Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Jason Mantzoukas

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Actor, comedian, and podcaster Jason Mantzoukas talks to Ted Danson about his experience growing up with a serious food allergy as well as his early days doing improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade. They also reminisce about working together on “The Good Place” and season two of “A Man on the Inside,” which is streaming now on Netflix.  Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

trauma, all of my anxiety, my OCD, all the stuff that's like percolating, I will put it all on stage. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Jason Manzukas is one of the most requested guests on Team Coco's podcast network. And I totally get it. He is a one-of-a-kind comedian actor and improviser. I witnessed his magic firsthand when we work together on The Good Place. And we got to do it again on season two of a man on the inside, which, incidentally, came out a couple days ago.

By the time you're hearing this, it will have been out for a while. So let's get to it. Please meet my amazing friend, my hilarious friend, Jason Manzukas. You always appear incredibly happy and relaxed to be where you are. And I don't know if that's an affectation or training. Here's what I'll say. That is true in your experience. Because when I am with you, boy am I delighted.

Because that means one of two things. Wow. I'm on a show that is one of the most delightful places to be. Good place, a man on the inside. I've run into you. in public at the Sundance Film Festival we ran into each other. And you were like, Jason. And I was like, I'm about to have the best conversation of the night. You made me so happy. Yeah, it's the best. So for you, it does appear that I am easygoing, delightful, and comfortable to be here.

Now, if someone else were here, very different experience. For me, it would be. Yes. But I'm saying in your chair, I would be like mistrustful and suspicious. I am fully available. for you in a way that I would not be for someone else. That's very cool. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Because I don't do shallow, not shallow, but surface very well.

I don't. You don't. You don't. And that is, I will say, one of the true delights of knowing you the little that I know you is, like I said, I know if I see you, we're going to have a real conversation. And this town is full of not real conversations. And those are the conversations that I am implicitly or explicitly uninterested in, mistrustful of, suspicious of, all the rest. So let's also add one thing that we are both, when we're at our best, under the umbrella of Mike Shore. Always, yeah.

You know, because he makes, he throws the party. Yeah, he gives us the space. He gives us the space to do just anything, you know, which is very exciting. And especially for a show that, or shows, that oftentimes have quite a lot of people, quite a lot of moving parts. Yeah. There is still such a, there is such a comfort and a calm on those sets, even when it is chaotic and crazy. Yeah. That allows for true discovery and surprise and just mischievous fun.

Throw in Morgan Sackett, who is the best. Producing partner. Oh, yeah. He makes those things. All those writers. that have been part of that stable of writers through every iteration from Parks to, you know, Good Place, Brooklyn, to Man on the Inside. What was your first, Mike Shore?

Parks and Rec. Dennis Feinstein, born Dennis Fierre, not Fierre, Dante Fierro. He was born Dante Fierro, but it's, it is part of the Mike Shore names, like all the names in Mike Shore shows are. are incredible. My character on Parks and Rec was named Dante Fierro, but when he moved to Pawnee, it was more, he changed his name to Dennis Feinstein because it was even more exciting and exotic than Dante Fierro, the perfume magnate of Pawnee, Indiana. Mike always says that it's, I mean, it's true that you have to spend, you used to have to spend so much time passing, you know, all the lawyers, because if you use a name that's remotely

real out there in the world, you'll get sued or you could be sued. So he makes up shit. What a fun game. What a fun solution to the problem of, oh, we can't use that name because there's already someone with that name. So just spend time with the writers thinking up names that certainly no one had. And even in the scripts where Lady crosses in the background, lady has a name that Mark has worked on. Everybody's got names. There must be, I'm so curious. There must be a master names list somewhere. Yeah. And I wonder, or I wonder, I wonder what's on there.

And I also wonder the names that they've been trying to get that just don't work. Yeah. You know, the ones they're trying to sneak in there but are just too, call too much attention to themselves. It's very funny. And Amy? Polar. Yeah. Big, big part of your life.

I mean, kind of. Oh, yeah. So I start doing improv comedy in college. like short form games style improv, whose line is it anyway, style improv, little two to three minute quick games, you know, two arms in college, at Middlebury College in Vermont. But where? On stage in like the student center. We would do the student center, which was like 400 people. It was a big room. We would do like orientation for freshmen and, you know, like it was a big room. We would do like every semester we'd do one or two shows. We'd write a couple

sketches and then we do short-form improv games. And then there was a guy on the team, Rodney Rothman, who has gone on to write for David Letterman and the Spider-Verse movies. He got a hold of a book that was all about long-form improv called Truth in Comedy that we all devoured and got super obsessed with it. And we're like, oh, this is the shit. This is what we got to be doing. This is like jazz, man. And then from then we started doing not the games stuff, but like much more scenic, bigger, longer scenes, longer shows. Not great in college, but when we left college was right at this time in New York where the Upright Citizens Brigade, which was a team, which was a group from Chicago that had come up in the Second City Improv Olympic

annoyance kind of collective of theaters. Amy Poehler, one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, had just moved to New York and had started teaching classes. And so I started taking those classes because I saw them perform and was like, oh, this is the thing. Did you audition for her? No, there weren't auditions at the time. If you had the whatever, $800 for the class, I can't remember, $600 maybe at the time, you could take the class, you know, and it was not in demand.

There was no theater yet. There was no focal point around which we were kind of operating. And was Amy known by then in other? Amy wasn't known, but Amy, Matt, Matt, and Ian, the founders of the Upright Citizens Brigade had just made a deal to do their. own Comedy Central sketch show, which over the next couple of years, they did. They did two seasons up for Comedy Central, just sketches. This is before Amy gets SNL and all of that. So my teachers were these people. And one of my first teachers was Amy Poehler, who was an incredible teacher. She is

the child of two teachers. This is very lame, but give me an example of what notes might be like. So, okay, she was incredibly good at giving thoughtful, cogent, absolutely incisive notes in front of the whole class that you didn't at all feel exposed by. They were always pure truth. They didn't have any. About your presentation. About what you'd do a scene. Yeah, you'd do a scene and it would go well or not.

You did an improvisation. Yep. So the scene would be, so the show, sorry, the class. would be a series of exercises that were scenic-based, you know, and so two people would get up, they'd be given a suggestion, and then a scene would unfold, three to seven minutes of a scene, let's say, depending on the class. And you're improvising everything. Everything, nothing, there are no, unlike short form where there are kind of rules and guideposts and stuff, long-form improv is just truly open-ended. Anything can happen, and you really are just in a scene with

another person. And it's all about building patterns and relationship between us that we can then find something that is funny, which is then kind of called the game or the pattern, and then replicating it, heightening it into kind of absurdity. So that what the audience is watching seems to be something that is almost something we've prethought out. Because as long as we are listening and responding and agreeing, yes, and all the kind of improv tenets, As long as we are building something together, one of the ethos of improv is, I make you look good, you make me look good. Like selfish play, like, look at me, look at me, I'm funny, I'm funny, ends up being a bad scene, maybe with funny moments, but a bad scene. And the integrity of the scene is incredibly important because the show is a collection of these scenes, all that then kind of weave together in that way that, you know, Seinfeld or Curb,

the independent storylines would kind of marry at the end and kind of collide into each other. So a good improv show that we would do is about 30 to 40 minutes. Same thing. Long form scenes, scene, scenes build out. And then those scenes start to collapse onto each other in either thematic ways or legitimately that scene, the people in that scene just crashed their car into the people in this scene. And now all four people are in the same scene. Right. So Amy notes would be like. So one of the great notes Amy gave me was, it was, especially, specifically about characters, playing characters, developing characters, stuff like that. And one of the notes was, she was like, Jason, remember, characters don't have to, like,

