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Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair

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Expert early and add free right

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now. Join Wondry Plus in the

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Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts,

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or you can listen for free

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wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome,

0:14

welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert.

0:16

I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined

0:18

by Monica Padman and Aaron

0:20

Michael Weakley. Hello. Today, our

0:22

guest, Alliteration Monica. We love Alliteration.

0:24

favorite. I do. Anthony

0:26

Anderson with a cute

0:28

nickname. Ant. He

0:30

kind of goes by ant. Emmy

0:33

nominated actor. was watching his

0:35

law and order years on the

0:37

plane ride here. Oh my

0:39

gosh! Ding ding ding! Of course,

0:41

Blackish, Kangaroo Jack, Romeo Must

0:43

Die, Barbershop, Scary Movie 3. He

0:45

has a new movie on

0:48

Prime Video right now with Viola

0:50

Davis called G20. I

0:52

love her. Yes. Incredible

0:55

kiss and Homelander. Yeah,

0:58

Tony Stark. Please enjoy

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2:32

motherfucking you didn't do push -ups

2:35

before the charity event. Yeah, I

2:37

try not to be swole

2:39

at charity events. It's not a

2:41

good look. Hey, what's up

2:43

son? Loosen up your rotator cuff. Nathan

2:45

and I are in the Guinness Book of

2:47

World Records. I'm in there twice. Twice?

2:49

And you're in there with me just one

2:51

time son? And

2:55

now recently you've been

2:57

removed. I'm sorry. I

2:59

gotta go. I'll let you later, man.

3:01

Oh, wow. Wait, what are your goodest

3:03

place as any to start. What world records

3:05

do you hold? I hit a golf

3:07

ball the furthest with the longest usable golf

3:09

club in the world. 36 feet and

3:11

one inch was length of the club. OK,

3:13

just put that in perspective, Monica. You

3:16

know the gray trailer sitting over there. Yeah.

3:18

That's 26 foot. So 10 feet longer

3:20

than that trailer was the club he was

3:22

using. What? Yes. Did you have to

3:24

have something in the middle for a pivot?

3:26

No, was on a podium. Okay. Because

3:28

you can't Oh! The podium wasn't much higher than

3:30

this table, so I had to stand up on

3:32

that. I had to roll to end. You can't

3:34

fucking... 30 fucking six feet long! You can't end

3:36

none of this shit! No, no, no, no, no.

3:39

They had to be in control shit and smack

3:41

the ball. I forget what the record was for

3:43

distance, but I out drove it. Not that it

3:45

drove far. It was a couple hundred feet. That's

3:47

pretty good. I was expecting like... 40 feet. Oh,

3:49

no, no, no, much longer. Couple hundred feet. No,

3:51

no. Yeah, be careful because people could check this.

3:53

Yeah, it's in the book. So maybe not a

3:55

couple hundred feet, but it was far. Okay. How

3:58

did you find yourself in this position? Is

4:00

this something you completely orchestrated on your own? No,

4:02

I was invited to do it. So if you go

4:04

to Topgolf right now, they played a video on

4:06

Topgolf. It's been playing there for years because I did

4:08

it out of Topgolf in Vegas. Okay, great. I

4:10

forget who invited me or how I got involved with

4:12

it, but they asked me to come down. And

4:15

do it, and I was like, yeah, so

4:17

I got a couple of strikes swinging and

4:19

whacked a motherfucker. And then when I hit

4:21

it and broke the record, they had a

4:23

fucking marching band come out. Oh, you're kidding?

4:25

That I had no idea was happening. It

4:27

was like, he broke the record in his

4:29

whole marching band, like. 50 or 60

4:32

people with instruments. Wow. Now my question

4:34

is... I have so many. Me

4:36

too. Are people sitting around thinking like,

4:38

okay, how about this? Here's a

4:40

world record. 36 foot golf club. Who's

4:42

imagining this? Maybe they're going through the book

4:44

and saying, I could do this. After that, I

4:46

felt compelled to make a show. Once the marching

4:48

band came out. After the record. After I

4:50

did it and they did all this shit. And

4:52

then my son, as you heard on the

4:55

call, Nathan was in the Guinness Book of World

4:57

Records. for putting on the most t -shirts in

4:59

30 seconds. They had Guinness Book. come up

5:01

to a school, and I don't know what the

5:03

record was, but my son beat it. How

5:05

many did he put on? What if it was

5:07

like three? 27, 30. It was almost one

5:09

a second. Wow. And I gotta imagine once you're

5:11

wearing 30 t -shirts, it's gotta be getting up

5:13

around his face. Yeah. The t -shirts would have

5:15

to be getting progressively larger. you start large. Maybe they

5:17

stay in the same size, and that's part of the

5:19

thing, because it's getting bigger, but the shirt is still

5:21

staying the size. That's an added layer. But you're getting

5:23

bigger, yeah. And then is there a regulation,

5:26

like it has to be Haynes? Because what

5:28

if you get the thinnest material? Stretchy is.

5:30

Yeah, that I don't know. But the thing

5:32

with Nathan's record, is it wasn't

5:34

published. I'm not all Guinness Book World

5:36

Records are published in the book. You get a certificate

5:38

and it says, say you broke this record, this is

5:40

your record. So that's what he has. One

5:42

of my records is published in the book. The

5:44

golf swing club is published in the Guinness Book of

5:46

World Records. Were they doing that in Compton? When

5:48

you were a kid, were you just studying that? they

5:50

playing golf in Compton? No, no, no, no. You

5:52

saw a black dude with a golf club in Compton.

5:54

You were the other way. Sure, sure,

5:57

sure. No. Were you studying the

5:59

Guinness Book of World Record? Because in elementary school, I

6:01

was obsessed it. Oh, no, that was one of the books.

6:03

As a kid, you just went through it. It's like, one

6:05

day I'm going to do this. How can I do this?

6:07

Tallest guy. I want to see the tallest guy. Like, you

6:09

and I probably have the same image of the heaviest twins.

6:11

And they were on those little Honda Moped

6:13

together in their photo. You could barely see

6:16

the Moped. You could see it. It was

6:18

all in between hands. wasn't why there was

6:20

a Moped. I remember that. It's

6:22

such a memorable photo. And then the

6:24

fingernails, you look up the fingernails. So

6:26

that. What's the second one? We got to

6:29

know. Me and Darius Rucker, I was

6:31

shooting a show and we

6:33

were doing something and we were

6:35

attempting two other records. We're

6:37

trying to break a record of building this sandwich.

6:40

We didn't get that one. And

6:42

the other one

6:45

was most hugs. So

6:48

we broke the record for most hugs in a

6:50

minute. It was just some simple stuff. You just

6:52

had to tap your hand, embrace and release. Yeah.

6:55

And Darius and I had that record. looked crazy.

6:57

It did. And we did that in the park. We

7:00

attempted three, but we got the record

7:02

for most hugs in a minute. That

7:04

one isn't published in the book. Okay.

7:06

Probably homophobia. They want to keep that

7:08

out. Yeah, you're right. They're historically very

7:10

homophobic. We should have been in the

7:12

record anyway for just most hugs completed

7:14

by two black men. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:18

You know, take your pick on which one is which. I

7:21

love this. You guys, you can see it

7:23

straight into the interview. I thought we were just

7:25

having a conversation about myself. now we're always

7:27

recording. Who is just like, wow, I love it.

7:29

ABR. Yeah. Always be recording. You and I

7:31

have to occasionally, I'm sure, approve BIOS, right? Like,

7:33

you're gonna go somewhere and then they send

7:35

you a thing. Here's what we're gonna read before

7:37

you come out. Yeah. The next time you're

7:40

on Kimmel, what they should say is World Record

7:42

Holder, Anthony Anderson, when you come out. Because

7:44

that's so much more impressive than actor, producer, or

7:46

any of that. I think I should do that.

7:48

And then just let people imagine what it

7:50

is. Not even get into it, just

7:52

be Guinness Book World Record Holder. Yes, and when

7:54

I describe you to people, you know my

7:56

friend, Ann, World Record Holder, he also acts. Two

7:58

-time World Record

8:00

Holder. Shit, by now he might have three or four. This

8:03

guy's picking them up. I started to tell you, I

8:05

was trying to develop a show, what I wanted to do.

8:07

was take my son, since we're

8:09

both Guinness Book, we're record holders.

8:11

Competitors. And try to break as

8:13

many records as we can as

8:15

Father's son. I wanted to enter

8:17

the book that way. But there's

8:19

some guys in there, and one

8:21

father's son, they pull fucking fire

8:23

trucks. Me and my son

8:26

can't do that. You're not gonna get that

8:28

record. Are those guys Scandinavian? Are they

8:30

like from something? think they're Scandinavian, yeah. But

8:32

this father's son, they're in the book

8:34

for multiple records. like Magnus von Magnus and

8:36

Frimben von Magnus. and so I was like,

8:38

I wanna do that. Okay, so you and I

8:40

were recently together, which was really fun. I mean,

8:42

don't say it like that. No, I'm gonna leave

8:44

it just like that, just like the world record.

8:46

Okay. We were recently together. Yes. Moving on. Great

8:48

title. Now, we, among some other people, went to

8:50

Vegas because Kimmel was being honored. And we were

8:52

on an airplane together. We were shooting the shit.

8:54

Not just an airplane. We were on

8:56

a PJ. We were on a private jet. They need

8:59

to know we just weren't flying Southwest. That's a good

9:01

look for you. It's not a good look for me.

9:03

Why is it not a good look for you? I'll

9:05

tell you, and I say this all the time in

9:07

here, when black people are showing wealth, I'm like, fuck

9:09

yeah. It was impossible for you to get it. If

9:11

fucking let it, let it

9:13

rip. I don't mind it all. When

9:16

I see a white kid driving a

9:18

Lamborghini, I'm like, ah, come on. Yeah,

9:20

I mean, but it's a flex that we

9:22

could all use, man. It's not JetBlue. Or

9:24

the other ones. It was. It was a private

9:26

jet. But would you agree there's a difference? No

9:29

one's going to be rooting for me to be on a private

9:32

jet, nor should they. I root for you.

9:34

Because we know each other. And you know,

9:36

I'm from the fucking bowels of Hillbilly country,

9:38

Michigan. Yeah. Come on, baby. Yeah. OK,

9:40

so we're on this flight. And we're talking

9:42

about gambling. And I already know that you gamble.

9:44

Yeah. I'm fixing to gamble when we're there.

9:46

We had a little two hour break. And then

9:48

you're like, let's play together. And I don't

9:50

know if I was very forthcoming in the moment,

9:52

but I was starting to get really fearful. that

9:55

we were going to sit down and you

9:57

were going to be playing like 2000 a

9:59

hand and I was going to be playing like

10:01

25 right feeling emasculated and you go we should

10:03

play and I'm like yes you did jump

10:05

at the opportunity to do it but in my

10:07

mind I'm like oh I'm going to feel

10:09

like such a clown no playing next to you

10:12

thank god you decided to take a nap

10:14

yeah I did is what happened and you went

10:16

to the table went to the table and

10:18

Chris and I just gave it to him straight

10:20

in the heiny. $225 we wanted. $225, man.

10:22

Anytime you can leave Vegas with their money, that's

10:24

a win. That's a big win. But were

10:26

you right? Would it have been a

10:28

big massive leap of? No, you know what?

10:30

Would you have been like, not this table? We

10:32

were just there for fun. So it would have been

10:34

fun for us. So we would have been paying

10:36

in Gen Pop. We would have been paying at the

10:38

little $10, $25 table. I can't go

10:40

lower than $25. Right. I would sit

10:42

at the $25 table and we would have

10:45

had a great time. When you put in the

10:47

corner out there every time you bet, you

10:49

know, it's like. I gotta play this right. Yeah,

10:51

we would have had great time. OK, now

10:53

let's talk about the event itself. Yes, power of

10:55

love. Good memory. I've done it twice before.

10:57

Once was for Smokey Robinson. Oh, he was honored.

11:00

And honored Lionel Richie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, great

11:02

time. I have one really good Lionel Richie story.

11:04

What's that? It's not even really good. It's just,

11:06

I met him and it was so exciting. We

11:08

were flying back from Nashville. We had been promoting

11:10

a movie at Bon Rue, that music festival. And

11:12

then Lionel Richie was there performing. And so we

11:14

get on the airplane and we're like four rows

11:16

behind him. And I say to Chris, I'm like,

11:18

oh my God, Lionel Richie's over there. And we're

11:20

like peeping and everything. And then we get distracted

11:22

and then life carries on. And then all of

11:24

a sudden I look up and he's standing there.

11:26

And he goes, hi, I'm Lionel Richie. And I

11:28

go, oh my God, I know you're Lionel Richie. We

11:30

love you. We're chatting, chatting, chatting. And

11:32

I said, I know what your best song

11:34

is. And he said, what is that?

11:36

And I said, this is your life. And

11:38

he goes, I think that is my

11:40

best song. Was

11:43

he drunk? And then some hugs, and then he left,

11:46

and I'm like, this is so great. He does

11:48

not think that's his best song you've ever played

11:50

along with me. so nice. So he just happened

11:52

to be wandering down the aisle and stopped at

11:54

you in Kristen's face and said, hi, I'm Lionel,

11:56

not Lionel. Lionel, Richie.

11:59

Well, I think he probably saw us when we

12:01

got on, but we assumed he doesn't know

12:03

who we are. Yes, yes, yes. And then

12:05

I guess he just decided, fuck if I

12:07

know him. But that happened, and that was

12:09

very exciting. Are you friends with him? I

12:11

am Lionel School. So Lionel, if you're listening

12:13

to this podcast, which I know you're Probably

12:15

not, but by chance, if you are, I'm

12:17

still waiting on my dinner at your house.

