10:00

The other girl that Eric was talking to said

10:02

that her dog had been murdered as well. Which

10:04

is, I think, a strange way

10:07

to phrase it. I don't know. Maybe we lost

10:09

something in translation. I'm hoping this isn't the first

10:12

any of our listeners have heard about Norway. Because Josh

10:14

is making it seem like a real dog crazy place.

10:17

I mean, yeah. Here's,

10:20

this is the, I'll never

10:22

forget, I was on the train from Oslo

10:24

to Stockholm the first time I heard the

10:26

Kanye West song, Power, where he has the

10:28

line fuck SNL on the whole cast. And

10:30

I remember having a real like, oh, oh,

10:33

oh, you got called out, got called

10:35

out. But yeah, it

10:38

was it was a fabulous trip. Both of

10:40

those cities are spectacular.

10:43

Also in Sweden, in Stockholm,

10:45

I stopped by Meatballs for the People. This

10:49

great meatball restaurant. I

10:51

didn't you know meatballs for the people? I

10:54

did. Yeah. But what did you eat? Vegan

10:56

meatballs. And how were they?

10:58

Delicious. Great. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

11:01

so happy that you got you get your meatballs

11:04

without having to, you know, disobey

11:08

your principles. Thank

11:10

you. Yeah, me too. Yeah, it

11:13

was a great trip. Great friends. Great

11:15

places. I feel like so much

11:17

more to do in both of those cities. So

11:20

I'd be happy to go back anytime. Well,

11:23

it's a very, you know, a resoundingly

11:25

positive review for Stockholm and Oslo. And

11:28

I'm happy you're back. Yeah,

11:30

glad to be back. Glad to be back. This

11:32

is if you are listening

11:35

right now and you've never heard of John

11:37

Early, I think that you will both enjoy

11:40

this podcast and want to educate

11:42

yourself on his complete oeuvre. He

11:45

is so unique, so wonderful, so

11:47

sweet. And it was just a fantastic conversation.

11:50

Yeah. Yeah, I really like this

11:52

guy. So. And you're going

11:54

to listen to him right after you hear our

11:56

good friend Jeffrey Tweedy. Family

12:01

chips with

12:03

my brothers

12:06

Family chips

12:09

with my

12:12

brothers Here

12:15

we go So

12:20

we should play brothers We

12:22

should play brothers Well

12:25

you and Josh should play brothers Oh my god,

12:27

I mean that, the hair, just

12:29

everything Oh, but

12:31

why not you? I mean I'd love it too if

12:34

you guys would involve me, I would love it Yeah,

12:36

we'll see, we'll see if we can write a part for

12:38

you It doesn't feel organic

12:41

yet I am so happy

12:43

to have you here I'm going to come

12:45

and visit me soon on my show And

12:47

I will, I will echo a lot of

12:49

this I'm so excited Sentiment, you are one

12:51

of our favorite guests Your

12:53

special Now More Than Ever is so wonderful And

12:56

I'm just going to jump in because I feel like

12:58

there was a family trip involved in this special Which

13:00

is your parents obviously took a trip to New York

13:02

City To be

13:04

in the audience for your special Yes

13:08

And it's one of the funniest uses of

13:10

parents in a special I

13:12

don't want to give anything away but you do sort

13:14

of throw the spotlight on them Yes,

13:18

it's like a kind of torture device

13:22

Did they know that you were going to sort of put them in

13:25

the special that way? Well, you

13:27

know, I wish I could

13:30

keep the illusion alive and say that

13:32

they were totally surprised But the

13:35

truth is it's something I have been

13:37

doing to them for years at

13:40

my live shows Gotcha But

13:42

there was the first time I did it

13:46

They were, they had absolutely no

13:48

idea And it was one of

13:50

the most like thrilling artistic experiences

13:52

of my life Were they happy

13:54

about it? They

13:57

were very happy I mean, they were shocked

14:00

And, you

14:03

know, there's obviously a certain level of discomfort

14:05

that I'm, like, enjoying, but, like, for the

14:07

most part, I think they find

14:09

it very sweet and silly. One of the... Well,

14:11

there's a couple things I want to ask about. One that you've been doing it for

14:13

a long time means your parents have

14:16

been coming to your shows for a long time. Have they

14:18

always been? Does that mean have they always been really

14:21

supportive of your journey into being a

14:23

performer? Completely supportive. Just seamless. It

14:27

was totally fine.

14:30

Yeah. I'm very lucky. Is

14:33

it correct they're both former ministers?

14:35

Yes. They both... My dad is...

14:38

They're both ordained ministers. My dad

14:40

was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

14:43

My mom as a Disciples of

14:45

Christ minister. Whatever that means. They

14:48

sound more hardcore. They

14:51

sound more hardcore, but I think it's all kind

14:53

of just, like, milk-toes

14:55

Protestantism, you know?

14:57

Thank God. But

14:59

when I was really, really young, they

15:01

were, like, full-time ministers, and then

15:04

I think they both kind of were, like... They

15:06

both kind of did religion-adjacent

15:08

jobs after that, but they don't do

15:10

it full-time anymore. So I

15:12

never... I think I would have been

15:14

much more traumatized had

15:17

I actually been, like, the pastor's son. You

15:19

know, like, kind of the face,

15:22

like, the family, the

15:24

public-facing, you know, pastor's son.

15:26

But that was not the case. All I

15:28

really did was just kind of... Someone's

15:32

at the door. All

15:36

I really... I know what it is. It's a delivery. All

15:38

I really did was kind

15:41

of get in the back of the car and

15:43

go to, like... They would just preach all

15:45

over the South. They would

15:47

do guest preaching, or they would do

15:50

weddings or funerals, and

15:52

I would pop around and go to these weird churches in

15:55

the middle of nowhere in, like,

15:58

Mississippi, and, like, sit and...

16:00

in the back and just be bored out

16:02

of my mind. So

16:04

home base is Nashville? Yeah.

16:06

Okay. You have one sibling? Yes.

16:10

Where is her sister, older, younger?

16:12

Older sister, she's about six years

16:14

older than me. Is

16:16

she also in the traveling minister

16:19

roadshow in those days? Yes,

16:22

totally. Were

16:24

you a team? Would

16:27

you be like, hey, let's

16:30

go see if they've got donuts in the basement,

16:32

or would you have to just endure? No,

16:34

it was all about donuts. It

16:37

was all about donuts for me. That

16:39

is my, people always

16:41

assume. I definitely exploit

16:43

this in my biography of

16:46

myself coming up this fall.

16:48

I'm kidding. There's no book. But

16:51

in talking about my life, I

16:53

like to drop that my parents

16:55

are ministers and let people's imaginations

16:58

go crazy. They assume I was

17:00

like, I don't

17:02

know that they're like Baptist, like

17:04

tent revival, which is just totally not

17:07

the case. To me, religion or that

17:09

I was a gay kid, like

17:12

quaking in fear of my religious parents. It's

17:18

really, really not the case. All

17:20

religion was for me was like the

17:22

hunt for Krispy Kreme. And

17:26

I was like, and 90% of the time

17:29

I was disappointed because it happened like once.

17:31

And so I just every time I was

17:33

like, it could happen again. And

17:35

then it was always like some baked good that

17:37

was like inedible. And I was

17:39

like, just get Krispy Kreme. It's what the people want.

17:41

Yeah. Yeah. I somehow feel like this

17:43

is an analogy of faith, the idea that it

17:46

happened once. And then you just your belief was

17:48

that it would be there every time. That's

17:51

beautiful. My sister

17:53

and I would just like, we

17:55

would play tic-tac-toe

17:58

on the bulletins, the church.

