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Hey guys, it s Spadoodle.
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You can always go to davidspade.com to look at my tour dates, because I bless a lot of cities in America with my hilarious stand-up act.
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Or you could not go to it and get on my enemy list.
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Up to you!
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This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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But you know, look at how fast, we re almost halfway through the year.
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Crazy.
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Yeah.
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Are you proud of what you ve done in 2024 so far?
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I know.
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I mean, you always wanna do more, right?
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Life goes so fast.
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David, it s important to take a moment to celebrate your wins, make adjustments for the rest of the year.
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Therapy can help you take stock of your progress and set achievable goals for the next six months.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Listen, therapy is the way to go.
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SPEAKER_00
I did it for a while.
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And I think the thing that slowed me down was what they, is driving to Santa Monica in traffic once or twice a week.
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This is online.
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It s a great idea.
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Very convenient.
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It helps you.
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You ve got coping skills, how to set boundaries.
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I mean, there s so many things you can do here to be a better version of yourself.
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SPEAKER_00
You can probably always sharpen it.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, I had a therapist in Portland and I would commute and that was a pain.
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That s a long drive.
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I know it was 1300 miles one way, but you know, it s good therapist.
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But yeah, this one you can mix and match and your thoughts kind of control you and you want to master them.
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And when you talk to someone else, they re able to kind of discern it out.
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So if you re thinking of starting to give therapy a try, give BetterHelp a try.
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Yeah, it s entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule.
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You fill out a questionnaire, get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist if you want to for any reason, no charge.
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Take a moment, visit betterhelp.com slash FOTW.
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Today, get 10% off your first month.
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That s BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash F-O-T-W.
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Our next guest on... We had a good time with Jake Szymanski.
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He s a writer, director, producer.
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He s worked with a lot of big names and done a lot of things.
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And recently did this brilliant show called Jury Duty, a behind the scenes prank show that was brilliantly conceived.
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And we spent an hour with Jake and got to know him.
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He s great.
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Yeah, I think, you know, now and then we get someone that s sort of something in the zeitgeist right now because we re branching out the show a little bit and he does have ties into SNL.
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He did some shorts for them.
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He has some good stories actually, more than I thought he would about it.
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And jury duty with James Marsden is one of those things that you just heard people keep saying, hey, did you catch this thing?
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And it was funny and interesting and, you know, very hard to do those kind of shows the right way.
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They did it very well.
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Yeah, and Jake talks a lot about the high wire act of that because they have a person who thinks they re going to jury duty and everyone else is acting and there s behind the scene cameras and everything.
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And they thought that the guy was going to go, wait a minute, is this a joke?
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And bust the whole thing open.
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And they kept stretching it.
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And he breaks down all the travails and all the preparation and work.
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And it s kind of a magic show.
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Yeah, he did that movie, I think it s called Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates with Aubrey Plaza, Adam Devine.
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So, you know, he s got a lot to talk about.
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We had a nice time with him.
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I think you will too.
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Really nice, smart guy.
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Here he is, Jake Szymanski.
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Got it pretty close.
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I was, I was going back, I was like, I got to watch some old videos.
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I got to remember the SNL stuff.
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You got to remember your own stuff.
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Well, yeah, a little, you know, a little bit.
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It s like, it s all, it s all a blur at a certain point when you re, when you re working at those places where it s just go, go, go and don t sleep a lot, you know?
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Yeah.
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I mean, Jake is our guest and you know, with the last name, even he can t pronounce, do you know how to say it?
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I pretend the hard letters aren t there.
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So it s Szymanski.
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SPEAKER_00
Oh, it is?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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Have you ever gone for Jake-ass?
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Just like, you know, kind of shorten it.
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Jake-ass.
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Jake-ski.
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I can t pull that off.
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I ask, anytime I meet someone like, who s actually Polish, I say, how do you pronounce my name?
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And they tell me it s Jemajnski.
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And so very different, so just make it up.
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We want it easier.
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Look, I m doing an accent.
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We ve only been talking for 45 seconds.
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I can sound like other people.
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No, it s just Eastern European.
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Could be Bulgarian, could be Romanian.
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It s Eastern, you know.
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Hard to place on purpose.
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All right, this just in.
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I m going to grab water.
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This just in.
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Where do you think you re going?
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Water.
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Are we rolling?
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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Do you guys do edits?
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How do you do it?
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No.
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Well, we have... Johnny edits behind us, Greg.
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They like to... We mostly just let it all go because it s a chaotic, barely controlled conversation.
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We like to interrupt our guests, like I just did there, and bring it all back to us.
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And if he gets on a roll, watch me.
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I will try to cut that shit down.
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I love it.
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That s what makes it so fun to listen to.
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Well, at least we have a sense of humor about it.
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Jake did a couple things, Dana.
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You don t know this, but he directed Jury Duty, which was on...
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The Febreze Network.
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That s right.
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Amazon Febreze.
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And he was, which was a big hit and up for two Emmys.
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Four.
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Four.
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Oh, shit.
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Look at me trying to low-ball you.
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I know, why?
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I thought it was two.
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Why guess low?
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No, the show is revolutionary.
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Should we get to it right now or should we go over his resume?
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SPEAKER_00
He has an SNL connection, but we will get to that.
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So, that s all.
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Could we just, because I m curious, because there s not a lot of stuff on your background.
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I know, that s why I was like, I wonder how this is gonna go.
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Well, it s like if we were in a restaurant together hanging out with no mics, I d be like, so where d you grow up?
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I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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No, where you really grew up.
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Poland, are you trying to go for Poland?
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No, Milwaukee?
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Big Polish family?
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Big family, not overly Polish, but yeah, I had like, you know, I think my mom is one of eight and my dad too.
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So I had like, you know, kind of 25 first cousins on one side and another 15 on the other side.
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So it was a lot of family time growing up.
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SPEAKER_00
Being from Milwaukee, were you watching SNL when Farley was a big deal on it?
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SPEAKER_02
Yes, but well, no, actually I was late to SNL and that was kind of, and I mean late by like, you know, sixth grade instead of fourth grade or something.
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But I think I wasn t staying up late enough to have that access.
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But I remember I would hear people talking, like I remember in school being like,
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There was this thing last night and someone trying to explain Toontz is the cat to me.
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Toontz is of all things.
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I remember being like, maybe I should try to watch this.
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SPEAKER_02
But Farley was a big deal because of the Wisconsin connection for sure.
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But I think not only on the show, on SNL, but then obviously, you know, Tommy Boy.
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I think he s wearing a Marquette jacket in that opening scene.
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Yeah, he always tried to cram that shit in.
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It was a big deal.
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You know, we don t get a lot.
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We didn t get a lot of that back home.
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No, he got some love.
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Yeah, he would always try to get something going on.
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So then you see something and everyone gets real excited about it.
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Just the fact that in Wayne s world, they mentioned Milwaukee, the other shows in Milwaukee.
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SPEAKER_02
I mean, we lived off of that.
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SPEAKER_01
We did the Laverne and Shirley parody, I think.
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SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Let me ask you a question.
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So if you go back in your old neighborhood and everybody, it s like, okay,
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You were the funny guy or like, are people surprised?
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Do people know how much you ve done from your neighborhood?
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Like not many people get to write direct movies and do cool things like you ve done.
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I was always into comedy.
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I was always a comedy nerd and doing a lot of that.
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So I think in that sense, no.
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I think it s a little bit, I don t know if you guys have it too, but it is that thing of like the people you grow up with, especially if you re not from like in LA, New York.
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I think it s hard to fully explain what you do all the time.
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Every now and then there ll be a product that comes out and you see it once every two years, but it s like, yeah, there s a lot of work that happens in between that.
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So it s, no, not huge surprises, but I don t think, if you re not in the biz, it s hard to fully get what the job is.
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Did you have a performance side or was it always writer, director?
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Were you doing skits for the family and stuff like that?
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SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
Oh, okay.
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Yeah, I did.
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Now we re getting to it.
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Yeah, I think early.
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A bit of a ham bone.
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, you know, you re always, I would watch a lot of comedy and stand up and try to do that.
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I think early on, like, it was just repeating, just stealing other repeating bits, you know what I mean?
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Like the school talent show or in front of the class or whatever it is.
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SPEAKER_02
I did that, you did that, right?
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Of course.
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
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And that s how you get going.
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I thought I was good because I could recite Billy Crystal and I made people laugh just saying his jokes.
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And you didn t realize there was a difference to actually being Billy Crystal?
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SPEAKER_00
I would get laughs.
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SPEAKER_00
And you went as Billy Crystal for a while in Lower Phoenix.
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SPEAKER_00
It s funny, I didn t mention it.
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SPEAKER_00
Someone asked me the other night.
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Early albums and stuff, but I listened to George Carlin and all that stuff, Steve Martin, but I would say it.
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And then when I got a laugh, I was so proud of myself.
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So embarrassing.
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SPEAKER_00
Did you ever have any kind of like...
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But do you think it does like teach you a little bit about just like timing and rhythm and stuff I think and recognizing what is good But also you re saying about like not you re not a class clown, but you liked funny things I think we all grew up even as
1
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especially as boys, I m sure women do, but you just like funny things, but that by no means, it translates to you being funny or being a career in it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
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And I think actually I discovered, performing s hard and standup is the hardest.
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Painful.
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SPEAKER_00
I mean, I remember thinking like, oh, I want to do that.
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SPEAKER_00
I mean, my mom would,
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when I was what, 15, 16, my mom would take me into the bar because she had to be there so I could like try and open Mike Knight or something like that.
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SPEAKER_00
So she was great.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow, what a supportive mom.
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SPEAKER_00
But also it s like, yeah, it s tough.
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SPEAKER_00
I think I found, then when like, oh, a video camera came out, we had a video camera at home.
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SPEAKER_00
I liked being able to shoot and kind of have the control to work on it myself, you know, work out the kinks and then show it.
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SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
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I think I started gravitating towards that more.
1
SPEAKER_02
Did you ever have,
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like directorially, it seems like you kind of wonder where things come from.
1
SPEAKER_02
But as a director, you know, you can sort of like, I know Tarantino yells out, you know, we re doing Spielberg on this scene.
