purchase DrinkAG1.com/goodguys for a free 1 year supply of vitamin D and 5 free travel packs Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Produced by Dear Media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following podcast is a dear media production. I'm Josh Peck and I'm Ben Sauffer and we're the good guys. There's a lot of guys out there. And we're the good ones. Welcome back to the Good Guys podcast. I'm sitting here with my co-host, someone who puts the bris in. I got nothing. Ben Sofer, thank God you're here, Ben.

Thank you for being here. Yes, thank you. And we are joined by the great Brian Baumgartner, sir. It's a pleasure. Thank you guys for having me. It's, no, it's truly my pleasure. We're so excited, just like food, golf, laughs. Like, honestly, just you're a brother.

You're amongst brothers. Thank you. We're here. I hope you feel as good as we feel. I said before, this chair is like I'm getting a warm hug. It's fantastic. No, I'm excited. It is, by the way, 97 degrees here in New York today.

I don't know speaking about the weather means that you have nothing else to say. It's not true. It's just very present on everyone. mind. It's important to mention that the sun is now reflecting off of the concrete and it's the time where it's absolutely time to leave Manhattan. It's time to leave. It's the time where the sun starts to pick up the rap piss. And then all of a sudden you're just living in steamy filth. Yes. And paying too much in taxes. Yes. I'm just here for two days. Okay. Well, good for you. Well, Josh is in the coves. We are three Cidesdale men. Let's be honest. We are men of a certain stature.

we're hearty, we're all well-fay. Amen. And the heat, it does not, it does not do well for my body type, and I can only speak for myself. Yes, and it's important that I mentioned because we just met that I recently lost 70 pounds. Congratulations. Thank you. Yes. But I'm normally. And I'm sorry. But he's on, no, it's no good. He's on PEDs, though. He's on PEDs. Tell him, tell him, tell me. This is dirty. I'm on the Zemp. I'm on it. The Zempi. Yeah. It's good. It's not good, though. It's not good. I mean, you know, it's fine. I mean, it's great results.

Congratulations. Thank you. Like, I think I just want to go off it and just gain weight again. Like, it's more fun. Like, I can eat the same amounts of food. And like, at some, like, physically, actually. Originally, that's the goal. Yeah.

The goal is, like, eat less food. And then you're like, but I love eating more food. So now I'm just, like, sad. Like, so. And speaking of food, this beautiful cookbook that you wrote, I want to talk about for a minute because we're going to be cooking with it later today, right? Brian's coming on. Yes.

Or we're coming on each other's. We're making a nice reel. We're cooking a beautiful chicken. And as somebody that has recently entered the cooking space myself, I just want to know, obviously, chili and the office, something that has been with you forever. Yes. I'm assuming that's where this came from or there's just a passion for cooking or where did this come from? Well, so this is a barbecue cookbook. Yes.

Yes. I had another cookbook. which was chili. So, I mean, after the incident, let's just refer to it as the incident from here on out happened low so many years ago with me and Chile. It was natural to do that. This is really my passion. I do cook a lot.

When I'm home, I'm probably at the grill or barbecue four or five nights a week. I love doing it. It relaxes my mind. And I grew up in the great state of Georgia. I don't know why I needed to refer to it as that. No, it is. They have a very good balanced budget every year. Yeah, okay.

And yeah, that was a big part of my childhood and my culture. So I have been eating and cooking barbecue for a long time. And weirdly, you don't think of barbecue in California together, but there is no weather issues there. So I can do that year round. And what do you think about people that say that barbecuing, cooking a steak on the grill is effectively seasoning the charcoal. Well, I say great, by the way.

You know, I think the big thing is barbecue. People, barbecue, by its strict definition, is slow cook. Okay. And grilling is not that. It's more direct heat over the fire. This barbecue is barbecue. It's outdoor. It's grilling.

It's barbecuing. It's slow cooking. It's smoking. smoking. It's the whole deal for me. Because for me, it's a, it's a communal activity and for me, cultural. And I love to do it. So there's tips and tricks in there to grill great steak, as you mentioned, and also to slow cook stuff. And I just, I love to entertain. I love to have people over. And yes, we've had a lot of fun with it and a ton of like great, both celebrity chefs and just food that I have liked gave their recipes for the book. So I'm, I'm really proud of it. And I hope people

enjoy it. And where can we find this beautiful book? Wherever you buy books. Cool. All right. It's sort of like the podcast, wherever you get your podcast, is wherever you get booked. We've gone book and, we've gone brick and mortar. We've gone brick and mortar. We've gone Amazon. Yes, there is a website. Seriously Good Barbecue.com will link you to wherever you want to go. Nice URL. That is a nice URL. Thank you. Yes. Well, it makes sense being it's the title of the book. Dentec, y'all. Look, Dentec is. the brand to empower everyone to take charge of their oral care health. And the truth is, I'm 37, and I want to take charge of my oral care health. Actually, I want to level up, okay? I want to

