Billy Eichner, Vol. II

Billy Eichner is getting reflective as he looks back on his dear parents, the origins of BILLY ON THE STREET, and the creation of his new audio memoir, BILLY ON BILLY. Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y. SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Rula -- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.rula.com/happy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #rulapod Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! UPCOMING EVENTS! 6/16 -- Matt Smith in NY -- ⁠Tickets here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  My parents never made me feel uncomfortable about anything. You know, and yeah, my mom waited in line for hours at Barnes & Noble the day Madonna's sex book came out to get it for me. She knew I would die if I didn't have it.

• 1:14Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 1:15Speaker 02

  Right? You know, I think she just didn't want her, like, very maniacal gay child to die.

• 1:20Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 1:21Speaker 04

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

• 1:28Josh Horowitz?

  Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today on the show, Billy Eichner is back. He's talking about his new memoir, Billy on Billy, Billy on the Street, Bros, and so much more. Thanks, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast. Remember to hit that subscribe button on YouTube or Spotify or whatever podcast platform you're using. The main event today is Billy Eichner. I'll get to that in just a second. But before we get to that, a reminder, if you like what I do, check out our Patreon, patreon.com/happy-sad-confused. So many extras over there for Outlander fans right now, or if you just want to see me in person somewhere, you get the discount codes, you get the early access. We have just announced, on June 16th...

• 2:10Josh Horowitz?

  In New York City, Matt Smith. That's right, Matt Smith, talking House of the Dragon. We'll talk about his upcoming Star Wars role, Doctor Who. He's always a blast. Get in on that one. The info is in the show notes. Discount code, as I said, is on the Patreon. We have another big June event we are about to announce. Uh, so yeah, support us over there. It helps us make more over here. Also want to mention, if you have, if you don't follow me on the social feeds, etc., or maybe you don't know this. Big moment for Josh Horowitz, Happy Say Confused. I still can't get over this. Um, out of the blue, no warning. We, I was a clue on Pop Culture Jeopardy. That's a thing that happened. It wasn't AI. It wasn't a friend messing with me.

• 2:53Josh Horowitz?

  Insane. Colin Jost, reading the clue. Now, the sad part is, guys, this is, this really sums up the Josh Horowitz existence. The clue is read. Stone cold silence. The contestants did not get me right. They did not know. But I'm gonna take it as a win. I'm gonna take it as a win. Bucket list item that I never knew I had has been achieved. I am Happy Say Confused, a clue on Jeopardy. How insane is that? Okay, just want to mention that in case you guys hadn't had a chance to see that on my, on my Instagram, etc., because it's too, too delicious not to mention.

• 3:35Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, let's talk the main event. 92nd Street Y, New York City. We, Billy Eichner and I reunited to talk about his entire career, including his new audio memoir. This is only in audio form, and I got a chance to get this early and really enjoyed it. It's literally getting Billy's voice in your ear for about 11 hours, and I listened to the whole thing, and it's a really sweet story. Um, his, his rise from growing, growing up in New York City like I did, we're very similar ages, so I think I connected on that level. But also, if you don't know his background, um, his parents, just absolute saints, and they absolutely brought him up the right way and gave him everything he needed to succeed in life. And sadly, um, both.

• 4:20Josh Horowitz?

  Died way too soon, prior to him really hitting it big with Billy on the Street. But this, this audio memoir, I, I don't know, I really, I really couldn't recommend it highly, more highly, because it's, um, it's a really sweet recollection of New York City and growing up and being supported and finding your voice and the struggles of a young artist and the successes. So it's really great. And this was a fantastic conversation. Um, kinda helped kick off his New York book tour. He's on the tour right now and I was happy to support Billy. And we of course talk in depth about Billy on the Street and his, his relationships with the likes of Joan Rivers and, and interviewing Madonna and all sorts of adventures on the

• 5:03Josh Horowitz?

  streets of New York. And of course Bros is in there too, that film that he takes a lot of pride in. And I know folks really loved that he was able to make that. And even if it didn't succeed at the box office, has this wonderful legacy. So, um, a great conversation, a very funny man. Without any further ado, I know you guys are gonna enjoy this. I take you now to the 92nd Street Y, New York City. It's me and Billy Eichner. Enjoy.

• 5:29Josh Horowitz?

  Hi, everybody. Uh, welcome to the 92nd Street Y. My name's Josh Horowitz and welcome to a live taping of Happy, Sad, Confused. I'm so thrilled to say that I am having a returning guest on the podcast today. His first time before a live audience, the one and only Billy Eichner. Are we ready for this? Of course we are.

• 5:50Josh Horowitz?

  We all know and love Billy. He's one of the funniest, most talented human beings alive. From Billy on the Street to Bros. He grew up living and breathing pop culture and along the way became a huge part of it. And I'm so thrilled to say that his new audio memoir, Billy on Billy, is everything that he is. It's smart, it's funny, it's heartwarming. Um, you're gonna love it, trust me. Uh, without any further ado, please give a warm 92nd Street Y welcome to Billy Eichner, everybody.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Hi, everyone. Thanks for coming.

• 6:36Josh Horowitz?

  This is not gonna be as stressful as throwing out the first pitch in a New York Mets game.

• 6:39Speaker 02

  No, but I was good at that.

• 6:41Josh Horowitz?

  I saw the video.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  It wasn't bad.

• 6:43Josh Horowitz?

  You were very, you were better than 50 Cent and Carly Rae Jepsen.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  I do so many things better than 50 Cent. People, people don't know, Carly Rae Jepsen?

• 6:52Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, that's an infamous...

• 6:53Speaker 02

  Oh, I've never seen that one.

• 6:55Josh Horowitz?

  It's bad.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Okay, I'll go look that up. Sorry, sorry Carly Rae Jepsen.

• 7:00Josh Horowitz?

  Was, was there training involved? I mean, that's...

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did. I trained with, um, my, my trainer, Bruno.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  He, um, he's so hot, oh my god. He, uh, he teaches PE. By the way, he's gonna be shocked I'm talking about him.

