The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Jack Black

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Jack Black joins Andy Richter to talk about catching up on TV during covid, growing up in LA, putting on shows in his childhood living room and more.

I had some joints, and then my wife, I went out of town, and my wife hid my joints so that our sons would not find the joints. And when I was looking for my fancy tape recorder i keep it in this case i was like something smells like joints and it was this is where she hid the joints and forgot that she hid my joints i found my joints all right yay everything this oh my god this is such a happy reason to do a podcast now that's that's worth the price of admission right there thank god your sons don't want a podcast let's put this where the where the podcasting machines are they'll never find you know one time one time my son uh his room was in the front of the house and it was it's an old house and like the mail slot would come through into like a cabinet built in in his

room so you know like you could you had everybody had to go into his room to get the the mail and he and his boyfriend are laying in bed one morning and i just kind of poked my head in because they're asleep to to get the mail and right in front of where the where the mail slot is, is a gigantic bag of weed. Like, like, it looked like a half ounce to me. And I just was like, he was awake. And I was like, just pretend to be intimidated by me. Pretend to be afraid of me. Don't leave it in the only place in the room where I have to go.

You know? Yeah. But isn't it better than secrets isn't it better to be able to i'm just kidding absolutely i mean it's it's yeah yeah no and i mean also too uh my parents my parents you know they they they were they didn't impose hypocrisy you know so it's like yeah my parents drank like fish. Like when they were teenagers, they drank cocktails. They didn't drink beer. They were drinking like Manhattans and Rob Roy's and shit.

I don't even know how to make. And there. And so like when we when my brother and I got like, yeah, drink beer. Just, you know, be careful. If your friends are too drunk, they can't go home. You know? Yeah. That kind of thing.

Yeah. All right. On a podcast. Hi hi it's great to see you thank you does it bother you that i'm like unshowered no not at all i can't see it doesn't matter because really this is about the audio no one's ever gonna see no my bed head. No, no, no. I make the bed just for you. Like the bed that's behind me. I made it for you. Not for the. I don't care about these people.

They're not going to see this. Are we already recording? Because I feel like I'm way behind. Okay. Now I'm. I'm recording now. So I'm also recording our podcast. All right.

Then we got the first part covered. This is. Yeah. I'm talking to Jack Black, if you haven't figured it out already. This is the three questions, which I, this is the thing is like, why does anyone, you know, like intro their podcast? People know. It's not like you stumbled on this. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's no randomly stumbling on a podcast.

So anyway, people know it's the three questions. It's Jack Black. And all right. Tell me about your COVID because I'll tell you about my COVID. I'll tell you. I got the COVID a few months ago, and it was perfect timing, actually. And where did I get it? Where did I suspect that I got it? It just was really mysterious.

I don't know how or who gave it to me yeah but um yeah i went down hard it was just like a nasty flu cold and uh i was down uh in my man cave feeling sick but thinking i think this is just a flu or just a bad cold i don't think it's covid because i tested negative on the on when i first felt symptoms yeah but then i was like just to be safe i'm gonna test again and that next test was uh it was two shiny red lines and i was like okay i'm gonna stay down here luckily you know we have basement. I have my man cave den. I don't know what people do if they're living in, you know, a place without a separate, you know, place to go. So I actually weirdly enjoyed my COVID times because even though I was kind of sick, I got to sleep. kind of sick i got to sleep is the main one is i got to sleep as much as i wanted during my isolation which is a such a special luxury that i don't enjoy it's also the main thing you can do to get better like it's the best thing to do to get better it's just yep and that's what i did i

if i felt like sleep and i slept i slept like 12 hours a day. Yeah. I would actually force myself to get sleep by taking over-the-counter like Theraflu. And it would give me a little extra snoozelberry pie. Yeah, right. Just half a bottle of NyQuil. Good for NyQuil. Oh, yeah. That's what the kids do, right? You take a little NyQuil, you mix it with a little schnapps, and then you go out on the town.

COVID, man! No. I kept it safe underground. And I just snoozed, and I watched whatever I wanted. I got caught up on a few shows that I had fallen behind. Because now there's so many shows that I hear are great. I haven't watched any of them. Who's got time to watch shows? I know. And also, too. And then I can't remember them. I'm like, I actually have written down some like kept a list like like

shows are fucking homework now, you know? Yeah. So I can remember because there's so many times I'm like, OK, I don't have anything to watch. Let's watch. Oh, yeah. What was that one with the guy about the murder? And then I don't remember what it is. I don't know where it is. You know. Yeah. And people tell me about new shows that I need to watch. And I nod my head like, oh, that sounds like a good one. But in my mind, I know I'm never going to watch that show. Right. Absolutely. Ooh, that sounds like a good one.

But in my mind, I know I'm never going to watch that show. Right, right. Absolutely. So, yeah, COVID. How many days were you down in the basement? Ten days. Wow. I mean, truth be told. Did you see daylight at all?

Oh, yeah. No, I would sneak out. I would sneak out and get a little sunshine and fresh air every day. I think it's actually important. You got to get that. You got to get that sunshine and fresh air every day i think it's actually important you got to get that you got to get that sunshine and fresh air yeah uh you know i was just steered clear let everyone know that i was common and the coast was clear and then i would come out you know covid man um carrying a

full viral load but after about five days just between you and me i was starting to feel pretty good and i was like you know i think i'm i'm probably no longer contagious but just to be safe i'm gonna stay in my awesome man cave and watch you know all the back seasons of um better call saul right and uh what else did i watch? I watched some rad things. I just enjoy it. Yeah. I'd like to get it more often. Check out this Andy Warhol Diaries show on Netflix.

Okay. The series, and it just gives you the inside scoop on Andy Warhol's genius and just a strange creature of this universe that needs to be studied. Yeah. I've been enjoying that. I'll watch that one. I just started last night. I think it's an FX series, Jeff Bridges, called The Old Man.

Oh, yeah. I heard that was great. It's really. I mean, it's like when I heard what I had heard about it. And like, first of all, the name is off putting like, aren't there enough fucking old men? And then but then I find out it's like about and it's just like that perfect thing of like he's a CIA like mega killer. Oh, no. You know, who's who like got out of the game and has been hiding but they come for him so he has to fight back so it's like such like right at the alley and i guess i'm like

getting into the demographic of like you know old white man revenge fantasy like you can sit home and a lot of people will fuck me over too i wish i was a ninja you know and uh but it's so it's it's really good i mean and there is like just a lot of that kind of i mean just i will never not watch things about you know that are like you know i have a particular set of skills like that kind of thing that shit is always like oh my god to have a particular set of skills would be so awesome. But the thing that drives me crazy, and it started a few movies ago. I don't know what, and he's so good.

But Jeff Bridges now in everything sounds like he is having problems with his dental work. Have you noticed that? It's like, oh, everything is wrong. Like it's wrong with his It's like, Yes. And like in that, it was an awesome version of the Rooster Coburn, the Western with Matt Damon.

I can't, I can't think of the name. You're talking about, wait, you're talking about, was this the- The remake of the John Wayne, Glenn Campbell.

Yes. And it's called Tim Larry. No, Tom. Well, people know. No, True Grit. True Grit. Thank you. It's called True Grit.

I knew there was a T. He's so fucking great in that, but he sounds like he has three lozenges in his mouth the entire time. Well, the whole time from that one, you're thinking this is a character choice. He's choosing. But then three movies later, you're like, oh, wait, it's not a choice. He just he's got Marble Mouth. When did he get Marble Mouth? Stella Marble Mouth Adler school somewhere right before True Grit.

