John Cena

John Cena is the babyface of this podcast. Amy hangs with the former WWE star and talks about building his mom a house, watching '80s wrestling at Worcester Centrum, and his morning stretching routine. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Cody Rhodes and John CenaExecutive Producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson, Belle Roman, and Aleya Zenieris; lighting director Caroline Jannace; audio producer Kaya McMullen; social producer Bridget Geerlings; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and bookers Kat Spillane and Paige GarbariniOriginal Music: Amy Miles Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://Allstate.com Shop your beauty favorites from Ulta Beauty on Uber Eats! https://www.ubereats.com/brand/ulta-beauty   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:38Speaker 00

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We have John Cena with us today. Actor, wrestler, humanitarian, good citizen of the world. And John and I are going to talk about a lot of really fun stuff today. We're going to discuss what it's like growing up in the Boston area with four brothers. We are going to decide my new wrestling character and realize that it's going to be incredibly successful. We're going to talk about Little Brother, the movie that he's in and how much fun he had working on it. And we're going to discuss how dresses and suits are important to him. And because of that, I'm going to, after this intro, go spiff myself up and make sure that I am looking good for the interview. But we always like to start these interviews by checking with someone who knows our guest,

• 1:23Speaker 00

  who wants to ask us a question, ask our guests and speak well behind their back. And we are talking to our first undisputed champion on this show, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Cody is calling in on Zoom from a beautiful lake. And I just like that he's a champ. I love talking to champs. And let's see what Cody has to say about his buddy and at times enemy and always mentor, John Cena. So Cody, are you there?

• 2:02Speaker 00

  This episode is presented by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking how long that recipe takes before you start cooking? Well, that's how you learn that simmer for four hours is buried halfway down the page. Yeah, checking first is a good idea. So check Allstate first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Subject to terms, conditions and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.

• 2:41Speaker 00

  Cody, hello, it's Amy.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Hey, can you hear me?

• 2:45Speaker 00

  We can hear you. How are you?

• 2:46Speaker 01

  I'm good. I'm sorry if I was doing like the old people yelling, can you hear me? I don't know how loud I am at the moment. I'm outside.

• 2:52Speaker 00

  Congratulations, champ. Nice to meet you.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, very nice to meet you. I have to share this with you. You might have heard this already, but where I teach wrestling, we use bowling for votes as a part of the curriculum.

• 3:09Speaker 00

  No way. How do you use it?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  So it's a way, what I suggest, I always ask, has anyone ever seen the show? Because I was a big fan of the show. But I always ask if they have, and then they have to go home and watch that night. It's a way for young, prospective wrestlers to understand that social media, if you scroll through 300 positive things, but then you find that one guy who thought you were fat, there's no point. Go with everybody else. Go with the people who already had your back, you know? But we use that episode as brought up every camp. And most people know it too. So it's actually a lot of fun.

• 3:45Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, that's so, that's so nice to hear. I would never think to ask if anything from Parks is used in any kind of curriculum.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  But you're right. I bet you have young people who are trying to figure out how to participate in feedback, which is really hard, especially for a young person to like not let that feel too personal.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Well, particularly wrestling is brutal. I feel like every funnel is one thing, but I feel like wrestling and Star Wars is the most divisive social I've ever seen. It's, you can't just say you like a thing. Like a thing means you dislike something else.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  It means war.

• 4:29Speaker 00

  Speaking about Star Wars is really interesting. I'm sure you've made this parallel before. All this like hero's journey stuff is in the stuff that you all do, the stories that you make in the ring. It is very similar, which is the rise and fall and betrayal and like trying to get, you know, like figure out who you are in real time. It, there is a lot of Joseph Campbell parallels.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. I always tell people the hero's journey, for me as a babyface and John as a lifelong babyface, lot of betrayal. Lot of betrayal. It's, every week is new betrayal.

• 5:10Speaker 00

  When you know a storyline is happening, when you know, for example, you're going to get betrayed, let's say by someone like John, do you guys look at each other and go, yeah? Or do you look at each other and go, oh? I mean, you guys probably never make that sound, but.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  I make that sound a lot internally throughout the course of the day. Because a lot of like, oh, oh, you know? But with John, particularly when John, if you've ever seen it, the moment where he hugs me and his face changes, then he was so excited.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  And I was more trepidatious in terms of, he had never done that. And he had, it didn't even make sense to do it at this point. He had never gone rogue, gone bad. So I just didn't want to screw that massive moment up.

• 6:05Speaker 00

  Right.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  He taught me everything I know because I drove him around for two years before he got his big tour bus. John was such a fun riding partner. Oh, it's a lot of strict rules. We'd do this little ritual stop where he had to load up a Styrofoam cooler with an extra 24 beers in the back of the car.

• 6:26Speaker 00

  Just in case.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  I'd never seen anyone in terms of he was our, our top star and the lead babyface at the time, the lead good guy.

• 6:33Speaker 00

  This term babyface I'm obsessed with.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, he is, he is, he is the.

• 6:39Speaker 00

  Ultimate babyface.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  Even after what he did to me, they were still fearing him and booing me. So it was like, all right, okay, thanks, guys. John is pretty great at the magic. And except for one area that is widely known. To wrestling fans and wrestlers. John will not talk low or in carny, as we would say. Like if I need to tell you, Amy ducked the clothesline, I'd say like disuk, you know, something, this little carny.

• 7:11Speaker 00

  Oh, there's a little like fake language, like a pig Latin.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  It's like a pig Latin meets Snoop Talk. But John yells everything that's going to happen in the ring. As loud as he can possibly yell it. He calls it for the first four rows, an interactive experience.

• 7:30Speaker 00

  God, this is so helpful because one of my questions is like, you know, is figuring out exactly how you all improvise. Because you're improvising a lot, obviously a lot is written and, and, you know, beat it out. But you're, you know, you're talking about really big physical things that you have to figure out how to signal to each other in safe ways, obviously.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  That's really funny that.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Screams it.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  Screams it.

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Screams it. And then there's the last match I had with him at SummerSlam. He's about to slam me with his big finishing move, which is the attitude adjustment from a table to another table. So it's highly dangerous. It's going to hurt. We're going to do it the safest way we can. But you can hear him yelling at me why I'm on his shoulders. That he can't see because my arm is over his eyes. And I never spoke back to John. I, it was, I never wanted to speak back. He's, you know, a mentor to me. And, but it was one of those moments where I thought, buddy, I'm the one doing this. I don't give, just throw me. Like, I'm not worried about your, your.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  He's screaming at the top of his lungs, I can't see.

• 8:47Speaker 00

  I really love your relationship. You guys have a very brotherly relationship.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Oh, good. Yeah, well, I, I mean. I can't think of another guy who didn't need to take the time. He definitely didn't need to. He had, he was the busiest guy on the roster. He took the time. He, I was a, another term, I was, he's not going to agree with this, but I was a job guy.

• 9:10Speaker 00

  What's that mean?

• 9:11Speaker 01

  I was laying on my back, looking up at the lights every night. I was the three second tan, as John calls it, you know? And he still wanted to, he had a belief in me.

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Oh, wow.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  You know, he can speak a little French, too?

• 9:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, and Mandarin, right?

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Ah, the Mandarin.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  I can't. It's so annoying. I was just saying like, it's so embar, I can't speak another language. And I don't need somebody to be coming in here and showing off the two that they can speak.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:40Speaker 00

  You know? It's like, keep it to yourself.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  Not on your turf, you know?

• 9:45Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Not on your turf.

• 9:46Speaker 00

  We ask the, the people we speak to before our guests to ask, to give our guests a question. Is there anything big or small, dumb or serious that you think I should ask John about or you'd want to know about him?

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Oh, man. What's he going to do with all this knowledge? Right? What's he going to do with it? We don't have a book yet, right? There's no book. Does he plan to write a book? And what is he going to do with all this knowledge? And if he plans to do nothing, what was the point?

• 10:23Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 10:23Speaker 00

  Perfect question.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know if that's any good, but what's the point, right?

• 10:29Speaker 01

  Too short. You're not gonna be speaking Mandarin, you know.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  It totally speaks to the bigger thing, which is like, I want to know, like, when, when do we all get to rest?

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. When do you finally go down, John? When do you rest? Yeah?

• 10:47Speaker 00

  What's the thing that's gonna take you down? What new thing?

• 10:51Speaker 01

  So yes, that's the thing. Something he's gonna tackle, he won't be able to do.

• 10:54Speaker 00

  Actually, that's a really good question is what can you not do well?

• 10:58Speaker 01

  He'll give you some, some, excuse my language. He'll give you some BS humble, humble answer. God, he sees so well. He's so well put together. You got, you got your hands full.

• 11:10Speaker 00

  No kidding. But you know, I, I, I do really well with these big guys.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  I don't know what to tell you, but I'm just, I really know how to handle them.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  I'm a huge fan of the show, so I know you do.

