The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Ira Madison III

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

Writer Ira Madison III talks with Andy Richter about growing up a comic book fan in Milwaukee, his early gigs writing for magazines, and turning a Twitter catchphrase into a podcast with his show “Keep It."

Hello, podcast world. This is Andy Richter, and you are listening to The Three Questions. And I'm very excited to have somebody that, well, we've met in person at once, but we're Twitter pals. We're online pals. And it's the very funny and very witty Ira Madison III. Hello. Hi, Andy. How are you? I'm good.

You know. I'm good. I was just saying before this, you're the first person I've interviewed, that is sitting behind or sitting in front of lots of books you know i'm really trying to up the reading into my brand you know yeah yeah i made a joke i made a joke on twitter i said i would do that with all my on-screen stuff but all my books have the word piss in their title so uh whenever i've been whenever i've done my pundit spots on msnbc they don't like that now you are a midwesterner i am i'm from milwaukee from milwaukee has is your family been in milwaukee for a long time or uh yeah since um like the 70s late 60s, early 70s.

Yeah, yeah. And how was that? How was growing up in Milwaukee? Yeah, it was quaint, you know, quaint and cold. A lot of white people. Yeah, yeah. Not that many in the city, actually. Milwaukee actually has a heavily diverse population.

People don't realize that. No, you wouldn't. You think it's one big beer hall from what history has been. Or Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days stuff. You think, oh, it's just this. I'm like, well, that was 1952. Yeah, it's a huge Hispanic population there. Yeah.

Were you from downtown? did you live downtown or no uh well i lived um so the east side of town like uh river like i think river edge uh not me calling that the wrong neighborhood uh i lived on like the east side of town briefly finished in milwaukee you get this lived like the east side of town briefly finished in milwaukee lived on the east side of town briefly uh we grew up on like booth street and like sort of silver spring drive um lived by this army base because my grandmother was in the army uh just start yeah she was a sergeant major in the army and then at some point we moved to um near wauwatosa you know so yeah not not not right in the little wauwatosa village we're still part of milwaukee proper but um we moved more towards the north side of the city yeah wauwatosa is i i don't it's kind of like a cute little place right

isn't it yeah yeah you, the mall is there. It's been years, but I just, you know, I miss all those Wisconsin names, too. Like hearing people try, you know, to say Waukesha County and just getting terribly wrong, you know. Yeah. Waukesha, West Allis, Ray C, all sorts of places sorts of places yeah but yeah they're still there and i've got my i got my bucks hat on now oh is that what that is yeah cream city oh right because of the bricks the bricks yeah right right right which is which is funny because most people just assume that it's because it's like dairy or how white the town or how white the town is.

But I mean, to call yourself Cream City as opposed to like Milk City is really like we're the best whites of all. Yeah. Are you a baseball fan? No. Oh, well, this is the Bucks hat. This is the basketball hat. Oh, the basketball team. Oh, okay. Because, yeah.

But the Brewers are fine yeah because they because they you know they've incorporated that into their whole thing too the brewers have right i have um maybe i should get some brewers hats i don't really watch base i don't really watch baseball though i'm see i'm boring i i'm a late onset baseball fan i was it was forced down my throat for years as a child and then like in my 40s i started caring about it i don't know it's just part of i think i've always enjoyed going yeah like you like you can you can sit and watch a game and it seems more fun at home it It is very slow. Yes. It's good to nap in front of,

if you know, yeah, no, I'm that way with virtually any sporting event. I'll go see it live, but I just can't give a shit that much. If it's on TV, you know, same,

you know, I have a friend who tries to take me to, sorry. I have a friend who like to take me to – sorry. I have a friend who, like, watches the Lakers, like, religiously. Yeah. And I can watch a game with him if it's in person because, you know, you're going to Staples. You know, you feel like you're doing something.

Yeah. And also, they are amazing human beings. Yeah. They're just, like, specimens, amazing specimens of the human animal doing amazing things. They're all giants, first of all. Holy shit, there's that many big people on one place. Now, your mom was a single mother, correct? I had that in my notes. Yes, yes, she was.

Did your dad ever live with you guys? No. I mean, well, at some point when I was younger. I hadn't seen him really since I was like I don't know, six or so. You haven't seen him since he

He's somewhere. My sister's seen him. Other people in my family't seen him since he since you since he or yeah he's somewhere my sister's seen him other people in my family have seen him um i have made the choice not to yeah yeah i listen i understand um now what did your mom do was she uh was she in the military too or no she's had a lot of different jobs um she was a substitute teacher at once um she worked for she was a deputy sheriff once uh and now she's currently uh works for the post office in uh where was she a deputy sheriff in milwaukee in milwaukee wow how was that uh Not that stressful. I mean, I was young.

It was young enough. I was young enough to the point where I didn't hate all law enforcement. It was S-C-A-B. Yes. Definitely give me a few more years and I would have been having some convo. Yeah. Well, did she ever talk about was there like, you know, did she feel like there was racism within the, you know, I'm sure department. Yeah.