• 7:19Josh Horowitz?

  The entire hour will be on Bruno tonight.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly. He teaches PE and he teaches his kids how to play baseball. And so he taught me how to throw a ball.

• 7:29Josh Horowitz?

  There it is.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  I was on Little League when I was a kid, but I was terrible.

• 7:33Josh Horowitz?

  Well, it was training you, in a way, and finally you reap the rewards of being a mediocre Little League player.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Exactly, yeah. I thought that sent a nice message.

• 7:41Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  That I was a terrible baseball player as a kid, but you still get to throw out the first pitch if you're good at other things.

• 7:48Josh Horowitz?

  There it is. You're good at many things, including, um, writing. This memoir, I have had the privilege of listening to this, this memoir, it's about 11, I've had 11 hours of you in my head the last week.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  It's a lot, I'm sorry.

• 8:00Josh Horowitz?

  It's perfect, it's perfect. Uh, congratulations, though. I mean, you're just kind of like kicking off the press tour. We're very thrilled. This is kind of the kickoff event for it.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've done a few, but, um, it's a lot of talking about yourself.

• 8:13Josh Horowitz?

  Does it feel a little bit different than promoting a TV show or movie, a little more exposing, or what?

• 8:18Speaker 02

  Um, maybe. It's just, yeah, also the project is so unusual, because it's just an audiobook. So I feel, and I also really worked hard on it, and I really care about it. So I like to, I like to, um, you know, I like to get out there and try to explain what it is to people, because it's a bit odd, because it's not in print.

• 8:36Josh Horowitz?

  So is, there's no physical form that can sit on your bookshelf, just to point to friends, like, I did that?

• 8:42Speaker 02

  No. I thought about it. They wanted me to do that. Um, but I, um, hello.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  You good? He wore shorts. Oh, everyone wore shorts. It's not a big deal. Casual. I don't care. It's 90 degrees outside. The book's not coming out in print. It's not a real book.

• 9:07Josh Horowitz?

  That's not true.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  Like I say in the book, I wasn't traumatized enough as a child to write a real book. That's the problem. So what were we talking about?

• 9:20Josh Horowitz?

  So they wanted you to do a physical version, but no?

• 9:23Speaker 02

  Yes, and it was exciting to me, and I did think about it, because it would be cool to have a book to hold up and to have a book in bookstores, but I really wrote it to be listened to. And I kind of, I held to that, in spite of the fact that it would be cool to have a real book.

• 9:38Josh Horowitz?

  So what was...

• 9:39Speaker 02

  It is a real book.

• 9:40Josh Horowitz?

  It absolutely is. So talk to me a little bit about the process. I mean, there's the process of writing it, which took, I would imagine, a while, and then there's the process of recording it.

• 9:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:50Josh Horowitz?

  Which did you find more emotionally charged, draining, in the end?

• 9:54Speaker 02

  It was all very emotionally charged. You know, I'm not really a person who looks back a lot. You know, I have a therapist, but we don't talk about my childhood. You know, it's all like, "My agent said..." You know, it's not like...

• 10:06Josh Horowitz?

  Normal stuff, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:07Speaker 02

  It's not about like, how I was as a kid. It's not like Freudian. And this really forced me to sit down and think about my childhood, which for the most part was actually really lovely. Because I had a magical childhood, you know, which is what the book is about. You know, and it kind of got me in touch with my parents again, and kind of this childlike sense of wonder I had about pop culture that you lose a little bit as you become an old, jaded person in the industry. But it was all very emotional. Recording it was very emotional, writing it, but also emotional in a great way. You know, because I actually think it's a pretty comforting, heartwarming book in spite of the sad parts.

• 10:45Josh Horowitz?

  Well, I was gonna say, I mean, like, listening to it, I mean, the icing on the cake, I think people will come, like, you know, they want to hear, obviously, the Billy on the Street stories, and they want to hear about the roast and all of that. But I think what people are gonna discover, and you kind of alluded to this, is, I mean, the first sections, and arguably the bulk of the book, that I found... Really emotionally powerful is your childhood and or your parents. And you've talked at length about your parents and you talk at length in the in the book. And it's you've said it, it's a love letter to them, isn't it?

• 11:10Speaker 02

  It is, yeah.

• 11:11Josh Horowitz?

  Does it feel a little bit like, I mean, this is a way of kind of revisiting, not to get like woo woo on you, but to like revisit your parents.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  It did. No, that's exactly what it was. And now that I'm on the press tour talking about it again, I keep thinking about that. I'm like, oh, this gave me an opportunity to be with my parents again in my head. They're dead. Sorry to spoil the book.

• 11:29Josh Horowitz?

  But we buried the lead.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  But but but it did, you know, you get to spend time with them again and you get to kind of enter your childlike brain again, you know? And that was really fun and delightful, you know, and has been a reminder to me to try to get back to that. And I think the whole book, in the book, I talk about how I'm trying to get back to the artist I was before Billy on the street. That's a running thing throughout the book. But also, the book, for me, the writing of it made me feel a little bit more like the artist that I set out to be, who's a very different than Billy on the street, which is a lot of what the book is about, that there's this persona I created that unexpectedly

• 12:13Speaker 02

  really connected with people, which I love, very grateful for, but it's not the real me at all. It's so different, you know, half this room are like my old friends, like, you know, they know, like, the difference is kind of startling sometimes. And I think I think that's that'll be interesting for people to listen to.

• 12:31Josh Horowitz?

  Let's talk about your parents. Let's start with your mom, who you lost sadly way too young, and it was a very sudden sad incident, obviously. What do you get from your mom, would you say, when you look in the mirror, when you hear your voice, when you hear who you are? What do you think you got from her?

