430: Enrico Colantoni—The Balls on this Guy!

Award-winning actor and old friend Rico drops by for a hysterical, if not irreverent, hang with Mike and Chuck, friends he's had for 40+ years. There is laughter; there are tears, and there is laughter that turns into tears. Warning: Don't listen while drinking coffee in front of a computer.

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

• 0:04Mike Rowe?

  He's your friend, he's my friend.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 0:06Mike Rowe?

  He's Canada's friend, he's America's friend. He's our friend, Rico Colantoni. Second time on the podcast, this time, I think it really is just a, it's kind of an opportunistic get that you got, but I'm so glad you got him, because, crap, that was fun.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a lot of fun, and you're right, it was a crime of opportunity, or a podcast episode of opportunity. He's actually in town to get hip replacement, which he just got. He's 12 days out, he's been convalescing at my house. I had the great misfortune to assist our friend Amy in changing his bandage last Saturday, which of course I showed you a picture of that, which was horrifying. Yeah, and this was really, really fun.

• 0:53Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, it's not NC 17, I don't even think it's R rated, but I will tell you, we come in kinda hot. We've known each other, me and Rico, 40 years, as long as you've known him.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04Mike Rowe?

  You've known him a lot better than I have, he's living with you now, in his, in his convalescence. Look, if you don't know Rico, well, then, I don't, you probably don't have a TV.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Hope and Gloria, Just Shoot Me, Veronica Mars, Galaxy Quest, Contagion.

• 1:21Mike Rowe?

  Stigmata.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Stigmata, he played the Italian priest in Stigmata, AI.

• 1:27Mike Rowe?

  AI, yeah.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:28Mike Rowe?

  So many movies, so many shows, so many plays. He is our favorite and consummate working actor. He's a true actor, but he is such a real human, and such a sweetheart, and so vulnerable at the moment that I, I almost feel bad, I made him cry twice.

• 1:51Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:52Mike Rowe?

  And he, he made me laugh, and then I made him laugh, and then we both laughed so hard for so long, I don't even know if it's usable.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:59Mike Rowe?

  My god.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's funny, that's very funny.

• 2:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, look, and you know what, you learn some things along the way, because he's, he's thoughtful, and he's smart, and he's lived six decades, and he has a unique perspective on the world, I think, as most actors do, who stay that busy for that long. But he's so forthcoming, our friend, he's so honest about... The things in his life that are challenges and, um, well, some things that are attached to his body that have swollen to dimensions that a lot of people would not be comfortable discussing and yet.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  And yet, it just makes me say the title of this episode, which is.

• 2:40Mike Rowe?

  Enrico Colantoni, the balls on this guy.

• 2:45Mike Rowe?

  Full disclosure, he says something toward the end that's so sweet. His exact phrase was, you know, it's, it's important to be louder than the noise, which was going to be the title and it's probably a better title. But again, full disclosure. I always think about the person who can't quite decide whether or not to click on this thing or not. And if you're that person and you looked at, you know, be louder than the noise, you might think, ah, you know, that's probably useful, but very earnest. Maybe later, but the balls on this guy.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  What about those balls?

• 3:18Mike Rowe?

  What could it mean? Well, by all means, stand by and let me explain it to you right after this.

• 3:31Mike Rowe?

  Here's a crazy idea. What if there was an academy out there that paid students to learn instead of the other way around? Specifically, men and women who want to work in the skilled trades. And what if this academy not only paid for your training, but also covered all the expenses associated with your training, like travel and food and lodging? And finally, what if this academy guaranteed you a job at the end of the training period? Well, that's exactly what's happening at America's Workforce Academy by Meta. This is a five week, highly immersive, pre apprenticeship program that gets you all the necessary certifications you'll need to start a career in the skilled trades immediately.

• 4:13Mike Rowe?

  I'm talking about AI proof, six figure jobs, helping to build out the new infrastructure that our economy is depending on. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, welders, fiber optic technicians, these jobs, they are all in demand like never before. And again, every graduate of America's Workforce Academy is guaranteed a job on a Meta website.

• 4:38Mike Rowe?

  I first announced this program a few months ago and I have been watching the response ever since. It's extraordinary. This is a nationwide unprecedented fast track to a long-term career in a skilled trade. If you or your spouse or your kid or your grandkid are looking for a straight path into a career with no cost at all, check out the opportunities for yourself at meta.com slash Americas Workforce Academy. That's meta.com slash Americas Workforce Academy.

• 5:14Mike Rowe?

  Like veins. I mean, this has happened to you, I'm sure. You've coughed up things and you've marveled. You've just looked at it and wondered how your body could create such

• 5:25Speaker 02

  Where did that come from?

• 5:27Mike Rowe?

  I mean, you know where it came from. It came from your lungs, but how did it spend so much time in there?

• 5:34Speaker 02

  You know what, Mike? I don't know. I still marvel at what comes out of my ass. After, you know, I mean, you know what I mean? Ever do a real cleanse where you see worms coming out and like all that shit?

• 5:45Mike Rowe?

  Good lord.

• 5:46Speaker 02

  Little things wiggling around?

• 5:47Mike Rowe?

  Full disclosure, it's going to be one of those conversations. We don't have a lot of governor on Rico Colantoni. He's been on the podcast before. More importantly, I've known him for 30 years. Chuck's known him for about 50. Is that possible? How long have you known him?

• 6:01Speaker 02

  No. By a year and a half. I met you the same year that I met Chuck. So I've known you about 40 years.

• 6:08Mike Rowe?

  Oh, that's right.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's true.

• 6:09Mike Rowe?

  When you were at the Academy.

• 6:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:10Mike Rowe?

  You came to New York to visit us. Yeah.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Did we talk about that night? Still one of my favorite nights my whole life.

• 6:17Mike Rowe?

  Which one? I've already forgotten.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  We were high, of course. It was night. It was dark and we were walking by and there was a guy laid out on the sidewalk. And somebody's looking at him and Mike goes, yeah, he just, he just fell out from the sky. He just like landed there. He was just like, what?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Really?

• 6:39Speaker 02

  And you had this total stranger just kind of keep looking up on how this guy ended up on the floor of the sidewalk. You don't remember that?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  No.

• 6:48Mike Rowe?

  I remember it. I also, it was the same trip, though, when, I think I was helping you move in, I guess, and it was my first experience with a truly homeless person who had taken up residence in the gutter and was just lying there.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Actually, I don't think he was homeless because he was wearing a suit.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was dressed drunk.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  And you were like, you were like, I just step over the guy because it's New York and I've been living there for all of like two months, so I know what's what. And you're like, hey, man, this guy doesn't seem right. I think we ought to help. I'm like, oh, no, he's just drunk.

• 7:22Mike Rowe?

  I'm just like, what happened to you, man? I mean, I've known you a long time. You're a man of compassion and humanity. Rico, he just-

• 7:31Speaker 02

  When did you stop caring? When did he stop caring?

• 7:33Mike Rowe?

  That was my question.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  New York killed your spirit, Chuck.

• 7:36Mike Rowe?

  Well, I knelt down next to the gentleman and rolled him over, checked his pulse.

• 7:41Speaker 02

  You did for real?

• 7:41Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 7:43Mike Rowe?

  No, I mean, as an Eagle Scout, man, this is like, this is my chance to maybe save a life or at least, at least call it in, you know, at least call it in.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  What happened? Did he just like?

• 7:54Mike Rowe?

  What happened was, he wasn't dead. He was, in fact, drunk, as Chuck had presaged.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Well, you called a police officer over and the police officer came over, slapped him a little and he kind of went, and he looked at you and said, oh, he's just drunk. And I'm like, that was the most annoying part, to glance back at my friend Chuck and to see a look that I'd never seen before. It was kind of, it was I told you so, but there was also a kind of a world weariness about it. Like, I don't know if you understand, but I've been in the big city.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  You don't understand New York.

• 8:25Mike Rowe?

  Couple of weeks now, I've seen some things. I've seen some things. So you would just move there too, then, down from?

• 8:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, we started at the same time. Chuck and I started at the Academy in February. So I just came in from Toronto, staying at the 92nd Street Y. Remember that one? It's still there.

• 8:42Mike Rowe?

  It's still there. They do all kinds of broadcasting out of that thing. It's a thing, right?

• 8:47Speaker 02

  Big theater, too, big.

• 8:49Mike Rowe?

  Did you ever perform there?

• 8:50Speaker 02

  No. No, but I lived there.

• 8:52Mike Rowe?

  Ever invited to do so?

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Nope.

• 8:54Mike Rowe?

  Any hopes, dreams, aspirations?

• 8:56Speaker 02

  No, not at all.

• 8:57Mike Rowe?

  Ninety Second Street Y at this point is not on your, uh,

• 9:00Speaker 02

  No.

• 9:00Mike Rowe?

  Your wish fulfillment.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  It was great. When we lived there, it was like, it was so alive. And it bordered what I, you know, back then was like, probably the most dangerous part of the city.

• 9:11Mike Rowe?

  Being what exactly was?

• 9:12Speaker 02

  Well, anything beyond Ninety Third and Ninety Fourth on Lexington.

• 9:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  Was not what you had.

• 9:17Mike Rowe?

  East Side, Uptown.

• 9:18Speaker 02

  What was not what you had, uh, south of Ninety Second Street, right? Eighty Sixth Street, that was considered the Upper East Side.

• 9:25Mike Rowe?

  Well, Eighty Six is definitely south of Ninety Second. But to the tune of Six, if I'm doing the math right.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Ninety Three, Ninety Two, yeah, yeah, Six. Six numbers south. Yeah, remember those days? Those are fun days. It was a long time ago. And Chuck is a constant reminder. I'm so grateful that he's in my life to remind me how far. Because you need a witness.

• 9:48Mike Rowe?

  Well, I'm sure he's grateful that you're in his house right now.

• 9:51Speaker 02

  He needs me there.

• 9:53Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  He needs me there.

• 9:54Mike Rowe?

  We need you on that wall.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  I know.

• 9:56Mike Rowe?

  You want me on that wall. For those of you, uh,

• 10:00Speaker 02

  Have we started, by the way?

• 10:01Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah, we're deep into it. Yeah, yeah, I think we came into it with that whole comment about the disappointment that sometimes leaves your body by way of your lower GI tract.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Your lungs or your-

• 10:13Mike Rowe?

  No, we started there, but you came in hot with it.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  I bring it right back to a level where I understand.

• 10:17Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  I don't understand the lungs so much, but I'm really hip with the, with the bowels.

• 10:22Mike Rowe?

  Well, since you drag your hip into it.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:26Mike Rowe?

  Just so the listener and hopefully the viewer understands, if you're not watching this-

• 10:30Speaker 02

  Oh my God, why do I say yes to this?

• 10:32Mike Rowe?

  If you're not watching this, friends, what I'm looking at is a version of Rico that I haven't seen. Uh, there's a cardigan.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:40Mike Rowe?

  There's what appears to be some kind of active sweatpants, leisure wear.

• 10:45Speaker 02

  They're linen, linen pants, just comfortable. I'm 12 days out of the hip surgery.

• 10:50Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  So this is like, comfy.

• 10:52Mike Rowe?

  I gotta tell-

• 10:53Speaker 02

  Because if I have to whip my pants down and check my bandage, I'm ready to go. It's like everything is like-

• 10:57Mike Rowe?

  We'll get there. Just hang on for a second.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  I took pictures today. I'm doing really well, by the way.

• 11:01Mike Rowe?

  I'm gonna look at the pictures. With your permission, we'll share the pictures. I think I think part of what we ought to do with the time we have is bend this in if not necessarily to a public service announcement, at least there's some teachable moments for people.

• 11:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Morning signs. Things that happen. Can I share what happened?

• 11:21Mike Rowe?

  I want to hear what happened.

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 11:23Mike Rowe?

  Because, again, I ran into you 20 minutes ago out front. You were needlessly early. There's no extra credit for that. But Chuck, I'm letting myself back in from lunch. You know, I got Mary and I got I got Ken from Big Speak with me.

• 11:37Speaker 02

  Right.

• 11:38Mike Rowe?

  And this older homeless gentleman walks up to us. You know, wearing a cardigan.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  With a cane.

• 11:43Mike Rowe?

  With a cane and mumbles something.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  That's how I, Mr. Rowe?

• 11:47Mike Rowe?

  And I was like, oh, well, isn't this nice? Because I'm here with this big time agent, right? And it's like, it's always nice to be recognized, even if it is by the great unwashed. And this grizzled man is my old friend Rico. And like, good Lord, with the cardigan and the cane.

• 12:03Speaker 02

  The cardigan and the hair. I haven't done my hair. I came, I came.

• 12:07Mike Rowe?

  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I haven't done my hair.

• 12:11Speaker 02

  You haven't done your hair. I usually trim it. It's never this long. This is like post-op Rico. I actually shaved my, I trimmed the beard.

