The Adam Friedland Show (Cumtown) - RAINN WILSON talks Dwight, Clowning, Baha'i

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

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We're talking about the film, okay? Stop it. No, no, it's not that good. It's really, some of them are... Raine's team wanted me to pass along a message. He's totally fine to talk about the office, but it doesn't want it to be a main focus in the interview and appreciate keeping that topic to more of a minimum.

We're talking about the Bacadavida. That's pretty true. They glean that, but I'm happy to talk about the office. Well, no. I want to talk about your new film, Code 3. You know how you talked about the Midwestern person saying thank you. person saying thank you and not really meaning it I'm so interested in hearing about

your new movie tell us about your movie movie always out of the show of my show of my TV. Welcome back to the Adam Friedland Show, guys. Adam Friedland here. First, as always, I want to thank our members for supporting the show on YouTube and Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so right here on YouTube.com by clicking the join button at the top of your page or the link in the description below. You'll get early access to episodes, discounted merch. Also, if you prefer to use Patreon,

there's a link in the description of this video below. Speaking of merch, we have merch available, as I said last week. Go to the Adamfriedland.show and check out the store there. That's the the Adamfriedland. Show. And you can, we have t-shirts, we, you know, great stuff. My guess this week is actor Rain Wilson.

Wilson is of course best known for his portrayal the buffoonish Dwight Shrewt on the NBC's hit sitcom The Office. During the series eight-season run, America reveled in Shrews's humiliation at the hands of Jim Halpert, who was played by John Krasinski from also the Benghazi movie, if you guys have seen that one. During one such episode famously, Shrews' stapler was put in a gelatin mold, and it was hilarious. Now, as everyone knows, one of my strengths as an interviewer is my natural charm and charisma. Practically every guest I've had on this show has left an interview in love with me, which is frankly kind of annoying.

But my conversation with Wilson was perhaps the polar opposite. It was contentious, it was uncomfortable, and after he left the studio that day, it came to my attention that he had cyberbullied me on the popular social media app Instagram in a post that both doxed and ridiculed our office's bathroom. But it didn't end there. The following week, Wilson sent me numerous threatening text messages, which in this current political climate has left me on edge and afraid. But I didn't want to be a victim.

I wanted to put myself in Mr. Wilson's shoes. Why was this beloved comedic actor being mean? Perhaps the answer was right in front of us this whole time. On NBC, during prime time, before Parks and Rec, I think it was eight on Thursdays. Perhaps art bled its way into reality. he'd been driven insane after eight years of publicly broadcasted torture. Kind of like Heath Ledger Joker. I'm not a licensed psychiatrist, and in order to confirm my theory, I needed to consult with one.

So I called up friend of the show, sexual misbehavior expert, James Foley, to see if my suspicions were proven correct. James Foley. Hi, James. Adam Friedland, Adam Freeland Show. How are you? I'm doing great. I miss you, brother. You're doing well?

I miss you more. I'm doing fantastic. No, you couldn't possibly. No, but yeah, thank you. Wait, quick question. Okay, this is kind of random. But like, if someone was, like, played like a complete, like complete joke or like a clown or a buffoon, like for maybe, let's say eight seasons on a popular

television show where America just loved laughing at them, just getting their comeuppance and just like stepping on rakes and like, you know, kind of like metaphorically speaking, having their pants pull down and then exposing their minuscule genitalia to, I don't know, ignore that part. If someone plays a heel, right, in an incredibly popular, context on television, let's say NBC during prime time before Parks and Rec made me, okay? Would, uh, would that potentially, like, affect their real life, right? I would, I would, I would, I would definitely, would say, potentially, I would definitely think it would have a drag, uh, on their emotions.

Yeah. Kind of like a Benoit situation. I don't know, I don't know what, who Benoit is. Chris Benoit from WWE. Oh, okay. Yeah. Anyway, thanks a lot. I won't keep you.

I think that answers my question. Okay, thank you, chap. Okay, bye. So what can we do as an audience where we see a beloved individual teetering towards self-harm? We can all go and see Code 3, which is the new movie that he's in with Lil Rel. It's in theaters. It's about an ambulance. It's hilarious. Guys, enjoy the show.

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Free shipping, 365-day returns, quids.com slash tafts. Our next guest is a legendary Hollywood actor whose new film Code 3 comes out this month on the 12th. Please welcome Rain Wilson, everyone. Big noise! Ooh, I like that. With the drink. You're like a...

They used to do that on the old talk shows with the cocktails. They would come out, like with cocktails. Well, I think they were all hammered. They were. I think yeah what's his name Ed Sullivan I only did

I only did Lennow obviously I was not old enough to do Carson but they would have the drink cart like down the hall wheeled in the drink cart

like with the shakers and the cognac and how is Jay you know he was nothing but nice and supportive to me

so I he gets too much crap I think he gets too much crap he was a really good like first of all when he first started as a comic

like especially in like the late 70s and the 80s. At the story. He was edgy. He was considered edgy. Everyone from that era says there was one guy and by far he was the best and it was Mr. Jay Leno.

And for people my age were like, oh, the guy that's like Monica Lewinsky? Like we're like, that guy? They're like, the Republicans are the crazy? The Democrats are crazy? Like that guy was edgy? Yeah, but apparently he wasn't. But he was always really nice to me and I would go on and whore myself out to Promote my...

He fucked me. He prosecuted. Yeah, I really would. Mr. Jay Leno. He was... Apparently, he was the guy in the 80s, so I let him have me. Yeah, really. Out of respect.

