Hello, Borias. Oh, look at this, I put a collar on, I didn't need to know. Look at you, they said there's going to be a snapshot at the end. And then my vanity was like, oh, I better put on a shirt with the collar. I don't think I don't have vanity, bro. I've got I mean, I'm up with, like, my wife's mascara, like, trying to get rid of the grey.

Exactly. During Corona, all the greats coming in everywhere. My favorite part about all of this is seeing what celebrities just go fuck.

Yep. Yep. I haven't had much experience with it, but I know why am I talking about hair? I'm a terrible interviewer. What do we do that we talk about hair for the full hour. You can see why I'm bad at this. I'm like, OK, your guest has no hair. Open up with hair. Talk about hair. This is going to be so fun today. Oh, by the way, I'm Rob Lowe. She didn't know and you're listening to literally with Rob Lowe or is it Rob Lowe?

Literally, you'd think at this point, I know the title of my own podcast and you'd be wrong. I hope you guys are having as much fun listening to the podcast as I am doing them. I knew they would be that I might have fun. I had no idea that I would have as much fun as I've been having.

And if you're enjoying it, if you could do me a favor, I'd love it if you would go over to Apple podcasts and rate and review the show, because that is really how the word is spread and helps the algorithm and people hear about us and then we become a thing.

And then I retire from acting and then you don't ever see me again.

What you're going to do is you're going to go to Apple podcast and tell him you love the show. I would really appreciate it. Anyway, this is going to be great. Keegan Michael Key. Come on. Funny. Sports freak. I mean, mad TV Key and Peele talk about revolutionary and. Beyond genius, but most importantly, Donna Miguel's husband on Parks and Recreation, I think that deserves the spotlight shined on it and. The dude is starring with Meryl Streep right now and Ryan Murphy's new movie, Prom.

And he's making me feel really inferior. Oh, and by the way, we've recorded this episode back in, I believe it was the middle of May. So there's a great story that that we share about the amazing Joel Schumacher who directed State Almost Fire. And in the interim, Joel passed away. So I'm dedicating this podcast to Joel. And it's so funny that he was on our minds even before he departed us. So that's why we don't talk about him passing away, because he hadn't he hadn't passed yet.

But you're going to love this. Let's have a chat with this guy, I used to have a quite a lot of hair, very fine hair, but I was I was a kid of the 80s, so I grew up. I was trying to rock that elder barge.

Don't look like the Purple Rain look. And I have I mean, I cans and cans and cans of moose to just to get it to get to get some lift. But I didn't have any thickness. No thickness was very fine here so I could get it to go out. I got, I had that look, I was rocking that look for about three years. Remember Stoney Jackson, the actor Stoney Jackson.

Do I remember Stoney Jackson. No, my man my man Stoney Jackson dropped forty three points in a celebrity basketball tournament that I played in.

He was a baller. Forty three point. Yeah, yeah.

Stoney was nuts in those celebrity games very often. Forty three is the high score for one of the team. Now that's so mean. I had no idea. And he was a karate guy too. Right.

It's so great that you bring him up because he was the best. I loved that guy.

He was. What was the show called? Robert Profiler's the Protector's.

There was a TV show on ABC for like a season and a half. That's right. It was him.

And I think it was the guy who was like the bad guy. I'm going straight here who was the best guy. And Deadzone that Christopher Walken Steven King movie. Yes.

There was a guy in that movie. He and he and Stoney Jackson were stars of this show.

At the same time, it's Tony Jackson did not set on fire with a Michael Paré and Diane Lane, Streets of Fire and Willem Dafoe.

That's now it's all becoming clear to me. And I'm remembering why Stoney would have been and sort of our orbit at that time because Streets of Fire was shooting at the same time as St. Elmo's Fire.

Back to the future. We were all on the backlot together with all the universal back Universal Studios you guys shot.

Did you guys shoot all of those street scenes on the backlot? Yes, all the apartments in Debbie's apartment and everything. The the El Universal backlot, the apartments still exist that fire, that fire escape. My fear to me, trying to commit suicide by air conditioner.

But, you know, as people do, especially when you really if you really hit yourself with that slow, lingering death, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

That is that that's on Warner Brothers. But all of the bar, all the bar stuff exteriors was universal and they had rented Universal in because they didn't want Walter Hill did not want to shoot night shoots on streets of fire, which is all nights.

So the entire backlot, the entire backlot was tented for Walter.

Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, that women who directed Cinema's fire, Joel Schumacher. Joel Schumacher. Joel Schumacher. Oh my God. Yeah.

Not his was not not what they think about him now. You think it's not his typical bill affair, but that. Yeah. That's different that you did that kind of a a personal grounded human story.

Why go on for a it Joel Joel Shoemaker's movie before it was.

No, I know I don't and I know and I know this is going to be right in your wheelhouse. D.C. cab.

Mr. T come on. D.C. cab.

Joel Schumacher did D.C. Cab and Batman and Robin, in fairness, he may have just written it.

Oh. May have just written that. Somebody like the research. I know he either wrote it or directed it.

He wrote to me the fact that that would be in his in his orbit at all of his oeuvre.

It's clearly he took a big shift in the mid 90s it up. Oh yeah.

Well, I mean and I love Joel. He was Joel was always so funny.

He he acted by Joel. Devin just says Devin has written and directed by Joel Schumacher. Taxi Cab. Well done to good. That's a deep dive, Rob.

Well, I auditioned for it and didn't get it. We never forget.

That's the one that you didn't get, right? Yeah, no. Now that role went to Gary Busey.

Oh, right. Gary Busey. Mr. T. Who else is in that movie, you know, because it was Gutenberg time. Oh, but when is it not? Yeah, it's always good for women. Was it three or nine p.m. Pacific Gutenberg? Yeah, he it wasn't him.

