"Jack Black"

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Speaker 1 Hey guys, this this is Sean.

Speaker 1 I know in a previous intro, I talked about like working out, getting my legs bigger, getting my thighs bigger, getting my arms bigger, just getting everything.

Speaker 2 Look, I'm just jumped and packed and jacked and whacked.

Speaker 1 I was just like... So then after that, I thought maybe I'd work on my feet because my feet need to be just as like great as the rest of my body.

Speaker 2 And then after that, I thought I'd look around my toes, like around my toes and my fingertips. And I just thought, water.
I'm just kidding. I haven't worked out in years.
Welcome to Smartlist. Smart.

Speaker 2 Hey, you know, I just want to say something, Jay. I don't know if you know this, but today that you use a heavy bronzer? Today is

Speaker 2 listener. Will's back from the

Speaker 2 Caribbean.

Speaker 2 The French Polynesian.

Speaker 2 South Pacific. No, not South Pacific, the French Antilles.

Speaker 1 Do you put Sunblock on or no?

Speaker 2 Yes, of course. No, he doesn't.
Of course. And olive oil is what he does.
No, no, I don't.

Speaker 2 By the way, I met a lot of really nice, smartless listeners. Really? Oh, in the Caribbean.
Yeah, in the Caribbean. And

Speaker 2 my buddy Todd, who I met. Oh, sure.
Sure.

Speaker 2 We don't need names, man.

Speaker 1 Who's Todd from the

Speaker 2 Caribbean? He's just a guy.

Speaker 2 Did you compliment him on his first name? He and his wife.

Speaker 2 He said,

Speaker 2 he drew a comparison. He said that Todd happens to be the name of your character from Teen Wolf.
Oh. That is true.

Speaker 2 Boy, thank him for watching.

Speaker 2 Limited channels down there on the island. Well, he kept the lights on for you, buddy.
So let's just maybe we'll ran all the latest.

Speaker 2 Jason, today is a very special day. It's Sean's birthday.
It's Sean's birthday.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes. Thank you.
Well, he didn't say anything, but thank you.

Speaker 2 I wasn't going to mention it at all. Happy birthday, Sean.
That's very sweet. Because listen, when people get over their 60s, they don't want to celebrate at all, Will.
That's true.

Speaker 1 It's true. Wait, by the way, you guys, I shit you not.
Can you read that?

Speaker 2 Dear Sean, happy birthday from all of us at Garfield Pharmacy. We are wishing you all the best for the coming year.

Speaker 2 From a pharmacy. You know, this

Speaker 2 should,

Speaker 2 this qualifies as a bit of a flare. You know,

Speaker 2 the pharmacy texted me. Sean, Garfield Pharmacy, did they help you put together that bath you were talking about where you can open the the side of it and you can get into it?

Speaker 2 The one with the door. I thought you were going to say a sits back.
Is that your crew?

Speaker 2 Now, Sean, happy. Will, let's do that.
That's the fastest happy birthday to you song ever. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.
Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 2 Happy birthday to you. Sean.

Speaker 2 Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 2 Many more.

Speaker 2 Sean, you are a, you're an absolute, I will say this, you're an incredible friend.

Speaker 2 Jason, you know this. There have been so many times,

Speaker 2 I'm not surprised, but there have been so many awesome times I can think of within the last month where things were going on and you just reach out in a way that a lot of other people would feel like, well, I'll just let them kind of marinate.

Speaker 2 And you just reach out and call and go, hey, are you okay? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And Sean, I love you for it. And I love you guys.
You did that with you. I love you too.
Yeah. I did that with you too, Jason.
You're so nice. So

Speaker 1 I do that.

Speaker 2 I do that because I love you guys more than anything listener if you ever get the chance to be friends with sean hayes yeah it's the best i highly recommend it it's the trial do a trial first and by the way i but now we mentioned we love sean we love you so much but there are people who don't obviously one of the one of the people is skevo obviously because i don't know what's going on

Speaker 2 yeah

Speaker 2 or did you and did you get in a fight with his scissors or him i know look at his that's great that's what that's what's coming for me on wednesday really uh you're finally going to cut yeah for folks who can't see i've got

Speaker 2 I've got a whole head of hair that's 30 pounds of hair.

Speaker 2 When are you done? Oh, I just finished.

Speaker 2 I was doing a job where I had to play a fella that was living in 1984. It's a 1984 thing.
And so all this feathering was really appropriate. Now it's not.
And so it's coming down on Wednesday.

Speaker 1 But what was the excuse before you got the part?

Speaker 2 Exactly. Yeah, because it was long for a minute.
Yeah, but then I was about to cut it and then didn't because I got this. I actually think it looks cool along.

Speaker 1 Wait, really fast, super fast, quick birthday story from when I was like, I don't know, 22. My mom thought it'd be so great to put, instead of candles on a cake, she put sparklers, like 20 of them.

Speaker 2 I kind of like that.

Speaker 1 Not realizing that sparklers, you know, are fireworks, basically.

Speaker 2 And they don't blow out.

Speaker 1 And so she lit all of them and the whole fucking thing like lit up, caught fire. And then she's cutting.
And then after she put it all out, She's, you know, she's like, happy birthday.

Speaker 1 And there's fucking fireworks all over them.

Speaker 2 Ethan, you mess around with fireworks. You lose an eye.
eye.

Speaker 2 Huh. Well, that's nice, man.

Speaker 1 And then she cut the cake and it tasted like sulfur.

Speaker 2 Nothing on eye, nothing on the eye joke at all.

Speaker 1 That one was funny. Maybe Tracy's laughing.
Put an eye out.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You know who likes to laugh.
Oh, what a great segue. What a great.
Hey, by the way, does anybody work a segue better than me? Double Entendre. Double Entende.
Double Entendre. Double Entendre.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you something. This guy.

Speaker 2 Oh, this guy.

Speaker 2 Oh, God. Can I tell tell you something about this guy? Here's something you didn't know about this guy, because you both know this guy.
There's a couple three things I don't know. Here's something.

Speaker 2 His parents

Speaker 2 are

Speaker 2 both satellite engineers.

Speaker 1 Satellite engineers.

Speaker 2 Try engineers one more time. Still wrong.

Speaker 2 Worked on engineers.

Speaker 2 Worked on Minuteman nuclear missile guidance system. Wow, Jesus.
Apollo lunar module guidance system. Fuck it.

Speaker 2 The science, the ground station for the Hubble Space Telescope, things like of this nature. And then this person is about to be able to.
But he plays.

Speaker 2 Let's book the parents. How about that?

Speaker 2 Okay, hang on a second. And then this person, you would know them.
No way he's going to be as interesting. Let me think about how you're going to know this person.

Speaker 2 You might know this person from some of these.

Speaker 2 Wow. Take your time.
Real participants.

Speaker 2 No, I'm just trying to think of some of the things you would know them. From Picket Fences, maybe? Golden Palace.
These are appearances. Northern Exposure.
X-Files. Oh.
No, maybe not. Maybe from

Speaker 2 the Jackal.

Speaker 2 No. Enemy of the State.
Saving the real one for later. Water World, Demolition Man.
No, you'd probably know this person more from Shallow Hal, Nacho Libra, Tenacious Deed, the Pickett.

Speaker 2 It's Jack Black. It's Jack Black.
And School of God. It's Mr.
Jack Black.

Speaker 2 Woo!

Speaker 2 Tremendous intro. Look at that face.
It's gorgeous.

Speaker 2 I've just been back here behind my little toilet paper hiding spot. Are you in the toilet right now?

Speaker 2 Well, your producer said I have to hide myself with like something, and I don't have a handkerchief or anything. So I just.

Speaker 2 You usually have a hanky. You're old school like that.
You've got like an old school hanky on you all the time, right, Jamie? And he offers it to people who are crying, even though it's not stained.

Speaker 2 Quick plug, my buddy Colin Hanks

Speaker 2 has a handkerchief company called Hankskerchief. Not true.

Speaker 2 Is that true? 100% true. Check it out.

