Jack Black

0:00Jack Black, Dana. You know, always funny, always upbeat, always in a good mood. And he lived up to all that today. Yes. And we we happened to, in this particular case, interview him on the Monday after he hosted this banging episode on SNL. Yeah. And then his movie Minecraft also. Same weekend. Yeah. Gigantic smash. So he was in a really good mood. He may be kind of in the legendary category because he's been around long enough, but couldn't be nicer. Funny. It was just an easy, easy conversation to have with the great Jack Black. Yeah. Fun comedian. I see him out and about sometimes. Always seems up for chatting and laughing and just cracking up.

0:47And he's just out there doing whatever it takes. And he's always goofy on these press things. and everyone likes to be around him. All the way back from School of Rock. Just, we went over a lot of his stuff and then just basically cracked up. Yeah. Anyway, enjoy the one and only Jack Black.

1:11Do you know how difficult it is to get a jean jacket that really works? In this day and age? Yeah. Very difficult. Because it'll be too big, too small. So I was at metaphorical cigar. uh new york magazine photo shoot they go here try this jean jacket so i said well this looks like a good jean so i walked off with it and then they found me and i said okay i mean is it okay if i i mean i'll pay you but then they came back 20 minutes later and said you can keep it 95 dollars wow and how much for the glasses the string that holds your glasses on your head these are get me one of those these are one seven fives i'm supposed to go to twos oh yeah what are you at for uh up close vision uh i am prescription so i don't even know what they're doing it's like one eye is probably different than the other up top is just like normal down here's for reading in the sunlight it turns into sunglasses these things are like super charged where do you go i need all that i'm just too lazy i go that's where the money's going i go yep all my money goes to my optometrist i go on larchmont optometrics Nice Great group of ladies over there It's all ladies at my I don't know what happened This last weekend I'm kind of out of town I'm not good at research But I heard there's something A couple things happened I did a little indie film Called Minecraft How did that do?

2:45You know, according to reports It's gone bonkers and the kids are going in there and just like throwing popcorn and just losing their minds i know it's like i've heard about this chaos it looks kind of like um like rocky horror picture show like there's a lot of participation these kids have already they come in already knowing the dialogue because of the memes oh you have to say it that way is that why it's the memes Why? I was thinking, did you see this coming? I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little surprised. I mean, I loved it. I saw it a couple of weeks before it came out and I was like, look, I like it.

3:31But what the hell do I know? I don't know. Hopefully people will like it. I like stuff and then it comes out and the reviews are just garbage. And I'm like, what? And actually, the reviews were kind of mixed on this one. but it didn't seem to matter because the kids have spoken. Yeah. Oh yeah. They come to party. You get them hooked in and now there's a trick and a fun thing to do. Yeah. That's the best. But then there's also a weird backlash where some of the theaters, this is just news I'm getting from TikTok. So I don't know if this is true either. I'm just getting bits and pieces. If it's TikTok, it's true.

4:05Come on. It's going to be where there's talk of illegalizing the movie because kids are going to bananas throwing popped corn. And if they don't stop throwing popped corn, the movie will be illegal. Pops corn? Is it an S in there? Isn't it popcorn? Pops corn. That's what the theater owner said. So I think it's good. Should it be illegal? This is a question everyone's been asking lately about this movie. It's controversial. Is it because the chicken comes in? The chicken comes in. I don't think that's controversial. Nothing we do in the movie is controversial, but the effect it's having on the youth of the nation, you know, it's creating concern.

4:49It's like, we don't want that kind of rowdy behavior. We can't condone that kind of bedlam. But I'm saying it's so hard to get butts in seats nowadays. Yeah. Just hire someone else another popcorn scooper. i'm gonna do a prediction that this thing's gonna have a lot of multiple viewings it's not gonna be seen anytime soon on you know amazon right you can rent it for 495 or buy it for uh 300 oh wait does it go somewhere after this because a lot of movies sometimes keep it in the theaters man that's my is it theaters it's theaters only right now i i actually don't know what the plan is where goes after that for the secondary.