That was under David Clark. Yeah. That's the guy with the cowboy hat. The African American with the cowboy hat. Oh my God. Wow. Yeah. Remember him nut job.

Yeah. Yeah. He sort of dropped off the face of the earth. He's hiding somewhere. I'm sure. Maybe COVID got him. I can't, I can't see that guy ever wearing a mask. So, um, well, what kind of kid were you? I mean, we, we, are you an only child? Is your mom? I can't see that guy ever wearing a mask.

Well, what kind of kid were you? I mean, are you an only child? Do you have any siblings? I have a younger sister by two years. And what did I do? You know, I read a lot of books. I read comics a lot. You know, there was a comic book store called Collector's Edge Comics that was about a mile from my house. So I used to walk there every Saturday morning to get comic books.

And it was very quiet. I did a lot of reading. I watched everything, like on TV and movies. Yeah. watched everything, like, on TV and movies. Yeah. Yeah, that was, I was, I would say that probably 60% of the child care for me was a television. It was just, you know, like, it's like, you know,

it ended up being like a visual leash. Like, you know, like, the way you tie up a dog, you just put me in front of a TV and I would stay there and not get into trouble. I want to ask about about the comic books, because I you know, when I was a kid, I looked I used to read comic books somewhat. A, we didn't have comic book stores. There was just sort of like what you got at the grocery store. So I didn't I was never I never experienced the comic book store. Sort of ethos until I was younger.

But who are some of your favorites? And what type of stories appeal to you most? Well, my favorite was Spider-Man. And he was actually my first tattoo. Oh, yeah. I see it. And then there's that. and then there's a batman one too um i like them you know as a big x-men avengers fantastic four fan so those were my faves you know um did you go to uh public school uh i went to a public school part of the time uh at a montessori school part of the time um one of the schools was um let's see one two highlands that was a that was a younger school

um the goal of my year was third through fifth grade morris year yeah yeah yeah now is that like a jewish day school or something or was it i think it's just named after her um because i mean she uh she lived in milwaukee for a bit so what i didn't know that wow yeah so um to hung out with her all the time um yeah beer and pretzels with gold in my ear uh then it was samuel morris middle school i do not remember who samuel morris is morse code i think it is yeah hmm well there we go see there you go that's that's that's all you need for jeopardy is just to be kind of vaguely sure like okay yeah i think that's morse code yeah uh and and then um high school um was a private school marquette high school um it's an all boys catholic all boys just jesuit school oh okay and how was that i mean jesuits kind of have a mixed reputation of being pretty good and devoted to education and then also being awful and and

punitive yeah yeah you know it was a mix of both it was good and it was awful yeah oh you know it's uh it was one of my first experiences with all like a predominantly white school you know so it was um you know you know, and also just, um, the economic status of everyone at the school was very high. So yeah. Did you get kind of outright ostracization? No, not outright. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, did you have friends? I mean, there was, you know. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, I had friends. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it was lovely for a lot of reasons. You know, I did have quite a few friends at school. Yeah.

You know, I wasn't like an outcast at school, you know? Right. Like, I lived a very nice life. at school you know like i i lived a very nice life um but you know there's also there are also um truly horrendous people that i did go to school yeah yeah welcome to the world yep um may i ask were you out in high school or uh no not till college not till college uh no not till college not till college and uh and what did you have it was it you know was there any teasing about like did there wasn't any kind of well you know like did you get not really yeah no maybe like my first year. I remember first semester, first year, there was like two evil people who did. But they both ended up getting arrested. Nice.

In school. Yeah. Yeah. One of them for terrorism. Really? Yeah. I think he like wanted to blow up our school. So there was that.

He was kicked out. And then his friend, he was arrested because they had a weed grow house in one of their attics, but were also robbing homes in the suburbs. Wow. You're like a magnet to really draw off the bad ones. Yeah, I know. They come for you. And what kind of stuff did you do in school? Were you like?

I did theater. Theater, yeah. Theater, but was not really cast in anything, so I did stagehand stuff. But then that led me to playwriting. That was your major, correct? That was my major in grad school, yeah. Well, theater was my major in undergrad and then graduate school i did um playwriting and screenwriting got my mfa in dramatic writing and um high schools where i

first learned that like i liked writing yeah um for people you know instead of writing like right novels or something like writing things that you would hear people then say out loud yeah yeah now was it was it like when you did you have like some big dream to be an actor and was it hard when you didn't get casted or did you just kind of feel like i want to be like this yeah you know i liked it it was ariel wanted to be a part of their world yeah uh and then didn't didn't happen didn't happen so i figured out something else. Yeah, yeah. Now, where was undergrad? Where'd you go to undergrad?

Loyola, Chicago. Loyola, Chicago. And how was your Chicago time? Did you like living there? I did. As opposed to Milwaukee, you know? Yeah, you know, Chicago was a great time because I was away from home but also

close enough to home that i could go back when i needed to yeah yeah uh really like an hour and a half with no traffic um and it was it was fun you know it's a good city i like chicago yeah i do too um and it's a good place to be your first step away from home if you're going to live in cities, I think. It's kind of like a good starter city because I know when I left a small town, I don't think I could have handled New York or Los Angeles. I think I needed to kind of have a little bridge into it. And then grad school was where?

