SmartLess - "Mike Myers"

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

Will invites another Canadian treasure this week: Mr. Mike Myers. 18 seconds of pleasure and a lifetime of responsibility, 2% water and 98% ham, and a thousand-pound bull made entirely outta��� butter. Bienvenu á SmartLess.Please support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Well, hello, listener. Listen, I've been drawing an animated version of myself because I'm going to, I want to do a cartoon. Anyway, so here, this little Jakey Bates is over here. Hi, it's really great to see you, Jason. Wait, little Jakey, are you drinking? It's pretty early. No, no, this is water. Here, take a little water. Well, that's definitely not water. But anyway, sit down or lay down, rather, for you. Probably lay down would be better. And here comes a fresh new episode. Smart. Smart.

Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart.

Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart.

Smart. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Right? Where is it? Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Is that a movie cigarette? What do you mean? Yeah. It is. I can tell by the way that the cherry's burning. Is it looks so fake. Oh, no, but that's a, that's a clove or like the, the, the, the urbal ones that they give Why? Like this, does this look natural?

What are you blowing out of your mouth? Is that water vapor? Confidence. Oh, God. Somebody's found a new. I like your attitude. I like your attitude with the smoke now. You've got, you see now you've got more attitude, Sean.

Okay, so let me ask you, Will. Yeah. It's cause we had it in Tusk, and now we're arguing last night. I don't, someone just told me to hold it here, but you hold it up here. Am I closer to the top of your, right? Yeah, it just depends.

I mean, thanks for coming to the expert. This is one of those like talk to the expert sections. Yeah, you just got to, you got to find that kind of like loose, you know what I mean? Yeah, like right in the middle, maybe. But do you want me to do Will's face right now, or you got a little bit of smoke in the eye? I just learned from all those old maubro billboards.

Things are complicated. Yeah. Like, man, how am I going to get those steed down there? Yeah, where's the real horses? You know what I mean? Once I wrangle up this cattle, I'll make my way back to the ranch in the meantime. Well, good morning.

Hi, good morning to everybody. Did everybody sleep okay? Yeah, so, but it's 11 30 where you are, right? Sean or 10 30. Yeah, but I got up at two 30 and went back to bed at seven. That's something we learned about you on the tour. You have a halftime show during your sleep. Do you know that like a century ago or longer,

people used to do that all the time. They'd sleep, they go to bed early and then they'd wake up in the middle of the night and they would kind of cruise around and talk to people and socialize in the middle of the night. You can read about it. It's very, I read some book about it.

Wait a second, tell me about that. I'm 53 years old and this is the first time you're telling me that a century ago it was common practice to get up in the middle of the night. Everybody across the world, is that your position? I don't know if everybody across the world, but I remember reading this book about Brooklyn and people would get up and it was not uncommon

for people to get up at sort of midnight and then walk around and socialize for a couple of hours. And our idea of sleep- In Brooklyn, in just that borough. Well, that's what the book was about, but that was something that was not uncommon at the time, according to the author. I felt that, I read this thing a long time ago,

like if you can't sleep, just get up. Like because to fight it is worse. Hang on, hang on, let me work this out. You ever tried to punch yourself across the face and knock yourself back out again? You wake up kind of bruised up. Again, that suggests that you knocked yourself out in the first place to go to sleep.

Well, I mean, this is a book that I'd read on Staten Island and that 100 years ago, this is the book. I mean, obviously you know I'm calling bullshit because you've never read a book. So I just know that, yeah. So I know that that's not... Sean, what's going on with emergency services in Chicago? They seem very quiet right now

because usually they're just... Bruined everyone off the street last night. We had a record last night listener that Sean was... Actually, they're talking about dodging the sirens last night. You don't have to explain what emergency services are to Tracy. I mean, surely she understands. She was a cop, remember she was a cop.

Can I just say how great it was having Tracy on the tour when she came to Chicago in Madison? Wasn't it? And she was so much cooler than you let us to believe. You know, I just want to say... I thought you were gonna say the new period. What about the way she came to Chicago just to see what it was gonna be like

so she could decide whether she wanted to be on stage in Madison. I love that. And then we just got her on. And I asked her afterwards and I'm like, how did she feel? She goes, oh, I was a nervous wreck. I go, did you like it? And she goes, I can't remember one thing about it.

I mean, by the way, she goes like I blacked out. Did you like thousands of people cheering you wildly when you came on? Some people don't like that. I don't know anybody who doesn't like getting cheered. Hey, Jay, are we interrupting? Is it feed time? Well, you know, it's fucking breakfast time.

Oh, okay. You know, we're having, this is a real concession we're making for Sean and his fucking theater passion. God. It's... Oh, because we're on his theater schedule. Oh, you guys, come on. It's 8.30 in the morning.

I don't, I can't... Five, six, seven, eight. It's not magic time. Magic times after 10, 10 a.m., something like that. Well, it's not like those Saturdays for the Ozark schedule, boy. Sometimes early, sometimes late. Sorry about that.

