Livin' the Dream, Pt 1, with Michael Imperioli
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I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you. Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office Ladies. Hello. Hi there. Should we tell everyone how we walked in today? It was ridiculous.

It's that thing. I think when you're friends with someone, you start to like dress alike because we both showed up with our hair in braids carrying giant boxes. And then we realized they're the same exact box of items, which we'll get to later. Yes. Yes.

But you said we should title this episode Braids and Boxes. Braids and Boxes. Here we go. The actual title of the episode that we're breaking down today is Live in the Dream Part 1. It is Season 9, Episode 22, written by Nikki Schwartz-Wright and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Would you like a summary? So much. All right. In this episode, Jim is taking time off from Athlead to focus on his marriage.

Wow. Big deal, finally. Andy quits Dunder Mifflin to pursue his dreams. He's going to be something. He might host a food show. He might dance. He might act. There's so many options for Andy. Anything goes. Anything could happen. Angela is mourning the confiscation of her cats. All her cats get taken away in this episode. To Saksworth. I know. That made me laugh. I know.

And finally, Dwight is going to receive his black belt. Finally. In the place he loves most. Yes. All right. To kick things off, we got a fan question from Emma L. in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, who said, I want to know everything about what it was like to work with Michael Imperioli as Sensei Billy. I think his storyline and chemistry with Rainn Wilson is pure genius. How did he come to be cast in this role?

Well, Emma, we are very excited to let you know that we got to interview Michael Imperioli. We did! All about his time on the show, and his interview is our Fast Facts 1, 2, and 3 today. So here you go. We're so thrilled to have you. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. It was so crazy when I was watching this episode, and then all of a sudden you popped up on my screen, and it was...

Just the week before, I ran into you on the street in New York. It was right after that, yeah. It was such crazy timing. So thanks for being with us today. We'll just hop right in. So we always ask our guests, how did you get your job on The Office? Rain told me that they Googled actors who were black belts.

Your name came up? And my name was on a list. So I don't know how many other actors they went through before they got to me who had black. Maybe Chuck Norris and I don't know who else. And that was really it. And then I got the script and I thought it was really funny. And I mean, the show's great and really funny. And that was it. That was how I got it.

Had you watched the show before? Yeah, like everybody on the planet, pretty much. Yeah, I thought it was really funny and it was really a fun sequence, you know, a fun part of the episode. It's just so ridiculous. It was really fun to watch it again because I hadn't seen it in quite a long time. And I was like, it's even funnier than it was when I first saw it. And when I did it, it stands up pretty well to be ridiculous and funny.

It really does. I loved Sensei Billy, like how calm he was and just matter of fact, when Dwight's doing all this crazy crap. Well, listen, there are three scenes that you're in. You know, one of them is the very first montage where Dwight's trying to kick the board, which is hilarious. Did you give Rain any tips or did he just like go for it? No, he just went for it. You know, I,

I've done Korean martial arts, mostly Taekwondo, for like 22 years. And sometimes you do break boards, you know, that's part of it. Like usually on a test, when you're going up a level or something, you do that as a, you know, you're testing your kind of accuracy and speed and things like that. And I've never gotten kicked in the balls doing that, but I've held boards for other people testing, especially for kids.

Kids aren't as accurate as adults sometimes, and they'll kick your hands and, you know, holding boards for people. I've gotten my hands pretty banged up. So that's kind of accurate. That really happens.

But he just went for it. I don't remember if he told me that he trained or not. I'm pretty sure he had not trained. He had not trained, yeah. It didn't seem like he did. But he just went for it. And I mean, it's just so silly and fun. So silly. And then the next one is the belt ceremony thing.

in the office, the place he loves the most, right? And then you couldn't get the belt off him, and he's kind of awkwardly thrusting at you, and you're so... Sensei Billy's just like, this isn't going to work, okay? He's trying his best to keep composure, because that's what a martial artist does, right? He doesn't let his anger get the best of him. But in martial arts...

A lot of the movements, most of them really come from the hips, from the center of the body. You know, that's really where you get your power. If you're throwing a punch, you know, if you watch like athletes, like golfers or baseball players or tennis players, you can see it. Those, yeah, those motions with the arms. Yeah.

I have a really good forehand. I don't want to brag, but I have a really – well, now I'm bragging, but I have a really good forehand at tennis, and I'm short. And people don't expect it because it's all in that twist, that torque from your hips. So a lot of the movements in martial arts come from the hips, like punches and blocks and kicks even, right? So I think that's what he was –

He was figuring, I have to use my hips here. Even getting the belt. Everything we do comes from the hips. It wasn't necessary. I love that. That's my theory, at least. Do you remember breaking it all in that scene? I remember watching it. I think there's no shots of me in this sequence because they had to avoid me because I couldn't keep it together. No, I lost it a few times. It was just so...

He's just so committed, you know. Fans wrote in and pointed out every time someone broke and it's, we're all, they clocked everybody. Except you. My memory, Michael, is that you were very good at keeping it together. Are you an actor that breaks a lot? Because I was so impressed. If it's really funny, yeah, sometimes. You know, on The Sopranos, the time everybody broke, right?

was when it was the mother, Livia's, post-funeral gathering at the Soprano House. And everybody's there, the whole family and all the gangsters and all the friends of the family. They're talking about this woman that everybody hated, really, and who hated everybody, trying to find nice things to say. And then they play her favorite song, which was this really schmaltzy love song from Carousel, sung in this very high-pitched voice. And when they put that song on...

Everybody just lost it. And they tried to do it again. And every time that song came on, everybody just lost it. And then they realized, well, we can't play the song. So let's just pretend we're listening to it. And that still didn't work to the point where the director started yelling at people was totally out of character for him because he had directed a lot of our episodes.

And he was a sweetheart. But he just couldn't do the scene because we were just, it just became this thing that was just too ridiculous. It's hard to come back from that, too. When you're gone, you know, when you're in that kind of laughter fit. No, you can't. It's so hard to come back. Yeah, you have to stop. You need some time. You know, the Brits call that corpsing. You know that, right? I do, I do.

No, I didn't know that. That's what they call it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're just dead. They call it corpsing when you just can't stop laughing, which is a weird expression, right? It is, but I love it. That happened to Jenna and I when I had to tell her that Dwight put sprinkles in my freezer.

And I had to ask her if Roy had ever mercy killed one of her pets. We couldn't. Every time. They had to go to lunch. I said the cat had clawed the peas, like the bag of peas, because the cat was trying to get out of the freezer. They broke us for lunch. They were like, you're gone. You're corpsing. You need time. Forget it. Yeah, because at that point, everything's going to be funny, no matter how you approach it. And it's infectious and it's uncontrollable. It's an interesting phenomenon. And you can't really explain it to anyone unless you're really...

Because you're acting, you're not supposed to laugh, right? Which makes it worse, I think. Makes it worse, yeah. It's like don't think of the word elephant or something. It's kind of like that. Well, speaking of laughing, after the belt thrusting, we get to Dwight's demonstration. Yeah. Which is so incredible. Yeah.

I have to ask, with all of your experience, is anything he's doing in this scene accurate in any way? Is he doing any actual moves here? You know, some of the basic techniques he's executing, but he doesn't really know how to do them properly. Okay. Is Sensei Billy giving him a black belt, like, sort of?

Has he earned his black belt in your opinion? I think he's earned it. Well, he said he's one of the most tenacious people he's ever seen. So I think that tenaciousness, you know, a black belt in martial arts, you have to remember is you're not competing or comparing your level of skill and your development to anyone else. It's about your progression. So you can have a black belt, two black belts that have trained them out the same amount of time. And one's a super great athlete.

