Scott Aukerman on Comedy Bang! Bang! — An Empire Podcast Interview Special

30:16And then I just kind of fell in love with getting rid of the pre-interview and just being in the moment. And that's where I think the podcast really started to shine. But I don't have any necessary – I don't have training. I don't know why what I'm doing works. I couldn't analyze it because I've never taken the classes. I know sort of the teachings, but I've just never taken any class.

30:38Chris Hewitt:It's so interesting because it doesn't come across that way in anything that you do. Because, you know, I guess one of the big principles of improv as well, I haven't done improv either, but I've, you know, I've read around it, is obviously what you just said, don't think and yes and. But listening is also hugely important. Yes. And being able to bring things full circle, I guess, as part of the Harold. yes i mean i i think that is something that you you know it's it's in the format of comedy bang bang trying to to bring things around and end on a big callback or something like that is it's admirable when it works out but i i think in the format of comedy bang bang it's not necessary yeah i i i'm always like listening and trying to figure out oh what can we bring back what can we back.

31:26But at the same time, it's not necessary. It's like not one of those hard and fast rules for comedy, bang, bang. So normally, like when we're doing a live show, I'm trying to end on a big, big laugh. Hopefully it's a laugh that can be a callback to something else. I would say 50 % of the time that works out. But normally what I'm trying to end the show is like, I'm looking at the time saying, okay, we've done enough time. No one's going to feel ripped off. and yet we haven't done so much time that they're fidgeting in their seats going like when the fuck is this gonna end yeah so i'm just looking for the biggest laugh at that point and then that's when i end the show and i say that's our show but yeah it's the the basic principles of improv of like yes and i was talking to connor ratliff who's a great improviser about this he's amazing and he he he was talking about this the other day with me about how invariably anytime he puts up a uh clip of improv on youtube after a while people like improvisers will start writing in in the comments about what he's doing wrong in improv and it's like uh like oh no you didn't yes and this or something like that yes and is not a hard and fast rule of like you can never

32:43Chris Hewitt:disagree with anyone on stage yeah yeah because we disagree with each other on stage all the time It is merely that when someone establishes a reality, you cannot deny it and say, you know, if someone says, like, isn't it great being in space on this rocket? You can't say, we're not on a rocket. We're on Earth standing in an Amazon warehouse. You know what I mean? That's the basic premise of Yes, And. It's not about, like, someone saying, like, well, I want to do this. And someone saying, well, you can't do that. You know, it's like, you know, there are times when you can say, no, you can't do that.

33:18And it works. I don't know. I've learned all of this through osmosis and on my own talk show. If we ever had an actor on who had never done improv, I would sort of lead them into it by saying, okay, look, this is kind of conversational improv. They didn't know the questions I was going to ask. Right. So I would say like, if I ever ask you a question like, hey, have you ever been when you like here? Here was one question that was cut out of a show. But like, hey, when you played Madison Square Garden, were you worried that you'd get hit in the face with basketballs that were being thrown? you know and i would say the worst thing you can do is say like no because no the the we were i was doing stand-up and the basketball team was not playing and because that leads you into going like oh okay yeah well never mind then you know so i would say i would say just say yes to any question like just get in the habit right now of just saying yes to any question and then we'll riff on it so it's like hey were you ever afraid of being hit in the head with a basketball and then you would see these actors who are used to being real that is their bread and butter is like bringing reality to a thing kind of like wanting to say no and because like no of course not that's not real but then like taking a deep breath and saying yes i was afraid of being hit in the head with basketballs and i was constantly saying like you know can you guys aim a little hot you know higher above my head while i'm trying to do my jokes and then it leads into us riffing and doing and doing stuff so that's that's the basic premise but we we deny people's stuff all the time and say no in the middle of stuff so it's like i don't know yeah the rules are meant to be broken yes

35:07Chris Hewitt:exactly but it's really interesting when you have people on the show that you can you know actors and you can actually feel them clicking with the format of the show i mean you had john ham back the podcast the other the other the last episode really yeah he's been on several times just gets it he loves to do bits um that's that's the thing is like actors it can be an adjustment for them to be on comedy bang bang because um they're used to doing um just interviews where people are interested in their work much like you're doing with me right now but um they would much rather just do bit like 75 of them get finished doing their first episode of comedy bang bang and say that was the greatest thing i didn't have to talk about myself um and i just got to do bits the whole time and just had fun.

