Nick Offerman the Humorist

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As far as turning on my wife, we've been together for 25 years and we actually

have yet to consummate our relationship.

And they just always have it playing.

So I meet a lot lot of kids these days that say, oh God, I've seen Parks and Rec seven or eight times through.

To which I say, let me recommend some books to you.

You do a ton of blow and then dump out a jigsaw puzzle.

And you go 72 hours.

Sit down on a big butt plug.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Nick Offerman, David.

Nick Offerman

was a good time.

This guy I see out and about here and there.

He's a great guy married to Megan Malali.

So I see them together

sometimes.

I met the show.

She was on Will and Grace.

Will and Grace?

Hilarious.

He has a book.

He's got a book called, is it Little Woodchucks?

Little Woodchucks.

He's quite the carpenter.

And that's a, we talk about that a lot.

You don't really meet show folk too much that can like, he thinks all Americans should be able to just build a chair or build a table

and don't be intimidated.

So little

bridge is a way to introduce carpentry to your kids and to dysfunctional adults as well.

Yeah, big movie called Sovereign right now out.

So

I saw the trailer.

I didn't see the whole movie.

The trailer looks pretty riveting.

It's not like a goofy comedy,

but he's very good in it.

And

also, you know him from Wear the Millers, you know him from Parks and Wreck.

He's done a ton of things.

Everyone knows who this guy is.

Yeah, and and he does stand-up.

He doesn't really call it stand-up, but he also, that's another gear we talk about.

He plays guitar and he's sort of folksy up there.

He's been

on the scene for quite a while now, but

he's extremely humble about it.

He really works a lot.

He's very humble.

He's got a great voice.

Must be doing a lot of voiceovers.

His voice and his look.

It's like, that's Nick Offerman.

Yeah, good dude.

And here he is.

Have a good time with it.

I did not expect this.

I did not expect this.

I thought it was John Hamm, but I'm so thrilled that our guest today,

Sean Ham.

Damn.

You grow a great mustache.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Geez, this voice, this guy does voiceovers for breakfast.

Yeti microphone.

I'm making

if everybody's happy on our technical side.

We'll give you a quick 20 minutes to figure this out.

Now I have you in my cans, which is

your cans is like what Don Buardo used to call headphones.

Something we say in filmmaking.

The cans.

Let me ask you a question right off the bat.

Technical stuff like this and setting up electronics and that stuff and solving all that compared to carpentry, which is harder.

For you.

For me, it's tech shit.

That's what I thought.

I'm a pragmatist.

And so in our house, like, and Megan, my wife and I do a lot of cartoons and whatnot.

And so we had to set up a studio in our house.

Oh, for voices.

Yeah.

And so

I master everything just to the extent that I need to,

which is annoying because, as you know, the systems change every seven weeks.

Like as soon as you master your operating system,

they update it.

yeah they should have instead of geek squad it should be called tech shit

call us for your tech shit because it's true i you write the book that's why we write the book every two weeks though is the problem that's right did you do a cartoon during the pandemic at from home i did sure i mean i think sure i think everybody uh

did and started a podcast um we megan does bob's burgers and uh oh yeah we both did a show called the great north that was written by a couple of Bob Sperger's writers, the Molino sisters.

And I do like audio books and

some voiceover work.

So we've got a cute little setup.

It seems like you do a couple of hours a day.

No, I have a question about that.

I'm going to back up.

I am.

I want to tell my story about Qatar stands and blankets when you're finished.

I want to tell about Great White North.

I think I did a demo track for that.

Was that in an airplane or something at the beginning of this pilot?

Were you on it for a long time or was it on a show that was on a long time?

We just finished five seasons and that's

the end.

That's the end of it.

Fox has thrown us in the dumpster.

Okay, so I didn't get it.

It doesn't look like it's going to work out.

Dana, I didn't know for five seasons if I got that thing.

You waited and waited.

Yeah, they sent it to me.

I literally

did.

Okay, thank you.

They are checking your avails, I think.

I was in Hotel Transylvania and you were in Hotel Transylvania.

How is your team?

I noticed, I was reading yesterday what team is looking into.

You know, we do a podcast and guests.

Team is advising.

Team is working hard on Nick's team.

When did team come in?

You have a team.

I have a team.

Everyone has a team.

You don't have employees.

You don't have an agent or manager or lawyer.

You have a team.

You have a team.

Yeah,

I've got a shooting forward who sets up my podcast appearances.

She's terrific.

She's a greater rebounder as well.

Defensive, offensive, rebounder?

Are we talking about basketball?