And one's not. And they're going to be very different martial artists, you know, because natural athleticism and stuff, you know, I mean, I'm 58. I still train. But, you know, you see some of these kids at 25 doing stuff that's just incredible that I'm not going to do. I mean, I have basic techniques that

that I've worked on for many years that I'm comfortable with. I like the fitness of it, but even the belt levels and that kind of thing is about your own progress and what you've done. So I guess sensibility, I love that we're talking about this. Like sensibility said he's very tenacious and he trained with someone for 20 years who ripped him off. Right. Yeah. And I think sensibility feels like that gives martial arts a bad name because sensibility really believes in it and thinks this is,

this is horrible because martial arts is a great legitimate form of art or fitness and training and all those things. And I've seen people who were black belts who had zero athleticism, but they worked really hard and they did have their basic techniques and they were able to kind of fulfill the requirements

that the different levels offer, you know? So it's really about your own progress. I think that's really beautiful. And it's also making me feel like maybe I could be a black belt.

If it really is about me, like if I really took this seriously. And you put the time in. Yes, like truly inspired by this idea of this journey, of this physical, mental, spiritual journey, committing to this thing. Yeah. That is like so beautiful that this is open to all people. Yeah. I did not know that and I absolutely love it.

Yeah, you know, my main teacher, Grandmaster Tae Soon Kang, has been teaching for, I think it's over 40 years. And he's dedicated his life to this, right? He just got inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame, right? This lifetime achievement. But he has a lot of students that have been with him for many, many, many years. And this last test, they have a black belt test twice a year. And he has a couple of schools in the New York area.

The last test, three women all over 50 got fourth degree black belts. That's amazing. That's awesome. The highest testers of that batch last, that was last November, December, were three women over 50, close to 60. Wow. Well, as a woman who just turned 50 this year, I just think that's so beautiful.

Yeah, it was really cool to see that last winter. Those three women get, you know, as the highest testers and get all getting fourth degree black belts, which means they've all been training, you know, 20 years, maybe 20 plus years. Wow. That's so cool. That inspires me. My sister-in-law who's around our age, Jenna got her black belt this week.

And I was so proud of her. She's in Colorado, but she's been studying a long time. And so it was just sort of really cool that we were talking to you today and Sensei Billy and all of that. So I told her, I was like, way to go, girl. Yeah, it's a really great way to stay fit. You know, for me, when I started, I was really out of shape. I was smoking cigarettes. I was drinking and I wasn't exercising at all. And my kids started going.

And I would go pick them up and watch and stuff. And then I, you know, this is 22 years ago. And then slowly I started and I eventually realized I can either, I had to choose one smoking cigarettes or doing Taekwondo because they didn't go together. And, you know, it started me on a path of health. There's a humility to it and the thing of respect and, um,

I think about meeting goals and exceeding goals and challenging yourself. And what I liked, I always had problems committing to a gym program because I

I would get bored doing, you know, like weight machines and things like that. This is about learning a skill, you know, and for that hour that you're doing a class, you can't think about anything else. It's not like you're on a treadmill watching CNN or, you know, checking emails. You can't really think of anything else except what you're doing in the moment because it takes all that concentration. That was really helpful for me.

I love that. I feel the same way on a tennis court. You can't think, you don't have your phone. You can't think of it. I take my watch off because I don't want it buzzing or anything. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Well, Michael, do you have any memories? I know you were only on set that one time, but do you have any memories from being on the set with us or any behind the scenes thing about your time on the office? I was kind of surprised where it was. It was this really out of the way moment.

It was. Wasn't it? It was. We loved it. It was across from train tracks. There was like a dog on a chain. I thought I was going to like, you know, the Sony lot or some kind of, you know, Hollywood kind of legendary. I like those big legendary old lots. It's kind of fun, right? Yeah, they're pretty. But it wasn't anything like that. No, no, no. One time we went to the Universal Studios lot for, I don't know, like a photo gallery shoot or something. And we were like, guys, there's a cafeteria. Yeah.

There's a gym. There's a gym, yeah. Some of them have everything. You know, we shot a lot in the surrounding area and they kind of tried to find a part of LA that didn't have all the palm trees so that we could just walk out onto the street and do exterior stuff. So I think that was kind of part of it. Kind of industrial and not at all West Coast-y. Yeah, exactly. A little bit. Well, I have to ask, do you ever get recognized as Sensei Billy? Does it come up?

Really? A lot, yeah.

That's so crazy to me. A lot because it's such a popular show. I mean, it's got to be Christopher first, right? Christopher first because that's what I'm known for. But yeah, people remember me from that. And sometimes I have some, you know, when I go to openings or events or stuff like that, people have, you know, they have waiting for you with photographs. Sometimes they're Sensei Billy photos. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I kind of love that. It was very memorable. And we were so delighted. Yeah, it was a really, really cool thing that you came and did that. It was really neat and really cool that you came and talked to us about it today. Thank you. Yeah, it was a really good time. He's a very good actor. I mean, it was really fun to work with, with rain. He's, um,

Very, very committed. Very much like his character, isn't he? Yes. Very committed. And just so, so funny. Thanks so much, Michael. This was wonderful. Thank you. Thanks for having me. We'll see you soon. Take care. All right. Yeah. Bye-bye. How great was that? So fun. I just love that he is a black belt in real life. I love that the majority of that conversation was about martial arts. Me too.

Well, listen, Michael, thank you so much for stopping by Office Ladies. You know, he has a movie coming out in December. It is called Oh, Canada.

And it's directed by Paul Schrader. It is starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi, and Michael Imperioli. And he said it's great. He said it's one of Richard Gere's best performances ever. I can't wait to see it. Well, listen, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, we will dive into Live in the Dream Part One. And you'll find out what's in our giant boxes. Yes, you will.

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We are back. It's Living the Dream Part 1. And before we start breaking down the episode, we have a special guest here today. We want to give a shout out. We've never had this done before. But Kate Arthur, the editor at large at Variety, is joining us. Hi, Kate. Hi, Kate. Hi, Kate.

I didn't know I was getting a shout out. That's incredible. Of course you are. You're here. You're our guest. Our guests get shout outs. That's right. I'm so happy to be here. Well, we heard that you and your son listen to Office Ladies in the car sometimes. We sure do. Yes. Sorry for all my bulls**t cards. Sorry.

Oh, that's okay. He likes it. But we put together a little bag of nifty gifties for your son. That is so lovely. Thank you. He's going to love it. Kate, we really are so excited that you're here today. We've been excited and we're just so grateful that you're going to shine a light on Office Ladies. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you.

It's provided us many hours of joy well beyond the joy that our family experienced watching the whole show together, all nine seasons, which we finished in

last year sometime, I think. So then we started listening to the podcast to relive it. I love that. Well, that's been our goal. That's right. This whole time. Well, when the article comes out, we'll be sure and share. And why don't we get down to breaking this episode down? All right. Jim and Pam are going to arrive to work and they are, dare I say, blissfully in love. This trot through the parking lot. We haven't seen this in a while.

They have a super cute joint talking head together. I'm pointing out all the talking heads as these final episodes play out. And this one is facing out. Jim and Pam are facing out to the future of their life.

Although, maybe they should be facing in since Jim is coming back to Dunder Mifflin. Maybe the talking head knows more than they do at this moment. Maybe the writer of the talking head knows more. Jim is going to share that he's taking time off from athlete. And the guys in Philly have been calling nonstop. But all that matters is the two of them being together. And they've had some great days together. And Pam says, and a nice morning, too. Oh.

And then Jim's like, Beasley. Well, we had a fan question from Anto P. in Brooklyn that so intrigued me. Anto said, are you aware of the, quote, Pam Lucky Sweater theory? No, I was not. Thankfully, Anto linked to this theory.

The theory is that Pam has a sex sweater. No. Yes. It is a pink cardigan. And apparently if she wears it, it means that Jim and Pam have recently had sex. Get out. Yes. Did you go back and look at episodes? Yes. So in the carpet, she's just returned from the Poconos with Roy.

