Senses Working Overtime with David Cross - Tony Shalhoub

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

Tony Shalhoub (Monk, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) joins David to talk about the election, Nyquil, and more. Catch all new episodes every Thursday. Watch video episodes here.Guest: Tony ShalhoubSubscribe and Rate Senses Working Overtime on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review to read on a future episode!Follow David on Instagram and Twitter.Follow the show:Instagram: @sensesworkingovertimepodTikTok: @swopodEditor: Kati SkeltonEngineer: Nicole LyonsExecutive Producer: Emma FoleyAdvertise on Senses Working Overtime via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend.

I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend.

I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend. I'm gonna be a good friend., can I get a chicken parm with some broccolini? Absolutely. And are you going here? Sure. No, no, no.

I'm stepping back. Where do you want to go? I think I like the view from here. OK, great. Also, so can we get, I don't know if you saw today's episode, can we get the view, today's episode view up for an opportunity to check out? I did not see that.

OK, so you're going to love it. I did not see that. Okay, so you're gonna love it. Busy work. Can we get a glasses stand for all of Tony's glasses? And my phone. And well, you only got one phone, so that's fine. And possibly if I decide to take my shoes off, maybe a shoe rack. I'm gonna take my shoes off.

I never even thought of that. But I can also do that, because I have adorable socks on. Check out my socks. Oh, yeah. I can't beat those today. No, you can take your shoes off if you want, unless your feet don't smell very good. And then I like this new. You like it? I like the no socks, no shoes thing.

Oh, I've inspired something here. Tony, where are you from? I'm from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Wow. Tell me about that. Great, I was just back there recently. I have season tickets, Lambo, which were my dad's, now I have them.

And from a big family there, left there when I was about 19, but still got family and friends. Is Green Bay in Door County, is that right? Or do you- Green Bay is just below Door County. Below Door County. It's in Brown County. But we actually have, I own property in Door County, which is quite beautiful. Oh yeah, I've been there a couple of times.

I dated a girl who, like in college era, who was from Stevens Point and they're a big extended family and they would go to Door County. We spent our summers growing up there. Yeah, that's beautiful. I saw the Northern Lights there. The only time I've ever seen Northern Lights and they weren't full on color, aurora borealis things, but they were the wispy cloud, the white kind of fingers. And it was magical. It was really cool. I saw that when I was a kid.

Yeah. Oh, I would not have taken you for a cheese head. No, a lot of people think I'm, I don't know, from New York maybe, but no, I'm a Midwestern. Those are racist. Those are racist people. Yeah, exactly. Where do you live now? I live in Manhattan.

Okay. I was in LA for a long time, but then our kids grew up, moved east. My wife's from New York, and we were dying to get back. I'd actually been working in New York a lot of the last, say, few years in LA, working more in New York for some reason. And then so we just decided to move back and we're loving it. Yeah, great. When did you move back? Eight years ago. Oh, yeah. So, significant time. Yeah, I lived in LA for nine years and although I understand why people like it and that's not confusing to me,

I just don't like any of those things people like about it. And I prefer what New York gets you. And I've been on the road, I've just, I'm home for a couple days and I've been touring around the United States, which I've done a lot. And I was saying to my wife yesterday like – and I know this and I think about it almost daily, but I'm so lucky I get to live here. That's how I feel. I mean, I really do. I mean, daily I think about it.

It does take a lot. And you know what I mean? Yeah. That's how I feel. I mean, I really do. I mean, daily I think about it. It does take a lot. And you know what I mean? Yeah. It takes a lot of – well, it takes a lot of resources, but it takes a lot of stamina and patience. But boy, it's – Patience. I've never thought about that.

But yes, patience. Well, you know, tolerance. Tolerance for rude people. But it does. It pays dividends though. Yes. You know, everything's kind of like right there. You were in – Green Bay is, I mean, what would you

call, it's a- Well, Green Bay is- Not a city. When I was growing up, it was like 65,000 people, which is kind of crazy to have an NFL franchise in a town that's- Well, that's always been the knock on it or the observation, yeah. But now, I think now it's probably up to a little over 100,000, still not big, but not as big as Madison or Milwaukee or those places. Yeah, but you get a fan base that is pulled from the rest of Wisconsin, right? Sure. You know? Sure. And so, meaning it's not like – it's not losing a billion dollars a year to have a football team there.

No. And there's a tremendous legacy. And it's fun. It's just fun to – I don't know if you've ever been to Lambeau, but – I have not. I haven't been to Green Bay. I invite you to join me there. It's fun. What's beautiful about it is unlike so many cities, the stadium or the shrine kind of as it's known is smack dab in the middle of a residential area. It's surrounded by houses and little small businesses. That's how it should be, I think.

Exactly. You kind of think of how Wrigley Field or one of those, maybe Fenway too. Sure. But for a major football franchise. The Cleveland Stadium. Cleveland have that still? Yeah, they're kind of right there. I mean, I wouldn't say it's residential, but it's downtown. I mean, it's Minneapolis, the Minnesota Twins thing is right there in town. Yeah, it's one of those – I mean, obviously, the stadium has grown a lot since I was a kid,

but there's still a quaintness about it. And it's the only team that's owned by the town. Yep. Are you excited to finally not have a raging asshole for a quarterback? That must be exciting to be able to go, yeah, I think we're finally doing it. Yeah, I got to say. We got a really good replacement going. Two good replacements actually. Who's the other one? Well, because Love got hurt again last week. We don't know if he's coming back this week, but this guy Malik Willis is this young kid. Oh yeah, Malik Willis was- Comes out and just-

But he was out of what school? He just- Can't remember where he's out of, but he is damn good. Yeah, he had a really good combine too, I remember. Oh, yeah, yeah. The town just loves this kid. Yeah, good. So yeah, we're happy we're into a new era. And do you foresee regardless of what happens in the election, do you see Brett Farr going to jail? Oh God, you know, I don't wanna see that.

