Neal McDonough Talks Discipline, Marriage, and Working with the Rock

Summary

Adam Carolla Show Summary

Episode: Neal McDonough Talks Discipline, Marriage, and Working with The Rock
Date: January 27, 2026
Host: Adam Carolla
Guest: Neal McDonough
Additional Guest/News: Jason "Mayhem" Miller

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Episode Overview

This episode features Adam’s signature blend of biting social commentary and observational humor, centered largely on themes of government mismanagement, waste, and societal dysfunction. The main event is Adam’s in-depth and candid interview with actor Neal McDonough, who speaks about discipline, marriage, his faith, raising a family, making movies, working with The Rock, and the value of “diet and exercise” for all aspects of life. Jason "Mayhem" Miller chimes in with the news and adds witty banter throughout.

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Key Segments, Insights, and Memorable Moments

1. Corruption, Fraud & Government Waste (02:31–26:00)

• Embezzlement Story: Adam riffs on a recent LA case where a man embezzled $23 million in homelessness funds, highlighting the recurring theme of programs intended for the needy being siphoned off by scammers.

• Adam’s Take on Fraud:

  • "Or going away, homeless people and. Or needy kids are the best people to rip off. Cause they have no platform and they have no voice." — Adam Carolla (14:30)
  • Adam draws comparisons between "old school" cartoonish corrupt fat cats and today’s less obvious grifters, often shielded by “euphemistically” titled organizations (“Abundant Blessings,” etc.), and says that oversight is almost nonexistent.

• Satirical Social Commentary:

  • “Michael Moore's net worth is $50 million, ... but he dresses like an unemployed lesbian trucker.” — Adam Carolla (07:14)

• Bullet Train/Infrastructure Rants: Adam and Mayhem discuss the endless proposals for LA's bullet train and similar projects that never happen despite billions spent, likening the city’s governmental leadership to dreamers utterly removed from the realities of building or getting things done.

  • “You dream of a world where the homeless people have their own homes and stuff. You can do all you want... It never gets built because they can't. Because they don't know how to build anything.” — Adam Carolla (22:38)

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2. Societal Trends & Cynicism About Government Solutions (26:00–47:00)

• Government Inefficiency Analogy: Adam draws parallels between haircut chains in the free market and what happens when the government runs a monopoly — everything becomes absurdly expensive and inefficient.
  • “If you get rid of all of them and you just have one government run haircutting place, it's gonna be $500 per haircut ... that's how it works. Because it has to, because we're humans.” (45:00)
• Call for Common Sense, Not More Programs:
  • “What'll fix it is not having the program in the first place. That works for about 90% of them.” — Adam Carolla (46:33)

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3. Celebrity Culture, COVID, and Media Narratives (49:00–66:36)

• Salon Owner Vs. COVID Restrictions: Adam covers an infamous The View clip where female panelists confront a Texas salon owner for defying COVID restrictions—poking fun at their inability to form coherent questions and their support for government over working people.
  • "How about being on a show where you talk for an hour every day, but you can't form a thought or a sentence?" — Adam Carolla (55:47)
• Celebrity Groupthink: Discussion on Bill Maher’s advice for celebrities to “shut the fuck up” politically, and why Hollywood all ended up “in the exact same place” on hot-button issues.
  • “How is it that not one celebrity raised their hand and went, ‘I don't think these masks work...’? You want to know why? They need a job.” — Adam Carolla (63:48)

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4. Interview with Neal McDonough (71:21–103:05)

Core Themes: Discipline, Family, Faith, and Career

Discipline & Life Philosophy

• Adam: “I always smile when I think about you, Neil, because I just think about faith and family and hard work and diet and exercise. And it's so simple. Life is really basic. You people don't want to do it.” (73:16)
• Neal: Shares how his father’s immigrant work ethic and routine—“He lived till 91. He did three miles every day. He ate really well.... It’s simple. Discipline. Just get up and do it.” (74:24–75:05)
• Both discuss how “diet and exercise” is a metaphor for doing the work in all areas of life.

Marriage & Parenting

• Reverence for Spouse:
  • “You have such reverence for your wife, and you also sort of speak it out loud all the time, which I think is really important.” — Adam Carolla (76:23)
• On Family Hobbies:
  • Neal: “The more time you spend with your kids, like the quality time you spend with your kids, you will never regret one second of it. Not one second.” (82:37)
  • His family produces films together—his wife Reve as manager, his kids involved in acting, crew, etc.
• On Generational Parenting Changes:
  • McDonough: “If I'm in town, there's no way I'm missing one of my kids games or dance recital or theater. It’s a different time. You know, my dad was ... out with the guys, having a few drinks—that’s just a different time.” (86:32)

Career, Setbacks & Perseverance

• McDonough recounts growing up helping in his parents’ Cape Cod motel, instilling a lifelong work ethic and discipline.
• Shares how setbacks in Hollywood, including jobs lost over his stance on sex scenes and his faith, shaped him.
  • “If it weren't for those speed bumps... I wouldn't be here right now on your show talking about all the things that I've got going.” (89:00–89:21)
• Describes COVID as a “speed bump” that actually created new opportunities: working on small, meaningful projects, starting to write and produce films, spending precious family time.
  • “As horrible and atrocious as Covid was... for me, it was such a, you know, a different type of time of creativity that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Covid.” (91:25–91:48)

On Working with The Rock (Walking Tall, 2004)

• Behind the Scenes Anecdote: Neal shares a story about helping a then-nervous Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a pivotal scene, by ad-libbing a move with ketchup to snap The Rock out of “wrestler mode”.
  • “He had tears in his eyes. He says, ‘That was the bravest, coolest thing that anyone's ever done for me.’” — Neal McDonough (95:45)

Family & Traditional Roles

• Reve, His Wife: Described as “worth the climb every time,” and the organizational powerhouse behind the family's life and work. McDonough attributes much of his success to her support.
• On Gender Roles: Both Adam and Neal convey deep respect for traditional/historic “provider and nurturer” roles, emphasizing teamwork and appreciation over competition.
  • “It's all roles. ... There's a job for everyone. His job is on set. And being a dad.” — Adam Carolla (100:14)

Faith & Success

• McDonough: “There's one God. ... We should all be rooting for each other and love each other and not think that one thought is better than somebody else's thought or one religious guy is better than someone.”
• Both discuss the importance of humility, gratitude, and the drive to make the world better, not just career achievements.

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5. Notable Quotes/Timestamps

• “People having a hobby and having some engagement keeps you out of so much trouble. Because all your free time is spent when you have a serious endeavor, serious hobby.” — Adam Carolla (77:45)
• “Nothing is impossible to the man who doesn't have to do it himself.” (Thomas Jefferson, quoted by Neal's wife, 100:15)
• “I love doing TV shows. I love entertaining people. It's fantastic. But it pales in comparison to how much I love my family and God. Those are the things that always get me going.” — Neal McDonough (82:37–83:00)
• “I think it's different generations, too... my dad was ... talking politics and having a few drinks ... now it's just a different time.” — Neal McDonough (86:23)
• “If you are the custodian over it, it is a very, very rare person that it's not their money, but they treat it like it's their money.” — Adam Carolla (19:39)

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6. Episode Structure Reference – Timestamps

• 00:00–02:30: Show open, Adam and Mayhem Miller news banter
• 03:05–12:00: LA embezzlement case, Adam’s societal evolution rant
• 12:29–25:00: News reports, homelessness funding fraud, commentary
• 22:38–32:00: LA Bullet train rant, “Chick think,” and political leadership critique
• 41:52–48:00: News segment—“government hooch,” inefficiency, and “not gonna work” skits
• 49:00–66:36: Covid, celebrity politics, The View, media narratives
• 71:21–103:05: Neal McDonough interview: family, faith, discipline, stories of career and film, working with Dwayne Johnson
• 103:05–end: Episode wrap, promotions, closing

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Summary Takeaways

• The episode is an incisive, fast-paced blend of political/societal critique and genuinely heartfelt conversation about family, work, faith, and what it means to live a disciplined, fulfilling life—anchored by one of the most thoughtful, earnest interviews with Neal McDonough to date.
• Adam’s tone is as irreverent and sarcastic as ever, while Neal provides a warm, earnest counter-balance centered on gratitude, perseverance, and humility.
• Listeners get both a hilarious, biting roast of LA’s failures — and a master class in living well from Neal McDonough.

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Recommended Listening For:

• Fans of Adam’s unfiltered, satirical takes on society and government
• Listeners interested in Hollywood behind-the-scenes stories
• Anyone seeking inspiration on family, discipline, faith, and purposeful living

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[This summary omits all full-length ads and non-content interludes as requested.]

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

In this episode, actor from every movie you've ever seen, Neal McDonough joins me. Mayhem Miller's gonna do the news and we'll do all that right after this. Hey, this is Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla Show. If you care about predictions, you care about props. And nobody does props like bet online. For years we've been the home of legitimate sports betting with deep markets, sharp odds and player props that reward real insight from kickoff to final whistle. Betonline gives you live betting, instant updates and in game predictions that move as the action unfolds. Plus, elevate your play with betonline casino and VIP rewards bet built for serious players, prediction markets. Follow the conversation. Betonline defines it. Bet online. The game starts here.

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[Neal McDonough]

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[Neal McDonough]

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Adam Carolla]

Thanks for tuning into the Adam Carolla Show. You can watch the full show on YouTube. Just search Adam Carolla show and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can also get the podcast wherever you like to listen. And for extra content, ad free episodes and more, you can head over to our substack and sign up today.

[Show Announcer / Producer]

From Corolla 1 Studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Carolla Show. Adam's guest Today, actor Neil McDonough. And the news with Jason Mayhem Miller.

[Adam Carolla]

And now, Adam Corolla. Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. A judgment. Get it on. Mayhem Miller is in studio.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Get it on.

[Adam Carolla]

He's gonna be doing some news. I got stuff to talk about before that, which is how I roll. All right, let's see. First off story, we didn't get to yesterday, which is guy out of LA embezzled $23 million, by the way, feeding the kids, taking care of the kids, never doing anything with the kids. Also always the name. It's called abundant blessings. Right?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Dead giveaway.

