Six Degrees with Kevin BaconFunny people often overcome tragedy to bring humaneness to our everyday lives. Today's guest has done that and more! Emmy nominated comedian Patton Oswalt joins Kevin to talk about growing up as a military kid, falling in love with acting, and how they both ended up in entertainment. They are then joined by Ron Fitzsimmons, Executive Director of Alice's Kids - a non-profit focused on preserving the dignity of parents and giving kids the things they most desire though direct gifts.
To learn more and get involved with the Alice's Kids, head to AlicesKids.org. To support more initiatives like this program, text 'BACON' to 707070 or head to SixDegrees.Org to learn more.
Hey, six degrees listeners, Kevin becon here, I got a treat for you this episode. This is the one and only hilarious Patton oswaldt joins me for a conversation that is funny, funny, funny, funny, but also extremely insightful. As you probably know, this guy knows how to make you laugh. What here is a little teaser. Patton may have ended up on a different career path if not for his very blunt dad. I think we got to thank them though, because you know, the world needs this dude doing his comedy thing and it's stick around. Also because we shine a spotlight on a grassroots organization doing amazing work supporting students throughout the entire year, not just in the back to school sessions. Yeah, I haven't really been looking forward to this one. I'm a big fan, so lean in. I'm glad you're here. Patton Oswald, thank you so much for being here with me.
Ken, thank you fix having me on.
Man. Hey, you know it's one of those weird like I don't know I've are well. Of course, you know, I play this dumb game where I try to figure out connections between people. But I don't think that our paths have crossed as far as I know, I don't think we've been in the same thing, which is kind of shocking.
Yeah, it is weird. We've never crossed directly. I'm sure there is no more than a two or three person gap between you and I. Apparently my wife was telling me. My wife, Meredith Salinger, said that she this is back in eighty six, so if you don't remember this, don't even worry about it. She had just done a movie called A Night in the Life at Jimmy Reared, and she met you somewhere, either at a dinner or something, and you were joking and like, oh, you just did that movie with River Phoenix. I'm probably gonna play his big brothers day.
That's probably I mean, I'm sure she's not lying. I mean, I'm sure she's not making it up, and that would be something that I would have thought of. In fact, you know, it's you know, that was such a you know, sad thing I was. I loved her. I thought he was great and yeah, and definitely you know, when he was younger, he definitely, you know, we look like we could have been brothers for sure. Absolutely, yes, But the fact that you have been I mean, I think you've been in like two hundred movies or something like that. It's great, it's it just blows my mind, and it makes it even even weirder that we haven't been in the same thing together. Well, but you know, life is long, so we'll we'll get to do that.
Life is long, and show business is weirdly small, so eventually everybody coides with each other.
Absolutely, absolutely, thank you, thank you so much for being here with me. You know, I want to I want to first off say, I don't know why I have this obsession with this. The people that listening to this podcast. I've heard me mention this many times. But how do you feel about your name? And can we talk a little bit about it? About the genesis of that name.
Well, Daddy was a marine and he my mom wanted to call me either Andy or Chris, and he thought those names were kind of bland and forgettable, so he proposed Patton as a first name. I haven't met a lot of first name patents out there, but weirdly, you know, he had been he had done three tours in Vietnam. So even though he named me after a World War Two general, he was always very vocal about I don't want you ever.
Going to war or joining the military.
I know because I've seen the worst of it, and I do not want that for you. So what I went into being a comedian, he could not have been happier.
Wow, Okay, yeah, that is a very I think that's a very unusual, unusual story. I would think. I mean because because you know, listen, I often have said, I think I've played four Marines in my life. I get I get them, I get the marine gigs, and the one thing, oh yeah, absolutely sure that I could never do is become a marine. I mean, I wouldn't last five minutes through any of those you know of boot camp or those procedures. But I do know that a lot of the Marines that I've I've been with have had sort of the opposite reaction, you know, they kind of they they want to pass that on to their sons. So I'm I'm I'm wow, I'm not surprised, but I think it's but I think it's interesting, and I think it says a lot about your dad that he's like, no, I've seen it and it's not for you.
I I don't think he was down on the Marines. He was down on the idea of us being sent to war. You know, he had been doing. He came from a I come from a long line of war veterans and warriors. So but my dad saw I think he saw some really bad stuff during those three years and he got shot in the leg. He's still alive, but you know, he just saw a lot of really dark stuff and he was like, yeah, war is not what I I thought it was going to be.
And did he talk to you about that stuff?
He talks about it, but he does it in that oblique way where it actually the stuff he doesn't talk about weirdly speaks louder than the stuff he can talk about directly. That the stuff that he that he clearly is deflecting from and can't face head on, you can infer what it is he's talking about.
And it's pretty dark.
So and I've learned to like, what is the point in me dredging it up? I think he's so much more happy to be with his sons now alive, rather than let's go revisit this as he called it one time, he just said war is brutal and completely pointless. And again, that's a guy that was did three years of it, So you know, I kind of that was my way of going, Yeah, let's not push too we don't need to push too deep here.
Sure sure, yeah, sure. So you said you have brothers and sisters, got.
A younger other.
Also very funny, comedy writer, great on threads and online, great writer. And also just like he was actually flirting with joining the Air Force. My dad was like, listen, I love you. You are not.
Going to do well in the Army. Go do something else.
And he wasn't saying it like oh you little whip. He was just like, I know how your mind works, and this ain't for you.
