January 27, 2025 • 49 mins
Producer and writer Brandon Gardner joins Emily and Haley to discuss his Peacock series ‘In The Know,’ what lie killed his dreams to be an architect, and his creative partnership with Zach Woods. Emily knows what Brandon did 463 weeks ago, Haley praises Brandon’s beer pong skills, Brandon reveals the secret to improv, and we fail to understand Nicole Kidman's wigs. So put your pants back on, grab your snowboard, and schedule some structured socialization while you listen to Episode 18 of ‘How To Make It With Emily & Haley.’
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Emily and I'm Hayley. After meeting online, we
became international best friends who bonded over how hard it
is to find success in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Join us and our celebrity co authors as they help
us write the book on how to make it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And, more importantly, uncover what making it even means.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know, saying we met online sounds a lot sexier
than it actually is.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Emily, you don't think it's clear we met on a
networking site?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
No, I think it sounds very much like I swiped
right on you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Would you like to meet a British person online site?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We're going to have to do this again now, aren't we. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hi, my name is Brandon Gardner and I wanted to
be an architect when I grew up.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Like we always love when it's not the thing that
you ended up doing?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oh yeah, is it often?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's I'd say more often than yeah, No, I know,
I'd say it's, well, it's been a lot recently, and
then we're kind of like, oh, okay, so you did that, and.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is it more actors who knew they wanted to be
actors as children, or more writers or more other.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Things I would say actors, Yeah, I would too, though,
tim through is that curveball of that you wanted to
be a wizard.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
One of our actors said he wanted to be a
magician who exclusively worked in the mountains.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh yeah, my bad, not a wizard.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, it's just a magician.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, it's always fun to get
to figure out where your dream died and what happened
and why where did it go?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
So for me, it's funny. I was thinking about it
before even saying that I wanted to be an archae
even as a young boy, was in some way an
attempt to be somewhat practical where I love to draw
and my mom would be like, well, it's really hard
to ever have a job through art, and so I
was like, oh, I guess I like to draw buildings.
(02:16):
Maybe I could be an architect. And then what happened
is that at a certain age I can't remember I
was pretty young, people are like, well, you gotta love
math if you want to be an architect, because it's
so much math, and I'm like, I don't love math.
And then the horrible thing is that in my adult
life I've met so many architects, and they all say
the same thing, which is like there's no math, like
(02:37):
there's other there's either engineers do the math for you,
or there's computer programs that do the math for you. You
don't need to like math to be an architect.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That is piss park careers advice that you received.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, so I could have could have gotten down a
different path. But also when I meet architects, almost all
of them sort of remind me that like most architecture
is like designing car parks. They're like, it's not what
I set out to do. It's like very functional, boring things.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. I was going to say, I know a couple
of quite sad architects, like I hope you're not listening.
They're not happy with what they do, and they would
rather be doing what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Maybe, yeah we could switch for a day.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Have a happy little switch around. Yeah, it's like a
really bad So what's that freaky Friday?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Thanky Friday? Yeah? I watched that pretty recently. I have
a five year old and we've showed it both versions
of the Jodie Foster version and the what's her name
Lindsay Lullyan.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Version, which was the preferred.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
She liked the more up to date one. Yeah, the
Lindsay Lohan one, which is like weirder, the newer one
with Jamie Lee Curtis plays the mom. They when the
daughter is inhabiting the mother's body. There's like a storyline
of her sort of flirting with a teenage boy that
they get way more into in the more recent one.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, that's an age.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
My mom hadn't rewatched the movie she took me to
in the early two thousands. So we did like a
we're doing a Lindsay Lohan catalog.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh cool.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So we've done Herbie Fully Loaded and Confessions with Teenage
Drama Queen, which is so unrealistically iconic. And then we
did Freaky Friday, and yeah, the stuff I always say
to my mom, like when it's a kid's movie, I'm like,
you just gotta like just let everything go. It's not
gonna make sense, it's not supposed to make sense. And
then we get to the Chad Michael Murray park Yeah,
(04:32):
and my mom was like, come on, come on, no,
come on, because they're like almost kissing in a cafe. Yeah,
and she's like and as like the when I was
a kid, I guess I was okay with it, but
now I'm like, wait, Chad, that's illegal.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
And it's issues. It doesn't not make sense. Like the
logic of like, well, her thirteen year old daughter is
in her body, that is how she would behave it
does make sense, it's just not what you would expect
from a Disney movie.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And then the argument of like, it's the it's the
Twilight argument, it's the Edward Bella Twilight because isn't Edward
like a million years old?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And what's the argument?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And Bella is like sixteen.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And so they say it's okay because he's in the
body of a teenager or would they.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Say no, no, no, People are like, wait, isn't that weird?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Right, wow, we've gotten so far off architect But I'm
really glad Segway segwayeg Well, the segue would have to
be what how did you get from architect unless you
guys were talking about that when my Mike, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Could you not hear us either?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh god no, no, there was no segue.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Okay, so how did I get there?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That's you have that skill?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I think I had. So there was the architecture plan, which,
as I said before was like in itself, almost an
attempt to be practical. And then when I found out
you needed to like math, I didn't know of that
many different careers as a kid, and so I then
decided it's like, well, I guess I will be a lawyer.
And the main reason for that, I think is that
(06:11):
one of my favorite uncles, who was funny and cool
to me, was a lawyer. And I liked like reading
and writing much more than I like math. So I
was like, maybe that'll be it for me. And that
stayed through my freshman year of college, where I was
pre law, and then a big shift for that was
that I was in the car once with that uncle
(06:32):
and he was like, why would you want to be
a lawyer. It's like basically, he's like, I hate being
a lawyer. You should be anything other than a lawyer.
And then I switched. And then I had started doing
improv in college, and I changed my major to theater
and then moved to New York to do UCB and
that was what set me out on this course.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Wow, so I have to be really careful because my
nephew is, you know, almost two and a half. So
I got to be really careful about what I say
about careers, except I would urge him not to want
to be an entertainment.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah. I would probably argue that anything else. My daughters.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah yeah. We talked to an actor who is a
four year old, and he was like, she is not
doing this, Brandon. We move into a section where we
tell you two slightly surprising facts we found out about
(07:30):
you randomly on the internet.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Oh interesting, okay, nice stalking.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It's the stalking.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, I'm always curious how stokable I am, and I
probably have enough of a digital footprint that there's there's
info out there.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I will say, normally I'll go to the person's
Instagram and I'll just look for something. But I had
I went all the way back to your first post,
and I had such a fun time.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh yeah, I was much looser in the beginning. I
think I was just like, I'll just post whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But that's what Instagram was. I like, remember I had
it for the first time, like in college, and I
bought a bracelet and I was like I bought this
break Like, yeah, it just was whatever. I enjoyed. You're
posting about the extra leg room on your flight and
stuff like that. And then I also noticed this isn't
my fact yet, but I also noticed that there were
(08:21):
quite a few posts where you weren't talking to yourself,
but whoever had commented certain things on certain posts must
have deleted their account, because yeah, there's responses to no one.
So you'll post a picture like a group photo, and
then you'll be like, I'm in the middle, right underneath.
(08:43):
So that was fun. But my fact ended up being
that while you are a basketball enthusiast, you are not
the Arizona State basketball player Brandon Gardner.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
No, but he does. There's like I have like a
Google alert for my name, and he is. He is,
I think, like the prime candidate to become the most
the most well known Brandon Gardner, if he isn't already.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've learned a lot about him. He recently transferred from
USC to Arizona State. He's six foot eight. Yeah, he's
from Waynesboro, Georgia. Also, a surprising number of brand and
Gardners have died recently, so watch out.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I get those too, I I because of the Google alert,
so many die and so many commit crimes, some horrible,
some horrible.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh yeah, and then you're not the podcast Backyard gardeners.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
No, there's also a jim Bro called Brandon Gardner who's Yeah,
he's a big deal on Instagram. Apparently he just lifts things.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Okay, I haven't even heard of him. I got to
check that out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I feel like i've I've just like really dissed the
lifting community. He doesn't just lift things. I'm sure there's
light loads to it, and yeah, but he's on a
lot of podcasts.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
And when you say he lifts things, it's not just
like him and a gym lifting weights. His thing is
that he lifts like unconventional things like I love to
picnic table up or something.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, I think it's just a
conventional things.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Guy, you're the expert.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think he's a yeah. Yeah, he seems pretty legit
in the weightlifting world. But I'd love it if he
lifted up piano.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, I would do.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
If I could do that'd send him a message. We'll
get along.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
My slightly surprising fact off of the internet is you
wore a snowboard playing beer pong once. It was a
miller like snowboard.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yes, and I never used it. So when I lived
in New York, there's a short period where I was
working with this organization called Story Pirates. Have you ever
heard of that? Either view?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Isn't that a podcast?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
They have a podcast, So they're like great, great people.
So in my daughter and I listened to the podcast
in our car. But so the concept of the group
is they take stories written by children and they tournament
two sketches and some of them have music. And in
New York you would go to public schools and sort
of perform these shows for them, and so I was
doing that and that was very fun. And there was
(11:20):
a guy I knew from that who I became friends with.
And there was a bar in New York in the
West Village called Wicked Willies, which I assume is still there,
but very much like a sort of college vibe bar,
and they would have these beer pong tournaments and he
would I got, and I think they'd be Monday nights,
and at that time of my life I could go
Monday nights and enter these beer pong tournaments. And we
(11:44):
won enough that we were in a tournament of champions
and in that we came in second place, and the
second place prize where these Miller lite snowboard in like
first place was like a thousand dollars. It was something
that would have been like so helpful for me time,
and instead I got a snowboard, which I never used.
