Everything on Steve Buscemi

One day, you realized Steve Buscemi was in every weird movie that got stuck in your brain. The VHS your older cousin wouldn’t rewind. The cable re-run you caught at midnight. The indie DVD your film-major roommate wouldn’t shut up about.

This episode starts with one question:

How did Steve Buscemi become the backbone of modern pop culture?

From there, Mickey, Christian, and Jacki slide down a Buscemi-shaped rabbit hole involving:

• His early days on Not Necessarily the News, when cable was still figuring itself out
• Awkward stand-up attempts, bus accidents, and the acting classes that changed everything
• Reservoir Dogs turning “Mr. Pink” into a crash course in character acting
• Going from grimy indie sets to big-budget blockbusters with Con Air, The Big Lebowski, and Armageddon
• The deeply human weirdness of Trees Lounge, Living in Oblivion, and Ghost World
• Sliding between prestige TV and cult comedy in The Sopranos, 30 Rock, and more
• Voice work that  raised a generation on animation and late‑night cartoons
• And the part where he disappears from Hollywood entirely… to dig through rubble with firefighters after 9/11

Along the way, we ask even more questions:

• Why does Buscemi feel “indie” even when he’s in the loudest Michael Bay movie on earth?
• How did he become the patron saint of oddballs, losers, and guys who never get the girl... but somehow still get your whole heart?
• Why does every director who works with him seem to level up creatively afterward?

If you grew up thinking Steve Buscemi was just “that weird guy in that one movie,” this episode is your corrective lens. It’s a nostalgia-fueled, career-spanning tour through the roles, risks, and random detours that turned him into the most unlikely throughline of the last 40 years of film and TV... plus the off-screen choices that prove he’s even better in real life than any character he’s ever played.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I don't think he particularly likes the spotlight in any way. He's just this incredibly talented actor who's also just this really nice guy. That is Daniel Ratcliffe talking about Steve Bushimi. Welcome to Everyth on Nothing, where everything is connected and nothing matters. I'm your host, Mickey, and if you ask me a question, I will answer it thoroughly. Joining me today is our producer Jackie.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

And our very talented uh guest and friend, Christian. Hey, everybody. And uh this all started whenever Jackie and uh my son Logan were going uh going through uh Phantasma.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Phantasmus.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Phantasmus. Uh they have a podcast on um your favorite episode where they go through television shows, and uh a Steve Bushimi was dropping in for a guest spot on that show, and Jackie asked uh where Logan might know him from. So we started looking and going through the entire list. So today we're going to be celebrating and discussing Steve Bouchame.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Before we get into it, can I ask everybody where they first encountered Mr. Boucher? How do you say it, Mickey?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Well, that's that's the entire show.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Like that is that is the question where I know Steve Bouchemi from. He pronounces it the way his dad pronounced it. And uh whenever he went to visit the village in Italy where his family is from, everyone was saying it differently. And uh people the people in Italy were saying Boucheme, Boucheme, uh everyone pronounces it incorrectly. So if you are correcting someone saying Steve Buscemi, then you are uh an asshole. So don't do that.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

You can pronounce it however you want to.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So for for uh to to get right into it, uh for me, I encountered him in one of his very first roles. I just didn't realize it was him uh until much, much later. Um, the first time that I recognized him as a person uh of interest, I guess. Um well, we'll get to that later. But his one of his very first roles to get him started was a TV show on HBO, going back to uh you know, my father stealing cable with the other neighborhood fathers, which you have to do. Uh if you have the opportunity to steal cable and steal, if you have the opportunity to steal uh information for your children, do it because you know it will pay off dividends in the long run, one way or another. And HBO had a uh show called Not Necessarily the News. It was a fake broadcast similar to Saturday Night Live's uh weekend update or uh The Daily Show or uh This Week Tonight or uh yeah, This Week Tonight with John Oliver. Any of those news shows, not necessarily in the news was one of the early predecessors of it. I'm sure there was stuff in the 70s and 60s, and ever since television had news programs, there were someone, some comedians doing fake news programs to it. Now, I I bring this up uh because it was the um not necessarily the news was an embryo of of amazing, amazing talent. Um let me see here. Uh it is the first big appearance for Steve Bushiemi. Uh it is the first appearance of Jan Hooks, who went on to be a big player on Saturday Night Live. And it is the first writing credit for Greg Daniels, who goes on to write for The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Office, and Parks and Wreck. Uh, it is the there's a team called uh of Al Jean and Mike Reese. And Al Jean goes on to be the writer for Alf, Johnny Carson, and the Gary Shanling show. Mike Reese ends up creating the critic, writes for SNL, he writes the Simpson movie, and he created a cartoon. Like during the time that South Park came to prominence, uh, everyone was trying to get a web cartoon developed, and he created a web cartoon called Queer Duck. If you've never seen Queer Duck, I highly recommend it. It is it's an adventure in in mind, just new ideas, new crazes. And most importantly, not necessarily the news, was the first writing credit for Conan O'Brien. So the show was absolutely a bed of developing brand new talent that became giants in the industry.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Conan O'Brien, who recently hosted the Oscars that we were talking about before we came on the air.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yes. Um the ginger giant himself.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

I love him. And uh my daughter got to meet him one time.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Face to face?

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Yeah, she got a hug with him and everything.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Couple of silver spoons. Uh okay, so so I as a child watched every episode of not necessarily I was addicted to it because it was interesting enough. I learned about world events through this show. And I I believe there's an entire generation that learned about uh the world through the daily show, and John Stewart would have been watching not necessarily the news, not saying he stole the idea or anything like that. I'm just saying the the the bedrock of of I brand new ideas and inspiration and carrying it on to the next generation. Uh while it people are at a point where they barely remember it existing, most of the archives are hard to get to. It was absolutely uh a bombshell of a of a of a television show. Um, after that, he went to Miami Vice. I don't know how many people are familiar with Miami Vice, but it did inspire a movie uh and a remake and all that stuff. Uh, and then uh the other day we decided to sit down and watch uh Steve Bushimi's uh first film, which was called Fun House or Film House Fever. Okay, and I did not know.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Okay, so that's his that's the first movie he's in.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yes. Okay, uh he had started trying to do stand-up comedy. Well, let's let's walk through this. First, uh he got hit by a bus and cracked his skull. Uh and then he later got hit by a car, and the settlement from the car he used to invest in himself and went to a uh an acting, uh really uh accredited, highly accredited, highly respected acting school, and then he tried stand-up comedy, and um he bombed so hard that his friend Paul Riser came up and took the mic away from him and tried to recover the room, which then later Steve Bushimi was a guest star on Mad About You with uh starring Paul Riser. So if you do get injured, invest it, use that settlement to invest in yourself and don't waste it on uh silly things. Actually, uh, you know, if you get run over, you know, use it to to better your life, and you might end up uh becoming a movie star. Uh and if you bomb on stage, uh you know, keep going. Like the way the bomb was described, it was like one of the worst, it was one of the world's worst bombings uh of a stand-up comedian. Um if you if you do get a chance, uh check out some of his comedy. Uh he had a partner who ended up being uh Bobby Elvis on Sons of Anarchy. Um, do you remember his name?

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Um hold on one second. A Logan is here. Mark Mark Boone something. Hold on, here's Logan. Look, we have a Logan.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

All right, so well, basically we've uh Logan, we've covered uh not necessarily the news so far. Uh it was a 1980s program on HBO, uh, and now we're up to his first film.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

And uh Mark Boone Jr. is who you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Okay, Mark Boone Jr. goes on to become Bobby Elvis on Satur um Sons of Anarchy, and they it was surrealistic comedy duo type stuff. Uh not anywhere near like Abbott and Costello, like they're it's something you have to experience to understand, uh, or not understand, but no one can explain it to you. Like, the more people try to explain it to you, the further away from the target you get. Uh, it's that kind of uh comedy. Um, so those two uh were given the opportunity to do a film called uh again, Filmhouse Fever, which essentially Quentin Tarantino swears that he went and watched all these movies in the theater themselves, but I'm pretty sure based on everything that we saw during this movie, that Quentin Tarantino watched Filmhouse Fever, because it is a clip, it's basically a clip movie where they took clips from everything from 1950s to 1970s uh horror movies and clipped them together and then every now and then flashback to these two sitting in the audience reacting to what the movies are. And uh in this movie, they they basically took a clip from uh the Chin guy, um uh Ash from oh um Bruce Campbell.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Campbell, yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

So Bruce Campbell before they did before Evil Dead became famous. Uh Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi did a parody of um uh Raiders of the Lost Ark. And that there's uh it's a 19-minute movie, and they used almost all 19 minutes of it in this hour-long movie that they put together. Like that it looked like it was an editor trying to put together a reel to get an editing job. Uh, but it's it's a it's an interesting, fun watch. I wouldn't say it is instrumental in anyone's movie education, but if you're at the end of the barrel and you've watched every movie that you can and you still need something more, I highly recommend seeing Film House Fever.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

I will say this every time Steve Boucemi is Boucemi is on screen, it's obvious that he's a star. Like he has so it's like the charisma is just dripping off of him, even in this like not good writing that he was a part of.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, it it's it is a testament to his talent. Um because the uh Boone Jr. is he's a great actor, and and in this, he's acting to the writing, but Steve Bushimi kind of elevates over top of what the writing is and then takes it so much further. So it's like it's a it is a very good indication that he is going to go and be a star somewhere. Um so after that, uh he did a bunch of different movies and uh like in the late 80s, he did a bunch of bit parts. Um, but it's one of those ones where he just took the job to hang out with the people that were there. Uh, he is very, very New York. Like it was he was a New York mascot in all of that. And based on his trajectory in films and stuff, he was in kind of in the punk rock scene. The avant like avant garde, punk rock, New York.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

The club that he and Mark Boone Jr. performed at frequently is also was a drag club that also like RuPaul and all of the big queens from that era got their start as well. So like that's super punk rock.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Um, and then for a oh, and after he got hit with a car, he became a volunteer fire department or fireman. And uh so he's you know doing the fireman job, he's doing bit parts here and there, and he's taking these acting classes. Oh, what uh one of the things you missed, Logan, was uh he was hit by a bus and cracked his skull, and then a little bit later he was hit by a car and used the settlement from the car accident to pay for uh acting school. So invest in yourself no matter how you get the money. That's a very important lesson. And also, he was a stand-up comedian who bombed so hard he was walked off the stage by his best one of his good friends.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

He bombed so hard he became an actor.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

And he yeah, one of the most prolific actors. Uh, he hit a pace of uh five films a year uh later in his career. So um he's everywhere, like he's literally everywhere. Um part of that, huh?

SPEAKER_02 15:19

A real working stiff, a real actor's actor.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

He is very, very blue-collar. I think his mom was uh I don't want to get this wrong, but his mom had like a very pink-collar job, and his dad had a very blue-collar job.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Uh his mom, his mom was a hostess at Howard Johnson's, which is adorable.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

And his dad was in trash, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Sanitation worker, and he served in the Korean War.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Wow, my Mr. Sandman just started playing in my head.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Uh, and let me see, he uh so we're at him uh bombing, and I lost track of where I was going. Oh, yeah, I I would like to say I have a lot of notes, I just don't know how to organize them for my brain because as soon as I turn a mic on, I fail at looking at my notes. This is one of the reasons I fail is stand-up comedy, the you know, the two times that I've done it. Uh so bear with me. And then this is not an educational uh podcast, it's more of an introduction podcast to get you to educate yourself. Um oh, so yeah, he took uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Oh, I was just gonna say, I just hope that people see like the topics we've chosen so far and go, what is this about? This is what a smorgasbord of uh of topics that these guys are talking about.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Um so I like I said, he took some bit parts not so he could further his career, but seemingly just to hang out with really cool people. Um, because uh let me see, Cindy Lauper uh was given a movie called Vibes. And like the Hollywood was trying to kind of capitalize on her uh popularity with um girls just want to have fun, and she's hanging out with Captain Lou Albano from the WWE, which was featured on USA Network uh exclusively for a very long time. And um, so he just took a bit roll and hung out with her because she's a New York girl, uh, or actually New York lady. She never really revealed her age, and like everyone thought she was 20, and I think she was like 40 at the time that song came out. So uh nothing against her uh being old or anything or keeping her age a secret. I mean, that's marketing, and she did a great job. And I, you know, Cindy Lauper is actually one of my heroes because she's just cool without being pretentious at it. Like she just is her she's cool because she's herself in every situation that she's in. So um, and then following that up, she uh he did Tales of the Tales from the Dark Side, which had Debbie Harry in it, who is very New York. Like he is very New York in everything he does, even though it does it like what he was very uh in the core and the center of what was happening in New York in the 80s and 90s. Uh and like I think in the mid-80s to the late 80s, punk was kind of dying out, and all the older brothers that were into punk rock had sold out and become corporate chills, and you know what was left of the punk scene was just kind of shattering, and all the spaces where punk rock was happening was being sold to to developers and cleaning up the streets and stuff like that, but they were still kind of finding a way to keep the punk vibe alive. Uh so oh, also uh, I don't know if you've ever seen Tales from the Dark Side, it was kind of uh when Stephen King released uh Tales from the Crypt. Was it no? Um what was the the anthology movie from Stephen King that creep show?