Uh huh uh huh Yeah. What were what were you were? An army brought it? Did you move around a bunch of a bunch?
And yeah, a little.
We moved on it when we were really really young. But then when we got to just before high school. And I remember this very clearly because my dad grew up his dad was an Air Force pilot and they moved constantly. He went to four different high schools. He just was and moved all over the world, Morocco and Germany and Spain and then all over the United States. And he said, as adventurous as that was. I never had like a home base. I never was had like a place I could build rep or build my roots, and I want that for you guys. You know, because my dad also really loved sports, and a lot of times he would suddenly move to a new town and the coach was like, you're doing really good work, but this kid's been here since freshman year, and he's like, he's you know, it's his time, and I don't know what to tell you, you know, So he's like, I don't want that.
So he took a desk.
He was like a test pilot for a while, and then he took a desk job in the Marines in DC testing just so that he could. He was like, I don't want that experience for you guys.
So when you say sports, you and your brother were playing sports, or your dad was coaching, or.
My dad my dad played sports in high school. He saw very very early that, oh, I have not given birth to jocks, given birth to movie nerds and D and D players and possible filmmakers. These guys are not going to be I mean, I tried every sport. I tried football, I tried soccer, I tried baseball. I was just absolutely awful in all of them.
Well we share that, we share that.
Really did you try them all and they'd just nothing?
Really well, well I didn't, you know. It's like when I say I tried them, we didn't. I didn't really go to a high school that had We didn't have a foot There was no football. I mean it was a kind of an inner city Philadelphia high school, so that we didn't have any room to play football. We played football on the street, but it was just touch football. Or we would play like, you know, half ball, stickball, you know, oh yeah, stuff like that, street hockey. But I was never really good, never good at any sports. I actually feel, you know, kind of lucky that for the most part, I haven't been asked to do anything that is specifically ball athletic. I mean I've been asked to do things and involved you know, movement and dance and fighting, yes, you know, all those kinds of things. But the one, the one time that I did a sports based movie was this pretty forgettable movie called The Air up there where I patted it. Yeah, I played a trust me when I say it doesn't really hold up. I play a guy who goes I'm a recruiter. I go to Africa and the great NBA great Bob McAdoo, who was was our technical advisor on on that on that movie, and you know, was tasked with, you know, trying to uh, you know, get everybody to kind of choreograph the games and you know, cast the players that could play and stuff like that. And he he once did an interview and said that one of the hardest things he ever had to do in his career was make Kevin Bacon look like a basketball player.
So and make make you look like someone who knew how to tell people how to play basketball.
Like that was the easy part. But there was a scene where I come in and actually, you know, save the day, you know with my outside shooting, you know.
So, but that's fantastic.
Yeah, it was. It was, But you know, listen, I think it's really again. I think that I like your dad without having met him, for those two reasons, one saying you know, I don't want you to go to war, and to saying, hey, I see something else in both of you. That edit eight you know, football and go and do your thing. I mean I think that's I think that's fantastic.
Yeah, And I've actually carried that on because I'm not going to be the jock version of a nerd dad to my daughter. Like I remember, I showed her Star Wars and she was like meh, And I wasn't, like you are going to sit down and you're a good wall, you know, I said, Oh, I didn't land with her.
That's fine.
Like, I'm not gonna force her into something that she's not. That's a I think that's a crucial thing that parents need to learn and from my dad, and I'm doing it now.
I agree. I totally agree. I don't. I don't try to force them into something that they don't that they don't want to do, you know, other than you know, trying to lead by example, to be a good person and you know, try to whatever, have some empathy, but try other than that. I mean, I totally agree. Well, so you mentioned that you had a great love and you mentioned Star Wars with your brother. You and your brother were kind of movie nerds. You like to watch.
I was way more of a movie nerd than my brother. He got into movies a little older. He did like watching sports, he wasn't big on playing them, even though he's very kind of fit and he takes good care of himself, but he wasn't into like the team sports up. I was just from a very early age, just hooked on the whole.
You know.
I don't know if you it sounds like you grew up in Philly in the seventies, sixties and seventies. Yeah, so you probably had your version of the Saturday morning horror movie.
Host that there.
I said, there was a monster movie and then an Abbot Costello movie, totally, and I just devoured all of them. And then me too, eight years old, Star Wars came out and that was it. It just kicked the side of my head in and I was completely, Oh, that's what I want to be doing. I want I want to get on the other side of that and be in that world somehow.
Right, right, But how does that how does that walk its way to comedy? I was or was that not? Even the impetus at the jump?
At the jump?
It was, well, I wish I had a deeper, more artistic story to tell you, but it really did get to the point where it was that summer between freshman and sophomore year of high school, Well that's the no, no, I'm sorry. The summer between freshman and sophomore year of college. That was the summer of nineteen eighty eight. I was okay, I just completed my first year of college, and that's the first time in your life when you really start to feel like, I better start figuring out what I'm going to do because in three years this is over and I'm out in the real world. And I did a bunch of different jobs that summer. I did everything. I was working at a law firm, and I was DJing weddings on weekends and it was just and I started doing open mics in DC and that's what stuck. It just and I was getting no positive reinforcement. Nobody was like what I was doing. But I loved the hang and I loved the life, and that's what I wanted to be doing. And it just clicked, and I'm like, oh, that's what I should be doing. I just I knew it. I knew it without being able to really articulate it. I knew that's what I should be doing.
