Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - Diederich Bader

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

This episode was originally published on September 12, 2023. On this week’s episode, Craig chats with his long-time friend and “The Drew Carey Show” co-star, Diedrich Bader. To quote Craig: “Diedrich Bader, a great actor who has been in everything you’ve ever liked!” He is best known for his roles in Veep, Better Things, American Housewife, The Beverly Hillbillies, Napoleon Dynamite and many, many others. EnJOY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. I was dead for 11.5 minutes. And returned. It's a miracle I was brought back. Alive Again, a podcast about the strength of the human spirit. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand

how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

Listen to absolute season one Taser incorporated on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott and this is season two of the World on Drugs podcast. Last year a lot of the problems of the drug war this year a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast, season two, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is me, Craig Ferguson.

I'm inviting you to come and see my brand new comedy hour. Well, it's actually, it's about an hour and a half and I don't have an opener because these guys cost money. But what I'm saying is I'll be on stage for a while. Anyway, come and see me live on the Pants on Fire tour in your region. Tickets are on sale now and we'll be adding more as the tour continues throughout 2025 and beyond. For a full list of dates go to the Craig Ferguson show.com. See you on the road my dears. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name

of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. Here's Diedrich Bader, a great actor who's been in everything you've ever liked. I'm not kidding. Listen to this. Enjoy. When, Diedrich, when I was... Yes. I knew it! Yeah, it's not about me. It's about you. It's about you.

And I'm just... Yeah, we'll see. No, it is. Because I want to tell, I want to start with this. Because when we were working together on the Drew Carey show and you were playing Oswald Lee Harvey, which is still maybe the best name for a character. It's stupid. I think it's great.

You kind of laugh every time. Because it's funny. It's stupid and funny. Stupid and funny gets funnier the longer you say it. So true. But Oswald Lee Harvey, which is on a par with Count Alucard as a stupid name. But you were playing that. Fair fairly early on in the run. Now I'm going to say, cause you were the only person that I'd heard of when I started that show. Cause you had done the Beverly Hillbillies. You played Jethro in

the Beverly Hillbillies and you were really good at it. Well, thank you. And that was a hit movie, wasn't it? No, that was a bomb. Otherwise I wouldn't have been on the Drew Carey show. I'd be a major movie star. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, you can be a movie star and be in a bar.

You are a movie star. You're in everything. No, it didn't make enough money to be attractive to hire me. Success breeds success. And people only want to be associated with success. Yeah. That may explain my life a little bit My friends so people I see that's why I have no friends

But you you only want to have heard of and I remember do you remember when we did the full Monty episode of the Drew Carey Show, yes, of course, and we all got naked. Yes, and episode of the Drew Carey show. Yes, of course. And we all got naked. Yes. And then we went to Las Vegas and Tim Allen's plane. Yes. And everyone got trashed.

I got incredibly trashed. You were the drunkest. I like, I remember I'm saying this and I'm Scottish. You're one of the drunkest people I've ever seen. The fact that I could stand was. I was amazed at how drunk you were. Yeah. But you were like walking around being loud with very staring eyes.

You were very staring, dancing. And then you threw a plastic bottle. I was remembering that this morning. Yeah, you threw a bottle off the like the top floor of a hotel and it landed on the swimming pool. Three stories up. Oh, it was enormous. I was like, if that, and I remember saying to Cathy, who was the only other person not

drinking, I was like, that could have killed someone, Kathy. She said, I know. And then we agreed, we were the lamest people in Las Vegas. I was so fucking dumb. You totally took care of me, by the way. There's no way I would have made it into a hotel room. I was scared.

We slept together. We didn't? I mean, there wasn't a lot of sleep in the set. Nobody slept in that. I think I slept a little bit. Yeah, you slept a couple hours. Yeah, but I mean, how did you guys do that, given the fact, no one was on cocaine as far as I knew,

or were you guys on cocaine? Oh, no. No, so I- Drew wasn't into drugs. He was just booze. No, he was just a boozer. And not much of a boozer, really. No, he was kind of a lightweight, but Ryan Stiles is the Keith Richards of the...

Unbelievable. He has a hollow leg. Yeah, he can just stand and drink. Oh yeah, my problem was that time, and every time you did see me drunk was when I tried to keep up with Ryan. I'm not blaming, I take responsibility for how much I drank, totally, but... I don't see, I remember you being drunk that much. Couple of times. No, but every time that I was-

Every time you were drunk, it was right and false, is what you're saying, right? No. It's that I was trying to keep up with him. Yeah. Just as kind of a guy thing. And once you get into it, then you're like, and then he's just pouring, and he's fun.

As you know, he's really fun. He's very, very fun. But here's his trick when he gets drunk. And even when he's not drunk, he doesn't move that much. Have you noticed he just kind of- Oh my God. Stands there. That's totally his trick when he gets drunk and even when he's not drunk, he doesn't move that much. Have you noticed he just kind of stands there? That's totally his trick. Yeah, his trick is he doesn't try and move his legs, arms or even face.

He just like says funny things, raises his eyebrows a little bit. And it's hilarious. It's funnier. And he's very improv-y. Yeah, he's very good at that. Yeah, he's very good. Did you do that improv? whose line is it anyway? I never did, but I will say the funniest comedic improvisation that I have ever seen,

and I've seen a lot, was when we had the final Drew Carey show dinner and you were invited. We had it on La Cienega at some fancy restaurant. Oh yeah. They got like a private room. It was a private room. And it was at the end of the ninth season, which you were not on. I wasn't on that. I was already making saving grace. You were amazing that you showed up.

But at that point, the cast had gotten so fractious. Only Ryan and I were speaking to each other. I think Kathy and I were still speaking. No, no, no. But I mean, as far as everybody that was there, like, we were still talking to Kathy, but there was a lot of accrimony. It was tense. It was like family at that point. It was like family. That's my point. And, Craig, you were so funny. There was something about the awkwardness of the situation. You literally were the funniest person.