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SPEAKER_02
We re doing this scene.
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SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
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SPEAKER_02
Cause there is a template there.
1
SPEAKER_02
Same thing with his Billy Crystal story, which I don t, not sure I believe.
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SPEAKER_02
So that you decided to get behind the camera and make stuff then and show it to people.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I was always, I mean, I just watched so many movies and so much TV.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then at a certain point, you re like, that seems fun.
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SPEAKER_00
I wonder how to, how do you do that?
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You know what I mean?
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SPEAKER_00
So I always had an interest in it.
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SPEAKER_00
And it s not like there s a big film scene in Milwaukee.
1
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, you re kind of reading up on it.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, I came of age in the nineties.
1
SPEAKER_00
That was like a great indie movie, early Miramax, where you re like,
1
SPEAKER_00
Let s explore these weird movies.
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SPEAKER_00
Oh, you can make a movie like that.
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SPEAKER_00
You can make a movie.
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SPEAKER_00
I think it was a good time to get into film.
1
SPEAKER_02
When you were little, did you edit in the camera?
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SPEAKER_02
Like stop, move around, start.
1
SPEAKER_02
And then at one point you re able to actually edit based on your age.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like kind of, I think when I was like a senior in high school, like someone from another high school had access to like the first Final Cut Pro.
1
SPEAKER_00
And they were like, I can get the software and install it on your computer.
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SPEAKER_00
And you re like, oh really?
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SPEAKER_00
Let me try.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, what s that like?
1
SPEAKER_02
Did you ever come across the toaster, the video toaster?
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, of course.
1
SPEAKER_02
Famous video toaster.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know where my brother designed the first prototype?
1
SPEAKER_00
No, what?
1
SPEAKER_02
What s this connection?
1
SPEAKER_02
He s the guy who Garth s based on.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
You look it up.
1
SPEAKER_02
Brad Carvey video toaster.
1
SPEAKER_02
He named it the video toaster.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, really?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh, interesting.
1
SPEAKER_00
Not to be confused with a flying toaster, screensaver.
1
SPEAKER_02
No, no, toaster got used later.
1
SPEAKER_02
As far as that was just a cool word.
1
SPEAKER_02
Toaster looks good, sounds good.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Kind of has all this motion around it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Get the toaster, get the toast, get the toaster.
1
SPEAKER_02
But that s interesting because that was an intersection where you would have been around.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
And that was one of the first home editings with Omega something.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah, I for sure remember.
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I want to talk more about that.
1
SPEAKER_01
So you re in a town that has more of a hamburger scene.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you want to go into the movies and comedy and burger scene.
1
SPEAKER_01
Throw us that in.
1
SPEAKER_00
We got a great burger scene.
1
SPEAKER_00
We got a great biker scene.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, but it s all over your scenes.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
You ll miss it in Milwaukee.
1
SPEAKER_01
Have you guys been to Milwaukee?
1
SPEAKER_01
I played Milwaukee, you know what?
1
SPEAKER_02
I played Milwaukee, you know, maybe 10 years ago.
1
SPEAKER_02
My opening act went out.
1
SPEAKER_02
It was like maybe a thousand seat or five.
1
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, so he s playing very quiet and he s a good standup.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s not you.
1
SPEAKER_02
You always killed.
1
SPEAKER_02
But he s playing very, very quiet.
1
SPEAKER_02
Me.
1
SPEAKER_02
So they told me before I went out, so he s thinking I m bombing, they said, oh, they don t laugh here in Milwaukee.
1
SPEAKER_02
They re loving it, but they just don t laugh very hard.
1
SPEAKER_02
Too polite.
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t know whether that s true or not, but when I went out there, yeah, they didn t laugh much, but they really seemed to enjoy it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Is that true?
1
SPEAKER_00
And then a standing ovation at the end, a seven minute standing ovation.
1
SPEAKER_01
I just did a gig there, like at 15,000 Seater, and we were, that s all.
1
SPEAKER_01
He s blowing up.
1
SPEAKER_00
No, I m kidding.
1
SPEAKER_01
But we stayed at a hotel.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s supposed to be haunted, Dana.
1
SPEAKER_01
I tell you this and I got scared.
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh, the Pfister.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
And they re not allowed to tell you.
1
SPEAKER_01
What, it s common knowledge?
1
SPEAKER_00
It s common knowledge.
1
SPEAKER_01
Haunted hotel.
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh, because I knew it because they said Manny Machado or one of these guys in the Dodgers, they go,
1
SPEAKER_01
They were on a road game.
1
SPEAKER_01
When I got back, they go, they were on a road game and he stayed in his own hotel or an Airbnb because he thinks the hotel s haunted.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, if they show that fucking, and they showed a picture of it.
1
SPEAKER_01
I go, that s it.
1
SPEAKER_01
They know it s haunted.
1
SPEAKER_01
Everyone knows.
1
SPEAKER_01
And Bobby told me, the guy that was on the road with me, the comedian, he goes, I think this place is haunted.
1
SPEAKER_01
I go, no, no, don t say that.
1
SPEAKER_01
We re here three days, dude.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m playing Appleton.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m doing all these.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I said, I can t, I get scared at that.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then when we asked the staff, I told you this, they go,
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SPEAKER_01
And the waitress, I go, this place isn t haunted, is it?
1
SPEAKER_01
She first of all freezes, then she goes, you know, we have spirits at the bar.
1
SPEAKER_01
I go, shut the fuck up.
1
SPEAKER_01
I go, is it haunted?
1
SPEAKER_01
Answer me.
1
SPEAKER_01
But they re not allowed to, so they all have like a company line.
1
SPEAKER_01
They ve had a meeting about it.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s how haunted it is.
1
SPEAKER_01
What do we say when people say- But you didn t feel any weird vibes.
1
SPEAKER_01
I did hear kids talking upstairs and thumping, and I don t know if there was anyone up there.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I told Bobby this the second, and he goes, oh, it s for sure.
1
SPEAKER_01
Like children, that s usually in haunted things.
1
SPEAKER_01
I go, no, no, children is the scariest in haunted movies.
1
SPEAKER_01
I can t, I can t take it.
1
SPEAKER_01
So, and I got sick on that trip.
1
SPEAKER_01
Do you believe in the ghosts?
1
SPEAKER_01
You believe this place is haunted?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I think so.
1
SPEAKER_02
Would you like to do a horror film, Jake?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, would you?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Would you do a comedy one?
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, we did, like so many people, we did a pandemic move into kind of like,
1
SPEAKER_00
a big old fixer house and it s got some stuff going on.
1
SPEAKER_00
We moved into a haunted house, I think, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, I didn t really believe it until my Irish relatives just said, oh yeah, there s a little girl that lived in our house and we all say hello to her and everyone recognized her.
1
SPEAKER_00
And just, it was no big deal?
1
SPEAKER_02
No big deal, didn t feel threatened by it.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ve had a lot of different experiences with
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, I ve had sort of waking dream states and hallucinations, but enough about me.
1
SPEAKER_00
We found out, we just moved, sorry, I was a little tangent, but we just moved two and a half years ago, and my wife was pregnant at the time, and we moved into a house, and we were picking baby names, and we picked the name for my youngest daughter, and then the neighbors were like, that was the name of the woman who lived here and died.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we picked the name of the woman who lived there for 60 years and died in the house.
1
SPEAKER_00
That just popped in your head.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, are we being rosemary babied right now?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, is someone, they re giving us brownies because we moved into the neighborhood, is it laced?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, so we, for a while we were like, is this the beginning of a horror movie?
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, my son s name is Damien and... Isn t that funny?
1
SPEAKER_01
My son s name is Luke Cipher.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it s not exactly- It s not spelled like Lucifer.
1
SPEAKER_02
So could I just ask you a second, because I like talking about movies, like what are the ones, you know, just a few of them that pop into your head?
1
SPEAKER_02
I d never say favorite movie, but pop into your head that, you know, kind of like, wow, that s- Got you going, got you going.
1
SPEAKER_00
Inspiring.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ll throw out The Godfather, just start there.
1
SPEAKER_00
Sure, sure, sure.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think, you know, there s different phases, right, for everyone.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, certainly like,
1
SPEAKER_00
I always go back to Boogie Nights as one of the best of all time, but that s also one of those movies- PTA.
1
SPEAKER_00
I m in high school, I m trying to learn more about film, that movie comes out and you re like, boom, that s it.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then, but also back to when I was a kid, it was like, oh, I must ve been five years old, I remember seeing space balls in theaters and trying to repeat the lines from that.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I love, you know what I mean?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like that s locked in there early.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, another comedy that fucking kills you as a kid.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you wonder when you get older, when your comedy tastes change, you go,
1
SPEAKER_01
Would that still make me laugh?
1
SPEAKER_01
But a lot of those still make me laugh.
1
SPEAKER_02
I think about airplane.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, someone was asking me about it and just, would the time be right?
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, there s the political correct aspect, but just something that s just making jokes every second would seem kind of refreshing.
1
SPEAKER_02
Leslie Nielsen, you know, some of those naked gun movies, just like funny, funny, funny.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, airplane was always, again, the Zucker brothers are from Milwaukee.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so that was like a local point of pride.
1
SPEAKER_00
So that was always like,
1
SPEAKER_00
Let s go, let s watch Airplane!
1
SPEAKER_00
Airplane s on TV.
1
SPEAKER_00
A lot of people would talk about that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Airplane is a monster.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s like a top tenner of all time, I feel.
1
SPEAKER_01
Do you like gladiators movies?
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, just such a weird style and weird everything.
1
SPEAKER_02
It was new when it came out, speaking of jury duty, took a genre and then reinvented it.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I was curious about, did you ever see Spinal Tap?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Because I mean, it seems like you ve enjoyed doing a lot of that sort of, sorry.
1
SPEAKER_02
Should I get that?
1
SPEAKER_02
No.
1
SPEAKER_02
This is funny, this is Jake s wife, makes sure he eats in 20 minutes.
1
SPEAKER_02
And with my medicine, with my blood sugar.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m gonna silence that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Heather, get his applesauce.
1
SPEAKER_02
But are you sort of found your way, like we intersected in 2013, I think, with the presidential.
