673: Tyler Cornack

Summary

Duncan Trussell Family Hour Episode 673: Tyler Cornack

Release Date: March 18, 2025
Host: Duncan Trussell
Guest: Tyler Cornack, Creator of Butt Boy and Mermaid

---

1. Introduction

In Episode 673 of the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, comedian Duncan Trussell welcomes Tyler Cornack, an emerging indie filmmaker known for his provocative films Butt Boy and Mermaid. Duncan expresses his admiration for Tyler’s work, highlighting the unique blend of dark comedy, horror, and deep emotional undertones present in his movies.

2. Overview of Tyler Cornack’s Films

a. Butt Boy

Duncan passionately endorses Butt Boy, describing it as “one of the best movies I’ve seen this year” (00:00). He emphasizes its dark comedic elements, mermaid themes, and impressive cast featuring Daryl Hannah, Kirk Fox, and Kevin Nealon. Tyler explains that Butt Boy originated from a one-minute comedy sketch that evolved into a full-length feature through collaborative creativity with Ryan Cook (07:35).

b. Mermaid

Transitioning to Mermaid, Tyler discusses the film’s deeper emotional layers, particularly its exploration of grief. Duncan narrates his experience watching Mermaid, noting, “one of the best movies about grief that I’ve ever seen” (22:00). Tyler shares how personal losses influenced the film’s narrative and emotional depth, portraying Florida’s duality as both beautiful and dark.

3. The Indie Filmmaking Process

a. Budget and Time Constraints

Tyler details the challenges of producing Butt Boy on a modest budget of $150,000 over 30 days (11:11). He highlights the necessity of resourcefulness, such as negotiating deals with local businesses and managing tight shooting schedules.

b. Creative Strategies

To maximize limited resources, Tyler and his team employed techniques like under-the-table payments and leveraging social media followings for promotional support (11:26). This approach allowed them to maintain creative control and push unconventional narratives.

c. Collaborations and Casting

Tyler credits the success of his projects to strong collaborations, particularly with producer Bill Morian, whom he met in film school (06:23). Their partnership was pivotal in bringing Butt Boy and Mermaid to fruition.

4. Personal Influences and Themes

a. Grief and Emotional Depth

Tyler opens up about personal experiences with grief, which significantly shaped the thematic elements of Mermaid. He shares, “This isn't like an on-the-nose. It's not about that in the movie” (30:54), illustrating how his films subtly incorporate his emotional journey.

b. Florida as a Setting

The setting of Florida serves as a character in itself, embodying both allure and underlying darkness. Tyler describes Florida through a personal lens, associating it with both beauty and an "underbelly" of struggles and isolation (31:31).

5. Challenges in Directing and Acting

a. Balancing Roles

Tyler discusses the complexities of directing while acting in his own film, noting, “It’s too much” (39:07). Managing dual roles required immense focus and adaptability.

b. Managing Actors and On-set Dynamics

An intense anecdote from the set of Mermaid reveals the unpredictable nature of working with experienced actors. Tyler recounts dealing with a difficult actor who disrupted the shooting schedule, demonstrating the real-time challenges directors face (50:00).

c. Anecdotes from "Mermaid" Production

The episode delves into a specific incident where an actor lost composure during filming, highlighting the emotional and logistical hurdles in indie filmmaking. Tyler reflects, “I have to do something” (57:44), underscoring the pressure to maintain production integrity amidst chaos.

6. The Role of AI in Filmmaking

Duncan and Tyler engage in a critical discussion about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the creative process. Tyler expresses concern over AI-generated content, emphasizing the irreplaceable human element in art:

“I just think it's soulless and dead in it” (44:38).

Duncan echoes these sentiments, lamenting the lack of emotional depth in AI creations and championing the importance of human imperfections:

“It doesn't get that. No, it doesn't capture that” (49:00).

7. Tyler Cornack’s Future Projects

Looking ahead, Tyler shares his aspirations to create a new thriller set in Miami, blending 80s cop movie aesthetics with modern twists. He envisions a narrative filled with emotional depth and genre-blending elements:

“A cop goes undercover. But it's sort of like a good, good fella, Scarface, but with a modern sort of twist” (67:28).

8. Conclusion

The episode concludes with Duncan praising Tyler’s ability to intertwine humor and poignancy, likening his approach to that of legendary comedians like George Carlin:

“If you can do it, then if you can bring those two polarities together, it's a very powerful experience” (24:30).

Tyler expresses gratitude for Duncan’s support and shares his excitement for future endeavors, reinforcing the deep mutual respect between comedian and filmmaker.

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Notable Quotes

• Duncan on Butt Boy:

  "It's gonna get awards. It's gonna be like one of the big movies. I'm sure of it." (00:00)

• Tyler on Film Titles:

  "I think press wise, it actually worked. I don't like the title. I just think it's. It creates, you know, some more buzz than a normal weird indie film would." (04:19)

• Duncan on Filmmaking Challenges:

  "What you're rebelling against isn't necessarily like some actual insidious evil force. What you're rebelling against is the market pressures of people at big studios." (05:26)

• Tyler on Grief’s Influence:

  "This isn't like an on-the-nose. It's not about that in the movie." (30:54)

• Duncan on AI’s Lack of Soul:

  "It doesn't get that. No, it doesn't capture that." (49:00)

• Tyler on AI in Filmmaking:

  "I don’t want to look at it. I don’t care about it." (47:58)

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Final Thoughts

Episode 673 offers an intimate glimpse into Tyler Cornack’s creative process, the emotional depths of his storytelling, and the gritty realities of indie filmmaking. Through candid conversations, Tyler and Duncan explore the balance between humor and horror, the irreplaceable human touch in art, and the future landscape of creative industries in the age of AI. This episode serves as a compelling narrative for aspiring filmmakers and fans alike, showcasing the resilience and passion required to bring unconventional stories to life.

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For more details on Tyler Cornack’s films, visit Tyler’s official website and follow Duncan Trussell’s updates at DuncanTrussell.com.

Transcript

[Duncan Trussell]

Welcome to the dtfh. Hello, my darling friends. So nice to see you again. I hope you're having a wonderful week. Before we get going with this episode, I'd like to remind you that if you want commercial free episodes of the DTFH, you can either go to our patreon patreon.com DTFH. You're gonna get ad free audio episodes, or become a subscriber on my YouTube. Either way, you'll immediately get commercial free episodes of the dtfh and you will become part of an elite community of MENSA members, intellectuals, enlightened beings, saints, hyperdimensional creatures, and a variety of other people who I cannot name because they work for federal agencies across the planet, but you can hang out with them. And also, we've been doing live streams of the solo episodes. We've got one coming up week after next. All right, everybody, listen. Holy shit. By now you've probably heard me yap about one of my favorite movies of all time, but, boy, incredible movie. The link is down there. Wherever you happen to be picking up this podcast, you must watch it. It's so good. But just a few days ago, I was blessed by getting to go to a screening of Tyler Cornack's brand new film, the creator of Butt Boy, and has put out a movie with one of my best friends, Mermaid. And I know it would be easy to think that the reason I'm saying it's so good is because I love Butt Boy and I'm friends with Johnny. But no, this is one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's gonna get awards. It's gonna be like one of the big movies. I'm sure of it. It's so good. It's dark, it's a comedy, and it involves mermaids and not splash style. Daryl Hannah mermaids. That's probably an old person reference. It's incredible. It also involves drugs. It also has Kirk Fox in it. It's got Kevin Nealon in it, a whole incredible cast of great actors. And I got to talk to Tyler and he said he would do the dtfh, and he's here with us today. So everybody please welcome to the dtfh, creator of Mermaid and Butt Boy, Tyler Cornack. Welcome to the dtfh, my friend. I'm so excited to talk to you.

[Tyler Cornack]

I've been waiting for this more than anything.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, thank you.

[Tyler Cornack]

And this is the last thing I'm.

[Duncan Trussell]

Doing here, so, you know, man, I have, you know, I have a few favorite movies, and I mean, this my Favorite movies in that list. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In that list. The Shining, and in that list. But boy, I, you know. And There Will Be Blood too.

[Tyler Cornack]

But you know, some high praise.

[Duncan Trussell]

I mean, every bit of it, man. I mean every bit of it. And you know, when you're seeing a really good film, something clicks in your brain. I can't explain it. Like, everything happening around you gets paired with watching it. It's so pleasurable. And I remember Johnny Pemberton tells me about Butt Boy and I hear the title and I'm like, what are you talking about, man? But boy, is it porn. Like, what is it? And he's like, no, you don't understand. It's an incredible film. And then I had to convince my wife. I'm like, okay, listen, Johnny has never recommended a bad movie. He's recommending Butt Boy. She's like, what? Butt Boy?

