The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Cole Escola

Episode Date: October 27, 2020

Comedian and actor Cole Escola talks with Andy Richter about coming out at 17, working on sketch shows with Jeffery Self and breaking out solo, and buying a castle in the Scottish highlands.

uh hello america uh this is andy richter on the three questions uh which is a podcast in case you hadn't figured it out and i am talking today to cola scola the very very talented hilariously funny character actor cabaret star thing i'm a thing bon vivant yeah thank you uh hi delightful toy for the eye and ear i just made that one up that was pretty yeah yeah it sounded made up well they're all made up their word first dress okay yeah you're right you know you know well uh where are you are you in your apartment in new york city i am i'm in cobble hill gorgeous cobble hill and should i give my address do i no no. I don't think so. I mean, later afterwards, after we stop recording, I'd like to see it. Street view? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd like to just stand outside holding up a boom box playing. I don't know. I haven't figured out what's really going to lure you out and into my heart. Well, we can always add the audio after and post. Depending on what we can afford. You can always add the audio after and post. Depending on what we can afford.

Let's get into the autobiographical stuff. You were a child of the great Northwest. Is that not true? I was. Yeah, that's true. Pacific Northwest. And by the way, what is Escola? What is the derivation of?

It's Finnish. Oh, really? Wow. It's spelled with it was originally spelled with a K, but my grandfather changed it to a C to spite his father. That's that's the story my family tells. Wow. That'll show which is like, yeah, which makes me wonder if he's gay, because that's a pretty like petty gay, gay person thing to do. Like, like, oh, maybe he's gay, too. Like, maybe that's where pretty like petty gay gay person thing to do like like oh maybe he's gay too like

maybe that's where i get it like i'll show you now you had a you i mean you have a famously tough childhood you had a famously tough i i mean i like to i i love to talk about about it as if it was like um a made for tv movie but um i mean but it was like you made-for-TV movie. But I mean, but it was like, you know, we were very poor. You know, we lived in a trailer and then into government housing. My dad was a Vietnam vet who was a raging alcoholic. And then my mother is sort of a lovely alcoholic. sort of a lovely alcoholic. But, you know, he was like,

he chased us out of our trailer because he was hallucinating and thought the government was after him. And he had like a gun. But like, it sounds, only now do I realize like how crazy it was. I remember as a child being excited when that happened because I was like, nothing ever happens around here. And I was like, we get to go to grandma's? How old are you at this point?

Five. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I was so thrilled that we got to live with my grandma. And I was so thrilled that we got to live with my grandma. And my grandma and I stayed in her guest room. And my mom and my brother stayed in my grandma's bedroom. And I was like, yeah, grandma's my roommate.

So, you know. Yeah. For dramatic effect, I love to, you know yeah it it's i um for dramatic effect i i love to uh you know well and also like in therapy i i'm realizing those things do have an effect on you oh absolutely yeah no that's the thing i mean i've known and especially being in comedy we know so many damaged people that have made you know lemonade out of the lemons and yeah but and you can kind of i think that minimizing your trauma is like a level coping yeah you know like that wasn't that big a deal you know when i saw mom hit dad or dad hit mom i mean mom hit dad actually probably short

of an hour but dad hit mom you know i mean, I mean, you just, you think like, oh, okay. You know, it happens. And, you know. Yeah. And then you go to college or you get married and everything falls apart. And, you know, it's a time bomb. That is if you don't deal with it. If you don't deal with it.

But I also, because I'm in, you know, we're in this business of show. Oh, boy. I don't, I often find myself, you know, narrativizing the story that way. Like, you know, pick myself up by my bootstraps. I came from nothing. We had, we ate our toenails. We were so poor. We ate our toenails.

We were so poor. And I'm just like also trying not to swing too hard that way and, you know, like sort of masturbating the trauma. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If that makes sense. No, that makes – because there are people that do that. And there are people – And I would love to do that. That would make me feel so like a, like a victim who, who needs a win, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but I'm not the country singer that I wish I was.

Too much self-awareness is such a bummer. I hate it. When you really, when you have a good, when you have a sound, you know, a pretty good idea of how you appear to other people, it really takes the fun out of so much. Absolutely. Now, there are also, I imagine, too, because I know from dysfunction of my own family and my stepfather was an alcoholic and and it got and it got very ugly and when he left it was it was like i i sort of likened it because up till then it was regular life you know yeah it was regular life but when he left uh at the time even i was kind of aware. And I was – I think I was like 13 or 14.

I said to somebody – I said it's like there was – we were living for years with an air raid siren going off. And someone turned it off. Like we had been used to this high level of stress and awfulness and just kind of grew used to it. So then the absence of it wasn't, it wasn't like a big party. It was just like, Oh wow. That was nice. That, that, that thing that was causing so much stress. I don't mean that he was a thing, but I mean, but that, that factor in our lives that was so stressful is gone and now we can just be regular dysfunctional. on and oh yeah you know now we can just be regular dysfunctional uh exactly yeah yeah yeah so so did you did you then stay with your grandma that i we lived with my with my grandma for a while this oh

because what happened was like my mom got in a like a drunk driving accident where she was the drunk driver. And this was before we left the trailer. Like, and then she, she had to go to rehab, which was, you know, a very memorable Christmas. You mean because she wasn't there or because. No, she got to come out for Christmas. You mean because she wasn't there or because?

No, she got to come out for Christmas. And so that made it all the more special. Like, when I look back, like, on my childhood memories, I'm like, wow, that was a great Christmas because we got to see mom. And then I remember, like, yeah, because she was taken away because she was in rehab. Yeah. And she almost committed vehicular manslaughter. Yeah, exactly.

So, um, then, uh, after she got out, she went back, we went, we moved back into the trailer and that's when things that's, and then a few months later is when my dad did that stuff. And my mom was like, I could do this when I was wasted, but like, I can't deal with this anymore. So that's when we left for good. And then, you know, there's, it was like low income housing, but like in a town of like 1500 people people, low-income housing looks a lot different than it does, you know, in a major city. So it was like a, just like a white trash apartment complex, you know. There was always cops there, like, pulling, like, topless drunk women off of their you know like greaser boyfriends um we would often go into the dumpster to see like they threw away this perfectly good coffee pot

you know yeah yeah like fun fun things like that yeah yeah yeah um yeah is I mean, you're very smart, very insightful, very funny. Are you are you is your family like are your folks smart and insightful or funny or are you like a unicorn? They they they are funny and. And and like and smart, like like emotionally intelligent i think being gay added an extra element of like outsiderness that that maybe gave me a perspective that yeah they just didn't have but they like you know they they're still we still have the same sense of humor yeah like yeah like they get it yeah which is again a really wonderful coping mechanism yeah yeah and and can be such a great collective one so yeah and are you in the same schools when this happens or do you have to change yes same

