Tom Segura: Not Really My Thing
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That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling. And so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing. Cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Is it possible that Tommy Boy to you is what Caddyshack is to me? Is that even possible? Is that possible? Hey, everybody.

Thanks for popping in today. This is literally, I am Rob Lowe. Today, I love doing episodes where I get to meet somebody that I've never met before. Cool people. It's one of the reasons I do this gig. Tom Segura, he's here. He's a funny MF. He's just a funny guy. As you guys know, if you listen to a lot of literally when the comedians are on, it's when the show comes alive.

Alive! It's alive! So, um, Tom Segura, fellow Ohioan, fellow Buckeye. Let's get down. How are you, brother? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me, man. Psyched. I'm psyched. I was in your little dojo doing two bears. Oh, you were with Bert, right? Yeah, I was. Yeah. Big round Bert. Now, first of all, the seat, the setup over there is pretty sick.

That's Burt's exclusive. That's his personal compound. The show normally records out of Austin in our studio. That's like a studio space there. He built that, what you went to, just on his own recently to do his multiple podcasts. Have you been to it? I did. I was in LA and I went there and I was like, what have you guys done here? Yeah, it's pretty wild. It is...

It's like having a dream where you go back in time to when you're a kid and you want to have every horrible candy, pop tart drink. Yeah. I mean, it was, they had pop tarts there, dude. I mean, it's everything like bird isn't a, like a teenage kid who's just rich now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Indulges in all the things that you, a kid would want. So it all makes sense.

I'm telling you, I absolutely loved hanging out in that place. Yeah, it's cool. It's really cool what they did. It was super fun, but we missed you. I wish I could have been there. Were you on the road? You're a busy boy.

Yeah, I've been pretty busy. I forget when you guys recorded it. I have been touring relentlessly. I just kind of got off tour. But, you know, it never really stops. I mean, you're still doing back to doing that. I'm doing, you know, all the showbiz stuff that keeps going. And then now with the special coming out, I'm just doing tons of press on top of that. So, yeah, it just never ends. I know. It's so funny. People always go, so what do you –

So when you're not shooting, like, like, so you're, you're sort of what the version of what I do, I would say is being on tour. My thing is doing television shows or movies. And so when we're not doing those things, people are like, so what are you doing, man? You busy? You got some time off? And I'm always like, well, there isn't really any time off because like you said, like the showbiz stuff is the stuff that.

I feel like I'm not working because I'm not on a set. I'm not getting up at 4.30 in the morning and being driven or showing up there or whatever and working for 12 hours. But like,

It's still work. It's like, well, there's a podcast here. There's an interview there. There's, you don't, you don't really stop. No, never. It's a, it's a zoom call with a direct what, right. And is that the same for you? I'm doing all the, all the, and you got to meet with this guy. He's the producer, the casting director who wants to see you about this thing.

And then you're like, oh, they love you. They always love you. That's the thing. I'm like, you know, you guys have yet to call me and tell me about somebody who didn't love me, except I have never seen these people again. Yeah. Oh, no, they love you. They love everything about you. And they go on to make 75 projects and lose your number. Yeah, yeah. You're like, where's the love? I thought they loved me. I thought they loved me. And that never ends. How about people who never, ever,

ever like there could be a a role that that's literally it's you it's you it's actually you it has your name the role is called tom right yeah and and it's like the phone never rings and you're like you know what yeah you know what next time i sit next to fucking marty scorsese fuck that guy you know what fuck him fuck it he's frail i'll give him an elbow next time i see him you know what i'm saying it's like what i'm sorry

You know what? You know what? Next time I sit next to Wes Anderson, I'm going to pummel him. Do it. You could whoop both those guys' ass at the same time. I believe it. I chose two dudes I knew I could take. So you could fuck them up. Who are the directors that could actually kill you?

Yeah. Well, for sure, I don't want to fuck with James Cameron. I don't care how old he is. Really? I don't want to fuck with Jim. No. Because he's an intimidating person? He's super intimidating. He's super intense. Dude, the guy's been to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Yeah. Well, I was watching that Arnold, like that new series, like the Doc thing on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was even saying, like, I guess on Terminator, like,

That, you know, he was like, I'd like to say I'll come back instead of I'll be back. And Cameron was like, do I tell you how to fucking flex your muscles? And he was like, what? He's like, I wrote this shit. You don't fucking pick the words. He was like, oh, okay. So, you know, he just. That also reminds me of this bit. See if you think this is funny. I'm kind of obsessed with, and that's a perfect example, iconic movies.

movie lines that done differently don't resonate at all. Yes. It's a perfect, there's between I'll be back and later today I'm going to be in the neighborhood and I will be here again. Well that, you know that that's part of the story too, right? That, that the script says I'll come back.

And so on one of them, he accidentally said, I'll be back. And then Cameron was like, oh, that's perfect. And then Arnold tried to go like, no, no, no. Like, I want to say it the other way. And he's like, shut the fuck up. Like, I'll tell you what works. But yeah, if you tried to like, if you say, if he had said, I'll come back, it would not land the same way. It's like, um, I'll make, instead of I'll make him an offer. He can't refuse. I'll force him to do it.

Okay. Right. No one's talking about it ever again. No, it's ever. What's another great famous movie line? Uh, it's James Bond. Yeah. I have that one. Yeah. Yeah. And instead of James Bond, James Bond, James Bond, um, put it in two, put it in a tumbler and, but, but, but don't put a spoon in it. I like it just regular. Yeah. Instead of shaken, not stirred.

