May 14, 2025 • 60 mins
Topics covered include: Success giving you brain damage, Andy’s lifelong love of Jackass as a “silly, honest, and ancient” art, squirming to hide the truth, Turkish hair transplants, the influence of The King of Comedy on Friendship, the psychedelic experience of seeing your movie with a crowd, knowing enough to know that you’re wrong, wall-to-wall c*cks in Jackass Forever, beating fear spirals, and why it's absolutely essential to see Friendship in a movie theater.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hey, and welcome back to the A 24 podcast.
For today's episode, we paired up Friendship writer, director,
and Jackass superfan Andrew Deyoung with his idol Johnny
Knoxville. Trust us when we say you want to
see Friendship on the big screenin a crowded theater.
It's now playing in New York andLA and expands nationwide on May
23rd. Here's Andrew and Johnny.
(00:26):
Hi, I'm Andrew Deyoung. And my name is Johnny Knoxville
and this is the A 24 podcast. Wait, where'd you come from
today? The fighting town of Toluca
Lake. OK, cool.
Fighting town, yes. OK, nice.
No, it's not a fighting town. And yourself.
Oh, Pasadena. All right.
Dude, it's so good to be here with.
You. Nice to meet you, nice to be
(00:46):
here. I saw Friendship, your new film,
and it is fantastic. It is so fucking uncomfortable.
I mean, I'm just. Compliment.
But in a wonderful. Way, Yeah, yeah, thank you the.
Situations or you're just like, oh, no, don't, please don't.
Don't do that. He's doing it, OK?
(01:07):
He's doing it. It's even worse than I thought.
What he's doing that's it's justit's one of those things you
have to see in a theater. It would be fun to watch with a
bunch of people. I just watched it with my friend
and Agent Ryan and we were just both yelling at the screen the
whole time. Oh my God.
At a in a theater or at home. In a theater.
(01:28):
OK, wow. So I can imagine what it's like
with a pack theatre. Have you watched it with a pack
theatre? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yelling at the screen? Or was that just me?
We premiered. We premiered at TIFF in a
theatre that was like 1000 people, and I think it gave me
brain damage in terms of like, how can I ever not try to get
back to this moment, which I'm sure you've experienced a bunch
(01:51):
of times. Because it was just the the
experience was so good. For you so like it just so much
laughter, big laughter, things that laughing at that.
I didn't really think we're, like, necessarily funny.
Yeah, there was a lot of that, you know, with me too.
I was probably laughing inappropriately.
Which is like so thrilling for me when you like that.
(02:11):
My favorite kind of laughter is laughing, but not sure why.
Yeah, yeah. And something deep down is like
I, I don't know how articulate it, but it's like.
Do you feel like you're not supposed to laugh at that?
Exactly Right. But it's like inside you're
like, oh God, you can't help it.Yeah, like a catharsis.
Well, I feel like so much what you do, the brilliance of that
too is like. Brilliance.
(02:31):
I, I mean, I truly, I truly deepdown, like we'll get right into
it, like so much that laughter comes from to me, like how
uncomfortable that is, how like primal and how honest.
Well, that's one of the things, one of the one of the things we
have going for us is Jackass is silly, but it's honest because
everything's real. Totally.
(02:51):
And I think, yeah, you person walks, person falls down.
It's just, you know, like you said, primal.
It's just reflexive laugh. It's ancient, yeah.
But God, I was just the the Tim Robinson character feels like a
cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Rupert Pumpkin.
(03:12):
OK, great. Yeah, King of Comedy was a huge
influence on the movie. Oh my God.
Hello, Moshi. Moshi.
We're going to keep that in, Dave.
It was I, I spent like a good portion of the movie trying to
figure out his diagnosis. I can't figure it out.
(03:32):
I mean, he seems to be on the a little on the spectrum, but
there's also a lot of rage. Sure.
I don't know. Do you do you know the
diagnosis? I mean, you, when you diagnose
him, I you're probably going to diagnose me by default.
Oh really? That's an extension of.
You. I can't.
I mean, don't you think? Like when we write stuff, it's
(03:53):
in? I feel like, well, I don't know,
there's many characters in the movie.
You could have dedicated any of the characters to yourself.
I relate to a lot, even I'm pushing him in versions of me,
probably in this character to the extreme, but a lot of it is
like me, my dad and like friendsand things I've noticed, you
know? You and your father had social
(04:14):
anxiety. I've heard certain things of
like, covering, like, it's so funny watching people hide,
right? And Tim is like, I feel so
brilliant at hiding. And so much of his comedy comes
from like, him squirming to hidethe truth, right?
And I feel like I like I do it. I've seen my dad do it.
And like, so many men have to doit too, you know, like, there's
(04:36):
a lie and we're covering it up. And I think it's so tragic and
so funny. Have you gotten better about
being honest with your feelings?I think so.
I try to. I mean, you're being.
Pretty honest right now, but I mean in so like social
situations, interpersonal. Over the years, relationships
for sure for sure. How are you with it?
Well, I finally reached a point in my life where I am honest in
(05:05):
and it's embarrassing. I mean in my relationship.
And that's embarrassing to admitas a, a, a 54 year old man.
I, I feel like I'm the healthiest I've been in my life.
So the relationship is like legitimate, amazing, healthy,
wonderful relationship. Amazing.
And that I don't have any secrets from this person, where
(05:31):
in the past I always did. And it's also embarrassing to
admit how wonderful it feels notto keep secrets.
Absolutely, it eats you. Up like I can have a little
anxiety anyway and you having toremember your lie sure sure it's
a nightmare it's terrible it's anightmare it's a nightmare and
(05:54):
it just feels wonderful to be like OK, you know everything I
don't have to hide and it's. So medicine personal to just
speak the truth. Yes, it's so much easier.
It's so much easy, even though it's like hard and could be
difficult and have some major consequences, right.
But like as I'm 42, so I've learned all the and still
(06:15):
learning. I'm still constantly practicing
like how to be honest, How do I let people have hard feelings,
you know? And, and I think deep down this
movie is like watching the fun of it for me is watching someone
not like bury secrets and then squirm and watch secrets destroy
(06:36):
their life essentially. And by the end hopefully realize
that like truth is, is the only and way forward.
As messy as it is, ideally that's what I'm scratching at.
Yeah, well, it as a person who has kept secrets and hasn't
always been truthful, it it is that comes across because you
(06:59):
just you just not as intensely as in your.
Sure, sure, sure, sure. I mean you.
Your movie is an intense versionof that.
Of course, yeah. Yeah, Hopefully it's like a
catharsis for an audience to do the things that we repress.
Yes, and Paul Rudd's great in itlike and he's his characters
(07:21):
slowly revealed, you know, and that's how I took it.
You know, he comes across as this handsome, everything going
for him, confident guy. But then he's like, he has so
much pathos and self doubt. Sure.
And you knocked it out of the park, kid.
Hey thank you. I mean, well it's funny.
(07:44):
It's like I was re watching Jackass forever and which is
like truly one of my favorite movies of all time.
Oh my goodness. Thank you.
Truly, I I was that whole year. I'm like, this is the movie of
the year. Why don't people understand it,
the ideas in this movie? But I I bring it up right now
because like you're talking about the Paul character and
like him his secret being field,right?
(08:07):
And it reminded me of Jackass forever, where you're on the
ground and you're like, are you filling my bald spot?
You know, right, right, right. And then Spike.
Comes and fills it. In Yeah, yeah, right.
It's always got my back. And I'm like, you know, I know
that's like, oh, you know, it's there.
You're kind of playing with vulnerability there.
You're clearly comfortable with it.
But I'm like, that's so funny. Because it was in my head, Yeah.
(08:28):
Because this is your right. You're playing with it, Yeah.
Yeah, and it's so and all men are dealing like I take care of
pills right where yeah, yeah, and we know that's I do too
insecurities and free to kind ofcall it out and it to be like
jokingly accepted and covered upby Spike your your long time
friend is so beautiful and so funny and so touching and
(08:49):
watching it the other day I was like, oh, that's kind of like
similar what I'm trying to do with all my work is this or even
in my friendship. So like revealing and then they
kind of we could laugh about ourinsecurities together.
Get ahead of the joke. You've got to get ahead of the.
That's the key. That is the key.
Get ahead of the joke is so. Yeah, truth.
(09:11):
It just takes a little self-awareness, especially if
you're on a brutal set like Jackass.
That jokes coming. Absolutely.
Yeah, you got to get. Ahead of it that's really funny
are you do you feel like you're constant over the years like OK
I got to get ahead of and constantly like almost hyper
vigilant like they're going to look for my weak spots I'm.
No, I just naturally there's self deprecating sense of humor
(09:37):
in my family, so it just comes out, you know, but I got to say,
having the Gray hair now has really helped that bald spot.
OK, well, oh, it's really like helps blend.
Yeah, you don't even, you barelyeven notice it because when you
got the dark hair or when I had quote dark hair dyed, you know,
(09:59):
it sticks out. I mean your hair looks.
Great contrast. Oh, stop.
What do you what are we doing? You want to share the?
Secrets here, Christ. What what kind of secrets?
I'm doing the pills secrets of Yeah.
What do you. We don't have to talk about that
If if it feels. No, no, no, I I what is it?
Take finasteride or something. I don't know what it is, but
it's supposed to help your hair.Same.
(10:21):
It helps me for sure, yeah. And I yeah, there's no secret.
OK, good. It's working.
It's working for sure. Because you know, I always heard
that like your hair is dependenton your maternal.
Like genetics? Yeah, your your mom's dad.
Mom's dad, OK. And he was bald as hell.
(10:43):
I was like, Oh no, no, both. Oh, actually on both sides, both
men, my grand, both my grandfathers went bald.
But so far I'm I'm holding up. It's doing good.
Yeah. It's doing good.
I have a couple friends who've done the full like, like
transplant stuff, you know whichI'm like, OK, that's an option
(11:05):
if I ever feel that insecure. Yeah, I I think you shouldn't
have to do that. You know, if we go ball, we just
shave it or leave it be, Just accept it.
But because I yeah, Guy came in my rest, I used to wait tables
years ago. And the guy, I guess he was mid
transplant and he just had he had all these dots from the
(11:30):
front of his scalp to the back of his head.
And talk about confidence. He just raw when he.
Just was sitting there eating this Chinese chicken salad, and
I'm just trying not to stare at these dots in his head.
He didn't give a shit. You ask.
Now that is like reaching the shore.
You know, you fully. Yeah.
(11:51):
You. Yeah, you fully mastered it.
Well, it's like, if he has that kind of confidence, why isn't he
OK bald? Exactly.
Yeah, that's, well, it's complicated.
Sure, sure. I know.
You know, Yeah, Yeah, of course.Of course.
Yeah, I always remember that guy.
I'm like, he just, I respect. He didn't seem to care, but he
cared. Have I?
(12:11):
I respect him. I hope he's doing well right
now. He's listening to this
eventually I. He's probably no longer with
him. I'm sure he was like 30 years
ago. He was he was pushing it then.
OK, I see. You know, I hope he hope his
family is doing well. God, God forbid.
But have you seen those videos of those, you know, that's like
you go to Turkey and get really cheap ones done.
Have you seen these videos of like?
(12:32):
People at the airport. I do like people travelling to
other countries to get, you know, a cheap surgery done.
Sure it's I I wouldn't recommendit.
I understand why they do it but yeah but what your point?
Was, you know, there's these incredible videos online of like
guys just coming from because I guess like it's so expensive
here that you go to Turkey, you get like a round trip flight
(12:55):
meals board or whatever and the surgery done.
And it's really inexpensive, thehair surgery.
And there's these videos of in the airport of just like a
camera scanning and it's all these guys waiting for their
flight home, just like their heads all wrapped up.
Oh wow. And it's like such a thing.
Is it this one guy over there doing?
It it's like a whole like littlecottage industry that's
(13:16):
happening and and because someone brought it up to me and
I was like, Oh my God, that's wild because it's like 30 grand
here hair. Transplants while you wait and.
While you wait. It's crazy I was in Tennessee
whereas in high school and as itis flea market and a sign
advertised tattoos while you wait and I was wondering how
(13:38):
else are you supposed to get tattoos?
At a it was at a. Flea market.
Just leave your forearm and comeback later.
Wait, what were they waiting at a like a flea market or
something I had? So it was a tattoo booth and but
you can get them while you wait.Yeah, yeah, it's a good angle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever it takes.
But yeah, to go back to your watching it in a room full of
(14:00):
people for the first time was I'm sure.
I don't know. How do you feel when you you
know something's final? I've seen it 1000 times.
I'm assuming you're involved in the Yeah, I see it and I'm like,
well, this is crap, this means nothing.
