BRENDAN HUNT (COACH BEARD)

“Ted Lasso” Co-creator, co-writer, Executive Producer. We talk “Ted,” sports, his “Five Years in Amsterdam,” Celebrity Jeopardy, our long ago chance meeting in a Chicago bar, and our encounters with a feisty Burt Reynolds.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Season six, Fouler, Who You Got is here. We're really
excited about the episodes we've gotten lined up for you,
including our season debut Brendan Hunt coach beard On ted Lasso,
also the show's executive producer, co creator, and co writer.
I'm a huge Ted Lasso fan. They just kicked off
their third and final season. We also talk about Brendan's

(00:30):
deep passion for sports, his formative five years in Amsterdam,
his deep run on Celebrity Jeopardy Are long ago chance
meeting in a Chicago bar, and our separate encounters with
a very feisty Burt Reynolds. Today, I've got Brendan Hunt.
Brendan Hunt. I'm grateful in advance for your time and

(00:51):
your energy and your wisdom. Sir. I've set the bar
quite high, but I think we can get there, and
we have much to discuss. So thank you for being here,
Thanks for having me this thriller. We have our joint
background growing up in Chicago, Chicago sports. Our initial indifference
to soccer turned to passion. We'll get to all that stuff.
A story involving Burt Reynolds and bodily harm that you

(01:15):
won't see coming. But the obvious place to begin, of course,
is with the beloved ted Lasso, And like millions of fans,
my wife and I are waiting for the beginning of
season three as we start this, and I wonder if
you have a sense of the fans you're you're an
avid reader, as is your character Coach Beard. We feel
like we're getting to the end of a great novel

(01:37):
and we're watching the pages dwindle and dwindle, and we
can't wait to see how it ends. But we don't
want it to end because once it ends, those characters
are they're not dead to us, but they're sort of
cryogenically frozen at Lacy, do you have a sense of that,
And how are you feeling about you know, where you
landed it and how you're going to take us there? Yeah,

(01:58):
I mean, you know, like yeah, as as as people
have heard. But but just to get a body on board,
you know, we've always seen it as a three movement
suite essentially. You know, we didn't know it's gonna be
three seasons. We thought maybe we'd get you know, do
like the original all right, you know, um framework from

(02:19):
the original office, Like maybe we get two six episode
seasons and then a special wouldn't that be nice? And
we kind of had it mapped out that way, um,
but then we got you know, picked up by a
streaming service that doesn't exist son or that didn't exist,
so we didn't know we'd get even a second season.
So here we are at, you know, getting towards the end,
and we still are trying to finish the story that

(02:43):
we originally saw, you know, but with all the like
new additions that people have brought to the table over
the years. Um, it may not be it may not
be the end end um, but we are telling the
end of this story at the very least um. And yeah,
I don't know. It's kind of funny because like we
like we've gone through it already in a way, like

(03:06):
we had our emotional last day of the shooting, We
had our emotional last rap party, we said our goodbyes.
But now everyone else is getting the emotion part because
now they're always just going to start watching, you know,
and get through these three months for goodbyes that are
like the you know, like how we see a black
hole happened, but it actually happened a million years ago.

(03:27):
People are getting this late goodbye of latent cosmic energy.
And yeah, I think we I think we're off to
a good start. And we had the premiere of the
night showed two episodes. People were into it, and that's
a real good sign that hopefully people will will enjoy
the journey with us. Again. I'm not sure how much

(03:48):
time you spent around coaches, but you've nailed as a
collective group so many of the inner sanctum details, the
richness of these relationships between coaches, the camaraderie, the chemistry
that comes from competition, the highs, the lows, the friction,
the little attacks on each other, the backstabbing that's also
a part of it. I promise you you've gotten all

(04:10):
of those elements. So right where did the inspiration come
from up to nail nail the relationships in that coaching room? Um,
I guess just from the desire to make sure that
the show is more about relationships than anything else. So
in every in every um you know setting that the
show takes place in, be at the coach's office, or

(04:30):
Rebecca's office or at the pub, you know, it's relationships
first and foremost. Um, you know, Jason and Uh and
Joe Kelly are are the co creator and Bill Lawrence, Like,
they all have a lot more athletic experiences than me,
that's for sure, and so we all have some degree
of coaches to to draw from me. I just draw
from acting teachers. That counts, right, Um and uh, but

(04:55):
they've all been real people for it, you know, Jason,
very early on we first met as a writer's room,
first thing who wanted to know from everyone was was like,
who's your mentor? Talked to us about your mentor and
because everyone's got one, even if it's not necessarily a
football coach, And yeah, that was kind of like the
start of it, you know, just making sure that these
are we're drawn from real people and not making a

(05:17):
not making the fantasy of a of a happy dude. Well,
even the shocking scene where the character of Naty goes
from this lovable underdog to this machiavellian creature who stabs
ted Lasso in the back and creates a huge public
problem for him and eventually leaves the staff at the

(05:37):
end of season two, I mean that that stuff is
not unheard of in real life coaching. Believe it or not.
They're all kinds of coaches who share unflattery stuff about
their colleagues for whatever reason, with people in the media
and people in the profession. And so I didn't find
that quite as shocking as a lot of people did.
Yet you know, it goes on in that profession, and
I thought, wow, you guys even went there. Yeah, I mean,