Well, it's so interesting that you say that you love the life, and I'll have to tell you why, because I I it. When I think about comics, first off, I think that dollar for dollar, going to a comedy show might be my favorite kind of form of entertainment. I absolutely loved movies. I love it. I love to go to the theater, Yeah, But when I look at what I get from a from a comedy show, a special, you know, a single comic special. Oh yes, I'm talking about it. You know when people get up do you know ten minutes or seven minutes or whatever it is, you know you're going to see people do really well and do really badly. So there's this kind of like electric sort of edge that happens that and and when it's when it's really great, as a collective group, you all feel this tremendous sense of just you get so thrilled to be laughing that hard, and you get so thrilled for somebody when they're when they're doing well, and you feel so bad when they're not. And whenever you go to a comedy show, you're going to see that you know, and you're gonna be jokes that are gonna land and aren' gonna land, And there's a kind of danger to it that I really love. But the thing that blows my mind is that you went one day having never done this and you just walk up to a microphone. Yeah, I mean did you had you had you written it down, or had you stood in the mirror like what like like like like doing it, or I've done it for your friends, or.
I wrote stuff down on a piece of paper at the law firm I was working at and I lost that piece of paper. I had that for the longest tumm and I don't have it anymore, which is just as good, because the material was terrible. I wrote what I thought where it sounded like jokes based on what I've been watching on TV, on the cable shows and stuff like that, and so I just kind of went up, yes, exactly. But it was also that classic like I'm so not speaking in my own voice.
Yet I'm not comfortable enough on stage to just go, hey, here's what's going on. I was trying to do the rhythms of stuff I'd seen on TV. I mean, what's you know?
And so it was almost like stand up karaoke in a weird way. And what you realize is, and I'm sure you experienced this as an actor too. Starting out, one of the first jobs you have to do is to get over the fact that going on stage is a big deal. You have to get to the point where you don't think about that anymore, and that's when you can really start to cook. I'm sure the first time that you had an acting gig, you're like, Okay, where do I put my feet? Where? What do I I'm gonna walk in here? Like that has got to become second nature and then you can really be present in what it makes you're doing, you know. Yeah, So, I mean so I had to I had to get over that first.
That took some time.
And so is it the type of thing where like you go and you do one open mic and like a couple of things work, and then you try it again and a couple more work or or or or am I romanticizing it?
You're romanticizing because I went up and nothing worked, okay, But what I loved was the two hours before I was able to go on stage, sitting watching the other comedians, watching people riffing off of each other, and just that whole energy of it. And then you just keep going up over and over and it gets a little bit better each time, and again you get over the oh I got to think about going on stage, and then you're more and you can be more real. I mean, if you go to comedy shows, I'm sure you've seen those nights where someone does a joke and it doesn't land and then they make a joke about it not landing because they're so present in the moment and that gets a laugh. So when you can get to that point where you're like, here's this you're so present on stage, But that just comes from repetition. And yeah, there's a lot of there were a lot of open mics where oh boy.
It was. But you know what, here's what's great.
When you completely fail, I mean completely turf out.
There's nothing better than waking up the next day and going, oh, the world didn't end. It didn't matter. I could just keep doing this over and over and you get over that fear. And that's the best.
I have a buddy who's a comic and you talk about the you liked the world and seeing the energy, and I really like I would go sometimes with him and you know, just kind of hang not not go to not necessarily go to the show, but kind of what the process was of the hang it and it it is really amazing. Well, for one thing, there is probably not always and I might be romanticizing this as well, but that there's kind of a sense of community. Oh yeah, people that are you know at one point, you know, everyone is obviously competitive with each other, but also I get the sense that that people are also happy when somebody else, you know, kind of does well because it means that you have a chance of getting far ahead. And if somebody nobody's getting paid, that's the other thing that's like amazing, No, it's getting paid.
I did a show two nights ago here in the valley, right like five minutes from my house on Ventura, and for some reason, I guess they didn't promote it very well. A lot of just kind of old people sitting in this room that were not really tuned in. And it was other friends of mine on the show, and we were all the backstage was that weird camaraderie of like we are at an AARP conventions and I don't know what is happening out there, And that actually made it kind of fun that each of us was gonna go out and just support the and then you would come off stage to nothing.
This audience was so awful, But then.
That kind of became the event is watching the comedians kind of talk to each other even when they're on stage, like hey, Alonso, you were right, this is oh my god, what is happening?
Like that stuff? Then that kind of made it an event and I love stuff like that.
Yeah. Yeah, well now you have done the multiple multiple specials. Yeah, and they're they're amazing. And when you do those, how does that work? Is that? Is that a Is that a routine that you have toured around for a while before you actually do a special on it? Is that? Is that the way?
Yeah, you tour with it, you get the hour together and then you you know, nowadays, actually because there's so many streaming platforms, you go to Netflix or Amazon or Hulu or HBO Max or whoever wants to Hey, I've got this hour. A lot of times, you know, if you're new, you shoot it yourself. You invest a little bit of money and shoot it yourself and then see who wants to buy it from you and and broadcast it. Other times, if you're lucky, if you are enough of a name, a platform will go, we'd like to do a special with you, and they'll promote it and stuff like that. But it is right now, there is that kind of nineteen sixties American International Pictures drive in thing of like we shot it, who wants to pick it up.
And buy it?
Kiddn't know that?
Oh yeah yeah, because so who finance is it?
Who actually puts the money up? You get an independent investor or the comedian themselves.
