March 29, 2022 • 50 mins
Brian welcomes the one and only Lamorne Morris AKA Winston Bishop from New Girl to the show. They chat about Lamorne’s never-ending audition process, his complicated relationship with cats in real life, and the wrap party with Prince.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back then, I was really really low on myself, and
it couldn't have come at a better time in my life.
I want to say, I don't know how many commercials
I've done in that year. It was a ridiculous amount.
You got to the point where if I was walking
down the street, people would go, Hi, man, I know
you from uh TwixT was no, no, no, It's all
(00:20):
of them, all them things, all those commercials. Hey folks
on Lamour and Morris, and I played what Steven Spielberg
has called the greatest TV character of all time. I
played Winston Bishop on New Girl. Hello, dear listeners, welcome
(00:49):
back to Off the Beat. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner.
I'm so glad you decided to join me today because,
my friends, I am so excited about today's guests. If
you didn't catch him in Desperadoes or Woke, you might
know him as New Girls prankster Extraordinary. That's right. There
(01:13):
really is nobody like Winston Bishop, a k a. The
unbelievably talented Lamourne Morris. Now, I have to tell you something.
I spent this conversation with Lamourne smiling the entire time.
When we were done, my cheekbones were hurting from smiling
(01:33):
so much. Now. Just like his character, Lamourne grew up
in Winston's hometown of Chicago, eventually making his way to
Second City, the Second City Training Center. He is such
a natural comedian and he has just some really amazing stories,
from his early days working in commercials to getting cast
(01:56):
on New Girl after Get This fifth teen auditions, by
the way, I only had one for Kevin Malone. He
has commitment. I have luck. Today you're gonna hear some
of these stories, and you'll also hear his shocking revelation
about cats. Get Ready, without further ado, please welcome my
(02:17):
new friend and yours, Lamourne Morris, Bubble and Squeak. I
love it Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cooking at
every month left over from the Natbyfore, what's up? What's that? Dude?
(02:52):
I'm good, right, good, good, good man. Oh my gosh,
I'm such a big fan of yours. Thank you so
much for coming on the show here to be very
excited to have you. I hear that. Uh, well, you're
you're encroaching on my space now you're in the podcast
business yourself? Is that right? This is correct. We over
at the New Girl headquarters. We were like, we get
(03:16):
all these messages from fans constantly and asking questions constantly,
and I find myself seeing the show being rewatched all
the time with Netflix and Hulu and whoever is purchasing
and buying, and we just thought, man, let's do it.
And then and I didn't know it was the thing
until I saw you do it, and until I saw
the office lady's doing it. I saw you know, I
(03:37):
was like, holy crap, scrub guys. I said, man, it's like,
this is awesome. I didn't know I could do that.
You you can, and you guys are doing it so well.
I want to talk about that in a little bit,
but I want to go back to the beginning. You
grew up in Chicago, right, Yeah, I grew up in Chicago, Uh,
South Side of Chicago. Then you know, move moved my
(03:58):
way around a little bit, so South Side of Chicago
then West Bourbs of Chicago. That's kind of where I
figured out my sense of humor and things that I
love to do is just having like the best and
worst of both worlds. But you stayed true to your
South Side roots. You're a big white Sox fan. I
(04:20):
understand White Sox. Yes, you know, I wouldn't say big
White Sox fan. I I there are five world series.
I do want to take full responsibility for that. I was.
My first ever TV commercial was a White Sox commercial.
And the year they won, yeah, yeah, the year they won,
and I know it was because of me. I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna give any love to any of
(04:41):
the players. Let's just be honest. They didn't do it.
They didn't do it before I did the commercial, they
didn't do it after. No, just only the year that
you you were advertising for them, working for them, exactly,
you were a part of exactly. And I've been trying
to let other sports organizations know that. You know, hey,
I'm a good luck chall you know, give me courtside seeds,
(05:03):
let me do the commercials, and I promise you a championship.
All right. Back to your your childhood in Chicago, first
job working for the White Sox in a way, what
made you interested in theater or in comedy and how
early did that start for you. There's a couple of
a couple of things, you know. It could have been
something passed down through generations. My mom was very funny.
(05:25):
I didn't really follow that itch, but she did some
theater back in the day. She writes poetry, so she
writes she's very My mom was a very creative person,
but never really followed that that passion. I met my
grandfather for the for the first time when I was playing,
like ten years ago. Meeting him was so interesting. I
(05:48):
moved to California. He lived in California and he was
half blind, you know, tiny man sitting in front of
his small TV and he was watching the Dodgers game.
And I said, oh, you like baseball, and he's got
one eye like this, and he goes, he goes, yeah,
but me can only watch half the game. And then
he stares at me like this. I thought, oh, half
(06:09):
the game because he's got one eye. And I said, oh,
that's pretty funny. And then the rest of the day
was just preceded by so many jokes, like dad jokes,
funny jokes, and talking like sharp jokes. And then it
started to hit me like, man, that maybe that maybe
passed down. You know, I got a very funny family,
you know, an island family from from Belize. So I
(06:31):
always had it in me to perform when I was
a kid, I used to mock the preacher at church,
you know what I mean. And I didn't know why,
but I would just mimic him all the time. And
I played basketball growing up, and once I got cut
from the basketball team is when I realized, Okay, one,
I'm not as good as I thought I was, but two,
I need to fill this void with something. And so
(06:54):
there are auditions for theater and choir, and so I
auditioned for both, got in and fell in love with
it immediately, and I couldn't like stop doing it, and
I just thought it was like something I was doing
in the meantime. I didn't really truly realize that I
could make a career out of it until I was
sent to detention one too many times and the woman
in detention said, hey, you should really figure out which
(07:16):
want to do after you graduate and kind of harness
this energy that you have, and so she gave me
a pamphlet for Second City. Once that happened, it was like,
oh boy, this is this is it for me? You know.
I started doing theater and college and Second City at
the same time, and I was addicted to it. I
would literally go wait tables for just enough money for
food and for train fare just to get tech the
(07:39):
city back to the Bourbs and move around like that.
And I fell in love with it. You know, that's
that's gotta be. Where it started. It was always in me,
but once I was left with no other options, and
it was kind of like, I'm gonna fast forward a
little bit. It was almost the same as I got
so broke in l A. I was auditioning, but I
(07:59):
wasn't looking anything, and I didn't know why. I thought
I was pretty talented, said man, you know, I was
in Second City and I did all these things, and
I was like, man, I can't get a job to
save my life. And I was running late for an audition.
I was so late, car was reboked. I borrowed a
friend's car. I get there and I was forced to improvise,
like I just made it up. I didn't read the
script the sides at all. I get in there and
(08:20):
they said, did you read the side? I say, yeah, yeah, yea, yeah, sure.
I just kind of glanced around, and once I made
everything up. I guess it was refreshing to them that
day because everyone was just sticking to the script. And
they booked me on the spot, I just said, man,
you gotta trust your instincts and go with your skill set,
go with the thing that you train doing and you're
passionate about doing, which was in profit time, and I
(08:43):
was left with no choice. And how was it? Wow?
So much of what you just said is fascinating to me.
My entree, I guess into performing into theater specifically for me,
was very much the same. I wanted to be a
professional baseball player. That was what I was gonna do.
So for you, it was basketball. I had an injury.
This was a very long story, but basically I was
left a very active kid who didn't have a place
(09:06):
to put his focus and found theater and much the
same as well. I didn't see it as a career.
I saw it as something that I was doing. A
very smart guidance counselor gave you a pamphlet to Second
City that so did you? You started taking classes there?
Is that how it started for you at Second City? Yeah?
I started taking classes there. They had a program called
(09:26):
brown co. I remember Second City there was an initiative
I want to say, Keegan Michael Key started this initiative
with homanym Diana Griffin out in Detroit, Second City, Detroit,
where to get more black audience members, black and brown
audience members, because there were none. And it was like, well,
why are there none? It's like, well, because there no
black and brown performers, and so we're like oh. I
(09:50):
was like, oh, let's let's go. Let's go and let's
open the doors. Let's go figure out where where real
these folks are. And so they started scouting, going to colleges.
You know, I was doing this um this comedy group
with a guy named Chris Woski, and we were in
this group and he blew my mind with how he
was performing, and I just thought, man, this is amazing.
Like let's just go big and go broad and just
(10:12):
get weird on stage. And so I started doing that
and I really found my niche for sketch comedy. They
had come to see me perform and asked me to
come audition. That was how it worked out for me.
I already knew I wanted to go there, you know,
I knew that was going to be the trajectory, but
I was, you know it. It helped that they paid
for me to go. I got a scholarship there. Otherwise
(10:34):
I couldn't afford it. Wow, So for you was it?
Was it improv like? That? Was it? It was making
people laugh performing in that way at the time. Yeah,
at the time, you know, even though I even though
at the same time I was studying was studying traditional acting,
different techniques in theater school. You know, how to break
down a character, how to analyze the script, those types
(10:55):
of things. I was doing a ton of that, a
lot of scene work. But there was something about just
showing up and not knowing what the hell is gonna
happen and using your instincts with your friends on stage
that sat with me a lot more. And then it's
a very useful tool obviously when you know, you know,
when you're on set, you gotta make stuff up from
time to down. You know what I mean? Uh, you
(11:18):
save the writer or save yourself? Yes, no, I understand exactly.
So what made you move to Los Angeles? Did you
stay and try to work in Chicago? Obviously you booked
up a White Sox commercial, So did you start working
professionally in Chicago? I started working professional in Chicago. I
did a couple of commercials, actually did two White Sox commercials.
(11:41):
The first one was the baseball and it was me
and the first baseman, Paul Knirko, and then the second
one was at McDonald's White Sox and Cubs commercial with
Bobby Jenks and Rob Belushi. So it was it was
a pretty fun time on set for those spots. But
then in Chicago, the opportunities aren't as I'm not sure
(12:04):
how they are now, but back then it was just
commercial work. You know, it'd be rare if you got
a movie or a TV opportunity there, but it's just
commercial work. B Et came to town, you know, looking
for on air personalities, and I didn't really know what
that was, to be quite honest with you, I just knew, oh,
this could be the thing. This is it's TV and
there it's a TV host. I guess that's kind of
(12:24):
the same thing as acting, is it. I had no idea.
