The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Yvette Nicole Brown

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Emmy Nominated Yvette Nicole Brown joins Andy Richter to discuss humble beginnings, sacrifices parents make, leading with kindness and more.

Hey, everybody. It is another episode of The Three Questions with Andy Richter, and I am very happy to be talking to my friend, Yvette Nicole Brown, the Emmy-nominated Yvette Nicole Brown. How about that? Oh, Andy, first of all, I am overjoyed to be here with you. I have missed your sweet little face, and though no one else can see it, I'm looking at it in the Zoom right now, and I've missed it. I can't believe I'm Emmy-nominated.

I don't know. I can't believe it. Because it's in Black Lady Sketch Show. It was a guest spot that you did. And I can't imagine that you go in, because I mean, I've done a million guest spots and you don't think, oh, this is going to get me an Emmy nomination. Never, never.

Yeah. And was it a surprise when you got the... It's still a surprise today. It's been two months and I'm still like, anytime someone says Emmy now, I'm like, who are they talking about? But you know what's funny? No, I did not go into

it going this is this one's gonna be the one you know I knew that it was funny but listen we we're journeyman um actors we've been on a lot of shows where our parts were funny or you know and and it's been crickets so yeah I know and it's and it's a listen it's a a small appearance I did two episodes two I did it I played the same character for two seasons back to back. And I think my sketch is like four minutes long. And it's surrounded by so many other talented people in sketches. Did I think? No, I never thought

they'd pick me out in a bunch, ever. This is ridiculous in a great way. Well, fantastic. Congratulations. Thank you, Andy. And I hope you get it. Listen, I can't even dream that big, but that would be an even bigger surprise. Right? Yeah.

Well, it's also to, you know, nobody, I mean, I can't say nobody, but I certainly did not think when I started to do this for a living. Oh, and yes, and I will also get trophies. You know what I mean? It's like, who the hell thinks about that? And then there's this weird, and I've always said, like, the fact that they give awards in this stuff is the weird thing about this to me. And it's from having gone, it's from having been on the Conan show for so, for many years, getting nominated for writing almost every year for a number of years, we got nominated for writing. for writing almost every year for a number of years we got nominated for writing and then we would go where everybody would get on a plane and fly to New York and we'd have this fun weekend and it would be fun but then you'd sit there and you'd find yourself like you know what I kind of want to win this thing and then and then we never did I mean they won one once after I left the show. Yeah. But it always struck me that, like, in a business that is so centered on rejection.

Yeah. Like, and that you spend, like, first of all, to even be in that room, you're a winner. I agree. Like, you're working, you're doing this for a living, and that makes you such a slim percentage of the people that think of themselves as actors. Right. So we all put ourselves – we get past the actual rejection. Right. We've all been accepted.

Yeah. So we put ourselves into this room, and we dress up fancy. Yes, we do. For all of us but one of us to feel rejected again and again. Again. Again. So it's like, yeah, so it's like you've got this category of people that you're in. You're all winners. You're all making a living but yet only one of you gets to feel good the rest of you get to feel like they rejected me again and you're walking in knowing full well that the odds

are not in your favor yeah you know i mean it's not a 50 50 it's one in five or one in six chance right it could be you and there's so many factors that have to line up and that's why i say don't even think about the win yeah yeah like i'm not even thinking about the win like i i am so excited that i got recognized by my peers that to actually win would almost i maybe make my heart explode i don't know where i would even file that right because i'm so in the gosh they saw me it's like that because i think every I don't know where I would even file that. Right. Cause I'm so in the, gosh, they saw me. It's like that. Cause I think every performer, don't we do this because we, at some point in our childhood, we just wanted to be seen like you and not even from the ego space of look at me, look at me, but just I'm here. I exist. I'm here too. And so once you're in the business

and you know, like I'm 20 some years into this, right. And you go year after year once you're in the business and, you know, like I'm 20 some years into this. Right. Yeah. And you go year after year and you're doing work and no one in that realm has ever said that you were one of the best this year in that section. in that lane, like as soon as they open their mouth, they will be awarded every time there's a chance. And then there's others who are just super duper excited that they get to do this for a living. And I've always been one of those, oh gosh, I get to do this for a living. This is so great. So I've never even thought about

what the people in the other lane were doing. And now Andy Richter, the amount of fashion and prep planning and covet tests that go into getting ready for an award season yeah these people been they've been working very hard yeah yeah those award-winning and nominated folks have been working very hard for many years i i didn't have to do any of this stuff till i yeah that's i hear i mean know, and television is a different world, too, because like a friend of mine was once in Oscar it's all just like, oh my gosh, you don't, that's not what you come into this thinking you're going to do. And I don't think the, the wise people are, are clamoring for that.

I think it's, you know, and there's no, listen, there are people that are super extroverts and very fashion forward and fashion conscious. Right. I'm not very competitive too. Right. I'm neither, I'm neither, none of those things. I'm not competitive. I'm not a fashion plate and I'm not an extrovert. So everything about going to places to get attention so that someone could choose you is so foreign to me. Like even, even the campaigning that I found out later goes into even getting a nomination. I didn't know anything about I didn't know that people were going to different events to meet certain people in the peer group so that they could get them.

I didn't know all that was happening. And that's the other reason why to get the nomination, knowing I didn't campaign for anything aside from saying, hey, guys, I'm on this ballot with 500 other people. If you liked what I did, I'd love to I'd love to be considered. But I didn't call anybody or go anywhere or shake any hands. I just did my work and went on with my life. So there's a level to this I don't know about. I think the way that you did it, too, makes it more fun. It does. It doesn't seem as calculated. It seems more like a gift rather than something you finagled. Yeah. No, it's a wonderful gift and a wonderful surprise, and I'm very grateful and humbled by it all. How much of that humility do you think is Midwestern? All of it.

All of it. All of it all of it yeah all of it it's i was just talking to a home i'm doing a press day today um for my movie and um i have a movie that's out in some other and you know the emmy thing and all this so i'm talking to a lot of people condensed on today and i talked to a hometown outlet from cleveland and we talked about the under under dog spirit of cleveland and what midwestern what a what what a Midwestern upbringing breeds in people. And I feel like Midwesterners are scrappy. I feel like we're hopeful. I feel like we're kind. I think there's a humility that's bred in us from the winters. I think the winters make us humble

because no matter who you think you are or where you think you're going, the wrong snowstorm on the wrong morning will upend everything you have planned. So if you can't find a way to get around who you think you are. Yeah. In Ohio, you know, weather is humbling. Weather is a great equalizer. So I think it's the snow that makes us kinder people. Yeah. So I think it's the snow that makes us kinder people.

Yeah. I also think, too, the thing that I like about Midwestern-ness, because it's not all great. Like some of it's sort of, you know, there's also sort of this humility that is covering up like intense judgment. You know what I mean? Like it's like on the surface, everybody's sort of like kind and humble and not assuming. But there's always like, oh, my God, get a load of that guy, you know. But that usually comes from humility, too, right? We're usually saying get a load of that guy at the peacock.

