Happy Sad Confused - Jon Stewart

Episode Date: November 16, 2014

The remarkable Jon Stewart has been dominating the airwaves for almost 15 years with his amazing hosting duties on The Daily Show. He joins Josh for a relaxed conversation about the genesis of his directorial debut Rosewater, the ol’ MTV days of The Jon Stewart Show, his love of baseball, his illustrious acting career, and his many nicknames. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Here's a brief important message for listeners like you. Help happy, sad, confuse, stay free to download by just completing this short anonymous survey. I promise you guys, this will take no more than five minutes of your very valuable time. Your answers will help match our show with advertisers that best fit the sensibilities of both my podcast and, of course, listeners like you.

And as a bonus, listeners who complete the survey will be entered in an ongoing monthly raffle to win a $100 Amazon gift card. promise you guys. We're not going to share or sell your email address. We're not going to be sending you email unless you win the $100 gift card. So just go to podsurvey.com slash happy. That's possurvey.com slash happy. Take the survey and get a, get a chance to win a free Amazon gift card. 100 bucks, guys. It's a no-brainer. of happy, sad, confused. I am Josh Horowitz, your host on this weekly interview show where I talk to some of the most talented actors and filmmakers making movies and TV,

and in this case, both. My guest this week is the remarkable John Stewart, who of course for, I think, going on 15 years, has been dominating the airwaves with his amazing hosting duties on the daily show, which is as strong as ever. Hopefully he'll be continuing on that show for years to come. But now John has turned to a new realm. He's been in films before, of course, as an actor, but never to, you know, amazing results. And John would agree with that. And he does, in fact, kind of agree with that in this podcast interview. But in recent years, John decided to tackle writing and directing his own film. And the result is Rosewater, which is now out in theaters. And I highly, highly recommend. I've seen this film twice. It is a great piece of work. It is

a fascinating story. It's based on, it's based on a true one that actually involves the daily show. It's about Maziar Bihari, who's an Iranian journalist who is imprisoned, in part, I guess, because of a tongue-in-cheek interview he did with the Daily Show, Jason Jones. This incident is actually depicted in the film. It's a, it's not what you would expect. I mean, it's a story about a man in prison. It does involve torture, but has surprising humor, maybe not so surprising given that John Stewart is behind it, but it's well worth your time. And as I said, I recommend it highly. John is somebody that I have a feeling will, I hope will be seeing him direct and write more, given the reception to Rosewater. I think that's

probably something that he's thinking about in his non-abundant free time from the daily show. Anyway, this was an amazing treat. John Stewart obviously doesn't really need to do much press. The Daily Show is so beloved. He hasn't really had to do these long-form kind of interviews in a while. But, you know, he's pressing the flesh. He's doing his thing to get the word out on Rosewater. And I obviously went hard after this when I knew that he was going to be doing some press,

and I was so thrilled that he agreed to it, and the folks behind the film made it happen. So my thanks to everybody involved, he is, as you would, expect hilarious in this interview, and it's a nice relaxed conversation about the genesis of this film, but also a great many other things, including his film work, his acting work, his beginnings, his roots, his love of baseball, and it's just a good old time. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did. I certainly, it's definitely a highlight in the last few years to get to sit down with an amazing talent like John Stewart. As always, guys, hit me up on Twitter. Joshua Horowitz is my handle. Go over to

Wolfpop.com, check out past episodes of HappySad Confused and all the other cool episodes or rather shows on the Wolfpop network and go on the message boards. We've got message boards over there, so, you know, make your voice heard. Let us know what you're thinking about the show and all the shows on Wolf Pop. In the meanwhile, it is time for this fascinating and funny conversation

with the great John Stewart. I have never karaokeed in my entire life. Yeah, I don't, I've never, I've never karaokeed. Like sang out thinger, no. Wow, I think that's a good place to start. We're off and running, sir. Oh, wait, we're on the... Yeah, it's happening.

That's on the record. But I didn't even shower. I feel foolish. You should know, not only are, our images being captured, but you're also on a podcast. We're doing double duty here today, so... I'm being podcasted right now. Do you feel it?