Speaker 2 Because I have a mold removal company called Adjacent Abatement that

Speaker 2 I want to send you. Hey, everybody.

Speaker 2 Listen, Jack. By the way, at any point, I love it so much.
At any point, if you want to just do a little side, like a little quick plug ski for friends, I'm down with it.

Speaker 2 I hated having that right out of the gate, but I couldn't not talk about my. You talked handkerchiefs, and like,

Speaker 2 that's the first place I go. Now, first of all, we got two JBs here for the first time.
I mean, this is. Oh my God, right?

Speaker 2 Let's go with

Speaker 2 Jack. I mean, there's not a better name than Jack.
You beat JB today. Oh, you want to hold on to JB, huh? Were you ever Jack?

Speaker 1 Were you ever a John?

Speaker 2 What the? No. In fact, my real name is Thomas.
No, it's not. Yeah, Thomas Black.
Can you back up a second? Is it really? Sean, where are you coming from? Thomas Jacob, right, Jack? That's right.

Speaker 2 Thomas Jacob Black. So if I wanted to go short for Jacob, it would have been Jake Black.

Speaker 2 You know what it would have been good for you? What? TJ. TJ Black.
TJ.

Speaker 2 Yeah, not bad. Different career.
So I can understand if his name was Henry, you'd ask him if he was ever Hank. But are Jacks ever John? Yes.
Yeah. Of course.
That's where Jack comes from.

Speaker 2 Lots of John's and Jonathan's. John F.

Speaker 1 Kennedy.

Speaker 2 Thank you.

Speaker 2 Don't scream at me.

Speaker 2 Now, Jack, I got the JB and I never asked for it. Did you ever ask for JB?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 2 It's not cool to ask for your nickname. That's not the way it's supposed to go.
Exactly. But I'm afraid people think that I have asked for it

Speaker 2 when somebody calls me that because it sounds like JB, you know, like I'm some sort of a power figure or authority.

Speaker 2 That's like a boss boss name. But you can't ask for your nickname.
Let's ask Pantswetter, Sean. Sorry.
What do you,

Speaker 2 I didn't have to ask for that.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Jack, Jack, I can't believe it's taking us this long to have you here to his work. We can't make his deal.
We can't make his deal. I feel like it took some work.
Wonderful.

Speaker 2 It's such a lay up that you would be. We just, I adore you and just think you're the freaking greatest.
And I just can't believe you've taken forever, man. Call seconds.
That's true.

Speaker 2 Well, the feeling is mute. I'm a huge fan of all three of you, individually and collectively.

Speaker 2 Do you remember when we all used to play poker at Kyle's house together? Yes.

Speaker 2 Yes, we all partied over at Kyle Gass's house to play poker. Kyle Gass is my partner in Tenacious D.
That's right. But now, are you you still playing cards and music with Kyle Gass with the K-Jerific?

Speaker 2 I am playing music with Kyle Gass.

Speaker 2 We're still touring, and

Speaker 2 we got a very big project coming up that I can't really tell you anything about, but we got

Speaker 2 a concept album coming down the pike. Have one more sip of that morning coffee there, and then you could tell.
Then you'll feel like telling me. I haven't had any.

Speaker 2 Does it seem like I'm amped and jacked? No, no, I was trying to make a booze joke, you know, and you say, have one more sip of that drink, and then you'll tell me.

Speaker 2 All right. Well, maybe later.
Maybe we'll earn it at the end of the session here. So maybe we'll earn it.

Speaker 2 Maybe we'll gain your confidence. But I will say this:

Speaker 2 so, Jack,

Speaker 2 just so we can get back to Cage for a second, for one sec, Kyle Gass

Speaker 2 and his poker game. First of all, what are the odds that he's in a sleeveless sweatshirt right now? Very high.
That's his whole thing. Football practice, sure.
Can I tell you something? And slides.

Speaker 2 It's always about the comfort. So

Speaker 2 Jack's partner,

Speaker 2 Kyle Gass, who he just alluded to,

Speaker 2 his partner in Tenacious D, and they've made made a number of records and movies and the TV show for a few years, all of it.

Speaker 2 One time, so we all played in this poker game. I forget who was our first

Speaker 2 entree into the game, but it was a Tuesday night game. You used to play into it, and then we came into it a little bit later, and then we brought, and then Richter was in it, and Sean was in it.

Speaker 2 I remember Sean came in the first night, won a bunch, and then was like, I got to go home, guys. And everybody's like, you're not going fucking handy.
So the Walsh brothers were not having that.

Speaker 2 No, and we had Matt Walsh and,

Speaker 2 you know, we had

Speaker 2 Patty Walsh and we had everybody, right? So then we played in that for a couple of years and there was a lot of dough is exchanged back and forth

Speaker 2 and some fireworks here and there. And Cage used to have the clown car and then he had the celebrity clown car.

Speaker 2 Wait, literally. Remember you had that car and you put people in it? But Jack, what I was getting to is I remember going to, you were hosting SNL once and Cage was coming.

Speaker 2 And so he said, and I was going back to New York because Amy was still on the show at the time. And he's like, What flight are you? I go, I'm going to take the Red Eye on Friday night.

Speaker 2 He goes, I'll come on the same flight. I'll meet you at LAX.
I go, Great. So I text him or whatever.
And I go, I'll meet you at the gate. And Cage shows up at the gate

Speaker 2 and he's in a sleeveless sweatshirt

Speaker 2 and shorts and flips.

Speaker 2 And he's got every single glossy celeb rag

Speaker 2 in a pile. And I go, and I go,

Speaker 2 Cage, what are you doing? Get away from me, man. What are you doing?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 He likes to read. He loves to read up on the celebs on the latest the hot goss.

Speaker 2 Now, are you guys still playing cards at all, Jack?

Speaker 2 No, I haven't been playing with Cage. We haven't been playing cards.

Speaker 2 I miss it. And once in a while, you know, whenever there's like a charity

Speaker 2 poker game, I like to jump in there because I do love it.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I do find that when I lose, inevitably, it does hurt.

Speaker 2 It excruciates, there's an excruciating pain and regret that lasts for days.

Speaker 2 God dang it. If I would have just, you know what I did? I didn't have the balls to call.
Why didn't I just call? I had queens.

Speaker 2 And it'll stick with me and I'll feel like an idiot.

Speaker 2 And then when I get up from the table, like, all right, guys, hope everyone had a good.

Speaker 2 good good time. And as I'm leaving, I can see in their eyes they just have this poison of like, yes, we beat you.
We made you a fool.

Speaker 2 And I hate everyone. And the chips are usually sitting in front of Kyle.
And yet I do always still feel that pull to get back in the game. Because it's kind of fun.
It's fun.

Speaker 2 It's a good place to watch a Laker game, kind of at the side of one eye.

Speaker 2 Oh, at Kyle's house, yeah. Yeah.
We should do it again. We should do it again.
So, so, Jack, this is what I don't know.

Speaker 2 So, you started, it says here, if you look on your bio, anybody can look this up, anybody who's got access to the internet, you, your first thing you did, you did a commercial for a vid game

Speaker 2 way back in the day. Really? Yeah.
What was the inclination? How did that, what was the thing? You grew up in Santa Monica.

Speaker 2 You were born in Santa Monica, but you grew up a little south of Santa Monica right now. Permosa Beach.
Permosa Beach.

Speaker 2 Shout out. What was the moment? Like, what was the thing that you were like, I'm going to go out for this video game commercial?

Speaker 2 Like, how did you get, how did your path, well, I'm sure it was just whatever gig. You know how it started.
Yeah. It started at a Passover Seder.

Speaker 2 We went over to a friend's house, a family friend, and she was a Holocaust survivor and a really cool lady, mama of the house. And we had our Passover Seder,

Speaker 2 good Jewish din, din, religious, kind of.

Speaker 2 And then after that, she was like, now it's time for everybody to come to the living room. We're going to play the freeze game.

Speaker 2 I said, the freeze game? And I was like eight years old.

