The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Adam DeVine

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Adam DeVine joins Andy Richter to discuss the long road to “Workaholics,” the accident that led to his comedy career, his upcoming Netflix feature “The Out-Laws,” and how “Pitch Perfect” changed his life (and why he almost didn’t do it).

Hi everyone, it's the Three Questions. I'm Andy Richter and I am talking today with a fellow Midwesterner, Adam Devine. Hey, that's me. That's you. What's up Andy? Good to see how's things good good to see you that's you were born in iowa and raised in nebraska that's right that's about as midwestern as you get yeah a lot of people like they don't realize it's weird when you talk to people not from the midwest they're like oh what is nebraska is that like the great american west they're like where they think it's just like the Wayne riding through the Great Plains.

And I'm like, no, not really. No. It's just sort of suburban shopping centers. Yeah. Just strip malls. Yeah. And then corn and bean fields. Yeah, corn fields.

Yeah, yeah. That's Illinois the same way. It's like once you get past Chicago, prairie and corn fields. But there's other cities. There's Champaign. There's a few other places. There is. I mean, yeah. You go into, but I mean, but yeah. But there's other cities. There's Champaign. There's a few other places. There is. I mean, yeah, you go in.

But I mean, but yeah. But not really. Yeah. But I mean, who are we kidding? But I mean, but in between, you know, it's like in between you go from one small town with a McDonald's to another small town with a Pizza Hut, you know, with like, you know, 30 miles of corn in between. Nebraska, once you leave, it's like, I think Omaha has like a million people.

By the way, all my stats are wrong for sure. Someone's going to check this. They're like, you're a fucking liar. So once you leave Omaha, there's like a million people in Omaha. And then you get out of town. There's only half a million people in the rest of the state. Wow. So it's just desolate.

Like once you're past Lincoln, you know. And then there's just really nothing. So it's just desolate. Like once you're past Lincoln, you know, and then there's just really nothing. And it's just farms. Yeah. So if you live anywhere else in Nebraska, I would like to see your comments in the comments section. It's going to be like 12 guys. Right, right, right. It's me. It's me. I'm out here in the middle of nowhere. Do you still have a lot of family? Are there still people in Nebraska? Nobody's in Nebraska anymore. My parents just retired to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. They saw the show and they're like,

we got to get down there. It's so blue. Everything is so blue. Whatever filter they use for the Ozarks, I'm like, my God, they're just like, you know what? This is the creative direction. Everything blue.

Right, right. Yeah, so they moved down there and the creative direction. Everything blue. Right. Yeah. So they move down there and they love it. They just go fishing. My dad goes fishing every day. My mom just drinks wine on a dock. Which is the Midwestern dream retirement. And that area of Missouri is like Midwestern Florida.

Oh, yeah. Because we don't want to go as far as Florida. You know, like you just go down there. It's the Redneck Riviera. Yeah. Is that what they say? That's what they, there's t-shirts. Oh, yeah. And is that, that's Branson, right?

Kind of near there? Yeah, it's, I think, I think a little north, bad with geography. Yeah. North, maybe? Yeah. Have you ever been to Branson? No, I haven't. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. No, because I, I mean, that's always fascinating to me is Branson, but... I like the idea of Branson. I don't know if I would like being there, but... I would like to be... I would like to, like, put a helmet on someone and have them walk around Branson that I could watch from a remote location.

Yeah, yeah. It's like Christian Vegas, right? Is that, like, the sort of... It's like, yeah, it's like christian vegas right is that like the sort of it's like yeah it's like country vegas like real and but like hillbilly country vegas it's just but then also like it's just kenny rogers just only singing the gambler yeah well it's like weird cover acts like you know like oh sure i mean i just see old video i don't know what it's like now, but it's like, I think it was the cellist Yo-Yo Ma or somebody had a music theater. I know Yakov Smirnoff was there.

Yakov Smirnoff had one. It's like all these kind of like, you know. Niche? Yeah. Yeah, let's say that. Specialty acts. Uh-huh. Or like Andy Williams.

Or like Andy Williams. Like if you remember the old easy listening singer Andy Williams, he had a theater there for a million years. So I think it's like for really, really old people. Do we team up in a few years and retire there? That's a nice retirement. It wouldn't be bad. As a kid, I heard that Yakov Smirnoff was there and I liked Yakov. And I was like, oh, you could do that? You could go to Hollywood, make it big, and then have your own theater in Branson?

Branson, Missouri. That's right. I was like, end goals. And it hasn't changed. That's my end goal. Well, you can get a really nice—I'm sure real estate there is, you know, ask your parents. Oh, yeah. You know, get a nice big house there is, you know, ask your parents. Oh, yeah. You know, get a nice big house there.

Well, they still complain about it. Got them a nice big house there, and they're like, you paid what? Yeah, yeah. How dare you? I'm like, this is a gift. What are you doing? Oh, did you pay for their house? Yeah.

That's nice. Yeah. No, that's fantastic. You know. Yeah, this is my roundabout way to give myself compliments. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to find my five other ways to. That's really, really, I mean, you know, I.

I helped. I didn't do the whole thing. They, like, their Midwestern-ness wouldn't allow me to just get the whole thing. They were like, my dad's like, we'll go in half. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then the half was, I was like, this is more than half that I'm doing. But yeah, okay, yeah. Let him have that.

Yeah, for sure. Let him have that it's not paid for half, you know. But no, that's really sweet. Yeah. You know, I've given money, but I've never, I never, I never was like, here, mom, here's your Mercedes. Oh, yeah. I've never done anything like that. It's a good, I just, not a Mercedes,

but I just got my dad a, he beat cancer. So yeah. So it was like, you know, that's such like a kick to the head. And so our family was reeling with that. And then when he was one year cancer free, he had like had a big party and I pulled up in his new Ford F-150 pickup truck. And he like cried and stuff. Oh, wow. And then six months later, he got cancer again. And I was like, you son of a bitch. You're trying to get extra trucks. I see you. You're trying to wheel and deal more.