And she hesitates to answer when Michael asks if she got lucky. Is she wearing the pink sweater? She is. Stop. And later she has to tell Jim, like, oh, well, we didn't ski much. Like, she's all, like, shy to be like, no, we actually didn't ski much. So, okay. Then I guess she wears it again in PDA. That's the episode where her and Jim hook up in the closet. Right. Yeah.

And then she wears it in this episode, too. Now, she wore it one other time. She wore it in Customer Loyalty, and that's the one where Cece has her recital, and she breaks down crying. So...

Maybe that one throws the theory off a little. It does. But don't they always say, oh, that's the exception that proves the rule? Isn't that that saying? In order to prove a rule, there's always one exception? Is that what that sentence means? I'm going to be honest with you. We don't know. Why are we asking each other this? I don't really know what it means. We don't know what it means. But anyway, fans wondered if maybe that was a nod to the private moment that she's going to share with Brian in the end, that there was still intimacy there.

Even though it wasn't sexual intimacy. This is how the fans justified it. I mean, there are a lot of theories out there about different parts of the show. This one is the most surprising to me. That she's got a I got lucky sweater. Oh, my gosh. This is a way too personal question. Do you have an item of clothing that might tip someone off to the fact that you just got lucky? Look at me.

What? Look how I rolled in here today. Well, I'm thinking maybe you didn't get lucky this morning. But if you had gotten lucky, what might you be wearing? Who can't get lucky with three kids at school drop off? I don't know. Who has the time? That's not what I'm asking. I'm just asking. Let me tell you. I'll tell you. If you see me in pajama bottoms at 2.30 in the afternoon...

It's because maybe I had some afternoon delight. That's all I'm saying. Oh, okay. If I've put my pajama bottoms on by 2.30, it's because we had some hanky-panky. I took a shower. Yeah. And I was like, well, I'm not going to get dressed at this point. I'll just put my pajama bottoms on and I'll roll through the afternoon into bedtime. That's your tell. If you stop by my house at 2.30 and I have pajama bottoms on,

That might be a good one. We all know now. I guess for me, it'd be like if I show up with wet hair. Oh. Oh. I feel like I've seen that a lot. I have run out of time. Oh. I have just gained an insight. Right.

Also, I just had this moment of like, our kids cannot listen to this episode. No, they cannot. No, they cannot. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, the phrase proving the existence of the rule. Yeah. OK, so are you going to tell us what it means? The argument states that if an exception exists or has to be stated, then this exception proves that there must be some rule in which case is the exception.

So the phrase special leave is given for men to be out of the barracks tonight until 11 p.m. The exception proves the rule means that this special leave implies a ruling requiring men except when the exception is made to be in earlier. The value of this interpreting statutes is plethora.

OK, you had me, you lost me. But I'm going to go back to when you had me. And I think I get it. I think the fact that we have to say there's an exception to this rule proves that a rule exists in the first place. Exactly. So there's if there's a sign in a shop that said prepaid delivery required for refrigerators would be that prepaid delivery is not required for other objects.

Right. That's the exception to the rule. Exactly. You know what is happening in my brain right now? It's like if you take the A train from Boston and you leave at 2 o'clock, it's that problem. It's that math problem. Yeah. When do you meet? When do you meet up if you meet in Ohio? I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. I don't want to figure it out.

All right, well, listen, where are we? Oh, well, Andy is about to approach Jim in the break room to ask his opinion on ties. He says, which tie makes me look like a guy who likes sofas? His agent is putting him up for a furniture commercial. Well, Jim says definitely the blue tie. And then we learn that Jim might have a new nickname, no longer Big Tuna, Carpaccio. Because he's been spreading himself too thin. Thinly sliced tuna. Mm-hmm.

I have a few things here that I'd like to point out. All right. I have a background catch from a fan. Where do you want to start? First of all, I love that we find out that Andy has work makeup, and there were a few candy bag alts for this. Really?

Really? Uh-huh. And I'm going to share the one I love. Okay. Andy says, tell me about it, Big T. Between this job and my acting, it's like I've been living a double life. Like, who even am I right now? Sofa buyer number two or Andy Bernard? I couldn't tell you. I like that line.

And then I have a background catch. Well. I think it's why we both brought these big boxes today. Oh, well, yes. My background catch came from Haley S. in Knoxville, Tennessee, who noticed that in the vending machine in the break room behind Jim, there is a package of chips and they are flavored baby back rib chips. They are. That was my catch. If you go to one minute, 33 seconds in the A1 slot. Mm-hmm.

Are these chips that say baby back ribs? I had to know. Is this a real chip? Same. And then...

We both bought boxes of them. Here's the thing. They only come, at least they're regional. They're hers chips. They are a real chip. And the only way we could get them here to the West Coast, at least the only way I could find, was by ordering a giant variety box of hers chips. Same. So guess what, you guys? Today, everybody gets hers chip. But we have to try. Where is it? Where is it, Jenna? We have to try the baby back ribs chips. All right. Ever.

Y'all in the sound booth, you can have your own bag or share. There are so many. Okay, guys. Are you ready? All right. Opening bag. Will these taste different than just barbecue chips is my big question. Here we go. Here we go. Oh, my gosh. They taste like ribs. They really do. Oh, I kind of liked it and then I didn't. Oh, my God. I love them. What is... They make me want to have ribs. Okay.

What does everyone else think? I'm going to eat another one. They're fine. Fine. It tastes like barbecue. I was worried they were going to have meat in them because I'm a vegetarian. Oh, no. But they don't. It says artificially flavored. Yeah. They're not bad, but yeah, there's like a lingering vinegar taste to it, I think. Kate, did you try one? I like them quite a bit. I do too. I mean, I'm still eating them. I was going to say, Jennifer, someone who was like, I don't know how I feel about it. You just ate five.

You just sit there and quietly chomping on your chips. So sorry. Okay. All right. Well, was that worth us both purchasing and carrying these giant boxes to work today? I don't know. Well, we're going to have hers chips for a while here. We are. I'm excited because there's some sour cream and onion in the box. And I actually love hers sour cream and onion. You do. There's also, I just want to say something called jalapeno popper cheese curls. Okay.

And Lee had a bag and said they're delicious. Oh, I'll be trying that after this. Okay. All right. Not sponsored by hers, but maybe we should be. Someone write an email. Maybe we should let them know. I have to tell you that I found some amazing gems in my digital clutter. Really? Yes. And I went old school.

Back to the days of when I used to do note cards, and I made two note cards. And Jenna, you get to pick which one I'll share first. I will share both of these digital clutter items in this episode, but these are your choices. Read them out loud. Dorks in a trailer, wedding bells. Aw. I'm going to choose dorks in a trailer.

But I just, I got a little bit sentimental seeing you bring in these note cards that we, you know, we're getting near the end here of our rewatch. And I haven't seen a note card in a while and it just made me sentimental. I know. I used to bring in like 45. You did. All right. Tell me about Dorks in a Trailer. I will. One second while I find it. So...

I have been going back, you know, looking at each week we film an episode, I go into my email. As you know, I never delete emails, so I have a ton of old emails. And in one of my emails, I found a video that I made in your trailer at lunch about this episode. Oh, my gosh, a video. A video. So the week we did this episode, I guess I made a video maybe for NBC.com on my phone. And I still had it.

