The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Ike Barinholtz

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

Actor, writer, and producer Ike Barinholtz talks with Andy Richter about traveling to Amsterdam to perform with Boom Chicago, the stress of putting constraints on a good idea, and navigating the world of production with Eastbound & Down and The Mindy Project.

well well well ike baron holtz it's about time hi buddy how are you uh welcome to the three questions i say that so people know uh that like because a lot of people just happen to click on this podcast without no having any idea what they're doing not me my friend i i subscribe rate and review oh thank you very much when i first met you that was you know the the first met you i was just i was thinking about it today this morning as we were getting prepared to talk and i thought like i met you through somebody maybe like through one of the ucb people at a party or something and it was and it was you know i don't know probably it's got to be at least 10 12 13 years ago and i but because i met you and i think you had weed and i was like hey can you get me weed because it was at the like that period of my

adulthood where you know there's there's like a gap year well at least there used to be like there was like there was your young everybody had weed and then you get married and you have kids and you're gonna have a job and you're like i have no idea where to get weed anymore and then before it was legal yeah and so like for you i think in my, you may have been Ike parentheses weed. For real? I think so. But I don't, but because I was like, because I wasn't sure I would remember Ike.

But then of course, as time went on, I got to know you. I mean, this was just like the first time of meeting you. And I remember where it was specifically. You do? Because I, yeah. We were at Amy Poehler's beach house playing poker with Seth Meyers, Josh Meyers, Dak Shepard, Will. And I had weed. And you were like, where did you get this?

And I was like, I don't know, a guy named Eric. Yes. Yeah. Listen, I'm slightly ashamed that I just was such a user in those days. No. Hey, I hope I hooked you up. I think you days. No, it's, hey, I hope I hooked you up. I think you did. I don't remember. I think I did.

I can't remember. I mean, and that, by the way, that poker game, that wasn't 13 years ago. That was like almost, that was like 17 years ago. That was like 2002, 2003. It's old. We're old. I remember the night I met you was the first time i heard the second track off the backstreet boys fourth album yes so 2002 such a weird gauge yeah that's a you invite you named

your kids back and street i did and kevin kevin richardson uh but i knew i i used to watch your picture so much i look at your picture so much, because we come from the same theater. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do. The ImprovOlympic. So where are you from? Because I don't know about, like, I have never, I've said this before, one of the great things about this podcast is I get to ask people who are actual friends of mine, probing personal questions that would be weird in a social setting so what where are you from in chicago i am from uh the north side

not the north shore uh where are you from saint charles where are you from i'm from out west yorkville is where i go kind of which is like oh it's like when it stops although now it's different but when i was a kid it was it was like a farm town yeah and we didn't yeah our to go into the city was to go into aurora not to go i mean you only went in we first of all it's just terrified white people out there in those days and yeah uh so you only went into i only went into chicago excuse me only went into chicago Cubs games, Bears games, the occasional White Sox game, but usually Cubs games because my stepfather had season tickets then when they were dirt cheap.

He had them since like 1970 on the first baseline, second row. Like $3 a ticket. And totally got fucked out of it. Like totally got like just outpriced and just like, fuck you from the Cubs as soon as they started doing well. Way to go Cubs. And then also the occasional museum trip, you know,

you'd go into the safe ride or the big tree at Marshall Fields at Christmas time. We used to do that. That's a big one. But like when people ask me like, so you grew up outside of Chicago as a kid? Did you like? No, I never went and like explored Chicago on my own.

It was terrifying, you know? Were you in the city? Oh, yeah, I was right in the city. I grew up, you know, you could call it uptown. You could call it Lakeview. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's basically between Clarendon and the lake and then right in between montrose and irving park okay so like exactly one mile away from wrigley field but

definitely like right in the middle of the city and it was it wasn't like a great neighborhood a couple blocks down with some nice houses the governor used to live there but like my street the streets next to us and then once you went one block west it was rough i remember when my neighbor got shot in front of our house one night it was like it was just growing up in a big city in the 80s uh i think it toughens you up a little bit yeah um you know but yeah i grew up uh i grew up there and my parents finally moved out of there about eight or nine years ago. So I only go back like once a year to see my grandmother or something, but I'm not there as much as I'd like to. Where did your folks move to? Well, my mom's from South Central Ohio and kind of in between Dayton and Cincinnati, I guess.

And kind of in between Dayton and Cincinnati, I guess. And like eight or nine years ago, she's like, I want to go be in Ohio. And all her siblings live there. Yeah. My brother and I were living in LA at the time. And she's like, I don't want to just be in Chicago by myself. Yeah. So my dad was still working. So he would come on the weekends.

But now they're both there full time. In Ohio. In Ohio. They live like one town away. And it's the middle they live you know they live like one town away from and it's the middle of nowhere yeah they live one town away from chapelle yeah yeah it's so crazy yeah randomly yeah it's weird that dave chapelle lives in the middle of nowhere ohio yeah you'll see him like you'll be at like you'll be like at like uh you know the comic book store and you'll see like a maserati pull up and like, it's fucking awesome. It's so cool.

But he's actually like an amazing part of the community there. Like he saved the farmer's market and like, he like really, I think like the people there really love them. Yeah. They ought to. Yeah. So how many kids in your family?

Just me and my brother, John. Just the two of us, two boys. You know, like I said earlier, growing up in that era was the greatest.

Everything was still kind of safe. Look, I had weird shit. There was a couple friends of mine that got killed when they were younger. But for the most part, I never felt worried. But it still wasn't gentrified. It was like... Chicago of at least

my childhood yeah was on the and even the north side because I remember going to Cubs games even you know around Wrigley Field was not great you know it was no you know we got our car broken into a couple of times because my stepfather was too cheap to pay for parking so we'd park half a mile away you know under the l tracks and i did did you watch the last dance at all the bulls i did not i i want to but i haven't you should treat yourself and watch it it's amazing it's magnificent it's wonderful it's funny it's sad but the the it ends with them winning their last championship in 98 and it ends with them at grant park holding the big trophies and i got so emotional watching that because i was like i i moved out of chicago about a year later yeah and and that to me is like the high point of chicago because really in 2000s

that's when like the gentrification became honestly obscene yeah and and daily fucking completely lost you know control and and fucked the whole city up kind of but um that that like i when i think of like the best time for me in chicago it's definitely that like 1998 that's when it kind of ended for me um did you uh yeah, I always remember, and I don't remember which one it was, but one of the nights that the Bulls won, I think it might have been the second one, or maybe it was the three-peat. I think it might have been. Yeah.

No, it wouldn't have been 93 then it would have been it might have been it might have been 91 um because uh but i was at the annoyance theater on broadway sure and a bunch of people had been there to watch it and uh we were on the roof after they had won and traffic was at a stop and people are hanging out of their cars and honking their horns and jeff garland was at the theater and he went down and was running around in the street to say to people what happened what happened what happened like it's just the funniest fucking thing i love the thought of it the annoyance watching a ball game i'm sure also people were doing acid and swinging at the same time. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was basketball slash fisting. A party.

