955. - Jeremy Sisto

25:23I like the show. I like what I do on it. And so I feel super grateful. But yeah, that Paul Rudd movie that I just did, that was the first time I've done really a movie in quite some time and an independent movie. And that's the kind of stuff I watch. I like really weird, arty movies, whatever. Sure. And so it was it was nice to sort of jump back into that thing. Kind of a little more stressful, I guess, because being on my show is, you know, I don't watch my show that much. Like I can't follow procedurals very well. I forget the names. So I'm not smart enough for my own show. But because of that, I also like, all right, I'm not exactly the audience.

25:59So I really, you know, couldn't kind of pay attention to the writers and the people who really understand this genre. and um and it yeah it gives me a chance it gives me a real safe place to play and i'm still i still am trying to you know surprise myself that's the whole thing for acting with me and that's you know i'm trying to surprise myself there yeah but this other thing you have a script you know we were trying to tell the story for a long time and you know i didn't really want to play this character in this movie because it was he was kind of a dick and like it was like i just didn't want to get i don't know i was like if this is going to work i got to be really mean to this kid and it's got to feel like i really am not they're like bro yeah that's the whole thing you're acting you're like no i know i know but i really just don't okay so so typically

26:44Jason Stewart:i mean i'm sure it's not unusual for an actor to be given a role that you don't necessarily want to do for you know whatever reason but then they write you a check for an amount of money where you say okay i'm willing to do that but for this indie flick i'm assuming there wasn't a pot of gold on the other end of the other line to convince you so then was it just like you know i like the script and everything's gonna be all good and i get to work with my bro i mean i don't i don't say no i'm not good at saying no like i just it's not been great for my career arguably but i just uh you know you you offer anything and i'm like hmm minnesota you know where you go where you guys from uh i'm from atlanta and jason's from la yeah but they're like you want to go to you know jacksonville for three weeks to play some like serial killer and i think i can make something out of that that's how i've always been but once i had kids it's a little it's a little different it's like playing poker you're like i can't sit at a poker table all night while my kids are at home sleeping but um but this one was no i i i wanted to do this one it was just i didn't know if i could like pull it off and um without a feeling one note and and you know i I felt like there was going to be a pull for me to try to be nicer.

27:59Jason Stewart:So what did you do to channel whatever you needed to channel to yell at a 12-year-old neurodivergent child whose dog was lost? Please don't condescend our plot, okay? I'm not condescending the plot. I'm saying like— That is actually hard to do. If you're a person with a heart, that's a hard thing to do. I don't care how actory— I know it's acting, but I mean, I'm sure the first, I mean, I would be able to do it and I'm not an actor, but I'm sure the first few takes would be like, I'm sorry. I'm just finding my place of how to yell at a wonderful, innocent child. I mean, I guess it just, I felt like the only way it could work.

28:41And it was different than the book. The book, the father, he kind of seems like he enjoys being an asshole and he's more fun to watch. to the watch, but it was kind of necessary for this guy, I think for the audience to come around and sort of for there to be any kind of inspiring, you know, um, arc there was that he was really miserable, you know, really just really suffering and, and broken and, and, uh, and yeah, and, and honestly, yeah, I mean, I, I've never been like a methody guy or whatever that is, but, uh, But I was, you know, going through some of my own stuff and there was some stuff that I knew I should do to kind of get my mental health together.

29:24And I made the, you know, not something I'd suggest, but I made the choice to be like not deal with it intentionally. Oh, to pump it into this. Yeah. And so I was miserable. It wasn't a fun time. I was miserable because the side effect of doing that was also just feeling insecure and not knowing what to end. I'm on set with all the drama of an independent film. And so it wasn't until a couple nights ago that I saw it that I was like, okay, maybe I made the right choice. Because afterwards I was like, I don't know if I should have done that or not. Maybe being confident kind of helps too. But I feel like it worked for this one.

30:03And so it was one time. I mean, I guess early in my career, there were some times where certain experiences sort of aligned with what was going on on screen. But this one definitely had that feel. I'm always fascinated with the method thing and how much sort of lore it has around it and how it's sort of like become a thing that like regular people talk about when we don't really know what it's like. You know, like being around someone like that is probably terrible. And that's what the stories always are. But it feels like it's really like taken seriously, I guess, by novices as well as the actors themselves.

30:36Well, definitely when I moved out in the 90s, you know, I moved out. It was the whole Leo DiCaprio. I mean, it's a big group of kids that, you know, some have had amazing careers, others have not. But we all were there from wherever the hell in our hometowns. And we're coming out there with our trying to make something. And at the time, there was just a, you know, people were enamored with acting because, you know, Brando and also, you know, Val Kimmer. It was like, you kind of needed to be a dick. Temperamental meant you were brilliant. And the acting was this like magic trick almost. And, and method was there.

31:10I didn't know what the hell it was, but I remember, I remember getting a studio movie, uh, called Hideaway with Jeff Goldblum, who you guys had on. It was a great interview. And, uh, and I remember one of the executives coming to me and he was like, I'm so glad, you know, all of the actors are method. And I'm like, um, I don't know what I'm doing. And so it was hard in the beginning because, uh, you know, I'd finished a scene and I I'd be like, I don't know what just happened, but it definitely didn't feel like I, you know, I elevated or something. So maybe I'm doing this wrong. But you know what?