sound weird or characters can sound like you. You're like, it was basically the note was like, don't focus on, like, don't go, it's not outside in. You know what I mean? It's not like, my guy walks with a limp or my guy. my guy you know like it's it's just point of view and it can be much smaller it can be just it can sound like you and just have a different point of view and that was revelatory that that was huge for me and freeing so freeing because i was really not great at all the other stuff i was not great at accents

i was not great at all the kind of external stuff um but internal stuff like i was very good at coming up with guys who maybe sounded like me or stood like me, but definitely had for real very different points of view. And that was opened up everything. I feel like that was a very significant note for me in terms of calming down, settling in, and being like, oh, okay, this makes way more sense now if I'm not focused on doing a bunch of outside stuff. I have to put a little parentheses around what you're saying right now to describe what's going on with me. Yeah. Yeah. I am, when my sister, I've said this before, chased me up the stairs. We were playing chase or whatever. She's four years older. I'd get halfway up the stairs. I had a real lead on her and I would stop and scream. Yeah. Like a bad horror movie. Why didn't the lady get back up? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm that way with improvisation. Sure. And I'm that way in this conversation. Yeah. I'm going, fuck. this is scary talking to you right now is scary oh I love this because this is also similar to the time the first time we did a scene together on the good place

where where I believe I was given the note you can do you can do whatever you want and you were like whoa what do you mean what do you mean he can go anywhere what do you mean just because

I was very, I was very free and was, like, improvising quite a bit. And I think you were just like, that lean in of like, this is exciting. There's something, there's something cool going on here. But then though, wait a minute, what's going on here? You know what it is, what you do, though, I have learned that I don't have to compete because I can't. No. And who cares? but reacting to you is just the festival of opportunities.

And I don't mean dining out, just you can't help but be amazed or stunned or delighted or what because you are so much, not too much. Oh, no, sometimes too much. You know what I mean? Sometimes too much. But in a way that is pull me back, you know. Yeah. Cut to, I'm just jumping all around.

Please, cut. Let's go. So, all right. I don't know. Nothing makes me happier than being in scenes with you. Because it is true delight. I watched just, I got, went down a wormhole because I was supposed to be looking at a whole bunch of stuff, but I went to Darcy and you playing.

It's just magnus. It's the best. It was just astounding. And the form, the play, the where we were, we're in the universe where anything goes. And they hired you to be the anything goes guy. And it was such a perfect marriage. Oh, yeah. And it very much helped and is aided by, it's all collaboration. You know, like, I cannot do this without someone to work with. And if you give me Darcy Cardin, someone who, when we did, when we started doing Good Place, she and I had already spent 10 plus years improvising together on stage. So having that, having that relationship, having that history, having that facility, that easy. ease with other people is really can, is enormously helpful in being able to improvise,

be in the moment, find something, hone it quickly, and then maybe the next take, oh, sharper still. You know, we can get sharper still. And that's a real shorthand for Darcy and I, because we had just done it a lot. And so we... Another parenthesis, isn't she magnificent? She's the greatest. Darcy Cardin. One of the absolute true great.

Astounding. Yeah. And that was like, and another, it's also one of those people that, um, wow, watching her on that show was revelatory, you know, the, the, the, not just the Janet, which was incredible. But then I think all the time about, and talk all the time about the episode where in the void and where Janet plays everyone. And that is, that's just like an incredible episode of television and like an unbelievable performance. And, by the way, in a room that was totally disorienting, you didn't even know where the walls were because they were painted and sloped and everything. So you were, you were on acid just standing there. It seems, it must have been incredibly difficult to do, which makes the, which makes how well she pulled it off even more incredible. Okay, so this was cutting back. We're cutting back.

Yeah, to you being eight or nine or ten or something. Are you sitting around the dining room table being the Jason that we know right now? Is your, are you this version of Jason? At that age, sort of. At that age, sort of. I'm, I'm, uh, your confidence? I'm all, yeah, I'm always a funny, confident kid. I'm a very, okay, so, um.

Who's around that table, by the way? My parents and my sister. Very, Melissa, who's younger older. Younger, a couple years, three and a half years younger, and my parents. My confidence comes out of, I think, a early learned sense of control over my life because I had this crazy egg allergy. I have a crazy life-threatening allergy to eggs. So from the jump, from, like immediately, I was very much told I needed to be in control. control of everything I ate. So there was a real sense of like, I'm in charge.

Because wait a minute, that is literally huge because most everybody on the planet is mindless when it comes to putting, not everybody. No, no, truly. But if you have no, like, oh, I'm a vegetarian. So food is like a very tricky thing for me. And this is like a real crazy. You have to breathe carefully is an equivalent almost. Yes. It is, it is, without a doubt, the thing that has, I think in terms of what you're talking about, I felt confident and I felt confident in a very young age, not because I thought I was funny or hilarious or anything like that, but because I had to confidently tell adults, does the cookie you're trying to give me have eggs in it? I can't eat eggs. I had to be a kid advocate. A lot of people sometimes went out to be a kid.

Oh, yeah. And then that mom would have to call an ambulance. I'd have to go to a hospital. How many times did that happen frequently? All the time. I went to the hospital three times last year. I went to hospitals in Mexico, England, and Italy last year. Wow. Yeah. Because people... So your pen doesn't help you. The pen will help. The pen helps. But the argument is always, my doctor's argument has always been, I'd rather if there's a hospital nearby, you go to a hospital. The pen is for really if you are in a place where it might be difficult to get to a hospital, or the reaction is moving so quickly that you think you might not make it to the hospital, basically. The pen is kind of an emergency.

It's for, we might not get there. The hospital's 30 minutes away. This is moving quick. I'll do the pen. You know, you're not meant to like, oh, I ate eggs. I'll do the pen and go to sleep here at home because you don't know. You know, it's not, the pen isn't like a miracle cure. So you even have to think, maybe I won't go down the Nile, you know, or the Amazon.

For sure. But yet, like, I still would do all those things. I still put myself into all sorts of places and all sorts of positions. So you either get terrified and withdraw or you go, fuck it. That. I'm going to be super alert and full steam ahead. Correct. But still, this is important, terrified.

It wasn't that I'm not terrified. I'm confidently thrusting myself out into the world. I think it was very much like, I have to do this. I want to drive myself forward and out of the bubble I'm in, but still terrified that I'll make some misstep, that I'll fuck something up and I'll eat something wrong and it will be catastrophic. So about eight or nine or whatever, you had already crossed over and, uh, oh yeah, full steam ahead. Little adult guy, little adult guy. Jason, I love you even more. Because that, that's, that's huge. Yeah. Yeah. It's huge.

It's very funny. It's one of those things that I did not realize for an incredibly long time was so important, this allergy and how it had affected me throughout my life. And then I was listening to Terry Gross, a fresh air interview with an artist, and he had a nut allergy. And he just said something offhand about, you know, he basically was like, the sentiment was like, no child should be so aware of and in charge of their own mortality the way that a kid with a food allergy is. Wow. And I like started, I was driving.

I started to cry in the car and was like, oh, oh, whoa. That's like, that really resonates with me. And I really started to unravel at that. I went into, I'd been in therapy for years at that point. I went into therapy and I was like, I got to tell you, I think that I was listening to this thing on the radio and like, I said this thing. I don't think I've ever told you. I have this egg allergy and blah, blah, blah.

And I said this to the therapist. The therapist was like, how has this never come up? He was like, now this. How old were you at this point? In my 30s. Wow. And he was like, this now makes everything make sense. He was like, I was really thinking about you because we talk about this and we talk about

that. We talk about this. We talk about that. And I've really been struggling with what's the connective tissue between all of these things? And he was like, it's just this. This is the Rosetta Stone to understand the rest of it. And truly, and he was right.

