Tom Shillue: Understanding The Grind
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It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us. I'm going to be...

Talking a little bit about the news, highlighting the stupid, because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone a friend. This time it's going to be a fun conversation, I'm sure. It's with Tom Shalhoub. You know Tom as a stand-up comic, as somebody who's been in I don't know how many different shows along the way. He

He was the opening act for Jim Gaffigan along the way. You may have seen him out there on the road. But most importantly, you know him from Gutfeld. You know him from the quiz show that was on Fox Nation. Just a funny, funny guy. Good guy. Wrote a great book. Tom Shalhoub. We're going to have a little conversation about his growing up in Massachusetts and sort of the wonder years type of thing.

It's really, really a neat story. We look forward to talking with Tom. So I want to give a little hot take on the news. And, you know, when we're recording this, I don't know what the conclusion is of the Durham trial. The Durham trial obviously relates to the Clinton campaign. Hillary Clinton herself actually said,

green lighting and putting forward this misinformation in a campaign in order to manipulate a campaign by planning stuff with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with the Department of Justice. The scheme works like this. They basically go out, they plan a story, then they go to the news media and say, hey, the FBI is investigating this, giving it credence and getting all kinds of news coverage.

Now, Durham, who is the U.S. attorney from Connecticut, who was given this special designation by Attorney General Barr in order to continue to pursue this, you know, he's bringing forward this prosecution. Did Sussman lie or not lie to the FBI? That's the question before the jury. But the jury, the thing I want to highlight, again, when I'm recording this, I don't know the conclusion of this trial.

But here's what's odd about this. And Jonathan Turley, really the Georgetown professor, Fox News contributor, super smart attorney. What he's highlighted, which I think we should all be concerned about, is that this trial is being brought forward in Washington, D.C. Now,

Nine out of 10 people who voted, voted in that campaign for Hillary Clinton as opposed to Donald Trump. But as Jonathan Turley points out, it's one thing to vote for somebody. I mean, you would hope that everybody would vote. Certainly a huge portion of the population would vote.

But it's a whole nother thing when you're a donor. I think if we objectively looked at it, no matter what side of the aisle, you may be a supporter, you may have voted, but the next step up in terms of your commitment to that candidate or that way of thinking or you have a vested interest is when you make a donation. I don't care if it's $25, $2,500, $3,000.

You know, a lot of people who make a $2,500 donation is like making a $25 donation. But there's still another level of commitment. And that's crazy about this trial there that's going on is that three of the jurors, three of them,

are donors to the Clinton campaign, and yet the judge is allowing that to happen. And the other thing that we found out about is that one of the daughter of Sussman, the person who's on trial, actually plays sports with one of the juror's daughters. So, again, I think there's pressure at home in a jury that's not sequestered

When your daughter plays whatever sport it is with the person on trial. And yet, again, the judge allowed this to happen. The other thing that Turley mentioned and talked about, he did so when I was guest hosting for Sean Hannity, which I was very grateful for. He's written about this and talked about this, is that

How different this case is being done, the rulings by the judge, which happen all the time. Do we allow this? Do we not allow that? Is it in favor of the prosecution or the defense and the motions that are made? It is such a totally different standard. And again, same charge, same jurisdiction, same total different application of these laws compared to...

General Flynn. If you remember, General Flynn was up on a charge. Did he or did he not lie? Judges treated this totally different, not from my point of view, but from Jonathan Turley's point of view. Again, look, by the time this podcast may come out, we may have a conclusion one way or the other.

But, you know, I think it's interesting to call balls and strikes before you have a conclusion and try to blame something later. But I just wanted to highlight with you because it does seem a bit odd. All right. Time to bring on the stupid because, you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

Well, this first one kind of pains me a little bit. And again, I hope, you know, when things stupid things happen with Democrats, I like those. But when stupid things go on with Republicans, I'd like to think that I highlight those. I'm really concerned about somebody who's been very friendly with Representative Madison Cawthorn. You know, it's just a sad situation to see.

Sort of the rise and then the fall. And look, people lose elections. People do stupid stuff. Young, talented person. I'm not going to dive into all the reasons why the good people of North Carolina decided to vote a different way. But what I think is stupid, what I think is the reaction, the knee-jerk reaction after the election, is how Madison Cawthorn is approaching this idea that we should be pursuing dark MAGA.

Dark Maga means, hey, let's go after all these Republicans that he disagrees with. I don't think that's going to go very far. I think that's kind of different than Ronald Reagan's approach to

Reagan's 11th Amendment, thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. I'm not saying you don't voice concerns about policy. I think that's a legitimate thing. When you disagree with somebody on policy or a principle, I think that'll need to be fleshed out. But the way it was presented by Madison Cawthorne that, hey, we're going to get after dark MAGA and we're going to just take down these people, I don't know that that's productive.

I think probably the constituents there in North Carolina that he did represent, he's still in Congress, but that he did represent, they're probably much more appreciative if he takes the fight to the Democrats. And again, raise the level of discourse and let's get into policy and not make it so personal.

That's the difference. You make it personal, you start to lose credibility and people, you know, get in the fighting mode. Start making it about policy and how we're going to make people's lives better, then I think you can be successful. That's why I think what Cawthorn is proposing to do is right there on the borderline and

Over the line actually was stupid. The other thing I wanted to highlight, and you've seen this, this happened a little while ago, but Nina Jankowicz, who was on the disinformation governance board, she was the one that was going to highlight this. She's the one that was out there on TikTok singing and doing all this silly stuff and

Less than a month after it was created, they're taking that thing down. What I saw was a clip of her appearance on CNN to complain about how the board was taken down by right-wing disinformation.

And I got to tell you, that's one of the stupidest things. I just started laughing like, oh my gosh, you totally don't get it. Do you? You just totally don't get the whole idea of the First Amendment and free speech and the idea that the government would be the subjective one to take down this free speech. And by the way, she had participated in this too with her comments on Trump and

And Russia collusion and all these things. I just the irony of this just absolutely cracks me. So anyway, for what that's worth, that's the stupid this week. And there's certainly more candidates. All right. Time to bring on a friend here. We're going to call Tom Shalhoub. It's just a great guy. Wrote a great book. We're going to have a good discussion with Tom. So let's call up Tom Shalhoub.

This sounds like the best telephone in the world. You know, it is amazing how I dialed you on my old rotary dial, and you just picked right up, Tom. It's great. That's the way we do things. We're the Fox News family. Have you seen that YouTube video where they give these millennials a chance to...

dial the telephone and they cannot figure out how to dial. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to do. Yeah. It's quite amazing. But then again, they get us back because then we don't know how to, you know, get this TikTok thing figured out. Turn on the television. Better call a 13-year-old to try to figure out. Television? What the heck's a television?

