Secrets To Chasing Your Dreams with Rob Riggle

What are the SKILLS and ATTRIBUTES you NEED in order to LIVE OUT YOUR DREAMS? Rob Riggle is going to teach you by sharing his story of chasing after his dreams and SUCCESSFULLY changing careers, from serving in Kosovo and Afghanistan as a highly decorated lieutenant colonel to becoming one of the most recognizable and successful comedians today. You know him as an actor who’s appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, including SNL, Dumb and Dumber, the Daily Show, Modern Family, Holey Moley, and many others. But what you may not know is that he retired after 23 years in the MARINES to launch into a full-time comedy career. I’ve never met somebody with such a unique career path as Rob’s. You're going to learn what it takes, Rob explains how any success comes from doing these things…➡️ Doing the HARD things➡️ Pushing PAST your perceived limits ➡️ Not being afraid to LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND and go after something NEW➡️ Having a RELENTLESS work ethic➡️ CULTIVATING your NATURAL talents➡️ Being good to work with, HONEST, KIND, and it doesn't hurt if you have some HUMOR➡️ Rob’s unique take on ABD… ALWAYS BE DEVELOPING. He applies this to his entertainment career, but it’s a STRATEGY you can add to ANY ASPECT OF LIFE. ➡️ We also talk about attaching EMOTIONAL MEANING to your goals, which we both use to GENERATE MOMENTUM and accomplish the most important things in our lives.➡️ You’re also going to hear about Rob using improv to create characters that ultimately landed him a gig on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. It’s a cool story of how a creative mind, under pressure, responded to an in-your-face challenge when there was a lot on the line.➡️ Rob can teach you a lot about PUNCHLINES.... Punchlines of your life by TAKING CHANCES and BELIEVING IN WHO YOU ARE. You’ll be blown away by Rob’s story about how doing hard things in the military created the CONFIDENCE he needed to give acting a try, including how he traded in one BIG DREAM of becoming a naval aviator for an even BIGGER DREAM of becoming a comedian. You're not going to want to miss this episode, it's a FUNNY and ENTERTAINING hour. Hearing the UNBELIEVABLE and 100% TRUE story of how Rob chased his dreams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  This is the Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:40Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back, everybody. You know what? You're gonna be entertained today, and you're gonna learn a bunch. This dude's story is bananas. It's literally bananas. Like, when I quote some of this story to you, you're gonna go, there's no way one human being's actually had this life, but he has. So here's just a few movies you've probably never heard of, like The Other Guys, one of the funniest damn movies in the history of the planet Earth, Talladega Nights. Like, I could go on and on and on. By the way, one of the things that's hilarious to me is I did not know that he was on Saturday Night Live. I just did not know that. I knew Comedy Central. I knew all the other stuff that he's done. Modern Family. But here's the crazy thing. He's this very diverse, remarkable acting and entertainment career.

• 2:25Ed Mylett?

  Yet he had years and years in the military. And when I say years and years in the military, I just want you to think about this, guys. This is a Marine Corps vet. How about this? He's a public affairs officer, his unit was out in New York, but listen to this really quick. Served in Liberia, Kosovo, Albania, Afghanistan, made lieutenant colonel, meritorious service medal, couple of them, Navy and Marine Corps medal, accommodation medal, joint service achievement medal, Navy and Marine Corps achievement medal, combat action ribbon, national defense service medal, Kosovo campaign medal, Afghanistan campaign medal, global war on terrorism service medal, humanitarian service medal, armed forces reserve medal, and a NATO member, and retired in 2013 after 23 years of service, and then becomes a famous actor. What the hell? We gotta hear about this.

• 3:10Ed Mylett?

  Rob Regal, welcome to the show and thank you for your service.

• 3:13Speaker 03

  Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That's a great intro.

• 3:17Ed Mylett?

  That's actually your life, dude.

• 3:18Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, I can't deny it.

• 3:20Ed Mylett?

  When you hear that back, does it sort of shock you to hear that version of your life?

• 3:26Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah. I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's good. It's good to hear every now and then, cause you get so, I get so busy, uh, and I get so worried about the things, I focus on the wrong things. So it's good to hear that, cause that kind of...

• 3:37Ed Mylett?

  We're gonna fix you today. He's already been to one of my events, I'm working on him, I'm fixing this dude, cause he obviously needs...

• 3:42Speaker 03

  I loved your event, by the way.

• 3:43Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, you really, you are, you're really good at what you do.

• 3:46Ed Mylett?

  Thank you. Well, it turns out you're pretty good, too. You know what I cannot get over?

• 3:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:51Ed Mylett?

  Is the diversity of your life. I mean, you also did Fox NFL Sunday for football for eight years, after my buddy Caliendo did it, Dumb and Dumber 2. You've been in some of legit, man, like some of the real funniest stuff ever you've been a part of. Did you ever see your life looking like this?

• 4:09Speaker 03

  No, no. I wanted it, you know, I had a, I had a picture in my mind.

• 4:12Ed Mylett?

  You did.

• 4:13Speaker 03

  But whether, you know, that, we all have pictures in our mind of, you know, but whether it's gonna come to fruition or not, that's to be determined. But you just mentioned Dumb and Dumber, uh, 2. I gotta tell you, you know, I've quoted that movie, is Dumb and Dumber.

• 4:26Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 4:27Speaker 03

  My whole life.

• 4:28Ed Mylett?

  You're telling me there's a chance.

• 4:29Speaker 03

  Quite literally, I used that line the other day, just the other day. Someone said, you know, dude, it's a one in a million. So you say, there's a chance. So, like, we're always, that stuff is in the lexicon of our life. And I'll, I'll never forget, the first day I show up to shoot... Onset, we're, we're, we're driving, it's a driving, big, long driving scene, a lot of dialogue. And we're in this hearse, going down a highway in, in Georgia, you know, outside of Atlanta. And I'm sitting in the back of this hearse, kind of in between the divider, you know, and, and Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are in the front, you know, Harry and Lloyd.

• 5:05Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 5:06Speaker 03

  And with the bowl cut and the wild hair, and I'm sitting between them, looking at them. It was the most surreal moment of my life.

• 5:12Ed Mylett?

  Like an out of body experience?

• 5:13Speaker 03

  Yes. And I've had a lot of surreal moments, but that was one that I, all I wanted to do was take pictures and call everybody I ever knew.

• 5:20Ed Mylett?

  What, you got a job?

• 5:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just say, oh my God, you wouldn't believe what I'm sitting between right now. It's Harry and Lloyd, and they're talking like Harry and Lloyd. And they're saying things like Harry and Lloyd, you know, and I would, I got to a point on the first take where I was watching them, literally just going, this is the coolest. And there was a long gap, and I was like, that's my line, shit, you know, and I had to jump in and say something.

• 5:38Ed Mylett?

  That's amazing.

• 5:39Speaker 03

  And then I realized, oh, I'm part of this scene. I gotta, I gotta focus here. I gotta, I gotta, I'm supposed to be doing things. I can't just, but I, all I wanted to do was just watch all of this.

• 5:47Ed Mylett?

  I gotta tell you, man, like, I was, I, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean, I don't mean that in a demeaning way. I mean it in a complimentary way. When I told people you were coming on, it's the most excited anyone's ever been to have people on my show. Like, people were like, you're kidding me? Ask him this? I want to know about that. Of all the people, out of 400 guests.

• 6:04Speaker 03

  You have amazing guests too, so that's quite a compliment.

• 6:07Ed Mylett?

  I'm telling you, man, so like, if I don't get to some of this stuff, people are gonna be furious with me, but I'm more interested in like, the human part of it.

• 6:15Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 6:15Ed Mylett?

  So, you, I want to know about, we'll talk about some of the magic moments of your life, which are like, we don't have time on the show to cover them all. But having said that, you, you end up in the Marine Corps with, you know, a plan to go become famous, or you never knew you were gonna become famous?

• 6:32Speaker 03

  I was a, I, I was a fan of comedy my whole life, my whole life.

• 6:36Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 6:37Speaker 03

  Uh, voted most humorous in my senior class, that kind of stuff. Not class clown. I don't like that. Class clown's disruptive and just does fart noises with his armpit.

• 6:46Ed Mylett?

  Okay. And you've never done that?

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Never done that. Well, I, I'm not gonna lie, of course I've done that.