All of the other elements in my life that I was struggling with were really about somehow. Just for example, you don't have to go into the whatever, the neuroses or the whatever, the pain. Yeah, yeah. But for example. So for me, because I need a 100%, if you were like, hey, try this drink. Even though that absolutely wouldn't have eggs in it, right? there's a part of me that's like I don't know like a bunch of years ago they started putting egg foam

in cocktails like I kissed a girl after a date and had to like do the EpiPan and because her drink had egg foam anyway so I need kind of I've decided I need a guarantee to move forward with something for with food right I need to I need someone to tell me 100% that's safe for you and if nobody can

I won't eat it right I was taking that same I need 100% certainty in this relationship. And applying it to romantic relationships, applying it to work relationships, a group dynamics. I was applying it to everything. I'm safer as an island. I won't move forward until I know for sure my next step is safe.

And that's, you know, I just got stuck a lot. Or I moved slowly a lot in those years, you know, just because I was too nervous, too scared, too, you know, what if a bad thing happens? But bad things have to happen. They're not life-threatening the way that a cookie or whatever is. So that's kind of what it was. That's the biggest way I think it impacted me. Gotcha.

Hey, thanks. Hey, of course. It does kind of make you come into focus even more. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. All right, so go to fame.

Where was that line where you went, oh, fuck, I'm famous. Or, ooh, people are recognizing me. What brought you up to? Not until. So I'm an improviser in New York for many, many years. I do a number of following. People knew you from that. Yes, people might recognize me on the street and say,

hey, I saw you at UCB or something like that. I was a big fish in that pond. But then, but still wouldn't, I would, you know, I wrote and performed a series of sketch. shows with a woman named Jessica St. Clair, who's incredibly funny, incredibly talented. And we did a series of, like, Nichols and May-style two-person sketch shows. And we, so our first successes were we would do those as stage shows. We would sell those shows to one to Comedy Central, one to HBO.

We would shoot a pilot. It wouldn't get picked up, and we'd move on. And so I had a bunch of successes in that realm, selling pilots, selling scripts, writing stuff, but really could not get acting work until my late 30s. I would come out for pilot seasons. I would test a little bit here and there, wouldn't get it. Very frustrating, but was still having tremendous success on stage. It was like doing a million shows, had a great setup in New York, and was making the living

as a writer, essentially. And then one year I was out here, and I booked two shows just as a recurring character, just two small parts. One was on a TV show called The League, which was all improvised, and one was Mike White's show Enlightened. With Laura. With Laura, which was the opposite of improvised.

It was very rigid. And those two shows were both so beloved, but also gave me such access to audiences who just hadn't seen me. And those, like, meaning because of those two shows, people hired me for other shows. Like that's, I, because of the league, I get on a modern family episode. That's when I get onto Parks.

So Amy very much, very wonderfully gets me onto Parks and Rec. You know, there's a bunch of stuff. And all those people like Amy and Tina gave me a small part in Baby Mama, the movie Baby Mama, they did. So, like, there was a real, one of the wonderful things I can say about UCB was it genuinely had an ensemble. Not that there weren't rivalries or anything like that. but there was a real sense of like a lot of my early jobs where Rob Cordray gets a deal to do children's hospital for adult swim. A very funny 12-minute show for adult swim and turns around and hires all of us, our friends, our group, to be actors and writers on the show. And those

were tremendous successes for me. Even in that bracketed period where I'm like just trying to hustle and trying to get a leg up, like a lot of it is my friends being like, hey, Scott Armstrong, let me help you get your movie pitch to these people or Cordray hiring me for children's father. That stuff was hugely impactful, you know, just those relationships and the people that were willing to be like,

yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all going to benefit from this. And that kind of sense of community, which was very present at UCB at that time, was like absolutely huge for all. of us, like a, it raised, you know, raised all the boats, you know, in that way. Did you have, I mean, I'm, I'm a hired gun actor. I'm not, I'm not stand up. I'm not, I don't have my own voice.

I'm not a writer. I'm the bridegroom who shows up with the last minute goes, wow, look at all this. Hey, wow. They really built it all. Whoa. This looks great. I'm not sure I'll say this word that took three months to come up with. I have, well, that's better than me because I'm usually like, I don't know if I'm going to say any of these words.

Yeah, but you do, by the way, when you say you get carte blanche on things like the good. No, no, I do. You really don't. You get a pass at the words. Yes. And then they turn you loose. Correct. And by the way, here's another thing you're really good at.

Then I'll get back to heroes. I want to go back to heroes. Sure. A lot of times, improvisate actors who are good at improvisate. you can a lot of times go here's the scene here's this i'm following the scene and oh here comes the moment at the end of the scene where this is a button place where they let the the funny guy go and it stands out that way sure it's very much not part of the scene anymore and sometimes it's funny but it has a consequence which pops you out of the scene i think that's my two seconds

you're really good at not doing that oh oh thank you that may be UCB trained folks. I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. Because you know what? Sorry. A lot of times it's the stand-up. Yes.

And stand-up's different because stand-up is, I find myself going, please throw the football back. Yes. Please throw it back my way. And that's hard because I'll throw it back to your problem. And that is a real different, I will say a real difference between stand-up and improv is

stand-ups are primarily have only themselves. Yeah. And it is an antagonistic relationship usually with the audience. us, me versus them, you know, like, I killed, all that kind of language is, and the, the, if it's not going their way, it's they're attacking the audience, it's a almost combative dynamical relationship. Improv is the exact opposite. Like, we need them. Yeah. We need them, even if it's just the tacit understanding that they've said the suggestion or whatever, you know, we do, I do a show where we talk to the audience a little bit, just chit chat, talk to them about like, oh, you know, what's, the drama in your family right now? It's who's got, you know, like we just ask them very open-ended but specific kind of questions about their lives. And people will say like, oh, this or that.

And then that becomes the raw materials for the scene work. And the reality is an improv show, it only happens once, right? There is no, we're not repeating any of these. This is a one night only. That's called something else. That becomes as scripted. Yeah. So for us and the audience, there's a lot of forgiveness from them because they know we're

making it up. everybody's kind of in on it. So it's not a, an improv audience I find is, a stand-up audience is kind of like, okay, show me what you wrote? Yeah, yeah. And an improv audience is like, what are we going to do? What are you going to do? And at first, they're nervous because truly, there's nothing worse than bad improv.

Nothing, absolutely nothing worse. You are trapped in a theater and people are flailing. It's awful. So it takes people, an audience, you really have to, like, come out and assert dominance. over the room to be like, so the audience knows, oh, okay, shoot, they got it. They know what they're up to, so now I can just enjoy it and laugh. And that is...

Is that a trainable thing, you think, that? Because in any art form, you do as the audience or observer of the art, want to be reassured immediately, you're in safe hands, relax. Correct. So what you just said about coming out and, I don't know how you...

I said dominating, but like, you just need to establish confidence. What you're saying, have I always been this confident? Confidence is like absolutely essential, you know, on stage, you know, because the audience is predisposed to be nervous that you don't know what you're going to do. Yeah. And that's part of it. And so, oh, God, I hope this isn't one of those bad ones that stinks, you know.

And so you have to come out and basically let them know, you can relax. We know, we know what we're doing. Don't worry about it, you know. And it's always, you know, that those first couple of beats are a temperament. check for the audience. Like, are they with us? Are they not? Where are they? You know, what's this, you know, like, what's this, what's the vibe tonight, you know, is a very interesting, it's a very interesting component of the beginning of an improv show. It's like, oh, who are these guys? Oh, okay. Who are your heroes? Go back. Do you have anyone, I mean, like, improviser type heroes?

