Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - New Girl’s LAMORNE MORRIS: Standout Goofiness

Episode Date: September 7, 2021

The wildly hilarious and humble Lamorne Morris (New Girl, Woke) joins me to discuss his early childhood growing up in the Southside of Chicago and shares what his entry to acting was like, including b...eing cheated out of six figures by his commercial booking agency. We also talk about his chance opportunity on the hit New Girl, his deep involvement on his new show Woke, passion for improv comedy, and an age old debate of GOATs in basketball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting. Signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games. Make the most of your downtime with unbeatable promotions and jackpots that can turn any mundane moment into a golden
Starting point is 00:00:30 opportunity at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Take a spin on the slots, challenge yourself at the tables, or join a live dealer game to feel the thrill of real-time action, all from the comfort of your own devices. Why settle for less when you can go for the gold at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call connects Ontario 1866531-260. 19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Reading, playing, learning. Stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision. They slow down the progression of myopia.
Starting point is 00:01:09 So your child can continue to discover all the world has to offer through their own eyes. Light the path to a brighter future with stellar lenses for myopia control. Learn more at SLOR.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLR Stellist lenses at your child's next visit. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. I hope you had a wonderful week. Thanks for listening. If you're in your drive, this is a great episode.
Starting point is 00:01:39 Really enjoyed this guy, Lamorne Morris. You know him from New Girl, New Show, Woke, talks about Second City. Ryan, it was a really fun episode. This guy is incredibly funny. He's really, really quick. He's really quick. It was intimidating how quick he was. I liked it.
Starting point is 00:01:57 I loved him. that's coming up in just a second. Hey, if you're listening to the podcast or if you're here for a little more, and I hope you stick around. I hope you subscribe to the podcast. You can watch on YouTube. You can listen anywhere you listen to podcasts. The handles, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:02:12 At Inside of You Pod on Twitter. At Inside of You podcast on Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. Jeff, good week, man. I've been anxious. I feel like I'm overwhelmed about everything. I'm learning. We talked about this before the show.
Starting point is 00:02:22 And I'm just, you know, it's one of those things where I just have to be more positive going into things. Yeah. Yeah. You're allowed to have feelings, but, you know, try to keep the positive vibes going. The world is not fixed itself, and we have to find a way to live in it now. Yeah. So, hey, if you have an anxiety or anything like that this week, I hope you breathe and do something productive and exercise. I'm trying to do that. So that's helping, but trying to keep the anxiety in check. That's always a tough thing to do, but you could do it. hey if you want to buy any merch inside of you online store tons of stuff on there tons of small those stuff and lex luther stuff and all that shit go to the inside of you online
Starting point is 00:03:03 store if you want to buy any band stuff or zoom with me go to sunspin dot com um tons of merch and all that stuff and if you want to join patreon the lovely patron family um go to patreon.com slash inside of you and it's to give to the podcast a little more and help us out and uh i'll message you after there's a lot of great perks and all that stuff so uh i thank you all for listening to the podcast and uh yeah life's all right man life's good we're alive we're breathing we're fucking here we're here dude let's do it let's get inside of the wonderful lemorn morris it's my point of you you're listening to inside of you with michael rosenbaum Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience.
Starting point is 00:04:02 You come across an educated, just like, articulate guy who's got his shit together. Is that true, or is it Lamorne? Or is that false? It's, you know, it's a little from column A, a little from column A, little from column B. I like to play when I can. But at the same time, you know, I think it's a good. to be an adult. I have a daughter now, you know, and it's like, hey, I'm responsible. She will survive me. How do you do that, though? How do you, how do you balance that having a kid and
Starting point is 00:04:36 working so much? Because you're always working. You're always doing stuff. How do you do that? Because, you know, probably the biggest fear you have is like, am I going to be a bad father? Am I not going to be around enough? Am I not going to, right? Is that a fear? It is a fear. Well, she's 11 months old and I've been co-parenting. So the reason, the way I balance it is, that baby mama does a lot of the lifting, you know what I mean? So she's with her full time, and then I see her once a month. I go there, you know, I stay, I get a place in Austin, and then where she'll come here to L.A. So it's a lot of traveling back and forth.
Starting point is 00:05:08 Or if I'm out filming somewhere, like in Atlanta, she comes to Atlanta with me, you know, things like that. You know, you get the timing when you can. So you make it work. You make it work. Does she like being on set? Does she like being on set? Does she like being on set? Does she like seeing Daddy work? Well, because of COVID, can't be on set.
Starting point is 00:05:29 You know what I mean? It's just off after work. You know what I mean? It's kind of, it's been a treat with COVID on set, you know. Well, you're one of those guys, though, I gather that just has to be busy all the time. That just like, I mean, even during COVID, that was an excuse for me to do jack shit and no one could say anything about it. But for you, you ended up doing this like. series. Yeah. I mean, who does that? Who does a series during COVID that you create?
Starting point is 00:06:01 Yeah, it's weird. It was, because we had started the process before COVID. You know what I mean? We shot the pilot, and COVID didn't really start booming until we were almost done recording season one, you know? And so we got the green light for season two during the middle of all the chaos and craziness. And with all the restrictions and things on set, everybody felt like it was okay and safe to get back to work. And for the most part, it has been. We've had no crazy incidents. We've had some shutdowns.
Starting point is 00:06:32 But it's not been, no one's died, no one's gotten really sick. It's just been, you know, we get a case, we shut down. Someone, it doesn't matter which department they're in. You shut down for a little bit until you contact trace and do all that stuff. So it's not been bad. It's not been hard to do. But for me, I've always just wanted to remain active, you know what I mean? And I've gotten lucky.
Starting point is 00:06:53 I've gotten very, very lucky to get some stuff greenlit. Do you like being in charge? Do you like having projects that are your projects that you have a say that you're a producer on? Is that the direction you'd rather go than being, I hate to say a puppet, but like coming on set and like, you know, what do you prefer? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I would love, like, being in charge is great, you know what I mean? Especially if you think you.
Starting point is 00:07:18 have better ideas, you know? But no, with, especially with this show, you know, I'm a producer on the show, but I didn't create the show, though. I didn't create the show. A producer on the show, but I do have some say, and the rest of the producers and the creators are very collaborative. They're not like, they're not like, this is our way or the highway. You know, I get the scripts, we take notes, we make changes. That, I think that's important, especially being a producer, is to be able to collab with the people who are smarter than you in those areas. Always.
Starting point is 00:07:50 And ultimately, I want to be Adam Sandler, man. Like, I want to... Can I be your David Spade? Can I be your Nick Swarton? Can I just be like, please, just have me come aboard somehow? Please do, man. Like, I told you before, man.
Starting point is 00:08:04 I'm a huge fan of yours. I'm a fan of yours, man. Hey, let's let them work with your friends. Work with people you like. Exactly. It feels like less stressed that way. That makes me happy. Everything's moving.
Starting point is 00:08:16 And I got to do a movie with Adam Sandler once. And it was called Sandy Wexler. Sandy Wexler, yes, yes. And I was just watching how, like, there'd be times where Kevin James is on set and he's not even filming. Like, he's just there in Video Village tossing out jokes. Like, they just kick it. And they hang out and they have fun and his family's there. I'm like, this is the life, man.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Now, I hear, like, Sandler and I love Sanler. and I love Stanley. I love Adam. So he came up to me once. I did this movie that didn't do very well. I've done a few of those. But a movie called sorority boys.
Starting point is 00:08:52 And he goes, you're really funny in that, man. You're fucking hilarious in that movie. I go, yeah, tank. He goes, yeah, but don't worry about it. You're funny. Who cares? You know, he's really sweet.
Starting point is 00:09:02 I heard that, you know, sometimes on set, somebody told me, like, he'll be like, when he's giving direction to his friend, he's like, come on, you can be, deliver it like that. Turn your head and then say the fucking line. Yes. Does he do that?
Starting point is 00:09:14 He does. And it's the best because it's not, it's not like coming from some dickhead director that you don't know. Right. You know what I mean? Like some asshole who's like really pretentious and feels like their job is the best in the world and they're all powerful and they want to talk down to you as the actor. He's fucking around with his friends. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I've seen him do it.
Starting point is 00:09:35 I've seen him like his nephew, I want to say. His nephew. And even his agent was in the movie, I want to say, or his manager, I think. And he's yelling at them some video villain. And he's like, just say the fucking line like this. You're supposed to be, come on, you act like you never acted before. Come on, do it like this. And then just like, shut up, dude.
