"Nick Kroll"

9:39Will Arnett:This is with the ankle weights, wrist weights, leg warmers, and the weighted vest. Weighted vest. And high elbows, right? Weighted vest.

9:49Sean Hayes:Weighted vest with a visor and spiky hair.

9:54Will Arnett:And you do one of the, sort of a face shield, one of those droopy masks to keep the sun off your skin.

9:59Sean Hayes:No, I've got pharmacy, like, Florida sunglasses you can put over your glasses, full around. Okay? I've got Walkman headphones. Any sort of reflective material on your back

10:10Will Arnett:so you don't get run over?

10:11Sean Hayes:No. Full sleeves. Full sleeves.

10:17Will Arnett:Lots of waves to pass the cars.

10:19Sean Hayes:Speaking of walking, last... Yeah. But to wrap it up, I think that's the way because I feel like it was starting... But you try meditation.

10:26Will Arnett:Have you ever tried meditation? I have. I'd like to do it more. Are just shutting the fuck up. Did you ever try that? How about that? Let's get to the guests. Thank you, Sean. What do you got for us today? Wait, really quick. Speaking of walking last night. Did I go on too much? No, you didn't. Last night I was walking and I ran into, you know what a bollard is? One of those cement stoppers at the end of a street or a sidewalk. And it was like, oh God, I ran. You walked into it? Yes. Oh, you're talking about something that's about nard height, right? Yes, exactly. It's just a little higher than a fire hydrant.

11:00And it was painted black. Okay. Why do they have them on the corner of a sidewalk? So that people don't drive up.

11:05Will Arnett:Sounds like your Upper East Side. It sounds very... I know those black ballets. No, no. It's after I ate at the Waverly Inn restaurant. Oh, it's out there. So did you catch it right in the Nards? No, right above the knee. And I couldn't...

11:17Sean Hayes:That got hurt. Did you call Graydon Carter for a reservation? Yeah. You did? Yeah. No, no, no, no. Oh, you didn't? No, no. Did Scotty throw you over his shoulder and walk you home? Basically. It was right in front of a taxi and we were saying goodbye. And I was like, I ran right into the thing with my full leg. Well, let's, okay. And I was just like, ha-ha. Did we run? Great time. No. I just walked right into it. Yeah. No. All right, let's get to it. Ready? What's your step count today? I'm guessing 400? Sorry. My guest today accidentally taught his two-year-old son to say I'm a coward, which made me laugh when I read that.

11:52He went to Georgetown and majored in history. His father's job included tracking the hidden fortunes of dictators. After bombing at his first college comedy competition, the guy that won invited him to audition for a sketch show, and that changed the course of his life. He's voiced about 80 animated characters, for real, and the kid he met on the first day of first grade became his best friend and creative partner, helping turn their own humiliating stories about puberty into one of Netflix's longest-running scripted originals. It's the insanely funny and super talented Nick Kroll.

12:24Sean Hayes:Oh, Nick. Nicholas Kroll.

12:27Will Arnett:Get out here. Hey, boys. Good morning. Oh, he's going to take it down. I have not spoken yet today, and I'm listening to my voice, and that was like the first thing I've said all day. Hey, boys. Wouldn't it be amazing if we all had a word limit each day? Yeah. For you, it would be, yeah. Hey, but could you imagine if you had to budget out your words for the day? That would be pretty interesting. That would be cool. Huh?

12:54Sean Hayes:Man, you come up with some fun ideas.

12:58Will Arnett:Nick, you are East Coast because you've already got a smart-looking jacket on. I'm on the West Coast. I was debating on taking the jacket off before, but I'm dealing with what you guys are seeing is this center stage video where I'm going to be constantly... Oh, yeah. The camera's going to be following me. You can turn that off. You can turn it off if you want. I know I can. I can't figure out how, but I'm going to figure it out. Wait, why do you look so damn good already this morning? You got a chore jacket on? Yeah. Did you have a callback earlier? I got, yeah, it's a Lipton cup of soup. It's a 3 p.m.

13:29slump.

13:29Will Arnett:And did you crush it? I felt good. I felt really good in the room. Any feedback yet? Yeah, supposedly they wanted a better looking and older. Oh. You are in the running in case they can't find it. Oh. Yeah, so you guys are honestly good candidates. We're the demo. We're that. Telsey's calling, guys.

13:54Sean Hayes:Nick Kroll, what's up, man? It's been a long time. How are you? I'm great. It's really good to see you guys. Likewise. It's been a minute. It's good to see you. Nick, the first time I met you was, I think, was at Ted Sarandos' a couple years ago at the Grammy dinner thing. Yes. Right? What were you two doing at a Grammy dinner? At the Grammy, yeah. It was like for the comedy category. And we were doing a duet. It was a Bette Midler and Barry Manilow thing, and they had us play for a few minutes. Who played Bette? Right, right. No, but you were so kind, and I immediately felt this rhythm with you, and I was like, oh, I'd love to get to know you more.

14:29Yeah. Here we go. Fucking this is unbelievable.

14:34Sean Hayes:Every time I felt a connection with you. Let me put your number in the chat. Fucking, are you joking? You should come on the pod. You should come on the podcast. Let's go for lunch and wrap up how we think we did. I'm close by. What's your story later? because you should come on the pod. The boys let me make the choices on this all the time. Yeah, let me make the choices. God, you're so smart and funny and handsome. Let's go on a run. You want to go for a run? Let's go on a run. Wait, let's go on a run. Wait, wait, wait. So that was the first time that you guys had met? I actually met you many, many, many years earlier.

15:16There was a guy who used to do like treasure hunts around L.A. like we have to do JP Manu yes are you talking about

15:24Will Arnett:the LARF I don't know if that's what it was no it was before Amazing Race I remember that and it was it was just like the Amazing Race and this guy organized just a bunch of people to go do this around Los Angeles it was really fun yeah so I you were there and you like I was just sort of starting and you were one of the most famous people in the world in that group of five and so I saw you and I said one day they're going to make podcasts and I'm going to hit on him at Ted Sarandos' party.

