The Three Questions with Andy Richter - David Dastmalchian

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

You've seen David Dastmalchian in "The Dark Knight", "The Suicide Squad", "Late Night with the Devil", and now "Murderbot" on Apple TV+. The talented character actor joins Andy Richter to discuss working with Christopher Nolan, his fascination with horror and the macabre, his podcast where he interviews guests from inside coffins, their recent meeting in Kansas City, and much more.Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the three questions with Andy Richter. I remain Andy Richter. And today I am talking to David Desmaltian. You've seen him in the dark night, late night with the devil, prisoners, Blade Runner, 2049, Dune, and so many other fantastic things. You can see him now in the also fantastic Apple TV Plus series Murder Bot and in the upcoming horror movie Dust Bunny. Here is my really, really great conversation with David Desmaltian. David Desmaltian, thank you so much for coming in. Hi. Hi. How are you?

Thanks for having me in. I'm glad to have you. Good to be in. We met in Kansas City at the big slick. You know this. I assume you know this. Unless the medication. I didn't really causing lapses.

But yeah, we met each other there, kind of spent the weekend together. And it was one of those. I have a life that is so fascinating, even to myself, in which I have admired or been entertained by people for years, sometimes decades. And then all of a sudden,

I'll be in a room or I'll be in a circumstance and I'll turn around. And there's that person standing right next to me. And I'm making, I like physical eyeball contact with them and it's you it's Andy who I have like I told you this I believe when we were chatting at one point but it just like you know here's a person who's brought so much joy into my life over many many years through many different times I'm sure you've heard this millions of times from people but we're at this really wonderful event in my hometown Kansas

city doing something helping a children's hospital and and I got to meet you and we just we spent the weekend just just having a great time man it was so awesome yeah well that's all i wanted we can stop the pod thanks it was good to see you thank you it was good to see parking was a little tricky oh no that's so nice to hear and that really is like i'm old enough now that i'm learning to like just take that thing you know the fact that like when you say like given joy or made happy like like that i'm like you know what that's pretty cool you know i mean in the you know in the same way that i felt it was pretty cool when i started doing this and was meeting people that i'm like holy shit there's you know david bowie sure david boy knows who i am you the second

second night of the conan show mary tyler more was a guest it was and it was we done the night before she's on the second night i walk into the makeup room she turns and says andy And I, like, you know, if I was a machine, I would have, like, sparks would have flown out because it's like, you're not supposed to know me, Mary Tyler Moore. So, yeah, in the same way that that was special, I'm, like, learning to, like, accept that I got to do a really cool thing and that it's meaningful to people. And that's, it's good to say thank you and actually accept it as opposed to, you're like, what the fuck did I do? Well, you know, I just can't, you know. I don't know if you have Julia Childs on the show. No.

What about Vincent Price? I don't think when I'm looking at these guys, they were too young to even know. Because there are so many people in this organization. I'm just pulling some random things that I was like. Vincent Price is an interesting question because I do not remember. And I would say no because I think I would have remembered that. Because there definitely have been people that have been on the show that I don't remember. And I have embarrassed myself.

Can you all nice to meet you? It's the worst feeling in the world. They're like, no, you, I was, but like I make an exception. Like, it's like it's, it's a talk show and I don't meet, you know, I don't, I rarely would meet people before the show. They'd come out for six or seven minutes, not talk to me much. Yeah. And then be gone. And that part of my day was so kind of compartmentalized into show part where I would go home and, you know, my ex-wife would say, who was on the show today.

And it would be like three or four hours. hours later and I'd go, um, uh, you know, who was on the show? I don't remember. The president of the United States. I, uh, well, we'll get into it as we converse and I answer questions for you, but I, I mean, this is like a serious reflection when I think back genuinely to probably they've had, as I calculated in my 50 years on earth, there are two epochs, which, which to me reflect the lowest times in my life like the times

when I was the most depressed the most kind of ready to just throw in the towel and one of those times and I'm not

sitting here to blow any smoke up your proverbial but I just would look forward to the show and I was and I have all these

deep seated memories I shared one of them with you like just bonkers wacko episodes that I I was in such a state. Sometimes I didn't know

if they were really happening or not. There is a Richard Kind episode that I go, is this really happening right now? Is my brain starting to go into like

some David Kronenbergian my melting with the TV? I was on a lot of drugs at that time, people. And then, and then, you know, in all honesty,

last year was also the second epoch and coming through kind of cresting out of getting into a place of starting to feel a sense of lightness again in my life and a sense of like

finally starting to feel like I can wake up without wondering if I need to I just would wake up with these terrible anxiety attacks and then I meet you in real life so you're very symbolic in my life and now I'm here on your show thank you very much yes and we did the thing there too

where we were like I have a podcast you have a podcast I'll be on yours if you'll be on mine so I expect your expectation now to come climb in a casket with me. And that's the thing I wanted to say. Your podcast is, it's from a casket. Speaking of Vincent's price.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Are they in your house? No, we ran a little studio where we shoot it in the valley called Fonco and we set up the caskets, the company that owns the caskets, Titan Casket. I am their brand ambassador. I have been for several years now. I believe in the company, all serious. I love what they do because they've kind of flipped the market upside down because up until a few years ago, there was basically like two sources of your casket and they're astronomically expensive.

And you'd be in a funeral home in the darkest moments of your life and somebody's pulling out what is like going to the showroom floor of a car salesman and going, well, you know, if you really loved mom, you're going to go with the model with all the bells and whistles. But hey, I understand if you didn't love her that much, here's the mediocre. right and then here's the and and the pricing on that is wild and so this company does um has subverted that by sometimes 10,000 dollars. So they just have the philosophy that like they can create a product that's just as good without putting people into debt. And I was like, oh, I believe in that. But also I'm like a guy that likes coffins and caskets. This is a this is on brand for me. So I showed up for our first photo shoot and they've got the caskets. How do they make out to you? So my friend Elon Gale, who is a dear friend and he produced.

is reality and scripted. He does all kinds of stuff. He's making the Carrie show with Mike Flanagan right now. He said to me, I got contacted by this casket company. They want to try and, like, just totally change the game with the way this stuff works. They want to be the Gen Z caskets. Yeah, they want to, like, you know, just change the way it's happening. And I go, tell me more.