You mean stream something on your phone? Cast it? How do you? Yeah, no kidding. Life's changed, Tom. Yeah, that's the way it is. You and I are very similar in age. And the reason I know this is because I actually read your book, Mean Dads. It's a good book. I really like it. It resonated with you. You sent me a nice note. You know, you're an old school guy. A lot of people, they'll send a text or whatever. I got something in the mail from you. What?

Yeah, I went and bought a stamp, and I invested in Forever Stamps, and thank goodness I did because, wow, you have to finance your way through a book of stamps these days. Yeah, especially good now. With inflation the way it is, the people who did the Forever Stamps, you're doing well.

Hey, the future is stamps, folks. Stamps, electric rail cars, you know, the little ones that you make at home. These are all green stamps. These are all things that I know you're familiar with. Yeah, people don't have no idea what they're talking about, the green stamps. And I'm not, I'm too young for the green stamps, but my parents did have them and we still had them in a drawer when I was young. And I always used to wonder what they were, but, you know, they never amounted to anything.

Yeah, we had mounds of them. And I just remember my parents having all these green stamps. But I digress. Look, I'm so glad that you're joining me here on this podcast, Tom, because you're an exceptionally funny guy. And we're somewhat similar in age. You grew up on the East Coast. I grew up. You're Massachusetts. I was California, Arizona, Colorado. And then I went to school, did go to school in Utah. So I'm kind of out west now.

But, you know, when you wrote that book, it just brought me back to, you know, that show, The Wonder Years. Yeah. Which is Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years was much older than I was. Well, much a few years ago.

But I really, really, it's like one of my favorite shows all time. And when I read your book, it just harkened back to those good old days. That's what people of that era, they read my book and they say, oh, it reminds me of growing up in the 50s. And then I was born in 66. So then the 60s generation says, oh, that's just my, you know, Gen X lifestyle. And then people who were born as late as the is, you know, late 70s, early 80s.

It resonates with them as well. It's just when we hit this kind of digital culture in the late 90s, that's where things that's where, you know, people stop living their lives outdoors, going into the woods, getting bit by ticks, you know, all the wonderful things we did as kids.

Yeah, no, I was talking to a few people like Sean Duffy and others, and we were talking about, yeah, the good old days when you throw dirt clods and you had army men and you climbed trees and you weren't tethered. John Roberts and I were talking about this and about trying to raise kids. You don't want them tethered to the electronics 24-7, although...

Without electronics, nobody would be listening to this podcast. And for the 12 people that do, I want to make sure that they can listen to it crystal clear. It's a constant battle. I'm always railing against devices, and yet I probably post an Instagram every day. I've got tom.locals.com. I've got my local site. I've got podcasts, the whole deal. But we live in a media age.

So it's just about balance. And when we go away, we'll go up to New Hampshire and we get in a cabin. The devices don't even work. So it's not even like you have to put them away. We're out of range of the, you know, not only Wi-Fi, but the dial up. And so it's like back to nature. So what's the world going to be like, Tom? You got your crystal ball. You're known for your...

foreshadowing skills what's what's life gonna be like 10 20 years from now well I think we're going back I think people are waking up we just had a terrible couple of years and

And I think a lot of people that went through this, they said – and what I mean by that is we had people who gave up control of their lives to the government in unprecedented ways. And people now are maybe realizing that's not the way to happiness, that we have to not only – this isn't like a conservative liberal thing. It's not about, oh, let the market decide.

The government was controlling, making people cover their faces when they went out in public. That's not good. You know, they were not allowing us to go to church. So I think a lot of people woke up from that stupor and people who, you know, the kind of middle American, say even liberal thinking American, someone who voted for Obamacare,

They wanted that, you know, government care. They say, oh, I want the government to take care of me, you know, in the health care system to look out for us. I think a lot of people now are saying, you know what? I think we have to get self-sufficient. We have to start growing our own food. We don't believe in this big pharma run operation. You know, we don't believe in cradle to grave coverage by the government. So I think there's going to be.

A new America. It's like the homeschoolers. You know, my kids are well, one of my kids is now in high school. She's at a Catholic high school. But the the the kids were homeschooled. We tapped into that homeschool world. It's a lot of people who are saying, no, no, we're going to do this ourselves. We're not going to just complain about the government. We're not going to say, oh, you know, you know, let's, you know, spend all our time, you know, power to the people electing representatives. No, we're just going to go do it.

We're going to get out there. We're going to have our own schools. We're going to grow our own food. So that's the kind of thing, the off-the-grid mentality that used to be a liberal thing, you know, the people who were like tune in and drop out. Now you've got conservatives coming together with –

I guess liberals, left-wingers, and they're saying, you know, I'm suspicious of these big, not only big companies, big pharmaceutical, big industry, globalism. They're starting to look

Look to the old ways. So maybe, maybe our old-fashioned ways, Jason, are going to catch on. That's what I think. You know, there's a lot of truth to that. Like when I came home from school as a kid, I'd throw the bologna in the little toaster and make a little toasted bologna sandwich, slap some mayonnaise on it, and, you know, I was off on my way. Now, wait a minute. You said the bologna in the toaster. So did you put the bologna in the sandwich and throw the whole thing in the toaster? Well, it wasn't one of those things.

you know, vertical toasters. It was one of those horizontal toasters. So gravity was on my side here. And, but I did things like that. Like I got home and I was hungry. I made a sandwich, you know, and we didn't have lunchables. We didn't have like, just throw it in the microwave. We had to actually make something if we wanted to eat it. And then, but what you said about being self-sufficient, I think it really does resonate. Cause like,

One of our kids, well, two of them at least, when we have three, they're all about growing their own food, cooking their own food, making sure that they can be self-sufficient. They get so much more satisfaction. But it's like they discovered it their own. I kind of convinced that if mom and dad had forced this upon them, they would have gone the opposite direction. Yeah.

But now that they're like discovering, wait, you can grow a carrot and then cook it yourself? How cool is that? I didn't know that it just didn't show up in this plastic bag naturally. Yeah, and I think you're right that kids these days, they're going to be naturally...

suspect of a lot of these, a lot of this centralized control. I think a lot of kids, hopefully a lot of kids came out of this, you know, COVID era and,

thinking, wait a minute, I don't trust these people. I don't trust what they're telling me. They seem to be changing their mind every five minutes. And I think because they did. Yeah, exactly. I'm shocked that they didn't trust government. Mr. Lord Fauci, I am science. Yeah. How dare you look at the man behind the curtain? Oz is the all powerful and all knowing man.