up my mouth game. And with Dentek, that's what I'm doing. I'm 37, okay? And like, for instance, recently, I used their aura brush, and basically it's a tongue cleanser that freshings breath. Literally, my wife was like, thank you. I was like, wow, really? bad and she didn't respond, but I knew what she meant. But with the aura brush, the bristles are designed after a surgeon scrub brush, right? Two and one bristles lift bacteria and the scraper removes it. Plus, you know that I'm a grinding king, but they have these incredible dental guards for nighttime teeth grinding that help ease the pain from clenching and grinding. It helps prevent conditions caused by teeth grinding, including jaw aches, tooth chipping, cracking,

headaches and it's available at Target, Walgreens, Walmart, and Amazon. So head to Dentec.com to find your local retailer and shop all of Dentech's products. That's Dentec. D-E-N-T-E-K.com. Like I said, sold at Target, Walgreens, Amazon, and Walmart. I'm telling y'all, Dentec is a game changer. So level up. Who are some of your barbecue? mentors, your barbecue idols, your barbecue heroes. Well, I mean, after today, I'm sure it's you guys,

or at least him, the idea for the book weirdly started, or at least truly came to fruition during the, there was a pandemic a few years ago. Yeah, I don't know if you remember. There was. And I, like everybody, was just trying to find entertainment to consume. And I all do respect. Netflix has been very, very good to me. This is not a show I probably would have watched, but it was a docu series, a six-part docu series on Netflix, which was looking at like pit masters,

barbecue masters from around the world. I watched this thing, and it is excellent, by the way. So shame on me. I should have always wanted to see it. And there was a guy, Rodney Scott, that does whole hog barbecue in South Carolina.

Nose to tail. I had to go to Nashville. during work. I hadn't been on a plane in months, but I had to go there, and I hadn't seen my parents in like nine months. That's nice, right? Little break.

Little break. Yeah, a little break, but also like, okay, I've got to go and see them. I went to drive to them, and I took a detour, several hundred miles to go to Rodney Scott's barbecue just because I was alone. I was like, I'm here.

I might as well check it out. It was awesome. I met some guys. doing the whole hog out back and doing is probably the wrong word pit roasting I don't know still doesn't quite work anyway out back and was able to talk to them and it was a lot of fun and so I don't know the experience of that I'm like yes I really love this and so that was that was a big genesis for the book so Rodney Scott's one for sure now tell me you're in Nashville you're at Rodney Scott you're in a rental car

Paint the scene for me, because I'm imagining you multiple takeout trays in the car open. The wheel is greasy from your fingers that have been in the south. Like, that's how I would do it. Yes. I mean, yeah, the scene. Someone asked me recently, like, was it so incredible being there? The food was incredible. The experience of talking to the guys cooking was incredible.

But one, and I always sort of make the joke about it being, you know, this is a communal. thing, barbecue. Like, people don't make a rack of ribs for one. Like, you don't, you don't do that. Like, you put a bunch on and you have people over and it's a communal experience. So here's me at Rodney Scott's and I'm like, this is incredible. I want to try everything. So I just like essentially I'm like, yeah, I'll just have one. They're like, what? And I'm like, no, just like everything. bring me, bring me the pulled pork and bring the, you know, just different, different things that they had on the menu. And so, yes, it was me there. And they, I think they weren't allowing you to sit.

That was South Carolina's dealt with a pandemic. Like, you can have a restaurant open. You just, you can't sit inside. So they were like picnic tables outside, but it was me just sort of sitting alone. Like, this is great, like kind of looking around trying to get something. someone to like nod at least to me. So yeah, the experience was not great because of the time that I was there. But yeah, it was really cool.

What would you say is your favorite thing to cook in this book? Like what's that one recipe? Maybe you're having a bad day. Right. You want to just eat till you can't breathe. Well, well, I will tell you the thing that I am very proud about, there is a recipe in there that I probably cook once a week. Okay.

Which is I feel very proud about a boneless skin. People say you can't do boneless skinless chicken breast and make it good on the grill. Very difficult. It does get very dry. But I have, I believe, perfected a technique for keeping this dry, a marinade and a whipped garlic sauce that you can put on or dip in afterwards. So that's, I mean, truly by how much I have it, that's probably. my favorite but look i mean for me if i have the time a good five six hours to do ribs i really like that i

really like that and the other thing i'll say which i talk about quite a bit in the book is i feel like people have this weird thing right which is like oh i'm i'm ordering filet mignon or like prime rib and you're like well i've got to get something good right and then there are the other meats where nobody thinks about it or cares they're like well it doesn't matter because it's just sauce right like You dip good sauce at anything and it'll taste good. But I talk a lot about, for me, the quality of meat where it was sourced from is very, very important. And something that I just wish, even if you do it once a week or once every two weeks or a month, like when you buy meat and you're slow, whether you're slow cooking it or putting it on the grill or whatever, buying good quality meat is so important for how it tastes. And plus, it's really the right thing.

