NICK OFFERMAN: Actor, Woodworker, Ukulelist

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nick Offerman, Hello, how are you, sir? Welcome to the
Vinnie Penn Project.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thank you very kindly, and so far, so good. I've
had enough coffee.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Where are you at right now?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Neck?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Do you mind? My Is that invasive? Is that intrusive?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Not at all? I live an open life and I'm
in a hotel room in Minneapolis, kicking off my book
tour today in Minneapolis.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, and it's a beauty too, little Woodchucks. I want
to talk about that. The reason I ask is we're
getting you here on Friday night, college street music Hall,
RJ Julia bringing you in, and they're just a gem
here on the shoreline. I actually have a Nick Offerman
RJ Julia's story I want to tell you about too,
from twenty eighteen. But I started, I started kidding myself

(00:47):
into believing with that happening on Friday and you're old
your colleague hosting Saturday Night Live on Saturday Night, that
you were going to pop up Saturday Night. I thought
we were going to see a little Parks and Rack,
maybe a revisiting on Saturday Night with Amy Poehler hosting.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Boy, that would have been fun. Yeah, I spent the
evening tearfully sitting by my phone. But Lauren Michaels apparently
lost my number.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, yeah, I think that that would have been. It
was ripe. She had Plaza, Aubrey Plaza. She she shows
up for everything Amy does, but not Nack, not Ron Swanson.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
But what an incredible job Amy did. I that. Yeah,
it was astonished. Yeah, she must she must be using
with all due respect to her health. We're in our
fifties now. Yeah, And I was like, are you how
do you? How are you? Were you running in circles
at any time of day?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah? She is high energy and it was it just
wound up being when she mentioned too that it was
fifty years ago that exact night that the first episode aired,
I thought, awesome, there's going to be some huge people
popping up and proximity and all that. I thought, my
man Nick Afferman could be popping up. There's a lot.
I'd love to talk to you about that episode of
the Last of Us. Maybe one of the best episodes

(02:06):
of television. I think it could wind up on lists
like ten best episodes of Television fifty years from now.
Just yeah, I was just extraordinary. Watch that with my son.
I want to talk to about Little Woodchuck's the book
and as it pertains to my son in a second too.
But I just really quickly wanted to acknowledge. You know,

(02:26):
there's a slew of credits obviously when it comes to
Nick Offerman. But on one summer night in twenty eighteen,
I took my then teenage daughter to the RJ. Julia
book Store and we did some you know, we like
to eat the little cafe there this now there's an
art house theater or across the street, and we were
going to see a movie about a father and a

(02:48):
daughter called Heartbeat Loud. And it was Yeah, it's one
of the fondest memories I have as a dad, is
that night.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm so grateful. I mean that, you know, in indie movies,
independent films, there are so many great films and we're
just it's a it's an embarrassment of riches these days,
because filmmaking equipment has become so affordable that people can
actually make a feature film on their iPhones. And so

(03:20):
a film like that, which is so special from this
great filmmaker named Brett Hayley came through and it you know,
people saw it, but it doesn't it doesn't splash through
to like a big theatrical release, but I'm so grateful
that that people saw it and they really love it.
The incredible Kersey Clemens plays my daughter.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
She was so great. Yeah, yeah, you guys had a
great chemistry. It was. It was really one of those
and everything you look for in an art house movie,
in an indie movie, you know, a pleasant surprise. It
was a pleasant surprise.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know, well, I appreciate it. It's yeah, it's that
movie is a great love delivery system.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah and yeah, and just that night too. I have
a photo from that night because I actually had a
book out at the time and they had it out
like kind of prominently at RJ. Julius. So somebody took
a photo of me and my then tiny little teenage
store and now she's a twenty two year old college graduate.
And I will never forget that night. We kept our

(04:21):
ticket stubs from Hearts Beat Loud. So, I mean, you're
a big part of our life. Is that's it? At
the end, You're a big part of a lot of
people's lives. I would imagine at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
That's a great gift about what I do, you know,
I mean, there are people all over the world, whether
it's in a little theater or writing in a local paper,
or you know, winning the lottery and ending up on
something like Parson Recreation, where ultimately why I get into
this business is to try and deliver a little bit
of medicine with what I write and what I put

(04:56):
out as a performer.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, well, and what you write, that's that's the perfect
segue to talk about Little Woodchucks. Now, I gotta be
honest and again, Rob with Nick Offerman. This is a
beautiful book. Offerman Wood Shops, Guide to Tools and Tom Fullery.
And you're not going to be alone right when you
bring this to the stage of the College Street Music
hallity you'll be with Lee Buchanan, I would imagine, and