I had no idea. I just gave it a shot.
All my friends auditioned for it. I auditioned, and I
booked it, and I had to move to New York.
This is hot wired. This is hot wired. Yeah, And
I got to have some fun with that because the
head of BT at the time was a guy named
Reginald Hudland. Reginald Hudland. For folks out there who might
(12:48):
not know, his college thesis project was House Party. So
he made that movie in college, and you know, and
he's a second city guy, producer, director, want a Family,
Django producing, He's he's awesome guy. But he understood my
sense of humor the moment I showed up and gave
me a job there and wanted me to be myself
(13:09):
and be silly and be weird. So I was hosting
for a while and then I just you know, I
was missing out on a lot of acting opportunities, so
I moved to l A, which was a weird transition,
going straight from hosting to quit and cold turkey and
trying to dive into traditional you know, how do I
get an agent? How do I you know, I haven't
(13:29):
acted in a while. What do I do? What's the process? Like,
I'm in a whole new there's marijuana out here? How
what do I do about this marijuana that's here? I
can't stop, I can't. It was a lot of stuff
going on that that made it difficult for me to
get a job. Yeah, both internal and external. Oh yeah, exactly.
(13:54):
And that's why I made that move. That's why I
made that transition. But that takes balls, right. I mean,
like you have a job, Bob, You're working in entertainment,
you're hosting, but you just want you wanted to pursue
more traditional acting, character creation, improv and you just a
was the place you needed to be. And I think
back then it was it was the place. You know.
(14:16):
Obviously nowadays, you know, once the pandemic happened to open
their eyes to a lot of things. People are moving,
people are leaving l A constantly. I mean, I'm still here,
but you know, back then, it was like if you
want to act, if you want to you know, do
it full time. This is the place you have to be.
This is where the best of the best is. This
is where the opportunities are. And it was difficult, to
(14:37):
be quite honest with you, it was really difficult. I
would drive my friends to auditions sometimes at big studios,
and I would drop them off and I would kind
of just linger around the studio, just kind of going,
this is crazy to me, Like this is you know,
walking around a lot without a pass, you know, looking
at look at that other actors driving pass on golf cards, going, man,
(15:00):
you got a golf cart. Too, like, this is crazy.
I fell in love with the magic of it. There's
still something very magical about it. And I just knew.
I just said, man, I can't leave until I can't
leave until I'm on a golf cart, until you have
your own golf cart exactly. So you were doing commercials too, right,
(15:23):
You had quite a bit of success in commercials when
you moved to l A. Oh yeah again. The start
of it in l A was that audition, and I
got lucky because that casting director kept calling me in
for things after that, and it was such a blessing
to my life. I mean, I went from having negative
eleven dollars in my bank account to looking like seven
that week, and you know, traveling internationally for commercials, getting
(15:46):
commercial offers. I was like, this is crazy to me.
That kind of resparked my faith in myself. You lose
a lot of steam, you lose a lot of faith
in yourself and your ability, and you get down on
yourself and you're not working and it's um and it
still happens, you know what I mean, still happens now,
you know what I mean. They're like, damn, you know,
(16:07):
I miss out in certain jobs or it goes a
while without working, and back then I was really really
low on myself and it couldn't have come at a
better time in my life. I want to say, I
don't know how many commercials I've done in that year.
It was a ridiculous amount. He got to the point
where if I was walking down the street, people would go,
how do man, I know you? From? Uh TwixT? Was no, no, no,
(16:30):
all of them, all of them. It was all those commercials.
A friend told me a story about Keenan every wayains
did Damon told me. They think either Damon Wayne's Jr.
Told me the story or Marlon I forget. Someone told
me the story where Keenan was watching some sports game
or whatever, some football game or something, and then a
(16:51):
commercial I come on. He said, damn this that this
dude is on every commercial. And then the next commercial
that popped up was a different commercial that I was in.
Said that he threw his will control the TV. I
don't know how true that is, but I just remember
hearing that. It would be so excited that keen and
every way and to knew who I was, even if
he hated me, even if he was annoyed. But yeah,
(17:13):
that's amazing. Yeah, commercials, So when you're starting out, I mean,
especially back then, you could make some real money and
keep your career going and like you said, get some
confidence and also get some experience on set, right, Because sure,
you could say live shows are more difficult. It's you know,
there's more pressure you're on stage. But you know, I've
(17:36):
talked about this with a lot of people, but it's
worth at least to me saying again how difficult that
experience is on set of a movie, of a TV show,
of a commercial, that experience of shooting something experience is
so important, right, Oh, yeah, absolutely, you know the basics.
I've been on set with people who are just who
(17:59):
are really talented, but this is their first project, you know,
and they couldn't hit their mark to save their lives.
They don't understand how to take direction a note from
a director. I don't understand how fast pace we're moving there.
There's a lot of things that you just get innately
when you're doing You do so many commercials, and you
when you finally get that opportunity, you're you're used to it.
You're used to a hundred people running around, you, used
(18:21):
to putting makeup on your face constantly and doing touch
ups and all this stuff where you're trying to think
of your lines and it becomes a muscle. You become
so used to it, you know what I mean. It
got to the point now, it got to the point.
I remember being a new girl and you'll be talking
to your same partner in between takes or maybe running lines,
and there's so many people touching you that you have
(18:41):
know just someone someone literally has their hands in your pants,
you're not face and sometimes different people a person and
the sound person coming in one angle and going down
the other angle exactly, and Jake Johnson that I think
it was, wasn't Max with Jake, can't forget who was.
We would walk up behind that part, we put our
hands behind their in their pants too, and see if
(19:03):
they noticed it. And they never would it never would.
It just started like literally playing with the butt cheeks
and they're just like, doesn't they have no idea who's
playing with the butt cheeks right now? But that's something
you gotta get used to. That's something that that happens.
You know, it could throw you could be very jarring
if you your first day on set. That's true, speaking
(19:40):
of a new girl, I have been told you auditioned
many times fifteen? Is that correct? Yeah? I could be
off by one maybe maybe maybe before fourteen or sixteen
it was. I think it was three or four times
for the Coach character and then the rest for the
(20:01):
Winston character. It was a grueling process. It's a story
that you could write about when you're teaching people, how
the process goes, and how unpredictable it is, and how
there's no one way to get a job. I went.
I auditioned for the Coach character, like a lot of
the other actors did, didn't book it. In fact, I
think my audition was so weird to them. I want
(20:21):
to say. I dressed up in tight shorts and did
the whole thing. I took the script too literal, and
they were like, it's too much. So then they keep
auditioning people. Then they asked me to come back just
minus the get up, please put put on regular people clothes.
And simultaneously I had the same day, I had an
audition for a CBS pilot called The Assistance with t J. Miller,
(20:43):
Heather Locklear, Sarah Right, David Henry. It was really cool
multicamp show, and I got passed on by casting for
that after my first read, because the casting assistant who
was reading with me kept dropping lines, and so I
had these big chunks of monol dogs and whenever she
would drop a line, it would fast forward me to
(21:03):
two scenes ahead and I would be so off what
she was saying that they passed on me. And I
told my agent, I said, listen, I need to get
back in there in an audition. I said, I guarantee
you I'll book this. I said, I know this is
this is a perfect character for me. You just gotta
get me in. It was her fault, said, it wasn't
my This is the assistance is yea, And they get
me into They get me into this, back to for
(21:25):
the assistance. Then I get a phone call saying that
they want me to test for New Girl now for
the coach character. And I said, okay, great. So then
they bring me back into read for the assistance, but
this time with the producers, and so they stopped me
halfway through my audition. I get through most of the audition,
and they stopped me halfway through my audition, and then
I thought, oh, maybe it was me. Maybe I was
(21:45):
just bad. And then they go we hear you're testing
for New Girl tomorrow. I said, yeah, can we ask
you to tank that audition that I said, what, yeah,
because they really wanted me for the assistance. Remember I
just got passed on for the assistance. You got passed
on from the assistance. You're halfway through reading it and
you think, oh god, I have been terrible. But actually
(22:07):
reading halfway through, they already know they want you. Yes,
this is incredible. And so I go home that day
and I have this dilemma. Two shows that I'm about
to test for paying roughly around the same money. You know,
it wasn't it was my first TV job. It wasn't
about the money at that point. But and I'm with
my buddy Ramsay, this good friend of mine, rams is
him and as talented actor and Chad Boseman, God rest
(22:30):
his soul. He was. He was like a mentor. Obviously
he was in the business and he knew what to do.
And he he said, hey, man, you have to do
the job that fulfills you the most, whether you get
it or not. You don't want to live with saying,
you know, you didn't shoot your shot. I test for
New Girl while I'm at I go to the test
(22:51):
I'm sorry. I go to the test for New Girl.
I'm sitting in the courtyard. I get a call from
my agent saying, don't sign that contract because now CBS
has canceled their test and said we want to just
make you a straight offer and pay you more money. What. Yeah,
And so my agents advice was bird in the hand,
take the job. So I took this the CBS offer.
(23:14):
We tried to get a New Girl to make me
an offer. They didn't want to. They didn't go with
their tests. They don't find anybody. They then hired Damon
Wayne's Jr. Thinking his show Happy Endings wasn't going to
get a second season. Exactly my show Assistance doesn't get
picked up after the pilot. After the pilot, Happy Endings
(23:35):
gets picked up for a second season, so Damon has
to go. So now I'm thinking, hey, guys, hey remember
me the guy walked that on your test, Like, can
you bring me back him? And they loved Damon so much,
has performance so much. If you watch the pilot, he's fantastic.
They wanted to keep that and not redo it, so
they had to rewrite another to write another character in people.
(23:58):
A lot of people say, oh, a black guy swap.
This is just he's a black dude. You're stopping another
black dude. It was no, it was it was like
it was open to any ethnicity. I mean a lot
of folks read for it. You name it, every ethnicity,
you know, size, age. It was kind of like they
didn't know what they wanted. That's why I had to
read so many times. It was constant changing of the sides,
(24:20):
dynamics with character structured you know, status and my the
koy one. Am I the boss of the group? Am
I the shot? You know who? Am I? So it
took a while. That's why I was that many auditions. Crazy.