I know, I know. I hope that our guest is on some sort of a central or eastern time and not as... I think our guest is. And our guest is also accustomed to changing schedule, especially performing live, because our guest is no stranger to performing live. In fact, they started out,

they started out making commercials, et cetera, just like a lot of people making some memorable appearances. Oh, I know who it is. I'm kidding. Great, some great shows. I remember a particular episode of the littlest hobo that I will never forget. Are you freestyling right now, Will,

or have you written anything down? I am, I'm freestyling. This person then went on to perform, take his comedy chops over to the UK where his family originated from, and performed comedy and sketch and improv over there, moved it back to Toronto, moved his way right to the main stage on Second City,

then to Chicago, then to improv, doing Second City there, improv olympics. This person doesn't sound funny at all. Then made a move to Saturday Night Live, where he absolutely blasted onto the scene, made a bunch of incredibly memorable movies over the last 20, 30 years. Mike Myers.

Some of the best comedies of all time. It's Mike Myers. Did I get it? He's the only person I know who loves the Toronto May believes as much as I do. It's the incredible, the hilarious, the amazing Mike Myers. Got it. Mike Myers!

I know that's the first time I've ever gotten it. Hello, how are you? Hello. I'm smoking my pen. Hello. Hello. Oh, nice. See, Mike is doing a good job.

There you go. Did you do that, Mike? Did you see this? Yes, I did. It looks real, right? Mike, were you ever a smoker? No, never. No.

Yeah. No. I smoked in a tree fort once, and that's where I started. Truly. With a playboy that we found in the woods that was thick. And that's the last time I smoked. Mike, I'm glad that you mentioned that you found some playboys, because I remember I found in Toronto

at a trash can at a bus station, an old penthouse magazine. And I'm like, maybe this is a Canadian thing, just people throwing out their dirty mags. I think it is. It's the great purging that happens every March. You have to purge your porn. Wait, Mike, look at this photo. Look at this photo.

Hold on one second. Let me see. Oh, wow. Is that from Kat in the Hat? That's me and you. No, that's before I got well in grace. I met you at Barney's. At Barney's in New York?

No. Yeah, and the parking lot. Mike, were you selling jackets? Isn't that crazy? I was, reasonably priced. High quality. Mike, I'm so thrilled to be talking to you. I met you only the once.

I shook your hand out in front of some screening. And I thought I would meet you again sooner than now. Was hoping, was wishing, but happy, better late than never. I'm such a big fan of yours. Really. Well, thank you likewise. Thank you. Mike, talk a little bit about, as a Canadian, of course,

I always looked up to you as well, because you were a guy from Toronto who went and did it. And did it, not just made great stuff, but made great thing after great thing. It was hilarious. And for me, it was so inspirational. I was like, see, you can get out of Toronto. You can do stuff.

What was that feeling like when you made it in the US? We know what that being Canadian experience is. You know, it's, you know, being Canadian is, you know, sitting at the border looking south and going, wow, it's a big party. Can I come too? Wow. And it was unbelievable.

I still can't believe it. It's very, very gratifying. And, you know, American show business is the best show business in the world. I know that sounds weird, but it's absolutely true. Do you live in the States now or do you live in Toronto? I live in New York. Oh, you do? Oh, great.

Yeah. I come in with such specificity with what you do and what your funny was and seem to make no apologies for it. You didn't kind of have, keep one hand behind your back and kind of play it safe at all, you know, to all of our, you know, fortune, you know, you just really kicked the door down and we're really, the characters that you played,

I can't imagine anybody else ever playing them. And it took a lot of acting talent as well to be as funny as you were. It's just remarkable, truly. It is. I saw the recent Austin Powers commercial that's running now and I'm like, I don't even know what the product is. I was like, oh my God.

I was like, oh my God, Mike's back, is that? I think everybody, it's a historical character now. But then even like the small part you did in Tarantino's movie too, it's just, you know, it's never surprising to see you be incredible. Or Bohemian Rhapsody as well. Like you're just, so Mike, let me ask you. So you come out of Toronto, you go and you go to England.

We talked a little bit about Mike and his alter ego, Tommy Maitland came and did the gong show for two years. Another incredible character. And Mike's only rule was we could never tell anybody that it was Mike. And people were like, who the fuck is this guy, Tommy Maitland?

And he was so in it. It was crazy. It was amazing that the network allowed him to do it. And it was so. Yes, to their credit. To their credit. Was there ever a big announcement about it? Did you guys ever take the victory lap that you deserve

by making a big announcement finally and saying, look what we did? I guess second season, Mike. Yeah, second season we had to because there's a journalistic standards of, is this fake news? So they went along with it until the whole fake news. Aha. Well, that's cool.

Not controversy, but it came to a head. Like no journalist would go along with it. You know what I mean? Right. Which I understand, but you know, it was fun. I had so much fun doing that. Oh, Mike, you were so, you were so game and he had to get all this prosthetics done every day

and be in it for hours and then have so much energy as this sort of late middle-aged guy who's trying to drum up the energy to get the audience going. And my favorite was Mike talking to people backstage that he knew, like Fred Armisen coming and talking to Mike and Mike was full Tommy Maitland with Fred. It was so surreal.

I mean, it was a different human being. It was crazy. Is there any Richard Dawson baked into it? There's a little Richard Dawson, that sort of mid-Atlantic almost English accent for export. Like real English people don't actually talk that way. Uh-huh. But I'm always obsessed with culture for export.

