Episode #1: Once We Were Spacemen

Once, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk were spacemen… who played a lot of Halo in their downtime. They once did a photo shoot in the back of a Walmart, and this other time Nathan got revenge on an inconsiderate neighbor. And once… you know what, you should probably just listen to the episode.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I first saw you, I was like looking at
everybody coming in because this is when we were meeting
the cast for the first time. Everybody looked the part.
And then the captain walked in and I said, I
get it. Good looking, definitely got it. I went up
and I said, Hi there, I'm Alan. I'm playing the
character of Wash and he said, Hi, I'm Sean Marr,
I'm playing the doctor.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Once we was spaceman, man, I tend to play weird people,
usually aliens and robots and things that don't have romance.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I once didn't get a job where they were looking
for a Nathan Phillian type. Once we were spacemen.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Once we were spacemen, Alan Tudik, Nathan Fillian, tell me
why we were doing this, because once we were spacemen.
Once we were spacemen, and at that time, back in
the nineteen hundreds, we no, no, it was in the
two thousands we were in this. It was early two thousands,

(01:13):
early aughts, early aughts. You and I became friends as
fellow travelers on a spaceship.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Our lives have intersected at a number of interesting points,
but I would say probably being spacemen is probably the coolest.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's where we were cognizant of one another.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, that's where we actually got to know one another
and became pals. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I didn't like you when I first met you, But yeah,
I didn't like you. I didn't like you only because
I considered you. You know how you are when you're
a young man and you create enemies where there are
no enemies, because you decide to compete. You're always in
some form of competition because you haven't you're struggling and

(02:00):
you're striving for your life, still in that place, and
so you find competition wherever you turn.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Did that happen? You were competing with me?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I was, and I decided to compete with you for
your girlfriend. Oh Jesus, yeah, Well see how it happened though,
was I met her first, and so I decided she
is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life,
and so I was always happy to see her because,
certainly in my competition for supremacy, which thank god that's over,

(02:33):
I made. It's a crested when you showed up on
the scene and I realized, oh, she's connected with this
what I called handsome guy back then, and I felt
like my chances with her were really, really not good.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
So what you were talking about is our first ever encounter,
which was at a Mexican restaurant.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Harry's Burritos on Columbus. Yeah, no longer exists there. It's
between seventy It was between seventy second and seventy first Street.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
That was a restaurant I frequented. I loved Harry's Babe
burrito with chicken and black beans. Black beans.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
My usual order like to sit upstairs in the corner
with my girlfriend. And I accepted pretty quickly. You were
a nice guy and a handsome guy, which just only
bothered me. Of course, I never got to know her
as anything other than just the impression she made when
light bounced off of her.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Knowing you as I know you now, I'm gonna go
ahead and tell you right now that probably would not
have worked out between the two.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
How did it work out between the two of you?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Probably? I mean no, So we never married, she and I.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's why I don't see her. Yeah, you've never seen
her at your house.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
But however, you and I continue to now so the
next time we encountered each other, Yes, I was looking
at you across the table saying, holy crap, we got
Alan Tudik. He's a movie star right now. See, I
think your definition of movie star is different from many
other people's definition of movie star. An actor who acts

(04:21):
in movies is not a movie star. Differencer, they are
lucky if they're a celebrity. You are a movie actor.
You are, I mean a movie star.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
I think of stars as people who have you know,
they get the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Even some of those people, you're like him or her,
you know.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
That's why they're stars all the way over on Ivar,
not on Highland.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then you see like a really nice like You're like,
why is Jack Benny on Ivar? And it's sad he
used to run, you know, he was the top of
the top anyway. Yes, you're right, you're right.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
And then that's we be came buddies there so we
would hang out in what we call IRL in real life.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Oh, I don't know, I know so few of those.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I'll clue you in on this on the sixth that
I know. Great, we've worked together in a number of times.
We have worked together the number times since then. When
I first saw you at that I did not make
the connection when I when I saw you at that
same table where you gave me the I don't know
the generous moniker of movie star I saw.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
I was looking at everybody coming in because this is
when we were doing Firefly and that's why I'm meeting
the cast for the first time, and I was going, okay, oh, so, oh,
I know who that you know. I saw Summer and
I'm like, that's the that's the little that's the girl,
that's the young girl. That's got to be because she
was seventeen sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
She so looked apart.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I looked apart, and then the captain walked in and
I said, that is not going to work. I mean,
I get it. I guess it's going to work. Good looking,
definitely got it. But there's just not an air of
that's a captain, that's the person who's in charge.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Well, that's I would think that. I mean, I don't
really have that in real life, but I would hope
that I can. I could act that part. That was
my hope.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
So I went up and I said, hi, there, I'm
Alan I'm playing the character of Wash and he said, Hi,
I'm Sean Marr. I'm playing the doctor. Oh good god, yes,
thank you, you're perfect for the doctor.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
I see where this story is going.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's really what happened. And then you walked in and
I went, that's a captain.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh that well, I feel much better now. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you nailed it.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And I didn't recognize you from the black beans and
the girlfriend's stealing, but I knew you were right for
the room.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
So back to where I started, which was why are
we doing this? We do these conventions to get these
sci fi conventions, we go visit them. They're very kind
to us. When I go to these panels, I think
I get drunk on my own.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
It's not healthy because your ego. Your ego is susceptible
to believing it, believing this beautiful reality that we're all
creating at the convention, this alternate reality where nerds are
king and compassion reigns, that you are one of the
leaders of this realm. And then you come back to

(07:35):
regular life and you say, hey, i'd like to do
this in my career because I'm don't know if you know,
I'm a star, and your agents say, I'm sorry, You're
gonna have to remind maybe your name again. Those panels
are so much fun because you are among friends. It
feels like a party, and somebody gave you the microphone
for the party, and you get to say or do

(07:57):
anything during an hour's long time and feels like long enough.
A very giving audience, yes, a very forgiving audience. We
stole listen. This is how forgiving. One of the first
panels we did. You stole somebody's little body mover thing
mobility scooter, mobility scooter.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Thank you. I borrowed it.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
You, so I borrowed one as well, and we raced
each other around the room and it was it was
a hoot.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
The secret is to turn that little dial towards from
the turtle towards the rabbit.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Mine was worn down. I had like a badger, and
I think I just thought it was a rock. But
now you're saying turtle, that's okay, it's it's been a
long time, when almost twenty years it has been.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, God, when we say when we say twenty years,
oh my god, there's people out there who haven't lived
that long listening to this right now.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I mean they're listening, but they're also scrolling on TikTok,
and good for them. I'm going to get that app
as soon as I loll did I use it?

