The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Jay Chandrasekhar

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Jay Chandrasekhar (Super Troopers) joins Andy Richter to discuss reluctantly starting a sketch troupe, creating your own opportunities, getting into the tech business, and much more.

Hi everybody, it's Andy Richter. I am here again with the three questions. America's most beloved podcast. Don't look it up, just trust me, the stats are there. beloved podcast don't look it up just trust me the the stats are there uh and i am talking to an old pal a guy that directed an episode well the first time i met him was we when he directed an episode of one of my old shows and i'm so happy to say that he can't remember which one it was i mean we remember what show we just can't remember what happened in the episode. I remember you cracking some really good jokes. Well, yeah, I'm hilarious. You'll see. I'm talking to Jay Chandrasekhar of The Broken Lizard and, you know,

a million other things. And how many episodes of television have you directed now? Well, I just, you know, I started when i was 24 so i've done over 150 episodes of television wow uh and and 10 movies wow that's pretty sweet that's amazing you know you'd think somebody after 150 would bring me a cake or something and in fact i'm still waiting there's no cake after a hundred i mean nobody really cares nobody cares yeah well but well i care i mean that's i mean you've really that's really chugging along you know for and yeah and for somebody you come from a family of uh is it

doctors and lawyers yeah they're doctors they're not well my parents are doctors my sister's a lawyer so yeah so you all rebelled against that medical profession. We're going to be lawyers. That's right. That's right. No, but I mean, were you seen as kind of, you know, like the weird one because you didn't want to do, you know, the classic good Desi son stuff? My dad was number one in his medical school in the class. And a year later, my mom was number one in the same medical school.

And so when I was 17, 18, I was applying to colleges. I had a B plus average. I was like number seven in the class. And I was applying to Harvard and Yale and all these places. And my dad is like, he goes, why would they want a junkie B-plus Indian when they have so many good A-plus Indians to choose from? And my dad was right. I didn't get into any of those schools. But I had a lot of confidence.

It was said with love, I'm sure. I suppose. He never lies. Is it hard growing up, you know, like not being an overachiever and an Indian? Because you guys are Tamil. And is there a big difference like between Tamil households and other Indian households? You know, that high achieving thing is partly a function of we're in a new country. And if you don't do well you're gonna be on the street

yeah yeah which is not really true but still but the streets are made of gold so it doesn't matter that's right yeah the streets are made of gold no i mean look i mean there's no doubt that the reason they even came here is because they were high functioning and so their attitude is you better be high functioning i I think you mean high achieving. High achieving. I got even that wrong. Whatever. You know, I've done a couple of things in my, my parents are perfectly happy with what I've done. So. Yeah. And are you a middle kid? You're a middle kid. I'm the second kid of two.

Of two. Oh, okay. Do you think that going into comedy, do you think that being, growing up in a house run by two immigrant parents, that that gives you a unique perspective on American stuff that aids in a comedic

view? I think so for sure. I mean, my parents grew up in India, so they had a British sense of humor. Like English is the national language of India. Yeah. Because there are hundreds like different languages there. So the one language that unified them was English. And so they naturally were sort of drawn to like PG Wood woodhouse and and python and all these sort of uh you know british comics yeah and so they have this sort of um british sense of humor and you know yeah when you're an immigrant you absolutely you know you look at the country you're in and sort of i

mean i was born here so i just thought it was my, but they definitely observe it in a different way. Right, right. And you're from the Chicago area, which is its own perspective, too. Its own kind of, you know, like, I don't know. I mean, it does have a definitely, I wouldn't say it's like a jaundiced perspective, but it certainly is like, don't get too don't get too far ahead of yourself. You know, it's a humble kind of bullshit detector kind of perspective. You know, I think the Chicago sense of humor is is I mean, it's very much inside me. You know, I mean, I I feel, you know, I feel like even after making 150 episodes of television, 10 movies, I still feel like they're about to kick me out of show business. Yeah.

I feel like I have a chip on my shoulder and I'm, I still am like, Oh yeah. You don't think I can make it. Watch me. And the reality is I've talked to some friends of mine. They're like, nobody says you can't make everyone.

Yeah. And newsflash you've made it. I know, you know, I know, but I'm still pissed off. Yeah. Yeah. Like newsflash, you've made it. I know. You know. I know. But I'm still pissed off. Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, oh, who said I can't do it? I'll show you. I'm from Chicago. I mean it.

Yeah. I really do mean it. Yeah. I'm still like, you know what? Screw everybody. I'm going to make this movie. Whether they think I can or not, I really believe that. Yeah. And everyone's like, yeah, yeah, no, they gave you millions of dollars to do it and yeah we're we're scouting locations yeah we know well I'm gonna make it I know you're in a you're in a van with 10 people waiting for you to tell them what to do you're signing our checks yeah yeah well I mean did you were you a funny kid growing up I mean, did you were you a funny kid growing up? I mean, where it was a funny family, you know, it was a funny family. And I, you know, I really did get a lot of laughs.

I got a lot of laughs with my with my family because I used to put on weird stuff. I'd put on my mom's heels in her like fur coats and bump around and just dress up. Right. Right. Right. And and with my friends, I got a lot of laughs, too. And that was all the way through college. And I remember when I was thinking about going into show business, I I looked at the movie and television screens and there were no Indians on them. I mean, aside from Ben Kingsley, who who who was in Gandhi.