Or get an independent investor the comedian themselves, They go to their friends, they do a kickstarter campaign and a lot of it. Like, you can really make something kind of captivating and and charming if you do do it super low budget, and it's like, oh, this isn't a rather and there's nothing wrong with these beautiful specials that are shot in like Madison Square Garden or you know, but there's something about like a.
Small the corner of a club.
And it's tightly packed, and you like some of those actually can feel way more immediate.
It.
It's the difference between like a late Zeppelin album versus an early Ramones album. You know, they both have their value, but that Ramones album really hits when you hear It's like these dudes carried their own equipment and I don't think they had more than a day in the studio, and this feels really raw and really amazing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, and I think, I mean, how do you feel do you feel that that the possibilities of you know, we're just coming out of the strike, so it's like, you know, kind of like, you know, I almost hesitate to say, hey, streaming is awesome, but there's a lot of there's a lot of in a lot of ways it is. But I think that for comedy it's been really good. I mean, it just seems like, yes, so many people are getting so much more exposure to uh, to so many more interesting comics. And I think that I talk to a lot of people that have just watched you know, one one special after another, and I've discovered people that I just were not on my radar at all.
It's it.
There's there's good and bad to it.
The good thing is, yes, newer voices can get themselves seen way easier. They you know, there's there's more production and post production ability in this thing than Orson Wells had when he did Citizen K. Like that's the level we're.
At right now.
But the problem, the only drawback is one of the advantages I had coming up in the I started in eighty eight was I had my time in the wilderness. I had my time getting to work on my craft with no one watching me, and I could figure out who I was before I made my debut. Now people are literally filming and posting their first open mind on TikTok, and sometimes early on you can find a voice that works for you early on, but then you evolve beyond it. But if you establish that that's your voice and that's what's getting you to go viral and get a million clicks, it's hard sometimes to break out of some of.
Your first choices.
And I do wish that there were certain young especially young feens coming up there I think are really brilliant. But it's like, oh, if you had just stayed in the wilderness for one more year, you would have really solidified who it is you are, you know what I mean?
Right?
But like I wish that for them. I don't wish them to be obscure forever. I just want the time for them to develop on their own terms and at their own pace.
Right. Well, it's the ten thousand hours thing, right and then.
You absolutely why were the Beatles so great because they did eight hours sets in strip clubs in Germany where the audience wanted to murder them, so they learned to get really good, really quick.
Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever have you ever been to the Reaper Bomb? No, yeah I have. Yeah. I went there actually with my son. We we took a father son trip a few years ago. Uh you know he my my uh his cousin. His cousin's dad said to me, you know, I took a trip with with Whitney. We just did like, you know, a father son thing. And I was like, man, I want to do that. So I asked my son, thinking that he would never say yes, and he was like, yeah, sure, I'll go. I was like, where do you want to go? And that was one of the places he wanted to go, was Homburg. Not not specifically to the Reaper Bomb, but just he just wanted to get for some reason. I think maybe having knowing something about the Beatles in those in those days and stuff like that. He's a musician, and uh it was. It was interesting. I mean it's still you know, you can it still has enough of the the feel that you can picture you can kind of fantasize about these young dudes being here and playing these you know, crappy little clubs and doing eight shows a day. As you've pointed out.
Well, that's okay.
So you're a musician too when you go into a space like that, because as a musician you play all different spaces, Graham theaters.
Smaller clubs.
When you go into the Reaper Bond, was there also that leftover vibe of like, oh, I here's how I would have adjusted what it is that I do to slay in this room, because sometimes you have to make adjustments, oh hundred rooms. So did you get that feeling like, oh, this is where the Beatles sound came out of because they adjusted to this.
Yeah, I mean that that And yeah, I mean if they had grown up, you know, playing in you know, concert halls, it would be right, be different. I mean, be a different man, for sure. I mean, and I think that also. You know, there's a lot of stuff I don't want to get too deep in the in the into the but there was a lot of stuff. For instance, the the how they learned to be able to hear each other and to be able to harmonize and be that tight in loud clubs with terrible, terrible sound, and oh my god, you know they monitors. I mean, it's it's it's it's kind of it's kind of remarkable. But so I want to ask you one more comedy question and then I want to talk about some other stuff. But I you know, there's a lot of kind of back and forth when it comes to talking about comedy and pain and painful experiences which you know, I know you have, and and and the use there's a lot of talk about the use of UH comedy to help other people deal with pain, right, But my question is like, how what does it do for you? And is it when when you can take something that is UH. And by the way, I come to this also thinking about the comics that I know, they often seem like they're coming a lot of them through difficult times or you know, painful experiences, And I wonder if there's a if turning something that is UH, you know, tragic or hard in one's life and turning it around and making people laugh is also has its own level of therapy for you. That's That's what I'm curious about it.
Yes, it absolutely. I mean even before I was doing comedy, I was using comedy. Maybe I wasn't necessarily writing it, but I was very awkward in middle school, early years of high school were kind of awkward. I would turn to Monty Python to embrace the absurdity of the world, or Richard Pryor and George Carlin to vet my rage, and there was all kinds of ways that that was a release, much same way as music and movies. I just realized that I could, I guess I could emit it in a way that could make other people laugh. And when you make other people laugh, not only do they are like, oh, I'm not the only one going through this, but it's this nice little reassurance that, oh, I'm not the only one going through this.
Like we are all.