We've spoken about this extent. on the podcast. Have you heard of meat glue? No, what's meat glue? Okay, meat glue is a powder that if you go to the wrong type of steakhouse, they're taking pieces of meat and gluing them into one whole steak. Is this seriously for real? This is seriously a thing. Meat glue, you can Google it. Oh, that's horrible.

Horrible. And it can't, one, it's horrible for a number of reasons. And two, that just doesn't taste good. No, it doesn't taste good. But now you're going to think to yourself when you have a bad steak. Was it because it was a bad cut? Or was it because it was meat glue? And it was like 19 different pieces into one piece of steak.

Yeah, it is horrifying. Have you gone to try to find specifically find meat glue? No, I do nothing with this meat glue. Okay. It's not for me. It's not for anybody. I know it's something that I came across. I don't want to be associated with meat glue.

I know nothing about me. You're the face of meat glue. I don't want to be. I'm out on meat glue. I think, I'm out on meat glue. I think it behooves us to start. exploring the dark side of barbecue, and I open this up to the floor, which is, will you eat barbecue within six to 18 hours of taking a flight? Hear me out. Because if I do, the people on that

flight are going to be, it could be turned into a toxic war zone because of the gas fumes that I am, that I am letting out. I mean, it's a whole, my body, when I eat good barbecue, and I love every second of it, but I know I ate barbecue for a good 12 to 14 hours after. Yeah, but see, let me say this, Josh. I think that's because of what I was just talking about. So I came, for me, my like love of this is, again, the communal thing, like from me growing up in Georgia. But if you go now to a, I will not name, but like a chain barbecue restaurant, this is

what I'm saying. This is it, you very, very well could be eating meat glue and or like shoe leather because all they're doing and when you see it in the branding like you walk in and there's like their sauce is for sale. They are literally just machines trying to sell sauce. Right. And douse meat glue maybe into sauce and that's delicious. Big barbecue. So delicious. That's why when you go to an applebee's and you.

you get that fried chicken doused and sauce. Hey, I'm not mentioning names. I didn't mention any names. I want this to be very, very clear. We did. We'll be libeled here, not Brian. Yes, I mentioned no name. But I think that's what you're referring to.

You really don't know what you consumed. I'm just, I'm just saying. Someone this morning, this morning here in New York City made me a pulled pork sandwich. they made this with Iberico pork. And let me just say, from Spain, right? Yes. How do you know that?

Oh, that's a great pull. That's a great pull. Josh just knows. He knows a little about everything. Everything. So he can look at it. It's from Spain. You didn't know because you're kosher, Ben.

It's okay. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I won't feel that. When I get on a flight, a flight in like 24 hours. Or at least I won't admit to it. Okay. It's time to have a time to have a heart to heart.

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formulation you already know and trust, but now it's in a bold 16 ounce can of sparkling water. I love sparkling water. But again, no sugar, no caffeine, all electrolytes. So get your free sample pack with any drink mix. Purchase at drink element.com. good guys. And if you're on Element Insider, you have first access to Element Sparkling, a bold 16 ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. That's fascinating. You know, barbecue especially, there is something communal. And I would like to know, because I'm a sides king, and I'm going to admit it. I'm there for, you know, I'm there for the mac and cheese. I'm there for the collard greens. I'm there for the fun sides and extras.

Now, to a real barbecue man, such as yourself, Brian, are the sides hooey? Is it not necessary? No. Absolutely not. And I'm glad you asked. No, there are vegetarian recipes here in the cookbook. And in fact, I just check out the whatever, the TikTok, the Instagram. I just posted a video of me doing elote Mexican corn on the grill.

Delicious. Yes. And it. Kejota cheese? Is it the cheese? Yes. Cojita, Quixotechita. Cojita, Quix.

It's a cheese. It's a cheese. It's a fantastic. Cotija. Cotilla. Yeah. I don't know. Something about the way he said it made me, made me, made me, like I suddenly was questioning

my entire life and knowledge of cheese. No, it's Cotea. He thinks it's deli. It's not cohita. Cojita? No. Coitja. You're thinking of like Cohiba cigars.

I knew that wasn't right. Thank you. And he made me. look like an asshole. I just, I just made it and bought it. And by the way, it's specifically the cotia cheese. I had to go to three different stores and ask people for the coheel. Cortia cheese. You literally screwed me. Yeah, I got you. I'm sorry. Clip this segment because it's. Hey, yeah. Yeah, that's my bad. That's my bad. Any mayonnaise in that? There is. Thank God. Yeah. Mayo brand of choice.

You know what I use now? Oh, that was your question. This is going to sound fancy, but I'm telling you, Sir Kinzington. Oh, that's syndication mayonnaise. What? That's syndication mayonnaise. Maybe, but no, it's very, no, it's very good. Someone who I was with earlier today, and I don't get this, this, you talk about, this must be,

new show syndication of money. The Kupi? Oh, that is good stuff. It's unbelievable. It's the Japanese mayo. It's a little bit sweeter. So if you're ever making like a tuna tartar? Yes.

