The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi - #98 Straight to DVD with Josh Flitter
Episode Date: August 23, 2022Josh Flitter (Ace Ventura Jr.) shares the downsides of starring in Ace Ventura Jr. when he was 13, being told it was going to be a major movie release only to have it go straight to DVD, the most horr...ifying animatronic panda of all time, what Jim Carrey told him when he found out about the film, and getting dragged online for ruining the Ace Ventura legacy. Gianmarco also reads out his girlfriend's astoundingly good surprise birthday present comedy set. You can watch full video of this episode HERE! Join the Patreon for ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and MORE. Follow Josh Flitter on Instagram and Twitter Catch Josh at The FRIDAY NIGHT ELECTRIC Improv Jam at The PIT in NYC. 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 (first Sunday of every month) Get tickets to see Gianmarco Soresi in a city near you Watch Gianmarco Soresi's special "Shelf Life" on Amazon Follow Russell Daniels on Twitter & Instagram E-mail the show at TheDownsideWGS@gmail.com Produced by 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome to The Downside. I'm in a very good mood, which is not fitting for this show, but I'm here with my co-host, Russell Daniels. How are you doing?
Hi, John Marco. I'm good. We had a great night.
We saw each other less than 12 hours ago.
Yes, yeah. Well, not less than, but yeah.
You're right. If you had been on time, it would have been less than 12 hours.
on time. It would have been less than 12 hours.
Yesterday we had our second
ever live podcast recording.
It was packed compared to
our first one. People were there for the YouTube
shorts, which I thought was amazing
because they were like, we saw 30 seconds
of you. It's crazy that
their response to 30 seconds
wasn't like, let me just check out the audio
in my own home of a full episode.
They were like, I'm going to go see it live.
Yeah.
Like, they're not one or two people.
Like, 10, 15, like, you know.
If you don't mind me asking, I'm just going to chime in,
because how many people showed up to this live?
We had, like, I would say 60 people there.
Wow.
60 in a small space.
Yeah.
And, yeah, we didn't know how, you know,
it's new for you, talking, not wearing clown we didn't know how to be, you know, it's, it's, it's new for you talking,
not wearing clown makeup in a sketch.
Uh, but you, you were fantastic.
We had Lucas Connelly, who's a comic and we talked about his path to going to rehab and
it was, it was so crazy.
We have to have him for a second part just to hear about rehab.
And hopefully the audio comes out.
We're praying the audio.
Did you not record it?
We recorded it.
I did a backup on my phone which
definitely does not sound good no no no no uh i can't wait to listen to an hour and a half of
phone well the other thing too is that there was a lot of kind of back and forth with some audience
members who did not have microphones so fantastic moment with it with we've never had to deal with
hecklers in a podcast yes lucas was saying that he had been sober since like he was 18 he's 36 now and and an audience member shouted cap which i don't know if you know cap yeah it
means you do that not true not true i had always heard no cap except it's gonna sound like cap
yeah yes yeah and i tried to repeat it on stage to a certain degree i tried to be like
what you said you said he's lying sir you said the guy who just said he's sober is lying. Great.
Yeah, that guy also, when I came out from outside, that guy was there.
It was a kind of a group of people.
And if you're listening, keep listening.
But they were.
Keep listening, but don't come to the live show.
They were like intimidating kind of folks.
They were like, bro, marijuana is your limit, dude.
You got to hang out with us.
And I was like, I was like transported back to another time of peer pressure.
I was like, what are you guys doing?
Isn't that a weird thing that people do,
just like drugs,
that they'll heckle?
Isn't that a weird thing that people do
is go to a new show and be like,
I'm gonna be a part of this.
Initially, we were calling out,
we were asking for feedback on a couple things,
so it kind of opened the floodgates to them.
It's always the danger,
you know,
but I think the weird part,
there's people out there who think that's what comedy is.
And I,
based on media,
like if you look at movies,
yeah,
it's understandable that people think half of live shows are heckling.
Yeah.
Right.
But what's weird is the people who heckle the worst are always after the show is like such a good show,
dude.
So good.
And you want to be like,
dude,
I hated. Yeah yeah they weren't
that bad they were fine they were fine they were great but the one thing i want to kind of read on
the podcast because i know people will be excited so my girlfriend a very good uh a manager uh
comedy manager and uh she started in stand-up like briefly and then produced quickly was a
touring agent than a manager she surprised me for my birthday as her birthday gift.
She did five minutes of stand-up.
Oh, that's sweet.
And it was wild the way it happened because I threw on one of her clients,
and Caleb Huron, who's done the podcast before.
You probably know Caleb from Twitter.
Oh, what's his last name?
Huron.
So funny.
So funny.
Yes, yes.
So funny.
So he needed to do a little bit of time.
I threw him on the show
and I had made a joke
at his expense.
He saw me at Stand Up New York
and he asked me
and this is like
an LA comedian
versus New York thing.
He said,
where's the green room here?
And it was the first time
an LA comedian
has ever made me laugh
because it was,
it was just such a,
because I'd just been to LA
and every place there does have a green room,
compared to New York, where there is no green room.
Oh, there's a hole back there that you can stand in,
that just fits you.
Speaking of the pit, they once gave me a gift card,
because the chair that I sat on there
had a nail that poked through it and scratched my leg.
Oh, they gave you a gift card?
They gave me a gift card,
and then they immediately switched to a different system,
so it didn't work, and it was very fitting.
But my girlfriend she so
basically he went on and at the end of his he started going all right uh that's my set next
up i'm so excited to bring to the stage and i was like first thought i had was what the fuck is he
doing he's bringing me back i opened the show so it's weird for him to reintroduce me and then i
thought oh he's about to make a joke because i made a joke at his expense sure and then he said
uh i love her so much tova silverman and and my girlfriend came up and i was dying from the side
and then like it would have been enough if she had done like a minute or like two minutes but it was
like it was a full set full set and we were going through because i'm so interested in the process
of it we went through like the emails she sent to you and other people and how she built this so
everyone knew well yeah so she sent like probably like a month and a half two the emails she sent to you and other people and how she built this set. So everyone knew. Well, yeah.
So she sent probably like a month and a half, two months ago, she sent a text saying she was going to do this.
But very like, you know, she's freaked out by it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Going to be a full crowd of people, blah, blah, blah.
But then, yeah, probably like a week and a half before she sent what it was, the material for any feedback, like notes,
that kind of thing.
We all knew, all your friends knew
that was going to happen.
But I was very excited for it.
She killed it. I mean, she really killed it.
It was just so, it was so over him.
I mean, she did, it was just fun
to like, because also,
you had talked a lot of shit.
Well, that's what she said. She was so thankful that you had talked a lot of shit well that's what she said she was so thankful
you had talked a lot of shit i first of all she hit it for me so well the only thing that the only
hint that i had my mic was one of my mics was like on the nightstand and tova's been tova's moving in
and uh uh she i was like what's this mic doing here and like that's looking back i'm like oh
she was running it with like a friend over Zoom, like holding a mic.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah.
But I would have never suspected this in a million years.
Yeah.
So I just, I'll read it.
It's not that long without all the laughs, but I just wanted to, if you don't mind.
Oh, no.
It would be crazy if you did.
I came out here and I'm like, you know what?
I don't want.
I don't.
Yeah.
So, so, so yes.
Luckily in my opening, I did talk about her, which set her up as like a character.
And I said some shitty things.
No, and it was good.
It was actually perfect because I didn't know you were going to talk that much about her.
And I was like, because her whole thing is about you.
So I was like, this is perfect.
So I'll probably post some clips from it.
I got to get Tova's approval.
Yeah.
But so she came up.
Again, I'm shocked.
Now, just to clarify, I'm Joe Marco's girlfriend and not an actual comedian,
unless you count writing half of Joe Marco's punchlines, so please bear with me.
It's his birthday this week, and if you listen to his podcast,
you know Joe Marco has been begging me to write five minutes of stand-up
so I can open for him on the road.
So I thought tonight, as a birthday present, I'd prove why that's a terrible idea.
And Joe Marco, I hope you can spare five minutes of stage time.
You can figure out your new pedophile joke a different night all right she's helped me she helped me with a pedophile joke too scared
to post online it's that it's so my boyfriend is a comedian and he tells me i'm his muse
as though that's supposed to make me feel special let me tell you being a stand-up comedian's muse
is not sexy leonardo da vinci was inspired to paint the mona lisa shakespeare wrote romeo and
juliet my boyfriend is inspired to do a Mona Lisa. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.
My boyfriend is inspired to do a three minute act out about coming on my back,
which is just wrong.
It takes him 30 seconds.
Max.
Basically I am to my boyfriend.
What hot pockets are to Jim Gaffigan,
except hot pockets get eaten on a regular basis and told their midsection is super hot.
Oh,
that was my favorite.
That was my favorite.
And I told her, I said, like, I was like, my favorite. Brutal. That was my favorite one. Brutal.
And I told her, I said like,
I was like,
It made me laugh so hard
when I read that first time.
I told her, I was just like,
you know, the regular set,
a good set could have ended with
Hot Pockets are to Jim Gaffigan.
And then she added a double just tag
that was brilliant.
Yeah.
I try to be respectful of our relationship
even though he spends every night
telling you guys what's wrong with me. only complain to one person my best friend taylor
nothing that bad she just knows every flaw of his every time we fought and every time he's
fucked up does taylor immediately tell her other best friend jenny absolutely but that's it and he
still gets upset it says him complaining to an audience about my cilantro allergy is different
from telling taylor that he's never made me cum
and that he accidentally called me his
sister's name in bed once.
Oh no!
And Tova knows, I love incest
jokes. I love fucked up family
jokes. So it's just like Taylor,
it's just amazing. Feels
unfair if you ask me. The only good thing about dating
someone who talks about me publicly is
if that pisses me off, I can sue him for defamation uh i come from a litigious people i'm jewish my boyfriend is
actually only half jewish on his mom's side but in the words of both my mom and hitler still counts
we got him i think my boyfriend is super hot but i have super jewy taste so i'm not actually sure
like my celebrity crushes are s Barrett Cohen, Jesse Eisenberg,
and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,
which is an amazing line.
And that's, yeah,
that's like the head of the Chabad.
It's a real thing.
I have been raised and conditioned
to be attracted to the genetic
and physical representation
of thousands of years
of generational trauma,
survival,
and heroic Jewish resilience
that culminates in men
who look like my dad.
My type is my dad, and Jamarco's type is any woman not hot enough for his dad.
Brutal.
What I'm saying is we're perfect for each other.
My boyfriend doesn't like to talk about it,
but he's a comedian with divorced parents,
which, if you know me, is...
That was Chris. Chris threw that one in.
So like his
mom i also never get to see him on the weekends and then russell she didn't see your email in
time but you added a tag which is so good like his mom i also never get to see him on the weekends
and like his dad i pay for everything which is a brilliant line uh dating someone with divorced
parents sucks because they don't believe in love or romance or a shared bank account. And I get it.
Why would you believe in happily ever after if your dad found it four times after cheating on your mom?
When I was growing up, I wanted to find my Prince Charming.
And I'm starting to understand why fairy tale characters always had dead parents.