Give me the truck back. Yeah. Give me that truck back. Give me the keys. Give me the keys. You didn't earn it. Well, is he better? I mean, is he?

And then now he's in remission again. Yeah, yeah. So it's just been like a, what, two and a half year period of us just like kind of railing with this. But yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like was the second one, is it like, you know, because there's the terrible cancers and then there's the ones that you can kind of deal with. It was small cell at first, which is a pretty terrible one. Yeah.

But we got it early. And then the next one was this one called squeamus. But I didn't even know that that's a thing. It's a skin cancer, right? Isn't it? But it was in the lungs. Oh, wow. So skin in the lungs, maybe?

I have no idea. Well, I mean, on a tissue level, I guess. Yeah. And so then, but then they knocked that one out right away. Wow. Yeah. Was he a smoker? Oh, yeah, dude.

Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. I think I was was i'm probably the last gen or like i'm turning 40 this later this year and i bet i'm one of the last generations where my dad smoked everywhere when i was a kid like it was i think i was like 11 or 12 when like finally it was like like enough people got to him where he's like not gonna chain smoke cigarettes in the car right right, right, right. With the windows all rolled up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's too cold. So there's just like a little like slid open. He's like, what? It's open. What? You want us to freeze to death? That's more dangerous than the goddamn smoke.

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So that was, yeah. Yeah. It's a rough habit. Yeah. I mean, nobody in my family did it, but I used to see in our town in Illinois, like at the diner, old farmers smoking while eating breakfast. Oh, yeah.

Like a lit cigarette in the middle of the whole thing. I had a friend whose dad set a timer to wake up in the middle of the night to have a cigarette. He'd wake up at like 2 a.m for and just sit at the edge of the bed have a cigarette and then go back to sleep wow that is a true addict right there that is commitment and it's like what happens if you know i don't even i didn't even understand the logic and my friend could never explain it either it's like will he wake up jonesing so bad yeah maybe like smoke cigarette six cigarettes at once he's like i, I don't know. He just does it. He's cool. Dad's a

cool dude. He also puts on sunglasses and greases his hair back. Yeah, we set the alarm for that, too. Do you have siblings? Yeah, I have a little sister and she lives out here. She worked on Workaholics for a long time.

Oh, nice. And then she just worked for Facebook. And then now she's currently not working for Facebook because they just like laid off a billion people. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, she's awesome. I mean, was it a funny household? Like, are your folks funny? I mean, yeah.

I feel like my dad is funny on purpose and my mom is just funny from from just how her brain works. And she doesn't mean it to be funny, but it's just absolutely hilarious. So when my dad was going through cancer, I got them a place in Houston because they were going to MD Anderson. And I thought I got them a nice place because they spent a lot of money on it. And I figured if you spend a lot of money, it's nice. I don't know Houston very well, but evidently I chose wrong. And so it was like this expensive Airbnb right next to like a true junkyard. And like this like crazy park with

like just crackheads. And my mom would like make little sandwiches and give them to all the crackheads. And she'd be like, Hey, Leon. hey, Jeff. And it was like, I swear to God, it was handing them out. And I'm like, oh my God, mom. And we went on this little walk. She goes on her little power walks and we go past the junkyard through this like overgrown walkway where like they're definitely

like dealing meth in the bushes. And we go to this freeway underpass where that's her turnaround mark. And there's a guy in a car getting fellated. I just see a top of a head bobbing up and down and I go God damn mom, that guy's getting a blowjob

right there. And she goes, really? And she looks over and she goes, Goofy! And turns around and power walks the other direction. I'm like, that's the fun. You couldn't have said a funnier thing right there. Goofy. Yeah, yeah.

And like a sing-songy fashion. Maybe she knows something about the Disney characters we don't. It's a reference to something that she knows. Deep cut Disney. Some fan fiction that she came across. Goofy? Yeah. I'm like, it's not, whatever it is, it's not goofy.

I wonder if your dad knows that connotation of goofy. Yeah, yeah. Oh, goofy. Oh, yeah, that's what your mom thinks oral sex is. Goofy. Come here, honey. Let's get goofy. I know, the kids are out of town.

Time to get goofy. It is kind of blissful ignorance of older people. Like she probably, there's probably blowjobs in cars every day. And she just never happened to notice, you know? Yeah, it doesn't. And then even when she does, it's not that big of a deal to her. And I'm like, maybe we pick a different walking path. She's like, oh, shut up.

I like my walking path. And I'm like, there's like syringes. It was a foul walking path. I'm like, we got to get you a better. Did you, I mean, did you, were you like, oh, shut up. I like my walking path. And I'm like, there's like syringes. It was a foul walking path. I'm like, we got to get you a better. Did you, I mean, did you, were you like, oh my God, I'm so sorry that I put you here. Absolutely. I thought, were they okay? You know, totally fine.

It did not faze them even a little bit. They're like, it's not that bad. Wow. And I'm like, it's really bad. Did you move them or did they uh by the time i got there they only had a few like they're like they're it was ready to wrap up so they were fine yeah but wow yeah well you are a good son you know a good son getting them close to the you know the crack and the blowjobs yeah what kind of kid were you growing up i was like i mean were you always kind of

you know like i was going and funny and you know i don't know i probably wasn't funny i was definitely a ham like i definitely was like i want to make people laugh i don't know how quite yet yeah uh i was for sure that just because my dad and my uncles were really funny yeah and that i like funny was such and it probably was the same in your house. I don't know. But it was like funny. You could say whatever you wanted as long as it was funny. And I wouldn't get in trouble if it was funny.

Yeah. So if I got in trouble at school and dad was like, well, what'd you say? And then I said what I said and it was funny. He was like, all right. Yeah. You're fine. Yep. Right.