31:42Like Christian Bale said something that was right. There's a different kinds. Like Daniel Day-Lewis, there's only a few actors that really like change their whole personalities. They're like half characters, half, you know, but really deeply felt. And Christian Bale said, you know, he had to stop doing it on this one movie because he talked to Chris Rock, who was in the movie, and hung out with him as Christian, just, you know, shooting the shit, and then went into the scene, and then he couldn't stop talking to Chris Rock, which I get that. And so that's kind of what I did in this. I was like, try not to talk to people, try to just keep my own thing, because if I start, I have the need to take care of people around me, and if I can just stay in my own weird little world, then, you know, then it'll be easier to not, you know, yeah yeah not at not talk to them or something something like that so that part of it i can get

32:33Jason Stewart:but that's not method either no i think part of being method means you don't want other people to talk to you and you create your own little bubble and you know i got to focus on the art and anything else is just getting in the way i'm i'm living off the ground i live with no electricity and i'm playing abraham lincoln so i smoke a pipe that's like a little but i guess in the night do you think there was a do you think the trend of that when you were coming up do you think that was from like a particular teacher was that like coming from somewhere or was that just you know what i mean yeah i i think i think now i think because we've that bubble has officially popped i think it's because it was a very profitable thing and so this this award this prize is if you were able to achieve something in this this particular art then not only would you be rich and famous but you any you could do anything there was like this free pass and that's that's why me me too is probably a pretty good thing to stop some of that stuff but there was this sense of like it being it being really really meaningful um yeah yeah and i don't know i don't know where that where that came from i think it came from a lot of things it was fueled by you know all of our young you know um you know desire for life and storytelling so it connects to people in so many different ways and i don't know but it's definitely different and i'm glad it i'm glad it is because um because it was weird it was weird i mean that era though i also feel like how competitive was it amongst the homies because i feel like at a certain point i've heard stories like this before and i feel like at a certain point all these guys all of you are kind of trying to do the same thing to some extent and people are telling everybody they can do the same thing but then obviously people go in different directions yeah i'm sure it's pretty competitive i mean it's it's it's not i mean i don't know it's different for everyone but competitive to me yeah i i definitely come you know had a tendency to compare myself and and feel you know feel bad if somebody somebody got something good i'd be like yeah i mean i did i did this i got i went to for days to confuse i was freaking 17 or something i i've told the story before but i fly out to do the test reading right and and it's me and one other kid jason jason london who was happened to be dating my sister at the time and i was having to be staying with him and uh and it was between him and me for the role and then we got it's like all the people in the movie are there and a bunch of other people just hanging around all day long this is what they used to do and uh and then towards the end of the day i'm starting to realize oh it's going the other way and then i wander into the casting office like that nobody's in there and i look at like the the casting sheet that they put out and the character is a jeremy sister type so he wrote the role for me and i didn't get it i just remember going back to jason's house and like desperately trying to be happy for him yeah yeah yeah yeah so uh so you you and him don't talk anymore since then i'm assuming no i've done everything in my power to get back at him no every day is another opportunity to get back at jeremy london it was Jason London oh Jason I'm sorry Jeremy Sisto type you know anyone but actual Jeremy Sisto because they would always say we can't afford him or we can't get something like that but I really feel like it's just like we want somebody like him but there's always an additional whatever the XYZ is the XYZ was I was I didn't know what I was doing You know, I did a movie when I was 16 and I think I'm weird and awkward in it.

36:18But, you know, there was a bunch of people that saw it and they're like, oh, that's like my kid or they connected to it in a way. And then I move out there and like, they're like, I'm like, I'm going to be an actor. And everyone's like, acting is a really deep thing. And I'd go to these classes and I'm like trying to like, you know, do these weird things in my head to try to make it right. Yeah. You know, and so I completely went away from, you know, what I wanted to do, what I felt about it. And so I was just kind of bad for a while. And there was a passing director who didn't want to see me for a long time.

36:53This is funny, too. So, okay, I was young. I was really insecure. And I was 19. I was finishing that Jeff Goldblum movie. I came back down. And I was like, sure, I grew in that. And my career was about to be over. And just huge imposter syndrome. And I walked into this audition for this movie with Drew Barrymore that they wanted to cast me in. And as I'm leaving, I'm realizing that I just sort of became Jeff Goldblum during the whole reading. like I was doing a weird Jeff Goldblum imitation. You'd spent too much time with Goldblum and it rubbed off on you. And for some reason, that pissed off that casting director quite a bit or she never wanted to see me again.

37:35I'm not sure why, but yeah.

37:37Jason Stewart:So it seems like you had the gift of, you know, acting naturally, inherently already inside of you. And then, you know, the system sort of sucked that out of you. And then how many years were you sort of trying to figure out how to be an actor, even though you already were good at it before you just went back to being your damn self. Your version, yeah. Well, it's not a real thing. Acting isn't actually a thing, you know? I say this all the time and people get mad at me. I don't understand what's the problem. There's no thing that anybody is good. Everyone's good. Well, some people are better at sociopathy than others and it just kind of comes naturally and, you know, it is what it is.

38:17It is exactly what you make it to be, you know? And I enjoy doing it. It's healthy for me to do it. And I love watching it if it's done right, if it tells a story that's interesting to me. But yeah, I don't, I just needed to like forget all the stuff. And right before I went to start taking these classes, I remember my friend Jake Kasdan, who was the director of my first movie, Son, who's a great director himself, called me with another friend and then tried to talk me out of going to classes. And I should have listened to them because, you know, I went through these years, you know, just trying to do the things they were telling me to do, and it just didn't work for me.