same schools and um but you know in in like small towns like that everyone especially like really depressed poor ones like that everyone has like family like weird dysfunction and everyone knows about everyone's absolutely yeah no and did you grow up in a small small smaller yeah yeah um it was a town called yorkville which is west of chicago that was when i grew up there it was i mean now it's kind of been absorbed by the suburban sprawl pushing outward yeah but when i grew up there it was still pretty much a a the the big it was a farm town and then there was also a caterpillar tractor factory that employed a lot of people so that was like it was kind of a combo of that and but i mean but also you know regular our town was like built for a paper mill to exist yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly

well the the town had, it was just a farm town and as things just got bigger, it got bigger. And when I was a kid, there were two traffic lights, I think, maybe three. One at the end of town,

one in the middle of town, and one at the other end of town. And when we got a McDonald's, people went and waited before 6 a.m. for it to open up. Like we were, I remember getting in. We had the same thing for our first and only chain restaurant still in that town is Subway. Yeah.

And the day it opened, it was like everyone in town, because it was like they were giving out free sandwiches on the first day. And so it was like, we'll wait for seven hours for that $4.50. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. For that cold sub. Yeah. On yoga mat bread. Yeah.

But yeah, so it was pretty small. It was pretty small. And there was a lot of the same kind of, I mean, it was – there was no – there were like maybe two rich people. And they were – two rich families. And they were wealthy people from Chicago that wanted to start horse farms. So they – you know what I mean? They moved out and they had – The American dream.

Yes, exactly. Leave the city to start a horse farm. To start your horse farm. Yeah like to have these really expensive pets and uh yeah and and but everybody else the closest you know was kind of middle class you know and yeah then there were also there was the same thing there were like there were definitely kids that were that who were very poor and you know yeah like yeah like there was a boy that i went to school with whose whose family lived in a house that his father had built and they lived in a tent while he built the house and their house was always always heated by a wood stove. So he always, so everyone.

So he smelled like. He smelled like a campfire all the time. And, you know, and just like that, that was kind of, you know, the thing. Or, you know, or just like the casual racism of people, you know, like kids at school saying the N word just because. Yeah. It's shocking. No, no. because they thought that's – Yeah, it's shocking. No, no, because they thought that's what black people called. Oh, that's what people – oh, wow.

That was the only word they ever heard in reference to black people. So, you know, so we'd say it very matter-of-factly and be somewhat stunned when they were corrected. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, it was kind of the same thing. But I mean, but my family was, because my grandfather, my mom's dad was there from, actually, his name was Glenn Palmer. And the Palmer land prior to that being Palmer land, his father's land, it was Blackhawk Indian land. So they were like the first white people to start a farm there. And he got a huge tract of land.

And then it just it it created a two or three generations of very lazy people because all they did was they raised hogs and chickens for show and then sold land. They would sell off a big chunk of their farmland and then live on it for five years. You know, not live, but, you know. Right, right. Yeah, but and like my grandpa, by the time he, you know, he was an adult, they'd run out of land. So he sold insurance. he sold real estate and and you know and they just bought he just sold and he didn't have to sell it because people just liked him so that you know it just was an income for him

that's funny yeah like sure well but hey i like yeah all right i'll take an acre yeah i guess if i die i want my kids to have some money um now did our is it is is being gay in that in that environment any different or any more difficult or easier than you think if it were if you hadn't been kind of under the stress of that you know poverty and you know like um uh like all small towns like where you know everybody it's like pretty this is a line from the laramie project but like it's pretty much live and let live yeah yeah but but truly like people aren't like that's a gay guy they're like oh that's that's steve and chris's son you know what i mean like yeah yeah yeah um so i mean i i think i felt more um uh shame about it because of like cultural and you know societal implications than i did like right

being directly like made to feel unsafe i mean i was always called like fag or or like why do you act like a girl and um things like that but i i i didn't really like they didn't register to me as like insults yeah yeah because you just get you you get used to the abuse yeah and and also like everyone had the they're like they're like pejorative you know like oh she's slut he's fat that's fag like everyone was like it was just like no one was no one was safe right right right yeah it'd be great if like there was one kid that was just really kind and that was his yeah he's real fucking kind and nice yeah you got some compliments for me today, Mr. Nice Guy.

Hey, I've got problems. You want to understand them? Yeah, no. Yeah, and I think, too, that I also think, too, that I have my oldest boy my my i have two kids my son is gay and i just and he came out to us when he was 11 and i just think it's just wow it's just an easier way it's it and that isn't because of hooray for me and my ex-wife it's just because a we live in los angeles yeah just there's no you know and like at my son's school somebody i had a dad once asked me about the school and i think he was asking me and he didn't know that my son was gay but i think he was asking me in coded terms

about like how will my gay son do at this school? You know? Yeah. But he was saying, because he's like, he's a little bit different. You know, he's not like a real, like a jock or anything, you know? Yeah. And he said, and I just kind of cut to the chase. I didn't say, but I just said, I said, it's impossible to be a bully at my son's school. There's no tolerance for it. There's, you know, and the kids even know you know in fact my son told me once when he was he's probably 12 13 something like that and he was at a table with a bunch of

kids and i don't think he'd made his sexuality known any more than right 11 12 year olds have formed sexuality they're all kind of gel like at that age. And, but he said that he was talking to some, he was at a table talking to some boys and that they started to say like, Oh, that's so gay. Oh,

that's so fucking gay. And my son told me about, he said that he actually went like, what's wrong with gay? Like you have a problem with gay. And the boys were like, no, I guess not. And they're like,

well then why would you say it like that not and they're like well then why would you say it like that and they're like yeah yeah good point you know yes i was so proud i was so proud of him you know just to be brave enough to do that i think i i remember when i came out at 17 and i remember like one of the first times someone called me like as a you know as an insult called me gay and i was like yeah i am and they were just like oh oh like because to them they are not thinking like um they're gay and that's bad they're thinking like what's what's a bad word i can what's something mean i can say yeah what's gonna make them feel bad yeah yeah and then i'm like no that's that's yeah i am gay and then like

oh fuck what else is there i know i know it's such a it's such a simple mechanism like yeah like i remember years ago when there was before there were sort of chat groups or Twitter, people had these sort of like website email things where they would just be an invited group of people and there was one for comedy showbiz people. And there was a guy who just had a baby. He's an actor, director guy. He had his first child and somebody and i think it was some a gay person when he posted it he posted a picture of like the newborn and and it was a gay person that went like oh my god that kid is such a fag like about this newborn baby i think that's funny oh it's fucking hilarious yeah you know and hilarious. Yeah. And he got so mad.