• 11:20Speaker 00

  Oh, my God. Thank you so much. It means so much that you talked to us today. And I know John will be so thrilled that we talked. And it's really nice to meet you.

• 11:29Speaker 01

  Very nice to meet you too. Have, have the best day and thank you again. If you need anything and anyone wants to reach out, I got, I could talk about John for days.

• 11:38Speaker 00

  Oh, awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Such a pleasure. All right, Champ, talk to you later.

• 11:43Speaker 01

  Have a good one.

• 11:44Speaker 00

  You too.

• 11:46Speaker 00

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• 12:17Speaker 02

  We enjoy a tasty beverage every once in a while. And I wanted to get you something that was like, highly rated, but I didn't want to get you a hundred point wine. Because with a hundred point wine, when you drink it, you're like, I don't get it. But with something like 98, like, oh, man, they got gypped. So hopefully it's a good glass.

• 12:35Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. This is so nice.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  Lot of fun conversations happen over wine?

• 12:40Speaker 00

  I want to talk to you about wine. I know you love wine. Or you know, and you know a lot about it.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  I have had a lot. I've had a lot of it.

• 12:47Speaker 00

  But it is like that thing that you can just keep learning and learning and learning.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  As with most things, you can, you can get deeper in, in the rabbit hole.

• 12:54Speaker 00

  John Cena is here. I'm so excited that I changed into, I put a suit jacket on for you and a tie.

• 13:01Speaker 02

  I put a suit jacket on for you and a pocket watch for you.

• 13:04Speaker 00

  Is that a personal pocket watch?

• 13:06Speaker 02

  It is. I even have the.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  Does it mean something?

• 13:08Speaker 02

  Of course it does. I even have my readers.

• 13:09Speaker 00

  Wait, let's put our readers on. Let me see yours.

• 13:12Speaker 02

  I will, I will do the full presentation again. Starts out as a monocle.

• 13:22Speaker 00

  Now that falls under some haberdashery.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 13:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 13:27Speaker 00

  I like that you, do you like to wear a suit?

• 13:28Speaker 02

  I do. I do.

• 13:30Speaker 00

  How come?

• 13:30Speaker 02

  I think, you know, I've, I've tried to reflect on this. I think it has to do with uniformity. I do. So like, there's, the uniformity of knowing what you have, but then the freedom to do cool stuff within that.

• 13:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:42Speaker 02

  You know, like, not exactly base suit colors. So there's an aggressive stance with the pinstripe. But it's still gonna be like, okay, a non-low cut waistcoat, two button coat, everything fits.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  Do you get, get them made for you?

• 13:57Speaker 02

  And that's another thing, right? So like, I used to hate suits because they used to be so uncomfortable.

• 14:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Until people were like, no, no, we make it around you. And I'm like, uh, say what? And then someone made me a suit and I put it on and it felt like a warm up suit.

• 14:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. Are you the same Jen as me? Are you Gen X?

• 14:14Speaker 02

  Yes, I believe so.

• 14:14Speaker 00

  Okay. So I feel like in our lifetime, we've watched clothing get just more and more and more casual.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  In our lifetime, I feel we have watched clothing get more efficient.

• 14:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  You know, this one suit is made of stretch fabric, so you can run a mile in it and you never have to wash it. Like,

• 14:33Speaker 00

  Right.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  It's more of that.

• 14:35Speaker 00

  Yes. And this connects to kind of what I wanted to start talking.

• 14:38Speaker 02

  Again, just my lens.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. But, but, but I think it connects to a bigger thing, which is there's something about the way in you, in which you participate in what would almost be considered, at times, old fashioned things, which are professionalism, politeness, like wearing a suit, being, like, being able to be dependable. All those things sometimes feel like, sadly, that they feel sometimes old fashioned. My experience, I've got a chance to work with you and had the pleasure to get to know you a little bit over the last couple of years. And, and like, you're just such a professional, John. Like, you're such a hard worker. You do what you say you're gonna do.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  And even the suit, like, feels like a symbol of like, I'm taking this seriously, I guess. Where does that come from? Have you always had that? Have you always been that person?

• 15:34Speaker 02

  So there's a lot there.

• 15:35Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 15:35Speaker 02

  There's a whole lot there.

• 15:37Speaker 00

  You've got wine. We're fine.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  I don't know how simple that, uh, simple, yes. Um, you want me in shape, go to the gym. Simple. Easy? I don't know.

• 15:48Speaker 00

  Right.

• 15:49Speaker 02

  Those things aren't easy.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  And you equate those things with success. Success is ambiguous. There is no one recipe for success.

• 16:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:03Speaker 02

  What I do is what I believe will get me the next opportunity, but I'm also wrong a lot of times. Where do I get those things? Through wisdom and experience. If we were doing this interview in 2005, I would have an oversized, uh, sports jersey on. I would have a backwards Michelin Ness hat on. I would have come in with more diamonds than I've ever seen in my life, or I need. I would have, I would have been wearing a set of Reebok pumps and a set of jorts. And I never would have broken the character of the Doctor of Thuganomics.

• 16:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, you would have stayed there.

• 16:39Speaker 02

  Because that, at the time, I felt was my path to success. Uh, how did I get these things? Good question. So I don't know how to succeed. I don't. I always try to put

• 16:53Speaker 02

  odds in my favor and I appreciate people's opportunity. I'm also not supposed to be here. I'm a kid from West Newbury who didn't train for this. I didn't put in the hours of improv classes like you. It's like a happy accident. All said, life hands people opportunity and hands people some bad cards. If you get an opportunity card, man, try to work to make the most of it.

• 17:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:15Speaker 02

  I am where I'm at because I know how to fail. And I talk to people about this a lot and I want to try to, I'm trying to expand on this idea to get it out to people.

• 17:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:27Speaker 02

  The things you do in life, I can guarantee you will fail if you are unliable, unprofessional, uninvested, and uncoachable. Those four things. And I don't mean like work. I mean like life.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  It's so, it's so interesting you say that because sometimes when, when people ask about like succeeding in, in the stuff, kind of stuff that I do, I always say something that it feels like almost simple, but it's like, just be fun to work with. And it falls under that category, which is when people want you around, you get more opportunity, like the, the, the, it's the final product of what's gonna happen in your life, to your point about what you're gonna be successful at. You never know. You don't even know if it's gonna be what you want. It, it always changes.

• 18:16Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 18:16Speaker 00

  But the experience, the way people feel around you, they remember. They remember, I liked working with that person. I had a good time.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  Or I liked seeing that person. I liked being entertained by that person. I had a good interaction.

• 18:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  That doesn't necessarily guarantee success. I'm not, what I'm not saying is if you're coachable, professional, reliable, and passionate, you will succeed. Because there's still a level of magic dust and ambiguity and luck and things beyond our control. I can't tell you how to succeed. What I can do is, if you are unprofessional, uncoachable, uninvested, and unreliable, you will fail. A hundred percent guaranteed.

• 18:57Speaker 00

  I want to talk to you about your thoughts about winning and losing and about collaboration and like, and I feel like it goes back to probably the fact that you grew up in a family with four brothers, five boys. Amazing.

• 19:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, that is, that is a feat.

• 19:15Speaker 00

  Your mom.

• 19:16Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, she had, uh, albeit she had probably, she had probably a tough 30 year run, I would say.

• 19:23Speaker 00

  We, we got a chance to, so John and I got to work together a few different times in different ways. And you told me a story about your brothers and you and crayons.

• 19:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:33Speaker 00

  Can you tell that story?

• 19:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure. Uh, so

• 19:37Speaker 02

  the house was wonderful, uh, and not too many safety guards. So, uh, if helicopter parenting is like constantly looking over your kid,

• 19:51Speaker 02

  my parents were submarine parents? Like, I don't know. I'm trying to find the exact opposite.

• 19:55Speaker 00

  They were hiding in the basement?

• 19:56Speaker 02

  I think, I think the only safety concern was at night, we'd do like a 10 in 10 inspection. You got 10 fingers? You got 10 toes? Go to sleep. That was such a cool thing to have as a young person.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:08Speaker 02

  Because we essentially could have an idea and do the idea.

• 20:12Speaker 00

  Amazing.

• 20:13Speaker 02

  So because there were so many of us and my dad would work and my mom would stay home,

• 20:19Speaker 02

  we would just do stuff. Like in a box of 64 crayons, if one kid was behaving and coloring in the lines, three other kids grabbed as many as they could and just ran on the walls and did whatever, just to be like, this is great. Because at the time, doing that as a kid, that is great.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:37Speaker 02

  But my poor mom would be like, oh, man, Matt, what a great, what the?

• 20:43Speaker 00

  I can't even imagine.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Meanwhile, like laundry for an army is piling up.

• 20:47Speaker 00

  And the sneakers.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  And she's like, oh my god, now I gotta feed everybody again. I just fed you guys three hours ago.

• 20:52Speaker 00

  Taking years off her life.