Yeah. Yeah. I did the same for Weird Al Yankovic. Yeah, and he'll go there. He will go there. Yeah. He really does go there. Actually, apparently he's the greatest guy of all time.

Weird Al? Yeah. Al is the nicest. You know him. He's a friend of yours. His parents dying and then him performing that night is the most... Did you know about that? I didn't know this story.

Please tell. His parents both died and then... Do you want him on this show? Because I can get him on the show. Yes. Yes! Yes! I...

Okay. Here's another thing that gets too much crap. No... ...futty songs. Funny songs are like, people are like... Say it's the lowest common denominator... It's the funny... Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song?

Well, listen, that one... In this day and age, we can't, come on, it's too dicey these days. You can't sing a Hanukkah song because of Gaza? Yes, yes, exactly. Really? Why? Out of respect for Hamas, I will not listen to it. No, no, no, but, yeah. Tell the dead parents' joke.

It's not a joke. Or story, sorry. His parents, I think there was a gas leak, and they both died. And he had a concert that night. And he went out and he was like, I'm fed. You know, he's like, I got to do. The show must go on. Yeah, and he was like, you know, living in an Amish paradise.

I'm fat. I think I lost respect for him. He should have canceled the show. I'm sorry. I think he probably should have canceled the show. We're talking shit on this guy about his lowest moment in his life. Al is the greatest guy alive. I was in his movie, Weird, the Al Yankovic story.

Have you seen that movie? Wait, no. It's very funny. They wrote a fake biopic of Al Yankovic, and it's got a great cast of a lot of comic actors. He's in that other movie. It's three letters. VH, VH, VHF. Oh, UHF.

That movie is so funny. That's very funny. But this came out a couple years back. Weird, the Al Yankovic story is very funny. It's a kind of alternate world as if Al Yankovic was more popular than, and dated Madonna and was like the most popular pop star on the planet. He should have been, if you asked me. Right?

Yeah. How is this interview going so far? It's not an interview yet. We're just feeling, we're like two dogs at the dog park sniffing each other's asses, right? How is this show? Oh, the show itself? Going so far. How is the Adam Fiedland show?

Episode number 237 with Rain Wilson. We're six minutes in. How's it going so far? I feel like, again, like we're two dogs at the dog park smelling each other's bums. Okay. And your shit, it smells like roses. Oh, right. It smells phenomenal.

Your smells like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Oh, thank you so much. Is that good or bad? I love a cookie. I mean, chocolate kills dogs. This is a great. Hmm. Good point.

Okay. I was looking at your filmography. And you're in a film directed by Mr. Rob Zombie. Yeah. Called, what was the name? House of a Thousand Corpses. And correct me if I'm wrong. Did you wear costumes on the set?

I wore costumes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And there was someone that was a costumer on set? I imagine that there was. Yeah. Yeah. And her name was Amanda? Could have been.

Friedland, perhaps? It could have been. Yeah. Perhaps my aunt? Your Aunt Amanda dressed me for that show? And she laid out my wardrobe in the trailer for me? I don't know how you guys put the clothes on. Yep.

It's usually laid out in a trailer. You got your trailer. It says like, Rain Wilson, and you open it up, and there's your wardrobe is laid out. And then a convenient person comes by, and they're like, here's your pants, and we steam those. And if you can choose, you can either wear these tennis. shoes and these for this scene and there's a change of underwear in the closet let me know if you have any questions and then perhaps the perhaps there's a

vote on set of who in the production is most fuckable and perhaps my aunt wins that vote wow this is what I was told on the phone yesterday by auntie Amanda and I just want to know did you vote for my aunt or not I would have voted for Rob Zombie's wife Sherry Moon zombie because She is smoking. Okay. You didn't vote for my... But I don't remember Amanda Friedland.

I would have liked... Oh, okay. She said she saw you at Comic Con. You were very nice. You remembered her. But you would have remembered that she was voted most fuckable on set. Is that something that happens a lot in Hollywood?

You know, where the fellers get together and they vote for who's the most fuckable? They do. Yes. Every production. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Who it is?

Yeah. On the office? On the office? Leslie Jane Levinson. Yeah. Oh, Jan Levinson Gold. Yeah. I want to ask you, see, the annoying thing is this.

Every interview you get the question, are you tired of being Dwight or something, right? Sure. Or being something ubiquitous, because it is an iconic, ubiquitous, like, American comedy, like, legendary character. Right. And everyone asks you about getting, like, approached on the street, but they don't ask you about, like, how, what gave birth to Dwight. So, right down the street. at NYU. You know, I was always really good at, I was a theater actor, and I was always really good at comedy theater, whether it was doing sketches or a farce or doing clowny

kind of characters or Shakespeare clowns or something like that. But I did pretty wide-ranging theater training, but one of the things we did is we took clowning class. And this is like, who's the guy who plays Borat again? What's that guy? Sasha Baron Cohen. So he went to the guy in Paris. He went to the guy, right? Yeah, Lecoq. And that...

That's funny. That's funny. His... But this woman, Gates McFadden, was our clown teacher just for a couple of weeks or months. And she was actually played Dr. Crusher on Star Trek the next generation. No. The beautiful red-headed woman. She teaches clown?

He is a clown teacher, a master clown teacher. That was a childhood. childhood like I didn't even I didn't even have like a know what sex was but I was like I need her pressure was incredible she's still available is she mm-hmm and she teaches clown she doesn't regularly teach it but she is capable of teaching a mean clown class she could be your clown tutor your private clown tutor like my clown teacher yeah rush her yeah what did what did wharf was he funny or no he was hysteria yeah

He was my voice in speech teacher. No, he wasn't. Yeah. Michael Dorn was? Yeah, and Patrick Stewart taught... P. Stu. He taught non-disclosure agreement. He taught...