38:59And finally, I was just like, all right, if I'm going to do something as silly as acting, if I'm going to have the luck to actually keep getting jobs too, it's ridiculous to not just do it the way I want to do it, the way I can do it. You know, why try to do something you can't do? It's like I do these voiceover auditions, and I try to do funny voices and it just does not work. Is the voiceover career booming? Booming. No, I haven't had a job in years, but I wasn't Frozen 2 and Ferdinand. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. It was amazing.

39:32Jason Stewart:As a podcaster, that seems like the natural sort of exit strategy or third act to get into it, but I feel it's always such a highly guarded industry because celebrities are money for little work, you know. I had a great Advil for like a few years. You know, I'd go in once a year and be like, take Advil, take action, do the same thing. And I'd be like, whatever you want me to, I'll stay longer. And then they let me leave. I made sandwiches. I'll stay longer. Guys, I'm happy to hang out. Dying for that. Now Will Arnett's eating everyone's fucking VO lunch, huh? Yes. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by CarGurus.

40:13for all of our four-wheeled friends out there. I know you're looking to cop, you know what I mean? Whether it's a new car, a used car, a semi-used car, lightly used car. Looking for a 90s G-Wagon. It's a pain in the ass, often. It really is a pain in the ass. But luckily here at How Long Gone, we have the solution for you, and that is CarGurus. Car shopping made for you. With CarGurus, search in your own words using the new search feature, Guru. Not to be confused with the hip-hop producer. With Guru, you can look for vehicles based on the way that you think using your own words. Whether you want great gas mileage for road trips or extra trunk space for the whole squad, simply type in and Guru will give you real listings that match.

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41:41Jason Stewart:Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus at cargurus.com. Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That is C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S.com, cargurus.com. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to us by our friends at Dart Collective. I think we can all agree that wedding music is typically quite lame, cheesy, and it doesn't represent the bride and groom's personal music taste. Luckily, Dart works with actual musicians and artists, many of whom have their own productive careers or tour in bands you've heard of. Everyone from Leon Bridges to Taylor Swift. Dart DJs use vinyl and are cool in a way that your peers would be, not a dated Carnival Cruise performer.

42:27They even have an in-house stylist to make sure all personnel look perfect on the day. Dart travels all over the world for events from Morocco to Italy, Greece, and the Maldives. Dart has done huge celebrity events and also intimate ones.

42:39Jason Stewart:Yeah, Chris, I am personally friends with Michael from Dart, and I have worked with them for years. I think the last time I did a big one, we did the Sweet Green wedding. they set up a beautiful booth for the you know for the ceremony just some cocktail music some vinyl some cool vibes and then they set up a whole big tent with a crazy bumping sound system for me to play in later these guys are great a lot of people always ask me like hey you know do cool wedding djs exist do cool event people exist the cool part about dart is they'll work with people like me to come and dj your party as well as provide all the gear and all the consulting and all that stuff.

43:22Jason Stewart:So if you don't know who to hire for your event, Dart Collective is the one. Dart, just like throwing a dart, dash collective.com. And as for Mike, his email address is michael at dart-collective.com. Tell them we sent you. So if you have an event coming up this summer, Dart Collective is where you go. Hi, TalkHouse Network listeners. It's your old friend, Nels Klein from Wilco here. Wilco is touring this summer and we'd love to see you somewhere on the road. We're playing shows this June and July in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Chautauqua, New York, Lafayette, New York, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Vienna, Virginia, Forest Hills, New York, Portland, Maine, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Memphis, Tennessee, La Grange, Georgia, Charleston, south carolina virginia beach virginia wheeling west virginia and columbus ohio plus there are even more dates some with willie nelson that i didn't even mention here so please go to wilkoworld.net to see the full list of dates we'll see you on the road this summer i wondered who because i feel like who i feel like john ham does a lot as well and you like it's sneaky but i mean i feel like there's no better job in the world in the 90s you couldn't do that as a celebrity you couldn't do commercials you couldn't do it was a it was now japan now the only way you know an actor is doing really well like they just popped in something as if they're in a walmart you're either getting divorced or you just had a hit those are the two ways to know sky rizzy gig things must be going pretty well over there oh okay huh prep you are doing well which is a which is a damn shame being a celebrity meant you know doing an ad for any brand even even gucci or something was sort of like he's a fucking sellout yeah and nowadays you have you absolutely have to do that because everyone is just like well why don't we just have clothing brands and walmart and advil you know pay these people's salaries and we can just say like oh it's just such a crazy time with the budget it's a crazy time it's sad i mean yeah it's definitely the other side of the coin where it's like you know you start to take these people that were really inspiring to you.

45:40And then you see them on a selling. Don't do this. Don't do this. I bought an espresso because of George Clooney. So I'm telling you right now. So it works. I was on the line and then I saw George and I was like, you know what? I'm going to look rich. I'm going to live in Lake Como. I just need an espresso.

45:56Jason Stewart:But also we do the same thing as podcasters. Like we, you make the money from the brand deals. You do your ads pretty well. I mean, I fast forward through most of them, but the stuff I hear when it pops in, it's you guys do well. We try a little more than others, but as a podcaster or any type of content creator, a musician or an actor, you have multiple revenue streams coming in, and those brand deals, no matter who you are, are at the top of the food list. It also feels like there's at least a feeling that we're trying to grab as much as we can before the entire ship goes down. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like you get to, from what I can tell, you get to act.