That is crazy. That has never happened to me. I
have never been sitting at the courtyard at Fox or
wherever you were and told no, someone else just made
(24:41):
you an offer, walk out on this test. That's amazing.
Did you go in and tell them or did you
just leave? That's why I want to know I walk
into the room and say I'm sorry, I've just got
another offer, or did you just get in your car
and drive away? Almost almost I was walking to the
room when my phone started vibring. My my agent said
keep your phone on. I was walking with the casting
(25:03):
director Seth Yanklewitz, and uh, either you walk into you
signed that. You signed that paper, And before I did it,
I looked at him and I said, it's my agent.
And he knew right away he did, he knew. Yeah,
I loved you, Seth. I'm sorry I did that to
you in that moment. But it worked out. Look at us,
Look at us now. It worked out exactly. It worked out.
(25:26):
You end up joining in the second episode, right, because
they wanted they wanted the pilot to air as shot.
Is that right? Yeah, exactly, And that was weird. I
gotta say for the first two seasons, I didn't know
if I was being fired or not. I'll admit I wasn't.
We weren't writing necessarily for my strength because we didn't
know my strengths yet. We didn't know that dynamic would.
(25:48):
We would try certain things and test certain things. He
just wasn't working. Maybe maybe he's jobless, maybe he's uh,
you know, he gets a job as an usher or
a babysitter. We were trying all these things, and then
that became aim the game, a little bit of the character,
and then I started playing into that more, doing bits
off camera with the other actors. They started to realize
(26:10):
the writers, I gotta say writers on a New Girl
geniuses because they would look at the bits in between
stuff and figure out what was funny. They impro improvised stuff,
and they would go, let's tailor it towards that, and
they would write the most ridiculous stuff from my character
and it worked and I loved it. Every every episode
felt like a sketch comedy show to me because I
(26:31):
didn't know what character trait I had that week. And
you know, one week, my character is a professional, former
professional basketball player. The next week he has thin fingers
and he can't carry anything. Next week he constantly has
directions for some reason. It's like, what, So it was funny.
(26:51):
It was fun. It was a fun fun show to
do for sure. After the second season for me, when
you felt like they figured out who you were and
we're able to play into what you felt like your
strength was. Yeah, And once I knew I wasn't gonna
get fired, I was just more comfortable going to work
every day. It's like, Okay, why don't you think you
were going to be fired? Was there anything specifically that happened?
(27:12):
I thought I was under performing to be quite honest
with you, I knew what I was capable of doing,
but I would leave fit every day going I didn't
do what I wanted to do. And they don't know
that I have this weird energy that I could perform
at this level that I could perform at I don't
think they I don't think I've done it yet. And
I would watch the episodes back and sometimes that cringe
at him, and I don't know if that's that's any good.
(27:35):
It's very insecure. I was extremely insecure, and you know,
my cast mates, obviously in the producers would kind of
reassure me, like, you're not going anywhere, but you know,
I know how this business is, you know, and and
they were very gracious to give me a lot of
room to grow. I think we're all glad it happened
that way, because it was just another piece too. I
(27:57):
think otherwise Perfect asked, everybody on the show is clicking
on all cylinders from day one, and I was trying
to find my footing. Yeah. I feel like there's in
a lot of ways a similarity between the Office and
New Girl in terms of this sort of disparate collection
of characters that are that find themselves together and form
(28:20):
this sort of pseudo family in a way, right is
that is that a stretch not a stretch at all,
Not a stretch at all. It's like, no matter what
office you go into to them in that office there
this you have a story about a guy who acts
this where oh I know this woman, she behaves this way,
and you wouldn't believe it until you saw it, you know.
(28:41):
And then the office is a heightened version of what
people can identify with all the characters on the show.
And I think that's the same way with New Girls.
That people they have these people who live together, and
everyone has a story about my roommate does this, or
he wears a kimono at night and you don't know, no,
he doesn't. And then you watch New Girl and you
people go, look that's about me, you know. You know,
(29:04):
it's a weird group of people that have a common bond,
and you know, and they and they stick it out
and they stick together. And I think the reason why
our shows resignated is because and lasted for so long,
is because people at home felt connected to the characters. Right, No,
for sure, when did you realize that the show was
(29:25):
taking off? It was gonna, you know, after you after
you found your own personal security in terms of your
job security, when did you feel like you're gonna, we're
gonna be around for a while. Do you remember was
there a moment, there were a few I gotta say,
once people started knowing my name on the street because
people people always, they still to this day, called me
(29:47):
Winston from Winstay. It's constant. But the moment people would
go Mr Morris, let more la more getting get a photo,
and I thought, my god, they looked up my name
like they they know people are invested in It's like
sometimes you watch a TV show and then you'll just
go onto the next. Some of my favorite shows, I
couldn't tell you the actor's real names. You know. Now
(30:09):
I can't be you know, because we're in the business now.
But like it's one of those things where you're walking
on the street, somebody says your name and it hits
you like, my goodness, that's what they know me from.
I must it must be working. And when you would
read I'm not supposed to read comments, but I read them.
And when you see so many, whether they're good or bad,
I go there's a conversation around an episode that we
(30:31):
did there, you go, oh, people care, people are actually invested.
Then you see fan fiction you know about about your showing,
You're like, whoa, people are disgusting but also invested. Yes, um,
have you ever played true American? I have American? Yeah,
(30:56):
but on the accident kind of I was. It was
a party going on in Hollywood and we walked past
it and you know, people recognize me and they were like,
you'll never believe what we're doing over here. We're playing
to American. And I reached out to the guy. We
exchanged Instagrams afterwards, and I've been I've been talking to
him lately, like where are the photos that I'm in?
He's like, I was trying to keep you out of
him because I didn't want to be that guy would
(31:18):
be a paparazzi guy while your party. But I even
posted some photos of my instagram back then. They were
literally having a full on true American party in their
front yard. That's amazing, like standing on chairs, doing DIBs
and you know, screaming JF carry after. It was a
whole thing, which also blew my mind till this day.
It still blows my mind. A drinking game with no rules.
You know, Yes, I went in prepera this is not
(31:42):
a joke. I was like, oh yeah, that true American,
and I got online to try to ascertain and figure
out what the rules were. Reading the description of True American,
by the way, A drinking game from New Girl left
me more confused, and I thought that I was to
start with. So I don't know if that's a good
(32:02):
thing about that, but that's that's the point. That's the point,
because if they're all those beers, you're gonna be confused
and in the night you're gonna Why did I do this? Why?
I one of the things that happened on the office,
it was intentional. Greg Daniels, our showrunner, had come from
Saturday Night Live, and from the very beginning he felt
(32:25):
like the ensemble experience was incredibly important. But the ensemble
experience not just amongst the actors, amongst everyone, and so
he had writers who were actors and actors who were writers,
and I know a New Girl, you guys had a
similar experience. You wrote an episode, you directed an episode.
Was that you or was that a part of the
culture you you feel like that that was created on
(32:47):
the show A little a little of both Liz Mayweather
is very She asked a lot of questions and loves
hearing stories about personal life and incorporating things that you
may have done. And you know, that testament to all
the writers as well. They just you know, they want
to know, and they all know and knew that I
had aspirations to direct and to write. You know, I
(33:09):
would always have ideas on set as actors were always
pitching ideas, character storylines. My whole, the whole Winston being
a police officer was my idea, and then writing the
episode came because of that. The episode that I wrote
was about my character being being new to the force
but then meeting this woman that he really liked and
(33:32):
was vibing with, and then she finds out that she's
protesting the police, and so he's like, oh, so he's
now doesn't know if he's ashamed to be a cop
or if he's proud to be a guy. He doesn't know.
And so because because he's a black police officer, you know,
so he's like, uh wait, you know, and that came
from Twitter. So on the show, my character is named Ferguson.
(33:53):
At the time, there was a lot of civil unrest
based off what happened in Ferguson and people started tweeting me.
They were like, oh, how's it feel to play a
black cop with a cat named Ferguson in these times?
And I was like, God, damn it if I get
one more tweet about this, and people started really asking
me questions went from being funny two serious, like, na, brother,
(34:15):
you gotta speak up. What do you think about this?
And it's like, I'm just an actor, but okay. Uh
So I went to Liz Maryweather because I genuinely started
feeling uncomfortable. I asked her if I could address it
on the show, and so she said, why don't you
write an episode? So she paired me with Rob rose
l one of our fantastic writer producers, and we came
up with an episode and we addressed it in in
(34:36):
a way, you know, a very Network TV funny kind
of way, but we still put some light on it
and what could possibly go through the police officer's head
in that moment. He doesn't meet someone like that, you know,
in these times that we're living in. So that was
the reason why I wrote that one, but it was
for her. It was like, please do it. And then
directing they just asked, Hey, do you want to direct?
(34:58):
Damn right? I do? Yeah, And that was easy. I was.
I want to say it's easy. The process was a
lot more difficult than I thought it would be. But
on set everyone was so everyone except for Max s Greenfield.
Everyone besides Max Screenfield was so kind. Max. Max was
intentionally a dick. Yeah, yeah, I had that too, Rain Wilson. Yeah,
(35:20):
and it makes it just it just to make it,
just to make a diymmical. Yeah, just take that whatever
the little, maybe the teeniest amount of insecurity you might have,
and just just twisted in. Yep it oh it. Even
though you know they love you and they're messing with you,
it's still it works. What they're doing is working. I'm
(35:44):
getting more and more insecure as the day goes on.
I'm like my in over my head. You brought up Ferguson.
Are you a cat guy? Um? This is gonna disappoint
a lot of people. No, in fact, hell no, you know,
I I don't mind. I don't mind cats anymore. When
(36:04):
I was younger, my buddy used to have a bunch
of cats, and one of them, when it was a kitten,
he said, oh, it's buttercut hold Buttercup. I said, oh, hey,
Buttercup is so adorable. And we just got through playing basketball,
so I had no shirt on. Buttercup goes and attaches
to my chest and slides down and cuts up my
chest on its way down. Because it was too fast,
(36:25):
you didn't see it coming. You couldn't stop this attack
if you tried. Cats are super quick and sneaky. I
don't trust them, at least with dogs. They're loud and
you know they're coming. You know they're coming. This one
cats and I watched Pet Cemetery and it was the
scary film. Yeah, so now I don't I don't think cats.