It also didn't come with I think what you would
(12:04):
call the bindings or whatever. It was just the board.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Oh is that what you put your feet on?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, so so I didn't. I just had it under
a couch for for a long time. And I don't
think I even sold it. I don't think I did
anything with it, or is it. I think I may
have left it when I moved from from New York.
It might still be in that apartment or that or
whoever took it over or got rid of it.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
From your Instagram, I know that that was four hundred
and fifty three weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Oh wow, that's very specifically crap.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The way they keep time on Instagram is week and
then I was likely years. Is that it's about eight
year little over eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, I think, yeah, it was January of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think, is my how did you guess i'd good
at beapong playing it?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well? So to I guess playing it in college and
then I did so when I started doing improvate UCB.
They don't They didn't at the time ever pay improvisers.
The only way you would ever get paid is if
you joined their traveling touring company and you could get
paid a little bit of money to go before mostly
at colleges, and so not only did I play beerponng
(13:13):
in college, there was like a part of my mid
twenties where I then continued to travel to colleges and
I would go to those parties and continue to play beerpon.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How did you stumble into UCB for the first time?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So I stumbled into doing improv in college, and then
we heard that there was a college improv festival, and
so I went to school in Binghamton, which is like
a New York state school about three hours outside of
New York City. And then this college called Skidmore, which
is also an upstate New York hosts I think still
hosts this comedy festival of college improv and sketch. And
(13:49):
so we heard about that and applied and went to it.
And a lot of UCB friends that I've continued to
be friends with I met like my freshman year, like
this guy John Gabris who's a comedian and podcasters and
stuff I met there. I also met Donald Glover. We
were both like, he was an I use a sketch group,
(14:09):
which was a very good sketch group, sort of unsurprisingly,
and UCB was there to do a show and teach workshops,
and I did the workshop and really liked it. And
I think up until then, I had mainly thought of
Chicago as sort of the only place to go to
do improv, and then when I knew about UCB, I
was like, oh great, I'll just a'll move to New
(14:31):
York and do UCB.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Interesting, I did, I know this is moving off of
beer pong, but I did. My first UCB class was
a sketch one oh one class over Zoom during the pandemic.
I guess I can't really judge my ability to do
improv based on that class because it was like everyone
turned your cameras off, and then two people would turn
on at the same time and then be like whoop, sorry,
(14:54):
and then I would turn the camera back off. So
it was a lot of like not actually, and then
you're not in each other's like physical space. So I
actually did go see Scott and John Oh good that
show last week. I dragged my unsuspecting my sister in
Law's sister to the show. She was like, I'll pay
(15:14):
you back. I was like, I'm taking it along form
and interested, you don't have to pay me back. But
it was It was incredible because they their knowledge of
the space that they were in that obviously doesn't exist
was I was like, Oh, this is what was supposed
to look like.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, they're my favorites. That's why I recommended that show.
I was excited to see it in the schedule and
be like you have to see that they're they're favorites.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So that was really crazy. And then the way I
got tailor into it, she was like they were on
thirty Rock and I was like, go with.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That, Yes, exactly that way. Yeah, great, embrace it.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
But one of them was Scott pulled was like pulling
a gun out of his back pocket, and then John
was like a banana. And then they had a cut
to like b roll of his wife packing him his
lunch that day and being like it, I think he
needs a banana, Like just stuff like that, where you're
like I would still be like no, I said it
(16:12):
was a right.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
My interview question goes quite nicely after that. So would
you like to swap or go for it. Ak ak.
So you've obviously mentioned teaching at UCB. It's teaching something
that's important to you because it comes up on it,
like when I Google you, it comes up that you're
(16:42):
a teacher all the time.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I think that was like my main thing. I miss it.
I really enjoyed doing it, and I think it became
the thing that I was sort of most confident in
where I think, like with the like doing improv, like
I eventually was doing enough, I was like, oh, I
feel pretty good about this, And with like writing, it's
(17:04):
sort of up and down whether how confident I feel
about it. But with teaching, I think I was like, oh,
I'm really good at this. That was like the one
thing that I was like, I think I'm really good
at this, partly just because I think I really liked
doing it and did it a lot. And I haven't
taught in a few years because I was busy doing
that the show, and I have enough time now where
(17:26):
I'm thinking about asking if I could teach a class again,
because I do really like it. And my favorite classes
would always be like the second level at UCB where
they're learning game because it was always just really fun
to watch the like sort of light turn on, and
for people to get it was exciting because.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They say, don't they that one of the best ways
of kind of learning your craft is actually by teaching it.
Do you think it impacted the way you're like your craft?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I think it's interesting with improv In the very beginning,
I think it made it worse because I think it
made me a little bit more self conscious because I
would like, go, I would teach a class, and then
that night I would have a show and I would
see students from my class at that show, and I'd
be a little bit more mindful of like, oh, I
should be following the rules, I should be doing like
(18:12):
the And I think it's something that I probably unconsciously
was following the rules most of the time, but that
put me in my head just a little, and then
eventually I had to just sort of just let go
of that and be okay with students next week being like,
you did this thing in the show you told us
never to do, and I'd be like, yep, I did.
And we can talk about why we think it worked
or didn't work. But I think, well, yeah, maybe long term,
(18:34):
I think it probably did make the fundamentals we teach
at UCB sort of unconscious for me, where I can
follow them without thinking about them too much.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, I hope you do get to do another class
with those guys, because I just think the best teachers
are the dual professionals, the people who were doing it
still and yeah, into the teaching world every now and then.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I would have I would definitely have fun with it.
And it was also like not a particularly especially as
a father, social person, and so even in the very
beginning of class, to be able to ask everybody like
what's going on in their life is something I miss
of just like having like sixteen people to sort of
check in on.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I think that's what you've just said, Brandon, was quite
interesting because I'm the same I'm a mom, and like
the intimacy coordination world becomes quite insular. It's just it's
just you and your actor all the time. So yeah,
it's been really nice to get back into kind of
teaching grown ups and just having having a class of
(19:30):
people who you can share stories with. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah, I always like my one of my favorite things
to do with classes. I did it sort of as
a nice breaker for them to get comfortable with each other.
But I also did it just because I liked doing
it was to ask them if they could do a
commercial for something where they're not being paid for. It's
just something that they love. So it could be like
a product or an app, or a class they've taken
or whatever it is. And people give really interesting answers
(19:56):
and often things also that are you're just like, oh
I need to try that app or I need to
buy that room or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, so no ads, but like what would you would bring?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Yeah? What would be mine is always changing? What would
it be? Right now? What's the product I really like
or I find really useful? I got this app for
my phone called Freedom? Have you heard of this? All
it does is it makes it so I can't like
go on social media when I'm supposed to be working.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah I need one of those.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And it's because I will click on them still and
then and then a little thing pops up. It's like
enjoy your freedom, and it's like, okay, yeah, you're right,
I can't check it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's great. How what would you be? Oh, no, Doug,
should I go first? I think mine's pretty obvious? Can
it be like it does it have to be a product?
Can it be?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm very loose with it a show.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yes, I would like to do an ad for Paul's drugs.
Oh nice, Except it would be such an expensive commercial
because it would be like five minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Just telling people why who haven't seen it, why they
should be watching it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, or just or just you know, I know who's
in the next season. I can just do it. Usually
the commercials are like a little bit about each of
the drag queens. I would just do a little bit
from my lame o like perspective of it. Yeah, I
don't know that there's really a product costco fripes. Yeah,
that's a product, Hayley.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I always get the same pair of running shoes. It's
the Nike Vapor Fly three. And I would never spend
such a disgusting amount of money on anything else over
and over again. But here we are. They've really like
bought into my into the autism, and now I can't
break away, and it's just game over.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
In comparing them to other running shoes you've had, do
you like them because you feel faster? Do you like
them because like your knees hurt less? Or like what
is the thing?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I just can't do any figure out.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Is it just because the beauty of them?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, it's just it has to be done.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You're saying that your autism makes it, makes it. It
does nothing to do with Nike.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's just sticking to what you know.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
The pair I had before them makes my big toenails
fall off, which is disgusting. I'm so sorry everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I don't have big toenails right now, so welcome to this.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's good, that's good. Good to know. Do you have tonails, Brandon?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I do, And you're talking about flower makes me think
of my own thing, which is like, at some point
someone convinced me to try these shoes that people people.
There's different labels for them, but but basically they're like
shoes to have wide toe boxes and that they call
zero drops, so there's no like adding in the back.
(22:56):
And they're very comfortable and I've got us to them
and they do let your your toes have a little
bit more room, so they're probably good for my big toenails.
But the downside is then when you whenever you go
to try wearing normal shoes again, they really feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh this is sad. Yeah, you're stump now.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You're so, you're stuck with wearing sort of like unattractive shoes.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That has been my life since I was like five
years old. I've been in orthotics since I was eleven,
like custom orthotics since I was eleven. I have sculliosis,
I have wide arched It's a mess. I bought a
pair of boots. I can't believe we're talking about this
right now. I bought a pair of boots yesterday, thinking
I should have some adult looking shoes other than my
orthopedic men's shoes, which, by the way, at Warner Brothers
(23:40):
matched every construction worker, like we all had the same
ugly I put these boots on. They had a tiny heel.