And wait till you see us, lady. We are such dorks. But it made me so happy to see this. I'm so glad I still had this in my email. I'm going to play it for you, but everyone out there can hear the audio, but you'll get to see the video and I'll also share it in our stories. Everybody, it's Angela Kinsey from the set of The Office with Jenna Fisher.

want to let you guys know that there are two episodes of The Office airing tonight. Brand new. One full hour. The first half hour is a lot of Dwight fun, wacky comedy. And the second one is one of my favorites of the year. Some big stuff for jam. So check it out. We are still the same. I know. Do you know

like videos of kids and then they're the same as an adult like we are still the same I am just I'm going to give you the information that NBC.com put in the memo that they asked us to relay and then you're like whoop whoop and I'm like check it out yep we're still going strong we're still dorking it up okay and then I will play wedding bell card later I love it

Well, Angela is going to arrive to the office now. She is disheveled. She looks miserable. I looked up in the shooting draft how it was described. Yes, I was going to ask you. Here's what it says. Angela enters the office looking like a wreck. She's in jeans, an inside-out sweater with the shoulder pads exposed, and she sips from a big gulp cup. She looks like s***. That's what it said. Okay.

I mean, Oscar is concerned. He asks if she's okay. This is when she tells him that the county took her cats. Yes. I do want to point out the moment I walk into the office, like sipping on that big gulp. Yeah. That is one of my memes that I see in the world. I bet. And people usually like post it and they write something like heading into Monday like dot, dot, dot. And it's me sipping on a big gulp.

We did get a question about your hair. Oh, yeah. Martha B. from Malta, we've heard from Martha before, would like to know, did you have your hair backcombed every day? That must have been hard to deal with. Martha, what Kim did is she had me turn my head upside down, and then we just kind of shook it and teased it, and then she sprayed it and had me flip back over, and then we crunched it and sprayed it again.

You know, I was looking through old photos and it's really not much different than how I used to do my hair in the 80s in Texas. It's kind of the same. I'm just missing the wall bangs. Right. I really felt for Angela when she told Oscar that they took her cats when she was out because I really felt the violation of someone coming into your home and taking something precious to you like your cats. Yeah.

Oscar kind of expresses some sympathy, but Angela is, she's not ready for sympathy, right? And then the scene ends with her kind of trying to brush all this cat hair off her sweater. And then she sniffs it. Yeah. That was all scripted. It says Angela pulls out a slicker brush and combs lumps of cat hair off her sweater, forms it into a ball and sniffs it wistfully. And here's the thing.

I had a whole wardrobe fitting for this episode, right? And the sweater they gave me, it wasn't real cat hair. My memory is it was like this mohair kind of fluff. You know that mohair kind of stuff? Yeah, sure. But it did float up in the air around me. It got stuck in my lip gloss. There were a few times where I was like... And...

I just loved it. I loved everything about this look. You know, Alicia, our costume designer, was really thoughtful about it. I loved that my sweater actually didn't end up having shoulder pads, but we made sure it was inside out and it had those little ribbons that you attach to the hanger. Yes, that was my favorite detail. Yeah, I love that. Was that those ribbons...

Now, when I get something, I snip those out immediately. Those things drive me absolutely nuts. Does anyone actually use those? You know what? I have one dress that's like the one shoulder. Do you know what I mean? Where it's useful? Where it's useful. Otherwise, I cut them out. Or they just flop around and they poke out from your armpit whole thing. No. They drive me crazy. They drive me crazy. But I loved them as this detail on Angela's sweater.

I do have a background catch at 2 minutes and 52 seconds. I'm calling it a full circle.

Full circle moment here. If you look at the glass partition between Angela and Kevin, you can see the back of the yellow Post-it note. It's the one that I made in the pilot episode inviting everyone to Sprinkle's birthday. As you guys know, I've shared when I gave it to Brian as Kevin, he taped it to the partition. It stayed there all nine years. And you can see it in this shot. I love that. And then you got to take that.

When the show ended, and it ended up in our book. It is. Brian saved it all that time. Well, now Dwight is going to arrive to work, and he is going to call for everyone's attention because there are four new weapons in this office. It's his arms and his legs. My favorite line in this, it's a total throwaway line. It's my favorite line when he says, this morning, after hours of combat with some of the city's best teenagers, I earned my black belt.

That's right. He then has a talking head where he talks about how he had to part ways with Sensei Ira, and he found a new dojo and a new sensei, Sensei Billy, who felt he had more than enough training to take the test. Yes. Because as it turns out, most students don't spend 20 years and $150,000 to get a black belt. I have two things. I got so tickled in this. Okay. Sorry.

At three minutes and 39 seconds, this might be the poofiest hair Dwight has ever had. It's still the zipper part, but it's so poofy. I took a screen grab. I was laughing so hard. And Rain, I want to apologize in advance for how this screen grab looks. It's just where your face stopped when I hit pause.

It's very, very poofy. This is my favorite thing. I'm going to set it as his picture in my contacts now. I will share that in stories.

And then I was really curious about what it costs to get a black belt. Were you curious about this? I was fascinated. So I guess Dwight has spent $7,500 a year to get his black belt. Okay. Well, I texted my sister-in-law in Colorado because she's been taking martial arts for a very long time. And I said, is this anywhere in the ballpark of what you spend? And this is what she had to say.

It varies widely based on discipline, but for Taekwondo, it's been about four years for me. For first degree, then each degree up is at least that number of years spent at the prior belt rank. So two years minimum to second degree, three before third, et cetera. You're constantly working towards it.

And then there's the cost of the gear and tournaments and all that other stuff. So you're looking at about 4K for two years of training. But would two years of training at 4K get you to black belt? Because there's a lot of belts. I don't know.

So we have you mom detectative. I'm mom detectative. I missed one last question, which would be, do you have your black belt? Well, we may never know. We may never know. I mean, I could text her and ask her. But it's better this way. But maybe we leave it. We leave it like this. I just looked it up. Oh. And according to the karate grading system, the average time takes around five years. So it takes five years. Okay.

And if we use your sister-in-law's logic of about $4,000 per year, he should have been able to do this for $20,000. $4,000 for two years. Oh, so $2,000 a year. Yeah. Also, I love the premise, this is how mom detectives end. You go, you know, maybe we'll never know. Yeah, we'll never know. We'll never know. And it's okay. And we stopped investing in it. Exactly. We've moved on. We lost interest and we've moved on. Yeah.

Well, Dwight is going to invite everyone to his black belt ceremony here in the office at lunch. Lunch not provided. I love that that's when Phyllis turned away. She's like, I'm out. By the way, I'm going to point out early that when we do get to the scene where Dwight is doing his black belt ritual, Leslie, as Stanley, is eating at his desk. It is lunchtime. It is perfect. He did eat his lunch. You know when Jim shouts fireball and Dwight throws his briefcase? Yes. Yes.

They purposely put me to the edge of Oscar's desk so I wouldn't get hit with it. Very smart. You do not want to be anywhere near Rainn Wilson when he is throwing a prop. You do not. No. I have a background catch during this scene. I noticed there are two framed certificates by front reception that I had never seen before. Maybe you guys caught them.

Really? I zoomed in and they are for the speed dialing and memo sorting competition. It's been there a long time. You saw it? Oh, yeah. When? Oh, I mean, a while ago. Okay. Well... Seasons ago, I think. I'm sorry to say. Erin came in fourth one year and then one year she won and got her picture.

My question is, who's in this competition? Who's she beating to win this? Yeah, who's running it? Who's running it? Who's she competing against? Who's also speed dialing and doing memo sorting? This is a great question. Okay. Is it for the building? Is it a regional thing? Yeah. Anyway. Does it come with a giant check? Probably not. Well, then it's not worth much, is it? I just want to know who's in it. I would have loved to seen a scene of it. Well...

We may never know. I don't know what to tell you. David Wallace is going to arrive and he's going to ask Erin if Andy is in. Erin completely panics because she's been juggling Andy's audition schedule and it's really hectic and she's having trouble managing his calendar. She's super relieved to see that Andy is actually in the office that day. And Andy greets David. He said, David Walrus in his natural habitat. Yeah.

David Wallace has a talking head where he explains the reason that he's here is to fire Andy. Yeah. It's just been too much. Too much. He wanted cheek implants and he wanted the company to pay for it.