• 20:54Speaker 02

  Oh, man, but honestly, she, she had an uphill climb for three decades. And now all of us collectively as a group are like, man, we need to make, we need to make sure she's doing all right, always. So these, these last, you know, four plus decades have been a different chapter in my mom's life. And especially like the last 20, between all of us and her have been real special.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  I want to ask you about that because I know you've done some very special things for her. But growing up in Boston in the eighties.

• 21:25Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  Not like, you know, what, what, were you guys, was your family, you know, like, were you known as like the Cena brothers?

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Oh, my god, yes.

• 21:35Speaker 00

  And they all came, walked together?

• 21:37Speaker 02

  So this, I grew up in West Newbury. We gotta take Boston out of the equation.

• 21:43Speaker 00

  Well, we all say Boston, no matter where we grew up.

• 21:45Speaker 02

  Yes, because anything around, no one cares.

• 21:47Speaker 00

  Right.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  So West Newbury is, if you keep going northeast of the state of Massachusetts to the New Hampshire line, there are some old maritime towns that are quite beautiful.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  And inland, there are some even smaller farming towns.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  Small town.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  And that's West Newbury, 1,200 people. And in 1985, your neighbor is acres away and you gotta ride bikes everywhere. It was, it was like out of a, out of a movie, like it was like Goonies.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:11Speaker 02

  You know, like.

• 22:12Speaker 00

  I mean, you were your own.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  It was awesome. So, yes, we were the Cena's. And we could show up and a basketball game would ensue because we've brought the team. It was, it was incredible, an incredible place to grow up.

• 22:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:23Speaker 02

  And I'm so glad I didn't stay there because it is, it is not a diverse look at the world.

• 22:29Speaker 00

  Right.

• 22:30Speaker 02

  But, man, what a, what a cool place to grow up.

• 22:32Speaker 00

  Especially because when you're a young boy, like, boys, young boys are sometimes like dogs, you have to kind of like run them out, you have to run them.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:39Speaker 00

  They need like a yard and you should throw the ball.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Man, we had acres and like, we could go out in the forest and try to burn the forest down. Thank you, West Newbury Fire Department.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  I can only imagine.

• 22:51Speaker 02

  Or we could have like pickup football games that would end in brawl foralls, where parents are just pulling up in their cars and ripping, that's my kid. And then it's, but it was great. And it was great.

• 23:01Speaker 00

  And did you learn how to like?

• 23:03Speaker 02

  I learned how to lose a fight, which I think is really like, man, that's why I'm a diplomat. Like, you get your ass kicked a few times and you're like, yo, that, this sucks.

• 23:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and what do you, and what are some rules to lose a fight? Like, what do you, what did you learn by losing a fight?

• 23:18Speaker 02

  Humility, embarrassment, physical harm. And, and another thing is like.

• 23:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  Winning a fight also sucks. It doesn't feel good.

• 23:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  Especially when you're like, man, we just fought over like, who gets to play bases loaded next? Like, what? And that kid's hurt.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  So you get on both sides of that equation.

• 23:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:39Speaker 02

  And.

• 23:39Speaker 00

  I don't think people realize that, you know, and when we grew up, in my high school, there was a fight every day after school.

• 23:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:47Speaker 00

  And it was like, oh, who's gonna fight today after school? And women too, young.

• 23:51Speaker 02

  It was common.

• 23:52Speaker 00

  It was very common. And in fact, when I went to college, for a while, I would go to parties and I would just kind of stand there.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  It's like an episodic three o'clock high.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Yes. And people, and the people would be like, what are you worried about? I'm like, there's too many people here from different towns. Like, this is gonna go down.

• 24:06Speaker 02

  The different town thing.

• 24:07Speaker 00

  Different towns. If someone showed up at your party from a different town, forget it.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:13Speaker 00

  But as, you know, and not to gender.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  But if the Haverhill kids show up.

• 24:16Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Yikes.

• 24:18Speaker 00

  Like kids from Woburn show up, like, well, it's gonna be a bloody mess. But, um, do you have to like, as a big guy, growing up as a tough guy with brothers, like, but also you felt like you were bullied a little bit too, right?

• 24:32Speaker 02

  I was, I got the shit kicked out of me every day. Every day, because I was a scrawny kid and dressing like MC Hammer and Bellevue Devo. It was like, if Bellevue Devo and MC Hammer ran into each other.

• 24:42Speaker 00

  Ah!

• 24:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. Rayon and airbrushed denim.

• 24:46Speaker 00

  And you got picked, and you got.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  High top fade.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  Beat up by your brothers or by people in school?

• 24:51Speaker 02

  By my peers. So it was a multi-town high school where the junior high is at one place and the high school is at one place. And Merrimack's buses were here and Groveland's buses were here and West Newbury's buses were over at the high school. And I'm in junior high. You have to like, I, I see the walk down the sidewalk as if it was yesterday. I'm walking down the sidewalk and I'm passing the kids who are like 15, 16, who can't drive yet and still have to go to the bus. And I'm the one SOB wearing like rayon polka dots in, in a, an eighties rock, country music, combat boot, denim, you know, mullets, like, you, you can paint the picture. I stand there like a sore thumb and I was an easy target. And like a scrawny, skinny kid. So even something as simple as like, boom, down the hill I go.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 25:36Speaker 02

  Shitty comment, like, that was, that was on the daily. That was like the daily.

• 25:41Speaker 00

  But that's trauma.

• 25:43Speaker 02

  So, so.

• 25:44Speaker 00

  That's traumatic, John.

• 25:46Speaker 02

  Uh, I appreciate, I appreciate you saying that.

• 25:49Speaker 00

  That is traumatic.

• 25:50Speaker 02

  Life deals us all hills to climb.

• 25:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  I doubled down. It was, it was a great experience for me. Here I sit, dressed loudly.

• 25:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  As myself.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  Right, right.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  I'm not, I don't, I don't have a stylist. I prefer to do these things without makeup because I want people to see me as me.

• 26:08Speaker 00

  Now I understand the suit.

• 26:09Speaker 02

  If I'm creating a character.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:11Speaker 02

  Put as much shit on me as you want.

• 26:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  But this is me.

• 26:15Speaker 00

  Right.

• 26:16Speaker 02

  And this is how I feel comfortable.

• 26:17Speaker 00

  What did you?

• 26:18Speaker 02

  And when those kids picked on me for how I dressed, I would go straight to Liberty Tree Mall and be like, what is worse than this?

• 26:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:25Speaker 02

  I'm turning it up.

• 26:26Speaker 00

  I got the Liberty Tree Mall.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  And then like, and then I found weights. So it's, I didn't learn to fight. I wasn't like, yo, I gotta learn to fight. I'm just gonna project the art of like, the math isn't so much in your favor anymore. And by the time I got over to the new building, I was 15, I'd been working out for two and a half years and I was stronger than everybody. So it was like, ah, I may get them, but if I catch a stray, I'm gonna get my teeth knocked out. So it hedged, like, it worked.

• 26:54Speaker 00

  So what's it like to go home to Boston?

• 26:57Speaker 02

  It's, it's wonderful, actually.

• 26:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. It must feel like they really, because the one thing I'll say, one of the things about Boston that's really lovely is your hometown really embraces you. Like, if they feel like, if they have some pride in you, you really feel it when you go back. Like, people really feel like, hey, they, they share, like, look, you always know from Bostonians how they feel. They tell you to your face. You're good, you're bad, I like you, I don't like you.

• 27:25Speaker 02

  It's weird, they do, but they don't, it's, I want to, I'll elaborate on that, but continue.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  But do you think, do you think I'm wrong that they're more passive aggressive?

• 27:32Speaker 02

  No, no, they'll tell you how they feel about you.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 27:35Speaker 02

  They'll never tell you how they feel.

• 27:37Speaker 00

  Oh, no, feelings?

• 27:39Speaker 02

  And that, like, so that's why, uh, that's why recently going home has been way better.

• 27:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:45Speaker 02

  Because my brothers are all hitting that like late 40s, approaching the half century now. And they're all, we all have wisdom of like.

• 27:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:53Speaker 02

  Man, it's kind of a, kind of a shitty mindset if somebody's like, hey, how's life? And you're like, ah, it's taking forever. Like, that.

• 28:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  But that's also West Newbury.

• 28:05Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  And, man, as, as beautiful as the landscape is, sometimes there's a, a lot more anchors than sails over there.

• 28:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:12Speaker 02

  You know? And I, I love the pride, you're right. Like, when, when someone from a community makes it, the community hasn't made it.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  I like that.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 28:21Speaker 02

  Because that's a win for everybody. Hopefully, it gets everybody's spirits.

• 28:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:24Speaker 02

  And I don't, I don't mind that. It's just sometimes hard to get anything real out of anybody.