You can't use Sarkandinket's. It just won't taste the same. Yeah. I like the Sir Kensington's. I do. It's probably a little sweeter than like Helmonds or whatever, but it's not, yeah, that's a little sweet. I'm a Hellman's guy. Okay.

I love him. Absolutely love him. I don't know what it is. Yeah. You're a classic. People love. Do you know on the West Coast they don't have it? Yes, it's called best something.

It's called best foods. Yes. I think that's right. Yes. Why are we talking about all these brands? This is a terrible thing, but Sir Kensington's. Yeah. Give me a call.

Sir Kinzington. See, this is what we do. No, we talk about brands and then we force them to pay us. That's what it is. In the end, speaking of money, 2021, highest earner on cameo. That's what we call professional transition. Yeah. We got to talk about this.

Okay. First of all, how many videos, how much cash? Yeah. And did you enjoy it? And the length of video is important. What? The length of the video is important because I judge people by how long their cameos are. Okay.

You know what's funny is I just found this within the last weekish that it tells you somewhere? I think that I think it's public facing. I don't even think it's my own thing, how long the average video is. and mine are a minute and 30 seconds. Wow. Generous. Very nice. Wow.

Is that generous? I think so. Yeah. I think so. I take it very seriously. Yes. I do. How many did you do that year?

I did a lot. Yeah. I did a lot. I mean, I still do. And you love them. Here's what I love. We're now entering the cheesy portion of the thing. But if you're going to ask me about it, I'm going to be honest about it.

I don't, I truly, because what, I think there's 50,000 people on the site. or whatever and I'm number one. So like, I just literally just mention that because I wanted to mention it. No, but I think this is why I don't view it as about me. And I don't view it because I've seen a lot of people's. I feel like a lot of people have a general attitude of. And I don't think it's intentional. And I'm not saying that these are bad people, but I feel like the messages are,

isn't this so nice to be hearing from me? And I truly, that is not my M.O. Here's what it is. I believe, and part of it has to do with the office, part of it has to do with the good feelings, the comfort that people have derived from that show. I honestly believe it is about father and a daughter, grown daughter, sisters, brothers, parents with their kids that shared, that have a mutual fond affection that show brought them a connection. And so how I view myself is literally the conduit for them to have a connection. There is an anniversary. There is a birthday.

We've lost touch with each other for a long time. And I just want to say hi or I love you or whatever it is. And I just view me as the person who is getting those two together. And so, yes, I crack some jokes, you know, office adjacent joke. at least, but I, but I, that is truly how I view it. And that is why I think that, that people have responded to it and, and, and, and I know it's cheesy. It's beautiful. And, and I'm not trying to say that, but that is, that's how I view it. Yeah. What was, and we don't have to say the number, but how did you land on how much to, to, you do? We do. How much money? Well, like, because I,

If I did cameo, I would have a hard time, right? Because I feel like I'd undersell myself, and I'd be like, 25 bucks a pop, let's go. And then, but inside, I want to charge $2,000 a pop and a little bit of crypto. Right. Here's how I view. So when I started, and I will say, I have a lot of people who work in that business, who believe I am actually too cheap. But here was how I started. whenever I started, it was around Valentine's Day.

And so I was like, okay, so here's a gift, generally between two people who are not in the same city. So what is the cost of flowers and chocolate? Like if I'm going to buy you for Valentine's Day, some nice flowers and some chocolate, I'm going to give you a gift, which is disposable, by the way, and this does, you can keep this forever.

like what is that cost and I arrived at a what would you say that that would cost easily 150 150 200 bucks yeah so I charged $145 and I have gone up slightly from that hey inflation inflation babe this is Biden's America just just based on you know just yeah I mean keeping a wanting to still be accessible to a large number of people, but at the same time, yeah, going up just a little bit. But that was sort of the idea. So literally in the range, I'm still in that range. I'm less than $200. So like I, for me, it's like what is a gift, a nice, yeah, that's where it started.

That's how I arrived at the price. No, I just. I give you a lot of credit. Sorry. One more thing I will say. Sorry, one more thing I will say, which this to me is important. And I, again, I think he's helpful ultimately, although some people might not like it. I don't go on sale.

And my manager said to me one time, and it has stuck with me, like, you're not a pair of jeans. Like, people want a message or they don't. And I feel like a lot of people are like, it's Mother's Day,

this week only. And I, my opinion was, well, what if someone had a birthday last week and saw that they just paid X? So on the same price, it never goes up.

And I don't think it's gone up for me in two years. and that's what it is. And it is, it's great and it's fun for people. I get a number of people on the street here in New York City who will refer to it. And I also feel like it brings people joy. And so I also don't feel bad about that. It does. I give you a lot of credit.

