Last Looks: Circus Island [Jason Edition] w/ Justin Halpern

26:55You know, the filmmakers were, you know, problematic or stealing money or all sorts of shenanigans going on. And boy, is it so heartening to hear that not only especially for a movie that had so many kids involved, that those kids, like you're saying, Nathan, were treated like royalty, that it felt like a camp, that it felt really, you know, important and special to them. And that the that the filmmakers, the Landry sisters, were so generous to them because that is incredible. What an opportunity and what an exciting thing to have happen in you to you and your friends in high school at that age.

27:33I think that's awesome and makes me feel like really great about the movie because there's a lot of the movie that looks like sketchy. It looks like a bunch of children like on a weird island. You kind of are like, I hope doing like tumbling and jumping and circus stuff that you're like, I hope everybody's safe. I hope they're keeping everybody safe because on these lower budget movies, I've been on lower budget movies where I'm like, I don't feel safe even remotely. And I'm a grown man who's nervous to advocate for myself. So it's awesome that they were not only had a great time, but were protected and felt wonderful about the movie.

28:15And I'm thrilled to be bringing attention to something that for Nathan was an ultimately positive experience. I think that's dynamite. And it's great to hear that the Landers sisters treated them so well. Incredible. Okay, last call. This is, by the way, my favorite words on the show. Last call from Craig in Ontario. Now, Scott, sorry, I thought we weren't doing any more Canadian calls. Yeah, I don't know how this one snuck in. I don't know what happened here. Do you want to skip it or should we give him the benefit of that? Let's hear what he says and then we'll decide. Okay. If it feels too Canadian, we can get rid of it.

28:49Hey, Paul, Craig from Hamilton, Ontario calling. Just wanted you to know that when I went on my local library's Hoopla site to download some books today, I saw that Circus Island was trending in the movie section. I can only put this down to the awesome influence that you, Jason, and June have on the movie-watching public. Love the show. Thanks. All right. You know what, Craig from Ontario? I'm going to allow this call to make it on the show. You're welcome. I'll be honest, mostly because boy, did I appreciate the bird song in the background. I loved your point. It was lovely. I'm so often like so delighted when I hear that the choice of movies we make alters the algorithms or jumps one of these weird movies into like the into the lists for like you're saying hoopla or Or, you know, because people will talk about it as if, you know, the movies we choose then suddenly enter, you know, start trending on like the on Amazon Prime or wherever it's streaming.

30:00And I love that. I love when our audience demonstrates their true power. If we really wanted to capture this audience and really attack a movie or elevate a movie, boy, I think we would be incredibly powerful. And this does give me an opportunity to once again, shout out the librarians, shout out the libraries, shout out the library apps. So there's Hoopla that Craig in Ontario mentioned. There's Libby, which is another one. There's a bunch of different library apps. And not for nothing, your local library also inexplicably might still have DVDs for rent. That's still a thing. So, you know, don't feel like you have to sign up for every streamer just to get our movies.

30:46Don't feel like you have to go pirate a movie. Support the library. Do the library. Let's all do the library. This is fantastic. I think everybody should be checking Hoopla and other free library resources when we announce our movies, which I'm about to do very soon. So thank you, Craig from Ontario, for being one of the very few rational Canadians that I've ever spoken with. And by spoken with, I meant listen to leave a message. And if I'm honest, I mostly chose the message because of the birds. I didn't open up my app to find out what birds they were. Yes, I have an app that tells me what bird song is playing.

31:28I'm 53. Okay, they're telling me I got to pick a winner from these submissions. Boy, I don't know. Wait, I have to adjust the calls or everybody today? For either the Discord comments or the callers, whoever. Okay, so first of all, Discord, all Discords are out. There's no winners coming from Discord. I'm saying that with peace and love. Okay, you know what? Nathan gets it. Nathan gets it, even though I suspect he's from Florida. Nathan gets it because what I loved was the first person positive experience for this movie. I loved this person's not just giving me context for the movie in general.

32:08They're giving me personal experience, context for the movie. And it puts the movie in an even better light that knowing that they all had a positive time. They got to skip school. They felt supported. They felt creatively engaged. Nathan, you win. And whoever recommended Nathan, John Keller. John Keller, thank you for making Nathan reach out to us. Because here's the thing. And boy, boy, are the super fans going to be mad. Nathan's not even a fan of the podcast. John Keller is. But Nathan gets the award, even though my sneaking suspicion is he's from Florida. OK, that's it. Nathan won. And for everybody who's jealous that you didn't win.

32:52Hey, try again. Great news. You can submit again, whether you've got a correction or an omission or, as I said earlier, an opinion or context, go to the Discord. You know where to find it. Or try leaving us a voicemail at speakpipe.com backslash HDTGM. Once again, Scott, we should have easily identifiable phrases for each of these hyperlinks that are like a thing that we say that brings us to that thing that's like fucking call Paul. You know what I mean? And it's just fucking if you enter fucking call Paul in the Internet, it just brings you to the to the voicemail box or whatever. Does that make sense?