Grad school was Tisch, NYU. Oh, nice. Nice. Now, how was that transition from Chicago to New York? I moved to New York actually like a couple of years before I did grad school. So it was actually a lovely transition. By the time I started at nyu i was already living in new york and used to the city so yeah and were you writing uh were you

getting things performed you know your pieces performed or uh a few here and there um but mostly i was uh i also did journalism in high school and so that's what I was sort of doing to pay the bills for a bit in New York right before grad school. I was interning at a couple places. And then I went back to school Los Angeles, I got back into writing for BuzzFeed, GQ, like, Vulture, that kind of stuff before my screenwriting took off. Now, when you go from Chicago to New York, how do you start writing? I mean, did you have connections of any kind or did you know anybody um no i applied for an internship and got one and so yeah at what radar magazine oh okay that doesn't exist

anymore does it no i think it's like radar online now and it's like some celeb trash site. But the old Radar magazine was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. I remember it. Yeah. And it was still kind of celeb trash, but fun celeb trash. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, did you get to write stuff there?

Or was that – Yeah, I wrote stuff for their website every day. And then I started working at um okay magazine and then i was at um that's a tab magazine yeah yeah yeah yeah oh wow and how i mean were you happy to be doing that kind of tabloid no yeah no i mean it's gotta i mean it's gotta some fun, but it also has to. I was definitely fired from OK Magazine. Yeah. Because I was tasked with whenever they would have polls about like, do you believe this person should break up with this person or whatever? Like I had to go to.

I had to go to Bryant Square Park and like interview people. About it. About dumb shit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Most of the time I did not, and then I would just decide myself, sorry. Just make it up. Fake news.

Oh, my God. It threw off all the data of who should break up with whom i know going back they're gonna have to change all of the sociological texts about reader polls um and did they find that out i mean how did how did you? No. No. I think I was actually lucky because I took a very long lunch one day. Ah. Yeah. I had friends who were also there who were interning at a different magazine. And so I went to lunch with them. And then I was just walking around the city.

And then I came back. And they were like, wow, you took a lunch. And I was like, you said I could take a lunch. And they were like, well, not that long. And I was like, well, sorry. Yeah. Now, I mean, I mentioned that, is that a pretty fun life to be a young person and to be kind of working at these magazines and i imagine not radar yet radar yes that um there no yeah yeah are there at least fun people around you or is it the atmosphere there were some yeah but weird i don't know paid six magazine my boss

was this woman from jersey who was constantly closing the office door and arguing with her boyfriend on the phone. Oh, wow. So that was fun. Yeah. Now, what spurred the move to L.A.? Well, once I finished at NYU, I wanted to move here and write for TV, Andy. Yeah? What shows were particularly inspirational to you like what like what shows

are you watching being like i want to get on that well first you know it was like buffy was my fate my first love and then like um i still watch like dates of our lives every day i love that you know those were things that as a kid watching with my family got me into like days of our lives your whole life yeah it was a thing that got me into tv as a kid you know and like it felt a lot like my comic books you know it was like an ongoing story you know so um that was my draw into being like oh i would love to do that someday maybe i don't know um and then when i went to grad school it seemed possible so um moved right away like the week after graduation to la oh wow what was it about like as a kid what do you think it is

about that ongoing story that that drew you into it so much uh you know it's you're following different characters every day you know or every month depending on if it's a comic, you know, and it's just like you're immersed in like their lives and in a way that you can sort of escape your own. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a lot like reading, but it is, um, you know, it's continuous, you know, it's not finite. Yeah. And is it is part of it that you were watching it with family members? I mean, is it sort of like a communal escape?

I watched some with family, but then I really just started going off on my own. Yeah. Yeah, because I have a younger brother and sister. They're actually my half-brother and sister. They're twins, and they were born when I was nine. And I had a great aunt that came and stayed with us to help with the babies. And she watched all the ABC ones, the Ryan's Hope. All My Children, One Life to Live.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. General Hospital. General Hospital, yeah. She watched the – and Ryan's Hope was, I think, a half hour at the very beginning. But she watched the whole – The Irish one. Yes, exactly. And Mira.

And Mira's in that. the irish one yes exactly and mira and mira's in that but she watched the whole block of them and then would talk about them with my mom and get them all like interwoven like they ended up being she would get she would say like that two characters were starting to date and it's like no that's a character from another show like it all became just one twisting sort of like bong hit for her to just kind of you know escape things and then i started it just became a habit and i watched i but for me it was just all my children i watched all my children but it was nice you know yeah it was like for 15 16 years i watched the show yeah and. And I remember sitting around, you know, hearing older family members talking about, like, the characters, talking about them like they were neighbors we knew. Yeah, exactly.