And then he said, he said, let's let's have some fun. We'll see if it, if it goes, you know, it was, it was just a rare. and weird opportunity, and I thought, sure, and I met the people, it's a three person, the whole company's like three people and a couple of employees. I was like, I love these people. And then they, um, and so went to do a photo shoot. And this is not terribly, like, maybe two years after I'd lost my, both my parents and death is like such a subject that is so important to me. I think about all the time. And I, and I play in that space. I do tons of horror. I do tons of genre stuff. I think that, you know, coffins and scripts and all that's very fun. And so I'm all

geared up to go get in, and we're going to do some pictures. And I walked up to the coffin, all of a sudden I was like overwhelmed with like, oh my God, this is actually kind of a, I'm scared of this thing. And then I started like talking about it and I climbed in it. They were like, what are you doing? I was like, I need to know how it feels. And I climbed in the casket. I was like, it feels comfortable in here. And then we just started to the people around me started talking.

And then months later, Elon said, you know, it could be cool. If we just like filmed you talking to people in a casket, I was like that no one's, A, no one's going to want to climb in a casket. I thought he meant with me, like two of us. And like, hey, Andy, let's get comfy. I was like, that's going to be weird. You need a double line for that, yeah. And then he goes, no, no, no, we'll put two caskid side by side. I would just have a chat show.

And I thought about it. I said, I just don't think it's going to work. And he said, well, let's try one. I've always trust Elon at this point. So many things in my life. But I go, okay. So we tried it. Did a couple of them.

We had Mike Flanagan, Matt Lillard, Kate Siegel. It was just a couple of folks, good friends. people we know personally who did it. And it was magic. It was so special because everybody had something to be talking about. Maybe they've got a book or an album or a show that's coming out. So we could just shoot the shit and we're laying there. It's very comfortable.

This is nice. I like seeing you, but there is something nice too. Imagine if we were like on a hillside laying on our backs just staring at the clouds like Harold and Maud. Or in an analyst office, an old school analyst office. Very much, yes. Now tell me, Harold. these dreams of your mother. I did it and I was like, this is great.

And then, and then it creeps up on you. Because then, of course, the questions lead into like, what do you think, you know, happens when you die? Or what do you want like your family to do? Those kinds of questions. And some people make great jokes and they've come in prepped and ready and they've got all the walls up and that's totally makes sense. I do it too.

Yep. And sometimes people, it just comes down. Yeah. And we get really emotional. And I don't know, man. I love it. Yeah. So I would think that you couldn't.

It's like if you went to Dodger Stadium and, you know, you talk about baseball. So I imagine you do end up having to, no matter who the person is or what they're, you know, what they're pimping. Yeah. You're going to end up talking about that. And I ask, yeah, we talk about it and sometimes end of life planning. What do you think happens? you know how much do you think about it you know blah blah blah give one of the the things we do every episode at the end of the episode is I ask my guest to deliver their own eulogy why are eulogy

so they get to say what they would like in a minute or less yeah no pressure I'm always like no pressure this is the most important speech that's ever been given about you delivered by you at your own funeral one two three go you're dead and then they have to be like um hi I'm andy I I mean, I mean, Andy was a great guy. He loved his family. And no, it's, it's really special. And you'll be in there. I'm going to get you in there.

I definitely want to. Thanks. The only thing I've always felt about caskets that's weird and why anyone would want this is the notion that it will preserve you. Like, if you're going to put me in the ground, let me molder. Yeah. You know, like let me break down and at least be something. food for something, you know.

I agree. I mean, I don't think I'll be presented that way. I believe I will be either cremated or have my body donated to science. I have been speaking for years now with my estate attorney about very specifics of my end-of-life

planning, which includes the fact that I'd like my head removed from my body. Donate my body to science. This is totally true. And I want my skull preserved. And then it can be passed around kind of like the Stanley Cup like if it's going to be on the kids mantle great but if like the Goodman theater is doing a production of hamlet and they need Yorick I'd love to know that I could

continue on or or someone's making some Vincent Pricy you know house on haunted hill and they need a skull like wouldn't that be would that be great it I will tell you because I actually have some knowledge about this um because do you know Del Close that I've I've heard that he wanted or he did do it He wanted this. Yeah. He wanted this. He wanted the exact same thing. He wanted to have his head removed, cleaned up.

Yeah. So it was just a skull. And then to be used as Yorick. Yes. I think the Goodman or somewhere like that. That's where I started in Chicago. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And it was, there was a skull delivered, but it was not his. Not his. Because they're just the legality. There's a lot of legal hoops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm talking to my incredible estate attorney, Les. Less, by the way, is such a trip. He's such a wild character.

I meet with this guy by Zoom during the pandemic. And I'm like, if I die, I want to make sure the kids are set up. Like, what are I going to do? He's like, don't worry. It's okay. I got you, man. He's very good. My lawyer recommended him and he does this.

He's amazing. But, you know, he's an estate attorney. So it's kind of a dry conversation. I mean, conversations about things you're uncomfortable with. And I did bring it up. And he goes, well, you know, it's a little. it's tricky with medical laws and da-da-da-da is, but, you know, there's always money can make things happen to. So I'm like, we'll figure it out. Right, right. And if your head goes missing,

what can you do? What can you do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? It's a mystery. It sounds like a great episode of a show to me. You got a saw and a bucket of bleach. Columbo, Colchack. Somebody get on the case, this guy's head's man. But he go, we get to the end of call and he must have this happen all the time with a dentist but the sudden you know you get to call we haven't discussed my career at all so you're a you're an actor right and I was like mm-hmm you're right you write too I was like yep and he's like I do some writing and immediately like a completely judgmental pessimistic asshole I go oh great yeah I get to hear about his pitch for his pilot yeah yeah I'd hear about his new movie yeah oh and he

He goes, yeah, did it do, da, da, da, you know, did you read that new annotated Dracula? And I was like, oh, yeah. I mean, I literally look up from his thing in my library, my book, it's right there. It's one of the most incredible, you know, stabs at trying to give us Dracula again. I was like, oh, yeah, it's up here. He goes, yeah, yeah, that's mine. I was like, what? And I pull it down.

