Record-Breaking Signings, March Madness Mayhem & A Severance Waffle Party with Ben Stiller | Ep 130

92%ers we are back with another episode of New Heights presented by Nike! When the world says you can’t win, Nike says, “So Win” On today’s episode, Jason and Travis weigh in on the latest news from NFL Free Agency including revealing how much players snitch on their old teams, why the Cowboys are fighting online, and if the Bengals made the right call by signing Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to record-breaking contracts. We also have an incredible conversation with Ben Stiller. We get into everything from the guy's love of “Heavyweights”, what really happens at NFL training camps, who’s idea it was for Tom Cruise to dance in “Tropic Thunder”, if Ben would give up an Academy Award for a Knicks Title, and all of Jason and Travis’ biggest questions about “Severance.” Finally, we have potentially the least helpful March Madness breakdown of all time. If your criteria for picking teams involve fighting ability, if they shoot underhand free throws, higher GPAs, or any other broad generalizations, this bracket preview is for you! You can participate in the New Heights March Madness Bracket Challenge with the links below: Men's Bracket Link: https://bit.ly/NHMensBracketWomen's Bracket Link: https://bit.ly/NHWomensBracket You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. . . . Download the full podcast here: Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMb Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynw Follow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshow Check out all of our new merch’ at https://homage.com/newheights Support the Show: NIKE: When the world says you can’t win, Nike says So Win! https://www.nike.com/w/college-teams-2wq2g AMERICAN EXPRESS: For full terms and to learn more about the powerful backing of American Express, visit https://americanexpress.com/withAmex AUDIBLE: Visit https://audible.com/newheights and sign up for a free 30-Day Trial THE FARMER'S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights https://thefarmersdog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping! ALL STATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com https://allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds. DRAFT KINGS: Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using http://dkng.co/newheights or through my promo code NEWHEIGHTS. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org http://www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: dkng.co/dk-offer-terms. Ends 3/30/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Looking for the brands you love? Famous Footwear has all the best. Jordan, Nike, Adidas, Birkenstock, New Balance, and more. So you can always find the shoes you and your family want, at great prices. With 800 stores, your local Famous Footwear is always nearby. And Famous.com is open anytime. Plus, join Famous Rewards for perks like free shipping, pick your own BOGO, and reward cash on every purchase. Some exclusions apply. Famous Footwear. Famous for a reason.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  The wrongs, we must right. The fights, we must win. The future, we must secure together, for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next, for all of us. We are Marines. We were made for this.

• 0:52Speaker 02

  Usually, the conversation around here is about football. Today, the topic is gas for one of the sponsors. Specifically, Mobil Supreme Plus Premium gasoline. Let's start with the fact that Mobil Supreme Plus Premium is amazing. It keeps engines three times cleaner, so engines perform better for better gas mileage. Just ask motorsports legend Shirley Chacha Muldowney. She raced top fuel dragsters in the 70s. So she knows a thing or two about gasoline. She also knows a thing or two about the 70s, so if there are any questions about leisure suits, vinyl, or fondue, fire away. One might wonder why they call her Chacha. Like, is it a family name? Or a marketing ploy? Or maybe she thought it sounded cool? It's very curious. Getting back to fuel, Shirley and the team highly recommend Mobil Supreme Plus Premium Gas.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  Because it keeps engines three times cleaner for better performance and gas mileage. By the way, Chacha Muldowney, she drove a pink car. Mobil. Legendary. Three times cleaner compared to Mobil regular gas and port fuel-injected engines. Actual results may vary. Visit mobilfuels.com for details.

• 1:50Speaker 03

  It's my favorite scene in the movie. How you doing, Tony? How you doing, little Tony? Bad? Why you... Well, everything's falling down around me. There's nothing I can do about... I'm sorry, I don't want to do your... No, no, do it. Please, please. Yeah, everything's falling down around me. There's nothing I can do about it? Well, you know, whose fault is it? It's their fault. It's not my fault. It's their fault. That's right, it's their fault. You have failed!

• 2:16Travis Kelce?

  Let's do this thing. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Nike. When the world says you can't win, Nike says so win. We're your hosts. I'm Travis. This is my big brother, Jason, um, out of the University of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, the Natty didn't make it in the fucking bracket, man, but, um, still proud of the gang. Um,

• 2:39Speaker 03

  Is the other bracket still a thing? They still do the second?

• 2:41Travis Kelce?

  The NIT?

• 2:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:43Travis Kelce?

  The second tier bracket. You're fucking hilarious.

• 2:47Speaker 03

  What am I? I'm just being honest. What else is it? I don't know.

• 2:52Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, no, I think they do.

• 2:53Speaker 03

  They're still doing the losers bracket?

• 2:58Travis Kelce?

  Dude, I used to hate that when we were little in, uh, like baseball, like travel baseball, if you didn't make it into like the final four or something, you went to a losers bracket just so you could play on Sundays.

• 3:08Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 3:08Travis Kelce?

  I used to be like, man, I'm not trying to be in this fucking losers bracket. Fucking losers.

• 3:12Speaker 03

  Pretty sure that's how everybody feels in the NIT.

• 3:18Travis Kelce?

  Subscribe on YouTube where Wondery Plus, wherever you get your podcasts, follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S for fun clips throughout the week. Jason, tell the people what we got coming up.

• 3:29Speaker 03

  Oh, we got an incredible episode for you guys. Uh, first of all, we're going to look into some of the biggest news around the NFL, including free agency, which is pretty much the only news happening right now in the NFL. We're also going to kick off our first ever New Heights March Madness Bracket Challenge. That's right. You guys will be playing for the coveted New Heights Golden Cup. That's right. The winner is going to receive this 14 karat golden cup.

• 3:53Travis Kelce?

  Look at that. That thing's pretty. How, why is Jason the only one that has one of these?

• 3:59Speaker 03

  Well, we got a bunch of them. Do you want one?

• 4:01Travis Kelce?

  Can I fucking have one, Jason?

• 4:03Speaker 03

  Why are you asking me?

• 4:04Travis Kelce?

  Send to your house?

• 4:05Speaker 03

  I don't control these one bit.

• 4:07Travis Kelce?

  I want a fucking golden cup.

• 4:08Speaker 03

  Who's in charge of the?

• 4:09Travis Kelce?

  Everybody just sends all the trophies to Jason. You get the Stanley Cup, the Larry O'Brien, the fucking New Heights Cup.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't know who controls the Golden Cup shipments, but we can get you a golden cup. Uh, we also are going to be getting the winner of our March Madness Bracket Challenge Gold Cup. Um, I think there could be two gold cups. There's going to be a gold cup for the men's NCAA bracket and a gold cup for the women's NCAA bracket, but we'll get into that in a second. We've also got an amazing conversation with the one, the only.

• 4:36Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  The Audi of Ben Stiller is coming on our podcast. That's right. The director of the hit show Severance is coming on New Heights to talk about that among all of his other career accolades that we enjoyed growing up and since then. We talk about heavyweight, Tropic Thunder, uh, pretty much everything that you'd want to know from Ben Siller. We're going to get into it.

• 4:59Travis Kelce?

  Hell yeah.

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Also, Happy St. Patrick's Day. For those of you that weren't here at the top of the show, tuned in a little bit late. Uh, it is Monday, so we are filming this on St. Patrick's Day, uh, although it will be releasing, I guess, while you're watching this, it's Wednesday. Let's get it started, Trav.

• 5:13Travis Kelce?

  Let's get it going, baby.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  Time for new news.

• 5:17Travis Kelce?

  New news.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  New news is brought to you by American Express.

• 5:21Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 5:23Speaker 03

  Well, let's get to the biggest piece of new news, which is that we are once again an award-winning podcast. That's right. We are the iHeartRadio 2025 Best Sports Podcast Award winners. Thanks a lot, iHeart. Yeah, baby. And most of all, thank you to all you 92%ers for tuning in each week and getting us to, uh, win this award. This award is really just a representation of all you people that tune in each week to listen to us two idiots talk about nonsense. So thank you for tuning in. We sure love doing this podcast and, uh, the only reason we're able to do it is because all you guys listen. So very much appreciate it, uh, and it's an honor, iHeart, that, uh, to receive this award on behalf of the

• 6:05Speaker 03

  92%ers who make this podcast happen, as well as our amazing, our amazing production, uh, crew, Wondery, Wave, everyone involved in actually making this thing watchable. Well done, guys. So yeah, let's move on to some free agency news. What do you think, Trav?

• 6:21Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, let's dive into it, big dog.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  All righty. First week in NFL free agency in the books. Again, this is being recorded Monday, so if something were to happen perhaps Tuesday or even Wednesday, when the show comes out, we will not be talking about it in the show. And really, it's Wednesday at about 12:30, so something, or this is Monday.

• 6:40Travis Kelce?

  There's been a lot of shit happening.

• 6:41Speaker 03

  This is Monday, 12:30 Eastern, so there could be something that happens later today that we don't want to know about. But either way, to date, there have been some interesting things. Uh, we have a fan question about free agency from Jenna XKC. I think that's Jenna at KC. Okay, so I've wondered this. Do players not go to their new teams and tell their old teams plans? Like, how does that work? Actually, is there a rule or just common knowledge to respect the situation and nothing is discussed? I don't know if there's a rule that you're not allowed to disclose information, but I can tell you that everyone does disclose, and this is absolutely something that happens in the NFL, Jenna.

• 7:21Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 7:21Speaker 03

  Actually, a lot of the times you will see teams sign practice squad players one to two weeks before they play an opponent for this very reason. They want to get code words. They want to get information on no huddle plays, coverage signals. All of these things are being tried to figure out key words that are said at the line. There's always information that they're trying to get out of players that have been in other organizations.

• 7:45Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I don't know if it gets to the point of like you're sharing all your notes that you took.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  It probably does. It probably does get to that. So I bet guys will bring in binders.

• 7:53Travis Kelce?

  I've never, I've never seen it to that point. Yeah.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  I've never seen any of it, to be honest with you.

• 7:58Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 7:58Speaker 03

  This all happens behind closed doors or something like that, where like a coach or the player is going to meet with somebody. I've talked to certain guys that are the teams like, hey, like I noticed that they do this blitz, like what happens, you know, is there a tell when you guys are doing this game or there? Nine times out of 10, it's not that useful what the defensive player is trying to give me.

• 8:21Travis Kelce?

  I will say this. I was playing, I was playing, I forget who it was, and I think Chase Daniel was on the sideline. I think it was Chicago. We might have been playing in Chicago. Nagy was there, maybe Tyler Brave might have been on the sideline as well. I'm trying to remember who it was that that called it out, but either Alex Smith or Pat Mahomes was up at the line of scrimmage and he signaled a quick route to me, like a hot route to me, essentially, or verbally said something to me to tell me to like break off my route differently. And on the sideline, I see both of the quarterbacks screaming what that route was going to be.

• 9:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:03Travis Kelce?

  And I'm just, and in my head, I'm like, you.

• 9:07Speaker 03

  You son of a.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  No. Yeah.

• 9:11Travis Kelce?

  I think it was preseason, but at the same time, like you're, you're gonna do whatever you have to do to win in your current situation. And if that's, you know, finding a tick here and there from your previous situation and helping out your teammates in that regard, you're gonna fucking do it, man. And I don't think there's any like bush leagues, like, I don't think it's like going behind someone's back or doing it like

• 9:34Speaker 03

  I don't think, yeah, I'm with you.

• 9:35Travis Kelce?

  In a like, I don't know, I don't think it's wrong. Um, if you hand over the entire playbook.

• 9:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's different.

• 9:42Travis Kelce?

  That's a little weird.

• 9:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:44Travis Kelce?

  Um, but if yours is talking ball and you're trying to give your guys a heads up on like an audible or something like that, I, I think that's all fair game.

• 9:53Speaker 03

  I think stuff that hap- I think I'm with you, Travis. Stuff that happens at the line of scrimmage, verbiage, signals, all of that stuff is usually fair game. That does happen in the NFL. Good question and glad we got into it. All right. We also got some Cowboys Twitter fighting. Love when people fight on Twitter, just out in the open. It's the best, isn't it? Demarcus Lawrence signs with Seattle, shits on Dallas on his way out the door.

• 10:16Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 10:17Speaker 03

  He's just kind of being honest. Clearly a little bit unhappy with the way things ended. Uh, I believe he was quoted as saying Dallas is my home. I, my kids are in Dallas, my family's in Dallas.

• 10:30Travis Kelce?

  But I know for sure I'm not gonna win a Super Bowl in Dallas. Yeah.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  Strong words, strong words. I mean, I think he's just being honest, but

• 10:37Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  Micah Parsons clearly didn't appreciate that. This, what rejection and envy look like. This is some clown shit. Perfect, perfect. It's a good way to respond. Demarcus Lawrence, calling me a clown won't change the fact that I told the truth. Maybe if you spent less time tweeting and more time winning, I wouldn't have left.

• 10:57Travis Kelce?

  Oh, man. Yeah, that's, um, your Twitter beef. Let it get you going.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  What is the point of fighting on Twitter? Like just out in the open for everybody to see?

• 11:08Travis Kelce?

  Well, you know, Jason, you're a professional.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  Nobody fights on Twitter, right? It's like when we were in high school and the kids would pull the fire alarm just so they could go out in the street and fight in front of all the students. Do you remember that?

• 11:24Travis Kelce?

  In front of the entire city.

• 11:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:27Travis Kelce?

  Cleveland Heights is on Cedar and Lee, two of the biggest streets on the east side of Cleveland.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  You guys could just go fight. You don't need to do this.

• 11:34Travis Kelce?

  Nah, I need an audience.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  I need, I want everybody to see me whoop his ass.

• 11:42Travis Kelce?

  And they would do it in the middle of the street.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  Not just a street, Cedar. Like the biggest, like one of the biggest ways into downtown Cleveland is just completely blocked. I got so bad, they had to put the cops at the intersection.

• 11:57Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, no, well, it was stopping traffic. People were trying to just, you know, do their

• 12:02Speaker 03

  Cars lined up, blocks down, trying to do things.

• 12:08Travis Kelce?

  Four thousand kids out front watching a fight unfold in the middle of Cedar Road. Gosh, man. And then we'd just go across the street over to Wendy's and get a Frosty and some

• 12:18Speaker 03

  Well, then they, then they stopped. Then they had to close Wendy's to, they wouldn't let kids walk into the Wendy's. You had to go through the drive thru. Oh, better times, better times. Love Cleveland Heights.

• 12:28Travis Kelce?

  Gotta love the heights, baby. Gotta love the heights. We got a breaking contract news. We got some news in the contract world. The Bengals have fucking unloaded Brink's trucks.

• 12:40Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 12:41Travis Kelce?

  And have signed both Jamar Chase and T. Higgins to four-year deals. Uh, Jamar getting 161 with 112 guaranteed, uh, making him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history and then T. Higgins getting 115 mil respectfully, um, for, in his first two years guaranteed, fully guaranteed, so.

• 13:04Speaker 03

  Good for the Bengals. I mean, and I did not think they were going to be able to keep both these guys and they're paying a hefty price tag to do it.

• 13:11Travis Kelce?