We all encounter the kind of weirdness, and I mean, life is about loss and that could be really scary, but you can't turn away from that. You have to somehow embrace it. And one of the ways I guess to soften the blow of things being stripped away is to make a joke about it. And because I have a friend named Todd Glass who says, if you can mock it, you can manage it. And I've always believed in that, like that is what comedy is. I'm mocking it, you know, That's what like if you read something wicked This way comes by Ray Bradberry that the devil, the thing. The devil cannot stand in that book because people making jokes about him. It's like, no, no, I'm scary and I'm the one thing you can't make jokes. And then when the guy starts making jokes at it, starts to lessen his power. And I think that's such a great metaphor for the things in your life that are trying to get you down. If you start making jokes about him, they're like, well he doesn't like then you have you have.
Power over it.
Ah yeah yeah, so by so bye bye bye. But by making other people laugh at things that are are, you know, traditionally thought of as sad or or that would normally be thought of his sess, you're you're able to just to kind of confront things for yourself. By I love that. If you can mock it, that I I you can make it, you can manage it. If you can mack it, you can manage it. Let me write that.
Down exactly, seriously, write that down, so.
That but here you are. I mean, it's not just you're acting. You're doing a tremendous amount of voice acting. Grammy nominations, Emmy nominations. I think you've written a book or two couple.
Written two memoirs.
Two memoirs. I mean that you are a busy guy. Now now have you have you? Do you have a podcast?
I actually I had a podcast briefly during the pandemic.
My wife and I did one. But we got to the point where it's I mean, doing a podcast, you know, it's a lot of work. People think that, oh, you just go and you blap. No, there's work.
Involved in doing the podcast, really, and it was just getting to the point where it's like we're fighting a lot, Like we're actually fighting on this podcast that was meant to do.
So said, We did tip to two episodes. We're good.
I mean, I will eventually do a podcast again when there's something I really want to connect about, you know, like this what you're doing here, this feels very organic and very like, oh here's what.
But I have to wait. You have to wait to let that happen organically.
You know. So that you mentioned you mentioned your wife doing a podcast with her. I just had my wife as a guest on this podcast. Really was Yeah, which was interesting because I don't I don't I don't tend to interview her.
Yeah, it feels like an interrogation.
Yeah, it's like an interrogation. Uh. And and you know what was funny about it is that it was I thought, well, this is gonna be kind of goofy and fun. We'll just you know. It was actually one of the more serious kind of ones that that we I mean, yeah, yeah, which was kind of interesting. Plus we were also in the same house in different rooms.
That's how we did it. We Oh my god, we'd be in different rooms.
Yeah, god, yeah, that's hilarious.
Right.
But you guys is you guys Instagram videos during the strike where you were cut pair of goofballs when you were doing Saturday in the Park with Kazoo and you have to don't step in. That was like there was so much going on in that little clip.
It was great. Yet you know, we you know, I realized about that doing that kind of stuff during the pandemic. And the whole Instagram social media thing is that, you know, long before social media, I'd love to make little movies. I would send them to because you know, I'm on the road or she's on the road out of town. You know, I would always buy a video camera and send little things home to the kids. Or or to her, you know that, so that like that's sort of just a natural extension that the social media thing of what we already do to try to kind of. But it's also you know, I got it. I'm a little bit of a work a hawk. I gotta stay busy, create something. Yeah, And that's what that that that's what we were able to do during the pandemic, and it was fun to make it. But the reason I bring up having a podcast is that I you know, first, yes, you're right, it is more work than they tell you. And being on the other side of it, you know, having done you know, you know, for forty five years I've been doing interviews or something like that. To be on the other side of it is a completely different thing and one that you know, I haven't put in my ten thousand hours, but I'm you know, I'm trying. Yeah, you know. One of the things that I always think is there's certain questions that I get time and time again, and I'm like, I'm not going to ask those questions. And then here we are and I'm just about to ask you the same fucking question that I was hoping, you know, never to never to get asked of all these things that you do, between writing and comedy and acting and voice acting, what is the one that you can't do without.
I mean, it's the one that brought me to the dance at stand up comedy, and I'm not there are certain people that do stand up comedy to get out of stand up comedy and move to movies and TV shows. I do movies and TV shows to keep my visibility up there so I can do more stand up. I will always do stand up movies and TV. Writing that comes and goes, and I'm always grateful when it comes, but I will in the end, I'll still be doing stand up. It'll always be so I can keep doing stand up.
That's okay, that's my focus.
That's a great that's a that's a perfect answer. Yeah. And do you feel that Is it something that you feel you are constantly trying to get better at or is it just that you really love doing it and you want to keep doing it? Is it? Do you walk away from a you know, say, a special. I mean, I don't know how many how many specials have you done?
I mean full like eight at this point.
Yeah, I mean, that's that's a that's a true I don't think there's a lot of people that have done eight specials, have they? I mean, that's a tremendous amount.
Of it's a lot.
I mean a lot.
The thing with the here's any comedian will tell you this, And I'm sure you've experienced this as a musician. When I record a special, like a week to two weeks after, I suddenly think of, oh, if I had cut this one part out of the bit, it would have been better if I had done this one thing. So I'm sure you've laid down an album and then a week later you're like if we oh dead like and it drives you crazy.
I don't do it all the time. And you know, part of the part of the reason that you realize that is because you start playing the songs out yes, and then all of a sudden you go, you know, this actually should be like two or three bpm faster, and then the song grooves like in a way that it never did, or you think one hundred percent yeah, I mean yeah, I mean it's also I mean, listen, I bet that think it applies to acting too. I like to say that, you know, I figure out scenes when I'm in the van on the way home.