1
SPEAKER_00
The presidential reunion.
1
SPEAKER_02
So you and Ron Howard were directing something that was like reunion of SNL people who d done presidents.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that was through Funny or Die, the comedy website, which I worked for at the time.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that was getting everyone who had played a president at SNL.
1
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
back to do a big reunion sketch.
1
SPEAKER_00
I remember this.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that was, I mean, and by the way, that shows you how generous everyone like Ron Howard and the Funny or Die people are that I co-directed, you know, quote unquote, co-directed that.
1
SPEAKER_00
That was really fun.
1
SPEAKER_00
But we must ve met that day and you were there, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
We did.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_00
I m sure.
1
SPEAKER_01
Was it a one day shoot?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_00
One
2
SPEAKER_01
That s hard to wrangle.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then Jim Carrey played Regan, right?
2
SPEAKER_02
Because he filled in and played Regan.
2
SPEAKER_02
And that was cool.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, just as a comedy fan, I don t think, I mean, I hadn t met any of you guys, but then to be there and see everyone come together and catch little behind the scenes conversations, because
2
SPEAKER_02
Chevy Chase was there, Ackroyd was there, you were there, Farrell was there playing younger Bush.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I was playing W, not senior.
2
SPEAKER_00
No, you were playing senior.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was playing senior and he was W. And I looked at it last night and I walked in, me as the guy walked in, well Farrell, so were we completely improvising that thing where he goes,
2
SPEAKER_00
I take a sudsy tub, love you daddy.
2
SPEAKER_00
Was that all, or is that somewhat scripted?
2
SPEAKER_02
No, I think it was somewhat scripted because I know McKay did a couple of passes and wrote that, but we played around for sure.
2
SPEAKER_02
There was a lot of riffing at points, but yeah, that was, I mean, that was what, 09 or something like that.
2
SPEAKER_02
That was a while ago, I think.
2
SPEAKER_02
That was amazing to see everyone.
2
SPEAKER_02
I remember being caught in a room and seeing and hearing Chevy and Dan Aykroyd catch up.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like they hadn t seen each other in a couple of years.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I was just kind of like, be as quiet as you can.
2
SPEAKER_02
Don t make any moves.
2
SPEAKER_02
And they re just like, good to see you.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
How s the family?
2
SPEAKER_02
Good.
2
SPEAKER_02
Making plans to do Thanksgiving together that year.
2
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, oh, you should come over for Thanksgiving.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s been too long and all that.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I was like, man, this is cool.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like see all these guys back together.
2
SPEAKER_02
And what a good excuse to see people.
2
SPEAKER_02
We haven t seen each other in a couple of years.
2
SPEAKER_02
That was a great experience.
2
SPEAKER_00
Ackroyd, by the way, full circle, just wanted to talk about poltergeist and stuff like that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, he is just a man of all trades.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, just really fun to talk to.
2
SPEAKER_00
As far as your comment about Ron Howard, because I ve had some interaction with him, it s like if the Dalai Lama was a director, kind of reminds me of your man in Jury Duty.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
just this earnestness, but has sharp edges when he needs to be.
2
SPEAKER_00
He has to direct movies, but Ron Howard has a son of an earnest,
2
SPEAKER_00
Midwestern, something about him.
2
SPEAKER_02
Such a nice guy, so talented.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I mean, I got so lucky.
2
SPEAKER_02
The people I got to work with early on, because, you know, getting hired at Funny or Die, that was kind of like my break, right, of access to so many people.
2
SPEAKER_02
Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Chris Henshaw, started that website.
2
SPEAKER_02
Then getting to work with like, Ron wants to make something, go help him out and spend time with Ron Howard.
2
SPEAKER_02
Everyone, they re such the nicest guys, so talented.
2
SPEAKER_02
And it was kind of a good,
2
SPEAKER_02
not lessen, because it s not like I was a huge jerk or anything, but it was refreshing to be like, oh, you can be on top and be nice and be a great guy and go, you know, when you re making a movie, no one wants to spend six months on set with a jerk.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, it s not worth it, you know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_02
And so it was so nice to see, because I feel like you move to LA, you start doing the jobs, you re PAing on this, you re making runs, and you can run into some jerks, you know what I mean, working on stuff.
2
SPEAKER_02
And you go like, oh, on the top, top, top,
2
SPEAKER_02
Everyone s pretty great.
2
SPEAKER_01
Lower level jerks are bad.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, if you meet someone like Tom Cruise and you say, oh, you know, he was so nice.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he doesn t have to be.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s always the weirdest thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
I know, I got credit for that a few times when I got a little more notoriety.
2
SPEAKER_00
He just came in, he bought a soda and he left.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m like, what?
2
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t believe it, man.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, it s like, I m not doing anything.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right, low maintenance.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, I do think it s a Darwinian proposition in a sense that if you, you gotta be pretty talented if you re a jerk.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think so.
2
SPEAKER_00
You better be brilliant.
2
SPEAKER_02
But yeah, it was great to see, you know, Ron so nice and just to be like, yeah, you know, you don t need to be a yeller on set to get what you need to get done done.
2
SPEAKER_02
It was good early on me.
2
SPEAKER_02
I had a lot of good people to look up to.
2
SPEAKER_02
Did he tell you that?
2
SPEAKER_02
No, but just seeing it, seeing how he works and doing the meetings with him.
2
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_02
And, uh, that was the best part about, you know, when they started Funny or Die that I always refer to that as my second film school.
2
SPEAKER_02
Cause I m out there trying to make my own little gorilla videos and upload them online and hope anyone will see them.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then all of a sudden we re
2
SPEAKER_02
I m doing the same thing.
2
SPEAKER_02
But, you know, McKay was like, here, I got a script, try to do this.
2
SPEAKER_02
Or, hey, you know, this person called, they want to do a sketch.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, they re in town to do Kimmel, but then they want to come by and do a sketch.
2
SPEAKER_02
And all of a sudden it was like a ton of access.
2
SPEAKER_02
So you re writing for celebrities and you re trying to help make them funny.
2
SPEAKER_02
And it was good training, you know?
2
SPEAKER_00
It was run and gun pretty much.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it happened fairly quickly compared to regular filmmaking, obviously.
2
SPEAKER_00
Very run and gun.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, the first year of Funny or Die, I don t even think we had lights or proper microphones.
2
SPEAKER_02
It was super guerrilla, just like kids were making online.
2
SPEAKER_02
They were like, yeah, let s do that, but we ll make it all funnier.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s how it worked.
2
SPEAKER_01
When I go in there to do something, or they d say, we have an idea for you, and I d go in, or I d say, hey, I wanna do something about Coachella, and they go, what do you need?
2
SPEAKER_01
And I go, I ll write it, but can you get this person to do it, or maybe we could just film it or get a quick set thrown together?
2
SPEAKER_01
And then we did it, and they let me help edit, or they d edit it and go, what do you think?
2
SPEAKER_01
and then throw it up quickly, timely, because it was like that weekend.
2
SPEAKER_01
And that was all, and I d see on the board, all these stars  headshots, and they d say, Katy Perry wants to do something, or this person wants to do something.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so people would brainstorm ideas, which was hard, because they d say no to something, and then you re like, oh shit, we gotta think of another idea for them.
2
SPEAKER_01
But Funny or Die was really cruising there and had a lot of good stuff.
2
SPEAKER_00
Did you say you went to film school before that?
2
SPEAKER_02
I did, I did.
2
SPEAKER_02
I was a film kid, so I went to film school.
2
SPEAKER_02
Pfizer?
2
SPEAKER_02
High school for the arts or college?
2
SPEAKER_02
College, college, college.
2
SPEAKER_02
I did like a summer camp in high school to try to learn about how to make movies.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I was like, oh, I like this.
2
SPEAKER_02
This is cool.
2
SPEAKER_02
I didn t know about this stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wait, we gotta back up.
2
SPEAKER_01
My joke was, was it Pfister School of Haunted Filmmaking?
2
SPEAKER_01
That s where I was going with that one.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I said, Pfizer?
2
SPEAKER_01
And everyone kind of laughed.
2
SPEAKER_01
No one knew what the fuck I was talking about.
2
SPEAKER_01
Pfister is the hotel that s haunted.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I m at Pfister haunted school of fucking filmmaking.
2
SPEAKER_01
And everyone just kept talking.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I was like, we have editing capability.
2
SPEAKER_00
Everyone has to know.
2
SPEAKER_00
If you re listening now in your car, this never happened.
2
SPEAKER_00
I stumbled.
2
SPEAKER_01
No, I got it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I want the people to know.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what the fuck I m doing.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I m sorry, so you went to film school, go ahead.
2
SPEAKER_01
Film school.
2
SPEAKER_01
When was it?
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, so you found your way to SNL, which is part of our theme, but we go everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_01
How the fuck did you get to SNL?
2
SPEAKER_01
That s a big, that s, well, Funny or Die is not a really big jump.
2
SPEAKER_01
Was it after Funny or Die?
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes, I d been at Funny or Die a couple of years.
2
SPEAKER_02
So they saw your stuff.
2
SPEAKER_02
They did, but actually I think it wasn t as direct of a line from Funny or Die, even though that was, Funny or Die was like the best prep because all of the people who ran Funny or Die came from SNL.
2
SPEAKER_02
So they were kind of trying to do a model of that for the internet.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I actually,
2
SPEAKER_02
was shooting a commercial back in the day with Bill Hader.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Bill had brought Melanie along to write for him.
2
SPEAKER_02
And we were shooting like,
2
SPEAKER_02
internet Volkswagen ads or something.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I was, it was like a lot of days and it was split up because Bill had a show and I went out and shot with him for a couple of days.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then we took a week off and, and they did, uh, they did a show.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then we came back and shot a couple more days and I had kind of rough cuts of what we had shot.
2
SPEAKER_02
And they were like, Oh, you like, uh, cut these for comedy.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, these aren t like commercial commercial.
2
SPEAKER_02
You re like, we re going for the jokes.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m like, Oh yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m like, you know, I ve, I ve come from comedy.
2
SPEAKER_02
And they re like, oh, and we just had a good time.