• 12:48Speaker 02

  She had a real larger-than-life quality, which I don't think I do in my real life, but I do on camera. You know, she had like a, oh, boy. Oh, shut up. For God's sakes, hold it together. God.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  I have not gotten through an interview about this book without crying. So, you know, that will happen. But my mom was very vivacious. And she was really vibrant and, like I said, larger than life. She was also like this incredibly sunny person. And I am like king of resting bitch face. So that like, that we don't have in common. But she had like so much energy. Like she was the most physically animated person I've ever met. It was very unique in a way. And everyone loved my mom. And she was the nicest, sweetest person you've ever met. You know, I say in the book, I hope it's not weird to quote myself, but like, I say in the book, "My mom's love was like the sphere in Vegas.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  It was an immersive theatrical experience." You know, it was like, thank you, Diane. Diane knew my mom. Was I wrong? I'm not wrong, right?

• 14:02Josh Horowitz?

  That's a knowing laugh, yeah.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  Exactly. But my mom's, yeah, a lot of movement. She, yeah, she had a lot of like nervous energy, but was a very happy person and incredibly affectionate with everyone. You know, and, and I'm not. But, but I think there, she had an energy. I have like a cra- I have like a relentless energy when I'm working. Like I have like a crazy work ethic, like a crazy amount of energy. Yeah, like my, my stamina is, is kinda crazy, actually. And Billy on the Street required and requires that. You know, and I'm old and like, you know, I still have it when I need it.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  You know, and I think that comes from like, my mom's like overflowing energy.

• 14:50Josh Horowitz?

  And she's all, she was also willing to help get you Madonna's sex book back in the day?

• 14:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, that's like the whole thing about the book. And where the whole love letter part of the book comes in is because my parents never made me feel uncomfortable about anything. You know, and yeah, my mom waited in line for hours at Barnes and Noble the day Madonna's sex book came out to get it for me. She knew I would die if I didn't have it.

• 15:14Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  Right? You know, I think she just didn't want her like very maniacal gay child to die.

• 15:20Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  You know, it was like self-preservation for my family. You know, and it was a mildly pornographic book. But my parents didn't care. You know, they were just like, he needs this. Like, he needs this to live.

• 15:36Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  Like, it means, it means so much to him. And it did, and, but, you know, um, and I know people who had parents like that, but I know a lot of people who didn't.

• 15:45Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  And my parents, like, even my, my friends who had good parents, when they hear about my parents, they're like, "My parents were nice, but not like your parents."

• 15:52Josh Horowitz?

  Yours are on the extreme.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  They went above and beyond, and, um, they just always let me be me, but I'll tell you, and I, you know, there are some people who might say, "Oh, you were spoiled," and, you know, yes, in a way I was, but my parents always treated me like an adult. I mean, they cared for me like a child, but they respected what was important to me as if I was an adult.

• 16:12Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  And that gave me an enormous amount of self-respect. You know, that made me feel like, yeah, like, this, and my love of entertainment, of performing, this is not just a hobby, and it's to be taken seriously, if I'm good at it, which, you know, I, I was. You know?

• 16:28Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 16:28Speaker 02

  Oh, well, certain, not everything, but certain things. And, and so, um, everything in the book is basically saying, "How did I get here? Where did I get this confidence to do Billy on the Street? Where do I get the resilience to keep going when things go wrong?" Right? And all of that, everything I am, you can, like, literally, you can draw that line back to the, how much my parents loved me. And, and let me be me.

• 16:51Josh Horowitz?

  Right, didn't try to impose their own expectations.

• 16:53Speaker 02

  No, there was no discomfort about it. I could go on and on, like, I watched this gay indie movie with my father in 1987. I was eight, nine years old, My Beautiful Landrette, with Daniel Day-Lewis. It's about, like, these two men having a gay love affair. And I told my dad I wanted to rent it and watch it, because my Aunt Joyce, who you'll read about in the book, she was a big influence in, like, my parents liked more mainstream things, and my Aunt Joyce made me read The Village Voice and The New Yorker, and, like, circle the movie reviews of indie movies and queer movies, and, you know, I think Joyce knew very early.

• 17:24Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, she took you to Henry and June, as I recall, in the book.

• 17:27Speaker 02

  Yes, my Aunt Joyce took me to, to the first NC-17 movie, Henry and June. My family took me to a lot of porn, now that I like.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  But yeah, it was the first NC-17 movie, which meant at the time, you cannot go if you're under 18, even if you're with a guardian. And we went to see Henry and June, which had a lot of like three-way sex in it and stuff. Not like hardcore, but you know what I mean. And after the movie, these two, we went in Queens, in Forest Hills, to see Henry and June. It was like, you know, it was a three-day weekend and my aunt had to watch me. You know, my parents went to work and she took me to see Henry.

• 18:04Josh Horowitz?

  Sure, as one does.

• 18:05Speaker 02

  Which I wanted to see. Am I talking too much?

• 18:08Josh Horowitz?

  No, this is perfect. This is why we're here.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  All right.

• 18:12Speaker 02

  And so we go see the movie and then these two elderly women, very like Forest Hills, Queens, probably Jewish ladies, like they looked at my aunt. And they looked at me and saw like my aunt with a child and they gave her the dirtiest look. And then when the movie was over, we were, we got up and we're walking out, they look at her again and one of them actually says to my aunt, Joyce, you took him to see that? And my aunt Joyce said, he's smart, he's not looking at it like that. You know, he's here for the art, basically, not the sex. But she was right.

• 18:48Speaker 05

  We'll be right back with more Happy, Sad, Confused.

• 18:54Speaker 00

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• 19:25Speaker 06

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• 19:57Josh Horowitz?

  And then your beautiful dad, Jay Eichner, who, if you, well, you all will have the book, so you're gonna hear Billy's interpretation of his own dad, which is priceless. Well, I know you actually wanted to read an excerpt, and this is a little bit about your dad, right?