18:00

of the bulletins. And sometimes

18:02

we would just try to entertain ourselves,

18:05

really. So we were very in it

18:07

together. We would highlight

18:09

words in the bulletin,

18:11

or underline words in the bulletin, to

18:13

make a story. That's

18:16

very advanced. Yeah, thank

18:18

you. It's

18:20

also using what you got in that moment. And

18:27

then we'd also, the big thing

18:29

to keep ourselves entertained was singing

18:32

the descan't, the soprano descan't of

18:34

every church hymn. And

18:36

we would just die laughing. It's

18:39

very sweet and very fun. What percentage

18:41

of people do you think are trying to hit

18:43

the soprano part in

18:46

any different congregation? It's

18:48

usually just the reserved for the choir, which

18:51

is why that was fun. It's for the

18:53

advanced musicians in the choir. And then everyone

18:55

in the congregation is supposed to just hum

18:57

along. And so that is

18:59

what would make us laugh so hard. Gotcha.

19:01

It's like, yeah.

19:03

And did she have your same

19:06

performer bent? Was she like

19:08

that as well? Well,

19:12

interesting the use of the word bent. Yes.

19:15

I was looking for a different one and

19:17

landed there. Wow. My

19:25

sister is extremely funny, but

19:28

for some reason didn't feel the need to

19:30

spend her life making money off of that.

19:33

She chose a life of integrity and

19:35

privacy. But no, she's very, very funny.

19:38

But no, she's not a performer. Gotcha.

19:42

In your early years, who was the audience

19:45

you were most aiming

19:47

for approval from? Your parents or

19:49

your sister or strangers? It

19:53

was my sister and her friends.

19:55

Yeah. Six years. I would imagine

19:57

having a six-year-older audience. That's a

19:59

real something. that I aim for. Yeah,

20:01

exactly. It felt, because they were in high

20:03

school when I was in middle school, so

20:05

they felt so cool to me. And it

20:08

was girls, it was like funny

20:10

girls. And so I would just,

20:14

I would basically just rip

20:16

off Sherry O'Tary routines. I

20:21

would just do morning latte for them,

20:23

basically. Yeah, probably played pretty well, I'm

20:25

guessing. Yes, it did.

20:28

I was good at it. I

20:30

won't lie. I wanna say there's

20:32

this really nice thing that happens and you're special when

20:34

you cut to your parents. You don't say

20:37

they're ministers, but they kind of look like they are. It's

20:42

not shocking after the fact, that's

20:44

the case. But also they look

20:46

very loving and supportive. It's a

20:48

really, because you sort of cut to them when

20:50

you're talking about sex. The

20:53

things that any performer would not,

20:56

like you would think any performer's parents wouldn't wanna

20:58

be on the spot in that moment. And

21:01

there's a real lovely shyness

21:03

and recoiling from them that

21:06

you can tell they genuinely are sort of

21:08

in on the game. Yes,

21:10

totally. And I

21:12

was worried, like, you know, because I've done

21:15

it, they've come to my show, my big

21:17

show where I had the spotlight, like probably

21:20

eight times

21:22

over the years. So I was worried

21:24

that we wouldn't get the kind of

21:26

authentic surprise and embarrassment from them. But

21:29

the truth is, it's

21:32

not just what I'm talking about, it's that there's

21:34

an audience full of people who are actually

21:37

surprised. The audience is

21:39

never expecting it. And so

21:41

they're just like, and it's so sweet the

21:43

way people just know, I don't have to cue

21:45

them in any way to just like give

21:48

them just like overwhelming applause

21:50

and love. And I think

21:52

that's what's actually making them shy is a

21:54

room full of people like screaming for them.

21:57

And there's a really nice move that of course you

21:59

would. only do if it wasn't

22:01

true, you're so mean to them. And

22:05

the audience knows that the only

22:07

reason or way you would do that

22:09

is if it wasn't true, is

22:11

if you really loved it. Thank

22:15

you. And this is what has been

22:17

shockingly, I think most people understand that

22:20

when they're watching it, there was a

22:24

very prestigious critic

22:26

who was talking about

22:28

it as if it were suffocatingly kind

22:32

of ironic or disaffected. And I'm like,

22:35

what? To

22:38

me, it's so obviously full of

22:41

love. Yes. And

22:43

I'm a comedian, I'm not gonna actually

22:45

go, I just want to take this

22:47

time to say how much I love

22:49

my parents and they, you know what

22:51

I mean? Of course I'm

22:53

gonna do the opposite thing and

22:55

you're gonna have to interpret

22:57

that underneath that is actually like, it's

22:59

a very tender act. It's

23:03

also there's something sort of

23:05

novel about the

23:07

idea, it's that

23:09

counterintuitive thing that I think is actually more true

23:12

than people would lead on, which is a lot

23:14

of comedians actually do get along with their parents

23:16

and their parents loved at a very young age

23:18

that their kids could make other people laugh and

23:21

then want to come. Like the fact that they

23:23

come eight times, I just did stand up and

23:25

my parents came and Josh came and my dad's

23:27

come enough that he feels fully confident to say,

23:29

I feel like that bit's worked better in the

23:32

past. And

23:35

so you're both frustrated about the honesty

23:37

because he more often than not is

23:39

right, but it's also like this really

23:41

special thing of like, well, he has

23:44

seen that bit six times. So he

23:46

has the right to say. Really sweet.

23:50

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we go. So

27:20

did you take any family vacations

27:22

that weren't part of being out

27:24

on minister? minister,

27:27

very nice. Yeah. Minister?

27:31

Oh my God, that's my next tour. Yeah.

27:36

Thank you. By

27:39

the way, obviously I should title something son

27:41

of a preacher man, what am I doing?

27:44

You have two new specials. Minister

27:46

or maybe son of a preacher man, the

27:48

minister. Yeah, yeah. But

27:50

it just, I think the reason, but then it

27:52

excludes my mom. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

27:56

Yes, we did go on vacations. Yes.

28:01

There are some very memorable ones. There's

28:06

like the family. There's

28:10

a trip that we took to Disney World. Did

28:13

you drive or fly? No. We

28:16

flew to Florida from

28:18

Nashville. Yeah. It's

28:22

particularly memorable to me

28:24

because this is

28:29

the trip where I was

28:32

eight years old. I had

28:34

no understanding of geography. I

28:36

didn't know if we were

28:38

going to a different country

28:41

or to a different state. I frankly don't know

28:43

and it's possible I still don't know the difference

28:45

between a state or a country. So

28:49

I just was like, I only knew is

28:51

like we're flying somewhere else to another world.

28:56

There was a Mariachi band and

29:00

they played. Basically,

29:02

they're like, we're going to do the Macarena.

29:04

Does anyone know the Macarena? I raised my

29:06

hand even though I didn't know the Macarena.

29:10

They brought me up and

29:13

they sweetly taught me the Macarena and

29:15

I did whatever. I'd never heard it.

29:18

I'd never seen the dance. That

29:21

was the year that there was

29:23

the gigantic Macarena craze, where

29:26

the big song, the big pop version of

29:28

it came out. When

29:32

I got back to Nashville and I started hearing

29:35

it on the radio, when we started doing it

29:37

in PE, I

29:39

literally was like, I

29:43

brought the Macarena to America.

29:47

I sincerely was like, wait,

29:49

wait, wait. That came with me. I

29:55

actually thought I was responsible for

29:57

the craze. in

30:00

the United States. Well done. But

30:02

even though I had only been in Florida. Yeah.

30:05

Yeah, that's like, even like, the best part is, even

30:07

if you thought you'd brought it from Florida, that would

30:10

have been a crazy thing. But the fact that you

30:12

thought you brought it from America, even though it was

30:14

from Florida is a nice bonus. Also, it's fun now

30:16

to actually have an eight year old and know

30:19

for a fact they think like that.

30:22

Just like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, why would they

30:24

know? Yeah. They don't know like

30:26

the way like pop music, they

30:29

don't understand like media cycles. Do

30:32

you think that you thought

30:35

that sort of the craze that ensued and

30:37

you saw all these people doing the

30:39

dance, do you think they had sort

30:42

of seen a home movie of you

30:44

doing it in Florida? And that you

30:46

also, you were sort of on

30:48

the vanguard of that part

30:51

of it? I don't think I thought

30:53

that they had seen it. I just thought

30:55

like, I was kind of

30:57

one small, like

30:59

little pebble in a lake that

31:01

then there was a rippling effect.