• 12:19Mike Rowe?

  You've got more hair on your face than you do on your head.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  On my chest. You can't even know it's on my chest. But it's like, I was like, under a knife two weeks ago, and I barely started walking. And this weekend, it like, I got an allergic reaction to the bandage. And things started oozing everywhere.

• 12:38Mike Rowe?

  Dear. And now you're in the guest bedroom at Chuck's place.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  Well, I wore

• 12:42Mike Rowe?

  Which is where I sleep, by the way.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  The sheets and I washed the sheets and stuff. Yeah. You've slept in that bed?

• 12:46Mike Rowe?

  Many times, and I'm sure I'll be back into it now with thoughts of ooze and sputum. Right?

• 12:54Speaker 02

  No.

• 12:54Mike Rowe?

  Visions of sugarplum.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  It's clean. It was all caught. Bandages. In fact, my friend Amy had a sanitary napkin for me.

• 13:01Mike Rowe?

  That's nice.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  Right? First time for me.

• 13:04Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 13:04Speaker 02

  I had, you know, I had to throw the first one away because I didn't know that they had adhesive things that you could stick.

• 13:10Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  And the angle of it. But I finally figured it out and it caught everything that was oozing. From my junk.

• 13:15Mike Rowe?

  In a sanitary net. Whoa, whoa.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's where it was coming.

• 13:18Mike Rowe?

  We're talking about your wound.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  I know. It was here and it's dripping and all of a sudden, my junk turns into what looked like John Merrick's, you know, head. It was just oozing and pussing and everything was leaking and I go, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. And the great story is that when I left the hospital, they didn't give me the surgeon's number, so I...

• 13:42Mike Rowe?

  You have no one to call?

• 13:42Speaker 02

  I had no one to call.

• 13:43Mike Rowe?

  Just a quick point of order, or at least clarity.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:46Mike Rowe?

  You're... Oozing from your junk.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:49Mike Rowe?

  I'm thinking that that would happen with the hole that's already there.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:55Mike Rowe?

  But...

• 13:55Speaker 02

  No, it wasn't inter- no, it wasn't that. It wasn't an infection. It was a an allergic reaction. So I don't know why it was going there, but it was coming up my side. I had a big rash there and it just pooled.

• 14:09Mike Rowe?

  In your scrotum?

• 14:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. And in... Can I say penis?

• 14:12Mike Rowe?

  If it applies.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  It does. And it just, it looked like a beer can. Which is not unflattering, but it's like, really, just, you know.

• 14:21Mike Rowe?

  Did you see this, Chuck?

• 14:23Speaker 01

  No, no, I wouldn't show anybody.

• 14:25Mike Rowe?

  I specifically looked away. Um, he couldn't stop staring at it. Chuck showed me a picture of your wound.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:31Mike Rowe?

  Okay.

• 14:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:32Mike Rowe?

  Which is, that's fine. You're staying in a man's house. Your wound is oozing. But in a very-

• 14:37Speaker 02

  But it wasn't oozing. That's the point. What was happening inside was good. It was actually an allergic reaction outside because of the bandage.

• 14:45Mike Rowe?

  Ah, so you had a topical.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:48Mike Rowe?

  But back to the oozing around the testicles.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't know. I asked the doc. I go, "Why is it there?" He goes, "I don't know." When a doctor says, "I don't know," I, I, but he gave me some, um, steroids.

• 15:01Mike Rowe?

  Steroids.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  Steroids and antibiotics. It's like, now it's just a little itchy, dry, little topical, I'm good.

• 15:07Mike Rowe?

  All right, look, we're gonna spend a little time on this.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  I've got pictures. Here, let me show you.

• 15:13Mike Rowe?

  I hope you're not kidding, because look, I've been traumatized by this myself. Not directly, but my dad had a inguinal hernia. And part of the reality of repairing that thing affected his, uh, what they call a hydrocele. It's a, it's a sac of fluid in your scrotum. And when your body drains...

• 15:37Mike Rowe?

  Uh, excess moisture, fluid, whatever it is, you know, it goes to the lowest point.

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:44Mike Rowe?

  Well, my dad is, is, is a fairly, um, a circumspect guy. He's, I wouldn't say shy, but he's courtly, you know, he doesn't talk about any of the things we've already touched on. But when I walked in the apartment to see how he was doing, his scrotum had swollen up to the size of something like a small, you know, the small footballs, not the full-size NFL.

• 16:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 16:11Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:12Mike Rowe?

  And, um, he greeted me in a bathrobe and immediately said, "Take a look at this thing. Does this look right to you?"

• 16:25Speaker 02

  No.

• 16:26Mike Rowe?

  There's nothing that looked right.

• 16:27Speaker 02

  No, no, no.

• 16:28Mike Rowe?

  And so I think when you're that old and when your body does something that it's never done before, for him anyway, it made him, uh, curious, but also certainly not proud, but not ashamed either. It was like a new tattoo that he would, he was showing it to everyone.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 16:48Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  Amazing that he would have such pride around that. I-

• 16:52Mike Rowe?

  My mother, in vacuuming in the nude-

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 16:56Mike Rowe?

  Uh, wrote about this.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 16:58Mike Rowe?

  Oh, my God, here, look.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  How is your ma, by the way? She's great.

• 17:01Mike Rowe?

  She's great. She turned eighty-seven yesterday.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  That's wonderful. Yesterday.

• 17:05Mike Rowe?

  Yep. And five years ago, she, she wrote this, "Late that night, following the surgery, my husband and I were at home as the anesthesia was wearing off. He lifted the sheet-

• 17:15Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 17:16Mike Rowe?

  -stared wide-eyed for a moment, then screamed like a man engulfed in flames, 'Peg, come here, quick.' I pulled away the sheet and thought, 'My Lord, what's an eggplant doing down there on his private parts?'" I knew, of course, that it was my husband's scrotum, but only because of the position it occupied between his legs.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 17:41Mike Rowe?

  Again, folks, I apologize.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  No, I mean, you know, we've got to talk about it. Anybody who says, "Oh, hips, oh, no complications, no nothing, you get your hip replaced, you're walking right away," they don't talk about how difficult it is to sleep, how difficult it is if you get an infection, because it's still a surgery. So, I've had one done six years ago. I had a rash, I thought it was normal. This time, I thought it was the same rash, but then when you're...

• 18:10Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, you start swelling up.

• 18:12Speaker 02

  Sideways.

• 18:13Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  And wrinkles, and it was a frightening moment. So, we don't talk about those things, and we should.

• 18:20Mike Rowe?

  Well, we are. It's too late. But back to the...

• 18:23Speaker 02

  I'm so used to just looking at Chuck. He can't, why can't he sit there?

• 18:27Mike Rowe?

  We tried it, we focus grouped it, and the people were unanimous, "He's in the shot too much." No. Well, he's got a dedicated camera. If you miss him, just cut right now, Chuck. There you go, see? He's there.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:40Mike Rowe?

  Actually, we probably should have put him back here, because it's you guys. When a new person comes in here, you only have so much time to establish...

• 18:47Speaker 02

  He'll make, he'll make a new guy nervous, I know.

• 18:50Mike Rowe?

  You know what? Chuck has a nervous energy about him that he didn't used to have, and I'm wondering if you can confirm any of this.

• 19:00Speaker 02

  I think since he started working with you, Mike, I'm pretty...

• 19:04Mike Rowe?

  It's possible.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  I think if I had to narrow it down, 100%. Yeah, I think that's when it all happened.

• 19:11Mike Rowe?

  We were, like, whiteboarding some ideas, like, seven or eight years ago, maybe more, when I really noticed this, but, see that girder up there?

• 19:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:21Mike Rowe?

  Like, on that girder, hang on a sec, I'm gonna grab one of these right now. These things.

• 19:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, these things are great. Somebody took a bite out of that.

• 19:32Mike Rowe?

  He would stand there and just start throwing them to try and make them stick, and then he'd start pacing. He was like a wildebeest with the turning sickness, just walking in circles with these little yellow foam squeeze hard hats, and he couldn't sit still. And I, and I'd never noticed that about you before, and now it's all I, all I see, all I see.

• 19:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's tragic, but true. It's, it's true.

• 20:00Mike Rowe?

  But you haven't noticed.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  Oh, I've, oh, yeah.

• 20:02Mike Rowe?

  All right.

• 20:03Speaker 02

  It's big, big. He's like walking around. He's always on the phone.

• 20:06Mike Rowe?

  Well, that's, that, that.

• 20:07Speaker 02

  I mean, he doesn't stop working. Maybe you don't know this about him, but he doesn't stop.

• 20:11Mike Rowe?

  Oh, I'm, he doesn't stop moving.

• 20:16Mike Rowe?

  Now, if we want to take the lead.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  That could be it. That could be it.

• 20:19Mike Rowe?

  If you want to equate movement with work.

• 20:21Speaker 02

  With work, yeah, maybe.

• 20:22Mike Rowe?

  Fine.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  Maybe that. He does do a lot of pacing.

• 20:24Mike Rowe?

  Moving's hard work.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  He's lost so much weight.

• 20:25Mike Rowe?

  He's, oh, he's a rail.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:27Mike Rowe?

  He's kinetic.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  No, no, but I'm just thinking, no.

• 20:29Mike Rowe?

  Back to your hips. Six years ago. Six years ago, you get, what's up? You're a young man.

• 20:35Speaker 02

  What'd you do to your hips? I don't, I don't know. But mom and dad both had them done, you know, in their seventies.

• 20:40Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  So I figured it was just a matter of time. And everybody said, well, it's inevitable. You've got arthritis there.

• 20:47Mike Rowe?

  All right, well, that's something.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  And so I was dumb enough to take a kickboxing class this summer.

• 20:55Speaker 02

  And it jacked me. And, but I had to go to work. I'm doing a show up in Canada called The Legion's, where I have to play a police officer, a beat cop.

• 21:02Mike Rowe?

  Oh, God.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  So they had to write in that I had hip issues because I kept, I couldn't not limp. Storming the castle.

• 21:12Mike Rowe?

  You can't walk in a straight line.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  You got my gun all ready to, to kick the door down. And I'm like, I'm like Ratso Rizzo.

• 21:18Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 21:19Speaker 02

  Storming the castle. It was, it's not good. So for four months, I'm in absolute agony. I had this window to get it done because English teacher supposedly is coming back at the end of February.

• 21:30Mike Rowe?

  New show, by the way.

• 21:31Speaker 02

  And I've been waiting in Canada for a hip replacement for four years. So we could talk about a whole segment. It's four years. They must have lost my number. I put my name on a list in Ontario four years ago, and I still haven't heard from them.

• 21:45Mike Rowe?

  So you got your left hip done six years ago.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  Here.

• 21:48Mike Rowe?

  Here.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:49Mike Rowe?

  There you go, back up to Canada.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  And I'm going, I'm gonna need this done.

• 21:52Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  I'm putting myself on the list early because I know it'll take some time. Four years later, I'm still okay, but then when it happened, I would have to wait another year.

• 22:07Mike Rowe?

  Couple of weeks ago, on this very podcast, I talked with Brooke Rollins, our Secretary of Agriculture, about the incredibly complicated business of delivering affordable beef to our citizens without disadvantaging American ranchers. We also discussed the very controversial decision to import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef from various foreign countries and the maddening policy that allows meatpackers to label imported meat as a product of the USA. Well, shortly after that conversation, one of my sponsors, Good Ranchers, reported an unusually high level of interest in their product. And this is not surprising.

• 22:48Mike Rowe?

  Given a choice, most people would prefer to buy their meat from American ranchers. And Good Ranchers is the number one company in America that delivers 100% American meat straight to your door. They partner with over 100 local farmers and ranchers to deliver pasture-raised meat with no antibiotics and no added hormones. They've got 25,000 five-star reviews on TrustViolet. 25,000, including my own. This month, when you visit GoodRanchers.com/row, you'll get a free Angus ground beef bundle with your first order. Again, that's GoodRanchers.com/row for four bonus pounds of ground beef raised right

• 23:30Mike Rowe?

  here in these United States, and that's guaranteed. Support your local ranchers by insisting on American meat delivered at GoodRanchers.com/row. If you could eat a steer, if you could eat a cow, don't take a chance on a foreign ranch, get Good Ranchers now. How many movies have you done?

• 23:53Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 23:55Mike Rowe?

  How many TV series?

• 23:57Speaker 02

  Chuck will know.

• 23:58Mike Rowe?

  Chuck, look into it for me. It's a larger point I want to make. You've been a working actor, I think, longer than any other working actor I know. By the way, Tim Allen says hello. He sat right here.

• 24:09Speaker 02

  Does he remember me this time?

• 24:10Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I didn't think so.

• 24:11Mike Rowe?

  No, but he did say hello.