Yeah, dirty's fine. Whatever. I just want to get drunk. And they were like, okay. Show me the money. I want to see the legal tender. It doesn't really work. Cash. If they could wire it, all of it, I would just put it all in the account. You know, you could Venmo me. Venmo. Gold never seems to really be a bad investment if they want to give us that. I like famous speeches. My favorite speech in movie history is Robert Shaw. Y'all know me. I make my living. Right?

I think everybody in the room is familiar with my fishing industry. That animal is, it's larger, I think, than you guys are thinking that it is. I think it's much, much larger. An animal like that, see, the way it feeds is it takes you and it puts its teeth in you and gets you soft and then it consumes you.

Yeah, it's not as, it looks more violent than, it's only because they don't have hands. That's what you learn about these animals is that if they had hands, it would be a much, it wouldn't be so much thrashing, you know? And the price that you guys are offering, frankly, I don't think it's appropriate. I'd like a little bit more. I mean, I would take what you're offering, but I'd probably only go out for a half day. More legal tender. Yeah.

But if you give me what I'd like, I will go out all day. And for that, you'll get the entire fish. That is not a good speed. It's not as good as the speech and jaw. It's definitely not. Yeah. What about what? You know, I fucking, I love Tommy boy so much. Oh, thank you. And, uh, what is it? The, uh, these, these shoes are worth more than your life. These shoes. Well, that's funny. You say that. Cause that was a, that was a line that I wasn't sure it was funny.

Really? Yes. And we've, Oh God, I can still remember saying that at school. That's when you know, you hit a home run with a line because you go to school, you start saying it to your friends, you know, I'm so glad I said that line. I vividly remember again, this it's so funny dialogue. It's like, I was like, this is such a, I don't know what my problem was with it. Looking back on it. I really don't. But I remember I was like, it didn't rise to the level of like, or I didn't want to say it, but I was like, and I,

And the other thing I remember was when we did Maniac and I'm spraying Chris in the face, I would have thought when I sprayed him that he just kept dancing. But instead, he started laughing and that's the take they used. And it's great. Yeah, it's great. The thing that I think really makes these shoes are worth more than your life really funny is that...

You read as having complete disdain for him. And that's what's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So funny. Like I imagined that, like, I mean, in the times that I've laid a dick or an ass, I think it's the most, like one of the most fun things to play. Right. Oh yeah. Because everybody has a bit of that inside, like where you want to, you want to say the disrespectful shitty thing, but we all obviously, you know, only like psychos really do that. But watching that character, like,

It's so fun because you can tell that it feels like genuine arrogance and contempt that he has for this guy. And when you play it grounded, that's like the funniest shit in comedy is if it's believable. When it gets wacky, it's like, I don't know, it just doesn't land. But that's why that lands so funny is that it feels so real. Yeah, it's not. That's a good point. The character is not saying it as...

a bit he's actually saying yeah yeah these these shoes are worth more than i would pay for your life it's like that's it's such a like you're such an asshole that's what's funny you know spade is one of my favorite ad libs ever yeah it's in it's in the movie and you'd never know it was an ad lib it's like in the fun and like there's a final scene in the conference room where it's revealed that i'm a bad guy and bo derrick's been in on it the big reversal of fortune sequence right is uh

I stand up and he stands up and he goes, Hey Lee Harvey. Cause I have that haircut like Lee Harvey Oswald in the movie. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So funny, dude. Um, thank you. That's a fun one. I, I, um, that's the one where, um, I w I would take Farley out for dinner.

And we would go, you know, we would go get steak. Farley would own, would order two bone in steaks, two porterhouse, two. Really? Would eat, would eat them in their entirety. But not only that, on top of each bite, each bite, he put a cube of butter and ate it. Good. And I was like, Chris, what are you doing? Yeah. Hold up the piece of.

steak with a cube of butter on it and go, it needs a hat. Eat of this, man. That is a true story. Do you feel like, because I always like, you know, the thing that really hits you when you go from stand-up to sets and you're shooting stuff is like, the big thing about stand-up is that you have

immediate feedback right like you know when it's like funny you know when it's like marginally funny you know when you're killing and you know when you bomb and like i remember the first time i shot something where they were like and cut and move and i was like are we done with that and they're like yeah and i went to the director i was like

did you get what you needed there? And he goes, we wouldn't move on if I didn't. And I was like, okay. I was like, was that funny? He's like, yeah. I go, okay. And I was like, and then sometimes we were, I've shot things where like the whole crew falls apart. Like everyone's laughing so hard and they were like, all right, let's do that again. I'm like, oh, that would be the great one to do. And they're like, no, no, no. Like when you shoot a movie, you,

That's like Tommy boy where it's like this. I mean, that's really become a, I mean, that's a classic dude. Like, you know, it's every like that movie. I remember, I mean, that played right into my, I'm in high school when that comes out. I went to see that movie multiple times. Like we laughed so hard. Do you, is it possible that Tommy boy to you?

is what Caddyshack is to me? Is that even possible? Is that possible? I think it totally is because like, you know, like when you see movies, I think everything is so contingent on like your age when you see things too, right? Like, oh, 100%. And like, everyone always talks about like their SNL cast. I'm like, yeah, it depends on

what age you are. That's right. And like that SNL cast was mine. It was like Spade, Farley, Rock, Sandler. Like that was just my age. We're just perfectly for that. But like when you shoot that movie, are you like, this is like a straight to DVD or do you feel like, you know what I mean? Do you feel like, you know, like this is really going to be something. Okay. So it's interesting. So I had that little run where it was Wayne's world, uh,

Yeah. Tommy boy, Austin powers. Right. So Jesus. And on Wayne's world. Well, when I, when I first hosted SNL, I was meeting with Mike. I literally just met him in the right, his writer's room. And he says, do you want to do a Wayne's world or a sprockets?

