Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver HudsonThe Siblings have done it again! Kate and Oliver serve up a can't miss episode with actor and comedian, Denis Leary.
The 'Rescue Me' star takes us back to his Boston roots, and talks about the famous face whoturned out to be his long-lost Irish relative.
Plus, Denis dishes on working with his son in the new series "Going Dutch," while Kate confesses why she didn't approach Denis on a recent flight!
Hi.
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are a sibling Railvalry, No, no, sibling.
You don't do that with your mouth, Vely, that's good.
And I just put beef tallow on my face.
Oh that's really good.
I know.
And Aaron has it my base. I just I love the way it feels. It smiles, it smells like a cow.
I can give you stuff that's good. I do beef. I do the tallow sunscreen because I think it's better than regular sunscreen.
I just don't wear sunscreen.
Well, then you should do the tallow.
Yeah, but there's goin. There has to be flavored. Tello.
I am so excited about this person that we have coming on today because it feels like it feels to me like someone I grew up with. Oh yeah, because he he was you know, we have Dennis Leary coming on, and I feel like when we were kids, he was like.
Yeah that you know, he was like the yeah, well when he was doing comedy, it was sort of aggressive. Yeah.
He was that eighties like punk yeah.
Yeah, it was like it was that punk comedy.
Punk comedy. He just created that he was a punk comic.
I guess, let's see, let's see what he says.
Punk comedy. I seriously doubted.
But the thing is is I was. I was on the plane with him, and I know you didn't even I didn't say anything because I knew he's coming on the podcast and then I'll bring us up with him. But I'm sitting in first class. I come on the plane. I actually saw Laurence Fishburne, who we call Fish, who hadn't seen in a really long time, and Danny was just like fanning out because he's such a Laurence fishman. And then and then we're up in the at thirty two thousand feet and I see this back of this man's head going to the restroom, and I'm like, I really recognize that person. And I recognized the back of his like this is like the side of his very distinguished back ahead with the thing. And then when he was walking back, I was like, oh, it's Dennis Larry. And then I wanted to say hi, but then I felt weird. It felt weird because.
I want to say, you're going to be on the podcast.
Yeah, and I didn't know if he was that kind of guy.
You know, I think he is. I'm assuming he's a nice person, but I'm going to.
See if he had the same feeling right now, like do I say hello?
What if he didn't even recognize what he might have not even be the first question? Bring him on, let's have this.
What we were getting off the plane, that's when I saw you and your daughter. Yeah, and I was like, and then we both went out at the down the stay airs and I was like, she's having I'm not going to fucking interrupt her kid.
We are dancing.
But yeah, I know, I'm hey, another celebrity.
That's how I felt. But I saw you going to the bathroom and then and then I actually recognized you from kind of like a three quarter I was like, oh my god, we're on the same flight and we're going to talk in a couple of days. And then I was like, I'm not going to say anything because I didn't know. You know, some people are weird.
It seems like celebrity is there's this sort of thing where if you see in another celebrity, whether you and if if you don't know them, it's sort of okay to approach them, right, But I wonder if that's teared out, meaning if only A listers can talk to a listeners, can you mix C and A you can see talk to the Ayah, here's.
The weird thing. Larry Fishburne was on that same flight.
Who I've known.
Yes, so I've known Larry forever. So we talked because when we were first getting on he fucked up his foot. Yeah yeah, yeah, So we were talking about that and I hadn't seen him in a long time.
Well that's what happened. When I saw him and he's like, hey, Kate, I was like, oh my god. And he's the best, Yes he is, but but then what happened to his foot?
The celebrities I don't know, especially when they're with their kids.
Yeah.
So I was like, I'm not gonna fucking bother.
Yeah, but is there is there is there one who you would you know, whether it's like a you know, a hockey player, someone who you admired tremendously who you don't know, would you actually go up to that person?
I have? I think at this point I have too much. If they have don't have a kid with them, it's more likely that I might say, hey, Oliver, right, what's going on right?
More with sports people, like if it's a sports person, I probably and I don't know them, I would I like, I went.
Up to.
Red so yeah, but I saw him at a at a Rams game, and I was like, I have to have to say hello. And and of course he had no idea who I who I was. Really, I didn't think so because he was sort of just you know, there was no it was no real connection.
He was just all risk.
I was fine with it. I just had to meet him.
Yeah, I run that risk. But I don't like if people have kids with him. I think it's kind of like my unwritten rule is because I know my kids when they were small, it was fucking pain in the ass when you're trying to grab the kid or get someplace off the plane or whatever. You don't want some fucking other celebrity coming up, like you know.
So anyway, I feel like the person that is the most intimidating like that is actually our dad, because kurt Is just doesn't care about any of it.
No, I want to say one thing about your dad. Okay, I've been a fan of your dad, for your dad is a fucking great actor. Yeah, I've been your dad for a long time and I'm a huge hockey thing. That fucking your dad playing her Brooks because if you guys, you probably are aware of it.
But he fucking nailed crazy.
And I know people talk about the speech, but god damn it, every moment that when he shows up in that movie, you go, anyways, I did it.
