Trillbilly Worker's Party - BONUS: Six Degrees Of Ed Begley Jr. (w/ special guest Ed Begley Jr.)

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

We managed to catch up with actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. while he was in town for Harry Dean Stanton Fest. We talked about a number of things like, of course, Harry Dean Stanton, as well as demonic possession, our favorite movies, and why a hot pot of magma will make you well-liked among all your friends. Also, happy birthday to our dearly departed Harry Dean Stanton. Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Music Very happy that they don't have plastic bottles in the room. Not a faint of plastic bottles? You don't like them? It winds up in the ocean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. They are right there.

Not here where you guys are, but California does. Is this your first time in Lexington? Yeah, my first time spending the night here. I've driven through quite a few times driving cross country. Yeah. But it's the night here. I've driven through quite a few times driving cross country. Yeah. But it's very nice here. Yeah. We have the railroad right outside.

That's right. What are your thoughts on trains? Do you like trains? I take trains. I've taken trains a lot historically going cross country. Yeah. You know, because for quite a while that I didn't drive a gasoline car,

I would take the train or Drive an electric car cross-country right right right right? Not a fan of gasoline cars. So you're saying yeah, I try to stay away from that. Yeah. Yeah, I Had a friend who made a car that was powered on vegetable oil Yeah, I've run into a few of those Darrellrell Hanna used to have one that ran on vegetable oil. Really? Yeah. I don't know how it works,

but I think that could be a good, you know, because we put so much carbon into the atmosphere, right? Like, one of the big, so I think maybe one way to cut that down is cars powered on vegetable oil But also I've been thinking a lot about Like you know how a lot of carbon comes from cattle

You know a lot of like emissions come from cow far a lot. Yeah, yeah Like belching and farts belching and farting So I saw a lot of those emissions are just cow shitting and farting. A lot of the emissions are. I've worked for the Sierra Club 10 years. You think I would know that by this junction. It's a major source of carbon. But I think that like if we're talking about protein, maybe like bugs, like bug protein,

because you know, John the Baptist used to eat like locusts and grasshoppers Like maybe that could be a good source of protein for yeah, it'd be carbon neutral I don't think people will be ready are ready to eat it in their Original state. I don't think people are ready to eat the bugs I know I'm not hungry enough. You probably did anything. That's right. That's true. Yeah, I mean well So but yeah, we got trains RJ Corman is the big train company here RJ Corman himself is

buried Just off the highway in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Have you been in Nicholasville, Kentucky? I've not been there It's a it's pretty cool. There's something out there called Camp Nelson Which is where they recruited slaves runaway slaves and during the Civil War they recruited them into the Union Army and That's just right outside here like all the runaway slaves on this part of Tennessee and Kentucky ran towards Camp Nelson after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Doesn't that wonderful movie Denzel Washington did called Glory touch upon that? I think so, yeah. So I think some of the people in that battalion that he was part of were runaway slaves who enlisted in the Union Army. I've not seen that one. It's very good.

But I need to see it. I need to see it. Well, so, go ahead. Speaking of movies that people need to see, I was approached several months ago by a gentleman that was doing this partnership with Criterion Collection and Letterboxd. And do you use Letterboxd? Are you hip to this? What's it called? Letterboxd.

Letterboxd, no. You've not heard of this? Okay. So it's a thing where people can just, it's like an app where people can get on and like rate movies and like leave their reviews. Oh great. As if we didn't have enough reviews, you know?

Right. But he approached me and he said to me, hey man, listen, I'm really pushing to get Monty Hellman's Cockfighter into the Criterion Collection. He says, I've got this panel I wanna put together at the Speed Museum down in Louisville by an hour down the road. He's like, I'm thinking Warren Oates Jr., you and a player to be named later

to be like panelists to talk about this movie. And I said, well, there's just one rub here. I've never seen Monty Hellman's Cockfighter. And I know Harry Dean Stanton's in it. He sure is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And maybe somebody else that we've recently met recently Matt might been in that as you know who well One of my finest moments so So I was curious like well, what are my bone of feet? It's like why are you calling upon me to be part of this panel of movie? I've never seen before and he was like well

We're pushing for two movies one is a movie I've never seen before. And he was like, well, we're pushing for two movies. One is a movie called I'm Bout It, which was made by the rapper Master P. I don't know if perhaps you've seen I'm Bout It. What's it called again? I'm Bout It. The rapper Master P. So, yeah, so I was like, well,

I've seen I'm Bout It probably 120 times. I used to rent that all the time when I was a kid. Can I get on that? Penny's like, no, no, no, I really got you in mind for this. And the reason he had me in mind for that is because on this very program, I've told a story and I'm not proud of this, Ed, but I come from cockfighting royalty,

as you might've told from my accent. I didn't know that. Yeah, and so I was like, well I just wanna be clear, I don't condone cockfighting. Me either. Just for the record here. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, it's okay, like you'll be great on this panel.