And I remember going, oh, that's not even a close call. I don't get Wayne's World at all. I want to do Sprockets. And so we did Sprockets and we had a blast. So then they're making Wayne's World as a movie. And Lauren, I wandered into that world and they put me in it. And I was like, yeah, sure. Okay. And then I went on.

So I thought it would be whatever. I mean, no high hopes, but like maybe, maybe a cult movie, maybe, or maybe a disaster. And I went, I'll never forget it. I've been to a lot of screenings in my life. I went and saw an advanced early cut on the lot at Paramount with Mike and it was killing. And when Bohemian Rhapsody came on and they're in the car,

shaking just doing that stupid bobblehead thing i'm telling you i've never seen a theater go they would have literally torn the seats out if they could really yeah um and then tommy boy felt kind of the same i knew i thought it was funny i i thought i thought it was gonna be a good movie i had no idea if anybody it was it was really sort of an afterthought it is never did anybody think

It would have the kind of staying power. I mean, I, I was, um, talking to Jonah Hill the other day and he's like, no dude, you don't understand. It's my favorite movie ever. God, that's really hilarious. Thank you so much. You know, good fellows. No, no, no, no, no. Tommy boy. Yeah. Right. Whatever.

Well, I mean, you know, as well as anybody, I mean, I'm, I'm mostly talking about this from like just a, a consumer, like a viewer of movies, but like, it's so hard to nail a movie. Um, I think it's even harder to nail comedies. Like they, they, it, it's just like,

you know, with, it's almost like you have a better chance of like just following a blueprint when you're doing a drama. Like this is just, and you can, but like you have, the thing about comedies is like the comedy has to be there, but the story has to be there. And like, you guys have heart in that story. A lot of heart. A lot of heart. And like, it's, it's believable heart. Cause it can't be like, it'd be like,

Where it feels forced and like, oh, they're trying to make this have heart. Like it feels genuine. I think obviously it's big credit to Farley on that. Like you just buy that, like you buy the dynamic with him and his dad. Big time. Yeah, it's like, I could see why he was, you know,

Eric, like he was the guy in that movie. It's like, well, he wasn't just funny. Like he had, he really, you connect with him. It was him. Yeah. I mean, and Chris's dynamic with his actual father is very, I mean, he could, it was easy for him to plug in cause that was their relationship. And, and, and Spade's really great on it. He's that scene where he's, I think he's in a scene where he doesn't, he talks about, I don't have any friends or you're my friend or whatever. He's great in it. And, and all of that stuff,

You completely believe it's like, I love super bad. I think super bad is one of the great movies ever. I think that's one of the great movies ever made. And it's again, it's because of the heart you believe, like you believe all, all of it. And there's everybody in that movie is just, what's your, what's your take on why they don't fucking make studios don't make comedies. I know.

I mean, I guess we should really go back and look at the first ones that underperformed. And that's really, that really is it. It's like they start to... That's it, 100%. Like, what happened? Yeah.

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Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Like 40-year-old virgin, super bad. You know, it's

This is the end, you know, Pineapple Express. I mean, there are so many that were fun and worked and then doing well. And then now also the thing is now you see trailers for comedies and you're like, is this this is the movie. It looked like almost all the trailers look like parodies of movies. You're like, holy shit, they made this. This looks terrible. Well, I got one for you. It's worse than television.

There's this show out there right now called Beef. Perfectly good show on, you know which one I'm talking about. Yeah, the Ali Wong show? Yeah, the Ali Wong show. So it's going in as, it's a series. It's going into the Emmys as a limited series because they think it's going to have more. So people screw around with like the categories and so you don't really know what you're getting. I remember Amy Poehler would come in after every Emmys

being nominated one of the great performances in parks and rec year in year out just crushing yeah and she would lose every year to um nurse jackie in the comedy in the comedy category they put edie falco in the comedy category and that's silly yeah that's really silly because edie falco was great in that i saw it's not funny but no it wasn't like a it was like oh it was the kind of thing where you're like oh that's that's funny and

That moment of real life that she played so genuinely and well, but you weren't like, oh, this is a really hot, like laugh out loud. No, they were, they were not, they should not have been the same category for sure. And that's the new thing we're living in. So when you have that in streaming where, um, comedies are these like edgy, provocative in your face, uh,

um, gritty, which is all really, really good and interesting. And I love stuff like that. But did you actually laugh out loud ever ask yourself? Right. And, and you know what I think it is? I think it's really simple. It's, it's the same answer as why multi-camera quote unquote live audience sitcoms became such a hack fest when, when we grew up,

There was the Mary Tyler Moore show, the Bob Newhart show, Cheers, Friends, Frasier. Those were great, great, award-winning, smart comedies. And for whatever reason, people started to perceive that as not cool. Yeah. And so they don't want to do it. And I think actually writing, doing something just for people to laugh is perceived as not cool.