I know it's weird. Somewhere right before True Grit. I know. It's weird. He was afflicted. Yep. Yeah, I think it might have something to do with. No, I actually don't say. I'm not going to say what it might. I'm not going to make a joke about the Marble Mouth because any minute now I'm going to have Marble Mouth McClanahan disease as well.

I hope not. But I do love me some Jeff Bridges. Oh, he's fantastic. And at the end of the day, it goes back to the dude. Yeah. In whatchamacallit. Yeah. Big Lebowski.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. I thought your internet froze, but you just froze so perfectly. No, I was having an extreme case of brain fog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, I thought your internet froze, but you just froze so perfectly. No, I was having an extreme case of brain fog. Yeah, yeah. This episode should be called Three Questions in the Fog. Well, I loved him, too, all the way back to that, was it Thunderball and Lightfoot or Thunderbolt and Lightfoot?

I didn't see that one it's like a him and clint eastwood on a bank heist movie oh yeah and uh yeah and he but he's like really young and uh uh spoiler alert he dies of like a terrible brain injury uh but who's that before tron yes yes yeah i was early dude yeah me, it felt like- It was before Starman and, you know. I think Tron- Wait, Tron was before Starman, though, right? I don't know. It was around the same time.

Starman, he crushed Starman. Yeah. He was just an alien without any real emotions or anything. But it was so emotional. I remember just bawling at Starman. Yeah. Because he was such a kind creature from another part of the galaxy. Yeah, and who can't relate to that?

All right, Tron was 82. Yeah. Tron was 82, and Starman was 84. You were right. Yeah, correct. Tron was prior, yeah. I know that because I can trace it back to my gaming days in 82 at Westworld when I needed to play that tron video game

as well as discs of tron i was all about that in my youth of tron yeah that was like the souped up tron video game well how are you these days i could talk about jeff bridges the whole hour i could because i marvel at his powers and his genius yeah he's amazing um i'm doing well i'm in a i'm in a pretty good space in my life right now um i'm enjoying listening to audiobooks that's my new jam yeah me too i've been listening to because i'm not all the time about reading but i uh but then i do feel like well i'm listening to a book and isn't that sort of like reading i mean isn't it i'm gonna say it's 100 reading even though my son says you're not reading i was like i just read a book he said did you read it or did you listen to it i said i

listened to it then you didn't read it and i was like you know this technicality here's what we'll do you read a book and i'll listen to it and then afterwards we'll take a test and see who retained more of the book because what is it yeah fuck that guy a story whether you hear it told to you or you read it on a page same diff

I'm sure that there's some like you know neurological studies about the difference but I just my attention span is so fucking shitty that i it's really hard for me to read dude me too it's really because of brain fog or was it happening before the brain fog it was for me it was like it's just attention deficit it's just pretty heavy attention deficit and i do it. I can read books that are, and this is the thing about ADD, that if I didn't have ADD, I would smell a rat. Because it's like, if I'm really into it, I can focus on it.

That just sounds like, well, you're just a baby. You know, like you're not, you're just like a big full diaper baby. Like, oh, if you're not interested, you can't focus, boo-hoo. But it's true. Like, I can read, like, a book that's, like, all plot and all action and, you know, or about a topic that I'm really into. But if it's like a novel that's about, like, a family's struggles, you know, in, you know, 1950s, New England. Z, Z, Z. That's the sound of me sleeping.

Good night. I cannot stick to it. It just, I, I ended up like really feeling like it's like, it's a, I don't have a lot of trouble sleeping, but when I do, I read a boring book and then it's like, it puts me right the fuck out, you know? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I have that too, to a degree.

And I can tell pretty quickly if I'm reading a book that I just don't like, and I have to be honest with myself, it's not my ADHD. It's that this book does not agree with my, you know, sensibilities. It's just not my, not my cup of, but but even stuff that i like i have a hard time not wandering to another subject in my mind right and uh and even so that's why i started like listening to books instead of reading them because i found that i was able to focus more for longer stretches of time but then even when i'm listening to a great book, I'll have to go back and re-listen to like that same three-minute stretch like five, six, seven times in a row before I really listen the whole way through. Right, right.

And it's amazing how much ADHD. I'm just self-diagnosing, by the way. No one's told me I have this. Yeah. So I think what we need are drugs well i was taken i did take uh adderall for a while but did it help uh it did actually help but then again it causes you know it makes your blood pressure sky high and oh that sucks yeah yeah it's because it's like i was doing a like I was doing this kind of a remote comedy bit.

And the Adderall that I got, it would be generic. And so the bottle would just say amphetamine. Like it's like my name and my address and, you know, CBS and amphetamine. And I had to go through security once shooting a bit at like a Marine base. And it was like in my bag. It's just a bottle marked amphetamines you know uh but yeah i i ended up stopping doing it because it just it's and i you know and just because of blood pressure it's like yeah no that can't be doing that you know that yeah that's a deal breaker but i i imagine that there's like oh and you never want to eat cheeseburgers again or some kind of benefit to it that might balance that

no no no it doesn't affect the hunger so much no no no and probably you can't sleep very easily if you're rocking on adderall right well i never i never i only took it as directed and occasionally I took like whenever I have taken like too much, I don't like pills. Like if I've taken like doubled up on Adderall accidentally, cause like I took it and then ADD forgot that I took it and took it twice. It feels off. I felt awful. I felt like just nervous and shitty. And it's the same thing. Like whenever I've had surgery

and they've given me OxyContin, I've gotten that. They gave me that a couple of times. And that made me, I hated the feeling of that. And then it gave me nightmares. Speaking of OxyContin and great television shows

that you haven't seen dope sick okay dude is it good yes because fucking batman for original batman was so good in it oh really we're talking about michael keaton michael keaton crushes. He's such a good actor. I thought you meant Adam West. Oh, you're right. He is the original. Yeah, he sure is. But, you know, motion picture, big screen.

Yeah. He's so damn good. Everyone's so good in it. And it really gets to the heart of the insidious nature of OxyContin and the money that was made by the family, the Sacklers. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you tell my love's a-growing?

Why did you, what was it about show business that first grabbed you? You know what? Because you grew up out here. You grew up in yeah in la well this is getting this is getting dangerously close to the three questions that's the idea okay so here we go we're going into phase one right now we are we are we got the initial stuff over with i like to uh i like to um put the chapter headings when I see them coming up in neon lights. Chapter one, question number one.

Yes. Where did Jack Black come from? Yeah. What is Jack Black's origin story? My initial pull. Yes, the origin story, the pull to the industry. Well, my first memory of putting on a show was in the living room of our house in Hermosa Beach, California, just south of Los Angeles, just outside of Hollywood, but close enough. Beachy.

That you could feel the energy. Beachy, yes. Yeah. But you could feel the energy of Hollywood, the machine, the center of the entertainment universe right next door. And my parents were progressive aerospace engineers. They worked at TRW, and they were very smart, but they were also folk dancing, Middle Eastern folk dance enthusiasts. That's how they actually met. They met folk dancing and then I was like, I'm an aerospace engineer.

What? Oh my God. Me too. Something like that. Let's get married. They got married and it was a groovy time, you know, in the late 60s. And I was born in 69 and they moved to Hermosa Beach, California. And my earliest memory of putting on a show, we were in the living room. It was me, my mom and dad, and I wanted to recreate my birth. I think I must've been like three or four years old. Yeah. And I put a blanket over my mom and, uh, and I would come out of the blanket crying.

