WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1640 - Tom Green

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

While he was once known for all manner of comedy involving animals, both alive and dead, Tom Green’s relationship with the animal kingdom is now much more traditional, as he spends most of his time doing farm work on a remote plot of unspoiled land in Canada. Tom talks with Marc about why he made the big change in his life, which is documented in the new Prime Video series Tom Green Country. They also talk about their respective pioneer work in the early days of streaming video and podcasting. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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to get the most out of your site, just like we do at WTFpod.com. Check out squarespace.com slash WTF for a free trial and then use offer code WTF to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain That's squarespace.com slash WTF offer code WTF All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck buddies?

What the fuck? Nick's what's happening? I'm Mark Marin. This is my podcast WTF. Welcome to it. What is happening? What is going on? I am newly awake.

I am on the road. I am in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have just woken up and I'm looking out at these massive towers, massive towers of from what I understand may or may not be occupied apartment buildings. But I did two shows last night, today is Sunday, you'll be listening to this Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or maybe years from now. I just wanted to tell you that what you're listening to is a man in Toronto in a hotel room

having his second Nespresso coffee that he made with that machine. I don't wanna say it twice, I'm not promoting it. But I guess what I am saying sort of, you know, in a coded way is not a bad hotel room when you got the real nespresso pods Because sometimes you get those uh, those uh, what do you got knockoff pods? You don't want the knockoff pods not as good. They don't even look as pretty

Why is it that they can't make what would it take to make them look as pretty as the real ones the knockoff ones? They just got to look a little shittier. So you're like, I guess these are okay But then when you see the real ones, you're like these are like fucking gold This isn't even a plug but maybe maybe no, it's not I don't need an espresso machine. Anyway, how are you guys? Pow I just shit my pants just coffee co-op. That's a classic Thought I'd throw that in there. Anyway, speaking of Canada, Tom Green is on the show again today. And, you know, I like Tom, and I don't always put Tom into perspective, into context, in terms of sort of what an important fella he was in the history of the media world that we live in.

And you know I missed the whole Tom Green thing because I don't think I was the right age. I think him and I are around the same age and when he was doing his crazy shit, well he's you know he's actually five years younger than me. It wasn't my thing. I knew of him but I wasn't watching MTV. As I get older, I got to be honest with you, it seems that I wasn't watching MTV. As I get older, I gotta be honest with you, it seems that I missed just about everything. I don't know exactly how but I can kinda figure it out. Like, you know, I didn't watch Seinfeld, I didn't watch The Simpsons, I didn't watch,

I just missed fucking everything. Musically, I missed most things. I missed everything that was going on in New York, in the early aughts, and I was fucking there for part of it. I just missed everything. And the reason is, the reason that, I don't know if I'm late for the party or not, but the reason that I have to pick up on things later

is because all I was fucking doing is stand-up comedy. That's all I did. I wandered around during the day writing things down and then at night I would sit in comedy clubs and most of the time I wasn't living in a situation where I had a DVR or a video cassette player so I just wasn't watching shit for years when many things happened., I didn't, I don't mean, I didn't even have a fucking TV set in New York city. When I lived there in the late eighties, not even have a fucking TV. I don't know how the hell, whatever, but I missed it all.

But now thank God because it's all available all the time on your hand. You can just pull up on your fucking phone or wherever, and you can catch up, you can reintegrate. You can fill in those blank spaces of years in your head. So, except for COVID, that one fucked us all. I seriously am still not correct time-wise. And I think I said this before, because of COVID, I think I should be 58 years old and not 61.

But that's my opinion. But I just missed it all and I missed Tom. But I had him on the show and generally when I have somebody on the show, I get into it. I look into it, I experience whatever they did as much as I can. And I was looking back at Tom's stuff, the documentary about him and just how fucking punk rock

and fucking nuts he was and the fact that I think he, you know, kind of invented Eric Andre and sort of invented the modern video podcast, which was, you know, hijacked by, you know, you know, the rest of them. It's very funny. There's this funny doc out there, kind of one of those underground docs about comedy and where it's at now and some of it is about you know the collapse of comedy and and then the rise of the podcast and how Joe Rogan kind of took Tom Green's idea and it's actually in the doc but he's able to isolate the moment on Tom Green's podcast where Joe was a guest and sort of had the idea to do it.

And then this guy who made it, no one knows who does it. No one knows who makes these things. He's made a couple of them. They're kind of smart. They're kind of like Adam Curtis, who I like. But more specific and more structured. But there's a point in the doc, it's called How Comedy Became a Dystopian Imperial Hellworld. It's on YouTube.

Comedy Czar, How Comedy Became a Dystopian Imperial Hellworld. Don't know who the guy is. I believe he's Canadian, the guy who made the doc. But he sort of cites Tom Green as the originator and then he speculates or he fantasizes about a world where Tom Green would be the biggest podcaster in the world and not Joe, and what an amazing world that would be. But anyway, Tom is back and he's kind of settled. He's a little, he's a bit of a settled man now in a way

he just did like four episodes of this mini kind of series of him Moving to the farm. He's moved back here to Canada to and he bought a farm Again, he was on the show years ago on episode 360 in 2013 and And now he's got this thing, Tom Green Country. It's four episodes, a docu-series, and it's about him just buying this farm and living on it. And it's kind of sweet.

He's got a comedy special out, Tom Green, I Got a Mule. And he's got another thing, This is Tom Green, the documentary which he directed. He's kind of an important guy and it was good to see him again and now he goes everywhere with his dog Charlie who was in in in studio and it was a great conversation. So that's happening. That's happening soon if you're listening to this now. It's the last week of my tour and Man am I shredding my brain? Am I just fucking trying to oh my god I'm in Burlington, Vermont tonight at the at the Vermont Comedy Club two shows tonight

And then one show tomorrow. I'm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the music hall on Wednesday I'm at Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the music hall on Wednesday, this Wednesday, May 7th, and then Brooklyn, New York at the Bam Harvey Theater for my HBO special taping this Saturday, May 10th. Two shows there, I don't know what's available. I don't think there's tickets for that Vermont run available. There might be a few for New York, don't know, maybe not.

I know there's a few for Portsmouth. So if you're anywhere within a couple hours of Portsmouth and you need to see me, that one you could probably get into. There's a lot of tickets sold, listen to me, the insecurity speaking up. No, don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong. There's definitely a lot of tickets sold tickets sold but yeah so I've been up

here in Canada and traveling up here was pretty easy and again you get that tremendous sort of load off you get the MAGA load off your back everything just your body relaxes your brain relaxes the pace changes this theater is crazy the small theater at the Elgin, it seats about eight or nine hundred and there's fake leaves everywhere. Apparently, I don't know when they found this theater, they had knocked out a wall or something years ago and they didn't realize there was a theater in there and it had all this shrubbery growing, these vines growing around the whole building.

I'm sure there's a documented history of this. I don't know. I'm just, I'm kinda going off something I have to listen to somebody telling me. And it was so unique that they just kind of redid it with fake leaves. Very interesting theater, but it's probably the best one I've played up here. But I told the audience, I said, you know, I definitely am kind of happy for y'all

for going politically the way you did. And I gotta be honest, I'm kind of leaning a little bit towards that 51st state thing. I mean, I think that it might be a good thing that just selfishly we could use the votes down south there, down where we are. We could use the electoral votes of the state of Canada to help us in these upcoming elections.

They laughed. I don't think I was serious, but you know, take it for what it is. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're definitely getting better in dealing with mental health issues out in the open. It's one of the things I've been open about

since the start of this show, and I hope it helps. But there's still work to be done 26 percent of Americans who participated in a recent survey say they've avoided seeking mental health support due to fear of judgment One of the ways we can all fix that is continuing to encourage people to take care of their mental well-being and break the stigma There are lots of ways you can try therapy better help is one of them In fact, it might be the right one for you because it's fully online, meaning you can go to therapy wherever you are. It's more affordable than traditional therapy and you can switch therapists at any time without any extra charges. people with the right therapist, helping out more than 5 million people worldwide. We're all better with help.