No? No, I don't wanna see it. I do, yeah. You do? Yeah, I mean, you know, he was such a hero and such a legend in his day. I just, I'd hate to see anything terrible go. Oh yeah. You wouldn't want to see it if you had an option of that thing.

But knowing what happened, you go, yeah, that guy should go to jail. Perhaps that's justice. Yeah. Justice prevails. Yeah. How do you feel about David Justice? Who's David Justice? He played on the Atlanta Braves, outfield.

Don't know baseball. Oh, Tony. Sorry. All I know is that the Yankees are getting their asses kicked in the World Series. That's all I know. How do you feel about that? Great. I feel great. Even though you don't know baseball or follow-up. I know enough to – I'll tell you why I feel great about that because I'm a massive

Red Sox fan. Yeah, me too. Me too. Because I'm Braves and Red Sox. Yeah. Yeah, which are – there's a lot of history going back, obviously more with the Red Sox, but multiple World Series, Yankees beating the Braves. But that said, my son-in-law is a huge Yankees fan, so I've got to tread,

you know, I got to sort of walk the fence there a little bit. Sure. But it's not unfun to watch them lose. And also, I mean, the Dodgers team is, that is a killer, killer. Brutal. Yeah. And, what was I going to say? And Freddie Freeman, ex-Brave, you know. So yeah, I've been enjoying watching the series. No, no, he's the guy that's like hitting a home run every game. Is that right? Yeah, he's a – That much I know about the series. I've set a number of records. First out of 696 World Series games, he's the first guy to hit a walk off grand slam. He's hit a home run in every World Series game this year, four in a row. When you add the last two years of

the World Series games he was in, he said six home runs in a row. Yeah. It's crazy. If he hits one tonight, holy shit. That's going to be great. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Enough about Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. So you and I were in the same movie.

Yes. And we were both treated not well. Our characters you mean. Yeah, our characters. Oh no, we were treated quite well. Our characters were damaged. Yeah. It's funny because people have, not a lot, but on occasion, mistaken me, thought, knew that I was in Men in Black and thought that I was your character. For real. Wow. Yeah, that's happened a couple of times.

I got mistaken yesterday for the guy in Schitt's Creek. Oh, Eugene Levy? I would assume, or yeah, the elder. Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah, okay. I can see that minus the glasses. And what else? Oh, I was told that I was great at doing the voice of that guy in Family Guy. What?

Oh, no, it was the Simpsons, the Simpsons. I said, I wish I had them. They thought you were, oh, probably Hank Azaria. Yeah, probably. Oh yeah. I wish I were in this for 25 years. Yeah. If I were, I probably wouldn't be here today, but whatever.

You mean you wouldn't be in this room? Exactly. No, that's one of the rudest things that's ever been said to me. One of the rudest, but possibly one of the truest. Sure. I'm not saying they're not mutually exclusive at all. No offense meant. Well, that is offensive. I mean, come on. So you're saying if you had more money in the bank, you would not be here.

Actually, no, that's not true because I'm here to talk about something that I did recently, a podcast about the upcoming election. And that's why that's more important than money in the bank. But if you hadn't done that- But if I had Hank Azaria's money, as... You wouldn't be here in this room. Yeah, that's what... You would... Would you at least Google me?

Oh, for sure. I'm a huge fan of yours. And then make a, then why would you come here? What, just because you had an extra, you know, 100 million in the bank? Boy, you really have changed. Boy, the Green Bay and Tony. I have.

I know. I knew is completely different now. It's not like when we were in high school together. No. So Hollywood. Gone so Hollywood. And how many of P. Diddy's parties did you go to? And how many of P. Diddy's parties did you go to? Well, let me think.

I would have to say none on that one. All right. Well, we'll edit that out and we'll edit it to sound like nine. Good. Yeah. Nine, nine. I can look that later. Yeah, yeah.

All right. Okay. So nine, Nine. Yeah. Wow. You must have seen so much. Was Brett Favre there? Well, Tony, I didn't know that you came in here with an agenda. That's okay. I'm not going to hold it against you. Nobody can inform me. Thank you. Nobody can inform me. Thank you. So tell me about the aforementioned podcast about the election. Well, it was actually based on a novel written by a novel. Actually, this was written before the 2020 election

because of all of the first four Trump years and everyone's anxiety about the upcoming election between Trump and Biden. It's a novel called It Happened Here, which is kind of as based on a novel written in 1935 by Sinclair Lewis. Yeah. It can't happen here about potential fascism. Yeah. Invading. Yeah. And Rick wrote this novel called It Happened Here. Then he adapted it for a podcast.

So it's not like this kind of conversational podcast, it's a dramatic reading? It's kind of like a radio play podcast, I guess you'd say. I've done a couple of those. It's available on wherever people get their podcasts. It's about six episodes and it's – I get my podcast from the farmer's market here in Unit Square, which is Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. There's a stand – The prices are so much better. The prices are better and it's fresher.

