Lovett or Leave It - Bye Bye Bondi

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Pam Bondi slinks off to the private sector, Lindsey Graham escapes to Space Mountain, and Kristi Noem’s husband has something big to get off his chest. This week, Ben Platt answers our burning theater kid questions and does his best to sort the real fools from the April Fool’s. Then Jimmy Tatro joins to put his Passover and/or Rugrats fluency to the test. And of course, we wash down those bitter herbs with a sweet glass of Second Thoughts.

In moments like these, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and even easier to feel powerless. But we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams, and on my podcast, Assembly Required, I take on each executive action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action. Not denial.

New episodes of assembly required, drop Tuesdays. Tune in wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. Hey, sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable.

Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana, give it. world. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana.

Pick up fees may apply. Love it, believe it's love it, believe it. What's up, Los Angeles? Welcome to Love It or Leave It Live It Live at Dynasty Typewriter. We have got a great show for you tonight. Ben Platt is here. Jimmy Tatejo is here. Together we'll start through April's Biggest Fools. We'll also ask, what's the deal with Pesach? And of course, we'll wrap up our show with some regret to go with our Exodus in second thoughts. But first, let's get into it. What a week.

Our cup runneth over with news. Enough to fill two big cups. You might say? That's right. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail published a report on Christy Noem's husband, Brian Noem. Revealing the former first husband of South Dakota has been leading a secret double. life. A double-D life. I'm sorry. This is serious.

Wait, it's not. According to the male, Noam reportedly paid at least three online sex workers in fetish forums over $25,000 to live out his bimbo dreams wearing a feminine outfit and fantasizing about having, quote,

huge, huge, ridiculous boobs. Meanwhile, his wife, Christy was also working with a pair of ridiculous boobs. named Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. The guard sees them. The report also had photos of Brian Nome wearing pink short shorts and a fake breastplate.

Said Brian Nome in a prepared statement, my eyes are up here. Noam reportedly used the alias Jason Jackson, but one sex worker said she butt dialed his number and heard the voicemail message, Nome insurance, leave a message. Press 1 if you're calling about a claim. Press 2 if you're calling about my giant mommy milkers.

Per the male, Brian Nome talked to at least one sex worker about his wife's long rumored affair with her top aide, Corey Lewandowski. Well, yeah, who else are you going to talk to a therapist? That would be gay. Said the woman, I asked him about it, and his response was, I know there's nothing I can do about it. To Brian's credit, that's as stoic and dignified a response to the situation as any man with big fake yobos could have.

Big, beautiful, magnificent yabos. Intelligence experts noted that Brian's behavior may have exposed Christy to the threat of blackmail. This could have been exploited by the FSB, Mossad, or worse, the notorious agents of the itty-bitty-thitty committee. After the news broke, the New York Times published a piece titled, In South Dakota, Neighbors feel sorry for Christy Nome's husband. Yeah, they feel sorry. Sorry for his lower back.

I went, oh, should we go straight? Great tour on. We bear it. This is a joy. Could you believe? Yeah, we're going to sink into it. We're going to spend some time here. Do you know the alternative news of the week?

Have you been paying attention? Yeah, we're going to do a lot of jokes about the former head of Homeland Security's husband doing funny little videos with giant yabos. Honestly, the people in Noam's hometown were actually pretty sweet about it. One resident told the Times, such a nice man, it just tears me up.

But he's fine. He's getting laughed out a little bit. he hasn't been sent to a Salvador in mega prison, and now that Christie's been fired, he never will be. When asked for an interview, Brian Nome told the New York Times, I will at some point,

but today is not the day. I appreciate your heart. Classic Brian, kicking the cans down the road. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Christy Nome told the New York Post, Ms. Nome is devastated. The family was blindsided by this,

and they asked for privacy and prayers at this time. Nome was reportedly so upset she could barely finish her Corey Loon Personally, this all makes sense to me. Christine Ome's whole thing is denying reality. This is just another reality to deny. While Christine Ome was filming a $220 million ad campaign and claiming to go after the worst to the worst,

ICE was terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike hauling families to deportation facilities and describing innocent victims of state violence as domestic terrorists without ever apologizing. As governor, she called for a drag ban on college campuses and signed a law to prevent doctors from prescribing gender-affirming care to young people. But turns out the queerness was calling from inside the house.

And this is just one example of Republicans being confronted by reality this week. Trump addressed the nation on Wednesday night, and as markets plummeted and gas prices rose, offered this. We were a dead and crippled country after the last administration and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever. Yeah, no, totally, said a long-haul truck driver, placing two cantalopes under his shirt

to see if he could convince Brian Nome to pay for a tank of diesel. Republicans, meanwhile, couldn't agree on a plan to reopen the government, and so they just fled the Capitol, declaring a two-week recess despite the fact that a bunch of federal workers from FEMA to the Coast Guard were working without pay. And I, for one, admire it. Hide from your problems. But these Republicans could hide from responsibility, not TMZ.