• 28:31Speaker 00

  Oh, babe, the idea of figuring out your feelings and saying them in real time, that was not what we grew up with.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:37Speaker 00

  I mean, I still kind of can't believe sometimes when people are able to locate their feeling and then say it. It's like, how did you do that? Because we just, it's a skill. It's a skill to figure out what you're actually feeling.

• 28:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Feel it and then express it. That's like a lifetime of work. And when you're around culturally, this thing, this feeling of just like, to your point, there's a lot of like, a lot of comedy.

• 29:03Speaker 02

  A lot of self-deprecation.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  And a lot of self-deprecation and a lot of action.

• 29:07Speaker 02

  A lot of doom and gloom and pessimism.

• 29:09Speaker 00

  A lot of pessimism and a lot of action over words, right? So someone's not gonna say, necessarily say like, I love you, but they're gonna like, fix your tire, like.

• 29:17Speaker 02

  The asshole.

• 29:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  What the fuck you broken down for? Ah, dude, you fucking idiot, let me fix your tire. All right, get the fuck out of here, fuck off.

• 29:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Like, that's literally their way of saying like, oh, man.

• 29:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  Tough day, right?

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:29Speaker 02

  Let me help you out here.

• 29:30Speaker 00

  Right.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  I hope everything goes better for you. But it's not that.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  No, it's not that.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:37Speaker 00

  No, no.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  It's asshole, he can't even fucking roof a house. Suck it up and fucking roof it in two hours.

• 29:41Speaker 00

  You told me a story, though, about, and I want to get to wrestling because I have so many questions about it. And as a person who, the, the Bostonian in me had an early experience with it, but it's changed so much, like.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  We've kind of lived in the same world, though.

• 29:55Speaker 00

  I know. Okay. Your mom, you bought her a house.

• 30:01Speaker 02

  My mom earned a, a castle.

• 30:05Speaker 00

  But that story is such a good story.

• 30:07Speaker 02

  We settled on a house.

• 30:08Speaker 00

  Okay, tell, just tell a little bit of that story, how it went, if you don't mind.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Uh, there's never any land for sale in West Newbury.

• 30:16Speaker 00

  Right.

• 30:16Speaker 02

  And there came a large plot for sale in the height of development and it was heavily overpriced. I don't know if anyone was following the financial ticker, but something happened in 2008. And that same person.

• 30:30Speaker 00

  Everybody made good decisions.

• 30:31Speaker 02

  Well, the culmination of all those good decisions happened and they stopped, they stopped pouring the champagne.

• 30:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:36Speaker 02

  The person who was selling the property came back and said, hey, um, we just want to recoup our engineering costs. Would you still be interested? So a value opportunity came up of like, I don't need this, but I have an idea of what I can do with it.

• 30:53Speaker 00

  Oh, wow.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  And my brother Dan just so happened to be in really good graces and working for a contractor at the time. And he's one of the, the most respected individuals in, in like our small building community. Met with him and I kind of specked out like, what would this idea take in real time? He's like, less than the cost of what they offered you to buy the place for. I'm like, but you can do all this? He's like, I can. It's like, I'd like you to put your name on this place and make it something you're proud of. He's like, I still can do that. Okay, do it. And like a secret meeting like this.

• 31:24Speaker 00

  Oh, my god. Everyone wearing suits.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  Every, a lot of smoke, everybody's Scotch. It was 8 a.m.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  It was like, Dan, we're doing this. Don't fucking say a word. The story is, I'm moving back home. So building a, building a house takes a long time. And it's a beautiful plot on the hill where like from three towns over, you can see what's going on. So now we got a clear land and we're digging trenches and we're building this nice, beautiful New England home that exposes itself to the river. It's got viewpoints. It's got this crazy copper dome and all this stuff. Everything is settled for like creatively, everything's on the first floor. And there are multiple floors, but everything you need to get in and out of the access is on the first floor. And everybody's watching the project and everybody's like, when are you coming home? And everyone, you know, in the family is kind of excited.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  And meanwhile, I'm still in my residence, happy in Florida. So it finally gets done two years later and it's around Thanksgiving, which is a great time in New England, because everyone like comes home for Thanksgiving and they go to the bars for Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving football game. My mom's birthday is close to Thanksgiving. So we throw a Thanksgiving thing and it's not for my mom's birthday. Everybody comes over because we're keying the door to the house for the first time. Place still smells new and taking everybody for a tour and I'm bragging about like, ah, this is this and this is this thing. And I built a bar over the garage because I had one space for me.

• 32:52Speaker 02

  My mom doesn't like that, but she wanted to come see the whole house. And when everybody gets in the bar room, I give my mom a birthday present and it's the key to the house. And she, she like lost it. Like she absolutely, she's like, I can't, I can't. I'm like, no, it's already taken care of. With movers are coming tomorrow. My mom was living in the third floor of like a triple family in an attic in 300 square feet, with her stuff packed in and she was just by herself packed in and she was content and happy. That's who my mom is. She's, she's a lunch pail, blue, like she'd go to work.

• 33:28Speaker 02

  She wouldn't accept it. So then I had to negotiate. I had to be a diplomat of like, you don't understand, there'll be trucks there tomorrow. Everyone's on board. We're going to move your stuff over. I'll tell you what, it's, it's already here. This isn't for me. Could you please at least give it a try so all this doesn't go to waste? Well, if it's going to go to waste.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  And that was, that was like 15 years ago and she's been there ever since. And now it's, it's her place and we get together there on holidays and it's her place.

• 33:57Speaker 00

  And that's what a son should do for his mother.

• 34:00Speaker 02

  Well, again, I, I.

• 34:04Speaker 00

  Buy your mother a house.

• 34:06Speaker 02

  She, she earned it. She absolutely earned it.

• 34:08Speaker 00

  It's such a beautiful story too, John, because you also included everybody in that surprise, you know, like in, and, and you, I, I just think, I don't know, I just, I just think it's, it's so indicative of how you're always kind of thinking about, how can I, how can I extend my gratitude? You're such a generous, generous person and we'll talk about that. But after this, my parents are going to call me and say, why haven't you bought me a house? A hundred percent. Bill and Eileen are going to be like.

• 34:37Speaker 02

  We're against the wall. We have no space.

• 34:39Speaker 00

  We heard John on the podcast and we're wondering why you haven't built us a house.

• 34:48Speaker 00

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• 37:41Speaker 00

  You know, my dad used to take me to wrestling in the eighties. We used to go see.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  You're kidding.

• 37:45Speaker 00

  No, so we used to see Hulk Hogan.

• 37:48Speaker 02

  Where?

• 37:48Speaker 00

  Sergeant, I know you were going to ask me this. I forget. Maybe like the Worcester Centrum.

• 37:56Speaker 00

  Or as we would say, Worcester.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  The Worcester Centrum.

• 37:59Speaker 00

  So it was Hulk Hogan, Sergeant Slaughter, the Iron Sheik.

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:05Speaker 00

  High eighties, you know, very.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  So there, here's the cool thing. There were a lot more performers on that card, but you remember like.

• 38:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:12Speaker 02

  Americana, patriotism.

• 38:14Speaker 00

  Totally. It was, yeah, it was USA all the way.

• 38:17Speaker 02

  Xenophobic, all that, but that's, that was.

• 38:20Speaker 00

  Totally. That was a time. And I remember watching it and being like, like, you know, in retrospect now, it was kind of like the closest we could get to Las Vegas or something. Like, it was like, it was like how it felt like, like a high level, high energy performance.

• 38:37Speaker 02

  That's pretty, that's on the bullseye.

• 38:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, with, with audiences that were really, really invested.

• 38:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:44Speaker 00

  And can you explain, wrestling to me feels like a combination of dance, choreography, writing and story and like magic that you will never know the secrets to.

• 39:02Speaker 02

  I'll take that.

• 39:02Speaker 00

  Okay, is that fair?

• 39:04Speaker 02

  I think that's very fair.

• 39:05Speaker 00

  So when you are performing and you are in that arena and the audience gets to interact with you and you are, how much have you prepared for that day? Because the difference is like any other performance, there is such skill needed for the physical. I mean, you like Cirque du Soleil doesn't wing it.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  No.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  But you, there is, there's amount of improv in wrestling that I've noticed when I would see it. And also in, in watching it now, that is, I can't, can't always tell how much is prepared. How much is actually prepared and rehearsed, I guess?

• 39:46Speaker 02

  It depends, it completely depends on the performers.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:49Speaker 00

  Some like to do that, some don't.

• 39:51Speaker 02

  Some.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  What do you like to do?

• 39:54Speaker 02

  I like to be an improvisational performer.

• 39:56Speaker 00

  Right.

• 39:57Speaker 02

  But that is not, I don't go out and wing it.

• 40:00Speaker 00

  Right.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  I prepare my ass off.

• 40:03Speaker 00

  Right.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  So I start with the creative part. What is the story?

• 40:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  So if we're fighting over the fact that you stole 10 grand from me.

