Happy Sad Confused - Paul Scheer

Episode Date: March 17, 2014

  Paul Scheer is the best. If you don’t know him from “Human Giant” or “NTSF: SD: SUV,” or “The League,” well I don’t know how to talk to you anymore. Listen. Enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please play responsibly. Hey guys, welcome to happy, sad, confused. I am Josh Horowitz. Welcome to another edition of my podcast. I'm very excited to be back home in New York City after being away for over two weeks for work. That sounds like high class problems, and it is. It was a lot of fun. I was in LA for the Oscars. Got a chance to cover those. Always fun. Went to South by Southwest. They ate way too much food. And back to L.A. for other assorted shoots, including a couple podcasts. I got a chance to cover those. Always fun. Went to South by Southwest. They ate way too much food. And back to L. And back to L.A. for other assorted shoots, including a couple podcasts. I got a chance. I got a chance. I got a chance. I got a to sneak in in my time there. And that's one of the things I'm going to bring you today. This is a really, really fun interview I did with Paul Shear, who is awesome. If you haven't seen Human Giant get to a computer right now and look up on YouTube some of their classic stuff. He, of course, is all over TV and the Internet, et cetera. He has a comic book called Aliens versus Parker out. He's got NTSFSD, SUV, of course. He's been on the league. He's got a ton of stuff going on in L.A. He's always doing improv at the UCB. And of course, in the podcast world,

he's one of my inspirations. How Did This Get Made is such an awesome podcast, one of my favorites, and truly one of the reasons why I'm giving this all a go. Paul was very nice enough to invite me over to his home. I got a chance to see his home office and see all his nerd paraphernalia everywhere. He is truly one of the nicest, smartest, funniest guys out there. I know you guys are going to love this conversation. He is endlessly amusing. So here it is, without any further due, my chat with Paul Shear. Enjoy. What we do this, Paul? Let's do it. I'm very excited. This is very exciting. This is the first for my podcast in the infancy of my podcast, and that I have infiltrated someone

else's home. Yeah, you've come to my house. Very rarely do I have people come to my house. So this is very exciting. You're very... You let the window open. I say that as if I'm worried about people coming to my house. I'm not. It's rare. Normally I'm in weird people's houses for podcasts.

I'm always like, come into my closet and we'll record here. I'm like, all right. And I drive somewhere out to Echo Park or Silver Lake. Climb up like five flights of stairs and get into like a cupboard. Partially, I feel like I'm here to learn from the master. I've told you what a big fan I am of. of how did this get made? You're very nice.

Do you feel like any do's and don't for the novice podcaster out there as I embark on this great journey? I think you listen to your fans. It's always good. Fans are good. I feel like they're a good place. But then also, remember, you're doing this for free.

People can't put all these things on you. A lot of people with our podcasts are like, you should do one every week and they get mad like whenever we miss an episode. There's an anger. It's like, guys, free. like we're working our asses off where we're doing it and that's fun and we

love doing it but the irrational anger don't let that get you down it will get you like somebody that's people who will request a lot of your time but that's it just have fun I'm excited I'm excited so yeah it's fun podcasting is I think harder than you would expect it to be yeah well I mean it's

funny because like one of the first things I ever got into like in college like I was into radio I thought I was going to be like first I thought I was going to be like the Yankees broadcaster, play-by-play guy. That was my child. And then I did, like, a college like interview radio show, and then whatever

you go down other rounds. Who are you interviewing in your college shows? Oh, my God, this was such a scam. So I was doing, I went to a school in upstate New York called Hobart, which was a small school. Sure. And we had, like, a little NPR affiliate that, like, 80, literally 80 people listen to it. Okay. And so I would scam people by basically, like, faxing these interview

requests to, like, publishers and stuff, and saying, I do a talk show for an NPR affiliate. And they would assume that it was, like, a real show. perfect yeah i had conan on the show wow i fucking had jimmy carter on twice like wow that's amazing that is i peaked at 20 basically you see that's better than me i spent my childhood again also loving the idea of like wanting to be in radio like and i would every friday night my parents were divorced my dad would pick me up on friday nights and we would go over to his house and before he would come i would come home from school kind of go through late night talk shows

pick my favorite jokes from their monologues, which is how I understood how to write material. And then record my own radio show with music and introductions and stuff like that. A lot of tape-to-tape recording action. Of course. That never made it professionally aired. Then I had a kid who stayed at my house one time who was kind of like involved with drugs a little bit, and he recorded all over all my classic radio broadcast to my dad,

where I was just doing great jokes about like, Metz pitchers. Classic. Yeah, it's going to be all part of the Paul Shearer of Presidential Library. That is it? Those tapes are valuable. I wish I had those tapes. I mean, I'd be embarrassed by them, but just to know that they were taped

over, my friend who was at my house, I had, like, back in the day for those people who were listening, and don't even understand what we're talking about, there are, like, these cassette tapes, and I mounted one on the wall, like a holder on the wall, so there would be, like, you could put, like, 36 of your favorite cassette.

tapes on the wall and I had them all labeled and ready to go my friend was stealing them to make his own mixes but leaving the boxes the cassette boxes in there so I didn't know until I went to go pull them out later on they're all empty son of a bitch sobering moments in your life killed me killed all my classic material and I killed that man you went to jail for three years but you're fine now it was classic material so I doubt you remember this but in our first um Ever interaction, Paul. I was working on the great John McEnroe talk show. You were there?

I was there. Oh my gosh. I don't remember that. So for context, because why would anybody know this, John McEnroe had a talk show on CNBC. They thought it was a brilliant idea to give him a late-night talk show. Well, I know a little bit about this, too. Like, I have so many things to share about this.