Their parent died and now they'll do anything to hold on to love.
But life's not a fairy tale.
Otherwise, my hair would be shinier.
And tragically, both my boyfriend's parents are alive.
but life's not a fairy tale.
Otherwise, my hair would be shinier,
and tragically, both my boyfriend's parents are alive.
The only thing my boyfriend has in common with Prince Charming is an evil stepmom who came home early,
and my dad's on a business trip,
and she's stuck in the washing machine,
at least according to this one movie I found on his computer.
I've been talking a lot of shit,
but one of the things I love about my boyfriend
is that he's not into sports.
He's a soft, artsy boy.
A lot of people actually think he's gay because he's effeminate into musical theater and not attracted to me the trade-off
the trade-off is that he's also not that handy around the house he can't hang up art or fix my
sink if he wants to hit me he has to hire a task rabbit task rabbit is what i call my vibrator by
the way and while he can't put up shelves he does put up with me happy birthday jim arco i love you and please don't make me do stand-up again she killed it really funny just a killer killer
killer set so i mean it didn't run it you know like that she just went on stage she ran it by
people but just went on stage and it was boom boom boom really funny and i i did ask if i could uh
have the task rabbit joke to see if I can make it work on stage.
Hiring a TaskRabbit to hit her is very funny.
That was my favorite.
That popped the shit out of me over here.
That was like my favorite joke.
So good.
That's so good.
If she wants to hit me, it's to hire a TaskRabbit.
Yeah.
I mean, you had a great lineup of comics, and I felt like she just killed it.
Apparently, someone went up to her at the show and was like, you should really think about going back to this.
I mean, really.
I would interfere with her work.
Yeah, we had – I don't think I'm speaking on tour here, but we were talking to one of her clients, and I was like, I want to do a stand-up.
And he said, you know, personally, would love that for you.
As a client, that would make me pretty uncomfortable to have her calling her clients like,
hey, can I run this joke by you real quick?
Does this work as an opener?
So thank you everyone who came.
It was incredible.
The next stand-up live show is going to be September 4th.
Tickets are available now.
They're going to be $10 now.
It's okay.
But please come. I think we're going to be $10 now. It's okay. But please come.
We're going to be doing,
I think we're going to be adding even more shows.
We'll have six or seven more for the rest of the year.
And I'm going to talk to Russell
about doing one or two more live ones for this year
because Russell, you're so good.
We'll do it in the fall.
So I apologize.
That was a lot,
but it was such an exciting day.
It was great.
It was hilarious.
It was your birthday?
Well, it's this Saturday.
Oh, happy almost birthday.
Thank you.
I'm going to be in Chicago alone.
Just me and whatever sex worker I can find.
So I love you, girlfriend.
So I wanted to talk to you.
Yes.
I mean, I knew you from Twitter.
Sure.
Very, very funny.
Thank you.
Very good Pete Davidson impression.
Yeah.
That our friend Chris, I think it would make him mad.
Because he has a Pete Davidson impression.
Yeah, well, it's probably not as good as this one.
It's tough for me to do it like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know,
he pretty much sort of talks like this all the time.
Yeah.
You'd be fun if I build
that we had Pete Davidson on the podcast
and I fucked up the video.
Oh, and what if you did a deep fake?
Sure. His face on top of mine, I no, you did a deep fake. Sure.
His face on top of mine.
I get to talk about
the whole Kim Kardashian thing.
Do you have the impression
that I have money for deep fake
from these cameras
that we have set up here?
I don't know.
Apparently you're doing live shows
for $10 a ticket.
So,
Jesus,
that's some cheddar right there.
But you've talked about it
on Twitter
and I was so excited
because you were in
Russell's favorite movie,
Ace Ventura Jr.
You've always talked about the ending. What did you love about the ending
of the movie? Shut the fuck up. Listen,
so this is what's so funny is that usually
I don't do any sort of
homework before, but
this time we watched Ace
Ventura Jr. yesterday.
We did not
finish it. I heard you got most of the way through it.
We were on a time crunch. We did run out of time, but we haven most of the way through it. We were on a time crunch.
We did run out of time.
But we haven't done the music yet.
So you are Josh Flitter.
Oh, sorry.
Josh Flitter.
You are a former child actor and still actor.
Still actor.
And can you just say something negative maybe about that so I can play this music, something sad?
I feel so pressured and because of that I always trying to impress everybody and I'm cripplingly depressed because of it. This is the downside.
One, two, three!
Downside!
You're listening to The Downside The Downside
with Gianmarco Cerresi
This episode is brought to you by Dyson OnTrack
Dyson OnTrack headphones offer best-in-class noise cancellation
and an enhanced sound range
making them perfect for enjoying music and podcasts
Get up to 55 hours of listening
with active noise cancelling enabled
soft microfiber cushions engineered for comfort
and a range of colors
and finishes. Dyson OnTrack. Headphones remastered. Buy from DysonCanada.ca. With ANC on, performance
may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately.
This NFL season, get in on all the hard-hitting action with FanDuel, North America's number one
sportsbook. You can bet on anything from money lines to spreads and player props,
or combine your bets in a same-game parlay for a shot at an even bigger payout.
Plus, with super simple live betting, lightning-fast bet settlement,
and instant withdrawals, FanDuel makes betting on the NFL easier than ever before.
So make the most of this football season and download FanDuel today.
19-plus and physically located in Ontario.
Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca.
Always good when the theme music comes in 22 minutes into the episode.
I have 5,000 questions about Ace Ventura, Petrificative Jr.
Sure.
But do we, what do we want to start with?
Do you want to like get into the house?
I mean, what I'm so interested is I was saying to Russell and not, I am of the mindset where
I'm like, I wish I had been a child actor.
Sure. Like a trillion percent. I don like, I wish I had been a child actor. Sure.
Like a trillion percent.
I don't know if I would have been good.
The one character I thought,
I was like, that's who I would have played,
was the nerdy scientist in the locker.
That's one of my best friends in the world, Austin.
Really?
Oh, you're still close.
He's one of my best friends.
I just was with him in Las Vegas last week.
Oh my God.
Is he still acting?
Yeah.
He lives in LA. He's
still an actor. He's a fantastic musician
too. One of the
most talented people that I know.
Just like one of those people that doesn't
give a shit. I can swear, right?
Oh yeah. I'm just making sure. I already did before
and you were talking about cumming.
He said cum a few times.
Cum is fine. Shit, we don't
do shit. We do cum. Shit, we don't do shit.
We do come.
He doesn't give a shit about what anybody thinks about him.
He's just like, I'm doing this because I love to do it,
and I have a passion for it, and I'm like, love me, love me, love me,
give me attention, give me attention.
So he's in it for the right reasons.
I'm not.
Do you think, were you always like that,
or is it because you had this kind kind of crazy like child experience i think
i always wanted everybody to love me like i so i started when i was to give like the tlg thing
i started when i was like four and a half four four and a half years old your parents are in
the business my my mom was uh a singer and did a lot of off-broadway plays cool and and musicals
uh she never like made it made it as a broadway
actress but um any any recording she's on like no no just did like independent stuff around uh but
she did uh her the thing she loves to say is that at at the very beginning of idina menzel's career
my mom and her both sang on the spirit of new york which is like a ferry that goes around uh so my so because
idina menzel is probably 10 or so years younger than my mom so uh yeah my mom was like in her
mid or late 20s and idina menzel was like 19 or 20 and they were both singing on on this spirit
of new york does your mom say like she was amazingly talented or yeah yeah no no she's a little pitchy no my mom's great about
it yeah she's uh uh i i don't know if they ever like at the same time but it was like one would
than the other but she just always says it's like oh yeah we both sang at the same time in the
spirit of new york so i don't know i mean she could be talking about adele dazeem and not
adina menzel sure yeah that's totally true but But anyway, so I started when I was like four and a half years old and my,
Tamara Markowitz is her name.
She's a manager,
still a child talent manager in New Jersey.
I grew up in Marlborough, New Jersey.
And she had called my mom
because her daughter wanted to have a play date
with my brother.
They were like seven years old
and her caller ID said,
TM Talent Agency. and my mom was
like what is this uh and she was like oh i'm also a children's talent manager and my mom was like
well i have this four-year-old uh and you know what your older brother just no good yeah he's
terrible no my mom like tried with him and he didn't want to do it. And my parents were never forcing us.
She was like, let's try this.
He hated it, and as soon as he started, he was done.
Sure.
So I was just always trying to make everybody laugh,
and I would do this bit when I was five years old
to try to make my grandparents laugh.
I would pretend I was the old person on the Titanic.
In the movie Titanic,
they show this old person when the ship is sinking
and the old person's like trying to make it.
And they have like a walker.
And I would do this impression of this person
to crack my grandparents up.
I'd be like, oh no, I'm gonna die.
I was like five years old.
That's a really dark bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For a five-year-old.
So I always wanted to be silly
and make people laugh
did your grandparents
like it
did they go
what the fuck
no oh they loved it
they were all
Jewish grandparents
they were like
this is great
this is amazing
everything I did
to them was great
and amazing
sure
but that was also
objectively amazing
I think you could
do the character now
I could do it
I'm gonna fucking die
and it's killing
it's shows
oh my god
do that
so my mom brought me over and Tamara I'm going to fucking die. And it's killing its shows. Oh, my God, do that.
So my mom brought me over, and Tamara was like, he's hilarious and adorable, and I'm a very short person.
And at the time, I was really tiny for a five-year-old or four-year-old, whatever.
And she was like, he could easily book, like, two-year-old roles where they need, like, so funny four-year-olds. Two-year-old roles with book two-year-old roles where they need four-year-olds. That's so funny.
Two-year-old roles with a four-year-old brain.
Yeah, because you can talk to a four-year-old.
Yeah, that's so funny.
That's so funny.
Now I'm like 25 sometimes if I shave, 25.
But to be like four, you could play two.
Four, you could play two.
Cut it in half.
And the two-year-old's like, you know, he's fucking ancient.
I was there with a cigarette like, I've been around this bitch for so long
so I
started working immediately
I was booking commercials
left and right just because
I loved doing it
and I was a ham in the room
did your parents have
like good money or did this
change the game like were you
the breadwinner in the family?
No, they did.
My mom was – she wasn't my manager or anything.
She just traveled with me and my dad had a good job that he could just –
it was a nine-to-five and we lived in like suburban New Jersey.
So we were –
What did they do?
Like I just can't imagine like having a kid and all of a sudden, you know,
my kid brings in 50 grand.
And it's like, well, do we get to put this into?
They put everything immediately into, like, savings for me.
They're amazing.
Wow.
Yeah.
They're amazing.
That's a great child actor story.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's usually not associated.
That's not what I'd be doing.
I mean, I'd put it into things for us.
A couch that we're all going to sit on.
We want a new pool in the backyard, Josh.
We'll put it in the backyard.
You want a pool or not, Josh?
Well, it's weird because now I'm realizing it like,
now I'm realizing growing up, like, all of a sudden,
we did have a pool.
We had a pool table in the basement.
We got the kitchen redone.
Maybe they did dip into some of my earnings.
I'm kidding.