Like I think sometimes I talk like a Canadian for export. Right. Just like it's assumed of me or something. So Mike, do you walk around the house and work on new characters or? I do, I have three kids. So, you know, wow. I did this one strange character for my kid Spike

who's 10 and he's very socially conscious, you know, which this generation is gonna be fine. You know what I mean? And I was like, I've watched you. I saw you from across the street. And he goes, who are you? My son going along with it. He goes, where do you live?

I said, I live on this street. And he went, dad, he's homeless. You think homelessness is funny? And I was like, no, I don't. I think it's a tragedy. I wasn't, I just, it's an improv. And that's the first thing that came to my mind. And you guys, you know, it's a real problem here in New York.

I got lectured by my 10 year old. And then you should have given them the lecture about yes anding. Yes. And they, it wasn't well received. So Mike, so you, you've done all these amazing, by the way, I've always thought, I can't believe you should have won an Emmy for Tommy Maitland

because it was so above and beyond. Yeah, thank you. Oh man, it was just amazing. I love the gong show as a kid. So for me, it was like, are you kidding? It was tell me when and what to wear, you know? And it just, I loved it was pre-ambition. That's what I love about, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. It's just to make people laugh. My company's called No Money Fun Films because that is my favorite thing. And I love comedians that like to be funny. Like Dana Carvey is where I was on tour with him. He's hilarious. So hilarious.

And I did movies with him. He's hilarious just for, just to be funny. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. He just, and he does running, running gags, which is my favorite thing too, which is he would do this thing with the Beatles, just talking filthy.

So it'd be, I'd remember one time. And then it was like, it was George and I, and there was just three buns. And it was just so filthy. And so all he had to do was be on stage with him in these big crowds and under the laugh, he'd go, I remember one time. I'd be like, how do you do that?

He is literally the most relaxed performer. Yes, yes. And he's a conductor. When he does his stand up, he's just remarkable. But I love running jokes and I love that he is committed to them as well. Mike, do you forgive my ignorance, but do you do stand up?

Did you start with stand up? Never did stand up. I did it once and I was so ill from it before going out. I like threw up and I don't know how people do that. Did you have a bunch of stuff written out and prepared? Like, had you worked on like a set? No, I thought I could just, I thought I just go up there and I'll just, I'll speak, you know?

I'll just, I'll tell him the truth as I see it. It was like, you suck, get off the stage. We hate you. We hate your truth. Sounds horrible. So do you keep in touch with Lorne or check in on SNL or anything like that? Just see what's going on.

I do, yeah. You do? Oh, that's great. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know how long those, how long his students, how long he keeps in touch with his kids. I'm very, you know, I'm very grateful to Lorne,

gave me my break in TV and my break in movies and he's a Canadian hero and continues to be. And one of the, literally, I don't, I quote Lorne maybe 10 times a day. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just in little things too. It's like, well, you know, being in a car,

the audience doesn't mind it. That's where you should put all of your exposition. You know. You know. You know, it's just like little things like that. When you have a special guest, you should have to give them an entrance round, round of applause, you know, build that in.

Yeah, he's got those great. I remember when Amy started on update and he said, it's going to be different because now the audience hears your name. Yes. And I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense. The other one was just when you're in the VIP room, there's a VIP room that ends up being you,

Mick Jagger and the hot water pipes. Oh my God, that sounds so good. And then I was in Cannes for Shrek. And the guy said, miss you, you don't want to be in this room. There's a better room. And I went and it was me, Mick Jagger and the hot water pipes.

And I was like, he's right. He's right with that even, you know. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. There's such a specific work routine and rhythm and schedule with SNL that obviously you flourished in. How have you, as you've gotten older,

even more talented, more specific with what you do and capable of even so many other things, how have you noticed your change in what you like to do as far as rhythm goes and work routine? And do you miss the rush, rush, rush of that? Or do you prefer, yeah. I miss the rush, rush, rush.

You know, again, another lornism. It's not the best show that goes on in 1130. It's the best show that's ready to go on at 1130. That's hilarious. It offers you a tremendous freedom from choice. You know what I mean? Right. And you have to make specific choices immediately.

Which I did that on Second City as well. And in the London, I think the greatest training I had in a weird way was the London Cabaret Circuit, which is if they loved you, they loved you. You had to be fresh. That's the other thing too. You had to do comedy where comedy hadn't existed before or you would get either booed off the stage

or often hummed off the stage. Well, one time I was complimented off the stage, which is, you're doing a good job, Mike. You know, I don't even know my name. What does that mean doing comedy in a space that hasn't been done before? It's the topics of British comedy are very, very wide. Things that are, like there was a time

when it was always mother-in-law jokes, you know what I'm saying? And that was a very narrow subject matter to do comedy. In England, they require that you, for example, there was a comedy troupe called The Entire Population of China, this double act, these two guys. And they did a sitcom in Chaucerian English. So it had all the rhythm with a laugh track.

Oh my God. So with the router, like, and this is a room above a pub in Camden and people are like, yes, new, different. Gotcha. Well, and Mike, what's due to the enjoyment of wanting to develop characters? Like when you were younger, like, was it a person?