[Adam Carolla]

Let me explain how our society has evolved, okay? There was always something called graft and there's always such a thing as lying and officials getting paid and kick and paybacks and all that kind of stuff, right? And that was the dominion of rich whitey. And every movie I ever saw when someone was ripping off somebody else, it was some red haired, oil executive, fat white guy smoking a cigar and he had a pinky ring. And you could see these guys coming from a mile away because they looked the part. Mustachioed, sometimes balding, sometimes balding. They were never waif models. They were never spindly. They didn't look like Gandhi. They were big because they were fat cats, well fed. They were eating at the trough of humanity for way too. So part of it is you had to physically look full all the time because you're constantly eating while people are going to bed hungry. Right?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Pork barrel chested.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. And they had like a nugget gold watch, and they smoked cigars. And they would always kind of come on to their secretary like they'd push a buzzer on their death. Anne Marie, you're looking good today. Turn around, let me get a look at you. Not too bad. And they did a lot of day drinking, but they didn't drink from the bottle that the booze came in. They put them in a glass decanter, a carafe. Yes, I think that word.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Decanter.

[Adam Carolla]

Decanter. They take this glass bottle. So here's what you do. Let me tell you how I drink. I drink. I pour it out of the bottle it came in.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

You're not uncorking a crystalline top.

[Adam Carolla]

I trust the Jack Daniel Company and all the other Manu and Stolli and everyone else that bottle their own booze, and then I just dump it right from the bottle. I don't do what they did in the 80s limousine thing where they had that weird glass thing with the weird cork on the top.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

But anyway, you're lighting a cigar with a hundyou do that.

[Adam Carolla]

You pour all your booze into one of those glass decanters. And then you could come in for a meeting for me at 10:45 in the morning. I'd be like, scotch, don't mind if I do. You know what I mean? You go pour yourself a cocktail. And then we call the secretary in again. She turns around again so we can get a look at it. See your toots. See a toots. And that's how guys who ripped off people rolled. Now, what they did, too, is they would go in and they'd go, I made the Dakota Tribe a lot of promises. I'm never gonna. I got them to sign over their drilling rights to me, and I've thrown them all off their land, and I sold it to Exxon, and I'm gonna come in there and I'm gonna drill and. Or I got. I'm doing some opal mining and I need uranium and I'm just gonna strip mine the entire. Their indigenous land, their heritage. I'm stripping, we're putting a mine in because I'm raping the land.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Burial sites be damned.

[Adam Carolla]

Be damned. I am raping the land and I'm getting paid. And I got my fat cat senators in Washington that have got my back. And that's how ripping off people in the government went back in the good old days. Well, somebody figured out that these guys are too easily spotted now and it's too easy. And the indigenous people go on social media and they make a lot of noise and they. Next thing you know, Charlie Sheen's dad is down there and he's chained himself to a bulldozer and I can't strip the land or rape the land anymore. All right? But at some point somebody figured out, look, instead of that guy who's from central casting is very easy to bust. We instead get women and. Or people of color. Or women of color. Heavy set is always nice. And by the way, do not dress up with pinky rings and coming in dressed to the nines. We're gonna put you in frocky stuff. We're gonna dress you. I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna dress you like Michael Moore. Yeah, Michael Moore's net worth is $50 million. He makes films, makes stocks. His net worth is $50 million. But he dresses like an unemployed lesbian trucker.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

He just dresses, baseball cap and you know what I mean, right?

[Adam Carolla]

He wears a baseball hat like somebody put it on him. He never wears a regular cap. It's a scrunched up, worn out and it sets on top of his head and then he schlubs around in T shirt and sweatpants. But he's worth $50 million. But we don't. He's one of the good guys and we don't wanna go, hey bitch, you're always talking about millionaires. Aren't you a millionaire, you fat ass? No, but if he wore a pinky ring and a cummerbund and a pocket watch and we would see him coming and we would complain. So what we figured out is who looks least likely to rip people off and punish the kids and hurt and the government. And the answer is women number one. And then like I said, if we can find Somali, that'll be good. We need a group that's been marginalized cuz they can't rip off the government because they've been marginalized. And then I'll tell you what, let's not make it about drilling Rights or mining rights on land. It's all going to be about the kids. It's all gonna be about the kids. And then we're gonna give everything a euphemistic title, First Steps Forward for young kids this marginalized. What do we do? We help marginalized youth get back to the path of healing. Okay, so now we've given ourselves these euphemistic bullshit happy titles. Our business is about helping kids, feeding kids and giving kids a helping hand and helping the marginalized and the poor people helping. And then we rip the government off. And it'll fly under the radar because your people will be in charge of oversight and they'll just keep cutting you checks. And if somebody ever says, hey, let's look into this guy, then you go, oh, you don't like kids? I'm here for the kids. These kids are marginalized. They're on the spectrum. They have down syndrome. And they're kids of color who are being pushed to the sides of society. And I've come in to try to help them. And then the person goes, oh, yeah, sorry. All right, here's your check.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

In the fight world, we call it as pulling guard.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

You flop down on your back, you're already in a submissive position. You're very deadly from there.

[Adam Carolla]

Right fucking heel right in the larynx. All right, so this is the story of the guy. And also, maybe I'll tell my kids, but if you're going to rip people off, don't get a Lamborghini.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I just got a new Bugatti.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Got it?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. All right, here's the story. The Department of Justice today announcing the latest arrest by the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force. The man who was arrested this morning in Westwood is charged with collecting more than $23 million in homelessness funding. Eyewitness News reporter Rob Hayes live on our newsroom with these details. And this is infuriating.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

Yeah, Mark, this is one of those cases that just infuriated flames the public. Investigators say millions of dollars of taxpayer money supposed to help the homeless instead helped a Westwood man buy a seven million dollar home. And a lot more that suspect now facing decades in prison when voters passed LA's proposition HHH in 2016 and LA County's Measure H a year later. The plan was to generate billions of dollars to solve the area's skyrocketing homelessness problem. But today, prosecutors say millions of those tax dollars paid for a Range Rover, a Four Seasons vacation to Maui and a second home in Greece.

[Neal McDonough]

People are literally dying and this guy is out vacationing, buying homes, buying Range Rovers and going shopping.

[Adam Carolla]

Pause it for a second. What is HHH stand for? I'd be curious. That.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Housing and Homeless.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, right. It's something, right? So look, people, how do you spend 24 billion on a problem? And the problem is worse. The answer is you didn't spend the 24 billion on the problem. It's physically impossible. It's literally like every homeless person would get 180 grand at 24 billion. Now, why Newsom and Mayor Bass and Mayor Garcetti before Mayor Bass and whomever. California legislation. Why no one ever thought to look into. This is the insane part. Because we've known we spent $24 billion. It has to be on fraud. It doesn't mean it's all on fraud. It just means a huge portion of it is on fraud. But we'll continue the story here.

[Neal McDonough]

Nutritious Meals a Day. This is what he was providing. Ramen noodles and a microwave. And he was pocketing the rest of the money.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

And it's not just the feds Suffer has to worry about. The LA County District Attorney's office has also charged him with 18 felony counts in connection with defrauding the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

[Neal McDonough]

Mr. Suefer, when? Not if. When we convict him on the state.

[Adam Carolla]

Criminal charges is looking up to 17.

[Neal McDonough]

Years in state prison.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

And that's in the.

[Adam Carolla]

Can you pause it for a second? I want to say this.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I'm fired up, man.

[Adam Carolla]

Listen, you idiot bureaucrats, okay? This guy's a criminal. Fine. You made the soil fertile for him. Prop. HHH stands for Homeless Reduction and Prevention. All right, guys, so it's not all right. So listen, you idiots gave this guy 23 million. We're never gonna get that money back. You understand? He can't. He doesn't have a job. His job is ripping you dodos off. So he's not gonna pay that back. But not only all these people that took all this money who are never gonna pay it back because they can't pay it back, they're also gonna go to prison for 17 years. And then we're gonna have to pay 75 grand a year to incarcerate these guys. So not only are they never going to pay back the millions, they're going to take millions to be incarcerated.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Think of the prison jobs they created.

[Adam Carolla]

You guys created all this shit by not having any form of oversight.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I mean, look, man, look. I've been walking out of here with.

[Adam Carolla]

A highlighter a day for a long.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Time, and finally somebody called me on it. They're like, you're taking all the highlighters.

[Adam Carolla]

Mayhem.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Go buy some highlighters. And I won't name that person that you know, that's how it works. And now this guy, what, he's gonna go do time? He's gonna be a nice bedsore for some other inmate. And you know, what the hell? We don't get any of that money back. None of them homeless people who are collecting outside in front of my house.

[Adam Carolla]

Or going away, homeless people and. Or needy kids are the best people to rip off. Cause they have no platform and they have no voice.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

There is a man who stole homeless people's identities and murdered them. That's a thing on Dateline. I'm sorry. It popped into my head.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, listen, we literally gave checks during COVID to people who were incarcerated. So we have no oversight. So Gavin Newsom is disgusted by all this stuff, but he's in charge of all this stuff. I mean, he. Look, here's my whole point. The Duke lacrosse guys who were accused of rape, guess what? Coach got fired. Why'd the coach get fired? He wasn't at the party raping the chick who was never raped. But either way, why'd the coach get fired? Cuz he's the coach. He's not there. But that's his team. And this is Newsom's team. All right, sorry. We'll continue the play here.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

The feds say Suefer illegally siphoned off at least $10 million of it. Money that was supposed to feed the homeless.

[Neal McDonough]

Instead of providing three nutritious meals a day, this is what he was providing. Ramen noodles and a microwave. And he was pocketing the rest of the money.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

And it's not just the feds Suffer has to worry about. The LA County District Attorney's office has also charged him with 18 felony counts in connection with defrauding the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

[Neal McDonough]

Mr. Suefer, when, not if, when we.

[Adam Carolla]

Convict him on the state criminal charges.

[Neal McDonough]

Is looking up to 17 years in state prison.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

That's in addition to the federal case that can earn him up to 20 years behind bars. Suffer is one of three men recently charged in alleged homelessness fraud cases. But even though today's actions point the finger at super, federal prosecutors were also quick to place blame on Lassa, the Homeless Services Authority.

[Neal McDonough]

I think they've been unable to account for about $2 billion or something like that. And that's just in L. A. They just want to keep pushing money out the door. Billions after billions of billions of dollars. Because I guess it sounds good in a press release.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

Now, this afternoon, Lassa sent us a written response to that saying, in the case of abundant blessings, we identified issues, investigated and substantiated those concerns, terminated their contracts and. And referred them to the proper authorities. We will continue our efforts to monitor provider performance to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to address homelessness as effectively and efficiently as possible.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, so listen, it's impossible. And it's impossible because of human nature. You know, when they go, how come for the military a toilet seat is $5,000 and I can go to Home Depot and get one for night? Because that's how. That's how human nature works. That's how the system works. My thing is, no mas. You gotta cut it all off. Like, you gotta feed your own fucking kids. I don't know, daycare. Call Nana, have her move out from Kentucky and watch the kids. That's on you. All these programs, it's always waste. It's all waste.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

But I feel like it's possible to catch it before this dude gets 23 million. 16 million. They had three guys up there with a combined net worth. You know what I mean? 50, 60, 80 million. So how do you catch it? Before that, they caught me taking the highlighter. Eventually you start to add up who's got the highlighter. But now, I don't know. It's just everybody's paid to look the other way.