He got so mad that he quit the thing. And I saw him later and I was like, you know what? There's a good part. You know, that kid might be gay. So what's the big deal? It's like saying, man, that kid sure is white. You know, it's like. Or like, it's just funny to ascribe a personality.

To a baby. Oh, it's the best. To a baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's like, yeah. Or like, it's just funny to ascribe a personality to a baby. Oh, it's the best. To a baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so funny. I love saying things to, like, baby. Like, I mean, to just, you know, like to talk to somebody's baby and go like, this kid is really fucking rude. Like, he won't even look me in the eye. What the, your kid's an asshole.

I'm sorry, you know. Yeah. It's, you know. It's one of the last, last few jokes. Make fun of babies. They're the best. To make fun of babies. They're like, it's like making fun of cats.

You know how you can like. Yeah, exactly. A cutaway reaction shot of a cat, a baby is just the same thing. You know? Yeah. You're accused of murder and then cut to this like. It's adorable. yeah well now are you you're doing uh you did do theater pretty early right you knew that like you were drawn to the stage yeah there was this um i don't know if they even exist anymore but there's this company called missoula children's theater and it would be uh two adult actors would uh come to town and auditions were on monday after school already

the show was matic this sounds really problematic is there a van was on on saturday there was they lived out of it oh boy yeah so yeah the auditions were Monday the show was on Saturday and then they like the then the show was you know gone and it was the best and most heartbreaking week of my life every year like like because that was all you know that was all, you know, that was the only theater or anything that I was interested in were those shows. And then on Saturday, like watching those adult actors leave and just being like, please take me with you. And now I think, God, I would never take that gig. But yeah, yeah yeah yeah but um it was really that's how i i got started yeah was missoula children's theater yeah yeah um are you are you like are you coping very well during this

time i mean you know are you happy are you friendly are you got friends you know i i love i'm a big phone talker i love talking on the phone i love talking on the phone for like hours i love even just like sitting on the phone and watching tv and like forgetting i'm even on the phone like that's just one of my it can be really fun yeah it seems so old-timey now it's so weird to talk to somebody on the phone now it's so old timey now it's so weird to talk to somebody on the phone now it's yeah it's so it's sort of a recent like only in the past like four or five years that i've started doing that yeah yeah but i really like i feel like it's so weird when i'll talk to my friends i'm like you guys you have to start talking on the phone. It's crazy. It's so fun. And people are like, just text me. Yeah. And I and yeah, but for me, I feel like texting is

is much harder. It takes longer. It's like, whenever you're texting, it's always like, you're stepping away from something else. And so it's like, you know, I'll be pressing play on a TV show, playing it for like 10 seconds, get a text like, oh, pause. Let me respond to this. And then like it's just like a nightmare to me. Yeah. I also think, too, like there's especially if if something's more than. A question. Meet me there at three or whatever, you know, simple.

Yeah. a question meet me there at three or whatever you know simple yeah i want to speak it because i think there's somewhere in my mind that uh pushing the buttons and texting is like manual labor it's like work yeah you know it does feel if i just talk to you then we're just living and talking and you know and sharing and yeah but but i also can see there are times there are people that I feel like, oh, yeah, just text me. Just text. Please just text me. I could, you know, it's a lot quicker if you just text. That's true.

Yeah. I mean, I have like four, maybe four. I have two people that I talk to every day, but maybe four friends in general that I talk to a lot on the phone. friends in general that i i talk to a lot yeah on the phone and it's uh that's really like um a tool that's that i've picked up especially during this time i prefer and um and i prefer it to zoom i don't like i feel like oh yeah because you can walk around you don't have to worry how you look you don't have to you know if you're quiet you're quiet, you can go to the bathroom, you know, if you're careful, you know, if you're careful,

like if you just, if you pee, not on the water, but on the, and you sit down to pee and you pee on the, right, exactly. And if you,

and if you like, now, if you got a poop, that's a risk. It's a risk, but it can be done. And it's depending on the, on the person,

you know, and you might have to hit mute once or twice. And then there's the, you know, you get all gathered, you gather yourself. And then there's the flush and the dart, you know, like, flush and run, run. So, like, get away from the sound of the flushing as quickly as you can. I mean, I did it this morning before before coming here. I was on the phone with a friend and I did the flush and dart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, no, no. That was that was a street sweeper.

Like, what is that? Oh, the garbage truck is just sorry. You were saying. So I love doing chores on the phone, too. It really helps me. Anytime I have to do the dishes, I think, oh. Yeah. Oh, but if I'm on the phone with someone, then it almost feels like a group activity. Yep, and that's where the headset. i have the exact same headphones that you're that you're wearing and i uh when i'm on the phone it's it's good because like especially

talking to my mom it's kind of like it's a it's it's like it's like i got it you know she needs some time and i give her some time but i get some stuff done during you know while i'm while i'm hearing the symptoms yeah yeah um so when you what when do you head out on your own well i um so uh you know i got involved in drama club and then through and and the drama club was run by this guy who worked at the mill all day and then would just volunteer in the evenings to help us put on plays. And I'm like, I could cry thinking about that guy. Yeah. It just opened up my whole world. That's where I made my childhood best friends and

that i still am in touch with and i um but anyway i there was so the town that i'm from is like 1500 people there's a town 20 miles away long view which is you know a bigger 20 000 people that's where walmart is that's where the malls are. That's like where you go if you want culture. Similar situation with my town. We didn't go to Chicago. We went to Aurora. And Aurora was like,

it started as like a mill town because it had a river. But it's like a medium-sized and now pretty depressed Midwestern city. Yeah. Yeah. We never, the notion of like going to the city to go shopping was Batman Aurora. That was like, that's what the mall was.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I ended up like, there were like summer camp theater programs there. And I did like a programs there. And I, I did like a, a play there. It was sort of similar to Missoula children's theater in that there were two adult actors and then all the rest of the actors were kids. And one of the actors was this woman,

an actress named Joan Menken, who lived in San Francisco and taught at a performing arts high school. And she invited me to come live with her and go to that performing arts school. In San Francisco. In San Francisco. Wow. high school and she invited me to come live with her and go to that performing arts school in san francisco in san francisco wow and um my mom said no and i was i i could have murdered her but i mean of course i understand why but then sort of the um the compromise we made was that i got to move in with my cousin in longview to go to a bigger school where they had theater classes and like they did musicals because in klatsk and i where i'm from like we did plays but we never did musicals and like so that was i, I did that when I was 16. I moved out and sort of was half independent, half not.

