The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #76 The Death of an Acting Teacher with Chris Chung

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Chris Chung (Apple TV's Slow Horses) and Gianmarco reminisce about their dead acting teacher with guest co-host Ian Fidance and then move on to lighter topics like improvising with Tracy Morgan, being uncircumcised, Sandy Meisner's secret island for his favorite male students, how Daniel Day-Lewis' star turn in My Left Foot would play today, and performing a play with an audience of one and that one happening to be your dad. You can watch full video of this episode HERE! Follow Chris Chung on Instagram and Twitter Watch Chris Chung in Apple TV's Slow Horses Follow Gianmarco Soresi on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, & YouTube Subscribe to Gianmarco Soresi's email & texting lists Check out Gianmarco Soresi's monthly show in NYC Watch or listen to Gianmarco Soresi's special "Shelf Life" on Amazon & on Spotify Follow Ian Fidance on Twitter & Instagram E-mail the show at [e-mail] Produced by Fawn Sullivan, Paige Asachika, & Gianmarco Soresi Video edited by Spencer Sileo Special Thanks Tovah Silbermann Part of the Authentic Podcast Network Original music by Douglas Goodhart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No, because we're friends. We don't have to do research. You don't even know what the name of my show is called. Waterloo? I know the deeper cuts. You want me to know your Apple TV show? Everyone knows that. I know Waterloo. Apparently you do. Hello. Welcome to The Downside.

A very unique episode. Different episode. My co-host Russell Daniels is currently in... Oh, I hate to spoil. We're recording this early, but he's in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and he's living it up. So if he lives, he'll be back next week. But today, first of all, I'm very lucky. We had a

great fill-in co-host. You know him from our episode about cum towels, Ian Fidance. Hey, everybody. Thanks for having me, John Marco. Ian, I literally saw you, what, like 12 hours ago? 12 hours ago at the Comedy Cellar. For one of the worst crowds. It was a tough one.

It was a tough one. They were brutal. There's tough ones there, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was so tired. I had a gig in Queens earlier, and then I drove to the Cellar. The show started late. Everything was so tired. I had a gig in Queens earlier and then I drove to the cellar. The show started late. Everything was running behind.

I got there what I thought would be on time and I'm just sitting and waiting. I'm just so tired, exhausted. You know, I had like gigs all weekend. I just wanted to like go home. And at the end of the show, some guy was kind of passing out and I commented on it. He goes, I'm not drunk. Is your jokes are making me fall asleep. And I had no comeback. guy was kind of passing out and I commented on it and he goes, I'm not drunk because your jokes are making me fall asleep.

And I had no comeback. I was so tired. I did not feel like engaging. And I go, come on, man. It's the other way around. Come on, man. I'm exhausted. Yeah.

That's the searing comedy. Oh, yeah. Comedian settles with that clip. Yeah, yeah. That'll be my viral video. No, it was a relief. You know, David Tell went up after me and I was nervous because it was

you always assume when you're, I assume when I'm bombing on stage, no one will be like this audience sucks. They'll just be like oh, he sucks. Oh, yeah, but everyone knows that it's the crowd. Yeah. You know. Well, you got to see like a couple comics to go, oh, it's the crowd.

Yes. Because if somebody's like crushing before you and crushing after you and you're awful and you're like, man, that crowd. It's like, no, man, you. Yes. But then I stayed to watch Dave. It was very nice. I don't know Dave Vettel very well, but he recently he was going on a show. He came up to me and said, hey, do you mind if I do

10 minutes on the show before you? I think the first person anyone's ever asked me, yeah. Like I could say no, but it was very nice of him to do that. Yeah, and he's one of the most prolific, greatest comics of all time, and he's so humble. And then,

you know, some other comics come in and they're like i'm gonna do 45 minutes of the same thing i've been doing for a week and tell the person that i'm gonna bump them i'm not even gonna make eye contact i won't even apologize it's wild um well we're here i'm very excited for this episode i'm and i'm glad that you're here for this i'm here with with my friend, old friend from way back. Weren't excited enough to get dressed up for me that way. Sure, sure. Well, you know, you're kind of, you're a model slash actor.

This is my old friend. We were in an acting company together way back. Ten years ago. Ten years ago. My God. Ten years ago. Ten years ago. My God.

With a teacher who was a genius and abusive and recently passed away. But I also want to talk about you. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much. From the Australian soap opera Waterloo. He did no research in preparation for my coming. Wow. I told you he was on the HBO show Industry. I was incorrect.

I hope that doesn't change you being here. It's not even hard to IMDB people now. You are on the Apple show Blind Horses. Slow Horses. Slow Horses. Wow. Welcome, man. Chris Chung, this is-

You are three for three on fuck ups right now. The downside. Forgot to put in the music in the new box. Oh, yes. Oh, God. That's going to be a post. Post. That's great.

Oh, no, it's not even getting fixed in post. Oh, right. Okay. They love that about the podcast. That's the quality here, isn't it?

Listen, that's part of the authenticity. That's what makes it real. Yeah. You know? You're watching a meltdown in real time. That's what the show's about.

Everybody wants to see the rough edges. Pete, just so people know, it's not that you have a speech impediment. You have an accent. Yeah. And where are you from? I grew up in Australia.

In Australia. In Sydney. Melbourne. Yes, in Melbourne. Fuck's sake. He's just naming everything. We've been friends for 10 years. So what are you doing?

You're just visiting America right now? Yeah, I'm just visiting America. I came to see you. Came to do your podcast. I'm still waiting for my per diem. Yeah, the per diem. It was that cup of water you got earlier. You're lucky you're getting a chair, pal.

These are new. Did you notice? Yeah, they're nice. They're nice. And I gave you the cup with my face on it just to be a dick. You didn't even fucking wash it. I did wash it. It has a lot of coffee in it.

Listen. Yeah, I went to the bathroom and I was like did someone leave a tinkle i was like oh that's just the bowl someone died in this this is too behind the scenes um someone died in this flat you know oh yeah it hasn't been hasn't been cleaned since so so yeah blood on the floor i guess uh let's well right now you're living in London, yes? I live in London, yeah. Okay. So I guess right off the bat, what's London's responsibility to Ukraine during this conflict? Oh, my gosh.

Just to not leave them behind. Oh, this has gotten really heavy all of a sudden. I came here for a good time. I have a buddy who's a Ukrainian Jew whose family fled the Ukraine in the early 90s. He was a Ukrainian Jew whose family fled the Ukraine in the early 90s. And when all this hit, I treated him like a lot of people did their black friends during Black Lives Matter. I called him. I was like, hey, I hear you.

I see you. How are you? Sure. I'm sure Boris really loved that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boris Hyken. Shout out to Boris. It's weird because I have a lot of friends that are Russian in the UK and who don't support what's going on over there,

but they can't access any of their money and they can't do shit. That's what's so fucked up about this, is that regular citizens are being punished for the actions of their government and everyone's like, yeah! It's like, oh, I just wanted to buy some bread and I have no affiliation with Putin but I can't do that now. How many Russians are in London? Like a lot? How many Russians are in London? London is like

basically half owned by Russians. Sure, half owned. Okay. So are a lot of the buildings in New York City. Yeah. They might all be up for grabs soon. I know Fingers crossed I guess Boris is my only Ukrainian friend And he's famous

He was circumcised at seven Six Wow He was circumcised later in life When it really counts Yes That means you really wanted to To be part of the faith

Yeah I don't know if he was begging Sure His family at seven But like with that young I think you'd have to hold him down Yeah Sedate him Yeah sedate you Or like a local anesthetic Yeah But like with that young, I think you'd have to hold him down. Yeah. Sedate him.