And then you see it in a theater, and then all these
people, it's alive for them for the first time.
And it's such a psychedelic. And with comedy, it's so
(14:23):
beneficial to screen it with audiences because it's simple.
They either laugh or they don't.And then, you know, we have a
friends and family screening a couple of one or two of those,
and then we'll screen it two or three times before we release.
And it's just so it helps editing so much.
(14:45):
Sure, you know. Are the changes being made kind
of tiny or based off of the reactions are?
You. Well, it depends.
Sometimes they're just, you know, a few re edits here or
whole bits will come out. You're like, well, that didn't
work like that. Didn't work like I thought it
was going to. OK, interesting.
Some bits you think this is going to kill, this is people
(15:08):
are going to like this. Crickets, wow, crickets.
And then some things you have nofaith in that you didn't want to
put in, they'll love you can never.
It's tough to figure that out. That must feel.
Does that like disorient you in your gut?
No, because I we don't take it personally.
So much of what we think works, works.
(15:30):
And sometimes you don't know, even when determining to shoot
the ideas, sometimes Jeff will come up with an idea.
I'm like, I don't think so. Or I'll come up with an idea and
everyone will be like, that's, that's not going to work.
Let's not sure. And but Jeff and I know enough
to know that we're wrong a lot. And so we end up shooting it and
(15:54):
it works. Yeah, most of the time.
And so we we give, give each other that grace, one of the few
graces we give one another. But it's like, OK, I don't think
that's going to work, but let's shoot it.
Yeah, Yeah. And with what we do, you just
take so many chances as far as like, let's just throw
everything against the wall and totally be as open to the
(16:15):
process as possible. So much about surprise, right?
I could feel like a kind of maybe a idea you don't totally
believe in could lead to once you shoot it, something
incredible happens, right? Oh absolutely.
You know, we have rainy day ideas.
Like we'll have all these ideas that we plan to shoot, but if
something happens during the dayor rains or something, vice
(16:37):
versa, not vice versa. But if we have a list of ideas
that pretty much nothing, ideas like get 6 tubes of crazy glue
and see what happens, that literally is the whole thing and
we look in a really good bit andJackass 2 with that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know.
(16:58):
With the helmets. The helmets?
No no it was we ended up super gluing We Man and Preston in the
69 together. Bam super glued his hand to his
daddy's hairy chest and pull hishand off and it was super hairy.
Incredible. I tried one which I can't this I
don't. I felt like I really dodged a
(17:20):
bullet while we were shooting this and kids do not do this at
home. I thought it would be funny to
put the Super glue around my mouth and chin and super glue my
face to Phil's chest so I'd havea goatee.
OK. But what happened was I just got
I was just doing nothing but inhaling the Super glue.
(17:42):
Oh God. And I like the room started
spinning. I almost passed out and oh God,
it was. It was almost.
Dark. Oh God, And you couldn't even
get, you couldn't even do the bit.
No, no, it was. No, I had to.
We had to, yeah. The terrifying.
Well, I don't know if I was terrified, but I did realize
that I was almost in deep waters.
(18:04):
Sure, sure. So, but that was.
Fun. Sometimes you get surprises you
don't. Oh, there's lots of lots of
surprises. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's interesting in in my movie,Tim doesn't really like to
improvise really. And you know, there's things
that he's he comes from improv world course, like brilliantly
funny person in a moment and he's always like he adds on to
(18:25):
little things and stuff like that.
But he's really kind of anti like whole cloth improv,
especially in his, I haven't worked on his.
I think you should leave. But just knowing like I did a
pilot with him and just knowing him and Zach, his writing
partners process. They're really precise about
writing, but it doesn't feel that way.
It has its own like aliveness and kind of spontaneity to it
(18:47):
too. And he loves you and.
What? Oh, that's very kind.
Loves you. Super funny.
And it's interesting like these different pathways to get to a
laugh, you know? And I also come from improv and
have such a desire to create surprise, not I mean you guys.
What you guys do is something I can't do.
Well, we don't know what's going, we don't have any idea
(19:07):
what's going to happen, so we'resurprised with everyone else.
That's incredible to create those conditions for surprise
and then roll with it is something that's like, yeah,
some days you're going to might pass out.
It's going to go a little dark and sometimes you're going to
get like incredible, beautiful stuff that that we see in in the
work. I don't know, I'm just, I really
like that, like setting up for surprise because I kind of, I
(19:28):
find it so rare in like I do a lot of TVI feel like people are
constantly trying to kill surprise.
Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah, they just some
directors I've worked with, theyonly like to stick to the
script. Sure.
And some will be like, okay, this take, do whatever, we got
the other, we got the script, sodo whatever you want.
(19:50):
And sure, that's always fun for me.
You know, I've worked with John Waters, who I absolutely adore.
Amazing. The greatest dinner guest of all
time is you know, people are like boy, if you have 5 people
you would like to have dinner with, John Waters is the first
person I want at that dinner. Wow, what it what?
(20:10):
He's just, you cannot bring up asubject that he doesn't have
articulate, hilarious take on. He's so well read and you know,
you go to his house, you can't even sit down because there's
books stacked 10 high in every chair on every couch.
He gets like 100 magazines a month.
(20:31):
That magazines really don't exist anymore.
Really sucks going to the airport.
I used to love going to the airport.
I would spend $75.00 of magazines and now.
There's you load I but every dayyou would you never bring your
stuff to the airport. You would just go and load up on
magazine. Ohh, absolutely.
What were your magazines of choice?
Popular Science was one. OK, respect, respect.
(20:53):
Because I could see all these, Icome across some silly gadget.
I'm like, I can use that on one of the guys.
OK, sure. And I got so a lot of ideas out
of that. But the reason I brought up John
Waters is like, he really wants to stick to the script, OK.
And like, he has a cadence in his head too.
Oh yeah, you and he, he'll give line readings and I have no
(21:19):
problem at all receiving a line reading from a master like John
Waters. I actually loved it because
they're so specific. Wow.
Yeah. Is he giving you readings from
like take one or is he letting you get one in yourself?
He he knows how he wants to haveit.
Like he'll get the script and read the whole script in each
(21:42):
character's voice. Wow.
And so you're kind of just doingyour version of his take, which
I, again, I think is wonderful. I love John.
John, I will do whatever you want, you know.
That's incredible. Yeah.
And the other actors on set, didthey have a similar positive
response? Some were.
(22:03):
They were a little puzzled, but again they ended up at like It's
John Waters of What Do You Need?Sure, sure, sure.
He I mean what? He's giving.
He does that with Tracey Allman.He did that with everyone and
everyone just accepted it. You're on John Waters.
Ride. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of
amazing. And it's a wonderful ride.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, to have a vision, a
director of the vision that clear, Yeah.
(22:24):
Is rare. Yeah.
He's like, really amazing. He's fantastic.
That's so great to hear. He's this myth about him, like
this hitchhiking myth, right? I don't know if, you know, like
people are like, sure, we just picked up John Waters on the
side of it. You know, it does that.
Like, it's incredible. Like he's on another plane.
Yeah, he has reached the shore as well.
Oh, clearly, a long time ago forsure.
(22:46):
I was going Oh my my fiance worked on Tim's show the.
Oh, amazing. Yeah, yeah, she.
Had a lot of great things. What did she do about him?
She was the costume designer. Oh amazing.
So she was going to work on the second season, but she took
Jackass forever instead. This makes sense.
Yeah, this makes total sense. Tim's the best dude you guys
haven't met. No, I don't think so, but I've
(23:07):
had a few concussions, so we mayhave spent time together.
Sure, sure, sure. It's I wish I was joking.
He's the he's the best dude. You guys we should connect.
Y'all, Yeah. Is is it a heightened version of
himself that he's playing? Oh, 100%, yeah, 100%.
I mean, all this like, like I think we're versions of what we
(23:27):
make deep down. So I think he's just like I am
the character that he plays in alot of ways.
He's also a lot of his characters and and too, but
nicest guy in the world and and so sweet and caring and and
loves his friends and and stuff and cares about comedy so much.
Like he really is someone I I get a lot of kind of
(23:49):
encouragement from when I feel Iwaiver.
Maybe second guess my gut sometimes he's like so confident
in what he does, even if stuff he's like, it doesn't work in
the public, he's like, I like it, right?
And there's something about thatwhere I'm just like, it's kind
of amazing. Yeah, it's like that guy with
the plugs in. The guy with the plugs, he's
like, I'm getting Chinese food. I don't give a fuck.
(24:12):
I look insane. I don't give.
He's probably didn't even think about it.
He's like, yeah, I got hair plugs.
I'm getting Chinese food. I wish I had that guy's
confidence. How does one get that?
I'm like, are you born with it? Are you just like because I'm
constantly like the confident stuff of like, you know, waiver.
It's a wavering all the time. Yeah, I don't know.
You see, like you have that there's a thing like you got to
(24:34):
have the right amount of confidence because too little
confidence is a problem. Sure, but I think too much
confidence is a worse problem. Totally agree.
That is a real You've met those people.
Yeah. How do you navigate that,
especially as success came to you?
Was that something you had to navigate?
No, no, I no too much confidence.
(24:54):
No, my problem wasn't too much confidence.
I always I would air on the sideof too little confidence.
Oh wow. Especially early, you know,
growing up is part of me is like, well, I'm as funny as the
next guy. And then part of me is like, one
day people are going to find outyou're not funny.
Wow, that's always been there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(25:15):
But over the years, I'm like, all right, I'm, I'm reasonably
funny. I, you know, I, it's kind of
where I ended up, you know, everyone has their.
Sure isn't because you come across very confident, not in a
toxic way, just like you very you seem very not overconfident,
not over well, I know where you're talking about and it's.
Scary. Not in a Steven Seagal type of
God. Bless Steven.
(25:36):
This is a pro Steven Seagal podcast for sure.
No, yeah, not like that. We know.
We see it in culture constantly.Oh yeah, especially now.
Especially now. Getting too far into that.
Absolutely see it now. And all the compensating people
can do, especially men when they're feeling small, right?
And like, it's in our industry too.
(25:58):
It's interesting because like, Icould see how people get a
little success. Oh yeah, and maybe some latent
stuff all of a sudden blooms where it kind of takes control
and maybe they lose sight of their career a little bit or
what made them do what they do in the 1st place.
Yeah, I'm like talk. I'm careful of how I talk.
(26:19):
But it's it's interesting because I see it a lot of like
people kind of losing sight of. Oh, sure.
Of what they did, because it's like they get success and it's
sparkly and whatever, you know. Yeah, no, I, I, it took a little
getting used to, you know, but mine wasn't like I'm
overconfident and treating sure people I worked with like shit.
(26:40):
It was just a lot of me spinningout and spinning my wheels and,
you know, too much of this, too much of that, totally.
And then finally, work your way around who you want to be.
Sure. So.
Yeah, Did was that, did you do that kind of privately or was
that with the other guys too andI assume they were probably
dealing it with? No, I I didn't do it so
(27:02):
privately. I wish.
OK. I wish I was more private about
it. OK, OK, OK.
Oh, it's just fast, faster. A disaster.
Sure, sure. Interesting or even like this
the vulnerability and sharing that sometimes it's like
sometimes we we act out right, yeah, yeah and and don't share
(27:23):
that other side well. Part of changing is owning up to
what you did. You know you got to be
responsible for the things you did.
And totally, I'm sorry, I look got a little distracted.
Has anyone ever told you you look like Matt Hoffman?
A little. Wait, who's Matt Hoffman?
I know the. Name Legendary BMX Riot or he's.
(27:45):
Was he in the like? Of my generation's Evel Knievel.
We did a documentary on him called The Birth of Big Air.
Did he just get distracted rightnow or has it been?
No, no, throughout the throughout the, but I, I, I
felt, I, I got it out and I feela lot better about it because.
I think I was going to get. Offended.
No, no, no. He's a, he's a handsome young
(28:06):
man. I I don't know of anyone tougher
than Matt Hoffman, No. One said that I'll take it.
Thank you. I can't wait.
I'll do a deep dive. I don't feel tough at all.
So to be aligned with someone that could be possibly tough.
Yeah. And is sounds good for sure.
Thank you for getting it off your chest.
And I'm glad about truth. There you go.
I know I could tell something was blocking you.
(28:28):
Yeah, there we go. You got the Steven Seagal stuff
off and now this? Oh man, Seagal, what a what a
Dick. He's and like one of the things
my fiance and I like to do is just watch terrible movies,
(28:48):
right? It's one of our favorite
pastimes is terrible movies. And we had a a long run of
Seagal films. Absolutely.
And it's it's very satisfying. What?
I haven't been keeping up with Seagal news.
You want to like what? And he hasn't been top of mind.
No, he's he's like, it's dark. It's like it would.