I would give my kid the money in cash
and then we go out to dinner and i would just every time be like oh shit i left my wallet
josh you have the josh you got the check and i'd be there still hanging out of my mouth five years
old like yeah i got you guys um so you're doing commercials what was the first big like boom
so i did a commercial that at the time so this was i'm 20 i'm gonna be 28
next week um so i would this was 24 years ago um i did a commercial that like pre-internet boom
uh it was for office depot and the whole bit was that it was adults or it was kids pretending they
were adults working uh and and
they were in like an office building and they were saying all adult shit and uh the last bit is i'm
by a water cooler it's like the the the button at the end of the commercial is this kid's like
hey you want to golf this weekend and i'm like can't it's my weekend with the kids
and it's this bit where I'm like a divorced dad.
Yeah.
It's also implying that four-year-olds having sex.
No, it's not doing that, John Marko.
It was a cute commercial.
Come on.
But as cute as it was, they got a lot of people mad.
Okay.
Not because of that.
Why?
What was the thing? Because it was like, oh, we're making a joke about like divorced parents and they're dreading
spending time with their kids and we're having kids do this.
Oh, God.
Imagine getting mad about that in 1990, whatever.
This was like 1999 or 2000.
Oh, the things we get mad about.
That's why when people get mad at things, I don't know how they don't look at history
and go like, oh, I'm going to look like an idiot in 20 years.
Yeah.
I'm going to look like such a fucking loser.
Yeah.
Well, no one knew about it until right.
No one's going to get mad about Aunt Jemima syrup.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's so stupid
the things we get mad about.
And no one's gonna know about it
until I just brought it up now.
So now those people,
if they are watching this,
are gonna be like,
oh, fuck.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought everyone forgot about
that I got mad at them.
We have a lot of 60-year-old listeners.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But the first movie role
that I did,
if that's what you were asking,
unless you had a question about it.
I mean, that's a big, you know, but yeah, first, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're up the game.
I did a small part in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Oh.
Well, I can't say that's what, I looked at your filmography, and I feel like maybe this is like a child actor thing.
It's just like wild, the different levels of movies that you do.
Yeah, dude.
Like Eternal Sunshine.
Yeah.
Arguably the best movie of all time. Two, like, big, you do. Yeah, dude. Like Eternal Sunshine. Yeah. Arguably the best movie
of all time.
Two like big,
amazing movies.
Yeah.
And then all these,
it's just like a wide
gamut of things.
No, I was in arguably
the greatest movie
of all time
with Eternal Sunshine
and The Spotless Mind.
It's always put in the list
of like top ten.
And then I was in
the greatest movie
of all time,
which is Ace Ventura Jr.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did Charlie Kaufman direct Eternal Sunshine?
He did.
Yeah.
Or no.
Oh, shit.
Or is it Michael Gondry?
Gondry.
It was Gondry.
Okay.
Yeah.
Charlie Kaufman just wrote it.
Yes.
And how old were you for that?
Seven, six.
Okay, so that was still pretty early.
Yeah.
The first big movie role I haven't gotten to, but that was the first movie that I did that
was like, oh, this is a big deal. It was it was one scene seven that's crazy yeah it was it was super fun
and i do remember your question or your question about like wanting to be a child actor because
we're gonna get to that yeah because i really listen and i've seen uh we've talked about for
the hollywood complex maybe it's called it's a a documentary on Amazon. It's about like the, there's some hotel or condo
that all these kids with their parents go for like pilot season.
Oh, was it the Oakwoods?
Maybe.
It was the Oakwood Apartments.
It was famous.
I stayed there for a little while.
Yeah, it's just brutal.
It's just, you know, they're all getting scammed
by all these organizations.
There's some stuff that we were good enough to,
lucky enough and smart enough to stay out of,
but I went to the Young Artist Awards once,
which is just, you literally pay to go.
Sure.
And then they just tell you that your kids are great.
Yeah.
That's, again.
It's literally just a scam.
Now, are you, you're making good money.
Yeah.
I mean, at this point, I don't know, I mean, whether child actors have a really good rate or whether you're all just working scale.
Well, it used to be.
So in the early 2000s, it wasn't like it is now.
Now they're like, oh, we can just hire some kid off TikTok and pay him $500 and buy him out for a commercial.
Back then, you were making money.
Your agents would be like, hey, you want my client for a commercial back then you were like making money like it was you were your agents
would be like hey you want my client for this commercial he's like the most sought after
client uh for like commercials right now you're gonna pay him and you're gonna pay him
good yeah and they were like yeah absolutely like it'd be like oh we're geico we have that money
you know yeah i had a friend who did a commercial i don't want to uh i never did a geico commercial
and they probably are good people i don't wanna I never did a Geico commercial and they probably
are good people
I don't wanna
fucking bad mouth anybody
they're definitely
not good people
I mean the casting
the casting people
I'm sure are wonderful
yeah
but I had a friend
do a commercial
for a huge
huge company
last year
and he got paid
like a scale rate and then was bought out.
And that commercial would have, in residuals, paid 20 years ago.
He would have made like 50, 60 grand off of that commercial.
Yeah, yeah.
And he made like 1,200 bucks.
That's crazy.
Because they bought him out for the year.
We're like, we're buying out your contract.
And there's nothing any actors can do about it.
They just have to be like, okay.
And I think the one thing for people listening and being like,
shut the fuck up, $1,200 for a day's work.
It's more just like acting sucks and commercials were the one way that you could like make enough money to get through all the other try periods.
I'm good for a year or two.
Exactly.
And it's not an easy thing to do.
It's not like, you know, it's not going to the office once a day.
Like, you know, it's not going to the office once a day, you know.
And when I booked, I did a campaign a couple years ago for General Electric.
And luckily, it paid very well.
But they incorporated live appearances.
And that's where the money was, like, absurd.
Like, flying me to Vegas so I could go on stage and be like, hi, I'm the guy.
Yeah.
Why don't I remember this?
I don't remember you doing it. How many people do you think you killed because of your role in GE?
That I killed?
People who were fired?
No, by way of you making them money and then them being responsible for the deaths.
GE's an ethical company, I'm sure.
I don't know.
Just like Geico.
The funniest thought, I was at a live gig in Boca Raton and I heard-
Certainly there were deaths there.
Yes.
Yeah.
There's some dead sex workers in the water now.
I heard some of the employees, like high up employees, complaining that I got more face
time with the CEO than they did.
They were like, the fucking hammer guy got more time with Jeffrey.
The hammer guy?
Well, you were the face of the company, so-
I know.
What are you going to do?
Yeah.
So, okay. So then what was, you're doing Eternal Sunshine.
Yes.
You're seven.
What's the school system?
You're homeschooled?
I, no, I stayed in public school the entire time.
How?
You must be missing days.
Did you?
I would miss.
So my school system was fucking awesome.
They were super supportive.
I came from a town that was, like, weirdly had multiple people became, like, successful in different ways from a town that was like weirdly had multiple people became like successful
in different ways from that town uh cal penn is from my town in new jersey uh jim nance
the sportscaster yeah okay is uh joe klecko who was on the jets so like there was a lot of people
who were like made it into any kind of because. Because you're near New York, I imagine.
I have a question.
Were kids in school weird or cool?
Or were you like the guy in school?
It was a mix.
All of my friends were just, it was like, oh, cool, Josh is an actor and that's what he does.
All these six shows being like, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the greatest romantic.
With cigarettes in their mouth.
Romance so well.
You know, when you get into middle school time and you're doing Ace Ventura.
Oh, we'll get there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like people could be
like, sure, you know. There were a lot of
dead sex workers once we got to middle
school.
So the first big movie
role that I did was The Greatest Game Ever Played,
which was
a golf movie with Shia LaBeouf
where he played.
It was based off of the 1913 U.S. Open, like true story,
where this kid who's 18 years old wins the U.S. Open
over all these successful British golfers.
And he gets this caddy who's just this 9-year-old kid off the street
because he can't afford a caddy.
And the kid that he was going to hire gets caught by a truant officer because he's skipping school
so his little brother who I end up playing
just shows up and then the kid wins the US
Open.
It's just an unbelievable story but it's a
really fun sweet movie. Are you still friends with Shia?
I'm not friends with him but
I've seen him like
twice in the last like five years
and it's nice every time that we get to see each other.
Yeah. He seems a little wacky he's he's going through some shit for a while yeah it's his
friend man i'm not gonna i it's tough it's tough to like we all know uh yeah it's very public and
yeah but what i will say about him that's like I'm not making excuses by any means
because some of the shit that's alleged is not good.
But the guy's a troubled guy.
Like he's just had like a really troubled childhood.
I mean, did you guys see Honey Boy?
I didn't see it.
I heard about it.
Was that about him?
He wrote about it, isn't it?
He wrote it and it's like based on his own life, I think.
Oh, I see.
Yeah, he was –
Again, though I'd kill for his own life. I think. Oh, I see. Yeah. He was, he had.
Again, though I'd kill for his life.
Essentially raised himself.
To be even Stevens.
To be even Stevens.
To be even Stevens.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
But he was a sweetheart filming and really took me on as like a little brother.
Like when we were making the movie, he was 18 and I was like 10 and he would he would call my mom mom like he just became like a part of our family for those couple of
months and it was just really sweet let me tell you something if i called a 10 year old's mom
mom and i was 18 that's a little weird i don't know it just like i saw your mom
wanted to bang my mom yeah we were we don't know. We weren't there. We don't know what the bond was.
Who are we to judge?
Okay.
If your mom, if I met your mom and I said, mom.
Were we filming for two months with her?
Like, was she around?
We've known each other very well.
But she's not around every day.
She's not around every day.
You know what I mean?
Like, she's not here sitting in the other room while we're doing this podcast every day.
And then, like, getting us things.
His mom was probably doing nice things for Shia LaBeouf. She day and then like you're saying then his mom was probably
doing nice things
for Shia LaBeouf
she probably was like
she was wonderful
she was probably like
bringing him water
once in a while
like you know
she would give him advice
because he would
be stupid shit
he clearly needed like
parental things
and he has good parents
so I don't think
it's the craziest thing
in the world
I'm a big Shia LaBeouf
listen great actor
great actor
listen
so okay
so you did that
big break yes and are you are you cool as a cucumber do you feel anxiety do you feel like
are you like fuck i gotta get to the next level i've literally thought i was the greatest person
in the world like were you were you nice or were you a little bit i was super nice but i uh i was
super nice i totally was aware of all that was happening
and how insane it was and how lucky I was.
But I certainly was like, diva's the wrong word.
It was more of just like,
that was what I started to learn was normal.
Sure.
So I was like expecting it.
I wasn't expecting to like be,
I wasn't like, give me a grilled cheese
and if you don't get it to me, I'm gonna fire you.
It was more like.
Where the fuck is my grilled cheese? Where it's like, when I wasn't working, me a grilled cheese and if you don't get it to me i'm gonna fire you it was more like where the fuck is my grilled cheese it was like when i wasn't when i
wasn't working it was like why am i not working yeah that's weird yeah now we're getting to like
the sad yeah which is what we'll talk about yeah because that's that's what it ended up becoming
uh because i so so as the story goes i i did greatest game ever played i i got my new manager
because of that movie and manager because of that movie.