(05:18):
I hear there's like you break into song too. You
gotta tell me what people can expect here.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, our show is so much fun. Lee is coming
with me. She ran my wood shop for ten years
and she has two little boys, so she's she's the
whole laboratory for the book because it's it's about making
things with and four kids, but it's making things as
a family. So we come on stage, we talk about
the book. We talk about why we wrote it, and

(05:46):
then Lee is actually gonna make some stuff on stage
while I play some songs on the guitar and ukulele
that I made. There's a cartoon that I show. There's
a slow I had show. There's all kinds of there
is both tools and tom foolery festooned across the evening.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I love it, and Evan atle it was lost on
me and I keep saying, what a big fan I am, Like,
this is something you've been doing for a couple of
years now. It's like a side gig. You've got another
there's a series tied to this where you You're like,
I was trying to think tool time. You remember the
old Tim Allen tools. You got a little show.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, Well that's that's their their Hollywood tool users. They
pretend to be to know about tools, you know. But
I had a show. I had a show with Amy
Poehler for three seasons called Making It, where we were
the host. It was like the British Baking Show but
for for crafters and makers. But I have a wood

(06:51):
shop in Los Angeles that before I ever got my
big break as a as an actor, I would build
decks and furniture for people to make my living. So
I come by it honest. That was my first waitress gig. Yeah,
and it's a It's a huge part of my life.
Even though now I'm doing well, I still love making

(07:12):
things and encouraging other people to make things. That that's
the impetus for this book is like the more we
lean on. You know, technology is incredible and it does
a hell of a lot of good, but it also
can make us really lazy and soft, and we forget
how to how to drive our machinery. And I don't
want that to happen to us. I want us to

(07:33):
retain our independence so that we'll be good citizens. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
So, like do you just loathe the site of an Ikea?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Is?

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Does Ikea represent everything that Nick Offerman is opposed to?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
In some ways? Yeah? I mean in some ways they're
They're a better company. They make a better product than
a lot of these catalog companies that are like factory furniture.
It's really cute and in three years it falls apart
and goes to the landfill. That's like little Woodchucks. Is
the anti screed for that.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, I think. And it's a great book. For a
father with a son or a daughter a mother, and
you know, I shouldn't be sexist here, but I got
a book similar to this when my son was a
little bit younger for different projects that I wanted to
tackle with him. And one came along one day, Nick,
I wanted to get your take on this because he

(08:31):
I got him the tools. He's now eighteen years old. Now,
this is when he was significantly younger. I said, this
is the project we're going to do when I get
home tomorrow from work doing morning radio. By the time
I got home, he had built it, and I said,
how did you do this whole? Yeah? Like one, you
robbed me of a memory. I'm obviously a sentimental I did.

(08:53):
I gave him a hard time, igo you robbed I
was looking forward to it, you know. And then he's
a spinmaster because he's like, I just wanted to make
you proud. He knew what he was doing. And I'm like,
you did. You did a great job. I'm like, but
how did you do it? And he's like, well, you
got me all the tools and he said, and I
don't know how you feel about this, And he's like,
and when I got stuck because he does have the

(09:14):
eye like he can look probably no different than you.
Like it eludes me a little, like he could look
at a piece of wood, couple of screens and he'll
see something. It'll start to take shape in his head.
But he used a little tool called YouTube, And I
wonder how you felt about that. Yeah, I don't like that.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean, I you know, I mean, first of all,
I'd love to get a cz from your son. It
sounds like I should hire him immediately. Yeah, but it's
but you know, when I taught myself wouldworking. It was
before the internet kind of took over the world, and
so I had to use magazines and books, and when

(09:53):
I could, I would get to like a share making
class or you know, there's nothing will ever replace in
person tutelage, like whether it's it's your parents or a
teacher or a coach, just having somebody there who knows,
you know, to watch your swing and correct your stance
in the batter's box. There's no there's no YouTube video

(10:13):
that's going to be better than that. But if you
don't have a coach there, it's incredible now what you
can get off of YouTube, I mean, it really is
a wonderful equalizer across the world where you know before
that you know now I can be anywhere that I
can get copper pipe and solder, and I can plumb
myself a shower using a couple of YouTube videos and

(10:36):
probably a couple of mistakes, but eventually you figure it
out with human ingenuity. So all of these things, you know,
it's a nuanced conversation, like you can use them for bad.
You can. You can do a lot of damage with
with the missteps or with wrong YouTube information. But ultimately,

(10:58):
I think it's good for us to know how things
are put together. And if you have to turn to YouTube,
there are worse places to go.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, you don't think it interferes with the actual learning,
because my thought was, I don't know that you necessarily.
He's got the eye. Like I said, he could go
from the beginning to the end pretty much on his own.
It was amazing to watch, especially when he was very small,
when you would give those basic little Yeah. I would
watch him at like one two years old, you know,

