The Queen of Geek Culture

Well, where's Larraquette? Larraquette and I were talking about doing... Larraquette is on our list, I believe. Yeah, he should be here. I was talking about doing Sunshine Boys with Larraquette. Well, we talked about it years ago when we first did Night Court. I said, would it be interesting if somebody did the Sunshine Boys younger, like 30 years earlier? That's a good idea. I said, you'd be great, you know, in the Walter Matthau role. And the guy from Willy Wonka. And I said... The Sunshine Boys. Albertson. Right. I said, who could play the other part? And he said, well, you could. And I went, oh, that'd be good. So when I saw him recently, I said, well, now we're right for the parts. And he said, well, I'll look at it, see if it's any good. Maybe we should do it. We'll hit him up when he's done our show. Yeah. I want to get Larroquette. He's so. He's great. He's a fascinating guy. And boy, he can be funny. Yeah. He does funny. He is funny. And he's huge. He's a big guy. He's 6'5", 6'6". Larroquette is, by the way, a virtuoso, though. He really is. He was a Klingon in one of the Star Trek movies. I know. It's always, everything here is, even though we're not a Star Trek show. It does come up. We're Star Trek adjacent because it does come up because everybody kind of has a connection to it in some way. And if they don't, they wish they did. Yeah. Yeah. Our connection is very strong. Yeah. Well, our connection to Star Trek is very strong, obviously. 40 years worth of strong. I love that song. Drop the name and other things Where the whiskey flows and the laughter sings Pull up a seat, join the game The Brad and Johnny Pardash Show You could lose your mind Cause we're cousins I've been little cousins And you'll find They look alike, they talk alike, they talk alike You could lose your mind When cousins Are two of a kind Bam! I liked the British cousin best What about her His father's theme song Oh, the Munsters No, Adam's family Is his father the M.S. family? John Astin Sorry Where you got the name? I need to Google stalk my friends more. Boy, I Google stalked you. Our guest today is Felicia Day. Yes, Felicia Day. The ubiquitous Felicia Day. Important American actor. Yep. Writer. Yes. Producer. Yes. Podcaster. Yes. Mother. Yes. Gardner. Yes. Okay. Singer. Singer. Dancer. Dancer. Violinist. And one of my favorite titles, maker. Oh, I like that one. Maker. Is that creator? That's like a devise. You devise things. Yeah, I never thought about that. You like it? I like it. Give it to me. That's a fucking hyphenate right there. Yeah, it's too much. It's not too much. We had Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk on the show together. Okay, I walked in and I was like, I knew that Nathan and Alan were here because I saw people contacting me. They're like, oh, they name dropped you on the podcast. And I walked into this studio having just done Nathan's podcast. and I said, oh, on Zoom. Yes, on Zoom without video. And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then I was like, oh, Nathan was so jealous, wasn't he? And I said it unprompted. And then Frank C was like, oh, yeah. He pretended not to be, but you could see he was. No, I guarantee you right now he's constructing a studio and he's got like a CAD outline of where he's going to sit. And he's like, well, I'm going to make this better than those guys. Have you seen the teasers for the new Firefly where he goes to the door? I have been seeing him accumulate, people I know. They went to Morena. He just did Tudyk yesterday. I know. And they're doing Awesome Con this weekend. And I wonder what they're going to announce. I can't imagine. Yeah, really. That would be amazing. And Jewel will be back. I mean, it looks like they're doing it. Couldn't they use some new characters? I mean, I'm sure. They really could. Who knows what's going on? Yeah, exactly. We can only hope that our friends are working. That's all. That's for sure. And coming back together in that group? Oh, yes, absolutely. That was a cultural phenomenon. It really was. You're very insightful. That's why you're a good director. When he comes up and gives you a direction, you just get it instantly. Yeah. Some people, they don't know. I don't give much direction. No, but when you do, it just snaps. Do you remember Sean? But Sean was the lead magician. Yes, he was. Impressorio, yeah. But he had an audience and he had helpers. And what he took upon himself to do as part of the character was direct all these people that were working for him to do what he wanted them to do. and instead of being the asshole, I said, wait, that's my fucking job to go and direct those people. I thought, what a gift. He's got that whole part of the set. I felt like such a slacker actor because Sean goes the distance, and he dives in, and he loves to analyze. You had a totally different character to play, though. Yes, absolutely. I was in my seat. He believed he was a magician. He believed. He's almost method in the way that he dives in, and I admire it so much. He's a brilliant actor, actually. When you look at the whole Lord of the Rings and all of those wonderful actors, if I had to name one actor... Were you going to use the word Uber? No. Okay. In the entire cast of great actors who were in those movies, the Oscar nominee for me would be Sean. That role, he's brilliant in it. He steals the whole thing. Well, okay. I just watched all of the extended edition of Lord of the Rings with my daughter who just turned nine. She was eight at the time. He's messing in it. He is amazing, but those movies and I watched the expanded edition. This is like 15 hours. Peter Jackson broke the ground. And I don't know, as a director, I'd love to talk to you about this because I don't feel emotionally connected to the things I watch nowadays very much. I think the things start, like that's different. But most of the time I'm watching versus being in it. And when I watch the Lord of the Rings movie, there are, and I think it's because it's not perfect. You know, you can see there's like, there's always you know a person with like two words over here that has a life and things are rough and the cameras aren't framed perfectly and like there's a authenticity to his direction that makes the characters feel realer and i don't know what it is what do you know don't you think maybe peter jackson felt like he lived in that period that's what i think part of that great casting great locations yeah and his he insisted on his vision but i always felt i've never met him but I've been down there to that world of his in New Zealand. I feel like he's of whatever that Hobbit. No, it's true. And also the things looked authentic. Like the costumes look warm and like the buildings look. And I was just like, is, have we just, are we going so fast? Are we, are we like trying to be so slick that we're just doing pictures that aren't reality that we see? I just feel like people want reality more. They want like this. I always think that's part of the secret of one of my favorite shows is called Happy Valley, that English cop show. Yeah, I love Happy Valley. The people look like the real people. Yes. Their clothes look like real clothes. The sets look like real places they would actually work. I'll tell you the series that did that for me, and it's maybe my favorite series of all time. It's called Babylon Berlin. You love that show. What's it about? Two seasons. It takes place pre-Nazi. I mean, it's just starting to bubble up, and you feel it in the first two seasons. but it's about a policeman in Berlin in the 20s. Wow. And the music is unbelievable. Yeah. They go to this dance club that's just wild. They do these big numbers. And there are moments in it, particularly in the first two seasons. One thing happens, I won't spoil it, because you've got to watch Bible on Berlin. Okay. No subtitles. I mean, only subtitles. In German? Okay. You've got to watch it in German. I'm sorry. I can't. I did do German in college. I