Yeah, it would suck the the inner.
(29:09):
A lot of the stories would suck the energy out of the room
there. There are stories this producer
told me once. It's a funny story.
He walked in Seagal's office, and Seagal's sitting at his
desk, legs crossed, cowboy bootson the desk, his gun on the
(29:34):
desk, script open, and he's weeping.
And the producer's like, hey, what's what's going on?
You OK? He goes, I'm just reading the
most beautiful script I ever read.
And he's like, oh, really? Who wrote it?
(29:54):
He goes, I did. No, no, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.
A gun on the desk. Oh yeah, he was.
Really. He he had read too much of his
press. Oh my God, that's incredible.
(30:15):
I would want nothing else from Segal.
Yeah, then to do exactly that. You know, you know the Jean
LaBelle story. No.
So Jean LaBelle is one of the toughest man who ever lived.
He, his mom ran the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
He he grew up working with the wrestlers, the boxers, He
(30:38):
trained in so many disciplines. Think he got a gold medal in
judo in the Olympics. He's the first man to go to
Japan and train. You know, he's a stuntman as
well. And I've worked with them on
films and the stunt guys Revere him.
Like on one film I was working on, people just lined all the
stuntmen just lined up outside his door just so he would choke
(31:01):
them out. He was legendary for choking
people out and he after he wouldchoke you out, he'd give you a
patch that said I got choked outby Jean LaBelle.
So he's working on a movie with Steven Seagal.
And Steven Seagal saw how all the stuntmen revered Jean and
not him, and his ego couldn't take it.
(31:23):
So Gene's a nice guy, but he's alittle nuts.
So Seagal goes up to him. He goes, there's not a hole you
can get me in that I can't get out of.
And Gene's like, yeah, you're probably right, son.
Yeah, sure, it's fine. Go ahead, go on, Go on.
And Seagal wouldn't let it go. And finally, you know, Gene's
half off. So he's like, OK, turn around
(31:46):
and he he put his arm around Segal's neck.
He goes when I say go try and get away.
And Gene goes go and then just choked him out.
And he can can control how long he chokes you're out for OK.
And he chokes Segal out for an extended period of time and kind
of put him in the side of the sound stage to sleep it off.
(32:09):
Oh my God. And and Segal had pissed
himself, you know, while he was out, woke up and tried to have
LaBelle fired. You can't do, you can't beg
someone to do it and then just because it doesn't go your way.
That's incredible. Yeah, that's incredible.
(32:30):
And the production said fuck you, LaBelle.
Says. I mean, it feels like a Tim
sketch. Yeah, in a way it's like asking
to get choked out, losing immediately and then trying to
get trying to still win by getting the guy fired.
That's my favorite thing, comingup with so much confidence and
getting your ass beat. Immediately.
(32:51):
Immediately. Immediately not a fight.
And then? Too much confidence.
Too much on top of that? Pissing yourself?
Yeah, and taking a nap. He choked me out before he
choked out the whole cast. No.
Way Jackass. We didn't put it in the first
movie just because we thought kids would see it and go, OK,
well, let's do it. And they don't know they're
going to cut off the wind as opposed to the blood.
(33:13):
Sure. And so we didn't put it in
because we didn't want any trouble a little.
Dangerous. Yeah, Yeah.
But it's we. It's a weird feeling to be
choked out. You're sitting there looking at
your friends as next thing you know you're in a deep sleep
dreaming and you wake up and everyone's looking at you.
Oh my God. And covered in piss.
Yeah, no one. No one, no one feed themselves,
(33:37):
but we did put a bike lock around Aaron's neck while he was
out. I feel like you guys especially
torture him. Well, he he, he responds so well
his fear is funny. Sure.
Oh my, it's incredible. So, well, it's just.
(33:57):
So real. It's really satisfying to all of
us. It's unfortunately for him.
And wait, so the difference between when you get choked out
the air, it's like there's a thebreathing passage versus.
Blood. Well, you don't want to cut off
someone's air because I will kill them.
OK, so how do you you cut off? The the blood.
OK. So it's you put pressure on the
side? Yeah, OK, great.
(34:18):
But please no one, no one try it.
For some, I'm just learning thisand it seems I'm like, Oh yeah,
I should know that. Well, now you do.
Don't beat yourself up. I'm I'm a fucking idiot, Johnny
Jesus. Now, when does your movie come
out? May 9th in New York, in LA, and
then it'll start to expand and we'll go wide on Memorial Day
(34:41):
weekend. Are you guys doing like audience
reaction videos? Because we do that with Jackass
because it's such a, it's such afun movie to watch with your
friends. And I think your guys movie has
the same vibe. They're different tones, but
it's like, it's like, it's such a primal laugh and primal
uncomfortableness watching friendship.
(35:03):
I really appreciate that. You know, I feel like you guys
use those reaction videos like one of the first times I've ever
seen it in like ads and stuff, right?
And I know like some horror movies do it and stuff, but no
ones brought it up. We did one test screening when I
was still editing the movie and they filmed the audience and
that was the first time and I would go back sometimes when I
would edit and look, I'm like, how do?
(35:23):
People react to this. Yeah, yeah, it helps.
It's so interesting for. Sure, but were people being
vocal and and twisting and turning and scrunching their
face? You see, you see it, you see it
like, like the one we did was like just people off the street
who didn't know what they're getting into.
So it was a little, they were doing that for sure, but it was
(35:43):
a little, I think people were just surprised, like, what the
hell am I watching? I had that at first because I
was trying to figure out the tone at first because I I didn't
go in knowing anything and so I didn't know what I was watching.
But then you reach a point whereyou're completely on board and
you're just in for the ride. But it took a second.
(36:05):
If you don't, if you don't know what you're walking into.
No, I think I want, I like to hear this because.
Like, well, your movie will be marketed well so so people will
know what they're walking into. I had no idea what I was walking
into. Totally, totally.
But I like even stuff you could truly say whatever.
It's interesting to hear people,how people react.
(36:25):
And it's like we were saying earlier, some stuff like this is
going to kill, and then you get it in front of 100 people and
they're like, no, it doesn't kill at all, right?
Right. And it fucks with you a little
bit. Yeah, Yeah.
And it's so interesting. You're like, OK, I'm maybe 75%
right about my gut. And there's 25%.
That's just me. And that's fine, and that's
fine. You just got to accept that it's
fine, you know? Yes, because with comedy you
(36:49):
know a little, but you don't know everything.
You don't. It's so hard.
Yeah. Tim's always like laughing is an
accident, which is so interesting.
I feel like that's kind of a hardcore take, but in a way it's
like true or you like you're rolling the dice and you think
and then you you don't know. But the I don't know, maybe now
that you've brought it up, maybea 24 would want to do like a
(37:09):
cringe hidden camera. Oh my God, if you would have had
one on me that day. I just had my hand on my head,
my hands over my eyes, screaminglike no, don't Jesus truth, he's
doing it. That's so nice.
Like when you first played, whenwas the first large audience you
(37:30):
played your stuff in front of? Was it the TV show?
Was it the movie? Probably we did a friends and
family. I can't remember if we did the
friends and family screening first on Jackass the movie or we
screened it for Paramount the first time, but the Paramount
screening was a absolute disaster.
(37:52):
And this was like a first cut. We first cut, we purposely put
in like things we knew would never make the movie, right?
OK, 'cause we wanted to give them something to bitch.
Even though we had final cut. You, you want to give them
something to bitch about? OK Like the same thing you do
(38:14):
with the ratings board. You know, you put in red
herrings like we don't even wantthis in, but it gives them
something to do. To OK, wow.
So after the first screening at Paramount, one of the heads of
Paramount stood up. I was like that Paramount will
never release that movie. He was furious.
(38:35):
And in his defense, it was. The cut we turned in was gnarly.
OK, right. You're trying to get that
reaction in. No, no, no.
We weren't trying to not get themovie released, sure, but we we
put in a lot of things that would it make the film.
Yeah, yeah. But luckily the head of the
studio, Sherri Lansing, she cameup, said we love it.
(38:59):
We're so happy with it. And at the time we had the
opening with the shopping cart in it.
And she goes, what we would likeis if you guys would bookend it
with the ending as well. And so.
And she's like, here's X amount of dollars to go do that.
And that's when we did the old man thing at the end for Jackass
(39:20):
the movie. It was even funny then.
You know how angry this one guy got?
Wow. Yeah.
And he was a powerful guy at thestudio, so.
So you had final cut, but just to give them something to do and
feel like they're participating in it, you gave them these
things to like. Well, part of the reason and
part of the reasons, like we just wanted to try everything
(39:41):
out. Sure, just see what happens.
But some of the scenes lingered a little long, went a little
hot. I would love to see that I you
say that now, but I you feel like you felt like you ran a
marathon after sitting through like a long, longer than usual
cut of what we do like tone and pacing is so much with any movie
(40:06):
but ours especially. Certain bits work together,
certain bits don't. The music of 1 next to how one
feeds into the other one. Yeah, you don't want like too
many gross things back-to-back, too many.
I would say too many cocks, but there was probably too many
cocks and Jackass forever. There's a lot of cocks in it,
yeah, which I was like, I'm like, this is incredible.
(40:26):
We, we, Jeff and I, about 1/3 ofthe way through the movie, we're
like, there's a lot Spike as well.
There's a lot of cock in the movie, so let's kind of pull
back on the cock. So we made a conscious effort,
but then we'd be on the set filming something and we're
(40:46):
like, it's kind of funny if if their cocks are out.
So we just kind of threw up our hands.
No, you got to go where where the Spirit takes.
You. Yeah, absolutely.
I don't know. That's why I mean, talking about
vulnerability, that movie, especially in like the
vulnerability and the nudity, there's so much cock and balls
(41:10):
just right there. Too much.
There's right now it's, it's a perfect amount.
It's like right there. It's, it's truly incredible.
I was like, some of this belongsin a museum.
I was talking to this guy the other day and he said that
Jackass Forever was one of the reasons that him and his
girlfriend broke up because she had a movie that he didn't, a
(41:32):
movie that she didn't want him to see.
And then, I don't know, it was a, it was a bone of contention
in their relationship that he hecouldn't see it.
And then she takes him to see Jackass Forever and he's like,
they're just so much cock in it.And he had this build up
animosity for not being able to see the movie he wanted to see.
And he goes, then she makes me sit through this.
(41:55):
I said you are not wrong, Sir. But so wait, she wanted to see
Jackass Forever? Yeah.
Yeah. And he did it.
And then he gets there and it's just wall to wall cocks.
And they eventually just. That was the cock that broke
the. Absolutely.
Do you know what movie he was trying to see that she didn't
want? To I can't remember.
(42:16):
That's wild. That he didn't want to see.
Obviously there were other things going on in their
relationship which culminated inthis, but absolutely, that's why
I felt I didn't. I wasn't.
I didn't take it as an insult. I just completely sympathized
with them. Absolutely.
That could be shocking. Yeah.
I wonder how many over the yearsbreakups Jackass has led to.
(42:39):
I don't think a lot. I think I hear more stories of
fathers seeing it with their sons or grandfathers seeing it
with their sons as we get older,you know?
Absolutely. Yeah, Absolutely.
Yeah. I'm just remembering like one of
my first girlfriends. We went to Blockbuster and
rented. What's that to Blockbuster?
Yeah. Crazy.
(43:02):
I know it's, I'll send you a link.
I don't think my kids even, likewe went to a video store the
other night, they have idiots showed Jackass the movie and I
introed it. By the way, it's a great.
They have this theater, this video store in Eagle Rock.
Yeah, and huge crowd. And like, if you ever want to
screen something, they reach outbecause it's fun.
(43:22):
Well. Friendship screen there this
Saturday, Oh. Really.
Yeah, if this Saturday. This Saturday if you want.
To see you're going to, are you going to intro it?
Yeah, I'm doing AQ. And a it's fun.
Yeah, I'm excited. They I fuck, I can't believe I
missed that. They just showed it the other
day. Yeah, they.
And can't. Believe I missed that.
It's it's a great experience, but what I why would why did I
bring that up? Video stores?
(43:44):
Oh yeah. But I took my daughter and her
and her friend had never been ina video store before.
You know which I get it 13. Yeah, yeah.
Makes sense? So, and I was like, OK, Arlo,
there's some things in this movie that I'm going to ask you
to like cover your eyes or coveryour ears.
(44:05):
Oh, they've never seen it. No, because it's, you know.
Of course, of course. But yeah, I mean.
But but then I thought about it and I was like, actually,
they're not going to have to cover their eyes or ears because
there's there's not any cock. There's one shot we can sheer
shorts. But it was really tame and
(44:25):
innocent compared to the things that what it became.
It was almost refreshing. The innocence.