(06:01):
we're not we're not trying to do anyone in particular. Um,
we just always knew that Nate was going to be
the character who just wasn't quite ready for for all
the opportunity that he was going to get. Um, you know,
it'd have been too much of a fantasy world if
if Nate is just uh, I don't know, if everything
ted touch really did touch, you know, turning a relationship gold. Um,

(06:23):
you know, some people just aren't ready. And yeah, I
mean as much as anything that I mean, that's the
stuff that we're kind of getting out of, like Empire
strikes back and at a bit of shakes here. Um.
But but I mean, feel free to name names who
were talking. We're talking about Charlie. Well, well, let me
say you there was this No it happens where listen.
I mean, in college football there's ten eleven coaches and

(06:45):
so the boss sometimes doesn't run things the way Ted
Lasso runs things. You would say, top down dictatorship. The
hours are long, the stress is real, winning or else
is the only thing that matters, and frustration that comes
from that. And then obviously they're just ego and opportunity.
And I'm I'm gonna get a chance to call the
players because coaches intervening, you know that that kind of
thing is rife for you know the kinds of reactions

(07:07):
you get. But I'm not going to name him here,
but because I would, I would never have that dirty
stuff share with me again. N then I would have
lose the trust of these people. No, but it happens.
I just didn't shock me as much as maybe some people.
Although Nate didn't seem a likely didn't seem a likely
trader going into that. Your character Coach Beard is so cool.
I was always drawn to that character in the show,

(07:30):
way before I ever thought we would meet. And you know,
stoicism as wisdom is quiet is there coaches just like
that too. They're typically in the supporting role, but but
not everybody is an extrovert, alpha vocal person and there
are a lot of coaches like that. And yet you
capture something else that's so real where you have to

(07:51):
lay into Ted, your best friend. I get's late in
season one and you look him in the eye and
basically he's being selfish and being stupid and and you
won't drink with him. You storm out the puck. It's
an a powerful great acting, by the way, but a
powerful See. That's also the kind of thing that that
does happen in real coaching experiences and obviously happens between
real best friends. But but what a moment. It must

(08:11):
have been interesting to act that. Yeah, I mean, I
think that's my longest chunk of dialogue in the entirety
of season one, certainly up to that point. Um. But yeah,
I mean, that's one of the fun things about their
relationship is you know, um beards there, um, you know,
to just fill in Ted's gaps. And because Ted has

(08:33):
got all the talking covered, there's rarely any um, you know,
gaps in oratory that he needs to step up and
help with. Um. But he'll he'll point out, he'll point
out stuff that Ted needs to be looking at that
isn't I mean, he gives them all the warnings in
the world about Nate and uh, and Ted just still
doesn't quite catch it. So, yeah, we all should have
that friend who's telling us that, you know, we've got

(08:54):
toilet paper on our on our shoe or let us
in our teeth or toilet paper in our teeth, depending
how the night just gone. Yeah, but you told him
his philosophy is full of shit. How he handled a
key player or a key moment. It's a little bit
more than toilet paper on the show's powerful philosophy just
in this one instance. And you turned on you, you
turned on your former girlfriend, which is why that's a
great how to mic drop MoMA bluck out of the no.

(09:17):
I mean there's I'm not going to geek out and
this we could go on for for for about seven
hours on this show. I just think it's something that's
so hopeful and compassionate, human and empathetic, and it celebrates
humility and curiosity, and it runs so countered to so
many of the shows, by the way, who great shows
that I also love to watch, whether it's um, you know,

(09:39):
White Lotus or Succession or Oazark. But those are not
about the sun of your sides of human nature, right,
I mean that's not what they're trying to be. But
you mentioned positive cosmic energy. Maybe some of that comes
into your life because this show is so much about upbeat,
positive qualities. Yeah, I mean we feel we think about

(10:01):
this a lot. I mean, Jason has said, like, um,
it could one of the best thing about playing into Lasso.
He gets to, you know, at least pretend to be
in a good mood pretty much. I'll be um, And yeah,
I wonder sometimes, you know, we had that we had
the premiere the other night, and like, you know, this
show like makes does make people happy, and you know,
it doesn't just make them laugh, like it means so

(10:21):
much to them. And so when we have crowds to encounter,
it's like this outpouring of of of you know, we look,
we'll call it love. And I find myself wondering, like,
what what were the premieres like for True Blood? Like
what kind of crowds did they get for that? Was
it a different vibe? A bunch of incestuous people wearing
fake things? Um, so yeah, we're pretty we're you know,

(10:44):
it wasn't the goal wasn't to create you know, parties
with with with with positive vibes. But it is a
wonderful ancillary effect of what we've ended up doing. Yeah,
last thing I'll touch on about the show is that
the Beard after Hours episode, which is one of my favorites,
and it this I would say, almost Scorsese like trip

(11:04):
through the dark, murky, grittier side of London where your
character suffers a huge disappointment and then gets humiliated Chase, beaten, abandoned,
rescued and ends up in a dance club with a
hula hoop, which is a skill. I know you authentically
brought to the role because you you've done a lot
of hula hooping in your life. But wow, I mean
that was just this incredible experience to watch, and I
would imagine a fun departure for you where you get