But there's a guy in the movie who's like a Gutenberg archetype Gutenberg prototype, but I can't remember.

I can't Galligan. Is it that galgut. Maybe it's that Galgut from Cremates. I think it might be Zack Galligan. Guys look at, look at Rob Lowe Dickin. I think it's that Galaga. I'm not I'm going to stay on, stay on my manners and I'm not going to Google this, I am not going to do it. I only remember the actors of whom I hid in their girlfriend's closets when they came home from work. That's that's the only way I.

Brian Dennehy. Oh yes. Will you will vain.

Will you call him David Martin Cove Young.

Oh my God. Bert Burgess.

Meredith just Meredith. All this. Yeah. Ray Walston. I worked with Ray. Well I worked with Ray Walston, you know. And I mean you Mr. Hand, among other things. Oh yes. Yeah.

And I worked with him on a on Stephen King's The Stand, which by the way, people should watch that right now.

I mean, going very well at this very moment. Yes. And it's it's very dated, but it's also really, really good. And it's a really weird, cool cast. But Ray was in it and I was just in awe of him. And my my favorite thing was that he loved to take all of the food and the silverware off the catering truck every day and take it back to his hotel like he could get flatware at the hotel.

I'm out. And maybe even better quality flatware.

Yeah, it's nice if you don't survive as long as Ray Walston in this business about stealing a lot of silver, we've got to steal some cutlery. Ah, why why are you even doing this?

Why are you even in this industry now.

It's really true in the eighties. So Prince, did you ever get to know Prince? Did you ever have any dealings with him?

I never got to meet him. I never got to meet him and I never got. And and the funny thing is, we both grew up in the Midwest. I'm from Michigan. Right. And you're from Ohio, which I think was the proper Midwest, but also the gateway to the east. Yes. One hundred percent. If you're getting over to Youngstown and you're getting toward Pennsylvania, that's the east to me, one percent.

If you ask an Iowan or a Nebraskan or a Missourian, Michiganders and Wisconsinites, and they're not we're not Midwest.

We're the no, no. We're the North. Yes. One hundred percent. Illinois, Indiana, they all look at us go, no, no, no. That's the north. That's right. Yep. But he comes from you know, he was from Minneapolis. Yeah.

And and I always thought he must be and to this day is still the coolest person from Minneapolis. He's the coolest American that ever lived.

But. Well, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Walter fucking Mondale.

Oh, that's true. Walter Mondale. Come on. Mondale. That's right. I mean, Mondale. Ferraro. I mean, you can't.

Yes. You can't get past that. No, that's OK.

I said what I think of like like like funky, cool, iconic fashion forward. I'm going maybe with Walter Mondale, Mondale, Mondale, those ties with those jackets.

I know you're right. You're right. He was he was on the vanguard, the vanguard effect.

And I, I look, I love I also think for me it was my formative years, but I think that was my favorite Prince era, the kind of Sgt. Pepper's jackets and the place I liked that better than dirty mind and controversy I thought he was doing because he was kind of, you know, in a way like to me, a bit of a black urban Bowie for sure. So he had that androgynous thing going on and then sign of the times and stuff.

I love all that stuff.

But but that Purple Rain era was so it was just fecund with creativity and and and the potential of what he would be and the different varied types of genres of music he played on one album.

And the way I just I think it's he was he and his work were masterpieces during that time.

One of the things I always like to remember, because it speaks so much about people's perception and staying your course in this business and being true to your art was I saw him open for the Rolling Stones. Wow. At the L.A. Coliseum, it would have been nineteen eighty one. So he just would have had. I want to be your lover on the radio. Right.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it was George Thorogood. Prince Rolling Stones, and he got booed off the stage, prince, did he read one hundred percent? Oh my gosh.

I like the sound. It's it's one of those memories where I look back at your memories. You look back and I go, you know, you must you must have mistaken a misperceived that.

Yeah, right. Exactly. You're you're being if you're being you're somehow you are experiencing the Mandela effect right now because that didn't happen. There's no you happened.

People were throwing things off and it was because he was bad. Is like that for that demo.

It's that time. It what people were like in any and I remember he was UBA androgenous on this one, like it was fishnets, high heels. It was like Uber, Uber, uber androgynous.

He was wearing the booster. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly. And people were not having it.

They were not having it in L.A., no less in L.A. But you're right, the demographic was is that George Thorogood demographic closer to the Stones I Drink Alone by Rudo to budget.

Daniels angiogenic song is He's got a George Thorogood. I feel. I always wonder, did he go through a similar regimen as Tom Waits to get that voice, you know.

Oh you don't. I mean I know they just smoke just lives.

What exactly. Because that's that. How do you guys talk like that regularly. How that your regular voice do you wake up in the morning and go to bed and that's still your voice.

That's something else.

I like people who have acting voices. Do you know do you have, you know, people like that who are like you meet particularly young up and coming actors and they talk like we're talking right now, like, yeah. Yeah. You ready for me on the set. OK, great. What time's lunch going to be great. OK, ok. And ready. And I'm not going to do this.

And like the Christian Bale effect. The Christian Bale. Yes exactly. Yeah.

I heard Morgan Freeman on a director's commentary one time for Million Dollar Baby, and he was saying that he actually was putting gravel into his voice for all the narrative stuff, for all the voiceover.

And I'm like, you're putting gravel into your. Oh, I did not know. I always thought the guy was talented. I'm like, oh, so that's a choice you're doing that.

I just thought that that was naturally how he said. But he has he he even said he has a video. There was an atmosphere of mood that he wanted to give to all the video he was doing.

And he kind of said and he also he said in a in a manner of speaking, he was impersonating Clint. Wow. So he's trying to do his own thing. And a person they do this hybrid voice that was a little different than, you know, the voice. But he's just been an MP and the trainer, you know, which is a different feel. He has a little more a little more teta, a little he's got this little more tenor to his voice.

