Danny McBride is a comedian, writer, director, and actor known for his shows Eastbound and Down, Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, now airing its 4th and final season on HBO.
Danny McBride joins Theo to talk about strange scout leaders from childhood, the downsides of being a professional boogie-boarder, and how he’s always found a way to make his creative ideas a reality. He also gives Theo a special gift to commemorate the occasion.
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Today's guest is a comedian, an actor, a writer, and a director known for some of the funniest shows that anyone has ever seen.
He's going into his fourth season and final season of Righteous Gemstones, which just kicked off on HBO.
Vice Principals Eastbound and Down.
He's a legend, and he's one of the most requested human beings ever to be a guest on this show.
grateful to spend time with Mr. Danny McBride.
You've already filmed a few of these today, or is this just, am I the only lucky guy today?
Only guy.
Look at us.
This is amazing.
So thank you for your time.
Yeah, kidding.
We good?
Sick.
Is this going to have where all of our lines are, what we have to say in the interview?
That'll be up there.
Yeah.
That'll be so good.
That's actually not a bad idea.
If the whole interview were scripted, man, that'd be freaking pretty amazing, man.
Good to see you today.
No, I got this.
There's a place called Matcha Luther King that I went to, and I was like, this is, it just like, is that a, like, are we at that level where you're taking a guy like that and turning it into like a pun?
Yeah.
Matcha Luther King.
Yeah, it was cool, but it was just like, you know.
They have the, I have a cream drink.
It's just like the cream coffee.
I'll have a medium.
Yeah.
That's crazy, dude.
Good to see you today, Danny McBride.
Thanks for hanging out.
We're on.
This is happening.
We're doing it, huh?
Yeah, is it okay?
Perfect.
I was waiting for this.
Yeah, yeah.
I just definitely just having one of those days where it's like my skin feels all dry and stuff.
I wonder why that is.
I don't know.
I don't know how hydration became like the hot thing in the past 10 years.
Is that it?
People only started drinking water and hydrating the last 10 years, you think?
It's more prevalent.
People like stay hydrated and stuff.
I just think it feels more, it's more popular for sure.
You're in Burbank, though.
This dry climate out here dries you out.
Yeah, it might be true.
It's not like Charleston, South Carolina.
It's always balmy.
Yeah.
Sweaty.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, dude, I went to CFC for a semester.
Did you really?
Yeah.
The College of Knowledge.
Yeah, baby.
I used to live on King Street over there right across.
They had a baby store over there.
It was like women's fine clothing or something.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's still there.
Or body textiles or something.
They had a place called Silver Dollar Bar that we used to go to.
I've been to that place before.
Have you?
Yep.
Yeah, boy.
Charleston's a pretty fun spot.
God, it's great, except I took a girl on a tour one of the, I mean, it's one of the, I think it's one of the five most unique cities in America.
Totally.
And I took a girl on like a carriage tour or whatever.
And it was a, it was a black girl that I was dating at the time.
And a lot of it's kind of, it gets a little, you know, some of the history around there is some risk-added history.
So like, and a certain point, I'm just, I'm like, trying to tip the driver early, like, dude, just, like, just, can we change this to a ghost tour maybe?
Yeah.
So, but, dude, it's so fun there.
And you go out to like the beach and stuff there.
Do you guys spend time on the beach or what is your life like?
Yeah, I live by the beach.
And then, yeah, we're on the water all the time there.
That's like the beauty of that city.
You got all that water.
You got all those good restaurants.
The people are nice.
Yeah, it's a pretty, pretty sweet spot.
Yeah, and it's good.
And you can kind of learn to surf there.
People don't realize that.
You can kind of learn to like baby surf there.
There's just enough little wave action.
Just the perfect little waves.
Do you ever get out there on them?
I think I'm too top heavy to surf.
I'm more of a bodyboarder.
Yeah.
You ever seen big, heavy dudes try to surf?
It's really, it's hilarious.
It's like a Mr. Potato Head body out there.
Trying to surf.
The aerodynamics are off.
Yep.
Yeah, why don't they have who's coming out with the big boy board?
Big and tall needs a surf board.
This is where you have to just go all in on the boogie boarding.
Like, no, I'm good at this.
This is what I'm all about.
I could stand up on this thing, but I choose not to.
Dude, but is there anything a little bit nicer than being an adult boogie boarder at a certain point?
Yeah, yeah, it's true.
You're not going to pick up any new fans doing it.
And the wives are always just standing in the distance, like just waiting to get.
Shaking heads.
Like, I'm in it for the children.
You know, I brought you a present today.
Did you really?
Yeah.
I always like to share new products that I find useful in my life, and this is a dick laser.
Oh, damn.
What it is, is it's like a laser pointer that is a dick that projects dicks.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So if anyone's running their mouth too much in here, look at your shoe.
Look what I put on your shoe right there.
Whoa, that's cool.
That's pure cock, huh?
It's pure cock.
There's some variable settings on there, too, I think, where you can kind of change what nasty stuff you put.
That's the PG end right there.
That's just your light.
The other end is where you get the dick right there.
Oh.
So this is where you find a suspect like that.
Yeah, and then the other one's where you embarrass them.
Wow, dude.
Thank you, bro.
Yeah, you're welcome.
I think you could use that.
Anytime anyone's talking too much in here, you just throw one of those across their forehead and it'll shut them up fast.
Yeah.
Or if you see an old guy, you put a limpet on him just to fucking.
I make my cats chase it around the house.
It's pretty useful.
Oh, yeah, dude.
There's nothing cooler than that seeing some cats chasing a little cock around.
Those are the good old days, you know?
Bro, thank you.
This is so nice, man.
We've had two really neat gifts, and this is definitely one of them.
Cherish it forever.
Very, very sweet of you.
Was your neighborhood cool growing up, or was it like in a city?
I know you grew up in Georgia.
I know that.
I was born in Georgia, but you lived in Virginia, sorry.
Yeah, Virginia.
I was born in Georgia, and then we actually spent a few years after that.
My dad was a guard in the prison at Lompoc in Lompoc, California.
So I lived for a few years on the prison reservation right outside of the prison where all the people lived whose parents worked in the prison.
What?
All the prison family, like you were up there with those children?
All types of, I bet it's pretty diverse over there, was it?
It was.
Pretty tough crowd.
Yeah, it was crazy.
And I lived there, and then my dad got transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in D.C. And so that's when we moved to Virginia.
Is it scary being the child of somebody that works at a prison?
Like, what's that kind of energy like?
You know what?
I didn't really kind of get it until like, I mean, this was like, I'm talking like real little.
Like, I moved out of there and we were like in kindergarten.
Oh, yeah.
I can remember, though, one night the alarms going off, and like my dad came in and like rounded me and my sister out.
And we had to go into their bedroom and shut the door.
And I like looked out the window and it was just my dad with the shotgun going outside, jumping in the back of a pickup truck with all my friends' dads.
There was like a prison break, and they were going to go chase the dudes down.
It was like, ooh, this is some real shit right here.
Yeah.
Yeah, bro.
God, that's cool.
Yeah, because I wonder if you did like, like, if you're dad, I guess he doesn't bring work home because that would be like having an inmate come over for dinner.
I think if he brings work home, there's a big problem.
Yeah.
I we grew up by this, it was like a prosthetic kind of, not factory, I guess.
I think it was hoping that like after the war, like prostheticing would scale up or whatever.
But so, but it never really did.
But they had a lot of, they give us like the used, like the fucking, you could get them out back.
Sometimes the used ones, the ones that didn't.
Use prosthetics, ones that people didn't want?
Yeah, returns or ones that were they did to, they didn't, uh, it's not like veneers, but they just didn't do the edging right on it or something, or the hand was too small for the guy who wanted it.
It was too sharp.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, oh, yeah.
Can't even hug my wife with this.
Yeah.
But we would see, yeah, you'd have people like, or it would be two middle fingers.
Some, you know, guar fan would get like one with two middle fingers on it.
But that was something that was always funny around us because you'd see like people would chase each other with different little appendages.
You'd see fucking somebody, you know, not hit their wife, but throw a hand at her, you know, or something.
It's cool that you knew where to find those rejects.
That's good.
It was fun.
It just made things fun.
Or you see like somebody try to break into a car, but not using their own fingerprints.
Like try to.
It's brilliant.
Yeah.
Just type shit like that.
Commit crimes.
I like it.
Yeah, it's just, it was a different time.
But yeah, I miss that a lot.
I bet you you have influence.
You could probably get fake hands with two middle fingers still if you wanted to, I bet.
Yeah, that's a good question.
Somebody can send them your way.
They need that, though, dude.
Especially with just how things are going these days.
It's like, I think you almost want two middles.
Yeah, I feel like with the state of the world, we all definitely need more middle fingers.
Yeah.
We don't have enough.
Do you, since you live over there in Charleston, do you stay out of like, I know that you don't have social media and stuff like that.
You just keep all that stuff out of your life?
I really do.
Yeah.
Like when we shot vice principals, Walton Goggins and like Busy Phillips, they were on there and they were all, they were involved with social media and they were kind of telling me, you got to get in there.
It's awesome.
And so I like had an Instagram account for like a matter of a few months and was like, fuck this.
I felt like it was a gateway for just crazy people to be able to reach out and touch.
So I, yeah, I just wasn't that, I don't know, it wasn't my deal.
Some people I know are amazing at that stuff.
But yeah, it just didn't feel like a natural fit for me.
Yeah.
And so, but that's, it's just good that you like recognize that.
Yeah, it's kind of addicting and it makes you feel bad, I think, sometimes.
Some things are nice to see because it feels inspirational, but then sometimes you're just like, it's, yeah, you're keeping up with this kind of weird void, it feels like.
I liked it.
I liked it purely.
The only thing I miss about is I like seeing bum fights.
I like seeing all the schoolyard fights.
I like seeing fights.
That's what I like to see on there.
Oh, yeah.
They have everything.
They even have gas on there now.
So it's fucking, it's upscaled.
It's upscaled a lot.
Do you miss like being, when I was a kid, like things were dumb.
Like shit was just, you could be funny all day.
You didn't give a shit.
Like somebody had noodles or something when you got home.
Like there was just shit was possible, right?
Somebody had noodles when you got home?
