The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Jack Black (Re-Release)

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

(Re-Released from July 2022)Jack Black joins Andy Richter to discuss growing up in LA, putting on shows as a kid, the start of Tenacious D, and his approach to parenting.

Hello everybody, this is Andy Richter and you have tuned in again to The Three Questions. I am the host and this week we are delving into the archives, doing the best of here. And this week I am talking to one of my favorite people on the entire planet, Mr. Jack Black. I talked to Jack back in July of 2022 and here is that conversation that I had with the truly great Jack Black. I had some joints, and then my wife, I went out of town, and my wife hid my joints so that our sons would not find the joints. And when I was looking for my fancy tape recorder, I keep it in this case, I was like, something smells like joints. And this is where she hid the joints and forgot that she hid my joints.

I found my joints. All right. Yay. Everything. Oh had my joints. I found my joints. All right. Yay. Everything. Oh, my God. This is such a happy reason to do a podcast now. That's worth the price of admission right there. Thank God your sons don't want a podcast.

Let's put this where the podcasting machines are. They'll never find. You know, one time my son um his room was in the front of the house and it was it's an old house and like the mail slot would come through into like a cabinet built in in his room so you know like you could you had everybody had to go into his room to get the the mail and he and his boyfriend are laying in bed one morning, and I just kind of poke my head in, because they're asleep, to get the mail.

And right in front of where the mail slot is, is a gigantic bag of weed. Like, it looked like a half ounce to me. And I just was like, he was awake, and I was like, just pretend to be intimidated by me.

Pretend to be afraid of me. Don't leave it in the only place in the room where I have to go, you know? Yeah. But isn't it better than secrets? Oh, my God. To be able to. I'm just kidding. Absolutely.

I mean, it's it's. Yeah. Yeah. No. And I mean, also, it's yeah. Yeah. No. And I mean, also to my parents, my parents, you know, they they they they didn't impose hypocrisy, you know, so it's like, yeah, my parents drank like fish. Like when they were teenagers, they drank cocktails. They didn't drink beer. They were drinking like Manhattans and Rob Roy's and shit.

I don't even know how to make. And there. And so like when we when my brother and i got they're like yeah drink beer just you know be careful if your friends are too drunk they can't go home you know yeah that kind of thing so yeah all right on a podcast hi it's great to see you thank you does it bother you that i'm like unshowered no not at all i can't see it doesn't matter because really this is about the audio no one's ever gonna see no my bed head no no no i make the bed just for you like the bed that's behind me i made it for you not for the i don't care

about these people they're not gonna see to see this. Are we already recording? Because I feel like I'm way behind. Okay, now I'm recording now. So I'm also recording our podcast as a backup. All right, then we got the first part covered. Well, what was it about show business that first grabbed you? You know what? Because you grew up out here.

You grew up in LA. Well, this is getting dangerously close to the three questions that's the idea okay so here we go we're going into phase one right now we are we are we got the initial stuff over with i like to uh i like to um put the chapter headings when that when i see them coming okay up in neon lights chapter one question number one yes where did jack black come from yeah what is jack that my initial pull yes the origin story the pull to the industry well um i my first memory of putting on a show was in the living room of our house in Hermosa Beach, California, just south of Los Angeles, just outside of Hollywood, but close enough. Beachy. The energy, beachy, yes. Yeah. But you could feel the energy of Hollywood, the machine, the center of the entertainment universe right next door. And my parents were progressive aerospace engineers.

They worked at TRW and they were very smart, but they were also folk dancing middle eastern folk dance enthusiasts that's how they actually met really folk dancing and then i was like i'm an aerospace engineer what oh my god me too something like that let's get married they got married and it was a groovy time you know uh in the late 60s and and i was born in 69 and and uh they moved to hermosa beach california and my earliest memory of putting on a show we were in the living room it was me my mom and dad and i wanted to recreate my birth i think i must have been like three or four years old. Yeah. And I put a blanket over my mom, and I would come out of the blanket crying, and then I wanted them to play their part and be like, Oh, baby, we love you.

Oh. It was very strange, but I really got a kick out of that recreation. And then that evolved. And I started doing a show for them, just for them. They were the only audience members where I was born. And then I grow up and I have like a life as an adult. And then I die. I did my whole life for them, one-man show right right and they just got such a kick out of it they thought i was so funny and i guess that was the beginning yeah how long was that i mean in yeah do you remember what your adult life was like in the one-man show like what did you do in the one-man show it's very foggy there's a lot there

yeah i don't remember i think that i graduated from school and then i think i was driving a car i don't think i had like a job yeah i don't remember getting married or anything in my yeah i i wish that there was a tape of that very first Jack Black performance, but it's really lost in the sands of time. I could call my dad and ask if he remembers any of it, but for sure his fog is thicker than mine. Yeah, when I was a little kid, I avoided going to bed by doing Carol Burnett bits, recreating Carol Burnett bits for my grandma yeah she would

become incapacitated with laughter oh my god and it was like that's like that's just fucking power like when you there's no there's no um more powerful um a sense of confidence that you can get, then when you're a kid doing it, trying it out for those early times when you're trying to put on a show, if you've got a family member or someone who's just loving your shit. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it can be overstated how,

how much of that can carry you through the rest of your life. Yeah. And it is like, it's, you know, you don't want to look at it as being like completely transactional, you know, like, Hey, if I do this, you're like, if I push this button, I get some candy. Yeah.

But it is kind of like, it still does sort of have that aspect, no matter how long you do it or in what in what venue it is still kind of like well if i go do this i get this good feeling and you know i i like that good feeling and you know it's yeah it's pretty fun to make people happy you know it is it is i have said before it's it's the physical manifestation of happiness like it, it's like, in terms of like the short, the short-term goal of like, or the, you know, like the, the, you know, the very succinct goal of making people happy in life. Like you're making it, they're making the noise that happiness is, you know, like you're making them make that noise. So it's like, you know,

when you're very young, when, when is the first time you feel that, that pull to have a purpose, to have something that you are good at so that you, there is a meaning for you to exist. Right. That's what we're talking about. These are big, heavy things, you know, and when you first put on a show, there's that hope like, well, wait, maybe this is is why i maybe this is what i'm supposed to do and uh if you if you have some success in that just like in anything if people like what you do if you like you you you're a carpenter and you made some cool like little fort that that uh that sense of accomplishment or a job well done is one of the most powerful things that a young mind and young person can have. And mine,

yeah, it was definitely very, from a very early age, it was putting on a show was, was, was a main thing. I mean, I had other stuff I like to do.