You know? Yeah. And it is. It's just pure escapism. And you know it's, like, a little bit trashy, but you're still kind of invested. It's just, I mean. No, it's the same as now when my friends and i will talk about and dissect like bravo you know like real housewives things yeah it feels exactly the same as when my family used

to be like talking about like those characters you know yeah yeah and i love i also just love now being involved in entertainment and knowing like how those are made and how like, just what a meat grinder it is, what like a narrative meat grinder it is to just crank it out. And it's, it's an amazing, it's,

it's an amazing little facet of the industry that I feel like is kind of, you know, it's slipped, you know, a lot of them. I think, in fact, I think All My Children is just online now, if it's even on anymore. Oh, it's off.

Is it gone? Yeah. Yeah. It went to, weirdly, it went to, when they canceled All My Children and One Life to Live, they went to Hulu. But I don't know if you recall, it was, they were like two of the first things to ever debut on Hulu. No, I don't remember that. Yeah, so it was like, it was in the early days of it was like, oh, this is some new internet thing.

Yeah, yeah. ABC, Disney's doing, right? And then, you know, they only lasted like a year or so. Yeah. you know, they, and they only last at like a year or so. Yeah. Because that was definitely pre the era of people tuning in to watch things on streaming. Right. To accept it because it did kind of feel, I mean, I have, I have an old man's bias against a lot of,

I mean, not so much anymore, but like when there were people that would, you know, they were making a living doing a show on YouTube in my my estimation, I was like, oh, my God, that's, you know, like you're in the wasteland. You know, you're like you're on public access or something. Of course, it felt weird then, you know, and like I remember people being like, oh, my older parents will like never watch anything on. Like they'll never watch their shows on Hulu you know like this is going to ruin it and then like the shows did get cancelled because not enough people watched it but now just the way that everyone watches like

Netflix, Hulu, like everything you know like if you'd kept them on long enough people would have been watching right right right Can't you tell my loves are growing? Now, in L.A., did you have any connections when you came out here? Yeah, you know, my dad was a famous actor in the 50s. That's how I got all my work.

Still didn't talk to him, but I exploited the connections. I certainly would have. But no, I had a friend who was a writer's assistant and stuff here. He was my first friend when I moved here, my friend michael and so um i met friends through him um and had no really other connections here at all so yeah how did you built it from the built it from the ground up nice oh you know yeah fuck all those people that are out here that had it all handed to them um how do you start getting people to notice you and take you you know seriously as a as a hireable entity uh you know i mean my first jobs for my first like four or five years here were um was was was waiting tables like being a barista and then and then i was just like using any other

time to like um write maybe some funny freelance things online you know or like like use my social media presence but actually i just i really didn't have like a social media presence that like got me a job that much. It got me jobs later, but it was because I was doing some freelance stuff that got me a job at BuzzFeed. And working there is when I feel like I started cultivating my using the internet to really propel my career.

Because that's how I left there to go and work at New York Magazine. And then I left there to go work at MTV News. And then I got jobs at GQ and Daily Beast and stuff like that. So that is what I was doing. I was very much the game of you could work at one of these places forever and have a steady job, right? Maybe.

What is a steady job in the media? But I was using it more as like, okay, cool. I'm at BuzzFeed for a year and how can I use that to get to another place? And then it was quickly just trying to go from place to place to get where I wanted eventually.

Just to keep the movement going. I mean, because it didn't necessarily seem like it was steps up or was it just kind of moving around? Oh, it was steps up. Yeah. It was steps up. I mean, most of the reason I kept leaving to go to another place was money, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's much easier to...

Is that how that works? money you know yeah uh it's much it's much easier to is that how that works well it's much easier to increase your paycheck yeah when you are um when you are moving over to another place you know as a concept as as opposed to trying to convince the place you work at to give you yeah yeah yeah yeah so it was a lot of um well i need more money time to convince these other people to hire me and then lie about how much so i can make more right right so that was that was the the scam i was pulling for years uh yeah and then um writing stuff really just was, that's where it does come out to, you know, like that tried and true thing of like making connections. So, you know, my current manager is someone who I became friends with in Los Angeles through years of living here. Yeah.

years of living here yeah uh and then she eventually um when i was when i launched like the podcast um then was like oh let me read something of yours and then she did and then now she's repping me so oh wow that's nice yeah now your social media following uh was it mostly twitter it's mostly twitter yeah i wish it were more on instagram which i wish just people found me prettier than they found me amusing instagram i just can't i mean i just am too old and fat for instagram i got i got the dog you know i'll post the dog but it's too late and i also, too, it's like for me, words are the thing. It's not like I think. I like some funny pictures, sure, are great.

But for me, it's words. I love words, yeah. But now I'm just like, who cares about my words? Care about my face. Boy, you really have changed. LA has changed you. You're in a canyon house now, probably, you know, slathering creams and balms, pricing plastic surgery. I certainly do.

The creams, the balms. Now, when your social media, when it starts to grow, because for me, you know, like social media for me, I'd been on TV for years. So, like I kind of had a built-in following. I mean, how does it kind of start to build for you? You know, are there like a couple of, like, is there like one tweet that gets, you know, that people go crazy? Yeah. You know, I guess it was always just sort of like

tweets that would go viral and then some people follow you and then someone important seems to follow you and then you follow them back. That also never goes away. Weirdly. For me.