Visit betterhelp.com slash WTF to get 10% off your first month. That's better help. H e l p.com slash WTF. Speaking of mental health, that's kind of amazing that at least I know at this point that when I'm converging on a big thing, especially something like a comedy special or something that requires all of me and I am the one doing it,

my brain really does everything it can to kind of make it much more difficult for me. I just start spinning and figuring out things to obsess on, beating the shit out of myself, thinking I'm horrible for any number of ways, you know, wondering about my appearance, wondering about the clothes I've chosen, wondering about the material, wondering if I want to be alive anymore. I mean, wondering if I'm going to get sick, wondering if I'm losing my memory, wondering

if I'm going to remember. I mean, it's like the way my fear and panic manifest, because I feel pretty confident about the work. I feel ready, I'm almost too ready. Last night I did one set that was just tight and quick and focused, no beats, and I realized on the last special that I kind of did that too, that there wasn't a lot of kind of a slowing down or casual nuance to the

thing. And, but I just get my brain into this mode where I just wanted to be tight as fuck after being loose as fuck for a year and a half, two years of this material that's been building. But just what I'm doing to myself laying in bed, just like not wanting to fucking get out. And I guess it's all some sort of, that's the battle of me where I've gotta correct my brain and not let that voice,

it's really a struggle between the voices of like who I've become and what I am professionally and the obstacles I've overcome in my life and in my mind versus that guy who's been with me since I was in high school that just says, "'You suck, you awkward fuck.'" I mean, you just like, you're just gonna make everyone uncomfortable,

you're gonna start crying. I mean, you know, it's just, the list is kind of insane. And I just have to keep the dominant present me You know focused and functioning so that's my process what's your process, huh? So look Tom Green It was great to see him. It's a nice little ending to this conversation All three of his new projects are on prime video. This is the Tom Green documentary, the comedy special I Got a Mule, and the docu-series Tom Green Country, and this is me reconnecting with

Tom. Poo-thoria. That feeling get once you've finally pooped. Using the power of natural Sena from the Sena plant to promote bowel movement, Senocot laxative gently relieves occasional constipation, typically in 6 to 12 hours. If it is hard to pass, try Senocot S. It uses natural Senna plus a stool softener to help you achieve pooforia. My dog's here, she'll calm down in a second. I'm just gonna take her, my dog Charlie who's with me everywhere, I'm gonna take her.

You bring her on stage now. I bring her on stage, literally take her everywhere with me. But it's fun traveling with a dog, you know? Is it? Yeah, when you do stand up and you're always on the road and you have a little friend with you, I enjoy it a lot. It seems like, I can't do it with cats. Yeah.

How long have you had the dog? She's a turning five. So she's turning five. I got her during, during the pandemic. Yeah. And that's kind of led to a lot of changes in my life. I got, I got Charlie and, uh, like I took it real seriously. The pandemic, like I stayed inside.

Well, where were you here? I was here. I was still, I was in LA. You were up in the hills. Yep. Yep. You were pretty freaked out. Well, you had dealt? Here? I was here. I was in LA. You were up in the hills?

Yep. Yep. You were pretty freaked out. Well, you had dealt with major health issues before. Yeah. So I imagine your sensitivity to the possibilities. Exactly. And also the unknown.

It's like, you know, I got, I don't know what, at one point I just said, you know, fuck it, I'm going to the store. Yeah. And, you know, I would double mask. I would be the guy in like a spacesuit at the Whole Foods, cause I just couldn't stand being in house. I was ordering all my groceries on the Instacart. Yeah, yeah, sure. I literally was doing these,

like washing them with bleach. Yeah, sure, the groceries, sure, wiping them down, yeah. And then I would actually film that and put it on Instagram. Yeah. And then that's when I realized we had some division in our society.

People yelling at you for believing the bullshit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go back to Canada. Okay, and I did, I went back to Canada. What was that based on? The decision to go back to Canada or? No, but I mean, what were you getting flack about? Was it that?

Oh, just because of, because I was. Pro-vaccine, reasonable stuff. I mean, this was sort of before the vaccine was out, but I was talking about the vaccine, and eventually I stopped talking about it because I just didn't feel like listening to all that crap. But like, and anyway, people don't want to take a vaccine, that's cool.

People don't want to spray their groceries down with Clorox bleach, that makes sense too. I probably was overreacting a little bit with that. Yeah, but we didn't know. Why not overreact? You know what I constantly think about that I really can't understand is when it's just this idea, like when other people wear masks, people still wear masks and people wore masks before COVID, mostly Asian people who are ahead of the curve on that, but when they travel, but the people that were ahead of the curve on that. Right, right, yeah. But when they travel.

But the people that get upset of like, you know, why the fuck are you wearing a mask? It's like, what difference does it make to you? Yeah. Just shut up. It was amazing that it became political. Yeah, I just don't understand like, because usually when you resent something

about somebody else, it has something to do with you. So like in their dumb minds, it implies that you're mocking them. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't even, I mean, I understand it, but how do you surrender that?

Doesn't matter. I just, I, I, I fester on it. All right. So, but before you went to Canada, back to Canada, which, you know, I'm, I'm waiting on a PR visa and I hope I get it. Cause you talked to somebody, a permanent residency.

Oh yeah. Yeah. You put a good word in for me. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Talk to. You're thinking could you talk to somebody? A permanent residency? Oh yeah, yeah. Could you put a good word in for me? Sure, absolutely, yeah. You're thinking about coming up to Canada? Well, I want to have the option. Yeah, yeah. I love it up there.

Oh yeah. Like I have found- They love you up there too. Do they? Yeah, absolutely, you do shows up there, right? Yeah, I do, I do all right up there. I shot a show up there, but I always go up there to work, but I find it very relieving.

What city would you go to? Vancouver? I think, I think that- It feels like a West coast vibe. You're used to the West coast. It does, but like I haven't spent, I spent some time in Toronto, but I've not been up in the country like where you are, I don't think. No, no.

I'm out in the middle of the wilderness, sort of outside of Toronto and Ottawa and Montreal. I mean, if you were to drive outside of those cities, I'm sort of between all three of them. So yeah, and. But am I wrong in remembering, were you in Costa Rica? I have gone down there quite a bit, yeah,

but I never lived there permanently. Because I think like when you resurfaced, at least in my life, you know, it was like Tom's in Costa Rica, and I'd see clips from you in Costa Rica. I go there on vacation a lot, yeah. Oh, OK. So it wasn't like you moved there? Never moved there, no, no.

Oh, you like it down there? I love it down there. I have a little spot down there. Oh, yeah? Yeah, so it's a, I, yeah. You do the winter? Well, this winter I didn't go because I... You got a farm now.

Yeah, I got a farm, but I was touring in the US this winter in my camper van, which has been a whole other adventure for me. What do you got, one of those silver ones, an airliner? It's a Ram Pro Master. It's a small conversion van. Okay. And that's what happened. That's kind of what got me moving back to Canada was in the, in the, in the pandemic, I got Charlie and I got my dog, Charlie. Yeah. He's named after travels with Charlie Steinbeck, John Steinbeck.

Okay. Yeah. And, uh, which is him driving around in a camper with his dog. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of wrote a book about America. Yeah. So I'm somewhat.

You were following that, uh, that trail. Yeah. So I'm somewhat. You're following that trail. Yeah, somewhat of a, you know, sort of a dissection of some of the political differences in the country and stuff is his book, you know. But I made YouTube videos about it that were not political at all, but just going out to the desert. Uh-huh. But that kind of led me to want to live more close

to nature because I spent, you know, a year of the beginning of the pandemic. In the van? Going around the van. I'd go out to LA, I'd go out into Utah and I'd go do photography out there. So did you find that, like I find that unless you make an effort to get off the interstate, Exactly.

You're not going to see anything. Exactly, yeah. So you had to make some choices. Absolutely, I would never run the interstate as much as possible, just sometimes I'd take it. And there's still a lot left out there. I discovered stuff out there that I had no idea existed, which has taken me down, possibly down some sort of rabbit hole

that may continue for the rest of my life for all I know, because I just went back this winter again to do more of this exploring and discovering these native American ruins that are out in the desert of the, of the Southwestern United States. Started out, I went to this place, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. I grew up in Albuquerque.

Yeah. Okay. So have you been to Chaco? Yeah. Isn't that just amazing? Yeah. And, uh. If you go to the hot springs up there, isn't

there some hotaco? Yeah, yeah. Isn't that just amazing? Yeah. If you go to the hot springs up there, isn't there some hot springs? Yeah, I didn't go to the hot springs, but I started going to all these different ruins and making videos and photography of it, and I just find it completely fascinating. Fascinating because, first of all, just kind of somewhat baffled that I didn't know about it already.

You know, like. Well, they're all over. It's weird because some of them aren't marked in a big way. And a lot of them aren't really maintained. You can just sort of like, oh yeah, the cave's over there. Exactly, yeah. And you just go. So it's just on this tour, I was just on this winter. Did you go to Pecos and stuff?

No, where's that one? In New Mexico? No, no. There's to Pecos and stuff? No, where's that one? In New Mexico? No, no. There's a Pecos National Monument. I can't remember if that's a, that might not be all the way back to Native Americans, but there is another one up there where the, there were just like, they would live in the mountain.