Yeah, both ends, man.

She does it all.

Oh, she does it all.

All right.

Both ends does it all.

We don't know where to start.

I mean, we

presume there's too much.

Author,

carpenter, actor, stand-up.

And the two things I noticed, you have Little Woodchucks

is is kind of your latest book.

That's right.

I saw it on X.

And also this movie, Sovereign, which has a 90% of rotten tomatoes.

It's yeah, it's fantastic.

And

it's a hilarious pairing because the book is really fun and positive and lighthearted.

And

my trip is I encourage people to make things with their hands.

Like that's that's my Johnny Appleseed mission.

And then the indie movie Sovereign, which is so exquisite.

Despite my participation, this guy named Christian Swiegel wrote and directed it.

It's a story of

a sovereign citizen, which is kind of like a QAnon conspiracy theorist, inspired by a true story.

It's a terribly tragic thing.

It's powerfully moving.

People are just crazy about it, but they're at the exact opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.

That trailer for Sovereign was heavy duty.

I just saw it.

It's pretty wild.

A kid named Jacob Tremblay from Canada and then another kid named Dennis Quaid who is

I think he's going to do big things.

Is Jacob Tremblay?

He was in a movie I saw.

He's a good kid.

Is he your son in it?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I didn't recognize him.

Okay.

Man, he will just break your heart.

He's just incredible in in it.

You're sort of a tough dad in it.

Yeah.

I am tough but loving.

Yeah.

Part of the theme of that film

is how fathers raise their sons and how that might contribute to violence in our country in our modern day.

So

me and my son, and then Dennis Quaid has a son who's on the police force.

And then

the great Thomas Mann plays him.

And then he has a baby.

And so they all, everybody weighs in on how you should raise your sons.

Right.

And the way the movie turns out, you're like, well, maybe don't go that route.

Yeah.

Sure.

Because

the sense of modern masculinity often leads to hate and violence, which I say is a thumbs down.

I'd say that's the message of the movie.

Right.

Do you think

what's a bigger turn on?

Being a movie star, killing it, stand up for your wife, or you fixing something or finishing your canoe or building with your hands?

Because that's, I didn't get that gene.

I don't do it.

I'll probably get this book because I think it'd be interesting to try to build a table.

But what is the biggest turn on for your wife when she sees you doing something?

Okay, that's thank you.

That's a great question.

Okay.

I'm going to start by saying,

I think I hope you will get this book and read it.

It's a a short read, and I think it's really funny.

I think you guys would love the, there's a subversive sense of humor where it's like written for parents to read to their kids, but it's got a hard-boiled sensibility.

So I'm like, all right, kids,

are your parents, do your parents, can they find their ass with both hands?

Like, do they, are they feeding you okay?

And

there's a conspiratorial piratical sense of like, let's get together and learn how to keep making our homes together and not let AI take over our lives.

So I do think you guys would find it funny.

And as far as turning on my wife, we've been together for 25 years and we actually

have yet to consummate our relationship.

On Tuesdays, I'm allowed in the house for dinner.

And so

you live in a doghouse or whatever?

I stay in the yard.

I mean, listen, she runs a tight ship.

We're in Bel Air.

It's nice.

Yeah.

You know what?

I honestly,

I have to think about that.

What is a bigger turn on for her?

I think probably, you know, we both went to like theater school.

Well, that's not true.

I went to theater school.

She went to

Northwestern and did theater.

But she was an English major and was quickly plucked out of school.

And for your listeners that don't know, it's Megan Malally from Will and Grace and Parker.

Malally is the pronounced.

Super talent,

just legendary, hilarious, lot of fun, legendary, funny sweetheart too.

Most recently of the Righteous Gemstones.

And she has an amazing band called Nancy and Beth that'll knock your socks off.

So I feel like for both of us, like even though we're lucky enough to get to work in a few different circuses, what we really want to do is like

medicinally affect an audience with acting work.

And so, probably like my work in Sovereign

has been accused of being affecting.

And so, I think something like that probably thrills her more than when I build a canoe.

Right.

Ah, okay.

So, when you're being, I was just curious as an actor, is it

obviously it depends on the director who's on the set, what's going on, but what do you, what are you, when are you most excited to play something?

Is something really scares the hell out of you?

Anger, because you're kind of, you're, you're sort of a contradiction.

You can play the alpha male, you know, but you also can play really vulnerable.

Well, I've just observed this.

You know, thank you.

Thanks, Lucky.

In my Bronson voice.

Or is there anything you haven't done, you know, in terms of acting that would turn you on?