The premise that I had always heard was John McEnroe was going to be a part of, of a, like, a best damn sports show kind of thing. So it was going to be, he was one member of a five-member team. And then, for whatever reason, that five-member team was put together, people kept on dropping out, dropping out, dropping out, and then eventually became like, oh, well, just like John McEnroe was his own talk show. Like, every conceit of the original idea fell apart,

and it was just like John McEnroe behind the desk, like, Letterman style, doing a talk show. No experience in comedy. Nope. not an interviewer not an interviewer I would even say not really the best

on air personality but the minute the camera stopped amazing stories he uh yes a great guy smart guy loves art loves culture

has the coolest friends but here is my thing my experience watching him be a talk show host is when you need someone as a talk show host that is more curious about the other person

than about themselves and I think John I love John He was great I don't know if he actually gave a crap about anybody He never got the sense That he really wanted to be there

And he was very nice to me Like he got Rob Pouple and I Write whatever we wanted to do And just do dumb bits on the show But he also Like I felt like he was a guy Like a typical sports guy I was like yeah I'll do this

Like it was like I could do comedy Like there was no like There was no like Work comedy is something that actually takes a hell of a lot of work. Yeah, just like delivery or anything. And it felt for such a stilted,

it was so stilted and so weird. If you look online, you should definitely find it. I was actually talking to Eric Andre about this the other day, and he was like, what? He had a talk show? Now, here's a crazy. I want to hear how we met each other, but I also want to tell you this one fact about John McGrath.

So we worked with him for a long, a while, you know, off and on. And nice, just treated us really well. And so I was at the Howard Stern. birthday party a couple weeks ago and everyone is there and of course john mackerman was there and then beth astrowski stern or beth oh she is there i work with beth once once and it was like for an afternoon for like three hours i walked by her she's like oh my god pa so good to see you that was so fun and we did that thing eight nine years ago like literally longer than i've been dating my my current wife like uh it's almost a decade ago and uh and then i see john mackerman at the table

And I go, hey, John, I followed you. He looked at me like I was a demented person, like, trying to get something around. And I tried to explain, like, yeah, we did, like, I sat in your office for hours. We did bits. You saw me at UCB. That talk show, you, that late-night talk show, which you would think is a big moment in anyone, even John McEnroe's life. Did not, did not even register. It didn't, it felt like even when I said, remember, I worked with on the talk show.

It was like, I don't even think you registered having a talk show. But I really was, I was, of all the moments of, like, not being, like, recognized. And I'm not one of those people, because sometimes I know I have issues where, like, I may have worked with somebody not remember them. But, like, he was so disconnected, so checked out. And I was also wearing a tuxedo, too. So I felt like, I'm into some level where you can be like, hey, this guy is, all right, looking. He's in. He's in on some level.

Like, but blew me off so hardcore. I was like, all right. Sit back down next to my table next year. So see you later, buddy. But I remember is, because I was in it from the start, like we were developing that show for a couple months, and it was a relatively early job for me and my career, so I didn't know any better. And when you were a writer?

I was a segment producer, but that's an excellent question. Did we have writers? The answer would be no. That's the whole thing. We were doing a late night comedy talk show with no writers until you guys came. You were like our savior. We were like, oh, wait, okay, we're dying here. We need health.

bring in Hubele and Shear, they're going to save us. Well, you know, it was so weird because John McHenman was coming to ASCat and it was like, yeah, these guys. At that point, too, we were just like, we were new, like, we were new with this whole thing too. We didn't know what was going on. So we're at the same age ultimately. So we're like, all right, this is cool. Like late night talk show and it could have been cool. And it was like, you know, and yeah, that was, it was fun.

I mean, we got to do fun stuff, but it was so weird. And, yeah. Do you say you worked with Jack Helmuth, who, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Wow, wow. Oh, yeah, that is a crazy. Wow.

So, yeah, that's, that group actually has turned out amazingly. Yeah, we were on perhaps the worst talk show. And Brooke Posh has gone off to Comedy Central. Yeah, it's amazing. That actually is a good group. And who was that older guy? Like, was his name Woody? Like, the older, there was an older producer who was kind of like what, um, what, uh, what,

like, Rick Torn was on the Larry Sanders show. Like, couldn't, like, central casting. He would, Woody Frazier was, uh, he was like, literally the guy that was like Mike Douglas's producer. He was, like, they brought him out of carbonite, basically, to, again, save the show midstream. It was also, like, and again, like, the, the point being, like, and no offense to John, but you couldn't mold that show into anything more than it was. Like, Johnny Carson, Jimmy Fallon, whatever, you want to take these guys who were naturally talented and then make them better? Yeah, you could do that.

Like, this guy was, like, brought in, like, a stop gap. Like, I remember him describing the show to me as, he goes, the show is a damn. and there's all these leaks in the dam and you only have so many fingers to put in the holes where the leaks are and he's like so that's what we're trying to do we're just trying to fill up the biggest holes first and then see what we can do

that really that speaks volumes that really says I'm trying to make a great piece of art here so we're I'm sure you I feel like you have dozens of like those kinds of stories like I mean like from the acting career I know you had an infamous experience on Meet Dave

the classic getting murky comedy comedy Murphycon. What do you put at the top of your list in terms of the most absurd jobs that like jump out at you as the ones that were like, how little did this even happen? Well, I mean, there's always one that I talk about that is less than the entertainment field, but kind of is too. It was, uh, I like, my friend was like, hey, look, you know, um, they're looking for actors for this, uh, project. Do you want to, you want to be in this? And I was like, yeah, 100%. Little did I know that what they wanted me to be was a human billboard. They strapped

like a 30 inch television to my body like on this rig put me in roller blades and made me roll around the city, rollerblade around the city, which I never had done and pass out like America Online like CD-ROMs or whatever it was.

