Zachary Levi

How you doing out there. It's me Tigger Duc Wayne Duck. It's me
Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All right, y'all, did it ring your favorite firefly
you desire? Hold old knock guy. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome
to tuned In. As you can see, we are live and kicking tuned
in with Jim Commings, and today we have a very very special guest.
Thank me later. Boom. Yes, thanks for coming. Man, I'm
so happy to be here. I'm so glad. We bumped into each other
and You're like, hey, I'm doing this podcast and I was like,
cool, let's go. We'll all worked out. So yeah. Well,
you know we met a few times at conventions we have and uh oh no,
no stop it. Yeah no no no, A big, really big,
huge, huge, massive fan of your work. Oh well wait thanks,
And I'm a massive fan of your height cause you're really yeah, dark
and handsome. If you've heard a tall, dark and handsome, I'm the
poster child. He's the poster child. Oh man, you know it must
be terrible up there. It's horrible. Yeah, chicks hate it, and
I just I repulse them. I'm like, I'm a chick. Magnet.
But it's the other side of the magnet where they're like, well, they
just keep bouncing right off. And man, yeah, we all believe that
everyone buys. There's not a soul out there, not a soul out there.
Now, I think we're allowed to say this because we've been under constraints
this way, that way, et cetera, due to the strike. But
by the time this airs, oh we're all good. Yeah, by the
time this records, I mean the time this riccords. Yeah, that's what
he said. So we can talk about all of our work now, isn't
that fun? Yeah. So, since you've got about eighteen hundred more things
in the fire than me, tell us what is next? Any given thing?
Or like too many to mention? I don't know. Oh no,
no, no, I mean, listen, man, I'm I'm I'm so
blessed and I'm so grateful for the life and the career and everything that I've
been given. And absolutely I've got a lot of little irons in the fire
and things like that. But as much as I wish that I could say,
oh, I've got more than I can handle and I'm beating I'm out
with the stick. No, you know, I well, listen, there's
a few movies that I've I've already shot. They're in the can and they'll
be coming out next year. Actually, oh I can say for the first
time publicly or whatever. Oh, it's not even that big of a drum
roll, because it's already out right now. But Spike Kids Armageddon is on
Netflix right now. I haven't been able to promote it at all. Okay,
anybody out there wants to go watch a really good family movie with all
the feels like that and it's fun and it's adventure and you know, go
check it out. It's a lot of fun. Me and Gina Rodriguez get
to be the new parents in the Spike Yeah, I get to Tonio Benderis,
which is about time. Oh you're kidding. So that's really fun.
Finally made it to adulthood, I know, right, I mean, I
mean, you're a you're an eight year old playing an adult. Yeah,
well no, Billy, Billy's more sixteen seventeen at this point. Well okay,
but anyway, so that's on Netflix. Go watch that if you haven't
already watched that, and and then and then next year. I love your
Pello, by the way, I love all the news knit it this afternoon.
It looked like your work. It seems like you're your craftsmanship. But
so I did. I've done a couple of films that are in the can
and waiting to come out. One's called The Unbreakable Boy. Did it with
lions Gate. I'm hoping it comes comes out next year. Beautiful little,
I mean, very small, grounded, family dramedy, true story about a
young boy. Uh well, a couple that meets each other. They get
pregnant super quick. They're like, all right, well let's try and you
know, figure this out. They have their son. There's some weird companys.
They don't realize until later that he has two interesting complications. One,
he is autistic. They don't. And by the way, this was years
ago, so as before autism was really even like a thing that people were
understanding quite as much as we do now, which is unfortunate how often it
happens now. But also he has osteogenesis imperfecta, which is brittle bones disease.
And so it's a true story. The father of this family wrote the
book The Unbreakable Boy. We made the movie of it, actually, we
made it shot at the end of twenty twenty but it's just kind of been
sitting in the can. Hopefully that comes out next year. Would love people
to go and see that. I shot a movie called Not Without Hope,
which is also a true story, very tragic story for friends football players that
went fishing off the coast of Florida in two thousand and nine. I think
so not even that long ago, true story, true true story. Their
book capsized. They got caught in a storm and three of the four guys
died. I played the gentleman who survived and lived to tell the tale,
wrote a book, and we made the movie of that. That should come
out this next year, I believe. And Harold in the Purple Crayon actually,
which is based on the children's book of the same name. We shot.
That sounds it sounds like I'm in the you know, I'm at Barnes
and Noble and I'm in the kids section. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. It's actually, it's quite It's interesting. It's a very very famous
children's book that some kids grew up with, some kids didn't. But I
guarantee you if you saw the cover of it, you'd be like, oh,
I know exactly what that. That is cool. But it's a little
boy in little footy pajamas that you know, has this magical purple crayon and
he can kind of create his own worlds and he learns lessons along the way.
But we shot that film in twenty two last year, and that should
be coming out next year as well. So those are all the future projects
nice we've got in the can. And then there's other things that I've been
developing for a little while that I'm trying to get, you know, off
the ground, and now that the strike is over, hopefully we can dive
into all that. God, that's wonderful. Thanks man. What about you?
What's going on in your world? I'm diddy bopping and lollygagging. Oh
we simultaneously. Next week I'm going to upgrade to shilly shally and I mean
that you can hold me to that. How well? Okay, but hold
on a second. You have so many voices and you play all of these
characters. How how how busy do they keep you? I'm doing fine.
Yeah, you know, in spite of everything, I've got two series that
are percolating away. And I'm pretty sure I could say this one. I
had a character that originated long, long time ago. You were probably not
born when but okay, well anyway you met, okay, you were like
five, but when's the kids? Wing Duck, Dark Wing Duck. Good
d dark Wing. I'm so happy you're in trouble. Just w dark Wing
Duck. Oh my god, are you kidding me? I was a huge
Argen Duck fan. Of course, that entire lineup, Dark Wing Duck,
Tailspin bonkers, what was bonkerskays Parkers Deep the best detective and I was that,
okay, it's over, stop cut rescue right now, no, no
chip. It was Disney Afternoon, and he was he was the kind of
this step Am I allowed to say that? Right? You talk about gingers
that way? Can gingers know that? This is how everybody? I love
Gingers. I'm just saying, even though they are evil? Uh Wakers?
Hold on, I'm going to have to google this because the voice sounded super
familiar. But obviously you've done so many voices, so dude, so wait,
so dark Wing, what's happening? Dark Wing Duck? They bring back?
That's why it's like, can I talk about it? See? He
knows that the like those notes you know something you know, yeah, you
know some fecal metals is having yeah. Yeah, it's like an old TV
exactly. Yeah. So listen, man, I mean it's iconic. Dark
wing Dog is an iconic character. Thanks. I I agree. What are
you gonna do? Okay? So so a little bit of that going on?