(11:26):
to show more than the typical coach beard vibe there. Now,
it was pretty cool and know cool that Joe Kelley
and Brett Goldstein went ahead and wrote that they didn't
let me see the script for a very long time,
which was somewhat frustrating, but I knew some of the
basic things. But yeah, a'l hula hoop with the drop
of a hat, as long as the proper hula hoop,

(11:48):
but not one of them toys they sell a target.
But yeah, that was a fun, fun couple of weeks,
but also very arduous for a man who's slightly too
old to be doing all this. I fucking running. Did
you do your own stunts? Did you get your ass
kicked all over the place? I mean, like they they
had asked casually at one point if I wanted to

(12:10):
do the stunt where the guy falls off the building
or jumps off the building, and I was like, oh,
that moon, that's probably more than I should do. I'm no,
I won't do that. But then I saw the guy.
There was video of the guy like practicing it, you know,
and they have the decelerator cable, you know, going down
his back, and it's like, oh, well that doesn't look
so hard, Like if if it helps the project to

(12:32):
have my real face in there. Yeah. So I go
to the producer. I'm like, hey, just you know, I'm
happy to do that stunt, and he openly laughed at me, like, no, No,
whoever said you should do that is being ridiculous. If
we can't ensure that it's into a dumpster. Right, it
was into a dumpster, and on the day, like, you know,
it's exciting, it's the biggest dump you've ever had, and
you go down and you see the dumpster. It's like,

(12:53):
you know, it's it's like a fake top layer of
garbage bags, but you know there's pads and stuff inside. Um.
And then the stunt finally happens. They're all watching around
the monitor and stuntman goes down and uh as he's
getting close to the dumpster, like, oh shit, he's he's
too close to the wall that dumpster. And he goes through.

(13:13):
It seems like inches away at most from the hard
metal wall of this dumpster. And we're and we're all watching,
waiting for a signal, and we don't hear anything from
any from anybody, and we don't see his hand, we
don't see his head. It was like fifteen seconds of
like can we get word plays? Come we get word plays?
Is he okay? It was fine? But he did he

(13:33):
did acknowledge that, Yeah, he'd put a little too much
oomp into it, and he ended up being two inches
from the wall when he was supposed to be two
feet pro almost breaks. I would have murdered this thing,
but this guy he gets to have his day. I'm
not going to annoy you by asking about spoilers, but
I did I did have one curiosity. Maybe it's not

(13:53):
a spoiler. Do we know Coach Beard's name at all?
Is he going to be the man of mystery where
you don't even know his first or lasting at least?
I don't think that's been revealed, right, Um it has not. Um.
We We've had fun debates over the years of what
we think it might be. UM, various shout outs of
tributes might we might do if it was this was
his name or that was his name. But you know,

(14:15):
in the end, we got to protect the mystery up
Beard for as long as possible. I know. I think
learning Cramer's name, uh was like, oh cool, his name
is Cosmo? All right, fine, you know, but it didn't
end up making Seinfeld any funnier knowing that his name
was Cosmo. So um, it's not. I love the people

(14:35):
care so much, but it's not as high a priority
for us as it appears to be for the lovely
Lovely messes. I uh, what hazard a guess that Richmond
versus west Ham will feature somewhere in this series with
the once but now not so longer great Nate coaching
that say, that'll be interesting to say, I would buy
I would fight in London and buy a ticket to

(14:56):
see that game if it were if it were real,
so looking forward to it. Hey, your passion for soccer
is authentic. It was born in the Netherlands, I understand.
And you if you grew up in Chicago, you're younger
than I am, so you wouldn't have experienced all of
the heartbreak of Chicago sports. You wouldn't have seen the
Cubs collapse in the late six season early seventies. You

(15:18):
would have been closer to the time that Michael came
along and the Bulls became great and not just good
or decent and always lose to the Bucks and the Warriors.
And you would have experienced, you know, a Cubs World
Series without having to wait as long in the Blackhawks
in the Stanley Cup. But man, you must have had
some scars. You grew up like you could walk to
Wrigley Field, right. I did birthdays there, but I had

(15:40):
to I had to come down the toll away from Rockford,
Illinois to get there. Uh. Yeah, we moved a lot,
but we were always dan near, always within walking this
since the Rigley Field, and my mom in particular would
take me to games a lot. You know, my dad,
I heard. My dad divorced when I was two, and

(16:02):
my dad was not in the picture that much, but
they were both. They were both from the South Side
and Socks Country, so I was a Northside child of
the South Side parents. Um, but I ended up being
a rare Chicagoan that is hated by many. But I
am who I am. I'm a fan of both. If
they play in the World Series, I'm rooting for the Socks.
That's just how it's going to be. I've been to

(16:25):
four or five times as many Cubs games as I
have Socks game, just by geography. And when I go back,
my family still lives there. My family still wants to
go see Cubs games. Stephen, my stepdad came into the picture.
My stepdad was a proper Bleacher bum and had been
for years. So yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, You're rooting
for the Socks in a Chicago World Series. Yeah, I'm

(16:48):
shocked and and crestfallen at that. I mean, I'll have
heard about the Cubs Wrigley, come on, that's how That's
just how it is. And you know, I mean for
most of my life, I guess you know, probably not
most anymore, but for most of my life, it was.
It was much easier to compartmentalize this because they never
played each other. And then finally interleague play comes along.