We're on a you know, like a there's a family thread and there's all these fucking text threads everywhere, so on sort of the dude, it's called the Olympians, right, it's our thread. When when when USA was playing Canada, I was working in Toronto, so I was there, you know, I was in Canada, you know, when it was all going down. But I was imagining if Kurt when they were in Boston playing in the Garden came out, you know before the game, would it would have been Mayhem, Mayhem. But but I was talking about that just recently, and that's such a you know, the performance is so insane and it's underappreciated, Like there's no reason why he shouldn't have been nominated for something. But he was made fucking crazy.
How the movie was you know, the movie as you could tell from the first time I saw it, and the director is a friend of mine. Book, Yeah, and I knew what he was doing because he was as he was starting it, he was like he wasn't casting stars. Really, the only fucking star in the movie. And I was like, fucking Kurt Russell's playing her Brooks and he at the time. I had a conversation with him once they started shooting. He's like, fucking Kurt Russell is fucking nailing this. Anyways, I just I've seen it so many times, and I've seen your dad do a million fucking things, and I am a fan of his.
But yeah, it's one of the When I was doing all the press for the show that I have out right now on Netflix, I I get asked all the time, like, what's your favorite sports movie?
And I'm always like, the first, I at least saw the first two episodes of your show. But it's fucking hilarious. Oh the rogue doesn't. I mean, I know this's unfair, but he doesn't count because he's supposed to be great. Like I did, I wasn't aware enough of Brenda's song. I literally wasn't paying enough attention because I was like, holy fuck, this girl is great. The mothers are off. Guy, the guy who's losing his hair.
Oh yeah, Scott MacArthur. He's so funny. You know, he's in the camp. He's in the whole Danny McBride camp. So he was on Righteous Gems. He writes on Righteous Gemstone.
And you know what, yeah, well we're all call best friend. Our kids go to school together. I've known Scottie forever, so it's it's okay, yeah.
Yeah, it's like it's turned into family.
I was real quick going back to the Miracle. I actually auditioned for that because I played hockey for eight years, right, so I was like, I want to be in this fucking movie. But I went through the whole process, of course, the reading part, but I went through the process of in the hockey, the skating, and these are all X pros, you know may they were, they were, they were, you know, national champions. I mean it was crazy and I'm this like scrawny little dude doing doing corner drills or I'm gonna get your murderater. I can skate, but I was so scary. Really when they would throw the puck into the corner, it's like blow the whistle and you're like, oh, I'm going to get fucking killed right now. And I was doing everything I can't. I could not to to fights your whole wife. Yeah. And my brother why you know, played professional goalie. Yeah yeah, yeah, but yeah, and.
I dated professional hockey players many.
Here's the thing.
I just thought hockey players were cute, and I would.
Harry Oh's was the spot in Manhattan Beach where all the hockey players went. My sister was there in like a leopard print tight dress, completely blown out hair, cruising in her white convertible Wrangler. Yeah it was.
It was a eighteen eighty nine saw that didn't work, but it did. The top did go down. Yes, I definitely hockey players thought I liked their energy. I was like, when all my friends were going to clubs in Hollywood, I was like, I'd much prefer to hang out with people in Manhattan Beach who like grew up in Canada.
Hockey players. Hockey players are the best.
They're the best. Are the best. You all know that, Yes, the best.
And I think they also like come from like great families and any family that is, I mean all of them are. But there's something about like the hockey four am wake up calls parents who are taking their kids to the rank that early. They are so committed.
Kids played hockey when they were grown up.
So, yeah, Dennis, can I ask you a question if you were to say what kind of comedian you are? Like, like when you started doing stand up, we were kind of trying to like talk about like what does someone when they say, like what.
Kind are you class of?
Like how do you classify your comment?
Because you had a really unique style that was well so different from a lot of other I was considered, uh.
You know, like edgy and rebellion like I didn't. I never did my I didn't do it too. I came from the theater, you know, I was studied. I was in a college studying writing and acting, so you know, I went into it because you know Stephen Wright, the comedian. Yeah, So we went to college together and Stephen was just a writer, you know, and he made little short films and he was the shyest guy in the world, and he lived around the corner. Once we graduated, he lived around the corner from me, a couple of buildings away. And then my girlfriend at the time was went to a com a nightclub which was really a Chinese restaurant, and she came back the next day and she goes, hey, Stephen Wright got up at this talent show and did jokes last night, and I was like, what are you talking about?
What is that?
I know? Right? He was such a brilliant comedian anyways, if you know his act, his jokes were like haikuah. Anyway, so I went over. I went over to see Steve and I was like, did you fucking are you doing jokes at a at a talent tone. He's like yeah. So I went to see him and I was like, he literally, I know this, It's this is like the story of my life. I was like, fuck it. If he can do it, I could And so that's how I got into it. But I never wanted to do talk shows like I wanted to. You know, the guys I loved were Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
Yeah.
I saw this interview with Prior, like in nineteen seventy nine and he said, yeah, the reason I changed my act because he used to work like on the Ed Sullivan Show and stuff, was because he said, I wanted to start talking to the crowd the way I talked to my friends in my living room. That's where I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna fucking be that guy.
Yeah, but when you were coming up, you didn't That's not what you were studying, right, That's not what you wanted to do, or was it.
