Jack McBrayer

- Well, come on, come on.

- Oh, no, what happened? - Well, I don't know. - You know, the Yips. We just had it. We had a guest on talking about the Yips.

- Oh, right. - So athletes famously get the Yips. And what if I got the Yip that I couldn't say,

“well, come on, that's how crazy the Yips are.”

Like you can take this thing you can do. You've done for decades, and all of a sudden you mentally can't be able to. - Well, that's such a ding-dding, 'cause I'm reading a book right now

called Art of Fielding, that is this. - It is. - It's the Yips. - Okay, so, well, come welcome. Welcome to Art of Fielding.

I'm Dan Shepherd, I'm joined by Lily Padman. - Hi. - And today, we have a very, very, very funny young man. - A young boy. - A young boy.

- He's the cutest in the funniest. He's also an Emmy Award-nominated actor and comedian, Jack McBrere. 30 Rock, Reckett Ralph. Zillogon Wild, Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding,

my new favorite show. - And forgetting Sarah Marshall. - Another ding-dding. Very memorable. Season three is airing right now

of Zillogon Wild on HGTV, or you can stream it on HBO Max. That's what we're doing, you have a little pro tip. But yeah, if you follow the account Zillogon Wild, which I do, it's a great Instagram account, it's all these very unique homes unique.

- Yep.

- And Jack goes and visits these and they're incredible.

And before we go, I want to announce some summer, armchair anonymous prompts. - Here we go. Tell us of foreign object story in body. - Oh yeah, foreign object in body.

- Yeah, foreign object in body. We love that one. Let's go round three or four of that. Tell us about a time you fought a wild animal. - Oh wow.

- Tell us about a crazy family secret. - Oh yeah. - Tell us a crazy stalking story. We dare go back to stalking. - They've all been so scary.

- Stalking is scary. - Tell us a crazy home intruder story. Okay, so we have foreign object in body,

“fighting a wild animal, crazy family secret,”

crazy stalking story, or crazy home intruder story. Go to armchairexpertpod.com to submit your story. And Emma will sift through those and pick somebody, and hopefully we'll get to talk to you. - We'll talk to you.

- Please submit. Please enjoy Jack McBrere. (upbeat music) - I don't give you that. - I did that on purpose for you.

- But you didn't go. - I went. - You did? - I sure did. - I sure did.

- Tell me all about it. - That's a nice. - I see you have some notes prepared. - Yes.

- For the first guests to come with their own note.

- I don't want to lock no, I don't want to know. - No. - I don't want to do this. - I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this. - Seriously.

- I don't want to do this. (laughing) - I don't want to be here. - I don't want to be here. - Where are you coming from?

Are you on a whirlwind to a right now promoting? Where have you been? Were you in New York a minute ago? Did you just do sad? When did you do sad?

- Oh, gosh, that was back in July. - Oh, okay. - Almost my opponent. - My opponent year ago. - Yeah, more than, yes.

- What's her doing here? - What's her doing here? - I know. - You are dumb. - How do we start this thing?

- We're started. - Where were you going? - This is what you're going. - It's almost over. - Is it?

- Yes, it's almost over. (laughing)

“- Why is it taking you so long to come on the show?”

That's our first question.

- Yeah, you've been invited. - I didn't have anything to say. - What do you mean? - Well, now I have a show to talk about? - Well, I was like, I'm going to talk about.

- Well, let's get into that. 'Cause I think we deal with this with some guests who are like, there's just people who are super interested in. And we're like, "Hey, we'd love to chat with you." And they're like, "I have nothing to promote."

And then we think like, is that the only reason to come chat? - The only love us to promote. - Oh, no. I don't do podcasts.

Y'all tell me, y'all do it. - You did colonns. - Because he made me. - Okay. - He did.

But is it your policy if you're not promoting something? - I'm not going to go. Do you feel silly just doing a podcast without something to promote? - Well, it's not silly, but I don't know what I would talk about.

- You, your life, your interesting life. - Oh, you don't think there's anything there. - Oh, no, I don't want it out. (laughing) - Yeah, see, when we started this show,

it was not helping people promote projects. It was just to talk to people. And it started out that way. And then it got sort of tricky where people wanted to promote their product.

People started using us, you know? - As they should. - Well, but explain to me what y'all's view of podcasting is. - Okay. - Is that fair? - Yeah.

- Messiness of being. I would probably start with the fact that I had been a guest on them 10 years ago. So before you had your own, you were doing guest. - Yeah, like I did Marin and I did Chris Hardwick

I did, whatever, I did these long form podcasts

and I remember thinking, oh, I like that so much more

than having seven minutes to be really funny and get your three stories on the talk show. - And just like being able to relax and shoot the show, which is my favorite thing to do. I came away from those going like, I actually joy that.

I love shooting the shit with someone for an hour. - Yeah, so that was the motivation to do it is like I loved being on them, why not host one. - But were you on those podcasts to promote? - Oh, they were just a chitchat.

- I wanted to be on Marin's show. I wanna be on Chris Hardwick's show. Anything that I like, I just would wanna be on it or involve. - Like Stern.

- Stern was the main dream, yeah. - And then I got to do Stern. - Had you listened to Stern ever? - No. - Never.

- Not once. - Do you know who he is? - Yes, I know who Howard Stern is. - Oh, Howard Stern. - I know who Howard Stern is.

- Yeah, I certainly who Howard Stern is.

- He'll have been Stern. (laughing) - So is there ever been a show like that you liked as a viewer and you wanted to be on as a guest? - Like a show?

- Yes, of course. - Tell me. - Electro company? - And you got to be on that episode. - Oh wow, nailed it, a Netflix baking show.

- Yeah, you're a big fan and you wanted to be on. - A kid show called Yo Gabba Gabba? - Oh yeah. - Jack Black also famous. - Exactly.

- All the jacks. - Yeah, Nick was in there, Nick was in there.

“- What if the show was just listing all the things?”

- You could probably do two hours of list jacks. - There's a lot of jack Kennedy. - It's a jacks, a nickname. - No. - No, don't name it.

(laughing) - You're calling bullshit on DAX, right? - No, no, no, no. - I really don't know. For example, my real name is Jack and not John.

- Oh. - Okay. - So I didn't know if DAX was a nickname for something. - But then I couldn't figure out what it would have been. - DAX is the real name and then maybe the nickname is

Dan, which is really pedestrian. - What? - You're saying a nickname for DAX would be Dan? - It wouldn't be, but in my case, it has become dad and Dan are the two.

- Well, Dan. - Not by my children, but by my friends are Michigan. - It's confusing for all of us. - She is rolling her out. (laughing)

This is a good job. - I know. (laughing) - It's only about it. - Wait, so tell me about you, J.A.

You're not from Georgia. - I'm from Georgia, I'm from Duluth. - What? - Yes, I know you're from Macon. - Macon and Macon.

- When I was 15, we moved to Connure. - Okay, yeah. - Right outside Atlanta. - Yeah. - And that's where Mom and Dad still are.

Brother and sister still live in Athens. - Oh, Dad's place ever. - That's like coffee cup. - It says like coffee cup. - I'm trying to get taxes children to go there.

- Okay, now it's hard to get into, probably during your time. During my time, it was not as difficult to get into, still prestigious. - It's very prestigious school.

- Macon, Georgia is 85 miles from Atlanta, something like that. So these are 15. - Yeah, it's right in the middle of the state. When I was there, it was a mediums' husband.

We had the almond brothers. We had little Richard, they're both from Macon. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So my best friend from childhood moved to Georgia to making County, it's a county, right?

- As well. - Macon is a city, Macon County is a different part of Georgia. And again, there's a city of Macon in a county of Macon. - Okay, and there's separated.

- There are. - Then all my references make no sense, 'cause then when I would visit a Macon was like rough and tumble. - So I think there was even a movie back in the whatever decade, making County line,

or something like that.

“- Yeah, and I think that is more along the lines of your buddy.”

- Yeah, it was like very rural. You get beat up pretty easy at the bar. - Yeah. - What was the vibe in Macon the city? - Very straightforward.