• 20:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure. Is that okay if I read this? All right.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  I didn't know I'd be holding the mic, you know.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  Okay, to set this up, this comes later in the book, well, in the middle of the book, a chapter about my dad. I mean, my dad and my mom are all throughout the book in every chapter, but this chapter focuses on him. And, you know, I had this dad who, my dad was much older than my mom. He was born in 1930. He was in the Korean War. You know, he was an older guy, and then he had me, you know? And you would think maybe that would lead to some tension. But it did not.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Chapter five, my dad. When I was in fourth grade, I took up a new extracurricular activity. Was it soccer, you ask? Perhaps the spelling bee? No, it was something even gayer and nerdier than spelling bee, if you can imagine. I participated in my school's storytelling contest. Except for one other boy, the other competitive storytellers were all girls. Being the little performer I always was, it suited me well to stand on a stage and dramatically tell a short story. And it really rang my bell to figure out how to do this better than everyone else. I performed The Nightingale, a classic children's story by Hans Christian Andersen. I won the first contest at my own school,

• 21:38Speaker 02

  which allowed me to advance to the district-level competition. It was there, on a Saturday morning, that I stood on the stage in a very large, mostly empty, school auditorium in front of the dozen or so parents and three judges, who were the only ones to show up to watch us, and I killed.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  And when the judges got up to announce the winner, and they said, "The winner is Billy Eichner." Jay Eichner, my father, usually a stoic man, a few words and never that visibly emotional one way or the other, immediately leapt to his feet, threw his fist up in the air triumphantly, and in this mostly empty cavernous school auditorium shouted very loudly, "Way to go!"

• 22:23Speaker 02

  As if I had just thrown a buzzer beater in the last seconds of a championship basketball game, or scored a winning touchdown, when all I had done is won the 4th grade storytelling contest. His big, bellowing, Bronx-born voice bounced off the walls and echoed off the vast, dark span of empty seats in the school auditorium on a Saturday morning in Queens. And he stayed on his feet, beaming. This was, this was when I was in 4th grade in 1986. I'm 47 years old now, but I can still hear him saying those words. There's a Stephen Sondheim song children will listen in the finale of Into the Woods, a show about parents and children. About how adults have to remember that children listen more than you think.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  They listen and learn and remember everything you say and do. They retain everything. And that "Way to go!" I have retained for the rest of my life. Now, sometimes my parents took their love and encouragement a step too far. Because I won the district storytelling competition, I advanced to the next level to perform my story in the Queens Borough Wide Storytelling Contest. And yet again, my father attended with the pride of someone who was watching his son play quarterback at the Super Bowl. Except this time, I fumbled the football by stumbling over a few words in my story.

• 23:50Speaker 02

  And you cannot stumble over your words in a storytelling contest. I ended up coming in 5th place, losing out to a girl named Jenny Pettkonkathon, that was her name, I still remember it. Who at one point in her performance paused for a suspiciously long time while staring hard at her mother in the audience. She had clearly forgotten her next line. There was some speculation among the other contestants that her mother had mouthed the words she was forgetting, which was of course considered cheating. And yet she was given 2nd place. And, the girl who took 1st place happened to be from that same district where the competition was held.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  Well, my father thought this was very suspicious.

• 24:39Speaker 02

  I was just mad at myself for stumbling over the words and I stormed out of the auditorium telling my parents to start the car so we could just get out of there. I blamed myself, but not my father. He ranted all the way home in the car about the travesty that these girls had beaten me, that they had cheated, that the competition was rigged to favor the girl from her own district. My dad was like one of those "stop the steal" guys. "What about the 1988 Queensborough Storytelling Contest?" "It was fixed!" he shouted. And I finally had to shout from the backseat to quiet him. "You don't have to make excuses for me, I just lost." I was disappointed in myself, but I wasn't about to blame the other contestants, even

• 25:23Speaker 02

  if they had cheated. Plus, to be honest, I really didn't care. I just wanted to go home and eat a bagel and watch TV. But Jay Eichner had accepted enough defeat in his own life, so when it came to me, he refused to accept defeat and was particularly sensitive about me not having the same opportunities and advantages that a kid from a richer, more powerful, more well-connected family might have. That's it.

• 25:50Josh Horowitz?

  So he encouraged you throughout, and all the way, you know, up until his last days. I mean, he saw a lot before the show sold to Fuse, before Billy on the Street became a TV show, but he was at Creation Nation often, right?

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, my live show that I did, many in this audience are familiar with it, or worked on it, which is the live show I did in New York mostly, which is where I developed the Billy on the Street persona and where the first Billy on the Street style videos were shown, before YouTube even started. This was 2004, I made the first Billy on the Street. It's a very long time ago, and we made it to project onto a screen in this cabaret space, you know. Like I said, I had no idea what would happen. And he did come to, my dad came to every single show. Every single show. And I'm onstage ranting and raving about, like, gay anal sex.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  You know, and this is in like 2004, okay? The comedy world is not very gay friendly at that point. I mean, you know, it's not perfect now, but it's gotten way better. And he just, if the audience laughed, he loved it. You know, and he was smart. He was a New Yorker and he loved show business and like, he got it. Yeah. Uh, yes.

• 27:11Josh Horowitz?

  Do you remember when you were performing in those shows? Like, you got some early validation from some notable celebrities, actors? Like, who meant a lot to you that showed up at Creation Nation that kind of touted you?

• 27:23Speaker 02

  A lot of people. But Joan Rivers was probably the most important. The first job I got on TV was a pilot.

• 27:31Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  That was gonna be on Bravo. It was in 2006, it was a talk show pilot. It was like a Joan Rivers version of The View. And it was supposed to be, instead of Barbara Walters and four different types of women, it was gonna be Joan Rivers and four different types of gay men.

• 27:46Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 27:47Speaker 02

  And it was called Joan Rivers Straight Talk. Ha ha. 2006, that was good for 2006. And it was me, and I was on the panel.

• 27:58Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 27:58Speaker 02

  And Andy Cohen, before he had his own show.

• 28:01Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  And two other guys, LZ Granderson and Preston Conrad, and Joan.

• 28:05Josh Horowitz?

  Amazing.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  And the pilot didn't get picked up, but Joan started to come to Creation Nation, which was the live show, and she became like a real mentor to me before anyone knew who I was. And she was just unbelievably encouraging.