Was it a thing? Where you're like, oh, I can do these voices. I didn't even know I could do voices. Well, I think, you know, growing up in Canada, it is, you're an observer nation, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's interesting. And Canada is not really a melting pot. It's more of a salad bowl, you know, when you come over,

it's just a different thing. And so cultures and how people talk is something, and I think SCTV said to me that it was possible to come from Toronto and do what I do. Gilda Radner played my mom in a TV commercial when I was nine. Wow, wow. And I watched her on Saturday Night Live

and I turned to my family and said, that's what I'm gonna do for, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna be on that show. Yeah, all right. And I think of all of the original cast, I think I relate more to Gilda Radner than Belushi or Akroyd, who I worshiped Dan Akroyd, but I think I was more like Gilda Radner, really.

Yeah, yeah. Peter Sellers was a huge influence. My dad, you know, he's English him. You know, I had two Liverpool parents and they were like, Wow. My dad's biggest compliment was, oh, I wish he was English. You know. You know, Mike, it's funny, I said,

I remember talking to, you know, our mutual friend, Rob Cohen, great writer, funny guy, amazing. And he actually made this documentary as you know, about what it means to be, why Canadians are funnier, why there are seemingly so many Canadian comedic actors and comedians, et cetera. And I always said that it felt like, and as a Canadian, obviously referenced that it,

it's almost like we were born up against the glass, right? Like it's like at the rink and you're just looking in, we're not in the game yet, we're just kind of there. And we have the luxury of kind of, we don't necessarily have any skin in the game, we can just observe and comment on it. Does that ring true to you? 100%, you know, Martin Short used to say,

you know, when Americans are watching TV, they're watching TV, but when Canadians are watching TV, we're watching American TV. Yeah. There is just a slight separation. That's so funny. And it's a weird, like, it's a party happening upstairs that you wish you were invited to, you know what I mean?

Yeah. But you also have that kind of like, those people are crazy upstairs, you know? Get a load of them. Well, Mike, I don't know if you remember, I had this experience when I moved to New York many moons ago, and I would come back to Toronto and people would say, oh, Willie, you sound, you're American now, eh?

You're down there, you're American. Like as if I had done something wrong. You know, I'm like, what? It's so unfair and not true, by the way, you know, because there's nobody more Canadian than a Canadian who no longer lives in Canada. Yeah, yeah. You get super Canadian when you move down here.

It's that guy, there was that, the devil's dictionary, that guy Englishman who wrote it, and he had the description of a kilt was a traditional Scottish garb worn by Americans in Scotland and Scots in America. Yes, that's right, exactly. It's a similar thing. So anyway, so you moved in, you go to Chicago,

but how many of those characters that you ended up, you know, iconic characters you did on SNL, any of them had you been working on them on Second City? Were they characters that had developed, yeah? Most of the characters I had done at Second City and had done on Canadian TV. I had done Dieter on a show called It's Only Rock and Roll, and I'd done Wayne, I had a thing called Wayne's Power Minute

on It's Only Rock and Roll on CBC, on Canadian TV. No way! Power Minute. It's Wayne's Power Minute in the Shaggan Wagon. And it's a... That was my handle in high school, was Power Minute. Shaggan Wagon. Power Minute.

Yeah, I don't think it was a compliment, I'm still trying to figure out what it was. Yeah, no, it's 18 seconds of pleasure in the lifetime of responsibility, right? Yeah. So you do, by the way, I mean, Wayne's World, again, as a, I just, that was such a win that, you first started doing that sketch on SNL,

it just blew me away, just hilarious. We would quote it, still to this day, of course, how many iconic things came out of it, not, shwing, things that are still part of the vernacular. Do you ever hear that stuff just sort of, like out of your, you know, in your peripheral and just go like, holy shit, I came up with that. Every character, though, like what about behave?

Oh yeah, I wasn't even getting to that yet, but yeah. Exactly, there's so much. It's very gratifying, it is, it's unbelievable. You know, like, you know, my parents, my dad sold encyclopedism, my mom worked in the office of a factory that made aerosol can products. So it's not like I'm to the manner born and go, wow, see, my dad used to handle this, you know.

So it's all kind of, it's just being unbelievable. I can't believe it. Did your parents fully understand and grasp what a home run your career is and has been? Well, strangely enough, my father had gotten Alzheimer's by the time I'd become successful, which is one of those ironies. The person who would have most delighted

in seeing it was, you know, it's a very tough disease Alzheimer's because it's people's personality leave their bodies and so you can't quite have a funeral. And, you know, I think it was once described as the long goodbye, you know? Yeah, for sure, for sure. So your dad never got to see that,

your mom did get to enjoy some of your success? She did and she didn't. She's like, oh, I saw Wainswold. Yeah, what'd you think? Oh, that Dana Carvey's very good, isn't he? Oh, he's just got it, he's just slick, you know? But Americans are, aren't they? They're very slick.

I've used the other guy in the hat. Yes, don't care for him much. Yeah, Mike, I think that's like English, like my mom, a Canadian, but also a, you know, far back sort of English and Scottish and Irish descent and similar thing, which is, you know, anything. She's smartless, listen, my friends really love smartless. Oh, yeah, thanks, what did you think?

Well, they liked it. Okay, you know. Then you find out that she's insufferable to others, you know? Yes, yes. My son made it. Yeah, you know what I loved, Mike? I loved Supermanch. I loved that talk.

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I loved it so much and... It was a documentary for Tracy, it was a documentary that Mike directed. Yeah, on the legendary manager, Shep Gordon, Alice Cooper's manager. Yeah, so cool. I knew nothing about him, actually, and it was so fascinating.