• 6:50Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 6:50Speaker 03

  But that was not my primary objective. Um, you know, I tried to be creative on my humor. Um, and, and then when I got to college, you know, I went to the University of Kansas and I grew up, you know, in the Kansas in the, in the eighties. And to me, It was just never an option, like going to Hollywood or being an actor for real was just not something that was in the cards. It was a fantasy. It was a dream. It wouldn't that be cool, but that's not gonna happen. So what am I really gonna do? That was always the conversation I was having with myself in my head. And when I was an undergrad, a guy I went to school with, who I admired greatly, Tim Rayner, he was a Marine going down the Marine Officer

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Program. And I remember I thought, well, you know, I always wanted to serve. So maybe that's, maybe that's what I can do. Are you serious? Yeah. So I think I was 19 when I signed up. And then I got my pilot's license when I was in undergrad. And I got a guaranteed flight contract with the Marine Corps. So I thought, okay, I'm gonna be Top Gun. But I still was a theater and film major. I still held on to that somehow. Like, I just kept wanting to learn and study and know more about it and do acting scenes and do take acting classes and stuff. But I knew it was just a pipe dream. And I just needed a bachelor's degree to graduate anyway. And then I'll go be a Marine. Yeah. And it was, and then this is why I give, and I'm giving you the Reader's Digest version

• 8:13Speaker 03

  here. But, but the Marine Corps definitely changed my life in so many ways. It was the bridge from boyhood to manhood. It was, it pushed me beyond my perceived limits. Because I thought my limits were here. The Marines showed me, no, no, it's not even close. You can go a lot further. You can handle a lot more. You just have to have someone push you beyond. And so when they did that, I got the confidence. I got, I got the confidence to say, you know what, if I can do that. Seriously? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we did a 26 mile march overnight one night, full gear, flak jackets, helmets, weapons, you know, full Alice packs, you know, I mean, just 60

• 8:56Speaker 03

  pounds worth of gear. And we humped out 26 miles one night from, from dusk till dawn. And then when we got to our objective, we set up a defensive perimeter, dug holes all day, you know, like, all of a sudden, I'm like, I just did a marathon. And now I would no sleep at night. I'm like, I can really do. Hard things. Whatever needs to be done. And so then I started trusting myself a little bit more. And so as I was working my way through the Marine Corps, I just gained more and more confidence. And I thought, why not me? Why not me? If I can do all these things, and I'm, I think I'm pretty funny. People seem to react, well. And then I got a call. I got a call from Kevin Custer, who's a good friend of mine, another college buddy. He was up in Chicago doing Second City. And he called me. I was down

• 9:39Speaker 03

  at Corpus Christi in flight school. And he called me and said, Regal, you gotta get up here and do, you know, do this stuff. I said, I'm in the Marines, man. I don't have any options. I'm standing here. He goes, I'm telling you, dude, this improv thing, it's what we did in college, but it has a name. It's called improv. And it's, it's, it's, it's exactly what we're doing. And you're, I'm telling you, you're better than the people that are up here.

• 10:00Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  And so that call really ignited the flame in me to say, maybe I could do that. Maybe I, maybe I could. So then, that's what triggered my decision to stop flying for the Marines. Cause I was, I was deep in flight school. Um, I had just finished primary, got intermediates.

• 10:16Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  And was going, uh, I think I was going back to Pensacola to fly helicopters. Is the way my trajectory was going. And so I, uh, I said, well, but once I pinned those wings on, they had me for, you know, quite a while.

• 10:30Ed Mylett?

  You're gonna be there a while.

• 10:30Speaker 03

  A while. And, and to the point where it would be foolish to get out at that point. I would have been in for 11 years.

• 10:37Ed Mylett?

  But you were that far down the road, brother. That's a big gutsy move. Like to go, okay, I got this set. My, one of my dreams is right there.

• 10:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:44Ed Mylett?

  Like one more step, I got my dream.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  Very close.

• 10:47Ed Mylett?

  But there's this other one that there's no evidence for, but that probably is my big, big, big, big dream.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 10:53Ed Mylett?

  And you go, screw it, I'm going.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. And that was my first, my second big decision in my life. The first one was to join. And that was, and then when I say decision that I had to solely own and make and commit to. And, you know, that, you know, every other decision, where are you going to school? KU. Cause I, you know, my parents, my family, friends, you know, it was a no brainer. A lot of no brainers. There were decisions that were quote, mine.

• 11:15Ed Mylett?

  That's a big.

• 11:16Speaker 03

  But joining the Marines, I had, that was solely mine. And I had to own it. And when I left flight school, that was solely mine. And I had to own.

• 11:23Ed Mylett?

  What did your family think when you said, hey?

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Everybody thought I was crazy.

• 11:26Ed Mylett?

  Crazy. Yeah.

• 11:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. It'd be the same thing as me saying, telling you today that I'm quitting acting and comedy and getting into the rap business. You know, exactly. People would be like, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't, did you have any skills in rapping? Have you ever tried to rap?

• 11:40Ed Mylett?

  Well, actually, that's the difference though, is you did have a proclivity and some skills.

• 11:43Speaker 03

  I did. I had a proclivity. That's the right word. Proclivity is for it.

• 11:48Ed Mylett?

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• 12:31Ed Mylett?

  Go to ro.co/mylet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash my let to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co/safety. R-O dot C-O slash safety. So when I end up buying the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating, and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed, and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's what I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time.

• 13:15Ed Mylett?

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• 13:52Ed Mylett?

  But what's, what's, I guess, most amazing to me is that those are two very different worlds. But I think the first lesson I, I take from you is that like actually doing really hard things created a confidence level in you that allowed you to pursue a completely different dream. And had you not, are you pretty convinced that had you not gone to the Marine Corps, that you would, you would not have had the confidence to go pursue your acting or comedic career?

• 14:18Speaker 03

  I like to think I would have gravitated to acting and comedy eventually, but I don't think I would have had the confidence to believe in myself that I, or, or to believe that I can withstand rejection.

• 14:29Ed Mylett?

  How did you do both things though? I'm curious. Like, you didn't, I, I'll be honest with you, I thought. I, I'd heard you in the military. I'm like, okay, he was like, you know, there a couple of years. That's a neat little thing on his resume, which by the way, is a huge deal.

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:42Ed Mylett?

  Even do that. So I want to make sure that when I say that the right way, but it wouldn't have been the big part of your story in the grand scheme of things. But then I'm like, no, this was 23 years. You, you were in combat locations. You were in theater, correct?

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:56Ed Mylett?

  So at one part of your life, you're over here doing improv theater and then like five months later, you're in combat somewhere? I only understand that. Is that right?

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:05Ed Mylett?

  Holy crap!

• 15:06Speaker 03

  It was about, it was about like that.

• 15:08Ed Mylett?

  You say that very matter-of-factly, brother. Like, can, I don't think that's Brad Pitt's path. I'm pretty, I know, I know Maniscalco really well, like a couple of the comedic dudes, like, great guys, but they, they weren't like in Kosovo one minute and like, uh, second city in Chicago the second minute, right? Like that's-

• 15:25Speaker 03

  It was, it is a unique path. It is, it is a different, it is a different path. But I, I, I did nine years active duty. Nine years active duty. And then the other 14 were in the reserves. So while I was in the reserves, I still had to do my drills. I still had to do all my stuff. Matter of fact, while I was on The Daily Show- I used, I was in, I had been promoted to major at the time. And so when you become a field grade officer, you have to go through a whole set of schools. Command and Staff College is one of them.

• 15:53Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  So I had to, for two years straight, while I was on the Daily Show, uh, once a month, I would get on a plane, fly from New York back here to LA. Uh, uh, my wife at the time, and my little daughter would pick me up at the airport. We would drive down to Miramar, okay, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. And, uh, we'd get a room at the Doubletree.

• 16:15Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  Uh, and they would go to Legoland all day, and I would go to Command and Staff College all day.

• 16:21Ed Mylett?

  Incredible.

• 16:21Speaker 03

  Then I would meet them back at the hotel. I'd play with my daughter in the pool. I'd get her some gummy bears and we'd watch some, you know, Mickey Mouse Club until she fell asleep. Then I'd sit out there and have a glass of wine, talk to my wife, catch up, uh, about life and what's going on. And then the next morning, they'd go back to Legoland and I'd go off to Command and Staff. Then I would get back together, same thing, play, hang out, go to, uh, Applebee's, have dinner, and then they would drive me back to LAX. And I'd get on the Red Eye, take the Red Eye back to JFK, land at JFK the next Monday morning, and, uh, I would take a cab straight to the Daily Show.

• 16:58Ed Mylett?

  That is bananas.

• 16:59Speaker 03

  And go to work, that would go to work. And that was just, and that's how it was for two years, you know?

• 17:03Ed Mylett?

  So you, you, was there a moment, man, was there a moment in your career where you're like, I think this is happening now? Was there a moment where you went, mm, yeah, this is going now? Or do you still sit here today going, I gotta figure out the next 24 months?

• 17:16Speaker 03

  I always gotta figure out, you, my business, and you probably have experienced this to some level too, uh, we eat what we kill.

• 17:23Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  And if we're not hustling.

• 17:25Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  It ain't, we ain't eating.

• 17:26Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 17:27Speaker 03

  And so I've constantly got five irons in the fire.

• 17:30Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 17:30Speaker 03

  Five, no less, often more. So, and that's just how it's gotta be. And you have to get comfortable with that. And, you know, when I was in the Marines, I got paid on the first and the 15th.

• 17:40Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 17:41Speaker 03

  Not bad.

• 17:42Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 17:42Speaker 03

  Uh, but those days were gone.

• 17:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 17:44Speaker 03

  And all of a sudden, it is a survival instinct. It's, it's burning your ships.

• 17:47Ed Mylett?

  How have, how have you been, had such longevity? I mean, I say this to people all the time, that as my public profile has become whatever it is.

• 17:56Ed Mylett?

  The, I know a lot of people that used to be rich that are now poor. And I know even more people that used to be famous or well-known or working in Hollywood or that industry that no longer are. So the idea of staying, have some staying power like what you've had on top of the crazy nature of your story. Is it just the caliber of your work or is there an extra hustle that you think you had from the core that, because you've had a long career.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:21Ed Mylett?

  I mean, even this movie list of, you know, your life is multiple decades now of the shows and the different things you've done. I'm sure hearing it back is still bizarre. It is for me too, when I hear things.