As soon as I asked that, I went, well, you're not going to look at Dick Van Dyke was one of mine. Sure. That's because he's in the same. you know, or Mel Brooks or any of those funny Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett show was instrumental. Like the two sketch shows that I watched the most growing up were the Carol Burnett show and the Muppet show. You know, absolutely two foundational texts for me in sketch comedy, you know. And then eventually finding like Monty Python and kids in the hall when those started coming out

and being when you could find those here. But now that's different though. I'm guessing Monty Python. was not improvised at all. Improv didn't exist, really, that I could, like, watch or access until Whose Line Is It Anyway, started airing British,

Whose Line Is It Anyway, first started airing in the States. I think maybe Comedy Central, or maybe it was called the Comedy Channel at that time, was airing it. And then every once in a while, you'd see Jonathan Winters would be on Carson. And his whole thing was improvising. And Robin Williams, too.

But Jonathan Winters especially, I understood what he was doing was very much improvising. And so that was cool to watch. But, I mean, I only saw him a handful of times because you didn't have VCRs or I couldn't record stuff. But I saw it a handful of times. And it was dazzling what he would do was incredible. But it's really not until who's line. And then later, it was all theatrical improv. It was all seeing shows that the UCB would do.

So you're happy places. his group. Oh, ensemble. Yes. I'm not interested in being alone on stage. Me too. At all. I need those other people and I need those other people like to be, it's that thing I was saying. I make you look good. You make me look good. I'm not out here for singular glory. It's a team sport. Basketball is what. It is a team sport. I wanted to be a basketball player. And when I couldn't and I then found acting, I recognized acting because it was like, oh, ensemble team. Yeah, I got it. And that's what like, and I feel like that's what a man on the inside has. That's what the good place has. All the way back to, for you, cheers. Yeah. You know, like, that ensemble, like, the ability to bounce between not just, like, all these

incredible actors, but these characters for whom you might be having a intense alcohol-related story for Sam while, you know, Ria Proman is having some chaotic insane story that is hilariously and broad. You know, you guys were doing stuff in that ensemble. Partly because the writers wrote brilliant characters. Partly they hired brilliantly. They could go anywhere. Yeah.

And did. Yeah. That's the thing about that show that I feel like, because I've been re-watching Cheers as like a, like I'll always, yeah, I'll always watch a sitcom at night last thing before bed. Like, all right, I'm ready to start winding down. And Cheers is absolutely one of the greats. is you don't anymore have storylines in half hours that are so emotional. And you guys had real emotional storylines, not just bits and jokes and stuff like that.

You had real stories snuck in there, you know, heartbreaking stories for coach, you know, like incredible stuff. Yeah. I think that's why I was allowed to go on to other things was the character was. fully rounded. Yeah. It wasn't just a stereotype joke. Yeah. And it wasn't like, oh, to dancing is just Sam Malone.

It's just that. No, you could immediately go and be a different character. My talent is basically I play Sam Malone over and over again just in a doctor's outfit or it worked. So why not? Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm just playing a maniac just in different outfits. Absolutely. I only saw, I apologize.

First of all, I don't accept your apology. I just want that on the record. Fuck you. I was so tired of watching it. I only watched part of it. That's not true. I only saw a snippet of the long-done robe. Oh, yeah.

I say this a lot, but I really mean it. I think you should be like doing leading man parts. Yes, maybe with a quirk or something, you know, not kill your humor or your impulse or whatever. But you are leading man because you have such depth inside of you. and maybe some of the stuff of what you had to live with in life or you're just your humanity, you should be doing out of the park, different, different, but leading man. You really should. Incredibly sweet to say that.

You know, I am in a character actor, you know, like I am thought of as a character. No, but that character actors can play leads. Oh, I agree. Absolutely. And they can play them forever. Yeah. And I really, you should be. Put that in your little magic.

I'm out here trying. I'm out here trying. It is tough. It is genuinely tough to get people to consider me for roles that are not the sketchy guy, the creepy uncle. No, I understand because you're so good at something that they want it more. You're the perfect thing. But I swear to God, you will one of these days. I would love it.

Yes, you would. Oh, I would love it. I would love the opportunity, genuinely. All I want is to be a romantic lead in a rom-com. Like, why can't I be divorced guy who's looking for a relationship now? You know, like, why would that would be incredible. You will, you know. I would love that.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, you and me, we're going to do it together. But you were that, I didn't see the whole thing, but there was a calmness. It was still you. Yes. But there was a calmness to it. That was really the first.

time, I will say, Long Dumb Road, written and directed by Hannah Fidel, a fantastic writer and director, the first time that I'd ever had to consider a performance that would have to unfold over the entirety of the piece. I'm so frequently just, oh, you're in these two scenes, or you're in just in this bit or that bit, or you're in the beginning, in the end, or whatever. I very rarely have to, like, modulate and be like, wait a minute, where am I? in the story in this scene, you know, and try and figure out how to do, that was like a whole new thing for me for the Long Dumb Road. And it was difficult, you know. It was a real learning experience to try and, and I will say Tony Revely, it's who's the young actor who's the opposite

me in that. It's like a classic road trip two-hand or movie is an incredible actor. And so working with him, I was like, oh, this is helping me. He is so fantastic. And Hannah, the director, Because of what I was saying earlier, because I'm so often a very strong spice added to a dish, sometimes too much of that spice. If you're going to, if I'm in the whole movie, that's like too much spice. Playing spice, yes, but not you. So, no, not me. No.

But finding that was a challenge. Mary and I are a nerd about acting. We both studied under the same technique. She went to the neighborhood playhouse in New York. in 1972. I went to Carnegie Tech then went to New York in 72 and studied under somebody who'd studied with Sandy Meisner. Sure. So it was that Meisner technique. Yeah, it was that Meisner technique. Which is all about getting out of yourself. Which is all about getting out of yourself. And repeating. And repeating, quite honestly.

Twirling your beard. Yeah. Twirling your beard. You're twirling your beard. You're twirling my beard. And you get that for fucking ever until you go, this can't. This can't. This can't. I took a class and I was like, I don't know if I don't know if this is for me. Right. But it does teach you to get out of yourself and not, but work off the other person. Yes. Notice, react, respond. Which is funny because you are on some levels, it seems like the opposite of the Misener technique,

but on the other side of it, you have to be paying fucking attention to literally everything that's coming out of the other person. Always. You have a mission, all of you, you know, to be funny and to be this and to be that, but you are working off the other person. And much like this. I saw that, sorry. Yeah.

Working with you and the last thing we just did together, which just came out, by the way. A man on the inside, season two. Season two. And you are very funny and a little wacky and all of that. But I remember trying to. to start to leave because we had a little side scene and then the other scene was going on in the other room that you needed to go join that I need my character needed to go join and so I was trying to get away but you kept adding a little very funny things and then I start to walk and oh you're

leaving you know yeah oh you know you know you would call out what was happening you know oh no that's like a classic for me that's a classic move to just say out loud what's currently happening in the scene, to me, the actor. Like, oh, are we done? Oh, okay. Talk to you later. Yeah, just like, yeah, all that kind of stuff just, again, seeding. It's what you were talking about earlier of like, oh, some people are chasing a big button.

They think like, oh, and then at the end, I'm going to clobber it with this big line or this big joke or something or other. And I'd much rather sprinkle a bit of weirdness at the end, like something that's just like, wait, what was that? What was that weird little aside? But your weird thing didn't come out of nowhere, which is, I would argue, what Sandy Meiser would hate. And it didn't come for me. You made up something before. It came off of me.

It came off of exactly what you were doing, which was you were trying to extricate yourself from talking to me. Your character doesn't want to talk to me anymore. And so for me to just call that out was very funny. I have my version, or actors who aren't good at improvisation, have their version, which is, I really came up for something, a way to do this last night that I want to show you now while the cameras are rolling.

Oh, no. And I think that's, I mean, 99% of people on sets are prepared, you know, or have made choices already, or have worked on this. You know, I'm only now in life getting better at working on things, like really script analysis and really digging in on stuff. That's, that's, I did it in reverse. You know what I mean? Like I am so much more comfortable on a set that I can improvise on than a set that requires me to be kind of word perfect.