[Tyler Cornack]

It's a tough pitch to the wife. It's a tough pitch to anyone. Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

So this. I thought, I just wanted to ask you before we show the trailer for Butt Boy, was there a moment where you thought to yourself, maybe I shouldn't name it Butt Boy?

[Tyler Cornack]

There was a moment where a lot of people said that to me. That worked on it. You know, I thought it would be interesting where it would create more buzz in the sense of like, it is a ridiculous title. What is that? Yes, and I think it was a little bit of that.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

I think like press wise, it actually worked. I don't like the title. I just think it's. It creates, you know, some more buzz than a normal weird indie film would.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, well, I'm glad you called it that. I mean, I don't know what else.

[Tyler Cornack]

You would have thought for saying all the nice stuff too, by the way. I mean, you've been. People would tell me all the time when you would just be pushing it. And it just means a lot because these are such small movies and anything we can do to get it out there, and it's just refreshing to hear, like when you make anything weird or strange, you're just like. And you're, you're on the edge of like, you're constantly questioning how you feel about it and you can't help but, but care what people think. And I do care what people think.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, I mean, this is like, we'll show the trailer in a second. But this to me, like, what you're doing and what I think maybe a growing number of people are doing these days is rebellious in nature. What you're rebelling against isn't necessarily like some actual insidious evil force. What you're rebelling against is the market pressures of people at big studios.

[Tyler Cornack]

The system.

[Duncan Trussell]

The system. And no one in. No component of the system, at least in the ones I've met, are anything other than wanting to make good shit. But it seems like once you get to a certain tier of budget, the risk begins increasing and increasing. So you're some executive and you get a script, an idea, a pitch, and you're like, this is fucking good. But.

[Tyler Cornack]

I can't take the gamble.

[Duncan Trussell]

And so this awful firewall appears where all of these great ideas die on the vine. So when something like Butt Boy or more recently, mermaid comes out, you're like seeing that one in a million that somehow did it. Whoa, that's crazy. And I can't imagine what it feels like. Did you foot the bill for Butt Boy?

[Tyler Cornack]

No. The same guy who footed the bill for the new one. Shout out to Bill Morian. He's one of my best friends. We met at film school in la. He went to be on the creative side of things and executive produce things. I just got so lucky with him. We were in class, outside of class one day, he just came up to me, he's like, hey, you know, whatever you're doing, I'm down to do it. Wow. And it was like, you know, it's like a bad movie almost, but it was like, holy, holy. And so we ended up being from the same part of Florida.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. What part is that?

[Tyler Cornack]

Tampa.

[Duncan Trussell]

Tampa. Okay.

[Tyler Cornack]

Sure, Yeah. I grew up in Tampa and he did too, in St. Pete area. And yeah, it's like since then, you know, this is probably six, six or seven years before we even made. But boy, but we did. We would just make online content, short films, whatever. We were doing a lot of comedy based stuff. Just trying to get like a little bit of a following.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

Online and. Yeah. Cut to. One of the comedy sketches that we did was Butt Boy. It was a little one minute thing where the tone was there and everything was there. And then it's just conversations. Like, we'll be out one night having a beer. It's like, how far could we take that?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

Like how far can we stretch? And then shout out to Ryan Cook, who. Who I did, but with as well. He. Yeah, he just said it to me one night. What if this was a feature?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

And right away it just all was there. Like the, the office. Boom, boom, boom. Like lightning in a bottle moment, man.

[Duncan Trussell]

Let's just show the trailer so people know what we're Talking about. Cuz right now all they're hear, the people who haven't seen it, they're just hearing, but boy, right? And they're like, what. What are you? What could this possibly be? So yeah, roll the trailer.

[Tyler Cornack]

So what do you do, detective? You look like every detective ever.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

How he's got the greasy hair and the earring. Looks good. You look good.

[Duncan Trussell]

What about you?

[Tyler Cornack]

What, what do you. I haven't seen this in a while.

[Duncan Trussell]

So good. It's a great trailer. Strikes Critica county today as law enforcement.

[Tyler Cornack]

Have yet to make any headway on.

[Duncan Trussell]

The missing child that vanished from Kathman park this morning.

[Tyler Cornack]

So you're asking me to go off this theory you got about a white married male who happens to be a father living in the suburbs of Critic county, who also happens to be your AA sponsor, has been secretly running around.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cramming objects, animals and children up his ass and he somehow digests them.

[Tyler Cornack]

And he does this in sprees almost in serial killer fashion. Is that about it?

[Duncan Trussell]

Huh?

[Tyler Cornack]

Love this tagline.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes. Sometimes the only way out is in for people listening. For people listening, they just hurt. Really good music. Insane. Okay.

[Tyler Cornack]

Crazy.

[Duncan Trussell]

So what? So this. So there's a way to do butt Boy, that's going to ruin it. You make it silly right when you get the camera.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. That's why I think a lot of people think it's that up front.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh yeah, I think you. I think just because. What's the. What's the detectives. The actor's name?

[Tyler Cornack]

Tyler Rice. It's like my favorite. He's my favorite actor.

[Duncan Trussell]

So good. Yeah, so good. And so the joy when I'm watching this as it continues is I begin to realize they are not going to blink. They're not going to wink at the camera.

[Tyler Cornack]

No.

[Duncan Trussell]

It is going to be a hard boiled detective show genre and it is the most insane form of murder. And something about the fact that you all the way through managed to keep that tone to me makes it one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, man. It is brilliant.

[Tyler Cornack]

I appreciate that, man, so much. You know, the whole time you're doing it, you don't know if that's going to work or not. Like that was very nerve wracking. Not that there was like too, too much at stake. We made that for $150,000.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Tyler Cornack]

That whole thing, how long did it take? 30 days.

[Duncan Trussell]

30 days.

[Tyler Cornack]

We like fought for schedule. We were like paying. You know, you learn all these tricks and trades doing indie films where you pay people under the table to get this. Or it's like, we know that this place exists, so let's shoot there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

So we did so much of that where we would just reach out and say, hey, you know, we had a decent. A decent Instagram following from our comedy stuff.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

We'll shout out your laser tag company for people to give us deals. Like, everything was dealt with under the table where you just sort of, you know, you do whatever you can to get it done.

[Duncan Trussell]

But this psychological element, though, of making this kind of movie, I mean, I'm sure any movie that you're making, you're shitting your pants the whole time.

[Tyler Cornack]

The whole time.

[Duncan Trussell]

I can't imagine. Yeah, I read. I wish I could remember his name. I was reading this book and it's this director. He made a bunch of stuff, but never, like, became like Kubrick or something like that. But he made so much stuff. And he said, being a director is like, you're the captain of a pirate ship. It's a pirate ship. And there's so many different plates spinning at the same time.

[Tyler Cornack]

People don't even realize how stressful it is. It's like the majority of the time I'm saying, why am I. Why am I doing this?

[Duncan Trussell]

Right?

[Tyler Cornack]

Like, why? This is so stupid on every level. Just how difficult it is, how just unhealthy you feel mentally. It just takes a toll on you and every. And it's so relentless. It doesn't stop yet. The flip side of it, I guess it's because, like, the nice, beautiful moments outpower it or just the power of movies outpower it. I don't know what it is, but it's very rarely enjoyable while you're doing it. You have moments, sure, where you laugh and you're whatever, but it's mostly just torment.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, because you're. Okay. So you have. I mean, just. Why am I saying this to you? You're the director.

[Tyler Cornack]

But no, it's actually nice to hear about. Because nobody ever talks about this. They don't know.

[Duncan Trussell]

No, they don't. Well, I think because of. Because when we've seen directors in movies, what do we see? The director is sitting in this chair next to a fucking camera and goes, cut. Let's try one more time.

[Tyler Cornack]

That's all we know.

[Duncan Trussell]

That was great. And that's what they think. The director is kind of like a conductor or something. And that's. You just wave the sticks around for whatever that's called to tell the orchestra what the tempo is and you're done. But no, you're dealing with a variety of maniacs. The actors, like, God knows the psychology.

[Tyler Cornack]

Of actors, historically pretty unstable people. They can be unstable people.

[Duncan Trussell]

And I can remember Johnny went on the road with me right after Mermaid, and that character was still in him. And I'm like, Johnny, it was.