It was Mick's birthday. It was a real party. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Can you shut the door? Thank you. Anyhow. So, did you go to public school?

I didn't um we grew up uh i call it middle upper class just because we didn't have money but we also weren't poor yeah yeah um you know it used to be a class now it's not yeah it's just been like fucking eradicated and so like we didn't have like you know nice cars and didn't really go on like a lot of vacations and stuff but the one thing my parents did like want to put a lot of all their money into is our education so uh well that paid off yeah seriously i didn't even go to college oh no um went to a little jewish day school calledshamit on Pine Grove and Grace. Great place. Very sweet. Even though young Jewish kids,

when they're all together, can be like fucking hellions, man. We were like bad kids. We were like troublemakers. Not like running around with guns and shit. Just assholes. Just little assholes. Little Jewish assholes. Yeah, but that isn't necessarily

uh you know necessarily a jewish thing i don't think you know i think that there's i think that that can run across various groups of uh you know i only think i only think jews i only think jews on this one i have some interesting thoughts on race and ethnic science I would like to get into. No, but so I went there. And then for high school, I went to Latin. Latin School of Chicago, which is a great private. Very fancy. Nancy Reagan went there.

Never heard of her. But that was really like, and that was pretty much the only, I went to college for one year. So I really think of my education as Latin. Yeah. Because it was so great. It was a true liberal education where all the friends I had from there, I'm friends with almost all of them today. My partner.

It was just a really, really great place. And to be there in the 90s when it's like the Bulls were winning and everything. It was just like the best moment. I'm so fucking lucky that i got to grow up there at that moment what year did you graduate 95 95 okay yeah 95 yeah and then i did a did a little stint at boston university um which i did not like uh you didn't like Boston? You didn't like school? Going to college? I didn't like school.

Yeah, yeah, you were done. Yeah, I didn't like it. I was done. I got there and I was like, first of all, I had never smoked weed or done mushrooms or anything. And I started chain smoking weed. I went crazy with the freedom.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Where I was like, and then I just hated my classes and I was like, I don't even know what I want. I don't want to do this. I kind of want to act and this sucks. And I basically, I failed out slashed quit one of those things. Yeah.

It was like, if you want to come back here, you're going to have to retake everything. And I was like, I don't want to come back here you're gonna have to retake everything and i was like i don't want to come back so yeah so but but because of that um i ended up in chicago very angry parents and one night they took me to see the i believe the 10th anniversary show at the vic theater for improv olympic and i'm wondering if you were there. I probably was. I most definitely was. I remember like... Now this is an odd form of punishment by them.

Yes. My dad said you were going to go watch Freestyle. If you're not going to school I'm going to show you what might happen to you. I'm going to show you improv. You're going to end up like this. You're going to be a grown man trying to figure out what the game is. Trying to ask some other fucking old man where you are. Figure out where you are and what the game is.

Is that what you want? You're going to be up on stage pretending to be a fucking baby. You're going to be a baby on stage? Do you know what freeze tag is you fucking ingrate now watch now you watch while they bring up an audience member and reenact his day musical improv do you know what that's like you have to think of a song it's humiliating my dad's like the opposite of that he's like basically like a straight version of nathan lane in the birdcage he's just like this great how great is this i love theater um but i will

say like it i i had recognized there were famous people up there right like it was you farley yeah polar blah blah blah the person who blew my mind who was so funny that I literally remember thinking like, I should do this. Tim Meadows. Yeah. Tim. And I remember what he said. Oh, my God.

There was like a scene where it's like people were waiting in line to see a movie, and they never said what the movie was, and Tim just enters the scene and goes. And that weekend, there was a movie called solo that came out starring mario van peoples and tim meadows enters the scene and goes are you guys waiting to see solo and no one laughed but me and then tim goes now am i to understand he's part man part machine but all weapon how is that possible and i i laughed about it for like a week and i swear to god i signed up for classes like a few days yeah yeah it was just like it was one of those moments where i was like oh i i i i can stand on stage and just say funny shit right and and act shit out i i think i can yeah i have that

skill set yeah it's also i mean what would appeal to it, and I don't know if you're the same, because I have terrible ADD, terrible ability to sit down. I mean, you obviously, because, and I want to talk about this, like, you know, you've written screenplays. You've written big, big budget action comedies. And I can't, like, I have a hard time finishing an email, you know, just because of my attention span. My writing like that's getting into television is how I could is how I could write is sitting around with a group of people and doing it together as a collaborative effort. And I mean, I can write when I sit down, you know, I can put words together just fine. But I just it's and i wanted to write and then i found this thing where because i also i wanted to write i wanted to act and then i found this thing where it's like

oh you can do both at the same time and you're in a pressurized environment so you don't get to think about it so you just have to do it oh cool and it was like yeah fucking right up my alley you know and it was also like it was just like that moment and by that moment i mean like really like the 90s like comedy was changing so much you know what i mean like there was you and conan and mr show and and um like the ben stiller show and snl was like amazing and like it was just comedy was so like everyone wanted to be a part of it yeah people wanted to go and see it and there was it just felt so so exciting and being there and i had amazing people that i came up with you know through there and some of whom are like you know like jack mcbrayer and and you know jason sudeikis and stuff but also some were just guys who just

ended up like going to work on a horse farm who were so fucking funny in 1997 you know what I mean they were just so there were people like that too where it's you know where you're like whatever happened to that guy and it's like oh he's a chef now you know yeah really fucking funny chef now yeah

he's a funny chef but he uses a fake knife he uses he does object work and the food is behind he always has some prosthetic fingers in his pocket He's a funny chef, but he uses a fake knife. He does object work. Yeah, he always has some prosthetic fingers in his pocket to fake cutting it off. That would be a good bit. If you were a chef, you'd just keep a couple. Oh, no, not again. I don't know why he has a fake Italian accent.