Right. Right. That's a good one. yeah yeah so uh so I learned pretty quickly that funny kind of trumps all yeah I did I mean my parents were very permissive I mean you know that not not like it's like my my kids were I was a pretty permissive parent but you only do that because you know your kids aren't like wild creatures I know it's like yeah when you get to a point where you realize, oh, this kid is – like my son is more nervous about things than I am. Like he's always – from birth was always like, is everyone going to be okay? Like is this – like one of the first parties he went to in high school, it was some giant house party in the valley.

And he was standing at the front door and he heard somebody said, somebody's got a knife in the backyard. And he ran like 20 blocks and then got on a payphone because he didn't have a phone at the time because he was probably 14 or 15. Got on the phone and was like breathing like dad you gotta come get me there's somebody with a knife in the back and it would have turned out was was a boy brought brought a taser to the party and was tasing girls you know nothing nothing high school girls like better yeah they taste i thought you were gonna say something like totally innocuous like and that He had a knife to open his college admission letter.

He got into Duke or whatever. It became knife, but it was actually taser. My son was there with five friends, and he just took off and left them. I was like, okay, I know from now on, if there's trouble, he's

gone, so I can relax. Your girlfriend was tased, but you you made it home good good but so my parents were very permissive but back to that thing about like being funny like i early and i remember so many times in high school mostly sometimes in junior high being such a smart ass to teachers and it being kind of funny kind of funny and then me pushing it and pushing it and then the just when you could get an adult to be furious yet laughing yeah oh talk about power talk about that was you know the money spot like a teacher like having to stifle the laughter and then give over to the anger and go get out out of here. Like, go down to the office. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, come. Yeah, it was real.

I had a bad accident. I'm sure you read all about that. I did, I did. Yeah, let's talk about that. When you were 11. Yeah. So I was hit by a cement truck when I was 11. How does that happen?

Darting out, chasing a ball. I knew tragedy was the only way. Trauma was the only way to get really funny. I was like, well, my parents don't beat me, so I got to do something. Oh, here comes a truck. Quick, dive in front. So for any kids listening at home, no. I lived in the suburbs, so there was just new houses being built every day.

And my buddy was across the street. We were going to the convenience store and three cement trucks were going up the hill at the same time that two were coming down. And so my buddy was already across the street and he yells, come on. And I took that as coast is clear. And he meant just like I'm excited to get like a razzmatazz sucker. Right. And so the third cement truck went up the hill. He yells, come on. And I darted after that third cement truck and then was hit by the second of these two cement trucks coming down.

I was only hit by the one. Yeah, yeah. But I flew like 500 feet. Whoa. Yeah. I landed in a different county, which was kind of a fun fact. Yeah. They're like, they didn't know where, like,

because we, you know, we ended up taking legal action, made, like, no money. But we didn't know what court to put it in because they're like, well, his body landed in Douglas County, but he was hit in Sarpy County. So, and then I broke every bone from my legs down. Yeah, so everything except for my right femur. And, yeah, and then I'm every bone from my legs down. Uh, yeah. So everything except for my right femur and, uh, yeah.

And then I'm like the crippled kid. And I was also new to that, to Omaha. I just moved there like maybe six months prior or something like that. Oh, wow. And so then it was, uh, I wasn't going to be the pro athlete that I was convinced I was going to be, even though not even that good. Right. And, uh, But you're 11. And so then I was like, I got to get into comedy.

That was like the other thing that I thought I was kind of good at. Oh, really? At that age, even you were like, yeah, wow. And so in middle school, I started to call into radio stations. I'm telling my Batman origin story right now. Yeah. And it's like, we got other questions uh um yeah and so i would call into radio stations that do different characters and i kind of became obsessed with uh with like writing bits to do on the radio after school wow

and yeah and did you get like did they would you call and say hey it's me and they would go we'll put you right on the air. Yeah, yeah. I called in every day and I had like a handful of different characters I would do doing like Omaha specific bits. Wow. And they were like, I only ever talked to them in character because I'm a child. And they were like, come on down to the radio station. Like, we want to make you part of the drive time hour.

We'll start to pay you. And you can come in here and like, you could be part of it. Or you could call in every day. I'm like 13 years old or something. Exactly. Yeah, I'm 13. And my mom wheeled me down there in downtown Omaha. And I get out of the van with my legs fully extended because I couldn't bend my knees.

And she wheeled me into the radio station. And they go, holy shit, you're a child. You're a crippled child. You're like, we can't hire a crippled child. But then it was actually even better because they were like, look, we can't pay you, but keep calling in and we'll give you free concert tickets for anything that we do.

And it was like the big rock station in town. So we got free concert tickets to everything I got all the Cranberry and Seven Mary 3 CDs that I can handle Sixpence none the richer I knew them by name every member Toad the wet sprocket

Got it Can't you tell my loves are growing well wait how long so how long were you kind of immobilized how long until you were

you know about healthy and up and walking again about two years wow yeah and it was off and on

like I would I had like something like I don't between 25 and 30 surgeries in that time. Wow. And so it was pretty constant. It'd be like every month or two, they're like, okay, you got another surgery. Got a new thing.

And yeah. And so I would go from like being like in the wheelchair, get up to a walker and then I'm back in a wheelchair for a while. Because of different surgeries. Yeah, because of different surgeries. What do you, I mean, what do you think it's done to your personality? I mean, you know, you said like it kind of made you choose a different path and stuff. But I mean, what does that kind of immobilization at that age?

I mean, what do you think? Are there lingering effects of it, both physical and or emotional? Yeah, yeah. My right leg's, like, way shorter. So, like, I have all kinds of issues with, like, shoes and – Yeah, that kind of stuff. And then – And does it throw your hips off and stuff?

It does. So, I have a pinched nerve right now that I've been dealing with the past year. That's kind of a nightmare. I'm going to – I had an MRI yesterday about it. Wow. Yeah. So, it's a whole issue. But as far as personality goes, I think it's just a good way.