studied German and college. Sure you did. There is a dubbed version, but it's not good. You've got to watch the recommended dubbed version. Okay, he doesn't. But there's moments where you will literally be like holding. This is one of his great pitches for always, anytime we talk about TV. You've got to watch Babylon Berlin. It's fantastic. I would love it. You know, when you're talking, when you're speaking about that, I'm thinking that maybe entertainment is so controlled from a business aspect now that you can't have somebody, whether a showrunner or a team of people or a director or whatever, do things that aren't totally polished or controlled. And I think that's where something interesting happens, right? Adolescence broke the mold. Yeah. Totally. I mean, that's exactly what I'm talking about. There's authenticity. Yeah, it was fantastic. It seems like they get away with that more in Britain, you're right, or maybe overseas. Everyone knows mistakes are the best thing that ever happened on a film set. Was there something on Next Gen? Was it like a mistake that they did? That was a very controlled show. Okay. Down to the word. We weren't allowed to change the word until I did Strange New Worlds, and we had a crossover with the Lower Decks people. So I had Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid on, who were cartoon characters on that show and real on us. And Tawny's Second City and Jack's a great ad. So they started to ad-lib, and Kat Lynn and Bill Wistroff were the writers. and I went over and I took a little look at him. And I said, what do you think? And they said, oh my God. So we started the ad lib. Then Anson took off and Rebecca took off and Ethan took off. And it was spectacular. It was a big boardroom scene. And then she called him hot Spock and they did all this. And a lot of it stayed in the show. But I'd never been on any Star Trek where the, I mean, the joke used to be you couldn't change from is not to isn't without calling Rick Berman in the office. Are you kidding? Absolutely. Wow. But, you know, you had a vision. You had somebody who was in charge of the vision, and they wanted it the way they wanted it. I mean, we could argue a moment and get things changed, but it took a while. Wow, interesting. But we couldn't just change the dialogue, even slightly. We couldn't change a word unless we cleared it. Can I tell you a small story about Summer Glow? Summer Glow. Summer Glow, coming up. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's drop this trip. Summer and I were in a, we were both homeschooled, and we were in a ballet company called San Antonio Concerto Ballet Company. Was that in San Antonio or in Alabama? San Antonio. Okay. Because my dad was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base for like two years. So I was in that company with Summer, and then later I ran into her at a Mary-Kate and Ashley audition for one of their movies that was set in the Winter Olympics of like, I think it was like 2004 or something. Anyway, and I ran into her, and I was like, Summer, what are you doing here? And she's like, oh, I just moved to L.A. to be an actor after being a professional ballroom dancer. And I was like, cool, we should connect. And we didn't ever connect. But then I got Buffy and she got Firefly. So we were in the same verse. You're in that circle. Randomly. That is so cool. You know, I lived in San Antonio. I went to college in San Antonio. You did? Where? Trinity. Oh, that's a fancy school. Well, just for a semester. And then I left. You got kicked out? I got kicked out. Oh, no. No, I didn't. I didn't. My brother and two of my aunts went to University of Texas. in Austin, where you, that was your, was that, did you graduate? Yes. You know where her double major was? Yeah, I do. You tell me though. Violin. Yes. And mathematics. That's correct. Yeah. Come on. Those go hand in hand. Music is math. It's the same part of the brain. I actually did a thesis paper on that and I got an A. You got out of high school at 16. You got out of college at 19. You do have a big brain. Well, I was homeschooled and I was just bored. And I was studying with a professor at the violin, who taught violin at UT. and just went the summer before I started. He was like, you want to go to college? I'm like, sure. When? And he just got me a full scholarship. And I don't have a GED, guys. I don't have a high school degree. This is a secret that I should not tell the world. But you passed on Juilliard. You were accepted to Juilliard. It was a pre-program. Yes, I did get accepted to the pre-program to study on the weekends with one of the most famous violin teachers there. But we didn't have the money to move to New York. I was thinking you passed because Itzhak Perlman was teaching in Austin. No, I wish it was more like, oh, I could choose something else. No, it was kind of a financial thing. It was kind of like the tease. It's like, you got in, you can't go. But it is what it is. I'm glad the path I've taken is... How cool is Austin, though? I mean, it was cool. It was. That's where my daughter is. Is she there now? Yeah. Oh, yeah. She's at the Mitchell Center there. I mean, it's great. It's just there's some weird vibes there now with the administration and stuff. I have a University of Texas story. Oh, yeah. If you can. Bear with it? Bear with it, yeah. I can bear with anything. Can you? I'll make it as fast as I can because it drops a couple of names. Okay. But I was doing a movie in. That was a pre-ring. Yeah, pre-ring. Getting ready for the name I'm going to drop. I was doing a movie in Colorado. With who? With Rip Torn. Oh. and um second time he's been mentioned on the show have i told this story already oh god knows probably i told a rip torn story where he was he was drunk and he was fishing and they had to send a teamster with him to bring him back up to the set right well that kind of happened on this movie ding yourself but my aunt who went to university of texas said that rip was the handsomest guy at the university of texas and um that all the women were in love with him okay so uh i got to the set and they said, oh, you're going to work with Rip tomorrow. And he's kind of not in a good mood, which is not a good thing because Rip was once blacklisted in a couple of theaters for shooting live ammunition at a guy's feet into the stage. What? Rip was a wild guy, you know. Wonderful actor. Really talented. But anyway. Is that his real name? Elroy, I think. Rip Torn. Elroy Rip Torn. Elroy Rip Torn. You got to be a bad boy with that name, right? So, okay, I'm kind of nervous, and I see him coming towards me across a field, and we're meeting, and then we're going to work together. And so the first thing I said was, hey, I'm from Texas. And he was, because I had to throw that out. He was, oh, good, good to meet you. And I'm thinking, okay, this is going well. And I said, you know, my aunt went to the University of Texas with you, and she said you were the best-looking guy at University of Texas. And he said, I didn't go to University of Texas. I went to Texas A&M where my father went. And I went, what? Oh, no. So later in the shoot, I was working with Pat Hingle. Let's give Pat a bell. I'm working with Pat, and I'm in a car with him, and he sees Rip, and Rip comes over, and the two of them hug. And after Rip left, I said to Pat Hingle, where do you know Rip from? He said, we went to University of Texas together. What? Yeah. What's the true story, though? Well, that's Rip Torn. Did he forget? No it could have been he forgot It could have been He was messing with you Yeah But A and UT are enemies They like sworn enemies So why would he say that That a power move right there I know Maybe it was that he wished he had gone to A Nobody wants to go to A&M. He was embarrassed he would go to UT. It goes the other way around. Exactly. Nobody wants to be in college. Even I know that. But not to get off on a Rip Torn thing, but famously... Go ahead. Rip Torn was doing a play with