"Mike Myers"
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Well, hello, listener. Listen, I've been drawing an animated version of myself because I want to do a cartoon. Anyway, so here, little Jakey Bates is over here. Hi, it's really great to see you, Jason. Wait, little Jakey, are you drinking? It's pretty early. No, no, this is water. Here, take a little sniffy.

Well, that's definitely not water. But anyway, sit down or lay down rather for you. Probably lay down would be better. And here comes a fresh new episode of Smart Less. Smart Less. Smart Less. Smart Less.

What's going on? Is that a movie cigarette? What do you mean? Yeah, it is. I can tell by the way the cherry's burning. Right. It looks so fake. Well, no, but that's a clove or like the herbal ones that they give us on sets, right? It's metal. Yeah. Oh, really? It's metal, man. What is that? So then it's a vape or something? Yeah. Wait, but what are you doing? Because in Chicago, I guess you can't smoke on stage with real cigarettes. Oh, because your character...

- Oh. - Smokes in the play. - Like this, does this look natural? - What are you blowing out of your mouth? Is that water vapor?

Confidence. Oh, God. Somebody's found a new-- I like your attitude. I like your attitude with the smoke now. You've got-- You see now you've got more attitude, Sean. Okay, so let me ask you, Will. Yeah. 'Cause we had-- Scott and I were arguing last night. I don't-- Somebody told me to hold it here, but you hold it up here. Am I closer to the top of your-- Right? -Yeah. -You can do this. It just depends. I mean, thanks for coming to the expert. This is one of those, like, talk to the expert sections.

Yeah, you just got to find that kind of like loose. Yeah, like right in the middle maybe. But you don't need to do Will's face right now. You got a little bit of smoke in the eye. I just learned from all those old Marlboro billboards. Things are complicated. Yeah, like man, how am I going to get those steed down there? Where's the real horses? You know what I mean? Once I wrangle up this cattle, I'll make my way back to the ranch.

But in the meantime... Well, good morning. Hi, good morning to everybody. Did everybody sleep okay? Yeah, but it's 11.30 where you are, right, Sean, or 10.30? Yeah, but I got up at 2.30 and went back to bed at 7.30.

That's something we learned about you on the tour. You have a halftime show during your sleep. Do you know that like a century ago or longer, people used to do that all the time? They'd sleep, they'd go to bed early, and then they'd wake up in the middle of the night and they would kind of cruise around and talk to people and socialize in the middle of the night. You can read about it. I read some book about it. Wait a second. Tell me about that. I'm 53 years old, and this is the first time you're telling me that a century ago it was...

common practice to get up in the middle of the night. Everybody across the world, is that your position? I don't know if everybody across the world, but I remember reading this book about Brooklyn and people would get up and it was not uncommon for people to get up at sort of midnight and then walk around and socialize for a couple of hours. And our idea of sleep... In Brooklyn, in just that borough. Well, that's what the book was about, but that was something that was not uncommon at the time, according to the author. I read this thing a long time ago, like if you can't sleep, just get up.

Like, because to fight it is worse. Hang on, hang on. Let me work this out. Have you ever tried to punch yourself across the face and knock yourself back out again? You wake up kind of bruised up. Again, that suggests that you knocked yourself out in the first place to go to sleep. Well, I mean, this is a book that I'd read on Staten Island and that 100 years ago, this is...

I mean, obviously you know I'm calling bullshit because you've never read a book. That's true. So I know that that's not... Sean, what's going on with emergency services in Chicago? They seem very quiet right now because usually they're just... They burned everyone off the street last night. We had a record last night, listener, that Sean was... For Tracy, they're talking about... Dodging the sirens last night. Well, you don't have to explain what emergency services are to Tracy. I mean, surely she understands. No, no.

She was a cop. Remember? She was a cop. Can I just say how great it was having Tracy on the tour when she came to Chicago and Madison? Wasn't it? And she was so much cooler than you led us to believe. You know, I just want to say to Tracy—

What about the way she came to Chicago just to see what it was going to be like so she could decide whether she wanted to be on stage in Madison? I love that. And then we just got her on. And I asked her afterwards, I'm like, how did you feel? She goes, oh, I was a nervous wreck. I go, did you like it? And she goes, I can't remember one thing about it. I mean, by the way, did you like... She goes, like, I blacked out. Did you like thousands of people cheering you wildly when you came on? Some people don't like that. Oh, I don't know anybody who doesn't like...

Getting cheered. Hey, Jay, are we interrupting? Is it feed time? No, it's fucking breakfast time. Okay. You know, we're having, this is a real concession we're making for Sean and his fucking theater passion. God.

Oh, because we're on his theater schedule. Oh, you guys, come on. It's 8.30 in the morning. Five, six, seven, eight. It's not magic time. Magic time's after 10, 10 a.m., something like that. Well, it's not like those Saturdays for the Ozark schedule. Boy, sometimes early, sometimes late. I'm sorry about that.

I know. Now, I hope that our guest is on some sort of a central or eastern time. I think our guest is. And our guest is also accustomed to changing schedule, especially performing live, because our guest is no stranger to performing live. In fact, they started out...

Uh, they started out making commercials, et cetera, just like a lot of people making some, um, memorable appearances. - Oh, I know who it is. - Great. Uh, some great shows. Uh, I remember a particular episode of The Littlest Hobo that I will never forget.