Or it was just like everything was going to kind of be okay.
Do you miss like, but I notice as I get older, I just, my brain doesn't even come up with like some of the ideas and stuff that I had when I was a kid.
And like, like, do you notice any of that for yourself?
Like that you felt like your humor was different then or that humor changes as you get as you get older?
I just feel like I feel like if you're creative, being bored is good sometimes, right?
And I feel like sometimes with these phones, with all this information all the time, your brain is just constantly occupied by other people's noise.
And so I felt like when I kind of turned that stuff off, I just felt like there was all of this noise that just went away and then all my stupid ideas could flourish.
I could make jokes about noodles.
Anything was possible.
Yeah, that's a good call, man.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, because maybe sometimes I think I miss, that is what I miss.
I almost miss feeling, I know this sounds weird.
I almost miss feeling dumb a little bit.
Yeah.
Not knowing about everything that's going on in the world.
Yeah.
And not wearing all these things on my face that aren't even of my own life kind of in a way, you know?
And I had this weird thought about the other day.
Like, say if like you're a parent and you're always seeing like these cute things that kids do on TikToks and different things, I wonder if it affects the way a little bit, like if your kid isn't as boisterous or isn't like, does it like, I don't know, like just, I don't know, I thought about like it takes almost all of our like some of our good moments, like our good reactions or the things that are kind of supposed to be reserved for kind of real people in our lives.
Does it start to like take those reactions to those people?
Does it make any sense?
Yeah, no, it totally does.
I feel that you'll see people on there that are going on these beautiful vacations.
You're like, damn, how do they know about, how do they know to go to these places?
I don't know this.
Like you start comparing all these things in your world to what you see there.
I mean, I'm not someone who's like, I'm not against it all.
I think that there's also awesome stuff with just anyone being able to have a voice and anyone being able to reach people that have, what's it called?
But yeah, I think for me, I just kind of, I saw that it probably wasn't going to be the best thing for me.
So I just didn't participate.
Fuck, that's brave of you, though.
You're almost like damn Christopher Columbus.
I feel like you just don't see a lot of it.
It's cool, man.
I'm waiting for it to go extinct, and I don't think it ever will.
So now I'm just, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like the Amish, man.
I'm just pretending like none of these advancements are there, dude.
I'm just in my house making rocking chairs and selling, you know, taffy.
Is that what you do?
Is that what you spend your time?
Do you have some good hobbies, actually?
You know, I need to get some hobbies.
I don't have good hobbies.
I think my hobbies were always like making stuff.
Like when I was a kid, I'd make movies or write stuff.
And then once that became my job, then people are like, what are you into?
It's like, I guess just my job is what I'm into.
But that's what's beautiful about Charleston.
You can get on that water, you can get outside, and so that stuff is great.
Yeah, yeah, dude.
I had a roommate over there.
We would drink so much gin and tonics and just wet the bed all the time over there.
A lot of bed wetters in Charleston, dude.
Beautiful.
People are like, I'm on the sailing team.
It's like, sure, you are, brother.
You better fucking put a catamaran between you and your wife, dude.
Dude, what was, oh, you know who I saw yesterday speaking on social media?
The Rizzler.
You ever seen this kid?
Oh, I've seen the Rizzler, yeah.
Dude, I met him in person.
Yes.
I'm having dinner, right?
I was having dinner.
I look over and it's a kid.
And you don't want to look for too long because it's like, it's just not something you do.
And look at him.
Look at him, dude.
Oh, and you got a pic with him, too.
I love it.
Bro, I was so excited.
But it's kind of weird because you don't want to be like, I'm talking to a kid or whatever.
And then, but definitely, dude, I'll say this.
Wait, where were you guys at?
Is that Craig's?
I went to Craigslist.
The Whistler's just hanging out at Craigs.
It blew my mind.
There was like some guy in there who like had like overdosed on age or something, like some super old guy.
He's like, I'm a producer, you know?
He's like, I produced the Mayflower or whatever.
I was like, that was a fucking boat.
That was a boat in the 1800s.
But yeah, anyway, this was like, this is the coolest thing that ever happened.
So I was so excited.
And not to snitch on him or whatever.
First of all, he had two Pepsis or whatever past 8 p.m., which I think is.
That's late.
He's going to, the bedtime stories won't work anymore.
He'll be up all night.
Yep.
Yeah, that's a little late.
And some people say his grades have been suffering.
And I'm like, well, I think he's evolved past grades, right?
He's never going to have to learn anything.
He's just going to be able to do whatever he wants in this world, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
My son watches all this stuff.
So he keeps me up to date on who's who, the Rizzler.
You know, he shows me the ways.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was definitely nice.
I mean, it was just neat to see him.
It was interesting to be impressed by a child, but he's kind of like the Macaulay Culkin of like their generation, it seems like.
You know?
I mean, maybe that's a reach, but yeah, he was fucking eating at Craigs with some.
It just like, it was very bizarre.
And I asked him a question, and he just started doing his arms like that.
Did he do his little move to you?
Did he give it to you or no?
I don't think I got it.
I think he, I mean, I'm an adult and I shouldn't have really been talking to him, so I think it's a little, and the weird thing is you see all these adults looking at him.
It's just got to be so weird to be him.
It does.
It's like he's this generation Shirley Temple.
Yeah, he really is.
Yeah, he's an Italian Shirley Temple.
But it definitely looks like his, yeah, I just heard his grades have been suffering.
And I even was like the dad.
I was like, somebody said he's had issues in social studies.
And he looked at his dad like, you've been telling people.
Yeah, why are you talking about my grades?
That was kind of interesting.
My friend and I made a movie, David Spade and I wrote a movie.
Thank you for inspiring people to just kind of create stuff on their own.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah, I have some buddies who I think.
Steve Little was in it.
Yes, yes.
That's great.
Did you guys have fun with him?
Oh, he was the best.
Maybe him and Chris Elliott were like the best people that came in.
Man, that's great.
Yeah, Steve Little is such a, he's such a good dude.
He's so incredibly funny.
He's sweet.
Yeah.
Sweet and kind.
I love him.
He's like a, just like a teddy bear that's been like not in a halfway house, but definitely like boot camp, like could have been a wrestler type of interview.
And he's fearless.
He'll do anything.
He was like just, yeah, it was awesome just for him to be in there.
Did you cast for him?
Like, were you the picker for him?
Yeah, I was the picker.
Yep.
Yeah, when we wrote the pilot for Eastbound and we had that role, you know, we were, we just went to like, you know, we went through the regular casting process.
And honestly, like as soon as I saw him, then that's like where that character kind of like blew up then.
Like there was no intentions when we first wrote that that that character would be such a big deal in the show, but it was seeing how genuinely funny he was and how cool he was.
Then every season just became like, what can we get Steve to do this year?
And he never shied away from any of it.
He was always game.
He'd always take it much further than we ever imagined.
He was amazing.
Yeah, he's special.
And he drank out of those little, you know, those little creamer cups.
I saw him drink a couple of those in a row.
Me and him went down to Guadalajara, Mexico.
I guess it was beginning of last year.
I was launching this tequila brand, Don Gato, and I got him to come down there with me.
And we shot these ads for it.
And after the first day of shooting, I came down to the hotel bar and he was just there with a pad and paper.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
He's like, I'm handwriting my mom a letter to tell her how much fun I'm having here.
I was like, that's what I love about Steve Little.
He handwrites his mom letters.
It's a special person who does that.
Yeah, yeah.
He definitely seems like a hug that got left somewhere but rescued.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, we texted a little bit after.
I got to touch base with him and say, hey, but that was just crazy.
And it's just crazy.
Like you see people and you're like, oh, this works for casting because we would have friends that would send in videos and some of them are like audition tapes.
And then you're like, oh man, that's my friend, but it just doesn't fit for this thing.
It's just not the right fit.
It's like, it's super specific kind of to watch because I used to just put in audition tapes and I would never get booked for anything.
And I was like, but then this time we're getting the videos in because we're doing the casting.
You're like, oh, first of all, I see why I never got anything.
Like my shit was fucking very obtuse.
But then you'd have friends that would center roll and you're like, oh, this is almost perfect.
Or this would be kind of risky, but it might be adventurous.
That was probably one of the most fun things I think about creating something.
Yeah, that casting is definitely fun because stuff can just take a new life on.
And you're right.
It's one of those deals where someone can be really good and you can kind of tell instantly whether it's the right fit or not, not even based on their talent, but like whatever ideas you had in mind for what that character looked like or how they talked.
And you can kind of tell instantly when someone comes in, like, yep, or nope.
And I think that's a hard gig, man.
Just I've been lucky that I have like tried to write most of the things that I've done.
But yeah, just being an actress to show up constantly and put yourself out there in that way.
It's tough, man.
It is hard.
And drive over there and be depressed while you're driving over there, trying to do your lines and be in traffic.
Sitting in a lobby where it's a bunch of dudes who look kind of like you sucks.
Yeah.
Oh, God, dude.
Yeah, that was some of the tough.
Like, I did that for probably six or seven years, probably.
And I never had any hope that I was going to get, I almost did it.
I think I don't even know why I was doing it.
I think you're just in LA also when you're young enough, you have the energy to do it.
Totally.
With fist foot weight, you didn't write that, right?
Jody Hill wrote it.
Me and Jody wrote it together.
You wrote it together.
And you guys shot that on Super 16 or no?
Super 16, yep.
Okay.
And you made that without going through sag and stuff, right?
No, we was totally independent.
I think we shot it for about 70 grand, shot it in like a little less than three weeks.
And yeah, it was all just buddies.
Everyone just came down there to do it.
And yeah, I mean, it was, we had, Jody and I had both lived in LA for a few years at that point.
And, you know, neither of us had found like any real success.
And so it was sort of a Hail Mary of just like, all right, let's just see if we can kind of do this on our own.
And what do you notice that's easier about doing a film like that or doing something where you have to go through all the, where everything is more, you know, guilds and all of that?
You know, if you're at a place where you can afford the guilds, then you already have a leg up.
You know, you're already kind of in the zone.
That thing there was like, there's no one trying to help us make it.
There's no one, you know, they're not, they don't care about it not being the guilds because they just don't ever think it'll see the light of day.