(37:07):
Is there a thing that fans talk to you about
the most? Is there a moment from New Girl that
people talk to you about the most? There's a couple Ferguson,
for sure. You know I'm joking, but cats are like
incredible creatures. So people that cat people out there that
I love to talk about Ferguson, But I would probably
(37:27):
say one of the moments that people always bring up
is Prince. You know, we had prints on our show
for an episode, and that to me was one of
the more significant moments in my just my life. You know,
being on camera with Prince and being around him backstage
and or off camera and just talking and having him
(37:50):
share stories and having him just Prince showed up to
our rap party, which was crazy. That's awesome, It's super awesome.
And I said to I said, hey, you don't stick
around for a while, and he looks at me giggles. Goodness,
no question done, get out of here. I don't think
(38:14):
i've ever shared this story before. I would say the
most quintessential Hollywood, you know when you put Hollywood in quotes,
Hollywood moments of my entire life. I don't remember the event.
It was some pre award show event at Chateau Marmont,
(38:36):
the famous Chateau marm at this point in my time,
and I didn't even know there were bungalows at the
Chateau Marmont. And by the way, if you're listening, there
are bungalows at the Chateau Marmont. Some of these bungalows
are very nice, and at least one bungalow has a piano.
And something happened very late at night was someone said, oh,
(38:59):
come into this bungalow. And I went into this bungalow
and there was Prince sitting at the piano playing Get
the Chateau MArmand, and I thought, okay, well this is
it for me. This this is the moment. This is
the Hollywood moment that you know, I never thought would come,
but that has has suddenly brought itself here. So I
(39:22):
don't know exactly the experience of working with him or
hanging out with him, but how cool and amazing he is. Yeah. Oh,
you walk into a room and Princes playing the piano.
You know you've made it, or at least you've been
invited somewhere where somebody's made it exactly. You're you're at
the table, a kind of at the table. Yeah. Yeah,
(39:45):
an incredible run a new girl. Now you guys are
going back, as we talked about at the beginning, welcome
to our show. You're rewatching it now in real time, right, Yeah,
I'm looking at it in real time right from where
I'm sitting. I have a tem be back here. I
watch it. I take notes, I I do. I dive
back in and it's interesting. I find myself instead of
(40:06):
taking notes, I find myself laughing as a fan because
I didn't get a chance to truly enjoy it. While
it was on because you know, it's airing, we're filming.
It's airing, we're filming. Now. It's like I could go
and binge it and forget that I'm supposed to be
taking notes. You know. It's a it's a It just
reminds me of a beautiful time in my career. Not
(40:27):
to say it's not great now, but you know, then
it was like I was younger and I was care
care free, I had you know, I was on the
television show just show it up. You know, I got
kid Now, I got I got responsibilities. Does it bring
you back to the moments of shooting it as you're
rewatching it? Absolutely, I don't know how it feels to you.
(40:48):
When I'm watching it, I forget about some of I
have to remember some of the like negative moments. I
tried to because I want to write those things down,
like that was something that was bugging me that day,
Like I can't remember, you know, and I try to
think about the negative stuff, but you can't because the
editors do a good job and making me look happy
on those days. But uh, it definitely takes me back
(41:11):
to to that time. This is gonna sound Oh, this
sounds cheesy, you know what I mean. So I'm not
that guy, but it definitely puts a warming sensation in
your belly. It's like Christmas when Santa comes out the chimney,
or your drunk neighbor, the guy who shows up, you know,
the guy who'll doing your mom's Christmas black come here? Yeah,
(41:41):
I know. I during the pandemic, I went back and
rewatched the Office as well, and it's interesting, you know,
for us, a lot of the episodes, you know, we
were doing quite a bit of improving and stuff, and
the first edit would come back at like forty three minutes.
For me, the thing that struck me the most was
taking me back to the moments where we were when
(42:02):
we were shooting it, and then also remembering what actually
made the cut, like what is actually a part of
from a narrative now you know, or what what got
you know that that's itself like what got cut? Or
yeah I know that For me, that was it. Do you?
You obviously haven't gotten and your rewatch to the finale,
any specific memories for you of your last days on
(42:24):
set or your last day Oh my gosh, oh my god.
It was such a surreal moment. It was mixed feelings.
I still think about it a lot of time when
you watch it. They did such a great job of
capturing how we are actually feeling. You know, our finale
is us leaving our loft. You know, we're standing in
there in this loft playing True American, and then we
(42:45):
end up we fast forward on the show to us
having kids, playing True American with kids, and then we
rewind back to us in being this empty loft. Now,
on that day when we were shooting, I remember behind
camera they all showed up, all the writers are there,
everyone was there, and everyone was emotional. It was very
(43:07):
except for Jake Johnson. I think actually he left immediately
He's like peace, Uh, but it was we were all
It was a very emotional time. You know, you spend
you know, seven years on a television show and you
get to know so many people and your it's a
true family. You spent so many hours with each other.
I remember us being on that this empty box and
this empty loft going like they're clearing out the stage
(43:30):
for real, They're not gonna put props back in here.
It's actually empty. It was. It was an unbelievable feeling.
They saved the last moment for our last day. They
did it right, you know, you know, and fans will
and fans don't know. Just then then they find out
that it was all just a big prank by me,
which was my character was like, oh, we didn't have
(43:52):
to move out the loft. Look at this kind of
leaves the door open for a reunion, you know, but
who knows. That's awesome. Um April eight woke, it's back
for season two. By the way, I saw, JB Smooth
is on it. So is it now in your contract
that everything you do has to have JB Smooth? Or
(44:15):
or maybe everything he does has to have you, or man,
it has to I can't go a day without talking
to j B. I can't. I love that dude so much. Man,
he's so funny when I tell you so, directing him,
he plays my quote unquote father and new girl, and uh,
I got a chance to direct him, and you know
(44:35):
it's not really directing him. He kind of jab gonna
do a JB Gonna do. It was so funny. The
way he improvises has me in tears. You don't want
to cut anything. I can give you a story about JB.
We were doing barbershop actually when we were in barbershop together.
You know, you do a table read, you pretty much
stick to the script so the writers and everybody can
(44:56):
see what works, you know, changing roads whatever. That's the point, right,
just to see what works. I'm a table read is
that you read the words that were written, so you
see what works. Yes, that's correct, Go ahead, that's the point.
J B goes. JB just goes left. I mean he
added maybe five minutes of dialogue to this one particular scene.
(45:18):
And I tell you the writers were like, bingo added
it to the movie. His character in the movie now
has this huge art, like this big that was way
more than it was on the page, and it's brilliant.
It was. It was almost like they left it intentionally
because they knew JB was going to do something with it.
And when I say in tears at the table read,
then him and Sad with the entertainer started improvising together,
(45:41):
going back and forth, roasting each other, improvising full on
jokes to each other at the table read, and I
just thought this is gonna be crazy, and I and
I and that's how it was on set, and I
was like this, if I could do barbershop for the
rest of my life. I'll do barbershop for the rest
of my life. So yeah, that that's just one story
about JB of many that where you go, hey man,
(46:04):
the lines are, oh another quick story. I'm sorry. I
was sorry. I was pitching something and I needed JB
to like send a funny little clip. I said, just
like ten seconds anything you want. But in this parameter
he sends to me, I think at eight minute video,
I say, he's just like, hey man, So here you're
(46:25):
pitching the show man. Look, man, look when you're pitching
the show, anytime you go in there, what you want
to do is you want to wrap toilet paper around
your hand. You see, just have a just have a
whole bunch of toilet paper on your hand. So you
get there and and you get there to your to
your pitch, They're gonna go, what the hell is he
doing with toilet paper in his hand? See already you're
throwing them off unmer staying I'm looking at the toilet paper.
(46:48):
You see what I'm saying, He goes, Or what you
wanna do is you wanna have the meeting real early,
like five thirty am. It's like just every butt crack
of Dawn. Just have a real early pitch meeting, and
you go in there and you sit down and just
have a pocket full of loose grapes, just loose grapes,
and just every once in a while when you're talking
to you're talking, just Papa, loose grape in your mouth,
(47:08):
welcome me, bearscome me Bear's work. And then he goes, oh,
and about all these things you need to do. So
amazing the tears. It's like, Dab, I just want you
to say, I a doors this show. Oh gosh, you
(47:29):
are the best. Thank you so much. Woke. That's right,
April Amen, Season two premier. Have you had fun doing that? Absolutely? Absolutely?
The cast on this show, the creators of the show,
I mean, the best group of folks. Um. You know,
we got Sishi's and made a Blake Anderson T. Murph
this season. We got Amy Garcia on the show. You
(47:52):
named Miguel Piso, Marky Degings, we got Billy magnuson this show.
This season. I'm telling you, folks would be really really shot,
often pleasantly surprised, you know, with what they're going to see,
you know, just creating this kind of weird environment talking
about certain things that are kind of political, but you
leave it so open ended. You're following the lens of
a guy who doesn't know which way who he is politically.
(48:14):
You're following his view and you're like, hey, that's kind
of how I am. Like, Oh, you know, in the
world of misinformation and left or right or whatever the
hell you want to be on he's that person. He's like,
I don't know, you know, I think a lot of
people will resonate with this character and what he's going through.
So I'm excited for folks to see it. Awesome, Well,
I cannot wait to see it as well. You are hilarious, engaging,
(48:39):
such a pleasure to actually talk to you. Thank you
so much for coming on. Man, you as well, Man,
you as well. I'm a huge fan, dude. I think
you're hilarious and and that, and I'm super like honored
that you would have me on your show. So I man,
I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much. Urn,
(49:08):
It's like I've always known you. Thank you so much
for joining me today on the podcast. This was truly
my pleasure. To the rest of you, I'm gonna see
you next week for another episode of Off the Beat.
In the meantime, make sure to like, subscribe, comment you
know the drill and if I were you, I would
(49:30):
also tune into La Mourns podcast. Welcome to our show
because us podcasters we gotta stick together until next time. Everybody,
have a great week. Off The Beat is hosted an
(49:53):
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Our producers are d A Go Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr,
and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer, He's Ryan Papa Zachary.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth
(50:14):
Olandski
Back then, I was really really low on myself, and
it couldn't have come at a better time in my life.