2
SPEAKER_02
We really got along.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I met them through that.
2
SPEAKER_02
And actually at the end of filming a commercial, I think it was Mullaney who was like, hey, you know, we got, we have like a, an opening, like we need a kind of guest director for a couple of weeks.
2
SPEAKER_02
Would you ever be interested?
2
SPEAKER_00
Would you ever be interested?
2
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
So they, they, I think are the ones who recommended me.
2
SPEAKER_02
after we worked together to come on in.
2
SPEAKER_02
And they had a director slot open at the show.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I showed up to the show thinking it was a temporary, like, because you know how you guys know at the show that writers will sometimes come in for like just three weeks or four weeks.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Also, no one tells you anything.
2
SPEAKER_02
No, no one tells you anything.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I thought that s what I was accepting, like a three, a three week gig.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then I show up and I remember talking with Steve Higgins when I first got there and he s like, it s not a temporary job.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s a full-time job.
2
SPEAKER_02
I don t know what they re talking about.
2
SPEAKER_02
But it was great.
2
SPEAKER_02
And, and to get in there as they were figuring that out.
2
SPEAKER_02
And that was, um.
2
SPEAKER_02
Uh, you know, I was only there for less than two seasons because I think because I thought it was temporary I was like, i m just gonna come in for a couple weeks and go back to Okay.
2
SPEAKER_01
Bye.
2
SPEAKER_01
And they re like, where are you going?
2
SPEAKER_01
You re like, oh, one in another week.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah a little a little bit like that It s funny or die then you get snl and then you re gonna make all these movies But I would like to talk a little bit about some of these sketches.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know Oh, oh my gosh that you I don t know what you wrote them or just directed them
2
SPEAKER_00
But you had sex ed couples with Steve Bachine.
2
SPEAKER_00
That was 2011.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if that was you.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
Sex ed with Paul Britton s character.
2
SPEAKER_00
The one, I just want to jump ahead to this one, because it sort of blew my mind, because it rhythmically went somewhere that I don t see comedy go to.
2
SPEAKER_00
And someone s behind this.
2
SPEAKER_00
So it was tennis balls with Jonah Hill.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m so happy you said that one.
2
SPEAKER_00
And first you re like, okay, the guys get hit in the crotch, fine.
2
SPEAKER_00
hit you know then you go to this rhythm he s on his back now who thought of that and how could you see that in an editing bay and not collapse with laughter because that s next level to me there s no it s so abstract and it has a funny rhythm to it yeah
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the rhythm.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, you know, what s funny is like the ball was done in post, right?
3
SPEAKER_02
So we re just trying to get Jonah to go on a certain, hit, hit, I mean.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s getting hit in the balls with a tennis ball like 300 times.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, we just show it so many times.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I think, you know, I love that you brought that up.
3
SPEAKER_02
Andy and I talk about that all the time.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s one of our favorites that we did together.
3
SPEAKER_01
Sandberg.
3
SPEAKER_01
Sandberg.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, Sandberg.
3
SPEAKER_02
And yeah, that s one of my favorite pieces I did there.
3
SPEAKER_02
Cause it s so, I mean, I think in those,
3
SPEAKER_02
The idea is, can we do the silly joke?
3
SPEAKER_02
How long can we get away with it that will make you laugh two or three more times after you think it s over?
3
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_02
And that was really fun to do.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, because you re in kind of a generic thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
Guy gets kicked in the balls or something in the balls.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then where it goes, I recommend anyone here YouTube it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Tennis balls, SNL, Jonah Hill.
3
SPEAKER_01
Where it goes to is so abstract and Tech took it so far.
3
SPEAKER_02
We got Ghost Hunters showing up in there.
3
SPEAKER_02
I remember that.
3
SPEAKER_02
I remember that.
3
SPEAKER_00
His tour at a pharmacy.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is something, was it HBO?
3
SPEAKER_00
I think I remember hearing this is Sandberg and he was like Lance Armstrong, something.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was thinking, they do these as like a one-off and was it, that s the first time I seen like they did, was it episodes or one thing?
3
SPEAKER_02
No, just one thing.
3
SPEAKER_02
We had done, Seven Days in Hell we did first, which was a tennis mockumentary.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I thought, oh, they re doing these things.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was such a different mood.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then we did a tour de pharmacy a year later, two years later.
3
SPEAKER_02
And they re kind of all as like specials, you know, like 45 minute, hour long one-offs.
3
SPEAKER_02
And we had so much fun making those.
3
SPEAKER_02
That was another thing we were like, I can t believe they re letting us make this.
3
SPEAKER_02
They re probably not going to air it.
3
SPEAKER_02
I refer to Seven Days in Hell and tour de pharmacy as a series of hard right turns.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_02
Let s just see how long we can keep misdirecting and going for before it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And Andy is really, really good at it.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s doing that type of comedy.
3
SPEAKER_02
He s the best.
3
SPEAKER_02
And he s so, he s so smart too.
3
SPEAKER_02
And the most fun of those is, I mean, we, we shoot those quickly.
3
SPEAKER_02
I mean, when we shoot those, we re only filming for like four days for the, for the, um, for all the like archival footage, the stuff that s supposed to take place in the past.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then we ll do all the talking heads as we re in the edit, which is nice.
3
SPEAKER_02
Cause you get to change what you need said a little bit as you re editing it, but you know,
3
SPEAKER_02
And Andy s in the edit for all of that.
3
SPEAKER_02
He s really smart.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s the thing about SNL people or cast members.
3
SPEAKER_01
Most of them really would want to be in the editing bay.
3
SPEAKER_01
They understand that that s, you know, where it could be ruined.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve been in movies like that because when it s not done properly, it doesn t go from funny, as I always say, to less funny.
3
SPEAKER_01
It goes from funny to not funny.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s over there when it s supposed to be over there.
3
SPEAKER_00
The editors have so much power.
3
SPEAKER_00
You do a movie and you do seven takes, eight takes.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then you go in your head, I m thinking the first half of my first take was great.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the third take, the beginning, and then the last, you know, you could find it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then I walk over and I see someone go, circle that one, moving on.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m like, and then I realized sometimes the editor just puts that whole last taking, because they got everything that somebody liked.
3
SPEAKER_00
And sometimes they just don t go back.
3
SPEAKER_00
If it works, and you go, oh my god, there s three more jokes that you missed, but no one went back.
3
SPEAKER_00
So if you need someone to go back, say, hey, go back.
3
SPEAKER_00
There was something earlier.
3
SPEAKER_02
Especially if you re playing around a little bit.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like I came, like, McKay and Farrell, you know, I got to shadow when they were making Step Brothers and the other guys.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was around a lot.
3
SPEAKER_02
But seeing how they use improv, but
3
SPEAKER_02
And you know, they have a script that they ll shoot and then they ll shoot three scripts worth of content just playing around.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then that s a way to do it, but to do it in a way where you can actually use it all is, is different actually.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s a smart thing to learn.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then, but yeah, you need time in the edit.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like, so if I m, and I kind of, so again, I m, you know,
3
SPEAKER_02
up to those guys that they re teaching me how to do it.
3
SPEAKER_02
I play around a lot.
3
SPEAKER_02
And with those projects, those mockumentaries, we re doing a ton of improv.
3
SPEAKER_02
And if you don t have time in the edit to just keep going through it and find different ways to maybe put it together, it doesn t work.
3
SPEAKER_01
So much fun to watch.
3
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, comedians love that.
3
SPEAKER_01
At least the most, my comedian friends love the idea that it s, it s being discovered while it s being filmed.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, you can tell when Will sits in a chair and you go for 15 minutes on Will and he goes on these flight of fancies.
3
SPEAKER_01
Something s going to work.
3
SPEAKER_01
And there s, there s structure to it, but then he s also able to, and it really pops.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, that s, and that s the thing about Will and a lot of, you know, comedians is, you know, Will secretly is also one of the best writers out there.
3
SPEAKER_02
So smart, you know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_02
He can, he can do it all.
3
SPEAKER_02
And so he s, he s always working with Will is my favorite because
3
SPEAKER_02
you get to give him a suggestion and then he makes it so good when he tries it and makes it better.
3
SPEAKER_02
And he s like, oh, thank you for making me look smart on that one.
3
SPEAKER_02
I did not.
3
SPEAKER_01
And that is why he s Will Ferrell.
3
SPEAKER_01
That is why he s the best.
3
SPEAKER_02
But I think, you know, working with, in comedy and with comedians, if you re making something where it s like, no, no, the job is just to be funny.
3
SPEAKER_02
We gotta get laughs, right?
3
SPEAKER_02
A lot of it is letting you guys do what you do.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like find your rhythm and not be too overbearing.
3
SPEAKER_02
too, you know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_01
Why couldn t you have directed some of the movies?
3
SPEAKER_01
Because there s 1200 takes and five camera angles and it s just strangled to death in traditional filmmaking.
3
SPEAKER_01
But the way you shot it loose or you adapted your camera to the talent basically, right?
3
SPEAKER_02
I think so.
3
SPEAKER_02
I like to get a good, I like to get a vibe going with people and kind of know, you know, some people don t like to do a long take or try a lot of stuff and great.
3
SPEAKER_02
Then you, then you talk more beforehand and get it out there.
3
SPEAKER_02
But, you know, I m a big believer in like, if you re making a comedy, there should be a good vibe on set.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_02
That s part of the no jerk policy is like, you re joking around, you re taking the work seriously, but you got to kind of play to people s strengths and where they re comfortable and start there and then start pushing out and ditch.
3
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes you watch playback, you have a laugh, then you go back.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Let s try one where we just do a different ending or, you know, whatever.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then someone s keeping track of it and you walk away going, all right, it s there.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
When you walk away and you go, that s a good scene.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, absolutely.
3
SPEAKER_00
We got it.
3
SPEAKER_00
The way we pictured it.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it, like I said, as long as you re shooting it away where you can use it all, you know, you re not just trying stuff for the sake of trying it.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s, it s all like, it s around the, sometimes you got to go back and, you know, Oh, Hey, let s actually walk in with the TV off.
3
SPEAKER_02
Cause we did so much playing around.
3
SPEAKER_02
It might not be about that anymore.