It never ended up materializing and I don't know that cockfighting's gonna make it into the Criterion Collection, but I have to say, when I went home and did my homework, the scene where Tom Peoples chases Warren Oates out with the axe after he beats him in the cockpot. I tried to kill Warren Oates right there on camera. I'm telling you.

Transcended, my friend. I remember he stopped shooting there at some point because for one of the scenes they had a real axe, so it looked legitimate, because they started with a rubber axe You know rubber hair, you know blade it looked bad So they said well just hold the real one and come in and anyway, but just be real careful Same thing they had like rubber, you know spurs for the chickens and

That didn't work out. So they just took them off and I can't remember how they worked that one out but it was... sometimes rubber looks like rubber. Yeah, as it turns out. Was that your first collaboration with Harry Dean? The first time we... yes that is. That's the first time we worked on a movie together and I remember because we used to be at the bar there at Dan Tannen's restaurant every night, and I mean every night. We closed the place and then we go back to his place and watch the early cable TV that was called the Z Channel. Z is in zebra, channel.

And so we would watch that and I'd pass out on his couch and then I'd wake up and get myself home the next day. So at some point, we were here on, not here, we were in Georgia, in Macon, Georgia doing Cockfighter, and we realized, I realized, I said, Harry, we've been gone from Tonnes for a full week. They're probably worried about us. So I called up Tonnes, Tonnes, good evening. I said, hey, Michael, Michael at the bar there picked up. I said Michael we're here. Me and Harry Dean are here on a movie. I just wanted

to cut me off. I said Jesus Christ thank God you called me. We're gonna call the police. We thought you were full asleep watching the Z Channel and the gaspers on and you guys. I think they sent somebody by the house to Harry's to look and see if we were alive. There's no other explanation for us being gone for a full week. Right. What a way to go out, watching the Z Channel and a gas leak at Harry Dean Stanton's house.

There's worse ways to check out. Yeah, seriously. Would have been late in his career, but early in mine, so I'm glad I stuck around. What year was that? What year was the Cockfighter? 1974. Okay, 1974.

Was that your first movie? What was the first movie you've done? I've done a few movies before that, but nothing, yeah, nothing like that. I'd been in some Disney movies. I'd been in, at that point, a bunch of Kurt Russell movies, Disney kind of feel-good movies. The Computer War tennis shoes now you see him now you don't super dad movies like that but I was now working with Harry Dean Stanton and Warren Oates

and you know big players Monte Hellman was a highly regarded director so what else did he do he did a movie called two lane blacktop okay I have to heard of that one yeah yeah I recently saw you in Blue Collar. That's right I was in Blue Collar too with Richard Pryor, Yafit Koto and Harvey Keitel. Richard Pryor. Fantastic. So I have one degree of separation from Richard Pryor now. That's right. He was great. Yeah Blue Collar and honestly it's really wild to watch. We've recommended that movie on our show before, but Blue Collar really gets into, in my opinion, why everything is the way it is right now.

It's kind of- It definitely does. Schrader cuts to the chase sometimes. Yeah. Very impressive. Pre-shin-t movie. It was very- Yeah.

There was a movie I saw yesterday, I'd never seen it before before with Harry Dean and with Gene Hackman and Lev Ulman. It's called Zandy's Bride. It's an incredible film. I never heard of it, I'd never seen it. I've not either. And there it was, it was wonderful.

Lev Ulman. Susan Tyrell and Eileen Hecker are in it too. It's just incredible. It's a very real depiction of that period of that part of the California coast, just historically accurate from what I know of such things and I know a bit about it. Yeah. What year was it? What year did it come out? I think that was 74 as well. Okay. Are you familiar with Thomas Pynchon? Do you ever heard of him?