33:41Yes, it does make sense. But you can also just click the links on our website or in the episode notes. Scott, here's OK. You know what I'm going to do until further notice? Go to birdfuck.com. Leave a message for us on the Doughboys website. OK, leave messages for us on the Doughboys. boys thing, they'll send them to Scott. Okay? Birdfuck.com for all your issues. Okay. We're going to take one final break. And when I come back, Paul and I will chat with Justin Halpern before I announce next week's movie. Be right back.

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36:42Plus, everything is made on demand. So there's no out of stock. Pick it, customize it, done. Over 30 million customers have trusted Zazzle with their most important gifts. Yours is next. Right now, save 25 % on your first order at Zazzle.com. That's 25 % savings on your first order at Zazzle.com. Go make something amazing. Zazzle.com. Okay, we're back. And everybody knows on Tuesdays we re-release classic episodes of the show that haven't been heard in a while. So I've got bangers for you guys. The next two coming out are home run episodes. There's whole episodes I don't remember at all. These two I very much remember.

37:23One, tough guys don't dance. This is some nuts level stuff. I cannot recommend it enough. And then, of course, one of our all-time favorites, Jean-Claude Van Damme, plus incredible Dennis Rodman also performance in this absolutely bananas movie double team. Watch both movies. Listen to both episodes. Keep checking in for our classic episodes that air every Tuesday. Before you know it, you'll have heard all the episodes. And I think we're at 400, Paul said recently, which is chilling. Okay, here's the deal now. As I promised earlier, we're going to talk to Justin Halpern. His book is called Get Lost.

38:05It comes out July 7th. But you should all pre-order it right now. That gives them information in the data mining, data scraping, absolute awful world we live in now. These are the things that matter. So go and preorder Justin's book. OK, Mike Hearth. Mike Hearth. Do you think that's my girth is what he's trying to do? Is he trying to do like a fake Mike Girth? Mike Girth. Give us a good just chat theme, will you?

38:46Jason Mantzoukas:Justin,

38:52Jason Mantzoukas:so excited to have you on Just Chat. What a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm big fans of you both. Justin, I feel like the one thing that you probably talk about a bunch when you're doing any sort of interviews is a little bit of your origin story, which is you you are like the first twitter famous person that i think ever existed with by creating like shit my dad says like that was that took on a life that was truly i mean monumental and what was that like for you to do something that was like a fun bit that then just becomes you know this big thing well i would yeah i was like living with my parents when that happened.

39:37I was literally living in a, my dad wouldn't put my childhood bedroom, like he wouldn't let me like sleep. He wouldn't put a bed back in it. So I was on like an air mattress in the corner and still all of his like shit was in there. He had taken over the room after I left. So it was, I didn't even really know what Twitter is. A friend told me to throw up these, it used to be my G, my G chat status was something my dad said that day. Right. So my friends could see it. And then my friend was like, you should put it up on Twitter. And it was like 2009 when like nobody even really was like, it was like CNN International Kutcher race to a million followers.

40:13It was like nobody really knew what it was. And then and so I did put it on there. And for a week, there was only one porn bot following it.

40:25It was so early on in Twitter's existence, but porn bots already there. Already the earliest of early adopters. yes the two earliest adopters are porn bots and paul sheer um and then uh and then one day i woke up and there was like 3 000 followers and literally by the end of the night there was 30 000 and when i woke up in the morning there was like 150 000 in like oh my god there was like 500 000 so i was and i didn't even know how to check out replies at first that's how little i knew about twitter so i didn't even understand what was happening really i was like this must be a mistake or something like that and then when i finally figured out how to check at reply because i'm basically a luddite um i saw all the flooding of like holy shit this is really connecting with people and then was that like the moment where you

41:16Jason Mantzoukas:were able to like take off as far as your career because you were writing for maxim uh you were writing magazine articles right you're doing a whole bunch of stuff uh and then this goes huge you write a book that is, you know, it becomes a giant bestseller. But then was the goal always to kind of be writing for TV and doing that, like kind of being in this comedy space? Yeah, I mean, that's what like, I have a writing partner, Patrick Schumacher, and we had been, I've been, I've been a waiter. So I've been waiting tables for about five or six years at that point. And we had had a manager and we were trying to submit to places and all that kind of shit.

41:54And it this was the thing that like when it took off, people were like, oh, do you have you and we had a few scripts and we had we were able to get representation and things like that sort of based off of it. So we were like dabbling around the outsides of the industry. We were trying to break in, but hadn't. But we were at least like kind of understood the business a little bit. I feel like yours was one of the first pathways to this career that came through social media or came through Twitter, maybe. Like, that idea that that handle, that your stuff that went from, like Paul's saying, a Twitter feed to a book to then a sitcom, like, that was incredible to watch because at the time, I felt like stuff just didn't work that way, you know?

42:45Absolutely.