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Back to cons panels, Michelle Chapman said to us, Hey,
you guys, you know you could do exactly what you're
doing up on that panel in a podcast. You'd be
a success. The one difference alan that I'm noticing is
when we're doing a panel, there is a live audience

(09:22):
who is not just a live audience. They are it's
a stacked deck. They will laugh at anything.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, and right now all you got is me and
I'm a tough crowd.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
You are tough not to crack. So we said, okay,
we'll do a podcast and then, oh my god, trying
to name this thing. We went through a lot of
Firefly esque names because that's how we know each other,
and we're going to talk about Firefly. But we didn't
want it to be Firefly centric, because you know, we

(09:55):
wanted the ability to kind of go elsewhere and do
other things.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
But Nathan, am I going to get to find out
things about Firefly that I've never known before on this podcast?
Because that is what I came That's why I'm here.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Is there something about Firefly that you haven't told somebody already?

Speaker 1 (10:14):
I think at this point some of the things that
I knew about Firefly, I have since forgotten about Firefly,
and learning of them again feels like new information.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
It really does. I love hearing other people talk about Firefly,
or the cast members talking about their experience, anybody who
was involved with the project. I love hearing them talk
about it because it opens up the doorway to my
memories that have been locked up for almost twenty years.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Well, they were criminals and they needed to be locked away.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
So we named it. We went through a lot of names.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Right, what was your favorite that didn't make the cut?
My favorite that didn't make the cut was don't cancel
this one. I know that I knew that was going
to be it.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, and I just thought it was kind of it
kind of touched on the show. But it has a
negative I get it. It has a negative connotation.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, it's from a negative posture of I agree. I
thought it was funny and it is. Yes, yeah, I
get it. The one that I liked. My other top
one was meant to be. Okay, yeah, meant to be.
And I know it sounds at a little shay and
wind chimes sound.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Now we can put that in later right wind chimes,
a little a gong please, there we go, and one
singing bowl and more wind chimes. Meant to be because
that is something that actors say when every actor and

(11:53):
probably artists has that in their back pocket when things
don't work out the way that they want, when they
don't get the role that they want, when they don't
get the things they want, they say, is this meant
to be?

Speaker 1 (12:01):
And you just got to move on to the next thing.
So that was mine meant to be?

Speaker 3 (12:06):
But we landed on.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Once we were spacemen. I think that should also echo
just as a sound note, once we was spacemen. It's
not bad, yeah, because once we were spacemen.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
And I hope that.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
I hope that we can have people on also, like
we've talked about different people we've worked with, that we
can talk about what they once were. Like let's say
we had Mark Addie on here from Night's Tale. I
hope he's somebody we both mentioned, like, wouldn't it be
fun just because I don't think people get to hear
from Mark Addie. He's over there in York. And once
he and I were jousters, once we were living in

(12:44):
e eighteenth century and we were medieval, yes, and I
you know, that's the kind of evil you want to be.
You don't want to be too high end evil, you
want to just be mid So.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
We figured once we were spacemen kind of tied us in.
It touches firefly, but it leaves it open for whatever
direction we want to go to. Let's say, Mark, Addie.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Bidevil, Yes, or anyone else that we would be lucky
enough to have on this podcast that we could talk
about what they once were in their past.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
So what are our plans? Are many plans for this podcast?
Was something we did at our panels. Something we always
do at our panels is when people come up and
ask a question, which is always so lovely, we give
them stuff from our house, the junk, the castaways, right,
you call it crap, Well, that seems to really really

(13:39):
nails it what it is. Just last weekend, I gave
away a rat trap that I didn't use. I had
a rat and I killed it with one trap. I
had a backup trap, didn't need it because the rat's dead,
So I gave it away.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
To a nice young man. Signed that bastard gave it away,
called it crap.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
And I was that man, I'm holding up my hand
with one finger missing.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Gosh, this should be a visual medium because that killed well.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
I described the joke. Nathan holds up his hand with
one finger folded down as if missing a digit. We'll
select a couple people every week or so or whenever
the show comes out, and we'll send them some crap
from your house and my house.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Could we give them something better than just crap? Though,
I feel like this warrants something special, like swag. Yeah,
like you get crap and swag. Sure, I'm looking around
the room. Got our podcast would have like what do
you merch? Merch?

Speaker 3 (14:40):
We'll have merch or I could give like.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Some really good swag. I don't know if you remember
this bottle of.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Water merch idea. No, do you remember? You were doing
three ten to Yuma and you had grown your hair
longer than you'd ever had it, and you wanted to
do a photo shoot. So we went to Olin Mills, Yes,
back of a kmart kmart. Yeah, I think it's Walmart
or kmart. I think it's Walmart in La Walmart. And

(15:07):
we went to like the little photo studio, the Owen
Mills Studio at the back of the and We were
wearing turtlenecks and I combed all my hair down like
a like a bowl cut type, and I wore a
fake handlebar mustache. Yeah, hanging. We took some dramatic poses,
and then the idea was to put that photo on
a bottle of water and call it personal magnitude because

(15:29):
we looked like self help gurus. Do you lack confidence?
You need personal magnitude? I think some of our merch.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
I think that was solely your idea, And if you
told it me, I forgot it quickly after. I think
it's a great idea, and that is I think that's
a possibility.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
I think you named it really. Yeah. See, this is what.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Happens when you know each other for this long. Things
just I'm here to remember stuff for you. This stuff
spills out of your mouth.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
I'm going to open up these memory doors for you.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Ah great, they are stuck. Personal magnitude. Yeah, when you
need Is it any good?