35:54Like this is the best podcast that I've done on this podcast tour that I've done. So that's what I think is really fun is like getting people who are just locked into nothing is serious. I'm going to ask stupid questions. I don't care about the answers. It's just leading us into bits. And that's what's really fun. Tatiana Maslany is another one who's just absolutely amazing. Yeah, she was a fan of the show who I met But because she came to a live show in San Diego at Comic-Con.

36:25Chris Hewitt:Wow. And I was a fan of Orphan Black. And then she, I guess, and her co-star Christian Bruhn would listen to the show all the time. And that's what they were bonding over when they were filming Orphan Black is like episodes that would come out. And so they both came to the show. The first time I ever met them, they came dressed as Ninja Turtles and Ninja Turtle masks, thinking it was Comic-Con and everyone would be dressed up as stuff. and they were the only people dressed as anything. But that was the first time I met them. And yeah, so she's great on the show because she's a fan. And Jack Quaid is another one who kind of grew up listening to it, I think.

37:00That's terrifying. That's a terrifying prospect. Just a thought. But he gets it. He's like one of those rare actors who says, can I do a character as well? And so he'll do his interview as himself, non-serious, and then segue into doing a character. It's really great when a celebrity locks in with the format like that. And you must have had the opposite happen as well. You don't have to name names, obviously. No, but I mean, especially in the earlier years, that's always a fear of mine, booking someone that I don't know personally who is like booked through a publicist. You kind of go like, you have to feel around and go, do they know what the show is?

37:41And then sometimes you'll hear, yes, they're a big fan.

37:45Chris Hewitt:that's true 90 of the time when publicists say it sometimes publicists just say stuff like that yeah and it's not true that's happened a couple of times where someone someone arrives and and i've been told they're a big fan they go so what is this show and oh boy and then you explain you explain like okay well it's these comedians are doing characters there's been a couple of times where they go i have to sit through people doing characters you know it's like so that's always the fear but um we try to ask as many questions beforehand to make sure that they're not coming in totally blind um like i had uh david desmalchian on um recently and i was like in my head about it for about a day before going like what's he gonna think about this experience i was like god what if he thinks this is stupid and then he arrived and was like hey you know um And I was helping my friend out who was your set designer on your TV show, and I painted a part of your set.

38:44He was like, I was a big fan of the TV show. I was like, oh, great. You know what it is. Oh, thank God. That's always like a relief for me when people finally say that they know what the show is.

38:53Chris Hewitt:I have had the exact same experience. I've had publicists say, oh, this director would love to be on your show. He listens all the time. And then he walks into the room and he clearly has never heard of the podcast or has no idea who I am, which nobody should, in fairness. Well, yeah. I mean, it happens a lot where I do a movie podcast as well called Scott Hasn't Seen where I talk to. Sometimes I talk to directors and actors and comedians and people like that. And every once in a while, there will be someone I know doesn't know what the show is. And I kind of can treat them like I can do interviews several different ways.

39:27Like I can do a serious interview, no problem. And I've done those. And that is a skill set I have. I don't really use it on Comedy Bang Bang itself because that's just a silly show and it's meant to be really silly. So I try to keep it light. But I do I can do serious interviews. And so like talking to Shane Black, for instance, you know, big thrill because I'm a big fan of his work. I was able to do, you know, a pretty serious, just thoughtful interview knowing he doesn't know the comedy that I've done, you know. But then, you know, someone will come on who, you know, we just had Jeremy Slater on who wrote the Mortal Kombat movie and the upcoming Coyote vs.

40:12Acme. Yes. And that was through a publicist. And I was like, okay, well, how silly can we get here? And when he walked in, he was like, by the way, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I was like, oh, thank God. Okay. I can be myself. I don't have to pretend.