But anyways, in this clown class, you did a lot about, you know, creating a character kind of out of nothing. And that when you put on the red nose, it amplifies whatever you're doing. And the big mistake with, like, red-nose clowning is, like, you do something clowning. And there was this exercise we did called Circle of Fire, which is basically you put on the red nose, you go in front of people, and you can only leave the stage once you've made everyone laugh. Really? And sometimes people would be up there for 45 minutes. Yeah, because you had enemies in the class. People that really didn't like you.

Good thinking, but because it's really hard to make people, maybe not for you, and maybe not even for me, a little. little bit but it's really hard to make people laugh with a red nose on your face what if you fart really loud it's get out there it's gonna it's not gonna be that funny really yeah for no it's always no what you think is gonna be funny doesn't work with a red nose because it so what what's really funny is being totally vulnerable and like if you were to cry about like a dead relative that would be hysterical really for I'm not even kidding I cried on this show a couple weeks ago I don't think it was what did you cry about no we don't have to get into it all right I was so I'm just saying I'm

just saying that the roots of creating a character like Dwight come from these ideas of clowns like the you go back from you know there have always been clowns in human history and you can go back to the Greek comedies and then the the Roman comedies and then Comedia del Arte that we're traveling clown troops and wooden wagons all across Europe and then Moliere and Shakespeare took those tropes and those ideas, put them in all their plays. And then those became like British vaudeville, that became American vaudeville, that became like, you know, Jack Benny and early television and the honeymooners and sketch comedy.

And that became, you know, Monty Python. You can trace clowning and some basics about building those characters back to the classics. The classics. There were probably Hebrew clowns, yeah, back in the Old Testament. The slaves in Egypt, they were like, what, I mean, I can't be out in the Sunday this long. The slaves sound like Woody Allen. It's ridiculous that they, my friend Mike Racine used to have a joke.

He's like, imagine having a slave and it's a fucking Jew. He's like, those would be the worst slaves ever. Well, okay, so I... Do you want me to... Is there a universal comedy language? Because it's very interesting. You were saying that you have to go up on stage and make someone laugh.

I've been thinking this... I've thought this for years. Like, what... Like, if you went to, like, a tribe in the Amazon and, like, that's been, like, sealed up... What would be funny? What would be funny? And it's a very interesting thing to ponder.

But I think there's only one thing I could... I would consider. Farting. Balls. Like, just getting... Hitting the balls. Yeah. Hitting the balls.

Yeah. That is universal. I think there's some universals. I think someone, like, trying something and failing is is is universally funny. I think, you know, I think if you went in the truck. If that happened to the Amazon, they would be hysterical right now. Crusher taught you that?

Crusher taught you that? Go to two. Go to two. Let's give it. There's a real pro. We got a pro. So those elements come into playing Dwight. Like, first of all, I saw Mackenzie Crook on the British office who was brilliant.

And there was a thing that he was. did that no one had done as well as him before, which was to say the most absurd, ludicrous things with an absolutely straight face, without any kind of hint at all that there was a joke there. And he was so brilliant at that. And Ricky really, I think, taught him that and Stephen Merchant. Like a lack of self-awareness, basically. Yes. But without, you couldn't see the actor, because it was a documentary. You couldn't see the actor kind of doing a weird line. Like, yeah I drink my own urine and putting any kind of spin on it just like I drink my own urine just completely and so I loved that and then there were some other elements of like I knew that

Dwight needed I need I have a huge weird head and I needed a haircut to showcase just how gargantuan and melonic yeah my head is and so I sculpted that and the self-seriousness and I knew he was kind of like he was a nerd and kind of a bully at the same time like you can never lives matter yeah he respects the yeah yeah yeah totally blue lives matter he wants to be a cop right but like yeah it was a Lackawanna County Sheriff's deputy yeah so you put these elements together and you kind of create a clown almost in the way that you would have a red nose uh-huh is this is your audience gonna give a fuck about this yeah yeah I think so okay okay wait

Well, my son is a huge Adam Friedland fan. What's happening? Does he have emotional problems? Sorry. A little bit. I want to get my... Sorry, my stupid thing. Should we call him?

Yeah, call him right now. This is very unprofessional. I think he's in class. He is? Tell him to get out of class. Send him a selfie. Okay. I'm just going to take one of these stupid things, I'm sorry.

The person you've dialed can't take your call now. Oh my God, he blocked you. They go by Kenzie. They? Okay. And they're a big fan? They're a big fan. Bard College. Here, you can leave an audio note.

Oh, yeah. No, they're doing ketamine right now. Hello, Kenzie. I'm with your dad right now. This is Adam Friedland. Oh, you sent him the Richie Torres interview? That's so embarrassing. What else did you say?

He sent it to me. You said, please don't read it. my texts okay well your day you should I pick up yeah hey what's up is it's Adam I'm with I'm with your dad right now we're chilling it's Adam a freeland oh hi what's up how's Bard going yeah yeah yeah how's Bard you you go to class are you are you wearing all black you got to stay away from what those NYC kids they're they're no good yeah um yeah well i heard that you like the show i just want to say hello real quick oh what did you say i have a friend who's more of a fan of you than me who likes you more than me

oh well i'm sorry dude i'm okay so we'll tell your friend i say what up all right we got to get back to this interview we're doing a bad job so far oh am i on tape right now i'm serious no no you're not on the show at all okay bye all right bye Yeah, it's busted! Wait, okay, so they released the auditions for the office. And the amazing thing is this, and I don't, like, not to freaking blow smoke up your hole or whatever they say. Yeah. But, like, it's Seth Rogen, Judah, Friedlander, Patton Oswald, and you, and you're just why.

