511: Rob Riggle is Gellin'!

Twenty-three years in the Marine Corps, a decade chasing a career in comedy, and eventually a seat at the Saturday Night Live and Daily Show tables—Rob Riggle https://robriggle.com/'s journey from Kansas to Hollywood is anything but conventional. A retired Marine lieutenant colonel, he's also one of comedy's most recognizable faces, with memorable roles in The Hangover, 21 Jump Street, and The Other Guys. Rob joins Mike to talk about the unlikely intersection of military discipline and comedy, the ten-year pursuit of his SNL dream, and the Dr. Scholl's audition that nearly broke him. They also explore why boredom might be the enemy of creativity, the value of learning to entertain yourself, and why sometimes the best way to get through a miserable task is to turn it into a game. Rob also discusses JIMMY https://www.jimmythemovie.com/, the new film about World War II hero Jimmy Stewart, in which he plays Stewart's commanding officer and mentor. It's a story about service, sacrifice, and the price of leadership that hits close to home for a man who has worn the uniform himself. Go see JIMMY now through Sunday, November 15 and get $5 off with the code JIMMY5 through Fandango https://www.fandango.com/jimmy-2026-243764/movie-overview Many thanks to our excellent sponsors GoodRanchers.com/ROWE https://bit.ly/TWIHIxGoodRanchers—100% of their meat comes from American farms and ranches and delivered straight to your door. Start your plan and get a FREE Ground Beef Bundle with your firs order. PureTalk.com/ROWE https://bit.ly/PureTalkRowe—Switch your phone service today and get UNLIMITED talk, text, data, and 30G hot spot for just $29.95 a month for LIFE! Not your phone's life—your life! Meta: The future is for everyone—especially those who risked their lives for our country. To help American heroes like Don Overton regain their independence, Meta is donating Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses to blind veterans nationwide. Go to bva.org/glasses https://bit.ly/TWIHIxMetaBVA to learn more. ACE Scholarships provides privately funded scholarships that help low-income families afford private-school education for their children. Learn more at EducationFreedom.org https://bit.ly/TWIHIxACEScholarships Chapter.com/MikeRowe https://bit.ly/TWIHIxChapter—Chapter compares every Medicare plan nationwide to recommend the right coverage for you. Call them at 804-CHAPTER or visit chapter.com/mikerowe https://bit.ly/TWIHIxChapter to get free, unbiased Medicare help. Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and standalone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan's contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don't directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.

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

• 0:03Mike Rowe?

  My name's Mike Rowe. This is The Way I Heard It. Chuck Klaus Meyer is standing by still, and I don't want to put words in your mouth Chuck, but it looks like from the countenance and the visage that I observe that you are still awash in the warm glow of this scintillating conversation.

• 0:21Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. And really, the person in Rob Riggle, this guy is the real deal. He's a patriot, he's funny AF, as the kids might say, and just the nicest guy.

• 0:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  The nicest guy.

• 0:35Mike Rowe?

  I mean, for a trained killer, he is remarkably friendly.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 0:42Mike Rowe?

  If you recognize his face, it's probably because you've seen one of the 54 or 57 films he's been in. He doesn't know how many, and neither does IMDb, and that speaks to him's, his decency more than their competence. But he has become one of the most beloved jackasses and idiots in Hollywood.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Oh, he does it so well, yeah.

• 1:07Mike Rowe?

  He, I mean, he can do something with his face that somehow makes all intelligence just leech out of it, and just leaves you with what he describes as kind of a blundering, certain series of characters that are all mistaken.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  Right. He had a description for it that I forget, but...

• 1:28Mike Rowe?

  It's like where arrogance and ignorance collide.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. But listen to these titles, you know, Step Brothers, The Hangover, The Other Guys, 21 Jump Street, Dumb and Dumber 2. He's just done a lot of them, you know, and he's got a new movie out called Jimmy.

• 1:45Mike Rowe?

  Which is terrific. Boy, if you're a fan of It's a Wonderful Life, this movie is not about that film. But it is about Jimmy Stewart. You know, Jimmy Stewart, aside from being so beloved, in large part for that film, he had already won his Oscar

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:01Mike Rowe?

  in 1941, I think.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 2:03Mike Rowe?

  He was beloved. He was already a bona fide movie star, and he joins, he joins up, you know? He's drafted.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:12Mike Rowe?

  But he could have easily deferred. No, no one wanted him.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  And, you know, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, whatever the mayor's guy's name was.

• 2:20Mike Rowe?

  Louis, I think.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, Louis B. Mayer. Yeah, he tells him, you know, "We'll get you out of it, no problem." And he says no.

• 2:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, so Jimmy lists, or goes into the draft as a private, and works his way up, and winds up a squadron commander, flies all kinds of missions during the war, ultimately retires as a brigadier general. And most people have no idea.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 2:44Mike Rowe?

  No idea that Mr. Smith goes to Washington and the Philadelphia story, and of course, George Bailey and It's a Wonderful Life. The pure patriotism.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Rear Window.

• 2:55Mike Rowe?

  Oh, Rear Window.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Love that movie, yeah.

• 2:56Mike Rowe?

  Anyway, he's Jimmy Stewart, and this movie, full disclosure, Rob Riggle does not play Jimmy Stewart. This would be a much better setup if he did. But he has a pivotal role in the film. So he came by to talk about that, but he's so generous with his time. We, we talk about a lot of other things. And look, mostly, I wanted to meet him. I've been a fan because I've seen all the movies Chuck just rattled off, and many more. But prior to that career, he served in the United States Marine Corps for 23 years.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's, that's a stint, yeah.

• 3:31Mike Rowe?

  So who goes from the Marines to Dumb and Dumber? Who goes from, you know, close order drills to The Hangover?

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Well, SNL, I think, was his first gig. SNL, and then he did The Daily Show, you know?

• 3:43Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. This conversation touches on, again, so many weird parallels that it just, it's extraordinary.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:52Mike Rowe?

  And including Tony Robbins, which I did not think we were gonna go there.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  You guys have Tony Robbins in common, yeah.

• 3:57Mike Rowe?

  I know. It's crazy. I love this conversation. I'm counting him as my friend now. He's starting his own foundation, the Rob Riggle Foundation. He's gonna do great things for veterans and their kids. And we don't get into that much because he's too modest, but I wanted to mention it here in the preamble, as well as plug Jimmy once again. And his book.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:18Mike Rowe?

  Grit, something, and spit. You got that handy?

• 4:22Speaker 01

  No, hold on.

• 4:23Mike Rowe?

  Well, you know, it's funny, he wrote this book because for 10 years, on New Years, he told me, he always makes a list of things he's going to do, or aspires to do, and for 10 years, write a book was on the list.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's called Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life.

• 4:43Mike Rowe?

  I mean, who doesn't want to read that? You should read it, and you should go see Jimmy, but you shouldn't do any of those things until you listen to this conversation, which commences right after this.

• 5:00Mike Rowe?

  Frequent listeners of this podcast know how deceptive the meatpacking industry can be. And those same people know that I've tried to call attention to the loophole in the law that allows meatpackers to label ground beef and other cuts of meat that come from overseas as, quote, "product of the USA." My friend Ben Spell, who runs Good Ranchers, shares my frustration, but Ben has done a lot more to fix the problem than I have. With no experience whatsoever, Ben left his music career, six or seven years ago, to build an honest-to-God meat company that sources all of their cuts from livestock that was born, raised, and harvested in these United States. He guarantees it. Good Ranchers

• 5:41Mike Rowe?

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• 6:20Mike Rowe?

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• 6:50Mike Rowe?

  Rob Riggle, sure appreciate your time. Thanks for coming out, man.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  Oh, thanks for having me. It's an honor.

• 6:55Mike Rowe?

  You journeyed all the way from, where's it?

• 6:57Speaker 02

  Thousand Oaks, California.

• 6:59Mike Rowe?

  How long did it take you?

• 7:02Speaker 02

  It's probably 45, 50 minutes.

• 7:06Mike Rowe?

  It's obligatory to talk about time and distance in California.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 7:10Mike Rowe?

  I mean, God, I'm sure you watched The Californians on Saturday Night Live at some point. It still kills me.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  But that's the best thing about comedy, is truth in comedy.

• 7:20Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  Is, that's always gonna kill. It's always gonna kill. Just put enough truth in it that everyone's like, "Whoa."

• 7:27Mike Rowe?

  But the thing about that, though, I mean, I completely agree, and it was obviously on the nose for anybody who lives in California. This is that Saturday Night Live sketch where Stewart and Kristen Wiig, they just talk incessantly about the very specific set of directions that gets them from point A to point B. But the fact that people left in Rhode Island, and Florida, and everywhere, it's like...

• 7:51Speaker 02

  One, I think it was the accents, the, you know, the, "Okay, you know, California." So the accents, I think, made people laugh, the soul patches that most of the guest stars had.

• 8:04Mike Rowe?

  It's great.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  All of that stuff was classic. But then, it's 100% true, you talk about how you got places.

• 8:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Because you always want the secret.

• 8:13Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  Like, you know, how do I get from Fairfax over to La Brea if I'm on Sunset without having, you know, especially at rush hour.

• 8:21Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 8:21Speaker 02

  You know, "Oh, you gotta take walnut, you know, and there you gotta bank off, here, there's a four-way, go left." And you find yourself in these conversations, but you're always searching for that piece of gold that's gonna save you five minutes.

• 8:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. And with ways, wow, I just remember, I mean, you're old enough to remember The Thomas Guides.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yes. Especially when you come in from out of town.

• 8:43Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 8:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:44Mike Rowe?

  They would hand you, like, if you, the map in California, it was a phone book, essentially, and all the grids and the different pages and references.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  I looked like an old-timey pilot with a lap board and, you know, an old-time navigator when I used to drive around. Because when I used to come into town, when I was first coming out here for auditions, or to meet my manager or whatever, because he was based out here and I was on the East Coast, I would rent a car, and I would have all the gear.

• 9:11Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  And they go, "You need to be over Paramount at this time," and I'd be like, "Yeah, Paramount, got it." He goes, "You know where you're going?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, it's a lock, no problem." And then immediately dive into my work, right, of mapping things out. And then, then, like, a year or two later, I was map questing, you know, but then, you know, it was all these pages of instructions, "Turn left, turn right," and I couldn't keep up because it was too fast.

• 9:31Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  So then you try to highlight the picture of the thing, and that didn't work very well. So I was always on the phone with my manager's assistant going, "I'm at Kwanga," and, you know, lots of...

• 9:42Mike Rowe?

  It's like you're calling in for air support.

• 9:44Speaker 02

  "You gotta get me out of here. I don't know where I'm going." And the same level of panic in my voice.

• 9:49Mike Rowe?

  Right, right, because you're late for an audition.

• 9:50Speaker 02

  "I'm late for an audition, I'm late for a meeting, people are honking at me, I'm, you know, it's a hot mess, man."

• 9:55Mike Rowe?

  Well, it's already fraught, the whole audition process. And I remember vividly the difference between showing up a little early, which, by the way, you were here a half hour before I asked you to come here. There's no extra credit for it, but I appreciate it.

• 10:09Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 10:09Mike Rowe?

  Or you're right on time, which is late if you're military.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 10:13Mike Rowe?

  Right? But to be affirmatively late for an audition is to be so completely outside of where your brain needs you to be, that you might as well just turn around and go home, and just say, "Look, couldn't find it."

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then, on the very rare occasion when you were playing a flustered character, maybe you could use it.

• 10:32Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 10:32Speaker 02

  As they always say in the acting world, "Use it, use it."

• 10:34Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, use it. That'll come in handy later.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  "Oh, you need me frantic and panicked and pissed off?" Yeah, I'll use it, because here I am.

• 10:40Mike Rowe?

  Remember that dysentery you had back in 98? You're gonna drawl on that. How did you get here today? Did you put in the address, or did you just know where you were going at this point?

• 10:51Speaker 02

  I always put in the address now.

• 10:53Mike Rowe?

  So it's talking to you?

• 10:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:54Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Unless you think I'm purely free associating. This, I think, strikes me as a metaphor for our entire conversation.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 11:01Mike Rowe?

  You know, we're, the Californians were obsessed with how to get from here to there. And I am genuinely interested in figuring out how the hell you got from there to here. I mean, your resume is just a joke. I mean, it's ridiculous to read it in a way that makes any sense. Like, when you think about, I mean, 23 years in the Corps?

• 11:24Speaker 02

  23 years, yeah.

• 11:26Mike Rowe?

  Twenty-three years in the Marine Corps, which I have to assume you would look at and remember as a, as a success. It was twenty-three years.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:36Mike Rowe?

  And then you got famous playing one of the greatest jackasses in the history of Hollywood over and over and over and over again.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, arrogant ignorance is my favorite comedy game to play.

• 11:46Mike Rowe?

  Arrogant ignorance?

• 11:47Speaker 02

  That's what I call it.

• 11:47Mike Rowe?

  What are the rules?

• 11:48Speaker 02

  Uh, large and in charge and completely wrong-headed. I think we all know some people like that in the real world, but...

• 11:55Mike Rowe?

  So, long uncertainty?

• 11:56Speaker 02

  Long uncertainty. I got this.

• 11:59Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Everybody calm down.

• 12:03Speaker 02

  But then I'm just going a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction.

• 12:05Mike Rowe?

  Wrong direction.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  And I love that. I love seeing characters like that. I love playing characters like that.

• 12:10Mike Rowe?

  How much of your comedic resume was informed by your time in uniform?

• 12:17Speaker 02

  So...

• 12:17Mike Rowe?

  Actually, you know, no, no.

• 12:18Speaker 02

  Some for sure.

• 12:19Mike Rowe?

  Well, there's a better question.

• 12:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:20Mike Rowe?

  Did the, because people don't just become comedians. You must have been funny your whole life, or at least aspired to it. So...

• 12:27Speaker 02

  I was voted most humorous in my senior class, in high school. And, uh, my parents were funny. My family was humorous. They enjoyed comedy. They, we played cards at night and laugh, tell stories. They were great storytellers.

• 12:40Mike Rowe?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  Um, on, on both sides of the family. And my sister, uh, funny lady, and she always had funny friends. And I don't know, I just felt like I just sat around and soaked it all up and, uh...

• 12:53Mike Rowe?

  So, did that mentality, that openness to the joke, help you more during your years in uniform? Or maybe the other way around? Did, was there discipline or rigor or a code, you know, that somehow translated into your comedy career that gave you some sides?

• 13:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, I, I get that a lot. If people are like, you know, Marines and comedy?

• 13:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  What?

• 13:19Mike Rowe?

  What's up?