31:03

I thought like this happened to me, I

31:06

maybe kind of told someone about it, maybe

31:08

I played someone the song. And then before

31:10

I knew it, that had kind of spread

31:12

like wildfire and everyone had like

31:15

the Macarena craze. I remember,

31:18

and I bet we were in Florida as well, but

31:20

we were on vacation the first time I heard Al

31:23

Yankovic eat it. Oh

31:26

my gosh. So we heard

31:28

that and again, I think I had a sense

31:30

of like, this is something that only is happening

31:33

where I am now and this isn't home. And

31:36

I remember going back to recess and

31:38

being like, gather round. Y'all

31:42

are about to have your minds blown. And

31:44

it was like, everyone's like, yeah, no, we

31:46

no eat it. It

31:51

came out on all the radios

31:53

at the same time. Yeah. My

31:56

fiance's best friend Julia studied

31:58

in the Netherlands. in high

32:00

school for like a semester and

32:02

came back and thought that she had brought

32:05

Mambo number five back with her. And it's

32:07

like, yeah, I know what it is. They're

32:09

all big songs. These are all big songs.

32:11

These are all big, important songs. Yeah, that

32:14

you guys brought back. So thank you. And

32:18

did you guys travel well as a

32:20

family? Yes, I mean, I think

32:22

I caused a lot of drama in my, on

32:28

road trips due to my, there

32:32

was a lot of like bathroom issues. Interesting.

32:36

Yeah, yeah. Like,

32:39

I mean, first of all, there's

32:41

something so beautiful about like car

32:44

trips. I mean, I know people still take

32:46

them, but the fact that

32:48

we didn't have screens and

32:50

we for hours were

32:53

forced, because the most vivid

32:55

thing about those trips to me are

32:57

like that the

32:59

main challenge was like how to not be

33:01

bored out of your mind. Yeah. And

33:05

like, I remember like making

33:07

a little, like putting a little, like making

33:10

a little hoop out of paper and like

33:13

tying it to the, my mom's like the

33:16

head of her car, her seat, and then

33:18

like crumpling up a ball

33:20

and make a little basketball goal. And like,

33:23

you know, they're just, it was, what

33:28

kids today, they do not know how to

33:30

deal with their boredom. Yeah, I, again, I've

33:32

done this a few times, shout out to

33:34

my wife. Shout out to my wife.

33:37

She will not, the kids do not have screens

33:39

in the car. And it

33:41

is, it's really amazing. It's

33:44

really great. Like we will, no, we will.

33:46

And do they freak out? We know, we

33:48

will like listen to like

33:50

fairy tale stories, you

33:53

know, like, and that's, you know, a

33:55

slight drag as an adult, having to

33:57

listen to them, but then you can

33:59

just turn it. You can turn it

34:01

into white noise if you just stare

34:03

at the dotted yellow lines long enough.

34:05

You're really just not even in the

34:07

car. But it

34:09

is... And then my two and a half year

34:12

old is doing a lot of like... She wants

34:14

to draw and the only thing about

34:16

that is she's got... You know, she's... Let's be

34:18

honest. Two and a half year olds have weak

34:20

hands. She's just dropping her markers the whole thing

34:22

and the amount that it's like, Oh my god,

34:24

the yellow! And that's a real asset. But they

34:27

don't have screens and I think it's better

34:29

because they are all sharing. That's so impressive.

34:32

But they know about screens. Yeah, because they

34:34

look at their parents. Right,

34:36

yeah. We would look at them the whole time. I've

34:38

got it rigged up. Like I think the last

34:40

drive home I was watching Godfather 2. Just

34:43

like, yeah, I barely could see the road, but

34:45

what a film. I

34:52

had a really... Josh is busting us accurately

34:54

for the fact that we look at

34:56

our screens too much. And we went to a thing at school.

34:59

This is a very... A teacher said

35:01

something to us because everybody's worried now about

35:03

kids and screens. I think they were before.

35:05

There's a new book out, Anxious Generation. But

35:07

they said, don't... When you're a parent, when

35:10

you pick up your phone in front of your kids, say

35:12

what you're going to do. So if

35:14

you pick it up... Oh my god, yes. I'm going to

35:16

check the weather and then you pick

35:19

it up. And it's amazing how it stops

35:21

you from being like, I'm going to do Wordle.

35:24

I know we're all having breakfast, but daddy... Daddy's

35:27

going to do Wordle while you're talking.

35:30

No, this is similar

35:32

to the Macarena. This is actually

35:34

something that I thought I invented like the other night,

35:36

which was like I was with friends

35:38

and I was like, we have to just say what

35:40

we're... Like if you pick up your

35:43

phone, that's fine. But you actually have to acknowledge,

35:45

like say what it is you're doing. Because most

35:48

of us, it's so unconscious. Yes. I

35:51

don't know why I'm picking up my phone. I have no... First

35:53

of all, why is it right here? Yeah.

35:55

It's because you can't deal with boredom.

35:58

It's a boredom figure. Yeah,

36:01

yes, yeah, but it and I but I pick

36:03

it up and then if you actually say what

36:05

you're doing, it's so humiliating It's like I'm checking

36:09

Instagram for the 45th

36:11

time and I I I opened Instagram I

36:13

closed it and then I opened it again

36:18

It's like back-to-back checking it's so

36:20

bizarre I heard some Good

36:23

a good thing to do when someone's looking at their

36:25

phone is to just ask them is everything okay? And

36:28

then they're like passive aggressive. Yeah passive

36:30

aggression. Yeah, but it makes it makes

36:32

them realize like oh, yes I'm being

36:34

rude right now and what I'm doing

36:36

has like it's not important Unless

36:39

it is yeah, and then you can say like

36:41

oh no, there's there's an emergency. I have to

36:43

tend to etc Yeah,

36:46

can you just drill down a little bit

36:48

more on the the minister? What did you

36:50

say? What was your word

36:52

for Josh the minister minister? So

36:55

you would this was this always on weekends

36:59

That you that you would go out on

37:01

the road. Yes, typically on Sundays. It wasn't

37:03

constant by any means We

37:05

we were you know members of a Presbyterian

37:08

Church in Nashville that we mostly went to

37:10

I Should

37:12

also say this is a huge this is a huge

37:15

piece of information about me. Is that when

37:17

I like when I was West

37:21

Borland the bassist in Limp Biscuit.

37:23

Uh-huh Okay,

37:25

his dad was our minister

37:28

great cool at my church

37:30

in Nashville Yeah, and and his

37:32

dad baptized me Wow. All right.

37:34

Now. This is something when you're

37:36

getting baptized Wait

37:39

timeline me how big is how old are you

37:41

in Limp Biscuit is a big deal? It

37:43

was it was way before Limp Biscuit was a

37:46

big deal Okay, but was there a time that

37:48

he was your minister and they were known no

37:51

sadly. Yeah Yeah,

37:53

that would have been cooler but he

37:55

did that has me I will say again It's

37:59

funny that that even though now you're famous,

38:01

you're trying to pass that off as your

38:03

claim to fame. Like,

38:08

it's like, it's okay, John, you've done

38:10

your own stuff that's actually better than

38:12

being baptized by a man related

38:15

to the basis of a band I

38:17

don't think you like. Is

38:19

it on your resume under special skills?

38:22

Like, it's like also. No,

38:24

it should be. It should be

38:26

also Steve Wynwood was at my

38:29

baptism. Wow. And that's what

38:31

it means to grow up in Nashville. That's great.

38:33

Oh, but he was there because he knew someone

38:35

else getting baptized? What? No,

38:38

he was like, I guess,

38:40

kind of checking out the church.

38:43

Okay. He went, apparently he lived

38:45

in Nashville, maybe still does, he's

38:47

alive. He's alive, I think.

38:49

Yeah, I think he's alive. He is alive. Yeah.