Dulce speaks about this, my wife, speaks about this all the time. Really? As being the funniest comedy set anyone has ever done. Because there was something about the awkwardness of it that sparked you. And everything we said that was passive aggressive to each other, you picked up on and made a joke out of. And it was hilarious.

It was like you were trying to make things better. That's exactly like my family life when I was a kid. You were just trying to make things better. I was just trying to make things better. I swear to God, passive aggression is the Scottish thing. So it's like, well, and the interesting thing is I also don't remember my childhood Oh, and I was sober. Yeah, right. It's that most of your childhood. Well, not all of it My childhood your child is very different though. You're like you're DC, right?

You're like government family and what your father a spy or something. Yeah, I guess I can say that now Yeah, he was in the CIA and he was in the CIA, right? Yeah. And he was chief of staff at the Center for Foreign Relations Committee. He ended up being assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration. So was he like, did he do black ops and stuff like that? Was he, you know, away from home? He did go away from home.

All of the stuff that he did in the field was before I was born. Right. All of the stuff that he did in the field was before I was born. But then he always kept a hand in and he, oddly enough, he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, better known as the Church Committee, and really went after the CIA. And because he was in the CIA at one point, he was able to use his contacts for those that were within the CIA who were upset with the way the agency was going. So the implication being that there is some corruption in the intelligence community?

Because I frankly find that hard to believe. That anywhere that humans have power that there would be any kind of form of corruption is unbelievable to me. Yeah, and I think his greatest like claim to fame, the thing that was brought up in his obituary was that he was the person that supplied Senator Fulbright, the senator from Arkansas, with the information about the Gulf of Tonkin which made Robert McNamara retire, that it was a lie. Wow. That was in his obituary. So that I mean that's a very impressive resume and a very kind of specific world.

Yes. And I was always kind of intrigued as how you, why you weren't drawn into that. It feels like the gravitational pull of that kind of thing would be very strong. Were you tempted at that point? No, I was never tempted. I think because I saw how the sausage was made. Right.

The thing that it did prepare me for in Hollywood was something that you had alluded to earlier in this podcast, which is the cyclical nature of a career. Right. The shifting sands. My dad liked to call it the magic hat. So if you have the magic hat on, everybody loves you. Yeah. But it's not you, it's the hat.

Yeah. And that's very Hollywood. That's Hollywood., it's the hat. Yeah, that's very Hollywood. That's Hollywood. It really is as well. But I mean, your career is, I mean, you have had a stellar career. Thank you. I was quite jealous as I watched you go. How was that even possible?

You have an amazing career. You were on great shows. You're on Beep, which is an amazing show. You're on BoJack, which is like seminal. Yeah, that was great. It's like rewriting the whole game. That's a truly great show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is it something? And I would say Better Things was also, I don't know if you saw it, but Better Things is also a good show. I did not see Better Things actually. So I'm very proud of it. Better Things is a very solid, beautiful show. So the kind of thing that,

there's always been a great depth to your work, which I don't think you were used, and I feel this a little bit, a couple of actors actually, I didn't see that you getting used that and I feel this a little bit, a couple of actors actually, I didn't see that, you getting used that way in the Drew Carey show when you were playing Oswald Lee Harvey. It was a very, it was a fun show,

but it was kind of two dimensional in many ways. Oh no, it was entirely two dimensional. Yeah, we were like hot house flowers. We weren't real people, we were just vehicles for jokes. That said, I totally enjoyed it. Yeah, me too. Well, not totally, but a lot of it. I think I enjoyed it more than you did.

I think you probably did. I think that it's funny. I remember... And I don't think it was because of the size of the part. You had a good part and you were a rock solid performer. Like, you fucking kicked ass every week. And it, like, rock star every week. So I don't think it was the size of the part. I think it's because you were more ambitious than me. Definitely.

I was. I don't think I still suffer from that, but I did have that then. I think at the time. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And from my perspective, I'm not speaking for you. No, I think you're right.

I think that I was looking at you guys and I felt like you were all doing better than me, which is what ambitious people always think. Yeah. It was like, everybody's doing better than me. Yeah. And it's so true. It is.

It's like, it's fucking stupid. Yeah. And then like after I had gotten maybe, I don't know, I was about 18 months into the doing the late night show and I ran into, I think it was Jerry, the director, Jerry used to do the show and he said, wow, yeah, if ever a guy, you know, it was him and Drew, said, if ever a guy needed a show with his name on it, it's you, Craig.

And I went, really? So I'm standing next to Drew Carey from the fucking Drew Carey show for nine years. He's like, yeah, it's different. I went, no, I don't think it's any different at all. No, it's not. I was though, you didn't suffer from that ambition. Did you not feel that?

Like, I mean, you were coming off like the Beverly Hillbillies, a big giant movie. Did you not feel, was your ambition not burning hot at that point? Well, I was disappointed by the reaction of the Beverly Hillbillies. I thought I was going to be a movie star for a brief time. And then I dipped back into television, frankly, because I ran out of money. And then I only did the Drew Carey show because I was trying to drive, I never told you this story. No, I don't know this story.

So the Drew Carey show was my second pilot of the season. I was on the revamping of Margaret Cho's show, but then about, I didn't believe in the show, about halfway through the show, my agent like came and said, I have to go. And I was like, Well, the Drew Carey show or the Margaret Cho show? Margaret Cho show.

And I said, how do I get off this show? And he goes, you're halfway through the pilot. I was like, yeah, this is really a mistake. Everybody knows it. And he goes, okay, well, so we're going to second position with something. So I was like, okay, great. And I tested for a pilot called Partners.

Tate Donovan did it and John Cryer got my part. Okay. But anyway, they low-balled me over at Sony. I'm working for right now, actually on Lucky Hang. You know what? They totally low-balled me. I'm working for them too. Sony's great.

Yeah, yeah. They're my favorite people. Yeah, yeah. Love it. But they totally low-balled me. And so I called my agent and I was like, that's, I mean, our quotas are, I mean, they just have the quote and they're not coming back. And he goes, well, you know, you got to get something else and we'll just fight them off.