Liam Neeson and Natasha Richards where they met. Oh, yeah. They met together and they were doing a Eugene O'Neill play. And what's the one, the Garbo famous? Anna Christie. Anna Christie. And so. Oh, just, yeah. Not a real person, but it's a name drop. I did Anna Christie as well. So they met on that and they fell in love and apparently were having, at that point, a major affair. And Rip was playing her father and he was really jealous of her, of the relationship. and one night on stage, out of the blue, he pulls a knife on Liam Neeson. What? So it's a gun and a knife. Yeah. And the story goes... He's ready for either fight. Yeah, he is. He's packing. The story goes that Liam took his hand with the knife and drew him in close and said, I'd be glad to kill you when the show's over. And they fired Rip that night. I mean, I think that's probably appropriate. Liam Neeson was in Kroll. Oh, is that right? is I think he's like 17 in Kroll. Is that correct? Somebody look that up for me. But when I was watching Kroll, because that's a good movie. Good. Who is the star of Kroll? I don't actually know. There's a lady with the biggest red hair in the world. Oh, I thought... She's beautiful. You have the best red hair. Oh, thank you. No, no, no. You know so many redheads in your time. I mean, I don't know all of them. Let me ask you a question about redheads. He knows a lot of redheads. Yeah. Is your pain threshold higher than mine? Probably. Do you have natural vitamin D? Maybe. I hope so. And are you sensitive to temperature change more than the regular? Yes, I am. All true. That's the kind of fucking research we do here on dropping names and other things. Three for three on my redhead research. Wow. Very nice, man. I didn't know that all. I knew the pain thing, but I didn't know the other two. Because of vitamin D, I don't go outside. Look at me. I am made to be a vampire or a corpse. I'd like to cut to something that. Look at me. I wasted my time researching blondes. How? Okay. If I had a nickel. What were you going to talk about? I wanted to cut to something that I just watched. It's called Invisible. And you play a character named Gorgel, who is a Norwegian. Oh, my. Why would you do that? It's fabulous. It's a heavy metal, black metal artist of questionable everything. With some of the best makeup and very black hair. Yes. And very long painted on. Do you remember this? I remember. It was my music. It was one of the other funded YouTube channels. I had a channel called Geek and Sundry. Of course. And then there was another channel that the Fine Brothers were doing. And that was one of their premier scripted things. And they asked me to be in it. And I was like, only if I could do the most ridiculous. And you did. I did. You crushed it. Oh, really? Oh, have you watched it? I don't know if I ever wanted to see it again, but I'm glad that you think I was good. Well, I'm a big fan. I had the privilege of directing Felicia Day. You did? We did The Librarians. Oh, I was in The Librarians. I know. No, no, I wasn't. Well, you were Leverage. Leverage, yeah. Good show, too. That's a great story, actually. Did you direct Will in Leverage as the hacker? He was a hacker in that. I never had him, but I know he was. He was very good in that, too. We got a lot to discuss. We got Will Wheaton to discuss. Yeah. On The Librarians, the other guest star was the president of our union. Sean Astin, who later worked with me because I was like, hey, we work together. Can you be in my honorable service? Did Sean get one early? And you see, I go back far enough to I worked with Patty Duke. I know. That's how we artists. That's how we mangled that theme song that I haven't thought about since I was a teenager watching Nick at Night. I want to ask you something right off the bat just because it is the concept of our show. And sometimes we get so wrapped up in conversation with our friends that we fail to ask, who have you been in a room with? Yeah, here we go. Who have you worked with or met that you found yourself you just couldn't believe I am standing next to you or I have met this person. This is embarrassing because it's somebody you know very well. Oh. So I was at, I believe, Emerald City Comic Con. That's Seattle. Yeah, I love it. It's one of my favorite cons. Every state, every city. Yep. I don't know what the qualification for the... I think you're just drunk with power. I think you're drunk with bell power and also there's a thing Brent doesn't really love the bell you're not prone to love you're ambiguous I'm ambiguous but about all things was this your pitch for the podcast you're like listen I'll do it I stole it from Rosenbaum oh he's funny I did his podcast and he said what's that thing you and Brent are doing he said well you gotta put a little bell on each of the names you drop and I stole the idea I went to an antique store what do you think of the bell I love it it's very vintage But it is Z-Caulz celeb when you look at the comments. You're not supposed to read the comments. Well, you're not supposed to look at them, but I just look at the ones about the bell. Okay. I hate the bell. I love the bell. I hate the bell. I love the bell. You should do a little poll and then ignore it like I do. Exactly. You don't have anything online. But you read all your comments. I used to. Now I'm very good about not doing it. Go ahead. You were starting something very – No, you were starting something about the famous person. About the famous person. Oh, yeah. Somebody you guys know. So Will says, hey, I want you to meet somebody. And I went in the green room and Sir Patrick Stewart was there. Now, I hate to admit this, but I was a super fan of you guys' show when I was young. What? You weren't even born when our show was on. No, I was a kid. I mean, I was like Will's, I was younger than Will, but it was my favorite show because I was homeschooled and I just dreamed about being on deck. And I wanted Will to be my brother. And I was kind of had a crush on you. Who was your favorite character? Well, I wanted to be... Oh, yeah. Yeah, probably. You don't have to say that. No, it's true. Every fucking person who comes on here. I had a little bit of a crush on you, too. I had a lot of crushes on this particular show, and I wanted to be Beverly Crush. Redhead. Redhead. So I had a redhead star. I had a brother that was way better than my brother, in my estimation. I had mild crush on you, mild crush on you. Super crush on Sir Patrick. Sorry. Don't be sorry. You're not alone. You know, there were 10-year-olds all over the world who felt exactly like you. Really? I also had a crush on Kit, the voice of the Kit, the car in Knight Rider. So I think it's a British thing. That brings up an interesting story. William Danielson, The Voice. The great William Danielson. He's still on the circuit. Is he? Oh, yeah. He and his wife, he's 96, I think. Yeah, he's fantastic. And his wife is a little bit younger. But I've met them on the circuit. Did I tell the story about the Star Trek uniforms that were stolen? What? $82,000 worth of Star Trek uniforms. When? They were stolen off the lot of Paramount. And the FBI was... It could have been Felicia. It could have been Felicia. I wish, because I've always wanted to. And then the FBI was called in, and the great Mary Howard tracked them. It turns out they found out who they were, And they were having a meeting to swap the $82,000 worth of costumes for the kit car from Knight Rider. What? In the desert. So Larry Duke's teamster takes Mary Howard and the FBI down to the desert. They got binoculars looking down at the desert. The two semis back up to each other. The uniforms come out of one semi and the kit car comes out of the other semi. And the FBI approaches and arrests everybody. Wow. True story. How great is that? How do they get the car? Hasselhoff was driving, by the way. Oh, really? Hasselhoff was in the tin. They stole those two items and swapped them. Who were they? Clearly, you can visit them in prison