You know, that's the thing. People go, oh, it sounds like Morgan because he's got more attention than you think. It's so good. You know, it's like, hey, listen, I can listen to you do it, do impersonations all fucking day.

Well, that's great. I love all your impersonations are. So there's something about impersonations that I just I don't like seeing a dolphin in nature or hearing the babies laugh.

This is a pheromone. Is that funny? I can do the former.

And I can't do the latter. What does that say about me?

But I thought it was funny when I was on Mad TV, I always I, I, I worked really hard at trying to find for me, doing impersonations is very much usually trying to find an amalgam of two voices and or finding whatever that neat vocal habit is.

Yes. Yes. You know, before I tell you that, I want to say something else. I'm not sure if this is true. I heard this second hand. So so Danny Glover, I can do a Danny Glover impression. And this is this is a story about I'm going to here's my Danny Glover story. As I know, Morgan Freeman was making a show recently talking about his films.

And so Danny was like, Danny was going to tell you how you do. They are doing good to see all the other people doing good. You bother you. But this is funny.

And so Freeman Freeman told a story on this show that he was doing that with Danny. Danny Glover had seen Shawshank Redemption and had come to him to tell him how much he enjoyed Shawshank Redemption. And he walks up to Morgan Neill. I got you. I saw that movie that you were so good in preproduction. But I'm sorry, the scripts that you're telling me I'm in the trap production, you was all good.

And we would be able to do a good production strip, shrimp reduction shrimp and the strip shrimp production. I was not aware that I did two movies last year. I did. Oh, my God. That's the shrimp reduction. And the state of Georgia was Danny Glover.

Oh, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's a bomb. Automattic shit like the that the fact that he got a tattoo attached to it little above and he says Popeye, 74 times in three seconds to the little boy because he's trying to see if someone has a tattoo like Martin Riggs that to give you you baby, baby, baby, baby, have a tattoo.

I'm going to go back. Oh, my God. I'm going to go back and look at that.

You'll love it. It's a group I work with Danny on.

Well, first of all, I used to do when I was younger, I was really, really, really, really, really, really, really deep political active.

And and I was on that circuit with all those guys and.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were we were all just to the left of Che Guevara on. And then years later I worked with them on brothers and sisters and he was playing Sally Fields Love Interests I Love, who also was my campaign manager as I was like running for president or whatever I was doing. He took three hours to get from his trailer to the set, but he left when they said leave real, he wasn't like, oh, he wasn't he wasn't holding up in the trailer.

He was talking. And I don't know. He's definitely making his way to set.

He's a total pro.

Yeah, but he's the he's the fucking Tin Man.

He he literally pre oil is like free oil.

He is a very stiff human.

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that. Yes. The mobility is is it does not a lot of not a lot of mobility and he's in great shape like he looks like a billion dollars and still thinks Brazil sisters and that's fit five years ago.

Five years ago. Yeah.

About five years ago.

But he also eats everything on the like.

So, so brothers and sisters was totally predicated on us eating all the time. I hated it. It was like I signed up for a show where I got to run for president. I ended up on a show where all I did was bake waffles with Sally Field anyway.

So the the he would eat, you know, food on a set as as you know, it's supposed to be there for eight hours. Sometimes you stop, you don't even finish the scene and you walk away and you come back the next day. It's the same food. Oh no. Oh yes.

But yes, yes, yes. You can see the next.

Yes, Danny. Didn't I guess that he must have never eaten in his previous movies? I guess not. Yeah, so he just he would just dig it? Oh yeah, everything. Just to get food, airdrop food he'd eat off your plate and then he would seem to like the one of the little dogs.

There's a service up and they would bring him chili dog. Oh I'm sorry. It was chili chili. Oh that's OK. You just made the story. Want to. That was what I'm talking about.

I'm sorry, Mr. Glover.

Chili Peppers you. But a Coca-Cola.

Oh, by the way, when I'll get my last day, anything he's like. He's very similar to the actor Edward James Olmos.

So I've also worked with love. I work with a.. Fucking best. I'm the best.

They're great actors. They're just they're great full of integrity and full of integrity. But he's also the kind of guy that will, like, hold up production while he's on the phone talking to a third world dictator.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Guys himself. You the second it Maduro. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. One hundred percent talking to him. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. He's a bit of a contrast as anybody isn't something. Yeah. That's all you hear. It's, it's clearly a movie but I think.

Oh I just thought it just popped in. Another great I can do another great yes, the one and only Billy Williams ability, Williams did Campell and where he was, where it was a great it was a fun little concept, too.

We did a sketch where we're hanging out the laundromat.

I'm an old uncle. I'm like I'm like I'm like a Barnum uncle Danny Glover Tabachnick My nephew is over here at the laundromat with me and say, Hey man, what's going on? And he's, he's the uncle. I'm sorry. He's the I'm the nephew. We played so many uncles and nephews and brothers and sisters and you know, so he was the uncle and he's like, hey, what's going on?

And I was like, Hey now Uncle Darnell, he's like, you know, everything's popping off right here at the Laundromat. And I was like, and so he's trying to make the laundromat, the barbershop in the African-American community.

Yes. And so eventually I'm trying to be a good nephew and stick around with my uncle. And it's just the doldrums. It's abjectly depressing. And then across the street is the barbershop and the guys are having the time of their lives. And at one point time and like talking to my uncle, I'm like, it's going to be OK, Uncle Don now. Oh, holy shit, that's Landow.

And I see I see Billy D. Williams across the street. So while we're shooting. So that's the sketch. So while we're shooting, I'm coming out of my trailer one day and Billy's driving up Strabane up and it's like this is class, very tasteful black Mercedes and not too much. Not too much or too little.

Nice car, a luxury vehicle, but not too super. Not too snazzy.