I was like, yeah, why would anybody want to walk
on their toes anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It feels so weird to me now when I put
on just normal sink or dress shoes, it feels impossible.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yet men's dress shoes seem like this, like seventh Ring
of Hell. So yeah, Maldough heels are torture devices. Anyway,
here's my segue to nothing. I had a lot of
things I wanted to talk about, and they're completely separate.
So'm I'll try to fit them together, but it's gonna
(24:24):
be rough. My first part is more about your perspective
as a writer and a producer in that, like this,
show business obviously comes in bursts. So there's a project
and you're working on it and it's your whole life
for X amount of months and then it's over, and
then it's what's the next thing going to be? If
(24:45):
you don't have something set up? And maybe it's starting
a new project and being like, is anyone ever gonna
read this? Is this going to be anything? Am I
wasting my time? I'm wondering how you personally deal with
those spaces in between things and if it gets dark
and it gets I should have been a I almost
an archaeologist architect, just how mentally you deal with those.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's definitely something I'm dealing with now. So to two
parts of your questions. So I did in the note,
which was the stop motion show that I did. So
one thing that is nice is because I write so
much with Zach Woods, and he's very much like, let's
have multiple projects going, so let's be doing as much
(25:32):
as we can. There is something nice to that which
I don't think would be naturally how I would approach things,
but where the show we finished during press for the show,
and it's like, cool, we're already We've already been working
on this next project, so let's keep working on that.
And so there's no sort of dead time. So the
only time from me where I feel like fully open,
which can be exciting but scary, is then when he's there.
(25:56):
Was like when he's either like acting in a movie
or a TV show and doesn't have time to write,
or he's about to direct a movie that he and
I wrote and will sort of be focused on that
for a while, And so for a while, I'm like, Okay, October,
that'll be my month to like do at least a
bad first draft of a feature. And it's something I'm
like both excited about but also have all this anxiety
(26:17):
about not doing. Like the nightmare is November first, I'm like, fuck,
I wrote ten pages? How did that happen? And so
that's something I've been thinking a lot about lately, is
like how do I just stay positive and productive in
October and not shut down?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Is this the film that takes place in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The one that he's about to direct, Yeah, takes place
in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, is it taking place in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, it's both shooting and taking place in New Jersey
where in a couple of different places. Like he has
been so like roped into the pre production stuff and
will fill me in every once in a while.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
But you don't have to tell me if you're not
allowed to.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
No, no, no. But it seems like I would just say
North Jersey, different places in North Jersey.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, I'm up there. I'll just go driving around. Yeah, looking,
I've been looking for Adam Sandler for a month now.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Oh yeah, I feel like I saw something popped up
with like people. Yeah, like it was like something we're
like imagine looking out your.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Window and yeah yeah yeah, yeah, so's that's about twenty
minutes from me right now. New Jersey is the place
to be. Netflix just bought this whole army base here
in my hometown and they're turning it into like eight
sound stages.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So cool.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
It's interesting how decentralized. It seems like it's growing like
less and less out of in LA and more and
more they're building things in other states.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I would like to think that it's fate that I
was like I don't want to live in California anymore
after ten years, and Netflix is like, we got you know.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We gotcha, stay in Jersey.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We got it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It's the same over here. I used to work all
the time in London, and this year everything has been
up in my end, which has been incredible and not
great for the people who all live in London.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Oh yeah, it's this. It's just cheaper to do it
in the north of England, I think.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the reason for everything moving
out of la too.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah. My uh oh. First in the no note, I
wrote this down because this is my favorite quote from
the show and I kind of want to put it
on the top of my resume. Barb says, I feel
like I'm the guest of honor at a roast that
goes on for my entire career.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
She was a very fun She was like maybe at
the end of the show, we were like asking if
we could get like a puppet to like have and
she was the one I asked for. I haven't gotten
it yet. She was the one that was like, oh,
I would like to have that in my office as
a Barb.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, I love when there's another line where she has
a sweater on and they're like, who's sweater? What sweater
is that? And she's like, it's my dead husband's sweater
and they were like, was he shot by the fashion police?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah? Yeah, that was like Will Ferrell was the guest's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The part two of my question that has nothing to
do with part one is something we've talked about before,
which is a love of old times. I don't know
how else to phrase it, so like the great dictator
to be or not to be? And then I did
watch the Death of Stalin with my father, who thankfully
thought it was hilarious. Okay, yeah, you never know when
(29:24):
I'm like, okay, it's it's gonna be a little weird.
But he really liked it. He's a history buff, so
I think having that physical comedy in there too was nice.
I'm wondering if you know, I still try to pinpoint,
like why I think old stuff is so funny. In fact,
I found I was organizing my room and I found
(29:45):
these books that are from nineteen ten, nineteen oh one
that I like, can't wait. I haven't read them, but
I can't wait to read them because they're part of
this series about like how to be a good boy.
Oh wow, so there's telegraph boy strong in study. They're
slow and sure and they're all like notated. Yeah, December
(30:06):
twenty fifth, nineteen twelve. This person, oh gave this to
someone else. I just think it's a I can't wait
to see what atrocities they thought were funny back then.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
But yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Wondering if you're able to pinpoint what it is for
you that makes you fascinated with either like old moments
in history or just things taking place in another time.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I liked
I always liked reading history growing up, and I'm trying
to think of, like, why was that? What did I
always like? I think, to a certain extent, something I
appreciate about history now is you have more perspective on
(30:50):
whatever that. Yeah that was, and so you can maybe
know a moment more more fully. If if it's a
good history book, then would maybe be possible to do
with a current event. And I guess they're like part
of it is just that I think just the escapism
of like, in the same way that it's like fund
to go to a different country, it's funded go to
a different time in a book and be like, oh,
(31:12):
it's sort of be a tourist.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
M yeah, I know. Some of it for me is
that I know some of it is that like stuff
sounds silly, Like things just sound like Conan does this
whole bit because he just likes old timey sounding stuff. Yeah,
and I and I get that part too, Like the
script that I wrote that takes place in the nineteen
thirty nine is very like I tried to use every
(31:35):
name from that era that like dink right, just stuff
that sounds like is it a cartoon?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yes, I agree that for me too, Like sometimes it's
it's language having changed. So so a time period where
like I'm reading I'm reading this book called I think
it's called the Magic Mountain or Magic Mountain, but it's
Herman Man. I think it's like an old German book,
so creating a translation of it, but it's like set
at a sanatorium in the Alps, and I just really
(32:04):
enjoy the language, which is like so like I guess
as someone who is a writer but does so much
performance to improv, there's something fun about taking on Like
when I read a book like that, I just kind
of want to speak those sentences because it's just like
it feels, it's like trying on that costume.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Do you guys have horrible histories over there?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Horrible histories? What do you mean in the United States?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, you know, not a horrible history, a horrible history.
You have to tell us what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, I know, but I thought it might you might
just know straight away. It started as a series of
books by Terry Deary and they're massive over here. And
then there's a TV series and it's the funniest Well,
I thoroughly recommend. It's on Disney Plus. It again, Horrible Histories.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh no, cool, I'm writing it.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And it is for kids that you don't really Oh good,
it's not drunk history.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Jerry Foot it's in it's in a similar vein to
drunk Histories for kids, but it's for kids, and it's
it's it's just very factual, but it's all the funny facts.
It's amazing. And Tim's Tim's in one of them. There's like, yeah,
there's likes movies in it. I don't know if he's
in the TV series, but Heim.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Is our mountaineer magician from.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, Horrible Histories is huge over here. Okay, oh great,
I can't wait recommendations from the UK.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Before we move on. I have one more incredibly random
question and this can be a sentence answer, but I
have to know before I start my UCB career. Take two,
What is the secret to improv?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Is the secret to improv? I always say, like, I
think the most important quality of improvising an improvisers is listening,
So that might also be the secret improv is being
able to listen. I think it's like one of those
circles where if you are relaxed enough, you can listen.
And I think if you focus on listening, it helps
you relax. And a big part of him brother is
(34:06):
being relaxed.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I will take a shot of whiskey before I.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Or just try just try listening as if that shifts it.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, if I come down and there's a problem, gonna
be like Brandon Gardner, he said, I calm down. Okay, great,
I'm finished, Hailey, you can finished.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We move onto a section called the story now. So
it's basically a story that makes you. It's a point
in your career where you've asked why am I bothering? Basically, so,
for example, I seem to always screw up when I'm
trying to be like a serious business woman because I'm
putting a ridiculous mask on. And I met with a
(34:57):
financier for the first feature film this week, and it's
like for match funding, and like he brought these huels.
Do you know the huels? And are you aware of God,
I'm just maybe maybe brands left right. And so it's
like it's like a protein kind of meal replacement.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Oh yes, I have heard of that.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, and it tastes like gruel, Yeah, chocolate flavored gruel.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
You had pictures on your Instagram of yourself drinking another
grip m m. Those like frozen Yeah, you had those
frozen like meal things.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Oh yeah, they're not disgusting, They're amazing. Brandon loves them.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
There was yeah, I forget. I can't even remember what
that product was called Daily Harvest. Is that what you have?
There's something that I was There was like a came
like a smoothie and it's funny, it's like, I think
I've had both things. Those things were good. I stopped
using them just because they were expensive for what they were. Yeah,
and then the thing you're you're just gout me, Haley,
I think I've also tried that and it was so gross.