And then I wanted them to play their part and be like, Oh, baby, we love you. Oh, it was very strange, but I really got a kick out of of that recreation and then that evolved and i i started doing a show for them just for them they were the only audience members where i was born and then i grow up and i have like a life as an adult and then i die i did my whole life for them a one-man show right right and they just got such a kick out of it they thought i was so funny and i guess that was the beginning yeah how long was that i mean in yeah do you remember what your adult life was like in the one-man show Like what did you do in the one man show? It's very foggy. There's a lot there.

Yeah. I don't remember. I think that I graduated from school and then I think I was driving a car. I don't think I had like a job. Yeah. I don't remember getting married or anything in my, yeah. I wish that there was a tape of that very first Jack black performance, but it's really lost in the sands of time.

I could call my dad and ask if he remembers any of it, but for sure his fog is thicker than mine. Yeah, when I was a little kid, I avoided going to bed by doing Carol Burnett bits, recreating Carol Burnett bits for my grandma. Yeah. And she would become incapacitated with laughter. Oh, my God. And it was, like, that's just fucking power. Dude, there's no more a sense of confidence that you can get then when you're a kid doing it trying it out for those early times when you're trying to put on a show if you've got a family member

or someone who's just loving your shit yeah yeah i don't think it can be overstated how how much that can carry you through the rest of your life. Yeah. And it is like, it's, you know, you don't want to look at it as being like completely transactional, you know, like, Hey, if I do this, you're like, if I push this button, I get some candy. Yeah. But it is kind of like, it still does sort of have that aspect, no matter how long you do it or in what

in what venue it is still kind of like well if i go do this i get this good feeling and you know i like that good feeling and you know it's yeah it's pretty fun to make people happy you know it is it is i have said before it's it's the physical manifestation of happiness. Like, it's like, in terms of like the short, the short term goal of like, or the, you know, like the, the, you know, the very succinct goal of making people happy in life. Like you're making it, they're making the noise that happiness is, you know, like you're making to make that noise so it's like you know when you're very young when is the first time you feel that that pull to have a purpose to have something that you are good at so that you there is a meaning for you to exist right that's what

we're talking about these are big heavy things you know and when you first put on a show there's that hope like wait maybe this is why i maybe this is what I'm supposed to do. And if you have some success in that, just like in anything, if people like what you do, if you're a carpenter and you made some cool little fort, that sense of accomplishment or a job well done is one of the most powerful things that a young mind and young person can have and mine yeah it was definitely very from a very early age it was putting on a show was was a main thing i mean i had other stuff i like to do i like to draw and uh you know you still draw a lot yeah i still draw i got and i i got some love for that but

yeah there's something about getting getting those giggles and those chortles that was extra special did you ever bug your kids or bug bug your parents because you were you know in showbiz town like to be a child actor of any kind like i remember yeah i was jealous of other kids like there's one kid in particular who was in that movie, Real Life, by Albert Brooks. And I was like, oh, man, if I could have that. And my stepfather, many years later, when I was like 10 years old, said he could drive me around to auditions if I wanted. I was like, yes, I do want that. And then he took me around.

And so I did that circuit as a young child actor. I was, look, I have to confess, Andy, I was a child actor. Oh, no. Are you happy? Now you know. Now we know where the damage is from. Oh, I wish I could hug you. I loved it.

And I loved going on auditions. I really did. Even if I didn't get the part, if I got a laugh in the audition, I was just high all day. And I'd go on auditions for commercials, everything. There was no pickiness. It was like anything and everything. And I got a commercial.

That was my first professional paying job. And I got into the SAG union when I was, I think I was 12 years old. Wow. 1982. That would have been like the same year that Jeff Bridges was in Tron. What? Yeah. Wow.

That's how far back I go in the industry. The ascendancy meets. So, yeah. And I also went on auditions for plays. And I weirdly auditioned for a play called Inside Eddie Binstock. And it was playing, it was in a coffee shop in Hollywood, a crack-on-the-wall place called the Deja Vu Coffee House. Definitely not there anymore.

And it was directed by a young, fresh-out-of-UCLA Tim Robbins. What the? Who is the world-famous Tim Robbins from Escape from the Prison movie that everyone loves. Yeah, sure. The Rita Hayworth. Shaw Green Mile. And the Shaw Shack Reduction.

Yeah. And yeah, so anyway, he directed that, and I just looked up to him, and I was, you know, 12 or 13. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I did that for a while. And then, you know, I did theater in high school, did a lot of musical theater. So that was like the beginnings of Tenacious D, you know, the mixture of music and comedy and theater. And then I went to UCLA.

I was a theater major at UCLA. Not a good student. I didn't, my parents didn't, you know, bribe anyone. There was no, there was definitely, some strings were pulled because I did not deserve to be at UCLA, but I got into UCLA theater. because I did not deserve to be at UCLA,

but I got into UCLA theater. And I slept through all of the lectures and I was kind of going through the motions because my dad really wanted me to have a diploma. So I had to try. And then I basically bailed on college and I went off to do theater with the Actors Gang company who was started by Tim Robbins, who I had this connection to from 10 years earlier when I was 12 years old. And we went to the Edinburgh Theater Festival and that's where me and kyle first met to start tenacious d my rock band comedy band you met in edinburgh or you met at the actors gang we met in the actors

gang yeah and we were both in edinburgh together and um so yeah that that uh that's kind of what led to my first movie role was tim's first movie that he directed called bob roberts that's kind of what led to my first movie role was Tim's first movie that he directed called Bob Roberts. That's the first place I remember seeing you. Oh, you saw my first role? I did. And I remember, like, seeing you in that, you making an impression, and then seeing you in subsequent things and going,

oh, that's that creepy guy from Bob Roberts. Because you played like, I mean, you basically played like the precursor of all the fucking, you know, dead-eyed right-wing people on the internet now. Like, you know, young maniac, shaved head, Travis Bickle, you know, Republican guys. Yeah. Yeah. before there was MAGA Nation I predicted it with my performance

Bob Roberts do you think you caused it I think Bob Roberts could have been yeah that would be a cool one for Tim to do a sequel to Bob Roberts because it seems a lot of that has come true in a weird way the manipulation of the religious right into you know a sequel to Bob Roberts because it seems a lot of that has come true in a weird way. Yeah, yeah. The manipulation

of the religious right into, you know, crazy political power. Yeah. Well, I mean, do you have any regrets about skipping college?

Like, do you wish you had? Like, is it going to be hard for you to tell your kids you better go to college? Like, do you wish you had? Like, is it going to be hard for you to tell your kids, you better go to college? What would have happened in a sliding door universe where, you know, I do think sometimes what I could have, would have, should have done after high school when I graduated was not go straight into college. Yeah. after high school when I graduated was not go straight into college. Yeah. Take a year off, travel, experience life in a different way, and then maybe go to college and really dive in headfirst with what I want to study. But then I realized, no, it's just actually not for me. And it started even before college. In high school, I had a real tough time, even in grade school, I had a real tough time concentrating, you know, back to the ADHD.

narcolepsy in any kind of school environment. Whenever it felt like traditional education, I fell asleep and I fell asleep all the time. And one time, the teacher at high school, I was at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences. I think I was in 11th grade. The science teacher, chemistry, got so sick of me falling asleep in class, he told the whole class, everyone stay totally quiet. Now leave, because the class is over. Instead of everyone getting up and loudly leaving. Yeah, everyone left the classroom super quiet. So I was still sleeping on the desk. And then he told everyone coming in for the next class, everyone come in quiet, Jack's asleep and I want to surprise him. So everyone came in

and sat down and the class started. And at some point I like woke up and looked around and I was confused because I didn't, well, I'm not in class with any of these students. These are all seniors. What am I doing here? And then the laughter began. And they all laughed and pointed at this silly sleeping boy. Oh. And the professor was the most filled with laughter and glee, red-faced and pointing. And I deserved it, you know.