12:19

I've gone through two girlfriends and a marriage

12:21

of 23 years, and I have yet to

12:24

be at the dinner at your home that

12:26

you've invited me and my wife and two

12:28

of my girlfriends to. Yeah, let's sort that

12:30

out. Yeah, I know. I

12:32

do imagine his house being a very

12:34

special situation. When you bought a house

12:36

in Bella in the 80s, that's its

12:38

own thing. Yes, when I play golf,

12:40

at LA Country Club. as a guest,

12:42

not as a member. You can see

12:44

Lionel's house from the fourth hole, fifth

12:46

hole, or something like that. So every

12:48

time I go to my house, I

12:51

hit a ball in the backyard. And

12:53

we go, motherfucker, I want my

12:55

dinner. But to see

12:57

his home, just see the backyard. It's

12:59

in layers. Oh, good for

13:01

him. It's in at least three different

13:03

layers, but I want to count four.

13:05

It's terrace. Yes, but not just the

13:07

width of this table. I'm talking about

13:09

park -like terraces, cascades down. I'm like,

13:11

God. Damn, Lionel! Good for him. This

13:13

is your life. And I hear that

13:15

he has... I don't know how true

13:17

this is. I started talking to him

13:19

about it one day, but we never

13:22

finished the conversation. He built a room

13:24

in his home to replicate the room

13:26

that he originally wrote. his music in.

13:28

Oh, wow. He was at Tuskegee and

13:30

all that, the early days of the

13:32

Commodores where he wrote the music and

13:34

old record players and records and shit

13:36

that was around him in that space

13:38

when he was being a creator. replica.

13:40

Yeah, I started talking to him about that. He

13:42

started to give the answer and then something happened and

13:44

we both got distracted. But, you know, I'm gonna

13:46

call him. Are we doing a real -time call? would

13:48

love it. on. Let's call Lionel Richie right now. Ask

13:50

him what is best song. Okay. If

13:53

he picks up, he never picks up. But

13:55

he always responds through text messages. So I

13:57

know, please pick up. We need you. Oh,

13:59

that's the third ring. He's not picking up.

14:02

Your call has been forwarded to voicemail. The

14:04

person you're trying to reach is not available.

14:06

When you have finished recording, you may hang

14:08

up. Hey, Lionel, it's Anthony

14:10

Anderson. I'm here with Dax Shepard and

14:12

Monica. I'm doing a podcast. And

14:14

I was hoping that you would pick up

14:16

the phone because we're here talking about you.

14:18

You met Dax on a plane with his

14:20

wife, Kristen, and you walked up and said,

14:22

hi, I'm Lionel Richie. Dax said that he

14:25

knows what your favorite song was, and it

14:27

was This Is Your Life. Is This Is

14:29

Your Life really your favorite song, or is

14:31

that what you just told him? And secondly,

14:33

I was telling him that word on the

14:35

street is that you have a replica room

14:37

of when you wrote your greatest hits when

14:39

you were younger at Tuskegee and all of

14:41

that. And I told him how. We were

14:43

starting this conversation and I asked that question

14:45

and then we got distracted so you never

14:47

answered it. So please call me back and

14:49

answer it. I promise to put you on

14:52

the air. And invite our friend and the

14:54

dinner. Yes, and the dinner

14:56

that you promised me and my ex -wife, me

14:58

and my ex -girlfriend, and me and

15:00

my ex -ex -girlfriend. That's three relationships

15:02

that I've gone through still waiting on

15:04

dinner, Lionel. Call me back, bye. Oh,

15:07

if he calls back in the middle of this. Oh, make

15:09

sure your ringer's on. I'm going to send him a text

15:12

that says, call me. I

15:14

tell him I've been in a bad accident.

15:16

He's going to think there's a huge emergency.

15:18

Call me, please. getting

15:21

pretty pleased in here. Oh,

15:23

no. And I'm scared. He's

15:26

going to drop everything. What is it? I've

15:29

just left surgery. Did

15:33

you watch that Greatest Night in Pop

15:35

Doc? It's the documentary about them coming together

15:37

to, was it We Are the World?

15:39

Oh, We Are the World. Yes, I've seen

15:42

that. Isn't that incredible? Yes. Because Lionel's

15:44

incredible. Everyone's incredible. Daryl Hall's

15:46

incredible. Yeah. And then Michael sings and

15:48

you're like, fuck, among all these

15:50

people, there's one person's actually like... %

15:52

better? Not to mention any names. If

15:54

you saw the doc, you really

15:57

know how horrible some of them sounded.

15:59

Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. How

16:01

about when Stevie had to do Bob

16:03

Dylan in his Bob Dylan voice so

16:05

Bob knew how to sing? That was

16:07

the crazy part, man. I thought it

16:09

was Bob singing. Yeah, no. Stevie Wonder

16:11

also, genius among geniuses. OK, so let's

16:13

talk about this. Stevie Wonder can see.

16:15

Oh, this is a big rumor. Can

16:18

see? Yeah, Stevie Wonder can see. Okay,

16:21

hold on, on. We need to know your proof. I need

16:23

to go deep into Stevie Wonder can see. Here's what I've

16:25

seen. I'm sure you've seen him. I've seen some videos. There

16:27

are a lot of people that believe he can't. And there's

16:29

a couple moments on stage where like a mic stand falls

16:31

and he it. Yes. Okay,

16:33

tell me why. I've known Stevie

16:36

for years. Okay. I've

16:38

hung out with Stevie, we've

16:41

party together, just some concerts. What if you said

16:43

play darts together? Yeah, no, no. This is a

16:45

little thing that we would always do every time

16:47

we saw each other. Stevie would be talking to

16:49

you next thing, you know, he'd grab you and

16:51

slit your throat. Like, how did he know where

16:53

my throat was? You know what I'm saying? So

16:55

we take his finger like he had a blade

16:57

and slit your throat and he's, I got you,

16:59

motherfucker. I was like, okay, that's cool. You're in

17:01

close proximity. You're talking to somebody. You get their

17:03

height. You've been around them all. That's cool. Your

17:05

ears are echo locating the distance of their mouth. I

17:08

get all that orientation. That's something. That's

17:10

on the up and up. So we are

17:12

at a jazz festival that I believe

17:14

Stevie is producing in Trinidad. So we get

17:16

there, let me back up just because,

17:19

hold on, me see if that's Lionel. Oh,

17:21

that's my mama. She can wait. Doris,

17:23

give us two. This is another flex. Stevie

17:25

says, hey, man, won't you come over

17:27

here and do this jazz festival I'm doing?

17:29

I'm like, OK, cool. Meet me at

17:31

the airport. So we get at the airport.

17:33

It's Stevie, Natalie Cole. Oh,

17:35

Jennifer. Whitney Houston. Oh, my

17:37

God. Johnny Gill, myself,

17:41

Gabrielle Union, Derek

17:43

Luke, couple of

17:45

other people. So we're taking off

17:47

and Stevie says, oh, don't forget, we got to

17:50

stop in Atlanta and pick up Chris. They

17:52

go, all right, so we stop in Atlanta, we pick

17:54

up Chris Tucker. What year is this? This is 15,

17:56

20 years ago. OK. And

17:58

so we land in Trinidad,

18:00

Tobago. This will date

18:03

it. When did the police

18:05

Get back together as a band for

18:07

that last tour after not being a

18:09

band for like 20 -some -odd years or

18:11

whatever whatever year that was Okay, I

18:13

think they've tried it a few times

18:15

and I think it never works This

18:17

was that last big tour that they

18:19

had and this was their first show

18:21

coming together was gonna be at this

18:24

jazz festival was at this jazz festival.

18:26

It was just a regular jazz festival

18:28

with all these other performers Patti LaBelle,

18:30

Natalie Cole, Johnny Hill, all these people

18:32

performed And then the night we all

18:34

went in the audience to watch the

18:36

police. Come on, the Stuart Copeland playing

18:38

drums. Yes, the police. But before that,

18:40

all these other people were performing. Johnny

18:42

Gill is on stage performing.

18:45

Chris Tucker and I get on stage

18:47

and we become his background dancers. And

18:49

the crowd is packed because they're here

18:51

to see that. on top of the

18:54

police. So you just imagine how big

18:56

this crowd was. Yeah, Dougie fresh grabs

18:58

the mic. He gets the crowd in

19:00

the frenzy and all this before somebody

19:02

else gets on stage. I end up

19:04

on stage right stage left is over

19:06

here. And it's a musical stage with

19:09

huge bands. So just imagine how large

19:11

the stage is and all the equipment

19:13

that's on stage. Yeah, I'm the furthest

19:15

away from stage left on stage right. And

19:18

Stevie Wonder, I see out

19:20

of the corner of my eye.

19:22

starts walking on stage because

19:24

Stevie Wonder wants to be a

19:26

part of what's going on

19:29

on stage. I was like, oh

19:31

shit, Stevie's about to get

19:33

down. This motherfucker walks from stage

19:35

left through instruments, through cords,

19:37

through cables, through foot pedals, through

19:39

everything, walks to me. Now,

19:42

150 feet. Looks me in my

19:44

eye and says, Anthony,

19:46

get me to a piano. Oh, I'm like,

19:48

what the fuck? Hold on, how could

19:50

he not find the piano? He

19:52

walked past the piano. Dougie

19:54

Fries is beatboxing. Chris Tucker is

19:56

dancing. Johnny Gil is singing.

19:58

There's a party going on stage

20:00

to fucking stagehands and grips.

20:02

Stevie walks through the maze of

20:05

everything and walks directly to

20:07

me and looks me dead in

20:09

my eyes, this close. Well,

20:11

he's wearing sunglasses now. It says,

20:13

yes, he is. Anthony,

20:15

get me to a piano. Oh my

20:17

god, this is a compelling. Steve,

20:21

you just walked past the fucking piano,

20:23

but okay. And I walk him to the

20:25

piano, that center stage that he walked

20:27

and didn't even touch, walked around. Okay,

20:29

Monica. Yeah, this is compelling.

20:31

This is tough. Let me

20:33

ask you this though, because then I have to go straight

20:35

to what would be the motive. Let's try

20:37

this case. He's been living a lie for so

20:39

long that he doesn't want to know. He's a

20:41

great magician where he can live the routine. Yeah.

20:43

Do you think his feelings would be hurt as

20:45

your friend? Knowing that you think he's able -sighted.

20:47

No! We talk about it and we laugh about

20:50

it all the time. Like, I'll send him text

20:52

messages and he's like, I know you saw my

20:54

text message, man. Call me back. It

20:57

could be a smell thing. I

20:59

hear you on that. You know? say

21:01

that. He's 100. So many smells. Dude,

21:04

people are dancing. It's Jamaica. You know how

21:06

much we was being smoked in Trinidad and

21:08

Tobago? Maybe that's part of it. It's like,

21:10

I know to get a rap. I mean,

21:12

we just don't know. Don't they say that

21:14

the other senses get so strong? Really? He

21:16

didn't want to ask Chris Tucker to take

21:18

him to the piano. He passed him first.

21:20

He couldn't ask Johnny Gil, because Johnny was

21:22

still singing. He might have geotagged you somehow.

21:24

He put a little something on you on

21:26

the airplane. He's like, you're going to be

21:28

my anchor. I'm going to find you. OK,

21:30

here's our really funny one. A friend of

21:32

ours worked at Houston's, our favorite restaurant. Stevie

21:34

Wonder comes in with like five, six friends.

21:37

And the two funny things about

21:39

it is all the tables are

21:41

obviously numbered for the servers, right?

21:43

Yeah. So one of the servers

21:45

says to the runner, hey, drop

21:48

this at Stevie Wonder's table. And

21:50

the runner says, what number? And

21:52

he said, number Stevie Wonder.

21:54

Right, right. So just go

21:56

find him. And

21:59

then this could be an exaggeration.

22:01

The friends were holding up their

22:03

drinks and pointing another round, but

22:05

they would never say it out

22:07

loud. Oh! Stop! Did

22:09

you learn how they would get you

22:12

slushed at dinner? They were like, taking

22:14

up the cleaners. Yeah, another one of

22:16

these, but they were not saying anything.

22:18

So you wouldn't know. They

22:20

were drinking $400 worth. Yeah,

22:22

no. What's the bill?

22:24

I got it. Don't worry about it. What's

22:26

the numbers, y 'all? It's not bad, Stevie.

22:29

But there have been sightings, you know,

22:31

Shaq tell stories, Eddie Murphy tell

22:34

stories, how they've seen Stevie Wonder driving

22:36

cars. And shit like that.

22:38

I've seen Stevie walk through landmines and

22:40

come to me. Wow. That is

22:42

wild. Look. As I tell the stories like,

22:44

yeah, Eddie and Shaq said he's seen him

22:46

drive cars. He'd be like, yeah, it's crazy.

22:48

I saw the man walk through landmines and

22:50

get to me. So I was like, anything's

22:53

possible. I wouldn't care if the whole thing

22:55

was a ruse. I wouldn't feel deceived. And

22:57

also, if you think about it, it's an

22:59

incredibly useful thing to say you have because

23:01

you never have to remember what anyone looks

23:03

like. There's just so much you would get

23:05

out of. The man that takes some commitment.

23:07

Oh my God. Dedication. Yes. Next

23:09

level. And then, Stevie, I love

23:12

you. If you're listening to this, because I know

23:14

you're not watching the podcast, but if you're listening to

23:16

the podcast. I think he is watching, maybe

23:18

is what you're saying. If Stevie could see, he

23:20

wouldn't have made some of those fashion choices that

23:22

he's made over the years. Okay, so that's the

23:24

other, that's the bit it. That

23:26

and he wouldn't have kept getting those braids with his

23:28

hair receding the way that it was. Stevie would have started

23:31

and be like, yo, what the fuck y 'all doing to

23:33

my line? Y 'all pushing my hairline back. I got cowlates

23:35

now. Okay. I

23:37

do want to go back to...

23:39

childhood. Oh, let's go were of

23:41

similar age and when I was

23:43

growing up all the music was

23:45

coming from there that I loved

23:47

the movies I loved at that

23:49

moment were coming from there and

23:52

you were living there so Couple

23:54

questions. What was it like growing up there?