Are you Is there any more Pooh work, winning the Pooh work,
Oh winning the pool? Yea, yea yeah, because obviously we're all doing
it. I was gonna say this, gotta get a good BM in everything.
Really, God, I'm not having a solid BM once a day.
You need to talk to some about that's right, but not me. God,
that was funny. Uh any, No, it's we have to wait
and see. You know, the thing of it is, it's been my
experience because right out of the gate, I landed the roll of winning the
poop? Thank you lord. Yeah. You know when I first got into
the business, made a demo tape and they said, would you like to
audition for Winning the Poop? I said yes? When was that eighty five?
Eighty five? And is that when they relaunched the cartoons and all that.
Yeah, yeah, the New Adventures and Winning the Poop It's called the
New Adventures. And then there was like then there were movies and Halloween,
Shrove Tuesday specials and it was great. So my childhood guys, Yeah,
oh yeah, wonderful. Think about Tigger. Okay, that's really funny.
Don't do that again. You know, we could get Zachary. We don't
need jam. We don't need jam. This tick is a wonderful thing.
The toximent and a rubble, the bundle in a spring. Okay, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, dude, I love it.
I love it. That's so cool. Yeah, somebody's got to do it,
right. Yeah. Well, I've always said it's this kind of thing
that used to get me kicked out of class. Oh yeah, did you
were you? Were you in that category? Were you? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean I I should have been on adderall since I was a fetus,
like my ADHD and my mind and heart and soul and creative flow and
all of the things. I was always kind of like. Now, granted,
I I think that part a big part of all of that was growing
up in the circumstances I grew up and I was a middle boy between two
girls and no father figure around. I had my like growing up was going
you know, family shopping trips to Mervin's. It was my mom and my
sisters and my cousin and my aunts and California. Oh yah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, big big CALLI boy grew up
in Ventura, California, you know, yea not too far from from here
and where y'all are at. But yeah, Murvins, I know, right,
and Marshalls and everything. But anyway, yeah, but you know,
so I've been I think a lot of that, or my kind of entertainer
in me spawned from like I need to find who I am and my identity
and also be seen and all that kind of stuff. But it was always
intrinsic in me, and I loved I've always loved entertaining people, and particularly
as a kid, you know, you learn early funny voices are entertaining,
and so I've been doing funny voices, silly voices always, and loving cartoons
and loving all that stuff, and and always trying to challenge myself how do
I sound like that? Or how do I sound like that? And doing
dialects of you know, English. You know, one of my favorite things
is to go find English people. But it's difficult now a lot of people
know who I am or what I look like. But for those that don't.
I can go to them and be like, how you doing, and
then we just have a whole fucking conversation. Yeah, and then and you
know, later on they're like, why are you are you taking the pace?
I'm not, no, I'm not taking the piece as aol. Well
what you're talking about, you know? But all that, that all started
when I was four. That all started when I was just like, you
know, trying to sound like Daffy Duck or bugs Bunny or or Winnie the
Pooh or whatever that Oh my god, well, you know, I am
ashamed. I can't believe I'm going to tell this, but it's true.
I occasionally and I used to live in New Orleans and it was in the
seventies. Yeah, and it was before anything, you know, any disease
that you could catch would make your head. Why, it was well before
that. And there was a certain time when I thought there would be most
advantageous to be from Liverpool. That's Pool. That's not England. I mean,
that's England, England, that's Liverpool. Yeah, I know. I
always end up on George George Lennon, George Lennon, that's together, the
two together. And why am I sound like I'm asking a question. Yeah,
all right, I was that time. Yeah yeah, but that was
technical. Yeah yeah, it's so fun. Man, Oh god, yeah,
I know. It was like a secret power girls. Oh my god.
Do you know the Beatles, like the Beetles, like but you know
the Beadles, and oh I know them absolutely. They grew up down the
road from me. Yes, okay, now I'm gonna tell my Beatles story.
Tell it. Okay. So I was in a band in the world
is pretty popular man, Well, yes, a couple of those. But
then, but then, but then I ended up a singer because I was
always singing awesome, and they didn't need a drummer. And I remember,
give me the microphone, a ton of ship less to carry. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah I can carry. I can't carry a mic stand or
I can carry an entire drums Now I'm good. Give me this tambourine,
you know you Davy Jones from the Monkeys. Yeah, yeah, but it
was but but no I did that, and oh god, I blanked on
where I was going New Orleans in a band Liverpool. You were doing the
whole Beetle Star. Yeah, And so we were making thank you, We
were actually making a living. Uh. In the band it was called fusion.
The band was Confusion. Band was called Fusion, and one S it
was wasn't bad and one because they started they started seeing Yes, yes,
they started with fushion and I go, guys, we got to get rid
of an s because it's called fusion and they thought it was cool. Like
no, it's like the monkeys were not the monkeys. Well yeah, but
also the monkeys spelled it with two ease. That's still pronounceable. That's not
changing the literal pronunciation. And it's not words. Let's have a discussion about
fashion. Anyway, I got got rid of the the the and uh,
we were we would hang around at sound City, which was the guitar Center
of New Orleans if you will, the guitar center, the guitar center,
Hi, not guitar, No guitar, guitar. Yeah. See that's how
you can tell where it was. Uh. And so we're hanging out and
we would go and we would just hang out there on Saturday mornings and stuff
like that, waiting for people to recognize us. You know, we're all
like, yeah, maybe you've seen us, maybe you know from our show
the other day. Yeah, we're fushion, I mean fusion yea. And
so we're hanging out and the guy Lewis Junk was the owner of there,
and he's sitting there and he's playing this, uh, this black Fender bass
guitar and he and I'm looking at it, and he was right handed,
and I said, you know you're playing that upside down and he goes,
oh, yeah, well you know Paul's left handed. And I go yeah.
And there was a guy that worked there named Paul who played bass,
and he had a Rickenbacker and this was a Fender, wasn't a Rickenbacker.
And I said, Paul's right handed. He goes, no, he's left
handed. I go, no, he's not. No, he's not.
And he plays that stupid, terrible sounding rickenbacker. He was in the show
band called show Boat. Naturally, he's begging for it, begging should be
anyway. So and I said, so, so what do you what are
you doing with that? He goes, oh, wait, he's recording over
at C. Saint Studios And I said, no, he's not. He's
right out there. He's like forty ten thirty feet away and he's selling guitar
strings to some Nimrod from you know, shaw Mett And he goes, no,
he's not. He's down at Seat Saint Studios and he's recording an album.