It was a good way to just learn the life lesson of you're going to die, so it doesn't matter. So just follow your dreams. Yeah. Because I don't think no one in my family ever pursued a career. You know what I mean? No, I know what you mean you mean yeah it's a very midwestern thing like it's like i don't you know i i came from a small town and the notion of going you know the notion of leaving was kind of weird yeah for sure you know like where where you're

gonna leave you know it's like the world's scary we know what's going on here this is good we can protect you yeah yeah yeah and i think i think, uh, as far as like my parents go, it changed their mindset too, because I'm, I didn't die and they were like, okay, well do whatever you want to do then. Right. Like if you want to be a comedian or an actor, we're going to support you. Uh, you know, and luckily for me, I think if I still, if nothing would have happened by now. Yeah. My dad would be like, Jesus, get your shit together. Don't work for the railroad like the rest of us.

You're almost 40. I mean, yeah. Yeah, it might be. It happened quick enough and there was enough like little things that I think. Yeah. Were you going to school? Were you homeschooled during that time? Yeah, I was homeschooled for a little less than I think. Yeah. Were you going to school? Were you homeschooled during that time? Yeah, I was homeschooled for a little less than a year. So most of sixth grade, I was homeschooled.

And then went to sixth grade and was just, people thought I was like way cooler than I was in sixth grade because I was just on, I was on morphine. I was like on all the pain medicine, you know? on so I was on morphine. I was like on all the pain medicine, you know? So like, Oh, cool dude, Adam. Yeah. And I'm like, Oh no, smoking French cigarettes. No, in fact, I, I, it was like when like grunge was still kind of cool. And I remember I would borrow my dad's flannel, like work jackets because they reeked of cigarettes. Even though I didn't smoke cigarettes, I've never smoked cigarettes, but I'm like, I've got to be cool. Was it because of the smell or because of the look? Yeah, the smell and the look.

Wow. And my mom would like wheel my stinky ass into school. And I'm like, I'm wearing the coat. She's like, you reek. I don't want people to think you smell cigarettes. I'm like, that's exactly what I want, mom. That's where we differ. And also if you get in the car with dad, you smell like cigarettes.

Exactly. I'm like, I'm going to stink one way or the other. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is amazing to me how like now from being in a world where everyone smoked to like a world where no one smokes that like how you can smell it like just i was at my kid's school once in the gym and at the far end of the gym 30 yards out in the parking lot somebody was smoking and the doors were open and i could smell it yeah and i just remember

when my ex-wife and i went on our honeymoon in 1994 we were on a smoking plane like because it was an international flight and it was like there was a smoking section on the plane oh still like you know and when we when we started late night with conan o'brien you could smoke anywhere in that building really yeah people would you know like people doing the news because they'd have to run tapes they they couldn't like it things weren't digital yet sure you just see people like news people running smoking with tapes like got to get this on the air and and you know and then it very quickly sort of went down to like okay there's a smoking room and now there's no smoking at all and then my office became the smoke because i smoked at the time uh-huh and then i just like i would and then there's just like 30 people in their chain smoking cigarettes or like

not 30 but like that's just like i found that being and i mean and i wouldn't do it any other way but like like oh andy won't mind has been has like fucked me over time and time again they're like oh he's great he won't mind too nice of a guy you come to my office and there'd be like three people smoking cigarettes in my office and i'd be like okay i guess i'm fine i don't mind i guess it's chit chat time so um but yeah no it's it is the cigarettes you know that's like what too i was when i look at old actors yeah and they're just these faces and faces and it's the same thing like when people do. Here's the cast of Mary Tyler Moore.

And, you know, Ed Asner was 35 at this time. Oh, my God. And he looks 60. Yeah. And it's cigarettes. It's cigarettes and booze. It just makes your face, you know. I know.

But admittedly, people looked cooler back then yeah no absolutely yeah you look at like those old movie stars and uh you know uh like they just had it character all their faces looked and especially like the character actors like there was like real character to them and now everyone just kind of looks the same because we just eat salads and shit you know well smoking on film it yeah it is it it's like yeah it looks cool i'm sorry it just it does it looks pretty cool a new movie coming out plug time plug time oh you mean the outlaws outlaws starring pierce brosman nina dobra ellen barkin and richard kind that's right you know it's coming out july 7th i do know that. Yeah.

But specifically about that, we had a scene in the movie that they ended up, they didn't let us use. And part of that, we argued with them and they sort of convinced us that this wasn't the main reason, but it was. That we had Pierce and Nina smoke a cigarette, like a father and daughter sharing a cigarette, having like this heart to heart conversation.

And they just it's like a blanket rule that there's no smoking on the network or for Netflix. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not to shit on my corporate overlord. But but they. Yeah. It was smoking a cigarette and they were like it was like wow yeah wow that's weird yeah i you know they don't they don't like i remember better call school we should have had them fake uh well you know what candy vape that they wonder is the is the movie set in present day i wonder if that's the difference like if it's a period thing you can get away that because like i remember in better call saul there was, you know, there were all kinds of scenes.

Yeah. Between Bob Odenkirk and Ray Sehorne out, you know, sharing a cigarette. But, you know. It must have been that, like what type of movie it is. I bet Netflix would cut us some slack if it was like a gritty thriller. Yeah. You know, it's just a big fun comedy. Right, right.

I mean, so you're in Nebraska. You're in Omaha. And then you come out to California to go to college, right? Yep. And is that on purpose to be closer to show business-y kind of stuff? Totally. Yeah. Totally.

And to my mother's credit, I almost balked at the idea. I was like, it was 18. The whole plan was I was going to move out to California. I was going to go to UCLA, but first I was going to get the local, because it's so much cheaper to go to a California school if you're a California local. So you have to live here a year. And I was like, I'll go to community college for like a year or two and then transfer. Right. And that was the game plan. But then like last second, I was like, I'll go to University of Nebraska, Lincoln or Omaha.