today. I know. I want to know what happened to these people. Is that a great image of the FBI? Well, we lost that. The captain's chair was stolen several times. What? Because it was ergometrically designed to Patrick's back, and we'd come to set, and that hole in the middle of the bridge was, where's Patrick's? Somebody came in on the weekend and stole his chair. On the lot? On the lot. What kind of security did you guys have? Really bad. Clearly. Oh, come on. What's his name, who I adored? Everybody in our company used to smoke. So we'd go outside with security. We'd smoke between setups. No judgment. No judgment. Those were the days. But we were young. You looked cool. Let's be honest. The coolest was Santa's smoke. Well, it is cool. Yeah. Well, we want to hear the Guild. Great. Yeah, I wanted to say about the Guild. When you walked in today, you looked around and you said, wow, you've got a real thing going here. This is like we have makeup. We have a set. When I walked onto the set of the Guild, because as you might remember, I was doing my own web series at the time. You were. Fresh Hell. Very funny. Thank you. Check it out. Fresh Hell. But we basically, we had, you know, my crew got sandwiches. You know, that's all they got was not money. But this is the Guild after the – That was after I got funded. That's what I'm saying. And we only shot that series for like, I don't know, it was like $450,000 for a movie. And so I'm going to be doing a Kickstarter this summer for a Gil reunion movie. Oh, wow. And learning the economics of how I do a movie now is much more expensive. Oh, my God. So our Kickstarter will have to be ambitious, but all the money is going to the, you know. That'd be great. But anyway, yes. I walked in and there was, first thing you said to me is, you need to go to wardrobe. I'm like, wardrobe? Yeah. What are you talking about? I thought I was wearing my own clothes. But no, there was wardrobe, there was makeup, there was hair, there was catering. It was incredible. But it came from a small... It came from $300, you know, shooting in our garages. That's the story. That's sort of your... That's my origin story. Well, it exploded. It became huge. Millions of people. Millions and millions and millions of people watched it. But because of, you know, I was talking about a subject that was only uniquely suited to the internet, gamers. Right. I uploaded it to YouTube the first year or the second year that YouTube existed. And so we were one of the first scripted series. And the platform supported that. So around episode three, we shot three episodes for like, I think a total of like $1,000. Believe me. Wow. And it was just in our rooms. And there were how many? Five of you? Well, there's six actors. Six actors. Six main actors. And then we had a sound person, a director, my co-producer, Kim. And that was pretty much it. We had like maybe one PA who was a friend of ours who was helping. And so we shot the first three of those episodes as like a 10-minute bulk or a 12, 15-minute bulk. And then we had no money left. We couldn't fund it. And so we put a PayPal button up on the website that I made. And we got so much money pre-selling a DVD of the first season that we were able to make the rest of season one. and save up for season two, which I wrote the script, we were about to shoot, and then Xbox came in with a sponsor, Sprint, to be able to fund it, and I kept the IP, and that's the only reason I can make a reunion movie now is I own everything. Oh, that's smart. Yeah, it's really good. The IP. Yeah. Microsoft was involved? Microsoft, yeah. So it was Xbox. Microsoft owns Xbox, and they were able to get an ad buy with a major sponsor, Sprint, and able to fund the whole season as, I mean, listen, You know how like half a million dollars goes. It's not much. And it was a little less than that the first, you know, season two, three, four, five. But, you know, it's the craft service budget of a TV show. But we were able to make something really awesome. It was like essentially a movie cut up in 12 pieces. And our last season ended up on YouTube on my company, Geek & Sundry. And then nobody would fund because they were like, that's too expensive. Right. But I'm still selling DVDs of that. What about the stuff that they funded that just gets thrown away? Like, that's what I loved about walking onto your set. I'm like, somebody in five years could enjoy this. And I would enjoy this on any of my screens. And, you know, creating video that can last the testament of time, but you're still being able to talk to, you know, a smaller audience, but not really. Your audience is huge. Well, also, people are going to be able to watch your show and our show when they want. And if they want to binge, people binge. Exactly. Oh, look who's on. Because ours are spread out as yours were. And I can tell you, like, I heard somebody told me an inside story about, like, a show that their finale was on, like, FX or something. And the numbers that they gave me who watched that finale, it was, like, 40,000 people on a TV show. And I'm, like, every single day, videos like, you know, this. It's crushing it. So what is the disconnect between the economics? Why not give somebody a couple million dollars and make an awesome film? But you decided to do this on your own because you said, I'll figure this out? That's the phenomenon to me. Okay. I did it because I felt so rejected. Because you were a good violin player. Yes, exactly. And you knew mathematics. I knew how to practice these things. No, it was because I was always auditioning. And then when I told people I was a gamer or a math major, they would look at me like, oh, whatever. That was of no value to them. But also my face didn't fit what they needed on the screen. And then I had a lot of anxiety. So when I would get to testing, which I would test a lot, I would kind of crumple from anxiety and I wouldn't get booked. Well, that's built in. The idea that we go into that room and we've signed a contract for the next whatever. Seven years. Seven years. And then your competition is sitting in the same room. Yep. They just talked about that on Smart List. Have you heard of that other podcast, Smart List? Nah. It's great. You should listen to it. Oh, Brian Cox was on this week. Another great story. But going into the room to test, go to the network to test is something that either doesn't happen anymore and I hope never happens to anybody. No. I remember walking into, I think it was me and Melissa McCarthy. Yeah. Who's like. Similar type. Very not. No, what? Anyway. Was she a redhead at the time? She was a redhead at the time, but she was like 10 years older than me at least. But it's fine. It was me and Mercer. And I walked into, I think it was NBC, and it was a stadium seating. And me, and it was like a camera. You were down here and the executives were up there. They were all, I was like, what? This is nothing like what you'd be on a set. And I just went out of my body. Yeah. And I just. Was that the first time you tested? No, no. It was probably the fourth or fifth, but it was when I was doing the guild. And I went in and I was so confident because the guild gave me confidence. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was making something. Yeah. I created a role for myself. And it was hugely popular. Yeah, exactly. And I went in and I, you know, the pressure and I just left my body. I was like, I don't want to do that. I need to step back. So thank God writers love what I do and they write me parts because I don't have to go through that. And I hope that no actor has to go through that pilot process because it doesn't test how good an actor you are. Right? It really doesn't. Auditions don I mean that a whole separate gift But you now in a position and you in a position where people offer you parts which is so rare and so exciting and so hard to get and then as a director it's like when I got you on I don't have to worry about that part same with Sean, don't have to worry about that part if I get you to say yes which is sometimes very hard are you? what? why? you tell the truth I don't get offered anything no no I really don't, except by you. Your manager's right here. Uh-oh. Yeah. No, I don't get offered things except by Jonathan. And so I feel like I need to then be like, oh, I don't know. I don't think I'll do that. No, no. I mean, I got offered a lot of things when my, you know, a lot. But not lately. I think the industry is very bad right now. Like, it's very tough for everybody. And so, you know, doing your own thing is the best way. Because then you have the confidence to be like, I don't know if I need this job. Well, you know, that's kind of why we're doing this. Well, also, you're very, very selective. I'm a much bigger whore. I'll do anything. I've auditioned for a lot of things in the last couple of years that I haven't gotten. What I'm selective about is because when you get to a certain age, particularly for I found, most of what I audition for are guys in a hospital bed and, you know, and or dementia. No. Yeah. You just got to show your abs more. You know? I mean, listen, just get him out, oil him up, do some Instagrams. You are. Well, thank you. You are too, though. He's a gym rat. When I walked in, I was like, you look great. Vanity. Season three of Picard. I've been on season one of Picard. I was like fat pizza Riker. And then I said, I'm not going back on camera. This fat, I'm too fucking vain for this. No, I'm like, as of two weeks from now, I am going to stop. But I just love baking. I love making somebody a pie. And then who's not going to, I'm not going to eat it? Who doesn't love pie? Have you ever turned down something that you regret? Have I ever turned down something I regret? Great question. You know what? I've turned down auditions that I regret. I've never been offered something and turned it down and regret it. But I had an audition once. I mean, offered an audition. And I said, no, I don't want to go in on this part. And it was Good Will Hunting. Robin Williams did the part. But, you know, that's the thing. You know. No, but here's the thing. He was going to do the part. There was no reason for me to go in an audition. That's not true. He was circling at the time. He was circling that part. Do you as a director, this is interesting, I want to know. Do you as a director, when you see somebody who might not be good for a part, but you like them, do you like save them? Absolutely. See? Absolutely. I have been saved so much. I have a list of people who I've worked with who I have in what I call my little rep company. that I can, if I'm invited to be a guest director on a show and I see a part, I said, I got a great guy for this. And then generally they'll say, fine. And it's the same thing. If you can people, the company, but people you've worked with like trust and know all of a sudden you're a good director. Yeah, no, it's true. Well, but also, I mean, I just was thinking about this. I was like, do you want to do this movie? Is it worth, you know, it's going to be hard. It's going to be low budget no matter what. Right. And I'm like, it's going to be stressful. It's going to be hard. but then we had a table read and the core cast was together again and I was just like, oh, this is why I love it. Oh, this is a Guild movie? Yeah. I love just getting friends together. I love working on, in a project where, you know, I'm sure you've done a job where you're walked on the set and you're nervous and the cast isn't that friendly and you're like, oh, I'm doing a job. Yeah. But when you make magic together, it's just special. Well, it was kind of, we had that experience in Picard season three. Picard. Oh, yeah. All of us were there and it was like, oh, yeah. It takes seconds, though, doesn't it? It takes seconds to just wind up back where you were 20 years earlier. That's the best feeling. It is literally the best feeling in the world. So I'm like, okay, it's worth the effort. And also just remember that's why we're here. We're not here for the grind. We're not here to just show up and say some lines and then get off. Yes, we need health insurance, but at the end of the day, we could probably be making a lot more money in a different field. We're here because we're artists, right? And the business kind of sometimes crushes it. And when you find a niche and people that puts that art in the business, it's like so beautiful. You know, ironically, why I consider doing these guys in hospital beds is to get my health insurance. It's true. The irony is layered. The last couple of years, I will say that a lot of my auditions have been one hour. Oh, my God. Is he going to recover? Or I don't know what happened. He was such a nice guy. And I was like, I just told my manager at a certain point. I was like, you know what? other actors will be better at this. Yeah. You both have the same approach. I do. You're principled. My manager's not here, but I will say, oh, you know who should play this part? Not me. If I'm in an alien hospital bed, or I'm like, I don't know why he turned into an alien. You know, like, I don't know why my child can move things with their mind. Then he should be you. Yes, but if it's just a normal child or a normal sister. You're the go-to for that part. Exactly. Hire me. I'll be weepy. And if there's a crazy scientist in bed with dementia, it should be me. Can I pitch you my dream job? Yeah. And I actually have it in my mind if somebody doesn't hire me to do this one day, I will write a comic book where I want to be a coroner. But in an environment where vampires and werewolves and other supernatural creatures are real. And these other two hot leads go and investigate the things. and then they bring the body back to me and I get to be like, oh, the werewolf gland right here. Right? That's a great idea. Fourth on the call sheet, fifth maybe, fine. Don't have to work every day. On the poster. One set and on the poster. On the poster supporting being part of the ensemble. Maybe I'll write on it too. And a piece of the back end. Piece of the back end, exactly. So if this doesn't happen in two years, I'm writing this comment. It's a great idea. I'm putting it out there. Any writers, run with it. It's actually a wonderful idea. I know. Why did I just say it? Maybe my son should write that. He should write it. Because he loves horror films. What would you do? You could be the police chief. Well, yeah, or I could be just this guy on the slab. That's the part you've been turning down. Okay, can I cast you as the, I hate to say this, the hot vampire who's actually the good guy? Who's kind of the head of the sort of like underground supernatural people? So you're the good guy trying to keep people in reign so we can live together. The humans and... I'm going to have to think about it. I don't know if I can play that. I have to play something evil. I'm lying to you. I'm playing. Book me. You in a suit in a penthouse? I'm suit to Fitz. You don't even need to bring your own suit. We're going to get this made with your suit. Wait a minute. This is going to be a costume department? Yes. Yes. I can't afford a penthouse. We can't crowdfund a penthouse. You need production value, baby. I do. You need the lens flare. Okay. And then we'll go down to the police chief. Right. Disapproving. I've played a police chief before. You have? Yeah. It's petty dreadful. Petty dreadful. City of Angels. That was a great show. The one that shot here, City of Angels. Oh, I didn't see it. I don't know. Logan was on our podcast. What a wonderful writer he is. That's such a good, I know. What is he doing now? He's so good. He wrote the Michael Jackson movie. He wrote Aviator. He wrote Gladiator. He's got a couple of Broadway shows. He's got a Tony. You guys know Fancies. Look who's here. Oh, no. We did do, by the way, we played Dungeons and Dragons on Zoom. Yes. For a charity, right? It was for a charity thing. That was fun. It wasn't. But, you know, I have to