Gets out of his car, black linen shirt, loose black linen pants, loafers with the weaving in them.

Right. And a beautiful colored scarf. We're talking about a two with two to three and a half inch thickness.

Right. Just a nice cravat gets the crap out of you. Loosely tied devil may care. And he's walking out and he's like, how's it going? And our base camp goes.

Mr. Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elliott. So your trailer will be over here. And we just wanted to know if you brought any wardrobe with you. Billy just and looks alien because you're looking at it and it just walks away, just goes you're looking at it.

It's he's the best. But then he had it very hard out. And sometimes I'm wishy washy, Rob, like I'll have a hard out and then I'm I just turn into a marshmallow, you know. I do.

I give him another. I know you know what it is. It's the it's the Midwestern people pleaser. Midwestern. No, I'm not kidding. You know, one hundred percent the Midwest. I know it's in our it's in our DNA. It's so hard to overcome. And so I so Billy had he had and he had a heart out and we were in we're in the shop, we're in the in the barbershop. And unfortunately there was a clock, a very prominent clock at the barbershop.

And so Billy would just keep looking at the clock.

And Peter Peter was a video village about twenty five yards away. Right. And the doors open so Peter could hear us talking in there. And Billy just looked at the clock and he's like, Pete.

I don't know what to tell you, buddy, but I got to go and he's like, what? What time is it? Because it's about 120. Oh man. Oh out one 30. I got to go, I got to go, I got to go and and they were like, we're almost there, like one more set up building. He goes, All right, sounds good. He turned to me and said, Freeway. Right. There's the one.

Ten of the ten is like, I got to make my way to Santa Monica, that I'll be there at two fifteen p.m.. Oh, I got to go, got to go a bit, but that velvet, you know.

Oh, my God, you know, I mean, oh, you're a baller when you just hate you. Walk out of your car in your clothes, you get on the van in your clothes, you get on set in the clothes, you shoot your clothes and you go home and your clothes.

That's the that's the Adam Sandler made a career out of it. Yeah, exactly.

Hold the thought. We'll be right back. By the way, so Billy D. Williams, can we just take a minute to give it up for Brian's song? Oh, God. Oh, I mean, I have a theory that a certain demographic, the first time you cried as a male. Was watching Brian's song always, you said as a male for me, it would have been reruns on a movie sort, would have been my formative years, but that's when you certainly don't want to cry.

Yes, I'm a little older than you.

And when that movie came on with Branson, with James James Caan, all those movies open you up. OK, now I'm going to. And I'm going to. OK, I'm just going to do. I'm going to confess.

I'm going to confess. It's not because I'm a Lions fan, but I'm going to confess I'm as big a sports fan as I am as much as I love a tear jerker. I'm going to admit it right here on the podcast. I've never seen Brian's song.

Oh, no. Oh, no, I've never seen it. I said, oh, no, I'm not afraid. I know who I am. Look, I'm going to say it. I've missed that one.

Look, I know it's a movie about the Chicago Bears, so you're going to have to hold your nose. It's hard for me. I understand. I understand. But I am telling you. If if you do nothing else with your life, I have to see that movie. I guess you have to see that movie, those two in that movie, it's really dated and really fun. Integrate.

Look at what what football was like, like like you. And I'm a big football guy like you. And and to look back on what it's coach hallis and the whole it's said, oh that's right.

Because he was still alive and coaching at that time. That's yeah that's right. The Papa Bear was still there.

And how do you how do you how do you survive as a as a Lions fan? How do you live with yourself? You know what it is. Here's the thing.

I am by nature an optimistic person, so innately. So that's really the only way.

The funny thing is I'm a glutton for punishment for the longest time. My mother came from my mother's from Illinois. My grandfather was a White Sox fan. But I like the Cubs and I wanted to root for the Cubs. My grandfather would watch the Cubs games and the White Sox games. So I was a Cubs fan and a Lions fan. The Cubs gave me hope. And of course, I'm a Tigers fan, but I feel like I'm allowed to have an AFL team and yes, yes, your hometown team and an American League team and also allowed to have a National League team.

Now, you're from you're from Ohio, from you. So you're DataStore. You a Bengals fan. Here's what's interesting. Yeah. Health fucking no. OK to that.

OK, although with Joe Buhrow going there, who I met, he's awesome. I mean he's a good kid. Is great. You're great kid. Yeah. Got his head on straight. He's awesome. And he is he look he does legitimately look like a young Tom Brady. We'll see obviously that.

Yeah, definitely his strides and his drop backs. He looks like Brady. He's got Brady ADEX there. He is very similar mechanics to Brady and it seems like a similar temperament to Brady.

But if you're from Dayton, if you're from Dayton, do you typically root for for the Browns or for the Bengals state?

It's a little it's in the middle.

I know. And here's here's what's weird. In the era I grew up, there would have been, you know, from, you know, when I was born in 64 and I lived there, lived there until 70s, mid, late, seventy five. So we were on site. He was just after just after you left. And I liked you know, we were Steelers fans.

Really. Yeah. I mean, you think about it, Pittsburgh is not that far.

Not that. And that was and did I was Lynn Swann with the breakaway jersey with a Nerf football.

Come on now. Oh, meet Lynn Swann was my hero. I swannee I went to the NFL on my wife, not the NFL owners.

So I hosted the NFL owners about three years ago and my wife was the one that shows it's great.

I presented one year. I don't remember what it was. It's such a great evening. Yeah.

Yeah, it is a great it's like being in a candy shop. So I guess l was the head writer. So we got to work with all of the she put the program together and and we and we're both football fans.

I've married a football fan. She's a giant smart man. Yeah. Makes life so much easier, so much easier with those. I mean she's there in the couch next to me. I just looked at me and I'm like, I love you so much. You're watching the draft as I watch show. I told you to come in here, watch the twenty third twenty third overall picks happening so far. And she's just ten.