Are you freestyling right now, Will, or have you written anything down? I am. I'm freestyling. This person then went on to perform, take his comedy chops over to the UK where his family originated from and performed comedy and sketch and improv over there, moved it back to Toronto.

moved his way right to the main stage on Second City, then to Chicago, then to Improv, doing Second City there, Improv Olympics. This person doesn't sound funny at all. Then made a move to Saturday Night Live, where he absolutely blasted onto the scene, made a bunch of incredibly memorable movies over the last 20, 30 years. Mike Myers. Some of the best comedies of all time. It's Mike Myers. Did I get it? He's the only person I know who loves the Toronto Maple Leafs as much as I do. It's the incredible, the hilarious, the amazing Mike Myers.

- Got it! - Mike Meyer! - I know that's the first time I've ever gotten it. - Hello, how are you? - Hello. - I'm smoking my pen. - Hello there. - Hello. - See, Mike is doing a good job. There you go. - Did you see that, Mike? Did you see this? - Yes, I did. - It looks real, right? - Mike, were you ever a smoker? - No, never. No. - Yeah. - No. I smoked in a tree fort once, and that's where I started. - Truly. - With a Playboy that we found in the woods that was thick.

That's the last time I smoked. Mike, I'm glad that you mentioned that you found some Playboys because I remember I found in Toronto at a trash can at a bus station an old Penthouse magazine. I'm like, maybe this is a Canadian thing, just people throwing out their dirty mags. I think it is. It's the great purging that happens every March. You have to purge your porn. Wait, Mike, look at this photo. Look at this photo. Hold on one second.

Let me see. Oh, wow. Is that from Cat in the Hat? That's me and you. No, that's before I got well in Grace. I met you at Barney's. At Barney's in New York? No. Yeah, in the parking lot. Mike, were you selling jackets? Isn't that crazy? I was. Reasonably priced. Um...

High quality. Mike, I'm so thrilled to be talking to you. I met you only the once. I shook your hand out in front of some screening, and I just thought I would meet you again sooner than now. Was hoping, was wishing, but happy...

Better late than never. I'm such a big fan of yours. Really. Well, thank you. Likewise. Thank you. Yeah. Huge. So, Mike, talk a little bit about, like, as a Canadian, of course, I always looked up to you as well because you were like a guy from Toronto who went and did it and did it, like, not just made great stuff, but made great thing after great thing. It was hilarious. And for me, it was so inspirational. I was like...

see, you can, you can get out of Toronto. You can do stuff, you know, what was, what was that feeling like when you made it in the U S and we know what that being Canadian experience is. Uh, you know, it's, you know, being Canadian is, you know, sitting at the border, looking South and going, wow, it's a big party. Can we, can I come too? Wow. And, uh, it was unbelievable. I still can't believe it. It's, um, very, very gratifying. Um, and, uh,

you know, American show business is the best show business in the world. I know that sounds weird, but it's absolutely true. Do you live in the States now or do you live in Toronto? I live in New York. Oh, you do? Oh, great. Yeah. You came in with such specificity with what you do and what you were,

what your funny was and seem to make no apologies for it. You didn't kind of, you have keep one hand behind your back and kind of play it safe at all, you know, to all of our, you know, um, fortune, you know, you, um, you just really kicked the door down and, and we're, um,

The characters that you played, I can't imagine anybody else ever playing them. And it took a lot of acting talent as well to be as funny as you were. It's just remarkable, truly. It is. I saw the recent Austin Powers commercial that's running now, and I'm like, I don't even know what the product is. I was like, oh, my God.

I was like, oh, my God, Mike's back. I think everybody, it's a historical character now. But then even like the small part you did in Tarantino's movie, too. It's just, you know, it's never surprising to see you be incredible. Or Bohemian Rhapsody as well. So, Mike, let me ask you. So you come out of Toronto. You go and you go to England. We talked a little bit about Mike and his alter ego, Tommy Maitland, and

He came and did the gong show for two years. Another incredible character. And Mike's only rule was we could never tell anybody that it was Mike. And people were like, who the fuck is this guy, Tommy Miller? And he was so in it. It was crazy. It was amazing that the network allowed him to do it. Yes, to their credit. Was there ever a big announcement about it? Did you guys ever take the victory lap that you deserve by making a big announcement finally and saying, look what we did?

I guess second season, Mike. Yeah, second season we had to because there's journalistic standards of is this fake news? So they went along with it until the whole fake news... Aha. Well, that's cool. Not controversy, but it came to a head, like...

No journalist would go along with it, you know what I mean? Right. Which I understand, but, you know, it was fun. I had so much fun doing that. Oh, Mike, you were so game, and he had to get all his prosthetics done every day and be in it for hours and then have so much energy as this...

sort of late middle-aged guy who's trying to drum up the energy to get the audience going. And my favorite was Mike talking to people backstage that he knew, like Fred Armisen coming and talking to Mike, and Mike was full Tommy Maitland. And...

With Fred. It was so surreal. I mean, it was a different human being. It was crazy. Was there any Richard Dawson baked into it? There's a little Richard Dawson, that sort of mid-Atlantic, almost English accent for export. Like, real English people don't actually talk that way. But I'm always obsessed with culture for export. Like, I think sometimes I talk like a Canadian for export.

Right. Just like it's assumed of me or something. So, Mike, do you walk around the house and work on new characters? I do. I have three kids. So, you know. Wow. I did this one strange character for my kid, Spike, who's 10. And he's very socially conscious, you know, which this generation is going to be fine.