So, you know, every bit of that is a fight because not only do you have to kind of get the resources and figure out how to do it and how to talk people into coming and doing it when there's no upside for them.
But then even once it's done, there's no guarantee that anything will ever happen with it.
You know, and so I think that can be pretty discouraging for people sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's definitely interesting.
Like we got, we made this movie and now we're figuring out like we wrote it and everything we funded ourselves.
So it's super scary because you're like, all you really have right now is this piece of debt kind of.
Yeah.
But then it's like too long right now.
It's just like we got to figure it out.
It just seems like it's, I don't know.
The whole thing's been super fascinating.
Yeah, it's a crazy process.
And now, especially the entertainment industry has changed so much.
And yeah, it's all risk, it seems like these days.
Yeah.
Do you do you envy things about the entertainment industry right now, like as opposed to whenever you kind of first got into it?
You know what I find interesting?
It's like I, you know, I went to film school in North Carolina.
That's where I met Jody Hill and a lot of the guys I work with.
And, you know, in the 90s, there was just like such a healthy, independent, like film market.
I mean, you were going to film school and you're seeing guys like Tarantino and, you know, Kevin Smith and all these dudes are just like making stuff that's pretty simple and it's not requiring massive budgets and they're finding audiences.
And so it was inspiring.
You felt like you could do it, like you were like anyone could do it.
And it's kind of funny that it was much harder to make an independent film than.
I mean, you had to shoot on film.
You had to like, there was all these elements of things that were super expensive.
Oh, yeah.
And it seems kind of crazy that with technology, it should be easier than ever to make something independent, but it feels like the market is like not as healthy as it used to be.
And yeah, it's kind of disappointing.
Yeah, I think, but, yeah, and then, but something new will come out of it, right?
That's how you kind of think, like, how does this evolve?
What happens next?
You know, that sort of thing.
Was there a movie that you like like that you made that you wrote or the role or some little piece of something you wanted to do that once you started to get a little older?
Because some of the, I'm like, fuck, this thing would have, for me, would have been great.
Like seven years ago, I think I could have pulled it off.
But now it's just like, do you ever think like that?
Like, was there some like, was there something you had, you're like, fuck, now I'm going to have to cast somebody to do it instead of do it?
I, uh, it's so hard writing stuff that most of the time when I have written something, it's been with the intention of going and making it.
I only have a few things that I've written that I didn't kind of move on, but most of them were just because it wasn't any good and it wasn't something to kind of pursue.
But luckily, all the stuff I've really put my energy into, I've been able to see it to fruition in some way or another.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah, but yeah, because that's what I think about.
Like I had this idea for this thing.
It was like sinkhole baby, right?
Like a guy, like the sole survivor of a sinkhole, right?
Yeah.
Sinkhole baby.
In a small town, right?
And people are like, they fucking love him because he made it because God picked him.
And he, and at the cafe, they even have like, they'll have like a little oatmeal there, but they put a raisin in it, like at the town cafe.
Sinkhole baby.
That's him, yeah.
Wait, and so you think that you've gotten too old to be sinkhole baby now?
Well, because, but then what happens is it creates a lot of hype when something happens to you that you didn't plan, right?
Like suddenly you're a celebrity, but how do you live up to that in a small town when you didn't really do anything?
When really God did it with gravity, and now you have to fucking live like the repercussions of being sinkhole baby.
And then you go on tour with like other people like hit by lightning guy and fucking, you know.
I think you need to make this, dude.
There's a story here.
Look at this.
I just feel sometimes like I'm just getting a little too old.
Hey, man, you're never too old to be a sinkhole baby.
That's one thing I've learned in this world.
Yeah, I think I believe that.
And I think I don't know what the second half of it is sometimes.
You got to go back in that sinkhole.
You left your phone in there.
You got to get back in there.
Your buddy was left behind.
Got to get his body.
Got to bring it up.
And then at the end, you go to the cafe and they put two raisins on top of that.
That's how you win in the end.
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Do you see Shane Gillis sometimes?
Have you seen him?
Oh, yeah.
I love Shane.
Have you gotten to meet him or no?
I have.
Yeah, we helped him produce Tires, his show.
He does produce.
You helped him produce it?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, I didn't even know that.
Yeah, because it's so funny that I think there's times that I see him and I'm like, oh, there's something about him that it's not this you, but it's just something about the way he is.
He's himself.
He's himself, you know, not polished and just kind of shooting from the hip.
That's good.
I think people respond to it.
I think they like seeing that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
He's a special guy.
And just like one look, he's like, yep.
And you're in, dude.
Yeah, he makes me laugh.
He does, man.
He makes everybody laugh.
It's good.
And it's cool to see him.
Like, Tires was kind of a comedy that I think kind of changed things because there's jokes in there that I feel like they wouldn't put on Netflix 10 years ago or even five years ago.
Yeah.
And now it's changing.
Do you feel some of that?
You know, I feel like this, we've always tried to push it in everything that we've done.
You know, I know people are like, oh, you can't make comedies about this, that anymore.
But, you know, even when we made Eastbound Down, it wasn't like they were asking for that.
It wasn't like people were like, we need like a racist baseball player that cusses at kids and does cocaine.
There wasn't like an ad in the trades for it.
You know, I think that you come in, you make something funny, and then that's what, you know, that starts new trends.
That makes people gravitate towards it.
I think that obviously you see people getting in trouble for saying fucked up shit.
But I also, like, I feel like it's very rarely do you see people get in trouble for actually like making something that is, you know, I think people get, I think people get in trouble sometimes rightfully so for saying bad shit.
But I mean, rare, I mean, I can't really think of where people really get in trouble for like making something that pushes the lines.
I mean, maybe I'm like forgetting things, but I kind of feel like a lot of times people just want their ass to be kissed.
And I think when you make something that pushes the boundaries, everyone's not going to kiss your ass.
People will get upset about it.
And you have to be cool with that being part of what goes with pushing the boundaries is that those boundaries are going to sometimes push back on you.
And that's just part of the deal.
Yeah, I almost relate it when you're saying that.
It makes me feel like if you tweet something, you're just saying something.
You're looking for controversy.
It's like, but if you go out and make like put out a conversation of something, then the response from people is different.
It is.
Like tweet, people just argue.
There's all type of shit.
But you go and actually put a conversation out, then it is more of like discussion and people at least respect that you had the conversation.
I think so.
I think that's what it is.
I mean, obviously, you can be judged on whether it's good or not, but that's a different thing than whether if you're just putting something out there that's problematic and people get mad about it.
I mean, it feels like that's honestly what you're asking for, right?
When people put something out there that's controversial, it's made to have people start fighting, right?
Isn't that part of how the whole thing works?
I think so.
Yeah, Shane just did SNL.
Did you get to see any of it?
I did.
I saw a couple beers.
That's a pretty funny shit.
I need a couple beers in my personal life.
I think I will fix a lot of things.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I fucking used to overdose every in Charleston, especially on Halloween.
Dude, one year I made out with three ladybugs, dude.
Oh, just the creatures, the ladybugs, the actual insects?
People dressed as them.
Oh, perfect.
And then you wet the bed and went sailing after that?
Perfect.
That's a perfect night out in Charleston.
That's the Charleston Decapalon right there, dude.
Oh, yeah.
Everything in Charleston seemed haunted.
Did you, Shane just did SNL?
You ever hosted SLL?
I've never hosted SNL.
Did you get asked to do it?
Did you not want to do it?
Was it a thing?
Is there any real gravity there, or am I just slurping around?
Because I'll fucking shine this dick on myself if you need me to.
You can.
You shine there.
You know what?
I love SNL.
I grew up watching it.
And one of the first movies I ever did was Hot Rod, which is produced by Lauren Michaels.
And when we were shooting Hot Rod, I met Bill Hayter and Andy Sandberg and Akiva and Yorma and all those guys.
And they were just coming off their first year of SNL.
And so it was cool.
I liked those guys.
And Lauren had actually kind of prodded me to see if I was interested in joining the cast.
But it was the same exact week that we sold Eastbound and Down.
And so I was like, as much as I'm flattered, this is what I'm going to go off and do.
And then none of them ever talked to me ever again after that.
God, yeah.
Well, after seeing Kenny Powers, how do you think Kenny Powers would pitch against some of today's hitters?
Do you think?
I think he would have to juice it up, dude.
He would.
He would have to.
Don't you think?
I feel like there should just be a special league for just all the dudes who juice it up, right?
Bring it up.
There's an Olympics that start.
There's a new dope Olympics that are starting up.
I love it.
That's a great idea.
The Trump son is starting up, which is kind of imperfect.
Is it really?
It's an enhanced game, so they call it enhanced games.
Oh, dude.
That's also what I call my erection a lot of times.
This is something else.
Yeah, because I'm on those pills.
But a group led by Donald Trump Jr. is infusing funding and some political muscle into the enhanced games.
And so, what's the thought process here?
This will sort of, anybody who wants to dope it up will stay out of the regular leagues and they'll gravitate towards this.
Is that what it is?
Come over here.
Yeah, it says he's offering $1 million for the first sprinter to break the 100-meter world record.
Can you imagine some guy just the rest of his body's falling off?
No, they cross the finish line, their hearts explode.
That's what happens if you win.
Yep.
Wow.
How do you train for these events?
I can't wait to see.
It's just going to be superhumans leaping over houses.
Well, I'll tell you how you train in our town.
You would meet up with the guy behind the Winn Dixie and get some Test 200.
First of all, you would hide it from your wife and have to pull over on the side of the interstate and shoot.
And you and your buddy, who have been like talking about how, who commonly refer to against gay folks, have to pull over and shoot it into each other's rear end.
Yeah, and then all your hair falls out and zips start forming on your back and your wife is like, what is going on?
What happened to you?
But you're ready for the three-legged race with your buddy.
I'm going to do it.
Yeah, I like that.
That's what, Matt.
I'll tune in.
I'm in.
You have your last season of Gemstones?
Last season of Gemstones.
I live in Charleston like we talked about, so I've been out in L.A. this week just running around, running my mouth.
This is my last day of running my mouth.
It's wonderful.
Oh, thank you, man.
It really is.
It's coolest for last.
Well, it's nice of you to say that and lie to me, but I will say that I waited in line one time to get a photo with you like probably maybe 10 years ago somewhere.