(17:08):
And I think inter league play started while I was
in either I was in Amsterdam or it just came
at a time when I when I couldn't afford tickets
to games. But it took a few years before I
went to an interleague game, and I went into it
with incredible trepidation. It was it was Cub socks at
Wrigley UM and and you know, Wrigley more of my

(17:29):
home stadium than than than the South Side, even though
I loved old kemiskey, but um, hearing Cubs fans, you know,
you know, yelling shit at the White Sox as as
they I've heard them yell a million times to Cardinals
and Reds and Padres, it made me mad, you know,
Like I was like tensing up. And the Cubs murder
the Socks that day, and I took no joy in

(17:52):
watching the Cubs score. And this was not a decision.
This is just like you know, instincts, you know, this
is this is this is not how I know. And
Paul Knerko hit a home run, uh you know, which
made it You know ten to one instead of ten
an oven or whatever, and I remember, just like lay
at lea ye, And it's the only circumstance I'll ever

(18:13):
root against the Cubs um. And I can't explain it.
I know it's not socially acceptable, but I've literally only
in the last few years finally decided like, I'm not
gooding that about myself anymore. I respect that in all
things in life, but especially in sports fan and you
must let your authentic inner voice come out. And that
was a visceral reaction. So I respect that this sucks.

(18:35):
I don't know if I respect the fact um that
you're an Arsenal fan. We we support rival London clubs
Arsenal for you, Chelsea for me. Arsenal has ruined a
couple of trips across the Atlantic um for FA Cup
finals when Chelsea were the better team. Arsenal were better
on the day. But you know our trophy case, I'm
nothing to nothing to apologize for there. Um. Gunners may

(18:58):
win the league this year, that that that that would be.
They're trying to hang on as we sit here right now.
It was Britain hushed tones but but but you fall
in love with soccer in in Holland, and it's the
it's the total football. It's a beautiful style of player.
The Dutch teams at that time. It's a great time
to get caught up in the culture. The Dutch fans

(19:18):
are passionate and very direct, and I found somewhat welcoming
about ciders who kind of get it. Um. So you're
a passionate fan of the Dutch national team, which is
what has set you up. I guess for some heartbreak
because they're kind of close calls. Three World Cup finals
I hosted in twenty ten in South Africa when they
lost to Spain in the final. They lost a couple

(19:39):
of times in the Sammy's I was in Brazil when
they lost on penalties to Argentina, which is how they
went out again in the recent World Cup. So I
guess you you've gotten joy but also stabbed in the
heart a few times by being as being a soccer
fan will do to you. Um. Being a fan of
the Dutch national team is a really there is a
really specific thing, you know, like they they haven't won

(20:02):
a major trophis since nineteen eighty eight, which before I
was a fan, So I got no joy from that,
they they've lost the three finals, two of which were
to the host team. But the only final I saw
I was was in twenty ten and a twenty ten
you know, the Dutch put a lot of value on
attractive teams, you know, who play football, you know, the

(20:24):
right way, and that twenty ten team hadsome highlights. You know,
Bessie Snyder was incredible that that tournament. Few guys were.
They beat Brazil, which is always exciting, but they were
not an attractive team, like they were coached by a
final guy, not an IAX guy. And you know it
was typified by the magic two young uh you know
kick into Javi Alonzo's chest in the middle of the final,

(20:44):
which somehow eluded the card m or at least a red.
So there was no joy in it at all. And
yeah they lose, They lose heartbreak after heartbreak, but high
states heartbreak. It's semifinals, it's finals, and it's it's the worst.
I was staying in the same hotel in Brazil when
they trudged back in in the lobby after being well

(21:05):
beaten mont penalties Bargentina. Are you and Robin on the
rest of me just you know, gutted, but somehow the
fans by the end of the evening had turned things around.
They were still having a good time even though they
lost in an excruciating way, and we're this close to
being in the final. But I respect they're incredible at
that like that. You know, My first Dutch football heartbreak
was Euro two thousand and the semifinals. They had lost

(21:26):
despite being up. You know, they had eleven minut in
the pitch, Italy had nine and Holly missed two penalties
in regulation and then lost the penalty shoot out at
the end. And I was living with eight Dutch dudes
who had built bleachers in our living room so it
could feel like a stadium in our living room, and
we had like thirty people there. It was festive, festied, festive,

(21:48):
and then the game ended and it was dead silent,
but for like three minutes and three minutes later abba
like there was a very quick Hey, this is why
ruin our day? Why ruin our day? This happens every
two years. Come on back to the party. We can
learn from that. We can learn from that. So Amsterdam
for five years with an improv comedy group Boom Chicago

(22:11):
five years. It was a long stay at that point
for someone involved in that. Yet you've talked about what
you learned from spending a chunk of time at an
important part of your life when you're getting over disappointment
outside the States. And I've been lucky enough to be
able to do that big at least several years of
my life added up outside of America. I think I

(22:31):
advised people when they asked to have an experience far
from home, outside our country to gain perspective and see
what the world is about. What what did you take away?
And how do you think you were formed? Branded by
that experience and getting dropped into Holland. Yeah, so, like
you know, as I said, like my parents got divorce

(22:53):
when I was really young, and then I got married
straight out of college and was separated within a year
and a half because that was just too young with
things to happen. And I was you know, I had
not really dealt with like with a proper and a
proper therapy way with with you know, various demons um
you know, like my my parental situation. But I had