Yeah. You know, and then. Were you happy with that or was it tough? Oh, I loved it. Like looking back, there were like, I didn't have like role models for like being an adult. You know, like I didn't have role models for being an adult. Yeah, yeah. I didn't. I know what you mean.

They were all working. Even my cousin was an OBGYN, worked the night shift, so we never crossed paths, ever, really. And so I didn't know that there was anything different, like, that there could be someone setting an example and helping me with things. But I was also, like, I don't think I wanted help. I was really independent and, like, fuck you. Like, my cousin even, like, imposed. For the first time in my life i had a curfew of 10 p.m and my um i did not take to that very well yeah as soon as he left for work at 10 30 p.m

like i would come home at 9 55 as soon as he left for work at 10 30 i was out like yeah yeah i don't know where like the grocery store with my friends to like buy bread because it was half off absolutely yeah you know like yeah there wasn't anything to do yeah we would we would buy donuts and feed them to the ducks and thought it was hilarious that ducks were eating donuts like that was the kind of like mischief we got yeah yeah yeah fuck your curfew, man. We're feeding donuts to ducks. Yeah, my brother and I – I have a brother that's three years older, and we never had a curfew, but all my brother was bored, he'd go home and then his friends would end up coming with him and staying at our house until literally – like if it took seven minutes to get home, it would be seven minutes before they had to be home.

And even as a child, it was like, oh, I see how this – this is dumb. Yeah, yeah. Like this is arbitrary. Yeah, unless your kid's a maniac who's a firebug or something. Let him – they're going to – and also, I mean, as a parent, it's like you got to let – you need to let them start self-regulating soon. Yeah, Yeah. And I mean, early and and also I the one thing that I took out of my childhood that I tried to do differently is is that just the feeling of like being listened to and being respected. Yeah. You know, like just not that feeling. Just do it because I told you to like, oh, here, I'll tell you why you got to do it. Like, oh, here, I'll tell you why you got to do it.

You know, like, or what do you want? And then listening to what you want and, you know, working something out. Say I sort of had the opposite, which was like, do whatever you want. Just leave me alone. Oh, really? Just like, honey, I'm tired. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, yeah. It was that sort of thing. Like, okay, well, I, I'm tired. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah.

It was that sort of thing. Like, okay, well, all right, I'll figure something out. I guess I'll go get some donuts. Yeah. I was always trying to come up with ways to like make money before I was old enough to work. Like my friends, I had like two, two friends, one who was also gay and one who was just really loud and everyone hated and so she was by default like with the gay guys um and the three of us would like we would go door to door asking if people needed anything like done right like anything like for money um and then but my favorite enterprise we came up with was like

it it would snow like one or two days a year there like barely anything but um when it snowed we would go door to door and offer to build snowmans in people's yards for money as if like oh thank god thank god you can take that off my plate. Our yard is so empty. Yeah. And I have all these carrots. Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious. Well, and so you graduate.

Is it college in your future? Well, yeah, when I came out at 17, I made other like gay friends in this slightly bigger town. And then on weekends, there was this underage club called The Escape in Portland, Oregon. Wow. And so it was like an hour drive away. So we would go there. And that's when I met my high school, my first boyfriend.

And he lived in Portland. And he would drive down to Longview every friday after school pick me up take me to portland and drive me back on sundays like at you know in in the evening but like so he was a year ahead of me in school and he went to nyu and so i had you know i'd always wanted to live in new york but it was just like, it never occurred to me that I could. Yeah, it's like living on the moon. Seems nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, how do I even get that? Like, how do I even buy a plane ticket? Yeah. you know, so alone and codependent and very, you know, like much in love, like a teenager in love in this relationship. It was like, I will find a way to be near him. And like, thank God, because that's what led me to New York. And that's when I came here. And I went to school for a year. I lived at the 92nd Street Y. That's where the school's dorms were for some reason yeah

and we got to see the lectures for free so i was you know that's how i met marion saldis oh well that's joanna gleason yeah you know yeah yeah and uh and i imagine that, as most wise are, it's a hotbed of sex, right? Yes. The 92nd Street Lie. It's just an ongoing orgy. Yes. With the great Jewish intellectuals. Andrea Dworkin showing up. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, did you drop out of high school? Or you mean after you graduated as a senior? After I graduated as a senior, I applied to every school in New York. I went to the one that accepted me. Which was? Marymount Manhattan College. Yeah, yeah. And I went for a year.

I liked it. I didn't know what I wanted to do. It was insanely expensive. I couldn't even afford to take out. Like, we got rejected for loans and so like there was just no way for me to keep going yeah so i um so my options were like move back home and like go to a you know state school or a community college or like go back to New York and just like work become a cabaret star become a cabaret star yeah and so that's and that's what I did yeah yeah so and and is and is there any

pushback from anybody that to stay home or they're just like you know you're you're grown and you're up and you're out and again it's like it was just. Again, it was just like, leave me alone. I don't know what to tell you. I can't afford it. But I love you. Yeah, yeah. And have fun. Was part of it, was your gayness too much?

Was it kind of just like, I don't know. It was too much for me. Everyone else was fine with it it was just like i i was going crazy i was like and especially after then being in new york for a year like the thought of going you know from new york back to klatsken i oregon it was like there's there's no way in hell i can can't even imagine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So then I came back and I was miserable for many years. And then now I'm here. Not miserable.

Just this morning. Yeah. It changed. It clicked. Yeah, yeah. I finally got that eight hours I needed. Now, what do you, I mean, do you come back and is it just like well let's see how it goes are you still with your boyfriend at this point no no no we broke

up before i even got to new york oh my god i had been accepted into the school so i was like well i guess yeah it's yeah i guess i'll just follow through with it right and also it's new york still yeah i'm sure that you were excited about that. Yes. Yeah. So was that transition difficult? Was like whatever to what is it? How is it? How do you say it? Klatskanai. Birthplace of Raymond Carver. Correct. Yeah. Raymond Burr. Okay.

Raymond Burr. Yeah. No. Klatskanai. To Longview, to New York. Do you get to New York? And are you frightened? Are you Raymond Burr? Raymond Burr. Yeah, yeah. Klaxkanai. Klaxkanai, yeah. To Longview, to New York. Do you get to New York? Are you frightened? Are you?

Well, as I'm sure you know, like, you might be somewhat familiar with the Upper East Side. Yes. It's not exactly like, oh, my God, I'm overwhelmed. Yeah, yeah. And because the school was on the Upper east side and you know you just never think to like go venture out of the little you know i mean even now i i haven't been to manhattan since march like because of the the pandemic and i'm i don't need to right so um uh like it was just like a it felt right to me.