And I think that the whole flower market is nuts. These things are perishable. That's my what do you nuts. It's literally, it's going to be gone in a week and a half. And by the way, have you ever had flour? in your house for a couple days too long, the whole place starts to smell like the sanitation department. Yeah, it does.

It does. Especially if you go on vacation, you come back and you realize you left flowers, your whole apartment reeks. Terrible. No, I'm with you. I'm not a big fan of the cut flower market. I'll be honest with you.

But now there's an industry that I just pissed off. But I enjoy it like as a, like if you're having a bunch of people over, like a special like, I get like, it's very nice to have. But like if I'm giving gifts, I don't typically give cameos of myself, but I, but like a, an actual potted plant or like an orchid or something that that you can, that is self-sustaining and you don't just have to throw away sometimes three days later.

I was recently in Austin, Texas. And when we went to baggage claim, there was like a vending machine of fresh cut red roses. I couldn't believe it. 3499. I bought it for my wife. She took them, threw them in the trash. But it was really a great. She's like flowers from a vending machine.

What are you nuts? But the idea was just so crazy to me. I don't mean how you keep them fresh. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. So you take them on the plane? It doesn't make any sense. I don't know why it's there.

I don't know who it's for. Is it like, oh my God, I forgot to bring my wife flowers? Sorry, I forgot to bring my wife a gift while I was just like partying in Vegas for a week. so you get home to Austin and you're like, flowers. It's to mask the smell of the gentlemen's club. Well, maybe. Maybe. Or it's for the family members that are coming to the airport to greet the person

getting off the plane, a last minute, welcome home. Welcome home. Nothing says welcome home like vending machine flowers. Yeah. I love AG1. And the truth is I first gave AG1 a try because honestly I'd heard so many of my favorite podcasters to talk about it. And when I realized as I was getting into my 30s that it was important to do some certain

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It's going to help with healthy aging. There's plenty of adaptogens. It's going to help with brain and gut and immune health. And these are the things that I need to do to sort of support what I'm working on and the things that I want to feel as I get a little bit older because I realize with all these beautiful innovations, all I need to do is have access to something that's simple and easy that's going to cover me across the board and going to leave me feeling great. AG1 is the supplement I trust to provide the support my body needs daily, and that's why I'm excited to welcome them as a new partner. If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3.3.

K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drinkag1.com slash good guys. That's drinkag1.com slash good guys. Check it out. Hey friends. My name's Olivia Perez and I'm an entrepreneur, journalist, and the host of the Friend of a Friend podcast. Every Monday, I meet with some of today's youngest and brightest entrepreneurs to make space

to tell their stories and shine a light on who I believe to be the next generation of luminaries. I'll interview up-and-comers and game changers from brand builders to personalities activists, artists, and thought leaders from around the world. Each episode lets you be a fly on the wall during one of the greatest pep talks, like a conversation between you and a friend or a friend of a friend. See you there. Brian, may I ask, so give to ask a few office questions?

Of course. I, you know, you have a very specific character and voice for your character on the show. And to your credit, like I think that that's no easy feat, what you created. Was that the first iteration? of that character, or did you kind of put it together and discover who this guy was through the auditions and early on in the process? Number one, thank you. Very nice. Number two, it was a process. I mean, look, trying to make it not as long an answer as it could be, you know, the show started, spoiler alert with a show in Britain with Ricky Jervais called The Office. And there were

characters that were the U.S. version, our, the office, had characters that came from there. And Keith was the character that Kevin came from, creative, both with a K. I don't know if you figured that one out. And so that's really where it started. But the idea was here, our version, and ultimately what proved to be true, we did 206 episodes, and they did 12. the whole idea was they wanted to keep it going. They knew that there were going to be more storylines for more characters and journeys

and arcs over what hopefully would be a long time. So that was planned. But really for me, for Kevin, developing the character with the writers and truly the writers beginning to sort of fall in love. Like the show is looking for archetypes, right? Like everyone sort of serves a purpose and the puzzle begins to be put together in the ensemble and how everybody works together. So the sort of, let's just call it,

childlike glee and joy, that sort of aspect of Kevin, the writers really fell in love with and started to write to. So I have really nerdy. So now we got emotional. Now we'll get a little nerdy. Justification for this, right?

I think it's brilliant. Gosh. The character of Kevin began much more, deadpan is such a lame word, and then began to gradually expand into his childlike joy, let's call it that. So my justification, my character justification as the character evolved because of the stories that the writers were writing was that Kevin never changed, of course.