Oh yeah. In these caves. There's one in the Clift Wellings in Mesa Verde, Colorado. Yeah, yeah, Mesa Verde, that's a big one. Yeah, that's a big one. That one's very- Organized, right? Organized, yeah. You, yeah, Mesa Verde. That's a big one. Yeah, that's a big one. That one's very- Organized, right? Organized, yeah.

You can walk through the Anastasi. Wasn't it the Anastasi? I think you can go through that whole tour. Yeah, the Anastasi, it's called the, there's a, that means the ancient ones. Yeah, and so what was it that was connecting you to all this? What was so fascinating about it? Well, you know, it started out as just kind of

wanting to get out and be out there on the road. Away from people, too. Away from people and making some, having something to take a picture of. I just really got back into photography. Film? Or you're just a good camera? Video, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I was shooting, well, I have a little Leica that I shoot film on too, but also a lot of video I was doing with a little, uh, Sony a seven S three, just a little, little, but I was getting into kind of figuring out the lenses and things that I've kind of meant to get into over the years. Video and still. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

So I was just kind of really kind of was getting into that. So it was like, Oh, well, I've got to find something to take a picture of. And then, uh, then you get out there and, uh, you just sort of, I know it's always kind of weird when people say this, the energy, you feel this energy, right? But like, I don't know if it's just sort of psychological, you kind of feel like, wow,

there's people that were living here 2000 years ago and they're, you know, these buildings that they built remain and you can kind of feel, you know, the footprints of these people and you think, wow, you know, it starts making me think like about like, okay, why do we make, why do we put videos and pictures up on Instagram? You know, is that the modern day petroglyph?

Is that what we've become? Like, do people like to leave some sort of marking of who we are so future generations can see it? And it used to be, okay, all these petroglyphs out there, let's draw these little drawings. I think the big question about in terms of, maybe that's true, but like I'd like to think there was just a few people

that were really good at it back then. Yeah, sure. And they kind of left that job to them. Aside from that, there was just sort of my name, I was here. But I think that, you know, some petroglyphs that like that must've been a special person that was in charge of that.

And now like, it's definitely not special. I think it's more comparable, I mean, a lot of the Instagram, maybe where they shit. Mm-hmm. You know? But every once in a while, a special Petrogliff maker makes an Instagram video. Sure, sure.

Yeah, but they're everywhere out there. That's the thing that you sort of start to feel as- The little markings everywhere, yeah. Everywhere, and, you know, there's places up in the mountains of Colorado and Utah where they're not even, where there's these stone structures. Everyone always talks about Machu Picchu. Everyone always talks about Machu Picchu.

Chaco Canyon's basically as big as Machu Picchu. I mean, it's a huge thing. Yeah, a lot of stuff in North America. Why is that not all talked about all the time? Well, that's a good question about, because there are all those little ones, those just little etching, there's definitely sort of sides of rocks that are filled with stuff. I guess the question is, is this someone declaring their existence? The question is, is this someone declaring their existence?

But did you look into the spiritual symbols or anything, or why they are what they are? I haven't really gone too deep into the petroglyphs, as much as more just looking at these ruins, more has been something that's been going to. It is kind of haunting in a nice way. Yeah. Like when you go out there, but also New Mexico is stunning. Yeah.

So there's a- I love New Mexico. Yeah, there's a weight to it. You know, like you're like, am I feeling, am I projecting this just because it's beautiful or is it fucking magic? Yeah, exactly. And, but along the same lines,

like you gotta think like when those tribes were out there that it was even more beautiful. Cause there was less, you know, you didn't drive somewhere there was no expectation, it just was. So yeah, Chaco Canyon was a place where people, just from this from me reading about it, but in the last couple of years, but you know, people came from all over North America.

Yeah. You know, to sort of meet there, and from as far as native? Yeah, from Mexico. Oh yeah. Yeah, it was built in 875, so it's all pre Colombian stuff, right? Yeah.

It was there from 875 till around 1150 and I guess there was a drought and they left, but they found like macaw feathers and so they know that people were coming with macaw from as far as Mexico to New Mexico and pottery and all these things they find. So it's been heavily studied. It's interesting when I got into it, I found a book about it and it was actually written by Mike Judge's father, James Judge.

I guess he's from New Mexico. Oh yeah, yeah he's from Albuquerque, yeah. Yeah, so he spent his life like James Judge who just spent his life out there at Chaco Canyon, was sort of doing research on it. Did you talk to Mike about it? I did call him and talk to him about it. Yeah, I asked him about it. Was he like, oh, my dad was always out there? He kind of said something like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard, I just heard his father just passed away.

I didn't talk to Mike about that, but they told me that at Chaco Canyon, he just passed away. Oh. But yeah, I guess Mike grew up out there. During his dad dragging him into the dirt. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's fucking great. Yeah. But when like, you know, I kind of rewatch some of the, I watched all the, the, uh,

Tom Green countries that they gave me. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. There's just four of them. So yeah. Yeah. Are you doing more?

Um, yeah, well, I'm doing some more stuff this summer, yeah, yeah, not necessarily doing more of that episode, but of that show, but a similar show, yeah. So that was a one-off, the four episodes? One-off, the one-off thing, yeah, yeah. That was the transition? Yeah, possibly, yeah, yeah, we'll see. So, but you didn't wanna, it's not a continuing story?

I may do more, but right now it's a nice, it's a nice little beginning, middle, and end to it, but I am doing some more shows this summer with a different broadcaster. There is no end to it. That's true. No, I know. It's like day to day up there. Absolutely. And I'm sorry about the chickens.

Yes, I know. It was tragic and quite heart-breaking for me, actually, when that happened, because I really had sort of named them all, you know, Loretta, Patsy, Shania. And it was all part of your first, your introduction into the life. Yeah, and I was having fun with my chickens. I still have new chickens now, but I don't name them anymore.

It was Loretta, Patsy, Shania, Dolly, June, and Anne. I named them after country singers. Of course, two Canadians in there, Shania Twain and Anne Murray. But I, you know, I was bringing Loretta into the house playing piano with her and all this stuff. And you go into town one day and come back and it's just a massacre.

The coyotes, right? There's lots of wild animals there. Fucking coyotes sleep in my yard here. I have a caddy over there and I think they think of it as like a lobster tank. And I'm the major D. I'll take the orange one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, you got the cats.

Yeah, I think I lost a, I've been through cats that have disappeared and I've had ferals get ripped up by those coyotes. Your cats go outside here? No. Yeah, yeah, there's, everyone's well. At the old house where you were at, I used to let them out, it was ridiculous.

I don't know how they all lived, but one of them got got, and then there was a feral cat out there, a deaf guy who couldn't hear, but he lived for years. He eventually got taken by the coyotes. It's a horrible feeling. You know, I was pretty upset about it. And now, but it's interesting that I've got new chickens now. I don't name them anymore. I don't individually recognize any of them, they

all look the same to me now, I sort of purposefully, and I've lost a couple of more, there's a lot of, a lot of wolves and coyotes and all sorts of stuff up there. I know that was great when they had, you set up that camera, you seemed to be truly amazed at what... I did not expect... Yeah, everything, the bears, every kind, I knew there were bears, I'd heard rumors, but I didn't know they were just walking up and down the trail. At night, just hanging out, a porcupine?

Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. But it's not crazy, but it's so beautiful up there and the appeal of it is very understandable. I mean, I think about it a lot. I plan to sort of end up either in Canada or New Mexico, but I don't know about a farm, but you didn't know about it either. No, it's true.

And the responsibility of it, I guess like anything else, I get overwhelmed with anxiety, so I'm like, you know, what the fuck am I going to, but you pulled in the community, old friends, people that did the stuff that needs to be done in order to establish the thing. And when you watch how you handled it, you're like, oh, this is doable. If you just get the guy to build the fence. Exactly. You don't have to build the fence.

Well, the good news is I'm not trying to run a profitable farm business. I'm not farming crops. Right, it's just a lifestyle thing. I have my animals that I have to feed every day. I've got this mule, Fanny, and Kia, a donkey. Well, that's a question I wanted to ask. Because I don't know that, like I always knew there's a difference between a mule and a donkey, but why not just a horse? I mean, the mule is a very stunning animal, that one you got.

Yes, she's beautiful, yeah. It's a unique, and it's as big as a horse. She may be larger than most horses, actually. Her mother's a Percheron horse, okay? What's a Percheron? It's like a workhorse, almost like a Clydesdale. Okay, okay. It's like a French type of European workhorse, fancy horse, but a big horse, though.

Yeah. And her daddy's a mammoth donkey, so a mule is half horse, but a big horse though. Yeah. Um, and, uh, her daddy's a mammoth donkey. So a mule is half horse, half donkey. It's two completely different species bred by humans. Yeah. And, uh, they have, uh, one less chromosome than a horse and one more than a donkey, or maybe it's the other way around.