Fine. You know what I mean? And I was like, I've watched you. I saw you from across the street. And he goes, who are you? My son going along with it. He goes, where do you live? I said, I live on this street. And he went, dad, he's homeless. You think homelessness is funny? And I was like, no, I don't. I think it's a tragedy. I don't.

I wasn't, I just, it's an improv and that's the first thing that came to my mind. And he goes, you know, it's a real problem here in New York. I got lectured by my 10 year old. And then you should have given them the lecture about yes anding. Yes.

And it wasn't well received. So, Mike, so you've done all these amazing characters. By the way, I've always thought, I can't believe you should have won an Emmy for Tommy Maitland because it was so above and beyond. Yeah, thank you. Oh, man, it was just amazing. I loved the gong show as a kid. So for me, it was like, are you kidding? It was tell me when and what to wear, you know? Yeah, yeah.

It's just I loved it was pre-ambition. That's what I love about, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's just to make people laugh. My company is called No Money Fun Films because that is my favorite thing. And I love comedians that like to be funny

Like Dana Carvey. Yeah. I was on tour with him. He's hilarious. So hilarious. And I did movies with him. He's hilarious just to be funny. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And he does running gags, which is my favorite thing too, which is he would do this thing with the Beatles.

just talking filthy, so it'd be, I remember one time. And then it was like, it was George and I, and there was these three blondes, and it was just so filthy. And so all he had to do was be on stage with them in these big crowds, and under the laugh, he'd go, I remember one time. And I'd be like, how do you do that? He is literally the most relaxed performer. Yes, yes. And he's a conductor. When he does his stand-up, he's just...

But I love running jokes, and I love that he is committed to them as well. Mike, do you, forgive my ignorance, but do you do stand-up? Did you start with stand-up? Never did stand-up. I did it once, and I was so ill from it. Before going out, I threw up and...

Oh, really? I don't know how people do that. Did you have a bunch of stuff written out and prepared? Like, had you worked on, like, a set? No, I thought I could just... I thought, I'll just go up there and I'll just... I'll spake, you know? I'll just... I'll tell my truth as I see it. It was like, you suck. Get off the stage. We hate you. We hate your truth. Oh, that sounds horrible. So do you keep in touch with Lorne or check in on SNL or anything like that just to see what's going on? I do, yeah. You do? Oh, that's great. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know how long those island...

how long his students, how long he keeps in touch with his kids. I'm very, you know, I'm very grateful to Lorne. Gave me my break in TV and my break in movies, and he's a Canadian hero and continues to be. And one of the, literally, I don't, I quote Lorne maybe 10 times a day. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just in little things, too. It's like, well, you know, being in a car, the audience doesn't mind it. That's where you should put all of your exposition. You know what I mean?

laughter

You know, it's just like little things like that. When you have a special guest, you have to give them an entrance round, round of applause, you know? Build that in. Yeah, he's got those great... I remember when Amy started on Update and he said, it's going to be different because now the audience hears your name. Yes. And I was like, oh, yeah. That makes sense. The other one was just when you're in the VIP room, there's a VIP room. That ends up being you, Mick Jagger, and the hot water pipes.

Oh my God, that sounds so good. And then I was in Cannes for Shrek and a guy said, Monsieur, you don't want to be in this room. There's a better room. And I went and it was me, Mick Jagger and the hot water pipes. I was like, he's right. He's right with that even, you know. And we will be right back. And now back to the show.

There's such a specific work routine and rhythm and schedule with SNL that obviously you flourished in. How have you, as you've gotten older, even more talented, more specific with what you do and capable of even so many other things, how have you noticed your change in what you like to do as far as rhythm goes and work routine? And do you miss the rush, rush, rush of that? Or do you prefer... Yeah. Yeah.

I miss the rush, rush, rush. You know, again, another Lorne-ism, it's not the best show that goes on at 11.30, it's the best show that's ready to go on at 11.30. That's hilarious. It offers you a tremendous freedom from choice, you know what I mean? And you have to make specific choices immediately, which I did that on Second City as well. And in the London, I think the greatest training I had in a weird way was the London Cabaret Circuit.

Which is, if they loved you, they loved you. You had to be fresh. That's the other thing, too. You had to do comedy where comedy hadn't existed before. Or you would get either booed off the stage or often hummed off the stage. Or one time I was complimented off the stage. Which is, you're doing a good job, Mike.

You know? I don't even know my name. What does that mean, doing comedy in a space that hasn't been done before? It's the topics of British comedy are very, very wide. Things that are...

Like, there was a time when it was always mother-in-law jokes, you know what I'm saying? And that was a very narrow subject matter to do comedy. In England, they require that you... For example, there was a comedy troupe called The Entire Population of China, this double act, these two guys. And they did a sitcom in Chaucerian English, so it had all the rhythm with a laugh track. Oh, my God. So with the hooter, with the rooter, like...

And this is a room above a pub in Camden, and people are like, yes, new, different. Gotcha. And, Mike, what drew you to the enjoyment of wanting to develop characters? Like when you were younger, was it a person, was it a thing? Were you like, oh, I can do these voices. I didn't even know I could do voices. Well, I think, you know, growing up in Canada, it is...