Yeah. And just stay close to home. And mom was like, you will stay here forever. You have to leave right now if you're going to leave. I'm looking for her. I'm like, but I want to. Yeah. Drink bush light with my friends

but but jeff got a house and we're gonna drink bush light there um so so i yeah then i moved out and i met uh did she have to kind of really force her or did you know one heart to heart she was right i knew she was right yeah yeah and then um but that bush light was cool um they have it here, you know. They do. Yeah, you have to go to a shitty part of town. But they have it here. You've got to go outside of town.

They only sell it in Valencia. Yeah. You have to go to Panorama City. No offense, Panorama City. So I moved out and was going to community college. Did you come up by yourself or didn't know with my good friend austin anderson who's a comic he's he he ended up moving back home he had a girlfriend that he married and they've been married for like 20 years now oh wow uh but

still in comedy or still in comedy oh wow great yeah and uh he's actually coming into town now we're doing a live podcast tonight at the Irvine Improv. Oh, wow. For my podcast, This Is Important. Don't bother plugging that. This is important. Yeah, but nobody's going to hear that. I mean, maybe these guys. You just bleep it.

I do that with the Workaholics guys, but he's going to open up for us and do the whole thing. Oh, that's great. So, yeah. That's really nice. Great to see him. So, I moved out here here and then I met Blake and Kyle Newachek, Blake Anderson,

Kyle Newachek, who I ended up creating Workaholics with. Right. Day one of community college. Wow. And we. And are they local?

Are they Orange County boys? No, they were Bay Area guys and they kind of did the same thing. Their parents don't want them to move right to L.A. So they moved down 20 steps.

Orange County first. Orange County first. And then we got to know each other in improv class, like day one. And I was like, the kid with the little afro, Blake, it was really funny. And then Kyle,

he showed me some of his videos that they did in high school. Comedy videos. And I was also making comedy videos. But this was before you could put it online. So you just like show other funny people. Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Here's my tape.

Yeah. Like watch my funny thing I tried to do. And, and I, like me and Austin had tapes, they had tapes. And then we had like a tape off. Like that, that very night, we like, we're like, you guys should come over and we'll watch each other's tapes.

Drink some Bush Light. And, and their production value was just – That sounds like such a scam. Like, come over and watch some tapes. Wink. You know, tapes. And their production value was just through the roof. It was way better than ours.

And they were friends. Yeah, best friends from like elementary school. Wow, wow, okay. And then, yeah, we started working together, making videos. And, you know, we're 18. better than they were friends yeah okay friends from like elementary school wow okay and uh and then yeah we started working together making videos and you know we're 18 so it wasn't working together we're just buddies who were doing right comedy together yeah and i mean and that's i mean and it's great when you you know to have that presence of mind to be that into it that young is is really good and also because then you're at school and you got

all so you got all the equipment yeah you know because i went to film school and it was you could just do whatever you want you know just a little candy store i get a can i mean technology i'm old so technology was a lot like now you can do more with your phone than literally i did i know the entire time in film school, you know? So the little bit of money that I got from my accident, I put some in the stock market and that fully tanked in like 2002. Like the stock market was like fully in the pits

and I pulled it out and I had like $2,500 left and I used 2,000 of that 2,500 to buy a DVX camera, which was like a good camera at the time. And then we just started, we made like all of our internet videos with that camera. Yeah. Yeah. And like, does the internet come along while you guys are doing this? And then a couple of years later, two years later, I move up to LA. Kyle moved up after a year to go to film school and he went to LA film school and I moved up, became his roommate. I was doing standup and improv and that kind of stuff at the time and met Anders Holm, who I created work colleagues with at the Second City. Wow. Conservatory.

And, and that was like right at the time that YouTube was happening. I remember the Lonely Island guys, Jorm and Akiva and Andy Sandberg, we had a friend that was a college friend of theirs. I was like, oh, my buddies are on SNL and they're really funny. You could see their stuff online and we're like, you can? And they showed us- Like their stuff before they got on SN you can and they showed us like their stuff

before they got before they got on snl and they we saw some of theirs like a stork patrol and like some of these old videos yeah and i one i was like oh these guys are damn shit this sucks these guys are really funny yeah yeah i'm like oh there's other funny people out there right right right uh and then uh at the same time that was the first time we saw youtube yeah and it was we're like you could just click on a video and it'll play in real time yeah and it blew our minds and yeah no i remember the same thing yeah wait what it lit a fire under us and we were just it was just go mode from then on well how i mean how do you go from being a bunch of guys putting videos on the internet to getting somebody at Comedy Central to say, come on in here and let's have you make a show?

It was like a combination of events. I was doing stand-up. I did stand-up for Comedy Central. Their New Faces show called Live at Gotham at the time was their show. And so the executives started to look at me and then in turn look at other time as was their show. And, uh, and so the executive started to look, look at me and then in turn, look at other things that I'm doing. And then,

uh, an executive, Walter Newman, uh, like found a tape of ours. Like when these tapes that we were sort of, we're passing out like DVDs of our stuff. And shows.

Yeah. Shows and different things. And he got ahold of it and brought it up the chain of command and they brought us in and they were like, wow, we love this idea. Essentially, we did like a web series that was sort of like workaholics. Yeah. And they were like, man, we really love this idea. And we for, I mean, bless our hearts.

We're such idiots did not want to do workaholics. for, I mean, bless our hearts, we're such idiots, did not want to do workaholics. We really, really were excited about this other idea we had of us as gangster rapping wizards from another realm who come through a malt liquor cabinet. Of course, of course you were excited about that one. And we were like, we'd pitch workaholics and like up the chain of command from like the junior executives to the vice president to then the president. And the whole time we're like, yeah, yeah, Workaholics, but really what we want to do. And then we'd pitch that. And the junior exec's like, yeah, definitely don't pitch that to the vice president.