And did you, was that a pleasurable experience for you? Would you do it again? I would love to do it again. It was a very pleasurable experience. Shep Gordon is one of the nicest human beings in the world, and I thought, what do you give the man who has everything? And I thought, I'll give him the microphone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's just, I just wanted to... We talked about Lauren, Shep Gordon is very much like Lauren. His art form can only be seen from space, you know what I mean, which is he builds careers in that way. It's almost like a Cristo of building different people's careers. And that's his milieu, his art form.

Would you direct another documentary, or is there something you were interested in? I would, yeah. Yeah, I've always loved documentaries. I thought I was going to be a documentary filmmaker. Oh, wow. I got hired for Second City and accepted to York University Film on the same day.

Oh, wow. And I thought, oh, I'll do Second City for a while, and then go over and study film, and then... Are you, is that something, do you have the time to pursue that at all right now? What fills most of your days? What are you enjoying pursuing? Well, I have a six-part comedy series coming out

in May called The Pentaverate on Netflix. Okay. And I've been doing that for the last two years. Of course, we got hit with COVID right in the middle of it, but it's done now, it's coming out in May. And the premise of it is, is what if five people actually did run the world, but what if they were nice?

Oh, wow. So I wanted to get to The Pentaverate. So this is a show where you play, I think six or seven characters? Seven characters, yeah. Which is insane. You're a masochist. That's a pretty tall order, yeah, you're a masochist.

Well, looking back, I do see the masochistic nature of that choice. I didn't at the time, of course, but... Did you write this as well or produce it or direct it? I didn't direct it. We have a great director named Tim Kirkby, who's this British genius who directed it. Yeah.

Was able to keep all the seven characters and all the stories all together. And it's, I wanted to do something very cinematic. That's the other thing too. Yeah. So it's closer to, it's kind of if the Da Vinci Code and the prisoner had a baby. And it kind of deals with conspiracy theory.

And basically the need we have right now to have the people trust the experts and the experts serve the people. That's kind of where we're at. And I just, the insanity of what's going on with January 6th and what's going on, this is how I thought I could respond to it. So it's a comment on misinformation

and disinformation. That's great. Yeah. Is that important to you? I mean, obviously it is. I mean, to be able to speak up and to, there's always that sort of thing of like, hey, use your platform to do the right thing.

And you've chosen to do it in a way that you know, which is to make, to kind of send it up and do it through comedy. Has that always been something that you've wanted to do? Yes. Definitely. I think that the highest aspiration for me would be something like Dr. Strangelove.

That would be the highest aspiration. To me, that is the near perfect comedy, which is kind of like how I feel like Flintstone vitamins. Kids are eating Barney and Dino. They don't need to know what's good for them. You know what I mean? I think that's kind of the best delivery system of ridicule.

Right. Adam McKay is doing a good job of that too, I think with the satires that he's making about these important issues. And very, very entertaining, which I think is the key, you know? Yeah, for sure. Mike, talk a little bit about,

so you made three Austin Powers movies. You kind of, I think you took a little bit of a break right before you did those movies from acting for like two years. You hadn't done anything. And then all of a sudden, Austin Powers comes on the scene. And it absolutely just, it was a smash success. And what was that experience like?

Did you know that it was going to have the impact it did? No, I didn't. I thought you'd have to have grown up in my house to get the movie, to be honest. It was every movie that I loved, the James Bond, the Matt Helm movies, all the Spice Booths. It's actually a spoof of a Spice Booth, really,

truthfully, more than it's a James Bond parody. And I wanted to make my own, you know, to talk about Spaghetti Westerns. I wanted to make my own knockoff James Bond thing. And with the assumption that it had always existed in British culture, and now they're making the movie version of it. And in hindsight, it's quite resherché.

You know, it's a very specific offering. I didn't think it was. And I am as surprised as anybody that it impacted mainstream culture at all. I wanted to make almost an indie comedy. Right. And I didn't know that necessarily it would have any currency beyond people

that knew that idiom, you know? Well, beyond it being undeniably funny, I think if people took it like I did, your commitment, as I said earlier, to your character, to your tone of comedy is so infectious that you have no choice but to enjoy it because you are enjoying it so much. You have so much commitment to it.

And it's just, it's that helpful tether, that leash that you're providing to the audience. Like, I've jumped in with two feet, come on in with me. Yeah, I think a big hallmark of all your characters is how committed you have been. And as Jason pointed out, it takes a great deal of acting. And you never break, even though you have fun with all those characters,

you are so thoroughly that person in that moment. And there is that kind of other side, I'm not asking to call anybody out, but there is that kind of comedy, which is much more a comment on characters, which to me feels like, anytime people talk about deconstructing, I'm like, yeah, well, go ahead and construct first.

And then feel free to deconstruct, but it's so easy to do that. And you don't ever do that. You don't comment on it, you just are it. Is that something that you ever think about? I do, I actually, I paint a little bit, and I found I can't paint anybody that I don't have positive affections for, you know what I mean?

So I have paintings of, I painted Shep in like 15 minutes, and it's like one of my better paintings, and you know what I mean? I can't judge the people I'm doing, you know what I mean? I have to find where, I had lunch with Mike Nichols, it was one of the greatest lunches of my life. Lauren set it up because he knew I loved Mike Nichols so much.