5:38And it's kind of cool that there's no plan in place. Whatever you call it. 168 million. You know, I'm just curious about this. Like, Nacho Libre. Yeah. Napoleon Dynamite. Yeah. Jared. Here. So, what went right and how could this movie have gone wrong? And what were the choices it made besides casting you as the lead? That was good from what I understand. I'm going to see it tomorrow. There's people who really want to see it. They don't even know I'm talking to you right now. I would say it's more like co-leads. It's me and Jason Momoa. It's a one-two punch. Okay. We spend the first half of the movie being rivals.

6:23And, you know, it's a little bit of a competition for alpha dominance. And then over the course - And you are competing with him? That's where we flip the script. because this time I'm the one who's the badass. Yeah, I'm the one with all the fighting skills. And he's the pretty face who's really actually terrified of this world. Oh, he looks funny in that. Do you guys have an enthusiasm off during lunch and stuff? Enthusiasm off. I like him all. I saw him at the 50th. He's a fun dude. there was a little bit of a competition for who brought the most enthusiasm energy it was never spoken we never said hey may the best enthusiasm win but he would come in with a lot of uh a lot of noise and energy with his motorcycle noise oh he brings a motorcycle that's like yes and you would hear like he would have he has a band and they would be jamming in his trailer very loud right out of the gate and i was like okay fine and then i got my little boom box uh bluetooth speaker and i'd come i'd come in blazing whatever jam i thought was the right one for the day so we were you know we were we were battling for the hearts and minds of that crew yeah you know music too he shouldn't mess with that you know what you're doing well we joined forces we we did a little jamming together he we're we're you know it's we're kind of That's why I wanted to work with him because I felt like we're going to be two peas in a pod.

8:03He likes the same kind of music I like, and he's got a similar energy, even though he's a foot taller and all muscle. And women come running from the four corners of the earth to get a whiff of this guy. That's a little different than my clientele. But we still have to do fine. There was some sexual energy. I mean, we can bounce around between the two. Between you and the chicken jockey. We can do ten poles of the, I'm going to call it Jack Black April or maybe contact my congressman or something. There should be some national creed because, first of all, I have two questions. One is, what happened 20 years ago?

8:47Because you came out and it exploded. I want to go over the show and what it was. It was exceptional. So first of all, what happened 20 years ago? Because I did one that kind of sucked. And I could just say it in 2010, it just tilted wrong, you know, and I was pushing and it just wasn't good. So I haven't been asked back. But what happened to you? How is Jack Black not? How do they go two decades without you on that show? Oh, you're saying on SNL. Yeah, 20 years ago, he hosted it. And then, so. I don't remember you having a bad day on SNL. Exactly. But I do remember seeing lots of great performers have a bad night on SNL because it's just part of the, it's the nature of the beast, right?

9:42It's a high wire act. It shouldn't work. It's like, they put it. and it's terrifying because it's like, wait, we're held together with scotch tape. And that's kind of the fun is you get to see a belly flop, potential belly flop, because it's live. There's no second takes. And you're almost watching it. You kind of want to see some mistakes because there's nothing else like it. The funnest part. Oh, you had mistakes. I had mistakes. Someone yelled from the crowd. That's not a mistake. That's fun. That's definitely fun for the audience. the stage of the monologue because i said that guy got vertical and i was never afraid for you physically because i almost killed myself many times in that place you know i have some training a lot of people don't know this but i trained judo for for a few years in my teens so the the first thing they teach you in judo is how to dive roll it's like a little mini tiger roll and uh It's been part of my on stage.

10:42Yeah. Bag of tricks for Kung Fu Panda too. Yep. A little animated. People don't know I was doing the tiger roll in the recording booth. No. I thought you had the little green dots on you and that was really you. Like you're running around. I had fun with that opening monologue. I did. I did a little rock and a little, a little diving and rolling. but if i'm honest with you uh i was struggling with the cardio because i i made the choice to run up those stairs yeah it wasn't actually my idea that was more of a john higgins idea you know steve higgins son uh works on the show now yeah yeah and he's great he's hilarious and he and his partners in uh please don't destroy they're like you know the new guys that make the hilarious music videos and videos every week.