15:56Sean Hayes:Wait a second. You're skipping over that you predicted podcasts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why, that's just... We had to get to Madame Tussauds to find... That's right. That's true. That's true. Why have those gone... JB, do you remember in the 90s these guys had a game going for a while? Yeah, it was called LARF and they were both

16:16Will Arnett:out of Stanford.

16:17Sean Hayes:No, there was another one where we went around and everybody had a, you had a squirt gun and it was like a game of tag around LA. I did that as a kid. I did that as a kid.

16:25Will Arnett:My daughter does that as senior, senior, senior assassin.

16:26Sean Hayes:No, but all these, all these actors, when we were in our twenties in the nineties in LA, I remember being out here for pilot season, mid nineties and somebody saying, do you want to get in this thing? And people would be like at an audition at Warner Brothers and some dude would come out of nowhere and spray him and like, you're in. And I was like, can you imagine walking onto a lot now with a, with a water gun?

16:46Will Arnett:So, so it, at, at Franny school so it's senior assassin um the if you get hit with a water gun you're out um and the only way that you can sort of uh protect yourself inoculate yourself from getting some sort of a surprise hit is wearing swim goggles out in public all day every day or swim floaties so you see like these students are all around town you know like markets and shopping center that's really funny it's pretty it's pretty cool but the scavenger hunts things these high-end scavenger hunts I'm pissed that they've gone away. We should resurrect that. Let's do it. Yeah. Celebrity scavenger hunt.

17:22Let's do it, guys. You guys have a lot of free time. Do you want to start getting into... Let's do organizing local city scavenger hunts. I'm going to organize it for a little bit. Nick Kroll, let's get into it. First of all, thanks for being here. And I did mean that. It just felt like a comedy connection with you. You were very funny right off the bat, and I felt like I'd known you. But anyway.

17:44Will Arnett:He's a nice guy, and he's funny. He's a very nice guy. Not to get a rhythm with. So wait, is that true? 80 voices. 80, 8-0. I think so. That's what I think so. And like if I threw out names, you don't want to do that? I probably could. I mean, I'm a monkey. I'll give you what you need. Let's get those numbers, folks. Okay, I'm going to do a look. I'm going to do a look. I'm going to do a look. Gunter from Sing and Sing 2. Oh, yeah. This is Gunter from Sing. He's major piggy power. Okay. Nothing makes me laugh quicker than a German accent. Okay. What about douche from Sausage Party? Douche was, oh, come at me, bro.

18:29It was that sort of, that guy. No, but wait.

18:34Sean Hayes:Do douche from Sausage Party. Okay, so wait. So douche from Sausage Party, we did, that's the Rogan movie. and I did the whole thing as like a sort of a British villain, like a, you know, the classic Disney British, like Jafar kind of voice and then, or like Scar from Lion King and it just wasn't working and we did one last record where they rewrote it as that character who was kind of a, this character did Bobby Bottle Service who was kind of, yeah. I remember Bobby Bottle Service. Wait, Nick, you did your, you did, Nick, you did your series on Netflix. Big Mouth? Big mouth. And so we got to clear the air on this.

19:16Sean Hayes:Do you know what I'm getting at? Of course. So we've never talked about it. So for years, people have commented to me, hit me in the thing, talked to me in real life. I've been in line at the store. Do you do the voice of, there's a character on your show that people thought was me. His name is Maury, the hormone monster. Is that what it is? And everybody thinks it's Arnett. Yeah. It's crazy. I can't tell you how many people have.

19:44Will Arnett:And that's you, Nick? It's me. Nick Dilling, Arnett. No, it's, I mean, this is, okay. So here's the backstory here. Let's clear the air on this. Let's clear it, finally. Finally. So we did the show Big Mouth. It's about kids going through puberty. And my friend Andrew Goldberg, who Sean mentioned, I met in first grade. We created the show together. He had been at Family Guy for years. We've been friends forever. and he and Mark and Jen, our other partners, came to me with an idea about an animated show about kids, about me and Andrew at 13 going through puberty. Yeah. And immediately it was like, great, this makes, I really see this show.

20:24So we started working on it and Andrew started talking and he's like, you know, and like I think my guy, who he was a really early, early developer, you know, he just hit puberty at like five and had a full beard by eight, you know. And he was sort of like, I think my character was like, something encourages him to jerk off. Like, he's got like a hormone monster. And I immediately was, literally immediately was like, touch yourself, Andrew. And it was like, that was the voice. Because I had been doing this guy, I had been doing this guy, Nash Rickey. I had a sketch show called Kroll Show. Nash Rickey was sort of like a hair metal guy who was also like had OCD and...

21:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.

21:05Sean Hayes:Wait, was Pete Giles part of that? Yes, Pete Giles was part of that, yeah. We had a song called L.A. Deli, and it was just about all the delis in L.A., like California girls. Because all those guys, like, hung out of, you know, fucking canters and all that. Anyway, so I did this voice, Nash Ricky. So then we go to do Big Mouth. We develop it. We make it. It comes out. I've known Will forever. Will is on the air with BoJack at this, like, so. The same time, yeah. The same time, BoJack is like the premier fucking animated show. It never crossed my mind that anyone would be like, is that Arnett? And then we start the show and it works and everybody's like,

21:49Will Arnett:can't believe you got Arnett. You sound like Arnett.

21:54Sean Hayes:Nick, honestly, I can't tell you how many people over the years, I'm like, no, it's not. I didn't know if it was you, but I was like, I think it's Kroll. Is that show still going? No, we did eight seasons. Wow, that's remarkable. Yeah, we'll have done, we did more of those than basically any other scripted Netflix show, I think besides Ozark. How many of you guys done now? 140?