I so have it if I change my mind and don't do what I say you should do. I mean, Fauci is so oblivious that he's the highest paid employee in all of the government, and he's still there. Why Joe Biden doesn't make a switch there and tout that he made it a switch? I mean...

What does he have to lose? I mean, anyway, I didn't mean to get off on that tangent. But it is representative of how people feel about government as a whole. And it's interesting because I feel like the liberals of old have kind of they don't even have a place in today's Democratic Party. Like the old ACLU, they were all about free speech no matter what. They protected Oliver North.

they predicted a lot of people that were on the far right wing of the spectrum if it was about free speech. Now, even Ira Glasser...

Their former director is saying, yeah, you know, they kind of peek around the corner. And if it helps progressives, then they do it. If it doesn't help progressives, then, you know, they're not going to get involved. Absolutely. I mean, when I was a kid, I think it was that long ago. But the Skokie, it was the March in Skokie. The ACLU protected the Nazis. Yeah, the Nazis were marching and they said, look, we don't like them.

But you got to let them march, guys. This is about civil liberties. And so, you know, and that's real Nazis, Jason. I'm not talking about people who disagreed with some off the cuff comment that doesn't even come close to equating the severity and the atrocity that was real Nazism. Yeah. But that's, you know, that's what's happened. The ACLU, they've become just another generic.

left-wing organization. You know, I heard Elon Musk gave a lot of money and continues to give a lot of money to the ACLU. I think somebody ought to, you know, kind of sit down with him, and I don't think he understands what has happened to them. I think he still thinks they're a free speech outfit, but maybe he'll figure it out. Yeah, maybe it can tap him on the shoulder and say,

Yeah, you know, Elon, you do a lot of good, but you could do a lot of good without doing this a different direction, although he is one of my favorites. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Tom Shalhoub right after this. From the Fox News Podcast Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcast.com. I want to go back here.

because it's always interesting to me how you cross paths with people in life. I mean, like there's relatively few people that you actually get to know and can be friends and, and, uh, in the whole big scheme of the billions of people that are there. And so you grew up, how in the world did you end up with Fox? That's where I want to get to, but let's go back because you talk about this in the book. And again, mean dads was really fun for me. And, um,

But let's talk about early childhood and what life was like for Tom before you kind of get out and go into the big city and start to make your way. Yeah, so it's Norwood, Massachusetts I grew up. And very New England town. Irish Catholic town. Kind of working class town, but not, you know, it was a good mix. But it was a nice town. Good public schools. I was in public school the whole time, but I was an altar boy. You know, I was...

you know, Catholic church. We got the, uh, the boy Scouts, you know, the classic American Northeast upbringing in the seventies. Um, and, but a pretty conservative town, you know, I mean, Massachusetts is liberal. They vote a Democrat there and they, you know, for,

Ever. Yeah, exactly. But it was a conservative culture, and it was a football high school. We didn't have much in the way of performing arts in high school, so I was an art room kid. I was kind of an alternative, you know, listened to David Bowie. I kind of liked, you know, the 80s music scene, the punk rock, the ska, you know, that kind of thing. And I was an art room kid. I really wanted to be a performer. I was kind of a show-off. I was kind of a comedian, but we didn't have any...

theater to speak of um and i remember going to the head the administration saying hey we should have a theater club at this school and the principal said to me tom this is a heist this is a uh this is a football high school we're sports we're sports town you know strap on the pads get out there yeah and you know but i i wanted to get my attention different ways i was a track you know i wasn't i wasn't much uh uh of an athlete but i did run track and cross country you know

But I wanted to do theater. And I did a little bit of it, a little bit of community theater. And, uh,

My creative outlet ended up being visual arts. So the art room kids, we spent a lot of time, art and music, the art room and the music room were next to each other. And so I would spend a lot of time there and they were kind of the alternative kids, you know, not the, not, not the troubled kids, but they were like the, they were the artsy kids. Right. So I thought I would go to art school and that was my thing. I started applying to art schools, but then I,

I was in the senior show. I remember I did stand-up comedy in the senior show. There's a chapter of it in my book when I try my hand at stand-up comedy when I was emceeing the high school show, and people were laughing. I was getting laughs from an audience, and I thought to myself, maybe the art world is not for me. Maybe it's the performing world. So I didn't go to college. Took a year off after college, and that was— Wait, wait, wait.

You didn't go to college. So you took a year off after college? Oh, did I say college? Year off after high school. And I decided to work. I got a job at a men's clothing store. I didn't want to go right to college. Nowadays, it's a little more common. They call it a gap year. But back then, it was considered a little bit risky. And I remember, because I wasn't a dummy. You know, I was an art room kid, but I was kind of a A, B student, you know.

I was a fairly good student, the kind of student that goes to college. And when the principal of the school, who was actually, he had become the superintendent of the Norwood schools after that, when he heard that I was not going to college, he called me into his office. And this was, now he was the superintendent of schools. He was no longer my principal, but he sat me down and I said, what does this guy want to talk about? And he said to me,

I'm a little worried you're not going to college. You know, you don't go and one year turns into two and that turns into three. And then he says, you're a smart kid. You should be in college. And I said, look, I want to figure things out. I don't know what I'm doing yet. And he said, well, I drew up this contract and he wrote up a one sheet and it said, I, Tom Shalhoub promise, James Savage, who was the superintendent of schools, that I will go to college in the year, I guess this was a graduate 84. So it would have been the,

in the fall of... Or the fall of 85, right? Right. And I promised him and I signed a pledge to him that I would do that, that I would only take one year off. And it was amazing because I... It didn't really...

It didn't matter to me that he, what mattered to me that he was interested, that he took the time out, that he saw something in me. You know, I was a bit of a goofy kid. I was always going for laughs, you know. And the idea that this guy was like, look, you got to promise me you're going to go to college. It kind of, it struck me. I thought like, oh, this guy has faith in me. Like he thinks something's going to happen. It's those little things, those little things that people show that,

They show faith in you. And that meant a lot to me. I mean, I never told the guy. I wonder if he's still around, but James Savage.

Well, that's good. I mean, it kind of changed your life. So what did you do? Did you end up going to college? I did. I ended up going to Emerson College. So in that year, I worked at a men's clothing store, and I saw the way that the working world was, the nine-to-fivers. I mean, I had had jobs before. I worked washing dishes. I worked in a nursing home. Were you still living at home? Yeah, still living at home. And I'm working at the clothing store, Sims Department Store. And I...