Speaker 3 (16:28):
This water?

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Are we getting it from a bottle from a source?
Extra wet? Also, I'm developing another product I like to
call powdered water.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Just add water.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
This sounds good, that sounds good.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Allan, what brings you joy? What brings me joy?

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, clowns. Really, what do you mean really? Oh my god,
I think this is going to be a discovery.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
The two of a lot of people are afraid of clowns.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I know, and it's because they it's because they've been
taught to be afraid of clowns. But clowns are here
to give joy. They're joyful creatures.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
There's a difference between American clowns and like a proper
like French clown cigarettes.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, cigarettes, cigarettes and a healthy wine intake.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
And they're pretty sad. They're pretty sad. French clowns are pretty.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Sad and they're constipated from all the cheese. But it
is a European clown tradition, Lacock school of clowning, that
I think you are referring to. It's the type of
clown you're going to see at more of a circlets
as opposed to a Ringling Brothers in Barnaman Bailey circus.
They're clowns. They are abominations. They seem to be. I

(17:43):
know that there's some skilled clowns in there, but it's
it is a it is like a child's birthday party clown.
It is let me make you some kind of inflated
rubber animal or something. I don't like it. I don't,
I don't. I'm not find humor in this. But if
you get a European clown, they are the simplest there

(18:06):
Laurel and Hardy, They're Buster Keaton there. These are these
are clowns like silent film artists.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
I did a movie. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I know you weren't invited to the premiere, and it's
been a point of contention for years. I can't wait
to go to that premiere. Dodgeball already premiered, Buddy.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
It's so excited, but I'm gonna wear I have it
all picked up.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, well, you were shooting a movie called Serenity during
the premiere, so you were invited. You just were tired
when I invited you. I guess you don't remember it anyway.
In that movie, one of the biggest bits that was
in that movie was taking rubber balls and throwing them
into the fases of people. And that's the bit. That's it.
That is a that's a clowny thing. That is just

(18:48):
a basic bam hitch in the face with something that's
a that's a good that's a good clown move. I'll
go back to this. Clowns bring me joy. You know
my friend Orlando who teaches clowning. He teaches us clown well.
He taught clowning at Nyuo. Now he runs a department,
a movement department of Juilliard. He is magic and he

(19:09):
can create joy in people. I've seen productions at clown
shows of his that leave me happy for days, days
days of joy.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
This brings me to something else. I once asked you, Alan,
I said, hey, we're working on Firefly together. It was
my first lead role. I was always the other guy,
or the girl's boyfriend or something along the line.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
You were good in both of those shows. By the way,
thanks be very kind. But I had no experience. I
had nothing to draw on, and I was still a novice,
a beginner in a lot of ways. And I said
to you, hey, Alan, how do you come to your choices?
You said, what do I mean? And I said, when
you open your mouth to say a line, how do
you come to.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
The choice as to like, what's your process? And you
looked at me and you said, Nathan, make three choices
before I ever opened my mouth. And I thought, I'm
out of my leg I don't know out of my league.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
I don't know if that's I don't remember. I don't
know what that is now, Like if I did say that,
which I'm not saying I didn't say that, Well you
can't say you didn't because you'd be gaslighting me because
it's had a profound effect on my life. But I
don't know what I meant. I don't know what I
meant by that. I make three choices before I even
open my mouth. I mean, are the choices like brush

(20:27):
my teeth.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I took it to mean I and I have carried
this with me, by the way. I take that to
mean you are making choices while you are listening to
someone else speak. You are making choices while your character
is processing the information he just heard and is now
going to react to that information, And you are making
choices as to all Right, this is how I'm going

(20:49):
to react. This is the reaction I want to elicit.
I'm going to use this tactic like I've built that
all and took it with me, by the way, for
the rest of my career. Oh no, this little casual
comment you don't remember. Wow, that just goes to show
you be careful. What you say, I think we all
because you might make someone a better actor, and I

(21:11):
think you did. But this is something that's always really
wildly impressed me about you, is that the level of
your training you don't you don't scratch the surface of anything.
You crack the surface, you pry it apart, you get
into the sticky bits underneath, and you you squish around
down in there and you root everything so deep that

(21:35):
by the time it's left to you too. And this
is I think one of the main reasons and one
of the incredible advantages anyone gets when they hire you
is they get your brain, your brain to say, what okay, listen,
we can we can write this down and we can
put it on paper. The script we can handle Allan,
And that's great. But what's going to be really great

(21:57):
is what he does with this and where he takes
and what he finds within this to make it live
and breathe. This is what you bring. You bring this
very particular Allen Tutic intellect that is so incredibly informed that.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yes, this is so much, this is so much. This
is so much generosity. And I want to thank you
for it. I don't. I'll just accept it just to
think we can all you're a trained idy.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
What did Julia did? I did?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
I did? But here's here's something in that.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
And you took Orlando's classes about clowning, and you do
movies like I Robot where you are or a resident alien.
You do your program where you are someone experiencing humanity
for the first time. What is that? I this is
not in my wheelhouse. But you curl up into a
beetle and you discover and you go, what would it be?

(22:56):
What would discovery? Everything you see is a new discovery
and everything you process is the time like you can
bring it down you base, Uh, somebody, that's very just,
you know. I used to play a game for a
long time. This just the weirdness of me, Like when
I was in my teenaged years, all the way up
into my teen years and like twenty twenty one, I
would just imagine that I woke up in my body

(23:17):
and I don't know who I am or where I am,
and I have to discover from the things around me
what and who I am. And I would do this
when I was alone, thank goodness, and I would just
find things in my room like what is this? And
I would just look around my room or where, usually
in my room, alone away from others, discovering who in

(23:38):
what I was, and how old I why?