I look, and I'm like, oh, my God. And he is like, not only this incredible estate attorney, he's also done the, all the annotated Arthur Conan Doyle's, he works with all the, you work with all the, like legendary pieces of literature and he's just genius wow is it all kind of gothic things that he does he's got that he's in that sweet spot wow that i love so i know it's like it's like a it's like a lawyer dating service i mean there's a match made in heaven oh do i know it well it happens to be at arm's length right now okay cupid Can't you tell my loves it grows

Now tell me because you are I mean I think every time I've ever seen you You're wearing black You as you said you do a lot of horror You do a lot of genre Like almost it's when you look at a list of like The things that you've done It is kind of like

It's enviable I mean to the point of like jealousy Where I'm like What if you got on these On these comic book and horror people That you keep getting to work with all you know, do all these cool, fun jobs. I'm thousands of years old.

Is that one years? I am a vampire. I read minds and I have all the dirt on all of them. Right. And the coffin is just a nice nap spot. Let's go back, Andy. Let's go back to Chicago. I was doing, I mean, I came from Kansas.

A Bible Belt kid raised and was deeply immersed in my love of comic books and genre horror. But all of that was very. forbidden when I was a kid because it was a very religious household and that stuff was Catholic? Like evangelical. Oh, okay. So like, like Fangoria would be tantamount to penthouse letters, like under your mattress.

Yeah, like hiding things around the house. So sneaking down to watch Vincent Price or Peter Lurie or all of my favorite early heroes, you know, in a horror movie. So I, and I loved acting. Didn't think I would get to act at the last minute got an opportunity to go study at this incredible, you know, school in Chicago. and threw myself into the work and was doing all of the Shakespeare and, you know, Tennessee Williams and blah, blah, but I always still loved the comic books and the horror and everything.

And the stuff that I loved, I always felt like was approached with the same seriousness that we do the work if you're doing Shakespeare or you're doing Superman, right? Right. But sadly, because I had just so much stuff that I hadn't dealt with or processed, that time that I was describing to you earlier, I had found the magic elixir best antidepressant. this is pejorative, I'm just joking, called heroin. And I was severely strung out for years in Chicago. And so my whole career, hopes of a career were over.

And then miraculously, through a bunch of near-death experiences and a lot of recovery work was able to get clean again. But I never thought I'd act against. I was writing, I was reading comic books constantly. That's where my imagination lived. And then loving film and independent movies and going to the music box and seeing everything that was happening, you know, from Jarmush and, et cetera. And then I got to start acting again.

And I, friends, I was, I was doing telemarketing by day, working downtown in the city, and I'd live in a tiny one bedroom up in uptown, and then going to doing a movie theater usher at night, Webster Place in Lincoln Party. And friends who were amazing theater directors come in, see me there. And like, what do you do? I haven't seen, I haven't heard from you in years. You know, and I was like, this is my new life. Yeah.

Come on. So there's all this incredible store. Chicago's a theater town unlike any other in the world where the thriving storefront scene is such that 20 seat to 50 seat houses every night of the week. There's some incredible life-changing work that's happening in these little tiny theaters. And these incredible artists invited me to get back on stage. I was scared. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do it.

But I tried it. Actually found out that I was a much surprising thing. better actor without heroin, was much more reliable. I mean, I had done some mental health work and I had learned some miles under your belt, too, some life experience, a lot of gratitude because when you nearly die and then you nearly lose everything, you live in a car and you'd go through all that shit, and then you go just to be able to be creative and make no money doing it is such a gift. So I did that.

And then got cast in the TV commercial that went crazy. just a silly fun, like, cell phone commercial. And all of a sudden, I'm auditioning for my first big movie, a small, tiny role, but it's John Papsidera, who changed my life, has come into town to cast the sequel to Batman Begins called The Dark Night. We didn't even know what it was called at that point. And I auditioned for this movie along with all 150 other creepy-looking Chicago character actors who were, you know, summoned into this cattle call.

But because that silly, funny, Chris Smith directed commercial, his assistant, and he knew me, he saw something in my creepy face, and he brought me in and then liked what I did. He said, go home, do all this work you're doing, but stop doing so much with your body and your mouth and put it up in your eyes, and then I want you to meet Chris. And so he brought me the next time I met Chris Nolan. He gave me this wonderful, tiny, but very powerful role in the dark night. And I believe, Andy, that two things happen. one, this lifetime of pumping all of this inspiration into my blood and my spirit from

comics and horror movies and genre and my love of that stuff, plus that like lottery, one in a million chance of not only getting to audition for one of the greatest directors of all time, but that he saw something, puts me in this movie. Yeah. That is my first time anyone's introduced to me in film or TV or otherwise, the first job. Yeah. it just planted something I feel like in people's brains

because then I get to California eventually and everyone go oh Batman Dark Night I was like yeah and then I think that helped me be seen in a certain light plus because I care about the stuff

so much I think you do whatever they want to call it the power of the intention or whatever but like you if you really are passionate about a thing you're going to gravitate towards it in a way right? Right and these opportunities kept presenting themselves, and I always took it so seriously, because I love the work so much.

And I don't think it's silly. I mean, it's silly. It is silly. I laugh at myself all the time, but, like, I still, I love it. And the work kept growing and growing. And now I look around and I see what I get to participate in. And I'm, I'm living in like a nerdvana kind of state of geek bliss. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm just drenched in gratitude, you know, as hard as life is, as much as I still struggle and wake up sometimes and still want to bolt out the window because I get riddled with anxiety and self-doubt and all the stuff that everybody who's listening does too. We all do it. Let's not pretend like anybody's just walking through this thing like it's cake.

One of the great grounding things is, oh my God, I'm free of the control that addiction had on me. And also I'm so, I won the lottery. And I'll stop, I'll shut up. I know I've been like just rambling. here but I would say the idea of podcast is people talking I know but like I'm a chitty chatter but I I will say I think this is really important if you're listening to because especially if you want to be an entertainment you go like there's three there's three things that are so vital I've always

known two of them and I just recently came to peace with the third because I have a lot of what is comparative to like survivors guilt with the third but the first two are relationships you got to you just got to you've got to treat people kindly yeah and you've got to be you know You know, do your best to just just establish and maintain good relationships in this business. And also the relationships thing, Martha Plimpton was just in here yesterday and we talked about this same thing. I'm a big Martha Plimpton fan, by the way. Yes, she's awesome. The thing about being nice to people is like even if you're just doing it as a calculation, if you're just doing it because you see other human beings as like a vending machine,

from which you put in kindness and you get back whatever, you know, whatever you want. Like, it'll still work, but the fact is it's good for on its own. It's good on its own. It's so rewarding just on its own basis. You get to go home feeling good. Yes, I wish I was the most altruistic person in the world. I'm just not. Yeah.