• 40:11Speaker 00

  Right.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  Everything I do is going to relate back to your theft. And everything you do is going to defend that you never took it. And the thing that WWE is different than SNL, that is different than sketch, the audience is the act, not observing the act. The audience is the act. So as a performer, the way I approach it is, okay, I have 25 minutes. We have a match together and we've been telling the story of you've stolen something from me.

• 40:43Speaker 00

  $10,000.

• 40:44Speaker 02

  For, for three weeks, this is a lot of money.

• 40:47Speaker 00

  You needed it for your.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  I was going to pay off my mom's house.

• 40:51Speaker 00

  Your mom's house.

• 40:52Speaker 02

  And you took that away from me.

• 40:53Speaker 00

  And now she can't get in.

• 40:54Speaker 02

  And now she's going to be evicted.

• 40:55Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 40:56Speaker 02

  So just by.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  What are you going to do about it?

• 40:58Speaker 02

  You've kicked my mom out of her house.

• 40:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, oh, that's so good.

• 41:01Speaker 02

  You did that.

• 41:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  And I almost, this was the last payment.

• 41:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  You know, I've, they're going to take it, the bank's going to foreclose.

• 41:07Speaker 00

  And I got the keys and I'm just swinging them right in front of you.

• 41:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. So now you, you being a creative mind, we could have that wrestling match right now.

• 41:15Speaker 00

  Right.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  Give us 25 minutes. I'll take 35.

• 41:17Speaker 00

  Okay, I love that. And then you're right. So the, all the moves are kind of connected to that, right? Like everything goes back to that theme.

• 41:25Speaker 02

  And here's where it gets very interesting. If the story dictates, in this match, it dictates, you've stolen something from me. We're going to ring the bell. I'm going to show that I'm more skilled and I've earned this, the right to make this payment. You're going to cheat, just like you stole and be like, no, I'm better.

• 41:42Speaker 00

  Right.

• 41:43Speaker 02

  And then there's going to come a point in the story where the crowd is like, would you do something? It's the typical Hulk up.

• 41:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:50Speaker 02

  It's called the comeback. So what I do is we have our why. What we need to really rehearse is from the comeback to the finish.

• 42:01Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  And that's usually.

• 42:03Speaker 00

  Oh, I see what you mean.

• 42:03Speaker 02

  That's usually the last.

• 42:04Speaker 00

  We need to rehearse the physical part of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 02

  The third act needs to be ad nauseam. You need to have it.

• 42:12Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:13Speaker 02

  Because you.

• 42:13Speaker 00

  You're doing dangerous things.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  You are doing dangerous things, but there's a fundamental trust between performers that you know X skill, I know X skill. And the conversation we can have before is, do you do anything specific that's outside of the fundamentals that I should know about?

• 42:27Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:28Speaker 02

  And the person who leads gets all that information and stores all these things in their card catalog. The third act needs to be prepared because it can also change.

• 42:39Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:40Speaker 02

  Basically, you use the first two acts to go out and improvise.

• 42:43Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  And if we get out there in the Worcester Centrum, which I believe to be a rowdy crowd, but slightly different than Boston and Hartford, but they change. And they're like, we're for you.

• 42:54Speaker 00

  Right. We don't want that mom to have her house.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  But keep in mind, we need to.

• 42:58Speaker 00

  That would be the Worcester.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  We need to gear for that moment where they're like, John, do something.

• 43:02Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  So immediately, a piece of line that I would throw in the water is punch me in the face. And they might cheer.

• 43:11Speaker 00

  You would say that to me, punch me in the face?

• 43:12Speaker 02

  I would say immediately, punch whatever we had planned, if we talked about something. And they came out and were like, yeah, Amy. I'm like, punch me in the face now. Or like, I'll go out.

• 43:20Speaker 00

  Because you want to make sure.

• 43:21Speaker 02

  I will go out and turn my shoulder to the crowd as if I'm confused. And when I come back, hit me in the face. Bam. So we did two things there. You threw the first punch, which is not fair. It's not virtuous.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  Not fair.

• 43:33Speaker 02

  And you did it when I wasn't looking.

• 43:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  So there's these subconscious things of like, they're for Amy, but this is my mom. And bam, oh, jeez, get on me. Come here. And then I would have you just beat the tar to me. And they might like that. And then I would just have you lean into that.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  Where it becomes like, oh, man, it's like watching a bad fight. And then I would just listen to be like, well, come on, do something. Do something. Nah, screw you. Do something. Okay, duck. Here we go. And then we go into now we have, now the audience is working with us rather than against us. But there have been instances where the people behind the curtain will tell the ref to tell you like, switch the finish.

• 44:17Speaker 02

  So we've decided that the other person is going to win. So if you're super prepared, you can change things.

• 44:24Speaker 00

  Switch the finish.

• 44:25Speaker 02

  And change in real time. Now, keep in mind, as I'm saying, when I turn around, punch me in the face, I'm listening to the crowd. I'm hoping you're going to be there. I'm also listening to my ref. So sorry, that is, I thought that was real.

• 44:37Speaker 00

  No, it's fake.

• 44:39Speaker 02

  It's a real ruse. Anyway, I have the ref being like, you have 17 minutes left. You have 16 minutes left. So like, it's all happening in real time. And there are coaches watching you from behind a curtain that will tell the ref what they think you should do.

• 44:55Speaker 00

  Right. Oh, you're getting notes. You're getting notes in real time.

• 44:58Speaker 02

  In real time.

• 44:59Speaker 00

  But that's why live TV is so.

• 45:01Speaker 02

  It's great. That's why I wanted to do it forever. And I just physically, I can't do it anymore. But that's why whenever anyone says like, what do you like more, wrestling?

• 45:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:11Speaker 02

  That's why I got run out of Hollywood the first time around.

• 45:14Speaker 00

  You talked about that. I love what you said, which is like.

• 45:16Speaker 02

  Look at what we just talked about. That's fucking great.

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Right.

• 45:19Speaker 02

  You can feel the excitement. Like, I want to be there now.

• 45:22Speaker 00

  The noise.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  And then when you get like, when you get fluent at it, when you're like, oh, I kind of understand this. I'll do this. And then the challenge becomes like, oh, man, the UK crowd is throwing a beach ball around. How the do I work that into the act? Go out and get that thing and pop it. When you come back, when you come back, I'm going to give you my finish. Real time. This stuff, I've had people get married. I've had people start fights in stands. And we work it all into the act.

• 45:48Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 45:49Speaker 02

  Just because you're prepared.

• 45:51Speaker 00

  It's the opposite of like, doing stand up and not wanting a heckler, basically. You want that feeling that people are listening and participating.

• 45:58Speaker 02

  Here's the thing, it's not that we want it. It's just, it is.

• 46:02Speaker 00

  It is.

• 46:03Speaker 02

  In stand up, the kind of protocol is like, enjoy the comedy. Don't heckle.

• 46:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:10Speaker 02

  Here, it's like, you have paid your money to heckle.

• 46:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  And there's 12,000 of you. All right, good luck. And you can, you can heckle en masse.

• 46:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 02

  Chance start out that are too hot for TV, that Netflix is turning us off and turning us off. And literally, the audio goes out. Like, it's, it's crazy. And you can't, the more you try to be like, calm down, everybody.

• 46:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course. You don't want to be the calm down character.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  Understand that you're working with them. They are part of the act.

• 46:39Speaker 00

  I would be like, you guys, calm down. Stop. I'd be like, guys, it's so loud. That would be my thing. Guys, it's so late.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  From Hoover in Massachusetts.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  It's so late and it's so loud. I'd be like, why are we fighting? Why are we fighting? This is crazy. That would be my character.

• 46:55Speaker 02

  I, do you hear that?

• 46:56Speaker 00

  Let's take a nap.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Do you hear that off in the distance? It's the money printing machine.

• 47:00Speaker 00

  Take a nap, take a nap, take a nap.

• 47:03Speaker 02

  Man, calm down shirts. We sell chamomile tea. Oh, this is amazing.

• 47:09Speaker 00

  That's actually a great idea.

• 47:11Speaker 02

  I can hear the money. I can hear it.

• 47:12Speaker 00

  I go, shh. And all of my holds, all of my moves are like, to just be like, quiet.

• 47:19Speaker 02

  Just be quiet.

• 47:20Speaker 00

  Like, and I just, I snap and they go down.

• 47:22Speaker 02

  Just be quiet.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  Quiet.

• 47:24Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 47:24Speaker 00

  And then everybody brings their blankets in. They're like, shh.

• 47:27Speaker 02

  Everybody calm down. Wait. We sell big foam hands. Wait.

• 47:33Speaker 02

  Calm down, Amy.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  You won when the entire place is quiet.

• 47:36Speaker 02

  CDA.

• 47:37Speaker 00

  Calm down, Amy. CDA, it's, instead of CBD oil, it's CDA oil.

• 47:44Speaker 02

  We'll get you that. We'll get that brand partnership working. This.