You know, it's the one that's out strutting and acting like they're special because we're not those types of people. We don't shine a light on ourselves or we don't do the look over here. So when somebody's crowing around, you kind of go, look at this guy. I mean, it's still part of the humble spirit. I heard about it in New Zealand, but I think it's an Australia thing and they call it, and they think of it as being very Aussie New Zealand.

They call it tall poppy syndrome, which is that if you grow poppies in your garden and you want them all to be the same level, if any of them grow up too high, you cut their heads off. Wow. So it's like, that's the idea that if anybody gets too big for their britches in New

Zealand, they got to cut them down because, you know, it's, I think that, I think that's a part of Ireland too. I just spent three months in Ireland and I saw this thing on Twitter that said, never try to be fashionable in Ireland. Yes.

You see that? There's an entire thread of people talking about comments that were made. It's hilarious. It's hilarious when they tried to do something unique and different, and on the island was like, no, get a load of this guy. Yeah. So I think it's I think it's and they're a scrappy, you know, humble people over there. So I think that is part of it. Yeah.

Yeah. I think I saw that because like somebody said they wore a yellow puffer jacket to work. And somebody said right right when they walk in the door. Who are you, Tinky or Lala? Tinky Winky or Lala? Right. And then somebody else chimed in and said, oh, guys, be nice to him.

I've got one of those at home. It's around my water heater. You know what I mean? Like, it was just like the whole pub turned on the guys. We're just a yellow puffer jack. I love it. Love it. So you're from Ohio.

I am, Cleveland, yes. Yeah, and how long, how up until, like, what age were you in Ohio? I was in Ohio until I was 23. I came out to L. Yeah. And how long, how up until like, what age were you in Ohio? I was in Ohio until I was 23. I came out right, came out to LA right after college. And that was for acting, right? Yeah. You know, I originally came out to California to sing. I started as a singer. I had a record deal with Motown when I was a teenager. I was signed by Michael Bivens of Belle Bib DeVoe and New Edition. He had a record label with Motown called Bib 10. And he had a

group of talents called East Coast Family Boys to Men was in there. And we did a video and I thought I was going to be the next somebody. And I moved out to LA after college to chase my music dreams and it just didn't work out. So I said, let's try acting. And so I've been doing this. Yeah. That's a, yeah, that's a, that's not a great fallback for music. That's acting. That'll be the thing. Listen, I know. And, and listen, God protects the, the, the, the, the dumb and the dumber, you know, like I, to move, like I moved out here with, with a place to stay for three days. Yeah.

This is, this is the, the hubris and not even hubris, but the naivete of a young person from the Midwest. Like I just felt, sure, you can go. Three days is more than enough time to find a place to lay my head and put my things, you know. And thankfully, the Lord stepped in and I did find a friend of mine, my friend from high school. Her mother had just moved out here and had like a single apartment in Pasadena. And like on day two, I started calling everybody back home. Does anybody know anybody in LA that'll let me stay with them? And I got to stay, my friend Diana, her mom let me stay with her for, I think three

months. I stayed on her love seat in her single apartment. But those times though, Andy Richter, are the times that I look back on like those were the good days because you didn't have anything. I was on the bus. I didn't have a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out. No money. Was starving all the time. Never had food. But I would just get up every morning and walk down Colorado Boulevard. This is when it was just being built up. Like a lot of the stores were just going in and it was just becoming this amazing street that it is now. And I would just walk and look in windows and dream of like, one day I'm going to be able to buy that body butter in the window. One day I'm going to be able to go into that ice cream store because it was like a 31 flavors on the corner. And I'd be like, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to get, I'm going to get a scoop of everything just to taste and figure out which one I like. Like I would just dream, you know, I couldn't even afford to go to the movie. So I would walk by the marquee and just go, man, I bet that Brad Pitt movie is great. I'm gonna see it one day on DVD. You know what I mean? It literally was that I was that low down

in society standards, but my spirit was buoyant and I just knew great things were coming. but my spirit was buoyant and I just knew great things were coming. Well, I want to get, what was your childhood like in, in, in Ohio? Was it you were in East Cleveland? Yeah. Cleveland and Warrensville. And what is East Cleveland compared to just regular old Cleveland? Cleveland's the hood.

East Cleveland is the, you know, it's, it's a little rough and tumble. Still good people. Just maybe not. It's not a suburb. Let's say that. Yeah, I gotcha. It's really in need of a refurbishing. And I hope that it's coming. I hope that people that grew up on those streets will maybe move back or buy their family home and rehab it. So, yeah. So it was a lovely place to grow up, but it was not the suburbs. Yeah, yeah. And I was single. My mom raised me and my brother.

My mom and dad were divorced when I was one years old, I think. So my dad was always in my life. He just was never in the house with us. So he was nearby. Oh, yeah. My dad, the whole time I was growing up, he never lived further than 10 minutes from us. He always wanted to make sure he was close enough where if we ever needed him, he could get to us. That's really important. It is.

I know being a divorced dad myself and staying within 10 minutes of where my kids live. Yeah. I know so many divorced dads that don't do that. They think, well, now I can go. And I don't understand it. I don't either. I don't understand it. You know, my dad lived four hours away and I only saw him twice a year and I put myself

in those shoes and I'm like, if I live four hours away from my kids, out of whatever necessity, whatever reason there was, I think I might've seen, I might see him more than twice a year. I think, I think that knowing the man that you are, I think that's true. I mean, I just, I don't know, you know, but I don't, you know, that's a whole different story. Yeah, no, but it's, but it's, it's a real one. And I, you know, you know, but I don't. Yeah. You know, that's a whole different story. Yeah, no, but it's a real one. And I, you know, my dad, I found out years later when I when I actually went home because I'm his caregiver. So he lives with me in L.A. But when I went back to

Ohio to get him and pack him up, I found out from him for the first time, you know, I found out how I asked him why he chose to live in the apartments that he lived in. My entire life, my dad lived in apartments that were really small and cramped and not necessarily in the nicest building. And he was always a man that was well-dressed and took good care of himself, but his apartments never seemed to match who he was and where he was in his life. And I asked him why. And he said, I lived well below my means so that if you guys ever needed anything, I would have it for you. So he sacrificed his living space. So his quality

of living was sacrificed so that if by chance we needed something for school or needed something, wanted to take a field trip or something that he could provide that. And he did not get a nicer apartment until me and my brother both graduated from college. Oh, wow. That was the first time he lived in a place where he lived someplace that was worthy of the wonderful man that he is. Yeah. And he helped you throughout college, I take it? Yeah.