I'm seeing people coming in, punching the clock,

And I remember people, they always wanted to take their break. They said, I got to go kill five minutes. And I remember somebody saying, I got to go kill five minutes. I'm thinking like, this guy wants to kill time? And he's older than me. This guy was in his 50s. He wants to go kill five minutes? You can't afford to kill five minutes when you're in your 50s. These are precious minutes. But I remember thinking like, these people, they're working their jobs. And I'm thinking this, I don't want to do this. I don't want to work in a store that...

Or a place that, you know, some people like to work in stores. But I don't want to work in a job where I'm trying to kill minutes. Right, right, right.

So I said, Joy, you got to have, I think the success, right? You got to have a little passion, a little excitement. You got to be excited to come to work. And hey, I need to put in an extra 30 minutes. And wow, the time just flew by because I just love what I'm doing. Yeah. So that's when I said, I am going to do the performing arts thing, even though that seems more unsure than visual arts performance.

Because I knew with visual arts, I could at least go into graphic design, you know, advertising. Yeah, you could probably get a regular nine to five type of job, right? Get a salary. Exactly. But performing arts, that was really risky. Okay, so what was your big break here? How did you, I mean, it's one thing to say it and want it, but how did you do it? Yeah.

Well, it was a – somebody asked me about that. When was the break? And it's hard to recognize it. You have to look back on it. But went to Emerson. There's a lot of performers there. There were people doing stand-up comedy there, guys like Anthony Clark, who was this great stand-up who was there. David Cross was there. You remember him from Mr. Show, and he was on –

the, what's that other show? He's on David Cross, big celebrity guy, whatever. But a lot of comedians were there. Dennis Leary was a teacher there. Dennis Leary, the famous comedian, was a teacher of comedy.

at Emerson. So I didn't learn how to be a comedian there, but I learned that there were people making a living in the business, and I watched how they did it. So it's kind of like being around these people. Wow, it's possible to make a living in show business. So I didn't even graduate. I did a couple of years there. I went on the road with an a cappella group. We toured around the country, and again, opened my eyes to a whole world of entertainment. We performed at colleges. We're doing gigs for...

you know, $1,500 to $2,000 a pop, making money, five guys on the road in a van singing for our supper, literally. And there's this whole entertainment circuit, the college market that we played. And we would go to conventions and we would perform at the convention. And then the college bookers, a representative from each college would be there. They would book us. 20 gigs would come out of that convention with 20 gigs booked. Then we'd do another convention, another 20 gigs. I mean, we had the whole calendar booked.

In early September, we were ready to go through Christmas. And so I thought, okay, there's people out there that you never heard of in your life, never been on a TV show, never done anything, and they're making a living on the college market. Comedians, hypnotists, singers, you know? So I thought, all right, this is something. It's a possibility. If you work hard, you can make it. So I...

I got off of that gig. I started doing improv. I was doing an improv group in Boston. We didn't make any money, of course. And then I moved to Florida. I got a job at Universal Studios performing like they do at Disney, right? The performers who perform on stage in the quasi rides and events and things like that. They had a bunch of performers. I had actually done a Jimmy Stewart impersonation

And they brought me down there to do that in the park. Let's hear a little. Well, doggone it. Mary, Mary, you said, let me lasso the moon for you. That's right, Mary. So I did Jimmy Stewart at this audition. They hired me to go down there. And Jimmy Stewart, who was alive at the time, this is 1990, Jimmy Stewart wouldn't give them the rights to have me perform there. He said, no, I'm still alive. What do you mean?

So that fell through, but I'm in Florida. They had offered me the job. So they said, look, we're going to give you a job as an emcee of this show. So I hosted a live show on stage at Universal Studios Florida.

And there were other performers there. Again, you're working with people, other young performers. There was a guy I did a show with there named Wayne Brady. You know Wayne Brady? Yes. Wayne Brady. Yes, I do. 19 years old, talented as all get out. I'm thinking, this guy is going to – I don't know what he's going to do, movies, TV, but whatever it is, he's going to be successful because he could do everything at age 19. He was funny. He could dance. He could sing.

So, anyway, that year, one year, again, it was a year on the road with the a cappella group, opening my eyes to that world. A year down in Florida, I'm making $12.90 an hour and working in showbiz with all these other young, hungry performers. And there was a guy named Asif Mandvi. He and I did a show together.

uh, down there. He was one of the other hosts of the show. And he said, I want to move to New York. I said, I do too. So we both moved to New York at the same time, moved to Queens, got a cheap apartment. I didn't move in with us. If I moved in with my sister who lived here, she's, uh, in the apparel business working for, uh,

Polo Ralph Lauren. So I moved in with my sister and I just started kicking the pavement, running around, trying to go on stage, getting up. My first night, I went to a comedy club called Cold Waters and I signed the list, opened mic night, got up and did stand up. The guy who went on after me, his name's Jim Gaffigan. He signed the list. Yeah.

So you see where this is going. You make, you know, these people and, you know, none of these people, they were great to work with, great peers. But it's not like Wayne Brady or Jim Gaffigan was ever going to be the one to give me the break because they're climbing the ladder themselves. They're trying to break in. There's no formula. No one's going to.

Give you no one person is gonna give you your break, but of course I came up with Jim We're doing stand-up spots together at the clubs and at that first night I'll remember I said to Jim you're funny because he I knew he was funny neither of us had a good act We were brand new in the business, but I said hey, you're funny. He said oh, you're funny And then we exchanged phone numbers. He was working at gray advertising at the time I was working as a waiter you know and so we became buddies and

so that was, you know, so we're talking about 10 years of that. Now it's 1990, 1991 when I moved to New York and I am, you know, dirt poor, uh,

But those were good days, running around, auditioning. Like I said, working the support jobs, you call them, working as a waiter. Eventually, I started auditioning, getting commercials, TV commercials. That was a big thing for me. So I get this decade where I'm just trying to get on stage, trying to get on TV, get in front of anyone who will see me.

I can't get seen for The Tonight Show. I can't get seen for Conan O'Brien. Comedy Central now starts. It's a new cable network trying to get those people to come and see me. So it's all just the grind. And it was about 10 years. And I probably had...

My first big, I mean, like I said, I would get breaks. Like I would do commercials. I would shoot a pilot for a sketch comedy show. Didn't get picked up. You know, you always think something's going to happen and then your hopes are dashed. 1999, I got...

I struggled. It got my way onto a show. It was an audition for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The booker of the show didn't want to see me. She had a list of people she wanted to see. But the club owner said, hey, do you want to emcee the show? You know, it's not a real spot, but you can be the emcee. I said, sure, I'll do it. Emceed the show. I threw in a couple jokes here and there, you know, at the right times. The booker called another comedian and said, hey, who's this guy, Tom Shalhoub? My friend Todd Barry.