Really?
Where?
I think it was at Comic-Con.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Shit.
It's pretty cool.
I know people, when this show first started, I think everyone thought you were on the show.
They always thought you were Tony Cavallero.
Oh, yeah.
Tony's a buddy of mine.
Yeah, you guys had that similar vibe, I think.
Actually, honestly, when the first season came out, I remember I met with the reporter and they asked me what it was like to work with Theo Von.
Did they?
Yeah, and I was like, that's not Theovon.
Oh, I've had people come up to me and think I'm in the gymstones 20 times.
I'll play along with it.
Yeah, but oh, this dude's so awesome, man.
Tony's one of the greats.
But he's such a sweet guy.
He really is.
He's a great guy.
Well, somebody put our face right there.
I didn't even notice that.
Look at that one.
No wonder some people think this shit.
Oh, look at you, dude.
Look at you.
That's Trevor Wallace.
That's hilarious.
These days, you don't even know.
This is the magic of AI.
Look at that.
I'd buy it.
I know.
Wow.
And very similar chests.
Very similar.
Yeah.
I'm just noticing how much more ripped Tony is now.
Like, he was always strong, but God damn, that dude got really strong over the last few years.
Yeah, well, he just has such a.
Him and Devine, oftentimes when we're shooting down Charleston, those guys have the same schedule.
And so every day that they're not working, they're just fucking pumping iron together.
Are they?
Just getting strong, spotting each other.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude.
I remember they had a gay fella in our town.
He was a drug dealer.
So everybody wanted drugs.
So also that's how you also kind of like met gay guys, you know, or at the first time.
So they had really cool treats.
Right.
It was like, dude, yeah, these guys are fucking.
But I think it did a lot for our town because some people who may not have like kind of like, you know, branched out more, you know, or just like had more questions, suddenly you were sitting there high as hell.
Yeah.
And then more gay people started kind of like.
Drugs are the great equalizer, right?
Oh, yeah.
It crosses every boundary known.
Oh.
God, yes.
Oh, were the real life pastors that you used to that you sent your gemstone pastors like John Goodman and Baby Billy?
Do you send them, like, did you have them reflect on guys?
Do you go watch?
Do you get some front row tickets to some Osteen or what were you doing?
You know what?
A lot of it was just like watching videos and stuff.
And then I actually kind of went around and I did it.
I interviewed a few different pastors just before I told them what I was making a show about.
And just, you know, for my own ideas, my own insight.
And people were responsive.
They talked to me.
You know, my aunt, she actually sadly passed away just a few weeks ago, but she was a minister.
So I talked to her a lot about the church.
Really?
What kind of church did she minister at?
I think it was, I feel like she was a, it was in Atlanta.
And it was just, it wasn't a mega church, but it was one of those sort of these, you know, churches that can pop up in shopping centers and not look like your typical church.
And she kind of moved into counseling after that as well.
But, you know, I grew up in a household that was pretty religious.
My mom was, she did like puppet ministry when I was a child.
She would like do the children's sermons and stuff like that.
Oh, really?
Yes.
And do they hide behind something to do that is you out front?
It's like a little, we had this like PVC pipe frame with felt over it.
Yeah.
And then they'd hide behind there.
And my mom had like boxes of these puppets and she would drum up these little scripts and, you know, mostly Bible characters?
No, well, sometimes they would be, but sometimes they would just be these characters and they would have to learn Bible lessons.
You know?
That's crazy, bro.
It was like characters.
Like suddenly Paul reveres in one of the CDs.
Exactly.
But it was, you know, so I grew up with all that stuff.
So yeah, this is exactly, that's the kind of shit we do right there.
That was it.
Oh, this is great, Tom.
Yep.
And, oh, my God.
Yeah.
And the guy on the right, obviously.
Yeah, he's learning stuff.
He's learning about the, he's, he's singing a song about sinkhole baby, you know, and about how Jesus raised him up out of the sinkhole and made him into a little raisin.
Oh, that's cool, man.
Yeah, I'm trying to think if we had any puppets, like, no, what do we have?
We had a guy who was missing one finger.
Puppeting is a lot of shoulder work.
People don't think about that.
Got to have a lot of upper body strength.
Yeah.
You're a fucking, that's the French bulldog.
Stay like that.
The drama reaches.
Yeah, you're really building those shoulders.
Is your mom pretty proud of you?
what's you guys'relationship like?
She moved.
They lived in Virginia.
And then when we moved down to Charleston, she moved there.
My wife's from Los Angeles.
You know, I met her out here.
We were here for, I was here for like 20 years.
And so when I convinced her to move to Charleston with us, you know, figured it's only right.
Me, her, and the kids come down.
Her mom, who's an Angelino, she moved down there too.
So now for the first time in my life, I have like, I live in the same town as my parents.
And yeah, it's kind of wild.
Wow.
That's so cool, dude.
You like got to capture the whole dream.
I think that's everybody's dream.
I'm going to go.
I'll show them.
I'll move.
I'll have the girl.
I'll have the family.
You know?
It's been, it's, it's been nice.
Man, I, I always feel grateful for what we get to do.
And, uh, but the fact that like this show, all the shows we've done, I've made it with all the, my buddies that I met in college.
You know, guys I met when I was 18 years old.
We're, you know, smoking weed together in the dorm rooms, talking about movies and all this shit.
And now, you know, 25 years later, we're all still doing the same stuff.
It's kind of awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah, I wonder, yeah, I would like to get it to meet a wife sometime soon.
Where did you meet your wife at a certain location?
I met her.
She was like a friend of my neighbor when I lived at this shitty apartment over in West Hollywood.
And so it's just kind of one of those things where you don't have any money to go to any of these expensive bars or clubs when you're in your early 20s out here.
Yeah, unless you're the fucking Rizzler.
Yeah, except you're the Rizzler.
You're going to Craigs, dude, drinking two Pepsis after nine, living that highlight.
I didn't want to say anything, but yeah, his grades are down, but the money's up, you know?
That's his fucking life.
I know.
I went to college in North Carolina and moved here in 99. And man, this was a tough, this is a tough city to come into from with nothing.
You know, it's, it's, it's hard living, I feel like, when you get out here and you're waiting tables and PA and just doing all this stuff, making no money.
And it hurts.
You can't go do anything.
And every girl that's your age is dating someone who's 15 years older and stuff.
It was, it's tough.
Yeah.
And they take a girl like on a world tour and then you're like, I'm supposed to, what, take her where for a walk?
How am I even going to compete?
Dude, I remember on my birthday, I got out here.
I've been out for like a year and I bought a huge refrigerator, right?
I was saving, when I finally went and looked at the price, I was probably saving $60, right?
Nightmare.
I had to borrow somebody's truck to go get it out towards Resita, get it back home.
On my birthday, I spent my whole birthday doing this.
I get it over to the door of our apartment and it gets, it will not go in.
It's just a little too wide.
So now I have to take the fucking doors.
I remember sitting against the wall crying.
I was on steroids, but I was also sitting there just, and dude, parking spots were too small.
You'd open the, you couldn't get out.
You'd get a ticket and you would ding the, everything about LA was fucking impossible.
Yeah.
And it felt too like when the city, the city could be against you, you know, like parking tickets, stuff like that.
I mean, it just felt like when your day was bad, that's always when you would come out and there'd be a boot on your car and it would just get worse and worse and worse.
And that's the other thing is when you're kind of living on the edge like that, it feels like no one gives a shit either.
Like people would walk over you and you were laying on the ground bleeding, you know?
Yeah, it was tough.
Did you ever do stand-up to or no?
I never did stand-up.
No, I mean, I had to.
Do you desire to, you think?
I don't, I, I didn't really.
You know, honestly, I didn't even really have any ambitions to be an actor.
It's like, you know, I went to film school to write and to make.
I always kind of imagined I would just be behind the camera.
And, you know.
And that's true 100%?
100%.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I didn't have any ambitions of trying to be an actor at all.
David Green, who was another classmate of mine, he made this movie called All the Real Girls.
Bring it up.
It's a beautiful film about first love in Appalachia.
Ooh, really?
Yeah, but he had an actor who backed out of the show the last minute, and it was an independent movie.
And he just asked me to come down and play the role because he didn't have time to cast somebody else.
And it was the very first time I ever acted in anything.
And after Jodi saw it, he wanted to make a movie.
And he was like, well, you're the only person we know who's been in something.
So it's funny that we thought that was a leg up.
Just that dude right there we thought would somehow get something made.
Dude, it's so crazy that when you go from an idea, like even with this movie, like it was all emails.
And then we show up one day on set and there was a real movie going on.
Dude, I had to sit down for a while.
I was like, oh my God, I thought everybody was just fucking around.
And then it was a real movie and there's like people and people know what they're doing and people do know what they're doing.
People are yelling and people are, but there was, it was like, oh my God, this is really it.
And then you realize it's so hard to make something really too, because so many little things happen.
Like we got pushed by the fire for a week and it was like suddenly that changes everything.
And you have, you don't know if people are, and then we had a shoot one day, the day with Steve Little, where it's like the winds were 40 miles an hour.
We can't afford to reshoot.
So it's like, fucking pretend that the winds aren't 40 miles an hour.
We had the same thing on gems this year.
I mean, that's what a lot of this stuff becomes is it becomes surrounding yourself with just strategists, like people on your team that just know how to solve problems, because that's 100% what all making anything is, is you got your idea of what it's going to be.
And then every day it's dealing with something that's coming your way to make it less than what you want it to be.
And you got to figure out how to navigate it.
Yeah, when we shot the season of Gemstones right near the end, like there's this like pretty specific location to this season.
And I fought really hard to be able to get in this place and shoot there, but we only had limited time.
And the night before we had to shoot, like the last scene of the entire series, Hurricane Helena comes through that part of Carolina and just like decimated everything.
And this location that we're at, it's like 100 mile per hour winds, no power.
And it's like, there's no alternative.
You know, we have to shoot this thing.
You have to just do it.
So it's like, like, well, once these hurricane force winds die down, maybe we'll try to get some extension cords and finish this thing off.
And that's exactly what we did.
It was crazy.
Damn.
Yeah.