No, I was going I wanted to be an actor, and uh, I wanted to be a hockey player. But I flunked off the fucking team my freshman year and a nun stuck me in a musicle and I was like, oh this started. Nun was like, I want you to come after after class, the next to last class. You got to skip one class, and she's like, I need I need boys to lift up the girls when they're dancing. So I go to this fucking thing fuck and I'm like all the hottest girls in school and the nuns like grab her by under the bosom and wrong.
I'm like, you want me to grab the girl?
So I was into show business starting.
They're telling you to do something where you know, maybe Jesus would frown upon.
But I guess I stayed friends with that none because she got me my scholarship. She got me the audition that got me the scholarship to go to Emerson College and that changed my life. I mean that was just like it was all.
Were you a good student?
No? Not not in regular school. Like the first twelve years I went to the same neighborhood school, all the same nuns. We all all my brothers, my sisters, all my cousins, and uh, you know, it's the seventies, so it was like we didn't buy any of the bullshit. We would just go. We had to go to that school because that's where our parents made us go. So school was great because it was girls and you know, lots of other stuff.
Yeah, so you were in school like so it was like the.
Sac that wasn't Like I was good at the stuff I liked, but I wasn't math, and so I knew I wasn't gonna that ship. I didn't. It didn't thing was like fuck you, yeah, but none. Putting me in the musical that was huge. And then when I got to college. I I loved college because it was all acting and writing.
Like how many how many kids? How many kids do you have?
I have two kids.
How old are they?
My son is turning thirty five and my daughter is just turned thirty three, So yeah, my son actually as a producer. He developed the show I'm doing on Fox and who I.
Want to we want to talk about that, you know, I have a that.
Was interesting, like, yeah, there was a TV writer.
So I want to go I want to go back into your life for a second. But I just have a question, like the fact just the way that you raised your kids as far as education goes, knowing that you were not strong and sort of you know, maybe math and some of these sciences did you have. Did you take that into account when your kids were going through school? Were they good students and you were you hard on them? You know, as far as their education goes, knowing that you do what you do.
I think my wife and I, you know, we both were supposedly raised Catholic, so we both had that experience, right, But at the same time we were also aware of like like my wife loved the things that she loved when she was in school, so we were aware of that with the kids. Even though I remember a teacher at their school saying to us, I think Jack was probably in the fifth grade at that point, or maybe the sixth, and this there was this very progressive teacher who said, you know, we should be changing the way we teach kids, it's very apparent by the time they get to fifth or sixth grade what they're good at. Naturally, we should let the kids focus on this stuff they're good at instead of forcing them. I don't know. If you guys were good at math, yes, I was like, why am I learning this? Ship?
Yeah yeah, I'm doing weirdly.
I was good at math really yeah, really like forty eight but it was really that's it. The thing is like it all went out the window, right, But like, if you gave me an equation, like as long as I knew the system, I could do it.
Not me.
But see here's the thing, right, if you gave me if math was reciting hockey and baseball and football and basketball stats, I would have been fucking great at yeah. Right. It wasn't like all these weird like once they got the long division, I'm like, fuck you, am I going to use it?
Yeah?
That's how you sound like my middle my middle my daughter.
I just dropped off at school and it's like I have a math test today and I don't know. I was like, just stay your best, and I was like what if what if I don't you know? I'm like, who cares like you do your best I have three catus three as well.
We're both we have three both two same, two boys older, and then the baby is are girls.
Yeah oh wow, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. It's kind of a foregone conclusion what everyone's going to do. They all want to be in this business one way or Yeah.
It's so interesting that when you grow you know, like, I mean, you know, when I was I was doing an interview with Jeanie Buss, who's the president of the Lakers, and she said, you know, statistically most kids get into the family business, like it's like an eighty percent or something. Crazy.
Yeah, which, well that's why this whole like, you know, I know, it's sort of not here anymore, this whole like sort of nepo baby wave that kind of crashed over everything. It was so focused on Hollywood because it's it's something that out there people know who we are. But that nepotism exists in every fucking industry.
Oh my god, get about it. Probably the least nepo business is our business. Restaurant business, oh, the painting, but landscaping buck you know, garage is mechanics. I mean, my dad was a mechanic by trade. You know, by the way, my parents were immigrants from Ireland, right, the idea that my parents when I said, I remember the conversation with my dad and I said, He's like, what do you think you want to do it? Once cocky was definitely not happening. I think I want to do this acting thing. This is when I was in high school. And he was like, oh, that's interesting. And he never bat he never batted an eye about Wow. He was like, yeah, we don't have the money to send you to college, but if you can get a scholarship of book and then he would come every show I did in college, him and my mom came to. I mean I was I was going to college in Boston. They lived in Worcester, so it was like he came to every fucking show. Yeah. Wow, I like this. I really loved that part. That guy is great. She's terrific.
Like wow, I feel like.
The Irish are very creative though. I mean, I I've spent some time in Ireland when I was younger, and it is such an artistic country. Like I feel like every family has an artist in the family, you know, whether it's music, painting.
Was also a good musician, so yeah, that feed a family in America. But he could basically play any instrument he wanted to play. He played in bands on the weekends, like at weddings and stuff like that. I think for him, he never said this to me, but I always thought he was like, Oh, there's at least one that's gonna.