So part of like recovery is service. You're supposed to like reach out to others, help others. It's part of like they say you only get it if you give it away. So I do it because I'm instructed to do it sometimes. don't do it because I wake up and go, you know what? I want to check it on Charlie. I think he's having a hard time. I'm Mother Teresa.

I've got a lot of time in my day to care about other people's feelings. But you do it because it works. And so relationships, reputation, you have a good reputation that you show up in on time and you memorize your lines and you try and be kind of people. And the one leads to the other. And then the last one is roulette. The more times you could spill in the roulette wheel, the more opportunity you have to maybe your number coming up. And for me, the number has come up. an inexplicable number of times that sometimes I scratch my head, sometimes I feel a lot of guilt

because I know people intimately who are still in Chicago, you know, um, bell hopping. Yeah. And more talented than Dave D. For sure, like more versatility, more, um, range, better looking, better this, better that. Why me? Like, why do? So I've been just making peace with like, okay, for some reason, my number just came up number of times. Yeah. And I'm, and instead of feeling carrying guilt around about that, honor it, respect it, be grateful for it, and then hopefully create opportunities for other people that maybe their roulette number could come up. Yeah, yeah. And that's why I started, I love doing my own projects and stuff like that, too.

Yeah, yeah. I want to ask, too, because it occurs to me, because I like, I'm not like as much of a horror genre person as a lot of people that I know and who are in my life. But I definitely do like him. And I do, and as I get older, too, I have, I have much less patience for, like, quiet films about, you know, emotional growth and, you know, like, the, yeah, like, years of sublimated trauma in a small New England family. Like, I'm just like, does anyone drive a car fast? Are there any murders? Is there a monster?

You know? and and I kind of was like that and I wonder I've wondered in me like what is it that I like about going to see a scary movie and when I have time that I'm like I'm going to go see a movie and I go see him by myself frequently and I'm like what do I want to see and it's almost always horror action you know like something like that and and as a little kid who's first of all being told no you can't look at Fangoria which is probably one of the reasons why it becomes even more. Oh, of course. Don't look at boobs. Don't look at boobs. Don't look at boobs. But what do you think was in you that makes you kind of, that's so fascinated,

that's so fascinated with death and with morbidity and monsters and fear? Well, it's the million dollar question. And there's something cathartic and wonderful when collectively a story's told and whether it's completely fantastical and you know, you've got supernatural beings or werewolves or vampires, no matter what, if it's just a straight-up serial killer, terrifying story, there's something cathartic

about going through an experience with a group of people in a theater or on your couch or streaming or even alone with the collective group of people that are streaming it worldwide with you and you survive, you make it through the story, your heart rate increases like you're on a roller coaster, and then you get to a resolution.

And even if the bad guy eats all the people, the credits roll. And then we're safe and we're comforted again. And there's something really nice and cathartic about that that is a good and a Joseph Cambly kind of way analogous to life, obviously. There's also, to me, something about staring in the face of the things that scare us the most. And with genre, you get to plus them up by a thousand times.

So if, you know, my fear of darker thoughts that exist within me that I'm embarrassed to talk about out loud is something that, you know, I can do in therapy. in the comfort of close friends. But if I feel like everybody experiences that and we're all scared of that, would it be cool to tell a story about how maybe the shadow self actually comes out of your mouth

and it forms and it starts causing all kinds of hell around you? Like, oh, and then everybody gets to watch that and maybe not everybody's sitting in the theater going, well, Dave D's got some dark thoughts in his mind, they're just going, that's a cool monster, it's killing people. I like that.

But there's something, I don't know, something in there. and it connects. And then there's also that little kid in me that just something about it since I was very little, very little. I don't know what. Maybe it's just in the way I was cooked

like when Halloween time rolled around and haunted houses started advertising and all the scary movies would advertise and you'd see people in costumes and the decorations would go up and the fall leaves would fall and the pumpkins would get illuminated. I'd go, this just feels good to me.

Yeah, yeah. I love the production design. of this time of years. I do too. I do too. Like all that stuff. I mean, I like Christmas too, but I mean, but Halloween has a little bit, you know. I'm doing that.

I guess it's because I'm not, I'm not a big believer in Christianity. So like, you know, it all roots back to like baby Jesus, whereas Halloween just roots back to like, I don't know, you know. Scareing away the evil spirits. Yeah, scaring away evil spirits. But also sort of like. Candy? Inviting them. Yeah, and candy.

sure you got the candy yeah yeah i got i got i got this year an opportunity with my really close friends the boule brothers they have a show called dragula it's like a drag horror competition and we're doing a holiday special it's so fun it's completely subversive but imagine like Halloween just crashes into christmas oh wow and so it's all decked out like it's going to be a traditional you know it's the paul lind christmas special right but instead it's going to be just bloodshed and gore and horror i'm really having fun making that yeah that's great and it'll be at december 10th i believe um amc and uh shutter yeah oh that's fun yeah that's really fun can't you tell my loves i also want to ask about about growing up in a religious household

and to talk about that a little bit because you are Iranian-American, although Armenian. Iranian. Really? Iranian. I think, oh, maybe we talked about this. Desmaltian is a Farsi word.

So it is from Iran. Although I do have some Armenian blood, my father was born in Tehran Iran, Iranian father. Because I've just been programmed to think IAN, especially being from here. Do you know how many times, Andy? I'll be like picking up my dinner or getting my car and whoever I'm talking to,

they see my last name and they go, they start speaking to me in Armenian or they believe I'm Armenian. And then I'll say, I'm actually, it's a nuance to it, but I'm actually Iranian. My dad's remember, and they'll argue with me. So I just started going, you're right. You're right. Can I get some, you know, extra whatever? Extra kebab.

You're totally right. Well, tell me about how it gets, you know, it gets to an evangelical Persian household. Sure. In my experience, sort of a rarity. So dad came over in the late 50s in Muslim immigrant from Iran, and then shortly after being in the States, met my mom. And I don't think either of them were terribly religious at that point. I think my mom had rebelled a bit against, like, structures. Were they college age?