And then got all the way to the president. We couldn't help ourselves. We're like, but really we want to do the Wizards. And she was in the room, bless her heart, it was Lauren Correo. I think she's at at a free form or something now, but the, she was the president of comedy central all the time. She was like,

that's a really bad idea, but I think we're going to do work all. Yeah. That's when you're young like that. I mean, I remember when I first started doing TV stuff, it's like, why won't they,

you know, like I always thought, well, you thought, you know, I'm tired. I hate watching shows that are always the same. Like let's, and I even probably pitched a couple of times, like this is a show that's always different. It's different all the time, which is like impossible to produce. It's just dumb. It's just a terrible idea. Because you're like trying to build traffic to a product

and it's like but here's the thing you might have liked last week but this week's totally different nothing to do with what you the goodwill we built up before you know yeah or you know when executives would talk about like you know you got to have a likable character in there i'd be like fuck that we know like this is you know this it's just got to be pure funny and not worrying and now i'm like no no i i watch shows and i'm like i don't like anyone in exactly you know it's there's a reason it's worked for a hundred years and it's also there's like very boring grown-up not necessarily rules but kind of accepted wisdom. Wisdom. Yeah. It's like, yeah, there's a reason for that.

Yeah, just like the practicality. Once, you know, we actually got a show and we were young. We were 25, 26 and like suddenly we were the bosses. Yeah. And we'd never been the bosses before. Yeah. It's weird. And we didn't know how to write for television. Yeah.

We've just only written sketches anders was kind of our resident writer anders holm and he would like give us books on how to write for tv and we would be like in the writer's room like leading the writer's room during the day and then at night like reading reading books on how to write for tv luckily we got a bunch of very smart harvard writers kevin enton who is our showrunner, he just wrote The Unbearable Weight of Incredible Talent, the Nick Cage movie. And he's doing a lot of great stuff. But he was our showrunner that Comedy Central made us hire. And he blessed his heart.

He allowed us to lead the room, but then would steer the ship and be like, oh, wow, that's a really cool idea. But this is how TV works. Right, right, right. And you're like, okay, yeah. Yeah steer the ship, be like, oh, wow, that's a really cool idea. But this is how TV works. Right, right, right. And you're like, okay, yeah.

Yeah. But our idea is cool though, right? Yeah. We can't blow up a building. Yeah. It's very expensive to blow up a building. Yeah.

But with computers, no, no, no, that's even more expensive than actually blowing up a building. Totally. Well, and then,

and how long did that show run? Seven seasons. We did something like 86 or 87 episodes wow and that's and i mean that i always wonder like if you hadn't had that those that group of guys though was it five it's five of you right four of us or that that four of you i mean what do you think you would be where you are today? Or do you think that the safety of numbers helped you? Yeah, I think there was the safety of numbers. Of like, we all were in it together.

And it was just kind of, it was perfect. Like, just becoming sort of famous, you know, quasi-famous with your best friends. Yeah. Was like way less scary than just your one guys on a hit show. Right. And yeah, I think it really, really helped. I mean, I would hope that I'm in, I'd be doing like Colgate commercials or something, you know,

I'd be, I'm sure I would still be around, but I don't. Well, and you got standup too. I mean, you obviously were already doing standup. You still do standup. I would have done something, but it was a real launching pad. And, you know, Conan was the first talk show that we ever did. I know. That was totally me.

Yeah, you pulled those strings. Yeah, it was like, these guys. Whenever anybody talks, like, says, like, you know, thanks for having me on, I'm like, I didn't know. I'd read your name, but I didn't have anything to do with anything all right yeah it was nice having you yeah yeah but uh yeah we it was so fun for us to go on because we're all such fans but then uh also like you that you guys let us do the funniest stuff like we uh we came on one time and and got in a fight with each other yeah and acted like we hated each other and then uh conan pulled out an acoustic guitar and then we sang a song about being uh best friends

yeah yeah uh and how we needed to come back together yeah there was another time that we brought the wizards back we were so about the wizard it was so fun about the wizard that one i don't remember yeah that's i think lauren corral might have been right yeah uh because i don't remember the wizard conan's like uh you know we had the guys from workaholics they had to cancel remember yeah that's i think lauren corral might have been right yeah uh because i don't remember the wizard conan's like uh you know we had the guys from workaholics they had to cancel but they hooked us up with these guys from another realm uh ladies and gentlemen the wizards another yeah i'm from another realm oh okay and then and then we wrapped in wizard costumes they had like a fire-breathing dragon and like uh like ladies

in like bikinis but with capes and hats yeah and uh yeah it was really stupid but we always we always liked it when people brought stuff you know beyond just kind of chatting sitting and talking yeah because it's like yeah and i mean and that was always you know which is why come on bring it on in guy i wish i had something oh my god a tiger a live tiger um yeah no we always you know it's like we always wanted it to be mostly a comedy show yeah and so like there were different people that would always you know and i think and I think also people started people like yourself would realize, oh, that's the place if I want to come on and be like an old sea captain. Yeah, for sure. They'll let me do that. Whereas no one else really is interested in that kind of thing.

Can't you tell my love's a-growing? is there competition among you guys or was there like is it kind of went on was it like so and so is getting more you know andrew's getting more attention than me you know uh no and i i mean i think we're we're like brothers so like there's there's some like we're like a band i feel like that's how we explain it uh and there's you know there's fighting but it's never really about uh about that kind of stuff. Yeah. Like the Hollywood stuff. We usually keep that out.

I probably have the biggest ego out of all of us, and I'm not that crazy. So, like, I'm the egomaniac out of the four of us. Right, right. But my ego is also in check. But you've also been around some egomaniacs. Oh, yeah. Some real, true. I'm like, oh, I'm not.

