Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - QQ ep 16 - Quick Question with Soren and Daniel

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

So, hello again, and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, a show where two best friends, one of whom a fisherman, and the other of whom a carpenter, and both of whom conjure forth words that reach millions, get together to share wisdom. And were the Jesus comparisons there from the beginning, listener? That's what you say. That's up to you to decide. Anyway, I'm one half of that. I'm the fisherman half of that, Daniel O'Brien.

And with me as always is the carpenter half of that, Soren Bui. Yeah, I'm coming to you live from the top of the mount. Yeah, which mount, Soren? The sermon one. Oh, that's one of them. Sinai. Is that what it is? I don't know. Oh, that's one of them. Sinai. Is that what it is?

I don't know. Oh, okay. Yeah. I think we might just have offended some people. No, no, no. There are two main mounts. It's Sinai and Ararat. Ararat's the one that Noah landed on.

Oh, great. So I got it right? Yeah, you did. That's four years of Catholic school education. Yeah. Led to a wishy-washy mealy-mouth answer. Who is that who got four years of Catholic education? What's that other voice

that we're going to hear on this podcast? Hey, Dan. It's me, Michael. Bacon, sorry. Fuck off. It always feels like Bacon waits for applause after he says it. There's just a lot of dead air after he says, hey. You know I'm going to ask you to say something up top.

Yeah, I don't know what it always is going to be. Or if you guys are going to ask me a question, sometimes you guys ask me about the house or things. So I don't know. I try to be my most authentic self when I answer these. I think you accomplished that. Hey, you know what's crazy to me, Bacon? What?

I don't think you have a pet. No, I don't have a pet. You sound like a guy who should have a pet, though. Yeah. Yeah, I always wanted a pet. I actually had a story. I wonder if you guys had anything similar happen. But my dad was a real prankster growing up.

I had a fish. We weren't allowed. We lived in an apartment, so we weren't allowed to have pets. And I had a fish and the fish died. And I don't think he knew how much like I tied myself to the fish. And he had made a joke that we were eating the fish for dinner, which is like only a joke you can make with a fish pet. You can't make it with any other types of pet.

And I was like truly impacted by that. Even when I found out it wasn't true and the fish just died of natural causes. What kind of fish was it? It was a goldfish. That you thought your family was eating. It was my fault. I was very young. It was a goldfish. so it would have fed nobody.

My wife is very similar. So she, at one time when she was in college, just randomly at a white elephant party had gotten a beta fish in a Jack Daniels bottle. And everyone else was like, oh, fuck that gift. But she was like, I hope no one takes this. And she really loved it. She took the fish home.

She bought an aquarium for it and put a bubbler in it and really took care of this fish. And when it finally died, she was devastated. And I was like, you can't tie yourself to these things so tightly. A fish is a prototype pet that's designed to die. That's the whole point of getting it. Yeah, I'm very afraid of the consequences of real life. We weren't a fish family, really. We were

a hamster and lizard family. And I have one quick death story and it involves my mom. She died when I was young. Shout out to my mom who listens to this podcast. What up, mom? You gave me life. And that's fucking cool as hell.

Anyway, we all had a bunch of iguanas growing up. I'm going to butcher this. Not butcher, but I just never knew if the pronunciation was anoli or anal. Wait, hold on. You had both iguanas and analis? Yeah. Is it anali? Yeah. Okay. Anali?

Yeah. I thought maybe you were confusing the two. And I was like, no, those are very different animals. No, we had iguanas and before that we had what I always called anolis. But I never knew if they were anolis or anols or anals or I guess analis now. A-N-O-L-e-s uh let me look it up uh a-n-o-l-e-s yeah yes let me see if there's a pronunciation here this is such good podcast well we'll cut this shit oh i gotta i gotta listen

oh no i have to open it. Forget that. Fuck that. We should keep this. Every time that I... This sucks ass. Wait, oh, dude. The first thing that comes up on the Wikipedia is, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. Lizards. Are they iguanas? I don't know. Fucking, I didn't think so. This stays right on line with us just talking a bunch of bullshit. Okay. Never check it. Anyway, we had these fucking lizards that are naturally green, but they change colors when they're angry.

And all of my brothers had them. And mine died first. His name was Glugger. And David, my other brother, his died second. His name was Beavis. This was the 90s, and Tommy's was Eli, and his lasted the longest, and my mom one day, uh, built, just like idly, she wanted to do nice things, so she used a bunch of rocks in the cave to build, in the cage rather, to build a cave for him, just like, I'm going to stack these two rocks and then give a roof.