- We had the Macon mall. - What'd your mom and dad do? - School teachers. - Both of them. - Yeah?

- What subjects?

- Mom has always been health and PE,

and daddy has always been social studies. - Okay, I love that he's daddy. - I know. - Oh, dad. - Oh, dad.

- Oh, it's a daddy. - He's a dad. - Yeah. - Yeah. - We're cutting that, we love that. - Excellent. I'm a grownup. Did they meet at the school? - T-team?

- Oh, no, they met as children. They knew each other from way back. We've just been making family for generations. And when we did move to Coniors, when I was 15, they did teach at our high school. Mr. Creswell, who was our principal, was like daddy's sorority of what is it called?

- For eternity. - For other. - Yeah. - George the Southern. And so there was an opening for two teachers. And so Mr. Creswell just called up Mom and Dad. So Mom and Dad were teachers at my school.

We're also my brother, who's two years older than me. My sister, who's two years younger than me. We all met there. So I was always at school with at least three members of my family. - Oh, wow.

“- Yeah, does that not ruin your school in experience?”

- I mean, I wasn't a bad kid. - But maybe you caught it. - But you caught it. - Yeah. - But I was terrified of it. It was only downfall, like if I crapped out on a test or something, my mom would hear about it before I did.

- Oh, they would go and run and tell.

- Well, they'd be in the teachers' lungs, and it's scary, something to be like.

- Jack really shit the bed. - I don't think that's what they'd say. - Yeah, a kind of language they use. - They swear they would get nasty. - That's the side of your mom, you know you want to know about that.

- It happens to the teachers' lungs. - Wow, would you even say this? - Smoking cigarettes and drink a black coffee? - Absolutely not. - Black coffee. That's the worst part. - Did I have every parents smoke? Oh gosh, no. Well, don't say oh gosh, no.

My parents smoked. - Are you bragging? - Yeah, a little bit. - They were super cool. - But we're children of the 70s, you would agree with a lot of parents were buying in darts. - What? - Smoking cigarettes. - Jack. - Jack's.

- I feel like you just came out of the 1930s. - So innocent. - You are just the words you're saying. - Banging darts means smoking cigarettes. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Did you know that? - Yeah, because he says it all the time. - Did you know it before he said it? - That's a great question.

It is a phrase I probably have not said it what it means. - What was that? - Oh, you've made it here. - Why are you doing this? - What? - It's okay. - Jack, it's just doing casual conversation.

- Yeah. - Is that where you excuse yourself?

“Would you rather I light up a cigarette and bang a dart in front of you?”

Or would you rather I just do a nice little squirt? - How often do you do it? - Oh wow. - 30 times a day, maybe more. - Does one squirt equal a cigarette? - No, no, no, two squirts equals one milligram. That doesn't mean anything to you.

- But now, it's a moderate dosage of, yeah. - But let's put this one, you know everyone does those little pouches now? - Yeah. - Well, those pouches range from four milligrams of pouch to 13. And this is one milligram for two sprays. - Those baby stuff. - Do you have any vices?

- I mean, daddy likes his medicine. - Yeah, you like the drink, right? - I don't think it out. - You don't? - What do you mean? - Oh, you can see. - You think people might come to go ahead and hand it to you? - It doesn't matter. - It likes, where do these come from?

- No, when I'm sitting out by the pool, yes, a nice bed light. If I'm going to a Mexican restaurant, sure, I'm a great guy. - But also like sometimes I just feel like I'm pretending of like how grown-ups work. I'm just like, "Hmm, what is your sub-in-your-blown situation?"

- Oh, yeah, I'm talking about spraying as an adult. - I mean, that's the story of my life. I have to tell mom just like, "Oh, property tax." (laughing) Miles per gallon. (laughing)

- Is there a dog comes in? - A tasting menu. - Hang on. - Thank you. - Yeah.

“- Thank you, but please pass the bang to Darwin.”

- Will you get blasted, you'll get blasted, right? - Well, I don't care for that term. - Oh, you do. - I mean, if you're at a party, sure. I like to have fun, but also I'm old enough now to know how bad the next day feels if you get too blasted.

- Yeah. - Not knackered. - What's your preferred word? - Tempted by the devil. (laughing) - The devil's sorry.

- Yeah, exactly exactly exactly. - I like it too. - What was the older brother like? That's two years older than you. - Pete, very intellectual about the celebrate his retirement.

- What? - He works at the UGA library. He does IT. - Oh my God. - You're kidding.

- I don't want it to each other. - Oh. - There's been there for many, many, many, many, many years. - I wish I had, I wish I could say I had.

- You never went to the lover?

- She's never any technical issues while she was at the library. - Yeah, I was into more hard back book. (laughing) - You're so analog. - I love it.

- I love it. - They say about me. - You love it. - He was super smart, was he nerdy? - He loved reading, and he loves math.

“- Was he hanging out with the jogs or was he hanging out with the math leads?”

- He loved his books. There was a great deal of reading. - Okay. How about your little sister, what was her vibe? - She was in the place with me in a high school.

And then she went on at UGA. I think she was getting a degree in journalism, but was waiting tables at the Athens Country Club. And then during the course of that, just as the years progress promoted, promoted, promoted,

became the general manager at the Athens Country Club. So they're both in Athens. Both in Athens, Katie has since moved away from hospitality. She is a sixth grade math teacher in Athens. - What, wrong of the latter were you at in school?

- Like, what was your crew? - Oh, I don't know. I mean, I can talk to wallpaper. So it's not like I was specific. I could kind of sit at any lunch table I wanted to,

just because like, what am I gonna do? - You were friendly. - Yeah. - You weren't into athletics at all, were you? - I mean, I tried cross country for like half an hour,

but I talked to my parents. I was like, if I auditioned for the play, I might not be able to do all these meats and stuff. And so I talked to the coach Coach Fivefield, and he just let me do the plays,

and that kind of set the course for me. You used plays as an excuse to drop out of cross country. - Use it as an excuse. - Well, this is whole career. - A justification, humanica, I feel seen and respected.

Go bang that hash. - No. - Dark. - You're gonna get it by the end. - You know what's fun in the audience right now,

you've set the hook basically, which is this is all a facade.

You coast under this, you speak very nicely, you're very kind, you're offended by some words,

Then come to find out you're a very dark rascale.

- You're a dirty bernie.

- You're dirty and a dark rascale.

- We've got some tech. - Oh no, we come from here. (laughing) - We just think of playing your approach with birthday greetings.

Please explain it. - All right, I love reaching out on people's birthday. - Really nice. - And because it is a personal message to them, not to be shared with the universe.

- I feel liberated to speak freely and playfully. So yeah, I will use some off-color language. - Yeah, I'll just say, you know what you're gonna have? - Yeah, what's going to happen? - I feel like he's sincere about that.

- I know, I do too, like you really don't want people to know that you use the word bitch. I've never done that. (laughing) Oh my gosh, listen, my point being, okay.

- It's the best part. - Okay, so far.

“- But here's the thing, we're going back to podcasting.”

This is a very public view for that kind of thing. And I have interactions in my life that perhaps are not meant for public consumption. - Sure. - And there's nothing wrong with either,

but you understand the dilemma. - No? - Well, I don't, and I really would like to sincerely hear from you. This perfectly lands us to your nice fun chasm as just personality types, right?

- I am like, this is me, y'all. And if you don't like it, I can accept that. But what I refuse to do is act like anything, but my full self at all times. - He got one side of my teeth, right?

- I'm on one side, which is like, yes, I have fucked too many people, and I'm an addict, and I have treated people badly, and I've stole, okay, you know all the dirt. - It's stole. - Quite a bit.

- Fever, you jacked, you know? - He tried to steal at home. - I didn't try, I you only say try. - Well, because I said it got stuck in the-- - I just wasn't able to liberate the coins from the thing.

Once I got it into my apartment, but I did steal the parking meter. - He stole a parking meter, but he couldn't get it. - Lots of stuff. - That's illegal.

- Point is, life's too fucking short. - So, not steal a parking meter. - Well, that too, but to have a version of myself, I'm protecting from, quote, the broader world. - Rebuttal?