be honest. Are you a good D&D player? I wasn't good. So Geek and Sundry is a company I have with YouTube. I sold a whole slate of things. And I called Will Wheaton up. I remember I was at a coffee shop, Groundworks on Sunset, and I pulled over the car because I had a slate and I had Will in it. And at conventions over the years, we would play tabletop games after cons. And I was like, Will loves, no, no, we play D&D. Anyway, my experience, he introduced me to the whole love of board games, but also D&D. My idea was Will would be a DM for a Dungeons and Dragons premium show shot like this with actually, you know, with beautiful production value. And so I called and pitched him and he was like, you know, that's great. But what about we play a different board game every week? And I got my friends and we play. You were on that show. No. Were you on tabletop? You were not on tabletop. I think he invited me, but... Well, you couldn't make it. No, I didn't want to go. Oh, yeah. No, I'll tell you why. Why didn't you want to do it? Well, I'll tell you why. And this is going to get me in trouble here, but I don't really like games. And I'll tell you why. I know. For a very good reason. I know. It changes everything, doesn't it? I know. It does. I don't like games because I don't like to win and I don't like to lose. So why play, right? Why live? Yeah. Why live? Exactly. God, what? I feel guilty when I win, and I feel worse when I lose. What about if you played a cooperative game? Well, Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons. Right. Cooperative. But I wasn't good at it. I was like— You would get great at it, though. I didn't even know what I was doing. Todd Stashwick had to train me up to do a D&D. Todd is so great. You know, I just did his project. I know. And I'm excited. His whole—the world that he created, amazing DM. I'm excited for that project. Did you go to his lair? I did. Yeah. It's amazing. I know. He invited me so many times over the years, and I just never go out. He's a classic nerd, too. He is. Dude, he is great. But he's wonderful. He was fabulous on Picard, 32. He's such a great actor. Yeah. And then I'm like, oh, he's just Todd. He's another one. He's one, if there's a role and you can give it to Todd, all of a sudden that part of the show. Yeah, he has a bad guy vibe, but yet he's a good guy. Yeah. That's kind of hard. I mean, Will's kind of fallen into that, like playing bad guys, but I'm just like, I mean, I cast him as a bad guy. He's kind of a bad guy in the guild, but not really. He's a romantic interest, too. He's a bad boy. Anyway, let me finish the story. Okay. So I asked him, so that's how Tabletop came to be. And that's him, you know, inviting people to play board games. And we developed that and it was beautiful. And then at a certain point, I wanted to do D&D for live streaming. I love live streaming. This was in 2014 when nobody was live streaming. And I started live streaming myself. And I was like, hey, we should do this. And I love D&D. Let's put some D&D players on, you know, a live stream. And that's how Critical Role started. And that started the whole D&D phenomenon. Wait, you started Critical Role too? Well, yes. My friend Ashley Johnson, who I know through Joss Whedon, told me she had some nerdy voice actors she knew that played D&D together. And I was like, great. I can't be on the show because I'm on Supernatural. I can't stream every week consistently. Voice actors are always in town. Put them on. And so my company built them up. I left the company. They built up. They left. And now they have that thing. Critical roles of the show you're trying to do. They're amazing. That I had one role on. Remember, we were at the con and all the critical role people were. Oh, yes. You did a voice. Yeah. You've got to be on that. I had no idea how cool that was. It's very cool. It's like this world. I didn't know anything about this world. They've done amazing stuff building up. I don't have anything to do with them now, although I did a couple voices. But they built a business in an amazing way. I get the feeling that you create these things. You get them going. They get big, lots of eyes on them, and a lot of money comes in from somewhere else. And I leave before the money. And you leave. No, but you leave when you feel creatively burnt out. Right, exactly. Then you go, okay, now that it's become a corporate thing. That's you so healthy. I don't want to be in it. I mean, my best. You are mentally healthy. Really? Especially for an artist, in my humble opinion. I've gotten there. It was not, I mean, a lot of the times when I would leave something, it was because I was mentally and physically burnt out. Yeah. And because I drive myself to the point where I'm like collapsing. And then I have to be like, I'm going to step back. I hope now that now I'm like, hey, let's not do that again. Let's not just perpetually burn out and then get interested in something new and then perpetually burn out. Because it's not particularly great. And the downtime between those projects is a little too much. I don't need to do that anymore. But that was very observant. I actually need to absorb that because I never thought about it that way. Before we plug the book and talk about beginning your book tour, I'm going to run a few things and see if any of them are interesting to you. Okay. Oh, wow. No cards. The Cheetos commercial. Yeah. I loved it. Warm Springs. Yeah. Oh, I've got to ask about that. Yeah. Because I expected you. Oh, the name drops are great. And I expected when I asked you about the name drops that they would come out of Warm Springs somewhere. I mean, there's some droppies. No kidding. Here we go. I will say that Kenneth Brano did intimidate me, akin to Sir Patrick, but not on the same level. Right. Kathy Bates was one of the most lovely people I've ever met on set. Absolutely. I don't know if I could drop any other names except one of the actors. I remember that I was with some of the supporting cast, and one of them was a young boy, and we had a hot wings contest where we had to eat the hottest hot wings. and he literally ate ones that's so hot he had to jump up and run around the block with his mouth open because he was on fire so much. One of those actors actually, another one passed away from a heart disease. Oh, you're from the wings? No, that's completely separate. Have you done hot wings? They asked me to do it, but I have serious stomach issues and I decided I was like, it's not worth it. Have they asked you to do it? No. Me neither. Would you be able to do it with your stomach? You'd do it. Of course. All right. I would do anything. I almost do anything. That's true, by the way. I was naked in a bathtub. He's hearing me. Can I make that point any more clear? I was naked in a bathtub of soup for a short last year. And I'm like, I still haven't seen it, but I hope it was worth it. I was naked in a bathtub of soup? Well, it was colored. It was colored soup. It was colored. I was worried for my vaginal health afterwards. Yeah. But it wasn't actually tomato soup. It was just reds that they were going to CGI the soup. And I was like, I, but I showed up prepared to be in soup. They were going to seize you on soup, so you were going to be naked in what? In soup. No, but were you naked in water? Well, almost, you know, partially. And then it was... TV naked. Yeah, TV naked. It was short film naked. Listen, I'll do OnlyFans if I'm showing these off, or I'm going to monetize them if I have to. One day I will. I'll do anything. Well, clearly, because in Warm Springs, you sang, I won't dance in a wheelchair. Oh, I know. That is embarrassing. Yeah, but it's famous. It's true. It was about polio. It was about Roosevelt. It was about Franklin D. Roosevelt. Oh, yes, Cynthia Nixon was in that. And she was incredible as well. Quite a mentor. I wouldn't take that role now because it required me to be in a wheelchair. And I think that... You gotta go. I can't offer that. You did? No, but