Well, I think we know most chefs out there. Oh, no. I chop off on my finger. Hey, man. Mario is at it again fucking hey mario table four still waiting for their food so when you're done with your joke it's not a reef hey mario can we read you some recent yelp reviews. Okay. Okay, well, great. Never coming back. Chef thought it was funny to put fake thumb in salad. Fuck off. Diane G. Echo Park. Yeah, you

can see I responded. I said, fuck you, cunt. He's such an asshole. You got no sense of humor. See, that was improv what we just did guys that was improv when we a few years ago my family and i went to key west and my daughter i think stumbled upon no my son stumbled upon there was we were looking for a place to eat and we were looking there was like a thai restaurant and apparently it's just a mess and but the owner is that the name of it it just it just sounded like a mess and people would leave bad reviews and the owner would say like i remember you you're garbage like like would argue and the whole it was the most entertaining thing i don't

you know i don't look you know key west thai restaurants and see if you can find it but i love that i'm a big fan of like what when i'm like in like an intense writing period i i need to take like breaks and i need to watch things that require zero mental yes i understand you know and one of those things for some reason are like clips of gordon ramsay just yelling at bad chefs like i fucking love it and the best is when the chefs are like yelling at customers like get out of here fuck you you don't deserve my food you fucking piece of shit yeah it's just i'd love it yeah well so you started classes and then it just started classes i mean do you get an agent in chicago how do you know how do you How do you break the bonds of Chicago

as one frequently needs to do in order to- Well, yeah, I remember starting and taking classes and not being good, but just slowly, like I learned a lot by watching people, like watching, I watched Armando every Monday for like three years, I feel like, before I started doing it. I might've had an agent

for a second but i you know when you're in chicago at least when i was there the only goal was second city yeah right that's all you wanted was to to be in a touring company and then etc the main stage it was different when i was there because i was there a number of years earlier because uh second city had kind of gotten not so great yeah this was post yes paradigm loss pinata full of bees rather yes and so i literally was a host at second city and during pinata and paradigm so we were watching this just incredible you know uh just amazing comedy movement happening and uh but so that was my goal. That was my goal. Yeah.

And I only auditioned for them once. And I remember it very clearly. It was like a July or August day. And I was like, my dad always told me like, wear a blazer, like wear a blazer. You wear a blazer, you look good. So I wore like a tan shirt, like a checkered blazer. And I got up there.

Because that says comedy. That says comedy. That says Shecky Green, Eddie Cantor, my heroes. Young car salesman equals funny. Yes, yes. By the time I even started the audition, I had sweat through my jacket. I was so nervous. It didn't go well. And then I remember that night. know our you know noah gregoropoulos the great noah wonderful man the

driest wits on earth driest wits on earth saw him that night at io he just looks at me and goes you will not be working for second city this year. I remember I wasn't surprised. But I remember I was planning on the next year, I'm going to audition, I'm going to audition. At that point, we were doing great shows. We had this group with Dell

close called the Lindbergh Babies where we were doing a Saturday night 10 o'clock show for two years. Basically, I was doing like whenever I wanted to perform I could perform like you know just show up jump in a show was great yeah but um my buddy Dave Bachman and I were living together and he said to me I'm gonna go audition for this Boom Chicago this theater group in Amsterdam yeah they're coming to town and all I knew about them was that they paid you to go there and you did not have to have another

job you know what i mean because i was working daytime at the fucking cta oh marketing department and it fucking terrible it was called it was an offshoot of marketing called quality management yeah um it was it was like um and for people that don't know that's the chicago transit authority that's the bus and the train. Bus and the train, yeah. And it was just a nightmare. I fucking hated it. How did you get that job? My dad, it's the most Chicago way ever.

Yeah. My dad's friend. My dad killed someone. My guy my dad used to work with, his dad was the president of the Carpenters Local. to work with his dad was the president of the carpenters local and he he knew someone on the board and made a phone call to get me an internship just an like a summer intern yeah yeah and then after i got kicked out of college i came back and i was like can i still work here and they were like yeah i guess so um so it was horrible and i was also like at night performing and like you know how you drink like when you're a theater person you're like yeah that was a pretty good show yeah yeah that was a great show i'm gonna have six pint

glasses of beeman coke well and the thing at that age too because i was doing like moving i was like working for moving companies and working yeah you know for doing construction and i that those are the days when i would be drinking like that. And then someone would say like at midnight, like, Hey, do you want some acid? Yeah. I'm like, let's see. I got to work at eight. I got to lift.

How high will I be at eight? Yeah. Yeah. I bet I can manage at eight, you know? And it's just the, and looking back to just the dumbest, just the dumbest, dumbest, you know, it's fun, but I mean, but now, now it makes me want to lie down on the floor right here oh my god and i haven't thought about what i used to do i feel

yeah it's exhausting it's exhausting that's the first emotion that comes to mind but anyway so i was so sick of that and i knew that you didn't have to have another job and i went to the audition and then they offered me a slot there because seth myers was coming home he was returning from doing his his two years at Boom and they needed like a replacement. Is Seth Meyers from Chicago I didn't know that. No but he was in Chicago he was at IO. Oh he was oh I didn't know that. He was a northwestern guy yeah he was a northwestern guy and then he he was living in Chicago for years and doing uh IO and and all kinds of stuff then he went to Amsterdam and then when he came home I basically moved over there.

And I joined this theater company for, I was there just under two years. So you lived in Amsterdam for two years. That's pretty sweet. It was amazing. Yeah. It was just like Chicago was the Chicago 98 was the perfect time to be in Amsterdam,

to be in Chicago, Amsterdam in like 2000, 99, 2000. That was a great great like that was still like the euro was a thing yeah i'm sorry the the gilder was a thing pre-euro so you were like oh it's two guilders to one dollar uh yeah i think i'm gonna like it you know what i mean it's like it's so great and and and we didn't have to have another job yeah we got there and we were doing like a basically like a second city type thing where you write a show once a year,

twice a year, maybe. And then just a lot of improv and bits. And I had never been to Europe before. And I was like, I was young and had all these like fun people around me. And there's like just whole, just if you were to like type out my memories of that,

it's just so much redaction just cause I, not cause I can't tell just cause I can't. Right you know i'm just like oh yeah i kind of remember going to an orgy in germany uh but i literally don't remember how i got there um but like but like uh i was there for like a you know yeah just under two years with great people um like seth would still come his brother josh and i did a ton together Jordan Peel was there yeah Jason Sudeikis was there um K Cannon Liz Kikowski just all these like super fun talented yeah I was I was not aware of them until like kind of after I was out of Chicago and I because I definitely i think would have attempted

to yes to do that because just even if it's just a year i mean and i also too like amsterdam is such a beautiful city and i've been a number of times and it's it's actually a shame because people are like yeah you know they you say you want to go to amsterdam and there's like this like yeah because of red light district and weed and it's like no that's like no i want to go to amsterdam and there's like this like yeah because the red light district and weed and it's like no that's like no i want to go to aunt frank's yeah yeah well and also it's like the red light district is not appealing and no the you know we do it the best way where we had the theater had these two like oh 15 person boats and they would teach you how to ride the boat. You mean drive the boat?

Drive the boat. Yeah, yeah. And you could just like throw a bunch of beers and joints in the boat and go through the red light from the canal. Oh, wow. And it was just like the best way to see it because you see all the crazy shit without having to like actually like bump into someone with like an active herpes sore. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. into someone with like an active herpes yeah yeah yeah i you know because like i uh you know i think i think prostitution should be legal and i think 100 i think sex workers you know deserve as much respect as any other worker but then i would go to the red light district and i would be like no i

don't like this this is not not my thing i do not like this. Yeah. It's pretty intense. I mean, the thing is this though, it's like, it's the most, it's actually like semi-unionized. Yes. I know.