But I mean, they did cover theireyes and ears on their own.
Wow. But not at my behest.
So what was that like watching it with your daughter?
It was so fun because I spent most of the time watching her
(44:46):
and her friend's reaction. Wow.
And yeah, it was fun. What and what was the
conversation afterwards? Just I've just seen what bits
they like and you know, it was areally good experience.
That's incredible. When was the last time you saw
the movie? Probably a year and a half ago
(45:06):
because I showed my son who had turned 14 the movie because my
oldest daughter saw it when she saw Jackass number 2 when she
was 14. Now in that movie I made her
cover her eyes, ears, or both because Jackass number 2 was
probably our most for sure raw of them all.
(45:27):
For sure. Is that the one with the shit
pops out where he's like. Oh, oh, the the the puquino.
Yeah, yeah, that was in there. There's certain God damn images
from your the TV show and the movies that are lodged in my
brain. Yeah.
Sorry about that. That hits me in a way which I
(45:48):
think is like, successful, you know, hits the psyche in a way
that I'm like, it does somethingthat I'm like, it'll never
leave. Yeah.
And it constantly is in my head.Yeah, hopefully you have a
therapist or someone you can talk to about it.
Yeah, that's I'll bring it up toGAIL.
I got I was I went to the the John Waters exhibit at the
(46:11):
Academy Museum last year and there was a little part of the
exhibit was this montage video of all his film and I see this
father and son walk in the son'sabout 13 or 14.
I'm sitting there talking to my fiance and about 3 minutes later
(46:31):
this father and son come walkingout and the son's like going no
no I just don't want to do this today.
He was disturbed by something hesaw.
Oh my. God and it just it was thought
it. Was I don't want to do this.
Today. I don't want to do this today.
What did the dad say? He just, you know, was trying to
(46:52):
be supportive, but it was, I mean, it was a montage of all
the hits of his films. I was in heaven.
Everyone was except for this, you know.
Yeah. Ish.
He had a real visceral. Experience good luck to that
kid. Yeah dear God.
And so do you plan to show your kids the the rest of the films
(47:13):
like. Rocco is seen up into three.
He hasn't seen Jackass forever yet.
I'm going to wait on Arlo seeingthe rest of the because she's
only 13 and yeah, you know, I don't want to have her have the
experience that you can't wash them some things out of your
(47:33):
mind. I don't mind.
They're not. I'm not.
It's not a bad thing, but they're certain images.
Plus, I get, you know, not only the naughty content, just like
me getting knocked out, there's a lot more of that in the rest
of the. Film, yeah, I'm sure that's she
doesn't want to see that or. Yeah, no kid wants.
To see that, absolutely. So.
What do they want to do? Do they want to follow your
(47:53):
footsteps in any way? I let them know that that's not
happening. You know, I don't want my kids
doing that as far as them, you know, saying something
inappropriate or I was pretty easy on them about that.
But I was, as far as something happening to them physically,
sure, I was like a helicopter parent.
I would be on the playground underneath whatever they are on
(48:17):
to catch them. So I wish I was a little more
easy on that, but that's how I was.
Sure. I mean, that makes a lot of
sense for sure. Plus, they're smart.
They're not going to want to do what I did.
Sure, sure. Or some other context like it's
interesting how we repeat our what our parents did.
Or yeah, it's called generational neglect.
(48:39):
Yes, after, yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, we in my case
too, it's like my dad wanted to be a photographer, got a masters
in it, but was like he he was too scared to pursue it.
And then I'm, I became a director, you know, and almost
took that over. And it's interesting how that
pattern repeats all the time. The same with my dad.
He was hilarious, like he shouldhave been in show business, but
(49:05):
he he wasn't. He owned a tire company and
everyone that worked for him wore his marks.
You know, he just pranked them all the time and wow, you know
that he he was frustrated and hedrank a lot because of his
frustration. And, you know, I think he was in
a job that first of all was incredibly hard work, but not
(49:28):
something that he actually wanted to do.
So just like your father, you know, far as the standpoint of
you taking over what your fatherwanted to do.
Yeah, kind of unconsciously we finish something or complete
something. I I heard.
Jerry Seinfeld talk about the fact that a lot of comedians,
they're somewhat their mom and their father were amateur
(49:52):
comedian, you know, that never pursued it and it's their kids
who took it up. God, it's so fascinating.
I see the pattern all the time and friends and other people I
work with and it's like, it's, it's so fascinating.
So it's I asked out of curiosity.
I'm like, I wonder when there's a certain success achieved.
What kids do or do they do something similar?
(50:13):
Like you create conditions for surprise, right?
I wonder from a kids point of view, what is that?
How does that translate? Or do they simply just go and
become a professor, you know, orthey do something totally
different? Well, that's the dream.
That's the dream you're pushing them to teach.
Yeah, just stay off a basic cable.
But but yeah, did your dad see the stuff you did?
(50:34):
Yes, yeah, yeah. And he both my mom and dad
absolutely loved it. They didn't like the stunts at
all. Sure.
But they were very proud and that made me feel good.
And but dad was overboard with it.
Like part of the fact he was proud and people treated him
differently, right? Wow.
(50:55):
Yeah. Like pizza.
People would come to his house to deliver pizza and he'd open
the door. Home of Johnny Knoxville.
No. No.
Yeah. And he used to go to police
auctions and buy cars and, and sell them, you know, just him
and mom and have something to do.
But he had cards printed up like, you know, father of Johnny
(51:18):
Knoxville on his used cars. This.
Is incredible. Yeah, yeah.
Oh my. God, yeah, he was out of
control. So did he ever say like, OK,
this he loved like the success, but the the stunts he he was,
they didn't. Love no.
They hated this. Stuff.
And did they try to talk you outof that, even though I know it
was ingrained and. Well, they would say, we hope
(51:39):
you don't do stunts in this nextfilm.
They knew I was doing the film. Like, just don't do any stunts.
Like you know what to tell him. Wow.
And so he milked the success, and boy did that's such.
There's something so endearing. Yeah, it's sweet.
I thought it was sweet. It never bothered me that he.
(51:59):
Wow, that's that's amazing. Yeah, he's always wearing some
type of swag, you know. Proud parent.
It's incredible. Yeah.
Yeah. Did he ever try to get himself
in on camera? I'm trying to think he would
sometimes write an idea and a few we filmed like I think the
(52:21):
department store box and he's like you should go in a
department store and just get some boxing gloves off the shelf
and go at it. Brilliant, I do.
Yeah, he's good. I think he was in one or two
things very quickly on the TV show.
Oh, great. He but he kind of I've seen him
like I the news interviewed him one time he was at this golf
(52:45):
thing with my sister and he justall hit.
He had such intense natural charisma.
But soon as they turn the cameraon him, he just went inside and
just was super behaved and wow and measured and something.
Two things he never was. Wow.
But I get it. I was terrified of the camera
(53:07):
when I started out trying to act, you know?
And how did you get relaxed? Just doing it or just exposure?
Exposure. Yeah, yeah.
And this was like traditional acting, not?
This was it was so bad. Like I knew that I wanted to be
an actor in high school and you know that people knew I wanted
to be an actor. And I remember it was a silly
(53:28):
thing. This company came to interview
some students about the lunch menu on camera.
I don't know what it was for some industrial thing.
It was like me and six people. I was the only one who wanted to
be in show business. Everyone was great.
They asked them questions. They were present and
(53:50):
insightful, and they got to me. And I did exactly the same thing
as my dad did. I couldn't even think of words
to say. Yeah, how Mr. Saturday Night.
I couldn't even. How old were you?
It's. Like 16.
OK, and you're you're supposed to talk about how good the lunch
was. You don't even have to like brag
(54:13):
on the lunch, you just gotta give them ideas for different
lunch items. You can actually complain if you
want. You can say anything you want
and I had nothing. I had fucking nothing.
And and did you have something you were going to say and then
you got? Camera.
I'll wing it. Yeah, I'm, you know, I'm headed
to Hollywood. I'll wing it.
(54:35):
And then I'm like, oh, no, oh, no.
Do you remember? It's like, do you ever see that
video? Boom goes the dynamite.
Oh, yes, wait. The kid was doing the news for
his college, and he starts out, you know, doing OK, And then at
one point, something goes wrong.I don't know what happened, but
he just went blank and went, oh,no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(54:59):
yeah. I've had so many moments like
that in my life where I was like, here we go.
It's the tunnel. Vision, you're getting calm,
you're getting choked out. Have you had moments like that
where you're just like, Oh no, absolutely.
It's so honest of an emotion. It's so, it's so related.
I talk about Primal again like that There's something.
(55:22):
So it's like what you're explaining is like you're on
camera talking about lunch. Yeah, Stakes couldn't be low,
right? No pressure.
No pressure at all. And you fucking whiff, whiff.
To me, that is a deal. Like my ideal kind of comedy.
It's so funny. And and with all your friends
watching. Is even better.
Yeah, yeah. And this You think you're a big
(55:44):
shot like the stuff. Yeah, I got this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll go last.
Yeah. You know, let me.
I got this. And eating.
Shit. Oh God, it was.
It was awful. I still sweat just thinking
about it. What?
I mean, I, it's something that I'm not a performer.
I did improv for a number of years, but out of like which?
Is very brave. That's nice to hear, but I
(56:05):
don't. I did.
It I would be terrified, I'd be scared.
I mean, it's terrifying, but there's a game element to it
where I'm like a challenge whereit does feel.
And then it's not like stand up,truly that idea.
Terrified. I did that once.
You did once. How to fucking the audience?
Actually, I was 15 and the audience reacted well.
I got laughs, but my sweat pits almost.
(56:28):
I had a problem sweating in highschool, but that night my sweat
pits almost met, but almost met between my tits.
I was like, that's fun, let's never do that again.
And I never did. That's crazy.
So to do improv is to me it's even more frightening then stand
(56:48):
up. Because stand up you have an
idea going, knowing what you're going to say.
But in improv you're just winging it.
Like me talking about the lunch that day.
I was just winging it and I had nothing.
You're winging and could be really terrifying.
You're on there with a, were you?
Frightened doing improv? Oh always.
And like especially someone who doesn't like to be even doing
Q&A's for this movie drives me. Like I'm already dreading
(57:09):
Saturday when I have to do 1 andI'm like so many people I know,
so many people that love me and support me are there and I'm
like that makes it even. Worse, the worst case scenario
in your head. I'm just going to say something
insane or or look insane or lookdumb even like the the fear of
having doing this podcast with you.
I was like, I'm going to say something so dumb.
Well, I mean, you know, I've said a number of things that are
(57:32):
really stupid here. Not at all even actually
excellent. I've just given up.
Yeah, you got to give up. You got to let go.
But you've been wonderful. You've been absolutely
incredible. And all stop.
Now we're back to Jay and each other off again.
No, but it's true. But the spinning out is, as
someone who doesn't put themselves in front of camera a
lot, it's like very accessible to me and I could start to,
(57:55):
there's certain times, improv especially, it happened where
I'm on stage and all of a suddenit goes like roof, the vision
starts to blur. Because you're no longer present
no longer when you're went from being present and in the moment
to like used in a fear spiral, complete fear and you can't be
creative in a fear spiral to have anxiety and do improv.
That's fucking brave. It's.
(58:18):
Do you still, is that something you still contend with from time
to time or you relatively have that?
Is that a thing of the past? You know, I, I had, I was very
frightened of crowds growing up and I still get anxiety in
certain social situations and talking on a mic in front of
people, like in a large room. It used to be very frightening,
(58:39):
but I've gotten to where I feel OK about it now.
I don't sit and wonder like, oh,if I do this, if I do that, they
don't laugh. I finally reach the point where
like, well, fuck them, you know,You know, if, if something, if
they don't laugh or they don't, if I it's OK, you know?
(59:01):
Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
Ending on fuck em I think reallyworks for me.
Ending I mean me too. I mean truly like.
I I learned that from a 24. They said fuck em.
Fuck em, yeah. They don't come to our movie.
Fuck em. Thank you a 24 but please please
(59:21):
come to friendship. You will be happy that you did.
You will be extremely uncomfortable and throughout a
lot of the movie, but in the best way possible and just some
loud reflexive laughter. It is a masterpiece, I loved it.
(59:41):
That is truly so nice to hear, Johnny.
Thank you for sitting down and and confabulating chats and
bands. Thanks for your bands, English
would say. Thanks for your bands.
Thanks for your your Seagal stories.
Thanks for thanks for your shotsfired at Seagal.
I wasn't expecting that, but I love it.
Oh, man, Giant means the world that you're here and and that
(01:00:03):
you watch the movie. And I really, really appreciate
your kind. Thoughts.
Oh no, it was great. Truly, I loved.