I want to say, I don't know how many commercials
I've done in that year. It was a ridiculous amount.
You got to the point where if I was walking
down the street, people would go, Hi, man, I know
you from uh TwixT was no, no, no, It's all
(00:20):
of them, all them things, all those commercials. Hey folks
on Lamour and Morris, and I played what Steven Spielberg
has called the greatest TV character of all time. I
played Winston Bishop on New Girl. Hello, dear listeners, welcome
(00:49):
back to Off the Beat. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner.
I'm so glad you decided to join me today because,
my friends, I am so excited about today's guests. If
you didn't catch him in Desperadoes or Woke, you might
know him as New Girls prankster Extraordinary. That's right. There
(01:13):
really is nobody like Winston Bishop, a k a. The
unbelievably talented Lamourne Morris. Now, I have to tell you something.
I spent this conversation with Lamourne smiling the entire time.
When we were done, my cheekbones were hurting from smiling
(01:33):
so much. Now. Just like his character, Lamourne grew up
in Winston's hometown of Chicago, eventually making his way to
Second City, the Second City Training Center. He is such
a natural comedian and he has just some really amazing stories,
from his early days working in commercials to getting cast
(01:56):
on New Girl after Get This fifth teen auditions, by
the way, I only had one for Kevin Malone. He
has commitment. I have luck. Today you're gonna hear some
of these stories, and you'll also hear his shocking revelation
about cats. Get Ready, without further ado, please welcome my
(02:17):
new friend and yours, Lamourne Morris, Bubble and Squeak. I
love it Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cooking at
every month left over from the Natbyfore, what's up? What's that? Dude?
(02:52):
I'm good, right, good, good, good man. Oh my gosh,
I'm such a big fan of yours. Thank you so
much for coming on the show here to be very
excited to have you. I hear that. Uh, well, you're
you're encroaching on my space now you're in the podcast
business yourself? Is that right? This is correct. We over
at the New Girl headquarters. We were like, we get
(03:16):
all these messages from fans constantly and asking questions constantly,
and I find myself seeing the show being rewatched all
the time with Netflix and Hulu and whoever is purchasing
and buying, and we just thought, man, let's do it.
And then and I didn't know it was the thing
until I saw you do it, and until I saw
the office lady's doing it. I saw you know, I
(03:37):
was like, holy crap, scrub guys. I said, man, it's like,
this is awesome. I didn't know I could do that.
You you can, and you guys are doing it so well.
I want to talk about that in a little bit,
but I want to go back to the beginning. You
grew up in Chicago, right, Yeah, I grew up in Chicago, Uh,
South Side of Chicago. Then you know, move moved my
(03:58):
way around a little bit, so South Side of Chicago
then West Bourbs of Chicago. That's kind of where I
figured out my sense of humor and things that I
love to do is just having like the best and
worst of both worlds. But you stayed true to your
South Side roots. You're a big white Sox fan. I
(04:20):
understand White Sox. Yes, you know, I wouldn't say big
White Sox fan. I I there are five world series.
I do want to take full responsibility for that. I was.
My first ever TV commercial was a White Sox commercial.
And the year they won, yeah, yeah, the year they won,
and I know it was because of me. I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna give any love to any of
(04:41):
the players. Let's just be honest. They didn't do it.
They didn't do it before I did the commercial, they
didn't do it after. No, just only the year that
you you were advertising for them, working for them, exactly,
you were a part of exactly. And I've been trying
to let other sports organizations know that. You know, hey,
I'm a good luck chall you know, give me courtside seeds,
(05:03):
let me do the commercials, and I promise you a championship.
All right. Back to your your childhood in Chicago, first
job working for the White Sox in a way, what
made you interested in theater or in comedy and how
early did that start for you. There's a couple of
a couple of things, you know. It could have been
something passed down through generations. My mom was very funny.
(05:25):
I didn't really follow that itch, but she did some
theater back in the day. She writes poetry, so she
writes she's very My mom was a very creative person,
but never really followed that that passion. I met my
grandfather for the for the first time when I was playing,
like ten years ago. Meeting him was so interesting. I
(05:48):
moved to California. He lived in California and he was
half blind, you know, tiny man sitting in front of
his small TV and he was watching the Dodgers game.
And I said, oh, you like baseball, and he's got
one eye like this, and he goes, he goes, yeah,
but me can only watch half the game. And then
he stares at me like this. I thought, oh, half
(06:09):
the game because he's got one eye. And I said, oh,
that's pretty funny. And then the rest of the day
was just preceded by so many jokes, like dad jokes,
funny jokes, and talking like sharp jokes. And then it
started to hit me like, man, that maybe that maybe
passed down. You know, I got a very funny family,
you know, an island family from from Belize. So I
(06:31):
always had it in me to perform when I was
a kid, I used to mock the preacher at church,
you know what I mean. And I didn't know why,
but I would just mimic him all the time. And
I played basketball growing up, and once I got cut
from the basketball team is when I realized, Okay, one,
I'm not as good as I thought I was, but two,
I need to fill this void with something. And so
(06:54):
there are auditions for theater and choir, and so I
auditioned for both, got in and fell in love with
it immediately, and I couldn't like stop doing it, and
I just thought it was like something I was doing
in the meantime. I didn't really truly realize that I
could make a career out of it until I was
sent to detention one too many times and the woman
in detention said, hey, you should really figure out which
(07:16):
want to do after you graduate and kind of harness
this energy that you have, and so she gave me
a pamphlet for Second City. Once that happened, it was like,
oh boy, this is this is it for me? You know.
I started doing theater and college and Second City at
the same time, and I was addicted to it. I
would literally go wait tables for just enough money for
food and for train fare just to get tech the
(07:39):
city back to the Bourbs and move around like that.
And I fell in love with it. You know, that's
that's gotta be. Where it started. It was always in me,
but once I was left with no other options, and
it was kind of like, I'm gonna fast forward a
little bit. It was almost the same as I got
so broke in l A. I was auditioning, but I
(07:59):
wasn't looking anything, and I didn't know why. I thought
I was pretty talented, said man, you know, I was
in Second City and I did all these things, and
I was like, man, I can't get a job to
save my life. And I was running late for an audition.
I was so late, car was reboked. I borrowed a
friend's car. I get there and I was forced to improvise,
like I just made it up. I didn't read the
script the sides at all. I get in there and
(08:20):
they said, did you read the side? I say, yeah, yeah, yea, yeah, sure.
I just kind of glanced around, and once I made
everything up. I guess it was refreshing to them that
day because everyone was just sticking to the script. And
they booked me on the spot, I just said, man,
you gotta trust your instincts and go with your skill set,
go with the thing that you train doing and you're
passionate about doing, which was in profit time, and I
(08:43):
was left with no choice. And how was it? Wow?
So much of what you just said is fascinating to me.
My entree, I guess into performing into theater specifically for me,
was very much the same. I wanted to be a
professional baseball player. That was what I was gonna do.
So for you, it was basketball. I had an injury.
This was a very long story, but basically I was
left a very active kid who didn't have a place
(09:06):
to put his focus and found theater and much the
same as well. I didn't see it as a career.
I saw it as something that I was doing. A
very smart guidance counselor gave you a pamphlet to Second
City that so did you? You started taking classes there?
Is that how it started for you at Second City? Yeah?
I started taking classes there. They had a program called
(09:26):
brown co. I remember Second City there was an initiative
I want to say, Keegan Michael Key started this initiative
with homanym Diana Griffin out in Detroit, Second City, Detroit,
where to get more black audience members, black and brown
audience members, because there were none. And it was like, well,
why are there none? It's like, well, because there no
black and brown performers, and so we're like oh. I
(09:50):
was like, oh, let's let's go. Let's go and let's
open the doors. Let's go figure out where where real
these folks are. And so they started scouting, going to colleges.
You know, I was doing this um this comedy group
with a guy named Chris Woski, and we were in
this group and he blew my mind with how he
was performing, and I just thought, man, this is amazing.
Like let's just go big and go broad and just
(10:12):
get weird on stage. And so I started doing that
and I really found my niche for sketch comedy. They
had come to see me perform and asked me to
come audition. That was how it worked out for me.
I already knew I wanted to go there, you know,
I knew that was going to be the trajectory, but
I was, you know it. It helped that they paid
for me to go. I got a scholarship there. Otherwise
(10:34):
I couldn't afford it. Wow, So for you was it?
Was it improv like? That? Was it? It was making
people laugh performing in that way at the time. Yeah,
at the time, you know, even though I even though
at the same time I was studying was studying traditional acting,
different techniques in theater school. You know, how to break
down a character, how to analyze the script, those types
(10:55):
of things. I was doing a ton of that, a
lot of scene work. But there was something about just
showing up and not knowing what the hell is gonna
happen and using your instincts with your friends on stage
that sat with me a lot more. And then it's
a very useful tool obviously when you know, you know,
when you're on set, you gotta make stuff up from
time to down. You know what I mean? Uh, you
(11:18):
save the writer or save yourself? Yes, no, I understand exactly.
So what made you move to Los Angeles? Did you
stay and try to work in Chicago? Obviously you booked
up a White Sox commercial, So did you start working
professionally in Chicago? I started working professional in Chicago. I
did a couple of commercials, actually did two White Sox commercials.
(11:41):
The first one was the baseball and it was me
and the first baseman, Paul Knirko, and then the second
one was at McDonald's White Sox and Cubs commercial with
Bobby Jenks and Rob Belushi. So it was it was
a pretty fun time on set for those spots. But
then in Chicago, the opportunities aren't as I'm not sure
(12:04):
how they are now, but back then it was just
commercial work. You know, it'd be rare if you got
a movie or a TV opportunity there, but it's just
commercial work. B Et came to town, you know, looking
for on air personalities, and I didn't really know what
that was, to be quite honest with you, I just knew, oh,
this could be the thing. This is it's TV and
there it's a TV host. I guess that's kind of
(12:24):
the same thing as acting, is it. I had no idea.
I had no idea. I just gave it a shot.