23:56

And then also, I just trying to imagine

23:58

my hometown being the source of all these

24:00

great movies, all this great music, what that

24:02

felt like to be there. And was there

24:04

some disconnective? Oh, yeah, everyone's into this. It's

24:06

on TV, but it's not a party here.

24:08

Oh, it's a combination of all that. You

24:10

know, I'll start with the latter first. It's

24:12

not a party or celebrated the way that

24:14

people were. Digesting it or enjoying

24:16

it. But it was my reality. So the

24:18

shit that you saw and the things that

24:21

people were entertained by the music, the culture,

24:23

the movies that were in and about Compton,

24:25

it was also about these places around the

24:27

country as well. But it was centered here.

24:29

It was crazy, man. You know, I wasn't

24:31

affiliated with any gangs, but you're affiliated by

24:33

association. You're affiliated because it's the block that

24:35

you live in. I was gonna say your

24:37

neighborhood probably plays a big role in shit.

24:40

Yeah, they were like, I don't give a

24:42

fuck. You live on Holly, or you live

24:44

in Looters Park. You live in these places

24:46

that were what they were. I come from

24:48

a blood territory, a blood hood, and the

24:50

other hood surrounding areas were Crips. Whether or

24:52

not I was a part of the gang

24:54

culture, it didn't matter. To the other side,

24:56

that's where you live. So that's what you

24:59

were about. I had to walk through all

25:01

of that. I went to the High School

25:03

for the Performing Arts. Which was at Hollywood

25:05

High? No, no, no. That's Hollywood High. That's

25:07

why I graduated. That's why I did my

25:09

senior year. Oh, okay, okay. This is the

25:11

LA County. The LA County High School for

25:13

the Performing Arts. I was part of the

25:15

inaugural class in 1985. I'm actually

25:17

going back. to do their 40 -year reunion this year.

25:20

Oh, cool. Somebody reached out to me and asked me

25:22

to be a part of it, and I never wanted

25:24

to be a part of the school. Why? Because they

25:26

kicked me out for having weed. I get why you

25:28

did it, but you let the white boys with the

25:30

cocaine stay in the school. I know I'm getting off

25:32

our topic, and I'll get back to it. But I

25:34

had an issue with the administration. So

25:36

for the longest time, people that I knew

25:38

there were students there, I had friends who had

25:40

kids there. said, you should come back and

25:42

talk to the school. And I was like, no.

25:45

And then one day I woke up, and

25:47

I was like, but that's doing a disservice to

25:49

the students. who did nothing you. Yeah, who

25:51

did nothing to me and would love for somebody

25:53

like me to be there and be a

25:55

part of that. Absolutely. So years ago I decided,

25:57

okay, whenever they ask me again, I'm there.

25:59

So I had to be ready. for school by

26:01

5 .30 because I had to walk a mile

26:03

and a half to a bus stop. 5 .30

26:05

in the 80s, shit's poppin'. Oh yeah, especially

26:07

in the hoods where from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why?

26:09

Mornings were like extra... Well, because people have

26:11

been smoking crack all night long. They're still out.

26:13

They're still buying. All this shit, drive -bys. Nobody

26:15

schedules a drive -by 3 .30 in the afternoon.

26:17

It's like, yo, we gonna catch him when we

26:19

catch him. So... Walking through my hood was

26:21

fine. But then I had to walk through other

26:23

neighborhoods. You hear Tupac and them talk about

26:25

Long Beach and Rosecrans. You hear people rap about

26:27

that shit. That's my neighborhood. That's

26:29

the corner where I had to sit. and

26:31

wait for a bus at 5 .50 in the

26:33

morning. Right across the street are the Santana

26:35

Block Crips, diametrically opposed to the Lutus Park

26:38

Bloods and then the mop. I'm probably speaking

26:40

French to y 'all and all this other

26:42

shit, but those who know who are listening

26:44

understand. So I had to sit

26:46

on that bus stop at 5 .50 in

26:48

the morning, waiting for a 6 a .m.

26:50

bus. That takes me two hours to get

26:52

to school. And then I had to

26:54

reverse it at four o 'clock when I

26:56

got out of school and come home. So

26:58

really quick, what's the survival mechanism? Is

27:00

it ignoring? Is it acknowledged? Gene, is it

27:02

ignoring till you have to announce? You

27:04

don't ignore it. That's when you get caught.

27:06

You know, your head is always on

27:08

a swivel, especially moving alone in areas that

27:10

are hot spots. I'm always conscious of

27:13

where I am. That's just the era that

27:15

I come from and the neighborhoods that

27:17

I come from. So when you were seeing

27:19

it blow up in pop culture, to

27:21

be fully honest with you, my best friend,

27:23

Aaron, who I'm still best friends with,

27:25

We left Detroit right when we graduated high

27:27

school. We went on a road trip.

27:29

We lived in the car for like six

27:31

months. When we came to LA, our

27:33

very first stop was where South Central? Very

27:35

wide of you. Yeah. We want to

27:37

see all the action. And then

27:39

we got there and being from Detroit, the

27:41

projects in Detroit, you know you're looking at

27:43

them. Yeah. And we were like, these are

27:45

kind of nice houses. It was a little

27:47

confusing. I was going to ask you that.

27:49

all these like World War II bungalow developments.

27:52

It's very confusing if you're from the East

27:54

Coast to come out and see. And also

27:56

what's been presented in media and stuff like

27:58

that. Yeah. So if I were you, I

28:00

would be annoyed like, what the fuck are

28:02

these white boys doing? They're tourists. That's when

28:04

you get caught. So you never got caught

28:06

up in anything. No, but I was also

28:08

smoking crack in Detroit. I've never known that

28:10

about you. yeah, I'm an ex addict. And

28:12

I used to be in the gnarliest apartments.

28:14

smoke and crack in Detroit. We recognize that.

28:16

Yeah. I knew how to get by. And

28:18

so did Aaron. Okay. But all to say,

28:20

I'm trying to imagine what it is when

28:23

you're inside of it and people, they themselves

28:25

are enamored by it. Yeah. It's

28:28

like when. The baby falls

28:30

into the gorilla cage or somebody gets into

28:32

the cage. You want to see the motherfuckers

28:34

get ripped apart. Yeah, I should say when

28:36

the baby falls in because that's an accident.

28:38

But when motherfuckers get in and like want

28:40

to play with the lions and want to

28:42

play with the monkeys and you know better.

28:45

Yes, yes. There's a wire cage and a

28:47

brick fence. You climbed all of this. You

28:49

swam across the moat. to get this, you

28:51

deserve whatever you're about to get right now.

28:53

And the animal should not be punished. Yeah,

28:56

exactly, yeah. For what is about to happen to you.

28:58

Yes, yes. And it's fucked up that the animal

29:00

has to be killed, euthanized and maimed and whatever because

29:02

of what this asshole did. So sometimes when you

29:04

see shit like that, he was like, okay. This is

29:06

all news to me. You tell me you've been

29:08

an ex addict. I probably knew about that, but I

29:10

didn't know you smoked crack. Sure. You probably talked

29:12

about this shit because you said it so freely right

29:14

now. Without shame. We talk

29:16

about it every five minutes. Yeah, how old

29:19

were you when you started smoking crack?

29:21

And what was that about? How long was

29:23

the addiction to that? Well, crack, thank

29:25

God, was something I did semi -controlled. My

29:27

preference was to snort it. Snort crack? No,

29:29

no, snort code. Okay, I was like,

29:31

hold on, you're gonna snort crack? You just

29:33

didn't want to go to cocaine? And

29:35

I would often run out of that. I

29:37

can't get that at three in the

29:39

morning. So I go to ghost town in

29:41

Venice and buy crack and I'll smoke

29:43

crack. You weren't doing that while you were

29:45

in Detroit. No, no, then I go

29:47

back to Detroit for the summers and hang

29:49

with all my boys and we go

29:51

downtown. But you weren't a kid doing it.

29:53

I wasn't a child. I probably smoked

29:55

it for the first time when I was

29:57

21. All right, wow. This

30:00

is also while he's at UCLA. No!

30:04

Yeah, yeah. Like two things are happening

30:06

that make no sense. Yeah, yeah, I'm

30:08

at UCLA and in the groundlings. I'm

30:10

a comedian. Okay. Stay

30:14

tuned for more Armchair

30:16

Expert. If you

30:18

dare. At 24,

30:20

I lost my narrative, or rather it

30:22

was stolen from me. And

30:25

the Monica Lewinsky that my

30:27

friends and family knew was

30:29

usurped by false narratives, callous

30:31

jokes, and politics. I

30:33

would define reclaiming as to take

30:35

back what was yours. Something you

30:37

possess is lost or stolen. And

30:39

ultimately, you triumph in finding it

30:41

again. So I think listeners can

30:43

expect me to be chatting with

30:45

folks both recognizable and unrecognizable names

30:47

about the way that people have

30:50

navigated roads to triumph. My hope

30:52

is that people will finish an

30:54

episode of Reclaiming and feel like

30:56

they filled their tank up. They

30:58

connected with the people that I'm

31:00

talking to and leave with maybe

31:02

some nuggets that help them feel

31:04

a little more hopeful. Follow Reclaiming

31:06

with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery

31:08

app or wherever you get your

31:10

podcasts. You can listen to Reclaiming

31:12

early and ad -free right now by

31:14

joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app

31:16

or on Apple podcasts. What

31:19

if your mind could trick

31:21

your body into feeling sick?

31:23

or even worse. In

31:25

Hysterical, I investigate the bizarre medical

31:27

mystery that unfolds in a high

31:29

school in Upstate New York. It

31:31

starts with one girl developing strange,

31:33

violent symptoms, and then another,

31:36

then another. Rumors begin

31:38

to swirl. Is it something in

31:40

the water, inside the school, or is

31:42

it all in their heads? Hysterical

31:44

is my search for answers,

31:46

and along the way, I uncover

31:48

surprising connections to unexplained incidents around

31:50

the world. Events that challenge

31:52

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31:54

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31:56

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32:01

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of Wondery Plus in the Wondery

32:09

app or on Apple Podcasts. Neither

32:21

have I. It's heartbreaking, right? It is, man. And now

32:23

I'm getting so old, now it's starting to sound like

32:25

too much work for me. You look

32:27

at the successes that we've had, you know,

32:29

in our careers, and then you look at... some

32:31

of the talent that they have come there

32:33

in Hulse and you're like, did I upset somebody?

32:35

You're right, right, right, right. I've never questioned

32:37

my ability, because I know what I can do.

32:39

They called for my availability one time. Hold

32:41

on. It's not to say that they were offering

32:43

it me. No, I got the same thing.

32:45

And that's great. Yeah, they called for my availability,

32:47

but then they never called back once we

32:49

sent them the dates. I

32:51

was like, what the fuck? I was available.

32:53

I was in the middle of Black -ish.

32:55

I mean, we were shooting my show. We

32:58

had 24 episodes a year. We get the

33:00

call. Don't tell ABC, yo, we

33:02

shutting down for whatever. I'm about to go

33:04

do SNL. These motherfuckers never call back,

33:06

man. I'm gonna say this from the bottom

33:08

of my heart. You would be great.

33:10

Oh my God, you would be such a

33:12

great host. I'm very surprised. That's what

33:14

I've always said. Yeah, you really would be

33:16

a great, great host. While I was

33:18

doing my first stint on Law & Order,

33:20

so from 2008 to 2010, they came

33:22

to Jeremy's sister and I and wanted us

33:24

to shoot a bit with Zach Galvanakis,

33:26

because he was hosting. So we went and

33:29

did. a law and order bit type

33:31

thing. Oh, that's right. And it aired? Yeah, it aired.

33:33

I was cool with that, but I was like, yo,

33:35

you can call me to come be funny and do

33:37

this shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I get what that

33:39

was. You got to take it as a win. You're

33:41

back on the bus stop, 5 .30 in the morning. You're

33:43

like, oh boy, they're in a fight. They're about

33:45

to start shooting. Why is the 360 down Long

33:48

Beach Boulevard? And then up. Come on, express bus.

33:50

And then the white angel shows up and he

33:52

says, guess what? At some point, SNL's going to

33:54

call and ask for your availability. You're going to

33:56

go, oh my god. That's a

33:58

win. I won't run from these bullets. I

34:00

just hope they don't hit me. Okay,

34:03

so single mom or you had a stepdad?

34:05

I've never called him a stepdad. He's been

34:07

my dad since I was an infant. So

34:10

that's my daddy. Great. And you had a

34:12

good one. I did. He's from Little Rock

34:14

and he came to work in a steel

34:16

mill. Yeah. Little Rock,

34:18

Arkansas, youngest of 16.

34:20

16. Same mom, same dad,

34:22

grew up on a farm. An

34:24

Irish twin, my uncle Adel is

34:26

11 months older than my dad.

34:28

My uncle Adele came out to

34:30

California being an Irish twin. He

34:33

was tied to the hip. He came out to

34:35

be where his older brother was. That's

34:37

what brought my dad out to California, end up

34:39

working in the steel mill. Suley Steel.

34:41

Where's that in Watts? That's not still functional.

34:43

No, it's not still functioning. All the steel

34:45

went over to Japan years ago. It was

34:47

crazy. My dad, his company

34:49

sent him to Japan and my

34:51

dad was like six, four. 300 plus

34:53

pounds, but he was 300 solid.

34:55

So just imagine what the Japanese do

34:58

with a Jerry curl. Oh

35:00

my God, my dad has pictures of him

35:02

and all these Japanese women just surrounded him

35:04

and he's holding up his hand and his

35:06

lady's hand is like down here just to

35:08

see the size. And her basement's flooded. And

35:10

I know my daddy was over there fucking

35:13

his ass off. And so

35:15

he was there for a few weeks,

35:17

man. I'm surprised he came back. He had

35:19

come back to my mama's. Wow,

35:22

did he? He owned clothing

35:24

stores at some point. Again, my

35:26

father did everything my uncle

35:28

did. And my uncle started a

35:30

clothing store in Watts and

35:32

built it up to a few

35:34

throughout Los Angeles. I'll never

35:36

forget, growing up as a kid, my

35:38

uncle was doing well. And he

35:40

will walk around with a briefcase

35:42

and have $15 ,000 in it. 50

35:44

years ago, 40 years ago, for

35:47

a black dude to be doing that

35:49

successful in business. And this was just the

35:51

receipts from his stores from that week. And

35:54

he would come over to my dad's

35:56

house and he would talk and, you

35:58

know, just being, it would sit up

36:00

there and my dad would count the

36:02

money with him and wanted to do

36:05

what his older brother did. So my

36:07

father went downtown LA to the garment

36:09

district. bought a box of Braxton jeans.