You're an observer nation, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's interesting. And Canada's not really a melting pot. It's more of a salad bowl. You know, when you come over, it's just a different thing. And so cultures and how people talk is something. And I think SCTV said to me that it was possible to come from Toronto and do what I do. Yeah. Gilda Radner played my mom in a TV commercial when I was nine. Yeah.

And I watched her on Saturday Night Live and I turned to my family and said, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do that. I'm going to be on that show. Yeah. And I think of all of the original cast, I think I relate more to Gilda Radner than Belushi or Ackroyd, who I worship Dan Ackroyd, but I think I was more like Gilda Radner, really. Peter Sellers was a huge influence. My dad, you know, he's English. I had two Liverpool parents and they were like... Wow.

My dad's biggest compliment was, oh, I wish he was English. You know, Mike, it's funny. I said, I remember talking to, you know, our mutual friend, Rob Cohen, a great writer, funny guy. Amazing. And he made it, he actually made this documentary, as you know, about what it means to be, why Canadians are funny or why there are seemingly so many Canadian comedic actors and comedians, etc.,

And I always said that it felt like, and as a Canadian, obviously, reference, that it's almost like we were born up against the glass. Yeah. Right? Like, it's like at the rink, and you're just looking in. We're not in the game yet. We're just kind of there. And we have the luxury of kind of...

We don't necessarily have any skin in the game. We can just observe and comment on it. Does that ring true to you? 100%. You know, Martin Short used to say, you know, when Americans are watching TV, they're watching TV. But when Canadians are watching TV, we're watching American TV. Yeah. There is just a slight separation. That's so funny. And...

It's a weird, like, it's a party happening upstairs that you wish you were invited to. You know what I mean? Yeah. But you also have that kind of like, those people are crazy upstairs. Get a load of them. Well, Mike, I don't know if you remember, I had this experience when I moved to New York many moons ago, and I would come back to Toronto and people would say, oh, Willie, you sound, you're American now, eh? You're down there. You're American. Like, as if...

I had done something wrong. You know, I'm like, well, I'm just... It's so unfair and not true, by the way, you know, because there's nobody more Canadian than a Canadian who no longer lives in Canada. Yeah. You get super Canadian when you live down here. It's that guy, what's the...

There's that the devil's dictionary that guy Englishman who wrote it and he had the description of a kilt was a traditional Scottish garb worn by Americans in Scotland and Scots in America. Yes, that's right. Exactly. It's a similar similar thing. So you anyway, so you moved in you go to Chicago, but how many of those characters that you ended up, you know, iconic characters you did on SNL and

Any of them, had you been working on them on Second City? Were they characters that had developed? Yeah. Most of the characters I had done at Second City and I had done on Canadian TV. I had done Dieter on...

on a show called It's Only Rock and Roll. And I had done Wayne. I had a thing called Wayne's Power Minute on It's Only Rock and Roll on CBC, on Canadian TV. No way. Wayne's Power Minute in the Shaggin' Wagon. That was my handle in high school, was Power Minute. Shaggin' Wagon. Power Minute. Yeah.

I don't think it was a compliment. I'm still trying to figure out what it was. Yeah, no, it's 18 seconds of pleasure and a lifetime of responsibility, right? So you do, by the way, I mean, Wayne's world, again, as a, I just, that was such a, when you first started doing that sketch on SNL, it just blew me away. Just hilarious. We would quote it still to this day, of course, how many iconic things came out of it, not schwing, things that are still part of the vernacular. Yeah.

Do you ever hear that stuff just sort of like out of your, you know, in your peripheral and just go like, holy shit, I came up with that. Every character though. Like what about behave? Oh, yeah. I wasn't even getting to that yet. Exactly. There's so much. It's very gratifying. It is. It's unbelievable. You know, like, you know, my parents, my dad sold encyclopedias and my mom worked in the office of a factory that made aerosol can products and

So it's not like I'm to the manner born and go, well, see, my, we, my dad used to handle this, you know? Right. Right. So it's all kind of, it's just been unbelievable. I, I, I can't believe it. Did your parents fully understand and grasp what a, what a home run your career is and has been?

Well, strangely enough, my father had gotten Alzheimer's by the time I had become successful, which is one of those ironies. The person who would have most delighted in seeing it was, you know, it's a very tough disease, Alzheimer's, because it's people's personality leave their bodies. And so you can't quite have a funeral. Right.

And, you know, I think it was once described as the long goodbye, you know? Yeah, for sure. For sure. So your dad never got to see that. Your mom did get to enjoy some of your success? She did and she didn't. She's like, oh, I saw Waynesworld. Yeah, what'd you think? Oh, that Dana Carvey's very good, isn't he? Oh, he's just got it. He's just slick, you know? But Americans are, aren't they? They're very slick. And here's the other guy in the hat.

Yes. I don't care for him much. Yeah, Mike, I think that's like English, like my mom, Canadian, but also of, you know, far back sort of English and Scottish and Irish descent and similar thing, which is, you know, anything. Smartless. Listen, my friends really love Smartless. Oh, yeah, thanks. What did you think? Well, they liked it.

Okay. Then you find out that she's insufferable to others. Yes. It's like, my son made it. Yeah. You know what I loved, Mike? I loved Supermunch. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I loved it so much. It was a documentary for Tracy. It was a documentary that Mike directed. Yeah. On the legendary manager Shep Gordon, Alice Cooper's manager.