Like that was a horrible experience because I didn't know how to rollerblade and I had a piece of heavy equipment that I had to like sign a contract saying that I would buy it if it would. Well not to mention it sounds that you could literally die. Oh, I mean easily easily I was with a bunch of people

who were really good at rollerblading too and that was not good and there's another situation I just was telling my wife about this the other night I totally forgot again and it was like I auditioned for this commercial

and it's for Xbox I was like forget about it this I'm in there's one gig I'm destined for I'm gonna this is gonna open the movie doors

everything everything is happening with this so the commercial Xbox the idea was you're playing Xbox and this before Xbox didn't have wireless controller

So the cord of the controller kind of like was pulling me off the couch and pulling me, pulling me, pulling me, and then it rips me off the couch and I am dragged through New York City to get to like the Jacob Javitt Center or wherever this Xbox, whatever I needed, whatever the commercial was for. So I was very excited. I was like, this is great, this is commercials. I did not realize how low budget it was. Like now if I looked on it, I'd like, oh, I could have died because again, someone's strapped something to me. They maybe get on a very small skateboard. and they hooked me up with a, they made the cord of my Xbox a little bit stronger, like with a rope. And then they were dragging me through the city on my stomach on a skateboard down Fifth Avenue in between two giant MTA buses, exhaust fumes in my face.

If I tilted to the left or right, I would be off in the middle of Fifth Avenue during rush hour traffic. And they were in a follow car, they were in a lead car. And so there was a guy in front of me with a, um, with a, a spray can of like chocolate syrup and water and just spraying my face to make it really dirty as I as I got like dragged through Fifth Avenue it was the most day

I should have been dead like I could literally I didn't even have to put my arms out like half an inch and I'd be touching buses and cars speeding by me and I'm so low on the ground they're not even seeing like if you're driving you're not looking for someone like literally laying on the ground it's very rare

to experience I was doing like a football movie where those idiots like laid in the road. Like, that's what I was doing. But I was just on a skateboard. Like, hey, if you didn't hit me this time, I'll keep on moving. There's more chances for you to kill me. I just like that you referenced I think the program. The program. The program. Which, by the way, had a very big

thing on me because I worked at Blockbuster Video and those in Siazza, and that's where those kids did it. They did it in this hometown. So the program, we knew so much. And by the way, great pull on the program. Yeah, that was like a big story for us. These dumb-dums did it.

And, you know, and there was a whole thing about us not being able to rent the program. Right. We had to keep it like, because we didn't want to remind the people of the Siosit. The wonderful people of Siosit, New York, who I worked with people like Natalie Portman. Beautiful Natalie Portman, who was so, so stunning at such a young age that I was like, who is this gorgeous woman? And her name was not Natalie Portman. No.

Her schlog, I believe. Yes. So, like, it was like, we were like, you know, go through, like, like, like, you know, like her blockbuster profile and write notes in there and be like, I think she's famous. We did not know. And then, and the guy from House Party, not kid, but play.

Some of the... The true talent in there. There's a lot of talent there. So, safe to say, I feel like from our many conversations over the years, we share many of the same cultural references and the same kind of things we grew up with. I know you have some borderline obsession with, for instance, JCVD.

Oh, yeah. then currently basically the muscle bound I mean I love I grew up on those action movies and I love all those dumb action movies I like expendables two more than I like expendables one

and I'm really hoping the Expendables three really grossed out of the water but no I mean I like a good action movie I'm a big Stafam fan even though like one out of every six of his movies is good like you know and it's I'm very excited for a fast

six or seven whatever it's going to be whatever I'm very sad obviously Paul Walker rest in peace but the uh but i'm very but i'm also very excited to uh see for russell there too it's gonna be the best and and and it actually i'm so upset because i think it's gonna be tinged so much sadness right this should have been something of pure joy literally a perfect creation and sadly this horribleness is yeah it's your enjoyment yeah it is uh yeah so no i'm a big i'm a big action action dumb action movie fan have you met either like vin or or jcvd um vin diesel no I'm trying to think of who I've met.

I've met a couple of weird. You know, I get nervous. I don't like to meet people that I actually, like, I feel like JCVD would not be a good meeting. Rob Heuble did a movie with him called, Like, Welcome to the Jungle, and seems to say he's an amazing guy. So, you know, so JCVD, very high up. Yeah, no, I don't want to meet any of these people.

I didn't. Well, that's a sorry I can't tell him this. No words. Okay, okay. But it occurs to me that on NCSF, like, if you look at the guest star list, You've got it a chance to like enjoy Yes Some of that

Oh my gosh We I mean that was the cool thing about NTSF It was basically casting For lack of a better term Character actors who I loved And like people that come to the top of my head Like right away Like Lance Reddick

You know from Fringe and the wire And Oz Amazing like J.K. Simmons Again amazing And every single one of them You know Ray Leota amazing Like they were all phenomenal Like that show was really like

In my like the casting of that Was just saying like Oh I can get anyone I want from Firefly to be in the show? Great. Perfect. Was Ray Leo de Kool? Because he's actually one of the few.

When people asked me, interviews that scared me, he intimidated the shit out of me. He's an intense guy, but he was awesome. I will say that there is no, the only person, there's been two people

who have turned us down, point blank, and was weird about it. One was the Doctor Who guy David Tennant. Oh, okay. And we were in London, we were shooting an episode in London,

and David Tennant wants to get into comedy. He really wants to do comedy. Get him into comedy. He was like, oh, Karen Gillen's on our show. It's even a nice, like, entry point for him, like, you know, that he would know. We sent him the script. And in the entire time of doing the show, everyone would pass politely to us. You know, like, oh, I'm busy.