You know, that's a much harder endeavor for me and much more daunting. Yeah, for me too, my brain. Yeah. Oof. But I will say, like, watching you, it seems effortless. You know, it is. I have a crap load of psoriasis under my wardrobe. I'm sure.

As a result of looking effortless. Yeah. But it really is. Like, it is, you know, I've been watching you since I was a kid, you know, whether on TV or on sets as an adult. And it is, it's a cool process. It's cool to watch you slip into these guys, you know. And that, like, especially the good place, that mischievous evil, that, like, twinkle, that's, I mean, that's incredible. I had no idea how to play the first season.

didn't know. You didn't want to tip it. No, you couldn't tip it. Yeah. You had to, if people were to look back, which they do because they watch it over and over again that show, I love that. But you have to go, this is real in the moment for the audience watching because they don't know the twist.

Yeah. And if you look back knowing the twist, it has to be real as well. And to the point where I couldn't go because not everyone knew this on the set. You couldn't ask questions because nobody, yeah. And also, you needed to play a character who, in success, you could continue to play in season two without having to make it a new guy who now is evil. Yeah. You know, it's, no, it's got to be. I heard so many directors who didn't know this, they only told.

The directors didn't know. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. I mean, one or two who were in the beginning of the process. Drew and whoever else. Got it. Yes. So I would go, I'd go, hey, I have a, talking to the wrong person.

So, where's Morgan? Where's Morgan? Oh, yeah. What a singular challenge, though. Like, I feel like actors talk about having a secret all the time. Like, I don't know if that's still a relevant thing, but, you know, like, that idea of that, that cliche of an actor has a secret. But, like, you really did have a, your character had a secret. And that is, that is a, I, that, the, I didn't see, I think of myself as a very savvy TV watcher, movie watcher.

That twist shocked me. Like, it got me. I was so, because I was so in on the show. And then that I didn't, that I didn't see it coming was so incredibly delightful. I'm so rarely surprised that it really, it really got me. I can thank my friend John Krasinski for not being a blabber mouth. Because even before we started shooting, he was going off. I had just got in a good place and we're about to shoot.

And he'd just gotten some big movie. was going to go do this huge... Probably the quiet place. So you guys were both in the place. You guys were both in places. Good and the quiet? No, but it's kind of that story because I was slightly jealous. You guys mostly work in place-based things.

Yes, only place. And this is why he said what he said to me when I described, I said, hey, I wanted him to know that I was going to do something cool too because he was going to go to the big fucking movie star. So I went, hey, I'm going to be working with your friend, Mike Schur. You work together in the office. Oh, yeah. And yeah, it's, it's, I play this architect.

It takes place in the afterlife, and I'm an architect who designs this whole, you know, village community for the afterlife. And I could see his eyes go, oh, okay, yeah, it's the office, but in heaven. And I saw that. And I went, no, no, you don't understand, because at the end of the first season,

I become the, you discovered that I'm actually the devil. And he went, oh, that's good. And I went, yeah, how can they, it's good. And I walked up feeling going, oh, fuck. I don't know. Oh, no. Why did I have to big time? But wait, moving back.

Yeah, please. Another thing, another thing that makes you such a good film actor, you UCB folks, is because it's the camera. I love this. The camera, I think I always want to act for many reasons, but one is to get it right. it's 50-50 at best and I'm giving myself credit to say 50-50 that I will truly be in the moment right you can get close to the moment but then you're then a part of your brain goes wow look at me I'm in the moment and then you're out right and the camera sees that yes the camera knows whether you are truly in a position to surprise yourself because you don't know it's coming yeah you know

because you're so lost in the moment or no, you're just now giving me a facsimile something. Yes. Of being in the moment. Yes. And a lot of times I feel like that can look like what you prepared. But if you you, Mr. U.C.B.

are part of a group trying to find out where this group is going next, you can't be phoning it in or you will miss where it's going. Yeah. It's all discovery. It's all curiosity. Yes. Which is my new favorite

fucking word in life right now. At my age, maybe when I approached 70s, gratitude became a very valuable word and real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, be grateful, Ted. You know, how'd you get everything you got? I don't know.

Just say thank you. You know, how much more? I don't know. Thank you. You know, just stay there. My new word, though, is curiosity. Big time. Stay fucking curious.

And that is, and I will say, one of the things that all my characters have is deep curiosity. Like a lot of times, like, they all want to know everybody else in the show more. But they're almost always people that everybody else in the show is like, can this guy get out of here? Can we get rid of this guy? Yes. But like Apollo on a man on the inside, like that Thanksgiving episode, all Apollo wanted to do as far as I was concerned was make friends. He's just there to make friends.

You know, Calvert, I'm making friends with Calvert. There's every, you know, everybody that my guy meets, curious, I want to know more. And your curiosity isn't to then have a one-up or have anything that's on a negative or sad or anything. Your curiosity, the payoff is, well, I'll be damned. Yes. Oh, my God. More specificity. More like, yes.

And you know what? And this thing, we just figured out, I'm. into it too. Yeah. You know? And then you're just finding weird little pockets of stuff that a lot of times can just be ephemera that they're never going to use. But then every once in a while, it makes it into the cut.

And I'm like, oh, whoa, they use that? Yeah. Cool. You know? It's not, like the beat in the one we just, that's the Thanksgiving episode where, um, where you've dropped, you've very kindly dropped the lasagna in order to cover for the mistake. Yeah.

Um, that Constance's character. has made. And Mary Elizabeth is like, I'll go get them up. And I just improvise the line. I said, I'll go ask the neighbors next door if we can ask their trampoline later. If we can use their trampoline later. It's not related to the lasagna. It's not related to any of that. That's just that guy is excited. There's a trampoline next door. I mean, I'm also helping because all of us want to use the trampoline, right? You know? I believe you are not yet. Yes, and you're a yes and oh my god yes but it i'm also i'm very lucky that they let me do that you know and and that they used it i was so delighted that made it in you know me too yeah

because i so much was going on probably in my head i was trying to figure out something else whether i'd done the scene right when that line came out of your mouth but you did several versions yes on your exit line so when i watched it you get to see what they chose I feel like I've graciously gone along with that I'm 77. You know, like, wow, you're 77, look, yeah, da, don't. You know, I just, and then I watch myself on TV and it's like, fuck. Yeah. I'm 77.

Oh, yeah. It's so disturbing. I felt, when I turned on the, this season of the show, I was like, oh, whoa, I'm so much grayer than I was the last time I think I appeared on television. Yeah. You know, even though I see myself in the mirror every day, yeah, yeah. My mind is lying to me. Yeah. But when it's right there on TV, I'm like, oh, that guy's older.

Yeah. That guy's older than I thought he was. Yeah. You know? My process is that I watch it again. Yeah. And I wipe my tears away going, well, I guess it's not that bad. And then I watch it a third time, I go, oh, fuck, there are other actors in this scene.

Oh, you know. Oh, they're good. Oh, this is good. Well, it's like that thing you, do you, because do you do this, like, let's say you're watching a scene from a man on the inside, but one of these big group scenes. do you watch yourself when someone else is talking? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by someone else is talking. Do you mean the other actor? But you know what I mean?

Sometimes I'm like, why am I even looking at me right now? I'm not the one talking. Like nobody's looking at me right now because sometimes I'll be like in that way that I'm so oftentimes chasing a moment or something to improvise. I can sometimes see Jason the improviser there instead of Apollo or Derek or, you know, Adrienne Pimento or whatever, I instead see me who just had a clever idea and is now just waiting to unload it, you know?

And I'm like, oh, this fucking idiot, why can't I even cover with a bit of a performance so that I can strike with a great line? But no, I can see all the mechanics in my mind. But it's almost always happening while someone else is talking. So hopefully nobody's looking at me because that's what it is for me. It's that same thing of like, oh, man, I wish I'd done that better. I just wish I wasn't chasing that bit or that joke or whatever. I can quibble with all of it, you know.