3
SPEAKER_02
And let s do this.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then you go, okay, now we re covered.
3
SPEAKER_02
We can cut any version of that scene or whatever it is.
3
SPEAKER_00
It is hard when you re doing it just to do it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you re like, well, now we re just wasting time because we can t.
3
SPEAKER_00
and get it all in.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s a fine balance.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you did Brooklyn 99 with Andy, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, I did an episode of that.
3
SPEAKER_00
I call it 99.
3
SPEAKER_00
The 99?
3
SPEAKER_00
It s called Brooklyn 99.
3
SPEAKER_00
I call it Brooke.
3
SPEAKER_00
I call it BK, Andy.
3
SPEAKER_01
I knew a guy.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know how people drop the names of things, you know?
3
SPEAKER_01
I can t remember this joke, but anyway, I m gonna get to it.
3
SPEAKER_01
So you re on SNL and you re doing these short films and then you get to do these HBO type films, long short films.
3
SPEAKER_01
Mockumentaries, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
What s the first big studio, was it Mike and Dave?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, Mike and Dave and the Wedding Dates was the first movie.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you get good old Aubrey Plaza, was that it?
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah, Aubrey.
3
SPEAKER_00
Fucking so good.
3
SPEAKER_01
So it made $77 million, because I looked it up.
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh good, you know the number.
3
SPEAKER_01
On a low budget.
3
SPEAKER_01
So how did Hollywood, did it emancipate you a little bit, or you were already going great guns?
3
SPEAKER_01
Or did people react to you different?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, oh he s not only talented, he just made something that made a shit ton of money.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s interesting.
3
SPEAKER_02
I don t, I m so bad at keeping up on the business end of things and like the perception of that.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it, by the way, it s like, it s an important skill, you know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_02
To get stuff done.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I just, uh, I m so bad at keeping up on it.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think with that movie, it was interesting because we were testing like really high.
3
SPEAKER_02
We were testing, everyone was.
3
SPEAKER_01
Top two boxes.
3
SPEAKER_02
It was a love fest.
3
SPEAKER_02
All the numbers were high.
3
SPEAKER_02
People were like, maybe it ll be a sequel.
3
SPEAKER_01
Guaranteed.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then it comes out and it s like, oh, it does pretty well.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think people are making money, but it s like, but it wasn t.
3
SPEAKER_02
It didn t take over the world because of whatever, you know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, the expectations.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think also it s been a weird time for comedy movies in the last, you know,
3
SPEAKER_02
Five, eight years.
3
SPEAKER_02
Eight years, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think it was right around, I think Mike and Dave was actually one of the last of kind of like, as it was changing, I think.
3
SPEAKER_02
Unbridled, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s rules now.
3
SPEAKER_01
R-rated comedies, it s tough to get a made now.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s hard to get, it s hard even.
3
SPEAKER_01
What was the dog one that just came out that Josh Greenbaum directed?
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, it s great, Strays.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I wanna see that.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, see it.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s R. Your precious Will Ferrell s in it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes, he is.
3
SPEAKER_00
That movie s really fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
I like the scene where he humps his leg.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, it s hard territory to be in.
3
SPEAKER_00
I know that they must have done something, really.
3
SPEAKER_00
Does it fall through the cracks?
3
SPEAKER_00
Is that what they call an El Camino?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because it looks like a kid s movie, but it s art.
3
SPEAKER_00
So who s going?
3
SPEAKER_00
Is it for adults or is it for kids?
3
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, when I joined the marketing team for Strays, I said that.
3
SPEAKER_01
And what s our audience?
3
SPEAKER_00
First of all.
3
SPEAKER_00
Because listen, I never want to say a movie didn t do that well because I ve been in them.
3
SPEAKER_00
For that, was it Jamie Foxx and Will?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Both hilarious.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m sure the movie s great.
3
SPEAKER_00
But if they don t all show up, I mean, they couldn t really promote it.
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh, right, with the striking and stuff.
3
SPEAKER_02
Did it not?
3
SPEAKER_02
I mean, I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like, I saw it and I m like, I love it, it s great.
3
SPEAKER_02
So that movie, to me, is- Jake, wake up.
3
SPEAKER_02
A giant success.
3
SPEAKER_01
Fox office and greatness are not always married.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, I m the bad guy.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, I m just saying it s great because they re- I don t know why you have a problem with Will Ferrell.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m just saying, you always get your next movie before the movie comes out.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, but there s producers that we both have worked with and they, when they re hearing the pitch or anything, they re thinking of the poster.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I don t blame them.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re just thinking, who s the audience?
3
SPEAKER_00
There s no poster there.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and I know young people have pitches to sell and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I go, to be honest, you re going to be pitching to someone who s going to want to know, who is the audience?
4
SPEAKER_01
How do we reach them?
4
SPEAKER_01
How do we make money?
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Did you ever have a fallow period, not a feral period, but a time where things weren t happening for you?
4
SPEAKER_01
Because it seemed like, according to your resume, you ve really consistently worked.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, I ve been really lucky where- More talented, yes.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ve been, no, I ve been very lucky.
4
SPEAKER_02
I kind of- Mostly luck.
4
SPEAKER_02
I kind of only worked on stuff I like with people I like and the longer I m in this- You like us?
4
SPEAKER_02
Hey guys.
4
SPEAKER_02
I just realized it s kind of a rarity.
4
SPEAKER_02
I have friends working on stuff too and they re like, I feel trapped here.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m pretty lucky that way.
4
SPEAKER_02
So that s kind of my goal is to keep working with people I like and that made me laugh
4
SPEAKER_01
You have, I mean, we ve had them on, your friends on this podcast.
4
SPEAKER_01
So if you take Andy Samberg or Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, I mean, these are like A-class nice guys.
4
SPEAKER_00
They re the best.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it s just, they re not gonna be a problem.
4
SPEAKER_00
I saw a lot of your doofy friends last night.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah?
4
SPEAKER_00
That was Mullaney, Armisen, and Hader.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think that was it.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s a good crew.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s a very good Conan.
4
SPEAKER_01
Can we talk, well, I guess we should pivot to this sort of social phenomenon.
4
SPEAKER_01
uh... that s very good social experiment duty how it s a social experiment you know i don t know if you know you ve done podcast in your book you re been talking about the movie now he has my goal is to ask you questions you haven t been asked
4
SPEAKER_01
I love James Marsden though.
4
SPEAKER_01
The guy s always good and everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
Dead to me, he was so awesome.
4
SPEAKER_02
And so funny, really funny and sharp improv skills.
4
SPEAKER_02
I mean, I knew he was funny.
4
SPEAKER_02
I knew he could hang and I knew he could do it, but just kind of took it to the next level on jury duty.
4
SPEAKER_01
Just for the five people that don t know what we re talking about, on Amazon Freezy, just put it in,
4
SPEAKER_01
There s a eight half-hour live streaming show called Jury Duty.
4
SPEAKER_01
James Marsden is the one sort of household name, although he parodies his own, playing himself.
4
SPEAKER_01
He s playing an egotistical version of himself.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they recruit a young man to come in who doesn t know, he thinks he s part of a documentary, but doesn t know that everyone is acting except him.
4
SPEAKER_01
Right.
4
SPEAKER_02
We have one non-actor in the show.
4
SPEAKER_01
One non-actor, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Out of everyone.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because you say that before every episode, there s a, you know,
4
SPEAKER_02
We were so worried, people were like, do you understand what we re doing here?
4
SPEAKER_02
Because it is kind of a mix of like, we re cutting it to kind of feel like a sitcom in a mockumentary style, like The Office or Parks and Rec that you re used to, but everyone plays it very real and tries to seem like real people, but then.
4
SPEAKER_02
we were like, are people going to know that one of these people doesn t know what s going on, hasn t seen the scripts and is a real person.
4
SPEAKER_02
So we were, there was lots of conversations about that opening text.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because immediately they have to sort of get it, or if they don t buy in, they just don t buy in and then you re fucked.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
Although weirdly, I ve had multiple people go,
4
SPEAKER_02
I didn t know until the last episode that that guy wasn t an actor.
4
SPEAKER_02
Shut the fudge up.
4
SPEAKER_02
And you re going, what are you doing during the opening credits, man?
4
SPEAKER_02
You know, it s every episode, we re telling you.
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, there s a lead in it.
4
SPEAKER_00
By the way, just in a game show, I m explaining the rules after every commercial.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m like, does anyone not get it yet?
4
SPEAKER_00
And they re like,
4
SPEAKER_00
Wait, so you get 5,000, I m like, yes, I ve told you a thousand times, but that s what happens.
4
SPEAKER_00
They go, you gotta hammer in.
4
SPEAKER_00
But obviously we re in the comedy world, so you get it.
4
SPEAKER_01
So when Wayne and Garth say schwing, is that a sexual thing or something?
4
SPEAKER_00
Do they mean to say swing?
4
SPEAKER_00
And they re saying it wrong?
4
SPEAKER_00
Jesus, mom.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Jesus, ma.
4
SPEAKER_01
Jesus, ma.
4
SPEAKER_01
But one thing I found interesting, just that, like the cast you got, all the actors, and we know Kirk Fox.
4
SPEAKER_01
Love him.
4
SPEAKER_00
Kirk Fox.
4
SPEAKER_00
I thought might be recognized.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because he s on TikTok.
4
SPEAKER_00
It became a real concern.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s on, he s at the Emperor Walk.
4
SPEAKER_01
I saw that.
4
SPEAKER_01
He s a very, it has a kind of his cadence and his voice is very Parks and Rec.
4
SPEAKER_01
I said, no mustache.
4
SPEAKER_01
I said, you got to keep your, you got to grow it out to a beard.
4
SPEAKER_02
Because you couldn t have the guy recognized, your main guy.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it was interesting because Kirk actually, that role changed kind of late.
4
SPEAKER_02
That role got changed in the writing room maybe a month before we started filming.
4
SPEAKER_02
So he was one of the last people we cast.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we had done so much work on trying to find people that wouldn t be recognizable.
4
SPEAKER_02
And when I saw Kirk, I was like,
4
SPEAKER_02
I mean, I know him, but I m in comedy.