It'll be like, oh my god, why did this celebrity follow me yeah i'm like gotta follow them back unless they're crazy then yeah ignore then you then then then you slowly just pretend to just back away or hit yeah i have to me it's the mute button i have such a hard time love a mute love a mute or the soft block yeah oh the soft block is the best because then they won't see you yes yes no that i do that i do for assholes but like mild assholes now i just now especially now with the election i i i don't but just it i just feel like supportive Trump, I can block you.

Cause I mean, it's just like, there's, there's no, there's nowhere to go beyond that. It's indefensible at this point. It's just like, if you run into them,

like you're like, who cares? Yeah. And I don't have, and I, and I have no qualms. Whereas before you might, you know,

and it's, I've always been a Democrat or a liberal or whatever the fuck you, progressive, whatever the name is. And you can't be one if you're the other and all this shit. But I certainly was never conservative. But there's like, I did feel like, and I still feel like, well, sure. Okay. You can, you can be really into taxes being low and that's your whole thing. you can be really into taxes being low and that's your whole thing you know but when it gets wrapped up with all this other completely heinous bullshit it's like no no that's that's just

indefensible and i can't do it um but yeah then the the crazies like i still have things like for me it's like uh like chris evans follows me and and i you know what i mean he's younger than me and everything but it's like captain america you know like it and he's like like when he read if he retweets something about captain america retweeted me you know and he out of the blue he because just from politics you know political stuff he dm'd me and just like said like you seem like a real cool dude and i it was like too many of the feeling like all right cap cap gave me his tip of the cap well i'm friends with his brother oh are you not not not him though keep trying keep trying uh i prefer the brother.

Yeah. Now, your social media presence is fairly apolitical. I mean, you can, of course, make inferences of what your stands are. And is that just kind of how you are in life, too? I mean, because where I met you was at a political fundraiser. inferences of what your stands are and is that just kind of how you are in life too i mean because where i met you was at a political fundraiser um so i mean you're obviously active yeah so i mean for me i feel like well one you know like my podcast is at crooked media so you know like people know at least i'm left leaning you know um people who listen to the show know that i am a little bit further left than

some of the other boys on pop save but um you know i feel like i'm you know i'm like i'm black and i'm also gay and so it's like what most of my politics like thankfully you can assume yeah online you know and. I get political with making sure to tweet about people to donate to. Like races and stuff. But in terms of a Twitter that's just

constantly talking about everything all day. It's like, I can't be Mark Ruffalo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? Or even Chris Evans, you know? Or even, like, other people who are just sort of, like,

I feel like there are people that you follow for political reasons, you know? Like, you follow them because, like, I'm getting the politics from you. For me, it's like, I guess you're following me because I'm funny. Um, and, um, I talk about like cultural things that I like and like, I will then occasionally dip into like, um, what needs to be said about like, obviously like race, um, and like, um, you know, things that are going on with like LGBTQ community, like, but, and you know, like other political stuff, but you know, like, I would find that like 60% of my Twitter is just me trying to like,

have a good time and stay sane. I know. I, that's what's, I mean, that's what I love about your feed. And I think, I can't remember why, you know, what you just have been there for a while but it feels like i've been there forever ever uh no but i mean but in my twitter experience i mean and that's how it kind of got it started to get to know you and um i think it was when you were you used to and you don't do it anymore you You named the podcast. Keep it. Oh, that's right. I used to say it.

Yeah. For what people, it kind of was like a, a regular feature of your, uh, it was always a good, you know, I mean, explain, like tell people if they don't, you know, so. So it was like what I didn't like something, you know, like you would, it would be like, um, Mel Gibson making passion of a Christ too. You know, you would just be like Mel Gibson making Passion of the Christ 2. You would just be like, keep it. And that became a thing then that other people would use, and they would at me when they used it.

And so it became like a catchphrase, for lack of a better term. And then when I was developing the show with Crooked, I sort of knew I had to call it that. And I'm very glad I did because now it's just the name of the show, right? Yeah, yeah. I would feel honestly insane if I were still, years later, Jujutsu Taiken Keeper. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah well it is such a good dismissive you know keep it like i was just imagining like saying it like somebody you know like listen i've

got this thing keep it you know just yeah to zip it um now what was your first what was your first job writing television that was fictional, that was a narrative kind of job? A couple of years ago, it was Daybreak, this Netflix show. And it was a zombie teen show. It lasted one season. Yeah. Thanks, Netflix. And how was that experience? teen show uh last lasted one season yeah thanks netflix and how was that experience i mean was it i was great were you like thrilled to finally be you know yeah you know because it was based on a comic book but we did a lot of our own creating

of stuff too and it just felt great you know like that my first first gig was really just immersing myself in something that I loved forever, you know? And the character whose episode I wrote, you know, was also this gay black character who was like very into like kung fu and like samurai movies. And so like his episode was a lot of fun to do, you know, and it was different from the other episode. Each episode was like narrated by each character so like mine got to be you know different than the other ones and felt very comic booky and was narrated by um RZA from Wu-Tang you know so like it was yeah it was a really great first experience that's really fun yeah that I feel like people never get to do you know no but usually people's

you know television writing career is like writing for some shitty derivative sitcom you know like yeah you know you know and then six years later you're like okay now i'm on a show i like yeah yeah had you been writing like uh pilots what were what were you what what kind of stuff were you writing up to them to get that job? Were you writing your own stuff or spec scripts? I had plays and then spec scripts from that I will never see the light of day again.

