The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Timothy Simons

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Timothy Simons (Veep, Nobody Wants This) joins Andy Richter to discuss his interactions with the real-life political world during "Veep," growing up in Maine, working on the infamous Folgers incest commercial, Adam Brody's attempts to get him into boxing, and much more.Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter. And today I am talking to my friend Timothy Simons. You've seen him in Veep. Nobody wants this, The Handmaid's Tale, and much more. He hosts the podcast second in command with Matt Walsh. He'll also appear in season two of Disney Plus's, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Here's my great conversation with Timothy Simons. Starting podcast now. Hi, Tim. Hi, how's it going? Oh, is that how you start all? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, well, you know. Is that a technical thing?

No, there's a pre-recorded intro in which I say, as a special favor, I had Tim Simons on. I get, I'm on a work release and having people like you on this show take some time off of that, you know, because... Yeah, your parole officer is very communicative. Yeah. No, I mean, there's a, you know, I don't know. It's Lucy Goosey.

It's great to have you here. And I was telling somebody earlier, like, you are somebody that I'm slightly embarrassed that you have not been on here before. Like, this show's been on for five years, and there's no real good excuse that I didn't think, oh, I should have Tim on here. Oh, that's okay. Oh, I know. I mean, I know you're okay with it, but I'm just telling you.

you that I feel remiss and not having you on here because I am very fond of you and you and I have known each other. Yeah, for a bit now. A bit. Yeah, yeah. Most, we had one of those, uh, Twitter friendships, I think. I think so. I think that was before we really ever got to know each other. Yeah. And then like Matt Walsh, I feel is the one that made it real. I feel like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because in, in comparison to him, everyone else is so fun and interesting that when you meet someone that's with him, you know, it's kind of like, like, oh, here's a breath of fresh air. Exactly. Oh, my God. Matt Walsh is just the anchor around everybody's neck dragging them down.

Oh, yeah. Oh, thanks, Matt. Yeah. Okay, thanks. You can run along now. Hi. Well, it's great to have you here. How's life going for you? You know, you two are a podcaster. How are you feeling about, you know, the podcast world and the podcast life? It's, I mean, it's so much work. Yeah. It's so much. Well, you do all the editing and shit, too, right? Because again, Walsh, you do the podcast with Walsh, but that's like doing it with a chimp, you know?

I don't mind, I don't mind doing it. I think just because, I mean, honestly, just selfishly, the amount of times that I need to just edit out my own long pauses or me stammering at the beginning of a sentence. Right. Like, even just me saying, like just now, I'm realizing how many times I say it. So going in and actually just lifting those things out, just I feel like makes me feel better and probably makes it better for an audience. But yeah, like, like, like, no, it's impossible. It's impossible.

It is impossible to listen to yourself. And I hear myself, well, I don't listen to this podcast very often, why? Yeah. But when I hear myself on other people's podcasts, I'm always going like, what is with the pauses? Get your fucking thoughts together. Jesus Christ, you know, get to the point. Yeah. And the likes.

The likes. I have trained myself in this podcast with less ums and likes. I do think that I have like kind of, I did some listening in the beginning and, you know, made adjustments to make sure I was doing that. But I still, when I talk, it's like I stop and form the sentence that I want to, you know, and then there's these pauses. I think one thing that that comes from, and I know it's true of Walsh, and it seems like it's true of you as well, is like wanting to make sure you, like, ask a thoughtful questions or say a thoughtful thing.

And I do remember that this was like a lesson that I learned from Tony Hale, actually, like back in the Veep days, like the first red carpet that I had. ever been on was like the premiere of our first episode or whatever. And the reporters would like ask questions and I would like really try to give insanely thoughtful answers and like really contemplate everything that I was saying. And at one point, Hale was like, they just want you to say it's a beautiful night. Yeah. Yeah. They just want you to be like, it's a beautiful night. Isn't it? And that's it. Like they want to be able to lift two seconds to put it into something else to be like, oh, look at the glitz and glamour. Yeah. You just don't need to over it. It's great. And that's great. And that's

overthink it. And also those sort of like step and repeat things, those are the dumbest, most open mouth, drooling part of showbiz interview. And the thing, like I'm, I mean, we're talking about it before, but I'm in dancing, doing dancing with the stars right now. And I have been through, it's the most press I've ever done for one thing. And it is unbelievable. I've been through a few press lines and it's like you all should really get together because you all are asking me the same fucking things yeah the same three things and so a lot of it's like can you believe it yeah it's like i is they what are you excited for uh paychecks you know i i have been saying that when they're like so what made you want to do you're like why are you doing dancing with the stars i'm

I'm like, why are you doing what you're doing? Because it's better than staying home and not making money. And not making money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, why am I doing this? Because fame is more important than love and family. And that's why I'm doing. Absolutely.

There's an unfillable hole in me. What the fuck do you think? Now, you're originally from Maine. You're a Mainer. That's, is there the kind of cliched or I guess stereotypical sort of like, you know, kind of solipsistic, sort of, you know, rugged individualist that's kind of standoffish? Yes.

And I'm honest, I'm really glad you asked because I love talking about Maine. Because there are, I feel like that's what your people told me. Ask him about Maine. Ask him about Maine. Not going forever. Maine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is.

But I think it's like one of those places where, and I don't, mean this like in a derogatory way like if you just end up there something is different about you that you ended up there and i feel like there are places like like uh i had to work in new orleans back in 2019 i have some my grandfather grew up across the mississippi in algiers and i had never really been there as an adult and i really love new orleans because it was it's a city full of people who are like they just don't fit in anywhere else like this is the place that they can be and i feel like there's a lot of stuff about Maine that is like that. Like, if you are drawn to that, there is something sort of special about you that you were like,

this is where I want to be. And, and a lot of that, it's a weird state. Like, there is a lot of rugged individualism. And it's like a deeply purple political. Yeah. Politically, it's deeply purple. Yeah. Those weird combos of like super stoner right wingers. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, And economically, like, it's kind of like an economically depressed state even at the best of times. Really? Yeah. Like, is it, like, is it just because there's not a lot of manufacturing? I mean, you know, it's a lot of it is tourism.

I see. It's, there's like, there's the tourism, which is like, you know, everything like kind of, you know, bar harbor. And then you have like midcoast where my sister lived for a long time, which is like Rockland Camden. And then you have Portland. And then you have everything south of Portland, which for me. Mainers just kind of gets lumped in with like, that's George W. Bush and we don't go there. Oh, I see. You know what I mean? Like, people are like, oh, I went to Maine. I went to Kennebank. I was like, truly, I've never been there. Like, I don't know what happens there. That's not for us.