Speaker 2 And it was an improvisational game created by the great Viola Spolin. Sure, sure.
Jason, I heard you earlier saying yes, Anne, so you're familiar with the dark arts of improvisation.

Speaker 2 And it's basically just like two people get up on the stage or the living room floor or whatever, what have you, and they'll just start doing a scene.

Speaker 2 They'll make it up like, okay, we're two butter churners, and they'll be churning butter and go, oh, the churning is so hard. I'm so sweaty.
Oh, the sweat is going into the butter.

Speaker 2 And then anyone in the audience can go, freeze. And then they have to stay frozen like they're churning butter.
Uh-huh. And then you go up and you tap one of them on the shoulder and they leave.

Speaker 2 And then you take their body position.

Speaker 2 And then you can change it to like, oh, I'm going to mortalize the guy. And now you're a boxer who's like punching you.

Speaker 2 And I played that and I caught the fever so hard because my eight-year-old like performance instincts kicked in.

Speaker 2 And I was already kind of a ham class clown. That's what I was going to say.
Were you already kind of in that, in that space, like with your friends and at school and shit? Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 2 I was starved for laughs. I loved getting yucks.

Speaker 2 And it was the sweet manna from heaven. And so, so then

Speaker 2 my parents divorced. This is good.
I'm not good at telling stories. No, this is good.

Speaker 2 I'm stronger than you want. No, this is.
You get into a cry right here. By the way, this is short for Bateman.
This is, if you were Bateman, this would be considered short. So great.

Speaker 2 I don't think I'm going to cry, but my parents divorced. What was that like, Jack? And then

Speaker 2 I was still kind of like doing stuff. Like I was really into Weird Al Yankovic in Hermosa Beach going to school.
We would do different songs from the Dr.

Speaker 2 Demento show in front of the classroom, me and some of my friends. And then

Speaker 2 my mom started dating this dude, David Katz, my stepdad. And he was like a really creative guy.
And he's like,

Speaker 2 Jack is very talented. He should be doing this.
I was like, I do want to do this. I want to be on TV.
And there was a kid in my class in Hermosa Beach. I was so jealous of him.

Speaker 2 He was in a movie called Real Life by the incredible

Speaker 2 genius known as Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks.
Yes. Not Albert Einstein.
His real name changed to Brooks. Was Charles Groden in that? Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 2 He played the dad of the family and the whole family is like, oh, did he play the dad? No, No, I don't remember who played that. Isn't the Stillers' favorite movie?

Speaker 2 I think it might be because it is a great movie.

Speaker 2 And anyway. So this little punk was in it.
This punk was in it. He played the son.
He didn't have a big part, but I just was like, oh, I want what he has.

Speaker 2 How did he get that?

Speaker 2 How do you do it? And my stepfather, it's easy. You go on the auditions.
You go and you do it. Take some pictures of yourself.
And I was like, that, will you take me? And he was like, yes. No way.

Speaker 2 And my stepfather drove me around town and i auditioned for all of the commercials and all the things for like uh a year i got an agent the jack rose agency i was at jack rose you were at jack rose i was at jack rose it was also jack rose and dorothy deotis bumped into each other like a hundred times at auditions was dorothy deotis also on the on the door i don't remember did you book right away jack did you like no i went on a few i booked pretty quick though it wasn't the first one but one of the early ones i was like 12 years old yeah it was the video game commercial you're talking about.

Speaker 2 It was for Activision for Atari. It was called Pitfall.
Yeah. I love that.
And I remember the audition. I went in there and I auditioned my ass off.

Speaker 2 And they were like, can you do it like you're really cocky? Like you're real cockshoeer of yourself. Not a problem.

Speaker 2 It was perfect because that's like that was my go-to acting character thing is being super confident, overconfident.

Speaker 2 And I just crushed it and I and I left the audition high.

Speaker 2 That was the thing. Those auditions,

Speaker 2 those were like drugs to me because it felt so good to like nail it. It didn't even matter if I got the part or not.

Speaker 2 If I got them laughing, I was like, oh, I love life. You still get that charge, right? When you get a laugh or you're in front of an audience or a camera or something, right?

Speaker 2 I still get a charge if I feel like a job well done. Yeah.
Nice. What about if you make your kids laugh? Is it an audience of one plenty big?

Speaker 2 Dude, if I can make my kids laugh, that's actually the top of the heap.

Speaker 2 and it's tough they are a tough audience because i'm so embarrassing to them that's not true how old are they now they're now 13 and 15.

Speaker 2 oh that's a actually sorry my boy just had a birthday 14 and 15.

Speaker 2 i got a 15 year old and she just you got to have your shit's got to be tight worked on and bulletproof but if you're going to get even a grin out of her yeah you know you can't be workshopping material in front of her i just i go ahead go ahead i was just saying

Speaker 1 jason's kid Maple. I just have to shop and go, hey, and she laughs.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she's a little bit easier, but

Speaker 2 she'll get tough. But the 15-year-old audience.
But also, Sean's the funniest of all of us.

Speaker 2 So we'll just admit it.

Speaker 2 So Sean's got. He's also the best host.
He's got the nominations to.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, he got nominated for best host. Wait, Jack, I want to know.

Speaker 1 You don't want to talk over it, Sean.

Speaker 2 This is something you should really revel in.

Speaker 2 Here's how desperate for last night, and Mitch Herbert's and I, who the great Mitch Hurts, great arrest of development, he and I would be writing stuff, and we'd be at his house, and then he'd be like,

Speaker 2 We need to go to Starbucks because we'd be in his office writing all day. And we just needed to go and do, because we didn't have an audience anymore.
We were sick of each other.

Speaker 2 And we thought, like, the barista

Speaker 2 or whoever's in line next to us could probably use some exposure to what we got going on.

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Speaker 2 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 1 Jack, I want to ask you about those amazing Instagram things you do because I laugh so fucking hard at those and they seem like they take weeks to fill out.

Speaker 2 Dude, the fucking

Speaker 1 energy and the effort that goes on.

Speaker 2 I want to see these. Thank you.
They're so funny. Thank you for noticing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, you're in

Speaker 1 your superhero speedos.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you're running around like doing superhero things. Like, what goes into those and why do you do them? And is it fun to do it?

Speaker 2 Well, I was

Speaker 2 just sort of coming up with things to do during pandemic times. I was going stir crazy like everybody.
And I had that, you know, that hunger that we talked about earlier where I needed attention.

Speaker 2 And I was also like two birds with one stone. The world needs a laugh.
Let's see if we can cook something up. So I called up my social media guru, Taylor Stevens, shout out.
Shout out.

Speaker 2 And I said, let's,

Speaker 2 you know what? I'm feeling like I need to do something with this WAP dance. The kids are going crazy.

Speaker 2 It's the latest thing that everyone's trying to do their version of the WAP dance.

Speaker 2 Can you tell Granddad Bateman what that is?

Speaker 2 The WAP dance, it's

Speaker 2 Wet ass pussy. Okay.

Speaker 2 And she said it in the song.

Speaker 2 And it was a huge hit. It was a colossal hit.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I got in my speed-o, and I just

Speaker 2 had my friend spray me with a garden hose, and I did my dance.

Speaker 2 And it got a gajillion likes and views. And then I was off to the races, and I was like, okay.
Next

Speaker 2 I'm going to suit up as a Spider-Man. Because Spider-Man was about to come out.
One of those Spider-Mans was coming out or something. There was some reason.

Speaker 2 And I suited up and I did some more dancing. And then I just couldn't stop.
It was like a runaway freight train. It was so good.

Speaker 1 Nobody wanted you to stop.

Speaker 2 It was terrible. No one is a better performer than you, Jack.
No. I mean,

Speaker 2 what about you closing out the end of High Fidelity? What was that song you sang on the stage? That was...

Speaker 2 I've been really trying.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Let's get it on. I just don't think there's a better performance of any song by any performer than any medium than that.
Well, that was my big break, that movie. Was it? That was.
Well, you had done.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so I was going to get into that. So

Speaker 2 that was the thing that you had done a bunch of stuff. First of all, I want to kind of get into this a little bit.