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Cat's eye oh creep show creep show, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Well, cat's eye led into him getting the the contract to do creep show, and then everyone saw the the creep show actually made enough money based on the budget, so it's like oh we could do this cheap horror anthology and kick it out and make some money off of it. So there was like Tales from the Crypt, Creep Show, and then Tales uh Tales from the Dark Side, and Debbie Harry uh is kind of the crypt keeper type character, she's interspersed in her story, is interspersed in the other stories, and her story is she kidnapped Christian Slater and is preparing the oven to cook him. So uh so you can kind of see Steve Bushimi's just kind of hanging around with a bunch of cool people, not because he wants to be cool, just because that's where he gravitated towards. So, you know, just uh don't hang out with people to hang out with people. Hang out because that's where you feel right.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Um he didn't become, he didn't doesn't seem hungry for the leading role, kind of like uh the quote from up top. Uh like he's just he knows that's too much pressure, that's a lot of work to maintain if I can get there. I'm just gonna kind of like, I mean, it's not easy being an actor, period. Um movies, so he's like definitely working hard, but it's like he's like, you know what? I feel good right here up on this little ledge for this this one looks Steve Buscemi-sized.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

And he's got like a pattern of working with the same people, like he works with the Cohen brothers a lot. He has a little bit of a tiny career with Adam Sandler. Uh he likes working with the same folks, it seems.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, and that leads into um like early 90s. Uh, someone asked him to be in a small film that they were taking to um, I believe it was Sundance, and it was the original 12 minute version of uh Reservoir Dogs. And to to illustrate the skill and depth of Steve Bushimi's character acting, um I I believe he plays Mr. Pink and Quentin Tarantino. Wrote Mr. Pink for Quentin Tarantino. And he said, There is no way anyone can. He's like, I'll audition other people for this role, but there's no way anyone's getting this role. And Steve Buscemi went in there, auditioned for Mr. Pink, and Quentin Tarantino said, fuck.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Do you know why that is? Do you know why that is? No, it's because Quentin Tarantino based his entire shtick off of Steve Buscemi's chem character in film Frenzy Fever or whatever the fuck it was called. Like when we saw him, I'm like, that is who Quentin Tarantino based his whole shtick off of.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

That's who Quentin Tarantino wants to be. And then when the guy that Quentin Tarantino wants to be walks in to take the role Quentin Tarantino wants, he has to give it up. And uh the only downside of that was we got to listen to Quentin Tarantino talk about Madonna, which any other actor would have been so much better in that role. Have you ever seen uh Reservoir Dogs, Logan?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Uh, I think I've seen the um the part of it. I don't think I've watched it all the way through. I think I've fallen asleep during it.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Um I feel you say 12-minute cut of Reservoir Dogs, and immediately I'm like, I feel like that might be the version. That might be I like Reservoir Dogs, fine. Yeah, but I kind of want to see really just slam that into 12 minutes and see if what comes out the other way.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Like cut out Michael Madsen because he can't act, he can't dance. Um basically cut it down to Harvey Kaitel and Quentin Tarantino and Tim Roth. And in and of itself. Um so so that uh going to Reservoir going doing Reservoir Dogs, uh, the the the original cut and winning the same uh going. I think they got a lot of attention at Sundance that solidified his role as being in the the Quniverse and for forever, like basically uh like Sam Jackson. Uh any movie that Quentin Tarantino is going to do, he's his first call is to Sam Jackson. So um, you know, you you kind of once you s once you lock yourself in that tight, you have a job forever. Uh, and then uh like I said earlier, uh he goes back to TV and he shows up on Mad About You uh because his friend Paul Riser said, Hey, we have a role, you want it? And that's the type of person that Steve Bushimi is, is people were like, Hey, I have a role. Anyone could do this, but I'm offering it to you because I know you'll do I I know I could trust you to handle it the way it should be handled. Um and then he follows that up as with a small role in Barton Fink, and that's where he gets involved with the Cohen Brothers, and out of the list of actors that have worked with the Cohen Brothers, he has worked with them the most. Uh and and it's not like he, you know, because he doesn't do the leading role, uh, but he does shine in every role that he's in. He does uh come out looking really, really good. Um and then he then he shifted gears that I think this is early Barton Fink was in the early 90s or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

91.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Uh at that time, uh he's kind of shifting into when I was in the Navy, there was a um we had a house. It was originally designed for to be a frat house, but they couldn't rent it out. Uh and my friend got the lease, and basically we had like eight guys uh living there on a rotational bait. Like because we all had weird schedules, it was just kind of everyone coming in and going, and it was a constant uh you know, six-month party uh that people different people were involved in, so it evolved into different things. Um, and just down the street was a mom and pop video store that had a bunch of indie, you know, they had the wall of indie films, and my friends, you know, one at a time would come back with something, and Steve Bashimi was pretty much in every single one of them. Uh, but in '91, he was uh he did airheads with uh trying to capitalize on the uh the mummy guy, Brendan Fraser. Brendan Fraser and Adam Sandler has had just come out of the MTV era. He was uh on a show called Remote Control. And Remote Control was a game show where uh contestants talked about TV, so being an autistic kid that was addicted to television, it was like the absolute most perfect show ever created for me. And um uh who's the guy? Oh crap. Colin Quinn was it was Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler and Kari Werr uh were kind of like side characters to act out and distract every you know, kind of a distraction to make it a more goofy Gen X types uh game show. And uh there was a um one game where it was called Beat the Bishop, where Adam Sandler came out dressed up like a bishop, and the contestant had to run around the studio faster than Adam Sandler, and then um like he had he had a whole bunch of different characters which then set him up for success on Saturday Night Live. Um so uh uh Brandon Fraser, Steve Bushimi, and um Adam Sandler are in the movie Airheads, where they are a band called the Lone Rangers, um, and they try to take over a radio station to get their single their new single played on the air, and they end up taking uh the DJ hostage and making all kinds of weird demands and stuff, and it highlights every single person's best feature in there. Like it is Adam Sandler doing Adam Sandler to the best of Adam Sandler's ability, it is Steve Bushimi playing Steve Bushimi to the best of Steve Bushimi's ability, and it gave Brendan Fraser enough space to show off how good of an actor he was, even though it's a cart the like again cartoon people given the right script are the best actors ever. And it was a cart, it was a live action cartoon basically, and there's a couple moments where Steve uh Brendan Frazier gets to give the speech, and it is incredible acting. If anyone took the movie seriously, it it's that five minutes of acting is worthy of an Oscar, but it's just such a cartoony cart a cartoony movie. Everyone kind of overlooked it until uh and well, it helped get him the mummy, where he you know then had a career, but at that time it was like no one's taking the seriously because he had just I think he got the C Incino Man shortly after that, where he just grunts and groans the entire movie.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Encino Man is a great movie.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

I just gotta say, uh ladies out there listening and people that are into fellas, uh, maybe take a peek at Steve Bishemi Circa Airheads. Uh this might be the bestest man has ever looked. It's a kind of a dirtbag uh Chris Cornell look, but uh that's not something people aren't into.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

I'm just taking aback. I don't know if this is his real hair, but it's like he's got some luscious locks in this.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

I feel like, yeah, it's his real hair. He doesn't seem like a wig guy. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

I mean, it looks very uh if it is, it's a great wig. Uh I don't know about Brendan. He's got a big ol' mane, too.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Before we get out of the early 90s, there is a Steve Buscemi movie that I wanted to mention because I think it's the one that I first like latched on to him, and it was a movie called 20 Bucks, and it basically followed a $20 bill through a bunch of different stories, and it was just a fun little magical romp. And that's that's kind of where he was. I think he was like the cab driver or something. Uh it was a fun little movie.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Uh I wanna I wanna jump in real quick. I I'm so sorry. Spencer and Angelo have been not feeling well the last couple of days, and I have been asleep all day, and I'm about to fall back asleep, and uh, I'm gonna leave. But I just it's because I'm falling asleep, and it's not because I I don't like you guys, but I am very sleepy, and I'm so sorry. That's also why I was late. I fast out, but uh uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna go back to sleep. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

All right, so yeah, I was like, is it just gonna hang out and sleep on camera?

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Yeah, no, he looked plum tuckered.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, the the tail end of the 80s and early 90s, there was a very weird trend, and not weird trend, it was just a trend, uh, of kind of anthological type movies that the the thinnest thinnest of connection to them. Um, like uh again from from the little art house uh mom and pop video store, uh we got uh a night on earth. And it was essentially at midnight, there's a 10-minute drive. So midnight in Rome, uh Roberto Benini picks up someone, or Roberto Benini gets into a cab and he's talking about his sins basically. Uh no, he was the driver. Yeah, he was the driver, and there's a priest that got back, and he's like, Oh, father, can I can I uh confess some of my sins? And he talks about having sex with a sheep and then having sex with a pumpkin and then having sex with his brother's wife. Uh Winona Ryder plays a cab driver in LA, uh, picking up someone at midnight. Uh, and then there's like uh I I can't remember if it was there, there was uh there were like five or six uh cab drivers, and they basically went back to this wall of clocks, rewound it to show, oh, this is all happening at the same time. Everyone around the world is going through the same thing, but that was the only uh of all the vignettes, that was the people in a cab was the thread that held them together. Uh and so yeah, there was a lot of lot of that going on at that time frame. So I can see like I I think coffee and cigarette or cigarettes and coffee or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Uh that's just uh there are a lot of these. I I watched cigarettes and coffee, and that's just like a short set of like interviews, and the only thing, but they're not like interviews or like interviewing characters that aren't real people, and the only thing that ties them together is the fact that they're drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

That's even that's even slimmer than 20 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

And well, if if you think if you think about it, clerks was just here's a bunch of things connected to these two k two guys that are behind the counter at a at a convenience store. So um, again, you know, not saying everyone's a copy, but everyone had their own similar version of this. Is we're I think the the Gen X kids that finally got cameras and money to do video or to to make movies were like, yeah, we're gonna change, we're not happy with the way things are going, we're gonna change it.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

And that was no budge, uh, no budget, like uh uh filmmaking type stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Oh, that brings up the the next movie he's in uh is all it was a no-budget film. Uh it's called Living in Oblivion. Uh I've been waiting for this one. This is the one for me.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Oh, really? Yeah, because this is I I want to say this is his first. Is this his first starring? Like he's had his lead.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Um sorry if I took the thunder out of you, but I was just going for this one.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

I mean, if you're familiar with it, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Um I just it's one of those, it's the thing in my back pocket that I can pull out if someone wants to like be more pretentious than me or whatever. Then I can be like, oh, well, have you ever seen Living in Oblivion? It stars Steve Buscemi. Oh, you've never seen that because you would never watch a movie starring Steve Buscemi despite being a true Cenophile. Uh no, it's just a very um, it's like a movie about making movies, so it was very pertinent to watch in the film class that I was in. Uh Peter Dinklage is in it, uh, and it's just very uh dreamy and uh cool and surreal.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