There's no doubt in my mind. There's no doubt in my mind. I think you're right. I think you're right. And you know, the funny thing is they, um, they keep talking about how like all the streamers and the networks are begging for someone to nail another multicam. But I feel like one of their big flaws in this thing is that they inject themselves, meaning like the, the, the network or the streamer.

And they suckify what people, because I was involved with one where they offered me a multicam thing. And I was like, yeah, but through the process, I was like, yeah, but this isn't, I'm looking at the pages, I'm like, this isn't even what we were talking about. So I was already turned off from what was discussed. I was like, this isn't, like now it's not, it isn't cool what you're proposing that we do. So here's a good one. So I...

Before I did the West Wing, before I'd ever done anything in television, I'm, I've just finished the sort of Lorne Michaels, Mike Myers, part of my career, Tommy boy, right, right after Tommy boy, right after Tommy boy.

And 95, 96. Yeah, exactly. And Mike Myers has this idea for me. Now, Mike is an idea machine. Everything at this moment in his life, every single idea he has is gold. You know, everybody gets in a run. Yeah. He's in that run and he goes, I have an idea for you. You should do this as a multicam. It's you. And by the way, this is before Robert, I did the Robert Wagner thing. Yeah. And, and before he ever worked with Robert Wagner.

He goes, you and Robert Wagner should play father and son. Robert Wagner basically plays himself, an iconic, legendary TV character who's in the next phase of his life, and you're the son who could never get out of his shadow who lives in the guest house in Beverly Hills. Yes. That's the show. I sell that show, and by the time I'm done with the network's notes, it stars Dan Hedaya as my father.

And we have a sports bar in Chicago. How did it get to that? It's a death by a thousand cuts. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the, the old thing of boiling a frog alive where you go, you go, you know, I don't really see, but you know, listen, if, if I do, if I give them this one,

You know, I mean, I don't want them to just sour on this idea. I want to make this show. I mean, the whole point is to get a show made. Yeah. And what you realize going through the process is no, you make the show you want to make. By the way, it was awful. Yeah. Awful. Yeah. I mean, no disrespect to Dan Hedaya, but it's a long way from Robert Wagner.

Yeah, I don't think he knows that. Yeah, so what you end up with is they keep going, like, how come we can't get a great multicam? You're like, because you keep fucking it up. Yeah, it would be so good to do one. Yeah, and as you know, as the actor...

It would be a way better lifestyle to just show up to the multi-camp. Oh, God. Those friends bastards. We shot the West Wing three sound stages down from them. We'd be there at five in the morning on Monday. And I'm not kidding you. On Friday, we would leave as the sun was coming up over the lot Saturday morning. I'm not kidding. This is not an exaggeration.

The friends, people would roll in at noon. Everyone had a Ferrari, different cars. They would come and go. It was the most insane thing I'd ever seen. It was Thursday, man. We had a nice three day weekend. It was great. Yeah. Weekend. Get out of here. Um, so you're from Cincinnati. Is that right?

Originally, I was born there. I lived in the suburbs for the first nine years of my life, and then I moved a number of times. But it's like the time... Because I'm from Dayton. Oh, yeah. And I'm wondering, did you go to Reds games? Give me your Cincinnati experience, because I bet you we have a ton in common. Because you were born in 79? Jesus Christ, you're a baby. Fucking baby. So...

I would have been running a muck then. 79. Yeah. Look at you, man. Look at you. You look like you were born in fucking 86. You look great. Um, I, uh, so I was big and I was a big football kid. And so my, you know, like for me, actually I was, I went to bangles games and I, we, we moved, we moved from Cincinnati to,

in 1988. So that was the year that they went and they played in the Super Bowl against the Niners. And that's that famous two-minute drive with Montana to John Taylor. So

I was like, at that age, I was obsessed with like Icky Woods, you know. Was Kenny Anderson the, who was the? No, that was Boomer. Boomer was. Boomer, of course. Yeah, Boomer was a quarterback then. And so I just was like, I loved football. But we moved to Minneapolis from Cincinnati in 88. And I was just like, bangles, bangles, bangles. And then it like.

Within two years, they began this absolutely epic drought of just underperforming for, I don't know, it seemed like decades. It was just so, so bad in the 90s.

And I was, uh, I was a kid. So I said, you know, I ended up going to like Vikings games. I think I'm going to become a Vikings fan. Then we moved to Milwaukee and then I'm going to Packers games. And so it kind of like, it threw me off. At least they're all contenders. At least all three of them are perennial contenders. Yeah. And then we moved to Florida and I'm going to dolphins games. Wow. Um, yeah, so that was kind of like that threw off my, my football equilibrium, but, um,

But I still love the game. But Cincinnati for me was like, when you're that age and you leave, your memories are really like being a kid. So it's like riding bikes, playing with my friends and my cousins, a little bit of Cincinnati stuff, like going to Bengals. I did go to a couple Reds games, but it was like, that to me, people would always be like, oh, did you go here? I'm like, dude, I was nine. I don't know any of the streets. I didn't drive.

And I still go back. I still have family there, so I still go back about every year. I go see somebody where I'm on tour there. But yeah, it'll always be my hometown. But I have less of an association with it just because of the age in which I left. It's a great... I love Cincinnati. I love Dayton. I really do. It's such a great...