He said, he's funny. So I got the okay from a fellow comedian who she trusted. Right, right. Who's this guy? He's funny. Okay, I'm going to book him. She books me on the show. My first stand-up gig, 1999. So basically we're talking about from about 86 to 99 is just the grind. Wow.

That was the break. Yeah. And that's it. I mean, that is that is a big you know, it's a big milestone. It's not like anybody. My phone wasn't ringing off the hook the day after I did Conan. But then some of these managers who were like, hey, yeah, yeah, I got my eye on you. You know, you know, there's managers, there's agents. You come across these people and you say, hey, I want to work with you. Well, you know, they don't they don't see it yet. Then.

I did Conan, and this manager was like, hey, why don't we see how things go here? I'll send you out on some auditions. Went out there. Then, you know, that didn't work. I got a different manager, started doing Comedy Central. I toured with Gaffigan. So then it's another 10 years of that kind of thing. And that's when we're getting to the point of where I'm making a good living in the business. I'm a headliner, but I am touring with Gaffigan as his opener.

And I started doing Red Eye, this show with Greg Gutfeld, this wacky show at three in the morning. And it was off the beaten path. You know, I wasn't. Had Greg seen you and he invited you or how did that how'd that go down? I mean, you can't just show up on a TV show. Well, you know what? It was funny. Guy named Andrew Breitbart, who I called out of the blue at one point. I found him on Facebook.

He had just done an interview and he said something incredibly politically incorrect that I read in the newspaper, like back when you read newspapers on paper, right? And I said, who is this guy? He's this Hollywood guy. He's from California. He's absolutely politically incorrect. So I sent him a Facebook message. This was early in the Facebook days. Sent him a message on Facebook. My phone rings immediately. I gave him my phone number and said, hey, call me next time you're in New York. My phone rings. Tom, it's Andrew. He says, we got to talk.

He said, I want you to meet Greg Gutfeld. And I want you to meet this guy. I want you to meet that. So Breitbart was a connector. And he connected me to Gutfeld. I did the show. And then from there, it was like I was just one of their favorite guests because just things were clicking. I loved comedy. I loved the news. I was right of center. But I wasn't a particularly political guy. But I was right of center. Greg kind of liked the way I thought. I liked the way the show was.

And then the show itself was for me fun. It was not like, I'm not going to make a career out of this. If you want a career, what do you do? You go, you got to impress the right people. This, you know, Fox News red eye. I mean, these, this is not the cool kids table, is it? This is the misfits table.

So I just did it for fun. And then the Fox News audience starts coming out to see me. I go to a show and all of a sudden I got these Fox News fans in the audience. I think, wait a minute, this is my audience. I'm trying to impress these Hollywood people. This is my crowd, red state America. It's true. The people that, yeah, they want to laugh. They love the country, but they want to laugh. They can joke at themselves and others and whatever.

They read the newspaper, like you said, and yeah, a lot of people just kind of – that's why they call it flyover country, Tom. That's what they do. They just fly over and don't pay attention to them. But boy, there's a lot of people who have made some good money and good careers off just understanding that, just appreciating those folks. Those blue-collar guys, blue-collar comedy. You know, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, you know, all those guys, right? Yeah. Ron White. Yeah.

They were the biggest draw in the country, absolutely biggest ticket in comedy, selling out stadiums. Then their show, the Blue Collar Comedy Tour or the Blue Collar Comedy Guys, they did it on Comedy Central. The ratings were not just the highest rated show on Comedy Central. It was like double every other show. But the Comedy Central executives, they couldn't stand them.

They didn't want the blue collar guy. They didn't care about the ratings. They wanted the cool comedians that nobody... Right. They wanted the Hollywood comedians. Yes. Yes. And, you know, it's the same with Hollywood. If you had the biggest comedy star in the country, like, you know, Larry the Cable guy or Foxworthy himself, you'd think Hollywood would be writing scripts for these guys. No, they didn't want to be with these guys. They were like, no, no, that's the red state stuff. I don't want that. But that's the way it's always been. So...

I spent probably, and look, I love show business. I love stand-up comedy. I love, you know, I mean, I can't say I love Hollywood these days. There's still some stuff I like, but I always loved movies and TV shows, especially comedies. But when I spent, you know, then I spent basically 20 years trying to break into this business that didn't really appreciate me.

And I wasn't sure why. Why am I not breaking through this business? Then when I finally found the people who resonated with me, of course, I resonated with them. So it really ended. It was a it was quite a and it's funny because I think a lot of people would be, you know, the people that I know from, you know, I still do Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I've done every one of the show. I used to work on the The Daily Show.

That was one of my breaks actually in the late 90s. I pitched them and I got my own segment on The Daily Show with Craig Kilbourne and then The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Then when I did, I did Conan. So I've done every late night show, Conan O'Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I did Colbert after my book came out. I was on that show.

And a Comedy Central, of course, Daily Show, all that stuff. And now that I'm on Fox News, a lot of people from my old world, they're like, hey, so what's that like now that you're Fox News? I mean, is it like, you know, are you out of show business now or what? I'm like, I'm just getting going here. You know, yeah, we have an actual audience over here. Yeah. People actually watch this channel.

And now they have to admit it. I mean, especially with Greg on at 11 o'clock every night now, it's undeniable. They ignored us for as long as they could. Even when Greg was on Saturday nights, his ratings were through the roof. But now that he's actually beating Jimmy Kimmel by huge margins, right, they have to pay attention to him. So just today in The Atlantic, they finally said, hey, this Gutfeld guy, he's taking names. He's huge. And they even said begrudgingly, and the guy who works on his show, he's good. Yeah.

Yeah. No, if they watch it, look, they get a smile. They get a laugh. Greg is one of the hardest working guys. I mean, it really is amazing. And the notes that he takes and the practice that he puts in. And, you know, I've seen a lot of people do a lot of television. But like on The Five, for instance, most people would be surprised. He goes out there.

And practices before the show. Yeah. That's just like, come on. The guy's been on TV for how many years now? You could do this. But no, he wants to perfect it. He likes to hear it out loud. And I know he loves an audience. I mean, that's one thing that I think is going to really... Gutfeld's getting even better because he thrives...

