Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Six Degrees of... Giovanni Ribisi? | Quick Question Ep. 300

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Daniel and Soren celebrate their 300th episode by not celebrating at all. Instead, they try to find a modern equivalent for the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game. Their journey of naming working actors takes them on a wild ride of channel numbers, 90s baseball players, and the secret lives of character actors. The question is, can they come up with a new game without getting sidetracked by more lists of names?Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. I want to hear your thoughts, I want to know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When will I be? I remember.

What's it out? Word it all. Go ahead. Oh, forget it. I saw a movie Daniel O'Brien. Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer, they're going to find it I think you'll have a great time here

I think you'll have a great time here So hello again and welcome to the 300th episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel I am one half of that podcast senior writer for last week tonight with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents, and... Oh, boy. Very proud podcast host, Daniel, and I enjoy this. Always by my co-was Mr. Soren Buoy. Soren, say hello.

I don't even think I have two. Hey, I'm Sor and Bowie. I'm a writer for American Dad. Oh, God. There's nothing else about me. Not a single other thing. That's my identity. The reason my brain broke in that one is because I,

by the time I got to How to Fight Presidents, I, yeah, sometimes you can't remember. what words you used, like, in the middle of the sentence. Yes, of course. And I truly was like, did I say the words last week tonight, or did I say something else? I don't know. We're going to just have to check the tape. Right.

Now, Soren, it is episode 300. Is it not? Yes. And I wanted to do something, I wanted to plan something really special for our 300th episode. You got me something? Gabe, did I do that? Hey, happy 300th episode. Let me check.

No, I don't see anything at all. Okay, so it turns out no, I didn't do anything special. That is so sweet. Thank you. Just want you to do a normal episode maybe? I think a normal episode would be great. I didn't get you anything this time. But I also wasn't aware that it was our 300th.

How do you know that because you listen to the show and there's a number on the... You can see when it like, I follow the show, I subscribe to the show. So when like a new episode drops, my phone tells me and it says episode number 299. Ah. Yeah. Oh, cool. That's so cool. We're in 300.

I can't believe we done 300. I know. Look at us. No one said we would make it this far. No one said it. No one said we wouldn't. No one knows we do this podcast. No one specifically said anything about the amount of podcast episodes we could do.

No, they didn't. No one believed in us or didn't believe in us. Yeah. It's just, it's across the board. That's okay that you didn't do anything. I should have, man, now looking back on it, it would have been cool of me to have done something for 300. But I don't know.

What are you going to do, man? I could put it in my calendar now to do something for 400, but. That's a long way away. That's future Daniels problem. That's like two years from now, right? I don't know. I don't even know how many weeks there are in a year. We do, yeah, one a week.

Four times 12. No, just 52. You've got to just know 52 off the top of your head. It's 52. Is this real? I just want to get it right. I can't tell. Because like 52 is one of the, like, I don't need to do math for that because it's like there are 50 states.

There's 52 weeks in a year. There's 12 months in a year. What the fuck does that have to do a states? Wait, what? It's just one of the numbers that you, that you remember. remember when you're a kid when you're allowed to remember things before that goes away. On your path from A to B, you have to go through states to know. You're like, well, I forget how many months or a year, how many weeks or in a year,

but I do know that there are 50 states. Ah, that true is my memory. 52 playing cards, 52 states. Yeah. No, I go through, I got to go through all the numbers and like, well, it's not 50 because that's how many states. And 50 can't be two things. It can only be one. I, uh, when I go to the gym and I pick a locker, a lot of times I'll put

my lock on a locker and my lock looks just like every other lock. So I have to be very careful and remember what locker I'm in. When I have to remember a number, I do it based on players that were my favorite as a kid, like Kirby Pocket's 34, Frank Thomas 36. Like I know like who these people are. Magic Johnson is 32. And so I would, I will pick lockers based on that. And then if I don't know somebody's number like 17, I'll be like, okay. Well, that's only five away from Magic Johnson. And then I just have to remember five away from Magic Johnson. It's, this is so funny and relevant.

I just did a blue sky today where I said one kind of cute thing about people my age is we love remembering and telling you what number of various channels used to be. And I feel like that's really adjacent to what we're, and like true to form, people on blue sky are lighting me up in exactly the way that I wanted. It's just someone being like, Comedy Central was 72. And I'm like, hell fucking yeah, King, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, you knew. It was 39 for me, crazy.

I grew up in a, obviously in the middle of the woods and I was raised by wolves. But we had some TV. We had like two or three channels at first. And then my dad got a satellite dish. And the way that that opened up my life, I was probably like 10. And the way that opened up my life was crazy. But a satellite dish, channels are not, you, first of all, you have to go to like G1, which is an actual satellite up in the sky.