36:11

I'll never forget, 36 pair of jeans

36:13

and a box. He went to a

36:15

swap meet on that Saturday. So

36:17

doubt. went back the next day,

36:20

or later on that day, took the

36:22

profits from his one box and bought

36:24

two boxes, sold out the

36:26

next day. So the next week, he took

36:28

that profit and bought more stuff. And

36:30

so that's how my father started at Swapmeets

36:32

and then on Corners. And then he

36:34

had this one particular corner in Watts and

36:36

LA that he would go to and

36:38

set up shop. you know, canopies and tents.

36:40

It was like an open storefront. Did

36:42

he make you work with him ever? Yeah,

36:44

and I didn't have a problem doing

36:47

it. Good chance to work on your people

36:49

skills. Yeah, popping my shit, my dad

36:51

popping his shit, making money, getting paid as

36:53

a teenager. Then from there... My father

36:55

started opening stores, and when he opened the

36:57

stores, it was for plus -sized women, because

36:59

my mama's a plus -sized, so he was

37:01

catering to the women he loved. So

37:03

it was plus -sized women in children's clothing,

37:05

and that's what he did, man. And what

37:07

did Doris do? Unless she wanted to

37:09

be an actor. She wanted to be an

37:11

actor. My mother was a telephone operator

37:14

for the county of Los Angeles. Yeah, I

37:16

read that, and I was like, this

37:18

feels so 80s to be a telephone operator.

37:20

Yeah, and she worked at a hospital,

37:22

Harbor General UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

37:24

And you had a little brother. Two

37:26

little brothers and a son. sister's the baby,

37:28

I'm the oldest. I lost my youngest

37:30

brother about 20 years ago now in a

37:32

car accident while he was at West

37:34

Texas A &M College playing football. Oh yeah,

37:36

cause they're probably huge like your dad. Yeah,

37:38

so we lost him and then a

37:40

year later lost my dad. So it's three

37:43

children now, me, my brother Derek and

37:45

my sister Doris. When my dad died, I

37:47

thought it was going well. Okay. But

37:49

in reflection, it really fucked me

37:51

up more than I really kind of

37:53

realized at the time. And I

37:56

have a few friends whose dads also

37:58

died too young. I don't

38:00

know, can bring out some wild stuff. I

38:02

processed it as best as I could

38:04

or as best as I knew how. And

38:06

I don't think I've really processed it

38:08

as an adult. Yeah. Yeah, what year? This

38:10

was almost 20 years ago, so I

38:12

was in my 30s. I was successful. Well,

38:14

good. He saw that. Yeah, I've been successful a while,

38:16

so he got a chance to see all of that

38:18

stuff. But you know what? I'm going to go to

38:20

my therapist. I'm to talk to my therapist about this.

38:22

You're giving me something to talk to him about, because

38:24

I don't really think I fully processed the death of

38:26

my father. Me either. It's still evolving. Mine was 2012,

38:28

so 13 years ago. My most consistent

38:31

dream is dreams about him. When he

38:33

died, it was a bit of a relief.

38:35

because I was caring for him and supporting

38:37

him and it was complicated. And

38:39

so at first it was just like, okay,

38:41

there's a lot off my plate now. And

38:43

then, oh, I miss him. And

38:45

then it just continues to unfold

38:47

this whole thing. And now I have

38:49

a completely different view of him

38:51

than I did when he died. I

38:54

recognize all these incredible things he

38:56

was in spite of some things I

38:58

was disappointed in. Yeah. Just all

39:00

these things. And yeah, now I'm like,

39:02

God, yeah, I'd really like to

39:04

go back now and hang with him

39:06

when he was viral and not

39:08

dying. Yeah, my dad, it's sad. how

39:10

it happened because a type 2

39:12

diabetic. I was the first person diagnosed

39:14

with type 2 diabetes in my

39:16

family. I started getting healthy and I

39:18

started partnering with Eli Lilly and

39:20

now Novo Nordisk, bringing awareness about diabetes

39:22

to the inner city, in particular

39:24

Black men. They over -indexed, right? Yeah,

39:26

very much so. Because I lost my

39:28

father to complications of diabetes. Really?

39:30

And what was fucked up, he had

39:33

diabetes for probably 20, 25 years, undiagnosed. Without

39:35

knowing, oof. That's rough, right? You're peeing

39:37

all the time, you're fatigued. Dad's just tired.

39:39

You know, this is a teenager growing

39:41

up and all this other shit. He's like,

39:43

why does dad have a bucket next

39:45

to the bed? Because you fucking just roll

39:47

over and piss in the bucket next

39:49

to the bed. He's peeing nonstop. Once I

39:51

was diagnosed as a diabetic, I was

39:53

like, oh, shit. This is what my father

39:55

had as I was growing up. I'm

39:57

looking at the symptoms I have and I'm

39:59

looking at the symptoms he had. it

40:01

had gotten to a point where I don't

40:03

know what it's called but we say

40:05

it's elephantitis where his lower extremities were all

40:07

fucking one size from the knee down

40:09

to the ankle into the foot and it

40:12

was swollen and was hard as this

40:14

table and then he developed leaking

40:16

ulcers on the back of both of

40:18

his calves. And it became

40:20

painful for him to walk. So I had

40:22

to get a McCain and a roller

40:24

walker. At this point, my father's in his

40:26

60s and he just let himself go.

40:28

So now he's really just a big man.

40:30

By the time he was diagnosed, diabetes

40:32

had wreaked havoc on his body. And I

40:34

took him to the best endocrinologist that

40:36

I could find. We tried to nurse him

40:38

back to health. And he was in

40:40

the hospital for a couple of months, had

40:42

a pulmonary embolism while he was in

40:44

the hospital, but they were able to catch

40:46

it and save him, then released him

40:48

to a rehab center, then they let him

40:50

go home. So we had a nurse

40:52

that would come to him daily. And

40:54

then one day I went to visit my dad

40:56

and my brother, his nickname was Tuga. That's my

40:58

brother that passed. And I was talking to my

41:00

dad. He was laying in his bed and I

41:02

was in his bedroom, just leaning up against his

41:04

dresser, speaking to him. And I was like, hey,

41:06

what's going on, pops? How you doing? He's on

41:08

my right. He said, I saw it to the

41:10

last night. I was like, really? He

41:12

said, yeah, he just sat on the edge of the bed

41:15

right there. I said, and what you guys do?

41:17

He said, we just talk. I was like,

41:19

oh, really? At that point, are you like, oh,

41:21

dad's kind of hallucinating? No, not hallucinating. It was

41:23

like, dad is about to go. Yeah, right, right,

41:25

right. I believe in ghosts and all that. So

41:27

when he was telling me my brother came to

41:29

visit him, I was like, oh, OK, it's time.

41:32

And not long after that, man, he

41:34

died on Valentine's Day. I was going

41:36

to work. I was filming. the

41:38

shield. And I got a call in

41:40

the middle of the night from his nurses

41:42

that we lost your dad. Oh man.

41:44

And uh... Yeah. That's why I'm so adamant

41:46

about going around the world and just

41:49

talking about diabetes and giving my testimonial and

41:51

just talking to men. I know I

41:53

got it from being a glutton and from

41:55

not eating the right shit and for

41:57

doing all this other shit that I did

41:59

throughout my life that contributed to it.

42:01

I'll say that much. I contributed to it.

42:03

Were you... adjusting or regulating the inside

42:05

with that, like I'm using drugs and booze.

42:07

Oh, no. It wasn't like a coping

42:10

mechanism for No, no. I just like good

42:12

shit, man. No, I just didn't like

42:14

it. Just it. Probably why I got motherfucking

42:16

gout in my big toe on my

42:18

right foot occasionally. Oh, that's raw man. Oh,

42:20

man. That's when my dad, at the

42:22

end, he had gout in addition to everything.

42:24

You know, it's crazy. I was living

42:26

in New Orleans for a while, shooting a

42:28

show there. That place will give you

42:31

gout. Yeah, I was like, I'm going to

42:33

be healthy. in

42:35

the place. I was eating nothing but seafood

42:37

and shellfish. I was like, oh, I'm just

42:39

eating seafood and shellfish. But all the purine

42:41

and the shit contributed to my buildup of

42:43

uric acid and I'll never forget I was

42:45

in the scene and I went to kick

42:48

a door in and I Kitted and I

42:50

say I think I broke my toe and

42:52

I finished the scene then we moved locations

42:54

We were filming in hotel in the middle

42:56

of the night and I was laying across

42:58

the bed and they said action and I

43:00

jumped up to run and chased the perp

43:02

and I put pressure on my right foot

43:04

and I collapsed And I was like oh,

43:07

yeah, I broke my toe. I went to

43:09

the doctor the next day limping

43:11

in and they were like, what's wrong, Mr. Anderson? I was like,

43:13

I kicked the door and I think I broke my toe. I

43:15

was looking at it like, I don't think you broke your toe.

43:17

I said, yeah, I don't think I broke my toe. like, you

43:19

might have the gout. I was like, nah, I ain't got the

43:21

gout. That's not for me. I was

43:23

like, Dr. Kotler, let's go on x -ray. They humored

43:25

me. And I was like, OK, Mr. Anderson, take me

43:27

to x -ray they should. Came back 30 minutes later and

43:29

said, we got good news and bad news. Which one

43:31

do you want first? I was like, the good news.

43:33

All right. You didn't break your toe. It

43:36

was the bad news. You got to gout.

43:38

I was like, you motherfucker. If

43:41

you look at it, it looks red

43:43

hot. And so if you put your hand

43:45

above it, you can feel the heat

43:47

coming off of it. Now, I think about

43:49

it. I was like, well, it is

43:51

uric acid. You associate acid with being hot.

43:53

That's just my little ghetto way of

43:55

thinking about things. But if you hover your

43:57

hand above wherever you may have the

43:59

gout, It's radiating heat up off of it,

44:01

and it's bright red, and it hurts

44:03

like hell. Okay, what I have gleaned from

44:05

the many interviews I've watched of you

44:07

now is, and I'm guessing, having

44:09

to leave Howard, was it heartbreaking? It

44:12

was. It was disappointing. So

44:14

you go to Howard after this magnet

44:16

school you're at, and you're there

44:18

for how many years? Three. I ran

44:20

out of money after my junior

44:22

year. And you're doing theater there. And

44:24

are you loving DC? Loving

44:26

DC is Chocolate City. It was

44:28

at the beginning of gentrification. And

44:30

as 17, 18 years old, I didn't

44:32

really understand or know what gentrification was,

44:34

even though I was at the beginning

44:36

of it in Washington, DC. The Washington

44:38

Wizards, their basketball team, used to be

44:40

called the Washington Bullets. But because it

44:42

was the murder capital of the world

44:44

at one particular time in the 80s.

44:46

And they had been the Washington Bullets

44:48

forever. Yeah, had nothing to do with

44:50

it. So they were like, maybe we

44:52

need to change the name of the

44:54

team. Let's rebrand optics. Washington murderers. Yeah.

44:57

So they changed the name from the

44:59

Washington Bullets to the Washington Wizards. Just

45:01

a little something for you. A little extra.

45:04

So you run out of money and you

45:06

come back to LA. Yeah. How long before

45:08

getting back to starting to get employed? Because

45:10

I feel like you and I have a

45:12

kind of a similar. I didn't start getting

45:14

hired as an actor until like 28. 25

45:16

for me. Oh, right. You do five years

45:18

on a Saturday morning teen show. I got

45:20

that when I was 25 years old. So

45:23

I left Howard at 20. Those five years

45:25

is long. I came home, especially with nothing.

45:27

My parents ended up getting separated a few

45:29

years after I came home. I moved in

45:31

with my mom, went to a couple of

45:33

community colleges just because I wanted to keep

45:35

my mind active. I was like, I'm going

45:37

back to Howard. I just want to sit

45:39

here and fuck off. So let me go

45:42

to some JCs. I went to El Camino

45:44

Community College, and I went to Compton College

45:46

for a semester each. And I was like,

45:48

yeah, I just want to keep my mind

45:50

active. And I want to pick up some

45:52

classes that's going to transfer so to make

45:54

my load a little easier. Yeah. When I

45:56

go back for my senior year, that should

45:58

never happen. Well, until 2020, when did you

46:01

go back? 2022 was when I went back.

46:03

And you graduate? Yeah. My son got accepted

46:05

to Howard University in 2018. When

46:07

I went to college, I would have been the

46:09

first person to graduate in my family from college.

46:11

So that's why was like, no, I got to

46:13

go back and fucking finish. Then I started having

46:15

kids. And then my younger cousins, 10, 15 years

46:17

younger than me, they started going to college and

46:19

graduating. I was like, fuck, I wanted to be

46:21

the first. Yeah. So my daughter went to the

46:23

University of San Diego, graduated magna

46:26

cum laude. I was like, oh, fuck,

46:28

now she's slapping me in the face

46:30

with this shit. And my son gets

46:32

accepted to Howard. His mother and I

46:34

met at Howard. In 1989. Yeah.

46:36

So you're a double legacy kid. You got to

46:38

go to Howard. And I was like, you know

46:40

what, son? You're inspiring me to go back to

46:42

school. I'm gonna walk with you in 2022. That

46:44

gives me four years to make up 15 credits.