And then because of that movie,
I got Nancy Drew
and then License to Wed,
which filmed back to back.
Wow.
So that was me
at like the height of,
it was like bang bang.
License to Wed with Robin Williams,
John Krasinski,
if I remember correctly.
Yes.
Wow, that's incredible.
I have a good movie trivia mind.
I was just really sad.
I mean, once we hit
the Charlie Buff movie,
I'm like, all right, that's more credits than I have now. That was definitely, and was just really sad. Once we hit the Shia LaBeouf movie, I'm like,
that's more credits than I have now.
And that was like seven.
You'll surpass me because I have a curse.
I have a curse. Everyone who knows me
becomes very successful.
Except for me.
Yes, we should have had you on earlier.
So you're doing
two movies back to back.
Now I'm 12 at this point.
Who is it?
Is the new manager at like a big company?
Yeah.
It was.
He passed away.
And I'm no longer with that management company.
But I was with them from like.
I was like 11 to like 15.
I forget the name of it.
But his name was Larry Bresner.
And his partner at the company managed Billy Crystal and Robin Williams
and a bunch of these big time shows.
And so I did Nancy Drew.
The funny thing about Nancy Drew
is that Jerry Weintraub,
who has since passed away,
also this is another curse,
is everyone who,
all my connections die.
Oh shit.
You're going to become really successful
and then die at the end of your career.
And you're going to die.
I'm not taking his phone number.
It's going to be one of you.
I called him earlier.
He's fucked.
But so I was on.
Jay Leno wanted me on after watching Greatest Game Ever Played.
He was like, I love this kid.
I want to have mine.
So I did the Tonight Show.
You did the Tonight Show?
Twice.
Wow.
How old is this?
I was 11 when I did it the first time
and then 13 who were the other guests when you were there both don rickles
he called me a hockey puck backstage because i was like i didn't know i was like that it wasn't
for anyone no i was with my parents and my dad was like, can you call my son a hockey puck? And he was like,
give me a hockey puck,
whatever.
And then he was like
making Jewish jokes
about me.
He's also Jewish.
And he was like,
are you Bar Mitzvahed?
And I was like,
not yet.
I don't remember.
It was something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that was the first time.
The second time
was The Rock.
God damn,
it's so cool. The Rock was promoting Doom. So second time was The Rock. God damn, it's so cool.
The Rock was promoting Doom.
So you both know The Rock.
Yes, I do.
You met The Rock?
He saw me in a production of Hello Dolly off, off, off Broadway at the University of Miami
where I went to college.
Why was he there?
He went to college there.
So he just happened to be there.
I auditioned for Young Rock and I didn't get it.
And I knew that because he went to University of Miami,
which is in the script. Yeah, and then we got into a bit of a twitter beef did you he he said
something about showering three times a day oh yeah like quote tweeted not him just like the
article being like this is kind of weird uh something about he was crazy he said like i
wake up every morning i take a cold shower at five regular shower at 6 30 i remember that was
to you that was your response to you?
I remember when he tweeted that.
He tweeted that
and then I quote tweeted
the article or something
and then all of a sudden
I noticed a tweet
got all these likes
and retweets
like what's going on
and then I saw that
he had replied to it.
I said, shut up, bitch.
It was actually
the kind of getting dragged
that I didn't mind
because people were writing me
like, hey, stinky.
When you take a shower, stinky.
Hey, filthy.
Stinky neck.
Remember when someone said you had a stinky neck or something?
I was just like, okay, I'll just shower.
I think the rock stands are probably some of the most fun stands.
Yeah, but a lot of stinky.
You must smell like ass.
And then I immediately backpedaled.
And I think some people were like, look at this guy backpedaling.
But people also were like, people understood I had to.
That's my only move.
If I'm fighting The Rock, I'm getting on my knees.
And then I wrote back like, hey, Mr. Rock, you saw me in Miami.
And then he wrote back.
It was like, oh, you know, my Juana, some term that means brother.
And like, I love you.
I love that show.
You were so good.
And we moved on.
Thank God.
Amazing.
So they're still cool.
But I have met Jay Leno too.
Oh, yeah.
I did not do his show, but I met him at the Green Room in Flappers, a much less glamorous
The Food Cost Money.
And were you good at that too?
Oh, yeah.
You had stories?
I did impressions because I was always doing impressions.
Did you do him to his face?
I did.
He was like, look, you're doing an impression of me.
And I wasn't very good at it.
I did that.
I was a little kid.
I was like, what?
Good show.
And I did like, because I was watching Family Guy a lot at the time.
There was a Family Guy bit that they made fun of Jay Leno where Seth MacFarlane just did him going like.
So I just did that.
And he was like, Oh, it's really funny.
Uh, I can't do a good impression of Jay Leno.
Uh, but it was cute when I was a kid and I did.
The bar is lower for, for childhood.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and I did a Cartman impression cause of course I was watching South Park when I
was like 12.
Um, so yeah, he, and then I forget, I have to unearth it and watch it cause I don't remember.
Then we talked about the movie and I'm sure I was just being a cute kid.
And what two movies you're promoting the, the greatest game ever played.
And then I think the other one, the other appearance was to promote both Nancy Drew and License to Wed.
Uh huh.
Got it.
Because they came out, we filmed them back to back.
That was back when movies would be filmed and then like, like come out exactly a year later later uh-huh like they would film it in the summer and be like next summer it's
coming out sure so uh because you couldn't just like edit it as you were shooting it and release
it like two weeks later yeah yeah not that you can do that but like you can uh so i he saw uh
jerry weintraub who was huge like huge, big-time, big-time producer.
If you looked him up, you'd be like, oh, that guy.
He did all the Oceans movies, all the Karate Kid movies.
There's others.
The list goes on and on and on.
But he saw me on The Tonight Show,
and he was the executive producer of Nancy Drew,
which was supposed to be this big. It ended up, we just made the one movie, but it which was supposed to be this big... We just made the one movie,
but it was supposed to maybe be this big trilogy thing.
And he saw me and was like,
yeah, I want that kid in this movie.
We got to rewrite whatever that role is for this kid
because he's so funny.
So there was a role in the movie that I ended up playing
that was written for a 15- year old like skinny awkward kid that he was like just rewriting for this kid and he
called me i got on the phone with him and he's like this legendary producer and i'm like what's
up and he's like i want you in this movie you want to do this movie and i was like yeah he's
like all right we're rewriting the role for you i was like okay so i went i did the movie and then i did uh while i was doing that i auditioned for license to wed
and booked that as i was filming nancy drew and i went home for like two weeks to new jersey came
right back and filmed license to wed so it's all looking good yeah it's all looking i'm waiting for
the fall okay and then is Ace Ventura right after that?
Ace Ventura, I auditioned for.
Well, okay, so the interesting thing about Ace Ventura
is that I didn't audition for it.
They came to me with this premise.
They were like, we have this idea.
While I was filming License to Wed,
they were like, we have this idea for this Ace Ventura
reboot kind of franchise new thing. And you must have loved Ace Ventura reboot kind of franchise new thing.
And you must have loved Ace Ventura.
Oh, my God.
We were of the age.
Well, I was saying to Russell,
because there's a great documentary on Netflix.
What is it called?
Oh, the one about trans.
It was basically about the history of trans performers
throughout movie history.
Sure.
And kind of the rich history,
the fact that it's been there forever and the ways it
was used,
you know,
portrayed in this horrible way.
Uh,
and then,
and then just the ways that there's always been like an interest in,
in trans people.
And they've always been a part of the entertainment,
but there was this very intense moment where they,
uh,
talk about Ace Ventura.
Is it two?
No,
it's the first one.
It's the first one.
When he's first one,
when he like
there's something
where he kisses
a woman
and then they find
that it's a trans woman
essentially
and he's like
I kissed a man
and he like
vomits and brushes
his teeth
and puts like
a plunger
and people are
throwing up
and like
and I remember
seeing it as a kid
and you know
just laughing along
and they portray it
as this moment
of especially some of these trans actors like seeing it as children or in their teens.
Yeah.
Just like it's so absurd.
It's just wild how intense it feels.
It's just so cruel.
Yeah.
But enough time had passed because I feel like it was Ace Ventura, Ace Ventura 2 kind of like a few years apart.
And then it's like so this is kind of like being branded as a reboot.
When did Ace Ventura 2 come out?
It was like 97 or 98?
It would be funny, though, if Ace Ventura Jr. was like an incredibly transphobic movie.
I didn't notice any of that when we watched it yesterday.
No, we really strayed away from that.
There was a meeting where they were like, hey, should we be?
And I was like, I don't think so.
And they were like, all right.
Yeah, you stood up for it.
You said, we're going to fix this part.
But enough time had passed, like over 10 years or 10 years.
Yeah, so we shot it in 2006 or 2007.
It came out in 2000.
We either shot it in 06 or 07, came out in 08 or 09.
I'm just kidding.
And is it the same?
I just want, I wish I could hear the phone call of them calling Jim Carrey and saying,
could you just pop in for one scene?
Because what's so funny about this movie is it's implied we assume he's alive at the end.
That he's your dad.
He's my dad, but that he's missing.
Missing.
And the funniest is your grandfather basically tells you you're a father.
You're a Ventura.
And opens a box where there's a picture of him holding you.
And it's on the back of his head.
That was the hair and makeup guy.
The picture.
But it's so clear that they did not have permission to show his face.
Not even his face.
And I wonder if he got any money.
I'm sure he got no money.
But I just wonder if they said to him like if you
just let us use your face in this picture.
In your head though as a kid huge
fan of Ace Ventura this must have been
like finding out you're
going to they're going to reboot Ace Ventura with you.
It was the coolest thing
in the world. I mean I
knew immediately I mean now remember I was
12 or 13 when we started
filming. So I was not like a baby.
Like, I was a young, I was an adolescent kid that, like, had real thoughts.
And I was like, I could see where people won't like this.
Like, I could see where it would go down wrong.
Yeah, sure.
But I was like, but they'll understand that it's a kid's movie and it's
not for them yeah like if i can understand that they can understand that yeah and you didn't think
two men in their 30s would be watching it in 2022 well it's honestly it's had this unbelievable
resurgence in my life like yeah in this this really positive way. Because it was such a
negative experience afterwards.
Filming it was
the best experience of my entire life.
I mean, you were the lead. I was the lead. I met some of
my best friends. Yeah, and they
had you do, I mean, they exploited every talent
you had. Like, it was like gag after
gag after gag. I wrote like half
the lines in that movie.
David Mickey Evansans who was the
writer and director wrote and directed the sandlot he it was fantastic yeah and he is so good with
kids and he would come to me and be like this line's stupid what do you think's funny you're a
kid you should be this movie's for your friends what do you think's funny to say here and i'd be
like well i think if we say it like this,
and he'd be like, all right, let's do a take with that.
That's amazing.
I would write so many lines in that movie just because I was having fun.
Now, can I ask, because we noted it yesterday,
that there's a lot of jokes about you being a chubby kid in that movie.