And then if Eli wants to go into the cave, he has a cave to hide in. And won't that be nice? And then the cave was not structurally sound and collapsed and crushed Eli to death. So when Tommy came home from school, my mom was like, I'm so sorry. Eli's dead. He died in the cave. And mom was like, I'm so sorry. Eli's dead.

He died in the cave. And Tommy was like, what fucking cave? My mom was like, oh yeah, real quick. I built him a cave. We, all right. So I had, I had Anolis too. By the way, you can just keep calling him Anolis. This will be our Mario Mario.

We'll add it to the list. Sure. I had Anolis as well. And I, they were zipping zap uh i didn't know the sexes of them when i brought them home and then i guess the females can lay up to like three or four eggs mine laid eight eggs and it was just all it was was fucking in that atrarium like it was always just zap on top of zip pinching her neck with his teeth his mouth and just like giving it to her and And she was brown constantly.

They're either green or brown. They're green when they're happy, brown when they're mad and upset. She's just brown all the time and then finally died from too much sex. And I got Zoom. And Zoom was another one to basically just this new concubine for Zap because he was so insatiable. At this point, it was just like feeding his sexual frenzy and I felt terrible about it. It was a terrible lesson for a child to learn.

Yeah. So I think what we can take away from this is Bacon, maybe you're not ready for a pet. Maybe there's maybe there's no safe pet because lizards die and or are fuck machines and

fish also die. Because lizards die and or are fuck machines. Fish also die. I don't know. They all die. Anyway, once again, the show is Quick Question. And we like to start off by thanking our listeners who prefer to be called Quicked, the Broadway sensation with original cast members, Quedina Quenzel and Quiston Quenworth and Norbert Leo. What?

And at some point you have to wonder if I'm intentionally trying to make the intro to this podcast as alienating as possible. I almost just made it worse. There was an ad for a long time that went along with Wicked on cable, like local access television, where it would be like Wicked come and see the magic. And then you'd hear her sing go and that's all it was and it was like so disorienting and i just it's stuck in my brain so the minute you said wicked i almost went i mean people would love that if you did that because

that's an iconic moment from that show oh is it really you're nailing And you're nailing it. You're nailing it every time. But imagine that you're green and you're floating above the audience and it's just about the intermission break and all the instruments cut out and it's just you going, and everyone's like, fuck! Like, that's what it feels like. You're making a real Broadway moment there.

I'm going to assume that you're telling me the truth. You have to. Feel pretty good. Anyway, quicken our listeners. This is normally when we like to go to listener reviews, but instead we're going to take this time to answer a question from one of our Patreon subscribers. Yeah, we have a Patreon, and if you donate money which you

shouldn't we might read and answer one of your questions right here on the show people send us questions on Twitter a lot and I just want all of you to know that I ignore them but this person pays so I'm listening this one comes from

Bacon what's this person's name? Jake Jake Jake I guess all the pace so i'm listening this one comes from bacon what's this person's name jake jake jake i guess all the good names aren't taken already on patreon okay uh jake asks if not for the careers you both currently have what would you see yourself doing instead or i guess the trophy what did you always want to be when you grow up uh well i mean kids don't know what the fuck they i wanted to be an archaeologist and i don't want to be that i think that if i wasn't doing this i would probably be working for the national forest service or like leading trips in the wilderness yeah that feels good i mean i it's a it's a really strange question, I think, for our industry, especially because, like, we have, I mentioned this before, that we have intern seminars twice a year at our show.

And last time, one of the questions was how anyone got here because the writers went around the room and said, like, oh, I went to this college and I studied this. And then I had this job and no one, no one in our, no one on staff currently studied like writing late night comedy shows. Like I was double major English pre-med with a minor in music. And we had people who worked or majored in things that had them work in fields in the, the EPA. And there were people who went to Harvard to, to learn how to play clarinet or whatever. Like no one was doing anything that was specifically,

I want to write a comedy TV show. That was none of our jobs. Um, because I, I want to write a comedy TV show. That was none of our jobs. Because I guess for a lot of us, you dream that you could have a job where you're writing comedy television, but you don't actually think that's realistic. At least that's my case. So my long-winded answer to that question,

if you didn't have this job, what would you do? My fallback was going to be med school and a doctor, or I would find out that I would be terrible at that, and then I would pivot to something else. I think a reasonable career. I would panic move from comedy writing to some other thing that would keep me in school for as long as possible so i could push off paying off student loans i could see dan you i could very easily see

you making a career out of being a musician being in a band being in a band yeah well like you feel it speak on that okay well maybe it's not like maybe lunch money criminals isn't out there like selling albums and making platinum records but uh i think that you maybe i think you could very easily make a career as a bassist i think that there are a lot of musicians who do that and you maybe you wouldn't live where you currently live but you would be in Nashville or wherever, and you could make a career that way. I don't think I would.