• 47:47Speaker 00

  This is fucking genius.

• 47:48Speaker 02

  We did this here.

• 47:48Speaker 00

  We just did this here.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  And here's what's also so crazy about the WWE, you might see that character. They'll maybe watch me like, hmm, yeah, they're onto something.

• 47:59Speaker 02

  Get the CDD out there.

• 48:00Speaker 00

  I love what you said in your transition to acting is that it was confusing to not have the show. You know, like, the super long hours, lots of waiting around for your time.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  Different mindset.

• 48:12Speaker 00

  Totally. And you spoke about how in the beginning, it was really confusing.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  As a young 20 something, I wanted to be there and I want to go to the bar afterwards.

• 48:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, right.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  And then do it in the next town, in the next town.

• 48:23Speaker 00

  And get instant feedback.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  It's the best.

• 48:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  And, and I'm not saying like crushing it is awesome. It's the best when you bomb.

• 48:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:31Speaker 02

  It's the best. Like, because then you're like whizzing to be like, I got another performance in 24 hours. What do I do? Like, it's the best.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. And you don't get feedback when you're shooting a, I mean, you do from the director. It's different.

• 48:43Speaker 02

  It's a different mindset.

• 48:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:45Speaker 02

  And it took me appreciation of the mindset to really apply.

• 48:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:51Speaker 02

  And, and people like you to bet on me and know that like, oh, man, I'm getting an opportunity here. What, what can I do? Show up early and fucking be prepared.

• 49:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:01Speaker 02

  Be ready to go.

• 49:02Speaker 00

  I mean, okay, so we worked together on a movie called Sisters.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  Me and Tina, the great Paula Pell. And it was so fun.

• 49:11Speaker 02

  Tons of comedians, great cast.

• 49:12Speaker 00

  Great cast. It was so fun to work with you. And you and Paula Pell fell in love. You loved each other. And I, I mean, to me.

• 49:20Speaker 02

  You had a few conversations over wine.

• 49:23Speaker 00

  You and Paula had a few wine. What, what did you guys, do you guys hung out and drank wine?

• 49:27Speaker 02

  A lot.

• 49:27Speaker 00

  What's, I mean, what's so great about Paula? What do you love about her?

• 49:31Speaker 02

  I like her, her perspective. I love her courage. Man, like, I, I just like that energy. I, like, again, I say anchors and sails. She's a sail.

• 49:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:42Speaker 02

  You know, like, always curious, always creative, off the wall.

• 49:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:47Speaker 02

  I just know, I know any idea is going to have like, that whimsy, that magic in it.

• 49:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  And I want to be with those people.

• 49:55Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you, were you a big comedy fan growing up? Because you've done a lot. What were you watching? What we were all watching, SNL? And what were you watching?

• 50:04Speaker 02

  At a young age, I was watching stuff I shouldn't be watching. So my dad was the only person and my only male in New England that didn't care for sports. Not kidding. Like, we never grew up with the Red Sox, the Celtics, because that stuff all happened when I got to junior high.

• 50:17Speaker 00

  Right.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  And I had to fall into peer group. So like, I gotta, I gotta start caring about sports.

• 50:21Speaker 00

  Right.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  My dad liked old 80s titty comedies and pro wrestling. Like Benny Hill, he loved it. So I'm watching like.

• 50:30Speaker 00

  Benny Hill, my, people don't understand how important Benny Hill was. I mean.

• 50:36Speaker 02

  Unless you're my dad.

• 50:37Speaker 00

  It's, it's, and now you watch it now and you're like, Jesus Christ, this is a terrible show. Like Benny Hill is, talk about predator.

• 50:44Speaker 02

  It just didn't age well for, for the time.

• 50:46Speaker 00

  But at the time, I remember being a little kid, being like, what is this?

• 50:50Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 50:51Speaker 00

  A lady standing behind a bunch of melons.

• 50:54Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 50:54Speaker 00

  And Benny Hill's like, hee hee hee, like a cartoon character trying to grab.

• 50:58Speaker 02

  There's always a chase scene, physical comedy.

• 51:00Speaker 00

  And it was like, what, what is this? Like.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:04Speaker 00

  And, and so in our psyche, Benny Hill.

• 51:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. The chase with the music has become a meme.

• 51:11Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 51:12Speaker 02

  You don't have to do the Benny Hill style, but you do chase the music and it's, it's a meme.

• 51:15Speaker 00

  Yeah. And did they watch like, did they?

• 51:17Speaker 02

  We watched like Kentucky Fried Movie.

• 51:18Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  Animal House, Caddyshack.

• 51:21Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  Anything Rodney did.

• 51:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:24Speaker 02

  Like, I mean, you name it. I mean, all those comedies. We talked, we talked about Mr. Mom. Like, it's just 80s comedies.

• 51:33Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 51:33Speaker 02

  My dad would literally fast forward through the romance of like the rom coms. Get into the jokes. But they were great.

• 51:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, but dude, some of them, like you go back and you're like, oh, my God, Porky's, like.

• 51:46Speaker 02

  Porky's was a, that was on.

• 51:48Speaker 00

  That was on constantly. And when you were a young woman watching Porky's, it was not good.

• 51:54Speaker 02

  So.

• 51:55Speaker 00

  John, it really fucked, it really fucked with our heads.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  I get it.

• 51:59Speaker 00

  It did because it was like, what is going on? It's like, like, there was so much, like, you know, I remember watching Weird Science and being like, incredible movie. And then a couple of years later, I'm like, okay, two teenage boys create a sex robot. It's Kelly LeBroque. And they're like, come sex robot, come meet our friends. And I'm like, that did, that does fuck you up. It does. We, we saw, I'm sure this has happened where you look at an eighties movie, you're like, this is hilarious comedy. And then you play it and you're like, oops. There's a lot of that. But you have, you have a, like, you have a real knack and love, I think, for comedy especially, but you do all different kinds of acting. What do you, what do you, like, what's your relationship to acting right now? Like, what, you know, you're, you're, you're retired.

• 52:44Speaker 02

  Uh, I'm, I'm a retired physical performer.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  We'll see.

• 52:47Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no.

• 52:49Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 52:49Speaker 02

  So I have stated that speaking in absolutes is impossible.

• 52:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:54Speaker 02

  I've also used the term, it would be financial suicide for someone to be like, here's what it's gonna take. And I'd be like, you did it. I'm a liar. Financial suicide.

• 53:07Speaker 00

  You know that's how Judge Judy, Judge Judy negotiates her contracts? She slides over a number?

• 53:13Speaker 02

  That is, so she's such a G.

• 53:15Speaker 00

  Such a G.

• 53:16Speaker 02

  She is.

• 53:16Speaker 00

  And then she goes, and if you don't want me to do it?

• 53:20Speaker 02

  Guess what?

• 53:20Speaker 00

  Can I go home?

• 53:21Speaker 02

  Guess what?

• 53:22Speaker 00

  Who cares? I got, I'm good.

• 53:23Speaker 02

  I got a, uh, I got a 315. It's 307.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  She's like, she slides, she slides and they look and then they go, welcome back or whatever.

• 53:34Speaker 02

  So never performing physically again.

• 53:36Speaker 00

  Okay, got it, got it.

• 53:37Speaker 02

  And there's, there's multi tiers to that. Uh, I, I need to stop because physically I want to be, I want to enjoy a long, good life. I don't want to have a bunch of crusty years and punishing my body. The math isn't in my favor for the good years.

• 53:50Speaker 00

  What is the part of your body that barks the most when it's?

• 53:53Speaker 02

  Low back, but so, so I'm a male and, or I'm a human at 50, that's everyone.

• 53:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  Aside from that, I did really good.

• 54:00Speaker 00

  That's great. Do you do like Pilates and yoga and like stretchy stuff?

• 54:04Speaker 02

  Heavy stretchy stuff.

• 54:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:05Speaker 02

  And I hate it. And I do it a lot, all the time.

• 54:08Speaker 00

  Can you touch your toes?

• 54:09Speaker 02

  I can.

• 54:10Speaker 00

  Fuck it. I can't touch my toes.

• 54:18Speaker 02

  My suit is tough.

• 54:19Speaker 00

  Oh my God, John is doing it. He's touching his toes.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  I actually can't bend farther than the suit.

• 54:24Speaker 00

  Whoa.

• 54:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:25Speaker 00

  That's really good, John.

• 54:27Speaker 02

  I can go hands flat on the floor. That's my stretch.

• 54:29Speaker 00

  Hands flat on the floor?

• 54:30Speaker 02

  That's my stretch every day in the shower. And if you walk in on me taking a shower, you'll see me in a different POV.

• 54:37Speaker 00

  You can do hands flat. Man, I was really.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  It's just all the funky bits. Spread open. That is the, every morning, full spread. Start with that full spread.

• 54:45Speaker 00

  Man, I, I was, I was really hoping that you would be not flexible because.

• 54:51Speaker 02

  Cause that's, I have to work on that now.