42:46Jason Mantzoukas:And what's so kind of fascinating is, like, yes, your Twitter blew up. The book is number one for 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, which is mind-boggling as well. Like, that's huge. And this is coming from another New York Times bestseller. I mean, this is it, right. This is it. I feel very, I feel really embarrassed, to be honest. Jason, you'll get one out there. I've got to get a book. yeah it was it was pretty crazy because when it initially happened the i i when the twitter fee took off one of the ad replies was a book agent and he was like contact me and i contacted him and he was like here's what we do we make a funny wall calendar and it's got all your dad's tweets in it and i was like okay but i also like i could write some essays in it that are like a memoir and he was like yeah uh sure you can bud he's like just just do the funny wall wall calendar and i was like well hold on can i at least like can i send you a couple sample essays of like what this would be like and then i sent it to him and he was like all right okay and then i love that you still went with him you still were like this guy believes in me you know why i did because i was like he's right the smartest decision is to make this wall calendar like who the fuck am i Like, you know, like I was betting on myself, but I didn't want to go with any agent that would also bet on me.

44:11I mean, like, like how many people are currently in 2026 now being told the next move calendar? You got it for the next season of Harley Quinn or for your book promotion coming up. We got to get a calendar. They were huge in 2009.

44:29Jason Mantzoukas:Now, I will say this just because I do. I always found it interesting because you are a writer. You you aren't just some person, Jeanette, who started doing this. It was like a funny thing, but you understood what you were making. Obviously, you wrote these great essays. But then when it comes time to make the show, you're involved. But it's not like your show technically. Right. Or at this point, or it's a kind of like you're like and that's I just think that's a fascinating thing for people who may or may not know how this kind of stuff works. Yeah. So we we took the it was after the book proposal kind of went out.

45:01We started getting these incoming calls and we went to we pitched it around a couple places. And we went to Warner Brothers and they were like, we love this. And they're like, you guys know, you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right. And we were like, yes, we know. Like we under we totally understand that. And they're like, OK, good, good, good, good, good. and so they're like they're like you can be a part of it but you're not gonna it's not gonna be your show and and thankfully because i also was like yeah it shouldn't be our show like i don't know what i don't know what i'm doing it'd be like somebody being like oh you're gonna drive this tractor it's like i've never driven a track i don't know when i do that um so we were we were on it and we were got to be on it and the show was very bad it was a really it's a really bad

45:44Jason Mantzoukas:show the william shatner's bleep my dad says it became bleep my dad says yes it became bleep my dad says but the funniest part was so as it was good my dad hated the show and he would like and he would and what at one point he goes i he was like well how's it why is it so bad and i was like oh well you know i'm like trying to kind of explain to him why and and like he's like but you're in the room i'm like yeah i know i am in the room but he's like so what you're saying is it's it's like watching somebody fuck your wife really badly and i was like i don't think and i just got i just got married and you're like oh i wish i could put that on the show i know i was also like i don't think it's like that why would the badly part no yeah it would just be watching somebody fuck your wife like yeah like but i guess if they did it well you'd be proud of it you'd be like hey that's my wife Yeah, at least somebody's fucking my wife really well.

46:44Jason Mantzoukas:Now, I know that, you know, we'll talk about Abbott. We'll talk about this new book coming up. But I also just want to get into this, into Harley, because you did this. You made this great show. It's so funny. And I feel like to work in the D.C. world at the point that you came in, which is like early 2020. How did you pull that off? because this is like, I feel like there's a lot of energy around like, we don't do funny things. We've got to keep the characters integrity going on, but how do you pitch a funny version of in the Batman world with all these characters? Yeah. Not only that, but like a hard, our hard show, like a show that is in incredibly funny joke, dense, uh, sitcom animated sitcom, but that nonetheless still is like suffused with DC lore.

47:34you know i mean like uh it's great what a magic trick well here's how it happened was basically we warners had come to us and said hey do you want to do an r-rated animated harley show but they had no they had no idea what it would be and they didn't know how it would work with dc and so like as we were writing the scripts the first script like the pilot people were getting kind of nervous because they were like this is great like what is this thing you're making and dc was getting nervous and then um all of the head people at dc got fired like laid off and so i remember a moment when we were like who do we send the pilot script to it's done and they were like we don't know we were like there was nobody in charge at that moment at dc and so it was literally just us and like a couple warren brothers executives that we had known for a long time who were kind of like i don't know just like make what you want and and it's the only time in my career that's ever happened and it was literally just because we were in between they hadn't hired somebody new yet but there was nobody old there either and we kind of just got to make this weird show that we loved um and and i think the way we got the only time dc ever like the there was one guy who was in charge of quality control at dc and he was just like you can't have batman go down on catwoman that was like his line he never would i know he'd never do that but any other sex would be fine

49:03Jason Mantzoukas:it just wasn't allowed to do that that's yeah we couldn't show that we couldn't show that but like everything else they like let us do basically and and the reason he said you couldn't do that he's just like we gotta sell toys yeah we can't you can't imagine one of these toys going down on someone so it's like that's amazing that that is the only pushback the entire series has had and you guys do so i mean you have the episode that we just read like you have bane fucking buildings and coming around like it's a there's so much insane sex stuff in the show your batman is a functional moron which is absolutely hilarious it is and like the All of the villain, all of the petty soap opera nature of all the villains is all so fantastic.