I like to draw and, you know, you still draw a lot. Yeah. I still draw. I got, and I, and I got some love for that,

but yeah, there was something about getting, getting those giggles and those chortles that was extra special. Did you ever bug your kids or bug your parents because you were in showbiz town to be a child actor of any kind? I remember, yeah, I was jealous of other kids. There was one kid in particular who was in that movie real life by albert brooks and i was like oh man if i could have that and my stepfather many years later when i was like 10 years old uh said he could drive me around to auditions if i wanted i was like yes i do want

that and then he took me around and and so i did that circuit as a young child actor i was look i have to confess andy i was a child actor oh okay are you happy now you know now we know where the damage is from oh i wish i loved you i loved it and i loved going on auditions i really did even if i didn't get the part if i got a laugh in the audition, I was just high all day. And I'd go on auditions for commercials, everything. There was no pickiness. It was like anything and everything. And I got a commercial.

That was my first professional paying job. And I got into the SAG union when I was, I think I was 12 years old. Wow. 1982. That would have been like the same year that Jeff Bridges was in Tron. What? Yeah.

Wow. That's how far back I go in the industry. The ascendancy meets. So, yeah. And I also went on auditions for plays. And I weirdly auditioned for a play called Inside Eddie Binstock. And it was playing, it was in a coffee shop in Hollywood, a crack in the wall place called the

deja vu coffee house definitely not there anymore and uh it was directed by a young fresh out of ucla tim robbins what was the world famous tim robbins from uh escape from the prison movie that everyone loves yeah sure the reed of hayworth shaw green mile and the shaw shack reduction yeah um and uh yeah so anyway he he directed that and i just looked up to him and i was you know 12 or 13 yeah yeah yeah and um i did that for a while and and then uh you know i did theater in high school did a lot of musical theater so that was like the beginnings of tenacious d is you know the mixture of music and comedy and theater and uh and then i went to ucla i was a theater major at ucla not a good student uh i i didn't uh my parents didn't you know bribe anyone there was no but there was definitely some strings were pulled because i did not deserve to be at ucla I I got into UCLA theater and uh and I I slept through all of the

lectures I and uh I was kind of going through the motions because my dad really wanted me to have a diploma so I had to try and then I basically bailed on college and I went off to do theater with the actors gang um company who was uh started by Tim Robbins who I had this connection to from 10 years earlier when I was 12 years old and uh we went to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival and and uh and uh and that's where me and Kyle first met to start Tenacious D, my rock band, comedy band. You met in Edinburgh or you met at the Actors Gang? We met in the Actors Gang. Yeah.

And we were both in Edinburgh together. And so, yeah, that's kind of what led to my first movie role was Tim's first movie that he directed called Bob Roberts that's the first place I remember seeing you and I have you so you saw my first role I did and I remember like seeing you in that you making an impression and then seeing you in subsequent things and going oh that's that creepy guy from Bobts because you played like i mean you basically played like uh the the precursor of all the fucking you know dead-eyed right-wing people on the internet now like you know young young maniac shaved head travis bickle you know republican guys yeah yeah before there was maga nation right i predicted it with my performance bob roberts do you think you caused it i think that bob roberts could have been yeah that that

would be a cool one for tim to do a sequel to bob roberts because it seems a lot of that has come true in a weird way yeah the manipulation yeah. The manipulation of the religious right into, you know, crazy political power. Yeah. I mean, do you have any regrets about skipping college? Like, do you wish you had? Like, is it going to be hard for you to tell your kids, you better go to college? Is it going to be hard for you to tell your kids, you better go to college? What would have happened in a sliding door universe where, you know, I do think sometimes what I could have, would have, should have done after high school when I graduated was not go straight into college.

Yeah. into college. Take a year off, travel, experience life in a different way, and then maybe go to college and really dive in headfirst with what I want to study. But then I realized, no, it's just actually not for me. And it started even before college. In high school, I had a real tough time. Even in grade school, I had a real tough time concentrating, you know, back to the ADHD. And my mind would wander in class. And it was almost like I had narcolepsy in any kind of school environment. Whenever it felt like traditional education, I fell asleep, and I fell asleep all the time. And one time, the teacher at high school, I was at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences.

I think I was in 11th grade. The science teacher, chemistry, got so sick of me falling asleep in class. He told the whole class, everyone stay totally quiet. Now leave everyone because the class is over. Instead of everyone getting up and loudly and leaving. Yeah. Everyone left the classroom super quiet.

So I was still sleeping on the, on the desk. And then he told everyone coming in for the next class, everyone coming quiet, Jack's asleep and I want to surprise him so everyone came in and sat down and the class started and at some point i like woke up and looked around and i was confused because i didn't what who i'm not in class with any of these students these are all seniors um what am i doing here and then the laughter began and they all laughed and pointed at this silly sleeping boy oh and the the professor was the most filled with laughter and glee

red-faced and pointing and i deserved it you know but also maybe i didn't deserve it maybe there's a reason i was sleeping i Not just laziness, but some people take in information differently. Right. Some people shouldn't go to college. He never slept again. Can't you tell my love's a crow? Well, no, I no i mean yeah you're right it's it that's kind of shitty like like pranking like to prank a kid and make a kid feel embarrassed in front of a bunch of people i think they should teach you in teachers college don't ever do that don't ever humiliate a kid. Like, that's just the, you know, it's just the worst, you know?

Yeah. And it happened to me a couple times. And I, and it's just like, and I still think about it. It still is like a fucking, you know, finger on a, on a toothache, you know? It's just like, ow. Yeah. Every time I think about it. But, you know, you got to remember remember too, they're high school teachers. There's like, you know, they're,

you see them, like I see them with my kids, you know, going through high school. I see the teachers that kind of are, you can tell they sort of get off on the fact that they're like pretty cool in relation to these children, you know, you know what I mean? Like I'm, I'm pretty suave and sophisticated compared to these 15 year olds. Yeah. You know, so.