- Yeah, yeah. - So, that's just where I come from. - Great. - And then, yes, I feel your reservation. I'm dying to know what I'm--

- For me, I can speak to you in a way that I'm not gonna speak to a six-year-old. I speak to a stranger in a way that I don't speak to a college roommate. I mean, call that while you will.

I don't think I'm being inauthentic. I think I'm reading the room. - Well, that's true. - That's really true. I'm watching a little bit.

- I don't know what you want. - But do you have a fear that you would say something

“that the general public would react really terribly to?”

- I would not send a text that I send to your lovely wife, Kristen Bell, where you use the word pitch pretty... - Allegedly. - Allegedly. - Allegedly.

(laughs) - And it's really illegal. - Yeah, you're incredible. - Okay. - They're incredible, 'cause they're so long and nice

for a very long time, and then they always end

with you fucking bitch, or some kind of horrendous... - That's a very large number. - My point being, I love conversations. Like, let's go out to dinner. Let's have these conversations.

- We're trying to see. - Oh yeah. - You're saying it as if like... - It's standard. - It's standard, and I think also over time,

privacy is not a thing anymore. Now that they're social media, people are putting their whole selves out there. I don't think you're on Instagram, are you? - No.

- You've remained kind of private, but we live in a public world. - You do.

“- Exactly, now, and I think it's actually”

why is that you've remained outside of me? - For me, it's all about sanity and calm and avoidance of chaos. - Yeah, it is chaotic.

- Anything you've always been that way,

or do you think nurture-wise, there was some bit of chaos you didn't like? - No, I mean, I think I would be the first to admit, I probably have some control issues, and maybe this is how it manifests.

You know, there's so much that we can't control. - Let me ask you a very hard question in a sincere way. "Do you feel like there's parts of yourself "that you are hiding for a long time growing up

"and that that became part of?" - No, I mean, like, I am who I am. - And I've always had great friends. - We met one of your friends here. - Who?

- I told you immediately, Alexander Skarsgard, who I didn't have any feelings about one way or another, just I admired him in movies and thought his body was gorgeous in true words. - Yeah.

- And when he told me your his best friend, the amount that he like ratchet it up in my head as a person, that I told you immediately. - Very telling me, we were like, "Oh, you're so cool."

- He's the best. - He's just one of my favorite people. - He's gonna do a little bit of him. - We met May 13th, 2002 in New York City.

- Wait, you know the date, say it again?

May 13th, 2002. - You have that kind of memory or just for that date. - I mean, for a lot of things. - Wow. - Yeah, I call you on your birthday every year.

- You're so good about the birthdays. - Yeah.

“- And you need to know how you keep track”

of everyone's birthday. - No, I do keep it in a calendar. But for some reason, I do just know it.

Like, what are you generating, second?

- Yes, that was really good. - It's weird. - I think you might have this borderline super memory thing 'cause also with the people's names already, like the gym teacher for one quarter, the whole thing.

And then these dates, there's a huge overlap with people with that condition and OCD. - Are you a little OCD? - I'll see, I don't know the answer to that. You know, there are some people I have,

legit OCD who can't lead the house without flipping light switches and stuff. - For sure. - That's not me. - What did your closet look like?

- It's a macula. - So there was a 60-minute segment on it. This is how we even know this. And they went around and talked to different super memory people. And they went into all their closets.

And Mary, this famous actor, - Mary Lou Hinner. - Yes, she has it. - I remember. (laughing)

- No, you didn't even see the segment you remember it somehow. - Well, she's famous.

- Yeah, but then her closet was like

the most color coordinated a macula. - My leather. - I'll send you a photo. - It's all perfect. It looks like a unicorn or something.

- How much do you work on it?

“Well, how many hours a week do you spend managing that?”

- The thing. - Once you set up your system, all you got to do is maintain. - Okay, and that takes just 20-30 minutes a week. What's your pulse, you get undressed at night?

Walk me through it. - I've said too much. (laughing) - I sleep closed. I don't want any strangers to think

that it's outfit that I'm wearing tomorrow. - No, but I don't care for dirty clothes laying around. So I have a hamper, but then I don't let it pile up too much 'cause I don't like that. - Do you step into your closet clothes

and then begin undressing and putting items in the hamper and then re-hanging the things that won't get washed, does all happen in the closet or will you sometimes get disrobed in the bedroom and then move the whole project to the--

- I think this is telling. - It is. - I do. - No, for me is the closet just 'cause you want to keep this stuff. - Yes, I had a hunch it all took place in the closet.

I'm walking and I'm taking clothes off and I'm trying to run on the bed and then I'm throwing one over here. I'll ultimately gather it all, but I don't go to the designated spot.

- This is interesting. - What do you do? - I now, as a couple months ago, have a walk in closet. - It makes a difference. - It makes a huge difference because now everything happens

in the closet. And I before was a mess. - Really, Millie? - Just everywhere and I would throw it and throw it on this cushion and then some on the bed.

- But now that I'm a good steward of my belongings, I do that. I take off my clothes and the closet, I'll put them in the hamper, I'll hang the things so it looks nice.

- Yeah, and then you'll get into your nighttime or dorm in your gym. - Still in the closet? - What do you sleep in, Jack? - Fellah.

- No. (laughing) - Boxers, James.

- I would've never guessed that Jack would be

our hardest movie. - Oh yeah. - I would love to do that. - No, it's fine. - It is fine.

- You won't even say what you sleep in. - Yes, nobody's-- - Yes, oh my God. - Okay, but he's part of this might be a little Southern. - I'm not laying him off that he's something else

is going on, but I'll let it slide. - I'll let it slide. But the notion that people know him what you sleep in might be. - It's nobody's business. - He sleeps on me on these.

- I sleep in, I sleep in pajama pants and a wife feeder. - That's a great story, and I have to because Jack, my legs get sweaty when I sleep. - Okay. - Do your legs get sweaty?

- Why would you think this is information? I'm going to share with strangers. - We're back to strangers, we're so happy. - You guys have your eyes. - These all are sharing.

- What is right y'all? - Why would you think this is appropriate? - If we were at lunch, would you tell me? - Yeah. - You won't, okay.

That's good. - There is a circle I could enter. Okay, I gotta go back to your bits 'cause they're so good. So, less people think you're such a goodie, goodie.

- I'm not a goodie, goodie. I swear. - But if you do, if you're getting so emotional, that's it. - It's some very racist dirty stuff.

- You're dirty grown-up thing. - Corona. - Or, a new idea that was a character. - Yeah. - But Jack McBrere was saying it.

That's true.

“- I think on 30 Rock you said probably some stuff too.”

But less. - Rare swear words and more just crazy words made up words. You know we're celebrating 20 years since I think for me. - 20, that makes me feel old. - 26,000 and six.

- You did it. - Wait, Jack, do you love acting? And I mean, since here and now. 'Cause you get to play a different person and you're not really responsible for it.

- Have you seen the characters I play? - I do not have range, fella. I thought I talked Southern. I say weird stuff. - Right, that you don't normally say.

- In front of people. - Right, but in the shows, you have to say in front of people. Is that live or any? - Well, because then I can't blame it on the character.

- Yeah, I reckon. - Yes. - What I can tell is that you're not

At all burdened by this.

Like this would burden me to have two different presenting versions of myself. Like one I do here and one I do here and one I do there. That to me would feel burdensome. - Well, now I do have to ask and I ask both of y'all.

Do y'all feel that I behave very differently? To me, I feel like even when I'm making remarks to your wife on her birthday, foul remarks. - Just really bad stuff. - It still me, just being in a more playful manner.

- Yeah, yeah. - So from my point of view, that side of you is so appealing. I can't even imagine constructing some story where everyone wouldn't like that. - I'm not gonna say those words in front of six year old.

- Yeah, yeah, but there's no six year old's listening. It's okay. - On Zilogon, why? - It's Zilogon. (laughs)

- Yeah, we don't have a six year old. - Zilogon, why?

“Yes, you have to meet whatever the tone of the show”

is where it's at for sure. Okay, one other one you did. Well, you've done a bunch of great bits, which is you have been to many functions at our house or parties, I guess, and they're not functions.