• 54:53Speaker 00

  You have to work at it. That's incredible.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  I want to move around.

• 54:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  So I can talk about it or do it.

• 54:58Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 54:59Speaker 02

  And it sucks and I hate it and I do it.

• 55:00Speaker 00

  Oh God.

• 55:01Speaker 02

  And it's great.

• 55:01Speaker 00

  You do, you, you're good at doing things you don't like to do.

• 55:04Speaker 02

  But I like to do them because I like what it yields.

• 55:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and forced austerities are a luxury because life gives you stuff that you really don't want to do, that you didn't get to choose. So.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  And a lot of times to choose, like, I want to do this or I want to be good at this. All right. It's going to be a lot of things that are going to be tough.

• 55:21Speaker 00

  Yeah. Okay. So I'll fucking stretch more. Jesus.

• 55:24Speaker 02

  You gotta.

• 55:25Speaker 00

  I know.

• 55:25Speaker 02

  You gotta. I mean, it's just, it's like a crusty rubber band. You gotta, you gotta make sure. Don't, don't let it get too weird.

• 55:32Speaker 00

  Oh God. Okay.

• 55:33Speaker 02

  So physically I'm good.

• 55:34Speaker 00

  So you're physically good and you're feeling good and your relationship to acting now feels like what? What have you learned about yourself as you've become, as you've acted more and more?

• 55:42Speaker 02

  What, what have I learned?

• 55:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:43Speaker 02

  Acting and wrestling are the same. The same.

• 55:47Speaker 00

  Interesting.

• 55:48Speaker 02

  I don't run the company, so I don't control who wins and loses.

• 55:51Speaker 00

  Right.

• 55:51Speaker 02

  Uh, I get a chance to make choices within my story, but I can't change the finish. I should be prepared. I should hit my time. I shouldn't ask for more than I'm given and I should be grateful for what I have. If you do good work and you are professional, it increases the math of people calling you back.

• 56:06Speaker 00

  Right. And also I gotta say, John, you're such a softie. You were the, like, you're really, really, I talked about it earlier, you're such a generous person. You're the person that's given the most, um, you know, you've, you've fulfilled more make a wish, wishes than any celebrity over 650 at this point. You, you do incredible amounts of charity work. I know that about you. Giving that amount of time to people is expensive. It's a lot of energy. And, and even that, sometimes I'm sure you walk away feeling like, I wish I could have given more. How do you kind of, when you approach people who are sick and ill, because a lot of people are very scared of reaching out when people are in a tough place. You know what I'm talking about? It's not easy to be around, especially

• 56:51Speaker 00

  young people who are having, um, perhaps like, who are perhaps at, close to the end of their lives.

• 56:58Speaker 02

  Remember your why.

• 56:59Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 57:00Speaker 02

  Why am I there? Am I there to be scared?

• 57:04Speaker 00

  Right.

• 57:04Speaker 02

  Am I there to be sad? No. I am there to be the hope. And that is my why. And now I'm retired. People like Cody, people like Rhea, people like Roman, it's their time to be the hope. You know what I'm saying?

• 57:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:22Speaker 02

  Those experiences renew my faith in humanity.

• 57:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:26Speaker 02

  They give me gratitude for life.

• 57:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:28Speaker 02

  I'm so grateful for the people I've met.

• 57:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:31Speaker 02

  Like, and man, when people are just raw, emotionally excited, you see it. It's real. You can't fake it.

• 57:39Speaker 00

  I like what I'm learning about you, um, John, is like, you're chase, you're, you're chasing emotion. Like you're looking for it. You like, want to have real connection.

• 57:48Speaker 02

  Don't we all?

• 57:50Speaker 00

  No.

• 57:51Speaker 02

  I disagree.

• 57:52Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, I guess. I mean, I guess we do, but, but yes, we do at the end.

• 57:57Speaker 02

  There is no 100% certainty of anything. There might be a mathematical anomaly.

• 58:01Speaker 00

  I guess it's just that people don't make it a priority, right? Like, they, they might want it, but they, but, but it feels like you prioritize connection.

• 58:08Speaker 02

  That's what matters. I'm just.

• 58:10Speaker 00

  I'm just saying, like.

• 58:11Speaker 02

  I get what you, I'm just trying to, I'm trying to do me the best, the best I can.

• 58:15Speaker 00

  You won't take a compliment. You won't take a fucking compliment.

• 58:16Speaker 02

  I will say at this moment in life, loving connection is pretty important.

• 58:20Speaker 00

  I'm swinging them around in the ring and I'm going to give you a compliment before the finish. Now everybody calm down and get quiet so I can compliment you. And now take a nap.

• 58:28Speaker 02

  CDA, CDA.

• 58:30Speaker 00

  It's too late. Okay. Um, and so, um, uh, the other thing is you, you brought up Cody.

• 58:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:38Speaker 00

  So we do a thing on the podcast where we talk to someone who knows our guest.

• 58:43Speaker 02

  I did this for Idris.

• 58:44Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, that's right.

• 58:45Speaker 02

  It's where I gave you the, it's where the mythology behind that bottle of wine, you've pounded during this show.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Oh my God.

• 58:51Speaker 02

  And forgot that I did your show. Yes. Yes.

• 58:55Speaker 00

  I remember you did it. What was the, what was the mythology? What is the?

• 58:58Speaker 02

  I told you the next time I see you, bring a bottle of wine.

• 59:00Speaker 00

  Oh, I did forget that.

• 59:01Speaker 02

  I wish you would let me know you forgot that. That way I wouldn't have had to carry that in my bag.

• 59:07Speaker 00

  This is so fancy, this wine. I can't wait to drink it. Okay. Thank you for doing that for Idris. And, um.

• 59:13Speaker 02

  It's Idris.

• 59:14Speaker 00

  I know.

• 59:14Speaker 02

  He's my guy.

• 59:15Speaker 00

  And, um, Cody talked to us today.

• 59:19Speaker 02

  I'm so glad you talked to him.

• 59:20Speaker 00

  Cody wrote, first of all.

• 59:22Speaker 02

  Cause I will say, not a lot of wrestlers on Good Hang.

• 59:28Speaker 02

  Trying, you're trying to have a diverse portfolio of people in the entertainment space. Not a lot of WWE superstars on Good Hang. Think I might be numero uno.

• 59:40Speaker 00

  Yep. Well, we've got two today.

• 59:42Speaker 02

  That's right. See, there we go.

• 59:43Speaker 00

  Chill out. We've reached our quota.

• 59:45Speaker 02

  This is a great day. You have. You've increased your population by a hundred percent.

• 59:49Speaker 00

  You're right. And I do want to talk to more wrestlers. And that's why I started the podcast.

• 59:53Speaker 02

  You don't, but you will. Out of guilt. You'd be like, we gotta, could somebody get the number of that guy? Cause we'll have, that'll be crazy.

• 59:58Speaker 00

  But you know, I love talking to Cody and, um.

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  That's good.

• 1:00:02Speaker 00

  Well, first of all, I found out that, um, the term babyface, which.

• 1:00:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:06Speaker 00

  Absolutely love. And, uh.

• 1:00:07Speaker 02

  Heel too.

• 1:00:09Speaker 00

  Heel. Would I be considered a babyface?

• 1:00:12Speaker 02

  So this is another thing. It's kind of, it's kind of ambiguous. If you went out and tried to be liked, you would be a heel.

• 1:00:19Speaker 00

  Fuck.

• 1:00:20Speaker 02

  I think if you went out and you were yourself.

• 1:00:22Speaker 00

  Babyface?

• 1:00:23Speaker 02

  Born babyface.

• 1:00:24Speaker 00

  And then, uh, do women get different terms in wrestling? Do they?

• 1:00:28Speaker 02

  No, the terms are universal.

• 1:00:29Speaker 00

  Okay. Love that. Okay. And it was really fun to talk about him noticing how much you not only care about your own work and pay attention to the good work of others, but that you're kind of constantly, um, learning new things. I mean, you taught your, you learned, you know Mandarin.

• 1:00:47Speaker 02

  Little bit.

• 1:00:48Speaker 00

  You know French, I hear?

• 1:00:49Speaker 02

  Little bit.

• 1:00:50Speaker 00

  Okay. Congrats. Um.

• 1:00:52Speaker 02

  So like, that's like, you know math? I know a little bit of math. I don't know all of math. Like I, I know, I know.

• 1:00:59Speaker 00

  Could you speak, um, could you order in a restaurant in both those languages?

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:01:04Speaker 00

  Congrats. That's great. Well, Cody was like, what are, Cody's question is such a brotherly question, which is like, what are you going to do with all this knowledge? He was like, write a book. And if you don't write a book, what's the point of it all? And then he was like, what can you not do well? But Cody was really funny. His question was really this search for knowledge and get, like, you really want to know things. What do you, what do you, what, what's, what, what's behind that search? What's behind, like, the drive for those things?