For me, personally, for this question, I loved writing and wanted to do it, but started soft double majoring in pre-med because I wanted to pick a thing that I thought, oh, this is like, we're always going to need doctors. This is a career that makes a lot of money and is sustainable. So I'm going to do that. So like there, I, as, as romantic and bohemian as writing and music is, I was never going to seriously pursue it. Like I'm,

I'm where I am right now because I was lucky to get this job at the, get the first job at cracked that allowed me to write for 10 years and then allowed me to move on from there, move on after getting laid off from there. That was so nice of them to give you that opportunity to move on and grow but no like if i didn't have the the again if i didn't have the cracked opportunity i would just still be very focused on like what is a a job that i can do that is going to pay me and give me a pension like that was always my focus and you know music is not that especially if you're like kind of shitty at bass which i am

i can't imagine how frustrating this made to some people who are listening who are like their entire career everything they only wanted was to be in the creative field like dreamt of it from the time that they were a child they actually had the courage to dream for it they wanted it so badly and right now they're qa testing mobile games or whatever and like they're listening to you be like i don't know i just fell into it i really wanted something more practical but then i got to be a writer by accident yeah i i mean i feel terrible about that but it's a thing i think about all the time that uh i think comedy is a very wealthy pursuit i don't want to throw everyone under the bus or blow up anyone's spots or whatever,

but I feel like when you look at the general paths to comedy, it's UCB is a big way, or having a college degree in comedy writing, which exists now, is a big way to go, I guess. Going to Harvard and being part of the Harvard Lampoon and making those connections. That's a big way to advance in this field. And I always knew that I wasn't, I mean, I just like grew up not having money and knowing that comedy was was a wealthy wealthy pursuit like i can't spend thousands of dollars on ucb classes for the sake of networking i that's not in the cards for me as much as i i would have liked to have done that. I couldn't. So I felt like in college, I was pretty content to like,

I'm going to have a job that is stable and pays well, and I'll be the funniest guy in the office. And that's fine. Yeah, I think I wonder if maybe that's true. Just as true, clearly the people that you work with, I wonder if that's true of a lot of people that you actually stand a better chance of making it in the field if you have these other pursuits that round you out in some intangible way that like make you more suited for this job. Where like you were fully prepared to give yourself to a career that was lucrative as opposed to something that you were passionate about. It's kind of like what I'm hearing. And I think I grew up kind of assuming that I would live in like the second act of my life for a long time where I would just be like, well, this is the part where I just do, I put my nose at the grindstone and do whatever I

need to do. And I'm not going to like it. It's going to feel awful, but this is just where I do that part. And I think that that's actually helped me considerably with where I am now. I mean, it gives me the, the work ethic that I need to really buckle down and get shit done. And it's so hard in the creative field because you're a lot of times there's no metric for, uh,

for skill or talent. You just, it's all kind of like this gray area and it's whoever works the hardest. Yeah. It gets lucky, I guess. Anyway, uh, Dan, I have a quick question for you oh yeah okay i know we've talked about on the show before have you started watching great british baking show at all no i haven't is it called well well i have a uh quick question to you is it great british bake-off or great british baking show are they two different shows no they're

not um it's called the great british bake-off i think one of them is potentially the uh the english version of the show it's what they it's what they call it in england i think and so we're calling it the great british baking show oh this is strange i didn't even realize that they were that they are two different names for this. But it's two different names for the same show? It's not like an Americanized version of the show? No, this is the English show. Okay.

So I mentioned this as like being therapeutic to you at one point, but I don't feel like I really did it justice in explaining why I think you should watch this show or why this show is an anomaly and why it's unlike every other show i've ever seen and i wanted to try to explain it to you are you okay with that yeah i'm okay i'm okay i mean in in general like i have a lifetime of people telling me different ways that I can calm down and relax. And historically, it doesn't work. But sure, knock yourself out, Soren. Okay.