I said, he's not recording an album in this particular lifetime. And
all the time I'm thinking he's talking about this Paul Williams. And then he
gets out. He goes, anyway, we're gonna work on his guitar.
And he pulls out this guitar case and it's got moist in New Orleans,
International, London, Heathrow Insurance, blah blah blah, and I what the
hell, what do you do? Buy it from England? Is this a
mail order? And he goes, excuse me, He says, no,
no, no, this is Paul McCartney's guitar, I said me. And
I grabbed it. I swear to God. The first thing I did I
picked it up like this, keys here, and I rubbed it. I
rubbed the strings on my forehead. I rubbed the strings a little bit on
my forehead. Probably did that too, anyway. And then then I said,
okay, you can have it back now. I was trying to steal
them. It didn't work, No, didn't work. I was still a
bum uh, but I was a bum who got to paul the strings on
it. Sometimes that's all you get. Sometimes that's all you get and the
story. Yeah, that's right, that's right. New Orleans is such a
great town. Man. Where are you from? Originally? I was born
in Youngstown, Ohio? Obviously, no kidding. A buddy of mine,
Vinnie fast Line, he's a comic here in town. He's from Youngstown.
Vinny fast Line, great dude, really funny guy. Actually just did his
podcast yesterday. Damn Yeah. Yeah, two guys from Youngstown, two podcasts.
Hey, but you're on a roll. You're gonna be in Cleveland in
no no time. But New Orleans, Uh, it's such a really unique
and special town. I've gotten only one, No, there really is,
yeah, only one, only one. And the energies weird but cool,
dark but like all of the things. Yeah, I wonder if full wonderful
human beings. The accent in New Orleans has actually tripped me out because the
first time I went there, you thought they were from Brooklyn. Yes,
exactly are you doing that? Yeah, it sound like you're from Brooklyn or
whatever. Yeah, I mean it's like it's a really weird, interesting amalgamy.
You'd never have seen it coming. Nope, no, no, no,
no, because if you're looking for Southern accents, it's not that.
Yeah, it's a very cool, unique spot. And uh and people,
my sister got married there. We've we've had a lot of good memories and
the oh yeah, me too. Well. I used to design and paint
Marti Grat floats, kidd for Comas, Momas and proteus. Who's oh for
those? Those those are the prade. Oh god, those are the crews
k R E w E s I've done Oh gosh, darn it. What
was aucus Bacchus? I've done Bacchus a couple of times. I've written in
Bacchus. It was so fun. Yeah, it was. I really had
no idea what I was stepping into. I don't think anybody does, because
it's I had never even been to the before. Like the first time I
went to money Gral, I was writing on a box float. That's not
a bad No, it's not bad. It's not bad. But the people
that I was writing with, who had obviously done it a lot, They're
like, so here, we're gonna load up all of us because you stop
all the all the floats, like you you all get out and you all
line up on this one road I can't remember which one of these. They're
kind of staging area. Everyone's getting like their last dream Carrollton and you're and
you're loading your float with all of the beats. There are so many beads.
You think there is not a chance in hell that we will be able
to throw out all of these beads. And then you realize, oh wow,
no, like you do. You do have to stay on it.
But if as long as you kind of stay on it, like you almost
are like I don't know that I will have enough beads by the end,
right. But one of the coolest things about it is to me anyway,
like the way I kind of looked at it or felt about it, it
was almost like a game. And the game was how many people can you
actually connect with and get those beads too? And because the route is a
fun I mean it's long, it's a long route. Oh yeah, yeah
yeah. But and so in some places, you know, they're all everyone
just there and lined up kind of you know, literally five feet away or
ten feet away. Yeah, But then there's the families that have the A
frame ladders, oh yeah, with the kids up on the top of the
ladder the little bucket seats, and it's actually really cool because then you got
the dad kind of like standing on the back of the ladder with his arms
around the kids and yeah, and they're grabbing beads and the kids are grabbing
beads, and then you find these other like you know, you go into
a big corner and now you've got like hundreds of people deep into this corner,
and so the people in the back are actually hundreds of feet away,
and so you're trying to like connect with the people short you're like giving these
little wong ones exactly. And then I would like or I connect with somebody
like way up on a balcony and you make that eye contact. It's like
it's coming to you. It's coming to you, and you'd beat you'd beat
those beads up, ball those beads up and just Kurt Warner those things straight
up to that goddamnit. It was so satisfying. It was so satisfying.
But then also there'd be a lot that you wouldn't get to that person.
Those are a bummer, But the ones that were the worst slash also kind
of funny, but really not is when you would make eye contact with somebody,
oftentimes children. You made the eye contact, you're like, okay,
here it comes, and you throw the bead and they take their eye off
of you because now they're they're looking at somewhere else, trying to be and
those beads right off their head. That hurts, guys, I'm not There's
a lot of plastic, particularly what it's bundled up like that. When you're
looking for some beads on Mardi Gras, pay attention. If someone's throwing you
meats, pay attention. I don't want to be responsible for If I've said
it once, then it would be one time. That's amazing, fun man.
I recommend to anybody whoever gets the opportunity to rap fun throwing beads the
people in Martigo. It's gotta be asked. John Goodman, what I mean?
That's what he does? Does he really? Oh? Yeah, he's
got a place called Johnny B. Goods. John Goodman has a place in
New Orleans called Yeah, Johnny B. Goods. Yeah get it, see
because yeah, we all got it. We were Yeah he's uh, he
was. You know. I did this movie Jungle Book two, and he
played Blue and we started talking about New Orleans and yeah, I mean he's
like all over it. He's the king of New Orleans these days. I
had no idea that John Goodman and he lives out there part of the time.
Maybe yeah, on and off? Who are you the voice of the
Jungle in Jungle Book two? Sheer con Well, no, I mean who's
the snake? Were you the voice of car? Oh? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah yeah, And then apparently but I was King Louis too for not
the very first one. Well, Swinger Jungle be Happy by Remain don't sing
it that well? Too bad. I don't know how to sing about it.
Yeah, it's a curse. But no, that that was. That
was one of the coolest things. And real quick aside and very quick aside.
Uh. Samby Terra was his sax player, and I hired him to
play for a private event, and I got up and sang a couple of
songs with him as Louis Prima because I'm designated Louis for you know, Disney
is designated yeah people for that, And uh, isn't it amazing they got
away with using basically the same animation back in the day Jungle Book and Robin
Hood were so many of the same characters. Little John and Blue were exactly
by the way, not just the same animation. It was the same guy.
It was the same voice that did both Little John and Blue. Oh
Nate King Gov England. Yeaheah, I can think Hey, Rob right,
hey, Rob, Hey, Robin oh man, I love it, yeah
so much. But yeah, a lot of those same a lot of those
same sketches, they just reused them. I think it was in the seventies.