But also, maybe I didn't deserve it. Maybe there's a reason I was sleeping. Not just laziness, but some people take in information differently. Right. Some people shouldn't go to college. He never slept again. No, I mean, yeah, you it's it that's kind of shitty like and like pranking like to prank a kid and make a kid feel embarrassed in front of a bunch of people

i think they should teach you in teachers college don't ever do that don't ever humiliate a kid like that's just the you know it's just the worst you know yeah and and it happened to me a couple times and i and it's just like and i still think about it it still is like a fucking you know finger on a on a toothache you know it's just like ow yeah every time i think about it but you know you got to remember too they're high school teachers there's like yeah you know they're you see them like i see them with my kids having you know going through high school i see the teachers that kind of are you can tell they sort of get off on the fact that they're like pretty cool in relation to these children you know know? You know what I mean?

Like, I'm pretty suave and sophisticated compared to these 15-year-olds. Yeah. You know, so. But when it comes to, like, the lessons and the things that I took from school that I remember, I don't remember any of the actual nuts and bolts, but I do remember when my English teacher was like,

look, you're not doing well in this class. Here's what I want you to do so you can get a passing grade. You and Shannon, another actor student in my class, you guys go and learn this scene from Sam Shepard's, what was that play? True West. No, it was the one with the two lovers that had a tumultuous relationship. Fool for Love. Okay.

Do a scene from Fool for Love and bring it into class and perform it live. And if you do it well, I'll give you a passing grade in the class. And me and Shannon went and rehearsed at her house this scene. And we rehearsed the hell out of it. And then we came into class and we kicked so much ass. And I was so thrilled with the performance. And then he was like, stay here. I need you to do this performance for the next class that's coming in.

He loved it so much. He wanted all of his students to see it. And I just learned so much from that performance. What a great teacher. Yeah, it was great. And that's like a core memory for me. It was a great lesson in how I take in information and how I actually learn on the job so much more

than studying it in the book. And that guy, you know, this is a weird name droppy thing. I can't remember his name, but I do remember one thing about this teacher. There was a great English teacher. He was the youngest kid in the Partridge family. He was that actor. Oh, wow. He grew up and I could look at it i can picture his face but i can't you know but he grew up and became a great english teacher but wow um and there's a few things like that throughout my my schooling where i think about oh yeah but that's

where i really learned a lot. Brian Forster. That's the one. Brian Forster. Shout out to Brian. Great teacher. Great teacher. Yeah, and do you think that part of like, and I'm just curious because is there something about a teacher,

was there something appealing about it? The fact that this teacher took you out of the mainstream and tailored something particularly to you? Like, was that the beginning of what was special about it? Do you think? just gave me a chance to communicate a powerful emotion and what great writing can be and what it means to put on a show with great writing. It's like a, it's an essential part of the work. The Sam Shepard thing on the page is one thing, but when you have an actor who's really feeling emotions connected to it, it transforms it into a whole different experience and brings the piece to life

in a way that it has to be to experience it properly. You know, like you can read Shakespeare till the cows come home, but until you see a great performance of it, that's the thing, the final essential piece to communicate what's happening inside of it. Yeah. See, I'm not a big Shakespeare fan. Oh man. It's just, it's lost on me.

I read it. I've seen it. I've seen real big, great productions of it. And on me. I read it. I've seen it. I've seen real big, great productions of it, and I just don't get it. I guess you haven't seen Henry V. Yeah, that one will change your mind. All right. I'll be right back. With what's-his-name. He did a great job.

What's-his-name? Yeah, he did a great job. What's his name? Yeah, he's a British guy. Come on. Oh, one of those British guys. Sure. And he has that speech in there. Brian Forster. There's a famous speech in there.

My horse. St. Crespin's Day. Everyone, we're going into battle. And if you care about forsooth, I shall say St. Crespin's Day. Something like that. Something like that. Yeah, I get the gist.

I get the gist. Can't you tell my loves are growing? In the research that somebody else, I don't research this stuff myself. There was something about Anne Bancroft giving you great notes after a high school thing. That was a big one for me. Yeah. So Anne Bancroft's son and Mel Brooks's son together, uh, Maximilian Brooks. Who has been a guest on this podcast. Oh my God.

Yeah. Because now he's, you know, like, uh, he wrote all those zombie books. Did you read any of his zombie books? Yeah. Yeah. He's a brilliant writer. He's a brilliant writer. And now he's like, he's like, you know, goes around, um, you know goes around um you know like uh lecturing and and

consulting about like disaster but you know contingencies uh just i see him sometimes i'll see yeah yeah and he's consulted by yeah but he's consulted by by uh the military about possible scenarios because he's able to, you know, creatively imagine horrible, horrible things in science fiction future. Yeah. But also you'll see him sometimes on the real time with Bill Maher. And you got to be ready with knives out to go on that show because sometimes Bill will turn on you and you got to be ready with your shield. Right. He'll gut you in front of millions. And he has no fear because he can hold his own with anyone on any intellectual level.

And I'm very impressed with him. Right. And he also has the invincible quality of not giving one shit whether you like him or not. Nope. Yeah. He does not you like him or not. Nope. Yeah. Does not care at all about, well, you know,

like we were saying about how, how powerful it is when you got loving parents that actually really dig you and give you encouragement early on. I have no doubt that he got that from Anne Bancroft. Cause I got, I'm not her son, but I got a little, I met Bill Maher.

I was talking about Bill Maher. I thought you were talking about Bill Maher never mind I switched oh you switched okay all right because I was like I didn't mean that about I'm Max I think wants to be liked uh you know my impression is that it doesn't he is human and wants to be liked so okay yeah anyway gone with Max and his mom now Bill maher i would suggest has the opposite he he thrives on not being liked he gets a little charge out of he gets a little sexual charge out of it oh you don't like what i'm saying and you don't like me well fuck you and then people love him for it and there's a weird whistle because he's getting a little bit of wood. A little bit of hate wood.

But yeah. So Max Brooks had rad parents who were loving and supporting of him. But beyond that, I was in a play at my high school called The Miracle Worker. Famous play. Helen Keller. Can't see or hear or speak, and she is kind of brought into this world through communication that all the doctors said

was impossible by this miracle worker who was played in the movie by Anne Bancroft, brilliantly. And so we're doing a play of The Miracle Worker, and Anne comes down. She doesn't have to do this because Max is not in the play. She just comes down because she was in the movie and she said, hello, I heard you were doing this play. I wanted to come and say hi to the cast and tell you all a little bit about my experience in that movie. And it was just so sweet and wonderful and gave us a little insight as to how we would perform the show.

God dang it, I'm getting a phone call. I forgot to do the thing. Let me turn that off. And do not disturb. Was it Biden? It was Joe Biden, my best friend Biden. He can wait. So she comes to the show uh and is so sweet and she comes backstage and tells everybody what a great job we all did and she said you know you played the the

the role that uh everyone said was a thankless little roll, a nothing roll, and you really brought something to it. And I was like, oh, my God, thank you. And then I got home, and she had left a message on our answering machine at home. And she said, Jack, I didn't want to say this in front of everyone, but born to do it. You were born to do it. And it was so moving. And I listened to that answering machine message until it wore out the tape cassette. It was like 150 times and I made a tape of the tape. And it's just weird how sometimes a little word of encouragement can mean so much and take you to another level. Just that boost of self-confidence that I got from that was, I can't really overstate how much it meant to me.