40:27Chris Hewitt:I don't have to pretend I'm someone else. Oh, that's amazing. so Scott I said we should talk about film as well and you've been very generous with your time but I said at the beginning I introduced you as an actor first that was alphabetical of course but it's also undeniable you are in Austin Powers and Goldmember that's right that's one of the few movies I'm actually in do people recognize you from behind because that's basically all you see yeah so that was a very unique experience where um i auditioned to be in austin powers gold member and the the role was uh the young michael kane like michael kane was playing austin powers dad and they were going to do flashbacks in the movie and so i worked up a michael kane impression uh which you know it was probably terrible but the you know akin to like hello i'm michael kine you know stuff like that so it was like basically like that so i worked up a michael kane impression i did the the audition then i didn't hear back for a long time and i was just like well i guess i didn't get that but then months and months and months later i heard i got it with the caveat i had to go meet mike myers and jay roach to see if i was right for it and i was like if i'm right for it What does that mean?

41:49And, um, I went down to the studio and I remember this very vividly. Uh, they were in this giant studio rehearsing, uh, like these bits that, that Mike Myers was going to do. And, um, it, he was doing like this leg bit, which I think is number three, like uncrossing and crossing his legs or something like that.

42:11Chris Hewitt:Yeah. And I like watch and I laughed and then, um, then they broke and came over to me and I had, weirdly i had like had dinner with mike myers once through dave foley uh but i i didn't really know him but like you know they they knew i was on mr show yeah yeah and they they knew odin kirk and cross and um so they they were very generous and like both of them talking to me about mr show and what the process was like they were like very interested in comedy and so we had like a 20 minute conversation about comedy and then they go like all right well um turn around let's get to it i was like what what's happening right now you don't want to hear those words at the start of and so i turned around they're like yeah that's yeah that'll work and i'm like what is going on right now so it turns out since i auditioned the first time they had acquired uh these clips of a Michael Caine movie that he made in the 60s that they were going to cut into the film for anytime Michael Caine was facing the camera and then anytime he was not facing the camera they were going to use me as like a body double so so the part no longer had any lines and but it was like me walking around doing these physical bits right so I was like oh okay well that's a bummer but I mean you know still is nice to be in the movie and and i have to say like when i was on set um they were very generous where like uh jay and and mike the writer were like coming up to me saying like hey what do you think about this bit um you know is how would you punch it up or you know they were like treating me like a peer you know and not like a background actor so it was like a nice experience you know but it is it is very funny the fact that i'm in this movie have no lines and you just see my back and that's like the one movie it's like the biggest movie i was ever in and it's like you know kind of embarrassing but at the same time it's like funny you know it's yeah it's terrific and then the addendum to this story is the next time i saw jay roach i was doing punch up for meet the fuckers the sequel to meet the parents and um this is before it came out before they had shot it they they did a round table where people pitched uh jokes and also like scenes and stuff like that um and weirdly i pitched a scene which ended up not from them copying it but just parallel thought uh that ended up in the knives out sequel uh where I pitch because Robert De Niro is this FBI guy who can see through anyone lying.

45:00I was like, it would be really fun if they went to a murder mystery party and Robert De Niro like immediately knew who did it and like was acting like the FBI guy he is and ruined the party for everyone. Yeah. And I was like, I thought this was a great idea for a scene. They ended up not using it and meet the fuckers or probably even thinking it was a good idea. But then you watch Glass Onion and that happens in Glass Onion. Great scene. Great scene.

45:28Chris Hewitt:Yeah. So anyway, so that's the next time I saw Jay Roach and he walks into the room like all the writers are assembled and Jay gets there a little bit afterwards. He walks in the room, sees me and goes, hey, and I'm like, hey, he remembers me. This is great. We do the entire eight hour, 10 hour day. We're saying goodbye. He was like, that was so great, everyone. Thanks so much. and he says to me, he's like, good to see you again. And we got to, and then he mimes playing basketball. And I'm like, he thinks he knows me from playing basketball.

46:01He thinks he knows me. He like obviously recognized me, but couldn't place me. And the whole time was like, I think I've played basketball with him.