And you and others, they like a live audience, right? I mean, it's just different. It's better than just having a studio tech and a floor manager out there. It's got to be, to get that immediate feedback, it's got to feel good. Yeah, it's great. And you're right about the Gutfeld work ethic. It does remind me of, I mean, the guys that I've, because, you know, now I do live shows with

With Gutfeld, we got one coming up in Salt Lake City soon. And we do these live shows in theaters. A lot of the theaters that I used to play with Gaffigan. And so it's similar. You know, we got Jim was a headliner. I was his opening act. When I when I do the shows with Greg, I come out first and I do half hour of stand up and then I bring Greg out there. But working with these guys, they're similar. They successful guys like Gaffigan, like Gutfeld. They have a great work ethic to the point of where it's almost annoying.

like Jim and Greg, after the show. Okay, the show's over. I hear the audience. I mean, you get up for the show. I do my vocal warm-ups. I like to stretch out. I take it all very seriously. You know, this is show business. But then I do my show, and I want to sit down and have a glass of wine and chill.

They go, same thing. Both of these guys, they take out their notes after the show. They open up their recorder because they record the show and they listen back and they say, okay, what's that? And they're going over the show right after the show. I'm like, can you wait till Saturday? What worked, what didn't work. Yeah. How to deliver it better. Yep.

Yeah, that's it is interesting that way. There's a reason why these guys are at the top of their game. Right. And the reason that you've been so successful is you pay attention to it. And you could look, I could deliver a line. You could deliver a line. You're going to get laughs. People are going to leave me like, are you an idiot? What did you just say?

I mean, there is a skill set to this that is creative. And I don't know. I just stand in awe. And you know what's amazing is, like, I'm sure if you stood up and did a half hour right now, it'd be flawless. No. What, like, I watched some of these other folks and yourself included that said,

There's like no pause. There's no, what am I supposed to say next? Like, it's just amazing to me. It's like music. I mean, after a while, because people say they'll come see me do, because if I'm alone, I'll do, you know, 55 minutes or an hour. When I do the Greg show, I'll come out and do a half hour and people will say, yeah,

Wow, that's, you know, how much of that, you know, was planned? Like, it's all planned. My stand-up is, I mean, I wrote it. It wasn't impromptu. Yeah, there's no impromptu. I try to make it seem like it is. Sometimes I'll say a line, it gets a laugh, and then I kind of look over at the audience and I...

I say another line that sounds like an ad-lib. It's not an ad-lib. The whole reason I'm saying it is because I said it last week and it got a huge laugh. So it changes. I add stuff. Sometimes I do ad-lib, and if it doesn't get a laugh, I don't say that again. If it does, I add it to the ad-lib. Is there a regional aspect to this? I mean, like, hey, Out West, they love this stuff. But if I say this up in...

Portland, Maine, ain't nobody going to laugh at that one. Yeah, and that's the shame, too, because if you go to Portland, Maine, and say you saw something interesting that day,

Sometimes I'll throw that in at the top of the show. I'll say, okay, Portland, what's with your airport? And then they all say, oh, yeah, that dumb mural at our airport. And so you do a local joke and you think, boy, this killed too bad. I can't do this anywhere else. Yeah, yeah. There's got to be – there's a lot to that. You are coming to Salt Lake City. Being from Utah, I –

Oh, I'll get some tickets for some friends of mine. But there's like six seats on tier three at the back of the. It's unbelievable. I think it's you, Greg Gutfeld. And I think Tyrus is coming as well with his new book. That's right. Tyrus will be there. And but I gave you Greg's manager, right? He's going to set you up.

I hope so. I hope they'll let me in the door, that security will let me through the door. That would be great. I'd love to see you guys. I mean, I've been on Getfeld a few times, and it is funny. I just sit there and laugh. I think, wow, I got the best seat in the house here, and

And then they turn to me like, okay, be funny. And I'm like, nah, it's just I'm the straight guy. I can't keep up with you guys. I try every once in a while, but it goes over like a lead balloon. Well, I think you do great. And, you know, the thing is that you just kind of go along with it. It is an improv game because Greg does have a lot of lines, you know. He's got a certain amount of jokes that are in the prompter. But then, as you know from being on the panel, half the stuff he says are asides that are just –

You don't even know where he's coming from, so you just have to kind of run with it. And when he reacts to if Kat or Tyra says something, in the reaction, and on the five, too. Dana Perino will say something, or Judge Jeanine or somebody, and his reaction to it, or his challenge back to it, is really pretty funny. And...

Yeah, and also, to be honest, the audience probably doesn't, sometimes they might not get a reference. They'll say, wait a minute, that went over my head. Because Greg will say something, you know, someone will say, oh, yeah, he played a full house. And then Greg turns to the camera and says, my favorite kind. And then you're like,

What did that even mean? And then you think like, you know what? I don't even think Greg knew what it meant. It sounded vaguely dirty to him. So he just turned and said my favorite kind. But to be honest, I don't think he knows what he's talking about. No, it's just the way the inflection, the raised eyebrow, the you know, but that's part of comedy, too, right? Is just being able to to to to just play in the moment, you know.

that's what she said, you know, those types of things. And honestly, I mean, I got kids, sometimes they say, oh, you're on Gutfeld tonight, and I say, go to bed. We'll watch this in the morning, and then I can kind of, you know, I can cut out the stuff I don't want them to see. Well, we look forward to hosting you and having you here in Utah. That's for sure. And there's a reason why you're going to be super successful here. There's a huge Fox News following in Utah and

and just the need to get some good comedy. And even down here in Southern Utah, Tuacon, Larry the Cable Guy. I mean, a sold-out performance at Tuacon. It was...

Utah's growing that way, and there's a lot of appreciation, and it's still a pretty conservative part of the world. So, you know, we like to brag that this is the one state where Bill Clinton came in third. So that'll give you a sense of where we're at. That's great. Was it Bush, Perot, and then Clinton? Yeah, in third place. And it happened twice. So...

But then when he actually becomes the president, it's going to say, yeah, we're from Utah. You came in third. Yeah. Well, they love comedy in Utah. Thriving scene there. And they love clean comedy. One of my favorites, Brian Regan, he goes there. He'll sell out a whole string of shows. Yeah, a whole string of shows. You're right. Night after night. Because, yeah, they want good, clean comedy. And...

And it's something. We're also technically Utah's the youngest state in the nation. That's because we pop out a lot of kids. But statistically, we're the youngest state in the nation. So it makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more right after this.

Tom, I got to ask you some quick questions because nobody, I don't care how many jokes and acapella songs you've sung. I got to get you through the rapid questions. Oh, I heard about this part. Heard about it. To know the full Tom Shalhoub. So if you don't mind, here we go. Ready? Yeah. First concert you ever attended. Cheap Trick. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. It was in Boston Garden, I believe. Cheap Trick. They were loud. Yeah.