The way I pick jobs and I'm so

stupidly lucky to even get to say say the sentence when I pick jobs as an actor

that I have a choice.

It absolutely just has to do with the writing.

And so

I'm never looking for like, okay, next up, I want to do a Western or I want to do a play or a comedy.

It's just

what organically comes my way.

I'm looking forward to your Western, David.

I go, the next script that comes along is what I'm looking for.

You're

a hilarious shot.

He's no horseman.

He's remaking the apple dumpling game.

Tim Conway.

That's a brilliant idea, actually.

Yeah.

That actually is a great idea.

Was Barney Fife in that?

Yeah.

Yes.

I was just going to say, you should shit out the catalog of Don Knotts.

Shit out the catalog.

Just go through each one.

You should play Don Knotts in a biopic.

The Incredible Mr.

Limpet.

Oh, my God.

Now we're talking.

So when I read a script,

it's completely organic.

It's like, does this writing move me, inspire me?

And it could be the stupidest comedy, like Rob Cordry's Children's Hospital, where I'm just like, this is the stupidest shit.

I have to be part of this.

Or like Conan will give me a bit to do that's so dumb that I'm like, people are going to, I can't wait to make people laugh with Conan.

Right.

Or this sovereign script is a great example.

My agent was like, this is kind of like out of left field.

It's very unorthodox,

but just read it.

And I read it and I called him and was like, you're right.

I think I have to play this guy.

And so

I recently did a series that'll be out next year with L.

Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer and doing scenes with with like total movie stars like those two,

that

instills a thrilling fear in me.

Like

I once did a movie with Michael Keaton and I'll compare the three to each other.

They're all performers where the camera, I'm sure you guys have had this

and people have it with you in your own way.

The camera's on you and you're looking at Michael Keaton or El Fanning or Michelle Pfeiffer and you're supposed to keep my shit together

and give like a commensurate performance while a huge part of my conscious is like, Michelle Pfeiffer is making eye contact with you.

When in your life would she look at you?

You know, when would that ever happen?

Michael Keaton is firing lightning bolts at you out of his beautiful blue eyes.

Oh, it's shit.

It's my line.

So

I love that thrilling feeling of when I read something and I'm like, one way or another, this feels really scary and challenging.

And that keeps me from ever getting jaded or bitter.

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It seems like

I was going to bring that up because I'm such a huge fan of Michael Keaton and that movie.

And when he was on our podcast, I said that every movie star has a sleeper, something that's better than people know.

It's like this underground and away movie.

And then I said, it's the founder.

And he goes, I was going to say that.

Oh, wow.

Because that's like a perfect movie.

It's kind of like a perfect cheeseburger.

Like you can recommend that movie to anyone.

And you're spectacular in it, by the way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Really just very talk about empathy for those guys.

And

I just wanted to bring on Carol Lynch as my brother.

Yeah, you two were so heartwarming in that.

And just, it was fantastic.

And what Keaton does really, really well is,

and it's a common actor thing, but to think on camera with no dialogue.

You know, and

do you like to do that as well?

You know?

Just because he'll, he'll, he'll really just kind of, he'll be thinking about it's a movie.

Where you can read what's going on with no, yeah.

Yeah, he does it so so brilliantly, you know.

I mean, sure, I, I, uh, would, I would say that, yes, I aspire to.

I mean, the thing is, Michael's been a movie star for decades, and I've been having such a goddamn good time.

I'm 55.

I got my big break.

Like, I worked a lot in Chicago theater.

And then when I moved to LA in my late 20s, I started, you know, a guest star on ER, like

slowly rolling the snowball, Sundance movies.

But I was 38 years old when I got Parks and Recreation that catapulted me into getting to choose roles and getting to do much meatier stuff.

But I still am not quite like the last few years, I've gotten to do stuff that's maybe at the level of magnitude that could be a Michael Keaton role.

And so I'm still learning to own

the scenery and the camera where I'm like, I'm going to take my time and think about what you're asking me because the camera just fucking, I've got so much charisma that I can just, I can just, you just love to watch me think.

So I'm still, I'm still like, well, it's hard because you have other actors and you're like, are they bored with my performance?

Are they thinking, hurry up, guy, you're not this important?

Well, Keene will do, he'll turn toward the window, even if he's the scene with other people and

think.

It does a lot of thinking.

But,

you know, confidence is an interesting thing to me, this this idea of confidence.

And I've always thought to myself

that you can be 99% confident.

Say you create this strata or whatever.

And the last 1%

is more important than the previous 90%, which means all the negative voices are silent.

I guess Brando got it at 21, geniuses.