It's organic. It's organic. Organic podcast. One would hope if you're believing the copy. Yeah, it's in between the Hudson Fisheries place which has trout and then the Duck Eggs place. Delegious. Where I get my podcast from. Go ahead.

Well, you know, I hope you buy enough so you can freeze them and you know, you buy in bulk. Oh, I buy in bulk because yeah, I'm prepping too for the third world war, so I'm a prepper. Yeah. Are you a hoarder too, a prepper hoarder? No. I mean- I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. By definition, you have to hoard in order to have a 25-year supply. Even though the radiation will still kill you for a thousand years plus, but I've got 25 years worth of food, all pretzels. I like the way you think. You're a planner. Yeah.

I've got a family to think about now. And I've two actually. I mean, it's weird that it came out this way, but I also have a family in Portland, Maine. And they'll probably meet in the bunker. It's sort of the Dan Aykroyd School of Marriage. Is that how that- I don't know what that- Oh. Does he have two families? What? No. Are you serious? Yeah.

Did I just make that up? Which wife is hotter? No. I don't... I've not met either of them. Oh, man. Well, I've seen a picture of one of them. It was pretty attractive.

Oh, yeah. I did not know Dan Ayckroyd had multiple families. It's interesting that you started mentioning families because this podcast actually has to do with that. It's about a family that's's a late teenage girl is interviewing her family about what happened 15 years ago in 2024. How this family split. Oh, it takes place in 20 – I got it. It takes place in 2039. I understand. Okay.

Right? So it's in the 15 years in the future. Got it. I understand. Okay. Right? So it's in the 15 years in the future. Got it. And she's asking about – because she wasn't born yet, what happened in 2024? Why did the family splinter and why did the country kind of fall apart? What does the country look like in that world? Well, as Dresser kind of beautifully paints it, on the surface, it looks the same. You still have Netflix and second day free delivery, but all you've lost really is your freedom. That's it. It's dark, but it's a troubled, troubled time. And she's trying to get from interviewing all these members

of her family, older members, cousins, uncles, aunts, and so forth, what happened leading up to the election and then during and after the election. And the family is divided in the sense that my character is a kind of liberal college professor, John Totoro plays my brother, he's much more conservative, he owns a private security company, Edie Falco plays my wife. There's a lot of great actors in this piece. And it delves into how wrong everything goes in the course of that next 15 years. Is the media mentioned as being culpable in the story? Sure. Oh, yes, sure. Although by the time we get to 2039, the media is all state controlled. Everything else has been fairly squashed.

Right. What about the oligarchs and the Bezos and the Musks and all that and the Koch brothers? It doesn't go into naming actual names of anyone. But is there a figurehead as it mentioned? The great leader. Meaning the like? The man who became the – they don't even call it the president anymore. It's just the great leader. But no names are trotted out. Just archetypes basically.

Exactly. Very familiar archetypes. Yeah, yeah, sure. I was just wondering if the – I mean, the stuff we're seeing now is – I can't say it's unprecedented, but the fact that they're not making any attempts to cover it up and because it doesn't – Right. It's so blatant and the story nods. This podcast like the Sinclair Lewis novel in 1935, they're just both cautionary tales, done with humor, dark humor, but with a real, genuine concern about the potential where we might be heading. Yeah. We'll know in a couple of days.

Or not. We don't know in like three weeks actually. True. Yes. Well – We don't know. Yes. But we'll know something – I see your point that we might not know the – The answers might not all be –

Right. But we know it's going to be – We'll be in a different place in a few days, that's for sure. And anxiety will be a big part of that place wherever, whatever happens. Yeah. Yeah. Although it's hard to imagine the anxiety being any greater than it is, than what I'm feeling on the street every day. Well, as I said, I have been touring, I'm in the middle of this tour.

Um, and you know, I've been all over America. We'll continue to go all over America and I've done multiple tours and yeah, I was talking to my wife about this last night and she feels optimistic and, uh, I don't, I don't feel pessimistic, my, youistic. There's nothing that says, oh, he's going to win, but I'm assuming you're a Trump supporter. Am I that transparent? Yeah, but really.

It's the shoe. I was with this past weekend with Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Senator, wonderful woman. Her campaign had invited me to join her on her bus going around the western part of the state and it was – I never done anything like that before and it was really interesting. She was mentioning that someone, perhaps you've heard this, coined this, they said they were nauseously optimistic, have you heard that? Which I thought was pretty accurate. I mean, it would be one thing if it was like it should be in like every other country, a popular vote. I wouldn't feel so anxious, but the idea that, you know, I think Nevada goes to

Trump, I think Arizona goes to Trump. Um, you know, that there are North Carolina, North Carolina. Yep. Um, although it'd be interesting to see what happens to the down ballot races in North Carolina. That's going to be really interesting. Also, if there's a question about Florida, Florida is not a lock apparently from what I've seen. Well, no, it's not going to turn blue. You have some inside track on that?

I hope not. No, I do not. information I'm getting and from the sources that I trust, who are uneasy and kind of quick to say, you know, because they follow where the money's going, where is the DNC going to spend in this last week and they're pulling money out of here and putting it over there. I see. And just following that kind of stuff. And I mean, we'll see. It's because it comes down to an electoral college of seven states, you know, we'll see. But what I was to bring it back to I'm traveling and traveling and,

uh, and granted the, almost every single city is liberal progressive blue, whatever you want to call it. And, but you have to cover a lot of territory in between those cities. Oh yeah. And it is nine to one Trump signs. The signs are not simple. There's a couple quasi-clever Harris signs and a couple of... But they're mostly just somebody saying,

I support this person, but the Trump signs are insane. I see them. They're so angry and juvenile as well. They're in your face, yeah. But there's like, I mean, there's a, I have a place upstate and it's Trump country up there. My daughter lives upstate, so I see them, the signs a lot.