All my friends auditioned for it. I auditioned, and I
booked it, and I had to move to New York.
This is hot wired. This is hot wired. Yeah, And
I got to have some fun with that because the
head of BT at the time was a guy named
Reginald Hudland. Reginald Hudland. For folks out there who might
(12:48):
not know, his college thesis project was House Party. So
he made that movie in college, and you know, and
he's a second city guy, producer, director, want a Family,
Django producing, He's he's awesome guy. But he understood my
sense of humor the moment I showed up and gave
me a job there and wanted me to be myself
(13:09):
and be silly and be weird. So I was hosting
for a while and then I just you know, I
was missing out on a lot of acting opportunities, so
I moved to l A, which was a weird transition,
going straight from hosting to quit and cold turkey and
trying to dive into traditional you know, how do I
get an agent? How do I you know, I haven't
(13:29):
acted in a while. What do I do? What's the process? Like,
I'm in a whole new there's marijuana out here? How
what do I do about this marijuana that's here? I
can't stop, I can't. It was a lot of stuff
going on that that made it difficult for me to
get a job. Yeah, both internal and external. Oh yeah, exactly.
(13:54):
And that's why I made that move. That's why I
made that transition. But that takes balls, right. I mean,
like you have a job, Bob, You're working in entertainment,
you're hosting, but you just want you wanted to pursue
more traditional acting, character creation, improv and you just a
was the place you needed to be. And I think
back then it was it was the place. You know.
(14:16):
Obviously nowadays, you know, once the pandemic happened to open
their eyes to a lot of things. People are moving,
people are leaving l A constantly. I mean, I'm still here,
but you know, back then, it was like if you
want to act, if you want to you know, do
it full time. This is the place you have to be.
This is where the best of the best is. This
is where the opportunities are. And it was difficult, to
(14:37):
be quite honest with you, it was really difficult. I
would drive my friends to auditions sometimes at big studios,
and I would drop them off and I would kind
of just linger around the studio, just kind of going,
this is crazy to me, Like this is you know,
walking around a lot without a pass, you know, looking
at look at that other actors driving pass on golf cards, going, man,
(15:00):
you got a golf cart. Too, like, this is crazy.
I fell in love with the magic of it. There's
still something very magical about it. And I just knew.
I just said, man, I can't leave until I can't
leave until I'm on a golf cart, until you have
your own golf cart exactly. So you were doing commercials too, right,
(15:23):
You had quite a bit of success in commercials when
you moved to l A. Oh yeah again. The start
of it in l A was that audition, and I
got lucky because that casting director kept calling me in
for things after that, and it was such a blessing
to my life. I mean, I went from having negative
eleven dollars in my bank account to looking like seven
that week, and you know, traveling internationally for commercials, getting
(15:46):
commercial offers. I was like, this is crazy to me.
That kind of resparked my faith in myself. You lose
a lot of steam, you lose a lot of faith
in yourself and your ability, and you get down on
yourself and you're not working and it's um and it
still happens, you know what I mean, still happens now,
you know what I mean. They're like, damn, you know,
(16:07):
I miss out in certain jobs or it goes a
while without working, and back then I was really really
low on myself and it couldn't have come at a
better time in my life. I want to say, I
don't know how many commercials I've done in that year.
It was a ridiculous amount. He got to the point
where if I was walking down the street, people would go,
how do man, I know you? From? Uh TwixT? Was no, no, no,
(16:30):
all of them, all of them. It was all those commercials.
A friend told me a story about Keenan every wayains
did Damon told me. They think either Damon Wayne's Jr.
Told me the story or Marlon I forget. Someone told
me the story where Keenan was watching some sports game
or whatever, some football game or something, and then a
(16:51):
commercial I come on. He said, damn this that this
dude is on every commercial. And then the next commercial
that popped up was a different commercial that I was in.
Said that he threw his will control the TV. I
don't know how true that is, but I just remember
hearing that. It would be so excited that keen and
every way and to knew who I was, even if
he hated me, even if he was annoyed. But yeah,
(17:13):
that's amazing. Yeah, commercials, So when you're starting out, I mean,
especially back then, you could make some real money and
keep your career going and like you said, get some
confidence and also get some experience on set, right, Because sure,
you could say live shows are more difficult. It's you know,
there's more pressure you're on stage. But you know, I've
(17:36):
talked about this with a lot of people, but it's
worth at least to me saying again how difficult that
experience is on set of a movie, of a TV show,
of a commercial, that experience of shooting something experience is
so important, right, Oh, yeah, absolutely, you know the basics.
I've been on set with people who are just who
(17:59):
are really talented, but this is their first project, you know,
and they couldn't hit their mark to save their lives.
They don't understand how to take direction a note from
a director. I don't understand how fast pace we're moving there.
There's a lot of things that you just get innately
when you're doing You do so many commercials, and you
when you finally get that opportunity, you're you're used to it.
You're used to a hundred people running around, you, used
(18:21):
to putting makeup on your face constantly and doing touch
ups and all this stuff where you're trying to think
of your lines and it becomes a muscle. You become
so used to it, you know what I mean. It
got to the point now, it got to the point.
I remember being a new girl and you'll be talking
to your same partner in between takes or maybe running lines,
and there's so many people touching you that you have
(18:41):
know just someone someone literally has their hands in your pants,
you're not face and sometimes different people a person and
the sound person coming in one angle and going down
the other angle exactly, and Jake Johnson that I think
it was, wasn't Max with Jake, can't forget who was.
We would walk up behind that part, we put our
hands behind their in their pants too, and see if
(19:03):
they noticed it. And they never would it never would.
It just started like literally playing with the butt cheeks
and they're just like, doesn't they have no idea who's
playing with the butt cheeks right now? But that's something
you gotta get used to. That's something that that happens.
You know, it could throw you could be very jarring
if you your first day on set. That's true, speaking
(19:40):
of a new girl, I have been told you auditioned
many times fifteen? Is that correct? Yeah? I could be
off by one maybe maybe maybe before fourteen or sixteen
it was. I think it was three or four times
for the Coach character and then the rest for the
(20:01):
Winston character. It was a grueling process. It's a story
that you could write about when you're teaching people, how
the process goes, and how unpredictable it is, and how
there's no one way to get a job. I went.
I auditioned for the Coach character, like a lot of
the other actors did, didn't book it. In fact, I
think my audition was so weird to them. I want
(20:21):
to say. I dressed up in tight shorts and did
the whole thing. I took the script too literal, and
they were like, it's too much. So then they keep
auditioning people. Then they asked me to come back just
minus the get up, please put put on regular people clothes.
And simultaneously I had the same day, I had an
audition for a CBS pilot called The Assistance with t J. Miller,
(20:43):
Heather Locklear, Sarah Right, David Henry. It was really cool
multicamp show, and I got passed on by casting for
that after my first read, because the casting assistant who
was reading with me kept dropping lines, and so I
had these big chunks of monol dogs and whenever she
would drop a line, it would fast forward me to
(21:03):
two scenes ahead and I would be so off what
she was saying that they passed on me. And I
told my agent, I said, listen, I need to get
back in there in an audition. I said, I guarantee
you I'll book this. I said, I know this is
this is a perfect character for me. You just gotta
get me in. It was her fault, said, it wasn't
my This is the assistance is yea, And they get
me into They get me into this, back to for
(21:25):
the assistance. Then I get a phone call saying that
they want me to test for New Girl now for
the coach character. And I said, okay, great. So then
they bring me back into read for the assistance, but
this time with the producers, and so they stopped me
halfway through my audition. I get through most of the audition,
and they stopped me halfway through my audition, and then
I thought, oh, maybe it was me. Maybe I was
(21:45):
just bad. And then they go we hear you're testing
for New Girl tomorrow. I said, yeah, can we ask
you to tank that audition that I said, what, yeah,
because they really wanted me for the assistance. Remember I
just got passed on for the assistance. You got passed
on from the assistance. You're halfway through reading it and
you think, oh god, I have been terrible. But actually
(22:07):
reading halfway through, they already know they want you. Yes,
this is incredible. And so I go home that day
and I have this dilemma. Two shows that I'm about
to test for paying roughly around the same money. You know,
it wasn't it was my first TV job. It wasn't
about the money at that point. But and I'm with
my buddy Ramsay, this good friend of mine, rams is
him and as talented actor and Chad Boseman, God rest
(22:30):
his soul. He was. He was like a mentor. Obviously
he was in the business and he knew what to do.
And he he said, hey, man, you have to do
the job that fulfills you the most, whether you get
it or not. You don't want to live with saying,
you know, you didn't shoot your shot. I test for
New Girl while I'm at I go to the test
(22:51):
I'm sorry. I go to the test for New Girl.
I'm sitting in the courtyard. I get a call from
my agent saying, don't sign that contract because now CBS
has canceled their test and said we want to just
make you a straight offer and pay you more money. What. Yeah,
And so my agents advice was bird in the hand,
take the job. So I took this the CBS offer.
(23:14):
We tried to get a New Girl to make me
an offer. They didn't want to. They didn't go with
their tests. They don't find anybody. They then hired Damon
Wayne's Jr. Thinking his show Happy Endings wasn't going to
get a second season. Exactly my show Assistance doesn't get
picked up after the pilot. After the pilot, Happy Endings
(23:35):
gets picked up for a second season, so Damon has
to go. So now I'm thinking, hey, guys, hey remember
me the guy walked that on your test, Like, can
you bring me back him? And they loved Damon so much,
has performance so much. If you watch the pilot, he's fantastic.
They wanted to keep that and not redo it, so
they had to rewrite another to write another character in people.
(23:58):
A lot of people say, oh, a black guy swap.
This is just he's a black dude. You're stopping another
black dude. It was no, it was it was like
it was open to any ethnicity. I mean a lot
of folks read for it. You name it, every ethnicity,
you know, size, age. It was kind of like they
didn't know what they wanted. That's why I had to
read so many times. It was constant changing of the sides,
(24:20):
dynamics with character structured you know, status and my the
koy one. Am I the boss of the group? Am
I the shot? You know who? Am I? So it
took a while. That's why I was that many auditions. Crazy.