46:36You know what I mean? you don't really have to like if you wanted to play ball i'm sure you could but there's no pressure to do that from internal sources or external sources you're still spending frozen two money baby yeah that's what i'm saying you don't you ain't got to do the piggly wiggly they don't they don't pay you on the first one they don't pay they only pay you in the sequels so i didn't get nothing on that but it was funny i mean i again i came in for like two sessions and then i go to the premiere and it's like from the mind of jeremy's system i was like right in the center of this thing i was like all right i guess i'm this wouldn't have happened without jeremy i will set he got paid scale what character was it what what i know what kind of animal animal oh yeah there are animals in that no no i was i was the evil uh king in the flashback so there was no chance of me being in the sequel oh i see okay do you ever play a good guy other than you know yeah on my show i've been on a show for eight years and then i did a company called suburgatory which is on netflix now and and that was a good guy and then in law and order before that so So I really liked playing bad guys before.

47:35Like when I was younger, that was my whole thing. You know, it felt deeper. It felt whatever. I could tap into some bullshit. And now it just, now once I started having kids, I was like, you gotta, you know, you got the bar's a little higher for why I need to work myself into a fizzy over this. Fizzy? Is that what I worked myself into a fizzy? Tizzy. Tizzy, there you go. So you're saying because you have kids, you're like, I need to choose differently or work more or both well well well i need i need to yeah i need to make money to get them through these damn private schools and stuff like that but uh or and they're going to public but um yeah i guess i kind of feel like i have to be in a bad mood to some degree if i'm dealing with you know some hard hard stuff on camera you know because the things that i love yeah myself these are arty movies are are people filmmakers all the artists that put these things together um you know they're wrestling with things and as an actor you kind of want to be wrestling with the thing but then you but you're saying but then when you're at home you got to be nor you know you got to be whatever upbeat dad so it's a little bit of a dichotomy yeah i just yeah and even with you know my i'm an fbi agent in this thing and and you know obviously we're dealing with serious stuff but my whole gig is like i'm in the war room like you know shouting out orders and working the information together.

48:59And that's just the whole thing is be present, try to discover it in the moment and get some spontaneity in there. But if I'm coming to a movie where it's like the depth of this dude's broken heart or whatever it is, then I just come home and I feel a little deflated and I feel a little bit more in my head. And so, yeah, and they don't notice. Sure. They don't give a shit. They don't look up from their iPad to notice that you've gone through quite a struggle today. You don't know what I'm dealing with, guys. You don't know what I'm dealing with. That's really funny. That's really funny. Well, what is your...

49:34All right, so how good are you with a gun at this point? Because I feel like you must be pretty nasty at the range. I mean, like I said, most of my shit's in a room. In a room. But I do have a gun. I'm the only person with a gun in the FBI jock, the Joint Operation Command Center. there's at the beginning we had everyone had guns but it was horrible for break time because they all have to put their guns in a box on the way out so anyway long story i'm the only one with a gun now thanks alec baldwin you had a gun on law and order though yeah no i i you know through the 90s i mean you know when there was all those you were shooting movies yeah come to jacksonville you want to shoot a raccoon you know i mean it was all it was all they just give you a gun too and hopefully it was blank.

50:14It wasn't a real prop guy. I just find that part of it being realistic I feel like probably takes more time than people realize to feel comfortable in your case. To feel comfortable. You do the thing with the one arm up in the back and you look cool and masculine.

50:33Jason Stewart:Chris, as long as you're not a pussy, it comes very easily to you. Exactly. That's exactly what it is. Damn, I was trying. My bad, guys. I'm sorry, fellas. There was one show called Wicked City that I did where it was in the 80s and the stunt guy was like, or the cop or whatever back then was like, well here's how we used to do just one arm up. So there's one movie where I'm going one arm up. It's stupid. You gotta do the two arms up. These new sissy boys gotta use two hands to hold my fucking lock. It's stupid. You gotta use two hands. You're right though. I don't know anything I know you gotta use two hands.

51:07That's common sense. When you're on Law and Order, does that make you like new york royalty like is it different yeah i mean i definitely if uh if you're like drunk at 3 a.m you know outside it was a different time in my life yeah sure you know and out on you know coming home from bungalow eight or whatever the cops would definitely be like all right we're gonna let this guy pass yeah i mean that goes back to what you're saying about

51:30Jason Stewart:being you know back then being famous really did come with perks obviously in addition to you know the fame and money but you know justin timberlake 20 years ago he gets pulled over for a dewey they're saying all right we'll drive you back home kid you know my daughter loves your album blah blah and now it's like we got him boys i'm gonna make this arrest about me and you know human nature just really they enjoy watching the rise of human beings and then being there for them and then they enjoy watching them fall it's just kind of a weird thing we talk about this a lot on the show how sometimes the tide just turns it happened to like anne hathaway for example everybody loved anne hathaway and then for a couple years anne hathaway was the worst person on earth now anne hathaway fully back like people love her she's hot she's sexy yeah there's no change nothing changed like it's i mean timberlake had a few more crimes and his record but in theory there was a point where he was beloved for 15 years and then one day it was like you know what no we don't fuck with this guy anymore and and the tide just completely turned sexy sexy box just doesn't it doesn't sound the same when you get a little older that i agree feels weird that's true doesn't age like a fine wine but you know if tiger woods was getting into all of his shenanigans and rolling cars on the golf course in the 80s and 90s people would have been like all right you know we'll we'll sweep some stuff under the rug where we'll minimize it we'll get help behind closed doors and now you know there's a drone camera oh yeah kobe's hotel thing it's the destruction of the middle class that's why everyone wants to kill the rich and famous it's true but you know that's another pod my favorite is that cops being young enough to like not know who people are that's the other crazy it's like when you realize that when you were in high school that your teachers were like 24 and obviously had done coke the night before and like that's why that's why they're not being so jeremy's tried it before he's like so you've never seen clueless at all.