• 24:16Mike Rowe?

  It's just impossible to to come to any other conclusion. But for the undeniable fact that you're a remarkably successful actor who has thrived in his chosen field.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:29Mike Rowe?

  And you can certainly, you can get your hips done, you get your legs replaced, you do whatever you want. You go, you can get better testicles, get the whole scrome thing worked out. You're a man of resources and means, is what I'm saying.

• 24:40Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

• 24:41Mike Rowe?

  Right. And you're living, right now, you've been at Chuck's for the last month and a half.

• 24:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:46Mike Rowe?

  In the guest bedroom, where I will sometimes crash.

• 24:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's clean, I swear. Margarita comes in, and she's like, she makes sure that she fumigate. It'll be fumigated by the time you get there.

• 24:55Mike Rowe?

  You could be in any facility in the Los Angeles area. You could be any home.

• 24:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:59Mike Rowe?

  You choose to be where you are now.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:02Mike Rowe?

  Make it make sense for me.

• 25:04Speaker 02

  I love Chuck.

• 25:06Mike Rowe?

  That's it.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  He's my oldest and dearest friend, and coming back and just knowing that there's a place that I can feel absolutely at home. They offered hotels, they, I could stay in hotel. I go, no, it's just easier at Chuck's. I love it when he, because, you know, he's literally working with you during the day, so I have the place to myself.

• 25:28Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  And then he comes home and we just catch up.

• 25:30Mike Rowe?

  Well, he actually didn't come home last night.

• 25:31Speaker 02

  No, he didn't. All week, he's been away.

• 25:33Mike Rowe?

  You know what he did? He took an aero bed I bought twenty years ago.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  Facts.

• 25:40Mike Rowe?

  Right? Because when he was living in that shoebox not far from where he is now.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:45Mike Rowe?

  I would crash there, really for the same reasons you're describing.

• 25:49Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 25:49Mike Rowe?

  But, you know, there was no place to lie down comfortably. He had this chaise lounge.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  The chaise lounge, yeah. What do we call it?

• 25:57Mike Rowe?

  Oh, I don't, don't say what we call it.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  No, we don't say what we call it. We'll call it the spluch chair.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  Lot has happened on that chair.

• 26:06Mike Rowe?

  Let's call it the ooze chair at this point. Cause you've been oozing all over the place. But the point is, you know, at that point in my life, yeah, I could probably have stayed any number of places. But I got an aero bed and I blew it up and I slept like a dog at the foot of his desk. And he was in the other room. With, you know, who knows who.

• 26:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:26Mike Rowe?

  And I'm just lying out there and there were nights where I would say to myself, what, what are you doing? Like, what are you, why are you here? Exactly.

• 26:33Speaker 02

  I could be ordering room service someplace right now.

• 26:36Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 26:36Speaker 02

  Anywhere.

• 26:37Mike Rowe?

  But it'll amuse you to know that last night, right there to your right.

• 26:40Speaker 02

  On that same aero bed.

• 26:41Mike Rowe?

  On the same aero bed.

• 26:44Speaker 02

  Did you find it in the closet by the way?

• 26:45Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  You just dug it out.

• 26:47Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 26:47Speaker 02

  We knew it was there.

• 26:48Mike Rowe?

  It was there, still there, still had the sheets with it that fit it. So that was it. Worked real good.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  It still had the sheets already on it, like fitted, ready to go?

• 26:55Mike Rowe?

  No, no, they were folded up and, you know, they were clean.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  That'd be weird if it was just ready to go from 20 years ago.

• 27:00Mike Rowe?

  Why is it relevant? Why is it interesting? I'll tell you why. Because most of the people listening to this don't have famous friends. And many of them are thinking, God, if I were famous, what I would do is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But your choices, and to some extent, I think maybe my own, reflect the fact that it never changes. In the end, whether it's your hip or your sphincter or your testo, whatever's let you down. If you need some time to get your feet back under you, you want to be around somebody who you, who you care about. Or who cares about you. Just doesn't matter where you go. I'm gonna make you cry.

• 27:39Speaker 02

  You've done it. You've done it.

• 27:41Mike Rowe?

  I'm gonna make you cry.

• 27:42Speaker 02

  I'm gonna note the time, because this is gonna happen a lot, I'm sure.

• 27:45Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Yeah. So sweet. You're just one of the sweetest dudes walking around.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  Nice, nice try dude. Nice try.

• 28:07Speaker 02

  Oh my god, Mike.

• 28:10Speaker 02

  Oh, you made me cry.

• 28:13Mike Rowe?

  You wanna hear something funny, man?

• 28:14Speaker 02

  It's true, but it wasn't just her, Amy was there.

• 28:16Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 28:17Speaker 02

  Amy spent, you know, ten nights on that side of the couch, just... It's like, where... People in Toronto are going, "Well, why don't you get it done here?" I go, "Because Chuck and Amy are down there."

• 28:28Mike Rowe?

  So why is it? Why is it that the people we've known the longest get more important as we get older?

• 28:37Speaker 02

  Mike, really, I feel like I just got, I just got ambushed.

• 28:43Mike Rowe?

  Imagine there's a microphone pointed somewhere towards your mouth. And speaking to it. Be poignant, be poignant in a way.

• 28:50Speaker 02

  I'm not poignant, I'm just emotional. I'm sentimental.

• 28:54Mike Rowe?

  But I want the lesser famous people listening right now to understand the universality of the unassailable truth that you're...

• 29:02Speaker 02

  I think in all the years that I've done what I've done, I've made two legitimate friends, like Hollywood friends.

• 29:09Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Not someone that I've known from New York, or from the past, or from high school. Two legitimate Hollywood personalities that I could call and say, "Hey, let's get some dinner and some..." One of them is no longer with us, and the other one lives on the East Coast.

• 29:26Mike Rowe?

  That's him, Alan.

• 29:29Speaker 02

  Alan Rickman was the most generous human being, and lovely, and welcoming, and he made you feel like you were his dear, dear friend. And Whoopi Goldberg is the other one. And Whoopi is just one of my... I just adore Whoopi. But anybody else that I've worked with and passing, blah, blah, I don't, I don't gravitate toward them. I don't gravitate toward them because these two specific people, Hollywood people, look you in the eye, and they really make you feel like they wanna know you. And so, why would... When you look back, and I referred to Chuck as a witness, I refer to you as a witness. I've seen where you started, I knew...

• 30:10Speaker 02

  To be able to say that, to be able to know that no matter what, I'm gonna be there for that man, and he'll be there for me and Amy. And it's like, I'm not gonna pass that up for anything.

• 30:23Mike Rowe?

  But precious.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  It's absolutely precious, and it's the... And the older you get. And the more people you meet, and the more people that wanna know you, you know, I don't, you know, going into a hotel and have people greet you with a smile, you know they're waiting for some, you know. But, no, I know how to make it more profound than that, that's other than, after forty years, you, "He's my brother."

• 30:51Mike Rowe?

  Which brings us to the question of the rent.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  Oh, now you really made him cry. Look at him. Oh, my God, he's really worked up about the rent.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  We have a deal.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  If I'm there for a period of time, I feed him. You know, dinner.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  Which is quite expensive, as you know, I like to eat.

• 31:13Speaker 02

  I feed him.

• 31:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 31:15Speaker 02

  And I think that works well for both of us, cuz, you know, I think that's a pretty good deal, yeah, Chuck?

• 31:20Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that's a great deal. I love that deal.

• 31:22Mike Rowe?

  Well, I mean, you're, you're obviously talking about the literal business of chewing and swallowing actual food.

• 31:29Speaker 02

  I pick up, you know, yeah, yeah.

• 31:31Mike Rowe?

  But we're also talking about nourishment, right? Like, what actually nourishes? When do you feel truly fed? It's not when you jam your gob full of whatever available sticky fodder is within reach. It's, it's

• 31:49Mike Rowe?

  it's when you sit there and watch somebody who loves you prepare a meal for you.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Yeah. And, I mean, you know, we don't prepare that much anymore, but we'll, you know, but, uh...

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Well, Amy cooked. That's what she did while she was there, which is great, and she's amazing, as you know.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, so for ten days, she was making something, and she would ask what we wanted, and Chuck could come, "How about this?"

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Poof, and there it was, you know?

• 32:14Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  That sorbet's still in the freezer, it's really good. She made, Chuck had four huge pomegranates just sitting there, and they were in, it was time. And Amy saw them, and she goes, "What can I make with pomegranate?" And she turned it all into this, this great sorbet.

• 32:32Speaker 02

  So, it felt like camp.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  It felt like camp.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  When you were at camp, Mike, did anybody make pomegranate sorbet?

• 32:41Mike Rowe?

  You may be confused, it's the type of camps I attended. We were really skinny. I was a boy scout.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, but no pomegranates.

• 32:47Mike Rowe?

  No, there was no pomegranate. That would have been frowned on. That would have been viewed with suspicion. Looked at askance.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Well, imagine me looking at Chuck over the counter, just literally peeling all the membrane between seeds and just eating it like that. It looked sad. So Amy interrupted it all and just turned it all into magic.

• 33:11Mike Rowe?

  But just back to the scrotum briefly. Was it oozing as the pomegranates were being peeled? Is there some metaphor? Because my mom really leaned into the eggplant.

• 33:22Speaker 02

  That's good.

• 33:23Mike Rowe?

  And so like it's

• 33:25Speaker 02

  The crushing of the pomegranates.

• 33:27Mike Rowe?

  And the seed reference. But beyond that, like there's something in our brain that forces us to think about growths, tumors, organs, all these things. We try and find their corollary in like the fruit or vegetable world. And I don't know why we do that, but it interests me.

• 33:46Speaker 02

  I think because trying to describe it otherwise is impossible. I couldn't describe what was going on down there.

• 33:54Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  But if I had thought of a pomegranate at the time, it would have applied. But definitely the crushed beer can, just like, God. I know, it was scary.

• 34:05Mike Rowe?

  Amazing. Do you have pictures? I mean, you really didn't document that?

• 34:10Speaker 02

  I couldn't. I couldn't. I didn't want it was that.

• 34:13Mike Rowe?

  Angle wasn't wide enough. Simply couldn't find a lens.

• 34:18Speaker 02

  I couldn't find a light.

• 34:20Mike Rowe?

  To accommodate the two messes.

• 34:23Speaker 02

  It's like a landscape. It's like the Grand Canyon. You can't really capture this go with the Grand Canyon on a cellphone. So it's just like, enough. This is just for me and you, you and me. And I was good with that, especially when it started to die down. Oh, my God.

• 34:39Mike Rowe?

  Oh, God.

• 34:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:41Mike Rowe?

  According to the graphic that Chuck has put up, you're an award-winning actor.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Is that what you spell winning? Two N's? I guess. That would be whining, I guess.

• 34:49Mike Rowe?

  Three of them. Technically, three N's.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Three N's?

• 34:53Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, just not all group them. That's funny that you say whining. Just one letter away, you could be an award-winning actor.

• 34:59Speaker 02

  A whining actor.

• 35:00Mike Rowe?

  Is there anything less attractive in your estimation than an actor who's not sufficiently grateful? One who whines, in other words?

• 35:07Speaker 02

  I hope I never meet anyone like that.

• 35:10Mike Rowe?

  Oh, come on. You've encountered some actors who don't.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  I wouldn't call them whining. I'd call them entitled and thinking that somehow they're bigger than the

• 35:19Mike Rowe?

  Your scrotum.

• 35:23Mike Rowe?

  If you pause in the middle of a sentence and you're searching for a metaphor, somebody's gonna hop in here. Somebody's gonna hop in. And the odds are good for the next 40 minutes or so that the answer's gonna be scrotum. If there's an awkward pause.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Hey, listen, going back to what you asked before there, Rico has, according to IMDb, he has 110 acting credits, seven producing credits, seven directing credits, one writer credit, and 37 appearances as himself.

• 35:53Speaker 02

  Huh, just 110? That's it?

• 35:56Speaker 01

  That's what it says.

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Oh, that's specific credits, not hours.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  No, not hours, no.

• 36:02Mike Rowe?

  No. So if this were, you know, the Actors Studio, and I were James Lipton, I suppose the question would be, of which of those many credits are you most proud, Enrico?

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Hope and Gloria.

• 36:18Mike Rowe?

  Really?

• 36:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:19Mike Rowe?

  Why?

• 36:20Speaker 02

  It was the first job that got me to LA. It was the first steady gig that made me feel like I'm a working-class actor.

• 36:30Mike Rowe?

  I can see why that would make you feel grateful, but proud was the question.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  And Alan Thicke was on there. Taylor Negron, Cynthia Stevenson, Jessica Lundee. And it was the kind of show that was just, it was ostentatious for that time.

• 36:51Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 36:51Speaker 02

  And I got to play a complete doofus, a guy named Utz. Utz, no, that was just Shoot Me.