[Adam Carolla]

The system. Okay, well, sometimes it's the system. In Minnesota's case, Tim Walls and Mayor Jacob Puss is. The Somalis are his. That's his conspiracy.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, I'll tell you, here in California, I have the unfortunate adventure to go into one of these homeless places, live there how long? Six months. At least. I had to do the terms of my probation. You know, you have to go to a halfway house when you come out of prison, and you have to show the world that you're like a normal person again. And some of those guys were not normal. But I did notice that all the staff that worked there had a brand new Dodge Charger or like a cool car with rims and a cool. And I was like, whoa, I need to get into this business. I'll immediately have a sweet car. And all I got to do is yell at this crazy homeless guy. Yeah. Yeah. I felt like I was going to get into that industry if this one didn't just drag me back in. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

So, yeah, I knew.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I knew. You know, and maybe he ran one of those because those guys were balling out of control.

[Adam Carolla]

Anytime there's invisible Money flying around, invisible money, not your own money. Listen, I was married to a woman who just spent money. She didn't care. She didn't know. She didn't care. The point is, it wasn't her money. She didn't go on the road and it was just a number. It's just invisible. Just call grub. Use Your app, get GrubHub to bring dinner over. Didn't know. Didn't care.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Got it.

[Adam Carolla]

If you are the custodian over it, it is a very, very rare person that it's not their money, but they treat it like it's their money. It's an impossible situation and it's always gonna lead to this. And then what you're gonna have is you're gonna have a bullet train that's 25 billion over cost. And we're already 20 billion in the hole and we have no bullet train. And who really cares? Like, whose money is it? Like, imagine if that bullet train is your kitchen remod.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

No, I've been imagining it for years because I'm in the fight business. They said, oh, they're going to have one up to San Francisco. Oh, cool, I could train up there. Oh, cool, they're going to have one to, you know, I've been here the whole time, Ace. Like somewhere in California is close to my heart. So I noticed. Never happened.

[Adam Carolla]

So it's never going to happen. Oh, there's a clip. Andrew. I liked it. Remind me. It was Nithya Dingbat Raman, who was one of the biggest dingbats in our city council. But they did a whole speech about they're gonna build. I don't know if you know this, but they're gonna build a train that goes from the valley through the Sepulveda Pass to the west side. Now, there's a couple of things that were funny. Ed Begley Jr. Famous actor who's also a conservationist, who rides his bike everywhere. I mean, that guy walks the walk and talks the talk. I've been to his house. I mean, he's got recycled everything, gray water, this holding tank for irrigation. I mean, Ed Begley Jr. Is the guy who lives it. Al Gore is the guy who gets paid off it. But he's got a bunch of mansions and flies. Private Ed Begley rides his 10 speed everywhere in Los Angeles. And Ed standing there, God love Ed. He's the nicest guy in the world. But because he's the guy, he's standing behind this news conference of city council people who are talking about how great it's going to be to build this train through the sepulveda Pass, the 405. It's what gets you from the Valley to the west side. And it has tons of traffic on it. Now I'm looking at the press conference and I'm like, well, Ed Begley Jr, God bless you, but you're 76 years old. You're going to be dead before the first piece of track is laid, if it's ever laid at all. Number one, I love Ed Begley Jr. Ed, you're going to be in the ground before anyone travels one foot on this fucking fantasy train. That's never. That's never going to happen. All right, that's number one. Number two. Well, I'll play the clip, but it's funny, cuz here's what I'm speaking about, people. Here's what I wanna say. And this is the Chick think era we're in that nobody really fully can wrap their mind around and think, I'm a misogynist. They sit around and dream. They dream big. They got all kinds of plans and wouldn't this be great? And so what they do is they go, you know, the average Los Angeleno wastes 59 hours a year sitting in traffic. We're gonna do this train. And that time will then be spent with their children instead of sitting in traffic. And then they go, my work is done. And they go home. And it never gets built because they can't. Because they don't know how to build anything. They don't know what they're doing. Trump, remember, Commercial building, commercial builder. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Let's go, go, go. Build, build, build. These bitches don't do anything. They have conversations about everything and nothing ever gets built. And the more of these bitches you have in your city council, the less you're ever going to get done. And that's what we experience in la. But here we go. Sorry. We'll play the clip.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

The Sepulveda Transit corridor project has been an aspiration and the intention of the region since at least 1980, when Prop A maps showed a still mark.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, all right. They're already get out of the gate going. Since 1980, we've been talking about this. Last I checked, that's 46 years ago. I love the artist's rendition. You know what we're gonna have to do with la? Let's just get rid of LA and do an artist rendition of la.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I think Pam from the office drew that.

[Adam Carolla]

They have, oh, this is what it's gonna look like. Happy people on this Monorail going from west to east.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

No.

[Adam Carolla]

Never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

It's so epic in that 80s photo.

[Adam Carolla]

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[Show Announcer / Producer]

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Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. This is the mindset.

[Neal McDonough]

Free.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

This is the mantra.

[Adam Carolla]

Free.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

This is the mindset. With movies like Joe dirt, pixels and 50 first dates. This is awesome. And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Fairly Odd Parents, and Ghosts, Pluto TV is always free.

[Adam Carolla]

Huzzah.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Pluto TV stream. Now pay. Never. You're welcome.

[Adam Carolla]

Let me. All right, I'll play it out and then I'll tell you about a little lady named Helen Gorog. Who's Helen Gorog? Well, that's Adam Carolla's grandma, everybody. Here we go.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

The project has been an aspiration and the intention of the region since at least 1980, when Prop A maps showed a Sylmar to Long beach alignment. The desire to create a valley to west side connection was reiterated in Measure R in 2008 and then again in 2016 with Measure M. Never gonna happen. Every weekday we see over 400,000 vehicle trips through the Sepulveda Pass. The San Fernando Valley commuters lose 59 hours every year to taunt.

[Adam Carolla]

And what could they be doing? Those 59 extra hours they get back after they build the monorail. Drinking, beating the elderly. What could they be doing? Let's see.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Go ahead.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

Fernando Valley commuters lose 59 hours every year to traffic delays just from their evening home between Wilshire and Ventura Boulevard. That's a work week and a half of time that parents lose with their children.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, they're Texas.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

Today we have a solution.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Okay, here we go.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

Currently, only 2% of people who make their way through the past every day do so Using public transportation. What we have before us is the potential to take more than a quarter of those 400,000 meters out of their cars.

[Adam Carolla]

I got a potential for starting in the NBA.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

More people choosing to use transit instead of personal vehicles creates a commuting culture, a culture of ridership, and brings along all of the social and economic benefits of that come with it. And there have been thousands of community voices who have informed this project over the years. And representing the third district means this project serves most of the communities that I represent. So I want to thank everyone who has engaged us. Your input gave us all the opportunity to make this project better. And I see so many of your thoughts, perspectives, challenges, hopes and dreams.

[Adam Carolla]

That's good.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah. You know, I wasn't buying it with the piano music, but then they showed 12 iron workers and totally got me on their side. I'm ready, Lindsay.

[Adam Carolla]

Lindsay Horvath, who's not going to do any of this shit and will never pull it off, but she's happy about it. That's not the clip I was talking about, but that one is one of them and it's good. The one is the aforementioned Ed Begley Jr. Standing in the back. And it's. He was there. Nithya Raman. Oh, did I miss him? Oh, was I looking down for Ed? This is another clip. There's a clip of Ed. There's a clip of Ed Begley. Oh, yeah. No, this is Nithya Raman doing a speech and he's in the back. It's the same subject. Okay, so what is this? This is Chick think. This is a bunch of women dreaming of a world where we have world class. Like, we're Japan. We got a bullet train. You've been on the bullet train in Japan, right?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Oh, beautiful. Yeah. You're flying 240 miles. It doesn't really seem like it, cuz you're just floating through. But then look out and when the grass is close, it's flying by.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? And here it is, by the way. Here's by the way. Nithya Raman, who went to Harvard, who is a dingbat. She is the one who was angry at Toyota for making their catalytic converters too easy to steal. She's also the one who snapped into action and pulled down the no U turn signs and no cruising signs in West LA so gay guys could have sex on people's lawns. I know, so. And then turn around and then cruise again and nail some other guy in the keystairs. So for the homeowners there, it's Real important. Cause you want that. You want condoms in your shrub. But she also is in the district of the one who tore down the tree house that all the kids loved in the neighborhood because they didn't have a permit. So she.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

She just coming with bangers.

[Adam Carolla]

She's hard at work. So let's listen to her.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

One who has ever tried to cross the Sepulveda Pass at rush hour knows the feeling that I just had coming here this morning. The brake lights, the slow crawl, the sense that no matter how early you leave, you're still late. That is Life on the 405 right now. So if we are serious about resolving congestion, we need a true alternative to sitting in your car on the 405 that is the Sepulveda Transit corridor.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, pause it. Now here's the thing, nutbag. I'll tell you who could do this. Rick Caruso, commercial developer, could do it. Donald Trump, commercial developer, could do it. Elon Musk, could do it. But you don't like any of those guys. You got a whole band of dingbats who you want to do this and they can't do it because they don't have any experience doing it. Elon would knock this shit out on a weekday. This would be a Trump project. And Rick Caruso certainly could do it. But we didn't elect Rick Caruso. We elected Karen Bass, who goes to Ghana. And when in between stops at Cuba and dances in ceremonial garb, these bitches can't do anything. And neither can you guys. But the thing is, is I don't know that they don't know they can't do stuff. This is never going to happen. Ever. But go ahead, play it on. Let's hear what Nithya and why she took time out from ripping down citizens tree houses to make this speech interesting. And that's what Metro board is going.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

To be voting on the Sepulveda Transit corridor project, which is expected to ease one of the worst traffic trouble spots in LA.

[Adam Carolla]

Now according to one traffic study, 400,000 commuters drive between the Valley and the.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

West side on the 405 freeway every single day. The hope is that this new rail.

[Adam Carolla]

Line will ease traffic congestion. That's the hope. 100,000 commuters per day, not gonna happen.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

San Fernando Valley commuters lose.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, all right. Yes, we know all the bad part. Then there's the good part where you build a railroad. Except for it's never going to happen.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Even if you build that railroad. What the hell, you just get to the other side.