You use it as a bargaining chip? Yeah. So he goes, there's this show, a standup. Have you heard of Drew Carey? And I was like, no, no. And he goes, well, he did well on this other standup show. I said, I don't watch that standup show. And I was such a TV snob.

If you remember, like I'm much better now that I have kids and it's like, you are one of the people that I would say grew the fuck up since I met them. I mean, you are honestly, I mean, you were never, but you were always a very nice man. But no, you were, but like you grew up. It's so patently obvious. Like when you had your kids, you're like, Oh no, wait a minute. Yeah. It's an old reset fucking button going on. Anyway, so I went on the Drew Carey show pilot and they wanted to test me. So we put them against one another and Sony did come up to my quote and so did the Drew Carey show, but, and I just showed up for the test and I did it like

blah, blah, blah, because my test for the Sony thing was the same day. So I just was like, okay, yeah, this is the morning thing. And then I'm gonna go, like some people would have a cup of coffee and a shit. And I was like, I'm gonna test for a show. But the new carry show was kind of like a cup of coffee and a shit was the whole idea of the show. The whole process, yeah.

The circle of life. So, and then I went off to the Sony thing and then I didn't get the Sony thing and I got the Drew Carey show. And my agent called me to tell me I got the Drew Carey show and I yelled at him. I was like, what have you done? Jesus.

That's crazy. And then the show was a hit. Yeah. Nine years. It's crazy. I didn't do the last year. I didn't do the first year either. You didn't do the first year.

Yeah. I joined after that. I was only meant to be in for like three episodes or something. The first year wasn't good and I hope I'm not crushing fans of the show, but I really didn't like the show. I actually tried to get off the show. Right. In my defense, I had done seven pilots before the Drew Carey show. So I thought I'll just get another show.

Right. And I'll be fine. Back. Oh my God. Thank God they didn't let me out. It's the hat. It's the magic hat. Back. Oh my God. Thank God they didn't let me out. It's the hat. It's the magic hat. It's the magic hat. So yeah, they didn't let me off and I wasn't crazy. I loved Drew and I loved Ryan and Kathy was great.

But I didn't love the scripts. I didn't love my part. And I thought this is to speak to what you were saying about the ambition. I thought like I'm a second banana on a show. I should be the first banana. And I should get off the show. Bruce didn't let me off the show. And I'm very grateful for that because- Bruce Helford who was the show runner.

Yeah. The second year of the show was so much better. And I was trapped. Yeah. And also I had arrived and then everything was great. And you had arrived. And I'm not joking about that. It actually made the show happen

because you were a great antagonist to him. It made his work sheer fucking hell. You're right. There's more sticks to throw at the protagonist. The voiceover thing, it's nothing against Kevin Pollock. He's fantastic. He's a great actor, Kevin Pollock.

Yeah, he's great. But he was a voice. And we saw him at the end of the first year. It was a dumb gimmick. Well, he was, yeah, if anyone doesn't know, he was Drew's voice. He was Drew's boss in the first year of the show. But you never really saw him. It was just on a kind of like speakerphone.

That's right. And then he turned up for the last episode. But at that time, and Kevin said this to me himself, he said I was too expensive at the time. They couldn't afford me. So I was doing a lot of movies. Yeah. He was I was too expensive at the time. They couldn't afford me. So I was doing a lot of movies. Yeah. And he was a legit movie star at the time.

Yeah. I think they offered Mr. Wick to, uh, Hugh Laurie as well. No kidding. Yeah, I believe so. And I think you said, no, I, I'm better than that. That would have been a mistake. I don't know.

I think he'd have been pretty good. I think he's amazing. Yeah. But I think that that wouldn't have worked. I think that you were personality wise. I think what happened for me, the Drew Carey show was at its best in that second, third, fourth. Those are the best years. Yeah. When we were like doing the live episodes and doing the like big musical numbers and all that. And also the episode that you were talking about, the Full Monty episode, that's an excellent episode.

It's a great episode. Yeah, it's a really good. In that scene when we're all on the couch and you come in and you talk about your addiction to the ponies and Oswald thinks that you sleep with ponies. It's pretty good. It's so dumb. Remember John Carroll Lynch and Drew dancing to the harp music to Wendy as well. It's like, and, but these, you look at John Carroll Lynch as well, that guy who's gone

on to like direct these like serious movies and he's like big. And you've done that too. You carved a legitimate career after, after the, after the show. I think, it's true. But none of us were part of that kind of whose line improv world. I mean, Ryan did it. It was kind of Ryan and Drew really were whose line. Really Ryan.

That's what they said. Drew was funny because he laughed. Drew was funny because he laughed and he liked being around everybody doing it. He's genuinely fun guy. Yes, he's a nice guy. But Ryan's the improv genius. Oh my God, he's a genius. He's truly incredible guy. But Ryan's the improv genius. Oh my god he's a genius. Yeah. He's truly incredible. No they asked me to do the

show a number of times. I'm sure they asked you as well. No I don't think they ever did ask me to do it. Or maybe they asked me to do it once. I'm not sure. I like, because I'm Scotty, they never asked me and they lived to regret it. But I don't think they did. And they probably... I'm fine in the dark. Sitting in the dark. They never asked me. But I think they probably did ask me. Yeah, I'd be shocked if they didn't. I don't know.

I was never that comfortable and weirdly enough for what I did later on, I was very uncomfortable with improv. Very uncomfortable with that group improv. I always felt I can't really do this. It is a different beast. It is. Yeah.

I mean, did you like, did you like the experience of doing it? One of my favorite parts about acting is knowing what I'm going to say. Yeah. Isn't that great? I love it. Yeah. I don't know what I'm going to say right now. Yeah.

And so it's a little unnerving, but if you get to practice what you're going to say, and do it in a high voice, do it. This is my preparation for life. Seeing what you're actually saying as opposed to what you're saying, all of that, all text analysis, all that kind of stuff you can really dive into, that doesn't happen in life. In life we just blurt it out. I think I just realized why you've done so well as an actor, because you say words like text analysis and stuff like that. I'm like, oh God, he's a fucking real actor.