It you're, you're a big inspiration for me, so I really
appreciate you taking the time. Well, thank you.
Thanks for listening. The A 24 podcast is produced by
us A 24. Special thanks to our editor Tom
Wyatt and Robot Repair, who composed our theme.
Hey, and welcome back to the A 24 podcast.
For today's episode, we paired up Friendship writer, director,
and Jackass superfan Andrew Deyoung with his idol Johnny
Knoxville. Trust us when we say you want to
see Friendship on the big screenin a crowded theater.
It's now playing in New York andLA and expands nationwide on May
23rd. Here's Andrew and Johnny.
(00:26):
Hi, I'm Andrew Deyoung. And my name is Johnny Knoxville
and this is the A 24 podcast. Wait, where'd you come from
today? The fighting town of Toluca
Lake. OK, cool.
Fighting town, yes. OK, nice.
No, it's not a fighting town. And yourself.
Oh, Pasadena. All right.
Dude, it's so good to be here with.
You. Nice to meet you, nice to be
(00:46):
here. I saw Friendship, your new film,
and it is fantastic. It is so fucking uncomfortable.
I mean, I'm just. Compliment.
But in a wonderful. Way, Yeah, yeah, thank you the.
Situations or you're just like, oh, no, don't, please don't.
Don't do that. He's doing it, OK?
(01:07):
He's doing it. It's even worse than I thought.
What he's doing that's it's justit's one of those things you
have to see in a theater. It would be fun to watch with a
bunch of people. I just watched it with my friend
and Agent Ryan and we were just both yelling at the screen the
whole time. Oh my God.
At a in a theater or at home. In a theater.
(01:28):
OK, wow. So I can imagine what it's like
with a pack theatre. Have you watched it with a pack
theatre? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yelling at the screen? Or was that just me?
We premiered. We premiered at TIFF in a
theatre that was like 1000 people, and I think it gave me
brain damage in terms of like, how can I ever not try to get
back to this moment, which I'm sure you've experienced a bunch
(01:51):
of times. Because it was just the the
experience was so good. For you so like it just so much
laughter, big laughter, things that laughing at that.
I didn't really think we're, like, necessarily funny.
Yeah, there was a lot of that, you know, with me too.
I was probably laughing inappropriately.
Which is like so thrilling for me when you like that.
(02:11):
My favorite kind of laughter is laughing, but not sure why.
Yeah, yeah. And something deep down is like
I, I don't know how articulate it, but it's like.
Do you feel like you're not supposed to laugh at that?
Exactly Right. But it's like inside you're
like, oh God, you can't help it.Yeah, like a catharsis.
Well, I feel like so much what you do, the brilliance of that
too is like. Brilliance.
(02:31):
I, I mean, I truly, I truly deepdown, like we'll get right into
it, like so much that laughter comes from to me, like how
uncomfortable that is, how like primal and how honest.
Well, that's one of the things, one of the one of the things we
have going for us is Jackass is silly, but it's honest because
everything's real. Totally.
(02:51):
And I think, yeah, you person walks, person falls down.
It's just, you know, like you said, primal.
It's just reflexive laugh. It's ancient, yeah.
But God, I was just the the Tim Robinson character feels like a
cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Rupert Pumpkin.
(03:12):
OK, great. Yeah, King of Comedy was a huge
influence on the movie. Oh my God.
Hello, Moshi. Moshi.
We're going to keep that in, Dave.
It was I, I spent like a good portion of the movie trying to
figure out his diagnosis. I can't figure it out.
(03:32):
I mean, he seems to be on the a little on the spectrum, but
there's also a lot of rage. Sure.
I don't know. Do you do you know the
diagnosis? I mean, you, when you diagnose
him, I you're probably going to diagnose me by default.
Oh really? That's an extension of.
You. I can't.
I mean, don't you think? Like when we write stuff, it's
(03:53):
in? I feel like, well, I don't know,
there's many characters in the movie.
You could have dedicated any of the characters to yourself.
I relate to a lot, even I'm pushing him in versions of me,
probably in this character to the extreme, but a lot of it is
like me, my dad and like friendsand things I've noticed, you
know? You and your father had social
(04:14):
anxiety. I've heard certain things of
like, covering, like, it's so funny watching people hide,
right? And Tim is like, I feel so
brilliant at hiding. And so much of his comedy comes
from like, him squirming to hidethe truth, right?
And I feel like I like I do it. I've seen my dad do it.
And like, so many men have to doit too, you know, like, there's
(04:36):
a lie and we're covering it up. And I think it's so tragic and
so funny. Have you gotten better about
being honest with your feelings?I think so.
I try to. I mean, you're being.
Pretty honest right now, but I mean in so like social
situations, interpersonal. Over the years, relationships
for sure for sure. How are you with it?
Well, I finally reached a point in my life where I am honest in
(05:05):
and it's embarrassing. I mean in my relationship.
And that's embarrassing to admitas a, a, a 54 year old man.
I, I feel like I'm the healthiest I've been in my life.
So the relationship is like legitimate, amazing, healthy,
wonderful relationship. Amazing.
And that I don't have any secrets from this person, where
(05:31):
in the past I always did. And it's also embarrassing to
admit how wonderful it feels notto keep secrets.
Absolutely, it eats you. Up like I can have a little
anxiety anyway and you having toremember your lie sure sure it's
a nightmare it's terrible it's anightmare it's a nightmare and
(05:54):
it just feels wonderful to be like OK, you know everything I
don't have to hide and it's. So medicine personal to just
speak the truth. Yes, it's so much easier.
It's so much easy, even though it's like hard and could be
difficult and have some major consequences, right.
But like as I'm 42, so I've learned all the and still
(06:15):
learning. I'm still constantly practicing
like how to be honest, How do I let people have hard feelings,
you know? And, and I think deep down this
movie is like watching the fun of it for me is watching someone
not like bury secrets and then squirm and watch secrets destroy
(06:36):
their life essentially. And by the end hopefully realize
that like truth is, is the only and way forward.
As messy as it is, ideally that's what I'm scratching at.
Yeah, well, it as a person who has kept secrets and hasn't
always been truthful, it it is that comes across because you
(06:59):
just you just not as intensely as in your.
Sure, sure, sure, sure. I mean you.
Your movie is an intense versionof that.
Of course, yeah. Yeah, Hopefully it's like a
catharsis for an audience to do the things that we repress.
Yes, and Paul Rudd's great in itlike and he's his characters
(07:21):
slowly revealed, you know, and that's how I took it.
You know, he comes across as this handsome, everything going
for him, confident guy. But then he's like, he has so
much pathos and self doubt. Sure.
And you knocked it out of the park, kid.
Hey thank you. I mean, well it's funny.
(07:44):
It's like I was re watching Jackass forever and which is
like truly one of my favorite movies of all time.
Oh my goodness. Thank you.
Truly, I I was that whole year. I'm like, this is the movie of
the year. Why don't people understand it,
the ideas in this movie? But I I bring it up right now
because like you're talking about the Paul character and
like him his secret being field,right?
(08:07):
And it reminded me of Jackass forever, where you're on the
ground and you're like, are you filling my bald spot?
You know, right, right, right. And then Spike.
Comes and fills it. In Yeah, yeah, right.
It's always got my back. And I'm like, you know, I know
that's like, oh, you know, it's there.
You're kind of playing with vulnerability there.
You're clearly comfortable with it.
But I'm like, that's so funny. Because it was in my head, Yeah.
(08:28):
Because this is your right. You're playing with it, Yeah.
Yeah, and it's so and all men are dealing like I take care of
pills right where yeah, yeah, and we know that's I do too
insecurities and free to kind ofcall it out and it to be like
jokingly accepted and covered upby Spike your your long time
friend is so beautiful and so funny and so touching and
(08:49):
watching it the other day I was like, oh, that's kind of like
similar what I'm trying to do with all my work is this or even
in my friendship. So like revealing and then they
kind of we could laugh about ourinsecurities together.
Get ahead of the joke. You've got to get ahead of the.
That's the key. That is the key.
Get ahead of the joke is so. Yeah, truth.
(09:11):
It just takes a little self-awareness, especially if
you're on a brutal set like Jackass.
That jokes coming. Absolutely.
Yeah, you got to get. Ahead of it that's really funny
are you do you feel like you're constant over the years like OK
I got to get ahead of and constantly like almost hyper
vigilant like they're going to look for my weak spots I'm.
No, I just naturally there's self deprecating sense of humor
(09:37):
in my family, so it just comes out, you know, but I got to say,
having the Gray hair now has really helped that bald spot.
OK, well, oh, it's really like helps blend.
Yeah, you don't even, you barelyeven notice it because when you
got the dark hair or when I had quote dark hair dyed, you know,
(09:59):
it sticks out. I mean your hair looks.
Great contrast. Oh, stop.
What do you what are we doing? You want to share the?
Secrets here, Christ. What what kind of secrets?
I'm doing the pills secrets of Yeah.
What do you. We don't have to talk about that
If if it feels. No, no, no, I I what is it?
Take finasteride or something. I don't know what it is, but
it's supposed to help your hair.Same.
(10:21):
It helps me for sure, yeah. And I yeah, there's no secret.
OK, good. It's working.
It's working for sure. Because you know, I always heard
that like your hair is dependenton your maternal.
Like genetics? Yeah, your your mom's dad.
Mom's dad, OK. And he was bald as hell.
(10:43):
I was like, Oh no, no, both. Oh, actually on both sides, both
men, my grand, both my grandfathers went bald.
But so far I'm I'm holding up. It's doing good.
Yeah. It's doing good.
I have a couple friends who've done the full like, like
transplant stuff, you know whichI'm like, OK, that's an option
(11:05):
if I ever feel that insecure. Yeah, I I think you shouldn't
have to do that. You know, if we go ball, we just
shave it or leave it be, Just accept it.
But because I yeah, Guy came in my rest, I used to wait tables
years ago. And the guy, I guess he was mid
transplant and he just had he had all these dots from the
(11:30):
front of his scalp to the back of his head.
And talk about confidence. He just raw when he.
Just was sitting there eating this Chinese chicken salad, and
I'm just trying not to stare at these dots in his head.
He didn't give a shit. You ask.
Now that is like reaching the shore.
You know, you fully. Yeah.
(11:51):
You. Yeah, you fully mastered it.
Well, it's like, if he has that kind of confidence, why isn't he
OK bald? Exactly.
Yeah, that's, well, it's complicated.
Sure, sure. I know.
You know, Yeah, Yeah, of course.Of course.
Yeah, I always remember that guy.
I'm like, he just, I respect. He didn't seem to care, but he
cared. Have I?
(12:11):
I respect him. I hope he's doing well right
now. He's listening to this
eventually I. He's probably no longer with
him. I'm sure he was like 30 years
ago. He was he was pushing it then.
OK, I see. You know, I hope he hope his
family is doing well. God, God forbid.
But have you seen those videos of those, you know, that's like
you go to Turkey and get really cheap ones done.
Have you seen these videos of like?
(12:32):
People at the airport. I do like people travelling to
other countries to get, you know, a cheap surgery done.
Sure it's I I wouldn't recommendit.
I understand why they do it but yeah but what your point?
Was, you know, there's these incredible videos online of like
guys just coming from because I guess like it's so expensive
here that you go to Turkey, you get like a round trip flight
(12:55):
meals board or whatever and the surgery done.
And it's really inexpensive, thehair surgery.
And there's these videos of in the airport of just like a
camera scanning and it's all these guys waiting for their
flight home, just like their heads all wrapped up.
Oh wow. And it's like such a thing.
Is it this one guy over there doing?
It it's like a whole like littlecottage industry that's
(13:16):
happening and and because someone brought it up to me and
I was like, Oh my God, that's wild because it's like 30 grand
here hair. Transplants while you wait and.
While you wait. It's crazy I was in Tennessee
whereas in high school and as itis flea market and a sign
advertised tattoos while you wait and I was wondering how
(13:38):
else are you supposed to get tattoos?
At a it was at a. Flea market.
Just leave your forearm and comeback later.
Wait, what were they waiting at a like a flea market or
something I had? So it was a tattoo booth and but
you can get them while you wait.Yeah, yeah, it's a good angle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever it takes.
But yeah, to go back to your watching it in a room full of
(14:00):
people for the first time was I'm sure.
I don't know. How do you feel when you you
know something's final? I've seen it 1000 times.
I'm assuming you're involved in the Yeah, I see it and I'm like,
well, this is crap, this means nothing.
And then you see it in a theater, and then all these
people, it's alive for them for the first time.
And it's such a psychedelic. And with comedy, it's so
(14:23):
beneficial to screen it with audiences because it's simple.
They either laugh or they don't.And then, you know, we have a
friends and family screening a couple of one or two of those,
and then we'll screen it two or three times before we release.