And all that's gone.

And then you're just pure.

And that, have you, did you, I mean, the one that stands out is the Last of Us, your part in that where you seem really in the pocket whatever you want to call it so talk about that as an actor uh well thank you for for saying that and i i can't i can't ever receive a compliment about that episode of that show without immediately throwing it to uh to craig mason who wrote it and and murray bartlett my scene part my yeah he's great

they're both great in that uh but but the we knew like craig sent it to me and and I read it and I said, Megan, read this.

And we were like,

like everyone knew as soon as they read it, we were like, this is the greatest fucking episode of TV.

And we, I arrived in Calgary to shoot it and everyone was walking around holding the script up like, we have to not fuck this up.

And so even so, even knowing that, I, it's funny, I, I never

feel,

I mean, I'm curious,

you know, I don't ever feel like I'm shooting three-pointers like Brando would in a scene.

So even in The Last of Us, a lot of that emotional vulnerability was terrifying to try and reach honestly on camera for the first time.

Like,

I've had the privilege of doing a lot of great stuff over the years, but my new thing and this show actually with Elle and Michelle, which will be out next year,

is the first time that I'm getting complicated emotional relationships.

And so

I love that because I still feel like a freshman, like

it's those butterflies of like, how can I get a girl to like me?

And I'm on camera.

And so, you know,

my confidence definitely grows and grows and grows where I def the most important thing I learned to bolster that confidence at some point is these people

think like they picked you out of all the people to play this guy.

And so

whatever misgivings you have, whatever foibles or weaknesses I have, that's part of what they picked.

And so let that go and just do your goddamn best.

Be as prepared as you can and do honest, as honest of work as you can.

And even so, I never feel like I'm,

it's subjective art.

So I'll never feel like I've,

I never do a take and I'm like, yes, nothing but mess.

There's always, there's always something.

There's always something where you go back to Video Village or you go watch it or you say, was that good?

And they go, yeah, moving on.

In your head, you're like, was it?

Like, are you that?

I got it.

Like, because you also,

I don't do as many dramas, but.

or any, but when you're doing different things, sometimes you do it and you go,

I think think I'm doing this right, but I can be adjusted.

And so if I'm somehow off here, I hope someone pulls me aside and says, I think you're kind of missing a little bit what we want to hear.

And then you go, got it.

And that's where a good director can make you look good.

Oh, 100%.

I mean, I agree.

I mean, especially the pace that we shoot at these days, now that we no longer shoot on film and these new cameras, the RE camera and the red camera, require basically no lights.

The turnaround is a thing of the past where they're like, you used to have a break.

You used to be able to pace your day where you're like, okay, then I know when they turn the world around, I'm going to have an hour off so I can brush up my monologue or whatever.

But now we work at this incredible pace.

And so

I defy, you know, the most talented actor is can't be perfectly right every time.

And so so on every project, I'm so grateful when a director is like, all right, I think we got, we've done three your way.

And I think one of the,

I think we got that.

But what if this other idea?

And invariably, every time you're like, God damn it, you just made me twice the actor.

Thank you so much.

And then you have a choice.

You got that way or their way.

And it's, it's

very important.

Just to clarify, Dana, for people at home, for people

turn it around let's say you're doing a western and you know i do a lot and then they're shooting my scene they shoot a wide shot but when they shoot like let's say nick talking and there's a lot of stuff behind him then they say let's take a break and get the other actors close-up they have to turn the cameras around and then they have to take all the covered wagons and move them behind that side and move the crew on that side all the lighting on this side and that stuff takes an hour so throughout your day you do have these breaks where you get to think for a second and go over your lines and cram and go, I don't think I know these perfectly.

Let's run them again.

And when you don't get that, like you're saying, it starts to go, Oh shit, when I get that morning makeup chair, I better be ready for almost anything today because they can flip it and say, Actually, we're going to start with the last scene today.

And you're like, What?

Guaranteed.

And I'm the king of uh, I'm the king of on the drive home.

I all always think

the better way.

I'm like, That's how I should have said that joke, or that's the perfect comeback.

Something

tripped me up, Dana, that I just want, it's a tiny thing, but

if I can bring the conversation around to comedy, I don't know if you guys are comfortable discussing that project.

We love everything.

We love when people ask us anything or say anything about it.

Whenever I'm accused of being a stand-up,

I kind of bristle because I am such a fan of obviously your guys'

juggernaut careers in comedy you've both had.

And I do tour and perform, but I say that I'm a humorist because the thing that all of my comedy friends have that I don't is a joke machine.