  For those who were wondering, yes, Joe Burrow, uh, making $55 million per year. Jamar Chase making just over 40 mil a year and T. Higgins, uh, making close to 30 mil a year. That's over 125 million dollars per year in new money on just three offensive players. When you say it like that. That is fucking, it's bonkers. It's, I'm not gonna say it's, it shouldn't be done. It's just never been done.

• 13:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, but all of these things, there's gonna be a never been done in a year or two years after this. The salary cap keeps going up. I think people don't realize often how much these, the contracts continue to go up for players over time. When I first got into the league, league minimum was 375,000. That's still a lot of money. Now it's over 700,000, this league minimum.

• 14:05Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  The average per year for the highest paid centers, when I was getting my first deal done, my third year in the league, was like $6 million a year. Now, the average of all the top centers is over 12. So, in 10 years, it's doubled. Newsflash, this is gonna get broken in another year or two, just on how the salary cap keeps going.

• 14:27Travis Kelce?

  I don't, I've never heard of this much of the salary cap being allocated to three offensive players.

• 14:33Speaker 03

  The Cowboys did it with C.D. Lamb, Dak Prescott, and they're gonna do it with Micah Parsons.

• 14:40Travis Kelce?

  That's not three offensive players.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  Okay, three offensive players, sorry. I'm sorry, yeah. Well, the Eagles gotta be pretty dang close with A.J. Brown. Devante Smith is gonna be up for a contract soon, and Jalen Hurts, get ready to see that one, or they're gonna let Devante Smith go. I don't think that's happening.

• 14:54Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Devante Smith isn't making 50 mil.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  You don't think Devante's gonna get close to what T. Higgins is making? The only reason A.J. isn't making 55 is because A.J. got redone a couple of years ago, or last year.

• 15:09Travis Kelce?

  I hear you. All right, he's still only making 30.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  They're gonna be up again here in another year or two, and I bet it gets close to this. Find out.

• 15:17Travis Kelce?

  I, yeah, we're gonna find out. I don't think they stay.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  It all, it all happens like this, dude. I'm telling you. This is only gonna, I bet this, I bet this very metric gets broken within, within three years.

• 15:29Travis Kelce?

  I bet you, I bet you it never gets close, that 125 mil per year.

• 15:34Speaker 03

  To three offensive players.

• 15:36Travis Kelce?

  To, no, and that percentage of what the cap is right now.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  Well, we don't know.

• 15:40Travis Kelce?

  Percentage.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  Well, and this is another.

• 15:42Travis Kelce?

  Will never be just three players ever.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  Well, and this is another thing that I would like to stipulate. We don't even know what the percentage is for this year. These are the numbers of this arbitrary tweet that Brandon and Jake have decided to put into average per years. Nobody right here knows what they're actually being accounted for for the cap. Nobody knows what the cash is. Nobody knows what the guarantee is.

• 16:05Travis Kelce?

  Somebody can figure that out. It's all gonna be on paper.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  And I think that I.

• 16:09Travis Kelce?

  But I hear what you're saying. I'm just saying that.

• 16:11Speaker 03

  All I'm saying is there's a huge disservice to the NFL free agency. Every I it pisses me off so much listening to all of these people just say the average per year is this, when all they did is divide the total money by three.

• 16:28Speaker 03

  Look at this. Look at this. By extending Jamar Chase to the Bengals, Bengals will actually lower both players' cap hits this season. Okay, so this is my whole point. People have no fucking clue what these numbers mean. And they just want launch into these arbitrary things of like how much money. Anyways, just saying, don't be misguided, people.

• 16:51Travis Kelce?

  You got me. You got me. It sounds pretty ridiculous, but you got me.

• 16:56Speaker 03

  I really do. And Trav, we talked about this. I think it'd be good to bring on somebody who really understands the salary cap and all, because I want to know it. I want to hear like what all these structures mean, because I was talking to somebody the other day and they said it's all about cash. And like how much eventually that cash comes due and whatever you're paying. But there's ways to manipulate it and it gets manipulated in signing bonus, in roster bonuses. Every team does it. Some teams have more cash to divvy out up front. I don't really know all the ins and outs of it, but I would love to have somebody on to explain to me, you and the 92 percenters, what all these numbers mean. Should we do a NFL salary cap?

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Educational episode?

• 17:42Travis Kelce?

  Or should we go and find somebody else?

• 17:45Speaker 03

  Or should we just have a fun conversation with a former player? And just dick around like always?

• 17:51Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, all right. You guys let us know if you guys want to learn this stuff.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  All right, cool. All righty, last bit of new news. Shout out Kyle Frazier, the kid who puked, working out with Aaron Donald, but still finished a workout, according to him. He tweeted referencing the social clip that we released about. Aaron Donald, him working out. Um, he said, definitely a workout I'll never forget, but you forget the part where I got back and finished.

• 18:16Travis Kelce?

  Ooh.

• 18:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:18Travis Kelce?

  That's what I'm fucking talking about, big dog.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  I love that Kyle.

• 18:21Travis Kelce?

  That boy Kyle.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  Apparently this guy, this guy freaking plays college football now. That's pretty awesome.

• 18:27Travis Kelce?

  Where's he at?

• 18:28Speaker 03

  I don't know. Brandon, do we have that information? Georgia Southern playing college football down there? That's hot. Tell you what, I don't want to be in a Georgia Southern training camp. That's ridiculous.

• 18:38Travis Kelce?

  Ooh, sir.

• 18:40Speaker 03

  I'd be puking a lot.

• 18:44Travis Kelce?

  Well, he had some experience about fighting through the puke age. That boy Kyle. Um, and that does it for new dudes. Brought to you by American Express.

• 18:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, baby. Thanks to our partner, Planet Fitness.

• 18:57Travis Kelce?

  Not every gym needs to feel like a tryout. Planet Fitness is judgment free.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  Whether you're just getting started or you're getting back into it after some time off, it's just about showing up and doing your thing.

• 19:08Travis Kelce?

  Enjoy best in class equipment, free fitness training included with your membership and friendly team that's actually there to help.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  Plus tons of locations are open 24 hours. So you can get fit whenever it fits into your schedule.

• 19:21Travis Kelce?

  And if you get the black card, unlock recovery amenities. Uh, plus bring a friend with you every single visit.

• 19:27Speaker 03

  Get started today at Planet Fitness or learn more at planetfitness.com. Thank you to our partner, Royal Caribbean.

• 19:36Travis Kelce?

  Dude, have you seen this? Royal Caribbean just dropped the Legend of the Seas. It's the biggest cruise ship on the planet. Like nothing's even close to being this big and it's sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, starting this November.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  That's right. This thing is stacked. Seven pools, more places to eat than you can even count. I mean, they have something for everybody.

• 20:00Travis Kelce?

  Like bring the kids, bring mom and dad, shoot, bring the whole crew. Everybody's got a spot. That's what makes it special.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  And the entertainment, Latin music, ice skating, full on Broadway shows. It's pretty amazing. Pretty much everything you want in one place. Oh, and did I mention there's a water park?

• 20:17Travis Kelce?

  You didn't. And that's, that'd be the kicker for me.

• 20:19Speaker 03

  I love a water park.

• 20:20Travis Kelce?

  But the crazy one? Crown's Edge, a ropes course off the side of the ship, not for the faint of heart, brother.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  They've also got Playmaker Sports Bar and Arcade, so that means games on every screen. I love a good arcade sports place combination.

• 20:38Travis Kelce?

  All right, count me in. Get the family on the new Legend of the Seas sailing November 2026 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

• 20:46Speaker 03

  Visit RoyalCaribbean.com to learn more.

• 20:50Travis Kelce?

  Thank you to our sponsor, Colgate Total.

• 20:53Speaker 03

  On offense, it's important to prevent problems from the moment the ball is snapped.

• 20:57Travis Kelce?

  That's true. Otherwise, you're just out there running cardio. Can't get open for a big play.

• 21:04Speaker 03

  But it's not just football. There's a lot of things you need to prevent before they start.

• 21:08Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, like in your mouth.

• 21:10Speaker 03

  My mouth specifically?

• 21:12Travis Kelce?

  I mean, probably yours too, but I'm talking everybody's mouth. There's bacteria in there that can lead to oral health problems like cavities, gingivitis.

• 21:23Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah, all the nasty stuff. But the good news is you can prevent these problems before they start with Colgate Total Active Prevention. It's like having a good offensive line for your mouth.

• 21:34Travis Kelce?

  Ooh, exactly. With twice daily brushing, Colgate Total prevents oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  And it's not just one contributing player either. It's a whole system. Toothpaste, mouthwash, and a special toothbrush.

• 21:49Travis Kelce?

  Now that's the squad you want fighting for your mouth.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Colgate Total is like having a full playbook in your bathroom, working to help prevent oral health problems before they start.

• 22:00Travis Kelce?

  Get Colgate Total on Amazon today.

• 22:04Travis Kelce?

  I think it's time to check out this, this interview you guys have been waiting for.

• 22:08Speaker 03

  Let's do it. Just so you know, this interview was taped before episode nine came out of Severance. So we won't have anything from the most recent episode, but we do have some nice talking points and show references as well as a whole lot of other Ben Stiller anecdotes in this episode. So you're going to want to watch this.

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Our guest today is from New York City. He's a 12 time Teen Choice Award, 13 time MTV Mewy Award, MTV Generational Award and Emmy winner. You know him from Heavyweight, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, Dodgeball, Meet the Parents, and now the executive producer and director of Apple TV's hit show Severance. Please welcome to New Heights, Mr. Ben Stiller.

• 22:53Speaker 05

  Thank you. Thanks.

• 22:54Speaker 03

  Welcome to the show, Ben. Appreciate you jumping on.

• 22:56Speaker 05

  It's great to be with you guys.

• 22:57Speaker 03

  It is so hard to figure out these intros when you have as much of a like,

• 23:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 23:03Speaker 03

  I don't, as much of a inventory of just hit movies.

• 23:07Speaker 05

  Well, those are some pretty heavy awards credits there.

• 23:17Speaker 05

  Not screwing around there. It's, yeah, you, you guys, you guys are doing good with this podcast. You're having fun?

• 23:23Travis Kelce?

  Oh, that for sure. Yeah. We started this thing up just trying to get our, our brotherhood out there. A lot of people see us as complete opposites, but you get us in a room, you'll, you'll see we're a lot more similar than what we are.

• 23:35Speaker 05

  And you're a little bit older. What's the age difference?

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Two years.

• 23:37Speaker 05

  Two years.

• 23:37Speaker 03

  Almost exactly. October 5th, November 5th.

• 23:40Speaker 05

  All right. I'm November 30th.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Nice Scorpio. We just talked about we're big astrology guys.

• 23:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't understand the astrology thing because it's like you have your sun sign, but then there's the rising sign and the moon and it can, right?

• 23:54Travis Kelce?

  It can, you got like really three signs or something like that.

• 23:58Speaker 05

  And I don't know. And how does it really, I mean, let's not get into it. My sister is really into it.

• 24:03Speaker 03

  Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess we can move on from astrology and move over to, we are going to give a, at some point, we will talk about Severance.

• 24:09Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, we got to.

• 24:10Speaker 03

  So, and we might have some, so if you're, when we get to that section, we'll give you a warning because we don't want to ruin anything. The show is absolutely fantastic and there's tons of things going on. We don't want to spoil anything for anybody who might be just getting into it or isn't all the way caught up. But before we get into that, we're going to talk about your first bit of cinematic excellence, which maybe it's not, but it's definitely the one that sticks with us the most and we quote nonstop, which is heavyweights.

• 24:35Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 24:36Speaker 03

  Did you know, first of all, before I said the movie, did you know I was going to say heavyweights?

• 24:39Speaker 05

  I had seen, I think I saw you had like a Perkas power.

• 24:42Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:44Speaker 05

  And I and I'd heard some, you know, rumblings that that you guys were into it, which is pretty cool.

• 24:50Travis Kelce?

  Into it. It was my life. It was. Listen, I was a heavyweight growing up. Jason, he didn't get fat until he went to office.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  We switched places.

• 24:56Travis Kelce?

  We switched places growing up. So Jason is more newly founded into it.

• 24:59Speaker 05

  So seriously, you were dealing with weight issues as a kid?

• 25:02Travis Kelce?

  I think.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  He was chubby.

• 25:03Travis Kelce?

  I think I was just, yeah, I was dealing with my my love for honey buns. That's what I was kind of dealing with more. But no, I saw heavyweights and was like, oh, man. Camp Hope is like, if there's a camp out there like that, I want to go to it. Just kids that can be fat together and hide candy in their beds and.

• 25:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 25:20Travis Kelce?

  You know, yeah, the kids that never like really lived up to the excellence of their brother and just the expectations that their parents set for themselves.

• 25:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:30Travis Kelce?

  Are you kidding? The Blob? Was it Go Card? Like, that was everything a kid wanted to do it.

• 25:36Speaker 05

  It was sort of, yeah, like a dream camp. But then, you know, this guy comes in who's never really dealt with children before.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:46Speaker 05

  It was really fun to do. We had a great time. I mean, I remember the summer shooting the movie very well. We shot it down in near Asheville, North Carolina. I'm still buddies with the guy who was my trainer when I was doing the the movie, Mickey Moreno. Shout out to Mickey. Who's down in East Hendersonville. Yeah, it was just, but like, yeah, today, first of all, the fact that that was a Disney movie.

• 26:08Travis Kelce?

  Is it is?

• 26:09Speaker 03

  It is kind of crazy.

• 26:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  That that was.

• 26:12Travis Kelce?

  I chuckle at it every time I see Disney across the top.

• 26:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 26:15Speaker 03

  It's it's an edgy Disney movie for sure.

• 26:17Speaker 05

  It's not Little Mermaid. And and I don't even think they were aware of it at the time. It was a different time, right? It was pre social media. It was. I think there was less of a sort of a moment to moment awareness of, you know, if you're doing something right or wrong and all that. So it was, you know, and Judd Apatow and was producing it. Judd and I were friends and had been working together on a show we had done and had gotten canceled. And I had gone and directed a movie, my first movie, and he said, hey, we're gonna go down. Steve Brill's the director. Really funny guy. We're gonna go down to Ash- Asheville and do this fun, you know, this camp company. You could play this like mean guy who, you know, was mean to these kids who are overweight.

• 27:02Speaker 05

  And, um, and it seemed fun and funny.

• 27:05Travis Kelce?

  In, I'm in.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:07Travis Kelce?

  Right there.

• 27:07Speaker 05

  And it was like, and it happens to be Disney, whatever. And I think they went off and they made the movie. And Disney looked at it and was like, uh, this isn't quite, you know, this is down the middle for the Disney brand. And they kind of put it out there or whatever. And then that was it. You must've seen it on video, right?

• 27:25Travis Kelce?

  Oh, 100%.

• 27:25Speaker 05

  Few years after it came out or something, right? Cause it's 30 years old, right? Yeah. But then it's had this life.

• 27:31Travis Kelce?

  Later in the 90s for sure.

• 27:32Speaker 05

  But yeah, it never would have gotten made today.

• 27:34Speaker 03

  Why do you say that?