[Adam Carolla]

There's going to be homeless guys shooting up junk the whole time. Look, look, let me tell you the story of Helen Gorog, okay? Helen Gorog. Helen Gorog is my grandmother. She married a guy named Laszlo Gorog. And I don't really even know her maiden name. Maybe it was McCall or something. She's my mom's mom. Although my mom didn't like her and she didn't like my mom, so that was pleasant, you know, growing up and whatnot. My mom didn't like her so much, she called her Helen like Bart Simpson calls Homer Homer. Wow. She didn't call her mom Mom. Yeah, that's always weird to me. But anyway, that's where I come from. Helen Gorag lived in North Hollywood, California. By the way, home's still there. Mom's gone, Dad's gone, Stepdad's living in Helen's house. He's got his new lady friend in grandma's house. You understand? My mom went from grandma's broken down house to grandma's better house and then died. Now got my stepdad. He earned it, he deserves it. So he's living there now. Now that house is in North Hollywood. My grandmother worked at the VA her entire adult life, the Veterans Administration. Which is ironic because she hated this country and she hated veterans. She hates this country and she hates the Army. But she took the money from the Veterans Administration her entire adult life, which, you know, no hypocrisy, nothing. No, that's awesome. Meaning anyone will do anything for money. All right. She didn't get rich. She had like a medium level job at the VA. The VA and North Hollywood are basically that stretch of the 405. She's in Westwood at the VA that's literally right off the 405 on Wilshire. And she lived in North Hollywood, which is right on the other side. So literally her commute was. That passed. That sepulved a pass every single day. That poor woman. And they had ride sharing, commute stuff. Like the VA probably couldn't implement it if you had a small business, but if you are the va, they can mandate that you carpool.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And my grandmother had to carpool with a dude who drove a custom pickup truck. So my grandmother hated all American. Anything American. Hated everything American. She hated, you know, Clint Eastwood. And she, she.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

But you said McCall. So she was a. She's an American.

[Adam Carolla]

She's very American. She's.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

But Laszlo Gorog turned her to communism.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no. Hating her dad, I got. Turned her into, into communism. Right. Because her dad was a cement contractor who liked hunting and fishing and was a dude and was probably like a fifth generation. I mean, this guy grew up in Los Angeles in the teens, in the turn of the century. Like he was here white dude here in Los Angeles, you know, when California was founded, you know, like that missions, you know. So she hated her father and her father became the man. And then that becomes the country and that becomes Uncle Sam and now becomes Donald. And now Donald Trump is all the crazy bitches of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Hate their dads. They don't even know. They don't really know what Trump's doing. They just know they hate their dad and so they hate Trump. And she hated this country. She hated, like my grandmother hated, let's say John Wayne the most out of anybody. So iconic TV hero, stood for this country and the west and everything. And she would have been over the moon about Mamdani. She would have loved that. She would be miserable that Trump was president. She would love Gavin Newsom. She loved all the fucking loser socialist idiots, right? So. And she had to do a ride share with a dude who liked country music and drove a pickup truck and was miserable about it. And this dude would show up every day at 7:05 and pick her up in his mini Chevy Love customized pickup truck with Hank Williams playing. And my fucking grandmother, who loved everything Europe, she married a Hungarian guy cuz he's European.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

She had this romantic notion.

[Adam Carolla]

She was the only person in North Hollywood in 1962 who was driving a Peugeot automobile. Not because it was a good car, it was a piece of shit. And not that you could get parts for it or get it repaired back then, but it was European. She wasn't gonna be driving a Chevy anywhere, right? So my grandmother lamented her crazy commute every single day from her little shitty house in North Hollywood through the Sepulveda Pass, 405 and into the VA. And then they would knock off at like 5 o'.

[Neal McDonough]

Clock.

[Adam Carolla]

She'd get back in this pickup truck and sit back and sit in traffic. We're talking about 1972 here, everybody. Like we're, we're not going back 18 years. We're going back 60, 70 years. My grandmother probably started at the VA. 55, 57. I mean 60. She sat in that goddamn traffic until she retired in like 2002 or three or something like that. Like she literally spent 40 years in that stupid traffic. This has been a problem for a very long time. We just spent 24 billion on homelessness. I know not where the money went. Seems like we could have got a monorail for that cost. Also, does anybody who goes, hey, we're gonna build a train from Bakersfield to Merced. Does anyone raise their hand and go, does anyone know anyone has ever went from Bakersfield to Merced? No. Okay. Does anyone know anyone who's been stuck on the 405 on traffic? Yes, Me, today. Okay. How about we do that project and then we'll do the Bakersfield thing, which is never gonna fucking happen. And it won't happen. It can't happen because these people can't pull it off. Do they want to do it? Maybe. Do they have the skill set to do it? Absolutely not. They have no ability to do this. And they don't realize what that experience is. You could give this problem to Elon Musk and he would do it. But you yentas who went to Ivy League schools and who sit around and pontificate about things all day and never fucking do anything. You guys can't do it. You can't. You don't have a mayor that can do it. You don't have a governor that can do it. These people don't create anything. Maybe I'm sensitive about it because I'm a builder and people. If you don't have the ability to do it, you don't have it. You don't have. I can't play the harp because I've never played the harp. You could put me in front of it. You could show me sheet music. I can't do it. I don't have any experience with it. These dumb shits in the city council don't come from anywhere. There's no, like. Well, we had a big construction outfit that my family ran for 50 years. No, there's none of that. You don't do anything.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I figured we could have like one lesbian with the hard hat out there somewhere who knows how to get stuff done, but we don't. She has not surfaced. She has not pulled the sledgehammer from the stone.

[Adam Carolla]

No. So there is none of that. King Arthur, none of that will happen. So we can have one of these pressers where we're talking about wanting something. And we can have a presser where we talk about no kid goes to bed hungry and everyone gets world class healthcare. And you dream of a world where the homeless people have their own homes and stuff. You can do all you want.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Hey, if you give me $23 million, hey, I'll figure out how to get the homeless to Bakersfield and Merced and stay there.

[Adam Carolla]

You Could.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, first off, I'll just say, and bring drugs there. $24 billion worth of dope. Everybody will be in America will be at my party.

[Adam Carolla]

Sorry. They have some sort of fantasy utopia that always involves mass transit and never works. It never works. And if they ever do do it, it's just gonna be junkies camping out.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

A place for the homeless to sleep. My bullet train.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. All right, let's see. Do we have the news? And we asked Andrew for a little clarity on his time. Put it on my screen. I'm not sure exactly how this works, but let's do some. Let's get to some news. Mayhem.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

All right, no, break right into it. Here we go. It's last call for San Francisco's government hooch. A Covid era program that guzzled $5 million of taxpayer money annually to serve booze to the homeless alcoholics will finally shutter this year.

[Adam Carolla]

Could I be. Let me tell you what I wanna do. Can I tell you what I wanna do? I want a job to be the arbiter and gatekeeper of bad ideas. Okay.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I thought you were gonna say Shotgirl for the homeless.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm gonna take my bit that some people saw and my vlog, which is. It's not gonna work, and just take it worldwide. I'm just gonna walk in to the San Francisco City Council meetings and I go, all right, we got a plan. It's called judgment. Free injection sites. We give out. Now, hear me out. We give out syringes to the junk, and I'll just go, not gonna work. Not gonna work. What's next? And I'll go into ups, and they'll go. We have a campaign called what Can Brown do for you. Okay, not gonna work. Not gonna work. What's the next idea? What else we got? We're giving out Jagermeister shots to alcoholics who pee in the park. Okay, not gonna work, not gonna work. What's next? We'd like to defund the police. Okay. Nope. Not gonna work. Not gonna work. We don't want a border wall. Because walls don't keep us out. They don't keep people out. They keep people. Okay, not gonna work. We're gonna have a border wall. Give me the next.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Are you jumping out in these? Are you breaking through walls? Is that not gonna work?

[Adam Carolla]

I show up in every planned meeting.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Oh, out of the frame.

[Adam Carolla]

I would do that. I would have showed up the middle of that press conference in front of Nithya Raman and just stepped in front of me. Ed, how you doing? Looking good. I Think someone stole your 10 speed, by the way. Anyway, this monorail. Not gonna work. Not gonna work. What's next?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

You're like the Dikami Mutombo of this Mutombo?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. No, no, no. What's his first name?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Dikami.

[Adam Carolla]

His name's.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Now forever.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. All right, so not going to work, everybody. It's not going to work.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, you know, look, there's a new mayor in San Francisco and he's trying to clean that all up. He's getting rid of that program. He's getting rid of a lot of the other programs and he's gonna. He vows if you do drugs on our streets, you will be arrested. And instead of sending you back out into crisis in crisis, we will give you a chance to stabilize and enter recovery. So he's offering a hand up for these poor guys. But yeah, they paid $55. I mean, 55 men, like over. It's ridiculous. Ace, listen. 55 clients amounting to $454,000 bar tab per. So they spent. So I mean, I wonder who got a charger on that one.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what I mean?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I'm in the wrong business, Ace.

[Adam Carolla]

Listen, here's the deal, everybody. With the government, please understand. There is a super cuts and a sports cuts and a sports clips and American clips and a super clip and a sport clip and a NOW clip and a THEN clip and they're all within like seven miles of each other. And so I can get a haircut for like $22, no problemo. any of these places all the time. If you get rid of all of them and you just have one government run haircutting place, it's gonna be $500 for per haircut and you're gonna go, what? That doesn't make sense. It's like when they go, we're gonna build it. We're going to build homes, miniature homes for the homeless. The miniature homes for the homeless are like 250 square feet and they're 785 grand a unit. And you can buy ranch house outside of Nashville for that because we left it up to the government, everybody. And yeah, you can go to the airport and get a Budweiser and for three bucks more, you can get a shot of Jack Daniels. But if the government's in charge, then each drink is $141. And that's how it works. Because it has to, because we're humans and it's going to work that way and there's nothing we're going to do about it.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

You can't see any way to fix it. I can think of like AI techno robot making sure that everybody does everything right and you know, tattletail on everything. I can see a future like that because there's no way to hide it if it's completely transformed.

[Adam Carolla]

What'll fix it is not having the program in the first place. That works for. That'll work for about 90% of them.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

But look, sweeping the guys off the street only works temporarily because they come back in. You have to eliminate that behavior.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

You know what I mean? And get those guys into something that works so they cannot just live like this.

[Adam Carolla]

They have to be moved against their will.