You know, I go, that's got to drive you crazy.
It does.
We're like that, why didn't I own my it totally does?
It totally does. But that's that's part of the process, you know. You can't Oh yeah, yeah, but you apply.
I mean again, I want to keep doing stand up, yes, because I love doing it, And yes, I want to get better that there's people coming up that no one knows about yet that are amazing, that keep inspiring me. I want to keep getting better at what it is I do. And what can I talk about that that shouldn't be funny that I can make funny? How can I what can I get away with? I mean, I just I'm a big believer in that. Be wary of someone who goes, I've been doing this for thirty years, when in actuality, they've done it for one year and they repeated that year twenty nine times. Like I want to actually do thirty different, constantly growing, evolving years. And I'm sure we know people that are like, you've done this one year and you kind of repeated that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, You're absolutely right.
We've met that kind of person, you know, But especially again, I'm a big movie buff you take weird lefts and writes. With your acting career, you are always like, oh, this might not work.
I'm gonna do this. Let's see what this does.
You know what I mean? I for better or for worse? That is something that I do. That's it true?
Hey, same with me.
There's been times I'm like, I'm gonna try. Oh good lord God, why did I sig you for that?
Yeah?
But that's what the people makes it exciting.
Is there anything else that isn't entertainment related that you do in your spare time? And are what's your other? Or is this all where it gets your relaxation?
It feels relaxing doing it. It's not that I don't have a life. I still hang out with my daughter, my wife, I read a lot, I hang out with my friends. But it's still it's all revolves around creating stuff. To me, it just feels fun. I'm not like, oh God, I gotta go do this. It's like, let me relax by.
Going on stage and doing ten minutes. That is relaxing to me.
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You know you also have a I think a lot of people have noticed and completely respect your you know, your activism and use your platform try a light on all kinds of really important things that it just demonstrates a lot of compassion and understanding and caring about about the world. But where do you think that comes from?
I mean, I'm still very very aware and very much remember everyone that helped me out coming up, all the little moments of grace and when someone else like stepped up to help me out when they didn't need to.
You know, I always say, and this is a paraphrase of what Roger Ebert always said, I never cry in movies when things are sad. What makes me cry is when someone decides to step up and help someone else out. That is like to me because it happens so rarely in our real lives. A lot at least it seems to be these days. So when someone's like, no, I'm gonna step up and help people out, that always really.
Lands with me. So why not pass that on?
If anything, do it for the selfish reason of it makes it a better world for me to live in. If you're totally self centered, then do it for that reason. But I mean, it just feels like you didn't do this by yourself. Give a little bit back, Yes, nothing wrong with making money and being successful. Give a little bit of it back. Just put it back out circulation. Why do you want to sit on your pile and just stare at it? It doesn't make sense, all right?
Right, well listen, I think that's a perfect segue to bring on Ron Fitzsimmons from Alice's Kids, which is this nonprofit that you have, you know, decided to highlight here today. Yes, yes, Ron, thank you so much for coming to the show. I know that you've met Stacey from six degrees dot org. You are based out of Alexandria, correct or somewhere in that.
Area, Mount Vernon, Techno, Vernon.
Yeah, right, right, and and and I've read some stuff about what Alice's Kids is, But maybe you could just give us a give us a you know, a thumbnail on on what it is and how you started it and where the name comes from.
Sure well, first of all, Alice was my mother who has passed. The idea came basically from my childhood. We had a very rough childhood living up in West Islip, New York, and my father abandoned us in nineteen sixty three, I believe, and we were forced to go on the welfare state system up in New York, bringing in two hundred dollars a month. My mother wanted to stay in the same neighborhood. It was in middle class town. She wouldn't move to what was then called the projects, I think, and so right away we started to stick out like a short thumb. We became the welfare kids in West isslife.
We would go to.
School wearing the same shirt every day, not being able to participate in field trips things like that. Every once in a while my mother would I'm assuming illegally go out and pick up a few extra dollars washing clothes, ironing clothes, and she'd come home very excited to announce that we were going shopping. Forget these these days when she would say, let's go to EJ. Corvette's and get that baseball blood, or to my sister, let's go get I'll ever forget this. Let's go get that new record by those kids in England. So it's funny you were talking about the Beatles that lifted us, and it made us proud. And the next day I couldn't wait to go to school with my new Converse sneakers with a new Dy Crockett chirp. Jump ahead many years and I was between careers or pondering careers, And one day I was substitute teaching at Mount Ernan High School and a kid was crying in the corner and I asked one of her friends what was happening. She said, well, Latrice can't go to the prom. And I said oh, and she said yeah, she can't afford it. My mother doesn't work and she doesn't have the fifty dollars. I went down and pay for the ticket. But then I had a thought, uh, And I started walking around to teachers in the school and I started asking them do you pay for things like this all the time? And they said, of course, we pay for books, we pay for art supplies, we pay for field trips, yearbooks, whatever it is. So this start, the thoughts started to evolve about creating charity that does that for children. I went to all the other charities in the area and I asked them if they do things like that, like do you put out fifty dollars for a back to school uniform? And they all said no. One person said they don't have petty cash drawers. So we created Alice's Kids with the thought that we would be the petty cash drawer for these kids who just needed a little bit of a lift. It started off very slow. This was about twelve years ago, and the big issue was how do you find the kids? Where are these kids who indeed this kind of help. So we started to establish a network of teachers in the Moulverne area who would refer to us kids that needed some help, and we would give them gift cards. Everything exploded three years later when a columnist named Teresa Vargas of the Washington Post heard about us, and she wrote a column and overnight we exploded nationally.