When you were at that age, was there any like,
do I have to get stuck in the locker too? Or were you like, yeah, lean in.
I thought it was funny, but I definitely had the deep-rooted
sadness of like, I don't want
to be the fat kid. I want to be... Because I would do that movie and then I would
watch whatever that... What was that Jonas Brothers show
that they had on tv was it just
called the jonas brothers or or sweet life of zach and cody or whatever and i'd watch these
kids who were my peers and see how the girls would just like fawn over them yeah like oh these are
the heartthrobs and i was like the funny fat kid yeah but. But I was like, but I'm funny. So it doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Sure.
There just is a difference.
Like having been that age and chubby, there's a difference of like doing it like, like it just feels different when a little kid's doing it than when like an adult is doing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like there's just like this thing where you can't separate fully.
Like, like the kid, like as a kid, you're like,
because I remember wanting to make those kind of jokes and stuff,
and you do, but then also you're like,
like, there is something that I don't feel as insecure about now.
It's fun.
It's fun.
I remember very vividly, like, the feeling of,
which I think Bo Burnham perfectly had in eighth eighth grade i don't know if you've seen that
movie yeah uh that feeling of like making a joke having everybody laugh like you're at a party like
a pool party or something and then as soon as you think like everyone's got you then they like all
turn towards this other person who's like the attractive one that they all really want
and then you're left sitting there being like i just embarrassed myself yeah for this joke in
hopes that this would then get like lead to something you know like some substance yeah
but it was like oh no they just want me to just a quick distraction be funny yeah and like i'll
keep doing it so long as they keep looking at me yeah and then when you get older then you know if you're the the chubby actor they're like well
he's rich so we will get with him yeah but when you're a kid you don't have that so i was neither
for a while and it was just like brutal out there okay so you're you're in this you're filming it
you're having a great time yeah you're this star um and you said there's some time it like
between you've finished filming and there's some time before it comes out yeah uh what's that time
like and then what like what was the response like because you've implied that then it came
out and there was negativity negativity um so making it yeah was amazing but i will say during the course of making
it there was never anything that was like worth like it was a good it was a great experience but
there were things that we would my mom and i would kind of like peg along the way that was like
that's weird where i was led to believe at first when i was doing it that it was this big budget thing that it was
potentially okay you were like oh movie yeah theater deal yeah like i was at that point like
though it was i was a child actor whatever like i was starring in movies like movies that were
coming out in theaters yeah and i was seeing this as oh this is going to be a theatrical release
yeah movie yeah going back if i knew what i knew what they were going to do a theatrical release movie. Going back, if I knew what I knew
what they were going to do with it,
would I have done it?
I don't know.
It's such a big decision to make at 12.
What was your first tip off the panda?
Well, I got...
I was going to say,
was it the T-Rex made of plastic bones?
No, I felt like the T-Rex was still like,
okay, well, it's a thing.
The panda is the greatest offender. There's a very scary panda. I was like the T-Rex was still like, okay, well, it's a thing. The panda is abhorrent. The panda is the greatest offender.
There's a very scary panda.
I was like, just pick a different animal.
It looks like it was rejected from Chuck E. Cheese.
Yeah.
And they obscure it with plants to kind of hide how bad it is.
It's very funny.
But that is a funny thing where you're like, yeah, I could totally see how you going into that thought.
This is getting released in theaters.
It was a big family decision.
Why wouldn't it?
The first two Ace Venturas went to theaters.
Why would they?
And they also told us that that's what it was going to be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's no reason to like bring up old whatever.
Like I have a good relationship with everybody that we did the movie with and stuff.
You can do it on here.
I know. But yeah, like it was this big family decision i remember sitting around the
kitchen table now why was it a big decision just because of the shoot commitment no we were reading
like the contract sure and there was like this two three four picture deal of like if in the
theaters it makes x amount of money i'll get x amount in the back end and then
i will be able to like have x amount to in like producing points for the next movie and whatever
so it was just like making these decisions at 12 well it wasn't it was my parents my lawyer my
agents and me but it all came down to like you want to do this right and i was like yeah absolutely
but i was also very much led to believe that it was
going to be bigger than it was yes yeah and when we showed up and all of a sudden it was
this kind of rinky dink operation like it seemed you felt it right away oh yeah we showed up we
were like you're like this isn't like the license to wed set. Yeah. You know, you're like. This wasn't what we were told it was going to be.
But it was still an amazing experience.
And I was like, I'm going to do this movie.
I'm going to be happy doing this movie.
And when it gets released in theaters, it's going to be huge.
And then all of a sudden, it wasn't getting a theatrical release.
And then all of a sudden, we were behind on schedule.
And we were having to try to cut costs
and this that and i was like this is weird but still loved doing it and the experience was
super fun and it was great um months later i'm like when is this coming out in the movies and
all of a sudden it's not and that it's going to get this direct-to-dvd release and i was like
it's not and that it's going to get this direct-to-DVD release. And I was like,
I don't want to do a direct-to-DVD
movie. I'm a movie star.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah.
But I...
Was your manager pissed
where they were like, listen, man,
they're fucking us. I'll be honest, I don't
remember. And I haven't spoken to them.
I still have the same agents and my manager,
that manager has passed away and I'm with a new
managerial company.
So I don't,
I don't know.
Is this the movie that did it?
That killed him?
No.
But I'm still with the same agents.
I guess I could sit down with them one day.
I've been with the same agents since I was four.
So I could sit down with them one day and get some of the details,
but I've never really thought about asking just because I don't remember.
And it's this thing in the past.
And,
but yeah,
then all of a sudden we found out that it was going to be released on
Cartoon Network
as this like big
movie premiere
like they were
marketing it
and I was like
oh that's cool
I love Cartoon Network
I love Ed, Edd, and
Ed, Edd, and Eddie
I love
all these
I'm trying to remember
what else was on then
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage yes
Power to Puff Girls
yeah
it was a cool time
yeah
so I was like
hell yeah
it's going to be released
in 2008 or 2009 on on
uh cartoon network and i made a twitter i made a twitter account in 2009 or nine
and i posted this video that i made uh on my macbook like in photo booth and i was like hey
guys it's josh flitter star of ace ventura j's going to be, want to let you know it's premiering on whatever.
And then all of a sudden, it was like, what is this?
What is this movie?
You're a piece of shit.
Why would you make this movie?
Like, you're ruining the franchise.
And I was like, oh, what the fuck?
You know, I was a 13-year-old, 14-year-old kid.
I was like, this is weird.
Oh, my God.
The movie comes out.
What was the worst thing someone said? Is it still online are if they're still there you think no i've also deleted
everything that i've tweeted pre-2018 because i was a 13 year old kid sure sure and don't need i
don't need any of that smoke because i'm sure i tweeted jokes that aren't funny yeah as a 13 year
old kid yeah so uh I don't know.
You're like, my favorite scene in Ace Ventura is the scene where he kisses this.
The transphobic scene.
So, I don't remember.
But you were hurt.
You were like, what's going on?
It was more of like confused.
Can you imagine putting out as a child, I'm just so excited, Ace Ventura, and then adults,
grown adults, because it's probably ace ventura fans who
when it came out in the early 90s now these weren't kids are like 25 30 years old and they're
like fuck you 13 year old kid living his dream you're ruining the legacy of ace ventura so let
me i'll bring up something i'll expose this guy because uh he exists there's a guy who i i still am not totally totally sure if this person
is who i think it is but at the time there was a twitter account that popped up that when i made
my twitter it was josh underscore flitter because someone had already taken josh flitter and i was
like that's weird um let me see. Yep,
it still exists.
And,
uh,
I was,
here, here's some of the tweets.
Uh,
the first tweet was
August 26th,
and we're coming up
on the anniversary.
August 26th,
2010.
Just shot an ad
for Krispy Kremes,
got a free box too,
hashtag birthday girl.
Then they tweeted,
another day,
another fat joke. Hurry hurry i need some friends
quick my imaginary friends are turning on me attention all i'm the real josh flitter josh
underscore flitter is an imposter and a poser shrek 4 was a career highlight i got to meet all
the stars like um oh dear what uh what do you do what do you mean justin bieber is hot i'm the
child sex bomb uh just all this like i was a 13 year old kid and this person
was made this account i had reason to believe that it was a host of a podcast uh radio show
in new zealand because i saw they were doing episodes where they were making fun of the movie
and one of them was like talking about it and this was all the time I was doing like my own investigative
research you were a
an investigator
a detective
a detective that's a deep
cut for anyone who saw the movie that's a brilliant
that's a brilliant callback
that scene Ace Ventura Jr.
a huge plot point of the movie
plot point is that
the word detective doesn't get revealed.
I forgot about that until you just said that.
Ace Ventura, pet investigator?
Investigator?
Pet searcher for lost animals?
The grandpa says it, right?
The grandpa's like, detective.
He's like, you're a detective.
And I'm like, oh!
So this adult male Creates this twitter
Just thing
Making fun of me
Making fun of you
So then I started being like
Hey guys
Hey guys
This is not me
This is an imposter
So then this guy
Starts tweeting
Just saw Cars 2
Fuck
What did I ever do wrong
Hashtag space buddies
Hashtag Shrek 4.
It's for kids.
Wait, what's the joke about Shrek 4 that you...
I don't know.
I don't fucking know.
I have no idea.
They might have been doing this on the podcast.
Sure.
I didn't know there were podcasts in 2009.
Remember when Apple had like podcasts and it was just like an app on your phone and
no one ever listened to them?
I think it was pretty serious.
It was there.
But could you imagine 2011?
So this is, I would have been,
I was born in,
you guys want to help me with the math here?
I was born in 94.
94.
To 2011.
Wait.
15.
15.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was 15.
And this guy's tweeting,
masturbating, oh baby.
Pretending he's a 15 year old kid.
Oh my God.
That's some shit you would do
oh my god it's just it was weird it was objectively weird and is it getting a big
response or like uh they no no one's really following it uh i don't know it's a weird
thing for you to be like who why is this person doing this to me? Yeah. And that's where I started being like, that's weird.
I thought people liked me.
Yeah.
And then I would go on IMDB message boards.
Oh, no.
Oh, boy.
No, don't do that.
Josh.
I think they've since gotten rid of them because they were too toxic.
Were they really going after you?
Oh, yeah.
Were they really going after you?
Oh, yeah.
It was like this fat fucking cunt doing this movie.
This piece of shit little fuck face ruined the franchise.
And I'm like a 14-year-old in my room reading this like,
oh, they're talking about me.
Oh, I'm ruining their favorite movie.
Oh, my God. Yeah.
I cannot connect to people who are like you've ruined this thing
with a tv movie just go watch the movie you like it's weird i don't understand what what happens
to guys but my favorite guys my favorite thing is that i have taken the power back now i have it
it's my movie now like now and I make fun of it so much.
And I'm so proud of the silliness of it.
And I've gotten this success on Twitter.
There's a little bit of success.
But through first doing impressions and stuff.
And then these people followed me.
And were like, oh my god, you're the kid from Nancy Drew and License to Wed and Ace Ventura.
And now I post all the shit making fun of the movie.
And I get all the praise.