I was like, yeah, this is where, this is the, everything's open 24 hours. Yeah. Just like me. And it's Yuppery site, so there's lots of elderly people. There's lots of fun elderly people. Yeah, yeah. Some pretty good German restaurants. Yeah. Or at least there used to be. I don't't know i don't think there are anymore yeah yeah it's it's sort of bridge and tunnel-y

is it in terms of the nightlife scene yeah yeah yeah um well so when you get back what do you do you stay in that neighborhood what i yeah well i moved to spanish harlem um with some other people that were in that i had met through college and i i worked at a children's bookstore um for like wages that like no one should have to live off of and you know yeah i mean you know you're're young and not that I'm old, but like, you know, I was 19. So it was, it felt normal to me to like walk 103 blocks to work to save the $2. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that I could buy falafel afterwards, you know? Right, right.

Yeah, no, it is. And how do you start performing in New York? How do you kind of get into that that wasp's nest well i um i never considered that i could be a performer like as soon as i got to new york i was like you know because all i really saw of performance was like the theater program at this college and um college theater programs are not very enticing um or they weren't very enticing to me i was like i agree that's not something i want to be a part of i i always you know charles groden who's i mean take whatever you want about

charles groden but he wrote he wrote a very funny his first memoir but he recounted going to theater classes and yeah and like being the teachers just being infuriated because he constantly would say why like they would give an exercise and he'd be like why what does that have to do with learning lines what does that have to do with learning lines? What does that have to do with knowing blocking? And I, when I, the few theater, I'm making air quotes, classes that I took, I just, I was so struck by that. Like, why are we doing this? Yeah, there, it was very, it seemed very cult-like to me. Yeah. Like, one of the, I did a show there through a student theater production because it was the only way I would be like I either had I didn't want to go home for the winter holiday. So I wanted to stay in the dorm.

The only way I could do that was to either take a class and it was too late to enroll or be in some sort of production. Yeah. So I auditioned and I was like i need this job and um you don't understand yeah but i was just really like confused by like all of these weird rules that like everyone had agreed because of like one guy like the head of the theater department was like oh you're like don't ever look up like that i remember that was one of the rules like don't ever look up don't look up on stage like look yeah yeah like don't look up i don't remember why i am sure that he has like some explanation but like i just remember thinking

like i don't like theater i don don't like performing. Yeah, yeah. And also, yeah, like, oh, a good thing to do when I'm getting on stage, especially, you know, like, not being that used to being on stage, is to fill my head with a lot of bullshit chores. You know? Like, what does that do? It's very, like, stifling and, like, constricting and, like, yeah. stifling and like constricting and like yeah so i i also think there's an aspect to and it's the way people who are in teaching people how to act in a kind of more classic kind of way i think that their rationale for it and the way that they would defend themselves is that you it's getting you out of your head. Like having you be a tree or embody the notion of, you know, whatever, you know, hunger.

Get on stage and be hunger, you know. I think it's just to make you forget about yourself. But it can have the opposite effect. Yeah. And I also think about, I i also think and this is just from my experience with acting and my acting is that i've done is almost all film and television acting but you you don't forget about yourself like you gotta kind of right like you you need to be in control of yourself and think about what you're doing and make choices not just be like some free-flowing thing and that was always and

it also felt very mind fucky and very like i had so many there were so many sort of teachers that were teaching acting that just felt like you just like telling kids what to do yeah and it always it always seemed like it was kind of creepily sexually charged of you know yeah dumb or even just like yeah political like like you will not get the lead this year like it was very political and it was like she promised me if we did wild party that i would get to play queenie yeah and like you know like and then she did that to teach you a lesson about expectations. And it's like, what are you doing? I learned.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, why do you need this little puppet theater of humans? Right. We're not writing a play. We're performing plays. Yeah.

Can't you tell my loves are growing? So anyway, New York, you start performing what how do you start performing my um i i started making youtube videos with a friend of mine and that was and he he was really like the motivate like my friend jeffrey self who was yeah he would be like come over um let's do this this and i just, and then we were just having fun. Yeah. Making YouTube videos. What year is this?

Then we thought, this is 2007. Okay. And then we were like, we need to like, maybe we can make money if we do like a live show. Yeah. And so we started performing in the basement underneath the Daryl Roth Theater in Union Square. And we did like a live show, like a live sitcom sort of thing. And then we did a show at Joe's Pub. And then executives from Logo, the Logo Network happened to be there. And they were like, the logo network happened to be there and they were like um basically said we want you to like make something for us and they asked us to make like 30 minute vlogs for their like website and

we we said like we'd rather we were like let's make a sketch let's make a sketch show so we like filmed it all on you know the laptop camera and um edited it in iMovie like you know costumes were like a jacket as hair yeah you know like like children playing around and we turned it in and they were like great we love this we're gonna put it on the air and so we got a our we had a sketch show on fridays at midnight on logo do they give you more money or did they just no yeah yeah that's fantastic i knew it like oh yeah yeah a thousand dollars total oh for six episodes of television no fucking way yeah shame on you logo shame on you in there i don't want to say defense but like the next season we then had like a more normal television deal like but we were so excited we'd never done anything before and like

i wouldn't i wouldn't change it like i would have i would still take that thousand dollars and be like you know what this is actually a good start and this absolutely will be more valuable than i understand that side of it but still they know also yeah they know better that's they knew that yeah he felt that way so they were like when they hire you to do a vlog and then they get this they it's they're not naive they they're sitting in that room looking at this stuff and going, holy shit, this is arable. Wow. What a bargain we just made. Yeah.

Because don't tell these young, impressionable, hungry kids that they deserve more. You know? Yeah. We did it after I worked with the Real Life Brady Bunch, which is run by Jill Soloway, who's now Joey Soloway and his sister. Yeah. We did this pilot for MTV, a sketch comedy. There was just a bunch of us from Chicago that had been together at the Annoyance Theater and Brady Bunch.

And they paid us so little. And we had no like. We had no leverage in the thing or anything. Yeah. And the deal going forward for all of us. No, I think maybe forward for all of us no i think maybe nine or ten of us i just i realized like if this show gets picked up i'm gonna have to bartend and i'm gonna very potentially be standing behind a bar with my the sketch show that's on a national

network behind me and people will be like when did you do do that? And like, Oh no, I actually have a 6am call time tomorrow. Yeah. That's how it was. Yeah. I was working at, um, like the, the,

the day the show premiered, I had to pick up a shift at the bakery. And I remember feeling like, um, sort of like enjoying the fact that it was like unjust. Yeah. I was like, wow, here i am in this bakery and little do these idiots know that i have a television show premiere tonight i shouldn't

be covered in flour i should be covered in glitter exactly and um yeah but then you know then that begot like you know more performance connections and blah, blah, blah. Slowly and surely, a career happened. Yeah, and also, well, you also, I think, because you are such a funny, funny, funny, funny person, such a talented person. Thank you. That you get to meet. You're welcome. You get to, you know, then you're like, you become pals with Bridget Everett.