Yeah. Isn't that weird? Yeah, I mean, that is, that's honestly, I bet that's probably why, that makes it okay to not go to college. You know, it's probably like one of those things where you've always got that in the back of your head you know because and also too when you want to be an actor college you know it's like i always feel like you learn so much more by doing than studying and especially in acting is especially in film and television you can do a million classes and but you learn more from like three days on an actual professional set acting and actually learn about what it all really is and

how to do it and and what's important about it um you learn so much more by just getting paid to do it uh and be a professional atmosphere with other professionals. It's a high wire act, and there's tons of adrenaline involved. Yeah. And there's no classroom that can really recreate that kind of environment. Yeah, I would go off and do a play with my friends outside of the school in front of real audiences. And, yeah, I grew leaps and bounds and got so much more out of that experience than any of the classes that I had, truth be told.

Throughout, you know, as you progressed in this work, how do you deal with self-doubt? Because it's almost like a necessary accompanying feeling to, like you said, it's a high wire act. And high wire acts involve falls. And there's always a fall that could be right around the corner. Not that high wire acts have corners. It's usually just one straight line. But you get the idea.

Yeah. Self-doubt, it's a demon that must be faced. And in fact, I get it before every performance, even if I'm feeling real confident about the material or about the song, if me and Kyle are going to go perform some music somewhere. It's a kind of a running joke that I have with Kyle Gass of Tenacious D. Before we go on stage anywhere, we look at each other with terror and we're like, is there some kind of a loophole?

Is there some way we can cancel the show and blame it on something? Blame it on the loophole? Yeah. And because no matter how much we love it, there's always that little bit of dread right before you go on stage. there's a fight or flight aspect to performance to live performance where you really want that attention and you want that love and you want to put on a good show and make everyone laugh and have a good time but it also is just a big crowd of people and they could judge you and they could conceivably turn on you and there's always that little tiny seed of fear that you're not going to be accepted you're not going to be liked uh or you know maybe you're even afraid that what if i'm

nervous when i go out there they'll sense my nervousness it's like they're a big wild animal if they sense your fear then they'll kill you yeah and sometimes it's irrational it's irrational. It's like, no, that's just, um, but, uh, I have to just remind myself no matter how bad, how, how bad I think it, how about like, cause you'll wake up someday and you'll get, uh,

this doesn't feel like a good day. It feels like a bad show day. It feels like today is the day that I go out and shit the bed. No matter how much you feel like it's gonna suck. You have to admit to yourself it's possible that it could go well yeah you know what it's actually possible that i'm gonna go out there and have a great time as hard to imagine as that is and then once if you can like convince yourself that it's possible not that it's definitely going to be good that's that's

off the table probably no yeah just possible yeah there's a small chance that this could turn out well and more often than not it does turn out well you know it's just a weird thing that you have to fucking talk yourself into isn't that weird that's why really to do this you have to love it so much that feeling of when it goes well that it's worth all of the anxiety and ulcers and nausea nightmares that go along with it because it ain't easy yeah well it's it's i mean it is really really fun and yeah it's not even i you know to me it's more well because i got you know you you're used to like a much more higher energy performance than the things that i've been doing for the last 11 years or so you know like going on the conan show is like oh go out there and crack wise you know it's like you know i mean i would have bits to act in that i would feel a little charged up about and hope that they went well but we did so many of

those shows that it kind of we did such a volume business that i was never too precious about any one of them you know so i got and i know it's very me too, it's also the place that it's at. If I'm comfortable with the place, I'm comfortable. If it's a new place and new people, then I'm like, oh, fuck. I think I might suck. I think that this is all been a trick on me, like making me believe I can do this. making me believe I can do this. But I, I do think that I forget what I, I forget what my point was.

Well, I have a point. I've been waiting for my turn to talk for a second here because I just want to say sorry that your bits are funny. And all of the, the, like the things that you guys have done over the years have has always consistently made me laugh but the thing that blows my mind about you is uh you're off the cuff

like cracking wise just in the flow improvisations or just like things that you'll notice and you'll say and i always go man man, what a mind. And I'm always blown away by your, the brilliance of your, uh, uh, just in the moment things that you say, and that can't really be planned for that just has to be you just actually relaxing in the moment and making observations. Yeah. Yeah. It's well, it's like, you know, it's well it's like you know it's it's um i just talked to i was on justin long's podcast and we talked a lot about it and it is it's a kind of not caring that's not the same as not caring you know it's like not giving a shit but it's not not giving a shit it's

it's giving yourself the freedom to just kind of be in there and a big thing for me always too was like to pursue my own fun within the moment like like to be myself and to have a good time the way that i wanted to regardless of all the stuff going on around me like i wanted to have fun and i wanted and I always felt like that was a good sort of MO in order to ensure that the audience would have a good time too and I mean it's like why one of my favorite like truly one of my favorite things was when we'd have animals on like just like for me that was like yeah I like doing comedy bits and stuff but I get to pet a baby tiger you know like that was like, yeah, I like doing comedy bits and stuff, but I get to pet a baby tiger, you know. That's the culmination of a lifetime's work is petting a baby tiger, you know.

Or, you know, or, oh, look at this giant tortoise, you know, like you can touch him and stuff. That's the shit that really mattered to me because I still just like, I am like I try and just I don't know if it's like I try. I just kind of like I like what I like and I follow what I think is fun. And and I think, too, oh, well, I was going to say was so I was going to say when you say you got to really like it and to put up with that anxiety. My anxiety isn't so much in that moment. My anxiety is in the larger scheme of how am I going to make a living in all of this? How am I going to sit here when the phone hasn't rung, you know? And I had, I mean,

had 11 years of steady work through the last stretch with Conan. So I'm back to that. And that's the part where it's like, yeah, I really do enjoy this because this is stressful. This is stressful. Not, you know, like where it's like, well, another day went by where I didn't earn any money, you know, and you're like, you get older, those, they, those matter, you know? And so it's, it's, but it's the same thing. It's like, I still, But it's the same thing.

It's like, I still love doing this enough that I'm willing to stick it out. I mean, at this point, what am I going to do? Get a realty license? I don't think so. You know, imagine having to sell realty at this point. There's always porn. I guess, yeah. Someone would pay to see us get it on a bbm big beautiful man um yeah well yeah bear stuff i you know that's it's always i remember once

andy daly and i went to disneyland once we took our daughters but when they were little and we just happened to go on gay day and and on gay day at Disneyland everybody was like all the gay people wear red and I think I had a red shirt on and I think his daughter had a red shirt on so people just were looking at like these two blonde men with their two blonde daughters and like tons tons of of moms coming i'm going are you putting sunscreen on them like you know like they just assumed us to be stupid gay dads that don't know how to but we went to there used to be this all you can eat barbecue chicken and ribs restaurant that was like uh you know based on i think song of the south like again that racist the race oh yeah you know and it was it's not there anymore i think

that but it was that right next to the the bears the country bear jamboree uh yeah and the petting zoo you know like and you know how there's like a little theater up in the woods, you know, kind of by Thunder Mountain Railway. Yeah. And the log jammer ride was all Song of the South. Exactly. Exactly. So it was right there and it was good food and they would just bring you like literal buckets of ribs and chicken. And I saw an entire like table of like 12 bare gay men, you know, big burly gay men.

