TJ Miller

Comedian TJ Miller talks new comedy special and more!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is on with Mario Lopeza. Mario Lopez joined me
now on Zoom Comedian and Act with t J. Miller.
Welcome to show Man, are you doing I'm excited man,
Thanks for having me on. Thank you for taking the time.
Congrats on the new comedy special, Dear jonah Um any
significance to that title? Um? Yes, absolutely so. Um. If

(00:23):
you see the uh, if you see the special, you
see that. I started out trying to do just a
regular comedy special, mostly about the pandemic and about the
material that I was doing in the pandemic. And when
you shoot a special, you shoot several shows hoping for
one great audience, right, So then I got that one
great audience. It was in Nashville, which Maria, I don't

(00:45):
know if you know that, but it's a bachelor party
and then they put a city inside of it. Love me, Yeah,
you gotta love it. And Nashville can get pretty rowdy.
So the second show on a Friday night is really rowdy. Ye. Look,
if it ends up out of control, then I'll just uh,
you know, I'll just riff and improvise. The director said,
don't do that. We need so I go out there

(01:07):
on this supposedly gonna be terrible show, and it is
the best audience I've ever had. It's so amazing right away,
and I go, this is it. I've got it. Amazing,
And then this guy in the front road starts heckling me.
I don't know why. The hecklers like piss already interrupt,
but I don't understand. You go, you pay money to
get it, And I know he's trying to see you

(01:29):
what what the always want to punch those dudes. It's
so weird, it is. It's a weird. And I deal
with him so much. It's a weird psychology. They kind
of want to be in that they want to be.
They trying to impress their girl or what's their deal. Yeah,
actually I don't know because it never impresses the girl.
And so and this guy was like drunk, but heckling

(01:49):
in a positive way because he was drunk. He was like,
that's good, that's true. He said, it's true, it's true.
And then I would keep talking to go, it's hilarious
because it's dr that's fine, it's fun. And I just
I was like ignor um, ignored, and that I couldn't.
So then I say to him Hey, you were in
cargo fans, what kind of cargo you rolling? What's your freight?

(02:10):
You know, what's your hall? And he proceeds to give
this really long detailed explanation cargo without any cargo. He
doesn't care anything in them. But as soon as he
starts talking and immediately becomes clear to everyone he is
not drunk at all. He is developmentally challenged ode on

(02:30):
the spectrum autism, I don't know down syndrome. The whole
the whole audience freaks out and you can feel the
tension in the room because they're like, what is t
J gonna do? Right in Deadpool, he insults Ryan Reynolds
and Silicon Valley and sold everybody is he gonna go
after this kid? And so I immediately say, um, I

(02:51):
want you guys to know that I am not going
to make fun of him at all. And the whole
place goes crazy because that tension is released, and so
then I kind of compliment him and moved to the
next part of the show, but he interrupts, and so
I incorporate him in the show a little bit later,
and then slowly through the show where he becomes like

(03:11):
the star and so people will get excited about what
he says. I asked him his favorite part of the show.
He says, the funniest thing the entire night, the closer.
You've got to watch all the way through because the
closer is him and me doing this like really funny,
hilarious thing. And so at the end of the special,
I was kind of like, I went out there to
film the Pandemic special, but I think this is about

(03:34):
Jonah is the kid's name. And right away my wife
Kate comes around. We've known each other since college, so
we're just on the same page. He goes, I think
that's the special, and the director agreed, and so we
cut it together and used that night as the night
and then Jerry picks some other stuff but brought in town.
It's only a forty five minutes special because the more

(03:55):
I watched them where I worked on it, the more
I had people going, yeah, it's really good, but where's Joan.
I wish it was more Jonah, And so we caught
him on all that step. So that's I changed the
name of the special to Dear Jonah. It's kind of
a love letter to this this kit. Wow, thank you
for taking me through that therapeutic journey. But it totally
makes it totally makes sense. And then you ended up

(04:16):
with an unintended co star. That's cool. Yeah, I ended
up unintendedly on on with Mario Lopez. It's all it's
all worked out. You mentioned, uh, Deadpool, um a bit ago.
Do you know if you're gonna be back for part three?
I cannot talk about that. Gosh, none of those guys
talk about anything that's good though that They tell you

(04:38):
not to talk about something that means that you're probably involved.
You're just not allowed to talk about it to what
extent I respect that, right or I am not involved?
And they know how bad that's going to be a
next talk about it? Has this movie become even more
secretive than usual because it's now part of the m
c U. Yeah you mean dear Jonah. Yes, no, he's

(05:01):
a bit of a superhero you'll see from the special. Yeah, yeah,
of course, but all that stuff is always secret. I mean,
you know what I mean, it's kind of it's got
to be secret because they're so worried about it. My
friend and I are writing a movie that we're working
with two directors who are very very very very very
very powerful, But I'm not gonna tell you who those

(05:23):
two are to get it, and I'm not gonna say
if it's that they're involved in the Marvel universe are
used to be. I can't talk about that right now.
Fair enough, I can't say it's a Christmas movie, but
I'm not gonna say whether or not it's Interstellar. So
that's kind of how we're told to talk about stuff.
We're not gonna say that it's gonna shoot in twenty three,

(05:44):
so I won't. I won't say that. But it's kind
of how you have to exist with here in this
world of secret It's like be a secret agent, except
your secret power is just to say things they write down, which,
by the way, makes it very difficult doing interviews because
then what do you talk about? You're not a lot
of talking about stuff exactly, either your stand up comedy
special or exactly talking the way that we're talking right now.

(06:08):
What do you talk about on your podcast Cashing In
with t J Milley? Thanks man, It's very similar to
yours in the sense that I do an impression of
Mario Lopez and then my co host kind of acts
like a creepy guy sitting right behind me to my right.
You know, I'd watch that. I'd listen to that. Yeah,

(06:29):
I watch it. We have it unsued everything. Um no,
it's great. It's my my friend Cash Levy, very funny comedian,
another improvisational comedian. He it's his interview show, but he
has a tough time getting guests. He loves to talk
to you actually, but he's never had a guest. I'm
the only guest that's been on for seven and a
half years. So it's kind of we need a little

(06:51):
bit of diversity. I think a little bit of dynamic
in there. But yeah, it's fun. It's like, um, it's
all just absurdism, improvisation, then philosophy. So we would talk
about what you just said, which is like why do
they want people to do publicity for things and they're
not allowed to talk about it, you know. And it's
like in the special we talk about how you actually

(07:12):
you like this? You know that song like oh bom
Bomb Duty of course? What movie was that first? Of course?
And everybody, what's your favorite part of that song? Do
you have a favorite part? The oh yeah? Really most

(07:32):
crowds like the god No, I like the oh yeah.
You're literally bro, you're literally the first person that has
ever said that, and I gotta be honestly, I'm also
because that's that's how we roll, that's how the two
man that's my wife is Oh, yeah I love it.
I love it. Yeah. My wife just walked in right now,

(07:54):
So that's great. Man, Um, congratulate. Yeah, I'm more than
you want to right now. Don't want to know, No,
not bad. I relate tonight, babe. No, you do never
want that. The comedy special is called Dear Jonah. It's
available right now on YouTube. T J. Thanks so much
for checking in. Congrats, thank you so much, thanks for

(08:16):
albaving spread the word. It's very very special, uh special
special special right on, man, let's see it. Thank you,
you got it And with Mario a little petti