• 18:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:31Ed Mylett?

  But what do you think the keys have been to stay working so long?

• 18:35Speaker 03

  Uh, probably three things. Probably work ethic, uh, probably a little bit of talent. Uh, and then, um, being, being good to work with. I think those, as far as keeping the doors open, keeping the opportunities coming.

• 18:49Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 18:49Speaker 03

  Those, I think it's, it's, you know, not a tricky formula, you know? If you, if you work hard, um, which means five irons in the fire, it means taking meetings, it means going to play with golf with some guy, it means taking a general meeting. It means doing a part sometimes that you hate or that is, you know, you don't feel is quite what you should be doing to grow your career, but you know, whatever you do it, uh, building relationships, you know, all that stuff. And, and if you do a good job in this business, the sole purpose is to, to, uh, land a gig, do a good job on the gig. And if you do those two things, you may get a shot at another gig.

• 19:29Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:29Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 19:30Ed Mylett?

  You're really legitimately only are as good as your last gig most of the time.

• 19:33Speaker 03

  And I was foolish. I was so naive that when I thought the first gig I got was Saturday Night Live. So when I got it, I thought, bing, we're done here. You know, I'm here. Here we are. This is where I stay. And I, you know, and, and that was taken away very quickly. It was a, it was a blip on the screen. And when it was over, I, I dedicated myself for 10 years to getting that. And then when I got it, it was over really quickly and, and through no fault of my own. I didn't do anything bad or wrong or, you know? I had a very good year by everybody's standards. It was just a tricky, it was an election year. They didn't get the ratings they wanted, so they cleaned house.

• 20:10Ed Mylett?

  Cleaned it up.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  I got caught in that. No problem. The people they picked up were fantastic, by the way, so whatever.

• 20:15Ed Mylett?

  And you did okay after that.

• 20:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, and things fanned out. But I made them, that's where I learned a valuable lesson because I'll never forget the night I got the call from my manager saying, hey, they're not going to extend your contract.

• 20:30Ed Mylett?

  Probably surprised a little bit because you had done pretty well.

• 20:32Speaker 03

  I didn't want, I didn't want to be blindsided, but I was.

• 20:38Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 03

  And, and I remember I, I was so embarrassed because I was down at my, my parents' lake house and my wife was there at the, my wife at the time was there and my, my, I had a little baby daughter and, and I had a little pity party for about, you know, 15 minutes where I just, I was mad and pissed and this can't be right and I wanted to call back and double check and are they sure and, you know, how did this happen and somebody needs to explain some shit to me and I was just losing it. And then calm down and I just sat there for a minute and I realized, well, you know, I can be upset as I want to be, but it doesn't change anything. What I have to do now is find a job.

• 21:19Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  And that was my first lesson in, there is no finish line in show business. It's, you get a gig.

• 21:25Ed Mylett?

  There isn't in life.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  And there isn't.

• 21:26Ed Mylett?

  There isn't. The finish line is when you're done breathing, but beyond that, there isn't.

• 21:30Speaker 03

  And so you, you get the gig, you do the best you can at the gig.

• 21:33Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  And if you do, maybe you get a shot at another gig.

• 21:36Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  And if you do a good job for them, maybe, you know, and the more good jobs you do, maybe you start to get a reputation, maybe some people, you know, hear about.

• 21:44Ed Mylett?

  It's called riggle.

• 21:44Speaker 03

  Yeah. And oh, I like the way he did that or, you know, problem is I play a comedic jerk really well.

• 21:50Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 21:50Speaker 03

  And so I end up getting a lot of calls to play comedic jerks.

• 21:53Ed Mylett?

  Jerks. You, I think people should have some perspective. I understand a little bit, but Second City is sort of like the pipeline to SNL to some extent, right?

• 22:00Speaker 03

  It's one of the pipelines.

• 22:00Ed Mylett?

  It's one of them. It's one of the places. So I imagine when you get there, the dream then begins to get on SNL. It's one of the big dreams, right? So what you're hearing him tell you, everyone, this is a huge lesson, is that his first big dream kind of didn't go. Like he had it and he lost it. And then the question becomes when that happens, then what do you do? Little pity party, not very long. I have this theory that in life, everybody kind of gets knocked down. It's not whether you're going to get knocked down or not, or whether you're going to lay there a while. People say, get right up. You're going to lay there a little while. The question is, how long? Is it an eight count or is it like a 25 count? At some point, you got to get up and go like, okay, the next thing I'm going to do. I'm curious, because you've done stuff with Pharaoh. Was any of that because of Saturday Night Live?

• 22:41Ed Mylett?

  In other words, that experience generated a relationship here or there or something? So, so there was the seeds being planted in a failure of future success somehow.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. The, the comedy world is, and I'm sure in the personal growth and development field, it's a small circle. You know, it's, it's a small group and you kind of know each other and you know, reputation wise, you know, if people are good people, if they're hustlers, if they're, if they work hard, if they, you know, fake, you get, the word gets out. You can't, you can't hide some of that stuff. And then you get, you get to know people one on one. So I, I, I had made a couple of relationships at SNL. And, you know, I'd always tried to deal honestly and openly and, and, I could go into more detail on that, but, but yes, Adam McKay, who's a great director, one of the best comedians and comedy writers I've ever come across.

• 23:40Speaker 03

  He saw something, liked me. And, and the respect was mutual. And so when these little opportunities came up, I got a little tiny part in Talladega Nights. And it got cut down quite a bit, but it didn't get cut out. The first movie I ever did, that's another lesson I learned. It was called Fader Launch. Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. And I had this big scene with Sarah Jessica Parker where we filmed in the streets of Annapolis, Maryland. And, you know, it was, it was awesome. And she was at the height of her Sex and the City thing. And nailed it, told everybody on earth, I'm in the scene with Sarah Jessica Parker. It's going to be this great. I got a, I got a call two weeks before the movie said, we had to cut you out.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  I was like, what? No. They go, yeah, it was, you know, if your scene was great, but it was kind of repetitive of other scenes. So we just had to make some tough choices for time. And I'm sorry, dude, we had to cut you. So then I was like, oh my God, another lesson. Don't tell anybody anything until you see it on the screen. You're so, until you're at the premiere and you see it on the screen. And I'm not kidding to this day, I'm like, they're like, aren't you shooting something? I'm like, I don't know, maybe.

• 24:48Ed Mylett?

  Not sure.

• 24:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, sometimes.

• 24:49Ed Mylett?

  You know what surprised me when I met you was, um, we share this in common and it surprised me with a lot of people who are, uh, communicate for a living. Is you seem to be pretty introverted to me. I want, tell me if I'm wrong. And a little, we're talking off camera that I think you are, and, uh, you're kind of reserved more than I would have thought. Uh, maybe that's just what I'm doing to you.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  It's, it's, it may be a perception too, because the characters I play are big, loud, obnoxious jerks.

• 25:15Ed Mylett?

  So it's a comparative thing you're saying.

• 25:16Speaker 03

  It may be, because I think people, I do walk into rooms and people are like, you're not who I thought you were. I thought you were gonna come in here and rip farts and knock glasses over and smash stuff and call me a B word. And I was like, what? Those are characters, you know? It's like I, I, and the rea, I do love playing those characters because you get to take a side of your personality out for a walk.

• 25:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  That should never go out for a walk.

• 25:38Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 25:38Speaker 03

  You know, so that's the joy. I never should be able to be as rude or as crass or as obnoxious as I get to be in those movies. Thank you very much. I don't know what that says about me.

• 25:50Ed Mylett?

  When you're doing, oh, I just think it means you're talented. Do you, when you're doing the work, do you know if it's good or not? In other words, if you shot some things, you're like, I crushed this and then you saw it, you go, ooh. Or, or like when you done, like in the other guys, like I just watched you. There's so much subtlety to the work in that movie, even like Wahlberg, the way he is pitch of his voice and different things in the movie. The subtle things, I just think are, because I've done some work now with camera, obviously. I, it's really difficult to do, to understand the subtleties of humor and timing when you're in such a, people, you people forget this. There's like, there's a huge crew around you. There's Mike guys, there's the grip, there's all the camera people, there's people moving around in the back.

• 26:34Speaker 03

  All the extras that are judging you.

• 26:36Ed Mylett?

  All the other stuff, like, do you know in the moment I nailed this or do you not know until you see it?

• 26:41Speaker 03

  Sometimes you do, it's more of a sense. You're like, I feel like that went well. Of course, you don't say any of this out loud, but you're like, you know. Yeah, and all actors and all comedians are insecure to a certain level. So they're always gonna, even if they nail it, they're gonna be like, can we get one more? Can we get one more? And the director is like, no, we can't. We gotta go, we gotta move on. We got like five more shots to get done before lunch.

• 27:01Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  So no, we can't. Um, but if you leave an actor alone long enough, he'll do a hundred takes.

• 27:06Ed Mylett?

  He would.

• 27:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:07Ed Mylett?

  Do you have, I'm fascinated by you just because of the whole story and your personality and just the persona that I've seen. Do you have any imposter syndrome still? Like I, every once in a while, I'm being transparent. Every once in a while, I'm like, why isn't anyone listening to me? Not a lot. Usually it's like when I wake up in the morning, I'll have some of these like anxiety thoughts. But I'm like, is this going away? Like, why are they?

• 27:30Speaker 03

  But that's the human experience.