53:22Jason Stewart:These cups are a little tight. It was a pretty big movie. I was born in 2008, sir. Watch your head as I put you into the back seat. Oh, man. And back in the day, I mean, these bouncers at these clubs, they had a real special ability to like, they must have been great faces because anyone who had been in a commercial, they'd be like, okay, you're good. Come on in. Oh, wow. Yeah, they had no idea. You went to a club recently. I know. It was weird, but I just felt like I wanted to just dip in. What was the occasion and where was the club? It was in Manhattan. I don't even know where. I just walked there with a couple of friends and just kind of observed.

54:03And yeah, it's pretty much the same vibe, I guess. It just looks a little different from this vintage. Oh, so because you're saying in your heyday you were out, out is what it sounds like to me.

54:12Jason Stewart:Yeah. It is not the same vibe, Jeremy, and you know it. you you were you were in in new york in la and some of the heydayest the greatest times you were probably maybe a partial investor in a club here an ultra lounge there cinespace baby cinespace on sunset well jeremy i already knew that i already knew that and that's why i wanted to to bring it up because i used to work at cinespace and that's where i first that was my first job in LA and that's how I got into music and I started throwing a weekly party there that became a big deal and I started DJing from there is that right that's right and I remember I remember at the time the owners um would be like yeah you know Jeremy's sister's coming in you know got cleared table 40 you know I mean not in a bad way there's other investors who would come in and it's just that that beautiful trope that doesn't exist anymore of just like the guy who put five grand in and acts like he owns a place, bringing 10 girls in, wanting comp bottles.

55:14Yeah. I actually thought it was a good investment when I did it, and then I realized when I kept coming in and they'd have all new furniture every four weeks, I'm like, so you guys just keep using the money to do new things. You're not giving any of it. Are you saying, Jeremy, that you didn't see your return on investment in Cinespace Hollywood? Are you saying that on the record?

55:34Jason Stewart:They try. Well, it's an idea that was a little before its time. Obviously, now we've got Alamo draft houses and similar. You know, you come in, you can have a comfortable chair, watch a movie, get a cocktail and an actual good meal and not just eating a hot dog or whatever. That's found success, you know, now, 20 years later. It was just a little too early before its time. You know, when I was doing that, on my tour, when they were taking me through it, The Hanson brothers were there. And I mean, I thought the Hansons were in as well. I only found out later the Hansons dropped out last minute.

56:14So that's when I knew I had made an error, you know? Oh, yeah. Those guys are known for their investing.

56:19Jason Stewart:You saw the Hansons in? Where do I sign? These boys are in it? I would have followed them. They were the gnaws of their time. They were ground floor of Uber. You know what I mean? So as an investor, you never really took advantage of that. You kept your head down. You didn't, you know. Well, I'd go in sometimes. I had one date there that was really fun. And then I would go there sometimes with my friends, but it was, it wasn't exactly my scene. I mean that, you know, they're, they're just trying to figure out what, uh, you know, what hits, you know, what gets the people from Encino to come in and, you know, so.

56:51Jason Stewart:Yeah. But I mean, but eventually they pivoted to, you know, just having parties as a nightclub and I think, you know, found some more financial success there. Yeah. I saw, I saw a lot of that too. It was, it was a great time. there's a windfall what was the i'm sure i'm sure to change your life yeah change your life they did open a new bag of burger thing i don't know if that's still there yeah yeah kitchen 24 yeah that's right that was good is that still around i think they got one in we host still there was one in hollywood but i was it was funny i was just in that neighborhood i went to um like right in that little corridor on cuenga in hollywood and people are sharing videos about like this was Hollywood in 2006 versus 2026.

57:32Jason Stewart:And it really was like, everyone says like crime was 10 times more and the murder rate was like way higher than it is now, but it really did look like an ideal. Like we didn't know what we had at the time. It really was. And if you drive over there now, it's just nasty. It's just a bummer. Yeah. Daddy's was our spot. Did you ever go to daddy's shit yeah i know about daddy's yeah where was where was daddy's on vine i think okay so right yeah it was it was it was a great it was like a locals if you know you know dive bar spot it was like if you work in the industry if you're a bartender or whatever and you also are like where can i do coke in the daytime yeah they had that on the end I have a perfect place for you actually but it kind of had a little like early like Jones Hollywood kind of feel of just like nothing happened to sort it out the crowd sort of policed itself and like the right people went and the wrong people avoided it and they didn't try to make it a big deal for a reason which we need more exclusivity nowadays we need more door people who are like you are good you are not good versus you have money and you talk about that too the art of that is now it's literally i just look at the ipad and see if your name is there it used to be more of a taste level thing that was what the job that's what the job was oh interesting like you're saying like knowing face it that was the job like if you have to subscribe to fucking hollywood reporter to know who can come in here then that's part of the job you know you gotta recognize you gotta want to yeah they were good they were good at it you gotta have fun pointing people exactly i don't like that at all i don't like that exclusive vibe at all it makes me feel very uncomfortable but i did enjoy it for a while because they always recognize me and well yeah i've always felt like an outsider so i would say the word exclusive has a has a bad meaning because you know people attach it to like you're you're excluding you know swaths of people based on you know class or race or financial ability or whatever and I always just wanted to be exclusive of dumb people, shitty people.