You got to go to G or F1, and that's where all your broadcast TV is. If you go to G2, that's where Comedy Central lives. Like, that's where the other things are. Ben, you're missing out. You're missing out on the college experience. I was just sitting around with a bunch of other people and being like, what was, what was Nickelodeon for you? It was like, well, thank you for asking me.

It was six, and then it became 12. Man, that's nuts. Mine was 44. Wow. Incredible. What other differences are there? I don't wonder why that's, I think it's because it's because of, it's so ingrained in people's memory. Like, it's one of those memories you don't have to reach

for and you didn't realize it that it was top of mind. So, like, somebody's like, yeah, what channel were cartoons on? And you're like, six. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, they were. And it's weirdly fun to think. Fun maybe is not the, the right word. But in the same way, like, there's a groundswell of support for a podcast or a website where you just list guys like people people love that and it's it's usually uh 90s baseball players and it's a it's a lot of fun for for like mike sure on blue sky will just be like ah kirby pocket and someone will be like wade boggs and like now that's the guy's name something like weirdly fun about it and that's how I feel about uh just knowing the different numbers of channels this irrelevant information there's

It is, I mean, for some people, it's almost like a superpower. Greg Burke, or maybe it's just a fixation. It's something unhealthy. Greg Burke, I don't know if you know this. Famously, Greg Burke is from Greg and Lou. Doesn't seem. Oh, okay. I'm just got to say, it doesn't feel very famous.

And a friend of the show. Greg Burke knows the height of every single basketball player from about 89 to 98. That's really fun. He knows, but it was like as a child, that was just. just the thing that he was like, this is important. Yeah. And so, and it's not like he has to recall. It's not like, hey, Spud Webb, he's like, well, Spudweb is an easy one.

That's a, like, that one's the easiest of all of them. It'll be like, um, um, Afferny Hardaway. Is that his name? Afrony? No, what was Penny Hardaway? That is Penny Hardaway. Yeah. Penny Hardaway.

Uh, hold on. Hold on. I think Penny is a nickname. Oh. We're finally doing it. We're going to turn into the names of guys podcast, and it's going to be awesome. We're going to be such a number. Penny Hardaway, real name, Afrony, Dionne Hardaway.

Wow. All right. We're off on a tangent where I'm trying to prove my righteousness. That he can just pull Afriene. And like, nobody remembers him. He's, and Penny Hardaway has not, you've not thought about those penny commercials in a hundred years. But he just has it on top of mind. he's like, oh yeah, he's six, seven.

Man, there was, um, I was on vacation this year and I, and, you know, sometimes you can't really sleep very well when you're in an unfamiliar bed. And I was like tossing and turning. And I decided to just put on a podcast to, if it wouldn't help me fall asleep, then it would least like give me something to do that wouldn't bother my wife sound asleep next to me. And it was the flagrant ones, which is a basketball podcast that I love. And I forget. why but they just organically transitioned into probably talking about like the next class of players

like maybe the draft was coming up and they just started naming the players that were in it i'm sure there was more detail to it i'm sure they were like giving some stats or something but man nothing lulled me to a asleep faster and more gently than just like three different guys taking turns saying Cooper flag, Cooper flag, and like the name of the school where he's from, and then some other players name, Ace. I'm like, yeah, this is, this is good. This is the stuff. There should be a podcast that's just names. That's your ASMR. I know. I mean, I understand why it scratches an itch. It's like, it's the sounds of people, but what they're saying has no bearing on your life in any degree. And it could never have any bearing on your life in any degree. And so it's just

Like the same way I did used to listen to ASMR. I tried to convince you to listen to it when I was at cracked and you convinced me that it was a sex thing. Yeah. It wasn't unkind, I'd say. But I would listen to this one where this woman would put makeup on you. And I was like, oh, a thing I care so little about. But just like the idea of someone like gently touching my face and like being very focused on me and talking to me about like the things that they're putting on while I was like dozing off was just there's just there's. this part of my brain and it was just

gently touching it anyway so I get off and then I would go to sleep but this isn't a podcast about coming lists of guys' names or how we what gets us there

to that sweet place what's it about It is, I actually, maybe I do want to talk about guys' names because this is our super producer and engineer Gary. 300 names? Should we say 300 names? Oh, do you think we could? No one said we could. No one has ever said that you and I could list 300 names.

Getting us, getting to 197 and being like, oh God, did we do, do we do a Cohen brother? I did um I started writing a joke for last week tonight once where I think somebody we came off a clip where someone uh struggled to come up with a fake name and I would the joke that I had coming off it was how easy it is to come up with names I'd come up with a thousand names off the top of my head and I'm not even fucking trying and he would list a couple of names and then he would say see it's easy and then continue to list names and the joke would be how long it would go. Because sometimes when you're a hack, you don't need a punchline. The unsatisfying lack of ending is the punchline. The punchline is how much time we've all wasted together. But even this joke where like I called my own shot and I was like, I bet I could list a thousand names.