• 27:31Ed Mylett?

  Is it?

• 27:32Speaker 03

  I think, I, I mean, I think at some point, everybody has to, I mean, I hope at some point that people question themselves. You know, I mean, even a doctor is probably like, I think it's this, but let me double that, let me get a second opinion. Let me call in my colleague. Let me, you know, and then they want to bounce it off each other. You know, I mean, I, I sit down and I'm like, I think this is funny, but I always want to check with someone and say, hey, what do you think about this? And they go, oh dude, that's good. You're like, all right, yeah, then I'm on the right track. Or if they go, what do you mean? What are you talking about? Like, ah, that didn't work.

• 28:00Ed Mylett?

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• 28:45Ed Mylett?

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• 29:28Ed Mylett?

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• 30:02Ed Mylett?

  But even in like the low, careers have ebbs and flows, right? Like, you know, you're cranking, I got three movies coming out next year. You've had those years. I'm sure you've also had a year where you're like, I'm not completely sure what the thing is. Like you've got stuff going now that we'll talk about. But in those times, do you find yourself questioning yourself more? Or are you just doubling down on your work ethic? What does one do when they're like, I'm in the plateau, so to speak?

• 30:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  Well, that's good. You know, for me, it's always been just work harder. I know that's, you know, when I say work harder, I guess I mean, um, get a new vision. So like I, uh, Glengarry Glen Ross, always ABC, always be closing, right? You know, it's like one of my favorite scenes in the whole world. But, uh, and, and what I've adopted and morphed it into is just ABD, always be developing. If you live in Hollywood and want to work in a life in the arts, ABD, you always be developing. If you're not developing, you're wrong. It's just that simple. So what does that mean though? I mean, what does it mean to a director? What does it mean to a producer? What does it mean? We're all looking for stories. We're looking for things. We're looking for, I look for characters. You know, I, I have a show that I'm working on right now that I can't talk about, but it's

• 31:12Speaker 03

  all based on something I saw, uh, when I was, you know, uh, shooting another show.

• 31:17Ed Mylett?

  Really?

• 31:17Speaker 03

  And then that inspired me to do something. And then one time I was doing a bit, uh, on, on one movie with Nia Vardalas from, uh, my, my Big Fat Greek Wedding. And she was the writer of the movie that we were filming and the producer. But we started because she's a second city comedian, you know, improver and I am too. We were in a Walmart and I started trying to sell her stuff at the Walmart, just doing a bit, right? And you know, and then, then it morphed into me trying to be like a motivational speaker, you know, but really bad at it. And so we just were cracking each other up all day long. Well, finally, at the end of the day, Gary, the main producer just comes over and says, oh my God, you guys still doing that bit? We're like, yeah, it makes us laugh all day.

• 32:01Speaker 03

  And he goes, well, then you ought to write it up. And we're like, yeah, we should. So that's what we did. We wrote a screenplay together.

• 32:08Ed Mylett?

  No kidding?

• 32:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, just based on those characters. And then it didn't sell. So then we morphed it into an audible series and now it's on Audible. It's called motivated.

• 32:16Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 32:17Speaker 03

  So anyway, but, but so that's what I'm saying. Always be developing.

• 32:20Ed Mylett?

  I think that's life. I think that's entrepreneurship too. You better always be developing, always be executing, always be executing on what you're developing.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. And the Marines were no different. Like there's a, there's a, one of the early readings we had to do as a young lieutenant was, it's called Duffers, Duffers Drift.

• 32:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 32:36Speaker 03

  And it's basically, the lesson of the thing is you're never done improving your defenses, basically. Like you get to a hilltop and you're like, all right, we got the hill, you know? Well, great. What are you going to do? Okay. We should dig a trench line. Yep. Dig the trench line. What else can you do? Put up some barbed wire. Good, good. What about landmines? Great, great. How about some claymores? Great. How about some snipers up high? Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. You're never done. You know, there's never a place where you can say, we're, we're done here, guys. We're secure.

• 33:02Ed Mylett?

  Very good.

• 33:03Speaker 03

  You know, you, you've always got more you can do.

• 33:05Ed Mylett?

  Very good. And you came to my event. Why? Like are you, do you work on yourself? Like, do you read? Do you, are you always trying to expand your knowledge or your knowledge of yourself or of humans? What is it?

• 33:15Speaker 03

  I, I, I have this deep desire to know what I'm capable of because I don't know if I've hit it yet. I don't know if I've, if I've missed it. I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes, right now, I'm going through, last couple of years have been very difficult on a personal level, just because of my personal life. But, so that's kind of left me a little adrift. And I think a lot of people are adrift right now because of COVID and you know, that, that whole pandemic. Really derailed a lot of people. And so, yeah, I think I'll be honest. I mean, when I was in 1995, I got my first set of Tony Robbins cassette tapes. Okay.

• 33:55Speaker 03

  And I remember in my little apartment in North Carolina, when I was stationed out at Cherry Point, I was going to night school to get my masters in public administration because that's the only thing they offered. So I was like, I'll do it. Also, it kept me out of trouble. You know, if you're going to school on the weekends and at night, Yep. You can't get in much trouble. Yep. And there's nothing to do on in Eastern Carolina but get a whole lot of trouble as a young Marine.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  So but at night I would be, you know, he'd say, we got to work on your physiology. Get up, move. You know, I'm serious. Get up. So I'm sitting there walking around my apartment, you know, to and put my chest out and, you know, and, and, and then I still practice that all the way up to today. Like, I remember before I would do stand up shows. The, the opener would be out there doing something and I would be behind the curtain doing this goofy walk back and forth where I would, you know, swivel the hips, where to get my body loose and get my mind right and get my head, my shoulders back and my eye contact down. And by the time I took the stage, I was like, I'm here. Peak state. Here we go. Peak state. Yep.

• 35:06Speaker 03

  And it was all because of, you know, learning some of these early lessons. And then I, of course, I tried to apply so many things, time of your life and all the things that I bought all these things and I, and I love it. And I still write down my goals. Every, every January, every January, I sit, if I had a schedule, I'll do it at the end of December, but Me too. Usually that Christmas break. Me too. I'll take a whole day. I love that day. And I, and I, who am I? What do I believe in? What am I going to accomplish? What is, what are my, what are my core values? You know, write out my mission statement kinda. And then I get to the, what am I going to do? What are my outcomes and why are they important? And then I, I start doing that, right? And I knock those out. And, and I go back and I look at, you know, all the way from 2000, whatever to the, to present, because I keep, I do a new journal for every, every

• 35:51Speaker 03

  year, right? And I go back and I'll look at them. And it's fun. It's really fun to look at and say, wow, that's what was important to me then. I made eight out of the 10 goals. And, um, cool. And, and then I'm like, I'm on track. I did do that. I did. And, oh, you did. You remember when you, it was something you dreamed about, but now it's done.

• 36:14Ed Mylett?

  We're identical. Your depth of your understanding of this is pretty deep. Like, he just said something really important there, but he doesn't just write the goals down. Why is this important to me? One of the things Tony's taught me many, many years ago was, you know, getting the depth of emotion, that you need deep emotional reasons why things matter to you. For me, when I go back and read mine, I don't know if you have this experience, I, I do end up achieving like six or eight out of every 10 of them. Maybe not in the time. Sometimes my timing's off. It's a little bit delayed by a year or three or five, but it ends up like, that didn't happen in 98 like I thought, but it happened in 2001.

• 36:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 36:45Ed Mylett?

  Cause I had planted the seeds. Probably same for you.

• 36:47Speaker 03

  And, and, and a lot of that stuff that you plant today, it, it may take longer to manifest, but it will.

• 36:53Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 36:53Speaker 03

  If you stay consistent.

• 36:54Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 36:55Speaker 03

  Consistency. Boy, that's, and that's the, that's the rub. That's where, that's where, you know, I think.

• 37:00Ed Mylett?

  Well, you just looked away. So I'm going to ask you a question. Do you think that that might be the difference over the last 24 months or so, or whatever it's been that's

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:06Ed Mylett?

  in the difficult time is it's derailed your consistency?

• 37:09Speaker 03

  Completely.

• 37:10Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  Completely.

• 37:11Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:11Speaker 03

  So that's why I'm actually getting, today, actually, December 1st is my launch day to, because I'm, this month, I'm getting very serious about things. I'm trying to renew some things. And at the end of this month, I'm, I'm just going to sit down and I'm got my 23 that I'm going to write about. I'm going to plan it out. The one thing I'll tell you, um, I don't mind, Don, is, um, the one goal that has carried over since 2010, 2011, just keeps carrying over, carrying over, and bugs with the hell out of me because I haven't done it yet.

• 37:42Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 37:42Speaker 03

  Is I'm going to write a book.

• 37:44Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 37:45Speaker 03

  And, uh, going to your thing in Palm Springs.

• 37:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:49Speaker 03

  Got me off my ass enough to say, okay. So now I've taken some action steps.

• 37:53Ed Mylett?

  Good.

• 37:53Speaker 03

  I've actually started, so it's going to happen.

• 37:55Ed Mylett?

  Good. Okay. I'll hold you to it.

• 37:56Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 37:56Ed Mylett?

  I'm not kidding either. I won't play with it because one of the things that helped me in writing my book, someone said this to me. It might have even been Tony. I'm not sure. I should give them credit, whoever it was. But I was like, I want to write a book. And I'm like, I just don't have, you know, I don't know where to start.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  That's always the thing. It's such a daunting.