But there wasn't, you know, the way that movie ended, they from Ben Kingsley, who, who, who was in Gandhi, but there wasn't, you know, the way that movie ended, they weren't going to make a Gandhi too. And so I was like, you know, the Peter Sellers in the, in the party was a white guy in brownface. Yeah. By the way, I really liked his performance, I have to say. And then Fisher Stevens in Short Circuit was a white guy in brownface. And, you know, my dad saw Short Circuit 2, and he goes, you have to see Short Circuit 2. And I said, why? He goes, there's an Indian in it.

I said, Dad, it's not an Indian. He goes, well, it's as close as we'll get. And I'm like, nah, you give me a second here, pal. And so I decided that, you know, I could make my friends laugh. No, no problem. But could I make strangers laugh? And so I moved to Chicago. I took a semester off Colgate University where I went to school.

And I, I kind of like got in, I got involved in the improv Olympic with those. I was 19. Chris Farley was in the top group. I was in the bottom group. What year was this? This was 88 or 89. Wow. I guess I would have been around probably at the same group. What year was this? This was 88 or 89. Wow.

I guess I would have been around probably at the same time. Just yeah. Yeah. And so I got in one of those improv groups. We gave it a crazy name like Donkey Lover or whatever it was. Yeah. And we went up in front of crowds. And my goal was if I can make strangers laugh, I'll give show business to try.

And we went up in front of these paying crowds and bombed like horribly. Like it was, we were up there for 30 minutes. There might've been a couple of Snickers and they were just, it wasn't happening. And we did it multiple times and it kills me. Like it kills all of us to bomb. And so I was just like, you know, this isn't working. I'm going to go across town. I signed up at the Matchbox, I think it was called, for an open mic on a Tuesday night. And I went up

and I wrote 10 minutes of jokes and I just speed talked through them in five minutes. And I got laughs. I got real strangers laughs. And I'm like, OK, I'm going to try that. And that was it. I went back to Colgate and I started a comedy group and that's the group that became Broken Lizard that made Super Troopers and Beer Fest and all those movies. Yeah. It's interesting though, that you, you took that success in, cause to me, the whole difference is group solo, group versus solo, and you had the success in solo solo but you still went back to school and founded a group you know i mean yeah well i started i started stand-up at 19 i've never stopped i've been doing right you know i know that yeah right so i kind of just decided to

kind of keep both tracks going yeah it's it's something i've done my whole kind of career i mean i i've got involved in film but also television and also stand up and, you know, live performing. And then, you know, I wrote a novel, you know, I'm like, oh, wow, I didn't know that. I'm just well, it's like I'm almost done with this novel. Oh, you're sitting on it right now just to make you high enough for the camera. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I mean, it's got to have some use. I mean, I still have this mentality, like I said, where I'm like, if one thing,

if they stop letting me do one thing, I'm going to do this other thing. I'll do this other thing. I'll just keep it going. Well, I guess the first question is, does that come out of insecurity? Does that kind of like that sort of, I'll show you, does that come out of insecurity? Does that kind of like that sort of I'll show you,

does that come out of insecurity? Does that come out of somebody really telling you you couldn't do it? I don't really know. I mean, my parents have always said that I've suffered from overconfidence because I'm enormously sure that it's going to work out. Yeah. And in fact, it has worked out. Right. Yeah. So, you know, is that insecurity or is it just over? I don't know the answer to that. I just know once I think of an idea and I'm like, well, I have this idea for a novel.

I almost have to do it because I've never written a novel. I'm kind of I kind of get a little of that juice where I'm like, I bet they don't think I can write a novel. Yeah. It's all that. It's all, you don't think I can do it. You watch me.

And then there I do. Wow. I I'd like to borrow some of that because I'm perfectly happy doing nothing. But I also, no, you got the most beloved podcast. That's right.

I forgot. I forgot. Yeah. I'm wearing, I'm wearing a tiara right now got the most beloved podcast. That's right. I forgot. I forgot. Yeah. I'm wearing, I'm wearing a tiara right now that says most beloved. At a certain point you can stop. I mean, we just said it,

you know, we just said it, but it is like, I, I don't think it can't be just that you have the nerve to push. Cause at a certain point you gotta you got you gotta put up you know you you know and and you're not obviously not shutting up um but you're so you're you're performing you know and people don't do this you know i mean yeah i think that that's

a good engine to get you started but you know you you perform you know and you can you know how to do all this shit now especially the more you do it the more you can do it you know the it's totally true but if you know the way movies get made for example is they don't just they don't just hand them to you right they you know everybody else is trying to make their own. But the way I make movies is I come up with an idea and then I just push that thing all the way up the hill. Yeah. And if I don't push it up the hill, it's not going to get made. Yeah. And so I I've realized it's the same way with writing novels or, you know, I sound like a dick, but I actually built an app, too. And I'm like, if I don't do it, it's not going to get done. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, what the hell

else am I doing? I mean, this is what I do for a living. I might as well keep doing it. Yeah. Yeah. And does that process make you happy though? I mean, is there sort of a dissatisfaction that's fueling it or, you know? No, I'm really quite happy. The things that make me happy in life are all my little showbiz ventures, and I play a lot of golf, and I play a lot of ping pong. And my family. Yeah, all those people.

Oh, yeah. Those people. You got to say that because they might listen. We saw walking by behind there. Yeah, yeah. I'm walking by behind there. Yeah, yeah. Can't you tell my love's a crow? Well, now, when you get to college,

do you have this notion of show business? And it's Colgate, and that's in New York, right? Colgate is upstate New York. Yeah, yeah. And if I remember correctly, it's very, there's not a lot going on in whatever town Colgate is in. It's just, it's up in the hills of New York and it's surrounded by farms.