I know the author, course. He wrote a book called Vineland or Vineland. It's about, yeah, takes place on the California coast. Oh great. It gets into like, you know, anti the the war on drugs and the militaristic, you know, Nixon and Reagan's response to the drug war and everything But I think Paul Thomas Anderson is about to be adapting it For his newest first newest movie right now. It's not called that but something. Yeah, it's called something else Yeah, he always does great movies PT Anderson. Yeah, love his stuff. Very good. Well, so you're here in Lexington We're here at the Manchester Hotel You're gonna be talking later at the Kentucky Theatre. We're here at the Manchester Hotel. You're going to be talking later at the Kentucky Theatre.

We're talking about Lucky, right? Yes. Yeah. Another great Harry Dean Stanton movie. It's Harry Dean Stanton Fest, right? It is that. Yeah. They've been doing it for a few years.

He, in fact, came here early in the incarnation of this wonderful event. He came here himself and took part in the film festival. So it's been going on a while. I never knew about it. So I was very happy to get the email from a friend of mine, Beth Grant, telling me she's coming and I should join her. Oh man, that's great.

Yeah, we have some great claims to fame here in Kentucky. Herodine Stan, I think Sam Shepard was in here also. Sam Shepard lived in Midway, about 20 miles from here. I didn't know that. Yeah. John Carpenter is in Kentucky. Herodian Stan, I think Sam Shepard was in he also. Sam Shepard lived in Midway about 20 miles from here. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, John Carpenter is from Kentucky. A lot of people don't know that. John Carpenter too, I didn't know that.

Yeah, yeah. I just, in fact the other night I just watched for the first time his Elvis bio pic with Kurt Russell. That went straight to him. I'm in that too, I play the drummer. You're in that? Yup. It's like I didn't even know that.

See, six degrees of Ed Begley. That is true. Move over, Kevin Beck. Yeah. And also you're in the Christopher Guest movies and like everybody is in those movies, right? Like Best in Show and everything. So it's like Six Degrees of Ed Begley, yeah,

it does work. Next time someone wants to play the Kevin Beck and I say, listen, I've got a better idea right now. Yeah. A funny thing happened on the John Carpenter Elvis movie, the Kurt Russell Elvis. I was scheduled to do the film Elvis up to up to a certain date. Work into the night shooting on Hollywood Boulevard. And then I would get in the plane the next day and do a movie I was very excited about as well called The In-laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin.

And I'd been hired to do that. So when I went in for the first meeting on Elvis, they said, we're going to have to dye your hair because the drummer, we want it historically accurate accurate you're blonde and the drummer had dark hair yeah said okay well I got to start in this movie when I'm done it's a no no they'll do it's it comes right out you know yeah we rinse it out it'll be fine so I worked till late in the night and I finished on the Elvis I'd done all my stuff so I could get in the plane the next day to go to Mexico to shoot with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, the in-laws. And I looked in the mirror and went, ahhhh! My hair was red. Red as a baboon's ass. Suddenly I looked like Opie from, you know, Andy Griffith's

show. And they had hired a blonde and they were very specific about not changing my hair during the day. They wanted me to look the way I Looked in the interview, right? So I didn't know what the hell to do washes right out this I went on the I Got into Mexico there and went said take me straight to the set not the hotel went to Arthur Hill I said I was working on this Joe Elvis and they did a temp this totally temporary comes right out I'm gonna take it out now, but I think my character is a redhead. Can we leave it in, make this character into redhead? He went, yes, I think it's a good idea.

Thank God because it didn't come out at all. You got to be able to improvise in the movies. But what's interesting, there's a DVD out that I got my hands on and they put my hair back to blonde. They went, something's wrong with this, Ed doesn't have red hair. They turned a knob or something and my hair is blonde again. It's a movie magic I hear so much about. Movie magic is right.

Wow, that's good to know. That's good to know that they can do that for future reference. Yeah. Well yeah, so wait, so you've not really been in Kentucky a whole lot, right? No, I played a club called The Beggar's Banquet in Louisville back in the 70s.

I had a stand-up comedy act. Oh really? Yeah, it was an opening act for a bunch of different people around the country, colleges and clubs and concerts. So I was there back in 19, everything happened in 1974. That was 1974 too. That's a big year. Watergate.

Yeah, that's right. Okay, so you started out doing stand-up. I did. Yeah, and did you give it up at a certain point? I did, because I was trying to get sober and I had some trouble doing that, but if you're a stand-up comic in that age, and today too, you're working in a saloon basically,

it's a bar. Right, yeah, yeah. So I didn't wanna hang out in bars much, it was hard for me to get sober, so I stopped doing the stand-up comedy and focused on TV and film acting and stage acting, and that proved to be a good choice. What year did you swear off gasoline cars?