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

Yeah.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I mean, well, there has to be. Yeah, exactly. But they have to be pushed into that safety of here, get cleaned up and then you can start your life over again.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, but they have to do that. They can't live on the street. Criminalized vagrancies. Homes.com. well, some might say homes.com is the best home shopping site. It may be homes.com's super comprehensive and transparent agent directory. Or Maybe that's that. Homes.com is the only site that always directly connects you with the listing agent who knows the home the best. Perhaps it's because homes.com has the most in depth neighborhood content of any home shopping site that's extensively researched to highlight the personality of each neighborhood. I'd say it's all of the above. Homes.com goes above and beyond to bring home shoppers the in depth info they need to find the right home. So if you're looking or you're just doing it like a hobby, like I'll do sometimes, homes.com is where you go. Homes.com we've done your homework.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. This is the mindset.

[Neal McDonough]

Free.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

This is the mantra.

[Neal McDonough]

Free.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

This is the time zoneto with movies like Joe dirt, pixels and 51st date. This is awesome. And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Fairly Odd Parents and Ghosts. Pluto TV is always free.

[Adam Carolla]

Huzzah.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Pluto TV stream now pay. Never. You're welcome.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, what else do we got?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

All right, next up, man. Wealthy elites are shelling out as much as a half a million dollars to rent California me mega mansions ahead of the Super Bowl 60 next month.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, big money. Big money. Homes that normally rent for tens of thousands a month are going for 10,000 to $15,000 a night during super bowl week.

[Adam Carolla]

Remember during COVID people are throwing house parties and rented houses and then the government Was getting all weird, saying we're going to cut the electricity off.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I started a martial arts business in my plaza and it was very successful until the cops shut it down.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

In your plaza?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yes, in my plaza. I had a bunch of students come hit pads.

[Adam Carolla]

Wait, you have a plaza?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, this is back. I lived in an apartment complex, luxury apartments. And I was out there barefoot kickboxing. I said, what is the problem with everybody? Why is everyone acting so strange? I didn't really watch the news back then.

[Adam Carolla]

Uh huh. And they shut it down.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

The cops shut it off.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I had my big bodybuilder buddy getting some good pad work. I remember he was kicking hard. I was very impressed. And it was a great show, I'm telling you. And then cop showed up, hand on the butt of his weapon and talking about, hey, you need to stop. And then suddenly my Google reviews went down.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I had a friend who was. It's funny, it drove everyone underground. I had a friend who was a hairstylist and she just started seeing all her clients in the garage. So her salon got shut down, but she went.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

It was like a speakeasy. Like you had to like touch your nose. The Supercuts.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. There is a great clip, Andrew, which is great because you can't hate the ladies from the View enough. But there was one woman, and I love when they turn on their own. The ladies from the View were. Their brain had rotted so much from COVID and they bought into all of it. And they did. They were whatever, the Democrats.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I gotta admit, we all bit rotted from COVID Come on, think about what it did to the culture. It just completely put a rot in the entirety of America.

[Adam Carolla]

I completely agree. And there was a story of a woman, I think in Texas who has a business, who owned a salon. And she said, I'm keeping my business open and we're doing the safe distancing and the masking and everything. And all the women from the View attacked her. Which is great because lady, this is a female small business owner who you're supposed to support. But you guys suck up to the government so much and do all the bidding and believe all the propaganda from the government that you're now fighting against a female small business.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, quick question. Person of color?

[Adam Carolla]

No, that would have helped. That would have helped. And the thing that was great. I'll say this about COVID All the people told you it was deadly. Are now all the people complaining about ice. None of them died. How is it possible that Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon and all the assholes that were lying. Sanjay Gupta, all those people, how's it possible that not one of them died of COVID telling you every night how dangerous Covid was? And these are now the same people that are explaining that jackbooted thugs with ice badges are gonna come kick open doors, grab Americans, and disappear them in Honduras. And it could happen to any of us, right? They'll go, could happen to any one of us. It'll never happen to you. How come? Shouldn't there be one of you? One of you should have died of COVID and one of you should have been grabbed by jackbooted thugs and taken to Honduras and disappeared. One of you. Statistically, there's 200,000 you assholes saying this every single night. One of you should have been claimed by Covid. One of you should be taken by Trump's thugs and disappeared. Statistically. And you always say, it could happen to me. Could be me, could be you, could be me. But it's never you, and it never happens. So pardon me if I'm a little bit dubious.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, and if Anderson Cooper overstays his visa, he's fucking out of here.

[Adam Carolla]

I'll tell you when I'm gonna believe something that Anderson Cooper says. When he dies of COVID and then they take his corpse and they disappear it to Honduras with the government thugs, then I'll go, you know what? Maybe he wasn't lying the entire time. But it'll never happen, and it never did happen. Can you think of a person who told you you were gonna die of COVID Who died of COVID.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

We'll see when he's buried in Managua.

[Adam Carolla]

Mm. All right, what's the next story? And that clip is somewhere. Although maybe the View ladies aren't excited about that.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, here's another clip for you. Good old Bill Maher is saying to the Dems, tell celebrities just to shut the fuck up.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, okay.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, Hollywood.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, wait, we have our View clip. Never mind. Then we'll do Bill Maher. I'm going to do his show, Club Random, in a couple days. Great. All right, here we go.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

Thank you, Whoopi. Good morning.

[Various Political Figures (e.g., Nithya Raman, Ed Begley Jr.)]

Hello, Shelley. Thank you so much for coming on. Texas had been under stay at home orders since March 22, but on April 24, you defied those orders and reopened your salon for business. We heard a snippet of your story in that clip that we just played, but can you please explain to everyone watching why you decided to reopen your salon?

[Whoopi Goldberg]

Well, there were several reasons. I mean, obviously, we Were all in a panic when this broke out and the virus was spreading. And of course we were willing to shut down two weeks, even three weeks, but when the government help was not coming and no one was really even replying to any SBA loans that we were applying for unemployment in Texas, you couldn't get through. The website was crashing. My hairstylists were telling me, look, I'm about to go to people's houses to do hair because I just don't have any money. I decided to open because not safe for them, obviously, to be going to people's houses for them or their clients. And I just felt like if I opened, I could create a sterile environment and make it at least a lot safer and follow CDC guidelines and regulations. And I really just didn't want to be the reason why they weren't making money.

[Interviewer / Host on The View]

Right. And they say you could have avoided jail time if you had. Apologize to the judge.

[Adam Carolla]

This old fat whoopee.

[Interviewer / Host on The View]

There's anybody that you should apologize to outside of the judge? Like, you know, the folks that are working so hard on the front line, folks like that, do they, you know, is it something you would have done for them?

[Adam Carolla]

All right, pause it.

[Interviewer / Host on The View]

As opposed to just saying, first off.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, let's put Whoopi Goldberg being a world class dingbat aside for a second. How about being on a show where you talk for an hour every day, but you can't form a thought or a sentence? Wouldn't you say part of her job would be not to go? What about other peoples who you may have owed pathology to, who may have. Not. Ozempic gonna kick in, but also the front workers who are of the community.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

Who.

[Adam Carolla]

Is Meredith Vieiro still on the show? Jesus Christ. Bitch. Let's listen to Whoopi. Whoopi, by the way, Whoopi's got an earpiece. It's like you're first up. Whoopi, you have the first question. Go ahead, Whoopi, ask her a question now. Yeah. Remember the heroes, the nurses and the doctors who banged the pots and pans every day at 5 o'? Clock? Remember that? Okay, so here she wants to know what about putting them at the judge? Here we go.

[Interviewer / Host on The View]

Should apologize to outside of the judge. Like, you know, the folks that are working so hard on the front line, folks like that, do they, you know, is it something you would have done for them as opposed to just saying to the. To part of the government that wouldn't open up?

[Adam Carolla]

I have no idea what her question. Why didn't it.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I don't Know what she said at all? Whoopee is the best.

[Adam Carolla]

Whoopi, run her question, and it's total. I want to see it. I have no idea what she's saying.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

CDC guidelines and regulations, and I really just didn't want to be the reason why they weren't making money.

[Interviewer / Host on The View]

Right. And they say you could have avoided jail time if you had apologized to the judge. Do you think there's anybody that you should apologize to outside of the judge? Like, you know, the folks that are working so hard on the front line, folks like that? Do they. You know, is it something you would have done for them as opposed to just saying to part of the government that wouldn't open up?

[Whoopi Goldberg]

That's a good question.

[Adam Carolla]

That's not a good question. I don't know. I don't even know that it's a question. What is? All right, is there any more? She must be getting brow. She'll get browbeat by the rest of you. Checks. There's four minutes left. I know, but I mean, let's just go to the next View question. That's all. That's all I'm saying. Because they all. They got a question. Okay, now we got. What's her name? I got Sonny.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

Shelley. You know, we do know that so many Americans are facing financial hardship because of this pandemic.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, because the government shut it down.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

But you applied for small business loans and unemployment, and you did receive some aid from the government. You received $18,000 from the government. So I understand why people feel so strongly about going back to work, because they feel that the government isn't doing its job and taking care of people. But in this instance, two days before you went to court, the money went into your account. So I'm troubled by that. Yeah, I can see why you would be troubled.

[Adam Carolla]

She makes $18,000 a break. Sunny Haasan does. But either way, by the way, everyone changed her look on this show a lot in a short period of time. The ladies from the View were angry at a woman who employs other women and has a small business that she's trying to run. And that was. Now, what they should do is they should apologize to her for being wrong about everything and taking the government side, but they're never gonna do that. All right, Mayhem, let's do one more story. We don't have.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

We don't have Bill Martin.

[Adam Carolla]

We don't have the clip.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Well, I know that Bill Maher is, like, out there. Yeah, he's getting it with.

[Adam Carolla]

What's the quote?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

The quote is, like, they need to go to the center. That was his, you know, he's just saying.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, he has a quote somewhere, right?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, yeah, the celebrities, man. He said you don't strike people in most of the country as sensible or in touch with reality. That's the main crux of it, is that celebrities are kind of seeming out of touch.

[Adam Carolla]

There are. They can be baited into getting on board with any, on any. Look, here's the thing about celebrities. Celebrities need to be employed, and it's not like working for Chevron. You need a new job every six months and you need a new job. Let's just put it to you. Let's put it to you this way. Let's just say it's not celebrity. Let's just say you work as. Let's just say any trade. Roofer, plumber, electrician. All right, so you just work. Ah, you know what, let's just put it to you this way. Let's do your job.

[Show Announcer / Producer]

All right?

[Adam Carolla]

And my former job, your trainer.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Works at martial arts trainer. Okay, so now here are the rules. Every four to six months, you're done. You need a new job, right? And anybody can do your job. You, your experience and your whatever, it's fine. But you can be replaced by anybody at any time, and almost anyone can do your job. And there's tons of mixed martial arts trainers that are waiting in line trying to get that job.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

It's kind of true. It is true. You know, I have fighters and you have to focus on them. You get a new job every four months, you know, Right.