I think I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Like which one Robin
Hood or I think both? Oh no, maybe maybe jungle Book was in
the seat Jungle Book of sixties. Yeah, but in the set listen,
I know that Disney went through some like really paltry years where like people were
not you know, like the Dark Chrystal or the yeah, Black Cauldron years,
Black Cauldron, That's right, Like they were grasping and straws trying to
you know, and I think a lot of people were just not really watching
a lot of animation at that point, yeah, way or whatever. So
then, of course was that it was crap a lot of it. Yeah,
yeah, so you know, yeah, you know, sorry, oh
wait, did Jim say that no, I did say no, No,
Jim didn't say that. I didn't say that. But you know, some
of the coolest things were, you know, meeting Phil Harris, the original
Blue Oh yeah, oh yeah, how you doing there, little bitches?
And I thought it was the freaking coolest thing in the universe to meet that
guy. And they offered me the role, and I met him. He
came on for Tailspin and did his character for two or three sessions, and
then they just, you know, decided he didn't sound quite right anymore.
Kidding. He was in his mid nineties mid nineties that point. Yeah,
yeah, I mean, and you know what I mean. You know,
it's tough. It's like, on one hand, you're like, man,
he's his Blue, and on the other hand you're like, but also he's
real old and yeah, and I always sounds like Blue's daddy. Yeah,
you know so, And they offered me the part, and I I was
just so fond of the guy I couldn't take it. Yeah, you know,
I said, I'm already Louis, you know, and he was my
favorite character in a Jungle book. Oh yeah, but I'm not King of
the Swing as no, I mean, King Louis was Oh King. Louis
was Louis Prima. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know it's like I said, I hired his bandmate for a party I
had once, you know, Samo, the sax player. Yeah, Louis
was a trumpet player. Yeah. But yeah, anyway, you know good
stuff man. Yeah, you know, such a rich, deep cultural Oh
yeah, Louis Prima is one of my faves, man. I I I
love big band. I love that whole kind of era. I mean,
honestly, it's it's more than an era because big band jazz swing. I
mean that you can take that like depending on you know, how you case
it. But it's like late twenties all the way through the seventies really,
I mean, Sinatra and those guys were still doing shows and oh you're still
doing a lot of rat packy stuff up into that point, even though it
was starting to become a little old hat, you know, like people are
like, we're not really we don't really want that. That's a long time.
Yeah, And also was so interesting like music back in the day,
there were less there were less songs because so many people would sing the same
songs. So many people had a version of my funny Valentine. So many
people had a version you know of yeah, you know, and and and
it's interesting that we as a society we're totally fine with that. Like,
could you imagine if Justin Timberlake comes out with a song and then a couple
of months later, Justin Bieber does that exact same song it's slightly different.
Well, but they don't. But they don't. It's not the same song,
it's not the same lyrics, and it's not the same you know,
Like there's there are so many different versions of like which Bothered and Bewildered?
Wait, okay, which Bothered and Bewildered? That's not a song, is
it? Yeah? It is. It's a big song. It is Frank
Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald. Ella Fitzgerald has ultimate version of that. So they
witched, Bothered and bewildered? Am I anyway? Sorry? Yeah, grounded
to. It's such great music, all of it. And it's amazing that
those folks all got to kind of kick around and sing different versions of that
and also like collaborate in the ways that they did. Lewis Armstrong and ele
Fitzgerald and all of their incredible duets, and yeah, man, it's it's
Rich. I Actually I just sang my my very first solo concert that I've
been trying to do for years, or not trying to do, but like
wanting to do, and finally put the time into it. The strike was
kind of part of that. I just had extra time because of it.
But and it was all big band, It was all those those old that's
wonderful. What did you do? Where? Where was it? Where can
we find it? It was in Salt Lake. He was at fan X.
Wait did I see you there at the convention? Yeah? Yeah,
it was. It was the Thursday night. I was there Friday Saturday as
a you know, as a as a guest, you know, to be
at my booth. And I knew that I'd be talking so much to my
voice would be gone, if you know. So I we started the week
with me doing the concert and gosh, we did some booble tunes, nice
sway and uh, it had better be tonight. Spider Man. He does
a really fun Spider Man theme. If you've never heard that, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, but it's like a whole like big band
swing version. It's really fucking cool that I could see that. Yeah,
spider Man, spider Man friendly neighborhood spider Man. Can he swing from a
thread catches it goes this spider Man. Yeah, that's right in the chill
of night, at the scene of a crime, like a street you go,
like he arives just in time, spot man. Yeah, like it's
super fun. It's it's I wasn't done well, I was, but yeah,
it was really a pretty by the way out of apply that was wicked,
thanks man. Yeah. I love singing. It's been it's been one
of my loves for my whole life. And I've been so grateful that acting
has been the bread and butter, and it's you know, giving me such
a wonderful life. And and I've gotten to sing a little bit throughout my
career. I've done Broadway a couple of times, a couple of musicals.
Did not know that. Yeah, I did a musical called First Date back
in twenty thirteen. It was an original musical comedy, which very proud of.
Unfortunately, only we only ran six months and there was never really a
good recording of it. So you either saw it or you did it,
like there's wow. But then a few years later, two thousand, six
months fifty Broadway is not like anything to sneeze. Oh no, no,
no, listen. I was going to be done with the show at six
months anyway, but I think the show deserved to have a longer run.
I was losing my mind when I I had always wanted. I mean,
I came up doing theater, lots and lots of theater, school theater,
of community theater. I think we all did. Yeah, well hopefully.
I mean there's a lot of actors and whatnot that don't they don't appreciate what
really the foundation of all the things that we do. It all comes from
there. All these microphones and cameras and everything. Ill came a lot later.
We were on wood with prosceniums and an audio. We had to figure
out how to convey stories and beat characters interacting with each other in present moments,
real time moments when those safety net and it's wonderful. I love it
so much. God, you know. I had a couple I had an
experience opportunity to take my two younger daughters, maybe like five six years ago
back to Youngstown, Ohio, where I was from. Yeah, and we
went to the Youngstown Playhouse and I'm telling you, you know, and what's
interesting is that this correlates Youngstown, Ohio, the Youngstown Playhouse and oh god,
I'm forgetting the place where Lion King uh debuted on Broadway. Anyway,
they smell the same theme, the same you go backstage, Yeah, you
go backstage. It smells what's the smelling max factor? A little bit of
freshly freshly, freshly cut wood. Yeah. And and and it's like and
I'm going god and paint. Oh my god, they all smell alike.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it tears kind and broken tree Okay,
well yeah, a little less fragrant, but it's it really does. I
mean, there's there's something that's very true and unifying in mad about that entire
world. And whether it's a school production or a community theater production, or
a regional production or a Broadway production, there is commonality in all of that.