So, so they're sterile, they can't reproduce. So like, um, like I think it's a, I may be getting this backwards, but a horse has sixty four chrome homes and a donkey is sixty six or whatever and the mule is sixty five. What a stunning animal though. Yeah. The color and everything doesn't look like a horse. Most people think, yeah, she's at first glance, people would think she's a horse. Yeah, but if you keep looking at it.

She's got the mule features and the donkey features. And they were just built for work. Yeah, and they're very sturdy animals. They're a great animal to ride. They're a little more difficult to, you know, get into a rhythm with. You gotta kinda earn their trust. It's a whole thing.

Like you can really, really, I mean, I think we can really get into this actually, cause we could talk about this in detail. It's really quite interesting. I had no clue, I didn't know anything about this. That was clear. Yeah, but it's been two years now since I got her. And so like we shot this the summer before last,

everything takes forever to come up. So, you know, the first year was a lot of learning, and now I've really kind of gotten quite comfortable with riding her. And we go off every day when I'm home. We just go off on these rides and down the trails and out into the wilderness. And you talk about anxiety, right? I And, uh, you know, you talk about, uh, anxiety,

right? Like I also, you know, probably most comedians, I certainly feel like maybe more than, more than average have anxiety, right? Yeah. And for me, like, uh, getting this, these animals, specifically riding a mule, uh, has been the best thing for my anxiety.

Cause it's a combination of a lot of things, like just being in nature has always been nice for me. Sure, yeah. Being alone in nature has always been nice for me. Being around animals is nice for me. Yeah. And then getting exercise is quite, quite a lot of exercise when you ride a mule.

You go off all day and you're riding this thing. You wouldn't think. You're engaged. You're engaged and your, and your mind is focused on the present, right? Yeah, right. You're not, you're not, you know, I don't want to fall off this thing or I'm going to get hurt.

Yeah. So there's all of that, but then it's, it's also just like the thing that would sort of the most unexpected part of it, which I've kind of found fascinating is that you have to kind of, riding a mule teaches you to at least, the mule has to trust you and it has to want you to be the leader.

Right. And it has to trust that you know what you're doing, which when you don't know what you're doing, it's very difficult to make her trust you. They sense that. I've always been afraid of horses and they feel that. They feel it. They feel, and if they feel you're nervous, then

they're worried about, like you say, okay, we're going to ride off into these woods full of wolves. Right. And you feel nervous. They go, well, I don't want to go there. This guy is going to lead me off into danger here. This guy's an idiot. You know?

Yeah. So, you know, so I think the sort of light bulb went off for me one day when I was having trouble, getting her to listen to me. She wasn't turning left, literally. She would just not turn left, so I really could only really, couldn't really go anywhere. And now you know her politics.

Yeah, exactly. So, yes, and you know, so I had some people that, that, that the, the ladies that, uh, raised her. Yeah, I saw them. Yeah, they were upset when they. And they, they, yeah, they, they, they had her for 10 years. They've been really helpful. They're, uh, they're up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is 18 hours north of me.

Imagine how big Canada is, right? An 18 hour drive north from where I am into northern Canada. So it's like Club Med down where we are for this mule. She's like, oh man, it's balmy down here. But, so we went out, they came down and we went out for a ride and they were driving in this

little ATV thing ahead of me. And I'd sort of learned that Fanny, is the mule's name, doesn't like the sound of these ATVs, doesn't like ATVs. They'd stop the ATV on a, on the trail and I'm riding up towards them and they're sort of giving me some direction. And as I'm getting closer, I started thinking,

okay, well, Fanny's not going to want to go around the ATV, it's parked in the trail. There was a little space I could go around, but I'm going to, and so Fanny stops and I'm saying, Fanny's not going to want to go around the ATV here, so I guess I'll stop. And they say, no, no, just go around the ATV. Fanny's not going to go around the, want to go

around the ATV cause you, you guys told me that she's afraid of ATVs and she doesn't seem to like the sound of ATVs. Yeah. And you know, Fanny's resisting. Yeah. And then they say to me, no, no, no, it's, no, no, no, it's not that Fanny doesn't want to go

around the ATV, it's that you are worried Fanny doesn't want to go around the ATV, it's that you are worried that she doesn't want to go around the ATV. Right. And that's why she's not going around the ATV because she can tell that you're worried about it. Yeah. Like she can feel. So you start to go, okay, you start to have to train yourself

when you're riding along towards something and you go, okay, she's not going to want to go that way. You have to say, no, no, you have to say in your head. Right. Confidently. Yeah. In your head, not, not, yeah. We're going around there.

We're going around there. They do stay confident. You know, if you feel nervous, you gotta take a deep breath, make those nerves go away. You gotta, gotta be cool. You gotta, and it's like the antithesis of who I am, right? Like you actually have to be cool and relaxed, you know? Yeah. And it's like, but I'm riding a giant mule,

but I have to be relaxed. And I have to not be worried about some fictional scenario that I'm creating in my head that she doesn't wanna go this way. Cause, and so then you realize that translates into like human life, right? Because if you walk in- Well, that's all anxiety is, is projection of fear.

That's the core of like mine, just the dread or the expectation. Or the, but basically it's like with any animal you're going to, like I guess the word is anthropomorphize. You're going to project your feelings onto them. And they're sort of like, all they're responding to is your nervousness or they know. Yeah, that's the way they communicate. I mean, they don't have language, right?

So they've always communicated through energy, right? Like with each other. Well, that's interesting for you, isn't it? Because like, you know, you're kind of, you know, balls out whatever, generally. You have the history of your expression is like, bleh. Yeah, yeah.

And now like, but there's a, that's being present too, but it's kind of forcing almost chaos because that's where you're comfortable. But this is so specific that, you know, it's just a dynamic in your brain where you realize, like, you know, I've just got to, because I don't know that you, do you feel like you ever really even acknowledged that space in your mind before? Yeah, like not as much. That's why I'm saying it's really getting me more

in tuned with that, I'm sort of getting ahead of the anxiety. You sort of, because when you're, now when you're riding along, you start to realize there's a direct sort of relationship between that anxiety and this animals sort of reaction to it. You start to try to go, okay, let's think about

my thoughts and think about what I'm thinking and breathe calmly and stay calm and feel good and be positive and it works. And then you sort of take that into life with people too. As you go, okay, you know, when you think about it, we didn't always have language, right? We didn't, we used to probably, when we were cavemen

or whatever, running around like, follow that guy. He seems like he knows what he's doing, right? And so, so, you know, I can, I can kind of relate it to life in Hollywood, you know, you're on the 405, going to a meeting at Viacom to try to pitch some idea and in your head you're like, oh, they're never gonna fucking buy this fucking thing. And then you go in and sure enough, they don't fucking buy it. I wonder why, probably because they could tell that you didn't believe in it.

That you weren't in control of your horse. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Maybe. But it is kind of interesting though that before, because I start to think about the type of, even when I've had this thing where I'm watching everyone on YouTube, anyone who's talking, now everyone's become a broadcaster of some kind.

And there's a zone of energy that you live in when you do that. There's almost a mania. And now that people watch influencers and that they think this is the tone you live in when you do that. There's almost a mania. And now that people watch influencers and that they think this is the tone you exist in, this sort of balls out kind of like, oh, I'm talking now and this is what's happening. It's a very specific part of the spectrum,

but I think people are doing it in regular life now, that there's this mania that happens. And there's a whole other, there's all kinds of other human ways of communicating that are not that. But I think like when I think about all your work leading up to this, that the chaos you created, I don't know why, because your parents seem

pretty level-headed people. I think I was rebelling. Well yeah, there's that, but also there's a comforting chaos. Like you know, once you create that zone, it's a real buzz. Yeah. You know, can you don't know what the fuck is gonna happen Yeah, you know any time and you're just you know throwing yourself out there physically and mentally and you know Whether it ends good or bad. You definitely get high from the insanity of it

and now everything is not you know, you're kind of you've brought it all in and You're dealing with yourself. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah, I, my dad was a captain in the military, army captain, and he was kind of a pretty strict guy, but also very funny guy. Yeah, he is funny, yeah.

And then my mother also is very funny. They're funny in different ways. My dad's a bit silly when he's funny. He would always sort of, you know, when you're a kid, you'd go out and he'd sort of do things like kind of goofy things that would kind of, you know, kind of shock you. I remember you'd go fishing and you'd eat a grasshopper in front of me.