Like you, among other things, you guys are incredibly, you have a facility to get, to say things at the drop of a hat that the audience is like, how the fuck did they come up with that?

The person I've spent probably the most time time with that watching him do it is Zach Galifenakis.

But you guys are both geniuses in your own right.

I've enjoyed you for decades.

And so when I get up in front of an audience, I do songs,

but I don't speak in joke.

I speak in essay.

And so it's, it's, and I have a great time.

I love touring, uh, but I, I just always, when people say stand-up, I'm like, ah, don't, please don't mistake me for the great, like,

I feel like I belong more with

Spalding Gray or Garrison Keillor.

Yeah, I know what you're saying.

Like, that's why, yeah, you're couched as a stand-up, but your use of language is so different and quirky.

If George Carlin was half as funny,

I'd be in his leg.

Well, you have your own lane, and it's almost harder to do, to find an interesting lane other than just Dana and I are like, bad, bad,

but you're up there taking your time, you're owning the stage.

Yeah, I could say you're humorous.

You're not needy for the next laugh.

You're also using quirky word packages, quirky ways of saying

part of your charm is that you're unexpected.

And Zach is another example of a just genius mind that...

in his own weird world that just completely can drop me with stuff he says.

He's so good.

Yeah, he really is.

Yeah, Zach is.

He's a very special talent.

I hope he gets discovered by

shit.

That's so great.

Do you?

I was just thinking when you're going back to acting and directing.

Have you had a director that's given you too many notes between takes and you start to feel yourself getting annoyed?

And how do you deal with

how do you deal with necessary, even benign confrontation in

a movie set?

Well, I've been really spoiled, I got to say, like maybe because

of the weird organic career path I've had, the good writing usually brings, is surrounded with good directors and good producers.

So by and large, but I definitely do, that happens frequently where

And I love collaborating with a director.

And sometimes the writer, sometimes a writer will get in there too.

And I appreciate it.

Like I said, like we pointed out,

rather than, I don't think I'm Lawrence Olivier where I'm like, please let me create my masterpiece.

Step the fuck away.

I'm like, no, great, great, great.

You're helping me achieve

the maximum medicine with what we're making here.

Even an enthusiastic, smart director even can just get to, they're like, okay, they come over after a scene and they can get to a second note and then a third note.

Yeah.

And then, I don't know if you saw, but there's a comma or whatever.

And I'm like, okay.

And sometimes, but the thing is, I'm usually friendly where I'll either say, okay, I'm going to do the first two.

And then

if you still need the comma or whatever, like,

or,

or, or I'll just, you know,

one of the great things I learned writing books,

I have a wonderful editor named Jill Schwartzman who's done all my books.

And with my first book, I'm a total perfectionist and I'm a workaholic.

So I write this book.

And like so many things that we, that we work on, you learn, you can, you can edit it for the rest of your life.

Like at some point, you have to say, okay,

put it in the goddamn bookstore.

Like,

because We keep going back and forth with editing.

And it was such a huge lesson to let go of an artwork artwork or a project and say, all right, I've done my goddamn best on this.

Could I keep tweaking it for years?

Sure.

Sure.

And

I'm doing that right now.

And it's so true for TV and film that the editor and the director have to say,

okay, show it.

Just show it to the people.

Because

no one ever thinks, okay, this is perfect.

Someone has to stop you almost.

It's like, just stop.

This is your deadline.

You need the end of a semester.

You got to turn in your paper.

And so when a director is being like that with me, I just think, okay, I'm going to do my best to give you what you're asking for.

And it might only be half of what you're asking for, but ultimately we will present that collaboration with confidence.

Well, they don't realize it's too hard to absorb some of these notes.

It's like to remember the scene already, all your lines, and you go, oh, and go a little dark on that.

And you're making a sandwich and the mustard is like squirting water.

And then Scripp comes up and goes, You were shaking the mustard on the third line.

And you go,

It's an Indianapolis, it's a pit stop like a race car because you get the hair people are doing the hair.

You're getting notes, and everyone's looking at you.

It's your close-up.

It's the money shot.

And you're trying just to be loose and totally in the moment.

It's a little, it's a hat trick.

It's so funny.

Yeah, there's someone like pinning down your prosthetic.

And the director's like, now listen, emotionally, I need you to get to a place.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some great actor or actress, I can't remember what was saying, retired from acting and basically happily, but just said, no one's going to ever pick at my shirt or come at my hair again.

And it was like, what they

were so overjoyed.

What I was going to,

I watched

Vertigo recently, non-sequitur.