In your bones? You kids with the new technology. In my day, we used to have a telegraph. You would ask me a question, tap, tap, tap, stop. I would answer it, tap, tap, stop. And that's how we did, that's how we did things. Doesn't seem very entertaining. Yeah, no, it wasn't very...

Horrible. Congratulations on this film. Thank you. This is awesome, man. Thank you. Talk to me a little bit about, like, growing up, was this ever unlike the list, like, to, when you were a kid? I mean, you probably wanted to be many things,

was making a film, was being a film, as opposed to being a performer ever? No, I don't recall that being on the list. I recall playing shortstop for the Mets on the list. I recall dunking once in my life on the list, but this wasn't one of them. I'm giving us young Jew dreams. I figure we can relate on that.

Yeah, I was just going to, this is probably the Jewish podcast I've ever done. This may be about the Jewish thing anybody's ever done. And meanwhile, there's a half-eaten bagel over there. If I put that over here, we might get sucked in some weird Tel Aviv Warma. And just end up doing a horror somewhere. We'll all be lifted up on our chairs and carried around the room. Welcome to Guafelta Fish today.

Yeah, boy, geez. Thoughts on Guilta Fish, by the way? It's an edible, right? Have two Jews ever sat in a room discussing an Iranian prison drama like this before? We're breaking new ground. All right. If this one doesn't happen, and it happens in a very, you know, not a non-typical way for a film, I mean, do you think you would have made another film?

Was the circumstance that led to this one? I mean, I think it's all in the same way that, you know, from stand-up to maybe expanding the form into television or doing some of the books from the show or, you know, I think ultimately you end up learning different aspects of telling stories and doing it through narrative or doing it visually and all that and end up expanding into other mediums. But it's not an alien process, I don't think. It's sort of an organic evolution. So when you start to sit down and to write it, does it not feel alien? Does it feel like, okay? It does not feel alien. Because it's not, you know, if it were an album of songs about Iranian prisons, then I think it would have felt alien because that's a language that I have no fluency in whatsoever. And I have no ear for.

But narrative, dialogue, these are the types of things that I sort of traffic in every day in a much less meticulous way. But it's not alien. I'm curiously, do you, you know, expectations like on a film like this? Is it bigger the ones that you're putting on yourself? Are you more worried about perception from other people looking at a first film from you and expectations? Or your own, are you worried, like, am I going to be able to execute this? Yeah, that's exactly.

You're worried about whether or not you're going to be able to execute it. You can't control it. I've been in this long enough to know that once you grant the power to people's perceptions of you, you have no control over that whatsoever. So it's why, why worry? So talk me a little bit. What's the Genesis? When do you start to actually sit down to write this?

You know, when I was your age, I listened to a band called Genesis. I'm a big fan. It was a wonderful band. Phil Collins, who now collects Alamo paraphernalia. Is that true? Yeah, he really does. He's like the largest collection of Alamo artifacts. I wouldn't have predicted that.

Yeah, I wouldn't either. It's kind of a weird one. You want to spend the rest of the interview talking about the Alamo? Wouldn't mind it. No, no. Okay, so what's, yeah, what's the first? What's the first moment that you sit down to say, I'm going to actually try my hand at writing this myself? That was, so Maziar and I, when Maziar Bahri, who was the journalist in the story and who wrote the memoir, when he got out of prison, he came to the States and was on the show and then he and I became friends.

And just sort of were bouncing around, having some breakfast and things. And so we were trying to get his film into a movie, but as like a producer. Sure. We were sending it to writers that we liked and to see. But obviously, the time frame on those decisions was much longer. People were busy. Other people who had actual money to pay them to write were doing that, and they were doing that.