46:09Chris Hewitt:That's amazing. But then I've seen him since then and he knows who I am. So, because I also know his wife. So it's, it all worked out. That is the saga of Austin Powers' gold member. That's amazing. His wife, of course, being Susanna Hoffs. Yes. Of the Bangles. Yes. She has been on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast a few times and then was in the TV show as well. So occasionally I'll see them at a concert and Susanna will be like, Scott Ackerman! And mine playing basketball. Yes, exactly. Could you play the back of Yann Michael Caine in any other movie, do you think? I think so. So I think if he were to continue being Alfred in the Batman franchise, I would love to do that.

46:46I would love to buttle with my butt. Turn around. Let's get started. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you know, the minute they, I think Mike Myers announced that they were doing another Austin Powers or something because he filmed those Dr. Evil commercials. Yeah. People were all saying like, we got to get you in there. You know, so I think what's funny about it is I feel I talk about Austin Powers more than he talks about Austin Powers. And I've been keeping the brand alive for the Comedy Bang Bang fans. So it would be a very funny in joke to have just my back in the new Austin Powers movie. But I'm sure he has no idea that the fans of Comedy Bang Bang have kept this alive.

47:28We'll make sure he knows.

47:29Chris Hewitt:But would you see a scenario where he had you looking at camera, maybe as yourself, and you turn around? And then Michael Caine plays my back? Yep. I love that idea. Yep. I'm in old age makeup. I don't know. Not necessarily. Michael Caine's got range. He could play your back. I guess they could use Irishman technology to de-age him, although the Irishman technology didn't de-age their bodies at all. Walking around doing the Biden shuffle with young faces. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that would be very funny. These are all in jokes that I'm sure Mike Myers has no interest in entertaining, but the fans of Comedy Bang Bang would love it.

48:11We'll make it happen.

48:13Chris Hewitt:And you're also, you have also directed as well. You directed the Between Two Ferns movie, of course, because in case people don't know, you co-created it. Co-created Between Two Ferns with Zach. Yeah. Which is one of the, just the funniest things. Thank you. Yes. that was very fun we did the shorts for for a long time and then we'd been trying to crack the idea for a movie for a while and we'd had similar to the meet the fuckers roundtable we'd had roundtables with comedians like asking them like what do you think the plot of a between two ferns movie could be at one point we were getting too almost too like into the theme of between we We were talking a lot about the theme of Between Two Ferns of like, what is it?

48:56Well, it's anti-celebrity culture. That's like very important to Zach is like puncturing the sort of pompousness of the celebrity interview. Right.

49:08Chris Hewitt:Yeah. So it's anti that. So we were getting very into the theme and going down the rabbit hole of like, okay, well, what if the plot is Zach is on a quest to unplug the Internet? um like he finds out there's a there's an electrical outlet that the entire internet is like plugged into and it's like a quest we started getting very into that and it started just feeling very heavy and like plot plot based at one point we were talking about like it halfway through it turning into a horror movie um and at at a certain point i just as the years went on I just like sat up in my bed one day I feel like and I was just like it's so much simpler than this like it's just a road movie where he has to collect 10 interviews and he's trying to get from one coast to the other coast that's just as simple as it can be we don't have to worry about this fucking complicated plot so when I figured out that i i called zach up i go i think it's this and he was like yes great i love it and then we went to netflix and they it was like one of the easiest pitches of just like we kind of want to do a movie they're like great here's 20 million dollars um and uh so that was the good part about it and then making it was very tough yeah you've uh you've talked about this in the past that it was a tough experience well it was it was definitely fun everyone had a lot of fun zach at one point it was saying like i haven't had this much fun on a set since the hangover it was like very very fun to make but um doing an improvised movie is is tough and what i was really wanting to do is not to do it like the christopher guest movies where um a lot of especially like best in show is a little more plot focused but um but a lot of the christopher guest movies like the the plot happens in interviews this is getting very into the minutiae of of this which i hope is okay for your podcast but um okay so if you watch a christopher guest movie a lot of plot advancement is done in interviews so fred willard will be um talking and he'll be he'll be telling a story about something that happened.

51:35And it's very funny because you find Fred Willard, he's so hilarious. And that's where a lot of the laughs come in is like someone talking about something that happened or someone talking about something that's going to happen. But I really wanted to do an improvised movie that was narrative-based where we improvised the plot, right? So it is a simple plot of like, hey, we got to go get these 10 interviews and deliver them to Will Ferrell. So that structure was there, but then the scenes themselves were always like up to the day of whatever would happen. So... Jesus. And that's very difficult to pull off.