That? You know, I got my first electric car in 1970, believe it or not. Really? It was very primitive, so I had it a a while then graduated up the transportation ladder to a Peugeot bicycle because it went further and faster than the electric car. What does an electric car look like in 1970? It was a Taylor Dunn electric car, Taylor dash D-U-N-N-E. They still make electric cars to this day but when I say electric car I'm being quite grand.

We talk about a golf cart with a windshield wiper and a horn. It was not electric car, it was electric cart with a T on the end. That makes sense. So I took Cindy Williams on a date very early in her career and mine. I love Cindy Williams and I got her to go out

on a date with me. I did not get a second date. It was not exactly a babe magnet. It was a kid passing me on a big wheel kind of a bicycle. A butterfly was overtaking me. Also carbon neutral, a big wheel and a butterfly. That's right. But I drove that for a while but it wasn't much a car, so I started riding a bike a lot.

But when I had to get a car again, when I had a family, then I just got super efficient electric cars. The Datsun B210 Plus was at a fifth gear, so it was very efficient at highway speeds. And even around town for that day, it was fairly fuel efficient. But then I started driving electrics again in 1990 and I haven't looked back since then.

That's all I've had is electric cars since then. Well, you know, so we're in Kentucky. Kentucky was a big coal mining state. Right. And I think I mentioned to you over email, like Tom and I used to be involved in the anti-mountain top removal. Mountain top removal. Mining, right? Yeah, mountain top mining. Another person that I used to be involved in the anti-mountain top removal. Mountain top removal.

Mining, right? Yeah, mountain top mining. Another person that also used to be involved in that, strangely enough, was Robert Kennedy Jr. That's right. He started out as a anti-mountain top removal activist. That's right, with the NRDC, they were trying to stop that kind of devastation.

Yeah, now look where he is, He's made it to the top. He has. I don't know if he drives an electric car though. He might drive a big wheel. That seems more his speed probably. Yeah, maybe at this point. Well yeah, so yeah, we've got the, what else did they do during Harry Dean's Stand-In-Fest?

Did they play any movies or any other of his movies? Somebody I've been trying to get on the show for a while and for whatever reason it's just not lined up as Alison Anders who was kind of a star of that 90s indie explosion and stuff like that. I remember going to the one when she was in town maybe a year or two ago or something like that. But this will be, we're going to Lucky tonight

so this will be our real first sort of collection. Oh, you guys are gonna see Lucky tonight? Yeah, everybody's gonna see it. Wouldn't miss it. It's your lucky night, that's for sure. We're gonna heckle you, Ed, see if you still got your stand-up chops. Thank you, thank you.

Need all the help I can get. Yeah. Well, yeah, no, so, you know, where do you live, Ed? Do you live in LA? I'm in LA in Studio City, San Fernando Valley. I've been there my whole life, pretty much. Yeah, I've never been, I've actually never been to LA. I'm embarrassed to admit that. I've been to San Francisco, but I've never- San Francisco's nice. I like LA, it's home, so you kind of forgive some of the problems and celebrate all the good things. You can go surfing and then skiing in the same day.

So it's got everything a lot of people want. I'm assuming you grew up in LA. I was born in LA and came back there every summer to where I was born, But grade school years, I went to school on Long Island. Oh, God. So I got some wonderful East Coast, New York kind of experiences well in my life. And that was good culturally in many ways. But then I, and we came out to California every summer

for summer vacation. So I never really lost touch with LA. Then when I was going into high school, we moved back here. So LA is a little bit more my home than New York. Well, you're quite tall. Do you ever play basketball? I tried it. I was never any good at it. I just didn't have, I'm not good with a ball. Anything involving a sphere, I'm not going to excel at, I just didn't have, I'm not good with a ball. Anything involving a sphere, I'm not gonna excel at. I shouldn't restrict it to a sphere, an ellipse,

anything, a cheese rolling. You didn't go to any of those Grateful Dead shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas, remember? You see the thing that with the, they're projecting out there and makes the big orb that they're doing the concerts in. Yeah, have you heard of the Sphere in Las Vegas? Oh yes.