Speaker 1 (23:41):
I know it was fun?

Speaker 3 (23:43):
What fun prompted you to say, Hell, I know what
I'm gonna do, this thing that no one would think
to do.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
I don't know, I don't know. I enjoyed it. I
would just play that game of what. I would sometimes
do it while I was driving. I'm driving her car. Okay,
I'm where am I? What city am I in?

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Okay? Oh?

Speaker 1 (24:04):
I like try to see what would give me what
what would clue me into where I am or who
I am or all.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Of that, like what am I wearing? Who?

Speaker 1 (24:13):
It was just a fun game I would play with myself.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
How brilliant that that is actually a mindset that you possess.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I think it's a clowning mindset, Like you mentioned the
fetal position, which when I'm in that, it's a hell
getting me out of my trailer. They're like, he's in
the fetal position again. I think he's trying to root
down under the surface to get to.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
The cash check the bottom of his closet, exactly under
the table, under the couch, check into the couch.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
He is knee deep in the gushy bits. It's gonna
We're gonna have to let's take lunch. Everybody take lunch.
But that is a clowning doing that, going into digging
around and figuring stuff out there. Definitely the alien that
is a clown. Clowns are people who are born into
the world and don't know how everything works, and they're
just out to have fun and mischief. But I need

(25:04):
to return the favor, Nathan. I have benefited from learning
some skills in the acting. It's a skill. It's a craft,
That's what I'm looking at. It's a craft. So I
have been given different tools in the craft of acting. You, sir,
are an instinctual actor who just knows things and understands

(25:30):
things in a way that can't be taught.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
I put the stink in instinctual.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
That is that's one way to that's one way to
say it, and that we could maybe put that on
some merch, but I don't see it that way. You
understand scenes in a way that just comes immediate and
is simple. So much of acting when you do go
into you know, all these acting classes is simplify, simplify, simplify.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (26:00):
You're getting too well, you're making it too complicated. It's
a simple thing just being in a room, especially on film.
You can just be in a place and it's engaging you.
You understand the simplicity of acting inherently. I, on the
other hand, will go a million miles out of the
way to come back to simple. If I'm lucky, I

(26:22):
get back to simple. You know, it's limiting. So I
think we're a good compliment because you you have something
I will never have. No matter how many tools I have,
no matter how many classes I take, I can never
I will never have your inherent talent. I have a
different muscle that does a different thing that I feel

(26:44):
like is made for stage. Ultimately, I think I'm a
stage actor that has just been mining well.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
I disagree. I don't know if you remember this, but
you came in and did a couple episodes of a
television program called The Rookie. I watched you kind of
Oh okay, well, I have to start here, and I'm
putting the mistery together because all the clues that are around,
so it's going to take me from here. I'm going
to go over to here. I watched you explore the
space and go okay, and then we go we're running, running,
and you started kind of adding you know what I'm

(27:10):
talking about right now, right, yes, And we're running, we're tripping,
we're following, and like you started adding all these bits
because your care like again, because you find this thing
and I watch you and I go, oh, man, to
witness this process is number one. Educational. Number two a
little better, timid. How is you? Listen, buddy, You're not

(27:34):
going to convince anybody. Oh, I don't know how good
I am. I understand society says, hey, man, don't toot
your own horne so much. But buddy, you are very
very good at your job. People hire you because of it.
How many years have you been an actor?

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Now? A lot of them. I'd spend the majority of
my life. Yeah, we're more than thirty. At eighteen, I
said I'm going to be an actor. When I made
the decision to I'm going to be an actor, I
went to school for two years and I got out.
So when I was nineteen twenty, I was pursuing a
career as an actor. I was in an improv group.

(28:11):
I did a little play in Dallas. I did another
little thing in Dallas, and then I realized, I'm not
going to make it. If I make it in Dallas,
then that'll be the extent of my life. I will
have made it in Dallas. And I want to go
to New York or LA.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
And somebody's house. People. Yeah, just I mean, you probably
can't give me a number, but I want you to
kind of think. And I'm going to watch your face
while you're thinking. Think of all the people that you've
started with, you worked with along your journey, who are
no longer on this path. Yeah. That's rough, and you

(28:47):
are still on the path. And it's not for no reason.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, I think I agree, it isn't. I mean, I
think that is That is part of making it as
an actor, is your commitment to it for a certain
period of time above all else.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
We met on Firefly, Yes, I was in that. How
did Firefly? I say that too, How did Firefly change
your life?

Speaker 1 (29:12):
It changed my life? Oh so completely and totally.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Personally, professionally, there's a couple of ways there. There's some
life changes.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
I moved to LA when I left New York. I
was a very much New York actor and talked about it,
probably way too much. I told my friends in New York.
I'll be right back. I'm not going to do that
thing that people do where they got to LA and
they never come back. And that was twenty over twenty
years ago. So I moved to LA and I became

(29:41):
friends with you.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
That actually happened. That's true, which is sort of.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
I don't know if anybody knows or anybody listening has
is friends with Nathan. It's sort of an indentured servitude.
You do become friends with Nathan, but there are certain
responsibilities you have. When I came to LA. One of
the first things when they and I were working on
on Firefly, he said, do you play the game Halo?
And I said, I don't know what that is? And

(30:06):
he said, do you have an Xbox? I said, I
also do.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Not know what that is?

