The Viall Files - E336 Tim Simons & Matt Walsh - Fully Evolved Fame Experts

Episode Date: October 27, 2021

Today Nick sits down with the hosts of the most popular podcast ever created in the history of the world, the hilarious Matt Walsh and Tim Simons. Matt and Tim co-host a new Veep rewatch show, Second in Command, and - after first dropping some serious football talk- they dive right into their time as part of the core cast on all seven seasons, whether they became more politically informed because of it, and how much improvisation was allowed while filming. They also dig into fame (or, rather, being recognizable,) being star struck over their castmates, the power of message over presentation, and not catering to the needs of the lactose intolerant. They really cover it all, and you're not going to want to miss this funny and wacky conversation.    “At that level there is no value in telling the truth.”  Please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and as always send in your relationship questions to [e-mail] to be a part of our Monday episodes.  For merch please visit www.viallfiles.com today! THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Better Help - http://www.betterhelp.com/VIALLFILES Noom - http://www.Noom.com/VIALL to sign up for your trial Friends of LAHSA: Venmo @Lahsa https://friendsoflahsa.org/ Gender Nation: Gendernation.org Episode Socials:  @viallfiles @nickviall @mrmattwalsh @timothycsimons See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Visit betterhelp.com slash vile files because honestly, being a human is exhausting. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Vile Files. I am your host Nick. Welcome. Glad to have you back. Thanks for listening. Joined by the lovely and wonderful humans Allie and Amanda. How are you ladies doing today? There is a shocking update. My cousin asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I did not think I was going to make it. I was a total wild card pick, was not a divisional winner. And I'm very excited.

So you are glad? Yeah, I'm very glad. I just like, she has a lot of really good friends, both from like college and law school. And her fiance has a bunch of like sisters. So I just like, I didn't think, not in any like bad way, but like didn't think I was going to make the bridal party cut, was all good with it.

Great. And then, shockingly, I feel like it was when a 7-9 team makes the playoffs. It was... Nicely done. And you suspect this wedding will have a lot of singles. Oh, I don't... It's in August. So, I don't know.

In my gut, I feel like I'm of 2022. So, in my gut, I'm like, I think I'm going to be. In a relationship. Either in a relationship or like seriously mentally occupied with someone. Because I had a hot girl summer this year and I don't think, I don't think life can sustain two hot girl summers in a row. Why not? I don't know. My own, my own balance. i think when i hot girl summer i hot girl summer i had a hot girl summer for about six years and it was great and that's why we have the std check uh we have a great episode for you uh the hysterical and wonderful guys uh from veep matt walsh and tim simons is with us to talk about life, their experiences on Veep.

You know them from popular movies like Old School and The Hangover. Let's get to Tim and Matt. Tim, Matt, welcome. Hey, Matt. So good to have you. Thank you for having us. Yeah, I'm excited. Matt, you must get this a lot, but the first thing I ever did when I moved to LA

was take a class at UCB. Oh my gosh. You're the second person who's talked about this. Really? What level? How far? Just one? Just one.

Okay. And then I went over to Groundlings because one of the instructors there I knew. So I just did a little bit of both. Did you complete Groundlings? I did the first two. First two? yeah

but because I also I wasn't very good at character work and I feel like I probably needed some work on that I liked UCB

a little bit better UCB's cooler I mean come on yeah come on I have to say that who the fuck

are we talking about? it was I mean it was the first thing I did in terms of taking a class or working on any type of acting or improv. Who was your teacher? You would probably know.

I forget her. This was like six years ago. She is in a lot of State Farm commercials. No, not all State commercials. She plays a mom in all State. Wonderful teacher. She was great. She'd had a nice run on some Allstate commercials.

Oh, awesome. I forget. Okay. Anyway, she was lovely. I know you were a founder of UCB. True. How did that all start? We were a sketch group in Chicago.

We moved here in 96. Here, New York. We moved to New York in 96 and then opened a theater in 98 and we had a tv show for two years but the theater lived on and then the people who we had taught uh when we landed in New York started teaching and then we had a theater here in LA so it grew that way wow let's uh and then is it also in chicago in new york just in la yeah what do you have against chicago nothing chicago's great i mean i don't know you say that in your words but your actions speak differently i love chicago it's one of my favorites i love milwaukee too i'm not a

packer fan though we talked about a little bit like what's what's going on with aaron rogers would be my only question like describe that guy aren's season. Aren't you a Cal Bears fan? I'm a real Bears fan, but as someone who's watched the meltdown of Aaron Rodgers preseason, he was fighting with ownership, which is basically the only, what's cool about Green Bay, they're the only team owned by the town, which is very cool. But are they actually owned by the town or just like shareholders or whatever?

But they don't actually have a voice, do they? Well, that's the thing. The city owns it. It's like a trust it's like oh but there's a board i would assume that's involved in decision it's essentially like a not-for-profit but they make a huge problem a ton of money it's owned by the city okay you're right though who gets they do this nostalgic thing where they like sell pieces of paper to likehard fans and call them owners, but they absolutely have no say. They roll out the carpet once a year and have a shareholders meeting to update them

on things that they're doing. We still have your money. We still have your money. Thanks for the spending. Thank you for all that money. So how many owners are there? Is there just one guy that owns it now, or is it still owned by hundreds of people?

Well, I think it's just owned by the city or the trust. I don't know the actual logistics. I do know the fans who call themselves owners are owners in name, not in actual reality. Do they give money to the town? Is the town able to spend money on improvements, or do the improvements only go to the football team? Well, I think the economy in Green Bay is heavily reliant on the Green Bay Packers. So I think there's some...

The pop-up living room bars are amazing. People who live by that stadium and just invite you into their home for beer or their yard. It's amazing. It's like a college weekend. It's really fun. Very much so.

Have you been to a game there? I haven't, no. I've been to the... It's a life experience. It's cool. I saw the Bears there. You don't have to be a college weekend. It's really fun. Very much so. Have you been to a game there? I haven't, no. I've been to the- It's a life experience. It's cool. I saw the Bears there. You don't have to be a sports fan. It's a very cool atmosphere.

Yeah. And they will invite you. They're very friendly, invite you in their home. I remember going to a Packer game once, and I was sitting next to a guy. He's like, we're having a party at our house after the game, and they'll just invite you. And it's very much like a college town it feels like a very small town and and all of a sudden someone's backyard there's this massive stadium does it have the same we went when we were over in london we were shooting uh

like in the third season we shot an episode over there and we went to a tottenham game at the old white heart lane yes we went with Jay Feather. Yes. And Addison brought us. Yeah, Addison was there. But that all, does it have the same sort of feeling as that of like these old football stadiums, like your soccer stadiums in neighborhoods in London? No, it felt. It's just sort of like you're just, the little stone houses across the street from White Hart Lane. Yeah, they're not stone, but yes. But it has that sort of like you're just you're having like the little stone houses across the street from white heart lane yeah they're not stone but yes but it has that sort of feeling

yes it's like what is this house doing in like there's the parking lot of the stadium and then there's just these little tiny houses and it just it does feel misplaced like does the stadium belong here or does the house belong here because a lot of stadiums are in cities now or outside of yeah like just outside of the city kind of like in this kind of vast yeah yeah so like sofi stadium here is just a behemoth above behemoth yeah you fly over it and it's kind of in this kind of industrial area or lambeau field is just in a it's like thrown in the neighborhood yeah that's cool's cool. And like a suburban, well, I was there many years ago,

but it felt like a suburban neighborhood. It wasn't like too city feeling. It still felt suburban. Yeah. Yeah. Yards.

Yeah. Mowing your lawn. Yeah. Yeah. Should we go, is the game in Green Bay? No, it's in Chicago. So what is your hot take

on Aaron Rodgers? I hate to put you in the spotlight. What's going on with him? As a diehard Packer fan, I'm team first. First and foremost, I'm from the Packers. No one's questioning your loyalty to the Packers. You don't have to get defensive.

You can harsh on Aaron Rodgers a little bit. I think he's really good. I think he's a petty person. I think sometimes his greatness is a result of maybe his pettiness as a human being, but as a competitor, I think it serves him well. I think fans... I'm not a fan, but it kind of sounds like evil.