I think it's the thing no matter what level things are at, if you're doing something in your backyard and you and your brother plan to shoot something and then halfway through, he doesn't like his attitude changes and he goes in the house.
Yeah.
It's like it's always, and that ruins whatever your little plan was.
It's always something, right?
There's always something that's going to show up.
How do you know when a show is done like this?
You know, I wasn't sure with this.
I mean, I've been really lucky with HBO that they've always been real supportive of the stuff I want to do and they're awesome partners to have in this.
And man, I think it kind of just came as we started writing this season.
To me, it just felt like it.
I felt like when I was starting to write it, like everything I was kind of gravitating towards was like about closure and sort of wrapping up these characters like longer stories.
And so I kind of kept myself open while we were shooting, like in case I got any other ideas of like maybe I'd come back and do another one.
But as we kind of shot more and more, it just, it felt like it was the end.
It felt like it.
Yeah.
And I, I don't know, TV is one of those things too, where it's a strange art form because if it's good, the reward is you just get to keep doing it and doing and doing it.
But sometimes that doesn't necessarily make for the best story, you know, just to have, you know, all right, this is like the 10th time these characters have almost died, you know, like lost or whatever that show.
Yeah, where things can overstay their welcome.
And, you know, I mean, it's people are getting hit with so many things these days.
Like there's so many things vying for your attention.
It's a lot to ask an audience to like stick with the show for 10 years or something.
You know what I mean?
And just think that your taste in 10 years will be the same as it was when the first season came out.
So for me, I didn't want to stay in it longer than we needed to.
I never wanted to make it something where it didn't matter.
I always kind of wanted to make sure it was relevant and something we were all having fun doing and never kind of evolve into something that just feels like a job.
Yeah.
Was there something special that you like to do for your crew and stuff like that?
Like you talk so much about like the guys that work for you and work with you.
I'm sure you use a lot of the same crew and stuff too because you develop relationships.
You know how people are going to work.
You know what people will be there for you on those, you know, when it's 1 a.m.
and you're like, what the fuck are we going to do right now?
What's something you like to do for them?
I've heard that you do nice things for them.
Yeah, we just like to party.
I mean, to me, I feel like it's one of those deals.
We like to rock and roll.
But I do feel like, you know, especially living down there, when you're asking people to come work on the show, you're asking them to like leave their lives, leave the comfort of their homes, sometimes leave their spouse or their partner and come down there for, you know, six months to come work with you.
I've been on stuff where I've been on location and it's sort of like, yeah, good luck, buddy.
You know, you're just going to end up, you don't know anybody.
You're sitting in a hotel room.
It's the worst.
And so I always just try to.
At a Weston.
Yeah, exactly.
I just try to avoid that.
I mean, you obviously everyone's different.
People want their own, sometimes people want to be left alone in the Weston, but I try to just make everybody feel like they're at home when they come there.
Like try to make them have a good time.
And ultimately, it's like, you know, for me, it's the whole idea that we get to make this shit is so much fun.
Like, I don't even watch these things after we're done.
I don't even go back and watch any of this stuff again.
My experience with it is like the act of making it.
That feels like the climax to me.
I'm in, you know, I'm on, I oversee like every cut of this show and in post.
But yeah, once this stuff like is done, I'm kind of done with it.
You know, it kind of feels even the old movies from pineapple to tropic.
It's like I'll see them at the premiere and then I oftentimes just will never even see them again.
You know, I'll see clips of things online and be like, oh, that's crazy.
I remember that.
But I don't know.
I just, I have a lot of fun making this stuff.
I like collaborating with people.
Like you were saying, those problems that come up, solving that stuff, that feeling of accomplishment when you do sort of dodge a bullet.
Like that's the excitement and the fun for me.
Yeah, I notice I don't like the acting part.
I notice I like the giving somebody an idea and be like, not telling the other actors and stuff and be like, try this, dude.
Yeah.
And then seeing what that creates.
Yeah, that's the beauty of it all.
Yeah, we had this one moment, like Spade is like taking this dog for a ride because the company, he works for this company called Last Lap.
They give dogs rides like they're like that are about to be euthanized or whatever.
He gives them a couple more spins around town, you know, in his car.
That's nice.
That's a nice thing to do.
Yeah, sweet guy.
So he pulls up and then it's like Kirk Fox, you know who he is?
Kirk Fox pulls up next to him in a truck.
And Kirk's just been like looting in the area.
I guess they're at a stoplight.
And he's like, what do you guys, you guys get anything good?
He's like, yeah, we just got a hot lead on John Benet's wedding dress, right?
And that came from your dome?
That was out of your pocket?
I just knock over just like a fucking, like a, like a fucking Navy SEAL.
I just put this little fucking, I just shine that guy right in his soul.
And then I went off and hid in the distance.
And that's what I noticed.
That's the only thing I always loved.
I always liked, even when we were a kid, like we would go like, like not getting molested, what's called camping with people's dads, right?
Not getting molested.
No, you were right.
The first thing you said was right.
It was like Cub Scouts or whatever.
But I remember one time we left and I told everybody that Jay Leno had died, right?
Right.
And you couldn't check back then.
So the whole weekend, you would hear the dads talking about it and kind of reminiscing about Leno and some of their favorite guests and shit.
And I would be in my tent laying down, just crying out of my fucking little penis.
I was crying out of laughing so fucking hard.
Man, those, that, that kind of stuff was Boy Scout camps.
I went to a Boy Scout camp when I was a kid.
And I remember it was like, we had this, our cub master was this, was one of the kids' dads.
And it was him with, you know, 12 boys.
And we're camping.
And he just got over the course of the week, he just got stranger and stranger.
And at one point, he just kind of like left, you know, left the camp for a while.
And it had been a bit since he'd been back there.
And every night we would always notice that he'd go into his tent and he would just like lay down and put these headphones on and just kind of lay there.
And so I was so curious, like, what is this motherfucker listening to?
And I'm probably like 12 years old.
And when he was gone, I snuck into his tent and I picked up his headphones and I put it on and hit play.
They were like messages from his wife talking about how he was a good man and like all it made me terrified of the robot.
Like, let's just get me home.
This guy's sitting in here just like listening to his wife pump him up with these 12 boys in the woods.
Oh my God.
That's so sweet of her to make all that.
Why did he need it though?
Like that's what it was like.
It seemed like the tires are about to fall off.
Probably keeping him on the end of a fucking rope, dude.
That's crazy, dude.
I almost got sent home from that camp, too, because I pulled a knife on a kid.
Not for real.
No, of course.
But I had that, you know, when you're that age and you have your little knives, your little Boy Scout knives, you're constantly playing with it.
And I guess this other troop walked past us and I'd pulled that knife out and they thought I was like fucking threatening someone.
And I had to go into the office and explain myself, you know, and I got my knife taken away for the rest of the week.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude.
There was something I remember like when I was a kid, we used to, well, we'd get one thing we would do for fun.
I remember the mosquito truck.
We'd come by and we'd get on our bikes and fucking ride behind it and just huff the gas.
Just get high.
Bro, we would be fucking cooked, dude.
Just like unbelievable.
A trail of dead mosquitoes around.
Everybody's singing.
Dude, bro, if I got, went near a bird, it would die after that.
Like anything, anything that could fucking hit the airwaves is dead.
I couldn't even pick up AM radio, bro.
I was like, anything that could fly was, it was, that was something fun.
I remember.
I remember being in the woods, and somebody would say, like, I saw something.
And then you would run.
The fear that went, you didn't see anything.
Somebody did.
And they started to leave.
And suddenly you were alone.
Even if you were one step alone in the woods from your friend, it was like, it's going to get me.
There was like, oh, yeah, we used to, I grew up in Virginia and it was a neighborhood that was like brand new.
It was like in the 80s.
And like, so it was all woods and stuff and all construction.
It was all like, they were just building one of those big subdivisions.
And we were like one of the first houses in there.
And so me and my friends would just have like the run of that place.
I mean, we were constantly doing that.
But there was like this one construction site and we were young.
This is probably like fourth or fifth grade.
We would just like go there at nighttime and just like take all their lumber and their shit and go make ramps and go build tree houses.
And there was this one house that we kept doing it to when there was a construction site.
We built like a tree fort with all the wood.
And I guess the guys who were building the house found out where it was at and we came out to our tree fort and they had like ripped everything down.
They had like taken it all down.
So then that next day we went to that place and we fucking destroyed that house.
We took center blocks and threw it through the walls.
We're like these fourth graders thinking we're just going to show these guys meanwhile there's some family that has to stay in a just no sense.
But it was like we took it personally like we stole that lumber fair and square.
These mothers, they're good on our on our diamondback, you know, freestyle bikes, our BMX bikes, just thinking we run, we ran that shit.
Yeah.
Dude, I would try.
Oh, we had a glitter.
I don't know if it was a glitter truck.
I think it was a glitter truck that toppled over like in the interstate near us.
And it was like, and it was like kind of, I guess, a windy time of year.
And our fucking town had glitter in the area for two years.
In your lungs, everywhere.
I mean, you fucking, you couldn't even.
You just, you'd meet somebody and half of them fucking.
They're shining.
It's crazy, dude.
Those are good days.
It is crazy.
If you have a construction site, if you're building a house, if any kids in the neighborhood, all they do is get in there and break shit.
They have no concept of like, someone's paid money for this.
Someone's waiting to move their family in.
It just is looked at as like, this doesn't matter.
No one lives here, so we can do what we want.
God, those are the best times, man.
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That's just who I am.
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Yeah, that's the stuff that I think sometimes about getting older.
It's like, do you ever start to think like that you only get to do so many things?
Does that start to become a thing in your head at all?
I mean, you've been, you know, so proclivative or whatever it's called, but prophylactics.
Prophylactics.
Yeah.
You've been so prophylactic, you know?
But do you ever start to think about that?
Like, shit, I got to, you know, or is it kind of like, I know, I've had a good amount of time to make what I've wanted.
I, I, you know, I sense it with my kids, you know, when I was living out here in Los Angeles, like we lived up off of Mohan and my son was like, you know, he was, you know, he was like in kindergarten.
He's starting to like, you know, he's like, I want to learn to ride a bike.
And I'm like, why?
You're never going to be able to like ride a bike up here on Mohan, you know?