You know, we didn't have a lot of money. So I had scholarships. I had grants. I had, I worked, I've had a job lot of money. So I had scholarships. I had grants. I had, I worked, I've had a job ever since I was 15 and a half. Yeah. So I worked, I had a job all through college and my dad would, he would pay for my books or he would help with my tuition. Thank God it was paid for my scholarships, but he would help with any extra stuff that

I needed that my job and the Pell grants and all that didn't cover. So, um, and, and, you know, my first car I got was a, was a beat up. I think it was like 10 years old, 10 or so years old when I got it. But my dad, I was working at a record store and my, I remember my dad driving up in this beat up little Nissan Sentra and rusty cause it's from Ohio. So we had rust on it. It was a tiny car. And he's in the car with the dealer. And my dad had gone to a used car dealership and brought the car and the dealer to this job. And he said, Yvette, I think this is it. And I think the car cost probably $1,500. And my dad was like, I'm going to put half on it. Like if you can, if we can finance the 750, I'm going to take some savings and put that other 750 with it. But I think this,

so this is the one. And that little Nissan Sentra carried me for a good five, six years. When I first moved to LA, I was here like six months and then had it shipped out. Like that little car carried me. And that was a gift, you know, gift, a co-partnership with my dad to make it, make it happen. You know, my dad's great. My mom and my mom has passed on, but my parents are great. Yeah. That's wonderful. That really, I mean, I mean, no wonder that you have the, well, it's funny because if you, to do this stuff for a living, you either need to have self-assuredness or profound, wild insecurity that you have to go through crazy gestures to squash. Right. But I think you're coming from the healthy.

You're one of the healthy ones. Yeah. I don't have crippling insecurity. And that doesn't mean that I think that I'm magically delicious or anything. I have a mirror. I know I'm a chubbier, fluffy-haired Black girl. I'm not deceived about what my options are in this life or in this career. But I do believe that my mother raised me to be a good person and to be a kind person.

And what I have found in this life is that more opportunities will come because you're kind than because you're beautiful or you're talented or you're rich or whatever. And so every blessing I've gotten in life and in this business has been because I'm a decent human being. And that's where I put, that's the feather in my cap that I haven't hurt anybody. I haven't lied on anybody.

I haven't stabbed anybody in the back. Everything I've gotten has been from hard work and being decent. And I'm proud of that. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? I remember I worked in film production when I lit, you know, I went to film school, worked in film production when I got out because I went to film school worked in film production when I got out because I wanted to do something in this industry was just too shy to say I want to act yeah but I remember when I started working in film production which is you know you get on a

Montgomery Wards commercial it it might be 10 days of 14 hour days for 10 you know and I realized like if you're an asshole you're they're not gonna hire you because they gotta spend 14 hours and nobody wants to be an asshole for four yeah and and you when you think about an actor because it happens all the time where you see an actor in something old and you're like whatever happened to her or whatever happened to him? Exactly. And I always feel like it's either drugs or accommodation, or they were just so awful that nobody wanted to work with them. Yeah. And I know people.

I know them. I know people that had been, that were working just fine and now don't work much. I know people that were at the top of their game. Yeah. Nobody will hire them for anything now. So I, listen, I don't know why someone got lied to and told that they could be a jerk and thrive. I was never told that. I was told that if you're a jerk, your opportunities dry up.

Yeah. That's what I was raised that you don't want to be the jerk. No, no. And I mean, there's all kinds of reasons. To me, it's always just amazing. If you're just a person that cares about the bottom line, like what can I get out of a situation? Being nice, it greases the gears better than anything else. But on top of it, it's its own reward. You feel good.

You know, you get to go to sleep at night feeling good about yourself and about humanity. I got to say this, though, Andy. I did have somebody, an actress, a starlet, say to me once. I don't know what I was doing on set. I might have been talking to the background actors or something, just regular human stuff. And this woman said to me, wow, you're really nice. And I said, yeah. She was like, I don't know how to do that. And I was like, what do you mean?

Yeah, you just saw it. That's what it is. I just care about people. This chick was like, I don't know what that is and so i i think that we we can say that it's easy to do because we just we're decent people but i think some people they just weren't raised to see anybody beyond themselves they weren't raised to to clock a need that does not funnel back to their own well-being. I think that's what we're dealing with right now with COVID and everything.

Like the idea that people don't want to be inconvenienced by wearing a mask, even though they know that wearing the mask helps others. The mistake was saying you wear the mask for others. Had this in America, you wear the mask for you. A lot more people would be wearing masks, but because it's for others, you. In America. You wear the mask for you. Yeah. A lot of people, a lot more people be wearing masks. But because it's for others, you don't care. I know.

So they're not wearing it. Well, it's also, if it had happened, like, I just think it's also, too, it's just the timing with Trump. with Trump. It's just like everything, everybody's got to, if there's something that sort of like regular normal people that aren't insane just are, you know, say like, well, this is something to do. There's all these people that follow him. They're like, nope, nope. You know, I mean, it's like, if he said something about wearing seatbelts is, is for losers, they'd stop wearing seatbelts. It's just, it's scary. It's ridiculous. It's, and I just, I'm just sort of sitting here waiting for it to end. I mean, you know, I thought that it was going to end. I thought so too.

You know, January 6th told me that it probably wouldn't end on January 20th. I know. I know, I know. Here we are. It's rough. It's really rough. Well, yeah, we could talk about that for a long time. It would not be fun. Would not.

So when you were younger, was it music? Was that the thing? Oh, gosh. Were you singing and singing and singing? Was it church singing? Was it school singing? Was it all of it? It's still music for me. Like music is, gosh, if I hear a song with amazing music or lyrics or a vocal that is just beyond, I'm just over the moon.

And yes, it was church singing. It was singing at school. It was singing in talent shows in Cleveland. I've really, I mean, once a group I was in, we once sang Christmas carols walking through a grocery store at Christmas time. Like there was, I've sung in the men's underwear department. That's fun. I would love that. Yeah, of a department store.

Like you just, I used to sing anywhere. Someone said, who's a singer who can sing? I'm like, me, because I just saw it as my way out. I was like, this is how I'm going to, to make, make my way in life. I'm going to be a performer. Yeah. And so when you, is that what you studied in college? Did you study? No, I actually studied mass, mass media. I thought I would be a journalist because I was, I'm also very practical, right? So I spent all of my teen years chasing music. And then when it didn't happen, when I didn't become a recording artist by 60

I wasn't discovered and became an artist by 16 and rich and famous and swept to LA um I when I went to college I'm like well what else am I good at and I'm like I really am good at public speaking and I um I care about the news and what's happening in the world so I'll be a journalist I'll write for a newspaper or I'll be an anchor, you know, or I'll be a talk show host. So that's what I majored in. I have a bachelor's in fine and applied arts with a journalism mass media bent. Oh, wow. And, but you didn't, you decided to not really pursue that or did you? No, that was the fallback. Oh, okay. That was the like, if all else fails, I'll do the news.

Yeah. Or I'll write, you know, I really did want to be a singer and an actor as like the other fallback. Oh, okay. And the main thing that I, when I was a kid, what I wanted to do is I wanted to be a teacher, a kindergarten teacher. I still dream of doing that.