That is crazy. That has never happened to me. I
have never been sitting at the courtyard at Fox or
wherever you were and told no, someone else just made
(24:41):
you an offer, walk out on this test. That's amazing.
Did you go in and tell them or did you
just leave? That's why I want to know I walk
into the room and say I'm sorry, I've just got
another offer, or did you just get in your car
and drive away? Almost almost I was walking to the
room when my phone started vibring. My my agent said
keep your phone on. I was walking with the casting
(25:03):
director Seth Yanklewitz, and uh, either you walk into you
signed that. You signed that paper, And before I did it,
I looked at him and I said, it's my agent.
And he knew right away he did, he knew. Yeah,
I loved you, Seth. I'm sorry I did that to
you in that moment. But it worked out. Look at us,
Look at us now. It worked out exactly. It worked out.
(25:26):
You end up joining in the second episode, right, because
they wanted they wanted the pilot to air as shot.
Is that right? Yeah, exactly, And that was weird. I
gotta say for the first two seasons, I didn't know
if I was being fired or not. I'll admit I wasn't.
We weren't writing necessarily for my strength because we didn't
know my strengths yet. We didn't know that dynamic would.
(25:48):
We would try certain things and test certain things. He
just wasn't working. Maybe maybe he's jobless, maybe he's uh,
you know, he gets a job as an usher or
a babysitter. We were trying all these things, and then
that became aim the game, a little bit of the character,
and then I started playing into that more, doing bits
off camera with the other actors. They started to realize
(26:10):
the writers, I gotta say writers on a New Girl
geniuses because they would look at the bits in between
stuff and figure out what was funny. They impro improvised stuff,
and they would go, let's tailor it towards that, and
they would write the most ridiculous stuff from my character
and it worked and I loved it. Every every episode
felt like a sketch comedy show to me because I
(26:31):
didn't know what character trait I had that week. And
you know, one week, my character is a professional, former
professional basketball player. The next week he has thin fingers
and he can't carry anything. Next week he constantly has
directions for some reason. It's like, what, So it was funny.
(26:51):
It was fun. It was a fun fun show to
do for sure. After the second season for me, when
you felt like they figured out who you were and
we're able to play into what you felt like your
strength was. Yeah, And once I knew I wasn't gonna
get fired, I was just more comfortable going to work
every day. It's like, Okay, why don't you think you
were going to be fired? Was there anything specifically that happened?
(27:12):
I thought I was under performing to be quite honest
with you, I knew what I was capable of doing,
but I would leave fit every day going I didn't
do what I wanted to do. And they don't know
that I have this weird energy that I could perform
at this level that I could perform at I don't
think they I don't think I've done it yet. And
I would watch the episodes back and sometimes that cringe
at him, and I don't know if that's that's any good.
(27:35):
It's very insecure. I was extremely insecure, and you know,
my cast mates, obviously in the producers would kind of
reassure me, like, you're not going anywhere, but you know,
I know how this business is, you know, and and
they were very gracious to give me a lot of
room to grow. I think we're all glad it happened
that way, because it was just another piece too. I
(27:57):
think otherwise Perfect asked, everybody on the show is clicking
on all cylinders from day one, and I was trying
to find my footing. Yeah. I feel like there's in
a lot of ways a similarity between the Office and
New Girl in terms of this sort of disparate collection
of characters that are that find themselves together and form
(28:20):
this sort of pseudo family in a way, right is
that is that a stretch not a stretch at all,
Not a stretch at all. It's like, no matter what
office you go into to them in that office there
this you have a story about a guy who acts
this where oh I know this woman, she behaves this way,
and you wouldn't believe it until you saw it, you know.
(28:41):
And then the office is a heightened version of what
people can identify with all the characters on the show.
And I think that's the same way with New Girls.
That people they have these people who live together, and
everyone has a story about my roommate does this, or
he wears a kimono at night and you don't know, no,
he doesn't. And then you watch New Girl and you
people go, look that's about me, you know. You know,
(29:04):
it's a weird group of people that have a common bond,
and you know, and they and they stick it out
and they stick together. And I think the reason why
our shows resignated is because and lasted for so long,
is because people at home felt connected to the characters. Right, No,
for sure, when did you realize that the show was
(29:25):
taking off? It was gonna, you know, after you after
you found your own personal security in terms of your
job security, when did you feel like you're gonna, we're
gonna be around for a while. Do you remember was
there a moment, there were a few I gotta say,
once people started knowing my name on the street because
people people always, they still to this day, called me
(29:47):
Winston from Winstay. It's constant. But the moment people would
go Mr Morris, let more la more getting get a photo,
and I thought, my god, they looked up my name
like they they know people are invested in It's like
sometimes you watch a TV show and then you'll just
go onto the next. Some of my favorite shows, I
couldn't tell you the actor's real names. You know. Now
(30:09):
I can't be you know, because we're in the business now.
But like it's one of those things where you're walking
on the street, somebody says your name and it hits
you like, my goodness, that's what they know me from.
I must it must be working. And when you would
read I'm not supposed to read comments, but I read them.
And when you see so many, whether they're good or bad,
I go there's a conversation around an episode that we
(30:31):
did there, you go, oh, people care, people are actually invested.
Then you see fan fiction you know about about your showing,
You're like, whoa, people are disgusting but also invested. Yes, um,
have you ever played true American? I have American? Yeah,
(30:56):
but on the accident kind of I was. It was
a party going on in Hollywood and we walked past
it and you know, people recognize me and they were like,
you'll never believe what we're doing over here. We're playing
to American. And I reached out to the guy. We
exchanged Instagrams afterwards, and I've been I've been talking to
him lately, like where are the photos that I'm in?
He's like, I was trying to keep you out of
him because I didn't want to be that guy would
(31:18):
be a paparazzi guy while your party. But I even
posted some photos of my instagram back then. They were
literally having a full on true American party in their
front yard. That's amazing, like standing on chairs, doing DIBs
and you know, screaming JF carry after. It was a
whole thing, which also blew my mind till this day.
It still blows my mind. A drinking game with no rules.
You know, Yes, I went in prepera this is not
(31:42):
a joke. I was like, oh yeah, that true American,
and I got online to try to ascertain and figure
out what the rules were. Reading the description of True American,
by the way, A drinking game from New Girl left
me more confused, and I thought that I was to
start with. So I don't know if that's a good
(32:02):
thing about that, but that's that's the point. That's the point,
because if they're all those beers, you're gonna be confused
and in the night you're gonna Why did I do this? Why?
I one of the things that happened on the office,
it was intentional. Greg Daniels, our showrunner, had come from
Saturday Night Live, and from the very beginning he felt
(32:25):
like the ensemble experience was incredibly important. But the ensemble
experience not just amongst the actors, amongst everyone, and so
he had writers who were actors and actors who were writers,
and I know a New Girl, you guys had a
similar experience. You wrote an episode, you directed an episode.
Was that you or was that a part of the
culture you you feel like that that was created on
(32:47):
the show A little a little of both Liz Mayweather
is very She asked a lot of questions and loves
hearing stories about personal life and incorporating things that you
may have done. And you know, that testament to all
the writers as well. They just you know, they want
to know, and they all know and knew that I
had aspirations to direct and to write. You know, I
(33:09):
would always have ideas on set as actors were always
pitching ideas, character storylines. My whole, the whole Winston being
a police officer was my idea, and then writing the
episode came because of that. The episode that I wrote
was about my character being being new to the force
but then meeting this woman that he really liked and
(33:32):
was vibing with, and then she finds out that she's
protesting the police, and so he's like, oh, so he's
now doesn't know if he's ashamed to be a cop
or if he's proud to be a guy. He doesn't know.
And so because because he's a black police officer, you know,
so he's like, uh wait, you know, and that came
from Twitter. So on the show, my character is named Ferguson.
(33:53):
At the time, there was a lot of civil unrest
based off what happened in Ferguson and people started tweeting me.
They were like, oh, how's it feel to play a
black cop with a cat named Ferguson in these times?
And I was like, God, damn it if I get
one more tweet about this, and people started really asking
me questions went from being funny two serious, like, na, brother,
(34:15):
you gotta speak up. What do you think about this?
And it's like, I'm just an actor, but okay. Uh
So I went to Liz Maryweather because I genuinely started
feeling uncomfortable. I asked her if I could address it
on the show, and so she said, why don't you
write an episode? So she paired me with Rob rose
l one of our fantastic writer producers, and we came
up with an episode and we addressed it in in
(34:36):
a way, you know, a very Network TV funny kind
of way, but we still put some light on it
and what could possibly go through the police officer's head
in that moment. He doesn't meet someone like that, you know,
in these times that we're living in. So that was
the reason why I wrote that one, but it was
for her. It was like, please do it. And then
directing they just asked, Hey, do you want to direct?
(34:58):
Damn right? I do? Yeah, And that was easy. I was.
I want to say it's easy. The process was a
lot more difficult than I thought it would be. But
on set everyone was so everyone except for Max s Greenfield.
Everyone besides Max Screenfield was so kind. Max. Max was
intentionally a dick. Yeah, yeah, I had that too, Rain Wilson. Yeah,
(35:20):
and it makes it just it just to make it,
just to make a diymmical. Yeah, just take that whatever
the little, maybe the teeniest amount of insecurity you might have,
and just just twisted in. Yep it oh it. Even
though you know they love you and they're messing with you,
it's still it works. What they're doing is working. I'm
(35:44):
getting more and more insecure as the day goes on.
I'm like my in over my head. You brought up Ferguson.
Are you a cat guy? Um? This is gonna disappoint
a lot of people. No, in fact, hell no, you know,
I I don't mind. I don't mind cats anymore. When
(36:04):
I was younger, my buddy used to have a bunch
of cats, and one of them, when it was a kitten,
he said, oh, it's buttercut hold Buttercup. I said, oh, hey,
Buttercup is so adorable. And we just got through playing basketball,
so I had no shirt on. Buttercup goes and attaches
to my chest and slides down and cuts up my
chest on its way down. Because it was too fast,
(36:25):
you didn't see it coming. You couldn't stop this attack
if you tried. Cats are super quick and sneaky. I
don't trust them, at least with dogs. They're loud and
you know they're coming. You know they're coming. This one
cats and I watched Pet Cemetery and it was the
scary film. Yeah, so now I don't I don't think cats.