• 38:11Ed Mylett?

  It's a daunting thing. You know what I did? I started writing the chapter titles first, not the chapters. What would the chapters be? And then I'm like, okay, these are the 12 chapters or the 15 chapters. And then I'll go back in and write those chapters. I didn't have a title for the book at first, then they moved around, the sequence changed. But just the process of the motion of doing it. I'm like, actually, now that's not the book, but that chapter is actually the book. But it's just the beginning of doing something. It's, I think when we get knocked down, number one, our consistency changes. And I think there becomes a too deep of reflection analysis in our life. In other words, when something not good happens in your life, whether you have a financial setback or a divorce or a relationship, it's important to reflect on what did I do to cause this? What did they do? Where were the mistakes that I made?

• 38:55Ed Mylett?

  But I think that that can become a pattern and a spiral where you end up in the reason you're successful, the reason everyone who's ever sat in your seat is successful, is that they have an ability to take action under adversity. They take action under failure. And they generate momentum. How do you sustain and keep momentum going? But how do you still have a life where you enjoy it? Where you don't have to say yes to everything to have momentum. And I think when we get knocked down, we become too reflective. Um, we go too deep into thought and enough, not enough into what you did in the beginning, which was to step into spaces you were ill-prepared for. When you get knocked down or you've had some success, ironically, your comfort level,

• 39:34Ed Mylett?

  your, your, your ability to be comfortable with not knowing as much as you need to know to take action increases. And that's something that you've got to guard against is like, listen, you did what you did because you were constantly stepping into spaces that you had some preparation for, but not a ton. You didn't have time to reflect the whole bunch and you didn't have a history to reflect on. And reflection also sometimes is dangerous because it creates a pattern of comparison. My life was like this. My career was like this. I used to look like this. And there becomes this negative thing we do to ourselves, which isn't comparing with other people. It's comparing with the former us. And you gotta be really careful about that, too. So those are all things. I will hold you on this book. Start writing the chapters, man. Just start writing the titles out of the chapters.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  And what you talked about also, the Marines, you know, their, their leadership programs are the best in the world, as far as I'm concerned, and they. Because so many things parallel, some of the great leaders that I've read, even the Stoics, you know, I read a lot about the Stoics and, and I'm like, oh God, this Marine Corps stuff is, because it is, it's, it's, you know, the worst decision you can make is no decision.

• 40:33Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 40:34Speaker 03

  Right? You know, and, and most of the time, you're only going to have about 80% of the information. If you're lucky.

• 40:39Ed Mylett?

  If you're lucky.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  More like you're going to have 20%.

• 40:40Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 40:41Speaker 03

  And you gotta make a decision.

• 40:42Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 40:42Speaker 03

  So you, you just take the best information you have and you act.

• 40:46Ed Mylett?

  And you act.

• 40:47Speaker 03

  And then you'll, and then you'll sort it out. And the same thing when I used to write comedy, when I was on SNL or when I was Daily Show, whatever, whenever I was writing stuff, I, I was, I was terrible because I, I had this perfection thing where I was like, I've got to write it perfect, the first draft. It's got to be killer, the first draft. Well, that's, that's garbage.

• 41:04Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 41:04Speaker 03

  That's just not real. It's not. So finally, and it's this thing where I have to coach you, you kind of have to yell at yourself sometimes. My thing now is I literally just barf it onto the page.

• 41:13Ed Mylett?

  Yes, that's exactly right.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  Extreme of consciousness. I'm just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

• 41:16Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  And I'll throw it up on this page.

• 41:18Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh, that's the exact word I use. I say, throw it up onto the page.

• 41:21Speaker 03

  And then once I've done that, it's like the clay is now on the table.

• 41:24Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 41:25Speaker 03

  Now I go back and I say, yes, no, maybe add this. Oh, that sparks a thought where, and all of a sudden, you're writing a whole new thing.

• 41:32Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 41:33Speaker 03

  It was just sparked off of one thing. But if you don't get it out of you and you try to be perfect the first time, you're going to sit there and beat the tar out of yourself.

• 41:41Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh, brother. So at the event you came to, the night before I was with the speakers, this is so huge for you all to hear two people that have had some success talk about this. So I've had this, like, because the first book, number one book, we were like, publishers like, we'll give you this to write another book. I'm like, I don't have another book right now. Right? Like, and the reason I don't have another book, because I think it has to be better than the last one. It has to be perfect this time. Whereas the first two I wrote, like, I'll just throw it up on the page, like you said. And at the dinner, for the speakers, the event you came to, they're going around the table, like, you gotta write another book, you gotta write another book. And I'm like, I don't really have another book. And I'm, and someone said something, oh, one of the speakers said,

• 42:20Ed Mylett?

  I don't know what I'm going to cover tomorrow. And I said, well, just remember this, at any given time, people that are coming to an event like this, there's a lot of them in some form of pain. We forget this. We're always trying to motivate. They're in some form of pain. They've had a divorce. They've had a financial setback. They're lost. They're just don't feel good about themselves. Someone rejected them. You know, business isn't going the way they want to. And then I said, you know, I have this thing I do with my kids where I say, Bella, you remember it? Let me tell you about you.

• 42:45Speaker 03

  I'm in tears, man. Thank you.

• 42:46Ed Mylett?

  And I said there, I said, let me do this. And the whole table's in tears. I look up and all of my friends.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  I was too, the next day.

• 42:52Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. Are in tears. And then they all go, that's your book. And I'm like, I think that is my book. I'm gonna tell humans about humans. I think the name of the book is gonna be, Let Me Tell You About You. But it wasn't until I just started sort of throwing up and expressing myself. It's nowhere near the direction I was going. Nowhere near. And I'm like, maybe it's even a kid's book on top of that. So it's a matter of, when you're.

• 43:14Speaker 03

  That's the magic of discovery, though.

• 43:16Ed Mylett?

  It is.

• 43:16Speaker 03

  Isn't that the juice?

• 43:17Ed Mylett?

  Yes, that's the juice.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 43:19Ed Mylett?

  And that's the throes of your career, or my career. We're in this sort of professional, this is a weird term, but it's like, it's a vibrational energy frequency of motion. And it's like, wow, that just came my way. That came over. Man, I nailed that. I wrote this bit and the punchline's totally different place than I thought it was gonna be in the beginning. My comedy friends tell me this all the time. But they're, the guys that are hot, like in comedy, like a Rogan, or a Chappelle, or Sebastian, or, you know, whoever's been, Dane Cook, anyone's been on my show. They're writing a lot. And a lot of what they write doesn't end up going anywhere, but because they're doing so much, little bit less reflection in our lives. Reflection's important, growth is important. But you can, you can pass that line to where it's paralyzing,

• 44:05Ed Mylett?

  demoralizing, comparative, and you have to be really, really careful with that.

• 44:09Speaker 03

  Over, overthinking, as you know, is, is the fastest way to unhappiness.

• 44:13Ed Mylett?

  It is.

• 44:13Speaker 03

  It's, and, and we all do it. And it seems like the older we get, the more we.

• 44:17Ed Mylett?

  We do.

• 44:18Speaker 03

  Cause when I, I just remember being very, not myopic, you know, I, I could balance a lot of work-life balance. Uh, but just having such a clear vision of like, I'm going here and I'm doing this.

• 44:29Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 44:29Speaker 03

  You know, and that's it. And nowadays, I'm like, I'm going here if it's okay with this person and that and this. And then when I get there, I'm gonna do this, provided of course, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now I'm filling in blanks and I'm like, whoa, my God, it's so cumbersome now.

• 44:43Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  And I, all I wanna do is shake it off and move to a cabin in the woods for about six months. And everybody can pound sand and I'll reemerge when I'm GD ready.

• 44:51Ed Mylett?

  By the way, we're. It's amazing because I've actually been having that conversation. A lot of my friends like, you have all these things to do. You could do this. You could do this. You got your TV show. I said, you know what I really want to do? I want to take six months off.

• 45:02Speaker 03

  And disappear.

• 45:03Ed Mylett?

  I just want to say, I just want to collect myself. Like, I'm with you. Look at your face right now. I'm with you, brother.

• 45:11Speaker 04

  Bonjour, compadre. It's the

• 45:15Speaker 04

  How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget, the Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle. Deals, game day deals, concert trip deals. No one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold your horses, there's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beachfronts. And, wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me off.

• 45:43Ed Mylett?

  But the truth is that I also know that I gotta, I have an obligation to the world and to myself to generate momentum, and that these opportunities both you and I have been presented are pretty big blessings in our lives. And if we're not careful, you know, we miss that rhythm again. We miss that chance. And so we have to keep executing and keep creating.

• 46:01Speaker 03

  I like that version better than the, I got two mortgages, I got a kid in college, I got a kid in, other kid in school, you know. But responsibilities weigh you down.

• 46:09Ed Mylett?

  I know, and they're gonna be there anyway.

• 46:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:10Ed Mylett?

  You know, the fact of the matter is that those facts don't change, but if you stare at them, they get bigger.

• 46:14Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 46:15Ed Mylett?