And it's just so it helps editing so much.
(14:45):
Sure, you know. Are the changes being made kind
of tiny or based off of the reactions are?
You. Well, it depends.
Sometimes they're just, you know, a few re edits here or
whole bits will come out. You're like, well, that didn't
work like that. Didn't work like I thought it
was going to. OK, interesting.
Some bits you think this is going to kill, this is people
(15:08):
are going to like this. Crickets, wow, crickets.
And then some things you have nofaith in that you didn't want to
put in, they'll love you can never.
It's tough to figure that out. That must feel.
Does that like disorient you in your gut?
No, because I we don't take it personally.
So much of what we think works, works.
(15:30):
And sometimes you don't know, even when determining to shoot
the ideas, sometimes Jeff will come up with an idea.
I'm like, I don't think so. Or I'll come up with an idea and
everyone will be like, that's, that's not going to work.
Let's not sure. And but Jeff and I know enough
to know that we're wrong a lot. And so we end up shooting it and
(15:54):
it works. Yeah, most of the time.
And so we we give, give each other that grace, one of the few
graces we give one another. But it's like, OK, I don't think
that's going to work, but let's shoot it.
Yeah, Yeah. And with what we do, you just
take so many chances as far as like, let's just throw
everything against the wall and totally be as open to the
(16:15):
process as possible. So much about surprise, right?
I could feel like a kind of maybe a idea you don't totally
believe in could lead to once you shoot it, something
incredible happens, right? Oh absolutely.
You know, we have rainy day ideas.
Like we'll have all these ideas that we plan to shoot, but if
something happens during the dayor rains or something, vice
(16:37):
versa, not vice versa. But if we have a list of ideas
that pretty much nothing, ideas like get 6 tubes of crazy glue
and see what happens, that literally is the whole thing and
we look in a really good bit andJackass 2 with that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know.
(16:58):
With the helmets. The helmets?
No no it was we ended up super gluing We Man and Preston in the
69 together. Bam super glued his hand to his
daddy's hairy chest and pull hishand off and it was super hairy.
Incredible. I tried one which I can't this I
don't. I felt like I really dodged a
(17:20):
bullet while we were shooting this and kids do not do this at
home. I thought it would be funny to
put the Super glue around my mouth and chin and super glue my
face to Phil's chest so I'd havea goatee.
OK. But what happened was I just got
I was just doing nothing but inhaling the Super glue.
(17:42):
Oh God. And I like the room started
spinning. I almost passed out and oh God,
it was. It was almost.
Dark. Oh God, And you couldn't even
get, you couldn't even do the bit.
No, no, it was. No, I had to.
We had to, yeah. The terrifying.
Well, I don't know if I was terrified, but I did realize
that I was almost in deep waters.
(18:04):
Sure, sure. So, but that was.
Fun. Sometimes you get surprises you
don't. Oh, there's lots of lots of
surprises. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's interesting in in my movie,Tim doesn't really like to
improvise really. And you know, there's things
that he's he comes from improv world course, like brilliantly
funny person in a moment and he's always like he adds on to
(18:25):
little things and stuff like that.
But he's really kind of anti like whole cloth improv,
especially in his, I haven't worked on his.
I think you should leave. But just knowing like I did a
pilot with him and just knowing him and Zach, his writing
partners process. They're really precise about
writing, but it doesn't feel that way.
It has its own like aliveness and kind of spontaneity to it
(18:47):
too. And he loves you and.
What? Oh, that's very kind.
Loves you. Super funny.
And it's interesting like these different pathways to get to a
laugh, you know? And I also come from improv and
have such a desire to create surprise, not I mean you guys.
What you guys do is something I can't do.
Well, we don't know what's going, we don't have any idea
(19:07):
what's going to happen, so we'resurprised with everyone else.
That's incredible to create those conditions for surprise
and then roll with it is something that's like, yeah,
some days you're going to might pass out.
It's going to go a little dark and sometimes you're going to
get like incredible, beautiful stuff that that we see in in the
work. I don't know, I'm just, I really
like that, like setting up for surprise because I kind of, I
(19:28):
find it so rare in like I do a lot of TVI feel like people are
constantly trying to kill surprise.
Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah, they just some
directors I've worked with, theyonly like to stick to the
script. Sure.
And some will be like, okay, this take, do whatever, we got
the other, we got the script, sodo whatever you want.
(19:50):
And sure, that's always fun for me.
You know, I've worked with John Waters, who I absolutely adore.
Amazing. The greatest dinner guest of all
time is you know, people are like boy, if you have 5 people
you would like to have dinner with, John Waters is the first
person I want at that dinner. Wow, what it what?
(20:10):
He's just, you cannot bring up asubject that he doesn't have
articulate, hilarious take on. He's so well read and you know,
you go to his house, you can't even sit down because there's
books stacked 10 high in every chair on every couch.
He gets like 100 magazines a month.
(20:31):
That magazines really don't exist anymore.
Really sucks going to the airport.
I used to love going to the airport.
I would spend $75.00 of magazines and now.
There's you load I but every dayyou would you never bring your
stuff to the airport. You would just go and load up on
magazine. Ohh, absolutely.
What were your magazines of choice?
Popular Science was one. OK, respect, respect.
(20:53):
Because I could see all these, Icome across some silly gadget.
I'm like, I can use that on one of the guys.
OK, sure. And I got so a lot of ideas out
of that. But the reason I brought up John
Waters is like, he really wants to stick to the script, OK.
And like, he has a cadence in his head too.
Oh yeah, you and he, he'll give line readings and I have no
(21:19):
problem at all receiving a line reading from a master like John
Waters. I actually loved it because
they're so specific. Wow.
Yeah. Is he giving you readings from
like take one or is he letting you get one in yourself?
He he knows how he wants to haveit.
Like he'll get the script and read the whole script in each
(21:42):
character's voice. Wow.
And so you're kind of just doingyour version of his take, which
I, again, I think is wonderful. I love John.
John, I will do whatever you want, you know.
That's incredible. Yeah.
And the other actors on set, didthey have a similar positive
response? Some were.
(22:03):
They were a little puzzled, but again they ended up at like It's
John Waters of What Do You Need?Sure, sure, sure.
He I mean what? He's giving.
He does that with Tracey Allman.He did that with everyone and
everyone just accepted it. You're on John Waters.
Ride. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of
amazing. And it's a wonderful ride.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, to have a vision, a
director of the vision that clear, Yeah.
(22:24):
Is rare. Yeah.
He's like, really amazing. He's fantastic.
That's so great to hear. He's this myth about him, like
this hitchhiking myth, right? I don't know if, you know, like
people are like, sure, we just picked up John Waters on the
side of it. You know, it does that.
Like, it's incredible. Like he's on another plane.
Yeah, he has reached the shore as well.
Oh, clearly, a long time ago forsure.
(22:46):
I was going Oh my my fiance worked on Tim's show the.
Oh, amazing. Yeah, yeah, she.
Had a lot of great things. What did she do about him?
She was the costume designer. Oh amazing.
So she was going to work on the second season, but she took
Jackass forever instead. This makes sense.
Yeah, this makes total sense. Tim's the best dude you guys
haven't met. No, I don't think so, but I've
(23:07):
had a few concussions, so we mayhave spent time together.
Sure, sure, sure. It's I wish I was joking.
He's the he's the best dude. You guys we should connect.
Y'all, Yeah. Is is it a heightened version of
himself that he's playing? Oh, 100%, yeah, 100%.
I mean, all this like, like I think we're versions of what we
(23:27):
make deep down. So I think he's just like I am
the character that he plays in alot of ways.
He's also a lot of his characters and and too, but
nicest guy in the world and and so sweet and caring and and
loves his friends and and stuff and cares about comedy so much.
Like he really is someone I I get a lot of kind of
(23:49):
encouragement from when I feel Iwaiver.
Maybe second guess my gut sometimes he's like so confident
in what he does, even if stuff he's like, it doesn't work in
the public, he's like, I like it, right?
And there's something about thatwhere I'm just like, it's kind
of amazing. Yeah, it's like that guy with
the plugs in. The guy with the plugs, he's
like, I'm getting Chinese food. I don't give a fuck.
(24:12):
I look insane. I don't give.
He's probably didn't even think about it.
He's like, yeah, I got hair plugs.
I'm getting Chinese food. I wish I had that guy's
confidence. How does one get that?
I'm like, are you born with it? Are you just like because I'm
constantly like the confident stuff of like, you know, waiver.
It's a wavering all the time. Yeah, I don't know.
You see, like you have that there's a thing like you got to
(24:34):
have the right amount of confidence because too little
confidence is a problem. Sure, but I think too much
confidence is a worse problem. Totally agree.
That is a real You've met those people.
Yeah. How do you navigate that,
especially as success came to you?
Was that something you had to navigate?
No, no, I no too much confidence.
(24:54):
No, my problem wasn't too much confidence.
I always I would air on the sideof too little confidence.
Oh wow. Especially early, you know,
growing up is part of me is like, well, I'm as funny as the
next guy. And then part of me is like, one
day people are going to find outyou're not funny.
Wow, that's always been there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(25:15):
But over the years, I'm like, all right, I'm, I'm reasonably
funny. I, you know, I, it's kind of
where I ended up, you know, everyone has their.
Sure isn't because you come across very confident, not in a
toxic way, just like you very you seem very not overconfident,
not over well, I know where you're talking about and it's.
Scary. Not in a Steven Seagal type of
God. Bless Steven.
(25:36):
This is a pro Steven Seagal podcast for sure.
No, yeah, not like that. We know.
We see it in culture constantly.Oh yeah, especially now.
Especially now. Getting too far into that.
Absolutely see it now. And all the compensating people
can do, especially men when they're feeling small, right?
And like, it's in our industry too.
(25:58):
It's interesting because like, Icould see how people get a
little success. Oh yeah, and maybe some latent
stuff all of a sudden blooms where it kind of takes control
and maybe they lose sight of their career a little bit or
what made them do what they do in the 1st place.
Yeah, I'm like talk. I'm careful of how I talk.
(26:19):
But it's it's interesting because I see it a lot of like
people kind of losing sight of. Oh, sure.
Of what they did, because it's like they get success and it's
sparkly and whatever, you know. Yeah, no, I, I, it took a little
getting used to, you know, but mine wasn't like I'm
overconfident and treating sure people I worked with like shit.
(26:40):
It was just a lot of me spinningout and spinning my wheels and,
you know, too much of this, too much of that, totally.
And then finally, work your way around who you want to be.
Sure. So.
Yeah, Did was that, did you do that kind of privately or was
that with the other guys too andI assume they were probably
dealing it with? No, I I didn't do it so
(27:02):
privately. I wish.
OK. I wish I was more private about
it. OK, OK, OK.
Oh, it's just fast, faster. A disaster.
Sure, sure. Interesting or even like this
the vulnerability and sharing that sometimes it's like
sometimes we we act out right, yeah, yeah and and don't share
(27:23):
that other side well. Part of changing is owning up to
what you did. You know you got to be
responsible for the things you did.
And totally, I'm sorry, I look got a little distracted.
Has anyone ever told you you look like Matt Hoffman?
A little. Wait, who's Matt Hoffman?
I know the. Name Legendary BMX Riot or he's.
(27:45):
Was he in the like? Of my generation's Evel Knievel.
We did a documentary on him called The Birth of Big Air.
Did he just get distracted rightnow or has it been?
No, no, throughout the throughout the, but I, I, I
felt, I, I got it out and I feela lot better about it because.
I think I was going to get. Offended.
No, no, no. He's a, he's a handsome young
(28:06):
man. I I don't know of anyone tougher
than Matt Hoffman, No. One said that I'll take it.
Thank you. I can't wait.
I'll do a deep dive. I don't feel tough at all.
So to be aligned with someone that could be possibly tough.
Yeah. And is sounds good for sure.
Thank you for getting it off your chest.
And I'm glad about truth. There you go.
I know I could tell something was blocking you.
(28:28):
Yeah, there we go. You got the Steven Seagal stuff
off and now this? Oh man, Seagal, what a what a
Dick. He's and like one of the things
my fiance and I like to do is just watch terrible movies,
(28:48):
right? It's one of our favorite
pastimes is terrible movies. And we had a a long run of
Seagal films. Absolutely.
And it's it's very satisfying. What?
I haven't been keeping up with Seagal news.
You want to like what? And he hasn't been top of mind.
No, he's he's like, it's dark. It's like it would.
Yeah, it would suck the the inner.
(29:09):
A lot of the stories would suck the energy out of the room
there. There are stories this producer
told me once. It's a funny story.