Forgo he's a proper actor that does things. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network hosted by me, writer and historian, Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Rinella.

I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser, Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser, Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy.

I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that western box. And return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating.

Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple. To find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit,

and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I think everything I might've dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop. It's Black Music Month and we need to talk is tapping in. I'm Nailah Simone breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that

shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, cause I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too. So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is, and they're starting to be like,

yo, your dad's like, really the GOAT. Like, he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me. Just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good.

Like, that's what's really important, and that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better. So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast

Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, this is Craig Ferguson, and I want to let you know I have a brand new stand-up comedy special out now on YouTube. It's called I'm So Happy, and I would be so happy if you checked it out. To watch the special, just go to my YouTube channel, at The Craig Ferguson Show, and it's right there. Just click it and play it, and it's free. I can't, look, I'm not going to come around your house and show and it's right there. Just click it and play it and it's free.

I can't look, I'm not going to come around your house and show you how to do it. If you can't do it, then you can't have it. But if you can figure it out, it's yours. I've trained. You had, did you train? Yeah, I trained and trained. Where did you go? I went to North Carolina School of the Arts.

That's Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That's pretty fancy, isn't it? It's fancy dance. Yeah. So did you come to Hollywood straight after that or did you go to theater? I was going to go into theater and then I got a pilot in between my sophomore and junior year, a Western. We were on vacation in Santa Fe, met a casting director at a dinner party, short story, long story short, I got cast in this pilot and then...

In a Western? In a Western. That's my fucking dream. It was really fun. Honest to God, I was going to be a stage actor before that time. But it was so much fun to dress up like a cowboy. And that was sag. And a lot of my friends that had graduated who I thought were much more talented than

myself that were in New York and trying to be stage actors. We're having a very hard time. It's very difficult, this stage world, I think. It's even more clicky than Hollywood, I think. It is. My father's idea was that I move out here, because I'm already SAG, go like Stalin, do a five-year plan, and then move to New York, if it doesn't work out.

And I thought that was a pretty good idea, so I did that. So your dad, who's this very interesting government figure, was cool with your going into show business? It was his idea for me to drop out of North Carolina School of the Arts and just get started. See, he was kind of out of the box thinker then, wasn't he? Yeah, and I think he knew me. Yeah.

And he knew that I was going to be on. I mean, his thing when he brought up the idea, he said, you know, you've got a job at a dinner party. I was going to be on. I mean, you know, his thing, when, you know, when he brought up the idea, he said, you know, you've got a job at a dinner party. I think you'll be okay. And then he paid my rent for the first two years, which really, really helped. That does help. So yeah, because I didn't need to get a straight job. I worked enough where I could feed myself.

This is after the first three or four months when I tried to make it completely on my own. And I had trouble at the beginning. I got a job in two weeks, my second pilot, but I went through the money really, really fast because I thought I was made. I thought I paid my dues. It had been two weeks. Yeah. You know, that's a common thing though.

They used to say like the best time to buy a house in LA is just after the TV season starts and shows get started getting canceled and the actors who thought that they were gonna be on. Yeah, no I just burned through it. Yeah. And you know I bought every type of thing that you could put into your body and as you know like you run out of money really quick. Yeah but you were never like a druggie around. No just weed and a lot of booze.

Yeah, I never even saw you with much in the way of weed. Not like the way weed is. Now like the entire, America smells like weed. All the time, I know. Well, I just shot in Vancouver. The Vancouver is so much weed, like I smelled cigarette smoke and I was like, what the hell is that? Yeah, it's weird.

It's like a flashback when you smell just tobacco. Yeah. I mean, New York smells like weed. Most of LA smells like weed. Chicago, Denver. Yeah. Oh my God. That's just like, you can get high just going there.

So you get off the plane and you're like, ah. The reason that you didn't see it was that I quit. I had told Dulce when we first really got together. My wife of 26 years. I was going to say you guys got married when we were doing Drew Carey, right? That's right. Yeah, between the first, second and third season. Yeah.

She wanted me to quit and that was basically like, if we go forward, because I smoked a lot, she just like put her, it was basically like. She's a very sensible person. Yeah. I'll say I always, she's very important. One of those, I mean, look, you're a mariter, you, you know her better than me. Yeah. But she always seemed to me to as someone who had their shit together.

That was kind of like an impressive, Yeah. kind of organized person. More than anyone else has helped me with my career because of just not just being encouraging, but also pushing me in a way and disciplining me. See, I think that that is very important in a career because I was much more scattershot

and much more ambitious until I met Megan, who we've been together 18 years, and you knew me before that. And all I could think of was that success must be, it must be success, and success is a big hit and money. It's not creative fulfillment, it's not, there's no other side to it. It's a two dimensional thing. It's a one or a zero. And I understand that though. Yeah. I think for young people, I think it's okay. And also it's, it's what

Hollywood tells you. Yeah. There was somebody I talked to, I think it was Peter Medack. Do you know the director Peter Medack? I know his name. Peter, he directed a lot of episodes of The Wire. Yeah, that's what I saw. But he made a couple of great movies, a movie about the craze, and he made a movie called The Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole back in the day. Oh yeah.

It's a great movie, right? Oh, it was fantastic. I think that's his first movie. Yeah, oh, no kidding. Yeah, and he's Hungarian. Imagine your first movie. And he talks like, you know, sort of, for my purposes, he talks like, you know, sort of for my purposes, he talks like a,

you know, an old Nazi from a 1950s movie. He doesn't talk like this at all, but a sort of version of this. He's like, well, you know, see, as the singer's Craig, you know, the movie Twister makes $150 million. So the movie Fanny and Alexander makes, I don't know what, $50. Therefore the movie Twister is a better movie than Fanny and Alexander. Yes or no? Of course the answer is no. And you get the, I like guys like that. I like guys like that who, who kind of see it. And I think that that comes with age and experience and wearing the hat and not wearing the hat.

So that's right. Yeah. Do you, do you- It's best if you have a career where you have worn the hat and then you don't wear the hat and then somebody gives you with a hat again. Yeah. And that's when you're really appreciative of the house next to have it back. Yeah. I think of it. It's kind of like the, the Sean Connery, Zardo's, Zardo's.