  If you stare at them. But if you stare at your vision, if you stare at where you want to go, if you're just, by the way, what you said earlier about just creating and taking meetings and outworking everybody, you also start to convince yourself that I deserve stuff other people aren't willing to do. Most guys with two mortgages and kids in college and a divorce and this or that or the other thing, and they're on the other side of 50 years old, they're not executing like me, they're not working like me, they're not taking meetings like me, they're not playing golf with that guy that I want to play golf with, they're not doing those things, but I'm doing things other people aren't willing to do, just like I did when I was in the Marine Corps, just like I did when I was starting out, just like when I did those extra reps on the improv stage and everybody else went home. That's my recipe. And when you get back to your recipe, you're like, oh, I remember this guy.

• 46:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:52Ed Mylett?

  This dude's familiar to me. I like this guy.

• 46:54Speaker 03

  And the struggle is real. Like, you, you know, you hear these stories, and I love listening to your, to your podcast. I love hearing Dane talk, as a matter of fact. So much I learned from, you know, that, that conversation you had with him.

• 47:05Ed Mylett?

  It's a good one.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  But, but it is real. Like, you know, you, you don't just set out one day, you know. Seven, eight years grinding at the UCB Theater in New York, which is in a basement underneath a Gristides, you know, and then I would go do 1 a.m. improv jams for nine drunks down in the Lower Village. Why? Because it was free stage time. You know, I didn't get paid a dime doing improv, not one penny. In fact, it cost me money to take cabs and trains to get to these places, but it was stage time and I got a master's degree in comedy from some of the best. My teachers were Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, the writer, all the writers from Conan, all the writers from Colbert and the Daily Show

• 47:47Speaker 03

  guys. And I, so, you know, I learned and played with some of the best people you could ever hope to, you know, and the guys I came up with, Paul Scheer, Rob Hubel, Owen Burke, Chad Carter, you know, Jason Manzoukas, go down the list of all these unbelievably talented individuals. That's who I got to spend my time with. And I would go, when I wasn't even performing, to do lights and sound, do tech for other people's shows, so I could watch their comedy and get to know them, meet them, and to be around the theater on the outside, chance that a comedy show broke out and they invited me to come play or something. Because that happened all the time. They'd be like, hey, we're short a guy. You want to play with us tonight? But yes, because I haven't played with this group. That's not my normal group. Just put yourself in that environment. So you have to grind. You

• 48:29Speaker 03

  have to do that stuff. You have to, if you want it, if you want it. Now, I'll never forget, I had just, I was working a couple of jobs, and I had just taught an improv class, and I was tired. I'd gotten up early to go work out with the Marines at 5:00 that morning. We went and played basketball. I wasn't a bad workout, but I was, you know, it was still 5:00 a.m. And I just walked out of teaching an improv class, and it's 10:00 p.m. and I'm exhausted. All I want to do is go home, you know, have my wife at the time, you know, give me a smile and we'd have some burritos or something. And, and I stood out there and I, and I remember, I was like, Saturday Night Live auditions are coming up, and, and you have to be invited. It's not like you just get to go in. But I had been

• 49:14Speaker 03

  I'd been winked and nodded like you're kind of on a shortlist, so stand by. And I remember thinking, I don't have the characters ready. I don't have the stuff ready yet. And this is gonna, if it happens, it could happen within a month or two. So I, I'm sitting going, well, why did you quit flight school? You quit flight school to come to New York to be an actor and a comedian. This is your, you're looking down the barrel at a real opportunity, a life-changing opportunity. And you want to go home? You want to go, and I'm standing on the corner of 31st and 7th Avenue. I'll never forget, it's really close to Madison Square Garden. There's a Starbucks across the street. I'm standing on the corner going, I just want to go home. And I'm yelling at myself. And I said, and I'm cussing. And I'm saying, get your ass down to the UCB. Get your ass down here right now.

• 49:58Speaker 03

  And I would argue, I don't have anything to say. What am I gonna do? Walk it? I don't care. Just get up on stage and improvise something. You're an improviser. Just improvise something. You've got to create these characters. Why the F did you even come here? You know, and I'm barking at myself and people are walking by me. They're thinking it's just another New Yorker, you know, it's lost, it's lost its stuff. And I had this argument with myself and I was about to get in the cab to go home. Finally, I just said, you're right. You know, like I, I won the argument. And I went, instead, I went back downtown. Instead of up, I went downtown to the UCB Theater. I went down, it was like, it was Wednesday, so it was like a hump night. Which at 11 o'clock, the show started. It went all the way to like 1 a.m. And you could put your name on the list and you got five minutes of stage time. And you could put it on twice. You could do stand-up characters, improv bits.

• 50:42Speaker 03

  You could do a puppet show if you wanted. You have five minutes. So I went down, I put my name on the list and I put it on again, you know, at the next opening. And I went into the green room and I just said, okay. I've got to create two characters right here and right now. And I remember a character I did where I was, I played a Marine Corps recruiter who wouldn't take no for an answer.

• 50:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  So I said, okay, that's gonna be one character. I'm gonna go out into the audience. I'm gonna recruit somebody from the audience to join the Marines for five minutes. No matter what they say, they're not getting away from me. So that was, and that's all I had. That's all I had.

• 51:10Ed Mylett?

  That ended up being a sketch on Saturday Live, didn't it?

• 51:12Speaker 03

  It didn't. It didn't. I wanted it to be. But I, so then I went out and I showed, you know, hey, everybody. I want to thank the UCB for allowing me to come in here today. My name is Sergeant Jackson. I'm here to recruit. Now, listen, I don't Know how you all are playing for college, but let me tell you something. Why don't you take the burden off your parents, be your own man, you sir. You know, I just went after him like they went after me, right?

• 51:31Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 51:31Speaker 03

  And I remember all the jargon. So I just attacked this poor kid. He's like, you know, he was a sweet kid, you know, he was playing along. But, um, and then I said, okay, then the next thing, I'm going to be this age, I'm going to be this old coach who has to teach a sex ed class.

• 51:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 51:43Speaker 03

  Okay. And so I, I came out and I was, I, cause I, based on a real character, my, I remember my seventh grade gym teacher, Dewey Kunda, I'll tell you his name, uh, sweet man, the sweetest man in the world. He go, oh, man, he always called us men, men, calm down now, calm down, man. He goes, man, I've, the state says I need to tell you about sex. And so here we go. And now does everybody know what the penis is, you know, like that's, you know, and so he, he would tell, and of course we were relentless, you know, seventh grade boys are the worst. So we've been like, coach, what does this mean? Coach, what does that mean?

• 52:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 52:15Speaker 03

  And he'd be like, oh God, don't say that, man. Don't say that, you know?

• 52:17Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  He was trying to hush us down. So I just turned that into a character. And then as he was trying to describe the sex act, he would have these heart palpitations and he would start to sweat and he would, he would almost lock up and die. And that was getting a response. So that turned into one of an audition character. But that's, that's, I just had to get the ball rolling. It's that vomiting on the page.

• 52:36Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 52:36Speaker 03

  But I was doing it live on stage. I just went, I went in and I jotted down a couple bullet points and what the character's main thing was going to be. He was going to go out and teach a sex ed class. I was going to go out and recruit this guy. And that's what I was going to do on stage. And then you just build from there.

• 52:49Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, brother.

• 52:49Speaker 03

  And so then I managed to put together a couple of characters and a couple of things. And I got, I did get the call to audition.

• 52:56Ed Mylett?

  And now you're ready.

• 52:57Speaker 03

  And then, and I got it.

• 52:58Ed Mylett?

  That's where you're ready. By the way, one of my favorite things ever on the show is the last five minutes of what you just said.

• 53:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:03Ed Mylett?

  It's one of my favorite things ever, cause it's a real life example of real life. And one of the things about doing this, life is not the way it is in the beginning, the way it is in the middle will be different than it is in the end. And same with almost every other thing. A marriage isn't the way it is in the beginning, isn't the way it is in the middle, isn't the way it is towards the end. One way or the other. Businesses we have, it's one way in the beginning, it's a little bit different in the middle, and it'll be different towards the end. Same with careers. One of the things is I'm watching you with that in mind. And by the way, everyone should just accept that. The reason we want to get moving, the reason we want to do things is there's correlated spaces. Like, for example, like I was just a speaker for many, many years.

• 53:44Ed Mylett?

  I had no idea that that was going to lend myself into that this thing that was created called social media. Then that was going to be a venture and then that somehow because I was a broadcast major 30 years ago in college. This thing called podcasting would start in this degree I got 30 years ago. Comes into fruition now because I got a pretty deep voice and I know what I'm talking about. So it's different and then the entrepreneurial opportunities. I had a financial company, I had no idea later I'd have a chip company or a chocolate company or a baseball card company. It changes and you have to be open to those ebbs and flows of your life. As I'm watching you, this is just two friends talking, but. And I know you've done a little of this, but I watched, I thought about you a while ago. That place that you and I were both talking about where I belong, Ray Romano is also a member there.

• 54:26Ed Mylett?

  And Ray, like you, I don't know Ray very well, but we've had encounters a few times. He's a pretty serious guy, one on one also, like you would not, if you, I think if you met a most comedians. Even Sebastian or whoever. I don't think you would think they were comedians when you met them. They're typically quiet. Some of them are actually kind of dark people too, right? Like that's where the comedy comes from. And I watched this thing with Ray. I don't remember what the movie was, but it was about him and a really good friend. He had a really, you probably know it because you know the world, but he just had this really good friend. And I think the friend was dying, but it was a dramatic role. It wasn't a funny role. Do you know the movie that I'm talking about?