Yeah, yeah. But it's considered the, I mean, it wins the most beautiful school in the country along with Princeton every year. Yeah, because I think, you know, back in the 90s, I did college dates as just a way to make some money on the weekends. And I think I did one there. And I remember, I think after the show, I was like, all right, I'll get some dinner.

And everyone told me, oh, there's no dinner to be had. And it was like nine o'clock. And we were like, no, no, there's, I was like, what about pizza? No, there's no pizza. So I just like kind of went back to some weird old bed and breakfasty hotel um and i do remember there were like a room it was filled with flies that's the other thing i remember about it must have been must have been september yeah it was yeah there's tons of flies up there in September. It gave me an Amityville feel, you know?

We tried to catch them with chopsticks after we saw one of those Karate Kid movies. Kung Fu movies, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we gave up and we just would bash them out of the sky. And the thing about a fly is it has like 36 eyes, I guess, but it cannot tell when the ceiling is getting lower. Oh, wow. So you can come down at a fly directly above it and then you can smash it. Oh, good to know. That's people.

That's valuable information. It's kind of thing you learn at Colgate. Yeah, that's a pageant Brewster. And this, you know, the last question of these three questions, these beloved questions, is what have you learned? And one of hers was, you can sharpen scissors by cutting aluminum foil. And I was like, well, thank you. Finally, something useful, you know. That's incredible.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that true? I've tried it, and it does. I mean, it's not completely foolproof if your scissors are really fucked, but it does help. It does make them a little sharper. Okay. Well, now, you studied like English or something?

I was a history major. And is that just like I'm going to college and I'll learn comedy and I'll figure out how to? No, I definitely was not going into show business when I got to Colgate. I was there. You know, my sister was a history major at Northwestern. And I'm like, I don't know, okay, I'll do that. I loved history at, in, we had a great history teacher in high school who was at Lake Forest Academy and he convinced us both to go into history because he told the stories of what happened in the French Revolution so beautifully in such an interesting way. I thought, I think I was attracted to stories back then. I mean,

I think that's the answer is that I loved, I still love stories. Like we all love stories. And I couldn't have put it together why, but I wanted to be a history major. Yeah. And I mean, are there things that being there for that sort of liberal arts education teaches you? I mean, are there film classes? Because then you went into directing a film and that, you know. There was nothing. There was nothing like that. I was in a lot of plays. Yeah. But, you know, writing 30 page history papers at the end of every semester made me believe that I could write sketch. Yeah.

As I said to the, I mean, all the people I've hired for the group, I'm like, you know, we write these term papers. They're 30 pages long. You don't think we write a three page, five page sketch. Yeah, we can. And we did. And we turned out to be, you know, good at it. Yeah. Luckily, luckily.

By the end, you got, and you guys had a different name there, right? Chard Goosebeak. Chard Goosebeak. Chard Goosebeak. Yeah, good change, man. Still going, by the way. Is it really? Yes. Oh, wow.

Oh, you left him behind and it became the whiff and poofs or whatever? Yes. Oh, that's great. And so when it came time to write a movie again i was like you know we wrote these papers why can't we write a movie um and you know like people like kevin smith and eddie burns and with stillman were making movies in in new york and we were in new york in the 90s but we said well those guys can do it why can't we do it then so we wrote a movie i mean it's simple as that yeah like we didn't know anything about structure we didn't

know about three acts we just wrote it and it somehow locked into this three-act structure by osmosis i'm not even sure really wow and what and and how old are you when you did that the first well you get out do you all move to new york and you're gonna make it as a sketch group that's right and do you just start doing live shows putting, you know, are they, are they scripted? Do they change all the time? There was a theater called the duplex in the West village of Manhattan. And it's, it's, you know, it's a gay neighborhood. And so the, the, they had a big piano bar there and all these cabaret singers and some of them

are in drag would kind of perform there. And so I went up and I'm like, hey, can we and we couldn't find a place to go up. And this was close to my house. I'm like, do you think we could do a show here? And they're like, what? Yeah, I guess so. You can have Monday nights. And so we rolled this sort of little fraternity show. I mean, we were all fraternity. And we went up and we did this like hour long sketch show that we wrote. We did. We made little short films that would would go in between the sketches so we could change from mermaid costume to banana costume. You know, we needed a minute. Right. And, you know, on the

Monday nights, because we knew so many people from Colgate, we would sell Monday night out and we would sell the most alcohol this place had ever sold in its history. Oh, wow. And they were like, who are you guys? And we're like, we're the Colgate people. And they're like, yeah, we're famous alcoholics. Yeah. And they're like, we don't really love your show or really care about it. But you guys are now our Friday night and Saturday night act.