Yeah. Uh-huh. And all these people. Now you call yourself a people yourself a fat fucking and i call myself i was a fat fucking cunt how about that
huh um so but so that comes out and then is there a period where you're like where you had this like
thing all of a sudden we were doing licensed by nancy drew ace maturaura, but then you kind of alluded to
there was a time period where you're like,
oh, then these things aren't regularly happening.
It stopped.
Yeah.
Because of Ace Ventura?
Because of Ace Ventura?
No, no, no, no, no.
Just the timing of it.
You're older?
Yes.
There is a thing with, I feel like for kids,
where it's like,
when they get to a certain age,
where people are,
well, they're not adults yet, but we don't know what to do with them.
Like, you're like, if you're not going to be a Jonas brother.
Right.
You know?
Yep.
Like, in a high school kind of thing.
There's one thing to do, and I may have totally.
And Jonah Hill was doing it at the time, or he's a little older than you.
Yeah, older.
No, there's one thing to do, and I may have totally jeopardized my career by not doing it.
and I may have totally jeopardized my career by not doing it.
I told my agency managers
I will not audition for or act in
a Disney or Nickelodeon TV show.
Oh.
And what was your thinking at the time?
I said I am an actor who does movies.
I will not do some bullshit garbage on Disney Channel.
I was like I won't do the sweet life of zach and cody
where i play the fat funny friend i won't do uh any of these shows like i won't there was a time
period where i pitched a show i said if i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do it on my terms and me and
another person another child actor who i will not name, pitched a TV show to Nickelodeon
and we almost got it on the air
and it would have been life changing
because it would have been,
it was right after Drake and Josh
and right before iCarly
and it was this period of time
where they didn't have
like a buddy-buddy comedy.
And we had pitched this idea
for the show
and due to insane circumstances about this person,
their family, and a big fight that happened,
we never got the show on the air.
And we were very close.
Talk about two child stars, Drake and Josh,
that went different routes.
You know about that, right?
One of them, something bad.
Something with a 15-year-old.
Yeah.
And, like, the video of him confessing in the courtroom.
The other one got fit and is, like, a movie star.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he was, like, the chubby, jokey one.
Yeah.
And now he's, like, fit.
Oh, the handsome one is the bad one.
Yeah.
Now the other one's the handsome one.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So, okay, so around this time
is it is it related i mean you said the nickelodeon thing is it also related to like
did you start looking like super different like i mean this is around puberty yeah but i didn't i
just got like like fatter and like you're worse looking uh uh for like as a child like i i did not grow into myself as an
adult now until i was like 22 so i did anyone say to you like here's here's host's cupcake but just
so you know don't eat you're making a decision i had a problem with with food and with eating
but i was so i mean of course you could have been a chubby.
I'm just saying like, how do you talk to, I think it's the same problem with like anyone
in any part of the business where if someone's like changing in a way where you're like,
how do you talk to someone?
It's just a toxic business.
It's really toxic.
It's impossible to talk to someone whether they need to gain weight or lose weight or
fix their nose or do anything.
If you know the truth that, oh, like I remember my grandfather was a true story.
Some agent approached him and said, I want to sign you, but you have to get a nose job.
And it's like, that's a terrible thing to say.
But the agent might have also been correct at that time in the industry.
And so like to say it to 60, it's just like, well, you might as well not say anything to a kid.
My agents, to their credit, no one ever told me you need to do this.
Like, you need to lose the weight.
We need to gain more.
Right, right, right.
Well, no, there was, I had that thought where I was like, I guess I have to be, like, the really fat kid.
That's just, like, there for specifically to, like, eat a cake and fall over and remember hook the
movie hook the roly-poly kid i mean dude to think about it the fucking what's the kid uh the truffle
shuffle oh chunk uh he's literally there to be fat yeah and like that's the joke and like you know
that at the time because it was like the 80, the director was probably like, that's funny, but be fatter.
Be fatter.
Do something.
Jiggle more.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the kid's like, okay.
So as things start drying up, how's your mental state?
Bad.
Yeah?
Yeah.
It's bad.
It's, I just became, it wasn't bad.
I didn't know it was becoming bad.
I was in denial.
I was like, oh, I'll just start working.
I'm just in this awkward phase.
I'm in an awkward phase.
I'm not an adult yet.
I'm not a kid anymore.
The only people that work through this are the Jonas Brothers. I know I'm not a kid anymore everyone you know the only people that work through this are
like the jonas brothers and i know i'm not that so i'll start working again when i'm like 17 18
i'll get all like the like the super bad movies because at that time that was like my favorite
movie in the world yeah and i was like yeah i'll just be the like the jonah hill or the michael
serra or whatever in those movies when I get to that age.
And so I went all through high school being a former child actor that really wasn't working anymore.
And I did a movie when I was 14 called Snowmen that was like this really indie, low-budget movie.
And it was really sweet, but it didn't really go anywhere.
And then I was 15, 16, 17, 18, and I just didn't work.
And I auditioned a ton, but didn't book anything.
There was one point where I auditioned for,
where I thought it was all going to change.
I auditioned for J.J. Abrams for Super 8.
Uh-huh.
Oh.
And they ended up casting whoever else to play that role.
And I really thought I was like,
I'm going to get this. This is going to be my career's back i was like 16 and are you feeling anxiety like how you describe like this the feeling of
not booking or like it's terrible being so big being on the tonight show yeah yeah i had my room
in new jersey my door in my this town in new jersey had like this welcome j Josh Flitter to the Tonight Show. Like I took it off
the door there and I put it on my door in New Jersey.
And now I'm coming home from school, doing
math homework and walking in my room and it says the Tonight
Show featuring Josh Flitter
and I'm going in my room and I'm like
every audition became the biggest thing in the world.
Yeah. I was like, I need to
book this. And then I wasn't. And it would
just kind of make it worse and worse and worse.
That bizarre thing too from going from I'm on a movie set they're like we're gonna offer you
Ace Ventura you don't have to audition you know we'll be writing this part for you kid like it
that's such a mind like thing of like then being like I have to work so hard at this audition and
put all your eggs in that basket it's just like a crazy turnaround for a kid especially oh yeah
it's hard enough as an adult when those kinds of things happened,
but like as a kid.
And I had it easy.
I had it easy compared to so many kids that I know that are not in a good,
I mean,
Shia LaBeouf.
He is the way he is because he's a product of the system of child actors,
like in a negative way.
And how so?
Cause he's had so much success.
Like which way is it negative?
He had,
uh,
uh,
you can't
give a kid that much power i mean you look at uh justin bieber who now has seemingly come out on
the other side and seems like a pretty good kid but i mean remember when he was like pissing in
buckets and like whipping his uh ferrari around at like two in the morning and everyone's like
fuck this kid dude he's 17 years old and you're giving him all the fame and money in the world.
Yeah.
You would do the same fucking thing.
You would, John.
You're whipping a car around.
No one's watching you.
You're getting in an accident.
I wouldn't do the pissing in buckets.
I could see a video of me at 15 if I had been that successful being really rude to a waiter.
Yeah.
Without hindsight.
Without learning. But you don't know until you're there. Sure. Yeah. Sure. successful like being really rude to a waiter yeah without hindsight without learning but you
don't know until you're there sure yeah sure and and i i gained uh just recently just kind of a new
respect for like i i feel for these kids that are on stranger things i really hope that they're all
gonna be okay but statistically one of them won't be like like
it's just like to be given that much because one of the things that i never had that these kids now
have is social media i know oh my god when i was that age and i did all these movies instagram was
just starting twitter was just starting now you're on a tv show you get a million followers in a week yeah and all of a
sudden you have you could say anything or post anything and once you post it it's there yeah
yeah yeah you know it's there and people see it and whether that means you're a kid and you think
oh i can slide into this person's dms sure And then someone else sees it and posts it on Twitter.
Uh-huh.
You know, it happened recently.
I don't know if you saw the whole, like, Doja Cat.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Noah Schnapp thing.
Doja Cat asked someone, can you introduce me to him?
One of the kids on the show,
if he could introduce her to another,
one of the other actors in the show.
They're all adults.
But then he thought it was funny and, like, posted about it.
And then she was like what the
fuck are you doing i asked you to do that like privately yeah but this is just normal to them
yeah sure sure like that's a normal like i would do that to a friend be like yo look at this my
friend said this but like i know not to post that on twitter yeah but i didn't grow up with twitter
from the age of like 11 years old but just when the kids there was a kid from stranger things
the curly haired kid,
they announced like a Netflix show
where he was going to like punk prank show
on blue collar workers or something.
It was something where people were like,
what the fuck?
I'm like, his involvement in that idea was minimal.
He's being dragged.
And even if it was maximum,
even if he was like, I have this idea.
He's a kid.
He's like 17 or 18. He's like, what if we give homeless people money if he was like, I have this idea. He's a kid. He's a fucking, he's like 17 or 18.
He's like, what if we give homeless people money, but it like, it disintegrates.
And they're like, oh, we have, Netflix is like, we have billions of dollars and we're
not going to tell this kid no, because he has billions of followers.
So it's like, yeah, Gaten, do whatever the fuck you want.
That's funny.
Let's prank a homeless guy.
Do you think like you could talk to
parents of child star i mean it seems like you have a good relationship with your parents i do
i had a manager my first manager uh they represent a lot of kid actors including one of the kids from
stranger things now that you make me remember it and then like they all got older and so they
became an adult management company yeah but i
heard a couple stories from them and it just sounded like it was so much about the parents
yeah it was like were the parents cool yeah and they're really they're so much a part of the
conversation i think a big part of why i worked a lot when i did as a kid was because of my mom and both my parents but my mom traveled with me and like we would she and i
would see other moms and kids and like make fun of them like to ourselves yeah like we would bond
over like how fucking weird is this kid's mom yeah like these stage moms i bet yeah yeah and
then was there a period like because you you work now and you do voiceover and you act.
Like, was there?
I'm still not.
I mean, I wish I was like working, working.
Well, that's where I think, that's what seems like the scariest to me is like, you know what that level of success is.
Unless you know when you're not in the conversation at all.
when you're not in the conversation at all.
I always made this joke as a kid or as a young adult where I would say to other kids,
it'd be like, is fame everything it's made out to be?
Is it amazing?
I'm like, yeah, it is.
It's like when you're a kid and you're like,
what's in the teacher's lounge?
And you're like, I want to go in there.
I went in there.
It was fucking awesome.
And then they kicked me out. And now I want to go back in and it's that kind of thing that's like
the fame and success is it amazing yeah like anyone who says it's not either they're not
cut out for it or they're lying to sound humble yeah like it's objectively awesome i went to uh the horton here's a who
premiere because i was in horton here's a who uh and and oakley made me a pair of sunglasses
because i told them that i liked them i was like i like oakley sunglasses they made me a pair of
sunglasses with whatever colors that i wanted and whatever and it was the coolest fucking thing in
the world like i went on jimmy kimmel and he
gave me an ipod because he was like i think you'll like this it is it is so obscene it's so obscene
especially the free shit is so insane it's idiotic it's so stupid shia labeouf gave me an xbox because
he was like i know you wanted one so here it is like yeah Yeah. It's just, when you get to that level, it's just a love fest of all these rich people.