I stopped writing spec scripts after grad school because it felt like no one wanted to read them anymore. It seems like a weird thing to do. As much as some TV producers online, on Twitter there's always a point when someone who like is a tv showrunner loves to tweet out like i miss spec scripts i would read a

good spec and i'm always like no you wouldn't and why you're a two-year assistant would read it yeah yeah yeah exactly we're and for people just for people that don't know because some people don't know it's like if you want to be a tv writer and you say like okay i'm gonna write a uh big bang theory script and then you write a big bang theory script just it's like fan fiction but with television shows and it's always whenever i read them, it always just seems to me, and I'll do, like, you know, because, like, throughout my career, there have been, part of being a comic actor like I am is that they always are like,

when it comes time to, like, let's see if we can get you a show, you go on these arranged dates with writers. And there's so many of them like here's my seinfeld spec and i just feel like i don't want to read your fucking spot seinfeld spec i want to like i want to read like you i want to i want to you know because yeah you are sort of it is an arranged marriage when you when you sign on to do something like that with somebody like i want to know who you are and not

like what george costanza jokes you can write yeah exactly you know and it was um it was definitely useful in graduate school you know because like you could learn the structure of a show right very easily there are characters already created for you see you know you don't have to like think of that aspect first so like i love them for learning but you know like um i am never gonna write one ever again in my life yeah uh and it's funny now you know just because it's like you're thinking of an adult trying to write one like who already has like a job you know and stuff like to try and get new ones like the the idea of it would always be a showrunner would be like

oh to see that you can write in the voice of like this show or other characters you know and i'm like well most of you just rewrite everything anyway so what does it matter if i could fit the most of the i mean from my perspective most of it is like is this does this person have a creative funny spark um and i found to from my transition into working in late night and that being my entree into professional show business and then coming out here and being in the sitcom world just so much people saying like well you really have to know the structure you have to know structure structure And it always was the most unfunny motherfuckers that were like, you got to know structure.

And I just feel like everyone knows structure. It's been drilled into their fucking heads. Like everyone could recite the structure of a sitcom in their sleep. You know, because you just know how they work. You know their rhythm. And it's always, I think all so many of these rules that people have are just barriers that they put up to protect the fact that there's like people

that i'm from a comedy perspective that aren't that funny you know that yeah just aren't that funny you know also uh speaking of sitcoms i told you i literally watched everything growing up and that made me want i had this thing where i would like watch everything and like i even had vhs tapes and i would record episodes of things week to week label them uh and then like come back so it would be like like if i were watching like all of alias you know like i could go back during the summer and be like, well, here's all my Alias VHSes, and I could watch that.

And I did that with most shows that I loved. And I used to have Andy Richter Controls the Universe all on VHS. Oh! Thank you! It's probably somewhere in my basement

back in Milwaukee. That's where it should be um oh thank you very much yeah no that was i i mean i i was i got lucky in that my first kind of job where i was number one on the call sheet is something I feel very proud of and that I feel I feel also I don't feel sheepish about saying when somebody says I like that show I feel like I was responsible enough for the the psychology and the personality of that show to say thank you as opposed to like well it really is just a vehicle that I sort of got in and went for a ride in you know so that's great yeah no it's it's it's wonderful and it is you know i try to try to remember it on especially now sitting at home with nothing feeling like i'm retired or like did i i think is it streaming somewhere yeah

no it isn't it isn't. It isn't? Okay. It might have been on Hulu for a minute. I think it briefly was. Yeah. And I think it was, who created that with you? Victor Fresco. Victor Fresco created it. I think it was on after, because for a while, Victor's other show was on. The Better Off Ted?

Yes, Better Off Ted. I think that was on Hulu for a bit too as well. Yeah, and then he did Santa Clarita Diet, which he had me come and play like the biggest asshole in the world. So yeah, and actually we just did you know i mean the way they're doing with all of these uh we did a cast reunion table read of andy richter controls the universe oh yeah and but of course we we planned it and then it happened to be up against the

fucking princess bride one the same exact same time exact exact same night but you know it was fun and it was really fun to see those people you know i mean it it was it is weird how like memory works where that i was it's like a a file folder in your brain that you open up and all of a sudden it's like you know there's like oh yeah that and that and that it's really it's really good but yeah that that and andy barker pi i i'm very proud of those shows i you know i still kind of that out of that whole process i think i ended up just feeling like i don't necessarily need to be the star of the thing. Like I don't. And I,