• 13:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and, yeah, there is no direct link. There's no direct linkage. There's, the Marines don't teach comedy. No, it's not part of our mission. Um, but I, I, and I, I've said it before, I think there's, there's a lot of intangibles that are very real, that make a, a huge difference to someone who chooses a life in the arts. Choosing a life in the arts is, if I say so myself, a brave decision, because it's a painful decision. You're going to run into so many obstacles. Not only do you have to contend with yourself, getting out of your own way and overcoming your own disbelief and your own doubts and your own fears and judging yourself, you

• 14:02Speaker 02

  gotta put up with everybody else's BS too. All your friends that, and they're, they mean well, maybe they don't know any better, but they mean, you know, they're your friends, you love them. But they're like, or acquaintances, maybe that's a better way to put it. You know, you, you go back home or you rumpen. For me, I'd go back home and see high school or college friends or Marine buddies or whatever. And they'd be like, aren't you doing that comedy thing?

• 14:27Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  I'm like, yeah. What, have you done anything? You know, I was like, oh, yeah, I mean, and, and the more they talk, the more you shrink, right? Because you're like, well, I did an appearance on Conan, you know, I played man in the audience, you know, whatever. And they're like, oh, okay, good, good on you, man.

• 14:41Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 14:41Speaker 02

  You know, you can just feel the judgment. And, and then your peers are all climbing the ladder and having success and getting a home and married and they're moving on with their lives. And you're doing a, a show for nine drunks in a little black box theater in Lower East Side, you know, at 1:00 AM. And you're going, am I making the right choice here? I don't know.

• 15:01Mike Rowe?

  Well, I, I would think, you know, on the military side of it, at least in moments of indecision, you can fall back on the mission.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:10Mike Rowe?

  The, the stakes, I suppose, of a successful career in the military versus entertainment.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  That's, and that's very true too. You know, like, the military takes, you know, you're trained. You're, they give you the confidence, you know, it's all, you, they build you up, they earn, you earn your way to that position. Then you get your task, your mission, right? Well, you understand what to do. You understand how to think in certain situations. You know, you have the, you have the right mentality, you have the right... So, we're to, my, by the end of, by five o'clock today, I am going to have possession of Hill 561. That's what's going to happen at 1700. Now, between now and then, Lieutenant, you figure it out. But by 1700, you and your platoon are going to be on top of that hill.

• 15:58Mike Rowe?

  I'm gonna need that Thomas guy.

• 15:59Speaker 02

  Exactly. Exactly. Right? And if I can't read it, somebody else read it until we're ready to go. But we're, we're gonna be on top of that hill. Great. Now I've got my parameters, I know what to do, I know how to get there, I know what, I know when to begin, I can do the back math and figure out, we, we gotta cover X amount of distance. If there's any resistance, we gotta plan on that. Who am I gonna call for this? Da-da-da-da-da. If we need artillery, we need air, we need, what do we, I can start planning, I start making things happen. Great, that's awesome. A life in the arts? Man, there's nothing there. But what I learned in the Marines was this. Uh, when I, I joined when I was 19 and I thought my limits were right here. This is maximum wriggle. Right here.

• 16:38Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 16:39Speaker 02

  That's it. And that's me, I mean, everything I got.

• 16:42Mike Rowe?

  If you're just listening, he's holding his outstretched hand approximately four feet above the floor.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Exactly, right at, my eye level as I'm sitting. But, um, that's what I perceived my limits to be. And the Marines showed me very quickly that, that, uh, my limits are actually way up here.

• 17:00Mike Rowe?

  Right, you don't even know what they are.

• 17:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, you don't. And I never knew until I was pushed way beyond. Now, I played, I, uh, sports in high school and junior high and, you know, and I loved it. I loved, and I had good, tough coaches. But, you know, you cap out at a certain point. That's why I thought, oh, this is me at max. And the Marines were like, oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You got a lot more to go. You got a lot more in the tank, you got, you know, and all of a sudden you start doing things you never thought you could do. Fall out for a company hike, you know, we're, we're going on a force march. Uh, where are we going? We're not telling you. How long is it gonna be? We're not telling you. Great, you know, it's nighttime. Yep. Okay, dang, get all your gear. Flak, helmet, Alice pack, uh, weapons, uh, you know, we're gone.

• 17:46Mike Rowe?

  What's an Alice pack?

• 17:47Speaker 02

  Uh, it's a all-purpose, uh, pack, basically is what I'm saying. It's a, it's an acronym.

• 17:52Mike Rowe?

  How much stuff did you carry when you were fully loaded?

• 17:54Speaker 02

  Fully loaded, I mean, if, and if you're counting ammo, uh, you know, you might be up to around 60 pounds.

• 18:00Mike Rowe?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:00Speaker 02

  You know, extra gear.

• 18:02Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  The flak alone, you know, was 15 to 20. Uh, and the helmet was, you know, that's an easy eight pounder.

• 18:08Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  But, um, you'd fall out and we did a march one night, uh, at the basic school and we took off. And when we got back, it was, you know, sunrise. And, uh, we'd been humping all night and we did 26 miles. We did a marathon with all that gear on, you know? And my feet were so, I was wearing jungle boots. My feet were so flat, they had kind of pulched out the sides.

• 18:31Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  You know, and when we'd stop, because we'd stop every now and then to readjust gear and get water, um, I wouldn't take my boots off because I couldn't get my feet back in them. You know, they just flattened out. And, but the thing is, you just do these things, right? That I never thought I'd do that.

• 18:46Mike Rowe?

  Well, not only did you never think of it, but had somebody actually sat you down and said, Rob?

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:50Mike Rowe?

  What's the over-under on you staying up all night long?

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:54Mike Rowe?

  Marching with maybe 80 pounds of gear for the length of a marathon?

• 18:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:59Mike Rowe?

  You'd say 0.0.

• 19:02Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 19:07Mike Rowe?

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• 19:51Mike Rowe?

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• 20:34Speaker 02

  But when you do it and you you find yourself doing these tasks, I want you to climb that obstacle. No way. It was one of those obstacles that starts out like this and progressively goes out like that.

• 20:45Mike Rowe?

  Right. So you're defying gravity.

• 20:46Speaker 02

  So yeah, so the only way you can get to the next level is to jump out and swing out. Climb up and then swing. And as you get higher and higher, it gets scarier and scarier, obviously.

• 20:55Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 20:56Speaker 02

  But you do it. And then you do the next thing and you do the next thing. And you find yourself just accomplishing things. And then you start putting a little cut in your strut. You're starting to, you're 22, 23, you're a young lieutenant, you can run for miles, you can do all the, anything that's asked of you.

• 21:15Mike Rowe?

  You're a dangerous man.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  You're a dangerous man and it feels great. And you start to, and then you start to, maybe it dawns on you for the first time. You're like, well, if I can do this, maybe I could be an actor, maybe I could be a comedian. Maybe, because those were just dreams I had.

• 21:29Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  And, you know, this is before the internet. So there was no way to find out info on agents and managers and acting schools and, you know, they're just, it didn't exist.

• 21:42Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  It just didn't exist. So I, and I didn't know anybody in the business. I had no family. So as much as I loved acting and I loved watching comedies and to me it was just, I quote the lines from movies, make my friends laugh, we have a good time, we crack wise, it's all good. But it was never gonna happen.

• 21:59Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  But as I found myself taking on and accomplishing these things in the Marines, I started to believe, well, maybe, why not me? Why not? If I can do these things that I never thought I could do, why can't I do this?

• 22:13Mike Rowe?

  When you're climbing up the outside of that, that V-shaped obstacle.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:17Mike Rowe?

  You were describing, were you able to see somebody do the thing that you were being asked to do before you did it?

• 22:25Speaker 02

  Yes, always. And that's always, that's a good thing about the Marines. They don't, they don't throw you into something that they haven't prepped you for in the training world. Maybe in real world, you don't get, you don't get a rehearsal, but anything we ever did, we tried to rehearse and we got at least a class on how to climb the obstacles and how to do it.

• 22:44Mike Rowe?

  I just think about the four-minute mile, right?

• 22:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:46Mike Rowe?

  Unbreakable, unbreakable, unbreakable, unbreakable. Bannister breaks it that year, three more.

• 22:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:51Mike Rowe?

  And then six. And now people are running, what, three minutes and 40 seconds.

• 22:56Speaker 02

  High schoolers. Right. Yeah.

• 22:57Mike Rowe?

  Right. So I've, I've just always been really struck by the impact and the import, not just of being asked to do a hard thing or a, what do the Japanese call it? A masogi.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:12Mike Rowe?

  Right. Like every year, you ought to attempt to do something that has at least a 50% chance of failure and that scares you.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  That's great advice.

• 23:26Mike Rowe?

  Right?

• 23:26Speaker 02

  It really is.

• 23:27Mike Rowe?

  But if you're doing it in the context of seeing somebody else do it, like knowing it can be done.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  Right. Right. It's not an unheard of thing.

• 23:36Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  You're not, you're not going to the moon by yourself. I got it. Yeah, no.

• 23:40Mike Rowe?

  Or for the first time.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I, and I remember watching it being demoed for us because they'd always demo something for us.

• 23:47Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  And it was always some awesome Marine who was like, just, yeah, who was just like, who do I do it so fast? You'd be like, and I can't remember looking at guys, things to be going, oh my God, like you're gonna, are we gonna do that fast?

• 23:58Mike Rowe?

  Where was basic?

• 24:00Speaker 02

  Quantico, Virginia.

• 24:02Mike Rowe?

  Lovely in the springtime.

• 24:03Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. I had to know the hills of Quantico very, very well.

• 24:07Mike Rowe?

  Why'd you enlist?

• 24:10Speaker 02

  I am a very patriotic American.

• 24:13Mike Rowe?

  How'd that happen? Is that just Kansas City upbringing?

• 24:16Speaker 02

  My parents, my grandfather served in the Eighth Army Air Corps in World War II. And I had an uncle who served in the Army in Vietnam and I, my dad always, you know, he was ready to go. He just kept getting deferments, you know, it hit strategically every time for him. So he never had to go, but I don't know, I, I'm one of those guys who, I could get misty at the National Anthem, you know, depending on the moment, you know? I still remember the, the 1990 Super Bowl when Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem, you know, like, and it was right, right as the air wars getting ready to start in Iraq during Desert Storm. And the country was feeling this, something that hadn't felt in a long time.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  So anyway, I just remember those things and I, my grandmother was a historian.

• 25:08Speaker 02

  She loved history and my summers, I would go down to the farm and I'd work on the farm with my grandfather. And he was a good man. He was a fair man. He was the guy, same in the Eighth Army Air Corps.

• 25:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  And this farm had been in our family for generations. And so I'd go down and work with him. He was good because he'd pay me. He'd pay me well.

• 25:30Mike Rowe?

  That's fair.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  And it was better than anything I was gonna make back in Kansas City because of the farms in Missouri. So I'd go down and when I wasn't working, you know, and it was always some job, it was always a fun job. Like they'd give me a big machete, you know, and I'd go cut milkweed or shatter cane out of the bean field rows, right? So the combine didn't get tangled up in them.

• 25:51Mike Rowe?

  Any morning that starts with your pop handing you a sword.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  Right. And of course I was young enough too, that I was, I was, you know, samurying, you know?

• 26:00Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  I was goofing most of the time, but it was all day. They dropped me off in the morning and I'd start working a field. And my grandmother would come out and she had, she had a Cadillac and she would drive into the field and do a Cadillac, honk the horn. I'd come back and I'd have lunch and I would try to stall. Tell me more. Well, basically I just wanted to not work. And then she would, I'd finish my lunch and then I'd go back out. And then my granddad would come back and pick me up around five o'clock, honk the horn. And that's how I knew to come out. And then I'd go home, we'd have a great meal and play cards, watch TV, go to bed, get up the next day and repeat.

• 26:36Mike Rowe?

  I just want to make the point, what's, I asked you why you joined the Corps.

• 26:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:41Mike Rowe?

  And you told me about the importance of chores.

• 26:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:45Mike Rowe?

  With a, a small sword.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:47Mike Rowe?

  I find that super interesting.

• 26:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:49Mike Rowe?

  My, my best day with a machete ever was doing a salmon survey.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 26:54Mike Rowe?

  Upstream in some river here in California. And you have to, you're basically counting the dead salmon after spawning. And in order not to double count them and keep track, you need to cut them in half.

• 27:04Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 27:05Mike Rowe?

  So fishing game gives you a machete and your job is to wade up, up the river in waist-deep water, just picking up one after the other and slicing it in half. And having them. And having them. Yeah. So you name your machete, you know?

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:20Mike Rowe?

  And like every, and you have contests and to your point, like grown men are doing this. You get, it's so monotonous, you have to find a way.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  To entertain.

• 27:29Mike Rowe?

  To make it a game.

• 27:30Speaker 02

  And I think that's why I got into comedy.

• 27:31Mike Rowe?

  That's what I'm looking for.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  Because, um, I think Clint Eastwood in the, and it's a Marine Corps movie, actually.

• 27:40Mike Rowe?

  Heartbreak Ridge.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  Heartbreak Ridge. He said, you can beat me, you can kick me, you can do whatever you want, just don't bore me.

• 27:45Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 27:45Speaker 02

  Right? And I think that's every, every man is like, really, I can handle almost anything you throw at me, just don't bore me. Because if you bore me, I'm gonna self-entertain.

• 27:55Mike Rowe?

  That's right.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  It always came down for me, I, once I got bored, now I entertain myself. Cause there's not enough stimulus out there. So it happened in the classroom, happened in the Marines. It happened when I get a task like, go cut the milkweed out of the bean field. Got it. Ta-ta! You know, it had sound effects. I would tuck and roll. I'd come up like a Jedi warrior even.

• 28:13Mike Rowe?

  Yep.

• 28:14Speaker 02

  You know, and but I would cut, the job was done. I just did it to a way that entertained myself.

• 28:18Mike Rowe?

  To amuse yourself.

• 28:19Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 28:19Mike Rowe?

  That is probably the most recurring theme on this podcast, not to make it about me, but looking back, last couple of years, it's, that's where I draw the line between the most interesting people that I know. Ones who either, the ones who do their jobs are great. File that under diligence, hard work, responsibility, work ethic, delay gratification. The ones who do their jobs primarily to amuse themselves or turn it into a game.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:50Mike Rowe?

  That's interesting. But what I want to understand better is, do you think Clint was right? Like is, when he talks about boredom as the enemy,

• 29:03Mike Rowe?

  is it really? Or is it the reason that you became a comedian? Is it the reason?

• 29:10Speaker 02

  It's the catalyst. It might be the catalyst.

• 29:12Mike Rowe?

  Oh shit, here's a better way to say it. What's happened in our society now, vis a vis our inability to be bored. Like we can't be bored anymore. We've got, if we're not scrolling or still like, there's more stimulation there's ever been in the history of the world. Very, very, very few people have a chance to be genuinely bored, which means you don't have a chance to really.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  Create.

• 29:36Mike Rowe?

  Gaze into your own navel and the unexamined life and all that Kierkegaard stuff.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  I remember, uh, my, my parents and my grandparents, they, we had a lake house at the Lake of the Ozarks. And I would go down there sometimes with my dad because he was getting the house ready for the summer. So there was a lot of chores to be done. And, you know, I would pitch in and do some chores, but there's some things that were, you know, too big for me to do, right? So he would just say, hey, entertain yourself for a couple of hours, you know, I gotta go do this one thing. Or I gotta drive into town to grab something, just, you know, or whatever it was, but he would turn me loose. And I was left alone. I would walk around and I remember I would, I got this, there was an axe handle out of the, you know, the basement. I found an axe handle.