And I just start going. You go through when it's like, Chris, Mike, Joe, Justin, Darren. All right, so that's the, those are my friends. The friends that I have. Now let me start doing like, Steph, Clay, Drayman, Russell Westbrook, and you start my other friends. You're going through all of like the different kinds of people there are and then they're like, Xander, Oz, Chandler, Ross, Joey. I guess I got to Google names now.

And I was just writing out so many names for this joke because then it became a sunk cost issue for me. where it's like, I've got to keep going. And I think I probably tapped out at about 120 names. Yeah. Which is like, this is not fun for me anymore. I believe in my heart that it would be funny for John to list a thousand names. Yeah. And occupy that much real estate in our show saying names.

But I had to pull the ripcord because I couldn't. It is a lot. That's a lot of names. I think that it's, and you have to ride that wave so well. I think you're right to do it like name you do like 10 names and then you're like and then you keep going yeah like hey I did it that's see I can do it that many and then you just keep going and then you do it again and you think those breaths in between yeah it would get insane after a little bit of time it would yeah absolutely

nuts and I was also trying to like hide the scenes like I would play the game as I've described whereas like here's a list of my friends no one's no one but those close to me are going to pick up on that. Daniel's dying of coffee. No one with those close to me would pick up on that. And then for my role as a writer, I would come up with the game. All right, now let me name another good source of names will be the starting lineup of the Golden State Warriors. But I also can't do that because then the audience would be like, he's naming Warriors players.

Why would he, what does that have to do with a joke? So I would have to like mix it up and you get to a certain point where it's like, well, it's too, it's way too loud to even have the name Steph in there if the assignment is a list of thousand guy names because you don't want anything that's going to distract from the meat of the joke, which is a list of names. It's writing is hard, even when you're, even when it's not. one of the first things I did at American Dad was there was an episode that we were working on where Francine goes crazy like in like she like goes off she's somebody who used to be a little bit wild we reveal that Stan has been like really keeping her at a like an average heartbeat keeping her very mellow when they go on dates they go to the brown boiler because she doesn't want her to get too excited because she used to be kind of a wild woman like she used to go kind of nuts and Jeff takes her out and Jeff has a card of all the things he's not allowed to give to Francine the things that are too that are too wild for Francine and will get her excited and that he goes at a restaurant and goes under a table and looks at that card and it's got hundreds on there and I sat there they're like do you want to do you want to do you want to write these and I was like sure so we had some from the room because we had pitched jokes that were

for actual dialogue in which people who were saying stuff about that was on the list but then I had to put probably like 60 or so on there. And if you go through and you watch the episode and you pause it, you can see every single one of them. It's like, don't give her cinnamon, it's too primal. Like all these things that are just little jokes that had to be there, but no one will ever see except for like the most diehard fan. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. It's fun. Writing is writing can be fun. Oh, is it? It's speaking of names. Um, Our producer, Gabe, hit name, he pitched this idea. He was talking about six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

It's a very famous game, but just in case you don't know it, it is a play on the title Six Degrees of Separation, which is a play about how we are always six people removed. Everyone is six people removed from another person. This game, invented by some bored college students in the 90s, were watching TV and they saw two movies starring Kevin Bacon back to back and they thought man Kevin Bacon works a lot

I bet Kevin Bacon is six degrees from every single actor and that became a game that somehow spread like before the internet people knew about this game I have no idea how this game came to me either working at a summer camp or in college someone was like have you ever play six degrees of Kevin Bacon

you pick an actor and then you have six moves or fewer to get from that actor to Kevin Bacon. You say, oh, this person was in this movie, which also starred this person who was in this movie with Kevin Bacon. You're always connecting actors and movies to Kevin Bacon. I've played this game with you, and it's not fun. It's not fun to play with you because every single time, I'll give you like Michael Kane and Kevin Bacon,

and you would be like, are you kidding? And then you'd give me like two moves. And one of them would be a movie that no one has seen except you. sure and it's not fun to play with you because you don't sit there and think you're like okay I got there but it's nine moves yeah winning isn't fun when you're the loser that's true but Gabe was wondering who the modern uh star of six degrees of Kevin Bacon would we're not about to play this game we should qualify that we this is not a game that's we're like oh this would be fun for the podcast we are trying to come up with who is who Kevin Bacon's old news yeah he

Has it been in a movie and since Love Actually, actually, that's not true. I think he's probably been something else. He's, he works so, so crazy, stupid. He was not in Love, actually. He was a crazy stupid love. That's how I play the game. I'm like equally frustrating when to play it with him. Because I don't know the name of a single actor.