Yeah. I still love five and six year olds and I love teachers. I think they're so unsung. So I still dream about that. And I try to, I try to be a bit of a teacher in everything that I do when I'm on Twitter and in interviews and stuff, I try to impart things that I've learned that I think are important for people. So it's still a part of my life. And teaching is show business. You know, you're performing, you're, you know, you're putting on a show every, every, every class that you teach. That's right. So when you came out here, what's the adjustment? Like what, how does, explain sort of the, the sort of shifting of expectations and, and rearranging of kind of goals? I mean, that's sort of the chronology of that.

You know, it's funny coming to LA. I don't know about anybody else, but for me, it was like, how do I eat? Like there were so many months of my life when I first moved out here where I was so hungry all the time. I've told this story before, but it's worth saying again,

when I was living, I had a room, I was renting a room in a house in Inglewood for $300 a month. It was like my grace gift to have my own door that I could close. But I had no money. I was on the bus. I had no money. I was temping up in Hollywood at Motown. And if I went to work and it was someone's birthday or something like that, then I would definitely be able to eat or a friend went and ordered a sandwich. Sometimes they'd cut me a little quarter, a fourth of it and share it with me because people knew that I was starving. Yeah. And then one day I came home from, I had been living, this is what I had been living on

at the time. I would get a pack of dinner rolls, a 12 pack of dinner rolls, a box of instant mashed potatoes that you could make with water of instant mashed potatoes that you could make with water. It was important that you could make it with water because water was clinical. You didn't have milk. Yeah, yeah. Or butter or eggs or anything. And then I had, if I was really splurging, like if I really was balling out of control

that week, I would get the thick A1 sauce. Now, if you take that one roll, one scoop of instant potatoes, one cup, mix it up. And then a couple of dabs of that of that A1, it would taste like to me a steak and potato dinner. So I would eat. I'm salivating at the thought of it. So I would eat one, one roll, one cup of mashed potatoes and three or four dabs of A1 a day. Yeah, I was not trying to be thin. I just had to conserve that 12 rolls would hold me for 12 days. I figured it out. And so I was starving. I lost like 30 pounds within like a month or so. And my roommate was a nurse, Gigi, God bless Gigi. She was a

pediatric nurse. And one day I came home and the entire counter was filled with all these different foods and name brand. Like it was like Wonder Bread. It wasn't like Cobra's bread. It was Wonder Bread. And I went into, and listen, like almost in tears seeing this cornucopia of greatness. I go into Gigi's room and I go, Gigi, you forgot to put your food away. And she said, no, that's all for you. She was like, and she said, I get emotional every time I think about it.

And she said, you know, I see that you're starving. And I don't want you to ever go through that as long as I'm here. So please, if you ever, it's that bad, please tell me. And she literally saved my life, Andy, because I was starving. Yeah. me and she literally saved my life andy because i was starving yeah um so that and it's a good example of what my path in la has been like because every time i have been starving literally or figuratively a gg has appeared yeah every single time someone has miraculously or divinely been sent to build a bridge to get me to whatever the next place is. Yeah. Sorry.

Well, that's okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know you got other things to do after this and you- It's all right. I'll catch it. I mean, listen, I'll be talking about my mom at some point and I'll cry then too. So- Okay. Yeah. It's okay. Well, yeah, that's wonderful. That's really, yeah. I mean, I had the, I would, the first time I came out here, I was staying on a friend's couch. And I went to the store and bought an aluminum tray and the stuff to make lasagna. And I made lasagna and I ate lasagna.

Whereas, you know, it was like a big sheet pan. Yeah. Every meal was lasagna. You know, it was like some, it was like breakfast, I pan yeah every meal was lasagna you know it's like some it was like breakfast i'd have a piece of lasagna people don't people really don't know they really don't know what what it takes to have a career in this business especially if you're not a legacy like my mother's not a famous actress i'm not rich know, all of those things, a lot of people start with that, you know, I didn't have that. So there's a lot of things like, and when I'm on Twitter, like the thing that makes me the angriest, one of the things that makes me the angriest

is when someone questions why I care about something and their thought is, well, you're, you know, you're rich actress, you're, you're elite. And I'm like, I am a kid from East Cleveland who has worked for everything I've ever gotten. And I've never lost that feeling or that connection to having less ever. Every decision I make, the charities I support, they're all in line with helping people who are in that spot, that tight spot of wanting to become something or do something great. And it's just tight. You know, one of my favorite charities is DonorsChoose because it lines up teachers who want to do great things for their students but don't have the money. but don't have the money. And it allows people that do have $5 or $25 that they can spare to sow into that teacher's project so that these babies can have something great in their lives. Like that's who I am. That's what I'm connected to. So this idea that because I'm on television

or because in someone's mind I've made it, I no longer know how much milk costs or I no longer understand what it's like for a single mother. I grew up with a single mother. I get it. Yeah. You know, so I've been hungry. I've slept in my car. I've slept on a floor. I know what that is. And I've never lost my attachment to it or my respect for those who survive it ever. so oh i get mad when people think i don't know yeah no i know and it's the shittiness of twitter too it's like oh it's like you wouldn't you wouldn't encounter that fee i mean you would occasionally if there was no twitter you would occasionally encounter people that would make you indignant for that reason right treat you as like well what do you care miss you know emmy nominee nominee yeah um you'd only occasionally run into them whereas in

twitter you meet them every every every five minutes every five minutes is a who's an asshole yeah and they're assholes because they're anonymous and because they're hiding you know behind something and because their life is probably pretty crappy i don't know anybody whose life is amazing that spends their time trying to destroy other people's spirits yeah i don't know anybody that's balling out of control in the spirit space yeah that is trying to tear down another person so anyone and they show themselves it's like oh how much i mean there's a there's this great um influencer an actor named Tabitha Brown, and she got into it. Well, she didn't get into a dust up. There was some things something was said about her and her family by somebody on television.

And Tabitha did an Instagram video to discuss the, you know, the gall of this person to say something about her family. And what Tabitha said is, oh, what pain you must be in. That was the best description of how it feels when you're attacked by a troll. Oh, poor thing, you must be suffering that you're here doing this right now. Oh, it's so sad. One of my co-workers used to say there was a job that I worked on. There was somebody who was just like nice to everybody above him and awful to everybody. Oh, it's horrible. It's horrible. One of those kind of people. And we would often talk about

that guy must be so miserable. He must just be so miserable. And one of my coworkers said, yeah, he goes, I think about that, how miserable he must be in his life. But then I make myself remember what he's done and what he said. Cause he's like, I don't want to give too, you know, like I don't want to get too, yeah. Yeah. I want to, I don't want to give him,

waste too much sympathy on this guy. I want to make myself like, yeah, yeah. He's, he's miserable, and he takes it out on the table. Let's remember the other people. You're exactly true that he's harmed, right? Yeah. And karma won't forget either, though. Oh, no. Well, you hope.