[Tyler Cornack]

It was. It was a lot, I think, for him. It was a lot for I. I also really tried to push him to do something different that he's ever done before. But also, I think he just got back from Fallout. An indie film schedule is so that. That's the craziest part, right? That's the craziest part. You're doing, like, five scenes a day. Scenes a day. Sometimes, if you have to.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes. It's not the same.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's not the same. And I. I think he just came from that, and he was like, whoa, we're just so. We're here now, and now we have to go do this, this, this, and that.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm even realizing this is a crazy schedule. I forgot how crazy this was. And then he's, like, coming to terms with it. So just that alone, the exhaustion of that.

[Duncan Trussell]

And so you have to contend not just with the various personalities of the actors. All you want is a great performance for them.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's energy based. It's like, energy. Everyone's energy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

So Kubrick has one of my favorite quotes. That's so true. The hardest part about directing is getting out of the car in the morning.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Tyler Cornack]

And that is just so true to all of it because you have to compose yourself. You can be in the worst mood ever. You didn't sleep. There's just gonna be a lot of people looking at you. And if you fault. If you have the wrong kind of energy, that just carries through everything down to, like, if you say something wrong to the. You say something in the wrong way to a boom operator, that can be a trickle effect because he's gonna act differently the rest of the day, and that's gonna affect this guy over here. And the last thing you want to. The actors are the most important in the sense. They can't be. They're fragile. Yeah, they're fragile.

[Duncan Trussell]

They can't be disturbed. They can't look around and think, oh, no, is the movie failing? People seem really upset. What's going on here? And so there's that element where you have to be almost like a Hannibal Lecter or something to. And simultaneously an energy dj. Even though you might have had a bad phone call, a shitty night, you've seen some. Some. Some footage that Isn't good.

[Tyler Cornack]

Is this gonna work the whole time?

[Duncan Trussell]

You don't know if it even is gonna work. And so you have to do that. But also, you're dealing with budgets. Also you're dealing with the omnipresent time factor. Right? You gotta get the. Out of wherever you're at. You don't have much more time here. You gotta go and then sag. You gotta feed these motherfuckers. And then all of that. Somehow you're juggling all of that while maintaining confidence.

[Tyler Cornack]

I. Well, I think confidence, that's where it gets tricky for me, because I can come off as cold, I think, to some people. I really learned that on this last one, to the point where I was working with, like, some veteran actors, and I realized they were feeling that I'm. I'm cold, right? But my coldness, because it's like a resting bitch face. I'm just so overwhelmed. And I was like, I can't fake it and be bubbly. I'm not a bubbly person, naturally, anyways. And I'm just in the edit of the movie. Sometimes I'll get so laser focused on, like, I'm doing this shot now. This here.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

And the. And sometimes actors need. Rightfully so they need a little bit more that I fall short on. So, like, everyone, you. Every single thing that you do, you learn these lessons. You're like, mental note. Be a little. Maybe switch that up. Pay a little bit more attention to that. And you're trying to learn how to. To make it a better experience for other people. But, yeah, you just have to. You just have to keep going with it and find. It's all about finding balance. Energy is just the key thing to all of it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Now, Mermaid, we'll show the trailer for that in a second. I got lucky enough to see it a couple days ago. And when you look at this trajectory that happened from Butt Boy to Mermaid, like when I showed Josh, because I showed him Butt Boy first, he's like, they had a bigger budget for that. But you do see more than just the bigger budget. You see your evolution as a filmmaker. You see probably whatever you did learn from Butt Boy, you figured out how to, like, do it better. And then you see a lot of really famous actors. Dude, Kevin Nealon. What the hell?

[Tyler Cornack]

Really lucky.

[Duncan Trussell]

How do you get people like that involved?

[Tyler Cornack]

Honestly, it was the script like this. I think people are really looking for interesting things to do. It was a little different for everyone. Like, I think Robert Patrick was kind of like, what? What the hell is this? Right because he didn't know anything. You know, he doesn't really probably even fully know what I'm trying to do as a filmmaker, but he. He. I talked to him on the phone. Like, if they're a little bit hesitant, I can talk to them on the phone, and I kind of let them know I'm not crazy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm not a crazy person. Because what you just read probably seems a little bit crazy, and sometimes that's the case. But it's just reaching out to reps, and you have, you know, you ask them if they want to do it, will they read it, blah, blah, blah. Some people say no. Some people say immediately yes. And it's great. This one was tricky. We were in the middle. The SAG went on strike. We're in the week one of casting.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, fuck.

[Tyler Cornack]

So this is our first hiccup, by the way. We had so many.

[Duncan Trussell]

Jesus Christ. That's a big hiccup.

[Tyler Cornack]

We're in the middle of it. I've talked to two actors, maybe Johnny. We have. Whatever. But we're, like, trying to figure out to cast the rest. We can't legally speak to any actors until now. A week before the movie starts.

[Duncan Trussell]

What?

[Tyler Cornack]

So we're casting this movie, and we can't cast it until a week before we go shoot?

[Duncan Trussell]

That puts you in a brutal position.

[Tyler Cornack]

That was one. That was the first thing where it was like. So it was four months of my producers calling sag, and they're like, what are you talk. Saying what like you're saying and just screaming at them. And not screaming, but being aggressive. We need this agreement, because you can get this agreement that.

[Duncan Trussell]

I heard about that agreement.

[Tyler Cornack]

Everyone was waiting for it, and that's why it took so long. I'm sure they. I don't want to shit on SAG too hard.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

But I'm sure they have their. There's a process, and they can't give it to you up until. So we did rush it a little bit, and I think it was about a week and a half. It was really a week and a half before. But still, it's like. Then you just get on the phone with these actors, like, all right, we'll see you there. Whatever. So it's like, that's the first intense.

[Duncan Trussell]

You got to book their travel.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

You got to get them in the hotel.

[Tyler Cornack]

Not me personally, but.

[Duncan Trussell]

But someone does. You had a week to fudgeing. Do that.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

And all. Whatever. I can't even imagine what their requirements are and the things they're asking For. And then you've got to deal with all of that. I mean, that by itself is a nightmare.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yep, it's always a nightmare.

[Duncan Trussell]

So you gotta fly a bunch of these actors out to Florida to shoot this insane.

[Tyler Cornack]

In the hot sun.

[Duncan Trussell]

In the hot sun.

[Tyler Cornack]

Trying to convince them that it's gonna work. And some actors know, some don't.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay, let's show the trailer. Just so people know what we're talking about. This is Mermaid, and it is incredible.

[Tyler Cornack]

Did you know that the ocean is 71% of the Earth's surface? It is said that humans have only discovered around 5% of it, which leaves lots of room for imaginations to run free.

[Duncan Trussell]

Doug, I gotta let you go, brother. Why? Straight up.

[Tyler Cornack]

You've gotten pretty weird, man.

[Duncan Trussell]

You are those crazy fucking people.

[Tyler Cornack]

What happened? Doug, we gotta make a decision right now, okay?

[Duncan Trussell]

You need some help? Why can't you just say, Cause Daddy's gotta go save a mermaid.

[Tyler Cornack]

There you go. Oh, there she is. The Weekend at Bernie scene.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God. That is what that was. Oh, I didn't catch that. So I really feel like I don't want to mess up too much about this movie because it is so. It's so much I was expecting, which it is.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm curious about this. I'm curious of what you thought. And expecting it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay. I'm expecting a dark horror comedy. That's what I went in there expecting. What I got was one of the best movies about grief that I've ever seen in my fucking life, man. And so that is a left hook, which is. I came in there completely not ready to tear up.

[Tyler Cornack]

How did that feel to you? Were you a little bit like, oh, I loved it. You loved it?

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, the rug got pulled out, you know, it's like, oh, wow. Well, that's when I. And again, I'm having to separate. Like, I know you. I know Johnny. So I'm trying to, like, separate.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. That's weird, right?

[Duncan Trussell]

That. Not in the sense of watching it from, like, oh, this is gonna get awards. Like, this is gonna ripple. This is gonna make some ripples.

[Tyler Cornack]

But I'm like, a splash, if you will. We keep joking about that. It's either gonna be mermaid sinks or mermaid makes a splash.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, it's gonna make a splash. I mean it. And just for the. To me, it's gonna make a splash because of this left hook, which I feel bad about talking about.

[Tyler Cornack]

No, you can talk about that. Everyone who's writing about it is talking about that. That that gets it and likes it. And I I. It is that to me. So that's why I thought this would be an interesting way to do it, because that horror angle that you're talking about, I think that could have been easily a thing where it's more based in genre. But, yeah, I don't know. This is kind of like a part of me. Emotions like this are a part of me. It's not even a personal connection or anything like that. I was just. I have this certain emotional feeling towards Florida, and I've had friends that. I guess the best way to put it is if I were to see Florida as like a picture of my life.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

There's certain colors in it. There's certain things that represent different things to me. And it's a feeling almost.

