B&T Extra: Comedian T.J. Miller

Summary

The BOB & TOM Show Free Podcast
B&T Extra: Comedian T.J. Miller
Date: May 1, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this B&T Extra episode, the ever-irreverent BOB & TOM crew are joined by comedian and actor T.J. Miller for an engaging, freewheeling conversation. The discussion takes listeners through T.J.’s comedic roots, his unique family dynamics, life as a touring comic, marriage mischief, and his thoughts on how fame shapes daily encounters. The episode is packed with sharp off-the-cuff humor and relatable musings about relationships, work, and the quirks of fame.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. T.J. Miller’s Roots and Family Life

[04:26–09:46]

• Denver Beginnings & Life in NYC:
  TJ talks about his Denver upbringing and current life in New York, sharing how NYC is the best place for doing multiple shows in a night as a stand-up comic.

• Mother-in-Law Stories & Midwest Tenacity:
  He humorously recalls being roped into last-minute yard work by his Indiana-based mother-in-law, Hermione ("pronounced Her-MY-nee, but spelled like Hermione from Harry Potter").

  • Memorable Moment: “I don’t want to do this, but I’m out there … once I start something, I gotta get it done.” — TJ Miller [05:04]
  • Jokes about over-pruning, parental feedback, and the resulting sense of never fully satisfying a parent or in-law, but being unable to quit halfway through a job.

• Extended Family & New Relationships:
  TJ observes his mother-in-law’s boyfriend (a 65-year-old Quaker) and his own 81-year-old father’s younger girlfriend, reflecting on how definitions and perceptions of relationships evolve with age.

  • “She’s really robbing the cradle.” — TJ Miller [08:41]

2. Navigating Fame & Audience Demographics

[09:47–12:17]

• What Do People Recognize T.J. For?
  TJ Miller describes the ‘demographic roulette’ of his fanbase:

  • Tech fans: “Silicon Valley”
  • Moviegoers: “Deadpool”, “Transformers 4”, “Cloverfield”, “Underwater”
  • Comedy lovers: “Office Christmas Party,” “She’s Out of My League.”
  • “That was on HBO… so then a lot of people recognized me from Deadpool…” — TJ Miller [09:51]

• The ‘Out of My League’ Phenomenon:
  T.J. connects with couples who mirror his own dynamic—funny, unassuming guys with “out of their league” partners.

  • “When I walk down the street with my wife, people are confused. They look at each other, they go, ‘I didn’t know they did Make-A-Wish at this time.’” — TJ Miller [12:00]

3. Marriage, Frozen Embryos, and Relationship Language

[12:17–13:29]

• Modern Relationships & Vocabulary:
  The show reflects on oddities in the English language when discussing older adults with partners (“girlfriend”/“boyfriend”), musing on how adults with long relationships and kids still end up using these youthful terms.

• On Being a Husband vs. Boyfriend:
  T.J. shares how he tries to keep the spirit of the boyfriend phase alive in marriage:

  • “I’ll say, you know, well, I’m just your boyfriend... I often find that husband becomes a little more institutional.” — TJ Miller [13:01]

4. Comedy, Improvisation, and Audience Connection

[13:32–16:38]

• Improvisation in Stand-Up:
  TJ is passionate about making each stand-up show unique, leaning heavily on improvisation and crowd interaction.
  • “If you come to my show, it should be just for you. I love the idea of… I will never perform this exact show. It's just for us, just that night.” — TJ Miller [13:54]
  • Highlights “Dear Jonah,” his special featuring extensive crowd work, now with viral popularity.

5. Marriage Mischief: The Ultimate Surprise

[13:32–16:38]

• The Great Prank:
  TJ recounts elaborate ruse on his wife, pretending to leave for a weekend gig in California before popping out of the car with roses, announcing he’s actually staying home.
  • “It’s the fastest I’ve ever been to California. It almost seems like I never left.” — TJ Miller [15:36]
  • He then helps with her art and home life for the weekend, reigniting their relationship by breaking routine.

6. Art, Living in Manhattan, and Domestic Dynamics

[16:50–19:00]

• Wife’s Career as Installation Artist:
  T.J.’s wife, Kate, is revealed as a significant visual artist, known especially in France, and a whiz at interior design.