Yeah, so cool. I knew nothing about him, actually, and it was so fascinating. And did you, was that a pleasurable experience for you? Would you do it again? I would love to do it again. It was a very pleasurable experience. Shep Gordon is one of the nicest human beings in the world, and I thought, what do you give the man who has everything? And I thought, I'd give him the microphone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, I just wanted to...

We talked about Lorne. Shep Gordon is very much like Lorne. His art form can only be seen from space, you know what I mean? Which is he builds careers in that way. It's almost like a Christo of building different people's careers. And that's his...

milieu his art form would you direct another documentary or is there something i would yeah yeah i i've always loved documentaries i thought i was going to be a documentary filmmaker oh wow i got hired for second city and accepted to york university film on the same day oh wow and i thought oh i'll do second city for a while and then go over and study film and then

Do you have the time to pursue that at all right now? What fills most of your days? What are you enjoying pursuing? Well, I have a six-part comedy series coming out in May called The Pentavrit on Netflix. And I've been doing that for the last two years. Of course, we got hit with COVID right in the middle of it, but it's done now. It's coming out in May.

And the premise of it is, is what if five people actually did run the world, but what if they were nice? Oh, wow. So I wanted to get to the Pentavra. So this is a show where you play, I think, six or seven characters? Seven characters, yeah. Which is insane. You're a masochist. That's a pretty tall order. Yeah, you're a masochist. Well, looking back, I do see the masochistic nature of that choice. Yeah.

I didn't at the time, of course. Did you write this as well or produce it or direct it? I didn't direct it. We have a great director named Tim Kirkby, who's this British genius who directed it. Yeah. He was able to keep all the seven characters and all the stories all together. And I wanted to do something very cinematic. That's the other thing, too. Yeah. So it's closer to...

It's kind of if the Da Vinci Code and the prisoner had a baby. And it kind of deals with conspiracy theory. And basically the need we have right now to have the people trust the experts and the experts serve the people. That's kind of where we're at. And...

You know, I just, the insanity of what's going on with January 6th and what's going on, you know, this is how I thought I could respond to it. That's great. You know, it's a comment on misinformation and disinformation.

That's great. Yeah, is that important to you? I mean, obviously it is. I mean, to be able to speak up and to, you know, there's always that sort of thing of like, hey, use your platform to do the right thing. And you've chosen to do it in a way that you know, which is to make, you know, to kind of send it up and do it through comedy. Has that always been something that you've wanted to do? Yes, definitely. I think that...

The highest aspiration for me would be something like Dr. Strangelove. That would be the highest aspiration. To me, that is the near-perfect comedy, which is kind of like how I feel like Flintstone Vitamins is.

You know, kids are eating Barney and Dino. They don't need to know what's good for them. You know what I mean? I think that's kind of the best delivery system of ridicule, you know? Right. Adam McKay's doing a good job of that too, I think, with the satires that he's making about these important issues. And very, very entertaining, which I think is the key, you know? Yeah, for sure. Mike, talk a little bit about... So you made three Austin Powers movies. You kind of... I think you took a little bit of a break right before you did those movies, right?

from acting for like two years, you hadn't done anything, and then all of a sudden, Austin Powers comes on the scene. And it absolutely just... It was a smash success. And what was that experience like? Did you...

Did you know that it was going to have the impact it did? No, I didn't. I thought you'd have to have grown up in my house to get the movie, to be honest. Yeah. It's just, it was every movie that I loved, you know, the James Bond, the Matt Helm movies, all the spy spoofs. It's actually a spoof of a spy spoof, really, truthfully, more than it's a James Bond parody. And I wanted to make my own, you know, the talk about spaghetti westerns,

I wanted to make my own knockoff James Bond thing, with the assumption that it had always existed in British culture, and now they're making the movie version of it. And in hindsight, it's quite recherche. You know, it's a very specific offering. I didn't think it was, and I'm as surprised as anybody that

It impacted mainstream culture at all. I wanted to make almost an indie comedy. Right. And I didn't know that necessarily...

It would have any currency beyond people that knew that idiom, you know? Well, beyond it being undeniably funny, I think if people took it like I did, your commitment, as I said earlier, to your character, to your tone of comedy is so infectious that you have no choice but to enjoy it because you are enjoying it so much. You have so much commitment to it.

And it's just-- it's that helpful tether, that leash that you're providing to the audience. Like, "I've jumped in with two feet. Come on in with me." Yeah, I think a big hallmark of all your characters is how committed you have been. And as Jason pointed out, it takes a great deal of acting. And you never break. Even though you have fun with all those characters, you are so thoroughly that person in that moment.

And there is that kind of other side. I'm not asking to call anybody out, but there is that kind of comedy which is much more a comment on characters, which to me feels like anytime people talk about deconstructing, I'm like, yeah, well, go ahead and construct first. And then feel free to deconstruct. But it's so easy to do that. And you don't ever do that. You don't comment on it. You just are it. Is that something that you ever think about?

I do. I actually, I paint a little bit and I found I can't paint anybody that I don't have positive affections for. You know what I mean? So I have paintings of, I painted Shep in like 15 minutes and it's like one of my better paintings. And you know what I mean? I can't judge the people I'm doing. You know what I mean? I have to find where...

I had lunch with Mike Nichols. It was one of the greatest lunches of my life. Lauren set it up because he knew I loved Mike Nichols so much. And I said, what's your number one direction? Like, what do you find yourself going to? Because I was like, this is my chance to get some wisdom. He said, that's a good question. He said, it's, I usually say, I say to the actor, look at the character and go, I am like that when.