Hold on. So what's going to happen? Is he going to leave after this year? What do you think is going to happen? I think betting money is he's gone. He's gone. And he burned bridges with the, does he communicate with whoever? I think so money is he's gone he's gone and he burned bridges with the does he communicate with the

whoever? I think so I think media overplays a little bit but I also think there's clearly something there and they did draft a quarterback and he's he went about in a way I just didn't understand like if you're I

respect Tom Brady more than I want to respect Tom Brady as a result of how Tom Brady more than I want to respect Tom Brady as a result of how Tom Brady has gone about his career both on the field and off the field. And sometimes as smart as Aaron Rodgers seems to be, he makes decisions that I think are to his detriment in terms of his legacy. And I think he cares very much about his legacy.

And sometimes I'm always like, I think he cares very much about his legacy and sometimes I'm always like like I think you're being too petty because I think you're not playing the long game with how people are going to perceive you I care less about his legacy than I did a year ago if that makes sense is it isn't the book on him kind of that like people that used to play with them don't really speak of him well as a leader i actually think he's unfairly criticized for that for that he's not brett farr he's not an affable like good old boy i think he's an introvert and i think an introvert in that world doesn't necessarily go over as well i think he's unique different. I think for a lot of people they're expecting one thing

and they get another. I think, so I think yes, there's a lot of people who he might rub the wrong way, but I think there's a lot of teammates

that really like him. Great quarterback. Lights out, amazing quarterback. And I've met people who know him and met him and they're like,

yeah, he's an interesting guy. Anything from like weird or interesting to like, he's just, he's an interesting guy. Anything from weird or interesting to like, he's not your good old boy quarterback that I think a lot of people are used to liking. But better than Jay Cutler, both as a person.

Well, that's not comparing much career-wise. Career-wise or outside of career. But similar, interesting, you bring up Jay Cutler because similar bad impression syndrome like similar inability to like engender any sort of uh affable or connection to a city like yeah in a way like i think chicago embraced cutler and he was one of the best quarterbacks we had in a long time and we had a passing game for a couple years uh but teammates seemingly not fans

of his at all the difference between cutler and rogers though is i don't think cutler gives a no if people like him at all in fact i think he embraces it i heard a story about jay color one time he was it don't care yes i don't god don't care and i think he means it yeah i think aaron rogers very much cares what people think and i think he does a lot of things to try to get people to like him and they're nice things and generous things i think it's like state farm commercials state farm commercials but he steps in it once in a while because i think his his ego gets a little out of control this is not a hot take but i think also jay Cutler's a piece of shit.

Yeah. Oh, right. And I also think, I don't think Aaron Rodgers is a piece of shit. I would agree, yeah. Okay. I think Rodgers,

I think he gets unfairly criticized sometimes. Yeah. And I think sometimes he just, I think he has a type of personality

that's not easy for everyone to understand. Mm-hmm. Were you rooting for him in an Olivia Mondo workout ever? I didn't care. Again, we are keeping track of this and whether or not

you're a true fan. Yeah, I don't care. As a diehard sports fan, when I got into adulthood, I recognized these are people, but i don't want to see them as people i just want to see them as little digital players on a field that i don't want to think about their personal lives you're sort of tap dancing here a little bit but we're

gonna let you off the hook you you don't want to go hard at uh aaron we're a guest we're a guest we're a guest in your house right now he He's an amazing quarterback. And I think the prediction for the game is if the Packers get the ball in the last two minutes, they're probably going to win. Seemingly, that's what he does, even at home. But we'll see because the defense is really good. So he's a great quarterback. Who cares? I agree, he's a great quarterback.

It's just good to talk about stuff like that. Are you excited about Justin Fields? Yeah, he was a little dinged up. I saw him play in Vegas. We saw him play the Raiders in Vegas. John Gruden's last game, weirdly. Famously, famously good guy, John Gruden, his last game.

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But yeah, we saw them beat the Raiders, and that was fun. And so the defense is pretty good, so we'll see what happens. I just, this is not, I was trying to Google the Bears Packers spread and it auto corrected four and a half oh great okay it auto corrected to Bears on knees spread and a bunch of stuff came up that is not it's not appropriate that I had

to like back out real quick so four and a half is the line Packers, right? Yeah. Packers are favored in Chicago. So it would be, what, then seven and a half if it was at Lambeau, I think. Probably. Sure, touchdown. It's like a three-point home field advantage. Yeah. I'm sure my audience of women are super interested in the spread of the Packers-Parris game. I am.

Well, I mean, it's been great being here. I feel like we've really covered it. Comfortable living room conversation, certainly. That's what we try to do. But that's it, right? Is your audience a lot of women? We were just here to talk about the Bears-Peyors spread. Sorry, ladies.

No, I love it. I sometimes, you know, we had a wonderful guest last week, Remy Bader. We talked about fashion halls and and design so for me this is it ebbs and flows it's great yeah i like to mix it up and challenge my audience to think outside the box this way like you know we have there's a lot of women sports fans and sometimes even if you're not sports, it's nice to drop some knowledge with your boyfriend or her husband. You're educating them.

Talk about the spread. Yeah. Just, ladies, if you want to learn about the Bears, just check out a guy named Roquan Smith. He's a beast of a linebacker. He's a phenomenal, might be defensive player of the year. Just phenomenal. Is he having a good year?

He's a fast cover, and he's a giant man, and he plays tough as nails, and he's coming into his own. So he's a big leader. Chicago has their linebackers. They always do. I feel like, well, last year we did it and this year we do.

And then on the Green Bay side, Devontae Adams and Aaron Rodgers, one of the biggest passing teams in the NFL. Duos. So it'll be interesting. I'm just giving that to the ladies. Yeah.

They appreciate it. You guys have your new podcast out where you re-watch Veep and obviously you guys were on that for the entirety of the show seven seasons and it's a really fascinating concept that you guys are doing obviously people have been recapping popular shows before but with with your podcast and Veep it's very much embedded into today's culture or or certainly when it was on and watching your first episode of your podcast you talked about how i thought it was really interesting a lot of your writers would go to dc and try to like you know find out what's really going on in dc and have it be real. And I'm assuming you guys spent a lot of time then, and even now that you're recapping, thinking about how would the show cover certain

things or press-worthy things that are going on in the world today? And do you sometimes, for that reason, wish the show was still going on or to think about how the show would talk about certain concepts and topics or and the divisive world that we're in are you thankful you know what i'm glad we're not even we're out we're out of this i'm i'm actually for a few different reasons i am glad it's over i mean i think that it went out at the right time just for the amount of time that we had spent there um it felt maybe like leaving a moment too early rather than a moment too late. So Tim, much like Aaron Rodgers, burned some bridges. I burned some bridges there.

He's kind of surly. He cares what people think. He is a good person, but his first impressions, sometimes he leaves the room and he doesn't resolve what he created. You know what I mean? And he's unaware of it. doesn't resolve what he created. Do you know what I mean? And he's unaware of it.

Sometimes my former teammates or co-stars might describe me not as a leader or I might be unfairly criticized for that. Now your character or you as the person? Me as the person, just Tim Simon. Ironically, your character was someone who didn't give a shit about what people thought or it seemed seemingly like. I was not,

was not particularly worried as long as he had power he didn't he didn't care but i so i feel like the show went out a moment too early rather than a moment too late and to be honest like i think the like the more and the more and more we get into like the current political climate that you it's you can't satirize it like the show became a little bit more of a blunt instrument rather than a scalpel as it went along because that was the only tool you had to fight how ridiculous the reality became yeah so i don't i actually don't envy anybody that's trying to do political satire right now because it's beyond it is beyond parody like how would v handle things

like cancel culture do you think like how would it discuss they things like cancel culture, do you think? Like how would it discuss her? They touched it a little bit where Selena, I think in the last season, went back to Smith College and weren't there like protesters? That's right, yeah. For something. But they didn't go into it deep. But I don't know. I don't know how you would approach.