11:35They were like shepherding me with my monologue section and they thought it would be a great idea to run up into the audience and like have a marching band up there and then run down the other side of the stairs. And I got a little winded. So the main thing was just hold my wind together. Because you had a whole show after that. Did you have any rest in that? Because did you like, when you knew you were going back down the stage, you get a little bit of a rest? Because I was thinking about that and it can happen. But when you said we got a great show, the flag never touched the ground. You weren't like, we got a great show.

12:11So I was impressed and I wanted to ask you about that fitness and some of the leg kicks and the little dancing. I mean, it was wild. Yeah, I didn't. I could have used a little more training leading up to it. Maybe I should have done the Ozempic or something to drop a few LBs. that would have helped but you know i just remember when chris farley would do his physical shit he did stuff way more extreme he'd be running like a wind sprint down the letterman thing and lifting up people and throwing people and he he got winded and sweaty but it he never broke a stride you know what i mean and i wish i had that kind i don't know maybe it's a home run I mean, by the way, the monologue was like perfection for me.

12:57Oh, monologue was exactly an old school high energy. Who thought of that where you go and I can't do it, I don't feel it. That just gave me goosebumps when you went around. Don't do that to me. And then you did that rhythm that you do because I can't, whatever that little thing you do. And a good song. And everyone knew it was on when you did it. You turned. That was my turn. That was mine. I wanted to do that turn. And the reason I wanted to do it is because that was actually true. I do have a lot of fear and leading up to it I was like I don't know if I can do it and part of me was wishing I wouldn't it be nice if I could just quit I'd like to quit and not do it and I was like I'm gonna make that part of the monologue I'm gonna make that that insecurity part of it and then the turn like no I will ride wheel host again because you see some hosts go in there with some wispy monologues.

13:51I mean, there's like some minute 30 monologues where they're like, Hey, here's a clip from my movie. And here's our musical guest. I'm like, that's it. And then conversely, it was not that long ago that I think Dave Chappelle broke the record for the longest monologue, right? I think so. I think it was 20, 19 minutes or something. Yeah. 19 minutes. 12 cigarettes. That's, that's, you know, like a quarter of the show. When he's hosting, you're like, Oh no, my sketch. Did Lauren give you a thumbs up during the show? or anything like during the show in between sketches or a little bit a little bit a little bit i mean i i uh i was pretty uh pace yourself jack yeah dude lauren said the funniest thing i don't think he was trying to be funny but after the rehearsal when i he saw me do the tiger roll and he saw me doing that rocking number and he saw me sweating and wheezing and he said I just want to tell you a story this is not a good I like it already in the 70s this is the beginning we had Desi Arnaz on the show and he was getting up there he was in his 70s and I wanted him on because I just thought yes he's older but he's an icon and he had been on you know Lucille Ball and uh and i was like yeah oh my god that must have been a trip i'd love to see that and he said that uh desi um was kind of struggling he wanted to do his babaloo number that was like his trademark that he'd been doing you know live for for decades and uh and and lorne was a little worried about it you know can he still pull it off and he was doing it but he could see that he was starting to sweat and really struggle physically while he was babalooing And he wouldn't stop.

15:43And then he looked closer on the screen and he's like, Desi's lips started to turn blue. And he started to worry like, oh, he's about to die. And he like just pulled the plug on it and said, just go to commercial, whatever. And I was like, wait a second. Are you telling me this story because you're worried I'm going to die? When did he tell you the story?

16:10he was just warning me not to go too hard because if i went full hard hard as a motherfucker that i could i could uh but you're a kid you're 55 right exactly it's like you know it's apples and oranges we always recommend shopify it took us from an idea to a real business we got set up i think in less than a day with very little effort. We could just focus on the supply chains and the product development. Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility or having to pay a developer. We're Thirsty Turtle, and we leveled up our business with Shopify.

16:54Start your free trial at shopify.com slash au.