The media helping out, the media doing something good, positive exactly.
It's crazy what happened that weekend. I think we raised about three hundred thousand dollars our budget at that point was about twenty five thousand dollars. Wowow money Cake kept. And so immediately we became a national charity because we started getting money from across the country and and we started getting increase from people in Iowa and Nebraska, teachers and social workers saying, hey, can I send you a request? M So we started fulfilling them.
Yeah.
So that's basically how it started. And shortly thereafter after we started, I got an email that said a guy named Patton Oswell had.
Donated that was gonna be my next amount of money.
Okay, no, it's fine, no, no go, let's hear. Yeah.
So I was hauling and every time we get a donation, I get an email, and I saw a donation from Patton Oswell, and I knew the name. I'm going Pat Malls. Of course, my age, our first thing is Lee Harvey. You think of Lee Harvey for some reason, which I'm sure you get that bad. Yeah, but I'm thinking, thinking, think, And of course I didn't google it, but I recall asking my son, one of my sons. You know Patton Oswald. I know that name. He's the voice of Remy in Ratiituey he's this, and he's this. So I flipped out. I emailed him and thanked him profusely, and much to my shock, within like an hour, he responded, and I'm going Holy hell, and he said, no problem, man, like what you do and then he said the magic word. He said, let me know if there's anything else I can do. And so we went from there, and because of Patton, Steve Carrell learned about us, and so Steve is now a big supporter. Eric Roberts, you know, Alan Toodick. I mean, we've got a lot of good support out there because Pat kind of started that train.
Though, Patton, what was it about this one or maybe it's one of many, many, many causes that you decide to support, But was it something specific that you read or what was that moment?
Like, yeah, the thing that really really landed with me. And it's something that because I was never really able to articulate this, but it's very disturbing how in this country and you don't really see this in other countries as much. There's there's a weird level of poverty shaming that goes on almost we treat poverty like it's some kind of infectious disease. That it will you'll somehow catch poverty by you know, so you you you point it out, you make fun of it to like almost drive it away from you. And I think that that causes it causes a lot of problems later on in life. I mean, I think that it causes a lot of people that you see a lot of people now that there's a lot of millionaires that I think did experience some poverty early on and now are vengeful about it and are about, like, I want to get rid of social services because I had to use them, and I bet I could have made it without him, but I never got the chance.
So I've got to feel.
Like they're all trying to erase whatever shame was heaped on them by other people. And if we could get so this whole idea of doing it anonymously so that these kids, so that these kids can have a childhood, so they can just have a childhood and some dignity. I don't think he realized the astronomical dividends that pays off later in terms of just the mental and psychological health of the population.
So that the fact that Ron and his organization were really.
Able to pinpoint that, and also that Ron faced a lot of the stuff that he was just describing that he grew up with, and he remembered it. Rather than trying to tamp it down or attack it. He was like, no, we're going to this happens, and we're going to actually fix this problem. And it just the amount of empathy and that really struck me.
Yeah, and it's interesting too because as you point out, you know, you could go, you could go in the other direction, but clearly ron you you having having taken taken that experience of yours. Now I'm actually struck with a lot of people that I do connect with, uh on the on the on this podcast, who were who were involved with those causes and and they do have a personal connection like like yours to this thing literally being that kid you know, on welfare with a with a single mom who just you know, really could use a baseball glove or whatever it is. You know, it's it's it's amazing that you've taken that and and turned it into this this thing. Alice's kids, what would you say elaborate that kind of yes, please, please please explain.
When we were kids, we did get a lot of well intentioned charities coming to our doorstep giving those boxes of clothes and food and stuff. But honestly, but while we appreciate it, it was embarrassing, especially when they take your picture and put in the newslettersh Like Patton said, there's a lot of shaming. So what we do is we get a request from the teacher, let's say in Des Moines, asking for us to for a dick Sporting Goods card gift card for you know, for shoes, for soccer shoes. We get the request and within twenty four hours we send a gift card to the teacher. The teacher points out the gift card, gives it to the parent. Avery can then turn around to the child to say, hey, Johnny, let's go to Dick's Sporting Goods this weekend and get those soccer cleats or get those sneakers. The kid doesn't know, like Patten said, that they're getting charity. Yeah, they look at mom and say, oh my gosh, Mom, thanks so much. The teacher has a chance to shine. The kid goes shopping. You know how many of these kids would never see a Dick's Sporting Goods if it wasn't for that gift card.
So it doesn't interest and the parents get to have some dignity, right, Like everyone.
Wins in this. It's so it just again the payoff is exponential.
What are the types of things that the kids are most in need of that you're seeing are most in need of these days? Curious about that.