22:20Will Arnett:It felt like 140. No, it was four and a half, maybe, seasons? Seasons, yeah. Anyway, so we did it, and we're about to put out a new show called Mating Season. and it's the same team who made Big Mouth. That looks so great. What's the premiere on that, Sean? What's the premiere date, Post? Oh, God. Wait, I need to look it up. I jumped it. I jumped it. I got it. You have to scroll right on the bottom. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. When is it, Nick? Guys, I'm so sorry. Check the chat. Maybe Michael Grantero sent it to you. Oh, my God. I can tell you. I don't even know. Double back at the end, Sean.

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24:59Sean Hayes:And now, back to the show. Carl, so I know you, so I feel like the first time I saw you was at UCB over 20 years ago. I think the first time we met, you were maybe doing monologues at ASCAP one night. Yes, I think that would make sense. Like early 2000s. Yeah. And you were so funny. It was one of those, like the first time I saw you, it was like, oh, this dude is fucking hilarious. Thank you. Like right out of the gate. And then you just went on to do, what I love is that you went on, and you and Mulaney did so much cool stuff. you did a show on Broadway. You did sketches. You did sketch shows.

25:37Sean Hayes:You've just done... What I love is how many different kinds of things you have done. You do stand-up. You do all of it. And is there... Now at this point, do you go like, oh, it feels too spread out. I want to concentrate on this because I know you just did a stand-up special. Yeah. I just watched it. It's so good. Is that kind of where you want to go or do you feel like you still want to just do millions of different things? I mean, I like what I'm shooting for is like a B minus across the board. If you can shoot for a B minus, you can do so much.

26:07Will Arnett:You never disappoint yourself. You can really, you don't shoot too high. You stay general and broad, and then nobody can attack you for fully committing to anything. That's such a great call. Oh, I know that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's all about longevity. It's all about just staying right in the middle for as long as possible, and then they can't, don't get too tall.

26:30Sean Hayes:Wait, the three of us, JB, you, me, and Kroll did that animated show with Mitch Hurwitz. Yes. Sit down, shut up. Sit down, shut up. Sit down, shut up. Right. That was very, yeah, that was, it was literally right after Arrested and it was us and Forte. And Forte.

26:46Will Arnett:Damn, I want to watch that again. I remember the animation being hilarious. What a cast that had. Yeah, I'm playing a character I would not currently play. Yeah, copy that. Copy that. Oh, let's explain. His name was Andrew Legustambos, and it was a... Legustambos. He was a bisexual Latin teacher. Yeah. Do you think... I love that you remember his name. No, but literally, if you started that today, do you think that today's culture would attack as much as it did, let's say, even six months to a year ago? No, I think everything is... I feel like things are kind of settling. I mean, I don't think I would play that character right now, but I do think things are settling a bit.

27:31Like all of that stuff that I think we're finding different levels now to it. Right, right. Yeah, I think so too.

27:41Will Arnett:And I wonder why. I mean, the issues haven't gone away, but maybe the tolerance and the exploration of finding humor in things that are more challenging is more around. I don't know. I think there's a general, I mean, I think there's polarizing views of it, but I think there's a general attempt to be more thoughtful about what we're doing or how we're doing it. And if you're generally more thoughtful, then I think there's more, a little more room for different versions of people playing different versions of people. I think in that way, you know?

28:18Sean Hayes:I think also there's a, we have to pay more attention to intent, you know? And if the intent is to injure or to sideline or to be hurtful, then there's no room for it. Let's save that for our personal friendships, right? Okay, yeah, of course. Exactly. And family, and family. Yeah, exactly. Let's leave family out of this. Wait, so Nick, when you first started out, I mentioned in the intro, you bombed freshman year in comedy competition. Yeah. And the guy who won and then gave you the opportunity was Mike Birbiglia, right? Yes. No way. Oh, no way. Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, that's crazy. Where was this?

28:56It was at Georgetown. We did this thing called The Funniest Act on Campus. And I'd never done comedy before in any real capacity. And there were, you know, just like flyers up.

29:04Sean Hayes:Yeah. And I went and did it. I was really nervous about it. And I just, I showed up and my whole bit was that I was going to get on stage and go, you know, I thought I'd be so nervous, but I'm super relaxed. And then I was going to piss my pants. like that was the best.

29:22That's a great bet. It's a good bet, right? It's a really good bet. Except I did not prepare. I got, I was like, you know, I was a freshman in college. You didn't drink enough water? Yeah, I was like, had drank and like, you know, I was just like so nervous that I showed up and I had not, I had not, I was gonna bring like a water balloon and a pen and like pop the water. You know what I mean? I had thought, I didn't, so, but I forgot all of it. So I grabbed like a sandwich bag in the trash and grabbed a pen and just got on stage and just like jammed the pen into this like water bag in my pocket.

29:58So it just looked like I was jerking off on stage basically, which is what I've been doing ever since. But Mike won. Mike had like a solid five minutes. I was like a sophomore and he won the competition and got to start hosting at the DC Improv. and then he was doing a sketch show later that year and invited me to audition and I did that audition and then got cast and we went to like a kid's apartment on campus and read all these sketches and I like, it was truly the one time in my life I walked out of that thing I was like, this is it. This is all, this is it. This is what I want to do.

30:35Will Arnett:Because what were you studying at Georgetown at the time? I was studying history and minoring in art and Spanish just kind of like coasting. coasting on privilege. That was getting goose, yeah? Waiting for something to hit you to do or were you going to make a career out of history? I was gonna, I don't know. I think I was just, I truly was coasting. You know, I just was like, I liked history because I think I like telling stories. But I think I was still scared to like write. And, you know, so English wasn't, didn't feel entirely safe. And then we started doing, and so we auditioned for that sketch show and we literally then went we did our sketch it was like we rehearsed for three months to do one night in Bulldog Alley on campus and then and the show was I mean we bombed but I met all these guys who I continue to know and work with still including Birbiglia and then UCB was just about to come on the air and they came down to GW and did a show at GW it was like a big improv festival and it was the first time I saw those guys and I my mind fully exploded Did they do Bucket of Truth?