We had very few passes. We were very lucky. But he passed, and it was the word we got back. was like not only did he not like this script not only did he not think it was funny but he was offended by it and it was so mind-blowing to me

what were you having to do nothing um like nothing nothing to the point I think the only thing that I can I've been I've thought about it to a certain extent and I think that this is going back to Ray Leota what kind of gets everybody it's a short show now granted the London shows were like I was a half an hour but we had a a small

smaller part for him. It wasn't the lead part. So maybe he was offended at the size of it. But then we went back to him with another role. And they're like, no, no, no. He is offended by this script. I was like, wow. Now, meanwhile, we worked with the best people over like Anthony Stewart Head, who was like,

that was like a dream of true. And, you know, of course, we worked with, I mean, every influence that I've liked, I tried to get in there. Ray Leota is one of those guys that I was like, it'd be really funny to have him as this crazy guy who, who is like a, like, who thinks he's Jason Bourne, but he's not, because he's got this kind of energy that's intense. So I want to go visit him in this trailer and, and he's getting his makeup done.

He's lovely. And the thing you have to know about Rayleigh Glowder, too, is that when he comes on set, every teamster is so psyched. Like, they're, like, and everyone is. Like, everyone, like, it's one of those things. Like, he's in Goodfellas. Like, it's, like, he forever will be treated. He's a man of the people.

It was, people were freaking out. And we had a lot of, like, we had a lot of people on that show that you should, like, that there could have been a freak out for it. So I went in there and I was like, hey, hey, Ray, how are you doing? He was like, okay. He's like, you know, what's going on with this? He's like, there's only a couple pages here. And I go, well, that's, I said, yeah, that's, you know, the script, we only do a 15-minute show.

It's actually like 11 minutes, 20 seconds, outside of it. He goes, you need more pages. And he goes, oh, yeah, he goes, oh, yeah, he goes, you need more pages. And he goes, and come on the dummy, I'll need more pages. He goes, you know, I'll do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I was like, hey, look, if you do radio, give me a call.

I'm going to come. I'll do it. He's like, but you need more pages. We've got to make it longer. We've got to make the song. He came in, nailed it on the first take. And I always tell the story, and I will say it one more time. I apologize if anyone has heard this.

But what was so great about him is he really wanted to play. And he was singing he's Jason Bourne. And he has all these karate moves. So at one point, unscripted, he grabbed someone in the background, a background extra, and then threw them to the ground. and then like pounced on them like but pin them but the floor was concrete and if you ever

were just like un like not knowing and unwillingly picked up and slammed the ground it will hurt and there and there's a thing on this extra's face it was like oh my god I just got body slammed by Ray Leota but also like oh my god in my back and so

I think there's one take and I think it's the one that we used in the show as the guy is approaching Ray is the second take you see him kind of shuck in jive like to the last because like Ray Leota goes to go do it again and he gets a little too nervous

but Ray Leota was one of those guys like easiest every like we never had every I guess the other thing too is like doing a show for adult swim the money is what it is no one's getting anything else and we try to send them like a reel

to let people know hey it's a fun show just come and do it and if they have if their mindset is to come and play they get to the set they know what they're getting into exactly and I owe that all to Jeff Goldblum Jeff Goldblum was the first person who said yes to this show and we used his name to step on everybody else and we're like that first season

we had no we had nothing to show we didn't even have a pilot we had a 30 second trailer like you want to come do this show like and so Jeff Goldblum I forever am in debt to him for doing that and helping us back. We just shot for my after hour series we just shot a bit with Goldman West week of New York that was the best

honestly it was like Jeff Goldblumont fantasy camp I'll show to you at another time I cannot wait it's it's Basically, Jeff doing all of his previous roles in a crazy of, like, being John Malkovich, like, cafe. Oh. He was, he couldn't have been, like, he comes on and he's 150% gold bomb. He's, like, the best, like, he's everything that you want from him, and he's so interesting. He's so involved.

I did a show, I mean, I've done, like, you know, ask that question, like, weird experiences. I feel like I've yet to have a non-weared experience. And, like, I did a show with him. It was an hour-long drama called Rains. And the idea of Rains is that he was a weird. detective and he would see dead people but he's not really seeing dead people he's seeing what his mind envisioned was a dead person and his partner in himself crimes here's the catch his partner was a dead person anyway here's the thing and

that show is now in itself so soon so we're doing this scene where he has to like beat me up and then he's meeting me and someone was like oh and Frank Deribont was directing like a highlight of all highlights it was the best thing so like Frank Darabont and I walking in and to the set and I meet Jeff and I'm a huge huge Jeff Goldblum and he had found out

that I was on at that point like I guess most notably for like best week ever and he's like oh ah

you're on the and this is a bad Jeff Colbon and he's like you're on I love the 80s and go and I said yes

because I was like I'm not gonna say no and correct this like yeah whatever's fine I still say yes some people ask me

if I'm on toxic yes so I go he goes well what did you say about the fly and I go uh

what did you say about it and I And then I got caught my own line. I was like, I don't know. I didn't say anything about the flying. But then he was so obsessed without that. And then he was singing to me and he was doing things.

And then I got to work with him again on. We came on NTSF first. And then he came on to the league as Kroll's dad. Every single time, it's amazing. And he does this thing in between takes, which I love, which is the like, like, I don't think it, I don't think it's a Kevin Bacon game, but it's like a... What is it?