Yeah. So it's like a lot of tourism. I don't know. It's a one thing I think is cool about the state. It is a balance of things in that it is a state that heavily relies on tourism but doesn't exactly love tourists but and doesn't exactly love tourists, but also has to figure out, and my sister struggled with this for a long time, she owned an indie bookstore. And there was always this thing of how do you service both the people that are going to be there for two months out of the year and also be a place for the people that live there full time. So it's always kind of fighting those two things and trying to make it work for everybody. Because I guess if you do lean more towards one, you end up slightly hostile towards the other. Hostile towards the other. And then if you

completely go for like a tourist facing thing, then you have, you know, nine months out of the year where what else do you do? Or you just close up shop. And there's like, I don't know, there are like a lot of, you know, high schools up north. Uh, there was always that thing like they would close for two weeks because it was like potato farming and it was just like they needed all the students to farm potatoes. Wow. Like that was just how it went. Yeah. Yeah. Um, a lot of. Even in your age? Like, yeah. Yeah, like high school. I didn't do that because I grew up like an hour north of Portland and we're talking like the county, like a rustic county, like way up north is where like the potato farm is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I mean, is it rural where you are? Where I grew up, I grew up in like a town of 2,000 people called Reedfield. My high school graduating class was like 100 people and that pulled from like four different towns. It's all like woods and lakes. Yeah, yeah. Woods and Lake Central Maine rather than coast. And what do people do for a living sort of generally? God, it's

I mean, there's not farming in woods and lakes, you know. There are, I don't know, there are, what do people do for a living? I don't know that we, I don't know that I ever really noticed when I was there. Sounds like weed dealers. Probably a lot of weed dealers. Probably a lot of weed dealers. My dad was a photographer, you know, and he like, like a wedding. He started out like doing weddings and then got yelled at by too many brides and

brides and groomsmen to, to be like, I'm just kind of done. with this and he ended up doing a lot of portraits and a lot of commercial work for al-opine stuff like that but that's how we raised our family wow um and what brought him there because you said like your you're he how did your folks end up in maine is your mom a long time mainer no oh okay so i am what you would consider a a manor that other mainers might question the thing that people say is like just because the cat had kittens in the oven don't make them biscuits. That's me. Like, I was born in Maine, so I am a Mainer, but I have been asked, like, where were my parents born? And I say, like, Michigan and St. Louis, and they're like, okay.

Right, right, right. But, okay. Whatever. My mom and my dad, I think, honeymooned to, like, a little cabin that my dad's grandmother owned. They honeymoon there, and they just liked it so much. Eventually, they were like, we're just going to move there. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so that's how they ended up there. Yeah, yeah. And how many kids in your family? I have an older sister and a younger brother. And a younger brother. Yeah. My older sister owned a bookstore for a long time. She has a master's in poetry. My little brother is a bluegrass musician. Oh, wow. Yeah. So he plays in like, he plays in bluegrass bands where he's 40. How old is he now? He's 42. Yeah, I think he's 42. And the average, and he brings down the average age in these bands by like 20 years.

It's like 70-year-old men and then my little brother. Wow. Yeah. Your whole family could just be carried around in an NPR tote bag. It is sort of a parody of its fucking self. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That is pretty hilarious.

Well, I mean, obviously your parents engendered a creative atmosphere to make all three of you, you know, sort of. you know, encouraged enough to sort of pursue something that wasn't business or whatever, you know. Yeah. I mean, although your sister owns a bookstore that's business, but it's not. But, no, we all like, you know, my sister was a writer, my little brother's a musician. I got into this. It's, no, they were always incredibly supportive in that way. Like, whenever we came to them with God's on its truth, as you know, like a really bad idea to do any of these things.

Oh, absolutely. they were incredibly supportive of it. They never said, they never did the thing of like have a backup plan. And I think that was also led by, you know, my dad could be an example

of somebody who was making a living doing something that was artistically related. Yeah, that was fulfilling to him creative. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't you tell my loves it grow? So they were always really,

they were always really good about that. But I also think we were rough kids in, you know, we had challenges. We were challenging children. So I think the fact that we found anything that was going to move us forward into the world, they were like, cool. What do you mean challenging, like weren't good at school or just? My sister was better at school. Oppositional to everything, you know.

I think stubborn, oppositional and didn't necessarily. fit in. I was not a great student. I was not a great student and like, you know, behaviorally didn't do great. So I do think that there was like an aspect of if we found something that was that was fulfilling that they were like, okay, they found something. So let's run with that. I can't imagine. I mean, you don't seem like you don't seem like you would have behavioral problems you're very polite and conscientious and smart and you know that's all very flattering thank you i don't i think it's just i just learned i just learned over a long time of like i just learned of like what was going to get me in trouble yeah and like then just like i i went over those lines

for so long and we were a smart aleck what yeah like class clown class clown shit smart alec i was always friendly about it, but wasn't particularly controllable. And I think that just eventually, like, there were so many parent teacher conferences and things like that, that I was just like, all right, I probably should. And then I started failing every class I was in when I was in like the 10th grade. And then it just, and then it kind of got bad and I had to kind of dig out of that. And I think that is sort of when I became a little bit more. We're like, all right, do the things that you need to do that you think are fun.

But if it's really going to fuck you up, then stop it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they do the society does have a way of teaching you like, no, no, you got to, you got to do some of this shit. Yes. If you want to get what you want, you got to do some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah. Were you always into performing?

I mean, well, you said class clown. That's usually sort of the seed. Yeah. Seed corn of the wicked performing jeans. it was there uh it was there for sure like i was always super excited about like my grade school talent shows uh and stuff like that but i never thought about getting into acting i never really did it in high school i was just kind of like i was just acting out but i was always interested in we had like a uh it was like a repertory shakespeare company that was a couple towns over from where i grew up

in an even smaller town than the one that i grew up in and my parents we would go there every summer and then my first job was in a video store and so I think the combination of those two things were like I was interested in theater as an audience member and I was interested in movies as an audience member and I was pretty obsessive about watching TV and movies when I was a kid and I think that just kind of laid the foundation for when I got to college and I found out that there was an actual ability

to participate in that. I was like, oh, that I think makes sense to me. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then coupled with the like, oh, you're a class clown can't keep his fucking mouth shut. Yeah. That was just like, oh, well, I'll just kind of channel it into that. Yeah.

Yeah. And was it always going to, like, did you think you were going to make movies or that you were going to act? You know, like, because I kind of had a mishmash. I went to film school because I was sort of like, you know, it was like, there was this cloud. of like that I was walking into and like I don't know where I'm going to end up but you know kind of like but it did I did the exact same thing where in Chicago it did seem there was a particular time and it was it was because there were movies made in Chicago and I would watch and a very formative one uh was the Michael man movie thief with James con I just remember seeing that in the theater and recognizing and not even living in Chicago but having been to Chicago enough recognized places and things and going like, oh, wow, this is all like here. Like there was something about that that made it seem real. Yeah.