Speaker 2 So backing up,

Speaker 2 you had started. Did you and Cage meet during the Actors Gang? Is that how you guys started? Yep.

Speaker 2 What was the genesis of The Actors Gang? Walk us through that a little bit. Well, The Actors Gang is like a punk rock theater group from Los Angeles in the 80s.
They started Tim Robbins, John Cusak,

Speaker 2 that whole crew. And if you were a young actor in the 80s in LA,

Speaker 2 that was the sweet spot you wanted to be in the Actors Gang. Well, that was my feeling anyway.
I don't know, Jason, were you even aware of them or care about this world?

Speaker 2 I stayed away from gangs a lot.

Speaker 2 It wasn't a real gang. I mean, there was no violence.

Speaker 2 They sound pretty hard.

Speaker 2 Actors Gang sounds like the softest gang.

Speaker 2 No, I was busy. We'll improv you to death.
I was reading for

Speaker 2 Golden Graham's commercials and Honey Nut Cheerios and whatnot.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, I was doing that too.
I would have loved to have

Speaker 2 gotten some gang tats on me from the actors there. They were doing a lot of political theater and

Speaker 2 they had a cool style that they used.

Speaker 2 Stanislavski?

Speaker 2 no it was it was comedia dell'arte more like sure um no uh you know they get all made up in the white face and and uh a lot of presentational looking out into the audience and

Speaker 2 anyways i went to see them when i was uh like 16 years old i was in high school and i went to see uh their production of freaks

Speaker 2 and um who is in that Kyle Gass was one of the actors, Ned Bellamy, Lee Aaronberg,

Speaker 2 all the great actors, gangers.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I was just sort of like a psycho fan of the gang. I wanted in.
It was like they were the chili peppers. I just wanted to be in their world.
I wanted to be in a production.

Speaker 2 So I would go to see the shows and then I would hang out.

Speaker 2 And I had a connection.

Speaker 2 a friend of mine, Bob White, who was a teacher at my school, Crossroads High School. Yeah.
A professor.

Speaker 2 He was a technical theater and also a writer for a lot of the shows at Whitehall White. Wait, wait, wait, Jack, Jack.
It should be noted, the Professor Bob White, also part of our poker game.

Speaker 2 We all know Bob. Yes, the Professor.
A very big chip collector himself.

Speaker 2 Yeah, very big. So he got me a part in a show called The Big Show.

Speaker 2 And then I got

Speaker 2 another part. in Carnage when we went to Edinburgh Theater Festival.
Whoa.

Speaker 2 And things were cooking with gas. And then we took it to New York to the Joe Papp's Public Theater.
Come on. on, there in the middle of the day.
And we got just murdered.

Speaker 2 The reviews were so, it didn't even matter. The reviews, it was one review.

Speaker 2 It was like, this guy, this Hollywood schmoo, Tim Robbins, comes to New York with his Hollywood crap and tries to tell me that this is the real theater.

Speaker 2 That's not word for word at all. It was an expertly written, just hatchet job.
And it was such a bad review that I just laughed. I just thought, this is actually hilarious because

Speaker 2 if you're going to get a bad review, you want it to be the worst review of all time.

Speaker 2 You want it well written. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, Will, at the beginning, when you introdued Jack, was that really true about his parents, or you made that all up?

Speaker 2 I think that's true, right, Jack?

Speaker 2 My parents are much more interesting than me. It is.
No, no, but I mean, like, all that. What were they? My parents were aerospace engineers.
That's crazy. Both of them.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And my mom was a real trailblazer, one of the first women to be successful in that field and climb the ladder and kick a lot of ass.

Speaker 2 I don't really understand what they did because I did not inherit their mathematical genius. That's amazing, though.
That's wild. But yeah, my mom worked on...

Speaker 2 uh apollo missions uh specifically apollo 13 she was responsible for the abort guidance system that actually saved some astronauts lives well that's insane yeah they were going to die, except they were like, what's this button?

Speaker 2 Judith Cohen abort guidance system button. I don't know what happened.
Something happened, and she was part of the reason why they survived.

Speaker 2 And they came and visited her at the office after the whole mission a few months later to say, just wanted to thank you, Mrs. Cohen, for saving our lives.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 Did you have any desire at all to get into some sort of a science world there? No. I love science fiction.
I do too. I love it.
I live for it.

Speaker 2 2001 Space Odyssey. Love.
Great book. Arthur C.
Clarke.

Speaker 2 I do have a fascination for astronomy and for you know that world, but I don't I understand that I don't have what it takes to actually succeed in that field. Don't you say that?

Speaker 2 Don't you say that about that? Well, no, for instance, I've tried to read that book, A Brief History of Time. Yes.
It's not so brief. I couldn't make it past the first 10 pages.

Speaker 2 It should be more brief. I don't understand it.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then I thought, wait, you know what?

Speaker 2 They made a movie out of that book, A Brief History of Time. I'll just watch that.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I couldn't understand the movie.

Speaker 1 Wait, what, Jack? Did you see Ex Machina?

Speaker 2 Ex-Machina, great movie.

Speaker 1 Isn't that one of the best movies ever?

Speaker 2 Jack, have you ever done a science fiction?

Speaker 2 It's like Stanley Kubrick came back out of the grave and directed that kind of.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Do you know what I mean? That's a great movie.

Speaker 2 They haven't had a lot of Kubrick-y science fiction. I would say

Speaker 2 Jumanji is sound science fiction. That is science fiction.
The TV,

Speaker 2 you know, listen.

Speaker 2 You know, things happen. How else would you explain it, Will?

Speaker 2 I don't know, but no, but like a pure science fiction, Jack, have you ever done like, like, something like a, I don't know, there's maybe more to it.

Speaker 2 Would you want to do like an aliensy type thing or something like that? Would that get you down? Dude, you know, I love aliens.

Speaker 2 Aliens is a good example of something I feel like I could jump in because it was great science fiction. But then Bill Paxton

Speaker 2 came in and just crushed that comedic role. Yeah.
We're tossed, man. Amen.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 2 Another great science fiction comedy he was in. Weird science.
Weird science.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 he got turned into Job of the Hut. Big piece.
That's where Job of the Hut started. You know, that's a prequel, Job of the Hut.
Did you know that? No. Yeah.
That's where Job of the weird science.

Speaker 2 That's where it was. He gets turned into Jabba.
And then, you know, thousands of years later, Jabba is up on that planet. That's from

Speaker 2 that's Star Wars Canon. Huh.
Yeah. But that is the thing.
You want to find that thing where it's science fiction, but it's funny. And sometimes

Speaker 2 it works. It's kind of rare, though.
But one that comes to mind, what was that rad one where

Speaker 2 they were all actors, but then they... Galaxy Quest.
Galaxy Quest. Oh, Galax.
Amazing. Speaking of actors getting into trouble,

Speaker 2 Tropic Thunder is just... is and will always be one of my favorite movies of all time.
It is not something one could do today, I would imagine.

Speaker 2 I'm going to say thank you. Yeah.
You should. Even though I can't really take credit for it, but I was in it.
Yeah. And I did love being.

Speaker 2 You were a lot in it and a big, big, big part of how great that movie was.

Speaker 1 But Jack, everybody knows you have this incredible voice.

Speaker 1 You know, you really do have an unbelievable singing voice. What about a musical movie? Has anybody approached you about doing a movie musical?

Speaker 2 Like, you would have been great into the woods as well. I've got it.
Redo Flash Gordon. Yeah.
Right? Remember Flash Gordon with the Queen soundtrack of rock opera? Yeah. Come on, bro.
Oh, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 I love queen love flash gordon folded all together i'd love to see you it's it got the spandex outfits you like to wear in the gram the insta what's it called i would like to be that uh that character that that was like

Speaker 2 he was like oh yeah

Speaker 2 the dude the crazy dude looked like he was from road warrior i saw that in the theater do you guys did you guys see that in the theater yeah we're that old what was that guy's name the uh the blonde guy that was flash gordon oh yeah what was that guy i don't i think wait um jack tell me about i i remember reading about you you completely tearing your ankle apart on the last Conan show.