Yeah, and apparently he also found out that he used company funds to buy a color printer to make headshots. Fan question from Jenna F. in Los Angeles. Oh, Jenna F. wrote in? She did. She noticed that in this very quick little moment, this little B-roll under David Wallace's talking head, that we see a shot of Andy at this color printer.

And he is holding his headshot composite. Yes. Jenna F. said, this is my favorite comedic prop from the whole show. I literally spit out my coffee when I saw it. Please tell me everything about this prop.

So it's just brilliant. I mean, I truly did spit out my coffee when I saw it. I was taking a sip of coffee and I choked on it. It is so perfect to me. I reached out to Ed because I had to ask him about this. He clearly had to take all these pictures of all these different characters. Yeah.

Here's what Ed had to say. Hey, Jenna. I saw your text. So I don't remember a lot of details about that composite headshot, but I agree. It is really damn funny. And I just remember we wanted to...

kind of, I don't know, nod to what it's like to be starting out as an actor and especially a comedy actor. And I don't know about you, but I definitely had a composite headshot like that with a bunch of different characters.

When you're starting out, it's sort of what you think the casting business wants from you, which is like a lot of options and a lot of variety. And sometimes we try a little too hard when we put those headshots together.

I don't even know if young actors today even do headshots. Everything's so online these days. But it was definitely a fun nod. And I remember brainstorming, like, well, okay, if we're doing a composite headshot, what are the different characters? And so we just tried to come up with

a good variety. And of course there's always like a nerd character, a jock. And, and then what else did we do in that? A judge. And then there's just like the cool guy right in the middle. So yeah, it's just a nod to classic, you know, actors starting out trying to get that headshot to get those parts. I guess that's what it is. I just love that. It is so true. We all did it.

In honor of Andy's composite headshots, I went through my drawer and I have brought in my first headshots. And then Jenna told me to do the same. So we're going to have a show and tell. We are.

So my very first headshot was Cassie has stood up to see this. People are standing up. Okay. Okay. I mean, I have a stack. I only brought two. Did you bring them all? No, I brought three. Okay. My very first headshot, which I did not bring, was actually taken by my tech theater teacher in college. His name is Ron Rybkowski. I love this man. And something he did for any actor who needed it is he brought his camera in and he set up

you know, a backdrop and he took a picture for each of us when we graduated for free so that we would have something when we went out to become actors. It was a great picture. It got me in the door a lot of places.

But of course, I get to LA and I get in my head about it. And I think I need to hire one of these LA headshot photographers to take my picture. Yeah. The big thing you ask yourself is what do I wear in this headshot? What do I wear? The advice I got was just wear something you're comfortable in, something that you're going to be able to be yourself in. So I wore my favorite outfit, which was at the time, a pair of brown corduroy overalls

And Doc Martens. And here is my first Los Angeles headshot. How cute are you? You're so cute.

Okay, this headshot is super cute, but it didn't help me get many auditions. Okay. I got some notes from agents saying, you're kind of sitting in kind of a closed off way. You're kind of hugging your knees. Let's try to be maybe more open. Why don't you try again? So my hair had grown out a little bit. It was a little longer. So I hired a new photographer and I thought, let's do this again. Okay. You might ask yourself...

Did you change your outfit? Did not. Did not sit in a less closed off way. You're doing this was basically. Same pose, same outfit, slightly longer hair. That's all that's happened. Yeah. That's it. I was like, I'm going to get this right. I cut my hair again. And I was like, I'm not going to make this mistake again. Yeah. Third session.

Didn't end up using this one, but did have it blown up into an 8x10. Why?

Why am I sitting on a stool like this? It's so weird. It's so awkward. It's so awkward. Why is my zip-down sweater tucked into my jeans? I don't know. With a belt. What's happening? With a belt. She took a hoodie, a zipper sweater. She tucked it in jeans with a belt and then straddled a stool. It's so awkward. It's awful. Oh, I have so many awkward ones, too. There are many more before I got it right.

And I actually have a whole chapter about it in my book, The Actor's Life, and you can see them all. But I'll share these online. Okay. Well, because... But it got worse before it got better. Same here. Because you told me you were bringing yours in, I was like, okay...

I was in New York in my early 20s. This is when I was interning on the Conan O'Brien show and I was taking acting classes. And I was going to move to L.A. and one of the gals was like, you have to have a headshot if you're moving to Los Angeles. That's right. I was like, okay. So I was like, what do I wear? And she said, I would wear something denim. Okay.

Oh, no. What is wrong with us? What did you wear? She was like, do you have a denim vest? No, she didn't. And I was like, I do. I do, actually. She goes, well, denim vest or a denim jacket? Well, I didn't have a denim jacket. This is peak 90s, guys. Then the photographer, I think, just zoomed in. It's like neck up. This is my first headshot. Cute. Cute.

It looked like a vest. It looks like a denim shirt. Okay. Then this is in New York. Then I move to Los Angeles and I'm like, they're all like, well, you've got to get a real more body headshot, right? Like not just your head. You need like three quarter, right? Yeah. That was the thing. That was the big thing. You were supposed to have like a headshot and a three quarter shot. Right. So I was like, okay, let's do this again.

Did I try a new outfit? Did you? No. What is wrong with us? I wore the denim vest again. It is. And I cut my hair. This is funny. Lady, I did not know this about you.

Two photo shoots in the same denim vest. What is happening? What? This is the most. Look how uncomfortable I look. I'm like. Your thumbs are in your pocket. What is happening? And we wonder why it took us so long. To make it. Okay. We will share those in stories because they're special. All right.

Corduroy overalls, denim vest. Let's go. We were meant to be besties. We were. That is clear. Well, and...

Well, Andy is in his meeting with David Wallace and David is about to launch into his sort of why I have to fire you speech. But Andy stops him. He's like, I need to stop. Yeah. Let me interrupt you right there. Yeah. Every minute that I spend here is time not spent making audition videos for reality dating, cooking or singing shows. I got a real shot here. David is like, wait, are you you're saying that this job is like taking your focus away? Yeah.

You feel like you're too focused on this job. And Andy's like, yeah, he was so distracted at his last headshot session because he was wondering what he was missing at work.

Turns out Andy is going to quit Dunder Mifflin because, quote, I am pursuing fame of any kind. Yeah. He said he owes it to himself and his future fans. Yeah. With this documentary about to air, this is the time. Right. So David is relieved. He's like, yeah, that worked out. And then Creed says, you know what? Pretty much anyone can be a star. The postman, the night janitor at the office. But Andy, no. Charisma black hole. Yeah. Well.

Well, Jim is going to approach Clark now, and he's going to ask for his desk back, please. But Clark feels like maybe he's earned it.

And maybe Jim should sit in the annex. I did love when Jim's like, well, the whole reason I'm back is to, you know, be with my wife. And Clark goes, I'm here to sell paper. And he like taps his desk. I love that. That's what I'm here for. That was such a great line. You know, Natalie C. from Fort Smith, Arkansas loved that line because of Clark's very hard, very Arkansan R in the line, I'm here to sell paper line.

Natalie went on to say, I love being able to catch all of your accents and to hear one that is so clearly from my own home just makes me love the scene so much more. Well, you know Clark was born and raised in Arkansas. And I have an audio clip. Natalie, here you go. Clark, I'm actually here today. Surprise! So I was wondering if maybe I could have my desk back. Right. Yeah, but, you know, I've actually been working pretty hard here on a daily basis, so...

I kind of feel like I've earned this. I mean, you know? You totally have. You have earned it. But maybe I could be with my wife. That's kind of the whole reason why I'm here. Right. Well, I'm here to sell paper. There it is. Paper. Paper. I'm here to sell paper.