I'm like, guys, I'm not that bad'm like, guys, I'm not that bad. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm not that bad. There's lots of people in this town that make you feel like, oh, yeah, okay. I'm not a monster. Yeah. Anytime I think I'm a monster, all I got to do is remember that person. And who is that person?

Conan O'Brien. He pitched me. Look at the scars he has me on a on a buzz collar he zaps it whenever he feels like do you how do you like

when you started to get acting roles outside where you just come in and say the words how do you like that as opposed to the things where you get to be a producer and a writer on things yeah it's uh you know it's way easier and sometimes it's nice to come in and just be like if you like the project you're you're comfortable with the people yeah you think that whoever's steering the ship is doing a good job uh and you're confident in their abilities then

then it's fun yeah and every once in a while you you'll sign on a thing and and you're confident in their abilities, then it's fun. And every once in a while, you'll sign on a thing and you're like, oh, you get halfway into it and you're like, oh, no, this is a sinking ship. What did I do? But I would say for the most part, as long as you did the due diligence of really vetting everything before signing up for it, I've really enjoyed it. You know, I mean, being on the Righteous Gemstones, that's an easy one.

And all the Pitch Perfect movies, it's like you get to be really, really funny, but you don't have the burden of leading it. Yeah, exactly. Especially with the Gemstones, it was like

Danny McBride was such a hero of mine. Early on when we wereide was such a, like a hero of mine. Early on when we were doing sketch comedy, we got a copy of foot fist way. Yeah. And I remember we watched it and we're like, Oh, and not to take any way,

anything away from Danny and Jody Hill who directed it, but it was like, it felt like something that we could do. It felt like it was obtainable. Yeah. No, like Will Ferrell and those guys, like it felt since they're doing these big characters and that's not really what we did, it didn't feel obtainable.

Right, right. So, yeah. So that was an easy one. But with Workaholic, or with, sorry, with Pitch Perfect, it was like a conversation I had with the guys. It was, I got offered it and I came to the guys. I'm like, yeah, they offered me this movie. And it was after I think we had we were shooting season two at the time. Yeah.

And I'm like, yeah, I'll shoot this like right after season two wraps. And I gave this script to Blake and Durs and Durs read part of it. And he's like, dude, I think you're going to do really, really well in this. It feels like you could just be really funny. And like you said, not have the burden of carrying the whole damn thing. And then Blake came into my room late that night. We were working and he's like, man, you can't do this. You can't do this.

And I'm like, what? And he's like, this is going to ruin all of us. If you like, we're on like the cool hit like comedy like culty comedy show yeah and you're gonna go like be a song and dance man you're gonna be an acapella singer yeah and uh thank god i didn't take a step right right right no shit yeah because that really that movie like truly changed my life it's i mean you i you know how it is it's hollywood is a weird place where there's like gatekeepers. Yeah.

And the internet has changed a lot of that. But there still are gatekeepers where in order to be in movies, someone has to let you in. And then once you're in, that movie has to be a hit. And then you have to be like a shining light within the movie. So everything sort of just clicked into place at the right time. And then after that, people were like, all right,

he can be in movies. How did he get in? Did Blake ever apologize? No, he vehemently still says to this day, does not remember this at all. He's like, dude,

that didn't happen. I'm like, it happened, Blake. And he's like, nah, that never happened. I'm like, bullshit. Yeah.'t happen. I'm like, it happened, Blake! And he's like, nah, that never happened. I'm like, bullshit! Well, I mean, I can see, you know, because

I remember when that movie came out, I was like, acapella? Who wants to see that? And then it's so funny. I was actually just gonna my fiance and I have a three-year-old and I was gonna put it on because I was like oh she

likes musical stuff and then i was like oh yeah but there's lots of filthy filthy language yeah you know and like so yeah maybe that was that was the maybe she's not ready for fat amy or whatever that's what made me sign on to it i was like okay well it is really funny yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah so that yeah it I mean, thank God for it. Yeah. Well, we're running out of time here. I just want to move on. Like, what's what's in the future for you?

Like what? And it could be also personally, you know, I know you've been married for two years now. It'll be two years in October. Nice. Nice. Yeah. You know, we want to start a family. Yeah. And like that's kind of next on the horizon

for us yeah uh and nothing to announce but uh yeah that's that's uh what if i announce that here right and before i told my mom right we're having triplets yeah um yeah so we we really want to do that you know something that as the world ends i need someone to take care of me yeah as the apocalypse comes yeah as as the economy tanks and the seas boil totally let's bring some new life i mean i got kids and i just there are times when i'm just like oh my god just yeah you just watch these poor well. But yeah, we want to do that. And as far as work goes, I have the new movie, The Outlaws, coming out July 7th on Netflix. And I'm really proud of it. It's kind of exactly what I want to do, like big, fun action comedies.

Were you a producer or something on the show? Yeah. Oh, nice. The writers brought me the idea years ago, and I developed it with them. Oh, great. Evan Turner and Ben Zazove, and murdering his last name. He's going to kill me. No, that's all right.

That's his fault. They wrote this great script, and I developed it with them from the beginning kernel of an idea. And truly, it's the most rewarding thing since doing Workaholics. Yeah. rewarding thing since we're doing workaholics yeah and like uh is is having this idea and seeing it come to fruition from the very beginning to the very end right right and then being so proud of it yeah um so in the middle getting to tell pierce brosnan what to do yeah exactly and now it was always flexing on yeah yeah you go smoke a cigarette with that woman don't worry we'll cut it we'll have to cut it later.

My corporate overlord will tell me to cut it later. Well, that's awesome. I have to, I'm going to check it out then because, uh, I mean, I, I, it's just, I, I love it when funny people get to actually do things, you know, they're not just dropped into things and, you know. Yeah. So that's sort of, uh, the, the, the goal goal for me is just to be able to do stuff like that. Keep doing stuff like that.