Starting point is 00:09:54 Did he just shut up and just do the fucking line? Did he do it with you? Did he kind of throw shit at you? He would not in that kind of way, but we would play. Like, there was a scene I remember when we were at the dinner table. And we had to do this bit when he's like choking. He's like talking and spitting out food. you speak like chicken at me
Starting point is 00:10:15 and I'm like kind of like disgusted with him but I'm playing the scene so real and so straight and like and he didn't know I was going to play it that way and so he got he goes fucking come on this dude is making me act
Starting point is 00:10:30 fuck he's like all right he regroups he comes back and he comes back and then maybe like 20 minutes later we reshoot part of that scene is coverage and he and then he reminds you why he's
Starting point is 00:10:44 Adam Sandler. Like he comes back, he's improvising, he's heightening the scene. He's playing high status, low status. He's doing, he's like an acting clinic after he saw what I was going to do on my coverage. So that's his most, that's the most I've seen of him like make adjustments and like get weird with me on set. He was very like. So he sort of, he sort of does this thing where he sees what you're going to do. And then on his close up, he'll go, for instance, he's like, you know, he says, Lamont, how's this chicken? And then he'll do one where he's like,
Starting point is 00:11:17 Lamont has his chicken, you like this chicken. And then he'll do so, whatever it is, you know, or he's yelling at you something, that he's spitting on your face, he'll do different vocal. He'll be high, he'll be low, he'll do everything, so they have all these choices. Absolutely, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:11:31 Because, you know, I imagine a lot of times, especially in comedy, the tone is very, it's a delicate line you have to walk when you're trying to figure out the tone for an entire two-hour film. And in that scene in particular, it could have went so slapsticky based off of what I could have done with the performance, but I, you know, it's a Sandler movie,
Starting point is 00:11:50 so I wanted to just play it real so his comedy could get heightened and be more polarizing. And so I played it straight and I played it. And it was hard to do as well, just because, again, I'm sitting across the Adam Sandler. So there are moments where I'm breaking, but I'm like, stop starting myself going on, okay, okay, okay. And I'm playing it straight.
Starting point is 00:12:09 So you were breaking, you were breaking up. He broke you a few times. Oh, a million times. Like, I mean, a million times. Did he like it? Do you think he liked breaking you? Oh, I know for a fact he did. I know how he did it because there are times where he's just doing it specifically to break you.
Starting point is 00:12:25 Like, he's seeing, like, moments of like, if I do a bit here, it'll fuck with him a little bit. Right. And that was fun, man. It was fun. It truly was like a clinic working on that film. That's amazing. Inside of You is brought to you by Quentin. Quince. I love Quince, Ryan. I've told you this before. I got this awesome $60 cashmere sweater. I wear it religiously. You can get all sorts of amazing, amazing clothing for such reasonable prices. Look, cooler temps are rolling in. And as always, Quince is where I'm turning for fall staples that actually last. From cashmere to denim to boots, the quality holds up and the price still blows me away.
Starting point is 00:13:08 Quince has the kind of fall staples you'll wear non-stop, like Super Soft 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters starting at just 60 bucks. Yeah, I'm going to get you one of those, I think. Oh, nice. I like to see you in a cashmere. Maybe a different color, so we don't look like twins. Their denim is durable, and it fits right, and their real leather jackets bring that clean, classic edge without the elevated price tag.
Starting point is 00:13:30 And what makes Quince different, they partner directly with ethical factories and skip the middlemen. so you get top-tier fabrics and craftsmanship at half the price of similar brands. These guys are for real. They have so much great stuff there that you just have to go to Quince. Q-U-I-N-C-E. I'm telling you, you're going to love this place. Keep it classic and cool this fall with long-lasting staples from Quince. Go to quince.com slash inside of you for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
Starting point is 00:14:02 That's Q-U-I-N-C-E. dot com slash inside of you free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash inside of you inside of you is brought to you by rocket money i'm going to speak to you about something that's going to help you save money period it's rocket money it's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings this is just some wonderful app there's a lot of apps out there that really you know you have to do this and pay for and that. But with rocket money, it's they're saving you money. You're getting this app to save money. I don't know how many times that I've had these unwanted
Starting point is 00:14:48 subscriptions that I thought I canceled or I forgot to, you know, the free trial ran at Ryan. I know you did it. That's why you got rocket money. I did. Yeah. And I also talked to a financial advisor recently and I said, I had rocket money and they said, that's good. This will help you keep track of your budget. See? see it's only we're only here to help folks we're only trying to give you you know things that will help you so rocket money really does that rocket money shows you all your expenses in one place including subscriptions you forgot about if you see a subscription you no longer want rocket money will help cancel it rocket money will even try to
Starting point is 00:15:23 negotiate lower bills for you the app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals they'll even talk to the customer service so you don't have to yeah because I don't want to. Press one now if you want, get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget,
Starting point is 00:15:45 and even when you're doing a good job, Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions. With members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features, cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals
Starting point is 00:16:02 faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you want to save money, then listen to me because I use this. Ryan uses as so many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. Crazy, right? How cool is that? Monitorers your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
Starting point is 00:16:44 And you know what's great? It works. It really works, Ryan. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you. The app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals. They'll even talk to customer service. Thank God. So you don't have to.
Starting point is 00:17:04 I don't know how many times we talk about this, but like, you know, you got it. And they helped you in so many ways. And with these subscriptions that you think are like, oh, it's a one month subscription for free and then you pay, well, we forget. We want to watch a show on some streamer and then we forget and now we owe $200 by the end of the year. They're there to make sure those things don't happen. And they will save you money. You know, Rocket Money's five million members have saved a total of five. $500 million in canceled subscriptions with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features.
Starting point is 00:17:40 Get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget, and even when you're doing a good job. How doesn't everybody have Rocket Money? It's insane. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. in the survey so they know that I sent you don't wait download the rocket money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show um I was looking on your Instagram and I was like he wasn't in space jam was he why did he get this big box of shit what was that about I mean I saw this big boxes of space jam shit no not in space jam but like because of the because of the pandemic people don't have premieres anymore really So what they do is they like send out stuff to people to post to bring awareness to the film. And I get them all the time. And I don't, you know, unless I have like a tie to the film somehow, I don't, I won't post it really.
Starting point is 00:18:46 Or unless I'm like obsessed with the movie and I like, you know, I'm not being paid. You know what I mean? I'm just like a really big fan of Space Jam. And Hugh's LeBron fan and the director, Malcolm Lee is a buddy of mine. I've worked with him before. So I thought, you know, yeah, let's be. do it, man. And I wanted to be in Space Channel. You motherfuckers.
Starting point is 00:19:08 You do. Was that a big favorite years growing up with Jordan? Oh, my God. Michael Jordan is everything. He really is. Do you think he's the best of all time? Well, who's number one? LeBron James. You think LeBron James is number one over Michael Jordan. Yes. When you want crack? Of course.
Starting point is 00:19:29 It was a different era. Jordan just created everything All these championships And the tongue out And they just Jump in a hundred feet And like I know
Starting point is 00:19:38 I know What do you think it is About LeBron That's better than Jordan And how much better If Jordan's a What number What number is LeBron?
Starting point is 00:19:49 Well It's not that he's much better Because that's just impossible Jordan was damn near perfection Right But Again I was watching these clips
Starting point is 00:20:00 of Jordan, I mean, he was, he's, again, he's number two all time. Before LeBron, he was number one to me. All right. But I was watching, I was watching the competition that he was going up again. Some of it was tough and difficult. But for the most part, he was scoring over like five, ten guys. The guards were so small back then. Michael Jordan was like, I mean, there was no way these guys.
Starting point is 00:20:23 He had Bill Cartwright on his team. I know, but he also had Scotty Pippen. That's true. Rodman. It's true. You know, it's Steve Kerr. Steve Kirk can shoot the lights out. John Paxton.
Starting point is 00:20:35 He had some killers around. Now, you like LeBron's shoes better. That's for sure. Actually, it's the reverse. Although I do have a sick LeBron collection, it's reverse. I actually like Jordan's shoes better. You do. But I don't collect them.
Starting point is 00:20:53 Like I, you know what I mean? I collect the bronze, but not the Jordans. How much do you spend on a pair of LeBron shoes? Probably like 250, I don't know like that. 250. And how many pair? I probably have maybe 200 pair of LeBron's. But, but, but a lot of them were free.