• 28:21Josh Horowitz?

  Does anything she said to you? I mean, she was a true mentor. Does anything stick in your...

• 28:24Speaker 02

  People used to ask me if Joan Rivers was my grandmother because she was so supportive.

• 28:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  They thought we must be related. Joan would, uh, she asked me to put my Billy on the Street videos, the very early ones, on a DVD. And she would go around to all the, when she went to do a talk show, a late night talk show, Letterman and Kimmel and Fallon, she would go up to the showrunner before the show and say, "You need to know who this guy is. Watch this DVD." Right? I mean, that's crazy. No one does that in show business. You know, that is very rare. And I tell the story in the book about how, I think it was 2009, and I was very frustrated because I could not get a job. And I was getting great press and everyone was like, "Oh, you're so great, you're this and you're that." But I couldn't get a job. My dad used to say, you know, "If you're such a genius, why can't you get three lines on Law and Order?"

• 29:15Speaker 02

  But he wasn't insulting, he was just being practical. He was confused. He was like, "I don't understand, why is the New York Times saying this and this about you that's so great, but then no one hires you." Right? And so, "I didn't have health insurance." It was rough. And so, I emailed Joan and said, "I don't know what to do, I really am considering quitting the business, because I don't understand the disconnect between people saying, 'I'm talented and unique,' but not being able to get a paying job." You know? And Joan said, "Come meet me after my stand-up show." And I met her, me and my best friend Heath of 30 years, who's here tonight, my best friend since high school. I took him with me and we went to have dinner with Joan. And she just gave me the most amazing pep talk of all time.

• 29:59Speaker 02

  And it literally, I know, this sounds dramatic, it's why I continued. You know? I really was about to quit. And my dad, although very, very, very encouraging, like beyond belief, "Yeah, I was in my early 30s at this point, and it's starting to get scary." And he's starting to get scared for me. And then I called him and I said, "Dad, Joan says I need to stick with it a few more years." And my dad was older, he was from Joan's generation, so Joan was very important to him, and she was from New York, and she's Jewish. You know, like, there was a lot of overlap. And he knew she really loved me, that it wasn't disingenuous. And he said, "Well, that's what Joan says, you gotta do it." And I did. And a year or two later, Billy on the Street became a TV show.

• 30:43Josh Horowitz?

  It is crazy, yeah. I mean--

• 30:45Speaker 02

  True, true story.

• 30:48Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, you alluded to this, like, the timeline, people don't realize, I think, like, you get this, you know, it pops and, like, Creation Nation gets some buzz, The Times writes this amazing article, but it's like five or six years later before you--

• 30:59Speaker 02

  The Times wrote about me, this crazy, amazing article about me and the show, and my best friend Robin Taylor, who did the show with me, who's also here. And that was 2005. And then, and I got, I finally got an agent, I went from no agent to, like, Brian Lord from CAA in the audience and signing me. I was like, "What? I just wanted to do an Off-Broadway play."

• 31:23Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  You know? And then all of a sudden, people were thinking, like, people were saying, like, "Oh, you're gonna be on TV in six months." And I was like, "TV? I never even thought about TV." Right? Now, once they said it.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  My gears started turning, but like, but, okay, so that all happens 2005. And by 2009, there's nothing. I'd been dropped by two agents. I'd been dropped by two managers. There's nothing, right? But I, what, well, there was something and it was called the internet. Youtube came along and then you could share videos on Facebook and I just kept at it for some reason that I still don't know. Well, I know why, but thinking back now, I'm like, "God, well, I had nothing. Where did this confidence come from?" And, well, it came from my parents.

• 32:08Josh Horowitz?

  I was gonna say, I think we all know now. Yeah, yeah.

• 32:11Speaker 05

  More Happy Sad Confused coming up.

• 32:17Speaker 00

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• 33:20Josh Horowitz?

  So, let's talk a little bit about the character, Billy on the Street, and how it developed. I mean, was it fully formed at the start? Did it take a little while to kind of like hone in on what was working for these men on the street?

• 33:31Speaker 02

  It wasn't fully formed, but it was pretty close.

• 33:33Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah?

• 33:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:34Josh Horowitz?

  What was the germ of the idea? What did you think was funny?

• 33:36Speaker 02

  The germ of the idea was, we were doing my live show and I was playing, my live show was like a live late night talk show, but onstage, because no one was putting me on TV, it was my version. of Conan or Letterman, but it was more theatrical. Because I wasn't from the comedy world. I was a theater kid who knew I had some skills for comedy and was just trying to find a way to break through. But because of that, Creation Nation was somewhere between a sketch comedy show and a play. So it would be a bunch of sketches about satirizing pop culture and my obsession with pop culture, but Robin Taylor played my sidekick. His character was in the closet and I was very out. And we alluded to a potential relationship that we might have off-camera, which he didn't want to talk about and which I did.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  And, and, and that storyline was like woven throughout the sketches about pop culture. That's one thing that's happening. And then, sort of propelled by my anger about that situation, it's weird, Robin and I used to sit just like this in stools, just like this. And, um, sort of propelled by the anger of that, my character, I, I didn't, I didn't say my name was Billy Eichner. My name was Billy Willing. I created an alter ego, because it wasn't me, William Willing, and then we shortened it to Billy Willing. Okay, because he was willing, blah, blah, blah, who cares? So, um, and then over the course of the night, my character would get increasingly angry about pop culture. I would start out pretty normal, and then midway through the show, I would do a monthly

• 35:05Speaker 02

  movie review, or a review of a Broadway show, or something, right? And it would start out relatively normal, like a little snarky, but like not over the top, but it would grow. And it would become like a 12 to 14-minute rant, that by the end, I was like having a stroke, I hated whatever I was talking about so much, that clearly something else was going on with me. Right? And it was, it was like a satire of criticism about people who take pop culture too seriously, which was me as a kid. Billy on the street is like my id, it's like me as a 12-year-old in the, in the body of a six-foot-three man. Um, and I, and over the course of this rant, I would get like, just disproportionately,

• 35:48Speaker 02

  irrationally worked up and angry, and Robin would have to come over and comfort me, and I was crying. And the, oh, thank you, Diane. Yeah.