I, and I also kind of am realistic enough to be like, well, I did that three times and all three times it was very short lived. So maybe that's not the thing, you know, it's like, I climbed that ladder three times and found that some of the rungs were

broken. So I don't think I'm going to climb that ladder again. Yeah. But I certainly am very happy and proud to have been part of something that was meaningful. Yeah. Especially to people for whom it is important to make television comedy. And the Conan show especially that way i mean i to have been on a show that meant for people what though similar shows meant for me coming up yeah you know it inspired a lot of people to do comedy or be like oh you can make

even you know even if it was short-lived you know like the fact that it was on Fox and watching it, you were at least knowing that some people were trying to make comedy that was funny. Yeah. That does end up kind of being the most important part, the doing of the thing. And that's the rationale because the boatload of money never pulled up and dumped all the cash on me. money never pulled up and dumped all the cash on me. So I probably, you know, if that had happened, I'd probably be like, well, the money's really nice, but because that never really happened.

I mean, granted, I'm relative to most humans. I'm just fine. But, you know, I don't own multiple homes, you know, that kind of thing. And that's what happens. i'm sure that that probably follows like you think like i create a show and then i could like do you have those thoughts of like that kind of fantasy of like because when you're in this business you are like conceivably just a few steps on the flow chart away from crazy fame and wealth. Yeah, you know, I think I just want two.

Two? Houses. You know, it'd be nice to have where you live and then it'd be nice to have something in like another country. Yeah. Yeah.

At this point. Yeah. At this point. Yeah. At this point. Not one where you're even like, Ooh, there's this empty place, you know, like you probably have to rinse it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No. Well, I, you know, also to having children that went to private school, that's a, that they carry a beach house in their minds yeah just because of how much that cost i've been i feel like i've been sending someone to college for the for the last 15 years um well now uh what the podcast that you're doing on keep it you your co-hosts are lewis vertel and i eat osman and i eat osman and and how did you how do you know those guys uh lewis i've known for like seven years or so um yeah a while back when i was in it first moved here and then um i eat uh we met last year um because our previous

co-host exited and so we were just doing a little search over the summer and we really clicked with her and so it's been great she's been on for 50 episodes almost now. Oh that's great I know her from Twitter and she's new to LA is she not?

Yeah she's younger and she was doing a lot of stand-up comedy in New York and moved here to do the show and write on Big Mouth not yeah yeah she's younger um and she was doing a lot of stand-up comedy and things in new york and and moved here um to do the show and write on big mouth so oh right yeah that's right yeah yeah and they're both so smart and so funny lewis is like one of the has one of the most enviable brains around he's so smart and so funny um and what are you what are you working on right now i mean what are you kind of uh you know i um finished writing on q force just recently a uh gabe leapin and mike sure created a show um starring sean hayes um and it was about um it's like it's a gay james bond

it's animated so that'll be on netflix next year so oh nice we just finished working on that we're still in the episodes um 10 nice yeah animated um i do some am in sack nice there you go yeah i got the join letter when i did cameo in uh well guest star in um in you season two uh-huh yeah on netflix and what was actually funny about it was um obviously so when the sag sent the letter and they were like oh you can join now and it's like because of your principal role in this um i guess because of the drop down menu you is right next to young sheldon so i got a letter from sag that said because of your role in young sheldon oops oops we can find it somewhere i hope i still have that letter because i wanted to get it

and you didn't you didn't like correct them you just let it be thank you yeah yeah yep i was in young sheldon um the apartment building that I lived in had a bunch of like kids kid actors because the apartment building was it was a new building and it was in Burbank kind of near the studios and it were lots of like families from Cleveland

that like their kid came to and he had a recurring on young Sheldon and it just was weird to me. It was just so strange to, like, I can't imagine putting that pressure on my kid to like, we're relocating the whole family because of your job.

11 year old. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, that's a digression. Well, do you have I mean, do you have like kind of dream projects To the side that you're sort of You know

And where do you want to be? I mean, aside from the two houses That's a given You know, the home in Pied-de-Terre Yeah, yeah I don't know. I have dreams of getting back in the theater. You know?

I've been enjoying reading, getting reading plays a lot, and I miss going to see plays. It's been easier to read plays during quarantine just because reading a whole book in one sitting is insane. Even though I did just do that two days ago i read this new book the vanishing half which was amazing and i did it in like six hours on my couch and

didn't move straight out no it's straight through uh oh my god i don't need a gallon of adderall is that good but you know like we're gonna play like it's like reading a script you know so it's like i could pick one off my shelf and like read one whenever you know and you can read it in like an hour or so a couple hours and so i've been doing that and it's been making me miss that writing for people but writing with um when you're not like along for the ride you know like you feel involved so like it's really your it's you that you're putting out there you know i think that's the next step for me do you think that's mainly because you would be it would be a your solo voice yeah my voice my brain you know and like i feel like right now people get my brain on like the podcast i'm like twitter and i'm like be so much nicer if they just only got,

you know, my brain through something I've written. And then I could leave having to spread my. Yeah. Do you ever, do you have, or ever have any pilots that you've written? I mean,