17:01Don't you love the matching numbers? 33 44 55 still alive 56 i'm gonna fix 57 i'm in heaven 58 don't be late 59 won't you be mine 60 oh 60 i had no rhyme for that but 55 is a cool age i could yeah yeah so i like that doing minecraft doing that is doing a movie grind every day no one even thinks about it but it's i don't know where you're on location or what are you doing but just to get up every day memorize your lines be on the set take after take heat cold changing working with it's a beating lights oh yeah working with cgi where'd you do it we did it all in new zealand uh in auckland oh and that was a great kind of reunion for me with some of those crew members because i had worked in new zealand on king kong 20 years earlier yeah yeah that was the last time i hosted snl as a of fact because i oh for king oh for king and i did a king kong song in my monologue that time 20 years ago king kong song oh wait steve higgins really helped out with that was that naomi watts yep that was naomi watts oh yeah and uh i saw adrian brody uh two-time oscar time oscar that guy yeah you don't see him for a while and then it's an oscar yes and he's great in that era apparently you know you put him in world war ii era he wins oscars every time but yeah i carried around one of those old-timey cameras and i was the film director it was really yeah it was heavy and and peter jackson he's a he's a real uh stickler for authenticity no i thought you were gonna say that i'm like no no give me a cardboard one time on tommy boy i had a briefcase and Everything was too heavy for me.

18:53I'm like, guys, I'm just trying to float through this scene. I got a bad neck. And they're like, all right. And then I go, fuck, what do you got in this briefcase? Baby's first bricks. And then I open it up and it's stuffed with files to make it real. I go, listen, no one's looking inside the briefcase. I'm just carrying it. And they go, okay. So, the prop guy brings it back. I go, ooh, it's light. And he goes, yeah, we took the pulp out of the paper. I go, thank you. They were being an asshole to me. I didn't even catch it. I'm like, oh, good job. Yeah. But it matters. Lugging that every take and you're on a mountainside or something.

19:28I don't know. Yeah. But I had a ball. I felt for you. I had a ball on that one.

19:37What's King Kong been up to? You still talk to him? Yeah, man. He's directing now. After the shoot, everyone kind of goes their own way. So did you go to the party? I mean, you seem pretty well put together. did you how did when did you crash the after party go all nine after all i mean no i did i did go to the party you have to go to the party it's but you're the host you're kind of the host of the party i know um uh went went there and uh gave hugs to all my peeps and and said hi to lorne thanked him for for the the fun opportunity um did you know minecraft was killing at that point It gave you a little extra juice.

20:17Yes. It was kind of a great thing about being on SNL is that we had the movie was already doing gangbusters. So it was kind of like a fun time to be on there. That will relax a host that they have this behemoth as they come in in their back pocket. I sure hope this host team goes good, but we're probably going to be over. We're over 300 million right now. Sorry. I guess, you know. It's a wind, the wind beneath your wings carried me through. But it doesn't really matter. Look, it doesn't really matter because when you're on SNL, there's no such thing as like a victory lap. You're still terrified of shit in the bed.

21:01So I was like, I was pretty amped and ready to go. But yeah, there's a fear factor as well. No question about it. When you're standing back there at that door, that back door, Or when they're counting down the 10 seconds when Jeannie. I just did. It's just terrifying. Jenna. This is so weird. One line goes off or, you know, Liz, the director, if there's cuts between dress and air. And I told this, it's just like, it really hit me how hard it is to know when to go where. You're just seeing it for the first time. When do you come off, Jack, and then go there? I was just curious which ones blew up for you in your mind.

21:43Like, fuck, we hit it. because you want the air show to be, we really hit it. So Love Match is going viral. Oh, good. And I thought it was inspired writing as well. And Diz Mux was really funny. He really was mad at me. It felt like he's really mad at me. He's great. He's great. And that one felt great. I got to say, I was impressed with all the writing. I liked all of them. And even a couple of the ones that got cut, I wished they had made it. There was one that got cut where I was a father who wanted to come visit his son's divorced couple and wanted to come visit his kids. And I had to confess, hey, I've been coming here every day pretending to be the maid, kind of like Mrs.

22:33Doubtfire style. It was a really funny idea. And the confession that I was the Doubtfire maiden. But I was also from Trinidad. So it was really. Oh, shit. Wait. My sports television just came on. I'm going to turn that off. You ever do that where you're – You hold it for an hour, and then it kicks back on. It was first take. I like to hear the talking heads talk about the sports. The Lakers. Yeah. I'll do it for you. Luca. Luca Brotz. He's good. Yeah. Hey, while I got you, I'm going to turn the tables. I'm going to ask a couple questions. Please do. Spade, first of all, I've read all your books, Spade.