And I started seeing that.
I'm like, oh, he's not going to have the same experiences I had, that level of freedom of just kind of like coming home from school, dropping your book bag off and just like taking off until the sun went down.
And that stuff is important, you know, that little bit of independence.
I kind of kept feeling like every time he got to play with somebody, there was always like me and my wife having to like orchestrate it and sit there in the background watching them play.
And, you know, and that was kind of one, honestly, like the main reason why I wanted to move back to the South is I kind of wanted to go somewhere where he could, you know, unleash.
He could get on a bike and have a little bit of freedom and kind of have that.
You know, It feels like you can always move to the big city, but it's definitely harder if you're a city boy to kind of like go back, you know, go somewhere small.
So I kind of wanted them to have a little bit of that sort of life, a little taste of that, you know, and then, yeah, because like you said, it goes by quick, you know, pretty soon, you know, you can't just go destroy a construction site without ending up in prison.
You know, I wanted him to be able to go destroy some construction sites and just get a slap on the wrist.
Yeah, some drywall.
Yeah, I wanted him to fucking do it some drywall.
Yeah, I moved to Nashville a few years ago and I like it over there.
I just live in like a regular neighborhood.
My neighbors are just like, as a soccer coach, it's like, just, it's neat, you know?
I like it.
It's more peaceful.
It feels just like a very small city.
Yeah, Nashville's fun.
I like it down there.
I think it's cool.
It's fun over there, definitely.
And Chattanooga is fucking great.
You've been there?
I haven't been there.
God, dude.
It's fun, huh?
Yeah, just like there's like mountains, whitewater rafting.
It's all, it almost, everything you wish was in Nashville that isn't.
Yeah.
And it's smaller, feels good.
Oh, I got to go over there.
I'd never even been to Nashville until we moved to Charleston.
I think my wife and I were just like looking for what was a quick trip away.
And Nashville is so close that we saw it.
But I think it's fun down there.
It's a Chattanooga, though.
I got to check that out, huh?
Chattanooga is beautiful, man.
They have this walking bridge where you walk.
It's like it used to be a bridge, but they shut it down or whatever because it couldn't bridge anymore or whatever.
So basically, it's just like a...
Yeah, it's just like a brave road, really, at that point.
But they turned it into a walking bridge.
And so they built like a newer one next to it.
Yeah, but this whole area is awesome, man.
It's beautiful.
They have a place called Lookout Mountain there.
You can see like seven states or something from it.
A lot of Civil War shit.
If you're big into Civil War reenactments and shit, like my buddy's dad used to referee those and shit.
So we'd go watch those a lot.
And like, so I love that kind of shit.
I love a fucking cannon, dude.
I love Civil War stuff, too.
I grew up in, you know, after we left California, I grew up.
I spent most of my time in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
And so there's a ton of Civil War stuff there.
And, you know, my backyard, I'd find like Civil War bullets and stuff.
I mean, we were all, you know, it was, that stuff loomed heavily over my childhood just because it was so close.
I mean, I even have a buddy that his old man would put on night vision goggles and go out to the National Park battlefields and go metal detecting because, you know, that's a federal crime.
You're not allowed to go do that shit.
And he would go out there and just outrun those park rangers and just get bullets and bayonets and all this stuff.
We'd always like play around with all that stuff in his garage.
It's kind of amazing.
He's riding his dad in prison.
Dear dad, thanks for the rusty bayonet.
It is worth every minute.
Bro, that shit was a big part of growing up in the South.
Somebody would be like, dude, they found arrowheads on our property.
Rusty shit.
They found a fucking canteen from 70 years ago.
That was a huge thing about growing up in the South.
It is.
My buddy, who still lives back there, I went to go visit him a few years ago.
And we were supposed to catch up.
In Virginia?
In Virginia.
We were going to catch up downtown for a few beers.
And he's like, hey, man, come back behind the high school here.
I want to show you something.
Uh-oh, here we go.
But I went back behind the school and we kind of like walked down to the woods and we come down there and he's found this place that he's like completely like roped off like it was an archaeological dig site.
And I'm like, what the fuck is going on back here?
And he's like, man, I think I found like an old Indian camp here.
And he started showing me all this shit that he had found.
It was like weird like pottery and arrowheads and all this stuff.
And it was amazing.
He found it on his own.
And he was just like, yeah, man, if you, there's so much of that stuff here that basically if you just like look for some place that had like access to water and had a lot of sunlight during the course of the day that nine times out of ten, somebody would have saw that as a place to set up camp.
And then you start digging around and it's all under there.
And like, man, it was, it was cool.
But it made me start looking at everywhere a little differently.
You know, it's cool.
Yeah, dude.
They had a guy who hid a treasure.
Do you see that?
He hid treasure for like 10 years.
Somebody finally found it.
Oh, wow.
He hid a couple million dollar treasure and it finally got found a few years ago.
He made like a treasure, like a story about it.
Oh, gotcha.
So he had like a little, like, put a call out.
Scavenger hunt, and people looked for it for years.
Couple people died looking for it.
Oh, that's sick.
God, I used to always want to look for bodies on the side of the interstate.
That's my big thing.
Oh, you were just trying to make a sequel to Stand By Me?
Just trying to find Browers, Flowers, whatever the fuck his name was.
Yeah, Stand by I-65 is what it's going to be called.
But yeah, that's something that I always wanted to do.
I want to ask you about your kids before you leave.
What's something that you admire about your children if you're okay talking about your children?
Yeah, of course.
You know, it's cool to you to leave for the, you know, that one of the reasons you wanted to leave that was for them.
It's kind of neat.
Like, you know, to be able to make do choices like that, like with social media, just like to make kind of like choices that are for the betterment of yourself or others is pretty, it's harder to do these days than I think people think.
So it's something that it seems pretty neat that you're able to do.
But yeah, go on.
Yeah.
Well, you know, like I said, my wife is from Los Angeles.
She grew up here.
So she had never really lived outside of California.
And I liked LA.
I liked living here.
I had a blast.
But yeah, once I had kids, it wasn't like I thought they would have like a terrible childhood growing up here, but I just knew that there were going to be certain things that they wouldn't be exposed to that I just thought would be useful for them to be exposed to.
And my wife and I, we headed down to Charleston for a long weekend to kind of like just take a look at it without the kids and just sort of like, could we do this?
Like, could we make a run at this?
What are we going to do?
And we had looked at some houses and then we were kind of sitting in this bar just having a drink, kind of like writing down on a napkin, like the pluses and minuses, like how realistic it would be.
And I remember looking out the window and there was like a group of probably, you know, 10 kids, like probably between the ages of like seven and 15 on skateboards and bikes and jean shorts, no shirts, carrying fishing poles, not a parent in sight.
And I was like, yeah, we got to move here.
Like this is like exactly what I want our kids to be able to do is just that.
I want them to be able to like be free to kind of like explore the world and to see things without having to worry about them so much.
And so that was cool.
And I mean, my kids are just, I don't know, my daughter is like insanely funny.
She's like, she's 10 years old and she is.
I mean, like, I mean, honestly, like before she even talked, she was giving people the bird, flicking people off.
Like, I channel her in that character, Judy, the sister in Righteous Gemstones.
You do?
I do.
I channel my daughter in that a lot of times.
Dude, I got to interview that lady one time.
She's amazing.
Edie's balance.
She's the best.
Edie's amazing.
That's so funny that you would channel even a child.
Yes.
And Edie and my daughter have a very special relationship.
Edie calls it that they're in the Bad Girls Club.
And so every time Edie talks to my daughter, she'll be like, Bad Girls Club, and Peanut will give her a high five.
But yeah, my daughter came by the set this year, and there was a dead body on the set, not a real one, but and there was like fake blood.
And she was like, kind of obsessed with like, what is this?
There's fake blood.
Like, what is that?
And I started realizing, oh man, yeah, she doesn't have any concept of what this is or what I do when I leave.
And she kind of got really obsessed with this idea of fake blood.
And our props master gave her this big tub of like, you know, fake movie blood.
Oh, that's great.
And she uses it all the time.
Really?
She'll call us in and she'll be like laying in the shower with like blood coming out of her belly button and out of her neck and pretending to be she's a sicko.
Yeah, it seems like these are going good over there.
What I would, dude, my brother, so my dad was like real old when I was born.
My dad was 70, who's an older man, you know?
And so my brother used to do this thing.
I've talked about it before on my comedy show, but he'd be like, dad's dad.
He'd come in the room, right?
That was his bed.
His dad was like, you know, dad would be 79. And he'd come in.
I'd be doing something like, dad's dad.
And I'd be like, you know, the first time I was like, no, no, don't, you know?
And I'd go in there and he would be alive, right?
And then it got to, this is where, this is where I knew, this is when something I think got weird maybe in my head because I would be like, he better fucking be dead or I'm going to beat your ass, right?
It became like just the whole juxtaposition of that little thing in my head.
Like, he fucked, if I'm going to get up now.
I better see a dead body.
I'm going to be pissed off.
Yeah, bastard.
And then look, you got older and you did that to other people by telling people Jay Leno was dead.
You helped spread that trauma.
Yeah, dude.
I love that kind of stuff.
I just, yeah, there was something so much fun about being young.
And Michael Landon was supposed to come to our town one time and meet people at the fair and my mom got all dressed up and went and he didn't come.
Oh, that's a bummer.
That was a heartbreaker.
Is that why you have that Michael Landon cutout there?
Yeah, we like to have that.
I'm a big Highway to Heaven fan.
I'm a big Victor French fan.
You kind of look like a young Victor French actor.
I like that.
I loved Highway to Heaven.
God.
That was good.
It was so good.
I wouldn't have pegged you for a Highway to Heaven fan.
That's good to know.
Oh, yeah.
Dude, I was, yeah, we grew up on that TBS.
Like the Olsons.
Oh, yeah.
Look at him.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah, he's a good dude.
Look at that.
Yeah, that's very you.
I think we could do that.
I could see you being Michael Land.
I think we could, let's redo Highway to Heaven.
That's the next thing.
Let's do it, dude.
We'll call it Highway to Hell.
How about that?
Yeah, dude.
It'll be just one off ramp.
Yeah, we just meet people and ruin their lives.