And I said, what's your number one direction? Like, what do you find yourself going to? Cause I was like, this is my chance to get some wisdom. He said, that's a good question. He said, it's, I usually say, I say to the actor, look at the character and go, I am like that when. So even if you're a murderer, you can do, I am like that when I kill somebody's good evening

with a bad mood, or you know what I mean? So that's how they connect, is to not judge, but to find the. Find the part of you that is closest to that character. So you're not acting, you're just, you're amplifying a part of yourself almost. And he also said, just remember, it's not actors talking, it's actors thinking. You're having thoughts that then have to come out in words.

Thoughts lead to emotions. It was an unbelievable masterclass of a lunch that I had with him. Yeah, we'll be right back. All right, back to the show. Mike, were there ever any characters you wanted to see realized on the big screen that you never got a chance to or is still not coming?

I think Dieter, I think I could still do Dieter. I wanted to do that. I wanted to do, you know, the other thing is through everything I do has a musical connection. So for me, Dieter would be, in essence, it would be my craft work movie. Wayne's World was my heavy metal movie, you know.

Austin Powers was my bird back rack movie, you know. All right. So that's a big influence on what I do as well. What is that musical background? Did you play a bunch of music when you were a kid? No, but it was big in my house, you know what I mean? I was raised by, you know, two culture vultures. And then I was raised by two brothers who were,

we just inhaled culture. We just loved stuff. We loved movies. And Canada's a great place to grow up watching movies, especially Toronto. We had all these fantastic second run theaters and they were all connected. So you get one pass and you could go to the Bloor Cinema,

you go out to the beaches, all these different places. And I saw the best movies projected with real popcorn, with real butter for 15 years, you know. And I went three times a week. What about your kids? Do they share the same kind of passion? 100%. What about for show biz?

My wife Kelly is like, I hope not. And I'm like, it's gonna be what it's gonna be. And she ultimately is that way too. But, you know, they are, as I am, made of, you know, 2% water and 99% ham. So I think it's likely gonna happen. Do they get what you've done? Do they give it up?

Do they understand your talent and your accomplishments? They do, but they also can torture me with it, which is fantastic. My youngest is Paulina. She's very, very smart. And I'll be like, okay, you gotta go to bed now. She goes, you're bowling, right? What?

You're bowling. And then she reached back. I wrote a book about Canada and she said, and this book is boring. Throw it on the ground. And I'm like, well, there are parts of it that might be a bit of a polemic, but on the whole, and then I'm like, yeah, she's fine.

What am I doing? You know, Mike, if I'm lucky enough to get stopped and somebody say something nice, they either bring up Well and Grace or Cat in the Hat. And that was one of the highlights of my career. It was working with you on that movie. It was, I watched you work and construct scenes. I'll never forget that time and you called me in

and was it Dana or somebody else? And you asked us to come up with fixes for jokes. And I was like, Mike Myers is asking me to come up with jokes. It was really, really impressive to see how hard you work and to what lengths you'll go to make something great. It was, and it's something I stole and I still think about.

Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah, I think it comes from, I never thought it would happen. And I don't want to blow it, you know what I mean? And so you just, and also too, just, you know, I grew up very working class, you have to work. I never thought anyone was gonna hire me for anything. You know what I mean?

That's why I wrote so much of Saturday Night Live because I didn't think anybody would necessarily write for me, why would they, you know? Well, talk about that because I think that it's a very relatable thing for anybody in any industry at any point in life. When you want something really badly and you see that it's actually approaching

and then actually maybe you're even in it and the success is there. Everybody comes to the point of like, should I ask for help here to either solidify it or make it even better? Or should I hold on to it and make sure nobody screws it up for me? Like there's always that kind of push-pull

about whether you have the courage to ask for and incorporate help or whether you're just going to kind of say, no, I got here without anybody else and I need to stay by myself and at the exclusion of all these other talented people around me, I think that's something that everybody always goes through in any industry

at any point in life. How did you go through that? It sounds like you did take on other voices. I think, you know, so when you guys have this show, I'm so envious of your camaraderie, which I love because I started with an improv troupe and I'm like the camaraderie, I would like to have a group of people that I have

but it's always just ended up that I, I'm writing my own thing and doing my own thing but I would love to be part of a larger ensemble which is ultimately what my training was. You know what I mean? It just hadn't worked out that way. I think it is just kind of, I just, I feel so honored to be non-Saharan live.

I can't believe it. Second city can't believe it. To make comedies that I thought, I better honor it by working hard, you know? Right. But you do collaborate in a leadership role though but you do collaborate on, you move from sort of collaboration to collaboration.

Yeah? Well, I think it's best available idea. Like if you have a data Carvey and he has a funny idea, you'd be an asshole not to go, what was that Dana? Hold on, Dana what? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's what you did on Cat in the Hat.

That's what you, we sat down on the floor, you had all the scenes out and you were talking about each one. You're like, just let everybody chime in and figure this out to make the best, you know, the best thing you can make. I was really cool. It has to be best available idea

and it doesn't matter who says it. Like it just, it has to be, you know, stone soup. We all have to put our ingredients into the pot. That's right. I'm assuming your Netflix thing was such a specific project that you wrote as you said and then you bring in, and then you didn't direct it. You bring in a director

and that position obviously has a ton of influence over what the audience eventually sees, bringing it off the paper and onto a visual medium. Was that collaboration exciting and fulfilling for you? Thrilling, yeah. Yeah, thrilling because he thinks in pictures, Tim Kirkby. And he's kind of, he's an eccentric English guy. He's an eccentric, I think he's a genius.