38:53

But yeah, he, I think was doing kind

38:55

of church touring. Gotcha. In

38:58

Nashville. That can

39:00

happen, you know? Yeah. Big

39:02

fan, big fan. I know he's alive

39:04

because we just, about a

39:07

couple months ago, we did a sketch

39:09

where Andy Samberg, via Zoom, played Steve

39:11

Wynwood. And

39:13

in like a, like in a child's

39:16

wig, the kind you would buy if

39:18

your kid was into wigs, like that bad

39:20

a wig. Yeah. And at

39:23

one point he goes, I want to admit

39:25

something Seth, I'm not really

39:27

Steve Wynwood. And he took off his wig

39:30

and a bunch of people in our audience

39:32

gasped. And I had to be

39:34

like, are you just, have you just been like

39:36

trained to gasp when someone takes

39:38

a wig off? Like what? Yeah.

39:40

Because we all knew it wasn't Steve

39:43

Wynwood, right? Yeah. That's

39:47

really sweet. Did you see a lot of,

39:50

because I know I

39:53

sort of, I think incorrectly

39:55

assumed only country musicians from Nashville, like 15

39:57

years ago, that would have been my guess.

40:00

I realize almost all genres of musicians are

40:02

in Nashville because I think some of the

40:04

great musicians are there that sort

40:06

of span all genres. But was that growing up,

40:08

did you just sort of see musicians

40:10

everywhere you went? This is the

40:13

thing. I have no kind of

40:15

like mythic attachment to Nashville. Like

40:17

I just was in my house.

40:19

Yeah. How far were you from downtown?

40:21

Is it, what's the main drag?

40:23

Is it Broadway? Broadway?

40:25

Yeah. Yeah, it's like

40:28

downtown Broadway. I

40:31

was probably 12 minutes, 12 minute drive

40:33

from there. But

40:37

even then it was still known

40:40

as like just like extremely just

40:42

touristy, you know, that part

40:44

of it. It's hard to feel like

40:46

the kind of authentic country.

40:51

It's hard to feel that. It mostly

40:53

feels like a kind of a tourism thing.

40:55

Right. I

40:58

will just say sorry. So I've been a

41:00

couple times and I have really enjoyed it,

41:02

I will say. I love popping it from

41:04

one music venue to the next and just

41:06

checking it out. And then yeah, it's really

41:08

fun town. I

41:11

have that problem. And I think Josh is probably

41:13

better than I am, but we grew

41:15

up in New Hampshire when people say they're

41:17

going to New Hampshire and ask me

41:19

what to do. I have

41:21

nothing to tell them because all I ever do

41:23

is go to our house. That's it. I

41:27

like our house. That's all I ever do. And kind of all

41:29

I really want to do. I

41:32

did one time I worked at

41:35

a Mexican popsicle place in Nashville,

41:37

Las Paletas. And

41:41

I served Emmylou Harris. Great.

41:45

And Randy Travis. Those are two real,

41:47

I mean, those are real

41:49

walk of fame. Real deal. And

41:51

like extremely sexy people. Wild,

41:54

it's crazy. What makes a

41:57

popsicle a Mexican popsicle? Well,

42:01

It's, you know, in Mexico

42:03

on every street corner, Josh,

42:05

there's little Paleta carts,

42:08

little freezers on wheels.

42:11

And this Mexican family, these like

42:13

sisters, they're like legends now in

42:16

Nashville. They moved from

42:18

Guadalajara to

42:20

Nashville somehow. And like, and they

42:23

opened this Mexican

42:25

popsicle. So there's like

42:27

rose petal popsicles, avocado

42:29

popsicles, chili, lime, Mexican

42:32

chili, or like hot chocolate chili. It

42:34

was very, not hot chocolate, obviously, because

42:36

they're frozen. But yeah,

42:38

it was a very, it was

42:41

a very like me being like

42:43

quirky in high school. I see.

42:46

It seemed like a plan for that job. Was

42:49

there a good, was there a uniform there

42:51

or was there like a t-shirt that you

42:53

had to wear? No,

42:55

I just, I just wore my own clothes.

42:57

It was, I, it

43:00

was even change. It was 250. And

43:02

so it was the easiest job. Like it

43:05

was so easy. I just, I go, which

43:07

one do you want? Open it.

43:09

Boom, boom. And then even

43:11

change. Yeah. And it was

43:14

cash only. So I didn't have to deal

43:16

with any machine. You wanted it equal parts,

43:18

quirky and easy. It

43:20

was a perfect job. I

43:24

thought I was like, you know, it felt like

43:26

it feels like the girl who works in the bookstore,

43:29

you know, it does feel like,

43:31

yeah, like it is like in a, yeah. Right.

43:35

Mexican pops. He works at a Mexican popsicle stand.

43:38

She works in the bookstore. What

43:42

about Nashville hot

43:44

chicken? Was that something that

43:46

you knew in its authentic form before

43:48

it became a worldwide phenomenon? I'm so

43:50

embarrassed to say no. Like

43:52

because of my whiteness, I think

43:54

I just, we never, like

43:57

we never got hot chicken, but since.

43:59

Once it exploded, I have

44:03

gone to the original

44:05

spots and I really

44:07

love it. I really, really, really, really

44:09

love it too. We went to one

44:12

that is really, it feels

44:14

like a shack. I don't know if you know

44:16

what I'm talking about. Yeah. Bolts.

44:20

Chicken and fish. Yes,

44:22

yes. It's so incredible and

44:24

truly hot. So hot.

44:27

I drove to Knoxville from

44:30

Nashville and I think I was driving and

44:32

my head was out the window like a

44:34

dog. I was so, it was,

44:38

I, there was the most and

44:40

I've since I did

44:42

hot ones and

44:44

yet I think I ate less than I

44:47

did at Bolts because it was so

44:49

good. I couldn't stop eating

44:51

it and yet I knew how awful

44:54

the burn was going to be. I just couldn't stop. I

44:56

know, I know. It's, it's really,

44:58

did you get the fish sandwich? I didn't. I

45:01

just did the chicken. I should have. It

45:03

was extremely good. Yeah. I'm

45:06

glad. I'm glad it's gone worldwide. And you're

45:08

right. It's Bolton's. It's

45:10

not Bolts. Yes. Gotcha.

45:12

They got a good vegan sandwich over there I'm guessing for

45:15

me, for your boy, Josh. Probably,

45:18

probably. We can check. Yeah.

45:20

They can just dump, you know what they can do there? They

45:22

can just dump hot sauce on your tongue. Right.

45:25

Yeah. And then

45:27

you can like eat a banana. Yeah.

45:32

Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some

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45:39

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got a lot of kids. Yeah, I also don't have to tell

45:46

you, this podcast is about family trips and one of the key

45:48

things about a family trip is, is keeping them fed. And

45:50

sometimes you're on the road and everybody's hungry

45:53

and you just, time. Time is

45:55

of the essence, my man. Do you hear me? Mm-hmm.

45:58

Time. I do. about

46:00

the McDonald's app is

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46:05

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get one. And that's great, because

46:25

I buy one for one kid, another

46:27

one gets one, and the third

46:30

one fends for themselves. That's

46:32

how you find out who's the strongest. Yeah,

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downloading the McDonald's app is a no brainer,

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46:43

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then the kids decide because of that early

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we go. All

48:37

right, so Disney. You go to Disney. What's

48:39

Disney like? Does it blow your mind aside from

48:42

the Macarena as an eight-year-old?

48:44

Are you wearing Mickey ears?

48:47

Any memories? I think

48:49

it did blow my mind. I don't know where

48:51

this came from in me, but

48:54

I was very, very scared

48:57

of doing the kind of

48:59

fancy thing as a kid.

49:03

When my parents told us we were going to

49:05

Disney World, I was

49:07

worried about the cost. I

49:11

was like, are we sure? That's a lot. That's

49:14

a big sacrifice financially for the family. For

49:17

some reason, I absorbed whatever financial

49:19

anxiety there was for my parents.