And you become pals with Amy Sedaris. And you get, you know. And that's how, that's how like the happiest kind of show business happens, you know. Yeah. Bridget, I met early on and like, like, I think I first met her at this show that she did at a gay bar on Sunday nights. Yeah, very hopping for us for a gay bar. It was during a blizzard. And me and Jeffrey and our friend who was the DJ were like, were the only people there. And she still did her songs and it was like it was like i just remember being like wow this is i this lady is i want to be her friend oh she uh yeah it's a cliche but yeah force of nature yeah she's yes yeah yeah she's really there she's she is 100 herself uh you know and that's great yeah um horrible person horrible person i know i know no she doesn't tip

puts cigarettes out in journalists ears yeah yeah um so but then when how does that transform into then you like doing a solo show? Like, because your show, Help, I'm Stuck, that was the one. Yeah. And was that at Joe's Pub? No, I started doing that at the Duplex. Okay. And it was like, it was after Jeffrey, after two seasons of our, um, uh, you know,

lo-fi sketch show, he moved to LA and then I was, I had never like doing stuff with him. I had never performed on my own before. And so I, um, for a few years I did like, I sort of floundered. I did some regional theater.

I did some cabaret, but I really don't like singing. And it's, I think singing is embarrassing. Yeah. Or it makes me feel embarrassed. I mean, it's not like,

I don't watch people sing and go like, oh my God. I feel, I feel the same way about like real acting. Like when I have to be like, say a line that I just think is like that. It's just, I feel just like I i whenever i've done drama yeah there i've done i've done i mean i've done good drama not a lot of drama but yeah but there has been some like just regular old tv drama that i've been in that i feel is like so much

more embarrassing than like showing my asshole you know yeah to a group of senior citizens yeah absolutely then then like cry and say like mom mom just died like i i would rather i would rather the asshole yeah yeah exactly um so then you get back to new york and you decide i'm gonna you know well i So I w I was here and then I, I, um, I, I just knew that there was something like, I w I just felt like, I know I can do something that I'm not doing right now. Like I know, but I, I couldn't find anywhere to do it. Like for some reason, like Second City and things like that, or Upright Citizens Brigade all seemed,

again, like that same mentality of like, oh, that's, well, they wouldn't take me. So let's figure something else out. But do you really think they wouldn't take you? Or do you think? Well, no, they will take anyone who could pay the price of admission. And maybe I would have loved it and blossomed, but it just didn't seem like, because I didn't have any connections there.

And at this point, all of my work and stuff came from just my friends that I was having fun with. Yeah. from just my friends that I was having fun with. But anyway, I just decided to challenge myself to write an hour-long show, a new hour every month, and that's sort of how I started finding my, what I like to do. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.

That's it. That's to make that challenge of yourself is really, uh, it was, it was one of like the, um, funnest times. Like, I think on my deathbed, I'll be like, I'll think, I'll be thinking about those performances. Yeah. You know? And when you put that pressure on yourself and that deadline in yourself, talk about taking the pressure,

you know, taking the pressure up. Like you have no choice. Like you gotta, you know, you gotta make, you gotta make the donuts, you know,

you know? Yeah. It was also like, I decided to do it because the duplex let you keep it. Um, a hundred percent of the door. They you keep 100% of the door. They just made money off of the two-drink minimum. Yeah, yeah.

So I was like, okay, if I charge, you know, $8 and there's 70 people, like, that's a little something to help with rent. Yeah. It was also a – I just – because I had done shows other places, and I – you know, there's always a door split, and I, you know, get the check and I would be like, huh? I know. Wait, it was sold out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I can buy. And I can buy. Yeah, I can buy a pizza. Yeah. Yeah. So that was one aspect of it that I I enjoyed. Like, yeah. Yeah.

I enjoyed like, yeah. Yeah. And then, um, uh, that led to like, um,

you know, after doing that for like three years, I had all this material, most of it, not good, but like I had enough to like create a, a good show that I was proud of. And that's like a show that I, then I did it at Joe's pub and then I took it on tour and then I then I sort of wrote I sort of went for my B sides and created a new show out of that.

Yeah. And then and then I recently in quarantine, I filmed a special by myself and put it on YouTube youtube and is that is that stuff from the shows yeah that's all from the shows oh okay and it's holy shit that was funny oh thanks yeah yeah i i think i saw it the night it came out or something and my kids and i all with the three of us watched it oh that makes me oh it was so so funny and thanks and the closing number i don't want to spoil it for anybody but they should look it up and yeah just as they say as they say watch to the end because the closing number i think we rewound and watched it five times oh thank you yeah yeah i i'm really it's it's really like um something i'm really proud of because it's i i when i was doing the show i wanted to um

i was like i'd love to preserve this somehow yeah but it didn't feel right to film it because on stage i'm in my underwear i'm doing the costume changes like in front of people it's very like messy and something about like filming a stage version of it felt like unbelievable. Like it would be too like, like, well, you clearly had a budget to film this. Why are you doing it like this? I understand that. Yeah. And so then when the lockdown happened, I was like, oh, it actually would make much more sense if I filmed this all by myself in my apartment yeah and yeah

and i feel really good about like that i can be like there here's the proof of the work that i did for years and it also has helped because the circumstances of it like you said in this case the circumstances are a direct link to the motivation of the thing, you know, whereas you're right. If you're like, there's so many things that you see, it's like, well, why are, you know, like you have money, you can, you know, you don't need to do this. I'm not buying that. Yeah. It's like, it's just not, yeah, exactly. I don't buy that. That's like such a bottom line thing of, of what I, my main critique was so much of show business is like, I don't buy that.

People stand up. I don't buy that. It just takes me out of it. I'm bad at stand-up because I feel like I'm too honest. Yeah. And I hate repeating myself. I do too. And so when I tell a story, I'm a terrible storyteller because I'm like – so the other day, well, no, I guess this was like a month and a half.

Oh, God, no. When was mom's birthday was? Okay, so two and a half months ago. And it's just like, they don't care about those fucking details. I know, I know. But like, in my brain, I'm like, tell the truth, Cole. That's a lie. Yeah, Cole. That's a lie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I have that compounded with improv training, which is always which is and it's macho Chicago improv training.

Del Close improv training, which is if you say it once, you shouldn't say it again. Yeah. OK. Yeah. You came up with a character that was and in many ways it's it's almost adolescent in its anti-commercialism. You know, like you came up with a great character. Now you can't do it again. I mean, yeah.

