Last Looks: Jack's Back w/ Tom Scharpling

27:12Jason Mantzoukas:For the last 25 years, this man has been running. Truly a pioneering show. I'm not even going to call it a podcast because it didn't even start as a podcast. It started a radio show. This is entertainment. It is every Tuesday. It's live. It's great. Tom Sharpling happy 25 years of the best show wow wow that's too much I did something wrong clearly I mean this is the thing about you Tom and this show you're a radio man you're a radio man yeah I'm just an old DJ sitting in the Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti yes oh in the dark popsicles what Tom just because I feel like the show is such a phenomenal meld of whatever you're interested in doing in that moment and talking through bits or talking through bits like what what did you listen to like was there stuff that you were you someone who was like oh I am like listening to Phil Hendry or I am listening to you know Or is it like just a regular, it's Howard Stern or it's like terrestrial radio or whatever?

28:35Yeah, it was a lot of different things. It was, I didn't listen to Phil Hendry. That was a West Coast thing. And I was New Jersey. And then when I heard about Phil Hendry, I was like, strangely enough, I was like, I don't want to hear it because I feel like it would be too much of an influence. I've kind of never heard Phil Hendry to this day. How about Joe Frank? Have you heard Joe Frank? I heard plenty of Joe Frank on WFMU because they aired Joe Frank on WFMU. That's how I used to listen to it. It was incredible. And Joe Frank was about what you could do with audio to me in terms of like, he was doing a completely different thing that I would never even be able to do.

29:18But I knew it was like, oh, this guy's taking full advantage of the medium. And that was the exciting part of that.

29:25Jason Mantzoukas:And for people who've never heard the show, I just want to give them an idea of what they're in store for for every episode or at least the idea. Like you're going to come in with a topic, whatever that topic might be. You're going to introduce a topic. You're going to be talking to people. And then somewhere in the middle of the show, you're going to get a phone call from an interesting character. Somebody who might you think, oh, this person, this is calling in. A lot of them have hailed from New Bridge, New Jersey. And you'll interact with this character. And this is like the centerpiece of the show where it's like when I first started to listen to you, I was on these CDs.

29:59Jason Mantzoukas:I had these CDs, the best of these phone calls. It's you and John Worcester, who you might know as the used to be the drummer for Super Chunk. And these are some of the funniest big sketches. They remind me of Nichols and May. They remind me of, you know, interview with the, you know, was it 1000 year old man or 2000 year old man? You know, like it has that vibe where it's like these long 30, 40 minute bits that they start off in one direction and then they just morph and you're just in this zone and these characters come back. It's so much fun to listen to and opposed to many other shows and even Phil Hendry himself.

30:38Jason Mantzoukas:It's just you and John. So it really is this duo. It's a really, you know, it's not like, oh, and next week you have been so-and-so and they're doing a funny call. I think that that's one of the things that makes the show kind of so fun and unique, too. Oh, well, thank you. That's yeah. No, John and I hit on something early and other, like there were stretches where other people called in and do funny stuff. Um, like John Benjamin would do stuff, uh, Sam Cedar and John Glazer and Andy Earls. And, but then there was a point where I was just like, the thing that me and John are doing is the thing.

31:14and I kind of need to just focus on that being the thing. And doing that was just kind of validated the thing that me and John have. And then we were just partners forever.

31:28Jason Mantzoukas:It's so fun. Just listen to it. Listen to a best show. You're 25 years. You're going on the road. I'm very excited about it. We're going to do the Bell House and New York and LA and Chicago and Philadelphia. It'll be super fun. Because we don't, we're, John lives in North Carolina and I used to live in New Jersey and I lived in, now I'm in Los Angeles. So we've never done the show from the same place outside of like a very small window where John lived in New York. But we're not together for the most part. And this will be us being together. So it's pretty rare. So it's really unique. Yeah, that's cool.

32:04I would love to see that. That's great.