Speaker 1 (30:10):
And he said, great, looks like you're probably work UNTI
around four today looking at the schedule. You're living in Venice,
so when you go home, you're gonna probably take Washington.
So there's that best Buy on the way home, duck
in there. You're making a good paycheck right now, so
why don't you pick up an Xbox, pick up the
game Halo? Plugging into your TV play tonight and let's
talk about it tomorrow. And so I saw you the
next day and he said, what'd you think? I said,

(30:30):
I'm sorry, what about what he said? Halo and Xbox?
I was like, oh, oh you were sill. Oh no,
I didn't. I didn't get that. Alan.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Okay, I'm looking.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
At the schedule. It looks like you get off early
again today. So great, you have another opportunity while I'm working.
You should go to the best Buy on your way home,
take Washington, take Venice, and I bought it and you
would test me on it how good I got. And
so this was this is a requirement within my friendship

(31:03):
of Nathan. I had to learn a skill, but that
skill ended up paying off immensely because it was a
lot of enjoyment playing Halo once I got good enough
at it. But then you invited me onto your Halo
team with Choreo, and we played with your other friends
PJ and Marisa and a guy named Patty. We used

(31:25):
to link our xboxes together and then we would play
and we would normally win because of you and Choreo,
and I would drag us down to where the score
was close, which made it fun. For them because when
I got too good, we just destroyed them every game.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
And this was our This was our way of socializing.
It was before internet, you know, you could get online
and play multiplayer. You had to get together and do
land parties.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
It was great, it was fun. I considered that boxes
that that time period in my memory is one of
the best times.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
We keep getting we keep getting distracted. Oh yes, firefly.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Oh yeah, Well I started going to cons that's the
I mean, had you ever had fandom? God, no, I
had the signature I use now, like like just like
on that level of you know, somebody saying, Hi, would
you sign this thing, which is a part of conventions,
was shaped by these old women outside the stage door

(32:29):
of my first Broadway show. I came out. There was
like five of them. They had note cards and they said, hello, Eli,
you were into show. I don't think they had seen it.
El into show? Could you sign our cards? And I said,
oh wow. I was so flattered. I was so happy.
I'm such a star. Now I'm signing and I signed
it with my signature. There's not much checks my legal signature.

(32:51):
And they looked at and said, I can't read this.
What is this? This is your sign You know this
is nothing I'm going to I can't have this sign
it so I can tell. And so I did a
cursified version of me printing my name, which is my
signature to this day. Thanks to the little old ladies
outside the Broadway stage.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
You changed your autograph so that it could be red.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yes, but now if you look at it like somebody
could read that, it's it's a new Yeah, it's a
Anthony Daniel's signature. He played C three Po in the
Star Wars franchise. He and I have become begrudging friends

(33:35):
as we both played robots, and at a at a
Star Wars convention, his signature is a beautiful thing and
he has all these specifications about that. He has to
standing desk, it has to be at a certain height,
he has to have a certain pen. They have to
be lined up in a certain way, just like C.
Three Po would have it. And it's hysterical. And he's
always beside me. They are always putting us beside each other.

(33:56):
If we're at the same con and he trashed my signature,
just come over into my little booth where I'm signing
things for people, and it'd be like that's what you
call a signature. Look at this, pulls it up, waves
it around in my face, waves it around in people's face.
I can't read this. This is terrible. You know, he
should be friends with those ladies outside the Broadway. They

(34:18):
would be friends. But yeah, that's how I changed my signature.
That doesn't say how did fireflight change? What was the question?

Speaker 3 (34:27):
It was, firefly changed your life?

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well, I think CON's is the biggest one. Is the
fandom is conventions is meeting people who watch the things
that I make and give me a sense of what
it is I'm doing because you meet somebody who says,
I watch this with my father. My father and I

(34:51):
didn't really get along that well, and this is the
one thing we had and the one time when we
really enjoyed each other's company was watching this, and we
both appreciated that this was the thing that brought us
together and we look forward to it. I don't know
how you that that's incredible. And there's so many of
those stories, right, you've had it, You've had a lot
of that.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Definitely. One of the things that kind of excited me
about becoming an actor was and both of us when
we got our start, it was on stage, and it
was a very immediate sense of if you're doing a
good job or a bad job. The applause, the laughter.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
The tomatoes, the lettuce, the tomatoes.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
It's immediate. But you know, as we move on and
we become television and start doing different kinds of mediums,
the audience isn't really there anymore, but it is replaced
with these occasional tidbits where someone tells you the moments
that you created is something that I share with my
with the people that are important to me, and thus

(35:49):
those moments that you created become important to them.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I just realized in this moment there's a benefit to
also the conventions that the people you're me by the
nature of them being fans, weeds out all the people
who don't like what you do. So you end up
only playing the positive reviews. You don't have to wade
through all of the the hell was that swinging a bit?

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Tell me if this is true for you. Sometimes people
are don't know what to say to you when they
meet you. They're excited, they don't know what to say,
and they say something maybe off putting or perhaps too loud,
or perhaps they want to show you how they're very impressed,
and they want to show you how impressed they aren't.

(36:37):
So they're going to take you down at pay right.
Those fortunately are few in far between. Going back to robots,
because this is something you said to me more than
more casion, Nathan, I don't want to be typecast as
a robot, and I'm gonna because I'm going to argue
with you on this because the gentleman who plays C

(36:58):
three poy Daniels. Yes, Anthony Daniels. I'm certain he's an
extremely talented actor, done such a lovely job with C
three po, but I've never seen anything else he's done.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, I don't think he's he wants to do anything else.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
But yes, so I would say that there might be
maybe you could might better be able to say that
he is typecast as a robot. However, yes, I would
argue that you are not type cast as a robot.
But I would say that you alent tudic have created
the new standard for what we culturally accept. Oh, that's

(37:36):
what a robot would be like if we made one.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh that's that's a really general and very cool way
to look at it.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
They want a robot, and they have an idea in
their head as how it's going to be and how
he's going to sound, and how he's going to react
and behave Guys, we're gonna need alentwudic.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Because wow, Wow, that's generous, that's cool, that's nice. I uh,
I did just accept a animated robot character this past week,
which would mark I don't know, number six, number five,
number six robots.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
I'm thinking of four off the top of my head.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
I robot K two s o oh, I'm a robot
in this electric state. I didn't even know it when
I took the job. I was like, oh, that sounds
great people, Yeah, sure, I'll do this, And then I
got there like you're a robot? What shoot? I wasn't
going to do these. I really should read the full email.
And so there's that one. There's Yeah, there's just a

(38:43):
lot of them. Some I can't talk about. How many
things do you have going that you can't talk about?
That's such an interesting thing with the way that the
business works these days, is you have secrets.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
My last one was Deadpool Wolverine, and someone kind of
in an interview kind of spilled it and I was
like they asked me one thing. It's just like, don't
tell anybody, And I felt awful. I was like, I'm
not gonna say anything about that. They asked me one thing,
just don't say anything, so I'm not gonna say anything.