Like, you're, the character is fully fleshed out just in an audition, like a self-tape. Yeah. And it's like, it's amazing to see that, like, you know, these guys are like heralded comedic actors, right? And you just destroy, I mean, you're just Dwight. So in that sense, when I watched that, I was like, oh, he's crafted this. It's not a matter of, like, that the writers kind of have done it. This is a guy that's auditioning for a role. And that, to me, made it, like, all the more impressive, you know?

Well, I love all those actors. They're all great. I think you're, you come at a character from a different way when you've had theater training versus when you come from a stand-up or improv or sketch background. And nothing against them, like Steve Carell comes from a sketch and improv background, and he's one of the, I think, and truly one of the greatest American actors of all time, his dramatic work and his comedic work. So that's nothing against them.

I just think when you have theater training, you're, you're true. trying to create a character, a three-dimensional character that can be funny but taken seriously and could walk down the street and you would believe it. There's not anything kind of like you want to, theoretically, make that character like fully living and breathing. And so I try and do that kind of work when I'm going in, especially on an audition. But this was one of those rare auditions where I'd seen the BBC office, loved it. It's the best.

How good is it? so good and I took so many things from dear McKenzie and just kind of put my own kind of American kind of white trashy spin on it and Pennsylvania Dutch kind of yeah yeah well that whole thing came out of an improv so so you brought did you bring that in that like you had you're a farmer and your cousin was like oh so yeah so you that's another question I had like how much was that the writers and how much was it you well this is what's so great story This is what how Greg Daniels does that no one else doesn't, and he's amazing in this way. Early on, I did an improv.

We would just kind of improvise all the time to just kind of find the character and find the tone. And I did this improv. I don't even remember when it was. I think it was in the first week, and I was like, and I just improvised, and I went, I really had not planned it at all. I was like, my name is Dwight Shrewd. My father's name, Dwight Shrewd. His father's name, Dwight Shrewd. Shrewd, Amish.

And out of that, they're like, oh, we'll make him and his family Amish. And then I did something about, I brought in, like, family photos of my farmer ancestors in Wisconsin and Minnesota. And Greg's ancestors, Jewish, were actual beet farmers in Poland. And so like, we'll make it, we'll have this farm Amish backstory to Dwight. That's perfect. It's in Pennsylvania anyway.

Yeah, yeah. So it came out of that. It came out of all that. So, you know, that's amazing writing, that you can kind of, like, just kind of go with what you pick up. Well, it is just a legendary... I mean, it's, like, Costanza-level

just, like, comedic character. I mean, it's like... And it's just, like, it's so impressive. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's better than Costanza. I mean, I don't know. Costanza's pretty good. Oh, Constanza's pretty good.

I mean, it's anti-Semitic for you to say, even though it's not Jewish characters. Wait, wait, wait, you were quoted as saying that one of the best parts about the show was that there were no Jewish characters. Is that correct? That's correct. I guess who, I guess there were, actually, I just made that open.

Oh, Jan. Jan Levenson. That's a Jew. And Laura Harden, non-Jew. That's probably the most. How could she possibly understand what it is to be Jew? I can't believe she hasn't been canceled. That has to be the most accurate character, actually.

Like, she's just playing a proper Jewish psycho. She's like, my friend's moms were like that. They're all like Joseph Stalin. The dinner party is my favorite. Of course it is. Of course that's your favorite episode. And it is next level. Going to a couple whose relationship is falling apart for dinner.

And you bringing an old lady. My old baby, babysitter. There's also an implication that you're like an incredible fuck throughout the entire show. That you're just like a, yeah, you devout. Which is another, like no one else would do that, would create a show, a character like Dwight. And, like, let's not have him, like, fuck up in love. Let's let's have him bed, like, 20 or 30 women over the course. Just like, incredible, like, a lover.

Yeah, yeah. You know, on Peacock, they have the extended episodes, and I've seen a couple of them, and it's really fun to watch those. I don't know. I'm sure that one is up, but I'd love to see the extended episode of that one. Oh, my God. Because every episode, you know, this was back in the days of network TV. We had to get every episode down to one to 21 minutes and, like, 40 seconds.

So lots of stuff got cut out. So much stuff got cut out. It's also amazing they used to do like 25 of them like a season. Like that's so much work. We would do between 21 and 25 episodes in a in a nine month span. I mean, it's just like a testament to like that operation had to be like a well oiled machine. Yeah. Daniels had to be like fucking like a like an admiral or something. It is. He is like a general and not only that, but he's making decisions about what about this location and what about this higher and And what about this payroll? And he's meeting with the network. And, like, Staples wants to sponsor these next episodes. And how do we work that? And so you're dealing with everything. But the writer's room was, like, 15 strong and just amazing, amazing talent. Like, like, 87-year-old Jewish men that were, like, a dying.

No, I'm just kidding. I'm not a 38-year-old Jewish man. I'm sure it's, like, Harvard kids. I'm sure it's, like, Lampoon. It was a lot of Harvard kids. I think my grandmother was Jewish. I'm sorry. But we don't know that, we don't know that for sure.