[Duncan Trussell]

Sure.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I wanted this to be a more emotional sort of thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh. Oh, my God. Like, really was. I mean, it is a horror movie. And the makeup for the mermaid, see.

[Tyler Cornack]

I don't even like horror for it. People are saying that I don't like. There's horror elements in it. But I put that first. Like, I would almost call it like a thriller, adventure movie, or, you know, a comedy. Comedy. Insert genre, whatever that genre is after it. But I would start with dark comedy. Mix with whatever.

[Duncan Trussell]

Listen, what many comedians fail at doing, and I certainly have failed in my attempts to do this in the past on stage. If you can do the thing where not only do you make people laugh, but somehow you weave in there something kind of poignant, that's my favorite too. It's almost impossible to do. You're probably just gonna come off as didactic, or you're gonna come off as sanctimonious. You're gonna come off as puffed up on stage. But if you can do it, then if you can bring those two polarities together, it's a very powerful experience. When I saw Carlin, he could do that. He did that. And it was a crazy thing to be in an audience where people who thought they were coming for a comedy show are suddenly getting this existential deconstruction of reality that is blowing their minds. And you did that with this.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I thank you so much for saying that. I mean, that's what I want. That's what I wanted to try and do.

[Duncan Trussell]

You did it. You did it, man.

[Tyler Cornack]

I hope so.

[Duncan Trussell]

I'm sitting there like, fuck, I gotta go back. I gotta go to therapy. I haven't dealt with my grief. I've gotta fucking go to therapy. This is getting in the way of. Because one, his relationship with his daughter and his baby mama. And to me, I've never seen a better symbol for when you are carrying that darkness inside of you and you feel like a freak and you feel completely disconnected from the normie world of what a great symbol which is wheeling a drugged fucking scary looking mermaid into a kid's party.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's your grief, that's your shadow. You think you can hide that shit by putting glasses on it? And then of course, the old saying, lipstick on a fish. It's like, dude, you've got to deal with this. You can't haul it around some stinky, fishy, puking mermaid.

[Tyler Cornack]

Exactly.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, man.

[Tyler Cornack]

Well, I'm glad. I'm glad it hit that way with you. I mean, that's the. That's the. You nailed it. That's it. That's what I wanted it to be. And I also wanted it, you know, but boy had like this weird cult Y. It did way more for me than I thought. It's opened a lot of different doors for me and just in its own right. But then you do feel like, you know, nobody wants to be too tight in a box. And I wanted to have elements of what I did there, but also show it could be a little bit more on the writing side and a little bit more. And different areas. Areas of it down to the look of it and all of that stuff. So I was thinking about that while I was trying to write it. It's like, how can I do some. I don't want to do the same exact thing where.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

You know, it's a genre story with ridiculous thing. It's like, how can I get a little bit more? Because then you're thinking about the one after this where it's like, well, now I have to get to this.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh my God.

[Tyler Cornack]

And they're not going to let me get to that if I just keep making these very tight genre things or.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right, yeah, I see how you wouldn't want to like be redundant and. Which you weren't at all. And it was to. I mean, there wasn't even. It's a completely different thing altogether. And you know, you've picked great actors. Every actor in there killed it.

[Tyler Cornack]

I know they did great.

[Duncan Trussell]

Kirk Fox was so fucking good.

[Tyler Cornack]

Amazing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Johnny obviously carried the movie. He like, whoa. So you had that going for you. But I gotta ask you and you know, just tell me that's not what you meant. Because one of the things when I made the Midnight Gospel, people would say, is this what it's about? And I would think, no, not to me. But who knows? But I'm thinking, like, the ocean as the subconscious.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm already gonna say no to that. For me, I just don't think of it. But I can sense when. I actually like that, though, because now I'm thinking about that, and now I'm like, maybe I'll have you keep going with that in a second. But I can sense with things that I want people to find those things in it, because I think that's really cool. And I might have it here and there for whatever it is. But I think when you write stuff in genre and then you bring in this human element to it, it's naturally gonna. These things are gonna happen. And that's kind of the coolest part about writing something compared to the finished product. Because then you see, you're like, wow, that could be that. That could be that. I mean, even in Butt Boy, people. People would review it and they were breaking down, like, they would go really into depth about things.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, that's cool.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I'm just like, all right, that's crazy. And that's kind of the best. That's truly the best part of it to me.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, I love that. Well, it's kind of like, you know, these archetypes, they're invisible until you throw paint on them, and then suddenly they're going to emerge, whether you intended them to or not. They're going to wear the clothes of whatever you make. But. But yeah. Cause, you know, the consideration of. In terms of grief, which is such a bizarre thing to go through. I have to ask. You mentioned your friend.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

And is that what informed.

[Tyler Cornack]

That was just there in the background? I mean, I was already doing this movie, and then I was already writing this movie, and my friend passed away. That was in Florida. Not in Florida. From Florida, sorry. Passed away from drug. You know, pills. And. And then we had another very close friend who was a very much like a Florida man. Both great guys, really highly intelligent people, funny. But I think the world was a little bit too big for them. And it always sort of. They just couldn't handle it. Right. Since we were kids, you know, And I. I hadn't talked to. Really. I haven't seen them in years. It had been 15 years. We went down different roads in life, but we would talk to each other and whatever. And. Yeah. So one passed away, and then I saw the other one when we were location scouting down in Florida. And I started. Now I started to think like, okay, this is coming into the story a little bit more as it's Happening. I meet up with this other friend. We sort of. We go out and watch live music and get drinks and he's just. They were very close. We were all very close, but they were very, very, very close. And he died a month after I saw him from the same thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God.

[Tyler Cornack]

And it was almost because of the grief of the other.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

So, you know, this isn't like an on the nose. It's not an on the nose. You know, it's not about that in the movie. It's just again, if I look at it like a painting, it's 100% in there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

Of just more so of their mindset of how they saw the world and how, you know, just being an outcast to things and. Yeah, that's how I remember them. Anyways, again, time had passed, but yeah, so I think that's in there. And that's like very Florida to me. It's in that painting I'm talking about. It's. Those guys are in there and like that. That feeling is in there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, I mean, that's the crazy thing about Florida, and I think you would argue LA is that here you have this beautiful place, the ocean, the beach, people out there on fucking boats. You go and visit as a tourist and it would be easy to think, man, I gotta live here. Like, this is. This is it. And then you get into a place and suddenly you realize that underneath all.

[Tyler Cornack]

That beauty, there's the underbelly.

[Duncan Trussell]

And it's a dark fucking underbelly in Florida.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I see it as very dark because to some people it's not. And you can have a great suburban. You know, I grew up in a great house in Florida. My family's the greatest family ever. Great childhood. But I had this awareness of, like, when we would go to the beach and we would see these people. I was just so fascinated by like, you know, that it wasn't in a movie. How is this not in a movie that these people talk like this and.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

Just everything that they do and there's just. There's humor to it. I think. It's all so funny. It's ridiculous. You know, these beach people, you know, it's just ridiculous. They genuinely talk like this and.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes, I know. I mean, well, you know, I can remember the first time I realized this song, the Jimmy Buffett song, Margaritaville, dude is like Elliot Smith level depressing when you look at the lyrics of that. But he does. He pulls off, he does it. He like, here's this. Most people, when they're singing, wasting Away again in Margaritaville. They don't realize it's a dude. What does he say? Like he stepped on a fucking bottle cap. He cuts his foot.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, he's just like going through a rough time. By the way, that song, while we're there in the hotel the whole time, 12 times a day. So in your psychosis, you're waking up, you hear it faint from the local guy downstairs with the guitar, sipping on sponge cake. It's like you're in a bat. You're in a groundhog's day.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, man.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, that's the anthem of the people have confused. This song of, like, late stage alcoholism, unresolved grief, heartbreak, and most importantly, not taking personal, personal responsibility for your fucked up life. And some dumb epiphany at the end that just maybe I got myself in this position.

[Tyler Cornack]

Exactly.

[Duncan Trussell]

They think of that as the song of a vacation. And that's the trick of any of these beautiful places. Hawaii too, man. You go to the tourist areas of Hawaii and, well, obviously the fires really underlined it because you're driving to whatever your nice spot is and you're passing the desiccated ruins of houses where God knows how many people fucking died. But even before that, you go to the grocery store in Hawaii. You go to the grocery store in Hawaii and suddenly you see a different thing. You see all the people who thought they'd move to fucking Hawaii. And it's just gonna be every day. It's a vacation. Realizing, no, now you're just in the middle of the ocean, trapped in a small town where there's not enough resources and shit's too expensive. And Florida, you can just see that. It's like, it lures you in Venus flytrap style. You. You get there.