But when it, when it comes to like the lessons and the things that I took from school that I remember, I don't remember any of the actual nuts and bolts, but I do remember when my English teacher was like, look, you're not doing well in this class. Here's what I want you to do so you can get a passing grade. You and Shannon, another actor student in my class, actor uh student in my class you guys go and do learn this scene from sam shepherd's uh what was that play no it was the one with the with the two lovers that that were had a tumultuous

relationship fool for love okay do a scene from fool for love and bring it into class and perform it live and if if you do it well i'll give you a passing grade in the class. And me and Shannon went and rehearsed at her house this scene. And we rehearsed the hell out of it. And then we came into class, and we kicked so much ass. And I was so thrilled with the performance. And then he was like, stay here. I need you to do this performance for the next class that's coming in.

He loved it so much. He wanted all of his students to see it. And I just learned so much from that performance. What a great teacher. Yeah, it was great. And that's like a core memory for me. It was a great lesson in how I take in information and how i actually learn on the job so much more than studying it in the book and um and that guy you know it's this is a weird

name droppy thing i can't remember his name but i do remember one thing about this teacher there was a great english teacher he was the youngest kid in the partridge family he was that actor oh wow he grew up and i could look at it i can picture his face but i can't you know but he grew up and became a great english teacher but wow um and there's a few things like that throughout my my schooling where i think about oh yeah but that's where I really learned a lot. Brian Forster. That's the one. Brian Forster. Shout out to Brian. Great teacher. Great teacher. Yeah. And do you think that part of like, and I'm just curious because is there something about a teacher, was there something appealing about it?

The fact that this teacher took you out of the mainstream and tailored something particularly to you. Like, was that the beginning of what was special about it? Do you think? I think, um, he just gave me a chance to communicate a powerful emotion and what great writing can be and what it means to put on a show with great writing.

It's an essential part of the work. The Sam Shepard thing on the page is one thing, but when you have an actor who's really feeling emotions connected to it, it transforms it into a whole different experience and brings the piece to life in a way that it it has to be to experience it properly you know like yeah you can read shakespeare till the cows come home but until you see a great performance of it and that that's the thing the final essential piece to communicate what's happening inside of it yeah see i'm not a big shakespeare fan oh man it's just it's lost on me i i read it i've

seen it i've seen real big great productions of it and i just don't get it i just i guess you haven't seen uh henry the fifth yeah that one will change your mind. All right. I'll be right back. With what's his name? He did a great job. What's his name? Yeah, he's a British guy. Come on. One of those British guys. Sure.

And he has that speech in there. Brian Forrester. There's a famous speech in there. My horse. St. Crespin's Day. uh everyone we're going into battle and if you care about forsooth i shall say saint crescent's day something like that something like this yeah i get the gist i get the gistist. In the research that somebody else, I don't research this stuff myself. There was something about Anne Bancroft giving you great notes after a high school thing.

That was a big one for me. Yeah. So, Anne Bancroft's son and Mel Brooks' son together, Maximilian Brooks. Who has been a guest on this podcast. Oh my God. Yeah, because now he's, you know, like he wrote all those zombie books. Did you read any of his zombie books? Yeah.

Yeah. He's a brilliant writer. He's a brilliant writer. And now he's like, he's like, you know, goes around, you know, like lecturing and consulting about like disaster, you know, contingencies. I see him. Sometimes I'll see. Yeah, yeah. And he's consulted by.

Yeah. But he's consulted by the military about possible scenarios because he's able to, you know, creatively imagine horrible, horrible things in science fiction future. Yeah. But also, you'll see him sometimes on real time with Bill Maher. And you got to be ready with knives out to go on that show because sometimes Bill will turn on you. And you got to be ready with your shield. Right. Because he'll gut you in front of millions.

And he has no fear because he can hold his own with anyone on any intellectual level. And I'm very impressed with him. Right. And he also has the invincible quality of not giving one shit whether you like him or not. Nope. Yeah. He does not care at all about not being liked. Nope.

Yeah. He does not care at all about not being liked. You know, like we were saying about how powerful it is when you got loving parents that actually really dig you and give you encouragement early on. I have no doubt that he got that from Anne Bancroft because I got, I'm not her son, but I got a little. I meant Bill Maher. I was talking about Bill Maher. I thought you were talking about Bill Maher. Never mind. I switched.

Oh, you switched. Okay. All right. Because I was like, I didn't were talking about Bill Maher. Never mind. I switched. Oh, you switched. Okay. All right. Because I was like, I didn't mean that about, Max, I think, wants to be liked. You know, my impression is that it doesn't, he is human and wants to be liked. So, okay.

Yeah. Anyway, on with Max and his mom. No, Bill Maher, I would suggest, has the opposite. He thrives on not being liked. He gets a little charge out of it he gets a little sexual charge out of it oh you don't like what I'm saying and you don't like me well

fuck you and then people love him for it and there's a weird slide whistle he's getting a little bit of wood a little bit of hate wood but yeah so Max Brooks had rad parents who were loving and supporting of him. But beyond that, I was in a play at my high school called The Miracle Worker.

Famous play. Helen Keller, can't see or hear or speak. And she is kind of brought into this world through communication that all the doctors said was impossible by this miracle worker who played who was played in the movie by anne bancroft brilliantly and so we're doing a play of the miracle worker and anne comes down she doesn't have to do this because Max is not in the play. She just comes down because she was in the movie, and she said, hello, I heard you were doing this play.