Yeah, well let's go into that.
So you grew up in Worcester, Mass I played, I did it. I did Dawson's Creek for a year, and my character was Eddie Doling from Worcester. Oh really, it was from Worcester. And then my in laws, you know, they're all they're from Brockton. So my yeah, my in laws are from Brockton, thick thick, thick accents. They live in Falmouth. They live in Falmouth now, and so I'm there for about a month every summer. Yeah, isn't your dad.
Wasn't your dad born in fucking the Springfield or some ship?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So my my wife and they grew up in Long Meadow. I mean eventually they moved to Long Meadow, which is of course next door to Springfield. And I guess something like you know, Kurt's great uncle like discovered Springfield or something.
Crazy really always something. I don't know, there's always something yea.
So just so you guys probably maybe, but yeah, Massachusetts, fucking you know. Uh, the way the system worked is Boston of course is like Boston, and they look down on Boston and Worcester, but we look down on spring Field, and we all looked down on Brockton and Lowell right by the way, like us looking down on other people. Right.
So, your parents, so they immigrated. How old were they when they immigrated from Ireland? To know?
My dad came in nineteen fifty so or forty nine, so he was like he would have been like in his early twenties. And then my parents come from the same village in Killarney. So he came to America to New York to make enough money to send to pay for her boat. They came by boat so that she could come by boat. And then and they came to she came to New York. But then they ended up in Worcester because there was a job up there.
Were they already married.
They got married here in America.
It's crazy, right, Do you have your Irish passport? I do, and my kids have Irish and my son's about to get his being Oh really yeah, yeah, yeah, because he's his dad's Irish. His dad's English but from Ireland, like the family.
Really, it's a great thing for kids because they can work over their European Union. You know, it's fantastic.
Yeah, for sure, we've got to get our Italian one.
We're in the process of looking into our Italian We're we are our dads Sicilian.
I had no idea you guys were Sicilian.
Yeah, well, I Allie looks Italian. I don't. I got kind of the Hungarian side, I think more. Although I just looked at a picture of my grandmother, my grandmother.
That yeah, it's crazy. I actually looked like that.
It was like, weirded me out, Uncle mar Yeah, Sarah, Yeah.
So we're half weird, right, Yeah, it's so weird.
And I saw that picture and I was like, oh my god, it looks so much like my grandma.
Now we're getting in touch with our half siblings and our cousins and things are sort of coming together.
Dynamic for you. I mean, it's amazing that you guys grew up. Ah. You know, actually, like with Kurt as your.
Dad, we were very lucky. I had this, you know, after Gene Hackman died, there was this thing of him going around on the Actors Studio talking about when his dad left and every once in a while, like saw that every time, you know, and it really got it got him, you know, in that and everyone's I'll see something like that, and it does. I get that, Like it just never goes away. That like that little thing of abandonment.
You saw him get. You saw him sort of like sort of fall into it.
Just because because it's it's it's like your foundation, you know, and it's really it really got me when I was looking at that, because it was like, God, you know.
People, I'm not judging anybody. Once you have kids, I just can't imagine. Yeah, ever, yes, yeah, I mean fuck, I mean, god, damn.
Now I can have more understanding now that we're reconnecting with our father.
You know, it's complicated. Well, there's the.
Patterns connecting with your dad now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's patterns, right, And our grandfather left our dad, you know, and then showed up later on in his life and then you know, dad obviously didn't have the tools to deal with that that trauma and that pain, you know, in the fifties and so he sort of repeated that pattern. I remember as a young boy thinking I'm going to have kids, can wait to have kids, and there's no world where I will leave my children. So you can either continue down that road and sort of you know, that pattern exists, or you can try to break the cycle. And I think that Katie and I were definitely we broke that cycle.
I have attempted abandoning my kids a couple of.
Hours trying to cry, or like walking.
Through the airport I see like air France, just like just book it.
What happened to mom? I don't know the airport and air France flight. I've never seen her yet. No, But you know, it's interesting because it's it is you know, you I get every I guess everybody's capacity is just different based on how they grew up. And now that like we're reconnecting, it's just sort of you know, I guess I have more empathy or sort of understanding weirdly, you know, forget well, I.
Know this stuff. Listen. I'm not I'm you know, uh, no expert by any means, but you know, this generational trauma thing is true, right, They very specific of events like that, like you're talking about an event where the guy just takes off. You know, there's other things that that get passed into through our DNA, right generationally, So it's like that makes sense, but that an external event like that, like that a decision?
Yeah right yeah, yeah, well nature nurture thing. You know, how much of that is just a part of our DNA and how much of it is completely learned behavior?
You know, it's probably both, right, both.
Yeah, it has to be with.
Your mother and your father that you were with, right yeah, and with like you learned the good side.
Right, Yeah, let's go back to your family and and enough about our abandonment.
Your problems is your generation. What's going on? There's gotta be something.
Going to school? The nuns could still fucking hit you?
Yeah?
Oh god, really were you? Were you one that did get hit often?
Uh? Well, listen, I was a terror. Every time I got hit, I probably had a coming. But I did some amazing fucking things. They are very famous in my family. Like, uh I was, Uh, it was. It was a great thing that I don't know if you guys know this, but if you're an altar boy, uh, you get paid in cash for doing funeral masses and wedding masses.