Well, I mean, it's not like I'm trying to give you cocaine or anything. This is like a real thing that I think might help. Yes, because cocaine calms and relaxes people. real thing that I think might help. Yes, because cocaine calms and relaxes people. So the first thing about The British Bagan Show is it's unlike any other live television show where it's got that game

mentality where people are getting kicked off every week, but there's nobody in the show who's there who's just like, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to fucking bake my ass off and then win this thing. And there's nobody conniving. This show is built in such a way that everybody actually roots for each other. And like, they all like

each other. And I don't know how they're finding these contestants. Cause they're not just finding people who are outstanding bakers who aren't like, that's not their occupation. They're, they've got these other, you know, blue collar jobs. And then they also happen to be bakers as a hobby, but not only that, but these people are completely egoless. Like there's so much, there's so much goodness on the show that it's almost like monotonous, like in a way that feels nice where like the way the ideal version of what you want the world to be is like, oh, it's really nice to be reminded that there are people like this out in the world and that there's such an abundance that they can have so many seasons of this with new people every single year.

And they're all so good. And because of that, like the show has a different feel to it where you by the end when people are getting kicked off, you're really attached to these people. It's like they're part of your monkey sphere. They they're friends to you, basically. And watching them get kicked off they always handle it with grace and dignity and they cry a little bit and everybody around them cries a little bit but it's so nice like you you i i cry about every episode it's it's just i their show is so good at that and it's not doing it in the same way that I think queer eye does, or a lot of those like house building shows where they really kind of force

it out of you. They know the formula to get tears to excrete from your eyes. Like this feels genuine and it feels true. And it's right. Those X factor shows know how to make me cry. Yes. Very successfully. But they, this is a different it it's

just a different animal altogether like they you really like these people and they're not doing the thing that most shows like the challenge or the bachelor does go ahead you're clearly you have like a whole essay prepared uh and you're doing really well but like walk me through a typical episode. Okay. I know nothing about this show except the winner gets a plate. Yeah.

And no one is mean. So like what? Okay. So start to finish. First of all, it's a cake stand, but you know, that's not important.

Eat my fucking ass. You told me it was a plate. I think I did. I think I did. Okay. So the whole show takes place in a tent out in the Yorkshire fields or something. It's just this natural setting. There's not a single other building in sight.

And all the bakers are inside a tent. And each one of them has their own station. And the feel of it is like there's a lot of cutaways to just bees on flowers, and you see like pheasants wandering around, and you get this sensation that making bread is like part of, it's like this natural part of us. I'll say this, Dan. It's ingrained in us.

Hello? Are you still there? Yes, yes, I am. Who's waiting for applause now, Soren? Hello? Are you still there? Yes, yes, I am. Who's waiting for applause now, Sorin? And it feels like it's... There's a Latin saying,

which means under the aspect of eternity. This is something that will always happen, and it's just part of who we are. It's our nature. And they're baking thousand- old pastries they're using yeast they're like that have been raised up from the egyptian times like okay yeah so so when i asked you walk me through a typical episode i'm wondering like is there a panel of judges that Or are you just going to recite more Latin? Okay.

So Paul and Prue, famous bakers. You must know them. They're the judges. And they, these people make, let's say in a given week, they're just going to be making cakes that week. So they're making these sweet little ginger cakes and there's three different elements. There's, there's the first challenge, which is you make something that's you're going to make like 12 exactly identical cakes, but you have to just make them with using certain ingredients. The next challenge is that they're going to give you something to make. You've probably never heard

of it. They're not going to give you baking times or like amounts that you have to use, just the ingredients list. And it's something wild and crazy. And these people have to figure it out and make it. The third challenge is a showstopper where they make something extraordinary. There's like a, uh, a gingerbread chandelier or, um, uh, a meat pie. That's also a Mad Hatter hat or like you, there's some crazy beyond making something that's a show Mad Hatter hat. Or like there's some crazy... Beyond making something that's a showstopper, what's the criteria? Is it dealer's choice for ingredients?

No. Do whatever you want? No, there's always a design in mind. When I say a design, I mean like there's... It's not like someone did chandelier and someone else did meat pie. No, you're going to do a savory pie, but it has to be like a showstopper savory pie that's two-tiered pie that's like a savory one.

Or yeah, you're doing this. Everybody's got to do these chandeliers. Everybody's got to make a whole – I think one of the early ones was out of gingerbread, they did self-portraits. And it had to be 3D, so it had to have layers to it and that kind of stuff. And they make kind of stuff. They make really outstanding stuff. I would say the food is kind of secondary to what I really love about the show. Do you know who Noel Felding is?