And they were there at like 1115 a.m., you know, to just power down. And I was like, the efficiency of that, the efficiency of being a big gay dude who just is into big gay dudes. Like, yeah, let's go eat four buckets of ribs and like no judgments. We all both are like, oh, that's so fucking hot. The way you're putting away those ribs. Yeah.

You too, buddy. You know, I was like, oh man, that's, that's the life. That's the life.

Yeah. It's a little slice of heaven. Yeah. Yeah. Well now, um, with tenacious D you guys are so fucking great. Did you ever think, like, okay, it's just going to be the D for me?

You know, it's just, like, acting schmacting, you know? Like, was there ever a point where you're just like, maybe I should just really focus on being in a band? I've always felt like I needed to do more than just music and I needed to do more than just acting I really from the very beginning

like musical theater that was the great combo but no I've never felt like I want to just do one thing or the other no yeah yeah i've too squirrely uh yeah i'm a more of a jack of all trades master of none yeah but uh we definitely uh enjoy doing it but we we work in in bursts and we have a slow um process we'll write a we'll write a record and we'll tour that record for a couple years and then we have to take some time off to to uh

get that hunger again uh we we we need six years between records So that's just sort of been our process. If we had to put out a record like a normal band every two years, I don't think we'd still be doing it. Yeah. But we do have a plan for another record. And I'm excited for it. But yeah, there will be no D-Wine until it's D-Time. And I need to get other gigs going in between those six-year records

to feed the beast inside my soul. Yeah. Yeah, I need different things. But I know if I had focused all my powers and energies on tenacious d maybe we could have been maybe we could have been more successful right you could have like been like you too exactly we could have been pearl jam yeah they could have put your album on iphones whether you wanted it or not. That is success. You know? I don't think so.

Have you ever done any Broadway musical theater? Because you have such an amazing voice. Thank you. You're such a good singer. Why didn't somebody put you in Guys and Dolls or something? I just realized where I got COVID. Right when you said that. We took a family

vacation to New Jersey and New York, Broadway. And it was on that trip. At some point, I got COVID. I don't know if it was when I went to see The Music Man starring the great Hugh Jackman. Or if it was at the pizza place,

we went to John's Pizzeria right afterwards. Right. Delicious pizza, by the way. Yes. But filled with COVID. Yeah, COVID. It was somewhere in New York City. Someone sneezed at me.

I don't know where and when exactly, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. That was a fun-ass trip. But have I ever done Broadway? No, I've never done Broadway. I did Off-Broadway. I was in a little play based on Berthold Brecht's poetry that almost no one saw called Bert Sees the Light.

And I have dreams of going on old Broadway. And I was definitely jealous of Hugh Jackman while he was up there. I was thinking, that should be me as the music man. Where we got trouble? And I wanted to do music man. I'd always thought, man, music man should be my entree to Broadway. You would be fantastic. did your wife have to like keep holding your arm and keep you from brushing the stage yes i gotta get up there dimmer down

jack no stop it um and i did i did enjoy whenever i see great broadway musicals i think god that would be a fun fun life uh i saw an incredible production of Sweeney Todd. Yeah. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. That's probably my favorite musical theater production or piece that I think has ever been written. That dude was something special. What's his name again?

That dude that wrote that? I don't remember. Stephen Sondheim. Oh, yeah. Sondheim. Genius. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The demon lover of Fleet.

I don't know Sondheim that well. Well, that's the one. I'm going to say that's the one. If you're going to do one, do that one. It's the darkest and the juiciest. Right. And the harmonies are insane. The murderiest.

Yeah. And you know which other, another one I loved? I love the producers. Yeah. The producers. Yeah. I know,

I know it was a movie first. It's a, it's, it's kind of cheating because it's not really a musical that came. The real musicals you want to say came first. And then the movie was made about, you want to say, came first, and then the movie was made after the stage production. But weirdly, the producers should have been a Broadway musical first. They did the movie, but they should have made it a musical because it works as a musical in a way that the movie doesn't.

Because the movie is a movie about a musical. The musical is a musical about the musical about a musical and so it works it resonates stronger on that meta like thing within a thing yeah yeah and uh kind of blew my mind yes dude did i miss gene wilder of course and zero. Of course. No one can replace those guys. But it just kicked so much ass. And I was also just blown away by that Mel Brooks. Yeah. Because whenever I go, how much life do we really have left? When do you stop rocking?

Yeah. Can you rock in your 50s? Sure. Sure. I've seen people rock in there. Can you rock in your 60s? Yeah. Barely. Can you rock in your 60s yeah barely can you rock in your 70s nope it's over yeah might as well die at 69 yeah but then you see someone like mel brooks

having a fucking fifth act yeah and blowing doors down and then he's like 80 on broadway it was it's inspiring yeah absolutely Whenever you meet an old person that doesn't act like an old person because you're so used to... Especially in my own life, all the old people just... Most of them suck. They just...

They're complaining. It sucks. The thing to me is they close off. They get more scared. They don't get more open. When it's like, you know, like the thing to me is they close off, they get more scared. They don't get like more open when it's like, hey, man, you know, yeah, I get it. It's scary. The clock is ticking, but try and force yourself open to that. Like make it so that like the end, you're not like, no, I'm just, you know, like where you're in the ground before you should be in the ground.

You know what I mean? Like, but yeah but yeah no it's great i mean i got to work with robert altman and he was like that he i was like yeah like holy moly this guy what did you guys do together it was a movie called dr t and the women it's not that great a movie yeah but you got to hang with robert altman i did and then and he was super friendly and he like would have dinners in his house and And then I got invited to things in New York because he lived in New York a lot of the time and got to go see screenings and stuff and parties in his apartment and got to go like one of the I got to go to his funeral and it was a memorial service and one thing that was really cool about that and i wish that there was a transcript of it but garrison keeler was one of the eulogizers and he got up and he talked about robert altman's experience as a young man fine flying bomber planes in the pacific and they would take off from somewhere in the Pacific where it'd be 105

degrees, but they'd have to wear those, you know, like sheepskin, those shearling pilot coats, because they'd go up so high that it would be like, you know, zero degrees. They'd go from 110 to zero. And they flew these deadly missions. I don't remember where. Where, like, the survival rate was 45%. Whoa. And he flew, like, 20, 30 of these missions. Fuck. At, like, 20 years old. And so, you know, and made it through.

And, like, a bunch of people died. Crash landed a couple times. You know, like, barely made it. Robert Altman did that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And also never talked about it. Right. That's not something you know like barely made it robert altman did that yeah yeah yeah and also never talked about it right that's not something you know about him didn't yeah didn't toot his horn about it but what was real is that then he came back to kansas city and started making industrial films and started smoking weed in people's offices and not giving a fuck about anything because it's

like motherfucker you're gonna tell me like i can't make this movie the way i want to make it i look death in the face at the age of 20 repeatedly and you're gonna tell me like i can't say fuck or i can't like have nudity or i can't do this sex scene or i can't record multiple voices at once you know like and it just that was like that was really you know it was just really striking to me and made me feel like yeah that's that's a kind of he was he was a hero of mine before like you know artistically and then as i got to meet him i just was like this is you know and he had his family working for him like a bunch of people on his his kids and different family members worked for him on the set.

And they were all capable professionals, but he just like, he just, I was like, that's how to do it. Like the way he, that puts a whole other spin on mash, the movie that he directed that led to the TV series that ran for years.