Right.
So yeah, it's like they give the money to the priest, and the priest you know, tips out to the you know. It's like it's like the mafia.
It sounds like it's on the table.
You you get your your cut. So I got into the Altar Boys. My brother was my brother's three years older than me. My my brother we share a room together growing up all the time.
How many siblings four?
So, uh, my brother and I always had a we in the We lived in an apartment first, and we were in the attic of the it was a three decker it's actually two and a half decker. My brother and I were in the attic, and then when we moved, my brother and I were in the basement. So we were always together and we you know, went to school together and everything. All the same friends and brothers of like, all his best friends they're my best friends, were their brothers. Right. So anyways, my brother got me in the Altar Boys, which was fucking great, great cat. Yeah. Anyways, this fucking priest was late one day for one of the masses and me and this Polish kid, uh, the the other priest came in and put out the holy wine, which normally the priests, saying the mask would take that out. At the last second, he took it out and left it. He said, Father Donny was going to be lady being above fifteen. Just hang on, we're standing there. I'm telling you this has made so much sense. At the time, stra Levitz goes, John stra Levitz was his name. He goes, uh, he goes. You know, don't they say if you drink the holy wine, right it it cleanses your soul by the way to sinners talking right, that's right. He's like, you take like a sip of that. Everything we've done wrong, you know, is I was like, let's go. So we go in and then we're like it's barely it doesn't even taste like alcohol.
Boom.
But you know, next thing we know, we got to fucking fill up the thing. We drank so much. Now, fifteen minutes later the police come. We started walking up. I was holding the crucifix, and when I got to the front, it was a funeral man. And when I got to the front, you know, the bodies laid out in a coffin in the center out with an Irish flag on.
I got up there and I went to.
Put the thing in the crucifix in the holder, which is right by the the pew facing the audience, and it missed, and all of a sudden, I felt drunk and I let it go and it hit one of the big candles that was next all my.
And the candle hit the flag.
I was like, no, no fucking way, And at that moment, the priest went over and grabbed it. When he was grabbing the candle, and I was feeling like, who stralevitch, Who's carrying the host.
Host stuff on the author flag?
A movie?
It was fucking I always wanted to put the movie, so we barely made it through the mask. He excommunicated us. After the communicating my relationship with the Catholic Church.
Was were your parents super religious or was it just kind of what you did?
Because they were they were, except I got in so much trouble for that that I got to see behind the curtain a little bit because my dad was like, listen, he can't excommunicate you. That's fucking bullshit. You to have a meeting with the month senior, and I'll never forget this because the month senior goes to me, I'd never been in the in these offices at directory. It's like going behind the curtain at the Wizard of Us. And the month Senior said to my dad in front of me, he goes, this was this was a lot of money at the time. He goes, if you give me two hundred dollars in cash, I wipe his I wipe my dad. My dad turned to me and he said get up. And I thought, like, I'm really in trouble now. And he grabbed my hand and we left, and uh, he said, I'm not paying him two hundred dollars, you know, justlet's forget about it. And he said, listen, there's all he said to me. We were walking home. There's a few blocks and you guys, listen, there's a lot of bullshit that goes with this church and this is you just saw some of it, so don't worry about it. You know, I'm not going to pay the two hundred dollars. We'll find something else. Yeah. So then they put me in the.
Choir board and that's right.
I got kicked out for smoking. Right.
Oh God, I could I I wish I wish I could just like see like a shortened documentary version of you as a kid in Boston.
Going, I did just see it. Did you did all yours? Did all the siblings get on? Were you guys close enough in age to have that real kind of sibling either rivalry or community?
My older brother, we all, we all my cousins in America, We all lived in the same neighbor We all went to that school. So there was like seventeen of us or something.
So, I mean that's crazy.
Yeah, I mean everybody, Like my brother is married to his high school sweetheart. My sister who's right behind me, my Anne Marie, she's two years behind me. She married my best friend.
Wow.
So and they've been married like this entire time. Yeah. Now we have one sister, my sister Betty, who's way behind the rest of us. Yeah, it's like a you know, she's probably I guess, about fourteen years behind me. So she was have a surprise to us.
Oh my god.
We were like living in a three decker and there was like me and my brother in the attic. You know, it's like there was no space. Yeah, so, oh, we're gonna have another kid, Like, how are we going to do that?
Have you ever been to the Tenement Museum in New York?
Yes?
So I just went there with my kids. It's awesome because you and I did the so my my my other in law's Irish. My son is like, there's a lot of the Irish with my kids. So we went and did the Ireland. It's consorted the famine. They do the basically what you do is it's a real it's a historic building and they kept it very much the way it was back in like the eighteen hundreds when these Irish families came over and basically lived in this big building. There's Irish families, a German family, mostly Germans, but you go deep into this, the family of the More family, and it was you know, when you think about the Irish and the Italians coming over into America very much second class citizens. Like the way they were depicted in the you know, propaganda, the way that the Irish were sort of seen in America. It's fascinating and it's crazy. And these kids, these families for eight sometimes eight kids in these tiny little apartments living in New York, you know, coming over from America was like you you and and like we're saying, generationally you sort of the Irish, I mean, it made sense that your parents would be like, no, we're gonna have another one.