Oh, wow. And so we were suddenly like, because we were selling the most alcohol of any act. And they were like, and that's really what show business is about. Sure. Selling the booze. Sure. Sure. So,

yeah, we were, we, you know, so they moved us and we, and we kind of, you know, we kind of had took off in this,

in this, in this exciting way. Cause of the Colgate alumni. Were you guys resented by the regulars, both regular performers and regular audience? I think so. I think just that classic show business resentment that everybody has for everybody else yeah yeah you who are you guys yeah you know where's your uh lounge singing

piano cross dresser that's not cool my uh my bar in chicago uh up where i lived uh in in ravenswood uh was just the nicest, quietest, coziest little bar, except for Tuesday nights, they would have live Irish music, and it would just be packed by people that wouldn't be there the rest of the week, and I fucking hated it. I was like, you fuckers with their deedle-deedle-deedle-deedle-dee,

and, you know, had this ax to grab, which actually I put into an episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Me bitching about the Irish was actually put into an episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe. I love the Irish, but it was just because they took my quiet bar away

and made it so that I had to wait for a drink. It's funny that you didn't come up with the idea to go to another bar on Tuesday nights. No, we would, we would, but it just, it was, it was like so inconvenient because this bar was so close and it was, it was also one of those things where I'll go down there and I'll see somebody, you know, like I'll see like somebody like just in the best sense. It was sure. It was just like your place, you know like i'll see like somebody like just in the best sense it was sure it was

just like your place you know right except on tuesdays yes except on tuesdays well do you now do you guys any kind of like long-term game plan as a group or did you just do it all yourselves like did you were you waiting for casting people were you waiting for agents were you waiting for casting people? Were you waiting for agents? Were you waiting for producers? I always thought, you know, after the first film that we would have this flood of people making us offers. And, you know, and to be fair, we did. Like, we got two television deals, one at ABC and one at NBC, and we almost got a show on the air,

just like everybody else. Of course, right. Oh, thanks, so close. But we really did. And it didn't happen and you know the state got their sketch show uh which i guess was called the state and so we were like okay so there's in living color there's saturday night live there's the state there's kids in the hall uh there's mr shell like they don't we don't need another sketch group right we don't so we said let's just focus

on movies and we'll try to become the american monty python i mean to be really honest with you i named it broken lizard because i wanted people to say python begets lizard i wanted that oh i wanted them to think about it that way yeah and so we named it that and i'm like and you know amazingly i think we're on our we've made eight movies or something like it's like, and it's all mostly, I mean, once you make a on pushing on your own, it doesn't continue to work. Yeah. I know you've advised me to stop. Stop worrying about it. But I don't say I just don't. I mean, I don't mean stop worrying about it, but it is. I don't know. I mean, because it's's you know i because i have some of that like it's just you know i it's it's it's it's a frustration from being a kid and just not

being listened to and not and never feeling like you have any control over anything until you're like 17 you know like it's like forever you're just kind of hey shut up you know like i don't i don't want to do that i told you to oh okay you know and i think that's just still in me and sometimes i just think it's not very useful anymore like i just am it just kind of makes me feel shitty and bad and i should just like and also sort of like see resistance where there isn't resistance, where if anything, there's just apathy. You know, it's like I'm not, there's not people actively against me. They're just not thinking about me at all. So why am I so fucking uptight about it?

But anyhow, well, I mean, that's truly, now you're, are you the de facto leader of the group? I mean, you're naming it, you're directing the thing. Well, I started it. You know, I put up the signs that said audition for comedy group. Oh, wow. I literally started it. But if those guys are in your, your guys are living in the same house,

I mean, did it just kind of, how did that work out? How did the makeup of the group? And there's five of you, is that right? there's there's five of you is that right yeah there are five of us yeah uh back at Colgate what happened was that I I came back to Colgate after being in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic and really failing at improv and I but I told everybody I'm like man am I a good improviser. Chris Farley and the whole, well, the whole thing. And so one of the guys who had started a student theater group

called Kinetic Theater Group, he had just started this really successful theater group. And I acted a couple of plays for him. And then he was going to London for the semester. And he said, hey, I want to keep the Kinetic Theater Group going. So can you, I'm going to have four one-act plays done. And I want you to direct four one act plays done and I, and I want you to direct one of the one acts and you,

what you should do is do that improv thing you were talking about in Chicago. Everyone, everyone's here, heard about how great you did in Chicago, do that improv thing. And I'm like, yeah, okay. And so I go to Kevin Heffernan who played Farva. Right.? And I said, hey, man, you want to do an improv show? Like, you know, Chris Farley and all that? And he goes, what are you talking about? I'm like, you know, me and you will do an improv show. He goes, we're doing a goddamn improv show?

He goes, people are going to laugh at us. I'm like, yeah, you're right. You're right. So I go to the guy. I'm like, we're not doing an improv show. It's our senior year. We're going to just get hammered. And he's like, oh, OK.

And so a few months go on. And he, you know, this is now the summer and he's going to London and he goes, hey man, I got three one-act plays ready to go in the fall. You're the fourth. You got to do the improv show. I'm like, okay. I had just come from a Grateful Dead show. I was feeling a little jelly-headed, right? I'd spent four days there. And so I called Kevin Heffern. He's a dishwasher in Nantucket. I'm like, dude, let's do the improv show. Let's do the improv show, like Chris Farley. And he goes, I told you I'm not doing the damn improv show. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. I called the guy back. I'm like, we're not doing the improv show. Now it's the fall, and I'm in my basement at my fraternity, getting drinking, whatever. And the payphone rings. And some freshman some freshman pledge is like hey the phone's

ringing it's for you some guy from london and i pick up the phone the guy's like it's a done deal you're doing the improv show you're doing the improv show and i'm like fine i'll do it and i go up to heffernan's room like it's a done deal we're doing the improv show he goes fine i'll do it and that's how it started wow and so i then i put all i went around and i said who's funny and i found all these funny people put them together and away we went. Oh, wow. And no. And there was never any. I mean, is the dynamic always kind of been that you lead and that you're sort of. Yeah. Or has it been more of a democratic thing as time went on?