• 27:35Speaker 05

  I think just because, because the characters being so mean to these kids who are dealing with weight issues that, that I don't think, but I don't think that's getting off the drawing board.

• 27:46Speaker 03

  I understand, but I feel like the movie also inspired more people that were overweight. Like it really ends up being something that most of the people that I knew that were overweight or it was like a healthy relationship with that at the end of the day. I do agree that Tony was not the nicest of the kids.

• 28:00Speaker 05

  No, I think Tony is dealing with his own weight issues.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Oh, for sure. Yeah.

• 28:04Speaker 05

  And, um, and his own feelings towards his parents and also that he's a kid who'd never, he never interacted with other kids. And, you know, he wants to be famous and, you know, I, I feel for Tony. I feel like he's the most sympathetic character in.

• 28:17Travis Kelce?

  I was like, where did he, where did Tony come? Like, where did you find him? Is there any inspiration?

• 28:23Speaker 05

  There was a little bit of Tony Robbins in there.

• 28:26Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 28:26Speaker 05

  Tony Robbins, the motivational guy, uh, just in terms of the voice and how he talks. Um, and his kind of weird sort of like he, you know, Tony Robbins had this thing where he gets sort of like, yeah, he could kind of like hypnotize you with his eyes.

• 28:39Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 28:40Speaker 05

  And I don't know. And then we just sort of like played around and I, it's funny like, cause I look at back at clips, I, I saw a clip like behind the scenes on it. And I was like, God, we were so young back then too. Just like, kind of just doing it. You know what I mean? And just kind of going for it and you don't really think about it that much. And the kids were so much fun. And it was, you know, kind of like every day we're just, and my, my folks were in it playing my parents.

• 29:02Travis Kelce?

  So cool, man.

• 29:02Speaker 05

  We had, we had just had, had the best time.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  Somebody sign your checks.

• 29:08Speaker 05

  Oh yeah. Don't let.

• 29:09Speaker 03

  Best advice I ever got.

• 29:12Speaker 03

  So I guess, how much of that movie was, of Tony was being scripted? And how much of that is you off the cuff?

• 29:19Travis Kelce?

  Just ripping it.

• 29:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, um, I don't remember. I think like we were, we were improvising all the time. Um, it's sort of, I feel like there were some improv moments there. Uh, I think like that little moment where, uh, Tony goes and talks to himself when he's weighing the kids.

• 29:35Speaker 03

  Should we brought this up? It's my favorite scene in the movie.

• 29:37Travis Kelce?

  He's asking this question.

• 29:38Speaker 03

  How you doing, Tony? Bad?

• 29:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 29:41Speaker 03

  Who are you? Why you, well, everything's falling down around me. There's nothing I can do about, I'm sorry, I don't want to do your bed for you.

• 29:45Speaker 05

  No, do it, please, please.

• 29:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, everything's falling down around me. There's nothing I can do about it. Well, you know, uh, who's fault is, uh?

• 29:52Speaker 05

  Their fault.

• 29:53Speaker 03

  It's not my, it's not my fault. It's their fault. That's right, it's their fault. It's their fault. You have failed.

• 29:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, the thing that's kind of funny to me about that scene is it was, it was improvised. But you know, if you've ever been in therapy or gone to therapy, that's all, you know, a lot of people talk about talking to your inner child. You know, and finding your inner child, interacting with your inner child. And in, over the years, I have, I have been in a therapy session where the therapist says like, you should go, like, let's talk to your inner child. And I literally feel like I'm just doing a scene from Heavyweight.

• 30:28Speaker 05

  I always feel like it's just, this is kind of silly because I've literally done this in a movie where it actually made sense that Tony was able to talk himself into understanding that he is not the problem. They are the problem and he helped himself. So in a way, it's a very healthy connection that he's having, you know, with himself.

• 30:46Speaker 03

  With himself, maybe not with the kids, but with himself.

• 30:49Speaker 05

  No, and, and I think, you know, the kids also like, you know, let's face it, the kids were cheating. They should have been following the rules, right?

• 30:55Speaker 03

  It's an interesting way to reevaluate this movie. They were high, they were the problem. They were the ones hiding candy and not hustling.

• 31:02Speaker 05

  If you go to a camp where you want to lose weight, you got to play by the rules, right? It's like, you guys show up at training camp, right? If you're not going to put the work in, right? Nobody's going to be able to force you to do it, right? You got to have the mindset.

• 31:14Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I definitely go to Chick-fil-A during camp though. I'm not gonna lie. I don't go to the meal room.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  I know some guys that are probably hiding some stuff in their beds.

• 31:21Speaker 05

  So it is kind of like being a camp when you go to

• 31:23Travis Kelce?

  Oh, 100%.

• 31:24Speaker 05

  It is a little bit.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  100% well, he still goes away for camp.

• 31:26Speaker 05

  Right.

• 31:27Speaker 03

  Most teams don't go like, you just don't go away anymore.

• 31:29Travis Kelce?

  I'm living in a dorm room.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:31Travis Kelce?

  Cement wall, white cement brick walls.

• 31:34Speaker 05

  You get a single or double or you?

• 31:35Travis Kelce?

  Uh, they actually put the double together.

• 31:37Speaker 03

  Two singles together to make it.

• 31:39Travis Kelce?

  And that's why I mean, two singles together. So I'm like, it's kind of a bit, it's a bit of like a, it's an experience like back in time.

• 31:46Speaker 05

  And I'm not like a super football guy, but um, I know you guys plays, you have to like learn all the plays at training camp. And then those can be the plays for the rest of the season.

• 31:56Travis Kelce?

  For the majority, for the majority of it, yeah. You learn like the base installs so that everybody can get brought up to speed. And from there, you still create plays based off of the team that you're playing.

• 32:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:07Travis Kelce?

  And what they've been doing, you try and scheme them up week by week. So the uh, the playbook definitely expands after the, after training camp, but for the, for the most part, you get all the, the verbiage and all the, you get the understanding of like formations and stuff. And then from there, all the plays kind of just get.

• 32:24Speaker 05

  Is it different every year? Like the coach will come in with a new?

• 32:27Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. I joke about Coach Reed coming in with like a, a index, like stack, like this big, uh, just like a rubber band around. And you just see plays drawn up on them. And he's just like, I got some good stuff, Kelce.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  But there is, there is a lot of carryover. The ma, the majority of your staples are still say the same. And the way the football coaches do, they have to teach it to all the new guys as well. So especially when you've been there for a long time, you start from square one in the off season and during training camp. So at two different times of the year, you'll learn what we call uh, this gap, what we call this technique, what we call this play. And every minor deep, so he's had inside zone installed to him.

• 33:07Travis Kelce?

  I could go up there.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  Over 35 times.

• 33:09Travis Kelce?

  You know what I mean?

• 33:09Speaker 05

  What is inside zone?

• 33:11Travis Kelce?

  Inside zone is when you give it to the running back at a more steep angle downhill. He reads the front side B gap to the backside A gap. Reads the really, they're trying to run it towards a three technique to where we can get a double team up to the mic back here. Hopefully.

• 33:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, no, no, I knew that. I was just saying for this kind of inside zone.

• 33:28Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, for me, for me, I'm typically on the backside of inside zone.

• 33:31Speaker 05

  And you double back, you definitely double back every time to the?

• 33:33Travis Kelce?

  There we go. That's a double back. Always, there's always a double back. There we go.

• 33:40Speaker 05

  It's incredibly complicated, isn't it?

• 33:42Speaker 03

  It, I think it's

• 33:43Speaker 05

  Or is it?

• 33:44Speaker 03

  It's complicated.

• 33:45Speaker 05

  Football players.

• 33:48Speaker 03

  Listen to a lot of football players talk. It's not that complicated, but.

• 33:50Speaker 05

  No, no, but honestly, I did. I did once when we were doing Zoolander 2, Aaron Rodgers came to Italy and.

• 33:58Speaker 03

  Complicated man.

• 33:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 33:59Speaker 03

  That's a guy that knows a lot.

• 34:01Speaker 05

  But I asked him like, okay, you know, how do you do that on the line when you have to make those split second decisions? And he said like, it's really not, it's not as like complicated as they make it sound on TV.

• 34:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:11Speaker 05

  And I was like, yeah, but you're Aaron Rodgers.

• 34:13Speaker 03

  This is true.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  It's a little bit, but it sounds like the same thing you're saying, which is kind of like you guys just have it. You, for so many years, instinctually, you know it.

• 34:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's a lot of carryover.

• 34:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  You learn it over and over again. So it becomes second nature, especially the verbiage aspect of it.

• 34:27Speaker 05

  But it's a guy like Aaron.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Aaron is another level of the intellectual ability for the game.

• 34:32Speaker 05

  Right.

• 34:33Speaker 03

  Uh, so obviously it's very much easier for him than a lot of other guys. But I do think that at the end of the day, a lot of the, there's carryover, the plays. You've run them a long time now, whether you start in college or high school or high school or even before that. So you, you tend to retain all that knowledge. So it, it sounds complex to somebody who doesn't understand it, but I mean, a lot of it's just common sense. So like you're, if you're running a play where there's too many guys around a play, it's like, yeah, we shouldn't run the ball over here.

• 35:01Speaker 05

  Right.

• 35:02Speaker 03

  Let's go run the ball over here. It's like numbers and leverage ultimately come down to like what makes it football.

• 35:07Speaker 05

  And surprise of it, right?

• 35:08Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, that's a huge aspect of it. Catching the defense off guard, not being predictable.

• 35:14Speaker 05

  Can I ask you one other question about football?

• 35:15Speaker 03

  Are you kidding me?

• 35:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:16Speaker 03

  I love this.

• 35:17Speaker 05

  This is one, no, this is as a fan, it's the, the pain aspect.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 35:22Speaker 05

  As we watch numbed out, watching our TV sets, being entertained all across America and the world. You guys are just like smashing into each other and you just take it for granted as an audience member, but when you really look at it.

• 35:33Speaker 03

  Enjoy it.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  But like, what is, I mean, like, what is the reality of that i- in a game? Because you know, you see it when you see the play where a guy gets twisted around and you see a, well, God forbid, an awful, you know, break or something. And you're like, oh my God, this is horrific.

• 35:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:48Speaker 05

  But first of all, like, what does that feel like? And second of all, could a normal human being in, you know, guy like me?

• 35:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  I don't know if you could, Ben, but Tony Perkins could definitely get on my team. I would Tony Perkins. The insecurity is necessary. Achieve is football G.

• 36:08Speaker 05

  Yeah, but like seriously, like what is the, what is the level of like what's happening there?

• 36:12Travis Kelce?

  Well, I like, like especially when you get the ball, it's like you're like, you're, you ever seen the bird scooters that go like 15, 17 miles an hour and you're just kind of flying around town? It's like riding one of those and then jumping off and, and it's just like, you take little collisions like that throughout the day and it's just fun. It's fun. And I feel like when you have pads on and you have the excitement of like the team and everything, you don't really think of like the camaraderie of the team and doing something for a bigger purpose of other than yourself. Like you find like fun in competing with guys doing this. And I, um, I don't know. I think when I, when I, when I was playing quarterback growing up, I didn't really have that much love for it. But once I moved to tight end, obviously my skillset was more suited for that, but I had

• 36:55Travis Kelce?

  more fun catching the ball and like, kind of enjoying those moments where I could be physical. I could, I could kind of like hit a guy because you don't get to just walk down the street and blindside a guy, right? You get to have fun assaulting somebody, you know, it's like, yeah, it's encouraged. So it's like, you don't really think of it as like pain, although you do feel the discomfort after a game and after like a season, you feel the wear and tear for sure.

• 37:21Speaker 05

  But there's, so the adrenaline is.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  That's what I'm saying. In the middle of the game, the adrenaline is so intense, you'll feel a little bit of pain, but it's not something that's going to be like that.

• 37:28Speaker 05

  But you're like on the line, you're just every play.

• 37:31Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 37:33Speaker 03

  I don't have any joy.

• 37:34Travis Kelce?

  You see this guy's neck?

• 37:35Speaker 03

  What's wrong with it?

• 37:37Speaker 05

  It's pretty thick.

• 37:38Travis Kelce?

  It's barely there.

• 37:39Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 37:40Travis Kelce?

  That is just, oh, you're showing off right now?

• 37:45Speaker 05

  Well, I, I also think about the concentration that it takes to catch the ball, knowing there's a guy coming, you know.

• 37:50Speaker 03

  I think that's more intimidating than anything.

• 37:53Travis Kelce?

  Have some fun with it.

• 37:53Speaker 03

  O linemen do.

• 37:54Travis Kelce?

  I like to make them think that I don't know he's coming.

• 37:57Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 37:59Travis Kelce?

  I reverse it on them.

• 38:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:01Travis Kelce?

  But I'm also known for like not even running my route, so. I always like to keep them second guessing.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  The surprise.

• 38:07Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, keep them surprised.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  Would you ever want to play football?

• 38:10Speaker 05

  Um, you know, I grew up in New York on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, not in a sports oriented environment. I used to love to play basketball.

• 38:18Travis Kelce?

  Nice. You've had some pretty iconic basketball scenes.

• 38:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, I love basketball, but I didn't have the height or the, you know, I'm Jewish. I can't jump or just not allowed. Yeah. I mean, so I wasn't like in that kind of environment. Small Upper West Side private school, didn't even have a football team, had a basketball team. I didn't make the basketball team. I think 14 kids tried out and they 12 kids made it and I didn't make it. Um, but I, it's okay. I, um.

• 38:47Travis Kelce?

  Jason's never been cut. He doesn't understand this.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  I've never been cut.

• 38:49Speaker 05

  But then I, you know, Owen Wilson's buddy of mine, and he played sports growing up and he always said I could have been like a little scat back type of guy.

• 38:56Speaker 03

  You think you'd get a yard in the NFL?

• 38:57Speaker 05

  I could not. No, I, but I, I, I literally wonder what would happen like if I could survive a, a play.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  Well, we, I think we could get you a yard. The O line could get you a yard. I think so. You got enough athleticism.

• 39:07Travis Kelce?

  You guys couldn't get Judge Drake a yard.

• 39:10Speaker 03

  After that yard, I don't know what's happening.

• 39:13Speaker 05

  If I'm behind you, all right, man. Do tush push with me?

• 39:17Travis Kelce?

  There you go. I was about to say.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  That's a for sure yard. It's got to secure the snap.

• 39:23Speaker 05

  You could probably like tush push me, just pick me up and throw me into the end zone. Push, tush, throw over the top.

• 39:30Travis Kelce?

  Turn Ben into the football.

• 39:31Speaker 03

  We might have just invented a new version of the tush push.

• 39:35Speaker 05

  Still are tush push. Okay.

• 39:37Speaker 03

  So we talked about heavyweights and you said it couldn't be made today?

• 39:40Speaker 05

  Well, it could, it, it, yeah, I don't think it would be made by Disney today. You know what I mean? But I think it could be made independently. Sure. If somebody wanted to go out and do it.

• 39:48Travis Kelce?

  Bob Iger's not, not backing that.

• 39:51Speaker 05

  I don't know, man. We should go and see. See what he's, yeah.

• 39:55Speaker 03

  What about Tropic Thunder?