They do the movie game? The movie game. You're just doing that with us too, yeah. That's it. So that's what he does. all the time. The movie game always is going

out. And so he'll be like, you know, he'll be like, you know, like Sam, Elma Kiersson,

Sirens, Sam Neal, Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum. You know, he always would go back to himself. And then as we're,

like, in the between scenes, he'd be like, you know, like, you know, Steve Martin, put a pin in it,

and action. He'll go right into the scene and then it'll be like, and then it would be like, and then it would be like, and cut. He's like, Steve Martin,

the jerk. And then it'll go like right into the next thing Like you just like that game is always going on And he was the coolest And he's so funny And he's everything you want I couldn't have more affection for that man And the fly by the way is like

What are my top ten possible So perhaps a perfect movie So your film career has been quite eclectic Your acting career in film If you drop that today What do you think would be in the in memoriam package Uh the memorial package I sadly

Sadly I feel like it would have to be if you're judging by success ratio would have to be piranha which I guess is a very a very successful film but yeah I've had an interesting batch of films

I've been Todd Phillips least successful movies School for Scoundrels which arguably somebody posted a picture of this on Tumblr and I was like yeah wow the most interesting cast

it's like Andrew Daley Aziz Ansari myself Matt Walsh Horatio Sands Jim Parsons with no lines but we all spent all this time in the classroom together

and there's a John Glazer and I'm forgetting like oh Armin Weitzman and there's like one or two other people that when you look at that school the school first got into a school it is an awesome thing we were never allowed to improvise

and the experience in total was a mixed bag Billy Bob Thornton one of the most amazingly interesting guys out there but yeah it was It was an interesting movie. What else have I done that?

I was in Bride Wars. My wife wrote, and that was super fun to do with Anne Hathaway. It was an interesting experience in there. And then the funny thing about that, no offense to it, was like, I remember a meeting at Hathaway. I was so excited. I was like, like, Aunt Hathaway. And she was just like really getting serious with that guy,

that scoundrel led she. And I remember it. I was saying to my wife, I said, here is like man she's so down to earth and with this what a great guy I remember really like because this guy she were talking about this guy

for such a long time like we talked about him all day and I was like what a great guy and there was such like when that story came out I had a pit in my stomach I was like oh it was so like it was so like it must have been just a shocking moment

so are you for acting wise because you create so much of your own material. Do you, is that how big a portion of like your brain is devoted to try to go out for, for films? And like, I mean, do you have like a strong ambition and let you go out on the auditions a lot for stuff? You know, I try to go out fraud. I mean, yeah, I don't, I'm not like turning. I'm not like, no, I can't. A lot of the times, and this has been a big problem, is that I am unavailable for a lot of stuff because even if I'm off when I'm auditioning when they're actually shooting is when I can't go do it. So there's, there's

always, like, missed opportunities on that. But I found, and this is kind of a thing that UCB installed in me, too, is like, just creating your own stuff. And then you don't have to wait around for someone to give you something. And I found success in doing stuff in TV. Movies seem a little bit more hard because you have to get more people to give money. And TV, it's, if you can, there's a sweet world in TV right now where if you do it cheaply enough, you know, kind of give you money.

And that's a great space to be. and it's like people to create stuff and work on cool networks even when we started off on MTV they were so great to just let us do whatever we wanted after our mid of our first season

when first season on MTV we had like people who were like producing like Run's house which is like a reality show that Run DMC or not Reverend and like people who had never worked in comedy giving us comedy notes

like we had a sketch about a hot air balloon and they were like why are like hot air balloon cops like why would they ever be in hot air balloon like if they're they shouldn't be on a car

in the ground, on a car. It's like, well, that's the premise. It's too hard for them to do the... So we had those obstacles. But for the most part, they just let us do everything that we want, especially in our second season. I mean, the stuff on human giants,

some of it, I mean, shutterbugs still for my money is some of the best stuff. Oh, thanks. It was super fun to do. So was there, not sketch in particular, which you did a bunch of times, was there ever a thought of expanding that

into its own thing, or did it work in its own way there? Have you ever thought of revisiting it? in some capacity? Well, it's funny because it's like we are actually all friends. Zee's, Rob and I was actually at a Z's party the other night and it's like, and Rob and I perform every Monday night at a show that we started

when we were doing a Human Giant. So we all are performing and working together. I feel like I'm very happy with Human Giant being two seasons in the sense that we were happy with each other and there was no infighting and weirdness. And so when they

offered us a third season, that was the same time as he's got Parks and Rec and And we were going to try to make it work, but we opted not to. And I still think that that was a good choice, a hard choice, because we felt really good. But I think it was the right one to make. And then we kind of teamed up for a sketch at the MTV Movie Awards at one year. And then Aziz came on NTSF, and Rob has been on Parks, I've been on Parks, I've been on Parks, Rob's been on NTSF.

So we all are around. I don't think that we've all three been in a room doing something on camera. We've been in a room socially. But the funniest thing is We did a family A family guy episode No American Dad episode And they cast the three of us

And I was like oh this would be kind of fun Like three of us And you know the animation takes so long To kind of figure out And the other couple months ago I was like listen to that episode I don't think I've ever No one even tweeted at me

That they heard that episode And I went back in and watched that scene And they just recast the three of our voices So American Dad Stunk casted us And recasted us And from what I could tell there wasn't much of a difference in what they were doing

versus what we were doing. So that was a bummer. Is that with another comedy trio of some sort? Yeah, I know. I was trying to listen to him. I was like, is this the whitest kids you know? What's what's going on in here? Yeah, so, yeah, that was a very fun experience.