I like immediately tried to return it, and they were like,
(35:57):
just keep it. It's they were of the money, and
I did not seem surprised that I found it disgusting.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I love it. They always seem to advertise it on
Diary of a CEO, so it must be good. M Yeah,
he brought these and I'm opening it and I basically
just threw it down myself, and it was all going
so well, You're like, yeah, I'm I'm on fire, and
then I just threw an entire heel down myself. But like,
(36:26):
at least I didn't have to drink it, I guess.
But yeah, I just definitely had a moment of oh,
I've done so well and now why am I bothering?
But it went okay in the end whatever, But yeah,
have you had a moment in your career where you've
thought why the hell am I doing this?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So one, this was more when I was in New York.
A lot of what I did and have done career
wise is sort of just looking around and being like, oh,
I guess I should be doing what other people are doing.
So in New York, I was doing im prov and
then sort of looking around and be like, I guess
everyone else is getting like TV commercial agents and auditioning
for commercials. I guess I should do that too. And
(37:00):
then in the period when I was auditioning for TV commercials,
they were all to different extents sort of humiliating and dehumanizing.
But the one that I remember in particular was one
where I can't even remember what the product was, but
it was like one where you're like in a little
like room like they always are, and this was like
a first round of auditions, so it's just like a
(37:20):
woman in a camera, and it was something where you
had to get into your underwear so like take off
your shirt and pants and then like mime like park activities,
so like throwing and catching frisbees, like grilling, like walking
it off.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
For Pedophile number one.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I think it was it was for gonna be for
some commercial where your character was supposed to be like
naked and then like blurred out but they needed to
see your body for that. But you're just like it's
like eleven in the morning and it's just you and
a woman videotaping you for whoever the casting director. And
that was one especially at the end, it's like there's
something about like putting your pants back on after in
(37:59):
the room. The next guy waits, Who're just like, why
what is this about? And uh So that was a
moment like that, and it's one of the reasons why
I think I didn't want to keep auditioning for commercials.
It was like, I'll focus on writing.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
The thousands and thousands of dollars of drama school and avation.
Going through the commercials.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think it's a good one to do for your
skill base. Though, if you if you are an actor
he's doing commercials.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Yeah, if you can get one and it pays well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
The advice I think Zach gave me at a certain
point that I that was helpful. He was just like,
just improvised every time you do it. He's like, never
read the script. Just improvise something, and they'll either cast
you because they want someone who does that, or they'll
cast someone who can do the copy. Well. But I
was never going to be someone who could like nail,
like tail and all copy, so it would be easier
(38:54):
for me to just like riff and see a deal
like that. You know, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
There is a it's like drink every time I say Conan,
there's a Conan ad read. He's the same way. He like,
can't do ad read straight up. So there's an ad
read that was so done so poorly that they removed
it from the podcast episode that it was on. But
it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You can you.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Can watch it. And I showed it to my dad
and he was crying. He was laughing so hard because
it's for one of those Toto toilets. Oh yeah, but
the copy was so so a Toto toilet. Yeah, well
who doesn't know what's what?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I know nothing about you guys.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Well this is actually Japanese.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
The Toto toilet is one of those toilets that like
my grandma had one. It like opens when it sees
you coming, and it turns the heat on the seat
and then as soon as you sit down, water starts
flowing and then you go to the bathroom and it
rinses and drives you off and.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Oh cool, you know, just going book.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yes out in leads. But yeah, so he was doing
a Toto ad read. I'll I can send it. Yeah,
it is like it's him, Yeah, it's him being like
I'm going to do this my waye. It's one of
my favorite things ever. But of course they were like
he did not get a part.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
If you have to define Brandon making it, what would
your definition of making it be.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I think that at this point, I've realized that I
don't think that there's anything that could happen where I
would definitively feel like, oh, I made it. I feel
like I've had enough things where it's like I've had
temporary feelings of guys feels pretty good, but nothing lasting
that even the things that I would say in the future,
I'm like pretty confident wouldn't last his feelings where I
(40:54):
would make it. But I will say, because I have
a five year old and she brings up often enough
that she would like we live in an apartment building,
that she would like to live in a house with
a yard, and so like, some part of me is like,
if it was ever possible that we could live in
a house with a yard while she's still at an
age where that would she could benefit from that, that
(41:16):
would be like a good feeling. I would have said
before the show that like, oh, if I ever got
to go create a TV show, I made it, And
then it doesn't feel like that.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah. Yeah, kids are dick though, Brandon, because we moved.
We moved to the countryside so they could have a garden,
and now they turn around to go, oh, we missed
the city, we missed living in the city. Can we
move back to the flat?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yeah, I'd be ready.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, she'll miss it in California. Well, both California and
London are incredibly difficult places to have a house. But no,
that's very sweet. No, their dreams become kind of yours, right.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit, and it just feels bad
when you're like, oh, cure, this feels like something important
to you and I am incapable of giving it to you.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
This it's an important lesson because every time I hear
of another famous person in entertainment who's related to someone
else incredibly famous, my dad knows that he is unable
to give me what I need by being a famous Yes,
and he just retired, so I'm really out of time.
(42:30):
I have a fair change into like agent or actor
or producer. That would have been really great.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, single two.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Yeah, I know sometimes with those those people too, with
famous parents. Part of me is just like just the
advantage of having a vague sense maybe of how things
work would have been huge, Like it even not necessarily
someone getting me an audition or a job or anything,
but just someone being like, well, this is how this works.
This is how you get this job, but this is
(43:00):
how you do this or this. This is a job
that exists. Like, yeah, I think is a big advantage
that people have.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, And I think that's a big issue with I
went to Pepperdine later. So I was twenty three when
I started there and I graduated at twenty seven. And
it was interesting because I had already worked and I
was like I had a little a slightly more life
(43:27):
experience before I started college that in the film classes,
I feel like it was like you can be a director,
you can be a producer, you can be an actor,
And it was like the three jobs, and everyone was
gonna leave and do one of those three jobs. And
then it's like no, Paing taught me. I so like,
dozens of jobs I didn't know existed that I might
(43:49):
have been good at if I started learning about them sooner.
That's only through either seeing it behind the scenes, through
like having your family or actually being on a set
and understanding how many moving parts there are. And then
everyone's like, why am I not a director yet? I've
graduated six months ago. If you had to give a
(44:20):
chapter title that sums up your career journey so far,
what would it be.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I think it would be maybe there's still hope, question
mark oh where it's nice. Yeah, Yeah, it's sort of perilous,
but uh.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Because it's most people's are.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, I guess that's just the feeling of existing is
feels parallel. Yeah, I'm forty two, and that's for along
the journey for a lot of people, and I'm sort
of at the beginning, and so that's sort of perilous.
But it's also like I'm in a point now where
at least in tiny baby steps, it's felt like progress
(45:01):
for the last eight years. So it's always sort of like, well,
it's not great. There's been a lot of if I
don't make any progress in this next year, then maybe
we pivot and then some little thing will happen and
be like, well, there is this we did do this
this year. That's a little bit better. Yeah, And so
the hope is just that that somehow continues.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I'd say most people we've interviewed who are either acting
or writing specific it's very we've had, like I'm scared,
please hire me. And then we interviewed John mcgaro a
couple of weeks ago. His was finally some stability, at
least for.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Now, Yeah, at least for now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
And then I'm sitting here like I'm still trying to
get on the runway, like to get on the airplane,
and everyone's like, well, we're all freaking out too, like great, yeah,
but it's always have the.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
We don't have the mum made kind of constructs of
a nine to five don't do it of like you
go up this bit of the ladder and you go
up this bit and it's all safe, and we just
don't have that. So yeah, there's always going to be
this feeling of warbliness. Yeah, you're gonna have this.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah. My cousin I was I've enjoyed two shows recently
with the same actress in it, Like she's so fabulous.
My cousin sends me an Instagram post that like she's
Bono's daughter.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Someone just told me about this, yeah, and I was like,
you should watch this. Bono's daughter is great, And.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yes, I told this. It's it's called the Perfect Couple.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yes, someone was telling me.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
That it's on Netflix. Bono's daughter is great, Nicole Kidman's
wigs are should be put in jail. I just don't
know she's Nicole Kidman and they A'm just like, where
was the miscommunication? Yeah, but my cousin was like, wait,
you love her? Why are you upset? And I was like,
my cousin is a therapist, and I was like, imagine,
(46:57):
in order to become a therapist, you had to be
Bono starughter Right, it's just anyway. But then I was like,
but I wouldn't not do the same thing, Like if
I was.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
She's good exactly, That's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
She's so fabulous. Yeah, she's really And then I discovered
she's younger than me, and then I felt like whoa,
Like that's never happened to me before. But here we go.
The Yeah, I highly recommend. I highly recommend the show.
It was great, She's fabulous, but the wigs, that's my
one though.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Oh thanks so much for joining us today, Brandon, You're
a legend. Legend. Oh good, I'm glad it was fun.
I'm glad it's fun. People say this and I hope
that being real about it.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
Yeah, if it wasn't fun, I don't know what it was.
This was genuinely fun.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, it was like, yeah, it wasn't it wasn't unpleasant, Like,
it wasn't unpleasant.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
It's a nice way to spend an hour, if you like, Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
With with people who consider you to have made it
and want to know your secrets so that they can
one up you and take your spot.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
And I think as someone yeah who again, who is
like a father who doesn't socialize very much like this.