Or like a local anesthetic. Yeah. Which also is that molesting? Are you circumcised? Yeah. Are you? Oh, yeah. Are you?

No. Whoa. What is it like in Australia? What's the numbers? For circumcised? Yeah. Like for both? One of the numbers? For both. One of the other half.

I don't care. A really in-depth statistical search. He knew it down to give or take 10. When a woman sees your penis, does she go like, oh. Or does she go, oh. It's a bit of a 50-50 response. I mean, there's only been one woman seeing my penis recently, my wife. And she's always, oh, yeah. I mean, it's like a graduation downwards towards that response. I mean, there's only been one woman seeing my penis recently, my wife. And she's always well, yeah. It's like a graduation

downwards towards that response. But here in America, I don't know what it's going to be like for this next generation, but most guys were circumcised from my generation. Yeah, well, I mean the country is founded on, you know. Circumcision? Yeah.

And that's why we left Britain. That's why we came here for our freedom. Isn't that why Christianity kind of took a hold because they were like, hey, you could be Jewish or become Christian.

You don't have to cut your dick. Yeah. And that's why Christians have gone around the world because they're obsessed with other people's penises. And that's one of the many reasons why i'm catholic so before we dive into uh this acting thing i do want to ian you you act uh i saw a clip we were

both on the show the last og yes you had a much bigger part than me thank you i uh i walked a dog and i walked this dog i just had to like walk i said one line on a phone past tracy morgan and then uh i was supposed to leave the frame i was supposed to quickly scoop up the dog and what i'm supposed to do is like kind of pull on the leash a little bit and then reach under and scoop it up really fast this is one time we're doing the take and the the leash is attached It's a small dog. It's attached to the dog's body. But I scooped it up.

You had to do it fast. And the dog kind of jumped out of my hand. And so for a second, it looked like I was hanging the dog by the leash. And I saw, I mean, this dog was not down to play. This dog was not very well trained. I've done a couple scenes with animals, always a disaster. But I saw the whole group of people go, oh, wow. And I thought I was going to lose.

Did they all hate you? Were they mad at you? No, we had to move fast. But I don't think any. Luckily, Tracy Morgan was not on set yet. It was one of those, he had like a lookalike there. My scene was with Tracy. I know.

And your scene was great you were inebriated in your scene I played a drunk guy I had one line it was yeah but oh I thought maybe your part wasn't bigger than mine do you have to go in and audition for like one line like as a drunk person I improvised on set

they said action I improvised a line and it broke the crew broke Tracy, and they were like, do that again. What'd you say? And I'm supposed to go, he's like, that girl over there wants to dance with you. And I go, yeah.

And he goes, go get her, and I'm supposed to go over and dance. And he goes, that girl over there. I go, yeah. And he points at her, and it was Shashira Zamana. And I go, yeah. And he points at her, and it was Sasheer Zamana. And I go, Michelle Obama! And it, like, broke the crew, and they loved it, and they let me improvise all my lines, and they added me to two more scenes.

Oh, my God. Yeah, it was great. And Tracy grabbed me and was like, this is what it's about. You got to swing for the fences. My boy is going to be famous. And then at the wrap party, I was like, Tracy, that was amazing.

And he goes, it was. And then just walked away and never acknowledged me. I've seen a lot of Tracy Morgan impressions, but not everyone that was Jewish. A Jewish person. Well, another one of my lines was, he's like, look at that girl over there.

Go get her. And I go, I hope she's Jewish. Yeah, that's incredible. It was awesome. They were like okay we're gonna keep rolling just keep saying lines that's a swing that's a swing that's you know that's a that's i mean listen the worst they could do is say stick to the line and then i'd nail the line and then i'm done i go home i figured why the hell not? And it, dude, it was right before COVID. I nailed that. I nailed an Uber Eats commercial. I got in a pilot, just killing it. And then everything shut down and I haven't gotten anything since because I'm so bad at self-tapes. Sure. They're so tough.

They're bane of these. They're so tough. Were you an actor before? Have you taken acting classes? Are you just? I took one acting class and I loved it. And I've been trying to take another acting class. I'd really love to do Miser. I really want to be an actor. I love acting. Good, Miser.

We're going to talk Miser today. I enjoy it. I act in people's sketches all the time. But, you know, like Audit, I don't know what it is. The self-tape, I just am devoid of it's very it's very challenging booking the room I've booked the room of like I don't get a gig the director likes me I get something else I'm like cool and then when it comes time for me in my basement and the camera's on I am hard we've lost the motionless robot we've lost the room

as an initial I feel like I it's sad. I think it's very sad. I don't know what it's like right now in London, but we're just doing self-tapes for every movie. Do you think we'll ever go back? No. I think once you start getting closer to the job. Yeah, but for initials, you used to go in, and you don't get that anymore.

Sometimes that casting director giving you just one little note can make the whole difference. When I did these general lecture commercials, I was second callback, and all the cast director, she went behind the team because she wasn't supposed to give notes at this point. She just went, take it down a notch.

And that's the reason I got it. And maybe that should always be the note I give myself when I'm acting is to take it down a notch. That's my slate. Hi, my name's Ian Fidance. I'm based in Brooklyn, and I'm reading for the role of that's a bit much because every time it's too much i don't know i always think that like i

always try oh make it smaller make it smaller just to the point where you're doing fucking nothing here's the worst the worst i had an audition it was for like a law and order type show and she said after the second try she said, make it like it's in the real world. And it broke my soul. It broke. Because you were so committed. I was like, oh, I didn't know. Oh, I didn't think it was in the Looney Tunes world.

That wasn't what I was trying to do. Yeah. So we met at this acting company. You should give it a synonym. A pseudonym. Should we come up with a pseudonym? I mean I don't know

The Citadel She's Yeah we went to the Citadel I'll say right Right out the gate We can just say her She's dead now No she's dead

I know I know Wait was this in New York City? It started in New York City But so what happened I took an acting class With this woman Wendy Ward And it was And that's the woman that died.

That's the woman who passed away. All right. And it was very sudden. You just sit in him. Wendy Williams. That's a good one. No one will know. Yeah.

She got, it was very sudden. She got diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Oh, God. And it was in Swift. We had not spoken for a very long time. Stage four pancreatic cancer? That is so sad. Oh, my God.

Oh, God. I forgot. Ian is a literal and figurative button pusher. So, I took, I took a summer program with Wendy Ward and she was an incredible teacher. She was an incredible acting teacher. When you go, at least my view of a college programs,

at least in America, they have, because there's so many BFA programs, they've kind of boiled it down to a very text basedbased approach that is kind of like easy to teach a little bit too stripped of like emotions and feelings and it's because they need a program a that won't get them sued because i'm sure a lot of colleges have to fear that and b it's like anyone can teach it even if you're not talented so this was like a teacher. Isn't that teaching in general? Sure. I used to be a teacher. What did you teach?

I taught. I was a full-time sub, and then I taught after-school test prep. Like SATs? Yeah. Are you like a – what did you get in your SATs? Are you like a really smart person? No, I'm very smart, but I'm a bad test taker. So I could really like empathize with the students. No, I'm very smart, but I'm a bad test taker. So I could really empathize with the students.

