Ari's Ass

Summary

The Commercial Break – “Ari's Ass” (Feb 13, 2026)

Main Theme & Overview

This episode of The Commercial Break podcasts features hosts Bryan Green and Krissy Hoadley unpacking their worst celebrity interview story—an epically disastrous non-interview with actor Jeremy Piven. Using their signature blend of chaotic banter and improv-style humor, they contrast this experience with affectionate reminiscing over classic comedic greats like John Candy and Catherine O’Hara. The duo also loops in discursive side roads about improv comedy, pop culture, and a meaty sidebar on the cryptocurrency crash—keeping the energy loose, self-aware, and unpredictably funny.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reminiscing About Comedy Icons

00:37–14:04

• John Candy: The hosts gush about his warmth, generosity, and comedic impact, recounting touching stories (such as Candy buying toys for children).
  • “You just knew… John was the real deal. He’s just one of those guys. They don’t make them like that anymore.” – Bryan (05:35)
• Quick takes on classic films: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck.
• Discussion of new comedy specials, particularly SNL’s Marcelo Hernandez (06:07) and overall state of SNL.
• Nostalgic discussion about SCTV, Kids in the Hall, Michael Ian Black, and the varied careers/strengths of improvisational comedy stars.
• Tribute to recently deceased Catherine O’Hara, discussing her comedic legacy, rare medical condition (mirror disease), and role in “Best in Show” and “Schitt’s Creek” (09:13–10:56).

2. What Makes a Good Interview?

12:19–14:43

• Deconstructing their approach to podcast interviews: blend of preparation and casual flow.
  • “If you prepare not at all, you end up sounding like an idiot. There’s a sweet spot...” – Bryan (13:18)
• Anecdotes about Michael Ian Black and what happens when an interview goes off the rails due to repetition or lack of chemistry.
• Emphasize importance of being genuinely open and conversational, “like you had met them at a bar and they were just another schmuck.” – Bryan (13:34)

3. The Infamous Jeremy Piven Story: The Worst Non-Interview

14:40–43:36

Context

• Piven was scheduled for an episode to promote his tour—a booking Bryan and Krissy were already hesitant about due to his reputation.
  • “He chose violence when he could have chosen kindness.” – Bryan (35:20)

The Debacle (25:30–41:46):

• Scheduling Chaos: Piven unexpectedly arrives an hour early; frantic calls ensue from multiple agents and producers.
• Technical Disaster: Piven joins the podcast from a phone on a noisy hotel patio in Colorado with abysmal reception, repeatedly cuts out, and seems distracted/disengaged.
  • “He’s in like, some hotel patio in Colorado where he has terrible internet reception...smoking whatever.” – Bryan (28:24)
• Unprofessionalism: Piven repeatedly makes hosts wait, leaves phone pointing at ceiling, conducts other phone conversations mid-session, complains about technology, and exudes impatience.
  • “He left us hanging. He put the phone down for minutes on end, and then he had the audacity to take other phone calls while we were supposed to be interviewing him.” – Bryan (34:30)
• Hosts attempt to recover, but after 40 minutes of fruitless waiting and technical headaches, they end the session by suggesting everyone log out—then simply never return.
• Piven’s agent continues to badger them for rescheduling, but the hosts are done.

Reflection & Commentary

• Hosts compare Piven’s arrogance with the humility of comedians like John Candy. Discussion of the difference between having a “sharp-elbowed” reputation and simply being rude.
• Noted that Piven’s most notable work (Entourage, Serendipity, Old School) does not excuse bad behavior.
• “If you have the honor of being famous and rich and loved for a character...you should be grateful… But I think Jeremy is the opposite. I think he’s a miserable prick.” – Bryan (37:15)

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4. Bitcoin and the Crypto Crash Side Tangent

45:18–54:47

• Bryan digresses into a detailed riff about the latest cryptocurrency crash, describing his own experiences buying and selling altcoins and the overall volatility of digital currencies.
• Explains the new dangers of “mainstream” financial exposure to bitcoin—ETFs, real estate, and big financial houses now involved.
• Notable quote: “AI and bitcoin—two very problematic things for our economy. Trust me on this.” – Bryan (51:17)
• Compares the current crypto crash to previous years, blaming regulatory loosening under Trump and influx of meme coins like Trump Coin and Melania Coin.
  • “The Trump meme coin is now down 96% from its high.” – Bryan (55:37)

5. Pop Culture Catchall: U2, Vegas, Social Media

56:27–60:21

• Brief memories of the infamous U2 album forced onto iPhones, admiration for “old U2” vs. “new U2,” and seeing Bono do surprise karaoke.
• Chit-chat about Las Vegas’s financial woes, international travel, and a friend’s peaceful experience on Japanese social media without U.S.-style divisiveness.