What the hell? You know, funny stuff. And then my mom's more of a sort of a, has a little bit of a cynical, sarcastic side to her, which is, so the combination of them was always very funny. Like there was always a lot of humor at the dinner table and things like this. Everybody kind of rousing each other,

essentially to a certain extent. But yeah, on the new show, they're kind of more the funny ones. I'm kind of, they're kind of, they're the stars of the new show, they're kind of more the funny ones. I'm kind of, they're the stars of the new show, I think. The relationship isn't me pulling pranks on them and doing the stuff I did when I was a kid. Well, it's kind of funny that, cause like, I don't know,

there's a certain kind of personality, and I'm not a parent, you're not, right? You don't have kids. Nope, nope, nope. That, you know, it's hard- I am engaged now though. Are you? Recently engaged, yes.

Is that true? Absolutely, as of just a few months ago, I'm probably gonna be getting married very soon. Really? Yes, absolutely. So I may have a kid next time I come here. How old are you now? I'm 53. I'm 53 years old. That's it? Yep.

How the fuck am I older than everybody? How the fuck did that happen? Someone's gotta be older than someone. Yeah, I know, but it's- You're younger than a lot of people too, though. No, I know, but it's part of that realization of time and life, is that I think because it took me so long to kind of land, that I always just assumed that everyone was my peer in our business after a certain point,

and now there's just like, there are these kids who are huge and they're like 40. And I'm like, what the fuck? What have I been doing? I don't know. For what it's worth, I'm turning 54 in July. So I'm basically 54. Okay, well that makes me feel a little better.

And you met her up there or what? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she's Canadian and a very Canadian way to meet, by the way, I was playing hockey on my pond and I put a video up on Instagram and she sent me, forwarded me one of these meme videos of somebody who had made their own Zamboni. You know. Oh wow.

The thing that you ice the rink with. Sure. Do it yourself Zamboni. Yeah. And then I responded and it turns out she was from a Canadian military family, grew up in the same small town before I moved to Ottawa. I was in this little military base called Petawawa. We went to the same elementary school and hit it off and now we're engaged. And you've got a common history in some weird way.

You're returning home, buddy. Absolutely. She lives just down the road and it's been great. So we live together now, but yeah, I'm in a pretty remote area too, so it was kind of felt like it was meant to be. Yeah, well, I think the thing I was noticing, well, congratulations. Thank you, thank you.

That I was noticing about your folks is that if you're a certain personality and you're a kid and you're not a criminal per se, but they realize that one, can't control you, and two, they're kind of amazed at whatever you're becoming, that there's a distance there, that there's an appreciation, they have to be parents still, but they're just sort of like, he's gonna do something.

And they have a faith in it, and it seemed like they have that with you somehow. That's absolutely, I think, what happened. It was very conflicting for them. I'm sure. Yeah. Barging to their bedroom with a decapitated cow's head in the middle of the night. A little much, but yeah. But they're a little creative. I don't get it, but he seems to be popular.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, well, when we did that, it was just public access TV. So they were probably a little bemused and concerned, but, you know, I started doing standup when I was 16. Yeah. And didn't keep it up, right? I did it until I was about 19 and then I stopped and I started again maybe 20 years ago or something like that, maybe not even.

and then I stopped and I started again, maybe 20 years ago or something like that, maybe not even. But, but, um, but at 16, you know, when you're on a school night, you know, Thursday night was the amateur night at Yuck Yucks in Ottawa. Yeah. Right. And I'd get in the, get on the bus and go downtown to do standup and, you know, not get

home till, till later in the night or they'd let me take their car or whatever. I think they'd probably let me take their car now that I think about it. Yeah. But, you know, that was... They let you do it. That was pretty cool, you know? And when I was, when I was, you know, I was in this rap group when I was a kid.

Yeah, I remember. We went down to New York and they, you know, paid for the recording time and stuff. And so it was like, they were always very supportive of all this stuff, which was good. But it was, I don't know, I think they kind of, you know, I think if you got good supportive parents, I mean, that's an important thing when you're in a creative business, I think, because it's a lot of uncertainty there.

But they were always very encouraging, you know, even though at the same time they were very realistic and worried about there's a possibility that it's not gonna work out, so you better have a plan B and all that kind of stuff. But I kind of refused to admit that there was gonna be any other route for things, and that I think was where the conflict might have been. But... Well, after a certain point, there is no other route.

Yeah, yeah. Like you just, what are you gonna do? I just realized there was no way I could do anything else, I don't think. It's also interesting about Canada, and I try to assess my own feelings about it, that I think just even the fact of like living out in the woods or having the farm and being alone up there, that, you know, there's just no denying on a cultural and in every way that Canada is a safer place than here. And it makes a big difference in your peace of mind and in your engagement with other people.

It absolutely is a safer place. I mean, it's not to say that there's not, you know, in the big, in the big cities, you know, you know, there is definitely problems just like everywhere else. But even those are, are, are, are dramatically muted. Muted.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, but, um, and, um, I, I kind of, again, I love Los Angeles, lived here 21 years. Yeah. I'm still, it's funny, I was saying to my fiancee when we were driving yesterday on the 101 freeway. Yeah. I was like, it just sort of occurred to me, you know, this is weird, you know, it actually

feels more normal for me to be driving on this freeway today than it does when I'm driving on the highway back at home. Because I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm back there. Yeah. But at the same time, you know, it's odd because I lived here 21 years. So 21 years as an adult driving around, you know,

whereas in Canada, when I left, I was 28. So I'd only really been driving around in a car for 12 years, my parents' car for half of that. So it's sort of, you know, I left right, I left Los Angeles right at a time where, you know, if I'd been here another 10 years, it would have probably, I probably would have never been able to leave and it would have been strange, but it seems,

it seems, it does seem sort of interesting to be home like that. But no, I'd say that the, to your point, like, so I got used to living in Los Angeles. I remember the first five years I was here, you know, when I'd go to sleep at night. Yeah. I'd be kind of scared. Yeah. Like, you know, I lived alone at first in a house that I was renting from William Shatner, he was my first landlord, which was ridiculous.

MTV moved us out here and they said, okay, you can find a rent, a house to rent. Here's your budget. So I went on the, found the house that I could rent. Turned out it was William Shatner had a house next door to here's your budget. So I went on the, found the house that I could rent. Turned out it was William Shatner had a house next door to him that he rented out. He literally would come over and pick up the rent check sometimes, it was like, welcome to Hollywood here, Captain Kirk, here's the rent check, you know.

And he's a funny guy and he's Canadian. Yeah, absolutely. He was great. Yeah. Yeah. So you must've been able to really lock in on a frequency with him. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, we, we, we got to have a few good chats. He was great, but it was like, it was strange cause it was like, you know, you'd sort of, I'm alone in this, in the Hollywood Hills. Yeah. Sort of, you know, flimsy door there, you know, kind of looking at it out of the corner of your eye at night. Sure.

And then you sort of get used to it. Oh, okay. I guess it's pretty safe here. But then what would happen is when I would go home to Canada to visit, the second I would get home, I'd kind of be, oh wait, oh. Yeah. It is less stressful here, you know?

And for 20 years I noticed that every time I went home. I noticed it. It's sort of, I wasn't sure if it was just because I was home or if it was, you notice it too. You do notice it too. You do notice that too. Well, like I talk about it, like during the first Trump presidency, I'd go work in Canada, and I'd fly up there.

And literally, when I got off the plane, I'm like, it's not up here. Whatever that psychic weight of fear and intensity, it's not up there. And you can feel it immediately. I mean, now, the relationship now between the two countries, it kind of illustrates exactly what the difference is. It's because now Canadians are pissed off and afraid, and that's how we live down here all the time. I just hope it doesn't pollute

the psychic environment up there. You know, not to dive into like some thing that's gonna piss everyone off, but it's guns too. Like there's just not- Oh, totally. You know, people- That's all of it. There's not people walking around

with a sidearm on their hip, you know? Like I was in, you know, Utah the other day and I'm buying a camera and a guy had a Glock on his hip. I'm like, I'm kinda like, oh boy, you know, is that really necessary? And you know, it's like, and he didn't look like he was like the most stable individual either, you know?

So I'm like, you know, don't, let's not get into an argument here. You know, up in Canada, the worst thing that happens if you get in an argument with someone is you get in a hockey fight, you know? So you might get punched in the nose or something like that. Totally, and that's like almost all of it. Because now, yeah, with the carry-waws everywhere, like you just have to exist in a world where,

like you said, that guy doesn't look like he's official in any way. Yeah, and it becomes like an arms race. So do I need one then to protect myself? And you kind of go, well, geez, if two people start shooting at each other at the camera shop, I don't think anybody's going to come out of that on top, you know? It's not like your right to defend yourself doesn't really help you, really. I mean, you know? Yeah, it's just there's a, we're right at the edge of a strange lawlessness.