Like if I watch a movie that, you know, like, oh, it's in California. Like that to me, I guess I never would have been like, well, I can't do that. But like just for some reason that they're on Clybourne, you know, I'm like, okay, you know. Every time we go back to visit my wife's family, it's been remodeled now, but we drive under that like Kennedy Oasis where yes uh where James con and Tuesday well and Tuesday wells have yeah like this is like this is my life and that's you and he's pulling the thing out of his wallet yeah yeah yeah fucking love it yeah every time I drive under it and those were I used to love those when I was a kid and they were like proper sit down coffee shops in those days like yeah like it was

a sit down restaurant and now they're all just like you know chain restaurant kind of stuff but yeah that was yeah that was there again like that they were the fact that they were the fact that they were in there and I was like I know that I know that place and it just made it seem real and then just showbiz to me was always these very sort of practical Midwestern sort of like well I mean there are you know not everybody's a movie star you know guys hanging lights they're making a living you know like why not that too you know yeah the um there was like even seeing I don't know what the name of the building but like the adventures when I moved to Chicago, like, I still get kind of like, I don't know, like, it still feels magical to me that

like I saw the adventures in babysitting building. Yeah. There was like our first apartment in LA when we moved out here and I was like 30 years old at this point. There was this, it turns out the corner that my apartment building was on was used for this one throwaway scene in the shield where the four guys met up. And I like, I fucking flipped out. Like it still has that Like actual filming locations still have that magic for me for sure. My daughter did a really hilarious one. It's like, because we lived in Burbank and she figured out that like there's a corner on victory where there's a little, I forget what it's called, but it's like a little hamburger breakfast burrito stand. And it appears in every which way but loose where like the orangutan punches a biker or something.

happens like on that corner and she was like oh my god that's the breakfast burrito place and i do i think there is and this goes back to the main thing i think for me the idea of that these things that i'm i was seeing could have been made in a real place like it was magic the shit that i was seeing and so the fact that i could actually be close to something where somebody made something that meant so much to me like that feeling i think is what's behind that like i don't know how much your daughter loves every which way but she did at the time she liked it very much but i mean that is like it is like it feels tangible it feels amazing the humans beings just got together and shot that scene from the shield and had no idea that someday this fucking dude would be at an apartment building a half a

block away and be like holy fuck yeah wow it's awesome i love it is yeah yeah yeah It's still, yeah, I still, uh, to go on, on a studio lot and walk through like New York, you know, like the, the sort of back lot sets. And until I'm in the grave, I will always be like, wow. Yeah. And as cynical, I mean, like, and I say that I'm reasonably cynical about a lot of things, but like that, like the New York streets, that the fact that they like list all the other productions.

Yes. Like, I feel like one of our VEP stages at Paramount when we moved, we were shot in Baltimore more for a long time. Then we moved back to LA. I think one of our stages, like they had filmed Vertigo there. Like, I don't know, that's fucking incredible. It's great. The one, where we did Conan on TBS, there was a just jaw-dropping sign outside where it was like Mildred Pierce Ghostbusters, you know, like just this incredible range at Warner Brothers of just like, oh my, wow, wow. And it feels cool. Like, you know, I spent most. of you know or spent most of my life dreaming of being a part of it yeah and not to say that

not to say that veep was as uh influential as vertigo but you are part of the fabric of it big or small absolutely you know what i mean absolutely to be a part of it you're doing the thing that as a kid you were like oh look at those people you know i feel i feel when i go i was doing a game show in New York in like one of the old studios on the 157th street and walking down the hallway and there's like shots of like to tell the truth and truth you know and it's like

Kitty Carlisle and Joan Rivers and and you know what's Bennett Surf and I'm like holy shit that's me like I'm one of those fucking people that I used to watch beyond game Not like I was like, I want to be Kitty Carlisle. Yeah. But it was like, like, wow, I'm fucking game show guy.

You know, it's crazy. It's, it's really fun, you know. It is. I think there is something that's like about, like about the history of it of, I'm going to form this thought. This is one of those long pauses that I was telling you about. No, that's okay. This thought as, as I'm flying the plane that I don't know, so much of this is so much of like being an actor, being a writer. being a director, whatever, is just like people sitting around telling fucking stories about

the old days. Oh, absolutely. And just to then find your, I remember shooting like an indie movie at those stages out in Brooklyn. There is like, there's like a waiting room that or like a green room that looks like a subway. Have you ever shot in that one? It sounds familiar, but I, yeah. And like one of the camera guys that I was working with that day was a camera guy on the put a ring on it, Beyonce video in a headshot. And even that, I was like, this, I don't know, like, you just get to be connected to this long fabric of history of these, even just the buildings. I don't think this is super dorky, but I know, it's very dorky, but it is kind of like, it's not, like you're not Tom Cruise, but it is kind of your dream came true. You know,

you got it. And I always, that's always like, for me, I just was like, no, I'm, I want to work in this industry, you know, like I want to like to say, you know, some people, go to school and they learn how to be they learn actuarial sciences and then they work in the insurance industry and it's like i was like oh there's a space for me somewhere in this and not and now it's you know i never expected to be interviewing people you know and and making a living doing that you know yeah it's just it's it's it's a fun life it is a fun life now we you were in chicago did you do improm in chicago or were you trying to learn to act in chicago or do an act in Chicago. I moved out there to do like indie theater, like storefronty.

Because that's a big place to do that. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing that I remember was that when I was in, I studied, I went to school. I was terrible high school students. So I went to the University of Maine. And that's not like a glowing report for, for the University of Maine. And I did love my time there, and it's an amazing school. But that was sort of where I found it. And I, the thing that I remembered, I've said this before, is that if you, like, open up all, like, the old Sam French versions of plays, most of them had, like, the original cast of where it was workshopped and written in Chicago. And then they have the list of, like, the Broadway cast. And I think the thing that I was most... And that had an impact on. That did, because I think what I wanted to do was not

just, like, be an actor and things. I... And to go back to that question, and this maybe is, like, maybe an old school way of thinking, but definitely at the time, it was just like, no, I just want to be an actor, like, writers are great, and they should write, and then directors are great, and they should direct, and then actors are great, and they should act, and we'll all get together and make something great. You know what I mean? So I think I'm a little bit more siloed in my thinking about that, but, like, I wanted to be a part of, like, workshopping and creating something new, you know what I mean, or trying something, and not just being like, oh, I'm going to travel around and do plays that people have seen before.

And not that there's anything wrong with that. And I've certainly done that too. But that's sort of what brought me to Chicago to do indie storefronty stuff. And never did improv just because I had never done it. And it just seemed like a different track than the one that I wanted to be on. And I'm also a contrarian fucker. And like that sort of oppositional thing of like the assumption that if you're in Chicago, you're doing it.

It's like, fuck you. I'm not going to do it. Yeah, because that's why I asked. So you're saying fuck you to me. Yes, yeah. Wow. So you and your Richter specifically fuck you. And you were married when you moved.

Well, I guess you were like, what were you like 30 when you moved there? Mm-hmm. So had you, where had you been, you had you been in Maine just kind of like trying to. I was 30 when I moved to L.A. Oh, when you moved to L.A. When I moved to L.A. I moved to kind of done all of this the wrong way or the way that people would tell you not to do these things, but I, uh, were, I ended up, uh, my first job out of college as I worked at the

Lexington Children's Theater in Lexington, Kentucky, because I went to like one of those big combined auditions. I got a job as an intern at a children's theater in Kentucky, and I went to go do that. And then I actually then, at one of those big combined auditions, got a job at that theater a couple towns away from where I grew up for that summer. And that would been like the summer of 2002. And then while I was in both of those places, that was where I made the decision. I was like, I'm going to move to Chicago, have a home base, get started somewhere rather than just like moving around.