There were artists are trying to make the best version of that for those
people in that space, in that time and again, and it's and there's
no cuts, there's no assistance other than if somebody goes up and they're like
line. But yeah, right, I've seen that. I think I've ever
actually seen that in the show, although that would be pretty fun. But
yeah, so getting to sing in my career has been been great, but
I don't get to do it enough. Broadway a couple of times. I
did this other show of twenty sixteen, I did a show called She loves
Me, which was a revival, a beautiful rival of the show She Loves
Me, which is an incredible show if you ever get the chance to see
it. It's also people can watch it online or on TV. It's on
Broadway. There's like a Broadway dot Com app. And then also PBS has
it and they they did a really good job filming it. But then also
so I mean, you know, I guess bringing a full circle to Tuned,
you know, one of the one of the only other places in my
career where I've gotten to actually sing was doing Tangled for Disney and and singing
you know at Last I See the Light with Mandy, and yeah, bit
of other stuff. I was always a little bummed that Flynn never got his
own song, Like, you know, I was always like, wait,
why can't can't I own? But the song the duet that we sang got
nominated for an Academy Awards. That's not bad, Yeah it was. It
was all pretty pretty tremendous, which meant me and Mandy sang at the Academy
Awards, which was the most nerve wracking experience of my entire life. No,
it was insane. It was not it's not good for you, bless
you, bless you for your cough. Yeah, no, it's it was
pretty terrifying. It's pretty terrifying. But we got through it, and I
didn't and I did screw it up. So I was happy about that.
I cannot imagine because there's a part of me that still goes back to that
whenever I see that, and and you know, and and here they are
and they're walking on stage. I'm going, good, I'm glad I'm not
them, because that's just it's a lot a lot. I was on the
carpet, you know, like we had rehearsed and all that stuff, and
I was on the red carpet that day, and I was actually feeling pretty
good until I got this one reporter who I can't remember, it was E
or whatever, and they're like, so, you know, how are you
feeling your performance? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, me and mad
You're gonna sing the song? They go, are you nervous? I'm like,
you know, I think I'm doing pretty good. She's like, that's
you know, wow, because you know, and by the way, and
at this point, all I'm thinking is there's I don't know a thousand or
however many people are in the audience that day. I'm not thinking at all
about the television about and she says, she goes, wow, I mean,
you know, it's got to be a little nerve wracking. And a
billion people around the world watching the song. Wait, Bllion, people watch.
It's true. There are like that. There are that many people in
other countries that care enough to watch the oscars and they tune in and they're
like, I wonder what these idiots are gonna do. I'm like, oh
my gosh, please please, oh man. It was nuts, but it
was. It was an incredible thing to wait, you pulled it off.
No, thanks, man, I have a question for you. What So
obviously we know you from you know, Chuck fricking Shazam, you know,
yea great career. But I'm really curious. I watched American Underdog and I
love that movie. Thanks you did such a great job. Thank you really
pulls at your heartstrings, you know good, it's really emotional. I'm curious
about the research that you had to do for that movie, Like, what
was your familiarity with football? Well, I was like nineteen or something like
that when it all happened in real time, and I remember watching it.
I mean I kind of grew up in a Christian home and like Kurt was
super you know, a vocal about his faith and all that stuff. So
already that was this kind of interesting, cool thing. But watching this little
role, nobody who came out of the Arena League all of a sudden take
the NFL by storm, whoop in everybody's ass. I mean he had obviously
it was surrounded by one of the most incredible offenses ever assembled. But you
know, I remember watching it. I remember seeing it with my family.
I remember him winning the Super Bowl and thinking, this is what dreams are
made of. This is a plot of a movie. And then sure enough
it became one and I ended up getting to play that role, which was
it was It was an honor. I mean, I unfortunately, because it
was the middle of the pandemic, I only got like two days of hanging
out with him and Brenda before we started shooting the movie. Now then they
were able to join us on set and they were with us kind of through
the stream of it, which in some ways is a little nerve wracking because
they're watching at video village. They're watching you either totally like emulate who they
are or total But they were super cool and kind and they are they're wonderful
human beings and friends of mine to this day. But we you know,
we didn't get a lot Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of of like,
you know, together time before we started shooting. But yeah, I
mean it was like I knew all the things that I knew prior and then
the internet is full of information. Uh. And then try to ask,
you know, just asking Kurt and Brenda as many questions as I could at
any given moment that could help paint little details into what the performance is and
you know, and also trying to tell their story will also you know,
you take it. You have to always take a little creative license in it
all, which is not to say that anything in that movie didn't happen.
Actually like everything in that movie pretty much factually happened, but in what order
exactly or what were the emotions at any given time, and just trying to
you know, keep it as entertaining and move it, move through all of
it as as as efficiently. Yeah, exactly, sure. And they were
super cool about it all. And I got like a month and a half
quarterback crash crash, course, Like that's what I was curious about. Yeah.
Yeah, it wasn't nearly as much as I wanted to be honest,
because I grew up throwing baseball's not footballs. And that is a marked difference,
you know, like in every way, shape and for it, no
kidding. Yeah, And and so you know, I think I'm pretty proud
of myself, like where I got to in a month and a half,
well a month and a half, and then during you know, continue to
obviously work on it through the shoot, but like I was very I was
very proud of myself of where I got to. I was forty throwing lots
and lots and lots of footballs, and my arm was toast. Like I
had to have Pete on it. Like mid day shoot, like we had
all these like THEO guns and all these like stem like you know, like
electric stem. Yeah. Like I was like dying my gray hair to be
his younger self. But it was so worth that. It was so cool.
I had incredible people around me, you know, my, my,
my, my co stars, but also like our great crew, my doubles.
I had two doubles I had. I had one double, Will,
who was like definitely, like we're built the same and you know, and
but he was an ace of an arm, like just consistent dimes and you
need that because there's a lot of shots where it needs to be super precise
and it needs to be very consistent over and over and over again. I
could throw a really good ball, and I could even throw pretty consistently,
but not so much where time is money and you're like, yo, we
got to get this shot, like right now, right. So Will was
awesome, so good ace. I had another double named Deeke, and Deeke
was two inches taller, twenty pounds heavier, and the one taking all the
big hits. I took hits. I took some some decent hits, but
like, you know, they can't hurt me. They only wanted me.