Yeah. I gotta check that out, I hear that's very good and the Eagles are playing there, that sounds pretty good. Oh yeah, are they? Nice, Don Hintenwolf. Big fan of the Eagles and Don, yeah. Very nice. Do you think that if you play Hotel California backwards

that there's satanic messages on it? Have you ever tried that? What's that? Do you ever hear that? If you play Hotel California backwards you get satanic messages. I didn't know that. Yeah. That's what they said you ever hear that? If you play Hotel California backwards, you get satanic messages. I didn't know that. Yeah.

That's what they said. They said that about Hotel California and Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven. If you play it backwards, there's satanic messages in it. If I had the foresight. I've heard that rumor, but I've never found evidence of it.

If I had the foresight, I would've brought my record player and we could've got to the bottom of this. Yeah, I never had a tape deck that would go in reverse so I could never really prove or disprove it it's high high technology sometimes I found it's just best to accept the mystery you know that's right so well Tom and I grew up Christian you're in the church and so we heard all kinds of rumors about satanic messages right occluded satanic messages and whatnot.

Did you grow up religious at all Ed? I was a Catholic so I was an altar boy and I was scared to death of all that stuff, all that devil stuff scared the crap out of me. The devil's pretty scary. He can be pretty scary. Pretty scary concept. Yeah, he continues to be. Is there a, did the exorcistist bother you any of those kind of moves?

You stay away from that as a Catholic? It bothered me unbelievable. I wouldn't see the movie. I didn't see it till four or five years after. No a decade. I didn't see I didn't see the exorcist in 1985. I had done a movie with Jeff Goldblum and Gina Davis called Transylvania 6 5000. Oh, that's right. That's right. Right. And so we did that. They said it came up in conversation. They said, wait, you've never seen the exorcism. We've got to play it for you. You got to see it. No, I was an altar boy. I hate that devil stuff.

I don't want to even scare the hell out of me. I don't want to see it. And so then they convinced me to see it. I then slept with the light on for like six months. I literally thought the devil was going to come into my room and get me. It scares me to this day, you know, and I don't even believe in that stuff anymore, really. I don't either, but still it's still scary.

It was scary. Finally, I somewhere around age 40, I finally got over it and waited. I don't think there really is a devil anywhere trying to get me with a pitchfork or otherwise Say it's safe to watch the exorcist now Well, I think what was scary about it was the concept that something could take over your body, right? You know and you wouldn't have any possessive you weren't in control. You weren't in control That's what terrified me when I first heard I grew up Baptist and we didn't really believe in possession that much. So when I saw the exorcist when I was in high school,

it really rattled me because not only did I have a crisis of faith in the sense that like, am I secure? Can my body be inhabited? I was also like, what do the Catholics know that I don't? You know what I mean? Like the Baptists don't? You know what I mean? Like the Baptists don't believe in that. Yeah, demonic possessions, is this just a Catholic scourge? Yeah, I think it is. You guys had that one right.

We Catholics had that one pretty far wrong. What a bummer. Well, did you ever meet William Friedkin? I did. I actually did meet him. He was a very nice guy. Made a very spooky movie. Very sweet guy. So he made The Exorcist. He did make The Exorcist. When you said Jeff Goldblum and Gina Davis, weren't they also in The Flight together?

They were. Okay. And this movie, Transylvania 65,000 predated that. In fact, I introduced them on the set of that movie. Fascinating. No kidding. At The hotel actually before we started shooting. Six degrees of that big. That's right. Fascinating. And my wife Ingrid and I were with them in Las Vegas we took a trip to Las Vegas together the four of us my first wife Ingrid and and they got married. We were there for Jeff's first, no

second wedding. Oh, we were there for his first wedding too, to Patricia Call. Okay. I've been there for all of Jeff Goldblum's weddings. I love that man. He still somehow speaks to me. I'm not sure why, but. Right, right. Also, Napalatchian. Yeah, Pittsburgh guy. Really? Is he? Right right also an Appalachian. Yeah, Pittsburgh guy really is it's bird. Yeah, okay? So it's George Romero. Yeah, we got a lot of yeah a lot of a lot of high-level hillbillies. You know claims to fame Yeah, I I think the first time I mean I'm obviously a little bit younger and but I think the first time I ever saw you in a movie was pineapple Express. Oh, that's a good move

I'm with James Franco and Seth Rogen. I think that was the first time I was saw you in a movie was Pineapple Express. Oh, that's a good movie. With James Franco and Seth Rogen. I think that was the first time I was like... I liked that movie. Did you like it? I loved it. Obviously. Was that David Gordon Green? Oh, yeah.