Here's Lindsay Graham at Disney World holding a bubble wand in a deeply forlorn photograph. Something about the shape of it felt right to him. He was like, maybe a second one? Wave him around. Lucky for him, this is the gayest picture TMZ has of Lindsay Graham. So far. Graham also attempted to do some bubble wand damage control by posting this cool picture of himself holding a gun.

But there's no shotgun on earth big enough to kill the part of him that yearns to be a princess. And so, after a lot of embarrassing coverage, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune issued a joint statement saying the House will take up the Senate bill, the one they refused to pass last week, which will fund most of DHS, but not ICE or border control. It's nice when people can set aside their differences, come together and agree on what matters. Lindsay Graham should not get to go to Disney World. Speaking of living in a fantasy, CNN reported this week that a top FEMA official, Greg Phillips, claims he was involuntarily teleported multiple times. He talked about it in a podcast appearance. We had a teleport incident, two of them, and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was. It was an incredibly frightening moment.

I tell you, teleporting is no fun. This story obviously makes no sense. you were teleported to a Wafa house, and it wasn't fun? That rules. I'm going to try to do it right now. Nothing. When confronted about this story, Philip said, quote,

haters going to hate, and added that people also doubted that Jesus rose from the dead. Happy Easter, everybody. When there was just one set of footprints in the sand, that was when I teleported. And reality came for yet another cabinet official this week. On Thursday, Trump announced that he had fired Attorney General Pam Bondi for her mishandling of the Epstein scandal and her failure to prosecute his enemies.

Yes, and a shocking development, the Epstein files, released the Attorney General. Pam Bondi didn't seem too surprised, but that's just because she has the best facelift of all time. This woman is 60. Clap it out for Pam Bondi, everyone. Insides are bad, but looks great on the outside, and that's what counts. Dorian Gray taught me that. He was so odd. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche will serve Blanche will serve as acting Attorney General in the meantime.

You'll remember Todd as Trump's personal lawyer and from the time he said this. We will always investigate any evidence of misconduct. But as you know, it is not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein. Of course, it's hard to judge that. That was from a different time, February. Anyway, good riddons to Pam fucking Bondi. Another person who made a devil's bargain without understanding what happens

at the end of a devil's bargain. And now she has all the time in the world to read her books, but her glasses are broken. Wrote Trump on social media, we love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector to be announced at a date in the near future.

So congrats to Pam Bondi from us here at Love It or Leave It on being named ABC's next Bachelor. Lorette. All right. We've got a great show for you tonight. We'll be right back with Ben Pot. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Love It or Leave It is brought to you by Thrive Market. Thrive Market is a membership-based online grocery for just $5 per month. You get access to a curated selection of organic and non-GMO brands, weekly sales, free gifts, and so much more. One annual fee, priceless piece of mind.

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Well, I mean, we're not having a second stater. Well, we're not having a second Seder, but I think first Seder counts. Did, what's I'm, what am I saying? What's who saying? What does what mean? Having a Seder? Do you know about Saters? You don't know about Sater's? Oh, wow. Okay. Okay, so basically, several thousand years ago, Jews were in the land of Egypt, and somebody tried to, get Jewish people to do contracting work for free. And so they destroy that entire society. So that's what happened. Trying to underpay a Jewish contractor

killed his family. That's the story of Passover. And then it required a miracle so Jews wouldn't have to swim. And... And here we are. Then it was hot for a while, which we've been complaining about for thousands of years. They didn't put bread on the table, which we made literally part of the Bible.

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So go to crooked.com slash friends and subscribe today. Thank you. And now, please welcome to the stage. He's phenomenal in the last five years with Rachel Ziegler and even better in the next 15 minutes with me. It's the amazing Ben Pot. Hi. Thanks for being here. Hi, Ben. How are you? It's so nice to see you. It's lovely to see you. Thanks for having me. These chairs are so nice. Yeah, they're good. So you're sitting in an interesting way. Yeah, I know. It's like that meme of giving an NYU theater student a chair and asking them to sit in it. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm just, I don't have any training. I'm just gay. Totally. That's enough. So, uh, I was talking to my partner who wanted me to make sure I say, uh, they went to Camp Ramah. Whoa. At the camper ma that still lets the kids have peanut butter.

Is there, you're not allowed to have peanut? Oh, because of the allergies. Because of all the allergies, but I think there's one that's, you know, that's still fighting the good fight for peanut butter. Was it the one in California? No, it's in Wisconsin. That's the pretty one. I think the one...

The ones in California, they can't possibly let peanut butter within 500 yards of those places. No. And there's also no lake. It's just like dry. It's chaparral. It's barely camp.