It's it's a little bit of both. It's like a benevolent dictatorship. However, you know, we take votes on some things. And Kevin Heffernan has directed two of our films, including one, which was The Slammin' Salmon, which we made where we all worked in a restaurant with Michael Clarke Duncan. And the second one is a movie that's going to come out in December on Hulu, I think. It's called Quasi. It's a 13th century French movie. I play like the King of France and a friend of mine, Paul, plays the

Pope and Steve Lemme plays the Hunchback. It's a Hunchback. It's like a Hunchback play. Yeah. It's a Hunchback play. You know, that old thing. And everyone's got British accents and it's like you're in the middle of this thing with swords. You're like, we're in a fucking Python movie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fantastic. Where was that shot? Did you shoot that here somewhere? We shot in Santa Clarita. Then we took a unit over to Ireland and shot some castles. Oh, awesome. Yeah.

That's always fun. I know how you hate the Irish. No, no. I actually was just in Dublin a minute ago and really, really, really loved it. Of course, it's a beautiful place. Great place. Yeah, and, you know, and it is true, like, what a bunch of fucking nice people. I mean, you know, their, you know, their sense of humor is very poking fun at people, you know, but.

Yeah, I like that. Just super nice. Yeah, yeah. I like the making fun of sense of humor. Yes, yes. It can go too far because I like that. Just super nice. Yeah. Yeah. I like the making fun of sense of humor. Yes. Yes. It can go too far. Cause I,

I do cry. Can't you tell my loves, you know, I have, I've never directed a movie or TV show. I've directed some commercials and I mean, and I've, you know, I've done, you know, I have, I've never directed a movie or TV show. I've directed some commercials. And I mean, and I've, you know, I've done, you know, you can't call it directing because it's, there's guild rules. But, you know, I've directed a bunch of stuff for Conan. You know, like you make a sketch and you're directing, you know.

Right. You write it and you direct it. But to go to a feature, to do a feature, like that's your first dip you know i mean you make videos you're making like videos to run through your show but you step up and you do a feature how do you keep your shit together how do you not like just crumble into you know a puddle of imposter syndrome i mean i've made about whatever let's call it 15 short videos right yeah so i had some sense of and we edited them and i'm like okay i think i know how that works how to do a shot list and whatever yeah yeah and then i i we made a half an hour film um which i co-directed with the film

student guy i met at nyu and i took a summer class and and i got a sense of that in a half an hour film, right? So now I was getting ready to make a feature and I'm like, as it turned out, I was overcome with stress because I developed these phantom pains in my right knee that weren't from an injury. I just literally was hobbling around. Wow.

And I had back pains that I'm like, oh, my God, there's no nothing caused it. Right. Yeah. Stress. And I was eating as much as I could and drinking as much beer as I could. And I lost roughly 12 or 13 pounds making that movie. Wow. And but when we cut it all together, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's it. It kind of all cut together beautifully. And on Super Troopers, I lost another 13 pounds doing the same thing on Club Dread. I lost about 10 pounds. But on Dukes of Hazzard, I gained 22 pounds. And I'm like, I think I know what I'm doing. I didn't have any phantom pains for the first time ever. Wow.

And I'm like, I think I know what I'm doing. I'm, I'm getting fat as, as fuck, but boy, I think I got it. Did you shoot that down South down in Louisiana? And now I don't think that's part of it. That's part of it. I don't lose weight anymore. When I make movies, I feel like very confident about what I'm doing. Yeah. It takes a minute, man.

It's not because all these people are looking at you and they're all older because I was like 25 or 24, 25 when I made my first feature. And they're all like, what do you want to do? And you're like, oh, fucking no. Yeah. But you can't say that. You're like, well, let's look this way. And they're like, we have all the trucks parked that way. And you're like well let's look this way and they're like we have all

the trucks parked that way and you're like okay so move them and then that takes an hour like you make stupid mistakes right yeah yeah yeah because you're the boss right but eventually you stop making it i mean and i i learned this doing the conan show and i've said this before like the the greatest gift uh that con gave me, besides my stage name, my real name is Charles Kaczynski. The greatest gift he gave me is that he just invited me into the process of producing the show. He trusted me.

And I mean, I don't know if you have but i feel i see so many people in comedy and i have it where you got to have one person i call i mean for lack of a better term the consulary where you're like is that good is that you know i'm look right is that right because there's so many times i will write a joke or write a bit and i'm like i think this is really funny but i have a hunch that it might not be and you gotta ask somebody and it's you either get like yeah it's really good or it's okay you know yeah and so he kind of used me in that role and and then i just you know like you said you just keep doing it and you get some poise and you get to where you can, you can make decisions and that's all it is. It's just, you don't have to like, I mean,

it does help to have some forward thinking obviously, but mostly what it is standing with your feet flat on the ground. When somebody comes to you with a multi-choice problem and you go, I think this way, this way to do it would be the best yeah and you get used to making what is sort of like you know maybe not the best decision it turns out but a pretty good one that like factors in all the different things that you need to like the trucks are over there all right so maybe let's not move the trucks or know what i really want to see that little house in the background we have to move the trucks or know what? I really want to see that little house in the background.