So I feel like that really helped me to help them take the test better. And then you gave it all up to do comedy? Yeah. It wasn't SAT, sorry, it was Regents, teaching public school students how to take the Regents exams. That's good. Well, it's terrible because it gets in the way of true learning. I was kind of like the enemy, but I needed to make a living.

Yeah, but you were helping. You were working on the inside. Well, yeah. Half the time I would just trash the lesson and teach them manners or why it's bad to yell and make fun of the chinese janitor like

i had to give them like talks about like why it's not okay to say you know fag i love it i love a teacher just being like okay before we get to algebra i heard what you were saying like a janitor that's yeah it's like a finishing school. Yeah. I like an Ian Fidance finishing school. What's that movie with Michelle Pfeiffer? What's that film? Dangerous Minds. There we go. It was Dangerous Minds.

So this teacher, I kind of like fell in love. I just fell in love. And she proposed. She was doing an acting company. I was going to graduate college with no real prospects. You do a showcase. You maybe get some calls with, looking back, not very prominent people, scam artists. And I joined this acting company with my girlfriend at the time.

And we were both very deep in acting. And most of the company came from Australia. Oh, wow. And they were moving to Philly. And we were going to be in,, what I saw as like the famous, what they used to do back in the day were the actings. They were cults.

They were schools. They were like communities. You breathed it. You lived it. It was a rep company. It was a rep company, which I don't know. It's not as much of that in America

or that system feels like it's a bit of the past, like a touring company of people. It's still there. Yeah. We have it in the UK. Yeah. I mean, it's starting bit of the past like a touring company of of people it's still there yeah we have it in the uk yeah i mean it's starting to come back but it's meant designed for you to stretch and and to really go into different versions of yourself through acting and every morning we'd we do class intensive class you got there late she'd fucking yell at you and we'll get into the yelling but she was she was like she expected the most. And then at night you'd rehearse a show

and we were teching stuff and trying to sell tickets disastrously. We did a show once where my dad came. We did it in a church. That's where we, you know, free rent or whatever. And my dad came to this show, like a 16 person show about the sinking of a boat. A lot of poetry, music.

Which wasn't Titanic. And my dad was the only person in the audience for this show. So my father sitting there is like 16 Australians and me, like slow motion pretend to drown. Oh, God. And like, no. And truly, truly abysmal audience attendance. But that's where we met. abysmal audience attendance but that's where we met and it was this very like it was just one of those weird things you can only really have in your youth unless you join a cult later as an

adult where you're all there you guys were in a different fucking country you're there for this one singular mission and it's to be a great actor and create great art yeah it was really like looking back on it towards the end of it I'd never wanted to be out of something so badly. We had these postcards with the dates of the shows on it

and I was crossing down each one. I hadn't wanted to for Christmas to come any sooner than that. And it followed all the trajectory. Whenever I see a cult documentary

we didn't reach the point of like fucking no one was fucking or drinking the Kool-Aid or drinking the Kool-Aid. You lost out on the best part of the cult. But we did the full thing of like we're enjoying it we're enjoying it you see some of the cracks right hardly no one coming to the shows was part of the cracks and the goal was we were going to be in philly do these shows and then go to australia together

and do shows there but by the time we got towards that date uh wendy had fired uh someone from the company people were never a good son there was a there was a there was a friend from germany uh uh she needed you know wendy to write kind of comments about her being a good american whatever visa thing she was on and wendy was like gonna write bad things like bad bad bad things and then the australia trip got cancelled i didn't get my ticket refunded i lost 2400 so wow but in the beginning it was exciting it was so exciting i mean because we thought we were going to change the world like i mean it was sold to us like we're gonna you're gonna build these shows they're gonna be brilliant and then we're gonna bring them to australia and they're gonna do big things for. And then when we were developing them, we were also doing other pieces in class.

Some of us didn't really get a part in the shows. Oh, my God. So, OK, it's just there's so much to digest. So feel free to stop us. But so at some point you're doing this acting company. You come with what shows you're going to do. They ended up not being plays that have been written. They were like weird poetic pieces she had concocted.

And so there's two of them and we're going to alternate, you know, shows. And so I will never forget this where she's, she's announcing the casting and it's very stressful, the casting, because it's like, we're in this company.

You hope you get a good part. This is our whole life. Yeah. Are you guys working? Do you guys have jobs? No, like, especially the Australians, like we all had to like save up enough money to to pay to be in the company you would have a big nut to like pull from to like live off of you couldn't like work or even have a social life it sounds like yeah some people saved up i mean you come from extreme

wealth uh no i don't know did you save up before the company yeah i saved like 10 grand well i came with 10 grand much like a cult i always wonder how do these people survive they can't work is it just savings or what um so she's she's announcing this casting and you just assume everyone's gonna get a big part and she goes, the shows were called I Wish You a Boat and Almost Home and she goes, Chris, let me, I hope I get this right.

She goes, she goes, Chris, first I thought I'm going to put you in just I Wish You a Boat and I said, no,

I'm going to put you in I Wish You a Boat and Almost Home and I thought, no, I'm not going to put you in either. What? And she like, she, I'm not going to put you in either. What? And she like, she said this thinking process out loud.

Did she, did she, did she say that she gave you, you were in both ultimately. I did nothing in those shows. Because what I actually ended up doing was learning how to use Cubase, which was the tech app to do the cues for the show, because that's what I'm good at, because I'm Asian. I mean, did you feel that that was the reason? You said it, I thought it. She was like, there was no Asians on this boat from the 16th. Yeah. And then like, you know, as you started to dissect things later on through the program, you were like, what is my function here? Why was I i brought here that everyone kind of served exactly the purpose of what she wanted to build and you know we did do the shows but yeah my heart my heart at that time was like what now

when when this happened i mean that's soul crushing for that to occur. But is there a part of you of being like, I just have to work harder. I have to be better. This is the goal. Or were you like, there's something fucked up about this. Well, first, I will say just for the sake, because, you know, booking TV doesn't mean anything. Chris is very talented. And in terms of the company, he very, I think for me, it was one of those things of there was a thought of maybe this acting company will be my family. And this is like the cult thinking where there's like,

well, you do the tech guy this time. And the next time we do a show set in China. Oh my God. Because actually what was supposed to happen, the King and I, do you know what? When we were in Philadelphia,

that was playing at like the not the theater or whatever it was. I was like, fuck, I should have just gone there. In an ensemble ever? No, because what was supposed to happen was during class, what we had done was we were doing work on monologues of characters. And one of my characters was a Chinese ballet dancer. And you take a piece of text from a book or a biography and you make that into a performance piece.

And the part that I had, that I was developing, she was like, you know what? When we go to Australia, I thought you're going to do that. You're going to do that as a monologue and people are just going to be like, and we never got to Australia. It's so easy to

prey on actors and I don't think it's even like fully manipulated but she just thinks that. She was a dreamer. I mean we thought these shows and like looking back now that like selling tickets is especially this year like selling tickets is this new like well I got to figure this out. I have to literally figure out how to get strangers to buy tickets for me

you look back on this she had no idea what she was doing in that department to to be in philly she had been in philly for years and would sell one ticket or some shows we dress up we would dress up for almost home was about a hurricane it was hurricane katrina was it about katrina yeah and we so before and we were like deep into the acting so i would go outside i'd cake myself in mud dirt we'd wait behind the door and then when no one was there after 15 minutes you'd say all right no show and you'd like you'd be covered in dirt and mud like okay i'm gonna go home now and you kind of pray for those shows though because we're like this is shit so that that's where so but the good times was she was an amazing teacher and we were like this level of investment we so we did this uh exercise autobiography where you read an

autobiography and you uh became that character you did like a deep character study like like daniel day lewis might do for a piece. So you were, this was when you were the ballet dancer. This is when I was the ballet dancer. So I basically worked with turnout the whole time. It was an incredible sacrificing. So I was really into Daniel Day-Lewis at the time.