Oh. But you still had a nice experience at Camp Ramah? Totally. It's a Jewish summer camp. It's a Jewish summer camp. I totally did it other than the lack of theater.

I was pretty jealous of my friends going to like stage dormant. in French woods. You didn't have theater at camp? Well, you get to do a musical only when you're in the oldest age group, so I like sat around for eight summers waiting.

And then I did guys and dolls in Hebrew. I believe at this camp at Marma that Ari went to, they did cabaret. Whoa. Which means they did it in Hebrew, and then they all, there was a couple of little Jewish kids dressed up as Nazis running around,

and apparently the tape didn't work. I think they're like, we have to destroy this. It's like, it's camp mom's Epstein files. But when I went to summer camp, I've cool, thank God they had the musicals. And when I was having a rough summer, I had been, in previous years, I had been Oliver in Oliver.

Whoa. And I was flounder in the mermaid cat. Just, I mean, listen, you and I have both been leads and musicals. I also, yeah. I played Oliver too, just as a bit. You did play Oliver? Yeah, of course. My sister and I were double cast as Oliver.

Wow. I am really glad you didn't go to my camp. I bet. Because I bet you would have gotten it. I would. But anyway, I was having a hard time because it was a lot of basketball. And the camp called my mother

and said, the owner of the camp needs to talk to you. And my mother was like, well, what do we do? What do we do? And this guy's name was High Shmere. Whoa. Jewish? Yes. And he said, Friend for boys like Jonathan,

that's why we do the musicals. You are Oliver, for real? Yeah, of course. In my theater program when I was a kid. It's a rite of passage. Cool. Thanks. It was hard to hit those notes in Where's Love.

They go really, they go all the way up. Listen. Some people have certain strengths. I can't play sports either. Now, also, you had such a beautiful wedding. There were pictures of it in Vogueg magazine. That's right. Boy, I'm getting married.

So I've heard Mazel Tuff. How did you figure out how to hang up all those yellow curtains? I didn't do any of it myself. Have you made plans already? Well, I was like, get me those yellow curtains. I just said I handed them the picture of your wedding, and I was like, do this. That's so nice.

But make it different. So you're starting the 25th anniversary of the last five years with Rachel Ziegler at the Hollywood Bowl. Yeah, tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. We should all go. now there's not a lot of Jewish heroes in musicals. Is it your mission to change that?

I don't know about change it. I just kind of checking off all the pre-existing ones by playing them one at a time and then the list ends at like three. And how close are you to Fiddler? Well, I'm kind of caught between I'm really a muddle of the tailor but I'm maybe too old and then I'm not really a tevia for another like 20. years maybe? Even longer if you'd like, hey. Oh, thanks. Come on. You've got plenty of time.

Something to look forward to. Yeah. Thank you so much. They could age you up. They could. Here's some classical music icons. Tell us if you think they could potentially be Jewish. Okay. The Phantom of the Opera.

No, it's pretty goyish. Yeah. I just don't think a Jew would accept an apartment under round. Also, probably allergic to the fog. Yeah, it's very wet. It's very wet. Harold Hill and the music man?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, not that version of him, but yeah. Not the Hugh Jackman version. And obviously, then, there is the fiddler from fiddler on the roof. That's pretty Jewish, huh? Yeah, of course. I mean, stereotypically so, but still Jewish. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I saw you in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. Oh, Broadway. And I remember thinking, oh, he's flirting with every single person on stage, including the parents of the dead boy. Was that part of your play? You played catch with the dad of the boy that's dead. Yeah.

And it felt quite flirtatious. Was that your intent? Yes. I think just as much chemistry flowing as possible because everybody was grieving in that show. And it's a nice distraction from the grieving to have chemistry. You know what I mean? Were you aware of that? No, absolutely not.

No one's ever said this before? No one has ever said that to me before. Because I was like, I was sort of flirting with that dad. But Michael Park's really handsome. Yeah. I don't know if you know Michael Park. He played the dad. He's very handsome.

Yeah. You're also in Richard Linklater's upcoming film adaptation of Marily We Roll Along with Paul Mascall and Beanie Feldstein, which you're going to shoot over 20 years. Oh boy, what a commitment. What if you're like, ah, it might be busy in 2037. It's job security. That's true.

We've already done it three times, and we have like six more times to do it. So you do it in chunks. It's every, so it's every two years. How is it going to work? Depends on the, so the story's told over the course that many years, and there's like sequences. Sometimes the sequences are five years apart,

sometimes they're one year apart, and we're just following the map of the show. Wow. Now, it's a Sondheim musical, and I have a controversial opinion about it. Okay. Okay. And I'm going to say it. And I just before you... Just take in your audience before you.