You'd put Selena at the center of it and she would do something dirty to make to save the day she would try to get somebody else canceled just to like take over she would like leak a story about somebody else so that that person would take all the heat to get herself uncanceled did you guys find yourselves to become more political or less political as a part of being a part of that cast and talking about politics a lot i personally became more educated in politics through the show it was a great window into you know we got to i got to meet several historic you know press secretaries who work for historic presidents obviously and uh we got access to the white house we got access to like staffers and like chiefs of staff like

really bright people or seasoned veterans and so and then having people on set like frank rich or like there's like these minds arm arm and obviously dave mandel these people who are just political geniuses and also comedy geniuses in a way and so i felt very enriched by the process so i think i became more informed completely by the process i wasn't really apolitical i was like averagely political and now i'm a little more educated i'd say what about you i would say the same i i was not a great high school student so a lot of this in a way was like a civics class for me like kind of learning about like a lot of the minutiae about how the government worked generally didn't know there were 50 states

i did not know that until i was thinking like solid yeah no like solid you saw 50 chairs in the senate or and i was like i was like why are there four extra it's like wait wait i thought there was 13 alaskan hawaii yeah he didn't know about um so i definitely like learned a lot more about it but i also like i was always somebody that was definitely i was not apolitical before but i do i do also feel like you get to see definitely i was not apolitical before but i do i do also feel like you get to see you i don't know you get behind the scenes a little bit and you start to like it demystifies some of it and there are times where i like recognize like even if i am aligned with a political party that like sometimes i am being spun by my own party and like you kind of like look for, you look for the thing behind the thing,

you know, rather than just sort of like blindly saying like, oh, like, well, why are they, you know what? I don't know. Like I got a little bit more cynical, but also I feel like I did learn, I did learn a lot. And it's also like the seasoned political minds that say we were exposed to,

their ability is to go like, do you think you could ask them, do you think this bill will pass? And they're like, no, what's going to happen is this. to go like do you think you could ask them do you think this bill will pass and like no what's going to happen is this they can like kind of tell you yeah in a predictive way generally generally how something because the news obviously when it comes at you it's like overwhelming and then obviously more days go by so you get more information around the issue and so then you know you can react a little more educated but people who like follow politics forever they can really read the tea leaves and that's what's i think a smart mind is like they can kind of see how something plays out i i like hearing stuff because when i watched

veep or even in a different way house of cards when they try to show like an insider's point of view of the politics and right now especially now when you watch the news or all the different outlets and platforms that talk about politics the divisiveness and how angry it is and then you watch some of these other shows that behind the scenes and they they humanize in a lot of ways politicians and things like that and i find it a little bit more calming to be like you know, these probably are people and the jokes or how they make you guys like would tease each other or make fun of yourselves or the characters.

And I found that to be because when you've, you know, this isn't a political show at all. And I've, as far as politics, when I was younger, I was more into it. Now it's just more, I find it to be exhausting and disheartening and just for all those reasons. And when you, I would watch Veep, it was this more, it made me think these people are more, more human when you would talk about, it made me wish that you would hear more of the human

side or just the honesty, I think, which all people want from their politicians not the perception of honesty you know like a you know when trump was like he tells you what he wants it's like yeah you know sure uh but it would be nice to say cut the bullshit here's what's gonna happen let's not waste our time but there's a theatrics when it comes to politics and it was fun for me to watch veep and peel some of that back yeah and and found that to be insightful i always like the fact that like a politician in hearing that would be like would not think oh i need to tell them more honestly what i believe they would just think i need to find a way to fake being more honest about something I don't believe.

Like they wouldn't hear that and be think like, wow, I should be more authentic. They'd be like, wow, I have to figure out a way to pretend to be more. I'm not coming off as honest enough. Yes.

How do I sound? How can I come off more honest? Did you guys ever have conversations with the people you got to meet about why they would think that way as opposed to doing it a certain, more authentic way? Super powerful people. I don't think, I've never sat down with Obama or somebody like that. I've never met super powerful people. But the staffers, in some ways, what I liked about Veep was it's timeless truths.

i liked about veep was it's timeless truths like there's human beings trying to administer and execute laws and there's egomaniacs and power hungry bastards at the top of it and you're serving those people and sometimes you can push you can squeak something through that maybe helps your town or your state or whatever but that's the game but that's in some ways held true for like all of politics at least in like say democratic america in a way so i don't know i like the grand truth of it you don't know her party ever you know like it's not like painting one side against the other it's sort of at least in its beginning stage it's not painting anything really so i like that about veep and yeah i liked yeah that was great because it was more inclusive that way there is

yeah and it's a bigger truth i think in a way like obviously you can go deeper on that and obviously the show reflected current politics and it was a an amalgam of like contemporary issues and obviously now doing a show where she tweets is not relevant anymore. So it has to be dialed into what's happening now in a way, in an honest way. Tim, you were saying? No, I was just thinking about, in talking to people out there, there was that thing of,

it wasn't really a part of the conversation. Like, oh, should we be more honest? I think it was really just, maybe it was just a cynical time but it was just sort of like what is the value of actually telling the truth like everybody knows there is no value in telling the truth i don't know you does that make sense there is yeah well maybe there isn't i don't know there i mean there kind of isn't at that level like there is no value what are you going to get out of telling the truth to somebody at that level you're just

going to lose your job like it doesn't matter that like but i guess like we are now living in like this sort of hyper realized version of that where you think like you know where we think about like oh well how we're how is how is how is somebody going to get away with saying that donald trump did a great job handling covid which was very dangerous and also denying that it covid is dangerous you're like wow how could they possibly put those two things together well now all they have to do is just do both of those things and it doesn't matter so like there is there is no value there is no value in telling the truth and there they are just like yeah like they'll they they get well it seems

like the simple value in telling the truth is you can keep your story straight like it's almost simpler like that in a practical but you're right like human beings being utilitarian animals like the path of least resistance yeah avoid pain seek pleasure like we're sort of driven by some of that so like in a world where like you have to keep your lies straight it is sort of easier to just keep it real, I think. And there's a version of these dynamic politicians. I don't know if people make fun of me, but I think Obama in some ways was a real deal. I know he had to play the game and stuff, but a guy like that comes in the room and he does have a dream and he does have hope.

I don't know if that's all manufactured and baloney like i think he believes it and then maybe it got beaten out of him after eight years but i do think like and obviously the machine preys on those people in some way because it's like oh my god we got our guy we can still make money or what you know what i mean like so people attach to those real deal people and that's where like corruption can happen but i do believe that in a truthful way like when we met jim were such name droppers we got to do this ridiculous thing in france for uh we met james carville and did a panel with james carville like right in the south of france like it was amazing and he i remember he

of course just regaled us with his stories about politics and he said france like it was amazing and he i remember he of course just regaled us with his stories about politics and he said it's like it's either like message or presentation he's like i'm a message guy like what's your message like what are you saying as opposed to the presentation like what does it look like what's the the shine of it what's maybe perhaps the slickness of it but but what are you substantively saying? So you can approach it that way. I'm not saying you always succeed, but I still think you can approach it that way. But yeah, sometimes trying to tell the truth is incredibly exhausting in certain aspects,

and I think people give up sometimes on that. I'm just saying fewer lies. aspects and i think people give up sometimes on that i'm just saying fewer lies i'm not like being a pollyanna about it but i think fewer lies is probably easier to navigate i think that holds true day to day for most people but i do think that politicians now they they then it doesn't matter like a lot about the show was like here you know oh no we like we talked out of both sides of our mouth and now it's like you know's like, that is the political reality has changed where it's just like, oh yeah, no,

we talk out of both sides of our mouth now. We don't even have to try to hide it. We told you one thing, we told this person the other thing and that doesn't- Don't believe what they want to believe. But they're both true. They're both true.

It doesn't matter. You met James Carville on the, did you get to meet him on old school? I don't know if I was there that day. I guess I probably didn't. I always, I love James Carville on the, did you get to meet him on old school? Cause he, I don't know if I was there that day. I guess I probably didn't. I always, I love James Carville. Yeah.

My grandfather was born in Algiers. So I have like a big, I have a big thing for anybody from New Orleans. Oh, I, I used to watch him

on when college and when he was on, was it Crossfire? Was, was he in that with Tucker? Oof. Yeah, he was. You're right. right famously wonderful guy tucker carlson

him and john gruden will have a show yeah coming up i'm sure you heard it here first um they'll get paid 40 million dollars a year each to talk about how crazy it was to be canceled and how nobody can hear them anymore they don't have a platform they don't have a platform because they got canceled unvip kind of piggyback on what we were talking about before like i was watching i was catching up and re-watching some episodes and there was a line how um everyone all the administrators were the one it i think the line was it'd be easy to run the country without the president or have to dealing with him, but this is the world we live in. And it was the people behind the scenes

who are really running things in the country. How much of that do you think is satire? Or how much truth do you think is in lines like that when it comes to from what you guys learned both on the set and talking to people in politics? I listened to it. I was just like like i wonder how much that is true well i mean there is that i mean like i think back to a story about like health care getting passed when obama was in and like it just came down there were like some you know congressional holdouts and what it really came down to was like obama's not doing all the work he's not writing the bill like you know he's

not doing he's not crunching numbers but like at some point it wasn't going to pass and we heard a story about how at one point there was a meeting and out of nowhere barack obama walked in the room and was like guess what this is happening this is happening and you need to get on board otherwise here are they're going to be the consequences for you as politicians and that's sort of what it became like so you ultimately i do think that you need somebody that has that kind of like to be able to get that many people going in the right direction you do need to have a strong leader yeah do you need to have someone who actually takes responsibility and is like i'm going to lead us through this i do think you need that person yeah but like putting your name on it so yeah and quarterbacking it

yeah connect you have to connect with people you don't just have to have good passing ratio you have to be a human being in the huddle. I mean, you can't have teammates coming out later and saying you weren't a great leader. If you're coming off like Jay Cutler, then you need to do some work. That's all I'm going to say. Whoever's listening to your podcast. You have to care. Famously wonderful guy. Aaron, if you're listening.