46:47

So was like, I can do that shit. And

46:49

so he goes, real life gets in

46:51

his way. He's a young artist, actor,

46:53

musician, rapper, and he wants to pursue

46:55

his dream. And my son would always

46:57

tell me, he was like, you dropped

46:59

out of college and look at you.

47:01

I was like, first off, motherfucker. I

47:03

didn't drop out of college. There's a

47:05

difference. I had financial hardships. I

47:08

didn't just wake up one morning like you did.

47:10

He'd be like, fuck it, I'm dropping out. My dad

47:12

got me. No, motherfucker, your daddy ain't got you.

47:14

There are consequences that comes with these choices that you

47:16

were about to make. And I'm telling you right

47:18

now, You better fuck it up. Yeah. But

47:20

he left after his freshman year, but

47:23

I kept my promise to him. I

47:25

kept my promise to myself and I

47:27

walked in 2022. That's so cool. love

47:29

that. Taraji Henson was our

47:31

commencement speaker the year I received

47:33

my degree. Oh, my gosh. Taraji and

47:35

I were classmates in the College

47:37

of Fine Arts back when I was

47:39

in school. Wow. Denise

47:41

Saunders, who was the associate dean

47:43

of the College of Fine Arts,

47:46

was instrumental in helping me get

47:48

back into school. She and I

47:50

were classmates when I was at

47:52

Howard University. Wow. Felicia Rashad

47:54

is now the Dean of the

47:56

College of Fine Arts. And this is

47:58

her last year as Dean of

48:00

the College of Fine Arts. She and

48:02

I are friends and have done

48:04

things together. I received my degree from

48:07

her and the College of Fine

48:09

Arts is no longer called the College

48:11

of Fine Arts. That year, for

48:13

the first time, it's now called the

48:15

Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine

48:17

Arts. And Chadwick and I are contemporaries

48:19

and friends in this industry. All

48:21

of that happened the year that

48:24

I went back to get my degree. And

48:26

it was just a full circle moment. And

48:28

I took my best friend, who's my kid's

48:30

godfather, Skinny Boy, who I went to high

48:32

school with. We ended up at Howard together

48:34

at the same time as freshmen. So it

48:36

was a full circle moment. I went back

48:38

to get my degree with the guy I

48:40

started college with, with all of these people

48:42

that I started college with. That airplane ride

48:44

home, I'd be like, well, if it goes

48:46

down, like this is about as great as

48:48

it gets worldwide. This

48:51

is where it worked out. So many

48:53

wonderful things you're in. I really

48:55

am jealous of a lot. Why? What are you

48:57

jealous of? Well, departed the fact that in

48:59

your lifetime, you worked for a Scorsese. You can

49:02

just leave it right there. You don't have

49:04

to read anymore. It might be the greatest cast

49:06

of all time. I would say that directed

49:08

by the greatest director of all time. Yes. We've

49:10

both hosted Kimmel and you've done it a

49:12

lot. How many times have you done it? I

49:14

think I have the record for most appearances

49:17

on Jimmy Kimmel. If I haven't passed Adam Corolla

49:19

yet, I am a close second to him.

49:21

God, I feel like I got to be up

49:23

there too. Do you know how many you've

49:25

been? No, there's a lot. Like every summer when

49:27

Jimmy takes off, I host for a week.

49:29

But what was crazy, he used to have co

49:31

-hosts on his show with him back in the

49:33

day. That's right. So you would come on

49:35

and co -host with him. I was the last

49:37

co -host. Betty had, Mike Tyson was

49:39

before me. And then I

49:41

came on and then I would come sit

49:43

in for him. And then whenever he

49:46

needed a bit or something, he always would

49:48

call me and I call my mom.

49:50

So it would be me and my mom

49:52

on there. Yeah. Your mom at the

49:54

award show, that bit was so great. Yes.

49:56

It was so fantastic. Of

49:59

all these hosting duties, which is your favorite?

50:01

I mean, the game show rackets nice because

50:03

you're just cranking out episodes. Those are cool.

50:05

And I get to do it with my

50:07

mom. So that's cool. But I would probably

50:09

say Kimmel because I've always wanted my own

50:11

talk show. So I enjoy it from top

50:13

to bottom. It's like me directing when I

50:15

was directing on Black -ish. It was like,

50:17

OK, I don't know how to direct, but

50:19

my crew is not going to let me

50:21

fail my very first episode. Right. So, you

50:23

know, this is a safe place for me

50:25

to it. a great place. So. Kimmel is

50:27

home for me. He's a great talk show

50:30

host, but he's a fucking great friend. Oh

50:32

my god. a great guy. Yeah, he'll almost

50:34

shame you. He's right there. We gave him

50:36

a Best Boy Award. He's the best boy

50:38

on planet Earth. Best thing I would say

50:40

is Kimmel, and right after that, hosting the

50:42

Emmys. You loved it. Yeah. Do you know

50:44

that Ant refers to himself as the Luchi?

50:46

What's her name? Susan Luchi. Luchi. I'm like,

50:48

Susan Luchi. Yeah. Because he's been nominated 11

50:50

times. Wow. Monica and I were talking about

50:52

the other day, and I was like, I

50:54

don't know, man, if they had fucking nominated

50:56

me, mind you, I've never been nominated, but

50:58

if they nominated me five times, I might

51:00

go like, I'm not fucking comment anymore. Like

51:02

when I used to be nominated for an

51:04

NAACP Image Award, every year I go and

51:06

I think, ah, shit, this is the year.

51:08

And was like, ah. And then one year,

51:11

I was like, oh, this is it. Oh,

51:13

no, I showed my ass in this. This

51:15

was it. And I get there, I didn't

51:17

look at who the other nominees were. So

51:19

I was just like, who's nominated? I get there

51:21

and I look at my category and I was like Denzel

51:23

Washington. I had

51:25

to suit me for something. And

51:29

the winner is for best

51:31

lead actor in the movie,

51:33

Denzel Washington. One

51:36

last question and then I want to

51:38

talk about G20. How do you know Jordan?

51:40

And what's that hang like? Wait, what

51:43

Jordan? Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan. Oh, okay.

51:46

Oh, he does live next door to Michael

51:48

B. Jordan. He said there's three black people in

51:50

his neighborhood. Him, Michael B. Jordan, and Machine

51:52

Gun Kelly. You've

51:55

done your research. I tried to. You've done

51:57

your fucking research, man. That was funny. We kind

51:59

of love him. We had him on. He

52:01

was one of my favorite guys ever. Yeah, he's

52:03

a special dude. He's like a very sensitive

52:05

sweet dude. He's nothing like you think he would

52:07

be. Yeah, yeah. Hey, he called me up

52:09

one day. Thanksgiving, he's like, yo,

52:11

aunt. You got any aluminum foil? I

52:15

was like, I do. And

52:17

you're grown. You should have it too. I

52:20

was like, I'm in Qatar right now. But

52:23

yo, I can give you the code to my back

52:25

door. Yeah. Cool. So I was like, y 'all, I'll give

52:27

you the code to my back door, man. It's in the

52:29

drawer right next to you. He said, nah, that's all

52:31

right, man. I'll task -grab at it.

52:33

I owe him a sweet potato pie, by the way.

52:35

He always calls me about the sweet potato pie

52:37

because he knows I bake. He's a sweet boy. You

52:39

need to take him under your arm. I'm going

52:41

to do this birthday party. Oh, that was good. Oh,

52:43

that's good. But Jordan, we watched last day, as

52:45

everyone did, and just so fascinated.

52:47

The brand Jordan would ask me to come

52:49

do their corporate things for their athletes

52:51

that wear brand Jordan. Like he would do

52:53

a corporate retreat with just his elite

52:55

athletes who wear his stuff. Oh, so cool.

52:58

And I would. be there as the

53:00

host as a world record holder. Yeah. I

53:02

would just be there as a host

53:04

and having fun. And all we would do

53:06

is play golf and he would have

53:08

competitions. He was set us up in different

53:10

groups. They could be eight or nine

53:12

groups with 10 athletes per group. And it

53:14

was like, yo, I want you guys

53:16

to create a new shoe and tell us

53:18

what you think it is. And whatever

53:20

group wins, we'll get a pair of Jordan's.

53:22

from Jordan won all the way up

53:24

to whatever year we're at that at that

53:26

time. Every single pair. Every single pair

53:28

and whatever color scheme that you want. Oh

53:30

my god. See, I wore these just

53:32

for you. Yeah, you go. I got those

53:34

too. So my team fucking lost. But

53:36

at that time, it was like 30 pair

53:39

of Jays that you could get in

53:41

your colorway. That's 15 ,000 bucks or 30 ,000

53:43

bucks worth of shoes. Yeah, so. We've

53:45

become cool, but what really made us cool,

53:47

they opened the Cove Hotel in the

53:49

Bahamas at Atlantis. So this was 20 years

53:51

ago, 17 years ago, something like that.

53:53

So they had a big grand opening and

53:55

MJ is sitting there. We're in a

53:57

restaurant. Stevie Wonder's birthday. All the time celebrities

53:59

are there because it's a huge opening.

54:01

We're in Bobby Flay's restaurant. And so I

54:03

walk over to MJ and I was

54:05

like, oh, shit, there's MJ and I've never

54:07

met him before. I was like, I

54:09

got to talk to him. So I'm talking

54:11

to my ex -wife. I'm like, hey, babe,

54:13

I'm going to go talk to MJ.

54:15

So I'll go see MJ. And I say,

54:18

hey, MJ. Hey, man. Just want to

54:20

say it's a pleasure to meet you. And

54:22

I was like, I hear you're a

54:24

domino player. And I brought

54:26

your dominoes with me. I have

54:28

this red player of aluminum jump man

54:30

dominoes that I got. at NBA

54:32

All -Star in Vegas from a brand

54:34

Jordan party. And he looked at me,

54:36

he said, did I get you

54:38

those motherfuckers? I said, no, you didn't.

54:41

And he was like, how did you get him? I said,

54:43

well, I consider myself to be the MJ of Bones. But

54:46

that's beside the point.

54:49

I'd like to play with you. And

54:51

he turns to my ex -wife and

54:53

says, OK, look

54:55

here, man, I suggest you

54:57

go to the bank. and take out as

54:59

much money as you can. Because

55:01

once I whip his ass, he

55:04

won't have enough money to take care

55:06

of you and your children. You're

55:09

smart. You ensnared him in competition. Yeah. And

55:11

she's like, I'm not going to let him

55:13

play you for money. But this is what

55:15

he do. And he was like,

55:17

meet me at the cabana tomorrow at

55:19

noon. Oh, yeah. I was like, all

55:21

right. He's just crazy.

55:23

So I'm swimming in the

55:25

ocean with Patrick Ewing. Oh, sure.

55:28

This is wild. My ex

55:30

-wife comes running up to me, baby. Baby, I was

55:32

like, what? She said, MJ's at the cabana. And

55:34

I was like, yo, Pat, I got to go. So

55:36

I get out, dry off. I run upstairs.

55:39

I grab the dominoes. And before I leave, I

55:41

see a camera sitting on the table. And

55:43

I said, babe, grab the camera. Gotta take a

55:45

picture. So she grabbed the camera. And this

55:47

is my first time meeting MJ. And I'm hanging

55:49

with him. So we get to the cabana.

55:51

It's a moderate shot. MJ, and

55:53

then MJ brought somebody to play

55:55

dominoes with us, right? A ringer?

55:57

Yes. And so

55:59

we're there. Amaz not playing, Amaz just sitting

56:02

there with his legs crossed, just looking

56:04

as we're talking shit and having fun. And

56:06

I'm just timid. I'm not talking shit.

56:08

I'm just enamored with MJ, and he's... beating

56:10

me. I rarely lose in dominos and

56:12

he's beating me, but I don't give a

56:14

fuck that he's beating me. I'm like,

56:16

he's on the back of my dominoes like

56:18

this. You want to look at the

56:20

list of people who have lost to Michael

56:23

Jordan? a good list. What a moment.

56:25

Even better, a list of people who've beaten

56:27

Michael Jordan. So I'm playing with him

56:29

and he's talking shit. And

56:31

my wife looks at me and says, yo, you just

56:33

going to let him keep talking shit to you like that?

56:36

And I was like, shit. But

56:38

he says something that gets me

56:41

razzled, razzled. I was like, fuck this,

56:43

I'm gonna stop playing timid. I

56:45

get Domino. We're playing the

56:47

150. Jordan

56:49

has 125. His buddy

56:51

has 75. I have 45.

56:54

And I get the Domino and I look at him and

56:56

I was like, yo, MJ. I

56:59

said, this is gonna be the hardest 25 points you

57:01

ever had to score in your life. Just

57:03

know that. This

57:05

is so scary. Now I'm out of

57:07

my shell. Now I'm like, yo, fuck

57:09

this. I ain't gonna have this motherfucker

57:11

whoop my ass. I play domino. Now

57:13

I'm talking shit. I'm talking cash shit

57:16

to this motherfucker. And he's giving it

57:18

back. send your wife to get money

57:20

out of the bag. I'm

57:22

like, yo, baby, go get the

57:24

money. Go get the money. I'm

57:26

feeling it. Money's all. My mother's

57:28

laughing. Fucking MJ is talking shit.

57:30

And then we're sitting there. And

57:32

boom, I say some shit. And I

57:34

win. Right? He's

57:38

like, run it back. I was like,

57:40

okay, motherfucker, let's go. So now we're running

57:42

it back. Now I'm talking shit from

57:44

the beginning. Now I'm in my element and

57:46

I'm boom, boom, boom, talking shit about

57:48

him, his mama, his daddy, his kids, all

57:51

this shit. And then I'm

57:53

whipping his ass and I'm whipping

57:55

this motherfucker's ass. And then I was

57:57

like, yo, I wish me and

57:59

my wife could make babies right now

58:01

because we would go upstairs and

58:03

make a baby right now and we

58:05

would name him or her MJ.

58:07

Just so when he or she got

58:09

older, she could say, daddy, why

58:11

did you name me MJ? And I

58:13

could relive this moment right now.