Yeah, they throwed like you know, we needed to have a shot where
Kurt's like running and like jumping standing the ball over the goal line and then
it gets hit from the side and helicopters in mid air, taking a massive
He had a hematoma on his elbow at one point that was so big and
I was like, dude, you need to get that taken care of his
half. I was gonna get ahead again anyway. I'm gonna get hit again
anyway. But and A Paquin was so great as Brenda, and you know,
yeah everybody, I mean, it was a really fantastic experience. And
it's really you know, it's a very small grounded movie. I mean,
you know, yeah, yeah, but it was great. Yeah, great,
Wow, what a great memory. Yeah, well they've all been.
I mean, even if in the moment sometimes working on something can be you
know, even traumatic, little tax thing, taxing. Yeah, but all
of those things, I really feel like they've all been at this point in
my life. You know, uh, they'll they can all be redeemed.
Like you can learn from all of that, you can grow through all of
that. It's important to have empathy and grace with those people that might have
made it a horrible experience, and you learn through that empathy and ultimately,
you know, it's crazy how it works, but you know, the way
the way God works, the universe whatever, but you you put into these
things, it might feel like a really wonky experience. And yet somehow out
of the ashes, something really cool is created through all of that. And
so, you know, I don't know, but not that that. I
mean, that had its own challenges, particularly that we were shooting in the
pandemic and all that jazz, But overall, that was definitely an enjoyable experience.
And yeah, I'm really grateful for him. Yeah. Well, speaking
of your previous work, we also had Jack Grazer on the podcast. Oh
no kidding, Yeah, Oh, I love Jack so much. Yeah,
he's a good guy. He's such a good kid. He he's so talented,
like he's wickedly talented. He reminds me of me when I was young.
Yeah. Yeah, and he busted out his guitar. Yes, hell
of a guitar. Yeah. He's a really position Yeah, but he really
is man like you know, and his mom, Angela, is a wonderful
woman who I like with that kind of energy and talent, you know,
it's hard as a parent, like you want to you want them to flourish,
but also you got to protect them, you got to guide them,
you got to do all these things. And and uh, and Jack is
I mean literally he's got more energy than an atom bomb. I mean he's
just he's so full of life and energy and everything and all that talent,
and so it's been really I mean to work with him. He was like
thirteen when we did the first one, and you don't meet a lot of
thirteen year olds that have that kind of sense of humor, that understanding,
right and being present and being in character. And I was it was so
cool that we got to, you know, really have that two hand.
Or in the second movie, we barely got to work together because we were
the A and B storylines, right, but we still had a wonderful time.
And I just I have I just I have so much love for him
and I and I genuinely I think that he's just one of the most talented
young actors on the scene. I can't wait to see can't wait to see
what he does next. He really is. Yeah, he disappears into the
role, yes for sure. Yeah. Well and that yeah, that's just
you know, really just kind of choosing to fully commit false end as the
kids say. Nowadays, he full sends into the character and just think very
present in that. Yeah. And and and his energy because he's such an
electric, just naturally person, it gives that life that that energy to that
character, which I think kind of gives it an extra little edge of interest.
One more thing to bring up. I was a big fan of Chuck,
thanks big fan, And I feel like it never really got like the
publicity it deserved. Like it, I don't know, I don't deserver Listen.
I if I had a nickel for every project I did that I think
didn't get the look that it deserved. Yeah, I'd have at least a
couple of nickels, maybe ten, fifteen, twenty five cents. But but
Chuck is one of those nickels for sure. I it's I don't know,
man, Like you know, we were making network television in the death throes
of network television. What do you mean by that? Well, by the
time we were making Chuck, TiVo was con was the year two thousand and
seven was our first year, But we started to t VO right before that.
I'm pretty sure a DVR kind of hit the scene, right, Yeah,
and so where what what ended up happening? It's so funny that TVO
doesn't even exist anymore. But everything is TV, yeah, everybody. But
what ends up ends up happening is then, which is obviously the obvious conclusion.
Which nobody wanted to really acknowledge. But it once DVR hit the scene,
well guess what, nobody's watching commercials anymore. Commercials are the thing that
is the lifeblood of network television. You're not cable, you're not paying for
the subscription or sorry, premium cable. And even in cable, they still
got hit in the same way. All of it was still advertisement based,
I mean, all of it. That's how it all worked. So once
people could go, you know, like right through all of those commercials,
that's a TVO callback by the way, that's the noise for all of you
gen zers out there. Yeah, by the way, you always do that,
and then you would blow right by the point you were trying to get
to anyway. But once that all happened and the writing was on the wall,
like nobody network television, the ratings are going to continue to drop and
drop and drop and drop. And so we were the network television was the
was the patient on the table on life support. We just we were in
those death throws. We were one of the last kind of I mean,
which is not to say the network television still doesn't exist right now, but
barely. It's it's it's barely hanging on. It's not you know, it's
not what it is, It's not what it ever was, and it's transformed
into streaming exactly. Well yes, well yes, and no, streaming is
a different type of of of serious the same people controlling it. No,
I mean you have Paramount Plus, you have Peacock, you have right,
Yes, Peacock and NBC are roughly the same people, right, yes,
yeah, yeah, but Paramount plus. There's no network. It's necessarily can
I network television is specifically NBCCBS, ABC, Fox, Fox, Right that
that's CW. Well, upn came on the scene, and then it was
UPN Warner Brothers, and then they that all kind of became CW. Now
even CW is basically cooked. A whole other company bought CW, and now
they're getting rid of all of their scripted shows and they're all going to do
a bunch of garbage reality television because it's cheap as fuck, and they and
they don't have any money. They're not getting the same money anymore. People
aren't paying the ads. Pepsi and Toyota and everybody else are like, well,
hang on a second, why are we giving you fifty dollars for a
sixty second when no one's watching the channel, right, so it doesn't make
any sense. Chuck unfortunately suffered because of all that. Chuck was coming toward
the end of it, and our ratings would continue to kind of go down.
By the way, the ratings we got then, if we had those
same numbers now, we'd be a massive success. But of course we wouldn't
gonna have those numbers now because those numbers don't exist. But at that time,
we were getting numbers that networks were still like, no, we don't
know, we're still looking for, you know, whatever they had in the
late nineties early two thousands, which was the pinnacle of network television. That
was when Friends and Seinfeld was like, you can't even imagine the amount.
When there were only three networks on television, by by the way, CBS,
ABC, NBC, there were only three options really to watch television.
That's why all of those like yeah, but you know, but but but
Neils and ratings. The reason why that even works, which by the way,
was literally just calling up certain homes and be like, what were you
watching tonight? The reason why that worked is because there was only three options
anyway, So if you did if you called, out of one hundred people,
if fifty percent of them you called and said, I was watching Cheers,
you know that half the fucking nation was watching Cheers. And they were.