• 30:23Speaker 02

  So in, in the winter, the, the lake recedes. So I got, I jumped over the lake wall, the sea wall there and walked down into the.

• 30:31Mike Rowe?

  Muck.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. But it was all dry and hard and crusty and there's rocks down there. And so I would, I would pick up a rock, a decent sized one and throw it up in the air and hit, you know, like you hit a baseball, right? Just baseball hitting with rocks in this axe handle. But I would create a whole game. Who was I? Well, I was playing for the Royals. You know, I'm George Brett. It's bottom of the ninth, we're, you know, Yankees, it's the ALCS, you know, da, da, da, da.

• 30:57Mike Rowe?

  Stakes. Stakes are high.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  Always, right? It matters.

• 31:00Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  Right. And I would, I would pick certain like areas out on the lake. Like if I make it to the water, if I make it five feet into the water, you know, whatever it was, that was a homerun, it was a grand slam, whatever. And I would take my chances, you know, and I would throw it up and I'd hit. I'd be like, any grounds out to third, they lose the World Series. Oh, okay. So one more time, you know, here we go. And I'd hit the homerun or whatever. And, but you create, you had to create, you know?

• 31:24Mike Rowe?

  How old were you?

• 31:24Speaker 02

  Oh, I was probably 10.

• 31:26Mike Rowe?

  When's the last time something like that happened to you as an adult?

• 31:32Speaker 02

  It was in the military. I was, I could think of the game I was playing. I was, I was with a Navy commander.

• 31:41Speaker 02

  Breslow, Jeff Breslow, a great guy. And he and I were in Albania. We were on an airfield.

• 31:49Mike Rowe?

  Was that the Kosovo days?

• 31:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. And we were, it was before we'd gone into Kosovo. The air war was still going on and there was coalition forces on this airbase in Tirana, Albania. And we were sitting there and there was a, a pipe with, you know, probably a, a three inch diameter, you know? And it was just sticking out of the ground. And we were both sitting on these old MRE crates, right? But it was a gravel pile. You know, the game is.

• 32:19Mike Rowe?

  I know the game.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  How many can you get in?

• 32:21Mike Rowe?

  In a row.

• 32:21Speaker 02

  And then you got, we, we get five, right? Then we had a point system. You had to win by two, you know, just like a volleyball game or whatever. And it was go, you know? And you get to throw five at a time, then the other person win. Then you get to, and then it's almost like cornhole in a way. But it was just because that was around and we were around and we had to entertain ourselves.

• 32:39Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Right? And so that's, that's the last one I remember. But I'm sure if you, if I was left alone, I'd come up with something. I used to do the same thing with my son.

• 32:52Mike Rowe?

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• 33:34Mike Rowe?

  for a long, long time at a price that will never increase. This offer will be gone in no time. That's guaranteed too. Don't wait to lock in a forever rate at puretalk.com/row. That's puretalk.com/row.

• 34:06Speaker 02

  When, when he was in Little League, um, my knees aren't what they used to be. So I would, we had a bucket of balls, you know, the big bucket, the five. And I would sit on the bucket, give him a ball and.

• 34:17Mike Rowe?

  Got two down. Stakes are high.

• 34:18Speaker 02

  Stakes are high.

• 34:19Mike Rowe?

  As all those are.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Uh, you know, uh, Ortiz is up to bat. What are you going to do, you know? And he didn't know even how to throw a curve runner, but I give him the option, you know? I give him the one or the two.

• 34:29Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 34:29Speaker 02

  You know?

• 34:29Mike Rowe?

  Shake him off.

• 34:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, he would shake me off and then he'd go, and, um, and, and I would call balls and strikes, you know? And so I would say, hey, you walked, you, you got two on, you know? You're only up by, only up by two. I mean, the winning runs at the plate, good luck, boy.

• 34:44Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 34:44Speaker 02

  You know, give the play. Boy, he'd knuckle down and, and you know, he'd fire them in and, and I'd give him a lot of strikes. And I was fair, you know, I was like, oh, come on. It bounced. I can't, I can't give it to you, you know? It's a ball, you know, whatever. And, uh, but he loved it. He liked it, you know? And I could see he wanted to, I could see his creative wheels spinning. And I think that's what it was like. My dad would get down. Sorry. The, um, my dad would get down on the floor with me and play.

• 35:14Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, that's our soundtrack, by the way. We don't care about the sirens. It's constant.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  It's just constant.

• 35:19Mike Rowe?

  Probably, they're probably for me.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 35:22Mike Rowe?

  No, don't worry about it.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  Uh, well, my dad was really good. He would get down.

• 35:24Mike Rowe?

  You know what? The viewer won't hear you over the tapping on the table, which is probably about ready to send poor Chuck.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  I'll be all right.

• 35:32Mike Rowe?

  No, you're gonna be okay?

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Tapping too hard?

• 35:34Speaker 01

  No, you're good, you're good.

• 35:35Mike Rowe?

  Come on, dude, really?

• 35:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, it doesn't show up as the way I think. Yeah, I hear it loud in here.

• 35:41Speaker 02

  I'll keep my hands in my lap.

• 35:42Mike Rowe?

  I thought you were sending a kind of Morse code. And I thought that ultimately triggered the sirens.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  I thought you were getting emotional talking about your dad.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  Was that what was going on or were you waiting for the siren?

• 35:55Speaker 02

  Both.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 35:57Mike Rowe?

  Interesting. Oh, I'm, I interrupted an emotional moment.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  I think you did.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  No, no, but the simple truth is, is my dad got down on the floor and he played with us. My sister and myself, you know? And he matched box cars, Star Wars figures, and we would create these worlds and scenarios. And so I tried to do that with my kids. And I think that, I think that starts the seeds of creativity. Maybe I went too far because my daughter's, she's chosen a life in the arts too.

• 36:24Mike Rowe?

  No, yeah, yeah, you went too far. Well, look, whether it does or whether it doesn't directly lead to that level of creativity, you don't have the option to do that if you're subsumed with a thousand other inputs. If you can't, if you can't be bored, right? If you, like those moments, I have a thousand of them too. And they, they live fully formed in my memory. Uh, but I don't know that they would have had I had the constant option as a kid of grabbing this device and taking a deep, deep dive because you're never alone with this thing.

• 37:03Speaker 02

  I know.

• 37:03Mike Rowe?

  You're never alone.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  Never alone.

• 37:05Mike Rowe?

  And, you know, that's, that's why.

• 37:09Speaker 02

  We've cheated him a little bit.

• 37:11Mike Rowe?

  Maybe, maybe a lot.

• 37:13Speaker 02

  Because I, when you're alone, you do work things out on your own. You work some weird things, weird things. You, you replay conversations in your mind and you go, oh, that's sarcasm. He wasn't being nice.

• 37:28Mike Rowe?

  He wasn't being nice at all.

• 37:29Speaker 02

  He was being terrible. And then you go, oh, he's not a friend. And you, but you have to, you have to sort these things out.

• 37:36Mike Rowe?

  Right, and you have time to do it. You have time to reflect.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  And time to reflect back on, you know what? I shouldn't have said that. Why did I say that?

• 37:44Mike Rowe?

  Do you think kids today, do you think they're still holding the hairbrush and singing with the metal band in front of the mirror alone in their room or?

• 37:53Speaker 02

  Yes, but now they're filming themselves.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  Sadly.

• 38:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  But yeah, and then they're posting it.

• 38:04Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 38:05Speaker 02

  Which, that used to be a private thing.

• 38:07Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 38:08Speaker 02

  You know, when I pretended to be a rock star, right? I would do it with my hockey stick as the long, you know, mic.

• 38:15Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 38:16Speaker 02

  And I would, you know, all the posing and the rocking out. And that was, nobody in the room, no cameras rolling. That was me just, you know, whatever I was doing, Molly Crew, I don't know, some rock band.

• 38:27Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 38:27Speaker 02

  Um, I was rocking out, do, being a rock star. And then, you know, you'd hear from downstairs, Rob, you know, it was like, oh, time for dinner. All that stuff, shut off the stereo, shut off everything. And then, and then you walk out the door. But that was my playtime and my pretend time and my create time. And no one got to see it.

• 38:43Mike Rowe?

  At least your parents had the decency to summon you. My dad would just kick the door in and catch me in full whale, just rocking out as hard as I could. And that, it's so profoundly embarrassing to be interrupted in a moment of such supreme indulgence.

• 39:01Speaker 02

  Oh, that's the wonderful, great verbiage on that because that's exactly what it is.

• 39:05Mike Rowe?

  Right?

• 39:05Speaker 02

  It is. And it's, and it's very intimate. It's very private because it's your fantasy. It's your rock and roll fantasy.

• 39:12Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  And you're having it and it's meant for you, not, not for anybody's eyes, but yours. And then all of a sudden, the one person on earth you don't want to see.

• 39:22Mike Rowe?

  Is right there. There's only one other thing you don't want to get caught doing by your parents.

• 39:26Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:27Mike Rowe?

  And honestly, it's a toss up.

• 39:29Speaker 02

  It's a toss up.

• 39:30Mike Rowe?

  It's really, it's like.

• 39:32Speaker 02

  I think on some level dad would even understand the other.

• 39:34Mike Rowe?

  Of course.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  He would understand the other, he'd be like, ah, for the love of God.

• 39:37Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, I should, I should have knocked, son.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:39Mike Rowe?

  But yeah.

• 39:40Speaker 02

  But the rock and roll fantasy, that's him like, oh, it's a different kind of.

• 39:43Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. I had my eyes closed when my dad walked in and I was holding a hairbrush or whatever it was. And I was all the way into it.

• 39:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:53Mike Rowe?

  And when I opened my eyes, he was just standing there looking at me, kind of cock eyed, like Irish center, like, ah, God. Somewhere up the food chain, he's going to blame me for this.

• 40:03Speaker 02

  And was it unspoken that we'll never talk about this again?

• 40:06Mike Rowe?

  Oh, no, it was discussed at length, at length, at family gatherings for many years. For me, as an adult, this was probably QVC, Georgia Farm. Chuck knew me back in the day. I used to live in this mansion in the middle of nowhere where I was house-sitting. And we got snowed in. The driveway was a mile long. And there was nowhere to go for two days. Couldn't get in, couldn't get out. But in this mansion, where it was fully furnished, and there was a player piano. And I was selling one of the first camcorders on QVC. And I'm trapped in the house. And I set this thing up. And I start filming myself playing like sonatas

• 40:51Mike Rowe?

  on the player piano. And I agonized over getting the frame just right. So you couldn't see my fingers on the keys. You know, and I would like put on a tux and walk in and like candles. A grown man, dude, grown man. And I, and I never showed anybody the footage, but I watched. I studied it. Yeah, I studied it. You liked this move. You didn't like that move. I like that angle. Don't like that angle. I'm buying that. Yeah, I'm buying that. I believe, I believe.

• 41:18Speaker 02

  Listen, there's, there's so much fun in that and so much good in that, by the way. Listen, I took a golf lesson one time. And when someone filmed my swing for the first time, I was like, that's what I look like. Yeah, that's how. And then when I got better and started, I was like, oh, that's what it's supposed to. That's what I like that swing. Okay, so what did I say? There's nothing wrong with videotaping your

• 41:38Mike Rowe?

  That's at least in service of a skill. This was pure, pure boredom. The next day, do you remember the lake that was down? Of course. Yeah. I found two trees. And there were guns. I mean, so many guns in this thing. They had long guns, shotguns.

• 41:55Speaker 02

  Well, you're in the middle of nowhere.

• 41:56Mike Rowe?

  Bucks County. Yeah, there were revolvers. And there was ammo. And so I took the camera.

• 42:05Mike Rowe?

  I had a pie plate here, and I put the camera above it. And now I'm, God, this is, I can't tell you this. But I found like an old shawl that looked like a serapi that Clint Eastwood might have worn. Oh, sure. Right. And the Spaghettis. Yeah, yeah. And so I got my belt on the outside of my shirt, and I got the gun tucked in it. And I walk into the shot. And I look back at the camera. And then I walk for 10 spaces, and I turn around quick and fire as fast as I can at the target. All right. Did you hit the camcorder? Not that would have been a better story. I did hit the target a couple of times. I missed it more than I hit it. But man, I would go back up there and I'd put that tape in. I would study it. Yeah, study it.

• 42:47Speaker 02

  Were you studying because you want, you wanted to maybe see, like, were you testing yourself to say, am I believable as a action hero? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. I totally get that. We all do. Look, if you choose a life in the arts, you, this is part of the process.

• 43:04Mike Rowe?

  I think, too, I was just trying to see, could I make my golf swing better by watching it? It's just that

• 43:12Speaker 02

  Well, there's things when you do watch yourself, which we never get the opportunity to do, especially back then. Yeah, right. Especially back then. If you get the opportunity to watch yourself, you do. I did. And I'm sure you did, too. You go, I don't believe that. Or you'd see something, oh, I like that. I believe that. I believe that moment that there was like a 10 second thing. But there was three seconds that I really bought. Yeah, I would believe. Yeah, as an audience member.

• 43:37Mike Rowe?

  Let me try this again. Why'd you join the Corps?

• 43:49Speaker 02

  That's good. I wanted to serve. I did. I wanted to serve. And in a corny way, I like a lot of JFK quotes, which obviously the most famous one, you know,

• 44:04Mike Rowe?

  Ask not.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  What your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Well, I thought about it. And, you know, I thought service in the military was going to be something I could do to give back to a place that I love very much. He also has another one that I think we all need to. He said he doesn't care if it's a, he wants the best idea. It doesn't matter if it's a Republican idea or Democratic idea. He wants the best idea. Yeah. And I think that's a great philosophy, too. But

• 44:33Mike Rowe?

  The first is a truly great quote. But the thing I think that gets overlooked a lot about it is actually just the structure of the sentence. I mean, the ball's on that guy to at that point in modern life. He didn't say, don't ask about this. Don't ask about that. He didn't say, you know what you should think about? He said, ask not. Who does that? Yeah. Who switches that phraseology around?

• 45:00Speaker 02

  That's that old timey language and sentence structure that you read in the Constitution, that you read in a, and there's something powerful about it. Because there's a weight to it, a gravitas. There's a, there's a, it sticks in your mind. I don't know. You remember it more than you remember anything else.

• 45:19Mike Rowe?

  Look, language matters.

• 45:21Speaker 02

  It does. It matters. Meghan Noonan is wonderful at language.

• 45:23Mike Rowe?

  Oh, gosh.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  She's amazing.

• 45:25Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 45:27Speaker 02

  I love reading her speeches. Because they stick with you. And it's the way she captures a thought.

• 45:33Mike Rowe?