But, you know, Hitchcock was a minimalist and there was a lot of moving masters.

That just means the camera moves.

It doesn't just still, it doesn't, you know,

unless he needs it.

And now, in the modern era, for a long time with digital and being able to go in there, you feel like the director's watching gets bored and the editor, and then we'll cut some more and cut some more.

And you saw it maybe when it was in simple shots and go, this is a great scene, and then it gets strangled.

Megan and I talk about this a lot because

we are our popular culture and

our attention deficit disorder has gotten to the point, it kind of started with Oliver Stone.

I loved sword fighting on stage.

I was a choreographer, and it's still, if anybody's listening, I'm still desperately wanting to play a swashbuckler.

And Oliver Stone,

we make a generalization.

Yeah,

I believe the number of musketeers required is three.

Oliver,

to make a generalization that's unfair to Oliver Stone, but he brought in the sense of fast cutting where

at first it was fresh and exciting, like the violent cutting of combat scenes of every sort.

But for those of us that love the artistry of Jackie Chan or Gene Kelly, where you see the ballet and the use.

And I feel like popular culture has gotten so cut up to the point that we are now having this renaissance where shows like The Studio and other great filmmakers

are masturbating with the oneer, the long one moving, you know, moving master.

And they do it incredibly.

I don't, you know.

I don't consider masturbating to be a disparaging verb.

I think it's a triumph

of Mother Nature.

But I mean,

Megan and I really appreciate that as theater actors, where don't

just depend on Flash.

Flash is fun and has its place, but you've got these actors and this writing and the scenery

to make

what you immediately made me think of is

in the movie Sovereign, this wonderful actor, Thomas Mann, plays Dennis Quaid's son.

And I did a movie with Thomas,

I guess about 10 years ago, called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

And it won Sundance.

It won both things at Sundance, the trophy and the audience award.

And rightly so.

It's a beautiful movie.

Thomas is the lead.

And

we got this incredible

cinematographer from Korea who had done this movie called Old Boy.

And I'm not going to try and

remember and butcher the guy's name, but he's the guy who shot Old Boy.

And Alfonso Gomez Rahon is the director.

And on the very first day, he says to his Korean DP, who can't speak a word of English, there's a translator.

And it's a shot with me on a couch, and we're in a living room in Pittsburgh.

And he's like, okay, we're going to see these two boys walking up the front sidewalk through the window.

They're going to say something to this cat sitting on the windowsill.

Then we're going to come around on Nick and he's watching a Klaus Kinski movie.

Then we're going to come around and the boys are arriving at the door and we're going to start the scene.

This is the first shot of the movie.

And I just was like, and I love everybody there.

Like, I have no misgivings to this point.

Connie Britton and I play his mom and dad.

And

he says this, and I'm like, oh, we're fucked.

This is a 23-day Sundance shoot.

And we got it in like two takes.

And it was one of the rare times that I've worked with a director who aggressively used the camera in a Hitchcockian sense.

It was so beautiful.

And

my role is small supporting, but I highly recommend this movie is so gorgeous.

It's really funny and ultimately makes you cry at the end.

What's the name again?

It's called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Okay.

Yeah, when you get to that.

It's so incredible.

Like when these, in this day and age, when somebody slows down, and that's

actually what my woodworking book is about, is slowing down your life off of your smartphones and your screens to a human pace.

No.

You don't have to.

I mean, no, I'm going to share that thought on X right now if you don't mind.

That's right.

No, go for it.

Make a TikTok of me.

Let me say it again.

Was Birdman

going back to Michael Keaton?

Was it it Birdman the one with the five-minute shots?

That was the other extreme.

I just saw the player.

Do you remember the player name?

Oh, it's

20 years ago?

That's

Tim Robbins.

It's the Cohen Brothers, right?

Who directed it?

It was about Showbez.

Yeah.

Tim Robbins is

opens with a maybe 10-minute shot.

Oh, yeah.

God.

On studio.

I mean, mean, yeah, those guys,

I just, I love to make things.

Here's the thing.

The world of capitalism tells us, make things as fast as you can.

That's how you make the most money.

And that's like the global mantra.

We're marching to that goddamn Elon anthem.

And so.

What I desperately, you know, in my tiny wood shop, I'm like, hang on.

Your life is way more enjoyable if you slow down and build your own dining table or if you do shots like the opening of the player.

Like that, that movie experience is going to be so much more delicious for everybody involved.

And

somebody's going to make $17,000 less,

but it's a much better meal.

I'm talking about it 20 years ago, 20 years later, where you say, and every actor in it, it's so fun to go like you with the couch.