So I decided to do My Left Foot, which do you know My Left Foot? He won an Oscar for it in 88, I believe, where he plays someone with full cerebral palsy with only access to his foot. And now this was okay because this was back in 2012. But I got a wheelchair off of Craigslist

that looking back was far too small for me. And I would inhabit this character with cerebral palsy for about six hours a day. That's all I could take. I showered. Alone. My girlfriend was there and she would push me in this wheelchair. She bathed you.

No, she bathed you. I took a shower and she helped flip me over. Wait. Flip you over in the shower? Yeah, because I only could use my left foot. I was stuck. How would you let her know? Would you just be like,

or like, what? Yeah, pretty much. So, Dan DeLuis, you could still talk, but it was affected for sure. So, what was your voice? How would you speak? It was, I'm not as brave as you. No, this is, what you just did, yeah, it was like fully to the left.

No, but it gets worse, Ian. It gets worse. So part of this exercise, part of her being a real actor, and this is what Daniel Day-Lewis did. In my defense, everyone was into this back then. People were winning awards for this shit. So part of it was you have to take it in public. Are you really committed?

Then you should be able to bring your character into public, into a public space and inhabit it. So we all went to dinner. You as the ballet dancer. Our friend Kaz was,

was she playing someone pregnant? She was, I think she was playing someone from a Mormon cult. A cult, someone who escaped a Mormon cult. And she was pregnant, so she had a pregnancy belly.

My girlfriend at the time, Leo, was Audrey Hepburn. Yeah. What was her adjustment? I don't remember her being in Audrey Hepburn during this story. She just had to act like a con. And we went to a restaurant, and she pushed me in the wheelchair. I pushed you in the wheelchair. You pushed me in the wheelchair I pushed you in the wheelchair you pushed me in the wheelchair

because you're very strong and she fed me the whole meal with full cerebral palsy do you know what the actual thing was when we were going to the restaurant is I was pushing him

in his wheelchair and it had clipped the curb or something and he fell a little bit and he went absolutely batshit crazy but in character

while people were walking, while public were walking past. Reveal in public that I'm faking an illness? You guys should have taken it one step further and gone to Disney World and then you would have gotten on all the rides early. So when we went to pay, I was either paying,

I was paying for Leah's meal. She got out my wallet, obviously, because I can't get it out. And this was at the time, do you remember when credit cards had a picture of your face on them? There was like a phase where some credit cards had a picture of your face for identification. So I'd been eating the meal fully, my head

was going to the left. And on this credit card, there's a picture of me smiling in a way that I don't think you could have captured if I had the conditions I was exhibiting. So Leah hands the card to the waiter. I'm like, just a nice little smile on the thing.

And there I am fully with this. And again, I feel anxious telling the story now. But you got it. This is true. And we did it in class. So we did these miser exercises. I'm not cringing at the offensiveness of it. I'm cringing at the idea of you inhabiting this for six hours a day in public and being like, I'm going to be an actor.

But this is literally what Daniel Day-Lewis does. I mean, I think that's what makes convincing performances. Of course. You have to inhabit this fucking whoever you're playing in whatever way works. For the final, the ends justifies the means. And so we would do these Meisner exercises, which we don't have to bore everyone with what they are, but we would then do Meisner exercises as the character. So I did it. This was the proudest i was in that company was i did the miser exercise where my lover was leaving me and i was writing her a

letter with my left foot between my toe and i was i was sobbing sobbing as i was writing this letter and that was a wendy who i one of the last teachers that her word was the word of God. And she like stood up and applauded. And it was just like, shut the fuck up, Chris. She stood up. I don't think she stood up. She stood up. She said she was like, if you do that, then you're going to make it.

Like something, the kind of thing that at that age, like I was like, that's everything. And that was the peak of my acting career, as far as I'm concerned. Wow. What happened? All downhill from there. The company collapsed. I went to New York.

I had fucking nothing. Nothing. Dude, if you had kept up that facade, you'd be one of the best cerebral palsy actors of our time. You would be the Rachel Dolezal of cerebral palsy actors. Well, I think it's incredible looking back on, because it wasn't, I mean, 10 years ago, but just we've really changed.

I think acting has hit a crossroads of like the idea of giving people opportunities that deserve it. Where like there was a time where David A. Lewis won an Oscar because it was like, wow, he portrayed someone with cerebral palsy. He acted. But now I think, and I don't think it's a false argument

where it's like, well, why don't you give someone with cerebral palsy the opportunity to act as the lead in a movie and producers would go, well, find me someone who has the name brand value to get butts in seats or they'd go, well, find me someone who has the name brand value to get butts in seats. Or they'd go, well, you know, sometimes we need to move them or it's exhausting days. But guess what?

Daniel Day-Lewis, that's why he was so frustrating. If there was a wire, they had to pick him up. He refused to get up out of his chair and walk across it. At what point is that good acting versus being a complete asshole i think it's it really is that matter of like how much are you affecting other people like when you hear the jared leto stuff there's this weird thing now where oh there's this hilarious tweet i saw where where people were saying um whoever's playing the riddler in the new batman movie uh what's his paul danno paul danno where they were like,

he was, he couldn't sleep at night. Right. And someone retweeted like, Oh, but he slept fine when he did 12 years of slave. And it was just such a, it was,

it was them getting caught in their own bullshit. I'm sure he slept fine. But like now people talk about this as like, they just use it for PR. And you hear like Jared Leto mailed a dead pig to his, a suicide squad castmates and it's just like you're doing it for them

now if you go fuck a dead pig on your own time great good for you look I really hate the idea that like a X person should act as an X character in this movie it's like well I think an XYZ person should act as X and character in this movie. It's like, well, I think an XYZ person

should act as X and whomever is the best XYZ for X gets it. Because I feel like is that not acting? I think it's, I'm finding it like

quite difficult at the moment. Like people are looking at Asians now. It's like, well, you can't play a Korean person because you're not Korean.

Sure. You're Chinese. And I'm actually, well, I'm Australian, but i'm never gonna play in australia or or otherwise so people are going so far to one way it's gonna bounce back i think eventually but i think you're just do you think so i hope but it's like a straight man can't play a gay character it's like well yeah what i i had a role it was just an audition can't play a straight character and then they're like well that's a erasure of the gay experience it's like what yeah what are we doing it's acting it's a whole fucking yeah but it's just hard but then it

becomes it like like i had an audition and i ended up turning it down i'm not saying i would have gotten it but it was like a gay person but he was like supposed to be hyper flamboyant and I just had that feeling of like I think A. I'm flamboyant to begin with B. I know how to lean into that but there's this feeling of like I'm gonna play this gay guy and I'm gonna be like

girl and people are gonna go like what the fuck is this? and it's I think fuck that I think that only shows that you're a good actor

look at Awkwafina look at Awkwafina has been fucking she had to leave Twitter because people told her to kill herself I think that only shows that you're a good actor. Look at Awkwafina. She had to leave Twitter because people told her to kill herself. Because people are insane. One in four adults suffers from a severe form of mental illness. We're looking at the worst time to be alive ever in terms of mental health. I don't know if that's 100% true.