Starting point is 00:21:15 A lot of them were given to me. You know what I mean? When I have a birthday, someone will give me a pair. Or Nike, Kate back in the day would send me, you know, like a box of LeBron's. Whenever a new one would come out, I would get, like, some of them. you know, but for the most part, I was buying them. Right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:33 I mean, I don't have 200 pairs of shoes. People make fun of me because I probably have 50 pairs of shoes. But you have hundreds of pairs of shoes. Do you wear, would you say you wear a lot of them? You try to go every day a new pair of shoes? You know what's so funny is that, no. I may have like, they're like, I wear a total of like four or five pair. And it's usually what's on my floor when I'm walking out of my room.
Starting point is 00:21:59 So it's the same pair usually for like a full week. And then if I know I'm going somewhere where I have to look a certain way, I'll specifically pick a different pair of shoes. But for the most part, I have these shoes. They're called Golden Goose. They're just like these low, top, raggedy, beat-up looking shoes that I put on.
Starting point is 00:22:17 I got as a gift, and I just, I wear them damned hair every day. And people give you shit because you're not wearing all these other shoes you have. Right. Yeah, I just can't, you know, sometimes they don't, like LeBron's are really bulky They look fantastic But they don't match Like sometimes these skinny jeans that I'm wearing
Starting point is 00:22:36 You're very color coordinated too, aren't you? Like you like to look sharp Yes and no Yes and no I mean look I'm wearing a red blood sport Shirley yellow hat I don't know if that is coordinated It looks good to me
Starting point is 00:22:49 It looks better than me I'm in a pair of sweats And a freaking missile command shirt So you look good man Oh you know you know Look at you with your hairline on crisp Is it intact? Is it crisp Is it intact?
Starting point is 00:22:58 That's why I'm wearing a hat, man. My hairline looks like, what the fuck? So, yeah. Well, look, you have obviously a ton of success, and you've done so many things. And I always like to go back. I mean, you're from the south side of Chicago. Yeah. My engineer, Ryan, over here, was like, well, that's the tough part of Chicago.
Starting point is 00:23:18 And I'm like, is it? It's not the north. It's the south. It's always the south. But the south side of Chicago, did you, was it a tough childhood? Yeah. Yeah, it was, man. But, you know, when you're in it as a kid, you don't look at it as tough because that's just what you're used to.
Starting point is 00:23:34 You know what I mean? When I was a kid, I mean, there was a lot of gang violence, a lot of fights, a lot of gunshots being shot at sometimes, stuff like that. But you just looked at it like, I remember a time of being at the park, we played basketball at the park, and people started shooting. Now, we just ducked down and, like, ran off. And then, like, once we get a block away, you and your boys are like laughing, like, damn, that was crazy. As opposed to going, we almost lost our lives. Like, you know, it's just, it toughens you up to the point where not a lot of things get to you. So you get used to it.
Starting point is 00:24:11 It's not a, it's not the best way to get used to something. No. Because unfortunately, a lot of kids don't survive that. A lot of families are broken up by gang violence and drugs and, you know, policing in some of these neighborhoods. But it definitely forms you. the way you think when you get a little bit older. But when I was, when I was 15, I want to say, we moved to the burbs. Like, you go from the south side of Chicago, which is like, like, parts of it.
Starting point is 00:24:42 It was like the hood, hood. And you move to like the western burbs where you're, where it is like suburbia damn near. You know what I mean? It's like, people leave their doors unlocked and, you know, shit like that. You're like, man, this is crazy. Wow. And it definitely changes the way you think. You start to see the differences in the neighborhoods,
Starting point is 00:25:04 the differences in your friends, their upbringings, you know, what life was like for them having a father around. And, you know, and you start to see where things could have been different for you, but you still appreciate where you come from because there's a level of awareness that I have that, you know, certain kids didn't have. Right. Was your father around? No, no.
Starting point is 00:25:26 So my father, my father was actually deported back in the day, back to Belize, because my family's from Belize. So he had deported back because of drugs, you know, so you're selling a lot of drugs. This man, male selling a lot of drugs. Were you around that? Were you aware of that at a young age? You knew what was going on? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:50 But again, it was normal because everybody's daddies did it. You know what it was in? And they did it in front, in front of the. children. Yeah, you grew up, I mean, there were crack kids walking around sometimes, you know, we'd come home sometimes, like, shit would be missing from the house, you know, like, we had someone who lived across the street who used to just walk around, butt naked, and walk out, and turn a water hose on and put water in a bucket. And she was just like, boobs out. You didn't care. She was just, he was on drugs. And that's just how she was going to live for a lot.
Starting point is 00:26:26 and it was very normal to us and we were like hey she was like hey y'all and she was like sometimes she would leave the water on and water bill would be high as fuck flooding our grass it was yeah was it a good looking woman was it someone that you guys as kids would just wait around for hoping that she would go fill the bucket no no no no wasn't that she was hopefully she's healthy and live well now, but back then when she was on that stuff, let me tell you something. Kids, there's nothing good looking about drugs. There's nothing good looking about, but look, so your dad, he was deported, and then so your mom raised you?
Starting point is 00:27:10 My mom, yeah. How hard was that? Ooh, you know, again, for us, normal, but for my mom, my mom's difficult. You know what I mean? My mom's just working her butt off. And the postal service, right? Postal, yeah, post office, raising four kids. grind and trying to even trying to and then and then on her days off you know that her days off she would do she would spend every minute with us we should take us to places we would do we had normal child we had a fairly normal childhood but it was just like you grow up faster because you spend a lot of that time learning stuff on the fly and on your own you know and for a lot of that time my grandma my grandma was around up until the time I was 12 she passed away so my grandmother also helped raise us
Starting point is 00:27:56 uh, aunts, uncles, you know, people, it was all hands on debt. They contributed. People contributed in the raising of you guys. Southside, man. We used to spend a lot of time on our aunt's house. Um, you know, I had an aunt taught me how to cook a little bit, you know. So it was, it was a very communal type of upbringing. Was she strict? Was mom strict that she have to be, I guess? She tried to be, but she realized how silly her kids were. And, you know, like, Like, she couldn't do anything about it, you know. Like, there are also things we didn't really care about doing it.
Starting point is 00:28:31 Like, for me, for example, she was strict on, like, going out, being out late partying, things like that. But I also never did that. You know, I didn't have a desire to. Even in high school, I'm trying to remember if I haven't went to a party in high school. I just said I went to, like, we would go to my friend's house and play video games. And, you know, like, get Mountain Dew and a bunch of Cheetos, Mountain Frozen Pizza. Yes. Mountain Dew is my jam. That is my jam.
Starting point is 00:28:56 That's what we did at night. Really? So, because if you would have gone to those parties, you probably would have been in trouble. Probably. Probably. So she would pretend to be strict and be like, I told you, I want you to butt in this house by this time. And I'm like, sure. But she knew deep down, like, he's around the corner at Alex's house or somebody playing, you know, Mortal Kombat or playing damn, you know, NBA 2K or something like that.
Starting point is 00:29:23 I wasn't doing anything crazy. Right. Did you have dreams? Like as a young kid, we all have dreams. We always think, but like when you're a kid and you're in it, like you say, I mean, are you thinking outside the box? You're growing up in the south side of Chicago, then you moved to suburbia, but still are you thinking, I want to be an actor, I want to be funny, I want to be a comedian.
Starting point is 00:29:40 Were you always thinking that? Kind of, but for me, back then it was, back then it was more like I wanted to be a basketball player, you know what I mean? Again, Michael Jordan. He was the, everybody wants to be like Mike, and I did too. I thought I was that good. Turns out I was not. But those were more of my dreams being in the sports world somehow.
Starting point is 00:30:04 But then the older I got, the more I fell in love with like goofing off. And I thought, man, this is, I love going to school because I get to just be silly and weird. And my teachers encouraged it. They encouraged you to be silly and goofy. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. See, they didn't do that with me. They go Rosenbaum out in the hallway.