(23:13):
become an alcoholic. My dad was still like in and out.
It was a whole, it's a whole Michigas. And so
for one thing, going to Holland was and in a
very powerful and this is one of the reasons why
I think people should travel if they can. Um, it's
very powerful to have that much physical separation from your ship,
you know, like like like, oh, I'm hold on on

(23:35):
my own place now and and I'm not tethered to
to the sort of you know, the roots that have
been you know, maybe pulling me down a little bit.
So there's that. But then the specifically Dutch angle is
is their way of life was exactly what I needed.
You know, They're they're ruled by a philosophy called the
Gazella guide. And for something to be beazealous, um, it's

(23:58):
a very multilayered thing. Like, um, like you do look
like you've got a pretty Snzella spot back there. You
get your good lighting, good plants that that looks very
exelic nature is around us. Yes, yeah, yeah, um. And
you can be in a very unsizella environment, uh, like
you know, you're in a hospital waiting room and the

(24:19):
fluorescent light is blinking and stuff, but you can make
it cazelle by just connecting with your neighbor or maybe
like turning some music out or bringing some coffee over.
Oh now it's cazellic. But the bigger picture of cazelic,
and again it's a wonderful untranslatable word, is if if
worrying about something cannot you if you cannot improve the

(24:40):
thing you were worrying about by worrying about it, why
are you worrying? Um? Because that you're going to ruin
your day. And for a guy who was at the
time especially just overcome with with like a learned self
hatred and a lot of you and why did I
do this that time? Why did I do that that time? Well,
it was incredibly eye opening, as symbol as it may

(25:03):
sound to you, like, well, why do you keep asking
yourself why you made that one mistake? And stuff like
you made that mistake, that's that's over, that's not here anymore.
Why don't you at the end of the sun is shining?
Well no, not in the holland it's usually rating, but
we're dancing, we're playing music. Just you know, it's essentially
be here, be now. And again it may sound very simple,
but it was extremely powerful for me, and that's why

(25:25):
I ended up staying for as long as I did
I was like, Oh, I got to get this in
my bones, and I've tried to carry it with me,
you know still today. Yeah, it may be shitty weather,
but the sun is shining within a lot of people
over there. I get what you're saying. We often leave
home to get away from things, but we stay places
bec as we're drawn to something we didn't expect. And
I'm sure at that point it wasn't about escaping. It

(25:48):
was about fully embracing and and you know, relishing the change,
which I think is one of the beautiful things about
traveling and specifically living abroad for a period of time
if you can. You are wearing a Wimbledon shirt. Um,
we had the pleasure of hosting you and Hannah Wattingham,
who read one of our teases beautifully for the Championships

(26:09):
last summer, and you got all dressed up and and um,
you and Shannon came over and we were We had
a great day. You informed me that that was not
the first time that we had met, however, and you
caught me off guard with that, because I think I
would have remembered meeting you somewhere before, but no, I
did not. As as you related to me, Uh, yeah.

(26:29):
In that in that year before I moved to Amsterdam
and the year when I was when I was separated. Um,
I was waiting tables, um, you know, at a place
called Dublin's on State Street in Chicago, and a couple
of couple of my improv buddies got me a job there.
I have no table waiting experience, and I was not
particularly good at it. Um. But every once in a
while celebrities would come in and one of them one day,

(26:51):
well it's the great Christmas flower. Um, sitting myself in
your in your tie, no jacket, but you still had
the tie. Um, And uh, I was by myself, how sad? Yeah,
you know, I will defend solo trips of the restaurant
to my dying day. Um. But I felt a liar
enough to that I walked up, but I was nervous.

(27:13):
I think I even shook as I said it, Hey Fowler,
what can I get you? And uh, you're very you're
very efficient with your ordering. As I recall a relling day,
I hope it included liquid uh treasure. But outsides of
the fact, I wouldn't go to dublin Probably for the food,
I would go there for the drink, and maybe I

(27:35):
needed it if I was stilly wearing my tie. But
I was alone. I don't know what the hell had happened.
Maybe we were there shooting something for Northwestern. I don't
remember what it was. But at least I wasn't an
asshole too. If I was there and not at all,
it was like five thirty or like maybe four o'clock,
and I could have been an asshole at five thirty.
I'm not. I'm not above being an asshole in a
happy hour, you know, but I'm glad. I hope the
tip was at least not memorably bad anyway, So I

(27:58):
rememberably that not memorably that you did. Great. Hey, there's
something that was in doing the research, I came across
something in an article in The Athletic where you talked
about one of the experiences on stage more than twenty
years ago. Now at this troop called Boom Chicago in Amsterdam,
where Burt Reynolds is in the audience, you call him up.
People have to go find this article in the Athletic.