Is he the author or the guy from Oasis? No, Noel Felding. Or the guy that I went to college with? The guy that you went to college with is on the show. That's good for him. He's a piece of shit. Well, he's better now.

He's really kind. Noel Felding is a guy who is, I think he got his start on a show called The Mighty Boosh, which is a sketch comedy show from England. It's very, very funny. That's where there's a character named Old Greg. Oh yeah, he has stupid hair. yes consistently stupid but in unique and surprising ways every season and i think that's part of his shtick um he's one of the mcs of it or the hosts and so it's

their job to just go around these stations and make jokes but they're also very kind to these to these bakers there's rumors that in the early seasons they're also very kind to these bakers. There's rumors that in the early seasons, the two hosts would go to bakers who were having just a fucking day of it. That they were bakers that were having everything go wrong for them and they were crying. Obviously, the cameras would zoom in on those people to try and get that stuff. And these hosts would run over there and start singing Beatles songs or other stuff that there's no way the show would get licensed for. So they couldn't use any of that footage. That's so sweet. Yes.

And that feels like that's the flavor of the entire show. I mean, like that kind of sweetness and philanthropy for another human feels like that's like the running thread of the entire show. So is there a thing that I found with the cooking shows that I watch? So is there a thing that I've found with the cooking shows that I watch? There's the really tense cooking part, you know, because there's always a time limit to it. So the Livino's family in Family Food Fight, they have to run around. They have 30 minutes to create three dishes and they're just like sprinting and yelling at each other. Yes.

Great British Bake Off, Is that not intact? Are you, are you, is it like a relaxed? No, it's tenuous. It's, it's, uh,

it's, it does feel sort of perilous as it's happening. But then when the judging happens, it's undercut by this feeling of we're just fucking baking here. Like the Paul and Prue will come up and say, I liked your pie. They'll be like, Oh,

it's a bit stodgy, whatever the fuck that means. Or like, you've got a soggy bottom, which means that, you know, the bottom of your pastry is leaking and the person will go, oh, well live and learn, I guess. And like, they just sort of shrug it off and it's so sweet. Like, and the way that the other contestants are like, oh man, that was real doozy for you.

And they're like, I know, I can't believe I went so poorly. I mean, yours doesn't look great. Like they like, they'll crack jokes about it. And so even though you have those moments where it's very tense, it's all undercut in the end by like, we're just baking pies here. It's okay. Everything's going to be fine. Anyway.

And it's nice to have a chef or a baker that is that acknowledges, yeah, normally when I make things, it's not on TV with a 30 minute time limit while celebrities watch me. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's OK if I didn't nail it this time. Yeah. And the tent, the tent, you can't get the temperature right in the tent. So they're trying to make chocolate sometimes and it's like a 90 degree day outside. And so none of the chocolate is working. None of the chocolate is working. None of the chocolate will stay up and everybody just sort of rolls with it. They're kind of like laughing

as they're doing it. And like, I mean, it's, I'm not getting it exactly right, but what am I going to do? And then you, you, you really start to feel for these people and like them a lot. And when they get kicked off the show, that hurts a lot, but it's, it hurts in a way that feels like culturally it would be good for every single person in the world to watch because these are clearly good hearts. Like the people on the show are all good hearts and it's kind of like a tragedy and a blessing to watch them fail because you, there's, there's just like, there's so many ways for the world to, to rip apart somebody who's good.

The world doesn't feel like it's designed for that. We've sort of designed it, society has, but like you look at nature, nature's not made for good hearts. And there's a little bit of that in our culture as well. We're like, the people who are really genuinely kind and nice, they don't get the same attention that people do who are flashy and a little bit mean. And you watch these people fail and you watch these hearts get trampled into dust. And it's kind of nice because it takes this part of you that makes you want to protect them. And watching people like this fail keeps society kind of calibrated and steady. It's like where you would otherwise spin off into rage or violence

or whatever the vices that you're interested in. This reminds you, oh no, there are genuine people here who are good and we need to protect them and take care of them. And like, it makes you feel good knowing that, that these people exist. Like we are the parents to these people. That's what it feels like. I guess a lot of these people remind me of my child is what I'm saying. Uh, I, I want to, I want to help them. And like, and I, and that's not something I feel in any other part of my life other than my own family, where I feel like, no, there's good people out there and you need to take care of them. You need to keep letting them be good because the world will change them otherwise. I don't know if everybody feels this way.