We have to move the trucks. Right. But on the scout, you can say, park the trucks there. Yeah. Look over there. Right. That's the kind of stuff you learn. Then you save yourself an hour and then you're shooting more and then the show's better. And then, you know, you're being paid for your comedic instinct. Yeah. I mean, on a show, you need somebody who is, who's going to be the comedian right you know and if that's you you're like they're like what do you think and i'm like well my comedically

instinctually i think this yeah and that's that's why they pay you yeah once you once you can accept that you're that person right you know more good things will flow if you're in fact as funny as you think you are the difference in law in movies is that you know you really do have to sustain and and you can't it can't be all accelerator there's got to be some times when you kind of give people a break it's like you know it's like action movies can't all be action action action yeah it's just exhausting and in comedy it's kind of you know you can't it can't all be action action action yeah it's just exhausting and in comedy it's kind of you know you can't it can't all just be one screamingly funny bit after another i mean it of course optimally you're like yeah it would be great if it was just like screamingly funny but

actually that's kind of too much you know and how do you how do you learn that pacing i mean do you just learn it by doing it and are there any sort of like rules that you learned? To me, the whole thing has to fit, the whole movie has to fit within a certain bandwidth. And so like the most subtle joke needs to coexist in the same movie with the biggest joke, right? And if it pops out the top and it's too broad,

I'm like, cut it. You know, if it's too quiet, too subtle, I'm like, cut it. Like, I need things to sort of fit in the bandwidth. And then within that, I need the rhythm to be right. The rhythm to be right. You know, like, it's like, take this word out and this joke will really take off.

Or, you know, feather in a tiny pause and then speed up, speed up, speed up. It's like a song, really. Like there's a thing in the editing. You know, I've edited all these movies as well. And so I'm in the editor's guild. So it's like there's a thing called the radio cut when you take a scene and you cut it into the way you think it should sound and you turn the image off. So you're not even looking at it. You're just listening to it. And you go, Oh, that joke is coming in about two thirds of a second too late.

And so you go in and you put two thirds of a second of, of a reaction shot in and you're like, yep, that's right. And you kind of go through the whole movie that way. And you put it into the audio rhythm and then, then you go back and make sure that the images are working. I mean, that is the, that.

And then when the audience hears it, they go, they relax because the rhythm feels comedically. Right. Yeah. I've never heard that. Where, where did you pick that one up?

Well, I, I, when I finished super troopers, we sold it at Sundance and Fox search. I'd hired a guy named George Fulsey, who had cut and produced Animal House, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Twilight Zone. And he said, well, we sat with him and we wanted to take seven minutes out. And he's like, well,

you know, you're going to take, he's an old timer timer so you can take this out and tell you tell us about the radio cut oh yeah we were like oh yeah we kind of think we you know we kind of thought of it we thought we were doing it a different way but we're like oh i see just turn this picture off and listen to it it's uh it's very useful yeah that's great it's really hard to hold a group together and i mean and you still, I mean, y'all go and do different stuff. Um, but it's, you know, I mean, it's like a band, you know, like how many bands really stay together and, and stay together productively and, or, you know, stay together and don't kill each other. Yeah. You know, it's why there aren't, I mean, there really aren't, when you think about i mean there's a million bands and you just listed the sketch comedy groups you know like a minute ago

when you talked about what sketch comedies were on tv you listed them there's not a lot more and i mean and some of those are sort of of artificial design they were put you know saturday night live is not an organic thing but kids in the hall is and the state was yeah and and how do you guys how do you guys stay together how do you guys sort of navigate being crazy people you have to you have to allow for other people's egos yeah you, you have to kind of balance these movies so that everybody gets a chance to really be funny. And so that there's a team element to it. You know, this scene

you get the better jokes than I do. Great. I'm setting you up. Next scene you're setting me up and then we're setting that guy up. You know, it's like it just got to balance it as you write it so that everybody feels like they're worthwhile part of the movie. There's not one star necessarily. You know, it's and then you got to basically create films where you're paying people money to write them and be in them.

Yeah. They feel like it's a job. Like they're making money writing. And then we make money for the studios and they go, okay, we want you guys to make more. You know, we're more valuable to the show business together than we are as individuals. Even though we all do stuff individually, for sure. There's some excitement when we get the group back together. Yeah, yeah.

The way it is. How do you navigate rough spots? I mean, is there sort of a method or you just kind of... Well, we've fought many times. Yeah. We've fought brutally many times. But at the end of the day, I always say, you know, you're welcome to leave, right?

I mean, it's like i'm not stopping you like but ultimately you know you got to think about your life without this group and if you're going to be happier without it then leave yeah right but but but but but i would tell you in my view we're better together and if we can continue to make movies together, you know, into up to what age, right? Let's keep going until they say stop. Yeah. Right. And if you want to be part of that, let's solve this problem.

Right. Has this long term professional relationship changed the personal relationship? I mean, is there less of personal? Yeah. Connections. There's less of personal relationship because you know when we make a movie together we're living in the same hotel and we're just spending tons of social time together and then when we're done you know we're editing it yeah and and then

we're like we're not we're not exactly the first person we want to hang out with this guy we've just been hanging out with but that's okay all right yeah well not you all have families you're all old at this point you know yeah you're still walking around back there yeah yeah no i i mean because people in fact i just i just did a little thing for the team coco's website which was like a fan questionnaire and one of them was like is conan your best friend and i'm like you know i mean you know like he's certainly a very dear friend but uh people have been asking that forever like how much do you guys because they you know i don't really picture us sleeping in bunk beds that was always our joke you know but it's like no we are together all freaking day you know and then and we have been together on and off for 30 years so

like we have had lots and lots of time and and it's not just like oh it's drudgery it's like laughs it's like huge laughs huge good times but then when it's done it's like i gotta i gotta see somebody else you know i gotta i gotta i gotta see my family i gotta see somebody else. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta see my family. I gotta see, you know, friends that don't have anything to do with this. Yeah. I mean, the truth is we, we were friends when we were 18, like before we had any ambition, you know? And so that friendship is, it's not really go. I mean, I'm, I know so many things about them and we've been on the road together. We've been on like the tonight show together. Like we've done stuff. You're like, this is great. But the friendship's not going anywhere.