Yeah, and the, like, I was at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago and up there and, you know, parked next to this truck with, I don't know, 12 bumper stickers and flags, and I was like, man, your truck is really angry. That is the angriest truck I've ever seen. Fuck Joe Biden. There's a boat. There's a lot of FJB. In Pennsylvania, there's a canoe type of boat and it's flipped over.

It's off one of the roadways there. This is all rural kind of farmland. And it's like, oh,'s off the off the, you know, one of the roadways there. And all this is all rural kind of farmland. And, and it just somebody spray painted fuck Biden exclamation mark and just put this boat on the side of the road for everybody to see. And then but my favorite, there's so many crazy, you know, flags, on posters, on there, and they're like just

really get into decorating. And that can't be good for the canoe. I mean, putting that paint on that. I think it's really good for the canoe. I think it's going to force the road for me, is Trump 2024, promises made, promises kept. There you go. What are you talking about?

That says it all. What promise did he- Promise that he'd come back. I think that's what- What promise did he make and keep? He cut millionaires' taxes, and I guess that was a promise, but why would this guy be happy about it? He's got no- Just promises made, promises kept. Wow.

And I was doing a show, I don't know, a week and a half ago. I can't remember where I was, but somebody in the audience was like, because Trump had done that at the Michigan rally. He had made that statement about women, you will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. I will be your protector and you will be protected, whatever. I put it to music and I sing it. I've done way more. This particular set I'm doing is oddly enough,

not that political, doesn't really talk about religion too much. It's probably the most of all the Sets I've done and I don't know how many I've done at this point, but you know tours and specials and stuff. I don't It's like the least political the least It's yeah and But so I don't even get into it that much, but then I just talk about how insane that speech was.

And then just describe the woman he's talking to. And some guy was like, so name one position, name one of Harris's position. He was upset that I was bagging on Trump. I didn't even get, as I was taking a breath in, other people in the audience was, she's not that guy. That's all you need to know at this point.

Which is like how Biden got elected. That's true. Yeah. So anyway. Hey everyone, I want to talk to you about something called AG1, which I truly have used way before they wanted to sponsor this thing, because here at the Head Gum Studios, they have it. It's a nutrition probiotic powder thing that you mix in with your whatever, water, beer,

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No, I meant it's not boring. I just meant as far as a podcast goes. If you're at home or in the gym or on a plane or in your car or at a nursery or at your job. Or at a farmer's market. Or at a farmer's market or at the pharmacy or at the record store or on the street. Or at Farm Aid. Or at Farm Aid or at Duane Reed or at John Hopkins or at the Mayo Clinic or you're getting an AIDS test or you're at the party store or you're at ShopRite or you're at Pathmark or you're at the party store, or you're at ShopRite, or you're at Pathmark, or you're at Uncle Andy's Cheese

to-do, or you're at Six Flags over Texas, or if you're at Six Flags over Georgia, or if you're at Six Flags over Modesto or if you're at Six Flags over Parsippany and listening to this podcast I was saying that might be a little boring. So we should move, that's all I meant. Yeah. Not that the subject matter is boring. I mean, not at all to me. No, there's always editing. Oh, we don't edit. This won't be edited.

I'm sorry to hear that. Why? What did you hear? Why? Just because some of the things I might have said might put people to sleep. But that's the point of this podcast, Tony. It's a sleep aid. Oh, this is a sleep aid? Yeah, it's a sleep aid podcast. I wish I'd known that coming in. Yeah, yeah. Well, it worked out great.

That's why you invited me. And that's why, thank God, you don't have a couple more bucks or you would never be here. That's true. How much money would you need to not come here? I would say probably half of what this area has. Just half. Oh, that's a lot. Okay, that doesn't make me feel so bad. No. I thought you were going to be like, if I had 50 more bucks.

No, no, no, no, no. Okay. No, no, no, it would be a lot. So, I would hang a handgun. I haven't asked to hang a handgun. So, $250 million. If you had $250 million. Oh my God.

Yeah. Well, I might not be living in New York City then either. Where would you live? I don't know, Paris maybe. Well, you could live in Paris now. Your kids are out of the house, right? True. Yeah.

What are you working on, podcasts? If I could do that from Paris. That's true. Yeah. You know what, I'm out of here. Yeah. All right. Another one.

Another one bites the dust. No, I'm trying to convince all my guests to move to Paris. So, success. I'm in Paris, Tennessee. I don't know if you... Paris, Tennessee. Have you ever been? I've been to Paris, Texas, if that's right. There's a Paris, Tennessee. Is there a Paris, Tennessee?

Oh, yeah. Where is it? It's in the middle of nowhere. So, in between Knoxville and Chattanooga? Exactly. Nashville and Chattanooga. Wherever it isn't those cities, that's where Paris is. Right. Well, Tennessee is like-

But it's not like, it's more like Paris, Las Vegas than it is Paris, France, I think. Oh, so they have- In terms of the size of it. And they have like shitty baguettes. Yeah. In Paris and – In Paris and gambling. – Vegas. Yeah, they have the – they'll bike around with a baguette. I don't know if they still do it. I haven't really been to Vegas in quite a while, but – They don't really do that. Yeah, they have people like employees, you know, employees. Yeah.