Yeah. And then I recently saw them again. Yeah, exactly. But I just saw them again this winter. They're still rocking. Same songs? Same songs. I want you to want me. Surrender. It's a great song. I want you to want me. And how true for every teenage person there is. I want you to want me. Anyway, what was your high school mascot?

Mustang. Norwood Mustangs. Were there a lot of horses running around out there? No, it's not horse country, but I guess, you know, it's like it looks good on a logo.

It does look good. It looks good on a Ford, and it looks good on a logo in high school. And you know what? Our kids were lone peak knights. And I can't tell you that in Utah there were a lot of knights running around, but it is another one of those. It's a cool logo, even though there weren't a whole lot of knights back in the day. Like in armor? The logo wasn't wearing armor? Yeah, exactly. In the

What do they call that big, long thing, you know, when you're the joust, you know, you're jousting? Oh, yeah, the joust, yeah. Yeah, I don't think there was a lot of that going on, but yeah, that's all right. What's your favorite vegetable? Broccoli. I love broccoli, and it's underappreciated because I know a lot of people hate broccoli, but I love it. I love sauteed broccoli. I love the raw broccoli and the, you know, the crudités, and it's very good for you, and it's got a lot of fiber. I do love spinach, too. I love the greens.

Well, good for you. I mean, that's why I think you're probably in shape and going to live long because, you know, half the people I've interviewed on my podcast can't name a vegetable, which will give you a sense of where...

they might be going with their health. But, yeah, I'm glad you did. But you know what? We probably have an advertiser on this network that sells pills that are vegetable-based and very colorful. Yeah, I think I've seen their commercials. Yes, as a supplement. Exactly. As a supplement instead of those for those people that couldn't name a vegetable. You got it in a pill. Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, so technically, we kind of walked through this, but technically, what was your first job outside, away from mom and dad?

Well, it was the nursing and retirement home. And I lied to get in there. I did tell a lie. They said, how old are you? I said 16. And I guess those were in the days we didn't have Homeland Security. I lied to get in my first job. Yep. Okay. So yeah, I did. They expected it back then. How old were you? I was like 14. Yeah. But I was tall. Yeah. Yeah. I was 15 and I was willing to wash dishes and...

And I wasn't caring in a nursing home sense. We were doing the kitchen at the nursing home. So we had to bring them their food up on the trays with those little covers on them. And then we had to go up and get the trays, bring them back down, and wash the dishes. It was a classic kitchen job. Yeah, that's good, though. You learned to work. I tell you that. That's for sure. Yeah. I learned to drink coffee on that job, too. It was great. So if you met Bigfoot, what would you ask him?

I think I would ask him about some, since Bigfoot is essentially a, you know, a conspiracy theory personified person,

I would ask him about all the other conspiracy theories that I happen to believe in. Yeah? Yeah. Well, I think we'd discuss all the modern conspiracy theories like all the COVID stuff and ivermectin and things like that. Then we'd go on to aliens, outer space, and then we'd probably go to Loch Ness and all that stuff.

Bigfoot, that's an interesting answer that you would ask Bigfoot about Loch Ness. Yeah, because he's going to know. See, comedians look at things differently. He had proven that. I have never had that answer, but that's a good answer. It would be interesting to see what Daryl had to say about that. That would be interesting. I don't know. I think Bigfoot gets more of a play out west because that supposedly lives out this direction. He's the northwest, right?

Yeah, it's kind of the Northwest, but he maybe roams in the Intermountain West as well. But yeah, the Northwest, yeah, I think that's home base. I don't know. That's why I'd ask him, where have you been all these years? Do you have a pet growing up? We had a pet cat named Cleo, and then we had another cat named, we had some twins named Batman and Robin.

It's Cats? That's a good name. Yeah, Cats, Batman, and Robin. My dad called them, when we got the twins, because we had Cleopatra, he wanted to name the twins Anthony and Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar. And we liked Batman and Robin. My dad stuck with the cumbersome names. So, you know, in our home, he was going to say, Julius Caesar, get over here. I said, oh, my dad, you don't even know what the cat's name is. But he stuck with the classics.

Shot eye. That's good. I'm impressed. If you could meet one person, you'd say, hey, honey, look, we're going to kids gather around because we got somebody special coming over for dinner tonight. If you could invite one person, dead or alive, who would that person be to come over for share, break some bread? I'll just say dead. Any dead, anyone who's dead. Yeah.

Anybody that's dead. Well, you said alive or dead. I'm going to go dead. No, I would say I don't want to go too ancient because I think that it would be... It would have...

would have communication problems, right? So I would probably go with founding fathers. I would go with maybe a Jefferson, with a Washington, maybe an Adams. I think Adams would be great. Obviously, Lincoln would be great. But I would think I would go to the founding fathers, and not because I'm obsessed only with American history, but if you went back through history, I just think it would be harder to

uh to to you know have a have a good solid conversation with those folks yeah like king tut would be a little bit more difficult to communicate with right absolutely he's got a very different set of interests yeah a different set of interests yes that's the way all right life's most embarrassing moment for tom shalhoub oh most embarrassing moment

Well, you had to have had an act that just something crazy happened. Yeah. You can't have done it this long and just said, you know, whoa, now that was crazy. It doesn't have to be personally embarrassing or just flat out crazy that happened. I think the, let's see, it's got to go back to grammar school. It seems like I should be able to think of these, right? Because I'm very...

I have a lot of old memories, but I would say the most embarrassing, most embarrassing, the, I think there, well, you know what, the thing that's coming to mind, and I didn't want to say it because it doesn't sound that embarrassing, but that's the thing that I, that's

that springs to mind. It was in high school. We went to a rally and somebody, the guy came down the, you know, the head, the principal, whatever. And he says, everybody ready? And I just thought that that's what, cause he was talking about the crew, like the administration, but I was focused on him. And there was all these vice principals and teachers and is everybody ready? And he wanted to start the rally, but I thought it was, I thought the rally was about to begin. So he said, is everybody ready? And I was like,

Like, I just screamed. The only one. The only one. Hey, Tom. Tom's fired up and ready to go. All right. But when you're that age, it is terribly embarrassing. You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be the guy sticking out like a sore thumb like that. Well, they all looked at me, and then it got a laugh. That's the funny thing is that it got a laugh, but then...

The fact that my face turned so red and then people realized, wait a minute, he didn't do that as a joke. He really thought and the whole thing caved in. Now, if that happened right now, I would know to keep my cool after my many years of comedy training. But I was not I had not keep my cool face turned red when they saw the red face. Then it gets even redder and then they start laughing at you rather than with you.