(11:31):
I'm trying to remember now, and he would just sit
in the center of that room and he would, you know,
figure it out on his own. I remember him with
a remote control car. He couldn't get it to leave
one room to the other because of the momentum it
was hitting a little a little piece of wood there.
So I watched him, at like two years old, realize,

(11:54):
if I just set it up from here, it'll have
enough momentum to power over that get into the And
I loved watching his brain work in that way and
figure it out on his own. So I don't know
if YouTube, Yeah, it's magical. And I didn't know if
YouTube like that's a shortcut. Man, I don't know if
YouTube is the enemy too. That's why I wanted to ask.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
You, Well, you know, I think all of these information
streams have you know, have friends and enemies, and it's
part of the human experience now for all of us
to discern together and even your son, in the same
way that his instincts tell him where to back up
the car to, you will also I think I think
we can also trust his brain to be like, oh no,

(12:36):
this guy. You know, we all learn one way or
another that if somebody says, here's a time saving device,
you know, for forty nine to ninety nine, I can
make you can make your chest of drawers so much faster.
We all learn that. That's bs we learn, you know,
when people are trying to make a buck or when
they're actually trying to help us learn. And I'm glad
you said that about not dads and sons, but also

(12:59):
moms and daughters, because Lee, who co wrote this book
with me, you know, she ran my shop like I
do a song about how she built everything, and I
slapped my name on it, like and one of the
I grew up with two sisters and a brother and
a great mom and dad. It was it was like
little house on the prairie. It's a great Mexican.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Where did you land? Nick? Real quick? I was the youngest.
I had a brother and two sisters. I'm the youngest.
Where did you land?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I'm it went girl me girl boy? Okay, So I'm
the second, but the oldest son. So I was. You know,
we come from farm folk. So I was taught to
like drive the equipment and split the wood. But but
the thing is all of us were taught by mom
and dad. Whether we were in the kitchen or the
garden or the field, everybody would be taught everything. And

(13:50):
the fun thing is it doesn't matter your gender, doesn't matter.
You're gonna find one kid is going to be amazing
with the tools. One kid is going to be with
the tape measure, but maybe not the hammer. And that's
that's one of my favorite things about the book is
that it encourages everybody to make stuff together because you'll
make mistakes, you'll laugh about stuff. But at the end

(14:13):
of it there are projects. Some of them are really easy,
like a box kite that's made of really some dowels
and some wine corks and some paper and glue. It's
so much fun. It's wild how what a great flying
kite you can make with these simple ingredients. And so
when we do this at the shop or I do

(14:33):
it with my family, it's a blast. And of course
there's always you know, one or two of the kids
they are like, man, this sucks. I'd rather go read
a book, or you know, everybody has their own thing.
But I love I love putting everybody in the arena.
And you're always surprised at like, oh, I didn't expect
young Julia to be the field goal right now here

(14:57):
we are.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
And then you feel bad that you like, kind of
of what our unexpected. You know, we're taken by surprise,
but I.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
For sure you know.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
But I think Little Woodchucks is just a beauty of
a book, and the show sounds wild.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
What I'm really interested in is seeing this ukulele that
you made too. Would you consider yourself like a survival
You bring up the last of us, damn, and you
got an Emmy for that too. You could you would
do all right if the zombies were upon us, right,
I mean it sounds like you're a survivalist.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
I mean I wouldn't go that far. I would do okay.
I mean, first and foremost, I can build a boat
out of wood with no electricity, So that's and I
can so I can get us across the water. But
somebody like Bill, you know, I'm so lucky to get
that part. And it was because they needed a guy

(15:53):
who I wrote a joke about it. They needed a
guy who could use a shovel, and there are only
three of us in Hollywood. Uh, Harrison Ford passed and
Jane Lynch was not available. But so, I mean, I've
got the tool skills and I have some basic knowledge,
but I have, like you know, a survivalist like Bill

(16:14):
or a proper prepper. I I would I would seek
those guys out and say hey man, I can use tools.
Can you please put me to work because they've done
a lot more homework than I have.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, but I mean putting together you know, building your
own ukulele. You got to have the air too, So
obviously you're you're a musician as well, right, I mean
you've got to listen to those streams.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
That may be a generous description once once you hear
my performance. Yeah, it's it's the important thing with my
quote unquote music is that it's a it's a very
successful joke delivery system.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah. Well, I mean you're you're one of the best
we've got. Little Woodchucks is an ambitious project. An evening
with Nick Offerman for this coming Friday College Street Music Hall,
brought to you by R J Julia. It's just I've
been looking forward to this conversation all weekend. I mean,
I could drop a million other references, but you know,
all the work that you've done, Nick Offerman, a blast

(17:13):
having you on, and hopefully we'll get to say hello
on Friday night too. I'll be there with my guy,
the guy who robbed me of that precious memory.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, I will look forward to shaking both of your
hands I really appreciate this generosity. Thank you sir,