And the world of the Pentavirid is very, very cinematic. It's very, we had a fantastic production designer, Simon Rodgers, and it's, the production design is as much an offering. It's, you know, like I said, it's like the original prisoner and the Da Vinci code had a baby, you know, and it's, I got to play very, very different characters,

which is awesome. I got to play a very, very old English guy, kind of like the very old English person like that. And I got to play a Canadian newscaster, which is the sort of like, you know, here we are at the sportsman show. There's plenty of things to do, whether you're like skeet shooting or fly fishing.

Over there's a thousand pound bowl, made entirely out of butter. The local news guy. CHCH TV 11. Yeah, CHCH, Hamilton, Ontario. Well, the tiger cats have had a fantastic season. This year, that same song. You know, whenever I get to Canadian,

my Jason will often go, he'll turn me and go, oh, is that right? Hey, like when my Canadian comes out and he'll do it. Oh God, but then when you, when you get into it, and you're all just, ah, fuck there, bud. Oh, fuck, we got a real, yeah. Buddy of mine. Everything's buddy of mine.

Buddy of mine, where's telling me. I paid for those Aerosmith tickets in snows, snow tires. My dad, my dad, any day that it's sunny, he's from Winnipeg. So any day that it's kind of over, he'll say above, he'll go, it was a hundred above today. I'm like, well, obviously it wasn't a hundred below. So you can just say a hundred. And cause everything's above or below zero, right?

And but anything that's above zero, he'll go, gosh, it's a honey of a day, eh, Willie? He's so happy for good weather. Wait, Mike, that you, that, well, you know, it's amazing to me like that you can just manipulate your voice to do so many different people. Do you like, do you like watch a commercial or a movie or a person at the store and go,

I got to work on that. That's really interesting. I do. So on, with gold member, there was a show on HBO called Real Sex. Oh yeah. And it was this guy who had the, a born, a sex born, sex barn, right?

And it's a three-quarter replica of the red light district of Amsterdam. And over there's the Chinese fuck swing. And over there is the room that we keep the towels for the splooge. And over there's where we, and it's like, so that's where a gold member came from. That's amazing.

Episode 22 of Real Sex. By the way, one of the great movie titles, gold member. What was the name of the film that you did where you played the Scottish guy with the size of his head? Oh, so I married an exporter. Oh fuck, that was funny. God damn it.

Which is where the pentaverate comes from. How so? Because the secret organization that he talked about is called the pentaverate. And so I've made the pentaverate, the secret organization that he talked about. Oh, that's cool. When you go to Scotland,

or when you encounter Scottish people, what is their reaction? Are they, are you like a Scottish hero? I, yes. To be honest with you, it's been lovely. I was there with Higgins for New Year's Eve, because New Year's Eve is big in Edinburgh, a Hoogmini, and it's giant.

And so a security guy was attached to us, and he went, Mike, I've got an idea for a second. And I thought, well, we actually did a second one. A second so I married an exporter. Yeah, okay. And he goes, okay, the sun's all grown up now. And he did the whole, he acted it out, and it was a really great idea, to be honest.

It had a beginning, middle, and end. There's a character arc. I love, by the way, I love that you said, and it was actually a pretty good idea. It was, it was a good idea. Wait, how did you have two parents from Scotland at, oh, Liverpool. No, from Liverpool.

They're from Liverpool, but in Canada, every soccer coach and many cops are from Scotland. Is that right? So it's just, you're sort of issued a Scottish accent if you're in Canadian comedy. When you were a kid, did you have a little bit of an accent living in it, and then get rid of it, or? No, but I had weird words, it's just weird expressions.

Like my brother was driving a car, learning to drive, and my dad said, all right, let the dog see the rabbit. And my brother was like, what? Let the bloody dog see the bloody rabbit. Right, which meant pull out to make a left so people know you're making a left. Let the bloody dog see the bloody rabbit.

What dog? What rabbit? So my brother just got out of the car in the middle of, Don Mills Avenue just got out of this giant thoroughfare in Toronto. That's hilarious. I never knew what they're saying, but they had a famous accent, you know,

because Liverpool and the Beatles, their fame is famous, you know, and so people would knock on the door and go, is Mike in? Knowing I wasn't in, and my dad said, oh, no, he's kicking about with this other fellow actually. And they'd say, all right, say it. And my dad would go, I want to hold your hand. And they go, great, cool.

Oh, really? I think when your parents have an accent, you get better accents. For sure, for sure. Yeah. So, Mike, you didn't direct the pentaverate, but do you see yourself, after this experience, because you've created and you've, you know,

you're in effect, I imagine, show running, and you know what it's like, and you did direct a documentary, but do you see, is the next step going to be for you to direct yourself in one of these comedies where you do something different, either playing lots of characters or bringing in a new character that we've never seen before? Is that something that you're kind of working towards?