And is it true? Tell me if this is a trivia thing that you're aware of, that his son wrote the lyrics to the theme song of mash i think he did i think one of them did yeah and they're not on the tv show you don't hear any lyrics on the tv show but i think he did or or was that or was it one of the caroling suicide is pain or was it one of the caroling or is that maybe that i'm easy well whatever yeah the thing is folks that um that story blows my mind and i have a connection to that story because my first movie uh bob roberts that i was telling you about tim roberts directed went to the can film festival

and uh i was not invited because i had such a small part but my dad lived in can at the time and i was like dad i'm coming to can to visit you and then really i was sneaking into the the premiere of bob roberts in can film festival and had the best time after the screening premiere in Cannes. Tim was like, come Jack, Jack, we're going to the top of the mountain. We're going to have a little after premiere party. And it's nighttime at the top of a mountain in Cannes at some rich guy's mansion. And I'm out on the veranda smoking a joint with robert altman tim robbins and gian carlo esposito who was also and it was a an incredible memory and a moment that i was just

like smoking a joint with legends yeah yeah every night after work because he was very important to him that everyone watched dailies so when you were done shooting and they were very very like humane hours you know like eight hour days nine hours yeah uh you'd all get together in this big screening room that one of his sons uh perfected screening rooms like the right angle and the right projector and the right distance. And we would watch it and there'd be snacks and he'd just be smoking joints, watching it, you know, or at we on weekends, he'd have parties at his house, big, you know, like big dinners for the cast and stuff. And he'd be watching, this was in Dallas.

He was in a rental house and he'd be watching this was in Dallas he was in a rental house and he'd be watching like six different football games at once and have money on all of them and like complicated like I parlayed the you know the Giants in with the Cowboys and if the Packers lose then the Jaguars have to win and like all these complicated bets just you know just pursued his own joy incredible life yeah and he was he was at can because he had directed the player yeah a brilliant movie about the hollywood industry that tim was also in tim is in yeah and uh yeah i always wanted to party with bob altman after that and we never i never got to be in any of his movies. But tragically, he did call me one day many years later and said, I think it was like actually 10 years later.

Or I don't know. He said, I want you to be in a movie. I want you to play this part. It's going to be an adaptation of a documentary that I really love called Hands on a Hard Body. I want to bring that to life in a movie. And I was like, I'm in. And Jack White was going to do all the music for it. And I was like, this is fucking rad.

And then he died. And I was so crushed. Not only that, I was not going to be in a fucking Robert Altman movie, but also that this super cool, awesome guy was gone off the planet. Yeah. But what a life. What a crazy life. You know what he reminds me of? And I never met the guy, but did you ever meet that improv um dell close

yes the genius dell close yeah i took classes with dell no shit yeah yeah did they have am i way off did they have any kind of similarities just in energy yes in energy yes but i mean um Yes. In energy, yes. But I mean, Dell was brilliant and a great teacher and really, you know, thought about improv and was completely devoted to it. But he was a complete mess. You know, he like he could barely, you know, like he couldn't he could barely hold together an apartment, Okay, so that's a total difference. Yeah, whereas Robert Altman ran movies. Right. And did that, not only just directed the movie, but was constant. All his movies, he had to go get the money first. He had to go talk to,

and I think the way that everything was done was that he'd go secure, because his movies did so much better overseas that he'd secure all this kind of foreign money and then get the movie started and then and then be still trying to get money while he's making the movie you know like just like get enough money to start you know to get the balloon off the air but then like to keep fuel in the burner but had to keep pushing you know that sounds like chaos to me it sounds like an enormous amount of stress

and anxiety but he was able to navigate it because like i say he didn't give a shit he didn't give a shit and he'll bet the parlay on five different football games and it sounds like chaos but no because he's a brilliant professor he's able to navigate through and also who cares if it all fucking explodes right it was and that's what i felt like del close was also even though his life was more shambles yeah he was like in the middle of a horrible chaos but he was able to like find some brilliance because he's this wizard professor at the end of the day yeah yeah i guess um maybe it's just because there are two old dudes with beards maybe that's the only reason i think of them well no they're both they're both kind of gurus they're both kind of visionaries they're

both you know very inspirational and inspired a lot of people beneath them so yeah i mean it is similar that's the thing with del close that i'm obsessed with, is that he's touched so many great performers, and yourself included, over the decades. I don't know that there's another teacher, certainly, of improvisation that has crossed paths with so many unbelievable, talented people. Not purely in improv comedy, no. talented. Yeah. Not in purely an improv comedy. No.

Um, no. Yeah. And I don't know that much about him. He never wrote a book. There's not a ton of footage of him. Uh, and,

and so he's just this weird, mysterious force of nature that you hear people talk about him, but he's just sort of a, a, a mysterious figure in my, in my. There's somebody made a documentary about him. he's just sort of a a mysterious figure in my yeah there's somebody made a documentary about him a guy uh a chicago guy i can't remember his name and um and his his business partner sharona helper and she wrote she wrote a book uh truth and comedy that was kind of based on all his stuff you know and and that was kind of like she but she's sort of like

you know she kind of literally picked him up out of the gutter and said you know here here's an apartment come teach classes and she kind of you know kept him alive to keep him teaching you know yeah so but anyhow that's none of this is about you sorry we're here for that's all right i went off track we've been talking a while here um how about the second question you ready for the second question hit me where are you going um i mean well no one knows where they're going no one knows where they're going first of all with the with question. But, you know, there's the, if I had to look into my crystal ball and tell you where I think I'm going or I'd like to be going, I'd like to watch my boys graduate from high school and follow them and watch where they go on life's journey. life's journey and uh and i'm definitely going to worry about them and and uh and uh and uh help them whenever they let me but i i uh i can't help but like but uh

but have anxiety about my boys in the in the, strange world ahead of them. Yeah. And I wish for them to have love and joy and a great adventure. And I know that when I was a kid, I didn't know what life had in store. And I ended up having an incredible, lucky, fun-filled and ups and downs. But it's a weird thing. When you have kids, you're like, there's a crapshoot element where you're like, you want all the great things for them, but you don't know how it's going to go, really. I remember for most of my life, I was like, I'm not having kids. It's too much stress. I remember my parents, when they got their divorce, it was just like,

why would you want to put yourself through all of that turmoil? And it's just easier not to have them. But then at a certain part of my life, I was like, I want to have that in my life i want to have a family and a and a a sense of shared love and and like a and uh and it pulled me into this world that now it's everything to me and yeah and i don't know uh when it's right to like say no let them go on their journey and don't try to control them too much because if you try to keep them safe too much uh then you're doing them a disservice but anyways in the future where am i going yeah you never know i mean like i have a 21 year old son and a 16 year old daughter so i'm like a few years, cause you're oldest is 16. Yeah. 16 and 14.