Right. So even if you're a murderer, you can do, I am like that when I kill somebody's good evening with a bad mood or I, you know what I mean? So that's the, that's how they connect is to, is to not judge, but to find the. Find the part of you that is closest to that character. So you're not acting. You're just, you're amplifying a part of yourself almost.

And he also said, just remember, it's not actors talking, it's actors thinking. You're having thoughts that then have to come out in words. Thoughts lead to emotions. It was an unbelievable master class of a lunch that I had with him. Yeah. We'll be right back. All right, back to the show.

Mike, were there ever any characters you wanted to see realized on the big screen that you never got a chance to or is still not coming? I think Dieter. Yeah, Dieter. I think I could still do Dieter. I wanted to do that. I wanted to do, you know. The other thing is, everything I do has a musical connection. Yeah. So for me, Dieter would be, in essence, it would be my Kraftwerk movie. Wayne's World was my heavy metal movie. Austin Powers was my Burt Bacharach movie. Yeah, right.

So that's a big influence on what I do as well. What is that musical background? Did you play a bunch of music when you were a kid? No, but it was big in my house. You know what I mean? I was raised by, you know, two culture vultures. And then I was raised by two brothers who were

We just inhaled culture. We just loved stuff. We loved movies. And Canada's a great place to grow up watching movies, especially Toronto. We had all these fantastic second-run theaters, and they were all connected. So you get one pass, and you could go to the Bloor Cinema. You'd go out to the beaches, all these different places. And I saw the best movies projected with real popcorn with real butter for 15 years, you know? And I went three times a week.

What about your kids? Do they share the same kind of passion? A hundred percent. What about for showbiz? My wife, Kelly, is like, I hope not. And I'm like, it's going to be what it's going to be. And she ultimately is that way too. But, um,

You know, they are, as I am, made of, you know, 2% water and 99% ham. So I think it's likely going to happen. Do they get what you've done? Do they give it up? Do they understand your talent and your accomplishments? They do, but they also can torture me with it, which is fantastic. My youngest is Paulina. She's very, very smart.

And I'll be like, okay, you got to go to bed now. She goes, you're bowing. Right? What? You're bowing. And then she reached back. I wrote a book about Canada. And she said, and this book is bowing. And threw it on the ground. And I'm like, well, there are parts of it that might be a bit of a polemic, but on the whole, she's fine. What am I doing? You know, Mike, if I'm lucky enough to get stopped and somebody says something nice, they either bring up Will and Grace or Cat in the Hat.

And that was one of the highlights of my career, was working with you on that movie. It was-- I watched you work and construct scenes. I'll never forget that time. And you called me in and-- Was it Dana or somebody else? And you asked us to come up with fixes for jokes, and I was like, "Mike Myers is asking me to come up with jokes?" It was really, really impressive to see how hard you work.

and to what lengths you'll go to make something great. It was, and it's something I stole and I still think about. - Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah, I am. - Yeah. - You know, I think it comes from, I never thought it would happen.

And I don't want to blow it. You know what I mean? And it's sort of, you just, and also too, just, you know, I grew up very working class. You have to work. I never thought anyone was going to hire me for anything. You know what I mean? That's why I wrote so much of Saturday Night Live because I didn't think anybody would necessarily write for me. Why would they, you know? Yeah.

Well, talk about that because I think that it's a very relatable thing for anybody in any industry at any point in life. When you want something really badly and you see that it's actually approaching and then actually maybe you're even in it and the success is there.

The, the, the, the, everybody comes to the point of like, should I ask for help here to either solidify it or make it even better? Or should I hold onto it and make sure nobody screws it up for me? Like there's always that kind of push pull about whether you have the courage to ask for and incorporate help or whether you're just going to kind of say,

no, I got here, you know, without, without anybody else. And I need to stay by myself. And at the exclusion of all these other talented people around, I think that's something that everybody always goes through in any industry at any point in life. How, how do you, how did you go through that? It sounds like you did take, you take on other voices.

I think, you know, so when you guys have this show, I'm so envious of your camaraderie, which I love because I started with an improv troupe. And I'm like, the camaraderie, I would like to have a group of people that I have. But it's always just ended up that I'm writing my own thing and doing my own thing. But I would love to be part of a larger ensemble, which is ultimately what my training was. It just hadn't worked out that way before.

I think it is just kind of, I just, I feel so honored to be on Saturday Night Live. I can't believe it. Second City, can't believe it. To make comedies that I thought, I better honor it by working hard, you know? Right. But you do collaborate in a leadership role, though. But you do collaborate on, you move from sort of collaboration to collaboration, yeah? Yeah.

Well, I think it's best available idea. Like if you have a Dana Carvey and he has a funny idea, you'd be an asshole not to go, what was that, Dana? Hold on. Dana what? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's what you did on Cat in the Hat. We sat down on the floor. You had all the scenes out and you were talking about each one. You're like, just let everybody chime in and figure this out to make the best, you know, the best thing you can make. That was really cool. It has to be best available idea and it doesn't matter who says it. Like it just...

It has to be, you know, stone soup. We all have to put our ingredients into the pot. That's right. I'm assuming your Netflix thing was such a specific project that you wrote, as you said, and then you bring in... And then you didn't direct it. You bring in a director who...