It is Peter Dinklage's first role. Yeah, that's right, that's right. And it was he had basically he was ready to walk away from trying to make trying trying to get into Hollywood because everyone was putting him into the little uh dwarf is a a weirdo character, and he took the role because it was him being able to give the speech about everyone in Hollywood making the dwarf the weird character, the dream sequence, the the metaphor, this, that, and all that stuff. And the the entire speech of how he didn't want to do those roles was very much how he felt, and very much how he has led his life in his career thus far. So it was it was a very important role for Peter Dinklage. Uh, not just to say, hey, uh, it was his first role, it was a very, very, very big role and a very big turn for uh what he stood for and how he felt about making films. So yeah, it was it was pretty big.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

I mean, he on this, he's on the I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd call this the cover, it's probably like the Netflix card for it, but I mean, like he is in the satin blue top hat. Peter Dinklage is on this to kind of sell you the movie, which is very funny because it seems like the person making this went, Who's starring in it? Hmm, let me put Dinklage on the front, I think.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Uh yeah, the director got turned down by a bunch of people, and the one off the couple of offers he had to get funding wanted to basically change everything about it. So uh the director turned away and asked the the actors to do it for free, and all of the actors that were signed up said, okay, sure. And to the point, yeah, to the point where many everyone that showed up on screen invested in the movie. So there's a couple people that uh are not great actors, but they paid so they got to to be on on film. Uh, and the there's a there's a role that Brad Pitt was supposed to play. Uh, there's a pretentious leading actor in the movie. Uh the movie within a movie has a very pretentious leading actor, and that was supposed to be Brad Pitt's role, and he ended up uh he was all signed up, ready to go, he was in on it, but they changed the schedule for filming of Legends of the Fall, and he's like, I can't make it. And so they took the guy from uh uh Point Break, one of the one of the one of the bad guys from Point Break stepped into the role, and uh uh I think he did great. I I think everyone did great. It was it was we just watched it last night.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

So yeah, uh is that a Dermot Mulroney? Yes, a Dermot Mulroney. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

No, the leading actor is I can't remember what no, the blonde, the blonde guy.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Uh that oh there's there's a few, it's like I said, it's very surreal. So uh like I want to say people's roles change switch around. At one point, Steve Buscemi is the director, at one point he's the lead actor.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yeah, um, but yeah, it does have James Le Grosse is who you're looking for. Yeah, James Le Grosse. Uh huh. And there are rumors that it was the director making fun of Brad Pitt, but he said it was absolutely not Brad Pitt because Brad Pitt was supposed to have the role. Uh other people have taken guesses as to who it was, and uh the the most um the most popular theory is that it's about Patrick Swayze being a pretentious dick uh on scene on set. Uh but yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Oh, this is like what the movie within a movie is about is making fun of.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Yes. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Yes. And yeah, like him being all like, oh, let me change this line, it feels better for me. Let me change this. It's like that's you know, that was being an indie director trying to deal with a Hollywood actor, uh, and getting shut down. And it's like, well, I guess I have to do it this way, or he's gonna walk away.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, I didn't know this until uh recently, and I started uh watching um Caravan of Garbage, which is a great, I don't know if we're allowed to do that, but they're they're a nice little uh what is it?

SPEAKER_03 41:15

What is that?

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Uh it's it's Mr. Sunday movies, but they they talk about a lot about uh just them uh they'll go through a movie, they'll talk a bit about the production, a bit about the box office. But I learned a lot about behind the scenes kind of drama stuff that you don't necessarily learn about from just learning how a movie is made mechanically. Uh, and I learned that Tom Cruise apparently is a big uh oh, I'm in this movie? Actually, I'm also directing this movie now as and I'm the script writer, and I'm editing a bit too.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Like I yeah, or I think I I fell down a rabbit hole in the early 2000s of a lot of shows about behind-the-scenes shows, and you get kind of a picture, and you it's a metaphor for oh, we can't directly say it's this guy being an asshole, but you you're like start guessing, and then with the rise of IMDB and then the rise of Wikipedia and the rise of the internet being good in the early 2000s, you know, uh people having real conversations uh over the internet, you kind of start hashing out and and realizing, oh yeah, tom cruise is a dick, or this person's problematic to work with, or because when information is free and flowing, you can't really, you know, during the during the early days, they they signed like the early 30s or whatever, they signed people to cont actors to contracts, they locked them, they gave them a house on the studio property, and they had escorts taking them everywhere and basically locked out the public. And the only time you see these people uh is from the other side of the rope or on the screen, and you didn't know anything about their lives or anything like that, and then that's the late 90s and early 2000s. That started basically just pulling apart, and now now it's it's incredibly terrible because everyone has social media, but it went a little it it was good for a while because it it exposed people like Harvey Weinstein because you know more people were talking and joking and you know, one way or the other, trying to get the information out there, and then it went a little too far to where you know we could see Britney Spears' ass cracked every day of the week.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yeah, or like uh uh you you hear about man, I heard like I think because of Traitors, which I didn't watch. Uh Jackie, I think, or you think you guys have, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Uh the traitors are I watched a couple seasons of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Okay. Uh and you know, Ron Funchi is too, as far as I'm concerned. Is a baby angel on the earth.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

I haven't watched that one yet, though.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

They were people were kind of taking pretty seriously, I guess, some things that had happened in that show. And it's like, guys, this is like a reality TV game show. These people are all professional actors. Like, even if this was for real money, these people, like even Ron Funches at this point, has a little bit of walking around money in this industry. He's he's a he's established at this point. Um, maybe let's not hear that Ron Funches did something a little off-color in a show about betrayal.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

And take that to be like, oh, I heard that Ron Funches was a dick. It's like that is like such a weird parasocial way to interact with celebrity.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Like I think I read that he figured out that he was autistic because of being on that show.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

That's so funny. I thought I figured he would have because I mean we've all been watching him.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I moved pretty early because I loved him so much. Also, if if if you're a huge fan of Ron Funch's, I cannot recommend the show Loot on Apple TV enough. He plays uh one of the main characters in that show, and he has a wonderful wrestling side story that is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Oh, I love the man. I will I'll watch anything. I mean, I just I can't do I can't do the like uh the traitors thing is sounds like a social uh one of those games that you play that involves deception plus a reality show, and that's like stressful for me to watch. So uh that's maybe my autism.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

I've watched two seasons of The Traders, but I'm not gonna watch anymore. What I like about Traders is one, the fashion, two, Alan Cumming, three, the games, but they put the least like amount of screen time on the games. They have really creative games on the traders, but the focus is on all the backstabbing and all of the bullshit drama. And I'm I don't want that. I want the games. The games are good.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

I think that's it. In my head, these people are friends, and I don't even want to watch like this. Is too it's in the uncomfortable zone of reality where it's like I understand this is still a game and still a show, but like I don't know, it's we it's like they're setting up to be like, look at they are kind of in a way going like look at how evil run functions can be, like, in a way, yeah. Uh it's not a character.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

That's we're at the age of where hopefully we're coming out of it, but we're we went through the the tunnel of negativity gets attention, and attention equals numbers. And someone in the office said numbers equal money, and people in control are like, money, let's get it, let's be negative.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Now I heard that last part.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Now imagine if that if the trader a version of the traders or the games from the traders is is input into a show on dropout. I don't know. Are you familiar with dropout, Christian?

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Okay, okay, for any of the audience listening.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

That's the first thing I thought of actually when you were mentioning the things you liked about it.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

I'm like, this sounds like a dropout show, but it would be an amazing what my dream would be is if the drop dropout would take over the show The Mole and make it there, like a nice version of the that would be awesome, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Because I was always very fascinated by the idea of the mole, and then I kind of read a breakdown of how it went down and I was like, Oh, okay, that's kind of that seems that seems anticlimactic.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

And I don't remember what it was, but I just remember going like well, first of all, Jaggy, explain what dropout TV is.

SPEAKER_03 47:41

Uh, dropout is a streaming service that is completely owned by a man named Sam, well, not completely owned, it was begun by a man named Sam Reich, uh, based on the ashes of college humor. It is the most um fair streaming service out there. Anyone that works on the network, even the janitors, even people in the audience of crowd control get a part ownership share in whatever money they make off of the pieces that they were a part of. Um, they pay for auditions. Um they are just the most human streaming service available. And it's $7 a month. It's the best $7 I spend. They um encourage sharing, and that's how I got to have a dropout membership. I shared my friend Aubrey's, and then I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with other people, so I got my own membership, and now those people who who I shared my membership with have gotten their own membership so they could share it with other people. Like that is the kind of word of mouth you want from like that's what I want to create. Like they're doing everything so right, and if Sam Reich ever comes out as a bad guy, I will be crushed.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

I know, yeah. I think about that a lot about Brendan as well. Uh but uh the I think the the the thing I want to say about them uh while we're on it is just that uh I remember distinctly listening to I was listening to a chunk of stuff and I was like laughing a lot and I was like wow there's no like uh this isn't like a qualified laugh. Like I don't feel like because they're they they have a very um they're very inclusive and they're very like uh like diversity forward, but you say that, and I think people there are definitely people that go, oh, okay, cool, I will check that out. And there are people that go, uh, oh not for me. No, this is it's like such a good natured thing across the board. And there's no there's no punches being pulled, or like, like I I feel like there's this thing of like that woke, go, woke, go broke thing. And I feel like dropout is like, no, you should see this. Yes, this is how you do that. This is why that's not true. You know, this is why that's the opposite is true.

SPEAKER_03 50:09

Obvious that they all love each other, and it's like a bunch of friends just playing together, and I love that about it.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

And it's a distinct group of creators and artists that like mesh well together. Uh and it's just wonderful to I think it's worth its own episode, honestly. I think we could do a whole episode on dropout and oh yeah, actually, that's that's not a bad idea at all.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Yeah, and I think part of part of the what appeals to the autistic uh the I would say a majority of the audience is autistic in some way, and it's because I always I've always cringed at um busting balls. I'm just busting your balls late. I have there there was a book that I read um from someone that was on cracked uh um when cracked was doing videos, and he broke off and and did a uh book about different vices and stuff, and uh he explored all any drug that he could get legally, he would experiment with and tell you what the trip and thing was about. Uh, and one of the things uh he dove deep into was the mechanical nature in humans to berate and bring down other people, and it serves a a uh uh evolutionary purpose. Part of the purpose of busting balls is you know, you have three older hunters taking out the the young kid, and the young kid shoots a deer and feeds everybody, and the very next day he's acting like an asshole. That's the time where evolution kicks in and says, Look, this attitude is going to get you killed. You're going to you're going to think that you're a badass and you're going to try to want to take on a bear, we're going to knock you down a couple notches, you're not ready to take on the bear. So it does busting your balls does serve a purpose, but whenever someone is looking up at you and you're busting their balls, that's you know, the whole punching down, punching up thing. And I think Sam has created an environment where he is the man, basically, and any negative jokes are busting his balls in the appropriate manner because he is the boss and it gives them the freedom, and he enjoys it, and it's done with talent and charisma. So all of the jokes aimed at Sam do have a purpose and do have a value in both comedic timing and and serving a purpose to talk truth to power, blah blah blah. But any uh busting balls that is done is usually people that you can tell they've already established that they are they love each other in such a way that it's safe, and it's not just hey, I'm busting your balls to bust your balls, yeah. I'm just busting your balls. Steve me.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

The book you were referencing, Mickey, is called A Brief History of Vice by Robert Evans.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Yes, uh, highly recommend.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

Great read.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

And uh again, none of these are plugs, we don't get paid for them. I don't yeah, I just I want to share what I have learned, what I love, and where you can get more information. Again, not this isn't a place to get your education, this is a place to get introduced to the things you should be educated on. Uh, it is something that uh, and again, one of the reasons I want to do that is because I was never exposed to a lot of things, and it was like people in the room were having conversations about things I had never even heard of. It's like if if you introduce me to something, I will go and I will learn about it. Uh, because it's you know, if it sounds interesting or whatever, and I won't I want to be a part of it, it's just holding me accountable for information that I've never been exposed to and then busting my balls because I don't know anything about it. Yeah, no, no, thank you. I don't want to be a part of your group, fuck off. So but seeing the dropout crew and the way they handle things in all levels, uh, I'm sure there's gonna be some complaints by somebody because they didn't get their fair cut or whatever. I'm sure that's gonna happen. But in the grand scheme of things, when 99% of the people are saying, nah, we're treated well, uh, then you have to kind of consider what that one person is complaining about.