I know, which is why I'm just, I'm going to... I know that the... this is wrong. But I want you to just, before you react negatively, let it soak in. Okay. Okay? And then react. Okay. So the musical is famously

backwards. You start at the end and you go towards the beginning. You go backwards through time. And here's my feeling, having seen it on Broadway. I think it would be better if it went in order. I'm trying to let it soak. I

would be interested on stage to see it. I mean, I think hopefully because we're doing it in real time, the backwards thing could work in a way that maybe it hasn't for you in the past. Because there'll be some real de-aging happening. But I'm, I'm, I'm, I, you know, it would be really funny to shoot it over 20 years forward and then de-age with technology. Did you see the Irishman?

Yeah, like, let's Irishman this thing. Okay, great, because that went over really well. What happens if you lose your voice on Broadway? You call out. I mean, I guess define lose your voice. Have you ever powered through when you're on the edge? Or do you, like, what do you do to get your voice in, like, if you're in trouble, what do you do? Well, a lot of boring, like, routine stuff.

Hydration and there's like supplements that I take every day. And there's things I don't eat dairy. I don't drink alcohol. Oh, no. You know, I know. Well, I don't usually dairy anyway because I'm a G like, yeah, it's not for us. Yeah, I know. But yeah, one time I pushed when I shouldn't have, and then I got a polyp. You know what that is? Like, I hemorrhaged a vocal cord. So there was like a leave liquid gel looking thing like on my vocal fold. And then I had to miss two weeks and go on silence and take a bunch of steroids and stuff. So if you, yeah, if you're feeling not up to it, you should miss one as opposed to then having to miss a bunch. But people get really mad when you miss a show. I bet. They get really mad. They do get really mad. Oh, boy, especially if they've traveled.

Especially if they travel, especially if they're tourists coming to see a Broadway show. Right. Who don't understand why you couldn't possibly just throw yourself out there. Now here's he, dear Mike Hansen. Doesn't really make any sense because the character would be the same. Sure. And Noah, your husband, also played Evan Hansen.

He did after me, yeah. Cool. Yeah. But we already had known each other for several years before that. It was just sort of a coincidence. Did that add anything sexually? I would say the opposite, yeah. Pass my test.

Thank you. I think that's good. Yeah. Hey, Wednesday was April Fool's Day. Gotcha. And so we were to see if you can tell the difference between real... Wait, what? Oh, I see.

But it feels like every day makes fools of us all. And so let's see if you can tell the difference between an April Fool's Prang. and a real thing that happened that just makes us a fool in April in a segment we're calling fools, fools, all of you. Leave everyone at home thinking, please, sir, can I have some more?

I'm going to read... I tried it out. It's from Oliver. I got it. Yeah, he got it. To-tim-back-toe, and back again. I'm going to read you a truly absurd... You ever watch the Angelouid Weber TV reality series where they're trying to cast a new Nancy and Oliver

and it's a competition to cast those two roles and every episode someone's eliminated and Jesse Buckley knew Oscar winner is one of the contestants trying to become Nancy I'm sure I do not know about this and I'm blown away by the idea that they had a group of children

part of this competition show just week by week ruining the dream of a different child and Andrew Lloyd Weber was involved yes he sits on a throne and listens to each of them sing and is like not you hey have you ever see him talk about the movie cats

and how much he hates it I just it did come across my feed very recently Our algorithms are similar. Nice to know. I bet that would make sense. Yeah, a lot of Survivor as well. Just people that are like, yeah, that's right. We both are huge fans of Survivor and musicals.

Just two people with just exciting, exciting experiences in musicals and on reality shows. So I'm going to read a truly absurd bit of news. You'll tell us if you think it's true or just an April Fool's Prank. All right? Yeah, yeah. Here we go. First up, 12 tons of Kit Katz were stolen. in a European candy heist.

I did see some jokes about this, so I know it's true. It did. It happened. A truck making deliveries from a Nestle factory was robbed. Thieves are now in possession of 413,793 candy bars. For maybe 792, you know, if you get all peckish. Kit Kat posted the social media confirming that the news was not an April Fool's joke, and they directed their customers to check the candy batch numbers, if they had a stolen bar.

Hey, how loyal do they think we are to the Kit Kat company? Like, this is a pretty transactional relationship. I'm not going to be like checking my candy bars and be like, I can't eat this. This is a hot Kit Kat. Next up, Butterfingers announced a Butterfinger top ramen collab. I think it's fake. Yeah, it was.

It was an April Fool's thing. Ryan Murphy announced that the next season of Love Story would follow the decades-long situation between Fleetwood Max, Lindsay Buckingham, played by Connor Story, and Stevie Nix, played by Billy Lord. I don't think that's real because I just think I would be too interested in that.

I know, it's too good of an idea. Yeah. It's too good idea. It is an April Fool's, but like, why? And I would have already texted my agents being like, where's my part? Yeah. Yeah, you got to be Fleetwood or Mac or something.

I'm in all denim. Yeah, you're in denim. You're born, hey, you were born for this. Thank you. You were born for this. Thank you. The Trump administration unveiled their new onlyfarms.gov. That's all?