And that meant if Pepsi paid money to have a commercial on and there
was no TVO, everyone is watching ted Dance and then everybody yum yuck it
up, and then they're watching a Pepsi commercial that is exactly what they're doing.
That's right, you know. So it all worked, that all works,
and then it all started falling apart, and we were kind of unfortunately
in the ends of all of that. And so every year, because of
our ratings, NBC would basically go to Warner Brothers and say, hey,
listen, we're not going to pay so much to license the show, will
pay less. And then Warner Brothers would be like, uh, okay,
Well, first what NBC would do is they'd have a whole new lineup of
pilots that they would think, maybe we're going to go get a show that
we think is going to be better than Chuck. So every year we thought
we were gonna get canceled. Our head was on the chopping block. And
then of course the pilots would come through, they'd look at them all and
they go, maybe we'll just keep Chuck around one more season. But then
they go back to Warner Brothers and they say, we're gonna license it for
less, and then Warner Brothers, trying to keep it going, be like,
Okay, well then I guess we'll make it for less, and then
our budget would get cut every single year. They're not investing a whole bunch
more money into advertising show like that. Yeah, it's really unfortunate. It's
really unfortunate that I don't think a lot of those people saw the charm and
the value and the worth in what I believe to be. And by the
way, and I know it to be because every single convention or whatever I
go to, well, the messages I get on validation social media, the
amount of people that still find Chuck now, not even the old viewers.
People keep finding it on either it was Netflix for a while, then Amazon.
Now we're on HBO Max because we're a Warner Brothers showy And the amount
of new audience members that find it and they come and find me at conventions
and they go, where was I How did I miss this? I go,
I don't know where were you, Yeah, we'd still on television.
I mean I hope not. Actually two thousand and seven to now, that's
a long would I would have lost my mind by this point. Still Chuck.
But I do hope one day I get to make some Chuck movies.
That's been the goal. That's been the goal, because the show was all
every episode was a little action movie of the week. There's no reason why
we can't do an hour and a half version of that every year or so
and just do another mission and have another cool like you know, eighties action
star be the New bad Guy or whatever. Oh man checking Chuck an Ey.
There was an episode of the Office that had a cardboard cutout of you.
Yes, yes, when they were selling their like triangular iPad. Yeah.
Yeah. I remember when they came to me and they asked me.
They go NBC's asking if they can use your image to put in an episode
of the Office. I was like, say, less, like, what
are you talking about? Put me in that show? Massive fan of all
let me see? Yes, yes exactly, Yeah, Oh that's funny,
that's cool. Thanks for sharing that. Absolutely, Yeah, no, was
kidding. I have two more words for you, gal Gado. Gal I
think is one of the most stunning. Uh, although that's not an uncommonly
held belief. I've met her very briefly one time when the end of Suzan
Fury the Gods, we had to shoot her in Europe. She was shooting
a whole other movie and they shot me and then we kind of spliced thething
together. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But it was very cool
of her too, you know, because they approached her said would you be
willing to you know, to do this and have Wonder Woman be a part
of the end of the movie, and and obviously she said yes. And
I was so honored by that, you know that that she saw enough value
in our franchise that she would want to do that. And yeah, knocked
me up. Yes, it was so cool. Oh damn, yeah,
you know that that kind of yeah or not shaz Am, but nothing would
have happened, but it'd be really cool. I would love I mean,
if I get the opportunity to places am anymore, which I which would be
a lot of fun to do. But if so, it'd be really fun
to you know, have more crossover with Wonder Woman or there's no talks of
Justice Society. It is kind of teased teach. I don't know, man,
I don't know. That's all way above my pay grade. You know,
it's it's it's it's a really interesting world, and for so many reasons.
I mean, we just literally just came out of a strike, multiple
strikes, finally an hour ago, and funny suffering right now. So you
know, all the studios are as they as they should be, a need
to be. They're now all looking at what they need to do to make
sure that these contracts not only we hold to them, we respect all of
this, but we can all move forward in a new ecosystem of working together
that can hopefully last well beyond three years. But as we were all talking
about, well you know earlier before the POD, I worry about that.
I think AI. I don't want to come across as alarmists or doomsday or
anything. But I've been tracking this stuff for a long time. I love
tech and and and future and all these things, and and AI is not
going away. And more than it's not going away, it is not going
to stop. And it is going to get better and better and better and
better and better and better and better and better and better, and it won't
stop getting better. And that means it will eventually replace every human job on
the planet. We the entertainment industry happened to be the canary and the coal
mine. We are a an industry of fiction. We are an industry of
of of content which is all put together anyway that you know, you know
it's artificially so now it's and now that unreal engine you know in video graphics
engine unreal engine, uh is is we're at photorealism and what graphics can do
in video games and everything. So the blinds are all going to blur.
They're already blurring so much. By the way, I highly highly please,
I highly recommend we all move into the rest of the future together recognizing that
the things that you are going to see and hear on the news and on
the internet are not necessarily true. And I and I this is not me
looking at everything that's going on in the news right now, and that's all
bullshit and lies. I'm just saying we all need to be very cognizant that
we have to question these things. You have to take everything with a grain
of salt, because reality and fiction are now thoroughly blended, and they're only
going to become more blended. And the more that Meta and Apple and now
we're all throwing headsets on and the whole metaverse is going to start looking more
photorealistic. And that means more and more people are going to go start slipping
into this matrix, and that is all going to start looking like exactly the
real world, which means once you come out of it with everyone, I
mean, we could literally have right now, you have an avatar. It
looks like an avatar almost right. But I don't know if anybody's seen this,
but Mark Zuckerberg and others have already scanned their bodies there. It's like
them in there. It's photo realism right now, which means also if I
wanted to, I could scan me and I could be me in there,
or I could decide to use somebody else's body scan entirely and just that's my
avatar. I'm now I'm walking around like you. It looks like Jim Cummens
walking around, but it actually sounds like me because it's me with the headset
on. So what's gonna happen is that we're gonna come out of this.
And also, even when you come out of the meta or out of the
metaverse, you're still looking through your devices. We're all gonna have like you
know, kind of like ar heads up display glasses or our phones are all
going to be tapped into this stuff. Like, guys, it's here,
it's right now, it's right now. It's not I know it sounds crazy,
but we we are. Well maybe not to you guys, but I
mean to a lot of people I talk to, they're calm down. I'm
like, no, this is not is a hopskipp and a jump away.