58:15

Bam! No, motherfucker! One

58:18

the game, his security comes out

58:20

of the cabana, a DJ on the

58:23

pool, the DJ scratches the record,

58:25

stops the music, the fucking

58:27

hotel security comes out, the people

58:29

that are swimming in it, because

58:31

it's the opening, it's the grand

58:33

opening of this huge fucking hotel

58:35

in the Bahamas. Everybody stops

58:37

and turns towards us. Don't

58:39

worry! I just whipped Michael Jordan's

58:42

ass in Domino's. He all

58:44

right, though. We good. Good, MJ?

58:46

He still got the shoes.

58:48

You good? wow. And

58:50

I try to have my lady take pictures

58:52

of it. The motherfucker will refuse us

58:54

to take pictures with me. Now, I have

58:56

to find these pictures because I have

58:58

pictures of this motherfucker just looking just like

59:00

this and me sitting there smiling. But

59:02

he refused to take pictures with me. And

59:05

then we're on this island for

59:07

the next three days for the celebration

59:09

of the opening of this hotel.

59:11

So there's dinners, there's parties, there's everything

59:13

that we're going to. There's golf.

59:16

We're taking group pictures. Every

59:18

group picture we take, he kicks

59:20

me out of. He's

59:22

so mad at you. If

59:24

there's any human that is

59:26

losing, I happily would leave.

59:28

The picture, just so I

59:30

could share the story as

59:32

to why MJ is asking

59:34

me to get out of

59:36

the photo. Yeah, it's wonderful.

59:39

It's the dream. I called radio

59:41

stations. I talked about

59:43

this on the news. I

59:45

talked about it on talk shows.

59:47

I didn't last dance on the story.

59:50

I talked about all this other

59:52

shit because nobody can really. Only

59:54

a few people, hold on, is it Lionel?

59:56

Nope, it's not Lionel. Only

59:58

a few people can say

1:00:01

they beat Jordan 101 or

1:00:03

whatever the fuck it is.

1:00:05

I can say that. And we laugh about it to

1:00:07

this day. And he came around

1:00:09

to you. You aimed for the fence. I'm

1:00:12

gonna show you my whole self. And you're

1:00:14

going to like it or not. MJ,

1:00:16

I love you, man. And I know people who listen

1:00:18

are going to tell you this story. I didn't bring this

1:00:20

shit up. They brought it up. But I'm going to

1:00:22

talk about it every chance I get. OK,

1:00:25

G20. Yes. G20 comes out April 10th,

1:00:27

streaming on Prime Video. Viola Davis, Academy

1:00:29

Award winner. Fuck all that. She's an

1:00:31

egot. Is she an egot? She is

1:00:33

an egot. Oh, you're right. Fuck. Yeah,

1:00:35

a lot of people say she has

1:00:37

an egot. I was like, no, she

1:00:40

doesn't have an egot. She is an

1:00:42

egot. There's a difference. Had you known

1:00:44

her before this movie? I had known

1:00:46

her before. We lived near each other.

1:00:49

Hold on. Is that my home? That's not my home.

1:00:53

We've always had... admiration from one another and

1:00:55

ABC together, you know, that her show and

1:00:57

my show. So I just always had love

1:00:59

for her and she always had love for

1:01:01

me. And I get a call, hey, Viola

1:01:03

wants you as her husband, not come read

1:01:06

this, come do this. I had a meeting

1:01:08

with the director and the director was like,

1:01:10

I've never cast a movie like this before.

1:01:12

I've never had someone tell me that this

1:01:14

is who they want. This is my husband.

1:01:16

Yeah. I was like, wow. Yeah, that's awesome.

1:01:18

And so that's how it all began. So

1:01:20

she's the US president. You're the first man.

1:01:23

You guys go down to South Africa for

1:01:25

the G20 Summit and you bring your kids.

1:01:27

Yes. And then it's diehard. Yeah. So

1:01:29

there's some bad guys with Tony Star, who I

1:01:31

fucking love from the boys. Do you watch the

1:01:33

boys? We have a table read because we shoot

1:01:35

this entirely in Cape Town for six months. And

1:01:37

I was like, who the fuck is this dude

1:01:39

with this Australian accent or this New Zealand accent?

1:01:41

I was like, I kind of like him. He's

1:01:44

cool. And we shoot the movie. He

1:01:46

kicks my ass. I kick his ass.

1:01:48

I'm home. Nine months later,

1:01:50

I'm doing some ADR, and

1:01:52

our director, Patricia, it was

1:01:54

like, yeah, Anthony, the movie's looking great. We got

1:01:56

this great buzz from Tony and his show. I

1:01:58

was like, what show's Tony on? At

1:02:01

first off, when we were doing scenes together, she

1:02:03

would say, Anthony, and we would all turn to her.

1:02:05

And be like, huh? Right. Let me do this.

1:02:07

I'll call you by your name, Anthony Starr. So every

1:02:09

time she was an Anthony Starr, would say, huh?

1:02:11

Because you're a star. I'm a star. And I have

1:02:13

no idea who the little southern motherfucker is. Sounds

1:02:16

like she's talking to me. They just didn't notice his

1:02:18

name. I was like, oh, my bad. So

1:02:20

that still became my running joke. So she was like, Anthony Starr,

1:02:22

you know, you have to show the boys. I was like, who

1:02:24

the fuck is he on the boys? I watched the boys all

1:02:26

the time. I was just watching them before I came here. She's

1:02:30

superman. Get the fuck out of

1:02:32

here! Because he just looks so different? We

1:02:34

were doing press all day yesterday. I

1:02:36

told him, I was like, hey, Tony,

1:02:38

I had no idea you were who the

1:02:40

fuck you were. Homelander. Yeah, he's homelander.

1:02:42

I said, I had no idea who the

1:02:44

fuck you were when we were working

1:02:47

together. Even though you're a fan of the

1:02:49

boys. Yes. And he was like, what?

1:02:51

I was like, doc. When I watch you

1:02:53

on The Boys, you're seven feet tall

1:02:55

to me, motherfuckers. You're fucking superhero. I was

1:02:57

like, the way you are on that

1:02:59

motherfucking show, it's not you. That's

1:03:02

not who I worked with. And

1:03:04

he was like, yeah, man. Yeah, out of

1:03:06

context. And it's a testament to who he is

1:03:08

as an actor. What he does on The

1:03:10

Boys, the fact that that dude doesn't want to

1:03:12

know me, I mean, what he's doing on

1:03:14

The Boys is the bad guy, and you feel

1:03:16

bad for him sometimes. Yes, you do. It's

1:03:18

like when I saw Fela on Broadway, And

1:03:21

I went backstage to meet the cast, and

1:03:23

I was looking for the dude that played Phelan.

1:03:25

I forget his name, but I'm talking to

1:03:27

him. And as I'm talking to him, I keep

1:03:29

looking behind him and looking around, trying to

1:03:31

find a dude before he leaves and shit. And

1:03:33

then I realized it's him. And then when

1:03:35

I left, I was like, oh my god. Because

1:03:38

he was a small, demure dude, but as

1:03:40

Fela on stage, this motherfucker was larger than the

1:03:42

fucking theater that they were in on Broadway.

1:03:44

But when I went to meet him, he's just

1:03:46

a regular dude, and I was like, this

1:03:48

motherfucker's phenomenal. Yeah, a magician. That's why I felt

1:03:50

about Anthony Starks as motherfucking homelander on The

1:03:52

Boys. So, yeah, it looks fucking awesome, by the

1:03:55

way. The trailer is outrageously good. Viola and

1:03:57

I are ex -military, and it's a big action

1:03:59

film. You know, terrorists take over the G20 Global

1:04:01

Summit that we're at. We end up kicking

1:04:03

ass and getting our ass kicked throughout the film.

1:04:05

She's doing a ton of ass kicking. Wait

1:04:07

till you see it. You're going to be like,

1:04:09

God damn. She an action star. She is.

1:04:11

It was amazing to be a part of and

1:04:13

amazing to watch. Well, Anthony. I adore you.

1:04:15

I have so much fun when I get to

1:04:18

be around you. Yeah, is great. We didn't

1:04:20

get Lionel, but that's all right. I know. Yeah,

1:04:22

TBD. You'll let us know if he calls

1:04:24

you back. I'm gonna call him again. See if

1:04:26

he's gonna pick up again. He's really gonna

1:04:28

be worried. Let me see. Did he send a

1:04:30

text? Nope, he didn't send a text. You

1:04:32

see how many he had to scroll through in

1:04:34

the last two hours? I'm gonna call again.

1:04:36

Hold on. Let's see if Lionel

1:04:38

Richie's gonna pick up. He never

1:04:41

picks up the phone, though. He's earned the right

1:04:43

not to phone. I've only spoken to him

1:04:45

on the phone maybe twice in all the years

1:04:47

that I've met him. You had the third

1:04:49

time to be online. But I know where he

1:04:51

lives. I know where he works. Your

1:04:53

call has been forwarded to voicemail. The person you're

1:04:55

trying to reach unavailable. This motherfucker saw this call

1:04:57

and sent me the voicemail. It only rang three

1:04:59

times. Oh. And

1:05:01

only He might be in the

1:05:03

middle of OK. Hey, man, you better

1:05:05

be shooting the voice right now,

1:05:07

lying now, Richie. I'm still doing this

1:05:09

podcast two a half hours later.

1:05:11

I don't know how to help. Dax

1:05:13

Cheper got me fucking do this

1:05:15

podcast for two and a half hours

1:05:17

only supposed to be for 40

1:05:19

minutes But we're still trying to reach

1:05:21

you and we're not gonna end

1:05:24

this interview until we talk to you

1:05:26

I love you lionel We've done

1:05:28

all we can We're gonna do a

1:05:30

fact check for this episode next

1:05:32

week or in a couple weeks, so

1:05:34

by then it'll probably have called

1:05:36

you back and you can We'll see.

1:05:38

Yeah, see what happens. I did

1:05:40

that with Oprah on Jimmy Show once.

1:05:42

And she picked up? She didn't

1:05:44

pick up. No! We

1:05:47

can't. I don't want you to be wasting

1:05:49

my calls. No, no, no, no, no, no,

1:05:51

no. The only certain amount of calls people like that pick

1:05:53

up from you. That's right. Even selfishly for me, I

1:05:55

don't want that bridge to be burned on my behalf. Anthony,

1:05:58

Adore you. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Nice

1:06:00

meeting you. You're very nice to meet you.

1:06:02

This was so fun. Stay

1:06:06

tuned for

1:06:08

more armchair expert

1:06:10

if you

1:06:12

dare You have

1:06:14

to pretend

1:06:16

this is gonna

1:06:18

be a

1:06:21

big challenge if

1:06:23

you do

1:06:25

your best acting

1:06:27

of your

1:06:29

life You have to pretend you

1:06:31

don't know I wore this outfit yesterday. Great

1:06:34

outfit. Oh, really good job.

1:06:36

Moving on. Next thing, we're

1:06:38

on the wrong set. There's

1:06:43

some cheesy things. Is that a new

1:06:45

outfit? I really like it. I was

1:06:47

wearing it. Well, now you're so good.

1:06:49

Wow, this is really good. Now I'm

1:06:51

convinced you didn't see me yesterday. I

1:06:54

saw you. I see you. There

1:06:58

are some corny sayings on sets. Yeah, some

1:07:00

of them. I like them which one's your favorite

1:07:02

So if you're like filming you're filming four

1:07:04

scenes that day and you're gonna be in Crosby's

1:07:06

bedroom And then the next scene is gonna

1:07:08

be in the living room, huh? You like do

1:07:10

the scene they yell cut you don't really

1:07:13

know what they're saying at the monitor Are we

1:07:15

gonna go again? Yeah, do we get it

1:07:17

right? And then occasionally eighties will

1:07:19

go okay. We're on the wrong set

1:07:21

That means we did it. It's time

1:07:23

to leave the bedroom and go to

1:07:25

the next set. And I like that

1:07:27

one. My favorite set term is martini

1:07:29

shot. Oh, sure. That's the last shot

1:07:31

of the day. And do you know

1:07:33

the origin of that one? They'd probably

1:07:35

get martinis. I think specifically Hitchcock would

1:07:37

always have a martini. during the last

1:07:39

shot of the day. During the last

1:07:41

set up, yeah. Yeah, so if you're

1:07:44

like checking it, if you have friends

1:07:46

who are on set and you're like,

1:07:48

how much longer do you have? We're

1:07:50

on the martini. We're on the martini.

1:07:52

Yeah. It's like what you want to

1:07:54

hear. I have a bit of anxiety

1:07:56

about this fact check. I know. is

1:07:58

so much to get through. We have

1:08:00

a lot to get through, but we

1:08:02

can't do it all today. Okay. You

1:08:04

just have to take, you just have

1:08:06

to have peace. Okay, I hope people

1:08:08

are patient with me if there's multiple

1:08:10

Hawaii updates. Over time. Over, they're being

1:08:12

leaked out, yeah. Yeah, because. You had

1:08:15

a trip. We both had trips. I

1:08:17

had, I have a big, people

1:08:19

think I went to New York. I'm

1:08:22

trying. Yeah, that didn't get through, right? No.

1:08:24

Yes, okay, right. You did not go to

1:08:26

New York. Yes, I had a trip planned

1:08:28

for New York and - Then White Lotus. Yeah,

1:08:31

because we had a whole conversation about Buddhism

1:08:33

and I said, oh no, what am I gonna

1:08:35

do? I'm about to go to New York.

1:08:37

That's not a place for me to be very

1:08:39

Buddhist. And you said you should be Buddhist

1:08:41

when you get back. And

1:08:43

I first delayed my trip a

1:08:45

day. Yeah. and I was like,

1:08:47

I'll just need to get my

1:08:49

work done and then I'll feel

1:08:52

good, I'll feel ready to go.