31:43Bucket of Truth. What's Bucket of Truth? It was Little Donnie. Remember Little Donnies? It was like Besser had the sketches, little kid with a huge gun. But I saw that and then moved to the city that summer or started going to the city. We did a workshop at UCB. Will, you know Owen Burke. You guys all know Owen. Owen was my brother's roommate in college and Owen had just started at UCB. So I started going to UCB, started going to ASCAT as a fan, and could not believe what I was seeing.

32:20Sean Hayes:I agree. I had the same, first of all, I had the same sensation. I saw them do Bucket of Truth in 1996. They just moved from Chicago. Can you tell me what Bucket of Truth is? It was a sketch show that they did. Okay. And they did it downstairs at the West Bank on 42nd Street, the restaurant. They had that little space down there. And I was like, what? And it was Walsh and Amy and Besser and Ian Roberts. And I was like, what the fuck? Like watching what these guys did. So I loved it. And then they started doing it. They started doing Ask At It, that other place, Solo Arts on 17th Street, before they moved into their theater.

32:55Sean Hayes:And I would go every Sunday. And JB, you remember my old roommate, Duff. I had lived with Duff and I had been roommates years. You know Duff too, right? I know Duff, yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Through Owen and my brother. Through Owen. And so I said to Owen and Duff, I go, you guys got it. I said, let's go to this thing and see these guys. And Owen came along to, I brought him to his first UCB show and he ended up as artistic director of UCB. Yeah. Isn't that wild? Owen Burr. Yeah, that is wild. Funny, good man. And that was sort of, so I started coming and we would go and I was, you know, I went to solo arts once or twice and saw all those shows and then would go to the theater at 22nd Street and like sit on the side, you know, wait and sit on the side and look up.

33:36And it was like all these people, you know, who were, you know, who were just popping on Conan and—

33:43Sean Hayes:Oh, it was like Glazer and Tina and McKay would be there and all those guys. Yeah, it just was like— And as soon as I—literally, as soon as I saw it, the first—did that sketch, little sketch show, and then joined the improv group myself. I was like, done. I'll do—back to sort of what you're saying. I was like, I'll do anything. Get me close to this. I'll do anything.

34:03Will Arnett:But speak more about, you know, because I'm just, I'm always fascinated with people at that age where you need to, or you think you need to commit to a career and you have to really think about making rent and feeding yourself and like you're, you're out from the nest at home. And, and so you're at this opportunity, an incredible university. You're, you haven't really picked an occupation, an industry, a path. At what point did you feel like, oh, okay, there's enough momentum going in this lane where I need not continue to consider other means of support? Well, for me, after Silver Spoon, I just wanted to have fun.

34:51You know what I mean? After the spoon, singular. This is why I'm so curious about it

34:56Will Arnett:because it was like I'd had this momentum since I was a little kid. But I still, at 18, I thought, well, is it going to last? Maybe I should study something else that's a little bit more reliable. Well, so going back, so the other thing, my connection to Jason a bit is that you're originally from Rye, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm from Rye, New York as well. Oh, no way. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up with plenty of privilege. So I went to, I never had like the privilege was that I could sort of be like, what do I want to do? And I went to college and I started and I, you know, school was never exactly my thing.

35:34I was fine at it. But as soon as I started doing improv and comedy and sketch, I was like, I'll do anything. Like I'll print, you know, like I'll go anywhere at any hour to get this done. And when I moved to New York, I had, I did have the real, the privilege of knowing that I could fall back. Like if it didn't work, I could go get a job somewhere. Like it was going to be okay. But it was, the thing I feel so lucky about is that I had such a clear, I knew I wanted, I knew as soon as I started doing it, this is all I wanted to do. And any work, now the question of whether I was going to make it is the intangible.

36:14But I think the idea for me was like, well, I'm going to regret the fuck out of this if I don't try.

36:20Will Arnett:You recognize that it was something that really fed your soul, that you were decent at it. You liked the attaboys and it was sort of self-perpetuating. Yeah, and it's never waned, at least for me.

36:32Sean Hayes:Which is interesting because, JB, you do have that as well. At the same time, this was your thing since before you can remember doing anything else. Really, since you were a little kid, there was never like, hey, I'm going to try my hand at this. You were in it. You were always in it, right? I mean, I don't mean to say that you, yeah, I'm talking to you. I'm not saying that you didn't have a choice, but that was your, in a lot of ways, it was your job. It became your passion.

36:59Will Arnett:Yeah, I had realized that I was halfway decent at something before I needed to have something that I was halfway decent at. So that was a, that was a, yeah.

37:08Sean Hayes:And I think for you, so on that. And you were cute as a button. God, were you cute.

37:12Will Arnett:Hey, Nick, stop it. God, were you cute. Let's get our rhythm going.

37:15Sean Hayes:Remember in the chat, remember in the chat. Oh, no, oh, no. not another rhythm connection. I run too. Enough. But JB, you had that second gear for you. The thing that you found was when directing and seeing you light up at this stage of your life when you talk about directing is the same way I think that I certainly did and Nick, the way you describe it, discovering this thing where you go, I love this, I got to do this, I'll print flyers, I'll do whatever it takes. You kind of have it for directing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Like 10, 12 years ago or 15 years ago.

37:45Will Arnett:Right. And like anyone out there, you know, if you were lucky enough to get paid a little bit to do something that you would pay somebody else to do, right? Because you love it so much. That's the sort of fuel that can really travel you into success and longevity instead of just punching a clock, you know, if it's something that really is passionate.