This sort of structured, scheduled conversation is helpful.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
This is how Haley and I became best friends, this
structured conversation around her schedule and not a minute more.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Yeah, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's what I need.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
How to Make It is recorded from a closet in
New Jersey and a basement in Leeds, United Kingdom. It's
produced by Emily Capello and Haley Murali Darn. For more
adventures with Emily and Haley, follow us on Instagram at
how to Make It Podcast, where you'll find clips from
today's episode, many episode clips, and more random nonsense. Like
(49:01):
and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
wherever other fine podcasts are found
Hi, I'm Emily and I'm Hayley. After meeting online, we
became international best friends who bonded over how hard it
is to find success in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Join us and our celebrity co authors as they help
us write the book on how to make it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And, more importantly, uncover what making it even means.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know, saying we met online sounds a lot sexier
than it actually is.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Emily, you don't think it's clear we met on a
networking site?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
No, I think it sounds very much like I swiped
right on you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Would you like to meet a British person online site?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We're going to have to do this again now, aren't we. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hi, my name is Brandon Gardner and I wanted to
be an architect when I grew up.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Like we always love when it's not the thing that
you ended up doing?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oh yeah, is it often?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's I'd say more often than yeah, No, I know,
I'd say it's, well, it's been a lot recently, and
then we're kind of like, oh, okay, so you did that, and.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is it more actors who knew they wanted to be
actors as children, or more writers or more other.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Things I would say actors, Yeah, I would too, though,
tim through is that curveball of that you wanted to
be a wizard.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
One of our actors said he wanted to be a
magician who exclusively worked in the mountains.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh yeah, my bad, not a wizard.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, it's just a magician.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, it's always fun to get
to figure out where your dream died and what happened
and why where did it go?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
So for me, it's funny. I was thinking about it
before even saying that I wanted to be an archae
even as a young boy, was in some way an
attempt to be somewhat practical where I love to draw
and my mom would be like, well, it's really hard
to ever have a job through art, and so I
was like, oh, I guess I like to draw buildings.
(02:16):
Maybe I could be an architect. And then what happened
is that at a certain age I can't remember I
was pretty young, people are like, well, you gotta love
math if you want to be an architect, because it's
so much math, and I'm like, I don't love math.
And then the horrible thing is that in my adult
life I've met so many architects, and they all say
the same thing, which is like there's no math, like
(02:37):
there's other there's either engineers do the math for you,
or there's computer programs that do the math for you. You
don't need to like math to be an architect.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That is piss park careers advice that you received.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, so I could have could have gotten down a
different path. But also when I meet architects, almost all
of them sort of remind me that like most architecture
is like designing car parks. They're like, it's not what
I set out to do. It's like very functional, boring things.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. I was going to say, I know a couple
of quite sad architects, like I hope you're not listening.
They're not happy with what they do, and they would
rather be doing what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Maybe, yeah we could switch for a day.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Have a happy little switch around. Yeah, it's like a
really bad So what's that freaky Friday?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Thanky Friday? Yeah? I watched that pretty recently. I have
a five year old and we've showed it both versions
of the Jodie Foster version and the what's her name
Lindsay Lullyan.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Version, which was the preferred.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
She liked the more up to date one. Yeah, the
Lindsay Lohan one, which is like weirder, the newer one
with Jamie Lee Curtis plays the mom. They when the
daughter is inhabiting the mother's body. There's like a storyline
of her sort of flirting with a teenage boy that
they get way more into in the more recent one.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, that's an age.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
My mom hadn't rewatched the movie she took me to
in the early two thousands. So we did like a
we're doing a Lindsay Lohan catalog.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh cool.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So we've done Herbie Fully Loaded and Confessions with Teenage
Drama Queen, which is so unrealistically iconic. And then we
did Freaky Friday, and yeah, the stuff I always say
to my mom, like when it's a kid's movie, I'm like,
you just gotta like just let everything go. It's not
gonna make sense, it's not supposed to make sense. And
then we get to the Chad Michael Murray park Yeah,
(04:32):
and my mom was like, come on, come on, no,
come on, because they're like almost kissing in a cafe. Yeah,
and she's like and as like the when I was
a kid, I guess I was okay with it, but
now I'm like, wait, Chad, that's illegal.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
And it's issues. It doesn't not make sense. Like the
logic of like, well, her thirteen year old daughter is
in her body, that is how she would behave it
does make sense, it's just not what you would expect
from a Disney movie.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And then the argument of like, it's the it's the
Twilight argument, it's the Edward Bella Twilight because isn't Edward
like a million years old?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And what's the argument?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And Bella is like sixteen.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And so they say it's okay because he's in the
body of a teenager or would they.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Say no, no, no, People are like, wait, isn't that weird?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Right, wow, we've gotten so far off architect But I'm
really glad Segway segwayeg Well, the segue would have to
be what how did you get from architect unless you
guys were talking about that when my Mike, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Could you not hear us either?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh god no, no, there was no segue.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Okay, so how did I get there?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That's you have that skill?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I think I had. So there was the architecture plan, which,
as I said before was like in itself, almost an
attempt to be practical. And then when I found out
you needed to like math, I didn't know of that
many different careers as a kid, and so I then
decided it's like, well, I guess I will be a lawyer.
And the main reason for that, I think is that
(06:11):
one of my favorite uncles, who was funny and cool
to me, was a lawyer. And I liked like reading
and writing much more than I like math. So I
was like, maybe that'll be it for me. And that
stayed through my freshman year of college, where I was
pre law, and then a big shift for that was
that I was in the car once with that uncle
(06:32):
and he was like, why would you want to be
a lawyer. It's like basically, he's like, I hate being
a lawyer. You should be anything other than a lawyer.
And then I switched. And then I had started doing
improv in college, and I changed my major to theater
and then moved to New York to do UCB and
that was what set me out on this course.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Wow, so I have to be really careful because my
nephew is, you know, almost two and a half. So
I got to be really careful about what I say
about careers, except I would urge him not to want
to be an entertainment.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah. I would probably argue that anything else. My daughters.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah yeah. We talked to an actor who is a
four year old, and he was like, she is not
doing this, Brandon. We move into a section where we
tell you two slightly surprising facts we found out about
(07:30):
you randomly on the internet.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Oh interesting, okay, nice stalking.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It's the stalking.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, I'm always curious how stokable I am, and I
probably have enough of a digital footprint that there's there's
info out there.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I will say, normally I'll go to the person's
Instagram and I'll just look for something. But I had
I went all the way back to your first post,
and I had such a fun time.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh yeah, I was much looser in the beginning. I
think I was just like, I'll just post whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But that's what Instagram was. I like, remember I had
it for the first time, like in college, and I
bought a bracelet and I was like I bought this
break Like, yeah, it just was whatever. I enjoyed. You're
posting about the extra leg room on your flight and
stuff like that. And then I also noticed this isn't
my fact yet, but I also noticed that there were
(08:21):
quite a few posts where you weren't talking to yourself,
but whoever had commented certain things on certain posts must
have deleted their account, because yeah, there's responses to no one.
So you'll post a picture like a group photo, and
then you'll be like, I'm in the middle, right underneath.
(08:43):
So that was fun. But my fact ended up being
that while you are a basketball enthusiast, you are not
the Arizona State basketball player Brandon Gardner.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
No, but he does. There's like I have like a
Google alert for my name, and he is. He is,
I think, like the prime candidate to become the most
the most well known Brandon Gardner, if he isn't already.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've learned a lot about him. He recently transferred from
USC to Arizona State. He's six foot eight. Yeah, he's
from Waynesboro, Georgia. Also, a surprising number of brand and
Gardners have died recently, so watch out.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I get those too, I I because of the Google alert,
so many die and so many commit crimes, some horrible,
some horrible.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh yeah, and then you're not the podcast Backyard gardeners.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
No, there's also a jim Bro called Brandon Gardner who's Yeah,
he's a big deal on Instagram. Apparently he just lifts things.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Okay, I haven't even heard of him. I got to
check that out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I feel like i've I've just like really dissed the
lifting community. He doesn't just lift things. I'm sure there's
light loads to it, and yeah, but he's on a
lot of podcasts.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
And when you say he lifts things, it's not just
like him and a gym lifting weights. His thing is
that he lifts like unconventional things like I love to
picnic table up or something.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, I think it's just a
conventional things.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Guy, you're the expert.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think he's a yeah. Yeah, he seems pretty legit
in the weightlifting world. But I'd love it if he
lifted up piano.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, I would do.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
If I could do that'd send him a message. We'll
get along.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
My slightly surprising fact off of the internet is you
wore a snowboard playing beer pong once. It was a
miller like snowboard.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yes, and I never used it. So when I lived
in New York, there's a short period where I was
working with this organization called Story Pirates. Have you ever
heard of that? Either view?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Isn't that a podcast?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
They have a podcast, So they're like great, great people.
So in my daughter and I listened to the podcast
in our car. But so the concept of the group
is they take stories written by children and they tournament
two sketches and some of them have music. And in
New York you would go to public schools and sort
of perform these shows for them, and so I was
doing that and that was very fun. And there was
(11:20):
a guy I knew from that who I became friends with.
And there was a bar in New York in the
West Village called Wicked Willies, which I assume is still there,
but very much like a sort of college vibe bar,
and they would have these beer pong tournaments and he
would I got, and I think they'd be Monday nights,
and at that time of my life I could go
Monday nights and enter these beer pong tournaments. And we
(11:44):
won enough that we were in a tournament of champions
and in that we came in second place, and the
second place prize where these Miller lite snowboard in like
first place was like a thousand dollars. It was something
that would have been like so helpful for me time,
and instead I got a snowboard, which I never used.