You picked a grade. Like you want to grow up there. You want to have like eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. And then when you're a teenager, maybe, maybe you move. Maybe. Yeah. Did you spend your whole like adolescence in Dayton? Until I was 12. So you're 12. Where did you guys go from there? Malibu. How about that? Shocking. Really? And the only reason we did that is my parents divorced and my mom died.

was uh my my new stepfather worked in southern california as a doctor and my mom was like a universal allergic she was allergic to everything and they looked for the best air quality in southern california and that was point not only it was a very specific it wasn't just malibu it was point doom in malibu and in that time malibu was still um of a

very middle-class neighborhood. You know, I was going to say, you used to, you've seen Malibu really change. Oh, when I grew up, it was, you know, cops and firemen could live next door to you in Malibu. Yeah. Oh yeah. Cause that's the thing you find now for people that don't know if you go to Malibu,

You find some tech dude or some millionaire, and then these people who are like, we bought this house in 1968. Yes. And they raised their five kids there. That's right. And we paid whatever, $60,000, and now people are trying to give us $9 million for this house. 100%. Martin Sheen lived three houses down from us. He bought his house in 72, I want to say.

Like 65 grand. Yeah. He's been in that house ever since he's been in that house. He's still there. He's still there. He's still there. It's probably worth, Oh, I don't even know. I can't, I can't even imagine what it's worth. Yeah. I can't even imagine. But yeah, that's, that's what it was. And it was a great life. It was a really, really great life. But I do remember this thing, like I coming from the Midwest and being a kid, I was like trying to get guys to play, kick the can or wiffle ball or whatever.

football in the field or nobody was having it. Nobody. It was as if I was asking them to go to Mars because all anybody wanted to do was play beach volleyball or surf. Yeah. And that was it. Like no one did any of that sort of Americana. Kids just didn't do it. Yeah, it's so different. They would shoot. There was a gnarly hill and they would shoot it on their skateboards. Did you get into skateboarding? I tried.

I wasn't really into it. I never got it. I was telling somebody about it too. I saw it as, I think a lot of California people have a different, like if you're raised, like born and raised in California, it's very much part of your culture. And for me, I was like, I go, no, like we, I saw like skateboard, like now I have skateboard friend, like professional skateboarders. And I was, but I was like, skateboarders to me were like punk ass kids. We're like, I go, I didn't, I didn't even want to, I saw like,

If you played like football. Yes. I was like, that's a man. Like that's. And I go, and then these kids were like leaning on people's cars and shit. And I was like, this is a fucking punk. So I was like, I had no desire to want to hang out with them or want to be them or want to skateboard. And then you grow up and you're like, oh, okay. Like it's.

I didn't appreciate the skill set involved with skateboarding until I was much older. But I see it's incredible what people are able to do on them. But yeah, I never wanted to be a skateboarder. Do you have a visceral reaction when you see a grown man

skateboarding down the street? I do. And I go like, I know I shouldn't be judgmental. And I pray all the time. I'm like, please make me less judgmental. Please make me less judgmental. But I'm always like, are you really? You're skateboarding down? Really? Sure. Well, yeah. My reaction is I don't want to meet this guy and I don't want to hang out with him. Yeah. That's what I feel. Right? I mean, I have...

All right, let's talk about our prejudices, the ones that we can't talk about. No, I'm kidding. So when somebody says to me, how about this? When you go, yeah, so I bet on the Super Bowl. I'm figuring, you know, the Chiefs are going to come back. Yeah, I don't really watch sports. I'm like, what do you mean? Yeah, I just, I don't know. Like, I find that odd. Yeah, well, they have zero exposure to sports.

zero yeah like literally zero i have a i have a friend of mine very famous actor i'm telling you right now he could not tell you what time of year the world series is played yeah it's a it's a strange one i mean especially if it's like a dude right where you're like because like women sometimes they'll be like i don't follow this stuff you're like all right but like when it's a guy and you're like but you don't know

Any of it? Yeah. And I'm like, I mean, come on. I get that. You don't like baseball for sure. I get it. You've never watched a game. I get one. You you've been alive. You're 48 years old. Yeah. You don't know what's happening in October. You've never noticed. You've never heard of Mr. October. Yeah. They don't call him Mr. July.

Right. Since probably October. That means like you're not even peripherally hearing about things. You don't know the spring games. How about this one? Something comes up to you. Hey, you're...

Yeah, I'm Tom. Hey, everybody. Nice to meet you. Yeah, God, that's great. My son was just saying he loves you. I don't watch. I'm not a big movie or TV guy. I don't do any of that. And I literally, now I go, you don't watch any television? You don't watch any movies or television? Not interested in movies, television? Now I drill down on it.

Yeah. Because it just, it just entertains me. I feel like, and I'll be like, I'll literally be like, you ever, you ever heard of Game of Thrones? Do you, do you watch? Nope. What about Star Wars? Yeah. You don't have any interest in Star Wars? Nah. No, nothing to that. Nope. There's adults who don't have, like when they go, I haven't seen Star Wars or like, they're like, you know, here's the thing about me. I've never seen Indiana Jones. I'm like, you never seen one of them. You never had an, nobody ever got you to see Harrison Ford. Nope.