And also she's so we have become good friends with so, you know, with certain players and people who work at a certain organization so we can text like the president of Lions and stuff like that, which is really great.

It's great to know those people and be involved in that community in that way. But it's it's here's the thing.

If I never stop if I'm trying to answer your question, Rob, if I cheated and I said, oh, forget it, I'm going to go root for an AFC team or a different I have other NFC teams that I root for. I have friends on, but I'm a Lions fan through and through because let's say I'm sixty six years old.

And the and the lions go to the Super Bowl, I want to be able to be one of those guys who has that story that I've been a fan since Billy Simms played for them at the Rookie of the Year in the league in 80.

And that I've been watching since Jeff Chandler, Billy Simms, Eric Hipple to this day. And I will the losing is almost it's almost delicious if they ever get to the promised land.

OK, so then you then you can answer this question. Why did and this is awful because he's one of the most famous running backs of all time and I'm drawing a blank. Barry Sanders, thank you. Suddenly retire with when he was. Because just when I heard I heard he retired because you respected Walter Payton so much that you want to break his record. That has to be bullshit.

I call bullshit on that. Me tell you you've heard it. Have you heard? I've heard that that story. I think it's apocryphal and not true. Right. I mean, it's definitely apocryphal, but it's not true.

And I feel like even though and the reason that I think the story got perpetuated because he is such a mild mannered and soft spoken person, that that somehow someone feels that that means he's not competitive. It's an extremely competitive person.

I've been at football games with him and his own way. There's this fierceness that simmers underneath that used to see in the cuts, in the moves. I also believe that there was a bit of a toxic environment in the Detroit Lions organization at that time, and that environment no longer exists.

Some players were frozen out. We're not asked if they're not treated like a loan and not the culture that's there now with Robert Wood and Bob Quinn, the general manager. And I love Coach Patricia.

He's a smart, smart, smart guy. Oh, yeah, brilliant guy. They're trying to bring all the older players back into the fold.

They want them to have to feel like they have the opportunity to mentor the two best players the Lions have had in the last thirty years. Both left after nine after nine seasons when they were still in their prime, Calvin and Berry and both mild mannered guys.

So that to me tells me there's some small culture issue and they're addressing that right now, which I'm thrilled about.

Absolutely.

That's so great. Yeah, because, I mean, it's a great it's a great franchise and, you know, you'd love to see them do it. Maybe maybe the Bengals will be the same, the Bengals as it's the bumbles.

Right. It's so funny that I did. I only notice right now that you were you were surrounded by a triangle of three AFC teams. Yeah. So you root for the Steelers, but then the Bengals are there and the Browns, all AFC teams and the same thing, it's it's in my area. It's a battery of NFC teams because Detroit and Chicago about five hours away from each other by car. And it's not it's it's funny how that happens regionally like that.

How did you so just a quick sidebar. So the I got turned on to the whole.

The East West Bowl stopped by my my buddy, Chris Pratt. We were working on Parks and Rec.

And you got to talk about that in a minute to. Yes, yes, yes.

And Pratt was laughing his ass off just a little screaming on his phone. I got what is this, because you got to see this.

And so he showed me probably the first iteration of it. What is your favorite crazy real NFL name?

My I think hands down. I'm going to give you one and then I'm going to give you an honorable man.

By the way, the fact that you have a hands down one has me so excited. I have a hands down and I have a second.

But that's based purely on nostalgia because the second person, his name is a favorite of mine and dear to my heart, because he's the reason we wrote the sketch.

So, OK, so so number one, a former Cleveland Browns archivist, Mingo. Oh, I think Marquis Mingo is a is is a masterpiece of a day.

Oh, and by the way, he has a brother who I don't know if he played in the league or not, but his name is Cutaneous Mingo. Aw, come on. HGH, TV IOUs, Cutaneous Mingo and Barcus Mingo.

Now the second the honorable mention, the runner up is, of course, the precocious Furguson.

First of all, if your first name is Jim or Bob and your last name's Ferguson, just Ferguson is already spicy in the normal name world.

Spicy enough to break show. Amazing.

That is so OK. My my favorite for sure. Yes. He's so famous now that the name is almost you. Forget how insane it is. Right. Plaxico Burress.

Plaxico. Oh of course. Plaxico Burress. Plaxico, Plaxico. Which which could it could be two things. It's like bad dentistry in Mexico. Yes. Or it sounds like in a way, it sounds as if he could be the name of a company.

That sells like high end plastics, yeah, or it's actually he's plastic himself, like I thought is is one of those things where, like, Mom was like, you know what, my son is going to be a bad ass. He is going to ruckus people in the NFL. Is me tough as shit and a warrior. And he's going to be made of gnarly Plaxico and they're not like Plaxico.

It sounds like an essential tough element, right? It's Area 51. It's Area 51.

You know, it's it's what you put in the flying the mystery flying wing. It's it's like we have a two point six on the Plaxico meter.

Are you down to clown with coldest to ever do it? The coldest to ever do it. Oh, wait a sec. He's a high school senior high who's going who's going to LSU, I believe this next year, the coldest district.

I've read it. Yeah.

Oh, I know. I understand. I read it. Oh, it's Dezi accent Mark SEAL LTE. But my first name is the coldest. I mean, that's a make that I think I think it just jumped to the top of the list when the coldest is my shit coldest to ever to ever do it.

Hi, I'm Tucker. Hi. I got to go. OK, I got to go. You're looking at it.

Here's the toughest one. Here's the toughest one. Here's some pressure. What was my girl thinking when she named her son, Peerless Price, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills ticket? OK, so Plaxico, that's inspired.

Here's my thing on that. Here's my thing on that. She's got the alliteration going, which is not common. That's not a lot of alliteration in. You're right.