That's it. Fake. Real. Trump administration's only farms is actually a map where users ostensibly farmers can locate their state and see on average how much they have saved based on Trump's agenda. Woof. Wolf. Only farms. Pete Higgs-eth lifted the suspension of two helicopter pilots who did an unauthorized flyby past Kid Rock's house.

True. That's true. That's true. And what? And then Kid Rock was like, this is a level of respect that shit for brains governor of California will never know. Like, what? Like, the military never does an illegal flyby

of the governor's mansion. Well, probably not, you know? I just never wanted to hear Kid Rock's name this many times. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I know. It's like how you're hearing straight about the straight of Hormuz a lot, something's gone bad, you know?

I'm not smart enough for that. I'm sorry. Straight of Hormuz. Anyway, Let's see. Oh, BJ's launched their new Pizuki or pepperoni covered cookie on April 1st. Well, I know Pizuki, and that's not a Pizzaki, I think, false.

It is false. Wait, it's true. Fuck. What? This is real? I thought it was a joke. Pazuki? Jesus Christ.

It's a dessert with pepperoni on top. How can it's all, like, weird flavor stuff? I don't know. It's just what's in the news this week. A lot about, a lot of, a lot about the about flavors what kind of food

you have at your wedding um kosher food it was kosher yeah I have some cousins that are kosher so it was kosher

but pretty good it was just like you know wedding food like big big portion stuff by kosher caterer it was pretty good

no cheese though uh yes cheese but then what about the meat separate separate so you could make your decision of what

if you wanted to have a fleaic or a very evening because my camp was kosher and the counselors would hand us a piece of American cheese and say, we're going to have burgers in a bit. So here's a cheese for now if you want it,

but there'll be burgers later. And I didn't, at the time, nobody told me how, like, kind of subtlety worked. And so I thought, so I would always eat the cheese. And then, because I'm one of the kids that would eat the marshmallow, you know. Sure. Two marshmals an hour, I don't know what an hour is going to be like. Yeah, I understand.

And so then I would just eat the cheese. And then I'd be like, oh, my God. Oh my God, cheeseburgers. I'm so stupid. At least you had the memory of the cheese. I do have the memory of the cheese. Let's see. David Busters in Hollywood

closed due to a vermin infestation. True. Yeah, that happened. That happened. That happened. Do you guys know that? What the fuck? I've been there a bunch.

Do you like David Busters? I love David Busters. We have one in Brooklyn. We have one in our neighborhood. and we have gone a few times. The one in Hollywood clothes because of rats. See, everybody thinks New York has all the rats.

It's really L.A. that has... They both have a lot of rats. I think there's plenty of rats to go along. Fair enough. You know? Yeah. California were called chocolate because it contained the ingredients

for Viagra and Cialis. True? Yes. Whoa. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? Victimless crime. What's it like to perform

at the Hollywood Bowl? Um, it's, it's cool. It's, it's, it's so large that it's a little bit impersonal because it's just like a very generalized reaction. So it's just sort of like a communal vibe as opposed to like really get feeling like you're getting individual vibe like, like emotion back. So I think it's more like communing than then like when you're inside a theater and you like get a lot of response. It feels more like everyone's having an outside picnic. Yeah, you can bring your own food. Yeah, people bring your own food there. You have a little picnic. and watch a musical. That sounds fun. Yeah, and everyone's a little liquored up, so it's like a little easier. Yeah. Because if you go to Broadway, you got to give them like $17 and then you get like, you know, like a plastic cup that you can take home. Yeah, and then you open up your cupboard and there's like a Beach is the musical cup

a couple months later. Yeah. And it's like, remember that? Sunset Boulevard. Did you see that? Yeah. It's good, right? Really good.

Yeah. Really good. It felt like the lead who was there. everyone was great, but she was doing it really campy and he was doing it really serious. You know? Yeah. You mean Tom and yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I sort of like, like that they missed each other

in that way because I feel like those characters really sort of miss each other. That's interesting. Yeah, I do think that. And I like the big screens in it because it's nice to have a screen because I know it's theater but it's reassuring to have a screen. You know what I mean? It's like, oh my God, I thought I was going to have a screen for a while. Thank God. A bunch of screens at Sunset Boulevard.

Yeah, God forbid we should have an impression. an experience. Yeah, I know. And then at that theater, I think that went. And then that was where Versailles was in the same theater. And that also used the screens, but didn't work. Catch Ben with Rachel Siegler in the last five years at the Hollywood Bowl, Friday, and at Radio City Music Hall on April 6th and 7th. So if you're in this audience, you can go tomorrow. If you're at home, you already missed it. Each shit, you missed the Hollywood Bowl. But you can go April 6 and 7 at Radio City. Yes. You know, I mean, I know we were both

Oliver, but I did this show at Radio City, so we've both done Radio City, even though I probably couldn't do the high notes. This seems much harder, though. I don't think. We'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

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Everybody needs therapy. They sure do. I was talking to a friend of mine and he's a closeted gay guy. Oh. And recently took over his dad's job. So it's a lot of stress. Yeah. You know, a lot of stress taking over.