I don't know the name of a single movie. I get it close, but I'm not quite right. It forms a different game that I play just with myself, which is trying to see if I can translate what you think. you're saying and it's very fun and I've gotten pretty good at it it's pretty it's amazing it's like I've become dependent on it I've become whatever muscle I previously had has completely atrophied because you'll just save me so the criteria of finding the new star for six degrees of Kevin Bacon which we need to

settle on now because it is I think it's it's kind of a deceptively difficult task but it would be fine to just like name character actors because there are people like Shea Wiggum who came to mind as like a character actor who was in so much stuff. If you don't know by that name and you Google him, you will recognize him. He was recurring on boardwalk empire for a number of years, but you'll also see him like, oh, there he is in the righteous gemstones. There he is in the F1 car racing movie. He's probably a mechanic in every car racing movie ever made or that ever will be made he'll show up uh he's in the mission of possible movies he is in kong skull island he is just he is just one of those but he's that

fucking guy that you see everywhere but you won't remember looking at him you're like i know his face and you're like what's the single movie he's been and you would go surely a NASCAR movie uh right but you can't pick it even though he is probably the fewest degrees from the most actors, I think he's missing the certain Kevin Baconness about this because Kevin Bacon for a while was like leading man guy. Like when this game was invented, he was like the star of movies. He was in Quicksilver and like he had been the star of movies. I think that feels crucial is that like he made a deliberate shift in the movies he would pick because he was.

doing Quicksilver and he was doing footloose and at one point of the 90s he was just like if I if I want longevity if I want to do the work that I want to do then I can't be a leading man because he recognized about himself that like he couldn't open a movie really and you couldn't you couldn't bankroll a movie based on him so we just decided to like seek out character actor parts and that's why like he is That's why he was in so many things. Showing his dick in Wildcler. Showing his dick in Hollow Man. That's right.

Yeah, he did. That's a thing he loves to do. Yeah, six degrees from Kevin's Dick. That's the name of the game. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Because, yeah, he's not, you're right. He became, like, a supporting, I didn't know if that was, like, a real choice. Because in, what's the, here we go.

Here's, here we go on the game. A few good men. yeah a few good men i mean that's something that like years earlier that would the the lead in a few good men would be a role that would go to either tom cruise or kevin bacon yeah but he is like not going for the the the star making turn in that movie he's going for like well we need a different uh would he the the prosecuting attorney i believe he played in that movie okay well i think you're I think it has to be somebody that you, yeah, that you think of and you can immediately name like six movies that they've been in at least. Like you, you think of that person. And so probably they did star in quite a bit.

Right. I think another rule that we need to put on here is that it can't be shows. It's got to be movies that they're in. I think that it's not fair to do like, because every, with Presti's television sitting where it is, everybody's also been on television and the game becomes infinitely easier. That's true. Game of Thrones is a real shortcut. Game of Thrones, uh, game of Thrones, uh, gets a lot of actors to a lot of actors very quickly. So we can take TV out of it. Yeah. Interesting. So I have somebody in mind.

Okay. It's somebody who, when I first knew of the Kevin Biggin game, I guess I still assumed that he was a leading actor because I was, I knew him so well. It was like, see, it was so clear in my brain and I was young, and that rarely happened with, rarely did people pierce the veil of my own ego when I was a kid. And, like, actually, I was aware of other human beings. So the person that I've picked for this, I think, is somebody who is currently in everything I see. And I think it would be very easy, maybe too easy to play with this person.

Pedro Pascal. Sure. Six degrees of Pedro Pascal is like, I don't think you need six ever. Yeah. I think that's really good. I think that's close if it's not the right answer. I'm trying to invent a reason why. His career was the other direction, by the way.

He was somebody who was like, he was not a leading man for a very long time. He's in a lot of your, a lot of movies that you've seen and you did not realize Pedro Pescal was in them. And you would go back and watch him, like, oh, oh, shit. Oh, yeah. Obviously, Game of Thrones out. Can't have him in there. This can't be a podcast where to sit and think. No, I have another one for you, too, if you want him.

Yeah. Well, I was going to try to get ahead with another ground rule. Right, but I don't think I need to. I mean, just because I feel like there are people who are sitting at home shouting into their phones, Samuel L. Jackson, because he has worked so much. And I do feel like there needs to be like either a career length or an age cutoff. Because, like, if he's been working for 50 years, then yes, he's worked with a lot of people. Right. I think that, yeah, I think it's a mistake to pick somebody who's the same age or older than Kevin Bacon.

because that's also the game is not as fun you want somebody who's currently in a lot of movies I think that that's what makes it interesting is like you give everyone more of a fighting chance if it's like okay give me since 1998 like as opposed to movies that were happening in the 70s

and like you're the only one who's still alive who's seen it I feel like Pedro Pescal is the right answer unless I have one unless he morphs into leading man which he kind of already is a little bit yeah um in movies is he i guess he's materialist it's debatable that uh he is the lead of the new fantastic four movie because Vanessa Kirby is like the beating heart of that movie but I think he probably gets built

first and he is Mr. Fantastic right that feels pretty leading manny I mean I mean, he's, they're turning the Mandalorian show into a movie, and it's Mandalorian and Grogu is the title. And he is the titular part in that. Okay. But, Kevin Bacon was the titular hollow man. That's true. Yeah. Let's see.