59:45Jason Stewart:And shitty people come in every race, gender. Only the shitty people you want to leave. I prefer. I think it should be a looks-based system. That's obviously what it actually is. That plays a large part in it, of course, but, you know. Are you dumb? Well, you might be dumb, but I think we're going to find a way to make this one work. You know, I think we're going to find a way to get you in here. Dumb and hot, you're in. Dumb and rich, you're in. Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. I don't like it. Okay, were you doing the poker nights back then too? Oh, yeah, of course. That was the heyday of, I mean, also at that time, you know, because poker was so in the mainstream culture that you'd go to every one of these Hollywood parties you'd go to and stars and then these degenerate poker players walking around.

1:00:28You got Toby in the back. Yeah, he's kind of a mixture of both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw something recently that he won like$40 million last year. So like a staggering amount of money playing poker. Like an unbelievable amount of money playing poker. Yeah, man. I'm like, you guys are focused on his 22-year-old girlfriend. I don't care about that. He made$40 million playing poker. Fuck Toby. He used to be a friend. And I do remember he came and he got me into a pyramid scheme. And he was great at it. So, you know, the pyramid schemes where it basically was like, you know, give me$100 and then get eight people to give you$100 and you just made$700.

1:01:10Sure, sure, sure. And so Toby would walk, go into the bars with these stacks of$100 bills and be like, look what I got going on. And he would kill it. He'd get all these people. I never got a second person.

1:01:22Jason Stewart:So, like, truly, like, the world's first pyramid scheme. It wasn't like a cool thing involving a hot new product. it was just like flipping hundred dollar bills yeah but there were they were at the time there were there were groups that were doing it getting together in suburbs and stuff there was like this is how it works and it's it's funny because it's kind of the same thing as stocks but it's a ponzi scheme i guess yeah yeah yeah yeah ponzi scheme that if it keeps going then uh then it's i can't believe the ponzi is in 2026 people are still falling for this i like that i like that you were down you sound like you were just down for whatever i appreciate that yeah fuck it here's a hundred bucks.

1:01:57Let's see what happens. How bad could this be? How bad could this be? I mean, the other option is making him feel uncomfortable. You know what I mean? Like put himself out there like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To put yourself out there. Are you, are you very good at poker? I was pretty good at, uh, I was pretty good at, uh, tournaments. I used to play tournaments a lot. I used to go down to the hustler casino. They have a tournament every night. And, uh, you know, I did a couple, like I did a couple of those celebrity pro, um, uh, televised things. and I remember I... You're on ESPN Ocho? Okay, who's in?

1:02:29Who's at the table with you? I made... And I became friends with the Unabomber and the Magician and stuff like that. You know, those are my guys.

1:02:39Jason Stewart:Unabomber, Magician. We go down to Commerce at 3 a.m. with the Unabomber. And I did make a great call on the Unabomber in one of those televised events. He pulled the River card, which, you know, was not fun, but I won in my mind. Yeah, poker's a tough one. There's slightly too much luck in it for me to love the game anymore. I'd like just maybe 12 % more skill. Okay, I see what you're saying. You feel like you maxed out on it because the luck part is obviously you can't prepare for. All games are some percentage skill, some percentage luck. It's a bummer to watch somebody accidentally take a jackpot away from people who are much better than them for no reason other than just pure luck.

1:03:22Yeah, but some people love it. You know what I mean? I mean, I still play sometimes. I just started playing again at a couple of home games because my kids are old enough to, you know, not care if I'm around. Well, you can't take their money. Taking their money is taking your own money, so it doesn't really count, you know? Is it like, it's more for sport. No, I'm not playing with them. I'm going to home games. Oh, you're saying you're, okay, so your whole Westchester community, you're walking, you're gambling. I see what's going on out there. You see what's happening. I see what's going on out there.

1:03:50It's a little cooler maybe than people know, is what I'm. No.

1:03:54Jason Stewart:So when you go over to someone's home game, do you bring a bottle of wine, a little charcuterie, some Cubans? I like rye whiskey. Okay. You ever heard of that? I have heard of that. You ever heard of that? You ever heard of rye? What brand rye are we dropping that big old circular cube into, brother? I don't know. But I just now recently could maybe taste the difference between bourbon and rye. So I don't know what, like, between different ryes. I remember when rye first hit the scene, and I remember— When did rye hit the scene? I feel like I thought rye was always there. Well, existing and hitting the scene are two different things.

1:04:33Oh, it became a popular—it became a thing.