I wanted to come and say hi to the cast and tell you all a little bit about my experience in that movie. It was just so sweet and wonderful and gave us a little insight as to how we would perform the show. God dang it, i'm getting a phone call i got i forgot to do the thing let me turn that off and do not disturb was it biden it was joe biden my best friend biden he can wait um so she comes to the show and is so sweet. And she comes backstage and tells everybody what a great job we all did. And she said, you know, you played the role that everyone said was a thankless little

role, a nothing role. And you really brought something to it. And I was like, oh my God, thank you. roll and nothing roll. And you really brought something to it. And I was like, oh my God, thank you. And then I got home and she had left a message on our answering machine at home. And she said, Jack, I didn't want to say this in front of everyone, but born to do it. You were born to do it. And it was so moving. And i listened to that answering machine message until it wore out the tape cassette it was like 150 times and i made a tape of the tape and it's just weird how sometimes a little word of encouragement can mean so much and take you to another level just that

that boost of self-confidence that i got from that was i can't i can't really overstate how much it meant to me yeah isn't that weird yeah that i mean that is that's honestly i bet that's probably why like that makes it okay to not go to college you know i bet you know it's probably like one of those things where you've always got that in the back of your head you know because and also too when you want to be an actor college you know it's like i always feel like you learn so much more by doing than studying and especially in acting is especially in film and television you can do a million classes and but you learn more from like three days on an actual professional set acting and actually learn about what it all really is and how to do it and what's important about it.

You learn so much more by just getting paid to do it and being in a professional atmosphere with other professionals, you know. It's a high wire act and there's tons of adrenaline involved yeah and uh there's no classroom that can really uh recreate that that kind of environment yeah i would go off and and do a play with my friends outside of the school in front of real audiences and and uh yeah i grew leaps and bounds and and got so much more out of that experience than any other any other classes that i had truth be told throughout you know uh as you as you progressed in the in this work how do you deal with uh-doubt? Because it's almost like a necessary accompanying feeling to, like you said, it's a high wire act. And high wire acts involve falls.

And there's always a fall that could be right around the corner. Not that high wire acts have corners. It's usually just one straight line. But you get the idea. Yeah. Self-doubt is a, it's a demon that must be faced. And in fact, I get it before every performance, even if I'm feeling real confident about the material or, or about,

you know, the song, if we're, if me and Kyle are going to go perform some music somewhere. It's kind of a running joke that I have with Kyle Gass of Tenacious D. Before we go on stage anywhere, we look at each other with terror. And we're like, is there some kind of a loophole? Is there some way we can cancel the show and blame it on something? Blame it on the loophole is there some way we can cancel the show and blame it on something blame it on the loophole yeah and uh because no matter how much we love it there's always that little bit of dread right before you go on stage because um uh there's a fight or flight aspect to performance to live

performance where you really want that attention and you want that love and you want to put on a good show and make everyone laugh and have a good time. But it also is just a big crowd of people and they could judge you and they could conceivably turn on you. And there's always that little tiny seed of fear that you're not going to be accepted and you're not going to be liked. Or maybe you're to be liked uh or you know maybe you're even afraid that what if i'm nervous when i go out there they'll sense my nervousness it's like they're a big wild animal if they sense your fear then they'll kill you yeah and sometimes it's irrational it's like no that's just um but uh i have to just remind myself no matter how bad how bad I think

how bad, like as you'll wake up someday and you'll get, this doesn't feel like a good day, feels like a bad show day feels like today is the day that I go out and shit the bed, no matter how much you feel like it's gonna suck you have to admit to yourself

it's possible that it could go well you know what, it's possible that it could go well. You know what? It's actually possible that I'm going to go out there and have a great time. As hard to imagine as that is. And then once, if you can like convince yourself that it's possible, not that it's definitely going to be good. That's off the table. Or probable even.

No. Yeah, just possible. Yeah, there's a small chance that this could turn out well. And more often than not, it does turn out well. You know, it's just a weird thing that you have to fucking talk yourself into. Isn't that weird? That's why really to do this, you have to love it so much, that feeling of when it goes well, much that feeling of when it goes well that it's worth all of the anxiety and ulcers and nausea nightmares that go along with it because it ain't easy yeah well it's it's i mean it is really really

fun and it is it's not even i you know to me it's it's more, well, because I got, you know, you're used to like a much more higher energy performance than the things that I've been doing for the last 11 years or so. You know, like going on the Conan show is like, oh, go out there and crack wise. You know, it's like, you know, I mean, I would have bits to act in that I would feel a little charged up about and hope that they went well. that I would feel a little charged up about and hope that they went well. But we did so many of those shows that it kind of, we did such a volume business that I was never too precious about any one of them, you know? So I got, and I know it was very, for me too, it's also the place that it's at. If I'm comfortable with the place, I'm comfortable. If it's a new place and new people, then I'm like, oh, fuck.

I think I might suck. I think that this has all been a trick on me, like making me believe I can do this. But I do think that I I forget what I, I forget what my point was, but I have a point. I've been waiting for my turn to talk for a second here because I just want to say sorry that your bits are funny and all of the, the,

like the things that you guys have done over the years have, has always consistently made me laugh. But the thing that blows my mind about you is you're off the cuff, like cracking wise, just in the flow, improvisations, or just like things that you'll notice and you'll say. And I always go, man, what a mind. And I'm always blown away by the brilliance

of your just in the moment things that you say. Oh, thank you. And that can't really be planned for. That just has to be you just actually relaxing in the moment and making observations. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like, you know, I was on Justin Long's podcast and we talked a lot about it. And it is it's a kind of not caring. That's not the same as not caring.

You know, it's like not giving a shit, but it's not not giving a shit. It's it's giving yourself the freedom to just kind of be in there. And a big thing for me always, too, was like to pursue my own fun within the moment, like like to be myself and to have a good time the way that I wanted to, regardless of all the stuff going on around me. Like I wanted to have fun and I wanted and I always felt like that was a good. Sort of M.O. in order to ensure that the audience would have a good time too. And I mean, it's like why one of my favorite, like truly one of my favorite things was when we'd have animals on, like just like for me, that was like, yeah,

I like doing comedy bits and stuff, but I get to pet a baby tiger, you know, like that's, that's, that's the culmination of a lifetime's work is petting a baby tiger you know or you know or oh look at this giant tortoise you know like you can touch him and stuff it's that's the shit that really mattered to me because i still just like i really am like i try and just i don't know if it's like I try, I just kind of like, I like what I like and I'm follow what I think is fun. And, and I think too, oh, well, what I was going to say was, so I was going to say, when you say you got to really like it and to put up with

that anxiety, my anxiety isn't so much in that moment. My anxiety is in the larger scheme of how am I going to make a living in all of this how am i going to sit here when the phone hasn't rung you know and i had i mean had 11 years of steady work though through the last stretch with conan so i'm back to that and that's the part where it's like yeah i really do enjoy this because this is stressful this is stressful not you know like where it's like well another day went by where i didn't earn any money you know and you're like you get older those they those matter you know and so it's it's but it's the same thing it's like i still i still

love doing this enough that like i'm i'm willing to stick it out i mean and at this point i'm like what am i gonna do get a realty license i don't think so you know i imagine imagine having to sell realty at this point there's always porn and i guess yeah yeah yeah someone would pay to see us get it on. A BBM. Big Beautiful Men. Yeah, well, yeah. Bear stuff. I, you know, that's, it's always, I remember once Andy Daly and I went to Disneyland once. We took our daughters when they were little. And we just happened to go on Gay Day.