Jay Cutler. If you're coming off a little bit like Jay Cutler, then you need to look in the mirror and you need to say, what can I do to understand myself a little better because i don't want that if jay cutler listens to this podcast i want you to look in the mirror and say why am i a piece of and then just go from there figure out why is there any part of you that someone who wants to be liked envies the people like a jay cutler who what's the balance between not caring what people think? Because there's a lot of truth to what other people think of you as none of your business, but at the same time,

having the moral compass to be kind and courteous. It's one thing to not care what people think about you as opposed to taking advantage of the gifts you're given and just being miserable to be around i don't i think there's too high a i don't know i mean like you have to have i mean he has a lot of money so he can do that like i don't like he has fuck you money so he can be a little bit like fuck you but i do think that there's a cost to there is ultimately a cost to living like that like I don't know what you think. Yeah, or is it bipolar disorder or something?

Who knows? But there is a cost to that. And ultimately, people can only be who they are at some point. I don't know how much people can change. You're an adult. That's who they are. Do you think that with fame and being in the public eye, you have had to close off a little bit more

or you've become more empathetic to people around you? I've become, I am not famous, but I am recognizable. And so I have become more empathetic to people who are in the public eye in that way of like everybody assumes that that's something they want until it happens and it's like oh that could be bad so like i am like i am empathetic but before where i would just be like whatever stop stop whining you get to do you get to do this thing that everybody wants to do now that they're if that makes sense like i am

more empathetic to people that are in the public eye in a huge way yeah and i like tim i'm not famous but i am recognizable i'd say but i do have sympathy for people who are under constant scrutiny or you know just judgment or harsh obviously in the social media world they're being judged or uh i don't know it must be brutal so i don't wish that on necessarily anyone although some people bring it on themselves like they want that notoriety and they want to be the public conversation like constantly and it's like good luck yeah then you lose or they maybe they're laughing all the way to the bank so whatever you know what i mean like i don't know but to me it's like you do lose there's your work life or your creative life and

then there's your life like i think you do want to preserve a little bit of like sanity or something like you don't want to give it all away you want to have like a stable little thing that you can just chill out you don't have you know nobody's expecting anything from you it's not a competition but i do you're you're more famous than me it's not a competition, but I do, you're, you're more famous than I am. It's not a competition. We're not sure. I'm older and sure, but whatever. But I'm, I'm saying that in the world of like having some sympathy for people, it's, I don't

know, there's different sides of it. Some people launch themselves into that, want to be 24 seven in the heart of the conversation and then they get knocked out because they won't shut up. Yeah. It's like some people, and then there's like people, I start with the, my reset or default position is like, who really cares what I want to say about anything? Like, do you know what I mean?

Like, I can't dissect politics. I can't like judge somebody in pop culture. Like in a way way like i have enough humility to realize like because we'll go to red carpets and people will be like i don't know like they want a hot take on john gruden let's say or something i'm like that's terrible but i'm not gonna like figure it out right here do you know what i mean like it's like that's awful and he had to go yes that's true you know but after that like i don't know like so in a way that like the culture wants you to do that or in the way that some people in the spotlight want you know are judged that way i don't envy that yeah i remember i remember

tony hale when we first started on the show he was talking about like being recognized he's like it's a very weird thing and eventually you do get over it you get past it but like you start noticing that people recognize you and then you start looking for people to recognize you and it's a weird shift when that happens and then there's a shift where you then just go back to trying to not notice it or like recognizing when it does happen but like i can i can get why people like they get like a little hit of of people recognizing them being like well i'm just going to chase that at all costs but do you engage with that do you engage with your celebrity

obviously people love you that listen to this let's say yeah i mean you engage with them did you i try my best i'm it's hard hard for me i have a very strong introverted side um and but i'm like right in the middle so like i don't i like going out i like being social but i'm like an introverted socialite and so the thing about reality tv is you're very much known for who you are like you're then you know your name it's your actual likeness you're not necessarily even playing a character yeah you're playing a character of yourself and so at the height of it you can be very much yeah you like like tony mentioned you can feel it and see it and it's i get very awkward at times or self-conscious and there are moments where uh you're like oh fuck what did i say did i say that i do something or was i nice or you know

you always try to be and it it you get in your head a lot i have and there is that thing like stand-up comedians i'm assuming deal with this quite a bit but like we have the ability to hide behind characters we have the ability to hide behind that but when you are like but when it is like you know when you're known as yourself you know then it's sort of like the separation can be hard the separation can be like oh well this is the public version of me that i sort of have to keep up and then there's just like the i don't want to talk about this but you know what i mean like if i don't know yeah no totally it's it's it's something i've always struggled with um i've never been good at it but at the same time I have embraced it. And I've, you know, before I was ever on a reality TV show, I sold software in Chicago

and I quit that and came out here and took a UCB class and was like, I'm going to see if I can do something with this. Not totally knowing what I wanted to do, but I wanted to work hard and dive into it and do the work and see what would happen. So it's, it's kind of like, I wasn't good at it and I'd be awkward, but I definitely, there is a drug aspect of it. Like you, like you said, like, like there are times you catch yourself looking, you know, and being super hyper aware. And then you ask yourself, like, am I looking because I being self-conscious

or am I looking because my ego is searching for validation of some kind it's like a really weird thing i'm not going to say that covet only affected me okay all right that would be a ridiculous thing okay but but when you're recognizable you'll go into coffee shops sometimes and some people like oh hey i really like that show you're on can you'll go into coffee shops sometimes. And some people are like, oh, hey, I really like that show you're on. Can we buy you a cup of coffee? They're like, yeah, that's awesome. It's like a great thing. And then COVID comes along, you got to wear masks.

First, you can't even leave your house. And then you got to wear a mask when you go to a coffee shop if it's open. And they don't recognize you from a TV show. Did you find yourself like pulling it off and holding it down for a three second count? You know, I i mean like i should i should like come up with a way to do it i'm just saying like i know that i'm not the i know that covid did not affect me only that i was not the most affected by this i'm just saying that like we're talking about the people that were most effective i feel like i'm up there

why don't you just get a photorealistic mask that just continues your face the proportions never work i try the proportions never work that is a bummer man do you have a therapist you can deal with this i have two therapists all right you should bring this this is a talk to both of them about it they both didn't agree do you really have two therapists no i don't that'd be amazing like you piggy i just go to whichever one tells me that i'm right listen you're not telling me what i want to do i have one for my celebrity matt walsh and then i have one for my real person matt walsh dude i was in prepping for this interview i was googling you guys and there is another popular matt walsh

now oh yeah just happens to be a very divisive right-wing conservative famously wonderful guy other matt walsh and i i i we don't i don't have to get into your politics but i could only assume that no we didn't necessarily get anything in common with this guy and yet what is the the rise of his this divisive culture that we in have you intersected we've never intersected i never engaged. I have been mistaken for him on social media. Yeah, have you gotten like weird DMs? People are like, fuck you, man. Leave him alone or whatever. Because he is a provocateur

and he says what I would consider to be like ignorant things to provoke people, I think. And so, but I've never engaged him. And it is a little weird. And I don't know, like in some ways, he is a bigger celebrity than me because he does trend on Twitter, and people are all over him. And he's pushing his name in a way.

As an actor, you don't necessarily do, like we just talked about. You kind of hide behind the character sometimes. Yeah. And he's more... So I don't know that there's necessarily confusion, but there is another Matt Walsh yeah I don't know that I'm confused for him other than people might react they might see I was just more curious if you have like a random story or random dm or someone like was wanting to dm him or criticizing

you talking to the wrong guy or uh no but I have had like hate on like social media a little bit and I I'll clarify it when I see it but I don't really I'm like hate on like social media a little bit and i i'll clarify it when i see it but i don't really i'm not super active on social media either so like whatever okay uh you are heavily involved in a foundation uh the name escapes me forgive me but it's about uh having more lgbtq literature and books a church. This must be in the press release. My wife has a church. We have a very strong LGBTQ community listening to this podcast.