I might. I think that, you know, when they say a lawyer defends himself, he is a fool for a client, you know what I mean? There's a little bit, I love it when somebody else agrees and adds, if you will, and something that you would never have thought of. And that's what my experience with Tim Kirkby was,

is he had a big hand in shaping where the series went, you know what I mean? So I may have created it, but where it went, Tim Kirkby had a big hand in, and I also worked a little bit with Michael McCullers on it, who I was the co-writer of Austin Powers 2 and Austin Powers 3, and I love working with him. He's really funny and very, very smart,

and I think I could direct myself, I think I could direct other things too, which I'd very much be interested in doing. Stuff that you're not in. Yeah, something I'm not in. I have such, when I go to the theater in New York, I get a stomach ache before the show because I want the actors to have a good show,

you know what I mean? Yeah. And I just went and saw Hamilton with my 10-year-old son, which was fantastic. But he's like, are you okay? I go, I'm nervous, I'm nervous. He goes, you know, you're not in the show. And I'm like, I know, but I want them to have a good show.

You're like, I hope this worldwide phenomenon is good. Yes, I hope this much awarded, universally praised offering has a good show. Mike, are you good, do you have any plans to make the great Canadian movie, like the John A. McDonald's story, or the Diefenbaker, or? The Tim Horton story.

I did think about playing Trudeau, the senior, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, because I think I could actually do it, to be honest. I don't doubt it. But, you know, there is a Canadian movie I'd like to do. I want it, because there is a movement in Canada right now, which my friend, Dave McKenzie, who's a comedy writer up in Canada, calls Cinema Bleak,

where it's, you know, the children are killed in a bus that goes into the ice breaks, that the school bus goes in, most of the kids die. You know, it's all the, it's very, very... Canada can run quite morbid. Every story is, did you hear about that guy? He died, eh? In Canada.

Yeah, he died in front of his kids, eh? Yeah, he died. And then the kids died, eh? In front of different kids, yeah. Every story I get from my friends in Canada. Horrible, man. It's true. Mike, do you remember, for a while,

there at Don Sherry on Coach's Corner, it'd be like, okay, we had a hell of a period between the Leafs and the Capitals here, and Don would go, we did. But first, we're gonna go, 12 people died. They fell off a cliff into a lake this morning. And let's put these, and then he'd start crying. And then they'd go to commercial.

They'd put these beautiful Canadians up there. And you're like, fuck, man, I know I read that too, but what the hell is going on? I don't wanna... On Coach's Corner, and you're sitting there going, I'd like to know what the latest trades are. They just changed the rule, and let's know what Don Sherry has to say

about the new rule change. Gullies should be able to go behind the net and play the puck, right? But first, I wanna go to Kamloops, four kids. Died of a disease that doesn't even have a name. A dad in Timmins walked out into the woods, and he never came back. Never came back, but he did come back eventually,

but he was changed in an indecipherable way. Well, Mike, we've taken up too much of your time, man. I'm so excited for your show. Honestly, I'm so excited you're back, and you're just doing tons of characters. That's so exciting. Thank you, guys. Can I just say what a lovely experience this has been?

You've been most complimentary. Oh, pal. It's easy to do this for three more hours. I don't even know what to say. Well, you're a mega talent. You're a great Canadian. You've been an inspiration to me for a long time, and thank you for taking the time to join us, man.

Not at all. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Mike Myers. Cheers, bye, Mike. See you later. Bye, bye. Bye, bye. See you.

That man is quite a treasure. Treasure to two countries, not just one. You're right. He's a treasure to two countries. He was such a big influence on me. I mean, when I watched Saturday Night Live all the time, I was like, my God, he's, there's, I think, well, you said it a few times,

a few episodes ago where we were talking about Saturday Night Live, or maybe somebody was on from there, and how they don't really do as many character stuff, and he was one of the great last ones to really just like roll out character after character after character, and they were all so different. Oh, we didn't even get into the coffee talk. Yeah, right, right.

And Simon, the kid who was, you know, well, you know, my name is Simon, look, I'm drawing. Oh my God. I remember that. That's so crazy. Well, there's a few, I mean, obviously. And I like to tell a story.

Yeah, everyone that goes through there is so incredibly talented, but there are just a few that were able to, well, but had the range to just nail so many different kinds of funny, so many different kinds of characters, and they could play a character of another gender even, and just like go, it was really inspirational

to the point where it's depressing when they leave that environment because no other place will allow you to do all those different things in an hour and a half. Now, it sounds like his seven characters with this thing on Netflix coming up is something that kind of, you know, checks that box, thank God.

But I've missed that with him. Yeah, you miss it so much. Yeah, he must have like an insatiable drive for these characters and doing the, I mean, you think about it, it comes down to Wayne's World, huge hit. Then they make the movie, he's still on the show, they make the second one, he makes,

so I married an axe murderer, still on the show. Then he leaves, then he does three Austin Powers movies. He does all this stuff, like he just keeps it going, and now he's doing seven characters. And, you know, he just, it feels like he has this engine for characters that he probably doesn't even know where the on switch is or where the off switch is. There's no one else like him

as far as the numbers of characters and output and success, I would say, right? Sean, how's your thinking about a buy going? Cause I see your head, I see the wheels. I can actually see a little bit of smoke coming out from underneath the headphones. The headphones, yeah. Yeah, oh no, it's coming from your fake smoke, yeah.

There we go. What are you talking about? Yeah, well, you know, the important thing is with a cigarette, because the filter is so important that you just put it in your lips and gently do not buy. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.

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