  Well, she writes and talks a lot about her own reverence for the way people write and talk. She cares deeply about what they stand for and who they are. And, you know, I think it was her idea in that Reagan speech. Remember when the Challenger went up in flames? Oh, the poem is called First Flight. Slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. She had that reference. She had, she knew. And that fit that moment better than anything else ever could.

• 46:08Mike Rowe?

  See, I just gave myself goosebumps. Because I'm fascinated by what I say. No, because just a handful of words, properly ordered.

• 46:21Speaker 02

  The Gettysburg Address.

• 46:22Mike Rowe?

  276 words.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  I mean, you look at, you think about the stakes of the moment, the what was happening, what was being said, where we were in history, how critical of a turning point the war was in, the fact that he's facing this reelection, the fact that all, there's just so much happening.

• 46:38Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 46:38Speaker 02

  The stakes couldn't be higher. He goes up there, on the way up there, he writes this thing.

• 46:44Mike Rowe?

  On the train.

• 46:44Speaker 02

  And he finds a way. I mean, you're a writer. You understand less is more. But he captured such a massive picture. And he made it so simple and brought it down to just really this very simple thing that, I mean, I still read it to this day, and it floors me to this day.

• 47:11Mike Rowe?

  Could have said 87 years ago. Could have said nearly a century ago.

• 47:16Speaker 02

  Four score and seven years.

• 47:18Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:24Mike Rowe?

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• 48:08Mike Rowe?

  experience to every legally blind veteran in America by donating Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, completely free of charge. That's 130,000 eligible men and women whose lives could be radically changed with an extraordinary piece of technology for free. Meta is partnering with the Blinded Veterans Association and other organizations to distribute the glasses and provide hands-on training. Guys, this is simple. If you're a legally blind veteran, or if you know someone who is, go to bva.org/glasses to learn more. That's bva.org/glasses.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  And again, that's that, there's something poetic in its own, you know, itself.

• 49:00Mike Rowe?

  The power, the power in the word, especially when you think about what's his name Everett, I believe, who was the most lauded orator of the day. He opened.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  With a two hour.

• 49:13Mike Rowe?

  Two hours of memorized eloquence.

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:17Mike Rowe?

  I mean, very few people have looked at that, but that speech is beautiful. I mean, it hearkens back on Grecian and Roman. I mean, it's just, it touches everything.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, pulling from every tree of poetry there is and every beautiful phrase. And, and then he lays this out like he does. And then Abraham takes his stovepipe out, pulls the speech out of his hat, puts it back on, reads a couple hundred words that just changed the world.

• 49:46Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 49:46Speaker 02

  And goodbye, back to, back to Washington.

• 49:49Mike Rowe?

  God, he knew when to leave.

• 49:51Speaker 02

  And Everett, wherever it's like, he's winded, he's gassed.

• 49:55Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 49:55Speaker 02

  He spent a lot of time on this and he's like, really?

• 49:57Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  I just got, I just got smoked. And not that it was a competition, but just that thing of.

• 50:02Mike Rowe?

  Well, as I read it, you know, people weren't quite sure in the immediate aftermath.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:07Mike Rowe?

  What had happened.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:08Mike Rowe?

  And a lot of the papers weren't kind because they just, I think, made the mistake of the volume thing.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  Quantity and quality. Yeah.

• 50:18Mike Rowe?

  But then it, in time.

• 50:20Speaker 02

  As you go back and you live, it's, that's the way with a lot of movies too. You'll see a movie and you're like, yeah, it was a good movie. And then you go back and you go back and you go, I've always found upon third viewing of a film, I know if it's something I'm going to be quoting for the rest of my life or not.

• 50:38Mike Rowe?

  Well, in your own repertoire, how do you think about that work? And what are your, stupid question, but what are your remote drops through that rubric?

• 50:49Speaker 02

  Meaning?

• 50:50Mike Rowe?

  Meaning it just gets better and better. Doesn't matter how many times you see it, if it's on, you're just putting the remote down.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, if I'm in for five minutes, I'm in for the whole thing.

• 50:57Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 50:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:59Speaker 02

  Well, comedy for me is always a thing. So, I mean, Dumb and Dumber, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters. You notice these are all from the eighties.

• 51:11Mike Rowe?

  I mean.

• 51:12Speaker 02

  In the nineties.

• 51:13Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, eighty, eighty-three, eighty-four.

• 51:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, these are, these are films.

• 51:16Mike Rowe?

  Golden age.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  These are the films I grew up with and I still quote to this day.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  I love them. They're part of the lexicon of my life. So I, I, if I'm playing golf, you know, there's going to be a, you know, there's going to be a Caddyshack reference.

• 51:30Mike Rowe?

  The real story.

• 51:31Speaker 02

  Exactly. You know, it's in the hole, it's in the hole.

• 51:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 51:35Speaker 02

  Same thing with Dumb and Dumber, that's unbelievably quotable. All, all those films, I really am.

• 51:41Mike Rowe?

  Was Animal House, do you put that in that same?

• 51:45Speaker 02

  Yes. Yeah, exactly. Oh, well, you all know each other, you have a lot to talk about.

• 51:52Speaker 02

  I've done that at so many parties.

• 51:53Mike Rowe?

  Right, we were just leaving.

• 51:55Speaker 02

  Exactly, exactly.

• 51:58Mike Rowe?

  He loves us.

• 51:59Speaker 02

  Well, he gets a load of us, he loves us. Was it over with the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no, and it ain't over now. Cause when the going gets tough, beat, beat, beat. The time get going because it came back to, I just, come on, it's, it's all gold. It's all gold and.

• 52:19Mike Rowe?

  Fat, dumb and stupid.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  There's no way to go through life. Zero point zero.

• 52:27Mike Rowe?

  You know what, man? I don't know that this connection has ever been made before, but, and I don't know if it's even worthy of making, but in its own way, zero point zero, delivered by, what's his name?

• 52:39Speaker 02

  Dean Wimmer, but I don't know his, the actor's name.

• 52:42Mike Rowe?

  So great.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  He's since passed away, I remember auditioning him once at the voice caster.

• 52:47Speaker 02

  Oh, great.

• 52:47Mike Rowe?

  Holy cow.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  And a wonderful dramatic actor too.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:51Mike Rowe?

  Incredible.

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:52Mike Rowe?

  That face.

• 52:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:54Mike Rowe?

  He's not Abraham Lincoln, he's not John F. Kennedy. But, you know, to our point, the right words grouped up. I don't care if it's in a comedy or in one of the most consequential speeches in the wake of one of the most consequential battles of all time. It's all we have, you know? So like the business of grouping up words in a memorable way, that's probably a better way to go, whether it's Saturday Night Live, I mean, geez.

• 53:24Speaker 01

  John Vernon was his name.

• 53:26Speaker 02

  John Vernon.

• 53:26Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 53:27Speaker 02

  Okay, props to him because he, he delivered that line with such disdain.

• 53:33Mike Rowe?

  To whom was it delivered?

• 53:35Speaker 02

  Blutowski.

• 53:36Mike Rowe?

  Was it Blutowski?

• 53:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 53:37Mike Rowe?

  Not D-Day?

• 53:39Speaker 02

  No, or was it the fat guy?

• 53:42Speaker 02

  Flounder.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  No, it's zero point zero you're talking about? Oh, Fat, Drunk and Stupid, both of those I think were, oh no, yeah.

• 53:48Mike Rowe?

  Flounder got fat, dumb and stupid.

• 53:50Speaker 02

  Stupid, yeah, yeah.

• 53:51Mike Rowe?

  Zero point zero was either.

• 53:53Speaker 02

  I thought it was.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  It was Blut, it was Blutarski because the greatest thing is, is Belushi's like, that's not too bad.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  Zero point zero.

• 54:02Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, you're right. So what did D-Day get? He got some sort of.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  Oh, isn't there like no record of you being on campus or something? Something like that?

• 54:11Mike Rowe?

  There's no record of you being here at all, there is no GPA.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  Of you being a student here.

• 54:14Mike Rowe?

  We don't even know what you're doing here. Oh God.

• 54:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, like that's gold. That stuff is just gold and it, it sticks with you. I love that stuff. That's what movies mean to me, just like music. You know, I can't imagine a world without comedies. I can't imagine a world without music. I can't imagine a world without the arts. I love them. Now, it's, it's a evil mistress, it's an evil lover that beats the tar out of you and leaves you cold and empty.

• 54:42Mike Rowe?

  Selfish whore.

• 54:43Speaker 02

  It's awful, but.

• 54:45Mike Rowe?

  But she's hot.

• 54:46Speaker 02

  But she's, she's really hot.

• 54:53Mike Rowe?

  How old are your kids?

• 54:55Speaker 02

  They are eighteen and twenty-two. And so I've got one that just graduated college, one who just started college.

• 55:02Mike Rowe?

  What are they doing?

• 55:04Speaker 02

  My daughter is a actor and she has joined the grind, as I call it.

• 55:11Mike Rowe?

  Well, you told me she was contemplating the arts, but I didn't know if she was going.

• 55:14Speaker 02

  So she's full in now, she's, cause she's graduated, she's out of school. She's in LA and she's bartending, waiting tables, she works retail and she auditions.

• 55:25Mike Rowe?

  Wow.

• 55:25Speaker 02

  And she's grinding, so, you know? And she's very talented and I know that's not, it's, it doesn't sound objective, but I, I think it's objective. I can say she's a talented actor and I believe that when she gets her opportunities, she'll make the most of them, she'll do well.

• 55:42Mike Rowe?

  Now, if you tell me the boy signed up for the Marines, I, I'm going to fall off my chair.

• 55:47Speaker 02

  No, he hasn't, he has not done that yet. I don't know if he has an interest in the military, he's expressed some, you know, he's just starting school, so I don't, I don't know what he wants, I don't know if he knows what he wants, but he's, every now and then he'll say, I might do that, I'm thinking about that, he's also thinking about this, that and the other thing. He doesn't want that spotlight, he's, you know, that's not his vibe. He plays lacrosse at Oklahoma and he does a good job.

• 56:14Mike Rowe?

  We got to talk about Jimmy Stewart, but I also want to ask you about your book, The Grit Thing.

• 56:20Speaker 02

  Oh yeah.

• 56:20Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 56:20Speaker 02

  Grit, Spit and Never Quit.

• 56:22Mike Rowe?

  Right.

• 56:22Speaker 02

  A Marine's Life to God, to Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life. There you go.

• 56:28Mike Rowe?

  When'd you write it and what was the experience like?

• 56:31Speaker 02

  It was painful. It was not what I expected and I didn't know what I was getting into. Here's, so, I'll back up a little bit. Every year around New Year's, I write my goals. I have this whole thing I do where I write out my mission statement, what I'm, what I want to accomplish, who I am, who I think I am, what I, you know, la, la, la, la, all this stuff. And then I get to goals and I write out goals for the year. And I try to be specific, I write out what the goal is and why it's important that I accomplish it. So I put a line down the middle of the page, the goal, why it's important. And for years I was, I put, write a book. Write a book. For ten years in a row, I wrote, wrote, and I never got to that goal.

• 57:16Speaker 02

  That was usually the old, one of, maybe one or two that never got done. And I said, well, either stop putting on the list or do it. And so I did it.

• 57:25Mike Rowe?

  Do you know why it was on the list in the first place?

• 57:27Speaker 02

  People would say to me, hey, you should write a book. So that's how it got on the list. And, and I thought, well, I don't know. It's, you always get weird. I get weirded out because I, I think, is it a vanity thing? Is it a, would it be helpful? Is anybody interested in this story? You know, cause I read books like when I made my decision to leave flight school and join the ground side and give up my flight contract to become a ground officer. Uh, so I could pursue comedy and acting.

• 58:03Speaker 02

  I was reading a Tony Robbins book at the time. And it helped me have the courage in that quarter life crisis. Uh, to make that decision. And it changed my life, right? It changed the trajectory of my life.

• 58:17Mike Rowe?

  I remember the exercise, moving toward goals. So it was like a value line. And then there's, like he forces you to think about.

• 58:27Speaker 02

  Outcomes.

• 58:28Mike Rowe?

  Outcomes, but also it was the priority that was interesting. Like you get all your, like you whittle the values down. You whittle the goals down and now you have to put them in the order of importance. And then you have to start answering questions like, well, what things am I doing to affirmatively get in the way of keeping me from accomplishing the thing I value most? And the answer to that question will break your heart.

• 58:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, he has a lot of great, great tactics.

• 59:00Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 59:01Speaker 02

  Outcome, purpose, action, right? OPA, right? And so I would, whatever the goal was, get on Saturday Night Live. Why? Because it's a dream of mine. It's because I think I can do it. I want to accomplish that dream. I want, if I, if I were to able to accomplish that, that dream, it would make me feel like I could accomplish anything. It would make me feel like I could do this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? So you come up with the out, the result first, then the purpose. Why, why, why? Answer all those why questions and, and be specific. And then, okay, great. What are your action steps? What are you going to do today? Well, uh, I want to take an acting class. I'm going to take a comedy class. I'm going to, I'm going to try to get on stage and do stand up. I'm going to try to learn how to do a character or an impersonation and then do it. And then you start, that's how the journey begins.

• 59:46Speaker 02

  And that's how, and whatever the goal is, right? So I, to answer your question, I think books could be helpful to people at certain times in their life, because I've come across books at certain times in my life that just really came through for me.

• 59:58Mike Rowe?

  Was it a Robbins book?

• 1:00:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:00Mike Rowe?

  That got you?

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:01Mike Rowe?

  Or did you go to the date with destiny?

• 1:00:03Speaker 02

  No, I didn't do that. I didn't do that, but I, I did, I read his books. I read, uh, unlimited power and awaken the giant within.

• 1:00:09Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:10Speaker 02

  And, um, and they just hit me at a time in my life when I needed to hear those things. You know, and this is also, you gotta remember, like, this is early nineties, you know? I'm, I'm a young lieutenant in the Marine Corps. I'm not asking anybody for help. I'm not reaching out saying, hey, does anybody want to talk about what I should do next? It's just not happening, right? So, and, and there wasn't, again, the internet was not a thriving thing. It didn't really exist that much. If it did, it was some sort of dial up and all you got was the Encyclopedia Britannica.

• 1:00:43Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:44Speaker 02

  You know, there just wasn't what it is. So I went to a bookstore and I found a Tony Robbins book. And I might've come home drunk one night and saw one of his infomercials and been like, yeah, I need this guy in my life.

• 1:01:02Mike Rowe?

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• 1:01:45Mike Rowe?

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• 1:02:30Mike Rowe?

  To learn about eligibility and how to participate, go to educationfreedom.org. It's simple. Educationfreedom.org.

• 1:02:41Mike Rowe?

  This is so funny you say that. That place I was describing where I kind of lost my mind in the snowstorm and played the piano and shotguns.

• 1:02:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:50Mike Rowe?