I thought it was a really cool thing. It is a cool thing. Awareness and representation is important. And I was just curious how you got involved in something like that. Well, I'm a board member. And we have our oldest son, Jude, is gay. He told us he was gay when he was like

11 or something and it was wonderful and also very normal, like whatever. And, uh, somewhere around that, my wife met a gal Keiko and she and Keiko started this idea that they would put books in public schools, which librarians of public schools love free brand new books so they're already on the right side of learning and their stories where the heroes aren't your typical hero or they like sort of are more in the spectrum of like lgbtq or they're just like different heroes you know what i mean and so what it does is like it gives free books to schools public schools not private which are starving for new books and it also when kids read those books kids who feel different feel okay once they see that hero and they're young you know they're for elementary kids and then the kids who aren't dealing with that perhaps are a little more like in tune with it and perhaps more i don't know

tolerance right word but they've sort of like they can recognize it and say like i think i have a cousin who's like that or something you know what i mean more inclusive more inclusive yeah where they get to be the hero yeah if you know because you as a kid you think you read these stories and if you could find something about yourself that you identified with a character you could be like i could be that guy absolutely or girl and now that you have so there's kids who read that those books and feel let's say before they read a book like that or see a movie like whatever uh there's no one like me where i'm from you know what i mean they feel that and then a book makes it a little easier to know like oh there's others people like me as well as kids who don't deal with that they sort of like oh wow

that's neat as a yeah because a kid like a feeling can make you feel outside the box so to speak you know you and i have a sister who came out not too long ago it took her until she was 18 and we i grew up in a very christian conservative household my parents have very much progressed and evolved in a way that when she came out as a really positive thing but 15 years ago if you would have said hey you're gonna have a child who's gay i i would have been like oh one home mom and dad are gonna handle that one you know like and beautifully they've done a a really great job but you just you talk about like you know when talking to my sister like how she felt

you know and in that feeling of if are my feelings okay? I think it's really cool to acknowledge that it is okay at such a young age. Yeah, it is. And obviously, if you keep a big part of yourself quiet, it can turn into trauma or worst case, kids start harming themselves because they don't understand why they have to be this way. And your son came out at 11. That's pretty young, is it? I don't know. Maybe not as much anymore i don't know i don't know the stats but it wasn't really a

thing he was just always curious that way and i think mom and dad were already ahead of that sure way and it was all fine and so far so good that's great yeah yeah are you involved in are you doing anything what are you doing for the world other than trying to get a free cup of coffee? Well, you say that that's a bad thing. You say that that's a bad thing.

Like, I do so much good for the world when I take that free cup of coffee. Well, you're making someone's day by going to their cafe. I'm really just in there.

I'm spreading smiles. If they buy you the coffee, do you offer a selfie or are you just like, thanks, man? No, I just, then like I tip what I would have spent on the coffee if somebody gives me the coffee i just put five dollars in the tip jar have you ever offered a selfie i always i do i don't know what

to do in that situation people are fans i do i i feel like there is a weird thing where i does that you don't want to be presumptuous and be like hey do you want it i'm just waiting for that no but also like sometimes people don't want to ask yes and so but usually i leave it up to them usually i leave it up to them because i feel like one time i did happen where somebody was like hey man love the show blah blah blah and i was like oh yeah great i yeah do you want to take a picture and he's like no yeah and then you're like what the fuck uh i've had that happen i wanted to die yeah how do you like i always say like hey do you want to buy me a cup of coffee yeah yeah do you wish a happy birthday do you

have a family member i can send a video to or like no i just i don't know i just recognized you from that thing i'm on the board of a uh of a charity called friends of lasa my, which is a public performing arts high school in LA and Koreatown. It uses performing arts as a teaching tool for all subjects. And they have a design, a tech, and an acting program. And it's like a severely underfunded LA public school that has a 98% graduation rate. The school is incredible. they do really good work and one of the one of the things i always say about is like it's like a tight like everybody that goes to school's title one like that free school lunch like it's it underserved population in los angeles and one of the things i always talk about when i talk about the charity is that like

generally you have heard from the from the entertainment world that like diversity both in front of and behind the camera is something that matters but one thing that is one one of the big deals about that is that in order for you to have diversity in front and in front of and behind the camera you have to have people that are trained for that and so this is a school that trains people that that trains people in acting design and tech and uh uh so you're going to have a more diverse workforce and that is the value in it because and the reason i say that is because you kind of have to quantify in a capitalist way why these things are worth it they're like oh whatever like your team what is that going to

do for the world to teach them about if someone wanted to help performing arts funded or where could they go uh they could go to venmo uh at friends of Lhasa they could go to friendsoflhasa.org l-a-h-s-a um and there's also there is like a gender nation.org I think you can go on both sites actually there is like you can donate here and then you can like leave a like leave a tip which is just like buys him a cup of coffee so you can like also include that in your donation to the charity if you want and then that all that money goes directly to me do you take an americano with a cream yeah how do you take it just is americano with some milk i'm not trying to be fancy i'm not i'm not i'm not asking for too much i'm just asking for you to add four dollars to your charitable donations just straight up cow milk you like like a cow's milk or do you like some milk every once in a cow milk? Just straight up cow milk. You like a cow's milk. Or do you like some oat milk

every once in a while? I'm on straight up Midwest Wisconsin. I think I'll always cow milk it. Really? I haven't really. I like a good oat or almond milk. Oat's the only one that I found

that's moved me off the... I've wanted to go that route, but I just, I can't do it. You know what? In cereal, it's a no-brainer. You can go almond milk

or oat milk. I feel like almond's a bridge too far. I feel like i tried it and it didn't work because the cereal mixes with it anyways it turns into a milkshake i'm getting some agreement over here yeah here's how i feel about cereal it's terrible for you yes i'm just gonna have the milk because if i'm trying to go healthy no i do it's like a snack but like if I'm trying to go healthy just not gonna have the cereal you know like if I'm gonna cocoa pebble it like do I really want to put really do I really need to put oat milk in it you know like it's like oh that's a frosted video but I can't no we don't have oat milk I'm I mean I guess for the lactose intolerant community, I understand that is a need. Do we need to refer to them as a community?

I don't know. Do we need to like... I'm lactose intolerant friends, I think is what you're supposed to say. Every episode I'm notified how I leave out some, or I said something or did something, or I don't know. I'm just trying to acknowledge everyone.

And I saw something recently, which was like somebody pointing out that like you know if somebody spends too much time on twitter because they can't they they do like a pre-caveat for everything they say which is like i understand that uh this like you know but i have thought about the next sentence that i'm going to say oh my god like really that but there is also like i don't know it went around recently no there is they're at and i'm as guilty of that and i try to say to myself okay this is me being more empathetic and me understanding and at the same time trying to find the balance between empathetic but still

being my genuine self and saying what i feel think and feel while not offending anyone. The lactose intolerant community. The lactose intolerant friends. That's the politically correct way to say it. But if I met a dickhead who was lactose intolerant, I wouldn't want to call him a friend. Well, that's what I'm saying. Only the friends.

Only the nice ones. You're not really trying to service the needs of the mean, bully, lactose intolerant people. Okay, so we are being excluding when we are being exclusive if they're jerks you're not catering to their needs if you're like if you're jay cutler and you're lactose intolerant get the out of here i don't have any i don't have the time of day finding a substitute honestly either drink the cream i got or go to the store yourself you know what j Jay? Get in your goddamn pickup truck and drive

to the store and get your own oat milk. Yeah, smoking Jay Cutler. Put another cigarette in your mouth. Have you ever been a smoker? I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. Really? It's fucking cool. I've dabbled in the THC.