They have a thing called the red thread and like the sex workers there are probably safer than any other country just because it's, but there is still like a, it's also less about seeing the women there who you like to think it's better than other places. It's seeing a lot of the men. Yeah. Who are just like fucking really gross men. Really gross.

Yep. Yeah. So what gets you out of there? Just basically it was time to go. Too many German orgies. Too many German orgies. Too much loss of muscle integrity. It wasn't cleaning up.

The rashes weren't clearing up as fast as I would have liked. No, my best friend is this guy named Dave Stassen. And him and I had always talked about going to LA and trying to write movies in LA. Were you continuing writing together during that period? Yeah. Yeah, he was at Northwestern and I was in Amsterdam and we would write and be like, we should do this. And then like, it was kind of like Seth and his brother and our friend Jill were planning

on moving and we're like, let's just all kind of go together. So we have like a support system. So we came out here in, yeah, 2000, 2001. And, you know, was doing, you know, the broke LA life for a couple years. Waiting tables at Morton's. Actually, not even waiting, busing. Wow. Busing tables, which is like, like busing, I think is like the hardest fucking job. Like, it's like, it fucking job. It's so stressful.

No one wants to talk to you. You're wearing a giant apron. It was not fun. I have a vague recollection of maybe eating there once when you were bussing tables. Oh, my God. And you saying hi to me. I was working there up until about three or four months ago. So it was it then?

You were still boxing tables? Cause it's really COVID that shut it down. I was, I'm like Andy Kaufman. I, I, I thought that I, um, it would be like a good way for me to stay in touch. Right, right, right. I've been working shifts there three times a week for the last 18 years. That's just, that's a pretension. That's like not even, that's not cool.

Well, one man's pretension is another man's dedication. Yeah, that's just weird. I mean, I could have been time you could have spent with your children, but whatever. No, I think they are grateful for the food I brought home. For daddy being sticky. It was crazy. That was a being sticky it was crazy that was a great it was fun it was i mean it was like saw a lot of like uh beverly hills assholes yeah yeah yeah really definitely uh definitely uh informed my opinion of uh la la yeah yeah can't you tell my loves are growing what is your first kind of big gig and are you are you married are you no dating your i was fiancee or anything or no no at this point i was i was just like

dating whoever you know what i mean i never really picked up by morton's regulars yeah it was you know it was a little bit of a joke, you know, midnight cowboy type of thing where I would meet a nice older widow and take her back to, you know, you know, Beverly wood and like just rubber feet and whatever. Um,

I still am in touch with a lot of those ladies and they're great. They're great. And they're friends of mine. They just want to be listened to. They just want to be listened to. They want to talk about how much they miss their grandson. then they want to they want to like uh watch you uh play with yourself and get railed they just want to be listened to and get railed all right granny that's right all right granny here you go um no first gig i'm single i'm fucking miserable and by a miracle of god um i got my friend nicole sullivan got the producers

of mad tv to come see me and seth's brother josh do a two-man show at io wow and they had just lost like three or four cast members um in a plane crash no just they went on a field trip and wandered away they they can't find them they still have not no one knows where alex borstein is um um so they needed people and we went in and had to do like that kind of typical sketch audition where they're like, do seven impressions. Yeah. And I'm like, I can do half of a Nick Nolte. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, um, but, but they hired us. And, uh, that was the first like time I was like,

Oh, I'm going to for sure have a career in show business. Um, and, you know, we were there, I was there for five years. Um,

which was, you know, we were there, I was there for five years, which was super fun, but also just stressful for me. Cause I was just like, I always wanted the show to be like a little bit better. And I always was like resentful of them for like being on at the same time as SNL. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I always bummed me out. I was like, why every year I'd say to the owner, I'd be like you should be on fridays and he would get really mad at me and i was like this is not cool i don't think i think we have a really funny you know

cast we have a fucking amazing writers um and if we're trying to like be like snl and we should be this other thing and and especially at that time snl was what i think is the best like era of snl like was amy toller and yeah yeah it's will amy tina seth it was really a really amazing time yeah that's like a murderer's row like literally like yeah you know like like maya wig is you know crazy. A big reason from that, from having been in the same building as SNL and having been kind of them being a different class in the same high school that I was going to. The big difference?

Women. They stopped being as much of a hostile environment for women, and it became like kind of almost you know i mean tina was the head writer they became kind of yeah driven and it became really fucking funny yeah i mean it was also like whoever was the funniest one and it was like yep the funniest was tina yeah dratch and polar and it's like they just kind of like started taking over the show and and and it became just this fucking yeah it was and then we would i always got mad too i was like we should never have guests on mad because like they would have like oh it's steve martin like holding mick jagger like a baby while like fucking like you know uh ted william Williams pops up and we're like, okay, but we have Todd Bridges.

What do we do with Todd Bridges? No disrespect to Todd. He's a nice guy. But I was there for five years. You're not wrong, though, because it is splitting an audience. I hate that. It is splitting an audience. Pre-TVO.

Yeah, because you've got an audience of sketch comedy watchers, and you're going to split them then. And it's going to be split in a way that most people are going to go towards the old institution that's firing on all cylinders rather than this kind of, what still kind of was an upstart, you know? Oh, it was always an upstart. Like it always was. And I think the part of the

problem was that was that they were always kind of like we're gonna beat snl at their own game and i'm like no yeah yeah and you shouldn't even try a different game be like that be like in living color and living color did it right where they're like you laughed on saturday you're gonna laugh on some yeah yeah but uh but yeah i was there for five years and my contract was up. And I was pretty sure, I remember saying to my wife, I was like, I have a number in my head. And if they're under that number, I'm not coming back. And the number in their head was zero. Oh, really?