• 39:57Speaker 05

  Tropic Thunder, yeah, I've been asked this question before, you know, I think it would have a tougher time getting made today, for sure. Yeah, just because, first of all, like, you know, big comedies with big budgets like that aren't really being made as much, if at all, and Tropic Thunder did, you know, have some pretty edgy elements to it. It's a great word. Edgy is a great word.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  But did anybody complain? I don't ever remember anybody complaining about it.

• 40:24Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah. No complaint, yeah.

• 40:25Speaker 03

  Never mind, I'm gonna go back over here.

• 40:27Speaker 05

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 40:27Speaker 03

  You didn't think that?

• 40:28Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 40:28Speaker 03

  It was in a bubble.

• 40:29Speaker 05

  But in a different way, it was, again, this is, what is it, 15 years ago or something? It was 2008 or something? It was like a different sort of reaction to things that wasn't as in the moment and as much of a, kind of a waterfall of, you know, reaction immediately. Yeah, no, I mean, my character that I played, Tug, was, you know, playing this character of Simple Jack. That was, you know...

• 40:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, that one was tough.

• 40:55Speaker 05

  That got some blowback.

• 40:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:58Speaker 05

  From, from people. You know, I showed the movie to the NAACP in LA before we released the movie, because of Robert's character that he was... And to me, the joke in the movie always was that these actors are trying to do anything they can to win an award and be taken seriously. So that, to me, that was why it was always clear to me that's the joke of the movie.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  Correct.

• 41:20Speaker 05

  And I think people who get the movie get that. But we, you know, you definitely want to like get a sense of how people are reacting to it. So, you know, we did, but that's what comedy is, you gotta take chances, you gotta put it out there, and yeah, we got a little bit of blowback. But as long as you're clear, you know, where the, where the joke is, and that you're clear about your intention, you can, you know, then I think you can hear criticism, and it can be valid, but you know where you're coming from, and you can stand by it, which I do. I still stand by the movie, and I would, I would hope that we could make another Tropic Thunder.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh, it's so good. I tried to show it to my kids. My oldest is five.

• 42:00Speaker 05

  Jesus.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  I wasn't trying to show it to you. I was just putting it on. The girls walked into the room.

• 42:06Speaker 05

  What was the review?

• 42:07Speaker 03

  It was not good. It was during the talk. He just lost his hands.

• 42:10Speaker 05

  Oh, my God.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  It was early on. Intestines are all over the place. Kylie, I forget Kylie's exactly. Do you remember what Kylie said other than turn this off right now?

• 42:21Speaker 05

  You'll be getting the therapy bill in your kids in about 15 years.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  No doubt. Do you have a favorite comedy movie you've made?

• 42:29Speaker 05

  Oh, that I've made? I mean, Tropic Thunder for me was like one of the most fun experiences just because we were all together. It was such an amazing cast. Just to be with those guys. And it was an idea that I had had from back in like 1987.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:44Speaker 05

  And then we finally made the movie in 2007. So literally had had had been sort of gestating that long. So to actually be making it was sort of surreal that we were finally doing it. So for me, that experience was one of my favorites. And yeah, but like, yeah, you know, doing Meet the Parents with Robert De Niro is will always be an incredibly exciting thing that happened, you know, to just and kind of surreal because I just love him so much.

• 43:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:09Speaker 05

  And yeah, and then getting to, yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's every time you're in it, it's always different. I don't know if you guys are like this when you're, you know, when you're doing your thing, but like you're in it and it's sometimes it's hard to appreciate it when you're in it because you have to be focusing on what you're doing.

• 43:24Travis Kelce?

  You're rolling. Yeah.

• 43:25Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:25Travis Kelce?

  I'm right there with you.

• 43:26Speaker 05

  I know because they always say like football or even any athlete say like go out there and have fun. Is that, is that a real thing?

• 43:32Travis Kelce?

  What? I feel like I play my best when I'm out there just enjoying the moments with the guys. And it's 100%. I don't like to kind of look at things as it's complete or like I'm, I'm more in the moment trying to think about the next play, trying to think about the next like way we're going to attack them, how I'm going to handle this situation and think about that than I am like, man.

• 43:58Speaker 05

  This is sweet.

• 43:59Speaker 03

  I do think though, that's why they tell you to have fun. Cause it's so easy to lose track of the fact that we're all playing a game and this should be fun.

• 44:06Speaker 05

  Right.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  You get bogged down in where you're at and trying to remember the play or the moment, lets it down a distance, all these things. You've lose track of the fact that like, if you guys are genuinely enjoying being out there and having fun, there's an enthusiasm and an energy that permeates and makes everybody usually perform better.

• 44:23Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  And I think that's one thing that I watched Trav, I've always been like, I, for some reason, it always looks like he brings that out on the field. And there's certain guys that have a tendency, you just watch a game and people gravitate towards them and it makes them feel like they're kids again. And as a player where for me, I oftentimes it wasn't that, I always appreciated playing with those guys, cause it made me feel like I was playing in the backyard with my buddies again.

• 44:46Speaker 05

  Right, yeah.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  And even though we're in front of this huge stadium or whatever.

• 44:49Speaker 05

  Right, and you, and you see the joy that you have when like, I mean, obviously end zone celebrations or just when the first down or something like that. But I think, you know, that, that enjoyment of connecting with your teammates and doing, doing the work in, in the moment and like it working when you like, you know, complete a, a play that, that works. I have that same appreciation when I'm working on a movie, that, that the enjoyment of the process.

• 45:15Speaker 03

  Heck, yeah.

• 45:15Speaker 05

  And actually for me, that's my favorite part of all of this is, is the, is being in process with something. We're sitting in the editing room and cutting together a sequence, putting some music on it and feeling it come together. That to me is the best.

• 45:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:28Speaker 05

  And that is important, I think, to have that appreciation of the process because, you know, with a movie or something like that, it comes out and then people either like it or they don't like it. And you have no control over that.

• 45:40Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:40Speaker 05

  Right? It's just going out into the world, but the process is what you, you experienced and what you, you know, what you own. And so you have to enjoy that because the rest of it is sort of, then you're at the whim of like, you know, what people thought. And that's, by the way, that's like trial and error for me over the years.

• 45:56Speaker 03

  Oh, 100%. You, I've, I've learned that throughout the course of my career. I came in wanting to have all the stats, wanting to have all the acknowledgement of he's a great player and, and I mean, I've been fortunate.

• 46:08Travis Kelce?

  fortunate to like get a lot of those stats and have successful years and win Super Bowls. But at the same time, when I'm like, kind of like in it, like I find more love building that piece. Then I am just kind of looking back like, oh, man, that's awesome. Like, it was more just like the the feeling of doing it with them in the moment. That just like really, that's where it's most enjoyable for me.

• 46:29Speaker 05

  I actually remember when we were doing Tropic Thunder, talking to Robert Downey about it. Cause at that point, I think he had just done Iron Man, but he it hadn't come out yet. You know, and he had this interesting trajectory to his career where, you know, he had a lot of acclaim and they went through a lot of challenges. And then, you know, and then Iron Man came out and kind of like revitalized his career.

• 46:49Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 46:50Speaker 05

  But as an actor, he's always been like one of the best actors ever. And I remember talking when we were doing the movie about this sense of sort of like, we've worked. You and you, you and I, we've all worked really hard over the years. Cause this is, you know, we'd already been doing it for whatever, like 25 years, probably. Or whatever. And so the enjoyment of knowing that you put in a lot of work. And then having a freedom to then go and put something out there and try things and do your thing. With a sense of.

• 47:23Travis Kelce?

  That had to be such a relief to just be able to cut it loose like that.

• 47:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, and appreciation of that. Say like, yeah, I have put this work in. And it's not like an ego thing. It's more like, hey, okay, we're here and we've done this a lot. And it's what you were saying about putting those work in on those plays your whole life. Then you kind of can go out there and let go in a way and appreciate the fun of that too. Right? While you still are locked in and trying to do something new and hit the next, you know, level. And I think that's an important thing in the process to appreciate.

• 47:51Travis Kelce?

  You fucking hit it, dude, because that movie is classic. How did you get Tom Cruise to jump in on this, dude? I mean, the star started.

• 47:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:59Travis Kelce?

  Like.

• 48:00Speaker 05

  This is a crazy one. I mean, Tom and I knew each other a little bit because we had done, you know, kind of fan my whole life.

• 48:07Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 05

  You know, just watching his movies forever. And I'd met him a few times over the years. And we did a little short for MTV Movie Awards. This is like 25 years ago, I think. Because I was on my honeymoon. We came back from our honeymoon in Australia to do this thing with Tom where I was a stunt man. I pretended.

• 48:24Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah, I remember.

• 48:27Speaker 05

  Mission Impossible two. And we had so much fun doing that. And then a few years.

• 48:31Travis Kelce?

  Finish your own sentences.

• 48:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was so fun and weird doing that. And then, you know, we stayed in touch. And this was, again, a few years go by. And actually, I, I, we'd been talking about trying to figure out something to do. But, you know, hadn't figured it out. And then I was working on the Tropic Thunder script. And I had actually done a home movie for my wife for her birthday. That was a takeoff on the show 24. And it was called 17, or 17 minutes long. And it started my brother in law, Brian Taylor, who happens to be here today. Shout out to Brian. Brian is the worst actor ever.

• 49:13Speaker 05

  Which can also be really good at times. Yeah. They have an alarm company in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He's not a professional actor. So the fun of the joke was, let's put him in a movie with like real actors. And he was obsessed with Tom's speech from A Few Good Men. You know, or the, or the, the Jack Nicholson speech from A Few Good Men that he gives to Tom Cruise. Where he says, you know, you can't handle the truth, right? I said, Tom, we're doing this home movie for Christine. Would you maybe come and do like a scene in it? Where my brother in law is going to recite the Jack Nicholson speech to you. And, and he said, yes.

• 49:46Speaker 03

  And there's, there's video evidence of this.

• 49:47Speaker 05

  Yes, there is video evidence. And he came down and he was so professional and like it blew my mind. And he was so good. And Brian did the speech to him. And, and then we had so much fun doing that, that the Tropic Thunder came up. I, I called him, I said, look, let's maybe, are you interested in this movie? And he looked and he said, you know, you had, you make fun of the actors. You make fun of, you know, everybody and the agents and all that. But you don't make fun of the studio heads. You should have a studio head. So his, it was his idea.

• 50:19Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 50:19Speaker 05

  That character.

• 50:20Speaker 03

  What?

• 50:20Speaker 05

  That character did not exist before he suggested it. I feel like it's such a. And then it became such an important part of the story. And this was three months before we started shooting the movie. And we rewrote, Justin Theroux and I were working on it, Eitan Cohen. And, and Justin and I rewrote these scenes and, and put them in. And then Tom said, also, I feel like I want to dance in the movie. I just want to dance. So this was purely like.

• 50:46Travis Kelce?

  Have a body suit on.

• 50:47Speaker 05

  And then, and then we did a makeup test.

• 50:50Travis Kelce?

  Go crazy.

• 50:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, and we put him in the makeup and we, and he started dancing in the makeup test. We gave him some Diet Cokes to crush. And then we put, uh, and then I think I put Get Back by Ludacris in the makeup test. And I was like, this could be really fun.

• 51:04Travis Kelce?

  So good.

• 51:05Speaker 05

  And yeah, he came in and just, yeah, so it was, it was pretty, pretty crazy how that happened.

• 51:09Speaker 03

  That's awesome. That is crazy. How did, how did Brian do in his speech?

• 51:14Speaker 05

  Brian, well, he was perfectly bad as he should have been.

• 51:19Travis Kelce?

  That'll work, Brian. God damn, that's good stuff. I gotta ask you more about your, uh, your basketball love or your sports love. So you were at the Oscars not too long ago, getting hype about the Knicks win.

• 51:29Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 51:30Travis Kelce?

  Let's go. Not sure if it was even an important game. It was just like, are you, you watch every game like that?

• 51:35Speaker 05

  I do watch every game. I do, yeah. I'm, I'm, you know, the last few years, like I, my whole life, I've been a Knicks fan. Last few years have been pretty exciting.

• 51:43Travis Kelce?

  Heck yeah.

• 51:44Speaker 05

  So many years in the wilderness, especially like the last like 10 years before this.

• 51:49Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 51:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I watch, try to watch every game and I now have realized I have to actually put the games into my schedule. Even if I'm not going to them just to watch them, to not like plan a dinner. Cause I start to resent that I'm at dinner. Yeah. So I knew that the game was happening during the Oscars and then I, but I was focused on doing the thing at the Oscars and then like, once it was done, I, I was leaving. Um, and after I'd done my thing, I was going back to my hotel and I realized, oh my God, the Knicks game is on. So then I like checked it cause I hadn't checked it the whole day or even been aware of it as much, to be honest. I wasn't, I knew, but I knew it was happening. And then I saw the Knicks had won. I was like, oh, this is great. I just finished my, the Oscars and the Knicks won. I'm happy. Knicks win.

• 52:31Travis Kelce?

  Heck yeah.

• 52:32Speaker 05

  Yeah. And then I guess somebody picked up the fact that I had been like.

• 52:35Travis Kelce?

  Bro, you're backstage right now.

• 52:37Speaker 05

  But I mean, I genuinely do, you know, I, I went to the Lakers game where Brunson got injured and, um, you know, I genuinely love going to the games. I feel like, uh.

• 52:47Travis Kelce?

  I've always told myself, I want to go to a game in Madison Square Garden. It was actually a big reason why we went to, or I went to Cincinnati was because. The Big East Championship is in the Garden. I've always imagined the Garden as like, obviously the Mecca, but it is like the top of like the basketball culture.

• 53:03Speaker 05

  You came to a game, right?

• 53:04Travis Kelce?

  It gets rody. No, I haven't been to a game yet.

• 53:06Speaker 05

  Oh, okay.

• 53:06Travis Kelce?

  And I've been telling myself I'm gonna go when the Knicks are good and it's rocking and it's just been like.

• 53:11Speaker 05

  You have to come to a game.

• 53:12Travis Kelce?

  I have to, I know.

• 53:13Speaker 05

  Why, why you come to a game?

• 53:14Travis Kelce?

  I'm gonna, I'll tell you what, the Cavs meet the Knicks in the playoffs.

• 53:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 53:18Travis Kelce?

  Because that thing, I want it to be like the, I don't know if it's like that every single game, but I know when it's an important game, that thing is like.

• 53:25Speaker 05

  It's honestly like.

• 53:27Travis Kelce?

  You can see it on TV when it.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  Honestly, when any game, if it's a good game, it goes crazy.

• 53:32Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 53:32Speaker 05

  Like it's just so intense.

• 53:33Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 53:34Speaker 05

  Um, but you know, the playoffs, there's like nothing like, like when they beat Philadelphia in the playoffs last season.

• 53:39Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 53:40Speaker 05

  Um, and Dante DiVincenzo hit that shot. I don't know if you've ever that play, but like it was just, it was, I never felt anything like it. Yeah.

• 53:47Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 53:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 53:47Travis Kelce?

  Me and Jason talk about it all the time. There's no better ticket in sports than courtside at an NBA game.