I'm part of that community. Do you have a a good uh cigar aficionado friends base here on your podcast like are there a lot of cigar people i doubt it who knows coffee drinkers though yeah okay also i stopped going to interesting that you mentioned the coffee as i it was the pandemic that were one i tried to find the silver lining in anything and not that the pandemic was good at all but i now learned the benefits of home brewing coffee because prior to that i was strictly i'd always walk and get my coffee coffee la has some great local yeah coffee establishments and i would always just go spend four bucks or five bucks on a cup of coffee as part of my morning routine and now i just brew coffee at home and it's way better what you have

to do is get on a political satire uh hbo show and then when you go to those coffee shops you're not spending four dollars so you brew at home or just go out it's the same i've never even even if they have a mask sign take your mask off take your mask and go in so they recognize if there's like a city back on like oh i forgot and or if it's like oh my gosh i'm so sorry my name's tim simons you like you just say that you put your mask back on sorry i just want you to know it was me i just wanted you to know it was me yeah did you want a selfie yeah no put your mask. Matt, I'd be remiss for my audience to not talk about Father of the Bride, of which you are part of the cast. You're in Father of the Bride? Yeah. Small one, small part. I play a marriage counselor for, excuse me, I play a marriage

counselor for Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan. So i got to do a scene with them and that was really fun wait is that real yeah they're doing a new reboot father the bride and it's a cuban family and a mexican family oh not this is a reboot yeah no no this is a new one it's a reboot is it out yet is it out no no okay i don't know when it's coming out but that's yes we're very good at promoting how how how is it going to be different is it how much of the original uh in terms of the theme is it a totally different storyline essentially the same i mean i was a big father of the bride fan as a child father of the bride too arguably i think it's about one of the better sequels and and i'll have to watch it again i wasn't super familiar with the first two i think the

first one i saw but i think it's about the culture clash between like a cuban family andy garcia's family and i forget the people who played the mexican parents but i think it's about those culture clashing inside the hispanic community so i think it's an interesting take yeah and i got to work with uh andy garcia who's amazing very nice that's like the original father yeah the best like so sweet original father bride was just like the clash between one rich family and an even more rich family like Steve Martin's character was like owned a small shoe oddly enough these are both wealthy families yeah yeah one fam well I don't want to ruin anything I don't know what I

can say one family kills the other family no one family has a lot more money than the other family. So it's similar in that way. Yeah, I guess it is similar, yeah. Similar in that way. Yeah. And you play a counselor. Marriage counselor, yeah. Marriage counselor.

It must have been fun. Oh my God, so fun. I think it was the first thing I did right out of pandemic. I think it was in April or May. Where'd you shoot it? In Atlanta. I was in Atlanta for only three days, four days. Just a couple scenes.

But it was really fun to like go back to work. I remember that too. Gloria Estefan was there? She was in the scene. Yeah, we did our scene. What was cooler, Andy Garcia or Gloria Estefan in terms of being able to work with? Legends, both.

Was either one of them? I guess the novelty of Gloria was was more uh interesting because i've met andy and i worked on ghostbusters with him and i've bumped into him at various things occasionally so and he's but he remembers me he's very nice so i think you're friends with andy i wouldn't say friends but he might know my name he might think i'm the other matt walsh that's why he likes me i don't know but he knows you're not yeah the gloria of it all was very cool and i i did pepper her a little bit just to kind of get her story and i did do a selfie i was that guy said you wouldn't mind if i got a selfie with you and that was it what did she say she was

delightful she's like of course oh that's nice i did that with david beckham yeah why not like if you're a real fan why not and and i did the very thing that i have criticized people of doing with me is that um i i first told david my mom and sisters are gonna really like this and i was like what the fuck i'm i'm asking for me this has nothing to do with my mom or sister but i like discredited like the importance to you i was like i don't want a picture with you david yeah this is beneath this is like this is for my mom you i was like i don't want a picture with you david yeah this is beneath this is like this is for my mom and i was like no this is i'm sorry i i wanted the picture with you but i found myself it was a very meta self-aware moment for me yeah i have a friend

who i have a friend who uh is really well known matt damon uh Matt Damon. Have you heard of him? I know Matt Damon. Come on. He's well known. No, I have a friend who is well known in the golf podcasting community. He's well known

in golf. You're an amazing golfer. I'm not amazing. I'm okay. Professional? I just really like it. I just really like it. Okay.

And he was, recently, we were playing together and he was like in the locker room and somebody recognized him he's a very recognizable guy he's very funny he's really personable really wonderful guy somebody recognized him in the locker room he had like just gotten out of the shower and he was like oh what's up my dude like they started like started talking and they're like cool and like they talked for a minute and then the guy just like kept calling in people like like hey hey get in here get in here like so like all of a sudden like five or six people we're already best friends we're already best friends but like there are moments where it's like this is not the time yeah like this like yeah like yes i'm not saying no you

should never do this but like also remember the situation and in a towel is not maybe the best, maybe not the best way. That's even worse than going for the mid-bite of food as dinner is being served. Sorry for interrupting your meal. However. Do you say no? Will you tell people to wait until after you're done?

I don't have the guts. That's interesting. Sometimes I'll give the sigh of disappointment. Be like, sure. I got a small eye that's devastating i don't know that i've ever been interrupted mid-bite in a meal i don't know but i'd like to think i'd have the wherewithal to go you know what when i leave can we can we do this when i leave i've done that yeah i've been like i don't think that's terrible to like hey i'm like really enjoying myself but i will give you what you want yeah i've had that happen on a plane someone will come up like hey in the middle of the plane ride i'm like can we just do it at the when we all get off the plane so i'm not

standing up in the middle of an aisle while everyone's like who the is this guy and why are you taking a picture so i have gotten off the place and i've waited i was fortunate enough to work with uh the amazing jessica lang on a movie that didn't turn out so great but we flew back from spain to america first class and somebody as she was like knocking out you know she's getting her rest and long distance flight and somebody's like ting ting taps on the show and she like kind of wakes up or and she i think she might even have the sleep thing getting ready to go down. And the person said, oh my God, I love you. Can I get a picture? And she's like, oh my God, no, no, no.

And I so respect her. It was like, oh my God, no, no. Well, she did it in such a way. She went plank, put the things down in headphones. And she's right. She's right. Like, come on. No.

And also, she's Jessica Lange. Give her some space. Yeah, it's Jessica Lange. I don't lang like give her some space yeah it's jessica i don't feel like i have that clout to say no yeah but there are opportunities where you meet someone and you have to risk the shame of being a fan because you kind of want to like get a relic of it yeah even though i don't look at a picture of somebody i took with them ever i might send it to a friend or like you say my sister loved i remember one time i was a being in la i moved out them ever i might send it to a friend or like you say my sister loved i remember one time i was a being in la i moved out here and i stumbled into a room with john crier who played

ducky in pretty in pink which is my sister's favorite movie and at some point i pestered him and god bless him he was so nice and he left her this fun message on her answering machine or voicemail not answering machine and it was so sweet of him but in retrospect now i'm like i bet i was kind of hammering him to do that like that's kind of aggressive and i i kind of felt like i bet i was not a good fan in that situation but he was so gracious he was so gracious i think it just depends on how you approach it if you are gracious and thankful and asking usually get the graciousness in return i think there's an awkwardness when people ask where i think the mistakes sometimes people make and i

and i can tell they're no they don't mean it but there's like i want you to think that i'm at your level i don't want you to think i'm a fan and in doing so i'll be offensive like i don't even care like whatever but like do this thing just do it hey can you just and they'll like order you and i don't think they're trying to be rude but it comes across as very dismissive as opposed to the story you told it's like hey man i'm just i'm acknowledging that i'm asking for something and he's just like you know what because everyone likes to help someone and you just make if you make someone feel like you're going to make their day it's much easier to want to do something for them and how hard is it to be if someone likes what you do so they walk into an interaction where they already they appreciate what you do and all you really have to do is say

why thank you yeah like that's not a hard interaction to have yeah that makes the celebrity side or on the fame side i get what i mean yeah because i get really bad because i just have like i can be very honest and when i see the the other side when they're when they're trying to not be gracious or whatever all the way of calling it out and i just i need to let it go but like sometimes i'm just like really your mom is it you're because you haven't watched you know and so that's okay the only celebrity my mom has ever cared about is albert brooks and she doesn't really care who i meet or who i talk to or who i work with it always comes down to do you think if when i'm in la we might run into albert brooks that's the only person she cares

about that's amazing that's probably for the best though it is kind of great It is kind of great. It is kind of great. Well, I'll bring it back to Veep before we wrap up. Obviously, that show has so many comedy legends in it and then you have Julia, you have Tony, obviously,

you two as well. Tony and Julia come from other popular shows like Seinfeld and Arrested Development. Were you guys fans of those shows or were there a lot

of conversations about like when they were on set about them reminiscing about those shows and then i'm also curious about the improv if at all there's so many improvisational people on that were you guys pretty much on script or how much of it were you guys just kind of playing around see what worked and and were you able to take some playing around see what worked and and uh were you able to take some credit for the what seemed to be brilliant writing so when it came to the first question i was a fan of both of those shows and there was like a learning thing and like especially

when it came to arrested where i have watched that show so many times i know every little moment every little joke. And I would talk to Tony. He's like, what were you guys thinking? Like, does this seem to set up this? And it seemed to set up this. And he was like, honestly, I didn't know. None of us knew it was chaos.