I see. And were you married before you moved to Chicago? No. Oh, you weren't. Oh, okay. So moved Chicago had like, like, it was legitimately a one-way ticket and a bag and I crashed on a friend's couch. You did know some people there.

I did know a couple people that I had gone to school with who had moved out there. I see. And, but then my wife and I, we got married. I think I moved out there when I was 23. And my wife and I met in Chicago and then got married a couple days before I turned 30. And then two weeks later, we moved to Los Angeles. Wow. Yeah.

Wow, that's a lot of change all at once. There was a lot of change all at once. And I didn't, I had never been to Los Angeles before. I just knew that this was, I mean, this was where that happens. Right. And so, uh, so the first time I ever actually saw the city of Los Angeles was like dry, like getting off the five on Los Feliz Boulevard in a U-Haul two weeks after I got married to like unpack of all of our shit into the, into the, the public storage space on like Vermont and, uh, on Vermont and fountain and then crash on our, my wife and I crashed in our friend's couch for two weeks while we found an apartment. But I didn't really know anybody out here. Yeah, yeah.

A couple people didn't have any connections to agents. I was 30 years old. Like, that's where it was like, oh, this is exactly the way people tell you not to do that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you tell my loves a crow? How did it evolve that you, you know, that you're the thrilling success that sits before me?

It is. It's a thrill, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it thrilling? Yeah. It's cool. Absolutely. I got some, like some, you know.

You just, you smell like money. I started by just being like, it was, oh, it was 2008. So like the, it was the financial crash as well. So we were dealing with that. And show business was not doing shit. Show business was not doing great. Yeah. And I just grabbed any job.

could i had worked i worked as a bartender at the foundation room in the house of blues in chicago and probably because like of an oppositional defiance thing uh they did not put in a good word for me to transfer to the one here so i just went in and was like hey i worked at the one out there do you guys are you guys hiring here and like did cater waitering there and i worked as a prop runner for the la opera house i was just kind of doing whatever work i could wow just to like proper on there for the L.A. And how does that come about? Is that just like an ad in the paper or do you know somebody? No, my wife's friend, Moo from college was doing it as well. And he was like, they need an extra guy, tell him to show up, just tell him to show up downtown tomorrow at 8AM. Oh, wow.

And you're just driving around picking up props. Driving around picking up props, driving out to Oxnard to pick up carpet, you know. It was just like, they could pay us like a hundred bucks a day rather than paying like a union guided. Absolutely. And one thing, this is one thing that I noticed about LA coming from Chicago. My first day, we were all like in this little like a hovel of a basement underneath the opera house. And we would just like sit down there and we watched saving Private Ryan in its entirety, but not all at once. We would just sit there until somebody needed something.

But over the course of that day, we watched saving Private Ryan. And at the end of the day, my boss was like, man, you really worked hard to take good job. And I was like, holy shit. Holy shit, the bar out here is so low. Oh, my God. Like, I was like, I think this is going to go okay. Like, if I can get away with that and it was hard work, like, especially coming from Chicago, I was like, I'm going to be fucking great. And so then I started running camera.

I started session directing, uh, commercial. commercial casting sessions, have a friend who again introduced me to somebody who did that job and then started learning how to do it. And then there was a day that they couldn't make it. And I got called in and then... Are you reading off camera lines or is that... Read off camera lines, but also doing all the tech stuff. So like doing recording and directing everybody that came in. Yeah, yeah. And I think that I always... It's so funny that like, sorry actors, but yeah, the guy that's directing you to get this job.

job, you know, was sitting in the basement of the opera house yesterday. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're not like, he's the expert. Yeah. I think one thing that it did, though, because I didn't have a lot of a little, a very small amount of on-camera experience. Yeah. From Chicago. And I really do mean a very small amount that every day I kind of got to look at what worked, what read, what I thought in my own, like, auditions would be like it like it learned i feel like i just saw so much of it that i was like oh that was a push like that person's pushing there and if i can get them you know for their own benefit i was like if i can just get them dial it back a bit they'd be really good but it also just made me

reconsider the medium and like well what even though it doesn't feel like a big thing it looks like a big thing yeah i just like doing that every day for i think two years it's a kind of acting school it really was like you know not to say that like expanded beyond commercial too, I would imagine. Yeah. Like making simpler choices, making smaller choices, not trying to go for some, like, gigantic joke, improvising off script rather than improvising

just to get the funniest thing in there, which is 100% something I was guilty of before that really helped. Yeah. Yeah. And then I was in a commercial, caught a break. Alison Jones saw it, somebody that worked in her office, who was my old co-worker from the foundation room at the House of Blues. It was his roommate, was her casting associate at the time.

And he showed her that commercial that I was in. And she was like, oh, he's funny. Let's call him in for something. Yeah. And then, like, six months later, I got called in to audition for Veep. Wow. That was the break. Yeah, yeah.

I do want to go back just because it's in my notes. He worked on the auditions and callbacks for the infamous Folgers. incest commercial. I did. Now, at the time, did that seem like, because for people that don't just push paws, go Google it, because it is, it is the brother and sister that are fucking each other.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I will, like, at the time, no, like when we were all doing it, no, it didn't seem weird. Yeah. But every once in a while, you would get two actors who were doing that scene in the, in the audition.

where there was, like, way too much chemistry. Yeah, yeah. And so it was probably just in the script somehow. Yes. That, like, if you put two particular people together, it would just be like, oh, they really have too much chemistry. It's sexual. It's not brother and sister.

I don't think anybody expected it to take off the way that it did. Yeah. I don't know if, like, they did, like, it comes up every year, like, on the anniversary that people then celebrate, like, it's Folgers, incest commercial anniversary. anniversary day comes up every year i think vanity fair did an oral history like and part of it was interviewing the people who wrote the erotic fiction that was like there is like a subset of people that wrote erotic fiction based on the commercial yeah yeah and one of them there's a there's a parody

of it too that's like really yeah i don't know where that's from you know but one of the person that wrote that. And this is a genius idea. They should just write non-erotic mainstream things because this is a perfect view of this, which was, why do you think he went into the Peace Corps for two years? Why do you think he had to go five continents away? He needed to escape the tension that was in his house every single day. Like, that is such a fucking brilliant idea of how to base a story. But yeah, I ran the callbacks. And again, it was just, I don't know, I went to. in there and I did my job and I know the director of those pretty well because I did a lot of he was I really a guy I really like a lot but he was very particular about how things went and and so when I think

it was even like somebody that was running his stuff he just didn't like the other guy's voice it like would annoy him to hear the other guy's voice so then I started doing all of his jobs because he didn't mind my voice when he was working when he was like reviewing tapes right but a very particular guy who's incredibly good at his job. And I really like him a lot. His name's Ray Dillman. But it was just for me. And I think for everybody there, it was just like, no, we're just making a fucking Folgers commercial. Right, right, right. And I just, I had to drive to Santa Monica every day. And that was like a pain in the ass. I wasn't thinking about like, this is going to be around 15 years later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was going to be

asked questions. Yeah, yeah. This will be the most impactful thing I ever do in show business. It's up there. We should, there is someday somebody's going to drive down ocean. Park in Santa Monica and be like, that's where the auditions. Isn't it magical? Oh, yeah. Well, now, VEP happens. Are you, like, aware when you're doing, like,

the stakes that are, that are in front of you, or, you know, or is it just, you know, like, well, this is just Julia Louis Drive's his next show and, you know, because she was coming off of, you know, the tales of new adventures of old christine which i had a uh an arc on as sad dad uh which um and i we can they ever give you a name stan was the name but it was sad dad and and it was a really fun it was really fun because it was like i'm a dad at school that she ends up fucking and then like uh and i think i like make her a mixtape or something