Starting point is 00:30:23 Rosenbaum, get in the corner. I just, they didn't get me, and they just would kick my ass out. And so I got the best revenge of success. But they were never, they were never, like, excited about my behavior. You know what I mean? But they were encouraging you to be a goof in class. Like you were you disruptive in class? Oh, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:30:47 I love your teachers. Who are these teachers? I'll tell you something. Glenbart South High School, they did a great job with their hiring. staff because they were obviously very disciplined in their in their curriculum but at the same time they knew it was less about it was less about what can we throw on these kids to do but it was more about okay what what are these kids have and how can we use their strengths to get them to learn better and to get those kids to do what they're supposed to do better and I had you know math teachers
Starting point is 00:31:17 English teachers even my music teachers and things like that they were all they knew that these kids were wild and rambunctious and weird, and so they would encourage the behavior. I had one teacher who would kick me out. He would give me time to, like, tell jokes in class. And then he would go, but, you go, you get, but I'll give you the time and tell these jokes, but afterwards, you got to go to the principal's office. Or you could just shut up and let me teach. And I wouldn't do both. Certain days, I just wouldn't be feeling it, you know. I'll let you do your thing today. Wow. But did you think you were? of students. Yeah, did you learn? Do you feel like because they allowed this freedom that you
Starting point is 00:31:58 had more of a respect for them, that you learned more and that you got a little bit of an education because of that? Yeah, because you felt, you felt for me, a lot of times, if I didn't understand something, I would be too shy in front of everybody to be like, I don't get it. I don't want to be the dumb one. That was me. Yep. Yeah. I would just pretend like I knew what they were talking about and then fail the test. And I'd be like, shit. So when you get that, um, When you develop that shorthand with teachers, it's okay to be like, and you develop that, that cynical attitude, you can just flat out say, like, I don't understand what you're talking about. And then other kids would go, yeah, yeah, me either, actually.
Starting point is 00:32:39 And then it was a very encouraging space to be like, okay, we're not, you don't have to be a rocket science. It's just algebra. Like, let's figure it out, you know. Wow. I tried to, I was advanced in certain subjects, and then they put. me in physics, AP physics. And I remember day one in AP physics, I sat down and I was sitting in this lab. Everyone's talking, the teacher's talking, we're discussing something.
Starting point is 00:33:06 And I stopped and I went, time out. I don't think I'm supposed to be in here. They were like, what do you mean? They go, this is the class you signed up for. I go, well, they recommended it. They were like, I said, I haven't taken physics the basic version. This is AP physics. What the fuck is going there?
Starting point is 00:33:25 They're like, oh, okay, maybe we should demote you a little bit. I was okay with that. I was like, I don't need to be here. I don't need to stress myself out here. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to be a clown when I grew up anyway. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4.
Starting point is 00:33:45 New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's, taxes extra. Grocery shopping. Choching. Ordering food? Cha-ching.
Starting point is 00:33:59 Filling up on gas? Cha-ching. Commuting? Cho-ching. Using streaming services. Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha. With your RBC Ion Plus visa, earn three times the Avion points on groceries,
Starting point is 00:34:12 gas, dining, and more. Cha-ching. Then, redeem your points on gift cards from over 200 brands. Your idea of rewarding happens here. Conditions apply. Visit RBC.com I mean, when it was that you decided, did you get involved in high school theater? Did they have theater?
Starting point is 00:34:31 And is that what happened? You got involved in that? I did. I did. I was used to my time being spent playing basketball after school and things like that and, you know, Summer League and all that stuff like that. But then after I realized how I was not that good and I got cut. And I was like, I need to figure out how I was going to.
Starting point is 00:34:53 how is I going to spend my time? And I took a radio and TV class, which is like how to be a radio host, how to, you know, how to work the sound boards, how to, you know, do this, all the technical stuff. I took a class doing that in high school. And then I realized I liked the speaking part better.
Starting point is 00:35:13 And then another, I started looking through the curriculum that the school offered and another one was theater. I was like, oh, I did a church play once. I wonder how this will, will pan out for me. And then I'd never stop doing it.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Did you remember the first play you did and the reaction you got the response? Well, I could tell you the first big play. I did one play where I played like, I had like one or two lines. I forget what it was called, but it was dog shit. But then the second play I did was called Godspell.
Starting point is 00:35:44 Ah, yeah. And Godspell is amazing musical. And I got to play in that. And the reaction I have, was amazing. I'm talking, we had a pretty dope theater in high schools, a big, big theater. So I was also in concert choir, in men's choir. So you could sing, you're a singer. Well,
Starting point is 00:36:05 let's just say that when I sing, panties melt all over the world. Of course they do. Of course they do. I get the message, I get the tweets, you know what I mean? So I know they're melting. But I'm no, I'm a goofy. singer. I can carry a tune, but I'm not like, I'm not putting out a singing album, a rap album, yeah, but not a singer. You like to play. You want to have, you have an element of play in everything you do. Yes, yes. And so you sang in Godspell. I sang in Godspell. I, I, I want
Starting point is 00:36:41 to say my first, in high school, I played a character named Herb. He was this really silly, goofy, weird guy would pop up in and out and you're, in God's got everyone's on stage at the same time for the most part throughout the whole thing and it takes place in like a park or in a city so it's like all these moving parts and moving pieces and my character was really funny and the crowd loved it and I and funny funny thing is that in college I got to play in Godspell again the musical and so and then I played a different character I played John the Baptist who had to do more solo singing which is a little scary but I did you did you do it you did it I survived I survived Wow. Was your mom really proud of you? Do you remember when you did the Godspell in high school that you remember her saying, you've got something there, kid, you got something?
Starting point is 00:37:30 Oh, yeah. She's been doing that since I was a lot younger, actually. My mom wanted to be an actor back in the day, but obviously having kids and things like that kind of slows that down. She, you know, she writes poems and, you know, she's a very artsy and creative person. And especially, you know, being in the church, she was. was very proud that I was in Godspell, you know what I mean? It's about Jesus and that was something that was really cool for her to see. And yeah, she still is. My mom used to take me to all my auditions. You know, sometimes she would take time off work. She would call in late for work because, you know, she had to drive me to the audition or take me to these castings and do all this, you know, she was a hands-on mom with my career.
Starting point is 00:38:19 And you think she's a very, like I saw some interview where you go, my mom is one of the funniest people I know. Oh, yeah, she's hilarious. You really think your mom is because I don't think my mom is one of the funniest people I know. I don't, that's so far, so far fetch that I, like, she's
Starting point is 00:38:35 out there, but like you genuinely get a kick out of your mother. That's a rarity. Yes. My mom called me just down for maybe, maybe 10 minutes before I got on with you, the mom called me just to shoot the shit, but she goes, the first thing that she started doing was, I love,
Starting point is 00:38:51 son, how are you? And I was like, I'm fine mom. And she goes, your day going well so far. Yeah, so she goes, so did I get the part? No, you did not. No, I knew it was you. I knew it was you. You did I get the part.
Starting point is 00:39:10 She does that. She'll prank call me sometimes. That's her favorite voice to do. For years, she's been doing that voice when she calls. She's not giving up on that voice. That's her go-to. That's her go-to. So if anyone ever needs Skeletor, the cartoon, like any raspy kind of cigarette smoking voice, my mom can do it.
Starting point is 00:39:29 She doesn't smoke cigarettes, but she sounds like she sounds like she does. So you started doing like a lot. I noticed how many commercials, and I told Ryan here, I said, Ryan, look how many commercials this guy's done. I mean, he's done commercials. I never got asked to do one commercial. I thought I started to get a complex. I was like, why doesn't anybody want me in a commercial? I would do voiceover stuff eventually.
Starting point is 00:39:49 but never on camera. TV star, man. That was why. I don't know, man. But there was a long stretch before that where I auditioned for commercials and I never got them.
Starting point is 00:39:58 I think it's because I had these fangs that they fixed eventually. I had these big Dracula fangs and no one wanted to see that shit on TV. Oh, man. Well, maybe not Colgate, but, you know, everything else. Not Colgate.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Yeah, no, I, man, dude, I started doing so many commercials at one point. I didn't realize I was doing that many. I was broke. I was living in my car at one point. Like I was, you know, borrowing money, you know, to pay rent, to pay bills and, you know, literally borrowing food from friends. Like, hey, can I borrow the chicken breast? You know, I was doing stuff like that just to make it in L.A. And then one day, my car got repoed, didn't have means to
Starting point is 00:40:39 get back and forth to these auditions. And I lived in North Hollywood. And I live right on, right off Lancashire in North Hollywood. What year was this? This was in, oh, This is not that long ago. No. Not that long ago you were living in a car. Yes. Wow. 0809 around that time.