He walked in Seagal's office, and Seagal's sitting at his
desk, legs crossed, cowboy bootson the desk, his gun on the
(29:34):
desk, script open, and he's weeping.
And the producer's like, hey, what's what's going on?
You OK? He goes, I'm just reading the
most beautiful script I ever read.
And he's like, oh, really? Who wrote it?
(29:54):
He goes, I did. No, no, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.
A gun on the desk. Oh yeah, he was.
Really. He he had read too much of his
press. Oh my God, that's incredible.
(30:15):
I would want nothing else from Segal.
Yeah, then to do exactly that. You know, you know the Jean
LaBelle story. No.
So Jean LaBelle is one of the toughest man who ever lived.
He, his mom ran the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
He he grew up working with the wrestlers, the boxers, He
(30:38):
trained in so many disciplines. Think he got a gold medal in
judo in the Olympics. He's the first man to go to
Japan and train. You know, he's a stuntman as
well. And I've worked with them on
films and the stunt guys Revere him.
Like on one film I was working on, people just lined all the
stuntmen just lined up outside his door just so he would choke
(31:01):
them out. He was legendary for choking
people out and he after he wouldchoke you out, he'd give you a
patch that said I got choked outby Jean LaBelle.
So he's working on a movie with Steven Seagal.
And Steven Seagal saw how all the stuntmen revered Jean and
not him, and his ego couldn't take it.
(31:23):
So Gene's a nice guy, but he's alittle nuts.
So Seagal goes up to him. He goes, there's not a hole you
can get me in that I can't get out of.
And Gene's like, yeah, you're probably right, son.
Yeah, sure, it's fine. Go ahead, go on, Go on.
And Seagal wouldn't let it go. And finally, you know, Gene's
half off. So he's like, OK, turn around
(31:46):
and he he put his arm around Segal's neck.
He goes when I say go try and get away.
And Gene goes go and then just choked him out.
And he can can control how long he chokes you're out for OK.
And he chokes Segal out for an extended period of time and kind
of put him in the side of the sound stage to sleep it off.
(32:09):
Oh my God. And and Segal had pissed
himself, you know, while he was out, woke up and tried to have
LaBelle fired. You can't do, you can't beg
someone to do it and then just because it doesn't go your way.
That's incredible. Yeah, that's incredible.
(32:30):
And the production said fuck you, LaBelle.
Says. I mean, it feels like a Tim
sketch. Yeah, in a way it's like asking
to get choked out, losing immediately and then trying to
get trying to still win by getting the guy fired.
That's my favorite thing, comingup with so much confidence and
getting your ass beat. Immediately.
(32:51):
Immediately. Immediately not a fight.
And then? Too much confidence.
Too much on top of that? Pissing yourself?
Yeah, and taking a nap. He choked me out before he
choked out the whole cast. No.
Way Jackass. We didn't put it in the first
movie just because we thought kids would see it and go, OK,
well, let's do it. And they don't know they're
going to cut off the wind as opposed to the blood.
(33:13):
Sure. And so we didn't put it in
because we didn't want any trouble a little.
Dangerous. Yeah, Yeah.
But it's we. It's a weird feeling to be
choked out. You're sitting there looking at
your friends as next thing you know you're in a deep sleep
dreaming and you wake up and everyone's looking at you.
Oh my God. And covered in piss.
Yeah, no one. No one, no one feed themselves,
(33:37):
but we did put a bike lock around Aaron's neck while he was
out. I feel like you guys especially
torture him. Well, he he, he responds so well
his fear is funny. Sure.
Oh my, it's incredible. So, well, it's just.
(33:57):
So real. It's really satisfying to all of
us. It's unfortunately for him.
And wait, so the difference between when you get choked out
the air, it's like there's a thebreathing passage versus.
Blood. Well, you don't want to cut off
someone's air because I will kill them.
OK, so how do you you cut off? The the blood.
OK. So it's you put pressure on the
side? Yeah, OK, great.
(34:18):
But please no one, no one try it.
For some, I'm just learning thisand it seems I'm like, Oh yeah,
I should know that. Well, now you do.
Don't beat yourself up. I'm I'm a fucking idiot, Johnny
Jesus. Now, when does your movie come
out? May 9th in New York, in LA, and
then it'll start to expand and we'll go wide on Memorial Day
(34:41):
weekend. Are you guys doing like audience
reaction videos? Because we do that with Jackass
because it's such a, it's such afun movie to watch with your
friends. And I think your guys movie has
the same vibe. They're different tones, but
it's like, it's like, it's such a primal laugh and primal
uncomfortableness watching friendship.
(35:03):
I really appreciate that. You know, I feel like you guys
use those reaction videos like one of the first times I've ever
seen it in like ads and stuff, right?
And I know like some horror movies do it and stuff, but no
ones brought it up. We did one test screening when I
was still editing the movie and they filmed the audience and
that was the first time and I would go back sometimes when I
would edit and look, I'm like, how do?
(35:23):
People react to this. Yeah, yeah, it helps.
It's so interesting for. Sure, but were people being
vocal and and twisting and turning and scrunching their
face? You see, you see it, you see it
like, like the one we did was like just people off the street
who didn't know what they're getting into.
So it was a little, they were doing that for sure, but it was
(35:43):
a little, I think people were just surprised, like, what the
hell am I watching? I had that at first because I
was trying to figure out the tone at first because I I didn't
go in knowing anything and so I didn't know what I was watching.
But then you reach a point whereyou're completely on board and
you're just in for the ride. But it took a second.
(36:05):
If you don't, if you don't know what you're walking into.
No, I think I want, I like to hear this because.
Like, well, your movie will be marketed well so so people will
know what they're walking into. I had no idea what I was walking
into. Totally, totally.
But I like even stuff you could truly say whatever.
It's interesting to hear people,how people react.
(36:25):
And it's like we were saying earlier, some stuff like this is
going to kill, and then you get it in front of 100 people and
they're like, no, it doesn't kill at all, right?
Right. And it fucks with you a little
bit. Yeah, Yeah.
And it's so interesting. You're like, OK, I'm maybe 75%
right about my gut. And there's 25%.
That's just me. And that's fine, and that's
fine. You just got to accept that it's
fine, you know? Yes, because with comedy you
(36:49):
know a little, but you don't know everything.
You don't. It's so hard.
Yeah. Tim's always like laughing is an
accident, which is so interesting.
I feel like that's kind of a hardcore take, but in a way it's
like true or you like you're rolling the dice and you think
and then you you don't know. But the I don't know, maybe now
that you've brought it up, maybea 24 would want to do like a
(37:09):
cringe hidden camera. Oh my God, if you would have had
one on me that day. I just had my hand on my head,
my hands over my eyes, screaminglike no, don't Jesus truth, he's
doing it. That's so nice.
Like when you first played, whenwas the first large audience you
(37:30):
played your stuff in front of? Was it the TV show?
Was it the movie? Probably we did a friends and
family. I can't remember if we did the
friends and family screening first on Jackass the movie or we
screened it for Paramount the first time, but the Paramount
screening was a absolute disaster.
(37:52):
And this was like a first cut. We first cut, we purposely put
in like things we knew would never make the movie, right?
OK, 'cause we wanted to give them something to bitch.
Even though we had final cut. You, you want to give them
something to bitch about? OK Like the same thing you do
(38:14):
with the ratings board. You know, you put in red
herrings like we don't even wantthis in, but it gives them
something to do. To OK, wow.
So after the first screening at Paramount, one of the heads of
Paramount stood up. I was like that Paramount will
never release that movie. He was furious.
(38:35):
And in his defense, it was. The cut we turned in was gnarly.
OK, right. You're trying to get that
reaction in. No, no, no.
We weren't trying to not get themovie released, sure, but we we
put in a lot of things that would it make the film.
Yeah, yeah. But luckily the head of the
studio, Sherri Lansing, she cameup, said we love it.
(38:59):
We're so happy with it. And at the time we had the
opening with the shopping cart in it.
And she goes, what we would likeis if you guys would bookend it
with the ending as well. And so.
And she's like, here's X amount of dollars to go do that.
And that's when we did the old man thing at the end for Jackass
(39:20):
the movie. It was even funny then.
You know how angry this one guy got?
Wow. Yeah.
And he was a powerful guy at thestudio, so.
So you had final cut, but just to give them something to do and
feel like they're participating in it, you gave them these
things to like. Well, part of the reason and
part of the reasons, like we just wanted to try everything
(39:41):
out. Sure, just see what happens.
But some of the scenes lingered a little long, went a little
hot. I would love to see that I you
say that now, but I you feel like you felt like you ran a
marathon after sitting through like a long, longer than usual
cut of what we do like tone and pacing is so much with any movie
(40:06):
but ours especially. Certain bits work together,
certain bits don't. The music of 1 next to how one
feeds into the other one. Yeah, you don't want like too
many gross things back-to-back, too many.
I would say too many cocks, but there was probably too many
cocks and Jackass forever. There's a lot of cocks in it,
yeah, which I was like, I'm like, this is incredible.
(40:26):
We, we, Jeff and I, about 1/3 ofthe way through the movie, we're
like, there's a lot Spike as well.
There's a lot of cock in the movie, so let's kind of pull
back on the cock. So we made a conscious effort,
but then we'd be on the set filming something and we're
(40:46):
like, it's kind of funny if if their cocks are out.
So we just kind of threw up our hands.
No, you got to go where where the Spirit takes.
You. Yeah, absolutely.
I don't know. That's why I mean, talking about
vulnerability, that movie, especially in like the
vulnerability and the nudity, there's so much cock and balls
(41:10):
just right there. Too much.
There's right now it's, it's a perfect amount.
It's like right there. It's, it's truly incredible.
I was like, some of this belongsin a museum.
I was talking to this guy the other day and he said that
Jackass Forever was one of the reasons that him and his
girlfriend broke up because she had a movie that he didn't, a
(41:32):
movie that she didn't want him to see.
And then, I don't know, it was a, it was a bone of contention
in their relationship that he hecouldn't see it.
And then she takes him to see Jackass Forever and he's like,
they're just so much cock in it.And he had this build up
animosity for not being able to see the movie he wanted to see.
And he goes, then she makes me sit through this.
(41:55):
I said you are not wrong, Sir. But so wait, she wanted to see
Jackass Forever? Yeah.
Yeah. And he did it.
And then he gets there and it's just wall to wall cocks.
And they eventually just. That was the cock that broke
the. Absolutely.
Do you know what movie he was trying to see that she didn't
want? To I can't remember.
(42:16):
That's wild. That he didn't want to see.
Obviously there were other things going on in their
relationship which culminated inthis, but absolutely, that's why
I felt I didn't. I wasn't.
I didn't take it as an insult. I just completely sympathized
with them. Absolutely.
That could be shocking. Yeah.
I wonder how many over the yearsbreakups Jackass has led to.
(42:39):
I don't think a lot. I think I hear more stories of
fathers seeing it with their sons or grandfathers seeing it
with their sons as we get older,you know?
Absolutely. Yeah, Absolutely.
Yeah. I'm just remembering like one of
my first girlfriends. We went to Blockbuster and
rented. What's that to Blockbuster?
Yeah. Crazy.
(43:02):
I know it's, I'll send you a link.
I don't think my kids even, likewe went to a video store the
other night, they have idiots showed Jackass the movie and I
introed it. By the way, it's a great.
They have this theater, this video store in Eagle Rock.
Yeah, and huge crowd. And like, if you ever want to
screen something, they reach outbecause it's fun.
(43:22):
Well. Friendship screen there this
Saturday, Oh. Really.
Yeah, if this Saturday. This Saturday if you want.
To see you're going to, are you going to intro it?
Yeah, I'm doing AQ. And a it's fun.
Yeah, I'm excited. They I fuck, I can't believe I
missed that. They just showed it the other
day. Yeah, they.
And can't. Believe I missed that.
It's it's a great experience, but what I why would why did I
bring that up? Video stores?
(43:44):
Oh yeah. But I took my daughter and her
and her friend had never been ina video store before.
You know which I get it 13. Yeah, yeah.
Makes sense? So, and I was like, OK, Arlo,
there's some things in this movie that I'm going to ask you
to like cover your eyes or coveryour ears.
(44:05):
Oh, they've never seen it. No, because it's, you know.
Of course, of course. But yeah, I mean.
But but then I thought about it and I was like, actually,
they're not going to have to cover their eyes or ears because
there's there's not any cock. There's one shot we can sheer
shorts. But it was really tame and
(44:25):
innocent compared to the things that what it became.
It was almost refreshing. The innocence.
But I mean, they did cover theireyes and ears on their own.
Wow. But not at my behest.
So what was that like watching it with your daughter?
It was so fun because I spent most of the time watching her
(44:46):
and her friend's reaction. Wow.