[Tyler Cornack]

It takes about two days. In Florida, I think, though, you have to be there for two days and then you start to feel it. Jimmy Buffett. One more thing on Jimmy Buffett. Because I wanted to get him. I wanted to have, you know, when you start writing a screenplay and then you realize how little money you have. I wanted. I wanted Margaritaville to be the theme of this movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, fuck, that would have been great.

[Tyler Cornack]

I thought it would be so good at the end when they're having the stare down to bring that back. Like if you have the beginning of the end, it would just been iconic. You know, Jimmy Buffett had just passed away two days before we started shooting. So when I say they were playing it everywhere, it was unbelievable how often you would hear that song. It was like by the end of the shoot, I. There was one point where I just wanted to break down and cry. It's like the song was the. The song was the last thread for me that was going to set me over the edge, dude.

[Duncan Trussell]

And would drive me crazy, too.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's bad. It's a great. It's kind of a great song.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's a great song, but not. Not a million times in a row when you're, like, dying in the sun, trying to make a movie. I mean, this, by the way, mentioning music. I remember, like, at the beginning in the credits, I believe I saw, like, I thought, oh, it's weird. The person making the music and you have the same name.

[Tyler Cornack]

Same exact name.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. But honestly, that's how dumb I just was. Like, whoa, that's a weird coincidence because when you see how good this is. Did you do the music for Butt Boy too?

[Tyler Cornack]

I did, yeah, I did it. But I did that one I did with Ryan Cook, who helped me with the screenplay as well. We wrote the screenplay together and we did the music together too.

[Duncan Trussell]

So when Aaron and I, my wife and I, as. We're like, talking about how fucking good the movie was, we're just like, wait. How. How did he have the time?

[Tyler Cornack]

That's nice.

[Duncan Trussell]

How did you have the time? I don't understand, but I know. I really don't understand.

[Tyler Cornack]

For me, it's part of writing. For me now. I kind of discovered it on Butt Boy. But writing's really, really hard, especially for. It's hard for everyone.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

That's another thing that needs to be talked about more. Screenwriting is very horrible, very difficult. So when I get sick of writing, when I get sick of a scene, I. You know, I'm thinking about directing. Directing. It's more fun to me. And it's like, you know, it's the. The emotionality of it and all that stuff. So it's just a nice thing. When I get sick of writing, I can sit down. I just sit down on a computer on logic, and I just come up with music that sort of just feels the way I'm seeing the movie, and it feels the way the movie. And then it's like, this might not make it. This might make it, like, cool. This sounds mermaid. This sounds kind of horry. This sounds whatever, emotional and whatever. You just kind of, you know, it's. It's really nice for me. It sounds like I hate bringing it up. And I. That's why, even with the. The credits too, it almost feels, like, annoying. It's like, oh, the music as well. But it's so beautiful to me, in a way, because it's therapeutic.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, I get it.

[Tyler Cornack]

I've had a complicated relationship with music my entire life. I, you know, I was a musician first and I realized it's not a road I wanted to go down with things. And now it's become what music should be for people, for me, where it's like this escape where I can just sit and. You know, it's like a painter. You just get to sit in peace and come up with this stuff.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh boy. Doesn't it make you just like when I. The time. I love making music too. And anytime you're getting into it, the thought pops into your head of how lucky professional musicians are because this is all they do all day long.

[Tyler Cornack]

All day long.

[Duncan Trussell]

They don't have to go back to writing the script. They don't have to go direct something. They don't have to. They just.

[Tyler Cornack]

By themselves.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, by themselves. They just sit and. But this isn't like the director was a little big headed, thought of himself as a genius and decided to do the soundtrack for his movie. This is like when you see at the end, like, oh shit. No, that is him.

[Tyler Cornack]

He.

[Duncan Trussell]

He fucking made the sound. It's real good.

[Tyler Cornack]

Thank you very much.

[Duncan Trussell]

You're real good, man.

[Tyler Cornack]

I appreciate that, man.

[Duncan Trussell]

So you must have been. You must have started real young making music.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, I started, I, you know, I guess around like 14. I was just in bands growing up. I love, I love recording music, I love writing. I like songwriting and.

[Duncan Trussell]

Me too.

[Tyler Cornack]

Just recording and being in the studio, performing, I was just. I think I convinced myself that I like it when I was young and I just could never. I just would freak out. I get nervous and I don't want to be up there.

[Duncan Trussell]

What about acting in your own movie though? Like in Butt Boy. I've always been fascinated by that dynamic of somehow simultaneously directing a movie and acting in it. What are the challenges there?

[Tyler Cornack]

There's a lot. I mean, I don't have that bug to act, but boy was honestly just. People weren't lining up to play that role. You know what I mean? It's a tough casting call. It's like no one wanted to play that, so. And I was like, I could do it. There's a, there's. I can only do like two things as an actor. I can do a monotone guy and a deadpan face. That's what the character was. So it's like, you know, whatever. But it was, it did take away from things on the directing side. I Think Right. It just will, no matter what. It's too much.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, who do you have to check in with? You know, like. Like, you know, if an actor can at least get some sense. Is this what you were looking for?

[Tyler Cornack]

You got it. That was always weird. I'm like, I guess I got it. Got it.

[Duncan Trussell]

We did it.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

I'm curious about your thoughts on AI right now. Anytime I have an idea for anything, I don't use it for creativity. It's garbage so far. I mean, maybe at some point I'll be able to actually come up with non cheesy stupid ideas. But as far as organizing ideas or like organizing a screenplay, which to me seems like haiku. Like, it's so technical and it's so exhausting. Exhausting. Have you worked with AI at all to.

[Tyler Cornack]

I think I've used it with imagery stuff for ideas. You know, just the apps. It's like create a. You know, you can get very specific with it and it's crazy. Like a 15 millimeter lens of a mermaid. That's whatever to get ideas of. Like, maybe we could use this. Maybe we could use that. I think the art form of it right now is the artist that knows how to word something.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I wouldn't even call that art.

[Duncan Trussell]

Prompt engineering.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. Whatever that is.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

People are just really good at that. And I've seen things that, you know, it depresses me. It excites me too, though, because then I'm like, how can you use it in a subtle way?

[Duncan Trussell]

What depresses you?

[Tyler Cornack]

Just that movies, I don't know. Very quickly there's gonna be movies that are just fully AI. And I'm like, you're not making a movie if you're doing that. But.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, because you're like. When I went, I'm sorry, everybody, I talk about AI too much.

[Tyler Cornack]

No, it's. We all are now.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's fascinating. And I went through the phase of using midjourney and the initial amazement or using one of the many video apps out there for it, and going through that initial phase of like, oh, my God, this is incredible.

[Tyler Cornack]

This is crazy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God. Maybe I can make my own cartoon now.

[Tyler Cornack]

Or.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God. And then I started getting weirdly resentful of it because I realized that that learning curve that maybe I could confront in drawing or animating, it was robbing me of that. It was ripping my.

[Tyler Cornack]

Well, it's actually not. It. It's not the thing. Like the joy. The best part about making a movie, as much as I was bitching and complaining about it earlier. It is making the thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

As torturous as it is and everything. It's like. That's why you do it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's not about. It's not about anything else. To me, production is the best part. And because you're physically doing it and when you're there and an actor's acting and you're in, you can look through the scope and it's like your little world.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

Everything you thought of is right in this thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

That's the greatest feeling in the world.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's it.

[Tyler Cornack]

AI is the opposite of that. But there. You know, I just saw a video. I don't know if we. You'd be able to find it, but I guess. What would you type in? It was like a muscle car, 70s chase scene from a movie that was AI let me see if it. I'll know it. I'll know it if I see it on the. This is what made me really depressed. But also. Is it that first. No, that's not it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cinematic car chase, unreal cinemas.

[Tyler Cornack]

What was that one?

[Duncan Trussell]

Unreal Engine 8. Now that's a year ago.

[Tyler Cornack]

No, that's not it. That's probably too vague of a description. I think I saw it on Instagram or something.

[Duncan Trussell]

But wait, scroll up a little bit. Let's look at this dystopian shit. Go up one more. Meet AI Life coaches. Are you fucking kidding me? Will you open that up, Josh? I just got to see what this is.

[Tyler Cornack]

I know they're doing all these therapists. Therapist ones.

[Duncan Trussell]

Now we're [e-mail]. wait. Click talk to vesper. Oh, you have to sign up.

[Tyler Cornack]

Sign up the chat. $11.99 a month.

[Duncan Trussell]

From choosing your destination to decoding the cultural do's and don'ts. I'm here to help.