• Small Spaces and Shared Living:
  They live in a beautiful yet small one-bedroom in Manhattan, challenging both to find personal corners in limited space—a relatable theme for urban dwellers.

  • “You don’t have to walk from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room — they’re all the same room.” — TJ Miller [17:43]
  • Both value their own little “untouchable” shelves or nooks for personal stuff.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Black people love this jacket. That’s not usually how people open their radio segment, but they really, really do.” — TJ Miller [04:31]
• “My mother-in-law’s boyfriend…is a Quaker. I don’t come across a lot of Quakers in my day-to-day life. I hang out at bars a lot… Not a lot of intersections with what I do.” — TJ Miller [08:35]
• “Tech people know me from Silicon Valley… radio at 5am, sometimes that’s a part of your Christmas evening.” — TJ Miller [09:49]
• “I have four frozen children—three girls and one boy. And so he’s in there going, ‘Me first, please!’” — TJ Miller [12:41]
• “As a boyfriend, I did this great—I'm going to teach everybody a trick right now: I pranked my wife.” — TJ Miller [13:32]
• “I was nude in the car. I’m a quick change artist.” — TJ Miller (joking about surprising his wife) [16:41]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [04:26] – T.J. Miller on his Denver roots and mother-in-law stories
• [09:47] – What T.J. gets recognized for; fan demographics
• [12:00] – “Out of my league” marriage dynamic
• [13:01] – On relationship terms: husband vs. boyfriend
• [13:54] – Comedy philosophy and improvisation in stand-up
• [15:36] – The ultimate marital prank and surprise
• [16:50] – Life with an artist, small apartment living, and finding personal space

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Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is lively, fast-paced, and self-deprecatingly funny, punctuated by T.J. Miller’s improvisational energy, the BOB & TOM crew’s classic banter, and a blend of real-life storytelling and observational humor. Themes of relationships, generational change, and the quirks of daily fame are presented with warmth and wit, making for a relatable and entertaining listen.

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For anyone wanting a quick, insightful, and hilarious snapshot into T.J. Miller’s mind and personal life, this B&T Extra delivers.

Transcript

[Announcer]

Focus features in Blumhouse Obsession When I

[TJ Miller]

have a crush on a guy no

[Announcer]

one knows, be careful.

[TJ Miller]

I wish Nikki loved me more than anyone in the entire world.

[Announcer]

Who you wish for? Obsession is 96% fresh on rotten Tomatoes.

[TJ Miller]

I love you so so so so much.

[Announcer]

It's blood soaked nightmare fuel.

[TJ Miller]

What kind of spills you put on her?

[Announcer]

You have been warned. Obsession rated R under 17 animated without parent only theaters May 15 with special engagements in Dolby it's time to ref

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[Christopher]

Welcome back. It's another Bob and Tom Extra. This is Christopher. Not only is the Bob and Tom show live every weekday morning, but every afternoon we'll give you a little extra. In case you missed anything on the big show today, comedian TJ Miller. He's coming up in just a minute.

[Bob Kevoian]

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[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

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[Narrator or Voiceover]

See Mint mobile.com I wrote entitled Undignified Ways to Die.

[TJ Miller]

Okay, all right.

[Narrator or Voiceover]

Skin diving with gas tanks you stole from a dentist. Renting a basement apartment in Venice. Wearing clown shoes while walking through a minefield at night. Getting a life size tattoo of someone your height. Mistaking a python for your favorite tie. Hang gliding at night on the 4th of July, Having a bowling ball drop down your head. Mooning some cannibals who haven't been fed. Teasing some Scots for wearing their kilt. Approaching a chopper while walking on stilts. Swimming with sharks in a suit made of meat. Flashing yourself to a hippo in heat. Slapping the head of a bald drunken sailor and telling your dates, burly dad, five bucks as I nail her.

[Christopher]

Here's some extra.

[TJ Miller]

This is Bob and Tom.

[Christopher]

Extra.

[Bob Kevoian]

Oh, the handsome factor in this room just went way up.

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

Oh yeah.

[TJ Miller]

And the intelligence factor went way down.

[Bob Kevoian]

Well, I didn't want to say it that way, but I think it goes without saying. He is comedian T.J. miller. That's a very fancy.

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

Isn't that nice?

[Bob Kevoian]

I know you're from, you're from Denver, right?

[TJ Miller]

Yeah, I am.