• 36:57Mike Rowe?

  Oh, right.

• 36:58Speaker 02

  Shoot Me was a lot of fun. But playing a guy named Louis Utz, I could play.

• 37:05Mike Rowe?

  Find me Louis Utz, for god's sake.

• 37:07Speaker 02

  Right there.

• 37:07Mike Rowe?

  That's it?

• 37:08Speaker 02

  That's me. Yeah.

• 37:10Mike Rowe?

  Oh, I was looking at the wrestling going on, like diving through the air. There's no way that's you.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  Let me see, if I can make this bigger.

• 37:16Mike Rowe?

  With those hips?

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Oh, that's the wrong way.

• 37:18Mike Rowe?

  Wrong way, Chuck.

• 37:18Speaker 02

  It was, it was, it was proud because it, um... But I'll tell you, it'll always be Galaxy Quest that made me, that show I think actually legitimized me as an actor.

• 37:32Mike Rowe?

  Did you know it when it was happening?

• 37:34Speaker 02

  The fun that we were having, that's all we knew.

• 37:36Mike Rowe?

  I said to Tim yesterday, stupidly, as he was leaving, I didn't say it when we were sitting here, but the thing that really struck me about that movie was I liked everybody who was in it before I saw it, and afterwards, I liked everybody even more.

• 37:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, we had a great time.

• 37:56Mike Rowe?

  Sam Rockwell?

• 37:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, fantastic. He had just finished The Green Mile and stuff and

• 38:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Daryl Mitchell, who's now on Tim's new show.

• 38:07Mike Rowe?

  Mm-hmm. Shifting gears.

• 38:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, shifting gears, yeah. But Dean Pariso, who was sort of hired behind the eight ball, because I think it was Harold Ramis who was supposed to do it.

• 38:20Mike Rowe?

  Originally, and it was Mark Johnson directing, right?

• 38:23Speaker 02

  Mark Johnson was producing.

• 38:24Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 38:25Speaker 02

  Kevin Kline was supposed to play Tim's part. This is how I heard it.

• 38:28Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 38:29Speaker 02

  And so they, you know, they backed out and Dean had all of like two months to pick up the ball and run with it. So he was just really hands-off. He casted, and he literally just let us play. So we had more fun, and it left us with a feeling of like, you know, the danger of we're having more fun than an audience is gonna have watching it.

• 38:52Mike Rowe?

  Right, like breaking sometimes.

• 38:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:54Mike Rowe?

  It's indulgent.

• 38:55Speaker 02

  Oh my god, it was just the most, and Tim was notorious.

• 38:59Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 38:59Speaker 02

  And it was only Sigourney who would sort of bring him back down to planet Earth and bring him back, "Come on, Tim, we have to go back to work." Because if you gave Tim audience, that's it. It was just like, it was endless.

• 39:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 39:11Speaker 02

  And Chill would always be at his feet, just like laughing hysterically. So it was always Sigourney who said, "Come on, Tim, gotta go back, gotta go back to work."

• 39:25Mike Rowe?

  The service I'm about to recommend to you is absolutely free, and it can easily save the average user over a thousand dollars a year. It's called Chapter, and it's the best way to make sure the Medicare plan you're on is the one you should be on, because every year Medicare plans change, and so do you. And just because your plan might have been the best choice when you were 65 doesn't mean it's the best choice today. At Chapter, independent advisors compare Medicare plans nationwide. They look at your doctors, your prescriptions, and your budget to help you find coverage that fits your needs. And they're not paid more to recommend one plan over another. You don't need to sort through all the options yourself. You can talk to somebody who understands them,

• 40:07Mike Rowe?

  ask your questions, and get help comparing the costs and benefits. So if your current plan is still the right fit, they'll tell you. If there's a better option, they'll tell you that too, and they'll help you switch. Again, the service is free, and a review can take less than 20 minutes. This is the time of year to make sure you're squared away for 2027. So if you haven't checked your Medicare coverage lately, give Chapter a call. It's a simple way to make sure your plan still works for you. And with potential savings of $1,100 a year, it's worth a free review. 804-Chapter. Call them today. 804-C-H-A-P-T-E-R. You needed Sigourney here yesterday.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  No kidding, man.

• 40:51Mike Rowe?

  Look, I loved him, and this is the second time I've interviewed him. But he is, um, he's at such an interesting point in his life, right? Like us, older than he's ever been. He's got a lot on his mind. And in the wake of the fires, and he's a philosophy major, and he's contemplating the mysteries of the universe and physics, and like the unexamined life in Kierkegaard, and like all of these. I mean, he literally got off the elevator in the middle of a sentence. And there was nobody on the elevator, so he's like talking to himself. And we come out, we say hello, and just we're talking, we're talking, and we just sit down. And so there's no real beginning or end of this conversation, but it goes on for well over two hours.

• 41:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:33Mike Rowe?

  And

• 41:33Speaker 02

  And nothing's changed.

• 41:35Mike Rowe?

  He thinks deeply on big ideas.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  And funny.

• 41:40Mike Rowe?

  And funny, yeah.

• 41:42Speaker 02

  And funny.

• 41:42Mike Rowe?

  Always funny. Were you and Rickman pals prior to this?

• 41:46Speaker 02

  No.

• 41:46Mike Rowe?

  That's where you met.

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Yeah. And in the same way I met Whoopi in the Hollywood Squares is like, you know, we would do, back when she was the center square.

• 41:58Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  They would move us around. We did five in a day, covered the whole week. And so I found myself next to her. And I knew I was next to her. And I sort of looked over there toward her.

• 42:14Mike Rowe?

  Microphone.

• 42:15Speaker 02

  Just to, just to see her.

• 42:16Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 42:17Speaker 02

  And she was already waiting for me. Hello.

• 42:22Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  Right? And that was it. And she hasn't stopped looking at me like that since, you know, just, how are you? Welcome. I don't know. It's like, it was just a thing. I see it in her, she sees it in me. Good folk, good folk. And Tim, and, and Alan was at, my point is that Alan was the same way. He looked up, he goes, I would like to see you in the theater. You know, he'd like to see you do a play.

• 42:46Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 42:47Speaker 02

  You know?

• 42:48Mike Rowe?

  And did he? Did he ever see you do a play?

• 42:50Speaker 02

  You know what? I was in London doing a new play. Chuck came to see me. But he was in New York directing a play, but Reema, his partner and his stable of friends, all came to support me.

• 43:02Mike Rowe?

  That's good.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  And took me to dinner on his behalf. And, you know, so he was, yeah.

• 43:08Mike Rowe?

  What was the play?

• 43:09Speaker 02

  Neil Abute wrote a play called The Distance From Here. Yeah. And it was, they didn't like it at all. The Brits didn't like it at all.

• 43:17Mike Rowe?

  Ah, who cares?

• 43:18Speaker 02

  But it was fun.

• 43:19Mike Rowe?

  When did I see you on stage? I saw you do.

• 43:23Speaker 02

  Did you do Vanya? Did you see Vanya or Macbeth?

• 43:25Mike Rowe?

  Macbeth.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:26Mike Rowe?

  It was Macbeth.

• 43:26Speaker 02

  You came to Macbeth, yeah.

• 43:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 43:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. And that's just, I just, you know.

• 43:32Mike Rowe?

  That's a mouthful. That's a mouthful of words, man.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  You're doing sitcom. And so you wanted to, and I was.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  I wasn't that far out of theater school, so I just, I still needed to do it.

• 43:44Mike Rowe?

  What was the twist on the Macbeth show that I saw?

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Six cast members, and it was sort of a cyclical story where he's like living in his head. Everything was happening in his head. So we started in a traditional way, but we ended up in the exact same spot when, before The Witches. Because he just, he just got the, you know, The Witches told him that you will be king. And so he's like all wrapped up in his head, the story goes. And then we ended up right back there, living in his head. So it was, how else do you do it with six actors?

• 44:15Mike Rowe?

  Come sealing night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day. And with thy bloody and invisible hand, cast off that wretched bond that keeps me pale. Light thickens, the crow makes way to the rooky wood. Good things of day do droop and drowse, while night's black agents to their prey do rouse. Yeah, man, he could turn a phrase, that dude.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  Wow, I'm gonna cry again.

• 44:43Mike Rowe?

  Good. I'll tell you why I know that one. It'll make you laugh. Well, it might make you weep. I don't know. I was living in New York, and this is so crazy. My, my friend who I was living with owned a recording studio called The Giant Lizard Company. And he had somehow forged a relationship with Tip O'Neill's, I think, son or relation, or some guy was related to Tip O'Neill. And he was involved in a project of Japanese anime. And so, this is a long time ago, and it was called Vampires of New York.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 45:23Mike Rowe?

  And so it's about, it's this hyper violent animated show about vampires who somehow saved the day in some kind of vigilante construct. And there was no real dialogue. It was all just acted out with beautiful symphonic music playing with layers of creepy narration on top of it.

• 45:49Mike Rowe?

  And so this guy would only, he only wanted to record at the Giant Lizard Company at midnight. And he would call my friend Dan, and I was living with Dan at the time. And Dan says to this guy, hey, my friend Mike has kind of a creepy voice, or at least he can make it creepy. So I would, I would go in and read these random chunks of great Gothic literature. So there's, there's Lovecraft, there's Shakespeare, obviously, there's Camus. The, the rats coming to dine in the Happy City and like all this stuff. And it was the weirdest combination of stuff because these guys were smoking all the weed in the world. It was just a, just a cloud of cannabis in the air.

• 46:31Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 46:31Mike Rowe?

  With this great music.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  And after all these years, you remember that one particular speech?

• 46:35Mike Rowe?

  I do, I do. It stuck. And I remember you saying those words too, even if you don't.

• 46:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't, I don't at all.

• 46:42Mike Rowe?

  In that production. I was like, oh man, I remember that. Cause it wasn't that long before you did that show. That I was doing this very strange thing.

• 46:49Speaker 02

  I didn't know that. That would have been cool.

• 46:50Mike Rowe?

  Proving once again that Shakespeare is always in the room.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  Oh my God. Yeah, that was, oof.

• 46:57Speaker 01

  Rico, who played your Lady Macbeth?

• 47:03Speaker 02

  I see her. She was on.

• 47:05Speaker 01

  She was on Breaking Bad. The wife in Breaking Bad. Oh, she's terrific.

• 47:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, what's her name?

• 47:10Mike Rowe?

  Uh, Mrs. White.

• 47:17Mike Rowe?

  Do you cross paths with, uh, with Cranston here and there? Brian and Chris?

• 47:22Speaker 02

  No.

• 47:23Mike Rowe?

  No?

• 47:23Speaker 02

  No, we did Contagion together. And thank God that.

• 47:26Mike Rowe?

  That's crossing paths too.

• 47:28Speaker 02

  Anna Gunn. It's Anna Gunn. Anna Gunn. Yeah, thanks.

• 47:31Mike Rowe?

  Anna got your gun.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. Uh, Brian and I did Contagion, but I hadn't seen Breaking Bad at that point. So I was sort of like, hey, man, what's up? If I had seen Breaking Bad and then gotten to work with him, I think I would have been a little nervous.

• 47:47Mike Rowe?

  Sorry, but I got that beat.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Question, is that Rain Wilson, a very young Rain Wilson on the far end?

• 47:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's Rain.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 47:57Speaker 02

  That's Rain.

• 47:57Mike Rowe?

  Wow, I never knew that.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I didn't know it until just now.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:02Mike Rowe?

  We're looking at a picture of Galaxy Quest, and yeah, that's Rain Wilson from The Office. Well, and who knew? Of course, that's way before The Office.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Way before The Office, he was like, he would come and watch, just shoot me, go, I want to do this. It was just like, yeah, you're gonna do this. It's crazy. He created things. He came out of NYU with, you know, with that group of Deb Messings and stuff. He had created a clown show called The New Bozimo or something. So we already knew that he was a genius, sort of crazy guy, but so, yeah.

• 48:42Mike Rowe?

  I mean, how many guys like that, and women, do you think are walking around in this business? Who truly have the goods, who have something special and unique, but just have not yet stumbled into the world or the opportunity that's gonna unleash it, or haven't found their hope and glory?

• 49:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't know, Mike. I don't know. That makes me sad, too, right?

• 49:09Mike Rowe?

  Don't cry.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  No, but that's a different kind of sad.

• 49:12Mike Rowe?

  Oh.

• 49:14Speaker 02

  Because you gotta want it, too, right? You gotta be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, I want that. I have the goods and there's gotta be the, I've got the goods plus.