49:57It's the best. I love that. Thank you. It's really, really good.

50:02Jason Mantzoukas:Now, obviously, you go on to work with Quinta and and make, I would argue, one of the biggest comedies in the last 10 years with Abbott Elementary. and the thing that I'm so amazed at with you is that show is so incredibly funny you have an amazing cast but you're knocking out 22 episodes a season and it's like I love it and you don't ever look too stressed about it I will say that like you you retain a youthful uh nature but I mean that's a that's like uh that's so many I mean how many episodes have you done now is it it's always over 100 right it's like uh 93 so we'll do our 107 episodes yeah wow how do you feel an episode like in the mid 90s now like are you like do people have to remind you know we've done stuff like that or like is it do you have like a board of like like i know that always sunny they they have to have like somebody check all the episodes to make sure they have not done the same plots yeah well there's like uh because i forget them like two minutes after we make them right so uh but there's there's two different there's a writer on the show who has like an encyclopedic knowledge of the show and and so we'll just kind of be like joya did we do this and then she'll be like yeah we did this or no we didn't do that um and then also sometimes it'll just be like a control f and we'll search for like a word to see in all the scripts if we if we've done it but yeah it's been it's been really i mean the fun thing about doing 22 is like you You can do like a weird episode that has nothing to do with like the, like overarching plot.

51:38Like you can do kind of fun stuff. I love the Abbott elementary Elseworlds episodes where they, where they, they, they operate out of time and space from the rest of the show. Yes.

51:51Jason Mantzoukas:Now can I, now the question is the janitor, Mr. Johnson, can he go down on anybody? As long as we don't make toys. I think one of the things that is so fun, like a side thing of Justin that is is fascinating is when you play sports with him, tennis, pickleball. He's great. And it came out after I knew him for a while that Justin almost was a professional baseball player. You played baseball in college. You're an amazing pitcher. and you have this like kind of like hidden background of like before comedy writing you were going into like that that was kind of your career focus for a little bit yeah i mean i i want to say i would never have made the major leagues i thought i could but in retrospect i could not have but at the time that was what i wanted to do and that's what i was doing in college and then the third my third my junior year of college i tore my ucl which is like the ligament in your elbow that a lot of pitchers tear when they get Tommy John.

52:56But back in like 2001, when I tore it, the surgery wasn't as good. And you were kind of just like, I was never like a top prospect or anything like that. So for a guy like me to tear it, that was kind of like end of your career.

53:09Jason Mantzoukas:You were telling me one time you went to some sort of baseball camp and you kind of almost realized too, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, no, this is not, I don't want to be doing this. Yeah. Well, the fun thing about the thing people don't understand about baseball players is like it is the most dumb and MAGA group of people like I always joke that if the MLB didn't exist there would have been enough people at January 6th to overthrow the government because it's just like this group of just like meatheads that have just been like eating like beef and corn and like wherever they're from for a really long time and I don't know I just felt like it was like something that it was that coupled with I'd go to these like showcases and I would like be pitching next to somebody in a bullpen.

53:51There's a guy named Mark Pryor who's the Dodgers pitching coach who was like a number one pick. And we were pitching one time in a bullpen next to each other and our, and our, uh, windups like lined up perfectly. And I hear his ball go like, and then like a second later, it's like, like mine. Oh, I'm not going to be a pro. This guy's way better than me.

54:11Jason Mantzoukas:But what, what I do love is this kind of, all of this stuff kind of together forms your new book, Get Lost. So you go back to writing, this is a, this is a, this is not, these are not essays. These are, this is a full, you've read a full mystery that kind of combines bad dads, baseball, comedy, and then a really fun mystery. So Get Lost is this new mystery book that you wrote. What was behind that? Like writing yeah just writing a mystery book well yeah it was it was funny because i had seen an article a while back that in this like small bar in central california that was like literally like the whole bar was like 1500 square feet it was like a tiny diet bar um this guy had walked in the bar and then there was only one entrance and one exit in the back and there was cameras on both sides this guy walked into the bar and then never walked out and no one ever found his body and he was never found again.