But there was a documentary crew and 20 people around filming him and he was very nervous about the cameras. So as the show kept progressing and he started maybe having a beer with the camera guy or hanging out and having a lot. He became more comfortable, so more of his true natural personality came out. Boom. Nailed it. Wow. That's my like nerdy actor justification for how he changed. But really, right, the writers just continue to expand and, and slightly changed what we had, I mean, the first, the character description for him in the casting, because my manager and I at the time joked about it was the only thing spectacular about Kevin is that he is spectacularly

unspectacular. And I think, you know, Kevin starts making a few basketball shots. You find out he won a World Series of poker bracelet. He makes the greatest chili in all the land. Like, there's a lot spectacular about this ordinary guy, which ultimately I think is what the show is about. So yeah, so that's a long-ish answer to your question. Where did the voice come from? Did they just say, try a voice? No, that's just me. I mean, I think that why the ensemble worked so well was the diversity from which

the diversity of experiences that we all had, right? So like, I'll just name a few people. It's like Rain Wilson and myself came from theater. You have Karel and Angela Kenzie and Oscar Nunez that came from improv. You have Craig Robinson and B.J. Novak who came from stand-up. And so part of I think what, and I don't think this was necessarily even intentional, but that that history there and different ways of working ultimately, I think, made us, well, learn from each other, but also just gave, as opposed to everybody being an improv.

I feel like some shows where everybody is improv, you feel it. It's like you feel that improv sort of happening. This I feel like was different. And so, yeah, for me, I came from theater. It was about creating a character. How does the character sound? How does he walk? What's his physicality?

You know, I mean, people always talk to me about the voice, which is because it's very obvious. But, you know, I had a whole physical thing going on, which, you know, again, was sort of a part of the character, which my, what was literally in my head was, Kevin doesn't pivot, right? But like if he's turning, he doesn't turn. Like he can't do that. His whole body has to turn like a titanic boat in order to face you. Like his feet, you know, his shoulders and hips are always sort of square as he himself turns. But there's no like quick head movements or like rotating along the axis.

That's sort of how it happens. So again, that's just where I came from. And so that was that was what was interesting to me. And I, and, sorry, I also, like, hadn't done a ton of film and television. So for me, it was like, oh, here's a character that I'm creating. And no one sort of, like, tapping me on the shoulder and being like, hey, you know, this is what you're going to do for the next decade. Like, there was not, like, no one was sort of saying that or doing that. It just was how I approached it.

Wow. And how many times did you have to audition for the office? What was the audition process like? You know what? Actually, for me, was not originally a, I mean, the idea was that it was always going to be, and I was in every episode. But I got in the old like, oh, this is a guy in the office. This is a guest star role. So my audition process was very quick. I had just moved to town. I had just moved like three or four months before. And so I was pre-reading with someone in Alison Jones's office who happened to be then the person who I worked with for 10 years. years, Phyllis Smith, who became Phyllis Lappin fans on the show. She was a casting associate on the show because the director, she would read with all of us auditioning. And at one point, the director was like, she's got to be in the show too.

Like he just like plucked her out of there. So, so yeah, my first audition was sitting in a room like tiny little office room where I just read with her. And then I met with the producers. And I honestly, I may have just been. in once? And then they took a bunch of time. The coolest thing was when Correll left, Allison Jones started looking for like momentos to give to him from his casting experience. And she came up to me, never forget, I still have it, came up to me and said,

I was looking for some like cool stuff from Steve, but I didn't find anything. But I found this and I thought you might like it. And it was just, it was a singular piece of paper with, it said Kevin at the top. And it said one, two. And it said one, two. three, which were like the three finalists. It wasn't like, I mean, at that point who they were evaluating. And it was me. It was Eric Stone Street, who ended up on Modern Family, and it was Jorge Garcia, who was on Lost and so many other shows on ABC or whatever.

So we were the three. We each just sort of got the right show for us. It wasn't like I was better or someone else was better or worse or whatever. It was like, these are three different flavors that would have been totally different with any of us. that's a nice story though like thank god you were all three of you were on big shows and you were like and then there was rick and he works in five guys yeah that's true and are you close with anybody on the show still oh we all i mean truly like we are texting all the time we're an office group

chat there's an office group chat yeah yeah are you talking about like a text a group text yeah like i had a small part in office And we have the op and homies. There you go. Yeah. Ours just, I think ours is just the office. But yes, we do. Yes.

And then we have subsets of that with just some of us. But it's for me, I really, and people ask about like, you know, who I get along with or who's my favorite or whatever. And we were together a decade. And thankfully, we got along. And my relationship with people is just like, it is different like a family. Like I talked to Jenna Fisher about business. I travel with and really our families are very close with Oscar Nunez and Angela Kenzie. And then we've had a fantasy football league for 19 years.

And John Crosinski and Rain Wilson and Andy Buckley and myself are in that. And so football season, we're like trash talking each other. And members of the other members of the crew and writers and all that too. Like these are my football friends. These are my this. You know, so that's, yeah, that's how we are. Wow. And so were you privy? There's a famous story that after the first season of the office, or maybe this was the pilot, I think Steve Carell talked about this, how they were sort of on the fence about picking it up again, but they knew that Steve was in 40-year-old Virgin and it just felt like it was going to be this perfect storm. Were you privy to that? Like, was there ever a time where you weren't sure if the office was going to go on? 100% really i mean i mean to your i mean there were three points we made the pilot didn't know if we

would get picked up at all and at that time there was sort of a history of NBC show or well yeah i mean the year before there was an NBC show that had been brought over from england of a britt like a remake of a british show that it had bombed terribly and so there was a lot of feeling about that there was a lot of feeling about like the office, Ricky Jervais's original office is like genius. Why are you going to fuck it up? Like what are you like what are you doing? And so we made that. We did get picked up, but only for five more episodes.