49:22

I was also embarrassed about looking kind

49:24

of like, I

49:27

don't know, some crass, American going to Disney World and

49:33

eating ice cream and getting fat or something. You

49:35

know what I mean? I don't know why

49:38

I was concerned with these things. I was

49:40

already pretentious at that age somehow. There

49:44

was just a lot of general anxiety, I think. I

49:48

remember being kind of terrified by

49:50

the whole idea. Then being

49:53

immediately so soothed by the

49:55

power of Disney. You

50:00

were able to enjoy it. You were able to let go of

50:02

some of that anxiety. Mostly

50:05

able to totally enjoy it, but then also

50:07

like immediately critical, like why are you enjoying

50:09

this? Yeah. Like,

50:13

you know, you're just like everyone else,

50:15

John. You know, like, I don't know,

50:17

it was very- You think you're special

50:19

because you sell Mexican popsicles, but you're

50:21

just like everybody else. Yeah, everybody else.

50:24

But yeah, I was so, but

50:26

no, I remember just being like,

50:28

it's real. It is

50:30

real, the magic of Disney is real. Now would

50:32

I feel that today? I don't know. And that's

50:34

kind of a question for you Seth, like have

50:37

you gone with your kids? We haven't gone yet.

50:39

I think we are probably a year away. We

50:41

would have probably gone by now except we had

50:43

a third. And so she's too young to enjoy

50:45

it. And I think we'll wait for the whole

50:47

gang. I am very

50:51

excited for it. I'm really excited for Harry

50:53

Potter world because the boys have actually engaged.

50:55

I think more than the Disney movies, they

50:58

have a connection to Harry Potter. So that

51:00

will be very cool. It's

51:03

interesting- And that's at Disney world? No, that's

51:05

a universal, but just theme park life. I'm

51:08

kind of looking forward to. I was wondering

51:10

if we were just maybe a little bit

51:12

older than you so that we, I think

51:14

it was maybe not that ability to be

51:17

snobby about what a theme park was when

51:19

we were young. But now, Josh,

51:21

wouldn't you think it's true that mom was pre-snobby?

51:24

Like mom thought Disney

51:26

world, she would have talked about it like the

51:29

worst thing in the world even before

51:31

we went. Yeah, but she's just always

51:33

had that aversion to sort of crowds

51:36

and- Excess. Excess,

51:38

she doesn't like being jostled. She

51:43

might say she'd get jostled in a line.

51:48

So that was never her bag. She just wants to be on

51:50

a beach. Yes, that's,

51:52

and my family, we were not beachy.

51:56

This is really hard for me to talk about, but

51:58

I grew up land- I'm locked. You

52:04

seem okay. You seem like you've come out of it all

52:06

right. It

52:09

was years of therapy. I mean,

52:11

truly. How long into your

52:13

tenure at NYU before you sort of admitted

52:15

to your friends that you were landlocked? I'm

52:21

embarrassed to say it was like, it was

52:23

after. I had already graduated. There's

52:28

a lot of lake. Was it lake culture

52:30

in Tennessee or am I just immediately jumping

52:33

into the stereotype? No,

52:35

no, no, no, there is. There's absolutely lake

52:37

culture. Again, my

52:39

family, we weren't the

52:42

most... There

52:45

was a kind of subtle, subtle

52:47

crunchiness. My parents met at Vanderbilt

52:49

Divinity School, which was very kind

52:52

of progressive

52:56

for a Southern Divinity School. I

53:01

don't know. We

53:03

didn't. I

53:05

know they'll listen to this and I'm going to

53:07

just use this opportunity to confront them and say,

53:10

we didn't have fun. Well,

53:13

it sounds like they wanted to take you to Disney and you

53:15

were like, I don't know, guys.

53:18

No, we didn't. Eight year

53:20

old looking down his nose at Disney. What

53:23

did you want to do? I

53:26

love... I don't know. They literally had

53:28

an eight year old. They're like, so are we just

53:30

like everybody else? Is that what you're telling me? I

53:36

think I was impossible in this regard.

53:38

I really don't know. What we did

53:40

was we went to the mountains in

53:42

North Carolina. Okay. Because there was like

53:44

a Presbyterian, like there's a

53:46

place called Montreat that is like where

53:49

the kind of... Where Presbyterians

53:51

go or like where Presbyterian ministers go.

53:53

I don't know why. But

53:56

it was like a little tiny Presbyterian town or something.

53:58

It was like a lake. and it was genuinely

54:01

beautiful. And that is how we, like, those

54:04

were the family trips, was driving to North

54:06

Carolina and staying in

54:08

the mountains for like a week and just like

54:10

we would rent a little house.

54:13

And it was very actually beautiful and low key.

54:15

And I do, like, we

54:17

just would do nothing. We would just like cook

54:21

and like walk in the creek and

54:23

we go to the barn dance on Friday night.

54:26

And like, it was very, very

54:28

sweet and peaceful and that is,

54:31

that was instilled in me very

54:34

young. And now I, that

54:36

is my kind of dream vacation is

54:38

like house, nature,

54:41

cooking. Yeah. And

54:43

maybe that's why I was looking down at Disney World.

54:45

Yeah. Could you like leave

54:47

the house, would you leave the house and go run

54:49

around in the woods on your own? Or would you

54:52

and your sister hang out or would there be like

54:54

sort of local kids or if it's a vacation destination,

54:57

a bunch of people who were like, we rented

54:59

a cabin down the street and you just meet

55:01

up with kids and sort of

55:03

do what kids do. Yeah, you would meet in the

55:05

creek. Like

55:08

it really, we meet in the

55:11

creek, man, and got up to

55:13

some crazy shit. Yeah. But

55:16

yeah, but I mean, that is also the beauty is like a

55:18

time when like, I mean, I don't, I

55:20

can't imagine having kids now. I don't know what I would, you

55:23

know, but like my parents just, yeah, they

55:25

would just let us leave for hours and

55:27

hours. And we didn't have phones and we,

55:29

you know, there was no way to, they

55:32

just knew we'd come back. I will say,

55:35

I mean, even in modern times, I

55:37

would probably feel the best about my

55:39

kids if they were in a Presbyterian

55:41

mountain town. Yeah, it

55:43

does, good place, good place to

55:45

cut them loose. That's

55:47

true. I'm also like, as I picture the creek,

55:49

I'm like, I bet it doesn't even come up

55:51

to their neck. You know

55:54

what I mean? Like that's the best. The

55:56

best body of water possible is a creek.

55:58

Yeah. Would

56:01

your sister hang out with you? Or would

56:03

she be like, I'm gonna go hang out with these teenagers

56:05

and you hang out with your Creek friends? Um.

56:08

Um. Your River

56:10

rat. Yeah, she would hang out

56:12

with me. She would hang out with me a little bit,

56:14

but mostly she would find like the older friends in

56:18

the place. And then I would then try to, you know,

56:20

tap dance for them and press them, make them laugh. Yeah.

56:23

End of the night with your

56:25

parents, were you a board game

56:27

family? Were you a watch a

56:30

movie together family? I

56:33

don't know. Would

56:36

you sing together? In, sometimes

56:39

my mom and I often sang the

56:42

carpenters, literally. Does your mom,

56:45

is your, you have a beautiful

56:47

voice. Does your mother? Seth, shut up.

56:49

You do. You laid in your

56:51

special, you sing after the gold rush and it

56:53

might be my favorite version of it. I'm like,

56:55

so. Oh my God, thank you. So shockingly earnest

56:57

and great. I mean, there's some. Oh my God.

56:59

You are taking the air out of it in

57:01

a nice way as well, but it's really, I'm

57:03

like, Jesus. So. Well, you

57:06

know, we based that arrangement on

57:08

the like the harmonies on

57:10

the Dolly Parton, Linda Rodstadt, Amy Lou

57:12

Harris. Yes, which is a wonderful version.

57:16

It's so good. And we just

57:18

took their exact harmonies based. Based.

57:23

But. We were

57:25

inspired, lovingly inspired. But

57:28

yeah, we were, my mom and I would sing. So

57:30

we did a lot of puzzles, but

57:33

there was lots of like, I was a

57:35

very kind of, I liked my isolation as

57:37

a kid. I liked to like go off

57:39

alone and watch movies and. And do you

57:42

feel like your isolation was respected? Do you

57:44

think your parents clocked, oh, this is, John

57:46

likes this and this is an important part

57:49

of his development. Yes, yes.