You know this is the first time me seeing this house.

- That's too long. And we haven't had as many socially things 'cause kids probably would say. - Yeah, no. - But one time you came over, you called on the way

and asked Chris, is there anything I could bring over? And she said, "No, we're all sorted." And then you stopped anyways and you got a bag of like ruffles at the store brought them, put them on the counter, and didn't make a big deal of it, and then left.

And after you left, we had discovered that you had left the receipt on it and you had circled in highlighter, how much you had spent, and then you wrote a little note that said, "This is my business manager's email.

Please reimburse me for these chips." (laughs) Okay, I don't remember doing that. You don't remember that. Oh, and then here's an even better one in the same vein.

- That's fine. - You're getting really exposed.

“But that's what I'm saying, playful bits that are four y'all.”

And I realized four, your podcast were telling the world about it. - It is so good. - And then this one's the best. Another thing you came to a party,

you didn't bring anything or if you did, you didn't leave a receipt. So we're like, "Oh, that's both of us."

- Always bring something.

- You, okay, thank you, thank you. - Thank you, Jordan. - Yes. - You did, we missed it and there wasn't a whole receipt thing. So we almost had that let down of like,

"Oh man, Jack McBrayer was here, but there's no bet." - Where's the paper trail? - And then a full week later, we received mail from the post office. And when we opened it up, it was a letter to us saying that you had a nice time at the party

and that you submitting your invoice for the personal appearance fee of $12,000. (laughing) But don't you work long to make some deductions because there were other celebrities there

that helped you share the burden. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But like, Darcy was there and you deducted $1500. And then Brian handsome as you deducted another $1500. - Oh man.

- So Brian is down to, yeah, like $8,000. - What do you have as a friend? - Let's see, that's fun. And that's so playful. - Like, that's fun.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My master, right. So I wanna know, how much of your date between the birthdays, clearly you call someone every day, and someone's birthday every day, right? - Yeah, wrong. Today had six. You had six birthday. - Oh, wait. - She just makes me think of like Sidiris in his postcard routine. - This is a commitment. - Also, how much time does that take? I mean, you talked to somebody for two minutes on the phone. - That's really nice. I hate to add one to your list. - Don't. - I'd love. - I'd love to be a part of it. - I know. - I just 24.

- You know, I wanna be like bad, bad texts, you know, that Kristen gets. - Are you gonna post them? - No, I want to post them. I'm not sure that's a bell. I feel, I'm protected here. - I hate it. - Ron is I won't. - Oh, I'm just 24 now. - I just 24 now. - Yeah, I just 24 now. - Yeah, I just 24. - Yeah, I just 24. - Yeah, it's a common one, actually.

“- That whole week is insane. - Yeah. - In my house. - Is that true? - Yeah, my sister, my mom, Monica, my dead grandma. - What is non-months prior?”

- People are going into Christmas. - No, it's like Christmas. - Oh, yeah. - They want that warmth. - Yeah. - They're seeking out that warmth by the fire. - Monica. - Grow up. - It happened to me. - That's correct. - I'm the one that came out of that. - I'm allowed to say it. - Wait, what's your background? - Oh, God. - Are you performing? - Yeah, I started out as a performer. - Did you study theater at UG? - I did. - Won't there if we know people in college? - You're so much older than her, as am I. We're both so much older than her. - I don't want with you. - I know the truth about our images.

- Did you shut up? - Okay. - Just shut up forever. - No, we're talking. - And then she did UCB. - You did, in New York, or LA. - LA. - God it. So we definitely know some people there. - Yeah. - Okay. - Awesome. - Interesting. Stay tuned for our share expert. If you dare, we are supported by all state.

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Roadside assistance plans provided by all state motor club incorporated in all state affiliate. Back to you, have you ever had any blowback?

“Like, have you ever sent anything that you regretted?”

Is that happened? - Publicly. - Oh, publicly. - I'm sure I have. Well, like, in the early days of 30 rock. Okay, here's a good explanation of something that you seem to be dwelling on. Yeah, yeah. - So my background is improvisational comedy. And so I was doing that in the mid-90s to the early 2000s in Chicago. That's kind of where I found my legs met Tina Fey there.

So we're talking in private about your talk in second city. Fun established institutions of comedy and I felt like a million bucks. Like, I had found my people. I was on top of the world. What I loved about doing improv and doing improv at that time, I could be any character. I could say anything or could create any scenario. And it was all in the spirit of this ensemble creation of playtime.

I felt like being a kid on the playground. Pretty magical. Low and behold, I moved to New York. I'm able to join the New York UCB gang. That was super fun. Paul Sheer, Jason Mansook, his Rob Hubel, Rob Riggle, so many just fans and just... - Come on. What a guy. - That idiot. - Where neighbors? We take hikes a lot. Oh, you did it! - Oh, this was so fun. - Really fun.

But there's a lot of swear words on things like... - Okay. And again, I'm in that fun sandbox world of improv.

“Then I get 30 rock. And then you have to do press interviews and say things that go into print.”

And then we're head to do that before. 2006, this is also the advent of social media, the advent of smartphones.

Things are being recorded. Season one, I'll never forget.

There was an incident with Michael Richards at a stand-up club. - Oh, he used the end word. And you start realizing, like, oh, the internet is forever. And so I did start getting very self-conscious. I was censoring myself in improv scene. Oh, an improv scene. And so then I kind of just had to take some inventory. And just be like, okay, what am I comfortable with? What am I not comfortable with?

That's why I tend to be more relaxed in conversation at dinner, at lunch. When there aren't microphones in camera's pointed out, and just understanding that the words that I say will follow me for a very long time. And so yeah, and maybe this is control issues. Am I being cautious about that? Very likely. Do I feel that it is keeping me from any happiness? - No, absolutely.

Right, right, right. You don't feel like... I wish people understood this about me, and I can't tell them more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that fair? Don't worry, fair. I also think there's some relevant context from where you're from, right?

The South's very polite. There's a lot of decorum. We spent a lot of time now in Nashville. Oh, I deserve it all. Yeah, yeah. Oh, fine. I was just there in March. Re-sweather spins birthday.

Oh, yeah. We really said we wanted to be part of the band. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's still going on. I could have fun parties. I know.

Of course, because you're fun to be around. And I said, "Thank you."

You'll never speak out of school. Yeah, yeah.

I'd say you come on a podcast for people who are... Yeah, hammering. Shoot yards. Blowndarts and banged lots of rays. Yeah, it's so stupid.

But both parents, school teachers. Kristen's met them. She's gone out to eat with them some time. Yeah, she's where she lives. She's like, "Rail a thousand years ago in New York City." Oh, they love her.

But they're pretty PG out of magic, right? If they're school teachers at school, they are, but I mean... They had an Audi side too. Well, I'm going to say something.

I've never said in public before, but this is going to bite me in the butt.

I'm sure. So, my mom was peeing health at my high school. And so, a great number of my classmates would take her health class. The curriculum for sex education in Conner's Georgia at that time period. And so, Betty McBrair would go into classes about her exploits with Jimmy McBrair.

Oh, okay. So, I had friends at this new school that I had transferred to coming up with me.

“Hey, you should probably never go in your hot tub again.”

Oh, wow. That kind of thing. And also, like, they were young parents. They're very funny.

The whole family, we're goofy.

And we joke.

It's not like we come from some button-up and puritanical kind of thing.

No. We guys really just, we went to church, but we went to Methodist Church. And that's mostly social. Yeah, tell me, like, Methodist versus what? Methodist.

Okay. That's more or more. A little more hardcore. R's was Cherokee Heights. Not a Methodist Church.

And Mom and Dad both went there. Dad's mom. My grandma was mom's son is called teacher. You know, that kind of thing.

“Yeah, that's why you're multi-generational.”

Let's go to church kind of thing. But again, it was a very relaxed. It really was about the social aspects. What's I learned? The golden rule.

Oh, okay. I got it. Well, do one to others, is you do onto yourself? Are you asking me what the golden rule? I am.

Yeah. Yes, that is correct. Fine, Jesus. Is that it? What is it?