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6. Personal Stories & Show Notes

60:40–63:17

• Bryan recounts taking his daughters to a community center daddy-daughter dance, a sentimental moment contrasting the episode’s more caustic celebrity anecdotes.
• Closing reminders to listeners: request “classic” episodes, get free stickers, suggested ways to watch/listen/socialize with the show, and shout-outs to sponsors and listeners.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Tributes to Comedy Greats

• “They don’t make them like that anymore. I wish they did, but they don’t.” – Bryan on John Candy (05:49)
• “Waiting for Guffman… Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are out to eat…he says, ‘Let me show you what it looks like, the doctor did a great job.’ …Catherine O’Hara’s face…it’s the greatest three minutes in an improv movie.” – Bryan (08:28–09:12)

On Piven’s Reputation

• “Jeremy Piven was a complete dick. He chose violence when he could have chosen kindness.” – Bryan (35:20)
• “We did our best to meet Jeremy with kindness…Jeremy did his best to swing his dick as far and wide as he could.” – Bryan (35:57)

Bitcoin Real Talk

• “The more people that are buying it, the higher it goes. The more people selling, the lower it goes. But there’s nothing there. It’s just—it’s a digital transaction. That’s all it is. It’s a ledger.” – Bryan (49:17)

Comedy in Interviewing

• “If you prepare not at all, you end up sounding like an idiot. There’s a sweet spot…” – Bryan (13:19)
• “Talk to them about whatever—like you had met them at a bar and they were just another schmuck.” – Bryan (13:34)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:37–05:51: Warm-spirited reminiscences about John Candy, classic comedy, and stand-up.
• 09:13–10:56: Catherine O’Hara’s legacy and passing.
• 12:19–14:43: Behind-the-scenes on podcast interviews and interview disasters.
• 14:40–19:46: Prelude to the Jeremy Piven horror story.
• 25:30–43:36: In-depth Jeremy Piven recollection—scheduling fiasco, technical mayhem, ultimate walk-out.
• 45:18–54:47: Bitcoin, altcoin, and crypto crash realities.
• 56:27–60:21: U2, Vegas downturn, peaceful non-U.S. social media.
• 60:40–63:17: Bryan’s daddy-daughter dance story & show housekeeping.

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Tone & Style

Maintains the candid, slightly irreverent and bantering tone that defines The Commercial Break—part affectionate nostalgia, part comedic roast, all shot through with the hosts’ warm, old-friends chemistry.

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For New Listeners

You’ll get a vivid feel for Bryan and Krissy’s comedic style: quick pivots, storytelling, biting honesty, and inside-baseball podcast wisdom—plus lots of detours and pop-culture tangents. If you love showbiz war stories, anti-hero gossip, and improv comedy talk, this one is especially for you!

Transcript

[Brian Green]

On this episode of the commercial break, Wisdom of the crowd.

[Chris Hoadley]

Is it like a talk show?

[Brian Green]

No.

[Chris Hoadley]

Or he involved the crowd. It was a sitcom.

[Brian Green]

It's probably a Seinfeld like show where he, you know, he does things.

[Chris Hoadley]

He was on an episode of Seinfeld.

[Brian Green]

Wisdom of the Crowd show. He was. I do remember that. And he was good. He was good.

[Chris Hoadley]

Listen, early days.

[Brian Green]

Yes. Wisdom of the Crowd is a CBS crime genre that aired in 2017 and 18. Jeremy Piven is a tech innovator who creates crowdsourcing platform called Sophie to solve crimes. Sounds absolutely like a shit show. I really want to watch crowdsourcing. Okay. All right. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.

[Chris Hoadley]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Back at it. Up on the horse. Feeling good. How you feeling? Giddy up, giddy up. We got zero. We got a full a carton of cigarettes. No gas in the tank. It's 100 miles to Chicago. Hit it.

[Chris Hoadley]

Let's go.

[Brian Green]

It's the blues brother. He goes, we got a carton of cigarettes, a full tank of gas. It's nighttime and we're wearing dark sunglasses. It's 100 miles to Chicago.

[Chris Hoadley]

Hit it, hit it, hit it.

[Brian Green]

Orange, Orange whip. Three Orange Whips. It's a great movie. It's a great movie.

[Chris Hoadley]

Rewatch that. I haven't seen it in forever.