Like, so there is that thing of like the things that you think everybody is so like thought out so purposely and put everything in place. And they were just tapping these dominoes that fell. Like some of it was planned, but a lot of it was accident like a lot of it i do feel like a lot of genius is found by accident yeah if you're being completely honest yeah you can be pompous and take credit for everything but the the fortune you know the lightning of in a bottle of anything is this you're a little lucky right yeah i so like being fans of both tony and of course of julia

going in i think in other situations honestly if they were different people it might have been intimidating but they were very like julia like set a very welcoming tone from the top or mando sent a very welcoming tone from the top. So it felt very collaborative early on. That's cool. And very supportive early on. Yeah, because I would see how that could be intimidating. I mean, even with that, I was very intimidated. Yeah, I think I wasn't like a super fan of either show,

but I knew Tony. Actually, Tony and I bumped into each other in New York because we were both like commercial actors back in the day. So we're sort of the same like generation of youngsters coming out and uh we and then julia i just felt like was a already sort of a comedy icon like beyond that show i just feel like she's very respected so julia i was definitely intimidated by but i never felt the urge to like go through seinfeld episodes with her because i hadn't seen a bunch so it wasn't like a fan of that show but i did have obviously very hyper like reverence for julia for whatever reason yeah this is a iconic

just going in like pre-v like yeah i mean i was more like i get to interview guys who worked with julia yeah yeah yeah that's there and when it came to like there was a fair amount of improvisation but it was mostly we had a rehearsal process that not a lot of other shows have how so that like we would show up we like before the pilot we showed up to film nine days early we did costume fittings we did all the normal stuff but then we would just go into a boardroom in the hotel we were staying in and we would just rehearse we would read the scenes talk about them on their feet put them on their feet try to add new things well what would like our amando might say like well what would happen if in this situation there were reporters badgering her with questions while

she's trying to fix something so we would then just play reporters in a scene like if it was a scene between tony and julia we would like just walsh and i and and uh and read we might just play reporters and try to throw things out at them try to trip them up to see what came out of it and i think we were encouraged in a very wonderful way which is so rare to take ownership of those characters through armando and through julia i think we were encouraged to make them our own and i think like the brits always impressed me because they could dissect our garbage culture and our political structure yeah and our history like they're just so much smarter seeming and uh but i think what they wanted a little jean was the vernacular like the way we would phrase things the way like jonah might say something or way mike like for these

voices to emerge and the rhythms of those voices i think arm and the writers were very game for that to like take shape before them and play with that yeah i feel like you saw that as the show evolved and it was really well that's like storylines too yeah absolutely like it did evolve and i think we said the just recently we were talking about the show i don't know that from day one they knew where that show was going on season seven like I don't I think it was just a Ride yeah in many ways the ending credits of the show almost kind of had its own kind of special feel something you looked forward to was that Is that something you guys knew or started from the beginning or once you realize it became a thing?

Did you find yourselves trying to? Like do more improvisation with those moments or they were were they just fine moments while you guys were shooting to make a like an outro out of it i think there was always a sense because that actually came from armando's previous show in the uk the thick of it they had that sort of that credits role scene and usually it just meant it was meant to sort of give you a sense of feeling of lived in that like when the show was ending it still continued on like it never ended up on like a button and i think just as the show went on the story got more and more dense and then all of a sudden it was like you just needed the time in the real estate you needed

the real estate to actually like still tell the story so like major information was still coming out yeah in like some of those credit roll scenes but i think it in the first couple years there was sometimes a sense of like what the tone would be in those scenes so not that you would play into it you would still play the scene but you knew that those ones might be a little bit more quiet a little bit more conversational maybe yeah and i think keeping it live like for whatever reason in the first two seasons let's say we were always keeping it live because you didn't know when the camera was going to find you and then we would also do longer page chunks like a play because we enjoyed it and we would run follow selena through a hall and then we'd go to her office and then you'd leave the scene but you'd come back in 30 seconds and and it was like a play and as a result

of that i think some of those things that we captured you never knew if you're going to be on camera so you just kept behaving i remember you were just pointing out on one episode where jonah makes coffee because he's kissing ass in the president he just knew that like he might be on camera tim was so he's just like i guess i'll make coffee now i just actually had to go over and just like well i have to prepare the actual coffee yeah like theater in the round and that also is a wonderful it's like hitting the boards as a young comedian it's like getting hours it's like you really in this character and you can't drop the character until they say cut you know what i mean that's great training and that's wonderful experience because i think it benefited all of us yeah and there was a great thing that happened that like sort of as we got

a little more comfortable i know that this happened for me and i would say that it happened for you too is that every once in a while like it was a very collaborative atmosphere and you could add stuff and after a little while i think like i know i did this that i would just ask for forgiveness rather than permission like if i had an idea you would just be for forgiveness rather than permission. Like if I had an idea, you would just be like, we all trusted each other enough. It's like, I can go over to video village and pitch this joke and take a couple minutes trying to explain it.

Or I can just try it in this take. And if it doesn't, if it works, they'll be like, great, keep it. And if it doesn't, they'll be like,

don't do it this time. You know what I mean? But there was like a trust that you could try something without them being like, you know what? You just fucked up this take. You just fucked up that whole scene. You threw everybody off like why'd you do that you know you didn't have permission to do that a very kind of creative uh welcoming atmosphere yeah and i'm sure that

must have played a big role in how the show evolved and continued to be so successful yeah at what point when you guys were filming the show did you guys was there ever like did you think oh this is going to be big coming in you know julia's our lead it's going to be awesome or at some point we're like holy shit this is one of the best shows on tv right now like were you ever like did you ever have a holy shit moment i always felt excited and psyched that the show would be funny because of Armando. I liked the Steve Coogan show. What's it? Ellen Partridge and Arm was a part of that.

So I was super psyched of his like history and I'd seen in the loop, I believe. So I was very excited about that and obviously working with Julia. And then the fact that there was like some like looseness to it like the realness played to you know i like a little bit of improv like tim saying you can throw stuff in and take chances so i always felt fairly confident that it would be funny because of the quality of the people making it but i didn't know the crossover to who would care about it or how many people would care about it or whatever yeah because sometimes they take on a life of its own like like we talked about arrested development yeah it was never fully appreciated until it was off the air.

I mean, it was accredited and won awards, but they became a whole new level of popular after the fact. I kind of assumed that we would be a niche comedy in that way. I always assumed that people would find it and people would think it was funny, but I actually did not think it would cross over in the way that it did not that i have any sort of like you know i don't have any sort of but when you're a part of something it's natural to wonder or think or consider and like you had well here's a hypothetical what do you ever wonder if our

podcast will be bigger than the veep show seconded in command, our rewatch podcast. I think it already is. Could it eclipse the fame of Veep? I mean, look, I can't go anywhere. I get mobbed. I get mobbed. Just from the podcast? The show dropped yesterday. Second in command dropped yesterday. My phone has been just buzzing all night. So this is people watching the video. You can't. They recognize you.

You're coffeed out. I am coffeed out. I had seven cups of coffee before I got here. I just kept saying yes because you never know when the last one offend anyone but that's coffee country i was just dumping them out of the car window you know what i mean i was just throwing the cup like just out on the street somebody's i mean somebody else is going to clean that up not me because i'm on a very famous podcast i don't want any more coffee i don't want any more of your texts of congratulations for being the biggest podcast in america thank you i know i'm on the biggest podcast in america

you don't need to tell me that i'm the most famous man that's ever lived well veep is a very rewatchable show it's the type of show you put on late at night and watch and pick up jokes that you didn't watch the first time and now that you guys have your show i think you're are going to be the biggest podcast and i think if there are people in your audience that are like comedy nerds i think like one of the things that we do is we break down jokes i do think we do really go into sort of like what was uh like the creation how did a joke change how did it evolve how did where was it in the table read? Where did it end up? You know, where did that moment come from or what makes that moment work?

I think that's another interesting thing that we're doing. Oh, go ahead. No, it does. It builds out a fuller world around each episode. So it's like the full story of hopefully if we do a good job, it's the full story of the whole seven or 10 years we spent together, but great information on how jokes and storylines and things like that evolved and you also and also societal context we try to like so if you remember 2013 this was going on in dc so we try to provide those contextual clues as well and

bringing in experts as well you had a memory expert on your time of experts yeah we'll have more experts people love experts on this show. You brought us on as fame experts. No, Veep experts. We're very famous. Life experts. Yeah, free coffee experts. Coffee experts. Yeah, I think fame experts is fair too.