You say that in Hollywood? Her name is Marie Nunberg. And she's from northern Romania. And the rumor is that she was Jewish. She could have been... She died young and her family all died and blah, blah, blah. We don't know. We don't know.

But Marie Nunberg, it sounds pretty Jewish. Where is the rest of your family from? Brazil, right? No. I thought they just showed up in like around the late 40s. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they showed up in the, 19448 in Brazil. My name is Heinrich Gonzalez.

Yeah. Yeah, we're like, we've been Brazilians this whole time. We have Brazilians. We love, like, threesomes and choosing. Did you ever see that movie, boys from Brazil? Of course. In the 70s? Of course, yeah.

Yeah, so classic. Yeah. Yeah, that was a Mangala, right? It was about, like, Joseph Mangala. It was about they had cloned Hitler. They cloned Hitler. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's just an insanely stupid premise for a movie that in the 1970s you can make. You could like, you could really make that in the like Death Wish era of Hollywood, where it's like, what if a guy's really pissed off and he just kills a thousand minorities on the subway? Yeah. Well, okay, I kind of wanted to like, let's parlay that. You were talking about your grandmother, but like I know that you talk a lot about faith and in your, like, you have a podcast and, like, you know, like in your career since then

you've, you're very upfront about spirituality. And you're Baha'i, right? I'm Baha'i, yeah. And that's an Abrahamic religion. I know nothing of Baha'i, but it's a, it's new, right? It is an Abrahamic religion. I would say it's the fourth major Abrahamic religion. Yeah.

Yeah. How many boys you got globally? Six million so, small. Small. Yeah. Six million, yeah. And you're like the number one? I'm number, I'm like number two or three.

I've done. What if you found Dizzy Gillespie was Baha'i? Yeah, Dizzy Gillespie was Baha'i. That's not bad. Yeah. Yeah. What's your Hollywood? What's the Baha'i, like, what's the thing

that you guys have on lock? What's your, what's your? There's like seven Baha'is in Hollywood. No, I mean saying, like, our thing is like, we control the media and the banks. Yeah. Like, what do you guys control? Baha'i's control non-profit international development service work.

That sounds evil. That sounds real evil. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my, my bro I'm staying with, my homie, my Baha'i homies let me stay in his apartment in Harlem. He's off working on the International Food Program for Rockefeller Foundation, you know, feeding the kids, you know, feeding the kids. And you guys have that with sorghum. On Locky. What's sorghum?

I don't even know. Okay. It's a thing. So what's like the book? What's your like, what language is it? Because it's not like a, it's not attached to like an ethnic identity, right? Like it's an international faith, but it started in Persia. In Persia, right?

Yeah. So the, you know, the main languages of the main Baha'i writings were Persian, Farsi, and Arabic. So when you go to Shul or when you go to church or? No church, temple? No synagogue, no temple. You don't go like. No clergy. No clergy.

No. So what's, so like, do you, like, do you have songs or something? There's, there's some songs that people make up and stuff like that. There's a bunch of Baha'i books and tablets and prayers. We're here in New York City. So every year, all the Baha'is of New York City gather and elect nine Baha'is. They feel like kind of are the most wise and spiritual to kind of get on there? Democratically run the affairs of the Baha'i community in New York City.

So that, and then there's, but none of them have any authority. over any other. So it's completely democratically elected religious faith. Are you thinking about running? No campaigning. No campaigning. Campaigning is illegal in the Baha'i faith. So what, they just have to think of someone? Yes.

You literally go into prayer and contemplation and you write down silent ballot, the nine names of the people that you want to vote for. So if you get on that, you have to do it? Can you decline? You can. You can decline. You can either just stop showing. showing up or you can decline for like health reasons and some you know some

other like hardship reasons so how does one practice the faith if there's no church you can't go to the place and like you know you we need and gather at community centers or people's homes or something like that so Baha'is read from the holy writings in the morning and the evening we say one prayer in the middle of the day and there's a fasting period kind of similar to Ramadan okay And so Baha'is do a fast. These are some of the things, the Baha'is, these are what the Baha'is do in your neighborhood. And your parents were Baha'i?

My parents are Baha'i. You're raised Baha'i. Yeah. Is it kind of, in America, is it kind of a hippie? It was kind of a hippie. It's this weird amalgam where my parents are Baha'i's, kind of bohemian Baha'is from the 60s. A lot of people became Baha'is in the 60s and the 70s. When people were exploring kind of different spiritual paths like Kat Stevens became a Muslim.

And, you know. Yusuf Islam, I call them. Yeah. And Steve Jobs was in a, like, a Buddhist monastery. And then there was this influx of all these Persian refugees from the revolution in 79 and 80. So you had all these, like, hippie Baha'is, you know, singing peace and love songs. And then this influx of Persian Baha'i's. Black B.M.W. Leopard's skin, couch.

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quids.com slash tafs. Yeah, I left the Baha'i faith for a long time. I didn't want anything to do like a lot of young people

with religion or faith or God or morality or anything like that. You went punk? I went, I went punk, yeah.

Were you punk? NYU? Yeah, I, well. 86 NYU. What are you listening to? Replacements. I got a buzz cut and dyed my hair black. Buzz cut and black.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. I look kind of like Henry Rollins a little bit. Really? Yeah. What were your bands when you were punk? You know, I wasn't really that hardcore because I was like clash, you know, stuff like that.