52:15Stressful? Stressful. The part where it worked the best is stuff in the first act where Zach is working for a public access TV station. We did so many scenes in there that were so funny that would have worked really, really well for a TV show that was set in a public access station. Yeah, yeah. And we shot hours and hours and hours worth of that stuff. And then, you know, me knowing this, but not realizing it in the moment, like first acts are always the things that you cut because people want the movie to start, you know? And that is the thing that when you're writing a script, people tend to write their first acts really long because they fall in love with the world building and the setup.

53:07And it's always fun to set up a character's quirks and all this kind of stuff. And so we shot so much in the first act. And when we were testing the movie, it was like, we have to cut all this. And so we have just hours and hours of stuff that's so fun. And when we were in a controlled environment of this set we had built for the public access TV station, we had so much fun for those three weeks of shooting. And then when we started getting out on the road and improvising scenes, it just gets harder because plot stuff is harder on the road. And so it was a real learning curve for me. the the thing i did which i was very proud of was i was intent on having options um when you're doing improv stuff the worst thing that can happen or any movie is like only having the budget to shoot like what's on the page and you you can't really cut anything because then your movie isn't going to be long enough or isn't going to make sense and like we shot so much stuff that we shot whole subplots that are not in the movie anymore like there's a the characters uh zach's parents and his family are no longer in the movie which is a bummer because they were all really great actors yeah um but it was dragging the movie down and so we and we had the ability we had so much material that i was able to put together a movie that makes sense and is funny all the way through um but that said it was it was really tough to do and i think if i were to direct another movie i would want to have a script that i loved and like improv around the script instead of basically like coming in the script was a bunch of pages of us just like ideas what might happen and with no dialogue it was it was very difficult to do um and then we're also doing these Between Two Ferns episodes on top of it while we were shooting.

55:04You know, like anytime a celebrity had a moment, we would set up the Between Two Ferns set and then have to... That's a whole different skill set is like doing these fake interviews in the middle of the movie. So it was... I'm proud of the fact that it came out as well as it came out, but it also, like, I look at it and go like, oh my God, I wish I could just direct a movie that has a script.

55:27Chris Hewitt:Is that happening? Is there other plans afoot? There, every once in a while, something will cut. There's a script that I have been trying to direct for a while that we're, it all comes down to casting and we're just trying to, trying to figure that out. Um, there's, yeah, I don't, I don't know. You know, it, the, the business, I, the, the Between Two Ferns movie came out in September of 2019. It did really well. as far as i was concerned um netflix has weird metrics and they were disappointed with 30 million people watching it um but um i thought it did really well and it was very well received around town and so i took a lot of meetings in like october november then about what to direct next and there are some movies that came out that i ended up passing on um and others i didn't get and then the town shuts down for Christmas and then by the time everything kind of ramped back up again, suddenly COVID happened.

56:32That'll do it. I was getting off of the Between Two Ferns movie I got probably 20 scripts sent to me of like, hey, would you want to direct this? And I was taking all these meetings. COVID happens. It totally derails the momentum of my career. And the business has changed. I've said to my agent at one point like remember when i got sent 20 scripts does that happen anymore they go no it doesn't happen anymore like no one there just aren't jobs like that anymore no one's making these movies anymore yeah um so it's it's tough i on the one hand you got to look on the bright side and go like you know what i it would have been terrible to be in the middle of making the between two ferns movie and suddenly covet happens like in the middle of production and shuts us down and we never get back going again and i have to piece it together using whatever we had pre-covid or something so it's like it's it's such a blessing that we were done with it uh and we finished it in 2019 but at the same time it's kind of just such a bummer for my my career trajectory but at the same time like look i got to direct one movie and it came out

57:40Chris Hewitt:pretty funny so it's like you know if you listen to this hollywood and i know you are uh give scott another movie to direct. Yeah. You bastards. I could do a good job. Yeah, of course you can. Absolutely. And, you know, if you're looking at the Between Two First movie, that was intentionally shitty looking.