And yeah, it was fun. What and what was the
conversation afterwards? Just I've just seen what bits
they like and you know, it was areally good experience.
That's incredible. When was the last time you saw
the movie? Probably a year and a half ago
(45:06):
because I showed my son who had turned 14 the movie because my
oldest daughter saw it when she saw Jackass number 2 when she
was 14. Now in that movie I made her
cover her eyes, ears, or both because Jackass number 2 was
probably our most for sure raw of them all.
(45:27):
For sure. Is that the one with the shit
pops out where he's like. Oh, oh, the the the puquino.
Yeah, yeah, that was in there. There's certain God damn images
from your the TV show and the movies that are lodged in my
brain. Yeah.
Sorry about that. That hits me in a way which I
(45:48):
think is like, successful, you know, hits the psyche in a way
that I'm like, it does somethingthat I'm like, it'll never
leave. Yeah.
And it constantly is in my head.Yeah, hopefully you have a
therapist or someone you can talk to about it.
Yeah, that's I'll bring it up toGAIL.
I got I was I went to the the John Waters exhibit at the
(46:11):
Academy Museum last year and there was a little part of the
exhibit was this montage video of all his film and I see this
father and son walk in the son'sabout 13 or 14.
I'm sitting there talking to my fiance and about 3 minutes later
(46:31):
this father and son come walkingout and the son's like going no
no I just don't want to do this today.
He was disturbed by something hesaw.
Oh my. God and it just it was thought
it. Was I don't want to do this.
Today. I don't want to do this today.
What did the dad say? He just, you know, was trying to
(46:52):
be supportive, but it was, I mean, it was a montage of all
the hits of his films. I was in heaven.
Everyone was except for this, you know.
Yeah. Ish.
He had a real visceral. Experience good luck to that
kid. Yeah dear God.
And so do you plan to show your kids the the rest of the films
(47:13):
like. Rocco is seen up into three.
He hasn't seen Jackass forever yet.
I'm going to wait on Arlo seeingthe rest of the because she's
only 13 and yeah, you know, I don't want to have her have the
experience that you can't wash them some things out of your
(47:33):
mind. I don't mind.
They're not. I'm not.
It's not a bad thing, but they're certain images.
Plus, I get, you know, not only the naughty content, just like
me getting knocked out, there's a lot more of that in the rest
of the. Film, yeah, I'm sure that's she
doesn't want to see that or. Yeah, no kid wants.
To see that, absolutely. So.
What do they want to do? Do they want to follow your
(47:53):
footsteps in any way? I let them know that that's not
happening. You know, I don't want my kids
doing that as far as them, you know, saying something
inappropriate or I was pretty easy on them about that.
But I was, as far as something happening to them physically,
sure, I was like a helicopter parent.
I would be on the playground underneath whatever they are on
(48:17):
to catch them. So I wish I was a little more
easy on that, but that's how I was.
Sure. I mean, that makes a lot of
sense for sure. Plus, they're smart.
They're not going to want to do what I did.
Sure, sure. Or some other context like it's
interesting how we repeat our what our parents did.
Or yeah, it's called generational neglect.
(48:39):
Yes, after, yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, we in my case
too, it's like my dad wanted to be a photographer, got a masters
in it, but was like he he was too scared to pursue it.
And then I'm, I became a director, you know, and almost
took that over. And it's interesting how that
pattern repeats all the time. The same with my dad.
He was hilarious, like he shouldhave been in show business, but
(49:05):
he he wasn't. He owned a tire company and
everyone that worked for him wore his marks.
You know, he just pranked them all the time and wow, you know
that he he was frustrated and hedrank a lot because of his
frustration. And, you know, I think he was in
a job that first of all was incredibly hard work, but not
(49:28):
something that he actually wanted to do.
So just like your father, you know, far as the standpoint of
you taking over what your fatherwanted to do.
Yeah, kind of unconsciously we finish something or complete
something. I I heard.
Jerry Seinfeld talk about the fact that a lot of comedians,
they're somewhat their mom and their father were amateur
(49:52):
comedian, you know, that never pursued it and it's their kids
who took it up. God, it's so fascinating.
I see the pattern all the time and friends and other people I
work with and it's like, it's, it's so fascinating.
So it's I asked out of curiosity.
I'm like, I wonder when there's a certain success achieved.
What kids do or do they do something similar?
(50:13):
Like you create conditions for surprise, right?
I wonder from a kids point of view, what is that?
How does that translate? Or do they simply just go and
become a professor, you know, orthey do something totally
different? Well, that's the dream.
That's the dream you're pushing them to teach.
Yeah, just stay off a basic cable.
But but yeah, did your dad see the stuff you did?
(50:34):
Yes, yeah, yeah. And he both my mom and dad
absolutely loved it. They didn't like the stunts at
all. Sure.
But they were very proud and that made me feel good.
And but dad was overboard with it.
Like part of the fact he was proud and people treated him
differently, right? Wow.
(50:55):
Yeah. Like pizza.
People would come to his house to deliver pizza and he'd open
the door. Home of Johnny Knoxville.
No. No.
Yeah. And he used to go to police
auctions and buy cars and, and sell them, you know, just him
and mom and have something to do.
But he had cards printed up like, you know, father of Johnny
(51:18):
Knoxville on his used cars. This.
Is incredible. Yeah, yeah.
Oh my. God, yeah, he was out of
control. So did he ever say like, OK,
this he loved like the success, but the the stunts he he was,
they didn't. Love no.
They hated this. Stuff.
And did they try to talk you outof that, even though I know it
was ingrained and. Well, they would say, we hope
(51:39):
you don't do stunts in this nextfilm.
They knew I was doing the film. Like, just don't do any stunts.
Like you know what to tell him. Wow.
And so he milked the success, and boy did that's such.
There's something so endearing. Yeah, it's sweet.
I thought it was sweet. It never bothered me that he.
(51:59):
Wow, that's that's amazing. Yeah, he's always wearing some
type of swag, you know. Proud parent.
It's incredible. Yeah.
Yeah. Did he ever try to get himself
in on camera? I'm trying to think he would
sometimes write an idea and a few we filmed like I think the
(52:21):
department store box and he's like you should go in a
department store and just get some boxing gloves off the shelf
and go at it. Brilliant, I do.
Yeah, he's good. I think he was in one or two
things very quickly on the TV show.
Oh, great. He but he kind of I've seen him
like I the news interviewed him one time he was at this golf
(52:45):
thing with my sister and he justall hit.
He had such intense natural charisma.
But soon as they turn the cameraon him, he just went inside and
just was super behaved and wow and measured and something.
Two things he never was. Wow.
But I get it. I was terrified of the camera
(53:07):
when I started out trying to act, you know?
And how did you get relaxed? Just doing it or just exposure?
Exposure. Yeah, yeah.
And this was like traditional acting, not?
This was it was so bad. Like I knew that I wanted to be
an actor in high school and you know that people knew I wanted
to be an actor. And I remember it was a silly
(53:28):
thing. This company came to interview
some students about the lunch menu on camera.
I don't know what it was for some industrial thing.
It was like me and six people. I was the only one who wanted to
be in show business. Everyone was great.
They asked them questions. They were present and
(53:50):
insightful, and they got to me. And I did exactly the same thing
as my dad did. I couldn't even think of words
to say. Yeah, how Mr. Saturday Night.
I couldn't even. How old were you?
It's. Like 16.
OK, and you're you're supposed to talk about how good the lunch
was. You don't even have to like brag
(54:13):
on the lunch, you just gotta give them ideas for different
lunch items. You can actually complain if you
want. You can say anything you want
and I had nothing. I had fucking nothing.
And and did you have something you were going to say and then
you got? Camera.
I'll wing it. Yeah, I'm, you know, I'm headed
to Hollywood. I'll wing it.
(54:35):
And then I'm like, oh, no, oh, no.
Do you remember? It's like, do you ever see that
video? Boom goes the dynamite.
Oh, yes, wait. The kid was doing the news for
his college, and he starts out, you know, doing OK, And then at
one point, something goes wrong.I don't know what happened, but
he just went blank and went, oh,no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(54:59):
yeah. I've had so many moments like
that in my life where I was like, here we go.
It's the tunnel. Vision, you're getting calm,
you're getting choked out. Have you had moments like that
where you're just like, Oh no, absolutely.
It's so honest of an emotion. It's so, it's so related.
I talk about Primal again like that There's something.
(55:22):
So it's like what you're explaining is like you're on
camera talking about lunch. Yeah, Stakes couldn't be low,
right? No pressure.
No pressure at all. And you fucking whiff, whiff.
To me, that is a deal. Like my ideal kind of comedy.
It's so funny. And and with all your friends
watching. Is even better.
Yeah, yeah. And this You think you're a big
(55:44):
shot like the stuff. Yeah, I got this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll go last.
Yeah. You know, let me.
I got this. And eating.
Shit. Oh God, it was.
It was awful. I still sweat just thinking
about it. What?
I mean, I, it's something that I'm not a performer.
I did improv for a number of years, but out of like which?
Is very brave. That's nice to hear, but I
(56:05):
don't. I did.
It I would be terrified, I'd be scared.
I mean, it's terrifying, but there's a game element to it
where I'm like a challenge whereit does feel.
And then it's not like stand up,truly that idea.
Terrified. I did that once.
You did once. How to fucking the audience?
Actually, I was 15 and the audience reacted well.
I got laughs, but my sweat pits almost.
(56:28):
I had a problem sweating in highschool, but that night my sweat
pits almost met, but almost met between my tits.
I was like, that's fun, let's never do that again.
And I never did. That's crazy.
So to do improv is to me it's even more frightening then stand
(56:48):
up. Because stand up you have an
idea going, knowing what you're going to say.
But in improv you're just winging it.
Like me talking about the lunch that day.
I was just winging it and I had nothing.
You're winging and could be really terrifying.
You're on there with a, were you?
Frightened doing improv? Oh always.
And like especially someone who doesn't like to be even doing
Q&A's for this movie drives me. Like I'm already dreading
(57:09):
Saturday when I have to do 1 andI'm like so many people I know,
so many people that love me and support me are there and I'm
like that makes it even. Worse, the worst case scenario
in your head. I'm just going to say something
insane or or look insane or lookdumb even like the the fear of
having doing this podcast with you.
I was like, I'm going to say something so dumb.
Well, I mean, you know, I've said a number of things that are
(57:32):
really stupid here. Not at all even actually
excellent. I've just given up.
Yeah, you got to give up. You got to let go.
But you've been wonderful. You've been absolutely
incredible. And all stop.
Now we're back to Jay and each other off again.
No, but it's true. But the spinning out is, as
someone who doesn't put themselves in front of camera a
lot, it's like very accessible to me and I could start to,
(57:55):
there's certain times, improv especially, it happened where
I'm on stage and all of a suddenit goes like roof, the vision
starts to blur. Because you're no longer present
no longer when you're went from being present and in the moment
to like used in a fear spiral, complete fear and you can't be
creative in a fear spiral to have anxiety and do improv.
That's fucking brave. It's.
(58:18):
Do you still, is that something you still contend with from time
to time or you relatively have that?
Is that a thing of the past? You know, I, I had, I was very
frightened of crowds growing up and I still get anxiety in
certain social situations and talking on a mic in front of
people, like in a large room. It used to be very frightening,
(58:39):
but I've gotten to where I feel OK about it now.
I don't sit and wonder like, oh,if I do this, if I do that, they
don't laugh. I finally reach the point where
like, well, fuck them, you know,You know, if, if something, if
they don't laugh or they don't, if I it's OK, you know?
(59:01):
Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
Ending on fuck em I think reallyworks for me.
Ending I mean me too. I mean truly like.
I I learned that from a 24. They said fuck em.
Fuck em, yeah. They don't come to our movie.
Fuck em. Thank you a 24 but please please
(59:21):
come to friendship. You will be happy that you did.
You will be extremely uncomfortable and throughout a
lot of the movie, but in the best way possible and just some
loud reflexive laughter. It is a masterpiece, I loved it.
(59:41):
That is truly so nice to hear, Johnny.
Thank you for sitting down and and confabulating chats and
bands. Thanks for your bands, English
would say. Thanks for your bands.
Thanks for your your Seagal stories.
Thanks for thanks for your shotsfired at Seagal.
I wasn't expecting that, but I love it.
Oh, man, Giant means the world that you're here and and that
(01:00:03):
you watch the movie. And I really, really appreciate
your kind. Thoughts.
Oh no, it was great. Truly, I loved.
It you're, you're a big inspiration for me, so I really
appreciate you taking the time. Well, thank you.
Thanks for listening. The A 24 podcast is produced by
us A 24. Special thanks to our editor Tom
Wyatt and Robot Repair, who composed our theme.
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