Will Arnett

Paul and Skip welcome one of the most recognizable (and hilarious) voices in the show's history, Will Arnett! The star takes us behind the scenes of his hit podcast Smartless (and his friendly rivalry with BFF Jason Bateman) before throwing it back to his early days growing up in Paul's native Canada. He describes moving to New York as a struggling actor in his early 20s before breaking through with Arrested Development and beyond.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi folks, this
is Paul Anka.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my name is Skip Bronson.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
We've been friends for decades and we've decided to let
you in on our late night phone calls by starting
a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends of ours.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Your leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting
president or two.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Join us as we asked the questions they've not been
asked before, Tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
This young agent from William Morris brought me in in
there when and I met a bunch of people and
they said you should go speak to the people in
the voiceover department. I mean, you think I'm dumb now.
I was even dumber then, and I had no idea
what they were talking about, and I said, what do
you meant? Never to me? So they start sending me out.
Within a couple of weeks, I get my first gig
and I started working and in a lot of ways,

(01:09):
I mean not in a lot of ways. In every way,
it saved my life because now I was making Within
a couple of years, I was making real money.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
I'm good. I'm good. Home I was Denver. Denver was great.
I missed you. You didn't You didn't call me once.
What were you doing? Golfing and Knightship? I never heard
from you?

Speaker 6 (01:35):
Man all day, all night, Marianne. Yeah, it was. You know,
it was crazy because it was hot. Yeah in the day,
I mean in the eighties hot and like in the
high forties, you know, at night. I mean, the temperature
differential was crazy. But the leaves are already changing and beautiful.
I've been to Denver course, but I'd never played at

(01:56):
this club that we played at. It was great, David. Yeah,
well with Larry and Peyton Manning and a whole bunch
of guys that are yeah Larry. We flew up together
and stayed together and flew back together. Yeah, yeah, it was.
We had a good time.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
It was fun. And uh, I'm.

Speaker 6 (02:14):
Looking forward to this week's guess because it's our mutual friend,
Will Arnette you know better than I do. But I
didn't really get to know him until he joined our
our golf club and now you know, hang out with
him there and I just can't say enough about him.
He is just of course, he's like a brother to
your son in law, Jason Bateman. Everybody loves him, right,

(02:37):
I mean, he's a likable guy. Yeah, a solid Canadian.
I gotta keep promoting that. And he's a great father, Yeah,
tells me all about it. He's just one of those
great guys which is very cool and funny and talented.
You know, it's such a wide range from comedy to
everything else. But Jason adors And how about the fact
he does more commercials than uh and voiceover than almost

(03:00):
anybody in That voice is so distinctive for years skip, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (03:04):
You know, Amanda does that. You know, she does that,
made a living doing that for years. But she admired
him and now other buddies. But he said, I think
he's still with the truck that gym C. Yeah, GMC
trucks for early decades.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (03:19):
He got a great sounding voice, you know, and he's
a talented guy. I'm looking forward to because that had
fun with on the podcast with you and Jason. I
had a lot of fun with those guys.

Speaker 6 (03:28):
It would be interesting to ask him about the pressure
as a kid. You know, his father was a big executive.
He was the CEO of Molson, the big beer company
and Harmon educated businessman. Yeah, anyone, I'm going to ask him,
wonder if there was pressure for him to go into
the business world instead of becoming you know, going into entertainment.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, and he.

Speaker 7 (03:46):
Didn't work with our buddy Alec Baldwin. I'm gonna ask
him about that.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
Yeah. Yeah, And he loves you.

Speaker 6 (03:51):
When you were on SmartLess, He's he always talk to
me about the fact that all the shows they've done,
that was one of the most you know, enjoyable he's done.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
He's crazy about you, So it'd be funny.

Speaker 6 (04:04):
Get it'd be funny to get to talk to him
find out also, like you know about this podcast they've
got as a killer. I mean it's one of the
two or three most successful podcasts you know, in the world. Yeah,
if they motivated as they've inspire us, if they gotta
find Yeah, exactly. I like a guy who has not

(04:31):
a lot of free time and you ask him to
do something like, hey, we want we'd love to have
you on our podcast, and he can come up with
ten different excuses. But he said, Yeah, let's just set
it up. Love to do it. Love Paul, love you.
We could have some laughs, definitely, you know, no big deal.
Just he's just just a good, a good human and funny.
Oh god, he's funny. That that Geico commercial with him

(04:54):
with the with the get gos sitting on the seat
in the hockey game.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
Oh my god. That it's to hit hockey.

Speaker 7 (05:00):
With him too. I'm gonna throw some stuff at him.
I got some interesting things I think he'll like.

Speaker 6 (05:05):
Yeah, no, hockey, it's a big hockey guy. Obviously, that's
all we knew up there.

Speaker 7 (05:10):
You know.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
We can eat. That's all we do.

Speaker 6 (05:12):
Hockey, get up, go to work, and watch hockey. So
you're on the road right now, right are traveling?

Speaker 7 (05:19):
Yeah, I'm in New York. I'm calling you from New
York City. I'm here for my buddy Dennis Washington's having
a big birthday party, and so we've been hanging out here.
But I'll be home at the end of the week
and we'll keep on trucking and I'll see you when
I get back.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah. Sounds like a plan. Okay, man, look forward to it.
It'll be will time. Stay safe on the road. Joe.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
There, there, he is, there is ooks. Will our Net
is in the room today. Yes, And I've got to
tell you from the outset, We've had a lot of
great people on here, Skip, but you don't know how
buzzed up I am about this. Forget about being a Canadian,
and forget about the one name drop you'll hear from me,
and that's Jason Bateman, who's his sidekick on that amazing,

(06:14):
amazing podcast Neck and Neck with us. We're just short
a few zeros. But this guy, let me tell you
from the inside, he is so loved. He is so smart,
his eclectic array of acting from comedy to sirius, his
voice over which my daughter Amanda was absolutely motivated by

(06:35):
years ago. This is some kind of guy, and I
am so thrilled that he's with us, folks. Will Arnett,
he came out of Canada as I did. I came
out earlier when things weren't happening for US Canadians. But
Will Skip and I are here and we are so
happier with us.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Hello, hello, hello.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Hello, oh man. I'm happy to be here to see
you guys. Listen, Paul, thank you the very nice intro.
It is such a thrill to be here. As I
said to you, when you know skip Paul. Paul came
on the smartlest in one of our I will say this,
and I'm not just now it's my turn. I'm not
just saying this. It is one of It is a

(07:15):
fan favorite episode. People love that episode so much, including me.
It's one of my When people ask me, it's one
of my favorite episodes. I found it just was so interesting.
Apart from the fact that you're Jason's father in law
and that you're Amanda's dad, whom I adore. I just
love your daughter so much. I couldn't love a person more,

(07:36):
and that your grandfather to those beautiful to Mape and Franny,
but your storytelling on that on our podcast was just phenomenal. Man.
I just you know, honestly, I'm just I was just riveted.
So when you got when I was asked to do this,
I was I did it. It was more than happy
to continue.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, no pressure, we expect the same today.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Skip skip I skip all the time. So you know now,
I'm like, it was skim big Dale, no big deal.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
You see too much of I'm overexposed.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah. Meanwhile, my two pre eminent Canadians. Somebody asked me
today because I'm just looking Connecticut, and they asked, what
do you miss about Connecticut? And I said, uh, let
me think nothing. But what do you miss about Canada?
Anything special that you miss about Canada?