Yes, it was David Gordon Green. Very good. Yeah, I really like him. I hadn't seen his movie Snow Angels. I saw that before I worked with him and I'm glad I did. He's a very good director. He is. Yeah. He made... There's director. He is. Yeah.

He made, there's an author that you wrote, like Larry Brown. Didn't he adapt one of Larry Brown's movies? Joe. Joe, yeah, with Nicolas Cage, where Nicolas Cage plays a firefighter in I think like the Delta. Yeah, Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Delta, that's a great movie. Yeah. He's got a lot of good movies about the South, David Gordon Green does. Yes. Yeah. Have you spent a lot of time movies about the South, David Gordon Green does. Yes. Yeah. Have you spent a lot of time in the South? Like other than?

I have over the years. Yeah, I've been to Atlanta many times because my wife is from there. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. So I, but long before I even met her, I'd be there a lot. I used to play a club there called

the Great Southeast Musical in Atlanta, wonderful club. When you were doing standup? Yeah. Okay. Open for David Bromberg and Darius Brubeck and lots of good people. And I've shot there. I've always had a good time in Atlanta. It's a great... and shooting in Macon too with Harry Dean was great. Yeah. Do you play music at all? I mean, Harry Dean Stanton played the guitar. He was great. He played guitar. He played guitar very well. Yeah, I was a drummer I was never a great drummer, but I could play along to most songs. Okay, I'm a drummer. That's all great We're we're you're in fellow company here. I like to you know when I'm feeling kind of down

I always like to cue up on YouTube Harry Dean singing In cool hand Luke. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Near my guy. Yeah. Or just a closer walk with D rather. Yeah. He also sings a lot, I think it's been a few years since I've seen Lucky. But doesn't he sing in Lucky too? I know he does in Twin Peaks obviously. Yeah he sings a wonderful song in Spanish in Lucky. Beautiful moment. Great. That's a great moment. Pretty good Spanish. Cancio mixteca, he's got some control over her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So good. Yeah. So was he from Lexington itself? He's buried in Lexington, isn't he? From West Irvine, about an hour and a half down the road. He's from this area, yes. I don't know if it's Lexington itself, but it's adjacent where he's from, I think. Yeah, it's Lexington itself, but it's adjacent. Okay. Where he's from, I think.

Yeah, it's about an hour down the road. I think his parents were tobacco farmers, if I'm not mistaken. And then, yeah, I'm reading a biography of him right now called Hollywood Zen Rebel that the University of Kentucky actually just put out maybe like a year or two ago. His dad was a barber. His name was Shorty. He was quite a character apparently. Harry didn't. Yeah. Harry didn't have a lot of love for his dad.

Really? His dad was not. His dad was a highly flawed individual from what I've heard. Interesting. Yeah. Well, I mean, you mentioned tobacco farming. The thing about Kentucky is that its entire economy is built around vice You've got tobacco Bourbon right horse race horse racing so gambling I never thought of that my god, that's right. That's a place is a cesspool

And then we have coal mining, obviously. Yeah. Which is a vice. It's kind of an addiction of a kind, you know? That's right. Yeah, but are you familiar with Wendell Berry? Yes, wonderful writer. Yeah, another great Kentucky, and he also. I didn't know that from Kentucky, that's great.

Yeah, he's from, I think, where's he from? Port, I always get the fictional home that he writes about mixed up with his real home. Oh. But he's from Henry County. Maybe that was intentional. And he was a guy who, I remember early on in the run of this show, we wanted to have him on and I think he was very amenable to it,

but the problem was is that we put stuff on the internet and he was like, it was something about the computers. Oh, he's, so, you know, you said you don't drive a gasoline car, Wendell Berry takes it even further. He won't even interact with a computer or even something like this, like he doesn't. That could be coal fire. I think that's Kentucky specific

because coal is still a big part of our energy. Yeah. Right, right, right. Which I think is pretty great. I mean, personally, I think we should probably all live more like that. I think we should, yes. Off the grid, away from machines. If we could pull it off, that'd be great.

If we could pull it off, that'd be great. Yeah. Did he write San County Almanac? No, that was... That was... That's right, that was somebody else. Yeah, I was just. My mind at this point, I can't remember anything anymore.

I was just thinking. I'm the same man. Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I was gonna say Rachel Carson, she wrote. Silent Spring. Silent Spring, right, right. Quite a visionary. Yeah.

Do you have any kids Ed? I do, I have three wonderful children. Okay. Well, I'm about to be a father, actually. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I've been embarking on a great, great journey.