Starting point is 00:41:01 And then I remember a buddy of my moving to L.A., we got an apartment together. And the car got repoed because we both weren't doing very well, but combining our resources together we could afford this apartment. And we got in, but we were also struggling to pay. bills, you know, and the car got repo, and I remember having to borrow either my neighbor's car to go to auditions or take the bus. So I took the bus. In LA, it's not the easiest. You're going from North Hollywood to Santa Monica. It would take this three-hour trip just to get in there and go, ooh, these Oreos taste great. There we go. Thanks, LeMorne. There you go, all right, back on this
Starting point is 00:41:40 goddamn bus. Three hours to say that. Man, and then one day I was late. One day I was late for an audition for Miller Light, and I get there, and they're like, did you read the sides? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I'm sweating. And I know they had the big, like, the big board with the commercial written out, right behind the camera. So I was like, I'll just, I guess I'll just fucking wing it.
Starting point is 00:42:05 And I go in there, and that's what I did. I was winging it and improvising, and that's when I realized, like, that might be my strength because I booked it right on the spot. And they, they, there were other people waiting. they had sent some of the other guys home and then they had me stay and read with the other girls that were there in the casting.
Starting point is 00:42:30 And so I was confused when they had sent everybody home and they asked me to stay. I was like, oh, okay. I was like, well, this never happened before. They were like, can you read with this person and that person? I was like, yeah, absolutely. And while doing that, I started coming to the realization that I think I booked this.
Starting point is 00:42:46 I think that's... And that commercial was kind of what set the tone for the rest of the rest of them because I started getting offers for commercials and not a known person at this point in my career. Something you're late to. You're late to this thing. You're sweating. And you just start to improvise kind of for the first time of improvising in commercials. And this is what takes your career off.
Starting point is 00:43:11 Something that you never would expect. You would have been on time. You would have been sweating. You would have given them what they wanted. You thought what they wanted. Absolutely. it's like going rock bottom man you start to you start to rely on your instincts you know and our instincts is what makes us who we are you know if we are all if you and i go in for the same audition and you and i studied at the same acting school and you and i have the exact same mannerisms you know they're going to just go do we want to go with a black guy or white guy same there's no difference between these two performers but if you have i don't know a lisp or if you have a thing that you do They're going to go, but, you know, Michael has that thing that he, that's different.
Starting point is 00:43:52 That's something we haven't seen. Let's let's go with him. And for me, it was improv. It was a lot of cats know how to do it, but when you're acting, we fail to, we forget that that's a part of who we are. And we stick to the script so much. And when they're casting for something, they see 50 of those guys all doing the same thing. Yeah, that's so true. You got to differentiate yourself.
Starting point is 00:44:16 You got to differentiate yourself. But you know, but you got to go back to you doing Second City, and that had to attribute to that. That had to help that situation, correct? Oh, absolutely. Second City was like the biggest part of my career. And, I mean, it's literally a facility to go play in. And you start to turn that into a skill set. And you're working with people who want to do the same thing you do.
Starting point is 00:44:41 And you guys are all creating together. You're on stage. You're telling jokes. You're writing jokes. You're creating characters. characters. And so when you get older, you don't realize that that's now ingrained in you. It's not like, let me sit down and open my Second City book and remember what's been taught to me. And no, you just, it becomes your personality where you like being silly.
Starting point is 00:45:02 And it definitely helps out. Definitely helps out. Who's your favorite improviser of all time? Who's your favorite second city member? Second City or Groundlings, whoever it is, somebody that you just go, man, that's the person that makes me laugh at them. Mine's always been Farley. And I know that you want to be. Chris Farley Award. I did. Yes. I did win the Chris Farley scholarship for college. And I would, there's a few, because I've worked with some great second city people as well. And there's some that you just admire from afar, you know, Steve Carell and, you know, T.J. Miller. But for me, it's probably, there's two guys. This guy named Edgar Blackman
Starting point is 00:45:43 that I worked with, it was always him and I on stage together. He, like himself, along with a guy named Tim Baltz and Sam Richardson. So Sam Richardson is like another level goofy. I got to work. I worked with him once at Second City. I came back as an alumni and did a show with him. They did a set with him. They had a show called South Side of Heaven.
Starting point is 00:46:14 it was i think tim robinson um tim balts edgar blackman sam richardson i forget who else is in the cast but it was one of the greatest shows i've ever seen like of all time like for over any production and i've seen hamilton okay right south side of heaven it's better than hamilton wow and sam richardson was a big big part of that and i got to work with him on new girl i mean he's a buddy of mine now but you when you so he's probably he probably tops that list for me for people I've seen. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:46 How long did you struggle? When you started to get these commercials, it just catapulted, right? It was like a domino effect. So you started getting these. But did you start to think, I want to act? I'm doing commercials, but now I want to go to the next step. I mean, next stage.
Starting point is 00:47:00 And did you have that agent who can get you to those auditions? Or were you just dealing mostly with commercial agents? Yeah, I didn't have a theatrical agent. I just had commercial agents. And, you know, it was going good until it wasn't, meaning I was looking at, I was going into the agency off, like the agency to pick up like checks
Starting point is 00:47:18 because I was getting a lot of them because I was doing a lot of commercials and I was like, man, this is, this is crazy. How can, I'm on, I remember going into my agent's office one time and they had theatrical agents there at those, it was called, the first talent group.
Starting point is 00:47:33 And I pretty much was like the head of their commercial division, you know, but I couldn't get a meeting with their theatrical agent to save my life. Jesus. I'll go in there one time this guy goes He goes, hey man
Starting point is 00:47:45 Dude, you're all over my fucking TV Man, you were just playing on our TV here Man, and I was like Okay Well fucking sign me then What's wrong with you? What's wrong you? I'm clearly doing something right
Starting point is 00:47:58 He's like, yeah man We're gonna take a look man You know, we're gonna take a look man You know how it is man I don't Don't know how it is Tell me how it is Yeah
Starting point is 00:48:09 And so Didn't couldn't get a meeting with those guys And then I noticed that my checks started slowing up. And I was like, man, I still work. My commercials are airing, like, a lot. Like, you can turn it on TV. I'm like three spots in one commercial break. And I was like, what's going on?
Starting point is 00:48:26 Like, all of something's wrong with the mailing system and it's this and it's that and do blah, blah. Then mysteriously, they found a bunch of checks of mine just kind of sitting in a drawer somewhere. They're like, oh, here you go. How much money were in those, all those checks? It was like $50,000 worth of checks. I'm talking, it was like a box. Like a stack. I was like, what?
Starting point is 00:48:45 I was like, you just found them? Like, what would have happened if I would have said anything? Then I go, then they go under, they go out of business, and I find that they have taken me for over a hundred grand. Wow. And they were robbing a lot of the actors. And that's when I started getting check signed over to myself, not to the agent. Yeah, it was, it was, uh,
Starting point is 00:49:11 I still haven't resolved that. It was bad. Holy shit. It was bad. So I left that agency. Well, I would hope you'd leave that agency. What now? So then you got an agent because then you started getting auditions for things.
Starting point is 00:49:24 Yes. I started getting, I, I, I, so a buddy of mine was signed to an agency, global artist agency. And until his day, they've been, they were like, I'm not with them anymore, but at the time, they, they, they definitely believed in me. At least one agent there wanted to start a commercial division there. So she said, okay, look, I'll take you on if you bring, if you come, if you sign with us commercially. And I said, okay, great. And out the gate, I started booking commercials for them. They were like, it worked out.
Starting point is 00:49:53 And I was like, well, let's talk about these theatrical auditions, though. And then within two months of being with this agency, I was on New Girl. And that's such a story that you've probably told a million times. But the first thing I thought of was like, I wonder if you ever thank Damon Wayne's Jr. for not coming back to the show. I wonder if he actually said, thank you, because, man, my shit took off. All the time. All the time. You know it.
Starting point is 00:50:17 Yeah, Damon's the homie. Like, we, yeah, we always trying to develop together. And he's, uh, he's the best. Like, he's such a cool dude. And he was, so he was on the show. He was the pilot, but he had a conflict with another show that he was doing called happy endings. And so he couldn't do it. So instead of writing the character awe, or instead of like replacing the character,
Starting point is 00:50:40 they just wrote him off and then just hired you for the second episode. Right. In a nutshell, that's what happened. It's a lot longer than that, but pretty much that's how it went down.
Starting point is 00:50:50 Prior to it, I want to say, I don't know if he auditioned or didn't, but prior to it, I got an offer to play that role of coach. But I had a prior engagement, I had a prior obligation to CBS. And I'm talking within hours.