He's got a bum leg too. Yeah, he's got some health issues. He's doing his dad's job. He's closeted gay. And it's a lot. And I don't want to obviously say anything more because I don't want to identify him because he's a closeted gay person. And also these nepo baby allegations.

It's tough. He could really. Yeah, it's a high pressure job. He can't go down the street to therapy. He's going to have to talk to someone. Yeah, local. Yeah, online. Yeah, or online for sure.

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That's betterh-elp.com slash love it. And we're back. Please walk him to the stage. He got murdered and screamed seven, but tonight he's going to absolutely kill. It's the incredible Jimmy Taitra. Hi. Thanks for being here.

I don't... Wait a second. Wait a second. There was like a thousand backstage. Wait a second. I'm sorry if it's a spoiler for Scream 7, but you get killed right at the very beginning. Ooh.

Yeah, it's a bit of a spoiler. I told my friends and family that I was the main character. Just so then when I died, they'd be like, oh, kind of funny. kind of funny. Yeah. Oh, he got me. He was the first one to die.

Yeah, that was what I did with all my friends and family when I was on Survivor, too. You beat me to it. You know what? You know, you can't, I won't let other people say mean things about me. I say it to myself first. That's smart. Same. Same.

Same. That's, it's same. Jewish. But if you haven't seen one of those movies, you would think that the first people in it would be them. It seems like I'm the main character for 10 minutes. And then quickly you're like, Oh, no. It's not going to be him. No, because he's dead. Yeah.

Well, because I saw the first scream in a, well, it was a movie theater. And Drew Barrymore, that fucked me up. I bet. That fucked me up. A lot of people that were, I was too young when I saw scream, 35. But what is it like to be killed in a movie like that? Um, it's kind of an honor. Listening to them figure out how it was going to go down was,

I was like, you guys were kind of fucked up. But yeah, I remember he was like, this guy was like, ooh, ooh, what if like he sticks it slowly in his temple? And then he just lets go of his head and it slides off the knife and ghost faces behind him. And I was like, dude, you guys, what's wrong with you? How'd they actually end up doing it? Like that. Whoa. And was that different than your experience doing theater camp together?

Marginally? A little bit, yeah. Theater camp was, there was less death. Or it was all internal. It was all internal. Yeah. There was less gore, slightly less gore. Totally.

Yeah. I thought theater camp could use more gore. I was like, this is so sweet and wholesome. I'd like to see the insides of some of these characters. I'm sorry I said that. You should see the deleted scenes, the extended cut of theater camp is... They had to cut a lot out of, like, the bad gourd, like, death stuff. Well, it was partially improvised.

You'd be surprised how many people just go there naturally. Right, right. Yes, and I'm going to kill you. Exactly. So you're also in Mike and Nick. and Nick and Alice, streaming on Hulu where you're with the great Keith David. I am. Yes, he plays my father.

Great. He plays stepfather. There's a moment where he tells me in the movie where he's like, son, I have something to tell you. And I'm like, uh, the line is like, I know I'm adopted dad. And I said the director, I was like, I feel like it'd be pretty funny.

if I was like shocked by this news. Like if I was just gobsmacked. Like what? He didn't like it as much as I did. You have such a deep voice. Do you sing? I don't sing. No.

No. I do voice stuff. Well, we all do that. Yeah, I guess. As it came out of my mouth, I was like, this is technically voice stuff. No, I don't sing. That's too bad.

Hey, wait, you do hot yoga and Pilates. This is true. Do you ever get self-conscious at Pilates? Now we're talking. Do you ever get self-conscious? I do. I do a little bit. I've kind of gotten past it.

I've accepted that I'm going to be the only guy there. Like for the first couple years, I was like, oh, the guys, they must just be on a different schedule than me. Maybe the guys, the men probably go earlier in the day. And then I asked the teacher, I was like, so wait, so do, do. any other guys come? And she's like, well, Mike, who's my friend, who was the one that brought me there.

And I was like, oh, so it's really just me. But, yeah, I also do hot yoga. You know, I'm doing all these things. Ben Platt, do you do Pilates? No. See what I mean? I'm the only one. But I did, I had a long soul cycle

phase. Now I just go to the gym. Because when you're gay and you turn 30. cycle is here. When you turn, you go to the gym, because when you turn 30, you go to the gym. When you're gay and, yeah, you're like either you got to, there's kind of one way, you know what I mean. Yeah, you got to pick a lane. You got to, you got to buff it up.