And on Gay Day at Disneyland, everybody was was like all the gay people wear red. And I think I had a red shirt on and I think his daughter had a red shirt on. So people just were looking at like these two blonde men with their two blonde daughters and like tons and tons of moms coming and going, are you putting sunscreen on them? Like, you know, like they just assumed us to be stupid gay dads that don't know how to. But we went to there used to be this all you can eat barbecue chicken and ribs restaurant that was like, you know, based on, I think, Song of the South. Like, again, that racist. Oh, yeah. You know, and it was it's

not there anymore i think that but it was that right next to the the bears the country bear jamboree uh yeah and the petting zoo you know like and you know how there's like a little theater up in the woods you know kind of but by thunder mountain railway. Yeah. And the log jammer ride was all, was all song of the South. Exactly. Exactly. So it's, it was right there and it was good food and it would just bring you like literal buckets of ribs and chicken.

And I saw an entire like table of like 12 bear gay men, you know, big burly gay men. And they, they, and they were there at like 11 15 a.m you know to just pop powered up and i was like the efficiency of that the efficiency of being a big gay dude who just is into big gay dudes like yeah let's go eat four buckets of ribs and

like no judgments we all both are like oh that's so fucking hot the way you're putting away those ribs yeah you too buddy you know i was like oh man that's that's the life that's the life only yeah it's a crow well now um with tenacious d you guys are so fucking great did you ever think like okay it's just gonna be the d for me you know it's just like acting schmacting you know like was there ever a point where you're just like maybe i should just really focus on being in a band. I've always felt like I needed to do more than just music, and I needed to do more than just acting. I really, from the very beginning, like musical theater, that was the great combo.

But no, I've never felt like I want to just do one thing or the other no yeah yeah i've too squirrely uh yeah i'm a more of a jack of all trades master of none yeah but uh we definitely uh enjoy doing it but we we work in in bursts and we have a slow um process we'll write a we'll write a record and we'll tour that record for a couple years and then we have to take some time off to to uh get that hunger again uh we we we need six years between records so that's just sort of been our process if we had to put out a record like a normal band every two years i don't think uh i don't think we'd still be doing it yeah but uh we do have a plan for another record and uh i'm excited for it but uh yeah there will be no d wine until it's d time and i need to get like other gigs going in between those those six year records uh

to uh to feed the beast inside my soul yeah yeah i need i need uh different things but uh i know if i had focused all my powers and energies on tenacious d maybe we could have been maybe we could have been more successful right you could have like been like you too exactly we could have been pearl jam yeah they could have put your album on iph, whether you wanted it or not. That is success. You know? No, I don't think so. Have you ever done any, like, I mean,

have you ever done any, like, Broadway musical theater? Because you have such an amazing voice. Thank you. You're such a good singer. You know what's weird? They put you in Guys and Dolls or something. I just realized where I got COVID. Right when you said that. Oh, cool.

We took a family vacation to New Jersey and New York, Broadway. And it was on that trip. At some point, I got COVID. I don't know if it was when I went to see The Music Man starring the great Hugh Jackman, or if it was at the pizza place. We went to John's Pizzeria right afterwards. Right. Delicious pizza, by the way. Yes.

But filled with COVID. Yeah, COVID. It was somewhere in New York City. Someone sneezed at me. I don't know where and when exactly, yeah yeah i wouldn't trade it for the world that was a fun ass trip but have i ever done broadway no i've never done broadway uh i did off broadway i was in a little a little play um based on bertholdt brecht's poetry that almost no one saw called Burt Sees the Light.

And I have dreams of going on old Broadway. And I was definitely jealous of Hugh Jackman while he was up there. I was thinking, that should be me as the music man. Well, we got trouble. And I wanted to do Music Man. I'd always thought, man, Music Man should be my entree to Broadway. You would be fantastic. Did your wife have to keep holding your arm and keep you from brushing the stage? Yes.

I got to get up there. Dimmer down, Jack. Jack, stop it. I can't. And I did enjoy. Whenever I see great Broadway musicals, I think, God, that would be a fun, fun life. I saw an incredible production of Sweeney Todd. Yeah.

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. That's probably my favorite musical theater production or piece that I think has ever been written. That dude was something special. What's his name again? That dude that wrote that? I don't remember. Stephen Sondheim. Oh, yeah, Sondheim.

Genius. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The demon barber of fleet. I don't know Sondheim that well. Well, that's the one. I'm going to say that's the one. If you're going to do one, do that one. It's the darkest and the juiciest.

And the harmonies are insane. The murderiest. Yeah. And you know which other one I loved? I loved the producers. Yeah? The producers. Yeah.

I know it was a movie first. It's kind of cheating because it's not really a musical that came. The real musicals, you want to say came first and then the movie was made about you know after the stage production but weirdly the producers should have been a broadway musical first right they did the movie but they should have made it a musical because it works as a musical in a way that the movie doesn't. Because the movie is a movie about a musical. Right. The musical is a musical about the musical.

About a musical. And so it works. It resonates stronger on that meta, like, thing within a thing. Yeah, yeah. And it kind of blew my mind. Yes, did I miss Gene Wilder? Of course. And Zero Mustel.

Of course. No one Mustel. Of course. No one can replace those guys. But it just kicked so much ass. And I was also just blown away by that Mel Brooks. Yeah. Because whenever I go, how much life do we really have left? When do you stop rocking? Yeah.