• 55:00Speaker 03

  I don't off the top of my head, but I do know that he, his dramatic work is fantastic.

• 55:05Ed Mylett?

  It's fantastic. And then I think of some of the dramatic work I've seen Bill Murray do. And I'm like, wow, he's, when I watch you. Um, and the way that you express yourself, I just have to wonder if obviously the comedy world is your world. And that's where you've cut your teeth, but I actually wonder. If that's part of that path that it's not in the beginning, that it might be in the middle, that it could be at the end for you is more of that stuff. Have you ever thought about that?

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Absolutely, absolutely. I, I think any, any, uh, anybody who chooses a life in the arts, you, you do things and then you, you want to scare yourself. You want to try something new. You want to kind of step out and, and, and you know, at first you might not be received. I remember when Bill Murray, in nineteen eighty-one did a movie called Razor's Edge where he played a World War One veteran. And he was drunk in a pool because he was obviously hurting and, and dealing with it through self-medication. And you know, he was, he would say like wise ass lines or, but he would, they were really poignant lines. And the audience was laughing because the expectation was comedy.

• 56:01Ed Mylett?

  It was him.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  You know, and, and the truth is, is the performance is great. He's great. He's, you know, he can do that. Cause there's real depth to him.

• 56:10Ed Mylett?

  That's what I see in you.

• 56:11Speaker 03

  It's not, it's not received. Well, thank you. That's very nice. I did a movie called Midnight Sun where I was more dramatic. Where I played a guy whose father, or a father whose daughter was dying. And that was, that was my first, you know, the, it's also getting an opportunity.

• 56:24Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  You know, and, and so that was the first, what I would call dramatic role. I played a straight role, which I would call a straight role in Twelve Strong.

• 56:34Speaker 03

  Which is interesting story because the guy that I played was actually my boss in Afghanistan.

• 56:39Ed Mylett?

  You're serious?

• 56:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Crazy story. Crazy story. So, so the, in the movie, I played Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers, who was the, the CO of

• 56:47Ed Mylett?

  Perfect.

• 56:47Speaker 03

  Third Battalion, Fifth Special Forces Group. And, uh, when I got to Afghanistan, I got there, when the, the movie ends, when they take Mazarri Sharif, that's how the movie ends, Twelve Strong. Probably a couple of weeks after that is when I showed up and joined them. And so when I got there, uh, I reported to, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers. I was a young captain at the time. They, Central Command had sent me over, to help out with public affairs and civil affairs. And so in the movie, I play him. So I was like, I know this guy. I used to brief him every morning and every evening.

• 57:19Ed Mylett?

  That's incredible. What do they, I think of guys even like Hanks, who was kind of like Bosom Buddy's funny dude in the beginning, and we all forget, or even Robin Williams. Like, a lot of people have made that move where they've done both and Ray has done very well as well. I just, I don't know.

• 57:33Speaker 03

  I like watching Ray and, and I play golf with Ray too, up in Tahoe. So we play a lot of terms, sweet, sweet man. Very but very sincere.

• 57:40Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 57:40Speaker 03

  And and a lot of comedians that I know it's it's the only comedian I ever met that that kept it on all the time was Robin Williams.

• 57:48Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 57:48Speaker 03

  And it might have been because he was manic, you know, or whatever, but the sweetest man on earth. I absolutely love him. We did some USO stuff together. We he actually came down to the UCB Theater in LA. We did an improv show together and he's he's a machine. He was it was like it was special. It was truly special to be in his presence. Uh, but most comedians, you know, you can't sustain that kind of stuff.

• 58:07Ed Mylett?

  I can't even imagine.

• 58:08Speaker 03

  A lot of times you just want to have a conversation. You just want to relax.

• 58:10Ed Mylett?

  Relax.

• 58:11Speaker 03

  Uh, Will Ferrell is the most humble, sweetest guy in the world. He loves just to talk about the Trojans or about the Lakers, you know, and he's really excited about it and what's going on with you and how's the fam? And he's always in. But then what what I love about him is when he flips the switch.

• 58:25Ed Mylett?

  It's it's.

• 58:26Speaker 03

  It's the best because I'm like, oh, it's playtime because I can see it in his eyes. He starts getting like, here we go. And I'm like,

• 58:31Ed Mylett?

  I just saw it in your eyes.

• 58:32Speaker 03

  It's it's on, you know, it's so fun. Uh, and you're right. And there's also, you know, a lot of the land of broken toys, you know, out there, you know, a lot of guys are hurting. And that's why they got into to deal with it.

• 58:42Ed Mylett?

  I just saw your eyes change right there, too. I were I love this, so I want to go a little longer if it's okay with you.

• 58:48Speaker 03

  If it's okay.

• 58:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, she's okay. I want to go a little longer because it's too good. And I I know what my audience is thinking right now. They're seeing side to you. I think maybe they don't know for most of them. And I think that the human side of you with all your success helps people, plus all the clues you're leaving as we've been talking, like everything you say, even though you don't know it, is leaving clues of success or the story of how to move to make your dream happen. I I just wondered for myself, did anything happen in the military without being personal? The change of perspective on life in general? That, you know, you thought, well, the heaviness of this that I just had to experience means I do that sometimes, like when I'm in a high pressure situation, I'm like, yeah, this is something, but it's wasn't this other thing in my life.

• 59:32Ed Mylett?

  I'm just worried about how your experience in the Marine Corps shaped your worldview, your life.

• 59:38Speaker 03

  Yes, uh, I would say yes. There were there were there were clear moments when, uh, you know, you, um.

• 59:47Ed Mylett?

  Did you hear the list of all the medals?

• 59:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, but there were there were there were clear moments there. I remember, you know, you you see the, uh, uh, the kids in Liberia, you know, out there on UN Drive when you're looking over the wall from the embassy and you and you see the conditions they're living in. Heartbreaking. Um, you know, you see the, um.

• 1:00:07Speaker 03

  I remember when we were in Albania, we had a Apache crash and the pilots were killed and we were loading their caskets onto a C-130, or it wasn't a C-130, it was a C-17. We were loading and, you know, and the whole base stopped and everybody came to attention and they blew taps and, you know, and they load that on when I was, when I was at ground zero, just days after nine 11, the next day after nine 11, moving rubble by hand in the bucket brigades, you know, the devastation all around, you know, those are things that move you.

• 1:00:40Ed Mylett?

  Wait a minute, you were, you were at nine 11 on nine 12?

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  Uh, yes, the next day. So my reserve unit was in Manhattan.

• 1:00:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:49Speaker 03

  And we were activated the night of September 11th because they closed all the bridges and tunnels and we were told to report down to ground zero in our boots and utes, boots and utilities. We got down there, we reported one police plaza the next morning, um, in our boots and utilities and they gave us a surgical mask and, and we went and just started, because at the time, it was six stories of rubble. We didn't know if there were any survivors.

• 1:01:11Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 1:01:12Speaker 03

  So it was still search and rescue. So they couldn't bring any heavy bucket loaders or heavy, heavy machinery because they're afraid of collapses and cave-ins. So everything had to be done by hand. So, uh, um, there's, I remember we were over on the corner of the, the tower that was further south. Um, I think that's tower one or two, tower one. And, um, there was an, there was a Burger King that was all blown out and everything, but that's where we staged our gear and then we worked out of that corner and we just were like ants going up the hill, just passing buckets up and down, 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 12 hours on.

• 1:01:44Ed Mylett?

  I have to think that changes your perspective on life.

• 1:01:46Speaker 03

  It does, you know, and, and you see these things and then you go over to third world countries, you know, and you go to Albania and you see the refugee camps that we were setting up for the people in Kosovo. You see the, uh, the Afghan children, you know, I'm handing out leaflets, you know, to stay away from these cluster bombs and these mine fields and this is what a mine looks like and don't touch this stuff, you know, because they, they were illiterate, they couldn't read, so we had to do everything in pictures and, and, and you realize what a lawless country looks like, you know, you, you realize when there's no law and order, when there's no, you know, it's caveman rules, uh, you know, and so it's anarchy, it's this, and so you become very grateful.

• 1:02:22Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Speaker 03

  You become so grateful for this.

• 1:02:25Ed Mylett?

  Remind yourself of that. I mean, maybe today's just, I mean, I'm sure you do, but just.

• 1:02:29Speaker 03

  And we walked away from nine eleven. You know, so many people didn't.

• 1:02:33Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Speaker 03

  And, and, and, you know, those.

• 1:02:36Ed Mylett?

  Does it ever dawn on you, but like, no, it's good. Does it ever dawn on you? That you served all this time? And that at some point, guys, just picture this, like, you're in the Marine Corps, you're, you, you know, you're in service for that long of a period of time. And then you end up going over to entertain the very troops that you were once a part of. Was that not a trip for you? Was that for Comedy Central? Who was that for?

• 1:02:59Speaker 03

  It was awesome. It was a couple of times. I did it once with the, the Daily Show. And then another time, I've done three, I think, uh, big tours and one with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, um, did his Christmas tour, which was amazing. But yeah, I was always pissed because I never got a USO show, not one. All my deployments, I never got one entertainer ever. So I was like, you know, that sucks. So I, I said, if I ever got to a place where I could, I would. And so I did.

• 1:03:25Ed Mylett?

  Your level of humility is remarkable, brother. You know that I always assumed Riegel was a stage name, but you said earlier, Riegel, is that your real name?