And if you're just going to be doing shows in Chicago, OK, but out in the real world, like, no, if you come across something good. I know. I remember seeing when I saw like one of my successful friends doing material that I'd already seen and it killing and it being better than the time before when I had seen it, I was like, you're allowed to do it twice? Yeah, yeah. Or three or 400 times? when it really got in the way of my life was when i started like when i started working and then i would have to do press things and yeah you get asked especially like junkets for a movie where

you go and it's two days of the same questions over and over and over and i would say i would tell you know they'd ask me uh and, how was it on set or whatever? Why? How did it come to this? And I would have a story. And then the next fucking dipshit would come in and be like, so tell me how this happened. And I would and I would feel like, well, I have to say it different. I know it took, you know, a couple of years where I'm like, stupid.

Say the same. What the fuck? Say the same. Yeah. say the same shit nobody ever sees this stuff you know right right you know no one sees it it doesn't even if they did they wouldn't be like yeah hey right he said it was fun on set twice right exactly what an asshole yeah yeah yeah i know i know yeah but yeah i i totally understand like yeah you just not wanting to repeat yourself. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, but also I wanted to say like the other thing that I loved about doing the special in your apartment is not only was it sort of like made complete artistic sense in COVID why you did it. It was extra crazy. It was like it gave this whole air of like miss habersham insanity to the whole thing yeah which was so fantastic and and i mean because that's kind of even on stage it kind of has a bit of a like a a performing a monologue for yourself kind of thing i the the the when i was um four i my mom got me a one of those you know tape recorders with a microphone attached and i would just lock myself in my bedroom and talk and talk and sing and make up stories

into it sometimes with the tape in there recording it most times not it's just like just like i loved hearing my voice come out of that tiny little speaker and i and like that has always been like the the the feeling that i i sort of chase when i'm performing or that i like to like yeah i can see that because it's the most fun for me yeah yeah and if it's fun for me then you know yeah and also someone might like it the the mean, I don't unless I'm but like you're two sort of most indelible television characters are your character on Difficult People and then Cassie on Amy Sedaris's show. Yeah. And and those both are so fucking funny and must be so much fun to play for kind of different reasons. I mean, they're both sort of self-involved assholes.

Yes. But which is always fun to play. Yeah, fantastic. But like especially what was the name of your character on Difficult People? Matthew. Matthew. Holy shit. Matthew is like the worst person on Earth.

Matthew. Holy shit, Matthew was like the worst person on earth. Worst person. And it was like, I'm always auditioning for the gay role, the gay receptionist. Right, right. Who are you here to see? Yeah. And this was sort of, this character, it was safe to play up the stereotype of that because um the character was awful and there were other gay characters in the show so it wasn't like it's a very safe

the soul a very safe space you're not carrying all of homosexuality on your shoulders yeah yeah yeah it was through a very like self-aware lens and so it was fun to just wear a boy from oz show jacket and like flip my scarf in people's faces yeah and never do any work you know and never do any work yeah yeah yeah i love i love workplace comedies where it's like but they don't i also i also love too that like and it's it's just like some of the best characters. It's sort of, for me, like all of Chris Elliott's career was the absolute useless idiot who is the high status character of the whole thing. You know, like he's like in his, like, and you were that character. He's the highest status person there. No one can tell him what to do.

And he's just a waste of yeah yeah and absolutely every other character's life he's just as like he's an amusement but mostly he's kind of like at times even gets in the way of the forward progress of the group absolutely yeah absolutely yeah so funny and that's and julie wrote that for you kind of julian and and billy wrote that for you, kind of? Julie and Billy wrote that for you? Julie wrote it. Yeah. Julie. And I got the part because I happened to be in L.A. when they did a table read. And I'm not sure if she wrote it with me in mind.

But somewhere in my research it said that. It said that. Maybe. I think I've heard her say that, too. And I'm just being modest and saying, like, well, no. I'm sure she couldn't have written it. She might be lying. She might be lying.

Yeah, yeah. You know what? She's a liar. I'm calling her out here. I want to start a feud right now with Julie about whether or not she wrote that part with me in mind. Well, she knows how delicate you are. Yeah. That you need, how much you need need need yeah um but that was fun and that was like the first time i got to be in a writer's room too on that show and oh that's great yeah yeah what was that like how do how was was that

because i mean you'd worked with with jeffrey you know kind of collaboratively. And was that kind of it? Yeah. Yeah, that was it. And then, you know, everything seems so intimidating until you get in there and you realize, oh, this is just people. Yeah. Like, these are just people doing that. Like, you know, you get a finished script and you look at it and it's all formatted correctly and you're like, oh, all these abbreviations. Like, oh, why is cut two on the other side of the –

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you think like, I don't know any of that. I can't be a writer. And then you get in and it's like, the writers don't even do the formatting. You don't have to. People coming up with ideas. Yeah. So that was an eye an eye opening experience.

It's also for me like one of the primal reasons for doing what like sit around be funny with funny people. Yeah. Yeah. It's like what the fuck and get paid for it. You know. Yeah. Yeah. It's just and that's not to be pollyannish because

you're creating a product sure you know but but it is but it is like wow it's just and so much fun you know yeah when i got like writing on amy's show like almost every night i would leave that that room and i would go like wow i just got to spend hours laughing with like one of my heroes like yeah that's incredible yeah so yeah yeah well um do you what do you see like life i i have a hard time seeing life past COVID. I think about like what it's going to be and what my plans are and, you know, and I, whether, you know, and there are days and I'm like, I am going to come out of this thing, guns blazing, look out Hollywood. And then there's other days where I just think like, well, maybe I'll just retire. You know, I, my mind is in

retirement right now. I'm looking at, I can't afford to buy anything, but I'm looking at real estate in the Scottish Highlands. I'm looking at castles for sale. I really am, every day. Are they cheap? Are they cheap? You could buy a castle there for the price of a house in LA. Wow.