Can you rock in your 50s? Sure. Sure. I've seen people rock in there. Can you rock in your 50s sure sure i've seen people rock in there can you rock in your 60s yeah barely can you rock in your 70s nope it's over yeah might as well die at 69 yeah but then you see someone like mel brooks having a fucking fifth act yeah and blowing doors down and then he's like 80 on Broadway. It's inspiring. Yeah, absolutely.

Whenever you meet an old person that doesn't act like an old person. Because you're so used to. And especially in my own life. All the old people just. Most of them suck. They just. You know. They're complaining.

Yeah. It sucks. They don't. You know. Like the thing to me is they close off they get more scared they don't get like more open when it's like hey man you know yeah i get it that it's scary the the clock is ticking but try and force yourself open to that like make it so that like the end you're not like oh i'm just wish you know like where you're in the ground before you should be in the ground.

You know what I mean? Yeah. But yeah, no, it's great. I mean, I got to work with Robert Altman and he was like that. I was like, yeah, like, holy moly, this guy. What did you guys do together? It was a movie called Dr. T and the Women. It's not that great.

Yeah, but you got to hang with Robert Altman. I did. And then and he was super friendly and he he would have dinners at his house. And then I got invited to things in New York because he lived in New York a lot of the time and got to go see screenings and stuff and parties in his apartment. And I got to go to his funeral. I was asked to go to his funeral and it was a memorial service. And one thing that was really cool about off from somewhere in the Pacific where it'd be 105 degrees, but they'd have to wear those, you know, like sheepskin, those shearling pilot coats, because they'd go up so high that it would be like, you know, zero degrees.

They'd go from 110 to zero. And they flew these these deadly missions i don't remember where where like the survival rate was 45 percent whoa and he flew like 20 30 of these missions as as at like 20 years old and so and you know and and made it through and like bunch of people died crash landed a couple times you know like barely made it robert altman did that yeah yeah yeah and also never talked about it right that's not something you know about him didn't yeah didn't toot his horn about it but what was real is that then he came back to kansas city and started making industrial films and started smoking weed in people's offices and not giving a fuck about anything.

Because it's like, motherfucker, you're going to tell me I can't make this movie the way I want to make it. I look death in the face at the age of 20. Repeatedly. And you're going to tell me I can't say fuck. Or I can't have nudity. Or I can't do this sex scene. Or I can't record multiple voices at once. or I can't do this sex scene or I can't record multiple voices at once you know like and it just that was like that was really you know it was just really striking to me and made me feel like yeah

that's that's a kind of he was he was a hero of mine before like you know artistically and then as I got to meet him I just was like this is you know and he had his family working for him like a bunch of people on his his kids and different family members worked for him on the set and they were all capable professionals, but he just like, he just, I was like, that's how to do it. Like the way he's. That puts a whole other spin on mash the movie that he directed that led to the TV series that ran for years. And is it true? Tell me if this is a trivia thing that you're aware of, that his son wrote the lyrics to the theme song of MASH.

I think he did. I think one of them did, yeah. And they're not on the TV show. You don't hear any lyrics on the TV show. I think he did. Or was that? Or was it one of the Carradines? Suicide is painless. Or was it one of the caridines? Suicide is painless.

Or was it one of the caridines? Or is that meaning that I'm easy? It doesn't matter. Whatever. Yeah, look it up, folks. That story blows my mind. And I have a connection to that story because my first movie, Bob Roberts,ts that i was telling you about tim roberts directed went to the can film festival and uh i was not invited because i had such a small part

but my dad lived in can at the time and i was like dad i'm coming to can to visit you and then really i was sneaking into the the premiere of bob ro in Cannes Film Festival and had the best time after the screening premiere in Cannes. Tim was like, come Jack, Jack, we're going to the top of the mountain. We're going to have a little after premiere party. And it's nighttime at the top of a mountain in Cannes at some rich guy's mansion. And i'm out on the veranda smoking a joint with robert altman tim robbins and giancarlo esposito who was also and it was a an incredible memory and a moment that i was just like smoking a joint with legends. Yeah. Yeah.

Every night after work, cause he was very important to him that everyone watched dailies. So when you were done shooting and they were very, very like humane hours, you know, like eight hour days, nine hour. Yeah. You'd all get together in this big screening room that one of his sons

perfected screening rooms, like the right angle and the right projector and the right distance. And we would watch it and there'd be snacks and he'd just be smoking joints, watching it, you know, or at we on weekends, he'd have parties at his house, big, you know, like big dinners for the cast and stuff and he'd be watching this was in dallas he was in a rental house and he'd be watching like six different football games at once and have money on all of them and like complicated like i parlayed the you know the giants in with the cowboys and if the packers lose then the jaguars have to win. And like all these complicated bets, just, you know, just pursue his own joy. Incredible life.

Yeah. And he was, he was a can because he had directed the player. Yeah. A brilliant movie about the Hollywood industry that Tim was also in. Tim is in. Yeah. And yeah, I always wanted to party with Bob altman after that and we never i never got to be in any of his movies but tragically um he he did call me one day many years later and said

i think it's like actually 10 years later or i don't know he he, I want you to be in a movie. I want you to play this part. It's going to be, uh, uh, uh, an adaptation of a documentary that I really love called hands on a hard body. I want to bring that to life in a movie.

And I was like, I'm in. And Jack white was good. It was going to do all the music for it. And I was like, this is fucking rad. And then he died. And I was so crushed not only that i was not gonna be in a fucking

robert altman yeah but also that you know this super cool awesome guy was gone off the planet yeah what a life yeah crazy you know what he reminds me of? And I never met the guy, but did you ever meet that improv? Del Close? Yes. The genius Del Close. Yeah, I took classes with Del. No shit. Yeah, yeah.

Am I way off? Did they have any kind of similarities just in energy? Yes. In energy, yes. did they have any kind of similarities just in energy yes in energy yes but i mean um dell dell dell was brilliant and a great teacher and really you know thought about improv and was completely devoted to it but he was a complete mess you know he like he could barely you know like he couldn't he could barely hold together an apartment. Okay, so that's a total difference.