So I'm going way back, but, but they had, they sort of bike, they had a little bikes and then they would, uh, and they were kind of wearing a. Like a beret. Yeah. Parisian ish thing. And they would have back gets in the back of a bike and they would just sort of. Yeah. You're killing me.

Yeah. It's like, you know, for adults like Akinda seeing Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse strolling around and they would be, yeah, they have baguettes. No wonder we're 50-50 country. Yeah. Well, those, they're all Harris supporters. God, I hope so. Yeah.

They're not. They're not. Yeah, it's going to be... Yeah, it's very... Let's talk to a therapist this morning. And she was telling me, it's the single biggest thing she discusses with her patients. Really? Was it my therapist you were talking to? I don't know. In preparation for this? Oh, that's an interesting idea. That seems a little sneaky. I don't like that. That's a bad idea. I'm glad. Who's your therapist?

They're in prison now. So it's- Oh, for what? Embezzlement. Embezzling from who? From their clients. How? Okay. Now, how does that work? Because you get, there's like, okay, here's my hourly rate and I see you once a week, once every two weeks, once a month, whatever it is, maybe twice a week.

But how do you embezzle that? Hypnosis. Oh, right, of course. Oh, any sneaky finger stuff going on or? Don't know, hypnosis. Oh, so this is, you were a victim. Why else would I bring it up? Oh, I don't know.

I'm making all of this up by the way. It's complete fiction, but that's... All right, well, we'll edit that part out. We'll edit the part that it's making it up in its fiction. Okay, yeah, edit that out. It's like those people... I just like the idea of you talking to my therapist. I just love that idea.

All right. Well, you know, when the thing's over, give me a, we'll exchange details and you can send me the info and I'll give you a therapist, a man or a woman. Man. Okay. I think. Oh. You know, don't know.

Okay. Presents as a man. I will not presume. I'll just go into it androgynous. They're not going to have, oh no, they wouldn't have an issue with me being a man. No, I hope not. No more than I do. Tony, what's your favorite song? No, I hope not. No more than I do. Tony, what's your favorite song? My favorite song? Is this something you ask every guest? No, I don't.

Wow, my favorite song. That's a hard one. I'll tell you what, let's not go favorite. What do you think? And you have time to think about it. Like an earworm song? What do you think? And you have time to think about that. Like an earworm song, kind of that? Well, I was going to say, what do you think is a close to perfect song? It may not be your favorite song, but you don't know how it would improve. I'll tell you an example. I like the song a lot. I would not say it's my favorite song or even top 10, but Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen is almost a perfect, I'd say like close to a perfect song. Now you have some parameters. Okay parameters within which to work and we'll keep talking about something

else and then it pops in your head. Okay, and I'll come back. Yeah, because I'm older than you, so there are more songs in my past. Like Winchester Cathedral and pictures at an exhibition. You're going back to talking some more. I was thinking more like Moon River. I was thinking more like Moon River. Oh, that's a boring song. No, I'm joking. I'm just saying how far I go back. You like Flo and Eddie and the turtles and, hey man, ride the peace train, hippie bro.

No. Right? No. You like space bro. No. Right? No. You like space cowboy. No. No. Although from my, you know, from my youth.

23 skidoo. Get the raccoon coat. God, there's a lot of amazing old. You look like a Grease soundtrack guy to me. Not at all. Yeah. That's like the exact- I'm kidding. The theme from SWAT?

Shaft. That's a good song. That's a good song. Something probably from either like The Birds or, you know, Dylan had some great, great songs of depth and poetry. And that's kind of my, in my formative years. Now I have to go back because I have, you mentioned Dylan and I've heard that name at least- Not Dylan Thomas, not that far back. name at least not doing Thomas not that far back.

I've heard that name. I can't remember his first name, Todd, Todd Dylan. Is that right? Close Josh Dylan and people rave about that guy. And oh my God, he's amazing. And he's an amazing songwriter. And, you know know people I respect respect him you know Fred Durst folks like that and I always mention him so what is it about this Dylan character that you that reaches you.

Well, there's so many things. I mean, it was kind of groundbreaking when he appeared on the scene. He was kind of a bit of a rags to riches kind of story. But then he was sort of also an iconoclast in the sense that he started out as a folk singer, protest singer. And then much to the dismay of his fans went electric and went on to that whole thing. And how do you feel about that? I was fine with it. That's what I mean. I mean, I was just like, hey, he's an artist and he gets to-

And at this point, you're 50, right? Had you turned on, tuned in and dropped out yet? I'm two out of three, I would say. Okay. All right. Tony, how old are you? No, I know. Now that you're a mentor, I got to go back to the song thing. Are you going to tell me how old I am?

I just turned 71. Oh, wow. Good for you. Yeah. I'm still alive. Yeah, you look good. Well, not like I did when I was 61, but whatever. No, you definitely lose it from 61 to 71. Big time. Don't tell me. Yeah, you definitely lose it from 61 to 71. Yeah.

Don't tell me. Yeah, you look hot. You look like you're ready to go. Do you club? Do you go clubbing? Are you a club kid? Are you a club kid? I don't, I have a club foot.

Does that count? No. No, it doesn't, Tony. So we're never gonna get back to the, that's offensive probably to some people that I said that. Let's, whatever, I'll take the heat on that one. The club foot demographic, cancel their subscription. But I'm not a clubber, no. That's a word I just learned today actually. You're not a clubber, you're not a club, were you a landlubber?