1:08:54

And then I still didn't and I canceled

1:08:56

my trip. And you know what's interesting is

1:08:59

when you announced that to me, at

1:09:01

first I was like, I didn't

1:09:03

like it for you. Yeah. Cause I was worried

1:09:05

your anxiety got the best of you, like

1:09:07

you had some anxiety and I wanted you to

1:09:09

have that fun trip and I know you

1:09:11

love New York. Yes, the most. But now on

1:09:14

the other side of it, I think you

1:09:16

listened to yourself. I did. And it was the

1:09:18

right thing to do. And you still had

1:09:20

your spectacular trip with Callie. I had a little

1:09:22

girls trip with Callie, couple day trip that

1:09:24

was, that yes, we will talk about over the

1:09:26

next 10 weeks. Over

1:09:28

cute, ending cute

1:09:30

too. That was so,

1:09:33

so delightful and fun. And that was already

1:09:35

on the books. I was going to do

1:09:37

both. And it just felt, it didn't feel,

1:09:39

I just knew. I was like, it's not

1:09:41

right. I'm not supposed to go run around

1:09:43

the city for the next four days. I

1:09:45

just need to, like, eat for a little

1:09:47

bit. Are you so selfish that you would

1:09:50

have preferred that the flight crashed on the

1:09:52

way to New York just so you could

1:09:54

say, oh my god, I knew. I knew

1:09:56

not to take that flight. No! I

1:09:58

bet there's someone that's bad enough. That's

1:10:00

really, that's as bad

1:10:03

of a person. If you have

1:10:05

that thought, I'm not judging, the foodists

1:10:07

don't do that, but you need to

1:10:09

get some help. You need to get

1:10:11

yourself into therapy quick. Well, you would definitely,

1:10:13

if you canceled the flight and then

1:10:15

you saw in the news it crashed, you

1:10:17

would have an enormous burst of gratitude.

1:10:19

Relief, yes. But not

1:10:21

like, oh, I knew it.

1:10:24

Oh, I might, okay.

1:10:26

I wonder. I

1:10:28

wonder if there would be a part

1:10:30

of me that's like, oh my God,

1:10:32

I have powers. Yes, you would. Everyone

1:10:34

would. Well, I don't know that you'd

1:10:36

say you have powers, but you'd say, well,

1:10:38

now I have to really take

1:10:40

seriously that the universe sends me signals,

1:10:42

and I need to listen. Remember, there's

1:10:45

a famous actress that I...

1:10:47

thought of at random. And we

1:10:49

just got resolution on that

1:10:51

last week. I know. It

1:10:53

was diabetes related. It was Michelle

1:10:55

Trachtenberg. Yeah. Very sad. Very, very

1:10:58

sad. And it seems like it

1:11:00

was a diabetes complication, which I

1:11:02

hate to do this. This seems

1:11:04

really flippant, but that's a ding,

1:11:06

ding, ding. Oh, no. I

1:11:08

know, because this is for Anthony Anderson. Oh,

1:11:11

and he's diabetic. And we talk a

1:11:13

lot about it and how complications are

1:11:15

really serious. Yes, diabetes. I

1:11:17

just sent Aaron Ding -Ding -Dang. I just sent

1:11:19

Aaron. There is a

1:11:22

remix, a DJ made

1:11:24

a mix of the

1:11:26

diabetes commercials. And

1:11:28

it's pretty good. And maybe I'll play it later at

1:11:30

some point in this. Speaking

1:11:32

of something else bad, I'm sure

1:11:35

you heard about Eric Dane. that

1:11:37

he has ALS. ALS, yeah, I've

1:11:39

seen him. It's heartbreaking. That's

1:11:41

so sad. That's in the news

1:11:43

now. Yeah. I figured he might

1:11:45

have known from meetings, but like. No,

1:11:48

it really breaks my heart because when

1:11:50

he was here, obviously his. He told

1:11:52

him. Well, he didn't know what it

1:11:54

was yet, right? His arm was kind

1:11:56

of atrophine and he thought he had

1:11:58

a virus and he seemed specialist. that.

1:12:01

And. Yeah, it's

1:12:03

a real fucking boomer. It really

1:12:05

breaks my heart. I hate it.

1:12:08

Yeah, did you say anything about the

1:12:10

Pope yesterday? The Pope died.

1:12:12

I thought it was today. You know,

1:12:14

I meant jinxing his death. Huh?

1:12:16

I meant did you jinx his

1:12:18

death? Oh Oh, oh, oh,

1:12:20

no. Well, kind of. We had

1:12:22

David Sedaris on and we

1:12:24

were talking about the Pope. Although

1:12:26

he was already quite ill at that

1:12:29

time. He'd already been hanging on by

1:12:31

a bit of a thread. Oh no.

1:12:33

So he died on Easter? Today died.

1:12:35

He made it through the rising. I

1:12:37

guess if I were a Pope, I

1:12:40

had it my way and they said,

1:12:42

you're gonna die this month. Yeah. I'd like

1:12:44

to go on Friday. On Good

1:12:46

Friday. On Good Friday when died.

1:12:48

When Jesus, yeah, passed. You say

1:12:50

passed. Excuse me, I passed.

1:12:52

Be respectful. Yeah, so then you're...

1:12:55

That's a lot of doom and gloom though. Sorry,

1:12:57

but this is life. Life is happy

1:12:59

and sad all at once. You're right, you're

1:13:01

right, you're right. All right. Okay. Let's,

1:13:03

okay, we can move on to something happy.

1:13:05

So I did take my trip. Yes,

1:13:07

you did. I took, Lincoln,

1:13:10

Delta and I. Hawaii

1:13:12

eight days. Yeah, you did a you

1:13:14

did a solo trip with your

1:13:16

girls. The headline is Incredible trip. Okay,

1:13:18

I'll remember it. I'll be on

1:13:20

my deathbed and I'll go. I did

1:13:22

that. I'm proud of you Okay,

1:13:24

so that's interesting. So yeah anyone like

1:13:26

that, but I'll tell you why

1:13:28

it's okay to like it Yeah, or

1:13:30

why I think it's okay to

1:13:32

like it cuz I was talking with

1:13:34

a friend from AA And

1:13:37

there are things in life that

1:13:39

give me esteem, self -esteem, and

1:13:41

there are things that take away

1:13:43

self -esteem. Yes. And so, and

1:13:45

they're, you know, they're pretty

1:13:47

correlated with challenge. Sure.

1:13:49

Right? Sure. But it was

1:13:51

just an incredible trip. It definitely

1:13:53

had its challenges. I

1:13:55

might have been a little naive.

1:13:57

Okay. Okay, and then I was wrestling

1:13:59

with that. What were you expecting?

1:14:01

Okay, because this is an expectations lesson

1:14:04

as well. I guess I was

1:14:06

misled because when Kristen has gone away

1:14:08

to film, which has happened throughout

1:14:10

their childhood, it always goes

1:14:12

really well. I do very well with the

1:14:14

two of them by myself. And

1:14:17

I was underestimating, like, we have our routine,

1:14:19

they go to places, they're in their

1:14:21

house, they can separate. And so I

1:14:23

was a little naive, and I've taken trips

1:14:25

with them solo. And those are always

1:14:27

individually. And those are truly kind of effortless

1:14:29

and fun, which is like being with

1:14:31

a buddy. But this was, you know, there

1:14:34

were days where one of them was

1:14:36

mad at the other for the whole day,

1:14:38

the first few days. And I started

1:14:40

getting a little nervous. And

1:14:42

then I was, and this is kind of funny, this is

1:14:44

one of the many stories. My

1:14:47

mother would have, I know what she

1:14:49

would have done, because she did it

1:14:51

many times. We'd be on a vacation,

1:14:53

we'd be acting like assholes. That also

1:14:55

gave me so much fucking respect for

1:14:57

my mother's whole - Single parent hood.

1:15:00

Single parent, three kids. Oh my

1:15:02

God, God bless Laura LeBeau. I sent her

1:15:04

a message going, you know what? I need

1:15:06

to just tell you, you're a warrior and

1:15:08

I admire you. Yeah. But her

1:15:10

move was, guys, we're

1:15:13

going home tomorrow morning. Oh. There

1:15:15

were a lot of those speeches. threats. Yes,

1:15:17

and by the way, they weren't threats.

1:15:19

They weren't empty threats. My mom, I almost

1:15:21

said my wife. Boy,

1:15:23

very Freudian. My

1:15:26

mom. We had

1:15:28

some rules and now there was no begging

1:15:30

period. Yeah, you already know this probably

1:15:32

she did not play begging and there we

1:15:34

left many a places where we had

1:15:36

put a lot of effort into it and

1:15:38

we had driven there and we didn't

1:15:41

get our shit together She said this happens

1:15:43

again. We're we're going home and we

1:15:45

did she she never made empty threats Wow

1:15:47

So I'm remembering like first of all,

1:15:49

I'm feeling that I'm like I'm gonna tell

1:15:51

them We're going on we're gonna go

1:15:53

home. Uh -huh and then I'm saying you

1:15:55

must you must do a little you must

1:15:57

grow a little bit from what you

1:15:59

were given. Okay, yeah. And so it was

1:16:01

a moment where it was like, we

1:16:03

tried to go snorkeling, maybe the third attempt.

1:16:05

One of them always had a thing.

1:16:07

I got stabbed by a sea urchin. Yeah.

1:16:10

And it was another failed attempt. And then the fight, and

1:16:12

then I was in my head, I'm like, I'm telling

1:16:14

him we're going to go home. And then I'm like, I'm

1:16:17

going to meditate. I'm going to sit on this lawn

1:16:19

chair and going to meditate because I want to be the

1:16:21

best version of myself. And I am going to confront

1:16:23

this. I am not going to

1:16:25

have... five days more of fighting. But

1:16:27

I got to do it in a very healthy way. And

1:16:29

I'm about 12 minutes into

1:16:31

my 20 minute meditation. And

1:16:33

while I'm at it, I hear a blood

1:16:35

curdling screaming. And I'm thinking,

1:16:38

I'm like, oh, fuck, some,

1:16:40

some parents got to do something.

1:16:44

And then the screams getting louder

1:16:46

and louder and louder until it's

1:16:48

obviously five feet from me. And

1:16:50

I open my eyes and I

1:16:52

look at my sweet little deltie. can

1:16:55

be covered in blood. I

1:16:57

don't even know where to begin to

1:16:59

guess. That is so scary. Yes, and

1:17:01

she has... at least for hotel employees

1:17:03

trailing her, because they're obviously scared for

1:17:05

her. God knows what liability fears they're

1:17:08

having. Oh, yeah. They want us to

1:17:10

go in an ambulance to be, you

1:17:12

know, I mean, virtually they want us

1:17:14

to be as safe as humanly possible.

1:17:16

But I know my Delta, what she

1:17:18

needs immediately is everyone to leave. Yep,

1:17:20

yep, yep, yep. She doesn't

1:17:22

like that. Embarrassment would hurt more

1:17:24

than right. She got that from

1:17:26

me. She got that from you.

1:17:30

So... You know, it's okay community, you know

1:17:32

trying to get a calm calm calm. Are

1:17:34

you looking for where? No, I know right

1:17:36

now We need to like we need to

1:17:38

go from 15 to 10 so that I

1:17:40

can then say okay mama Let me let

1:17:42

me take a look and just see what

1:17:44

we're dealing with so as it turned out

1:17:46

it was just a lip But it was

1:17:48

good enough that as she was screaming and

1:17:50

crying it was like on her arms and

1:17:52

whatever I knew it was serious, but also

1:17:54

You never really know right because they they

1:17:56

all they kind of have this reaction to

1:17:58

most every injury I

1:18:00

wasn't scared. Really? No,

1:18:03

I'm like, this is

1:18:05

an emergency level trauma. The

1:18:07

bleeding has stopped. We

1:18:09

don't need stitches. But

1:18:11

you weren't worried about, like, a hemorrhage?

1:18:13

I wasn't. You weren't watching enough ER,

1:18:15

but okay. Yeah, had I just done...

1:18:17

Or the pit. 35 hours of the

1:18:19

pit in ER, maybe. We

1:18:21

get it all combed up. Now, this is where

1:18:23

I'll give D -Money a lot of credit, as

1:18:26

the next few days were on. especially

1:18:28

day three after this thing.

1:18:30

I've been looking at her and

1:18:32

I go, sweetheart. Well,

1:18:34

and she told me, she goes, daddy, I

1:18:36

didn't even put my hands out. She fell, she

1:18:39

slipped on the concrete next to the pool.

1:18:41

And she said, I didn't even put my hands

1:18:43

out, which I kind of was like, I

1:18:45

bet she put them out a little bit. She's

1:18:47

not lying. She felt directly on her

1:18:49

face. So a few days later, she had

1:18:51

a black and blue cheek, black and

1:18:53

blue chin. She whacked her

1:18:55

face so bad. Sad. Anywho, I

1:18:58

did make this speech. It

1:19:00

was a very gentle version

1:19:02

and everyone got their shit

1:19:04

together. It was a big

1:19:06

turn. Okay. We still had stuff. Sure.

1:19:08

You're gonna have stuff. You're gonna have stuff.

1:19:10

But there was a reset and I

1:19:13

really appreciated did you say? I said, It

1:19:16

is very hard for me to

1:19:18

be on this trip with one of

1:19:20

you really mad at any given

1:19:22

time. One of you is very, very

1:19:24

mad. And I said, and I

1:19:26

want to be able to take you on

1:19:28

these trips of mom's working. And I have

1:19:30

to be honest, next year comes around, if

1:19:33

it continues like this, I'm not sure I'm going

1:19:35

to take this trip again. Now we're going home,

1:19:37

still a threat. I don't know. People probably think

1:19:39

that was bad parenting, whatever they did here. Oh,

1:19:42

we're not entitled to these trips if we

1:19:44

act like assholes. He's saying, I can't, I'm basically

1:19:46

saying I can't handle it. Yeah. Okay. So

1:19:48

that, that's a great reset. Let's not even talk

1:19:50

about just single parent, the sunblock routine when

1:19:52

you're in Hawaii. Cause it's like every 40 minutes

1:19:54

I got slathered their whole body. Almost my

1:19:56

full time. I'm glad you did it. Oh, I

1:19:58

did. I'm like, if I bring them home

1:20:00

sunburn, that's a wrap. That's hard to defend now.