Yeah, whereas Robert Altman ran movies. Right. And did that, not only just directed the movie, but was constant. All his movies, he had to go get the money first. He had to go talk to, and I think the way that everything was done first you had to go talk to and i mean i think the way that everything was done was that he'd go secure like because his movies did so much better overseas that he'd secure all this kind of foreign money and then get the movie started and then how and then be still trying to get money while he's making the movie you know like just like get enough money to start you know to get the balloon off the air

but then like to keep fuel in the burner but had to keep pushing you know that sounds like chaos to me that sounds like an enormous amount of stress and anxiety but he was able to navigate it because like i say he didn't give a shit he didn't give a shit and he'll bet the parlay on five different football games and it sounds like chaos but, because he's a brilliant professor. He's able to navigate through, and also, who cares if it all fucking explodes and goes to hell? It was fun. And that's what I felt like Del Close was also,

even though his life was more shambles, he was in the middle of a horrible chaos, but he was able to find some brilliance, because he's this wizard professor at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah. I guess maybe it's just because there are two old dudes with beards. Maybe that's the only reason I think of them. Well, no, they're both similar. They're both kind of gurus. They're both kind of visionaries. They're both, you know, very inspirational and inspired a lot of people beneath them. So, yeah, I mean, it is similar.

hired a lot of people beneath them. So yeah, I mean, it is similar. That's the thing with Del Close that I'm obsessed with is that he's touched so many great performers and yourself included over the decades. I don't know that there's another teacher certainly of improvisation that has, has crossed paths with so many unbelievable, talented. Not in purely an improv comedy, no.

And I don't know that much about him. He never wrote a book. There's not a ton of footage of him. And so he's just this weird, mysterious force of nature that you hear people talk about him, but he's just sort of a, a mysterious figure in my, in my.

There's somebody made a documentary about him. A guy, a Chicago guy. I can't remember his name. And, and his, his business partner, Sharona Helper.

And she wrote, she wrote a book, a truth in comedy that was kind of based on all his stuff, you know, and, and that was kind of like she. But she's sort of like, you know, she kind of literally picked him up out of the gutter and said, you know, here, here's an apartment. Come teach classes. And she kind of, you know, kept him alive to keep him teaching, you know. Yeah. So.

But anyhow, none of this is about you. Sorry. This is what we're here for. That's all right. I went off track. We've been talking a while here. How about the second question? You ready for the second question?

Hit me. Where are you going? I mean, right now. Well, no one knows where they're going. No one knows where they're going, one knows where they're going first of all with the with this question but uh you know the there's the if i had to look into my crystal ball and tell you where i think i'm going or i'd like to be going i'd like to watch my boys graduate from high school and uh follow them and watch where they go on life's journey and uh and i'm definitely going to worry about them and and uh and uh and uh help them whenever they let me but i i uh i can't help but

like but uh but have anxiety about my boys in the in the dangerous strange world ahead of them yeah and i and i wish for them to have like love and joy and and a great adventure and i know that when i was a kid i i didn't know what what life had in store. And I ended up having a, uh, incredible lucky fun filled and, you know, ups and downs. But it's a weird thing when you have kids, you're like, if there's a crapshoot element where you're like, you want all the great things for them, but you don't know how it's going to go really. Uh, I remember for, for many, many, most of my life i was like i'm not having kids

it's too much stress i remember my parents when when they got their divorce it was just like oh why would you want to put yourself through all of that turmoil and yeah it's just easier not to have them but then at a certain part of my life i was like i want to have some i want to have that in my life. I want to have a family and a sense of shared love. And it pulled me into this world that now it's everything to me. And I don't know when it's right to say, no, let them go on their journey and don't try to control them too much because if you try to keep them safe too much uh then you're doing them a disservice but anyways in the future where am i going yeah you never know i mean like i have a 21 year old son and a 16 year old daughter so i'm like a few years because your oldest is 16 yeah 16 and 14 and well first of all what i don't know if you've noticed

this but with the first one and i even told my son this a few years ago it's like listen everything that we did with you we had no fucking clue because you're the first like we didn't we don't know you know you're the first one that we had that was like 10 you're the first one that we had that was 12 you're the first one that we had was going to college you're the first one that drove a car you know i don't know you know like how much do i yell at you while we're driving the car and you're fucking up you know like how much do i be quiet and let you learn on your own you know and so the first one you don't know you know it's like i'm sure somebody else made this up but i heard it first from kelly rippa like she said kids are like pancakes you

know you're going to ruin the first one um and um but i it but i'm dealing with it now where i and i i've talked about it where you know you you want to make yourself to where your kid doesn't need you like that's your job it's like yes so that you're not like you're you're making an independent creature so you're you're trying to avoid their dependence on you as much as you can but there comes a time when it comes time to where like, Oh, he's no, he's leaving. And you're like, Oh really? Is that really the deal? No. Is that you're going to just go off then you're just going to go and not be my baby anymore. And it's kind of like, yeah, yeah. That's what he's going to do. And, and it's,

it's really hard and you got it, you know, and then like the, hard and you got it you know and then like the and also you can't do much to ensure one way or the other you know they're gonna like if he's gonna make mistakes he's gonna make mistakes if he's gonna be like a wildly successful he's gonna do that and if he's gonna you know fall on his face he's gonna fall on his face and all you can do is like be like there to like i don't know make dinner for him afterwards you know and just you know let him watch your cable uh because there's not a lot you can do and you just have to your job i think at the or i'm should my job i feel like now now i gotta fill my life like the spaces that were filled with kid and taking care of kid and worrying about kid and

and you know raising kid i gotta fill that with something else i gotta figure out something else to put in there and that's my job rather than just go like, oh, this empty space. Because, I mean, you know, there's definitely I felt in my life from, you know, like from people, adults that were from when I was a child that were like, oh, the empty space. Where are you going? And it's like, well, I thought this was the deal. I thought I was supposed to go out and be on my own. it's like yeah you are yeah you are and and it yeah and it's not it isn't fun but you know at least you have a band you know how your kids go off and they go to college you can just go fucking tour with your you know i like to say that when my when my boys leave the nest my empty nest is just going to turn into a 24 7 gymnasium and i'm going to get in the best physical condition of my life i'm going to finally be able to focus they're the thing that's getting me back yeah i'm

always eating those snacks that i'm making for them that they don't eat. That's why. That's why. I got all this shitty food in the house for them. That ice cream, that's for them. And yeah, there will be another Tenacious D. I think that the Tenacious D thing, there's going to be a Tenacious D album every six years until

I die. And that will happen whether or not there's an audience, even if it ends up just being for ourselves. Right, for the day room at the home. At the end of the day, we enjoyed doing it. We enjoyed putting on a show for whoever's there. You know, if it's, you know, maybe.