Maybe it's just me as a dad. for specifically bakers before this show or like the idea of that particular kind of craftsman? And when I speak of baker craftsmanship, I specifically mean work that requires specificity of ingredients and time, like very thoughtful, careful work work is that a thing that you've always paid attention to or is that new to british bake-off no i guess it is something i've always been really uh i've had an affinity for it in a way where i was like i can't do it

it's basically magic to me like i bring that up because like i i can I can cook. I'm, I'm a, uh, very good cook. I can't bake. Bake is very, baking is very specific and, uh, requires a level of discipline that I do not have. Uh, and I don't know if you've, if you've noticed that and if, and if. Yeah. I mean, I get that's a cultural thing. I think, I think we've associated baking with this nourishment and love, like a mom bakes is what it feels like. And that's, it feels like that. Yeah, this is somebody's creating something for you that not only feeds you, but that like, you're genuinely going to enjoy and it's really bigger in that specific line of expertise than I think maybe woodworking. Soren, can I ask you a question? Yeah. I know where you're at.

What kind of question, Bacon? It's a little short one. It's a little baby one. It's a quick question, Dan. Thank you. So you don't know this yet they just they're releasing a new season and one of the things that i noticed right when they released the season was that there was only one character that was um what character should say there's only one contestant that was older like oh 50 plus years old.

And then everyone else was probably like under 30. There was like four people that were like in their 20s. And my immediate reaction was like very protective, like what you're saying. I was like, don't ruin this. Like, don't make this into a commodity. This is even though it is already a commodity i'm like don't take this thing away that i really like and like what's the average age of a contestants on the show so that's crazy so sometimes it's some some seasons it's like 52 yeah there are some old ass people in the show

there are people who like they are not supposed to be on television these are not people who are faces that you'd be like oh i'm like that i mean occasionally they accidentally have somebody on the show who's really attractive but that is by no means the criteria for being on it they're right and it's certainly an accident i think it is honestly i don't think that they're doing it on purpose i think because there are some really really old people on the show and occasionally the very first season that i saw that was on netflix there was only one person who was young there was a girl who was i saw that was on netflix there was only one person who was young there was a girl who was i think she was 19 or something like that and

everybody else was over 30 and uh it's i don't know it's just wonderful yeah okay uh i interrupted uh bacon's question no that what i was gonna ask was that, does that, that changed my, uh, opinion of it a little bit. Like it started to get muddied a little bit and it took me out of the, uh, the, the idea that I was like watching a television show that people were selling to me. And it was incredible to me that I didn't have that feeling first of all. And, uh, and like how much I reacted to it when it, and how disappointed I was. I wonder what you think you're, you think that will change it for you? Yeah, I think it will. I haven't, I haven't watched this new season. I feel like that sucks.

I don't like hearing that. Um, I, and I also, there's like an element to it that reminds you of being with family friends. When I was a kid. You have a different sense of humor when you're with your parents' friends. It's not necessarily bad, but it's just a different type of humor that you use with them. And that's what this show is rife with. It's just full of that. And so it feels a little like home as well. Yeah. And there are no mean judges?

Well, so Paul Hollywood is the meanest judge. He's got these steely blue eyes that he just stares at people with while he eats their muffins. But he's a really nice guy. Like when he's giving them, when he's telling them what's wrong with their thing, he's not yelling at them like Gordon Ramsay would. He's just telling them what, oh, look at this. No, it didn't bake through on the bottom. Right. Just because like that feels like a hallmark of most of these reality shows that there's one person who is just like, my thing is I'm going to yell at you.

Like, I don't think they had that on Project Runway, but most of the shows there's like one who is the notorious. Right. No, he's just, the most I would describe him as is stoic. He's serious. He's not afraid of a joke. And then occasionally he gives out these handshakes to people. If they baked really well, he gives out a handshake. And everyone gets blushy and sometimes they weep a little bit that they got a handshake from him. All right.

Well, I'll check it out. Is it the kind of show where there's an episode where i need to watch to get into the show or should i just start i think season one episode one yeah i think you start with the first season that's on netflix okay hey soren uh quick question yeah go ahead is there an actor or actress that didn't or doesn't quite have the career that you hoped or assumed they would have. And this isn't just like, you know, River Phoenix or whatever, or like a troubled actor

who got hooked up with drugs in some way. Just someone that you thought, this person is going to be a star, and then you just haven't seen that bear any fruit yes okay and i don't want to go first while you think more do you or do you have it no i want to hear yours first okay i i think about this with adam brody because i just saw ready or not recently uh which i fucking loved. It's such a good movie.