  When I moved out of there and finally quit QVC in 1993, I came home late and there might've been some cocktails and I'd left the TV on. And when I walked through the giant kitchen into the living room, Tony Robbins' giant head was on this giant screen, just in time for me to hear him say, I don't know how the sentence started, but the end was, and that's why the more things you own, the more things own you.

• 1:03:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's like a thunderbolt, didn't it?

• 1:03:23Mike Rowe?

  Right in the eye.

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:25Mike Rowe?

  And I got rid of 95% of everything I owned that week.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 1:03:31Mike Rowe?

  Quit my job.

• 1:03:32Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 1:03:33Mike Rowe?

  And went into this industry.

• 1:03:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:37Mike Rowe?

  To try and figure something out.

• 1:03:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:40Mike Rowe?

  But God, back to words. Tony Robbins is not Lincoln. He's not Kennedy. He's not Dean Wuermer.

• 1:03:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:47Mike Rowe?

  But damn, he grouped up some very, very powerful shit.

• 1:03:51Speaker 02

  He did. He put some phrases together that resonated with me, connected to my, some part of my being that made me take action, made me move. And when I decided to leave flight school, I had never quit anything in my life. It wasn't sitting well with me. I did not enjoy the feeling of saying I'm quitting. Uh, I had my pilot's license. I, I could fly, play, I, I knew what I was doing. I could, I could graduate.

• 1:04:14Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:14Speaker 02

  But I'm, why am I doing this? Why am I thinking about leaving and going to pursue something I know nothing about? Comedy and acting, you know? Uh, no one's going to understand this.

• 1:04:24Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 1:04:24Speaker 02

  My girlfriend, my parents, nobody.

• 1:04:26Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 1:04:26Speaker 02

  Nobody's going to understand what I'm doing. And, but I was reading this book and I was like, but I feel, I was an overwhelming compulsion to do this thing. And, uh, in a, you know, dramatic moment or whatever, I drove down to the beach at Corpus Christi, because you could drive onto the beach.

• 1:04:43Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:44Speaker 02

  And I was in my little second lieutenant mobile, you know, which is a Ford Explorer, you know? And I popped the hatch and I, and I was facing the ocean and I'm sitting on the beach and the water's coming in and I got the book and I made my decision. You know, I was praying and I was, I was so hungry for an answer and, and I couldn't go to anybody. It was, I'm dumb. I could've gone to anybody. I had friends and I had, I had a father and a mother and I could've gone to them.

• 1:05:07Mike Rowe?

  But you knew nobody would understand, or you believed it, which is even.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  I believed it. Also, I didn't want to burden them with this. And I just, I figured, I thought I was crazy because I'm like, who, what am I thinking? What am I doing? I was, so I was kind of beating the tar out of myself and I was frustrated and everything. But I, I, when I finally like said, oh, this is what I'm doing, you know? Be decisive about this. I'm doing this one thing.

• 1:05:26Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:27Speaker 02

  Then I said, okay, well then if you quit, then it's got to count. It's got to matter. What are you going to do? And I wrote in the back of that book, uh, I'm going to get on Saturday Night Live. That's, I wrote it first thing, because I, these are all the things I was going to do if, you know? And if, if I made that choice, it's got to matter, it's got to count. So what am I doing? Get on Saturday Night Live. That was September of 1994.

• 1:05:49Speaker 02

  September of 2004. 10 years later, almost to the day, I get a call from Lorne Michaels asking me to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, right? So the stuff works, but you have to, you have to work it. Cause for that 10 years, I had so many things trying to derail me, so many things that got in my way, so many obstacles, so many other paths that I went, but I just kept that one goal as a beacon on the hill. And I just kept working towards it. Just go, keep going that way. I may have to take a lot of detours, go around, stop for a while, but I still see it. It's up there. Keep going.

• 1:06:25Mike Rowe?

  Low points?

• 1:06:27Speaker 02

  Oh, man. And life?

• 1:06:31Mike Rowe?

  If you want, but I was thinking just more about the single minded acronym driven purpose of, uh, what was it? OPA.

• 1:06:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:40Mike Rowe?

  Right? Like, I mean, these are fun stories to tell in the rearview mirror.

• 1:06:45Speaker 02

  Sure. Yeah. Isn't that the truth?

• 1:06:47Mike Rowe?

  You don't know it's going to take 10 years.

• 1:06:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:49Mike Rowe?

  When you're four in.

• 1:06:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:51Mike Rowe?

  Or five or six.

• 1:06:53Speaker 02

  And those were the low points. Those, I came so close to quitting so many times.

• 1:07:00Mike Rowe?

  Worst audition.

• 1:07:01Speaker 02

  I even, I even did, yeah, that's, that's the one.

• 1:07:03Mike Rowe?

  What was?

• 1:07:04Speaker 02

  That's the one that broke me.

• 1:07:05Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:06Speaker 02

  Oh, it was a.

• 1:07:09Speaker 02

  I still, it haunts me a little bit.

• 1:07:14Speaker 02

  I go in for, I get a call, I don't even have an agent. I have a friend who's an agent. She was like, uh, hey, there's an audition if you want to go. It's, you know, it's going to be a big audition, a lot of people there, but if you want in, you know, be at this place, uh, lower west side or whatever. I was like, okay, yeah. But that means I had to take the six to the shuttle, to the nine, you know? I'm, I'm.

• 1:07:35Mike Rowe?

  We're in the Californians again. Californians again.

• 1:07:37Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:07:38Mike Rowe?

  I told you it was going to be the metaphor for the whole thing. It's so great.

• 1:07:41Speaker 02

  But I'm three trains in to get to this thing. I gotta take off time for work. I gotta do all this stuff and I'm, uh, I had like one good suit and it was raining and I wore it in the rain and this, it all got all wrinkly and shrunk up on me. And I, I go down, the 200 people in there. I'm like, oh, for the love of it. Grab the sides. I don't even know why they had sides. I'm gelling, are you gelling? That's it. That's all I had to say.

• 1:08:04Mike Rowe?

  That's the line.

• 1:08:05Speaker 02

  That's it. Throw it down, great. Go in, Rob Riggle, I'm gelling, are you gelling? Thanks, Rob. I'm out. Hump it all the way back home. Get a call. Hey, they love you. Come back. I'm like, they love you. Did they? Did they?

• 1:08:19Mike Rowe?

  Did they?

• 1:08:19Speaker 02

  All right. Next day, I gotta put on the stinky A suit.

• 1:08:23Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Speaker 02

  And three trains, I show up. Now we're down to 50 people. I'm gelling, are you gelling? Dynamite, you're the best, Rob. Thank you, thank you. I'm out. Go back home. Again, I'm taking off chunks of work here, whatever. So get a call, hey, I don't know what you're doing, but that you're dazzling them because I want to see you again. Like, okay. And they go, here's the good news. You get paid for your third audition. I was like, all right, what are we talking? All right, all right. You know, take the edge off here. Hit me, $75. I was like, all right, all right.

• 1:08:55Mike Rowe?

  Let's do this.

• 1:08:57Speaker 02

  I go down, there's a handful of us, you know? I'm gelling, are you gelling? Thanks, Rob.

• 1:09:04Speaker 02

  You killed it. You killed it.

• 1:09:06Mike Rowe?

  Are you doing anything marginally different?

• 1:09:10Speaker 02

  I'm gelling or you gelling?

• 1:09:12Mike Rowe?

  That's what you're saying?

• 1:09:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's it. I come back, they got a call. It's down to you and two other guys. They need to see you again. This is a whole week now that I've been doing this. Three trains back, I go down, still same stinky suit, all wrinkled. Like shriveled up on me. I go in now, there's the whole agency, right? The whole ad agency, there's like 10 of them.

• 1:09:37Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:37Speaker 02

  The director, there's producer, then there's the client. So there's 20 of them. The room was packed with suits and and they're like, Rob, oh, hey, come on in, come on in. We've been loving it. We've been loving what you're doing. All right, whenever you're ready. I'm like, oh, guys. Okay. So, you know, but I'm, I'm being positive. I want the gig. I'm so, you know? So I'm gelling or you gelling? And they're like, okay, Rob, just stay right there if you don't mind.

• 1:10:09Speaker 02

  Whispers, whispers, papers going back and forth. I'm like, uh huh, uh huh. They go, Rob,

• 1:10:16Speaker 02

  would you be willing to do it one more time for us? This time, can you put a little concern in your voice? I was like, okay, okay. Appreciate the note. Yeah. I'm gelling. Are you gelling?

• 1:10:28Mike Rowe?

  Whoa, stop. Hold on, hold on. We need

• 1:10:32Speaker 02

  the conversations, they just fly, you know, they're all flying amok. Rob, that was, we loved that. We absolutely loved that. Okay, last one, but if you don't mind, would you just give it to us with like, I don't know, you know what? Surprise us, but, but be happy. So I was like, all right. You know, so like, I'm gelling, are you gelling? And they were like, oh, you know, they're coming out of their seats like it was the Apollo, right? Everybody's high fiving. I'm like, what time is it, fool? I think I just booked a gig, national spot. I go home, I get the call, not you.

• 1:11:09Speaker 02

  The whole week and all of that effort and energy and ruined suit and just, and I broke, I broke because I've been grinding for seven years. I was, I was just done. I had job offers down in Virginia where I could make good money. I could join a country club. I could have a family. I could play golf on the weekends. I could, you know, I just had a life waiting here and tempting me every day. And I did, I, that night I cursed, I cursed everything. I cussed words included. I mean, I'm sure my neighbors thought something was going on. I was transforming into a werewolf. I don't know what they thought was happening, but all hell broke loose in my apartment. I let it, I let the world have it and I quit.

• 1:11:53Speaker 02

  I did. I was like, that's it. You won. I'm done. This and everybody, everybody I ever met, you know? I mean, I was hot and I went to bed and I got up the next morning and like George Costanza, I just pretend like it didn't happen and I went back to work and started auditioning again and trying. And I'm glad I did because in that same year I got SNL. So had I quit right then and kept to it, I would have missed that window.

• 1:12:21Mike Rowe?

  Who was the, what was the product? What was the?

• 1:12:23Speaker 02

  It was Dr. Scholl's. I'm gelling or you gelling?

• 1:12:25Mike Rowe?

  I didn't, I didn't know.

• 1:12:26Speaker 02

  Remember that big campaign?

• 1:12:28Mike Rowe?

  I thought it was like for Jell-O or something.

• 1:12:31Speaker 02

  It's in souls.

• 1:12:32Mike Rowe?

  Who got the gig?

• 1:12:33Speaker 02

  I don't even know.

• 1:12:35Mike Rowe?

  I bet.

• 1:12:35Speaker 01

  They did a whole series of commercials with that. I'm gelling, you gelling.

• 1:12:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was, it was a big run for them.

• 1:12:40Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:41Speaker 02

  Not me, but them.

• 1:12:44Mike Rowe?

  You know what you could have done on the final, final, you could have gone, I'm gelling.

• 1:12:49Speaker 02

  Oh, what was the line?

• 1:12:53Speaker 02

  See, where were you when I needed you?

• 1:12:55Mike Rowe?

  You know, you know where I was around? What year was this?

• 1:12:58Speaker 02

  That would have been, uh, 2004.

• 1:13:08Mike Rowe?

  I had a similar low point a few years before that for a VO gig for Mazda. And I won't tell the whole story because Chuck's heard a thousand times, but I got booked to do, well,

• 1:13:21Mike Rowe?

  I auditioned and I got it. So spoiler alert, I get it.

• 1:13:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:26Mike Rowe?

  So I go to the same place to read. And the line is Mazda. That's the line. So I walk in and the engineer is like, give me a quick mic test. We got the clients on the line. Clients are in Chicago, San Francisco and Tokyo.

• 1:13:44Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:13:44Mike Rowe?

  Everybody's on the phone. Everybody's listening.

• 1:13:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:48Mike Rowe?

  But he just needs a quick mic test. So I say, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda.

• 1:13:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:55Mike Rowe?

  He's like, okay, it sounds great. And then we get on and we start the thing. Long story short, I say the word Mazda maybe 120 times. Okay? And it's all positive, but it's always, this time we were thinking, could you? And would you? So we go through all that, like, like, what color are you thinking when you say it? And can, are you stepping forward and gesturing when you say it? Would you try that? Cause there's no zoom or anything. And now I just, I'm pretty sure they're just messing with me.

• 1:14:23Speaker 02

  If you say a word enough times, especially a word like Mazda, it starts to sound weird in your mouth. It starts to sound weird in your head where you're like, am I saying it right? It's, it's really weird. I've been in that phenomenon before. It's where you're like, I don't even know if I'm, I say, my, my mouth feels funny when I say it now.

• 1:14:38Mike Rowe?

  You can't tell this story to anybody who hasn't auditioned like this because the rest of the world is just like, what's the big deal? Just keep saying Mazda. How hard is it? Try it. Try it, man. Try, I'm gelling or you gelling? Just say it 50 times.

• 1:14:51Speaker 02

  And, and with notes.

• 1:14:53Mike Rowe?

  Right. But then I swear to God, Rob, the direction starts with, well, this is going to air all over the country, but it's also going to air in Japan. So there are a couple of different pronunciations, right? Hokkaido, Hanshu, Kyushu, they all kind of, so now can you say Matsuda? So we get the tone right. It's Matsuda, Matsuda, Matsuda. And then over here they say Mazda.

• 1:15:17Speaker 02

  Mazda.

• 1:15:18Mike Rowe?

  Mazda. So I do that like 40 times.

• 1:15:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:15:21Mike Rowe?

  And then I think we got it. And then the guy in Chicago is like, look,

• 1:15:27Mike Rowe?

  we just, we just aren't quite sure what we want to lean into most. So we would like you to, we would like you to do a few with a Japanese accent.

• 1:15:38Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:15:39Mike Rowe?

  Now, nobody tells me what that.

• 1:15:41Speaker 02

  What, what is that to you?

• 1:15:44Mike Rowe?

  I'll tell you what it is to me.

• 1:15:45Speaker 02

  Was what I would have said to the Chicago guy.

• 1:15:47Mike Rowe?

  At that point, I'm like, the engineer and I haven't said a word to each other, but we've become lifelong friends through the glass.

• 1:15:53Speaker 02

  You're bonded, you're trauma bonded at this point.

• 1:15:55Mike Rowe?

  Where he's just like, thank God there's a witness, you know? So I start with, Mazda.

• 1:16:07Mike Rowe?

  That, yeah, it's just so, apologies. I'm not trying to get canceled, but God, there was nothing else to do.

• 1:16:13Speaker 02

  Well, they're not giving you any guidance and that's a, that's a bad ask, by the way.

• 1:16:18Mike Rowe?

  Here's the end of my story.

• 1:16:21Mike Rowe?

  It goes on the air. Everything's great. They used the second

• 1:16:27Speaker 02

  take.

• 1:16:27Mike Rowe?

  mic test.

• 1:16:28Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 1:16:30Mike Rowe?

  It wasn't even a take. It was when the engineer was just, he was just rolling on the mic test. And I said, Mazda.