Speaker 4 (08:27):
You know, I go back to Canada more now in
the last ten years than I had the sort of
twenty five years prior. And I like going back so
now that I'm older, because for the most part, it's
very civilized, very gentee old place. The people are very
kind and open. You know, we live in crazy times
right now, especially in this country, and sometimes it's nice

(08:51):
to go up there and there's just less pressure of me.
He's just kind of joining themselves and people are freaking out.
Everybody in this country feels like it's freaking out. Everything
just at a boil at all times. So I missed
that at miss Comb. You know, obviously family and stuff.
I miss hockey. I'm a big hockey fan. Skip one time,
by the way, Paul told me one of the great

(09:11):
hockey stories of all time, because I I'm a hockey
fan and I know a lot of stories, and I
know we know a lot of hockey players. Between the
two of us, we know we have some hockey player
fan friends. But Skip, you told me that story about
Gordia Howe. Yeah, when you asked him how he played
so low? Do you remember that it was?

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, I was one of the minority owners of the
Hartford Whalers hockey team in my hometown, and Howard Baldwin,
who was you know, the top dog, was able to
arrange for us to get not only Gordy Howe, but
Gordy Mark and Marty. So we had all three hows
at the same time. And Gordy was still playing when

(09:53):
he was fifty three years old. Chris, So when I
met him, I asked him the obvious question everybody wants
to know. How can it be possible that you're still
playing hockey at fifty three years of age? And he
looked at me and he said, because I don't pick
anything up. I said, what he said? You know, you
pick something up, skip your neck hurds, your back hurds,

(10:15):
you mess up your knees. I never ever pick anding up.
He said. As a matter of fact, he said, yesterday,
Colleen said to me that there was a box at
the front stoop. I said, good, bring it in because
I don't pick anything up.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Okay my tirt Okay behind me, people can't see it.
Take a look at it. There's Gordie how Bobby Hall,
Wayne Gretzky in my dressing room. Those two pictures. They
used to come to my show all the time.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
You see.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Waitne Meski, Yeah what shoot?

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Wait Paul, we're talking about GORDIAU. And then you have
a couple.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Look up there he is Me Hull and Wayne Gretzky,
who I knew as a kid. I used to fly
him around in the leer, scared to death flying. He
signs up with the King right, the greatest player still today,
nobody comes second, I can promise you. When he joined
that team and Bruce and things started to evolve, he

(11:11):
wanted more money, and Bruce sat him down and said,
I'll give you three million, and Wayne said that's too
much for hockey player. Make it two million. Take five
and get me somebody I can pass to, and another
five for the team. Two million is enough for me.
And Bruce said, you know what, I'll always make sure

(11:32):
you're the highest paid hockey team ever. Then he found
out that Lemieux, who was with Pittsburgh, he was up
for a raise and was It wasn't Howard. Was it
Balder that owned it?

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Howard.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
That's what Howard owned it. He says to Lemieux, how
much do you want? He says, up to you, he says,
I'll give you three million, and you'll always be the
highest paid hockey player in the league. And they all
caught onto each other and went back and forth as
they morphed into where they were every time. When he

(12:07):
got four minutes, he got four. When he got five,
he got five. Great inside story, but it's a true story.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
And did you know Wayne, Well, he had less of
a curve on his stick, he used to tell me
than the other guys because they were doing slap shots.
But he would score a lot of his goals from
the backhand, so he didn't want to curve the stick
too much. And if you ever noticed, he was the
only one that had a slight curve in that stick
because of the backhand.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Interesting. Yeah, I love Wayne. I've gotten to know them
a little bit of the years.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
He's great.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
He's great guy, and he's so gracious with his time.
He says hi to everybody. I mean, this is a
guy as you like you said Paul gres hockey player
of all time and he goes to Toronto or anywhere
in Canada. I mean, he's bad enough here, but he
goes to Canada. He can't move an inch. He's got
thirty people on him every step of the way. We're
up at the we were up at the All Star

(13:01):
Game last year and there's Wayne and he's given his
time to everybody and he's shaking in and blah blah
blah blah. And then we're leaving and I'm with my
dad and my buddy from Calgary who comes in for
the game. And I go, I go, Wayne, have you
ever met my dad before? He says no, and he
goes right. He steps right in front of me and
he says, mister Arnette, Wayne gretz Kee my dad. Look

(13:22):
his face was he could believe it. He talked to
my dad for like twelve minutes, and he's got people
waiting for him. That's the kind of guy he is.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yes, incredible, And you know, they don't play hockey like
him anymore. There is no point like him.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
All it is now is chip it in, go get
it in the corner and pass it out front. It's
a different game today. It's physical. You know they used to.
I go back to Maurice, Rock, Rashard and bellivo Ei,
they're all my buddies there. They'd pass thirty forty yards.
You know, Today the game is controlled by the coach
and the goalie. That's where it all comes from. And
they've told him don't take chances chip it in. It's

(13:58):
a different game today, guys.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
McDavid's pretty damn good, and so's uh my guy Leon
dry Settle too over there. Those guys didn't play.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
But yeah, not Wayne, I've gotta I've got to make
I've got to McDavid's story. So al Michaels and I
went with Harry Sloan and Tim light Wicki and we
went up to the Seattle game and they were playing Edmonton,
and it had been pre arranged that we would get
to meet Cotter just you know, before the game. So
we get down. They take us down by the locker room.

(14:28):
He comes out of the locker room. He's like thrilled
to meet al Michaels. He said, gee, you know, he said,
I've had your voice in my head, you know, for
so long and so great, and I know that hockey
is so important. Of course you know, the miracle on ice.
You know you're you're famous. Do you believe in miracles?
He said, this is just great. We're chit chatting whatever
and would have been an answer. And then a local

(14:50):
newspaper reporter was there. We had to grab it out
to Al. He wanted to ask some question. Now I'm
just standing there with Connor McDavid, and he said, to me, God,
this is really something. He said when I tell my
grandfather that I met Al Michaels. He said, okay, well,
when you tell this story to now, why not just
say father instead of grand father? And he looked at me.