• 49:24Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 49:25Speaker 02

  A willingness to eat bouillon cubes and to go through the mud. And really develop a thick skin and deal with the rejection and keep going. I think, I mean, you know, my daughter is in theater school now, and she has the benefit of me talking her through it. But I worry about her because how bad does she want it? Is she willing to go to New York? Is she willing to walk away from everything and just create something? And really just close any back door. I don't know who's willing to do that. I don't know how many of these talented people we're talking about are willing to shut a door. So that other door will automatically open for them. But too many of them leave it way open, just in case.

• 50:08Mike Rowe?

  How bad did you want it?

• 50:09Speaker 02

  Enough to walk away from my family and live in New York. And it just one step in front of, one foot in front of the other and kept going.

• 50:17Mike Rowe?

  Had you not had hope and glory, or the successes that you did, when you, when you did?

• 50:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:24Mike Rowe?

  Would you still be pushing the rock up the hill? Did you want it that bad?

• 50:26Speaker 02

  I think I would have. I think because even the theater, even though, you know, monetarily, you're not making that much doing plays, but...

• 50:35Mike Rowe?

  Hell, you're losing money.

• 50:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, you're paying them. But that need to be connected to, I called the spirit, that creative spirit.

• 50:45Mike Rowe?

  I like to laugh as much as the next guy, obviously. But, like, the older I get, the more I think about, you know, the honest answer to that question. And I'm just sitting here looking at my mom on the front of her third book, right? And...

• 51:05Speaker 02

  Mike, you're gonna keep creating something new. I mean, you might not be doing this in five years or next month. You're gonna make something else up. You can't not make something else up.

• 51:17Mike Rowe?

  I can't not try.

• 51:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:19Mike Rowe?

  I can't determine, right, what's gonna happen.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  But something...

• 51:22Mike Rowe?

  I'll throw the mud for as long as I, you know...

• 51:25Speaker 02

  And that's the spirit. That's the energy. That's, that's that creative spirit that will, that is always bigger than ego. It's always bigger than pride. It's just that need to just keep creating something.

• 51:39Mike Rowe?

  Yes, but you can have it.

• 51:43Mike Rowe?

  Like, how long do you stand at the slot machine, pulling the lever and never winning?

• 51:49Speaker 02

  Right? It's different. That's gotta be different.

• 51:51Mike Rowe?

  Well, I think maybe, maybe mechanically it's different, but this woman, my mom, her dream was to be a bestselling author. And then her dream was to be a published author. She didn't care about being a bestselling. And then when it became clear that those two things weren't gonna happen, after writing for thirty-five years, every day, and not getting a book deal, she gave up on the dream. But she didn't give up on the work. This woman wrote every day for sixty years.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:18Mike Rowe?

  And when she was eighty.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:20Mike Rowe?

  She got her first book.

• 52:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:23Mike Rowe?

  And it went to the top of the bestseller. So, in some way, shape, or form, I always come back to, do you have sixty years of doing the same thing every day and getting no success? Do you have the facility to stay at the machine that long? I don't think I do. You know, I got enough success early on to be like, okay.

• 52:46Speaker 02

  I think it's different because that machine is an expectation outside of yourself. You're waiting for the world to change, as opposed to staying connected to putting your work boots on and going to work. Amy Distin was telling this great story about her dad, and how he was working for Lockheed Martin, and he was laid off for four months. But every day, he got dressed and he went to the office.

• 53:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 53:19Speaker 02

  He would, for four months. His wife didn't know about it. Nobody knew that he got laid off. But every day, he woke up, he got dressed, and he went to the office, and he just waited there.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  And the more he waited, the more he showed his face, and the more he just committed to that, who he was, it only lasted four months. They positioned him, they brought him over there, they just... It didn't last long. Everybody else was laid off and they've forgotten about, but he was there. Still do, just showing up. Just showing up.

• 53:49Mike Rowe?

  I don't know what the lesson there is. I mean, it's a great story.

• 53:53Speaker 02

  Have you read, have you read the, the War of Art?

• 53:56Mike Rowe?

  Oh, sure.

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Right?

• 53:57Mike Rowe?

  Pressman?

• 53:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:57Mike Rowe?

  Pressfield?

• 53:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, just like he puts his boots on and he goes in and he starts typing. That's what your mom did. She didn't give up on the need to write. She didn't give up on that.

• 54:06Mike Rowe?

  Her office was her kitchen. Okay, she wasn't literally going into a building.

• 54:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, but she was doing, she was doing, a painter's paint, writer's write.

• 54:14Mike Rowe?

  Okay.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  You know, actors act. Okay, I'm on a TV show now. I'm making.

• 54:19Mike Rowe?

  Literally hundreds of dollars.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  You know what I mean?

• 54:20Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  But I need to act. If it's, if it's a small theater or a big venue, I need to do that. I need to do it. And not out of, just out of, I, that's who I am.

• 54:32Mike Rowe?

  That's part of who you are, dude. The other thing you need to do is not act. Like you need to be so off book. You need to be so off script. You need this. You need to cry at a card trick. You need to hear something that resonates in a way that just feels so completely honest and real. And I guess maybe, obviously, that's a thing you can use.

• 54:54Speaker 02

  But it's you too. It's you too. I've known you, I've known, I mean, you know, you know, I, I mean, your intellect is, is this.

• 55:04Mike Rowe?

  It's fast.

• 55:04Speaker 02

  It's fast. And I'm not that fast.

• 55:07Mike Rowe?

  No, no, vast.

• 55:08Speaker 02

  It's vast.

• 55:09Mike Rowe?

  It's not fast.

• 55:10Speaker 02

  It's vast and fast.

• 55:11Mike Rowe?

  It's enormous and facile.

• 55:13Speaker 02

  Not unlike my scrotum this weekend.

• 55:19Speaker 02

  It keeps coming up.

• 55:19Mike Rowe?

  Seriously.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  It just keeps growing. You know what I'm trying to say? So for as long as I've known you, not only have you been, you're an intimidating presence because of your vastness.

• 55:32Speaker 02

  But at the same time, you make me feel completely at home and okay to just mumble and bumble and...

• 55:39Mike Rowe?

  Well, you make me proud to share the species with you.

• 55:45Mike Rowe?

  You really do, because you're like a tuning fork. You're an emotional tuning fork. You walk into a room and suddenly you're ding, and there's a...

• 55:54Mike Rowe?

  There he is, man. He's in the room. He's in the room and the frequency...

• 55:57Speaker 02

  And there he is, crying, crying.

• 55:59Mike Rowe?

  But he hums with his own unique enthusiasm. And there's something about...

• 56:06Speaker 02

  I squealed, didn't I? That was a squeal. That was a cry squeal.

• 56:10Mike Rowe?

  Just now?

• 56:10Speaker 02

  You made me squeal.

• 56:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, you're welcome. You and Ned Beatty.

• 56:16Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. He and Ned Beatty.

• 56:20Mike Rowe?

  You just got that?

• 56:23Mike Rowe?

  Vast and fast, Rico.

• 56:30Mike Rowe?

  Oh, my God. He's crying hard now.

• 56:38Speaker 02

  What'd you find?

• 56:39Mike Rowe?

  Everything.

• 56:42Mike Rowe?

  What is happening? What is happening?

• 56:44Speaker 02

  He's coughing up that oyster again.

• 56:47Mike Rowe?

  I just swallowed it. Those aren't meant to be swallowed.

• 56:54Mike Rowe?

  Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday. Why did Ned Beatty make you cry?

• 56:59Speaker 02

  The squeal part. The squeal part. Oh, poor Ned Beatty.

• 57:04Mike Rowe?

  What's funnier than sodomy?

• 57:07Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. I don't know why that... Oh, that was good. And you know, you know, four weeks ago, if I had laughed that hard, I'd be in such pain right here. I'd be in such pain right here. So that was a good laugh that reminded me, oh, I'm healing. That's good.

• 57:28Mike Rowe?

  Ever since Chapter started advertising on this podcast, I've been getting letters and emails from satisfied customers all over the country. Last week, I got one from Joseph, a retired veterinarian in Texas, who just learned his Medicare plan was shutting down. I can't tell you Joseph's last name because his medical history is complicated and personal, but his situation is not uncommon at all. Given his medical history, Joseph was unable to find a local provider that would include the doctors he'd come to rely on. Happily, Joseph listens to this podcast, and Joseph heard me talking about Chapter just last week. And Chapter exists for one reason:

• 58:10Mike Rowe?

  to help people on Medicare find the plan that's right for them. It's a free service. Anyhow, Joseph called Chapter. He connected with an advisor named Heidi. And Heidi caught something that most people miss, because his current plan was about to close. Joseph had a limited window to continue with his current coverage through a new plan without any additional medical underwriting. In other words, Heidi found a way to get Joseph the coverage he needed with the doctors he preferred. Then she found great coverage for his wife, too. Moral of the story? Medicare plans are constantly evolving. You are too. Call Chapter. Make sure you're on the best plan for you.

• 58:53Mike Rowe?

  Also, people who switch plans after calling Chapter save an average of $1,100 a year. 804-Chapter. That's the number. Call it today, it's free. Whole thing takes about 20 minutes. 804-Chapter. Well, you know, I was trying to find a way to transition into humility.

• 59:21Mike Rowe?

  So what happened to me yesterday? I gotta tell you this, yeah. I was in a meeting across the hall there with Mary and some CEO from some big company in Australia. And they're in the middle of this pitch. And they're, I mean, they're leaning in. I'm sipping my tea and I'm full of steroids and antibiotics and just try.

• 59:40Speaker 02

  From their thing, from whatever that was?

• 59:41Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah. I don't normally cough like this in the middle of sentences.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  That was a, that was a huge cough.

• 59:46Mike Rowe?

  Well, that happened yesterday.

• 59:48Speaker 02

  Oh, my.

• 59:48Mike Rowe?

  Times about five. And so the reason I wanted to get that out now is because I didn't get it out yesterday. I fought it, you know, and I like to keep it down because I'm in a meeting and I'm trying to look interested as this guy is explaining his wish fulfillment and his life story. And he's created his company and he's here to ask me if I would speak on behalf of his dream. Okay? And in the back of my throat, it's like things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Okay? I'm going full Yates on this thing. And then I had to cough so bad, but wasn't, that I started to cry.

• 1:00:22Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:00:22Mike Rowe?

  I'm looking at the guy and the guy's looking at me and he's thinking, I'm killing.

• 1:00:26Speaker 02

  I got him, I got him.

• 1:00:27Mike Rowe?

  I got him. He's hanging on every word. So I'm sitting there crying and all I'm trying to do is not cough the crap up my back. Okay? And this guy is telling me, he's telling me the story of his life. And out of nowhere, and, and Mary's sitting there. She knows something's wrong with me because I don't cry. I never cry. I don't have any feelings left anymore. I've heard it all. I'm the opposite of you. I'm a tuning fork with one prong. And so I hold up my finger and I try to say, hold that thought, it'll just be a minute. But what comes out is. And I stand up and I, I open the door and I leave, I leave Mary's office.

• 1:01:12Mike Rowe?

  And now I'm coughing like, full of cough. And I'm running for the bathroom, not, not because I feel like anything's going to tear loose, but because I need to cough as loud as I can and as hard as I can. And I don't want to do it in my office. And I certainly don't want to do it in front of this poor guy who flew in from Australia. I get to the bathroom and before I get the door closed behind me, I fall to my knees and I start coughing kind of like that.

• 1:01:37Speaker 02

  Is it one of those, oh, just, oh.

• 1:01:40Mike Rowe?

  My entire.

• 1:01:41Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:01:42Mike Rowe?

  Trachea spasm.

• 1:01:44Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:01:45Mike Rowe?

  And I throw up all over my feet.

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:01:47Mike Rowe?

  I coughed so hard I threw up on my shoes. I was so stunned because I didn't have any feeling of nausea. I was just coughing and suddenly, wah! So now, through the wall, I can still hear the guy going, "Anyway, what's thinking, right? You know, you come in with this idea in the market, we introduce you and, and, you know, Austin first, and then maybe we come over here." And, and I'm thinking, man, if I can hear him, he just heard that. He just heard that.

• 1:02:22Mike Rowe?

  So in the midst of all of this, you know, whether it's your hydrocele, or your oozy scrotum, or your weepy wound.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

  We're getting old. It's getting harder, isn't it?

• 1:02:32Mike Rowe?

  When you walked in in that cardigan, I thought, that's it? That's where we are, man.

• 1:02:39Speaker 02

  I mean, the quality of the cardigan is nice. It's nice. It's a nice, you want to touch it.

• 1:02:45Mike Rowe?

  So what a life now. Two shows in production, is that right?

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  A Canadian show, two Canadian shows and an English teacher, yeah, on FX, yeah.

• 1:02:54Mike Rowe?

  So Chuck has been bragging on the English teacher thing forever.

• 1:02:58Speaker 02

  Have you not seen it?

• 1:02:59Mike Rowe?

  I haven't seen it, but my parents were both teachers and I'm English by extraction. So I feel as though you finally did a project for me.