• 1:16:36Speaker 02

  It was an exercise in torture.

• 1:16:38Mike Rowe?

  That's it. Every single thing was just, I think, and I'd love to get your thoughts on this. It's an attempt to justify what I will admit was too much money for too little work. There's no way I should have made that kind of dough saying Mazda.

• 1:16:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:16:54Mike Rowe?

  There's just no way.

• 1:16:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:16:55Mike Rowe?

  Residuals, unions, that's, but you think about the other 100 auditions you have to suffer through.

• 1:17:01Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:17:01Mike Rowe?

  That's how, that's how the business works.

• 1:17:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, completely.

• 1:17:05Mike Rowe?

  But yeah, man, when they're all sitting there.

• 1:17:10Speaker 02

  I've walked that walk a little bit, so I empathize with you greatly on that. And it's, it is torture. My, I got my SAG card by doing a castor oil commercial, voiceover. That's how I got my SAG card was doing a voiceover for castor oil.

• 1:17:23Mike Rowe?

  What was the copy? You remember?

• 1:17:25Speaker 02

  No, but I'm sure it was like, you know, whatever it was.

• 1:17:27Mike Rowe?

  I'm gelling, you're gelling?

• 1:17:29Speaker 02

  Basically. I'm sure it was something like that, but yeah, those, those are the moments in that when you find, when, if you choose a life in the arts, those are the moments that break you a little bit. They really do. But then

• 1:17:44Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:45Speaker 02

  You have those nights or those moments when you, you really hit it. You hit it well and you, you do something great or you have a moment that even you are pleased with. I'm never pleased with, I hate my voice. I hate my look. I hate everything. I'm not, I'm not an easy critic of myself, but when you do have a moment, you're like, oh, I believe that.

• 1:18:04Mike Rowe?

  Can you sit in the theater and watch The Hangover?

• 1:18:07Speaker 02

  Now I can. Now I'm getting better at it. In the beginning I just couldn't, but now I can. I think that's just a comfort thing with myself and whatever. And I'm, I'm much better at it now. It was my voice I didn't like. It was all kinds of things. But when you do have those moments where you're like, I believe that I, I would, you know, as an audience member, I believe that, that feels good to me. Then I'm like, okay, I've done my job. I, maybe I do belong in this business. Maybe, and those moments save you from the, from the dark ones.

• 1:18:35Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, no kidding. What was the audition like for SNL? Or if you'd rather, if, if you're sick of that story, what about? What about The Daily Show? Because, because Madeline Smithburg hired me two days before the contract was rescinded and they went with Craig Kilborn.

• 1:18:54Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 1:18:55Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, because ESPN let him out of his contract. And then a year later, when he quit, they called me back and that looked like a shoe in. And then they came up with a bunch of money for Jon Stewart, which is why I'm interviewing you now. But what was it like working with Jon and that whole crew?

• 1:19:11Speaker 02

  It was great.

• 1:19:13Speaker 02

  I always feel such a sense of gratitude to Lorne Michaels for SNL, even though it was short-lived, and to Jon Stewart

• 1:19:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:23Speaker 02

  for the time that I got on that show. I was green when I got my first, my first gig was SNL. That was the first job I got in show business. And my second job, my second job was The Daily Show. And, and so I, I was green. I was really, really green and I didn't know how to do things. And Jon was patient. He kind of understood that a little bit, I think, I hope, I don't know. But he was patient with me. And, and I also, I, I tried to demonstrate a work ethic, to be honest with you. Like, when I got there, I had no experience with teleprompters. Okay? And I, I, I worked against them somehow.

• 1:20:07Speaker 02

  I'm not a smooth reader. My eyes like stop at words and I don't flow and catch things in advance. I've gotten much better.

• 1:20:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:15Speaker 02

  But, you know, especially when they're scrolling, for whatever reason, that threw me off. And so I would read faster, it would scroll faster and I was chasing my own tail. And I, so it was clunky.

• 1:20:24Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:24Speaker 02

  I was clunky and I was not, it was not great. So I would go in during lunch with the floor manager and the teleprompter lady. And they were so kind to me. We would take old scripts and put them up and I would just practice, practice, practice.

• 1:20:43Mike Rowe?

  Is this Daily Show or SNL?

• 1:20:45Speaker 02

  Daily Show.

• 1:20:45Mike Rowe?

  This is Daily.

• 1:20:45Speaker 02

  Daily Show. And I would practice on the teleprompter just because if I got the call, hey, you're doing a, you know, a segment tonight in front of the green screen or whatever, you know, I'd be like, oh, you know, I could feel my shoulders go up because I, okay, but I, so I, I would just go in every lunch. When we got done with lunch, I would, I would say, hey, Spinney and, and very nicely, I'm forgetting her name, who ran the teleprompter. And I'd say, you guys have some time? And they go, yeah. And so I'd go into the studio and I would read and practice and practice and practice every day. And it worked. I got better, I got better, I got smoother, I got more confident. That's the thing, you know, you get more confident.

• 1:21:25Speaker 02

  But Jon was, he allowed me to, to not be great and then get better, which was wonderful.

• 1:21:32Mike Rowe?

  It's such an interesting trope, the teleprompter, especially on that show, because I, I think

• 1:21:40Mike Rowe?

  I'm not a fan. Like, I like Walter Cronkite reading the news off the page and like looking up at me when he's doing it. I think it, you know, it's fine for certain things, but it just seems to be there to create the illusion of actual knowledge where it doesn't exist. But it was great on The Daily Show because Jon was one of the first ones to acknowledge its existence. Like, like the wide shot would show you the prompter and he would like acknowledge all of those things, which I thought was really, really important. But I'm wondering, like, was there drama? You're a patriot.

• 1:22:21Mike Rowe?

  Unapologetically so.

• 1:22:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:23Mike Rowe?

  And you know, I mean, SNL is its own ecosystem. The Daily Show is its own ecosystem. Was there tension between your own ethos, your own feelings about the country? Was it just not even a, a thing?

• 1:22:39Speaker 02

  Believe it or not, back then, it, it wasn't, it's nothing like today. Nothing. Yeah, of course, there's left and right politics. Been around forever, but, but it wasn't the, the same sort of ugliness that I see today.

• 1:22:58Speaker 02

  And, and

• 1:23:02Speaker 02

  it was, it was never a problem. We, we always viewed things through a comedy lens. Now, the show, you know, skewed more liberal and, and left and, and that's fine. But it was always, everything was approached from a comedy perspective or a, a, you know, there was a punchline at the end

• 1:23:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:19Speaker 02

  of whatever was going on. You might not like the punchline all the time, but there was always a punchline, you know? And, and it was a, usually a payoff punchline. It wasn't just a mean comment, you know?

• 1:23:30Speaker 02

  And so I, I didn't have a problem with it at all, really. And, and I enjoyed my time there, you know? And I, I got to learn a lot from the writers and from Jon himself. He's a great captain of the ship, you know? That was his ship and he was the captain of it. And we would go in and we'd do a rehearsal before they let the audience in. We'd do the, you know, afternoon rehearsal and we'd go back into his office and, and

• 1:23:57Speaker 02

  go to work on that script, you know? They'd throw it up on, on the wall there and we, and he was like, no, change this word to that, change here, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. And then if there was a segment that I was in, I'd be in the room with him. So we'd read the segment and he, and he was open to, you, you had an idea, pitch it, you know? And he was gracious too, because, you know, when you're that funny and you're the kid, you know, you're, it's captain of the ship, whatever, he still would give up a laugh. Like, he was generous with his laughs, you know, which made you go, oh, yeah, I belong in this room. You know, like, even if he's like, I love that, but we're not going to use it, you know? Fine, but you know, he gave you the courtesy of a laugh and made you feel like you belonged there.

• 1:24:34Speaker 02

  I thought he was a good leader. I did. Still do, you know, I, I don't work there anymore, but comedy-wise, I'll always be indebted to him for being patient with me and giving me a chance to.

• 1:24:45Mike Rowe?

  That's great to hear.

• 1:24:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:46Mike Rowe?

  Who was the guy we had on? Paul? Paul Pantolino?

• 1:24:49Speaker 02

  Paul Pantolino, yeah. He's a director on the show. Do you know Paul? Uh huh, I do. I like Paul.

• 1:24:54Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to talk to him because I, I couldn't remember what I had remembered or imagined about that crazy audition process, but he, he came in.

• 1:25:04Speaker 02

  I remember when I, I auditioned out here first in LA because I had just moved everybody out here. My daughter at the time, little, and my, my wife at the time, we had moved out here. And I'd just gotten everybody out here. I'd been out here trying to find work and I, myself and a fellow comedian, a great comedian, a guy I love very much, Rob Hubel and I were a kind of a comedy team. And we got a deal to write a pilot for NBC, which we did. And, you know, at least that was one paycheck. So I was like, okay, that's enough.

• 1:25:35Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:35Speaker 02

  We moved the family out here and I got them out here, found a little place out in the suburbs. So because we had a little one. And, and then I got this audition for Daily Show because Rob Corddry and Ed Helms were leaving. And so they were, they replaced one with John Oliver. He came in and then they were getting ready to replace one more correspondent. And I auditioned out here and I did well enough that I got to go to do in-studio reading with Jon.

• 1:26:05Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:05Speaker 02

  And, but it was me and like five other people, you know? So there was a handful of us. And I went in and here's the thing, I was broke. That was it. I was, money was done, I was out.

• 1:26:21Speaker 02

  I had a family to support. I had, I had some pressure.

• 1:26:25Mike Rowe?

  Not gelling.

• 1:26:26Speaker 02

  Not, I was so not gelling.

• 1:26:28Mike Rowe?

  No.

• 1:26:28Speaker 02

  I was not gelling. The heat was on. There's no two ways to, to look at it and it was it. It was, it was a make or break. So I was, I went into there trying to be calm, trying to relax, but I knew the stakes were pretty high. Because the simple truth was, this was 2006.

• 1:26:46Speaker 02

  And I was, we were broke. I was out of money. And if I didn't get the gig, I was going to go back on active duty.

• 1:26:57Mike Rowe?

  Whoa.

• 1:26:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I had no choice. I was, I was a captain at the time. The war was, and it's, you know, starting to get really hot and they needed people back. If I would have put my hand in the air, I would have been picked up very quickly and I would have been back on active duty. But I would have a paycheck on the first and the 15th. I'd have medical coverage. I would have, you know, my family would be provided for. I would, you know? So that's what I was looking at. And when I went out there in the summer of 06,

• 1:27:30Speaker 02

  I went in, I auditioned, I screwed up the, well, I was, I went out there first and I, you do a, a piece in front of the green screen and then you do a piece at the desk with Jon. So I was over the green screen and they were doing the teleprompter. And I was like, oh my God, this is, I was joking about how this thing's going so fast. And, and I was kind of screwing around and laughing and, and Jon came in and sat down over the desk and I kind of gave him a wave. He waved back and I kind of finished up because I was practicing. And he goes, that was great. Come on over here, let's do the desk piece.

• 1:28:03Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:04Speaker 02

  And I was like, oh, no, no, that was not my audition. I was just playing like, I, that, that was a big F around. I'm not, don't do this to me. I need this gig, you know? But I couldn't say anything because he gave me the, let's do this. So I, I, again, I'm green. I don't have enough experience or knowledge to understand that ship sailed, let it go, focus on the next thing, right? So I'm, I sit down and I'm doing the desk piece with him now. And there's a teleprompter over his shoulder. Now, I'd been on SNL, I know enough, stay on prompter, don't go back and forth because it's going to look weird. So I, so now I'm doing a scene with him, but I'm, I'm looking over, you know, his shoulder. I'm not even making eye contact with him and I'm trying to read this bit with him.

• 1:28:46Speaker 02

  But all I'm thinking about is, should I ask him if I can go back to do the stand-up thing? And I'm literally thinking about, should I ask him if I can go back? While I'm reading the words, that's how disconnected I was from the moment. So I get done.

• 1:29:04Speaker 02

  It went well enough, you know? Jon was very gracious to me, you know? High fives, all that stuff. And we had some laughs and I tried to crack wise as I left and whatever. And I went outside and, you know, still had the flip phones back then. And I called my wife at the time and I said, hey, I think I screwed it up. I'm sorry.

• 1:29:23Speaker 02

  Don't worry, we're fine, we're fine. I may be gone for a while.

• 1:29:30Speaker 02

  But I'm going back on active duty and she kind of knew that that was a possibility.

• 1:29:34Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:34Speaker 02

  And I said it. So I said, I'll go back on active duty. We'll be fine. Um, and uh, we're covered, babe, we're covered, you know? No, we're not. We're not going to be in trouble. We're going to be fine. And um, and then I was getting my stuff and they said, hey, stick around, you know, cause uh, uh, everybody want the, the showrunners want to come by and thank everybody. Cause they put me in a, in a dressing room and then they brought out the other people to audition. And then you, they made everybody kind of wait and then they kind of went down and either said, you know? And they got to me and they said, well, you know, John really liked you. We really liked you. Would you like to be a correspondent? And uh, you know, I screamed.

• 1:30:16Mike Rowe?

  Yes, I would.

• 1:30:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think I did cartwheels and screamed something and called my wife and I, we got it, we got it, we got it. But the problem was, I don't know what was going on, but they, at the time, they were only offering six months employment.

• 1:30:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:28Speaker 02

  So you got the gig for six months and then we'll reevaluate. So I was like, oh, that's okay. Yeah. No, look, hey, I'm all about it. But I couldn't move the family out for six months on the, on the, if it didn't go well, because at the end of that six months, they could have said, hey, you know, it's not vibing or whatever. And then I would have to move everybody. I didn't have the money to move everybody all over the country. And not to mention, if they did move out uh, to the east coast, we'd have to, you know, we'd probably be living in Jersey somewhere.

• 1:30:56Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:57Speaker 02

  Cause that's what we could afford. And then I was going to be on the road as a correspondent all the time.

• 1:31:01Mike Rowe?

  So what's the point?

• 1:31:02Speaker 02

  So what's the point? You know, like I'll, so I was for that six, first six months. And then they said, oh, we love you. So I got another six month extension and then, then after that first year, they said, we love you. You get a one, now you get a full year. I'm like, how about just give me the job?

• 1:31:16Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, just give me the job, man.

• 1:31:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, let's lock this down, you know?

• 1:31:18Mike Rowe?

  I'll tell you why, Rob, because sometimes you have to say Mazda 300 times.

• 1:31:24Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:31:25Mike Rowe?

  And sometimes the best work you did in your audition was your rehearsal.

• 1:31:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:30Mike Rowe?

  That's the madness.

• 1:31:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:31Mike Rowe?

  That's the madness. And that's why I started by saying, you know, the Marine Corps and the armed services don't allow for that. This industry is built on it. And it's a very, people will study your brain one day to try and understand. Look, it's not that actors haven't served and vice versa. In fact, Jimmy Stewart did, who we're going to talk about now. But, but it just seems, I mean, he did his time. He stepped away, as I recall, at a time when nobody wanted him to. I mean, the studio Hollywood didn't want him to do that.