But I also think the combination between guns and socialized healthcare, it makes a big difference. Oh, yeah. Because like you can always go to the doctor and you know in your heart and mind that it's not going to bankrupt you. And then you know someone's probably not going to shoot you. Those are two big relaxing things. And I've had a lot of conversations with my friends in Los Angeles, some of them who have a lot more money than your average person and maybe a little bit more Republican than your average person. And they're like, well, the healthcare system

up there is no good because the healthcare system is good in Canada, but they sort of feel like, well, I can get my healthcare here, yeah, because you can afford $1,500 a month for your insurance, right? But I know so many- More than C Specialists. Yeah, and I know so many people in Los Angeles

who I work with, who were, you know, young film students who are helping me film stuff, and they didn't have health insurance, right? And so there's just sort of things you start to notice where it's like so many people are just living in fear of getting sick, you know? Like you're terrified, oh, if I get sick. I had a friend of mine who thought he had

testicular cancer actually, which I had, you know? And he was kind of terrified about going to the doctor. I'm like, you gotta go to the doctor and get a check because the only way you live is if you go right away and get it, eventually he went, but he was worried about the bill and he had to go, went back to Arizona because it was easier for him to do it there. But it was like. Was he all right?

He ended up being all right, but just seeing that sort of. Panic. Decision making being based upon how much it was going to cost and seeing that over and over is something that like, you know, if you're, you know, not some, you know, rich, you know, television producer or something like that. You know, you don't necessarily understand what it is that normal people are going through. Whereas, you know, I go home to Canada and it's

like, you know, okay, I've got my, you know, my health card here, I'll pull it out so you can see what it looks like. It's very, very, you know, official. Yeah. That's my firearms acquisition certificate. Okay. Yeah. I'm not that.

Everyone has one of these, like a driver's license. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it's just like a driver's license. And that's where you live on the farm. There's a clinic. Yeah. You can just go. Absolutely.

Well, it's just the same here as hospitals. You go to the hospital, you go to the emergency room if you need to. Sure. You go to your doctor's office and you just give them your health card, it looks like a driver's license. That's what I was wondering when I was watching them, like, you know, with, it's an interesting thing,

I think also the community that has to be built around, just home ownership in general, but a farm, is that you have to engage with the community because you're gonna need help. Yeah, yeah. And you have people to do the specific things that you don't know how to do, or at least show you how to do it,

and they come out and do it. I talk to my neighbors down there, everyone's friends, everyone was really welcoming. Even though the properties are spread apart and you have a farm to each side, and there are these huge thousand acre properties on the other sides of me and stuff, so it's miles down the road to the next neighbor.

But, you know, the first day I was there, my new friends came up and said hello. And now that they've been farming there for generations and they have a tractor, they come over and they helped me do the hay every August. You know, we go out, they cut the hay with their tractor and bale it all up. And then we all together go throw it into the barn for the winter for the animals. And it's interesting because you're not engaging with that many people who are practically nobody actually

that's in show business. So you're sort of... But that's the thing is the shift from, when you're in show business, your whole life is built on selling an illusion, either of yourself or an idea for this fiction that everyone can watch. And that's your life. And, you know, it seems kind of boundless in possibility, but it requires you engaging with this business to deliver the goods. Whereas their life is, you know, whatever they're farming or what,

it is community-centric and this is the life. We're going to go do the hay. And there's no other thing like we just do that as a hobby. No, no. It's like, this is it. And there must be some sort of transition to a life like that where your alone time becomes much different. Because, well, I imagine you still fester

and you're probably thinking of ideas and writing things down and on a microphone and whatever. But there is a kind of an incentive to appreciate the slowness of it. Yeah, absolutely. I get up 6.30 in the morning every day. I always was a fairly, but part of the reason, there's nothing to do at night, once the sun goes down,

I'm gonna go get sushi on Ventura Boulevard. What are you? Stumble in in my Uber after three martinis at two in the morning. No, I'll go to bed at 10 o'clock, get up in the morning, I go right out to make coffee, I go to the barn and I got three big 60 pound bales of hay and I throw them out to the, I make coffee, I go to the barn, and I got three big 60 pound bales of hay, and I throw them out into the field.

That's during the winter and the fall, when there's no hay. To feed the animals. And then I brush them off, and sometimes I'll saddle up Fanny and take her for a ride. What do you do at night? Just watch shit?

Well, because I got up at six in the morning, I just go to sleep. Oh, okay. So there's not the comp, I just go to sleep. Oh, okay. So there's not the compulsion to... Yeah, sort of. I mean, no, I mean, I've been making music, so I play piano or write, but I tend to be asleep by 11 about.

How's that studio working out on top of the barn? Right now, the barn's just sort of an empty loft, but when I do a podcast or something in there, I just set it up each time. Oh, so it's not a permanent workspace? No, because I have more of a permanent studio workspace in the house, upstairs in the house, but the loft of the barn is very cold. Right. Yeah, it just has the roof, but the sides are kind of open.

Yeah, yeah. But it looks, it's cool. Visually, it looks cool in the summer, and in three seasons, it's pretty cool. But no, I have a little recording studio in my house. Are you doing something regularly? Yeah, yeah. I just put out a record this year, a country album. Country album, yeah.

Yeah, I know you're a guitar player, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm working on being able to play as good as you can, but I am enjoying it. I've always sort of fiddled with my acoustic guitar and I can play some chords and stuff, but I've been writing songs. It looks like you got a good group of people up there to play with.

I do, yeah. And I wrote the whole soundtrack for the show. But that's the kind of stuff I like to do. In some ways, like, I end up having so much more time to be creative up there because I don't get distracted by going down to get sushi on Ventura Boulevard every day. You know, it's like, okay, okay, I'll go ride the horse, then I'll come home, I'll write some stuff in the afternoon.

And... But it's a different type of creativity. I mean, how do you look at, you know, what interests you now versus kind of the adrenaline that drove your entire life previous. I mean, is there a part of you, like, I remember, I don't remember when we did it, but it's funny because I think about it and I talk about it. I know what you're gonna talk about. You do? I know what you're gonna bring up.

The Byron Allen thing? Yes, yeah, the comics Unleashed, yeah. I knew you were gonna bring that up. Why? Well, just as soon as you said it, like, because... Why did you know I was gonna bring it up? Well, just as soon as you said it. Why did you know I was going to bring it up? Well, just because I was thinking about when we did something together and you were thinking about the adrenaline-fueled thing. My feeling was like...

I can explain that. I can explain myself for that. Well, no, but here's my side of it. It was you, it was Ornie Adams, John Lovitz. Who else was on that episode? Who were the comics that were on? Was it Alonzo Bowden, maybe? Ornie Adams, John Lovitz, who else was on that episode? Who were the comics that were on the... Was it Alonzo Bowden maybe or somebody? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I just remember when you do those panel shows, like you kind of see who the other guests are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially with that show, you want to get your licks in. And then like that day or the day before, they were like, it's gonna be you, you, someone's gonna say, someone's gonna say, Tom Green, I'm like, oh, fuck.

He's gonna take over the whole thing. I'm not gonna be able to get a joke out. And then I thought like, maybe it'll gonna be you, you, someone says, someone says, Tom Green, I'm like, ah, fuck. He's gonna take over the whole thing. I'm not gonna be able to get a joke out. And I thought like, maybe it'll be all right, but you come out within three minutes, you're in the fish tank. I'm in the fish. And I'm like, fuck, I knew, I knew I wasn't gonna get a joke off you.

The amount of times I have thought about that over the years and just thought, oh my God, what the hell was I doing? Because here's what really it is though, is like, I, you know, I wasn't doing stand-up then. I done stand-up when I was a kid, but then I went to broadcasting school and I started doing my videos and pranks and stuff.

And now I'm on Comics Unleashed. Now, Comics Unleashed, what's the premise of the show? They go to the comic and then you tell a joke. Well, I don't have any jokes, so I guess I'm just gonna have to jump in the fucking fish tank, I guess. And all the other comics are like, well, now it's about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was, and I kind of definitely, I mean, I think a lot about that really two or three year period of my life when I first moved to Los Angeles and the show was on MTV and it was doing good and I was going on all the talk shows and I'm thinking about when I'd go on Conan or when I'd go on Leno and I never did this with Letterman

because I wouldn't dare, but on the other shows I would go on and just like kind of be a fucking maniac. I'd come in with a costume on an ostrich egg and crack it over my head or, you know, or, and it was coming from a place of a combination of, first of all, I was always loved when I'd see, you know, I grew up loving watching Chris Elliott come in for a minute and just do something nuts and just eat dog food or do something crazy. But it was also coming from a place of complete sort of anxiety over not knowing what to do. Well, I guess if I go over the top, do something crazy,

then maybe it'll, you know, whereas maybe I was a little bit afraid to go on and just sit there and try to kind of talk and be funny, you know, it would have been much easier to come out dressed as a, you know. And also expected. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I like that you saved the respect for Letterman. Yeah, exactly.