When you feel the camera, that's the scariest.

There's no cue.

When you feel it, it's going.

It's here.

That's the funnest.

Everybody gets it right.

You know, those shots, I was watching the whole thing going, I wonder how many, how long it took to shoot a day?

And then I was watching more.

I'm like, two days, where they have to choreograph everything and just keep trying it going, all right, we're going to try one.

Everyone's like, you fall here.

There's a car crash.

There's this.

Very hard to do, but fun to see.

It's astonishing.

I mean, it's an astonishing thing to just finish a feature film.

Like if you see your film or your friend's film in a theater,

even if it sucks eggs, you go hug them and be like, Jesus Christ,

it's impossible to make a feature film.

That's so steal.

It shouldn't be allowed.

The thing is, the bad ones are as hard to make as the good ones.

I've had both and it's like, holy shit.

People go, what the fuck?

I go, I can't believe if I knew it was going to, I would have put less effort in.

But you're trying to make every day, every line good.

And when it doesn't work out, you're like, God, God, all that work, it's so hard.

You can't believe it even gets finished.

You're right.

As I suspected,

sorry, it's niggling me.

And

I just looked it up and it's Robert Altman made the player.

Yeah.

It was niggling all of us.

I'm just curious

for this conversation.

I conflated it with Barton Fink.

That's a great word.

Do you

want to increase your, do you read the dictionary or whatever?

Because you seem to have a pretty big

dictionary.

I don't.

i i do love vocabulary i because it's a place uh i i started in the catholic church as an altar boy and then they had me reading the gospel uh readings as the lector and so at age like 14 i'm up there reading to the church full of people reading like the the gospel readings and that was where i think it It all began for me, where I was like, oh, if I, depending on how I tone this reading, I can make my cousin laugh.

Like if I'm a little too serious with my delivery, the congregation is moved and my cousin is like, that was fucking hilarious.

Very inspired by Leslie Nielsen's lion readings and Naked Gun.

True.

Oh, I was talking about that yesterday.

You know, all respect to Liam Neeson and the latest one before

Nesli, he just, there's something magic about his timing and his tone in those movies, Nick and Gun.

Yeah, there's someone decided to take a serious guy and get, don't, and don't call me Shirley.

And you're like, wait, that's funny.

Like, someone goes, if you did this the whole movie, it's such a gamble.

Oh, yeah.

And the airplane, too, their earlier one.

Peter Graves, you know,

do you like gladiator movies?

I mean, it's just,

I was going to ask you, because I, because we have you here, it's like, just quickly, what are the movies that you and your wife would watch more than once or performances that really stand out you know my wife and i have different movies that that you revisit because they're so brilliant i'm i'm gonna uh if may i excuse myself for a tinkle and think about that and i'll be right back absolutely we have editing capability

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So the thing about Nick, why he's a great person to interview, is that Nick is real.

Oh.

Are you back?

You're back.

Yeah.

Oh, Dana was giving you a compliment when you were gone.

Please continue.

Don't let me interrupt you.

You know, The Last of Us, you won the Emmy.

I I didn't know if I mentioned that.

You said he's very,

you gave a very quirky acceptance speech, very, very you,

very interesting.

You're eccentric.

Do you go to someone for speeches?

Do you go to someone and say anything you would say if they're anything funny?

Believe me, I might go to someone and go, give me something for this.

Oh, for sure.

I love

anything that I do when I tour as a humorist.

I write my material, but

I'm friends with

genius writers

who love, like their bread and butter is they love for me to send them my stuff.

And they're like, here's two jokes about Brett Kavanaugh or whatever.

And I'm like, fantastic.

And it's funny, they refuse payment.

I'm like, let me, like, let me pay you.

And, and it's, and they're like, no, like, if you get a laugh with my joke, that's my pay.

It's so flattering.

But so then I send them a nice bottle of something they like to drink.

So while I was urinating for 17 minutes,

that's a long break.

There are a couple of interesting things about your question.

One is

I feel like.

Megan and I, the answer to your question

is historical.

It's like singing in the rain.

It's great performances from our youth that are monumental and foundational.

Innocent and nice.

Donald O'Connor, Make Them Laugh.

I mean, yeah.

And I mean,

the films of Mel Brooks, like Marks Brothers, Laurel and Hardy.

We watch a ton of Laurel and Hardy.

And there's this scene at the end of their movie, The Music Box, where they're trying to get a piano up a set of stairs in Echo Park.

Famous scene.

And they finally get it up and get it into the house.

And they do this little dance with each other.

And they like hook arms and do a little dance.