Speaker 2 You were supposed to do the last Conan show. Yes.

Speaker 1 What was the bit that made it happen? And like, what was the story? All I know is that you hurt your ankle.

Speaker 2 Okay, so that was a weird one because

Speaker 2 I was called up to do the final episode of the Conan Farewell Show, which is an honor. You know,

Speaker 2 we love us some Conan. You can't say no to something like that because you got to love Conan and all the years he's been awesome.
I was like, yes. But then I immediately started getting nervous.

Speaker 2 What am I going to do? It's got to be something special. It's got to be super funny.
And they came up with a really funny idea, I thought, where I come out, I'm singing a song to Conan.

Speaker 2 I'm getting really into it. I'm getting physical.
I'm taking off my clothes. And then I injure myself.
I get like, ah, my Achilles. And I go down and then paramedics come and they take me out.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Oh, God. This is all the bit.
And they take me out to the ambulance. And then I say, no, stop the ambulance.
And I burst out of the the back doors, and I come running back.

Speaker 2 I can't let you down, Conan. And I come back in, I burst in, and the crowd roars, and I finish the song.

Speaker 2 And it was going to be great. But then, when we were doing a pre-tape, because you can't do all of that live, you have to have the

Speaker 2 carrying me out to the ambulance and the running back into the theater done the day before. Right.

Speaker 2 The rest of it would be live, though. That's right.
So,

Speaker 2 on the

Speaker 2 running out of the ambulance back into Largo Theater,

Speaker 2 I stepped, I was running with some like funny shoes

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 in my speedo, so it was already really humiliating.

Speaker 2 I stepped on like an uneven piece of sidewalk, and they even had the tape there to let idiots know, be careful, because it's uneven here. And I rolled the ankle and I heard a pop and I was like,

Speaker 2 and I went down for real, and it was so surreal because it was so much like what the bit we were going to do.

Speaker 1 It's very meta.

Speaker 2 I injured myself doing the bit. And they thought you were still doing the bit? No, they knew that's not where he's supposed to.
Conan came running out, and everyone was like, oh, God. He tripped.

Speaker 2 The crew tripped. Yeah.
And then the people, Conan was like, there's the ambulance. Come on, guys.
Come up. And they're like, we're not

Speaker 2 paramedics. We're actors.
We were hired to own. We move on background.

Speaker 2 Is this a cut? Are we cutting? Are we in Grace right now? We just would have done, we're in lunch. There was a lot of confusion.
Someone made a quick run to get me some ice.

Speaker 2 Got the MRI, and it was definitely wrecked. And they were like, yeah, you're going to have to take a few months off.
And I was like, how long did it take to heal?

Speaker 2 I mean, to be honest with you, it's still not a hondo percent. Right.
I don't know if it'll ever be.

Speaker 2 Obviously, still in litigation, Sean.

Speaker 2 Yeah, what is the number you're seeking from the

Speaker 2 Conan production? Joe Hurts, I get it.

Speaker 2 It's part of one of the risks of the game, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 i don't i don't want to go sue and i don't think i would bury him in lawyers i would bury conan in lawyers was the appearance still um kind of somewhat salvaged um yes so i say to the the doctor later that day

Speaker 2 but can i go and just sing he's like yeah you can't dance you can't you know do any of the physical stuff you're going to do uh but uh you can sing just uh wear the boot so i wore the boot and i showed up and it was very heroic Actually, it ended up being, I think, better than what it was going to be.

Speaker 2 Did they show the part of you rolling the ankle as part of the net? Oh, they showed it. But we talked about it.

Speaker 2 Now,

Speaker 2 talk to me about those kids. Now, those kids are at 14 and 15.

Speaker 2 Speaking from my own experience, as early as this morning, I was talking to my 15-year-old about next year, we got to start looking at colleges. Are you prepared?

Speaker 2 Are you and the baby mama prepared for the empty nesting that's going to start?

Speaker 2 I'm not going to do well with that. I know it.

Speaker 2 Have you already started

Speaker 2 separating from your children just to preserve your own emotional well-being? I've already started atrophying all of my love and affection for my children because I just, I'm trying to protect myself.

Speaker 2 That's how you do it, right? You atrophy the love. Yeah, he did it.
That's how he's shutting up. That's how he thinks.
He did that at birth, right, right? When you were at the labor.

Speaker 2 I picked up the kid. I cut the cord.
I came in. He came into his labor.
He was like, these kids are going to leave me. Like everything else in my life, it's going to leave me.

Speaker 1 I got

Speaker 2 I think we are trying to do the opposite. Yeah.

Speaker 2 We're just trying.

Speaker 2 We're jonesing for the time like three years ago when they loved us way more. I know.
But, you know, once they hit those teen years, that separation,

Speaker 2 they're taking care of that.

Speaker 2 They're taking care of the atrophy. They're like, oh, you guys are so embarrassing.
Just stay away from us. I don't want to talk to you.
Right.

Speaker 2 It's part of their growing up is to emancipate themselves from their parents. Yeah.
You know, they're doing well. I'm glad they like going to school because I was the worst.

Speaker 2 And I thought, if they take after me, they're going to sleep through school. Did you do any additional voluntary school, college? I did some Hebrew school,

Speaker 2 but it wasn't really voluntary. My parents forced me to do it until I got my bar mitzvah at 13.
I was like, I'm done. And they're like, no, but you can continue to study.
No.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So there was no college for you. I went to UCLA.

Speaker 2 Wow. And I was a theater major, and I was there for like a year and a half, but really really just because my dad wanted me to get a degree.
Yeah. Not because I wanted to,

Speaker 2 and I dropped out and I ran away with the with the actors gang. Dude, UCLA is not

Speaker 2 an invite they just throw out. No,

Speaker 2 you probably had some good numbers getting in there. It was very competitive.
But

Speaker 2 yeah, I had some

Speaker 2 I had some, yeah, I got some decent numbers and it wasn't as competitive as it is now. Right.
You know, in 89, you could, you could, 88, 89, you could get in there with, you didn't need straight A's.

Speaker 2 Right. And maybe I pulled a couple strings.
Maybe some, maybe I got a little help. How excited was David Katz that he was proved right?

Speaker 2 This is the, this is the talent scout, David Katz, your step, aka your stepdad.

Speaker 2 How stoked was he when it really started to pan out? Was he just like look how good you're doing? Yeah. But also, what was your relationship? Like, what an awesome thing that he encouraged you.

Speaker 2 You recognized that that was something that was a positive. Yes.
And he encouraged you and then you really made it your life. And how did that affect your relationship with him? All that stuff?

Speaker 2 Yeah, very proud and definitely has been a great

Speaker 2 touchstone and person to talk to all throughout my career just to share with him like, well, now this is happening. And oh,

Speaker 2 I got an audition for this.

Speaker 2 You know, I'll ask him his advice and he gets a kick out of it and he also writes you know he he wants to get get that going too and I feel like God he got me going I got to get him going I gotta think I gotta I got to write a sci-fi thing you know it's funny you say that because my dad in the last couple years during the pandemic my dad wrote a book and a great book what's the name of it Willie be it's called Bean Fate and it just came out in Canada

Speaker 2 Bean, like the like a bean, like a jelly bean fate. It's a play on a word of BFA or whatever, whatever, a bunch of things, but it's French.
But it's not a French book.

Speaker 2 But he wrote it, it's based on a true story about these sort of guys

Speaker 2 in the liquor business during prohibition and stuff. And it's sort of like a based on true events.

Speaker 1 My dad wrote a book over the pandemic.

Speaker 2 It was called, I'm Out of Here.