38:09Sean Hayes:Nick, just quickly, did you do – because you worked with a lot of great people. We mentioned Mitch Hurwitz and obviously Mulaney. You've had a lot of great partners and collaborators. Another funny dude that we know that we all connect with is John Levenstein, who worked on The Kroll Show. Yeah. Super, super funny. One of the funniest, most bizarre men in the world. I know. Sweetest men, too. And honestly, I just have to say it since we just mentioned it, The Kroll Show is one of my favorite shows of all time. Thank you, Sean. Truly, I mean. It's so funny. And Levenstein was a big part of that, right?

38:42Yeah, he was the, he was the showrunner and he had come we hired him I mean I met him doing this cartoon called Life in Times of Tim oh yeah that ended up on HBO that was like and Giles that's how I met Giles also with Pete Giles yeah that's how I met Giles originally sweet Pete Giles yeah and one of the great voices talk about him you think we got some gravel that motherfucker Pete Giles you can catch him you can hear him every once Fox Sports

39:08Sean Hayes:yeah you know it's the World Series on Fox Yeah. Pete Giles. So it is, yeah, I mean, I, hey, by the way, Jason, I'm so sorry Zootopia didn't work out. Yeah. Next time on the VO stuff. They can't all be winners on the VO stuff.

39:27Will Arnett:I do envy what you guys can do with VO. I still feel like I'm just leaving voicemail messages. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing.

39:35Sean Hayes:Jason, oh, Jason, I forgot to tell you, last week I was out east and I was out for dinner with my little guy, Denny, who's five and there's a couple sitting next to us and they're talking about and they've got like a seven year old girl and they're talking about Zootopia and my guy Denny goes I saw Zootopia too and they're like we love Zootopia too and he goes and he comes up and he goes dad can I tell him I go tell him and he goes about Jason and I go sure and he goes my dad's friend Jason is the voice of Nick my son is five it was so sweet

40:10Will Arnett:how about I'm just excited that he knows my name. I know. I love that little guy. Isn't that sweet? I love that. Nick, can I ask about growing up because we touched on that a little bit and I think it's fascinating and when I read this, I laughed out loud that you grew up in Rye, New York and your parents sent a limo to pick you up from school? Is that every day? No, no, no. Every once in a while. When you're good. So it wasn't... That made me laugh out loud when I read that.

40:37Sean Hayes:I'm like, is that true? Yeah, it was like different strokes, right? Like you're just... Yeah, exactly. It's true.

40:44Will Arnett:Well, what happened to all those limos? You remember we used to see stretch limos everywhere? Where did they go?

40:48Sean Hayes:I kind of thought about bringing it back this year when we went to the big award show the other couple of weeks. Oh, my God. I thought, wouldn't it be funny to pull up to, like, the Academy Awards in a white stretch limo? Oh, my God.

40:58Will Arnett:But I want to know where they went, literally. Like, I guess, scrap metal yards? Or do they put them on a container ship? They're all Waymos. They're all... And, like, send them to Eastern Europe?

41:06Sean Hayes:Wait, so, Nick, I mean, you... They're all playing in Europe. You talk... They're all playing in Europe. that's a great joke so you had to there were occasions where you had to be driven to school it just is what it is my dad my dad it's like the internet the internet is real loves loves to speculate on my my dad his business fascinating business fascinating man built incredible business do you guys Jay do you know about his dad no please share I didn't either and when I read about it Nick I understood 10 % of it so can you please dealer, drug dealer, what is it? Consultants. He deals drugs. He dealt drugs to arms dealers.

41:45Got it. Got it. That's lucrative. Because it's two different, it's, you know, you got to find the guy who's going to come in between them. Was that what that Jonah Hill movie was about those guys? Remember the movie? Oh yeah, I like that movie.

41:57Sean Hayes:With Nick Cage? War Dogs. Yeah. Yes, War Dogs. Was that what they were doing? I want to see that. So anyway, he built this, he sort of did the larger umbrella would be like risk mitigation. So like it started as like corporate investigations, due diligence. And during the 80s, it was like Wall Street takeover, private, all those like hostile takeovers, like doing of all like Ivan Bosky and all those kinds of characters. And then it was dictators like Saddam, like the Kuwaiti government hired him to find Saddam Hussein's money. Wow. And Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti and the Marcoses. Hello, Baby Doc Duvalier.

42:43Sean Hayes:Now you're really going into it. Me and Mulaney were trying to write a movie.

42:47Will Arnett:Baby Doc handles Kimmel, handles Fallon, handles Robert.

42:53Sean Hayes:James Dixon, Baby Doc. Baby Doll. That's Baby Doll. That's Baby Doll, James Dixon. Wait a second, Nick. Now that I think, did Duff write a book about your dad's company? He may have, yes. He may have at some point, yes. Yeah. And so he, and then he, you know, he's gone on to continue to sort of work in various versions of that business. And he and my brother have a company called K2 now, which continues to do different versions of investigations and risk mitigation and security. And they make skis too. And they make great skis. I know everybody out there likes slalom. Slalom. Hey, but Nick, you know, I do want to say that I'm glad you talked about it because you didn't decide what your dad did or how you were born.

43:42Sean Hayes:And your dad started a company and he was successful at what he did. And so I like that you just, you talk about it openly because what the fuck are you going to do? Yeah. Right? You don't need to apologize. The internet will find you. No, I know. But you don't need to apologize for where you came from. What are you supposed to do? Right. Right, exactly. Thank you. Yeah. No, but it is, I just got, I mean, I feel like I got real lucky. I got dealt a real good hand. Of course you did. And as I've said, I've known you 20, 25 years. You work really hard. You create a lot of stuff. You create a lot of stuff on your own.