I want to look back at how, like, when his career even began that I would have even stuck. So he did a lot of, he did some Spanish movies first. Yeah. For me, it for sure began with Game of Thrones. and for a lot of other people it was Narcos. Yes, but he was in the remake of Ben Hur. That was like 2016 or something like that. Good Lord.

Yeah. He was in the bubble. I guess that was after Game of Thrones. Oh yeah, our friend Nick was in that movie. Yeah. That is the nice thing that I can say about the bubble. I have one other guy that I think might be great for this game okay I am I think probably breaking one of the ground rules

but I want to say why I think it's okay here this guy is probably around the same age as Kevin Bacon but his career didn't even start until the late 90s or like mid 90s and you wouldn't have even known who he was probably at first glance well you would have any nor any human who casually watched his movies, wouldn't have known who he was at first glance until the last probably five years. And that's Walton Goggins. Walton Goggins, hell yeah.

Walton Goggins is a really good choice if he's got enough name recognition. And I think he does at this point. He's also someone that he came on the scene for a lot of people in the Shield and, or Shields, Sons of Anarchy, and Justified. He was recurring on all of those shows. I didn't watch any of those shows. Somehow, I always knew who Walton Goggins was, and I don't know how. I think it was, well, Vice Principals certainly helped out a lot. I feel like even by the time I was watching Vice Principals, it was like, this is fun to see a new side of Walton Goggins, but I don't, I don't know what I mean by that.

I don't know what I thought his other side was. Yeah. He must have just, he's got, uh, just got one of those faces that, that I see him in. hateful late and it's like oh yeah this guy he's been he's been forever forever yeah right and he it's so strange yes strange to see somebody breach that and become like somebody become a a treasured this star to everybody yeah once you've already become a character actor right like when garret dilla hunt got a recurring like a a main cast part in uh raising hope He's like the father.

Yes. Oh, yeah, of course. Like the grandfather in Raising Hope. Yeah. He's a guy that was like on my short list of that guys popping up at a Cohen Brothers movie popping up in Deadwood just here and there. It's like, every time I see this. In Deadwood. Yeah.

Every time I see this little guy, it's like, yeah, this guy's going to fucking knock it out of a park. He's going to get five minutes and he's going to crush it. And then he was just like, lead on a network sitcom. I was like, oh, shit. That's, what are you doing there? What happened? What is this? A reward for your good work? It does seem like the same way that F it, like a Premier League soccer players from Europe at what the end of their careers, they come to the U.S., because they're like, it's like, I just need a break.

I need a place where it's fun to live and where I get to play soccer and I'm better than everybody else. Right. That's what I learned from Ted Lasson, like the worst Premier League soccer is just, or not even worse, but like a 44. five-year-old Premier League soccer player is just going to dominate any American team that he decides to join. Any American club. A huge resurgence in their lives that's come here. And I get it. I think that that's true of actors as well. It's like Robert De Niro's doing a bunch of comedies now. He's like, I'm so sick of fucking acting. I'm so sick of, I'm so sick of giving it every single time. You don't realize what that costs me. So I'm going to do just a bunch of

silly movies instead. There needs to be more actors unconcerned with their legacy to just reach a certain age and just like start popping up and doing stuff. Just like do five minutes on set, Mr. Nicholson, who cares? In some ways, it was a resurgence. I mean, people like, I would say Alec Baldwin had that. Alec Baldwin was somebody who was his trajectory was on the way down. And then he started doing comedy.

And everyone was like, oh, I think I like Alec Baldwin a lot. Yes. And then what happened to Alec Baldwin Soren? Well, a lot of things. He is recorded by his ex-wife with some pretty nasty messages that he was giving it to her. That wasn't even the thing. He shot someone by accident. He shot two people by accident.

Yeah. It's been a tough row for him. But like, Chris for Walking in Wedding Crashers is another one where I'm like, I think I like this for you. I think I like you as a comedian. Yeah. I'm enjoying it. I like that Steve Busemi, another incredible character actor, he, you know, has his people that he'll work with, he'll always work with Adam Sandler, he'll always work with Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, whenever they call him up. but he also will specifically seek out young directors,

like first-time directors and writers. Because I'm sure he just knows, maybe he likes that energy. But I'm sure he also just knows, like, I'm going to elevate this. I'm going to help this person out. I'm going to do something and I'll learn some new tricks as an actor. And I'm also going to like open some doors for this young writer director. That's so scary. I can't but I'm surprised he does that.