(39:16):
Who Now that's over it.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Who were you in Deadpool Wolverine?

Speaker 3 (39:19):
I was Headpool in Deadpool Wolverine. I was the floating
zombie head with the little beanie chopper. You didn't know this.
I did not know this. I bet.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
I did see the movie.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
If you had read the credits, you wouldn't know because Hey,
I'm unrecognizable. B I'm doing a voice right, so there's
no way to go. Hey, is that? I think that's
Nathan Bild Never know he does that a lot. Family
had no idea he had.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
He'll ask, He'll ask uh celebrities and stars to come
on and then cover them all up in makeup so
you can't tell who they are. I did it with
Matt Damon. I did Deadpool too with Matt Damon. Yes
you did, and you were on.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Both of you are unrecognizable.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I was fairly, but I was just I was just
down home boy me. Yeah, it could have been anybody, though,
what are you talking about? It could have been anybody.
I was so classically individually, I was the standard of me.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
I was the bringing back the Texas Alan Tudic. By
the way, I should have put this in your intro.
I had an intro down home Texan often mistaken for British.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
That has been cool because it's it's a compliment when
people think you're British, because that means that you you
tricked them, You fooled them because I've played British.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Why did they think you're British.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Because I played it? Seems like Night's Tale was one
that a lot of people got introduced to me as
a night Sale and I haven't done that voice in
a long time. But that I learned the accent of
Bob Hoskins driver. They gave me a dialect coach to
help to teach me how to talk as Walt, the
character of Walt, and he had extremely red hair. He

(41:00):
was like to fight, and he talked about pain and
then he foung you, fong you in a holy your
ass and she would And what dialect people did back
then possibly still do. Just tape, have a recording device
and record people's actual accents in the world and she
had met Bob. She was working Bob Hoskins, and his

(41:21):
driver had this incredible accent. She's like, do you mind
if I record you? And had him read a bunch
of like pros into a tape recorder, and then she
had she basically said all of his ah sounds, all
all of his th sounds, a vuh or whatever. She
just transcribed what his accent was. And then we applied

(41:41):
that to Watt. And that's a little piece of history
that now you know, that's gonna be another thing. Oh
that's a.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Hollywood Secrets Okay. I like that one. I like that.
The other one was you wanted to do a piece
of the show. You wanted to do every episode learn
something new about you? Oh?

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yes, I think you and I should tell one another
something that we don't know about each other.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
I know you and you know me, but let's get
to know you bad.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Is that a pre existing song that I don't think so?
I think was the first part. I think is Homer
Simpson's Mister Plott. But then I changed it in the end,
so I think we can get away with it. I
like it. So do you want to share with me?
The first thing?

Speaker 3 (42:38):
That something. I want you to open it up because
I want to kind of see all kind of First
of all, I'm trying to I'm struggling to find something
that you don't know about.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Kay, here's something I don't think you know about me.
You know how when you go to a restaurant, like
a nice restaurant, and you order an Italian restaurant, typically
you order a thing and then the comes back out
with some kind of cheese delivery device. Some either it's
a roly thing for parmesan, or it's a little a

(43:10):
little uh scraper. It's already getting me. There's a scraper greater,
the greater, or it's pregraded and it's in some kind
of porcelain. This is the worst kind. On's pregraded in
a porcelain, little dish and they've got a small spoon
to sift it out over your salad, your pasta, whatever.

(43:31):
That whole experience is so upsetting to me. It is disquieting.
It makes me want to jump out of my skin.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Doesn't matter the delivery device. You don't like it, parmesan
put on your food.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
It's it's not even the parmesan. There's some kind of
there's a there can be an apologetic nature to it.
I need you want some what? I'm sorry I can't.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
I'm sorry you want.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
They seem to want to quiet themselves while they asked
to give you the cheese.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Are you shy about how much cheese you want?

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Like?

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Keep going, keep going, And you don't like the production
nature of it because everybody's seeing how much cheese you wan.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I'm more disturbed by the them doing it and being
uncertain how much to do. And then you'll say stop,
and they continue for just a little while longer before
they register that you said stop, And there's a certain
apology that comes along. Oh is that too much? Just
I don't need any cheese negotiation happening at my table.

(44:27):
I don't want any.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
I don't want any of it. And luckily I am
now allergic to dairy so I can't have any of it.
But I think that crap should happen in the in
the kitchen. But it doesn't even have to be mine.
It's somebody else at the table. The leaning over the
arms across the table, the sifting in the sound as
it falls on the on the salad. I can't take it, man,

(44:52):
I need to calm down. Okay, I'm okay. Did you
know that about me?

Speaker 3 (44:59):
No?

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, that's something about me. It's like they've decided to
make part of the dinner a show, like we're gonna
put on. It's like the It's like when bringing out
the birthday cake at the end and they're singing a
song and suddenly your meal is transformed into a production
and people are focused, Like the focus changes. It's not
a meal anymore. It's about cheese and its dispensation and

(45:22):
how much. And I feel like there's judgment over how
much cheese you want.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
There was one Italian restaurant in Venice that I used
to go to and they brought out the cheese and
they go, here's some cheese, And I said, can I
have some more? And they say no because they didn't
want to ruin the dish because they knew the right
amount of cheese. And that made me feel good. I
need a I need a cheese. I need a parmesan

(45:49):
cheese strong man to dictate to me how much cheese
orchest strong woman. You know, I like a good muscle,
the woman with a wedge of cheese or a whole wheel.
But I I can't make that decision on my own
and I and I don't want it being made over me.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
You need it in front of me, parmesan sponsor.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
That I can just give over my my power to
cheese doula.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
I need a cheese doula. I need somebody who knows
their way with cheese, and I don't. I just don't
have to think I'm not in the driver's seat.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
I didn't know that about you.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah, and now you know that is that's not that's
not melodic enough.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
And I know little more about me.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Thank you. So Nathan, what about you, buddy? What don't
I know about you?