32:06Jason Mantzoukas:These shows are 1011, 1012, 1013, 1015, and 1021. That's Brooklyn, Philly, LA, and Chicago. Now I do, I want to go in a different direction just for a second. For people who don't know, not only are you this showman, but you also are a great writer. You've written many television episodes. You've created shows. But the thing I think about a lot, and I was referencing it just the other day, was you wrote a script for Grown Ups 3

32:40Jason Mantzoukas:on spec. Just, you embrace the universe and got a Grown Ups 3 spec out there, which I have to say, it was one of those bits. I mean, is it a bit? I mean, is it? I don't know. Is it a bit? I don't, you know, it could work. It could work. This Grown Ups 3 could work. I was going through a thing at a point and, you know, it came down to ultimately was, you know, know when you make a joke with a friend and then you're just like oh what if this existed can you imagine that and you joke about it and you laugh and then there's always that moment where you're just like what if i actually did write that and then you're like no i'm not gonna actually do that but then i was like yeah i'm kind of got some free time right now and i'm enjoying being by myself like it was not a great stretch so i just spent a weekend and i wrote it over a weekend i wrote like this 55 page script in like two days it just poured out and then it was jason jason walner who was the person i was joking about it with and then i was like hey jason i wrote that script and then and i sent it to him and he was like this is insane oh my god and then i started sending it around and then people are like it turned into like this weird rorschach test with adam sandler some people were just like read it and then they go oh my god i hate adam sandler so much and i can tell how much you hate him because of this script and other people were like man i love those movies too and i can just see there's so much love for what he does in here like people saw what they wanted to see in it it was really fascinating well i think that you captured a tone that is And I guess either way that you look at it, I go to the mat for Hubie Halloween.

34:31Jason Mantzoukas:I think it really made me laugh. It's a very funny movie. And people get mad at me for saying that, but I am not taking it back. Well, they should not get, Paul, they got to cut you some slack with this. You know what you're talking about. It's a fun movie. Fun. It's fun. I will not. I will not stand here and let you guys promote Hubie Halloween one more second. because we all know the hubel it should be that's true by the way uh we're not just referencing something you cannot read uh the yeah if you go to the the best uh best show for life website you can read grown-ups three it's uh yeah around yeah it yeah it was one of those things where like it started to like make it make the rounds a little bit yeah and then people who were in it some people reddit who are in it that's what i was gonna wonder next yeah i know nick swartzen read it he was just like this is funny he said there's a funny script blown around grown-ups three and then um david spade i heard reddit and thought it was funny but then there was the point when talking to adam mckay and he's just like should i send it to sandler and then i was like oh i don't know about that i don't know and then it made it to adam sandler through another channel through more of like through the safety channel that i have and more or less i i think it might have it might have it might i don't know how it got there but i know that someone in that camp heard him at one point go what's the deal with this grown-up street thing like like quite a bit of your grown-ups three script ended up in uncut gems right pretty much i i'm right now arbitrating with the writers guild about no it was oh they've got our best interest yeah it didn't of course they do no we were heading back out guys to get your signs i've got a few quips ready and i'm ready to start walking on the 101 on the new the new picket line oh my god when i walked i was i walked the picket line over by warner no no by universal by universal and it was like first of all i'm watching everybody oh jay leno pulled up and had hot dogs or whatever and oh here's so and all these famous people i walked that universal picket line first of all almost got hit by a car every day it's it was directly off the 101 people are pulling off that lancashim ramp as if they're still on the highway um didn't they cut back the trees there too so you guys would have no shade i think that was the warner brothers one where they cut the trees okay yeah but this one they didn't have to do anything to make this any worse this was just bad you know when you go past universal studios and there's that giant hill that goes up and like you're gonna drive to the to the city walk or whatever it's like that's where we were picketing i was there so many times the only star power i ever saw at it was one sklar brother and you couldn't tell which one it was jason i could tell thankfully i could tell i could tell because he was wearing glasses yeah and that's the trick with the sklar brothers yes can't tell what jason he has glasses on j-a-s-o-n that's how you oh wow okay got it makes me sound like tony robbins or something with like mind gymnastics.

38:07That was it. One Sklar brother once. Also, he didn't come back. He was like, this sucks. Nobody cool here.