You cross your fingers and hope. No, no, no. Karma never misses. Yeah. I'm a believer. It never misses. Yeah. Yeah.

I hope. I hope, because, man, there's some karma coming for some people. Please. We may never see it. That's the thing. Yeah. I'm a believer. It never misses. Yeah. Yeah. I hope. I hope. Because, man, there's some karma coming for some people. Please. We may never see it. That's the thing. Yeah. Can I tell my X-Files thing about this, please? Sure, of course.

Okay. So anyone that watches X-Files remembers the cigarette-smoking man and the cigarette-smoking man. If you haven't watched, cigarette-smoking man is a man that was kind of on the periphery or in the background of every horrible thing that happened in the last 30 or 40 years. And it was a mystery of like who that guy was. Yeah. Right.

And so there was an episode where they followed Cigarette Smoking Man home. And as he opens his door, he can barely open the door because behind it is a stack of manila envelopes. And we don't know what's in the manila envelopes. And he checks his mail and there's a brand new manila envelope. And he opens it up and it says, Dear Cigarette Smoking smoking man i don't know what the man's name is dear cigarette smoking man thank you for sending us your manuscript unfortunately we cannot accept blah blah blah blah so he puts the manuscript back into the manila envelope and puts it on top of the stack of all the manila envelopes that are there and that episode never left me because i thought to

myself as horrible as this man is and how he has been a part of every horrible thing that has happened in America, even he has a dream. And because of his wretchedness, he will never have the thing that he wants most. And this is the thing. Had we not followed him home, we wouldn't know that he was a failed writer. God knew. And God came out of eternity and took his thumb and put it right in the middle of that dream and said, this is the one thing you will never have. And this is what I know about karma. No matter who you are, you got something that you want. You got something that you dream of that you maybe have told no one. And when you are wretched and nasty, God will come out of eternity and put his thumb right in the middle of it. So like I say, karma never misses. We may not see it, but it

never misses. Yeah. All right. Well, I guess I better be nice then. You're always nice. Oh, that's true. I am. I am pretty nice. You're a sweetie pie. Most of the time, I think. Yeah. I think most of the time as well. I agree. Yeah. I mean, my mom doesn't think I call enough, but. Well, listen, we can't please everyone all the time, but I think that you, and I'm going to say this, having lost my mom, call your mom more. All right. I will. Once I'm telling you you andy cherish her because once she's gone it is a whole another level of what yeah so please and and i will do it do it do it i will can't you tell my loves are growing now um tell me about about okay i'm gonna be an actor then like what happens then uh how i made that decision yeah um you know music i always feel like you

should you should chase what wants you back right and so And so music, as much as I love music, music just did not love me back. And so I just realized that I really like making people laugh. And I felt like I had a bit of something that might work on screen. And so I thought, well, let me just try. I was actually in a church drama group and a playwright named David E. Talbert, who had a great movie on Netflix this past winter called Jingle Jangle, but he also did a lot of stage plays. And he was like Tyler Perry before Tyler Perry. And he was casting for a play and none of us in the drama group knew it. And he came to one of our rehearsals and I got an audition and went and audition and got to create a role in a stage play

that toured the country for eight months. And that was my first professional acting gig. And I was working at the time as a legal secretary at Showtime and my, my boss, Steve Rogers, attorney Steve Rogers, thank you to him, said, we love you here. We'd love for you to stay, but we know that you've got this dream. So go out for a month, see if you like it, we'll hold your job. If you like it after a month, you can quit then. If you don't like it, you come home and your job is waiting for you. And so that's another Gigi. I told you every time I'm at Crossroads, a Gigi would appear. What a nice boss. Right? He's amazing. He's amazing. He's retired now. He's in Palm Springs living his best life. But I went out

on the road with the tour. I knew within the first week that I loved it. Like the bug bit me and I called and I said, guys, I'm sorry. I'm staying out here. Thank you so much. And I did the play. I toured with the play for eight months and then came back to L.A. and thought, I really want to try this. So I I got a commercial agent and started auditioning and I booked an industrial like within the first two or three weeks. And then I started booking national commercials and I did like 45 national commercials in my commercial run. Yeah. And then auditioned for pilot season got a sitcom it just and then it just took off from there but right right yeah yeah that's great and that's and i mean doing that commercial work it's it's you know you get one or two good commercials and that's your year

yeah that's your year of legal secretary yeah you know i mean yeah it's not so much that way anymore i think the money's come down and a lot yeah i i kind of got into commercials right after the commercial strike i remember i remember back before the strike you would do one mcdonald's commercial and that mcdonald's commercial would air for five years and you would just be minting money after the strike they started doing the strip commercials where they do, you know, you'd film your McDonald's commercial along with a Latino family, a Bangladesh family, little kids, a cartoon version. And then each one of you would get three months instead of five years, you'd get three months. So it just was, it was less opportunity for you to like, you know, buy a house from the commercial money. And that's

why it was important to just stack as many of them as you can, like try to book as many as you can as quickly as possible, which is what I tried to do. And, um, well that's, uh, I mean, that must've felt great. I mean, it must've felt like I know, you know, I, I, I made the right choice. Um, but are you, are you, are you at all nervous because it is kind of an adjusted career choice and you were, you know, cause I mean, I know when I started getting hired as my,

my training was improv. I took a couple of theater classes when I was in college, but didn't really like respond to them. I didn't really get them. So all my training was just on stage doing improv. Right. So when I started getting jobs in movies, I really was like, oh, shit. Do I really know how to do this?

Know how to do this. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and I would, you know, and I would be like my first scene in a movie. It was in a cable movie. I mean, that's how old it was we called it a cable movie at the time uh yeah it was what was like for it was for hbo i think and um and you know my scene was with i had one scene i played a young like sheriff's officer and uh my scene was with Bo Bridges and Swoozie Kurtz. Wow. This is a great start, man. Yeah.

Come on. But it was just all so weird. And I felt like, you know, the director was Michael Ritchie. He directed a famous movie called Smile, which was kind of like an Altman-esque 70s beauty pageant movie. But he was just really wonderful and just like, great, everything you're doing is great. And I was like, is it? I don't remember. I don't know.