SPEAKER_03 54:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Unlike the Weinstein issue that put out Quentin Tarantino's films, um, where you know 99% of the women were saying, Hey, there's a problem, and 99% of the guys were like, they don't treat us like that, and it's because you don't have boobs.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

Yeah, it's when you leave the like I men will act differently when other men are not around and women are like that is a that's just a stone cold fact. Uh and it's it's weird because you know, I I I I've worked in I work in retail environments mostly, and you'll have a coworker who is as competent or more competent than you are, uh, and you like you'll be like, all right, well, I'm gonna go do something over here for five minutes, and in that five minutes, like a basically like a minor hate crime has happened, you know, like and it's it's your first instinct as a person who just like experiences the flow of time, even and and and as a cishat white male doesn't have these interactions, your first instinct is to go like well no, that that's monstrous, you know. But you can't you can't uh you can't buy into your first impression of the situation because like I mean I've watched it happen. I've I've been around when someone didn't think I could hear, and it is the men men are wild, and especially old men are wild.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

I I had a situation where uh I was standing there uh and my supervisor was yelling at a black man, and as the conversation went on, the supervisor was basically losing control of his innermost thoughts, and he dropped the n-word uh basically the n-rig, so like you know, rigging something up inappropriately, and he used the n-word uh in conjunction with it, and my heart stopped, and my entire bar my entire body started sweating like and what the the person that was the target of this just kind of nodded and went along with but like he was so used to it that it like wasn't a thing for him, but I didn't understand how he didn't get pissed off, and like I I was like, am I supposed to do I don't know what I'm supposed to do because it didn't affect it didn't seem to affect the victim, and all I would do is make myself a target for the the perpetrator, and like what what do I do and seeing my reaction caused the perpetrator to just freeze and then later went and wrote an email to his boss about something you know basically just trying to cover like he knew he did wrong by my reaction.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

And I'm like I'm like uh that's like the worst reaction, it's like the worst reaction three times in a row like saying it, freezing when he saw you, writing like a weird, self-incriminating, I guess, email like to preemptively to exonerate himself.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

Like, does that dude not read Shakespeare know about he who doth protest too much?

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Yeah, it's just wild to hear in a working environment that that's like still there's a guy out there who's like, Yeah, yeah, I'll say this. I'll try this one.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

I I will say that I have heard it at work in the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

That's nuts. More than you work, you work in like progressive races. You're not built well, you're also not like built- you're not even like you know, building like aircraft, you're not putting houses together. This is this is barn building talk. Like what where is this in an in a thing where you're working? I don't even know where that fits. That is so strange.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

Well, one of those places that I worked, we used to do a lot of events at and uh things needed to be built.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

And I think you know, I'm aware of the term, you know. I'm I think I grew up in the south. Uh it's never it's never been like it's never come across the little uh uh predictive text of my mind of which the next word I should throw out there is it's like here you go. How about how about that one as an option? Like, no, no, no, that's no, you see that that one has the bad one in it, right? I'm not supposed to, we don't do that one, like it's not even in the rotation. That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

See, I I grew up in a household with uh like my dad loved comedy, like we watched um like Eddie Murphy Delirious whenever it first came on HBO because you know we had free HBO. Um, and you know, it was a fan, like the family sat down, we got bowls of uh snacks and stuff, and we sat down and we watched it. We uh watched Bill Cosby himself whenever it came out, but we didn't know. I nobody did. Oh well, people did. We just we watched Richard Pryor, we watched Buddy Hackett, we watched George Carly. Like every everything that was on we watched as a fan. I'm like eight years old being introduced to the seven dirty words, and my mom laughed her ass off. And my dad worked in the steel industry, and um it was a lot of Polish, uh a lot of Italian and a lot of black people, and I was completely unaware that we had a segregated town in Pennsylvania, but I that came to light after we moved out. Um, and the the guys he would work with would tell him these jokes, uh like black guys would tell him jokes about black people, and he thought it was absolutely hilarious, and he would come home and tell me. And at one point, my little autistic brain kicked in. I'm like, that's just a Polish joke with a different word, and he took that to work and told everyone, and they thought it was the most hilarious thing, so like all of these jokes get just became interchangeable, and no one gave a damn because that was the like it was the environment that they were in. Uh, and like later, uh we moved out, the town shrank, and they had to close one of the high schools, and all the white people lost their shit because the black kids were now gonna go to the white high school, and it was like, wait, what we were we were in a racist town surprise, racist town. I was like, we we moved to Georgia, and it was like literally across the river. Like, there was uh uh the town next to us. It was a uh we crossed a river and uh went over this bridge, and I had a big giant billboard that says the whitest now entering the whitest county in America, and it was like, Oh my god, this is terrible! Racism, racism, and then finding out that there's race wars back in the town that we just left. And it's like, what they and like start thinking about it, it was like there it was there were oh my god, what the hell?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

That's why there was two of everything. I just thought we were living in abundance.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

Yeah, I think what my earliest introduction to to that issue uh was I was at a Hills department store, which was basically a Kmart or Walmart. Uh and I had to go, my mom had to go to the bathroom, and she's like, Come on, let's go in. Uh, just come on. And I'm like, It's the girls' bathroom, I can't go in there. She's like, Look, you little shit, I have to go, and you're gonna stand inside and wait for me. And back in the day, I had to I would go in with my father because it was whites for and black things, so it doesn't really matter, just get your ass in there and stop being a little shit. So it was like, oh, okay, cool. I don't know what any of that means. Yeah, yeah. I'm five, but okay, I'll stand here with my eyes closed. Cool, yeah. Um yeah. So after that, uh Steve Steve in the early 90s, Steve Bushimi entered his gangsta phase, uh, where he did a movie called Living Uh Things to Do in Denver when you're dead. Uh, which like every if you look at the cast of every movie that he's in, it's just a bunch of cool people that like they don't need to be like they don't need that many awesome people in one movie, but that was a that was another trend that they were pumping out in the early 90s was let let's try let's get this long list of people. Um, I I I guess it was a trend in the in every era, but this was uh it was um the 80s went into very singular uh mona monolithic stars, like you know, Rambo had uh Sylvester Stallone and then a bunch of other people, and then uh this one had uh Arnold Schwarzenegger and a bunch of other people, so it was very star-focused in the late 80s, and then coming into the 90s, uh they were breaking that down again into this long list of starring, you know, just the list of starring uh is enough to fill a two-minute trailer, like an ensemble, more of an ensemble thing where they're like, we don't really want to push anybody as star, we want this to be a movie first thing, yeah, yeah, story first, characters welcome. The night characters welcome, and then after that, he signed up uh with Robert Rodriguez and uh had a small role in Desperado, um, which was part of the mariachi that was part of the mariachi.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:39

I believe so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

Um, and then uh that allowed him to to the little space to do trees lounge, which was essentially an autobiography of his younger self.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:55

Yeah, yeah, and he wrote and directed that. Um, but before that, he Did Fargo, which uh I missed that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:03

Yeah, the Cohen brothers wrote the role in Fargo specifically for him. And that that was where it really that Fargo is where that solidified Steve Bushmi is like a big star to my little indie movie-loving brain. Man, did I love Fargo when it came out?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

You know, I saw it many years later, and it it is one of those. It's nice to see a movie where you the filmmaking holds up because it's so strong.

unknown 1:06:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

And just Francis uh Francis McDormand. Francis McDorman. Uh, my favorite line maybe in the entire movie is just absolute silence, and then she's looking at the guy in the back, and he's she's like, so uh that's your uh friend in the uh wood chipper there, uh just so casual about a murder, a horrific murder, probably the most terrific murder she murder she's ever seen.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:59

I can't look at a wood chipper without thinking of that movie. Like yeah, yeah, if they're tied together forever for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

Um, and then from there, uh he goes to another bit part. Uh they had made Escape from New York, uh, and it was a cult classic, basically. And the this era of the 90s was trying to capital, like I I think um Army of Darkness did well enough where they were like, oh, we could take these cult classics and revamp them Hollywood style and make a big thing. And uh they made Escape from LA, which was not as good as uh uh Escape from New York, but uh he plays a uh a guy selling maps to the stars homes, uh which is still in post-apocalyptic LA. Yeah, and I mean LA Escape from LA is a fun film if you don't care about filmmaking. Um it was it was uh it was good, it was fun, it was it was whatever, but it was not as good as Escape from New York because again, Hollywood took away the message and just did the the plastic parts of of what it was supposed to be. Um and then one of his greatest roles ever uh is Conair.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:31

And uh by the way, you gotta love a guy where it's like, what's one of his most famous roles? And it's like, uh, like a like a pedophile rapist. He was great. But it's true. I mean, that that movie's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:45

Hey, being a pedophile rapist is the only thing Stanley Tucci got nominated for an Oscar for, so sometimes you gotta do.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:52

And uh speaking of uh Stanley Tucci is is good friends with Steve Bushimi.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Yes, uh, I think the paisano's gotta stick together, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:02

Yeah, uh, yeah, in in Connor, I it was one of those like John Malkovich was just absolutely insane, and you're like, oh, here's this one character, like they build up this character. Here's this one guy that the craziest mother, like even um uh the guy that plays Machete, um Danny Trejo. Danny Trejo. Uh Danny Trejo's this badass, uh, just holy, just absolutely everyone on the everyone on the plane is just absolutely insane, incredible criminals, and you know, the the the heart of fear in everybody, and and all of them fear John Malkovich. And John Malkovich, and John Malkovich is like, I am afraid of this guy, and he scares the living shit out of me, and they open the cage and it's tiny little Steve Bashimi, and you're like, What the hell is this? And then it just his facial features, the way he acts, um, the little scene where he is basically Frankenstein with the you know sharing the flower with the little girl at the end of the movie. Oh my god, it's just absolute perfection in execute. Like, whoever came up with that character was like, There's no way we can execute this. Whoever, whatever actor we get is not going to do it the justice that it needs to be done. And and whoever is in casting is like, I know a guy, I know a guy that could do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:39

That scene with the flower in the little girl, is that not the last? That is the credits scene, right? The is the isn't that how it closes?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:49

Yeah, because uh the yeah, the plane crashes or like the the car is a tie to it and they crash and they end it, and they're counting all of the prisoners and and whatnot. And um yeah, they crashed in Las Vegas uh uh down the strip and all that stuff like huge action, you know, huge special effects scene, yeah. Yeah, and miniature thing, and they're wrapping everything up, and then they're like, uh, I think they they said, Oh yeah, they the count came out, we got everybody, blah blah blah, and then quietly they cut to Steve Ushimi talking to this little girl, and it's just fucking magic.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

What a what but if you think about it, it's like hold up, what are we going like, but hey, there's a happy ending for one guy. Like, I don't want it to be good for him. I don't he seems like a bad man. He was in that Hannibal Lecter thing. Maybe we should go back in that. That would be my happy ending and make me feel better. It's great, it's a great way, it's a daring way to end a freaking blockbuster movie. Is that like a that's a Jerry Bruckheimer? That feels Jerry Bruckheimer.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

I feel like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

I believe so, yeah. Uh that's he seems like the kind of guy who would be like, can we actually blow up a plane on the strip? Like, no, Jerry, we gotta fake it. We gotta figure out a it was give me the most second expensive thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:22

It was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, but was directed by a fellow named Simon West. Uh it was Simon West's first film, and uh probably his best.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:35

Which means probably Bruckheimer was going like blow it up for real. Which uh I believe famously they used they were demolishing an actual casino, and they used that nice as part of the uh uh the special effects shot of the plane crashing. Uh I remember them being like, Oh, great, cool. This is this works.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:56

It was the sands on the strip.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:58