55:11So I was like, Oh, wow, this like locked box mystery. And I got kind of interested in that idea. And then I started thinking about like, you know, I, it's all about the characters. And I started thinking about these ideas of like, parental figures and baseball and like, and also this idea of sometimes like, you know, we all have sort of somebody in our life that like, everybody loves, but the people who know that person the best are like, well, that person's kind of a piece of shit. And, and I was like, what would that be like to be like the child of someone that like every it's a vuncular and everybody loves that person but you know that that person is actually a really bad parent um and so i sort of kind of messed around with these characters and put in in this like mystery box and tried to kind of make something fun

55:54Jason Mantzoukas:you did i read it it's great and i feel like i hate comparing things but if you like stuff like carl hyacinth or elmore leonard it feels like that it's very very funny but it it's got this like great page turning energy to it. And it just keeps you guessing the whole way through. And I love the conceit of this, which is like, you have this dad who is this kind of asshole, but like a lovable asshole partnered up with his daughter to figure out where, uh, her mom, his ex-wife has gone because there is, she has disappeared. And, uh, it was, you know, like, it's always not nerve wracking, but even someone asks you to read a book, you're like, okay, I hope I like, you know, I'm going to like it.

56:35Jason Mantzoukas:I'm already in. But I just regardless of you writing it, it was such a fun read. And it has that kind of that energy of those books that I really love that I feel like I don't. Well, I feel like we're also like wonderfully returning to like those kind of stories. Yes. You know, like I feel like we're getting back into and maybe it's just our generation is now, you know, populating our stuff with detective stories and with mysteries in a way that kind of fell off for a little while. Because I've been loving seeing so much of it populating TV shows again. There's a lot of PI stuff. But like this is like to me sounds so funny because I love a a I know this isn't like a lone wolf and cub type of but like a father daughter like it makes me think of nice guys or something like that.

57:25You know, like that's the the Shane Black kind of vibe of fuck up dad and daughter who's trying to keep him on track is pretty terrific. no it's funny you bring that up because when i was writing it anytime i would get stuck and i would just feel like i have a little bit of writer's block i put on nice guys and i would just watch it well i probably watched it like six or seven times over the course of writing the book to just be like oh right it's about these characters it's about the banter between them it's about this relationship you know and and i think that that shane black stuff it's like he does that so well he understands why you're watching the movie and what you want to see Well, and you care so much about those relationships.

58:03You don't just what he does so well is make you care about those people at the center of it and their relationship to each other, not just like, oh, how are they going to get out of this one? I don't know. It's really like, oh, it's character development inside of a forward moving, you know, dangerous crime plot.

58:21Jason Mantzoukas:I love Shane Black and I and I've heard some rumor that there is a lot of forward momentum right now on Nice Guys 2, which would be awesome. I think it's all about getting Ryan Gosling to just agree to do another one. But I think they all really want to do another one because. Oh, it's such a what it's like. One of the great comfort watches that and kiss, kiss, bang, bang are like I've watched them dozens of times. They're so good. I think I get to tell the story on air. It's, it's, it's only puts people in good light. Um, I had, I got to watch a screening of something and it was for me and Shane Black.

59:02Jason Mantzoukas:And, um, and, and at the end, the creator was like, Oh, do you have any, do you have any notes? and the way Shane Black gave notes to me was like Columbo at the end of, um, at the end of a Columbo episode. He's like one foot out the door and go, Oh, and by the way, and then would like lay out the thing and then, and then be like, okay, I gotta go. I really gotta go. And then lean back in. And then, and it was so great to like, listen to him just kind of think about, uh, you know, just creating tension and storytelling. He was already, what we watched was great. So it was just really like, um, just like little finessing touches.

59:41Jason Mantzoukas:And he's so kind of dialed into it, but the image of him literally like standing in a doorway for over 45 minutes, like I'm going, I'm, I'm walking out, I'm walking out. And no one was like pulling him back in. He was pulling himself back in. So it was a great, it was just everything that I wanted from Shane Black. Uh, and not wanting to say too much around it. Cause I was like, I just was so nervous and in awe of him. So the book is coming out. You could pre-order it now. And by the way, if you don't know anything about book sales, it's very important to pre-order. So as you're hearing this, you know, just get it, get it now.

1:00:17Jason Mantzoukas:It's a great summer read, but it's a great anytime read. I think the mystery plays great. And then to your point, like it, I think you have a very clear voice. It doesn't feel like it's copying anything. It just feels like you got this character. I love, I love this dad and I love the daughter and that the fun thing about the daughter is she's not just a straight man to the dad do you have this justin do you feel like this is set up for as a series like do you see this as like a series of books for these two characters or do you feel like this is a one and done you know i've thought about it i'm not quite sure i think like if i thought that if i think that there's sort of more character development to do like to see because really this is about just like The book gets to a place where I think it leaves it at the end a little open-ended in terms of their relationship.

1:01:08And so I think it could. I think it kind of depends on, oh, if I have that story that I really want to tell with these two people. I mean, I'm sure it's the same as you guys. It's like you're working on something and sometimes you're like, oh, I feel like there's more meat on this bone. Or you're like, you know what? This perfect, complete story that I wanted to tell, I told it and I'm done with it. And you kind of have to feel it out.