(15:14):
He paused for a second. He look at me, and
he goes, I get it. And I told him, I said,
one of the first times I was ever in Canada
and I saw a T shirt and it said Canada
has two seasons hockey and no hockey.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Oh, tell me something you Yeah, you mentioned Bellivoe and
those guys. Really sure, Yeah, you knew some of those guys.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh, I knew him very well.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Listen, you know from Canada, we're a tight community, you know.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, we lived, we.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Lived in the shadow of the big giant, the us
until we evolved where we became appreciated. But hockey was
a Canadian sport. You didn't have any American teams. Thus
I was going to the Games, and you know, I
got lucky at fifteen, so I hit records and I
had access. So I knew those guys.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Very very well.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Bellible was a very dear friend. I'll never forget. I
was working up in Lake Tahoe at Harris and but
an hour before the show, I got a call from
the bellman and he said, mister Anker, there's a hockey
team down here in the lobby, the Montreal Canadians. They
want to come.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
To the show.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
What he says, Yeah, they're training up here before they
go to LA I says, how many seats they want? Twenty?
So we scampered. We got seats for twenty. There's a
hockey team in the lobby.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
I knew him.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
You know back then, guys, you know, I play hockey.
And when I realized I was too damned short and
too skinny, I got into something else. But the fact was,
you know, there were no nets, they didn't wear helmets,
there's no protection, nothing, nothing, None of that existed. It evolved.
You know, and we all knew each other, you know
to this day. I mean a fact for you. The

(16:55):
largest money earning team in the NHL today, probably giving
her away is Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh yeah, because all
the deals are predicated on local television. That team makes
more money. And they've always been very constant. It was
always between Montreal and Toronto.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
That's my team. I'm a Leaf stand through and through.
My buddy Shanty is the president over there. We've been
friends for many, many years and I'm a Leafs guy.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Haven't won a Cup since eighteen twenty three.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, well will how about our golf buddy, Dion Pinoff.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Well, Dion exactly, Dion Fanough was the captain of the
Least for five and a half years. I just got
a text from him. I'm not kidding. We started this
at four o'clock. At four o'clock on the nose, I
got a text for him because he wants to We
were going to play golf on Thursday and now we
can't play to the eardish shoulder.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
He's a good dude.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Yeah, what kind of guy backs out of golf now?
I'm just hey, he's the best dude. I love that guy.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
So with your growing up in Canada. Yeah, and I
know that your dad was the CEO of Molson, the
beer company, which is pretty pretty amazing in of itself. Oh,
was there any expectation that you go into the corporate
world as opposed to you know, as you were growing up.
Was a part of the deal or not? Really?

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, I mean not. I don't know if there was
an expectation. You know, people you hear people talk. You
know the phrase when people say I'm the first person
of my family who ever went to college. People say
that all the time. I always joke I'm the first
person in my family who didn't go to college. And
it's true. I mean, I went, but I dropped out.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
You know.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
My dad, My dad has a law degree from Harvard.
My my he was a corporate lawyer for many years
and was on the board of Molson. We ended up CEO.
And my one sister has multiple degrees from McGill and Yale.
My other sister multiple degrees from McGill. And a lot
of my friends went into banking up in Canada, some
down in the States, but a lot of them, you know,

(18:56):
and I think that there was an it's certainly the
path that a lot of people I know took. So
when I said to my mom and dad, Hey, I'm
dropping out of college and i want to go to
New York and I'm want to be an actor, I
got to give them a lot of credit for being
cool with it. Ultimately, at the end of the day,
I didn't know anybody, you know, and I was just
moving to New York, and I think that my dad

(19:16):
was kind of freaked out. Again, I give him a
lot of credit for rolling with it, but he was,
you know, he was tough on me. He was like, look,
you're going to be on your own.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
You know.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
He didn't. I didn't grow up with you know. I
certainly grew up and you know, I had a lot
of advantages, but I was not a trust fund kid.
Didn't have a trust fund. My parents didn't believe in
that shit. My dad said, you know, years ago, when
I was i'd gone to boarding school too in north
of Toronto. I was going to go I've told this
story before, but I was going to go on this

(19:46):
ski trip with these guys from school and they were
going to go skiing in Europe and stuff. And I
said to my dad, I want to go. My dad said, no,
you're coming back at spring break from school. When I
asked him that, he goes, no, You're going to come
back and get a job in Toronto. And I said, well,
how all my friends to go? And he goes, you know,
he goes, yeah, and they're all going to be losers.
And honestly, I didn't know at the time. I was like,

(20:07):
this guy be a at mess. And it turned out
it was the biggest favorite he ever did for me.
It was incredible, and he was like, you're gonna get
a job, and I you know, you got you got
to make put your kid. Your kids have to get
out there in the world and work and learn how
to earn for themselves in a way. And that was
a lesson that he thought me. I'm very grateful. So

(20:29):
I did grow up in that sort of world. But
my dad, my parents did a great job of in
their own way of you know, I'm very grateful, very
very What did you leave, Will I was twenty, so
I left. I went to I went to Concordia when
I was you know, eighteen or whatever for half a
year in Montreal, and I dropped out and I moved

(20:51):
back to Toronto and I worked my dad said, if
you want to go down to New York, this is
what it's going to cost you. If you want to
go to theater school, this is what it's going to
cost you. And you've got to earn that money before
you go. This was not I'm not just sending you
around the world on a well, you know, on a lark.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Here.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
So I went back to Toronto when I worked for
a year or whatever, and went back, and then went
down to New York and studied at Lee Strasburg. And
after that first year, I went and I was doing
that and I was twenty years old. I didn't though
a single person, but I went to Leis Strasburg and
I met some friends and people, some of whm I

(21:28):
still know to this day. And then I was broke
at the end by May, and I moved back to Toronto.
I mean I went back to Toronto. It didn't happen
calling it moving it. I could move with a taxi cab.
I had so few possessions to my name, and I
moved once. I literally legitimately moved once uptown in a

(21:50):
cab one cab right. I moved back to Toronto, my
dad's I went, I got a job in Northern Ontario,
north of North Bay, Ontario, planning trees for a couple
of months. Three cents a tree, and then and then
I went out. My mom and dad are from Winnipeg,
and oh, my uncle had a business out there and
replacing sewage and water main pipe. There's a job as

(22:15):
a job. And I went and I worked out there
for four months with a sledgehammer, busting sage old sewage
and water maine, pulling out the shards and then replacing
it in a hole. My shoulders got huge, and I
was I worked in a hole all day. I remember
we're at the old Winnipeg Stadium and the Winnipeg Blue
Bombers was the CFL team.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Remember that team yet there.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
And I remember being in a hole. We were replacing
sewage right outside the old Stadium. This is nineteen ninety one.
I'm twenty one years old, just turned twenty one, and
I'm busting pipe in a hole that we dug and
we dug out. It was about eight feet down busting pipe,
and these players for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers come there.
I kind of look up and they're around this hole

(22:57):
and they watched me, but they go what are you doing, man,
I go, I'll just uh got some old sewage piper.
We just pulled it out one hundred yards and I'm
busting the old pieces that we're gonna put them there, and
it's a shitty job. Then they walked away and it
was like, yeah, did a shitty job. Okay, things better
turn around for me quick.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
You would have been a big success in Russia.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
But you know what, it was good. And I made
enough though, and I was living with my parents out there,
and uh, you know, I had a great time, and
and it sucked every day. It was up in five
Like a lot of people have had a lot harder
things to do than I did. But for this kid
from Toronto, it taught me a lot about hard work.
And then I went back to New York and uh,
and then it was gone that I was there full time.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Pay Paul and I talk about this a lot, because
we had those kinds of jobs as kids, you know,
growing up that you wouldn't make your kids do, but
we learned the hard way. My dad was a window tremor.
He used to dress and undress the mannequins and the
store windows, and of course back in Connecticut, the store
windows were never heated in the winter, and they were

(24:04):
never air conditioned in the summer. It was just either
freezing cold or burning hot. And the lesson I learned was,
I don't know what I'm going to be in life,
but it's not going to be this sometimes, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Sometimes alive, I'm taking that job right away.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
I don't how cool it is. It's true. I had
that skip. I had that same thing. At the end
of that I was like, I bet I don't want
to do this for the rest of our love, and
God bless people who do and whatever you know, and
it made me very grateful.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Your voice is so distinctive. I mean it really is.
Does anybody else in your family sound like you? Or
is that a one off? Because your voice when you
do you know, obviously when you're acting, but also in
commercials voiceover, you know me bingo right away, split second,
everybody knows it's you. I'm just curious, is that unique

(25:06):
to you and your family? For years?

Speaker 1 (25:08):
This guy's voice has been out there. I mean, the
people should know the history. He's probably one of the
top three voiceover guys ever, right for how many years
did you do the voiceover?

Speaker 5 (25:18):
So?

Speaker 4 (25:18):
I mean I've been doing it. I still do it,
and you know what I mean. Well, yeah, Paul, you
know it's funny. So when I moved to New York,
so that was That was in ninety In ninety three,
I got my first agent, William Morris, and I was
doing this off off Broadway, like nine offs Broadway show.
And this young agent from William Morris brought me in

(25:40):
and I went in. I met a bunch of people
and they said you should go speak to the people
in the voiceover department. And I mean, you think I'm
dumb now. I was even dumber then, and I had
no idea what they were talking about. And I said,
what do you mean? And I go talk to this
guy and he goes, what do you think when you
hear a commercial on DV? What do you think when
you hear that voice? There's a whole industry around that.
I was like, oh shit, never occurred to me. So

(26:02):
they start sending me out and within a couple of
weeks I get my first gig, my first voiceover gig
in nineteen ninety three. It was a company called I
don't think it's around anymore. I think it merged one
hundred times, but it was called the Harvard Community Health
Plan up in Boston. They actually flew me to Boston
and I read it and I'd never done it before.

(26:22):
And I did a whole day of recording all this
shit TV radio spots blah blah blah, and I still
remember the tagline to this day. It was over thirty
years ago in his Harvard Community Health Planned were what
healthcare should be. And I was like, this is and
it started paying my rent, you know what I mean.
So I'm going to school, but I'm now I'm doing

(26:44):
these voice and I'd have nine, ten voiceover auditions a day.
And then I started getting gigs and I started working,
and in a lot of ways, I mean not in
a lot of ways. In every way, it saved my
life because now I was making and I was within
a couple of years, I was making real money doing this.
And in nineteen ninety eight, December of ninety eight, and

(27:05):
I did everything I've done, honestly, and I'm not showing off.
I actually don't know how many voiceover campaigns I've ever done.
I spen a gazillion over the years, anything from potato
chips to candy to cable companies to a defense company.
I did Lockheed Martin, I've done mutual Funds, I've done
it all, and Vy on Water, whatever you name it.

(27:27):
But in nineteen ninety eight, December, I get a call
and they're looking for a new voice for the GMC Trucks,
which is a division GM, you know, GMC, Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac.
At the time. The voice at the time had been
for a little bit Henry Rollins, the lead singer from
Black Flag, and they wanted they were going to go

(27:48):
a different direction. And there was a guy who took
a shot on me, a producer, and I still remember
the nice guy, this guy Eric iverson Eric, if you're
out there, and he took a chance on me being
the voice of this big campaign. That was December of
nineteen ninety eight. I am still the voice of GMC
Trucks today and we are in September of twenty twenty four,

(28:12):
myrt'll be twenty six years that I've been the voice
of GMC Trucks. It's mind boggling to me. Honestly.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
That's one of one of my favorites of not voiceover
but commercials where you're on camera. I've mentioned this to
you before but the Geico commercial with the Geckos sitting
on the seat next to you and yeah, hockey player
gets his face pushed right into the glass and looks
at two of you and he goes, hey, I know
you and you go yeah, hu no, no, not you

(28:39):
the little guy you got me my insurance. It's just
it's such a funny bit. Yeah, it's just so perfect,
and your expression after it's just it makes me laugh
every time I've seen it.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
I love well you still. You mentioned that to me
a little while ago, and I love it. This could
beat for the same reason I think you do, which
is I love the idea of somebody saying, hey, I
recognize you, go yeah you doing? Then they go no,
not you, you did, and I'm like, oh shit, and
I got to take it on the chin, you know
what I mean, Like, I'm I think, like a big
shot and then they're like, nobody's talking to you, you idiot.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Buffett's really proud of that company. He loves those commercials.
He makes a lot of money. But Warren always talks
about how those commercials are and how much money he
makes with does he really yeah, Oh no, he's that's
a big money maker for him.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
Yeah, I mean yeah he I mean he's been.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
He's been rich longer than anybody else.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, and he deserves it. He's a hell of a guy.
Let me tell you that's one special human being. What
a great American he is.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
He loves Paul. I wound up seated next to him
at the bet that Paul was happening where.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
He just loves Paul to death? Does he? Oh?

Speaker 1 (29:43):
He loves some gap we sing together, will you know?
He loves to sing. He loves music. He's got a ukulele.
In fact, the last time he went on a trip
with me because we'd go singing at these different special
financial outings. There's a guy up from Western Canada, U
Pettis Pattison. He's probably one of the wealthiest guys in Cada. Pattison. Anyway,

(30:06):
they were honoring him two years ago, giving him this
big award in Toronto, and the head of the event
and I think CBC, and they said, you know, Pattison's
idol is Warren Buffett, And we know you know Warren.
Do you think you could get him to come up here?
I says that means a lot to you because the
guy that called me he'd done some things for me.

(30:28):
I said, let me call him. So I called Morn.
He said, yeah, I know him. Yeah, he's been down
to my Omaha. He said, I'd love to do it, Bali.
I said, really, so I rewrite my way. He flies in.
They hide us in the basement of this theater at
CBC and we have to rehearse because he just flew in,
and we're now rehearsing My Way to get ready for

(30:49):
the shoot. I think it was live at seven point thirty.
So I said, Warren, here's what's going to happen. They're
going to bring Pattison up and they're going to give
me the award, and they're going to turn to me
and asked me to start my way, and I'm going
to walk out and I'm going to sing this verse
verse and then on cue. I want you to walk out, Okay,

(31:09):
paul I'm down for that. I'm gonna do that. So
ladies and gentlemen, blah blah. You guy comes up, Pauline,
I start singing. I said, excuse me, sir, I said,
you know, everybody adores you for what you've done. And
I got a friend of mine, another singer. He wants
to come out and share this moment. Could you come
out here please? And Warren Buffett walks on on television

(31:32):
and this guy went to tears. He went to tears
and he carved through it, sung his ass off. I mean,
it was a moment you wouldn't believe. And then we
go to dinner after quickly because he had to get
back to Omaha. And you know, there were other celebrities there,
but all the action went to Buffet Pictures, sign this,

(31:55):
do this, and then finally said, Paula, I gotta get
out of here waiting, and my dinner's waiting. I said, oh,
you're gonna eat on the plane. He says, I have
a baked potato every time I fly.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
And that was it.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
But he's a hell of a guy. Well, he is
one special human.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
I bet. I mean that what that guy's accomplishes beyond right.
I mean, it's yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
And he gets up in the morning and he said, pie,
you know I got my Hamburgers every morning. He said,
when the market's down, I go to McDonald's and I
order the two ninety eight, and if the market's up,
I ordered the three sixty four. He loves his cocon Hamburgers.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
That such a cool guy. Anyway, let's get back to you, man,
how do you balance him? Look, you and I know
we're in the business. We know how tough it is
balancing everything. How do you manage it? What everyone should
know because you know, I get it from the inside.
You are one hell of a father and husband. I
know the time you put in with your kids from

(32:54):
what I'm told, and you know I've got I raised
five girls. But my hat's off to you because you
you really take care of it, is there? How do
you manage all that?

Speaker 4 (33:02):
Well? First of all, like both you guys, just I'm
crazy about my kids. I always joked that I was
one of those people that before I had kids, I
didn't notice them, you know, up until I didn't have
my first son until I was thirty eight. Up until
that point. I mean it's a joke obviously, but like
I was like, yeah, people have kids, Yeah yeah, And

(33:23):
then you have kids your own, you go wow. And
it really brought everything into focus from me into life,
and it really put everything into perspective, certainly of what
my value. When I was in my early when I
was in my twenties, I was just trying to stay alive,
just trying to get my foot in the door. When
I was in my thirties, I was trying to get
a hat, get good jobs and sort of get bigger

(33:46):
and better jobs and blah blahlah blah. And by the
time I had kids, it just like it just, I
don't know, they jumped to the top of the list
of what was important to me. And I really got
a lot out of spending time and being a dad.
And you know, I did it all. I did. I
did little League. I coached little league for five years
in the middle. You know, when I was I was
on very At one point one fall, I was on

(34:10):
two shows because I was doing a show friend BC.
Plus we were bringing Arrested Development back that I did
with your son in law, and I was on the
on certain weekday afternoons, I was also had little League
practice and then on Saturdays we'd have a game and
I was going nuts, man, I was like, but it
was actually those moments being with the kids that actually
kind of brought my blood pressure down. You know, it

(34:33):
just kind of changed it all for me. And you know,
I'm blessed now. You know, my oldest son is is
my oldest is almost sixteen, and then I got a
fourteen year old, and then I got a seven year
old step son, and then I got a four year old.
So I'm not that far behind you, Paul and I
you know, but I have four boys and it's a zoo.

(34:55):
But you got to kind of give into it, you know,
it's a it's a fun time.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
When you get to the grand Yeah, nine of them.
Way did you get to that? That that's a whole
other turn page.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
It's great about We had your friend Alec Baldwin on
our podcast and he's got seven kids under the age
of eleven. About that one seven under the age of eleven,
he told Paul when we were on the podcast. Paul said, boy,
that's something. He said, Yeah, he said, Today I drove
for my kids to school. I came back, I had
three waiting for me.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
I know, I saw I like this summer and he's, uh,
he's always got his hands full many. I mean, it's crazy.
So and yeah, anytime I feel bad about having, you know,
a lot to do, I just think about what has
By the way, skip your son, your son John is
howel No, he's fifty fifty. He's a hell of a golfer.

(35:47):
He is a good player.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
He really is like that. He's a terrific guy too.
Everybody likes him, everybody. I mean, he's one of these people.
Its just he has a magnetic personality. Everybody likes him.
He's great. All three of my kids. I'm like you,
I'm crazy about Mike.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
I got three great skip But I didn't know you
had three kids, you see there we go.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, by the way, when you were talking before, just
to come back from you're talking about your school, first
kid in the family not to go to college, you got.
You got farther along than your friend Jason Bateman. When
we had Jason on, he was telling us, you know,
he really dropped out school early.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
He didn't finish high school. You know, he talks about
we talked about a nar podcast all the time. He
didn't get a degree. Now, as you both know, Jason's
one of the smartest guys I know. I mean he
talk about a sharp guy.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
He really is.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
He's savvy. He's very very savvy for somebody who can't read.
And I think that it's a real test.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
I can attest to that. Yeah, I didn't finish high
school either.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
No, he did, but he did. I mean but he's
a great example of like, I don't have many people
that I know they're smarter than Jason. I mean, and
I know I know a lot of people with a
lot of fancy degrees. It's funny because he often like
talks about people, so he's like, oh, you know this person,
He'll tout somebody and he'll give a lot of respect.

(37:11):
Jason will to people who have like big fancy degrees, Well,
this guy, and he went there and I'm thinking, like, man,
you're way smarter than that dude.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Skip.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
You know what, you know who makes Jason laugh more?
When Will throws it at him, Will says he's the
funniest guy to makes him laugh harder than anyone do
his distinction or not. He says, you make him laugh
so much. And you know the vibe you guys have
on your podcast, we can't veer away from that. It's

(37:40):
it's great that chemistry that you guys have, and we
know how close you all are.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah, when did you first decide to do it?

Speaker 4 (37:47):
You know, I was going to do a podcast. I'd
said to Jason, I'm going to do a podcast. So
then Jason sees shown over the weekend and he calls
me up and he says, Sean and I are going
to join you. So no, no, no, I'm doing this again. No no, no,
we're dealing with you. Let's get together next week. So
we got together, we talked about it, about doing it,

(38:07):
and we said, sorry, I guess the three of us
can do it together. At which point that was on
a Tuesday. By Thursday, the world was shutting down because
of COVID. It was March of twenty twenty. So we
started talking over the phone and doing it over zoom
and saying what should we do? Should we do this?
And these one of the guys who was one of

(38:27):
our producers, he said, we can still do this remotely.
So our plan was to do it together and then
because of COVID, we couldn't. So this guy set it
up and we started recording, and that's how it happened.
It was just, I mean, it was just dumb luck,
you know, I mean honestly, And we were thinking of it.
We're like, what should we do for a name of

(38:49):
boa and Jason said, well, with us three dummies, it
should be called SmartLess and he literally made a word,
you know, and.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I love the element of you guys, ball busting each other.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
My ex wife Amy always says that that's that's our
love language, you know, which is there's nothing better, and
and Sean talks about it, and Jason talks about you know,
I love it when Jason Jason burned me one time.
And it's in our dog special that we did for HBO,
when we did the or Matt Damon's telling this story

(39:23):
about Brad Pitt and we're talking about Brad Pitt and
then I go on him to say, yeah, I ran
into Brad at this thing. He was very complimentary of
this show I had done. And then I was and
you know, I walked out of the room and I
slid down the wall and I pretended to cry. I
was so happy that Bred gave me this compliment. And
Jason at that moment, Jason goes, who do you think

(39:44):
he thought you were? And it just in this vulnerable
mode right at the back of mangknees, you know what
I mean, It's just like, oh, I love I was jealous.
I he made me laugh. It was that Mike. It's
the greatest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
You know, Skip and I we've known each other for years.
We never fight, We've never had a We've never fought
because you know, he's so so very very smart. Yeah,
and I'm always right, but we never fought, you know,
I ever writ give. Maybe it's because we don't play
golf together. I gave that up. Or pickleball, Well that

(40:25):
I'm into man four days a week.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
I love Paul. It's a pickleball player.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Oh I love it.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
And he's good too. Well.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
I'm right out here to Lake Sherwood. We got a
bunch of courts. I go out there with my woman
and we play with the pros and it's i mean,
four times a week, I'm playing pickleball. Wow, good for
you from from tennis, from tennis. Now, I used to play.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Tennis, and you're done with tennis.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
I'll play it down then. But once you get out there,
the exercise and the way the game goes, it's it's
all pickleball for me now. And it's it's spreading. It's spreading.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Oh yeah, it's huge, that game is.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Have you ever played?

Speaker 4 (40:59):
Not really? I used to play paddle bowl. You know
they have those courts down in Venice. I used to
play down there. Yeah, I lived in Venice for a while.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
What do you do to keep fittlow. You watch your
diet like Jason, you work out. I mean, what do
you do?

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Jason is so good about He's so disciplined about his diet,
and he runs six miles a day. But as we
all know, it's really what you eat that's the most
important thing. So I'm trying. I am getting better at it,
and I you know, I saw a guy to talk
about what it is, because, as you know, you get older,
trying to identify what I can do to work on

(41:43):
my diet in a way that's healthy, because I don't
want to starve myself that's bad. And so I'm doing that.
And then I, you know, I do this walk j
B and Jason though and Sean know that I do this.
I do Loma Vista every day from the bottom right
from the Great Stone Manor all the way to the
top and then back down. And then I do various

(42:04):
sort of things. I do a little bit of boxing.
I do a little bit of weightlifting. On top of that, Skip,
what do you do plays golf? Anybody? Mostly I played
golf golf.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
That is my exercise.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
But well be clear, Skip does the play golf. He
hangs around the parking lot at the golf club exactly.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Come o, you who I know, come over here. Tell
me something, tell me, somebody tell me something. I'll be interesting.
But you know, Paul started, he's played a little bit
of golf way back in the day when you know,
I was with Steve Winnet Mirage Resorts and created this
golf course, Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, and Paul come
out to the range, you know, a couple times or
whateverybody just wasn't into it. But as you know, if

(42:45):
you're bitten by that bug, it's the it's the game
you cannot be perfect at. You can't even be consistently
great at. You can have it going one day and
you think, wow, I got it. I mean, this is
just unbelievable. Next day it's like, why do I even
played this game? And there's no other sport that I
can think of that the difference from day to day

(43:06):
can be that dramatic. I mean, I know, if you're
a tennis player, like Paul's an active tennis player, you know,
you can play really well one day and next day
maybe not quite as well. But it's not night and
day golf.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Still. Yeah, it's like your sex life. But you know Jason.
So Jason says last year or earlier this year, he's
going to go in his show, as you know in
New York. So he makes a deal with your daughter
and man that he says, and look, I'm gonna play
up until this certain day when we start pre production

(43:38):
on the show, and then I won't play again until
the show's over. And she holds him to it. He goes, okay,
So like January February heat, I mean, he's playing five
days a week, every day, and even for me to
get in, I'll be like, let's play Thursday, I got
a game. Okay, Well, let's play Friday. I got a game.
I mean, he's Jim every day, bubble Ba, but he's
got his sight set on this one last day. And

(44:01):
he's so disciplined. He's at the range on other off
days or after and blah blah blah's watching videos. He
gets it. He goes right till that last day. And
on his last day he shoots an even par seventy
and he puts his clubs away and he hasn't picked
them up since. It's It's almost like poetry. Man, Yeah,

(44:24):
isn't that beautiful?

Speaker 1 (44:25):
And love it?

Speaker 4 (44:26):
And Amanda loves it. He says to me, I was
trying to get him to come out because I'm gonna
go see him in New York on his last week,
and we're gonna go see a friend's show. And I said,
I'm going to bring your clubs with me and then
we'll go out to Long Island. We'll go play in
Long Island. He says, I can't. He said, I gotta go.
I gotta be by myself for the first few weeks
on the range. I can't play well.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
He's a perfectionist, and sometimes being a perfectionist works against
it because half the game is not caring right well,
I mean, yes, not, you know, not caring too much.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
Oh, you got it. You gotta have fun. You gotta fun.
But anyway, it's funny about the olive oil. I'm looking
for any kind of hack I can have, Paul turn
I want to keep this thing going as long as
that well, I.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Can lay it out for you, man, because you know
they're coming out.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
I read all the time. I'm just you know, I
didn't get out of high school, and I made a
point somewhere in my life to read, read, read, And
then I realized that all the people I admired successful guys,
they were all readers. Yeah, so I read, read, read,
And the point of this within three years, if you
stay healthy, they're coming out medically we'll be able to

(45:33):
take whether it's a shot or some kind of medical
that'll allow those of us in our seventies, eighties, sixties,
you'll lived over one hundred. They know now that any
child born after the year two thousand will live past
one hundred. They know that, but now with what they're
coming up with, it's amazing how those of us in

(45:53):
our eighties seventies we will live past one hundred. So
if you can stay healthy and learn the tricks I
said don't eat full meals, you're absolutely correct when you
said what you eat is a huge part of it.
And keeping toxic people out.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Of your life, that's good too. I like that a lot.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, big, that'll get you old soak, I've seen it
so many times. And liquor, if you're a drinker, I
don't know if you are. I don't drink.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I don't drink any liquor.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
I don't drink.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
It tears your body apart drinking and smoking, you know,
as around the rat pack I lived with the mafia guys.
They're all smoking and it's drinking, and it's chicks. You know,
I did one of the three, which I love. So
these guys, all they did was smoke and drink. And
I'm this little freak kid with hits. I'm only there
working for the mom because I was making money. But
they drank and they smoke and I'm sitting there watching it.

(46:44):
Try to behave And back then I said, I'm not
going to smoke. I'm not going to drink because all
those guys died from smoking and drinking.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
Yeah, I'm not a drinker.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
But the work, of course is moderation, right, I mean
including moderation, can moderation, including moderation, including moderation, moderation.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
My my big thing is I see this guy. I
so I go. I literally went to this guy today.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
And this whole blood thing we went through. This stuff
is amazing.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Blood's important. They'll be able to tell cancer. They're on
the verge through blood. To figure out your whole body
so important.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
He said to me, this guy did my body fed everything.
This guy says that he looks at me and he says,
why what, Because how old are you I said, fifty four.
This is I can't believe I'm telling you this. And
he goes, your numbers are off the charts. He's like,
you good, good. Oh. I have abnormally low cholesterol. I

(47:46):
have very high oxygen in my blood. I have all
this sort of shit. This guy's like, this is like
and it goes just to He goes, when you get
out of here and call your mom and daddy, he goes,
I bet your parents are shape. I go, Yeah, my dad.
My dad's eighty six. My dad looks like he's sixty four.
It's unbelievable. Goes to the gym four days a week.

(48:07):
It's unbelievable. It's just a dumb luck.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
You're on the good side, man, Keep it there, keep
it there. You know those kids will keep.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
It young too, That's true. Yeah, So anyway, I'm lucky.
I'm lucky. He's my point.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
I think we all are on this call, right, Scoop, Yeah,
who we all are? Hey, you got to go back
to Alec because I love Alec Baldwin. I think he's
a special creature. What was it like working with him
on thirty Rock?

Speaker 2 (48:32):
I love Alec.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
He's such an unbelievable talent. He's just got talent, you know,
just using out of him, you know, and just take
over a scene. Like he just sort of he's just
got this sort of bigger than life personality, you know,
and he brings I don't know, it's just always interesting
every time you work with him. Everything. I would always say,

(48:55):
he's like just like the most all around talented person
I ever did a scene with, because he was just
like a dynamo and he's so funny and he can
do it all, you know what I mean. He's been
in some of the greatest comedies and he's been in
some of the greatest dramas. I mean, this guy can
do it all, and he's so intense, and I don't know,
I just love it. He's just just one of those

(49:17):
guys that's always love work. Timing is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Is there any role that you've played will that kind
of forced you to step outside of your own comfort zone?
Can you share that.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
A couple of times? You know, because I ended up
doing so much sort of like comedy, and there was
there was a stretch in my life where I was
just like I was just kind of doing a lot
of the same roles people used to say, Oh, you're
always playing the asshole, and I'm like, you see it
as the asshole, I see this guy's broken or whatever.
I wrote a show that I did about Vena that
was set in Venice, California for Netflix early on and

(49:57):
when Netflix was first making original show it was and
it was called Flaked, and then I wrote We did
two seasons of this show and it was very sort
of kind of a smaller indie show about a guy
and it was it wasn't. We got sort of initially
killed by the critics because they didn't understand the genre.
They thought they we were making comedy. It was kind

(50:17):
of a comedy drama, but it was it was a
show that really there was a tough kind of two
years making the show and writing it and doing everything
and show running it with my partner Mark Chappell and
my door. Some of it was that was sort of
issues that were close to me, you know. There there
was a time in my life where I liked to

(50:39):
drink and dealing with that kind of stuff was kind
of uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Was that the one shot in Italy? No, what did
I see you? When that was shot in Europe? I
called Jason on it, thinking, yeah, that's the one I
called him. I loved you in that.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Yeah, that was fun. That was Rivi. We shot that
was for sky TV. We shot that in this that
was in the South of France and Monica, Monaco and
it was great.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
And then and I called Jason. I said, man, I
got off on him and that that was cool.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
Thanks man. That was That was an unbelievable gig. Imagine
call you to go, Hey, do you want to go
to South of France for three months in the summer
and shoot a show? Fucking dude, can I tell you something.
I showed up my first day. I get down there. Unbelievable.
They take care of me, these people, great guy, this
guy Christi Brucer took care of me. I get in there.
I got a great place right on the Captain nice

(51:32):
with a thing that right on the water, like the
incredible billow Right. I get out a first day of shooting.
I go in. We shoot this scene. My call time
is like two PM. I go. I'm there for like
two hours. We shoot this one scene. I rap and
they and they look them in. They go, okay, well
you've got twelve days off and you're not in afghanist,

(51:56):
you know exactly, and I'm like what, So it was
like that. Then I come in and shoot for like
two days and then they're like, got six days off
and it was unbelievable. So I'm shooting this show, having
a lot of fun with all these talented people, you know,
Julia Stiles, and just like all these people are amazing.
And then I'm like in the south of France and

(52:17):
then I'm traveling all around Europe and it was just
I believe what a gig. Those are the gigs rereally
that this is great life.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
When you're done, When you're done traveling like that, don't
you just love coming back to California. I have to
tell you, when I was a kid, I had a
sister who was eleven years older than me, and she,
you know, she was the brainiac in the family. Went
to Barard, Columbia, married a rocket scientist, literally rocket scientists.
She came out to La she was the head of
the La Mensa Society chapter and no common sense, by

(52:50):
the way, but you know, book smart, and you know,
I came out to visit her. I was twelve years
old and my mother and I tell me from Hertford
could had to take three different planes to get to
la and I got here my birthdays of February. So
I remember right around the time my birthday were we
left the blizzard in Hertford, Connecticut, I mean a blizzard

(53:12):
and we get out California, first time I've ever seen it,
and you know, the girls and the beach boys music
and the cars with the chrome wheels and everybody. But
I mean, I said, I got to live there. Absolutely,
that was it. I don't know what I'm going to
be in life, but I'm going to live in California.
But is it true? You know, so many people knock California,

(53:34):
the politicians particularly now with you know, back and all
the back and forth about oh California going down the drain,
everybody's moving out. It's just awful, you know. But the
truth is the quality of life out here, it's just special, right,
I mean, that's why we live. None of us are
forced to live here. We live here because we love
it here.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
And there are other places I could live, All of
us could, and there are places I could live in
and it would be a lot cheaper to live. It
would be blah blah blah. But I have that same
sensation and I remember, you know, you know, when I
was in my early thirties, I was still living in
New York. My ex wife Amy was on Saturday Night Live,
and so we were very much in New York. New
York was my kind of my thing. And then I
get arrested development with Jason and I and I start

(54:17):
coming out here, and I'm out here in California for
big stretches. And at that time, still I was doing
the thing where i'd work Friday night, I'd fly back
to New York, go to asinl with my accent and
we'd do the whole thing. And then I'd fly back
for Sunday night late and go to work all week.
And I was always like, yeah, I cut it down.
I had that sort of that thing that I'm so

(54:38):
sick of now. I used to do it too. You
hear people come from New York and they come to California.
They're like, well, I'm in New Yorker in California, And
I'm like, yeah, man, you're not unique. You're one of
eight billion people who have done that move. Or you know,
they still identify as a New Yorker but they live
in California. I'm like, give me a break jerk off. Yeah.
So I was that jerk off for a bunch years

(55:01):
and one day, one day I got wise and it
was the same sort of thing, skid, but it was like, honestly,
I want to say, it was like February and it
was maybe coaching littlely or something. It was something I
forget what it was, and I just went like, what
am I doing? This place is phenomenal? And oh how
am I?

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Like?

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Wake up and look around?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Yeah, I mean I look at it. You got the
ocean on one side, the mountains on the other, three
hundred really great weather days. People are in a good mood.
People don't ask you know, what building do you live in?
Are you on Park Avenue or Fifth Avenue? Nobody asked
me what school did you go to? Everybody just wants
to know, Hey, do you want to play golf Saturday?

(55:42):
Or you want to go out where? You know? It's
just the quality of life here for me, I just
love it.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
And what you know what?

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Today?

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Today I had to go see that doctor do all
that thing, and so then I was like I woke
up but you know, early with the kids and did
all this sort of stuff. Then I went to see
this guy. And then I came back. I had to
do a couple of things and I had it, and
I was like, I want to get on with Paul
and skip. And I looked at me, thinking, and I said,
you know what, I got ninety minutes before I after it,

(56:10):
and I got it. I went around the corner and
I did this hike outside in the middle of Los
Angeles in the middle of the day and got back
here and still you know what I mean. Yeah, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Man.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
It's for a kid from Toronto. Paul, you get a
year from Hartford, a year from Ottawa.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Ohaa, yeah, anything was better after Ottawa.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Right, we took an hour of your time and it
feels like it was twenty minutes. But didn't want to
keep you too long, but just want.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
To look an hour to me?

Speaker 4 (56:40):
He didn't. Paul looked at he said, a new record
for looking at your watch. Hey, oh, do you get
back to Ottawa ever? Ever, ever, never, never, never, ever, No.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
I I get to Toronto more, I get more to
Western Canada. I go back to Ottawa not as much,
which you know, I left when there was two hundred
thousand people. Most of my relatives have died, you know, gone,
and it's really Toronto for me. I mean, I still
love going back to Canada. I think it's very special.
I think that we've been blessed in whatever they indoctrinated

(57:16):
us with that air and our parents and that whole
way of life I think has made us. I'm not
going to say we're more special, but we just know
how to deal with life and make good choices. I'm
very proud, you know. I just went back. My film
just got accepted in the film festival, my doc that's
coming out, and I went back there and just sitting
in that car man and seeing those people again and

(57:38):
as you said, civilized. The one thing that jolted me though,
which is a big political problem today, but the immigrations,
the system in Toronto now there's about four hundred thousand
of now emigrated to Toronto and their crime rate is as
much as Chicago.

Speaker 7 (57:52):
Now.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Wow, So that was a bit of a threw me
for a curve to see that. But getting back, as
you've said, is very special for me. I'm glad I'm
from there, and I'm indebted to Canada for making partially
the kind of person that I am today. You know,
when you think about it, Skip and as you know,
well that whole comedy search that happened in the US

(58:16):
was non existent for years, so it all somewhere in
the middle everybody. You know, everyone looked at Canadians like
we weren'ts talented. Nobody looked at you. And you look
at everybody that's come out of there, and even when
they came down and Lauren and SNL and all that,
all of a sudden you got all these talented people
from Canada that have emerged musically, and you know, directors

(58:38):
and all.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Of the yeah crowd. It's funny point you say that,
because that's you're You're absolutely right. There were so many
Canadians starting in the eighties that there were big seventies
with Lauren and all those guys in the big Canadian
comic just icons, right, and then now and then and
then a lot of like you said, directors, and then
now think about all these new pusicians Man Drake and

(59:02):
Bieber and by I mean this goes on and on
of these massive stars.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Yeah, and in Ratio, we've got a piece of the
pie down here. There's no middle ground artists from Canada.
I mean, you know, I'm not going to knock the
United States, obviously, but they all came down and they've
hit high levels, high levels. It's just it's great to see, man,
because there were so many hurdles against me. Even the
you know comedians that hang with in Toronto, they nobody

(59:29):
even wanted them down here. And when it exploded, hello,
you know, there's a big difference from the English, who
took what we did and made it better. But you
had that ocean in between, so they had that prominence
on their own. But Canada was always in the shadow.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
And it's it's I ad venture to say you were.
I mean, you were the first big Canadian pop superstar
who made it down here in the States.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Probably I was at fifteen, you know, I was. I was,
you know, I'll leave it at that. I came down
and got lucky, you know, but it's very true. But
it was tough.

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
You know, they still knocked me because I was from Canada.
They looked at you differently. But they don't do it
to us anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:00:09):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Hey, you know what they always stand to me. I've
had people say this my whole life. They go, you
may be from Canada, but at least you're not from Hartford.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Hey, you know what, that's what it's all about, right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
But I've got a lot of Canadian friends that I'm
so proud of. I'm just proud to be from there,
as I'm sure you are will. And you know something,
if I had to move anywhere again for whatever reason,
it would be Canada.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
Yeah. Probably mean too. Every time I go back, I
always think, Man, it's great here. I'm walking around Toronto,
I was there. I was there a couple of weeks ago.
I went to this thing for Stifa. You know, the
World Cup's coming there, and I didn't think I like
a video like, hey, welcome to Toronto type thing. It's

(01:00:57):
going to be fun. And I'm walking around York. I
should I could live here. I love it here. I
love the people, and uh, you know, anyway, it's great.
Well you know what, Oh, we should go and do
something for canad at some point, you and me, let's
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Sure, let's go run for office. We'll step down for
the first time in our life.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
You go for prime minister and I'll be your first minister.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Okay, got you'd be the first lady. Hey man, you
still owe me a dinner, right.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
I listen let's do this. We're gonna put this dinner together.
Put it together.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Talk to Amanda. No, you got to talk to Amanda.
She's Amanda, Amanda. You gotta talk to Amanda. Get it clear,
because I want to have dinner with you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
It take Skip, we'll hang out. You know, guys don't
do it as much as women. You know what women socially,
they get together for lunch, they get together, they get
Guys don't do it as much as women. And you've
heard me talk about it, Skip. You know how we
cherish our friendship. People don't realize today what real friendship

(01:02:03):
is and how to really live it and work it,
not work it that. It's tough. You've got to value
friendships today. I try to tell my son, I wish
they'd teaching in school. It's so important to have friends
and with your boys, will teach them about friendship. Man,
it's so important today along with being grateful.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Well, I know I'm with you on that, and I
was lucky. You know. One of the things that we'll
say is this my kids. You know, I went to
boarding school, like I said, oh boys boarding school, and
one of them there were a lot of drawbacks. One
of the things was I had a lot of good
guy friends who I'm still friends with today over forty
years later, right, And it taught me to how to
have male friendships. And I still have a lot of

(01:02:47):
good male friendships, and I got a ton of really
good guy friends. Yeah, I here today, I'm gonna go
upstairs and get changed. I'm gonna have a quick bite
with my girl, and then I'm going to go out
and meet like eight of my just to hang out.
We check in once a week and we hang out.
And then I see, I see got you know skip,
I see all these guys that play golf with these

(01:03:08):
guys and I check and I think you're totally right.
And the one thing the kids that I now noticed
that parents have to be aware of today, that that horms,
that that's getting in the way or these fucking days.

Speaker 7 (01:03:19):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
Phones. And I tell my kids for every little bit
that you don't be on your phone, I'll give your
more leeway in the real world.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
MM.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Absolutely with that. This has been an absolute thrill. I'm
so happy that you blessed us with you as a person.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
You're you're one of the good guys, and we thank
you so much for sharing this uh afternoon with us.
Right Skip, We've we've said that you've been in our list,
and well, you know, you guys must have you must
have guys on your list that they're going to show
up in what eight months? I mean you must wait forever.
You got anyone you want, But but how long do
you wait for some of your guests?

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
Honestly, I waited. I still have guys on our list.
I've been waiting a couple of years. There you go,
oh yeah, and still haven't got it, and still like
they know they want it, They're gonna do it, blah blah,
I'm just waitingna, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
You know it threw me the most before we folded
when you guys called me because I thought Jason was
futting me on when you were doing Biden. I had
no idea what you were doing. He called me and
he says, somebody wants to talk to you. I almost said,
who the fuck is this? And it was President Biden.
How did that happen?

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:04:31):
Yeah, So we're with Biden comes in and he's playing
one of Paul's songs. We're waiting for the President of
the United States, and he comes in and he's playing
Paul so and he goes Man and he's going, I'm
such a fan, and so Jason says, let's call him.
Oh wow. And so we're sitting there and he calls
Paul and he picked up and said, what's going He
goes Paul, It's it's Joe Biden bub blah, and then

(01:04:54):
they start talking. I mean, it was how unreal? Is that? Man?
Very unreal?

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
What was the song?

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
You remember?

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
It was having my baby? It's probably my way, right?

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
It wasn't even know it wasn't my way, No, it
was something else.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
It was I don't like to sleep alone.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
He'd be saying, it is his fing his share.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Wasn't puppy love or lonely maybe lonely boy, maybe little
boy exactly, But.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
I think it was pup We'll go anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Anyway, that was a cool moment for me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
I will thanks so much, man, will see you up
on the hill.

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
I'm the hill of gentlemen. Thank you, what and honor?
Thank you for having me. You guys are absolute gentleman.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Cheers Our Way with Paul, Anka and Skip Bronson is
a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
The show's the executive producer is Jordan Runtog, with supervising
produce for an editor Marcy Depina.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
It was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson, mixed
and mastered by the wonderful Mary Do.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.