Because of his eyes? yeah because he's freaky looking he's got chameleon eyes no I think it's scary because as an actor you're so vulnerable like you're like if you give it your all that doesn't mean that it's going to look good on

screen you can go 100% and like dive head first into a role and give it everything but there's so many other people that you're dependent on to make you look good and to make it look good and to make it look not embarrassing and my first time director there's really no guarantee of that

There's a, it's a real, real risk to be like, oh, I'll elevate this. And then you get there and like, it's just shot wrong or it's cut wrong or the pacing's weird. There's so many different ways that it could be fucked up in which it's embarrassing for you. Yeah. But it's worked for Steve Busemi. Yeah. A guy when I was just seconds ago trying to think of his frequent director collaborators. I was so close to saying Tim Burton because of my mind.

they work well a lot I'm like no you know what I'm thinking I think I'm thinking of Beetlejuice when he turns into a snake monster I don't think they've actually worked together Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Was that played by Steve No no

It just looked a little like him His eyes were working independently of one another And I got confused Yeah he's a great one He would be a good one only because he's, he didn't really do a ton of TV. So you're not really, you've got this whole, boy, when you're, it's a top to play this game when you think of a show and you can't use it because then that's all you can think about.

Yeah. So Steve was, he doesn't really run into that problem. Well, he was, he did seven seasons on Boardwalk Empire and was recurring on 30 Rock. But that's okay. He was also doing other stuff. It's fine. Oh. Don't beat yourself up.

Hey, hey, stay with me, buddy. It's episode 300. You're doing great. Oh. Oh, okay. You know who it would have been, I felt like he was on his way into this role and it just fell off the face of the earth. Boardwalk Empire person as well, Giovanni Ribisi. Could have easily been this type of six degrees of Kevin of Giovanni Ribisi, but he could. I'm not positive. He was Boardwalk Empire. Oh, really? He definitely seems it. Yeah. And there's a lot of that show that is not. really fresh in my memory, but I don't, I would, if we're putting money right the second, I'm doing 100 on he wasn't in Boardwalk Empire. How'd I do?

I'm looking right now for shows. Do you find a reviews? Borewick Empire? I don't think he was. All right. That's money in my pocket. Yeah. How much did I owe you? $150? Oh, yikes. Yeah. Yikes. It's okay.

Whenever you can. I'm in L.A. next week, so. All right. But yeah, he's somebody who I would have been, he felt like he was going to be a prime target for this game, but he really fell off the map. Yeah, I thought he was like a frequent collaborator with your boss. I know that he was in his head movies and.

Million Ways to Die in the West. Great, great flick. And I thought those two just for some. reason linked up and like we're Sympatico and on the same page. I guess I assumed that he was doing a lot of voices for the shows too. Let me

let me just ask Seth. What happened? What's weird? I can't find his number. That's crazy. Yeah, that's strange. You know who I if we'd open this up to TV? And I don't know if they would work for this game exactly. Go ahead. We should just do that. We should have a different version of this game for

TV. This is so dumb. There should just be a TV version. Go ahead. I, an actor that I love so much, and very similar to Walton Goggins, I don't know when I first saw them or how this all began, but Julianne Nicholson, every time I see her in anything, she knocks it out of the goddamn park. And she works a lot. She's part of, it seems like, the stable of. HBO actors that gets booked in a lot of things. Yeah, you've seen her. He's an I. Tanya.

Tons of stuff. She's the mom and I. No, she's not. She's the coach. That's right. Yeah. I, uh, you talk for a while because I'd like to see, I'm gonna go see what her first movie was and be surprised by it. Okay. I, so when I, I would play 60 years of Kevin Bacon by myself, when I couldn't sleep, I would do it in my head because it is a thing where I, don't know the names of movies and I don't know the names of actors and the rule that I was giving myself and probably we should be a parameter on this game is that if you can't name the character the person that you're connecting them with you're going to have to go a different route you can't just be like the guy from the one movie you can't do that it doesn't work and somebody else has to support you if it's just me playing by myself I have to be able to know it all so I'm like I can't get there I never fucking get there because I can't and also I'm not 100% on the names of most movies so like if I'm like if I And I know it. I know that if I'm only 80% sure that that's what the movie was called, I'm like,

was it kiss the girls and make them smile? What was it? Kiss the girls and make them. I bet not. And so I play that game with myself and I can't ever, I can't do it. But it is, I agree. It would be nice to have somebody brand new. Did you figure out what she was in?