4
SPEAKER_02
The mustache is really recognizable.
4
SPEAKER_02
Maybe we can get around it.
4
SPEAKER_02
But we kind of didn t do our due diligence because he was one of the last people we cast.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then on like day two of filming, Ronald, the guy who doesn t know what s going on,
4
SPEAKER_02
He tells James Marsden, I just love Parks and Rec.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s one of my favorite shows.
4
SPEAKER_02
And Kirk Fox has been on Parks and Rec a bunch.
4
SPEAKER_02
So we immediately changed where everyone was sitting and tried to keep Kirk off to the side so he wouldn t be in direct eye line.
4
SPEAKER_02
And he never put it together, but I was like, even in court, when they re sitting there for four hours, we can t have him just...
4
SPEAKER_00
Daydreaming, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it became a huge concern that we were going to blow it just with Kirk Fox.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love, I thought Kirk Fox too.
4
SPEAKER_00
I said, the other ones might be good actors.
4
SPEAKER_00
I just, I m not familiar.
4
SPEAKER_00
Recognize them.
4
SPEAKER_00
Cause everyone, you know who else is really good?
4
SPEAKER_00
Am I rushing?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, no.
4
SPEAKER_00
We have, we have, I love to talk about this.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because the premise of, so everyone s in, there s a jury case about, what is it about?
4
SPEAKER_00
Malpractice, it s just a sort of random, boring, and there s some dirtball that s defending, I guess.
4
SPEAKER_00
Anyway, so he gets put in jury duty.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s always funny when they give their excuses, because a lot of people don t, you know, they re all mic d, so they re trying to whisper to each other, I don t want to be in this, what am I going to say?
4
SPEAKER_00
The fucking guy that says I m a racist is one of the biggest laughs.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s so gold.
4
SPEAKER_00
Do you remember that part?
4
SPEAKER_00
He goes, they go, why can t you be this?
4
SPEAKER_00
He goes, blah, blah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think he wants to see his girlfriend.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then they don t, they say no.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then he just goes, I m also racist.
4
SPEAKER_01
Let me ask you a question, Jake.
4
SPEAKER_01
Have you ever been called for jury duty and gotten out of it by being clever?
4
SPEAKER_01
Cause I did.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, what d you do?
4
SPEAKER_01
It was something about a cop doing something mean to somebody and they were just interviewing me.
4
SPEAKER_01
I got up to the box and got interviewed.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I said, well, we ve all had experiences with police being a little aggressive and they can get out of here.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, that s all you had to say?
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was pretty much that fast.
4
SPEAKER_00
I say I can tell someone s guilty when I look at them.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And they go, oh, okay, good.
4
SPEAKER_00
I go, that might help here.
4
SPEAKER_02
We had to work with a lot of lawyers prepping for jury duty.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I heard that actually so many people want to get out of jury duty.
4
SPEAKER_02
Everyone s trying to get out.
4
SPEAKER_02
Right.
4
SPEAKER_02
That one of the best ways to get out is actually to be really into jury duty.
4
SPEAKER_02
Like, oh, I can t wait to get in there.
4
SPEAKER_00
Dude, yeah, I know, I know who s guilty right away.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m the guy who s going to tell you what s up.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m ready to be honest.
4
SPEAKER_00
Put me on.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, the know-it-all.
4
SPEAKER_00
I know-it-all.
4
SPEAKER_02
Get rid of this guy.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah, that s great.
4
SPEAKER_00
They don t want anyone, any angle at all.
4
SPEAKER_00
Just blasé.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Just so that our listeners understand this.
4
SPEAKER_01
So Jake is directing and you have your producers and you re in a control room somewhere and you re watching this on a bunch of cameras and you have Ronald, the non-actor, and the whole premise is ruined if he ever just goes,
4
SPEAKER_01
Fuck you all.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m on camera.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is too weird.
4
SPEAKER_01
What is this?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
So you re terrified the entire three weeks thinking all this work.
4
SPEAKER_02
It was so stressful.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it wasn t like things would be going well and you d still be so stressed that tomorrow is going to fall apart.
4
SPEAKER_02
In fact, the closer you got to the end, the more stressed you were because you were like, we only have five days left.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh my God, if it falls apart now, we don t have a show.
4
SPEAKER_02
So like the better it went, the more stressful it was somehow.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s the only experience I ve ever had.
4
SPEAKER_00
Do you remember this part?
4
SPEAKER_00
Of course you do.
4
SPEAKER_00
Do you remember one time?
4
SPEAKER_00
The bailiff calls the juror by her real name, Cassandra.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I think she says it twice.
4
SPEAKER_00
And who of all fucking people hears it but Ronald?
4
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, she just called her, she just said Cassandra.
4
SPEAKER_00
There s no Cassandra.
4
SPEAKER_02
We were like, it s over.
4
SPEAKER_00
The other guy was cool.
4
SPEAKER_00
He goes, there s no Cassandra.
4
SPEAKER_00
What are they talking about?
4
SPEAKER_01
The way you stacked it, like it was like boiling a frog.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s an analogy.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was like boiling a frog.
4
SPEAKER_01
It got more and more absurd.
4
SPEAKER_01
When the guy was on testifying about,
4
SPEAKER_01
masturbating in a theater to the science fiction.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then the other actors are going to Ronald, the non-actor, going, that s not even sexy.
4
SPEAKER_01
That move, I would never.
4
SPEAKER_01
So a lot of this, it s just the theater of absurd kept ratcheting up.
4
SPEAKER_02
But it was true.
4
SPEAKER_02
It was little by little.
4
SPEAKER_02
And actually the biggest worry I had,
4
SPEAKER_02
doing it was, because at the end of the day, I was into the experiment of it, right?
4
SPEAKER_02
Like, can we pull this off and can we do it in a positive way for this guy?
4
SPEAKER_02
But also, then there s a part of me that s like, but it s also got to be funny.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it was actually those first days where you re not trying to push it too much because you don t want to scare him off.
4
SPEAKER_02
But you re still trying to go like, but where are our laughs?
4
SPEAKER_02
Where s our jokes?
4
SPEAKER_02
So I think those first two episodes, those first couple of days were the toughest, were the most like, well, we made it through, but did we get enough laughs?
4
SPEAKER_02
And thankfully it was, I think, as long as the audience is on board, and that s why we were so concerned about like,
4
SPEAKER_02
do you know what s going on right away?
4
SPEAKER_02
He s a real person.
4
SPEAKER_02
Everyone else is an actor.
4
SPEAKER_02
I d like to explain that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Cause as soon as you re on board with that, even the little moments, people are invested and they can be laughed.
4
SPEAKER_02
And so that was like a pleasant surprise.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know what?
4
SPEAKER_00
The first thing that Dan, this is one of the, not the first, but this is one of the ones that really benefited from TikTok and clips and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
TikTok blew it up.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because TikTok, the first one I saw was the actress who you
5
SPEAKER_00
I know her name, but I can t remember it.
5
SPEAKER_00
You ll tell me in a second.
5
SPEAKER_00
She was the brand ambassador.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, Lisa Gilroy.
5
SPEAKER_00
Amazing.
5
SPEAKER_00
And she was fucking hysterical.
5
SPEAKER_00
And everyone was like, is this a real person?
5
SPEAKER_00
And they show her a whole speech on TikTok.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s very funny.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that got me to go, what is that?
5
SPEAKER_00
And how long was it on TikTok?
5
SPEAKER_00
What was the length?
5
SPEAKER_02
Well, what happened was the weekend we came out, people started recording their laptop screens and uploading it to TikTok.
5
SPEAKER_02
We didn t do, we didn t put it on TikTok.
5
SPEAKER_01
So it was very organic.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then, so people were like, I can t believe the show and uploading it.
5
SPEAKER_02
We had a call the following Monday, like, how s it doing?
5
SPEAKER_02
And the marketing team was like, well, it blew up on TikTok.
5
SPEAKER_02
Like the video clips got 50 million views this weekend.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then it just exploded from there.
5
SPEAKER_02
I think it got like over half a billion video views.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then people would tell people.
5
SPEAKER_02
That s my favorite part actually is going like, oh, how did you hear about it?
5
SPEAKER_02
Because it was not a marketing campaign that anyone heard about it.
5
SPEAKER_02
It was all word of mouth, which is so fun.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I ve never been a part of anything like it.
5
SPEAKER_01
If the audience just doesn t feel pushed toward it,
5
SPEAKER_01
At least the initial audience got to discover it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I had people telling me, this woman who cuts my hair, it s a super cool show, you gotta watch this show.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, Rosie told me about it.
5
SPEAKER_00
She watched the whole thing when she saw it.
5
SPEAKER_02
I had a friend from high school let me know, she was like, hey, my mom group was telling me about this show I gotta watch, and I remember you posting something about it maybe, so if you were involved in that, congrats.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I was like, oh, if we made it to mom groups in Illinois, we re doing okay.
5
SPEAKER_02
I had not experienced something like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
Can I just wanna, I m sure you ve talked about this in interviews and stuff, but it felt like when I was watching it, the first time I thought, okay, they ve gone too far.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that was the guy with the chair pants.
5
SPEAKER_01
Chair pants.
5
SPEAKER_01
Chair pants.
5
SPEAKER_01
Huge swing.
5
SPEAKER_01
David, who plays Todd.
5
SPEAKER_01
David Brown, genius.
5
SPEAKER_01
They re all so brilliant.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, everyone is so-
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, our entire cast, please, let s give them all the jobs ever in this town.
5
SPEAKER_02
They re so talented.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do you know their names and their character names?
5
SPEAKER_01
Because it s a big cast, you know?
5
SPEAKER_02
It s very hard.
5
SPEAKER_02
Well, you know, to be honest with you, we went character name only while filming.
5
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_02
Because we didn t want to confuse and have someone slip, you know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_02
So, the first name I often think of is the character name, because for months, we ve only spoken- He played Genie.
5
SPEAKER_01
Ron played Ken.
5
SPEAKER_01
These are good notes.
5
SPEAKER_01
I read some down.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was worried because when I started watching, I m like, don t swing too hard.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was like, don t fuck this up.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because if someone fell off the ladder, remember that?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Do you remember?