It also didn't come with I think what you would
(12:04):
call the bindings or whatever. It was just the board.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Oh is that what you put your feet on?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, so so I didn't. I just had it under
a couch for for a long time. And I don't
think I even sold it. I don't think I did
anything with it, or is it. I think I may
have left it when I moved from from New York.
It might still be in that apartment or that or
whoever took it over or got rid of it.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
From your Instagram, I know that that was four hundred
and fifty three weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Oh wow, that's very specifically crap.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The way they keep time on Instagram is week and
then I was likely years. Is that it's about eight
year little over eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, I think, yeah, it was January of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think, is my how did you guess i'd good
at beapong playing it?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well? So to I guess playing it in college and
then I did so when I started doing improvate UCB.
They don't They didn't at the time ever pay improvisers.
The only way you would ever get paid is if
you joined their traveling touring company and you could get
paid a little bit of money to go before mostly
at colleges, and so not only did I play beerponng
(13:13):
in college, there was like a part of my mid
twenties where I then continued to travel to colleges and
I would go to those parties and continue to play beerpon.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How did you stumble into UCB for the first time?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So I stumbled into doing improv in college, and then
we heard that there was a college improv festival, and
so I went to school in Binghamton, which is like
a New York state school about three hours outside of
New York City. And then this college called Skidmore, which
is also an upstate New York hosts I think still
hosts this comedy festival of college improv and sketch. And
(13:49):
so we heard about that and applied and went to it.
And a lot of UCB friends that I've continued to
be friends with I met like my freshman year, like
this guy John Gabris who's a comedian and podcasters and
stuff I met there. I also met Donald Glover. We
were both like, he was an I use a sketch group,
(14:09):
which was a very good sketch group, sort of unsurprisingly,
and UCB was there to do a show and teach workshops,
and I did the workshop and really liked it. And
I think up until then, I had mainly thought of
Chicago as sort of the only place to go to
do improv, and then when I knew about UCB, I
was like, oh great, I'll just a'll move to New
(14:31):
York and do UCB.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Interesting, I did, I know this is moving off of
beer pong, but I did. My first UCB class was
a sketch one oh one class over Zoom during the pandemic.
I guess I can't really judge my ability to do
improv based on that class because it was like everyone
turned your cameras off, and then two people would turn
on at the same time and then be like whoop, sorry,
(14:54):
and then I would turn the camera back off. So
it was a lot of like not actually, and then
you're not in each other's like physical space. So I
actually did go see Scott and John Oh good that
show last week. I dragged my unsuspecting my sister in
Law's sister to the show. She was like, I'll pay
(15:14):
you back. I was like, I'm taking it along form
and interested, you don't have to pay me back. But
it was It was incredible because they their knowledge of
the space that they were in that obviously doesn't exist
was I was like, Oh, this is what was supposed
to look like.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, they're my favorites. That's why I recommended that show.
I was excited to see it in the schedule and
be like you have to see that they're they're favorites.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So that was really crazy. And then the way I
got tailor into it, she was like they were on
thirty Rock and I was like, go with.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That, Yes, exactly that way. Yeah, great, embrace it.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
But one of them was Scott pulled was like pulling
a gun out of his back pocket, and then John
was like a banana. And then they had a cut
to like b roll of his wife packing him his
lunch that day and being like it, I think he
needs a banana, Like just stuff like that, where you're
like I would still be like no, I said it
(16:12):
was a right.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
My interview question goes quite nicely after that. So would
you like to swap or go for it. Ak ak.
So you've obviously mentioned teaching at UCB. It's teaching something
that's important to you because it comes up on it,
like when I Google you, it comes up that you're
(16:42):
a teacher all the time.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I think that was like my main thing. I miss it.
I really enjoyed doing it, and I think it became
the thing that I was sort of most confident in
where I think, like with the like doing improv, like
I eventually was doing enough, I was like, oh, I
feel pretty good about this, And with like writing, it's
(17:04):
sort of up and down whether how confident I feel
about it. But with teaching, I think I was like, oh,
I'm really good at this. That was like the one
thing that I was like, I think I'm really good
at this, partly just because I think I really liked
doing it and did it a lot. And I haven't
taught in a few years because I was busy doing
that the show, and I have enough time now where
(17:26):
I'm thinking about asking if I could teach a class again,
because I do really like it. And my favorite classes
would always be like the second level at UCB where
they're learning game because it was always just really fun
to watch the like sort of light turn on, and
for people to get it was exciting because.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They say, don't they that one of the best ways
of kind of learning your craft is actually by teaching it.
Do you think it impacted the way you're like your craft?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I think it's interesting with improv In the very beginning,
I think it made it worse because I think it
made me a little bit more self conscious because I
would like, go, I would teach a class, and then
that night I would have a show and I would
see students from my class at that show, and I'd
be a little bit more mindful of like, oh, I
should be following the rules, I should be doing like
(18:12):
the And I think it's something that I probably unconsciously
was following the rules most of the time, but that
put me in my head just a little, and then
eventually I had to just sort of just let go
of that and be okay with students next week being like,
you did this thing in the show you told us
never to do, and I'd be like, yep, I did.
And we can talk about why we think it worked
or didn't work. But I think, well, yeah, maybe long term,
(18:34):
I think it probably did make the fundamentals we teach
at UCB sort of unconscious for me, where I can
follow them without thinking about them too much.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, I hope you do get to do another class
with those guys, because I just think the best teachers
are the dual professionals, the people who were doing it
still and yeah, into the teaching world every now and then.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I would have I would definitely have fun with it.
And it was also like not a particularly especially as
a father, social person, and so even in the very
beginning of class, to be able to ask everybody like
what's going on in their life is something I miss
of just like having like sixteen people to sort of
check in on.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I think that's what you've just said, Brandon, was quite
interesting because I'm the same I'm a mom, and like
the intimacy coordination world becomes quite insular. It's just it's
just you and your actor all the time. So yeah,
it's been really nice to get back into kind of
teaching grown ups and just having having a class of
(19:30):
people who you can share stories with. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah, I always like my one of my favorite things
to do with classes. I did it sort of as
a nice breaker for them to get comfortable with each other.
But I also did it just because I liked doing
it was to ask them if they could do a
commercial for something where they're not being paid for. It's
just something that they love. So it could be like
a product or an app, or a class they've taken
or whatever it is. And people give really interesting answers
(19:56):
and often things also that are you're just like, oh
I need to try that app or I need to
buy that room or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, so no ads, but like what would you would bring?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Yeah? What would be mine is always changing? What would
it be? Right now? What's the product I really like
or I find really useful? I got this app for
my phone called Freedom? Have you heard of this? All
it does is it makes it so I can't like
go on social media when I'm supposed to be working.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah I need one of those.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And it's because I will click on them still and
then and then a little thing pops up. It's like
enjoy your freedom, and it's like, okay, yeah, you're right,
I can't check it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's great. How what would you be? Oh, no, Doug,
should I go first? I think mine's pretty obvious? Can
it be like it does it have to be a product?
Can it be?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm very loose with it a show.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yes, I would like to do an ad for Paul's drugs.
Oh nice, Except it would be such an expensive commercial
because it would be like five minutes.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Just telling people why who haven't seen it, why they
should be watching it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, or just or just you know, I know who's
in the next season. I can just do it. Usually
the commercials are like a little bit about each of
the drag queens. I would just do a little bit
from my lame o like perspective of it. Yeah, I
don't know that there's really a product costco fripes. Yeah,
that's a product, Hayley.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I always get the same pair of running shoes. It's
the Nike Vapor Fly three. And I would never spend
such a disgusting amount of money on anything else over
and over again. But here we are. They've really like
bought into my into the autism, and now I can't
break away, and it's just game over.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
In comparing them to other running shoes you've had, do
you like them because you feel faster? Do you like
them because like your knees hurt less? Or like what
is the thing?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I just can't do any figure out.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Is it just because the beauty of them?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, it's just it has to be done.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You're saying that your autism makes it, makes it. It
does nothing to do with Nike.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's just sticking to what you know.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
The pair I had before them makes my big toenails
fall off, which is disgusting. I'm so sorry everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I don't have big toenails right now, so welcome to this.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's good, that's good. Good to know. Do you have tonails, Brandon?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I do, And you're talking about flower makes me think
of my own thing, which is like, at some point
someone convinced me to try these shoes that people people.
There's different labels for them, but but basically they're like
shoes to have wide toe boxes and that they call
zero drops, so there's no like adding in the back.
(22:56):
And they're very comfortable and I've got us to them
and they do let your your toes have a little
bit more room, so they're probably good for my big toenails.
But the downside is then when you whenever you go
to try wearing normal shoes again, they really feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh this is sad. Yeah, you're stump now.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You're so, you're stuck with wearing sort of like unattractive shoes.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That has been my life since I was like five
years old. I've been in orthotics since I was eleven,
like custom orthotics since I was eleven. I have sculliosis,
I have wide arched It's a mess. I bought a
pair of boots. I can't believe we're talking about this
right now. I bought a pair of boots yesterday, thinking
I should have some adult looking shoes other than my
orthopedic men's shoes, which, by the way, at Warner Brothers
(23:40):
matched every construction worker, like we all had the same
ugly I put these boots on. They had a tiny heel.
I was like, yeah, why would anybody want to walk
on their toes anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It feels so weird to me now when I put
on just normal sink or dress shoes, it feels impossible.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yet men's dress shoes seem like this, like seventh Ring
of Hell. So yeah, Maldough heels are torture devices. Anyway,
here's my segue to nothing. I had a lot of
things I wanted to talk about, and they're completely separate.