57:51

I think they knew I was

57:53

like watching movies and, and, and,

57:56

you know, I was kind

57:58

of fostering in my early. obsessions

58:00

with things. What were you, like,

58:03

did you have VHS tapes then? Like, what were you

58:05

watching? I would tape I

58:07

Love Lucy, you know, and just watch

58:09

I Love Lucy reruns all

58:12

the time. And frankly, and I know

58:15

this is a loaded subject here on

58:17

the pod, but like, you know, just

58:19

the women of SNL, like of every

58:21

generation, you know, like, that

58:24

was like, because

58:26

that was such a big project, because

58:28

I could go back and kind of,

58:31

it was such a clear kind of thing. It's like, who are the women

58:33

of this five years? Who are the women of this five years? You know,

58:36

and so there

58:38

was a lot of kind of encyclopedic,

58:40

like, beautiful lines, like, you

58:42

know, Ellen Cleghorn. And

58:46

did you have that sort of

58:48

completionist DNA for a

58:50

lot of things? Definitely. Yeah. Yes,

58:53

definitely with with with, with

58:55

like TV. And yeah, by the time

58:57

you were in high school, do you

58:59

think your parents knew? I'm assuming

59:02

you knew you wanted to be a performer.

59:04

And did they know as well? Were they

59:06

like, Oh, this is what john's gonna do?

59:08

Yeah, it was pretty clear. I was doing

59:11

the plays. I was doing Nashville boys choir.

59:13

I was doing show choir.

59:15

You know, I was. Yeah,

59:18

that's what I was doing. And but it

59:20

was like, and then by high school time,

59:22

it was with a kind of Tracy flick,

59:24

like fervor. Yeah. Like,

59:26

it had become less just

59:29

like fun and like intensely

59:31

managerial. It

59:34

was it got it got strange.

59:37

So was was choir intense, then

59:39

at competitions? Well, could you have

59:41

fun at those? Or was it

59:43

like, guys? Well, my school

59:45

wasn't that this is the this was the problem.

59:47

This is maybe the reason for the managerial and

59:49

by the way, the garbage truck

59:51

has decided to come right now, in case

59:53

that's I don't know. And it's in and

59:55

it comes into your living room, right? Yes,

59:59

yes. You pay that

1:00:01

extra to have them actually drive the truck, right? Yeah. To

1:00:04

just... Yeah. But

1:00:07

yeah, I was like, my show choir

1:00:09

wasn't serious. It just was

1:00:11

kind of people who just were needed to

1:00:13

take some sort of elective or do some

1:00:15

sort of extracurricular thing. And

1:00:19

it wasn't people who wanted to be on

1:00:21

Broadway. Right. And I was like,

1:00:24

guys? I was like, we

1:00:26

are humiliating ourselves. I

1:00:29

was talking to the administration

1:00:32

at the school, being like, our school.

1:00:35

It's not even that we're not placing, it's that

1:00:37

we're not even trying to place. Like,

1:00:40

we're not even entering the competition. It's like,

1:00:42

what's going on? Josh

1:00:45

and I have recently reflected back on our

1:00:47

times as college improvisers and the fact that

1:00:49

we were maybe a little hard

1:00:51

on our casts as far... You know, like,

1:00:53

in a way that we don't... We're

1:00:56

not proud of. In a way that

1:00:58

I apologize to an auditorium full of people

1:01:00

saying... At a reunion.

1:01:02

Josh just did a reunion mea culpa. Did

1:01:05

you apologize seriously? I did. And

1:01:08

I sort of like... I read

1:01:10

the room in terms of like... There

1:01:12

had been a panel discussion and someone

1:01:14

on the panel was like, I didn't love

1:01:17

my time in this show, Meow, was

1:01:19

the improv show. She was like, a

1:01:22

lot of times it was stressful. A lot of times

1:01:24

I felt like I was sort of being pushed to

1:01:26

the side. And I feel

1:01:28

like even though she was a different generation

1:01:31

than me, I could sense that there were

1:01:33

other people who had the same experience in the

1:01:35

room. And at least for

1:01:37

my own sort of personal... I

1:01:40

don't think there was any animosity that anyone was

1:01:42

holding on to. But if anyone from

1:01:44

my cast had held on to that,

1:01:46

I wanted to say like, I'm sorry, I was

1:01:49

18. I didn't have great control

1:01:52

of my emotions. And

1:01:55

I probably could have been a bit nicer.

1:01:57

And so sorry about that. That's

1:02:00

beautiful. Do you think people

1:02:02

remember being on

1:02:04

show choir with John Early and

1:02:07

remember you as being a real

1:02:09

taskmaster? Probably. I

1:02:11

would imagine. I don't think the

1:02:14

people in the show choir, I imagine that the

1:02:16

students, I

1:02:18

think I was mostly a good time with

1:02:20

the students, it was the teachers. That is

1:02:23

what truly haunts me. Yeah.

1:02:27

It was the kind of like, let's

1:02:31

step it up. Yeah. Yeah.

1:02:35

What was your best role

1:02:37

in a high school play? If

1:02:41

you had to submit tape to

1:02:43

a casting director. This

1:02:46

is so hard, Seth. Is it because you're

1:02:48

so good in everything? Yes,

1:02:51

yes. No,

1:02:54

there was lots of like, I

1:02:57

would submit like, I

1:02:59

was the pirate king in Pirates of Penzance. Kevin and

1:03:01

Kline were all. I was in Pirates of Penzance. I

1:03:03

played pirate. Gotcha. But

1:03:09

yeah, that was my first time

1:03:11

just being like, I prefer being

1:03:14

funny and like, I

1:03:16

was often cast and

1:03:18

this is really traumatic as the lead.

1:03:22

I was often cast

1:03:24

as the romantic lead and it was just,

1:03:27

you had to just like sing pretty

1:03:29

and you had to like be romantic

1:03:31

with girls. But

1:03:35

beyond just the sexuality part of it, I

1:03:37

just found it to be so like, I

1:03:39

had no way in as

1:03:41

a performer. I was so

1:03:44

like limp. And so when

1:03:46

I got, when I did the pirate king,

1:03:48

I was like, oh yes, I like being

1:03:50

funny. Like I like being a ham. Yeah.

1:03:54

That's the rule I would submit. It is really, I mean,

1:03:57

I do remember the first time because Josh and I would

1:03:59

do like. how many nights at

1:04:01

our high school. And the first time

1:04:03

you realized your peers appreciated the thing

1:04:05

you liked most about yourself, did you

1:04:07

get the sense that your student body

1:04:10

was also excited to see you as the ham?

1:04:13

Yes, definitely. That's great,

1:04:15

right? It was very sweet. Is it the best feeling in the

1:04:17

world? And we were very, it was the best

1:04:19

feeling in the world. And like, you know,

1:04:21

my pretentiousness did lead to some good

1:04:23

things. Like, you know, I

1:04:26

was very obsessed with near

1:04:29

the end of my time in high school, I

1:04:31

was very obsessed with Strangers With Candy. And, you

1:04:33

know, and that led me down this road of

1:04:35

like seeing what one of the plays that she

1:04:37

and David Sedaris were doing together. And like, and,

1:04:40

and I, it led me down to a world

1:04:42

of like, kind of interesting theater

1:04:45

at that time. And like, and we

1:04:47

did lots of really cool plays that

1:04:50

were like very kind of subversive and funny. And

1:04:52

like, I don't know, it was, it

1:04:54

was a, there were some good stuff. Did

1:04:56

your sister leave Nashville or did she stick

1:04:59

around? She is now back in Nashville, but

1:05:01

she, she left for a while. But

1:05:04

yeah, she's now raising two kids

1:05:06

in Nashville. So everyone's all

1:05:08

together. I'm the one that's flown the coop. And

1:05:11

did your parents come to New York a

1:05:13

lot to visit when you were at

1:05:15

NYU and then living thereafter? A little,

1:05:17

yes, every, definitely they did. They

1:05:19

did. And it was very fun. Yeah.