I think there were other times in history where mental health was really bad. They just didn't have names for mental health. And I don't know if that's a hundred percent true. You don't think that there were other times in history where mental health was really bad. They just didn't have names for mental health. People just didn't have Instagram back in those days. Yeah. Everyone can talk about their mental. Yes. And everyone's opinion has to be the loudest voice that is contributing to mental health issues.

Just the tearing of the fabric of society. Everybody needs to shut the fuck up. We have too much wealth and too much austerity for anyone to just be anything. No, we need people to like not care about actors, not care about comics

because they're too busy, you know, like grinding their bones away in a fucking sawmill so they can put braces on their kids' teeth. It's an illness of privilege. Like, you know. Yes. Boom.

This would be a terrible episode title, Illness of Privilege. I'm so glad we agreed on this. I'm not clicking on that episode. That's right, because, well, I mean, I could say so many things about him. Whoa, Dylan! We once didn't talk for about two weeks

because I left him at a sandwich shop in Philadelphia on our lunch break. Why? I would describe us both as bitchy men. A lot. Oh. Really? I think we both have emotional characteristics

that I associate with the word bitchy. Yeah, okay, I would say that. And I think we're both like silent treatment type yeah and yeah we just did not talk to each other for like almost two weeks and until i think i made you laugh in class or something one time that is that not is that not a sign of good friendship where you can have fights you can have some sort of falling out and then you get back together and as as if nothing had happened. Yeah.

I think it's unhealthy to do like silent silence. Oh, is that what it was? Like you were doing everything together. So we had lunch break. We went to a sandwich shop in Philadelphia. And I got my sandwich first and I was like, I'm going to get back to class. And I walked back. He must not have heard me to get back to class. And I walked back.

He must not have heard me. I got back to class. And he comes storming into the classroom. Chris, you left me. I was waiting for my sandwich. And then he didn't talk to me for two weeks. Every day we're doing Meister exercises, we're encouraged to lean into our rage. Lean into your true emotions.

A lot of yelling in that class. I was in a wheelchair and you left me at that sandwich shop. You forgot to mention I was full school. I had to stay in it the whole time. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You wanted to live that experience, man. You want to know, this is really embarrassing.

This is how much I was into acting. There was one, you're emotionally preparing. you're going into a scene and something's happened intense before so you have to go on the stairwell and imagine something and one was i had just been mugged or something and i wanted to know oh man that's gonna make me sick to say i want to know what is it like to be so scared you piss your pants oh no i hadn't pissed i pissed my pants once when i was like you know know, in, in like kindergarten. I remember it. So I went in the shower fully dressed and I was like,

can I piss my pants? And it, it, I tried to like imagine being so scared and it was so hard. What were you imagining that made you so scared that you could piss your pants? I was just imagining having to like watch you in a full length play. Oh yeah. Oh! And I ended up, I ended up,

I ended up. There's other buttons. That's the music. God damn it. Um, Ian, stop. Sorry.

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Headphones remastered. Buy from DysonCanada.ca. With ANC on, performance may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. So I do want to say, since I feel like we spoke, Wendy did pass away, and it was emotional because I did. Did I tell you this? Or did you reach out to me? I forget.

There was like a Facebook group, and it was kind of strange because a lot of people had just had a positive experience with her so we watched this company you know the sales didn't work out Australia wasn't quite happening she started treating some people very poorly she definitely treated like the men better than the women which I feel like is a habit with acting teachers I've always

had a theory which is I mean this is it is a sexist theory where I think there are more women that are great at acting and so their abilities are devalued and men I find in acting class are praised for like even you know tearing up slightly

like there's just this like wow you broke through the walls of masculinity to barely have a tear and so I think do you think that in acting, you have to get, you have to reach such wild depths of emotion and different things that you

don't normally reach in everyday life that it almost reaches back to that tribal thing of like the female teachers drawn to the male, because it's this like tribal woman, want man devalue the woman woman because that's competition type thing. It very well could be, but this also, I've heard this with male teachers too. Sanford Meisner, my uncle actually worked with Sanford Meisner and he was a gay guy

and apparently he was brutal to women and then he'd bring all the good looking guys. He had like some island he went to and he brought the good looking guys to that island and I'm sure committed all sorts of crimes. And I don't know if you know Sandy Meisner. He's a famous teacher, but he had his vocal cords removed

because he smoked so much. And he, if you watch the video, the only real video of him that exists teaching long form, he burps all his words. That's how he spoke. Was he burped every. And it makes you pay attention.

You could have done that as an adjustment. That would be incredible. Wow. How much did you smoke? I'm so nervous. Go there. Like that's how he burped it all. And that's okay to do because it's.

He didn't have a voice box? He didn't have one of those. He had a tracheotomy, so like he... He couldn't... Yeah. No, he didn't have one of those. He got cancer twice, I think. So he got his vocal cords removed

and then he kept on smoking afterwards. And then I think he died. These are these old acting teachers who are just smoking. Don't give a shit. 100% of the time. I love it. In their sleep. That's me.

I would burn you bad acting wendy was a tremendously good acting teacher i've never seen i think about all the times in the arts where there's some people you see and in comedy too where you're like they're not cut out for this there's something deeply inside them that is not talented or some brain connection is not being made. And I saw her take a couple of people that I would have written off to the ends of the earth. And I don't know if she made them good actors, but she made them do good acting in a moment. You disagree? I don't disagree.

She definitely like, you know, I always say that the best acting that I've ever seen was in that classroom. And the best acting I've ever done has been in that classroom. But also to what lengths to get good acting out of someone kind of borderlines. Is it good acting teaching or is it borderline abuse? And they're just paddling to get out of the situation. You can never tell because sometimes the class, you feel so much pressure to do well. It does get your chest adrenaline going and you're... I don't know. Yeah yeah what is that balance i think art is not a balance and it is inherently like deciding how unhealthy of a life

do you want to live can you think about now like today and think about how pacey like the world is and what you know and having that classroom for sure i think i think acting teachers uh i have i have a friend jessica fry who teaches at nyu she teaches acting and i'm so interested to talk to her because i've heard of acting teachers getting fired i i think acting has to be taught like roughly and uh of course there's always. I'm not saying you hit people, but Wendy was scary. Wendy yelled at us. Wendy screamed at us. The bar was incredibly high.

And is it abusive or is it like standards that you have to reach if you want to be great at something? I mean, you know, you look at athletes and I'm sure they struggle with it too. There was the Russian gymnast

who like, did you see any of that? Like she, they found some drug but they let her it too. They, they, they, there was that the Russian gymnast who like, did you see any of that? Like she, they found some drug, but they let her compete anyway. Oh yeah. And she fucked up the thing. Yeah.

And her coach was like, she was sobbing on the side and her coach was being, you know, didn't give a fuck. I'm sure she was going to get hit or whatever. I mean, I don't think Tiger Woods was great. Cause his father was nice.