44:19Sean Hayes:You didn't have family in show business. And you did it all through hard work and talent. So, you know, fuck everybody.

44:26Will Arnett:But he sounds, that sounds really fascinating. like get them to investigate Bateman

44:32Sean Hayes:please

44:32Will Arnett:the kinds of no no no no no

44:34Sean Hayes:no no no just look into it just look into it but Jason why do you keep going to Grand Cayman

44:40Will Arnett:answer that listen these people are so kind you're doing the firm cosplay yeah but yeah the kind of connections and and know how he's got yeah that's kind of incredible that's like up there if I if I could pick a new career if I could go back in time if I was like 17 and I would like to get recruited by the CIA. Oh yeah, you have CIA vibes written all over you. I would love to be somebody in my mid-50s like, well, I'm in my late 50s now that is still I would like to be able to hold that secret from, because you're not supposed to be able to tell your wife. From your family? Yeah. I mean, if you're really good.

45:24Will Arnett:You want to hold more secrets from your family? I've got a little more room. I found a little more room on my drive.

45:30Sean Hayes:Wait, JB, we just went through your morning routine. You think that you're CIA ready? Are you fucking kidding? No, that's what you do in the CIA. You watch the end of a Dodger game. Yeah. No way this guy's a spy. Look how dumb he is. They're like, how do we kill that Bateman agent? He's at the golf club.

45:52Sean Hayes:We'll be right back.

45:56Will Arnett:Oh boy, you know, we talk about closets a lot on this show. We sure do. Kicking the door down, coming on out. We're basically talking about that closets are for clothes. Oh, I just knew. And I've taken that too much to heart because my closet is stuffed. I've been meaning to go through my closet. Well, you should sell some of them. I should sell it. I mean, listen, you know, what feels familiar in my closet may be exactly what someone else is searching for. Buy, sell, and discover affordable secondhand fashion you'll love with the resale marketplace, Depop. Reselling can feel overwhelming, but on Depop, getting started is easy.

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48:30Will Arnett:And now back to the show. Were you going to say, Nick, were you going to say you and Mulaney were working on a script about it or no? Was that what you were going to say? We were working on a script. It was the first, we sold a movie called Most Glorious Friend. And it was, you know, those like nigerian email prince email scams yeah well we were the premise was like scams yeah oh willie this our the premise of the movie was like this was the this this time it was real and it was gonna be tracy morgan as the deposed dictator of a country called lyrobia and uh his name is lil mo and uh and and that was so like a bunch of a couple college kids respond to the email and then like tracy morgan shows up being like where's my money uh and we can i have that it's so it was genuinely very i mean i i was probably structurally i mean we had no idea what we're doing we just sat there reading save the cat by the chapter and then trying to write off of save the cat is a screenwriting book that's so that's so fun that's such a fun

49:37Sean Hayes:taking sure and i uh worked on this thing years ago mike sure we called the ambassador about basically he's too dumb to kill. He's the son of a senator. They make him envoy to the EU to ruin all their trade deals. And then he's like getting chased like Bourne, but he doesn't realize he's being, like he's being chased. He keeps going, go around.

50:01You both, all three of you guys could be spies. You guys should be like 50s, the worst spies post-Cold War spies.

50:09Will Arnett:Right. Like being there. Spies like you. Spies like us. Yeah, spies like us. But it's just how it's pronounced at the end. Wait, so this made me laugh too because Big Mouth is about, like you said, you and your friend in puberty, 13 years old. But I read your sister Vanessa is now a professional puberty educator. Yeah. What does that even mean? What does that mean? So yeah, my sister Vanessa is a, yeah, she became an expert in puberty. She started a thing called Dynamo Girl a number of years ago. And it's like after school program for sports for girls. And then as she was teaching these young girls, like as they got older and started going through puberty, she realized that there was just a ton of, there was just like an empty spot in that and sort of the education around that and like having parents and kids understand what's going on.

51:00So, I mean, it's a crazy synergy. But I think it just speaks to a little bit of, I guess our experience, you know, she's two years older than me, of going through that period of life together. it was of interest. Like we had those books, like what's happening to me, you know, those like groovy 70s books with like body, drawings of the body. And so we were -

51:21Sean Hayes:Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. Yeah, like all of that stuff, I think loomed large for us. And so it became an interest for both of us. And she's like, so she's kind of writing about parenting and that kind of stuff. She's got four kids. And then is she the one, who's the one married to one of the Men in Blazers? That's my sister Vanessa's married to Roger Bennett from Men in Blazers. Yeah, I know those. I love those guys. That's cool. And all your siblings, there's four of you. Yeah. Are you all funny people? Like, are you all... I think so. I don't know how it works in your family, but like, I think it's pretty rare that someone comes out of a family that isn't also, if they're funny, that isn't also funny.

51:57Right, right. My brother's really funny and my sister's... Yeah, I think it was in the family, there was a sense of humor.

52:04Will Arnett:Did you guys get it from mom or dad? They're both pretty funny. My dad's funny. and my mom's got a very good sense of humor especially having to deal with me tell jokes about moms like she you know she's like people tell me am I upset about the jokes about moms and I'd say I'm not okay they're both fair game yeah but no it's a funny family I think but I think but me kind of being like no I'm gonna go be a comedian everyone was like huh Huh. There was definitely, it wasn't like, well, of course you're going to, you know. You know, Jim,

52:43Sean Hayes:you know Jimmy Vallely. Yes. Jimmy Vallely used to have. Another Vet Levenstein, another rusted guy. Yeah, another rusted, Jimmy, the great Jimmy Vallely, who's one of the all-time, yeah, one of the all-time funniest and has jokes that nobody else can think of that are just so, God, I fucking love Jimmy Vallely. Anyway, he used to always say, he'd say like, you know, if you come, he was, we were talking about something, he said, yeah, this guy sort of came from a good family. He goes, he had more to lose. And I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, in a way, he could have been a lawyer. He went to a good school and stuff, and he risked it all to do this.