Actually, they go they usually try to go divergent with songs. So I think the the alliteration is is pleasing to the ear. And Peerless is actually a nice word, I guess.

But what the connotation. No, there's two ways to look at it. The positive ways to say he's going to be Pulis, we're naming him Pyrates. And the other connotation is you'd better be peerless. See, I get I get it's a baller move. I get you get hit. Like, if you want to draft him.

Yeah. Then the price will be peerless.

This is his name. Should be peerless. Priceless, right. Yes. Or peerless price point. Fabulous price point yet peerless price hike.

Oh I got another one. So when I was at home in Detroit, a friend of mine told me a story. Years ago I lost my favorite story. A guy her brother was moving into a building in Detroit and he had a hard time getting this chair up the stairs. And this older African-American gentleman came up and helped him with the chair again at new his apartment.

And he and he he said, oh, God, thanks so much, Ben. I really appreciate it. He said, hey, anytime you need some help, I'm here for you, man. You just call me Baba Nicias. And this guy's name was Kevin. And he was like, Oh, OK, it's a pleasure to meet you. Abominations. And he lived he lived in this apartment for three years and he saw this house every day.

And then when he finally moved out of the apartment, the guy said to him, the guy he said, Kevin Masumi is me.

You're moving out. And the good having you as a neighbor. I was glad to meet you. Get to know you a little bit. I have a question for you.

You lived three years, Abberton You see me, you call me Bubblicious. And what the hell is that all about? You said the first day we met. That's what you told me to call you. He said, No, boy, I told you to call me by my initials.

I just want someone to hear the story and what they name their child.

Bob. Ambitious Furguson. That's a quarterback. It's a quarterback.

That's that's a fantasy. That is an s.E.C. Quarterback named one hundred percent SCC quarterback name. That guy goes to Mississippi State and vicious. Yeah. Bomb. And this is Ferguson. Three touchdowns of the day. Career Day.

And we'll be right back after this. Now, if they ask you a question about language and pronunciation of words, which were you, did you learn? First of all, I don't if he was Cantonese or Mandarin, what language were you speaking in Wayne's World?

It's that is actually Cantonese. It's not Mandarin. It's Cantonese.

Did you learn it? Did you learn it phonetically or did I learn it? I learned it phonetically. They had I had a tape that I had to listen to. Yeah. And and I to this day, sometimes, you know, people who speak Cantonese will stop me on the street and hit me with Cantonese.

I'm like, you're like I got I can order cream of some young guy. I can do. That's that's that's that's all I can buy at the top of my skillet. I love Mike Myers so much. I love my players. I just thought it was great. And I just think that he's wonderful. I just think that he's wonderful.

And I love that you did two movies together when we did when we the first time they previewed Wayne's World. Yeah. When he said cream of some young guy. They laughed so hard and so long they had to go back and recut the movie, that's what's you know, what's really interesting about movies today?

I wonder if this late in the day where comedies were comedies were movies, and you really only saw them in movie theaters, maybe a year later it would be on, you know, Showtime or HBO. And it's not that far away. I mean, Wayne's World is in this era, I'm talking about a hundred percent. Yeah.

You would literally have to cut pauses for the audience to laugh. That's right.

It's interesting. They used to do that. You know, we were texting with Mike yesterday and Mike and I have actually had and we're very good. We're good friends.

And we were having that conversation about classic movies and the Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers was it was a show that they had done you know, they'd strung a plot together for the movie, but it was a show they had done on Broadway. So was a review in a way or a vaudeville review. And because they had honed it so well, they cut pauses in that movie all over the place because they knew exactly where the laugh lines were and the duration of the laughs because they had done things.

They'd done the stage show for those bits, those routines for a couple of years on Broadway. And I think it's fascinating that you don't see that The Nutty Professor, the remake, the Tom Shadyac remake with Eddie Murphy in the first dinner scene.

You have to go back and see the movie. I don't care how much pausing they put in that. You have to see that movie in the movie theater twice at least.

There's no way around it. Too much rolling. Laughter Too much rolling. Laughter.

It's a rolling. Laughter If you watch if you watch next time Wayne's World is on TV. Yeah. Just noticed that moment. And and literally he says all of the cream of some young guy and then it cuts to like Dana just nodding ninety thousand two one thousand thirty one thousand forty like the Fox Jesus.

And it's interesting. I'm going to look out for that now because they covered it organically with with Garth. Laughing Yeah. Except you sniggering at it, right? Yeah, exactly.

100 percent. But a bit like you don't we consume things so, so rarely just in theaters anymore. I wonder if people are are still taking that into account like a crowd's rolling laughter as opposed to three people sitting in a living room.

Yeah, I know. I think that part I mean, we aren't we would show all of our sketches. We would screen all of our sketches at our interstitial tapings. We would do two days or three days of interstitial tapings for people and for the first two seasons.

And it was always helpful. But then that crowd was already so young.

And that's that's six years ago. Seven years ago. That crowd watching the show was already, you know, anchor to these phones church so that you're going.

We took a lot of pride in programming and curating the order of sketches and where the interstitials would come in and how they came out and what we would start with, what was the lead and what's the scene? What's going to be the we did all that work and I always saw that this day. I wonder if it's helpful in this state, in this area. I wonder if it's a sketch show like SNL in nineteen seventy five, as opposed to a sketch show like SNL Now or Upright Citizens Brigade.

Those shows, I still wonder, I mean, they were always crafting it for the role, for the role, and now it's so much more fractured now.

I don't know that we need to do it. What tell me about Parks and Recreation. We missed each other because I think you came in. We didn't see each other.

I think you came in the last well was I and Ann Perkins and I had moved to Michigan. You must have been happy about that. Yes.

Always, always happy when the character books of Michigan.