1:04:34Jason Stewart:As soon as Bullet Bourbon also started having Bullet Rye, and you'd go to the bar and be like, let me get a bourbon and diet. Wait, bourbon rye. And they're like, whoa, who the fuck is this guy? Holy shit. It's like the first guy who ordered whole grain bread instead of white at the bakery. like this guy, he's on to something. Or kale. The first guy that ordered kale was a dick. You can eat this stuff, guys. It's a little tough at first. You just got to really massage it. Okay, so no cigar. Who's vaping at the table? Are we vaping at the table? No, I don't do the vape. I don't like them. I miss smoking, though.

1:05:10Smoking was a fun one. I feel like you could probably go have a cig out back. I have a cigarette every now and then, but I don't feel good about it. But it just is something nice about it. And it used to be a real cultural thing. We'd go outside. I could get out of a conversation. I can get out of a conversation by saying, I'm going to go out and have a cigarette. That was an appointment. I could be like, I got to go do this. It was great.

1:05:28Jason Stewart:Jeremy, you could do that today if you want to, just letting you know. I do that all the fucking time. But then you also have to be a smoker. Yeah, it's a commitment on both sides. How old are your kids? 14, 17. Oh, okay. So you're getting near the end. I mean, it's the home stretch. Well, yeah. I don't know. It's just different versions of it. you know it's just different versions of it but i we are getting through what the middle school area is era was become weirdly challenging for me like sort of kind of accepting them going from my little buddies and to to being out out in the world and and i can't protect them and like way into what's especially the girls the girls are weird at the school and you know i would say middle school is probably my most awkward years as a as a teen it was probably yeah it was not great for me you know that's where you make the biggest shift they have do they have big plans for the future that don't align with your plans for their future i don't have plans for their future i don't know if it's my own future honestly and i didn't when i was young either so i'm really that's good in a way this whole like what jobs are going to exist it kind of puts everyone else in the same place that i've always been in like what do we do for a living i mean i'm i've been lucky enough to do this weird job this dries up and i don't even understand how to like survive in the world but um you know i'm hoping my kids have have the wherewithal to you know pivot with whatever this world's becoming and um yeah it's hard it's hard it's hard to predict what i have found is like whatever i'm i'm worried about that never happens it's always something else sure sure sure yeah it's always a fun surprise no matter what i could only imagine because now you know the three of us as sort of freelance creative people who have various odd jobs it could all go away tomorrow you never know and then they you know but everyone i know who works at uber or google or you know salesforce their their level of job security is is pretty much in line with ours and they only have one skill versus like yeah that's so true stop being able to do this but i'm able to fall back on my tick tocking or whatever it may be you know well i would say I'm an accomplished home chef on YouTube, and that's how I'm paying.

1:07:43The difference is they got stocks that vest, and we don't. I didn't get any on the ground floor here when we started this thing. How's that Peloton stock looking now? Yeah, I'm not a ground floor guy either. I mean, if I bought any of those$1 ,000 properties on Vine, I didn't do any of it right, but whatever. I'm still going. Do you have a house in L.A. still or no? no no i just got this we're fully divested from los angeles yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i don't i mean it just seems crazy so it's a empty house there for half the time i don't like but um but also yeah kids are in school they got sports you know what i mean so so you're like locked you're locked in you got to be here and where do you shoot where do you shoot in brooklyn oh so you're okay so you're right down they send the car and you're you're there it's easy to go no i auto drive so i have a tesla i don't have the bumper sticker about the elon thing on that either but yeah tesla You actually use the auto drive?

1:08:39I haven't driven in years.

1:08:41Jason Stewart:You got your feet up on the dashboard, reading your sides on the way to work every morning? Oh, yeah. Whenever I got the little camera up here, whenever I have to actually drive, I'm like, this is very unsafe. This feels very... I shouldn't be doing this at all. I shouldn't be doing this. Why are they letting me do this? Damn, I've never heard of anyone so full-throatedly endorse the self-driving. I don't know why we're driving anymore. Why are we all driving? Because it's dangerous, and people are space cadets, and they're on their phones and stuff. I mean, it's not, it's not really only Tesla is ready.

1:09:11The other ones are still like the versions are real schlocky and, but Tesla's gotten better and better. They put a lot of money, I guess, into mapping out the fucking country. Do you have a, do you have a, do you have like a weekend car that still takes gas and shit to feel like a man or no, no, no, no. I'm not a car guy. I'm not either. I'm not either. I'm not like a possessions guy. I have trouble with, and human beings have always found meaning in possessions. Granted, that's been a cool thing spiritually. But for me, I guess I've got a bully thing for something. Growing up, I'm feeling like on the outside.

1:09:47If I have possessions as a thing, it feels like, I don't know. But it's a problem because I want to start. I would like to be able to do that.

1:09:55Jason Stewart:You want to learn how to possess. Yeah, exactly. You don't got watches, baseball cards, nothing. You're just a guy out here living. No, I mean, I got a couple of cool guitars. And I've got one piece of art that is really cool sculpture. Okay. Oh, this is great. This is great. I'm sure your wife loves this. She can spend all the money. Exactly. It's excellent. It's just, I mean, it's fine. Almost everything I need to do is just on my computer. And, you know, that's one of the only possessions I really need. And everything else is just kind of. Do you guys collect anything? I'm pretty far down the rabbit hole.

1:10:26Yeah, it's pretty bad.