• 35:58Speaker 02

  The audience, and the audience loved it. They were like falling out of their chairs, right? And I, I kind of like, um, my goal was to make a very cynical New York audience. Mostly, it was like a combination of comedy fans and theater people, right? There were songs in the show, we had a band, I would write songs, like these silly satirical songs, and I would sing them. Um, I used to say it was like a variety show, but I'm the only act, right? And, um, and, and there was kind of a, an emotional arc to the show, you know? Even though there was no plot necessarily, but there was like an arc emotionally. Okay. So then I'm doing the rants and everyone's liking me getting angry about pop culture.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  And then I say to Jamie, our good friend who was directing the show, I have an idea. What if we go out into the street and I do this guy, but I force other people to deal with him? Right? You know, because I'm a New Yorker, so I know how New Yorkers walk down the street. Like, there's hundreds of people around, but you have blinders on, you're kind of ignoring them, right? Everyone's just getting to where they need to go. And I said, "I am going to break that rule, and I am going to stop them and force them to talk to me about the Oscars." Right? Or about some pop culture topic that my character finds like, you know, incredibly important.

• 37:13Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, the more specific, the better. Like, the very...

• 37:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, we went out to shoot it, not knowing. We're theater people, like, we didn't know about film and cameras. This was long before iPhones. We had to actually go to Radio Shack and get a camera. We kept borrowing cameras from friends of ours who had like camcorders, and we would always lose them. We were constantly losing our friends' cameras. Because we were like, you know, in our twenties, we were like a mess. But, um, but, uh, and then, we made the video, we went to Washington Square Park, I remember vividly. Robin is in the first few videos with me, um, and, and I'm like making circles around Washington Square Park, Jamie's following me, and I am working up the nerve to go up to someone. Because that does not come naturally to me either, or it didn't, now it does. But, it, it didn't 22 years ago.

• 38:01Speaker 02

  But then we did it, we put that first video together, Jamie, like edited it, and we, we worked on it together. We didn't know how it was gonna go, and we projected it onto a screen, and from the first time we showed it, even in that raw form, the audience fucking loved it. And I stood backstage, hearing the laughter, and I thought, "Oh shit, I'm gonna have to keep doing this."

• 38:28Josh Horowitz?

  It resonates on a thousand levels. I did some man on the street interviews way back when for, of all things, Joan Rivers' radio show at WOR a thousand years ago.

• 38:38Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:38Josh Horowitz?

  It takes a certain kind of temperament to go up to strangers, let alone-

• 38:42Speaker 02

  It's an insane thing.

• 38:43Josh Horowitz?

  -in your character. It's insane.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  It is insane. Now I can do it. Now, you know, now I could do it in my sleep. But, um-

• 38:50Josh Horowitz?

  But then, jumping ahead, you obviously, I mean, this is jumping way ahead, but like, then to add celebrities into the mix and to be in these crazy contexts where like, talk about full circle, you're, you're talking to Madonna in character, meeting Madonna as Billy on the street.

• 39:06Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:06Josh Horowitz?

  What's that do to your head? What's that like for you, for little kid Billy?

• 39:11Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I'm a bit of a Madonna fan, Josh.

• 39:13Josh Horowitz?

  I've heard, I've heard.

• 39:15Speaker 02

  Um, there's a chapter in my book called Madonna, Louise, Veronica Chaconi.

• 39:19Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  It's her full name. It's not just like fangirling out on her, though. Although there is some, I think, very sophisticated analysis of her career. But, um, but it really, it, it really is about, what it really is about is how, is, is again, my parents learning to understand me by watching me love Madonna. That's what that's about. And, um, there's kind of a through line in the book, I'll get back to what you're talking about. But, um, there's kind of a through line in the book about like, even when you have parents that support you and love you and understand you, which I was lucky enough to do, they were not in the performing arts. They were not creative types. They loved show business from afar and like, my god, they loved a Broadway show like more than anything. But

• 40:01Speaker 02

  they weren't actors, they weren't performers. And I realize, looking back, I think the artists we loved as kids, they helped raise us too, in a way, in the way that our parents can't, you know? And so Madonna did that for me. She filled in certain blanks, you know? And I just loved her so much and, and still do. Um, and so, make a long story short, it's all in the book, but, uh, yeah, so Billy on the Street becomes a TV show in late 2011. And then Conan, the Conan O'Brien show, they were kind of early adopters. And Conan's show becomes the first major talk show I'm ever a guest on. And I go and I just, you know, I'm on the couch and that was fun. And no one knows who I am. And it was like early 2012.

• 40:46Speaker 02

  And then they call me the next day and they say, hey, we have crazy access to the Super Bowl. We have like press passes. And do you want to go and do like a Billy on the street style segment at the Super Bowl? They said, we can get you on the field.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  And I said, I mean, no one knew who I was. I was like, well, yeah, of course, Conan O'Brien. I'm gonna say yes to that. But I got off the phone and I thought, what the hell am I gonna do at the Super Bowl? Like, I don't follow football. You know, I'm not a sports guy. And then I remembered the halftime show that year was Madonna. And so, I know.

• 41:24Speaker 02

  But, um, and so I call Conan's team and I say, okay, here's my angle. I am going to the Super Bowl, but I only care about Madonna. I only care about the halftime show. And I run around Indianapolis, which is where the Super Bowl was, and I'm only asking people if they're excited about Madonna.

• 41:43Speaker 02

  And

• 41:44Josh Horowitz?

  Rewatch the clip, I did. It's amazing to watch the football players just want to talk about

• 41:48Speaker 02

  And then at the end, I'm on the field. And the New York Giants win the Super

• 41:54Josh Horowitz?

  It's amazing.