Listen. That was nothing. There was a there were two families in my neighborhood that you know, we all went to the same school. Like I said, there was an Italian family I think they had seventeen kids, and then there was an Irish family that had I think fourteen, right, and some of those married, and there was another family of Sullivan's to that, and the family started inter the kids started marrying. Yeah, but can you.
Like that's that's weird?
Am I happenpy for the nuns in that school. Literally, like every time you walked in from the from the grammar school into the high school, they were like, oh another Leary, Oh my god, another school, Oh my god, Like they knew it must have been torture for.
That well, and you just found out that you're like cousins with Conan, which I had Conan O'Brien.
Actually cousins, right, actual third cousins or something years ago.
In the nineties, right when I first got famous and he got the show. My uh, I think it was my uncle Patrick. My uncle Patrick was still alive, my dad's oldest brother in Ireland, and he they had gotten a satellite this so he could watch, you know, all kinds of television. And he saw me on Conan. He said to one of his kids, he's like that that kid that's talking to Dennis. He reminds me of somebody. And so my uncle Jerry from America came over to visit shortly thereafter. He said, didn't you guys when you first went to Worcester get a job from somebody and then you were living in a in a three decker that was that was rented out to the floor was rented out to you by this Irish woman. And he said, yeah, we did. He said that was that guy's mother or granddad has granddaught That's.
What it was.
So anyway, I get this phone call from my uncle Jerry and he had written everything down and he shows it to me. I had to go on Conan like a month later for something. So I went on Conan and I said, listen, Buba Buba. Buddy went, oh my god, my aunt did live. My granddaunt did live in in Worcester, in that neighborhood. And I was like, well, then if you look at us, I mean he's all legs. I'm all legs. Me think about it when you see when you see it, he's got a bigger head than me. But look at this is all it's always.
So yeah, it really it's really wild.
No, I know, what, did you have family in the Mafia and the Irish Mafia?
Not that I know.
Did you ever meet Whitey?
No? But I knew some guys that worked for Whitey.
Yeah.
Yeah, Now when you look at your career, I had this when I was in COVID where I was like look to kind of reflecting on career, like and all the things that I want to do and haven't done yet. But you've done a lot, and I wonder like where do you No of you guys, but I mean where do you where? Do where?
Where?
What is your heart in the most? Like where are you happiest when you're working and being creative? Is it in stand up? Is it in acting? Is it in writing? Is it in story?
So you guys might be able to relate to this. I also want to take this moment to say I just remembered this when you were saying that. I saw the episode of the Jimmy Fallon Music show that's my g Oh yeah, the one that you guys were on where you sang he gave you it was That's one of the funniest fucking things I've ever seen. It was Barry White or Barry Good and you have to sing back. Actually, I mean, not only was it funny, but it was really fucking amazing what you and you had to do. Ariana Grande as as a ya. Anyway, I just remembered that. So for me, uh and you guys might relate to this because you both sing right. For me, I do two stand up concerts a year. They're both for charity. One is at the TD Garden and Boston. It's a big gig, like you know, fifteen thousand people, and I have my band there. I have to do the asshole song otherwise people, but I bring some famous friends of mine comedians on stage. But that that's every November, and right after that, I do one for the Michael J. Fox Foundation in New York. Right, they're like they're like a week away from each other every year. That thing of eight o'clock the show stars and boom. I opened the show both shows, right, that thing of coming out and fucking the crowd is there like that, And I never do all material except for the asshole song like I do all new stuff like that. Excitement is still the greatest fucking high. Yeah, sing in the asshole song with my band and you know, people spelling the asshole word out at the I mean.
That's just I mean, look, we know a lot of we know a lot of comedians, you know, and it just seems like, no matter how successful they hit in the other aspects of this business, they're always going to go back on the road. I mean, we're great friends with Sandler, right, Sandler doesn't need to go on the fucking road, but he does. And by the way, his special was amazing and Safty directed it and it was just so different cool. But anyway, you know, it's just I think you can't beat that as a comedian. You probably listen.
I love I love acting, and I love I mean, you know, especially you guys know this when you're working with people that you're having a fucking blot. Yeah, you're working fast, Yeah, moves, there's some improv. Yeah, I fucking love it. I lost it, right, But it's not the same as you know, fucking the lights come on and we're happy to see you, and but you got to fucking deliver from eight o'clock until eleven.
It's so fun.
Are you are you doing? Are you shooting Dutch in Ireland? Yes, it's fun. You know it's actually in Ireland. Yeah, shoot it. Yeah, because I'm I have a I have a production deal at Fox. We're in the second year of our of our deal. And uh so I know Cheryl and everyone very well and oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So but so I know all about what you guys have been doing because they've been going back and forth. They've been in Ireland, this, this and that.
Yeah, and by the way, they have to say, I mean, how is that.
It's great?
Well, it's great because my family I have some million cousins, so they get to come visit set. But yeah, the first thing I've done that my son produced, which is really interesting.
Yeah, I want to talk about that too, working with your kid. He's he's on set.