It's a comedy sketch with a thriller built into it that is somehow stretched to 90 minutes. And it's perfect. I loved it so much. It's one of my favorite movies in a very long time. And Adam Brody is in it. He was... Most people don't think of him this way first, but he was a musician for a little while on Gilmore Girls. And that's my first thing.

He was also, I guess, on the OC for like nine years and has done several movies and is a very famous actor. But I think of him, Gilmore Girls first. And the first time I saw him, I thought this guy could be our next Tom Hanks if he wants he could be like relatable very good actor who could bounce between comedy or drama and if he didn't want to

be Tom Hanks he could be our next Sam Rockwell if he wanted and that just hasn't borne any fruit so far which isn't to say that he's a failure he's still been consistently working for like 15 20 years at this point but i just think he should be a bigger name than he is right now and he's not and that bugs me i agree with you i did watch the oc and he's wonderful in it. That was like my first introduction to him. And he's so funny and quick and very wry. And I agree. And he can play menacing too.

He can be a dick very easily. And be a little bit scary every once in a while if he wants. But yeah, it does seem like... A good actor. I'm looking through his IMDb, and while he has been in movies, he hasn't been in popular stuff really. No, and he's not opening a movie.

Yeah. He's not like... Nobody's going to see him. Brody movie or anything like that. Yeah, I wonder if somebody else, if there's somebody who's so close to him that they stole his career. Colin Hanks.

Kind of, yeah. Well, yeah, I have one. So occasionally I'll be watching a movie and I'll be reminded what an extraordinary eye I have for talent. I have for talent. Like the first time I saw Thelma and Louise when I was a kid, I looked at Brett Pitt and I said, that man's going to be a star. And the first time I saw Smokin' Aces,

I was like, Chris Pine, tell me more. And I knew he was going to be big. But this time it really failed me and I'm baffled that this guy doesn't have a bigger career. There's a mini series called band of brothers. Are you familiar with it? Yeah.

Every person in the world is in this show. Tom Hardy's in it. Uh, the guy, the sexy priest from Andrew Scott, uh, Fleabag. Fleabag. Yeah. Like he's in it. Soren, put some fucking respect in your mouth. It's hot priest.

Hot priest. Sorry. some fucking respect in your mouth it's hot priest hot priest sorry uh so there's an episode that's just about uh the doctor eugene row and his name is shane taylor and it's the best episode of the entire uh miniseries by far it's like and the whole miniseries is very good but this one actor is outstanding and his name is shane taylor and i thought this guy this guy's gonna be famous this guy's gonna be big and then i started looking through his imdb and he has done shit else he's been in some of the smallest little direct-to-dvd low budget things you could imagine and i don't i was like maybe he's on the stage somewhere and i couldn't

find any of that either i don't know why he's not acting or why he's not more successful he's wonderful he does an incredible uh cajun accent too that entire yeah he's english and he's doing that really yeah he's from he's born in south england and and his parents are scottish but yeah he does great american accents he can do any dialect here and he's in this yeah in the show he's cajun and it's like it's a perfect episode i love it and he it's all because he carries the weight of it and he just went on to do nothing man yeah and like looking at his imdb it looks like he's done voiceover work for a bunch of video games i've never heard of and that's certainly very lucrative but if you think he should be a

star that's a bummer yeah he feels like a leading man to me he's he's handsome uh but he's a little broody he's just great yeah another one I have that I that I always think about is uh Regina King but that's it's that's that's one that's sort of been vindicated in the last two years because she's had this great incredible run of being on uh the leftovers if beale street could talk where she won the oscar and now she's got the new watchman hbo show but she is someone that has been around for so long that for the last 10 or 15 years i've just thought like why is she not in more conversations yeah she's so fucking talented she's so great and she is for some reason i don't want to say for some reason, because it's a person of color reason, probably. But for an ignorant person, it felt like for some reason she is not being in the same category of every other best actress in the world right now.