I'm not sure. But, you know, I just kind of kept doing it. And, you know, and like when they said, we're coming around, you know, I just kind of kept doing it. And, you know, and like when they said, we're coming around, you know, because they shoot one side of the scene and then they have to turn the whole room around to shoot the other side. And I was like, I don't know what that means, but it seems like I'm supposed to walk away for a while. So I will. I mean, did you go through some of that? Oh, gosh, for sure. And, you know, this whole industry, they don't tell you this is like learn on the job. Yeah. Yeah. Like even if you, if you study theater, unless like

you can study theater and then go to Broadway and it will translate, right. But you can't study television film in college, maybe now, but they probably have working studios and stuff now where you can see what it's like to be on a sitcom set or a film set. Yeah. But back when I was there, there was no direct correlation between this experience in this classroom and what it will be like at a 5.30 call going to set for the first time. There's just no way to know what it is. And I remember when I first started, I, again, did the commercials and I did some sitcoms and I wanted to do a drama and I remember going I don't know why I can't do a drama you know I was you know that was my one little bit of yeah I'm ready right and I I ended up booking one line on a drama and it was a long tracking shot

where I was smack dab in the middle like it might have might as well have been like Cirque du Soleil someone from Cirque du Soleil doing five flips onto the back of an elephant who then sprung water. And then I walk in and say my line, and then the Rockettes come in and do a five-minute set. I was smack dab in the middle of something like that. All this action. And every time they got to me, I kept messing up, either saying the line wrong, the camera wasn't on my face when I said the line, or I put the mug of coffee down because I was playing a waitress, put the mug of coffee down at the wrong time. Like I had to make everybody reset and go back to one probably 20 times.

Oh, dear. And I remember wanting the ground to swallow me up. And I spent the rest of that the next day in fetal position on the floor of my apartment, rocking back and forth going, why? Why? And what I learned from that experience is that you don't, don't rush it. Like don't rush it. Like my, me proudly saying, well, I can do, I'm ready for a single cam drum. No, you aren't though. Like you're not. And had you just, had I just waited and done my little co-stars or done one line or, or, you know,

done more background work where I could watch and see what this experience was like. When it really was my time and my turn, I would not have embarrassed myself and wasted those people's time like that. Because the thing is, one thing I do know, the waitress putting down the mug of coffee in the middle of that scene is not what that scene was about. So the idea that they had to reset it that many times for me is something that haunts me to this day. And so I don't race ahead in this industry. I ain't said, why don't I since that day? Whatever God sends is fine by me. I mean, everybody that does this for a living has been there. But that feeling that like,

well, I mean, first of all, you have to be built in a way that it matters to you. Right. But I have definitely been in that same situation where I keep screwing it up. I don't get my line right. Or I get something wrong. And it's, it's the worst. It's like, I, like, I'll, I'll take, I'll take heat.

I'll take, you you know i can handle like if a production is screwing me over but if i feel like i'm screwing the production over i get so furious at myself yeah it really upsets me too i don't i don't like to be the weak link if i'm working on something i am the first person whatever my call time is i'm showing up 15 minutes before the call time yeah yeah i am always where i need to be like when you do a sitcom as during the run-through when you're like showing i'm telling this to the audience not to you i know you i understand but you're showing the um there's two times a week where you show the quote-unquote play to the the studio the writers the the the network and as it moves as the play is being the play i say the play as the show is being performed for everyone at the run-through, the AD has to go and make sure if you're entering

from the bedroom, they go and peek around the back to make sure you're standing where you need to be in time for your entrance. I am always right where the AD needs me to be. I'm never, they're never, no one is ever looking for me on a set. And that's because I don't want anyone to ever have to look for me. I want, if we're going're gonna go i don't want to be the reason we're not going yeah yeah you know and i think that experience is one of the things that makes me that way because i i know what it feels like to be the reason someone else has to start over and that is a horrible feeling i think that's also too even like stronger on poorly run things that i've been on because when i like i'm already like you guys are

so fucked up but i but and i think this but my i got my shit together so i screw up in that situation i'm like oh yeah just contributing contributing to the mess right uh you know and yeah especially when you're like already feeling superior and then you screwed up oh shit i don't i don't get to feel superior um and and did you know like so are you fine now doing comedy i mean do you worry about you know is there still that drive to do drama do you still feel like you know i i think i think that i have some like a strong drama role in me i don't know that I would want to do it as a series because I don't like how single cams are shot I finally had to accept that I am a multi-cam girl like it's not single cam the turning around in the whole room and being in here and makeup and

spanks every day that is just not not for me and missing missing everything in your life for everything yeah I mean we did community and that was a comedy and we were doing 16 hour days every day so yeah with a lot of cast too it's like usually when that with that much cash you get some days off never know everybody's all together all the time no so i so i already know that that's just not um that's not my thing and so i'm getting better at choosing where I want to be and what I want to do and saying no to things that don't work for me and just, you know, just riding it out and just trying to have a good life within this industry is the goal right now. Do you think, because I mean, I think there is like a thing among comic actors to downplay, you know, like it's like, yeah, I'm an actor and I'm successful and I do this. But, I mean, it's comedy.

It's all just so silly and frivolous. I'm not doing the important, you know, Meryl Streep-y kind of stuff. Do you, I mean, do you think that does that exist in you at all? And why do you think that is? I mean, is that just a grass is greener? I think that it's actually not even genuine because I think the harder lift is the comedy. Yeah. I think it's harder to elicit a giggle out of someone or chuckle out of someone than it is to make someone cry.

I think it's a very specific gift. And I think that most comedians, most people that are comedic actors or standups or whatever, I think most of them can do drama because it's, I always call it hearing the music, right? When I do a sitcom, I don't even need an audience. Because when I read the line, the first script I get of whatever that the show is, I can hear the ba-da-da-da-da or the boo-boo-ba-ba. I can hear the music and where the joke should fall. I can feel it within me. And it's the same music you hear when you're doing a drama. You can tell where the tug is.

You can tell where the point of the speech is, right? I think the choice is to, to not push it in the same way, a comedian, you know, where the punchline is, but it's going to die. If you go, if you like, okay, here we go. It's the same thing with drama. If you are telegraphing, these are where the tears are going to come. It's you're dead in the water. So I, I think that, and no shade to dramatic actors. I mean, Meryl Streep or Viola Davis, come on. Sure. Yeah. But, but I do think that comedy is harder. Yeah. I mean, Meryl Streep or Viola Davis, come on. Sure, yeah. But I do think that comedy is harder.

Yeah. I think. I think so too. Yeah, because I think you got to like, you got to, I don't know many people that could be really funny actors or be funny in things as actors who aren't like kind of funny on their own. I mean, exactly. There's a few that I've met that where I'm like, wow, how are you so unfunny in real life? But only a few and they're very rare exceptions.

Whereas, you know, it does kind of seem like, well, drama, you know, like, you know, my problem with acting and drama is that I always, I've done so much fake drama acting for comedy purposes. You know what I mean? Like, like, you know, like a serious voiceover kind of thing, you know, I, I don't, I, it's hard. I feel like whenever I'm doing something quote unquote serious, I, it just looks like I'm making fun of it. You know, in my estimation.

Yeah, I kind of have a touch of that, too. Because the show I'm on right now, Big Shot, it's called a drama. I think it's more of a dramedy. But I say that. With John Stamos. Yeah. And I say that because John Stamos and I are both country hands. We're both fools.

both country hams, we're both fools. And so even if we're having like a real serious, you know, thing, we're each going to find something to twinkle about. There's a little twinkle in us. And even I did Lady and the Tramp for Disney Plus, it was one of the first movies that aired on Disney Plus. And I played the villain, I was Aunt Sarah in that.