I love Clark. We were just emailing. He's got to come on. He's very excited. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, Ainsley knows Clark. I know. So small world. I know. He's coming on. Well, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, I will share my wedding bells note card. And Andy's going to have a big announcement to the bullpen. I like it.

We are getting ready to plan some travel for the holidays, and so we've started to look on Airbnb. We love to stay at an Airbnb because when you travel with children and your family, it is nice to have a kitchen. It's nice to have you all in one area. You know, I've talked about this before, a family of five.

It's a little tougher. Like we can't all pile in one hotel room. Yeah. So it's nice to have some space. And we love an Airbnb. We found an Airbnb that was literally down the block from Lee's brother's house. Yeah. It was amazing. We could walk in between the two houses, but then we all had our own space.

I really like being able to get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and eat breakfast, and I'm not in a public space. I don't have to go get fully dressed to go down to breakfast. Right, yes. Or find breakfast. Airbnb offers the perfect accommodation, whether you're traveling with friends, family, or on your own. Consider Airbnb for your next adventure. I remember going to the bank with my dad when I was 18.

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I was first introduced to Masterclass through my husband, Lee. He's been taking different classes for, oh my gosh, a couple of years now. With Masterclass, you can learn from the best to become your best. I recently found a new class I want to take. What is it? Serena Williams teaches tennis. Okay.

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We are back, and I have a note card for you titled Wedding Bells. It is because while we were filming this episode, we threw a... Oh, I remember! I remember!

Go ahead. We threw a surprise bridal shower. This was the email I found. And then Steve Burgess also sent me pictures from the bridal shower. It said, hello, office friends. As many of you know, our first AD, Kelly Cantley, has met her mate and is getting married. We will be throwing her a surprise bridal shower at the catering tables during lunch. Please help us keep this a secret.

We invite everyone to come for cake and sparkling cider, and anyone who wishes to bring a gift may drop it off at the production office. And here are her registries. Please email Angela or Steph with any questions, and we'll see you there. Sweetest thing. So sweet. I just love that we were a family, and that's why we're all still in touch. And I love finding little emails like this. I hope you guys like hearing it because it really was a special, special group of people. It really was.

Well, next up, Andy is going to make a very big announcement to the bullpen. He is taking a lifetime leave of absence from Dunder Mifflin. Yeah. Everyone assumes he's been fired. He's like, no, no, no, no, no. I've chosen this. I'm leaving because he is going to pursue his dreams. Yeah. He said, see you on the red carpet. And everybody is like, oh, Andy. Yeah.

Phyllis has a talking head. She says Andy sings beautifully. And, you know, he's good at dancing and speaking, but there's something there you just don't want to look at. Yeah. Her talking head is facing out. Oh. Now we're headed to the annex. Jim and Pete are working, and they are kind of like trying to be buddies. They're trying to, like, dude-bro bond. Yeah. Jim's like, I bet you kind of miss Clark, huh? And Pete's like, yeah. I mean, Pete is so honest. Pete.

And then Jim's like, go Phillies. And Pete's like, no. It's not happening. He doesn't watch baseball. The two Jims are not going to bond. And then I love, clearly, but I love that Toby, once again, has to like live through this moment. He does. He's always in the background of all these people's conversations.

Next up, Daryl is going to go into Andy's office and really try to talk some sense into him. But Andy misinterprets this. Yeah. Daryl has one of my favorite lines of the episode. He said, listen, let's say you get a job, which you probably won't. They're not going to cut you any slack. And you're meant for a job with lots and lots of slack. Yeah. Made me laugh.

Isn't that that principle that we read about that one time, the Peter principle? Yeah. That feels like people who need a job with a lot of slack. That's right. Andy, of course, thinks this is Daryl's way of saying goodbye, right? He says, the male is a funny species. We don't just tell each other how we feel. That's chick stuff. So instead of saying, hey, Andy, I love you, man. I don't want you to leave. You say something like, hey, Andy, you're making the worst mistake of your life. You're not talented. Well, right back.

Catch it, Daryl. He's like, right back at you, Daryl. Yeah, buddy. Yeah. So Andy gives Daryl a big hug and says, I'm going to miss you too. Now we're going to hear from some other folks in the office. They're going to tell us how they feel about Andy's big dreams. Mm-hmm. Starting with Stanley. He says, what happened to the generation of shut up and do your work and die quietly from a heart attack? He's over Andy's generation who thinks they all should be famous. What would Stanley think of TikTok? Oh, man.

No. He would not be having it. That would be a no. Especially because, you know, it's all Michael would be doing. Oh, yeah. Do you know how many TikTok dances we've all learned under Michael? Oh, my gosh. So many. So many. Michael Scott would have the whole bullpen.

doing some TikTok dance. You know, I learn TikTok dances in my free time and I just never post myself doing them. I know this about you and you're really good. Well, I can't dance. I certainly can't do a TikTok dance. They move so quick.

I'm not great. I'm not. You're fantastic. You're being kind. You're being a good BFF. I'm actually not. You're really good. That last one you sent me was so good. I wish you would share one. It all started with me learning the tap dance routine to Footloose.

That kind of kicked it off. It's great exercise. It really is just learning these TikTok dances. And the latest one I learned was the one from the show Chicago. Yeah, everyone's doing that one. Yeah. I figured it out. I did it. Yeah.

I'm proud of it. I think you're really good at it. I don't think I'll ever post it. I love the part where you did. I don't think it's going to end up on Office Ladies this week. I like the part where you did your hands that way and then you did your hands this way. It was like really fast. You know what? It was really hard for me to figure that out. I thought it was so good. It was hard for me to figure out. I could not do it. And it got my heart rate up. Well, there you go. And I enjoyed myself. There you go. That

That was a tangent I wasn't expecting to go on. Well, now people are going to want to see it. So it'll never see the light of day. It's for me. It's my joy. And for you, because I send them to you. I love you're my audience of one. Well, I think you're phenomenal. Thank you. Sensei Billy and Dwight are about to begin the belt ceremony.

Dwight kind of is like thrusting his hips towards Sensei Billy, which is making this very difficult to take the belt off. They're just going to have to cut it off. I know we talked about how much fun it was to shoot this with Michael, but I wanted to point out this fan catch from Courtney C. in Torrance, California, because she noticed we did get a giant break on camera.

Courtney said,

Andy lost it. Oh, my gosh. Angela, it's full Mindy. It's like he's just literally he's just laughing on camera. Yeah. And he was really usually pretty good about it. He was. Yeah. Oh, wait. Kate is waving from the sound booth. Kate, do you have something to add about this scene? Fan catch from Kate. As Dwight begins his karate black belt routine, you, I believe, as Angela Kinsey, not Angela Martin, are flabbergasted.

fully laughing in the background. And so is everyone. Everyone, no one is looking...

serious as he begins this very serious proceeding. I do remember that. I saw you like smirk, Jenna. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing. I mean, we talked about this. This was very hard to get through. We have bloopers of it. You know what I mean? And I'm not surprised. I mean, we made our best effort, but. Yeah. Well, good fan catch from Kate. Thank you. Well, Angela is now going to have a talking head. This is a talking head. I get quoted to me.

I've had to sign it like someone wanted me to write it out one time. Basically, we learned that Dwight has been practicing karate for years and that Angela used to help him with his strength training when they dated. He would strap her to his chest in a baby Bjorn made for fat babies and do lunges across the farm. She felt like she was flying. Here's what I remember about this.

There was a serious moment of conversation where they wondered if we could do this. Like a B-roll? Like a B-roll. And that they would cut to it and I would be strapped to Rain's chest and you'd be doing lunges. There is no way. It never happened, but I was tickled that they were trying to figure it out. This does bring me to some mail we got. Remember when I played my bullsh** cards for the farm?