• 53:53Speaker 05

  There's nothing better, right?

• 53:54Speaker 03

  It's so close to it. So, yeah, you're right. That was the first time I ever, I went back, Travis had courtside tickets to the Cavs for the second half of the season.

• 54:03Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 54:03Speaker 03

  Every year.

• 54:04Travis Kelce?

  When Brown was there.

• 54:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, when the Browns, so.

• 54:06Travis Kelce?

  I haven't been able to.

• 54:06Speaker 03

  He lets me borrow a couple of tickets. I go there and that was my first time realizing, oh my God, these guys are like so much better athletes than football players. Like they're moving so fast.

• 54:16Travis Kelce?

  Like they have springs on their feet.

• 54:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was just in the size.

• 54:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 54:20Speaker 03

  Like I, I think it's easy, it's harder when you're brought back from it to really realize how big an athletic.

• 54:26Speaker 05

  You don't, yeah, for sure, for sure.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  But when you're on the court, it's like, oh, that guy is high.

• 54:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, even just seeing LeBron in person, you know, like I was watching the other night. I mean, it's just, he's just so big.

• 54:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:39Speaker 05

  And he's so strong and he gets the ball and all of a sudden it's just like the tension level goes up and the defender gets up on whoever it is. Because it's like LeBron's got the ball and he's like, he can impose his will still.

• 54:50Travis Kelce?

  That's, and he's 40 years old doing it.

• 54:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 54:52Travis Kelce?

  This is insane.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  He did a spin move and a dunk and I was like, I've never seen that dunk before.

• 54:57Speaker 05

  No, yeah, it's very impressive.

• 54:59Speaker 03

  Would you rather win an Academy Award or Knicks win the NBA Championship?

• 55:06Speaker 05

  I don't know. I mean, I think the Knicks, I, I, you know, realistically, I think the Knicks winning a championship is in the cards.

• 55:15Speaker 03

  All right, all right.

• 55:16Speaker 05

  So I'm definitely down for that. Yeah. But if I was like, if I was forced, like, definitely, and I've heard, Jon Stewart was asked this question, and he said Knicks too, so I'm not gonna not say Knicks.

• 55:27Speaker 03

  All right.

• 55:27Speaker 05

  But I also feel like, I, I really think, like, at the end of the day, if I knew that I had the choice, I would give it to the Knicks. Cause I knew at least I had the choice.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:37Speaker 05

  In this weird.

• 55:38Speaker 03

  This weird.

• 55:39Speaker 05

  Weird, non-real situation.

• 55:42Speaker 03

  But it means a lot to a lot of people, too.

• 55:43Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 55:44Speaker 03

  Like, it's like, you're, it's like.

• 55:45Speaker 05

  I don't care. Yeah. The Knicks winning a champion, like, it's so, it's still a little bit, like, it seems a little bit like, oh my God, I can't imagine that. But we're just starting to feel like it. But then always something happens where.

• 55:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:57Speaker 05

  You know.

• 55:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:58Speaker 05

  I mean.

• 55:59Travis Kelce?

  I mean, Cleveland was there for forever too, so I get it.

• 56:02Speaker 05

  Cleveland is having an incredible year.

• 56:04Travis Kelce?

  Oh, I'm fired up.

• 56:04Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 56:05Travis Kelce?

  Incredible. We're just talking about it. Jason's kinda like here right now with basketball.

• 56:09Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 56:09Travis Kelce?

  And I'm just like, dude, just watch the Cavs.

• 56:11Speaker 03

  I gotta get back.

• 56:12Speaker 05

  Donovan Mitchell is a New York guy, too.

• 56:14Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 56:14Speaker 05

  He's just incredible.

• 56:16Travis Kelce?

  Stuck.

• 56:16Speaker 05

  Yeah. So, and they, they've got a great thing going on.

• 56:19Travis Kelce?

  See, we kinda got on the basketball kick. I gotta talk about one of my favorite scenes that you directed.

• 56:23Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:24Travis Kelce?

  In Cable Guy with Jim Carrey, him coming into the gym.

• 56:29Speaker 05

  The basket.

• 56:30Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, the basketball scene with him coming into the gym. I want, I, I don't know if you understand, you had everybody trying to jump off of their friends' back to dunk the basketball. And I, I just remember it never worked. It's not like, in the movie, he was like a trampoline. Like, I was like, oh my gosh, if I could do that. Like, I was, I thought that was a little bit heavier. I was always like twice the size of all my friends. And I was like, dude, just get on all fours.

• 56:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, it really, it really makes no sense, that move.

• 57:01Travis Kelce?

  But it was so funny.

• 57:03Speaker 05

  I remember we. We had, well, we were like, you know, like Jim, we wanted to come up with like some insane set piece where Jim would just be, you know, the, just the biggest kind of asshole guy who comes in to play a pickup basketball game. Yeah. And Jack Black, I guess is like he's, like he runs up on Jack Black, but uh, I remember we put like an apple box or something next to Jack. It was very low tech. There was no like, like if we did it today, there would be like CG and it would be like, it probably, it was just a very like, kind of like simplistic way of doing it where he's like on an apple box right behind him when he jumps up. Um, but then, yeah. And then he shatters the backboard. But we had such a good time making that movie and Matthew Broderick is so funny in it. And yeah, and

• 57:47Speaker 05

  Jim is just insane. Have you ever had him on the podcast? He's so, he's, he's so funny. I mean, he's like one of those guys who'll just do something to make you laugh and then he'll just keep doing it until you stop laughing. You know, it was fun to just be working with him at that moment where he was just sort of like willing to like take, you know, any chance and just do whatever, you know, he thought could be funny. And we were just having a great time together.

• 58:09Travis Kelce?

  Hell yeah. We kind of touched on it before. In terms of writing for, for yourself or for guys that kind of just have like those instincts of like improv, how much of it is hard as a director to control that, to try and keep, keep the script, the script, you know? How much, like, how much do you juggle with that as a director?

• 58:31Speaker 05

  I did a movie once, uh, Mystery Men and Dude, are you kidding?

• 58:35Travis Kelce?

  Oh, I just did it. Yeah, just one time back then.

• 58:38Speaker 05

  I forgot about that one. It was not a blockbuster at the time.

• 58:42Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 58:42Speaker 05

  But one of the actors was not as into improv and a lot of the other actors were, and we were kind of figuring it out as we went along and that ended up sometimes being a thing. Yeah. Where that actor would want to just like, hey, can we just Can we just do what we planned? And by the way, a great actor, just it wasn't his process as much. So. You'd be surprised. You do it on the football field too. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is a king of improv right here.

• 59:06Travis Kelce?

  All improv.

• 59:07Speaker 05

  Does the coach get mad or not? Oh, yeah. Sometimes.

• 59:10Travis Kelce?

  You get that, you get that look, he gives you the eyebrow look.

• 59:14Speaker 03

  But then he gets happy sometimes.

• 59:15Travis Kelce?

  Never do that again.

• 59:16Speaker 03

  When it works.

• 59:17Speaker 05

  He's happy when it works, right?

• 59:18Travis Kelce?

  I'll come to the sideline. Oh, yeah. Don't ever do that again. Got it.

• 59:24Speaker 05

  He's got a good commercial career going, too.

• 59:26Speaker 03

  Yes, he does.

• 59:27Speaker 05

  He's a Hollywood guy right there. You know what I mean? He gets it. He gets the entertainment aspect of it.

• 59:31Travis Kelce?

  Sure. Nuggets, man. No, he's killing it.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  Speaking of Severance, it is time that we put this disclaimer out. All right. We're at the point of the show where we're going to talk about Severance, folks. We're going to do it in a segment called, We Gotta Ask. You don't have to answer.

• 59:45Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 59:45Speaker 03

  Which I think there's going to be a lot of these you probably aren't going to answer. Basically, we're going to ask you a bunch of questions. You tell us whether, what you think of it. You can tell us, fuck off, whatever you want.

• 59:54Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 59:54Speaker 03

  And since you've been a great guest, we're going to get to this section while having our very own waffle party.

• 59:59Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:01Speaker 03

  So what was the inspiration behind the waffle party?

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  This is Dan Erickson, who wrote the pilot and is the creator of the show. And we've been working on it together over the years. He has a brilliant mind and waffle party being some, I don't know where that came from in his mind as the, you know, the celebration, when you, the reward, when you get to a certain point.

• 1:00:20Travis Kelce?

  It's not a pizza party. It's a waffle party. He's might be a little raspberry aged.

• 1:00:25Speaker 05

  For a long time in season one, you know, we didn't know what, what the waffle party actually was. Eventually, we defined it in the, like, I guess, like, the second to last episode. But it was fun to think about, like, what is a waffle party? What's the metaphor? What is the, you know? What does that mean?

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  What does it mean?

• 1:00:44Speaker 05

  Well, I mean, I think it's more than just waffles.

• 1:00:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:47Speaker 05

  Is what I feel.

• 1:00:48Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:00:51Speaker 05

  It's like, what would be the best reward you could have if you're working in this place every day and you don't get to leave? And, you know, you're a human being and so somewhat party aspect. I don't know.

• 1:01:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah?

• 1:01:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:01:01Travis Kelce?

  I mean, I love it. I'm about to start having waffle parties all the time now with no underling.

• 1:01:06Speaker 05

  Great, wow.

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  It was just so funny because it felt like childlike.

• 1:01:09Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:01:10Speaker 03

  And these are grown adults who are subjected to, in some way, slave labor as innies.

• 1:01:17Speaker 05

  Well, they're kind of like kids because they've only had consciousness for a short amount of time.

• 1:01:21Speaker 03

  Right.

• 1:01:22Speaker 05

  And they don't have, really have any freedom. And they're told, yeah, a waffle party is like the best thing.

• 1:01:27Speaker 03

  This is it.

• 1:01:30Speaker 05

  These are good though.

• 1:01:31Travis Kelce?

  I'm just gonna butter it up just a little bit.

• 1:01:33Speaker 05

  Are waffles on your training camp menu?

• 1:01:36Speaker 03

  I'll tell you what, there was a waffle house next to Lehigh Valley where we had training camp back when it was remote. That was our Chick-fil-A. That's where we would go.

• 1:01:44Travis Kelce?

  Now, a lot of the shots in, we were talking about symmetry. That's, I mean, the opening episode, everything is just so like, I just feel like it was so thought out in the colors that you chose. The building blows my mind. Is that a real, how much was it was of it was like a studio set? And how much of it was like an actual building that you guys found? Because the inside of that building was so big, the shots seemed so massive and it seemed so epic.

• 1:02:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, that building is a real building. It's, and it is huge. It even is bigger in real life when you go there than it feels, I think, when you see it on the show. Because it's just.

• 1:02:23Travis Kelce?

  Ceilings are so freaking tall.

• 1:02:24Speaker 05

  It's in New Jersey. It's in Homedale, New Jersey. And it's, it was, it's now like, kinda like an office complex in a mall. But it used to be the head of Bell, the headquarters of Bell Labs. And they, they developed the transistor chip there, I think in the sixties. So it's pretty, that's why the water tower there has that interesting shape where it kinda looks like a transistor. And when we found it, Jessica Lee Gagne, who's our cinematographer, we were Googling stuff and she found this place. And we looked at it from above and it looked like this giant, sort of like, almost like an egg shape. With this, the building was there and then the parking lot was like an egg shaped oval around it. And we're like, this is so crazy, this view and this shape.

• 1:03:09Speaker 05

  And then we went there and it was just gigantic and kinda empty. So, and nobody had filmed anything there. That was the, that's, so when you're making movies and you find a location, you get so excited when you find a really cool location that nobody's ever filmed it. Because you don't wanna have something that's been in another movie.

• 1:03:24Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:25Speaker 05

  And so when we found that, that was the first thing we found. And then we designed the sets and all the interiors and everything are on sound stages that we shot up in the Bronx. But, but that was like the design, sort of, the first sort of inspiration for the rest of the show.

• 1:03:39Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:40Speaker 05

  And yeah, it was, it was a guy named Eros Sarnin, who's an architect. In the 50s who made that building.

• 1:03:46Travis Kelce?

  Did you always imagine the, the characters having that fun kind of comedy banter? Or like, cause it's such a, it's a very serious show, or at least it feels very like.

• 1:03:55Speaker 05

  No, you're right though. Like in the, the, when I read the script that Dan wrote, it was a pilot. He wrote a spec pilot on his own that he brought to our company. When I read that banter, it, it reminded me of shows I love, like The Office or Parks and Rec. This back and forth thing that they had. And what was so fascinating to me was, oh, these guys are like doing this kind of funny office humor. But yet they don't know who they are, why they're there, what they're doing.

• 1:04:20Travis Kelce?

  It's so good.

• 1:04:21Speaker 05

  Yeah. They don't know any, it's like, so that's like this weird sort of Twilight Zone aspect to it. And it's very surreal and kind of abstract in a way of like, well, what, what is going on here? So that humor and that office workplace thing is actually for me, always been sort of the core of what the show is. And then it's definitely developed into.

• 1:04:38Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:39Speaker 05

  Into what it is.

• 1:04:39Travis Kelce?

  That's awesome.

• 1:04:40Speaker 03

  Are you surprised by the fan base the show has built up?

• 1:04:46Speaker 03

  Sorry. I do not want to take away from the waffles. Yeah.

• 1:04:48Speaker 05

  No.

• 1:04:49Travis Kelce?

  That raspberry butter. Strawberry butter.

• 1:04:52Speaker 05

  I haven't had a waffle in, I think since we shot the waffle.

• 1:04:57Travis Kelce?

  Jump in there.

• 1:04:57Speaker 05

  When we shot the waffle party, we had these waffles and I was like, I gotta have a taste in one of those waffles. And that was like three years.

• 1:05:03Travis Kelce?

  Old time sake.

• 1:05:04Speaker 05

  Yeah. It's crazy because we were off the air for three years.

• 1:05:08Speaker 03

  Oh, I remember.

• 1:05:08Speaker 05

  Yeah. And.

• 1:05:09Speaker 03

  It was incredibly infuriating as a fan of the show.

• 1:05:11Speaker 05

  Well, I appreciate that you were a fan from the first season because a lot of people didn't discover it until now.

• 1:05:17Speaker 03

  I told so many people, have you guys seen the show on Apple TV? So like, it was like all I could think about.

• 1:05:22Speaker 05

  Thanks.

• 1:05:23Speaker 03

  And you did a great job of leaving on that cliffhanger with Mark at the birthing cabin.

• 1:05:29Speaker 05

  He's at Devon and Rick and he's like, she's alive.

• 1:05:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right. And the, um, I'm like, when is this next episode going to come out? When is the next season?

• 1:05:36Speaker 05

  I know.

• 1:05:37Speaker 03

  I know.

• 1:05:37Speaker 05

  When we got hit with the, the, the strike, there was a writers and actors strike. And it took us a little bit while, a while to kind of like regroup after that. And the show, I think we shot for 186 days on season two.

• 1:05:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:05:49Speaker 05

  So there's a lot of shooting and editing and editing takes a while, but thank goodness that. Audience was like, was there when we came back on and

• 1:05:58Speaker 03

  I mean, almost built the suspense up even more.