Oh, I had it. And as I don't feel that way. I did. There's so many, like, those should not kill. Seems like a golden rule.

That's good. That's pretty, that should be high up there. That's like a man. But I guess if you want to do it, others is you're doing yourself rules out murder probably.

You think it's pretty good umbrella. I'm sure it's suicidal. Yes, not ever. That's our little names that show you. Yes, sometimes it's true.

That's if he sat out loud, Jack. What's wrong with you? It's where we divide. How did you end up in Indiana for school? Why did you pick that?

I wanted to go somewhere outside of Georgia. What I'll do respect to Georgia, love Georgia. I was just like, let me try something else. There was a program that I thought I wanted to do at the time. And they were offering me so many.

And what was the program? I studied theater management. Tell me what that entails. This is spectacular, was essentially they're like, well, you're not that great of an actor. But you're kind of smart.

So you're going to help raise our GPA. Oh, but at the end of the day, I took a bunch of theater courses. But I was also taking a bunch of business courses. Which, as it turns out, comes in very handy later in life. I have a lot of actor friends who are not very,

financially literate. Not very business savvy. And so I'm like, oh, well, I got this. Yeah. It's funny, it's shocking. And then it shouldn't be shocking at all.

It's like these people already declared they were into the arts. But you are shocked when you hear like, wait, I wouldn't

“at cage not know that he spent all of his money, right?”

I'm the island. The islands are prices. They all are the maintenance they get you. Yeah, that's tell they get you. I don't show you those prizes.

You think you're just buying a jet, but it's the gas. It's the gas. And then you go from there directly to Chicago. What prompts that move? I wanted to try a big city that may be wasn't Atlanta.

But again, I'll do respect to Atlanta.

I just knew that I would be always coming back to Georgia.

Let's see what else is out there. And because I was in Indiana, I had visited Chicago. I had visited Indianapolis. I visited St. Louis. I'd visited Louisville.

So Chicago was one that I visited. I really loved it. And somebody's a man who had graduated the year before. We're already living there. I knew there was a room available.

So it just made a very easy transition. When you went there, no goal of doing comedy yet. Not yet. You end up going to a second city show, right? Is that how it starts?

Yeah. Changed everything. It was the summer of 1995 and there was a terrible heat wave. Like people were dying. Yeah.

So like 400 people died. Oh, God. Like they were putting them in refrigerated trucks. The merch wares were full. It was bad.

I lived. Well, you're from Georgia. Yeah. You drive like guys. I was just like, this is kind of hot.

Like as one of those.

“You take a very cold shower right at the end of night.”

And you just lay in bed. So can wait and just pray for sleep. I know. I know. It was one of those.

People were saying like their bar of soap in their shower. It would melt. Oh, my God. It was very hot. I got up to 130 years ago.

People were dying. It was a big box fan in the window blowing on that wet physique. Well, we knew that. You're asleep in the mood. I guess.

Oh. Yeah. We just put that. I didn't say that. I mean, say it.

But we just figured it out. Okay. Figure whatever you rest of me out then. Idiot. And so it was so hot.

My roommate was just like, well, you know, there's this comedy theater downtown. You know, they do free improv. They got cheap beer in its air condition. And I'll look, let's do that.

Went there. And I was like, these people are living my best life. These people are doing exactly what I want to do. I didn't know that this was a thing. And they are hilarious.

And here's what I'm very excited about.

Is that over the years. So many of those people that I saw that inspired me. I've been able to work with them. Yeah. And that is a big deal to me.

I'm very proud. Yes. That first show, who was in at a McKay? Rachel Dratch. Scott had sit.

I think John Glazer was there. Scott Omen, maybe. Jenna Jolavitz. Just some heavy hitters. I'm actually going to Chicago tomorrow.

Oh, you are. And so I'm going to make sure I get the second city and see a show. So you would start classes there. I went through the groundlings. I'm not totally sure how second city works.

But there's classes, yeah. Correct. So I started taking classes and then you just, you know, to elevate up the ranks. Your last class you put on a big show.

There are kind of open auditions to join the touring company.

That's kind of like your entry level to second city.

So I auditioned and eventually got on the touring company. Where do you guys go? Do you go everywhere? Who? Ohio.

Great deal of Ohio. Do you like corporate things? A lot of corporate things.

“But a lot of colleges performing arts centers.”

And second city is a very established and illustrious institution.

I was so proud to be there. Yes. And it was interesting because I was kind of forging my own path. And sometimes you get frustrated because I'd be real excited about getting the touring company.

And you try to tell a friend back home or somebody in your family or something. Oh, you know, they don't understand whatever they're doing. Yeah. They're going to get what a big deal of it. Yeah.

But I knew it was a big deal. So I kept going, kept going, got put on a resident stage. Was there for many years? Is there like a main stage there? There's a main stage.

And I was on the ETC stage, which was the studio theatre. And so you were there for seven years. What were you doing for employment? So when I first got there, I was waiting tables. Got fired.

For what? You seem like you'd be a great waiter. First of all, I'm a very good waiter. I did mess up though.

I was giving coffee to my regulars and not charging them for coffee.

And then they'd leave two dollars for a tip. And I'd keep the two dollars. Okay. I was stealing. Okay.

We were still going to love you. You didn't like seat someone was COPD in the smoking section or anything like that. It wasn't that kind of, yeah. You didn't have that kind of infraction at work.

“Were you sat someone clearly on a oxygen tank in the smoking section?”

That was very specific. Very strange. Yeah. But that's not what you got fired. I don't know.

No, it's just old-fashioned stealing. Okay. It was coffee. Were you trying to steal or were you like, no, I'm just want to be nice and give these people some free coffee.

But also, like, I was working the breakfast shift. One person running around that floor. All these people just wanted to eat their oatmeal and drink their coffee. Read their newspaper and smoke cigarettes before they went up to work upstairs. We're in the basement of a big office building.

And so they're like, come on, buddy. And so I was just running around. I was like, don't worry about it. Out of kind of necessity. But it was stealing.

Oh, no. What did you go on too after that? Tim Pen, navigate consulting and now here's a life hack I've learned. If you're going to be in a job like that, make yourself indispensable.

Okay. How does one do that? That's easily said. Well, I was in charge of creating the filing system. And you just create it in such a way that you're the only one.

I don't know is where everything is. And I mean, don't get me wrong. They could have figured it out. But I knew where it was. If they had the Resetestone.

If they, yes, me, the secret. If they had your car, you could have had the car rings. But it goes back to you. Maybe that is where I don't want to be so cavalier as just like OCD. Because that is a legit, hard thing for people to do it.

But whatever my tendencies in that world are, sometimes it comes in handy. And I'm like, you know, I have everything on my phone. I'm talking about like a list of every teacher I've had in my life. Oh, it is to be every roommate I've ever had.

Really? Why not? Because well. Because that's a crazy person. It's like my head.

The list sounds great. It's creating the list. Yeah. It's probably as well. What do you do the thing?

Then you don't have to do the thing ever again. That's true. That's true. I would assume you were friends with Tina while you were in Chicago. Yes.

More so her husband, Jeff Richmond, who is my director. Okay. And who was the musical? He was the musical supervisor. I think that was his title at SNL. And then joined us for 30 back.

Composer and director. And I've known Jeff longer than I've known Tina. I mean, like their family. And so she was charmed by you. I presume.

Oh. Well, she's going to write. Literally. She wrote the role of Kenneth for you. So there's a lot of ground laid before that.

Correct.

“What causes you to leave second city and go to New York?”

And was that a hard and scary decision? Very good question, DAX. And thank you. Yes. First one.

I got one. Then they're like three hours. Was it hard to leave second city? Yeah. It was.

I left the February third 2002. The reason I know that is because every February third. The stage manager will film your final night. And they do a big thing where everybody says nice things. You get to do your favorite scenes.

So I have the DVD of my final night at second city every February third. I'll watch it. Oh, 24 years ago. But it was such an important time in my life that changed everything. But yes, it was a big deal.

I had a job. I was doing fine. The ETC gig was one of the best gigs in Chicago. ETC, the studio theater, was I think a Thursday through Sunday schedule.

So you always had Monday to the Wednesday off.