I agree with Tim. We are fame experts. Guys, it's been a real pleasure having you. Before I let you go, we like to play just a real simple game with our guests to learn even more about them it's called do you know me

okay you guys are down to play yeah great can I pass or I have to play no one's no one's passed sorry go ahead passed but you know do I get a pass can I say next question yeah do you know me with matt and

tim here we go that was really good i liked your introduction i like to go like game show i'm trying to where was that energy the rest of the interview i feel like you just came alive for that moment now i'm really self-conscious no you have a nice conversation but just like all of a sudden you're just like fucking right there you guys are intimidating oh that's that's not true i we are very famous though and that actually yeah i suppose that i mean we are on the biggest podcast in the united states tim dressed for a goal a round of golf the way, I must say. I have a tendency to forget what I'm going to. The videocast of it all? Well, there was one time I was in Austin,

and I had to go on this NPR show, and I was like, okay, it's NPR, so. Radio. I was radio, right? So I dressed like it was for radio, and I was so hungover. I have never looked more like a hunk of shit in my entire life.

And the guy, and it turns out that this was on camera, and I looked like an absolute turd. And the host who I have run into two or three times in like the seven years since it happened will never not bring it up that I looked like absolute shit. And so that happened again today. I kind of forgot that there was going to be a video aspect. You look fine. I think you look great. Thank you. You're being be a video aspect i you look you look great um i'm wearing you look great don't even know what i'm wearing you look

fashionable you have cool shoes you have cool uh shoelaces yeah i you know i was gifted these shoes a while back and i i don't feel totally comfortable in them and if i'm being honest but i was compelled by my girlfriend to wear them i think they look great I think you're doing really well you got a whole great thing going on I look like I look like somebody dragged me through a blind closet you look fine thank you I don't know what a do you golf I don't know I do you do I'm not as good he's probably better I mean pretty much he's more dedicated I actually related what is handicap? 12. Oh my God, you're so much better than me. I'm not good at golf. I'm like a 24.

I don't love golf. And actually, the line you give in old school. I hate golf. Is something I really resonated with. Where I feel like I'm not allowed in my community of white dudes from the Midwest to hate golf. You can hate golf. I fucking hate golf. And I was just like, oh, I feel seen.

Can you do the intro again? Do you know me? Yes, that's so good. Matt and Tim. Does Matt and or Tim know what the largest state in the United States is? Alaska. Alaska. Okay.

the united states is alaska alaska okay can either tim or matt name the last bachelor on abc no not me no pass a guy who was on the bachelor had like was a ran a contracting company and then yes he also worked on our back door yeah and. And then he was on The Bachelor. And then after The Bachelor, he went back to his contracting company. And he did the renovations. Who's that? His name is Juan. Juan Pablo? Juan Barbieri.

He's great. He's a contractor in the Los Angeles area. If you need a contractor, he's really lovely. He was also on The Bachelor. So I know he wasn't The Bachelor. No, he was on The Bachelorette. So i guess the short answer is neither one of us know that question were you the bachelor i was yeah whoa has matt or tim ever been an unpaid intern unpaid intern i have been a barely paid intern no i have been an unpaid intern. I have both been an unpaid intern and a barely paid intern.

The least money I've ever made as an intern was $50 a week. I guess I never interned. I don't think I ever interned anywhere. $50 a week. Yeah. I mean, they gave you like food and a place to stay,

but you made $50 a week. And I was a pretty heavy smoker. What was the job? I was working at the theater. That was the theater at Monmouth in Monmouth, Maine. It's a wonderful theater, Shakespearean theater. I grew up watching plays there. It's a really unbelievable place to work.

I loved it. And they gave you food and you're out in the middle of nowhere performing Shakespeare. And you get paid 50 bucks a week. And I was a heavy smoker and all that money just went to I got food and a place to stay from them and I got cigarettes from the $50 a week and that was it you no longer smoking I'm no longer smoking now no congratulations thank you you smoked your way through $50 a week I mean easily wow yeah that's aggressive back then probably get a lot of cigarettes for that oh yeah yeah well i was packing a half two a day jesus i was doing it i was doing it can matt and tim drive a stick shift

yes yes 100 it's a lost art i don't think that yeah it's probably diminishing vehicles that go out with stick shifts i think now if you want to buy a stick shift, you have to try to go out of your way. Yeah. Has Matt and Tim ever had a crush on a friend's sibling? Yeah. I think there was a girl in post-college era that I had a crush on. I knew her sister.

I mean, I guess this is the time to tell my friend Nick that I always thought Emily was cute when I was growing up. Older sister, yeah. There you go. All right, Emily. She's married. She's got kids now.

Would it matter, Tim, rather go bungee jumping or skydiving? Oh, fucking hell. I had to. I don't know if I'll do it. Have you done either? No. Why bungee jumping? Oddly, I feel like it's safer.

Isn't that crazy? I feel like i'm less likely to die skydiving i think you're bungee okay run the number i don't know if this will change your okay answer but bungee jumping you're going from zero to 100 so the inertia or the the sensation of your stomach jumping dropping is there when you skydive there's none of that because you're already going 200 miles per hour oh gotcha and you're just changing directions so it just feels like you're flying rather than falling and it's a lot of fun i've never bungee jumped but i don't i i i support skydiving i'm legitimately terrified of heights so i i truly don't ever want to do either of those yeah have either of you have been stood up on a date stood up yeah

full on just no show no no but let's also throw in the caveat like i'm also very like odd looking and so i didn't like go on a lot of dates. You know what I mean? Like I'm not like a. Not really. You're pretty. You're tall and handsome. I kind of look like a bird of prey, like a, like kind of a muskratty bird of prey. So like. There are a lot less more fortunate looking people.

No, for sure. But I'm just saying like, I wasn't like, you know, like going out on like a lot of dates. Okay. So I've never been stood up though.

Have either, did, did you guys fail your first driving test? No, I passed it. No, I passed it. I failed first time.

Four times? Four times. Was it the written or the driving part? Wow, you just got nervous. I was an automatic fail because I was at a stop. I was at a four-way stop intersection where the other one didn't have the stop sign. So I was like, oh, it's time to go.

There's a car coming. They're like, I almost got in an accident oh shit wait in a blizzard you passed wow oh wow yeah yeah you were good at that point that's funny have either of you ever been stoned around

your parents yeah yes a bunch of times. Nice. Nicely done. Matt, Tim, it's been a real pleasure having you. It's been a ton of fun. Really, thank you

for coming on and please let everyone know where they can listen to Second in Command, your new podcast, the most popular podcast. The most popular podcast. I mean, everybody already

knows where to find it because it is the most popular podcast. If you're living under a rock, where you find it you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts cast media cat it's uh it's uh put on my cast media uh second in command of v pre-watch podcast apple itunes probably on youtube somewhere we're on youtube somewhere i die i watch it on youtube oh you did you can watch it on youtube okay um uh yeah i don't know i feel like we're pretty affable wonderful guys yeah good we have a good relationship good on the gram you guys got some instagrams yeah yeah i'll throw out

some grams i'll take the compliment i'm not good on social media but i'll take the compliment this is a nice family friendly environment on your instagram good your Instagram. Good. I'll take it. Yeah. I'll take it. It's less embarrassing than mine. I'm not active. Embarrassing? Do you put embarrassing things up? I put things up that I would never put up

had I never been on a reality TV show and now use my social media as a way to make money and promote my business and and sometimes like i try to make it fun and not but you know i mean anytime you go back like six months you're just like wow yeah really yeah you're cringing at yourself yeah i get it it's fine like no judgment i guess but i definitely would not be doing it otherwise but that's sort of normal. I think it is necessary in this day and age to promote yourself. You need to be on social media.

And I try to expand my creative comfort zone and do things and judge myself less, but I digress. We're all a work in progress. We're a work in progress. Except for Walsh and I. We're doing great. Congratulations.

We've fully evolved. This is the best it's going to get. I have nothing left to learn. Yeah, no, truly. I have no innovation, no evolution left. I've reached the highest form. What happens when you've reached the highest form of human being? I mean, I think it's like that.

Do you turn into light? I think you turn into light. Infinite light? You're just everywhere. Lightness and air? Yeah. That's why we didn't turn the lights on. It's just.

This is all being powered by how much we've learned. All from Matt. Thanks, you guys. i appreciate it uh thanks for listening guys don't forget to send your questions at ask nick at cast me.com cast with a k for your ask nick episodes and we will be back on monday Bye.