These are a blockbuster, humongous thing, and they're like, no idea, nothing. I can kind of understand. Aaron Sorkin, the great Aaron Sorkin, wrote West Wing, won the Oscar for Social Network. He's never seen a Star Wars movie. Never. I think it's weird. It is weird. But what's weirder is presenting yourself. When you lead with it? Unabashedly.

Not only that you haven't seen Star Wars, but that you don't really do movies and television. Yeah. You don't do any of it. You don't do any. You're like, hey, just so you know, the greatest form of entertainment ever created in the history of the world, it's not for me. Yeah. I don't do it. I won't do it. Well, that person is making the fact that they don't watch TV and film like their personality. They want you to be like, oh, wow, that's so cool. That's so cool that you don't.

consume any of the stuff that the rest of us do. That's a real interesting trait. Well, there's also the other, the passive-aggressive thing is, and by proxy, since you do that, I have no interest in you. Yeah, yeah. What you do. How about that? I'm going to start using that when I meet people. Hey, just so you know, dentists, I don't like them. I'm not interested in them. I don't care for them. I don't care for them.

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I feel like the one that, I don't know if you have the equivalent because there's a different aspect to live shows, but one of the craziest things to me, I always make fun of this, is when somebody goes, they either ask to come to your show or they announce they're coming to your show, and then after the show,

They come and see you like they're backstage or something. And they make zero reference to having seen the show that just ended. Come on. Like, dude. And here's the thing. I don't need to hear. That was the greatest thing you've ever seen. Of course. You're not going to fucking say anything. Like, give me, give me a little, give me, I'll be you. Hey man. Hey, good to see you. I'm so glad you came. Yeah, man. Um, we're going to go, I guess we're going to go eat and, um,

What song is this? You guys said, is this your own playlist? And you're like, yeah. And then they're like, cool, cool. Yeah, we saw Joey yesterday. I don't know if we're going to go to Jersey. And you're like, are you not going to say anything? Because what I do is I go, I try to imagine myself seeing a musician or an actor in a play and just being like, so...

I know that we parked on the other side. Dude, they have to have hated it. That's the only... That's the only... There's no getting... There's no other... Come on. It has to be. Here's the thing. All you got to do is be like, great set or good set or I enjoyed the show. If I saw somebody play, I would be like, hey man, that was awesome. And then you do all your book. But I'm like, you're just going to stand here and you just saw a show and you're just going to be like,

I'm not going to make reference to the show. It's fucking crazy. It's crazy. Those are the same people that it's, that's, you're right. That's the same social move. Yeah, dude. It's like, they're telling you everything without saying it, right? Like they're, yeah,

Yeah, but it's a weird one. But then I've even called somebody out before. Not in the moment. Later on, I'd be like, do you know that? And they're like, oh, I just... They told me to go, I thought you just get... You're so used to hearing that that you just don't say it. I go, no, no, the etiquette, the thing is you acknowledge...

the show you just saw you fucking lunatic like you're at the show it just you're not going to make any reference to the fact that you saw a performance you're nuts well you know you know the other thing that reminds me of is like god forbid a bad thing happens to someone you know yeah and you i always tell my kids call call or text reach out because the

very few people do and it's always well I figured everybody was I figured yeah yeah yeah like when somebody like goes there I figured a lot of people tell you you're funny so you don't want to hear it like that you can say that shit all day long yeah yeah yeah then they don't get old have you ever seen them in the audience have you ever had the just see like to find that person it's hard to do because it happens after the show obviously but have you ever clocked them and then had them like stiff you like that

I've seen people in the audience and then I've talked to them afterwards and noticed that they're nervous. That I've clocked before. Yeah, yeah. People sometimes get nervous. Is there a gunman in the theater? What the fuck?

I think they get nervous after the show when there's a lot of activity. Because sometimes on these shows, you know, there's like, there's a lot of people at the show and then there's a lot of movement backstage with people. And I've seen them kind of be nervous, which I, that's kind of different. But yeah, it's all, I'm telling you, it's one of the weirdest things when someone's just like,

Are these almonds? And you're like, yeah. I mean, I can kind of, I mean, I'm just trying to put myself. Okay. So I'm like a huge Bruce Springsteen guy. Huge. Right. I've, and I've seen Bruce. Imagine it. Fucking imagine if you were just like, yeah, this is a cool city. I like it here. I'm trying to think like you go back and I get it. I,

You know, I've, I've seen Bruce here. I've seen him there. We've had a couple of social interactions, you know, our, our kids gone, went to school. Like I know Bruce, I don't know him well, but I know him, but I still go to the shows. I'm still a fan and I go back and it's always like the butterflies when you're going back and you're going to meet Bruce after the show and they kind of anoint you to come back. And it's the whole thing. I get it. But can you imagine you get back and he's like, Hey, how you doing? And you're like, yeah, you know, I'm vegan now. Yeah. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, I just, I'm staying away from meat altogether. Any animal products, really. And he's like, that's good. Yeah, you know, I just, I said, my hands, it's,

There's a long, and we just come off three different nights. Here's what I'll tell you. I fucking, I don't, I don't mean it like I've never followed Bruce. I'm not, you know, we just never was a guy that was into it. If I saw Bruce, the fucking first thing I would say is like, that was amazing, dude. That's just, I don't even know what it's like. And I know I would say that just to be polite. Polite. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean,

You got to give it, dude, I went and saw this show on Broadway recently. Well, it's not recently because it's long since recently. You get to the point where you say stuff like, I saw something recently and then you actually do the math and go, dude, you're an idiot. That was almost seven years ago. Do you ever have things like that? Worse. No, more than that. I'm always like, yeah, I think it was about.