Well, yeah, so I, because I just. He's the best dude. I just, it wasn't a matter of it was being disrespectful for the other guys. It was, because obviously I love Conan and I love, it was more like, I think I just was so wanted to, you know, I mean, my first show, the Tom Green show, I was sitting behind a desk, you know? Why am I sitting behind a desk?

Cause I grew up watching Letterman and I love Letterman. It wasn't cause I watched Johnny Carson. I watched Johnny Carson, but it was more because of Letterman, right? So I want to sit behind a desk too, you know? But, so I was just so terrified, you know? Oh, to be with him even? Yeah, and he was also, I guess obviously

he's a bit more of a cutting than Jay or Colin. Oh yeah. If I'm gonna go on there, maybe he might not put up with that. It's so funny, man, because I interviewed him in this house. He came up there, before I set this up out here, he came up into the house and it was kind of funny because you spend your whole life kind of loving a guy.

And also like for me and my generation, that was the show you wanted to get on. And I did it a few times, but you know, when you host a daily show, their memory of anything, it's just, they don't remember that much. But something funny did happen that was, the best moment I had with Letterman was odd because I was at the comedy store one night

on a produce show, comic produce show in the main room. And then the manager comes in back and he says, you know, Letterman's here, you know? And my first thought was like, this was only a few years ago, I was like, am I in trouble? He went, what is going on? And he had no show or anything. He had just come because someone brought him down,

he wanted to see me. And then we're on the back porch, or the back patio there at the comedy store, and I'm just talking to him, and he's being very complimentary. That is so cool. And I said something and he laughed and it's that laugh that we grew up with. The laugh that you always wanted your whole life. And I'm on just on the back patio at the fucking Comedy Store and he's laughing and it was

like oh my god! Yeah. I just made Letterman laugh like that. That's amazing. It's the best! I've never had the opportunity to talk to him off camera or just. He's very sweet these days. You know, he's very, he's a different guy in a way. I'm so glad that it's neat to see that he's out doing so much stuff, like going on podcasts and stuff. Cause I mean, it's not like he didn't go the route of Johnny Carson and just sort of becoming a recluse on his boat out and never seeing him again. I think he might've tried.

Yeah. You know what I mean? But like, but that's sort of where you're at too. You're kind of like, you know, you have to, you're up against that. It's weird that we get to a certain age, you know, such an impact on so many generations. I thought it was interesting in the doc about how Eric Andre at least gives you credit for inventing him. Yeah.

Yeah. It was, it was cool. He was very cool about that, yeah. And also I saw some other random self-produced documentary where the guy who made that credits you with creating the video podcast. Right, right, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you and I, we sort of were the early adapters

to this shit, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you were probably the first podcast I guess right in LA that was around that was having Comedians and stuff. Yeah, it was all audio. I mean Corolla was around and Pardo and a few other people but but you know, we stay in audio because that's what we do yeah, but the video thing I don't think we could have assumed that the ability to do

video podcasts would actually hijack and overwhelm mainstream show business. Yeah, amazing. Because it's like, I went to broadcasting school. That was really kind of was my route into this business, right? I assumed there was no way to possibly get a television show unless I just made one myself, right? Yeah, right. And so that was the sort of the public access show that we started in 1994 up in Canada, the Tom Green Show. It was just me, my friends and I making it, you know.

We didn't actually build the studio though. There was a studio there already, the cameras and everything were there at the studio. But my friend, Glenn Humplich, who, and my other friend Phil, who were on the show. Yeah. They're like tech guys, you know. Ottawa's pretty tech, and my dad also was a,

became computer guy when he retired from the military, it was was Cobol program. Lots of technology up there in Ottawa. So believe it or not. But so when the internet, like when we were on MTV in 99, Glenn had set up a thing where I could call my cell phone, leave a message on this number, push it, and it would post automatically onto the website, onto tomgreen.com.

Right. And so I just, it was nothing. It was just me walking around New York, you know, hey, I'm in New York, you know, and everybody, you know, watch the show tonight or whatever, yeah. But there was this sort of awareness that, oh, you can put audio on the website. Yeah. And then it was like, well, when can we put audio on the website. Yeah.

And then it was like, well, when can we put video on the website? Right. And it was, we were sort of waiting, you know, like when can we put, it's getting faster. How long can, till we can put video on the website. And, um, you know, I, uh, I kind of make a joke sometimes in my standup.

I say, you know, I built a TV studio on my living room in the early two thousands because I just made this movie, Freddy Got Fingered. And after you make a joke sometimes in my standup, I say, you know, I built a TV studio in my living room in the early 2000s, because I just made this movie, Freddy Got Fingered. And after you make a movie like Freddy Got Fingered, if you want to do a television show, you have to build a TV studio in your living room. Yeah. So it was sort of a necessity,

was the only way to really make a show at this point, was let's just build it ourselves again, you know? But now it was kind of like, okay, what's the technology that's out there? How do we stream to the front page of the website? So it was sort of looking into all the different various people that were doing these things and were trying to do these things. And there was a company up in San Francisco called,

they were called bitgravity.com and they were a CDN content distribution network, right? So they were essentially servers that content distribution network, right? So they were essentially servers that you could upload your video to. And it was really catered to corporate sort of websites, you know, put a corporate video up or whatever, right?

So I contacted them and we did sort of an arrangement where like I could upload my videos. Then I reached out to another company that was, became the TriCaster, but it was the video toaster at the time, which was a switcher, television switcher that they would sell to churches, right? And like to do, you know, to plug their cameras in and, you know, film the church service or

whatever and put it, and, you know, they set me up with this thing and, you know, started just kind of engaging with all these sort of technology. New technologies. Kind of people. And it was wild because it worked, you know, but there was sort of this sort of feeling of like, well, you know, it was interesting because I

would invite people up and, you know up and people kind of come to the house and they thought it was weird. You have all these cameras everywhere. Sure. But I remember like there was a, you know, sometimes I hope that I'm just dreaming this happened and it didn't actually happen. But I do actually believe this happened and it didn't actually happen. But I do actually believe this happened. I remember once checking my email and I had all these like,

you know, we're uploading our footage every day to the website. So before YouTube existed, I got an email. It's like, hey, we're up in San Francisco. We like what you're doing. You should come visit us sometime. We're doing a whole thing up in our apartment here called YouTube. I'm like, oh, thanks, man. I'm doing my own thing, you know.

You could have been on the ground floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could have brought you in. I can think, oh my god. But it was sort of like, there was those days where it was kind of, there was some video online, but it wasn't really comedians talking to each other, things like that. And that was kind of a sudden time. The beginning of it. And yeah, and you had to sort of, you had that. And that was kind of the beginning of it. And you had to sort of, you had a vision

that you had to then engage with these other people that were, we did a streaming show on for Air America in 2007 or eight and there was no streaming audience really. But we spent a lot of money to create a website where we could upload videos every day. But there was still, I think YouTube was probably pretty young, but there was just no audience for it. And now that's the whole audience.

And then sometimes you kind of miss your timing on that. Yeah, absolutely. Do you know what I mean? We did a streaming show, but no one could stream. The pioneers leave with the arrows in their back. That's a good one. But do you ever find, how do you deal with, it looks like in Canada, when you're doing standup,

that because you're sort of one of their own and stuff, they're just happy to see you and they're like, they've been with you the whole time and they're proud of you and they seem to have a deeper and kind of heartfelt appreciation of people that age in the world that they live in. And you know what I mean? In the sense that like, you know, this is Tom Green now,

we can accept that. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's honestly, in the States too, it's like, you know, at this point, you know, the people kind of grew up with me on TV too. It's like I was, I had a show, was it last night? Night before last night in LA at the El Rey Theater. It was great, it was great. But I've been on tour in the US all winter.

Shows have been awesome. I mean, it's, it's, it's. What's the age group? Is it like, you know, are they? It's, it's, it's interesting. There is a younger audience coming too as well, but it is, you know, it's a pretty broad group of people, you know, for sure.

And, but yeah, it's, it's, it is a combination of, I try to talk about some of the old stuff, you know, and talk about some of the stories and things from, you know, Eminem rapping about me and, you know, all these, some of the pranks and things like that. And then I, I, I of course try to try to do material as well and bring new material. And so it's kind of now been touring, you know, long enough that I think I have a lot of people that come out from just from seeing me do stand up the last time.

You know, so yeah. Right. But also like you're, because you're kind of a, in a way, even though you did stand up early on, you have the chops, but now like, the pressure is not to be crazy. You're just sort of reflecting on your life. Yeah, actually, yeah, we were gonna talk about that a second ago.