Do your boys care about show business at all? If it's, you know, maybe. Do your boys care about show business at all? They do enjoy partaking in different movies and music that, yeah, I'm not really part of. They're not into anything that I'm in anymore. Yeah. Because that's just not cool. No, it isn't. But I love to watch the things that they get obsessed with,

and I'm like, oh, I actually know a couple things about some of those filmmakers, so it's fun to still be able to share. Hey. I saw that guy puke. But there's, yeah. Also, I'm going to probably make one more movie everything that i'm gonna do is just the last one at this point the future is just uh i'm gonna do one more thing

in each category yeah and uh i look forward to retiring into the retirement home because my fantasy is I'm just going to play video games all day. Because I never play as much video game. I don't hardly play video games at all anymore because I always feel like who has time? I got to get all these things done. I do look forward to the time when, no, I don't have to get anything done. these things done i do look forward to the time when no i don't have to get anything yeah yeah i'm in the i'm in the home and i'm just playing red dead redemption part seven maybe that's not gonna happen but that's my fantasy and i bet you there's gonna be a lot more video games in the coming years as we come with the generation the video game generation

right you'll just plug right into your neck and then you won't even have a controller you just be laying like a puddle of sauce you know playing a video game in your mind well you remember that movie that robert de niro and uh uh what was it kaylee cuoco forget it no uh where they they had the uh the old folks home and they only responded to when you played music that they enjoyed in their 20s no i don't know okay forget it anyway that's what i'm thank you awakening matt matt just put that in the chat that's gonna be what it's like for me that I just, I'm totally catatonic until, you know, like. You put on Dio.

You put on Dio and a screen with asteroids, the video game. And I'm going to be like. Reactivated. Let me at it. Yeah. The future. Who the hell knows about the future? I know. I know. Let me add it. Yeah. The future. Who the hell knows about the future? I know.

I know. Well, what about, what have you learned? That's the third question. I just slid. This is the hardest one. What have I learned?

Yeah. Um, I was thinking about it last night. It doesn't have to be profound. I mean, Padgett Brewster, one of hers was, uh, you can sharpen scissors by cutting tinfoil which i was like that's pretty good you know

i didn't know that i tried it i tried it that's a great thing yeah that's a great thing um i learned uh the mantra before uh going on stage or going out in front of an audience, this is going to sound like bad advice. Always remember to pretend to have a good time. And then oftentimes that'll lead to good stuff when you're out there. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to be having a good time. But if you can pretend to be enjoying yourself yourself sometimes it'll lead to actually enjoying yourself that helps me to stay out of the vortex of terror yeah that's a pretty good one too and i mean it's a kind of a you know it's kind of a norman vincent peele positive attitude but it's you know it is true it's i remember you know, it is true. It's, I remember, you know, I, I, I was directing a

television commercial for Illinois lottery and they had, and that I was into, but they had a guy from the Blackhawks, a hockey player off to the side, reading some copy for some B roll kind of stuff for the lottery. they said oh they pulled me over because i was doing something else and they're like he's reading this copy it was like an agency guy and he was like he's really it's just not very lightful it doesn't have a life to it and i went and i listened to him read it once and i said smile while you say it and and he because it was just going to be voiceover like at the end of the commercials and they were just doing it off on the side of the studio and which is like something that you know i'd learned in doing voiceovers but when you smile it makes you sound a lot more upbeat

and he did it and and it sounded great you know and like it just like you put a big fake grin on your face when you're reading something that just just makes it sound better. You know, it just makes it sound more upbeat. And, and it's, that's kind of like in a microcosm, like that's make it till you fake it. That's like, you know, that's like, just put a smile, like smile while you say it. And just, and I mean, granted, I don't mean be a Pollyanna and let bad things happen. But I mean, you know, but like just kind of in your regular life, if you're feeling like it's a little flat, you know, smile while you say it. And then it also isn't like the gross kind of like, come on, honey, put on a smile for me. You know, I don't know like that.

You know, it just means like, yeah, you can kind of fake it till you make it. You can kind of force a good feeling you know like like out of just will and maybe you don't but it's better than just succumbing to the darkness you know a hundred percent yeah and you only have to fake it for a second and then all of a sudden it turns into real joy frequently yeah yeah yeah well you give a lot of joy i love you so much i mean i've feelings mute just so much stuff that i see like when you uh the stuff you put on instagram i mean instagram is instagram it's like it's infuriating me to me most of the time i just like sort of rage scroll instagram most of the time. But like you do so much fun stuff that is just pure fucking joy. And it's really such a service.

And I am so grateful for your presence in the universe. And especially for your presence here, man. It's really great. Oh, my God. I mean, it was a no-brainer when I got the call to be on your show. I was like, this is happening. As soon as I get a window, I'm going in. Thank you.

Because, yeah, from the beginning, I've always loved your work and then always loved hanging with you over the years. We've had lots of times where we've crossed paths. Yeah. And it was awesome to share this day, this uh this podcast with you and feel free dude seriously feel free cut out all the parts where i was boringly rambling too long no no trim it we're gonna cut out the interesting stuff just fully lipo out all yeah it'll be me asking questions and you're going uh

do it whatever you feel is right alright well thank you Jack and thank all of you out there for listening I'll be back next week with another person not as good as Jack Black though you say that to all the podcasters.

On my imagination I've got a big, big love for you by Marina Pice and talent produced by Galitza Hayek. The associate producer is Jen Samples, supervising producer Aaron Blair, and executive producers Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf. Make sure to rate and review The Three Questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts.

Can't you tell my loves are growing? This has been a Team Coco production. this has been a team cocoa production