Yeah. The fact that you even got a comedy, big comedy movie made. Yeah. It feels insane. Yeah. You know, a lot of it had to do with we brought Adam Sandler himself and then Happy Madison on to help us produce it. And it was so fun. We had the script with Netflix.

They bought the idea from us, and they were like, okay, $11 to go make this movie. And then we brought Happy Madison, and they're like, okay, it's a real movie now. $22. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll double it. We'll double it.

Yeah, yeah. But then they gave us a real amount of money, and we were able to go make it cool. Oh, that's good. Yeah. That's great yeah that's great that's great well um i mean you've got to have learned some lessons here i mean and or you know or have some advice for people that might be in the same position that you were you know just hit by a cement truck yeah you know looking to get into showbiz uh yeah is there any advice that you have for kids?

I hope there's one kid out there going like, he's talking to me. He's talking, mom. Will me closer to the speaker. You know, it's just simple advice that I feel like your parents, it's just like put your head down and work. You see so many, there's a lot of really, I don't feel like I'm the most talented person in the world or the funniest guy in the world. There's very talented people coming up, especially in stand-up where it's so singular, where you can truly see someone, how funny they are immediately. Yeah. And how unique they are.

And how unique they are. And how unique they are. Because the thing about stand-ups is just that I don't understand why you'd go through that to be like all those other people. Like everybody else. And there's so many that, you know, like, I mean, from being on the Conan show and sitting there for years, and there'd be, you know, and they did a really, you know, the people that booked that show did a great job of finding like you know unique voices but there would occasionally be i'd just be like how is this any different than 20 other guys doing the same stuff about you know when your girlfriend's on your period or in her period or you know or just other just like kind of like why would you want to do that why would you put yourself through

because you know you know it like stand-up is not pleasant it's a hard racket it's at the beginning it is not pleasant that is exactly right it's very hard but like you see that that like there is there's a there's not a lack of talent out there yeah at least and like the kernel of talent yeah uh and then you gotta uh water it i don't know uh but you you have to nurture. But it's it's about like the putting your head down and doing the work. I feel that that it's like, yeah, you got to write all the time. You have to go do stand up all the time. If you're a writer, you got to write every day. If you're you want to write TV or movies, you've got to write TV and movies. And so many people, like, they move out here, and they're like, I'm going to do this thing, and then they aren't proactive, and they get scared or whatever it is. But it's about just, like, putting your head down and doing the work, I think. Yeah. Well, that's good.

I've never done that. This is technically putting the head down and doing the work. We are creating something, Andy. No, I know. But, no, I mean, I just We are creating something, Andy. No, I know. But no, I mean, I just, my whole life I've been, I should be writing more. Like that's my whole life. Well, that's everybody. I should be writing more.

And then, you know, but then it also too, I get into a business where most of the writing that I've done that actually sees the light of day, I'm not touching a keyboard. You know, I'm telling somebody to put it up on the screen. But it's also like be comfortable in giving the keys to somebody else, like letting somebody else drive, and you help with that on the producer side. Don't be afraid. That was something I learned in the workaholics writer's room of like it doesn't all have to be my idea.

My idea doesn't need to win every time no no it's like whatever's the funniest you no matter if it's like the the newest staff writer who this is his first gig if he has something that's really funny go with that because it's going to lift all boats well i mean i i know early on and because i in the early days of late night with conan o'brien like i was the first writer hired and I was hired just as a writer, but a lot of the writers that were hired were also performers. And it was just, you know, it was like this implicit promise that you're going to get to do some kind of performing. I still was in this kind of mindset of, and I, and I mean, in early, you know, for the first part of it, I was expected to, you know, you know what it means, but like, there's a grid, which is, you know, it's like five columns, each representing a night. And then there's a box for each act in the show.

And it's like six acts. And there's like the top, there's the monologue and comedy. And then we would have a second act of comedy and then the guest would come out but you needed to get those boxes filled and everybody like it was like it was like lifting and it's like you got to lift your share of it and i would occasionally there would be times when i wasn't getting out you know i mean i was on the show too and shooting stuff and i would feel kind of bad. And then I'd actually would find myself thinking, okay, wait, I had like four big laughs just from wisecracks. Yeah. And if that's the end goal is laughs, I probably got more laughs than any of the other writers did with the things that they, you know, like just this crazy thinking because I think like I'm not pulling my weight but it's like you know we all gotta it's a collab it's a first of all i love this

doing this because it's collaborative um and and that's always like it's interesting to me people that come from stand-up into doing bigger television like this where you go from being like a real kind of lone wolf into then learning how to have to share the ideas and share the spotlight and stuff but i always feel like the collaboration is the thing that's going to keep you working for a long time you know it's like that's right yeah i mean unless you're like some sort of singular genius yeah uh you know which i. Which I am not. I am not either. I am not either. Which I am not. Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, it's, you know, and for me, I liked doing a little bit of everything. Like, I'm like, I liked doing stand-up. I liked doing movies and TV and just trying to do a little bit of everything. And then whatever ends up clicking. Yeah. In a place that's kind of where you head yeah i always i always like even when i was in chicago i did improv with different groups and i always felt like whatever i would do at one place would help me at the other it would inform

whatever i was going to do over there even if they were kind of different styles and stuff and if you do that you know i think i think it can help you grow more you know definitely absolutely so all right well adam thank you so much well thank you so much i'm such a fan this was so cool thanks thanks for having me i'm glad you could make it the movie again is the outlaws and it's on netflix july 7th i'm gonna watch it please do you all should watch it and do nothing else. Don't even turn on your TV

until July 7. Don't watch your kids. No. No, no, no. Just the movie. Right, right. Absolutely. If you hear trouble,

call Grandma and have her come over. Goofy! Goofy! All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks, Adam. And we'll see you next week

with more Three Questions. Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddy Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter

wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showing? Oh, you must be a-knowing I've got a big, big love

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