1:01:29Jason Mantzoukas:Yeah. Um, Justin, you, uh, you're going into also, uh, developing your other, like you've written more books than just shit. My dad says, uh, you wrote this book called I suck at girls, which I also read. And I, I, I talk about this chapter all the time where you worked at Hooters, you worked at a Hooters in San Diego. And that just seems like, like, uh, like such a funny, dumb place to work. But you were kind of working at the height of Hooters. Or is it height? I was. Yeah. It was the height of Hooters. It was one of the grossest places. I was a cook there and I was 19. I can briefly tell you this one story about why you should never go eat it at Hooters.

1:02:13It's just in a disgusting place. And I remember like to the extent that one time I was like in our freezer broke in the middle of the night. So there was like, by the time we came in, there was like seven hours where the food had just sort of like defrosted the fridge and the freezer. So I'm like taking out these wings and they're like, they smell terrible. Like, and they look bad. And I was just going to, I was about to throw them in the trash. And my manager was like, whoa, what are you doing, bud? And I was like, these are bad. And he's like, nah, let me show you a trick. And he like gets this big like paint bucket and he dumps the wings in.

1:02:49And then he pours it. He fills it with water. So the wings are now like floating in this water. And then he takes a cap full of bleach and he pours it into the thing. And then he gets a spoon and he stirs it around like he's like making a witch's brew. And he's like, the bleach kills the germs. Fryer's going to kill everything else. And it's like that. It was so nasty. Yeah. It was vile. It was vile. And like the funniest part about it was this Hooters, it was there for the grand opening of it. and so it hadn't been open yet. So a bunch of people, it was in San Diego, a bunch of people applied, and many of them were not English speakers who weren't from the country to be cooks, and they didn't know what Hooters was.

1:03:32And so then we go to our first date orientation after we've all been hired, and me and all these other cooks walk in, and they were like, what the fuck kind of restaurant is this? All the waitresses and stuff there, too. Yeah, Hooters is a disgusting place.

1:03:48Jason Mantzoukas:I had a very uncomfortable experience, which was, you know, sometimes you're shooting different things in different places. And inevitably, you get out late from shooting and you're like, I just want to eat something. And places are closed. And I forget where I was. And I looked on Yelp and it was like the only place open was this one spot. And it looked like just like a regular bar, an Irish bar. And it was a Tilted Kilt. Sure, I'll go there. And Tilted Kilt is like just another. Another one of them. And I went in there alone, like, late night on a Tuesday. And I needed to be like, oh, I didn't know that I'm like, and it's uncomfortable because it's like, it's nothing like eating alone at a sex forward restaurant.

1:04:36Jason Mantzoukas:I don't know. It's like, it's a very odd, it's an odd choice. It's an odd choice. I think that category might be called breast-traunts. Oh, I think. I think you're right. And I'm being sincere. I don't think I'm not trying to coin that. Because there's the other one that's called Twin Peaks, I believe. Oh, my gosh. It's so funny. There's so many of them. It's such an odd, odd thing. And that the attraction of the chesty waitstaff works in direct opposition to the bleach-filled food. People are like, it is worth it. It is worth it to eat a little bleach. Just a little. And by the way, the fire will kill it all.

1:05:28Jason Mantzoukas:Justin, get lost. Get it now. uh what just real quick before you go uh what are like some things that you you you turn me on to the animated predator show are there anything else anything else you've been watching that you've liked or you've been into shows movies anything yes um i just watched the dark wizard documentary on hbo max have you guys watched that no nope oh it's about this um this like rock climbing base jumper oh yes yeah yeah yeah did you watch it jason no but i heard a npr story about it it's really interesting it's like it starts out as this like oh it's a documentary about an extreme athlete and then it kind of just really gets into like the demons that these guys battle and why they get into it and it's only four episodes and like by the end of it it like really emotionally just like gut punched me in a great way and it was really yeah so i was did you want it's it's in that same i feel like category as uh free solo but but more so than free solo even did you watch the one called the alpinist i did yeah uh it felt like it reminded me of that when they were talking about it on the radio yeah it totally it is there's similar kinds of documentaries just in those types of personalities you know i mean what they're what they're talking about not in terms of the the documentaries themselves but these these people that they're trying to figure out who are very difficult to figure out people and they don't want you to figure them out right what's so kind of interesting about it like well that was the thing about the alpinist is that he stops showing up for his interview he stops in the middle of it he stops participating in the documentary it's really interesting they like couldn't find him anywhere yeah by the way i just watched this weekend the lauren michaels documentary uh lauren how was that it's phenomenal and i think the thing that is so interesting about it to your point about not wanting to be in it he obviously agreed to be in a documentary about him.

1:07:25Jason Mantzoukas:He is not comfortable with it. You see him not being comfortable with it. He won't wear a microphone at certain points. So they just have like shots of him talking. You can't hear what he's saying because they're kind of kept away. There are these like beautiful little set moments where like he's at dinner with Steve Martin and they're just chatting about something. But he's very aware of the camera. And I think that they get embedded with him enough that all of a sudden, and I've read a lot in the last year or so. You know, I read the original SNL book. I read the new SNL book. And I've, like, seen documentaries on Lorne Michaels.