1:20:03

We go to dinner that night and

1:20:05

I'm, I'm now feeling, I'm feeling like a

1:20:07

failure. I'm like, I

1:20:09

should be able to, coordinate some

1:20:11

kind of peaceful fun. We're in

1:20:13

paradise at a beautiful hotel. You

1:20:16

know, it should be easy, should

1:20:19

be. And so I'm, I'm not

1:20:21

going to blame a 12 and a

1:20:23

10 year old. I'm like, I'm

1:20:25

not managing something correctly. And

1:20:28

I was so relieved that as we

1:20:30

were at these dinners, we were eavesdropping.

1:20:32

And I want to tell you, Shits

1:20:34

going down on all family vacations. That

1:20:36

was comforting. That's standard family vacation. You think

1:20:39

you're gonna go to paradise and everyone's

1:20:41

gonna be so grateful the whole time. That's

1:20:43

not what happens. not how it works.

1:20:45

No, you're in a smaller space. Yeah. You

1:20:47

have to compromise on schedules way more

1:20:49

and you get what you sow. When I

1:20:51

went on my girls' trip. Yes, you

1:20:54

and Callie. Yeah, we went to Napa. Wine

1:20:56

country, We went to wine country,

1:20:58

yes. California. And food

1:21:00

country. Well, exactly. Turns

1:21:04

out shopping country

1:21:06

they had some

1:21:08

really cute shopping

1:21:10

We We're just

1:21:12

there for two nights. It was a

1:21:14

quick trip, but we did so

1:21:16

much. And we stayed at the Auberge

1:21:18

du Soleil. I don't know if

1:21:20

that's how you spell it. I love

1:21:22

a hotel that I can't pronounce. yeah.

1:21:26

And I love an Auberge hotel.

1:21:28

That's a line of hotels. I've

1:21:30

talked about the one in Austin

1:21:32

before, Commodore Perry. Yeah, very cool.

1:21:34

Gorgeous, very cool. We have visited

1:21:36

you there. Yeah. Yeah, and it's

1:21:38

beautiful. And this one was -

1:21:42

so stunning and exquisite and...

1:21:44

Well, they got my attention

1:21:47

because they lent you guys

1:21:49

an electric G -Wag. Well, they're

1:21:51

not us. They have a

1:21:53

fleet of different Mercedes that

1:21:55

they loan out to the

1:21:57

guests. You just have to

1:22:00

sign a waiver and you

1:22:02

can take it out. Yeah,

1:22:04

in one country. I

1:22:06

know. Is

1:22:08

a little like wow I was like

1:22:10

this is so nice because it's because

1:22:12

things are a bit things aren't like

1:22:15

five minutes away from each other you

1:22:17

have to drive a little bit and And

1:22:20

it's a pail to Uber everywhere or to

1:22:22

have a driver. And we

1:22:24

only did one winery. So we weren't like

1:22:26

bopping around from winery to winery. But anyway,

1:22:28

it was such a nice amenity. And I

1:22:30

did feel. And I urged you to make

1:22:32

the car. The car will do a 365

1:22:34

degree turn like a tank. Yeah. And I

1:22:36

really wanted you guys to do that. And

1:22:38

you said you might find a parking lot

1:22:40

and try it. And then you told me

1:22:42

you didn't time. We didn't have time. We

1:22:44

time. She definitely had time to do a 360, but

1:22:46

I understand. We didn't have time for that. But

1:22:49

it was, we were like excited

1:22:51

to try the G -Wagon. Callie drove

1:22:53

it and she did a great job.

1:22:56

And turns out there were a

1:22:58

couple, well, I ran into many

1:23:00

arm cherries on the trip. And

1:23:02

again, everyone was so incredible. One,

1:23:04

one I had a kind of

1:23:06

regretful encounter with, not regretful, but

1:23:09

we, Callie and I, we're

1:23:11

in the little like shopping area, St. Helena.

1:23:13

And we went into this little coffee shop just to get

1:23:15

a coffee. And we were

1:23:17

waiting for the coffee. The place was

1:23:19

pretty crowded, but like we didn't think

1:23:21

that much of it. were waiting for

1:23:24

the coffee and there was an arm

1:23:26

cherry sitting there and she said, hey,

1:23:28

Monica, you know, I love the show,

1:23:30

whatever. And she, and I was

1:23:32

like, oh, are you, are you from here? And

1:23:34

they weren't, they were, I

1:23:36

forgot, I'm sorry, I forget. I want

1:23:38

to say Chicago. That sounds right.

1:23:40

because of Rob. And

1:23:43

she was like, no, we're just on

1:23:45

the ship. Had to get the English

1:23:47

muffin. And I was like,

1:23:50

yeah. And she kind

1:23:52

of pointed to her food a little bit, but

1:23:54

I didn't really know what she was talking

1:23:56

about. But of course. Well, I would have thought,

1:23:58

oh, this place is known for their English

1:24:00

muffin. I better get one. Well, yeah. But

1:24:02

it didn't. I wasn't

1:24:04

getting that vibe. I was

1:24:06

just like, oh, OK. Yeah.

1:24:08

And then. I did feel

1:24:10

embarrassed because I should know. I

1:24:13

should know about English muffins and fancy

1:24:15

foods and stuff. So anyway, I

1:24:17

ran out of there as fast as

1:24:19

I could. Covering

1:24:21

your head in shame. The next day

1:24:23

when we were about to, when we were

1:24:25

leaving, the morning we took out the

1:24:28

G -Wagon, we went to Yontville, which is

1:24:30

the food area where French laundry is, all

1:24:32

these other, Bouchon, all these things. The

1:24:34

person working at the front desk, Phoebe, Oh,

1:24:36

there go. I'll circle back to Phoebe. She

1:24:39

told Callie that there was a

1:24:42

place in Yachtville known for their

1:24:44

English muffins. And that we should

1:24:46

go. And it was called like

1:24:48

mini, according to Callie, mini Modell,

1:24:50

but I don't know if that's right. She got

1:24:52

it right. Yeah. So we

1:24:54

go there and then we're in line

1:24:56

and Callie was like, oh, I think

1:24:58

that coffee shop we went to

1:25:00

was just Like

1:25:02

this is a version of

1:25:04

that, like another little small

1:25:06

version. And I was like, this

1:25:08

makes total sense what the arm

1:25:10

cherry was saying. So I was right.

1:25:13

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay.

1:25:15

So anyway, this arm cherry was in

1:25:17

the know. Apparently it's like Oprah's

1:25:19

favorite English muffin. Oh, wow. And it

1:25:21

was insane. It was. Oh

1:25:23

my god, it was so good. Poor Callie.

1:25:25

She's gluten -free. She has celiac. So she couldn't

1:25:27

have it. Yeah. Did she even to play the

1:25:29

game in her head? Like, oh, sourdough's got

1:25:31

less. No. She didn't even make it. She said,

1:25:34

she said, when she was looking at it, she was

1:25:36

like, if I was going to cheat, she's

1:25:39

like, which I never would. Because it's not

1:25:41

like. Mine. Yeah. And a lot people. I can

1:25:43

live with mine. Yeah. She'll be on the

1:25:45

ground. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, that might be. that

1:25:47

would be the one, even though she's not

1:25:49

going to do it. Anyway, she got some from

1:25:51

Max. Max loved them. Oh, he did. And

1:25:53

he's a chef for people who know. Exactly. He's

1:25:55

a chef. So this all circles

1:25:57

back, right? This is relevant because

1:25:59

when we first got to the hotel,

1:26:02

there was two

1:26:04

like freshly batched

1:26:07

cocktails with my

1:26:09

name and Callie's

1:26:11

name. And they were

1:26:13

called Cherry on Top. And I

1:26:15

was like, is this a weird sim? Is

1:26:17

it a wink? Or is it a wink?

1:26:19

Is it a sim or is it a

1:26:22

wink? I don't know, but I don't want

1:26:24

to... You want to mind your ego, not

1:26:26

a sim. Exactly. I was

1:26:28

like, I think it's... I so. Get

1:26:30

over yourself. Yeah. The word cherry

1:26:32

existed before your podcast. Exactly. And

1:26:34

I had two little cocktail glasses with

1:26:36

two cherries. It was so, so

1:26:38

cute. And also, the cocktail was incredible.

1:26:40

Oh, did you text Bert? Oh,

1:26:43

fuck, I got a text burn. You need

1:26:45

to, I guess it'll be a three -way

1:26:47

text, but. He DM'd me, Bert Kreischer.

1:26:49

did, Bert Kreischer. Anybody's not allowed to be

1:26:51

on a text with a woman, which is

1:26:53

hilarious. He's not, I have to one. So

1:26:55

I have to be on any communication between

1:26:57

the two of you. You do. What would

1:27:00

be incredible is if you guys did start

1:27:02

a huge affair, and it was just in

1:27:04

front of me, and I'm like, well, I

1:27:06

don't know how this helped. Now I just

1:27:08

have to observe this whole thing. What if, because

1:27:10

I was there, he felt free to just...

1:27:12

nuts, and say so much dirty

1:27:14

shit. Yeah, like I think about your body all

1:27:16

the time. What I said was time.

1:27:18

What dex was on there? It was

1:27:20

fine. Okay, anyways, go ahead. Yeah, okay, so

1:27:22

yeah, when Burt was on this show,

1:27:24

we had a whole cocktail conversation. We told

1:27:26

each other what to have. He got,

1:27:28

I told him to get a bee's knees.

1:27:30

He told me to get a shot

1:27:32

of fernet. And then also separately a compari

1:27:34

spreads. Okay, then Jess Anna

1:27:36

and I went to Little Dom's and I did

1:27:38

get the fernet. We all had it, so

1:27:40

I posted a picture of this, right? And you

1:27:42

liked it. And did he respond it? Yes.

1:27:44

Oh, good. He responded, he says, I have to

1:27:47

get you drunk on my cooking show. Lots

1:27:49

of exclamation points. And then he responded, that sounded

1:27:51

creepy. Where's Dax? He

1:27:53

said, that sounded creepy. We have

1:27:55

to get drunk on my cooking show.

1:27:59

Which is very, very funny. Yeah,

1:28:01

he's, I like that he's aware of

1:28:03

not being creepy. I think that's a

1:28:05

great thing. I do too. Anywho

1:28:07

so I need to send birth that

1:28:10

cocktail. He'll love it. Yes But anyway, so

1:28:12

I was like well, maybe it was

1:28:14

a wink but but probably not probably just

1:28:16

something sweet they do and still like

1:28:18

that could be the case But then there

1:28:20

was this cute little card they wrote

1:28:22

and I didn't really understand it at first

1:28:25

Yeah, because there were two hats for

1:28:27

Callie and I that they had given us

1:28:29

and there was a little note that

1:28:31

said something along the lines of Here's

1:28:33

some hats so you can be in quotes

1:28:35

a new Monica And then I forgot that

1:28:38

we had just talked about hats on the

1:28:40

fact check out you're a new Monica like

1:28:42

a new Monica when I wear them So

1:28:44

so we did have some arm cherry fans

1:28:46

who worked at the a bears and it

1:28:48

was really really sweet And I do believe

1:28:50

one of them was Phoebe. Okay, and she

1:28:53

was It's just so lovely. So I wanted

1:28:55

to shout out Phoebe. Oh, and then, oh,

1:28:57

yes, because Callie went to the front. I

1:28:59

slept in on the last day. Oh, good

1:29:01

for you. And Callie went to the front

1:29:03

and she was doing all these arrangements for

1:29:05

the car and this. And

1:29:07

she said, so who did that

1:29:10

cocktail? And then

1:29:12

she said, Phoebe got really red. And

1:29:14

then Callie was like, oh, no,

1:29:16

I, she got worried that she

1:29:19

felt that she was embarrassed or

1:29:21

something. And so she, Samantha

1:29:23

won't leave the room. That's why

1:29:25

she's not here. She's

1:29:27

really upset. It has

1:29:29

nothing to do with the fact that she sleeps

1:29:31

12 hours a night. Yeah,

1:29:34

so she, so, um,

1:29:36

and Kelly said, I'm just, it was

1:29:39

just so sweet and we are so

1:29:41

appreciative. And Monica loved it. That's

1:29:43

not why she's not here. And

1:29:45

then, and Phoebe said, well, we

1:29:47

have, we have. There were a

1:29:49

few fans who work here. Oh.

1:29:52

And then, and Callie said, oh, it's just

1:29:54

so nice for me because I, you know, I've

1:29:56

been around the whole ride and it's just

1:29:58

really sweet for me to see that. yeah. And

1:30:00

she said, well, she talks about you a

1:30:02

lot too. She

1:30:05

was like, oh boy, okay. Have

1:30:07

you tried the 360 degree turn in

1:30:10

the, I said 365 degree,

1:30:12

didn't I? I'm just now remembering. remember.

1:30:14

That's how many

1:30:16

days are in a

1:30:19

year. There's only

1:30:21

360 degrees in a

1:30:23

circle though. How

1:30:25

embarrassing up some gear

1:30:27

heads like upset

1:30:30

someone's upset Stay tuned

1:30:32

for more armchair

1:30:34

expert if you dare

1:30:36

Okay, I had

1:30:38

to get involved with something and I'm

1:30:40

wondering I think I finally did it right,

1:30:43

okay? And it was one, it was

1:30:45

during one of, but this was post reset.

1:30:47

So this was fine. Okay. We found

1:30:49

this like very, very desolate beach. Nobody's there.

1:30:51

We pull over, the girls are playing

1:30:53

in the thing. Then it's time to leave.

1:30:55

We're walking back. Delta steps on my

1:30:57

thorn. She's barefoot. She then goes and takes

1:31:00

a breather. Oh, nice. So now Lincoln

1:31:02

and I are just sitting in the car

1:31:04

and I'm looking in my rear view

1:31:06

mirror and there's a woman walking with two

1:31:08