[Bob Kevoian]

That's got kind of a western feel.

[TJ Miller]

Does it feel like that? Black people love this jacket. The whole joke about it. That's not usually how people open their radio segment yet, but they really, really do. And I get compliments on it in Manhattan. I live in New York City. As a standup comedian, that's sort of where you need to be I think to do the most amount of shows. I can do like three or four shows in one night. But yeah, originally from Denver and my family, I just came from last night. My mother in law lives in Indiana and Spring port at a horse farm.

[Tom Griswold]

Cool.

[TJ Miller]

Yeah, it's really cool. And until she sort of baits you into doing yard work. Before coming in to do this show last night, I thought, you know, I needed to drive in. I stayed somewhere near here because it's the biggest radio show in the world. And I thought it was very funny that as I said, okay, I think I'm gonna going. My mother in law kind of goes, okay, we'll be careful on the way out because there's a lot of over growth of the black raspberry brush there. So on the way out and I go, oh, okay, well yeah, I'm gonna head out. If only be nice to get that pruned, but you know how it is. And getting. And I'm feeling so tired because, well, you know, and it just, for some reason it takes about a minute and a Half from a mother in law. And then I'm out there with shears cutting, and it's getting dark. How did, how did this happen? And I love it. I love working. I think that's a big part of why she likes me and my wife likes me. But I. So I'm not kind of. I don't want to do this, but I'm out there and then. I don't know about all of you, but I have a little bit of tenacity in me. I think it's that Midwest for me. It's Colorado. It's that once I start something, I gotta get it done. Yeah, right, sure. And so then it's done. It's 45 minutes or an hour later. And I just. I see myself kind of looking at the shape and seeing if I can shape it a little bit so that it follows a bit around because I want it to be along the sidewalk, but not too far out from. And I go, what am I doing? I've got to do pop tomorrow. So finally I say, I got to get out of here. And she's like my father. And I think we all have a parent. Usually it's one, not two. But did you guys have a parent who just. Even if he did the best job, tried the hardest he possibly could, put everything into it. You're out there trying to shape the black raspberry shrub to sort of be in the visage of your mother in law. So it looks beautiful, but it's still kind of thorny. And you're kind of going, you know, what do you think? And they go, that was fine. Yeah, yeah, that was quite fine.

[Tom Griswold]

You could have maybe done that.

[TJ Miller]

Yeah, right, exactly. I don't even think I listened to that. You want to hear any more from me, I'll be on the radio.

[Bob Kevoian]

I'm on YouTube.

[TJ Miller]

Yeah, right, exactly. Where are all my.

[Bob Kevoian]

Do you call her by her first name?

[TJ Miller]

Yes, but I do like this because I don't think she's up early enough to listen to this. Okay. Her name is Hermione.

[Bob Kevoian]

What is it?

[TJ Miller]

Hermione. And it's spelled like Hermione. Okay, from the right, but she pronounces it Hermione. And I don't often do this joke because I'm afraid she'll hear it. But every single time I address her, like you said, you know, do you call her by first? I'm like, Herman. I always kind of want to go her, man. You do know that you're pronouncing your name wrong. Does anyone talk to you about that. But yeah, I'll call her Hermione. And then she has this great boyfriend. This is kind of the world that we live in and I love it. I love that my 70 something mother in law has a boyfriend. My father now has a girlfriend and he's 81.

[Tom Griswold]

Good for him.

[TJ Miller]

Oh, I think it's great. And she's, I, I'll do the joke about my mother in law, not him, but you know, her boyfriend is like, I don't know, 65 or something. So really robbing the cradle

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

like that.

[TJ Miller]

So she's, it's fun. And my father's dating a girl who's, you know, younger. I like saying girl, she's like 68 or something, but she is a bit, I mean it's, you know, it's really fun. So. And he's really, he's very interesting. He's a Quaker, which, you know, I don't come across a lot of Quakers in my day to day life. I hang out at bars a lot though, so maybe that's part of it. There's not a lot of intersections with what I do. Sure, I guess if it's legal. I'm in a dispensary often. Not a lot of Quakers in there. But he's just a brilliant guy and loves to talk about religion and, and he's a fisher and he always, he's always dressed, you know anybody like that? Especially like in Indiana. My wife's from Michigan also. You know anybody who kind of. They're always dressed in Colorado, we say this to it. They're always dressed like they're just about to go fishing. It's not necessarily gonna happen, but if somebody walked in and goes, we gotta get to the creek now they're kind of like, oh yeah, well I have, you know, all my bait and tackle is in these cargo pants. That's great.