5
SPEAKER_01
Did you see chair pants?
5
SPEAKER_00
I didn t get the chair pants.
5
SPEAKER_01
So the guy comes in, there weren t gonna be enough chairs.
5
SPEAKER_02
David s seen the trailer for the show.
5
SPEAKER_01
No, but he attaches these.
5
SPEAKER_01
I saw a super long TikTok.
5
SPEAKER_01
These things, how do you describe them?
5
SPEAKER_02
Might ve been three minutes.
5
SPEAKER_02
He basically strapped some crutches to his butt and said, this is my exoskeleton and I can sit anywhere now.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then he tried to bring it into, and that was another day where you re like, okay, this could all go away today.
5
SPEAKER_00
Let s see how it goes.
5
SPEAKER_00
It wasn t that burnout that looks like me that was his next door neighbor.
5
SPEAKER_00
They got the blonde hair.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yes, yes, yes, him.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, he played it so real.
5
SPEAKER_00
He was supposed to scare him.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he was set up as an eccentric.
5
SPEAKER_02
He was supposed to make him uncomfortable at first, but Ronald just welcomed him right away.
5
SPEAKER_02
In fact, Chair Pants, the day he- Chair Pants.
5
SPEAKER_02
The day he- When we shot Pants.
5
SPEAKER_02
Displayed the chance, as we call them.
5
SPEAKER_02
Ronald just walked right by him, didn t even say anything.
5
SPEAKER_02
Just like, cool, yep, sitting on crutches.
5
SPEAKER_02
And no reaction.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we re like, do we have to push Chair Pants more?
5
SPEAKER_02
Whoa, he kept surprising us in that way.
5
SPEAKER_02
The one bit we had is we were actually ready.
5
SPEAKER_02
This is an example of how we pulled back to not blow it.
5
SPEAKER_02
On SharePants Day, he s in court and then the judge starts yelling at him.
5
SPEAKER_02
What are you wearing?
5
SPEAKER_02
Why can t you sit down?
5
SPEAKER_02
You got to sit down in the juror box.
5
SPEAKER_02
So that helped.
5
SPEAKER_02
That helped, but what we had ready was we were going to have the judge go like,
5
SPEAKER_02
Would you say this is a medical device?
5
SPEAKER_02
Do you need this?
5
SPEAKER_02
And he was going to kind of go, well, yeah, technically it s for my body.
5
SPEAKER_02
And he was going to go, well, I can t argue with that.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we had a maintenance guy ready with a wrench to come in and remove a juror chair from the box and remove the chair so he could sit in chair pants all day.
5
SPEAKER_02
And literally we re watching going, I think we re pushing it too far.
5
SPEAKER_02
Like.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s getting a little, like, pull back, pull back.
5
SPEAKER_02
No.
5
SPEAKER_02
So, you know, that s kind of like on the fly, we would decide how far to push it, be watching his reactions and then go, okay, nevermind.
5
SPEAKER_02
Don t, don t go to that level.
5
SPEAKER_01
Did you or any of your co-producers ever go nose to nose in the control room?
5
SPEAKER_01
You are going to fuck this project up, mister.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, did anything ever get that, or did you sort of all agree?
5
SPEAKER_02
No, we had such a good team and, you know, we were all in the writer s room and producing it together.
5
SPEAKER_02
It was a long journey.
5
SPEAKER_02
The people that were there, Cody Heller, our showrunner, Nick Hatten, our producer, and Andrew Weinberg, one of our writers and executive producers, it was kind of like us four every day in that control room.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we had all been prepping it in the writer s room as well.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so we were kind of on the same page, and luckily, no, it never got to that.
5
SPEAKER_02
If anything, it was pull back, pull back, and we d all kind of pull back, because we were so nervous about losing it.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then when someone would go like, maybe we pushed it a little bit?
5
SPEAKER_00
And you re like, okay, okay, push it a little bit.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay, you have your top,
5
SPEAKER_01
one, two, or three most pushed.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, maybe it was the jumping on the bed sex.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think, yeah, you re kind of covering it.
5
SPEAKER_02
Chair pants I think was a huge push.
5
SPEAKER_02
Chair pants, CP.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then what do you call that thing?
5
SPEAKER_02
Soaking, soaking.
5
SPEAKER_02
Soaking, all right.
5
SPEAKER_02
Trying to get the Mormon sex rumor of soaking.
5
SPEAKER_01
So James Marzun would jump up and down the bed at a certain cadence.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, will you please come?
5
SPEAKER_01
So that he wouldn t be responsible for his own orgasm, kind of?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think there was something going around Twitter at the time saying.
5
SPEAKER_02
Too much.
5
SPEAKER_02
Or not enough.
5
SPEAKER_02
If the car s in the garage, I m not technically having sex if someone else is putting the motion in there, you know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_02
And so we played that in front of Ronald, our guy.
5
SPEAKER_02
And again, he s just the sweetest guy.
5
SPEAKER_02
He doesn t want to call someone out and be a jerk, you know?
5
SPEAKER_02
What we realized actually is we were so worried about pushing it.
5
SPEAKER_02
We realized afterwards that after day three or four, we actually could have gone way harder because you get to a point
5
SPEAKER_02
where for someone to go, wait, this isn t real, they would have to think back and go, that means the last week of my life wasn t real?
5
SPEAKER_02
And these are actors, that is such a foreign thought.
5
SPEAKER_02
Unless you re actually a psychopath or a narcissist, you can t have that thought.
5
SPEAKER_02
So the idea that we re picking a nice guy, a normal guy, we realized, oh, it would have been so hard for him after a certain amount of days to realize what we were doing.
5
SPEAKER_02
We maybe could have gone harder.
5
SPEAKER_00
Dude, I hate that.
5
SPEAKER_00
I got punked once.
5
SPEAKER_00
And when everyone in the place applauded,
5
SPEAKER_00
It made me sick.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was like Truman Show.
5
SPEAKER_00
like floating going, there s no, so everyone just tricked me.
5
SPEAKER_00
I felt, I don t like pranks like that.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was like horrified by it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that made me feel like when you see on Instagram and someone is, they re usually like mean pranks.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, you throw a baseball in a guy s face at a store and then you go, hey, who threw that?
5
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, well, that s just to make this guy look like an asshole and you look cool.
5
SPEAKER_00
So those drive me nuts.
5
SPEAKER_00
But this one was so elaborate and so far, I wonder if he s,
5
SPEAKER_00
if he ever just thinks, that s so weird.
5
SPEAKER_01
He must just- Well, I wrote this down, episode five.
5
SPEAKER_01
There s a couple of times where Ronald is just standing there going, crazy stuff just keeps happening.
5
SPEAKER_00
Crazy stuff keeps happening.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you guys are all tight in the booth going, no, no, don t figure it out.
5
SPEAKER_01
Shh, let s go to complete silence.
5
SPEAKER_02
though he couldn t possibly hear you where you were, obviously.
5
SPEAKER_02
No, but I mean, we would, we d be nervous.
5
SPEAKER_02
We were in a courtroom.
5
SPEAKER_00
Where s the booth?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
So we found an old courthouse that was decommissioned, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
To shoot in and for budget cuts.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so there was courtroom number three was where the actual case was happening.
5
SPEAKER_02
Courtroom number one was what we made into the jury holding area.
5
SPEAKER_02
And the booth was courtroom number two.
5
SPEAKER_02
So we were right in between the actual courtroom and where they all waited.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so we were very,
5
SPEAKER_02
Quiet a lot of times trying not to laugh and actors would say I m gonna use a bathroom and then they go into a video village Basically, they got their phones when they re in their own rooms and Ronald doesn t have yes They re texting each other and I have earbuds in with some of the actors so they can hear me live and and we re giving them No, he s talking.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah
5
SPEAKER_01
So one thing that made me laugh, this is kind of dry, but James Marsden playing a parody of a clueless movie star, Michelle, and his whole time he s working on a film.
5
SPEAKER_01
He wants to tell everyone, so.
5
SPEAKER_01
Lone Pine.
5
SPEAKER_01
Lone Pine is such a perfect, funny.
5
SPEAKER_01
Could be real, but ridiculous name.
5
SPEAKER_01
That must make you laugh every time.
5
SPEAKER_01
You must laugh every time.
5
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
5
SPEAKER_01
Lone Pine, we re working on Lone Pine.
5
SPEAKER_00
Was he hinting that it was like a big director?
5
SPEAKER_01
Probably.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
That was fun in the writer s room.
5
SPEAKER_02
They got to play around with that and write fake scenes for that.
5
SPEAKER_02
Because I mean, the other thing about our show, obviously the actors do so much improvising, but I mean, 80, 90% of what you see in the show was scripted.
5
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_02
And it was just about how to get there.
5
SPEAKER_02
How do we get to these lines that you can say?
5
SPEAKER_01
Come on my shoulder was scripted?
5
SPEAKER_02
Uh, maybe she threw that.
5
SPEAKER_01
Is it such an abstract thing?
5
SPEAKER_01
The guy walks by him.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a testimonial to the camera.
5
SPEAKER_01
And she s talking about her plans with Ronald.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh no, not with Ronald.
5
SPEAKER_01
To corrupt Noah.
5
SPEAKER_01
To corrupt Noah, yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna let him cry on my shoulder maybe.
5
SPEAKER_01
Who played Noah?
5
SPEAKER_01
That guy was great too.
5
SPEAKER_02
Mickey Lepper, he s nominated for one of our Emmys for writing one of the episodes.
5
SPEAKER_02
He was one of our writers as well.
5
SPEAKER_02
So he that was great because he was in the room and fully understood that like he was you know, he s basically a producer level
6
SPEAKER_02
person in there because he knew all the background.
6
SPEAKER_02
He knew all the bits we cut.
6
SPEAKER_02
He could go back to something so easily.
6
SPEAKER_02
And he s just a really funny standup as well.
6
SPEAKER_01
And who are you nominated against for the Emmy?
6
SPEAKER_01
Like, is there another show like it out there, but you re nominated against Ted Lasso or something?
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, Ted Lasso, a lot of great shows.
6
SPEAKER_02
Maisel, Lasso, The Bear, which is obviously great.