• 1:03:33Speaker 03

  My real name. That's my real name. It's, I guess it started as Regal.

• 1:03:37Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 1:03:38Speaker 03

  Uh, and it was, uh, my, my dad in retirement has gotten into genealogy.

• 1:03:43Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 1:03:43Speaker 03

  So he has traced this part of the family all the way back to fifteen sixty-eight in Germany.

• 1:03:50Ed Mylett?

  Holy crap.

• 1:03:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. And apparently, uh, the, my, my ancestors came over in like seventeen forty-one and settled in Pennsylvania. And then worked their way from Pennsylvania to Indiana to Iowa, down to Kansas.

• 1:04:02Ed Mylett?

  All the way to you. Little did they know back in the day that they were eventually developing like the perfect name for a comedic actor, Rob Riegel.

• 1:04:09Speaker 03

  Yeah. And, and so it was Regal.

• 1:04:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:12Speaker 03

  I guess when, when they first landed here and then it morphed into Riegel and that's just what it's been ever since. So.

• 1:04:18Ed Mylett?

  All right. Last thing. Give me a good story. Give me one story of anything you've done on a movie set or anything like that. You're like, I can't believe this is happening right now. Or it's the hardest I've laughed or some experience with one of these amazing people that you've collaborated with in your life where you had the story where you were with, um, Carrie. In, um, in, uh, and, um, uh,

• 1:04:38Speaker 03

  Oh, Jeff Daniels.

• 1:04:39Ed Mylett?

  And Jeff Daniels and Jeff in the car. That's remarkable. I would be there too. I had a former president of the United States one time. I won't say which one, but he was in the White House. It was his third day in office as a guy that I worked with. And he was in a very stressful meeting and he leaned back in his chair just to collect his thoughts. And when he looked back, right behind him was the picture of Lincoln. And this is the dude who was running the country at the time and he's like, he's like, I just leaned back so they didn't hear it. But he leaned back and he, it's Abe Lincoln, picture behind him and he goes, "I can't believe that I'm here right now." And he goes, "Then I had to gather myself. You're the president of the United States, dude."

• 1:05:11Speaker 03

  You're the one.

• 1:05:12Ed Mylett?

  You're actually the guy in that chair. But imagine what that must be like to sit back there and go, "That's, this is where Lincoln was and now I'm here. No matter who you are as a human being, even someone at that level, he shared with me, and I don't think confidentially, I didn't say who he was, what that experience was like. Have you had one of those outside of that Carrie moment or you just laughed your whatever off at some point with somebody?"

• 1:05:32Speaker 03

  I've been so blessed. That's, that's the best thing about working on comedies.

• 1:05:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, imagine.

• 1:05:36Speaker 03

  Generally speaking, you're hanging out with some pretty funny people. Generally speaking, everybody's in a good mood. Generally speaking, the scenes have a funny twist to them. And generally speaking, everybody's throwing new ideas out there because there's what's on the page and then there's what you bring to it as well.

• 1:05:49Ed Mylett?

  But on Saturday Night Live, there's someone that walked in or anywhere in your life, you're like, ah.

• 1:05:53Speaker 03

  There was so many cool things. I remember on Saturday Night Live, I did a sketch with, um, uh, Neem Leeson. And we came off.

• 1:06:00Ed Mylett?

  I have a particular set of skills.

• 1:06:02Speaker 03

  Yeah. And he was the sweetest man in the world, you know, and, and, but I was, you know, I was just, I was always shell shocked. I was always shell, I'm still shell shocked. Or, or awestruck by some of these talented people that I admire so much.

• 1:06:12Ed Mylett?

  That's a big one.

• 1:06:13Speaker 03

  So I, I had just done a scene with him and it went really well and I came off stage. And Lauren, uh, kind of sits underneath the stage. He has a little video village that he sits in. And I came off and Tom Hanks was sitting next to him. And, uh, Tom jumped up and goes, "That was awesome." And I got, uh, I was like, "Thank you, Tom Hanks. That just happened. Oh, I just want to go call all my friends right now and tell them it just happened. I gotta go." But he was, he, he stood up out of his seat and kind of gave me the old, you know, bro hug. And I was like, "Oh, that's so cool." And then, you know, there's, there's all kinds of stories. I mean, on 21 Jump Street, um, and I'll, I'll, I'll try to make this quick because, you know. But the, um, we'd been shooting night shoots. So when you, when you flip schedules, you know, everybody's upside down.

• 1:06:57Speaker 03

  And you're, you're off sleep, you're, you know, everything's kind of weird. So we kind of flipped to a night shoot for like three or four days in a row. And it was the last night shoot and we were shooting all the way until the sun came up. I mean, it was, and we were up against it because this is it. Cause then the weekend was coming and we didn't want to have to do another night shoot. So we, we had to get this stuff done, but everybody's energy was low. So it's the end of the movie. It's where I get shot in the dingaling. And it's where they cuff me and they, you know, Channing Tatum finally reads the right, you know, the Miranda rights, he gets it right, you know, they're celebrating and you know, it's this thing. And the energy was kind of low and the crew was kind of, you know, moping and, and so

• 1:07:42Speaker 03

  we were also improvising because we were, you know, just trying to wake everybody up and kind of get ourselves going. So I get shot in the dingaling. I go down, they, you know, they cuff me or whatever. And, and I'm like, you shot me in the dingaling. I didn't say that.

• 1:07:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, right.

• 1:07:55Speaker 03

  But I said, you shot me in the thing. And, and then I think Jonah goes, oh my God, is that it? Right? And he points and it's off screen. It's all off screen, right? And I go, huh? And I scream like it's there, you know? And so get a big reaction. Well, then the next take, they were like, okay, this is great. Do it again. You know, get used to it. And then you tell him to pick it up. So we were like, okay, so here we go. Second time, you know, is that, you know, is that it right there? Oh, you gotta get it. Pick it up, pick it up. You know, and he's like, I'm not picking it up, you know? And I was like, pick it up, help me out. Cause I'm handcuffed at this point. So then I, I, so I lean out of frame, right? And then they go, okay, that was great. Now we gotta do it again. This time they go over to Crafty, get a banana, bring it over here, cut it in half and we're gonna, I was

• 1:08:39Speaker 03

  like, why do you have to cut it in half? They cut it in half and they put fake blood all over it. And so now I go out of frame. I come up with this bloody banana in my mouth, you know, and I'm still handcuffed and, and I bit through it. So it popped out of my mouth, you know? And so it just turns into this ridiculous thing, right? It just keeps, it's a snowball. It's a snowball going downhill and it just keeps going and going. And the crew's loving it. We're laughing. We're all having the energies back, you know, like it. So we have this great thing and I'm thinking, no problem. You know, the good people at Sony, there's no way this is going to make it onto the movie. This is just for us. Cause they're going to end the movie right when they get the Miranda rights, you know? Well, they left it in the cut that tested and it got big laughs. So they were like, we can't

• 1:09:23Speaker 03

  get rid of it now. So they kept it in the movie. So now it's in the movie for the rest of my life. And all it was is a big screw around, right? Just to get the energy up and have fun. And it was cracking each other. Like, we were all laughing, having a good time with it. But

• 1:09:34Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 1:09:35Speaker 03

  Something like that, that was just an innocent screw around, have some fun improvising, you know, get the energy up type thing. Now lives forever.

• 1:09:42Ed Mylett?

  Oh dude, that's huge. That is the best. I wish that was on the beginning. I hope everyone's stuck around to hear that. What's the curse of Bridge Hollow? Is that on Netflix right now?

• 1:09:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's a, that was a kind of a Halloween, family Halloween movie with Marlon Wayans.

• 1:09:56Ed Mylett?

  Okay, with Marlon?

• 1:09:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's a great guy. And Kelly Rowland and then some other wonderful, the young lady, I'm so bad about this. I forgot her name. I'm sorry. She was on Stranger Things. But anyway.

• 1:10:07Ed Mylett?

  She's good too?

• 1:10:08Speaker 03

  Great, great.

• 1:10:09Ed Mylett?

  Dude, I loved today. Now, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have you back when you write your book.

• 1:10:14Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:10:15Ed Mylett?

  And you are writing your book. So we're gonna make sure that that happens together. This is what I was hoping it was today. I knew it would laugh, but I knew people would learn a lot about you and also about how to become successful, how to overcome difficult times. Also appreciate your openness and your vulnerability too. One of the great stories, one of the most amazing lives so far with 52 more years at least to go. You're probably halfway done. So, thank you.

• 1:10:37Speaker 03

  I like the way you think.

• 1:10:38Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, guys, follow Rob Riggle on social media. You already know who he is, but go follow him there. Thank you for today, brother.

• 1:10:43Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you. And thank you for what you do. I really appreciate it.

• 1:10:46Ed Mylett?

  Well, I think we're gonna be friends for a long time. So I'm fired up. Hey, guys, this is the perfect show to share. I wanted him on for this time of year because you all need to laugh a little bit. You all need to learn a little bit. You all need to be inspired a lot. And you got all of that out of today's show. So you're welcome. How can you pay me back? Share this with people that you care about. You want to bring some joy and some inspiration into their life and a little inside peek into Hollywood and this man's remarkable life as well. Thank you again for your service, bro. God bless you, everybody. Max out. Power of one more. Go grab my book. Take care.