1:05:24

Take them out to restaurants, you know. Did you ever

1:05:26

take a family vacation up to New York before you

1:05:29

moved there for school? Yes. Okay. This

1:05:31

is, I'm glad you bring this up cause

1:05:33

these are also memorable vacations was like the

1:05:35

solo trips with mom and dad to New

1:05:37

York. Oh, right. Like I took

1:05:39

an extremely memorable trip with my dad to New

1:05:41

York. My first time was in New York when

1:05:43

I was like 11, 10

1:05:46

or 11 years old. And

1:05:48

we went to see SNL. Oh

1:05:51

my gosh. Now, how does a

1:05:54

Nashville minister pull

1:05:56

tickets? This is what we call the Vanderbilt.

1:05:59

connection. Ooh, all right.

1:06:02

Because this is like the because

1:06:04

Vanderbilt Divinity School, my parents, my dad then worked

1:06:06

at Vanderbilt after division school. Can

1:06:08

I guess? Wait, could I guess if there's a,

1:06:10

is there a name? Is there a famous name

1:06:12

about to be dropped? I wish,

1:06:15

but it's very possible, but I don't know

1:06:17

the name. Okay, gotcha. There was something, it

1:06:20

might, it may not have even been a

1:06:22

Vanderbilt connection. It may have literally been there

1:06:24

was some sort of producer or something who

1:06:26

at one point was in

1:06:29

my dad's like congregation at like this

1:06:31

church in Nashville. Okay. It was some

1:06:33

sort of like my dad being a

1:06:35

minister and therefore kind of like local

1:06:38

celebrity kind of thing. And

1:06:40

he got us tickets. I have so as

1:06:42

this kind of gives me goosebumps because

1:06:45

you, I

1:06:47

would imagine your dad getting to tell

1:06:49

you that he got those. Do you

1:06:52

remember that moment? I don't remember the

1:06:54

specific moment, but it was like the

1:06:56

biggest dream come true ever, ever, ever.

1:06:58

Absolutely. Also, I don't know. You can't

1:07:00

get in there at 11 anymore. Can

1:07:02

you Seth? Yeah, I bet

1:07:05

you can't. I don't think

1:07:07

you could then. And this is

1:07:09

why we had such a real

1:07:12

hookup. Right. Yeah. Like clearly my

1:07:14

dad knew someone at the top

1:07:17

because like we, maybe it

1:07:19

was got herself, but

1:07:22

we were like, I remember when we were in line

1:07:25

at 30 rock, if you

1:07:27

will. And, and this girl just

1:07:29

like teenager came up to me and was like, she

1:07:31

was like, Oh, he's not going to be able to

1:07:33

get in. This wasn't someone who worked there by the

1:07:35

way. This was like someone in New York. She was

1:07:37

like, a dream, a dream ruiner.

1:07:41

Yeah. And I literally burst into tears.

1:07:44

I like started sobbing and my dad was like,

1:07:46

no, it's we have tickets. Like

1:07:48

I, they know that you're young. We got

1:07:50

in like your worst spine. I was like,

1:07:52

but she's sad. Like, and

1:07:54

then, and then we fully got in. It was

1:07:57

not an issue. It was Lucy

1:07:59

Lawless. was the host. Great. Elliot

1:08:02

Smith was the musical guest. Wow. Wow.

1:08:06

Which was meaningless to me at the time. But,

1:08:10

you know, it was like, it was

1:08:13

the end of like the

1:08:15

reign of like Will

1:08:17

Ferrell and Molly, Ana,

1:08:20

and Sherry. You know, and it was like, it

1:08:23

was the coolest thing that had ever, ever happened

1:08:25

to me. I was just like in heaven. And

1:08:28

then my mom took me a few

1:08:31

years later. And this

1:08:33

is like, this is like now

1:08:35

me knowing I'm gay too. So like

1:08:38

just a little more going

1:08:40

to going to New York was a little more like,

1:08:42

you know, I don't know. It

1:08:45

just was very loaded or something. I just thought,

1:08:47

I don't know. I thought something was going to happen. I

1:08:50

don't know what I thought. Something

1:08:53

sexual. Right. And

1:08:56

nothing dead. And but we

1:08:58

went to see Chicago with

1:09:00

Michael C Hall. And I don't know.

1:09:02

It was very sweet. It

1:09:05

was so it was so amazing. I

1:09:08

guess there's no story here beyond just

1:09:10

like, you know, I just

1:09:13

genuinely remember, like I said to my dad and

1:09:15

I wasn't kidding. Like when we got

1:09:17

back to Nashville, I was like, I miss the

1:09:20

smell of the sewer. Like

1:09:24

just like the steam from the sewer

1:09:26

was like so romantic and exciting to

1:09:28

me. I could not believe it. I'm

1:09:30

have the reverse of that happening, which

1:09:32

is yeah. My kids hate

1:09:34

the smells of New York City and

1:09:37

I love New York

1:09:39

City. I love everything about New York City. I

1:09:42

walked up Third Avenue

1:09:45

today. I was like, I'm going

1:09:47

to walk up Third Avenue, which is not one

1:09:49

of our finest avenues. I love all the worst

1:09:51

avenues I love. And

1:09:55

the other day we were walking in and again, like

1:09:57

steam is just shooting out of the subway. with

1:10:00

big like steam tubes. And we

1:10:02

walked through it and my oldest, who

1:10:05

has a real, real penchant for

1:10:07

drama, like took a gulp of

1:10:09

it and then for eight blocks said, I think

1:10:11

it's still in my chest. I'm like, it's not.

1:10:14

Oh no. The steam's not in

1:10:16

your chest still. That's not how it works.

1:10:19

But it is like that's, it's

1:10:22

so funny because they, but I think if you

1:10:24

never had been in New York and you're your

1:10:26

age and you go, it's just

1:10:28

the best. It was so magical. It

1:10:30

was so cool. Yeah. I

1:10:32

also like that you went to go see

1:10:35

Chicago and you can say, you know, it

1:10:37

was sweet, but it also like, I feel

1:10:39

like a lot of people go to New

1:10:41

York and don't go see shows. And I

1:10:43

think to bring a kid to a show,

1:10:45

a teenager or, you know, a younger kid,

1:10:48

it sticks with them. Oh my God. Magical.

1:10:50

It's really amazing to see live performers performing.

1:10:53

And it's, I don't know, maybe because I'm, you

1:10:55

know, I've always loved theater and clearly you're a

1:10:57

performer, maybe it hits us different, but I think

1:10:59

it just hits kids in such a good way.

1:11:02

I think it's such a good thing to do

1:11:04

with your kids. Well, and also like, I remember

1:11:06

specifically the broad, like I

1:11:08

am, when you hear about Broadway as

1:11:10

a kid, you're assuming it's like stadiums,

1:11:13

cause it's like apparently the biggest thing

1:11:15

ever. It's like the, you

1:11:18

know, the all in doll. And like,

1:11:20

so I was so shocked by

1:11:22

the intimacy of the theaters and

1:11:24

the ornate kind of old theater

1:11:27

quality. It's like 700 people sometimes.

1:11:30

Like, you know, in the audience, like I was like,

1:11:32

oh my God, I thought we were going to be

1:11:34

in a giant arena seeing these shows, you know? And

1:11:38

I still am caught off guard. I

1:11:41

mean, I go a fair amount and

1:11:43

I still walk in and think, oh right, it

1:11:45

is so much

1:11:48

more intimate than I remember. And

1:11:50

you can't believe, especially, you know, I've

1:11:52

brought the kids to

1:11:54

see the Lion King and

1:11:57

it's just insane that they're that close

1:11:59

to people. people performing as opposed to just

1:12:01

watching a movie. And when you go as a

1:12:03

kid, it's like the last time you're gonna be

1:12:05

able to go before your knees are jammed up

1:12:07

in front of the seat in front of you.