That's what we do.
It reminds me of the movie Family Man.
Have you seen that movie?
Which one is that?
Nicholas Cage.
It's a Christmas movie.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's been a long time.
But yes, I remember that film.
I love that movie, dude.
That's one of my favorites.
The first movie I ever saw, I think, was, yeah, that's it right there.
Did you ever get to work with Nicholas Cage?
I haven't, but I'm such a fan of his, man.
He's so awesome.
Yeah, he seems so interesting.
Yeah, and that little turn he had in Long Legs last year.
I mean, how scary is that?
Dark arts.
Dark arts, yes.
Satan shit.
Yeah, dude.
I think we need more of it.
You know what I'm saying?
That's definitely what I think.
When I look at the state of the world, I feel like what the world needs now is more devil.
Let's fucking party, dude.
Let's amp this bitch up.
Was there ever something weird, like once you started making some money?
Because making money is an interesting thing, right?
Like some people really get into it and that's their thing.
But it's like, were there ever like a team that you wanted to invest in or some interesting thing that like, you know, that somebody might consider?
Was there anything like that for you?
Man, I don't think I have ever.
I mean, I think growing up without any money, it's like the moment you get your hands on some, you just try to sock it away because you're thinking they're coming to take it at any moment.
Oh, yeah.
So I haven't.
I need to start being a little bit more ambitious with my spending, though, and just relax a little bit probably.
Yeah, that's all I'm just scared.
It's like, well, what if, yeah, just scary.
And then also, what do I really want?
Yeah.
You know, I think I want to start like a halfway house, but that makes clothing too, dude.
Oh, yeah.
It's put those fuckers to work.
Be like, this shirt's dope.
That's kind of a dumb joke, but thank you for laughing at that.
I like it.
I like it.
It is dope.
Thanks, dude.
Yeah, what was something else that I was thinking about?
Because I'll never see you again, but I was just trying to think of what it is.
You don't think we'll ever see each other again?
Is this it?
No, it would be awesome if we did.
I feel like we might.
Do you get impressed by a lot of the stuff that you see out there?
Like, do you get inspired?
Like, you'll see a movie, you'll see something.
It makes you want to keep making more?
Do you think you'll take a little bit of a break?
What do you kind of think?
Are you already have something you're making that?
No, I think I'm going to take a little bit of a break.
I mean, like I said earlier, like my hobby is basically writing and creating, you know, so I'm sure I won't stop that.
But, you know, it takes a lot to make something like this.
Gemstones, I've been on this now for, you know, seven years of working on this thing full time.
And, you know, I'm looking forward to just chilling out for a little bit and spending time with the fam.
But as soon as you start doing that, then you'll get an idea for something else.
And so I feel like I'll always want to make stuff.
But it's also good to just enjoy your life a little bit too and not be so worried all the time about what's going to be next and just kind of take it easy.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, I get definitely caught up like I have to do this or this.
But then sometimes I do start to notice a little bit more like I want to chill out because I want to give my brain time to think so it's fun for me.
It's like, yeah, so it can heal.
Yeah.
That would usually be the most fun to when your brain gives you an idea and it just makes you laugh.
You're by yourself or whatever.
Yeah.
Man, you got to share it.
What about your son?
You said about your daughter.
What about your son?
My son, he's just gotten into lacrosse.
You know, Tony Cavalero, actually, he's helped us out.
Tony Cavalero is a big deal in the lacrosse world.
I don't know if you knew this.
I didn't know that at all.
Yeah, he's a big deal.
And my son has shown an interest in it.
So Tony has kind of pushed us in the right direction of getting him into a cool team.
And that lacrosse shit is pretty cool, man.
I've been with him through all his different interests of sports from baseball to football.
And, you know, you go on to those little parks and rec teams, and it's always just some kid's dad coaching.
The lacrosse shit, though, is like the coaches are young.
They're like athletes right out of college.
I feel like the kids just respond to them in a different way than they do somebody's dad.
it's cool.
It's good to watch.
Huh.
Yeah, that's interesting.
I've never heard anybody even talk about that except for this girl Mubi that works with Barstool Sports.
She played lacrosse.
So I would see her.
Oh, one of my friends from New York would talk about it sometimes.
Yeah, I didn't know anything about it at all.
And then I watched it.
I'm like, this shit is hardcore.
I mean, they like knock each other down to the ground, hit each other with these sticks.
And I was surprised my son was even into it.
I saw him getting out there swacking people.
I'm like, oh, damn, here we go.
What does he admire about it, you think?
I don't know, man.
I think that the stick is pretty cool.
But, you know, you got those pads.
The gear is pretty awesome.
But I mean, it is a pretty rough and tumble sport.
Is there ever moments?
And you can.
Like that.
You just knock the shit out of people and knock them on the ground.
It's like kids doing that.
You see them doing it and you're like, oh, you're allowed to do that.
They don't stop it or anything.
That's like part of the game.
It's kind of, it's pretty badass.
Boom.
Look at that.
I've seen a 10-year-old do that to another 10-year-old.
God, that's beautiful.
God, you got to stop and drink that.
Is it interesting whenever you see your kid, like say you take another cross and he likes it?
Is it interesting that you learn something about him by watching him start to like something?
Totally.
Yeah, you start trying to think.
I mean, parents are probably the worst thing you can do is kind of like always push your kids into what you're into and expect that you using their childhood as a way to kind of like work out all your demons.
It's like, I try not to do that with my kids.
Like, I don't even think my kids even like movies.
You know, it's like I've tried to like have movie nights with them and stuff.
And they're like, yeah, we're good.
They don't even see it.
You're like, you're part of that dying art form.
I got no interest.
I want to watch Mr. Beast.
I want to watch them Beast Squid games.
Yeah, dude.
That shit is pretty good, some of it.
It is good.
I like all that shit that they watch.
I think it's fun.
There's that one kid, I think his name is Ryan Trainer or something.
He does like the stuff where he has 10 cents and he tries to make money to get across the country.
I haven't seen him.
Pull him up, Ryan Traynor.
I think that's his name.
But I like this stuff, dude.
I like watching.
I'm like, no wonder y'all aren't watching movies, man.
You guys have this all dialed in.
Yeah, he'll like start with a penny and figure out a way to get across the country with just starting with that.
Wow, I've never, oh, Ryan Trahan.
Trahan, that's what it is.
I've never even heard of this.
And it's crazy.
This has, so this video has 60 million views, right?
Like it's crazy how much is out there that you've never even heard of.
And you'll be exposed.
You'll be like, oh, this is amazing.
Yeah.
It's really wow.
I'd like to meet this kid.
There's a guy, there's these kids, Kobe and Sam, that are like these ghost hunter kids I want to get to meet.
I was never brave enough to vlog.
We just had some streamers in and that lifestyle is insane, man.
Eight hours in a row.
It's wild, huh?
Dude, and think about that.
Eight hours, right?
And you have to be yourself so you can't really hide who you are at all.
And then you have to go home and then come back and it's and do it all over again.
I know.
It takes a different type of brain to do that.
That's what they like, though, I think.
I mean, he watches kids play video games.
And I try to get my head around that.
I'm like, but you know what?
I do remember being a kid, like over at your friend's house, sitting around the couch, watching somebody try to beat a game.
And the shit was fun.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a good point.
I guess they're just not doing it maybe together as much, but maybe they are.
I don't know.
This could be a phase in time.
I mean, we would go play at the church parking lot, dude.
Anybody that would answer the door on the way down the street, it was three or four blocks to get down there.
If you answered the fucking door, you were playing defense, right?
So we would knock on the doors about 3.40 in the afternoon, walk down there, and there was a hole.
Somebody, I don't know who put it out there, like the devil or whatever, but in the field, they had a field in front of the church off of Highway 190 over there in Covington.
And sometimes every two years, somebody would step into the hole and break their leg, right?
Perfect.
That's what it was there for.
That's it, dude.
That's a fucking free safety, bitch.
That's what that is.
That would tell me crazy, though.
But yeah, if you answer the door, you had to come play, man.
And we would get on our bikes and we would ride.
They had like a ride probably about a mile and a half over this place called Pat's Shrimp and Video, right?
Oh, I like that.
You get a bag of shrimp, right?
It wasn't all you could eat, but it was like all they could put in the bag.
And you would get to rent a movie, dude.
I love that.
God, dude.
Terminator.
Don't you?
I miss that stuff.
That was fun.
There was nothing, dude.
I went to the last blockbuster in Oregon probably two years ago.
And these are the things I found fascinating about it.
For one, you're not just stuck with what the platform, like the app or whatever we look on it now, Netflix, et cetera, is putting in front of you, like those 10 or 12 movies at a time.
You get to kind of consciously wander and you're like, oh, I forgot about this movie, right?
Oh, what?
No way.
He was in that.
They did a movie together.
You see all of these fronts of movies.
You'll see 300 of them while you're in there and you'll be like, drama, I'll do with that.
You know, like different ones, like diabetes is a section.
You know, there's like some of the sections have gotten a little bit more casual.
Pretty more.
They're pretty specific.
Yes.
I'm going to get me a good diabetes movie this weekend.
This is what I want to watch.
Yeah, I want to see these lactose intolerant films, whatever.
But it's a totally different experience.
It was.
It's in Bend, Oregon, which is a great place.
Only about four or five nice months out of the year at all, though, to be honest with you.
A lot of bad stuff.
That's why that blockbuster is still in business, man.
They needed it.
But your brain would be like, oh, well, what do you, and you talk with your friend, what do you think about this?
You would kind of discuss it.
It just like, it was much more, it was so much different than, oh, I'm just going to pick one off of here.
It didn't even feel the same.
I think movies needed it.
I do.
I think that like when you have access to all of it, it makes all of it not that special.
And I think weirdly, there was something about like if you went to the video store and you wanted to see a movie and it wasn't in, it made you instantly think that that movie was a bigger deal than anything.
And then like when you finally got it, you would have all this other stuff invested in like, you know, wow, I'm so lucky.
I got under siege.
It's here.
It's in my house.
Steven Seagal was he in that?
He was.
Fuck yeah, dude.
Van Dam, when I was growing up, that shit was blood sport.
I can't believe that that's a genre that doesn't really exist.