• 1:03:09Speaker 02

  I think you'll like it, Mike. I think you'll like it.

• 1:03:13Mike Rowe?

  Can we watch a promo or something? Is that possible?

• 1:03:15Speaker 02

  Go, for the love of Pete.

• 1:03:17Mike Rowe?

  This is new, by the way. Did Chuck tell you this is new?

• 1:03:19Speaker 02

  I live there. I know exactly the stress he's been under the past two weeks. The sleepless nights. Oh, yeah. It's like, how the fuck am I gonna do this?

• 1:03:30Mike Rowe?

  It's my fault, but I can't.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  Oh, I know.

• 1:03:33Mike Rowe?

  But I'm not trying to torture anybody. It's that feeling where, I mean, don't you think that...

• 1:03:41Mike Rowe?

  I think of it like a pop fly. Foul balls are either going up or they're coming down. And like, there's a moment where they're doing neither. They're just sort of suspended there. And there's a temptation to look at any good thing. A marriage, a relationship, a TV show, a role. As like, oh yeah. We're in that sweet spot and it's just gonna stay there.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:03Mike Rowe?

  But it doesn't.

• 1:04:04Speaker 02

  Not for you.

• 1:04:05Mike Rowe?

  I don't know for anybody.

• 1:04:06Speaker 02

  I know, but you're, I mean, you know, I've known you long enough. It's just like you just keep reinventing yourself. So I get.

• 1:04:12Mike Rowe?

  Well, you keep getting new roles. It's the same sort of thing, like you're playing.

• 1:04:17Speaker 02

  And you get better and better and better. And it becomes sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and easier and easier and easier to transition from one to the next.

• 1:04:22Mike Rowe?

  You get better and better and better at being lots of different people. I hope I get better at being me, cause that's all I do. Whether it's behind a mic or in front of a camera. And the reason I make his life miserable is I know we have to keep always being uncomfortable. Somehow.

• 1:04:41Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 1:04:42Mike Rowe?

  But I don't know how to do that necessarily outside of like, like in your world, it's get a new part, get a new role.

• 1:04:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's always like first aid kindergarten.

• 1:04:53Mike Rowe?

  Oh, I know that guy. He's good. What's his name?

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  Which one? Brian or?

• 1:04:56Mike Rowe?

  The good one. No, not the other guy. He's no good.

• 1:05:00Mike Rowe?

  The good one.

• 1:05:02Speaker 02

  No, you'd love this show. I mean, I think it's got a nice take on woke versus conservative. You know, they make fun of everybody.

• 1:05:10Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  Nobody's safe, you know?

• 1:05:11Mike Rowe?

  As long as they make fun of everybody.

• 1:05:13Speaker 02

  They make fun of everybody. They really, really do. Brian is gay in real life. He plays a gay English teacher, but one of my favorite lines from the, from the first episode is the coach is saying, come on, you're defending yourself, just tell them that you're a, you're a proud gay man. He goes, I'm not that proud. You know, it's like, yes, finally.

• 1:05:34Speaker 02

  You know? I'm not that proud.

• 1:05:37Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. I'm a deeply ashamed gay man.

• 1:05:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I'm human.

• 1:05:42Mike Rowe?

  Look at you, man. It just kills me.

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  Independent Spirit Award nominee, right there.

• 1:05:46Speaker 01

  Uh, that's right. Independent Spirit Award nominee.

• 1:05:50Mike Rowe?

  What makes, um, what makes a spirit better if it's independent?

• 1:06:01Mike Rowe?

  Don't, don't, don't even answer it, dude.

• 1:06:03Speaker 02

  Oh no, that's a beautiful question.

• 1:06:04Mike Rowe?

  I mean, who's it?

• 1:06:06Speaker 02

  It comes from first, the spirit, the chicken or the egg?

• 1:06:09Mike Rowe?

  Well, I just like to think of it in terms of who's going to award the dependent spirit award.

• 1:06:16Mike Rowe?

  We've given it a lot of thought and we realized that you're utterly dependent

• 1:06:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:21Mike Rowe?

  on the spirit.

• 1:06:22Speaker 02

  You know what? This might not be answering your question, but I did a Broadway show two years ago called Birthday Candles. And they gave me a Theater World Award for like, like a debut, Broadway debut. And I remember going to receive this award, it wasn't a competitive award. It was basically, you did a good job and you and these five other people

• 1:06:49Speaker 02

  were giving you this award.

• 1:06:50Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:06:50Speaker 02

  And I go, well, that's the spirit, right? That's the creative spirit. It's not a competitive spirit. I know in America, we like to claim who wins and who is second place.

• 1:06:59Mike Rowe?

  The trophy does have a certain significance.

• 1:07:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it's been, does it feel like a participation trophy? It's like, no, it doesn't because how do you determine that one performance is better than another performance? And that warrants it, that you're going to walk away with that trophy? So I feel it's the same way with the independent spirit awards. They, that in the name, it, it represents the, you know, the, just the creative spirit as opposed to, oh, I gotta win that award.

• 1:07:25Mike Rowe?

  How many of these things do you have? Not that specific one, but like if you were the kind of person to take your many accolades and awards and put them on, say, a mantle.

• 1:07:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:34Mike Rowe?

  Obviously would be a large mantle, but.

• 1:07:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, like four or five.

• 1:07:39Mike Rowe?

  Are you proud, like, of which are you most proud, Enrico?

• 1:07:46Mike Rowe?

  I mean, what do you got? You got Emmys?

• 1:07:47Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:07:48Mike Rowe?

  You never had an Emmy?

• 1:07:49Speaker 02

  I'm not, if I don't, if I don't want to win an Emmy for this, I'm never going to win an Emmy. Cause that, it's so much fun and people love it. I think it's going to be a very popular show. I mean, that's what it is, right?

• 1:08:00Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:00Speaker 02

  Popularity has a lot to do with it. I should have won an Emmy for, you know, Louis Utz, but nobody saw it. Louis Utz was the greatest performance.

• 1:08:08Mike Rowe?

  Hope and glory, right?

• 1:08:09Speaker 02

  Glory, the greatest performance of my career.

• 1:08:12Mike Rowe?

  I won one.

• 1:08:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:13Mike Rowe?

  And uh.

• 1:08:14Speaker 02

  An Emmy, I know you have.

• 1:08:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, I got nominated a bunch for the show everybody knows, like Dirty Jobs got nominated every year.

• 1:08:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:21Mike Rowe?

  I never won one. I won an Emmy for hosting Returning the Favor on Facebook. I won it during the lockdowns and when I won it, I forgot it was even happening. Somebody was accepting it for me virtually.

• 1:08:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:39Mike Rowe?

  I was walking my dog, Freddie, who at the moment my phone rang, this guy Jacob called me to tell me I won an Emmy for best host of a reality series. As my dog was shitting, right? But the funny part is, the minute my dog squatted, he was in front of a driveway and the people walked out of the house, right? So the dog is about to crap on a driveway and the people. So I have the bag in my hand. So I put the bag in my hand and I reached down.

• 1:09:14Speaker 02

  To catch it.

• 1:09:15Mike Rowe?

  And I catch Freddie's crap midair as my friend Jacob tells me I won an Emmy.

• 1:09:21Speaker 02

  Memories, am I right? You never forget moments like that.

• 1:09:25Mike Rowe?

  It was just a great.

• 1:09:26Speaker 02

  Tell us about the time you won that Emmy.

• 1:09:28Mike Rowe?

  Gets better. Uh, I was on Golden Gate Avenue. But it gets even better. One week later, they canceled the show.

• 1:09:38Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:09:39Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:40Speaker 02

  Oh, how many times does that happen?

• 1:09:42Mike Rowe?

  You win an Emmy.

• 1:09:42Speaker 02

  And you're canceled. And you're canceled. Nobody cares.

• 1:09:44Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:45Speaker 02

  Nobody cares. Why is that? It's quality, but yet nobody's watching. So is that, that's just the business of, the business of the business.

• 1:09:54Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, Zuckerberg, you know, he spent a billion dollars to see if he really wanted to compete with Netflix. To see if he wanted to be in that business. So he launched a platform called Watch and he hired like Janet Pickett Smith and me and some other people to do whatever show we wanted. And I wanted to do the show that I did. And it ran for a hundred and I'm super grateful. People loved it, it was downloaded four hundred million times. In fact, we're rebooting it right now under a different name because it was good. It was a celebration of nice people doing good things in Little Town.

• 1:10:33Speaker 02

  I remember that.

• 1:10:34Mike Rowe?

  Um, but of all the shows to hit, only to go away because the larger grand experiment turned out to be nah, we don't wanna, after a billion dollars.

• 1:10:47Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:10:48Mike Rowe?

  I mean, imagine having Just Shoot Me canceled at the height of its popularity because, was it CBS or ABC?

• 1:10:57Speaker 02

  NBC.

• 1:10:57Mike Rowe?

  NBC, one of them. Bound to be one.

• 1:10:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:00Mike Rowe?

  Uh, just decides, ah, we don't, we don't wanna do shows with cameras in them.

• 1:11:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, he was the guy who canceled us.

• 1:11:08Mike Rowe?

  Who?

• 1:11:09Speaker 02

  Jeff Zuckerberg.

• 1:11:12Mike Rowe?

  Jeff Zuckerberg.

• 1:11:13Speaker 02

  Isn't that who that you just mentioned?

• 1:11:15Mike Rowe?

  No, there's Mark Zuckerberg who runs Facebook. There's Jeff Zucker who runs CNN.

• 1:11:20Speaker 02

  He went to CNN, right? He went to CNN, he came from NBC. He was the last chief that got rid of Just Shoot Me.

• 1:11:27Mike Rowe?

  Did you know him?

• 1:11:27Speaker 02

  Jeff Zucker.

• 1:11:28Mike Rowe?

  Did you ever meet him?

• 1:11:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, he seemed, he seemed nice to us, but I don't think he.

• 1:11:32Mike Rowe?

  My mother called him. Called him to complain that I was doing a show called Somebody's Gotta Do It. And it kept getting preempted. It came on before Bourdain's show. And so, so like, we shoot the show, we promote it, and then there'd be like a riot in Haiti or something, and they're breaking news.

• 1:11:54Speaker 02

  And your mom would call him?

• 1:11:55Mike Rowe?

  She had enough. So she calls him, leaves a message, gives him all kinds of hell. And it was so funny, we went back and filmed her doing it and turned it into a promo because they kept moving the, the show.

• 1:12:08Speaker 02

  That's so awesome.

• 1:12:09Mike Rowe?

  And I'll tell you one other thing about that guy, you know, we don't see eye to eye on a bunch of stuff, but he gave me the rights to Somebody's Got to Do It back after Trump won, and he literally said, I'm going into the Donald Trump business, and if you thought your mother was pissed before about the amount of times, you're gonna get preempted everywhere. So we had shot season four.

• 1:12:33Speaker 02

  Oh, that was the first term, right? That's when, the first time even, right, right, right, right, CNN made, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:12:38Mike Rowe?

  Yep, that was first of 20, 2016.

• 1:12:40Speaker 02

  2016, yeah.

• 1:12:41Mike Rowe?

  So he, he, he literally gave me the rights, he was licensing that show, and you know, Mary, this is like, you'll appreciate the, the extraordinary complexity of that deal, we owned the rights, they took a license, and then they just gave it back to us and didn't even air the fourth season. That's how committed he was. The money they lost on that was bananas, and they just gave it back to us. So we cut it in half hours and sold it around the world.

• 1:13:07Speaker 02

  Oh, because he, yeah, he wanted to, he found entertainment in who he was.

• 1:13:14Mike Rowe?

  Well, he also knew that-

• 1:13:16Speaker 02

  But we're talking about CNN too, right?

• 1:13:18Mike Rowe?

  That's right.

• 1:13:18Speaker 02

  Talking about a news network that is supposed to be newsworthy.

• 1:13:21Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:23Speaker 02

  And it was all about entertainment, and there it is.

• 1:13:25Mike Rowe?

  You know what, ma'am? I think, how do you think about that? Like, you, I, I know you're not a political guy, really, but you, but you're living with a political animal. Chuck is very, very, very, very opinionated.

• 1:13:38Speaker 02

  What?

• 1:13:39Mike Rowe?

  Very opinionated.

• 1:13:40Speaker 02

  I, I mean, I became a US citizen, so I, after the 2000 election, right? When Gore and, and Bush, they had that, it was crazy, it was like the Super Bowl, and I go, I want, I want in, in the next four years. So I became, I became a US citizen, so I could, so I can play. And Chuck, you know, being really balanced in his thinking-

• 1:14:05Speaker 02

  Because he knew he was talking to me.

• 1:14:06Mike Rowe?

  Why the laughter?