That's right. You've got to get in your buff, strong gay guy era. Yeah. Are you talking about your daddy era? Is that what you're talking about? I mean, hopefully not totally yet, but soon. Eventually, it's a goal. It's aspirational.

It's where we're headed. It seems like a high energy environment soul cycle. I haven't been, but it seems like it pants. It is. Well, it's like, it's like a little culty in it. in a fun way. Too much bike. But you kind of want

a little bit of that culty energy in your workout class, I think. Yeah, to get to like a crazy enough place that you're just sweating that hard. It feels like a dance class. There's some people in hot yoga that are treating it like it's a soul cycle class. Like when they're like, all right, now everyone exhale, there's always like this one guy who's just

like, ha. I want you to be able to exhale, but, you know, let's let's tone it down a little, you know? It's like he's doing voice stuff. Different kind of voice stuff. Different kind of voice stuff. Hey, what's your release shit with Passover?

I love the transitions. I'm like kind of new to it. My fiance is Jewish, so I've been going to some Passover in the last few years. I didn't, as a kid, but, you know, I've been...

Well, then this is a great... This is a great opportunity for all of us because Passover began on Wednesday. We'll end Sunset next Thursday. And so it is time to quiz you in a game we're calling, What makes this quiz different than every other quiz? Great. Ben and I were going to ask you trivia about Passover,

and you will do your best to answer. Oh, okay. It's... Okay, it's you two versus... Okay. Yeah. All right, name the guy we leave an empty chair for, a Passover.

Grandpa. It's Elijah. Have you ever heard about that? The empty chair for Elijah? Yep. As a follow-up, what else... Get the names mixed up. What else do we leave for Elijah?

Is it a glass of wine, a plate of food, or a carefully curated spotty playlists that includes Heim and a little Billy Joel? I believe it's a glass of wine. That's correct. Here, Ben, you do the next one. Oh, my God, wow. Okay.

True or false, you can't use regular flour to bake during Passover since we are forbidden to use anything that can be leavening, but you can get around that by blending up matzah and then using that as flour to bake with. True or false. True. That's right. Bingo.

That's right. Now that you're, if you're, because you're, you're dating a Jewess. Jewette. Yeah, we say that. Yeah, is that funny? Wow. We're learning a lot. We're learning a lot.

We're learning about it. No, it's funny and fine when we say it. So, a lot of the Jewish holidays are about very important rules and then technical workarounds. Mm. Which of the following is another name for Passover? Is it A, Sukkot, B, Pesaw, see Mahala, the festival of bread. Pasach.

Peasoch. Yeah, you got it. You got it. You got it. I knew that one. Mahala is a fake Jewish holiday Frankie made up to get out of spending time with Grace, a Gentile, on Netflix's Grace and Frankie.

Ben Platt, do you watch Grace and Frankie? No. I saw season one. It was really good show. Jane Fonda. So appalled. Everyone must watch everything. With our Jane, and then we love our Jane Fonda.

Oh, here, Ben, you do that. My mom is, my mom, she's not Jewish, but my mom's mom's mom is Jewish. So everyone tells me that that means I'm technically Jewish. That's what I've heard. Yeah. Oh, your mom's mom is Jewish. My mom's mom is Jewish. Yeah, I mean, you're in there.

Yeah. Yeah. So. So. I'm so sorry. Just letting you know. What millennial cartoon show featured this baby as Moses parting the Red Sea? I'm going to say the Rugrats.

Yeah. Great episode. My Jewish knowledge is just... Crushing it. Which of these items will you not find on a sater plate? A, a shank bone. B, horseradish. C, apple, or D, a second bitter herb, usually romaine lettuce. Or cake could be romaine.

It doesn't need to be. The first one. It's apple. Really? No apple on there. Oh, I thought apple was like, like you put it on the... Like, applesauce on the, um... Finish it.

On the what? No one help him. On the, like, the little, um... What? They're, like, hash browns. On the hash... You know I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about.

We all know the little circular hashbound are delicious. Lockers, lockas. Lockers. Lockas. Yes. So, so here's what I think happened. I hope Zoe doesn't watch this. That is Hanukkah.

So applesauce on the little hash brown is Hanukkah. But also we do apples with honey at Russia Shana, which is our new year. That's where I thought it was going. Yeah, that's why I thought too. I was like, I was like, hash brown, I want to see where this goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just, I heard apples and I was like, that's in there. That's in the Jewish mix.

Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yes. You're doing great. Yeah. You're doing great. Weighing in a whopping 488 pounds, the biggest month of, ever made was unveiled at a 2010 Jewish food festival

in what American city? Hinch, there's no conceivable way to guess. And this is something all Jews know. Yeah. Yeah. We'll say it all together. Little Rock, Arkansas. So close. One, two, three, Tucson. No, no, no. Final question. If we're searching for the Afi-Komen,

what are we searching for? Searching for the... Offie Komen. The Afi-Komen. Uh-huh. It's the end of the meal. It's the end of the meal. And the person sitting at the head of the table says,

children, I've hidden the offikoman. Find it and bring it to me for a prize. What are they going to look for? Oh, man. Is there like... Is it like cash? It can be... Okay

Um Is there, like a cash scavenger hunt? Sort of. I think, look, do I like that you're like, oh yeah, the Jews go hunt around the house? For cash. And now that's unfair because you're close. It's a means to an end.