What's wrong with that, dude? Well, yeah, but I wasn't like. Best bit. I wasn't like, I wasn't like, I was. wasn't like going all like uh black flag and and you know yeah yeah too scary yeah I don't get hurt smelly a little smelly I like the yeah my first uh my mom my grandma gave me 20 bucks I got a three CD set self title London calling and uh combat rock oh amazing when I was like life changing that's what I thought I was punk too yeah and then my mom was like fucking

you're an idiot you're a Jewish and I was like I'm a lot of great Jewish punk's yeah who Henry Rollins not Jewish I can't think of Joe Bia off bro oh what's he on about you know he's got the same voice as the B-52s guy no one says that right ah bah that's annoying that's true the government doesn't my trust man president Reagan yes whatever dude anyway I wait so so I've been to the Baha'i temple in Haifa in Israel. You have. Okay. Yeah. It's a new religion. You guys, you think about maybe

get the hell out of there. You don't need to get it, be involved in that crap. We were there before, certainly not before the Palestinians, or the Jews. No, no, no, no. But Baha'is were, you know, the Baha'i Holy Land was coming to existence, you know, late 19th century, early 20th century.

So Baha'is are so, like, neutral about the whole thing. Oh, so you guys are wait and see. That's your vibe. Baha'is are just trying to survive and keep our holy lands intact. It's a really pretty place. And just kind of like, please make peace and stop fighting. And it's beautiful. And, yeah, but it was, you know, it was pretty intense

because the war was raging as the Baha'i temples were being built and the administrative center was being built. And then there was the, you know, the 1948 and stuff. And we weren't sure, like, where's the Jewish state in the Palestinian state, and how is that going to subdivide the Baha'i? You guys were just gardening. We're just like, yeah, just pruning shrubs. It's really beautiful that the Baha'i gardens.

Yeah. I mean, the buildings, I was like looking online, the one in India is really stunning. The Lotus Temple. The lotus temple. Yes, it's really, you guys have nice places. Baha'is are very good at building houses of worship. They really are. The community, you pay a tithing?

How do they afford that? You donate whatever you want to donate. But there is another thing. called now I'm forgetting the name of it I'm blanking on the name but where we pay 9% of all

profit over it's kind of like a tithe over and above all essential costs so once you pay your rent your insurance and blah blah blah and your kids tuition and you know the cost of living electricity cell phone blah blah blah blah anything extra

you pay 9%. So you have to like ask your accountant to figure that out. I do That's what I literally, Craig Tesler. Jew. Of course. You shouldn't let him near your money, but anyway. Too late. No, but like, so, wait, so I'm just interested because I was reading about it and I was like,

I'd rather just ask you about it. But there was a guy named Bob, right? The Bob. The Bob. Which means the Gate in Arabic. BAB. And then there was an offshoot that became the Baha'i, right? From the Bobists.

Yes and no. It was a movement, kind of like John the Baptist had a religious. spiritual movement that then became Christianity and Christianity came out of John the Baptist movement saying like there is a Messiah that's coming there's someone greater than me it's gonna be it's gonna rock your world it's gonna be amazing and then Jesus gets baptized and sees the dove and the spirit of God and etc is kind of similar to that so there was this religious movement called Bobbyism followers of the Bob who claimed to be a new prophet in this Abrahamic

tradition. And he kept saying there's a Messiah even greater than me that's coming imminently. Yeah. And then Baha'u'llah is the founder of the Baha'i faith. His name means the glory of God. And Baha'is are... Baha'u'llah. Wow. You guys have beef with Gary Delabate? He's kind of making... With Baba Bui? And then there was a third prophet named Baba Bui. Yeah. Do you believe in God? I... It would be nice, but... I don't... Are you a judist? No, I didn't have anything to do with that.

No, like a Buddhist, but so many Jews become... Oh, I thought you meant Judas. Because the Old Testament is so like... We didn't have... I didn't have anything to do with that. It was the Romans. We just... We may have suggested...

It was... You may have suggested. Maybe you want to... Maybe if you could, maybe would... Maybe if you would crucify him. I just read this whole thing. I read a whole book. Who's the Roman?

About how they did that spin, trying to get it away from the Romans. And the reason they did that, the early Christians, and they spun it towards the Jews. Because the empire. Because they feared the persecution from the Roman Empire, especially in those first 300 years. And then the whole empire converted. And then the whole empire converted. But before that, if they had in their writings, hey, our Messiah was put to death by the Romans, then the Romans would come in and be like,

what the fuck wait so do you abide by like kind of like the new testament the old testament kind of the Quran is there just the Baha'is accept from all the we absolutely do and Baha'is accept all of the world's holy books including Buddhism and Hindu and we read the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of the Buddha has all of our book so you have to know every single one we have it memorized I have asked me any line any page what's the best book what's the best book what's the best one Our one sucks. The Jewish one is like ridiculous. There's some good chapters.

There's not, it's God is just so... It's kind of like dune. God is so insecure. There's some good chapters. Yeah. God is like, oh, you don't respect me? I'm gonna smite you. Yeah. Yeah. God's like, he's mean. God changes though over the course of the Hebrew Bible. You know, there's an evolution as you read it, you can kind of see his... Have you read the Haktua?

I haven't read the Haktua girl. Did she sell her memoir? No, no, no. No. No. It's an ancient text, the Haktua. The Haktua? Yeah, it's an ancient... No, it's not... There's no girl?

You've never read the Haktua? It sounds like a Jewish prayer, doesn't it? This is lunacy. What do you mean, lunacy? People watch this show. People watch this show. What are you hating on the show? A little bit.