Then there was this whole episode about how I'm really good at giving head. And then like she keeps coming back just because I'm so good at oral sex. And, you know, and there's like shots. And I mean, it gave me the opportunity at one point when Chris Evans, Captain America, is on Twitter saying like how he has a huge crush on Julia Louis Dreyfus that I'm able to respond just of with a still of her and me in bed in the afterglow, you know, but yeah. So, I mean, you know, but then, you know, because that, I mean, that was a good show, but it did not have the impact that Veep had obviously.

It did, but I feel like she also, like, I mean, she also like won Emmys for that show, right? I mean, like, I think she did, yeah, yeah. And she had won, but no, I don't think it ultimately had the, you know, sort of cultural impact that Veep did but to answer your question the truth is like absolutely not like for me personally i just i knew that i was like looking around and thinking like it's a really incredible thing that i get to do like i had i had again oppositional contrarian fucker had been doing improv in la because it isn't as important out here and had done it through UCB so i knew a lot about matt walsh and was a fan of his huge arrested development fan so i uh so i knew tony uh julia obviously was

somebody i knew um so i was man just to tell you how fucking green i was that i was not looking uh i was not looking that far ahead somebody that i had known from like the commercial casting world who honestly if they walked in here right now i don't even think i'd be able to recognize them it wasn't somebody i knew particularly well it was kind of one of those people that was like like the very fucking la shit that we always try to avoid it was one of somebody like that and i ran to them at like a neighborhood bar and i remember them after like the announcement had come out that i had been cast on the show he was like he was like oh is it a single cam or a multi-cam and i had no idea what the fuck that meant i was like i don't know man i haven't been on set yet i don't know how many

cameras they have but in this way but i was just like again this is i i'm not i i say only to say is that like my focus was not on i kind of didn't give a shit if i knew stuff about the business i just wanted to be good at my job you know what i mean like i don't want to know studio executives or not that i don't want to know studio executives right but i was like i didn't come out here being like, I have to be able to work this angle to get to this person to do it. You know what I mean? I was like, I don't care. I don't care about that. I just want to be good at my job. Yeah. And so yeah, but I, you know, I have since learned a lot more about the industry. Oh, there's just, there's all kinds of lingo and jargon that you're,

you only know by doing. And I mean, my first, my first job on, in a professional filmed production was on what was then known as a cable movie that was starring Holly Hunter and Bow Bridges and Swozy Kurtz and it was based it was like a rip from the headlines about if you remember in Texas some woman hired a hit man to kill her daughter's high school cheerleading rivals mother oh yeah yeah yeah and there actually were a couple of movies made of it but Michael Richie who directed smile, the famous old kind of Altman-esque movie about beauty

Oh yeah, yeah. It was like the 70s kind of beauty contest, beauty pageant movie. He was directing it, and I got cast as like a little sheriff. There's a montage of like three different sheriff's officers

because the guy that she approaches Bo Bridges is her ex-brother-in-law approaches her to do, he approaches him to do the killing. And he tries to turn her to the police three times and they brush him off and I'm one of the sheriff's offers that officers that brushes him off and it's just this scene of me sitting at desk with bow bridges and suzy Kurtz and he you know we try and call and you know and it's just it's eight lines of

dialogue back and forth and I remember I they shot obviously shot their side of it first they shot their singles Bo and Swizzy Kurtz and then they said uh okay we're coming around and I was like what does that mean? Like I just kind of stood, like just kind of got, I saw everybody get up and moved. So I just kind of got up and moved and like just stood off to the side and realized, oh, they mean they're coming to shoot this. They're bringing the camera onto the other side of the room to shoot my singles. Okay, I get, you know, but yeah, you don't know that kind of thing.

You just don't fucking know it. And I, I, so yeah, that all just goes back to like I did, I don't think. And honestly, probably nothing kills anything faster than the idea that you think it's going to be important yeah you know there's probably also that i think oh absolutely when you're thinking like this is the thing that's gonna yep put me over the top yeah yeah we don't do that for me it was just i i i i there was something about it that was like the one thing that i knew is that like i felt like it was something that i inherently understood it was like a whatever that style was i felt that i was like I know I'm green. I know I haven't really done this before. I especially have not done this

before with the amount of experience that everybody else here has. But I did think I was like, this is a style in which I know I can be successful. I know I can like be a part of this. Yeah. And not be a hindrance to it. And like this is playing into strengths that I have. Yeah. Now the character of Joan Orion is, I mean, it's such a, such a toothsome, like, you know what I mean? like they gave you such a great like clueless prick yeah to play you know and and i do wonder because he's sort i mean he's kind of like the conservative you know the young conservative asshole contrarian like do people did people project that on to you then like out in life do they did they think like that they expect you to be joan orion in any way no i i feel like i'm

pretty lucky in that way. Yeah. Like, I don't know. I feel like he was different enough from me personally that I felt like pretty quickly they, people were like, oh, this guy's different. And I will also say like I tried at the beginning to like make very small things that were like, I think it was honestly pretty even simple. Like I feel like we parted my hair the opposite way than I do naturally. Yeah. Just to have their, just or like awkwardly, whatever, stuff like that. was just like, okay, this is just enough of a physical change that it feels different from just me. And was that for you? Or do you think that that was, that was just like sort of a helpful kind of gesture that made you feel like different enough? I think it was just worked for the character

and that everything about him was supposed to be awkward. So we found ways to make everything a little bit more awkward. And then it just ended up helping in that I didn't exactly look just like him. Yeah. When? I think also, too, like, the way that you play him, and I don't mean, I mean, you can, like, there, there is a way to play despicable people, and I, I, I, I don't know about drama, but in comedy, where you can understand that, like, that person, like, that person that's playing that character is playing it so skillfully and so completely that you get, like, oh, no, they get it. They know what this guy is like. Carol O'Connor is Archie Bunker. Like you always kind of got, like you always just got the feeling like,

no, Carol O'Connor, that is not Archie Bunker. Like, you know what I mean? And I think that that probably would be the same with you because, I mean, he was so not like you, like, you know, he was like,

he's just so gross and such an asshole and like says such horrible things, but you end up just feeling bad for him. Kind of bad for him. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know. I feel like there was enough talk early on about his history. Yeah. That it was like this is, like we aren't supposed to think this guy's great.