The writer is this guy Joel Church Cooper who did him Brockmeyer with Hanka's Eric. So I love so he's a brilliant writer. He has a brilliant staff, and so he writes the pages and we do the pages. But he's on set and he wants the actors to have input. We shoot fast, so we get the page for the pages, and then we fucking improvise front within that, not not just jerking off. Yeah yeah, you know, like character driven, you know, scene driven. We do improv almost every scene, so fun. It's really electric. And he's in the other room at the monitor with the other writers and Jack and they we do something. They come up with an idea, so it's really like electric. You go to work all fucking day.
Yeah, yeah, a new idea.
Hey, what about it? I love it? I fucking love How did.
You get to shoot in Ireland?
I mean, was that well, because it's set in it's based on a real army base that that was in another lands that got shut down. Yeah, because because of what the show's about, like market stuff and prostitution and whatever. Anyways, uh, because all that stuff's legal there. So we we were you know, we wanted to look like the Netherlands. But shooting there, I've shot a movie there and you know, it's it's great, but it's not the same as shooting in Ireland, which is it's a little bit faster and overall better and it looks the same. It's all the same plain in terms of planning, so the greens are the same, the colors are the same, the weather is the same, and the Ireland has just got great facilities.
It's so beautiful. My I did. I just did a film with Hugh Jackman, but he is now in Ireland shooting and sends me these photographs that are just insane. It's so beautiful.
Yeah, the part where my parents are fun, which is the Southwest. I know I'm prejudiced, but it's just yeah, it's unbelievable.
You know, also working with your self like like what is that? Like, do you is it? Is it? Is it challenging? Does he ever challenge you?
Yes?
So it was interesting because we've been we've been developing and working together. Uh you know, he's running one of my companies, so creatively, I you know, I've been involved with him on stuff, but I haven't acted in something that we've done together yet. So this was and I knew this was going to be because Joel church Cooper, the creator, he likes to be on set and he liked, like I said, he wanted he wanted input, So I knew it was going to be kind of electric. My son, you know, he would come in and like as a producer with Joel and have an idea or and sometimes he would go, hey, let me talk to you, Dennis. Go listen that that thing is not working. That's let's get rid of that. Try this. And I you know, my son's very tall, so I'd be like, okay.
And then try it and he would be right.
Or sometimes he would come in and go, that was great, Dennis, that was okay, got his job right. You know. The first like a couple of episodes, I was like, this is interesting. And then after a while I was like, you know, he's he's basically right every time he told me I'm wrong.
But you have that playful rapport where you fuck with each other though, you know, is that is it playful?
A little bit, not a lot, because it's we were shooting so fast. Yeah, and uh but you know he listen, man, he's he was doing the job too. Like I'm I'm a producer, but I'm when I'm in the scene, I'm just an actor. Yeah, somebody Joe will tell me like, that's that sucks. That that's terrible. Let's let's go in the other direction. On an improv thing, yeah, you know, or even on a blocking thing. I'm like, try this.
Yeah, now, now do you guys. Do you guys, do you guys live near each other? Do you live to get you know, like off the set. He's your son, So do you guys hang out? Do you go to dinners or is it?
I didn't really sometimes, but he really, you know, we didn't have a lot of time to hang out.
Yeah, that's so good.
Like I got to direct. I got to direct my dad in a short Kurt and oh it was so much fun. But he gave me so much, like just for just fun. Like he would sit behind me. He wouldn't leave, so even if I was if I was directed, you know, he could go home. He just wanted to stay and watch me direct. So he'd sit behind me at Video Village and he would he would just fuck with me the whole time. He'd be like, you're sure you don't want to get a cut away with that ashbair just in case you lived in the editing room. I'm like, Paul, no, I don't need it every time. Be sure you don't want to come in from the window.
I never thought about the like I directed Paul in that pilot presentation as well.
He was awesome to direct.
Yeah I have so you call him Paw yeah. Yeah. He didn't want to be called dad because we had a dad, and he didn't want to be called Kurt because he was more than just Kurt. So we came up with paw that's yeah.
Can we just can I just say I love that your commitment. Like you you do your charity. You're talking about your charity gigs, but you've been working with firefighters and supporting firefighters since like two thousand and How did that come about for you?
Was it the show?
The show?
Well, the show came after my cousin, Jerry Lucy wanted to be a firefighter, you know, that was the thing he wanted to do, and he had first he was driving trucks, but he eventually took the fire test and was on the waiting list and became a firefighter and Worcester for the Worcester Fire Department, which is a very busy, you know, urban department. And of all the guys we grew up with, like literally like probably thirty five guys between my class and my sister's in Mariice class and my brother's class in high school, thirty five of those guys became firefighters. So that whole department was full of people we knew. So there was a huge, famous fire that killed six guys in December of ninety nine. It was a precursor almost to nine to eleven because it was a huge warehouse downtown that floated, and my cousin, Jerry, and his partner were the guys that were initially trapped. They were looking for a homeless couple that they heard were living in the building, but the homeless couple had left the building. They didn't know that anyways. The four other guys that went in to find them were led by this guy, Tommy Spencer, who also grew up with us, who went to school with us. He was at my class. We started the foundation to help the Livery Firefighters Foundation to help those families because there was I forget how many kids were left behind of those six guys. And then my cousin was like an adamant guy about funding for the fire the Worcester Fire Department because they were getting their budgets slashed all the time. So we were just going to help that department. And then I had a couple of really close friends in the New York department and they had come up to help look for the bodies in Worcester because it was the building collapsed in on itself. So when nine to eleven it happened, you know, they a couple of my friends survived, and this one guy, Terry Quinn, said, you need to bring the foundation here because we're going to have to help this department and these families. So that's how we kind of opened up, and then we've just been helping departments ever since the year. It's crazy, by the way, because we started twenty five years ago and the idea was we'd go out of business, but they keep cutting fire departments mean even the wildfires out here.