So jumping around a bit, I know you are obviously a big movie buff. Like, what's the ultimate nerd franchise you would have liked to or still would like to jump into? If JJ called you and said, I have a part of you and star, Wars or in Star Trek or War of the Rings or whatever. What do you want to walk through the set of?

Oh my gosh. Part of me feels like I mean Star Wars is so amazing. Like there's something about like Star Trek to me it seems the most getable. Like you like it's like I'm like all right that's there's a chance to at least

walk through that enterprise. Well like Christian Slater was in Star Trek 6 in a Academy. Oh man. You don't have to tell me twice. I know that exactly. Woke up you know so so yes like it works but for star wars you have to be a certain type of yeah and it's it's tough because it's i don't know it's a hard it's a hard world to get into like i can't i never assume that i would ever be able to do any of that i remember when the hobbit stuff was coming around they were looking at people and and and but you had to

be like four feet tall like it was like there there was a height there was a height requirement like you couldn't be taller um yeah like the only thing like I mean, yeah, I would love to be in any of that stuff. Have you ever gone up for, like, any of those things? Yes, I was up for Star Trek. Not up. An audition for Star Trek. And that was a crazy fun thing because I am friends with that casting director,

and she's very nice. And I've gotten to do some stuff with JJ Abrams, so it was very nice. And I was like, well, maybe there is a world where I could just be on the bridge or something. Like, again, like this Christian Slater, I don't even need anything. And so the part I read was a scene from the first movie, because they didn't even have a script when I was auditioning and it was like basically just going like Shields are at 10

Scappedo we have anything coming Shields and then you have to be like moving left and right and I was like and I just felt like I didn't nail it I mean I knew like but it was so hard because there was nothing there was sort of like go take care of your wife like it was like a very like it was like very

you're shouting out like tech jargon and you're also saying like there was a thing like go go and it's actually a scene from the first movie and I watch it and I was like how is this guy doing it. And you realize, like, the beauty of cuts. It's like, yeah, they're not shooting that guy out in one whole moment where he's like,

stop phasers, shooting. How's your wife? Take care of your wife. And now, missile's coming. It's like, there's too much going on. So, but I remember that Dave Kekner and I were in there, and it's our running joke to this day. Like, wow, do you hear anything back from Star Trek? So, like,

and we just thought it. But, yeah, it was nice for them to bring us in. But yeah, I mean, the Star Wars, I think, would be, I mean, That would be a mind-glower. That would change everything. It would be amazing. I mean, anything to be, like, in one of those movies that are,

they're going to think about that, even Lord of the Rings, it's like, one of these things that is just like, everyone knows this thing. It's like, I feel like a lot of my career is going like, yeah, I'm on this show on adults, oh, what's adult son? Oh, it's a cartoon network. Oh, what's a cartoon network? Oh, it's a show, well, it's actually, well, I don't know if I get it.

You definitely get it, but at midnight, it's sort of 10 o'clock it switches over to another thing. Oh, so the channel switch is? No, no, no. It's the same channel. So what do I look for it to? Sometimes it's a C-N though. Okay, so like, it's like, there's always And they're like, oh, what's your show title?

This is my own fault. I'm like, NTSFS, DSF, S-C-V, and they're like, what? And then I'm like, all right, and then I tell them and they laugh. And then it's like, oh, what show are you on? I'm on the league. Oh, what channel is that on? FX. Well, it's actually not on FX.

It's now it's on FX. So everything in my life is like these like five steps. Like, oh, I'm in this movie, hell baby. Oh, great. Where can I see it? Well, actually, you can go some VOD. A VOD, yeah. Like, you get, like, Apple iTunes, you can go and say, I'm in this thing.

Just have a seat. I need to, like, give, like, a little piece of information. Like, like, it's so, it's, I love everything that I'm doing. It would be lovely to be able to be like, yeah, I'm in the hangover. Like, hey, I know what that is. Like, like, it was the greatest achievement in my life to a certain extent was I got to be on modern family. I've done much bigger things. It was a guest star part.

for acting wise for myself but when I was on Modern Family forget about it my family went nuts it was like we get this we understand this is the show it's on the network that we understand that we can watch it like that and even 30 Rock

was a little bit too niche for their taste right so like modern family was the ultimate like I really felt like and I got a little bit of that on Bride Wars because that was a bigger movie and there's so many will come up to me.

I'm like, Rookikku. But it is, it is often, like, I feel like I'm always like, here's ten steps to get to this thing

that I am doing. We need to get you on NCIS or something that just brings the world together. Yeah, one of those things. It's like, I was talking to a friend who was on one of these CBS multi-cam shows.

And, you know, and I'm all like, I'm, you know, I'm a peacock about my NTSF ratings. I'm like, we get good ratings.

We get average to what NBC gets on their prime time. We're getting at midnight, you know? And he's like, we get 13 million viewers on our shows like, got it, cool. See you later, bye. Yeah, we're not getting

bones numbers or like, yeah. You're not making Boreana's money. No, we're not getting Big Bang bucks over here. Yeah, so, but it's, but the freedom of all that too is getting to work with cool people

and getting to do shit that is kind of unfiltered, you know? So that is, I mean, at the end of the day, I know it's like it's like a weird struggle. I'd love to be in Star Wars, but you know, it's fun to do it. I have brought out the weird Indiana Jones

Fedora film with a grab bag of questions I'm so excited about it as you know this is what everyone really will like this is it this is the indie hat would you have a name for this this is a grab bag well the podcast we're calling Happy Set Confused for no discernible Okay but why is it the indie hat? I don't know because I wanted And by the way you should know as a podcast listener

that this is he brought the hat to my house The hat is here this is not even He's not like oh yeah just say it's an indie hat It isn't an indie hat I look like a crazy person walking into your house with an Indiana Jones fedora. A replica. I probably sadly got this actually around the time of a crystal skull, but let's not talk about it. No, please, no.