Yeah. We bring it up all the time. Yeah. But with Zardo's, but that's like Sean Connery. Yeah, yeah. And yet he's in a mankini at one point. He must have been thinking, what the fuck is happening? We're in a fucking mankini.

It's a mankini. I have a fucking zardoz. Now I know that some people love the movie Zardoz, but I don't think Sean loved it. We were talking about Sean Connery the other day. We totally were. Right. Because you met him and I met him. When did you meet him? I met him at an awards thing.

He was getting a lifetime award. This is during the, right before The Hillbillies came out and I had a publicist because it felt like I should. Right, okay, I understand. And so I went to a bunch of parties and one of them was this award that he was given. And F. Maria Brown told the story about the director of Name of the Rose who was supposedly very abusive to basically everybody in the crew and the actors and really just awful and would lose his shit continually,

which is really a terrible thing for a director. Yeah, it's a terrible thing for a director. You're the one who's supposed to be in control. That's the idea. You're not allowed to do that. You shouldn't even raise your voice. You really shouldn't. No. But anyway, Connery said nothing through the entire time to this guy.

He just did his job and he talked to the actor. He was fine, but he just did his job. He didn't say anything to the director. And then the director took a big stick and was about to hit a horse that wasn't doing what he wanted the horse to do. A horse? Right.

And Connery grabbed his wrist and pushed it down. And you could tell that the director really was like fighting, but he's a big fella Mr. Universe. Yeah, so he's holding him down. He goes not the horse Line you just yeah, okay just away, mr. Connery I Was telling you my wife we had only been dating a short period of time and I had to give an award to Sean at something Hollywood do.

Yeah, he's giving them an award all the time. Yeah, he was getting them every week. And I was giving them this award, I gave them the award and then we get introduced afterwards and Megan's wearing her dress and went over and I said, yeah, he said, Craig, it's very nice to meet you. Thanks for the award. That was really very pleasant, what you said. Thank you. And I said, thank you very much Sean. This is my wife Megan and he said very nice to meet you Megan and her tits blush

Physically, I don't even know that tits could blush. She just went oh And they lit up like it was fucking Halloween I like I didn't even know these things could do that. She went well well, they don't do it for you, but that's Sean Connery. I was like, oh my God, he could make women's tits blush. Yeah, that's quite a sky. He was fucking great. For me, he and Billy Connolly were kind of like the Jackie Robinson thing. Do you know what I mean? What did you watch when you were a kid and you go, I want a piece of that. I want to be able to do that. My origin story is that we were living in Paris. My dad was a European, we were living in Paris. We were, he was a European representative for the Ford foundation. This is shortly after

he brought down Robert McNamara. He was told to basically get out of town. Not only can you not have the hat, but you better get the fuck out of town for a while. Yeah. You really lost the hat. Yeah. It just rolled down the street. You're not going to get that hat. He ended up being fine.

But yes, he was definitely out. But anyway, I basically just learned English. I was little and then there was French. And so I was really deeply alienated by the whole thing and kind of a troubled little kid, little loner, weird kid. What age are you at this point? I am about three and a half, four, three and a half, four. And my mom paid for my siblings to take me to the movies.

And I very quickly figured out that that was the deal because my sister would bring all of her stone friends and they would you know we would go see Fred Astaire movies which I totally love but I really love Charlie Chaplin. How interesting. And there was something about the combination of the pathos the physical comedy and just the warmth. Yeah. That I really love the sweetness. Now a lot of people think it's too treacly. Buster Keaton is probably for the hardcore fans, and I'm a huge fan, don't get me wrong, but for the hardcore fan, he's just comedy. It's very little sentiment.

But for me, I love the sentiment. It was a little kid, and the first one I saw was the kid. So I was like, this guy's a cat, right? I could hang with this guy because he hangs out with kids in a non-creepy way. I worked up a little Charlie Chaplin act in my room and then I guess about a year later we went to the theater. My fake auntie, Auntie Sher took me and this is my favorite. Wait, who is the fake auntie?

You know, my mom's best friend. Oh, your mom's friend? That kind of thing? Oh yeah, I got that. But anyway, she took me to this one theater that I love the most because there was a live musical accompaniment. The guy improvised music to whatever was playing. It was my favorite because it was just like being in the theater in the original songs.

This is weird because, I mean, this sounds like you grew up in the 1920s in Paris. This is like, this is what 1970s? 70s, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, 70s, somewhere in there. Anyway, so the film burned, got caught and burned. It went on fire?

Yeah. And everybody booed and the lights came back on. Right. And I ran in between the audience and the screen, because nobody booed Charlie Chaplin. Like I just wasn't going to allow that to happen. So I jumped in between and I did my little Charlie Chaplin act, the organ player played. And you did it for the audience?

I did it for the audience. The French audience. French audience. And were they good? Did they love you? I got a standing ovation. Jesus, that is so great. Now, I think we have to make a movie of your life because that is such a great origin story. Don't you think?

It's crazy. It's lovely. Yeah, it's funny. Yeah. Do you actually have memory of it? I mean, do you? I, you know, there's so many questions about recovered memory. I actually did recover this memory by watching Chaplin, the biopic with Robert Downey Jr.

There is a scene in it where his mother, who was played by Charlie Chaplin's actual daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, in the movie, plays her own grandmother, who has a nervous breakdown on stage when Chaplin himself is about three or four. That's right, she was very ill. She was extremely ill. And anyway, she had a nervous breakdown on stage and everybody started to boo.

And he thought, no one is going to boo my mother. So he jumped on stage and started doing a pantomime act because he had no act. It was the only thing that he can think of. And I was sitting in the theater and I was like, she for Frank will give them, oh my God. That's amazing. Yeah, and then I remembered that.

