TEASER: Kinding Them With Kindness Part 2

It's the Judge John Hodgman podcast.

I'm Bailiff Jesse Thorne.

Judge John Hodgman joining me as well.

Hi, John.

Hello.

Hello.

I'm here as well.

It's the hashtag MaxFundDrive, John.

You know that.

Probably our audience, they might know.

They might not know yet.

Hey, don't presume what I know.

What is it?

Okay.

It's the very special time when your support allows us to continue making this show.

You going to maximumfund.org/slash join and becoming a member of Maximum Fun makes Judge John Hodgman possible.

And it's also the time when we make very special stuff just for our members.

We're talking about BOCO bonus content just for members.

And remember, membership begins at only $5 a month and you have access to all of the bonus episodes that we've ever recorded in Judge John Hodgman history, as well as all of the bonus episodes that have been recorded in Max Fun history.

But when we talk about bonus content episodes, one of our favorites has to be the ones that we recorded last year with the incredible character actor, legend, singer,

theatrical

hoofer.

Yeah, just

one of the most remarkable voices in all of acting, Richard Kind.

We spoke to him for our bonus episode, which we called Kinding Them with Kindness, where Richard Kind answered your questions and offered you advice.

And we decided, let's do it again.

Oh, I mean, if you have Richard Kind's phone number, you should call it.

That's the principle by which we live our lives.

Richard Kind was so, I mean, you're going to hear a little bit of this.

Richard Kind is the most delightful person who's ever lived.

And he has a genuine deep well of lived experience

and wisdom.

Yeah.

He also

is just as hilarious in real life as he is in films and television,

as he stumbles and bumbles his way through brilliant sentences.

Just the greatest guy in history.

You just could not be

more delightful, insightful, and amazing.

Kinding with Kindness 2 is available only to Maximum Fund members.

If you're not one already, please consider going over to maximumfund.org/slash join to become a monthly member at the $5 level or higher.

You'll get this episode, all of our bonus episodes, and as well, I hope the satisfaction of knowing that you are contributing to a creator-owned network of podcasts that you love and and an employee-owned cooperative that runs it.

Maximumfund.org/slash join is where you go to become a member.

But hey, we're standing between you and a little taste of Richard Kind.

We're basically,

this is like what Curtis Mayfield warned people about in Superfly: like, we're giving you a taste because you're going to want the whole thing.

Here's Richard Kind, and a little taste of kinding them with kindness.

Two.

Look who's kinding them now.

So, this is kinding them with kindness part two.

You've been in some sequels before, not just this one.

You've been in Cars 2.

I have.

You've been in Toy Story 3.

I have.

You've been in History of the World Part 2.

I have.

The reboot.

The reboot.

And the Mad About You?

The reboot.

And yeah.

Yes.

So of the many projects, you've got quite a long career.

Yes.

And according to this, it's over now.

Seems weird.

Jennifer, why would you put that on the script?

It's on the IMBBL.

This letter from your agents.

IMDB page says it's over.

Yeah, as of this day.

No, of course not.

But many, many things on your filmography and your stageiography and your augraphies.

Of them all,

is there a sequel?

To one of your many projects that you wish they would make?

Okay, not a sequel.

Or a reboot or a reimagination

There are union.

There is a play I'd like to do again.

Two plays.

What are they?

One is called Travesties.

Travesties.

By Tom Stoppard.

Yeah.

Now,

it is the most dense play you'd ever read.

You know the play?

I'm going to tell you something.

Yes.

Young, pretentious, only child John Hodgman would not get enough of that real Inspector Hound.

You know what I'm talking about?

Tom Stoppard is the greatest.

The greatest.

And particularly that early meta stuff,

shorter plays.

And it's like, there's a playwright watching a playwright watching a playwright.

That was really up my wheelhouse.

Okay, this is up my wheelhouse.

But this is not real Inspector Hound stuff.

No, no, that's what I'm saying.

Then he took a turn to much more denser stuff and more complicated stuff.

And I got lost there.

He lost me there.

It was my fault.

I came back.

Oh, yeah.

Because you're the Yaley.

I know.

Yeah,

it's a shame.

It's a shameful omission.

I love him so much.

But I came back around for Leopold Stadt.

Squeak.

Right.

Squeak.

Anyway, so Travesties by Tom Stephan.

Okay, his masterpiece is Arcadia.

Right.

So Travesty's is a play about characters.

The main characters are James Joyce, Tristan Sara, and Vladimir Lenin.

Yeah.

Who all happened to live?

This is like Tom Stepard's The Avengers.

It's the Marvel.

Yes, that's right.

It's the Marvel's.

It's incredible crossover event.

They're all looking for a crystal that will give them the power to destroy the world.

So

the plot of the thing, the supposition is they all had, those three people were living in this town in,

not Austria.

I want to say in Stockholm.

In some town, I can't remember.

But they happened to be living in the same town at the same time post-World War I.

In real life.

In real life.

In real history.

Truth Truth is, they never met each other.

Right.

But the main character is a guy who claims to have known all three and imagines all three of them getting together and having conversation.

They might have been at the library, which was the common meeting ground, but they never knew each other.

And this one guy

happens to have lived in the same town.

It starts off with a 35-minute monologue of this guy describing what went on in the town and the brilliance and look at all these great minds coming together post-World War I.

Which you'll perform for us right now.

I'll do it right now.

He was Irish, of course.

In any case,

it's a very thick and dense play.

We had two and a half weeks rehearsal.

They did it the roundabout.

They had eight weeks rehearsal.

We did it in two and a half.

Where did you do it?

At Bay Street Theater out in the Hamptons.

Understood.

It was so under-rehearsed that the last scene, which is also a monologue, about five days into performing, all of a sudden it hit me what that last scene was all about.

And I started crying on stage in front of the audience.

It hit me.

Wow.

It was such a revelation.

I really want to do it with the proper rehearsal and really delve into it.

Let me, let me, the roundabout.

They had eight weeks performance.

Eight weeks performance.

And they had done it in London as well.

And you had two and a half weeks.

You know what that is?

Travesty.

It is a travesty.

It's also summer stock or summer theater, but it's a travesty.

It was a travesty.

Here's the horrible thing.

Somebody who I truly, truly, truly admire and love so much.

First night of the show where I'm hardly off book.

Just getting off books was an accomplishment.

What was your role?

I was the lead.

I was the guy.

Oh, you were the guy.

I was the guy who claimed to have known all these people.

35-minute monologue.

35 minutes.

Hardly off-book.

A 35-minute monologue to start the play.

Right.

Tom Wolf is sitting in the front row with his hat on and a cane and a white suit.

On fire to the vanities himself.

And

I sucked.

No, you didn't.

John, I sucked.

It was like four performances before I knew what I was doing with the show.

It's a wonderful show.

Very funny.

There was a pie fight.

There's nudity.

It's a hilarious, hilarious show.

It's wonderful.

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