They were college age, yeah. And then they fell in love and started a life together. And at a certain point, I don't know what it was the triggering event that initiated them so much into getting really involved in the church. Something. I mean, they bopped around a lot. They went from, like, Colorado, to Detroit, to Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania. Then they moved to Kansas in the mid-70s.

Kansas will do that to you, I think. There's a deep religious culture there. If you want to fit in, this is one thing I'll say it sadly. I've a really complicated relationship with my father. And I'm grateful by the time he passed, we're very close. But there was a lot of road to get through for us to get there. And something that was tricky with him, I felt he had several big chips on his shoulder. God knows I've got a whole mint chip bucket of chips on mine.

And he was something he really wanted to assimilate. I feel like he didn't. he was he it wasn't like we did a lot of iran stuff yeah like does that make so there's no pride no yeah no it was very kansas and we're listening we're watching he-ha we're listening to roy clark we're doing you know we're going to be we're going to be kansas now and he really wanted to fit in and i feel like he never did and i feel like there's also a lot of in the 80s making fun of people with accents was just so standard yes uh so impressions of my dad's accent was so common around and I think you laugh with it when it's happening to you but down deep there's a party

that's just like so I think being welcomed into a church community yeah and then my mom I don't she just felt moved by the Holy Spirit and she got all involved and it was just became all encompassing it became the whole life and to me uh that was super tricky because I had a really my brain and the way that I saw the world even as he as a little boy was um wrestling with a lot of the concepts that I was being taught. And yet at the same time, it felt so good because there was a lot of tumult in our house. There was alcoholism and there was distress,

there was financial insecurity, and there was all kinds of conflict. And the parents eventually had a divorce that wasn't a lot of fun. And I remember very early thinking a couple of things that wigged me out, which they seemed to find a lot of peace and tranquility, and one of which I was like,

infinity freaks me out. It always has, and it did as a little boy. And then this idea that you would, if you did the right thing, you'd go to one place and be just in bliss for infinity, which even that I get scared about. Because I was like, well, what happens after like, 10,000 years? Do you get bored? Do you get, what, do you get, like, do your toenails keep growing? Like what? I couldn't stop thinking about it. And the other was like, and if you don't, you know where you're going to go for ever and I was like oh so there's this entity that loves us and that will do anything for us but if we don't do things the right way yeah yeah dropped in this lake yeah forever and that was how everything was motivated we'll do you know this is the nice like earlier when we're talking about

why do you do the nice thing it's like you do the nice thing because it's what you do and it's just do it but if you don't you're going to burn I was like oh so I was in a lot of wrestling with that and I would bring stuff up and then get push back. But I did yearn. I yearned for this, this, this sense of like there is some greater purpose. There is some bigger, divine, higher power that does love all of us. And that made sense to me. That tracked. The other stuff I just struggled with and also I'd be like, I'd meet Hindu people or Buddhist people or Jewish people who all seem pretty great. But according to some of the people I was with as a kid, it was like, nope, it's this way or it's nothing. Or you're going to hell. Or you're going to hell.

But not those people, right? Not all those. No, they are. Yeah, yeah. I always love to when somebody would try and evangelize to me and it'd be like, look, no judgments about what the way, the way you think. But if you don't think the way, I think you will burn in hell forever. And it's like, well, that seems pretty judgmental. That seems pretty judgmental. That's tricky. Yeah, yeah. You do have, you formed an opinion about my opinion. So I will say here at 50, I'm half a century old now. And I, I went to. through so many different phases of like angry at the church. And then I was, you know, atheist and I've gone agnostic. And I, and now I see, I just have some, a new found peace, gratitude. I do believe in God. I believe in a higher power. I believe in something so beyond what any of our brains can comprehend and rationalize. And I do believe something in my heart just tells me there is something beautiful about that. I don't, I wish I had better answers. I've got an eight and 11 year old who really

want answers right now. And I remember that was really important and ingrained in me as a kid, like, well, you better know what you believe because you're going to have to teach and raise your kids that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm actually teaching and trying to raise my kids to question. Yeah. And to maybe start finding some comfort in not knowing the answer. And also, you don't have to. They'll figure it out. They are. My son, boy, did he like, I said something about, uh, uh, I say the serenity prayer often when I get like, I'm getting, oh boy, they're pissing me off. So I was just like, man, my breath. I take my, I do my like holy pause as a parent because I want to like get so mad at them and I try and breathe and calm before I say something.

And he's like, God, God doesn't realize it. I was like, oh, here we go. And he's 11. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, hey, man, I want you to believe and find what you're going to believe. But, um, but that baffles some family. Yeah. And I, and I am at peace with that too. And I just, Andy, I love everybody, man. Oh, I want to do. Get love. My religion is, dude. No, I mean, my kids both went to, my older kids both went to Episcopal school. I love the Episcopal church. When they, well, it's, yeah, and I mean, and it's very inclusive.

Like, they celebrate virtually every holiday based on every religion. They deal with it. They talk about it. And I remember my ex-wife, when my son, who was the oldest, started. there was you know there's chapel and there you know and there is religious talking and because we were non-believers and she's like does that bother you and i was like no i was like they're gonna we both got she was raised catholic i was raised sort of whatever protestant church was closest and and i'm like think about it we got told a bunch of stuff and we came out believing what

whatever we felt was right and so and i think i said something like they can tell them whatever fairy tales they want, you know, he'll figure it out. And that's the way, and I actually sort of liked that they did have chapel. And throughout grade school into junior high, I think they would have chapel every morning, which was more about the whole school being in the same room together, kind of announcements kind of thing. Somebody might sing something. they would sing songs together, like the Johnny Appleseed song, or God Bless America. Like, both my kids know, like, all four verses of God bless America. There's four verses.