[Bob Kevoian]

TJ Miller is our guest.

[TJ Miller]

I have an interesting thing where people say, well what do you, you know, what do people recognize you from? And it really is just demographics, you know, I mean it's, there's all tech. People know me from Silicon Valley, A lot of people love that. But that was on hbo. So then a lot of people recognized me from Deadpool. I was in the first two Deadpools, so I'll get recognized for that. But then I was in a film called Office Christmas Party, which is an R rated Christmas movie. It's really, really fun. It's a little more cocaine than most Christmas movies. Well, depending on how you like to watch them. Uh huh. If you DO radio at 5am sometimes. That's a part of your Christmas evening. You've got to work, you know, in the next couple days. So you know that. And then, you know, some people recognize me from Transformers 4, Age of Extinction. So that's people who like cars, some of that, and robots, I guess. And so people kind of know in horror movie, fans know me from Cloverfield. They did this film called Underwater, and then a big movie that a lot of my fan base loves is she's out of My League.

[Bob Kevoian]

That's my favorite.

[TJ Miller]

And I bet because. And I really do. I know not a lot about you enough that we hugged in the green room, or at least I tried to, and you walked away. But I feel like my fan base, a lot of them. And if you look at my wife, you can look up a picture of my wife. She's so. She's completely out of my league. And I have a lot of people that come to my shows and they're couples. And it is always a beautiful woman, cool woman, you know, just fun, funny. Call it Midwest 10. When it's a beautiful girl and she's smart and funny, she can still kill a six pack and wants to tailgate, but will yell at you and tell you to go to bed, but also says, I did something special for Taco Tuesday. That to me. That to me, is Midwest. There you go. And so she is very that. And a lot of the guys that come and see me and the couples will come and it's like this gorgeous girl, cool girl, really funny, funny girl. And then this guy who like you and I kind of. You look at the couple, you're like, how did that happen? This guy. This guy is really. I would not expect this at all. I say when I walk down the street with my wife, people are confused. They look at each other, they go, I didn't know they didn't make a wish. At this.

[Bob Kevoian]

I get the. How come she's with her dad.

[TJ Miller]

But that's. I'm going to be. My wife and I are in our 40s now, and. And we're kind of getting to the. We did sort of in vitro and the freezing of the embryo. So we have four frozen children, three girls and one boy. And so he's in there going, me first, please. But, yeah, I think we live in a very interesting time. Very interesting.

[Bob Kevoian]

You mentioned the girlfriend thing in English. We don't have a good word for that. My sister has a boyfriend. She's my older sister and I often refer to Kelly as my girlfriend. We have two children together.

[TJ Miller]

No, you know what? And I say that I. Actually, I was talking about this the other day. I'm glad you brought that up, because I sometimes say to my wife, you know, do you think I'm being a good enough boyfriend? Or. I'll say, you know, well, I'm just trying to. You know, I'm just your boyfriend doing. So I'll kind of interchange husband and boyfriend because I often find that husband becomes a little more institutional. Yeah, well, it's my wife, so, you

[Tom Griswold]

know, she's not going anywhere. I don't have to try so hard.

[TJ Miller]