• 1:32:09Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:32:10Mike Rowe?

  But he did. You did 23 years. Having said that, tell me about Jimmy, starting in theaters, geez, right now.

• 1:32:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, this weekend.

• 1:32:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:19Speaker 02

  November 6th. It's a Jimmy Stewart biopic. Uh, the young actor that plays Jimmy Stewart, KJ Appa, is tremendous. His performance is amazing.

• 1:32:31Mike Rowe?

  Big shoes, dude.

• 1:32:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, he, but he nailed it.

• 1:32:34Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:34Speaker 02

  Really, truly nailed it. Um,

• 1:32:38Mike Rowe?

  It looks great.

• 1:32:38Speaker 02

  You kind of lose yourself a little bit when you're watching it. You really,

• 1:32:42Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:42Speaker 02

  And that's what you want in a movie. You really like, I felt transformed. Uh, it's a great story. It's about a, a, a true American hero. Someone who puts service before self, which you don't see very often. Uh, maybe Pat Tillman was another example, but you just don't see it that often. And when you do, it should be honored. And he, let's not forget, like, he was in 27 films and won an Academy Award before the war started. And then when the war started, he was drafted. And he could, I mean, there, he had so many off ramps in this path. He took none of them. He took none of them. He, he accepted his draft card, enlisted as, as a private, went into the army as a private after being drafted.

• 1:33:22Mike Rowe?

  How much pressure do you reckon there was on him to not do that?

• 1:33:26Speaker 02

  He literally won the Academy Award in, in 41. And then December of 41, we were attacked. So he, you know, he was at the, the zenith of his powers and he chose to spend the next four years

• 1:33:41Speaker 02

  fighting the forces of evil, uh, quite honestly. And he could have stayed home and he could have, like I said, he had a lot of off ramps. He didn't have to take the path he took, which was deadly and dangerous.

• 1:33:55Mike Rowe?

  This is Ryan Gosling basically signing up right now or go down the list, right?

• 1:34:00Speaker 02

  Right. And not taking an easy path, like taking a frontline assignment, you know, that it was truly astonishing. Uh, and then, you know, he, like a lot of veterans, especially ones that went through the kind of trauma he did, they suffered. But back then, there were no resources.

• 1:34:17Mike Rowe?

  Keep that to yourself.

• 1:34:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, there were no resources. And not only there were no resources, there were no, there wasn't really even an understanding, or at least a proper understanding of what it was, you know, and let, no one understands the wounds you can't see. You know, they just don't understand it. They're like, what's your problem? You know, he gets mad all the time. He's, he doesn't like crowds. He freaks out, you know? Oh, he's a real pain in the butt. Whatever it is, it's just you. It has nothing to do with the trauma you experienced, the, the effect that has on your nervous system, all the stuff.

• 1:34:48Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:48Speaker 02

  They just didn't understand. So he had to deal with a lot of that stuff. And when he came home, he did not step right back into Hollywood. They did not welcome him with open arms. It was a little frosty. Uh, as far as, you know, well, it's been a while, Jim. Haven't seen you, you know, the, I got, there's a couple of new boys on the block, you know, who are the A, A-listers now. And, and he, Frank Capra, wonderful director, uh, legendary, uh, had done some movies with him back in the 30s, Mr. Smith.

• 1:35:21Mike Rowe?

  Post to Washington.

• 1:35:22Speaker 02

  Washington.

• 1:35:22Mike Rowe?

  Sure.

• 1:35:23Speaker 02

  And.

• 1:35:24Mike Rowe?

  What did he win his Oscar for?

• 1:35:26Speaker 02

  Philadelphia Story.

• 1:35:27Mike Rowe?

  Of course.

• 1:35:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:28Mike Rowe?

  Of course.

• 1:35:28Speaker 02

  And um,

• 1:35:31Speaker 02

  he came to him and said, I got a new movie. I want you to do it with me. And Jimmy was still not quite right. He was still rattled and still processing something he didn't even understand. He didn't know why he was feeling this way. He didn't know why he couldn't connect the dots. And he didn't know why he was angry and he didn't know why he didn't want to talk to anybody and he didn't know.

• 1:35:52Mike Rowe?

  How much action did he see?

• 1:35:53Speaker 02

  So much, so much. Over 20 missions over Germany, uh, Berlin missions. I mean, the, the kind where you'd lose multiple planes in your squadron. Um, and he was a squadron commander.

• 1:36:06Speaker 02

  Tough stuff, really harsh. Um,

• 1:36:10Speaker 02

  and so he does, it's a wonderful life in 1946. It's his first movie he does when he gets after the war.

• 1:36:18Speaker 02

  And he is struggling a little bit, but doesn't, you know, is doing a fine job. But he's wrestling this demon that he doesn't understand. And Frank sees it. Frank understands it. Frank sees what's happening.

• 1:36:33Speaker 02

  And there's that wonderful moment in the movie, uh, in Martini's Bar, where he's praying to God and to Clarence for guidance, for help.

• 1:36:43Mike Rowe?

  I'm not a praying man.

• 1:36:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:44Mike Rowe?

  God, if you're up there.

• 1:36:46Speaker 02

  That's the line. It's a powerful line. And he, uh, I think he had, that's the first moment, according to Frank Capra, that's the first moment, and Jimmy, that he allowed himself to touch that nerve and kind of start addressing that pain that he was experiencing. And so now that scene takes on a whole new dimension for me, uh, and for anybody else who might see it, but I watch it every Christmas Eve, so.

• 1:37:11Mike Rowe?

  Look, and of course, the next beat, the school teacher's husband walks in.

• 1:37:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:37:16Mike Rowe?

  Punches him in the nose. You know?

• 1:37:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:37:19Mike Rowe?

  That's.

• 1:37:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. And this movie though, this movie's really about his war service. And about his coming home and, and moving on with his life. But it tells a wonderful story about a wonderful American who put his country above himself, which is rare.

• 1:37:36Mike Rowe?

  Why do you watch it every year? I do too.

• 1:37:41Speaker 02

  One, it's, it's there. It's on NBC. They always put it on. And so it's not, I, sometimes I have it on the background, but I always sit down and catch chunks of it.

• 1:37:52Speaker 02

  Because it reaches into the best parts of us.

• 1:37:57Mike Rowe?

  You know what gets me in that movie every time? It's such a quick cut, but it's at the very end when they're singing, uh,

• 1:38:04Speaker 02

  Old Angkor?

• 1:38:05Mike Rowe?

  Old Angkor. And they cut to the, I think it's the bank examiner who like tears up the notes and then with all the enthusiasm. He's like, oh, the, it's really just.

• 1:38:15Speaker 02

  He belts it out.

• 1:38:16Mike Rowe?

  He belts it.

• 1:38:17Speaker 02

  Yes. I know exactly what you're talking about. I know that beat.

• 1:38:20Mike Rowe?

  It gets me every time. Course, Zuzu's pedal.

• 1:38:22Speaker 02

  Cause he's overwhelmed with the joy. He's overwhelmed with the moment. He's over, he's on board. He's, he's done.

• 1:38:29Mike Rowe?

  Well, to me, it's like, it's, it's an underrated moment because he, the bank examiner, whose job is to be dour and deliver bad news. That's what he does. He's actually caught up in a good mob. Right? It's like a mob of good tidings and great joy. And everybody's singing and he's like, well, why not?

• 1:38:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:49Mike Rowe?

  Let's give this a try.

• 1:38:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:51Mike Rowe?

  And I don't know. I, it's just, it, it gets me, but I. I'm a geek on that movie and we could talk about it for hours, but I it's not really a Christmas movie, you know, it just airs at Christmas time.

• 1:39:06Mike Rowe?

  And it was not well received. In fact, it was kind of a failure vis a vis box office.

• 1:39:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, which which bums me out to no end. I'm glad it has what it has now.

• 1:39:17Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:39:18Speaker 02

  I wish at the time for Frank Capra.

• 1:39:20Mike Rowe?

  Oh, that sucks, but that was just an accident. They let the copyright lapse.

• 1:39:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:39:25Mike Rowe?

  They missed it.

• 1:39:26Speaker 02

  Really? Is that what happened?

• 1:39:27Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. And then a local station just said, well,

• 1:39:30Speaker 01

  It was free content to play every year.

• 1:39:32Mike Rowe?

  For free. And they started putting it on around Christmas at midnight and people loved it. Whole new generation loved it.

• 1:39:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:39:40Mike Rowe?

  But it's not a Christmas. It's to my mind, like when I talk to other cinephiles about what's your remote drop? That's on there. But for me, it's it's it's a horror story with a happy ending. I just I can't imagine anything more terrifying. That scene where nobody knows him and and his car is wrecked and that guy doesn't know him and the cop doesn't know him and Bert and Ernie don't know him and his and God, Mary, his own mother doesn't know him. And then finally, don't you don't you know me, Mary? That

• 1:40:15Speaker 02

  That was a good one right there. Sound like Jimmy?

• 1:40:17Mike Rowe?

  Kills me.

• 1:40:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:40:19Mike Rowe?

  It just kills me.

• 1:40:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, because I think it's our worst fear.

• 1:40:23Mike Rowe?

  To not be known by the people we love most.

• 1:40:26Speaker 02

  By the people we love the most. That's

• 1:40:29Mike Rowe?

  Well, that's bad, but shunned is at least deliberate. You know, that's that Amish Mennonite. They're like, that's a judgment.

• 1:40:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:40:37Mike Rowe?

  To have the universe somehow hiccup in a way that your own mom doesn't know who you are. And then and then you see them. You see them in this alternative life that is subpar to what it was when you were walking around.

• 1:40:51Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:40:53Mike Rowe?

  Capra was a fricking genius.

• 1:40:55Speaker 02

  Vision. He had he was a great storyteller.

• 1:40:58Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:59Speaker 02

  And knew a good story when he heard it.

• 1:41:01Mike Rowe?

  Jeez. How proud are you in the scale of what you've done?

• 1:41:05Speaker 02

  Very proud of this one. Very proud.

• 1:41:07Mike Rowe?

  What's your role?

• 1:41:08Speaker 02

  I play Jimmy Stewart's squadron commander and he was actually sort of a mentor to Jimmy through his Air Force career. But I play Colonel Terrell, who was his squadron commander, wing commander, kind of his mentor the whole way through. And, you know, Jimmy Stewart, people forget, you know, he went from buck private when he was drafted and he retired as a brigadier general. So it's it's a story.

• 1:41:38Speaker 01

  It's unexampled. Blew his last mission.

• 1:41:41Speaker 02

  In Vietnam.

• 1:41:41Speaker 01

  In Vietnam.

• 1:41:43Speaker 02

  In 1966.

• 1:41:44Speaker 01

  Stayed in the National Guard.

• 1:41:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:41:47Mike Rowe?

  What time is it, Chuck? I'm going to be somewhat respectful of the Rob here.

• 1:41:51Speaker 01

  It's an hour and 32 minutes.

• 1:41:52Mike Rowe?

  Okay, great. We're gonna go for another three if that's good with you.

• 1:41:57Speaker 02

  You have any more water?

• 1:41:59Mike Rowe?

  I'm gonna have to get rid of some in a minute. I haven't seen the movie and I'm deeply ashamed and I promise I'll watch it this week because I'm I love this stuff. But it sounded like a great moment you were talking about when in real life, I mean, Jimmy Stewart loses how many people in that raid?

• 1:42:16Speaker 02

  I mean, he

• 1:42:18Speaker 01

  Oh, this was just on the way to England. You're talking about what we were talking about.

• 1:42:22Speaker 02

  When he was doing the transatlantic, he lost one of his planes, which I think was 14.

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, 14 crew members, yeah.

• 1:42:27Mike Rowe?

  And the subsequent scene, you have a line that

• 1:42:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was talking about, we were talking about, he needs to notify the next of kin, you know, as the commander, you know, as the leader, you need to you need to write that letter.

• 1:42:43Mike Rowe?

  Because he lost some men.

• 1:42:46Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. On the on the crossing, he had a one of his planes was shot down and he had to write the the letters home explaining what happened.

• 1:42:55Mike Rowe?

  But your character somewhat corrects him.

• 1:42:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, I had to remind him that they were his people because he was kind of, I think the I don't know the exact verbiage. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but it was kind of that avoidance language, you know, like, well, we should write something home. Yeah, those people, those people. No, no, those are your people and you're accountable for them. And it's your responsibility now to explain and let that sink in because that's the price of leadership.

• 1:43:27Mike Rowe?

  This is a trope, forgive me, but when you were in the Corps, that that idea that you can fight for the country, you can sign up because of 9/11, you can you got your platoon, your regiment, all of it. But in the end, in the end, it's the guy to your right and to your left.

• 1:43:47Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 1:43:48Mike Rowe?

  You say, of course, but people who who don't, who haven't been there, you know, if you haven't said Mazda 300 times, you don't know how weird it sounds in your mouth. And if you don't wear a uniform and spend 23 years, you can't know that. And I don't know that, you know, I guess great movies impart it, you know, but since you're here, you know, it's it just seems like an easy thing to gloss over. But you talked about the intimacy of of all of this before. That just seems about the most intimate bond there can there can be.

• 1:44:25Speaker 02

  Absolutely. I think you, if you've ever played on a team sport, especially a violent one, like football.

• 1:44:35Mike Rowe?

  Cornhole.

• 1:44:38Speaker 02

  You play in that a very aggressive league.

• 1:44:40Mike Rowe?

  I do. I mean, the stakes, the stakes are extraordinary.

• 1:44:43Speaker 02

  It's really aggressive.

• 1:44:44Speaker 01

  Full contact beanbag.

• 1:44:46Mike Rowe?

  Full contact beanbag, man. That'll leave a mark.

• 1:44:49Speaker 02

  But whether it's your cornhole league or anything like that, if you step out into a place of violence with other people and it's just you guys out there, you really quickly learn how important you are to each other.

• 1:45:14Mike Rowe?

  Greatest war movie of all time?

• 1:45:20Speaker 02

  I think the one that feels the most real, real, not saying it's the best, but the most real, the one that would probably is the closest civilians will ever come to touching it would be Black Hawk Down.

• 1:45:40Speaker 02

  I think the sounds and the that was just a well done film.

• 1:45:44Mike Rowe?

  Was that Bowden?

• 1:45:46Speaker 02

  That was his book.

• 1:45:47Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:48Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that one's very powerful. But then there's just legendary ones, you know, I'm a Marine, so John Wayne sans Iwo Jima.

• 1:45:56Mike Rowe?

  That's good.

• 1:45:57Speaker 02

  You know, I I'm a Civil War buff, so I like Gettysburg. It's a three hour, three and a half hour movie. I think it has an intermission. I soak up every word. Everybody I've ever made watch it hates me for it because they're like, this is taking too long. I'm like, it's so good. How are you not appreciating this? You know, like, and then I explain all the stories about how you don't even know, like Hancock and Armistice were best friends and da, da, da, da, da, you know, and

• 1:46:24Mike Rowe?