You're just like, are there no like 20-year-olds who know martial arts that are good looking, that can just whip ass and be action heroes?
Like, what is going on?
People don't want to see that anymore.
That's a great point.
Yeah, a lot of, yeah, that kind of stuff doesn't exist.
I just watched Interstellar the other day.
That was cool.
But yeah, that genre doesn't exist, man.
Garbage Pail Kids cards, we grind and get those bitches.
Yeah, that stuff was good.
That's good living.
Oh, you'd get your ass beat.
You just sit there watching the Highway to Heavens.
That's us, dude.
We got this.
I don't know, dude.
Yeah, dude.
Look at that.
Look at that.
Yeah, I look like I've obviously done some cocaine.
You look like you're just got a new job.
That looks like me after I've watched some of them diabetes films.
Got a little too deep into it.
You'll be the Wilford Grimley, dude.
That's right.
Dude, my dad bought this car off like some kind of blackish, kind of, you know, kind of black guys that lived by us.
And it was like some guys that were in the culture with the big speakers in the car.
And at that time, it was white and black guys that had speakers in the trunk.
But he bought a cutlass off of them, and he would listen to like Paul Harvey and shit, like in his car, and it would just blast his bass.
Paul Harvey!
Yeah, that's how it was in my high school, too.
It's like all the, you could count that any kid who had like the shittiest car would have just straight up stadium speakers in the back of it.
Unreal.
Every screw rattling in the car.
Fucking unreal, dude.
That was so much fun, man.
Being alive has been fun, huh?
Yeah, not too bad.
We'll see.
It's been an adventure.
Do you like parenting?
Is it something that you really enjoy doing?
Do you kind of like, was that something that you've, what is something surprising that you found about parenting?
And then we'll get you out of here.
Man, you know, I do like it.
I think it's fun.
You know what's fun about it, man?
It's like, you know, I try to stay pretty involved in my kids' lives.
Like, I don't want to, I know it goes by quick and I don't want to like miss it all and then have all these regrets, you know, when my kids don't want to talk to me when they're all grown.
I take, try to take my kids to school every morning.
But, you know what, it was fun as they got into school, like going back, like walking in for a parent-teacher conference and having to sit in those little chairs and talk to the teacher and be like, I forgot all about this shit.
And you just remember all these feelings and emotions of what comes around with the first day of school.
And I don't know.
And then just seeing childhood from this side of it.
And you kind of also realize how short it is.
You know, when I was a kid, I thought my parents' whole existence started when I began.
And, you know, that was their whole life.
And then you kind of realize, man, that time period was just a blink in the eye for them.
And it's the same.
I feel like it goes by so quick.
My son's like 13. He's going to be in eighth grade next year.
And I already find myself just getting like sappy and sad.
Just like, it's been a good run.
I've really enjoyed raising you.
Yeah, because I guess once they hit, like, yeah.
They don't need you as much.
I mean, already now, it's like we at nighttime, you know, we'll all sit down to hang and he'll be upstairs on the game or talk with his friends.
You kind of, it happens quick.
Damn.
Does it hurt a little bit?
You can't really express that to him because that's kind of weird, huh?
Yeah, it does hurt a little bit, but you also, it's good.
You know, you want them to be independent.
You don't want them just sitting there trying to suck off the teat, you know, for too long.
You need them to kind of get out there and want to spread those wings.
Yeah.
Have you ever wanted to pull off like a heist or something?
That's my last question for you.
Yeah, of course.
Who hasn't, man?
Rob somebody?
Yeah.
Fuck yeah.
I'm not even talking about a corporation.
I'm talking about just some sucker walking down the street with a nice watch on.
If you were to do a bank robbery, you had to go in there with a couple of guys.
Who do you bring in there with you, Danny?
Well, I think after this wonderful conversation, I feel like you'd be game.
I'd bring you in.
I'd bring Tony Cavallero in.
Maybe you guys could confuse people by them not knowing who's who.
That could be a good distraction.
I'd take the whole gang of righteous gemstones in there, man.
Even John Goodman, he can throw down.
I think we could take anybody.
We'd take all that money.
Well, he beat all that fat he had.
Yeah, he did.
He beat the shit out of that.
He sure did.
And John is such a massive dude.
He's so tall.
Is he really?
Yeah, he's in a towering presence.
Well, he was a sped.
There was a rumor that he had lived in Bogaloosa, Louisiana.
So he was always like one of these rumored people that lived in the distance.
So there was always a strong love for John Goodman from Louisiana area.
Yeah, he's a really, I always, I grew up always loving him, always.
And it was insane to be able to get to work with him on this show.
It'll be one of the things I'll miss the most about making this show was getting to see him every season.
Really?
Yeah, he was great.
Awesome.
What makes him so great?
I mean, obviously he's a generational talent.
He's a father to, you know, he's been a father to half of America over times.
He just, I mean, you look at him, it's like he was making TV shows when TV wasn't cool, and he would still be able to go pop in and work with the Cohen brothers.
And, you know, he just was doing his own thing and been doing it for this long and always funny, always good.
I mean, he never shows up in something and it's not impressive.
And yeah, it's funny.
Like even being an actor and looking around, you look at it and you're like, most people have maybe a handful of years in them.
You know, like you look at people and you really do.
Like I would, I would think about actors that I saw in movies when I was a kid and you'd kind of be like, oh man, what happened to that person?
You know, like, and then you'd kind of look at their filography and you're like, oh, man, most people only have a span of a few years, maybe even a decade.
And then they kind of disappear.
Good point.
Just like with your favorite sports players.
Yeah.
And then, but you look at a guy like Goodman and how long he's been working and you realize like that's no easy feat in that he stays relevant and he stays good and the stuff he chooses is cool and the roles he plays are cool.
It's, you know, it's admirable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Carol O'Connor is buried not far from my apartment in Westwood.
Oh, wow.
And I'll take people over there a lot of times and if they're visiting in town or whatever.
And he's definitely one of my favorites because of In the Heat of the Night.
Oh, yeah.
God, that show was so good.
Oh, I like your TV picks, dude.
You're an In the Heat of the Night guy in Highway to Heaven.
Yeah, I just love, I love like kind of southern kind of, I just, yeah, I love those things, man.
Those are some of my favorites for sure.
But what was I going to, who was that?
Oh, Carol O'Connor.
Who else is buried there?
Marilyn Monroe.
Boom.
Same cemetery.
Same in the same coffin out here.
I heard she's working nice.
He doubled him up.
Errol Flynn.
I'm just going to keep advertising this place.
Errol Flynn.
Oh, Hugh Hefner is buried there also.
Walter Matthow.
Wow.
So which cemetery is this?
Is that Hollywood Forever Cemetery?
No, it's in fucking Westwood, dude.
You wouldn't even know it.
It's behind a building.
You're like, what the fuck?
It's like behind a next half building.
There's no other like blocks of grass anywhere near it.
It's just like big buildings, tall, huge buildings.
And then there's this one little bitty.
It's a, it's fucking 40 square yards.
Wow, that's that.
Got some kings in that bitch.
A lot of persons in there too.
A lot of names you can't really pronounce, but that's it right there, dude.
Walter Matthaus in that bitch, dude.
That's what's so crazy about LA is I feel like LA has done a really shitty job of like maintaining the history of this place.
You know, like I feel like every time I try to rent an apartment back in the day, everyone would tell you, like, oh, Charlie Chaplin lived down the street.
Charlie Chaplin was here.
But you're like, you realize this shit is, it is, these people mean something to people.
And the idea that like so much gets built and torn down, like, I feel like you look at Hollywood Boulevard, you're like, man, this should just be like colonial Williamsburg.
This should be some shit where you just walk in and it looks exactly like it used to back in the day.
That's a great point.
You know, it's like, this is such a unique, there's such a unique history to this place that, you know, it's kind of sad that all you can do is go to a little cemetery to go see these things.
It'd be kind of cool if you could walk in the same bars and restaurants they did.
Or stand, you go by their apartment.
If you got to go by the apartment that Walter Matthow lived in.
Yeah, I think it would mean something to people.
It really would.
That's a good point.
I never thought about that.
Yeah, because you'll go like, well, we'll preserve some places like Charleston preserves their history.
I like a lot of like, but yeah, Hollywood just kind of, Hollywood's never had much of a memory kind of, I feel like it just.
Well, and it's a thing.
I think in the day, everyone's just trying to survive.
But now when you kind of look back at what Hollywood is, you're like, wow, there's some pretty influential things and people that have been around here.
And some of these places that people take for granted are, they have like cultural and historical significance.
Fuck.
You're right, Danny.
Take that.
Take that.
Season four of Righteous Gemstones.
Adam Devine's coming in too to talk to us.
Oh, good.
I know.
He's just going to sit here and lie his ass off.
That's all he does.
Yeah.
He also, he complains that he like, he said he was getting that shin thing where he gets elongated or whatever.
Yeah.
He's made up a lot of stuff.
He's a good, he's a sweet man.
I really, I've been, he'll be like another one that I'll just, I'll miss seeing him every year.
He's so awesome.
Yeah, it's weird when a set ends, when the shoot ends, it's just like, it's like, it's like the last day of school.
Yeah.
Everybody's saying goodbye to everybody getting all these photos.
And then the next day or two, you're just sitting.
Yeah, everything's like back to normal.
It's all, yeah, but hopefully I get to keep in touch with a lot of these people.
Oh, for sure.
Malton Goggins and Edie Patterson.
You know, I met them on Vice Principals, and both of them are like two of my closest friends.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So hopefully I'll get to keep in touch with these people.
We play the family.
Maybe we need to act like one.
Yeah.
I like that challenge.
Daniel Bright, thanks so much for all the entertainment, dude.
All the inspiration.
And yeah, I just really appreciate your time, man.
I hope you continue to make fun stuff.
I'm sure you will.
And congrats on getting to spend time with your kids.
Thank you, man.
I hope you put that dick laser to good use, okay?
Don't you fucking worry.
Don't you fucking worry.
I'm putting this on some fucking bitches back at the UFC fight this weekend.
Thank you so much, man.
Thank you, buddy.
You bet.
Thanks for this.
This gift, yeah.
Very nice.
You're going to use it.
I can already tell.
Now, I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
I must be cornerstone.
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found.