[Brian Green]

John Candy's in about three minutes of it. Yeah, it is the best three minutes of the movie because they're doing the big show to raise money at the end, you know, and they have the guy who's Cab Calloway sings you and the van of Vandermele de Mucha. She was a low down hoo Chucha Cab Calloway singing Min to Moocher. It's fantastic. How can you not love that movie?

[Chris Hoadley]

It's great.

[Brian Green]

And anyway, so the crowd's going wild. They're waiting for the Blues Brothers. The Blues Brothers are trying to get themselves in trouble and out of trouble to get on stage to raise the money to save the orphanage. It's a ridiculous, ridiculous premise. But John Candy's there with 5,000, you know, Chicago state troopers and he's the detective and the waitress comes up and John Cannon goes to the other police officer, you want anything? And he goes, orange Whip, Orange Whip, Orange Whip. Three Orange Whips. Three Orange Whips. John Candy the best. It's the best. But my favorite, My favorite John Candy movie of all time. I mean, there's the great outdoors.

[Chris Hoadley]

There's the great outdoors. There's Uncle Buck.

[Brian Green]

There's Uncle Buck, which is also fantastic. But the best movie that he ever made, showing his full range of incredible talent has to have been Planes, Trains and automobiles.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, it's so good.

[Brian Green]

Those two together, Steve Martin and John Candy are an undeniable. It's like a great love story.

[Chris Hoadley]

It really is.

[Brian Green]

And when that song plays at the end of the movie, you know, every time you go away, you take a piece of. You take a piece of meat with you and you realize that John Candy's the character that he plays. The shower curtain sales.

[Chris Hoadley]

That's right.

[Brian Green]

He's a shower curtain ring salesman. You realize that his wife, that he's been lovingly talking about the whole time that he's trying to get back to is actually died. And he's carrying that. They're carrying that big luggage fucking thing. It makes me cry every time. It really does. I don't know. I'm a sucker for a good ending and a nice song at the end of the movie, but John Candy is lovely.

[Chris Hoadley]

Did you watch any of that that came out? Was it on Amazon?

[Brian Green]

I didn'. I It's on my list. My little brother did I.

[Chris Hoadley]

It's good. It's really good. Being John or I am John.

[Brian Green]

I am John Candy or being John Candy. Something like that. Yeah. I mean, there isn't a person. I've seen so many interviews about John Candy. There isn't a person who had a negative thing to say about John Candy. He was like the real deal, super fucking cool dude, who was also incredibly talented, who was also incredibly funny, who was also incredibly giving and loving to the people around him.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, it's a great doc.

[Brian Green]

There's like a. A very famous in. I don't know if it's famous, but I saw it and there was a couple hundred thousand views on it. Interview that he did when he was filming. I think it was Uncle Buck. He was in Minnesota, I believe he was doing a local news report. Like the. The local news reporter managed to get some time with him. So the local news reporter is in his dressing room, right. And then they go somewhere else, like out to a store or something. I don't know, like in a mall or they're somewhere. And the news reporter is following him around and there are some children there and they're looking at toys for Christmas, I believe. Right? And so John starts, strikes up a conversation. Big tall, hunkin man, right? Talking to these kids. And the one kid says something about his dad died, he's not around. And I just, I wish I could have my daddy back for Christmas. And then John is like, I don't know if I can bring your dad back for Christmas, but what if I make sure that you get the gift that you want with the thing that he's looking for. And then like the next shot is.

[Chris Hoadley]

Him, oh my God.

[Brian Green]

Buying like an entire toy store for these kids. It was just, you just knew. You knew in your heart you could tell that John was the real deal. He's just one of those guys. They don't make them like that anymore. They really don't. I wish they did, but they don't.

[Chris Hoadley]

He was one of a kind, really.

[Brian Green]

He really was. We need a John Candy of our time is what we need. You know, Astrid and I watched, we watched the, the Cuban Marcelos. You know Marcelo from Saturday Night Live. The Cuban guy.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

What's his name? I, I, I wish, I'm sorry, his last name. I should remember this. Marcelo. Snl. My wife loves him. Hernandez. Marcel. Marcelo Hernandez.

[Chris Hoadley]

He's in a movie.

[Brian Green]

He, he's in a, he's, he's doing a stand up special on Netflix. Yeah. Really focused on like American Latino culture. It's, it's, I will give it an honest review. Marcelo someday will be a brilliant standup comedian. But he needs to do more of it to learn when pacing and pause make sense. Because he fills the air every moment. And that sometimes is a little disconcerting to me. I think a good comedian knows when to just pause. I am not a good comedian because I never know when to pause. But he is a good comedian. He is a good comedian. It's there. And he, the way that he uses his body is really fucking funny. It's worth the watch because he's really funny. But I, you may find that sometimes you wish he would just slow down a little bit or take a breath or whatever, but it was really super, super funny. And it reminded me that SNL has a pretty good cast right now. It's not the best cast I've ever seen yet, but sometimes they grow into it.