That's what everyone says. Tremendous, tremendous love and light and joy. Do you have any tips? What are Ed Begley's tips for fatherhood? What should I do? Just make sure they know that you love them. Okay, that's good. I think that's the best thing you can do

because sometimes if you're a child and you don't know that, you freak out a little bit. That's right. When Terrence had reached out to me, Ed, and said that he had reached out to you, he said, yeah, he's Ed Begley's son, which is funny because had I not known who your father was or not known you for that matter,

I think I could have ascertained that from the name Ed Begley Jr. That's right. That's a fatherhood very theme of this gathering. It is, yeah. Well, I won the lottery being born Ed Begley's son, that's for sure. Yeah, right. I didn't know it at the time, but I think if my dad had been a plumber, I'd be fitting

pipe now. I just wanted to do what he did, but he was very, you know, well regarded in TV and films and on stage. So I got lucky. Yeah. Big time being born his son. Did you have any brothers or sisters? I have a sister that 11 months older. She tried her hand at acting for a while and went into you know other things. Yeah. And I'm gonna see her right after this when I'm done here. I'll go visit her in Springfield, Massachusetts. I haven't seen her for a few years. Nice. It's time to catch up with my sister. Yeah, I like Massachusetts. I've driven through it a few times. Lovely state, yes.

Especially the mountains in the western part of the state. I remember what they're called. Yeah, Springfield's in the west, yeah. Yeah, I drove. It's beautiful there in that part of the state, but that's part of the problem too. It's not really near Boston. When I come into Boston, I can't just get together

for dinner with her without a long, long hours, many hours long drive. Same thing in New York, I come into New York, they're not close to Springfield. Yeah, it's kind of a very strange distance from both. Yeah. So that's why I haven't seen her for a while, but I'm looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.

That's good. Well, so I mean, yeah. Yeah, we're seeing Lucky tonight. Let's talk about Lucky a little bit. I saw this movie for the first time during lockdown, during the pandemic, very life-affirming movie, if you've not seen it, and such a sweet note, I think. If it's Harry Dean's sort of parting gesture to the world, a very, John Carroll Lynch director.

He did a wonderful job, too. It was fantastic. And then of course, you know, our dearly departed David Lynch was in there. David was great in it. Do you have any good David Lynch stories for us? I don't. I never had a scene with him and lucky or worked with him as a director, but I loved his movies.

I loved everything about him. I love his acting. He's a wonderful actor. He's a great influence on me and many people too Just because of his love and promotion of transcendental meditation Yeah, so he's a he was a great great figure creatively and spiritually in many ways Yeah, I'm a I'm a practitioner of TM to yeah. Do you do you use transcendental meditation? I do nice

He's been telling me about it for years. I'll tell you this, I've never been able to meditate for any meaningful amount of time in my life, and what I found about it is that it just works for whatever reason, you know? It's just like so easy to do, you know? It works, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah, I was just curious because I was trying to think

when David Lynch passed, what, how I felt about his work, you know, and a lot of it is, you know, I'm not exactly an exemplar of excellence Ed, so a lot of it is just kind of, you know, hovering for me, but there's the scene where he's talking about his turtle in the mood. Right, his turtle, yes. And he says a line in there that made me, helped me make sense of how I felt about David Lynch, and he says, he affected me, you know? And I take that little nugget with me, you know?

David Lynch affected me. And that's good. He was also a great painter, a very good painter. That's right, I've seen his works, yes he is a fine, fine painter. Just knew how to frame an image You know what I mean? Like very good at composing an image. Yes But yeah, no, I I found David Lynch when I was like in high school and I thought I was the coolest kid

Right. I was like nobody else has heard of David. Nobody knows about this. Yeah He knows about this. I've got the secret. You've got the secret. Yeah, I've got the secret. Yeah. Well, yeah, so I don't know when this episode will come out. It'll obviously come out after the screening of Lucky, but hopefully, you know,

hopefully people will be able to come out and see it and enjoy the Kentucky Theater. You know, I don't know if you've been there before or if you've had a chance to check it out yet. You've been in Lexington since Friday, you said? Yes. I don't know if you've got to see the sights at all or anything.