you get a wheelchair actor. Exactly. That's what we do on... One of my very best friends was in that with me and she was my side. I wrote her a part in the guild because I was like, you deserve to have more roles because you're a brilliant actor. She just did a one-woman show in Seattle, the Seattle Public Theater that she wrote. So, Teal Shear. Well, you've come a long way since then. Thank you. So has Kathy Bates, by the way. Yeah, she's doing okay for herself, right? I know Kathy Bates. I've known her since... I knew everything comes back to you. It does. It has to. Tell me your origin story with Kathy Bates. Well Kathy Bates well I knew her by the name She went by the name of Bobo Bates at the SMU she went to SMU with a lot of my friends and she was Bobo Bates in fact if you watch the movie the Milos Forman movie taking off she's in it briefly and in the credits she's Bobo Bates I did a play also I didn't know you were such a scholar you're much more intellectual than I thought you were do you think I was just a stupid nerd I mean, we've already said nerd, but now stupid nerd on top of it. He is a cinephile. I didn't know that. He really is. You're a nerd about cinema, which I did not know. I knew you were smart, but I didn't know you were. And I like theater, too. And that's where I knew Kathy Bates. We did a workshop of a play at the Public Theater. You may have heard of it. And it was Sigourney Weaver and Kathy and myself. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. But Kathy's a lovely person, and she's a brilliant actor. She's keeping the network alive. Yeah, exactly. Can we get her on the show? Well, you know her as well as I do. No, I haven't talked to her since... The Warm Springs. That's a long time ago. That was when I did the... That was my one Tony. Do you have one credit where you're like, oh, I was fancy? I mean, obviously Star Trek, but did you do one? Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, yes. And I was not very... He's been on Broadway a number of times. Wow, I did not know that about you. He was in 1776. He's a beautiful tenor. He's a beautiful singer. How do I not know these things about you? Well, you know, Big River he was in. You need to put... I'll give you some of these on myself. Please, can I come back and interview you guys? Yeah. Or I should get a podcast with us maybe one day. You should. We'll love it to you. It's a lot of work. So you mentioned Supernatural. We mentioned the librarians. Eureka? Yeah. Yes, Eureka was in the name. Also with Will, no? With Will. Exactly. He was an antagonist to my book. And wasn't Amy Berg a writer on that? You know Amy? Amy Berg originated my character. Is that right? Yeah, and I love her. I love it. She's incredible. I do too. Oh, what a great woman. We like to think of ourselves as the first stop on your book tour. It is, kind of. The lost daughter of Sparta. Here it is, right here. Felicia Day. Would you like me to read a paragraph? I mean, it's a graphic novel, so you don't need to. Would you like me to illustrate? The voice is a young girl. I could do that. I've done it. Just write up my head. Oh, boy. You're going to do that. That's a good voice. It is six years in the making, guys. All right. So it's taken six years to get to this point, but I'm really proud of it. Do you write or do you write? You know, I try to handwrite when I outline and do like the creative blueprint. And then I type. Do you go legal pad or cards? Regular. Yeah. Wow. Do you? What do you do? I don't write. I edit. I'm not bad. If somebody sends me a script, I can say, I don't think you need this. But from a blank page, I don't. You guys are both reading books. Is it your dad? It might be. Another short story, which I think I've already told in this show. Tell me. I haven't heard it. I said to my dad, I think we had read Portrait of an Artist, and he taught Ulysses and Faulkner, or not Ulysses, he taught Joyce and Faulkner and Hemingway. And I said, Dad, I think I'd like to read Ulysses. And he looked at me and said, you can't handle Ulysses. He said that to you? And then he died. And then I got all of his reading books. You've heard this story before. And then my little library, this is about 10 years ago, I take down his copy of Ulysses, and I sit in his chair that I had had as well. And I thought, this is a great moment for me and my dad. And I opened Ulysses and I read about two pages. And I look and I say, you're right, Dad. I still can't handle Ulysses. I think the book, I'm going to put it back up on the shelf. He was right. He was right about Ulysses. He was right, but it was still soul crushing. Yeah. It's soul crushing to be like, this is my passion in life and it's not for you. Right. Yeah. You know, we all have complicated histories and that's why we're artists because of our parents. Absolutely. Probably. They asked me that at the Saturday Awards the other night. I've never been to the Saturn Awards. I've never been either. Don't go. It's the longest. It's long, but Jackson had a great time. You know who was there? James Cameron. Tom Cruise. George Lucas. Did you mention Tom Cruise? And Tom Cruise. He has that museum opening that I'm so excited about. In L.A. in September, they're opening it. Who? Lucas. Oh, I thought Tom Cruise has a museum. He has a Tom Cruise Museum. So you've never been? I've never been. We got a couple of Saturn Awards for the show, but I'd never been in. I was... Now you're just bitter like me. Yeah. No, no, I wasn't. I was at a funeral and Noah Wiley accepted my first Saturn Award. And then I was working and Marina accepted our kind of group Saturn Award. Noah Wiley? Yeah. The Pit? Noah Wiley at this point was Noah Wiley, old friend from the library. No, no, no. I know from the library. Yeah, of course. Do you watch The Pit? I think it's the best show on television. I come from a doctor family. So I'm like, oh, this is real. Brilliant. Both sides? No, just my dad's a doctor. Yeah. So I know all about my, believe me, I saw, I would be, you know, eating at the table and my dad would be like, here, my computer. I just opened someone up today. Look at that. And I'm like, okay, very nice. Oh, that's great. That's why I don't have tattoos. He showed me, he's like, listen, you can get a tattoo if you want, but here's what happens after 30 years. And he'd show these saggy, like just like somebody's back or like their stomach, like a butterfly that turned into just like a Rorschach block. And I'm like, nope, not doing it. Well, not to bring it back to me again, but to bring it back to me, I worked as an orderly at a hospital. In Texas. Yeah, at St. Luke's Hospital. In Houston, Texas. It's in my book, actually, but I do want you to take a copy because you will amuse yourself. I do. I want to. I want to read it. I want to know about you. I mean, I obviously don't know about you. You don't know this story. Oh, you'll love this. Anyway. I'm taking it. Yeah, so I was an orderly in a hospital, and I was in the recovery room, which is a really tough place. I was 16. And they brought a guy in who had had carotid surgery. And so all the doctors were around the bed. And the guy opened his eyes. I'm taking his blood pressure. And he looked up at me and he said, am I dead yet? And I said, not yet. And they grabbed me from the back and pulled me away. Don't you ever say that. Okay, but he asked. So then all the doctors left the room. And the nurse, I think her name was Ratched, she said to me, take this man's temperature. And I said, well, but he's unconscious. And she said, roll him onto his side and insert the thermometer. Oh, in his butthole? This was back in the day. Yeah, exactly. Full service. And I said, look, I'm 16. I can't do that. And she said, well, no, you have to do it. Don't be a baby. And I went, all right. So I rolled him onto his back and I put the thermometer in gently. and I'm looking at my watch going, two minutes, let's go, let's go. And at the end of two minutes, I went to take it out, but