Starting point is 00:51:04 We were trying to get them to make an offer for me for New Girl after I had auditioned a couple times. and it was like, why will we make him an offer? He's got a test like everybody else. And my agents were saying, well, because CBS is making him an offer for another show. And they were like, impossible. Like, nobody, again, he's done a few commercials, but like, you know.
Starting point is 00:51:24 And so CBS was, I was literally at the test for New Girl. And before you sign that contract, I got a call from my agent saying, don't sign the contract. We got an offer, CBS. And I was like, oh, it was this pilot called The Assistance. It was with T.J. Miller and Heather Locker. leader, David Henry, Sarah Wright, Jason Jones. It was a great, great show. The pilot was really funny.
Starting point is 00:51:47 The cast was amazing. It just didn't go. And in that time, Damon had signed up to do New Girl, not knowing if he could actually officially do it because he'd get me. Like you said he had happy endings. Right. So everything just started working out, him leaving me having me come back in for a new character that I auditioned 15 times for.
Starting point is 00:52:06 You auditioned 15 times for your character. Yes. well 11 for my character 11 for my character I want to say and then the other times for coach 11 times what do they need to see that they won't see if they rewound the tape on the first one I don't know were you doing anything different were you doing anything different they would change the material up a little bit here and there but I was like just imagine that I said it like how I said the other joke but at one point I started losing hope I was like I don't think I remember the last part, the last leg of this audition. I tested maybe three or four times, I want to say. And I remember the last audition I had. I thought I booked it. Jake Johnson emailed me and was like,
Starting point is 00:52:54 he was like, dude, I think you got it. I was like, oh my God, that's awesome. And he gives me a call right back. Oh, so there's this kid. There was Justin Hires. And Justin Hires, he's on McGuiver right now, is a fucking stud when they told me Justin was reading
Starting point is 00:53:13 I was like God damn it I did all this for nothing I was like and here comes Justin's fuck ass going to take my job and luckily I booked it but yeah I mean Justin's doing how did that feel
Starting point is 00:53:29 how did that feel when you finally they said you're in I cried immediately like I didn't know how I should react and funny enough my mom was in town too, visiting. So you're both crying. Yeah, my mom was in town. I got in the car and called her. It was just like, I did it. I did it. She's like, people. I was like, I did it. She was just like,
Starting point is 00:53:51 she's on the phone crying. I'm on the phone crying. I think back to the, I think back to that time often, and it always brings a smile on my face, just because I know how hard I worked leaning up to that. I've since gotten lazy, but prior to that, oh, my. My God, what a worker I was. That's what happens. We get older and we do less. I don't think that's true with you. You work just as hard. I do, but I'm trying to funnel my energy into other aspects of entertainment. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:54:23 To things that I have more of my control over and that are more fun for me. Like, I'm going to get into the podcast space. I've already taken a dive into it a little bit and producing and writing more. And I, you know, I want to do what you do, man. What do I do? She can talk to cool-ass people, dude. Shoot the shit. You know what?
Starting point is 00:54:42 Everybody, there's so many people doing it now that's become a little bit like, holy shit, it's a little like overwhelming. It's like, are people going to listen to this show? Well, you hope so that you have good guests on. You probably know a lot more famous people than I do. No, absolutely not. You know, Common. You just did an album with Common.
Starting point is 00:54:57 You're done right. Don't you forget it? I'm not forgetting it. I haven't forgotten it since you told me. So, eight seasons of this, which is like your first TV show, and it goes seven seasons most people's i did i did a show we did a pilot then i did another show we did eight episodes then i did another show we did 10 episodes you do your first show you book
Starting point is 00:55:19 well i guess the one before it you did the pilot right yeah but but really relatively you you jump right into seven seasons of a hit show yeah yeah i tell you you get you get jaded because you think this is how life is i know oh my god i struggled and then then I'm not going to struggle anymore, right? Wrong. Right. You know, you, after the show goes off, you're like, okay, what next? And then there's this, this is like lull, this period of, you know, of years where you're like,
Starting point is 00:55:49 you might do a couple gigs here and there, but you don't know if anything is going to satisfy you the way or take your career to another level where you can get comfortable. You know what I mean? And I'm not stressed about getting a gig. And even when you do get a gig, you think people are. going to be as cool as the people were on New Girl. And sometimes it works out.
Starting point is 00:56:13 Sometimes it's not. It doesn't. Was the cast that great? Did you always have so much fun? It was just very collaborative and always a good time. Oh, my God. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:21 I mean, we're all friends to this day. You know, we're always trying to find projects for us to do together. We're always like, you know, we jump at those opportunities to do these reunion panels and things like that. And we're just, because we genuinely
Starting point is 00:56:34 enjoyed it. We had, fun. We goofed off. Our characters were very different from each other so we could live in those spaces and play. And, you know, it was, it was amazing. I might have to beg you to get me Zoe on the podcast sometime. That's easy. Is she cool like that? Yeah. She seems so cool. Yeah, especially now in her life, like, in our life, everything, she's comfortable. She's like, hey, I just want to have fun. I want to host a show over here. I might do a movie. I might not. I may do a podcast. She's like, yeah, let's do it.
Starting point is 00:57:08 Who's, who's having fun? I want to do that. That's great. That's kind of how she is. And tell me about woke. Oh, man, woke is like, woke is amazing. Woke is,
Starting point is 00:57:18 I've always wanted to play a character that existed or lived. Like, I thought, like, I wanted to play Martin Luther King in a movie. Like, I'm trying to figure out how to play Martin Luther King
Starting point is 00:57:29 in a comedy. I'm not 100% sure how that's going to work. You could do it. You could figure it out. I would figure it out. And then I got the opportunity. I got a, like, post New Girl, again, you get some scripts here and there for certain shows. And a lot of them were kind of just, like, way too slapsticky and weird.
Starting point is 00:57:49 And I was like, I just got through doing that with New Girl. And I was like, I want to do something that's kind of relevant culturally, at least something that people will talk about. And when I read the script, I was like, holy shit, this is it. This is the script. This is the, how do I, how do I get in? How do I get involved? and, you know, met with the director, met with the guy who the show was based on.
Starting point is 00:58:13 So for those who haven't seen it, Woke is about a cartoonist, a guy named Keith Knight who was alive and well. But, you know, he was a cartoonist in San Francisco in the 90s, and he was in a punk band. He was a black dude who was in a punk band who likes hockey. You know what I mean? So his comics reflected that.
Starting point is 00:58:34 So people, when they would meet him at Comic Con, and things like that, they would go, I didn't know you were black, you know? And he's like, should I have written it down somewhere? Yeah, and so his, the show is about, you know, his walk politically, where it's down the middle of the road. He doesn't think racism exists. He doesn't let his neighbor's problems bother him.
Starting point is 00:58:58 He just wants to keep his head down and make boring old comic strips for his fans, and that's it, right? Until one day, the show is about, the situation we use in the show is that one day he gets mistaken his identity gets mistaken for a criminal while he's putting up flyers for a show and he gets beat up a little bit by the police
Starting point is 00:59:17 and when he comes from that moment he starts to go crazy a little bit when he starts seeing things and like really saying things and these comic strips these cartoon characters these inanimate objects start talking to him and they start forming the way his art looks
Starting point is 00:59:35 I have a racist marker that's played by J.B. Smooth. And you directed him in an episode that you wrote in New Girl, right? Yeah. Damn. Yep. So he came on and killed it.
Starting point is 00:59:50 We have Cedgette the Entertainer plays a talking trash can. I saw that. Yeah, that's amazing. We got, man, we got Lil Orell. We got Sam Richardson and Tony Hale. They played this toast and butter that talks to me. and come on if you can do it
Starting point is 01:00:10 and they argue and they fight each other and it's shot so well too it looks really good when you talk about it it could easily come I don't know that sounds good it's so well shot guys
Starting point is 01:00:20 you need to take a look at this and I know that you also you struggled because you kept shutting down because of COVID right the second season yeah second season we got shut down
Starting point is 01:00:30 maybe three times I want to say but you know And I'll say this, the shutdowns weren't because things were getting out of hand. The shutdowns were more so just to be safe. You know what I mean? I think so I did a great job of kind of making sure. And we had COVID people on set that were overly cautious, which I think is good in that
Starting point is 01:00:53 setting, you know what I mean? Because if one person you're sick, the last thing you need is for 100 people to get sick. You know what I mean? And so, you know, in effort to stop the spread, I guess, you kind of have to, All right, the dude over there was driving the truck got COVID. Everybody go home. Like, let's, who we've been around? Let's test everybody again.