Speaker 2 For real? No. Go ahead, Will.
Will? Sorry, go ahead. It's okay.
We'll cut that out. Thanks for watching.
Sean, I'm going to talk to you. You have an extra time after the session.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I'm really proud of my dad. He wrote this book.
And in the same way, I'm really psyched that he did that at this age. You know, he's getting on.

Speaker 2 That is amazing. He actually did it.
And he found a publisher, and he just got published. And

Speaker 2 he's pretty cool. And I think that I'm sure in the same way you feel that about David, like that wanting to encourage him to...

Speaker 2 I think he's pretty red.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, he's super creative and funny, too. I think he's a real character.
You could tell by my impersonation of him earlier that

Speaker 2 he's got some magic sauce. And I actually tried to get him going.

Speaker 2 He had an idea because he loves to Uber. And all through pandemic times, he was Ubering everywhere.
And I got him an Uber account. So I'm like, go crazy.

Speaker 2 Do it. XL Uber.
What a son. And he does the, and he says, he's always like, I've had, I had the most incredible conversation

Speaker 2 with this, this, this painter.

Speaker 2 And I was like, this is great. And he's like, I have an idea for an Uber.
I should do an Uber commercial. And I was like, I'm on it.
And so we went and we directed.

Speaker 2 We got cameras. We got some Uber drivers that he became friends with.
And we put like cameras in the Ubers and had him going all around town

Speaker 2 in Ubers and like just talking with people and having conversations. And I swear, it was the funniest little thing.
It was called, come Uber with me. And you would get in the Uber with David Katz.

Speaker 2 Did Uber see this? It was one of the funniest. Well, of course.
That was the whole point. We were going to make this and we sent it to Uber.
And they were like, ah,

Speaker 2 hard pass. We're not going to do this.
And also, you're not allowed to show this to anyone. Oh, wow.
No way. Wow.
It was kind of lame.

Speaker 2 But I felt like they were being so short-sighted because they needed at the time like a little humanistic, humanizing boost.

Speaker 2 But for whatever reason, you know, David, when he talks with people, he doesn't really have a filter and he'll say some inappropriate things. But that's where the funny comedy happens he says

Speaker 2 stuff you know that maybe culturally he'll cross boundaries you're not supposed to talk about things with people but um

Speaker 1 uh i think was that your taxicab confessions yes wasn't that that was on hbo i think that was great yeah yeah why don't they still do that you know a friend a friend of mine was on it and he was wasted and it was him and like two other gay guys in the back seat and they were queening out like girl like they were so over the top making fun of every single person in the world and then they were plowed so drunk and they got out and they go we're hbo's taxicab confessions would you sign this release form and my friend even though he was plowed drunk had the wherewithal to be like no i'm not signing that i gotta sign well i was gonna ask that question like how did they do they tell you before you get in or do they tell you after they must tell you after yeah there must be so many great episodes where the drunk person didn't sign the thing

Speaker 2 the only incredible episodes would be those right where he's like oh, no, no, no, no. No one's ever going to see that.
Dude, didn't Todd Phillips drive a cab on taxicab confessions?

Speaker 2 That sounds like that was one of his early gigs. No.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That sounds familiar.
You know who else? Danny Sullivan used to be a New York taxicab driver.

Speaker 1 And these people looking for Tracy.

Speaker 2 They are.

Speaker 1 Todd Phillips and Danny Sullivan are directors, right?

Speaker 2 Well, Danny Sullivan was an IndyCar driver, but Todd Phillips was a director. Yes, is a director.
Good director. Great director.

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Speaker 2 All right, back to the show.

Speaker 1 Jack, what's coming up for you that you're excited about?

Speaker 2 Like any projects that you're working on that are well Jack's got this new, I want to say because he's not gonna he's not gonna do his own plug ski So I'm gonna do it Jack's got this Kung Fu Panda series that's coming

Speaker 2 No way where

Speaker 2 really it's gonna be on Netflix. Yeah, great

Speaker 2 Thank you for bringing that up. You're right.
I'm not a real plugger. I plug other people's handkerchiefs, but

Speaker 2 it's back to the panda And it's funny because it came up in pandemic times. Panda, Panda.
There must be a way to connect those.

Speaker 2 But yeah voice voice work works great during the pandemic that's how this thing got started oh dude yeah no kidding because uh i was going straight crazy as it's been established and and they and netflix was like hey we're taking over your old gig the kung fu panda um and we know that you never do the tv show they got a sound alike to do that but would you want to do it now that we're doing it and i was like yes I want it.

Speaker 2 Just because I just wanted some like, I wanted some rad pandemic times like gigs to keep my sanity. Yeah, of course.
And uh, do you do it there in the little, in the room, you're doing this?

Speaker 2 Exactly. This is where I do everything, by the way.
It's a real boring, nondescript background, but um, this is John Spiker's studio.

Speaker 2 He's also a tenacious deep bass player and does all of our production on our last few albums. No way.
And so it sounds so good here. I was like, oh, I just want to do all my interviews here, too.

Speaker 1 It's the best, right? Are you one of those actors? Like, do you, do you panic if you're not working and then you start maybe writing something and looking for something?

Speaker 2 Or do you are you like good?

Speaker 1 You know what? I'll wait for it to come.

Speaker 2 He already answered you, dude. I wouldn't even let you finish.
Yes, the panic is real. I think that's an inherent part of being an actor or an entertainer.
Like, what is the next gig?

Speaker 2 And the whole time I'm working on a gig, I'm thinking, God, when is it over? I just want my Google Calendar to be empty.

Speaker 2 But then once you get there and the Google Calendar is empty, it's terrifying because it's like, wait, I think it might be over.

Speaker 2 It never goes away. Dude, dude, I do the exact same thing where I just, I'm like, I just, can I just have like five days where there's nothing to fucking do, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 And then you wake up on that first day of the five and you're like, where's all this stuff? I was. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 Wait, wait, Jack, I want to ask you,

Speaker 2 because we were talking about HBO before and stuff. How did Tenacious D, the show, how did that start? Start.
Obviously, you and Cage knew each other, but what was the genesis of that? I love the D.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I just want that as a, I want that as a soundbite.
I want people to take that. Me saying I love the D.
I love the D. And the D stands for?

Speaker 2 The D stands for defense, but now it definitely sounds like it stands for dick. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Love the D. Tenacious Defense, yes.
It didn't, no one was saying the D back when we first started Tenacious D. That wasn't a thing until the late 2000s.
Yeah. But anyway.

Speaker 2 It started, I was in the actors gang, and me and Kyle were both sort of musical people in that world.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 we sort of started our own splinter group. I just went over to his house all the time.
We smoked a bunch of weed and jammed and were just sort of best friends. And then

Speaker 2 we wanted to write the best song in the world and call it the best song in the world. We just thought that was so dumb and so funny.

Speaker 2 And we worked on it for a while and it wasn't quite gelling. The concept was wrong.
And then we're like, oh, wait. And it clicked.
We forgot the best song in the world.

Speaker 2 We did write it but we weren't recording because we're stoners and we're so mad but you know let's just write so the song is a lament we forgot with it's a it's a called a tribute it's called tribute to the greatest song in the world because we forgot it

Speaker 2 and that to this day is still our flagship song it was like back when we only had one song and it was tribute we've been chasing the dragon ever since isn't that what the concept of the film was too or am i am i kind of mad yes kick of destiny was was definitely a greatest song in the world-centric, but that was actually more about Satan's tooth that was turned into a guitar pick.

Speaker 2 That is my pride and joy of that film, because that's the only movie I've ever written.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 even though it was a huge box office bomb, I couldn't have been more proud of it. And I did feel like it was the best movie ever made.
Is writing the hardest thing you've ever done?

Speaker 2 It was the most satisfying and most fun.

Speaker 2 And that that was the biggest tragedy: is that the movie wasn't a huge hit, because if it was a huge hit, I would have gone straight into the next thing that I would have written. Right.
But, yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I mean, talk to our buddy Justin Thoreau. You know, he writes Tropic Thunder and

Speaker 2 he's not like dying to write, you know, script after script after script. You know,

Speaker 2 it doesn't automatically just kind of make you Patty Chaevsky. That's true.
But, you know,

Speaker 2 we did that and

Speaker 2 take your time, man. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Now I'm lost. Watch this, guys.
Watch this. I can't even remember where we started.
Where did Tenacious D come from? When you were very young. Well, that was it.