Speaker 3 (46:37):
I don't know if this counts because I just told
you this is yesterday. Then I'm on a plane, Yes,
and the person behind me uses my seat to get up. Yes.
It's like when you're in a rocking chair or an
office chair and you lean back in it and you
expect support, but it goes whoop and goes back and
you think you're gonna you think you're gonna fall back over.
You think you're gonna whoap. So when someone grabs my

(46:58):
chair and just reefs on it, and I think, I think,
for a minute, I'm going to fall?

Speaker 1 (47:01):
So is it a wi No, No, it's oh Jesus,
Oh not a WHEI Jesus.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
That chair is not your handle. You want to get up,
use the arm rests on your chair, stand and turn
I'm remembering, don't face the front of the plane, face
the back of the plane ergonomically, and then use your
chair as balanced to get in and out of your rope. Now,

(47:31):
that's just reasonable to me. That's just kind of how
I was raised. Like, have a good time. But if
you're good time is stepping on other people's good time, right,
you're out. That's just you're not functioning in society the
way people want you to function society. I think your help.
Why do I got to put up with your crap?

Speaker 1 (47:47):
I think you're helping people right now. My guess is
that those people don't realize that your seat is attached
to a human.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
That's inconsideration. That's just not good enough. Oh I didn't know.
I'm spatially unaware. I what's the word I'm looking for.
It's not an excuse, it's ignorance. I'm ignorant of the
fact that this chair is what you're sitting in. I'm
grabbing what you sat on. I'm ignorant of that. It's
just ignorance is not an excuse. No, no, So here's.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
What I do, Alan, So what I know, So this
is what I'm learning about you right now.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Is what I do is when they come back from
the bathroom or what have you, I have now pulled
my chair up to a full position. Yes, so they
can go into their chair properly with considering. I am
holding the button down so if they grab my chair
to sit down loose, it'll drop them. Run the chair. Yeah,

(48:40):
put them down there because they're expecting some resistance on it.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
And then you're educating them one at a time.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
I need a little something for me that says, screw
you for doing that thing. And I mean, if that's
what it is, that's what it is. You know. I
think I have given you, on more than one occasion,
a little stack of magnets.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
I'm about to put one on the car outside my house.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
That's say you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's
a little magnetic business card and it says it is
quite possible you are a fine human being. Yes, and
then in small print below it says, but you park
like an asshole. Yes. Now. I've given these to many
people and they laugh, but they also look at it

(49:26):
with like hungry eyes, going, this could be great. And
then I'll get a report or a text or a
call saying, hey, I used one today and I'm going
to tell you. I want to tell you the truth.
I felt better, and I felt better because there's like
a crime. It's like there's a crime being committed. Right.
This guy took up two spots, and my day could

(49:46):
continue right now. If that guy parked better, right I could,
my day would. But no, you're stepping all over my
good time. Mister good time stepper.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
I think I think you're defining your good times. I
mean by the parking, which is that's that's very it's
just by consideration, I see.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
Just by consideration, it is a good tool to crawl
in this together. Man. Somebody told me the other day
that they saw one in the wild. Oh, and it
was in your neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Oh, that was mine. The guy parked his car right
in front of my house for three months and just
left it there, getting weirdly dirty, and parked way far
away from the curb on a curve, so it narrowed
our street and it was really dangerous, so I put
that was My response was to put a magnet on it.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
I like, I like little revenges. I'm going to say,
I haven't. We have an over developed sense of vengeance.
I lived in a small, little kind of four plex
in West Hollywood. There was four plexes all up and
down the street, so parking was was difficult. I would,
you know, park at night, get up in the morning
and go I don't know where I parked. I'd be
like walking six blocks to find my car. But we

(50:58):
had a neighbor with a muscle car and he made
a practice out of tearing out every time you peel
out his tires every time he pulled away from his house. Sweet,
just like and I talked to a girl one time

(51:18):
and she said, yeah, that's my building. I said, what
is that guy doing? She goes, I've told him I
run a business out of my apartment, and he does
that right outside my window every time he leaves. And
I was I was pissed, and I was unemployed, and
I was watching TV late at night and I could
hear him come down the street being an a hole
about it. I'm just doing that kind of crap.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
That's how my ale sounds a certain foods though, just
certain foods.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Oh. I waited till very late. I went to the
local CBS and they were selling gift cards. They have
the little cards, you know. She opened them up and
they play a little tune. And I pore out the machine,
the mechanism in the little speaker of the battery, the chip,
and the little paper plug that when you pull it it,
you know, makes the connection it plays the music. And

(52:09):
I took a spatula like for flipping hamburgers, you know,
like a little uh huh, flat, little lietle thing, uh huh,
the burger flipper. And I meandered over to his house
about like three thirty in the morning, as you do,
as you do. His car was parked in a little
garage with an open note door carport kind of thing.