(28:19):
Subscribe if you don't, because the clip embedded into it
is hysterical. We're a very young breend that welcomes Burt
Reynolds onto the stage and he gets heckled and then
threatens to punch out the heckler who he is invited
on the stage. It was incredible. I also have a
Burt Reynolds bodily arm store. He wanted to punch me.
I'll get to that in a second. But what a

(28:40):
fun little easter egg to come across. And I guess
that's just part of life as an improv guy on
the stage. You never know what the hell is going
to happen. It was so random. Burt was in town
filming a movie that actually I and two other Boom
guys had had really small parts in, and we had
but we had we're not in scenes with him, so
we hadn't met him to that point. But it was

(29:02):
like this JILTI electricity was in there the whole night. Um. Yeah,
people could see the clip and what happened. But there's
a there's a bit of a day New Mah to
that that I don't think I've said anywhere. So so
here you go. But there was gonna be a rat
party for this horrible movie, horrible movie called Snapshots, and

(29:23):
we got there and as we're going there, I had
this Swedish filmmaker friend and I mentioned it to him
and he's like, well, if you're going to meet Burt Reynolds,
I have a question for him. In the film Shamus,
there is a stunt where a man falls out of
a tree and he falls onto his head and there's
I think that there's no way he could have survived,
So please bring this up to mister Burt Reynolds, all right,

(29:46):
And sure enough, go to Burt Reynolds after shooting the
ship and for a while I'm like, hey, Bert, I
just gotta ask, do you remember a stunt and Shamus
where a guy falls down on his head? And and
he's like, I sure do. I don't remember the name
of the stunt man was like, you know, Kevin mcgillcutty,
tell us of the bitch I ever met. Got me

(30:08):
out of there. Came in, fell down on his head,
and then he had to go to the hospital. I
went there with him. He was mobilized for a while
and his beautiful nurse comes in bombshell. She comes in
with a needle this wide. She has him stand up
against the wall. Yeah, with his ass out, She's sticking
the needle in the small of his back and she

(30:28):
pulls back the plunger and it's full of blood and
piss and shit and Kevin mcgillatutty, I'll never forget this,
Kevin McGilcutty says, So I guess I'm not gonna get
your number, Jack Cock, Thank you Magnus for sending me
down this Rocord. Burt could tell his story my encounters

(30:52):
with him, there were two. We're not quite as pleasant
sp Awards Radio City backstage, I come off. He's going on.
I don't know it's him. It's in the darkness side
stage with the pulleys and the sandbags. I feel a
very sharp punch to my tuxedoed shoulder as I'm walking
in the opps direction. Stop, hey Bert, how i'd met
him before? He was a Florida State football player, roommate

(31:12):
of Lee Corso, my beloved sidekick on game day. So
I'd met Burt before. And he goes, don't give me that,
don't give me that shit. Like now, I'm completely baffled.
I've done nothing to Burt Reynolds that I know of.
He was convinced that I had made fun of him
when he was getting divorced with Lonnie Anderson he was
a total mistaken identity. That was not a topic on
game day. Hard to believe, but we didn't really cover

(31:33):
Burt and Lonnie on our football pregame show. So he
was just wrong. He might have been watching et. I
don't know what he was watching. It wasn't me, but
I could not convince him otherwise, And so that little
moment passes. Later on another year, he's down in Florida
State for a game. We're doing game day. He won't
come on the set, so he will go to a
small side set and he and mister Corso will have

(31:55):
an interview down there and they can shoot the ship
and tell stories about when they went to El Paso
and the Sun bowling across the border and had all
kinds of fun. So anyway, but that night, I figured
this is enough enough. Like he's over there in the
sidelines with Lee, with our people. I'm not with them.
I walk over, and I figured maybe he's cooled down,
Maybe somebody set him straight. It wouldn't me. I walk over.

(32:16):
He's not having it. He gets right inches from my face,
seventy five thousand people around, and says, you don't want
to fight a seventy year old man right here. No,
I do not Bert, I do not want to fight
you on the football field where you wance a football
star and now like a beloved donor. I don't want

(32:37):
to fight that. That's one of those no win situations, right.
You either punch Bert Sheriff's russell you to the ground
you're a villain, you're taking a jail, or he kicks
your ass a seventy year old beats you down. That's
also a lose in my book. So I never found
out Brandon. I never found out what Burt Reynolds was
so confused about or why he thought I insulted him.

(32:58):
It was just it was a Holly would feud to
the end. And I was a huge fan. I mean,
my god, smoking the band, the Longest Yard, It's my
favorite hoop poverty is I mean, my god, it Hooper.
I don't share your I like Cooper, but Wong's yard
from me, I mean Paul Wrecking Crew. And you know
I was. I still was enormous fan after that, but
I was just confused. So I watched with great interest

(33:19):
Burt Reynolds threatening to punch out a heckler on your stage,
because I think he would have I think he would have.
Oh my god, what a what a weirdly embittered dude.
I'll never understand your character. Um, like you has a
deep and broad knowledge of random topics. You put that

(33:40):
on display and Celebrity Jeopardy, where Jennifer and I watched
and with obviously strong rooting interest, as you motored through categories,
built up a huge lead. And then I don't want
to say, well, I'm not going to say the C word,
but maybe maybe maybe you lost track of the math
and you bet incorrectly. Final Jeopardy and Patton Oswald, of

(34:02):
all people, Patton Oswald comes in and steals the wind
from you and goes down to the final where um,
like Paronols is a friend of years, he was also
part of the Boom Chicagoy. He ends up winning the
Grand prize and that should have been you, man, that
should have been you. Oh thanks, thanks. Yeah, I've over
my head so much. I mean to choke on Handmaids Fail.