[Tyler Cornack]

And you just asked me why. It's depressing. Like, this kills me. This kills me, dude. But I do think that. I do think that it could be cool for movies to say, you know, movies, inevitably it's going to happen. This is happening very fast.

[Duncan Trussell]

Sure. Of course.

[Tyler Cornack]

We have no choice. Right?

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

I think with movies it could be interesting if there was, you know, you should have it. Have to have a decal. There was no AI using this movie. And that could become this flip thing for humanity where it's like, you know, that's not A.I.

[Duncan Trussell]

No. I think it's going to add value to non AI stuff. And the over. Like, God help me if I post something that I made with AI Because I'M in a hurry to make a comedy flyer, dude.

[Tyler Cornack]

That's where it's great though.

[Duncan Trussell]

The rage. Yeah, the rage from the Internet is just like, you fucking piece of shit. Why don't you just go and find an artist and punch him in the fucking face, you piece of shit.

[Tyler Cornack]

Flyer for a show.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's like, dude, this. If I paid someone to paint a little boy floating away on a balloon like this looks, it would take three months and it would probably cost at least 30 grand for my show in Spokane. Give me a break. But, but you know, man, I'll tell you, I think there's something so soulless and dead in it.

[Tyler Cornack]

I think people are people who appreciate the arts anyways. I think they all feel that. So that's good. I don't want the studio system to, you know, it's already happening, but we'll see where, where they can take it. I don't know.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, yeah, it's happening. I just read this article that Netflix used upscaling AI to upscale some sitcom from the 80s. It's on vice.com if y'all want to look it up. But essentially they're saying it's the creepiest shit you've ever seen because like it's turned everyone in the sitcom into like high res monsters and shit in the background. Doesn't look right and everything's just off and fucked up. And they just did it for who knows why.

[Tyler Cornack]

The flip side of it in a cool sense to me would be like as a kid, if I was a prompter, like we're saying that's not an artist. But as a kid, being the capability to make a movie that looks like Michael Mann's Heat from your bedroom. As a 13 year old and you have a screenplay that just is cool, I don't think it should be called a movie. I think it should be called an AI cinematic experience.

[Duncan Trussell]

There you are. There we are. This is the thing. I can remember when I first started working at the Comedy Store, wasn't even comic yet. And I'd watch the old comics, look at the new comics. I can remember standing next to an old comic from the 80s, watching a new comic on stage. The old comic from the 80s, he's dressed like Dracula because that's what he does. He gets on stage and does stand up as Dracula and he's looking up there at some kid, I don't know, they're cursing. You're not supposed to curse, you know, you're supposed to do clean comedy. And he really has the saddest look on his face and he just kind of mutters, that's not comedy. That's not it. And I realized, oh, my God, this is. Every generation looks at the new thing.

[Tyler Cornack]

Looks at the new thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

And he's like, that ain't it. And I think with AI, I feel the same way, but it's sad. This is what I think, so interesting about it. It's art. Yeah, it is art. Is it soulless? Do I look at AI art now and it gives me a feeling of four hours into a boring car ride with my grandparents. Yeah, it feels like shit looking at. I don't care about it. If I see a Instagram short, which I'm guilty of putting out in the beginning because I was so excited, look what I did with AI. I don't want to look at it. I don't care. But man, it's coming.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's coming. It's already here. And all that stuff's going to look way better very quickly.

[Duncan Trussell]

Indistinguishable.

[Tyler Cornack]

Indistinguishable. And it's just. Yeah, it's complicated, but it's not. And I do sound a little bit like the old man, but that's just because I've been through the trenches a bit in the indie film world. And it's like they just get to sit in their bed now. Making. It's gonna look better than the thing I was shooting at 21.

[Duncan Trussell]

I think it's gonna be a guru level experience for young creatives. Because what is actually gonna happen is they're gonna get bored and they're not gonna wanna do it. And the people who aren't getting bored are idiots. And I think they're going to intuit somewhere along the way just what you're saying, and they're going to realize, oh, this. Because what. What they're missing is chaos. You know, they might get the. I might spit out some bullshit. Yeah, but I mean, like the chaos you experience making Mermaid.

[Tyler Cornack]

I mean, those frayed edges. Frayed edges are important in things.

[Duncan Trussell]

Absolutely.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's my favorite kind of thing. It's like, it's with music, with everything. The imperfections is what makes it special.

[Duncan Trussell]

Absolutely.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I. Yeah. And I think you can feel that sometimes you can't even put your finger on what it is. But I think it's important, you know, like. Like a. Yeah, a photograph with, you know, a perfect photograph. I'd rather a photograph with wrinkles in it. I wonder where that photograph came from more than.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

If just a freshly printed one that might look better you know, see, AI.

[Duncan Trussell]

It doesn't get that. No, it doesn't capture that. It can't capture that. It will never capture unless you just put frayed edges.

[Tyler Cornack]

Make this look a little more.

[Duncan Trussell]

You had some flaws, poignant and flawed. Like, I don't know, we had a roug and we had to compensate for not having this location.

[Tyler Cornack]

The boom operator got sick at 12pm how would this sound now?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, it'll spit out some bullshit that's.

[Tyler Cornack]

Like a year away.

[Duncan Trussell]

I don't. It's probably now, but you're never gonna. In the beginning, I thought, yeah, we'll get there, but I don't think we're gonna get there. And really what AI did for me is it inspired me to start learning how to draw because I got so annoyed with it, trying to prompt it to do something. I'm like, I'd rather have my shitty drawings on my flyer than some perfected bullshit. But I want to ask you something non related to AI and if you can't talk about it. Okay. During the Q and A, there was a question that came up. Something happened or something with an actor, and you're like, I can't.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, I can talk about. I'm not gonna say who it is, but I can find a way to get around it. We had. Well, in this movie, I was trying to cast people from the. From the 90s that I really admire. And I think I did that in a lot of ways. There was a lot of people in it that worked out and it was great. We just had a nightmare. We had a nightmare actor that we signed on to be somebody at the end of the movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God.

[Tyler Cornack]

It was like. I had a great dinner with him before we started shooting. Got along great. He was very complimentary about the writing and just giving me. It was a dream come true. And I had a lot of these dinners while making the movie. It was so incredible to, you know.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. How cool.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. But he was really great. We had a call time the next day at. I mean, if I slow down a little bit, it's just me trying not to say his name, but if you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Do, we'll cut it out.

[Tyler Cornack]

Okay. For real. There we go. Okay. Yeah, that's me letting you know. There you go.

[Duncan Trussell]

You haven't said his name yet. If he says the name, mark it down for sure.

[Tyler Cornack]

When we left, there was. There was a little bit of a red flag, as on our way out. There's a little bit of a red flag. That's not even specific. I'll keep it within the movie. We had to get up at 4am the next day, very early to go out on a boat right in the middle of the ocean. Originally it was supposed to be out at sea for the end, so it was like choppy waters were there. At four we pick. I'm not in the car when this happens. But, you know, it's early, nobody wants to be there. Everyone's a little bit groggy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

He. The hotel we had dinner at the night previously, they pass it still dark out. It's a big famous hotel there. He goes, you know, he says something like, you know, Al Capone used to own that place.

[Duncan Trussell]

Great.

[Tyler Cornack]

And you know, Johnny is a man of facts. He likes facts. Yes, but he didn't say anything. He had the wherewithal to not say anything until. Just a light joke, which I thought was so funny. But they passed the sushi place down the road and, you know, Johnny goes, you know Al Capone used to eat sushi there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, no.

[Tyler Cornack]

And this old school actor that was like they had just met and he loses it in front of all the actors in the Suburban. So now at 4am I show up and the producer who was in the car, one of them comes up to me, he's like, that was not a good car ride. And I was like, what? I don't even know exactly what happened there. But he pulls me aside and then as he's telling me, this actor just screams out my name, Tyler, get over here.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh my God.

[Tyler Cornack]

So I start walking with him and he. He's like, who the fuck? Or like, what the fuck is this? What the fuck? And I don't even know what he's talking about because the producer didn't even fully tell me what had happened. But I got the gist of what happened and the other actors were coming up to me and everyone was telling me, so we go on the boat. Now it's. He can't let this go. His energy, he just can't let it go. And it's carrying over. I think it's just being in the morning, we're all sipping coffee and we're going out into the ocean and it's rocky water and it's just like. Doesn't feel great. He starts to do some, you know, he starts to get a little bit rude to everyone. I'll say it broadly like that, which is fine, by the way, in my mind. You can. It's not cool, right? I don't like it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

But if you can show up and do your job, there is Something almost romantic to me about.