57:57I could work. I mean, our DP was great and, like, would get very frustrated with me saying, like, can I make this, can I make this shot look good? And I'd be like, we don't have time. Run and gun, run and gun. This is supposed to look bad. And at one point, like, he's, he just said to me,

58:15Chris Hewitt:like if I had half hour, I could make this one particular shot look really good. No, we did. Honestly, like we did. And I look at that shot and I go like, damn, should I have made the whole movie like this? But again, I was trying to go as fast as I could and get as much material so that I could edit it down to the 80 minutes or whatever it turned out to be. And that's a success as far as I'm concerned. But, you know, I would love to make a movie that looked good because I gave the DP more time to actually work on shots because there was a script. Two Ferns, very quick last things, if you don't mind.

58:51Chris Hewitt:In terms of Between Two Ferns, how much were the celebrities in on it? How much were your interviewees aware of the questions Sack was going to ask? So I think if you look at the credits of the Between Two Ferns movie, which is where we have the outtakes, the only time we've ever released outtakes. And by the way, these are constantly like being shared on Instagram, like, you know, accounts. Obviously, I would prefer if Between Two Ferns had an account and we're sharing this and that's how people saw it. But it's just people ripping it off of Netflix. Why doesn't it? I don't know. Anything Between Two Ferns related is like a big ordeal.

59:31um but um so if you look at the bloopers though um you'll see that uh the the celebrities did not know any of the questions that were being asked because they're outright like laughing at how funny the questions are so that's that's i think what was really fun about it the one exception was barack obama um when we interviewed him we i pushed as hard as i could for it being improvised um and at the end of the day they said there is no way that the sitting president of the united states will do this um and and not know what the questions are going to be um there's no way he'll do a comedy video and not have a script to it so we we acquiesced in that case but i gotta say then uh two years later i pushed for it during hillary clinton and i won that one i was just like i i said this is our process you got to respect our process she's got to not know what the questions are um beforehand and they go well barack obama did i said he was the sitting president she's not and and i won that one and so she didn't know what the questions were beforehand

1:00:44Chris Hewitt:there's an element in that interview of her potentially not reacting entirely well would you say or is she absolutely playing the game no that's manufactured okay i mean i i think i think for the most part um everyone that we did it with was pretty having a good time for the most part i will i will say the one time zach got really um felt like the celebrity was not having fun uh with sean penn because um he was so intense uh and you can see it in the video at one point he's like you know i might knock you the fuck out at one point and zach felt that was real in the moment and started saying thinking in his head like oh sean's not having a good time so he signaled to me like cut we gotta we gotta stop like we gotta stop this interview and because he felt really weird about it i was thinking this is great sean's a great actor um this is going really well and um then then we cut and then sean was like hey do you want to go to a bar to like it was all fine but like zach felt in his head about it at the time so like exudes presence yes and right so exactly but no everyone everyone for the most part i i got into uh i would much like on the comedy bambing tv show where i was trying to lead actors into like what makes a good fake interview i i sort of had my spiel any because we had to do you know 15 of these or whatever for the between two ferns movie i i and i had no idea if anyone knew what it was um when they would get cast in the movie i just had my spiel where i was like okay so this is a fake interview zach's gonna ask rude questions intentionally um you you know act just how you would in the moment if someone were asking you this you know like be upset you know whatever you want to do but but that is part of the fun of this is he's going to ask rude questions you know and um it was very funny because keanu reeves did it and i was like going this is probably the eighth time or tenth time i've done it on this movie because he was kind of late in the experience So I was like, okay, so Zach's going to ask you rude questions.

1:03:04And he goes, uh, I know that's why I'm doing this. I was like, okay, great. You know what it is. Okay. Awesome. Um, yeah. So they're, they're all pretty into it and having a good time. And you can see that in the bloopers of just like, you know, Jon Hamm's like laughing till he's crying in it. And yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun to shoot these.