Yeah, the sands.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:01

Um, and then uh I think uh he jumped into doing a couple episodes of uh the adventures of Pete and Pete.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

Oh, right! I forgot that he just appeared on Pete and Pete. Thereby entering my life, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:18

Probably uh he did Odsucker Proxy, which was the Cohen bro. Like again, he's deeply embedded into the Cohen Cohen verse and plays a waiter in uh pulp fiction because Quentin Tarantino thought it was funny after giving the tipping speech in Reservoir Dogs. He's like, let's let's make up a waiter. Uh and then uh let me see. Oh, and then uh I before uh things to do in Denver, I forgot to mention he went into he did Billy Madison, another crazy psycho uh character. Yes, it's like when you're imagining it, it's like it could go so wrong in the hands of someone that is less empathetic and less understanding of what the character like I I believe deep down watching all of the things that he has done, he understands who the character is supposed to be and react and how the character is supposed to react like in filmhouse um banana, whatever the fuck it was. Yeah, filmhouse frenzy, he uh understood what this guy is supposed to love these horror movies and be disgusted by them but still love them. And it's just his facial features, his reactions to everything, it's just very he becomes the character that it is. Most of the characters are sort of leaning towards who he is actually in real life, but he under he just adapts himself to not react. Um like if a director says, Oh, you're supposed to be surprised, and you're like, is that it? And the director's no, I want this. It's he says, I know what the character is supposed to do, and this is how the character would react because I am now the character, without going into that insane method acting stuff. He just has an empathy level to him that makes him so real and and and real, uh, gets when the writer writes a crazy character like this, you know, the the in uh Billy Madison, it's the guy that wants to get revenge on everybody that ever did him wrong. He under Steve Bushibbi understands that feeling and portrays that feeling, and then the sense of relief when Billy calls him up and apologizes. Spoiler alert, Billy Madison apologizes to the guy he picked on in in elementary school and saves himself from being serial killed.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

He turns to the notepad and crosses Billy Madison's name off, and I think even says something like, What a nice guy after all, or something. Like, completely negating this, like j he was gonna like shoot everybody or something one by one on this list, like this campaign of revenge he's had for years.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:26

Um so that so now he's embedded in the Cohen verse, the Billy Madison universe or the the Happy Madison universe, the um the Quentin Tarantino universe, and so he has set himself up for success long term because um after Con Air comes the Big Lebowski, and you know, it's there are theories that uh the character from Conair was uh Donnie.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:56

Oh, I've never heard that one. That's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:01

Uh then he drops in to do a bit roll on the Drew Carey show and then follows that right up with The Wedding Singer again, you know, coming back with uh Adam Sandler. And of all the movies that Adam Sandler has put together, I uh Wedding Singer was one of the top notch. Like it was if you peel away the cartooniness of the movie, it becomes a really, really solid rom com. And but I don't think anyone would have watched that rom-com because they wouldn't have understood the storyline, so you had to wrap it in the cartoon of you know of Adam Sandlerville, but and a kind of a love letter to the the 80s, like they everything was out of uh what uh anachronistic, like everything in that movie was act anachronistic and and wrongly timed for when it was supposed to be, but it was like every cliche that they could find from the 80s, they shoved in that movie. But again, it was a solid story, and everybody in the movie really knew what they were doing as far as acting, and the you know, the directing was on point, it was a great, great movie, just it turned a lot of people. Adam Sandler turned uh Adam Sandler is very divisive um for a lot of reasons, but I I was team Adam Sandler from from early. Uh, I I thought he was hilarious because of remote control, uh, and because of airheads, and I just I enjoyed Adam Sandler, and I was willing to go down the the the rabbit hole with him, and uh you know his the more cartoony he got, it was like okay, I'm I'm willing to take I'm willing to take that. But he actually got a really good performance out of Billy Idol, and that ended up getting Billy Idol signed up to The Doors as one of the characters, and the Doors was amazing. So uh completely out of there. Uh I never saw it, but The Imposters uh was Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:16

That was uh Stanley Tucci's follow-up to Big Night. I watched it the minute it came on video because obviously it didn't come to a theater near me. It was it's a great, it's like a farce. It's so much fun. It's not as good as Big Night, obviously, but it's still very good.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:31

And go ahead and tell everyone what Big Night is.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:34

Oh, Big Night is probably my favorite movie ever. It's um a 1996 movie about two Italian brothers, Primo and Segundo, is played by um Monk and Stanley Tucci that own an Italian restaurant, and the rival Italian restaurant across the street is very flashy. And the owner tells them the owner from the restaurant across the street tells them that um Louis Prima is in town and wants to come do a dinner at the two brothers restaurant, and so the whole movie is them preparing for this big night, and then the dinner where does Louis Prima come? I don't know, you'll have to watch it.

unknown 1:20:10

I'm bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:10

Also, if you don't know too many movies to this list of movies.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:13

If you don't know who Louis Prima is, he's a uh 1950s Italian singer.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:18

In my opinion, the best of the best, but other people like like Frank Sinatra and whatever, but it's but it would be like if Frank Sinatra, if old Mickey Blue Eyes stopped by the Italian, you have to make it nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:32

But Stanley Tucci and uh Adrian Monk uh were Tony Shaloube. Tony Shaloube were his name.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:40

Uh I thought you were just doing the bit. Monk and Stanley Tucci.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:44

Uh they were both uh you know, this is uh it was a New York love letter, and uh uh Blue Eyes is uh Jersey boy, so they needed Louis Prima because Louis Prima was New York and it was a new oh right, okay, you know, coming back to to home base. Um yeah, it was uh Big Night is an amazing film. As if you like watching people act well, it's it's an amazing film. And uh many mini driver.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:16

Yeah, also Isabella Rossolini and Ian Holm, like the stat the cast is stacked. It is stacked.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:24

Uh and now Jenny, sorry. Uh then we hit uh 1998, and uh it's time for the block, like the blockbuster of all blockbusters, Armageddon. And he plays basically it's very if you take the criminality out of the character he played in Con Air, and then added added a little bit of criminality back, uh that is uh his character Rock Hound. Um, and every every time he's on scene, he steals it. And like uh I believe the director of that movie that might have been a Bruckheimer, too, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:12

Hold on.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

I believe so. I don't know who directed because I guess Michael Bay. Oh Michael Bay. The dream team. He finally found a guy who is like uh I like exploding things almost probably more than you do. Basically, there is the other will defeat Roland Demerick.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:36

Uh I don't know if anyone is familiar with uh um epic rap battles of history, but they do uh basically they take two characters from history and have them do a rap battle against each other. And in one, they at one point they started taking suggestions, and someone had suggested um uh Alfred Hitchcock versus Steven Spielberg. And uh they did they in it was an era of YouTube where people were trying to change the way YouTube was going. So Epic Rap Battles would do like eight uh battles in a season and then take a couple months off and then do another season. So you ended up with like three or four seasons in a year or whatever. Uh, and then at the so like the the final episode of the season, they would stack it. So it would be it would start off with Alfred Hitchcock versus Steven Spielberg, and then someone else would cut in. So they had Quentin Tarantino cut in, and then they had and throughout the like I think uh they ended up oh um uh Kubrick, uh Quentin Tarantino, uh Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, and each one of them had a uh couple lines in their verse ripping on Michael Bay, like just shitting all over Michael Bay, and then the final verse is Michael Bay coming out, and it's like it's all about the money, y'all. And uh he's like the little lane, yeah. It's it was it was an amazing feat. Well, John, I'm sorry. Uh but yeah, Armageddon um was just it was what it was supposed to be. It was uh another blockbuster movie, it was a summer hit type thing, uh soundtrack, packet full of stars, and um it is what it is, and it's a fun watch. Uh it's not um you know the citizen cane of our era, but it was it was a fun movie. And then he took some time off and did Big Daddy with uh Mike uh um Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler, yeah. Uh got to host Saturday Night Live and then went back to doing indies uh with Ghost World. I haven't seen Ghost World, but I know having been in comic shops enough, I'm familiar that it exists and it has an attraction to a indie audience, basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:19

It's a great movie. I've watched it multiple times.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:22

What's it about?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:23

So basically, um, there's two girls in it, uh um Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson, one of Scarlett Johansson's early roles, and they're just like uh young, I think maybe fresh out of high school, early 20s friends, and they see an ad where uh it's basically a misconnection ad, and they prank phone call it and uh tell Steve Buscemi that um they're this lady that he was trying to get get a misconnection with, and sets up a meeting at a diner, and then they go with their friend to watch him at the diner and make fun of them for just waiting for somebody not showing up. And then one of the girls starts to feel like sympathy for him and then ends up at like a garage sale that he's having, buys a jazz record from him, and they become friends, and then it's kind of about their friendship, but it doesn't veer into creepy territory, which is probably one of the reasons that it latched on to so many because I know a lot of indie movie girls from that era really love this movie, and I think it's because it showed a friendship between a man and two girls, and it wasn't creepy really.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:32

So that was it could have gone bad, but it doesn't no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:35

Like they they help him date other people and stuff like that. I I might watch it now if I haven't watched it in probably 15 years, and I might watch it now with different eyes and be like, okay, maybe this is creepier than I remember because I didn't have such a healthy relationship with men at that time in my life. So I will only speak to what I I know about it from 15 years ago, but I liked it very much, and it was also clear from there that Scarlett Johansson was going to be a star.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:02

There's also, and I'm looking at uh stills from this, and obviously because she's such a a major star now, most of the and she's one of the main characters, most of the screenshots are her. And if you guys are interested in seeing Scarlett Johansson and what she looked like as a tiny, tiny baby, Thorberts is holding her because she can't walk, she's a little baby in diapers. It's just wild to see this uh Scarlett Johansson this young. Uh but yeah, but Stephen Shimmy, I feel like he knows what he looks like, right? You know, he knows what face he's got. And almost in a similar way, where like Dinklage, Peter Dinklage wanted to be like, I'm not just the little person actor guy. You know, and and I'm not like the I don't want to speak as like a king of the little people or anything, but but let's Get some more serious roles. I'm not going to take uh jokey midget roles. Yeah, I'm not playing that guy. Um Steven Shimmy is like, I'm not gonna play just like some creepo weirdo. Like he will for a bit. He knows that he can pop into an Adam Sandler scene and say something funny, the homeless guy in uh in Mr. Deeds, you know. He pops in, says something funny, he's in and out, he knows like that's gonna be good, right? But he I it would be weird to see Steve Buscemi play like an out and out actual creep for the whole movie as like the main bad thing in it. You know, that doesn't feel like something he would uh want to be a part of, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:46

And good on him, because I think that it leads to it speaks to like everything that's been said about him where he is like an artist artist, he wants to like help out and be around. He doesn't want to like take hog the scene, uh he doesn't want to typecast, and he doesn't want maybe maybe because he doesn't also want other people to be typecast. That's almost yeah, a little bit the vibe between the lines that I can see a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:14

Like if if I do this, it'll lead to other people having to do this. So I'm agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:19

I'm gonna break the cycle by like, I get it. I'm a weird looking guy. I've got like a but like big ol' eyes and stuff like that. That that clearly that's like a part of why he is on these short call lists, you know. Oh, yeah. It's like I need a do uh I need a freaky little lizard man, and you know, and I feel like Bushimi's like, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna play the freaky lizard man, but there's gonna be an extra element or a solid foundation of like who this character is, like the Frankenstein thing. I think that's a perfect example, even though it's freaky and creepy and it's it's an unsettling ending. There almost is like a what's gonna hap happen, you know. Like, I don't know, like it's it almost casts him as the hero at the end in this weird way. And it all the fact that none of us are really looking at that as like a that's a bad and creepy way to end a movie is is I think a testament to that performance, you know, what he brings to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:16

In the wrong hands, it could have gone like yeah, like cynical and bad it is yeah, raising an eyebrow the wrong way and making it creepy because like just letting it be the creepy scene that it is without adding the creep to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:33

And even like just going like, and that's the movie, guys. Blew up a casino in a plane, and we're good, we're out.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:40

Uh speaking of creepy little lizards, his next role uh to to bring us into the 2000s is Monsters Inc., where he plays Randall, the creepy little lizard who wants to scare children.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:56