• 41:54Speaker 02

  And I am running onto the field. And I am shouting like, Giants just won, but Madonna was amazing. And I'm like, Vogue, motherfucker.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  And I run onto the field and I literally go up to the Giants who just won and their families are on the the field and they're crying and there's confetti and the trophy's there. Spike Lee is there because he likes the Giants, I guess. And, um, and I go up to the players and I say, you know, great game, man. And no one knows who I am. So they think I'm, I work for ESPN or something. And then I follow it up with, did you see Madonna?

• 42:33Speaker 02

  And they look at you, have to go watch it, I'm telling you.

• 42:36Josh Horowitz?

  It's perfect.

• 42:36Speaker 02

  And I wouldn't say that about everything I've ever done, but like, and they look at me so bewildered and they're just like, uh, no, I was in the locker room.

• 42:45Speaker 02

  And then, so that video did very well. And then Madonna's team finds out about the video. And we get connected. And, you know, there's a longer story in the book. But I end up ambushing Madonna when she's rehearsing at Yankee Stadium. She couldn't be on the street with me, but Yankee Stadium was outside. And so I thought, okay, that'll work. And they say, okay. So Madonna knows you're coming, but she doesn't know what you're gonna say. Right? And you will improvise the way you do on the street. And I said, okay. And so we go with my camera crew and we do it. I mean, you can see it, it's on YouTube or something.

• 43:26Speaker 02

  And I am, but I had, I had this moment where, okay, it's like, it's Madonna. Right? And I'm like, how is this happening? I don't understand, right? My parents, my parents and I went to watch her masturbate at the Blonde Ambition Tour. Like, they bought me the sex book. You know, there's so many amazing Madonna stories. So it was, but I had a moment with myself at Yankee Stadium. I remember before I like went out was my moment to like go out and ambush her. And I thought, you have to stay in character. You cannot be Billy Eichner who loves Madonna. And Billy on the street gets mad at everyone, so you have to get mad at Madonna. Otherwise, you're betraying yourself. I have a lot of artistic integrity.

• 44:05Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 44:08Speaker 02

  But, and I did, and she was great. She was shouting at me and Rocco was there, he was a baby. And, yeah, it was wild.

• 44:16Josh Horowitz?

  Is she an acquaintance now? Like, do you have a personal relationship with Madonna?

• 44:19Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no. I leave Madonna alone. Madonna's busy. I know her team. But by the way, I was such a Madonna fan that her publicist of many years, no longer her publicist, Liz Rosenberg. I read about Liz Rosenberg on Page Six when I was a kid, right? Just getting to email with Liz Rosenberg. I was starstruck, right? By, by her publicist.

• 44:40Josh Horowitz?

  And you, okay, so, so jumping ahead, the time is flying by, but this is all amazing. The, the residual, the residual effect of Billy on the street is a beautiful and challenging one. I mean, it makes such an impact, and you alluded to this, it's like, it's followed you. It will always follow you to a degree, and I'm sure you've kind of reconciled that to a degree. But, talk to me a little bit about, like, is it part of your day to day nowadays even? Like, do people run up to you expecting you to scream at them? Do they scream at you? Like, what's the...

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Sometimes people will come up to me and say, "Will you shout at me?"

• 45:13Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 45:14Speaker 02

  Which is so funny, because that's not a thing people want someone to do to them, usually. But, um, no, I mean, people are, well, social media, I mean, the show ended up having this, like, second, third life, I don't even know anymore. Like, it's just been out there so long. TikTok came along, a friend of mine said, "You know how viral you are on TikTok?" This was like, four years ago, and I said, "I'm not on TikTok, what are you talking about?" And they said, "You, Billy on the Street is all over TikTok," and I had no idea. Fans were posting clips, and then I got on TikTok. But, like, yeah, it's crazy. It, it, it has sustained in a very unexpected way. It's one of those things, like, you cannot plan for.

• 45:51Josh Horowitz?

  So now that there's, there's a bit of distance, and you've kind of, like, proven yourself in other areas, is there more willingness to kind of go back every now and then? I mean, I think the last time you did it was for the campaign with Will Ferrell.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  Or Kamala, that helped.

• 46:05Josh Horowitz?

  We all tried in our own way.

• 46:06Speaker 02

  We tried. We tried. Wish more people had tried.

• 46:13Josh Horowitz?

  But where are you at in terms of that character and its place in your career going forward?

• 46:18Speaker 02

  I am at a place where, for, for a while, I was like, "I can never do it." Right, I have to, like, draw a line in the sand. But, people love it, and...

• 46:31Speaker 02

  If you look under the internet, which can be so snarky, including about me, but like, under Billy on the Street videos, that's like a different thing. Like, it's just people, fans, the people who get it. Not everyone gets it, but the people who get it, it's like their favorite thing. And they are always, "Please do more, please bring the show back, the world is so awful, please do this." And I am very touched by that, and I wanna like, honor that. You know, that's a very rare thing. It does not give me, as an actor, the creative satisfaction anymore because I've been doing it for so long. And it's not aligned with who I really wanted to be as an artist, because it's not acting in the traditional sense, you know?

• 47:11Speaker 02

  I'm very proud of it, I created it, but like, for me, I wanna have a more eclectic career. But now, you know, what I'm always trying to sort of figure out is like, okay, I can do both. You know, like, you know, my therapist would want me to say that.

• 47:29Speaker 02

  She was like, "You can do everything." And so, it's never gonna be, I'm never gonna do like, half-hour episodes of Billy on the Street again, but we're always kinda talking about what it could look like. And I don't know what the answer to that is, but never say never, I don't know.

• 47:45Josh Horowitz?

  We should bring up Bros, which obviously is very important to you, and to so many. I mean, it made an impact, and I know...

• 47:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

• 47:56Josh Horowitz?

  And I know, last time you were on the podcast, we talked about it. I mean, it's a complicated conversation, because like, you have such pride in it, and those that saw it, loved it, and luckily, it does have this shelf life, this residual life, but at the time, it didn't do the box office that you wanted, even though the critics did respond, I think. Have you kind of like, come around, and can you kind of appreciate more the place that Bros sits in pop culture today?