38:15Jason Mantzoukas:Now, I will say I did hear he got hit by a car. So this is... Rest in power. Tom, the other thing that I feel like I just want to mention. I texted you about this. Now, Jason, you may not even know this. You know, Tom has a new show. uh i did not know this a show with natasha leone and matt berry can you tell us a little bit about this show because it it is it got me so pumped uh when i heard about it but yeah i'll let you pitch it yeah for like a couple years i've been working on this thing the idea of like doing this retro the word retro is getting thrown around with it because it's it's funny and stupid and that apparently means retro now because people don't want to be both of those things well now people People just are very comfortable with stupid, but they don't want funny anymore.

39:03Well, it's funny because... It's retro to be two things at once.

39:06Jason Mantzoukas:I was talking to somebody the other day who said that now, whenever you're talking about a comedy, you have to say it's meta. It's not meta, it's a comedy. I guess it's meta if you are treating it like a drama? Yeah, honestly, I'm not sure where people's heads are at with any of these things now. it's just it's like i thought like we all talked about it matt and me and um matt's producing partner about a show that would be british guy american woman teaming up to solve crimes and it was like it was like a stupid heart to heart to me like right like thinking of the legendary show heart to heart which robert wagoner and stephanie powers stephanie uh adam scott and i did that uh the greatest event in the history of television where we recreated the opening of the heart heart uh theme song very action-packed skiing boating you know it's it's it's like uh yeah little spies little spies run around doing fun stuff it's the kind of show where um a friend of mine described it as uh there's a crime scene and then they show up he's in like a tuxedo and she's in an evening gown and they're like what seems to be the problem here officer like they're just inserting them like like if two fancy people show up at a crime scene like get get out of here go away what are you you can't come over here but they do they let them it's kind of like an 80s riff on the thin man in a way right like you know like yeah without but in the thin man they're drunks and they're whatever and they used to be detectives these people they seem to be just living the high they're stepping out a dynasty in a way and then just kind of solving crimes.

40:51Yeah, it's going to be like old TV in the fact that it's going to just be, it's going to be really funny. And it's going to be kind of like if you put a Roger Moore era, James Bond with like a, another person who's a lot tougher and stronger. So it's kind of, I love it.

41:13Jason Mantzoukas:Is it kind of, I mean, if we're talking, I mean, I know it's different than Natasha, but like the way Roger Moore kind of teamed up with Grace Jones, an interesting pairing there. Yeah. It's going to be, I think it's going to really be funny and we're going to shoot it in Europe next year. So that'll be its own thing. Oh, that's cool as hell. Yeah. So I'm really looking forward to it. It's pretty exciting. And it's like the best actors you could ever ask for. Matt Berry is the funniest. Heart to heart with Natasha and Matt Berry is, I mean, like in that vein is that, that, that already has gotten me.

41:51Jason Mantzoukas:Yeah. It gets me very, very excited. I am excited that you were doing this and you know, maybe if he gets enough traction, then maybe that grownups three script can go. Cause I'm going to tell you, uh, my kids can't get enough of these grownups movies. We've, I've watched, uh, grownups one and two, I would say conservatively in the last month, five times each. Okay. Yeah. Oh my God. That's a lot. That's too much. Getting a new pair of glasses can make you feel like a completely new person. Wireframes and suddenly, what, you're doing the crossword every day? And a pair of gradient aviators? Come on, man.

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44:54For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has helped people keep their promises, building confidence for generations. Whether you're confident in your financial future or just beginning to envision it, we're here to help. Ask a financial professional how. Pacific Life, the power of a promise. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska, and in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona. Tom are there any albums you want to recommend right now Oh yeah well that's a good question I feel like now I'm in a weird lame stretch and I'm just looking at albums on my floor I'm gonna say both of us are huge Destroyer fans Yeah Wait what did you decide will you be seeing him this Thursday I'm still not sure yet whether I'm gonna see Pulp or Destroyer good good i mean it's a good problem to have yes exactly i will be a destroyer very excited and one of my absolute favorite records of the year dan's boogie yeah so amazing and he finds like another gear it's imagine if people when they can't figure out destroyer it's like think about if bob dylan changed his sound every time he put an album out like yes that's what if he stayed bob dylan yes but sometimes made a david bowie record exactly and it just sometimes it was a record with a cheap keyboard and sometimes it's a record with the e street band it sounds like sometimes it's a record with frog eyes yeah it's just yep by the way if bob dylan made a record with frog eyes i would be thrilled um new album from the band wednesday is fantastic and i will also shout out the band sharp pins steve gunn album is great which what is steve gunn has an instrumental oh yeah that's really beautiful and it's literally meant for us it's called music for writers i love that nice ambient stuff and i mean as as he does it's beautiful so great tom i always ask