And yeah, like uh God, I forgot about that one actually. And I love Monsters Inc. I forgot that was uh him actively in that role.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:05

Uh uh. And yeah, it was it's one of those things. It's more John Goodman. I oh, I didn't even uh put that together. John Goodman and and uh Steve Buscemi uh were in reunited, yeah. Uh then he does uh again Sandler with Mr. Deeds, and then uh because he had worked with Robert Rodriguez before he gets a role in Spy Kids 2, which is by the way, where Logan, when I asked Logan where he knew Steve Buscemi from, it was from Spy Kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:38

Um a surreal movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:41

I never really insane movie. Honestly, Spy Kids movies are good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:47

And Spy Kid guy is uh dating Megan Trainer now. Uh we watched uh John Oliver tonight, and apparently they're very open about their uh poop habits, poop habits like they have side-by-side uh toilets. Well, now they're gonna need to knee toilets, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:07

The young man from that movie, the the the lead, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:10

The yeah, the son, the son that's shark boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:14

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:16

Wild and then we hit coffee and cigarettes, which was uh it was a thing. Uh yeah, I do need to go back and re-watch Spy Kids. I have never watched Spy Kids because it uh it wasn't in my wheelhouse at the time. Like at that time, I think Spencer, my oldest son, was still re-watching. Like he was on his fifth copy of Toy Story because he would watch it constantly, and videotapes, if you watched them constantly, would break down. Uh, but then one of my favorite films, oddly, is Big Fish. Uh, he had a role in that.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:55

Uh movie underrated movie. I think it's finally gotten started to get its flowers, but yeah, it was it was kind of like it kind of people like, what is this? I don't understand. I was I thought I was gonna go see uh Nightmare uh before Christmas three or whatever. I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:12

It was very much uh mishandled by the studio marketing people, uh, because it was not any any of the uh any of the advertisements or the trailers didn't match up to what the movie was because when I watched it, I was like, this isn't this isn't I mean it's good. I think it might like my third watch, it was like, oh, I get it, I get it now. But like going in expecting one thing and then being sideswiped by a bus and cracking my skull, uh just not not the way to watch it. Um, but yeah, it uh you know it starred Owen McGregor uh from Paddington Bear 2. Uh and uh Star Wars, if you're into that. Uh so yeah, uh Big Fish was a surrealistic uh story of a son coming to terms with his father dying, is is basically the story. Uh and um oh who is the who's the son? Um one of the not Billy Cruddup, but the other one. Yeah, I don't mind.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:23

Hold on. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:25

I love that it's uh not Billy Credit, but the other Billy Crudup. Oh, it wasn't Billy Cruddup. My bad. It was either him or a brunette man like him. There's a handful of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:37

Uh and then so from there, uh, he does a couple other movies, and then uh Bro, hold on a second.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:44

Miley Cyrus was in Big Fish. Oh, she was eight years old. That's wild. I gotta rewatch it.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:52

We have we have two copies of the DVD downstairs, not for much longer.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:56

Well, one of them's going out to my subscribers, remember?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:59

Oh, right, right, right. Uh, and he ends up being in another blockbuster movie, The Island, uh, also starring Owen McGregor.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:08

I don't remember that one at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:10

Oh, okay, yes. Uh yeah, it's uh it's I think it's based on the lottery.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:16

Oh, okay. I know that story.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:18

Also with the Scarlett Johansson. So uh, you know, the the Steve Bushimi universe, I I think he can at this point be replaced by Kevin Bacon in the center of the universe there.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:30

Yeah. The indie, the indie Kevin Bacon.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:33

Yeah, I do not think I ever saw the island. It was uh not look like it is ringing a bell.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:39

You know what's funny is I feel like if you look at like a couple of screenshots from it, you can pretty much go, Yeah, I've seen the island. It's it's kind of one of those like I like it. It's there's nothing wrong with the island, it's just like it's it's almost like a movie that's like, have you seen sci-fi before? Like it's all of those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:01

It was during an era where all the warning signs of what's happening now were coming out uh based on 1967 books and and what yeah, basically everything that we're seeing now was foretold in the 60s, and and then they took those because they were cheap or whatever, and they could maximize the profit on it and glam it up and shine it up and make it so unbelievable that the warning, the actual guts of the movie, like the the island is a warning sign. It's it's basically they're farming clones of people for body parts. And uh I like at the same time, there was another movie about uh DNA uh going in and fixing every all the kids all the baby DNA so that perfect children were born. Um, you know, uh just there was a lot in that time era that it was like here's sci-fi from the 60s glammed up, and uh every all the things that um Josie and the Pussycats talks about uh is what they were doing at this time.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:13

Classic movie, iconic.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:16

Uh yeah, I just saw a clip of Parker Posey from that, and I'm like, oh, I didn't I always forget that this movie is like uh people love this movie because it's good.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:24

Well, it's not only good, the soundtrack is fucking a bop. Like it's the reason a bop was used to describe music.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:32

I just think Parker Posey is such a funny actress because she's so it's like she's like, yeah, whatever, I'm beautiful. Who cares? I love her. There's no funny hot girl detachment that she's just over being hot, I guess. I don't know what it is. It's just and she's now she's just a funny person. It's just I don't know. I love her and me.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:59

She she is uh she's also an indie darling, and uh so I looked up to see if uh Parky po Parker Posey and Steve Bushimi had ever worked together. Uh and up until this point they have not, but in November of this year, uh do you remember do you remember the name of it?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:18

Um Deep Horse Nine, or hold on, I can figure that out. Wild Horse Nine. Wild Horse Nine.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:28

Wild Horse Nine. Uh it is uh who do you have the list of it's I don't remember who's in it.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:34

Uh I can pull it up, but it is directed by Martin McDonough, who the same guy who did In Bruges, the Banshees of Inasharon, and one other one. It also has Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, um, Tom Waits.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:49

Yeah. Parker Posey.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:51

Yes, Parker Posey.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:53

So, like, if you want to uh see Indy go Hollywood uh with yeah people that have like indie people that have established themselves that said, hey, this is the like I I get a feeling that they're going to make a great movie because they have Hollywood or they have studio backing without studio interference because everyone involved in this is established and they got established by sticking to their you know drawing the line and sticking to it. Like Sam Rockwell has done Sam Rockwell in everything he's done, and John Malkovich has towed the John. Like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it the John Malkovich way.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:38

And the the fellow making the movie, Martin McDonough, is the same way. Like he he he's not gonna let anybody tell him what to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

Yeah. Um what a weird name. I'm already intrigued by it. Wild Horse Nine. It's like, all right, well, you've done everything you can to make me watch this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:54

I think it's a spy movie, but I'm not not I'm not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:58

Um, then we get a couple uh some more art house films, uh including art school confidential and romance and cigarettes. And then he gets the gets a big break and uh gets a 14-episode arc on uh prestige television uh on the sopranos, going back to his gangster roots.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:20

Did you did you know that um David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, was inspired by Steve Buscemi's movie Trees Lounge, uh and used that as a a lot of the basis for some of the bar scenes in The Sopranos, and uh Steve Buscemi directed an episode of Sopranos because of David Chase's obsession with the movie Trees Lounge.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:44

That's so cool. I'd love to see I I've I've never seen uh Sopranos. I'd love to see uh Buscemi direct I know he did uh that was Trees Lounge, but uh yeah, something like that isn't his that he puts a spin on is interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:00

I I watched the first time I watched Sopranos was uh through Napster. Yeah, like I went in there. Uh that I was constantly like I my computer was constantly downloading uh either Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes or uh soprano episodes. And whenever I ran out and had to download more, I'd watch I started watching Yu-Gi-Oh! uh and then by that time a new episode of Sopranos had been downloaded. What a lot of people don't understand today, like click and it's playing. It wasn't like that. It was click, uh let's go to work, come back. Okay, cool. Uh one of the three episodes I tried to select is now downloaded. Cool, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:51

Perhaps, perhaps I will get to watch uh the pilot of Avatar the Last Airbender when I get home for.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:59

Um, and then uh Jackie and I are are huge fans of uh Dan Harman. Okay, good. And uh also huge fans of Rob Schraub, who uh both those two came. Uh they did uh Comedy Sports in Minnesota, which was kind of an improv type uh Whose Line Is It Anyway, uh improv show. They moved to Hollywood in hopes of writing movies and and shows and stuff like that, and they started a thing called Channel 101. And Channel 101, uh basically Rob Schraub made a his version of Jaws 4 and invited everyone over, and uh it was basically his dick on the screen for a while.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:47

But what okay, so the I have this on my computer somewhere. I own I don't own a copy, but I've downloaded a copy of Rob Schraub's Jaws 4, and it is Rob Schraub's penis with a shark fin on it coming at the screen, and that's about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:03

And it it was it wasn't for mass consumption, it was for the five people in the living room uh laughing, and that sparked a competitive edge amongst them uh to come up with a TV show to make each other laugh, which then spurned into a competition where uh you submit a video, it gets selected, and then they play the videos and the audience votes on them. I I think there's like seven videos, and then the top three or the I think the top three go on and make it a second episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:42

Oh, okay. I like this a lot, actually. This idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:45

Yeah, basically the idea is make a five-minute pilot for a TV show, and if people like it, then you get to make a second episode, and if people like the second episode, you get to make a third episode, and so on and so on and so on.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:57

It's the roots of a lot of things. I think it's worth it as well. And if you want to watch and participate, they still do the shows once a month that you can either go to live in Los Angeles or watch on Twitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:07

And you oh Dan Harman's still doing this.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:10

Dan Harman's not involved anymore, but there's a group of people keeping the the channel 101 alive. You can watch it on Twitch and Vote even.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:18

Okay, I thought I had heard of 101, but not under Dan Harmon. That may be why. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:23

Well, um, that is it was where Rick and Morty was born. Um and um a lot of the people that participated in there ended up writing and doing voices and directing for Rick and Morty and community and other things like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:42

So some people we don't talk about anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:45

One of the people one of the people that runs it right now is the voice of a teletubby.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:52

Wow. Uh so uh success. Uh and doing that, uh, they they actually had a television show on uh cable station, I can't remember which one, uh, trying to basically parlay that into a paying gig. Uh then Rob and and Dan ended up working for Sarah Silverman on the Sarah Silverman show. Uh and then Dan got fired because he was an asshole. Uh and then went into a suppression, listened to Bare Naked Ladies for a while, and then wrote community. Uh it was a trip. And then they got together and they wrote Monster House, which had uh uh Steve Washimi as a voice.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:36

Yeah, he was the voice of Horace Nebercracker.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:39

Nebercracker, yeah. Uh and then there's just oh he uh Adam Sandler Universe, he did uh I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry, uh, got a couple episodes on Simpsons, uh just dropping in different places, and then he did St. John of Las Vegas. I'm not very familiar with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:02

It was a pretty good road trip movie from what I remember.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:05

All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:06

Uh and are I I wanted to mention Youth and Revolt. Are we in the um Youth and Revolt? Um, I don't know if you remember Mickey, but uh it was a book that I had Logan read uh about Nick Twisp, and we were talking about Nick Twisp all the time. Yeah, and in the movie, uh George Steve Buscemi plays Nick Twisp's dad, and Nick Twisp is played by Michael Serra. And the Youth and Revolt books are very accessible readers, uh uh accessible to people who don't normally read because it's very much written like uh people talk. Uh it's a it's a very fun, and it's a huge series. There's like 17 Nick Twist books now.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:50

I did not know that was a series. I just saw two Michael Seras on a on a cover and I was like, well, that'll that's interesting, and I never watched it.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:56

It's they didn't do a great job making the book a movie, but it's fun as a standalone. If like if you hadn't read the book and known all of the other adventures that Nick Twisp got into and what they left out, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:11

Um, and then uh again, going back to Love Letters to New York, like he has so many love letters to New York. Uh and uh the BC Boys had come out with a video for Make Some Noise, and uh he played a waiter because why not? Uh and then they decided to expand that into uh remaking of Flight for Your Right video, and it's you know Elijah Wood and Danny McBride and um uh the cowbell guy, Will Farrell, Will Farrell and uh Will Farrell's best bud in Talladega Nights. Oh uh John Call. Mr. Cellophane. Yeah, Mr. Cellophane. Uh yeah, John C. Riley. So, like basically everyone that loved the Beastie Boys got invited to be uh in this 30-minute music video, and it was it's a it's a piece of art. Um and it is a again another love letter to New York, a love letter to the Beastie Boys, and it's fantastic. I highly recommend going and looking at it. Um and then he gets a uh there's a couple other movies, but then he drops into 30 rock for um basically. Uh if you're not familiar with 30 rock, uh um I am shitty with names. Tina Faye. No, the the guy that shot someone. Uh oh, Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin plays the head of GE, uh basically the CEO, and he's running the network uh because GE, you know, they they wanted to make it clear that GE owned NBC now. Uh and uh so the character uh of the the CEO hires a uh private detective to look into things and they're like, hey, let's get Steve Bushemi. Uh which then you know makes him friends with uh Tina Faye and all those gang, you know, all those people. Um then he goes back to making some money with uh Monsters University, Growing Ups 2, and uh and then that show is the that is the genesis of the how do you do fellow kids meme?