I always referenced it as saying like that. I think it was about, it was a while ago. I think it was like 10 years ago. And then people will be like 10 years ago. It was a while ago. Yeah. And then they go, that wasn't 10 years ago, bro. That was 1999. And I'm like, Oh, like everything for me is like, if it's before last year, I'll go, I think it's about 10 years ago. And, and it, it'll be like significantly older. I don't know what that is anyway. So I, it was, um, uh,

Dear Evan Hansen, legendary, legendary, legendary show. And, and, uh, the kid who played Evan Hansen gives the performance of a lifetime. I mean, it's a performance. You just can't believe as an, he's crying, he's emotional. He's singing like a flipping bird. It's profound. Truly. I go, I've never met this kid ever.

and they they say would you like to go back i go backstage i look at him like my hair yeah i'm like him again i said first but literally you know what i did i literally i've never met him i hugged him yeah hugged him like i've known him my entire life and i'm like you are so fucking amazing in this show yeah oh my hugging this kid i mean i guess there's a version where i could go back and go yeah so um what

The air, it was, it was, the air conditioning was really good in this theater. Strong. Yeah. Cause the thing is when you're hot and you're too hot, you don't really feel like watching the show. It's good that I was able to watch it because the air was cool. How about when they ask you about the show without telling you what they think of it. So, um, yeah. So do you, that thing you did about the, the birds, do you do that every night?

And you're like, I mean, I do it. I do it. It's part of the act. But I'll pick and sometimes I don't, you know, but it's pretty much locked in. It's a good bit. So do you have somebody that works with you on this? Not really. No. I just kind of go up there and do it. Huh. Yeah. So like you, do you write, so you write it all? It's all written out? I mean, in my head, I don't really write it out on paper, but you get used to saying it so much. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's the same thing every night, really. Yeah, kind of. Huh. So I just, I just, one time somebody goes, they saw me perform and they go, Hey, do you know,

And they say another comic. Yeah. And I go, yeah. And they go, how do you think he writes his stuff? What? I was like, what? And they go, how do you think he comes? And he wasn't on the show or anything. I was like, what? And they go, how do you think he writes? I go, uh. And it threw me off so much. I was like, um, I don't know. I mean, I think he probably does something.

spots around town and then develops his material that way. And they were like, yeah, he's great. And I was like, Oh yeah, he was pretty good. I was like, when people were like, come back on it. Cause I do a one man show, which is really, it's, it would be, it's standup. It really, it is. I just don't have the guts to call it that because people don't know me in that way. And I wrote, I wrote books that are stories from my life and that's what it is. There's stories from my life. So they're not really jokes. I guess I shouldn't say that.

but it's it's funny it's a funny night so yeah and i love it so i've had this exact thing and the other thing that i love is when people come back come back and they're like do you know sean penn yeah i'm like uh you know what i mean it's like that's what you lead with yeah do you know him you're like yeah for a while huh what's he like what's he like would he ever do one of these shows

You know, I'll call him and I'll catch him the idea. I mean, so, um, but you're touring, this is the perfect segue. You're out there on the road right now, aren't you? Well, I'm actually, I'm, I'm taking a slight break. Um, I mean, I always have dates, but I'm not like, I just finished the heavy, heavy, uh,

tour that was 21 months so oh my god jesus yeah so now it's like a little bit of downtime but in that like we were saying it never like stop stops um and i'll do i'll do more dates um you know throughout the year but i don't tour tour big again until next year gotcha what's the next thing on the agenda

Sledgehammer, the new special. Netflix. That's my sledgehammer, by the way, in case you didn't know. Yeah, dude. I licensed it. I wrote that check. You wrote the check. I wrote the check, man. You're such a baller.

I mean, it was a good tour. Yeah. So, so I, yeah, I had to do it. Did you play it? Does it play every night? No, no, no, no. I, I never played it once on tour. It was actually naming these things is like, is such a, it's like the worst, you know, coming up with names. You're like, I don't know what to call it. And so you came up with a list and it's, it's a, it's not, you know, it's kind of like a,

It's kind of a joke to call it Sledgehammer because I think some people go, oh, it's like the jokes are, you know, and that's the joke to me. Yes, exactly. The reason that it's called Sledgehammer is it's a reference to a bit in the special. But that's something that people discover as they watch the special. No, that's the perfect, that's what you want. That's the perfect title. And then when we were doing the build out of the, we have an opening montage and it, you know, we call it Sledgehammer. My agent was like, dude,

What about, you know, Peter Gabriel? Like, what about, and I was like, you think so? And then the, the, the sound guy, you know, he layered it in for me, played it. And I was like, ah, we got to do it. It was, it was, it was so great. Isn't that the best when you're like, you know, fuck it. I know it's expensive, but Jesus, look at, look at what it does. It just, it's worth every penny. It's worth every penny. And here's the thing that I, this is my fifth special. And what I realized is that these things really do.

They just, they live forever. And when you do little things like that, you add, like, obviously the special's not about the song. No. But you add a little bit of, like, value to the experience of watching the special. Yes. Where, like, when somebody puts it on, they go, like, oh, the song starts. And then it...