Why? I can't finish a sentence. Have you read the Haktua? I just... Are they... So, Baha'i like everyone? They're nice to everyone? They're nice to everyone.

Yeah. Are they... They're nice to... women, women could be, yeah, they're nice to gay people or they're nice to, yeah, they don't like gay people? Well, they like gay people. Why do they like gay people? Well, this is, this is a, this is a, this is a matter of a great deal of, so you guys are like Rastafarians, you're like, you're, you're like a spiritual, but you still don't like gay people. There's that Abrahamic thing about marriage and men and women and stuff that is still in the Baha'i faith, and I, I really

struggle with it. Can you change the rules? I don't know how to do that. I really struggle with it. But if I like 90% of the faith, then that's enough for me. What other parts do you not like? That's the main one. Yeah. Religion is kind of a pick and choose. But it's a little different in the Baha faith. It's not like there's no hell, there's no damnation. Sin doesn't work the same way. It's kind of like, here's the moral laws, but they're there for your guidance. So it's It's much less, there's none of this kind of like gays going to hell, gay evil, stuff like that. It's except in love of everyone. They're just being bad.

They're being bad boys. Are you, you're a blazer or no? I used to be. You used to be. You're a sober gentleman. I'm sober, yeah, I'm a sober gentleman. What was your vice back in the day? Mostly alcohol.

Booze. Yeah. During your New York days? But yeah, and I had some drug phases. I dated a Coke dealer for a while. That was not. A girl Coke dealer? Yeah.

Yeah, down on Wall Street, yeah. Oh, to, like, Wall Street guys? Yeah, she had a leather satchel, and she would open up, she had everything in the... Wow, she's cool. What's she up to, no? She works in the Jewish community? She's running J.P. Morgan. She is.

Yeah. Really? Wow, that's a really cool kind of girlfriend. She definitely fucked your life up. You were, that was definitely like a... It didn't help. Yeah. Well, no, just in like a high fidelity sense, like remembering all the girls of the past.

Right. You were like... Along for the ride. This was for a nerdy Baha'i boy from suburban Seattle. That was a sharp left turn. Oh, my God. Like 21 New York City. Exactly.

Oh, my God. 23 and a half, 24, yeah. We're talking about the film. Okay. Stop it. No, no, it's not that good. It's really, some of them are rude. Raines team wanted me to pass along the message.

He's totally fine to talk about the office, but he doesn't want it to be a main focus in the interview and appreciate keeping that topic to more of a minimum. We're talking about the Bahadavis. That's pretty true. I think that's pretty true. I don't know that I ever said that to them, but they glean that.

I'm happy to talk about the office. Well, no. I want to talk about your new film, Code 3. You want to tell us a little bit about who you play, what it's about, and then we can kind of get into... You know how you talked about the Midwestern person saying thank you and not really meaning it? I'm so interested in hearing about your new movie. Tell us about your movie.

Is it a little bit of bringing out the dead, a little bit? No, it's not as artsy and dark as that. It's more funny. It's more funny. You did a ride-along with real paramedics, and how long did you do that for? Like six or eight hours in South Central? No big. Well, that's like kind of, there's a real intimacy in doing that job because you enter people's homes.

You see people's lives. And you see people's... And you're riding with them. in the back of an ambulance to a hospital for half an hour. In moments of crisis, right? You see like a son become the man of the house. You see people in their, some of the worst moments they're lives.

They've pissed their pants, or they've got vomit on them. Yeah. And then you also see the different ways that people live, right? And you see like, and I did it. I was in Israel for a year doing it, and I really saw the difference in like the way Arabs and Jews lived and the way Orthodox and secular lived. and it was intense.

I mean, there were a couple funny parts of it, but like there was a hypochondriac, like a Russian lady, and me and my friend, she would call like every three days and she was just a liar. Yeah, another time we had to go to a funeral because they were afraid that it was like with big tragedy that like a police officer

was killed in the line of duty and they were afraid of like people passing out because of the local tragedy. And we didn't speak like, our Hebrew was pretty bad. And there was this woman. She were just there just in case. Just in case.

And there was this woman who had like smelling salts. And she was like, she was walking around like they were crying women like like, oh. And she'd make them smell it and slap them across the face. And they had me and my friend Matt behind the rabbi giving the eulogy. And we were just watching this lady just slapping other women in the face. And we were trying as hard as we could not to laugh. Oh my God. It was the hardest I've ever like.

I was, like, about to be my pants at a funeral. But you know what? They should have every 19-year-old be a paramedic for a while. No, it's not. Well, it's... Yeah, they should. You really see... Yeah.

I mean, like, you really see people in moments of extreme crisis. Yeah. And... Mostly at their worst and occasionally at their best, I imagine? Yeah, and you see... You see humanity rising through the ashes? Exactly. You see how families are immediately re-shovel.

and reorganized and like it's it's a doctor sees the end result this is like a very there's yeah there's a real personal intimate aspect to it and yeah I think I was maybe a little too young I think it was like a little bit like intense and I think like well this is what code three deals with is kind of the mental health ramifications of these frontline workers and EMS workers who are paid essentially minimum wage maybe a little bit more that we entrust to save our lives you know In the movie, we tried to make it a comedy. It is a comedy. It's very funny.

It's a very good movie. I hope you will see it. And I really do mean that. Audiences are loving it. And the EMS Frontline Worker Community are loving this movie. They feel like they're like... This is like their story. But it's so rare to do a movie that's like funny, entertaining.