Yeah, where I live in the Palisades, and.
So it's this department has been underfunded out here for years. There are vehicles sitting unused, unfaced because there's no it's a fixed So water is one issue, but the it's it's big departments like the FD and Y and the l A f D, the Boston they all have their budgets cut. But it's also small, tiny, little departments. Yeah, volunteer department world. So we haven't gone out of business where we're giving out more money every year. It's crazy.
It's amazing, that's great.
I want you to come back with your son.
Yeah, that was fun.
That would be awesome. Yeah.
I just I just I just did a movie in Toronto and I just got back with my son. Was in it.
Really, your son's an actor.
He is now.
Yeah, he is now and he did five times and it was a real part. I worked nineteen days, the kid worked twenty two days. So he was in the fucking movie. And it was really an especial experience for me, you know, to have him up there as a seventeen year old kid living together. You know, I had this and then we'll go. But I had this vision, you know, like a montage where he's gonna we're gonna live together. We're gonna have a couple of beers and we're gonna cuddle, and he's gonna watch movies with me. He's gonna turn back into a ten year old. Essentially, we're going to have a snowball.
Yeah.
I was like, oh my god, it's gonna be amazing. We're gonna bond. This is gonna be the greatest moment of his life and my life. And we get there, we get to the house. I overspent on a house because I wanted to make it perfect for him and he goes to his fucking room and the door closes. I'm like, we're back in fucking la again. I'm like, what is going on? What happened in the cuddles man? And I invited him, like, come in my room, let's watch a movie together, and he's just like, I'm okay, I'm good guy. He the fuck no, I know, but I had this vision that he's away from those friends.
How was he set? Was he nervous?
Yeah, he was a little nervous, but it was really amazing to watch from day one till the last day how he had gotten comfortable and just more in his skin a little bit and less afraid. Because this was he went from zero to sixty. He did an acting class, he had an audition, and then Doug got the gig and bang, he's on set and everyone was great. I was me and Alia Silverstone and she was amazing with him, and it was fucking rad. Yeah, he was a little nervous, but it was really amazing to watch from day one till the last day how he had gotten comfortable and just more in his skin a little bit, and less afraid. Because this was he went from zero to sixty. He did an acting class. He had an audition and then Doug got the gig and bang he's on set and everyone was great. I was me and Alicia Silverstone and she was amazing with him, and it was is fucking roun.
My son. My son, on the other hand, is at n y U Tish wants you know, is an actor and is like in school and was and is like just you know, more debt, more debt. And then Wilder gets this job and he's like, are you fucking kidding me right now? I was like, I'm just like, I'm like, he gets a job, like I need money.
Exactly exactly. But it was a beautiful and amazing experience. Yeah, you know for sure, you know, working with your.
Kids, Yeah, it's so fun. We we're so lucky to do to be in a creative business and actually like have work.
We are lucky. But like you guys know, and he'll find out, right, you have to not only be good, yeah, and you know your craft, you have to get better, keep getting better.
That's what I say to my son all the time. I'm like, it never it never changes. Your constantly constantly learning new things, and you're always trying to be better than the last time.
Like it's just And then then as far as the nepotism shit goes to where I love what you said, we're the least because yes, the foot can get in the door, there's no doubt about that. But there's no other business where you actually have to prove yourself to actually make it. Meaning yeah, you know Kate's son, my son. They can have the opportunity, but they still have to be good. No one's gonna hire you.
You can't force someone to like your art, right, You can't force them to do it by the way.
You know, like when I like talking about that, when my dad was a mechanic right by tray, but his second job was like a handyman for a real estate company. So he painted apartments and you know, did almost everything plumbing, electrical. So my dad taught me how to paint apartments and I work for him in the summer when I was in high school, right, and he taught me how to paint apartments and scrape and so basically he was telling me like, listen, this is something if you do this the right way, which I'm going to make you do, this is something you can use. You can always paints always, and so he was teaching me a craft, right that he and he taught me the right way. And by the way, I fucking did that. When I was in college. My my work study job was painting the dorms when they were empty during the summertime.
Yeah, I was.
I was really good at so, like you teach your kids, you know.
Well, thank you so much for coming on for your Yes we did. We got picked up last week. Yeah, we're so excited.
Yeah, finished that show. It's really good.
You have a great cast.
Thanks. They just they entered the front door.
Is the throw in all all the way through.
In and out? Yeah, he's in and out of the show. Yeah.
Ship. The fucking The thing that made me laugh so hard was when he first gives you the team and everybody else leaves the room and your little speech like the fucking brothers are really funny to each other. It's really fun.
It's the best good show.