Yeah. You know, or, or Michael Jackson or, or or like you you hear it in venus william i mean it's the thing like i it's like you have to almost make a decision do i want to feel safe emotionally or do i want to achieve greatness and i think inherently in becoming great there's a lot of um things that have to hurt you along the way you know and whether that's not abusive but like if you're in a scene and again i'm not a classically trained actor like

you guys so this is just something i i feel i may be way off because i don't have the complete experience with it but i do feel that in a scene if you have to reach a depth of emotion of like anger in the scene for it to come out the right way if you're not there it's almost like a spotter at the gym you need someone to help elevate that bar a little bit higher and they don't do it by being like good work come on i know you can do it though come on come on where the fuck you at come on give me one more yeah like you need someone to fucking almost drill Sergeant. Yeah. Yell in your face to almost give you that visceral real reaction.

Is that not what it is? I think some people don't want that. I want it. I want it. That's what I want. I mean, like we knew what she was like before we went. So then are they not cut out to act? Maybe they just need a different teacher, but that's why you have different schools. And I do think like you can go too far.

I think both of us benefited from being, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, I benefited from being a guy. When I did well, she really sang my praises, made me feel good. And so I at least got enough of that. But sometimes you hear from the victors in a way where, like, you know we we could bring on the person who quit acting because because of that yeah right she was what about a female student did they have a different experience well what would you so our friend kaz i and your good friend kaz she she's an incredible she's an amazing actress incredible actor and i think like after the whole the whole debacle in Philadelphia, we all kind of had to go away in the cow wounds and process what happened there

because it was a really toxic environment. It wasn't good. But we did some great acting, so it was trying to figure out how we can cherry pick out the good stuff away from it. And some people couldn't do that. And I think that's when some people tapped out of it altogether. Right. And she just got meaner. people tapped out of it altogether. Right.

And she just got meaner. So as the company kind of fell apart, it just like it, she would just be madder and madder. And if you were late, she'd just scream at you. I never like, I mean, yeah, there was a point like where one of our cast members ended up leaving the program altogether in the middle of the run. We were getting dressed for that matinee.

I think we had an audience of three that day so stakes were high. What happened? Sophie walked in and she said something and Wendy was like, okay, then you're fired. We all just stood.

It was also a lesson in looking back. We all just stood it was also a lesson in like looking back i'm like we just we all just stood there and let it happen right what we did yeah i mean like because we also we were in a foreign country yeah we didn't have exactly we were in a foreign country yeah so john margaret was in a foreign body what i mean what is wheelchair we didn't know what was going on john margaret tried to stand up but he was in a wheelchair you know what my other character we did the exercise twice i did twice i did m&m for the other one amazing and i walked around old m&m and i walked around in a big do-rag and a long white tee that went down to my knees and i took that one in public a lot that was my favorite

that you can do the rest. And I did. Guess what I did for the exercise? You know Eminem a little? Yeah. Who's his friend who died? Proof. Oh, yes.

I did Eminem doing Proof's eulogy. Wow. And I did a rap at the eulogy, like crying. This is more offensive than the wheelchair cerebral palsy. That is way more offensive. It was special. Do you think... See, greatest acting.

Now, you guys said that the best acting you've ever done was in this class. Do you think that what you learned and everything in the class has inspired you in acting later? Or was it all for naught? Like, have you used that later? Was it a building block to make you better was it just like active acting career so you take that first and then all i think it like with any like going back to it being like kind of culty the thing about cult leaders is that they they put their kind of message into your brain and it was always like with when i'm

auditioning or when i'm on stage now I can hear her like giving me notes which is incredible because they're always really valid notes but just knowing that you know that's not good enough or you have to pick that up or just to work as hard as you possibly can and see the bullshit so I think that's been instilled in me so deeply sometimes you know not for the because it it for me sometimes I can't deviate away from that cause it feels too foreign, but I don't know. I think it's definitely helped me. I mean,

it's very, it's very challenging cause you do these acting classes where, you know, you like, for example, if you're doing an emotional scene and you're not quite at this emotion, you can't fake it. You gotta be,

you just gotta be where you are. Then you get to a film set, and cameras are going. And you got to do something. The reality smacks you in the fucking face. And you're like, well, I got to. I'm not feeling rage right now, but they said they wanted angrier, and I got to just do it. And all this stuff kind of takes you away from your core, your core art. And you just always have to revisit it and fight.

I mean, you've been doing more on-camera stuff than I have in a long time. For me, I feel like it set a bar very high of what I consider acting to be. And once I got into stand-up, I really... I used to take classes every week and I would do scene study. And I just do stand-up now. I never thought there would come a day where acting would be the tertiary thing. I'm a comedian.

And in a lot of ways, I sometimes feel like, oh, I am not even capable of acting anymore. To what I consider acting to be, it's almost this impossibly high bar. Why? Because you think you'd phone it in? No, not phone it in, but it's just like emotional preparation, bar. Why? Because you think you'd phone it in? No, not phone it in, but like, it's just like,

like emotional preparation, which we used to do before a scene to get us there. Like, even making my brain work that way, it feels foreign to me. Well, it's like she always used to say, it's a muscle. If you don't use it all the time,

then look at you, you're a god. Exactly. And I'm just doing on-camera audition, you know, these things, and that doesn't feel like acting to me. Exactly. And I'm just doing on-camera auditions, you know, these things, and that doesn't feel like acting to me. Right. And like if we ever had to do like a scene together, you know, if I was like had a one-liner

and the next scene you're in. We did a scene together, do you remember? Yeah. In Hebrew. Now I'd be terrified. Yeah, okay. That was the least offensive thing I did, pretending to know Hebrew.

And if we did a scene now, I would be pretty mortified. I would worry my abilities would be so, and I don't love it in the same way. I love standup. I'm in love with standup. Do you go through phases of loving standup? Yeah,

but it's still like, it really like something about what I, what I think about standup and it's, it's not just the standup. It's the nature of, I put something out, I get the approval, I move on. There's something about the stand-up it's the nature of i put something out i get the approval i move on there's something about the feedback loop of stand-up that appeals to the way my add ocd whatever brain works that like i love it and i'm obsessed with it and even i could the

kind of shit i do i did five shows last night seven on saturday you know my feet hurt i'm tired and i'm addicted to it yeah you know and so i don't know i just don't know if i could act again in the way that i value or i would have to like go and sit down with my gonna see him next week like yeah we'll check going down is stand-up not an act i mean like when you are having the shittiest day ever, you just got news that a friend of yours died and you have to go on stage in five minutes. Are you not acting? To a certain degree, but, like, it's in the realm of things that I am most best at or that, like, I was always obsessed with crying. I think, like, a lot of especially guys, because I don't cry as much in my real life.

So, like, there was this idea of, like, don't cry as much in my real life. So like there was this idea of like, I got to be able to cry on stage. And there was a time I used to make myself cry like once a day. And like,

I feel just different. I remember we were on a bus to New York and you just started crying. Why? Sometimes people would give me free shit. They'd see me crying

in a coffee shop and they'd be like, sorry, whatever's going on. I think your best acting is that you act like you're emotionally well. I have a question about acting, if you don't mind.

How do you make a line yours but stick to the idea of what they want? How do you make someone else's dialogue and life natural like i i have such a hard time reading lines and being the thing that they want when i only really know how to be myself like how do you that's actually what they want that's that's but you're talking about the literal words sometimes like the words are i mean i think it's like part of it's you just have to make it comfortable in your mouth like you do shakespeare and it's like if you do shakes you just have to make it comfortable in your mouth like you do Shakespeare and it's like if you do Shakespeare

and what's a Shakespearean insult I mean you just have to believe what you're saying like that's the only thing and then I've been given notes before where oh can you just do it

a little bit more this way and done it exactly the same way and then come up and go that that yeah oh okay there's this degree of just ignoring

yeah basically just like with just like with stand-up it's like when someone told me I was to one man show and it's like okay

yeah what am I gonna do gotcha take it down a notch never yeah but uh

so so yeah that was Wendy Ward rest in peace R.I.P. She, if I ever act again, it was like, it was. I mean, I think like we both owe a lot to her because, you know, of where your career is and where mine is. Sure.