So I think after a pretty good amount of time, when we became a little frustrated with the glacial aspect of it, I felt that I had enough insight into his sensibility, insight into where I thought the story could live structurally and if we wanted the film to come out within our lifetimes, you know, we were

going to have to take it up a notch. So that's when I decided, I'm just going to sit down and do this. And at that point, had you, to do this meant writing and directing it? No, just writing it at that point. But as you become more and more invested in the story and more than, you become less willing to kind of give up the vision of that

to the next person. What's the conversation with your wife when you say the good news is I'm going to take the first extended break I've taken from the daily show in what, 15 years, bad news is I'm going to spend it in Jordan making a film. I can't believe

you just, that was verbatim. That was the conversation. That was exactly the speech. I'm in your head. Yeah, that's pretty weird. You've been reading my diary. Nice work, Josh. A lot of expletives in there, more than I expected. What are you going to do? I'm really a longshore minute.

But, I mean, is that something thing that, I mean, you talk about just, it sounds like it's almost born out of the satisfaction of doing the daily show where you can basically have an idea that morning and execute it that night as opposed to the film business, where, as you say, development hell is a very common place for even, it's a much longer process. So from beginning to end of this, how long did it take to get it actually done? That's a good one, because time... I need numbers. I sort of, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's all good. I would say, If he was 2009, he got out of 2010, I'd say maybe I started writing it in 2011, 2012.

So I'd say two years, probably soup to nuts. I heard you pick the brain of some piece on talented filmmakers. Yeah. So what kind of notes do you get back from JJ Abrams when you send him a script of this? He said, where's the spaceship? I go, I really don't think he said, you're going to need a spaceship. You're going to need something. There's one thing I've learned.

He said, the one thing I've learned is you don't want people to know it's a prison until the last show. JJ, it's not a show. He said, no, you need people, you need that confusion. Right. It's an existential hell. It's like a waiting for Godot, but they can't know. And you got to like, don't make, how about what if you made the interrogator? Just soap bubbles that appeared. And so I said, you know, these are all valuable insights. Right.

Do you have anything else? Yeah. I don't know if I can use them exactly that way. Right. But I feel like the spirit of them are on the screen. Generally, the guys that I went to, it was more about for viability. Yeah. Ron Howard You know

JJ PTA A few other people That I knew You know Were generous enough To like take a look at it But not I never

They weren't gonna break down Like scene one Yeah Here's your problem You can't have a guy You can't have a guy Just walk in and talk Yiddish It's a Ron

You want to So But they could give me a sense of Yeah man This has a real nice Cohesiveness to it or it needs to be shaped or it needs to be more visual, you know, just a general sense of what's the viability of this as a film.

Yeah. I've talked to, you know, obviously, a lot of filmmakers, when they go on set, I feel like they fall to two camps, like those that pretend that they have all the answers. I did not do that. So what, yeah, what was your attitude on set? My attitude was from the beginning with these guys, and it's going to sound slightly Rumsfeldian,

but I didn't know what I didn't know. You know, I was new. And so I wanted to make sure that they felt, trusted in their expertise and had the ability to raise flags early and often so that, you know, whatever ideas I had that they thought were either too onerous, too expensive, you know, would be too difficult to produce, or we could do better iterations of, you know, that they would, you know, make sure that their voices were heard and in the process a lot of times. This obviously, I mean, I think most people know this, this is born out of, obviously a true story,

obviously something that you had direct contact with. And, I mean, obviously, the incident is portrayed in the film, which is fascinating to see that you recreate this moment. It's got to be a strange moment shooting Jason, reclaimed this moment with Gail. Stranger for Jason, because I wasn't there to begin. You know, as a participant, certainly more as an observer. But Jason Jones, who's our correspondent originally,

filmed the interview with Maziar in Tehran, where he says, Jason in a kofia with sunglasses on, says, I'm a spy. So tell me. And so the Iranian government saw that and said, oh, why were you talking to a spy? I mean, you know, it's insanity. Yeah, totally. I mean, it reminds us also, if you need reminding, that, you know, some of the places that you've sent correspondence, I mean, they're in danger at times.