1:08:01Jason Mantzoukas:This is, I think, the best one. And what I realized is, like, oh, Morgan Neville is, like, a real deal guy. Like, he, like, I think that documentaries have been, like, diluted to a certain degree where it's just, like. Oh, absolutely. Because they're all, like, the person being profiled is an executive producer and is participating and everything feels very safe and very like PR coached, you know? Yeah, and he just really, he did an amazing job. The funniest part of this was like, I was doing a book signing of my book at LAX. I was like set up in one of the bookstores over there and he approached me to, he's like, hey, I'm a documentary filmmaker.

1:08:40Jason Mantzoukas:I made this thing and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a fan. And he was like, yeah, I'm doing a thing on Lorne Michaels. Would you ever want to talk about it? I was like, no, never. I would never want to. I was like, I just, I was like, I have, A, I have no insight. And I would be, I, you know, I said, I would feel like the wrath of it. Little did I realize that he was making this definitive documentary, which I would have nothing to add to it. But, uh, but I thought it was like, but the, it's just really well done. I'm, I'm, I was really. Definitely. Yeah. It's cool to capture someone who doesn't want to be captured.

1:09:11Jason Mantzoukas:Like there are moments where he, you could, they put it in the doc where he's walking away from, like, he's walking away from the camera. you see him like glance at it and he's like, and you turns out of the shot. Yeah, it's really, really, really well done. Justin, just because we're promoting your book here, amongst other things, but are there any authors or books that you want to shout out that inform that kind of detective crime, that world? I know Paul mentioned Carl Hiaasen earlier. I don't know if that's big for you. Any of that stuff that you want to shout out? Yeah, I mean, I love Carl Hyson and Elmore Leonard.

1:09:50I mean, I also read a bunch of Elmore Leonard before and during this and tried to like, read enough that I was inspired, but not so much that I start like, unknowingly aping what, what he's done, which is incredible. And I could never even date that if I tried anyway. um definitely those i actually just read a book that i think um you guys would really like um it's called angel down it's by this guy daniel krauss i think he writes movies too i think he writes them with guillermo del toro i think he's written some stuff but it's basically this this book about world war one these there's these guys in this little group are these soldiers in a little group hear some kind of like screaming out in the battlefield and they're being told by the superior you have to go and just put this person out of their misery just go up and shoot them um because the screaming is like affecting the morale of the people in the face and so they go this group of five go and they find this sort of like supernatural being making that screaming and then it's just about what it does to the five of them when they like encounter this being um it's super cool it i think it ended up on like a bunch of best stuff lists yes it's right now it won the

1:11:02Jason Mantzoukas:2026 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Oh, wow. Oh, cool. And they say it's a single, unbroken sentence. The whole novel is that? Yeah, wow. And wait, what's the title again? Angel Down. And is it part of the Gerard Butler White House Down Angel Has Fallen? Is it part of that series? It is. It's the third. Oh, yeah, man. You're definitely going to read it. uh justin alpern thank you so much for being here uh watch abbott elementary get get lost and uh and who's reading your book by the way on audiobook have you got anybody good to read oh yeah i have no idea oh wow we do not know and that's always how is the uh is the position still open i don't think so but we can do it we can do another one yeah i'd love to do an audition a vocal audition right now paul i mean you obviously they would want you to read your book i made it clear that i should not read my own book this is terrible and i don't want to hear it for that many that long so i was just like go go get whoever you're gonna go get i remember when i was recording my book the person who's recording me they were amazing team and they were like oh oh yeah, we just did Stephen Colbert.

1:12:22Jason Mantzoukas:And I was like, oh, did he just write a book? And I was like, no, no, he was reading the Pope's book. So it was like Stephen Colbert. That's so funny. Like that's the Pope's voice of Stephen Colbert. And that was the old Pope. That wasn't even the new, that wasn't even the Chicago one. Yeah, yeah, the old Pope. I thought you meant the American Pope. No, it was, no. I guess it was American Catholic. No, it's just like a funny thing. It was like, yeah, the Pope was like, nah, Stephen Colbert. Nah, he'll do it. He'll knock it out for me. Heavy, big shoes to fill. So anyway, thank you so much, Justin.

1:12:50Okay, well, thank you again to Justin. That was a great chat. We'll have a link to buy his book in the show notes, and you can find a list of our recommendations in the show notes as well. If there's ever anything that Paul and I talk about or that we talk about with a guest, a show, a book, a comic, a podcast, a movie, anything at all, it will be listed in the show notes. Now, it's finally time to announce our next movie, and we'll be kicking off the How Did This Get Made? Extreme Summer with the 2000 mountain climbing action flick Vertical Limit, starring Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney.