Oh, is it chocolate coins? No, that's again. That's also. That's Hanukkah. I'm going farther in the wrong direction. No, you're doing great. You're doing great. Ben, do you want to tell him? Do you want to tell him about it? Sure. I mean, it's usually to win cash, so you're sort of right. But it's a piece of matza. That's it. In a little sleeve. In a little sleeve. You hide it Sunday. A good place to look. Just a little tip. Just a hint. It's a tip. A good place to hide. It's often you'll find it between books. It often finds its weight in between books.

Or under a cushion of a chair or couch. Yeah, a cushion. You don't go high up because the kids are low. What? Offie Coleman. I don't really remember why we're searching for the offycommon. Do you remember why? I don't think anyone knows. What's the story of that? What's the story of that? Keep the kids interested past the first half.

Right, right, right, right. It's sort of like a little entertainment in the middle. The kids go nuts finding it. And then, you know, I think there's two theories of thought on what happens when the kids are finding the offycommon. One is there is a winner and the rest are fucking losers, right? That's one style of Hoffiecombe. And the other is everybody wins, you know? I bet you were from an everybody wins household.

Yeah. I was to. Equal prizes. Yeah, yeah. Everybody wins. Great job, everybody. Yeah. We found it.

We'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Love It or Leave It is brought to you by Policy Genius. Spring is a season of growth and renewal, the perfect time to ensure the life your building is protected. Keeping your loved one secure is a top priority. And Policy Genius makes finding the right insurance policy straightforward and simple.

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But we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams, and on my podcast, Assembly required, I take on each executive action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial.

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The end of the show is nigh, which means it's time to add up my various flubs, goofs, and boners for all of us to see. It's second thoughts. First up, do I regret reliving my traumatic camp experience to start the interview with Ben? A little. A little. I don't. It made me feel less alone. It made him feel less alone.

Oh, do I regret asking about how Evan Hansen affected the sexual dynamic with your husband. I really regret that you're bringing it back up again. Oh, and then I brought up another embarrassing camp story involving cheese. And it was weird to say that I thought it'd be cool if in theater camp there was something gory and you saw the insides of the characters. I regret that a little. Yeah, that's a fair regret. There's a lot of kids in that movie. I thought that was fine.

Do you have any regrets about tonight? I feel like I could have given Jimmy kind of a better Jewish primer at some point. Because we've worked, we've known each other for a while. I feel like I kind of failed there. Yeah. I feel like you're an actor in Hollywood, but you've been around a lot of Jews. Seems like a little more of it could have rubbed off.

I kind of put him on him, you know? Yeah. And you're dating a Jewish woman. Are you engaged? We're engaged. You're engaged. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you have any regrets? I would have maybe not said cash. I would have gone with just like any other. You could have picked something. Things. Books. You know. Hash browns.

Yeah. Really good. Yeah. Let's see. Oh, I threw out the whole Segway thing. I just didn't do it. I just kept going right to the next topic without any hint that they were connected

to the previous topic. And at times in the past, I've come up with funny little ways to connect it so it didn't feel as haphazard and unprofessional. I think it's working great. Yeah, I thought it was part of the shit. Yeah, I think the segways, now that I've seen this version, I think the segues are throw them out unnecessary.

And that's our show. Thank you so much to Ben Flat and Jimmy Taitra. We will see you next week at Dynasty Typewriter. There are 212 days until the midterms. Have a great night and have a great weekend. If you're already scrolling endlessly, which we know you are, don't forget to follow us at Crooked Media on Instagram, TikTok, and all the other ones for original content, community events, and more.

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Hallie Keeper is our head writer, Sarah Lazarus, is our senior staff writer and Jocelyn Koff and Peter Miller, Alan Pierre and Suba Argoal are our writers. Jordan Cantor is our editor. Charlotte Landis provide audio support. Stephen Colon is our audio engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure, Sure. Thanks to our designer, Sammy Kudner Reeves for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast.

And to our digital producers, David Tolls, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, Delon, Villanueva, Jayvank, Smil, and Rachel Gaieski for filming and Rachel Gaiyeski for filming and making video each week so that you can. Love it is produced by Lee Eisenberg, and our head of production is Matt DeGrode. And our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. In moments like these, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and even easier to feel powerless. But we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams, and on my podcast, Assembly Required,

I take on each executive action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of assembly required drop Tuesdays. Tune in wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube.