September 30, 2025 • 47 mins
Actor/writer Ken Marino talks about The State, how cases of booze made him popular at college, the best way to be present when you are acting, opening your heart to others just for the fun of it, parenting, how Catholic Camp made him an actor, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Role Models, the joy of singing in your car, and Voo Doo Donuts!
Bio: Kenneth "Ken" Joseph Marino is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter known for his work in sketch comedy and a wide range of television shows and films. A founding member of the influential MTV sketch comedy series The State, he is also a frequent collaborator with his former castmates.
Bio: Kenneth "Ken" Joseph Marino is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter known for his work in sketch comedy and a wide range of television shows and films. A founding member of the influential MTV sketch comedy series The State, he is also a frequent collaborator with his former castmates.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Strawhut Media. Hey, I'm Ken Marino and I'm on Don't
Be Alone with Jake Cogan.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Don't Be Alone with jj Cogan. Hi, and welcome to
Don't Be Alone with Jake Hogan. I'm so glad you
could be here. I am Jake Hogan and you are you,
and I am really excited because we have a great
show for you. Before we get to the show, I
got to encourage you to subscribe to the show at
(00:31):
YouTube or Spotify or wherever you listen to the show
and get the podcast. I really appreciate it. All the
subscriptions really matter and really help us. If you want
to email me at dbawjk at gmail dot com for
all your criticisms, compliments, and any kind of suggestion. Viewer
mail questions are also really appreciated at that address. Do
(00:52):
it when you can so we can have a conversation.
There's also one more thing. We've got a substack Jake
Cogan at Substack, it's going to be about the show,
and it's going to be a premium for free. You're
going to get extra content about Don't Be Along with
Jake Coogan, things that we couldn't even put in the show.
Will put on our substack. We'll also get other photographs
and other details that you couldn't get because we could
(01:15):
only do the show for so long. You know, it's
got to be under an hour, and there's always some
extra stuff. It could be fun anyway. It's good. I'm
trying to build a community out there somewhere so we
can continue the conversation even when it's not a Tuesday
and you're watching don't be Alone with Yet COVID. Today
we have a great show. Ken Marino fabulous actor, a
(01:37):
fabulous comedian, a fabulous writer, a director. He wrote Role Models,
one of my favorite movies. He was in the State,
a great sketch show. He was in a pilot I
did many years ago as a remake of the Courtship
of Vitty's Father, and he was fantastic. I loved working
with him. I love getting to know him, and it's
been a while since we've gotten together. So it'd be
(01:59):
nice union to see Ken and hear about what his
life is like now, what he's doing, and he's gonna
help me sort of figure out how to be more
positive with people, how to be more effervescent, How can
I be a Ken Marino type. Ken is full of joy,
full of happiness, and I'd like to be more happy
(02:20):
like Ken. Anyway, Ken is fantastic. He's really talented and adorable.
I mean he's handsome too, So you'll like it and
you'll like him. We'll be right back with Ken Marino
right after this. Don't be alone with j Ken. That
(02:41):
would officially welcome you to the talk show. Hi, hija,
I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I'm so happy to see you. I haven't seen you
in forever.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And you were one of the first people I met
in this town who I got to know. Like it
was the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Show that we were trying to do. A cast me right,
cast is not exactly the right word. Begged you to
be in I believe as.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I really went through a whole audition process, but I recall.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That you didn't. You were reluctant in the dition process,
and I was like, like, Ken, please do the show
like you're the guy. A little bit, I think you
were either either you're nervous or you just you just
come off with something you didn't want to do or
something this it seemed like you didn't want to play
a dad whatever. It was there was something that was
there was something about it. It was just like giving
(03:30):
you the ick.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, from what I remember, nothing gave me the ick
per se what what?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
What network? Was it for the w B?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I think that's the ick I think And I don't
actually don't even remember when we shot And was this
after I This might have been after I just did
two series for two series that got canceled. Maybe for NBC.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Could be I don't remember where it men behaving badly.
Can may have come after or before.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I'm not sure it came after, it came after that?
So four three, YEAHBC things. And I was like in
w B, I just didn't know what to expect. But
then I met you. Is my point is I met
you and you were like a light like you were
like like I was like, oh, I like this human.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Being were kindred spirits in many ways, this is what
yours seem to be very free spirit actor, fun like
the state was always like, Wow, they're fun, They're cool.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
We try to be. I mean, I try to have
fun in life.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No, but you do have fun in life, Like I'm
going to say that you have fun.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I try.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I see the actively the middle aged dad bands you do.
That's got to be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's a lot of fun. It's you know, it's a
little uh filling a fantasy that I've had in my
you know, we all have, which is like, hey, it'd
be fun to be in a band, And now I
get to be in a band.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right, And I assume I don't know whether it's profitable
or not. It doesn't really matter. I would imagine that
it's really fun, coffitable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It's a lot of fun. Yeah, and the audiences seem
to like it, and we have a good time doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So when yeah, I saw you guys in Sketch Frests
maybe a year ago or wherever, like some you guys
played and with you guys have a great time on
stage and you're having a good time, the audience has
a good time. All that's fantastic. But not everybody would
do it. Everybody has the fantasy of being in a band,
but not everybody would do it.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
If given the opportunity, or wouldn't be able to motivate
to create the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's not given the opportunity to create the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, I've been very lucky, and like you know, the
people just going back to the state being with people
who you know, continue to just try to stay active
and do stuff. And David Wayne, who I write a
number of things with and spend time with, you know,
(05:59):
started this whole thing. And then I sort of muscled
my way in and became the front man.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Over Well, some people become the singer because they can't
play an instrument. Is this what happened?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Well? Uh not, I did it because I just like singing.
I got very into karaoke with my wife early on,
and then so I knew all the songs.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Now, yeah, I've had I haven't had
David on the show, but I had Tom lynnon on
the show. He's he's a state guy. He is a
state guy, A great guy. Yeah, it's a great guy.
But you know the ethos Tom's ethos, which is like
that's just work, let's work on stuff anything. Is that
(06:38):
the state ethos?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I feel like that's what it became very quickly. Our
comedy college was the state Like we went to college.
We went college, and then the state became how I
learned about sketch and you know, timing and characters and
all that stuff because I didn't do any of that prior,
(07:00):
and we weren't an improv group. We wrote sketch so
we learned about writing.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Did any of them come out of improvisation or they
all just we sat and sat down write the sketches.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Not in the beginning. In the beginning, I mean like
there were some people who were like good and improvising something,
but we didn't work. We didn't create our sketches from
improv like say like groundling to do or something like that.
We we all wrote sketches and then we would bring
them in, pitch them, and then rehearse them like we
were doing a play because we were all or a
(07:32):
lot of us were at MoU for a theater, right
and a lot of us were you know, there for filmmaking,
and so for us, it was doing these having an
outlet for like many comedic plays.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Dangerous game, that game of everybody bringing in their sketches
and figuring out which ones we're going to do, because
that could be if the group wasn't cohesive, could be
very political.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It was very political, and there was a lot of
like you know, like you know, negotiating with people like
you know, I'll put you in this kit if you
vote for this kit to be in because we all
had a you know, a vote, Uh, we all had
a singular vote to kind of decide what what was
what we did. So yeah, it was very political. But
(08:17):
like all that aside, we were we we motivated each
other to be very creative and so when the group
stopped doing what it did, when we went off, we
still had that sort of muscle or that drive to
want to just keep creating stuff. However way we could,
(08:39):
you know, in a in a running gunway, in a
gorilla way, in a little independent movie way. Anyway we could.
And I think maybe that's what Tom was. I don't know.
I didn't I didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh, unbearable. He was unbearable. He's a lot Ken Marino
as a guest. He's the only guest I brited some don't.
I have one hundred shows under my belt, and you
were the first person to bring me some donuts, some donuts.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And here's the deal, like guys, I don't know where
your guys are.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
There's no guys.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And then I got you one.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I'm going to show this, which is the Simpsons donut.
This is a big pink Simpsons donut.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And I didn't know if you wanted it. But I
remember when we first met and we were walking through
San Francisco when we were Locations.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
County filming an opening segment.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
We're filming an opening segment, right, we were filming an
opening segment and we were hanging out in San Francisco
for that opening segment. And that's when you told me
you or that's when I discovered or it sank in
that you wrote for the Simpsons. Yes, and that, and
there is a character. And I could be wrong. This
is how I remember it, that you came up with
(09:56):
what's his name, the clown, us the clown and that
that and then I later learned that when when when
you're on a writing staff or when you write on
a show and you come up with a character and
that character comes back, that's that's like a that's a
that's a great thing. And also I think character pay monetarily.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It used to be. This is delicious. By the way,
thank you. My doctor has recommended I eat more donuts,
so that's good. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Like a great doctor.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I'm going to have only the piece of the donut
that I had, because you know, listen, I can't keep
this going if I just have donuts all the time.
I work out like eight hours a day.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And what's your regiment?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
What do you got? It's really mostly eating donuts, that's it. Yeah.
So I'm going to wait until after the show and
then I go back into the gym as the gym
just covered in donuts. Did you always think I'm going
to go to n y U and be an actor?
How did that? How did that show?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I wanted to be an actor from a very young age,
and I was lucky enough to have people throughout my uh,
you know teens. Uh, you know when I had doubt
about it, pushing me and saying no, no, no, you know,
stay with it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Who is encouraging you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
There was the the there was a teacher at my school,
this drama teacher. There was an acting guy I went to. Uh,
I went to like a you know, kids acting class.
I think it was called Arena Players something. And you
know whoever was teaching there, John monthlyone I think was
(11:33):
his name, not the bug early?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yes, very well, that's fantastic. I did too.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I loved it. Yeah, and I and I uh and
I was always chasing well, I mean, I'll tell you
a quick story. Uh, I remember exactly when I said, oh,
I want to be an actor, or I was chasing
the laugh at a very young age. I went to
this uh my sister and I won this camp two
(12:00):
weeks at the summer camp from our church, and and
we went and then the the you did a play
at the end, or every every age group did something
at the end some presentation. We did a play and
it was the Prodigal Son, and I played the prodigal son,
one of them who goes away and then comes back.
And the father's like, oh, okay, well he's my son's back.
(12:21):
Let's celebrate him. But him going away, he like, you know,
spending all his money on prostitutes and blah la lah
and all this stuff. And but we were doing at
a young age, so I was just I went away
and clowned around. And when I went away and clowned around,
the kids in the you know, audience were laughing right
(12:44):
at what I was doing. And so so I've been
chasing that sort of dragon ever since, right, or like
the laugh, I've been chasing that laugh since third grade?
Third grade?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Interesting, So what what is it about at attention? That
fun positive attention that like did you do sports? Did
you do anything.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I did sports. Yeah, yeah, so like you get.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Fun, positive attention through sports, you get.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I had people who wanted me to continue playing sports
like I in high school, I played basketball and I
was fine. You know, I was big and I was
I like to do the dirty work that nobody else
did because I couldn't. I couldn't shoot well.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So I got a lot of rebounds, muscle people on
the inside.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I got a lot of rebounds, but most of them
were my own. I shoot, and then I grab it again,
I shoot. So you look at the stat list, Oh,
Marino got twelve rebounds, eight of them were his own.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
That's still good. I guess.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I get.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I want to get if you miss, you want to
get your rebound.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Sure, I'm sure, but you don't want to do like
you don't want to go five times and then just
grab your rebound and finally miss and then they get it.
And anyway, the the the junior varsity coach would let
me leave to go to play rehearsal early or leave
to go to play rehearsal like late, but he would
let me. He would split it up. He would let
(14:02):
me split up, and then the varsity coach cornered me
in the locker room. He said, Mariana, do you want
to do play basketball this year? You want to do that?
And then he said, you know something that that insulting
to insulting to acting? And I said, you know what, I'll.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Do the acting right. And what did your parents do?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
My dad was a clamdigger when I was younger, and
then that kind of profession sort of died out, and
then he had a cessful business, and so he would
drive a pump truck around and clean people's cesspools. And
I would go to work with him from time to
time and do that. And my mother was a dog groomer.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
None of that sounds very show busy, No, no, okay.
Did you ever go into the city and watch go
see plays and that kind of stuff?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I sure did. My mother would take me into sea plays.
Once I was into acting. We would go into I
think she liked it too. We would go to t
kts and do the half price tickets on Wednesdays, so
we would play hooky from school and she would go
to Long Island Railroad and we would go and we
would see different plays and because and most times it
(15:11):
was musicals, because uh, I don't think my mom was
like into the heavy dramatic stuff. But if it was
like some sort of farce, we would go see that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Like I wouldn't take a nine year old to see
Iceman count thinks that's a fun thing, but you could go.
You can go see Annie.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We saw a lot of musicals and
then like you know, farces with doors and stuff like that,
whatever that was arsenic and old lace and stuff. I
remember seeing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That, that's fun. Don't be alone with you know. I
(15:58):
grew up out here, so I had different sense of
what show business was, and I saw play sometimes, but
there was movies and TV around.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I remember being on set with you when we were
shooting the Courtship Vettys saw the and there was like
one joke that you were like, this isn't working, this
isn't working. And then you called up somebody, yeah, your
dad or a friend of your dad or somebody who
work with You're like, we're having trouble with this thing,
and they threw out a joke and you're like, that's it,
and then you put it right in the show and
(16:26):
I was like, I was like, oh cool, he like
just knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
It can't be funny. No funny. People of course say
you were great in that show. That show should have
been a show. It's really weird that it wasn't. They
they asked us to make this show. They begged us
to make this show because somehow somebody owned the rights
to Courch with Vetti's father and said we were going
to build a night with this and family Fair and
some other They kind of wanted to retread shows, and
(16:51):
it said. My whole thing was, as long as it's
not really a retread, I'll take the title. Right. We
got to make it good and we got to make
it meaningful, get fun and whatever. And I think we
did that. I actually think we made it. We made
it emotionally viable and good and powerful. And we had
Josh was the Josh Hutchinson who became a big star too.
(17:12):
Was was our.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Sweet little boy. It played my son.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And there's a there's a heartbreaking lovely scene at the
end where I thought, okay, we've we we and it
didn't feel gratuitous.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Checked all the boxes right, It was fun, everything it
had it was heartfelt.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And then they didn't pick it up.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And it's like, wait, they didn't pick it up.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
No, No, they didn't. Have you been going to work?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I did know. I've just been waiting.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Oh my god. No, there's many years ago. That could
be twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Twenty years ago. Ye, well, I guess. Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And it should have been a show. It would have
been a great show.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I mean we I agree. I met Jamie Dembo for
the first time on that show. Yes, she was the
pizza delivery girl.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Love Jamie. She's been a guest on the show. And
her husband as Ross Bowie.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, one of the funniest men around.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
He's great. I just started listening to his podcast about
rock and roll records. He's got a record, Yes, because
I got nothing but time. That's the thing about me.
I got nothing times.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It we all have just time that time.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
What are we gonna do with it?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Jet I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I'm so glad that shows slow down because now I
have this time. I'm gonna get it in shape.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, you get in shape podcast. I'm in a band task. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You ever have guest singers come in?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, would you like to what do you like to sing?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I'll sing just about anything.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
In our last show we had, uh, Natalie Morales Drew
Tarvor and Richard Kine came and sang Richard, what did
Richard saying He's sang King of.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
The Road Tail All right, that's right. Yeah. So one
of the things about you and that this show is
about me solving my problems. And so here's the thing
about you. You and I were like grew up. I
think a little bit differently.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You seem like you seem like the guy I always
wanted to be. I will say this, yes, and then
I mean I could.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Be wrong, but just you know, my guess as you are, You've.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Got you have a largess of life, which I really like.
It seems to find largess for me, a joy and
in groups. I'm sure you have your sad moments, but
enjoy a joy in groups, kind of a funness in
groups that that seems great. I think in the world
(19:26):
of show business or whatever you're you're respected. You've written
role models, You've written movies that are fantastic. Role Model
is one of my favorite movies. Just a great movie.
Just I'd say people should see it, but I think
people have seen it. It's really really good. Uh. And
it again, it's one of those things that does check
(19:46):
all the boxes. It's funny, but it's also a motive
and it feels right and it's like, I know, it's great, so.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Not to break up the momentum of what you're saying.
But so the way that went is David and I.
So David came in and replaced a director, and then
he wanted to do a big rewrite of the script.
We did a big rewrite of the script with eight
(20:13):
weeks out, and so we didn't have time to kind
of like really think about what was going on. But
we went up and sort of blew up a lot
of the script and went in and did a just
every night we would just stay there until like twelve
at night, just like writing the script and coming up
(20:35):
with new stuff and keeping what was nice.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And that's a perfect way, I think if you had
to rewrite that movie, it's a perfect way to do
it because it has a kind of traditional structure to it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Right, right, but then we put our stink on exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Then each scene is its own original, fresh take on
the thing, and interesting characters that you don't expect, and
all that kind of stuff comes out of it, and
that's fantastic. Plus casting, I mean, like some of that
casting kids. It's fantastic, Yeah, like really special.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Look kid kid Bobby, who is incredible and Christopher Min's
Plas who is incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah yeah, really spectacular. Nothing overplayed, even though it's funny,
like nothing overplayed. It's like that's my favorite kind of movie.
It's like right in there, so anyway great so, but
my point is like from the outside, from my point
of view, and you're not going to be from your
point of view. I think I think you've got it
(21:29):
like a special sauce. It seems whenever I run into you,
you've got a good, happy attitude. Things are good, right,
you know, It's like life is good. Got these kids,
you love, this wife, this thing, this life. Life is good.
I want I want to be as anxiety not free,
(21:49):
but I just want to be more joyous in my life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
In that way, I think that I try to be
uh happy and positive and give love to other people
and let them know what I appreciate about them and
things I recognize, and I try to put out what
I you know, like I what you put out is
what you get. And I try to do that as
much as possible. I try to kind of live by that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
You all everybody has things that they want to do
that they're not being dead. Everybody meets rejection, like we
all have that. You're in a business of rejection, right,
So like there's a lot a lot of what we do,
even when we're great, is no, no, thank you, right
or get out of here.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Word's possible, which is fine. That's that's part of it.
That's okay, but you're in that's kind of the nature
of the business. But in the nature of life with
hang out with your peers and hang out with people.
I just think that they have a good flow.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well, I appreciate that, I really do, and I want
to take that in and thank you. I appreciate it,
thank you, But you know, inside I'm dying.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Okay, fair enough, I'm not bestowing anything. But so do
you do with that anxiety?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Because it doesn't I talked to my therapist about it.
I try to, you know, address it when it you know,
when it swells up, and uh, find something joyful to do,
or I try to spend time with people I enjoy
and I try to create. I try to keep moving
(23:24):
because when when when I'm just sitting there by myself stagnant,
that's you know, when it, Uh, you know kind of festers.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Do you fill up your days? Are you filling up
your days with activities?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Uh? When I fill up my days, I am most happy. Okay,
when I don't, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I tend to fill up my days with all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
The COVID and the strike has really kind of reset
and maybe my age at this point has reset eight
I was seventy nine, I'll be seventy fantastic. Something I
appreciate that has reset me in and not in a
great way, like it like it's harder to motivate and
(24:12):
figure out what to do. What I wound up doing
for a while during COVID was just when I had Twitter,
when Twitter exists, right, it existed, I just said, Hey,
anybody want to talk and DM me your phone number
and I'll call you. And so I was doing that
for a while. Wow, And I would call. You know
(24:36):
a lot of people would like send me their number
and I would call them and talk to them for
like a half an hour, and then I would move
on to the next person.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You feel after that conversation, like reconnected with humanity? Is that?
What would I.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Think I needed it? Like?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
There?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, when I called up people and I called
I spoke to people all over the country and a
lot of people from other countries. You know. They were
very nice and oh, thank you so much for calling.
And for me, I was like I I was. I
needed it. I needed it. I needed that connection.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I do that all the time. I call people that
just random numbers. What are you wearing?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And I don't it's a little different.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, they don't feel connective as connectives as i'd like.
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Did you ever find out what they were wearing?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yes? Oh, often it's not as sexy as you think.
Oh yeah, that's too bad.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Keep calling, Yeah, just keep going.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But what happens if you give that energy, that joy
out into the world and you're not getting it back.
For me, yeah, sitting in a room with somebody and
you're trying to have fun and they're not. They're not.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, that's easy. You just walk away.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, I don't think I have the balls to walk away,
like it's like, that's like I have to finish it
out well.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
But you can find joy and like like because it's
also being an actor, right, part of like finding uh
you know, croussing pads with people who you know curmudgeon,
curmudgeons and like assholes. Is like it's a character study, right,
So you're like, oh, I'm gonna just store that away.
That behavior is interesting to me in that behavior, So
(26:10):
that's also just fun, fun things to kind of in
the moment be like, all right, I'm not enjoying this,
but I mean, but I can use I'm gonna I'm
gonna use the thing that you're doing that I don't like.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
In a in front of account, you switch from giving
them joy to giving yourself joy and saying, Okay, well
I'm gonna have fun with this anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah. I think so when.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I'm trying to be funny or trying to be suave
or charming whatever version of charming I can muster, and
it hits a wall. It's like nothing's charming to that person, right, Oh, Like.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I'm do you ever call it out?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Uh? Sometimes sometimes like you, why is why.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Are we not connecting? Or why is this You don't
seem to be enjoying enjoying me? Is that should? I?
Sometimes auditions, Yeah, I've done that in auditions where I've
like read a scene, I'm like, it's right, I don't
need to read the next one, right, right, I don't
should I go?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
But no, but I don't see. I've had people and
auditions do that to me and they're wrong, Like, no,
you're doing fine, this is good. We're tired. We're tired
on this side of the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
it's not always the case that they're not enjoying it,
but I don't know, it's right. What do you tell
your daughter, like, and now, how old is she? She's fifteen, okay,
(27:24):
and she's she's seriously acting and.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
She just booked a Disney series.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh, fantastic, and she's it's.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Like shooting seventeen episodes and so what advice called Electric
Bloom and it is coming out on Disney in a
month Disney plus both.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
All right, fantastic? And what do you tell her? What
advice do you give?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Acting advice or stays sane?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
First, let's talk about acting, and let's talk about what
is to be an actor?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Well, it's it's very difficult for me as an actor
who's been doing it since nineteen eighty seven or whatever,
and professionally since ninety two.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
But you did play a Disney princess for years? Am
I wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I mean, I not not just just around the neighborhood.
I got under a lot of trouble and I do
need to dry clean that dress. It's very dirty. What
advice I'd like, I try to just give her, like
little things that help me in the moment. Right, So
(28:29):
there's I remember in NYU there was this guy Bobby
Lewis from the Group Theater, and there was this expression
as if for the first time, as if for the
first time, and like to break it, you know, to
break down. Like if I were giving an acting class,
like that would be like sort of the first thing
that I would tell every actor because like if you're
(28:51):
if you get into a cadence, as soon as you
get into a cadence of some line, it's going to
feel not real because you just saying it how you
practice it. But if you can bend it a little bit,
if you think about it musically right, and if you
just do it as if for the first time, you
(29:12):
can alter it and it will feel fresh, it will
feel like something new. So I try to talk about that,
like I try to say, just say it, is it
for the first time, Like make it just just bent,
just if you did it one way this time, do
it a different way, but not too different, but just
a little different. So it's citing to you.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Right, It's a very interesting thing. Great actors, of course,
don't anticipate, right though they've done it forty times. They
don't anticipate the next line. They don't anticipate the end
of the scene. And that's why I'm a bad actor
because you know, yes, I can't wait for the end.
It's like, so that's why I try. I try, and
I'm trying to become a better actor. Even now at
my late age, I'm not anticipating and playing in the
(29:51):
moment and all that kind of stuff. And it's it's
very hard.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well it's it's uh, you'll get there.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's my eighties.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
The other thing I said is like, you know, like
like reacting to something right, and like the camera, especially
when you're on the four camera show. Uh, they'll want
to cut to you if you're if you have like
a genuine.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Reaction shut down, I can react sometimes.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You know, actors when they're younger, they say their stuff
and then they wait for their next line. But like,
you know, instead of saying listen, right, I just say,
like just know that, you know, reaction shots are are
as valuable as the line sometimes or is there is,
it's the button to the line, So just be aware.
(30:38):
And you know, I think that way the way some
that that's an indirect way of saying like, you know, listen,
And I.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Also want to compliment this and this has nothing to
do with anything is when we were working on on
our show together, it was fun to play with you.
It was fun to say do it or can you
do it in a different way of things? And you
have a sense of play that's really fantastic. That's infectious.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Thank you. I appreciate that. I love acting, I love comedy,
and I love getting to do what I do. And
so when I get to work with people like yourself,
who I can sense like we're speaking the same language
and we're having a good time and we're all in
it to create the best thing possible, it is the best.
(31:30):
It's the best job to have. Wait, did I help
you not be alone yet?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yes? Well, first of all, we're not alone, so that's
number one. But also the by reflection, reflective joy is
solving my problem. It's like I need to I need
to put more out. Yeah, if I put more out,
I might get more back.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I mean I'm you know, a huge all.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's that's what you're saying, and so I'll do that.
I mean, it's not that I don't put it out.
Sometimes I could put more out. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
The other thing is I think it's important in it
just quickly just touch upon. This is to a lot
of people. Don't tell people if they appreciate them or
recognize something that they liked. They just go away and go, oh, man,
I like that, right, and you said something very nice
to me. But and I hope that you know how
(32:23):
I felt about you. I think I said it early
on you were light and then I really I was
very excited to see you again. But a lot of
times people just don't say those things right. And you
can see people's moods change when you just give them
a simple gift of recognizing something that you appreciated about them,
(32:46):
and it shifts a whole It shifts the whole dynamic
of your talk with them or the environment that you're in.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I've had to learn to say thank you to compliments
that have come my way instead of saying, oh, like that.
There's a there's a part of instinctually, a part that's
hard for me. Yeah, it is to say like is
to is to hear something that's a compliment and go
like yeah, thank you, Yeah, because we're all in our
shell of like wow, this person doesn't really see all
(33:14):
the problems and the issues. But having been a performer
all my life, when an audience member says I really
enjoyed the show, you don't say, oh, you're wrong, it
was terrible. We did this thing, Thank you very much.
You had a good time. Fantastic. Yeah. So that's been
I'm trying to get better at it. Maybe. I mean
by the time my eighties eighty.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
We got, we got forty five years before we read it, right?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Is question? Oh, we asked a question for both of you.
Did you set out to become a comedy writer or
did it just work out that way?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I did not. I set out to be an actor,
as per conversation before, and then I went to NU
and I was lucky enough to meet this group of
people that we became the state and we did sketch
comedy and in that comedy college of hanging out with
those guys in college, and then we went on to
(34:23):
do a show out you know, once we graduated, I
learned that I liked writing sketches and that I liked
writing in general, and so then I was And then
it was a survival thing. And it was also a
competitive thing because after the State sort of like broke
up or like stopped working, stop making money, I saw
(34:45):
that Tom and Ben came to this town and they
started writing, and David and Showalter were writing stuff. So
I was like, Oh, I'm going to write a big,
funny movie. And I wound up writing this little independent movie,
this dramedy about clam diggers on Long Island the seventies
in a dying community, and it became like this, but.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I like completely made up the group.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
The group motivated me that my competitive you know, the
group was very has always been competitive, but in a
positive way. We've pushed each other in a way, you know,
And so that pushed me into writing. And then I
was like, oh, yeah, I understand story structure. And I
got deeper into that and looked into that.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And ask him what the fan base should be called.
They want to know your opinion what the fan base
of Don't Be Alone with Jake Cogan's fans should be.
Sometimes I call them don't be a loners cognation Coganites, Uh, huh,
I don't know the loone bones. The loon bones, all right,
that's my Hey, they're loone bones. I'm gonna if I
(35:45):
can sell it. If a mug ever pops up with
the loan bones.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Alone bone, I'm going to give you. I'm working on it.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Let's give you something. Do you have a dream project
that never got made? Either a story that he couldn't
break or something the studios just wouldn't buy.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I think that I've worked on a lot of things
with David Wayne. I've worked on stuff with Joel Litrulio.
I've worked on stuff with mich Lean Black. I've worked
on stuff with my wife, Eric Oyama, who's an incredible writer,
and a lot of those things I wish got made.
It's hard to say one. David and I wrote this
script that just got done that we wrote a while
(36:22):
ago and we thought it was dead, and then we
did a table read at the San Francisco Comedy Festival
and people were laughing and you went over well, and
then all of a sudden like we were like, let's
try to get this done again. And it took, you know,
years and years and years for it to get done,
and then funding came out like like it was just
a surprise, but we got it done and it's terrific.
(36:45):
I'm gonna you want to come to a screening of it?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Of course? Okay, great, Yeah, I say yes, I'm busy
that night. That'd be weird. No, of course, that sounds
like fun.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I'd have to see it.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
What's your favorite type of humor to watch?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I like, uh, you know, I like uh, I like
I don't know, slapstick, and I like wordplay. I like
the Marx Brothers because it's both of those things. But
the thing that I've watched recently that I thought was
so fresh and cool and original was a movie called
Hundreds of Beavers. Yes, did you see that?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I did see that.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I loved it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And you know, that was like a throwback to like,
you know, Buster key right, silent silent movies and also
Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoons and.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Very much like a cartoon. It's it's mostly animated live figures,
but a lot of animation, no dialogue, very silly.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
I loved it, Yeah, I absolutely loved it, and I thought
it was like it was refreshing and fun and fantastic.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Now it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh my gosh, your tune that happens?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
A tune that happens.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
We can listener mail.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Now it's time for listener man. Dear Jay and guests,
I have a question about something that was brought up
on your latest podcast. You both me and my former
guests agreed that actors don't necessarily have to say every
word that's written in the script the way it's written.
That's acting. They get most of their words and then
(38:16):
they get the information across in the manner of the character.
This is not what I learned about acting, nor is
it how I practice acting, nor is it what I
expect when I go to the theater. I was taught
that it shows lack of respect, not just for the writer,
but indeed for the written word itself, and to deviate
from the script and performance is a mistake. Can you
please shed some light on the subject for me?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Sure? You want me to take sure? Yeah, it's a
case by case basis. Some shows that I a lot
of shows that I've been invited to or that I
created a wrote on and I invited other people into.
I encourage people to take the text and then make
it their own, open it up, use it as a
(38:58):
jumping off point, but still tell the story that was
on the page. And so sometimes you're encouraged to do that.
A lot of times I'm encouraged to do that in
a lot of things I do, and it adds freshness
and sometimes adds jokes to the to the story. I
(39:20):
just worked on a Shondaland show and it's written by
Paul Davies. And the script was incredible and the text
was incredible, and it was made very clear that don't
go away. And I but I asked before before we
started shooting. I said, normally when I'm hired, I get
I'm I'm encouraged to do little leeway right to to
(39:42):
kind of bend stuff and go off the script and
bring it back right. And I'm like, would you like
me to do that? Is that something you want? And
I was told, no, just do the text. And I
was like, Wow, that's freeing, that's wonderful, and that's and
that works for that show. And so it's a case
by case then so and and if you're doing a play,
of course, you in the play, you know, for the
(40:05):
most part, you know, you do you do the you
do the text. And if you're doing Aaron Sorkin, you're
doing the text right, but if you're doing like a
John Appatow movie, he wants you to, you know, improvise
and use the comic vessel or whatever the fucking what
you know, like.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
To whether it's the character, in other words, one of them.
And I agree wholeheartedly that it depends on situation by situation.
But like when I worked on Frasier, if thank you
very much, if David Hyde Pierce hadn't a suggestion to
do something, it was like, yes, please, God, yeah, yeah, fantastic.
If he said I'm not sure this is quite the
way Niles would say it, you go, well.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
My god, how would he say it?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Who who else knows now character better than David Hyde
Peerce you would know, and he'd be very shy about it,
like you wouldn't ever come and insist you should do
it this way. He would shyly ask, would you mind?
If I like, no, of course, please, I beg you
do it, make it your own, because I do believe
that characters, especially on the long term TV series, actors
(41:07):
know their character really well and start to know them
even better than the writers sometimes because they're having to
make sense of a lot of things seen by scene,
Why would my character do this? The stuff that's not
written in the text. They're creating stuff in their head
that we don't have access to, but they do. Now
they have ten episodes, twelve episodes, four years, five years
(41:29):
worth of what this character would do and what this
character wouldn't do, and so they.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Have a right and in him saying that a lot
of times, then you as writers go, oh, that's great
and throw this in there, or do a version to
say it. Here's another version of that joke that you
just came up with, or that phrasing that you just
came up with.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Any creative endeavor, it's a group effort and a lot
of people are coming together. And if they're creative and
they're interesting and they're vibing together, that's something to use. Right.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
But if you're doing Death of a Salesman, right, you're
not going to come in and start, you know, improvising
in the middle, right, Like you have to sort of
bring your essence and your character, your your version of
that character, you know, within the text.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Right. But there's a version of Death of the Salesman
where it could be pretty funny if people went off
book and started doing stuff like it's not what people
are generally speaking buying tickets for. But I think i'd
like to see that version too. I would say, it's
just me all right. Now it's time for a moment
of joy, a moment of joy. If I decided today
(42:40):
after we left here, I'm going to do the Ken
Marino joy.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Well, you know the beauty of so it goes back
a little bit. But like the band that I'm in
and singing yep brings me an enormous amount of joy,
and listening to music brings me an enormous amount of joy.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Are you judgmental about your scene when you hear it back?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Some I mean, much like my acting, I'll watch it
back and learn from it so I can get better,
which is a lot of people like I can't watch
my shit. I'd like to watch my shit so I
can get better. And I'm able to kind of go
technically like I'm past this stage and being like, oh
my god, I can't watch myself and I'm now at
(43:26):
the place where I'm like, well, this is what I
do and the only way to improve on it. Or
if I fucked up, or if I did something that
I didn't like or if they used to take I
didn't like right, then I know how to make sure
that it tread isn't happening. But to get back to
your question, the thing that brings me joy is singing
(43:47):
and music. And if you're in your car alone, you
can pull up any karaoke song you want on your
phone and you can sing along at the top of
your lungs drive around Los Angeles, which is sometimes just
this arduous like just track, like just right right, But
(44:08):
now you're singing your favorite songs, any song that you
grew up with. You can find it on YouTube and
you can sing along to it, sing along, sing to songs,
sing at the top of your lungs. It's cathartic, it's
it releases whatever in your body, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Good stuff. I think I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Just anybody who's like afraid of karaoke or doesn't want
to do karaoke, go rent a private room and sing karaoke.
It's one of the most wonderful things.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
What do you think it is that stops people from
doing karaoke?
Speaker 1 (44:39):
People don't want to sound bad or sing bad, or
they're self conscious, but they also don't want to hear
people who sing bad. But my feeling is when you
go sing karaoke in private, right, not in a like
a bar, as long as everybody's just committing and it's
and and singing to the best of their abilities, and
they're like enjoying it in the moment, then sound like whatever,
(45:01):
and and you can feel it, you can feel their
joy singing this song that they You.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Know, my friend we were at a rap party and
there was a karaoke machine and my friend said, hey,
let's do a duet and I said great, and he said, okay,
well I'll pick the song. And he picks a song
and I get off to the stage and then it's
American Pie. American Pie is the longest song to very
long on the face of the earth. And it's like
a thirteen minute song.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
There is certain karaoke etiquette that you should follow.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
It it is have It is the same melody over and
over and over again. So people were they saw people, Oh,
this is great, Steven j. You're gonna sing this, and
then I saw their faces drop.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
By the way, second or third verse.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
It's okay in a karaoke song if it's too long
to just be like because you have the mic, just
be like, and that's about it. I think we did it.
Let's keep on, let's go to the next song.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
I didn't have the wherewithal to think that, and then I.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Just did the whole did the whole song.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, all right, Well, Ken Marino, this has been a
fantastic conversation.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Thankk you for.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
It was not being alone.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Look, it was a real pleasure. I was thank you
for inviting me. I've really I mean, I know this
sounds weird. I've missed you and it's nice to see
you and spend a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
I've missed you too, and I've been I've enjoyed even
our conversations about planning to come here, like that's been fun.
So let's not be strangers. I'm going to come to
your premiere you're screening.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
And I ask you to come to one of the things.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
That's fantastic, and I'm a huge continue to be a
huge fan, and continue to be very excited about all
the things that are coming that you're going to be
acting in and and writing and singing in and all
those things, because it's fun to watch you have a
good life for us. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Oh thanks man, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And thank you for being here. This is my audience
is right in camera one. Thank you for being here.
Coke Bones, what was it cog and bones. It's called
a loan bones, Alone bones. Hey, thank you alone bones
for all being here. I want all the loone bones
to get together in real in real life, hang out
with somebody in real life so that you get a
(47:04):
good satisfaction and a lot of fun. And remember to
write to me at dB A w jk at gmail
dot com if you have any comments or criticisms or
compliments or anything else that begins with the C. Also
check me out on Jake Cogan shercouteries a fantastic I
have a substack Jake Cogan at substack I think it
is or j Cogan substack Ja Cogan adds up, I
(47:25):
have a substack. Find Jake Cogan for this show and
you you might like that and uh and whatever you do.
Have fun, all right, buy loan Bones, don't be alone
with jj Cogan
Strawhut Media. Hey, I'm Ken Marino and I'm on Don't
Be Alone with Jake Cogan.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Don't Be Alone with jj Cogan. Hi, and welcome to
Don't Be Alone with Jake Hogan. I'm so glad you
could be here. I am Jake Hogan and you are you,
and I am really excited because we have a great
show for you. Before we get to the show, I
got to encourage you to subscribe to the show at
(00:31):
YouTube or Spotify or wherever you listen to the show
and get the podcast. I really appreciate it. All the
subscriptions really matter and really help us. If you want
to email me at dbawjk at gmail dot com for
all your criticisms, compliments, and any kind of suggestion. Viewer
mail questions are also really appreciated at that address. Do
(00:52):
it when you can so we can have a conversation.
There's also one more thing. We've got a substack Jake
Cogan at Substack, it's going to be about the show,
and it's going to be a premium for free. You're
going to get extra content about Don't Be Along with
Jake Coogan, things that we couldn't even put in the show.
Will put on our substack. We'll also get other photographs
and other details that you couldn't get because we could
(01:15):
only do the show for so long. You know, it's
got to be under an hour, and there's always some
extra stuff. It could be fun anyway. It's good. I'm
trying to build a community out there somewhere so we
can continue the conversation even when it's not a Tuesday
and you're watching don't be Alone with Yet COVID. Today
we have a great show. Ken Marino fabulous actor, a
(01:37):
fabulous comedian, a fabulous writer, a director. He wrote Role Models,
one of my favorite movies. He was in the State,
a great sketch show. He was in a pilot I
did many years ago as a remake of the Courtship
of Vitty's Father, and he was fantastic. I loved working
with him. I love getting to know him, and it's
been a while since we've gotten together. So it'd be
(01:59):
nice union to see Ken and hear about what his
life is like now, what he's doing, and he's gonna
help me sort of figure out how to be more
positive with people, how to be more effervescent, How can
I be a Ken Marino type. Ken is full of joy,
full of happiness, and I'd like to be more happy
(02:20):
like Ken. Anyway, Ken is fantastic. He's really talented and adorable.
I mean he's handsome too, So you'll like it and
you'll like him. We'll be right back with Ken Marino
right after this. Don't be alone with j Ken. That
(02:41):
would officially welcome you to the talk show. Hi, hija,
I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I'm so happy to see you. I haven't seen you
in forever.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And you were one of the first people I met
in this town who I got to know. Like it
was the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Show that we were trying to do. A cast me right,
cast is not exactly the right word. Begged you to
be in I believe as.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I really went through a whole audition process, but I recall.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That you didn't. You were reluctant in the dition process,
and I was like, like, Ken, please do the show
like you're the guy. A little bit, I think you
were either either you're nervous or you just you just
come off with something you didn't want to do or
something this it seemed like you didn't want to play
a dad whatever. It was there was something that was
there was something about it. It was just like giving
(03:30):
you the ick.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, from what I remember, nothing gave me the ick
per se what what?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
What network? Was it for the w B?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I think that's the ick I think And I don't
actually don't even remember when we shot And was this
after I This might have been after I just did
two series for two series that got canceled. Maybe for NBC.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Could be I don't remember where it men behaving badly.
Can may have come after or before.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I'm not sure it came after, it came after that?
So four three, YEAHBC things. And I was like in
w B, I just didn't know what to expect. But
then I met you. Is my point is I met
you and you were like a light like you were
like like I was like, oh, I like this human.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Being were kindred spirits in many ways, this is what
yours seem to be very free spirit actor, fun like
the state was always like, Wow, they're fun, They're cool.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
We try to be. I mean, I try to have
fun in life.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No, but you do have fun in life, Like I'm
going to say that you have fun.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I try.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I see the actively the middle aged dad bands you do.
That's got to be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's a lot of fun. It's you know, it's a
little uh filling a fantasy that I've had in my
you know, we all have, which is like, hey, it'd
be fun to be in a band, And now I
get to be in a band.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right, And I assume I don't know whether it's profitable
or not. It doesn't really matter. I would imagine that
it's really fun, coffitable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It's a lot of fun. Yeah, and the audiences seem
to like it, and we have a good time doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So when yeah, I saw you guys in Sketch Frests
maybe a year ago or wherever, like some you guys
played and with you guys have a great time on
stage and you're having a good time, the audience has
a good time. All that's fantastic. But not everybody would
do it. Everybody has the fantasy of being in a band,
but not everybody would do it.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
If given the opportunity, or wouldn't be able to motivate
to create the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's not given the opportunity to create the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, I've been very lucky, and like you know, the
people just going back to the state being with people
who you know, continue to just try to stay active
and do stuff. And David Wayne, who I write a
number of things with and spend time with, you know,
(05:59):
started this whole thing. And then I sort of muscled
my way in and became the front man.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Over Well, some people become the singer because they can't
play an instrument. Is this what happened?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Well? Uh not, I did it because I just like singing.
I got very into karaoke with my wife early on,
and then so I knew all the songs.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Now, yeah, I've had I haven't had
David on the show, but I had Tom lynnon on
the show. He's he's a state guy. He is a
state guy, A great guy. Yeah, it's a great guy.
But you know the ethos Tom's ethos, which is like
that's just work, let's work on stuff anything. Is that
(06:38):
the state ethos?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I feel like that's what it became very quickly. Our
comedy college was the state Like we went to college.
We went college, and then the state became how I
learned about sketch and you know, timing and characters and
all that stuff because I didn't do any of that prior,
(07:00):
and we weren't an improv group. We wrote sketch so
we learned about writing.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Did any of them come out of improvisation or they
all just we sat and sat down write the sketches.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Not in the beginning. In the beginning, I mean like
there were some people who were like good and improvising something,
but we didn't work. We didn't create our sketches from
improv like say like groundling to do or something like that.
We we all wrote sketches and then we would bring
them in, pitch them, and then rehearse them like we
were doing a play because we were all or a
(07:32):
lot of us were at MoU for a theater, right
and a lot of us were you know, there for filmmaking,
and so for us, it was doing these having an
outlet for like many comedic plays.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Dangerous game, that game of everybody bringing in their sketches
and figuring out which ones we're going to do, because
that could be if the group wasn't cohesive, could be
very political.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It was very political, and there was a lot of
like you know, like you know, negotiating with people like
you know, I'll put you in this kit if you
vote for this kit to be in because we all
had a you know, a vote, Uh, we all had
a singular vote to kind of decide what what was
what we did. So yeah, it was very political. But
(08:17):
like all that aside, we were we we motivated each
other to be very creative and so when the group
stopped doing what it did, when we went off, we
still had that sort of muscle or that drive to
want to just keep creating stuff. However way we could,
(08:39):
you know, in a in a running gunway, in a
gorilla way, in a little independent movie way. Anyway we could.
And I think maybe that's what Tom was. I don't know.
I didn't I didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh, unbearable. He was unbearable. He's a lot Ken Marino
as a guest. He's the only guest I brited some don't.
I have one hundred shows under my belt, and you
were the first person to bring me some donuts, some donuts.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And here's the deal, like guys, I don't know where
your guys are.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
There's no guys.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And then I got you one.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I'm going to show this, which is the Simpsons donut.
This is a big pink Simpsons donut.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And I didn't know if you wanted it. But I
remember when we first met and we were walking through
San Francisco when we were Locations.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
County filming an opening segment.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
We're filming an opening segment, right, we were filming an
opening segment and we were hanging out in San Francisco
for that opening segment. And that's when you told me
you or that's when I discovered or it sank in
that you wrote for the Simpsons. Yes, and that, and
there is a character. And I could be wrong. This
is how I remember it, that you came up with
(09:56):
what's his name, the clown, us the clown and that
that and then I later learned that when when when
you're on a writing staff or when you write on
a show and you come up with a character and
that character comes back, that's that's like a that's a
that's a great thing. And also I think character pay monetarily.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It used to be. This is delicious. By the way,
thank you. My doctor has recommended I eat more donuts,
so that's good. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Like a great doctor.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I'm going to have only the piece of the donut
that I had, because you know, listen, I can't keep
this going if I just have donuts all the time.
I work out like eight hours a day.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And what's your regiment?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
What do you got? It's really mostly eating donuts, that's it. Yeah.
So I'm going to wait until after the show and
then I go back into the gym as the gym
just covered in donuts. Did you always think I'm going
to go to n y U and be an actor?
How did that? How did that show?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I wanted to be an actor from a very young age,
and I was lucky enough to have people throughout my uh,
you know teens. Uh, you know when I had doubt
about it, pushing me and saying no, no, no, you know,
stay with it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Who is encouraging you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
There was the the there was a teacher at my school,
this drama teacher. There was an acting guy I went to. Uh,
I went to like a you know, kids acting class.
I think it was called Arena Players something. And you
know whoever was teaching there, John monthlyone I think was
(11:33):
his name, not the bug early?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yes, very well, that's fantastic. I did too.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I loved it. Yeah, and I and I uh and
I was always chasing well, I mean, I'll tell you
a quick story. Uh, I remember exactly when I said, oh,
I want to be an actor, or I was chasing
the laugh at a very young age. I went to
this uh my sister and I won this camp two
(12:00):
weeks at the summer camp from our church, and and
we went and then the the you did a play
at the end, or every every age group did something
at the end some presentation. We did a play and
it was the Prodigal Son, and I played the prodigal son,
one of them who goes away and then comes back.
And the father's like, oh, okay, well he's my son's back.
(12:21):
Let's celebrate him. But him going away, he like, you know,
spending all his money on prostitutes and blah la lah
and all this stuff. And but we were doing at
a young age, so I was just I went away
and clowned around. And when I went away and clowned around,
the kids in the you know, audience were laughing right
(12:44):
at what I was doing. And so so I've been
chasing that sort of dragon ever since, right, or like
the laugh, I've been chasing that laugh since third grade?
Third grade?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Interesting, So what what is it about at attention? That
fun positive attention that like did you do sports? Did
you do anything.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I did sports. Yeah, yeah, so like you get.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Fun, positive attention through sports, you get.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I had people who wanted me to continue playing sports
like I in high school, I played basketball and I
was fine. You know, I was big and I was
I like to do the dirty work that nobody else
did because I couldn't. I couldn't shoot well.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So I got a lot of rebounds, muscle people on
the inside.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I got a lot of rebounds, but most of them
were my own. I shoot, and then I grab it again,
I shoot. So you look at the stat list, Oh,
Marino got twelve rebounds, eight of them were his own.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
That's still good. I guess.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I get.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I want to get if you miss, you want to
get your rebound.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Sure, I'm sure, but you don't want to do like
you don't want to go five times and then just
grab your rebound and finally miss and then they get it.
And anyway, the the the junior varsity coach would let
me leave to go to play rehearsal early or leave
to go to play rehearsal like late, but he would
let me. He would split it up. He would let
(14:02):
me split up, and then the varsity coach cornered me
in the locker room. He said, Mariana, do you want
to do play basketball this year? You want to do that?
And then he said, you know something that that insulting
to insulting to acting? And I said, you know what, I'll.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Do the acting right. And what did your parents do?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
My dad was a clamdigger when I was younger, and
then that kind of profession sort of died out, and
then he had a cessful business, and so he would
drive a pump truck around and clean people's cesspools. And
I would go to work with him from time to
time and do that. And my mother was a dog groomer.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
None of that sounds very show busy, No, no, okay.
Did you ever go into the city and watch go
see plays and that kind of stuff?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I sure did. My mother would take me into sea plays.
Once I was into acting. We would go into I
think she liked it too. We would go to t
kts and do the half price tickets on Wednesdays, so
we would play hooky from school and she would go
to Long Island Railroad and we would go and we
would see different plays and because and most times it
(15:11):
was musicals, because uh, I don't think my mom was
like into the heavy dramatic stuff. But if it was
like some sort of farce, we would go see that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Like I wouldn't take a nine year old to see
Iceman count thinks that's a fun thing, but you could go.
You can go see Annie.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We saw a lot of musicals and
then like you know, farces with doors and stuff like that,
whatever that was arsenic and old lace and stuff. I
remember seeing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That, that's fun. Don't be alone with you know. I
(15:58):
grew up out here, so I had different sense of
what show business was, and I saw play sometimes, but
there was movies and TV around.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I remember being on set with you when we were
shooting the Courtship Vettys saw the and there was like
one joke that you were like, this isn't working, this
isn't working. And then you called up somebody, yeah, your
dad or a friend of your dad or somebody who
work with You're like, we're having trouble with this thing,
and they threw out a joke and you're like, that's it,
and then you put it right in the show and
(16:26):
I was like, I was like, oh cool, he like
just knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
It can't be funny. No funny. People of course say
you were great in that show. That show should have
been a show. It's really weird that it wasn't. They
they asked us to make this show. They begged us
to make this show because somehow somebody owned the rights
to Courch with Vetti's father and said we were going
to build a night with this and family Fair and
some other They kind of wanted to retread shows, and
(16:51):
it said. My whole thing was, as long as it's
not really a retread, I'll take the title. Right. We
got to make it good and we got to make
it meaningful, get fun and whatever. And I think we
did that. I actually think we made it. We made
it emotionally viable and good and powerful. And we had
Josh was the Josh Hutchinson who became a big star too.
(17:12):
Was was our.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Sweet little boy. It played my son.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And there's a there's a heartbreaking lovely scene at the
end where I thought, okay, we've we we and it
didn't feel gratuitous.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Checked all the boxes right, It was fun, everything it
had it was heartfelt.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And then they didn't pick it up.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And it's like, wait, they didn't pick it up.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
No, No, they didn't. Have you been going to work?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I did know. I've just been waiting.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Oh my god. No, there's many years ago. That could
be twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Twenty years ago. Ye, well, I guess. Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And it should have been a show. It would have
been a great show.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I mean we I agree. I met Jamie Dembo for
the first time on that show. Yes, she was the
pizza delivery girl.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Love Jamie. She's been a guest on the show. And
her husband as Ross Bowie.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, one of the funniest men around.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
He's great. I just started listening to his podcast about
rock and roll records. He's got a record, Yes, because
I got nothing but time. That's the thing about me.
I got nothing times.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It we all have just time that time.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
What are we gonna do with it?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Jet I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I'm so glad that shows slow down because now I
have this time. I'm gonna get it in shape.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, you get in shape podcast. I'm in a band task. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You ever have guest singers come in?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, would you like to what do you like to sing?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I'll sing just about anything.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
In our last show we had, uh, Natalie Morales Drew
Tarvor and Richard Kine came and sang Richard, what did
Richard saying He's sang King of.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
The Road Tail All right, that's right. Yeah. So one
of the things about you and that this show is
about me solving my problems. And so here's the thing
about you. You and I were like grew up. I
think a little bit differently.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You seem like you seem like the guy I always
wanted to be. I will say this, yes, and then
I mean I could.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Be wrong, but just you know, my guess as you are, You've.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Got you have a largess of life, which I really like.
It seems to find largess for me, a joy and
in groups. I'm sure you have your sad moments, but
enjoy a joy in groups, kind of a funness in
groups that that seems great. I think in the world
(19:26):
of show business or whatever you're you're respected. You've written
role models, You've written movies that are fantastic. Role Model
is one of my favorite movies. Just a great movie.
Just I'd say people should see it, but I think
people have seen it. It's really really good. Uh. And
it again, it's one of those things that does check
(19:46):
all the boxes. It's funny, but it's also a motive
and it feels right and it's like, I know, it's great, so.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Not to break up the momentum of what you're saying.
But so the way that went is David and I.
So David came in and replaced a director, and then
he wanted to do a big rewrite of the script.
We did a big rewrite of the script with eight
(20:13):
weeks out, and so we didn't have time to kind
of like really think about what was going on. But
we went up and sort of blew up a lot
of the script and went in and did a just
every night we would just stay there until like twelve
at night, just like writing the script and coming up
(20:35):
with new stuff and keeping what was nice.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And that's a perfect way, I think if you had
to rewrite that movie, it's a perfect way to do
it because it has a kind of traditional structure to it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Right, right, but then we put our stink on exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Then each scene is its own original, fresh take on
the thing, and interesting characters that you don't expect, and
all that kind of stuff comes out of it, and
that's fantastic. Plus casting, I mean, like some of that
casting kids. It's fantastic, Yeah, like really special.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Look kid kid Bobby, who is incredible and Christopher Min's
Plas who is incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah yeah, really spectacular. Nothing overplayed, even though it's funny,
like nothing overplayed. It's like that's my favorite kind of movie.
It's like right in there, so anyway great so, but
my point is like from the outside, from my point
of view, and you're not going to be from your
point of view. I think I think you've got it
(21:29):
like a special sauce. It seems whenever I run into you,
you've got a good, happy attitude. Things are good, right,
you know, It's like life is good. Got these kids,
you love, this wife, this thing, this life. Life is good.
I want I want to be as anxiety not free,
(21:49):
but I just want to be more joyous in my life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
In that way, I think that I try to be
uh happy and positive and give love to other people
and let them know what I appreciate about them and
things I recognize, and I try to put out what
I you know, like I what you put out is
what you get. And I try to do that as
much as possible. I try to kind of live by that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
You all everybody has things that they want to do
that they're not being dead. Everybody meets rejection, like we
all have that. You're in a business of rejection, right,
So like there's a lot a lot of what we do,
even when we're great, is no, no, thank you, right
or get out of here.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Word's possible, which is fine. That's that's part of it.
That's okay, but you're in that's kind of the nature
of the business. But in the nature of life with
hang out with your peers and hang out with people.
I just think that they have a good flow.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well, I appreciate that, I really do, and I want
to take that in and thank you. I appreciate it,
thank you, But you know, inside I'm dying.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Okay, fair enough, I'm not bestowing anything. But so do
you do with that anxiety?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Because it doesn't I talked to my therapist about it.
I try to, you know, address it when it you know,
when it swells up, and uh, find something joyful to do,
or I try to spend time with people I enjoy
and I try to create. I try to keep moving
(23:24):
because when when when I'm just sitting there by myself stagnant,
that's you know, when it, Uh, you know kind of festers.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Do you fill up your days? Are you filling up
your days with activities?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Uh? When I fill up my days, I am most happy. Okay,
when I don't, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I tend to fill up my days with all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
The COVID and the strike has really kind of reset
and maybe my age at this point has reset eight
I was seventy nine, I'll be seventy fantastic. Something I
appreciate that has reset me in and not in a
great way, like it like it's harder to motivate and
(24:12):
figure out what to do. What I wound up doing
for a while during COVID was just when I had Twitter,
when Twitter exists, right, it existed, I just said, Hey,
anybody want to talk and DM me your phone number
and I'll call you. And so I was doing that
for a while. Wow, And I would call. You know
(24:36):
a lot of people would like send me their number
and I would call them and talk to them for
like a half an hour, and then I would move
on to the next person.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You feel after that conversation, like reconnected with humanity? Is that?
What would I.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Think I needed it? Like?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
There?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, when I called up people and I called
I spoke to people all over the country and a
lot of people from other countries. You know. They were
very nice and oh, thank you so much for calling.
And for me, I was like I I was. I
needed it. I needed it. I needed that connection.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I do that all the time. I call people that
just random numbers. What are you wearing?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And I don't it's a little different.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, they don't feel connective as connectives as i'd like.
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Did you ever find out what they were wearing?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yes? Oh, often it's not as sexy as you think.
Oh yeah, that's too bad.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Keep calling, Yeah, just keep going.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But what happens if you give that energy, that joy
out into the world and you're not getting it back.
For me, yeah, sitting in a room with somebody and
you're trying to have fun and they're not. They're not.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, that's easy. You just walk away.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, I don't think I have the balls to walk away,
like it's like, that's like I have to finish it
out well.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
But you can find joy and like like because it's
also being an actor, right, part of like finding uh
you know, croussing pads with people who you know curmudgeon,
curmudgeons and like assholes. Is like it's a character study, right,
So you're like, oh, I'm gonna just store that away.
That behavior is interesting to me in that behavior, So
(26:10):
that's also just fun, fun things to kind of in
the moment be like, all right, I'm not enjoying this,
but I mean, but I can use I'm gonna I'm
gonna use the thing that you're doing that I don't like.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
In a in front of account, you switch from giving
them joy to giving yourself joy and saying, Okay, well
I'm gonna have fun with this anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah. I think so when.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I'm trying to be funny or trying to be suave
or charming whatever version of charming I can muster, and
it hits a wall. It's like nothing's charming to that person, right, Oh, Like.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I'm do you ever call it out?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Uh? Sometimes sometimes like you, why is why.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Are we not connecting? Or why is this You don't
seem to be enjoying enjoying me? Is that should? I?
Sometimes auditions, Yeah, I've done that in auditions where I've
like read a scene, I'm like, it's right, I don't
need to read the next one, right, right, I don't
should I go?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
But no, but I don't see. I've had people and
auditions do that to me and they're wrong, Like, no,
you're doing fine, this is good. We're tired. We're tired
on this side of the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
it's not always the case that they're not enjoying it,
but I don't know, it's right. What do you tell
your daughter, like, and now, how old is she? She's fifteen, okay,
(27:24):
and she's she's seriously acting and.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
She just booked a Disney series.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh, fantastic, and she's it's.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Like shooting seventeen episodes and so what advice called Electric
Bloom and it is coming out on Disney in a
month Disney plus both.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
All right, fantastic? And what do you tell her? What
advice do you give?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Acting advice or stays sane?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
First, let's talk about acting, and let's talk about what
is to be an actor?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Well, it's it's very difficult for me as an actor
who's been doing it since nineteen eighty seven or whatever,
and professionally since ninety two.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
But you did play a Disney princess for years? Am
I wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I mean, I not not just just around the neighborhood.
I got under a lot of trouble and I do
need to dry clean that dress. It's very dirty. What
advice I'd like, I try to just give her, like
little things that help me in the moment. Right, So
(28:29):
there's I remember in NYU there was this guy Bobby
Lewis from the Group Theater, and there was this expression
as if for the first time, as if for the
first time, and like to break it, you know, to
break down. Like if I were giving an acting class,
like that would be like sort of the first thing
that I would tell every actor because like if you're
(28:51):
if you get into a cadence, as soon as you
get into a cadence of some line, it's going to
feel not real because you just saying it how you
practice it. But if you can bend it a little bit,
if you think about it musically right, and if you
just do it as if for the first time, you
(29:12):
can alter it and it will feel fresh, it will
feel like something new. So I try to talk about that,
like I try to say, just say it, is it
for the first time, Like make it just just bent,
just if you did it one way this time, do
it a different way, but not too different, but just
a little different. So it's citing to you.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Right, It's a very interesting thing. Great actors, of course,
don't anticipate, right though they've done it forty times. They
don't anticipate the next line. They don't anticipate the end
of the scene. And that's why I'm a bad actor
because you know, yes, I can't wait for the end.
It's like, so that's why I try. I try, and
I'm trying to become a better actor. Even now at
my late age, I'm not anticipating and playing in the
(29:51):
moment and all that kind of stuff. And it's it's
very hard.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well it's it's uh, you'll get there.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's my eighties.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
The other thing I said is like, you know, like
like reacting to something right, and like the camera, especially
when you're on the four camera show. Uh, they'll want
to cut to you if you're if you have like
a genuine.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Reaction shut down, I can react sometimes.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You know, actors when they're younger, they say their stuff
and then they wait for their next line. But like,
you know, instead of saying listen, right, I just say,
like just know that, you know, reaction shots are are
as valuable as the line sometimes or is there is,
it's the button to the line, So just be aware.
(30:38):
And you know, I think that way the way some
that that's an indirect way of saying like, you know, listen,
And I.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Also want to compliment this and this has nothing to
do with anything is when we were working on on
our show together, it was fun to play with you.
It was fun to say do it or can you
do it in a different way of things? And you
have a sense of play that's really fantastic. That's infectious.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Thank you. I appreciate that. I love acting, I love comedy,
and I love getting to do what I do. And
so when I get to work with people like yourself,
who I can sense like we're speaking the same language
and we're having a good time and we're all in
it to create the best thing possible, it is the best.
(31:30):
It's the best job to have. Wait, did I help
you not be alone yet?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yes? Well, first of all, we're not alone, so that's
number one. But also the by reflection, reflective joy is
solving my problem. It's like I need to I need
to put more out. Yeah, if I put more out,
I might get more back.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I mean I'm you know, a huge all.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's that's what you're saying, and so I'll do that.
I mean, it's not that I don't put it out.
Sometimes I could put more out. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
The other thing is I think it's important in it
just quickly just touch upon. This is to a lot
of people. Don't tell people if they appreciate them or
recognize something that they liked. They just go away and go, oh, man,
I like that, right, and you said something very nice
to me. But and I hope that you know how
(32:23):
I felt about you. I think I said it early
on you were light and then I really I was
very excited to see you again. But a lot of
times people just don't say those things right. And you
can see people's moods change when you just give them
a simple gift of recognizing something that you appreciated about them,
(32:46):
and it shifts a whole It shifts the whole dynamic
of your talk with them or the environment that you're in.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I've had to learn to say thank you to compliments
that have come my way instead of saying, oh, like that.
There's a there's a part of instinctually, a part that's
hard for me. Yeah, it is to say like is
to is to hear something that's a compliment and go
like yeah, thank you, Yeah, because we're all in our
shell of like wow, this person doesn't really see all
(33:14):
the problems and the issues. But having been a performer
all my life, when an audience member says I really
enjoyed the show, you don't say, oh, you're wrong, it
was terrible. We did this thing, Thank you very much.
You had a good time. Fantastic. Yeah. So that's been
I'm trying to get better at it. Maybe. I mean
by the time my eighties eighty.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
We got, we got forty five years before we read it, right?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Is question? Oh, we asked a question for both of you.
Did you set out to become a comedy writer or
did it just work out that way?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I did not. I set out to be an actor,
as per conversation before, and then I went to NU
and I was lucky enough to meet this group of
people that we became the state and we did sketch
comedy and in that comedy college of hanging out with
those guys in college, and then we went on to
(34:23):
do a show out you know, once we graduated, I
learned that I liked writing sketches and that I liked
writing in general, and so then I was And then
it was a survival thing. And it was also a
competitive thing because after the State sort of like broke
up or like stopped working, stop making money, I saw
(34:45):
that Tom and Ben came to this town and they
started writing, and David and Showalter were writing stuff. So
I was like, Oh, I'm going to write a big,
funny movie. And I wound up writing this little independent movie,
this dramedy about clam diggers on Long Island the seventies
in a dying community, and it became like this, but.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I like completely made up the group.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
The group motivated me that my competitive you know, the
group was very has always been competitive, but in a
positive way. We've pushed each other in a way, you know,
And so that pushed me into writing. And then I
was like, oh, yeah, I understand story structure. And I
got deeper into that and looked into that.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And ask him what the fan base should be called.
They want to know your opinion what the fan base
of Don't Be Alone with Jake Cogan's fans should be.
Sometimes I call them don't be a loners cognation Coganites, Uh, huh,
I don't know the loone bones. The loon bones, all right,
that's my Hey, they're loone bones. I'm gonna if I
(35:45):
can sell it. If a mug ever pops up with
the loan bones.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Alone bone, I'm going to give you. I'm working on it.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Let's give you something. Do you have a dream project
that never got made? Either a story that he couldn't
break or something the studios just wouldn't buy.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I think that I've worked on a lot of things
with David Wayne. I've worked on stuff with Joel Litrulio.
I've worked on stuff with mich Lean Black. I've worked
on stuff with my wife, Eric Oyama, who's an incredible writer,
and a lot of those things I wish got made.
It's hard to say one. David and I wrote this
script that just got done that we wrote a while
(36:22):
ago and we thought it was dead, and then we
did a table read at the San Francisco Comedy Festival
and people were laughing and you went over well, and
then all of a sudden like we were like, let's
try to get this done again. And it took, you know,
years and years and years for it to get done,
and then funding came out like like it was just
a surprise, but we got it done and it's terrific.
(36:45):
I'm gonna you want to come to a screening of it?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Of course? Okay, great, Yeah, I say yes, I'm busy
that night. That'd be weird. No, of course, that sounds
like fun.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I'd have to see it.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
What's your favorite type of humor to watch?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I like, uh, you know, I like uh, I like
I don't know, slapstick, and I like wordplay. I like
the Marx Brothers because it's both of those things. But
the thing that I've watched recently that I thought was
so fresh and cool and original was a movie called
Hundreds of Beavers. Yes, did you see that?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I did see that.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I loved it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And you know, that was like a throwback to like,
you know, Buster key right, silent silent movies and also
Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoons and.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Very much like a cartoon. It's it's mostly animated live figures,
but a lot of animation, no dialogue, very silly.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
I loved it, Yeah, I absolutely loved it, and I thought
it was like it was refreshing and fun and fantastic.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Now it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh my gosh, your tune that happens?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
A tune that happens.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
We can listener mail.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Now it's time for listener man. Dear Jay and guests,
I have a question about something that was brought up
on your latest podcast. You both me and my former
guests agreed that actors don't necessarily have to say every
word that's written in the script the way it's written.
That's acting. They get most of their words and then
(38:16):
they get the information across in the manner of the character.
This is not what I learned about acting, nor is
it how I practice acting, nor is it what I
expect when I go to the theater. I was taught
that it shows lack of respect, not just for the writer,
but indeed for the written word itself, and to deviate
from the script and performance is a mistake. Can you
please shed some light on the subject for me?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Sure? You want me to take sure? Yeah, it's a
case by case basis. Some shows that I a lot
of shows that I've been invited to or that I
created a wrote on and I invited other people into.
I encourage people to take the text and then make
it their own, open it up, use it as a
(38:58):
jumping off point, but still tell the story that was
on the page. And so sometimes you're encouraged to do that.
A lot of times I'm encouraged to do that in
a lot of things I do, and it adds freshness
and sometimes adds jokes to the to the story. I
(39:20):
just worked on a Shondaland show and it's written by
Paul Davies. And the script was incredible and the text
was incredible, and it was made very clear that don't
go away. And I but I asked before before we
started shooting. I said, normally when I'm hired, I get
I'm I'm encouraged to do little leeway right to to
(39:42):
kind of bend stuff and go off the script and
bring it back right. And I'm like, would you like
me to do that? Is that something you want? And
I was told, no, just do the text. And I
was like, Wow, that's freeing, that's wonderful, and that's and
that works for that show. And so it's a case
by case then so and and if you're doing a play,
of course, you in the play, you know, for the
(40:05):
most part, you know, you do you do the you
do the text. And if you're doing Aaron Sorkin, you're
doing the text right, but if you're doing like a
John Appatow movie, he wants you to, you know, improvise
and use the comic vessel or whatever the fucking what
you know, like.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
To whether it's the character, in other words, one of them.
And I agree wholeheartedly that it depends on situation by situation.
But like when I worked on Frasier, if thank you
very much, if David Hyde Pierce hadn't a suggestion to
do something, it was like, yes, please, God, yeah, yeah, fantastic.
If he said I'm not sure this is quite the
way Niles would say it, you go, well.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
My god, how would he say it?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Who who else knows now character better than David Hyde
Peerce you would know, and he'd be very shy about it,
like you wouldn't ever come and insist you should do
it this way. He would shyly ask, would you mind?
If I like, no, of course, please, I beg you
do it, make it your own, because I do believe
that characters, especially on the long term TV series, actors
(41:07):
know their character really well and start to know them
even better than the writers sometimes because they're having to
make sense of a lot of things seen by scene,
Why would my character do this? The stuff that's not
written in the text. They're creating stuff in their head
that we don't have access to, but they do. Now
they have ten episodes, twelve episodes, four years, five years
(41:29):
worth of what this character would do and what this
character wouldn't do, and so they.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Have a right and in him saying that a lot
of times, then you as writers go, oh, that's great
and throw this in there, or do a version to
say it. Here's another version of that joke that you
just came up with, or that phrasing that you just
came up with.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Any creative endeavor, it's a group effort and a lot
of people are coming together. And if they're creative and
they're interesting and they're vibing together, that's something to use. Right.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
But if you're doing Death of a Salesman, right, you're
not going to come in and start, you know, improvising
in the middle, right, Like you have to sort of
bring your essence and your character, your your version of
that character, you know, within the text.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Right. But there's a version of Death of the Salesman
where it could be pretty funny if people went off
book and started doing stuff like it's not what people
are generally speaking buying tickets for. But I think i'd
like to see that version too. I would say, it's
just me all right. Now it's time for a moment
of joy, a moment of joy. If I decided today
(42:40):
after we left here, I'm going to do the Ken
Marino joy.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Well, you know the beauty of so it goes back
a little bit. But like the band that I'm in
and singing yep brings me an enormous amount of joy,
and listening to music brings me an enormous amount of joy.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Are you judgmental about your scene when you hear it back?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Some I mean, much like my acting, I'll watch it
back and learn from it so I can get better,
which is a lot of people like I can't watch
my shit. I'd like to watch my shit so I
can get better. And I'm able to kind of go
technically like I'm past this stage and being like, oh
my god, I can't watch myself and I'm now at
(43:26):
the place where I'm like, well, this is what I
do and the only way to improve on it. Or
if I fucked up, or if I did something that
I didn't like or if they used to take I
didn't like right, then I know how to make sure
that it tread isn't happening. But to get back to
your question, the thing that brings me joy is singing
(43:47):
and music. And if you're in your car alone, you
can pull up any karaoke song you want on your
phone and you can sing along at the top of
your lungs drive around Los Angeles, which is sometimes just
this arduous like just track, like just right right, But
(44:08):
now you're singing your favorite songs, any song that you
grew up with. You can find it on YouTube and
you can sing along to it, sing along, sing to songs,
sing at the top of your lungs. It's cathartic, it's
it releases whatever in your body, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Good stuff. I think I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Just anybody who's like afraid of karaoke or doesn't want
to do karaoke, go rent a private room and sing karaoke.
It's one of the most wonderful things.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
What do you think it is that stops people from
doing karaoke?
Speaker 1 (44:39):
People don't want to sound bad or sing bad, or
they're self conscious, but they also don't want to hear
people who sing bad. But my feeling is when you
go sing karaoke in private, right, not in a like
a bar, as long as everybody's just committing and it's
and and singing to the best of their abilities, and
they're like enjoying it in the moment, then sound like whatever,
(45:01):
and and you can feel it, you can feel their
joy singing this song that they You.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Know, my friend we were at a rap party and
there was a karaoke machine and my friend said, hey,
let's do a duet and I said great, and he said, okay,
well I'll pick the song. And he picks a song
and I get off to the stage and then it's
American Pie. American Pie is the longest song to very
long on the face of the earth. And it's like
a thirteen minute song.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
There is certain karaoke etiquette that you should follow.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
It it is have It is the same melody over and
over and over again. So people were they saw people, Oh,
this is great, Steven j. You're gonna sing this, and
then I saw their faces drop.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
By the way, second or third verse.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
It's okay in a karaoke song if it's too long
to just be like because you have the mic, just
be like, and that's about it. I think we did it.
Let's keep on, let's go to the next song.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
I didn't have the wherewithal to think that, and then I.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Just did the whole did the whole song.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, all right, Well, Ken Marino, this has been a
fantastic conversation.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Thankk you for.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
It was not being alone.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Look, it was a real pleasure. I was thank you
for inviting me. I've really I mean, I know this
sounds weird. I've missed you and it's nice to see
you and spend a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
I've missed you too, and I've been I've enjoyed even
our conversations about planning to come here, like that's been fun.
So let's not be strangers. I'm going to come to
your premiere you're screening.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
And I ask you to come to one of the things.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
That's fantastic, and I'm a huge continue to be a
huge fan, and continue to be very excited about all
the things that are coming that you're going to be
acting in and and writing and singing in and all
those things, because it's fun to watch you have a
good life for us. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Oh thanks man, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And thank you for being here. This is my audience
is right in camera one. Thank you for being here.
Coke Bones, what was it cog and bones. It's called
a loan bones, Alone bones. Hey, thank you alone bones
for all being here. I want all the loone bones
to get together in real in real life, hang out
with somebody in real life so that you get a
(47:04):
good satisfaction and a lot of fun. And remember to
write to me at dB A w jk at gmail
dot com if you have any comments or criticisms or
compliments or anything else that begins with the C. Also
check me out on Jake Cogan shercouteries a fantastic I
have a substack Jake Cogan at substack I think it
is or j Cogan substack Ja Cogan adds up, I
(47:25):
have a substack. Find Jake Cogan for this show and
you you might like that and uh and whatever you do.
Have fun, all right, buy loan Bones, don't be alone
with jj Cogan
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