• 1:06:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:06:00Speaker 03

  Like everybody just kept talking about it, but yeah.

• 1:06:03Speaker 05

  And the challenge was just to get people who hadn't seen the show to watch the first season. So Apple did a really good job, I think, of getting the word out and we, you know, did as much press as we could. But also three years later, Apple TV plus is actually a different. It's a different situation there now because they have more viewers too. Cause when we started out, we were one of the first shows.

• 1:06:21Speaker 03

  Good point.

• 1:06:22Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. I didn't even think about that. That's pretty cool. Talking about a kind of doing some promo for it was the, uh, the art museum setup. Was it even at an art museum? It was like a pop-up like office setup.

• 1:06:34Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:06:34Travis Kelce?

  Was that like the weirdest promo you've ever done for a show?

• 1:06:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, that was really crazy. We, we set up the office cubicle in a glass cube in Grand Central Station.

• 1:06:43Travis Kelce?

  That's where it was.

• 1:06:44Speaker 05

  Yeah. And it was an idea that, that they had. And Adam Scott said, well, if the actors, the real actors can go in there and do it. And the fact that they were willing to go in there. And I said, they had to do it for like at least three hours. Cause like, it just has to be enough time that people can be walking by and just go, what's that?

• 1:06:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:59Speaker 05

  Oh my God, people going home from work, like, wait a minute. What like people who knew the show, people who didn't know the show. And of course people started filming with their phones and stuff. And it became, it did become a viral thing. And that I think ended up probably getting more attention than if we had just done a premiere.

• 1:07:14Travis Kelce?

  Press word or something.

• 1:07:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, cause it was so organic and it was so much fun to watch them just in this cube. Cause the actors just started improvising and doing stuff.

• 1:07:22Travis Kelce?

  I was gonna say, was there a script? Were they, were they even like told to talk about or even, could they even be heard?

• 1:07:27Speaker 05

  They couldn't be heard. So they knew that. So they had that freedom and they knew that they were going to be in character. So they're actually doing, you know, Dylan and Mark.

• 1:07:35Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 1:07:35Speaker 05

  And, um, and Patricia came in as Miss Cobell and she started throwing stuff at Adam and made him stand in the corner. And there was just like so many funny moments, but I knew as actors, I knew they were just going to sort of fall into it because it's like what you do. So like, it's like for them, it was like, okay, this is like a performance art piece and, and they had so much fun with it. And I was just like watching, taking pictures and yeah, it was, it was awesome.

• 1:07:57Speaker 03

  What's it like directing something as complicated and some? Ways meticulous as severance.

• 1:08:05Speaker 05

  I mean, it it just becomes, you know, I've been directing for like a lot for most of my life, I guess. And I love it so much. It's such a collaborative experience. You're working with cinematographers, you know, the production designer, costume designer, actors, editor, all these people, it's a it's a group effort. And I I just, I love the process, what we were talking about earlier. So for something like this, when you have everybody who's sort of like focused on this vision that Dan laid out in his script, everybody's working sort of like towards the same goal. And and you want to get people to just be as creative as possible and work with people who you want to bring as much of their own personal sort of inspiration to it.

• 1:08:49Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 1:08:49Speaker 05

  So I think that's like a big part of it. And then it's become, it's basically been my full time job for the last five years and I've loved it. It's just you go to work every day, you know, and you have your, you know, whatever scene you're going to approach. I think acting is is harder, honestly, you know, when you have to get in front of a camera and like show up in the morning and do an emotional scene where you're going to break down crying in your car or whatever it is, that's, you know, that's challenging.

• 1:09:14Travis Kelce?

  Heck, yeah.

• 1:09:14Speaker 05

  As a director, you can come set up the camera, try to help the actor as much as possible, create an environment, but they have to do that thing. And so for me, using that part of my brain as a director, I really enjoy. Because in a way, I feel like, you know, every day I kind of know what I'm I'm I'm going to be doing. Acting stresses me out a little more because, you know, it's like, oh, shit, I have that scene today where I have to pull that up. And that and I really admire, it made me, it's made me admire actors so much more as a director, just working with them, you know, because I just see when you're doing both, because a lot of, over the years I did it, I acted and directed in a lot of movies I made. When you're really just directing, I think you can just focus on what you're doing, be there for the other actors more

• 1:09:54Speaker 05

  and be connected to the crew and sort of adjust things. And I I love the process of it. And by the way, I just have to say, we have other great directors, Jessica Lee Gagne, our cinematographer, directed the our episode seven that just came out.

• 1:10:08Travis Kelce?

  Shots in this, like, I'm just blown away by some of the shots.

• 1:10:10Speaker 05

  We have amazing people working on the show and.

• 1:10:12Speaker 03

  Come back with Harmony Cobell.

• 1:10:14Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:10:14Speaker 03

  That was, oh, my gosh. That was, I don't know if anybody saw that portion of it coming because there wasn't a lot of hints to that.

• 1:10:21Speaker 05

  Oh, to her going back to her.

• 1:10:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I don't know what we, but yeah.

• 1:10:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:27Speaker 03

  What is, I don't know. I feel like there's more questions now than there were before.

• 1:10:31Travis Kelce?

  Exactly, but that's how, that's kind of the fun of, and I can only imagine how fun that is trying to keep that question in the air. Like the underlying meaning of everything and the theories. Have you heard of any like fan theories that you're like, oh, that's a good one. Didn't even think of that.

• 1:10:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, there are, there's so many on this show, people and people put out, there's so much fan art and fan edits and, and theorizing and podcasts about it that I don't, I try not to get into it.

• 1:10:55Speaker 03

  I consume a lot of them.

• 1:10:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, I try, I try not to because we have to focus on what we want it to be. But of course you hear ideas that are like really interesting. And you go, oh yeah, that could actually be something, but you don't want it to really influence like what we're doing. But yet you are aware of the audience, you want the audience to enjoy the show. But everybody seems to have a different way into the show too, and different things that they, they love the Mark Helly relationship. They love the Mark Gemma relationship, they love Miss Cabell or Milchick, you know? So it, it, what's interesting is you make the show, we made the season, we've, we basically locked the season finished in, I'd say like September, October. And I was doing some mixing and visual effects stuff through the fall, but it's done.

• 1:11:35Speaker 05

  So, you know, as you're watching people react in real time, it's not like, you know, like, oh, you're watching a sports team where you go, you know, they really should have this guy play that position or, you know, you can't make any changes, it's all, it's all set in stone. So I'm watching people react and they go, oh, this episode was the best episode, or I really didn't like that episode, or I wonder what's going to happen, you know? Or they should do this or that. I'm like, well, it's just, it is what it's going to be.

• 1:11:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:11:56Speaker 05

  Next week is going to come out.

• 1:11:58Speaker 03

  You're going to find out, I mean, that has been something like, especially you, you go knee deep in the theories each week.

• 1:12:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:12:03Speaker 03

  And it's fun to watch, oh, well, that didn't end up panning out, now we're on to the next theory.

• 1:12:07Speaker 05

  Right, exactly, yeah. And, and so we know what it is and like what we've done for the season. And I'm just watching in real time because it's not a binge show too, it's coming out week, week to week. So that's very different too, as opposed to, you know, if you're watching something where you can watch every single episode.

• 1:12:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:12:21Speaker 05

  People can then go like, oh, that frustrated me, I'm going to watch the next episode and I get the answer I wanted. But here you get people for like a whole week going like, oh, you know, that's, is it going to go this way? Is it going to go that way? Or that frustrated me? So it plays out differently than I think, once the show's out, uh, in a couple of weeks, then people will be able to binge the whole thing. And that'll be a different experience for them watching it too.

• 1:12:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:12:43Speaker 05

  I have two people. Three people who I show the show to when we're in process, which is my wife, my son and my daughter.

• 1:12:50Travis Kelce?

  The family, yeah.

• 1:12:51Speaker 03

  So they have all the answers.

• 1:12:52Speaker 05

  Well, they see it as like, I'll show them a rough cut. Oh, Brian too. Brian, I've showed, right? Yeah. And so I'll get feedback from them, but you can't show everybody the whole series. So you can only pick a few people who you go, okay, do you want to watch cuts as we go along?

• 1:13:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:13:06Travis Kelce?

  Oh, that's gotta be exciting.

• 1:13:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:13:07Travis Kelce?

  Talking about some characters, Adam Scott.

• 1:13:10Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:13:11Travis Kelce?

  Absolutely kills it.

• 1:13:12Speaker 05

  He's amazing.

• 1:13:13Travis Kelce?

  Was he always kind of the first choi- I don't want to

• 1:13:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:13:16Travis Kelce?

  Bring that, well, he was always the first choice for you?

• 1:13:18Speaker 05

  He was always the first choice for me from the second I read the pilot script that Dan gave me. And, um, and I think Dan had been thinking about him too, and I reached out to him immediately. And then, um, Apple had some other ideas about, about, uh, about casting it. And I was very firm, like I really felt Adam was the guy. And Adam luckily stuck with it and stuck through with me and, um, and, uh, ended up, uh, doing it. And I'm so happy because I, and again, for that same reason of like the office workplace comedy vibe that he brings. But I also know he has this deeper thing underneath.

• 1:13:53Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:13:54Speaker 05

  And to watch him really embrace that over the course of making the show. And even just the way he approached playing Audi Mark and Inni Mark, his voice, his, uh, physicality. It's all so different, you know, and he really worked so hard to do that. And he's also like this crazy like robot actor guy who can do anything like he, and I mean that in a good way. Cause like, somebody used to say robot actor. But like, he is so specific and so precision in terms of being able to make an adjustment.

• 1:14:22Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:22Speaker 05

  You know, like he can make an adjustment. That's sort of just like, uh, you know, a thing where you're like, you know, if you could just like lean a little to the right, because the camera sees this behind you and still do the moment. Or, you know, just, he's, he's amazing.

• 1:14:33Travis Kelce?

  Well, yeah, that's awesome.

• 1:14:34Speaker 03

  All of the actors are fantastic.

• 1:14:36Speaker 05

  Yeah. And John Turturro and, uh, never worked with him before. And he's just an intense, great guy.

• 1:14:43Speaker 03

  The outdoor, uh, episode, um, where the cat skills.

• 1:14:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:47Speaker 03

  That moment with Helly.

• 1:14:48Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:14:48Speaker 03

  And speaking of like even Helly and Helena.

• 1:14:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:14:51Speaker 03

  The facial expression change.

• 1:14:53Speaker 05

  No, Britt this year.

• 1:14:54Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:14:55Speaker 05

  Yeah. This year Britt having to play Helena and Helly. And again, the same thing Adam has been doing, but these actors are thinking about the characters so deeply. That they, they always come in with so many great ideas and I really listened to them. Even in just on story level, you know, just tone, everything they they they understand it so well. So, you know, we'll be talking about an idea for a scene and Adam will say, like, you know, I don't know if that really feels like severance to me, you know? And it's hard to define it sometimes, but it's that kind of thing. Also, when you're trying to push the boundary a little bit and take some chances like we've done in season two, you know, you're trying to define like, okay, does this still feel like the

• 1:15:36Speaker 05

  show? And I think when you trust your actors and you know that they have a sense of of who they are in the show, you know, I really rely on that a lot. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:46Speaker 03

  Well, let's ask the biggest question, maybe. Would you get severed?

• 1:15:49Speaker 05

  Would I get severed?

• 1:15:50Speaker 03

  You have potentially more information for where this goes.

• 1:15:52Speaker 05

  I personally, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The idea of it does not seem like a great idea.

• 1:15:58Speaker 03

  It's a lot of control you're giving out.

• 1:16:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, I feel like, you know, yeah. So for me, it's no, because like I want to remember, I want to experience my life, the life that I have left, right? Because like for here for not so long, like I want to feel it all. I feel like there's so many metaphors for severance in life, though, right? In terms of how we suppress or cut off, you know?

• 1:16:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:16:20Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly. And I feel like, you know, people do that in all different sorts of ways. And I, you know, and I probably do that in my life in a lot of different ways.

• 1:16:27Speaker 03

  I had a great text from a really good buddy of mine who played in the NFL, also served the United States Army. He said, you won't accomplish anything worth having in life unless it was hard getting it. And it's kind of like, you know, I feel like severance, a lot of the themes are like, and it seems where it's going is being severed from all of these painful, traumatic things. But you lose sight of the fact that these painful, traumatic things are part of living life and they're necessary to have. And it's it's undoubtedly no answer for that reason. But

• 1:16:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, I think that's very much about what the show is, you know, like this, it's this life, you know, pain is such a big part of our experience. And of course, there's that duality thing of like, well, you can't have, you know, pain and enjoying life, you know, these things are separate, right?

• 1:17:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:18Speaker 05

  Pleasure and pain, but like you can't have pleasure without pain.

• 1:17:21Speaker 03

  What is pleasure without pain?

• 1:17:22Speaker 05

  Yeah. What is it, Jason?

• 1:17:24Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 1:17:25Speaker 05

  Please tell me.

• 1:17:28Travis Kelce?

  I believed you when you said that.

• 1:17:30Speaker 03

  Is Cobell officially a character we're rooting for now? Or is this still a part of the evil?

• 1:17:37Speaker 05

  Again, I think that's the fun of the show is that you have people like Milchick and Cobell.

• 1:17:41Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 1:17:42Speaker 05

  And Helena and you know, all these people that you don't quite know.

• 1:17:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:46Speaker 05

  Yeah. And I like that she's always kind of had her own severed version of, even though she's not severed, that she, you know, that she's Miss Selvig and playing his, you know, she's kind of imagining a life as a normal person too. When she's living next door to Mark. So yeah, the duality thing is a big part of the, of the characters. And I think that's fun for the audience to sit in, you know?

• 1:18:07Speaker 03

  Okay. Can I ask you one more? Is, is Irv, is there more to the Irv and Bert relationship that hasn't been? I'm assuming yes. Okay.

• 1:18:16Speaker 05

  I'm sorry.

• 1:18:18Speaker 03

  I don't want to push you. I really don't because you.

• 1:18:20Speaker 05

  When is this thing going to be on?

• 1:18:22Speaker 03

  It'll be on the day, the last or the week, the last episode comes out.

• 1:18:25Speaker 05

  Oh yeah. Okay.

• 1:18:26Speaker 03

  We will have answers by Wednesday.

• 1:18:28Speaker 05

  Yeah. Yes. All, all shall be revealed.

• 1:18:31Speaker 03

  Okay. That is good. That is good.

• 1:18:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:18:34Speaker 03

  Cause it feels, I mean the.

• 1:18:35Speaker 05

  Well, I feel like where we are now.

• 1:18:36Speaker 03

  Elevator painting with the Gemma episode, all of a sudden reveals more like, oh.

• 1:18:40Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:18:40Speaker 03

  There's another floor to this that. All right. All right.

• 1:18:46Speaker 03

  I'll stop. I'll stop. I'll stop.

• 1:18:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:18:48Speaker 03

  Listen, I'm telling you, I'm all over this.

• 1:18:51Speaker 05

  I can't tell you, I have a spoiler thing, but I, you'd be, um, yeah, I have, I just had an idea, but I'll tell you about it later.