• 48:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm gonna go back in the closet, obviously.

• 48:22Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 48:24Speaker 02

  I think that would be good.

• 48:26Josh Horowitz?

  So you're cool, you're good.

• 48:27Speaker 02

  I'm good, I'm totally good. No, no, no. I, um, well, I'll say this about the book, which was really nice, is that it ga- Bros is complicated. Like, the big, the big, all of it, the making of it, the everything about it was complicated. It is not something easily summed up in some, like, clickbaity soundbite, or a tweet, or like, a headline on Instagram where no one reads the article, they just, like, read the four words that I said that were taken out of context for, like, clickbaity reasons. And so, um, but what the book did is give me the space to properly talk about it, right? In all of its complexity, like, the good, bad, and the ugly. And I do, you know, and I am very proud of it. Um, and, uh, I know

• 49:10Speaker 02

  what my intentions were with that movie, and I think people, certain people got it, certain people didn't. That's fine. But what I'm happy about is that the book gave me the opportunity and the space and time for me to be thoughtful about it, to be articulate about it, and to say exactly how I feel about it. Um, you know, without it being interrupted by, uh, kind of, bad faith, uh, takes.

• 49:35Josh Horowitz?

  But like, the, the finished product is, you don't feel it was compromised in any way. You are proud of what it wa- you made the movie you wanted to make.

• 49:42Speaker 02

  Yeah. Especially because, I mean, you made that movie, R-rated gay comedy with a major studio. Yeah, I mean, I mean, anything I've done, I will look back and say, like, oh, I would tweak that, I would tweak that. I mean, that's par for the course. But, no, I mean, it was important to me that if I was gonna have that opportunity, I mean, there were a few things that were important to me. I wanted my gay friends, or at least, you know, there's a big generation gap in the gay community, right? I'm not gonna get into all of that right now. But like, but, you know, I can only write from my experience and my generation, you know? And, and I, not that I speak for my generation of gay people, I don't. Social media, calm down. Okay, can already see the comments.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  But I can only speak from my experience and my vantage point. And what I wanted was for my gay friends to see that movie and think, okay, like, he didn't sell us out. Like, he's telling our story. Like, this is honest, and it's complicated, and it's layered, and it's not Billy on the Street. It has depth, and it has thought. And I wanted, um, I wanted to have a gay character at the center of a gay story that was not in the closet. I did not want the storytelling to hinge on being in the closet. I, I think we get a lot of that. And I wanted a character that led with his intellect, right? And not with his body. And, and I just wanted it to be honest. And I, we did that.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  You know, we did that, and I think it's a smart, funny, heartwarming movie, and, uh, I'm proud of it.

• 51:14Josh Horowitz?

  As you should be, absolutely.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  But, next time, I will play a tortured, beautiful closeted hockey player.

• 51:26Speaker 02

  I've learned my lesson.

• 51:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, did Bros walk so Heated Rivalry could run?

• 51:32Speaker 02

  No, I don't think so.

• 51:35Speaker 02

  No.

• 51:36Josh Horowitz?

  Did you like Heated Rivalry?

• 51:37Speaker 02

  I enjoyed Heated Rivalry, yeah. I mean, I'm gay, I like those guys fucking.

• 51:42Speaker 02

  But it's a, it's a good show. But very different. You know what's funny, you know, uh, yeah, it's funny. Like, the first thing I said to Nick Stoller, who's the directed Bros and we co-wrote it,

• 51:55Speaker 02

  I, before I even knew what the movie was gonna be about, I said, "I have no idea what this movie's gonna be about, but like, the characters are not gonna be in the closet. It's not about that." But people like when the characters are in the closet.

• 52:08Speaker 02

  You know?

• 52:08Josh Horowitz?

  I don't know if you want to reveal what you're working on in terms of writing, but I mean, I remember when we were talking way back when, there was a Christmas movie, there was the Paul Lind biopic for a while.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  Yes, there's a Paul Lind biopic.

• 52:17Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 52:18Speaker 02

  I'm still working on it.

• 52:20Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  I had a hard time, I did a ton of research on Paul Lind during COVID, and we talked to Bruce Valanche for hours and hours, who wrote for Paul Lind on Hollywood Squares. Bruce Valanche, legendary comedy writer Bruce Valanche. His first job in Hollywood was writing Paul Linzingers on Hollywood Squares. And I did a ton of research on Paul. And then it took me a minute to like, find my angle. And then last year, I thought of my angle. And so, I'm still working on that. There's a Christmas project, which has evolved from its original version and is now something much crazier that, um, but it's very, very early, so I don't want to talk about it, but there is a serious Christmas thing. Um, and yeah, I don't know.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  I'm always writing and thinking about things.

• 53:08Josh Horowitz?

  I think that's a good note to end on. I just want to say, I mean, I think you've gotten a sense from the conversation tonight, this really encapsulates what this book is, which is obviously-

• 53:17Speaker 02

  I forgot there was a book!

• 53:18Josh Horowitz?

  A ton of fun stories, but at the end of the day, it is a beautiful and moving tribute to your parents. I know they'd be very proud of you. And we're all thrilled that you shared your night with us tonight. Billy on Billy comes out as we tape this, I think, just like 48 hours, so spread the good word, enjoy your audiobook, and give it up one more time for Billy Eichner.

• 53:36Speaker 02

  Thank you, Josh. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

• 53:45Speaker 04

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't prepared to do this by Josh.

• 54:04Speaker 07

  Hey, first time? Love those sneakers.

• 54:07Speaker 06

  Thanks. Depop. Got them cheap.

• 54:11Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah? Okay, downloading.

• 54:13Speaker 06

  There's loads on there.

• 54:16Speaker 07

  Wow. Wish I'd had this last week. I just paid full price for mine.

• 54:20Speaker 06

  Oh, right?

• 54:22Speaker 07

  And you can't get these ones anywhere. Find what you want for less on Depop.

• 54:26Speaker 06

  Oh, sneakers. One once. Excellent condition.