46:57Jason Mantzoukas:jason this but like how do you find it like how do you like how are you finding music you just um it's funny because i am writing a book about music now and that's one of the things i'm trying to write about is like not giving up on finding like how to not give up on music as you get older and not just like stay in your comfort zone this is i also talk about this all the time how do you especially with the death of those curatorial places that we used to go to yeah be they record stores like other music or aquarius records in san francisco any of those places that helped recommend those have all gone away they have but they haven't all gone away you could go to gimme gimme and gimme gimme in la and they'll tell you about anything there's smart people working there and i really just think you just have to pay attention a little bit and sometimes it can be as simple as if you're on a streaming service and there's you're listening to something you like just look for the thing they recommend that you never have heard of and just got it go down that road and if you keep going down a road past that you get somewhere else and like if you go oh well what would i listen what would the people who like this also like then you listen to that then what would the people who like this now you're out in the woods and you're finding new things and i think one of the things that i've had success with in the band camp ecosystem ecosystem is is band camp will show if i bought um a record if i bought the the steve gunn record that tom just held up yeah it might show me other people who've bought that record and what else what else have they bought so it's also oh somebody who listens to that steve gunn record they might also have this riley walker record or this bill mckay record that i also like instrumental guitar music okay cool you know yeah absolutely that's get on this i i feel myself like flailing in this world because i just i never i gotta i gotta do some more exploration and and that's where my my downside is i used to love and listen and find and and now it's it's bad for me well there's also things like the other thing i would recommend is like look at who opens for people when they do the whole tour not like the band that just got thrown on for one night it's like look who bands bands and acts you like see who they pick because that works even on the biggest possible scale you could find right it's just like oh well sabrina carpenter opened for taylor swift it's just like that's how people found out like it goes as high up as that but it it kind of works if the band respects somebody there's something there that's worth checking out if you love the band the headliner so much and then also just just like pay there are still record labels you can pay attention to that still tracks to some degree and just find also find a venue like like if you're in this area there's a place in pasadena called healing force of the universe that it's a record store during the day and at night they have shows and they just have a certain type of show there they have stuff that's a little more mellow and And maybe kind of, you know, look, folky is a bad word for some people, but it's not a bad word.

50:23But they have really nice stuff happening there. And you just can look at the other bands that play there. Go to their website and see what their calendar is. And even if you're not looking to go to shows, just check out the names. See who's headlining. Listen to a couple songs by people. You can get there. It does take a little more work, but you can also take advantage of the fact that you can hear things like that. You don't have to go buy an album and find out you think somebody sucks actually. Yeah, you can be exposed immediately rather than, oh, I read about this record. Now it's going to take me a week to actually hear a cut from it.

51:03Exactly. Now you've got to remember what you were trying to check out. it's like the chaos that has happened there's still patterns in the chaos that you can you can

51:13Jason Mantzoukas:take advantage of and utilize you know for me i what i do is you know i go to the record store from freak your friday you know where chad michael murray worked and i'm like you know i want to see uh you know i kind of that's the record parlor and i kind of check out there and kind of get those vibes going and you know and find some new bands and get some stuff like that you know that's where I'm at I think Paul I think you've got it all figured out I would rescind everything I said you know I saw it seemed like there's some cool stuff going on there some neat stuff um if you want to hear more of Tom and us of course you can listen to our Avengers episode Uma Thurman Rafe uh finds uh and we did that live in New York with you that's right um and Listen, people should listen for the moment when the crowd realizes that I was the surprise guest.