• 1:14:08Speaker 02

  He said, "Listen to NPR, listen to Fox, listen to all of it. Listen to talk radio, listen to all of it." And I just found it interesting that people on the left were just so mean and angry.

• 1:14:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:23Speaker 02

  And people on the right were just sort of like, this is, they just seemed logical to me. But I'm still apolitical, but I naturally lean to the right, I think, because, just because I'm, logic, logic will prevail over emotion. And name-calling and vilifying people just for how they, because that, first and foremost, I'm an actor. And to be an actor, I have to be nonjudgmental. I can't play a character and judge them. So people's behavior and choices they make are, it's gold for me. I don't judge it. And who you vote for, I don't judge either. But there are a lot of people who can't help but...

• 1:15:06Mike Rowe?

  Can't help it.

• 1:15:07Speaker 02

  Just dig into them and call them things and call them names and mean or racist or this or that. It's just like, what are you talking about? You don't understand why this person is voting for this person. Maybe he just, it's about paying the bills and feeding his family. It doesn't make him racist, it doesn't make him anything other than, "I'm gonna vote for that guy." And that, and I, that's the part that confuses me about how divisive it is in the United States. It's like, it's still, people on the left just love throwing, being mean. And I love it when a guy like Jon Stewart says, "Stop calling him anything, stop calling him names, and start changing things."

• 1:15:49Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:50Speaker 02

  Do something. It's like, finally.

• 1:15:57Mike Rowe?

  If you work in boots all day long and your feet sweat, I feel your pain. And I'd recommend trying the socks that I wear every day from Camel City Mill. These guys sent me a box as a gift long before they sponsored this podcast. And I started wearing them and eventually I reached out to them because I love the product. And I wanted more sponsors on the podcast who make things in America. And now here they are again sponsoring another episode. Camel City Mill makes their socks in North Carolina with American wool in an American factory. Their merino wool blends help wick sweat away from your skin. And their no sweat vent lets heat and moisture escape. That helps keep your feet dry and comfortable when you're spending long days in work boots.

• 1:16:41Mike Rowe?

  They also reinforce the heel and the toe with double plated nylon to stand up to the wear those boots put on your socks. Remember, it's not the feet that wear out your socks, it's your boots. And they back their socks with a 10-year durability guarantee. If you get a hole or a tear in the first decade, they'll replace them for free. If you're a hardworking guy dealing with sweaty, uncomfortable feet, I'm telling you, these are worth trying. I wear mine every day and I'm glad to have the company on the podcast. CamelCityMill.com. Use code ROW, get 10% off my favorite work socks. CamelCityMill.com, code ROW. Yeah, I think you're right. Like, the only thing that's persuasive today, not the only thing, but we need to be able

• 1:17:26Mike Rowe?

  to criticize our own tribe. Yeah. Like, when Bill Maher speaks that kind of truth to that audience, it matters. Because that audience doesn't necessarily want to hear it. Likewise, on the right, you know, if you can, you know, who did a good job? Ben Shapiro did a good job for years when he would weigh in on Trump every single day. Called Good Trump, Bad Trump. This is what he did I like, this is what he did I don't like.

• 1:17:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17:56Mike Rowe?

  And the people who were all in really hated him for

• 1:18:00Speaker 02

  For pointing him down, yeah.

• 1:18:02Mike Rowe?

  But in the end, that's kind of what we have to do. It can't be about D's and R's. And I wonder how you felt, because I guess you were down here a couple of weeks ago when the fires happened.

• 1:18:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:13Mike Rowe?

  You know, this is like your, your second home.

• 1:18:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:16Mike Rowe?

  Where I don't even know how you think of it. But what was that like? Had you just gotten the operation?

• 1:18:21Speaker 02

  No, it was pre, it was pre. So I, I wasn't sure if they were going to cancel the surgery. I didn't know what they were going to do, if it was going to shut the whole city down.

• 1:18:27Mike Rowe?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:18:28Speaker 02

  I had no idea. And these alerts on my phone, our phones, like. And then, you know, things settle down and you realize, oh, my friend just lost that house. Another friend just lost, and. But then you learn things along the way, too. It's like, wow, what, I mean. Personally, I look at California and I go, where's Hollywood? It feels like the desert that it's built on. Literally, there's no water, there's no work, it's dry. It's like, why is that? Why is California so dry? People are moving to Atlanta because the work is there. It's like, it's Hollywood. We should be making films in Hollywood. We should be making TV shows.

• 1:19:13Speaker 02

  It should be that.

• 1:19:15Mike Rowe?

  Do you think of Hollywood purely as a geography? Or as a sort of a state of mind?

• 1:19:20Speaker 02

  It was a state, it's a, it's a culture. It's absolutely the culture of the area. And when you dedicate yourself to a craft, you know, you're a cinematographer or a grip. These are working class guys making things that entertain, you know? It's like, that's the simple version of it. Then it becomes, then you weaponize it and you, you have an agenda and all that stuff, but, you know.

• 1:19:46Mike Rowe?

  See, I.

• 1:19:47Speaker 02

  But there's no reason to not keep it here. And, and who do I go, who do I blame? Or who do I try to hold? It's like, you know, it's whoever's in charge, right?

• 1:19:56Mike Rowe?

  I shot a show in Atlanta during the lockdown. Couldn't afford to shoot it here. Shot a show in Oklahoma, seven seasons in Oklahoma.

• 1:20:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:20:06Mike Rowe?

  Because that was a better deal than Atlanta.

• 1:20:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:20:09Mike Rowe?

  But it was impossible to even think about doing it here. What if Hollywood needs a, a new hip? Right? I mean, like, really, what if, what if this town has become like a stubborn sixty-one-year-old man?

• 1:20:22Speaker 02

  Oh, that's a good point.

• 1:20:23Mike Rowe?

  Who refuses

• 1:20:24Speaker 02

  That's a good point, Mike.

• 1:20:25Mike Rowe?

  to lie down and let its own scrotum swell up to unnatural sizes? And to deal with a weepy wound?

• 1:20:32Speaker 02

  That's a good point, Mike.

• 1:20:33Mike Rowe?

  Right? Because you pivot or perish. You adapt or die. And this town, to me, feels intransigent. And so like, no, we're gonna do it this way. And whether it's a union that won't budge, or whether it's a producers' guild who won't budge, or whether it's...

• 1:20:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:20:51Mike Rowe?

  I don't know what it is. But man, it's like that pop fly. We're not gonna hover here forever, guys.

• 1:20:57Speaker 02

  No, I got no argument against that. That's a really, really good point.

• 1:21:01Mike Rowe?

  I didn't want to argue with you. I want you to agree with me.

• 1:21:04Speaker 02

  I'm romantic about it. I want it to be... When I came here in the nineties, it was still beautiful. People were happy. People were making money. And it was just, you know, it was like sitcoms were... Everybody was watching sitcoms.

• 1:21:18Mike Rowe?

  Are you sure? Or did you just have a part of the elephant? Like, were you holding the tusk? And concluding that the whole creature was ivory? Because that's what you had your hands on.

• 1:21:29Speaker 02

  I mean, I was coming from the theater school. I just wanted to work.

• 1:21:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:33Speaker 02

  I mean, that first paycheck, we can talk about weeping, but I'd made more in one week doing a Hope and Glory than my dad did in a whole year as a laborer. And it's like...

• 1:21:47Mike Rowe?

  All right, man. You wanna cry?

• 1:21:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:21:48Mike Rowe?

  Let's cry.

• 1:21:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, tell me that.

• 1:21:50Mike Rowe?

  Because I live in a pretty nice house now. And my dad came to see me for the first time about five years ago. And he taught public school his whole life. And he knows what I do, but he doesn't really... Like, the idea of being hired to go give a speech and getting paid more money

• 1:22:09Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:22:10Mike Rowe?

  than he earned

• 1:22:11Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:22:12Mike Rowe?

  in any given decade.

• 1:22:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:14Mike Rowe?

  We don't talk about that. I think he kind of knew it, but, you know, he walked down onto my deck and he, and he looked at the view that I'm blessed to enjoy. And he wept.

• 1:22:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:26Mike Rowe?

  And he looked at me, dude, with that, just like, what did I miss? How did you do that? It reminded me of that, that scene in Death of a Salesman.

• 1:22:40Mike Rowe?

  Right, where Willie says to his uncle Ben.

• 1:22:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, how did you do it?

• 1:22:46Mike Rowe?

  And he said, I walked into the forest with nothing and I came out a rich man. And poor Willie can't connect the dots. It's like, but how? Gold mine? What? How? How? That's the thing about this town. Everybody knows what's possible.

• 1:23:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:23:06Mike Rowe?

  If you work hard and you're lucky, everybody knows you could be a Rico Collet Tony with a resume.

• 1:23:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:23:12Mike Rowe?

  You can't even name your credits.

• 1:23:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:23:15Mike Rowe?

  But they don't quite know how until it happens.

• 1:23:17Speaker 02

  You know what? I think it took me going back to Toronto to realize what it what's so magical about this this part of this place. And Disney proved it. You see barren land, but if you plant it and you water it.

• 1:23:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:34Speaker 02

  And you nurture it, it'll grow. It's not like New York City where you feel the creative energy, just like it'll it just literally carries you moment to moment in New York. But in LA, in this area, if you plant it and work it and it'll grow.

• 1:23:49Mike Rowe?

  Dude, that's that's Chelsea Gardner right there.

• 1:23:51Speaker 02

  That is Chelsea Gardner.

• 1:23:52Mike Rowe?

  That's Peter Sellers, man.

• 1:23:54Speaker 02

  But isn't it true, though?

• 1:23:55Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 1:23:56Speaker 02

  And how many people come here with the expectation that it's just gonna happen, that they don't have to do anything?

• 1:24:02Mike Rowe?

  Talk a little bit more about that juxtaposition between the difficulties and the advantages of New York, since that's where we started.

• 1:24:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:11Mike Rowe?

  Right? Me stepping over, him stepping over.

• 1:24:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:14Mike Rowe?

  A body that I thought was dead. Like, what could possibly be the advantage for a creative type in that environment? Pros and cons of each place. Imagine somebody's listening who's trying to decide, I know I'm gonna be in this business. I'm just not sure where to live.

• 1:24:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. I guess in New York, you have to be louder than the noise, right? You have to make a statement that is louder than what's going on. And here, it's so quiet. I go back to that analogy of like, you know, plant it in your own garden. You could create something just and make it your baby and it'll grow. But in New York, there's an energy that everybody's tapped into. But is it channeled? Do you know where you want? I mean, I came out of Yale and I started working. So many of my actor friends are saying, why you?

• 1:25:03Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 1:25:04Speaker 02

  You know, why you?

• 1:25:05Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:05Speaker 02

  And I go, huh, I don't know. I guess because I want it. I want it. I'm a working class guy. When I set out, I didn't say I wanted to be, Dad, I want to be a star. I didn't say I want to be a movie star. I said, I don't understand that. My parents were working class. I understood that. Apply that to this. I'm gonna be a working actor. We went to the academy. It was about how to become a working actor. I just wanted to work and keep working. And New York really gave me the people, the energy, just kept me buoyant.

• 1:25:48Speaker 02

  It just kept me going until, until the next thing I know, I'm at Yale. And it's a different sort of energy. You're in New Haven. You're outside of the, the New York City vortex. And you really see that there's, theater is all over America. Regional theater. I didn't know about regional theater. It's like, wow, that's where the working guy is.

• 1:26:08Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:09Speaker 02

  That's where they're working. They're in companies and they're working and they're doing plays. And I didn't think I'd come to Hollywood. But it was a sitcom, right?

• 1:26:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:18Speaker 02

  Which was like a play. And it was aligned with being bigger and having more fun and making choices and rehearsing. And so it was, it was an easier transition. But it was always about the energy of New York. And that working class mentality came from the East Coast, Toronto, New York. The East Coast has that.

• 1:26:39Mike Rowe?

  You know Nathan, Phillyan?

• 1:26:42Speaker 02

  I know. He's Canadian.

• 1:26:45Mike Rowe?

  Don't you guys all know each other?

• 1:26:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:26:47Mike Rowe?

  No, he sat right there a couple of months ago.

• 1:26:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:26:50Mike Rowe?

  And, uh, he was my neighbor in New York. And he said virtually everything you just said. And his thing, he's such a geek. He's such a science fiction guy.

• 1:27:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:03Mike Rowe?

  You know? But it was such a treat to talk to him because we hadn't talked in 20 years. But we each followed our respective careers on the TV.

• 1:27:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:15Mike Rowe?

  And so I was always just so delighted, a little different than you, because I I knew you well before that. And I knew there was no doubt of the path you were on. But when I met Nathan, he was uh, he was Joey Buchanan in One Life to Live, I guess. And so it was like, it could have gone either way.

• 1:27:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:27:35Mike Rowe?