So then we did six and thought we're never coming back again. Then they let us come back again for six more. And this is our second season, the one that we ended up winning best comedy for on the Emmy. We did six episodes in like six. call it July August. September 1st, we pack up and go home. Like Angela Kinsey tells the story, she took her name off of her trailer because it was like, well, this was a great memory.

I want to make sure I have that. And we packed up. They sent the trailers back to the rental place. And we never knew if we came back. Then the show got on the air, started picking up. 40-year-old virgin happens. We had the show before us. My name is Earl that was big, like really came out of the gate hot.

We got more viewers from that. And then, yeah, by a year later, we won the Emmy and then we were sort of set from there. But no, we at one after one, after six and after 12, we totally thought we were done. Wow. That's unbelievable. How open were they? I mean, obviously there's these incredible outtakes for the show that have been shared on Instagram and TikTok. Right.

And there's so many alts going on. How much is that from the writers and how much of that is just improvised off the cuff? That's a great question. The scripts, because we were dealing with a mega conglomerate organization, like NBC Universal, there was a script with the words on the page that we had to shoot because, you know, they couldn't get in the editing room later and find like they didn't approve of something we said or whatever. So that we always shot. Then we had something we called Candybag, which was essentially writer alts that they could incorporate in.

And then we were always given an opportunity, a take or more, especially if they liked it, to do, like, just go totally off script. So, yeah, and each episode is very different about how much. I know that they won for bands of the show. I found this out within the last year or so. The longest consecutive improv on the show was the first Halloween episode. And Dwight is dressed as the Sith Lord. And they're discussing firing someone when Creed ultimately stays and Devon, the other character gets fired.

But Dwight is Sith Lord and Michael has another head. And he starts pretending that he's talking to the other head. And Dwight is like, what is he saying? What is he saying? All of that was improv. They ended up cutting a story. It goes on for like minutes that they just thought was so hilarious that they wanted to put in. And so that's an example of a big one.

But the other one in the episode Gay Witch Hunt when Michael kisses Oscar, that was improvised. That's probably the most singular moment that was improvised that, you know, that at least that most of us remember. Wow. Best bite of the week segment where we talk about our best bites of the week. You've been in New York. I'm sure you've been food. Yeah.

What your best bite of food is? I'll go first. I went to the Morgan Wallen concert on Saturday night. Okay. He was fantastic. Okay. Before that, we went to Yard House. And Yard House was fantastic.

Was it? Growing in a lot of brands. I just have to say that Yard House, I had these beautiful fish tacos, these Baja fish tacos that were incredibly crispy, incredibly delicious. Loved them. And the pokey nachos also fantastic. Wow. Those are my best bites of the week. They were very good.

Josh, anything in Vancouver? I haven't had anything in Vancouver. But before I left on last Friday, I went to Langer's. Langer's deli. Oh my God. Yes. For a man who knows his meats, I know you'll appreciate this, Brian. Like, I'm from New York. I hate this whole flashy.

We have the best pastrami on either coast. But Langers, they make big claims. And you know what? It's flippin good. The number 19, it's fresh hot pastrami, sourcrow, Russian dressing, Swiss cheese on double-baked. And this is the key, double-baked rye bread beyond. So, so good. Very good.

That's a good one. I mean, my obvious answer is something that I made myself, really any meal. I guess that would be my bite of the week. But in truth, I was playing golf on Monday, finished, had to come into the city here. And they said, what do you want? And I said, just like a chicken club, right? Now, to me, a chicken club is some grilled chicken, some cheese, some, bacon, lettuce, tomato, maybe an Ioli sauce if it's fancy or a little cupy mayo or whatever.

And so I order this, say, can you bring this? And rye bread, love the rye bread call. It brings it out. And it is a chicken salad club. Immediately like, that's not what I ordered. However, I took a bite. It was the most, I'm telling you, I keep thinking about. this chicken salad club sandwich that was so tasty, so good, so light, flavorful, some

tarragon in there, pickle. It was, it was unbelievable. Wow. There's a trend of chopping things up online, so I'm sure that's what it was. People are taking bagels and taking locks, cream cheese, onions, chopping them all up. Putting it together. Putting it together. Maybe that is delicious. All right. What are you nuts? It's our staple. It's our gripe with people, places and things. you're walking through the disgusting, boiling hot streets of Manhattan, and you're looking at somebody, you're like, what are you nuts? Right. That's the idea.