So'm I'll try to fit them together, but it's gonna
(24:24):
be rough. My first part is more about your perspective
as a writer and a producer in that, like this,
show business obviously comes in bursts. So there's a project
and you're working on it and it's your whole life
for X amount of months and then it's over, and
then it's what's the next thing going to be? If
(24:45):
you don't have something set up? And maybe it's starting
a new project and being like, is anyone ever gonna
read this? Is this going to be anything? Am I
wasting my time? I'm wondering how you personally deal with
those spaces in between things and if it gets dark
and it gets I should have been a I almost
an archaeologist architect, just how mentally you deal with those.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's definitely something I'm dealing with now. So to two
parts of your questions. So I did in the note,
which was the stop motion show that I did. So
one thing that is nice is because I write so
much with Zach Woods, and he's very much like, let's
have multiple projects going, so let's be doing as much
(25:32):
as we can. There is something nice to that which
I don't think would be naturally how I would approach things,
but where the show we finished during press for the show,
and it's like, cool, we're already We've already been working
on this next project, so let's keep working on that.
And so there's no sort of dead time. So the
only time from me where I feel like fully open,
which can be exciting but scary, is then when he's there.
(25:56):
Was like when he's either like acting in a movie
or a TV show and doesn't have time to write,
or he's about to direct a movie that he and
I wrote and will sort of be focused on that
for a while, And so for a while, I'm like, Okay, October,
that'll be my month to like do at least a
bad first draft of a feature. And it's something I'm
like both excited about but also have all this anxiety
(26:17):
about not doing. Like the nightmare is November first, I'm like, fuck,
I wrote ten pages? How did that happen? And so
that's something I've been thinking a lot about lately, is
like how do I just stay positive and productive in
October and not shut down?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Is this the film that takes place in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The one that he's about to direct, Yeah, takes place
in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, is it taking place in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, it's both shooting and taking place in New Jersey
where in a couple of different places. Like he has
been so like roped into the pre production stuff and
will fill me in every once in a while.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
But you don't have to tell me if you're not
allowed to.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
No, no, no. But it seems like I would just say
North Jersey, different places in North Jersey.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, I'm up there. I'll just go driving around. Yeah, looking,
I've been looking for Adam Sandler for a month now.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Oh yeah, I feel like I saw something popped up
with like people. Yeah, like it was like something we're
like imagine looking out your.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Window and yeah yeah yeah, yeah, so's that's about twenty
minutes from me right now. New Jersey is the place
to be. Netflix just bought this whole army base here
in my hometown and they're turning it into like eight
sound stages.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So cool.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
It's interesting how decentralized. It seems like it's growing like
less and less out of in LA and more and
more they're building things in other states.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I would like to think that it's fate that I
was like I don't want to live in California anymore
after ten years, and Netflix is like, we got you know.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We gotcha, stay in Jersey.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We got it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It's the same over here. I used to work all
the time in London, and this year everything has been
up in my end, which has been incredible and not
great for the people who all live in London.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Oh yeah, it's this. It's just cheaper to do it
in the north of England, I think.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the reason for everything moving
out of la too.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah. My uh oh. First in the no note, I
wrote this down because this is my favorite quote from
the show and I kind of want to put it
on the top of my resume. Barb says, I feel
like I'm the guest of honor at a roast that
goes on for my entire career.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
She was a very fun She was like maybe at
the end of the show, we were like asking if
we could get like a puppet to like have and
she was the one I asked for. I haven't gotten
it yet. She was the one that was like, oh,
I would like to have that in my office as
a Barb.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, I love when there's another line where she has
a sweater on and they're like, who's sweater? What sweater
is that? And she's like, it's my dead husband's sweater
and they were like, was he shot by the fashion police?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah? Yeah, that was like Will Ferrell was the guest's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The part two of my question that has nothing to
do with part one is something we've talked about before,
which is a love of old times. I don't know
how else to phrase it, so like the great dictator
to be or not to be? And then I did
watch the Death of Stalin with my father, who thankfully
thought it was hilarious. Okay, yeah, you never know when
(29:24):
I'm like, okay, it's it's gonna be a little weird.
But he really liked it. He's a history buff, so
I think having that physical comedy in there too was nice.
I'm wondering if you know, I still try to pinpoint,
like why I think old stuff is so funny. In fact,
I found I was organizing my room and I found
(29:45):
these books that are from nineteen ten, nineteen oh one
that I like, can't wait. I haven't read them, but
I can't wait to read them because they're part of
this series about like how to be a good boy.
Oh wow, so there's telegraph boy strong in study. They're
slow and sure and they're all like notated. Yeah, December
(30:06):
twenty fifth, nineteen twelve. This person, oh gave this to
someone else. I just think it's a I can't wait
to see what atrocities they thought were funny back then.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
But yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Wondering if you're able to pinpoint what it is for
you that makes you fascinated with either like old moments
in history or just things taking place in another time.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I liked
I always liked reading history growing up, and I'm trying
to think of, like, why was that? What did I
always like? I think, to a certain extent, something I
appreciate about history now is you have more perspective on
(30:50):
whatever that. Yeah that was, and so you can maybe
know a moment more more fully. If if it's a
good history book, then would maybe be possible to do
with a current event. And I guess they're like part
of it is just that I think just the escapism
of like, in the same way that it's like fund
to go to a different country, it's funded go to
a different time in a book and be like, oh,
(31:12):
it's sort of be a tourist.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
M yeah, I know. Some of it for me is
that I know some of it is that like stuff
sounds silly, Like things just sound like Conan does this
whole bit because he just likes old timey sounding stuff. Yeah,
and I and I get that part too, Like the
script that I wrote that takes place in the nineteen
thirty nine is very like I tried to use every
(31:35):
name from that era that like dink right, just stuff
that sounds like is it a cartoon?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yes, I agree that for me too, Like sometimes it's
it's language having changed. So so a time period where
like I'm reading I'm reading this book called I think
it's called the Magic Mountain or Magic Mountain, but it's
Herman Man. I think it's like an old German book,
so creating a translation of it, but it's like set
at a sanatorium in the Alps, and I just really
(32:04):
enjoy the language, which is like so like I guess
as someone who is a writer but does so much
performance to improv, there's something fun about taking on Like
when I read a book like that, I just kind
of want to speak those sentences because it's just like
it feels, it's like trying on that costume.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Do you guys have horrible histories over there?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Horrible histories? What do you mean in the United States?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, you know, not a horrible history, a horrible history.
You have to tell us what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, I know, but I thought it might you might
just know straight away. It started as a series of
books by Terry Deary and they're massive over here. And
then there's a TV series and it's the funniest Well,
I thoroughly recommend. It's on Disney Plus. It again, Horrible Histories.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh no, cool, I'm writing it.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And it is for kids that you don't really Oh good,
it's not drunk history.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Jerry Foot it's in it's in a similar vein to
drunk Histories for kids, but it's for kids, and it's
it's it's just very factual, but it's all the funny facts.
It's amazing. And Tim's Tim's in one of them. There's like, yeah,
there's likes movies in it. I don't know if he's
in the TV series, but Heim.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Is our mountaineer magician from.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, Horrible Histories is huge over here. Okay, oh great,
I can't wait recommendations from the UK.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Before we move on. I have one more incredibly random
question and this can be a sentence answer, but I
have to know before I start my UCB career. Take two,
What is the secret to improv?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Is the secret to improv? I always say, like, I
think the most important quality of improvising an improvisers is listening,
So that might also be the secret improv is being
able to listen. I think it's like one of those
circles where if you are relaxed enough, you can listen.
And I think if you focus on listening, it helps
you relax. And a big part of him brother is
(34:06):
being relaxed.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I will take a shot of whiskey before I.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Or just try just try listening as if that shifts it.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, if I come down and there's a problem, gonna
be like Brandon Gardner, he said, I calm down. Okay, great,
I'm finished, Hailey, you can finished.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We move onto a section called the story now. So
it's basically a story that makes you. It's a point
in your career where you've asked why am I bothering? Basically, so,
for example, I seem to always screw up when I'm
trying to be like a serious business woman because I'm
putting a ridiculous mask on. And I met with a
(34:57):
financier for the first feature film this week, and it's
like for match funding, and like he brought these huels.
Do you know the huels? And are you aware of God,
I'm just maybe maybe brands left right. And so it's
like it's like a protein kind of meal replacement.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Oh yes, I have heard of that.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, and it tastes like gruel, Yeah, chocolate flavored gruel.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
You had pictures on your Instagram of yourself drinking another
grip m m. Those like frozen Yeah, you had those
frozen like meal things.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Oh yeah, they're not disgusting, They're amazing. Brandon loves them.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
There was yeah, I forget. I can't even remember what
that product was called Daily Harvest. Is that what you have?
There's something that I was There was like a came
like a smoothie and it's funny, it's like, I think
I've had both things. Those things were good. I stopped
using them just because they were expensive for what they were. Yeah,
and then the thing you're you're just gout me, Haley,
I think I've also tried that and it was so gross.
I like immediately tried to return it, and they were like,
(35:57):
just keep it. It's they were of the money, and
I did not seem surprised that I found it disgusting.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I love it. They always seem to advertise it on
Diary of a CEO, so it must be good. M Yeah,
he brought these and I'm opening it and I basically
just threw it down myself, and it was all going
so well, You're like, yeah, I'm I'm on fire, and
then I just threw an entire heel down myself. But like,
(36:26):
at least I didn't have to drink it, I guess.