(34:23):
You know, the show that I that I have watched
with such dedication over the years. I mean I whipped
on both Final Jeopardies, like even the episode I won,
Like I didn't get Final Jeopardy right, and you know,
I'm just gonna try to have to take it taken
on the chin, learn them from the next time. Congratulations
Patton Oswald, he earned it. And uh and but is
that you is? That is the knowledge you displayed. You

(34:44):
were like you were like mowing through categories. You you
you were it was. It was frigging impressive. I mean,
even celebrity Jeffy. Maybe maybe the questions are quite quite
as hard as some of the but you were Jeffy
fan growing up so obviously has a big moment, a
very cool experience have I think, Yeah, it really, it
really was. You know, it was um, you know, my

(35:05):
mom and I had had various avenues of of of bonding, um,
you know, despite sort of all the other weird stuff,
but Jeopardy was very much one of them. Just sitting there,
you know, eyes locked on a TV, you know, saying
the answers. Um. It was a very very reliable ritual
for for many years. So it's you know, and for
a lot of people, Jeopardy is a family thing, of course.

(35:27):
But but it was cool to close that off. And yeah,
I had I had i'd had a had a seventy episode,
but you know, i'd had an uncle who'd done it once,
and he didn't tell us how much money he won
until he watched it. He had won exactly three hundred dollars,
which would not have paid for his ticket back and forth.
Um So he didn't notice any life changing events after

(35:48):
he came back from Jeopardy though. He didn't suddenly, you know,
driving a Bentley or anything after. No, No, no, he did.
He did have some nice sandwiches. Um but that was
about it. About it? Well, I know you did a
one man show talking about your five years in Amsterdam,
tracing a lot of the background you shared early, what

(36:09):
you led you there, what you learned there. I didn't
get to see that, um it. I know it was
in New York and La, Chicago, Aspen. Would you please
bring it back this summer? Would you come back to
Aspen and would you bring that back just as a favor?
Because I it sound it was beautifully reviewed. It sounds amazing.
One man show's taken credible amount of guts too. I
would think to create, to dig down, to find what

(36:32):
you got to dig through to even create it and
then go to perform it. Wow, could you do it again?
It's funny you mentioned that because I've always loved doing
that show and I haven't done a long time, and
I'm supposed to do it in Amsterdam this summer at
the Boom Chicago thirty three Union. But in order to
prep for that and get into my bones, I'm gonna

(36:53):
I'm gonna do a few like low key shows at
the Hollywood Fringe Festival. This hadn't even been announced yet
until right here today. Um, so we're doing a few
days in June. I'm afraid I won't make it to
ask me, Chris, I apologize for that, but you'll have
your chance. Whether or not even take it'll be well.
We will. We will stay in touch on those days.

(37:14):
Because would I would? I would? I would? I would
travel to see that. I'd love to go to Amsterdam
and see when is the When is the Boom Chicago performance?
I think who Chagan performance is July sixth. But what
was that experience like to walk out there? I mean,
so many aspects of what you do. My dad was
in the theater. He was an actor, director, later a playwright.
He was a professor a lot of his years, and

(37:35):
my mom was a choreagraher. I grew up around that,
but never had the guts to step out there and
do it. For me. Theater was associated with great tension
and anxiety, you know, secondhand, and when a play was
about to happen, my dad was not calm and it
was unpleasant sometimes. And and so the idea of taking
some little part in running on stage in a Shakespearean production,

(37:55):
my lord, my lord, don't go, I would scare the
shit out of him, even if it been one line.
So aside from Burger commercials, I didn't have the guts
to pursue that. But man, I'm a fitter lover, and
I admire the idea of going out there and standing
alone at the stage and let's telling pieces of your story. Yeah,
I mean, I don't know. I don't know why. I

(38:16):
don't know how you end up there in a way,
you know, like it it's but once you once you're
doing it and find and figure out that, like you're
not terrible at it, it's pretty damn addictive. Um And
uh yeah, I'm just I'm just super glad about it,
you know. Um. I that was in seventh grade. I

(38:37):
started at seventh grade at Kimlin Academy, and there was
an announcement on the intercom auditions are coming up for
the King and I and to our younger students, because
it was the seventh through twelve m. The King and
I has many children who need to be cast, so
please consider auditioning. And and my man Andre Robinson right
next to me, we're auditioning for that. Oh oh okay,

(39:02):
And we did and we both got in and here
we are now the most inane, forgettable things of the
morning announcements in a school. And you actually, that's incredible
that that became a spark for what But it's become
your life's work of all things. Sitting there listening to
some speaker in his clinic classroom. Yeah, but then you
had to go do it. You had to go do it.

(39:22):
And I would, I would think, put yourself out there.
And and you know, I have the guts and the
confidence which I didn't have as a kid to do that.
And I'm not haunted, but I do regret it. One
of the few things I've read is not stuffing out
there and doing that so well. Sometimes it's not it's
not got some confidence so much, it is just blindly
racing forward and kind of ignoring the stuff that apparently

(39:44):
you're supposed to be scared of. Um, if you did
pretend it's not there, then it can't catch you. Random
question as we near the end here, Um, I mentioned
my dad being in the theater. I wonder if you've
ever had an experience with ghosts, if you believe in ghosts,
because there are stories that my father haunts the theater

(40:07):
in Rockford, Illinois that he created according to students and
ex students, which I tend to investigate. That sounds like
a podcast episode, but yeah, I have had experiences like that.
If you have you had a ghost experience, Brendan, I
can't say that I necessarily have, and I certainly wish
I had, because like I'm you know, I've got I've

(40:28):
got some some hippie thoughts in me about about you know,
the energy of which we are constituted and in what
forms it takes around us. But but no, I yet
to be confronted by by a proper ghost. Um, there's
still time. There's still time. But there's still time. I think.