Speaker 2 That was the first time. No, the first time I missed it.
It's tribute. Oh, but

Speaker 2 anyway, we had our one song, Tribute, that we wrote. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And we went. and played our one song.
A friend of ours said, hey, will you come open for me

Speaker 2 in downtown LA at a little club called Al's Bar.

Speaker 2 And we're like, yeah.

Speaker 2 It was a buddy of mine, Steve Morimarco, gave us our big break at some like

Speaker 2 rat-infested bar. And there was 12 people in the audience, but they were kind of cool drunk hipsters.
And we rocked tribute and we rocked so hard. Like we put all of our guts into it.

Speaker 2 And one of the drunk hipsters, it was just the Lord, was looking down upon us. David Cross just happened to be there.
Oh, wow. That's nice.
That's what I thought.

Speaker 2 And he was like, you guys are really funny, man.

Speaker 2 I'm David Cross.

Speaker 2 Did he hold for applause after he said that? No.

Speaker 2 Because I've seen him do that. I'm David Cross.
He just is like,

Speaker 2 I have a comedy thing that I just started with my friend Bob Odenkirk. We do it.
It's Mr. Show.

Speaker 2 Will you guys come down and open for us? Play that song. And we're we're like, yes.

Speaker 2 And we didn't have any idea who he was. And we didn't know about the Ben Stiller show or any of that stuff where he came from.
We were just like, we got another gig.

Speaker 2 Didn't matter what it was.

Speaker 2 Gas up the van. And so

Speaker 2 that is really what led to the beginning of Tenacious D because Bob and David gave us a sweet slot.

Speaker 2 And when they went to HBO to do Mr. Show, They brought us along and made us the little appetizer for their show.
That's great. And that changed everything.
And really, that's how I got high fidelity.

Speaker 2 Then that's where School of Rock came from. Oh, wow.
So it's a big, that was a big turning point in my career. Have you sent David a muffing basket?

Speaker 2 Never even sent him. Yeah, nothing.
He got nothing in return.

Speaker 2 But now I'm giving him a loving shout-out. That's great.
That's pretty good up there with Ramosa Beach and the Hankies. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But this is like, this is like, but it goes to show how fucking small all that, how connected. Yeah,

Speaker 2 David sees you, he's drunk at a bar. David being drunk at a bar is not that odd, but David's at a bar, he sees you, brings you with Bob to do the thing.

Speaker 2 And then you end up, and he had worked on the Ben Stiller show. And then years later, you and Ben worked together a bunch.
You do it.

Speaker 2 The first thing I met you on was when you did Envy with Amy and Ben back in 2001,

Speaker 2 I think,

Speaker 2 or two or some shit like that. Like, and all those dots just connect.
Everything is so, it's so small and connected. It's wild.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 like, if anybody ever asked me, like, you know, my sister will ask, like, I have this, my daughter has a friend.

Speaker 1 What advice would you give them? Or advice for all these young people trying to break into the business or actors.

Speaker 2 It's just like you're going to be able to play the bar down, too. Oh, Als.

Speaker 2 Play Al's.

Speaker 1 Play Al's as much as you can.

Speaker 1 No, just get out there and just do it. You got to just constantly be out there.
Like, right? You were so young. How old were you when that happened?

Speaker 2 23 24

Speaker 2 our first show but no al's bar was later i was 27 when we played something like that 26 27 i don't know it's it's tragic how it's how arbitrary it is you know for any of us i mean you can think back to the start of you know and it's if we were in the wrong place at that right time uh it would have taken longer or maybe not at all and you think about all the talented friends that we have that just don't they have not found that moment of access.

Speaker 2 Are people championing you? Like whether it's David seeing you or David Katz, you know, seeing you, seeing that and recognizing that you're a kid who's got talent?

Speaker 1 No, is this the Chris Prent episode? He was a waiter at the Bubba Gump Shrimp thing in Maui, some casting director or whatever drugs.

Speaker 2 The casting director saw him there, and he was like, popcorn shrimp, barbecue shrimp, broiled shrimp, baked shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp and that thing.

Speaker 2 That's an old-fashioned Hollywood discovery story. You don't hear those very often.
The ones that take place at Bubba Shrimp. The casting director just walking into Bubba Gump shrimp.
Right.

Speaker 1 Isn't that the craziest?

Speaker 2 It's so

Speaker 2 insane. And

Speaker 2 the likelihood of them having mashed shrimp or short glasses.

Speaker 2 There goes Sean again. He loves a good food joke.

Speaker 2 Oh, God. He's got the slide right next to the mic today.
He's got a carrot top. Oh, he's got it right next to him today.
What else is in the chest?

Speaker 2 You guys should do. You guys should do, Sean, I was just thinking that you and Jack should do, because you both are such musical dudes.
Anything. We'll do it.

Speaker 2 I'd love to see you guys jam out on a musical comedy. Let's do it.
That would be fun. That would be cool.
Let's do a little...

Speaker 1 We'll do a little, call your Instagram friend up and we'll do like a 10-second or 15-second little musical.

Speaker 2 Sean just finished this play, Jack. He's going to Broadway soon, and he's playing Oscar Levant and he to rave reviews, by the way.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 That's very nice. And it's a play, but he also plays a piano on stage.
He's a classically trained pianist. Whoa.
True story. Yeah,

Speaker 2 he knows how to do it all. What's it called, Oscar Levant?

Speaker 1 It's called Good Night Oscar, and it's going to the Broadway.

Speaker 2 Who wrote that?

Speaker 1 Doug Wright. He's an amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
He actually wrote a movie that's being shot right now with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones.

Speaker 2 Whoa.

Speaker 2 I just went and saw a play on Broadway. I saw Hugh Jackman and the music man.
How was it?

Speaker 2 How was it?

Speaker 2 He was great, and it was great. And I was really jealous because I always thought that would be my play on Broadway.
Okay, so, but why wouldn't you do it?

Speaker 1 You have the voice, you have the stamina.

Speaker 2 Can you imagine if you were going to see Hugh Jackman and the music man there had a special announcement. Hugh has come down with COVID.
Tonight's performance will be by almost as good Jack Black.

Speaker 2 Oh, we got trouble, my friend. Wow, we got trouble right here in River City.
I'm an enormous Hugh Jackman fan, but let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 I would love to see you play. the music man.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm not going to say I'd be better than him, but I would bring some different things. What about Joseph with the Technicolor Dream Coat? Yeah, or Jesus Christ Superstar for that.
Why not Jesus Christ?

Speaker 2 Yes, Judas. That's the original rock opera.
Yeah. A lot of people say, oh, it was Tommy by the Who, but really,

Speaker 2 Jesus Christ Superstar, I think, was first, and it was a hard rock. JC, dude, go a ridge.

Speaker 1 Wait, Jack, I would be in the pit playing in the little orchestra, tiny orchestra pit at this dinner theater. And when you got to the last song, which was Jesus Christ, superstar, right? And

Speaker 1 I would be playing the piano, and they'd be like, the director was like, you know, you can just riff, like, just riff on the piano, like bang, go nuts, like rock.

Speaker 2 And I was like, okay, but I only knew how to riff in classical because I was classical.

Speaker 2 So it was so rinky-dink, like, Jesus Christ, pakatika, superstar, pakatika who do.

Speaker 2 Oh, I bet it was great.

Speaker 1 It was so embarrassingly bad.

Speaker 2 I know what he's talking about, too, the riff, because on the Broadway album, the original Broadway album, whoever was playing piano was going off on that. Yeah, it was cool.

Speaker 2 I remember coming over, Jack. I came over to the house a couple years ago with the boys, and

Speaker 2 you were doing your ice bath and you were doing the Arctic plunge. Yes.
Right. And then we went downstairs, and you and the boys rocked out in your basement.