Yes, we I had the time of my life and I love Reetta. I just love Reetta first because I did all my scenes, which I played her husband. And and it's fun to be around.

It's always fun to be around. Amy, Amy is actually a very big inspiration to me. I just mentioned opportunity to get her.

Her colleague, Ian Roberts was one of our shows on Key and Peele and of such a lovely friendly set. But it's one of those sets that, you know, is because that group has spent so much time together. And I remember the day first of all, I love the Moho, the fact that people would stay in that motor home.

I thought that this moho is so, so, so folks listening. It's traditional on these shows, on any show, every actor has their own place to stay. And if you're a young actor, you might be packed into three little mini apartments called a Winnebago or whatever. As you get to be a lead in a TV series.

You have your own motor home, your own motor control trailer. Yeah, yeah. But on Parks and Rec, we had the Moho and that was one trailer and we all shared it and it was great.

It was such a great idea to have that community, have everybody be there together like that.

And I remember Aubrey and I had. Having such a good time improvising on set, I do this often sometimes, and maybe more often than I should where I'll when when you cut the ice, I won't come out of character. I'll play a character in the scene.

And then if I start a nice improv group with somebody, I'll play a character when they say cut with that person. And I remember Aubrey Plaza was my acting coach and she also happened to be in the show I got hired on. So she was like the desperate acting coach. You could never get a real game. That's amazing.

So so we had our own little storyline that we were only doing for us, and it was me and Aubrey. And so they say, action, we do the scene.

And it was cut just like, OK, not exactly what I was looking for was the director, what the director is telling you.

I would take more as guidelines than anything else, which is so great.

We just go back and forth. And it was so great. It was so much fun.

But that set engendered that kind of imagination.

And we just staying in the Moho. I remember my favorite Moho thing was there was a moment when you have to Google because it's so good. Brad Pitt did a much reviled Gucci ad to remember this.

I remember where he's like he's like talking gibberish. And it was before Matthew McConaughey stole that whole on debt for commercials and.

Yeah, exactly. And and so we recreated it. We what we wrote it. We reshot it. We did the whole I played Pitt, of course. Right. And we shot that in the Moho. And that's what we did on our own. Our time off. We were making fun of people and shooting stupid fake commercial, shot it in the bow.

Oh, I love it. I absolutely love it. And I think Aziza's was came up with a because the lighting is so weird in it if you watch it. Aziz came up with a flashlight and a water bottle that if you crinkle the water bottle, it put these sparkles on my face. It was amazing.

Oh, that's absolutely amazing. I know Prad has it on his phone.

It's one of those things that, like, I've got to I got to figure out a way to steal it. This is where I need the Russians to collude. I might be able to help that stuff. I want off the Internet.

I will make that me and my wife's mission that we will get that video from Pratt. Will you do that?

I think I might have been in the key he loves. He loves you. As you know, he is a massive fan and we are massive fans of him.

I just adore him and his. But I know I know his mother in law, so I know as few as you. Yeah. Yes, of course. How do you know? How do you know, Maria?

I we are our kids are contemporaries of one another.

I say our family that the Schwarzenegger Shrivers are like the Lo's second family and vice versa.

Speaking of engendering things that that family does, that that family at large does, that they're very good about. You know, we've we have lots of friends in within the family. And it's and it's they treat you so beautifully and they're just the loveliest, loveliest people.

Yeah. Tell me. OK, I get I've got to here. I've got to got to got to here. Got to hear about the about the Ryan Murphy movie about prom. Oh dude you got it. You got to spill the beans. Lola's first of all it was it it, it was given his work, given his oeuvre of work as precise and as beautiful as everything was.

I was expecting actually a more controlled kind of regimented set. But it wasn't. It wasn't. It was so loose and so free. Ryan, you know, Ryan loves a Steadicam.

He loves it. He does. He likes to keep everything kind of open and free. And then and and I.

What am I even I mean, what am I supposed to even say? It's it's Meryl Streep. It's Meryl Streep. You're working with Meryl Streep, her love interest with Walk, Walk, walk me through.

The minute you lay eyes on her first time, you're like, holy shit.

OK, it was a first of all, I was lucky enough to have been at the premiere of the second season of Pretty Little Liars.

So she was there. And I remember she kind of just squeezed my for I'm sure there's Meryl, there's Meryl. And she's like, just slow down, breathe.

So I took a deep breath and then I just walked over to Meryl and and she was talking to a couple and then she'd finished with the couple and then you kind of, you know, do the thing with you at those parties, with those after they just kind of have to put our hands on shoulders.

Yes.

So I you know, and then she turned around and then she just looked at me and she just shows, OK.

OK, I know here it is, it was and then my my my spirit left, my body went to Hess and the cat sat down and she was just as gracious as she could be, showed us her the picture of her brand new grandson.

And and then she said this, which I almost like I expected Beryl to say. And she's like, so and here's why. This is my brand new grandson. And she's showing us a picture on the phone. And her son in law is sick. So it's like a shade darker than me. And she goes, because that's not great.

Isn't he gorgeous? Finally, a little bit of color in this family.

That is exactly, exactly what Merillat say.

And the only other time she was so gracious and she's got this great deep cackling belly laugh. James Corden is on the set. So James Corden got Corden's like a story machine.

So any time you're either watching people huddled around Cordin and then there's an eruption of laughter, you give it like two minutes and there's an eruption of laughter, or you're in the group of people around Corton.

And he tells always the most interesting stories. And you just hear Meryl just describe how you think this is.

She's it's do do do just really quickly, do Danny Glover ordering something with Meryl Streep?

Because what it would be and not not that I'm not who's there, Danny, because that's a audience saying maybe what they're going to be talking about.

The fact it she just does she does a lot of this.

She does a lot of Meryl Streep does a lot of that. She goes she's Mazzone.

She literally smacks Shirley like she's in the like like she's in the country bear jamboree, the country bear jamboree.