1:10:27Jason Stewart:Yeah, more him than me. What do you got? books mostly like art photography but then t-shirts like specifically music t-shirts um that are now ranging in price um from high to higher i think is where we're at now they go you know that rem shirt you used to have that's worth eighteen hundred dollars now chris gotta have it yeah that's kind of the it's a very certain oh my god is that how high could they go i think somebody sold um my guy i think my guy sold the most expense i think he sold a my bloody valentine for 8 ,000 maybe, or I think it was my, or maybe Jesus and Mary chain, one of the, but it's getting to the point where it's like stuff that I cannot believe anyone else cares about is like 500 minimum.

1:11:09And I'm like, all right, I don't know. I thought this was niche. What do you do with them? Where do you have them? I have them in my closet. I wear them now. I used to not wear them, and now I wear them pretty often. But I used to cap myself, and then that's a battle, because if you really want it, the cap obviously moves.

1:11:24Jason Stewart:It's, you know, it's a, the self, the self, the self policing, but people, people do, they, they collect vintage t-shirts like, like Pokemon cards. It's purely an investment. They don't have an, you know, the person who owns that my bloody Valentine shirt probably is not a fan of my bloody Valentine. It's just, I got the expensive rare thing and now you're envious of me. yeah it's definitely some my baller it's some nerdy online there's a lot of guys also that particularly trade and won't sell which is the ultimate tease where they're putting up something i'm like bro i'll give you the 500 like trade only i'm like all right loser like what is that what is it like this is you're doing what are you doing this for you know what i mean yeah it's not like um i don't i've never sold anything i only buy so it's like it's not a game it's not like something for me in that way yeah i i met this dude who is an uber driver and he was like kind of just cool street kind of fellow and he was like um he's like i'm making a lot of money in disney pins right now i was like all right all right honestly it's the same kind of thing i think the internet really has opened the world up to the buying and selling in a whole new way where you can find any niche and ride it for a little while i met a guy literally three days ago who's who said like i used to work at caa and now i left and i do pokemon cards full time and the first six months all my co-workers would you know obviously tease the shit out of you talk shit you know eight months later full opposite they're asking him for a job it's more stable and lucrative than than stocks and crypto and than anything no i've learned i've learned so much there's a website called whatnot that's like you buy like auction slots and it's a live auction and people people are i mean whether it's cards like sports cards or programming cards or t-shirts or whatever it's like people are making thousands of thousands of dollars in like 30 minutes oh my gosh it's just a whole it's a whole it's cool it makes me think like sorry go ahead i was just giving a plug to whatnot i love those guys over there yeah it kind of makes it makes me feel hopeful about like uh you know, the whole AI fear and stuff, because when we came into this world, there was like a structure of the world that was there, right?

1:13:43It felt like that. Like, Oh, I, let me find my spot in this thing. But now getting a little, uh, distance from it, it's all made up. All jobs are just made up things for us to have things to do and feel like there's meaning and create a world that we're just creating for ourselves. So I got to imagine we'll figure out, figure our way around I'm, I'm every day I'm struggling and we will find our way.

1:14:06Jason Stewart:Yeah, we will. I don't know. I feel positive. And some of those jobs do need to be replaced by AI though. Just to be clear. Yeah. Yeah. Plenty. Yeah. And I feel like, yeah, I don't know. I have a real, I mean, I never took that stuff seriously, but I have a bit of a Pollyanna vibe with the, with the robots. I just feel like the, what makes people do bad things is there are the complex creatures and they have things like, you know. Sure. things like jealousy and and and stuff like that but a machine model that they're not going to develop those emotions so i feel like it's it should work itself out and they should hopefully value human you know experience and and and and they'll take care of us jason's jason's chatbot side piece is not happy with him right now and i don't know where it could go i don't know where it could go from there do you really have a chatbot do not talk about her no i don't Well, I have, the closest thing I have is, it's called Speechify, where you can have AI read articles for you.

1:15:06Jason Stewart:Like when you're out walking the dog, you can listen to all your New Yorker articles or whatever. And I have Gwyneth Paltrow as the voice who does that. That is nice. I didn't know that. Well, it's the AI version of her, and it sounds a hell of a lot like her. But when she's, it's not necessarily a girlfriend experience when she's reading me a story about like. Yeah, the Andrew Tate 10 ,000 word New Yorker story through Gwyneth's lens is not really changing. It sounds pretty hot to me. Oh, God. All right, Jeremy, thank you for joining us on How Long Gone. We appreciate it, bro. It was a pleasure.

1:15:41Thank you guys so much. Have me back. The film Rain Rain? Is that what it's called? Rain Rain, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, with Paul Rudd and this new girl Felice is amazing. So, yeah.

1:15:53Jason Stewart:The first rain is like when water comes down. The second rain is like a rain of terror. That's right. Thank you. Rain of Terror. That's good. It just premiered at Tribeca, and so now it's officially for sale. Okay. I don't try to sell it. Okay. All right. Well, if we got any buyers on the line, go ahead and hit the producers. They're looking to make a sale. We're down for a streamer. We don't need theatrical. I'm not going to be a diva. If I can get a deal done, I'd like kind of something on the back end if you want. Yeah, just a little something for how long gone? Half a percent. Half a percent.

1:16:24All right, guys. This has been a pleasure, man. This has been a real pleasure. I appreciate you. See you later.

1:16:51Jason Stewart:Legally, we can't say drinking Storm makes you smarter and more focused. But with zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and immunity support, you're smarter and more focused for drinking Storm. Storm. Good energy in, good energy out. Energy for life.