That's amazing. I remembered. And your family remember it? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, but typical of my family, like I called my mom, I was crying. I called my mom and I go, I just want to check something because I had this incredibly powerful

experience. It was like an epiphany for me. And I just want to double check and make sure that it actually happened and that I wasn't making it up. And she went, oh, yes, yeah, yeah. And I go, did you ever think about telling me that that? She was like, oh yeah, that happened. Yeah, no, that happened.

Yeah. No, Auntie, sure. There she took you and I go, yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's what I thought. And she goes, yes, no, that happened. Do you know the story about Chaplin and Michael Kane? I, Michael Kane told me this story, which is what they were both from the area of the elephant and castle in London, like very poor slum area in London. And in the 19 late 1960s or seventies, they were knocking down, it must have been in the 70s actually, they were knocking down the elephant castle, the area in London. It was called that because it was, it was in the middle ages, it was called Longfond

de Castille, but the Londoners couldn't pronounce that. So that's hilarious. And it was a big, so they were knocking down this area and Michael, who grew up there was walking around it and you know, he thought I'll go and see it before they knock it down. So very early in the morning, one Sunday he's walking around the elephant castle. It's all kind of deserted and stuff. And he comes around the corner and fucking Charlie Chaplin is there, the old man. And he said, Mr. Chaplin, what are you doing here? Yeah, I'm doing the voice. I can't do Charlie Chaplin.

But then you came up, but he said, well, I thought I'd come around and look at the old neighborhood before they knocked it down. And the two of them, there's something wonderful about that. Two huge, huge stocks. Oh my God. And from obviously very different eras. Yeah, but still, but then walking around together, sharing a childhood. That's really fascinating.

They, both of these people, and this is kind of where I want to lead you a little bit, is that both of these people for me, I never met Chaplin, I presume you didn't either, but I've met and spent time with Michael Caine who is a fucking diamond of a human being. I've heard. He's just amazing. I'm really delighted to hear that. And what's great about him is that he's one of the few people I've met that retains the

mystique. I know how films are made. I've made them. You've made them. We've been on them. I know how the sausage is made, but he keeps the glamour. I wondered for you, is there still an area of this business, because you've, I mean, you've really grooved yourself in this game. Is there still any kind of like, you know, the feeling you used to get when you, you

would see the stars hand prints that used to, I used to kind of get that and I don't anymore. I'm like, yeah, it's the guy putting this in concrete, doesn't matter. You hear stories about people. Is there anyone who still does it for you? That I get starstruck or that I'm just overwhelmed? Maybe starstruck or just retains the mystique who kind of still has the glamour of. Either personally or, but I'm thinking more personally like interacting with people. No. No. It's funny that isn't it? No. I have yet to see the glamour of this

business. I too totally worshiped it from an outsider's perspective. Right. I used to go to Men's Chinese when I had a particularly intense audition. Yeah. Before I would go and I would stand in Jimmy Stewart's shoe prints at Man's Chinese and just you know look up at the skies and show me the magic, show me the magic. Yeah. Because he was my favorite, right? Right. Of the speaking actors. Yeah the so-called talkies. Never! But I have yet to see glamour. I mean one moment I think was fairly glamorous. In early screenings of Miss Congeniality 2,

I went to, with I'll say, I should say, we went to a theater way out in Glendale or something. I can't quite remember right now. But anyway, we went up to where the projectors were. Right. Because that's where Sandy was. And there was Sandra Bullock in the middle of the room on her phone, looking amazing and like a movie star,

waiting for the lights to go down so she could join the audience. And I think that was the one moment where I was like, that's actually pretty cool. Yeah. It's funny that it does go away. Yeah, because it's just a lot of desperate people trying to work. I just went, you know what did it to me was late night. Oh, because every night giant star comes in, not every night, but a lot of times giant stars come in, giant stars come in, giant stars come in and the douche to

mensch ratio is the same as anywhere else in the world. Yeah. It's just like, oh yeah, some guys do some guys mentions and that's just the way it is. But there are people for me still who kind of transcend it a little bit. Okay. Who's that? Well, Robin Williams did that for me a little bit, but even although we became friendly, there was a, it seemed to me he had a magic, maybe it's genius, maybe that's what it is.

It's not really about glamour and show business, but it's about the next level of real talent. Or when you see somebody doing a thing, like every now and again, I would see that I could even do it. I could do it. I'm not saying I could even do it with you, but I can do it with you. Like there were times when I would, like when I was watching BoJack, when you turned up in BoJack as the agent's assistant, I was like, Oh, that's fucking gorgeous. And it was great. It was, I mean, that show for me, I'm such a fan of that show. It's a really

great show. It's a very dark, strange ride. Yeah. I don't think there's been a darker comedy. Yeah. I mean, who was it you were working with on that? Bob, the creator of the show, and I did a show together called Save Me that was a total piece of shit. And he knew it at the time and I knew it at the time, but he couldn't say anything, but I just talked about it all the time. LAUGHS

So he appreciated that and couldn't wait to get you into it. Yeah, when he had his own show, then he brought me in and he was like, your candor was so, like, refreshing that there was somebody who knew that they were on a piece of shit while they were in it. And... It was one of those shows, Bojag, I thought, that you lived in terror of shit while they were in it. And, uh... It was one of those shows, BoJack, I thought that you lived in terror

of your name turning up in it. Oh, yeah, right. Because you skewered everybody. Yeah, mine did. Oh, really? Yeah, I was watching it one day. I was like, I think it's like, it's deep into the season with BoJack's way off base.

And the reporters are looking for BoJack. And they go to an AA meeting and they say, have you seen any celebrities at an AA meeting? And somebody goes, I thought Craig Ferguson was here once. And the reporter says, ah, trying to be swanked by association, are you? And I was like, whoo, that's not bad. For a Bojack- Especially since you're not anonymous, you're recovering and you're pretty clear about it.

Well, I am, but the AA thing is anonymous and I don't, I can and wouldn't speak about that. Of course, but what I mean is that he picked the one like, uh, who's in recovery, who was up clear about it. And then there was a whole bunch of people after that as well. People were like, yes, where? He just ran a list of fucking douchebag fucking celebrities that have gotten sober, me included. And, and I kind of loved it, but as, as a skewering, it wasn't bad. It was, it wasn't a skewering at all. It was okay.