Oh, yeah.

Main stage was perhaps the more recognized whatever and bigger stage.

But they were working six nights a week, eight shows a week. And they were getting paid like maybe $14 more. I was like, I'm good. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. But to leave was a big deal. And it was a big decision. But it was one of those things when your skin feels tight. And you're just like, let's see.

Let's see what's next. Let's see what else I can do. Let's see what the next thing is. It felt exciting. Scary.

“When you were at second city, did you have us in Eldrins?”

Yes. Yeah, same. I think that's pretty common. I think a great number of comedians in general. No matter if you're at an established theater or not.

That show was so important to me growing up. Quoting the dumb bits and imitating the characters. And it being such like a reference point for so many people just in my life in my world. You could find your people in school by who liked us enough. Well, yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I felt so cool watching it. Like it was late at night. It was in February.

It felt naughty. It was like timely. Topical. It impacted me in such ways. So of course, I wanted to do it.

They did see me. You got to audition. I got to audition. I don't think they've seen the tape. No.

Of course they didn't have eye audition the same day as Seth Meyers. Oh, you did. Yes. In New York. In New York.

Do you know me out? Yeah. What was your nerve level? Oh, very high. It's quite a lot.

It's been a while. Very high. And it's one of those things where, of course, I was not fit for this show. But man, just to be able to be on that stage. For me, just being an airport and having somebody hold up your name on a sign.

Yeah. And so maybe I can throw it off for me. Yeah. But I got to be on 30 rock. That is a show that is based on SNL.

That is a show that is produced by Lauren Michaels. In written by the previous writer. I'll do that. Yeah.

“When you moved to New York, did you already have something set up?”

Did you know you were going to start working at Conan? No. I think so. No. No.

No. The reason I went to New York was Jeff Richmond. Taking care of his boy, Jack McBrere. Was renouncing a show called Hamlet the Musical. That he had originally staged in Chicago a hundred years earlier.

And he said, hey, I just heard your leaving second city. Would you be interested in doing like a three month run of this show that we Didn't Chicago. Yeah. I got nothing else to do.

So my final night was February 3rd 2002. I was in a U hall with all of my junk in a car February 5th 2002. So you quit before knowing you were going in New York? Isn't that crazy? That is.

Why did you even decide to quit? My skin felt tight. It was time to go. Wow. Well, surely I've had that or you just you know something either feels very right or you

Know something feels not very right.

Yeah, but I've never had that conundrum while one thing was a safety net, right?

That's fair. I've had that city in Detroit going like, I got to get out of the city within hours. Or I'm going to wake up and be 50 in an alcohol. Like I could just feel where it was all heading. But I wasn't giving up something fantastic or any safety or something.

I'd work seven years to achieve. You're not wrong. It was scary. But also it made me feel brave and strong. Yeah.

And also like the genuine curiosity. What could this be? Who could I meet? Where could I go? What is going to happen?

That felt fun to me. That to me outweighed any of the fear. And were you about 29 or 30 at that point? I was 28 when I did that turn 29 in New York. So how quickly do you get immersed in light night with current

generation. So my first one would have been March 3rd 2002. Wait, so you left him February and one month later, you're on Conan. Okay. But it's not like, oh, he's brilliant.

No. So many people who are writing for Conan O'Brien had come from Chicago.

Had come from Second City.

We're already working with Conan. They heard that I was in town. They're like, hey, McBrish, you're just playing him in the song. I got a hamlet to play. What happened to that?

We're Conan in the middle of the day. Go do the show at night. Oh, wow. You got a job. So many jobs.

Also in New York. You kind of have to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you live in New York? No.

Let's stop trying to make it about me. We see. Yeah, we do. This is how people talk when they ask questions. Good people like you.

Yeah, nice. You're right. Yeah, I hate everything about this. Do you remember what your first bit on Conan was? Yes.

Well, was it? I was the overconfident new prison inmate. So many people in my life have just taken care of me. And when I tell you, I am so grateful.

“That's why you've got to be nice to people back.”

Yeah, yeah. I'll start now. I'm going to start today. But it was the only confident new prison inmate. And it was very special for me.

Because I hadn't done hardly any TV before that.

I didn't know how this worked.

And I knew that I didn't know how to do that.

You know how this worked.

“And I knew that Conan was okay with the bit.”

And so it kind of started a fun tradition of people just like just put Jack in there. Come up there. Yeah, you ended up doing 80 appearances in the next three years. Yeah. Well, that was paying some bills for any of the UCB kids.

Like that was the gig. Oh, yeah. The best. 80 pay checks. You're getting what some kind of sag minimum or after minimum.

Like 600 bucks every time, maybe? You're so starving in New York. You got to move to New York. Yeah. I got to get a bank.

But no, it was the gig. I was like, I have a ride. Yeah, you're on TV and I can't tell you all something. I haven't told anybody this. But I think this is Germany.

Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? It's like good. Is that correct?

But every time I go to do a bit for Conan, it filmed in 30 Rock of Feller Center.

So I'm taking the F train from Alphabet City in Manhattan and get off at the Rock of Feller Stop. I'm a person who, if I find a penny heads up, I'm going to hold onto it. Because that's like a penny. If I find a penny tails up, I'll flip it to be heads up for the next person.

Oh, wow. So nice. It's disgusting. What's more than that? You're so busy.

Between the lists and the having to stop for the penny. I guess your days are so busy.

“How much time do you think it takes to flip a penny?”

Are you stepping over cracks and stuff too? Yeah, whole thing with those. I don't believe in bad luck. Okay. I don't like that.

I don't like that. Tales of pennies. Well, then it's good luck for somebody else. So every time I come to do a bit for Conan, and if I found a penny heads up in the subway stop or in the building of Rockefeller, I'd hold onto it.

I had this whole little box and stuff that I just put them in there. Long hold. You get on a show called 30 Rock. And I was like, that's cut to you. Yeah, I like it.

Do you still have it? Of course. Yeah.

I'm trying to be regular.

I know. I'm just running. I got a PDF. You're doing that for three years. And I'm sure you're pretty content.

It's wonderful because you're on TV every couple weeks. And obviously we all worshiped Conan. And I was doing the shows at UCB. I was on top of the world. And then 2000 and what year is it?

Like tail in 2004, beginning in 2005. When do you find out of that 30 Rock is going to be a show? Well, I took a break and came to LA for a year. Almost here. Another wild move.

Right when you're on Conan and things are going well and you're at UCB. You came here for a year? Oh, yeah. I mean, think about it this way. For three years, you're doing this thing.

And you're having a ball. But that's not what hiring me. I had done bits for Conan. It's not like I could have elevated further there. I was doing my shows at UCB.

I was like, okay, but what else? And I had a discontent, I just had a curiosity. What else? Also New York is very expensive. And it gets very cold.

Yeah, and you're from Georgia. I'm from Georgia. And it got a handlebar. Madam. Can I have a hand?

So I was like, let me try LA. Let me go be broke and tan. Let's feel us. Oh. Oh, right.

And what was that year like? So fun. I was just like, look at me. And LA. I'm trying to read juice instead.

I don't go there. Okay. Too far. Yeah. Monica.

He's old fashioned. He is a sun worshiper. He believes in getting like six hours of sun a day. I believe in bed as well. Keeps you young.

Today's day is really good. Of course.

“So I think we're really good for your skin.”

Here's the thing. Somebody's got to look into that again. Because it just makes me feel good. I agree. And with you.

Vitamin D is real. Thank you. People have so many deficiencies. I have an unpopular take. I'm only very sparing with sunblock.

And it's only in a few spots. And I feel like sun's good. People hate edible. I know. But also we've got to take care of so much other stuff.

That gets exhausting to me. I'm right. There you go. Some's got to give. This one's a repair.

What else are growing up? Yeah. I guess you came here. You weren't drinking green juice. But living my best life.

I'm camping. Oh, wow. So living in Los Fielis bought my 2004 Hyundai accent from Interprasorinal Car. Which I still have to this day. No way.

Yes. 20 hours later. You're still. You're still in that car. And I just hit 65,000 miles.