(37:07):
Is there a thing that fans talk to you about
the most? Is there a moment from New Girl that
people talk to you about the most? There's a couple Ferguson,
for sure. You know I'm joking, but cats are like
incredible creatures. So people that cat people out there that
I love to talk about Ferguson, But I would probably
(37:27):
say one of the moments that people always bring up
is Prince. You know, we had prints on our show
for an episode, and that to me was one of
the more significant moments in my just my life. You know,
being on camera with Prince and being around him backstage
and or off camera and just talking and having him
(37:50):
share stories and having him just Prince showed up to
our rap party, which was crazy. That's awesome, It's super awesome.
And I said to I said, hey, you don't stick
around for a while, and he looks at me giggles. Goodness,
no question done, get out of here. I don't think
(38:14):
i've ever shared this story before. I would say the
most quintessential Hollywood, you know when you put Hollywood in quotes,
Hollywood moments of my entire life. I don't remember the event.
It was some pre award show event at Chateau Marmont,
(38:36):
the famous Chateau marm at this point in my time,
and I didn't even know there were bungalows at the
Chateau Marmont. And by the way, if you're listening, there
are bungalows at the Chateau Marmont. Some of these bungalows
are very nice, and at least one bungalow has a piano.
And something happened very late at night was someone said, oh,
(38:59):
come into this bungalow. And I went into this bungalow
and there was Prince sitting at the piano playing Get
the Chateau MArmand, and I thought, okay, well this is
it for me. This this is the moment. This is
the Hollywood moment that you know, I never thought would come,
but that has has suddenly brought itself here. So I
(39:22):
don't know exactly the experience of working with him or
hanging out with him, but how cool and amazing he is. Yeah. Oh,
you walk into a room and Princes playing the piano.
You know you've made it, or at least you've been
invited somewhere where somebody's made it exactly. You're you're at
the table, a kind of at the table. Yeah. Yeah,
(39:45):
an incredible run a new girl. Now you guys are
going back, as we talked about at the beginning, welcome
to our show. You're rewatching it now in real time, right, Yeah,
I'm looking at it in real time right from where
I'm sitting. I have a tem be back here. I
watch it. I take notes, I I do. I dive
back in and it's interesting. I find myself instead of
(40:06):
taking notes, I find myself laughing as a fan because
I didn't get a chance to truly enjoy it. While
it was on because you know, it's airing, we're filming.
It's airing, we're filming. Now. It's like I could go
and binge it and forget that I'm supposed to be
taking notes. You know. It's a it's a It just
reminds me of a beautiful time in my career. Not
(40:27):
to say it's not great now, but you know, then
it was like I was younger and I was care
care free, I had you know, I was on the
television show just show it up. You know, I got
kid Now, I got I got responsibilities. Does it bring
you back to the moments of shooting it as you're
rewatching it? Absolutely, I don't know how it feels to you.
(40:48):
When I'm watching it, I forget about some of I
have to remember some of the like negative moments. I
tried to because I want to write those things down,
like that was something that was bugging me that day,
Like I can't remember, you know, and I try to
think about the negative stuff, but you can't because the
editors do a good job and making me look happy
on those days. But uh, it definitely takes me back
(41:11):
to to that time. This is gonna sound Oh, this
sounds cheesy, you know what I mean. So I'm not
that guy, but it definitely puts a warming sensation in
your belly. It's like Christmas when Santa comes out the chimney,
or your drunk neighbor, the guy who shows up, you know,
the guy who'll doing your mom's Christmas black come here? Yeah,
(41:41):
I know. I during the pandemic, I went back and
rewatched the Office as well, and it's interesting, you know,
for us, a lot of the episodes, you know, we
were doing quite a bit of improving and stuff, and
the first edit would come back at like forty three minutes.
For me, the thing that struck me the most was
taking me back to the moments where we were when
(42:02):
we were shooting it, and then also remembering what actually
made the cut, like what is actually a part of
from a narrative now you know, or what what got
you know that that's itself like what got cut? Or
yeah I know that For me, that was it. Do you?
You obviously haven't gotten and your rewatch to the finale,
any specific memories for you of your last days on
(42:24):
set or your last day Oh my gosh, oh my god.
It was such a surreal moment. It was mixed feelings.
I still think about it a lot of time when
you watch it. They did such a great job of
capturing how we are actually feeling. You know, our finale
is us leaving our loft. You know, we're standing in
there in this loft playing True American, and then we
(42:45):
end up we fast forward on the show to us
having kids, playing True American with kids, and then we
rewind back to us in being this empty loft. Now,
on that day when we were shooting, I remember behind
camera they all showed up, all the writers are there,
everyone was there, and everyone was emotional. It was very
(43:07):
except for Jake Johnson. I think actually he left immediately
He's like peace, Uh, but it was we were all
It was a very emotional time. You know, you spend
you know, seven years on a television show and you
get to know so many people and your it's a
true family. You spent so many hours with each other.
I remember us being on that this empty box and
this empty loft going like they're clearing out the stage
(43:30):
for real, They're not gonna put props back in here.
It's actually empty. It was. It was an unbelievable feeling.
They saved the last moment for our last day. They
did it right, you know, you know, and fans will
and fans don't know. Just then then they find out
that it was all just a big prank by me,
which was my character was like, oh, we didn't have
(43:52):
to move out the loft. Look at this kind of
leaves the door open for a reunion, you know, but
who knows. That's awesome. Um April eight woke, it's back
for season two. By the way, I saw, JB Smooth
is on it. So is it now in your contract
that everything you do has to have JB Smooth? Or
(44:15):
or maybe everything he does has to have you, or man,
it has to I can't go a day without talking
to j B. I can't. I love that dude so much. Man,
he's so funny when I tell you so, directing him,
he plays my quote unquote father and new girl, and uh,
I got a chance to direct him, and you know
(44:35):
it's not really directing him. He kind of jab gonna
do a JB Gonna do. It was so funny. The
way he improvises has me in tears. You don't want
to cut anything. I can give you a story about JB.
We were doing barbershop actually when we were in barbershop together.
You know, you do a table read, you pretty much
stick to the script so the writers and everybody can
(44:56):
see what works, you know, changing roads whatever. That's the point, right,
just to see what works. I'm a table read is
that you read the words that were written, so you
see what works. Yes, that's correct, Go ahead, that's the point.
J B goes. JB just goes left. I mean he
added maybe five minutes of dialogue to this one particular scene.
(45:18):
And I tell you the writers were like, bingo added
it to the movie. His character in the movie now
has this huge art, like this big that was way
more than it was on the page, and it's brilliant.
It was. It was almost like they left it intentionally
because they knew JB was going to do something with it.
And when I say in tears at the table read,
then him and Sad with the entertainer started improvising together,
(45:41):
going back and forth, roasting each other, improvising full on
jokes to each other at the table read, and I
just thought this is gonna be crazy, and I and
I and that's how it was on set, and I
was like this, if I could do barbershop for the
rest of my life. I'll do barbershop for the rest
of my life. So yeah, that that's just one story
about JB of many that where you go, hey man,
(46:04):
the lines are, oh another quick story. I'm sorry. I
was sorry. I was pitching something and I needed JB
to like send a funny little clip. I said, just
like ten seconds anything you want. But in this parameter
he sends to me, I think at eight minute video,
I say, he's just like, hey man, So here you're
(46:25):
pitching the show man. Look, man, look when you're pitching
the show, anytime you go in there, what you want
to do is you want to wrap toilet paper around
your hand. You see, just have a just have a
whole bunch of toilet paper on your hand. So you
get there and and you get there to your to
your pitch, They're gonna go, what the hell is he
doing with toilet paper in his hand? See already you're
throwing them off unmer staying I'm looking at the toilet paper.
(46:48):
You see what I'm saying, He goes, Or what you
wanna do is you wanna have the meeting real early,
like five thirty am. It's like just every butt crack
of Dawn. Just have a real early pitch meeting, and
you go in there and you sit down and just
have a pocket full of loose grapes, just loose grapes,
and just every once in a while when you're talking
to you're talking, just Papa, loose grape in your mouth,
(47:08):
welcome me, bearscome me Bear's work. And then he goes, oh,
and about all these things you need to do. So
amazing the tears. It's like, Dab, I just want you
to say, I a doors this show. Oh gosh, you
(47:29):
are the best. Thank you so much. Woke. That's right,
April Amen, Season two premier. Have you had fun doing that? Absolutely? Absolutely?
The cast on this show, the creators of the show,
I mean, the best group of folks. Um. You know,
we got Sishi's and made a Blake Anderson T. Murph
this season. We got Amy Garcia on the show. You
(47:52):
named Miguel Piso, Marky Degings, we got Billy magnuson this show.
This season. I'm telling you, folks would be really really shot,
often pleasantly surprised, you know, with what they're going to see,
you know, just creating this kind of weird environment talking
about certain things that are kind of political, but you
leave it so open ended. You're following the lens of
a guy who doesn't know which way who he is politically.
(48:14):
You're following his view and you're like, hey, that's kind
of how I am. Like, Oh, you know, in the
world of misinformation and left or right or whatever the
hell you want to be on he's that person. He's like,
I don't know, you know, I think a lot of
people will resonate with this character and what he's going through.
So I'm excited for folks to see it. Awesome, Well,
I cannot wait to see it as well. You are hilarious, engaging,
(48:39):
such a pleasure to actually talk to you. Thank you
so much for coming on. Man, you as well, Man,
you as well. I'm a huge fan, dude. I think
you're hilarious and and that, and I'm super like honored
that you would have me on your show. So I man,
I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much. Urn,
(49:08):
It's like I've always known you. Thank you so much
for joining me today on the podcast. This was truly
my pleasure. To the rest of you, I'm gonna see
you next week for another episode of Off the Beat.
In the meantime, make sure to like, subscribe, comment you
know the drill and if I were you, I would
(49:30):
also tune into La Mourns podcast. Welcome to our show
because us podcasters we gotta stick together until next time. Everybody,
have a great week. Off The Beat is hosted an
(49:53):
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Our producers are d A Go Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr,
and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer, He's Ryan Papa Zachary.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth
(50:14):
Olandski
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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