So as a boyfriend, I did this great. I'm gonna. I'm gonna teach everybody a trick right now. I pranked my wife. Okay. And. And so what I did was I. I travel every weekend because I love doing Siena. I'm just absolutely fascinated by it. I just think it is one of the most interesting things a person can do. And I'm an improviser. So I started in Second City in Chicago, and a lot of my show is improvised. You'll see. I have a special on YouTube called Dear Jonah. Started off as a special about pandemic material. And I talked to this kid. He had cargo pants. That clip is online, has like 20 million views. And he kind of derailed the show a bit. And then he was part of the show and more part of the show, and I involved. And then by the end, we did the closer together, and it was just great. So the whole special is largely improvised. I did another special is all crowd work. I do a lot of improvisation because I think if you come to my show, it should be just for you. I love the idea of if you're coming to a live event, it's. I improvise. No one else will ever see the same show. I will never perform this exact show. It's just for us, just that night. And you've torn your attention away from a screen, which is really hard for any of us to do. And you're just present. You're there, and I love that. I just absolutely love it. And so I just. I came up with this thing that I thought was really funny. I told Kate that I was going to Irvine, California. It was all in the calendar, the pickup, the flights, everything. And she thought nothing of it. And I said, all right, well, I'm gonna leave. Can you say goodbye to me? And now she's my wife, so she was like, I gotta do errands. Please come home and see me off. She goes, okay. And then I go, can you Come downstairs and just give me a kiss when I leave. Now she's starting to go, all right, buddy. Okay, I'll do that. Seems a little clingy, but all right. She comes downstairs, give me a kiss. She's in front of the building. The black car is there. So I go, I say goodbye. I put my baggage into the back. I get into the car, open the door. I say, all right, I love you. I'll see you soon. I'm off to California. I get in the car, close the door, open the door. I have a bouquet of red roses. I get my stuff out of the back and I come up to her and I go, wow, that really flew by. It's the fastest I've ever been to California. It almost seems like I never left. Anyway, what do you want to do this weekend? And she's like, what is happening? And I surprised her. I was. I had no work that weekend, so I stayed with her the whole weekend. And she's an artist, and so I pretended to be her art assistant and I did all the errands that she wanted, all that. And it's one of the best things I've ever done in the marriage because it really kind of revitalized her. Now, we didn't need any help with the two of us, but I think she just. She had started to feel like she was the in between. You know, she got attention when I wasn't working.

[Bob Kevoian]

I thought you were going to say you posed nude.

[TJ Miller]

I was nude in the car. I'm a quick change artist. I was in completely different clothing when I got out. Did I mention that I was in a full ball gown?

[Bob Kevoian]

Is she an artist? Is she a painter?

[TJ Miller]

She's an installation artist. So she goes into a room like this and changes every part of it to be a part of the installation. And so it's really fascinating. She's quite famous in the south of France, actually. And then New York is kind of slowly catching up and understanding is the place you live.

[Bob Kevoian]

Does she constantly change that around?

[TJ Miller]

No, she's pretty hard and fast about. But she's very good at interior design and she's kind of good at everything.

[Bob Kevoian]

Does she touch your stuff?

[TJ Miller]

It depends on how many roses and how naked I am.

[Bob Kevoian]

No, no, not that stuff. I meant, I bet you're. You know. I do. Do you have your own place in your house that she's not allowed just to walk in and go, why isn't this your.

[TJ Miller]

Oh, yeah, I have a full. Just a big kind of shelf. And that's the one Shel can't touch anything on the shelf. I think it's all her stuff.

[Bob Kevoian]

We live in the same world.

[TJ Miller]

Yeah, well, it's. I think, you know, you do kind of want that. And I. I did finally say it's funny, though. We live in an apartment in Manhattan, and it's incredibly nice, and it is just. Manhattan is cost prohibitive. It's so expensive. We have this beautiful place, and it is a one bedroom, and it's really nice because you don't have to walk from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room or anything because they're all the same room. We play that game a lot. Where. But yeah, so it's. It's not a. It's not a big place, but I like a lot of the. You know, I realize. Are you. Are any of you like this? I kind of. I'm not a guy who goes, well, don't touch her. I don't like this. Or I'm sort of. I go with the flow. I'm easygoing, and I like her taste and I like, you know, how she makes everything look. But yeah, I think I find little corners and little areas where I go, this. I'm. I'm doing this. I don't want anything.

[Bob Kevoian]

Does she criticize the way you dress?

[TJ Miller]

No, but apparently you do.

[Bob Kevoian]

I'm asking you a friend.

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

Something makes me think you're not talking about TJ anymore.

[Bob Kevoian]

I'm sorry, I got off the.

[Christopher]

That's it for another Bob and Tom show. Extra. Catch us on itunes, Google play and Stitcher. For Bob and Tom. Extra. This is Christopher. Take care, everybody.

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

The Hammer alley podcast. An 80s flashback mockumentary.

[TJ Miller]

Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

How did they go from Top of the Rock? I'm looking for a musical video. They're a band from 1987, Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To rock bottom, dude.

[TJ Miller]

I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

[Guest Host or Additional Announcer]

Hammer Alley.

[Christopher]

Follow and listen on your favorite platform.