You then, as the viewer, you go, oh, that's part of this experience is hearing that song for 10 seconds or whatever. And so to me, I was like, let's just do it. It makes it more special. Absolutely. The intangibles on anything at the end of the day are the difference. Totally. And I also was never going to do this opening. We do an opening montage.

of like that recaps the tour it's it's short but it's like it's visual and it has all these crazy grab and i was like should i do that i don't know and then i was like you know just fuck it like one of those things i was like let's just let's blow it out it was a crazy tour so let's let's do this to make it again like more special of an experience to watch i'm psyched to see it

I'm stoked for it. I really am. We worked really hard on making it, so I'm very pleased with what we did. How many nights did you film? I'd never done this before. I always taped two shows in one night. We taped four shows. We did two Friday, two Saturday. Here's the thing that I've never experienced. Every time I've taped two shows, which I've done, like I said, for all the other specials, you take show one, you get off stage, and they're like, look, you're good to go. We got it.

Go out, do it again. And now you feel like the nerves are kind of gone. Yep. And when you get to the editing room, you always use like 85% of show two. Really? Yeah, show two is always the show. It's always the show. So I show up and we're like, we're going to tape two tonight and two tomorrow. So we're taping four shows at this place. We end up using show one, show one of four for the entire special.

The whole specials just show one. Because you know you had the other ones, the ability to do the other ones, do you think? I actually think what happened, because we were trying to, I was trying to figure out what happened. I think I was actually, it was like good nerves where I was like, oh, you know, I want to get this right. And I feel like

I performed well. And the other part that you can't manufacture is that the crowd was bananas. Like the energy was at like a 10 and you can't duplicate that kind of thing. So when I got off stage, I was like, that was easy. And they were like, yeah, now you get to do it three more times. And every time I got off stage on the other shows, I was like, I think it's show one, which is like a very unusual feeling.

And then we got to, when I watched them, I was like, oh dude, it's no, it's no question. We're using show one. How often are you, do you have cameras trained on the audience all the time for reactions? You have to, right? Cause that's half of it. Um, well you don't like, we don't, there's, there's for a, I shot in the round, which is, oh, there you go. Yeah. So that's great. There was nine, nine, 10 cameras, which is, you know, usually I'm a special, there's like five or six. So this is like almost double the amount of cameras.

But yeah, I mean, you get some crowd stuff, but I think you don't want to lean on it too much. You kind of just want to use it to transition. Oh, interesting. You know, with the crowd shots. Because you also don't want to be like informing people like, this is, you know. This is funny. The fun time, I like a reaction shot from a crowd member is if the reaction is,

Is genuinely funny to like, not just somebody laughing, but like, I remember one time I saw in the edit, a guy was watching and he just went like that. And I just, I loved that he did that. Yeah. And so I was like, I'll use that, use that. Cause he was totally like mortified by it. And that was, that was fun to use. Oh, that's a good little lesson. I like that. I want to film my, at some point I'll, I'll film my, I'll have to go to school on, or I could take the position, you know, I don't really watch movies.

other people's work. I don't, you know, I'm not really, that's not really my thing. Yeah. I don't really watch that. I don't really watch any of this stuff, man. It's such a good vibe. Well, thanks brother. This was fun. So fun to have you on. Thanks man. I really enjoyed chatting with you. Oh yes. Well, I don't know about you. I'll be watching sledgehammer on Netflix. Um, should I wrap up this episode by just saying, I don't really do podcasts. I don't, I don't really, I don't really,

I don't know about them. Yeah, my kids are into it. I'm not really interested in them. If nothing else out of this podcast, you've gotten what not to say when you come up to people. So you're welcome. All right. Just one more thing before we end today's episode. Let's check the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-

570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hey, Mr. Lowe. This is Joost from the Netherlands. Walking my dog is always listening to literally. And just finished one of your podcasts. Love how you say go back, listen to the old shows because they're designed to be evergreens. I agree. Now there's one thing that comes up every now and then.

when you talk to your guests and that is when you're talking about shows you're talking about principles that will be and the differences between a single camera and a multi-camera show and how much that affects everything and it just makes no sense to me how the number of cameras on set

have such an impact. So I was hoping you could explain that. So thanks for all you do. And I look forward to hearing from you. Um, literally. Bye from the Netherlands. Yoast from the Netherlands. Thank you so much. Really, really thoughtful question. Okay. So here's the deal. Compare the performance from, let's say, modern family to a performance on Big Bang Theory.

And the acting is really different. That's the difference between single camera and multi-camera. People will tell you that you need to have more energy for multi-camera because there's a live audience. And the theory is you're playing to the audience and the camera just happens to be recording what's going on.

With a single camera, there's obviously no audience and you're acting for the camera. And the camera picks up every subtlety. Every subtlety. It's a truth-telling capturer is what a camera actually is. Captures the truth. You know, if somebody is sitting 45 feet away from you, they're not going to capture every nuance. They're just not. So, yeah.

bigger more energy broader is really what it is so when you see those actors they're being extremely broad and then if you're seeing the actors in a the office parks and rec those are single camera much more real much more grounded we like to say in the acting parlance um and that's uh that's sort of the difference um i hope that that was was helpful really good question

Anyway, thanks, you guys. Love you all. Thanks for listening. More to come on Literally. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, researched by Alyssa Grahl. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.

This has been a Team Coco production. All set for your flight? Yep, I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

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