Like it's just, we'll make another movie soon and we'll be all be hanging out again. I'll see you then. Yeah. Well, you, I mean, as far as where you're going, I mean, it sounds just like, it's just, you're just going to kind of continue on the same track. Yeah. I think I'm going to keep pumping it out until I, my little heart drops. I just don't know what else would stop me. I just don't know.

You don't see any point where you're just like, man, I'd like to kick back, or is kicking back not an option? Well, I mean, when I play golf, which I try to do every day, I think of jokes, and I'm like, I could put that joke in the novel, or I could do that on a stand-up stage. And I'm like, it just keeps coming. And I'm like, well, what am I going to do? I have to stick them somewhere.

I have to try that. I have to try that. Get a Twitter to try that. I have to try that. Get a Twitter account, man. That's what I do. I think of funny shit and I put it on Twitter and then people tell me, why are you wasting it on Twitter? And I'm like, eh, I don't know.

Is that where you put them out? Yeah. I mean, and I know, I mean, when I started it, I started a Twitter account because I was like i don't know 2010 or 2009 or something and i got a call from it was at that time it was the tonight show from the production manager i was going to play in anaheim in the all-star game celebrity legends softball game it's like and i'd done it a couple times yeah i heard about that yeah where you play in a softball game it's like and i'd done it a couple times yeah i've heard about that yeah where you play in a softball game with like ernie banks like i i got to see ernie banks nude uh just not a lot of people yeah yeah that's exciting and and you it's what's great in the

locker room is like all these old baseball guys are incredibly comfortable being nude around each other for long extended you know because like normally in a in a in a locker room you're naked for a minute you're talking to your pal but you know like quickly you get something on you know because like normally in a in a bat in a locker room you're naked for a minute you're talking to your pal but you know like quickly you get something on you know what i mean yeah sure and these guys nope you know it's just like there's i i can't remember exactly who else was there but it's just like but it is they're just naked they're just they're fucking naked they've been naked half their lives around each other there's no big deal but anyway so i go down there to play that thing twitter's pretty new the production manager says hey they said if you tweet about the game that they'll give you a new iphone at the end of the day i was like fuck yeah okay and i opened a twitter account like in the car on the way down there never got the iphone oh but but you know what's

okay whatever i mean i you know i i could i can pay for an iphone but it started you know decades of time wasting for me and and i know so many comedians who are like i'm not gonna waste my stuff on twitter but i've always had this kind of improv ethos of I can make more like, yeah, I don't have to treat everything. Every egg that I shove out of my cloaca is not made of gold. It's like, I'm going to be laying eggs all day. So don't, you know, right. I don't have to worry about it, but I mean, but there is plenty of times when I think, you know, cause I'll look at some, I'll look at some tweets, especially like someone will put them back into my feed. And I'm like, that's really fucking funny, man.

You should have done something with that besides tweet it. I mean, they're always there and I could do it. But yeah, I just, you know, I don't know. I just expose it to other people who may just grab. I just like, you know, it's like I think it's like you said. And I and that's why I relate to it these jokes are coming to me and rather than just like turn to whoever's next to me who's sick of me anyway and say here's a you know which is weird anyway i mean what are you going to tell your kid like hey i i thought about a funny thing about politics they'd be like shut the fuck up dad so what yeah yeah big deal um

but yeah no so that's what i i you know and that's it's an ongoing like me focusing i'm still the kid that was like he he has so much potential if only he would if only he would focus i mean you know like that's why i say like sitting here listening to you it all hurts a little because i'm like fuck if i just had a little bit of that fucking direction and drive i mean you made a fucking app let's talk about that for christ's sake well i got pissed off again because um 20 years ago i made super troopers and it went to Sundance. And we were like the toast. We sold it there and everybody loved us. Then the movie comes out a year later and it gets a 36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

And I was like, what? I was like, what do we have to do? And I was like, who are these reviewers, right? They're just good writers with movie channels. Or weird shut-ins from Omaha you know yeah but they're basically what they are is strangers right you don't know you don't know where they went to school you don't know if they went to school you don't know if they smoke weed

you don't know if they drink you don't know if they like R-rated movies you don't know anything the guy who trashed Super Troopers of the New York Times also he didn't really love The Hangover and I'm like, well, you don't like either of those movies? Why are you reviewing R-rated comedy? I was like, when's the last time

you walked up to a stranger and said, hey, what movie should I see? That's basically what we're doing. And the other thing is they tee off on comics, right? And they tee off on horror movies. And I'm like, you guys aren't even... The reason you tee off on comics, right? And they tee off on horror movies. And I'm like, you guys aren't even, the reason you tee off on these movies is because when you tee off on them,

people love it and they follow you more. And you don't tee off on dramas because you want to go to the Oscar parties. I get it. I know what you're up to. Right. So I was like, you know, I'm going to build a revenge machine.

And so finally, after 16 years later, I'm like, I got it. I'm going to build a revenge machine. And so finally, after 16 years later, I'm like, I got it. I'm going to build an app. And I'm basically building something that is meant to supplant Rotten Tomatoes at some point in the future. And so Rotten Tomatoes aggregates 90 strangers who are the main reviewers' opinions and gives you a 36% number. But what I want to do is what I built, it's built, it's called Vouch Vault, right? And it's basically Instagram of recommendations. So if you go onto my Vouch Vault, if you sign up and follow me, you'll see that I like Reservoir Dogs and you'll see that I like Let It Bleed, the Rolling Stones album. And you'll see that I like the Andy Richter podcast. And you'll see that I like the Tesla and the and the restaurant Osteria La Buca in Hollywood.