Like, you know, like 1.2 or like, you know. But there's no plumbing and it's six hours from a grocery store absolutely absolutely but like how impressed my because my fantasy is buying a castle in the scottish highlands you know like and and inviting people to like oh i have this place in the country come stay with me it's it's cute this cute little place like i there's there's space for you and then having them come up a two mile driveway to like a castle and acting like like oh i'm sorry it's a little cold but yeah you know and then just huge herds of miniature ponies running around yeah every room covered in mirrors yes yeah but that's really like i i really can't picture neck like between next year and 10 years from now like my mind is or 10 years like i'm gonna retire

it at 43 um but i mean i'd love to but that's where my my brain is going right now are you are you working on things i mean you're are you uh sort of like you know i i was working on things before this started and then like writing projects that came to a stopping point and it's you know i could work on something i'm uh mostly i'm watching a lot of lectures on um historical i'm watching a lot of historical lectures like i'm watching a 24 part lecture on the year 1215 right now wow you jerk off to weird stuff i do i certainly do and i and you you bet i don't come until they mention the fourth labyrinth council absolutely not i wait how do you how do you how do you come upon i mean i didn't come upon how do you how do you decide like how does this start to happen that you're watching these incredibly

minute detailed lectures it's just like um you know, it's like, I love The Crown. I love a boring mood, like, historical period thing. And then, you know, I run out of The Crown. I watch Wolf Hall. I run out of those episodes. I'm looking for other similar things.

I watch a documentary on YouTube. Then I find... There's a lecture series on the year 1066 on this website, The Great Courses Plus. So I watch that. And then, you know, then I'm like, this is really comforting to watch. The Great Courses Plus is like if Masterclass didn't fuck or have nice clothes. Whereas Masterclass is very, very like slick and sexy yeah

there's lots of editing tricks and stuff editing tricks the great courses plus is a camera in a room with a college professor who has never been more excited to talk to you about the norman conquests yeah and they shouldn't be on camera this person should not be ever be on camera they're stumbling over their words but it's endearing and it's like they love what they're talking about and so and i don't remember any facts like i'll maybe remember two facts every like that's what i was gonna ask because i yeah i don't think i could yeah but i feel when i'm watching it i'm like oh now i know that I'm quite smart. Look at me. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll show those people about that who talk about not going to college. I'm going to college right now. Yeah. At the University of COVID. Yeah. Yep.

Well, so I mean, because that's kind of, you know, the two of the gimmick of this thing and the three questions is like, you know, where are you going? And I mean, but yes, are you just I feel like the three questions is like, you know, where are you going? And I mean, but are you just, I feel like the world's on pause, you know? And also I was talking to Amy and she was saying like, this is the time to explore. And I, and you know, like there are times when I feel creative bursts. I felt one when I made that special. And now I feel like I'm, I'm collecting information that,

and I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I just have to follow what I like and trust that eventually I'll be like, Oh, I'm going to write a sketch show about the plague or, you know, something that all of that information will come in handy. Yeah. I hope.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is, you know, I don't want to keep any more. This has been really delightful. Thanks. I'm so glad we got to talk. For me too. Yeah, I'm so glad we got to, this extended chance to talk because I really have been

enjoying your stuff for as long. And I never saw the logo show, so I have to go back and watch some of those. That would be – It's almost unwatchable. Is it really? It's hard to find. Well, the quality is just so bad.

Right. Because it was – we didn't have sound – we didn't have equipment. But they're fun. The sound is bad and stuff like that. Yeah, the sound is really bad, and it's like, ouch. It hurts. Well, still, I think it'd be, I mean, it would, you know,

I definitely would. Don't you dare. I will. You can't stop me from watching what I want. But, well, what's, I mean, what do you think the point of all of it is? You know? Don't talk to strangers. That's how things get. That's how things get that's how things get weird

I don't know I don't know what the point is except to keep watching that keep watching that lecture series well I mean do you have like a philosophy do people say to you do people talk to you and say like you know what's your advice what do you you know i mean whether it's professional

it's personal or i feel like like uh i i don't know it always feels masturbatory to be like this is the quality i love about myself but yeah one thing that I'm like relieved I have is like, I really am the most important barometer for myself in terms of like the work that I create. Like I, you know, I've been, I've put out stuff in the past couple of years that like, I just like, wasn't that happy with and like i i don't know like it's just so you know the special that i i made like it's not like it

blew up or like it's getting me millions of jobs but like i'm so proud of it that i'm like i know that like that is like i i'm just so pleased that it turned out the way that I had hoped it would turn out when I started it. And that is so I'm so glad that I have that. I'm my main goal is always to fulfill like myself. I think I hope I, you know, as somebody who's 20 ish years older than you if not how old are you seven 33 33 i knew it same age as jesus when he died um uh i am i'm i am 20 years older than you and i will tell you the fact that you are coming upon that notion of i did this thing it was a lot of, you know, it's not setting the world on fire, but I'm really proud of it.

And it's yeah. And it is. And it's not like it was a failure. You know, I mean, it's no people saw it. It will have. It exists forever online. It's not like, you know, and there are people that saw it that will give you jobs. There are people that saw it that will want to work with you.

And there are people that saw it that will then see something else that you ran and go oh i remember that that's that guy that did that that youtube special in his apartment and and it will matter but the main thing is is that you just like you spent some of your time on earth doing something that was fruitful and satisfying and fulfilling to you and that the fact that you're coming on that that you figured that out at 33 and that you know means i can i can retire at 43. no i don't think you should oh i don't think you should i think you're gonna you know how i mean because you're gonna get to the end of those lectures and then what then you're right well i need to learn how to season a cast iron skillet

that's next on the list that's easy you you you say that in a 350 degree oven you take the skillet you cover it with it could be a light coating well you can do it on the stove you start with shortening or i like to use ghee because i'm a big adherent of ghee. Kind of coat the inside of it, get it coated, dump out any excess, and then put a sheet of paper towels or a pan underneath it and heat it upside down in that 350 degree oven for half an hour or more. And then that will create the seasoning. and then you just don't you don't scrub it with abrasives and you don't wash it with soap right so well then now yeah then now i am done i don't know what else after the lecture then go back

to college you know okay yeah yeah getal arranging. Thank you. Yeah. Highly. There's so many things. Yeah. Well, call the scholar. Thank you so much. Thank you. Some time and being on the,

and gracing this podcast with your, I don't know. It's not really wisdom, I guess. You're, you're, yeah, you're, yeah, you're, yeah, you're just, I guess. Your essence. Yeah, your joie.

Yeah. Your joie. Yeah. You're just your general joie. Your joie general. Thank you. And please come up to the castle. I will.

I will, absolutely. And I'm going to bring some really obnoxious friends with me. I'm going to trash that fucker. I can't wait. Yeah. All right. Well, I hope that we can get together face to face at some point soon. And I hope, you know, nothing but the best for you. And thank you so much.

Thanks, Andy. And thank all of you out there for listening. And we will get back at you next time with three questions. I've got a big, big love for you. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Earwolf production. It's produced by me, Kevin Bartelt, executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Chris Bannon and Colin Anderson at Earwolf.

Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, associate produced by Jen Samples and Galit Zahayek, and engineered by Will Becton. And if you haven't already, make sure to rate and review The Three Questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.