53:15Sean Hayes:If you come from nothing, you got nothing to lose. A hundred percent. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I never looked at it that way. It's so true, yeah.

53:24Will Arnett:Well, Nick, you're so multi-talented, and you've done so many different jobs in the structure of things. How do you decide what to do next? and like what would the perfect next five years look like? I mean, I don't know how strategic you are. I imagine, and I don't mean that as a pejorative, you know, like it takes a certain amount of planning to get things done in this business. Yeah, I mean, you got, look, he's got roommates out April 17th. He's got mating season on May 22nd. Sean finally got it. Sean finally found the email. 100 % with Sam Richardson and Vanessa. And that's another Netflix.

54:06I mean, you have tons of stuff coming out. It's so exciting.

54:09Sean Hayes:By the way, Nick, you need to know that Scotty was just off camera going, I just bumped it up in your email. He just held up dates.

54:17Will Arnett:Scotty was like, do you want me to stop warming the cupcake and get you your dates? Hotmail.com backslash mail. We actually met it on Hotmail. Anyway, so that's just a little joke. Just a small joke. It wasn't Sarandos' party. It was on Hotmail. Oh, it was Hotmail, yeah. And there just felt like a comedy connection there. Yeah. So my strategy is I keep, and I feel like, honestly, you guys all also do a lot and produce a lot. Like I keep a number of balls in the air that are all at different stages of development. And so, you know, I'm, and so I think I like this show. Mating Season is the follow-up to Big Mouth and it's about animals dating and fucking and falling in love in the woods.

55:04So it feels like a natural sort of progression of that. I've been working with my partners, Mark and Andrew and Jen, on that. It's me, Zach Woods, June Diane Raphael, and Sabrina Jalise. It's like, you know, like a... Fun. Fun hangout, kind of in the vein of like an animated version of Friends or I can't remember any of those other NBC shows. Nope, can't even. Musty TV, but you know that genre. No, I mean, none really kind of stuck. Oh, Seinfeld. Yeah, Seinfeld. Wings. Wings.

55:37Sean Hayes:You're thinking of wings. Wings was great. I love wings. It's a big influence. The single guy. You're thinking of single guy. Single guy, of course, the single guy. That's what you're thinking of. Yeah, Caroline and the City. Caroline and the City. But then there was that show with the gay guys. Two guys in a pizza place. Two guys in a pizza place. We're some buddies. That was ABC. Frasier, Frasier. Yeah, yeah. And that's about it. I guess that was that must-see TV stuff. Yeah. To wrap that up.

56:05Will Arnett:But you're like in this ideal position of really kind of being your own boss and self-perpetuating, and you've got this great sort of troupe of collaborators and colleagues. For sure. Right? Is it as ideal as it sounds? It really, honestly, I really feel it right now. It really is. I feel incredibly, it's at a time when the business is tricky and things are going away and there's contraction. And the fact that I'm currently getting to make a bunch of different things is, it feels amazing. Like, and I'm writing right now, we're writing 100 % here in LA. And it's me, Manzoukas, Jason Manzoukas, Sam Richardson, Vanessa Bayer.

56:53and it's in the world of kind of like self-help influencer gurus. So we're writing that. We're going to shoot over the summer. And then I'm producing some other stuff, animated and live action. So it's great. The strategy you were talking about, Jason, I have two kids. I have a five-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old. No way. So that's the stuff that starts to play into like, how do we, how do I do this? And how do I be also like home and around and involved so that, so the opportunities, like it's like, how can I set myself up as well as I can for opportunities that I get to have some modicum of control over?

57:39Right. Like where -

57:41Will Arnett:And be in Los Angeles too. Yeah, that's, right. And that's what you guys know. Right now they can travel with you, but assume that five-year-old is going to be stuck in school and you won't be able to pop around. He doesn't want to be. If it's any consolation, he doesn't want to be in school. Does he want to be homeschooled or he's just like, he wants to kite surf. He just wants to do, you know what I mean? He likes to free solo. He saw that free solo doc and he just wants to go climb.

58:09Sean Hayes:That's very dangerous, Nick, for a child. I know. I know. We got to let them. But we got to let them. It's lucrative. First, you can get that. Even Jason knows you got to get to work. Got to get these kids to work. So, Nick, speaking about a kid, you grew up in a conservative Jewish kosher household, so no separate dishes for meat and dairy. But I read that you had one junk food day a year growing up. Oh, yeah. When you were eating. Oh, yeah. And then, what was the other thing I read about food that you did? Oh, that you fall asleep listening to a hypnotherapy tape telling you not to eat snacks?

58:45Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to a hypnotherapist. Did it work? To quit smoking. You guys all went to fucking Cary Gainer at some point, right? Did you ever go to Cary Gainer to quit smoking? Nobody can cure me.

58:56Will Arnett:I just ice-manned it. Nobody can cure me.

58:59Sean Hayes:She's my enemy. I'm unstoppable. I'm when there's nothing that will come between me and my darts. I would love to see that Western, a little spaghetti Western of you versus a cigarette in a standoff. No, we're on the same team. We're not against each other.

59:14Will Arnett:So listening to those tapes at night, was this back in the day when we were told that you could learn languages from just listening to the people speak to you when you're sleeping? Yeah, it was. This was, well, I went to Kerry Gaynor and he was like, you know, he was, you'd go to his like, you'd go to his garage in Santa Monica and there's like a sun faded picture of Katherine Heigl. She was here at some point. And we think, we hope. and so I used him to quit smoking and then I got this woman from the Deepak Chopra Institute and it was like this woman she called me and I talked to her about snacks and then she like my, because I just was, you know it's got to go somewhere, right?