She she's just she's just, you know, brassy and they're and earthy and everything. She just, you know, what it is is as stately and as graceful as she is.

What's what really gets me about Meryl is how available she is emotionally.

And that's something that means that she's hot.

She is held on to that child in her that that's the child part of her gets relinquished and it comes out.

And that's what everything that we see, that magic that we see is her having after so many decades, never letting go of that little that child in her heart.

Because I'll see you, Meryl Streep. You'll see her on the sixth, seventh take. Right. And a very technical shot because Rin wants the shots to be gorgeous and and this really technical shot. And she's just right there as present and emotionally available. She was on the first take because she's playing, she's playing, she's having fun. And she's been doing this her whole career. And she tells you the best stories. I was talking to her about The Deer Hunter.

She said and she said she said I was doing and she was doing a performance, a run of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.

She said she was playing the nurse and she said and I any opportunity I had to fall down or do a pratfall anywhere, I did it.

And DeNiro came and saw it with the producers. And she goes in your bob doesn't you know, you've met Bob. He's not. He's quiet, quiet. But he's always listening, always present to kind of what's going on in the machinations of everything.

And and she said the reason he hired me so he could see he could she said he could see I was a show off, which meant that he he knew enough to look beyond that, to know that I'm extrapolating this, that she had enough courage to hang with heavy weights like John and Chris Walken and Bob, like it's Bob DeNiro. Are you going to be able to handle it? Are you going to crumble under the pressure? And he could tell by her performance that she wants to be there, right.

Meryl Streep's a wide receiver. Meryl Streep is Jerry Rice. She'll go across the middle. She she'll go across the middle and she wants the ball. And it's no one goes across the middle like Meryl Streep.

Not nobody. Nobody goes across the middle like Meryl Streep. Yeah. Just it was it was fantastic. But her cordin, Nicole Kidman and a bunch of really great young actors, it's just it's going to be magical.

It's going to be fun and dazzling and heartfelt.

I'm really, really looking forward to I can't I cannot wait. I mean, I is one of my favorite people and I want to play Ryan Ryan in a movie.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. A so good.

This was so fun. I'm so glad that you came on. I've been such a fan and everybody told me I would love you. And it is. They're like, no, no, you don't need to do any notes, you don't need to prep anything about him, you're you're going to love each other. And indeed, it's it's like I think we could talk for five weeks.

We could talk for five hours. No, this is this is wonderful. Thank you so much.

Oh, I did want to say I'm always supposed to say hello from Fred. From Fred Savage.

Oh. Always will say Fred J is just Roy, he's the best I thought of Fred, because when I see you, I think of Fred and he also Fred taught me your memorization technique.

Oh, he did he? Yeah. And Ellen, I produce a TV show on National Geographic called Brain Games. Yes. And it's all about how the brain works, why it works. It's on Disney. Plus right now, there's my plug, there's my and well done. And there's a guy named Nelson Dellis from Miami, Florida, and he is a four time US memory champion, like uses all different parts of memorization and memory.

And he he has a YouTube channel where you can subscribe.

It gives you a memorization tips. And one of his tips was that technique that you that Fred taught me that he learned from you about the writing down the first letter of every single word of the year.

So so what it is for if anyone out there is interested, if you have a speech to give or or something like that, you instead of writing the speech, you write only the first letter of every word, but you include punctuation, which I thought was fascinating.

And so there's something about as you're writing it, you're already reducing it down to a letter instead of a word. And then when you study it to learn it, you are only looking at this sort of this new version. You never look back at the original unless you absolutely have to. And it 100 percent reduces your memorization time at least by half at least.

Yeah, because you have to you write you have to rely on your memory because the word that the letter now becomes a symbol for not only the word but the concept.

Yes, it's it's fast. That's right. Yeah, I, I actually have to give credit where credit is due. I learned that from Allison Janney on The West Wing.

You weren't that I knew you were there down the West Wing from Allison. Yeah. Speaking of memory, tipping a memory, I have a show actually that is premiering on May 20th called Game on on CBS. So it's going to be taking the place of Survivor when Survivor is doing. Yeah. So I hope we get the 8:00 p.m. slot on Wednesday. And so if anybody wants to go, it's a great show. It's a fun show anybody can watch and it's sports oriented.

So it's a panel show. I'm hosting it. Venus Williams is on it. Rob Gronkowski is on it. Bobby Lee is on it. And the guy who's the head writer for Late Night with James Corden, his name's Ian Kamale, funny guy. And we have celebrity guest comedians and celebrity guest athletes.

So like Ronda Rousey has been on the show to a Terrell Owens has been on the show. And then you have people like Tanjug and Kevin Nealon. Big Poppy was on the show. It's really great. Oh, big pop. Big pop.

Hey, you know who you you know who you need to get on that show. Of course.

Who's that? Rob Lowe. Coldest to call the coldest. We've got to get to coal to start the show. If you don't get to coal dust on that show, that's the best.

This has been the best. This is a wonderful way to spend some time. Thank you. Thank you. Rolled up.

Oh, my face hurts from smiling and laughing. I mean, he is what a lovely man. And just just that energy just even coming off of the computer in the microphone, overwhelmingly fun and positive and awesome.

I'm going to now spend the rest of my day thinking of more names for NFL players. I know you are. Come on. Because you are the coldest you are you, my dear listener, are the coldest ever. Listen, thank you and I will see you next time on literally with me, Rob Lowe. You have been listening to literally with Rob Lowe, produced and engineered by me, Tory Bryant, executive produced by Rob Lowe for low profile Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Stitcher.

The supervising producer is Aaron Blair's talent producer, Jennifer Sanders. Please write and review the show on Apple podcast and remember to subscribe on Apple podcast, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast. This has been 18 cocoa production in association with Sketcher.