And the people they talk to are in danger at times. This is real life. This is not always... But they're in danger no matter what. That's the thing that people forget sometimes is, you know, if you're a regime that is working over time to suppress information, or accuse people of being spies, you are going to have to invent pretense. And you will find pretense wherever you need to,

whether it be through, oh, that's evidence or something utterly ridiculous, something else. There's some journalists being held right now in Egypt, and at their trial, as evidence of them being spies, they showed footage of just Arabian horses running, and nobody knew why, but sure, they have a DVD player, they might as well use it. Right.

over the years have you have you got a death threats yourself of course what is that haven't you you're gonna get there kid you're gonna get there give it time that's my goal that can't be something you ever get used to

I mean what it's not as pleasant as I really like your show you would take the other column yeah I always prefer that or do you want to take a selfie that's always nice yeah it's preferable yeah Does, you know, a lot of people have commented on the film that it's, it's certainly, I wouldn't characterize it as a comedy, but there's certainly a fair amount of levity to it for a film dealing with the subject matter.

And I also think the levity is, you know, there is absurdity there and the ability to recognize it is what kept Maziar sane. And so that's why it was important to infuse the story with that kind of humor. And beyond that, it was his way of reclaiming his own humanity and his own power. And there's a real push to kind of a catharsis and an optimism at the end that I think the humor really plays a nice part in lifting people to. What's the role? I mean, obviously you grew close to Maziar throughout this. Was he somebody that you picked the brain up, like, even during shooting? Oh, sure. No, he was there.

He was really our touchstone throughout the process, you know, because, you know, I had to own a certain amount of my own inauthenticity within this project. I don't, you know, we made the film in English. You know, the cast is universal. The cast is from many different countries. But Maziar, you know, it was very important that there were certain moments where Maziar would go like, you know, they don't actually leave the windows open. I mean, you couldn't know, but just...

So it was very important to ground the film in a certain reality. Do you derive an extra kind of satisfaction in the fact that this has gotten quite good reviews? you've done some film festivals and you're you're always happier again it's that same with the death threat question really always happier when people like things than when they don't but I would think it's it's a different kind of thing I mean you're you know you've been doing the daily show for so long and and it's had its ups light downs pretty much ups throughout but to like be acknowledged in a different realm and to know that like oh this is something else I can do I can viably do it I'm right presumably you're satisfied with it which is

yeah no I mean look I Unfortunately, I've seen it 3,000 times, so it's very hard not to sit there and go, I really should have taken that music down. Wait a minute, hold on. When I was there, if I just shot it from that angle. Right. You know, so you always have those moments

where you'd like to kind of get back in there and fidgeting. Guys, I have an important announcement. There are tons of awesome new podcast waiting for you over at www.wofopop.com. Yes, the new. network that I am a part of that Happy Say I Confused is a part of joins this amazing roster, including Reading Aloud with Nate Cordry, the Rotten Tomatoes podcast, off camera with Sam Jones,

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You're ready for a second? What? You love Memory Lane. I know that's your favorite lane, right? I used to live on Memory Lane. Really? Yeah. Yeah, back in Glory Day.

All right. Where Spring Scene was just playing all the time. Exactly. I'm just curious, like, growing up, I mean, you know, again, I feel like if someone would presume to expect, like, the first kind of film from you, I would expect, you know, oh, it's going to be kind of in the Woody Allen vein. It's going to be kind of like, I know that was obviously a touchstone.

Right. For me, for you, for a gazillion people, was he somebody, like, growing up that was, like, the guy to put on the pedestal? No, I don't, you know, I listen to a lot. But I was not an obsessed performer or those types of things. I actually was probably more thought,

you know, sports or science were going to be, you know, listen, I had to be reasonable at a certain point. I figured baseball wasn't going to work out. Maybe chemistry would be fine. So it's not as though that that was in any way considered a viable option.

I didn't come from showbiz people. I lived in a town that, you know, but you know, but I did love Woody Allen. I did love Steve Martin. I did love Monty Python. I did love you know,

SCTV and and Bill Murray and those National Lampoon albums, you know, all that stuff. When did you know it was a viable option? What's the turning point if you can pinpoint one? Well, I mean, you never really know. But I think it was more I was steering away from a tree as opposed to steering source something. I was out of college and I was living in Jersey

and I was bartending in a couple of places and working for the state and kind of got that feeling of like, oh, so this is dying. And it was that sense of if whatever it is I feel like is inside me is going to get out, I am going to have to actively force it out and make that decision to alter this path. And so that was really the moment. I've worked for MTV for basically eight years. Oh, you got two more and then you're out.