No. And you know what? Like I feel like I had a very clear memory of seeing her pop. up on I-Tanya, the first of several times that I saw itania in theaters and going like, ah, this woman, I love her. I love her every time I see her. Yeah. And now going through her IMDB to try to figure out what I meant by that, I don't fucking know. Well, Deadwood. Deadwood's the first place I saw her. She is a different person. Deadwood is not Molly Parker. Let's see. Um, Molly Parker.

She says this is not her No Where did that come from Gosh, come on Deadwood Molly Parker Molly Parker I was right Does she look similar? Oh yeah she does

I think she does I think she looks similar The freckles You know I know you That you were just doing a You were confused and you thought I liked Julianne Nicholson because of someone else's performance on Deadwood

but honestly that might be it there might have been something in my brain that reminded me of Molly Parker whom I also love as a character actress and my brain was like ah so good to see someone I kind of know

so she's back baby love to see her again she was so good on Lodlin or whatever that drug was I'm looking through her old stuff she was in Tully that she's certainly i mean she's worked a lot she's worked since 1997 and certainly i like i'll see a credit on here that she was she was someone on boardwalk empire which means i for sure saw her in

11 episodes of that show um and she was on alley macbile so i for sure saw her on that but there's it's it's not like seeing uh alden errant and right pop up in a movie somewhere and being like, ah, yes, that guy I love from Solo. You know, it's not like I would have seen Juliannecelson and me like, ah, yes, Esther Randolph from Boardwalk Empire, of course. Thank God, she's got a big break. In finally seeing a woman in this game, I'm realizing the mistake I've been making this whole time, which is that we're changing the game of Kevin Bacon, like 60 degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we're changing it to, I have been changing it to another white guy.

Yeah. And I think maybe it would be probably a good idea to do it 60 degrees of Kevin Bacon with a woman. Sure. That would probably be a much better game. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to claim to be feminist hero because I said Julian Nicholson or anything like that. I do agree that it would be fun to do the game with a woman. I think the reason we have an easier time naming guys.

is because the industry is bad and it's just a easier smaller window which they could be famous every ben affleck movie has roles meaty roles for 14 male character actors and a woman and that's and that's kind of it and he makes a bunch of movies there's just like a much uh larger pool of steadily working namable male character actors i mean if you play the game with somebody let's see if if you were to play this with like who's a good example one second scoot mcnary that's now that's a fucking name isn't it okay if you played this game with dev patel right okay and i'm wondering if it makes it harder or easier because the point the fact that he is indian will be a central a central point of the movie it's not like he's

just gets to exist in movies, except for maybe the Green Night, like, the Green Night where we're like, well, let's just try it. Let's just like try about casting anybody in this. I think that you have, it's going to automatically be about Indian culture or like the fact that there's an Indian in it. There'll be a reason that there's an Indian in it, which I'm saying is an indictment on the industry. Like I'm not saying, yeah, yeah, but I wonder if it makes the game easier because then all, like, in your brain, you have already cataloged like, okay, well, what's like a movie where I see like a lot of, where I've seen like an Indian wedding and stuff is is defile in that.

Like, you're going to, like, find it that way. And which is way easier than just, like, trying to pluck a character actor out of the air. Yeah. Should we name more names? Should we just start? Oh, man. Let's just name names. Should we just do it?

Anything we said we're not going to do? Bill camps. But I agree with you. A lot of the people that this game is the most fun with, where people who have, been in every single movie but you don't recognize them you wouldn't just like pull if you saw on the street you go oh fuck what's that guy from yeah uh it's it makes the game less fun for people who uh are like david morse like you can't you can't have this game played by anyone other than you and like anyone who's like a cinephile because they don't know those people like at the

minute you say like six degrees of this person you're like i don't know one degree of that person I can't name a single movie if that person's been it. So I think it has to be somebody with like real star power at some point in their career, either late or early. I think Pedro Pescal is the guy. I do think incidentally one of the things that I'm I've learned about myself is a lot of these games in my brain do happen to run through Boardwalk Empire for whatever reason. Do you have any idea how many times Boardwalk Empire came up on this podcast today? A lot of times it comes up all the time on our podcast. It's basically a Boardwalk Empire podcast.