Maybe honestly, for my money, the most disappointed film-going experience in my life. You know, I have to agree with you. And I recognize LA as being a bad place to see movies because when I moved out here, there's a couple big ones. Indiana Jones being one of them, seeing it at a midnight movie, and just being utterly disappointed. and so, like, sad. Phantom Menace, it took me a little while to realize it was bad. Like, I saw it, I bought

tickets actually for two shows in the same day. I saw it, ate dinner, and it came back, and I was like, knew I was going to be too excited to even process it. And it took me a bit, and I was like, oh, this isn't so good. Right, okay, all right, but it took me a while. I'm still not quite there. I still will defend aspects of Phantom Menace.

You know, look, I want to see that Tofer Grace cut, that he has an 88-minute cut of all free movies. Oh, I want to see it so bad. Cut out all Jake Lloyd, and maybe it's... Maybe it, maybe it's, I'm open to it being maybe good. I'm open. I'm very excited also because I bought tickets to go see back to the future at the arc light, which is a theater out here.

And that's, that's going to be fun. It's not ghostbusters with the arc light. It's like, oh, it's fun when you get to see a good movie, but disappointing movies, it's a real bummer. Yeah, I actually fell asleep during Crystal Skull, which was inconceivable to me that I felt sitting down. I think your body is shutting down because I knew you can't take out of this disappointment. It's like, you can't handle this.

Okay, take your hand in there. Any random question? Let's see. Some of them are horrible. Some of them are wonderful. Okay. Well, that's a lot now. All right.

Marvel or DC? That's a very good question, but easily answered for me, which is Marvel. Very excited. I am a big Marvel guy. I love my Batman, for sure. But Marvel is where I'm going to spend a lot of time. Actually, I have a project coming up, a secret project at Marvel. That, yeah, on the comic books.

side because I made a comic book and now I'm doing some of them. Yeah, plug the comic. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can get it on Amazon. It's called Aliens versus Parker and it's like a four-issue series. It's collected in a trade and there's a special NTSF comic that's only available at Comic Con in that book.

So it's super fun. It's really cheap on Amazon. So buy that up. Come on people. Please. And then very excited to announce eventually what our Marvel project is. Very cool. Yeah.

Go ahead for it. There's a couple more. I'm glad that you're rustling it for the audio. so it sounds. Were you ever grounded and for what? Great question. Yeah, a few times and the ones I remember the most are for cursing. I used to

I got this piano at Cassio keyboard and it was, like the Cosby show I don't remember this episode, it was with I think like Fio crashes into like Stevie Wonder's car or vice versa Steve Wonder crashes in, which makes more sense and Stevie Wonder invites the

Cosby's over to his studio and they're in the studio and he was like hey Theo say some into his piano and he's like jamming on the wander and then Stephen Wonder plays it's like jamming jamming jamming jamming jamming jamming on the wand

jamming on the wand so I thought that was amazing and they actually made a Cassio keyboard that you could voice sample right so of course I use that for cursus yes so you know I got that in my house taping Ferris Bueller off the TV like you stupid fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

so I just sit in my kitchen just like fuck, fuck, fuck, like a million times. And my mom did not go over well. I was grounded. And my mom tried to wash my mouth out with soap. I don't remember exactly if this was correlating. But she didn't have a bar of soap.

So she just put dishwashing liquid on a sponge. Way grosser. By the way, I said this to somebody else, and somebody thought this was a really interesting thing. I'll share it with you guys. I was at a Cosby Show taping. Wow. Yeah. I was a very highlight of my life

go see the Cosby's. How did you store that? My dad was like you, I love the Cosby Show and he's like, let's go see it taped. It was in New York and it was a very easy thing and I got to see an episode with Tony Orlando and it was a great, a great. Compton Astoria Studios. Yeah, it was great. What movie do you know by heart? For you, this is an easy one. You know about seven dozen, I would think. Yeah, I would say the movies that I know by heart that I'm surprised that I, obviously Ghostbusters know it by heart. One that I'm surprised that I know by heart. running scared with Billy Crystal and Gregory Heinz. I watched it recently again. I was like, oh,

I'm doing lines from this movie. And I think it's because I used to tape record movies onto a cassette tape. Remember the cassette tapes? And then just listen to them. Beverly Hills Cop is another one that I know pretty much by heart. Where do you come down on the Ghostbusters, too?

I don't like it. Really? You're just super negative or just in relation to Ghostbusters? Because that's my argument. Okay. In relation to Ghostbusters, if I'm ever having a chance to watch either or I'm watching Ghostbusters. So I haven't watched Ghostbusters too that much.

I will say that I love the beginning of it. I love Vankman having that show. I love them running the occult bookstore, the birthday party stuff. The Vigo stuff with Peter McNichol. Really good. Once it gets ensue. Like the Statue of Liberty walking down the street,

not so hot on. No, I am looking for them. But funny stuff. And I actually got to work with Harold Ramos, which was amazing and so sad that he is also, not to bring up two dead people in this, but he was one of the best

best dudes of all time, and when I did year one with him, all he would do is tell stories. But not in a bad way, like, in the best way ever. I remember Michael Sarah and I were doing this scene, and it was freezing cold, and were in like up to our knees and like gunk. And he was like, oh man, I remember we had to get slined.

It was so nice. And it was like, and it was like, It's so casual, and he would take us out every night, and every story, every person, he would tell you a story, and it would blow your mind, and to hear firsthand Ghostbuster stories, and him telling us first, like, saying, like, oh, yeah, we didn't have a script for Ghostbusters, like, two. We had a date to be released, and it was like, oh, and we were rewriting it, and it was just not really, just not, never came together, and he was like, that was a big regret, I think, for everybody. The more you read about Ghostbusters and the development of that is the more you realize why, like, they should never, especially now with Harold Sadley, never do a Ghostbusters 3, because when Akroyd is leading the charge on the script,

Accord's great. I mean, we all... But it's cuckoo bananas. You need someone to rein him in, and that was like Ramos and Ritman. Yeah, to make it like a... You know, it's like the same... Yeah, it's...

I think Harold Ramos is a great, like a force for the entryway to crazy. Like, Groundhog Day is a very existential film and very interesting in one of my favorite films. But, like, he grounds it with the comedy and the characters, and, like, in anybody else's hands, it could be, like, a very sad, depressing movie. And I think he knew how to balance all that stuff. And, yeah, so Ghostbusters 2, I should watch it again.

But, you know, I mean, I remember a lot. Yeah, yeah. One of my cherished possessions in my office back in New York is my, I decided on the win to buy a Vigo the Carpathian painting, just to stare at it. I love it. That's amazing. That would be something that would have.

in my house. You're in my office and I have a Peter Vankman big doll over there and I have a state puff marshmallow man I got a lot of

a lot of Ghostbusters stuff in my house. Okay, let's finish on this might be it depending on the question. All right, got it. Here we go. If I were a rapper,

this is a tough one. If I was a rapper, my name would be man, I don't know why my first instinct was to say parapa the rapper because then it would kind of

be like, It would be like a retro pop culture thing. You know, man, that's a good question. I think I'd have to be sheer genius because that would be an album title. Or a group, I feel like. Yeah, like there's something I'd have to use my name. Oh, that's a good album, totally, you're right. You know, sheer genius would be a good album.

I don't know the rapper name. Maybe it's like Paul's. It's my name with a Z at the end of it. Paul's. It's a good tip for. aspiring rappers out there. Is that a Z? Is that a little Z?

Does that feel strong enough to end on? You're the podcast expert. Oh, man, I don't know. I feel like, you know what? We covered a lot of stuff. Let me dip in and let's see. And you know what? If it's a bad question, we'll end on that.

You'll never know. Ever been arrested? Now this is a guest to end up. Yes and no. I've been cuffed, but I've never been processed. So I was cuffed in Arizona. Shooting Piranha, 3D, not 3D, which I shot in North Carolina with the wonderful living rooms.

But the, who was actually a lovely guy. But I was arrested because the movie was run by all French guys. The director was French. His producing partner was French. And we came to a small town that was meth-addled. And every day you get the paper and it would just be like a blotter sheet of just arrests and drugs and guns and ridiculousness. So, we had all these porn stars and hot women in our movie, Kelly Brooke and Riley Steele, all these people, plus a ton of other porn stars. And not Kelly Brook is not a porn star, but she was in the mix.

And so we would go to these clubs, clubs, bars, and shitty bars, you know, and people would say, don't go to that bar because you might get stabbed. And they were being honest and looking out first. It was a metaphor. It was really happening. Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell and I one day was like, decided to shoot handguns on women. They just gave us handguns. I got to shoot. I'm like, what?

Never been so frightened in my life. So anyway, long story short, we go to this bar. They've let in all the girls, but they don't let in our director and producer. They're like, hey, well, we're in the hotel bar, by the way. This is where we're not like being letting because the hotel bar is actually a hot spot in this day. And it wasn't like a W. It was like a shit of a hotel. And so they wouldn't let him in.

And he was like, oh, you got to let us in, let us in. And they're like, fuck you, you bring all these girls here. These girls are ours. and then the bouncer punched our director, the French guy, and then we were like, whoa, what happened? And then the bouncer started a fight because he didn't like these French guys. So we all started in this fight. It was crazy.

And then the cops came and arrested all of the French guys and the people in the production. And I think someone from the town was like, you realize that this movie's bringing like hundreds of thousands of dollars to the town. And your guy started it. Let them all go. Right. So our producer had a bloody nose, but then everybody else got left to all them. And an amazing film came out of it.

Amazing film. everybody wins. That's bond the sequel. Indeed. The amazing Paul's here. Thank you Paul so much for being here.

This is your home. No, thank you for coming to my home. I appreciate it. What do we need to plug? I said before how did this get made is just about my favorite.

Which you will, I was saying it on your show to make it locked in. You will definitely be on our show. You have to know when you're in L.A. Or maybe even in New York. Any time. And then, yeah,

just for it right now, like my comic book, Alan versus Parker. It's out on Amazon. Super fun. And yeah, That's it. You can, I mean, that's all you need to know right now.

You know his work. I got, I got new stuff coming up, but it's not out yet, so you can't do anything with it. So, just enjoy what you got in front of you. Just embrace the moment. Embrace it. Embrace it. Google, you'll find some stuff. Uh, yeah.

And always our Shiri Opal. If you want to go back and check out some classic recreations of Arsenio Hall talk shows, as me as our Sineo Hall, you can watch that. That is pretty amazing. And if you're the kind of person who doesn't like that, I don't know what's wrong with you. Yeah, come on. You also make sure you go deep and to find me as our Shiret. Imperial Paul on Arsenio Hall, which is even more of a mind-drawn.

You want to have to totally. Thank you so much. It's so fun. Time is precious, and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24-7 access to licensed vets, with unlimited virtual visits and follow-ups for up to five pets.

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and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of a Flower Moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge.

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