[Duncan Trussell]

Sure.

[Tyler Cornack]

Especially a certain type of actor who does it. It's like, oh, that was kind of cool. Yeah, whatever. Sure, I can appreciate it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right?

[Tyler Cornack]

So I thought it was that. At least at first.

[Duncan Trussell]

It might be his style. You know, he's famous. He's kind of gracing you with his presence. He's walking around being a little bit of a dick.

[Tyler Cornack]

Old school.

[Duncan Trussell]

Hollywood is.

[Tyler Cornack]

And you're kind of like, of course he is.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, why not?

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, sure. He's him. You know, so long and short of it is, throughout the day, he just.

[Duncan Trussell]

Sylvester Stallone.

[Tyler Cornack]

No, you're not. Well, same. Same breed.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay. Okay.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. So he. We start to shoot the scene. Some other stuff happened in between, but I won't get into it because it's too detailed. But the point is, he couldn't do his job and he couldn't say his Al Pacino. No, no. That would have been awesome, though. He couldn't do it.

[Duncan Trussell]

He couldn't do his lines.

[Tyler Cornack]

Couldn't do his lines because he was.

[Duncan Trussell]

So flustered about a fudgeing Al Capone joke.

[Tyler Cornack]

He was flustered. Well, that carried over into, I think, just the boat, the earliness, the everything.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Tyler Cornack]

And then he was starting to feel. He told me some things before we started shooting. He's like, just so you let you know, I'm not going to say. I'm not going to say this thing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Great.

[Tyler Cornack]

I can brush that off as like the actor thing we were just talking about. Like, okay, why aren't you gonna say it? He's like, well, I just wouldn't. And I'm like, you don't know that much about this character. And that's where it gets annoying sometimes, where you're like, I've worked on this for fucking two years. You've been here for 10 minutes. And okay. The other thing was he wanted to change the blocking, which I had storyboarded. And we had creatures.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, fuck.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. He wanted to change the blocking. He's like, I wouldn't sit for this. I have to stand. Classic old actor thing to say. I gotta.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, my God.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I'm like, you know, me and my editor cinematographer, we plan for this day. We're out at sea. It's like, we have shots, you know, some people are a little bit more fluid, and I am too sometimes, but not on a boat. When it's the finale of the film and it's about stillness, you know?

[Duncan Trussell]

And I know that scene was so fucking.

[Tyler Cornack]

I love that scene. I love that scene. It's My favorite.

[Duncan Trussell]

Gut wrenchingly grotesque, by the way.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, but funny though, too, right?

[Duncan Trussell]

So in thinking of that scene and thinking that asshole said he needed to.

[Tyler Cornack]

Walk around, he had to walk. So that was the first thing he came to me with before all this. He's like, I gotta walk. And I was still like, all right, let me think about this genuinely. I'm not gonna be an asshole. Sometimes. Sometimes these ideas are great. And you're like, oh, that could be really cool. Yeah, I kind of figure out a way to do it. I'm like, okay, this could be interesting. Let's do it. But then he starts to flub his lines, right? So now we're back to him flubbing his lines.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, no.

[Tyler Cornack]

Everyone feels it. He feels everyone feeling it. Just bombing. It's not good.

[Duncan Trussell]

Because if you're gonna be a dick, you better be good.

[Tyler Cornack]

Exactly.

[Duncan Trussell]

You've been a dick and now you're eating.

[Tyler Cornack]

And I would love it if they were a dick and they were good. It's like, right. This story. I wouldn't. I actually wouldn't tell it then, but this guy kind of pissed all over my movie, so I don't care.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, he definitely did.

[Tyler Cornack]

And we don't have a lot of money. It's like, what are you doing?

[Duncan Trussell]

I mean, I can't even. I mean, thinking of the. Was it the same boat? Did you use the same boat?

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, same boat.

[Duncan Trussell]

That ain't cheap.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's not cheap. And we took it out. So this is like fuel costs. And like, he. He. He just pissed all over a bunch of money. So I'm kind of like, fuck that guy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Like, I can't imagine.

[Tyler Cornack]

I love him. I love him as an actor. I love him in everything he's in. But whatever.

[Duncan Trussell]

So what happened? He just.

[Tyler Cornack]

So he. He's getting. He starts to do the lines, and my first AD whispers something in my ear. He's like, you know, what are we going to do here? And he kind of feels that that happened. And then it starts to get bad. Then he goes inside, and I'm just like, hey, why don't you just go look it over again? Just go look it over. Let's just. You know, I'm trying to be cordial about it because I'm already walking on eggshells. And I go inside. I'm like, I'm going to have to just, like, read it to him. He's gonna have. We didn't have an earwig or anything. I'm just gonna have to just say it. Cause I need it. Maybe There's a ver. It was so unsalvageable. It's like, maybe there's a version of this movie where I can just, like, cut to him for line. Cut to Johnny. There's no subtext going on.

[Duncan Trussell]

There could be some hope still.

[Tyler Cornack]

I have to do something.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

So I go in and I tell him. And then he's weirdly, like, super nice to me. All of a sudden, he's like, yeah, man, whatever you want. And now I'm just like, oh, this is. That's even worse and scarier. So we go out and I start to read him the monologue, and then he can't repeat what I'm saying. So I'll say a line and he can't repeat it. And so it just gets to this. Okay, so you're just. This isn't gonna work.

[Duncan Trussell]

Was he trying to sabotage her? Was he just so.

[Tyler Cornack]

I think at that point, yeah, he just wanted to.

[Duncan Trussell]

He was just like, I'm gonna fuck this guy.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. I don't know what he thought. I don't know what he thought, but it felt like that. It felt like, not good. So anyways, we get to the. Now it's the part where he has to stand, and I've done. I've changed the blocking for it, and it just ends in a catastrophe where I just tell him to change his eyeline a little bit. He freaks out on me. That's what sets him over the edge.

[Duncan Trussell]

What do you mean, freak out? What do you say?

[Tyler Cornack]

He starts screaming at me. He's like, I think I made more fucking movies than you, man. And, like, just goes off and, wow, this is after me changing the blocking. And, like, of course, simultaneously never got seasick this whole movie. All of a sudden, as this is happening, everyone starts to get a little bit like Bobby. And we're like, all right, this is crazy. And I have all this on film, too, of him yelling at me. So anyways, it went on and on. There's so much. I know that sounds like there's a lot of detail in that, but there's so much more. And long of the short of it was we ended up just having to let him go. I do wish. I do wish him well, but also, like, that's not. I mean, shouldn't do that.

[Duncan Trussell]

So you're getting screamed at by this surreal. And also, everyone who loves you, who you work with, probably wants to kill him. And so you've got a group of people who just want to kill him. And then you probably want to kill him. So how do you respond to that? How do you deal with that level of aggression that you've read about, heard about, but there it is in front of you for what sounds to me no reason at all.

[Tyler Cornack]

It got so incoherent and sort of crazy that it was easy to laugh at. The thing that sucked about it was logistically, what are we gonna do?

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Tyler Cornack]

Cause we don't have this scene.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

You know, it just remained about the movie. We were supposed to work with him the next day. He had, like, two lines. We were supposed to work with him. And then he ended up not well. I ended up just being like, I can't do this.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, of course.

[Tyler Cornack]

This is awful.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

And it's just like we don't have it to begin with, so why are we gonna put ourselves through it? Like, once we realize we have to replace him. Which we did. And I think it was the coolest move ever in the movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

So this is what AI will not replace is because. And you see divine moments like that where in the moment you're dealing with, I think you must be some kind of enlightened being. Because, like, if it were me, and this is like, my baby. And you have gone into the most vulnerable creative place, and you've been there for a while, too, and you're a terrorist. You're blowing up my movie in front of people I've been working with. And you suck.

[Tyler Cornack]

I have no patience for that either. Because it's just so. Your emotions are so raw and you're so exhausted. You're seasick and you're seasick, and you're just like, dude, go fuck yourself. But it's really weird when it's like a hero of yours who I admire so much, and I love everything that he's in, but, you know, he's just not. It's not the same. Whatever it is. I don't know what was going on with him. It's none of my business. I don't even give a what it is. But it was just. It was sad more than anything.

[Duncan Trussell]

And you're trapped on a boat. It's not even like he can storm off.

[Tyler Cornack]

No.

[Duncan Trussell]

So you're stuck at sea with this.

[Tyler Cornack]

Where it's, like swaying and he's like. You know. And then kind of cool.

[Duncan Trussell]

But no, I mean, it's a story.