And even when I was supposed to be really horrible, I still was like, kind of funny. Like I just, I just tried to imbue even the dark characters I play with a little bit of, of, of mirth and silliness. Um, and maybe that's why I'm hired. I don't know. Um, cause I'm definitely not a serious, I can, I think I could do it. I mean, there's been no proof on camera yet. I have, I've only done it. I've only done it a couple of times and in fact I just I was just on Rob Lowe's podcast yeah we taught and I one of them like the biggest one I ever did was after he left the West Wing he had an NBC legal drama oh what was it called it was called lion's den yes i remember yeah jeremy lion but you know yeah and yeah and i just i said and i talked to him about it and i

you know that like it was really hard for me because a it was kind of corny you know like it wasn't it was like i played a guy uh it's it's too long but like i played a guy, it's too long, but like I played a guy that like screwed up the, like reached and tried to grab a foul ball at a baseball game, thereby ruining the team's chances. Oh, you're a bad guy. Yeah, the newspaper supposedly printed my name and address, which I just like, like no newspaper would do that in the first place. But I had to like just do all this. Like I was kind of supposed to be a dick, which I could do that. There was like all kinds of stuff. But like what this game meant to me and what baseball meant to me, which I just felt like is anyone taking this seriously?

Andy Richter, if you're judging the role, it's not good. You have got to be all in to the role. I know. It's not good. You have got to be all in. I know. I can, listen, I can commit to the, I can commit to the people don't know that I have judgments.

I can fake it. You know what I mean? It still looks like commitment, even though there's like some like, all right, I'm committed. What about our Audible podcast? Did you buy into that world when we were in the room? Yes. Yeah, we did a podcast called Vroom Vroom. Yes.

Although it's weird to call it a podcast. It's like a – It's a radio play. It's a radio play. Yeah, that you buy because it was never anything other than this scripted piece of entertainment that was made for Audible. And like, well, that was – I don't know. That was kind of – that had a very comic, manic energy to it.

It did. Yeah, yeah. But there were serious moments. But it was really fun. That's a really good, it's a good thing. It's a good show. There were serious moments. Yeah. Yeah.

Moments that were important in there. Yeah. I guess. I don't know. Roof Room is available on Audible. On Audible. Yes. Check it out.

And we also have to talk about this new project, Broken Diamonds. Yes. I've been told, like, also have to talk about uh this new project broken diamonds they have been told like we got to talk about that so tell me what it is yeah yeah um it's a it's a beautiful independent film starring uh ben platt and lola kirk directed by peter sattler um alfonso mccauley's also in it and and me and it's a story about Ben's character has big dreams and he has plans for his life. And right on the cusp of him chasing the biggest dream of his life, he ends up becoming a caregiver for his sister who is struggling with schizophrenia. And it's a story about what happens when life kind of throws you a curve ball and you have to choose someone else's wellbeing over your own. And, and, you know, that's, that's caregiving in a, in a nutshell. I'm a caregiver. I chose to be

a caregiver. It wasn't thrust on me. Ben's character, it's thrust on him at a really pivotal moment of his life. And he has to figure out how to, how to navigate it with grace and how to see his sister as um someone who who something happened to yeah right she didn't choose to struggle with schizophrenia schizophrenia happened to her and him trying to find the softer way of navigating that with her um is really beautiful and i think it's a it's a great movie and um and we're going to start streaming everywhere on Monday, video on demand. Oh, wow. Okay, great.

And it's on all the platforms? It'll be everywhere. Anywhere you want to see it, it'll be there. Broken Diamonds. I will give it a look. And is that kind of the, would you like to kind of do more of that kind of indie movie sort of? You know, I would love an indie movie that

had a very tight schedule and good craft service yeah i want out in good trailers i want the kind of indie movie where you know they got one they can do one take of everything yeah yeah like be because i'm really good in the first there's diminishing returns with me as an actor you better get in yeah yeah first so you know so you know yeah you can do 12 takes but i'm gonna be good for two of them the first two yeah the rest will be hot garbage so i mean i like to be on sets where the director likes to you know i think i do good on a clint eastwood set i heard that he gets in and gets out yeah like let's not be the dead horse let's get in here and and find it and move on so yeah yeah that kind of indie film um that's good yeah because i yeah i've done yeah well it's been a while i mean i've been off on conan island for so long yeah that uh there has

you know i mean i can do some guest spot stuff but but i haven't been in an indie movie for a while and and i which i don't have anything against like being in an indie movie except for the fact that sometimes when you go there and they're like okay you know because acting you know how much waiting around there is yeah it's like okay you got two or three hours now and it's sort of like well where should i go there's a folding chair sitting over there against the wall under the tree there's a folding. A rickety one, too. Listen, the folding chairs don't always hold your girth. You might be a little heavier than what that chair can manage.

So good luck. Or just wider. Maybe not heavier, just wider. Good luck with the folding chair, America. Yeah, no, I got it. Because you do get used to having your own little, even if it's like a trailer that's split up into four little horse stalls. As long as I got my own little horse stall to just go and not have to make small talk so I can remember my lines, that's fine.

Usually it's remember my line for me. And the other thing is, too, I'm an aesthetic person, like, especially on set. Like if I'm not home with my things, I need to be in a nice space. So I've realized that as I've gotten older and longer in the industry, I will fight more for a nice trailer than money. Yeah. I'll be like, I guess, give me the $5, but I do need a door on the bathroom in my trailer. I need three steps up instead of two. And I need, you know, can, can I had a one that's got the nice leather couch and not the one that's fabric on it.

Yeah. The door to the bathroom that isn't a curtain. Yeah. I need an actual door to the bathroom. Yeah. Yeah. No mold on the ceiling is nice. I love no mold. I had a couple where there's that you walk in and when you smell the mold when you can smell it you're gonna die i was on i when i was on a show quintuplets it did a whole season on fox yeah and me and my tv wife uh rebecca kreskoff we shared what they call a two banger which is a a trailer that's bisected. So it's half and half. And I had, it looked like the shroud of Turin was on the ceiling of this, of this thing.

It was so moldy and so gross. And I would complain to the Teamsters because it's Teamsters that runs the trailer for people. I would say like, Hey, it's really gross in here. And nothing ever happened. And then about halfway through the season, the production manager was walking by and popped in for just a second to say, tell me about something. And she looked up and she was like, oh my God. I said, yeah, yeah, that's what I've been talking about.