do you have pilots out there that you wrote? I have one, I have like a couple that like got me those jobs, you know? And so, you know, my, I mean, my writing is very theatrical too and like sort of insane, but just coming from like my background and stuff. And like, so there are a lot of things that, you know, like people love to read, you know, but we'll see if someone makes them someday yeah yeah is and and do you would you like to run a show i mean do

you do you like the notion of that yeah yeah you know i mean well i'm currently uh i didn't sell a show to warner brothers last year so oh okay yeah so we're co-writing it with a friend um so we'll see if that goes somewhere he would be the one running it but um just has more tv experience but you know yeah fun but um yeah just hoping for hoping hoping to go and be in public again that That's what I'm hoping for more than Yeah. Yeah, you and everybody. That's quite a unique feeling. I even miss a dumb like

event in this city. You know, like a premiere of some show or movie that you don't even really care about. Going to get free drinks and passed around apps. Like, I miss that. Right, right. Music so loud you can't talk to anyone.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm the same. I'm kind of, you know, I'm like kind of a, I have a curmudgeonly side to me that sort of likes to go home and that is only good for about an hour out. But now I'm like, I think I could do two hours at a boring bar. I'm starved. I'm starved for just kind of just to see people. Because it is kind of like aside from the grocery store, like you're never around more than five or six you know like i just think about being in a room with 10 people you know and like

the people not in your bubble it's funny because it's like those are those are the people that you see out uh like have you experienced being like at the grocery store and like you see someone you know like across the aisle and you do the like sort of like high wave yeah no i've seen yeah or in like then the elbow touch or something like that or you know i like i've seen people well because like i'll go to you know we're still taping we're taping the conan show at largo and and so i'm seeing people which has been like the fact that's been about a month that I've been getting to go do that. And, oh my God, it's like, oh my God, I have a place to go. Like it, it elevated my mood by 60%, just the fact that I had a schedule that I had to meet, which is kind of sad in a way.

Like, you know, I mean, the fact that I feel like what's gotten me together is like we still do we've had the podcast we do it every week so like that schedule has stayed even though i'm doing it from home it's still the exact same weekly routine that i've had for the past three years yeah and it's a conversation yeah there's so many days when i like taping a podcast like i'm doing like with you i mean my kids will be over later, but you know, like with you, it's like, this, this could have been the only conversation I have all day. And I kind of like, I was like, whew, that was, you know, it's like nourishment in a way. Well, what's, what's, what's the point of your story? Like, what do you think, you know, like, or is there

advice you have for people? I mean, this kind of a summation kind of statement. The point of me, the story. You know, I just think that I can get lofty about, you know, like wanting to tell stories, you know,

and like that are important and like seeing stories like myself and stories that I hadn't seen when I was like reading comic books or watching TV. But, you know, it's really just the thing that like someone like me who did not like, like you said, it was reading comic books. There weren't like that many black superheroes or gay ones you know and watching like tv as a kid like consuming everything i dreamed that i wanted to do that i've thought about doing it all the time uh and now i'm doing it you know and so i just want to keep

pulling things out of my brain and um putting them down and um that makes me happy and so yeah i hope that makes other people happy too yeah do you are there people that seek out advice from you sometimes yeah sometimes i feel like really because i'm like i'm like oh what should you do well i don't know move to la work in a coffee shop, get fired from that one, work in another one, quit that one, get fired from that one, and eventually get a job at like, I'm sorry, like BuzzFeed. Work with that for years, start a podcast,

and then get a TV career from that. But don't know many people doing that. if you can follow that exact time i know i i when people have asked me sometimes like if i like i just feel like what am i supposed to say like well take some improv classes and then become a late night talk show sidekick for a number of years like it's funny how time just even passes fast you know because it's like it'd be wild for someone to even do that job of yours oh i know again and for me it's like it would have to be a different site you know from like even like a buzzfeed you know because like that's not the same they're not producing content in the same way that they were in like 2014 where someone could join it and then, like, get an internet presence and then, like, move on to something else, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, and those sites kind of really are, there aren't many of them, and the ones that are there almost kind of seem old, you know what I mean? Or, like, there's so many people now, and so it's harder to sit down, you know, and so I don't know. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for taking some time. Nice to talk to you today. Yeah, it's good to talk to you. I started my day to be honest, and I'm going to go to.

I'm going to do a Starbucks run before I see my trainer today. So that's nice. How do you manage the trainer? Well, I've been doing Zoom all summer and all quarantine. And now during weekdays, one day of the week, because another friend who lives nearby also has the same trainer. He will come and work out with us in our backyard. also has the same trainer. He will come and work out with us in our backyard.

Not this week because he just had a baby. His wife just had a baby two weeks ago, so now he's staying at home and COVID stuff and whatever. It'll be a while before I see him in the fire well again.

Well, I haven't done a goddamn thing since COVID. so uh i believe me i i and i'm i respect what you're doing kudos twitter and it's about instagram now so we're working on oh i get it it's not it It's not for health reasons. It's for your takeover of show business. It's purely that. Well, nice. Good for you.

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

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