I'm a grandfather, does that count? I mean, it counts for some things, but not in the definition of being a lover. But you're a father now, right? So eventually, hopefully before you kick, you'll be a grandfather. Well, we'll see. How many do you have, by the way? Just one. Oh, just the one.

Yeah. And you know, I'm- How's that going? It's great. I mean, it really is, she's, all the cliches and the trite maxims are all true. They're all true.

The thing about, you know, every day is a year and every year is a day. I'm paraphrasing that one, but it's, yeah, like you have all the three-day weekend where it's just her and I, and you're just exhausted at the end of it. But then her birthday is coming up, you're like, wait, didn't we just do this? How would we do? You know, and she's really starting to exponentially increase the individuating

and the personality that has slowly but surely been there is like kind of ramping up at double speed, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure. And it's cool. She's a good kid and, you know, not... The toughest thing is values and teaching her. My wife and I share, you know, for the most part and great part, the same values and, you know. Yeah, it's- And I think growing up in Brooklyn is tremendously helpful.

The fact that she's going to the same school, knows all the same kids, but also, and she, you know, I tell her this constantly, like she's, she really has the best of both worlds because she has this, the city, and then, you know, we have her place upstate in the woods in the very rural area that's beautiful. But she gets to have that. And you know, now that she's in school, there's, we're up there less, unfortunately, but I'm registered to vote that. And now that she's in school, we're up there less, unfortunately, but I'm registered

to vote there. I'll go up on Monday nights, so I can vote Tuesday, come back home. Great. So that has been, she's gotten appreciation and she does have a true appreciation for And she does have a true appreciation for all of those things. And then also, she goes to Atlanta a lot. I'm from Atlanta. Most of my family is there. You're from Atlanta? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I have two sisters that live in Atlanta. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. They're a lot. And so my sister, sister-in-law, my mom, all live in this house in this cul-de-sac, which even though it's Atlanta, it's in the city, but it feels very suburban, which Atlanta does. I mean, it's got really cool neighborhoods, but I mean, it feels like a big suburb, you know? Yeah. And so she, and she loves going down there.

She was just down there with my wife helping canvas for Harris and a whole bunch of women, going out there and she met Stacey Abrams. Wow. Yeah. But when she's down there, all the other kids in the cul-de-sac are boys and they range from about six to ten and she'll be eight soon. So she's right in the middle, they're all boys and she'll keep right up with them and

she'll get pizza knees and she'll just bounce right up and she loves it and she can hang out till it's dark. And it's a cul-de-sac in a suburb, you know? Fantastic. And so she knows every aspect of American life. Yeah. And that's really cool. And I think it's really helped.

That wasn't the design, of course. I just think it has really helped to round her out and to appreciate those things because they're completely diametrically opposed. Everyone in that cul-de-sac is white. Upstate is mostly white. Brooklyn is, she's in the minority in her school, and she's just traveling through all that constantly. And yeah, navigating all of that.

Yeah, but it's not even, she's not coming into it. It's not a foreign thing, and it never will be because that's what she knows. And so whatever happens from this point on, I mean, she's well equipped to, you know, not be thrown by anything. So. Yeah. Love that.

Yeah. You know, lucky little rich spoiled shit. Yeah. No, she's, she's a good kid. She's, she's really, you know, there's a lot of time left and we're going to have to get, deal with the emotional preteen, teen years. I have two daughters, so. Yeah.

And the teenagers are challenging. Yeah, it's going to be challenging. I know. And she's already got a big personality and she even displayed kind of manipulation at an early age, you know, where you know exactly what's going on. Oh, they work. They'll work, yeah. Yeah. And kids are great. I mean, I just love hanging out with her and her friends and I'll volunteer in school too and it's just such a great cool age because I know it's going to end and other unfortunate problems are going to introduce themselves. Influences, the world encroaches and then your-

Yeah. And our big concern is social media and stuff like that. We've been talking to her about it for quite a bit so that it hopefully she gets it. But she's man, she is strong-willed, like not in a good way, but not in a good way. But that will serve her. I had one of those and it really was very challenging. But now as we look back, we see how that strain in her has really helped her in her adult life. Yeah, I mean that's, yes.

She's an advocate for herself and she doesn't take any shit. And she's got a good bullshit radar and she's got a spine. Especially for now, for women, it's super important. Yeah. I do see that, but I just know it's going to be difficult. I think it will serve her well but she really is like stubborn. Crazy stubborn. Tell me about it. Yeah. Well, we'll see. But yeah, I mean it's –

But that can – see what I'm saying is that that can translate later into being committed and single-minded and task-oriented and unswervable and that is actually a quality you want them to carry. Yeah, we just got to deal with the next 10, 11 years. You got to just deal with the incoming. You're on the receiving end. No, we're aware. We know. Yeah. But yes, I do. That is something I think about all this stuff we're starting to deal with that we will be dealing with in the future. We'll all go to server well. Yes, I agree. I wouldn't mind just and go to server well. Yes, I agree. I wouldn't mind just flash forward to graduation.

All right, see you later. You're a smart, good kid. Well, don't call for money. Yeah. These are, I have to say, these are lovely coasters you have here. Oh, thank you. They're They're glass tiles. Yep, they

classy look like repurposed see this was probably a Yeah, look see the the what do you call it the the grout? So they probably oh, you know what they were. Here you go. These were samples. These were mosaic or glass tile samples and somebody just plopped a little thing on them. Little feet. And made them. Felt feet. Yeah, it's repurposing. Very good.