[Adam Carolla]

But you're good at what you do and you have history. They're in acting. There are a million people looking for every role and almost anyone can do it. There's a handful of guys and girls at the top who aren't interchangeable, but everybody below them is. So now, with that in mind, mayhem, we are auditioning fighters, trainers all the time. Now, some subject like Covid comes up, or some subject like Israel comes up, or some subject like Donald Trump comes up or, or ice comes up. And remember the. You better figure out where these people are on these subjects. Cuz if you're in love, you love you some Donald Trump. And I hate Donald Trump. And I see a thousand guys and you're auditioning, you ain't getting a job. And guess who figures that out real fast? All the people that are auditioning. So that's why they all end up in the same place. Here's how we feel about Trump. Here's how we feel about COVID Think about the wild coincidence that was quote, Covid. Every single one of you guys landed in the exact same place in Hollywood. Get the vaccine. Ivermectin is horse pace. Listen to the government. Shut everything down. And don't listen to Joe Rogan or anyone who's been deplatformed. How is it that you all landed in the exact same place? In a world of opinions. Super Bowls coming up. You're gonna have celebrities that are pulling for New England. Gonna have celebrities that are pulling for Seattle. But in a world where they all land in the exact same place with COVID Everyone, look.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I'll just say, I got my jab this morning. I feel good. Yeah. I'm like, Covid zeta. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

No, YouTube.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah, I did. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

You got a Covid?

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah. Covid Zeta. Yeah, it's the last one that they're doing.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

So I got. I got it at cbs. Come on. You did?

[News Reporter (Rob Hayes)]

For free.

[Adam Carolla]

How is it that not one celebrity raised their hand and went, I don't think these masks work. I think it's a good idea. This seems stupid. Like, how come one of them didn't question a mask? A paper towel over your mouth. How come one of them. You wanna know why? They need a job. They need a job.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

I like wearing the mask, bro. I walked into every convenience store like I was gonna rob the joint, man.

[Adam Carolla]

They need a job, so they have to suck up and they have to say the same thing about everything. Remember the MeToo thing? And believe all women. Those are the guys who invented the casting couch that immediately put the lapel patch on and got right down with everything. Immediately. Immediately. And they invented banging vulnerable women. Guys in the coal mining industry didn't invent that practice. That was Hollywood that invented that. They pioneered the casting couch. Couches used to just be called couches and sofas, but there was no such thing as a casting couch until Hollywood came along and invented the casting couch. You understand? And those are the people that were most on board with this movement that is so full of shit. The most lecherous sacks of duplicitous shit on the planet. They want a job and they can't get the job. I was a good carpenter. I could say whatever I wanted because you always need a good carpenter. And there weren't that many of them. You're good boxing and striking and MMA practitioner and trainer, you will be employed. That's how it works. But if there's a million carpenters and they're all good and they're all interchangeable, then I better Figure out what the guys politics are, who was doing the hiring so I can get on that crew. And that's how Hollywood lands on the same page with everything all the time. Because you go, well, ice, Trump, border, Israel, Palestine, Covid, Ivermectin. That seems like a very diverse group of subjects. No, no, we're lockstep on every single one of them. It's mathematically impossible. It's impossible. And anybody who works in an honest trade, you'll have guys that are like, that guy's not into Covid. That guy's a double masker. That guy's getting vaccine. The vaccine. That guy swears he's not gonna let anyone. You get diversity as you would this bullshit of everyone landing on the same page is how you know it's bullshit. Cuz it's math. Mathematically impossible.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

All right, they're all on the same Reddit thread.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Last story. Kanye west apologizes for reckless anti Semitism. In a full Wall Street Journal ad. I am not a Nazi. He says, wow, hey, this was a heartfelt letter, maybe touched up by his lawyer, but he apologizes for being or not a Nazi. He apologizes for being anti Semitic. He really extends olive branch to the entire world because he had a bipolar breakdown and says four months of his life were just spent in a mania, just acting crazy, producing Nazi T shirts, making money off that and kind of harboring anger towards everybody. Yeah, here's the entire statement. But it is so tight. 120.

[Adam Carolla]

Listen, I have a lot of Jewish friends. I love the Jewish community. Laszlo Gorog was a Jew, and I don't like anything he said in terms of Kanye about Jews, but all is forgiven by how he dresses his girlfriend. Okay. And you know, as a Jew, Chuck, that while the things he said are hurtful to your community and there's a real history of oppression and death, when you see that sensory chick walking out in a thong back and a see through top, you as a Jew must admit all is forgiven.

[Neal McDonough]

I forgive him 100%.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. I thought even you of the tribe.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Do you forgive him for what he said on Twitter?

[Adam Carolla]

All right, Good news. Neil McDonough, the actor who's been in everything. I mean, Minority Report, Captain America, Walking Tall, the remake. That was a good one. All of it. We'll talk to him right after this. O'Reilly. Yeah. Auto parts. O'Reilly Auto Parts. That's the business that keeps your car on the road, man. They offer friendly, helpful service and all the knowledge you need. If you can't figure out why your car ain't running right. And sometimes I can't figure it out. Always first stop, O'Reilly Auto Parts. They always know what's going on. They have thousands of parts in stock and can test your battery for free. Need wipers, a brake light, a quick fix? They'll get you the right part. Everyone who works there is knowledgeable and friendly. The professional parts people, O'Reilly, are your one stop shop for DIY auto stuff. You can do it in person or you can do it online. Am I right? DAWSON Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today.

[Show Announcer / Producer]

Or visit us at O'ReillyAuto.com Adam that's.

[Adam Carolla]

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[Show Announcer / Producer]

For simple online access to personalized and affordable care for hair loss, ED, weight loss and more, visit hims.com Adam that's hims.com Adam for your free online, visit hims.com Adam Featured products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for full details, restrictions and important safety information. Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride. It's time to check Adam's voicemail.

[Adam Carolla]

Hey, Adam, congratulations on your upcoming star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Question I have is how would your parents have reacted to you getting the star?

[Neal McDonough]

Keep it up.

[Show Announcer / Producer]

You can leave us a message at 888-634-1744.

[Adam Carolla]

My mom would have made a noise and then quickly changed the subject. So if I said, mom, I got a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she'd go, okay. Dorothy Gravich is writing another children's book, Isn't that Awesome? And then we'd talk about Dorothy Gravitch in her children's book. Neil McDonough is our guest. He's been in every movie and has no signs of slowing down. The new movie, Twisted, It'll be available February 6th to buy or rent on digital horror, but psychological horror, very interesting. Also Djimon Hounzu, I hope I'm saying that right, who people know from Gladiator, and I probably sadly know more from the Fast and Furious nine or whatever he played the heavy in, and that another big bold actor is in it as well. Neil is Minority Report and Captain America, walking tall and all that. You know, I'm from everything. Good to see you again, my friend.

[Neal McDonough]

Good seeing you too, pal. How you been? Life's good. Congratulations, by the way. Walk of fame.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, just for transparency, you have to put in like an application, which I of course would never do in 10,000 million lifetimes. But a good, a good friend of mine said, you should have one for radio. And I said, okay. And he said, I'm gonna do it. And he did it. Matt d' Andrea went and put the application in and lobbied them and said this guy should have one for radio, which I realize is going to be confusing for future generations. And they're probably going to think it's podcasting, but it has the microphone and it's for radio.

[Neal McDonough]

But Adam, for all you've done for entertainment for so long, I am shocked actually that you haven't had one already years ago. I mean, the hours you've entertained all of us for so many years, come on. That's kind of a no brainer, I would think.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you're sweet from your mouth to God's ears because it ended up working out. And I always smile when I think about you, Neil, because I just think about faith and family and hard work and diet and exercise. And it's so simple. Life is really basic. You people don't want to do it. I always just say diet and exercise and they mean you're talking about weight loss. No, I'm not talking about weight loss. I'm just talking about life. Those are the rules of life, diet and exercise. Now apply that to school, family, education, being a neighbor, being a citizen, everything. It's just diet and exercise. And there are no shortcuts, but you'll be happy if you do it and it'll all work out magically in this country. And all people wanna do is argue, but I feel like all your life is, is diet and exercise. And again, I don't mean calories, right?

[Neal McDonough]

You know, my dad who came off the boat from Ireland, I told you before, with 12 bucks in his pocket and said, make me an American. So he went into the army office and they shipped him overseas for seven years. He lived till 91. He did three miles every day. He ate really well. He didn't smoke cigarettes, didn't drink coffee. He had a good three or four gin and tonics every night. But, you know, that was his thing. But he was the healthiest dude that I know, and that rubbed off on me and my siblings. And, you know, you know, here I'm turning 60 in a couple of days, and I certainly don't feel it. It's exercising every day. And again, it's not counting calories, not doing all that stuff. I mean, you know, the protein company that I have flipped my life has certainly helped, but it's just. It's simple. Discipline. Just get up and do it.

[Adam Carolla]

Discipline and. Yes. And I mean, when I say diet and exercise, I mean it literally. And then I also mean it metaphorically. Like, there's a version of that with your kids. You know, spend time, quality time. Don't sit and watch tv, to go out and throw the ball around. You know, real basic stuff. Camp, fish, hunt, go outdoors, hike, break a sweat, ride a mountain bike.

[Neal McDonough]

It's so fast. It's. You know, my oldest son, now, he's in college. My oldest daughter, she's in college. They're both playing sports in college, which is fantastic. And, you know, all of our kids, I think sports has been such a huge thing in the McDonough household. Just, again, to create discipline and to be together and play ball outside and play basketball or play, you know, golf or football or whatever the case is. As long as we're always playing as a group, we're having fun, too. And as the years pass, we've enjoyed those years that we've had together because they go by so quickly. So, again, yeah, it's a discipline of just going and doing it and getting off your phones, getting off of your computers. My wife, Reve, is a beast. She is. If she sees a kid on the phone or me on the phone for very long, outside, basketball, go do something. Go ride a bike, ride. Go do anything. And Reve is just such a great leader in our household, and I'm so stinking blessed to have her in my life.