1:12:09

Yes, exactly. And heaven forbid you have a jacket.

1:12:12

Where's that go? I

1:12:15

saw my dad when we went that

1:12:17

first trip, we saw Beauty and the

1:12:19

Beast starring Tony Braxton,

1:12:21

y'all. Wow.

1:12:25

So y'all know they had to change the

1:12:27

keys. Because

1:12:30

she's a bass. I mean, she's literally a

1:12:32

bass. Yeah, yeah, that's

1:12:35

not, yeah, if you learn it, you don't wanna learn on

1:12:38

the night Tony's singing. It's gonna be.

1:12:40

But she was amazing. I might. It

1:12:43

was so good. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you know, our parents

1:12:45

did the same thing. You know, we would go to see

1:12:47

a, we lived about an hour from Boston,

1:12:49

we'd see shows there, but they started taking

1:12:51

us to New York City and the purposes would be to

1:12:53

go see shows. I

1:12:56

remember seeing, we saw the original Angels in America,

1:12:59

which was an incredible show for, yes. And

1:13:02

then they brought us back a year later

1:13:04

to see the second, Para Strikas. Yeah,

1:13:07

and it was, I just remember. Oh my God. The

1:13:09

first time I saw Jeffrey Wright, it's

1:13:11

just amazing. That's so crazy

1:13:13

that y'all saw that. It's

1:13:16

the best. And so you just, the

1:13:18

same thing now, which is, we're trying,

1:13:20

I think

1:13:22

that the kids now can go and appreciate it. Although

1:13:25

it was so funny, the first time my wife took,

1:13:27

when he was six, she took our son to see

1:13:30

Lion King and they have such an,

1:13:33

our kids go to bed so early. They're

1:13:35

literally never up when it's dark in New York

1:13:37

City. Oh no, yeah. And so my son came

1:13:39

home from Lion King and it had been the

1:13:41

latest he'd ever been up. And I was like, how was it? He's like,

1:13:44

he goes, there's a place called Times

1:13:46

Square. There are more lights there. And

1:13:49

literally immediately just taking a cab home

1:13:51

from Lion King, he was like, there's

1:13:53

lights everywhere. Oh, that's so

1:13:55

cute. Felt

1:13:58

so bad for Julie Tamor that at the end of the day, It

1:14:00

just relates. The puppets were great, but then we

1:14:03

saw Times Square for the first time. There's

1:14:06

also nothing more romantic to me than the

1:14:08

show that's been running for 20 years. And

1:14:12

just like, what are the like,

1:14:16

who are those stage managers? I

1:14:20

have to play one, obviously.

1:14:23

Like the Phantom stage manager who's been doing it for

1:14:26

like 25, 30 years. It's

1:14:29

just like, what is the vibe?

1:14:31

Like, are people happy to be

1:14:33

there? What's

1:14:35

going on? Here's the movie I

1:14:37

want for you, John. Yeah, thank

1:14:40

you. You're the stage manager. It's year 15.

1:14:44

And the

1:14:46

lead gets sick and they can't find the

1:14:48

understanding. And it turns out you do know

1:14:50

the part. Of course I

1:14:52

know the part. Yeah, that's beautiful. But

1:14:55

they're going to have to change the key. They do have

1:14:57

to change the key. You're being a real hard ass about

1:14:59

the key thing. Yeah,

1:15:01

I have like weird demands. You

1:15:05

have a rider ready to go. It's like the

1:15:08

best night of my life. But it's just

1:15:10

like kind of like everyone's like, thank you so much

1:15:12

for stepping in. I'm like, that's it? This

1:15:17

is the old diva for the night. This

1:15:20

is no surprise here. It's been a

1:15:22

fantastic conversation, as it always is with you. I can't wait

1:15:24

to see you. I'm going to see you in early June.

1:15:28

Yes, I'm so excited. Can't wait. Josh

1:15:31

is going to ask you some questions that we ask all

1:15:33

of our guests. OK,

1:15:35

here we go, John. You can

1:15:37

only pick one of these. Is

1:15:40

your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or

1:15:42

educational? Relaxing. Very good. What

1:15:45

is your favorite means of transportation?

1:15:47

Train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, walking?

1:15:51

Train. Great. If

1:15:53

you could take a vacation with

1:15:55

any family, alive or dead, real or

1:15:57

fictional, other than your own family. What

1:16:00

family would you like to take a vacation with?

1:16:05

The family from the corrections. I'm

1:16:08

kidding. Sorry. I

1:16:11

would go with... I

1:16:17

would go with the... Maybe

1:16:21

the sopranos. Like, I mean, it would

1:16:23

be scary obviously, but just food wise,

1:16:25

like I would be excited to eat

1:16:28

Italian. The excess of

1:16:30

food. Yeah. Good. If

1:16:33

you had to be stranded on a desert

1:16:35

island with one member of your family, who

1:16:37

would it be? Oh

1:16:40

my God, well, they're all gonna listen to this.

1:16:44

Oh no. I mean, I'm gonna

1:16:47

say my dad because

1:16:49

he's extremely funny. He's

1:16:52

a compulsive joker. And I think that

1:16:54

would actually... I'm sure

1:16:57

it would get in the way in

1:16:59

terms of basic survival, but I think

1:17:01

in terms of managing

1:17:03

anxiety, I think the laughter would

1:17:05

really help. Gotcha. Yeah.

1:17:09

And you are from Nashville. Would you recommend

1:17:11

Nashville as a vacation destination? Yeah.

1:17:16

You're not gonna get... It's not gonna be like

1:17:19

relaxing. You're not gonna get

1:17:21

the relaxing. You can get educational and you

1:17:23

can get really good food. Yeah.

1:17:25

You can get adventurous. I guess.

1:17:29

Yeah. You can get drunk. No, I

1:17:31

can drink. Yeah. And you can hear

1:17:33

some great music. I think a lot of those bachelorette

1:17:35

parties are fairly adventurous from the looks of things on

1:17:38

the outside. Completely. They're like those weird, like, where

1:17:40

you bike and like drink at the same time. Oh

1:17:42

yeah, bike a bar or whatever it is. What is

1:17:44

that? Yeah. It's

1:17:47

fun. It's fun. Yeah.

1:17:49

And then Seth has our final questions.

1:17:51

John, have you been to the Grand

1:17:53

Canyon? No. Do

1:17:56

you have any interest? Completely

1:17:58

dying to go. Oh, interesting, I

1:18:00

don't know how that was gonna break, but I did not

1:18:02

think it would break so hard one way or the other.

1:18:05

No, it is very, very much a

1:18:08

goal of mine. I love mountains, I

1:18:10

love hiking, I

1:18:14

love big, would you

1:18:16

call that a vista? I think you would.

1:18:18

Yeah, there's some vistas out there I don't

1:18:20

think you would. That does, I do thank

1:18:23

God have the capacity to be brought to

1:18:25

my knees by a vista. All

1:18:27

right. So I would like to do

1:18:29

that. Oh, great. All right. Wonderful.

1:18:33

This has just been a delight. I will see you soon.

1:18:35

We love you very much, John. All right,

1:18:37

thank you guys. All right, bye. Bye, buddy.

1:18:40

Bye. When John was young, he'd

1:18:42

travel with his family from church

1:18:44

to church, just riding in the

1:18:47

backseat in the back row, tic-tac-toe.

1:18:49

He insists would sing the soprano,

1:18:51

anxiety at Disney, thought that

1:18:53

they were being too fancy. North Carolina, rent a

1:18:55

cabin out in Monterey. He would sing carpenters with

1:18:57

his mom that is so sweet. To meet kids

1:19:00

his age, he would walk down to the creek.

1:19:03

Hang out in the creek. Amen. SNL at 11,

1:19:05

how does dad get a ticket? At Bolton's

1:19:07

in Nashville, he eats the hot chicken. He

1:19:09

was baptized by a dad of Limp Bizkit.

1:19:11

A dad of Limp Bizkit. Roll in.