But she's been so great for so long and very underappreciated. Speaking of the leftovers, Ian, there are two people in that that I also feel like their career should be much bigger than they are. Justin Theroux is outstanding. Absolutely. He, in addition to being an incredible actor and like, I would say, insultingly handsome. It's like abusively handsome. Very funny screenwriter like he co-wrote tropic thunder which is one of the tightest comedy scripts of the last 15 years

yeah yeah i agree yeah he's a great writer and he's i don't know why he's not getting more leading man parts he's he's funny too he's yeah he's very much he could have john ham's career i think yeah do you guys know he played the dj in zoolander yes it's one of the craziest things i've ever figured out um but also and i know she has had some success and in big name things, but Carrie Coon is somebody who I'm constantly baffled that she's not in everything. Yeah, I get really mad that she doesn't have awards. Like even for years where she wasn't doing anything, I was like, doesn't matter.

Was there anyone who was better than her in 2006, even if she wasn't acting? Just give her something. Surely she deserves a thing. She's wonderful. And I thought for a long time that she was in Mindhunter while I was watching it, thinking, oh, she's so good in this. But no, it's just another woman that I am. I'm a terrible man.

I thought they were the same person. I think it's going to be a thing that Marvel looks back on and will be upset about because she... Have you seen Endgame yet? No, but I saw Civil War. She's not in that? It's insane that you think that's an answer. You were like seven movies old. What's the one right before Endgame?

Infinity. Okay. Semantics. Infinity. Civil. They basically mean the same thing. She's in that. She is the, of Thanos' four big bads. She's the woman, one of those.

And it's so nice to hear her voice because she's great and everything and then in end game we get all four of those baddies back and all of them get to say words except her she doesn't say a single word and it's one of those things that i i i think five to ten years from now when Carrie Coon has won a thousand awards for a thousand different things, we'll be like, man, why didn't the Russos have her at

least say, look out, Thanos, or something like that? Like you had a once-in-a-lifetime talent, and you didn't have her say anything. Yeah, that's actually baffling i don't know why they wouldn't do that but i guess she's also covered in so many prosthetics and everything you can't really even see her emote and like that one of my favorite things is just watching her face

yeah anyway she should be famous great then i'm gonna track down the social accounts but while i do that soren you had a pretty wild reason for why, even if schedule, geography, money, or any other obligations weren't an issue, you would never, under any circumstances, do an after-hours reunion. Would you mind laying out your reasons right here and now why you wouldn't do that? Because you're the reason that it's not happening. So could you just say it while i track down the social accounts the bitch of this is that i can't help but just give you an honest answer because it's actually the way i feel uh okay so after hours was a was a really nice show it was a great show that we

created where all of us sat in a diner and we talked about pop culture and we all had kind of these college type theses written for Batman and the Pixar world and stuff. I wouldn't do that again because, man, that was a lot of background work. We had to write essays basically to build that show every single time. We had to write essays, basically, to build that show every single time. They weren't just like throwaway points. And they weren't stuff where you're just watching a movie and you think, oh, that's interesting. We took that shit all the way through. We've thought it all the way through in every single circumstance. I did an episode.

I wrote an episode where we talked about how a simple math can ruin sitcoms for you. And I had to watch every single sitcom so many times just to find those just to, I had like three in mind and I was like, I'm going to need two more and just sat through everything, all of how I met your mother and all friends and all of Frazier, which, you know, I guess not a huge challenge because those are fun shows to watch, but just to like, look for something that wasn't even necessarily there. but just to like look for something that wasn't even necessarily there. And it's such a time burn on the backend,

trying to like build a great episode that's only going to, and then making it succinct in five minutes. I like being on set. I like doing all that part, but I don't want it to ever be less than an A plus essay every single time. and I just don't have that kind of time to devote to it anymore. You heard it here first, folks. The reason that After Hours will never happen again is because Soren doesn't

feel like watching a lot of television. You live in New York, you motherfucker. No, geography was not part of it. You can find us on social at... You can find us on social. You can find me at DLB underscore INC and Soren at Soren underscore LTD. You can find Bacon at Make Me Bacon, please.

You can find the show at twitter.com slash QQ underscore Soren and Dan. You can email us at QQ with Soren and Daniel at gmail.com. score soren and dan you can email us at qq with soren and daniel at gmail.com and you can find vincent our super producer engineer editor everything else at silicon beach podcast.com we also have a patreon that bacon is gonna plug right now uh patreon backslash quick question great uh bacon do you have anything else to say no before we go no i'm okay dan thank you you're welcome i'm just reeling a little bit i think maybe i was too honest this actually could make me look bad it's a shame i'm gonna keep all of it in you only get two cuts per pod. I'm going to use both of those.

I know exactly what I'm using those for. All right, bye. Bye now. Bye.