Oh. What? You can drive in like a thousand miles a year. Okay. So think about it this way though.

That one year I was here in Temple. So I had to drive all the way to the west side. Yeah. I worked there for several months. But during the course of that, but telebag United,

it's got some arrested developments. And eventually got 30 right. So within the year that I was here, I got 30 right. Which took me back there.

Because of that, I just left my car in a garage for seven years.

Oh, for seven years. It didn't start when you got back. You didn't call it. So I tried to jump it.

“Well, no, I had a roommate who had started up.”

Oh, that's great. Well, that was the piece of the puzzle I needed. Really? Yes. Otherwise you had a world record on your hand for the longest battery.

Yes. That stagnant. And then working. This is the worst. Yes.

The worst. So you go back to New York. But now you go back. Were you seasoned regular right out of the game? Sir, he's regular.

Yes, I was. Remember, it was not a sure thing. Thirty rock took a while for people to tune into. And for NBC to have enough confidence to keep us going. So it was tenuous the first year.

Yeah. And I mean, subsequent years. But I just knew to keep my side of the street clean. Just do the job. Show up on time.

Be nice to people, Dad. Uh-huh. Pick up the panties. Pick up the panties. I was just so excited to have the job.

You loved it all seven years. So for New York eventually let me know that we were not meant to be together. And what way? Everything is just the amount of people in the cold and the gray. What a wonderful change in my life.

My time there brought about. I'm not built for that time. You can feel oppressive for me.

If I'm never a long time.

Yeah. Oh, I just too much. Take me to the water. Take me to the park somewhere. Yeah, to this zoo.

Yeah. You get intimidated by other people. I guess I'm really curious what it's like to work with Alec Baldwin. Oh, scared. Yeah.

Terrified shirt. Terrified. To this deck. No. There's one of those things where pretty much everybody on the call sheet was so much more established

and just had so much more experience than me that I was just like, do the job. Hit your marks. I mean, to be fair, Alec was brilliant on the show. And I think he knew very early on. I'm not gunning for his job.

I am happy to be here. I'm here to make this all look as good as possible. You are not a threat. I was not a threat. I'm not a threat to blind kids.

Right. But no, the whole thing was intimidating. But also it was just fun to kind of like prove yourself. And be like, I can do this. Y'all can kill me even to the writers room.

Don't give me anything that you want me to do because I can do it. There's something about being appreciated by Tina that feels so good. It's almost like in a 19, I guess, for her to like you and you make her laugh. And she repeats things you did that she liked is a very rewarding scenario. Isn't it?

Yes. Yeah. I kind of just worship her a little bit. Of course. But I will say this too.

She doesn't suffer fools, so she chooses people for a reason. Uh-huh.

“That's why she's never come on this show.”

So she hasn't picked us yet. How do I change the subject? Can you probably text her and tell where she's in the subject? I'm going to fake a seizure. Were you sad when it ended or do we also getting that familiar kind of?

Okay, time for something new. Good question. It was a mix. All of us at different points were kind of dispersed into tears. Like the most random thing.

I'll never forget. I was like, this is my last free haircut. Oh, yeah.

I'll never get Jay and Craig Cowsky walking down the hall.

It was me and our friend Alithia who's in Wardrobe. And we were just laughing at some internet thing. And we were like, and Jay and just burst into tears. Because she's like, we're not going to see this anymore. Yeah.

It's sad. So that was indeed emotional, but I was excited. And also, I wasn't worried that I was never going to see these people again. I call all of them on the birthday. Yeah.

All right. At least once a year. Well, and I'm telling you, for the 20 year anniversary, we got to do something. Right? Yeah.

We got to do a part of our panel or table readers. Were you not frustrated? I remember when I would watch the show. I would think I'm so confused why this show is in as big a sign film. I thought it deserved to be a mammoth.

Yeah. And every year, they kind of put it on the bubble the same way they did parent.

“And it was like, are we going to bring it back, aren't we?”

Well, I mean, I'm kind of glad that I didn't have to worry about that stuff. You could kind of sense the writing on the wall. We were talking about like the introduction of streaming. We're talking about the surgeons of cable shows. You know, this is a planner's madman.

All these things from cable were such heavy hitters. Also, it was my frame of reference.

You know, like, this is my first show ever.

But I could easily tell that we were not getting the numbers that friends sign felt will embrace all these legacy NBC shows. Again, that was not my fight to fight. And so I was like, all right. You don't have a job to find with that.

But it just felt like it deserved it. It was so fucking brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the people who like it really like it.

And the people who don't. They, yeah, I'm going to get it. Are my family. I'm mostly, I'm mostly back in making. Stay tuned for more armchair experts.

If you dare.

Okay.

In that period, too, you do forgetting Sarah Marshall. Yeah. 2007, maybe. I pull it to you. Seven.

“And Kristen, did tell me some funny stories about that today.”

What did you say? Well, one, I give the everyone was introduced to your son, baby and routine. I want to say it. Yeah. Well, she said that they would be on the way to set.

And Jack would be by the pool. Okay. Okay. I mean, she's not wrong.

So forgetting Sarah Marshall, my first time in Hawaii.

I couldn't believe I was in a movie with all these like famous people. We were staying in the resort where we were filming turtle bay and Hawaii. I was like, this is crazy. So yes, I was there for a month and I worked eight days. I was here.

The other thing she said is you somehow vanagled them to be able to stay like two weeks after you arrived. Oh, it was just the schedule. I didn't like there was no views in it. Vanagling?

No, I don't even know what the meaning of the word. You called Conan and have them give you a full page outfit for your audition for 30 rock. So I know you know how to call people. It's not a naegling. That's asking for a statement.

Okay. Great. I think Vanagle is French for favor. That's right. That's a lie.

But you managed to be in the sun for 22 of 30 days. No, here's where I got tricky. They're like, well, Jack, your character is like a Mormon coming from Utah.

“You wouldn't be tan for like, that sounds like a makeup problem.”

I tried to flatten on as much after a while. You're like, bro, I'm getting tan. When you're at poolside, are you just sitting?

Are you on your phone or are you reading a book?

What do you do with that? I can't sit for that much time. I can. And here's like, it is transcendental. I go somewhere else.

It is meditative. I will be laying there and I'm not fully asleep. But I'm not fully awake. I can't lift my arms. I just go somewhere else.

And I just feel the warmth. And I see the light from the outside. And I'm just like, this is who I am. Yes. This is who I'm supposed to be.

I'm supposed to be. But then I'm just like this. Who was I in a past life? Yeah. Sun God or like a lizard?

Could be a lizard. Yes, someone that's got to get core body temp up before doing anything. Yeah, it wasn't reptile. Me. I was a solar panel.

How long are you doing this like an hour? You got to flip. So yeah, you don't want to do this for full hour. I mean, you just flip, jump in the pool. Okay.

But you're out there an hour hour. It's the best. And your hair just turns that bleachy chlorine green. Yeah. It's the best.

Our youngest daughter has green hair. And I'm so proud of her. It's such a badge of something. Submit, man. This swimming is what it is.

At the same time, and this is where I met you. So you and Kristen became friends on that movie. And then I start meeting you just right after that movie. And I want to see you came over and you had just filmed this. But you filmed the Mariah Carey music video.

Oh, my gosh. Do you have a name? February 2008. It was during the writer's strike. I'm positive.

I was not the first person to call. But I was the first person to say yes. And I played Mariah Carey's love interest. What? In the hit video.

Touch my body. And isn't this the one that's like, don't want to see you up on YouTube.

I'm always enamored when there's been certain words that could put in songs.

And I'm really impressed that they pulled it off. Toto's Africa. To get Kilimanjaro in a song is really really hard. Did I wrong? Yeah.

And then another favorite of mine, The Year of the Cat. Great song. What's the word? The Year of the Cat. It's 70 songs.

But what's the word? Oh, it's just the title. The year of the Cat. I just sit down and write a rock ball. That's hugely successful.

And it's called The Year of the Cat. That's like a feat. So this thing like on YouTube. YouTube. That to me sounds impossible.

I give you a approach.

“It means that you have to write a hit song.”