[Tyler Cornack]

If money wasn't being blown, it's kind of cool.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's a story. It's incredible. But then you realize when you got the scene that you got that whatever the gods of creativity are. God, maybe they were just like, no, I'm gonna make your movie better.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah, I think so.

[Duncan Trussell]

And suddenly you have this pristine, beautiful, incredible epic.

[Tyler Cornack]

A little more real.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

More human.

[Duncan Trussell]

It was. Who was that actor, by the way?

[Tyler Cornack]

Kevin Dunn. He's one of my favorite actors.

[Duncan Trussell]

Kevin Dunn.

[Tyler Cornack]

You ever watch Veep the show?

[Duncan Trussell]

Veep, yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

He's the guy with the big mug and Veep.

[Duncan Trussell]

Ok.

[Tyler Cornack]

But he's been in everything.

[Duncan Trussell]

But he killed it. He just slam dunked it. And thank God that guy had a nervous breakdown.

[Tyler Cornack]

Yeah. And shout out to him. He had 24 hours to learn that giant monologue, which is not easy, and understand the context of everything that's going on. And he was the opposite in the sense that we talked for five minutes and he's like, I think it's. I'm going to do this. I'm like, that sounds great. Sat down. You know the opposite. Like, Robert Patrick's the same way. It's like, whoa, just knock it out. And it was so cool. That's like the best part ever, you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Know, that's got to be. Another cool part about directing is getting to witness what is basically magic. That somebody in 24 hours could somehow bring that level of emotional depth in that level that like, somehow just.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's the best part of it. It's the best part of the whole thing. When you write, it's truly, you know, if you're a writer, director, when the two come together in this moment and you're like, this was just a thing in my head. And the weirder it is, the more surreal it is, almost because you're like, we're here. And he's saying these words right now that are just like, it's incredible.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, you want me to just take that character in your mind and not just bring it to life? But I'm gonna make it so good that you could do a spinoff just about me. I'm just gonna do that. No problem. 24 hours. Yeah, sure. I'll just bring an epic, legendary being to life and I'll just do it. No problem. What's the big deal? That shit is magic.

[Tyler Cornack]

That's truly how it feels with them. Robert is an absolute. Every actor in this movie I'm obsessed with. From Tyler Rice, the wife who plays Tina, Julia loves. She was great, isn't she? So good, both of them. Tyler Rice is so good.

[Duncan Trussell]

I felt bad for him having to act in a fucking neck brace.

[Tyler Cornack]

They're like, they're like my favorite actor. They're like some of my favorite actors. And they're so. They get so into the work, like, at the same level I do almost with the directing, where it just becomes this, like, amazing collaboration. It's like, I couldn't even know this. This. This exists in a way. And it's like. Anyways, I'm thinking about, like, doing a small thing with them because I just. I love them so much. But anyways, Robert, he's such a veteran to the point where my favorite part about this is a great memory. But I would drive by the hotel every night and he would sort of fuck with me on set. Like, especially the first day he walked in, he's like, what's my character's name again? What am I doing? And there's so many people here. And this is before the other story happened. So I was just like, oh, fuck, is this whole thing gonna just fucking burn? We start rolling and he's just like, word perfect.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, that's great.

[Tyler Cornack]

Amazing. And then you realize his whole thing is just fucking with people the entire time. And then you're like. You fall in love with the guy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Tyler Cornack]

But my favorite thing was I would drive by the hotel at night and he's a sober guy. He's been sober for a while. So disciplined, so talented. It's just so organic and great. I think he should be in every Quentin Tarantino movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

Absolutely.

[Tyler Cornack]

He just belongs in that world to me. But he would just be outside in the hotel with a cigar, just digging through my script for hours out there.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's. They love it.

[Tyler Cornack]

Just learning it. They love it. And I just love that they're. He was doing that, and it just so shows. And like, we were shooting. I shot on anamorphic lenses and, you know, we had one. I'm just thinking of another example off.

[Duncan Trussell]

The top of my head, but what's an anamorphic lens?

[Tyler Cornack]

Anamorphic lens, it's just what gives you the wider scope. It's what makes it looks. The black bars. Just think of it that way.

[Duncan Trussell]

Gotcha.

[Tyler Cornack]

The organic black bars is within the lens. He, you know, he's like, are these anamorphic lenses? You know, I'm on a. I'm over his shoulder. I'm like, yeah. He's like, what's on there, buddy? I'm like, 50. And he just goes. Moves like that. And I'm just like, dude, that's so cool. You've been doing this for so fucking long and you've seen so much and it just shows and it's amazing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, no, that's the thing, man. When people realize what I mean. All this stuff is just so cool to me because actors, it's not just that they're somehow these bizarre psychic chameleons that can turn into fictional characters, but then also add their own soul into it in a way that adds to it. But the technical side of it is insane that they just not, in the midst of memorizing these lines, they bring.

[Tyler Cornack]

These ideas that you're like, what? How are you doing that?

[Duncan Trussell]

It's so cool. Do you. Last question. And I'm sorry, because this does sound like a cheesy end of an interview with a director question. But I legitimately mean it. What's next?

[Tyler Cornack]

Oh, man. Well, I really want to make a small movie next. I think, like soon I have an idea for like just a thriller that I can make small because these things take so long.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

The biggest thing about this for me is like these gaps, these years of time in between. And I'm just at the point now where I like doing things where it is a little bit bigger. You have more resources and people. It's really nice. But I'm also like, why can't we just do this other little tiny thing?

[Duncan Trussell]

Sure.

[Tyler Cornack]

We have everything we need. Yeah, we have amazing talent. We have a boom guy camera. You can shoot a movie on anything now that has a lens mount and make it. It'll look like a movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Cornack]

So I think I kind of want that. I kind of want my career to sort of become that where it's something like this. Something really small. Like I want to do something in like two locations, but interesting, you know. And then I have this movie I really, really, really, really want to make.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cool.

[Tyler Cornack]

That costs more money. But it's like an 80s cop movie in the cocaine era.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cool.

[Tyler Cornack]

And in Miami. And a cop goes undercover. But it's sort of like a good, good fella, Scarface, but with a modern sort of twist to the voiceover. And it's like. Yeah, it's the same thing. It gets emotional. But he think like, it's kind of. Have you ever seen like vampires kiss?

[Duncan Trussell]

No.

[Tyler Cornack]

You would love that movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

I'm watching it tonight.

[Tyler Cornack]

Nicholas Cage. Have you ever seen the clip of the A, B, C, D?

[Duncan Trussell]

I haven't seen it. And I like, I like it.

[Tyler Cornack]

It's a famous clip, but I think it's his most interesting film. But it's kind of like an American Psycho thing. Like in my movie.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cool.

[Tyler Cornack]

He think this guy in this cocaine infused adventure he's going on, he. He thinks he may or may not be turning into a werewolf in the heart of Miami. And you're like, is he? Isn't he? And he's coked out of his mind. That's like more down the middle for me. It's like a little bit more mainstream. But the weird's still in there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right?

[Tyler Cornack]

But it's like a big 80s epic.

[Duncan Trussell]

You've written the script.

[Tyler Cornack]

I have a draft of it done. I'm, like, doing a revision of it now, and I'm telling everybody I can about it that's here, so.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Because that's. I get wanting to do the little thing in between. Because you gotta wait for this to whatever way that's gonna make its way to people's TVs or the theaters or whatever. You have to wait. And then once the ripple hits from this, I really think there's gonna be a big ripple from this one. You'll get all the funding you want to make the next year.

[Tyler Cornack]

I hope you're correct. That would be the dream. That would be the absolute dream.

[Duncan Trussell]

I mean, to be honest, I've been wrong every time I've made this prediction.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm gonna end it on that. Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

Thank you. So.

[Tyler Cornack]

Thank you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Thank you for making these great movies. And I can't wait to see what's around the corner.

[Tyler Cornack]

I'm such a huge fan of you, too. This was just so great. Thank you. And you're like the great philosopher of comedy.

[Duncan Trussell]

Aw, thank you.

[Tyler Cornack]

You're just highly intelligent. So it means the world to me to hear you say this stuff.

[Duncan Trussell]

So thank you. You're the best. Thanks for coming on the show.

[Tyler Cornack]

Thank you.

[Duncan Trussell]

And I will. Everybody, you must go see Mermaid. Go see both of them. All the links will be at the comment section on YouTube or@duncan trussell.com. thank you so much.

[Tyler Cornack]

Thank you. Man.

[Duncan Trussell]

That was Tyler Cornack, everybody. Go watch. But boy. And as soon as you're able to definitely watch Mermaid, you'll be glad you did. You can find all my stand [e-mail] I'll see you next week. Until then, Hare Krishna.