• 1:18:58Speaker 03

  Okay. I will tune in regardless.

• 1:19:01Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. Are we going to have to wait for, uh, three years for season three to come out or?

• 1:19:05Speaker 05

  No, no, the plan is not definitely not.

• 1:19:08Travis Kelce?

  Let's go.

• 1:19:09Speaker 05

  Yeah. No, the plan is not, and hopefully we'll be announcing what the plan is very soon. That, that will not be that.

• 1:19:16Travis Kelce?

  All right. Well, I'll be a Grand Central Station for it.

• 1:19:20Speaker 05

  Let's go sit in a cube together and see what happens.

• 1:19:22Travis Kelce?

  Don't you threaten me with a good time. You're just going to have a courtside at the, at the Knicks game.

• 1:19:27Speaker 05

  By the way, I went to a Knicks game with Taylor. She was there, like, this was like 10 years ago. And I was there with my son and she literally, we FaceTimed my daughter who's a huge Swiftie. She's 23 now. Um, and we had the best time. She was incredible.

• 1:19:42Travis Kelce?

  Oh yeah. I appreciate that. I, I think the same thing. So it's perfect. Yeah, and maybe we can get Taylor to another Knicks game.

• 1:19:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, this is the time. You should definitely come, though, if you want to. I mean, I can hook that up.

• 1:19:53Travis Kelce?

  Say no more, say no more.

• 1:19:54Speaker 05

  I'm sure you would need help getting it.

• 1:19:56Travis Kelce?

  I mean, I mean, it's always a little smoother when you get.

• 1:20:01Speaker 05

  Well, let's do it. Come on.

• 1:20:02Travis Kelce?

  I'm in, dude. Dude, thank you so much.

• 1:20:05Speaker 05

  Thanks, man.

• 1:20:06Travis Kelce?

  For coming on. Bro, I am. This is a dream come true, man. You've been one of the idols of everyone from the 90s, growing up and all the amazing movies you did. But now it's just so cool to, you know, see that you're every bit of a great dude as you are a great actor and director.

• 1:20:20Speaker 05

  Thanks, man. Well, it's fun for us, you know, as like talking like the Sam, like we were working on Happy Gilmore and, you know, it's a kick because like you guys, like when you were kids watching this stuff and that it resonated and we enjoy watching you guys do your thing. So super cool.

• 1:20:36Travis Kelce?

  I can't wait to see what How's got in store for us.

• 1:20:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's a little insane.

• 1:20:43Travis Kelce?

  I can't wait, dude. Well, thanks again, brother.

• 1:20:45Speaker 03

  Thanks, Ben.

• 1:20:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, great talking to you.

• 1:20:47Speaker 03

  Great talking to you and.

• 1:20:48Speaker 05

  Thanks for the waffles.

• 1:20:49Speaker 03

  Nice. Great waffle party. My first one. Look forward to that. Next time we'll have a cantaloupe with your face on it.

• 1:20:57Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 1:21:01Speaker 06

  It's said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise cancelling headphones. Do they block hearing to heighten taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show everything happens for a recess.

• 1:21:17Speaker 07

  Being a serious business owner takes hard work, patience, and a drive to keep moving forward. So it's important to find a serious business card that goes the extra mile. With the Venture X Business Card from Capital One, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. And with big purchasing power, you can spend more and earn more. This is your sign to take your business to the next level. The Capital One Venture X Business Card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details.

• 1:21:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. Thanks for stopping by Ben Stiller. How about that?

• 1:21:53Travis Kelce?

  Man, what a guy, man. There's just some people that it's just, it's fun as hell to talk to and the whole time you're talking to him, like, I can't believe I'm talking to fucking.

• 1:22:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:02Travis Kelce?

  Ben Stiller.

• 1:22:03Speaker 03

  It's amazing.

• 1:22:04Travis Kelce?

  Dude, I love how he brought up Mystery Man right at the end there.

• 1:22:07Speaker 03

  I forgot all about that movie. I even told him, I go, I forgot you did that. Like, but that was a funny movie.

• 1:22:13Travis Kelce?

  That one's actually on, it's on cable TV a lot more than, than you would expect.

• 1:22:19Speaker 03

  Really?

• 1:22:19Travis Kelce?

  I'll just be searching the guide on like a cable network and I'll come across Mystery Man every now and then it's just fucking press, press, I'll just click.

• 1:22:28Speaker 03

  You know, this isn't a Ben Stiller movie, but whenever I think of like the superhero movies, the ones that are like off the beaten trail, like it's like, clearly they were like kind of poking fun at the superhero movies. What's the, is it Mr. Blank Man? What's the one with Doug? Do you know what I'm talking about? That's my favorite superhero movie of all time. I'm sorry to like.

• 1:22:49Travis Kelce?

  The Ways, brother, dude. Yeah.

• 1:22:50Speaker 03

  I'm sorry to segue out of.

• 1:22:52Travis Kelce?

  Blank Man was fucking hilarious.

• 1:22:54Speaker 03

  Dude, that movie is fucking amazing.

• 1:23:00Travis Kelce?

  Now that's one, that's one I'd have to re-watch.

• 1:23:02Speaker 03

  I know we're on Ben Stiller. I know we're on Ben Stiller.

• 1:23:05Travis Kelce?

  I'd have to, I'd have to re-watch Blank Man. I haven't seen that one in fucking forever.

• 1:23:08Speaker 03

  What's Blank Man on Rotten Tomatoes?

• 1:23:10Travis Kelce?

  Oh, it's gotta be Through the Roof.

• 1:23:12Speaker 03

  12%.

• 1:23:15Speaker 03

  Critic review.

• 1:23:19Travis Kelce?

  It's only funny because I didn't expect it to have a high, like Rotten Tomato review, but still a classic.

• 1:23:27Speaker 03

  I don't care what the critics say. That movie's fucking great.

• 1:23:31Travis Kelce?

  Undeniable classic.

• 1:23:33Speaker 03

  Anyways, Mystery Man, great movie. Ben Stiller's the best. Alrighty, let's get into some March Madness.

• 1:23:40Travis Kelce?

  The March Madness bracket is brought to you by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. That's a Kelsey favorite right there. I definitely did get my Reese's backpacks and my Reese's varsity jacket. I am not in Kansas City though, right now.

• 1:23:54Speaker 03

  I really like the, the, the seasonal Reese's cups that are the egg version.

• 1:24:03Speaker 08

  Yeah.

• 1:24:04Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't like white chocolate.

• 1:24:06Speaker 08

  These, oh no, these.

• 1:24:07Speaker 03

  There they are, there they are.

• 1:24:09Speaker 08

  Yeah.

• 1:24:10Speaker 03

  Any of the, they're a little bit thicker, a little bit more protein, a little more peanut butter to chocolate ratio.

• 1:24:15Speaker 08

  Have you tried these? Have you tried these?

• 1:24:17Speaker 03

  I have not. I haven't. I didn't see that one in there. I'm gonna try that one out.

• 1:24:20Speaker 08

  Ooh.

• 1:24:22Speaker 03

  Alright.

• 1:24:22Travis Kelce?

  If there was a bracket of Reese's, Jason, what's in your final four?

• 1:24:27Speaker 03

  Final four of Reese's. Everybody keeps saying like, why do they say Reese's? I was like, I don't know, guys. That's why we, that's how we fucking say it. I don't know.

• 1:24:33Travis Kelce?

  This is how I've always said it.

• 1:24:35Speaker 03

  Everybody knows what we're talking about. So can we stop like acting like it's that big of a deal?

• 1:24:38Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 1:24:38Speaker 03

  Just because we have an accent.

• 1:24:40Travis Kelce?

  Reese's that I'm saying it.

• 1:24:42Speaker 03

  I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry at all.

• 1:24:46Speaker 03

  Obviously, original Reese's peanut butter cups has to be in it.

• 1:24:49Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I think they're the number one and they win it.

• 1:24:51Speaker 03

  I don't think they win it. Reese's Pieces, or as we would call it Reese's Pieces.

• 1:24:58Travis Kelce?

  The Reese's Pieces.

• 1:25:00Speaker 03

  Reese's do not sleep on Reese's. I like Reese's Pieces better. I love Reese's Pieces.

• 1:25:04Travis Kelce?

  I like Reese's Pieces in like ice cream and shit. I can't just do them just straight up.

• 1:25:07Speaker 03

  You're fucking out of your mind. Go eat some Reese's Pieces. You'll fucking be.

• 1:25:10Travis Kelce?

  I know. I know. I'm in my mind and my mind is telling me that's not how I want to enjoy my, my Reese's Pieces.

• 1:25:17Speaker 03

  I mean, it's great as an additive as well, but it's also great on its own. They're fantastic. Reese's Pieces. Fast break? Are you putting that up there?

• 1:25:24Travis Kelce?

  No.

• 1:25:25Speaker 03

  No, take five? Is take five a Reese's? I think it is, right?

• 1:25:28Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, but I was not up there.

• 1:25:29Speaker 03

  Take five is great. You guys are out of your mind if you're not putting.

• 1:25:32Travis Kelce?

  I'm not saying.

• 1:25:33Speaker 08

  I'm.

• 1:25:34Speaker 03

  It's not, it's not a Reese's product. I think it got switched. I think Reese's bought it.

• 1:25:38Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Reese's.

• 1:25:39Speaker 03

  I think it's Reese's Take Five now.

• 1:25:41Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, now, but that's just because they own the market.

• 1:25:45Speaker 03

  It literally says Reese's Take Five.

• 1:25:48Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:48Speaker 03

  I'm putting Reese's Take Five in my top four because the Take Five is fantastic. You're out of your mind if you don't have it up there.

• 1:25:53Travis Kelce?

  You put Reese's.

• 1:25:54Speaker 08

  So Reese's Take Five, you're right. You're correct. I'm just going off what the nice people at Reese's sent me as a document. God damn it. Jesus.

• 1:26:01Speaker 03

  I know my Reese's. I know my Reese's.

• 1:26:04Speaker 08

  Have you said eggs yet? Have you said eggs yet?

• 1:26:06Speaker 03

  Not yet. That was gonna be my fourth one.

• 1:26:08Speaker 08

  Alright, alright.

• 1:26:08Speaker 03

  I was gonna say Reese's Eggs, not like the a actual egg. I'm talking about like the.

• 1:26:13Travis Kelce?

  See, this is where you're.

• 1:26:14Speaker 03

  It's like the Reese's cup, but it's like.

• 1:26:15Travis Kelce?

  The one thing you ate the most of Reese's was Reese's Puffs. So you have to put Reese's Puffs in there. You ate, you, that was the only cereal you ate, Jason.

• 1:26:27Speaker 03

  No, you're right. I did not, in my brain, I did not equate Reese's. Peanut butter puffs as the candy bracket.

• 1:26:37Travis Kelce?

  But I think you're right. Say it was a candy.

• 1:26:39Speaker 03

  You're right. We said it's a Reese's bracket. So I think you're right. All right. So I got Reese's original Reese's PCs, take five and Reese's peanut butter puffs. Dang, but I would like the specialty holiday Reese's.

• 1:26:51Travis Kelce?

  The egg is nostalgic and it's the best.

• 1:26:55Speaker 03

  The egg or the Christmas tree, any of that stuff where it's like a new, because it becomes a little bit thicker. And I just like the ratio better, but I can't take out the original and I'm definitely not taking out. I guess I'll take out take five. Gosh, I like to take five though.

• 1:27:09Travis Kelce?

  Back to basketball. March Madness is coming up and man, sports fans, we love filling out these brackets, baby. And as we said last week, we're doing it for the first time ever. New heights bracket challenge.

• 1:27:23Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:27:24Travis Kelce?

  It is brought to you by Reese's or Reese's for those who want to fucking get mad at us. The men's bracket deadline is this Thursday, March 20th at noon Eastern. And the women's bracket deadline is Friday, March 21st at 1130 Eastern. I don't know why we didn't just make them both the same time on two different days, but fill those fuckers out.

• 1:27:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:27:45Travis Kelce?

  Have some fun, ladies and gents. I think we've limited it to one person per bracket. Or one bracket per person. So it's, this isn't just a, you fill out a hundred brackets and.

• 1:27:58Speaker 03

  Yeah. Improve your odds. Yeah.

• 1:28:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. Improve the odds. Yeah. Just put in fucking one bracket, guys. Don't be weirdos. Jason, have you filled out your bracket yet?

• 1:28:05Speaker 03

  I have not yet.

• 1:28:06Travis Kelce?

  Good. Well, you have till Thursday.

• 1:28:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, I got time, but I would like to go over it. Do we have a bracket?

• 1:28:12Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, we got some brackets. Uh, how do you make your picks since you don't watch any college basketball?

• 1:28:17Speaker 03

  Well, as you know, playoffs always come down to the same things. Like it's all, you know, taking care of the, the basketball. You gotta like, you know, how well do you operate? End of game situation, two minute drill. Like this is what it comes down to in playoff basketball.

• 1:28:36Travis Kelce?

  So you're go, you're going turnover margin.

• 1:28:39Speaker 03

  I go physicality.

• 1:28:40Travis Kelce?

  All right.

• 1:28:40Speaker 03

  Toughness.

• 1:28:41Travis Kelce?

  Height.

• 1:28:42Speaker 03

  Physicality.

• 1:28:43Travis Kelce?

  You look at the height, you look at the height of the roster.

• 1:28:46Speaker 03

  Like I already know, where's Michigan State at? Where's Michigan State? I'm putting them all the way through to the final four. I don't even need to see where they're at. I don't even need to see. Cause I know Tom Izzo is gonna have those guys playing hard and physical. I saw that they aren't the best three-point shooting team. So I was like, they're in. Cause every, all college basketball wants now is to fucking shoot these three pointers and Tom, Tom Izzo is gonna come, they're gonna, undercutting their legs. Like dude, you know, you stop a three-point shooting team, you foul the fuck out of them on their first report. Yeah, give them a couple of free throws. It's gonna throw off the rhythm and it's gonna make them nervous every time you come out there. Right?

• 1:29:23Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, it's a good, yeah.

• 1:29:25Speaker 03

  You gotta make these guys pay.

• 1:29:27Travis Kelce?

  Impose your will. You gotta impose your will on finesse players. This is true.

• 1:29:31Speaker 03

  Don't let these small shooting guards beat you in the tournament. Out physical the fuck out of these dudes.

• 1:29:38Travis Kelce?

  Jason, you're the, you're the three-point equivalent to an offensive lineman though.

• 1:29:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what you might think. I'm not though. I am the, I am the undersized center. I'm the Dennis Rodman of offensive line football. That's right. I'm the, I'm the Draymond Green of offensive line.

• 1:30:04Travis Kelce?

  Nice, Michigan State.

• 1:30:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right. I'm not the biggest guy, but I'm gonna fucking, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get in a mental

• 1:30:11Travis Kelce?

  That's cold. Nice. I like that.

• 1:30:13Speaker 03

  Capacity and I'm gonna impose my will on you in a weird way.

• 1:30:17Travis Kelce?

  Jaymon Green.

• 1:30:19Speaker 03

  Who else we got?

• 1:30:20Travis Kelce?

  We got a bunch, uh.