SPEAKER_02 1:49:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:43

Because he's always his whole bit is that he is like an undercover private eye, but his disguises are not he just sort of turns around and he's Steve Buscemi, and that's the whole bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:56

And if you want again, uh seeing Steve Buscemi. Direct someone else's stuff. Uh he directed one of the greatest episodes of 30 Rock, and that was the Leap Year episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:08

Yes. Oh my god. I might so I have seen something of his uh in that vein. And uh that leap the leap day William episode it feels like you took cough syrup. It is wonderful. It might be a uh the if if not just watching it from the beginning, just watch Leap Day William, and I think that will encapsulate so much of what 30 Rock is.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:34

Um, I I wanted to point out another movie in that era that we have a personal connection to. It's not a good movie. I have to preface this, but this is not a good movie. It's called The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. It stars Steve Carell and Jim Carrey as magicians, and it was um the story was written by a gentleman named Chad Coltgen, who we have been to lunch with. He's one of my favorite writers of all time.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:58

Uh yeah, because uh he wrote um the the original was all American male, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:07

And then all of all American marriage, uh the uh men, women and children is probably what you're thinking of.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:12

Yeah, men, women and children ended up starring Adam Sandler.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:16

Yes, Adam Sandler is in that. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:18

So yeah, and uh yeah, it was a weird thing where uh Jackie had messaged him and he accidentally sent out his phone number, and so she started texting him. And when we went to LA for a wedding, we're like, hey, we're gonna be in town.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:35

Uh I I didn't just like text him and be like, hey, we like had conversations and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:42

She had ongoing conversations with a with a uh New York best-selling author, uh, and uh or New York Times best-selling author. And he was like, Hey, meet me here, we'll have lunch. And uh this was 2019.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:57

2022. We lived here, it was the first year we lived here.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:04

Was it?

SPEAKER_03 1:52:06

Oh, we went, we we went to see Channel the Harmontown year, not oh yeah, okay, yeah. So yeah, so we're too okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:14

So yeah, we went to go see Channel 101 and Harmontown in 2019, and we're sitting and we told him, hey, we're in town. He's like, hey, let's go to lunch, and he sat down and told us his views on what to expect in America. And the boy has been pretty accurate so far.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:33

Yeah, bro nailed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:35

Everything that we're seeing today, the war in Iran, the economy, the fascism, the authoritarianism, the elections will be gone next. Yeah, the the the failed election or the you know, the complete erasure of elections and all that stuff. He he was very, very accurate. He should have written a book, but what he did uh he uh he and his wife uh host a they're not together anymore. Oh for a while they did a podcast uh about how to win on uh The Bachelor because they have I I don't want to diagnose anyone else, but they had the autistic gene where they saw the patterns and they studied the bachelor, and they could tell you from the introduction who was gonna win.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:29

They wrote a book about it and it's fascinating. Like all like they watched every season and took statistics of everything, like the first person out of the limo is the most likely to win, and all of the stuff. Oh, I love stats about stupid stuff. And I I even asked him, I was like, I've never really watched The Bachelor before. If you could recommend a season to me, which one would you recommend? And I watched the one that he recommended. I don't remember what it is now because I've blocked it from my memory. I don't ever want to think about The Bachelor again.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:58

It looked awful. I mean, I I think I I was I was a teenager uh who like you're you're at the doorstep of like kind of deciding what you're gonna be into when reality TV shows like that came out, that reality can contest type of thing. And I just remember being like so repulsed by all of it. And the bachelor was definitely like, I'm gonna I'm gonna marry whoever like proves their love to me in this show, and I'll be like, this sounds tough.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:31

I think anytime I watch reality TV, it's hate watching. Like I had an adverse reaction to the real world, which was essentially the birthplace of reality TV. I avoided Survivor, but like the someone dropped off a uh brown paper bag of videotapes that they had recorded, and I watched them, and the first couple of seasons were good, and then it became like I get really bored with video games where it's the same thing over and over, like, oh, go collect this, bring it back. Uh and it's the same. Like, there's no advancement of the story, it's the it's just the the same spinning bullshit over and over. And I after a while, Survivor kind of evolved into that. It's like, oh, we're trying to win. This is how you win, period.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:26

End of story, and it's like it's like it's like that back couple of X-File seasons where like they've already like gone to the alien ship in Antarctica in the movie and come back, and then it's like you're in the office, yeah. What are you even doing showing up to work now, dude?

SPEAKER_00 1:55:43

Uh, and then uh, based on his work previous work with HBO, uh, he was approached and was completely taken aback uh because he was offered the leading role as Nucky Thompson on Boardwalk Empire, and he was like, Well, they said, Hey, we want you to play Nucky uh on Boardwalk Empire, and he's like, Uh okay, so who's the lead? And they're like that rules, and they're like, You, you are the you are the Nucky's the main character, and he's like, Wow, so what character do you want me to play? And they're like, No, we want you to be the guy, and so just that humbleness of him uh came out. Um again, he flips back to Adam Sandler, gets paychecks. Uh I don't remember, you know, he does stuff for friends like he did Portlandio because he was friends with um uh Armondson Armiston. Um ends up doing Transformers, uh, just a voice. Uh that's right. Keeps doing Hotel Transylvania's, big fan of Hotel Transylvania.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:06

And I'm a big fan of that. It seems like that seems like Adam Sandler printing money for his friends, and I am so down for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:15

I love that aspect of Adam Sandler, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:19

I it really recolors like I think what he does uh artistically, I think for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:24

Uh there's a podcast I listen to called the 500. Uh, basically, there's a comedian uh who goes through the Rolling Stone uh top 500 albums uh of all time. Uh and he invites guests in to talk about, you know, he basically here's the list, pick an album you want to talk about, and you know, come on. And he had Maria, was it Maria Bamford, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:50

I believe so.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:52

The one that does the the Monday morning shows. Yes, yeah, okay. So he's got Maria Bramford on there, and uh someone had mentioned that she was a pain in the ass because she was asking for too much money for something, and she's like, I have to, so because they're not going to pay um uh who's who's the comedian that was in the comedy festival?

SPEAKER_03 1:58:17

Jackie Cation.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:19

Jackie Cation. She's like, Jackie Cation is my opener, and they're not good this is the they're not gonna pay her, so I have to ask for more money so that I can give her more money. I'm like, that is the most beautiful thing in the world because they're not gonna say no to Maria Bamford, and they never do, so she can pay the people that open and support her just a little bit more money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:45

Uh that's good to hear. That's I like to hear that kind of story from someone I uh Maria Bamford's always been one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:52

Yeah, and I can't wait to see the documentary coming out about her.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:56

Uh, I guess he did uh Steve Bush. Uh he played Steve Bushimi in the Scooby-Doo and Guess Who movie. Uh and then he did uh the King of Staten Island. Uh again, if you're gonna if you're gonna write a love letter to your hometown, uh The King of Staten Island is a good um a good representation of of what it is to be in love with your town. Yes. Uh uh and Pete David, it's about Pete Davidson dealing with uh his father dying in 9-11.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:34

It's it's autobiographical, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:59:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh basically since Steve Bushimi all right in 1984, I talked about Steve Bushimi had been a volunteer fireman, and uh when 9-11 happened, uh Steve Bushimi's wife helped cut his hair and then got out his old equipment and made sure it still fit, and he showed up at his oh right.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:03

I'm so glad we're talking about this, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:05

And he said, What'll what's the assignment? And he went to work, and side by side with all these guys that were just busting their ass first responders, cleaning up the mess that was there, and it was something, and and again, he had his full equipment on, so people on the street couldn't see that it was him or anything like that. And at the end of the day, one of the other fire firemen from the firehouse was like, Hey dude, do you mind getting a selfie or what you know? Not because it was I think it was like a group picture or something like that, and it was kept quiet for 10 years after this, and then like when social media Instagram became a bigger thing, the dude put it out and said, Hey, these are the guys from the firehouse, and people from the internet it was like, Hey, that looks like Steve Bushimi, and then he finally had to address it. He's like, Yeah, I did, and to this day he is still an advocate, uh, and helps pay for lawyers and stuff, trying to get first responders the money that they're owed. Wow. Um, and quietly, uh, you know, Jon Stewart is very loud about it, but Jon Stewart is the person like he is the state at this point. We can say Jon Stewart is a statesman of some degree, and him leading the charge while Steve Bashimi is quietly in the background holding up tent posts and stuff like that. So uh having that information out there, Pete being a decent fella, I guess, uh was like, hey, let's give let's give Steve a role here. And um I um Dennis Leary also had a role in it, and Dennis Leary did a lot of work with firemen and and stuff like that. Uh uh, I know he did a TV show and was very specific on what they were going to do with the show in to show firemen in a in a good light and and first responders and and stuff like that. So there are a lot of people that do it not for the glory and the pats on the backs to to get it, but because you know the firemen are good people that are helping and and doing things for the good of mankind and deserve respect and and whatever, and seeing that these people are doing the background work and not just Sean Penning it and doing photo ops.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:37

I I I think like uh 9-11 has become a kind of uh I mean it's definitely become a meme. Uh and like definitely like uh and obviously there's that whole like inside job conspiracy theory kind of side to things there. And so there's all of this stuff, I think, at this point, where it's like you almost look at 9-11 as this it almost like didn't happen at this point, even though it very much did. And it's it is really like uh at the end of the day, if you believe that it was the government that blew up those buildings, or it was the Saudis or the whatever you think, the fact remains that like a build several buildings blew up because of planes, and then this guy didn't no one had time to ask questions. There's dust rolling through the streets from buildings collapsing. And this actor, you know, who obviously came from a bit of a blue blue-collar uh uh Americana, as American as you can probably get, just no I mean it's not like people were tweeting necessarily back then, but it's like he just gets up and goes. He just like it's oh, I'm needed. Shit's going down in New York. I gotta, I gotta go.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:01

While other shitheads are rushing to contact the television stations so that they can get airtime.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:08

Yeah, or I mean like that you have uh comedian, that guy, that one guy. Uh I don't really it's probably it would not even worth mentioning his name, but he he I think he famously there's somebody who famously lied about like being in caught up in the events of 9-11. And it's like the uh comedians are terrible, I think. They're probably some of the worst people, they're some of the best people I've ever met and some of the worst people I've ever met. But it is just like yeah, like you said, uh the story of Steve Bishemy showing up to uh a fire, uh one of the firehouses and just helping and keeping that a secret for 10 years because it wasn't about that. That was 10 years full of like social that was the upcoming of social media. Uh huh. I mean, it was it that that we're talking about an event that like we've really hung our hat on culturally since it happened. And like even with that, he chooses not to participate in that land grab that he that he has every right to after the fact, especially after he's done his quiet helping, he didn't have to stay quiet, right? Yeah, you know, like I I wouldn't, I would not stay quiet. I'm not like a I'm not like a blowhart or anything, but if I had helped out in 9-11, that would come up. Yeah, and this guy just kind of kept it close to the vest and continue doing like whatever small roles in movies, and then someone wants to put him in the lead, and he's like, who's the lead? You know, and it's like this guy's awesome, he's rad. There's no other way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:50