Some further than others. No, I'm just joking. What do you think? Do you look at me not acting? Because there was a time when we were both in it. You were brothers in arms. Brothers in arms. Do you see it as a giving up?

I don't think you've given up at all. When I told my wife that I was coming to see her, she was like, the guy that acted with J-Lo? She's a big J-Lo fan. I'm like, yeah, him. Great, great, great. And more comedians now than ever are like doing incredible like incredible series and writing their own stuff your opportunities to develop and be in like work that's far reaching is far more than mine well i think frankly the bottom line is i'm gonna

get further in acting as a stand-up comedian than i think i would have if i just pursue i mean i some people ask how did the acting go? And I'm like, if it was going great, I wouldn't have pivoted to stand-up comedy at 27. Like, there was a reason why I was like, we gotta explore something else. But you were always really funny, like, in class. And you were always writing sketches. Remember we had to do that

Indiegogo campaign for our company to get money, to get all our families to give us money to put these shows on. Jesus Christ. That no one came to. God, everything in life is a fucking Ponzi scheme. And you wrote this incredible sketch,

but it was like an Office-esque sketch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we never made it. Wendy was not particularly adept at comedy. Oh, God. I remember once, oh, this is a tough story to tell because I can't, I will a tough story to tell because I

will not say the F word on this podcast, but it was part of this. We were doing repetition exercises. How would you explain a repetition exercise? You just say the same word when you talk about yourself? If we're doing a scene and he says

some line like, you're mad at me. I'd be like, I'm mad at you're you're mad at me it'd be like i'm mad at you you're mad at me i'm mad at you and you like use that to like kind of right listen and react like you say the same thing the same words but you're saying them a different delivery to say something else every time yeah and you could change the wording to like if if we get mad or go like yeah you're really fucking pissed at me i'm really fucking pissed you you're really and you go back and forth until everyone's like up here and you're talking like this and that's kind of one of the critiques of meisner is that it does result in just a lot of like well fuck you fuck you fuck you god i love that i know i mean that's why i want to take

a meisner my dad was such a curse just all i wanted i realized part of acting for me is just i want to go on stage be like go fuck It's just like getting out the anger at something. But we did this scene. It was from The Odd Couple, which is by Neil Simon. It's a very – you know The Odd Couple. You've heard of them. It's super innocent, no cursing at all. And I was doing it with some guy who had one line on Gossip Girl when he was 17,

and that was his credit for 30 years. And we were going back and forth, and he was like, you're angry at me. I was like, yeah, I'm angry at you. And he was like, pay attention to me. I was like, yeah, I'm angry at you. And he was like, pay attention to me. I was like, I'm paying attention to you. He said, look at me, you fucking F word. And I started laughing because it was so, so out of the world of Neil Simon. And Wendy, and this is the guy I teach you, she said, stop.

No, you're not in the scene. Because if you were in the scene and someone called you that, you would be pissed at them. And I think she was being silly, but she was also right in the sense of like, yeah, I was having a comedian brain thing. Because I was saying like, that's insane to say in a Neil Simon play.

And she was like, no, be in it. And I think that's part of comedian versus actor. And this is where I wonder if my brain can ever go back here is a comedian does step outside and goes, look at that, look at that. Were you being a comedian or were you being a person that just got called? And you're like, this is fucking insane.

That's so interesting though, that she sided with him and chastised you because the acting in the hierarchy of things was at the top, the be all end all over the feelings

or the words or anything. That's so interesting. Because your true emotion was to laugh. That's true. I mean, but then I should have laughed and then brought it into this.

I should have laughed at him in the scene. Like, oh, I'm a ha. Yeah, you're a ha. She definitely, and if I didn't say it back, if I had said like, oh, I'm an F word, she'd be like, that's not what he said. Right. And I'd be like, Wendy. But he just heightens it to you guys are sucking each other's dicks, basically. be like wendy she just heightens it till you guys are sucking each other's dicks basically um and i do think the last thing i want to touch on with her was it was a thing where we we had

fallen out i mean it was an ugly end i didn't like write her a fuck you letter but it was very clear that we were done our our paths had had closed and when someone is dying you know like so there are all these actors and we were like doing a group and they were like let's make a video of us all being like we love you and i was like that does not feel authentic to my experience or to her seeing it but one of those things sometimes people are dying and like party wants to like say something to them but in a way you're like well is that just for me and am i like burdening them with like my send off message when they don't, I'm not even, they might not even think about me from this moment until the time that they

are in the ground. And it was, it was tough because there was like a love and a feeling. I never, yeah, I think cause Leah and I, we got there like a couple months before all the Australians came. So we figured out the space we were going to perform in and the disastrous marketing campaign.

But we went to her apartment plenty of times and we had dinner. I know I wrote her an email and it was tough. You did write her an email and it was tough. I wrote, I did write her an email. I did write her an email and it was just like two stories, including that one I just told about, about the F word. And then I think it was, it was also the,

it wasn't really stories with her because none of my stories with her were particularly pleasant, but it was like, I tried to frame it in like you taught me like how, what, what quality is and what, what it means to like actually care about the work you're doing. And,

and I, of course I didn't hear back. I don't know if she read it or anything, but I sent it. It felt weird. Cause also it'd be like, Hey, I heard you're headed out soon.

So here's two stories. Do you write or anything? I did write her something. Yeah. Yeah. She did not get back to me, but I, I do know that she read everything. was really she her her health deteriorated quite

quickly and uh she made one video she made one video did you see the video oh yeah yeah and it was very emotional it's like you know because i hadn't spoken to her since since uh philadelphia experience and uh i don't know there's been many times over the years that I've wanted to reach out and be like, you know, you were the most influential person in my acting career and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for you.

And, you know, it was important for me to let her know that before she left. But she didn't reply back, but I know that she read everything. Someone told you that? Yeah. I have people.

Yeah, she wrote, she was very like, you know, she made a video and she was like in a nice home that I think she had like rented for like her last month. I mean, really,

it's the kind of stuff that makes it hard to sleep at night. It was hard to watch. And she was just like, she was very spiritual or at peace, or she was very much like, this is life. Like she had that, you know, she had this side that was scary and kind of angry and irrational and felt very upsetting. And then she also had a side where she was like, I'm a human being.

I know death. I know the world. I know the life we have. Did she have a family? She had a sister. A sister, world. I know the life we have. Did she have a family? She had a sister. A sister, yeah. Her father had passed away, I think, in his 60s, and that was a big part of...

Yeah. She had a sister, yeah. I think you guys both did the right thing. I think it is never wrong or a bad move to reach out to someone and let them know that they have impacted your life in a positive way no matter if you are on speaking terms or not i i think letting someone know how you feel with love and kindness that they have left an imprint on your life is never a bad idea

because you don't know even if they don't respond, it's still giving them the gift of closure in a way, you know, for you as well. And I think like if you didn't hear from someone for years and someone was like, Hey, you know,

you really impacted me and I just need to let you know, how good would you feel? You'd feel great. Irregardless of the falling out you had or whatever, that would be such a nice bow on the gift of your experiences together. Well, good. We did it.