So, Josh, you want to start? You want me to start? Yeah, I'll start. So, yes, it's been stated. It's our gripes with people, places, and things. And mine has to do with tone modulation. The great Sarah Silverman once had a joke that said, if you're having a good day, tell your face that.

And I just think some people, they don't mean to be curt and short and standoffish the other day at the great equinox gym. I was walking into the sauna as one does with covered by a towel. Don't get any ideas. And I asked the guy inside. I said, do you mind if I put a little cold water on the rocks? It's going to be a nice sort of thing that's going to happen. And he looks at me and goes, yeah, fine. And I wanted to be like, what are you nuts? Don't talk to me like that. Give me a little, sure, go for it. Or give me a no. But this, yeah, fine. I was like, that tone modulation is unacceptable. And I just think we could all do with being a little bit more jolly. That's my what are you, I'm a jolly. What are you nuts? What are you nuts? I was getting a cup of coffee with my wife over the

weekend. And we ordered iced lattes. This is a two part way of nuts. The first is I don't think I've ever seen an ice latte being made, but an ice latte is an entire cup of milk with one shot of espresso. What are you nuts? That's basically we're six years old. We're drinking whole cups. It's an entire cup of milk. And my wife prefers half and half. She gets a whole, it's a whole cup of half and half myself. This is the craziest drink I've ever seen. You're going to be shitting yourself for a month and nobody talks about it. Then I asked her, I'm like, so why did you get half and half? She's like, half and half is half skim milk, half whole milk. And I said, what are you nuts?

Half skin milk, half whole milk. It's half whole milk, half cream. I posted about this on Instagram and people came to you. They're like, half and half isn't half skin milk, half whole milk? We live in a society of people that think half and half is healthier than whole milk. And that is why we're all so damn fat because we're here drinking whole cups, a half and half. What are you nuts? What are you nuts?

That's nuts. That's nuts. Also, the idea, though, of half and half, you think it does kind of sound healthy. I heard them for a second. Right. That should be called fat and fat. It should be called fat and fat. I have fat and fat and fat.

Fat and fatter. All right. I'm improvving this story. So stay with me. I get a phone call. No. Yes. Sorry.

I get a phone call, but I was reading it because it was like the voice, you know, the voicemail text thing. Get a phone call from a person who, of course, never says his name because he says, hi, and I'm just going to use the name, Susan. Hi, Susan. It's your brother calling. I just want to make sure that you're doing okay. I'm worried about you. You know, give me a call back if you can, you know, whenever you're feeling up for it, if you don't want to call tonight, I totally understand. And the person was clearly older. So what do I do? I feel like really the responsible. And quite frankly, the nice thing to do is, oh, And I got two of these messages, like in succession in two days.

And sometimes I don't, I don't listen to my voice mail. I get these messages. And I think, I need to call this guy. I need to tell him. He doesn't have the, the blue is not showing up of the iPhone. And so I have to call him. I don't want to text him. It might be a home phone.

I don't know. So I call. He picks up the phone. And I say, of course, hey, I'm very sorry. I don't know what your name is, but you've left me a couple of messages for your sister. And I just want you to know that you have a, the wrong number. You're calling the wrong number. And he says, yeah, okay, and hangs up. Now, I'm trying to be a helpful person, like legitimately a kind call trying to say like,

I'm letting you know your sister seems to be ill and then you're not calling the right number. He calls every two or three days now still trying to reach his sister who he now cannot reach because he clearly has the number wrong and he's calling me. What are you nuts? Why not just pick up the phone? It goes along with your point, Josh. Pick up the phone when someone calls and is saying something kind and nice to you and is trying to help you do something.

Then you just respond nicely. Take in the information that you're being given and then act upon that information because sometimes people are just trying to do the goddamn right thing and help you out. What are you nuts? Why are you being such an asshole? What are you nuts? Great slam. Absolutely.

Grand slam. Grand slam. Excellent. And by the way, she gave her brother a fake phone number. Exactly. That's how annoying this guy. Yes, I know. I know.

She gave him a fake. You have your sister's phone number wrong. Your sister doesn't want to be contacted by you. Clearly. Leave her alone. And on that note, folks, what a wonderful episode. Awesome. As always, great of five stars.

Got to be five. stars otherwise what are you nuts you can reach us or you can find us in the apple store where podcast wherever you find your podcast Spotify etc watch us on josh's youtube he's got to see us in person it's very important to see us share our clips follow us on good guys and most importantly go by the seriously good barbecue cookbook because this is a seriously good barbecue cookbook it's a great title it's in the name and where else can we find you seriously good barbecue dot com to buy the cookbook you can find me across my social medias? Great. Everywhere you want, B, B, Baumgartner. You'll find it. There's three

Bs at the beginning with an on Gartner because my name didn't fit on Instagram. So there you go. Well, we're all going to be following you. We're all going to be following you. And folks, yeah, have a great weekend. We'll see you Mondays and Thursdays, Mondays and Thursdays. Not Tuesdays. Excellent. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.