There is four verses of God bless America. And they know all of them. God bless it. Yeah. And I kind of felt like that's sort of like citizenship kind of stuff. It's like we're all going to sit here together and do the same thing. And there's kind of like a sermonette every now and then, but not having. religious, just sort of humanistic, be kind to each other kind of stuff, or let's, you know,

Ramadan's coming up. Let's talk about what Ramadan means. That's cool. Yeah. And I just felt like, no, this, I'm, I'm with all this stuff. I still am a non-believer. I guess I probably fall more under agnostic, which is the, which I like about, and you sort of mentioned it, it's unknowable. So you know what? I'm going to go about my business. I'm not going to worry about it too much. And I'm going to, as I said before, I'm going to be nice to people because it feels good to be nice to people. And I know that that's the best way to be. And I just know that as a feeling, you know. But yeah, I mean, and I don't, you know, it's, it's funny because it just was never a big issue.

Religion was never a big issue in our household. Huge for me. A big issue with my kids. Yeah. Huge. And so, again, looking at my life and my lifestyle and the way. that my life has taken shape as an adult, all of it, most of it, in some kind of counter-clash with the cultural traditions in which I was raised. And I still carry some, you know,

complex, complicated feelings about it. And that's why I love, I get the wash rinse repeat of being somebody who's in recovery and goes to meetings and does that stuff because we just, you get to like, I pray and meditate in my own way. I get to like, you know, again reconnect with this. that I see, I believe I see the face of my higher power and God in others also. So like I love group dynamic. I love being able to like have a, you know, wonderful interaction with another human being where I get illuminated by something beautiful or shown grace.

When I can show grace to somebody else, what a gift that is. I still feel like I take, take some, I guess they're giving more away, man. I got to take, take, take, take. trying to give, give, give now. Yeah. Getting old. Got to start giving. Got to give it away, man.

Right, right. Yeah, getting old. Getting old. God, we were complaining when we were together in Kansas. We're walking, we're talking. We're like, I'm like, I got to get more fiber. I'm eating too much meat. We also, we played us, you know, there's a softball game that precedes a royals game

in front of the, you know, the stadiums of people. And I really am like, you know, like, because the last time I played in a, in a celebrity-ish soft ball came. I tore the meniscus in my knee and ended up having surgery. And it's like, you know, it's like it's so sad. It's like, oh my God, I'm going to. I fell right on my butt in front of the whole Kaufman Stadium. I mean, always, you know, like to terrify that the ball's going to come to me and the ball came to me. And I was like, and then we're, you know, I'm just, I get sore. I get tired early. Yeah, yeah. I, you know, I got to stretch my hammies now. Yeah. Lower back Got to do all that stuff, yeah.

And again, the fiber. Just more and more, five. There's never enough. Do you have a complicated relationship with your hometown? Because I know you kind of had a rough upbringing. I do, but it's beautiful that it is continued to grow. Like, I get sad when somebody is like, I hate, you know, blah, blah, blah. Where I'm from.

And I'm from here, and I hate it. I really love Kansas City. Yeah. And I have been able to go back and have so much like. healing and connectedness, and I have wonderful friends that still live there. My stepmom still lives there. My father passed away a few years ago, but my stepmom is still out in wonderful Ovalon Park, Kansas, and she's just like another mom to me. I have the big slick and getting to participate in supporting that hospital, which, by the way, Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas

City, when I was in high school and we did not have any money. My sister, who's 10 years older than me had started, she had her first kid pretty young. So I was like a sophomore in high school when she had her son and he had cancer. And that hospital saved his life and totally like took care of my family in the best way. And so dealing with all the dynamics of family stuff and, you know, I think so many of us things happen when you're eight, nine years old and we spend the rest of our lives, like operating a lot of times in, like, the captain's chair of our brains from that place. Yeah, I always think of it, like fixing the wiring, like the damage to the wiring. Yes. Yes. And so I've had these, like, maybe, I think as I counted them up at one point,

doing a personal inventory around low 50s default behavior settings, that when that eight, nine year old gets tripped up man he takes control of like the captain's chair david is completely out of there the 50 year old david's out and then he's just steering with whatever dynamic he thinks is going to help him feel safe because at the end of the day that's what's really trying to happen so the work and learning to go into that part of myself and be like hey mr controlling part i'm 50 yeah i got this i can i can do this without having to get totally disregulated or without having to speed up or honk a horn or And so I go back to Kansas now, and everything isn't triggering to me. I'm able to see the beauty of what I love so much about that place.

And there's just a lot of really wonderful people. So it's really neat. I made a movie back there that deals with some of the stuff that scares me about life and my own family, and I would like to make many more. Is it out? It came out a few years ago called All Creatures Here Below stars Karen Gillen and me. And we play a couple that she kids. It's very, it's like, imagine raising Arizona meets, but not funny, meets a bad land. Child kidnapping that's not funny?

She steals a baby because she really wants one and we can't have one. And the reason why will be revealed in the finale of the film. But it's, it was dark and it dealt with a lot of the themes and stuff that is plagued and haunted my family. And so going back home and making it there was like intense. And I made one of my best friends for life, Karen, and the president. process of making that movie. John Doe of X. He plays my uncle in it. He came out for us. Oh, that's cool. We have a bunch of great actors in the film, actually.

But yeah. So, and I want to make more. I've got to, I write a comic book that I created a fictional town that's kind of like Columbia, Missouri, which is very close to where I grew up. And I, but I call the town Beloit in my comic. And I dream, you know, we all have these big dreams. One of my big dreams, Andy, is that someday this comic that I created called Count Crowley, someone will want to make into like a TV series. And then I have this dream that we could go back and shoot there. Jason was just shooting some Ted Lassow in KC. Oh, yeah.

He was texting with me the other day. It's like, we're in Kansas, such, such restaurant, blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh, my God, that's so awesome. That is fun, yeah. Yeah, I found that I, I mean, I never was, I go back to Chicago and I feel like, and I don't, by Chicago, I don't just mean the city. I mean, the Chicago land area, as it's called, and just feel like, you know what? I, like, it's, I don't, I don't know if it's ancestral, you know, ghosts calling me home,

but I definitely feel like, you know, I could, this is real, I like it here. It's nice. And it does feel like home in a way that for a couple of decades, it didn't. And, and I, so I, I definitely understand. I was, I was not as connected into the same circles as you. I was not in, like, I.O. Second City, that space. but it was my church, if that makes sense. Because I would be doing, you know, some experimental black box play.