Very, very nice. Yeah. And it goes with just about anything. A chilled glass of – Chablis. Chablis. Yeah. You know, a Moscow mule, a –

A dark beer, possibly. Yeah, like a pumpkin ale. Yes. A stout, just a thing of sap that- Yeah. Big thing of maple syrup. If you want a big thing of sap as a prank, like let's try to drink this. That would be fun.

Probably children's Tylenol, go with that. Maybe a nice glass of Nyquil. A nice glass of Nyquil. Because you could put that on the green one. Have a nice glass of Nyquil before you go to the bed and go to sleep. Why don't you go in and if you're sniffly, have a nice glass of Nyquil. A little glass. A little, you can warm it up. Yes. You don't have any NyQuil, do you, Andy?

No, no, I mean- I guess not. Emma! Emma! Oh, for fuck's sake. Emma! NyQuil will be all right, too, I guess. What the fuck?

What are you doing? Why aren't you here? Well, I, I guess. What the fuck? What are you doing? What are you? Why aren't you here? Well, I used to, I heard my name. No, but why aren't you here? I know why you're here now, but why aren't you here? Why did I have to yell for you? Because Chris is engineering?

I'm here. Do you need something? Yeah, Nyquil. Okay, can we get some Nyquil? Well, don't make Emma do it if you're the engineer. I'm surprised you don't know. Wait, wait, I'm so sorry. I am used to Chris. This is not as no reflection on you. I didn't even know you were here. Emma and I have established a relationship, have established a relationship, professional relationship. And she

googles things for me. She she gets things for me. Did you pick up my dry cleaning? Okay, cool. Also, did I get bumped up on that leg from Phoenix to Boise. That I have to check on. Emma! Oh, okay. And I don't, I haven't really, I feel like Chris and myself have been just sort of thrown into the fire on this. On this episode? Yeah.

A little bit. That's probably my fault. What? See? I think it's a very nice thing to say to Tony. But today I'm... Really? Yeah. I'm today's Emma.

Okay. How do you feel about that? I feel great about that. How do you feel about that? I feel great about that. You just don't want to be in here. What are you doing? Are you playing Tetris? Wow. Kids today. You're getting your money's worth, David.

I mean, it's bullshit. And I may have to fire myself. Yeah. Wouldn't be the first time. It would not be the first time. No, that's right. I used to be the head of Deutsche Bank, and I made a mess of it. Oh, you sure do. I mean it was one of those things I should quote qualify this I knew that I was going to be fired unless I fired myself, but I got a nice Severance package. I got a two-week salary and some those beef sticks

Snacky chomps. Yeah Can we find out about if they'll sponsor the show? Chomps? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And Nyquil. And Nyquil, please. Thank you. All right, Tony Shalhoub. Do you want to is there other anything else you want to bring up promote, talk about? It is Tony Shalhoub, yes? It used to be, yes.

Okay, still. What else should I talk about? Do you want to talk about Men in Black 2? Could. Do you want to talk about Barry Levinson? Barry Sonnenfeld, you mean? Barry Sonnenfeld, right. I'd like to talk about that, but I've never worked with him.

No, not really. That must happen to Barry a lot. Yeah, I'm afraid it does. But I did- But I would like to talk about Barry Levinson. Oh, that was Minnet Black was so fun. I thought that was one of the- It was a bizarre experience for me.

Was it? Yeah. Although I did one of the like just dumbest. Dumb isn't even the right word, it was. I mean, it was dumb, but it was also. Just so irresponsible and unintentionally, but so I shot for the first one, I shot that scene in the morgue. And then all the mosquitoes come out, I get the ray, whatever. And then you cut to me up in the goo and the ceiling. Those two scenes were shot about, I want to say, five weeks apart. Really?

And I shot that first scene and they were going to get to it, but they didn't make the day, so they were going to bring me back. And I completely forgot about it. Forgot totally. Weeks go by, weeks go by, and then I, at some point, I got a haircut because it was getting- No. Yeah, yeah. And Barry Sonnenfeld,

like specifically asked me to grow my hair out. He asked me to grow my hair. I was like, OK. I just totally space forgot that the whole project even existed. And I knew I had to go shoot. And I was talking to my then girlfriend, Mary Lynn Rice-Cubb on the phone,

and she mentioned something, and whatever it was, little domino effect triggered, and I realized, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh no. Oh no. She's like, what? What's going on? I was like, I got a fucking, I got my head shaved. So they had to bring in Rick Baker.

Yeah. And he was not happy. No one understood it. And I get it, I totally get it. Here's this fucking kid, like, what's wrong with you? You know, what the fuck is wrong with you? And they had the guy, this, you know, what the fuck is wrong with you? And they had a, the guy, this award winning special effects makeup guy had to spend fucking half a day

just putting my, getting my hair to the other thing so they could put me in goo. Everybody was pissed for a good reason. And I just felt, I couldn't have felt stupider. I've just felt so stupid. Is that why you weren't in Men in Black 2? I was in Men in Black 2. In Men in Black 3 too?

I was not in Men in Black 3. I was in 2, which this is also somewhat interesting anecdote, but we had the dialogue, I had the character, and we got to the set. And Barry is like, you know what, I think you should be, you should be the same guy you were.