  But he had to quit that gig to come out here.

• 1:27:37Speaker 02

  Interesting.

• 1:27:38Mike Rowe?

  Right?

• 1:27:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:39Mike Rowe?

  And so to to reminisce with him about New York and to, who else did I just listen to? The um, Game of Thrones actor, um, little fellow, what's his name?

• 1:27:50Speaker 02

  Peter Dinklage.

• 1:27:51Mike Rowe?

  Yes, God, what a talent that guy is.

• 1:27:55Mike Rowe?

  I mean, how else am I going to describe him? Dark hair, beard.

• 1:27:59Speaker 02

  Three foot.

• 1:28:00Mike Rowe?

  That's.

• 1:28:01Speaker 02

  That's three and a half feet, yeah.

• 1:28:02Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. He uh, he just gives a great talk on.

• 1:28:07Speaker 02

  He's love, I mean, he's powerful.

• 1:28:09Mike Rowe?

  Very powerful.

• 1:28:10Speaker 02

  There's a lot of energy in that.

• 1:28:11Mike Rowe?

  But this uh, the struggle to articulate like the dark matter of New York that can work in your favor if you get into that slipstream, it doesn't exist here. It's so different.

• 1:28:23Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:28:24Mike Rowe?

  I don't know if that's part of the public service too, people want to know it.

• 1:28:27Speaker 02

  I I, you know, young actors say, where do I go, LA or New York? If I don't blink, I go, go to New York.

• 1:28:34Speaker 02

  Go to New York. I would rather be unemployed in New York City than Los Angeles. Between gigs, New York City is the place to go.

• 1:28:41Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:42Speaker 02

  You're walking down the street, you randomly run into somebody, next thing you know, you're this, it's like the universe is working very well in New York City and it's happening.

• 1:28:50Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:51Speaker 02

  That fast. Going to a museum, you'll see a play, oh, we're going downtown. Spend the whole day and not know where, what just happened.

• 1:28:59Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, great.

• 1:29:00Speaker 02

  And here it's like, you do, but you do have to, you have to bring that same work ethic to Los Angeles. In order for anything to sort of come your way.

• 1:29:09Mike Rowe?

  But maybe a different expectation in order to stay sane.

• 1:29:12Speaker 02

  Oh, 100%. 100%. It's about the work. I mean, they talk about it. It's about the work in New York. It's about doing it. It's about getting to do it. And it's very interesting about Canadian film and television as well. They very much want the success. The standard for their success in Canada is getting to do it. I mean, if the government is giving you money or they get financing from something else, they get to go to work and that's the success. They're not worried about box office. They're not worried about anything other than we made this.

• 1:29:42Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Is it just my imagination or is like John Candy having a moment?

• 1:29:47Speaker 02

  Still?

• 1:29:48Mike Rowe?

  Posthumously.

• 1:29:49Speaker 02

  Oh. Tell me why.

• 1:29:51Mike Rowe?

  Well, we're just talking about Canadians and I'm sitting here like wondering, did Second City TV loom large for you? Like, was that a big deal?

• 1:30:00Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:30:01Mike Rowe?

  It was for me, too.

• 1:30:01Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Kids in the Hall, too.

• 1:30:03Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's SETV. It was like, most of them started in Chicago anyway, that Second City, and then the show spawned from there. But imagine the alumni that came out of that show.

• 1:30:16Mike Rowe?

  How are you gonna feel when Canada becomes the 51st state?

• 1:30:20Speaker 02

  I hope the lowest taxes. I hope it gets cheaper to live up there.

• 1:30:26Speaker 02

  Keep more on my paycheck.

• 1:30:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:30Mike Rowe?

  Chuck, did you write down Louder Than The Noise by any chance?

• 1:30:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, be louder than the noise.

• 1:30:36Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the title for this one. I know if I talked to you long enough, you'd say something worth writing down.

• 1:30:49Speaker 01

  We got a crier and then we got a coffer. We got a crier and a coffer.

• 1:30:55Mike Rowe?

  I know. I know. It's like a freaking TV board.

• 1:30:59Speaker 02

  Part of my head is going, my leg is gonna spasm because it hasn't had that much. It's like it's been atrophied from the surgery. And suddenly it's just shaking like this.

• 1:31:09Mike Rowe?

  Oh, man.

• 1:31:10Speaker 02

  Oh, Mike, you're so awesome.

• 1:31:12Mike Rowe?

  How long have we been talking?

• 1:31:13Speaker 01

  Hour and a half.

• 1:31:14Mike Rowe?

  All right, dude. I love you. I love you so much for coming here. And, you know.

• 1:31:18Speaker 02

  You know, to this day, I don't know why, but okay. But thank you for having me.

• 1:31:22Mike Rowe?

  You know why? Because you love him.

• 1:31:23Speaker 02

  I do love him and I love you.

• 1:31:25Mike Rowe?

  Nah, it's tertiary.

• 1:31:27Speaker 02

  We haven't slept in the same room since that one time my son was there.

• 1:31:31Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:33Speaker 02

  And he'll never forget that.

• 1:31:35Mike Rowe?

  Quentin.

• 1:31:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:36Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I got an arrow bed if you, I mean, you guys.

• 1:31:38Speaker 02

  Wait, wait a minute. No, I have my own bed.

• 1:31:40Mike Rowe?

  What story is that? What story is that? Where you slept in the same room with Quentin and Mike?

• 1:31:44Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no. He, I was there. Quentin was there. Mike, I think, was sleeping on the couch.

• 1:31:52Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:31:53Speaker 02

  And we came down and Quentin got to see Mike and it was like, oh.

• 1:31:57Mike Rowe?

  It's the microphone. It's still, we're technically still, you know, still out there.

• 1:32:02Speaker 02

  We're still, I don't know, an hour and a half, I thought maybe we stopped talking.

• 1:32:05Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 1:32:05Speaker 02

  That meant a lot to my, my boy, who's now, you know, dealing with his own kinda.

• 1:32:09Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 1:32:10Speaker 02

  Stuff up and.

• 1:32:11Mike Rowe?

  Was it the same night? Who got so upset with me when I was over at Rico's house? I tied. It was somebody's birthday.

• 1:32:22Speaker 02

  That was Amy, Amy Wazork. You tied a balloon, a helium balloon to the cat's, to the cat's tail.

• 1:32:29Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:30Speaker 02

  And she did not like that. She didn't like it? No.

• 1:32:32Mike Rowe?

  No, she didn't appreciate it.

• 1:32:34Speaker 02

  I'm pretty sure it was her.

• 1:32:35Mike Rowe?

  On behalf of the cat, the cat didn't seem annoyed, but I like the idea that watching this cat walk around with a, like a four or five balloons tied to its tail.

• 1:32:44Speaker 02

  Where was I?

• 1:32:45Mike Rowe?

  You were there. I think you might've been laughing too, but she.

• 1:32:47Speaker 02

  I think I was laughing too hard to remember.

• 1:32:49Mike Rowe?

  She sat me down, man.

• 1:32:50Speaker 02

  Oh, no, she did not.

• 1:32:51Mike Rowe?

  She was like, let me explain.

• 1:32:52Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 1:32:53Mike Rowe?

  The nerves and the importance of a cat's tail. Let me just ask you, Michael, if you were a cat and some large creature came along and tied balloons to a very important part of your body. Right.

• 1:33:07Speaker 02

  I was just like, was that Halloween? It must've been Halloween.

• 1:33:10Mike Rowe?

  Must've been. It was a black cat.

• 1:33:11Speaker 02

  It must've been Halloween.

• 1:33:13Mike Rowe?

  I remember it was a black cat, maybe gray. Those balloons and all the different colors, it really snazzed it up, man.

• 1:33:19Speaker 02

  Were you there, Charlie? Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

• 1:33:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, Chuck was just shaking his head. It was the same face, in fact, you had when I stepped over, when you stepped over the corpse in the, in the road that turned out to be a drunk.

• 1:33:31Speaker 02

  I knew it was a drunk all along, remember? He had seen him before.

• 1:33:33Mike Rowe?

  You were the only one who was confused about it. Yeah, but you also knew that Amy was gonna give me the hairy eyeball for tying balloons to a cat's tail.

• 1:33:40Speaker 02

  There were a couple of people in that circle of friends who would've given you. I'm surprised it was her, I mean.

• 1:33:44Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, it would break a few eggs. The shows that people should watch if they have any taste that you're currently involved in, the English teacher?

• 1:33:50Speaker 02

  You can see it on Disney Plus or Hulu. FX, I think, is still on demand. Uh, we're still waiting to hear on a second season pickup, but they just extended the the hold on us, so.

• 1:34:01Mike Rowe?

  It looks terrific.

• 1:34:02Speaker 02

  It's a good, it's very funny. I have a lot of fun.

• 1:34:06Mike Rowe?

  Do you cry? Is there any weeping?

• 1:34:08Speaker 02

  No weeping. I save that for you and Chuck.

• 1:34:10Mike Rowe?

  I appreciate it.

• 1:34:11Speaker 01

  There's no way to stop him, dude. No way to stop him.

• 1:34:14Mike Rowe?

  And what's the other one you're shooting in Canada?

• 1:34:16Speaker 02

  It's called Allegiance. I think right now you can only see it on CBC, CBC Gem. It's not down here, but.

• 1:34:21Mike Rowe?

  So dozens of viewers and I hear great things.

• 1:34:28Speaker 01

  You have to live in the 51st state to see that one.

• 1:34:31Mike Rowe?

  I sound like Eeyore. Or Snidely.

• 1:34:36Speaker 02

  Snidely Whitley.

• 1:34:37Mike Rowe?

  Some animated character.

• 1:34:39Speaker 02

  And there's another show called The Trades I do up there with.

• 1:34:45Mike Rowe?

  That's great. We're out of time. You know?

• 1:34:48Speaker 02

  And then there's a, there's a tire company that I.

• 1:34:53Mike Rowe?

  Hey, man. I know a guy in Australia who's looking for a spokesman. I think I'm off the shortlist now since he heard me throw up on my feet. Uh, the one and only Enrico Colton Tony. Uh, Chuck, thank you for getting him down here. Rico, uh, thank you for being so forthcoming about all your body's failings and all your hopes and dreams.

• 1:35:13Speaker 02

  Dude, I hope you get something out of this. It's like some of the people that you have on the show are smart and they got worldly and all I do is cry.

• 1:35:20Mike Rowe?

  Think of yourself as a counterbalance. But wherever there's.

• 1:35:26Speaker 02

  I'm the comic relief is what I am.

• 1:35:28Speaker 01

  You know what those people did? What those people have that you don't have is the ability to talk into the microphone.

• 1:35:33Speaker 02

  They got books, they got something to sell and me, I'm going, I just cry.

• 1:35:37Mike Rowe?

  Do you have like a website or anything?

• 1:35:38Speaker 02

  No, I don't. I don't even go on.

• 1:35:41Mike Rowe?

  There's no.

• 1:35:42Speaker 02

  Instagram.

• 1:35:43Mike Rowe?

  There's nowhere anybody, there's nothing anybody can do.

• 1:35:44Speaker 02

  Instagram, I guess.

• 1:35:45Mike Rowe?

  Except watch your, you're on Instagram.

• 1:35:47Speaker 02

  Instagram, yeah. Enrico Colton Tony underscore really.

• 1:35:50Speaker 01

  Here it is, yeah. Enrico Colton Tony underscore really.

• 1:35:54Mike Rowe?

  Really. Folks, do me a favor. If you enjoyed this conversation, light up his Instagram. And if it's not too much to ask, go ahead and post a picture of your genitals. He'd appreciate that. All things considered.

• 1:36:04Speaker 02

  I got the scar. Oh, the scar is beautiful.

• 1:36:06Mike Rowe?

  Well, you know what? You're gonna show it to me as soon as somebody says cut.

• 1:36:10Mike Rowe?

  Say it, Chuck. Cut. Here we go.

• 1:36:12Speaker 02

  Oh, Mike. What a joy. Hmm. When you leave a review, which we hope that you'll do, tell us who you are. And before you go, whoa, whoa, won't you leave

• 1:36:33Speaker 03

  five stars? Five lousy little stars.

• 1:36:54Speaker 03

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• 1:37:25Speaker 04

  What's that?

• 1:37:26Speaker 05

  My fresh detector.

• 1:37:27Speaker 04

  Uh, your what?

• 1:37:29Speaker 05

  There it is.

• 1:37:30Speaker 04

  What is it detecting?

• 1:37:31Speaker 05

  Fresh produce? Fresh meat?

• 1:37:34Speaker 04

  Okay, what happens if it detects something really fresh?

• 1:37:39Speaker 05

  Apparently, we celebrate.

• 1:37:41Speaker 04

  At Food Lion, you can count on fresh food at fresher prices. When your fresh detector is going off, head to your local Food Lion or shop at foodlion.com.