(40:49):
I sometimes dream the future, but no ghost. Have you
had a near death experience almost become a ghost yourself?
Because I've asked guests it's frequently because it often produces
a surprising, tereseing answer. I've had a couple of them.
But have you have you had one of those experiences
where you really feel like, oh, like this could be it.

(41:10):
It wouldn't this be a weird way to have it? Yeah? UM,
So in Amsterdam, you know, the weekends there would be
there would be fun parties, and sometimes we just go
to proper like dans and places, but sometimes you end
up going to these like underground um you know, squat
parties where you know, we're we're we're squatters have taken
over like an abandoned building, our bandon warehouse and turn

(41:31):
it into a UM. It's some kind of party that
you know, does not require going through any like OSHA
safety checks and UM. And people are, of course, UM
as a rule, not particularly sober. And I'm at this
one that it was in like a warehouse out in
the canal or on the river really actually a little

(41:52):
further from the center of town. And like, the music
is good, I've got some friends, are having a good time,
but I kind of go wandering off a little bit
and there's this giant sliding door UM at one point
and I'm like, okay, the bathroom in here, and I
opened the giant sliding door and outside is the river,
the river, and five stories straight down to the ground.

(42:12):
There is no there was no banister, there's no barrier whatsoever.
And you know, there's two hundred super high people behind me,
and it just will take one of them to be
like oh wow, and then everyone's surging forward and you
know we might at all die, but I sure will,
and says And there there was no panic. No, apparently

(42:37):
no one even noticed that the whole world was out there.
Maybe I was the last to know, but but yeah,
I'm still shook by that from time to time. Yeah,
that would that would be a recurring nightmare for me.
I mean maybe combining alcohol, hallucinogenics and five story dropofs
into a river with no barrier, probably that's a that's

(42:57):
a dangerous combination. Yeah, yeah, And I can't swim. Boy,
I don't think swimming would be the problem. If that'd
be the last year concerns of you fall kill you,
which guess all, right, here we go. So as you
wrap it up, UM, people who are going to launch

(43:19):
into this this season and and and love it. UM
Arsenal is going to win the Premier League. Uh, you
are intentionally trying to jinkit. Stop that, stop that I
won't down and show you that the Chelsea we are
we are also rounds, but we're alive in the Champions
League quarterfinals as we as we sit here now anyway,
so's not better than the Europa League. Just saying, oh,
is it Chris you you post you in in Channon

(43:45):
post about your sunshine? Is he about two now? And
you you were watching the US World Cup team with
him in your arms? And I just wonder one of
the joys of parenthood and specifically having a son, which
I've not experienced, would would be to be able to
share things like that with him kind of um hope
that he grows up and share some of your passion
for sports and things in life. So I don't know
if he's quite old enough to understand what was going

(44:07):
on with Team USA or a soccer but I know
you love to explain the game. So does Sean yet
understand um offsides and the box form midfield? Have you
have you taught him these things? I got him on
a diamond though he uh, he likes watching TV. You know.
At two point where we got to be a little

(44:27):
bit careful about it, but he likes watching sports. I
think it's because you know, suddenly the color green takes
over everything. Um, and he doesn't really know what's happening yet,
but he does do like accidental impressions of me like yeah,
he'll he will get and he's learned. He learned to
put his hands on the side of his head. Uh

(44:48):
and uh no, he doesn't know why he's doing that,
but not me. Nailed. Well, that's that's gonna be within
the rest of his life. And visus your fan, there's
a whole lot of yelling no and putting the hands
on the sat of your head. Right, That's that's what
it is, you know, the beautiful agony of it all.

(45:09):
So you know, many lessons for him to learn ahead. Hey,
thanks so much for your time. This is really enjoyable.
And uh, I can't wait to see how the season
unfolds and and see what's what's next for you. But
getting Tony a little bit has been really fun and
I appreciate, appreciate you joining us. Pleasure to be here.
Thanks again for the tour at Wimbledon, and let them

(45:31):
lessons about to everyone. Don't be a horrible tipper because
You never know if you're gonna run into that waiter
thirty years later. Oh yeah, we wouldn't be sitting here. Well,
yeah I was. I don't hold grudgets, but I do
keep score and you're in the positives. That was fun.
Huge thanks to Brendan Hunt. I know about this as

(45:52):
a gauge of ted Lasso's immense popularity. The a Sports
FIFA game, which is what Brendan and Jason Sadakis used
to play before and after those improv shows in Amsterdam.
It's really what helped teach Jason the sport of soccer.
The EA twenty three FIFA game now features AFC Richmond
and the characters from ted Lasso, and they piled up

(46:12):
more than a million wins. That is a cool thing
for the cast and for the fans of the show.
Season three continues an Apple TV Plus, the only network
to take a chance on the show. As always, thanks,
I'm a co executive producer Jennifer Dempster and to the
folks at Octagon, please subscribe and review the podcast and
leave any comments or feedback on my Instagram and I'll

(46:34):
talk to you soon.