The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Ronella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves.

So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser, Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy.

I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box. And return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating, which I was dead for 11.5 minutes.

My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple, to find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off.

Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit, and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I think everything I might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop. It's Black Music Month and we need to talk is tapping in. I'm Naila Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack

of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, cause I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too. So his friends are starting to understand

what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the goat. Like he's a legend. So he gets it. What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family? It means a lot to me, just having a good catalog

and just being able to make people feel good. Like that's what's really important and that's what stands out, is that our music changes people's lives for the better. So the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that, I'm really happy, or my family in general. Let's talk about the music that moves us to hear this and more on how music and culture collide.

Listen to we need to talk from the black effect podcast network on the I heart radio at Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I think if you're an actor the way you're an actor, which I admire greatly, is that I don't see you being you everywhere. Well, I don't think I'm me anywhere. I hope not. I'm really trying to be somebody else every time. I work really hard at that in breaking up my own rhythms and try to pick up the rhythm with the writing. I really work hard on that. I mean that's why I mean some people don't even know

I'm in Napoleon Dynamite because yeah. God, have you still got those pants? Everybody else. My one regret in show business is that I didn't keep the pants. They're the greatest fucking pants I've ever seen. I picked them out of a lineup. Jerusha, who was also the co-writer, but was the wife of Jared, the director, was also the costume director. That's how small this crew was. It was a pretty little budget movie. Right.

She sold me three different pairs of pants and I was like, no, that was... The stars of Stranger Things. They are amazing. So, but is that a thing that you do when it comes to like publicity? Because you're happy you're sat here and this is you, I know you. Yeah, oh yeah, I know. But I haven't seen you do a ton of, like you did my talk show, but I haven't seen you do a ton of them.

Do you do it on purpose or you? Not so into, I mean it's strange to say this as an actor, but I'm not so into talking about myself. I'd much rather talk about a specific project. And if I do that, then Twitter has kind of changed this. Like, I feel like I... You're quite present on that. Yeah, and also it is a side of me. It's the funnier side, the kind of goofier side.

But sometimes I open up about other things that I'm actually feeling. But most of the time I try to be light and airy. I try to be a positive force. And in Twitter, that's particularly difficult because it's a, it's a dark place. It is a, it is a dark place. It used to be, it was funny. I was talking to Josh Robert Thompson recently about the, who's the guy who did the robot and the late night show. He was fucking genius.

Yeah. And he was, we were talking about how early on Twitter was, was kind of great. It was fun. It was very light and it went very dark. And I think probably it was the politics of 2016 and that that kind of. Yeah, I think it drove that. I think it predated that a little bit, but I think as you were alluding to earlier, it's the ratio and you know, you get a lot of responses from being negative. And so people tend to

be more negative. I think just to get the attention. They equate negative attention and positive attention in the same way. It's been the same way. Yeah. I don't do that. No, no. It's so strange. Negative attention is deeply stressful. Well, because we're performers, right? So there's a part of us that wants the audience to laugh. We want that love, right? That's part of our addiction. If they don't like you, then you're out of business.

Exactly. And it's also like, if we were to stand on stage and people were to literally boo, and we got the same feeling out of that, that would be strange. That would be bad. Thank you so much. Bless you all for coming. Hang him. Throw cabbages. Yeah, exactly. I, Louis, obviously this is, if it was a visual medium, I would have thrown a cabbage there. Yes, of course. So I had to say no cabbages. Yes, of course. What about directing? Oh, sometimes I think about it, but other times I'm just so satisfied with what I

do. Yeah, I think I'd like you to think about it more. Really? Yeah, because you have a very good personality for it. Oh, I mean, even talking about it, like, first of all, you're positive, right? And you also, you see things and you do things like text analysis, which a lot of fucking directors could do well doing that. Yeah. But I think also you have this thing. I'm going to do a massive name drop right now.

Okay, fantastic. All right. So I was directing this movie and I did a very bad job on it, but I was going to do a massive name drop right now. Okay, fantastic. All right. So I was directing this movie and I did a very bad job on it, but I was talking to Warren Beatty before I had lunch with Warren Beatty. Boom. Yeah, yeah, there he goes. And I had lunch with Warren Beatty because somebody had set us up on a lunch so he could

help me because I was in the movie and I was directing the movie and so he was, I said, I need to talk to Guy. He's supposed to be astonishingly bright. He's amazing. Yeah clever man. That's what I've heard hits on every waitress that serves Fucking ridiculous like Gene Simmons. Yeah, it's crazy Even knows he's doing it. He's like, yeah, you know, you look fabulous. This is the greatest omelet I've ever seen You know, you look fabulous. This is the greatest omelet I've ever seen. I was like, I forgot to say. But, um, unbelievable.

I'm like, I don't even know if he's, I don't even know. I don't think he is hitting on these people. I think he's just so kind of charmingly, anyway, whatever it is. But he, he was talking about directing the number one thing he said, don't try and impress anyone. The less you say, the more they're going to be impressed. That's interesting.

He said, because they turn, everybody turns up on the movie set and they've all got a call sheet. And on that call sheet is written, bold type right at the top, director, and then your name. So they're already impressed. All that's going to happen is you're going to disappoint. Disappoint everyone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to be like, ah, and I think that you, I wouldn't have said this about you when we were doing the Drew Carey show. I was out of control. You weren't out of control. You were younger and you were a nice guy. I don't want to hold with any idea that there was anything wrong with you. But you clearly are a human being who's made a transition, who grew up. And I think that you have stories to tell. And even when you, when you told the story of you as a little kid in Paris, that's a fine, better visual. Think about it.

Thank you. I will. All right. So when you're making your movie, I would like to be angry Parisian. I don't want these kids in my movie theater. I think it'd be fine. I think I could do it. I could grow a mustache or not, depending on what you want. Yeah. So, but just acting then you don't, you don't see it as a, that's the wrong thing.