he'd rolled back onto his back. Oh, no. Brent. Why? We weren't looking. I wasn't looking. So then I rolled it back onto his back. You're terrible orderly. I know. I rolled it back over and on the bed are beads of mercury and broken pieces of glass. And I put them together and it made like a half a thermometer. So they had to call the doctors back in and take him into the operating room and remove the other half of the thermometer before he woke up and sued the hospital. What a fabulous – how have I not heard this story? This is – Well, the doctor – The Instagram. He was a patient of Dr. Michael DeBakey who was the eminent – who invented the heart transplant. He was one of the great surgeons of all time. He loved you. I was fired that day. What? No. That was the end of my medical career. And I thought, you know, I'm going to play a doctor one day. And that was it. I mean, that's weird that he even hired a 16-year-old. Also, how did you – Well, my uncle was a doctor. You were a Nepo orderly. I was. I was a Nepo orderly. You know what? It explains everything. It's in the book. You'll see. Yeah. Anyway, Lost Daughter of Sparta is a graphic novel about a lost character that I found in ancient Greek myths. So I was – I had a lot of insomnia when my daughter was a toddler. COVID hit. I was reading a lot of Greek mythology and Greek writing because it was the only thing that would calm my very nervous temperament down enough to go to sleep. And so I was reading the Odyssey, and I would read it on my Kindle, and I'd be like, oh, who's that? And I would go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. And I found a passage in Hesiod's catalog of women, which we have fragments of. He did a book in 300 BCE that just lists all the women in prominent mythology. Anyway, there was one line about Helen of Troy's sisters, Clytemnestra, Timondra, and Philanoe. And there's a line about Philanoe that I want to spoil, but what happened to her? And I was like, what? I've never heard of this character. So I searched this character online. There's only this one line that exists about her. So I decided— You created. Exactly. You would give her a backstory. I wanted to give her a hero's journey like Heracles or Perseus or Theseus because I felt like those are amazing epics, but there's not one woman that stars in it. Actually, women get screwed over a lot in those stories. So I just wanted to write a story about, and it also parallels my journey of being a homeschooled kid, going into the world, saying like, whoa, this is not as fair as I thought it was, and trying to remain true to myself. It's also Hollywood because it's not a useful story for Hollywood, and I was kind of avoiding stories that wouldn't be useful to Hollywood because if I pitched it, nobody would care, but I allowed myself to write the story that I felt really intrigued about. And so it was kind of like an analogy for that. So it's pre-COVID you started. 2020, like shut down. Right down. I played video games a lot. And then I was like, oh, let's do a project that is not useful to Hollywood. And this is what happened. It took a long time because COVID and I got an artist on board. And where do we find this book now? It's available on March 17th everywhere. You would like to get it everywhere. UK has a special paperback edition, but the hardback edition is available in the US. I'm going on book tour across the nation until April 1st. Wow. Do you know what? You are just as smart as I thought you were. Yeah. I have a quote that Will Wheaton wrote, the blurb. Oh, he did. He did. It says, this is fucking amazing. You are stupid if you don't read it. He kind of did say that, but I was like, maybe something for the book. Yeah. Just telling you what Will told me. He did. He blurbed it. He is, I mean, listen, he's just a confidant and an artist. and when he says something's good, I know that it's good. I just know it. So anyway, that's out and then I'll do the Guild Kickstarter. Now, I will say, you've already been in the Guild. I have. Freaksy, will you come? Yes. If I get the movie made? Do I get a costume? You'll get a costume. Do I have to bring my own suit? No. Okay, cool. I'll get you a costume. Okay, good. This looks wonderful and the illustrations, Rowan McCall. Rowan McCall. Really nice. She's beautiful, yeah. Yeah, looks great. She does some beautiful work. I found her on the internet. Wow. Like you find all good people. This is fun, plugging a book. You're delightful, as always. Frexy, you make my blood. That's Sir Patrick Stewart. I like you, too. Should I leave? I could. What is it like living with such charm? With you. Oh, please. You don't live with me. What are you talking about? I live with you. Oh, you do. No, the chemistry you guys have is just off the chain. I don't think I've ever spent time with both of you together. This is cool. We're so glad you were here. Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. And we're so much good luck on this. I know it's going to get... Are you looking forward to the tour? What, the book tour? Yeah. Have you done it before? Yeah. I've done a couple of them. This one's only a week on the road. This is a lot of cities, though, I saw. It's a lot. We just added two. We added Santa Fe and we added Seattle, just because I'm going to be there. Is Paris one of the cities? Oh, would that be... Well, it would be nice. I'm hoping. The European tour. Translation. I'm hoping. Yeah. Did you go on a book tour for your book? It was... In COVID, the book tour, I mean, what would have been a book tour was during COVID. And so, no. How long did it take you to write? Six months. He's smart. It's a story. He's... But I've had the story in my head. It's based on it. It's based on something that actually happened. I can't wait to read it. While we were doing Next Generation. Isn't it wonderful to be able to work in... I mean, I don't know. We're just artists. We just be art wherever we can be art. We did the audio book. Are you getting an audio book done? I actually wrote an audio book for this, which is weird because it's a graphic novel. but they asked me to do it. And I was like, great. And then I realized, oh, this is not the same format. So I had to spend a month like writing dialogue to make it. Are you reading it or are you getting others? I read it. I read it all. I read all the, yeah, but it's fun. Have you done? No, I've done audio books. I did Seth's book actually, The Million Ways to Die to Death. But we played ourselves in his book. Are you kidding? You get to perform kind of? Yeah, they all did. Yeah, they all did. Everybody did. This is amazing. And now mind you, it was brief because I was the biggest part in the book. I mean, of course. Yeah. But you had some cameos. That's so cool. Oh, it's so fun to work with your friends. It really is. Everybody was great about it. Yeah. Well, I can't wait for your next one. Are you tempted to do like a novel? It is a novel, by the way. Oh, so it's not a biography? Not really. I mean, sort of, but not really. So do you want to write like your story? No. That's why I wrote this. What about you? I want to hear your story now. I want to know about your dad. You've heard all my stories. Listen, we could dive in. Have you ever heard the story about Ulysses, his dad? Yeah, it's just a sad one. I told it twice on the show now. Oh, I've told, yeah, please. But you repeat it. But this story about Debeki and the broken thermometer. This poor man. Jesus. I know. Felicia Day. Felicia Day, everybody. With all the clock running out. Oh, damn it. You are, you've moved up. You've set a new bar, I think. Yeah, we love you. Oh, I love you guys. I can't wait. Okay, I'm going to put you, I'm going to do something good with you. I'm in. I'm all in. Well, you already, I used you. You have used me. You've used me up. If I had a nickel. You're so usable, though. Thank you. You're so usable. Psst. Wake up. I'm that thing you just remembered. Huh? 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