So yeah, they were just kind of, I think, just like done. And the show only went on another year, I think. Yeah. But that entered my second blue period. I think just like done and, and the show only went on another year, I think. Yeah. But, but that entered my second blue period where I was, I, I, when I left mad TV, I was kind of like,

okay, Hey, where's the line for sitcoms? Where's the line for like number four on the call sheet of a sitcom. Yeah. And I been there, been there. And I would say done that but i didn't do that because i didn't get hired by fucking anyone yeah like i was like barely and now at

this point i am with the woman who ended up being my wife and she moved from new york to live in la with a tv actor and all of a sudden she's now in LA with a guy who used to be on a TV show. And, and so that was the reason to not get high on Wednesday morning. Oh my gosh. She would fucking come home. She was grinding or,

you know, working so hard. She would come home and be like, what the fuck happened to the kitchen? And I'm like, well, Dave and I were writing and I, I made a

sandwich i made some homemade onion rings you know what i mean it was just like i was such a just a fucking loser yeah um um um but yeah no just no one no one it was always the the network people who kind of were like no it was like like i would get auditions and meet the casting people and then meet the creators and that would go well and then get you know you test for the show yeah yeah testing thing right um i would always get i tested a lot and never still to this day never did a network test where the network was like you're hired oh wow um yeah so it was it it it sucked for like three years that's a shitty terrible process that does not you know it's like yeah victor fresco who was the show runner on andy richard controls the universe and on on santa clarita diet uh said years ago he's

like he's like this process he said they they defend this process and by they mean sort of you know the network and the production companies and they defend this process like it's got to be this way and he said like yeah but it doesn't work like there's no like if it was like if every show you put on was was a 60 chance whereas it's like no every show you put on it and at that point it was like a 10 chance so it's like it's obviously the system isn't that great you know it's not that great also there are so many shows where like the creator's like no it's going to be this guy like i don't think like david chase walked into a network room with fucking bobby bacala and was like, Oh, hello, ladies and gentlemen,

this is, they were just like, okay, yeah, you're, you're the creator. You got it. Yeah.

So, so yeah, it was, it was definitely three years of being close to some things. And the thing that kind of really saved us was the writing. Yeah. Where I just did my partner and I, he had moved to DC for a minute and then moved back.

And we were like, let's just, let's just, let's write a fucking hilarious movie. And we started talking about, you know, people from high school coming back in your past. And we ended up selling our first screenplay, which ended up being central intelligence,

which was this kind of fun movie with Kevin Hart and Dwayne that got, when we sold it back in 2009, it was like this is an ed helms danny mcbride vehicle and and and then they came aboard and then they you know how yeah yeah and they fall off and every like you know six months or so new new names would come in they'd be like guys will ferrell mark walberg very interested and we would get super excited and then do was just go away yeah and it wasn't until the guy who directed that got dwayne johnson and kevin hart attached yeah and

then that got made but that that once you know once you sell a movie or something you're kind of more viable as a writer you become viable as a writer so we would you know every year sell something yeah you know maybe it was a pilot, maybe it was this, maybe we get like a blind script deal. So we were making enough to like eat food, but we were still not anywhere near where we wanted to be. Able to go to Morton's as opposed to work at Morton.

Well, I would maybe go to Morton's, have a drink and then go to fat burger. We weren't quite making more, but still you were going to Morton's. Yeah. Yes still walk into the building yes yes yes um what is now what is that because i'm always curious about that process you know because like that i you know like i say like i i i have ideas i'm smart i'm not dumb. Like some people say, I'm smart. Some people say, I'm smart.

I love respect. But I always have this notion about, man, I bet it would be fun to write one of those big old messy comedies. Don't even have to be in it. Just kind of like get this and then it gets a huge you know you get a big payday and stuff but i imagine that the process that you get nickeled and dimed on jokes is that i mean talk about a little bit about what that is like where you have this funny idea and and what happens to it with all the people that got to get their fingerprints on it before it goes out the door i'll give you a good example of of of one um we this is back in like 2011 or 12 we um got approached to relaunch police academy right um and it was going to be with key and peel

playing like the two guys. I remember that. I remember talking about that. Yeah. Yeah. They were attached and we came in and met with the guys at New Line and kind of pitched them our kind of take on it. And when you're like breaking a story, like the more excited you are about it, the better it's going to be.

You know what I mean? If you're just like, oh, this sounds so fucking good i got it i got it got it yeah yeah yeah so we came up with this like really funny story that was um definitely like when we turned it in their reaction was like guys we kind of want this to be like a pro police movie oh boy and it wasn't hard it really wasn't and to make things more complicated like a few months after we turned it in was um when trey uh um mike brown was killed in ferguson yeah yeah right so the the notion of having to like make this like a movie that like celebrates cops seemed kind of crazy even though we kind of were by having our two leads become cops. They just were,

we also had bad cops in the movie. We also had, you know, whatever. So you have that kind of frustration. Then we also have the guy who created police Academy who would be like, no, no,

no. Mahoney would never say this or so. So that part can be like stressful. That part can be like, not fun when you're trying to, when you have an idea and you're breaking in and it feels great and the jokes are flying but then all of a sudden the constraints start kind of coming in and you kind of start learning that oh if this movie is going to be made

it has to kind of fit here and you can't do this and we don't know if this is going to be acceptable that's when it kind of becomes a little stressful. Yeah. But I would say like for the most part, like, and then it's also shitty when you're doing like a fourth or fifth round of notes. Yeah. Where you're kind of like, I have read this thing 500 fucking times. It's not changing. I don't get it. You know what I mean?

I don't understand this note. That's when you start to go crazy. But like, it really should be very like harmonious. Like if the concept is like super exciting and the characters are like really funny, that part, writing those scenes is like the best. It's like, it's so, so much fun. It's just having to do all the rewrites and stuff

that it just takes learning to get used to. Yeah, I've never, I mean, I've written pilots. I've only written one feature, and that process is fun, where you make a movie in your head, but then Boris pilots in your head. That was the English patient, right? It was.

It was the English patient. Why did you write that? Well, I just wanted their... See, the reason they took it away from me is because I just wanted it to be all fucking. Yeah. So much fucking. Yeah. So much fucking. But there was,

I feel like there was already quite a bit of sex in it. And I don't know why. It was a joke how little fucking there was in that movie. And also I wanted the patient to be from Brazil. Hmm. Yeah. No, I mean, look, I didn't mean to bring it up but it just yeah uh because i had read about i they're they're trying to get hashtag release the richter cut going and i i kind of want

to see it but at the same time i'm worried it's going to be bad and it's going to make me it'll be terrible it'll be terrible no i i that was the you know you write this movie you see it in your head you kind of fall in love with it. And then you send it out into the world and people, you know, it's like sending your kid to school. And then you get a note, like, we get back and the kid is holding a note that the teacher says, your kid's kind of ugly. And you're, you know, or don't, don't you think your kid could be a little taller? Or don't you think your kid could, you know? I don't get your kid. And it's just, you know, and it just, it's like, and for me too, with my attention span,

especially like in the pilot writing process, as you get notes and then you adjust to the notes, you get notes and you get to adjust to the notes. And I don't even say like the notes process is bad because it is mass communication. And I'm writing something and my taste is not for fucking everybody. And I mean, the stuff that I really like is, you know, most comedian stuff is just like awful. Like I mean, awful in terms of like blood curdlingly sick and mean and or just dark and and uh so you you're kind of you know you make this show and you want it to you want people to see it so you're sort of taking these people that are paid to have judgments about creative people's stuff and you're going

okay i'm going to take this at face value you're you're the voice of the masses you're like yes and and sometimes they give you notes where you're like okay i can see that i can see that this will make totally something more accessible they might not say it right and so you try and meet it but after the third or fourth round i don't care anymore i'm done with i just you know it's like i don't make it don't make it you know, I, I'm not in love with it anymore. I had the magic of, of seeing it and doing it. And now it's like, eh, you know? Yeah, no, totally.