You know, we're doing a riff on, you know, Hamlet, but through the eyes of Ophelia, we're doing these cool, really neat plays as part of a lot of really great theater companies. They're like Shattered Globe, which still exists to this day. And every night, every Wednesday night at 10, I would get on the train and head up to Wrigleyville and go watch T.J. and Dave do their show. And, and I just, I, I, I, I, I, I, I worshipped at the altar of, like, the improvers and the comedians, because I, I learned so much as a, um, what is the term he was dramatic actor, straight actor? I guess, yeah, straight actor. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. You probably don't. No. Yeah, but there was, there was, there was improv people, stand up people. people and theater people. And they would, you know, we'd overlap somewhat. But it would, they definitely had their own, their own camps. And like the theater people, I actually felt were more fun. The standups were the one where I'd go to parties that were like stand up parties. And to be

like, why isn't anyone talking to each other? Why are they all standing around smoking cigarettes dark? They're back on the wall to the wall. Just pissed off. Yeah. Just angry. And I mean, the improv parties were like my, my film school. friends would come to the improved parties, you know, like my, you know, like, you know, they look like roadies for the cure. Yeah. We'd come to the party and, and my improv friends are bellowing in hockey jerseys and they're just like, and I just remember one of my, one of my film school friends being like, why do they have to be so loud? And I was like, you know, just because it's fun. We can't help it. Yeah, sorry. It's who we are. I loved it. What do you think is,

what would you call, and I mean, I don't mean this to demean other things you've done, but what, so far, what's your favorite work that you've done? Like, what's your, what, what was the, like, the most satisfying, just feel the best about doing work-wise? Interesting. I, um, there's a, there's a, there's a few. It's, it's, it's, it's, um, when I think back to doing like the glass menagerie, um, at the Victory Gardens with Shattered Globe Theater in Chicago and getting out there every night and just

being totally, you know, emotionally naked in front of an audience of people, some of whom could give a shit. And just using words like that to try and tell a story. It was pretty life-changing. Getting to be a small, little, tiny part of something so giant, the fantasy element of what the dark night in my memories, it almost looks watercolor. It was so fantastical to me. And I felt so detached almost out-of-body experience when you walk into your first hair and makeup trailer of your career and you're sitting next to Christian Bail and Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman and Maggie Gyllenhaal and you're just about then they're talking to you like you're one of their fellow castmates. I made a film about addiction called Animals that I wrote, produced, basically

made in Chicago for barely any money. I don't know, man. That's a tough question. They're all so important to me. I think about my first collaboration with Denis Villeneuve on prisoners and the way that changed the way that I looked at myself as an actor and how safe I could feel in the arms of a director that I trusted. And we've gotten to collaborate a lot since then. I think about James Guns, the suicide squad and what a special experience it was to be with one of my best friends playing a character who was so similar to the real me. And it's always the next one. Like murder bot, the Apple show. that I did changed my life, Andy. Like I was telling me, there's the second epoch.

I was at the lowest I've ever been in my life. I was 49 years old. I was having the most amazing critical success with my film Late Night with the Devil, which also happened to be one of my great, ever experience, greatest experiences ever as an actor. That movie was blowing up. I'm doing a big TV show.

I've got movies in the wings. My books are now starting to really take hold and all my comics are coming out. And I was, I was as low as I've ever felt internally, stuff, just personal life, et cetera, and, and getting to show up and do murder bot. And those words that the White's brothers and their team wrote, like, coming to my mouth and being able to, like, exist in that space was like, I, for anyone who gets to watch the show, if you ever check it out, there's an episode where it's kind of a flashback.

And I went into work that day, kind of like, how am I even going to show up? How am I going to pull this off? Because I don't feel present. I feel like I'm not even here. Is it the episode where they kind of go into your characters past? Yes. Yeah, yeah. And I, and I, all of a sudden, I'm sitting here with these actors who have come to really

love and trust, and I'm doing, and I start telling these, this story about a guy who's so steeped in like shame and guilt over his past and mistakes that he's made and ways he's hurt people he loves and then his addiction and it comes up that he is like a recovering addict and i knew that was coming but i certainly didn't see it coming the way that it did that day and when those words started coming out of me um i don't believe in acting as therapy i don't think it's healthy I don't ever want to look at like set as like my psychiatrist's office. So that's not what I was doing that day. But something happened where my timeline of my life, this character, this script, everything crossed in a beautiful moment where I felt completely supported.

And I was and I made it not only did I make it through the day, but we got to the end of the day. And I just felt like there was like a. Because sometimes life hurts so bad. And then you're like, why? And then sometimes you go, oh, we survive and we keep going. And I'm probably not making any sense right now. No, you are. It feels like it makes sense.

That was a moment in which the acting was something else for me. Yeah. Well, you came into a day where you didn't know how you were going to get through it and you came through it with a plumb. Something happened. Yeah, you did it and you did it well. Something happened. special. That's kind of, you know, that's like, that's success. Yeah. That's human success,

definitely. Yeah. You know, you set out with something that you have anxiety about and then you conquer it, you know, so. Is there something left undone for you? Like, is there, I mean, I mean, I know, you are, you know, certainly have so many irons and so many fires and that's so enviable um but i mean is there something that you that you're yeah yeah and it's all there ready i'm i think about what's what's sad about myself and i need to like be kinder to myself as i wake up and i don't i i i do sit with gratitude and i think you know i think i think i think i think the higher power i think that everyone who's being kind of me and showing me opportunity and every director and casting director i go look at all the awesome things i've done but i haven't done this i haven't done this

that that voice is a little bit louder yeah um the last time i got to perform shakespeare an incredible theater with an amazing director and a production of As You Like It, that was amazing. I was by far the worst part of the show. I would love to get another stab at a really great Shakespearean production, either for film or stage. I'd love to do a big musical for film. I'd love to see, I love when people bring those big musicals up, and I don't sing well, so it would have to be one of those great roles where you get to, like, talk sing. But I think I could do it still. I can do a Rex Harrison for sure, or a Paul Lind. I think

Combine the two. Combine them. And then I I've always dreamt of when I moved to Los Angeles I had three big career goals. I've said this a million times. Stop me if I'm boring you. But they were to work with the Muppets because the Muppet movie is one of my favorite films ever made

and I just have this dream of getting to do work with the Muppets being like a Muppet movie or a Muppet TV show. And that is unfulfilled. Unfulfilled. To work with David Lynch and David Lynch is was something I was able to thankfully fulfill before he passed

got to work with him and changed my life was incredible and the last was to be a villain in a Bond film so those are the Muppets the Bond villain have you told your agents get me a bond villain role