1:13:30Boy, I had such a crush on Robin Tunney. Wow, wow, wow. Niagara, Niagara. Incredible movie. And, I mean, one of the greats, Scott Glenn. Here's IMDb's breakdown of the plot. A climber must rescue his sister on the peak of K2, the second highest mountain in the world. This is great. You know, we did Drop Zone. We're really leaning into extreme sports this summer, and that's going to be something you're just going to have to deal with. Rotten Tomatoes rates vertical limit at 49%. Now, here's the thing. I want to just say this out loud. Vertical Limit, the movie we're covering next week with Chris O'Donnell and Robin Tunney and everybody else I mentioned is at 49 % on Rotten Tomatoes.

1:14:16And I want to be clear. The movie is dog shit. It's bad. It's very bad. The House, the movie that I am in with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, last time I checked, was at 16 % on Rotten Tomatoes. In what world? In what world is Vertical Limit at 49 %? What's happening? This is an absolute travesty. Okay, about Vertical Limit, critic Wesley Morris, who I like, from the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote, the mountain rescue movie Vertical Limit doesn't just operate at the height of ludicrousness, it also puts marshmallow Chris O'Donnell in the business of saving lives. I like that. I like calling him a marshmallow because that's about right.

1:15:05Okay, let's listen to the trailer. Scott, I don't want to listen to the trailer. You don't have to listen. You can have them listen to it. Make them suffer through that.

1:15:1926 ,000 feet high. On a rescue mission. You do exactly as I say. 40 degrees below zero. I don't think it's suicide. 22 hours to live. We just leave them up there. What do you call that?

1:15:35Discover the price of survival. Vertical Limit. You can stream Vertical Limit on Netflix or rent it in all the usual places you rent movies, but most importantly, go to your library app. Guys, don't spend money on these movies. Now, you waited and you're going to be rewarded. This is a new segment alert. Here we are. This is the new segment that I'm introducing here at the end of the show. And if you like it and you want more of this, it's always going to be at the very end. This segment is called Five Songs to Add to Your Summer Playlist. Here we go. And I'm going to be up front. Some of these names I'm going to get wrong, but I'm just going to power through.

1:16:20My apologies to anybody whose name I'm mispronouncing, but I'm out here trying to promote new music that everybody can listen to. Okay? And these are songs that are both for getting up, dancing around, enjoying the sun, but also for chill nighttime summer drives. Okay? So here we go. Rala Buccio by Antonio Carlos and Jacofi. This is part of the Jazz is Dead series that Adrian Young and Ali Shahid Mohamed do. All of the releases are incredible, but this one in particular is beautiful. Brazilian music that is dynamite. Okay. World of Trouble, the song by the Mont Vales. The song Love of the Song by Joby Riccio.

1:16:59This one is a band called Kokonaha, and the song is Remena Nuch. The Movers, Tao Special. Charles Brown and Sleepy Creek with the song I Just Want to Talk to You. Dulce Neves, the song is called Tachuba Tachiba. Ned Doheny, Get It Up for Love. Fabio De Nascimento and the Vitor Santos y Orchestra, Spring Theme. And last but not least, Talabe Gebrea and Dalek Band. And this song, I'm really going to butcher. It is Alibek Agnami. Those are five songs. And don't get at me. I know it's more than five songs. But it's five songs to add to your spring or summer mix, depending on when this airs. So that's a new segment.

1:17:51That's it for Last Looks. If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us. Also, make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It really helps the show. It helps the show when you write and review the show. It helps the show when you pass around the clips that we've been putting up on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube. It helps us expand the audience for the show, which we're always looking for. It always makes me happy when people help people find the show. It helps the show, and guess what? We appreciate it. At least Paul and June do. I could give a shit.

1:18:26Visit us on all social media at HDTGM. And, of course, if you want to get at us, if you want to record any songs, just go to birdfuck.com, leave it for the Doughboys, they'll figure out how to get it to us. And we're wrapping it up. Thanks to Scott Sonny and Molly Reynolds, our producers, our engineer Casey Holford, our social media manager Zoe Applebaum, And listen, we will, of course, always be thankful for and indebted to the one and only Averill Halley. It's absolutely almost impossible to do this without her. We miss her every day. We'll see you next week for Vertical Limit. As always, disconnect the Discord and wherever you are, eat shit.

1:19:10Hey, everyone, it's Kelly Ripa and season four of Let's Talk Off Camera is here. No glam, no script, just real conversations, honest stories, and plenty of laughs. Every week, we're bringing you candid conversations, behind-the-scenes stories, and the kind of unfiltered talk you only get off-camera. With guests like Oprah, Kate Hudson, Nikki Glaser, and more, you never know where the conversation will go. Catch new episodes of Let's Talk Off Camera wherever you get your podcasts. You've never been one to settle, stand down, or stand still. You're a lifelong learner, energized by excellence. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore.

1:19:50You've got competition to outrun, momentum to build on, and your own high standards to meet. Stop now? Not a chance. At Capella University, we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now, go earn the degree. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more.