It's like Logan's run. I was going to say. What's going to happen? there's a little thing in your hand, in your palm that goes off, and then they take you to carousel. I was wondering what Sumner-Rezone was injecting into my vein. Yeah, and you're done. Was that a huge deal at the time to get that show off and running?

To get on MTV? Yeah. Oh, my God. Absolutely. It was crazy. It was MTV. You know, I was in college when it began. I spent many a night high with a fried egg sandwich going,

Martha Quinn is a goddess. But why is Duran Duran so hungry? Like the wolf. You know, it was an incredible cultural phenomenon. Did you have, I know obviously it went to syndication after a year, right? Was that the deal? After MTV, yeah, yeah.

So during the MTV run, was it, did you have autonomy? Did you feel like you were doing the show you wanted to do? Yeah, always. Crazy. Nobody ever, yeah, it was crazy. And the music, it was crazy. What's the most quintessential MTV of that era?

Because I watch, like, there's a great online on YouTube, of course, there's like this amazing sizzle reel of like four minutes of like. Actually, I watched last night, the last show you did with Letterman back when it was. Oh, okay. It was great to watch. Yeah, it was fun.

What's the most quintessential MTV-ish memory that just like, like, I think. Spring break in like, you know, but I was already 30. You know, we were down at MTV spring break and we were doing the shows. And it was all like,

You know, and it was in the heyday of, like, the weasel and, you know, mm-hmm, you know, all that. Or that was maybe a couple of years prior. And it's just sort of like, you know, you're in that outdoor concert and Stone Temple Pyle, you know, it was back when it was the grunge and... That's amazing. I was just looking at it was like 90s meets like Steam Pipe Alley. It was like something crazy.

It's just... It was a little bit insane and puddle of mud. After that last show, you had Letterman on, which was amazing that he agreed to come on. And so what a vote of confidence. Did you feel like, you looked pretty sad in that last episode? Do you feel like it was over? Your shot was out. I don't know this.

I'd gotten fired. No, but I know. But I mean, how many people get fired and then have to tape their last day of work? We got to do that at Backin Road. That was great. Yeah, there you go. We had like a month or two to do shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's amazing. It's kind of fascinating. It's a fascinating experience to tape your last day of work and have people there just watching it. Did you think it was kind of like that was your shot and you were never going to get something similar like in that vein of a talk show of a late night show? Yeah. No, I think you feel like, you know, I was still relatively new in the business and you're still riding this pretty hard. So you feel like in the same way you felt like, you know, the night you got Letterman, you were made, you were a maid man. The night they canceled a show with your name in it, you feel like you've been whacked.

They took you in the back room and went, it's not. going to work out. And so the real lesson is waking up the next day after Letterman and realizing you still have vermin in your apartment and you're still the same height and waking up after being canceled and realizing you still have the ability to write jokes. You still have the ability to go down and make a living and create and do things. And so that was incredibly freeing because I felt like it freed. me from the vagaries of project to project and it made it oh this is a career this isn't

these aren't just singular moments right let's talk about the illustrious acting career for a second glad to use the word illustrious you could have thrown in a couple of other adjectives would have been slightly less in the in the Oscar 85 years from now when you pass from this earth in the Oscar death montage what's the film clip that they're going to put in the here's my guess they're probably, I think I'll make the montage for hosting. I'm pretty sure in this business, that's the one thing. I think for the most part in this business, all you can hope for is at the end, you get into as many award show montages as you can.

That's what you've been working towards? And that people do this. Oh, yeah. He died? I thought he died like five years ago. Huh. That's weird. was giving a sense of so acting in terms of did you ever think it was like that was going to be the thing that would define you like were you oh no no no no that was one of those peripherals and and sort of for stand-ups at that time so so stand-up at that time it was sort of being defined industry-wise as like could you be Seinfeld could you be rosanne could you be you know brett butler grace under fire you know they were taking stand-ups that they found in like

making them into stars. And so it was a very sort of schism within the comedy industry of like guys that were stand-ups and guys that were down there that were just trying to like get a little notice so that they could get the hell out of stand-up and get that sitcom.