And speaking of 9-11 memes, uh Rick and Morty uh did uh like they they did a joke where uh they blew up uh they basically did a Pearl Harbor, like they're on an alien planet and they're just blowing all kinds of shit up, they're doing uh Star Wars uh jokes, they're doing Klingon jokes, they did a Pearl Harbor joke, and then they're coming up on two towers, and they're both like uh no, uh but uh uh because of his work on Monster House, uh he did a voice for an episode of Rick and Morty. Uh and then he ends up doing voices for uh SpongeBob SquarePants and more Adam Sandler movies to pay but uh stuff. He's in a bad bunny video uh nice uh as well. Uh he ended up because of his uh time with uh Dan Harmon. He did uh Crapopolis uh is a fun another is it was a fun little jaunt.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:03

Yeah, okay. I think that great would not have expected to hear a positive just because it seems so uh there are so many of these now. There are so many of these shows.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:16

I I will watch literally anything Dan Harmon puts anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:19

Yeah, that's fair, that's a fair thing to say.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:22

Uh and then we won't get into it, but uh he did a uh quick uh episode of Phantasmus. Uh if you want to go into deeper depths of that, Jack uh follow Jackie. Uh she and Logan have been talking about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:39

I will say that he played the letter Q.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:42

Uh then because of his friendship, uh again, he did he did the voice of Starscream in uh Transformers 1. Oh wild ends up getting Big Mouth uh and uh if you haven't seen Pokerface with um the redhead, Natasha Leone. Uh it's a fun take on the detective genre. Like if you enjoyed Monk and Psych and uh Columbo stuff like that, the the weirdo detective type thing. Um poker face is a fun, fun little ride, and he played a recurring character for a few episodes.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:27

Yeah, it's a very fun formulaic show.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:32

Him and Natasha Leon seems like a very fun combination to agree.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:37

Yeah. Uh then uh he's recently been on Wednesday, which uh his with Christina Ricci. He plays the principal of the school. Uh uh Wednesday is uh Wednesday Adams from the Adams family, uh reimagined in the two Jenna Ortega. Jenna Ortega, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:59

Oh well, I mean, I was I was expecting Christina Ricci to show up in that show as some kind of cameo anyway. Yeah, yeah. He does. Um and they look at each other, and then there's like a musical sting, and you know, they they are doing that thing a lot more where they're like, Oh, remember how they were in the old one? And they're at least now doing a thing I like where they just kind of make that person a character and don't say anything. For a while they were doing this thing where it would be Christina Ricci comes in and she's like, Oh, I've got I have a black dress under this or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:36

Yeah, like yeah, either go all the way or not. Uh like uh I am a huge fan of the Aeroverse, which was on the CW back in the day, and um after a while they spun off into the Flash, and Flash uh hyper speed uh heroes always lead to time travel or breaking the time whatever. And so uh there's a point in the aero verse, like there's hundreds of episodes over four different shows, and flash ends up going back in time and breaking time, and they end up getting a bunch of different flashes from uh that show up, and there was a TV show in the 80s, there was a TV the movie, and so they got all the original actors to come back and play the flash from that from a different universe, and that I like you know, whatever they they're like, okay, we're going to do this, we're going to get the you know, hire the people that were a part of it, not just try to mimic it and and do that.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:49

So I love the idea, especially for something like the flash, especially for something so which like it's got its internal logic, but at the end of the day, it is so silly. But there is something so heartwarming about like in uh to to kind of go completely against what I was saying before, when they do it with this very big pomp and circumstance type of thing.

SPEAKER_04 2:11:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:12

Uh where it's like, well, here's the original Jay Garrick from like the 50s show. Yeah. Uh-huh. And you're just like, well, that just makes me happy to see Flash Grandpa.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:23

You know, like just jazz that they did that.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:26

Yeah, not like not just the hint, but actually coming up with a reason for them to actually play the character that like you've changed the character into something new, but still it's based on this guy. And so bring the actor that was that guy to play that guy. Why not?

SPEAKER_02 2:11:46

I believe that that that show also brought in uh in their crisis on infinite earth's uh version that they did. I think they also brought in uh Kevin Conroy as Batman, uh, which is great. Yeah. Uh just like a guy who had never physically been Batman, but only the voice, and they bring him in as this, and you're like, if you it's not a face you recognize normally, like you know, unless you're really deep in this. So that it's just that's I love that I do love that. I love that they got the voice of the Batman right before uh he unfortunately did pass away. Uh like to kind of do one last reference to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:12:24

And the like the one time that they didn't do that, like Brendan Ralph uh is plays a character called the Adam, and uh he had played Superman in uh one of the series, I can't remember which, but uh returns or Superman, I think like four. Yeah, and so at one point they meet Superman and he's like, I do I look like him, and it's just a little quick joke, wink wink like because at that point everyone in the audience knows that they have done all these different things, and yeah, yeah, you're so deep in, you're such a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:06

So it's if you've watched the flash enough that it has Superman in it, you are you have buckled in a long time ago to this particular roller coaster.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:17

Uh and there's the to finish it out, he uh uh was in a movie with John Torturro Gian Garcalo, uh Gian Gus Giancarlo Esposito, uh called the only living pickpocket in New York. Again, another love letter to New York. So if it's gonna be a love letter to New York, you gotta have Steve Bushimi in it.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:41

Also, um, I see that he has a movie coming up called The Marshmallow Experience, where he plays a character named King Dong. And in my brain, this was a movie about like hostess cupcakes. So I looked up what it was about, and I need to read you the premise.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:55

All right.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:56

The premise says this is a movie called The Marshmallow Experience, and the premise is for Alex making it through high school as a socially awkward teen is hard enough. Trying to survive while having an insatiable online porn addiction makes it even harder.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:17

So super bad.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:18

There's a big gorilla, like a big blue gorilla on the cover, and I'm guessing that's King Dong, but I don't know other than that what else is happening.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:28

Um so that's basically where you would know Steve Ushimi from. Uh, I hope that answers your question, Jackie.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:38

Yeah, I think so. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:41

Um what do we have coming up next?

SPEAKER_03 2:14:45

Next on the list is Neanderthal.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:48

Okay. Um, the concept of the Neanderthals? Okay. Uh what happened with the Neanderthal? Um, yeah, there's some interesting takes on that, and uh uh we'll we'll dive into that.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:02

And would you like to know what potential topics I added to the list based on our conversation today?

SPEAKER_04 2:15:09

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:09

Okay, I added dropout, Parker Posey, Channel 101 or Dan Harmon, and the Aeroverse.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:18

All right, so those are all real deep.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:27

Including quoting at least two of her movies in completion.

SPEAKER_00 2:15:33

So that'll fill that time, yeah. In general, I uh am adverse to having heroes, uh, because eventually heroes will let you down. And in order to have a hero, you have to forgive some bad behavior. Uh, but in the grand scheme of things, I I would say holding up people to examples or holding people up as examples of what to strive for is a better way to say it. And as far as I've seen and everything that I have read and researched, uh Steve Bushimi um is someone that has exemplified uh good behavior, uh worthy of attention and worthy of emulation. Um not as a a uh path to success, but as just a path to be a good human. Like start small, support those around you, build a build a little group around you, and uh be comfortable with those you are working with and give everything that you can and and don't hold back because when you hold like there are cartoon characters that he has played live at you know, I use cartoon character as as just so outrageous and and surreal and and out there, but he plays it giving everything that he can and making them real and making them believable and making them into just wonderful roles. Uh and if you can do that in whatever you choose to do, you'll succeed. And not by someone else's definition of success, but by your you set your own definition of success so that when someone says, Hey, we want you to be the lead, you're confused because you don't understand your that's not what your goal was. Your goal was just to add as much as you can to the product.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:00

Yeah. So and I think like um, like as uh I would say I used to do comedy at this point, but I think like he on he represents a kind of weird ideal for me, having learned this much about kind of his humility and his like knowing his place sounds like a bad thing, but like you know, you when you do when you do comedy, like I did it for 10 years pretty much straight, like multiple times a week. Uh and you would meet people that were like my my plan in this is to be famous. That's my my goal and my plan. And I'm not I think fame is a poison personally, but like if you want to be on SNL, that is like one of the goals. This is a forward-facing, like public kind of thing. So it's like there has to be some level of like, I want to be a little bit noticed, uh, if if you want to keep going with it. But there was also this, like, a lot of times, I mean, you would meet people that you're like, you would never like you're so far. All you have, all you have is the um the goal of being famous. There's there's that's like a sort of waffle cone, but there's no ice cream in here uh as far as the art goes. Your idea is fame. Uh, whereas like I don't know, it it's it's so cool to see a guy who's like, yeah, I just like acting.

SPEAKER_00 2:19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:19:37

I just like being an actor. And yeah, I looked up his house and it's very nice. But in this case, I think like this is a guy who deserves a very nice house for one, helping in 9-11, uh, but two, managing to have a pretty stellar career with no real, like no one's come forward about Steve Buscemi. Uh Steve Buscemi controversy didn't return results that reflected negatively on him, like he just seems like a cool guy, and it's like, wow, you could just be a cool guy in Hollywood. What's with all the other stuff happening?

SPEAKER_00 2:20:17

Yeah, and it it's it's very punk rock, yeah, but very rock and roll. Like it is he was able to take punk rock and make it rock and roll, like, not because he changed to adapt it, but he made the world adapt to enjoy punk rock.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:37

Uh and like what he was doing, honestly. Like he didn't like, you know, he still will just go out and do this weird stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:46

Uh, speaking of weird stuff, one of the things I I am I completely amiss, uh uh kind of disgusted at myself for missing, uh, a television show called Miracle Workers, where he was with Daniel Radcliffe. Another guy, I believe that Daniel Radcliffe has watched Steve Bushimi's career and has decided to do that uh after the fact, like getting dumped into Harry Potter, yeah. Yeah, the the kid who is Harry Potter is is rat is choosing to do Steve Bushimi than choosing to do Tom Cruise.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:21

Legitimately, um Miracle Workers is one of the weirdest best shows. It is so strange. They play angels, is that correct? Is that that it's different every season? They play different characters every season, but it's the same path. Oh, it's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 2:21:40

Highly recommended. Uh, if if nothing else on this list that you took away, uh go go watch Miracle Workers. Um and with that, uh Christian, uh, appreciate your time. And uh if you are looking for web design or graphic design uh and you don't want AI slop, contact Christian.

SPEAKER_02 2:22:03

Uh if you want a well-written biography, I don't know how to use the AI computer, so that is my promise to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:22:10

Uh if you want a well-written biography for your resume, professional or uh acting or music or whatever, uh contact Jackie. Uh she has that and some lollipops. Um again, uh, some of the things that we mentioned, uh Dan Harmon, uh, Channel 101 is a fun, fun exploration if you're into weird stuff. Um uh I can't even remember what else. Uh again, Epic Rap Battles is a fun watch uh to see people that have studied the subject matter that they're talking about and then presenting it in a fun way.

SPEAKER_03 2:22:51

Um I'd like to shout out two podcasts we love Reasonably Afraid about horror movies and medium literate about movie movies.

SPEAKER_00 2:23:00

All right. And uh also if you are a book person, uh get yourself some Chad Colchin and check those out. Yes, they are bizarre and fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:13

Start with the average American male, it's very short and very like visceral. Uh it's uh it's so good. So good. And it we'll read it and you'll be like, why is a woman telling me this book is good? But it's great. It's like the most anti-woman book ever. And I wouldn't eat yogurt for the longest time because of this book. And you'll read the first sentence and you'll be like, I understand it.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:38

That is like a uh that they should put that on the book. I didn't eat yogurt for a month after this.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:45

I'll tell them to put it on the next printing.

SPEAKER_00 2:23:49

Uh, with that, uh, I think we have touched on everything and we have talked about nothing. So join us next time where we uh we'll do the same thing with Neanderthals. All right, have a good evening and good night. No, it was nothing.