1:03:26Chris Hewitt:Amazing. Uh, so we're doing this in your studio, um, which is fantastic. I was a fairly late adopter of Comedy Bang Bang, as in, I think I got into it via Are You Talking R.E.M. Re Me. Oh, wow. Not necessarily Are You Talking U2 to Me. That was the original. If people don't know what he's talking about, I understand. But it's a different podcast that I host with Adam Scott of Severance fame. and it started as a U2 podcast, the band U2. And then we did several other seasons about the band's REM and Talking Heads and Bruce Springsteen. And yeah, so you started on the REM season, which was our second season.

1:04:12Chris Hewitt:Yes, and I just adored it. And it feels to me like you obviously have these incredible relationships with the likes of Paul and Lauren and Andy, people we've talked about. But it seems to me like one of your real happy places is just riffing with Adam Scott. Yes, I really enjoy it. Adam is someone that I met quite a few years ago on a poker night, I'm pretty sure. Not basketball around Jay Roaches? No. But I do remember being in a car with him and saying like, hey, I wrote this pilot that I think you'd be good for. And he said, I don't really do TV. So that was very funny. I bring that up to him all the time.

1:04:57And he's like, why would I have said that? I, of course I do TV. Yeah. But, but yeah, I, he was a big fan of Mr. Show. So I think he was excited to meet me, which is like put us kind of at a level playing field in a way. So I've never felt like intimidated by him or anything like that. But I really like, he's a good friend and I really enjoy his sense of humor. and um you know it's it's just very fun to be in a room with them and and um yeah those shows are very unique i mean the first time i asked him to do comedy bang bang he's great because he always just goes like yeah whatever yeah and does and he's sort of our good luck charm in filming too because he was in the pilot episode of comedy bang bang the tv show he was in the pilot episode of bajillion dollar properties which is a show my wife created that i produced yeah um he was in our Michael Bolton big sexy Valentine's Day special.

1:05:52And he always just says yes to anything. So it's like I love. But the first time he said yes to the podcast, I was like, oh, I wonder what he's going to be. And he just started doing the silliest, weirdest shit. And I was just like, God, I love I love this guy. I love doing bits with this guy. It's so fun. So, yeah, he's it's so much fun to do those. But he never breaks.

1:06:16Chris Hewitt:He never breaks. I don't recall a time when he dissolves into fits of laughter, whereas you'll have people like Lily Sullivan on Comedy Bang Bang who just giggles constantly. You can hear PFT in the background. The one time I can remember that he broke was he was talking about the night he met his wife at this bar, local bar, The Cat and the Fiddle. And we were just, you know, anytime we have a conversation, it's an excuse to do bits, right? So it was like, tell me about the time you met your wife. And he's like, well, I met her at the cat and the fiddle, uh, this bar. Um, and then, um, uh, I, we, something about like, he was talking about the most important things in his life, uh, were, I forget what number one was, but say it's God, right?

1:07:03Number one is God. Uh, number two is my career and number three would be my relationships. but then I met my wife and I said to her, I have a new number two. And I said, did you go to the bathroom right after that? And he's like, yep, I immediately went to the bathroom. But I told her I have a new number two. And I do remember like both of us crying, laughing at that. And it sounds very stupid if you're hearing it secondhand, but in the moment, it's very fun. Go and check it out. Go and check it out. Yes. Those shows are very fun to do. Yes.

1:07:39Chris Hewitt:Amazing. Well, Scott, you have been more than generous with your time. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for being interested. Well, no, thank you for being interesting, sir. And I will see you in Dublin. Yes, that'll be great. It will be fantastic. I will be yelling at you from wherever my seat is. Okay. I hope you don't do that, but okay, sure. Do you allow heckles in your shows? I mean, honestly, we don't love them, but they happen all the time. But in the meantime, we'll let you go. And all remains for me to say, because I've always wanted to say this, Good ep. Thank you. Good ep. Love it.

1:08:13Chris Hewitt:Good ep. Cheers. Bye. Good ep indeed. Thanks again to Scott for being so generous with his time and his equipment and to his that sounded rude and to his excellent team for sending over the audio and working their comedy bang bang magic on it. If you're in the mood for CBB's ground beefing tour, live show tickets and seeing Scott with Andy Daly and PFT. Go to ComedyBangBangWorld.com for venue info and ticket links. And hey, if you do see me in Dublin next week, say hello. I'll know what you mean. And on that note, that is it for me. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.