• 1:30:21Speaker 03

  All right. So this is the East, East. Okay. So obviously Duke. Yeah. I mean.

• 1:30:25Travis Kelce?

  Well, you got the four, uh, play-in games too. So can't, can't forget about those, uh.

• 1:30:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. I never, I never worry about the play-in games. Uh, if you gotta make it into the tournament on a play-in game, I'm not interested. Go back up Brandon. Go back up. We're starting the East.

• 1:30:42Travis Kelce?

  The play-ins are like 11 seeds. They're like, they're not just the worst seeds.

• 1:30:47Speaker 03

  If you gotta be a play-in, you're out. I'm not talking to you. There shouldn't even be play-in games. All the play-ins get eliminated in my bracket, round one, after they get in.

• 1:30:56Travis Kelce?

  Well, Texas and Xavier might have something to say about that.

• 1:30:59Speaker 03

  Damn it, Texas is in there. I like Texas a lot. Fuck.

• 1:31:04Speaker 03

  Rules are rules. Rules are rules. I don't make them. They just are what they are. Texas is out in round one. All right. So we got Duke against American. Doesn't even have a logo in there. It's just a play game. That's why there's a play game, Jason. All right. I don't even need to see who they're playing in. Duke's advancing. All right.

• 1:31:24Travis Kelce?

  It's all matchups. I could, I'm gonna have to fill out a bracket and figure it out. But I will make sure that you guys know I'm a big fan of the SEC games or SEC teams.

• 1:31:33Speaker 03

  We're doing it right now, Travis.

• 1:31:34Travis Kelce?

  No, we're not.

• 1:31:35Speaker 03

  That's what this is.

• 1:31:36Travis Kelce?

  No, this is us just kind of going over our bracket from here. I'm telling you who I like in these. I'm not gonna tell you exactly who I have coming out, though.

• 1:31:45Speaker 03

  Okay, fine. All right.

• 1:31:46Travis Kelce?

  I'm not gonna let you fucking just copy my bracket, Jason, because you know nothing.

• 1:31:50Speaker 03

  It's because I don't want to copy your bracket. I'm not, I know more about mentality and physicality. And that's all that comes down. Basketball is all about physicality.

• 1:32:00Travis Kelce?

  Well, physicality, Florida is one of the most, is one of the biggest teams.

• 1:32:04Speaker 03

  All right. Then we're picking Florida. Florida's making it out of the West.

• 1:32:07Travis Kelce?

  Florida's back. The Gators are back.

• 1:32:08Speaker 03

  Memphis, Colorado State.

• 1:32:12Travis Kelce?

  Memphis is solid. I, I think.

• 1:32:15Speaker 03

  The Terps.

• 1:32:15Travis Kelce?

  Ooh. So this is, the West has one of my favorite teams in the NCAA right now, and that's Drake.

• 1:32:21Speaker 03

  Drake?

• 1:32:22Travis Kelce?

  Drake University. Yeah, Drake is, they have a fun story. Their, their coach is, and really four, or at least four of their players are from Division II. I think it's Northwest Missouri.

• 1:32:35Speaker 03

  I have heard this story. Yeah.

• 1:32:36Travis Kelce?

  Northwest Missouri State.

• 1:32:37Speaker 03

  The coach, the coach brought them all with him?

• 1:32:39Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, they, they had a lot of transfers when the Drake coach from last year went to West Virginia. A lot of the players that were on that team kind of went on their own or did their own thing. And then the new head coach was looking for players to, to bring in. So he brought in his D2 guys and a couple of guys from Wyoming. They got some guys that could play. Although I think Missouri is a really good team. That's gonna be a tough game for them. I mean, I got a lot of, that's like my Cinderella.

• 1:33:06Speaker 03

  That's you. Yeah. They're also older, right?

• 1:33:08Travis Kelce?

  I'm rooting for them.

• 1:33:09Speaker 03

  They're also older for a lot of the better teams in NCAA. Is that correct?

• 1:33:12Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. Yeah. And then on top of it, watching Texas Tech, I know Patty Mahomes is gonna love hearing this. If they can stay healthy and they, if they could, I think they got a fucking great coach. They got great players, a lot of athletes. They can make a run at it.

• 1:33:26Speaker 03

  What about them Jayhawks down there? They're usually pretty good.

• 1:33:29Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Hunter Dickinson. I think, you know, Kansas, Bill Self, they're always gonna be a team that you gotta, you gotta account for, man. They could, uh, they can, they could pull it together and make a run, against anybody. So you gotta keep them in mind.

• 1:33:42Speaker 03

  Illinois, Kentucky versus Troy, UCLA, Utah State, Tennessee, Wolford.

• 1:33:49Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, dude, you'd love this. Wolford has a guy that shoots the ball, uh, shoots free throws underhand.

• 1:33:55Speaker 03

  No way.

• 1:33:57Travis Kelce?

  I knew you were gonna love this.

• 1:33:59Speaker 03

  I mean, I love that, but for that alone, I'm picking Tennessee.

• 1:34:04Speaker 03

  They're getting too, they're being too, they're going against the trend too hard for me to go with them. They've gone, they're, they're a little bit too gimmicky. Gotta pick Tennessee in that matchup.

• 1:34:15Travis Kelce?

  Uh, man, you're hilarious, dude.

• 1:34:17Speaker 03

  Texas A&M versus Yale. Listen, as a rule, I, I might almost fill out my bracket based on GPA. If a team has a higher GPA, I'm picking them to lose. And I might do that all the way through to the championship game.

• 1:34:34Travis Kelce?

  Jason, we know that GPAs don't reflect actual intelligence.

• 1:34:38Speaker 03

  Oh, no, I think it, I think GPAs reflect athleticism and typically speaking.

• 1:34:45Speaker 03

  It takes, listen, if you're too smart, you're, you're too hesitant to do stupid things and you have to be willing to do stupid things.

• 1:34:55Travis Kelce?

  To be willing.

• 1:34:56Speaker 03

  You gotta be, you gotta be willing to take a risk and take a chance and do something like.

• 1:35:04Travis Kelce?

  You gotta be stupid enough to believe it.

• 1:35:08Speaker 03

  That guy's gonna try that move, oh my God, that shit just worked, what the fuck?

• 1:35:15Travis Kelce?

  Uh, and that's, I mean, that's how I got to the NFL, so.

• 1:35:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I'm picking Texas A&M versus them silver spoon fucks at Yale.

• 1:35:25Travis Kelce?

  That was so uncomfortable.

• 1:35:27Speaker 03

  What is Yale's, what is, what is their mascot? Is it just like a pencil?

• 1:35:31Travis Kelce?

  Uh, I think so. The Yale 2%.

• 1:35:35Speaker 03

  The Yale Bears?

• 1:35:37Travis Kelce?

  I think it's a bulldog.

• 1:35:38Speaker 03

  What is a Yale?

• 1:35:38Travis Kelce?

  It's a bulldog.

• 1:35:38Speaker 03

  Bulldog?

• 1:35:39Travis Kelce?

  Handsome Dan.

• 1:35:40Speaker 03

  Georgia, handsome Dan, alright. Texas A&M, that's enough shitting on Yale. Alright, Texas A&M.

• 1:35:46Travis Kelce?

  It's just so cool.

• 1:35:48Speaker 03

  They, they're gonna be just fine, I think. Those Yale people are gonna be just fine. Yeah, okay, Ole Miss, Iowa State, Lipscomb. I'm gonna go with Iowa State.

• 1:35:59Travis Kelce?

  Lipscomb, yeah, Iowa, Iowa State is sneaky. They be, they're the ones that, uh, kicked the, uh, Bearcats out of the, uh, Big 12.

• 1:36:06Speaker 03

  I tell you what, I always fill out my bracket based on what school I think would win in a fight. Like, if I think Iowa State would beat Lipscomb, I'm gonna go Iowa State.

• 1:36:16Travis Kelce?

  In a fight?

• 1:36:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just think, at the end of the day, the like mentality of the university rubs off on the mentality of the team a lot of the times. And I just like the mentality approach, cuz I don't know shit about basketball. So that's my only thing I can go off of. Marquette versus New Mexico. New Mexico's, that's a tough one, cuz New Mexico is probably pretty squirrely. Strikes me as a squirrely group. Marquette strikes me as...

• 1:36:46Travis Kelce?

  Marquette's got one of the best basketball players in the country.

• 1:36:49Speaker 03

  Marquette strikes me as a little bit of the silver spoon-ness. Where's Marquette at? What's, what's?

• 1:36:53Travis Kelce?

  Chicago, I believe.

• 1:36:54Speaker 03

  Chicago?

• 1:36:55Travis Kelce?

  No, no, no. Is it? It's outside of Chicago, right? Wisconsin.

• 1:36:59Speaker 03

  Wisconsin? It's close.

• 1:37:01Travis Kelce?

  Wisconsin.

• 1:37:02Speaker 03

  Close.

• 1:37:04Travis Kelce?

  I don't know why I said Chicago.

• 1:37:06Speaker 03

  Alright, I kind of, I, I respect Marquette if they're out of Wisconsin.

• 1:37:10Travis Kelce?

  One of our favorite actors ever went to Marquette. Played rugby there.

• 1:37:14Speaker 03

  Denzel Washington?

• 1:37:23Travis Kelce?

  That is, that is.

• 1:37:33Speaker 03

  Not even close.

• 1:37:43Speaker 03

  God, what?

• 1:37:51Travis Kelce?

  No, the answer is Chris Farley.

• 1:37:54Speaker 03

  No shit, I should have known that one. I should have known that one.

• 1:37:59Travis Kelce?

  It was, now I gotta know where Denzel go?

• 1:38:03Speaker 03

  I don't think he played rugby though, I'm pretty sure.

• 1:38:08Travis Kelce?

  Ah, man. Denzel went to Fordham. Fordham.

• 1:38:12Speaker 03

  Fordham is Patriot League.

• 1:38:13Travis Kelce?

  Ah, man, that's fucking hilarious. I know. This is so fucking funny. Plays a hooper at Fordham. He was a hooper. He didn't play rugby. He was a hooper.

• 1:38:25Speaker 03

  That Pinky says he played football. Yeah, you seen that Pinky?

• 1:38:30Travis Kelce?

  Wait, so Jason, we've only talked about the men's bracket. Do you use the same metric system to figure out who's gonna win the women's bracket? Like, do you just look at who who would win the brawl?

• 1:38:43Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. I haven't thought about it that way. No, I don't use the same metric. Women's, I just go with, I just put UConn as the winner every single year.

• 1:38:52Travis Kelce?

  I don't know if they're the same anymore.

• 1:38:55Speaker 03

  I put UConn as the winner every single year, and that'll be until Geno retires. And then I just go based on overall team height average. Whoever's the taller team. Then I just fill it out that way.

• 1:39:05Travis Kelce?

  You're fucking hilarious. I haven't even, I haven't peaked at the women's as much. Where's K-State? I know they won the Big 12. Nice, they're up there. Five seed? Solid, solid five seed. We do know that Juju Watkins is at the top of her game. Texas is, goddamn, they're, yeah, they're number one seed. I think it's kind of fair to say they're... The number one seeds are.

• 1:39:30Speaker 03

  I feel like there's less upsets in the women's bracket usually than there are in like the men's bracket. Is that fair to say?

• 1:39:35Travis Kelce?

  I think it's fair to say, at least for the number one seed, you don't see the number one seeds get kicked as much as you do in the men's brackets.

• 1:39:42Speaker 03

  In my extensive knowledge of both men's basketball and women's NCAA brackets, I like to make broad sweeping generalizations.

• 1:39:50Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, can't forget South Carolina. They've been at the top for quite a while now. They're kind of like the UConn of, of the modern day. They have a lot of talent there year in, year out.

• 1:40:01Speaker 03

  Who's the tallest team, women's college basketball?

• 1:40:09Travis Kelce?

  Jason, it's supposed to be 45 minutes. He did 45 minutes.

• 1:40:12Speaker 03

  No single team in women's college basketball, Duke and Florida State are often said as having some of the tallest players. Both teams average.

• 1:40:21Travis Kelce?

  Isn't even.

• 1:40:21Speaker 03

  Six, seven and a half. Wow. There is no definitive tallest team in women's college basketball. Duke and Florida State are often cited as having some of the tallest players. Both teams averaging around seven, six and seven, six foot, seven and a half per player. Putting Duke and Florida State, where are they at? Those are my top two teams of women's college basketball outside of UConn.

• 1:40:43Speaker 08

  Who the fuck is Duke? I think they're a two seed. Yeah, Duke's two seed.

• 1:40:46Speaker 03

  No, they're one, one seed in my bracket.

• 1:40:48Speaker 08

  Okay, great. Who's your other team? Florida State?

• 1:40:50Speaker 03

  For, for state.

• 1:40:52Speaker 08

  Six.

• 1:40:53Speaker 03

  Dude, I, I feel really good about this.

• 1:40:55Speaker 08

  Hmm. I don't know. Jason's going with height. I'm gonna pick the stars. Putting Juju in the final four.

• 1:41:01Travis Kelce?

  I'm gonna pick the stars as well.

• 1:41:02Speaker 08

  I'm picking the stars. There's, there's like five or six real bona fide stars in that women's bracket. I'm gonna go ahead and slide them on forward.

• 1:41:09Speaker 03

  They're gonna be a star till they meet that height. Let you know that right now. Get that shot swatted.

• 1:41:15Speaker 08

  No.

• 1:41:15Speaker 03

  Juju's gonna go in for that layup.

• 1:41:17Speaker 08

  He's gonna be just fine. He's gonna be just fine. No.

• 1:41:20Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:41:20Travis Kelce?

  All right, now that does it for March Madness Bracket Challenge, brought to you by Reese's or Reese's, whatever one you want to call it. Winning never tasted so good. Whether you're watching the games or filling out your brackets, feed your fandom with Reese's This March Madness.

• 1:41:38Speaker 03

  Heyo.

• 1:41:38Travis Kelce?

  Again, to enter, go to the link in the description of the episode, fill out your bracket, and you could win a New Heights Golden Cup. Man, who knows, maybe I could fucking win one or get one one of these days. And it will be filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

• 1:41:53Speaker 03

  Mine's filled with, mine's filled with playing cards.

• 1:41:56Travis Kelce?

  I think they threw in some Reese's Eggs, too. Who knows, maybe you'll get some Puffs, some Reese's Pieces. But yeah, make sure you guys fill those brackets out. Men's Bracket again, Thursday by noon, Women's Bracket Friday by 11:30, all Eastern time. Yeah, good luck to the crew, to the 92%ers.

• 1:42:15Speaker 03

  That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Ben Stiller. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel, follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Please go check out our incredible guest episodes from last week, Matthew Stafford and Jason Sudeikis. You can also listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

• 1:42:38Travis Kelce?

  Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Nike. When the world says you can't win, Nike says so win. Follow the show on all social media, @NewHeightsShow with one F for fun clips throughout the week. Ben Stiller, thank you, dude. That was a fucking blast. Thanks to our production and crew for making us all look great like we actually know what we're doing. And to the 92%ers, we'll see you guys next week. Appreciate you tuning in.