52:02And you hear the room just deflate that they're like, oh, I don't know who that is.

52:13Jason Mantzoukas:You know him as the host of The Best Show. Please welcome Tom Sharpling.

52:29Jason Mantzoukas:Welcome, Tom. Welcome. Have a seat right there. All right. How are you, Tom? I'm good. Listen to that completely measured applause of me being here. They heard Tom, and then the only thing they wanted to hear after that was... Cruise! Mess Middle Ditch. And then it's like, oh, no. if you listen to it, it really feels like... You can hear the oxygen leave the room. You hear, I think you can hear the people leave the room, actually. You hear chairs. That was the episode where by the end of the show, the recording, you had walked the whole room. It's a classic, a classic. But outside of that, it's a classic episode.

53:16Jason Mantzoukas:Tom, you're the best. Thank you so much. We will be listening to you and seeing you out on the road. Best show live in October, Brooklyn, Philly, LA, Chicago. So good. I cannot wait. Congratulations, Tom. Thank you. Thank you both. You're the best. And thanks for not retiring like that. Mayor Nick Coward only did 15. He only did two episodes a week for 15 years. You're like, what a, what a tourist. He, he didn't have it. Apparently he only had the president. in his garage. Thank you, Tom, for joining us. And by the way, a shout out to Rob from Long Island doing double duty with that great introduction segment for Just Chat.

54:02Jason Mantzoukas:Now, if you want to go see Tom on the road, just go to thebestshow.net and click on the link for tickets. You know, it works. You know, websites work. You're there. Thebestshow.net. Get your tickets to see Tom on the road. And you might even see me and Jason in the crowd in Los Angeles. All right. Now's the moment you've all been waiting for, it's time to announce our next movie. That's right. We're going to be going from a scare with a noose to a bear on the loose. That's the kind of wordplay that this show is known for. I love it. Next week, we'll be kicking off a month of spooky movies with 1983's Grizzly 2, The Revenge.

54:43Jason Mantzoukas:I will note that some streaming services do list the year of released as 2020. However, it was filmed in 1983, but not released for 37 years. Yes, Grizzly 2, The Revenge, was released in 2020, but not released for 37 years. And I don't know why, because check out this cast. George Clooney, Laura Dern, and Charlie Sheen, kind of. Okay, IMDb describes a movie like this. All hell breaks loose when a giant grizzly reacting to the slaughter of other grizzlies by poachers attacks a massive big band rock concert in the national Park. Holy shit. I am excited. Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie an 8 % rotten.

55:39Jason Mantzoukas:And Adam Patterson from Film Pulse says Grizzly 2 is a dreadful experience, but it's an oddly fascinating one as well. Take a listen to the trailer. What happened now? Grizzly killed again. Three kids this time. I don't want a cloud of fear on this concert. Now you get that, Grizzly, and get it now.

56:04The grizzly we're seeking is huge. And probably enraged.

56:11Jason Mantzoukas:You can stream Grizzly 2 The Revenge on Netflix, Hoopla, Tubi, the Roku channel, Pluto TV, and Plex. Or you can rent it on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. In addition to Hoopla, I encourage you to check out your other great free media services offered by your local library like Canopy and Libby. People, that's it for last looks. Make sure you get your How Did This Get Made and Dinosaur tickets on the East Coast for November. And if you're listening to this show right now, make sure that you are rating and reviewing it so you can come see How Did This Get Made in Philadelphia and New York and feel like, yeah, I'm up to date on everything, like what movies that we're doing.

56:51Jason Mantzoukas:We haven't announced it yet, but stay tuned. All right. So, people, we'll see you on social media at HDTGM. That's how we do it. And a big thank you to our producers, Scott Sonni, Molly Reynolds, and our movie picking producer, April Halley, and our engineer, Casey Holford. We'll see you next week for Grizzly 2, The Revenge. Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard, but not the pipeline? That's bull spend, and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions. My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had. Impressions. Cut the bull spend.

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