Speaker 2 And Jack's got headphones in there, so he doesn't blow everybody's ear.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the drums get loud down there.

Speaker 1 Do they play instruments, your kids?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Sammy,

Speaker 2 my 15-year-old, has sort of lost interest in it. But now the 13-year-old Tommy, actually just turned 14, he's drumming like obsessively.
Oh, I really like the drums. Like

Speaker 2 almost too much to where

Speaker 2 I get concerned, but I'm also just like, good, get obsessed. Do play too much.
So you've got him on the, do you have him on the electric drums? Dude.

Speaker 2 Do you have him on the electric drums with the headphones? I spoil him. He's got an electric drum set in his room.

Speaker 2 He's got the real drum set in the basement because you really can't have a real drum set if you don't have a basement.

Speaker 2 You have to have an underground soundproof shelter. Getting back to the ice plunge, though, Willie, that's something that you do.

Speaker 2 And it's something that I've never understood because I feel like there's got to be damage going on when you drop your bits of bread. Jack does it.

Speaker 2 He keeps the hot tub hot and then he keeps the pool icy cold, right, Jack? Just never heat the pool. It'll get cold enough.

Speaker 1 I don't want to go in anything.

Speaker 2 I know, Jack, I do the ice. I have an ice, I have a, not ice, I have a like a cold plunge pool.
So it gets even colder than not heating the pool in the winter.

Speaker 2 I get it to like 39 degrees, and then like one degree above freezing. Basically.
And then I get, and I got the sauna, so I heat up and then

Speaker 2 I just feel like

Speaker 2 there's got to be damage going on. The body can't like that kind of shock.

Speaker 2 Kevin Hart does that cold-ass balls show.

Speaker 2 What's that? Where he's in the cold pool? It's an interview show where he only interviews people while they're soaking in an ice tub. Is that right? I should do that.

Speaker 2 I've heard that ice plunge actually is great for anxiety. Yeah, amazing.
You know what? Here's the other thing.

Speaker 2 Most, most like anxiety, mental health, a lot of stuff, but also a lot of physical ailments, including, and I'm not saying it's a cure for cancer or anything, but all that stuff, it has to do with inflammation.

Speaker 2 And that cold water reduces inflammation, man. It's so good for you.
But don't you think it would be healthier and more safe if you did it slowly?

Speaker 2 Like if you just started with room temperature water and you slowly like a frog in a boiling pot of water, that whatever that saying is. But like, I just think the shock of going in there,

Speaker 2 isn't there a risk of a heart attack? That kind of stress? No. I hear you.
No.

Speaker 1 Like a true American, I'm going to wait for the pill to reduce my inflammation.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 You know what it is? It's called Advil. They got it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Got it. It's a message.

Speaker 2 Jack, we've taken up way too much of your time, man. Yeah, that is.

Speaker 2 It has been so great having you guys. What a dear man.
I love you, man you're the best hey you know uh when i when i first heard you guys i was like oh

Speaker 2 i should try and get on that show but then i realized i don't like to do shows because i get too nervous for shows i only really ever do shows if i have to promote something

Speaker 2 but this was always on my bucket list i was like i gotta do that oh and you are on ours you're on all of our lists it should be known we we there was a lot of schedule stuff over the last like year and a half we tried to get you a few times because we wanted you i wanted you big time bad.

Speaker 2 So you can ask your peep. I fought it, but man, I was I wrong.
I mean, look, this was great.

Speaker 2 Ask our mutual peep.

Speaker 2 And then there was a lot of sketch.

Speaker 1 And I had to look you up right when you came on.

Speaker 2 Jack, we love you. Yeah, Jack.
You're the best, man. The feeling is mute.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Quick plug on the way out the door. And I'll just give you a little bit of a pleasure.
Yeah, quick plug. If you have anybody else you'd like to

Speaker 2 throw a plug.

Speaker 2 Jack,

Speaker 2 love you. Thank you, Jack.
Love you.

Speaker 2 Thanks, bye.

Speaker 2 Bye, pal. Say hi to Kyle, please.
I will say hi to Kyle. He's going to be jealous that I parted with you guys without him.

Speaker 2 Let's do one for old time's sake poker game seminar.

Speaker 2 Let's do it. Let's be so fun.
All right, cool. All right, Pali.
Ciao, ciao. Bye, Jack.

Speaker 2 Ciao, cow, ciao, ciao.

Speaker 1 He was on my list, Jack.

Speaker 2 He was on my list. And then we did, for real, have some skedge issues in the great Louis Kay, who we all love and adore.
Great shout out.

Speaker 2 But also had a tough time pulling that together because of skedge. And I don't want to throw Lewis under the bus.

Speaker 1 Oh, do you have the same publicist?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh.

Speaker 2 But he's also, you know, a friend.

Speaker 2 Right. But if he was a better publicist, probably would have put him on the show earlier.

Speaker 2 Probably, right. Listen, Louis Kay is, you know, he does the best he can.
He's still working on getting a full last name.

Speaker 2 So he's

Speaker 2 busy.

Speaker 2 How great is Jack Black? That Jack Black, I'd like more Jack Black in my life. He's such a mega talent, isn't he? Yeah, he is.

Speaker 1 You know, he's one of those people, too, like, he can make you laugh with just one word.

Speaker 2 Like, because of the way he uses his face or whatever.

Speaker 1 Or just like a little.

Speaker 2 I just start grinning as soon as I see him because he's so comfy in his skin and he's just a

Speaker 2 smooth dude.

Speaker 2 He falls into that category with me with Farrell. Like, you know, anytime Will walks in the room and you're always like, oh my God.
You just see him. And I feel the same way about Jack.
Yeah, same.

Speaker 2 He's fantastic.

Speaker 1 He's been in so many hit movies.

Speaker 2 And there were a lot more movies that he would be in back, what was it, 10 years ago, when comedies, they used to make a lot more comedies. I just don't get why they don't do that.

Speaker 2 They don't make sitcoms anymore and they don't make comedies studios. They don't make movies anymore.
Well, they don't really make movies anymore. Well, let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 You know what's doing really well is sci-fi. And Jack says he wants to do sci-fi.
Yeah, I would love to see Jack do it.

Speaker 1 Jack starring in like a big sci-fi.

Speaker 2 Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 What would you call a sci-fi comedy? And let's try to work buy bi into this title of this sci-fi comedy. Oh, wow, you're just saying it out loud.
Yeah, no,

Speaker 2 just identifying it as sci-fi.

Speaker 2 I think the audience is smart enough. They know

Speaker 2 we're not going to say that. No, I didn't mean to.

Speaker 2 He's got kung fu panda on Netflix. I just wanted to say that for his benefit because he never would say it.

Speaker 1 But you know what, Jason, back to your point. You know what rhymes with sci-fi's got it.

Speaker 2 Sean's got it. Yeah, no, he does know.
He just said it out loud.

Speaker 2 Are you just going to say bi-fi?

Speaker 2 No, it's going to say sci-by. No, no, no, no, no.
We have to come up with a title.

Speaker 2 What is a title of a science fiction comedy? Okay. No, no, hang on.
I need, before we get to that, I just need to get to Sean. You were just going to replace it with by?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
He was just going to say about say by aliens. By aliens.

Speaker 1 By aliens.

Speaker 2 No, that doesn't work. Bailians.
Do better. By aliens.
No, how about

Speaker 2 star buyers?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Holy

Speaker 2 fuck. Star Trek.
Bye.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. What the fuck is this? No, I'm mocking Sean here.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay. Yeah.
Where are you?

Speaker 1 I like sci-by.

Speaker 2 Sy-by? Sy-by doesn't even make sense. What about you, Will? Yeah, because it's at the end.
Let's have what's a classic

Speaker 2 about 2001 space biology. No?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 How about Bicentennial Man? Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 Right on with Robin Blair Williams. Okay, there it is.
Bicentennial.

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