I think anybody I've ever met with when they go every Uber driver for sure man for sure but whatever meant to be will be what what I found with the like let's say the David Lynch example was like every day when I woke when I woke up and I had no agent I had no manager I had no representation

I was submitting myself every day I was out there like how do you make a career in this looking for that roulette number to come up if you have a big goal like that even if you never get to Zion even if you never get to the top of the mountain having those goals if you're listening I highly recommend writing them down to and being kind to yourself and like encouraging yourself and not like self-talk in a nice way about getting there it all these things happen and along the way. So I was waking up and like, how do I get to this? Well, I'm an audition for this short film, which is being cast by the assistant at the office that actually does work with David Lynch sometimes. This person, you know, has done puppetry at the Bob Baker Marionette

theater and they know someone who works with the Muppets. So maybe I'll do this. I'll volunteer to help with this project. All those steps furthered me on a journey that has led to sitting with you, someone who has brought so much joy to my life and I've admired for so long. And now I'm, look, here you know yeah yeah i always i i i agree with you i think you know i i found because i've been around people who have reached their goal who have gotten to zion who you know the dream came true and i have seen kind of after the initial sort of fireworks of it being like okay now what you know and that's and that was very and it wasn't you know different people too it's not just one and it kind of and it told me like I think I'm going to make my goals processes like I think I'm going

to be like I want to get better at just being alive and not like there at some point where I cross a finish line just like I want to you know I want to leave this world feeling like I was a little better than the day before I left you know that's a great goal yeah that's the way we should all do it let's talk about your work things coming up Let's do it. You're Dr. Grathen on the Apple TV Plus series MurderBot, which I have seen every episode of, and I love it. Thank you. That's coming back, I would think, yeah.

We got a second season. Nice. And when did you start shooting? I don't know. I honestly am a bit in the dark because if I don't want to spoil anything, but I want everyone to watch the show and then we'll see where does Dr. Grafitt? We'll see what happens. Yeah, yeah. Where do you shoot that, by the way?

We shot in Toronto. Oh, cool. But I don't know where, you know, with these shows sometimes, it's they, they, even though they have stages and sets built, it's like things change. Change or move around. Move around. So we'll see. I don't know. But I, I, yeah, like I said earlier, that was just one of the best experiences.

Yeah. I love those guys. You're in the upcoming horror movie Dust Bunny that's set to premiere a TIF in September. In September. Oh, that Toronto International Film Festival. It's got Mads Mickelson, Sigourney Weaver. It was written, directed and produced by Brian Full. Lala.

Brian is one of my best friends. He's a brother to me. And this film, it says horror movie, but it is so much more. It's like they don't make movies like this anymore. It reminds me of like when City of Lost Children, when you saw a film that you were just so blown away by and introduced into a world and Mads Mickelson plays a hit man who lives in this apartment building. He's a complete loner.

He's kind of like Leon the professional where he just wants to be left alone and do what he does. Yeah, yeah. And the little girl down the hall from him, her, she believes that her parents have been killed by the monster under her bed and so she tries to hire him to help her kill the monster under the bed and of course

he's like I there's no monster under the bed but you'll see it is there's nothing like it there's never been a movie like it I love it and I get to play a very thin character I would pay 20 bucks to watch Mads Mickelson eat a sandwich he's so awesome and that's not a sandwich fetishist

I just love Mads Mickelson he's just I want everything that I even see, you know, like that he's in. I got to be there. And Sigourney, I've never, I've always been a fan. I've never seen her do anything like this. It reminded me of like when you saw Jamie Lee Curtis and everything everywhere all at once. Like, just this bonkers off the wall, bizarre role where she just goes full in.

Like, I love it. Anyway, proud of that movie. Can't wait for you all to see it. And you're going to be playing a villain in the upcoming street fighter movie. I go in. Those are crazy. I love those. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's all starting. And, um, again, like, nerd Vana I'm living in this like utopic kind of like I can't believe the opportunities that I'm presented with and I and the people that I get to collaborate with like you were saying I look at life as a process and the work I certainly look as a process because when we see the finished product of course we want to be proud of it and we want it to be successful we want everyone on board to go

we made something awesome and it did well but if you're going to go spend months of your life with people that's that's where it is like you've got to like surround yourself with people who elevate you and support you and who you can hopefully elevate and support. And that's been the biggest deciding factor in all of my career choices recently. It's been like, can I meet and talk to the person that I'm going to be hanging out with a lot?

Right, right. And when it's a good vibe, it's the best. In my limited experience, too, these effects-heavy movies are, they can be drudgery. It's slow. It's so slow. And if you've got a short attention span,

you've got to fucking get into a Zen state because otherwise you'll be made nuts. I write all the time and I bring my comics with me. I read and I write and then hopefully, you know, and again, surrounded by really cool, sweet people who we can enjoy our time together. Yeah, yeah. That's great.

Well, in closing, what advice do you think you would give yourself? You know, and you pick any time in your life that you could take the smart 50-year-old you or smarter 50-year-old you and go back and say something to the younger you? um i would go back and well i wouldn't if you gave me that button today because i wouldn't be sitting here with you yeah but if i you can come back if i was going to go back just drop in give some advice give them a little advice keep the car running the um that that that notion that we spoke about earlier that like even it even your your most embarrassing defect and default behaviors that you know you you you you do David that are, you know, just embarrassing or cause pain and disruption, they're coming from a

place inside you that just hasn't gotten the parenting yet that you probably could have really benefited from as a kid and you're going to be a great dad and you have a wonderful heart. And so if you can spend some time really like talking to professionals and talking about this stuff and connecting with people about it, then maybe, you know, you'll get to a place where you could go in and be that parent to yourself, to that kid in there, and help him calm down and relax and be able to just enjoy the ride a little more. I want you to enjoy the ride. You deserve it. David Desmaltian, thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for having me. This has been really a wonderful conversation. I need some fiber.

This has been such a, I appreciate you. sharing so much, and it's been a wonderful conversation. And thank all of you for listening. Yeah, thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with more of the three questions. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel, executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden. Research by Alyssa Graal.

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