23:15Oh, thank you, bud. And when I say I read them, I mean I listened to them. Yeah. Which is actually the way you're supposed to take in your books, in my opinion, because your delivery is kind of like half of the magic. And I noticed you know that because if you want to buy your book, it costs five bucks. But if you want to listen to your book, it costs 20 bucks. I was like, oh, he knows. Is that true? I didn't know that. No, it's not. the cost spread. I just noticed it. It costs a little bit more if you want to hear the delivery. And making me laugh. Gotta wet the beak. Making me laugh very hard.

23:47I see Jack Black over the years and he is as advertised. He's fun. He's in a good mood. He's nice. And always a couple of laughs for sure. It's great. And I don't see him enough. So that's not really a question. I just wanted to tell you, I'm a fan of your readings and I I look forward to the next. Are you working on another one? No. No, you're done. You're like, I told all the stories. No, I just did a special. Because the stand-up, it really is kind of podcasting sort of jumped instead of audiobooks. You know what I mean? Yeah. I sort of told my life story. And then now when we do this, we just tell our same stories every week.

24:28And then to do a stand-up special, same thing. It's like just, it's all blurring and the same thing. People sometimes I told Dana, I do stand up and then these nitpickers are like on my Instagram on Monday going, actually, I saw a part of one of those stories on Ellen a few years ago. I go, yeah, no shit, Sherlock. I got to scrape together a goddamn hour. And of course, I'm going to dig in anywhere I can. I don't know. I don't have any adventures anymore. No, I've made peace with the fact that I'm going to be repeating my same life stories over and over again in every interview for the rest of my life.

25:04It is what it is. I've made peace with it. I know. I don't have my teens anymore. Here's my thing. Oh, I can't tell the same story because then people will go, oh, I've already heard it and turn it. Nine times out of ten, they've never heard the story or don't remember the story. Who the fuck cares? Just tell your stories. Or they like to hear it again. And you never tell it the same way. I do my acting. I was doing stand-up this weekend. Oh, sorry, Jack. Just give me 20 minutes here. I was doing stand-up and I tell this and I go I'm doing all this new stuff because I have to put together more material and I'm like give me my old juicy closer that fucking works where you know what I mean you go why do I have to throw this in the garbage and then you never get complaints if you do a bit that kills no one's ever like don't change it I loved it but I think I've heard it it's like good when I see comics do my favorite shows I'm still closing with a bit from 1983 Dana I have a question for you I have a question for you Dana Now I'm going to turn the tables again.

25:57Yeah. Turn it over. It's your turn to be in the hot seat. It's like Tony and Moreau on Bronwyn. You know how when you host SNL, you get a little dinner early in the week, like a Tuesday dinner that Lorne hosts. But really, you're hosting because you're the host. You're also kind of the host. You've got to be there. You sit next to Lorne, and you feel a little pressure to entertain the table because it's like you're the host. So zingy, zingy, boom, boom. and somehow we got on the topic of your appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time with Bill Maher and how you just didn't let him get a word in edgewise and it was the funniest on I like that show I watched that show I'd never seen anyone just take full command like you did and I was yeah, we were all singing your praises.

26:50Did you go on to Bill Maher real time with that plan? No. You just showed up and then he just... If you're on a roll, it's better than not having questions. I'm doing this stuff without an audience. And SNL doing Biden, it was a little... I was part of a team and it's sort of like I came out and there are 80 people standing up with a lot of noise. And so that just triggered me. like okay i'm just gonna ride this wave and then i realized that you know bill we kind of got to know him he's a bit of a curmudgeon so you kind of want to you want to fluff up his hair and give him a hug you know kind of like oh you know because you know underneath there's a marshmallow there somewhere yeah but um just rode rode the wave had a lot to get out of my brain i guess and but uh yeah it was it's fun when you just don't you just let you let go you're not really thinking I was doing a truncated version of what I do on stage right now.