It's once you've read something too many times, you start to not see how it can change. Yeah. Yeah. You're kind of like, this is, this is inviolate. Like it's not, it can't, this is what it is at this point. And, and it's, it's, it's not fun, but it still is like very, like when I get an idea for a movie and I really like,

I'm excited by it, it kind of like consumes me a little bit. And I end up like, my daughters will be like, who are you talking to? And I'm like, myself. You know what I mean? Like I'm acting scenes out for a movie that hasn't been written. Talking to the old sea captain in my head. Now, if you uh if you

had to do one or the other acting writing like if somebody came along and said like yeah no more acting just writing would you be okay with that if i had to do one or the other i think at the end of the day i would do i would do i would pick writing over you would I think I would I love I love I listen being on set is fun being like on a call sheet is like great and I like have I love actors like I fucking love actors I think they are like true like kind souls you know what I mean and like the most I mean for the most part for the most part yeah yeah yeah well for the most part I mean like for the most part. For the most part. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, for the most part. I mean, like, you know, like, when I think of, like, you know, actors that, like, I love, it's, like, Robert Blake, Kevin Spacey. Fuck. I mean, you know, OJ acted a little.

But, like. Elaine Stritch. Elaine Stritch. I'm sorry. That's not fair of me to add her into Robert Blake. That's not fair of me to add her into Robert Blake. But like I said, I love acting. But I think at the end of the day, like if I had to only do one,

I think like the times where I'm the happiest is where like I'm kind of by myself writing something that I like love. Or with my partner, my writing partner, writing something that just feels like you could see it. Like you can imagine like people watching this and loving it like that to me is like the most exciting thing so if i had to do one or the other i would i think i'd pick that yeah yeah i um i still just like i like i you know there's all different you know i've hosted game shows i have this podcast thing which people are like maybe there's something for you to do in

interviewing on television which i'm kind of like yeah okay you know i mean you got a podcast but okay yeah like it's podcasts podcasts are bigger now yeah yeah like an interview show on network right right but i i uh but i still i just still come back to like, and I, you know, and I mean, I set out to be a character actor and I got on a talk show and I, you know, I became the sidekick on a comedy talk show that I'm super proud of and, and I'm absolutely floored with how grateful and lucky I am to have been on a show that means something to funny people um but it wasn't what i started it's like one of it what one of the cornerstones of comedy though that show is like

that show is truly like if you oh i think i think like for me when you look at like the things that shape me yeah it's like letterman you guys snl um for tv comedy snl wendy williams show wendy williams show dish nation and uh uh um tmz laughs um but no like those shows i think like i said like it keeps coming back to the 90s but like those shows came about in a moment where comedy transformed from like either very broad or purely situational into you know uh just weirder uh uh with transitions thematic shit it was just that show was very very very important oh thank you thank you well i mean and i i love that i got to do that but it's but i still go back to like i just i still would like to just end out you know the rest of my career uh because i mean who knows how long conan wants to do this you know but uh you know i still i

just want to like you know i want to go to fucking you know i want to go go to Milan for two weeks and play like, you know, a bumbling embassy employee or what, you know, I mean, just all of that is that to me is just like the most magical. And also being on a film set to me still. It's the best. With the,

it's like being in the circus. Cause you've got like this collection of like trucks that people live in and you blow things up and there's animals and look at this crazy costume i'm dressed up like a knight today you know it's all yeah it's just the silliest way to make a living and just the best you know and it's also too it's like it's all you gotta do is show up and know your lines like it's so all you gotta do it's like you just literally i think that was joan crawford's line right show up on time and yeah yeah yeah everything else can be calibrated and

it's so yeah and for the record there's the other one take found that was betty dave oh who did you say it was i think joan crawford show up on time and know your lines uh uh yeah i it's funny i've been on big movie sets where for whatever reason i couldn't remember my oh yeah i know and and And that fucking sucks. I remember I was doing this movie with Liam Neeson, right? It was a weird movie about Watergate. And it was my first day. And I play an FBI agent.

And I'm coming to take him to the FBI office or something. And I can't remember what the line was. But it was something like you know we got two other cars here you choose whichever one you want let's not make a big deal out of out of it it was something like that and like every time i did it i'd like like would forget one of the words yeah you know what i mean and like the director was like he kind of came over to me he's like so yeah i'm just gonna show you these lines real quick and i want you to really just kind of say every one of them i was like okay seems fair well you know what that is andy that's the fucking improv in us where we're like i'm gonna say an

approximation of this and like that shit doesn't work for like period fbi watergate police where you're like i'm just gonna get the gist the essence of what i had yeah i do the same thing where it's like i have i tend to paraphrase where it's, you know, where say the line is like, you know, we've got to get down to that place and figure out what that guy did. And I, um, you know, and I might say, you know, we got to get over there and figure out what he, what he was all about or, you know, or something like that, you know? And I just, and I, you know, and with varying you know and i just yes and yeah and i you know

and there with varying degrees there are people like i worked on i worked on a movie once where i just it was during the writer's strike and it was kind of like a lax time and they like the director and the producer were rewriting things where it was they were just making it worse and so i just decided early on and we were on location i just decided i'm just gonna say what i want i mean i'm gonna yeah i make sure every line kind of does the same thing and nobody ever said and i just kind of like just make up my own lines every time i kind of do that now if i'm in a movie where it is like a you know it's one thing if you're on like a whatever like an erin sorkin yeah something but like if you're in a movie where it is like a, you know, it's one thing if you're on like a, whatever,

like an Aaron Sorkin movie or something, blah, blah, blah. But like, if you're on a fucking movie, blah, blah,

I'll say to the director, be like, I think these lines are great. I know what they mean. I think this part's a little wonky. Do you give me the permission to kind of just do my take on it? And for the most part, almost every time they're like,

great. And, and so, so, but I definitely like do, it wouldn't work. Like I, I couldn't have been like, you know,

Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. I would have been like, hey, for real, I don't give a fuck. You know what I mean? Whatever, Scarlett. Bye. Listen up, Scarlett. Bye, bitch. But I'm upfront with them and I'm really

grateful when they do kind of give me permission to kind of just pull off and do my own shit yeah so then I think the outside of mad tv I think the first thing that you popped into for me was

was eastbound and down that was the gig that kind of saved me yeah saved you that was the gig that saved me saved me from like do i move to new york and just try to become like an equity theater actor which i don't think i could do yeah yeah or just like dedicate full time to the writing because i just wasn't quite getting enough stuff and i was still testing for stuff and i was a huge fan of danny mcbride yeah i loved the foot fist way i like right away like i loved his song i loved everything he was he was doing yeah and i loved eastbound and down i was like this show is fucking amazing

and then that second season i got a call from my my then agent who's like the casting director who you know allison jones great character um she they're casting the part of the catcher for season two it's like his best friend and i was like like even getting this audition i was like holy shit and i went down and i never get i was i was getting in my car and my agent called and said, Hey, flag on the play. They already went out to someone and he's going to do it. Um, and I was like, really bummed out. And I was like, literally anything else they can, they can any other part, I'll do two lines, whatever. And he's like, there's only one of the part. It's a Russian. Can you do like an accent? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah no i can do it my dad's russian i can do a russian accent and like my dad's dad's dad was right right um but um i i went in like a couple

days later and uh there were other dudes there who were like athletes who were also russian so i'm like yeah i probably won't get this but um i guess there's anything that russian athletes are known for it's for being funny ah fucking ryan all right just i just uh so many classic russian athlete comedy actors i'm trying to can't stop thinking uh but but it was again it was the improv it was the kind of freedom and confidence of knowing like you could even adding a couple lines at the end of the scene yeah yeah like and i remember like reading with danny and like the scene ended and i was like what the fuck are you looking at motherfucking look at me bitch and he was just like what the fuck is this shit and and then uh

and then i got it yeah and i was so like couldn't have been happier i was just like i'm gonna go to south carolina for like a month and finally an excuse to get a mullet finally an excuse to get a mullet we actually got it my hair grew back and then they had to do reshoots and it was like a week before my buddy's wedding that i was in so like in all of his wedding photos i look like a fucking ukrainian high school student in like 1987 um but but uh uh but i i remember that night i remember the night they had like the little premiere party uh um for the second season for the second season at cinespace and i remember it aired and like will fortee came up to me. He was like,

that was great. What a great job. And like all these people that I like had known and watched and maybe met one time would be like, dude, great job. And I was like,

I fucking, it was on cloud nine. And it was because of that show, which directly led me to Mindy Kaling, who was a was because of that show which directly led led me to uh mindy caitlin who was a huge fan of the show and started following me on twitter and i was obsessed with her i thought she was i love the office it's one of my favorite shows ever and and the fact that she was a writer performer i was like that's so fucking cool absolutely yeah and yeah so cool and then i i got the um i got the um my partner and i found out she had was doing a pilot and we met with her just a staff and she kind of made a comment when we met with her she was like and you know you

should you were so funny on eastbound maybe you could like play like a little part on the show or something and i was like yeah great exactly i was like yeah whatever and like she fucking like the second week went to wrote me the sides handed me the character i started laughing right away because i love desperate i love playing desperate losers like it's the funniest mode for me and she fucking went to the network and was like, he's playing it. Like, we're not reading other people. It's just him. And then, like, it just, that character worked very well in that show because he was an agitator, but he was also, like, kind of her best friend.

And so it really, that was the, you know, she really kind of making that show is what really kind of taught me everything i need to know about like how to make a show how to how to run the show and how to deal with and also just how to navigate like there's so much of it that's just knowing how to navigate knowing when to say no knowing when to give you know yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really just, and it was, you know, really stressful at first just because we were on, we were kind of one of the last shows where overnight numbers really kind of mattered. They had already started like really dipping once kind of TiVo and stuff came up. But by the time we were on the air i mean i think our first episode was like a maybe like a two one or something we were like huh it's a little you know we wish it

was two new girl was two eight that would have been better um but um by the end i mean it was just like there's no shows that have that anymore that have like the overnight writing so we still had that constant pressure of like wednesday morning we have to have this number and and so it was stressful and it's also just like that network single camera schedule is like a bear yeah like it's like it's a bear especially if you're kind of writing as well did you have kids uh during that time i had i had my first two kids during that time yeah that's when it's rough that's what because when i was doing yeah andy richter controls the universe i was i would go four days without seeing because because will my son who's 19 now was uh

was a baby was like barely on the one or the other side of being a year old and i'll go four days not seeing him awake like i'd leave before he woke up and i'd come home when he was yeah you know asleep and that yeah it was it's i mean it's yeah listen i'm on a fucking tv show yeah yeah but it's like you know it's it's hard enough to not see your family when you're working doing anything but especially when you got a little a brand new baby and then you're and it's it it exhausts you yeah you're you're you were number one on the call sheet and it's like it's so much it's a lot of stress and and you know luckily one of my kids was born during hiatus so that kind of was like a little bit yeah yeah um um but it was um you know

i like yeah i look back at that show with just like nothing but just love. And it was really fun because she is so funny. And she, you know, took such good care of the crew. And it was, we had a lot of our crew stayed the same over the six years. And it was really, it was really like a joyful. Did you end up being a series regular after the first year? After the first year, I think I became a series reg. Double dipping.

Nice. Got that writer check. Got that acting check. Woo. That was really, really, really good. Really. Covering the union. If they fly anywhere, you get two first class seats.

Because you're in two different guilds. I would just put my little Hudson news bag in the second seat. Wouldn't even use it. Wouldn't even use it. People would come by. One time a veteran came by and they said, can he sit here? I said, no. No, sorry.

Ask the writer's guild if you can sit there. Tell him I appreciate his service, but my two waters are going to be sitting here. I'm very sorry. Take it up with the union. So were you expected to be in the writer's room as much, or were you kind of like just checking back in with David? By the time our episode, you know, some shows they do a thing where if you write the episode,

you basically produce the episode. So you're going to all the meetings and you're on set. Mindy did that. And when Dave and I wrote our episode, which was maybe like the ninth episode, And when Dave and I wrote our episode, which was maybe like the ninth episode, I think partially because I was already on set a lot as an actor. And there were kind of two of us and we're two like kind of bigger Chicago guys who aren't like Harvard dudes. I think she was like, you guys are blue collar.

You should be on set. And so we became just permanent on set. Oh, okay. We would still go to the room on hiatus weeks or, you know, whatever. But we were basically on set every day from call to wrap every day. So, yeah, that was a grind, too. Even if you're not on camera you've got to be there anyway you gotta be there anyway just because the nature of that show was we like to after we recorded after we got a few takes down is to like change stuff and tighten stuff up and

and so and like you know how those days go where you're like they start an hour an hour later so like monday you get home at seven but friday you get home at like 11. And you're so just, you're just so, so tired. But again, I still look. The reason that happens is because when you wrap in, it costs the production money if you don't get 12 hours off. So if you wrap at seven, your call can't be until seven so your day just ends up as it starts out the week and you go later and later and later by friday sometimes your call is 11 a.m because you finished at 11 p.m the night before and friday you might be there until two or three o'clock saturday morning yeah because it just is you need what they call turnaround which is a 12-hour period of rest in between working.