I'm confidently there, but when I watch it back, I'm full of self-recrimination. I'm whoever my favorite actor is when I'm working. Yes. But when I watch, I'm just this judgmental dick. Totally, completely. Oh, absolutely. I get that. I think we all are.

Yeah. And that's why I think a lot of people don't watch their stuff. Yeah. I do. I don't, because I also think of it as kind of a learning experience. I get better because I watch it. And it's humbling. Humbling is good.

Oh, yeah. And God forbid, if I was out here not watching it back and just walking off sets being like, yo! Just like rocky. Look at me. I fucking did it. And then I watch it back and I'm like, oh, God, that's trash. What am I doing? Somewhere in between is probably true.

So better to be there. And that is how I always feel. Somewhere in between is the actual performance. Changing. Let's go. Okay. So being philosophical. Yeah.

I think, enlighten, it's, it's, you know, if you're living day-to-day, if your circumstances are so hard that you just need to get through the day to survive. Okay. It's harder to kick back and be philosophical. People do, and I admire that even more. You have a little bit of that get-through-the-day-ness. in that you had to be very super, super conscious of what's going on in your mouth. What is so, I don't know why I led you into that, so it'll be a miraculous if you're philosophical.

I have no idea where we're going to, Ted, but I love it. I want to know, I want to know, like, you know, what are your, do you think about dying? Do you think about, oh, yeah, besides the fact that Egg White may kill me? No, no, but just in general, yeah. Do you think about, are you an activist? Are you, what's going on in the world? Does it hurt? Do you let it in?

Or how do you, all, here, we're all surrounded with a little bit of sadness, a fucking huge dump load of sadness, sadness, fear, anger. That seems to be, especially this country at the moment. We're inside of it, for sure, right now. Yeah. So how do you deal with that? You know, we're not politicians. We're not this.

We're not that. But we are people in this mix. So how do you deal with? So I'll say like on a. And I'm not asking you to become logical level. I'm just wondering how you deal. No, no, no. I think I get what you're saying. So it, because you could answer a couple ways, on a psychological level, because I am prone to melancholy.

And I will be consumed with like something like the pandemic was a catastrophe. for me. Like, I was a disaster. Things that for me seem to be truly, I am unable to get my arms around or feel in control in any way in. I'm really a mess. And so, but things, okay, like, here's an example. During this past elections debates, one of the debates took place right before I was going to do an improv show. And what was clear is, and we all, I started watching it at home, I switched to listening to it in the car as I drove to Largo, the venue where we were going to do the show. And then as more and more people pulled into, of the performers pulled into the parking lot,

it was clear we were all listening to the end of the debate in the car. And it was the debate that had gone just disastrously, you know, for buying. And we all walked in the venue, we're just kind of like, that was tough, walked on stage and had an unbelievably funny show. And there was an element of it that felt like, here's the eight of us, very smart, very funny people who are now just engaged in, for us and the audience, some sort of a catharsis, some sort of understanding, some sort of bringing us all together. to exorcise this horrible thing that has just happened that feels truly like the beginning of an end, of a certain end that now we see negatively in the future that has now befallen us, you know?

But that, for me, for me, the ability to get on stage and process my emotions is the place that I, like I am the most at ease on stage not knowing what's going to happen because that is where I'll process all of my trauma, all of my anxiety, my OCD, all the stuff that's like percolating, I will put it all on stage. So that period of time in the pandemic where I couldn't perform was truly terrible. You know, it just was left to my own devices. My mind is just going to worst case scenario everything all the time. And if I can't get it out, then it's like poison. You know, it starts to make me crazy.

So performance is a huge part of it. Community is a huge part of it. You need it. Those people, finding those people, those collaborators, I'm still like, I still do a show called Dinosaur Improv that we've been, I've been performing with some of these people and another show called soundtrack. Some of these people, 15, 25 years, we've been doing shows together. And that is The idea that we'll still go and tour with people that are now in their 50s. It's an improv show. It's an ensemble improv show.

It's just a fun, fuck-around show I do with friends. But these are some of my oldest, dearest friends. And we get to go do a funny show for 1,500 people, then go and have a dinner and chat and hang out or a show here at Largo for 250 people. It doesn't matter the size of the venue. Just the continued meeting backstage.

stage, hey, what's going on? Let's get on stage. Let's do a show. That is, I want to do that forever. You know what I mean? Like, that's the, that to me is the thing. That's the whole, if you were like, you can never be in a movie or on TV again, but you can still do this. I would choose this. I would choose the ability to a couple of times a week get on stage with people that I love and do just dynamite improv. That's the thing. That's what's exciting. That's what remains exciting to me. the fact that it's ephemeral, the fact that it's one night only, the fact that it's never recorded, that it's never to be seen or done again, that's pretty cool. And that is the vast majority of my creative output is just that. It is never to be seen. You can't ever see it or know it.

You know, it is thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of stage shows compared to the very small amount of filmed work I've done, if that makes sense. Yeah. I need a script. It's what comforts me. I color within the lines and the opposite. You know, I'm very fear-based. And that's what gives me freedom. Yeah.

But you're very playful. Within it. You know, you are very, that's what's very fun because you're not rigid in any way. No, no, no, no. No. And I want to be surprised. I am delighted. I am aware of what's going on around me and when I'm doing it right.

Yeah. All of that stuff. But I have guidelines. You, in essence, don't. How do you know when you've crossed the line? Do you ever go, shoot, I should not have put that out into the universe. Oh, shoot, that was mean, or that was to this or that. It's less that I'm always worried about it, but I am going to always, so like on both good place.

man on the inside, I will, especially in the beginning stages, check in with Mike or Morgan or if the writer is there or whatever, to be like to calibrate me. You know what I mean? Because I'm still dialing this in. I don't know yet what this guy is. This is the first or second scene we've shot. Like, too big, too small. Like, where, like, you know, trying to dial in a character that's only going to appear in six total scenes across three different episodes. So I'm only going to get these moments. So I want it to feel like it's a cohesive character and a, you know, the same guy in episode eight that is going to be in episode two.

Like, help me figure it out. And so I rely on them, quite honestly. I'm going to do stuff and be like, is it this one or that? It's like the eye test. Number one or number two. Number one or number two. Oh, okay, number two. Okay, now number two or number three.

Number two or number three. So I feel like the first couple of scenes for me are the eye test. You know, it is calibrating the guy to move forward. And then once it settles in, then I feel pretty comfortable. It's not that I have, it's not that I don't have guidelines. It's just my guidelines are wider. Yeah. You know, I'm willing to go hither and thither.

As long as they don't mind. Because I also will say to people on sets, like, don't let me waste your time. you know, like, I'm not here to, like, cause a bunch of scenes to just kind of have to be done and redone and redone because I'm, I'm not here, I'm not fucking around. I want to be clear, I'm not fucking around, you know. Or doing it for my pleasure. Or doing it for my benefit. Like this, I'm trying to, you know, if I think I can beat a joke, I'm going to try to beat the joke if you want me to. If you don't, no problem. You know, I'm prepared. I'll do the, I'll do it, you know. So trying to figure that out. ever bumped into, probably not, not, because people know you so well, but every once in while you'll bump into a writer. No, just say the words. It's funny. Oh, yeah. It's funny. Oh, yeah. Oh, I've, absolutely. And then, you know, especially you'll, there've been, I've been on jobs where I know I've said something funnier, and they'll be like, let's get one as scripted.

And I'm like, I know that, that's, that's the one they're going to use. They want, they want that line in as is. I always call that the People Magazine cover where they go, all right, we got all this here. Take this banana. Just put it in your ear, click, you know, cover. Oh, yeah. Oh. Dancing goes bananas. Oh, boy.