We are at like we were talking about before, we are at this inflection
point right now where it's insane to say, but that we have to decidedly
as a collective consciousness. That's humanity. We have to decide if we are
going to either purchase and support products and services provided by actual humans or by
robots with AI in them, or or computers with a Sometimes it does not
even require a robot. Sometimes it's all just within other jobs because people say,
well, you know, maybe you can go make a song with a
computer, but like, who's going to go deliver that pizza or those ups
boxes. Guess what, guys, it's already starting to happen. You see
those little carts around going that's just gonna get better and better and better.
Go look at Boston Dynamics. Go to Boston Dynamics website. Their most recent
which is almost a year ago now, maybe six seven, eight months,
I don't know. Their most recent display of their technology of what their robot
can do is so insane. It's so cool. But think about it in
a less cool way, which is, oh my god, this is what
they can do. Also, you're seeing, we're seeing what they want us
to see, not necessarily bout some dynamics, but they work with DARPA,
they work with the government. Guys. The government probably has levels of all
this technology that's already above what we are aware of and what's going on.
Oh so just know, just know we're there. It's not the singularity yet,
we're not at fully sentient AI. God forbid we ever actually get to
that place, because that's super scary. That's what like, all these you
know, six of ten of the top minds in the world about AI are
all saying, uh, if we're not careful, and it will destroy all
of humanity. Right, that's the sky net thing. That's the whole deal.
So like barring that though, barring us all actually being eliminated literally physically
killed or whatever, or it will destroy all of our jobs because corporations will
do it because it's it's all They're all about margins and bottom lines and like,
well, you know, money's money guys. Sorry, you know,
blah blah blah. If we can replace you, we will, and they
will because human beings are a pain in the ass. We need to have
piss brakes and eat food and actually get paid. They don't want to do
any of those things. I mean, look at Amazon warehouses. They're barely
paying their actual live employees and giving they're not giving them breaks, they're not
doing this, and now they're starting to replace them all with automation. It's
happening now. So we have to choose. We have to choose as a
people around the world, in every industry, we have to say I will
either, because here's the thing, and we don't all do it. It's
not gonna happen if every if all of a sudden right now, if everybody
right now says, listen, you know, like Hollywood's at a good actors
made a lot of money, Like you know, if I can go have
AI produced video games and voiceover and cartoons and movies and TV and music and
everything, and it costs me a fraction because of by the way it will
a full human made movie will cost you twenty bucks, and the studios will
make will prompt an ai movie that will look amazing, and they'll charge you
five bucks. And by the way, you'll get your face and voice scanned
into it, and you get to be the fucking star of the movie.
Who doesn't want to go do that shit? And that's where they're gonna get
us, So they will. That's what they're gonna try and divide us.
We have to We can't. We can't give it. You can't give in.
We can't give into that temptation that apple you do not. We can't
because if you do, we're all out of work, which means we don't
make money, which means we can't support your fucking business. We can't buy
your goods, we can't go to your restaurant and you eat your food.
Well, where you're a number of people that they can use, it will
be no future fodder, no so to speak, no no, so wow,
that all took a very big turn. But I think I feel like
it's a good thing. It's a good thing to kind of wrap it all
up on you. We gotta do it. We gotta do it. We
have got to stay the course if we we literally it's a larger version of
the strike we just ended. We have to as humanity strike again against against
against robots, and against AI. We have to do it. I don't
I don't have a problem with AI being a tool in a human's toolbox.
Right. If it's replacing humans, we have to be very careful about how
many humans it's displacing. It will displace humans, there's no doubt about that.
But listen, we're at the precipice of one single human, some kid
sitting in his living room with a computer and super powerful AI that can just
prompt anything they want to be created. A movie, right, a movie.
I want this movie boom. And it's amazing. Now what we're gonna
do is and we're all gonna be tempted into this, and we're also gonna
be conditioned into this by the powers that be. I believe they're gonna say,
isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing that this kid who had no access
to anything and no ability to be educated or what reason whatever, but his
imagination and how cool it is, and they could create whatever they want.
What are the amazing world? This is to go ah cool in a vacuum.
But that movie that that kid just created replaced thousands of jobs, hundreds
at least. But in the in the multitudes, every one of those that's
made is another hunt. Where the hell is the progress? Where's the progress?
There is none? Well, no, the progress is all going to
be digital. The progress and the money will all go to all the people
that were sitting at home. But again, we have to do it together.
We have to choose to go eat at restaurants that have real servers and
not robots. You know, I'm serious. This is all the future three
years from now, five years from now, ten years years from now,
if there even is still a world to protect, this is the choice.
These are the choices we have to make, you know. I remember the
first time I was in a restaurant where I said, can I ear anything?
And it was a lady who looked like she worked there as a waiters,
And I said, well, yeah, oh no, I have to
do I have to download something. But you're right here, you're you're there,
You're I'm working with you. Well but true, But I and this
isn't just because I've been trying to develop an app that kind of has something
to do with that. But you need any we go listen. I don't
mind. I've been thinking this was gonna happen for a long time. A
QR code with a thing on your phone. Now you always have the they
don't have to print more menus. It's good for the environment. They can
change it whenever they need to. I mean whatever, I don't know,
I don't mind doing that. I hate the environment. You heard it right
here, folks. The environment. Yeah, you know it's gonna be there
anyway. Yeah, and oh god, okay, I made that up before
we finished, though. You promised us one more story about Sweden and Midsummer.
Oh listen. Midsummer, which is this incredible you know, time of
celebration and festival whatnot in the Scandinavian countries. I got to go to Sweden
this last summer and celebrated with a bunch of wonderful friends and it's such a
cool time. The festivities are all great, by the way, the city
of Stockholm is awesome. The Swedes are excellent people, just genuinely do they
have a syndrome not that I could tell, but I'll check into that.
And we went to this also, this place called Gutland, which actually used
to be like not just the capital of Sweden, but like the capital of
the entire kind of Viking empire really and all really beautiful stuff. Is this
as guard very as guardian, But it's so fun because you know, the
farther north you go, the deeper your light in your seasons either you know,
at ebbs and flows, and so you know, in the dead of
winter in those Norse Scandinavian countries, they're pretty darn far north, which means
their winters are long and dark and they're harsh, which is why they even
I'm sure, created this thing called midsummer, which is like, oh my
god, we're getting as much possible sun as we can and and all of
that vitamin D and all of like let's you know, the fertility of it
all seriously and all of it, and so they go ham like it's a
really wonderful time. And also though the sun dips below the horizon, the
sky still stays like kind of like blue, it doesn't ever really get black.
So your mind is telling you let's go. You know, you're like
you just kind of keep rolling with it. That's interesting. Yeah, so
highly recommend Midsummer if anybody ever gets the opportunity. Not like the movie with
Florence Pugh, which was a fantastic movie, but that was not my experience.
Wow. Well, thanks for having you guys. Thank you, thank you.