She's like, oh, and the next day it was like, I just, and you learn lessons like that. Like, you don't want to be the one that like makes a bunch of beefs and complains and stuff. But then you find out, like you learn something where I learned like, oh, next time I have black mold on the ceiling, I'm going to like go to someone who can do something about it and say, hey, look at this. Isn't this bad? And they will go, oh yeah, that's bad. And then it gets actually taken care of you know yeah i just had that recently with something i did and i did not

speak up because i i have i don't want to ever be the the prima donna or yeah i don't either but at a certain point like you kind of want there to be handles on the cabinets and you do want there not to be mold that's that's a health issue that's not yeah you know ah life yeah i know i know here we are complaining about our trailers all right well sorry we've got we spend a lot of time in those damn things we do we do yeah well where do you um what's where's your life going next where do you where do you see it going are there things you're doing you're not going to do is it just kind of a continuation you know i i think i think I'm going to be more strategic in what I say yes to. Because I think when you first start out, you just want to work and you're just saying

yes to everything. And now I'm of an age and I'm getting to a place in my career where I want quality of life. I want to see my dog and be able to feed my father a meal that I cooked every day. And so that means I have to make different choices for what I say yes to. So that's the next thing. I also have got a really strong Lego addiction that I am feeding. Really? Oh my gosh. I've, and since my, I've got back from Ireland, I was in Ireland doing Disenchanted. Since I got back, I have probably put together five or six Lego kids. I am doing them one a night at this point.

I've done Sesame street, Winnie the Pooh. I did an aisle. I did Paris. I did a whole vase of flowers. I did the yellow Fiat. I did a bonsai tree. I did Seinfeld and friends like that. Say Winnie the Pooh, I literally am every night building something. And so I don't know how long this is going to have its hold on me, but it's very Zen. And so I want to get to a point in my life where anything like that, that I love, there's time to do. So that means, and maybe I'll do it on set. Maybe I'll take it into my moldy trailer and I'll be putting it together in there.

But I want more of that. I want more of things that make me feel peaceful and zen in my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or opportunities to do stuff like that. I love building Legos. Me too. Yeah, I have a half-belt Volkswagen Bug in my living room. Oh, is it the yellow one?

Which one do you have? I have the Fiat. I think it's green. Green. Yeah, I have the Fiat. But it's like, and years ago I made, with my son, we made a VW camper bus that was really fun to do. It's so, I love it.

I just love the completion of it. I love watching it form. Like when I made the Fiat, like you start with the undercarriage and then you just so slowly watch this car come together in front of you and it actually rolls and you can lift up the front and see the tire, the spare tire and the front. It's just great. After I'm done with it though, I do kind of feel like when we built it, it's kind of like, well, I guess, I don't know.

I don't know. You know what I do? No, this is what I do. If it's, if it's one that really matters me, and like I have the Millennium Falcon that I built. I'm a big Star Wars nerd. I'm keeping that forever. But if it's one that I just liked and I didn't love, I take it apart, put it in a huge Ziploc, in Ziploc bags with the little booklet. And then I put it back in the box and give it to Goodwill.

Oh, that's great. So, if it's kids or young people, even older people that love Legos that that maybe can't afford them they get to have the set that they you know yeah exciting it would be to get there and see you know the millennium falcon or a complete set with instructions and all the pieces ready to go like that would be awesome so that's what i do so you might want to do that then you don't feel guilty building i will build and then donate. I will. Yeah. Well, what do you think is the point of the event story? You know, is there like what? Wow. You've kind of given. Well, you know, that's the final of these three questions. Yes. What have you learned part? And you've been sharing a lot of that already. Yeah. What's the point? Yeah. But can you sum it up?

Yeah, what's the point? Yeah, but can you sum it up? I think the point of me being here is to model kindness and care for others. And I hope that anyone that has met me or worked with me or even stood behind me in a grocery store line feels that I care about them and feels that what they want in life and what they dream of in life is just as important as what I want and what I dream of. And, you know, there's been seasons of my life where what other people wanted was even more important than what I wanted. I hope that, you know, like I've said this often when I pass away, I hope that my legacy is kindness. I hope that people come together and speak of how nice I was. Like that would be more than she was Emmy nominated or an Emmy winner or more than she was cute or whatever. Somebody might, she's talented, whatever some nice things someone might say about me. None of that is more important than someone saying when I was in need, Yvette listened to me or she had gave me great advice or she just was kind to me when I really needed someone to be kind.

That, that is most important. And just was kind to me when I really needed someone to be kind that That is most important and just bouncing back to the loss of my mother. That's the legacy of my mother like my mother was Just a ball of light and love and anyone that met her at a bingo hall or just in a grocery store They just or on set because I took her to set all the time She's like the set mascot of every show I ever did Yeah, everyone walked away with a story of something She did or said that I didn't even know about. Like I've gotten calls from people like, I was behind your mom in craft services one day on the set of Community and she said this to me and it changed how I think about this. Or, you know, she would call my

friends on their birthday. One of my friends lost her mom right before she turned 50 and my mother spent an hour on the phone with her so that she would have a mom call. Like that's who my mother was. So yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't think you have much to worry about because I mean, you know, we did that one thing together. And I mean, aside from how funny and talented and great you are and everything that you do, I mean, you go beyond, you know, just the fact that like, that you do care for your dad every day. That's, that's really, really rare and really, really special to do that because I, you know, A, it's like, you know, people might have complicated enough relationships with their parents that it parents that there might be misgivings for, you know, to take care of somebody that you have, you know, complicated feelings for.

Yeah. Right. But also, too, it's like you can afford to just not have to do that yourself. And you do it yourself because you think it's right. And that's unbelievable. It's really, it's really, you know, if there's, you know, there's gotta be some reward for it. I think you're probably getting it though. Don't you think? Yeah. It's, it's, you know, the kindness that you've put out has a dividend. A hundred percent has come back. I have great friendships. My relationship with my dad is wonderful. My dog is amazing. I had a great mother um my career is is rewarding you know i'm not starving anymore yeah you know what i mean like

i can actually go and buy you know uh actual potatoes and make real potatoes yeah yeah instead of flakes and nothing with real milk and real butter yeah milk and butter irish cream but i get to carry gold now you know so it so it's like, I'm blessed. I'm very blessed. And I try to be a blessing every single day. I try to sow back into the good karma piggy bank every day that I live. And it's rewarding. It's its own reward.

It really is. Being decent is its own reward. I believe you are absolutely right. And thank you for blessing us here on the three questions with your presence and everybody go, go look at broken diamonds. Cause it's already, it's already out by the time.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but thank you so much, Yvette. It's great to see you again. Good to see you.

Take our picture. Don't. Yeah, we do. We do. We're going to take a picture, but you all, you all go away.

This is the end of this episode of The Three Questions. And we'll be back next week. Thank you. Thank you. I've got a big, big love for you. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Your Wolf production. It is produced by Lane Gerbig, engineered by Marina Pice, and talent produced by Galitza Hayek. engineered by Marina Pais, and talent produced by Galitza Hayek.

The associate producer is Jen Samples, supervising producer Aaron Blair, and executive producers Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf. Make sure to rate and review the three questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.