Yeah, I keep telling people have certain things that happen to them, like in politics. And I just say, just be very Clinton-esque. Just pretend it didn't happen. Just ignore it. Just move on as if everything just happened exactly the way you wanted it to happen. Yeah, that's it. It's very Clinton-esque. They have pulled that card out of their trick. I mean, they've used that trick I don't know how many times.

unique talent that nobody knows about. Like, what can Tom Shalhoub do that, yeah, nobody knows I can do this, but I can do this? Well, I do watercolors. But that's no surprise, because I've already told you I did visual art in high school. So now I've kind of rediscovered. Yeah, but if... Okay, but... Oh, I can do my... See, I'm not on camera now, but I could prove it to you. You could probably look it up, because I did it on Red Eye before. But I can...

I can bob my Adam's apple up and down probably faster than anyone you've ever met.

I don't know that that would qualify as unique talent, but that is unique. Yeah, I mean, I broke a world record, Jason. I have the world record for Adam's Apple Bob's in one minute. In one minute? Yes. I'm going to trust you on that one. This being an audio format, I can kind of imagine what that would be like. That's interesting. All right, pineapple on pizza, yes or no?

Yeah. Yeah, I would do pineapple on pizza. I mean, I don't do it often. Tom, Tom, Tom. You say no? Judges do not like this answer. We've been through this on every podcast I've been through. And you know what? You just don't put wet fruit on a pizza. You just don't do it. Yeah. Put it in a bowl, but don't put it on pizza. But that's okay. I made lobster pizza the other day. What do you think of that? That's good.

That sounds very expensive. Yeah, well, there was some extra lobster meat lying around that we had some lobster rolls that we bought, and I didn't eat them all because it's hard to eat all in one sitting. And so I took the lobster, I put it on top of the day-old pizza, put it in, reheated it. Fantastic. That's interesting. All right, well, that sounds like a very Massachusetts thing to do.

Doesn't she think? Yes. We don't have a whole lot of lobster just crawling around Utah, so that's probably why we didn't do that out here. We have the red lobster, but other than that, not a whole lot of lobster. All right, so what's the other thing for Tom Shalhoub? And what I mean by that is you want to get out, clear your head, forget about the problems of the day, just relax. Is it watercolors? What do you do to just kind of –

soothe the soul and feed the spirit and just feel good about life and just forget about everything else. What do you do? I do. I lately, I do love watercolors, but I always have a, I always have a kind of a mellow activity that I do. So it could be watercolors. It could be just music, taking the guitar and practicing could be taking the dog for a walk, leaving the device home and just walking with the dog and going to sit outside. Uh,

I like to sit outside and read, love reading outside ever since I read To Kill a Mockingbird under the tree outside my house in junior high. And so I do need that getaway time. Lately, it has been watercolors. And so it's like art and music, art and music. We need it in our lives. And I use it as a way the time goes by when I'm painting or when I'm drawing.

uh or when i'm doing music all of a sudden three hours goes by and i didn't even know what happened yeah i think everybody needs i think it's healthy there is that you know um stephen covey who wrote the seven basic habits of highly successful people he lived by us and i actually knew his son and

And he passed away a couple of years ago, but you know, that was one of his things is that you got to have this outlet to kind of recharge your batteries. And I think it's, it's so good to kind of pursue whether it's a hobby or just something relaxing. I think it's, it's very healthy. All right. Last question. Wow. Best advice you ever got. Best advice I ever got would probably be, and I won't go back to the, the, uh, you know, the, uh,

The principal who became the superintendent, that was kind of good. That was a nice little interaction with him that I had. So that was a very momentous thing, but I won't even call that advice. I would say the, oh, you know what? I don't even know the guy's name, but I went to a speech when I was in high school.

And it was a guy, I think he was a former either Red Sox or a former New England Patriots guy. It was an athlete. And he came to give a speech. During the speech, he said, if there's any advice I could give you, it is keep a diary.

Write down something every day. Get that diary, write it down. It doesn't have to be your most deep thoughts. He said, it could be what you had for dinner, but just get a diary and write something in it every night. And so I did. I did what he said. I went and I bought a blank book and I kept a diary. And I still have that diary from high school and it's full of high school thoughts and

And it's so good to go back and look at that. And if he didn't say that in that speech, I wouldn't have done that. Like such a direct thing. He said, do it. I did it. And I'm so glad I did. And I still I still write. I don't write in a blank book like I did then. I probably should. But the it was I mean, I have a whole book now. In fact, some of it is in my book. Mean Dads for a Better America. There's many passages that I took directly from the diary.

That this athlete told me to get. You know, it's so impressionable, right? In high school and whatnot. And I hope we do have some people listening that are

little younger than others because I just, I do. I think the mentors are, I mean, think about that mentor in your, in your life and the advice that you got, you know, whether he was a longtime mentor or not, but that vice principal gives it advice. I had a challenge from my vice principal. It kind of changed the trajectory of my life. And then, yeah, an athlete, simple comment. Yeah. Write down everything. I mean,

That makes great sense. If it works for you, great, do it. If it doesn't work for you, move on. But I think that's great. Tom Shalhoub, thanks for joining us on the Jason House podcast. Very generous with your time. We look forward to seeing you and hosting you in Utah. I know you're going to have a great and rambunctious crowd. Lots of people because it's almost sold out. Literally, there's like seven seats left. That's great. But we love your work on...

on Fox and seeing you on the different shows and the quiz show. I had fun doing the quiz show. I actually did pretty well in the quiz show, as I recall. You did annoyingly well because I like to foul people up, but you did pretty well. I think I missed the one question, which is still bugging me. So I don't know how to atone for that one miss, but I really did have fun. And it's just a good, fun, happy person. And I loved your book, Mean Dads. That was just really, really fun.

It just touched me and just sung along because I could totally relate to what you were talking about. And it was really well done. That's great. Thank you. Thanks again for joining us on the Jason Nows Podcast. Do appreciate it. Thanks a lot. See you soon.

Oh, I can't thank Tom enough. Tom is such a good guy. You know, you meet him in person. He was recently in Salt Lake City, did a little stand-up with her with Gutfeld. He's just a great, wonderful guy, and thanks for him for joining us. Hope you can rate this podcast. Give it some stars there and subscribe to it. You also can go over to foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts and just hope you find some others. There's a really good talent here at Fox that some other good podcasts out there.

Anyway, we'd appreciate if you'd rate it, review it, like it, and join us next week. We'll have another good, exciting guest. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House. From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Janice Dean, Fox News Senior Meteorologist. Be sure to subscribe to the Janice Dean Podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to spread the sunshine.