Yeah. So you can just kind of be as bad as you want. Like even from the beginning, like even if it's not disgusting, like he is just going around bragging about access. And a lot of it might be. And we, we, I don't know, we talk to a lot of people in. like DC about that just like there's this this was back during the Obama years but he was like he went through his Facebook friends and he was like just so you know like this is what everybody does and everybody's Facebook profile picture was a picture in which they were in the background of a picture of Barack Obama. Oh really? That was a real thing. That was a real thing. Yeah. And it was just kind of looking at like okay well that doesn't mean necessarily that that person is a bad person. Yeah.

They are like, you know, they're trying to get ahead in the world. They're trying to be like, look, I was this close to a very important person. I must be very important. But I was just like, okay, well, if you just bastardized all of that and then made that the only thing that this person cared about. Yeah, yeah. Then all the other stuff kind of falls into place. Right.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Being so close, because, I mean, you were in Baltimore for four seasons. Mm-hmm. And that's, you know, and that's so D.C. adjacent. And I know there was, had to be tons of, I mean, I just. know there's tons of overlap of insiders once the show catches fire and they and and it becomes i mean it'd be like you know a show about baseball like you're going to have baseball players

come in and tell you about baseball and what were you privy to all kinds of just jaw dropping political stuff we were in in that like a lot of it was when we'd like take staffers out get drinks. Yeah. It, I would say like one after another, the first, when we first sat down, they would talk about how much the job means to them and how they can affect change. And by the third drink, they would be like, you know what, this place fucking sucks. Yeah. And we are never going to get anything done. And this was also, I think when we started, that was right around midterms. So there had been like that anti-Obama tea party, like retaliation. And like, we can, you can draw a straight line to today to what we were seeing happen then where like people

that had been around for a while were like this is the most fucking insane shit i've ever seen it's just like the absolute dumbest people getting on the floor of the getting on the house floor and saying the absolute dumbest shit possible and they have no idea how any of it works yeah i just think if they go in and yell it's all gonna they're gonna be famous yeah yeah and and then the motherfuckers turn out to be right yeah no no it's just they were right um yeah yeah so that It's very cool, and I'm incredibly happy about that. Good job, people. Great job.

Way to go humans? I think we just, there's like that whole, like, D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people thing, that I definitely saw, like, you see overlapping behaviors. You see, you see people, like, I remember one time we went to, like, a, a, a, a, uh, well, like the, the correspondence dinner. We got to go as a cast, we got to go to the correspondence dinner a couple times. And it's just like the worst Hollywood rat fuck party you've ever been to.

And I remember we were at like an adjacent event to that. And Julia was in a conversation with someone. And I can't remember who it was, but like a congressman took her by the arm and turned her around, like physically turned her around because they were like, I'm more important than the person that she is talking to and she needs to be

talking to me. And for her not to be talking to me, it's a waste of time for me to be here. And it was just that kind of stuff that we got to see. I never got to see any high level stuff. Yeah, yeah. Outside of like security. One time I ended up in the Situation Room on

a White House tour and like right before we went in, the guy that was giving us the tour was like, look, Situation Room is right there. I can't bring you guys in there because, I mean, that's you know, if Ben Affleck came through, like they were going to give him. And, you know, I was like,

you guys don't rate. Yeah, no, thank you very much for, we don't rate. I get it. I'm not 100% cool. That makes sense. Guy comes out of the situation room, sees us there. And it's just like, oh, hey, you guys want to go in the situation room? So we all go in and you have to wear these different badges

that have your citizenship, like you have like an A badge, a badge, B badge, whatever. Yeah. Just that they can immediately know. Right. And nobody with like a B badge is allowed in the situation room. There was like a French Snapchat guy that was in the situation room for a solid five minutes before somebody was like, oh shit, man, you can't be in here. Like you think that it's going to be a lot better than it is and it isn't.

You think it's going to be more organized and it isn't. Yeah, yeah. And there was like that old story that like the reason that Obama was watching, the bin Laden raid in the room that he was in is because they couldn't get the TVs to work in the actual situation room. Oh, wow. It's like that is kind of broadly a little bit behind the curtain stuff. Yeah, yeah, the stuff that I remember. When you would meet these people, did they sort of,

did they realize that they were being observed like, you know, like specimens to be, you know? Yes. Because you had to be taken notes. You can't not, if you're doing a show like this, and then you get into this milieu, you can't, like, not be, you know, like, oh, that's a good thing. I'm going to lift, you know? I think they were, especially once it, like, became more popular, definitely, like, that tone changed. Yeah. And usually it just led to people, like, just kind of big up-opping themselves a lot more, you know, talking about how important they were, how connected they were. And we were just always looking for the boring shit. We were looking for,

yes uh we were looking for phrases and we were looking for like what sandwiches don't you like you know or like what's the worst part about your job like the minutia is what we were looking for small cruelties you know yeah yes we're not we're not looking to like write a monologue about you personally and about how great you are this job yeah yes um did working in that like was it hard on you like to see to see the you know just how kind of because that I will say, because that's something I've always, you know, my, I grew up in family businesses. My stepfather had a plumbing business. My mother had a kitchen design business. She designed kitchens. And I growing up, so I was in working for businesses where everything was just, there's no planning.

There's no strategic planning. There was no like, well, there's a downtime here. Let's maybe think ahead on how we could do better at what we do. it was all just putting out fires it was all just sitting back and not doing anything until like oh shit i forgot to put that order in and i would think like well that's this is my fucked up family stuff you know this isn't the way then i got out into the world and i realized oh no that's it that's everyone is just like generally speaking i mean yes there's very competent people who are very type a and very on top of things but mostly even the biggest TV show, you know, is kind of like glumphing along just in spite of itself to be sort of just like, well, I don't know.

We forgot, oh, no, shit, here's a problem. We got to put that fire out, you know. I mean, Veep was a fucking chaotic show that we all loved doing, but it was, it was incredibly chaotic. Yeah. Yeah. And so the on screen was the off screen. And then, but then also you've got the bigger sort of off screen of like, yeah, this is

our government and you know you always have maybe a hunch like oh it's probably fucked up and you find out like oh no no it's it's fucked up and is that like psychically heavy when you're when you do a show like that for seven years it it is a little bit but I don't know if it was psychically heavier because I was on the show or just psychically heavy because we were in a in a psychically heavy time yeah um I will say like hearing people talk like we uh we got set up with somebody who was a communications to like head of communications for a congressman and they would talk about how like most of their job and this was like really in the you know beginning ish world of twitter being at an actual thing um hearing them say things like

my job is supposed to be able is supposed to be communicating the things that my congressman wants to do and wants to change but when my job ultimately ends up becoming most of the time is trying to fuck up my opponent's day and not and like hearing stuff like that is that is that i think is pretty directly related to where we are now where nobody's actually working toward anything it's just kind of like a war of attrition yeah of just trying to get the just trying to get the new cycle to move on to somebody for so that they can't get a message out rather than working toward like being able to tune it out and work towards something yeah and that was like learning that at the time especially with the tea party thing as you saw them becoming bigger and like being way more

about the fame of their job rather than the actual job they should be doing yeah i don't know i it's not the world we live anymore but a lot of times i'm just like i don't know i just want a boring won't to do something good for the fucking city that I live in or the country that I live in. I just want a boring wonk. I don't necessarily. But I mean, like that's also, that's like a dumb thing to say. It's not the world we live in anymore. Yeah, it's not the world we live in, but it's not, it is like, it is, it's not too much to ask.