And if they make you forfeit your turnaround or shorten it, they cost them a lot. Let's move on because I know you got to go. Let's move on to, you know, this is kind of how you got here. And, you know, now it's like, where are you going? What do you got going on now? And where do you see yourself in the future? Where do I see myself in the future? I mean, it's so weird, Andy.

Well, now it's hard to say anything. I find myself thinking, what's the future bringing? I'm like, I'm like living in a bubble. We're all like on a permanent – or not permanent, but like the entire world has pressed pause. So it's impossible to think like about – I mean I like to – I would like to think that where I'm going and what I'm doing is continuing to do what I have been doing,

which is creating stuff and and acting in it you know what i mean like like i we have a tv show that we're we're starting to develop um and if i was able to do that and do 10 episodes a year of that and then do a weird little indie movie and be able to kind of exist in this little bubble I've created for myself, putting our art out there, I would love nothing more to do that as I watch my children grow up in peace. I have a feeling that, you know, I think out of whether it's passion or necessity, I think we're all going to be doing a lot of other stuff too. I just, you know, in light of the last few months,

last few years, last few months, last few days, it feels like you will have a hard time going back to the old world. You know, A a it's changed like literally our business has changed so much they might make four movies a year now you know what i mean they might you know there might be a new quibi you know that's only half the time or whatever um but but but i feel like we're going to have to do a lot of work on our country. And I know that I'm definitely going to be doing whatever I can to fucking get Donald Trump out of office. And I think whether he loses and leaves or wins, I think the work doesn't stop.

I think if like, you know, let's say Joe Biden wins, like we know now, I think how vulnerable we all are. And I think like I'm definitely like kind of committing to doing whatever i can to make sure we kind of don't have someone like trump again or if we do there's fucking health care there's medicare for all so if everyone suddenly loses their job they don't they're not completely destitute like i and i know that's whatever you can call it virtual signaling or whatever. But to me, it's just like I don't want to live in a country where even if I'm lucky enough to still get to do my work, everyone else pretty much their life is shit. You know what I mean?

And I think Republicans for a long time have been like, oh, we're going to turn to Venezuela, socialist country. We're going to turn to fucking Venezuela. It's like, no, we're going to turn to fucking Rio. We're going to turn a fucking Venezuela. It's like, no, we're going to turn into fucking Rio. We're going to turn into Argentina, which is like, we're literally like people live in fucking mansions and like mothers put their babies at the mansion because they can't feed them and people are dead in the streets. And so,

I, you know, I, I was always someone that looked at politics through kind of a fun lens and an exciting, sexy lens. And now it's like, it's our lives.

It's our fucking lives. and i don't want to i don't want to go through my life um watching the cops beat the fuck out of people on my camera on my on my uh twitter feed and i uh where friends of mine are having to like sell their fucking parents possessions because they need healthcare. And we're looking at it. Look, I'm not trying to be a downer at the end, but it's looking fucking dark and ominous. And I just feel like that it's going to take more than business as usual. And it's going to take, it's going to take people like stepping out of their comfort zone. And, and, and I think you would have an obligation to try to try to fix the country. I wish that, Oh, a fart sound. I just shit my pants. And I think you have an obligation to try to fix the country. I wish that... Oh, fart sound.

I just shit my pants. I wanted to tag you with a classic Chicago joke. It's important. You got to work both sides of the street. You don't want to lose any of your audience. The Smarties or the Dum Dums. You got to get... No, I got to keep them all in.

All your Ike likers uh the the ike yeah i always i always make people in my life uh make people in my life purist at me like including my children where i talk about the fandies look i'm doing it for the fandies that's just the grossest possible thing well what are the fandies gonna say if i do that what do the fandies think about that no no no it's like it's still not as funny as gaga's fans who are little monsters which i love because i love her and i'm like i'm a little monster yeah yeah or uh or uh mariah carey's lambs the lambs that is that that's too like cult that's too yes it is that's like now lambs remember we're all gonna kill ourselves

because there were lambs in the bible so it's like well you kind of touched on you know what you've learned kind of thing you kind of left us with a you know i mean i do think for people that you know the whole notion of like i'm not really into politics right now kind of doesn't cut it like you gotta i get it you don't want to be you know everybody's got to be into something you know like everybody has to have their pet project and their cause and like some people you know some people it's it's sort of gun control and some people it's the environment and other people it's reproductive rights. And, you know, and you can kind of be in all of them, but you gotta be into something.

You gotta be a lot, you gotta be alive and awake and have some point of view on this because you can't just play video games and watch superhero movies and and blithely think that you know that that somehow you know petitioning to get your favorite tv show to not be canceled is somehow activism it's not it's just selfish andy andy i wanted jericho back and i started a very popular campaign. This is why I, this is why we're doing this. It's just. I will, I will say this. Cause I, you know, because I'm a fan of the pod, the one thing I kind of thought about,

like, what did I learn? And it's, I'll keep it short, but I think we are living in the golden age of assholes, right? Where it's like, we have, we have lost one of truly like the most important guardrails of any like society which is shame right there's no more shame it's not a thing like we literally have like a like a like a the dumbest biggest liar like a stupid gossip columnist president yeah and and he doesn't give a shit and so it's he's emboldened a lot of people to act like assholes so you constantly are bombarded with images of look

at this fucking asshole who tore away a black lives matter sign from a young girl in maryland look at this racist woman at a walmart and it's important we recognize that those people are out there and their mindset needs to be defeated. But I swear to God that the vast majority of people are good. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like when you talk to people and you go out, most people are good. And most people hate what's happening too.

And I think it's very easy for us to get disheartened and be like and we should be sometimes but like i do have hope because i i think most most people are good i know they're giving joe biden shit for being like 15 of people are bad it's much higher but it's still much lower than people are good and it's like i'm trying my best to like be aware of the assholes, but like lift up the good people. I mean, physically. Right. I know.

I'm trying to work out. You're handsy. I'm very handsy. Constantly picking people up. I'm begging. I'm a handsy fancy. Well, thank you, Ike. I really appreciate you doing this.

I think you are a wonderful person. I think you're talented. Oh, and people have got to check out your movie. I don't think the movie that you – Oh, The Oath? Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's streaming on Hulu. The Oath, yeah.

Listen, if you want to escape and you want to just watch a movie about incredible government interference and the emergence of a fascist state, this is the movie to watch. It's a knee slapper as far as totalitarian comedies go. Yes, but it is on Hulu. Thank you for that. It's something that you wrote and you're in and Tiffany Haddish is in it. And it's really a great, fun movie with a lot of great performances. And it needs a little more love and attention.

God bless you. Anyway, I love you and I hope to see you at some point face-to-face and breathe on you, touch you. I'm going to not practice social distance. Yes, lift me up. I'll tell you that much. Let me be one of those who lift up.

Big old kiss. And a big old kiss to all you out there. Thanks for tuning in to the three questions, I believe it's called. And we will get back at you next time. Thank 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 Beckton. 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.