So we'd always thought of ourselves as like the stand-ups. We were the stand-ups. So when you're doing the film... But if people came by and said like, you want to be in a movie, you'd go, sure. But I never saw myself as an actor

and I can assure you. Very few people did. So when you're doing a scene, like, you know, again, I went down YouTube lane and, like, doing a scene with, like, Jillian Anderson, and you're kissing her, and there's, like, a Bonnie Raid song going in the background. Yeah, yeah. The Bonnie Raid song is not playing in the background. Well, that's actually...

The magic of... Yes, exactly. I always imagine, in your head, Bonnie Raid is always playing. Well, in general. John... There was another one. All right. Come back to me.

Did that feel awkward? Like, do those scenes feel awkward? Completely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how it feels to other actors, but like, yeah, for me, yeah, I mean, I feel awkward right now, so you can imagine. Decided still all note. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, acting always felt very awkward for me. I never felt comfortable with it, mainly because I didn't feel competent. I didn't feel I had the ability to understand how to make it better, how to do it. Was there ever an impulse or a or a deal to, like, do the John with an exclamation point sitcom, like to develop a show around? No, I never did that either. Yeah, no, I don't. I just felt like I think that that never felt right. Yeah.

Post-mortem thoughts on, I think it was your last, like, gig acting as not yourself was probably that's a smoochie. Smoochie! I mean, come on. Smoochie. It's still fun. Listen, here's the thing. I might have been that good at it, but it was still fun.

That's a good movie. Let's not get crazy. It's a good movie. It was fun. Seriously, you don't think it's a good movie? You can't separate yourself. I'll say it. It's a good movie.

Okay. Really? Yeah. I mean, relative to some other things. Certainly. Yeah, it's certainly no disaster. It was fun as hell to make, and there's a certain sensibility to it, love.

Yeah. So at this point, coming off of Rosewater, I mean, is your head at, like, trying to develop more material to direct, or are you just sort of, like, still kind of... Yeah, I think right now I'm so in the middle of it that it's very difficult to, because it's also, you know, this and the show. So between the two, I feel a little bit like,

you know, I'm digesting my own muscle mass. And it's, so it's hard to think clearly about anything until I can carbopack and get back into, you know. Does it bother you after a while, like the preoccupation with, and I'm not going to ask you the question of like sort of like what's next and the timeline is. But I know that's just, that's the only thing people ask you. It seems like, yes. And it really makes me, it does make you feel like what I'm doing is really not. I mean, it's really not enough is it. You want more.

Are you not entertained? How much more do you people? want, you know, I've been going at a pretty breakneck clip for a pretty long period of time. So, and the one thing I think people forget is you don't view your life in the same way. You're just living it. So you don't view it in that same kind of way other people might say. So are you thinking about what's next? You're really not.

You don't, those types of things don't, you don't have those conversations. Or people say, you know, how do you view yourself? And you go like, I don't know, I don't. Do you do that? Do you just sit down and think of... Right. Who am I in this industry? Like, you kind of just like you get up and go, what time did the kids have to be at school? Yeah, you're just trying to survive.

You're just trying to live, man, get things done. Okay, so you mentioned before, going back growing up, you were Mets. I was a Yankees fan growing up, so we had that... I wish you'd said that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. Why was it the Mets? My father was from Brooklyn.

And so, even though the Dodgers were not there anymore, you could not, in our family, effectively move to the Yankees and still hope to be fed. I feel the same way. I mean, yeah, it's like, do you have a disdain and has that stayed with you for the Yankees? Or are you now come to a place where you can accept us for the great organization that we are? It's really just a fear and a respect and admiration and an unrequited love. It's, I have... Here's the other thing.

Yes. You know, you become numb after a while when you're a Mets fan. Right. So by your 26th championship, it really is just a dull pang. It's not, I don't hate. Right. It really is. Resignation and just.