  You don't know.

• 1:46:25Speaker 02

  Like, you don't even know, you know, like, you know, I'm talking about Pettigrew and he fought on the first day, but then he got to rest. And here's, Pickett was the only guy who didn't fight yet. So they brought him up and that's why he got the day. So it's the whole charge. I'm boring everybody around me, but I can't get enough of it. You know, I love that stuff.

• 1:46:42Mike Rowe?

  Were you utterly transfixed by Shelby Foote and the whole Civil War Ken Burns thing?

• 1:46:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:46:52Mike Rowe?

  I was. I watched with my dad. My dad was a history teacher.

• 1:46:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:46:55Mike Rowe?

  And he geeked geeked out hard, but it was just, just, I mean, you know what? This is probably a good place to land the plane. Back to words.

• 1:47:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:47:04Mike Rowe?

  It wasn't Lincoln. It wasn't Kennedy. It wasn't Dr. Scholl. It was the letters home from anonymous soldiers in the Civil War. So beautifully crafted, so impossibly poignant, so just articulated, you know, and hearing Shelby Foote read those in that Southern drawl as he's trying to explain to not just what happened at Shiloh, but the day before Shiloh and the days that followed Shiloh and so forth and so on. And and just, just

• 1:47:44Mike Rowe?

  the perspective of these virtually anonymous grunts in that war, trying to trying to comfort the people at home.

• 1:47:54Speaker 02

  And I think about those soldiers, they were really just citizen soldiers. They they had some training, but it was really just close order drill. And it was a couple weeks, maybe six weeks, maybe. They fired their weapon. They learned how to, you know, drill. They learned how to they I think they were expected to show up knowing how to do certain things. And they learned, but they were really, that's not enough training. That's not enough. And then they were sent into, you know, the jaws of combat and especially 19th century warfare. Such a stupid, ugly.

• 1:48:34Mike Rowe?

  Meat grinder.

• 1:48:34Speaker 02

  It was the weapon systems outperformed the tactics and they didn't figure that out.

• 1:48:40Mike Rowe?

  That seems to be a recurring theme, though, you know, I mean, look what's happening now. Drones didn't get that. That wasn't on the bingo card.

• 1:48:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:48:48Mike Rowe?

  15 years.

• 1:48:49Speaker 02

  But I'm with you. I do think about the letters they wrote home that we don't talk like that anymore. We don't write like that anymore. I think it's, you know, they didn't have, what they had were books.

• 1:49:03Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:03Speaker 02

  That's it. Books. Maybe a newspaper. Maybe I'm, I don't know if they had periodicals back then, but they they had books. And for most of them, they had one book, the Bible.

• 1:49:16Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:17Speaker 02

  And so, you know, I think we have done ourselves a disservice. We don't read enough to expand our vocabulary, to to find ways to mix and match words, to to find those wonderful combinations of, because it is wonderful when you when you do get to a place in your life when you can articulate what you really feel.

• 1:49:38Speaker 02

  It's amazing. There were many years when I was young that I, oh, I was mad or I was upset or I was hurt and I, I don't know how to express it or verbalize it or articulate it. And so I would just be like, uh. Uh, uh, or, you know, give a finger, middle finger. Yeah. And, but then I'd hear someone else who was articulate and they would say, I go, there, that, that, what he said, that's how I feel, you know, or you see a movie where someone would articulate it or say something and you'd be like, that, that, right.

• 1:50:12Mike Rowe?

  Zero point zero.

• 1:50:12Speaker 02

  Exactly. Zero point zero. Then you're like, gold. That's, I'll use that for the rest of my life.

• 1:50:20Mike Rowe?

  What are you most proud of when you look back at all of it?

• 1:50:25Mike Rowe?

  And before you answer, how many films now?

• 1:50:28Speaker 02

  Oh God, I don't know. It's a

• 1:50:30Mike Rowe?

  Forty plus, from what I can tell.

• 1:50:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so.

• 1:50:33Mike Rowe?

  Well, all of it. That's a stupid question. You don't have to answer it, but I, I just wonder.

• 1:50:37Speaker 02

  No, I'm, I'm, I'm just proud that I, I, uh, I'm, I, well, in life, obviously my children, very proud of them.

• 1:50:45Mike Rowe?

  That doesn't count.

• 1:50:46Speaker 02

  Exactly. Everybody says that real.

• 1:50:47Mike Rowe?

  My kids.

• 1:50:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Professionally, I'm proud that I went for it.

• 1:50:54Mike Rowe?

  There you go.

• 1:50:55Speaker 02

  I'm really proud. If I, you know, if the tombstone only says, you know, Rob Riggle, he went for it. I can live with that.

• 1:51:02Mike Rowe?

  You know what, man? Jot that down. It's either Rob Riggle, he went for it, or I'm gelling, are you gelling for a title? I'm really stuck on the gelling thing and I don't know if this will amuse you or not. I think it might. I don't know Tony well, but I know him.

• 1:51:18Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:51:18Mike Rowe?

  And he called me, um, a couple of months ago, out of the blue, with an indecent proposal, which all of his are. Like, it's not like, hey, what if we do a little thing?

• 1:51:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:51:31Mike Rowe?

  It's the Masogi. He's going to feed a couple billion people.

• 1:51:35Speaker 02

  Love that.

• 1:51:35Mike Rowe?

  This year. A couple billion people, right?

• 1:51:37Speaker 02

  Think about that.

• 1:51:37Mike Rowe?

  Right? And he starts in his zip code.

• 1:51:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:51:40Mike Rowe?

  Well, he starts with his own family and so forth and so on. But he, you know, he likes my foundation and he wanted to talk about maybe opening trade schools and, you know, they would have your name on them and stuff, but I can raise, I think, right now, given the networks, we have, you know, probably a few billion dollars and what we'll do. And I'm like, it, I'm making that face on the phone. He can't say, but I'm just like, I don't think at that level. I don't know how to boil that ocean.

• 1:52:11Speaker 02

  I think he operates at scale all the time.

• 1:52:14Mike Rowe?

  And the scale.

• 1:52:15Speaker 02

  I don't. I wish I, I wish I would, but.

• 1:52:17Mike Rowe?

  Well, it's his scale. I mean, it's the size of his head, his hands, the whole thing. It's, he's living in this thing where like one mile equals one mile.

• 1:52:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing.

• 1:52:28Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. My point is, um, for a long time, I thought he was slick and I thought he was as facile and I thought he had some good ideas and I thought a lot of them were surrounded by stuff that sells books and I had no problem with that. I went to a date with Destiny.

• 1:52:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:52:44Mike Rowe?

  I, I met the guy. I, I took the things I liked from it, but I'm really, um, encouraged today to see him. I mean, he's helped a lot of people.

• 1:52:56Speaker 02

  Yes, he has.

• 1:52:57Mike Rowe?

  And he's enjoyed fabulous success as a result. And there is no reason, uh, that I can think of why at 65 or 66, he wouldn't just kick back and take it easy down there on Fiji or wherever. He can't do it.

• 1:53:13Speaker 02

  He can't do it. He's too much of a leader. He's too much of a thought leader, but also, uh, someone who, what his purpose is to transform other people's lives is to reach back and pull them up to a, a higher level.

• 1:53:27Mike Rowe?

  He's your drill sergeant looking at, it's like, do that thing.

• 1:53:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:53:32Mike Rowe?

  Do that thing. And look, I'll do it first.

• 1:53:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:53:35Mike Rowe?

  So now you know it can be done.

• 1:53:36Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:53:37Mike Rowe?

  And now maybe you don't have any excuses left.

• 1:53:39Speaker 02

  I still, that whole, uh, goal thing I do, it's all based on his formula. It's all

• 1:53:45Mike Rowe?

  Did you ever tell him that? Does he know?

• 1:53:46Speaker 02

  Uh, I told him over the phone one time. It was because I had a, a acquaintance, a friend, actually a friend who knew him and happened to be talking to him. And as I walked by, and he knew my story about how much I, Tony meant to me and how he changed my life. And, and so he goes, I'm actually, I'm talking to Tony. And I was like, oh, cool. I didn't know what to do. I was like, well, tell him I said hi. I don't, I don't know if that's going to make it. He's going to, is he interrupting your conversation?

• 1:54:18Mike Rowe?

  You ever see The Hangover? Well?

• 1:54:19Speaker 02

  Exactly. And I did want to do the, let me list my resume. No. So I was just like, I don't know what to say. Just, I don't know. I don't want to bother, but I do want to tell him I love him. And, uh, so I hope that's not too weird.

• 1:54:32Speaker 01

  Just weird enough.

• 1:54:33Mike Rowe?

  Just weird enough, man.

• 1:54:35Speaker 02

  But, uh, my friend was gracious and he goes, hey, you know, and so I grabbed the phone, I go, uh, it was one of those like machine numbers. It goes, well, I, I know we don't have much time and I don't want to take up much of your time. And I, I was apologizing instantly and I was like, so I don't want to take up much of your time, but I just want you to know you changed my life and I love you and you're the best thing that ever happened. No, no, no. Okay. Here's the ready back. And I was off. So I'm, I'm sure he was like, I don't know what the hell that was, but.

• 1:54:56Mike Rowe?

  Well, he probably hears it every day.

• 1:55:00Speaker 02

  I hope he does.

• 1:55:01Mike Rowe?

  And I think if I had to guess, if he's addicted to anything, I bet it's that. I bet it's addicted to hearing and seeing the proof.

• 1:55:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:14Mike Rowe?

  That those books, those words grouped up just so landed.

• 1:55:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:20Mike Rowe?

  For a lot of people. I'll get this clip to him.

• 1:55:23Speaker 02

  Oh, good.

• 1:55:24Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:55:24Speaker 02

  Oh, that'd be nice.

• 1:55:25Mike Rowe?

  Let's say, look, this is my friend, Rob, and he told me about a message or a quick conversation that he had with you that was just horrible, really, just inarticulate and

• 1:55:34Speaker 01

  And by the way, he loves you.

• 1:55:36Mike Rowe?

  And, and he loves you a lot.

• 1:55:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:38Mike Rowe?

  And he knows where you live.

• 1:55:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:40Mike Rowe?

  And he's coming for you.

• 1:55:42Speaker 02

  I'm not going to make it weird.

• 1:55:48Mike Rowe?

  Oh man, I'm so glad you, uh, you did this.

• 1:55:51Speaker 02

  Oh, me too. This was an honor. I, I have your rules.

• 1:55:55Mike Rowe?

  You got the sweat pledge.

• 1:55:56Speaker 02

  I even bought, I bought the autographed one.

• 1:55:58Mike Rowe?

  Come on.

• 1:55:59Speaker 02

  I did.

• 1:55:59Mike Rowe?

  Are you kidding me?

• 1:56:00Speaker 02

  And I had it framed and it's in my garage up with all my other stuff.

• 1:56:03Mike Rowe?

  Well, you buried the lead, dude. You should have come in hot with that one.

• 1:56:08Speaker 02

  No, I was, I've had that. I think I got it back in 2012, maybe.

• 1:56:12Speaker 01

  Oh my, yeah, he's got the first version.

• 1:56:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:56:14Speaker 01

  The cream colored one.

• 1:56:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. If you'd have done it.

• 1:56:17Speaker 02

  And I, and I paid extra to get the autograph. I did.

• 1:56:19Mike Rowe?

  Did you really?

• 1:56:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Paid extra to get the autograph.

• 1:56:21Mike Rowe?

  Well, if it's any consolation, it all went to the foundation.

• 1:56:24Speaker 02

  I love it. Love the foundation.

• 1:56:26Mike Rowe?

  I took a little off the top, just through expenses and whatnot.

• 1:56:29Speaker 02

  A little bit of big.

• 1:56:30Mike Rowe?

  No, man. Yeah. You should have led with that back when people were still listening.

• 1:56:36Speaker 02

  Well, flip it. We'll just, we'll do it Tarantino, do it Tarantino style. We'll, we'll start with the ending.

• 1:56:42Speaker 01

  By the way, according to Cinegraph, you've done 54 films. Uh, according to IMDb, you've got 159 acting credits, but there is a dispute.

• 1:56:53Mike Rowe?

  Any blames?

• 1:56:53Speaker 01

  The movie list says you've done 57 released movies. So I don't know what the

• 1:56:58Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:57:00Speaker 01

  Which is correct. What?

• 1:57:01Speaker 02

  As long as they keep doing them, I'll, I'll complain.

• 1:57:03Mike Rowe?

  What's great is that you don't know and that you can't confirm.

• 1:57:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:57:10Mike Rowe?

  Rob, that's great, man.

• 1:57:11Speaker 02

  Oh, well, good.

• 1:57:12Mike Rowe?

  Congratulations.

• 1:57:13Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:57:14Mike Rowe?

  Best to the kids.

• 1:57:15Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:57:15Mike Rowe?

  The misses. Congrats on all of it. Tell Jon Stewart, forget about that 20 bucks he owes me. We're good. This episode is over now. I hope it was worthwhile. Sorry it went on so long, but if it made you smile, then share your satisfaction in the way that people do. Take some time to go online and leave us a review.

• 1:57:59Mike Rowe?

  I hate to ask, I hate to beg, I hate to be a nudge, but in this world, the advertisers really like to judge. You don't need to write a bunch, just a line or two. All you've got to do is leave a quick five star review.

• 1:58:12Speaker 01

  Not four.

• 1:58:12Mike Rowe?

  All you've got to do is leave a quick five star review.

• 1:58:15Speaker 01

  And not three.

• 1:58:16Mike Rowe?

  All you've got to do is leave a quick five star review.

• 1:58:18Speaker 01

  Definitely not two.

• 1:58:19Mike Rowe?

  All you've got to do is leave a quick five star review.

• 1:58:22Speaker 01

  We need five.

• 1:58:22Mike Rowe?

  All you've got to do is leave a quick

• 1:58:24Speaker 01

  Even if you hate it.

• 1:58:25Mike Rowe?

  Five star review.

• 1:58:30Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:58:38Speaker 01

  The way I heard it is brought to you by Progressive. Are you driving your car or doing laundry right now? Podcasts go best when they're bundled with another activity. Like Progressive Home and Auto Policies, they're best when bundled too. Having these two policies together makes insurance easier and could help you save. Customers who save by switching their home and car insurance to Progressive save over $775 on average. Quote a home and car bundle today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12 month savings of $779 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

• 1:59:22Speaker 03

  What's that?

• 1:59:23Speaker 04

  My fresh detector.

• 1:59:24Speaker 03

  Uh, your what?

• 1:59:25Speaker 04

  There it is.

• 1:59:26Speaker 03

  What is it detecting?

• 1:59:28Speaker 04

  Fresh produce, fresh meat.

• 1:59:31Speaker 03

  Okay. What happens if it detects something really fresh?

• 1:59:36Speaker 04

  Apparently we celebrate.

• 1:59:38Speaker 03

  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.