And we considered that scene to be this, that's our marriage.

Like that represents our household.

Interesting.

Nice.

That's the two of us.

But it,

but in modern, in the modern age, like, because you get questions like this sometimes, and

what we've realized is we would watch Will and Grace and Parks and Wreck when they aired, and we've never seen them again.

There are some things we've done that we've never seen.

But with all of the...

preponderance of things available to us to watch or listen to or read these days,

We really, it's very rare that we would ever, it would ever occur to us to watch something a second time,

which brings me to something I find very interesting.

And I've been the great beneficiary of just lucky timing, that Parks and Wreck happened when it first began to hit

around 2010.

Social media was also just beginning to hit.

Like memes and GIFs or GIFs were just, and so they were just arriving on the scene.

And the world was like, does anybody make funny faces?

Like, who can we plug in here?

So we benefited from that timing.

And then when we were all done, people don't realize now that we were never a hit show.

We were on the bubble every year.

And it was because we were.

No one realizes that.

We were in the transition from the Nielsen ratings to DVR to streaming.

And so the kids were all going crazy for Parks and Rick, but it wasn't showing up

on the rating system, which was a real bummer because we didn't get award nominations and we didn't get

a raise.

You know, like we were kind of one of the biggest hit shows critically, but business-wise,

it never clicked for us.

And so then, especially once the pandemic hit, there's this new thing, especially among young people, where they pick a show like Friends or The Office or Parks and Wreck, and it's their comfort show.

And they just always have it playing.

So I meet a lot of kids these days that say, oh, God, I've seen Parks and Wreck seven or eight times through.

To which I say, let me recommend some books to you.

Like there are things you could be doing.

I would love for you to see it once.

Let me teach you how to whittle.

But it's a crazy phenomenon in the modern day that

the kids, because you also, if you loved a show when we were young, you couldn't watch it again.

Yeah.

Where you wait six months.

Well, then they made great films.

Great films are hard to make.

When my wife were looking in for old films, we've seen The Godfather.

We revisit those two.

But there's just not a plethora.

I mean, Quentin Tarantino, whoops, name drop, I was interviewing him, substituting for Jimmy Kimmel, and he said, there's no great movies between the year 2000 and it was 2023 when I interviewed him.

No really great movies besides mine, basically.

I'm paraphrasing.

But I thought one that really stood out was the Descendants with George Cooney

as something that we will visit once in a while.

We also go back to sound of music, which I became possessed by and was not a fan of musicals as a kid.

I'll watch it, and then I became possessed by it as the greatest

arc of a couple of a relationship I've ever seen.

I must have done something right.

The song and the gazebo, yeah, just gets me every time.

Somewhere in my youth and childhood, I must have done something good.

Yeah,

when I was a kid, living out

in the middle of a cornfield, growing up in the 70s,

when we finally got a VCR in like 1982 or something, never had cable my whole life.

We had five video cassettes, and two of them were singing in the rain and the sound of music it's interesting how ubiquitous like how how abbey road certain movies are where it's like well everyone

knows the white album has to have this one yeah yeah the wizard of oz was another

um well that was that was that was good

that was good uh nick before we let you go i want to say that um i had a when i did this old show just shoot me oh my god a few people remember back then um

that uh megan megan was right next to me with will and grace and she was always so hilarious so wonderful and always so great on her show tell her hi and uh

and uh we had a great time that during that run of both of those shows so much fun over there watching them in their new cars anyway source

uh but uh great to talk to you nick really really appreciate it and uh

We we oh, we can't have you hang up right away.

You have to wait a hair

of our technology, whatever.

I met you and your lovely wife.

I like that expression.

Backstage at the Largo and got to chat with you guys for five minutes.

Lovely people.

Well, we're

not Hollywood phonies.

I'm just going to say it.

No, we're

super boring.

And I, and I can, I

recommend that to everyone who thinks a Hollywood.

I don't think anyone's having a good time going to clubs and like chasing whatever the diddy party idea is.

We stay home.

We literally do jigsaw puzzles and listen to like stodgy murder mysteries

read as audio books.

That's that's that's our line of coke.

It can be fun.

Listen, that's a new, that's a different form of fun that people are maybe picking up on again.

Scrabble.

That was

my wife doesn't,

you do, you just you do a ton of blow and then dump out a jigsaw puzzle

and you go 72 hours Sit down at a big butt plug.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks, Nick.

And good to see you, bud, and we'll talk soon.

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Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey, an executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Maddie Sprung-Kaiser, and Leah Reese-Dennis of Odyssey.

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