Resignation and more of that sense of loss of bone density and muscle mass. That's really how I feel about it. I will say, though, in my own life, Basically, that 15-year gap where they weren't winning was when I came of age. So I feel... Sure. Yeah, no, you've really suffered. You've really been through it.

You've been through the ringer, man. Can you tell? Oh. This has been a tough life. Yeah, I know. That weight between championships 21 and 27 must have been interminable. I can't imagine what it must have been like. I feel for you.

What were the... What were the pop culture obsessions outside of comedy? Were you into like, were you like a Star Trek guy? Were you like into a big film guy just generally? You know, it was... Combooks, anything like that? It was the time of all the coming of age movies, the Porkies and the, you know, summer of 69.

Like, so there was a lot of that. But I think for the most part, you know, the village people, like YMCA was a huge thing. There was still like disco duck. Like it was back then, you know, the BGs, the disco was a huge element, and then the 80s were culturally bereft, but you sort of went through that period.

Do you find that you, I mean, do you make a point of, obviously you're so busy with what you're doing every day, not to mention making this film, but do you find that you are able to keep up with pop culture in a general sense? No, no, no. And also pop culture changes and morphs at the speed of light now in a way, like it's so much more layered, it's so much more vast.

But also, the older you get, the more difficult it is to maintain a foot in that door of keeping up. So even for me, like with comics, people say to me, oh, there's this great guy, saw it down the thing, and I go, I don't know who that is. And it's terrifying for me not to know comics. I feel so we know. I used to be in the clubs all the time.

I knew everybody that was coming up. I knew everything that was doing. and then you have all these really talented guys that are coming up, all these really talented women, and you have no idea who the hell they are. That being said, you did walk in singing Taylor Swift, which I found a little surprising. It's who I am.

It speaks to you? I've had some tough relationships. She gets you to the tough times? It's important to have somebody that knows how it feels to be alone. In our last moment together, when I was researching you. It's a teardrop on my guitar.

And something's happened going to eat a chocolate bar. I'll let you know just because I'm with MTV. It doesn't mean you have to sing. Oh, is that true? But if you want to continue. There's a tear drop on my guitar. And yet you don't karaoke. It's warping my wood on the guitar.

Because she's crying on it, and the salted tears warp a lot of the wood. Yep. Which is really that it's the part of the song that they never get to. I thought the song should get more and more out of tune as it goes along because her teardrops are... Thematically, that does make more... Yeah. Right.

When you say it that way. Okay. I don't want to tell her how to do her business. No, no, no, no. Lastly, on IMDB, it lists an assortment of nicknames for you. I just want to ask you, are these actually true? I don't know. Okay, let me tell you.

It says lefty? I was left-handed, so that was... Okay. I'll go with that. Soupy? That, high school, sure. Why? I think we all decided that nicknames were an important part of, you know, growing up.

Right. And so I got soupy. I don't know why that was. I'm trying to think of what the other nicknames of my friends were. What about? Ken Erickson was Roy, which was the name of his dad. I don't know why we just called him his dad's name. Oh, it was core.

You know, I can't even remember what our, we all had stupid nicknames. Well, it lists three others for you here. It says, Poochie. Yeah. Really? Yeah, the pooch. Okay. Yeah.

Susceptible boy? That was from the MTV days. Was it? Oh, I need to go back, okay. I used to catch a lot of colds. That was Beth McCarthy, that she was the director of my MTV show. She used to call me susceptible boy. And lastly, I think I'm reading this, is it stew beef?

Stoe beef was bestowed on me by young Tracy Morgan. Amazing. Yeah, so that was, I believe, it went something like, John Stewart, stewed beef. Is that an action? Are you stewing beef? Or are you? Okay.

I didn't ask. That's for another conversation. You know what? I didn't ask. I just accepted it as you would accept, you know, a knighthood. I am stew of beef. Well, stew beef, Gucci, John. It's been a pleasure.

Congratulations on the film. Thanks very much. Nice to see it. Pop Pop Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Low Fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases. We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and

Yorgos Lanthemos' Borgonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar in The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel Deges. Louis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about too. Tron Aries looks exceptional plus Mortal Kombat 2 and Edgar writes the running man starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost

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