It's like, no, no, no. But that's it. The minute you walk in and see bananas there, I'm like, uh-oh, this is trouble. For my People Magazine cover. When I get there. You're beyond People Magazine. Oh, my God. Wait.

Are your mom and dad alive? Yes, yes. They live in the house and the town that I grew up in. Suburban, Massachusetts, suburban Boston, I should say. Nahant, Massachusetts. The smallest town in Massachusetts. Massively proud of you? Very proud. Very proud.

Like, truly, I think, I think to them, even still, it is mind-blowing. That, you know, also because my last name is so singular for the most part, they now have like reflected fame so like my mom will be like the pharmacist knew who i what knew who you were you know or or you know like what did you say once the dry you're not going to believe this i went to the dry cleaners today and he said do you know that there's a comedian who has your last name and i said that's my son and he said you know he has a very serious egg allergy And my mom was like, he knew about your allergy. The dry cleaner knew about your allergy.

And I was like, this is what it is now. It's gotten away from us, you know? They have friends, I bet. They go way back. They got back and touch with them because of you. They called. Always. That happened a lot.

Always. They are always telling me, oh, we heard from this and that person who just saw you on, you know, something was playing on TV and they saw you and they loved it. And I will say, and not for nothing. thing. The idea, I think one of the things that really solidified my parents' understanding that I was successful is that I knew you in a way, because for them, you are so totemic as a, like, actor TV. Like, Cheers was their show. You know what I mean? So the idea that I was then on a show with you and that you knew who I was really kind of blew their entire mind.

Wow. That and I did a movie with Robert De Niro. And I think you and Robert De Niro. Now you just blew my mind. Like those two things, they were like so... Wait, what did you do with him? Tell me, I'm so sorry. I did a movie called Dirty Grandpa, where, Ted, I'm so excited you asked about the movie Dirty

Grandpa. I'm going to find it and watch it. Please do. Where Robert De Niro and Zach Afron, it's the movie. their movie. It's like a grandpa, horny grandpa, wife dies, goes to spring break to get laid. And it is just, it's him and Zach Ephron and then a cavalcade of comedians. They just keep winding their way through different comedians who are providing just an absurd series of adventures that they're on. And if you can believe it, I'm a pretty sketchy drug dealer.

Anyway, but, but like it was, it's not the greatest movie, but it was a blast to me. and all my scenes were with Robert De Niro. So I was like, I'm absolutely going to do this. You know, it was awesome. Oh, my God. But I think to my folks, it's things like that. It's the idea that I mean a show with you or that I did a movie with Robert De Niro, that they start to really be like, oh, whoa, this is a real thing.

Getting their arms around that is like, you know, like my dad, like they both are just like, they didn't have any friends in the arts or this wasn't something that was meaningful to them. anyway. So it's pretty, it's very cool. And they are, I will say, and I'm so grateful, have always been wildly supportive. Never once was it like, which is such a gift. Thank God. I was never hung up on the, I want to succeed to prove them wrong or to show them something or to that. I never had that. They came and saw me, they came and saw me do not very good shows in not very nice theaters and were just like, you were

incredible. How come you're not on Saturday Night Live? You know, they just, they had the wonderful. It was just, I was always so grateful because then I wasn't, it wasn't an issue for me. The idea of feeling like, I want to make them proud. It was

very clear to me, always proud. You know, thank God. Yeah. Do you have Greek pride in you? Hmm. Do I have Greek pride? It's a great question. My daughter's half. Greek and I'm so happy for her. Yeah, I mean, I do have Greek pride, although I will say I'm not, like I don't, like we did not grow up going to Greece every year, like a lot of other like

families did. Greek Orthodox? We were raised Greek Orthodox-ish. You know, we didn't go to church regularly. We went to church sometimes, you know. It was part of it, but not a ton of it. I did, I lived in Greece, semester abroad in Greece. I went and lived in Greek Monaster. I was a religion major. So I did a bunch of that. So I learned a lot about that stuff, but from the outside, from like an academic way, not from inside. It was not a, we didn't spend a lot of time in church. And I didn't, one of my great regrets is I didn't learn Greek at that moment when I could have gone and taken Greek lessons.

Because your mom and dad did? Yeah. Oh, yeah. My dad came, my dad's a Greek immigrant, came here when he was a kid. Oh, I thought you were three grand, three generations. No, my dad, my dad grew up in Greece, came over when he was a kid, though. Came over when he was like 10, 11 years old. My mom born here, two Greek immigrants.

Gotcha. So, so, like, my, everybody spoke Greek. My paternal grandparents didn't speak very good English. Where in Greece? So my dad is from, like, northern Greece, like, like Macedonia, mountain, hardscrabble mountain people. Like, the Appalachia of Greece. Don't fuck with them, folks. Do not fuck with them.

Like, truly crazy. mountain people. And my mom's family is from the Peloponnese, so southern Greece, much more the what we think of as like a Zorba the Greek, full of life and joy. Wait, where is Sparta? It's in the Peloponnese. No. Sparta, where is Sparta? That's a great question. I think it's Peloponnese. It might be. It's not up. It's not up north. No. That's Loniki and all that stuff is up north. But Sparta is down south, but I'm not sure if it's Peloponnese or not. This is a great question. This is where my Greek stuff falls apart.

I'm not super knowledgeable. Haven't been married to a Greek. Italians, you know, oh, vendettas and don't piss them off. Greeks got them way over them. Oh, yeah. You know, Medea threw her fucking kids off a cliff. My grandmother said something once to me that was amazing. I was dating someone and she was asking me like, oh, she was asking me about the

the woman I was dating, she basically said, this is all in Greek. She was like, she's not Italian, is she? And I was like, no, she's not Italian. And she was like,

oh, that's good. Because if she was, she'd have a cigarette in one hand, a drink in the other, and your dinner's coming out of a can. This is savage. Like, what a crazy bird. Like, this is nuts.

But yeah, Greeks are like, yeah, like fired up. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Tough stuff. The best. My father was an argument.

Archaeologists, and we went around Greece. It was our big family on vacation as the whole family remembers 1965, driving around for six weeks and this old Pujo all over Greece. But like to have somebody who has that knowledge base show you all of those sites must have been incredible. Some he didn't know anything about, but he just had friends that had dug on them. Cool. So it was really cool. That's really neat. Oh, I love that.

Yeah, and it was back when you could, I don't know what it's really like now, but I doubt that you could steal antiquities? Yeah. You could just, they'd be like, take whatever you want. I got a chunk of the Parthenon, you wouldn't believe. But you could walk up into the Parthenon, midnight, moonlight, by, you know, no guards, no fences, no nothing. It was so, cool. Such a different kind of time. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh. Very romantic. Yeah, that's incredible. That's gorgeous. Yeah. So you're Greek, huh? Yeah.

Yeah. very Greek. Very Greek. But like I said, I wish I knew Greek. I wish I'd learn that language because it really impeded me getting to know my grandparents better. You know, I really, it made it difficult to get into a much deeper relationship with them because I just didn't have that facility. And they, their English was only, you know, like, so deep. And so that's a great regret, you know, like things like that I wish I'd been better at. So when you went, you had a fellowship of sort of that took, not of sorts. I can't remember. Was it a fellowship? Yeah, it's called a Watson. I was a Watson fellow. Right. Yeah. That you, you're, I guess your written application wasn't that overwhelming. But as soon as you went in to talk to them, they went, oh, yes. It was a, it was a mediocre application and a very good interview. Yeah. And thank God. Thank God. There was a, to do what? To do, I did an ethnomusicology project in North Africa. Say it slower. Okay. So I did it.

an ethno-musicology project in North Africa. Ethno-musicology. So, like, yes. So it's like I went and studied music in North Africa in the Middle East that is the music's intention is to put you into a trance or bring you into a state of ecstatic union with something holy, a God, God, you know, depending on where you are, you know, it is, it's sometimes God, or it's sometimes you're communing with demons. or devils or other things,

but it's all based on music, music that's meant to basically put you into contact with something holy. How did you know to even apply for that? I know you were a drummer and all of that. But that's a very specific, amazing. It was a real, so the Watson Foundation

just gives grants. They give 50 grants a year. Sorry, wait, go back. The other piece, you said you went not to a monastery and monastery. So was this a spiritual music thing theme in your life, theology? Yes. So it was very much so. When I was in Greece, I went and lived in a place called Mount Athos, which is part of, it's in northern Greece. And it is this peninsula of land on which there are, you know, 100-year-old monasteries that litter this area of.