Well, it's it's clothes. Kids always need clothes. You know, there was growing out of clothes. Or we see a lot of school uniforms. A lot of schools are requiring school uniforms and kids are staying home because they can't afford school uniforms. We just got a request the other day for a kid who got accepted into a competition for future educators, but they required a certain dress mode and her power was unemployed and she couldn't afford the dress code uniform. So he paid I think it was fifty dollars we paid for that uniform. It could be a band outfit. Yeah, yesterday it was a girl who's growing too quickly and she she's very embarrassed by her large chest. When she goes to physical education. She has a horrible bra and she's you know, she's very embarrassed when she asked to do jumping jacks. This is an actual request that we got we paid for two bras was seventy five dollars. It was nothing to us, but it's a it's a it's a game changer. And you know, people talk about kids want new sneakers and stuff like that. What people don't understand is that these kids who were already stigmatized, they don't they don't want to stand out. They want to blend in. So when they go to school, they're not going around showing off their new shirt necessarily. They just want to blend in. They don't want to be stigmatized by the bully in that school.
Yeah, and also you were pointing out these there are some exceptionally talented kids who get opportunities academically athletically, but then that opportunity gets stimy because they can't afford the equipment. They have the ability, and then that ability gets thwarted and nipped in the bud because then they can't afford it.
So especially when.
Like this person made the national marching band but cannot well, it definitely paid for that stuff because that's a talent that's just going to feed their self esteem and help them see the world. You know, like that those really really land.
Yeah, that's amazing that is amazing. Well, Ron, what would you what would be the what would be the best way for I mean, I'm sure that there's a we can talk about where people can go to donate. Is there also opportunities for volunteerism or are you also on the UH website looking for people, because I bet you you're gonna get flooded with people calling and saying I know a kid that needs this, and how can people help out? Give us the This is the call to action?
Okay, many ways. Our website is Alice's Kids dot Org. You go to the website and clear as day, there's a donate button. Every dollar that we raise, you know, will go into that one pot. The more money we raised, the more kids we can help.
It's that simple.
And we've done very well in the past years because of Patten and others. You know, a budget a few years ago was about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now it's one point two million dollars. In fact, I'd have to say that big chunk of that was at one two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for us on Celebrity Jeopardy.
Early Awesome, Wow, Wow, Kira just went on Celebrity Jeopardy, Patent.
Well what women she did?
She did yet it was like just her worst nightmare. She hasn't trying to think anyway. Yeah, she was it hard.
It's it is so I don't want to take away from run. It's nerve wracking. And what's the worst part is the easiest questions are the ones that you think twice on because you're like, wait, it cannot be that obvious, and then you freeze up and then someone else gets it.
That's what, by the way, crazy.
By the way, I think it's great the highlights Celebrity Jeopardy because now we're seeing the where it actually goes and we're talking to the receiver two of this. So when you watch Celebrity Jeopardy ladies and gentlemen and you see Pat and Oswalt sweating it out, you literally know that this is that this is time and possible embarrassment. Well spent, but two hundred and fifty grand that's amazing.
Yeah, we were all sweating it out. Yeah.
Yeah, and Adam got a commendation from the Virginia House of Delegates. Were doing that because he went to William and Merritta, which I think I sent it to you. Pat, Oh, I have it.
Don't think I don't have it.
And by the way, you if they go to and I'm just I don't mean to speak for you, Kevin, but if you go to al is it Alice's Kids dot org. Yes, if you go to Alice's Kids dot org and donate because you listen to this podcast, technically you are one degree.
Away from Kevin Bacon. Kevin, there, you are now connected to Kevin Bacon.
Yes, I'm not I am not above selling degrees of separation. It's for a good cause. If it's for a good cause.
Yeah, And Kevin, I want to reiterate that what you do and what Panda it really does have an effect, you know that Teresa Vargas column. Like you said, media really has an impact, particularly when that's why Panda. Hate to say it, but Twitter is so powerful for us.
Yeah.
And Pat, so I was retweeting our stuff or re exing our stuff. But what you all are doing for other charities, yeah, but particularly it is very very commendable.
I appreciate it. Well, what you're doing is very much in line with what we're trying to highlight here, both on this podcast but also at sixty degrees dot org and that you know, we we like the fresh ideas, the cool ideas, you know what I mean, the new things that you just kind of come up with something you see a need and you figure out a way to help in their grassroots organizations. And there's a lot of really really giant charities that are doing great work and have great exposure and have very very lavish, you know, kind of events and stuff like that. But we also want to give a voice in a microphone to people like you Ron who have this you know, this idea and it's it's growing and it's helping kids. And I just want to say thank you and thank you guys so much for being here today.
Thank you very much.
Yes, thank you seriously. Nice seeing it again, Paton, great, seeing you again.
Kevin.
I've again don't want to be a movie nerd. Been a fan since Animal House, you all, and one of my favorite of many movies you're in. You're scene in Tremors with Fred Ward when you realize, oh my god, we can't make fun of that guy's lifestyle anymore, the crazy right wing gunnut who actually kills one of the worms, and your look on your face, you look genuinely concerned that, oh, we can't make fun of him anymore, and that was like.
A big part of our lives. One of the best line readings.
I love that. Thank you, thank you very much.
Yep, sorry, I had to run that in there.
Sorry, just doing what I can with what I've got. There you mentioning that, all right, fellas, Thank you so much for being here. Hey, thanks for listening to another episode of Six Degrees with Kevin Big. To learn more about Alice's Kids and all the special work that they are up to, all you gotta do is head to their website Alice's Kids dot org. You can find all those links in our show notes listen. If you've been following along all season. I just got to say special thank you for supporting these stories and all the great work that these organizations are doing, just to try to make this world of ours a little brighter. As always, if you like what you hear, you can subscribe to the show. You can tune into the rest of our episodes. Trust me, there're some good ones. You can find Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and see you next time