[Adam Carolla]

You do something I'm envious of, and I appreciate it. And I was literally thinking about it this morning. It's like, you have such reverence for your wife, and you also sort of speak it out loud all the time, which I think is really important. And I think some people get into the sort of gripe department with, oh, God, the old lady's bugging me again, or whatever you Know, I do it. Every comedian does it. Every human being does it. But that the appreciation and respect you have for your wife is admirable and leads to. It is a form of diet and exercise. Once again, just. It's good business. It keeps you happy. It keeps her happy. And also realize as I turn on the news and I see everyone's in the streets in Minneapolis and they're screaming and they're throwing stuff at ice officers and they're piling up trash cans to try to make a barricade or something and shoving shopping carts, trying to make a makeshift border wall in the middle of Minneapolis. I also realize none of these people have hobbies, real hobbies, like old school. Build a ship in a bottle. Build a downhill coaster cart with your son. Like old school hobbies.

[Neal McDonough]

Everyone looks on the phone looking at other people having these hobbies. Is that. Well, isn't that great? They have those hobbies. Well, then get off your phone and create hobbies for yourself.

[Adam Carolla]

I am telling you, people having a hobby and having some engagement keeps you out of so much trouble. Because all your free time is spent when you have a serious endeavor, serious hobby. I like building things. I like building projects, and I like racing cars. So when I have free moments, that's where all my focus goes into fixing something, building something. And no hobbies, no focus, no project, no muse. It just translates into sort of stagnation, anger, and let's go in the street and scream at somebody.

[Neal McDonough]

Well, Reve and I have been. Have been really. About three or four years ago, I got down on one knee and I said, honey, will you manage me? And, you know, ever since that time of Reve managing my career, we read every script together, we go through every decision together. We're about to produce our 12th film in the last five years. And it's, you know, that's a pretty great hobby. And in this hobby, our kids are also part of it, too. They'll be either acting in it or working in the stunt department or working craft servers or working things. So it's really a McDonough family business. And they see how hard it is to make a movie, but they love it. Our oldest daughter, Catherine, is off studying film in college. Our oldest son, Morgan, is studying film in college. So I think they see mom and dad, you know, working so hard together, creating so much great stuff in our content. Most of our content gives glory to him. Not all of it, but, you know, I know a lot of people love to see me as the bad guy in film. So I, you Know, it's. You know, I keep on as an artist. I like trying different things, and I want to do the exact same thing all the time, but for our films that say the McDonough Company on them, you know, Last Rodeo did so well in Homestead and Shift and all these other films that we've done with Angel Studios, the incredible Angel Studios. We've just been in this really great groove and fantastic spot that, you know, off to do the angel and the Bad Men right now with Zach Levi and Tommy Lee Jones, and then the western that I wrote, the Wicked and the Righteous, we started this summer. So the hobbies in our house are, you know, hobbies for Revae and I are working on our career. Sure. But our biggest hobby for by a long shot is giving time to our children, giving them all the support that they need in school and studies and sports and dance and theater and whatever they're doing, whatever they love doing. Give. We give all, you know, everything that we have to support everything that they want to do so their dreams can come true. It's pretty awesome.

[Adam Carolla]

The experience that I realize that people need and that I know they don't get is the beginning, middle, end, which you get when you're making films. You get that process in dump truck loads. The lesson of the beginning, I have an idea. Let's write that idea. Let's work that idea. Let's organize the idea. You shoot the idea, edit the idea, and then go out and promote the idea. And then it ends, and then you start it again. And the beginning, middle, end part of life has been stripped away from a lot of people. It's like one long middle for them. Just one job. Working for the government, going to the same place. You get really hopeless when you're in the middle. And by the way, restoring an old car is a beginning, middle end endeavor. Building an addition on your house is a beginning, middle, end. The more beginning, middle, ends you can have. Writing a book is beginning, middle, end. Making a documentary beginning, middle. The more of those you can have. You know, I really thought of it.

[Neal McDonough]

That way, but you're right. You're absolutely right. The more you can have all those. All three of those. That's a great life.

[Adam Carolla]

It is. Because the middle is long and it's like. It's stagnant and it's frustrating and it's just sort of the same, and it's monotonous and I. People have trouble with it. Look, you could hike the John Muir Trail. It would have a beginning, it would have a middle, and it would have an end. And the people that are super successful do that all the time. They go, I have an idea. And then they just go do it.

[Neal McDonough]

That's right.

[Adam Carolla]

Versus, I have no idea how to do anything because I've never done the beginning, middle, end process. And it's really important, and it never really gets discussed. And it can be done in as simple as an endeavor of like building a tree house with your son. You look at the tree and you go, we should do. And then you go plan it out. And then you go to Home Depot. And at some point you stand back and you look at it and it's done. And it does something that you don't know about. It's invisible, but it's super important.

[Neal McDonough]

It's so important. And, and we try to, you know, do. Is like I keep saying it. The more time you spend with your kids, like the quality time you spend with your kids, you will never regret one second of it. Not. Not one second of it. And it's not always easy, you know, it's. It's hard at time. We've got five kids and their schedules and emotions and this and that. One's having a great day, and one's not having a great day. How do you. How do you stay calm as a parent, not get upset or. Or It's. It's a lot of work. But if you're willing to put in the work, what is better than being a great parent, you know, and a great husband? Those are the two things that, That I live for. I love doing movies. Don't get me wrong. I love doing TV shows. I love entertaining people. It's fantastic. But it pales in comparison to how much I love my family and God. Those are the things that. That always get me going. Going off, doing speeches for the, for the. For the church. And I did one this week. I'm doing one again this weekend. You know, it's. It's important to me. It's important to. To tell people that, you know, I started with nothing from this little small town in Massachusetts, you know, and I came out here with. Knowing no one, with a bucket of dreams. And it took a while. And after 10 years, it started to go. After 20 years, it really started to crank. Now, 30 years into it, it's really going very, very well. But it. It was hard work and perseverance and determination and not taking no for an answer or if you get a no, you have to think, okay, instead of getting emotional about it. Well, why do they say no to me on this project? What can I do better? How can I readjust? How can you recalibrate what I'm doing? How can I. How can my release point go from here to up here or whatever the case is? You have to do that work, and you can't take it personal. And the less you take it personal, the more you keep working towards your goals. Knowing for me that God has my back, that everything I do, I try to make God happy in all my work, it just takes kind of the pressure off a little bit, and it just makes things a lot easier because I'm not trying to impress anybody. The only person I'm trying to impress is him. That's it. And for me, if I'm doing the right things, I'm making my wife happy, my kids happy, it's working thus far. And I'm so stupid. Blessed to be where I am right now on the Adam Carolly show, talking about my life. It's kind of funny.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I don't. I often wonder out loud, and maybe it's a little cathartic, but I wonder why people play so fast and loose with how their kids think of them. Meaning if somebody, like, someone will go, how was your mom, Adam? And I'll go, I don't know. She was nice, I guess. I don't know. She didn't really care. I would die if my kids. If somebody said to my son, how was your dad, Adam? He's kind of. He kind of looked after himself, I.

[Neal McDonough]

Guess it would be painful.

[Adam Carolla]

He liked sub sandwiches and I don't know.

[Neal McDonough]

It's like, I wouldn't be alone.

[Adam Carolla]

It'd be so painful to just have them both kind of go, I don't know. I mean, he didn't. He wasn't a murderer. I guess I could say that about him. He didn't do anything. Like, it's. I oftentimes think of that because it's like. It's weird. Like, if I have coffee with my sister, it'll be like, well, you know mom, she'll go, like, you know, dad.

[Neal McDonough]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, I guess it's part of being selfish is really not caring what people think. But it is weird as a parent to really know that your kids are not impressed. They're not fans. They're not going to say anything good about you, and you're okay with that. And that's weird because it would bother the hell out of you, Right?

[Neal McDonough]

I think it's different generations, too. You know, I don't think that. Yes, you know, my parents or their parents were so. I Mean, how many times did my dad go to one of my ball games?

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neal McDonough]

Yeah. You know, if I'm in town, there's no way I'm missing one of my kids games or dance recital or theater or whatever the case is.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neal McDonough]

So I think it's a different time. You know, my dad was, was at the Oaks Lodge or the Knights of Columbus on any given night and talking politics and talking stuff with the guys and having a few drinks that, you know, that's just a different time.

[Adam Carolla]

What was your dad's profession?

[Neal McDonough]

We owned a small mom and pop motel on Cape Cod. That's how I grew up.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Wow.

[Neal McDonough]

It was great. So from the time I was a little kid till, you know, I was 24 years old before I left for Hollywood. But I worked the motel every year and I loved was one of those childhoods where we had a lake and we had 40 rooms in the motel. We had a little coffee shop and it was always there, I was always working it. I didn't know any better, but that created such discipline. And if I was sitting around, my dad would make me do something immediately, my mom would make me do something immediately. I think that work ethic was driven so heavily into me that I picked the dumbest career you could possibly think of to be successful at. I mean, what are the odds of a kid from Hyannis, Massachusetts being in 150 movies and a thousand hours of television? The odds are so against me. And when I think about it now, I think, wow, I should have probably done something a little bit safer, but I just didn't know safer. All I knew was I had a goal, I had really good work ethic and I know God has my back. What's going to stop me? And I've just kind of hit the tackle and sled for so long that I don't know any better. It's the only job I've ever really had. And I love entertaining people. I love making movies that make people think and, and to do it alongside my wife Reve and the amazing Angel Studios that, you know, now we have a first look deal with Angel Studios. It's just kind of, it's, it's, it's hard to put into words how fortunate I am to be where I am right now in my life after going through a lot of stuff, the ups and downs and, and alcohol and certain things that happen in my life with jobs that were taken away from me. But now here I am realizing all those things, all those speed bumps created who exactly I am. And if it weren't for those speed bumps. If it weren't for those little problems, I wouldn't be here right now on your show talking about all the things that I've got going. And I realize that, but it takes. Again, it's the discipline and sitting by yourself at times in a church, all by yourself, and just talking to him and. Or talking to yourself and thinking, okay, how can I make the world a better place? As corny as that sounds, while I'm here for the short of my say, I'm here for 100 years, what can I pound into these hundred years to make the world a better place for him? Because he has given me so much that my job is just to keep giving back. And I love the position that I'm in right now. I love where Reve and I are and the films we're writing and producing and. And I feel like we're just starting.