Starting point is 01:01:12 Let's make sure everybody's good to go. Let's get back to work. And so they were, you know, I think they did what they needed to do, and they handled it correctly. Where could we see Woke? Hulu, guys. Hulu. Make sure y'all watch it.
Starting point is 01:01:29 If you don't watch it, guys, one, F you know what I mean. And I won't, you know what, and I'll stop watching you guys. I don't know what that means. By the way, didn't you just do a horror movie? I did. I'm a huge horror fan, and everybody who knows me knows it, I'm a diehard. What kind of horror movie was it? Was it paranormal?
Starting point is 01:01:49 Was it psychological? Was it like blood and guts? What was it? It was a little of all those things. It was psychological paranormal. It's like, imagine Shutter Island on crack. Yeah. Really?
Starting point is 01:02:04 Yeah. Phoebe Tonkin, oh, gosh, she crushes it in this movie. And we have, you know, the China Brothers. These two guys are night shift, night shift. Yep, night shift. Wait, is this out? No, no, yet. Not yet.
Starting point is 01:02:25 We just wrapped. That's what you just wrapped. That's why you couldn't be on the podcast, doing it, because you were rapping that. Yes, yes. I'm excited about this one. I'm excited about this one. Dude, I can't wait for people to see it. I play a weirdo.
Starting point is 01:02:38 I, I, I, I, this is, oh my God, I don't, yeah, you probably will recognize me in this movie. Physically you will, but I have, oh, it's good, man, I play a, like a creep. Have you done, don't say anymore, don't ruin it. But did you, have you done a horror movie before this? Oh, man, I was helping you to bring. Well, then don't talk about it if you didn't like it.
Starting point is 01:03:03 I can hope you didn't bring this. shit up, man. I've already pissed you off. At least I pissed you off towards the end. It's bullshit, man. I asked me these questions about the freaking, okay, fine. I'll tell you, since you're pulling my dick about it. I did a movie called April Fool's. It was my first movie. Okay. It was trash potatoes. You didn't like it. No, I didn't like it. I get killed in the first five minutes of the movie. Oh, of course you didn't like it. I thought, oh, wait a minute. I thought those days were over where they killed a black guy in the first five minutes. What the fuck's that about? it's all black cast. Oh, then that's
Starting point is 01:03:36 okay. Yeah, somebody got to do. No, they should have killed the white guy in the first five minutes. Yeah, they should have. We had a Dominican. We had a Dominican guy named Ramses Jimenez. Who looks white sometimes but he's Dominican as hell, man. And so they were like, now I can't kill him.
Starting point is 01:03:53 So they killed me. Kill me, man. He's a actor, too. So they were just getting rid of the terrible actor first, I guess. Hey, Lamar, and this is called shit talking with Lamar and Morris. This is rapid fire, or you could answer however you want. These are
Starting point is 01:04:08 my patrons. The patrons, they subscribe to the podcast, they do extra for the podcast. Here we go. Little Lisa. What's your biggest fear? Dying in a plane crash. Damn. You went dark. I was so scared of flying, man. So scared of flying. Like, if there's a bump, I freak out and look around like, you'll feel
Starting point is 01:04:26 that shit too? You know, why don't we have parachutes on planes? That's the commercial. Like, if I'm sitting first class, God damn and I should have a parachute. You can. meals are shitting. Give me a parachute. What's the worst thing, though? Surviving a plane crash or dying in a plane crash? Do you really want to survive? I do. I would love to survive. I would love to survive because, you know, I'm going to sue for a billion dollars. All right. That makes sense. You went there. You went there. That makes more sense. Dave P. Are you a cat person as much as Winston was?
Starting point is 01:04:56 Absolutely not. Hell no. You don't own an animal. I don't own an animal. Not at all. but you know my my house has turned into a bit of a dog park because all my friends bring their damn dogs to my house I got doggy bowls everywhere dog beds well you allow it you allow it dogs are cool they shit everywhere and sometimes like jenn you know you and your damn dog Danielle I'm just naming my friends Morgan y'all dog Mickey y'all dogs be shitting and like y'all got to clean it up sometimes I'm not doing it I know the answer to this question by the way Dana asked what role have you played that you wish you hadn't April Fools April Fools
Starting point is 01:05:37 Okay, I'm telling you What is Lee Ann P What's something What is something people Be surprised to learn about you Besides all your shoe collection Of LeBron James and Jordans Surprise to learn about me
Starting point is 01:05:51 Ooh, I don't know I'm very out there With things that actually people A lot of people don't know I have a daughter People don't know that about me Really? Yeah, because I don't like
Starting point is 01:06:00 I'm not, I posted once about her I took it down. I'm not one of those, like, I don't know. It's something about posting my kid that it feels weird to me. Like, I want to do it. I want to brag about her. She's amazing. It's just, yeah, you just feel uncomfortable posting about her and you're like,
Starting point is 01:06:15 want to keep that private sort of. Yeah. Now, you say baby mama. You have a baby mama. Do you get along with the child's mother? See, for a white guy, I can't say baby mama. For some reason, it just doesn't come out naturally. It's not right.
Starting point is 01:06:29 I'm like, so the baby mama of the, it just. doesn't sound right. So the child's mother. So you guys get along? Are you, you know, is it difficult? Yeah, we get along. I mean, you know, you have your ups and downs, but it's normal stuff. We can get along. Yeah. It's not, I mean, we're just not in a relationship. You know, it's hard to travel back and forth and, you know, do the scheduling and all that stuff like that. I get it. I get it. I like it. Anne H. What's your favorite hobby that you do when you get stressed out or sick? I do adult coloring books, says Ann. I do other adult things.
Starting point is 01:07:04 I'm kidding. Am I, though? No, I, uh, yeah, well, no, I play, uh, I play basketball. I have a basketball hoop in my backyard, and if I get, like, super stressed out, I just go shoot around for a little bit. I'll play with you sometime. You sure? Are you getting good? I'm not, I'm not good, but, like, I pick stuff up.
Starting point is 01:07:24 I play a lot of sports. So if you just showed me some fundamentals, I grew up in Indiana, I watched a lot of basketball. I never played because I was always short as a child. But if you show me a few things, I at least, it'd be fun. We'd have a good time. Here's what we're going to do. All right.
Starting point is 01:07:37 I want everybody out there to go and look up lethal shooter on Instagram. Lethal shooter. His guy doesn't miss. It's a shooting coach. He's coming to my house before. It'd be great to get you and lethal shooter together.
Starting point is 01:07:51 It would be an amazing episode of your podcast. You guys can talk while he teaches you how to shoot. And this guy is, I'm telling you, when I say he creates all these weird inventions, like hoops with spice. and he shows you how he can just get the ball right in there without the ball exploding or he'll he'll be on one boat and have another boat with a hoop going by and he won't miss and he's that good he coaches NBA players everybody celebrities so we get a free coaching lesson he'll show me
Starting point is 01:08:22 how to shoot a basketball that's all I need is somebody to really show me how to shoot a basketball yes lethal shooter lethal shooter Michelle Kay last question what do you want your legacy to be LeMorne, your legacy. The ultimate teammate. And that's just in life, but that's also in my career. I just love collaborating with people. And again, that's why I love Adam Sandler so much, because it's family and his friends.
Starting point is 01:08:47 And if I can help somebody achieve their goals and their dreams, I would love to. You know what I mean? Use the one thing I know how to do, which is perform and use that to help everybody else achieve their things. I mean. So you really want to lift everybody else up, too. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:04 My God, if we're all winning, if everyone's winning and, you know, and if everyone's helping people and, you know, being philanthropic and, you know, just trying to everyone, every, people on planet Earth, man, we just want to enjoy life. I think everybody, but some people are struggling, you know. If we can help people, let's do it, man. Let's let's do it. And I think, especially with me being an actor, a lot of my friends are actors. And, you know, if I ever have opportunity to help friends out in that space, I do it.
Starting point is 01:09:35 And I, you know, I work my mode off to get to a place where I have the ultimate say to hire people that are friends and family. Control, the power, the power to do that. If you have the ability, the power to do that, that's sweet. And I believe you, that's the thing. I believe what you're saying. There's a lot of people who are just in it for themselves. They just want to be billionaire, trillionaires, an empire, and they don't care about the little people. but you want to kind of bring the bring your friends along with for the ride oh absolutely absolutely
Starting point is 01:10:07 that is a that's i get more satisfaction out of like going to my friend's premieres than my own yeah i'll leave you with this um my friend dax i did a movie and uh he text me during the movie of my premiere and said this movie's so bad i can't believe i'm not in it And I thought because it was a bad movie and I laugh my dick off. And another funny story is I did this movie. It was just funny. He was kidding around because we love Jamie Kennedy. But Jamie Kennedy, we did this movie.