6
SPEAKER_02
We did not expect to get, I mean, you know, we made this tiny little show that s a crazy experiment and we did not expect to get nominated.
6
SPEAKER_02
It feels pretty nice, but yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
Who was the guy who went to the bathroom?
6
SPEAKER_00
Did he say he s gonna go whack off?
6
SPEAKER_00
touch someone s shoulder, you just want to walk off.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then the other one that really was stretching is apparently Marsden pooed very aggressively in a bathroom.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then the guy came in to fix it.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then your hero, Ronald, took the blame.
6
SPEAKER_01
So it was me, because Marsden said, look, it would get out in the tabloids, it wouldn t look good.
6
SPEAKER_00
The tabloids.
6
SPEAKER_00
Saying the tabloids would publish a photo of this shit.
6
SPEAKER_00
Normal people think that paparazzi would do that.
6
SPEAKER_01
Do you finish that scene and go, okay, that s a wrap for today, people.
6
SPEAKER_02
To be honest, that was one of the ones that I was like, should we do this?
6
SPEAKER_02
Because we could blow it.
6
SPEAKER_02
Because if Ronald, being a nice guy, tries to get in there and fix it, I ll incline, you know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_02
Then he ll know it s not real.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, because that was actually one of the biggest things for our show compared to a typical show or movie is like,
6
SPEAKER_02
we didn t have to be camera real.
6
SPEAKER_02
You know, like you re on set for a normal TV show or movie, you might, you know, the wall might be styrofoam or something.
6
SPEAKER_02
It doesn t matter as long as it looks right on camera.
6
SPEAKER_02
But we had to be reality real for this guy who had to believe everything was real life.
6
SPEAKER_02
It was a whole other element of difficulty for the crew.
6
SPEAKER_00
And he walked into the booth and he looks around when it s over.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then he sees like the back of sets.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s so fake looking.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
Oh my, his whole world is like spinning.
6
SPEAKER_01
It took him a long time, I think, to fully process, as it would anyone, what would happen, but- And that nerve wrack of that maybe he would get upset or something would be- And we were all in love with him by the point, you know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_02
So we re like, we really hope
6
SPEAKER_02
we don t like just hurt him, you know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_02
But the relationships are real.
6
SPEAKER_02
Like he really did, he s friends with everyone.
6
SPEAKER_02
I was just talking to him yesterday.
6
SPEAKER_02
We all keep in touch.
6
SPEAKER_02
He s a great guy, great head on our shoulders.
6
SPEAKER_02
That s why he s so good in the show.
6
SPEAKER_02
What was his job?
6
SPEAKER_02
He had just sold his business.
6
SPEAKER_02
He was like a solar contractor, solar.
6
SPEAKER_02
He was working with like a solar panel cleaning system, I think.
6
SPEAKER_02
And he had sold that, and this speaks to his character.
6
SPEAKER_02
And he was kind of between jobs.
6
SPEAKER_02
He had just sold his business and he was like,
6
SPEAKER_02
wow, what are some life experiences I could do that I won t have time for again once I start working again?
6
SPEAKER_02
And he found this ad on Craigslist that said, if you ve never served jury duty before, and you d like to be part in an interesting documentary, this could be for you.
6
SPEAKER_02
And he signed up.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I think it s like, that s part of who we re looking for, someone to say yes to things.
6
SPEAKER_02
You know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_00
And that s, and so- And he also doesn t want to ruffle feathers, and he wants to come in and be good.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_01
That helped too, that he thinks he s in a documentary.
6
SPEAKER_01
So he s already used the cameras being around.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_01
He thought there was like a five person crew.
6
SPEAKER_02
He didn t see the other eight of us.
6
SPEAKER_02
He saw a very small PBS European serious documentary.
6
SPEAKER_02
In fact, I don t think it s in the final episode.
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After we wrapped and I finally went out and met him and we were all talking with him and I was doing his final exit interview.
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And he goes, can I give you guys one suggestion?
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And we go, yeah.
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He goes, because we d explained like you were kind of the moral compass and we wanted to do this live play of crazy characters and situations around you.
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And he goes, Oh, that s really nice.
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You guys.
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And, um, can I give you one suggestion?
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If you were going to cut this together, I just want to say, there s a lot of funny things that happen.
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Maybe you could make it a comedy.
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And we were, and we were like, yeah.
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Oh yeah.
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Sorry.
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That s most of the boring stuff.
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Won t be in there.
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You know what I mean?
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We were gearing towards that.
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But he s just like, you know, that s who he is.
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Just a sweetheart going, I was laughing a lot during some stuff when I would get home at night.
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You should look at that stuff.
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You know what I mean?
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Yeah, it s interesting because earnestness, going full circle to that word that I think is part of his charm, it s not to do with being a pushover.
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It s not to do with being not very bright.
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It s just this,
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spectrum of his personality that is so sincere and also always thinking of the best.
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Because you can t help but think, God, if I was in this situation, would I do that?
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Every time something happened to someone, he basically spun it positive.
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He is such, because he s a very smart guy.
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Ronald is just a very decent guy and he gives people the benefit of the doubt.
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And that s what we were looking for.
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But he was even better than we could have hoped.
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What if he got mad at the end?
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Oh, we were truly terrified of it.
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In fact, you asked what the craziest things we were worried about was?
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The reveal became the most terrifying because we had gotten through all the big set pieces and then we were like, now we gotta tell him.
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Like there was part of us like, maybe we should just go a couple more days.
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We don t want it.
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We were so nervous about telling him.
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That actually became the most scared we were about doing it in the wrong way, telling me in a way that would upset him.
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The judge was being very ginger about it.
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Yes.
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He did a good job.
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We had a long speech.
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We cut it down in the show, but we really, let s lay this out for you.
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Let s do it bit by bit.
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And we really had to.
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And then what got me, and I guess what gets people, meaning kind of teary, is when the judge says, you ve done this and this and this and this, and you are our hero.
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And then here s a hundred thousand.
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Yeah.
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I mean, that was kind of nice.
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I was like, give this guy something.
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Yes.
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But I mean.
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A little sugar helps the medicine.
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The emotion of that moment, because he was, I guess he was blushing and just,
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So stunned.
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Well, we were so worried, is he gonna, is he gonna be upset?
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Is he gonna be happy?
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Is he gonna scream?
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And it s like, no, the reality of someone telling you, hey, every person you ve interacted with for the last three weeks has been an actor.
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Stunned.
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You just have to think about that.
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What does that mean?
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That is not a normal thing to react to.
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Yeah, you re processing so much.
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Because in normal, like, hidden camera shows, you maybe push someone for like two hours, three hours, and go, hey, just kidding, there s a camera here.
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You immediately go, oh, okay, the last two hours were crazy.
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He could feel deceived.
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He could feel like, it was probably a lot of emotions, but the 100 grand helps.
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It helps.
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But a lot of the conversations behind the scenes between the producers was, how do we do this in an okay way?
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And do you think, one thing I found interesting, because everyone was so great.
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Love them.
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It was scripted, but also they had to, when they were around Ronald, be listening and be in the moment in case they had to adjust.
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Yes.
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So it created this hyperacting.
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Yeah, I always tell people, like, if someone came in here, oh, FedEx guy s coming here.
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I don t want to see him anymore.
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We would all go, let s just tell him we re real busy.
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We re going to do another hour.
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We d all act perfectly, probably, because we wouldn t be trying.
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We d be like, oh, no, we re just going to be here for, so just put it, you know, so that, yeah, that, whatever that magic is, it didn t seem like real.
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It was next level kind of acting.
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They re all amazing.
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They had, that was the toughest part of casting was, and shout out to Susie Ferris, our amazing casting director, but we had to find people that were,
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that wouldn t break, strong enough to not break, good enough at improv, good enough at choosing their moments, because we d say, you ve got to get to this joke, you ve got to get to this line, but we don t know exactly when it ll happen, so you ve got to choose the right moment to jump in, and be that good, but not have already been a serious regular on a show that he could recognize you from or something.
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Don t push it.
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Yeah, exactly, don t push it.
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You get someone to push you,
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write them in less because you get scared.
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And that was our, our callback process was really fun.
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Cause basically to test people, we went to a real focus group center where people, you know, get paid a hundred bucks to come in and give your opinion on something.
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We brought in actors that we, that we were excited about and we brought in real people and every group was five actors and five real people.
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And the five actors didn t know who the other actors were, if they didn t know each other.
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And we, I gave them a character and a goal and jokes to make.
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And then it was, let s see how they do.
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with real people and do they know when to jump in?
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Do they know how to push it without breaking it?
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And we needed that for sure to be able to pick the right cast.
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And it shows you just, you know, not to go back to the strike or anything, but you know, talent meets opportunity.
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And so any of those people could go anywhere they want to go.
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It s just, it s very hard to get a break as an actor in Hollywood and become known and then have leverage and make a really good living.
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It s so rare.
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Yes.
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And just to see that,
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brilliant level of performance with all these people that I didn t know who they were.
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I m so proud of all of them.
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I really am.
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They re amazing.
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And so good on you to foster that.
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They must love you.
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Good job on this.
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Thank you for talking to us.
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Do you have anything else you want to tell this story?
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No, I just wanted to shout out to Ronald Gladden that, you know, it s documentable that you are a very good person.
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Yes.
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He s the best.
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And that s nice to have it on film.
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If you have kids later and they think dad s a jerk, look at this.
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I didn t even break.
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So it s a next level revolutionary project.
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I don t know how someone tries to do this again anytime soon.
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I don t either.
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It s so unique in the form of candid camera or the whole heritage of hidden cameras.
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You guys took it to a whole nother level.
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You can do it.
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It s tricky, but it is trickier the second time.
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Yeah, I think we ll have to find a new setting.
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Yeah.
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But everyone wants to sign up to do a show.
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Jake Zemanski has been our guest today.
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David Spade has been David Spade.
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Thanks for coming into the dungeon.
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Thanks for having me in, guys.
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I appreciate it.
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enjoyed it Jerry duty everyone this has been a podcast presentation of cadence 13 please listen then rate review and follow all episodes available now for free wherever you get your podcast no joke folks
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Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment.
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The show s lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.