That's the kind of music you're into, right? That kind of stuff? No. Where do you program these things from? Well, this is pre-programmed. I got a new box and I have it updated. Yeah, Where do you program these things from? Well, this is pre-programmed. I got a new box and I have. Yeah. How do you get these sounds on here?

You download them? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. These came on the box, though. That's not like my song. That's not like. Oh, I love that.

I mean, that's a fun song. That feels very Pokemon-y. Like that kind of like, I don't know what kind of rock you. I love it. It's like coming back to a daytime talk show. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I love it. Coming up like coming back to a daytime talk show. Yeah. I love it.

Coming up next. Could you be that guy? Oh, yeah. Welcome back to The Downside. Today, we're talking to John Marco and what it was like to play a guy in a wheelchair for nine months of his life. Is it right? Is it wrong? When we get back, sponsored by Allstate.

So to wrap it up, you're in London now. Yeah. You're acting. You filmed Shy Horses, Shy Horse Play. Nope. Shy Pony Play.

My little... Slow horsies. My Asian pony. Can't get away with that now, man. Woo! Where did you film that? My Sweet Samurai, I think. Oh, my God. That was Ian.

Oh, my God. I filmed it in London. It's an Apple series, and it is set in MI5. And it has Chris and Scott Thomas, Olivia Cooke, and Gary Oldman. Now, is one of the downsides to an Apple series is knowing no one's ever going to watch it? Woo-hoo! Damn, can someone turn on a light? There's a lot of shade in here.

The thing about being in a series is that you have one for no one to watch. Oh. I could tell people Touche. I could tell people I have three comedy specials on Peacock and no one would ever

be able to prove me wrong. Do you? I do. Three specials on Peacock. Nuh-uh. Really? No, shut the fuck up. Oh.

I can't. You're too good an actor. I can't tell if you're lying or acting. There you go. Try not to play poker with me. I'll take all your money. Would you ever come to America

or only if you had a job? I mean, like, is London going to be your home base? No, I'd love to work out here. I think they... But you would only come here for work? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You wouldn't commute? Come on, guys. Folks. Do they call... Is there a term... We have bi-coastal for New York and LA. Is there a term for people who are always in London

or always in LA? Yeah, I think it's called pretentious. It's called a Londoner. It's called rich as fuck. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Not Russian. It's called consistent work.

No, I would come here for work, absolutely. I mean, I wouldn't... I'm not like... I think when I was younger, I really wanted to pick up and move to LA and like, you know, do the whole actor thing. But knowing what I know now, absolutely not. Do you like London?

Yeah, yeah, I do. I do very much so. I think you get invited to all of Boris Johnson's parties. All the time. I was at that one. You were at that one? I was. Have you heard about all the Boris Johnson stuff?

What is this? So Boris Johnson, what is this so Boris Johnson prime minister of London of England of the whole UK but he lives in London but he lives in London he lives in London

and he's always compared to Trump he's like a mess his hair's always yeah yeah I know about that well he like the thing that really pissed people off

was revealing that during COVID he was having parties right oh like the Gavin Newsom of fucking yeah yeah but Bryn like I mean you really pissed people off was revealing that during COVID he was having parties. Oh, like the Gavin Newsom of fucking. Yeah. Yeah.

But, but Bryn, like, I mean, you, their parliament stuff, their meetings, they really call him out.

They go, they go like, oh, he says he didn't know it was a party. He wasn't sure it was a party. Oh, that's great. They really, they really roast him.

Am I wrong with parliament? Don't make fun of my government, my government skills. No, it was your accent. Wow. You didn't know what a pot it was. Much better. When my mom

took me to London in high school, this was when I was an actor. I was like, I'm going to speak in a London accent the whole trip. And I am sure that my accent was like this the whole time. And I was like, Mom, do you think I'm drinking? And my poor mom was like yes

you had watched My Fair Lady like once wow that's great but it was very good to see you thank you very much I hope you're in America more or that I tour in London have you ever done stand up in London no I was supposed to

when I cancelled my London leg I did a European tour when I canceled my London leg. I did a European tour and I canceled my London leg because I had to record an album. And so I couldn't switch a date. So I canceled that and I had rescheduled for 2020 with all the hope that year had. Well, we're back, baby. I haven't rescheduled.

I still have a I still have a card a birthday card from Attell in my room that says happy birthday Ian 2020

is gonna be your year that's so fucking funny yeah it's great um well uh let's uh

let's is there anything you wanna plug for our listeners well you can watch my series on Apple if you so choose first of April what is so choose first of april

what is it april first of april how many episodes there's gonna be 12 are you in the mall yes i am whoa that's awesome what's your character man his name is roddy ho roddy ho okay um is he asian too and would did you feel you feel was it was it tough acting any like tough scenes or was it like what is he

what's his job what does he do I'm not allowed to say this really you signed things yeah I've signed things sure Apple's intense I'm sure yeah

would Wendy be proud we've all got a fucking phone in here that's Apple made and they can hear me that's true that's true alright so check it out what's the title one more time

Slow Horses Slow Horses. Slow Horses. First of April. Is it slow like horses that like don't, you know, they don't quite pick up on things as fast? Wow. If I ask John Marco if he's going to watch it, he'll say nay. No. Ian, anything you want to plug?

It's going to come out in like a month. Yeah. Oh, hey. At Vermont Comedy Club, headline in April 1st and 2nd. Going to be a lot of fun. I looked for the ticket link today and I couldn't find it.

Well, that's an interesting thing because that's not true. They fixed this a month ago. I have a great podcast, Sopranos Prima Volta. I've never seen Sopranos.berts has seen it nine or ten times so i'm watching it for the first time it's a watch along podcast check it out youtube.com slash not sam and uh bye guys every thursday guest digital network 11 a.m and uh i animal 69 instagram twitch and twitter This is great. Thank you so much stuff.

I'm so impressed. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. But that's what comedians do. We have a lot of stuff, but if we were to see all the eyeballs on it, it'd be three.

Kind of like, I wish you a boat. Kind of like, I wish you a boat. Yeah. Well, I think you're just speaking from your personal experience with this podcast. And if you like me,

find me online at your Marcus or crazy. I am, I am touring around the country. I just put out the poster today. I am going to be in Dallas, Houston, uh, DC,

uh, Connecticut, a billion fucking times. Um, Detroit, LA, um, uh, Virginia, just check it out at your marco cerezi and i also have a new text uh sign up thing where you can sign up and you get a text

uh just when i'm performing in your city so like once a year it's an easy easy way to stay in the loop can i also say real quick sorry i'm filming a special uh in aug New York City, and I'm going to be in Austin, Chicago, San Diego, and putting more dates together. So I just want to plug that in real quick. Where are you filming the special? In New York. You haven't decided the venue yet? No, it's between three right now.

Sure, sure. Yeah. That's very exciting. Yeah. That's very exciting. See it on Peacock if you have it. Yes, Apple TV for the two subscribers to Apple TV. Yeah. That's very exciting. Yeah. That's very exciting. See it on Peacock if you have it. Yes. Apple TV for the two subscribers to Apple TV.

Is it? I'm going to get fired. Wow. Thank you, Chris. Thank you for filling in for my call. Thank you. This was really fun. It was delightful.

Yeah, it was a good time. It was such a joy. And just remember that, like our acting teacher, we're all going to die. This is the downside. One, two, three.