And I, and I just hope we're retaining the possibility that, like, we will go back to the time when, like, the people that make public policy and that decide things are doing it because they're good at it and they're doing and that they're doing it because like people need good roads you know and it just seems to be so far from that it's you know it's like you go to a

fucking heart surgeon and you want them to be good at heart surgery and there's you know now it's like the people that are supposed to be making sure that we have fill in the blank health care education blah blah blah blah

they're not even that's none of that it's happening it's all professional wrestling and it's it is like I don't know it's got to stop you know at some point and we have to get back to just sort of and granted there's always been some level of PR ruining everything even back into the you know the beginning of time perhaps yeah like watching the war room like that James Carville documentary about like all like we had we had Hayes Davenport as a writer uh on to talk about the worm and one of the reasons that he loves that movie's like this is just like a writer's room on a TV show it's those guys pitching something that you they think is going

to be able to disrupt the news cycle for the next 24 hours and now that news cycle is a lot shorter the amount of time that we're looking to disrupt it is a lot shorter but yeah i'm not like naive and that it didn't exist before yeah yeah it just seems a lot worse now it did and it is it's all i did and it's all entertainment now too that's the other thing that i see it just everything is about entertainment and i don't know i mean i got kids in school i did school you know it's like i i would like them to you know have a planet to live on and stuff but yeah anyway this shit gets real fucking sad real quick yeah yeah yeah it really does i've had i've had i've kept you here for an hour you know and i know you're a busy busy man so busy i've got to go to costco to

up my new glasses. Oh, nice. Yeah, and then I have to pick up my children at school, but that is all to say, I do have plenty of time. Well, I just, have you heard of the cost company? Have you heard of Costco? The cost company? That's where I'm going after this. The cost company. Which one? Silver Lake Burbank. Oh, Los Felas, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They know me over there in the glasses department, And they told me when I dropped off my prescription, I dropped on my glasses, got the prescription. And they were like, you know, you can take the number. But if you, like, if you just want to come up in between customers,

be like, hey, I'm just picking up, we'll get you out of here. That's pretty sick, right? Nice. Wow. That's amazing. You don't get that shit at Walmart. You don't get that shit at Walmart. Yeah, no.

I'm just, I'm connected out. I still go to the fucking eye doctor and get, glasses but i mean well i got the frame somewhere else yes i'm getting the actual glasses at costco i see i see i see i got to think i got to consider that um really really really good rates on on lenses i know lenses tires air conditioning mm-hmm hot dogs they got golf clubs now oh really they got kirkland signature drivers iron sets wedge sets putters and are well reviewed oh really yeah wow so you're looking to upgrade me go all right i'm all right i will good irish whiskey too they're irish whiskey yeah yeah yeah it's quite good um anyway just turn this into a costco app man

two old dads it has been real hard recently because almost every day i wake up and i think jesus christ i'm so fucking boring now i used to be in a i feel like at one point i was an exciting person yeah i could do things i don't know that i was ever exciting but yes i would i'm really That was a good hang. But most of the time I look around and be like, holy fuck, I'm so boring now. Nothing I do is interesting. Nothing I say is interesting. That's the reason you haven't had me on your podcast is because nothing I say is fucking any good at all.

It's fucking sucks. I don't think that's true. I do think, though, I'm amazed at how little I know about what things are. And especially like doing this dancing with the stars thing and then doing TikToks. and things. And I don't want to be that old man that doesn't know things because even among people my age, there are men my age who I know a lot more about social media than they do because I've actually been using it. And there are men my age who don't and they don't understand. And I saw like as time went over, you know, time went along and sort of like, you can't say that word anymore. And then, you know, like men my age being like, you know, why can't

and it's like because you just can't yeah sweetheart you just don't don't do that you know um but i still don't understand i you know with this dance i'm doing tictox i'm like what am i doing yeah and i'm saying what okay all right you know we both have kids a lot of my life is spent with them talking about music like musicians and i'm like truly have never even heard those words uttered, but it is the most important thing to them. Yes, I absolutely same thing. And I hate being that fucking boring, but I absolutely am. But then again, it's like, you know, like one might, not so much in more, but like my kids used to listen to what I think is kind of trap, hip hop.

And I would be like, is this the same fucking song? Like, were you listening? Like, it's just so classically old man. Yeah. Or it'd be like, I'd walk in and I'm like, is this a song you listened to an hour ago? No. It's a different group. Like, okay.

You know, it is kind of cool, though? This has been happening recently because my kids are a little bit older. They're now 13. We have twins that are 13. Things have been happening. Like my son, who started in this theater group and they do like jukebox musicals. And so last year it was David Bowie songs. And then, sorry, two years ago it was like David Bowie.

We started listening to a lot of David Bowie. Yeah, yeah. And last year it was a play, like an original musical. And it was all CBGB's music. Oh, wow. And so it was David Byrne. It was the Talking Heads. It was Patty Smith. It was the Ramones. It was the Sex Pistols. And there is a little bit of pride that I have when I'm like singing along to a talking head song. And they're like, and it's something that they are like, I love this. And they are like amazed that I know the lyrics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, is it, what are you, what are you looking forward to just, you know, like do you, do you, like, do you? do you have aspirations to do things outside of show business like work-wise or or you still

kind of just feel like that actor that wants to be the best actor that he can be honestly it's it's more that i mean like i have i like i have aspirations like i do want to be a better golfer and but like i still i still like and again like i'm very lucky and very thankful that i get to do this, especially given all the bad decisions I made, that it even ever happened at all and that it continues to happen. I'm incredibly excited about that. There is that thing that is just like my goal is to never stop doing it. Like I get enough time off, even like in whatever, even in our best years, you still have six months off. Like I have plenty of free time. That's not the work. Well, there's not in, yeah, it might not be in a row, but yeah, you certainly have, yeah. Like, so

there is that part of me that does really look forward to the idea of being like, I'm just going to keep doing this. Like, I'll get to do this in a perfect world if I got to draw it up. I would do this until I was fucking 85 years old. I really do like it. And I don't ever want to stop. And that's sort of the goal. And beyond that, I don't know, it comes down to like, I don't know if this is good or bad. I don't necessarily set like immensely specific goals. Like the VEEP writers, whenever i would come up with like a broad idea i would never say like i want it to be this specifically because they would always come up with something way better than whatever specific i would come up with and so i think there's a little bit of that like i'm not going to

make one specific thing because whatever the whatever whatever i sort of get funneled into will be the right thing yeah if that makes sense i'm trying to leave it open to not be so locked in i'm like no this is happening yeah i'm forgetting about all these other things over here i don't know if that's a dumb answer. No, it's not at all. No. Yeah. I mean, I think I learned a while ago, like specific goals can be limiting in a way because when you get to it, now what?