That's something that I've been trying to kind of process over the last couple of years, why I'm not, you know, humping dead moose in my, all the time or running around doing crazy, you know, shock stuff. But I think what I also kind of come to the conclusion is that like, uh oh, Charlie, uh oh, you okay? She's just puked. Yeah, she's okay. She's just, she probably ate some grass this morning. And now I gotta clean up the vomit. Yeah, it's okay. You're okay, Charlie. Uh oh. You okay? She puked. Yeah, she's okay. She probably ate some grass this morning.

And now I gotta clean up the vomit. Yeah, it's okay. You're okay, Charlie. You're okay. You're okay. You're okay, Doug. You're okay. Good news is there's some paper towel right here. Sure. One second. Charlie, you okay? You're okay, baby. You're okay. Come over here. Come over here. It's okay. Come over here, Charlie.

It's okay, baby. It's okay. Come over here. It's okay You're okay, baby Okay, oh Hold on one second. She'll she'll be okay. It's sort of um She just uh oh shit now, I'm really fucking, as I was saying, not being the hole in a Chinese rock, you know? He's up to his old tricks. Knock the coffee over, break the microphone. He brought the vomiting dog.

I knew this would end here. No, she's okay. Yeah, good. Sometimes she eats some grass in the morning. Oh yeah, yeah. But, um. When you have animals, you live with vomiting animals. Yeah, yeah, she's okay.

You okay, baby? Yeah, you're okay. Yeah, yeah. She's, she's okay. You okay, baby? Yeah, you're okay. You're okay. Um, she is okay, too. Yeah, she seems good. She doesn't vomit every day, but she has vomited occasionally like that, and it's usually because she ate some grass

in the morning or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she seems all right. She's a rescue from the Bahamas. Really? Yeah, yeah. Island dog. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, and, um, but, uh, there, you just lie down there. Yeah, no, but it's, when we started the show,

you know, video cameras were new, and the idea of having a completely unfiltered, crazy, you know, I was a kid too, and I was a skateboarder, and running around doing crazy, but there wasn't all this crazy stuff, you know? There wasn't TikTok, and there wasn't people running around doing crazy stuff. Right, yeah, crazy, you know, I was a kid too, and I was a skateboarder and running around doing crazy, but there wasn't all this crazy stuff, you know, there wasn't TikTok and there wasn't people running around doing crazy stuff.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was unique. So it was, yeah, it was kind of like you had the, it did stand out to have that ability to go just do something completely uncontrolled. Yeah, yeah. Now it's, you know, like you get up in the morning and you pick up your phone and you're inundated with crazy shit

on your phone every day. Kind of makes me want to do something normal. You know, it's almost weirder to do something kind of normal, you know, like, oh, I'm at a farm, I'm learning how to ride a horse, you know. Oh, that's almost weirder than- For you. Yeah, for me, and maybe even just in general,

you know, like when you watch the internet now, it's so much crazy shit, oh, maybe something that's kind of nice and. Well, also it's like there's a kind of mature self-ownership of it. Like, you know, I think that we all kind of do our crazy shit and do our youth in a certain way, but as you get older, you realize like,

well, that was just me kind of like swinging my dick around or whatever, just, you know, trying to get out of me. But eventually, the best thing that can happen is you land in yourself and believe that that's enough. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just a person and this is the life I'm living, but my mind is my mind and I'll share this with you in this way. I'm not gonna dump milk on myself. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's like, you know, I say sometimes like it's like when I was a kid, I was like terrified about the future, right?

So you kind of have to, you know, over, over. Fight the future. Yeah, yeah, I was terrified of you so much, you know, and I'm much calmer now because when you're a kid, it's like your future is so unpredictable. There's so much terrified of you so much, you know, and I'm much calmer now because when you're a kid, it's like your future is so unpredictable. There's so much ahead of you. And now that 53, there's, I say, so much less of my life left to ruin, you know?

So it's like you can kinda, I could probably just do nothing now and coast to the finish line, you know? This probably takes a lot of the pressure off, you know? And also the combination of just aging and then having gone through the cancer thing, you know, you've got two, you know, that perspective came on you kind of, you know, in a shocking way that you survived the cancer thing and that kind of reconfigured your sense of life and now it's just you've lived and now this is a lighter sort of acceptance.

I think about, I got 28 years old, I got cancer. That's why I stopped the show on MTV was when I had cancer. Yeah. And I sort of crazily actually kind of, I'm glad that it happened now, that I've survived it. Because it's like, I go, it does sort of make you realize, oh man, you know, like anytime like anything bad happens, I'm like, well, at least I'm not like in the hospital

with my, you know, lymph node dissection healing, which was sort of a even bigger surgery that I had to go through. Yeah. So it's like, you know, you're kind of, your perspective changes for sure. Yeah. But yeah, and the other thing that's changed a lot

in the last few years is just with the internet is like, I remember during the pandemic, I literally just started doing all these Zoom calls with people. So you realize, well, you don't really have to be anywhere anymore in specific, you know? And with standup, we're traveling all the time anyways, that I guess when you go home,

you can go home to wherever the hell you want, really. Sure. And you're enjoying the standup? I love it, I love it. Yeah. So this winter I've, you know, I've been on, I took the camper van again for this tour. I started up in Canada, drove down through Nashville, down to Tulsa, and down to Dallas and Austin, Phoenix, and up through Colorado and back up to Pittsburgh. Just you, no opener? Yeah, I usually pick up just a local person. Dean Del Ray's been opening up the shows here

in California with me, which has been great. Yeah, he's been opening for me, yeah. But so it's been super fun, but usually I just go to, we'll get a local comic to come open up the show and then I do it, but yeah, no, I love it. And yeah, it's been great. Well, good. It's good to talk to you, man.

Yeah. I'm actually from here, I'm going, I'm in beautiful downtown Bakersfield tomorrow night, then San Francisco at Bimbo's. Sure. And then Portland, Seattle and Eugene, Oregon. And Seattle's the last show on the program. You're driving up?

Yeah, so this run, we flew into Phoenix from the farm, rented a car. Who? My fiance and I. Oh, and she's been to the States a lot? No, not really, so she's seen the country, yeah. So she's been a couple places, but not- So she hasn't seen San Francisco or Portland?

No, exactly. That's gonna be great. Yeah, it's really fun. Oh, that's really fun. And we fly back to the farm from Seattle. Is Dean gonna do those shows up on the coast with you? I think he's just, I think he's just did these ones. Yeah, yeah, I don't think he's gonna go

all the way up the coast. So yeah, he's just doing the LA ones, yeah, so. All right, well good seeing you. I'm glad you're well. Nice to meet Charlie. Yeah, she's feeling better. Look, she's looking at you. Yes, she is.

All right, Tom, have a good, safe trip. Thanks, Mark. She is all right Tom. Have a good safe trip. Thanks Mark Dog puked on my on my rug That Tom Green he set me up It was great to see him You can watch the special his doc and the series Tom Green country on prime video hang out for a minute on Prime Video. Hang out for a minute. Typically in 6 to 12 hours. If it is hard to pass, try Senocot S. It uses natural Sena plus a stool softener to help you achieve pooforia. We were gifted the new Google Pixel 9 and the built-in AI assistant Gemini has been so helpful with our weekly science podcast.

Okay, listen to this. Hey Gemini, what is an interesting science story from the last couple of weeks? One particularly interesting science story involves a potential breakthrough in understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease. It's ridiculously useful. Right? I don't have to stare at my phone being overwhelmed trying to gather information in the same way anymore. Check out Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. Folks, if you have a WTF Plus subscription, you can go back and listen to the first time Tom was on.

It was all the way back in 2013. I've been married twice, man. They were both three and a half years. I mean, I- I think the thing is, is you gotta imagine what would it be like for you. What's your first wife's name? Kim.

Kim. Yeah. What would it be like for you if every time you left up your house, every day for the rest of your life, between five and 10 people, between the time you left your house and got back home, came up to you and said, Hey, how's Kim? You talked to Kim lately? Oh yeah. I remember you with Kim. Oh, weren't you, said, Hey, how's Kim? You talked to Kim lately? Oh yeah. I remember you with Kim.

Oh, weren't you, weren't you married to that Kim? Welcome to my life. That's episode 360 available ad free for WTF plus subscribers to sign up for WTF plus. Go to the link in the episode description or go to WTF pod.com and click on WTF plus and a reminder before we go this podcast is hosted by a cast here's some here's a mark Maron oldie guitar noodle thing riff go I'm gonna be a good boy. Boomer lives! Monkey, La Fonda, cat angels everywhere.