• 1:01:36Speaker 02

  Am I honoring life correctly?

• 1:01:38Speaker 00

  Yeah. But, but why do you worry that you're not?

• 1:01:40Speaker 02

  Because look how lucky I am.

• 1:01:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:01:43Speaker 02

  Like, am I, am I doing enough?

• 1:01:45Speaker 00

  Am I doing enough?

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  If I'm not moving forward.

• 1:01:48Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:49Speaker 02

  I'm not honoring the luck. I, I talk about like earning the sunset. I'm big on like honoring the luck. This is not in my control. This is like the weird mystical piece of the universe from who I am when I was born, where I was born, the opportunities I've been had that are beyond my control. Just go like hell and try to honor the luck. It's what I do alone to focus, stay committed, do something hard, feel good about myself. Like it is mine.

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  But when you go to my wrestling matches, you're going to be encouraged to just take, take a break and calm down and take a nap. Just, you got it. You did it.

• 1:02:29Speaker 02

  You are. You want to talk about.

• 1:02:30Speaker 00

  Because I do think productivity is a curse. You know, it can be a curse.

• 1:02:32Speaker 02

  Leaving money on the table.

• 1:02:35Speaker 00

  Okay, we got a little quick lightning round. Here we go. What are you reading?

• 1:02:39Speaker 02

  Right now, manias, crisis and crashes, eighth edition.

• 1:02:44Speaker 00

  What's that?

• 1:02:44Speaker 02

  It is a history of market manias, crashes and bubbles.

• 1:02:50Speaker 00

  Uh huh. Okay, great.

• 1:02:52Speaker 02

  Because I just want to know about it.

• 1:02:53Speaker 00

  You want to know about it, okay.

• 1:02:54Speaker 02

  It's a tough book to read.

• 1:02:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:57Speaker 02

  The South Sea Crisis and the two of mania bubble and yes.

• 1:03:00Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:03:00Speaker 02

  Railroad fever in the 1800s.

• 1:03:03Speaker 00

  An album that you're into right now that you've been listening to?

• 1:03:06Speaker 02

  Uh.

• 1:03:06Speaker 00

  Old or new?

• 1:03:07Speaker 02

  I'm rocking to some cocktail jazz because I want to try to learn how to play it. But when I'm alone, blues, like a John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf blues.

• 1:03:17Speaker 00

  Okay. A fun movie you've seen recently or like a, or a comfort movie? Like one that's on that if you see it, you're just like, I want to watch it.

• 1:03:25Speaker 02

  Just watched the Lorne Michaels documentary.

• 1:03:27Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:03:28Speaker 02

  Loved it.

• 1:03:29Speaker 00

  Loved it.

• 1:03:30Speaker 02

  Like reminds me a lot of what we do. And man, when I walked the hallowed halls of Saturday Night Live, like as a single serving guest, the amount of respect I have for everyone and then him seeing, seeing that, it was awesome.

• 1:03:48Speaker 00

  You know, John, the thing about wrestling?

• 1:03:51Speaker 02

  You, you know, you've made it when everyone has an impression of you.

• 1:03:54Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 1:03:55Speaker 02

  He is what a, what a amazing person.

• 1:03:58Speaker 00

  When I was wrestling in Canada, um, okay. Are you, are you watching anything fun?

• 1:04:03Speaker 02

  We just got through four seasons. This is going to be taped, but we're taping it on Will Forte's birthday.

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  Happy birthday, Will. Happy birthday, Will. Happy birthday in hell, Will.

• 1:04:15Speaker 02

  That's Tina Faye's.

• 1:04:16Speaker 00

  Tina's, the four seasons, great second season.

• 1:04:19Speaker 02

  So we just got through the second season of that.

• 1:04:20Speaker 00

  Fantastic.

• 1:04:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, so that's that.

• 1:04:22Speaker 00

  And then you're in the new movie, Little Brother with Eric Andre. Congratulations on that. And what was it like working on that and the experience of working on that?

• 1:04:30Speaker 02

  Eric is an eccentric, physical comedian. He is awesome. I got to say, I've always been impressed by what he can do.

• 1:04:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:04:39Speaker 02

  Give, give someone the chance to, to show what they can do and you set yourself up to be surprised. He crushed.

• 1:04:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:04:46Speaker 02

  Not only, I read the script and it came from him and I'm like, dude, this is your vehicle. I will gladly do this because you're going to shine. There's also parts in there that are really heartfelt. And he crushed those as well.

• 1:04:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:00Speaker 02

  And like, what a moment. I think it's going to be a great movie. It's going to be a great movie for people to see it on Netflix. I'm very happy to be a part of it. I got to do a comedy.

• 1:05:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:07Speaker 02

  Where you know with comedies, you're like laughing all the time.

• 1:05:09Speaker 00

  Well, this is my last question, which is like, what, I know you love to laugh and you love comedy. What are you, what's making you laugh right now? Like, what do you?

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  It could be anything.

• 1:05:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, like is there a video, a scene from a, what's something that you like?

• 1:05:22Speaker 02

  You never know. I think, okay, X makes me laugh.

• 1:05:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  I rule out everything else. A lot of it is me, like the joke's on me.

• 1:05:30Speaker 00

  Uh huh. Right, being self, like, yeah.

• 1:05:33Speaker 02

  Allowing yourself to be a soundboard for humor, not only like eases the tension. You never know what it can lead to.

• 1:05:40Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  A lot of it is like the big bullseye in the Fuchsia pinstripe.

• 1:05:44Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:05:46Speaker 02

  So if you open that door, it's kind of cool. And then it gets like, you don't want to be too crazy because sometimes ball busting can be bullying. And you always want to, you know, cool, cool that teacup.

• 1:05:56Speaker 00

  But a little bit of teasing is like, can be a love language.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  Door that like, hey.

• 1:05:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:00Speaker 02

  Look, look at me, I'm such an idiot.

• 1:06:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  And then like, hey, let's talk.

• 1:06:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, you're trying to get connection there. You're back to connection.

• 1:06:07Speaker 02

  Laughter helps connection, doesn't it? If we're laughing about something, we're talking about something.

• 1:06:11Speaker 00

  It's so true.

• 1:06:12Speaker 02

  So my folks are going to love Little Brother, they're going to laugh, then they're going to wake up next morning and be like, what's your favorite part?

• 1:06:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, Sina, I love.

• 1:06:19Speaker 02

  This is a good hang.

• 1:06:20Speaker 00

  It's such a good hang. I love seeing you. You're so fun to talk to and fun to work with and such a considerate, nice person. Thanks for doing this pod.

• 1:06:32Speaker 02

  Thanks for the kind words.

• 1:06:33Speaker 00

  I probably will never wear a tie again for anybody, but you never know. My God, thanks.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, you look great.

• 1:06:38Speaker 00

  We literally just ran out and got it across the street.

• 1:06:40Speaker 02

  You look great.

• 1:06:41Speaker 00

  Thanks.

• 1:06:42Speaker 02

  And you just put this together. Like a lot of those just put together looks are really trying hard.

• 1:06:46Speaker 00

  Well, I realized halfway through, I was like, he's going to show up in a suit. I'm like, we got, and we were like, we got to get our shit together. We got.

• 1:06:53Speaker 02

  Let's go, we have six minutes.

• 1:06:55Speaker 00

  Paper slice.

• 1:06:57Speaker 02

  Grab the hatches. It looks great, thank you.

• 1:07:00Speaker 00

  Thank you so much for doing it.

• 1:07:01Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:07:02Speaker 00

  Yeah. Thank you so much, John Sina. It was so fun having you here and I can't wait to take this tie off and get reg, get back to my regular sticking it to the man. But, um, no, it was so fun talking to you and such a pleasure always to hear your perspective and POV. And for this polar plunge, as we wrap up, um, you know, we talked, John and I talked a lot about comedies, 80s comedies, those like big, dumb, funny things that we grew up on. And speaking of big, dumb and funny, um, I just want to remind everybody that Wet Hot American Summer, a film I did 25 years ago,

• 1:07:42Speaker 00

  is celebrating its 25th year and there's going to be a million different ways to go back and watch what is really genuinely a funny, dumb movie with a lot of cast members who are at, at the beginning of their careers. So check that out if you can and check out John Sina's new movie, Little Brother, and continue to support the arts and wrestling because if we learned one thing, they are the same thing. Bye. You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite.

• 1:08:24Speaker 00

  For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaia McMullin and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:08:42Speaker 03

  Pink Pantheress here. Coach and Spotify are teaming up to bring music and style together and they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the Tabby Tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences and personalized products. And discover custom playlists on Spotify, booked just for you based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at coach.com.

• 1:09:08Speaker 04

  Coca-Cola. For the big, for the small, the short and the tall. Peacemakers, risk takers. For the optimists, pessimists. For long distance love. For introverts and extroverts. The thinkers and the doers. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Take out some Coca-Cola at a store near you.