I've seen a bit. It's a lovely town, a lovely part of the country. Yeah, it's pretty old. It was actually, at one point they called it the Athens of the West. Transylvania University is here. that was founded in the 1790s Was also supposed to be the original title for Kentucky was supposed to be called, Transylvania Transylvania. Yeah I didn't know that kind of spooky, you know

Transylvania University their mascot is the pioneer but they've since really leaned into the Transylvania thing and made it a bat. And the reason is, is because they had a famous professor there named Corentin Rafinesque, who is the namesake of the Rafinesque Long-Eared Bat. Really? He discovered the Rafinesque Long-Eared Bat. Interesting.

And he actually, he died as a professor at Transylvania University. So Tom and I are bat experts. We used to work as field biologists. I didn't know that, that's wonderful. So you know how like when a coal mine or a gas pipeline has to do an endangered species survey? Right.

We used to work for a consulting firm that did those surveys. So we got to basically spend a lot of time with bats. And at that time, you ever heard of white nose syndrome? No. It's not drug related. It's a, it was a fungus that was infecting bats about 10 years ago and it was.

Oh yes, it's ringing a bell now. Yeah, it was making them kind of, it was making several species become endangered. So we were basically surveying habitats to make sure that you know. You did some speed lunging then. We didn't do any speed lunging, that would be cool. Basically what we did was we just went out into the woods

and put up a net and they fly into the net. It's like a really fine mesh so they don't get hurt when they fly in there. Gotcha. Kind of look at them to see if they've got any signs or symptoms or what. I would love to do spelunking though. I've always been interested in it.

I've always wanted to go into a hole in the ground and just look around. You know what I mean? There's a movie that came out when I was quite young. I was about 10 years old. It was called Journey to the Center of the Earth. And in this crazy movie that I loved and many people might have loved,

James Mason and a band of people journey down to the center of the earth like it was habitable there. There was no hot magma in this movie or anything like that. Jules Verne. Well, there was, yeah, Jules Verne. It was hot magma, but somehow there was a further core

that didn't have any of that in it, which is nonsense of course. But it was this, so we all, having seen the movie, we got little canteens and other little supplies we started digging, we were gonna dig down to the center of the earth at age 10. Fortunately an adult caught us before anything caved in on us. Or before you got to Chana. Or before you got to the center of the earth at age 10. Yeah. Fortunately an adult caught us before anything

caved in on us. Or before you got to China. Or before you got to the magma. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. That'd be dangerous. Yeah. But you would be cool, all your friends would think you were cool

if you brought back some magma, you know. A nice hot pot of it. A nice hot pot. I've seen some things. A nice hot pot of magma. That's, that would be great. Well, Ed, we want to thank you. Tom, you have anything to say?

Yeah, no. Ed, this is great. I want to ask a very annoying question before we set sail here. You got your big four movie picks of all time. Big four? Yeah, your top four. Big four, that's good that there's four. That makes it a little easier.

Chinatown of course is a great movie. It's a Wonderful Life is a great movie because of what it the basic message of the movie which is wonderful. Then I've got to be selfish and pick a movie that I'm in and I'll say Best in Show. I love that movie so much. Absolutely. Then I'll pick another movie that I'm in, a very small part, but it's such a good movie and that's The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin. Yes. Wonderful, wonderful film. It was funny because, four great movies, it's funny because I was talking to you, in Best in Show you play a hotel manager, a hotel receptionist, proprietor. And as I was talking to you on the phone this morning, I was like, this is kind of ironic. We were talking about setting up a spot in the hotel to record.

Oh, that's right. Very good. I like that. I can't believe they let us just about, they didn't even check our credentials or anything. The Manchester Hotel's a great spot. We're plugging it here. They were nice enough to give us a room. And it's not a utility closet, you know what I mean?

That's right. It's a nice room. We got room to move around. Treat us with some dignity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Well, I love talking to you guys. You guys are a delight.

Keep doing your wonderful show. Thank you, Ed. Thank you so much. Yeah, we're just big fans. Thank you, Tom. Yeah, look forward to seeing you tonight. Of course, yeah, we look forward to seeing you tonight and we'll have to do it again sometime.

Enjoy Massachusetts. I am. Yeah. Well, thanks for listening to us, everybody. If you're listening to this, please go check us out on Patreon. We'll have the link and the show notes for you and you can support us over there with your money

$5 a month gets you an extra show every week and also keeps us out of the poor house Yeah, that's right very important these and we can keep doing six degrees of Ed Begley. We'll keep trying to piece together We might need to make that a running segment. Yeah, I'm sure there are many connections Thank you again, Ed. Thank you all. We'll see you next time. Pleasure, guys. So Thanks for watching!