Starting point is 01:10:45 And I was kidding. I go, I'm never doing another Jamie Kennedy movie. Just joking around. And Miguel Nunes, who's hilarious, goes, he's like, Jamie Kennedy never doing another Jamie Kennedy movie. Before we go, can I ask a pool haul junk? Oh, did you, you saw that? Did I see it?
Starting point is 01:11:06 I had the poster in my room. Wow. And the poster in my room, me and my friends, we started going to pool. That's why I started playing pool was because I loved that movie so much. Like, even fucking Christopher Walk in, I was like, what the what? That monologue it gives, you guys were clicking on all cylinders, man. You know, that was funny because that movie, I got the call the night before. and the director said, hey, can you get on a plane in the morning?
Starting point is 01:11:33 You're going to play my brother. And I just got on a plane. I learned my lines in the plane, and I did it. And I was, like, every day on set when Palm and Terry is working or Rod Steiger or Christopher Walk, and I would just watch Walk and to see that inflection he has. You said it, Joe, better than all. He would do that thing. And I would talk to him, and it was just like it was a fun.
Starting point is 01:11:57 It's one of those independent movies where you're like, man, I wish this would have blown up. but people still come to me and they say, hey, I really enjoyed the movie and it was good to be a part of something that was, you know,
Starting point is 01:12:07 people liked. So thank you. I liked it. I loved it. I even remember small bits of the movie, like continuity things that were funny.
Starting point is 01:12:15 Like, what was, you just said his name. The older guy. Rod Steiger. Yeah, yes. He had the hat on
Starting point is 01:12:22 on one scene. He's talking to it. He's in the pool hall. And then they cut, they come back to him in his hats like this. I think I remember that. I think I remember that.
Starting point is 01:12:30 I think I remember that. I lost it. Independent filming. I remember one day, Walking was just pissed off because he's supposed to be filming and he's been waiting in his trailer for hours and he walks out and the director's name is Mars.
Starting point is 01:12:42 And he looks at Mars. He says, Maas, today's my last day. And he walked out. And they're like, we're like, oh, fuck. He's like, I better go talk to Mr. Walken.
Starting point is 01:12:53 He's like, I'm done. I've been waving my trailer for hours. I'm done, Maas. you know i'm like dude you're getting paid a million dollars for being here for like a week but uh he was he was cool he was cool well i appreciate that man i love your work and i hope you think of me when you're doing something because you're always uh thinking of new things and doing great things and uh this has been a real treat for me i'm gonna keep in touch with you
Starting point is 01:13:16 whether you like it or not no please do man you got my email put my number in there dude please i love this i love this i and i didn't know i don't know you so i was sort of like he seems great i don't you know my friend Joe La Truglio from Brooklyn 99. I just said, hey, I'm about to talk to Lamar Morris. Oh, dude, he's awesome. You're going to love him. And it seems like we know a lot of the same people, but I'm so glad you were such a good sport and you were so funny and so good to talk to you. And I just appreciate it. And let's keep in touch, man. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. I really do appreciate it.
Starting point is 01:13:49 Of course. It was my pleasure, man. Oh, my love. I'm going to email you right after this. So you better email me. All right. Cool. All right. Take it easy, bro. See ya. yeah he just was uh easy to talk to had great stories i love the samler story i love uh just kind of getting in his head and how he feels about everything and he's just he's a go-getter you know what i mean he's been around and uh he's a he's just a magnetic yeah personality i like him i want to hang out with this guy yeah that's cool for guests that you don't know beforehand yes because you get anxious about how it's going to go and this went very well
Starting point is 01:14:29 well. Yeah. I always get anxious. I always get anxious before guests. And, you know, my therapist is like, why don't you just enjoy it and get excited about it? And I do, but then I always think I'm going to run out of things to say. And people are like, you don't ever run out of things to say. That's not entirely true. Well, no, you really don't. Yeah. It's really fine. Well, all right, thanks, Ryan. I need Ryan here. I need Ryan by my side. He's, uh, he's good. You're the goods i'm just a i'm like a fucking rainbow for you're a fucking rainbow delight is what you are my friend and i love having you around uh hey if you're uh still listening and you enjoy the podcast please subscribe you can watch the shows on youtube you can listen um the handle you can listen
Starting point is 01:15:08 anywhere podcasts exist we've been getting a lot of press lately stephen emel episode and lots of others so um hopefully you'll spread the word and continue it um also i'm on the cameo um i have a patreon account patreon.com slash inside of you that's if you want to give to the podcast a little bit more i'll message you right after i really appreciate it check out patreon.com slash inside of you inside of you online store has tons of merch uh the sunspin dot com you can zoom me and get merch there for the band um a lot of great stuff uh i will be in uh lexington kentucky this weekend doing a smallville nights and a signing with tom welling my co-star from smallville and then on the 24th of September, I'll be in West Virginia.
Starting point is 01:15:53 So get tickets to that because that's going to be a lot of fun as well. Yeah, a lot of good stuff going on, man. You know, I've been writing a lot and like I said, I've been exercising a little more. I think that does help me a little bit. I think so too. I think you just have to. I mean, if you're feeling something and you don't like it, go do something. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:16:15 I got to learn to meditate again, man. I got to get back into it. I got to start doing things that, more therapy, more fucking therapy, Ryan. More therapy and exercise for everybody, all around. You hear that? It works for some of us. And maybe a little bit of music here and there.
Starting point is 01:16:31 Yeah, a little music. Music does help. I always have music playing in the house. Not now because it would interrupt. Let's get into the top tier patrons. We do it every week. Ryan has just been killing it. He just knows all the names.
Starting point is 01:16:44 Do you want to skip it this week? Do whatever we want to do. all right nancy d lea s trisha f these are patrons that give a little extra and they get the top tier and they get their names right off sarah v little isa ukeko jill yukiko's back wasn't eukiko gone for a minute maybe not jill e b brian h mama lauren g neko p jerry w robert l jason w apophian christin k amelia o alison l roj c j j j j p let's see the random ryan there random Ryan. Samantha M. Jennifer N. Stacey L.
Starting point is 01:17:22 Jann S. Jamal F. Janelle B. Kimberly Oh, E. Correct. Mike E. Eldon Supremo, 99 more. Amira. Santiago M. Sarah F. Chad, W. Leon P. Janine R. Ray. A. Gosh, you're good. Maya P. Maddy S. Shannon D. Matt W.
Starting point is 01:17:38 Belinda N. Kevin V. James R. Chris H. Dave H. Spider-Man. Chase. Sheila. G. Brad. D. Wow. Ray H. T. T. T. Tom N. Lillianna A. Michelle. Kay. Michael S. Talia M. Betsy D. Claire M.
Starting point is 01:17:54 Laura L. Chatt L. Rochelle, Nathan E. Marion. Meg. C. K. Damn. Janelle P. Trav L. Dan N. A Jedda. Ajetta. Lorraine G. Carrie H. Veronica K. K. Big Stevie W. Kendall T. Carol D. Angel M. Riannan. C.
Starting point is 01:18:13 Yes. Corey. L. K. K. Close. winner off. Super Sam. Good. Emily C. Coleman G. Dev Nexon, Michelle A, Liz L, Jeremy C, Andy T, Cody R. Sebastian. That's a tough one. I was going to say K again. Yes.
Starting point is 01:18:33 Holy shit, Gavinator, Ann H, David C, Elliott M, John B, Brandy, D. Yvore, Camille S. Bon Jovi. Bono. Bono. Bon Jovi. The C. Joey M. P. T. Scarborough, P.T. Scarborough, and Willie F. You were my top tier patrons. I couldn't do the show without you. You give back. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. I certainly did. I'm Michael Rosenbaum from the Hollywood Hills of California. Hollywood Hills. I'm Briteeus. Nice to see, everybody. Wait into that camera, Ryan. As we always do, we love you. Thank you for allowing me to be inside of each and every one of you. I appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast. All right. Hi, I'm Joe Sal C. Hi, host of the Stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about
Starting point is 01:19:24 what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this edition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacking Benjamin's, follow and listen on your favorite platform.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.