27:50But anyway, that makes me happy. Thank you. Well, do you do any music on your onstage act now? Oh, yeah. I've never stopped because in the honky tonk bars, you know, clubs I used to play, the audience would start to fade and talk and they were drunk. Show us your dick. And then there'd be the blender. Yeah. So I started bringing an acoustic guitar up and fiddling around with it and playing chords and doing Neil Young and things like that, just because of the noise would get the audience to stop talking. So, yeah, I do like to play guitar at the end. And I do different things, like something you would do.

28:28I do a thing about a heavy metal guy who's angry at the microphone. So he's walking away from it and really hitting these power chords. Then he goes toward it and then he walks back, you know. So I do stuff like that. I love playing the guitar on stage. Just so your audience knows, Dana, I've told you, Dana, but you were such a big influence on me early on when I was watching SNL and I saw you play that song, the Broccoli song. Chopin' Broccoli, yeah. Where clearly you were making, the gag was that you were making it up as you went along. But I don't know if I'd ever laughed that hard. And just seeing like a song kill like that and be so fucking funny.

29:12And also the reactions to your song of them just like drinking up every stance. Sigourney Weaver. Phil Hartman. Yeah, Sigourney. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was a big inspiration and a big reason why I started doing comedy music combos. I don't know if you get that in people coming up to you now and saying, you know, I saw you do this and I'm doing this. But that always shocked me. I didn't I had not watched that sketch until maybe two months ago. I never watched anything. And I thought, oh, that was pretty good, you know, because I'm self-critical. Me too. You're like, what about it do people like?

29:50It's fun to watch. So many people yell it out because I guess there's no joke. and your style is kind of rhythmic and I don't know what you call it too, but abstract and musical really.

30:08I was going to ask you, what do you listen to? What do you, you know, it's funny. I'm glad you asked that because it's kind of my main thing that I do with my time, the content I like to put into my headphones when I go on my walks to get my steps so I can live longer. I like to listen because I realized I'm not listening to music at all. I'm listening to podcasts. I'm listening to books. I want to listen to music again. So I came up with this plan, chrono marathons. So you take bands that you already love, that you've loved all your life, but you haven't really listened to in a long time. And you go from the very beginning, their first album chronologically over the course of their whole catalog.

30:47And it's a great way to just plug back into music. and it's the anti like quick uh one song at a time spotify or whatever that pandora is where it ai picks shit for you it's like oh yeah it's reading my mind nah you take command and you listen fuck you ai take this it's gonna sound really dumb but you know i did the classics okay i did the boring ones like i started with i think i started did i start with pink floyd I think it was Pink Floyd Okay, Animals, Me Has there ever been a better album than Dark Side of the Moon? Steely Dead Yeah, weirdly the very next one they did right after that because Wish You Were Here I think it's a better it's a better record it's a fucking great record but that's their window because before Dark Side of the Moon there's great moments and like interesting and like you can see oh, I can see they're starting to get there they're starting to figure it out but dark side of the moon it's an it's a just a bomb that goes off where it's like this is the beginning of their real yeah incredible window because then the next album uh wish you were here and then the wall that to me is their window oh the next the ones after that people like no no you got to put animals in there i say i think the window's closing it's good no there's good stuff but that way and it's cool to see all the bands you pick all of them they have a window where it's like yeah they're great and then the ending stuff there's some good stuff later but that you know and it's fascinating to to find that that juice because you go oh yeah i love billy joe when do you love billy joe because there's a window you don't love all of it there's some hot cheese i want to ask you a pink floyd question just for a second are you part of the cadre of people who if they have to nominate the best solo in rock history they they often there's a lot of great guitar players back and everybody but david gilmore and comfortably numb that guitar solo tone choice of note whatever you want to call it every time i hear it i go really uh that's not human it's so yeah yeah it is it is yeah he is definitely in my top three i love david gilmore oh good call what um comfortably numb is on which album comfortably numb is is on uh the the the uh the wall of course okay don't act like i'm some dumb shit hey um i felt like it was a test if i failed it all of a sudden it was a test i'm like oh wait i didn't want to trip him up but what about animals jack it has a soft spot White Album.