I don't mean just acting. You, you. Oh, I know what you're saying. Right. Yeah, I know. I mean, I find my job very complex and it never gets easy in a way where I kind of stop thinking about it. I find every day interesting. And, you know, I'm on this new show called Lucky Hank and with Bob. With Bob Bublkerk and an incredible cast.

Right. And we did one episode, episode five where we're all together. It's a bottle episode for those people that aren't in show business. It's basically when the show, the studio tells you that we have no more money. And so they do an episode where everybody's caught together. Right. The snowed in episode.

The snowed in episode or something. You'll see it on TV shows all the time. In show business, they're called bottle episodes. That's the Snowden episode. The Snowden episode or something. You'll see it on TV shows all the time. In show business they're called bottle episodes. That's just the short thing. So the writers of Lucky Hank, who were exceptionally good, had all of these characters out on the show in the first four episodes and they were kind of like just a lot of strings. And you didn't know if Hank was the thing that pulled it together or why they were necessarily connected and in this one episode they just pulled the

string and they realized that it's been there the entire time and it pulls everyone together with them and there's a scene where it's 12 pages at a table and it's a long time, very long time. It's like 25 minutes. Yeah. And so we're just sitting there talking and it reinvigorated my sense of my profession and the beauty of it in one day. It was so beautiful to see all these actors interact and create something new every single take to push each other, but also push the reality of what we're making get deeper and deeper every take.

And one of the things that drives me completely bonkers about those that don't take our mutual profession seriously is when they're off camera and they stop acting. It drives me completely bonkers. Like I would prefer you not to be there and I can act to tape and I have asked this before because actors will just like you know they're just going to go there longer or whatever. So the cameras on someone else? Right. Cameras on the other actor. They're sitting off camera and for looks basically so that your look

looks like. But they're not acting and they barely know their lines or they don't know their lines and they're just reading it. It's so distracting to me that I would prefer to have a piece of tape and have the script supervisor read and I will act like it's going to be... Or a tennis ball or something like that. You're the best actor ever. I will make you look good, an honest god, but don't be here right now best actor ever. I will make you look good, an honest God, but don't be here right now because you're not doing it. And this ensemble with Bob as the lead, every single take was great. Even when it was coverage of like, you know, just one person had two cameras on them and there was their closeup and there are 10 actors in the scene. Everybody acted

their heart out. Bob was crying off camera. Yeah, that's just a waste of resources. He had already done his close-up, but somehow he tapped into something and he just kept going. He just kept tapping into it. And he was just a hundred percent there and everyone was right there. It felt magical. But that's part of the attraction, like at the very beginning for a lot of people, the attraction like at the very beginning for a lot of people. I think is the collegiate band brothers feel of what it's like to be in an ensemble cast. And when you and I were talking, going back to those early days of the Drew Carey show,

that second season, third, fourth season, run about that period, maybe the episode 25 to episode of a hundred, there was a time when I think we were in that space. I completely agree with that. I think we lost it probably about mid fifth season and then we were just doing a job. But for those, it's like the rock and roll movies when they have, you know, the band gets together and they have their peak hits and they're really great. And then they just keep playing. Yeah. And they keep playing. And. Yeah, and they keep playing.

And they keep playing and they keep playing. And then the inevitable happens. The drummer dies. Yeah, and the drummer's always going to die. But when it's good, it's really beautiful. You're like, oh, this is rock and roll. This is really good. If one person is off, the band is off.

Right. But when they're all together. It all clicks. It's clicks. It's amazing. Yeah, it's beautiful. And I think that that's kind of odd, even as a viewer, when you watch shows,

you can see like there are shows that just come out of the gate and they're amazing. And then, you know, season 10, you know, like, you know, really when they introduced, what is it? The Simpsons did the dog with sunglasses on a skateboard. Yeah. They're like, okay, right. Yeah.

Yeah. But I think that there is a kind of lie. Carrie Fisher used to say this. I think it was a brilliant thing to say amongst many brilliant things that Carrie said. She was smart. Ah, she was wonderful. Did you know her? I knew her a little bit.

Yeah, she was, she was very kind to me. When the late night show started, I had just written a book and she read it and she- American on purpose? No, before that it was a novel I wrote called Between the Bridge and the River. And it was a kind of magical realist thing. And it was like, it's never going to make any money

or anything like that, but I really wanted to write it. And she read it and she was very positive about it and really kind of introduced me in a way to Hollywood that hadn't been before. She was just amazingly supportive. Wow. And she did that for tons of people. That's so cool. Like she had this kind of like artist colony at her house and you would go up

and you'd meet like, I mean, the weirdest people, I'm like Courtney love up there. And all that's fun. You meet like not the Courtney love. Well, she is a little weird. I think I'd say that up there. Not that Courtney Love, well, she is a little weird. I think I'd say that she was here. Yeah. I don't think that's a big surprise. No, it's not. Nobody's surprised. But I just met a wild array of different people and lovely. But she said, when I put on that metal bikini when I was 24, I didn't realize I was making a pact with the universe

to look like that for the rest of my life. And I, you know, it was like, it's a moment in time. Why can't you let it be that? You know, and I think that with a sitcom when it all comes together or a movie that all comes together, that that's why, you know, when people talk about AI, I'm like, it doesn't frighten me. Cause you know, cause it's still got, there's too much A for the I to matter. You know what I fucking mean? It's like, why is it, you know, like-

Puppet shows have been around a very long time. Yeah. I think that, you know, this is going to be funny because the robot says it's funny. Good fucking luck, robot. Whitney Ballier says that jazz is the sound of surprise. And that's fucking great. I would say the comedy is that.

And Robin Williams used to say that good comedy was jazz. Now there we go. And we come full circle. Diedrich, you're a joy. It was beautiful to talk to you, man. Yeah, it was really fun. More power to you. I really look forward to seeing Lucky Hank as well.

Thank you. Well done. Thank you. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. When we step beyond the edge of what we know. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating.

Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. In return. It's a miracle I was brought back. Alive Again, a podcast about the strength of the human spirit. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeart Radioio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network.

So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war this year,

a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes, we met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.