But yeah, I just definitely had a moment of oh,
I've done so well and now why am I bothering?
But it went okay in the end whatever, But yeah,
have you had a moment in your career where you've
thought why the hell am I doing this?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So one, this was more when I was in New York.
A lot of what I did and have done career
wise is sort of just looking around and being like, oh,
I guess I should be doing what other people are doing.
So in New York, I was doing im prov and
then sort of looking around and be like, I guess
everyone else is getting like TV commercial agents and auditioning
for commercials. I guess I should do that too. And
(37:00):
then in the period when I was auditioning for TV commercials,
they were all to different extents sort of humiliating and dehumanizing.
But the one that I remember in particular was one
where I can't even remember what the product was, but
it was like one where you're like in a little
like room like they always are, and this was like
a first round of auditions, so it's just like a
(37:20):
woman in a camera, and it was something where you
had to get into your underwear so like take off
your shirt and pants and then like mime like park activities,
so like throwing and catching frisbees, like grilling, like walking
it off.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
For Pedophile number one.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I think it was it was for gonna be for
some commercial where your character was supposed to be like
naked and then like blurred out but they needed to
see your body for that. But you're just like it's
like eleven in the morning and it's just you and
a woman videotaping you for whoever the casting director. And
that was one especially at the end, it's like there's
something about like putting your pants back on after in
(37:59):
the room. The next guy waits, Who're just like, why
what is this about? And uh So that was a
moment like that, and it's one of the reasons why
I think I didn't want to keep auditioning for commercials.
It was like, I'll focus on writing.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
The thousands and thousands of dollars of drama school and avation.
Going through the commercials.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think it's a good one to do for your
skill base. Though, if you if you are an actor
he's doing commercials.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Yeah, if you can get one and it pays well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
The advice I think Zach gave me at a certain
point that I that was helpful. He was just like,
just improvised every time you do it. He's like, never
read the script. Just improvise something, and they'll either cast
you because they want someone who does that, or they'll
cast someone who can do the copy. Well. But I
was never going to be someone who could like nail,
like tail and all copy, so it would be easier
(38:54):
for me to just like riff and see a deal
like that. You know, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
There is a it's like drink every time I say Conan,
there's a Conan ad read. He's the same way. He like,
can't do ad read straight up. So there's an ad
read that was so done so poorly that they removed
it from the podcast episode that it was on. But
it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You can you.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Can watch it. And I showed it to my dad
and he was crying. He was laughing so hard because
it's for one of those Toto toilets. Oh yeah, but
the copy was so so a Toto toilet. Yeah, well
who doesn't know what's what?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I know nothing about you guys.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Well this is actually Japanese.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
The Toto toilet is one of those toilets that like
my grandma had one. It like opens when it sees
you coming, and it turns the heat on the seat
and then as soon as you sit down, water starts
flowing and then you go to the bathroom and it
rinses and drives you off and.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Oh cool, you know, just going book.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yes out in leads. But yeah, so he was doing
a Toto ad read. I'll I can send it. Yeah,
it is like it's him, Yeah, it's him being like
I'm going to do this my waye. It's one of
my favorite things ever. But of course they were like
he did not get a part.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
If you have to define Brandon making it, what would
your definition of making it be.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I think that at this point, I've realized that I
don't think that there's anything that could happen where I
would definitively feel like, oh, I made it. I feel
like I've had enough things where it's like I've had
temporary feelings of guys feels pretty good, but nothing lasting
that even the things that I would say in the future,
I'm like pretty confident wouldn't last his feelings where I
(40:54):
would make it. But I will say, because I have
a five year old and she brings up often enough
that she would like we live in an apartment building,
that she would like to live in a house with
a yard, and so like, some part of me is like,
if it was ever possible that we could live in
a house with a yard while she's still at an
age where that would she could benefit from that, that
(41:16):
would be like a good feeling. I would have said
before the show that like, oh, if I ever got
to go create a TV show, I made it, And
then it doesn't feel like that.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah. Yeah, kids are dick though, Brandon, because we moved.
We moved to the countryside so they could have a garden,
and now they turn around to go, oh, we missed
the city, we missed living in the city. Can we
move back to the flat?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yeah, I'd be ready.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, she'll miss it in California. Well, both California and
London are incredibly difficult places to have a house. But no,
that's very sweet. No, their dreams become kind of yours, right.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit, and it just feels bad
when you're like, oh, cure, this feels like something important
to you and I am incapable of giving it to you.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
This it's an important lesson because every time I hear
of another famous person in entertainment who's related to someone
else incredibly famous, my dad knows that he is unable
to give me what I need by being a famous Yes,
and he just retired, so I'm really out of time.
(42:30):
I have a fair change into like agent or actor
or producer. That would have been really great.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, single two.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Yeah, I know sometimes with those those people too, with
famous parents. Part of me is just like just the
advantage of having a vague sense maybe of how things
work would have been huge, Like it even not necessarily
someone getting me an audition or a job or anything,
but just someone being like, well, this is how this works.
This is how you get this job, but this is
(43:00):
how you do this or this. This is a job
that exists. Like, yeah, I think is a big advantage
that people have.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, And I think that's a big issue with I
went to Pepperdine later. So I was twenty three when
I started there and I graduated at twenty seven. And
it was interesting because I had already worked and I
was like I had a little a slightly more life
(43:27):
experience before I started college that in the film classes,
I feel like it was like you can be a director,
you can be a producer, you can be an actor,
And it was like the three jobs, and everyone was
gonna leave and do one of those three jobs. And
then it's like no, Paing taught me. I so like,
dozens of jobs I didn't know existed that I might
(43:49):
have been good at if I started learning about them sooner.
That's only through either seeing it behind the scenes, through
like having your family or actually being on a set
and understanding how many moving parts there are. And then
everyone's like, why am I not a director yet? I've
graduated six months ago. If you had to give a
(44:20):
chapter title that sums up your career journey so far,
what would it be.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I think it would be maybe there's still hope, question
mark oh where it's nice. Yeah, Yeah, it's sort of perilous,
but uh.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Because it's most people's are.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, I guess that's just the feeling of existing is
feels parallel. Yeah, I'm forty two, and that's for along
the journey for a lot of people, and I'm sort
of at the beginning, and so that's sort of perilous.
But it's also like I'm in a point now where
at least in tiny baby steps, it's felt like progress
(45:01):
for the last eight years. So it's always sort of like, well,
it's not great. There's been a lot of if I
don't make any progress in this next year, then maybe
we pivot and then some little thing will happen and
be like, well, there is this we did do this
this year. That's a little bit better. Yeah, And so
the hope is just that that somehow continues.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I'd say most people we've interviewed who are either acting
or writing specific it's very we've had, like I'm scared,
please hire me. And then we interviewed John mcgaro a
couple of weeks ago. His was finally some stability, at
least for.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Now, Yeah, at least for now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
And then I'm sitting here like I'm still trying to
get on the runway, like to get on the airplane,
and everyone's like, well, we're all freaking out too, like great, yeah,
but it's always have the.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
We don't have the mum made kind of constructs of
a nine to five don't do it of like you
go up this bit of the ladder and you go
up this bit and it's all safe, and we just
don't have that. So yeah, there's always going to be
this feeling of warbliness. Yeah, you're gonna have this.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah. My cousin I was I've enjoyed two shows recently
with the same actress in it, Like she's so fabulous.
My cousin sends me an Instagram post that like she's
Bono's daughter.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Someone just told me about this, yeah, and I was like,
you should watch this. Bono's daughter is great, And.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yes, I told this. It's it's called the Perfect Couple.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yes, someone was telling me.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
That it's on Netflix. Bono's daughter is great, Nicole Kidman's
wigs are should be put in jail. I just don't
know she's Nicole Kidman and they A'm just like, where
was the miscommunication? Yeah, but my cousin was like, wait,
you love her? Why are you upset? And I was like,
my cousin is a therapist, and I was like, imagine,
(46:57):
in order to become a therapist, you had to be
Bono starughter Right, it's just anyway. But then I was like,
but I wouldn't not do the same thing, Like if
I was.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
She's good exactly, That's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
She's so fabulous. Yeah, she's really And then I discovered
she's younger than me, and then I felt like whoa,
Like that's never happened to me before. But here we go.
The Yeah, I highly recommend. I highly recommend the show.
It was great, She's fabulous, but the wigs, that's my
one though.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Oh thanks so much for joining us today, Brandon, You're
a legend. Legend. Oh good, I'm glad it was fun.
I'm glad it's fun. People say this and I hope
that being real about it.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
Yeah, if it wasn't fun, I don't know what it was.
This was genuinely fun.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, it was like, yeah, it wasn't it wasn't unpleasant, Like,
it wasn't unpleasant.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
It's a nice way to spend an hour, if you like, Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
With with people who consider you to have made it
and want to know your secrets so that they can
one up you and take your spot.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
And I think as someone yeah who again, who is
like a father who doesn't socialize very much like this.
This sort of structured, scheduled conversation is helpful.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
This is how Haley and I became best friends, this
structured conversation around her schedule and not a minute more.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Yeah, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's what I need.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
How to Make It is recorded from a closet in
New Jersey and a basement in Leeds, United Kingdom. It's
produced by Emily Capello and Haley Murali Darn. For more
adventures with Emily and Haley, follow us on Instagram at
how to Make It Podcast, where you'll find clips from
today's episode, many episode clips, and more random nonsense. Like
(49:01):
and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
wherever other fine podcasts are found
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