[Adam Carolla]

Where are we at? And I would say there was a time in this business, probably the bottom was probably about eight years ago, or maybe it was Covid, where if you had any thoughts that went against Covid or some of the protocols of COVID or any thoughts about Trump that were positive or anything that just veered at all from what the sort of prescribed narrative was for how you should vote and how you should think and what you should do with COVID protocols, and here's how you should feel about Trump, and here's how you should feel about the border. It was very rigid, and if you got outside of that lane at all, you're immediately punished by Hollywood. And it was tough sledding several years ago. And then what happened is kind of what always happens. A cottage industry is born from people that have been displaced and banished. My first improv troop, the Acme improv troop, was comprised of people who'd been let go by the Groundlings. So we ended up having another improv troupe called Acme, because a bunch of people got rejected from the Groundlings. And we all found ourselves in the same place, wanting to start our own troupe. And we did, and so that was created. But first we had to be pushed out of the Groundlings in order to create Acme. And there's lots of those stories. And I feel like Angel Studios and you and the work that you do and me to a certain extent, or even your Joe Rogans of the world. And these people were sort of created by. By this. And now it's halcyon days for those who were punished initially for these thought crimes. But your thoughts, well, I'm not a.

[Neal McDonough]

Political guy, as Reve says. I'm a God fearing American. And that's kind of where I am. And for me, as horrible and as atrocious as Covid was, there's a big chunk of me that misses the heck out of it. Because there I was at home in our place in Canada, where we lived for seven years, doing all those TV shows up there, you know, in our house for months at a time, having three meals a day with our kids, three prayers a day, playing stickball in the backyard, playing any game that we could possibly imagine, staying off our devices, having movie nights, getting dressed up in suit and ties for, for dinner. All those things that we did, it was. It was just this great time. And during that time, in all that spare time, I thought, okay, well, who knows what's going to happen after Covid? I'm not sure if I'll have a career when this is over. You know, I had such a speed bump earlier. They may just, you know, what am I going to do? And I ran to this one guy, Derek Presley, God bless his soul, who came to me and said, I want you to be in this, this little film. It's a $350,000 budget. And I said, okay, I'll do it. And we did it. And halfway through the film, I was like, I love this character. And I love your directing, I love your writing. I love. I'm going to write with you part two to this. And then we did Boone, and then from there Reve and I, you know, went from film to film to film, but from $350,000 to 1.5, to 2, to 3, to 3, to 5, to 7, to 8, to 10 now to 14. And all because of COVID because it made me really think, okay, once this is over, am I still going to be allowed into the game? Am I still going to be able to play on shows and, you know, what's going on? Well, if you take the bull by the horn and you really kind of create for the future, well, what do you have to lose? And that's what we did. And then I started writing and writing and writing and writing. And, you know, Covid to me, you know, as horrible as it was and friends that we've lost, for me personally, it was such a, you know, a different type of time of creativity that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Covid. I want, you know, in that time that I had with my kids, now when I write things, it's always kind of about My family and. Or the passion, the feelings that I have for family and family first, me second. God first, me second. And that Angel Studios saw that early on and said, you know, we'd like to pair up with you in our van and start making some more films. And we have. And now we have more films after film coming up for Angel Studios. And to be in this position, you know, Adam, I don't take it for granted. I really, it's. It's the most humbling thing that's ever happened to me. And I just want to work harder and better for the fans out there to make sure I'm entertaining them and doing the right things for God. Pretty simple.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You know, it's funny, you say I'm not political, but I'm a God fearing American. But in this Hollywood, when they hear God fearing American, it turns political because they go, oh, okay.

[Neal McDonough]

I know they're always trying to have conversations with me about politics. I'm like, I'm purple, I'm a little red, little blue, you know, I'm just not. I'm not really the political type of guy.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I'll ask you a non political question then. Walking Tall, that was one of the Rock's earlier films, right.

[Neal McDonough]

We saw Dwayne but two, three weeks ago and I hadn't seen him since.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, that's been 20 years now, right?

[Neal McDonough]

22 years. 2003, we shot that, I think.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, it's been a minute and he was not, you know, who he is today. But I was wondering, did you have. It was released in 2004. Yeah. It's been over 20 years. Did you have any inklings of who he might be one day?

[Neal McDonough]

Yeah, I did. Because of his work ethic. He worked so hard, he was so prepared. I remember once, probably shouldn't tell this one, but I will. Anyway, we go way back at him. We can talk about these things. So there was a scene at the end of the film where he takes his big stick and he's got me and he just slams me to the ground. And the camera's right here, close up on him. And I'm right here and just about. He's doing the swing. He gets that and he does this. Director here is. Cut. You're not the wrestler, you're Dwayne. Now you gotta tap in who Dwayne is. Okay, great.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, he raised his eyebrow. For those listening. Yes. Action.

[Neal McDonough]

Raise the eyebrow again. Director's getting upset. I can see Dwayne. It's like I, I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to do this. And he's getting really upset. And I said, hold on. I go over to the craft service table and I grab three or four packets of little ketchup and I squeeze them in my mouth. I go back to the director. I'm like, okay, great. And action. And I spit the ketchup on his face. The look on Dwayne's face. I literally thought I was probably going to die at that moment. But I had to save him. I had to go and snap him out of what he was. Because here's an actor who trained for so long from Syracuse through Lambda in London, you know, thousands of hours on stage. And, you know, and I've been in that position where you kind of freeze up, like, what do I do? I need to make a decision. Well, you know, and I helped him that day. And then as soon as he hit me and he said cut, and the director was like, that is perfect. It's fantastic. Dwayne walked away into the woods. And he came back 10 minutes later and he grabbed me and he gave me the hugest hug. He had tears in his eyes. He says, that was the bravest, coolest thing that anyone's ever done for me. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. And to this day, we laugh about it. And that dude, I. I love Dwayne. I'm so proud of what he's accomplished in his career. That guy works harder than anyone and deserves everything he's. And it's a great family guy. It's. It's a. I was really fortunate to be part of that film with him.

[Adam Carolla]

You just ran into him the other day.

[Neal McDonough]

Yeah. What was it for? Variety party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. And Reve and I were there. We bumped into him and it was just really great hanging out for a bit and catching up.

[Adam Carolla]

Is Revey 6 foot 3?

[Neal McDonough]

She certainly is worth the climb every time.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I mean. So world class athlete, right?

[Neal McDonough]

Well, she's six' three. Our oldest daughter, Katherine, playing basketball and volleyball in Boston. She's 6 3. Our freshman daughter is 6 2. Our son is almost 6 6. So she creates very large, fantastic specimens. And I'm just fortunate. I'm six foot. I used to be six foot one. I'm probably closer to six feet now, but I'm a shrimp in the family. Everyone's towering over me now. All because of that beautiful Dutch blood that you brought into this family.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know Look, I don't want to sound.

[Neal McDonough]

Just peek your head into the room. She goes, you're crazy. I'm like, yeah, I'm crazy about you, honey. There you go.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I mean, your kids. I mean, with Reve, as a mother with that kind of gene pool and lineage, I mean, you're just gonna have some crazy athletic kids, you know, and.

[Neal McDonough]

It'S, you know, for her to be there and bring up the five kids, as any great mother does, and to be scheduling everything for them, then they're scheduling everything for my career. Then they're scheduling everything for the movies that we're producing. I don't know how she does it. I'm terrible with computer. I'm awful with emails and texts. I'm not a very good communicator. But she says, honey, you've got one thing, man. You can act. Keep doing that thing you've got and do the best that you can. And she allows me to be the creative guy that I am. You know, if I'm home, who's playing music, or I'm doing whatever. It's. She allows me to be that creative guy that I truly am. That's what I love to do, to create things. I'm so fortunate to have that as my. As my touchstone in my life.

[Adam Carolla]

I do want to say this to everybody in a relationship, if somebody has a gift, especially if it can earn money and. Or some weaknesses, spend a little less time trying to bend them into the shape of the weakness thing where you get them to do something. I used to tell my ex wife all the time, I'd go, we'd be arguing about nothing and something. I'd go, you don't want me doing this. You want me earning. You want me writing a book. You want me selling out a show. You want me out earning, not arguing over where the cable guy is and when. How come he's not here. You should take advantage of my ability to do this stuff and literally free me up to do that. And it sounds like. And also just understand I'm not good at that. But the good news is that can be done by people who don't get paid that much an hour. And I can do this other thing. Hi, Reve. How are you? Thank you. Neil always says, no job.

[Jason 'Mayhem' Miller]

What?

[Adam Carolla]

This cannot be done, man.

[Neal McDonough]

What does your high school yearbook quote was? Nothing is impossible to the man who doesn't have to do it himself. Thomas Jefferson.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. But if you. There's a job for everyone. His job is on set. And being a dad.

[Neal McDonough]

That's right.

[Adam Carolla]

I love that you love that. And I love, you know, traditional thoughts. And I. It's sort of. I mean, you guys are. I don't want to say that you're biblically based, but that's a biblical idea. Like, let this guy do what he does and good news he's going to provide and that's good. And I hate that.

[Neal McDonough]

I just want to say hi.

[Adam Carolla]

I love you so much. Thank you for your lovely compliments. Sure. It's all. I didn't even.

[Neal McDonough]

I'm going to go do the mother duty.

[Adam Carolla]

Do the mother duty. I hate that we've drifted away from that. Or we looked at the person that brings home the bacon is good and the one who fries it up in the pan is lesser than or something. I hate it. It's all roles.

[Neal McDonough]

Seems so much clearer. You know, a couple generations ago, I think everything's just been kind of, you know, the hunter gatherer man and the maternal mom ideas have kind of been pushed aside somehow. And it's. And it's a shame because it's. There are many things that men are just terrible at, really terrible, and they're in there and vice versa. Right. So I don't know when it comes. It's. It's. This is all I know this. And this is. I'm old school and. And it works for me, and it works for a vain. It works for the kids, and we're very happy. And, you know, again, it isn't about religion. You know, there's one God. I don't care if you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, Buddhist, what. There's one Creator, and we should all be rooting for each other and love each other and not think that one thought is better than somebody else's thought or one religious guy is better than someone. It's. It just gets all muddled. If you go down to what life is, it's. God gave us all of this to enjoy it, not to fight over it. It's to share it and love each other.

[Adam Carolla]

A great note to go out on. Twisted's the name of the movie. February 6th. Available rent or on digital.

[Neal McDonough]

Neil Hunt, so good in this movie.

[Adam Carolla]

He's great. I saw the trailer. He's amazing. Neil, always great catching up with you. Let's do it real soon. Always makes my day. Neil McDonough, everyone. Thank you so much, my friend. All right, I can be found at Rodney's coming up, doing a live podcast. That'll be Thursday, and then Washington, D.C. doing a couple shows there at the Kennedy Center Late Show. Still some tickets left to that low on the 1st. You can go to amcroll.com for all of that. Until next time, this is Adam for mayhem and Neil McDonough saying mahalo. Thanks Neil.

[Show Announcer / Producer]

7:44 and get tickets to see the Ace man at AdamCorola.com.

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[Adam Carolla]

Huzzah.

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[Adam Carolla]

Huzzah.

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