And I was like, whoa, okay, what? Because I had this character form and all this stuff, and he's like, yeah, you should be the same guy. Okay, what? Because I had this character form and all this stuff. He's like, yeah, you should be the same guy from the morgue, but now you work in a video store. Right. Okay. But didn't that guy die? I thought he died. He got out of it.

Okay. It's not black. Yeah, anything goes. Then we saw I had to redo, rethink it, which was not difficult. And then, but one cool thing is I improvised this, some stuff, and it made the movie. So that was cool. I was happy about that. And I've worked with them since, you know, I've worked with them on other projects and I love Barry.

And he's been very, very supportive of my standup as well. He's great. He will reach out and say, I saw this special, it was great. What's his wife is? Sugar or something? What's his? Bunny or? Bunny? Bunny? That sounds right. His wife's name is interesting. It's a his wife's name is interesting. Yeah, it's like is it

like sweetener like Stevia sugar on the raw as I thought that's it Stevia honey bunny Bad bunny. Is he married to bad? No, no Barry Sonnenfeld wife wife, bad bunny, question mark? All right. Barry, let me know. Jesus. Tony, I end every episode with a question from my daughter, who's seven. So, and you could answer any way you see fit. First, before I do that, I'd like to answer the song question. Oh, yeah, of course. We'll edit this out. I've thought a lot about it. Now, I'm sort of, I'm kind of

splintering off of Dylan to the band who was his band. And I think The Weight, the song The Weight. Love that song. Okay. There you go. All right, America. There it is. And parts of Canada. The. There you go. All right, America. There it is. And parts of Canada. The Wait by the band. Not W-A-I-T, by the way.

That's just so you know. No, The Wait. Yeah, The Wait. By Robbie Rob, and not R-O-B-I, R-O-B-E-Y, Robertson. And not R-O-B-B-E-E-R-R-T-T-T-S-O-N. Not S-E-N, S-O-N. Yeah. The lateN. Yeah. Late, great. Okay. Those are jokes. Oh, here we go.

So, is this for your daughter now? Is that- Yeah. Either she'll say, hey, that's a good question for your podcast or I'll ask her, hey, I need a couple of questions. I've got some recordings coming up. Will you give me some questions to ask? So this is today's question for Tony. Why does a fruit fly only live for a day? Why does a fruit fly only live for a day? Marla would like to know. I think everyone knows the answer to that question. Well, she clearly doesn't unless you think she's toying with you, but she's seven.

Well, I thought it was more of a challenge. She knows, but she doesn't think I know. Is that what's going on here? Man, you're a... I am. You really got some issues. I have no idea. You need to bring this up at your next session. My issues have issues.

This seven-year-old is fucking with me. Challenging. Okay. Yeah. The reason is they move very quickly and the wings, they beat faster than a hummingbird's wings. But that is incredibly taxing. It's exhausting. Yeah. And certainly it'll kill you after a day of it. Exactly. So all of that flying and wing beating kills them. They're, they're little tiny, tiny hearts cannot withstand all of that because they're always on the move.

And that's- They hit the ground running when they're bored. That's right. They're like, they're off. But that's another reason why they're so hard to kill, hard to destroy. Unless you have vinegar and do so. I mean, if you know that they will die of a peaceful old age, if you just leave them alone for a few hours, it seems a little cruel to try to kill them. Exactly. Yeah. But so, also, the other reason that they don't live long is that they tend to go after unwashed fruit. Fruit that's covered with insecticide. So, it's basically like a suicide mission for them.

Are those answers good? I think they're fine. Again, I don't correct or pass judgment or anything. That's her question. You answer it however you see fit. And I come at this with absolutely no scientific background at all. Okay. I failed at science in school.

So. Yeah, I don't remember. I'm sure I didn't do very well. I'm sure I didn't. I would put my money on that. Okay. After our brief conversation. All right, Tony Shalhoub, thank you very much for coming in. That it? Are we done? Yeah, we're done. Oh my God. Yeah, I got a lot to do. I was only in town for – wait, how long are your podcasts? I think there are six episodes and they're a little under an hour each.

But have you done a discussion one like this? No. Oh, okay. I'm doing Morning Joe tomorrow though to talk about it. I think with Edie and with John. I did, what was the name of it? It was really cool. One of those, they turned it into a movie with Julia Roberts and I can't remember who

else but, how the fuck was it called? But it was with Katherine Keener. Oh, I, what was it called? But it was with Kathryn Keener. Kathryn Keener and, gosh, who else? Was it Mark Ruffalo? I can't remember, but I did one of those, oh, I did two of them, actually. You know, limited series, like radio play things. And yeah, it was great. It was really cool.

It was really enjoyable to do and enjoyable to listen to. Yeah. I'll listen to what you called. I can't remember. I, it was, it was pre COVID, both of these. Oh, pre COVID. Yeah. And there was one, there was one, the other one that I did was about a teacher's lounge. And it was this, like, it was more comic. Great. But it was all these people in a teacher's lounge.

Fantastic. Yeah, it was fun. Really enjoyable to do. Yeah. Well, this was delightful. Oh, good. Thanks, David. Well, thanks for coming in.

Sense is Working Over Time is a HeadGum podcast created and hosted by me, David Cross. The show is edited by Katie Skelton and engineered by Nicole Lyons with supervising producer Emma Foley. Thanks to Demi Druchin for our show art and Mark Rivers for our theme song. For more podcasts by Headgum, visit Headgum.com or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe we'll read it on a future episode. I'm not going to do that. Thanks for listening.