And well, first of all, I don't know if you've noticed this, but with the first one, and I even told my son this a few years ago, I was like, listen, everything that we did with you, we had no fucking clue. Cause you're the first, like we didn't, we don't know, you know, you're the first one that we had that was like 10. You're the first one that we had that was 12. You're the first one that we had was going to college. You're the first one that we had that was like 10 you're the first one that we had that was 12 you're the first one that we had was going to college you're the first one that drove a car you know i don't know you know like how much do i yell at you while we're driving the car and you're fucking up you know like how much do i be quiet and let you learn on your own you know and so the first one you don't know you know it's like i'm sure somebody else made this up but

i heard it first from kelly rippa like she said kids are like pancakes you know you know it's like i'm sure somebody else made this up but i heard it first from kelly rippa like she said kids are like pancakes you know you're gonna ruin the first one um but i it but i'm dealing with it now where i and i i've talked about it where you know you you want to make yourself to where your kid doesn't need you like that's your job it's like yes so that you're not like you're you're making an independent creature so you're you're trying to avoid their dependence on you as much as you can but there comes a time when it comes time to where like oh he's no he's leaving and you're like oh really is that really the deal now is that you're gonna just go off then you're just gonna go and not be my baby anymore and it's kind of like yeah

yeah that's what he's gonna do and and it's it's really hard and you gotta you know and then like and also you can't do much to ensure one way or the other, you know, they're gonna like, if he's going to make mistakes, he's going to make mistakes. If he's going to be like a wildly successful, he's going to do that. And if he's going to,

you know, fall on his face, he's going to fall on his face. And all you can do is like be like there to like i don't know make dinner for him afterwards you know and just you know let him watch your cable uh because there's not a lot you can do and you just have to your job i think at the or i'm should my job i feel like now now i gotta my life. Like the spaces that were filled with kid and taking care of kid and worrying about kid and, you know, raising kid. I got to fill that with something else.

I got to figure out something else to put in there. And that's my job. Rather than just go like, oh, this empty space because i mean you know there there's definitely i felt in my life from you know like from people adults that were from when i was a child that were like oh the empty space where are you going and it's like well i thought this was the deal i thought i was supposed to go out and and be on my own and it's like like, yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. And it, yeah, and it's not, it isn't fun, but, you know, at least you have a band.

You know, your kids go off and they go to college. You can just go fucking tour with your, you know. I like to say that when my boys leave the nest, my empty nest is just going to turn into a 24-7 gymnasium. And I'm going to get in the best physical condition of my life. Sure. I'm going to finally be able to focus. They're the thing that's getting in the way.

They're the ones holding me back. Yeah. I'm always eating those snacks that I'm making for them that they don't eat. That's why. That's why. I got all this shitty food in the house for them. That ice cream, that's for them. And yeah, there will be another Tenacious D.

I think that the Tenacious D thing, there's going to be a Tenacious D album every six years until I die. And that will happen whether or not there's an audience, even if it ends up just being for ourselves. Right, for the day room at the home. At the end of the day, we enjoy doing it. We enjoy putting on a show for whoever's there. You know, if it's, you know, maybe.

Do your boys care about show business at all? They do enjoy partaking in different uh movies and music that uh yeah i'm not really uh part of they're not into anything that i'm in anymore because that's just not cool no it isn't um but uh i love to watch the the things that they get obsessed with and i'm like oh i actually know a of things about some of those filmmakers. So it's fun to still be able to share. Hey, uh, I saw that guy puke, but, um, there's a, yeah. Also, I'm going to probably make one more movie.

Everything that I'm going to do is just the last one at this point the future is just uh i'm gonna do one more thing uh in each category yeah and uh i look forward to retiring into the retirement home because my fantasy is i'm just gonna play video games all day because i never play as much video game i don't i don't hardly play video games at all anymore because i always feel like who has time i gotta get all these things done i do look forward to the time when no i don't have to get anything yeah yeah i'm in the home, and I'm just playing Red Dead Redemption Part 7. Maybe that's not going to happen, but that's my fantasy. And I bet you there's going to be a lot more video games in the coming years

as we come with the generation, the video game generation. Right. You'll just plug right into your neck, and then you won't even have a controller. You'll just be laying like a puddle of sauce, you know, playing a video game in your mind. Well, you remember that movie that Robert De Niro and what was it? Kaley Cuoco. Forget it. No.

it no uh where they they had the uh the old folks home and they only responded to when you played music that they enjoyed in their 20s no and then okay forget it anyway that's what i'm thank you awakening matt matt just put that in the chat that's gonna be what it's like for me that I just, I'm totally catatonic until, you know, like. They put on Dio. You put on Dio and a screen with asteroids, the video game. And I'm going to be like. I'll be reactivated. Let me at it. Yeah.

The future. Who the hell knows about the future? I know. I know. Well, what about, about what have you learned that's the third question i just slid this is the hardest one what have i learned yeah um and i was thinking about it last night it doesn't have to be profound i mean paget bruce or one of hers was uh you can sharpen scissors by cutting tinfoil, which I was like, that's pretty good. I didn't know that. I tried it.

I tried it. That's a great thing. Yeah. That's a great thing. I learned the mantra before going on stage or going out in front of an audience. This is going to sound like bad advice. Always remember to pretend to have a good time. And then oftentimes that'll lead to good stuff when you're out there.

It doesn't have to be, you don't have to be having a good time, but if you can pretend to like be enjoying yourself, sometimes it'll lead to actually enjoying yourself. That helps me to stay out of the vortex of terror yeah that's a pretty good one too and i mean it's a kind of a you know it's kind of a norman vincent peele positive attitude but it's you know it is true it's i remember you know i went i um i was directing a television commercial for illinois lottery and they had and that i was into but they had a guy from the blackhawks uh a hockey player off to the side reading some copy for some b-roll kind of stuff for the lottery and they said oh

they pulled me over because i was doing something else and they're like he's reading this copy it was like an agency guy and goes like he's really it's just not very lightful it doesn't have a life to it and i went and i listened to him read it once and i said smile while you say it and and he was because it was just going to be voiceover like at the end of the commercials and they were just doing it off on the side of the studio and which is like something that you know i'd learned in doing voiceovers but when you smile it makes you sound a lot more upbeat and he did it and and it sounded great you know and like it just like you put a big fake grin on your face when you're reading something that just makes it sound better you know it just makes it sound more upbeat. And that's kind of like in a microcosm, like, let's make it till you fake it.

That's like, you know, that's like, just put a smile while you say it. And just, and I mean, granted, I don't mean be a Pollyanna and let bad things happen. But I mean, you know, but like just kind of in your regular life, if you're feeling like it's a little flat, you know, smile while you say it. And then it also isn't like the gross kind of like, come on, honey, put on a smile for me. You know, I don't like that. You know, it just means like, yeah, you can kind of fake it till you make it. You can kind of force a good feeling, you know like like out of just will and maybe you don't but it's better than just succumbing to the darkness you know a hundred

percent yeah and you only have to fake it for a second and then all of a sudden it turns into real joy frequently yeah yeah yeah well you give a lot of joy. I love you so much. I mean, I've feelings, mute, just so much stuff that I see. Like when you, the stuff that you put on Instagram, I mean, Instagram is Instagram. It's like, it's infuriating me to me. Most of the time.

I just like sort of rage scroll Instagram most of the time, but like you do so much fun stuff that is just pure fucking joy and it's really such a service and i'm so grateful for your presence in the universe and especially for your presence here man it's really great oh my god i mean uh it was a no-brainer when i got the call to be on your show i was like this is happening as soon as i get a window i'm going in thank you because uh yeah from the beginning i've always loved always loved your work and then always loved hanging with you over the years we've had lots of times where we've crossed paths yeah and uh it was awesome to share this this day this uh this podcast with you. And feel free, dude, seriously,

feel free, cut out all the parts where I was boringly rambling too long. No, no. Trim it. We're going to cut out the interesting stuff. Just fully lipo out all... It'll be me asking questions

and you're going, uh... Do it. Whatever you feel is right. It'll be me asking questions and you're going, uh, da, da. Do it. Whatever you feel is right. All right. Well, thank you, Jack. And thank all of you out there for listening. I'll be back next week with another person.

Not as good as Jack Black, though. You say that to all the podcasters. You say that to all the podcasters. I've got a big, big love for you.