I do. And we told everyone if they had a bullsh** card to play that they could write in and we set up a folder on our website. I do remember. Well, we got one for this episode and here it is. It's from Karen C. in Texas. And in the subject for what episode, she wrote this. I'm not sure the episode number, but it's the one where Angela lost everything and has to move in with Oscar. Okay. Okay. And here's her bullsh** card. And I thought she brought up a good point.

I call bullshit on Angela's downfall because before the senator, she was making enough money to have a house. She still should have enough money to at least afford an apartment. And I know other people wrote this in, but here's the part where I thought she made a good point. In Pennsylvania, it is practiced. It is not a mandate, but it is practiced that in a divorce, everything is 50-50 division of marital law. So Angela would have gotten some sort of settlement. So bullshit.

On our downward spiral. All right. So I know we've discussed this. We got so much mail about this and whether or not people believe that Angela is so destitute. We did get an interesting comment on our Office Ladies Pod Instagram that I saw. Cassie, can you look it up? She kind of talks about her theory. It's a nice rebuttal to this.

Yeah, this is from Susie. And she said,

Angela had a job before and during the marriage, so she might not have qualified for spousal support. Even if they didn't use a divorce attorney, she may not have had a lot of savings and child care cost a lot.

All right. I like that. Yeah. I like both of these contributions to this storyline and why Angela might be struggling. Yeah. I could see how her money and assets or any potential money she might get from the divorce might be tied up as well. Like maybe she's not getting these payments yet. This is very fresh. Yeah. There's a lot going on. And the senator might have been sneaky and like,

Oh, the senator was 100% sneaky. For sure. Oh, my God. Creed Bratton is trying to call me. Answer. Well, I missed it. Do you want me to call him back? Well, sure, because I love when he calls us when we're in the middle of podcasting. Hey, pumpkin. Credo, you called. We're podcasting. You're on with me and Jenna again. Hello, that cat. That cat video you sent. I mean, seriously, that's going to haunt me.

That's what it did. I'll have to share it. What are you up to? I'm running my sets here, trying to figure out the comedy bits for Europe and Ireland and England and stuff. And I got a call. Can we talk? I got a call. LA Times is doing an article on the album. Awesome. And they were asking...

office mates of mine to make some comments about what it was like when I was playing music. So Rain and Brian are going to do a quick, so I'm calling you to see if you would talk to them. 100% Creed, 100%. Okay. You can give them my phone number. Okay, can I give your phone number to my publicist and she can coordinate it with them? Yes. When does your tour start?

I think October 3rd, 3rd or 5th in Nottingham. Okay. And then second show is in England, so in London, rather. You heard that, Office Ladies listeners. Creed is coming to Europe. You have to go see his show. He's fantastic.

Free fish and chips. Free fish and chips? Really? No. No. I got really excited. All right, Creed. Well, we're going to do the podcast, but we love you and we miss you. Oh, go do that podcast. Hi, Jan. Hi, Creed. I told you my cat's reaction when I played that video.

Well, I wanted to see, I wanted to see, it was too late now, it wouldn't react the same way, but if I could have had a video. Oh, my daughter, Ami, she's walking out to the car to go to the chiropractor and the phone's in her purse. And all of a sudden, she gets in the car, it's back, back, back seat. She hears that noise there. It went off, she hit it somehow. It starts playing the cat. She's looking out the windows. She's looking out the windows for that sound, where it was coming from.

Creed, I'm going to try. I'll play it again and I'll see if my cat reacts the same way since it's been a few days and I'll send it to you. I'll send you a video of his reaction. Oh, please do. Please do. I mean, my God, I don't think that's lightning in a bottle, that thing. All right, Creed, we love you. I'll talk to you soon. Okay, hon. All right. Bye.

It's my favorite neighbor, Creed Braddon. He's going to Europe. Yeah. 80. Touring. Amazing. Amazing. All right, everyone. It is official. Dwight is a black belt. Yes. He has an elaborate...

what would you call it, routine he does throughout the office? Yes, we talked about this with Michael. It is a truly never-ending display. And Steve Burgess told us that we did bring in a stunt coordinator. It was John Medlin, who was a specialist in karate and hand-to-hand combat.

He worked with Rain before the shoot, but it's also true that Rain kind of made up this whole sequence for himself on the day. I feel like the choice to headbutt the plant was all Rain. Yeah, that little stare down between Pam and Jim at the end was not scripted. I love that. I loved it when he was doing his like hand motion and Pam is like, no, not today, Dwight. Exactly. In fact, the only scripted scene description was this.

Quote, Dwight kicks around the office a little too close to Clark and Phyllis.

That's it. That's it. That's what it said. It also said that Esther proudly like jumps and like wraps her legs around him. Yeah, scripted. They just did a hug. And then we find out that she calls Dwight Shrewberry Blue. Cringe. Super cringe. I'm so glad you said that. I didn't like it. It's super cringe. No. And you know what? Dwight is not, he doesn't want to be called those baby names. No. And also, you know what? What? If you call your partner a baby name, save it for out of the office. I don't need to know it.

No. No. Would you have preferred that she call him lover? No. No. Please don't loop me in. You know, I'm really so glad that we got to talk to Michael about these scenes. He is seriously the nicest guy. And, you know, Angela, this story is.

Of how me and Lee ran into him on our summer vacation on the streets of New York City. Yeah, you guys were like at a red light. You and Lee standing next to him and his wife. It was a New York moment, truly. We had both come out of the same like art house movie theater. We hadn't seen the same movie, but we were coming out at the same time.

We get to chatting. They are so lovely. We're talking about the movies we saw. We're talking about how, oh, Michael and I both did rewatch podcasts. You know, his wife, Victoria, and he, they just opened up a bar in New York. She did all the interior design for it. It has like live jazz music on Mondays. We're like, oh my gosh, we're going to have to check this out. All of

All of this happens, right? Yeah. We never mentioned the fact that he was on The Office. This doesn't come up. Then I get home from our summer vacations and I'm like, oh, what's our first episode back? I pop it on and there he is. It's him. He's Sensei Billy. Yes. I was like, oh my gosh.

This is so weird. I just ran into him. And then you reached out and he was so gracious. Yes, he was like, sure. I'd love to chat about it. I really want to go to his club. Oh, lady, for sure. Jazz music on a Monday night in New York City? Are you kidding me? I'm in. Yeah. Angela Martin would not be in.

But I am in. We are in. You know what? I'm going to tell you the name of it. Everybody in New York or traveling to New York, you should check it out. It is called Scarlet. It is in Manhattan at the corner of 83rd and Amsterdam. Okay. And they have a special drink, apparently, that is a nod to the White Lotus. Oh. You know, because he was on season two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Well, Jim and David Wallace are now going to have a chat in the conference room. David is impressed that Jim would set his personal goals aside to focus on his marriage. Yeah. Isn't this when he says he knows some people who wouldn't change their golf schedule for their marriage? Yeah. How are those marriages? Yeah. How's that working out for you? I guess that's my question. Mm-hmm.

Clark is watching this. He's very suspicious of Jim. He's like, you know what? I bet he came back here to take over the job, like not to be here with Pam. And Dwight defends Jim and says, no, Pam is actually really cool. I loved that. I did too. It was so sweet. And this is where Dwight shares that he used to want to be the branch manager, but he's made too many mistakes and

he thinks Jim would be a fine manager. So we're seeing this really just full circle for Dwight of like his journey and wanting this position. But then back in the conference room, David shares that he's considering Dwight as Andy's replacement. And Jim says it should absolutely be Dwight. Yeah. David had had a sidebar conversation with Sensei Billy during Dwight's whole routine. And Sensei Billy said he was one of the most loyal, dedicated,

odd guys that he'd ever met. But I think David's really seeing how much Dwight loves and cares for this company. Yeah. Now we're going to have a scene that I found very curious simply because of the pairing of people that enter Andy's office. Yeah. This is an odd grouping that we've never seen before. We have never seen Nellie and Kevin in cahoots in a way. Yes. They have teamed up to confront Andy and again...

try to convince him not to leave Dunder Mifflin. They sort of say, what if you stayed here and you really gave it a go? You could achieve the fame and immortality simply by being the best manager in the history of this branch. How about that? No. No, Andy's not hearing it. And then Oscar's going to have a talking head that I thought was so hilarious because Oscar Nunez's performance was perfect.