I mean, let's just name some guys from Boardwalk Empire. Steve Lucemi, Shea Wiggum, Michael Shannon, Michael Pitt, James Cromwell. Arguably Giovanni Ribisi. Yeah, according to many, Giovanni Ribisi and Molly Parker. Well, they got a lot of celebrities on there. That's a good show. It did. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it was a good show. But you know who they had? That's

fucking great. Omar? Might work for this game. Yeah, Michael Kenneth Williams was in that and he was great. Jeffrey Wright could work for this game. But also, my man, Stephen Graham. Could you watch Adolescence? No. Stephen Graham is a fucking beast. Adolescence is a great show. It's really dark and really hard to watch. It's the show that, Yes, yes. I know the movie or the show. He's in another very hard to watch, but you should absolutely see it movie called This Is England. It's wonderful. I think you've told me about that before. I think I might have that like written down in a notes app or in a notebook somewhere. But he's been working for a while. He was in, I first saw him in Snatch a million years ago. Yeah. And then he popped up in Boardwalk Empire as Al Capone. He was in the... He's in Band of Brothers. He's in Band of Brothers. He's in The Irishman, a movie that most people did. didn't like, but I've seen many times. Band of Brothers, by the way, is another sinkhole for this game. Oh, you can just pick anybody from Band of Brothers. Although, I'll say, we talked about, we're in the writer's room recently.

We're talking about Band of Brothers. And somebody was like, is it good? I'm like, oh, it's incredible. Everybody's in it. And I started naming a bunch of people realizing, again, as I'm going, I'm like, oh, I don't mean everyone. When I say everyone, I'm only counting white men. Yeah.

Every white man is in that movie. It's such a diverse cast. There's Ted Dantin, David Schwimmer. Who else was a tall white in sitcoms? Crystal Leia, probably. Yeah, so I agree. Stephen Graham was a very fun choice. But again, I had to go look him up

because they just didn't know him by name because now I probably will. But he's absolutely outstanding. It's wonderful. Yeah. It seemed like the age might not work out. but it seemed like Colin Farrell was moving into a world where he would be part of for this because he was definitely leading man material for a minute and was titular roles and was front

and setter on everything and was doing like the kind of star turn roles and then started disappearing into more character actor stuff and it seemed like yeah this is a good fit for him like it's a shame he's so handsome and you want him to be front and center because he's a really fucking good actor and he disappears into roles I think he's awesome and everything and I like that stage of his career but now it looks a little bit like he is moving back into leading man stuff oh really which might disqualify him according to the rules of the game that I invented so sorry I wish there was something I could do like change the rules my hands are tied Sorry, Colin. I didn't realize he was, that he's like, he's a love interest in something now.

He's got, there's, uh, gosh, I've been right about so many things on this episode today without Googling anything. And I'd hate to be wrong now. But he's doing a movie, um, with Margot Robby coming out soon. Oh, yeah, I saw them crawling around in the weeds. I saw that. Yeah, it's some kind of like fantastic. I don't want to say it's written by one of the greens. God damn it. Farrell Margo Robbie. Just bite the bullet and be wrong, buddy. It's okay. A big, bold, beautiful journey. Yeah, that's certainly why I couldn't remember that name. It's because it sucks. The director only has one name. The director only has one name. Yeah. Coganada. Wow. Well, you learn new thing every day.

Yeah. This guy's probably done a bunch of, oh, he did Columbus. Okay, yeah. I, I should know. this person is. Thank you again. Don't. All right. Well, this has been a fun adventure and things Dan knows and soren doesn't. Yeah. I think I know. It's written by Seth Reese or Rice and I feel like I know his name by reputation. Is he Colbert or is he? No, Stephen Colbert or Stephen Colbert. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. We're having lots of fun here. Um, oh, he was Seth Myers. Got it. he's definitely a person that I have met and hung out with in real life yeah

good for him and for that reason I am excited about this movie I think the title is good and not long and stupid I'm not bummed that Colin Files doing it I think it's awesome that bridge looks barely barely burnt at all it's in green shape

look I'm crossing it right now look at me going walking on a day it's And I'm a little bit wet. All right. Well, I think we've done a really good job this podcast of naming people. Yeah, man. Our 300th episode, I know I didn't plan anything, but, but gosh, just, just being able to hang out with you and say things like Bill Camp and just like Tracy Letts.

Oh, my God. What a day I'm having. John Duturo. You take us. out, Zornan. I'll think of some more names. All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening to this podcast. It's a quick question with Sorin and Daniel. You knew that. If you liked our theme song, that's by Me, Rex.

If you like this podcast in general, it's all put together by our sound engineer, producer, and editor, Gabe Harder. If you want to watch a video version, you can do that on YouTube. And if you also like this podcast so much that you want more versions of it than the once a week when we publish, you can also find a, in our Patreon. We have Patreon exclusive episodes where we also chat. We say some more names. That's basically the whole thing. That's a good one.

Tom Wilkinson. Rest and peace. That's it. Unless Dan has one more he wants to say. Lee Pace. Goodbye. I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. I want to hear your thoughts.

I don't know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. The answer's not important. I'm just glad that we can talk tonight. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When do I be in remember? What's it after?

Where did it all? Oh forget it. Saw a movie Daniel O'Brien. Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer, they're gonna find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here. Thank you.