(52:30):
And I took the Burger flipper, put it against his
window on his driver's side, and I pulled the weather
stripping away and I dropped the device in the door,
pulling the paper tab as it went in. Slip out
the burger flipper. I go home. Now he's hearing that
little digital ne whatever that tune was from somewhere in

(52:55):
his car and it's gonna either play till the battery
wears out or he takes his panel off his door.
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
You've been pillians. That is that's good. That's good man,
because nobody got hurt. Maybe maybe his weather stripping took
a little bit of damage, but that's it. That's good, wholesome.
Get your backeray uh, No one gets hurt, No one
gets hurt.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
I had I can't.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
I can't. I can't. I can't even begin to do it.
I can't give into anger or being righteous for a
second because my Texas wiring is mental.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
You were English.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
That's such a compliment.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
I'm I'm not offphone you in the Holy eras any
regrets and he regrets? Good God, yes you. I mean,
you're not supposed to know. I look at where we
are right now, what we're doing with our lives. Everything
we've done has brought us to this point. How what

(54:10):
can you regret? You know, I smoked for nineteen years.
That was pretty stupid, and I quit smoking with the
help from you.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Now, I don't think Listen a lot of people who
are listening to this probably have heard this story on
a panel. But please, regardless how did I help you
quit smoking?

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Every time I try to light a cigarette at your house,
you'd hand me a lighter that was wired to shock
me and would electrocute me drop the lighter. So there
was a negative connection with smoking. And then I was like,
damn it, you got me again. You're like, I'm sorry,
laughing your ass off, hand me another lighter. You had

(54:58):
an absurd amount of shocking devices around your house, different
games that involved electrocution. There was a lot of electrocution,
just you were wired to electrocute to the point where
when I looked at after your house at one time,
there was nothing on your coffee table but a pad
of paper and a pen. And I had taken care
of your cat and looked after your house for a

(55:19):
couple of weeks while you were shooting something.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
I was I think in Vancouver for two weeks. Yes,
I think I was in Vancouver for two weeks. You
were looking for your apartment or your place to stay
in la because you were just moving and I needed
someone to watch the cat, just feed the cat.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
Yes, And when it was all done, and I wanted
to say you were coming back the next day, everything's great,
nothing to report. I was it on the coffee table.
There's the pad of Payer's a pad of paper and
a pen right there ready to go. I clicked the pen.
And you had set that trap so long ago, knowing

(55:58):
that at some point I would probably write something down,
and if not during the stay, at the very end,
I would do it. And I did it. But you
also took me to go see the Dan band one night.
Oh you also had to sit down intervention with me
about my smoking.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Do you remember that?

Speaker 1 (56:19):
No, Allan, I love you as a friend and I
don't want you to keep doing this. It kills you.
And yeah, it was the I was like, whoa, whoa
what wait.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
I mean intervention might be a little elaborate. I mean
you didn't read off I told you, I saw you
what you didn't read off of a letter and then
forced me into a program. That's what I sat you down,
and I said, here's how I really feel you about it. Yeah, yeah, buddy,
I got to tell you you've been a grand friend for

(56:48):
a very long time. I admire you, I love hanging
out with you. You you brighten my day. I can't just
fathom losing you to a cigarette.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Yeah that's true, you too, brother, I agree and thank
you for that, and thank you for showing me the way.
It was actually oddly the thing when I went to
the Dan Band with you, which you brought me to
because you knew The Damn Band is a band obviously,
and Dan Fennerman is the sty Finnerty is the singer,
the lead singer, and you were friends with him, and

(57:24):
we went backstage one night and we went to the
backstage and he is very funny. It's a very fun show.
They sing women's power ballads, but it's all guys. Couldn't
give a girl a job obviously. It was very much
early two thousands act. Anyway, they were very funny and
very fun to go see. And we were backstage and

(57:45):
I said, hey, can you can you smoke in here?
He goes, you still smoke, You'll beat the odds. Tap
me on my shoel like, patted me on my shoulder
like you'll beat the odds. Clap, clap, and I was like, oh,
And it hit me hard because he was still in
the glow of being on stage in front of a
bunch of people, like there's a power that you are

(58:07):
imbued with. After that, you kind of have a Anyway,
I quit smoking I think that next week I went
to a hypnotist, and that one in Venice, that weird
dude in Venice that all the stars go to. That
Lawrence Fishburne had given me his number and I had
never used it. And then after that, I was like,
time to call weird dude, who's gonna hypnotize me? And

(58:29):
that's later fantastic. I will take a little bit of credit.
I think we should give Dan Finderty some credit. And
here's a great thing. If you're out there right now
listening to this, the Dan band still tours. Really Yeah,
So Dan Finnerty and the Dan band look it up.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
Alan. This was kind of a soundcheck, yes, kind of
an equipment check, yes, kind of a practice run, yes,
just to see quite possibly our first episode.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Quite possibly, quite possibly, we covered a.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Lot of ground. I'm gonna be honest. I thought we
would talk more about fireflight, but we have time.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Every time we tried to talk fireflight, we talked about
other things. We'd start, we'd start with firefly, and it
would drag us into our lives.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
Because it's it's ingrained and intertwined, interweaved, yes, interwoven. Congress Buddy,
well doctor, thank you job Yeah, I enjoyed this. This
is basically what we do when we hang out. Yeah,
I know, just with less weed. Hello and thank you

(59:35):
for listening. This is Nathan Fillion. Now is the part
where I read aloud the credits for our show in
my best telephone voice. So put on some headphones, lay back,
and relax because this is our time. If you haven't yet,
you can always head over to our Patreon to get
bonus content, longer episodes, and a chance to get your

(59:55):
hands on some incredible crap. If you loved the show,
please leave us and feel free to tell all your friends.
If you didn't love the show, now is the time
for quiet contemplation. Once We Were Spacemen is a Collision
thirty three production. Some of the names I will mention
are my favorite people in the world, and some of
them have room for improvement. You know who you are.

(01:00:19):
If you hear your name being read, please stand up.
This show is produced by Shabon Homan and Josh Levy
of Collision thirty three. We are edited, mixed, and produced
by Resonate Recordings, with special thanks to Courtney Blanquist and
Adam Townseil. Our theme music is done by Carlis Sousa
and Joshua Moore. Artwork by the incredible and incomparable Louis Jensen,

(01:00:42):
but we're going to tell you right now I think
he fakes his accent until next time.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Thanks to the little old ladies outside the Broadway stage