And you'll see that I like this sushi restaurant. And, you know, it's everything I like. So it's also a positive thing. It's like it's like you don't go to dinner parties and say, what sucks what shouldn't i see right that's not how we work we go hey what's good what do you tell me about it and so it also acts as sort of a memory machine right so like i tell my kid i'm like you should listen to b-52s and they're like okay sure and they walk away but instead i have it put it into my voucher vault and they and my my kids like oh what's that album my dad talking and it's right there it's just sitting there because there are no dvds they're barely books there's just you know it's it's a way to kind of keep the things you love all grouped together yeah you take a link and then there you're on it so i open an account i do i do i plug in what i

like and then it suggests people that have similar tastes to me that I could eventually. Yeah, eventually it will. But right now you just open an account and put all the things you love. Yeah. Put in the Holy Grail, put in Life of Brian, put in, you know, whatever. And and but is it but you said you were saying cars and stuff, too. Is that the same or is it really OK? Because the problem is more than just Rotten Tomatoes. The problem is also Yelp reviews of restaurants. You're like there are 2000 good ones, 2000, 2000.

You're like, who wrote them? Yeah. Did the did the guy with the restaurant across the street write them? You're like, in fact, when you want to go to a restaurant, you look at it. You're like, well, Jay ate there and you can message me and be like, do they have good hot dogs? I'll be like, they have great hot dogs. Okay, good. You know who's recommending the stuff.

It's anything. It's like, you know, these eye drops. I love them. Right? I mean. They're delicious. Right. Yum, yum.

I mean, it's meant to sort of take the bullshit out of recommendations. Right. And it's, and I'm not really familiar with it, but it's not, what is letterbox? I know my, my daughter's on letterbox. Is that. Yeah. Well, a lot of letterbox is for film. This is for film, television, podcast, music, headphones. It's just a wider, wider net. It's for everything. So that you're just, you just get a big

picture of what all the things somebody loves and letterbox also i don't know that it's designed to follow the people you know as much right so i think it finds trends and said this person likes this movie and they also you know we're trying to get rid of the robot side of it you know like you know what a robot at netflix tells you hey you're gonna love will and grace you're like maybe you know like uh yeah i don't want to hear from robots i want to hear from humans i know yeah and so eventually we'll say hey andy you actually match up with this australian woman who likes 80 of the same stuff that you do and you should look at the other 20% of the stuff she likes because who knows you might like that too. It's sort of like

It's sort of like the way you do in life. That's right. But it's humans. Are you doing the coding? Can you do that? Is that like an Indian kind of thing? Is that you think we're all going to code? You're the one that's crowing about you made an app.

You sat down with HTML. What the fuck? I can't code my way out of a paper bag. But I work with these two guys who are very good at that stuff. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm just curious because I don't know how it works, you know?

Well, I didn't either. It was really like, I just, I wrote, you know, I'd write it on paper. When you click this, this will happen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That'll happen. And I showed it to these computer guys and they're like, you know, we're already, you know, we kind of built it. And luckily they have such great artistic style. And, you know, you're really thinking about, like, how does the brain work? How does my brain work when I press this, what do I want to have happen?

And that's sort of, it's like creating a machine that you're trying to make it think the way you do. Sure. You know, the last of the three questions is what you've learned, which is either, you know, I mean, it often takes the form of advice. It often takes the form of sharpening scissors with aluminum foil.

I, look, I'll say this. I think that if you're in show business, you know, unless even if you look like Brad Pitt, which, you know, we don't. You know, show business doesn't need you, right? Like you have to push your way in and you have to do it with your own ideas and you have to push those ideas up the hill. It's not going to happen otherwise. You know, like you're not going to just audition and they're going to go, yeah, you're in Friends. Frankly, I mean, frankly, you may get in Friends, but after Friends, what happens? Right. I mean, you have to keep pushing. You have to keep producing.

You have to keep producing. And in order to have a career at it, you have to keep, when you think of a good idea, you got to write it down and make an effort to make it. And then once you make it, everyone has to react to it. And if it's good, they'll go, God, that was really good. Here's some money. Make another thing. That's how it works. No, you can't just sit around waiting for that phone to ring because it's not going

to ring. Yeah. Yeah. That's my advice. Fucking ouch again. damn it jay you're supposed to be nice to me on my podcast not just dig after dig after i wasn't giving you the advice i was giving america the advice it didn't feel like advice it felt like scolding because the second i sign off here, I'm just going to stare at my phone and wait for it to ring. Right. It's not going to ring.

I'll call you. All right. Well, Jay Chandrasekhar, thank you so much for, for this time. You know, you took,

he's on vacation folks. He's at a, he's at a beach rental. You know. And before I go, I just want to say, I have a film called Easter Sunday starring Joe Coy. Oh, yeah. Go see it.

Go see it. Good laughs. Lots of laughs. Yeah, I've seen ads for it. And I was supposed to mention that. Yeah, it's a podcast. It's not that professional. Hey, we just did it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Jay, again. enjoy your vacation and thank all of you out there for listening to another episode of the three questions. I'll be back next week. God willing. The three questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rob Schulte. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Joanna Salataroff, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Maddie Ogden.

Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.