You know what I mean? And you're still going to be producing all of the enzymes that make you go, I got to get to this thing. I got to get to this thing. But once you hit it, then you're going to be making all. you know, there's going to be this engine that's still in you that's in neutral. And, you know, that's why I learned, like, make it a process. Like you said, keep doing this forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Keep getting better at it. Fine, you know, and like for me, too, it's like find different ways to fit into it and different ways to be satisfied by it. Yeah, and I'm not going to do the thing. Like, you know, there's like, you always hear people talking about, like, I, I, this was like back in the theater days, you know, people being like, I love rehearsal. I can rehearse forever. I don't like doing the shows. I'm like, I don't know. I like doing both of them. I don't know. I feel like there's weirdos. I don't know. People that like want to sound like they're saying that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. At the end of a show, people clap and that's great. But I do think that your point of like, I also really do enjoy the process of it. I enjoy the product of it too. But I do enjoy the process of it. And getting too locked in on one thing, I might just be ignoring something that ultimate. I've been proven wrong a thousand times. Yeah. And so I'm like very happy.

to be proven wrong on a goal and end up over here and be like, oh, it turns out this was actually better over here rather than locking yourself into that. Do you think that's the best thing you've learned? I mean, do you think there's something, you know, is there something that you can think like, oh, this is a, or, you know, I can also sort of take the form of advice, you know, like when people say, what should I do? Or the advice that you give to your younger self now that you've been around, you know. This was one of the things I always really liked, and it's not easy.

and I'm not, I'm like a somewhat competitive person, but not insane. Yeah. I do remember, I can't remember who gave it to me or if it was just sort of, but just not judging your own success on somebody else's timeline has always been really helpful in that I think what it has helped in downtimes, not getting embittered, because that feels like the worst possible outcome or anything about just being fucking bitter and miserable.

Yeah. that somebody else did something or got something that made them happen. Yes. Like, I've auditioned for stuff that people I know ended up doing and that I would have really liked to do. But ultimately, it does come down to it wasn't for you. It was for them. Yeah.

So you can either live your life being fucking upset that that happened or being happy that it happened for them, which is, I think, a good thing. But then also, it just means you're on a different timeline than that person. Yeah, yeah. And then you get out of that, like, embittered and awful feeling of hating everybody around you because you don't have success yet. Yeah. And I think, I mean, it just happens where it is, and it is a natural thing. When you see somebody get something that you are like, oh, man, I wish I'd gotten that.

It's a natural thing to feel envy. For sure. For sure. You got to feel it and then let it go because Jesus Christ, it's not going to, you're not going to, it's not like, it's not like. you're hurting them but you know or increasing your likelihood of getting something similar you're just feeling shitty you're just like creating garbage and dumping it on yourself over and over and over again yeah and like the feeling of envy for sure that happens all the fucking time yeah yeah being able to like to work through and get past it i think that i think that's where that helped me yeah yeah

well tim simons thank you so much for coming and doing this was that all three questions yeah yeah oh yeah we got them yeah where uh what are they again uh where are you come from okay where are you going where am i going yeah straight to hell Costco Costco and uh what have you learned oh we did that one yeah the thing about success right you guys can just i thought i thought i was doing pretty big art list about tagging the last one on there but you it snuck by you no it really snuck by me i was like truly i was like so you're just going to throw them all in at the end uh You co-hosts the podcast, Second in Command, a Veebree watch with Matt Walsh. Yeah.

Although it is just now seconding command. Not the conservative blogger. Not, yeah. Yeah. Wait, you said, I'm sorry. We're not, we started it as a Veeb rewatch, but now we're just second in command. We cover, what are we, our tagline is we, we cover politics and cinema and cinema about politics. So it's just movies that have vice presidents or presidents.

Yes, yes. And then we kind of try to talk about the world, the political. world or the world generally when the movie came out. Yes. And we try to examine the internal politics of the movie and what was externally happening that might have affected it. But mostly it's

Matt Walsh and I kind of just being two dummies. That's a pretty... It's a fun podcast. I mean, you guys, and you guys do have a wonderful chemistry together. And I did it, and we talked about the movie the president's analyst, which I was given a spreadsheet to choose from, and I

chose it. And I wish I chose something different, because I did not like it. I know you didn't. I thought it was just the cornyest, dumbest. Like, you know. There was, as we talked about, there was a vibe. There was something happening there that I liked, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Yeah.

And I think you, yeah. Well, go listen to that. Go listen to the Andy Richter podcast when you were on. Yeah, yeah. Go listen to the version of that where we talk about a movie I don't like. Yeah. And you also are playing Sasha in the popular Netflix series. Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody.

The second season is premiering on October 23rd. All of that is true. That's all happening. Any good gossip about those two? Good gossip? Yeah. Adam's, Adam really likes boxing. We're going to that boxing match this weekend.

Oh, you and he are going to that box? Yeah, we're going down to that. I only know it because it's on Netflix. Yeah, yeah. He is like, this is not good gossip at all. People are going to be like, yeah, he talks about this all the time. No, I don't know, like, super into boxing, but he loves it and, like, follows it

super closely. And because it's on Netflix and we're on a Netflix show, we get to, like, go down to this fight. And, like, seven months ago when this was announced, he was like, we're going. Oh, wow. He's, like, very passionate. He's like in Vegas or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so we get to go. So that's, that's my little gossip. You're going to get to see hours of men punching each other. Yeah. He's probably some women in the undercars, and there usually no women in the undercars, and there usually now women in the undercard of most of those? I don't know. Oh, that might be MMA.

Are there? No, I think. Yeah, I think they throw in. Because honestly, this shows you how much I know about. I think the last boxing thing I watch was when that fucking Paul guy and Mike Tyson fought. And there was, like one of the, there was an undercard for that. And there was an amazing match between two women. That was like, there was a really good match between two women, you know, and I, you know, and that was, you know, and that was like, you know, and that was like.

like, oh, that was such a waste of my time that I knew, you know, like one of those waste of your time where you're like, I bet this is going to be a waste of my time. I'm signing up for this waste of my time. Ah, here we go. It's the waste of my time. Fuck, that was a waste of my time, you know. I will say, it's been very cute. Adam has been sending me old fights to watch. He's been sending me old interviews. He's like, I want you hyped. I want you excited. Sounds like he's got a crush on. doing my homework for it. He's got a crush on you. Yeah, a little bit. Look at these men hitting each other. That'd do anything for you, buddy? Come to Vegas, just the two of us. All right, well, Tim, thank you so much. My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's great to have you on. And thank all of you out there for listening. I'll be back next week with more of the same. It won't be as good, but it'll be similar. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean and engineered by Rich Garcia.

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