And you have to say YouTube in the song. Four times. Four times. Four times. Well, holding.

And do it for dinner. Kind of do a run on it. That seems hard. And I'm impressed. Well, to be fair.

That's when YouTube was becoming a thing. I was like, oh, that whole era. I needed a dressing. It needed a dressing. And she's the perfect spokesperson.

And she wants to do stuff. But you don't want to see that shit up on YouTube. Sure. Because you don't know any of us know. I have like a little bit of a naughty side.

And you guys probably were very aligned on you. Yeah, probably. But you've got to keep stuff off YouTube. I'm sorry. It's that healthy boundaries is okay.

Yeah. I think we should all practice. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. We're like an animal.

“And did she explain you why she wanted you to be her love interest in the video?”

Did that ever come up? It came up in conversation that she seemed to enjoy 30 rock. But I really do suspect that they were trying to get beer names and stuff. All right. I'm not lying.

I don't know. She likes 30 like you. That's your shadow filling in a lot of unknowns. What? The shadow voice that tells you your terrible and a piece of shit.

The security. I don't have a shadow. You do that. Yeah. You can lie about having one.

But you have one. Yeah. There's some part of you. It's like, Jack, you're so whatever it says. Fill in the blank.

Why would never because I can't think of a bad thing about you.

But I bet your shadow has six or seven. It thinks are bad about you. Is the shadow in the room? No. No.

We bring shadow everywhere. Yeah. It's stupid. You'll get tired of this job. No, we love you.

I do not get tired of talking about myself. But that's not the premise.

“You didn't say, hey, can I come over and talk about myself?”

I'm like, hey, can I learn about you for an hour? And everyone else would like to learn about you? Yeah. But we could also do that over dinner. But no one else gets to hear it.

Okay. Sounds good to me. Do you watch interviews? Do you enjoy interviews? Mom?

I know. Other people. I love interviews. I use to listen all the stern interviews. And I have the streaming apps.

I could just listen to the interviews. I just love interviews. I loved Letterman interviewing people. No. I can't see the iconic ones about like Drew Carrey.

Yeah. When Drew Carrey showed his chance. For Letterman's birthday. Before a price is right. I can't have come home.

That was. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna run home. Man of my dome. Is your shadow tell you you're dumb?

No? Okay. Wow. This guy. I hope you don't think that.

No. He's right. He's got a very good vocabulary. He's like watching other interviews with you. Oh, I did say Germany.

He did. That brought me to smoking the manager. I was smoking the man in his again. I'm sure I said. Georgia.

But one of the officers says to be for T. Justices over the radio. I don't see how that's germane to the situation. And T. Justices. The goddamn Germans got nothing to do with this.

He thinks he said Germans. The context. Let me to believe that. You figured that out. I did.

I can't take it. She got me. You read me like a book. A pop-up. Okay.

“Now after having that security for seven years on 30 rock, do you not crave that again?”

Or would you love that? Yes. Having job security is wonderful. I don't need more money. I don't need more attention.

I don't need any of that stuff. For me, I'm like, what could be fun? What might this feel like? What would it be like to work with this person or in this studio? Or in this location?

Or with this script? That to me is more fun. That's very rare commodity to not feel like you need more. Where do you think that comes from? I think that's just baked in the DNA.

But I do think like we didn't have a great deal of money growing up. We were not made to feel that we were less than or anything like that. But I do feel that where it was intentional or just subconscious. But that you make the best of what you got, whether that's financial, whether that's whatever's going on in your family. You make the best of what you got.

And so that was a very helpful lesson for me in terms of like, I don't need a lot. I can make the best of a small space or a small paycheck or...

The 22 year old Kia.

Hyundai. Hyundai, sir. Sorry. Sorry. It's both Korean.

I didn't get it. Wow.

They're both Korean, aren't they?

I don't see color. Well, I do know that about you. Your famous for that. You see tan. We know that.

I like car. Yeah. He sees a savage base sitting in the mirror every morning. Somebody told me that you can take a... Peptide.

Yes! How did you know that? Because we talked about it a lot on here. You do. Because we know people who've done it want sitting next to me.

Is it you? I did it for... Just a lead. Yeah. I did it for...

Oh, yeah. I loved it. I would love to be on it. But then a friend who got an illness, we found out also. Love that peptides.

So then me and the other person that were on. I got really paranoid about it. That's the assay. Based on nothing.

Like I'm sure there's a million reasons this person got sick.

It's okay. It also does weird stuff. Your freckles got darker. Oh, yeah. On my forehead.

That was one version of there's two versions of it. Then I did the second version. And it didn't have those issues. But here is my point because we debated it. I was like, I like how I look tan better.

Everybody likes better with color. Absolutely. And if I have an option to do one that might up my rate of course and all movers is one that doesn't, why wouldn't I choose this one? It seems crazy.

I don't understand what the moral conundrum is about using a peptide versus the sun. I mean, I get it. For me, it's like, I'm not going to be the first person to buy the new author. I'm like, y'all go first. Yes.

No workout the bugs. Then come back. I had some ethical issues with it as a brown person. Oh, tell me more.

I was like, as a group, darker skin people are more marginalized.

And then you're just picking the piece you like about it and getting to have that piece. And it just doesn't feel fair. I see. That was a big debate area.

“Are there peptides that change your skin color in different ways?”

Like make it lighter. Well, there's skin bleaching and stuff which a lot of people have done. Some Indian people have done skin bleaching to look lighter because you're considered prettier there at times. Is that an external thing? Mm-hmm.

Well, like the movie stars there are generally quite light skin. Yeah. And there's like the paper bag test, like if you're lighter than a paper bag. Colourisms are real thing for people of color. So I think this gets a little triggering when people are like,

Oh, I'm just going to like take this peptide and be dark now. But my point was you don't mind when they get sun tanned. I don't like no one's mad if I personally get sun tanned because that's natural. So you're really drawing this, what I think is a little bit arbitrary line. Like, do you get it naturally?

Or do you get it from a peptide and that somehow changes it? But I was like, this is information that I didn't know. That's helpful too. I just don't know. I'll start because this woman identifies this black.

Which is clearly a problem. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. I went to the TV when we put a picture over up on the TV. She doesn't feel like this woman.

That's bad. Yeah, she's fucking Irish. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll see that.

I'm white. No, there's no woman. She identifies this black. Like saying I identify as a woman, right? Like that's why I didn't know.

And then she took this peptide. She had a lot of body modifications. And then she took an elephant's dose of this peptide. And she moved Africa.

“Oh, so I think that's what kicked it off.”

Understandably that context puts it on a path for that reaction. It's justified. I understand. Or maybe you can pull that up at some point just for Jack's amusement. Because it's really some amusement.

We don't have to do this. Yeah. And I really didn't realize the path. Maybe we don't use that a human has chosen this path on planet earth. And it's okay to be amused by that.

And if we pretend that that's not a museum. I don't know where we're at. I was talking about the reality. I don't care anymore. For a minute, I felt pretty strongly about that peptide.

And feeling like, oh, I don't know if that's good because of this. And now I'm like, whatever, I guess just do whatever you want. Everyone tried to look as hot as you can. That's all we're all trying to do. It's like as hot as we can.

Are you Jack? I am. Look at my hair. I think you look wonderful. It looked like fish or prize here.

Like Lego Lego Lego Lego Lego snap on here. You make the best of what you got. What you've carved out post 30 rock is a pretty insane voice over career. Yes, which is kind of for people who aren't hip to it. It's about as good as it gets in a sense because the money's great.

The time commitment's very low. And you can maintain some anonymity to some degree. The best. Now I have been told, I hope I'm not getting my information wrong. Because many of the characters that I voice do sound like this.

“I believe the term that was explained to me was that this would be a signature voice.”

As opposed to a more character voice like many of the actors on the Simpsons can do. Like, you know, 12, 14 different characters. I cannot. So pretty much every character that I voice is going to sound like this.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. That makes it easy. I'm not a good actor.

“But you've been in rocket rail from the take wall like big stars.”

Disney shows a ram for an eternity.

I know. I can't believe it. Oh, no. Oh, I got to come up. No, we're almost out of time.