If you want to just go watch an action comedy and eat popcorn, that's great. But it also is like about something. And it really is about looking at the underbelly of the... American health care system and how these poor people we're paying essentially minimum wage and we entrusting them to save our lives. And also it costs like $8,000. Yeah, and then you get your bill from the hospital for $10 or $20,000 and it's just all it's all fucked up.

But I did ride-alongs with the fire department in South Central L.A. And that was fascinating because down there, there's no health care. I mean, they've shut down all the hospitals because all the hospitals are owned by conglomerates and they're like, this South Central Hospital's not making us any money. They shut it all down. There's no walk-in clinics. There's no like It's like a food desert for

medical care. And there's barely any doctors. It's fucked up. So they call 911 for everything, the people down there. Because they kind of have to. And the firemen are the heroes down there. The cops are kind of, obviously, there's some issues there. But the firemen are the

heroes. The firemen are getting them getting their locked keys out of the car you know breaking down bathroom doors getting a guy some diabetes medicine taking someone to the hospital because they can't get an Uber like there and these guys these are the most like white bread dudes you could imagine these all these firemen down there but that they're cheered wherever they go in south central you don't hear that story it was really interesting but one of the the darkest call we went on that night was, and this happens occasionally, this woman had fallen out of bed

and needed the firemen to bring straps and get her back up on the bed because she weighed about 500 pounds. So they needed like four hardy men to kind of get her back up on the bed. The family couldn't do it. That was really intense. But that's the kind of work that they were doing.

But you're right, you're going into people's homes. You're doing it every day too. You're doing it 12-hour shifts, you know, three or four days a week. There were laughs, though. You're saying that it was a comedy, but I remember they just, like, play black-eyed peas or, like, LMFAO, like, pumping on the way to, like...

Yeah. Because there's just, like, a sense of humor because these people are, like, about to deal with some fucked-up shit, so then they play some, like, goofy, like, Niam track. No industry has a more gallows sense of humor than that... These people are seeing just fentanyl overdose, gunshot.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Telling that story, I think, is very worthwhile. And I haven't really seen that story told very much. And from my experience, that's like, that seems like an incredibly, like, worthwhile, like, and noble, like, thing to depict. And with that, my job here is done. Bye!

Bye! Bye! Is that what I sound like? Yeah. No, that's your imitation of, like, a Jew, circa 1000 BC. What do you see? Moses! Why do you go up to the mountain for?

And then I went to bed with her. her she was a fabulous woman and I went to bed with her and she was my analyst how do you how do you deal with the Woody Allen of it all do you still watch Woody Allen movies yeah it's the best the best one of the best ever even the bad ones you just be watching all I watched every single one yeah what's your favorite oh Annie Hall is my favorite I've there's so many watch this weekend you did this weekend friends yeah yeah now what do you what about the cancellation and the thing

and the whole thing? I don't know. I mean, like, it's a movie. Ronan Farrow and the... I don't know. I mean, it's a movie, right? I'm asking you it generationally, because I don't know. Like, I know, I stand on it, which I'm the same way. I'm like, listen, if we're going to separate the art from the artist, like, we're not going to listen to Beethoven

because he fucked his seventh daughter, we're not going to listen to... He did. I don't know. He was a racist, and we're not going to... Caravaggio is a murderer. Yeah. How are you... How do you... differentiate that it's a it's a really tricky moral argument well I really also just seems like it's like this horrific thing that I don't know like I don't know yeah and it's also very he said she said and it's not doesn't seem like there's

like damning evidence I I don't am I the one to adjudicated I mean I think that we have these this notion of like well Roman Polanski was adjudicated would you watch Chinatown I watched I watched bitter mood the other day so good Have you seen it? No. What's it called? It's so horny. Bitter Moon?

Yeah, the one where they're on a cruise ship? Yeah. No. There's a milk scene. It's one of the sexiest scenes I've ever seen. Sign me up. Bitter Moon. Yeah, you got to watch it.

How do you adjudicate it then? I watch the art because I just feel like we're getting a bunch of trouble if we're going to try and like cancel the art made by people who are racist, sexist, you know, abusive whatever. I'm not sure how to play that one out. And maybe we'd love to hear from you in the comment section. If you have ideas about... What's your favorite

Wagner? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I like the the Tannhauser. The Tannhauser. Yeah, the what do you call it? Epic. The epic one. Yeah, the... What's it called? Flight of the Valky's? No, that's played out, dude. That's hack. Yeah. So, 1979. I'm over it,

No, the Tannhauser, whatever, the, there's one part of it that's stunning. But, like, yeah, he hated Jewish people, I don't know. But I love, I love the Looney Tunes where they do the Wagner Opera. Oh, boomhilda, you are so wove we. Yes, I know it. I can't help it. I mean, Hitler had a lot of great paintings. I mean, let's just be honest. Do you play music?

Yeah. What do you play? Seattle Grunge. I play the skin flute. I play the... No, you don't. Yeah. Do you guys catch that?

I also play a little guitar and drums. Really? Yeah. And I played the bassoon in college. In a high school. What is a bassoon? Fuck you. In my mind, I think kazoo.

Fuck you. I think a bassoon. You know what a bassoon is. It's not a kazoo. A bassoon sounds like a... You shit. It sounds like an antiquated racial slur. Like in the 1800s, a bunch of bassoons.

I don't want my daughter with no bassoon. What is a bassoon? You know what a bassoon is. You don't claim ignorance. My mind is kazoo. You don't really believe that. I only know rock, bro. Rayne Wilson, everyone.

Hollywood is legend. I'm going to be able to be. You know,