Oscar says, no, I don't think he can make it as an actor, but also he can't make it as an employee in an office. So why not go nuts with it? That's very funny. And he is also facing out. Did anyone face in? It doesn't sound like it. In Living the Dream Part Two, someone is facing in. I will save it. Save it.

All right, now we're going to have a scene at Pam's desk. Jim is going to come up. He's kind of just, it's a flirty excuse to come talk to her. It's very cutesy. He's asking about some sticky notes, but I believe it's going to reveal a very big thing about Pam. What is that? Is Pam the sauce lady of the office? She has a salt packet.

In her desk. I feel like she's one ketchup pack away. She's the sauce lady. She might be. I want you guys to know that there was a very big note that went to both John and I before we started this episode. And the note came from Greg. And it was that Jim should be 100%

Yeah. There is no hint of regret, no hint of strife between this couple that this whole episode, Jim and Pam, but particularly Jim, is very happy with this decision to be back at Dunder Mifflin. We wanted this to be very clear. Yeah.

You're not wondering. That's absolutely how it read to me. And I was happy. I was like relieved. I feel like as an audience member rewatching, I was so stressed about Jim and Pam that in this episode I could relax. That was the idea. Dwight is now going to go into the kitchen where he meets Andy. And they're both sort of congratulating each other, you know, like, hey, Dwight, this is a big day for you. Andy's like, it's a big day for you. Yeah, they both enter the kitchen whistling. That's how excited they are about their lives, I guess. Yeah.

And I wondered if the whistling was scripted. It was. Oh, it says they both enter whistling. Dwight is also now going to try to talk Andy out of going. He says, listen, I have everything to gain by you leaving, but don't go, please. I've seen you perform. Dear God, don't quit your day job.

And then Andy has this response, which I just love Ed Helms so much. This made me laugh. In a very Cockney accent, he says, nothing is impossible to him who will try. Alex did it great. If you were Cockney, I cannot do a very good Cockney accent, but Ed's is great. And I just love that that's how he chose to say that quote. And then Andy has this talking head where he says, I'm going to make it.

Every person that has been on Conan has a crazy story about how they made it. Every person. Every person who's on Conan. You know, I have to say, though, when you try to do something like this, it does serve you to have a little delusion. I mean, nothing makes you get in your car and.

and drive across the country with your denim vest on and you're ready to take the world. That's right. I mean, there's ambition, but there's a healthy amount of delusion. So Andy's not wrong. And you do have to be your own champion. Even when other people don't see it in you, you have to see it in yourself. It's true. I thought a lot about my early days watching this episode and

I remember telling my manager at 1-800-DENTIST that I was going to quit 1-800-DENTIST to focus on my one-woman show. And I wrote a one-woman show full of characters. I did a whole bunch of characters.

Oh, gosh. I remember that I was at a job interview. And in the interview, I wanted to be very honest and upfront about why I was really here. Sure. And it was not to be part of media sales. And so I said, I do feel like I need to tell you that, you know, I'm really here pursuing an acting career. So that is going to be my main focus. I'm really here for that. Yeah.

The person literally said, I think that'll be fine. If it becomes a problem, we'll deal with it. Yeah. Like sort of like. Okay. We'll see you tomorrow at nine. Don't think I'm going to have to worry. Well, my manager at 1-800-DENIS said, anytime you want to come back. No. You're welcome.

I was like, okay. And I remember like driving in my car, leaving there, being like, I'm never going to go back. You'll see. My one-woman show is going to be the talk of the town. All my characters. Oh, my goodness. Well, most people didn't maybe understand.

Totally support our delusions. Aaron certainly does not support Andy's. Well, Andy says, I'm going to ask you. You're honest, Aaron, right? Aaron cannot tell a lie. Yeah. And she says pretty bluntly that she's worried that he might become homeless or even starve. Yeah. And this is going to finally take the wind out of Andy's sails. Andy walks into the conference room. And before he could even say anything, David says, you know what? You can stay on as a salesman. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm sad for Andy. He was so excited at the beginning of this episode. Well, don't worry. I know. There's part two coming. Part two is coming. We're going to end on a big cliffhanger. David Wallace is going to call Dwight into the conference room. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. To be continued. Yes. We did get a fan catch for this very final moment of Dwight shutting the door behind him. It's from Xenia W.,

In British Columbia and also Summer P from St. Charles, Missouri. They have a mom detective's moment for us in this very final shot of this episode. What is it? I'm going to tell you. I'm also going to tell you ahead of time. This one is going to go unsolved as well. Oh. Okay. So nothing new.

20 minutes and 58 seconds as Dwight closes the conference room door to talk to David Wallace, there is a single trailing drip of something on the wall behind Dwight's head. Ew. They can't tell what it is and it's driving them crazy. They want to know, is it coffee? Is it chocolate sauce? Is it part of a deleted scene? Is it head high?

It's about, yeah, it is. Was it perhaps splattered there from a crew member and no one caught it? Jenna, Angela, can the mom detectives solve this? I will go back and rewatch it. I'll zoom in on it. I looked at it. I have a picture of it. Oh, let's see it. See if it'll help you. Okay. I almost drew a circle around it. Oh, I think it looks like Sharpie.

No, it looks like a drip. No. There's a drip at the bottom. Look at it. There's a little bubble of drip. Where the ink like makes the bigger dot. Why would someone draw Sharpie on the wall? I don't think they meant to. I don't think it's Sharpie. I want to look at it again. It looks like black Sharpie to me. Oh, when you really zoom in on it. I see what you're doing there. Okay. Well, my theory is it's Sharpie. Xenia Summer, when you zoom in on it,

I don't know. What if when it's a video, it's moving? I'm going to have to rewatch it. To be continued. To be continued, just like this episode. Just like this episode. I do want to give a shout out to the writer of this episode, Nikki Schwartz-Wright. She's fantastic. We traded texts, and I told her how special this episode is to me because...

I loved, loved getting to see the range of emotion in Angela Martin. A lot happens for her in this episode, and it had to build and grow, and I thought Nikki wrote it so well. And she wrote me back and said that she has bronchitis or she would have left us a voice memo. But in the text, she praised our writer's room and said they truly wrote these episodes as a group, and she didn't want to take any of the credit.

I know. So sweet. She was really happy that they brought me joy. And she's just so talented in a class act. And I just wanted to say, Nikki, I hope you feel better. And thanks for giving Angela Martin such a great episode. And it's really just going to get even better, too, in the second half. In terms of that Angela Martin emotion, some big stuff is coming. I cried. We'll talk about it next week. Yeah.

Well, I want to give a big thank you again to Michael Imperioli and one more shout out for Michael and Victoria's Bar, Scarlett. And also, I want to thank Ed Helms for chatting with us about those headshots. You know, season two of Ed's podcast, Snafu, is out now. Snafu is a podcast about history's greatest screw ups and

And this season, they are deep diving on Medburg, which is the story of a daring heist that exposed a colossal FBI snafu. Ooh. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. And also a big thank you to Steve Burgess for answering our behind-the-scenes questions. And he gave us great photos from the set this week, including one of Kelly's bridal shower and some of Sensei Billy and Dwight in their scenes.

We'll share those all in stories. And thanks to all of you for writing in with your questions and comments. We'll see you next week for Live in the Dream Part 2. Who knows? Maybe Creed will call again. He might. All right. Have a good one. Have a good one.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.