And that position obviously has a ton of influence over what the audience eventually sees, bringing it off the paper and onto a visual medium. Was that collaboration exciting and fulfilling for you? Thrilling. Yeah. Yeah, thrilling because he thinks in pictures, Tim Kirkby, and he's kind of, he's an eccentric English guy. He's an eccentric, I think he's a genius. And

The world of the Pentaverd is very, very cinematic. It's very, we had a fantastic production designer, Simon Rogers, and it's, the production design is as much an offering. It's, you know, like I said, it's like the original Prisoner and the Da Vinci Code.

um had a baby you know and it's um I got to play very very different characters which is awesome I got to play a very very old English guy kind of like the very old English person like that and uh

I got to play a Canadian newscaster, which is the sort of like, you know, here we are at the sportsman show. There's plenty of things to do, whether you like skeet shooting or fly fishing. Over there's a thousand pound bull made entirely out of butter. The local news guy. CHCH TV 11. Yeah, CHCH, Hamilton, Ontario. Yeah.

Well, the tiger cats have had a fantastic season this year. That same song. You know, whenever I get too Canadian, Jason will often go, he'll turn to me and go, oh, is that right, eh? Like when my Canadian comes out. Oh, God, but then when you get into it, oh, fuck. Fuck there, bud. Oh, fuck, we got a real, yeah. Buddy of mine. Everything's buddy of mine. Buddy of mine was telling me. I paid for those Aerosmith tickets in snow tires.

My dad, any day that it's sunny, he's from Winnipeg, so any day that it's kind of over, he'll say above. He'll go, it was 100 above today. I'm like, well, obviously it wasn't 100 below, so you can just say 100. Because everything's above or below 100.

Zero, right? But anything that's above zero, he'll go, gosh, it's a honey of a day, eh, Willie? He's so happy for good weather. Mike, you know what's amazing to me? You can just manipulate your voice to do so many different people. Do you like watch a commercial or a movie or a person at the store and go, I got to work on that. That's really interesting. I do. I do.

So with Goldmember, there was a show on HBO called Real Sex. Oh, yeah. And it was this guy who had a born, a sex-born, sex barn, right? Yeah.

And it's a three-quarter replica of the red light district of Amsterdam. And over there's the Chinese fuck swing. And over there is the room that we keep the towels for the splooge. And over there's where we... And it's like...

So that's where Goldmember came from. That's amazing. Episode 22 of Real Sex. By the way, one of the great movie titles, Goldmember. What was the name of the film that you did where you played the Scottish guy with the size of his head? Oh, So I Married an Axe Murderer. Oh, fuck. That was funny. God damn it. Which is where the Pentavrit comes from. How so? Because the secret organization that he talked about is called the Pentavrit. And so I've made the Pentavrit, the secret organization that he talked about. Oh, that's cool.

When you go to Scotland or when you encounter Scottish people, what is their reaction? Are you like a Scottish hero? Yes, to be honest with you, it's been lovely. I was there with Higgins for New Year's Eve because New Year's Eve is big in Edinburgh. Hoogmanay.

And it's giant. So a security guy was attached to us, and he went, Mike, I've got an idea for a second. And I thought, well, we actually did a second one. A second Sawyer at Marathon Oxburger. Yeah, okay. Okay.

And he goes, okay, the son's all grown up now. And he did the whole, he acted it out. And it was a really great idea, to be honest. It had a beginning, middle, and end. There's a character arc. I love, by the way, I love that you said the end. It was actually a pretty good idea. It was. It was a good idea. Wait, how did you have two parents from Scotland? Oh, Liverpool. No, from Liverpool.

They're from Liverpool, but in Canada, every soccer coach and many cops are from Scotland. Is that right? So it's just that you're sort of issued a Scottish accent if you're in Canadian comedy. When you were a kid, did you have a little bit of an accent living in it, you know, and then get rid of it or? No, but I had weird words, you know, just weird expressions. Like my brother was driving a car, learning to drive, and my dad said, all right, I'm

Let the dog see the rabbit. My brother's like, what? Let the bloody dog see the bloody rabbit. Right? Which meant pull out to make a left so people know you're making a left. Let the bloody dog see the bloody rabbit. What dog? What rabbit? So my brother just got out of the car in the middle of...

Don Mills Avenue just got out of this giant thoroughfare in Toronto. That's hilarious. I never knew what they're saying, but they had a famous accent, you know, because Liverpool and the Beatles, their fame is famous, you know? And so people would knock on the door and go, is Mike in? Knowing I wasn't in, my dad said, oh, no, he's kicking about with this other fellow, actually. And they'd say, all right, say it. And my dad would go, I want to hold your hand. And they'd go, great, cool. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah.

I think when your parents have an accent, you get better accents. For sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, Mike, you didn't direct The Pentavarite, but do you see yourself, after this experience, because you've created and you've, you know, in effect, I imagine, show running, and you know what it's like, and you did direct a documentary, but do you see, is the next step going to be for you to direct yourself in one of these comedies where you...

do something different, either playing lots of characters or bringing a new character that we've never seen before. Is that something that you're kind of working towards? I might. I think that, you know, when they say a lawyer defends himself, he is a fool for a client. There's a little bit. I love it when somebody else agrees and adds, if you will, and something that you would never have thought of. And that's what my experience with Tim Kirkby was, is...