Greece. And it is, uh, it's technically not part of Greece. It belongs to the, to the orthodox. It belongs to the Patriarchate. So it is all, um, monks and monasteries. And so I went and stayed in all these monasteries. I wrote a paper about it. And then, but I'm also a musician. So when I was coming up with a presentation for the Watson Foundation, it was their whole thing is, there are plenty of people who will give you money to do further education in your field of research. you know, you can get a Fulbright. There's all sorts of fellowships you can get to continue the studies that you are going to continue for an advanced degree. The Watson Foundation is like, we only want to fund whatever you're not getting an advanced degree and whatever you're curious about, whatever you are passionate about. So as long as you're not going to try and get a master's or a PhD in this, we'll fund it. And so the projects end up being very uniquely personal to the people. So mine was a marriage of, I was a religion major and had done a bunch of that study. And then music, I was a musician.

And I'd already gotten incredibly curious and obsessed with a bunch of music from a bunch of these countries that was exactly what I'm describing. How? How? How did you do that before you went? I was the general manager and jazz director of the radio station at my college. And what I would do is I would sit in there and I would just pull records and play music for myself in the office or on air. And so a lot of the stuff that I found that I was a lot of things that I was not super knowledgeable about, I educated myself just with the records in the library. And like international, what was world music at the time, was one of those things. So I just started sifting through that section of the library.

And a lot of the stuff, Ganawa music from Morocco, master musicians of Djuku from Morocco, all the whirling dervish stuff from Turkey, klezmer music and from Israel. A lot of, I was finding a lot of stuff that I was super compelled by and interested by, so that when I then was doing this, applying for this grant, I was like, oh, I can pull from all these kind of things that I like,

that I already like and know about. And I'll just connect them all because they all are basically related to the religion that they are underneath. And so, again, my application kind of mediocre. But when I got in there and was like, this is what I want to do and explain it to the person, I got the grant. And so it really was a marriage of my academic interests and my personal interests, if that makes sense. Yes. we're going to keep going for a little while. I love it.

But I just want to kind of marvel at you. Because a lot of times I wonder what with everybody, with people, you know, and myself, what am I doing? What am I putting out into the world? You know, it's like you need to be purposeful. You need to be nurturing. You need to, you know. And I look at myself and I'm curious about other people.

And I was afraid, you know, it's like, because you are, take your egg allergy and how that informed you and, you know, your focus in life. And I was, I was afraid to ask, what are you doing for the world and stuff? And then I'm listening to you talk. And I'm just astounded at your level of cure. What you're putting out in the world is so sweet. Oh, thank you. So bright. So, you know, you're curious and that curiosity is, you know, that's an amazing message to people. You're grateful because you're still breathing and no one fed you an egg. You know, you're focused on being creative.

You're making people laugh, which has ripple effects that your parents know about, but you won't probably ever know the extent to the ripples that you've put out into the world that make people feel good. I am, I am, and you're so intensely purposeful because of your condition that you grew up with, that you really are marvel. I really, you're going to make me cry, Ted. No, but I really feel lucky to be talking to you and get to know you more than, oh my God, here comes Jason who makes me happy and who's so funny. You are a marvel.

I'm really I can't thank you that was the kindest thing you've just said you really made me tear up I am always a fan of things

and I want to tell everybody about the things I'm a fan you know what I mean like I'm excited to be here because I'm excited to talk to you because I love you you know what I mean like I love that we

get to work together. And I want to not talk about myself, even though I've talked about myself quite a bit, but in service of talking to you, you know, because I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan of this show. I love to be able, like when I watched the season one reveal of Good Place, I wrote Mike an email to be like, I'm such a fan of this. This blew my mind. This was incredible. Like, I want to celebrate all of the stuff that I find excited. And there's so much exciting stuff. There's so much good. Because I feel like there can be a sense in our world of being like, whoa, is me.

Everything sucks. It was better back then. It's never been worse. This is unheard of. You know, it's so many conversations right now, as genuinely our business is in weird upheaval. But nonetheless, like, boy, is there so much stuff that I still find to love about it. and be excited to talk about it in any way, shape, or form. And this one, the one that we're doing right now, the kind of new podcasting,

what a wild and strange new endeavor, although not that new. My podcast has been going for 15 years. But that idea of being able to chat and kind of have an exciting conversation, I love this. You know, like we've had plenty of conversations. You know, in between setups on set, and so forth like that. But, boy, this is lovely, you know. It really is lovely.

This is wonderful. And this is, you know, this is just for us. Right. Well, we might film something now towards the end. Have we started? I'm also not that guy who goes, hey, let's go have a beer. Yeah. I'm not that guy.

Not at all. I'm not. I'm much rather be at home. home listening to a podcast or music and doing a jigsaw puzzle. That's what I'll do tonight. I want to run home to Mary. Yeah. Great.

You know, that's who I, my everything, my heart, my soul bounces up with her. Getting to see you and Mary on set together could not have been cuter. It was, I was like, oh, this is great. We hand out vomit bags for people who are standing too close. It is great. We are nauseating. It really, how long have you been together? 32.

32. 32? 30 married, yeah. Like, to see you guys, like, over there goofing around, just alone, just the two of you over there, just goofing around with each other. I'm like, this is it, this is. When I make her laugh, or by being intentionally or unintentionally, I don't give a shit, if I'm in the presence of her laugh, I am just.

Oh, well, it's such a good laugh. It's such a good laugh. But I don't, but she was, she's also like. she was, I mean, also incredible to be in scenes with could not break her. What? Unbreakable.

She was unbreakable. Maybe it's, we just didn't get. Jesus, I hate to tell you this. She's horrible. She must not have liked your work, Jason. I'm so sorry. Oh, no. But it was, I was like, wow, she's very good.

This is incredible. She adores you. Oh, good. You're amazingly funny. Oh, I'm so glad. Oh, I don't doubt it. But I was just like, oh, she's, this is, I can't. I can't get to her at all.

It was great. You did present character challenges to actors because you came in with such, not you, but your character has written, Apollo, came in with, you know, was it a guinea pig? Yeah, oh, yeah. All the guinea pig stuff was crazy. Crazy. And if you're acting against it or with it, you're like, yeah. What's going on?

So now there's a guinea pig. It's named Joni Mitchell and it's dying? And that's just a very inconsequential part of this Thanksgiving episode? Like, really weird. I love you. Thank you for coming in. I love you. I really, really appreciate it.

Oh, I can't thank you enough. Both for having me and for all of the kind words, truly. That was a very touching and very moving experience for me. Thank you, Jason, for spending this time with us. You can watch Jason as Apollo Lambrackus on season two of A Man on the Inside, streaming now on Netflix. It's a great show to get cozy and binge over the holidays, if I can say so myself. That's all for our show this week, and come to think of it for this year.

Getting to do this podcast has been such a joy, and I'm excited to share even more of my friends with you in the new year. And being on this journey with my friend Woody Harrelson makes it even more special. I miss you, Woody. As always, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts if you're in the mood. If you like watching your podcast, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash Team Coco. See you next to you.

Where everybody knows, you know. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alyssa Grawl. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Battista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steen Virgin, and John Osborne. You know, me Yeah, and

You know, and me me