And you think you're still chasing that?
Oh, yeah.
100 million percent.
Yeah.
Not because I don't love doing it.
I'm doing it because I love to do it, and I want to do it, and I want to make people laugh, and I want to.
It's like, I feel like I'm coming across like such a jackass.
No.
No, it's like, I feel like I'm coming across like such a jackass. No, no, it makes sense.
I think like I was really stoned in LA and I was texting Tove about where like, you know,
I had a burst of like just a little bit of new success with standup.
Right.
And meetings.
And I know well enough meetings don't blah, blah, blah.
But it was just a moment of just being like, it's a surreal life.
Like it's surreal to have, you know know even just a couple fans it's like
weird the relationship is weird and you're like if you had a lot of these or if you get recognized
on the street it's uncomfortable or it's like you gotta be normal yeah it's the only way and so
there's a degree of look i'm obviously pursuing fully trying to be very successful yeah but
there's also a degree where i'm like oh i bet it does suck to be beyonce i agree and i wouldn't want to be i don't want to be that famous
i think when i was a kid i had a warped idea of it and that's why i look back now at the
all this time that i haven't worked as this weird kind of like okay there's it's a blessing like
there's silver linings to it yeah i think i really could have been a shithead um would you have been
a justin bieber
type shit like what would have been no see i feel like though i'm just gonna i would say
a beyonce is better than probably another one down because she's so famous that she doesn't
have to do interviews sure i mean like there is something about interviews because she was so
sick of yeah but i mean like there's like's a level of almost like when you become that famous,
you can exclude yourself from society.
Yeah, but especially as a stand-up comedian,
I'm like, that level of fame,
there's no way you're still going to be good
because your life is now so insane.
Well, what do you think about someone like John Mulaney,
who, I mean, I don't know if you know him or whatever,
but he finds a way to still make things.
Yeah, he still makes things,
but there's some degree of separation. I mean, I don't know if you remember. Larry David finds a way to still make things. Yeah, he still makes things, but there's some degree of separation.
I mean, who knows?
John Mulaney is still an incredible comedian.
Right.
And I think he's found a solution to it,
but I'm sure there's other parts of his life that...
Just don't hit the same.
Yeah, or he's just like, he's difficult to be with.
If you're, I think all the time,
especially in this business,
people, different levels of money
extreme levels of money comedians i know who like i love who might never have money and it's like
you know it changes p and sometimes people with money pretend like it doesn't change like who
they are they're like at dinner and they're like why i could buy this restaurant but that doesn't
change i think the perfect thing it does it does i think the perfect career to model after at least for me what i want
is someone like ben schwartz i think ben schwartz i obviously don't know if you ever have worked
with him or no more anything but having just viewed him as someone that i look up to i think
he is like does celebrity right he's just famous enough that people know him and love him and want to be around
him and from every experience i've ever seen or known about him he's a genuine sweetheart to the
fans and to the people that he works with that's all that i've heard and that's something that i
would like to model myself in that way like i. What level of fame would you want to be in?
Who's someone you're like, that's it?
That's a good question.
For me, it would be no more than Brad Pitt.
I think that's...
One of the most famous actors of all time.
I feel like right now, Sam Richardson's a good...
Sam Richardson is in
everything, but
not like... If you say the name, people aren't like,
who? You know what I mean?
Sure.
But people would still, you know what I mean?
Like, he works consistently.
He's so funny.
And it's not, though, like, a level of, like, whoa.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
I feel like where John Mulaney was, like, before was perfect.
Now it seems, like, insane.
Well, you get to a point where you're so famous that people hate you because you're that famous sure yeah like i just want to be able to do shows that are sold out
become like a caricature there's a little bit of a thing of like you know like your brand you know
doesn't that make sense like you're like you're just disappointing people every everything you
that's where with with someone like ben schwartz or like h john benjamin or something like that
oh yeah these are guys that like when people recognize them,
it's because they really appreciate their work.
Yeah.
When you see Jim Carrey walking down the street,
you're like the average person is like,
I need to get a picture with Jim Carrey because he's Jim Carrey.
Yeah.
I understand what you're saying.
I was going to say Lisa Derris is a good example too.
Sure.
Like someone where you're like you have like this cult kind of iconic thing and you're
working you can just go and she can live her life yes sitting and not get yes now you're in an
elevator with jim carrey somehow yeah and you're going up real high there's a lot of time yeah are
you gonna you gonna mention it i'm mentioning it has i've done three things with him well three
three projects two that he's been in and one that he's associated with. He wasn't in Ace Ventura, but I was in Eternal Sunshine and I worked with him.
And I was in Horton Hears a Who and he was Horton and I was the baby kangaroo.
Oh, so you have met him?
Yeah.
And you talked about Ace Ventura.
Have you seen him since Ace Ventura?
No.
Eternal Sunshine was before Ace Ventura.
Right, right, right.
And then Horton Hears a Who, we met at the premiere, and I had just told him that I was doing it,
and he was like, hey, that's really great.
Like, it was just that kind of thing.
Yeah.
He didn't go, la-who?
Yeah, and za-her.
No.
He was very kind about it,
and it was just a very quick interaction.
We were both in the movie, and as, I mean,
you guys know like with movies
like that you don't meet when you're
you're just recording it separately in booths
all over the country wherever you are
and then you meet at the premiere.
I'd love you if you had like met with Jim Carrey to like
ask him about like what's Ace?
Listen Jim I gotta know Jim
you gotta tell me. Cause I remember he said
for Ace Ventura he was imitating a cockatoo
and he like brought this energy on set. I mean such a bold move. Yeah. It would be funny if you gotta tell me because I remember he said for Ace Ventura he was imitating a cockatoo oh
and he like brought
this energy on set
I mean such a bold move
yeah
yeah
it would be funny
if they had made
you had done like
the junior version
of like all of his
like Mask Junior
Mask Junior
well they made
Son of the Mask
and then they made
Dumb and Dumberer
so there was this thing
about like
he did Dumb and Dumber
that's when he needed
to do it
he was in
oh sorry no
they did Dumb and Dumber 2
yeah they did they did Dumb and Dumber when That's when he needed to do it. He was in. I'm sorry. No, they did Dumb and Dumber 2. Yeah, they did.
They did Dumb and Dumber when Harry met Lloyd or whatever.
Later on.
Yes, which was Shia LaBeouf was in that.
He wasn't one of the leads, but the two leads were, I forget who,
and Eric Christian Olsen, I think, was one of them,
and he was in License to Wed.
It's so funny how the connections are like.
That's so wild.
Everywhere.
And the mask are like everywhere.
The mask one was with Jamie Kennedy.
We should have Jamie Kennedy. We should have everyone
who's in the sequel of Jim Carrey movies.
Where are they now?
Let's go to
our next episode. Let's make this quick.
This has got to stop.
Do you have a thing? It can be related
to child acting. It can be related to thing? It can be related to child acting.
It can be related to acting.
It can be related to nothing at all.
It's related to nothing at all because I thought about it before I came.
Then tell me.
I'm really, it's got to stop.
People that say that their cats are like dogs.
They're like, my cat's really cool because it's like a dog.
Just get a fucking dog.
Or just be proud of the fact that your cat's a cat.
I don't want your, because I'll go to people's places.
I don't like cats.
I'm not a big cat guy.
I'm allergic.
Allergic, sure. I don't dislike cats.
I'm like they're fine.
I dislike cats with the claws.
I was scratched when I was a little kid by my stepfather's cat.
God, you're such a –
Shut the fuck up.
But I was with a cat recently that didn't scratch and I did like it.
Yeah, they're fine.
They're fine.
They're fine animals.
I don't wish death upon them. Like they're fine. and all my friends who have cats i'm like that's cute
but when they're like i'm like i don't really like cats no no my cat's different it's like a dog
now okay as someone with a cat and a dog what's your take on this i think they're very different
and i think uh i think that there's an insecurity people who have cats have uh because
of society and i think that what i think it's an oppressed group listen i'm just saying we've
talked about this before i think the hatred of cats is linked to misogyny we've talked about
no i'm saying like people are allergic and i'm'm not saying – I agree with you on your thing.
I think people feel insecure about being a cat owner.
So to make them feel better, they say it's like a dog.
I don't think we need to do that.
I'd say like cats are great.
Dogs are great.
They're very different things.
They're not the same.
Correct.
They can be equally great though.
Why not?
They can be great in different ways.
They're not the same thing.
They're very different.
I'm an evil vet, and I'm going to put down one of your animals.
No.
Why would you do that?
Which one?
The dog or the cat?
Why would you do that?
Which one?
The dog or the cat?
I'll kill the vet with my bear hands.
I was going to say, I'll kill you.
Listen, no.
I just think that they're very different things.
They do different things.
They check off different boxes for people.
Your cat isn't something that like one will love you will show
you affection will care about you and the other one's a cat yeah but i think i think um i i like
them for different reasons and i think it's just an insecurity people who have cats have and i don't
think they need to do it like just own that you just say it's a cat. Yeah, just say it's a cat, and I love my cat.
It's one of those things you never hear the other...
You know the saying, it was like an old hack bit,
where they'd be like,
Tofurky, it tastes like turkey.
No one ever is like,
give me turkey that tastes like tofu.
Like, it was basically saying that no one really likes this thing.
It feels like that, because no one's like,
no, my dog's just like a cat.
Yeah.
No one ever...
People, I know plenty of people who have cats that would never have a dog.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But do they ever say that my cat's like a dog?
Cats are way easier to take care of.
That's why.
That's the thing.
That is my point.
Yeah.
Is that people, like, I understand all the reasons to have a cat.
I get it.
If I wasn't allergic, I might get a fucking cat.
Yeah.
But it's when people are like, no, you would like my cat.
He's just like a dog. And I'm like, don't do that. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. But it's when people are like, no, you would like my cat. He's just like a dog.
And I'm like,
don't do that.
Yeah.
Don't do that.
Yeah.
This has got to stop.
That's a good one.
Let's go to our final segment.
You better count your blessing.
You better count your blessing.
Russell,
you got a blessing for us.
Yes.
It's a little premature, but our friend, Chris Caffaro,
Uncle Function member, he is moving to LA,
and he's leaving New York.
And I am very sad about it, but I'm excited for him.
And I just feel like we don't know what that means for Uncle Function and his role in the future.
But I'm just thankful for our friend Chris, and I'm excited for him and his new move.
So your blessing is that he's leaving.
No! That's why I started laughing, because I thought at the beginning of it, I was like, are you going to do this whole bit about him?
No, the blessing is him.
I've been lucky to have him for all these years in New York and Uncle Function and I'm going to miss him terribly.
But, you know.
of it was very cool to see this live podcast with fans
because I think it kind of
is a sign that
we're growing and hopefully we can go
to LA
and
maybe even pay for flights
and do stuff out there
and become a little Bicostal
boys.
Well, yeah.
Everybody wants that.
The goal is to be Bicostal. That's the goal. That's the goal is to be
bi-coastal. That's how you know you're
successful. You know we were talking about success before? I want to be
successful enough to be bi-coastal. That's it.