He had a big hand in shaping where the series went, you know what I mean? So I may have created it, but where it went, Tim Kirkby had a big hand in. And I also worked a little bit with Michael McCullers on it, who I was the co-writer of Austin Powers 2 and Austin Powers 3. And I love working with him. He's really funny and very, very smart and funny.

I think I could direct myself. I think I could direct other things too, which I'd very much be interested in doing. Stuff that you're not in. Yeah, something I'm not in. I have such... When I go to the theater in New York, I get a stomachache before the show because I want the actors to have a good show. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I just went and saw Hamilton with my 10-year-old son, which was fantastic. Yeah.

But he's like, are you okay? I go, I'm nervous, I'm nervous. He goes, you know, you're not in the show. And I'm like, I know, but I want them to have a good show. You're like, I hope this worldwide phenomenon is good. Yes, I hope this...

Much awarded, universally praised offering. Yeah, has a good show. Mike, do you have any plans to make the great Canadian movie, like the John A. MacDonald story or the Diefenbaker? The Tim Horton story. I did think about playing Trudeau, the senior, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, because I think I could actually do it, to be honest. I don't doubt it. But, you know, there is a Canadian movie I'd like to do, because there is a movement in Canada right now which...

My friend Dave McKenzie, who's a comedy writer up in Canada, calls cinema bleak, where it's, you know, the children are killed in a bus that goes into a... The ice breaks, the school bus goes in, most of the kids die. You know, it's all the... It's very, very...

Canada can run quite morbid. Uh-huh. Every story is, did you hear about that guy? He died, eh? In Canada. Yeah, he died. In front of his kids, eh? Yeah. He died. And then the kids died, eh? In front of different kids. Yeah. Yeah.

Every story I get from my friends in Canada. It's horrible. It's true. Mike, do you remember for a while there at Don Cherian Coach's Corner, it'd be like, okay, we had a hell of a period between the Leafs and the Capitals here in Don. We'd go, we did. But first we're going to go, 12 people died. They fell off a cliff into a lake this morning. And then he'd start crying. And then they'd go to commercial. Let's put these beautiful Canadians up there. Yeah, and you're like...

Fuck, man. I know I read that too, but what the hell is going on? I know. On Coach's Corner. And you're sitting there going, I'd like to know what the latest trades are. They just changed the rule. I'd love to know what Don Cherry has to say about the new rule change. Ghoulies should be able to go behind the net and play the puck, right? But first, I want to go to Kamloops for kids.

of a disease that doesn't even have a name. Doesn't even... Dad in Timmins walked out into the woods and he never came back, eh? Never came back. But he did come back eventually, but he was changed in an indecipherable way. LAUGHTER

Well, Mike, we've taken up too much of your time, man. I'm so excited for your show. Honestly, I'm so psyched you're back and you're just doing tons of characters. That's so exciting. Thank you, guys. Very cool. Can I just say what a lovely experience this has been? You've been most, most complimentary. Oh, pal. It's easy to do this for three more hours. I don't even know what to say. Well...

You're a mega talent. You're a great Canadian. You've been an inspiration to me for a long time. Thank you for taking the time to join us, man. None at all. Thank you, guys. That was fun. Thank you, Mike Myers. Cheers. Bye, Mike. See you later. Bye-bye now. Bye. See you.

That man is quite a treasure. Treasure to two countries, not just one. You're right. He is a treasure to two countries. He was such a big influence on me. I mean, you know, when I watched Saturday Night Live all the time, I was like, my God, he's, there's, you know, I think, Will, you said a few episodes ago where we were talking about Saturday Night Live or maybe somebody was on from there and

how they don't really do as many character stuff, you know? And he was one of the great last ones to really just, like, roll out character after character after character, and they were all so different. Oh, we didn't even get into the coffee talk. Yeah, right, right. And Simon, the kid who was, you know, well, you know my name is Simon. Look, Mommy, I'm drawing. Oh, my God. I remember that. That's so crazy. Well, there's a few, I mean, obviously. And I like to tell stories.

Yeah. Everyone that goes through there is so incredibly talented, but there are just a few that were able to, well, but had the range to just nail so many different kinds of funny, so many different kinds of characters. And they could, they could play a character of another gender even, and just like go. It was really inspirational to the point where it's, it's,

depressing when they leave that environment because no other place will allow you to do all those different things in in an hour and a half yeah now it sounds like his seven characters with this thing on netflix coming up is is something that kind of you know checks that box thank god but i've i've missed that with yeah you miss it so much yeah he must have like an insatiable drive for these characters and doing the i mean you think about it comes on does wayne's world he

huge hit. Then they make the movie. He's still on the show. They make the second one. He makes, sorry, I'm erring, Axe Murderer, still on the show. Then he leaves. Then he does three Austin Powers movies. He does all this stuff. Like, he just keeps it going. And now he's doing seven characters. And, you know, he just, it feels like he has this engine for characters that

that he probably doesn't even know where the on switch is or where the off switch is. There's no one else like him as far as the numbers of characters and output and success, I would say, right? Sean, how's your thinking about a bike going? Because I see your head. I see the wheels. I can actually see a little bit of smoke coming out from underneath the headphones. The headphones, yeah. Oh, no, it's coming from your fake smoke. There we go. What are you talking about?

Yeah, well, you know, the important thing is with a cigarette, because the filter is so important, that you just put it in your lips gently. Do not bite it. Bite it. Bite it. Smart. Worse. Smart. Worse.

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