1:00:02It's got to fucking go somewhere so if you can't smoke cigarettes give me some goddamn like, you know, Sour Patch Kids give me some fucking chips give me something the same way.

1:00:12Sean Hayes:She just recommending snacks? No, she would put, so she would make the snacks, she would be like, she would make the snacks, she's like, what do you find disgusting? And again, using the German, a different version. I can turn that up like five different levels and I got a couple different pitches put on it. Do you find poop videos disgusting? People ask the questions. You're like, I think I got the wrong number. So, but she would equate something like, Like maggots are disgusting. So imagine that you're, basically, imagine that your jelly bellies are maggots and they are going to, you know, it's in my stand-up.

1:00:52I do it. I can't remember any jokes anymore. But anyway, so I would listen to it when I'd go to bed and it worked for a while. But now, goddammit, I want to eat chocolate pretzels all day long. Of course.

1:01:04Will Arnett:What if you just cut out the weed? You know, if you cut out the weed, then you don't get snacky at night. Ooh, we cut out the weed. We cut out the weed. You know what I mean? I gotta be able to relate, my friends. Last thing that I think is really fascinating that I did not know is Harry Styles helped you plan your proposal to your wife, Lily. No way. I'm a big Harry Styles fan. How did that happen? We were making that movie, Don't Worry Darling, which I think is most famous for the movie.

1:01:38and it was the height of COVID.

1:01:41Will Arnett:Tell you what, that Olivia Wilde knows how to direct a film. She sure does. What a talent. Truly. She directed, and I played her husband in the movie and so it was really fun to act with her. Like, I mean, you guys, it's like sometimes when you act with somebody who's directing, you know, it's different levels and she was great. Anyway, so we, so it was the height of COVID. and I was proposing to my wife. We were, and Harry sort of like, we were planning it out. We were at the, we were doing the, we had just done the table read, and we were all hanging out, and I was sort of figuring it out, and we just, my wife and I had just moved into our new house, and so I like, you know, I had a box, and I was like, can you just move this last box?

1:02:27And she was like, give me a fucking, you know what I mean? Like, you're gonna make me move the fucking box? Like, you know? And I was like, I don't know, Harry. So no, I opened, she opened the box. There's a bunch of flowers in the ring. But Harry, and then he checked in with me to be like, how'd it go? So I told him basically before I spoke to like, we spoke to our families to let them know that we were married because he had been checking in. That's so cool. That's so cool. What a story. I mean, that's really, really cool. Sweet boy. Sweet boy. Nick Kroll, you are a pleasure, a joy. I can't believe how quickly this hour went.

1:03:01It's bananas. I know. Yeah. A real sprint. I just want to say, I've loved so many things that you've done. Here he comes, Nick. Watch out. Watch out. No, no, the top, well, I just watched Little Big Boy. Yeah. I watched Little Big Boy. It was so fucking funny. How far are you from Larchmont? Is that where you're going? No. And then, of course, oh, Cavemen. Of course. I thought that was one of the funniest shows I'd ever seen. And it was six episodes. I laughed based on the Geico character with Will and Josh yeah with Will and Josh you guys had just done Blades of Glory and then they I was in four hours of prosthetics that was my first job I was in four hours of prosthetics every morning to be one of the cavemen it's so funny but I wasn't in the commercials and everyone hated the show they loved the commercials right everyone was like I loved the show the critics hated the show but what I always took solace in was that the public hated it as well we got cancelled we shot 13 I was impressed four hours every morning it was the worst it was my first job and it was the worst job and perfect first you know what I mean like thank fucking God there's no way I could have done it later in my life so it's so funny that you like that show I love that show and then publicity of course yeah you as Liz hey Jay have you ever seen him play Liz from publicity from the Carl show I'm gonna send you a bunch of clips it's crying laughing out loud yeah Yeah, you've dealt with...

1:04:31I mean, it's like, as a gay guy, it's like, I would kill the playlist. I mean, it's fucking great. Thank you. Thank you.

1:04:37Will Arnett:Well, we want more Nick Kroll in everything and anything. I'm stoked for your new show. Thank you. Say how much fun you had today as Liz. Oh my God, you guys, being on this podcast with you, one of the most coveted slots that any publicist could just secure a spot. Spotify top 20, Apple top 20, the history, the camaraderie, the friendship, the absolute money grab that this podcast is for everybody involved. I love it. It's an honor to be hold. It's so good. And to be held by you guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Nick. Love you to death. Thank you, Nick. So good to see you, man. Brilliant. Good to see you guys.

1:05:26Thanks for having me. Thank you, buddy. Thanks for doing this. You too. Thanks, guys.

1:05:30Will Arnett:Bye, buddy. Bye. The funny, funny Nick Kroll, yeah. Yeah, it's so funny. And I love that he showed up to play. And he, I mean, he's so... Always. He's always ready to play. Yeah, and look, clearly he's got 80 ,000 things going on. But how great are these interviews when they feel like five minutes? I know. You never get to your questions, you know, just because the conversation's so good. That was so quick. He's a good fellow, that guy. Do send me some of that stuff, shall we? I will. And then I'll bet I'll go down like a YouTube hole. Oh, do send me some of those things. Do send those bits. Right after my toilet.

1:06:12Yeah, he's in full drag as Liz. It's so funny. I mean, the balls the guy has just to do anything.

1:06:18Sean Hayes:Crow Show, there were so many amazing sketches on that show. Amazing sketches, yeah. Yeah, I should probably start there. But he said he did play that one character. Here it is. Yeah, yeah, the teacher from Sit Down, Shut Up. What was the thing you remember about that teacher? Fuck, here we go. Are you ready? Yeah, the character was bisexual.

1:06:39Sean Hayes:Smart. Nice.

1:06:46Sean Hayes:Smart. Nice.

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