I feel like I've known so many people
now who are like, I'm bi-coastal
now and then after like four flights
are like, I'm
I go to New York twice a year. My home base
is LA, but I go to New York twice a year. Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, but it would be fun. My home base is LA, but I go to New York twice a year. Yes, but
it would be fun.
My blessing is, again,
it's that show, and I'm
about to be late to dinner with
my step, my former stepfather,
technically speaking.
Technically speaking, but
we had a very contentious
growing up.
I consider him the antagonist of my childhood.
So you're going to this dinner for community value?
No, he's just here briefly.
To fight you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just here to buy you dinner.
Just to buy me dinner.
Though let me tell you, I was in LA.
This is my blessing, my sisters if they were on this.
I feel like I've reached a point with my younger sisters
where if we go out
I'm not paying for the meal
mmm
it's just $10 tickets
yeah
yeah
but they're
they're taking advantage
oh yeah
yeah yeah yeah
I went to the smoothie place
and they have
the marketing works so well
on suckers like me
it's called like
the millionaire smoothie
and it's like a $20 smoothie
with 20 different things
and I'm like
and there's something called the billionaire smoothie
that's $40 and I
will get it someday. You're not there yet.
I got it.
The fact that my sister was like, she got it
too. She got the same
smoothie. I was like, sweetheart.
Your sister's blessing is that you have the
money to pay for dinner too.
Where's the George Washington smoothie?
Just milk and a coffee.
One strawberry.
Do you have a blessing?
I thought these were supposed to be silly.
That's fine.
We're in a sincere mood.
Well, mine were
single person bathrooms
in restaurants.
Because I have irritable bowel syndrome
and it's bad. I got bad IBS. I got it like where it's not. Can syndrome and it's bad i got bad ibs i got it like
where it's not when you say it's bad like aziz because you it's bad um i have bad do you mean
it just happens a lot or it's loud i gotta poop like eight times a day you want me to do the rest
of it as aziz um so i gotta poop all the time and is it is it loud per russell's question i don't
know why but well he said it was bad.
I was like, I don't know if that means it just happens a lot.
It's not loud.
It's quiet.
No, I have to use the restroom a lot.
It runs in my family.
We have stomach problems.
It literally runs.
We have stomach problems in my family.
And I think it is such a small effort that restaurants and bars can make to just have a nice bathroom.
Because it's so frequent that you
walk into a place and you're like you're at a bar everyone's drinking everyone's eating terrible
food people got a fucking shit so they go into the bathroom and you have these like terrible
like one piece of plywood that's just like the the space between it and the thing is like this
big people can like fit their whole fist in there It's so easy to just like build a couple single person bathrooms
that have a lock on the door.
And every time I go into a bar and I'm on a date
and I'm like nervous and my stomach's bothering me,
I'm like, I got to go pee.
And I really have to go just fucking shit.
I go into the bathroom and there's a one person bathroom
and I lock that door and it's just me and I feel so at ease.
I'll never forget. And I'm really thankful for this.
I had a friend set me up with one of their friends
and it was at like a bar and everyone's
there and I just had to poop
so bad. One bathroom
like that's
open for everyone. Two
like
toilets right next to each other. And there's
a giant line for this in this
nightmare pack pack bar nightmare wait and i'm like i'm sweating you know when you're like i
had i just and then i had to like step away i'm like i'm so sorry i really have to go to the
bathroom i'm waiting this line and then the whole time i'm thinking i'm about to blow this shit up
yeah the bathroom is open like it's like open open you're gonna be people are waiting so you
just they just know you're pooping
like you just have to accept that
this whole line of people are gonna hear me
poop know that I'm pooping
so I get in there and there's
no lock and again huge holes
in the thing I had to poop like
oh the worst putting my
foot on the door to make sure no
one comes in because everyone's really
drunk and like you know they're not gonna be respectful or you know it was just as in because everyone's really drunk and like, you know,
they're not going to be respectful
or, you know.
It just was awful
because then you go back
and you're like,
hopefully she wasn't in line too
because it was just like
there's no every,
at least five, six people behind me,
they all knew
what was happening there.
Yeah.
Pooping.
And I've talked about in the story
the date I went on
where I had to poop
and we had left the restaurant.
Yeah.
So we just went door to door
begging people
if I could use their boxers.
Did you tell your date?
There was no choice but to tell.
I have a story for you
that is way too long
that I'm not going to tell you here,
but I could tell you
at some point or after
that's disgusting
that's to do with the date.
We went into a bar
and she bought a shot
so I could use poop.
And the men's was like,
it was one of those,
you went in
and it was like a mountain
of wet toilet paper so I then had to go in the women's restroom men's was like it was one of those you went in and it was like a mountain of wet toilet paper
so I then had to go
in the women's restroom
yep
and it was just
she knew how long
yeah
it was brutal
listen
we need to destigmatize
the embarrassment
of shit
like everyone's gotta do it
and some people have to do it
very badly
I don't mind talking about it
it's like the thing of like
I do still have a stigma
of like people hearing it I will turn on the shower it. It's like the thing of like I do still have a stigma of like people hearing it.
I will turn on the shower.
Yep.
I will turn on the shower.
I'll do everything I can to make it worse.
I was at a friend's house in second grade, and I would always want to hang out with this guy.
His name was William Worthy.
William Worthy.
I suddenly had to go to the bathroom, and like I went in the toilet, and I'm young, and I was constipated, I guess.
I felt like I had to go.
Yeah, sure. Like if I had the feeling now, if I recall correctly, I would just go about my day young and I was constipated, I guess. I felt like I had to go. Yeah, sure.
Like if I had the feeling now, if I recall correctly, I would just go about my day and I'd be like, oh, something.
But I just I just sat on the toilet.
Yeah.
For until the end of the play date.
Yeah.
And like it was just like gradually like 30 minutes in.
It's like, OK, well, we're not going to play the board game.
And then he's just like waiting out there.
And I'm like, I'm sorry.
And I must have just stayed in
the bathroom the whole play date and finally
they called my parents like, maybe you should pick him up.
And I never shit the whole
time. And I can't even, I never hung out
with him again. And I can't imagine.
I should finally tell you
in college, I one time went away with people
I didn't know on like some conference thing
and the bathroom was super echoey in the
hotel. Like, you know, like, you know, when you get in there, you're like, it's like, it's so echoey. This is, I can't know on like some conference thing. And the bathroom was super echoey in the hotel. Oh no.
Like,
you know,
like,
you know,
when you get in there,
you're like,
it's like,
like it's so echoey.
This is,
I can't believe.
So I was like, I have to poop and like ever.
And I was like,
well,
those things were like,
come on,
maybe you guys ever would like,
but there was like two other people in the room.
And also they weren't watching TV.
So I was like,
I was like,
one,
put the TV on.
I'm like,
no,
we're going to read.
And I was like,
dude,
we're going to read. So I was like, come on. We're going to read.
So I was like, I'm going to meditate.
Do you know what I did?
I was so nervous about the bull farts because I was like, it's so echoey in here.
I took towels and tried to like wrap them to like cover up any sort of noise from escaping.
Like, no, no, just like on the sides to try to muffle.
Like if there was a sound studio muffle like if there was a sound
studio just like if there was a bull fart the towels would maybe absorb some of it so it
wouldn't be quite as loud and i turned the sink on and but there was no what was so great about it
is i did it and i was like okay they may have heard something blah blah and and i was like but
you know what no maybe they didn't I'm sure they didn't care.
An hour later, another person
went in and did it. Bull farts.
It was like so loud.
I was like, oh, there's no way they didn't hear that
from me. Do you know what I mean? I was like, it was like
it was the loudest, most echoey
bathroom. Did you know you had like one big
bull fart that was coming? I knew. You know
when you can tell, like, you can tell
it was not going to be a quiet one. It was going to be like yeah, because I've been holding it in so long. But it was one that you knew was coming. I knew. You know when you can tell like, you can tell it was not going to be a quiet one. It was going to be like
yeah, because I've been holding it in so long.
But it was one that you knew was coming.
At least one. Okay.
Pro tip. Small thing. It's
such a simple thing. Just time
that, just flush. Oh. Right
as you release that person. Listen, my man, I've learned since those
days. I do that a lot now. That's what, I
dated someone who was bulimic and that's how they
hit their throwing up. Oh, God.
Pro tip. I do that a lot now. I dated someone who was bulimic, and that's how they hit their throwing up. Oh.
Pro tip.
Pro tip.
Okay.
All right.
Plugs.
This is coming out next Tuesday, so this is going to be August 23rd.
Anything you want to plug?
Okay.
So two things.
Uncle Function in New York City, Tuesday, September 13th at Asylum NYC. And then Uncle Function in LA,
Dynasty Typewriter,
September 20th,
Tuesday, September 20th
with special guest
Caleb Huron. It's going to be a fun show.
Very exciting.
For me, this is the day
that something premieres that involves
this podcast that I still can't
talk about, but it's cool.
You've seen it on my Instagram at this point.
I think I can say it at this point because it's going to be on today.
Yeah.
Don't fucking tell a soul.
Don't tell anyone, Josh.
I'm on the fucking podcast.
Down.
All right.
This will be where we cut if I have to cut it out.
The downside is now doing a weekly live show with Amazon's new app.
It's called amp.
You can download it on your phone.
It's going to be from four to five P four to five EST Easter standard time,
four to five every Tuesday live with guests.
And then if you missed it or you want to hear it again,
we are going to be uploading those episodes onto the Patreon.
We're reactivating the Patreon.
And you can get access to all the old episodes ad-free, all the bonus episodes Russell and I did where we said stuff that will get us in trouble someday.
Listen, clip it.
Put it out online.
Get us fired because we don't need the industry anymore.
We're on amp.
Hot damn.
I'm coming on this show at the right time you guys
are just about to blow up huh and if you want to see me i'll be headlining uh side splitters
comedy club this weekend august 25th through 27th doing a three show day on the 27th three
show day tampa florida are you just doing the same set three times in a row no i'm fucking i'm
fucking around i'm stealing your poop stories i'm telling them on stage no No! Just poop stories. I can't do stand-up yet.
Don't take my stories. That's all I have.
I would be like, I was an Ace Ventura Jr.
No! And I went online and they called me
a fat fucking cunt.
Anything you want to plug?
If any listeners
are in New York and are
interested in improv and doing comedy,
I host the
Late Night Improv Jam every Friday at 9 o'clock at the Pit Loft. interested in improv and doing comedy i host the uh pit uh late night improv jam uh every friday
at nine o'clock uh at the pit loft and it's super fun and um i don't know we can have some fun do
some improv and other than that my twitter at flitter um and i just post some sketches and
stuff there and just look out for me i'm still acting and hopefully might be some things in the
works roles movies hopefully yeah that's fantastic thank you for sharing all that with us yeah and might be some things in the works, roles, movies, hopefully. Yeah. That was fantastic.
Thank you for sharing all that with us.
Yeah.
And just remember out there,
no matter how well or successful your life is going,
someday you may also be hosting an improv jam at the pit loft.
This is The Downside.
One,
two,
three.
Downside.
Downside. Downside.
Downside.