[Chris Hoadley]

You have to. It's always growing and changing.

[Brian Green]

Yes, but John Candy was not on snl. He was on what Kids. What? He was on sctv. That's right. Second City Television. All those Canadian guys. Martin Short, Catherine o'.

[Chris Hoadley]

Hara.

[Brian Green]

Catherine o' Hara who just passed away. Yes.

[Chris Hoadley]

God, I Just watched Best in Show the other day just because. And I swear, that has to be one of the funniest movies ever. It really is so funny. Like, start to stop every scene. Every scene is so funny.

[Brian Green]

I have a hard time determining whether or not Spinal Tap or Best in show is my favorite improv comedy movie of all time.

[Chris Hoadley]

They're both really good, but I mean.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Chris Hoadley]

So with Best in Show, it's a little bit more, you know, updated with, like, how they met. The couple met at the Starbucks across the street from each other. You were looking at an L.L. bean catalog, and so was I. And there's so many little things that make it hilarious.

[Brian Green]

Is Best in Show, where they're out to eat and the guy is trying to show his dick to Eugene Levy the size of. Is that not. Oh, no, that's Waiting for Guffman.

[Chris Hoadley]

Waiting for.

[Brian Green]

Waiting for Guffman. Eugene Levy and Catherine o' Hara are out to eat with this other couple, another improv movie. And they start talking about the other couple. I can't remember the name of the actor, but the other guy starts talking about how he had to have a dick reduction. And he says, let me show you. Let me show you what it looks like. The doctor did a great job. And Eugene Lovely is also playing a doctor in the movie. And he's like, you're a doctor. Take a look at it. Eugene level is like, oh, no, no. Catherine Ohara's face. It's the greatest. Three minutes. An improv movie. Catherine o'. Hara. What a great.

[Chris Hoadley]

What a loss.

[Brian Green]

Catherine o' Hara had mirror disease. Did you know that?

[Chris Hoadley]

No.

[Brian Green]

Oh.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, yes, I did. Where it's like inverted. Like, your organs.

[Brian Green]

Your organs are inverted. Yeah. So where your heart is on the left, hers was on the right. Your liver's on the right, hers was on the left. It was like this weird thing that. But apparently is not extraordinarily uncommon. Like, one out of every 180,000 people have this. And that's just strange to me. Why.

[Chris Hoadley]

I didn't even know that was a thing.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I didn't either. But apparently it can lead to complications. But that's not. What. What. What killed her. What was it? They just said that something.

[Chris Hoadley]

It was. Well, it was cancer, but then there was, like, I think a blood clot or something that happened. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Oh, man. Schitt's Creek. All the. All of it. All the stuff that Catherine o' Hara did. So funny over the years. I believe that Catherine o' Hara was actually on Saturday Night Live for one season but only made two episodes, then left to go back to be on SCTV and then hosted in the 90s twice. Catherine O' Hara did a great talent. A great. One of the best comedic talents, certainly, if we're talking about male, female. Katherine o' Hara is up there, along with Rosanna. Rosanna Dana, of course. And I mean, just all the things that she did.

[Chris Hoadley]

Gilda Radner.

[Brian Green]

Gilda Radner, Yeah. I call her Rosanna. Rosanna Dana, because that's how I was introduced as a small child. My dad would bust out laughing every time. Rosanna. Rosanna Dana would. Come on. I'm Rosanna. Rosanna Dana. You ever seen those. Those skits, The Rosanna. Rosanna Danis gets? Yeah, she's funny. Gilda Radner, who also died very young and way too soon. How old was Catherine O'? Hara?

[Chris Hoadley]

Like, 61?

[Brian Green]

71. Yeah. That's not. That's not old these days. No, no, we got the guy. Our President is like 83, isn't he? How old is that guy?

[Chris Hoadley]

I don't know.

[Brian Green]

I don't know. I'm not gonna say. I'll just leave it there. I'll just leave it there. He's older. He's way older than Catherine o' Hara was. That's for sure. That I know. Yeah. Catherine o'. Hara. Gov. But listen, all of these great improv comedians and these people that were on SCTV and snl, and then you think about all the great casts that have been on SCTV and SNL and In Living Color and Mad tv and, you know, you wait. Kids in the hall was super fantast. The whitest people we know. There's. Oh, we had Michael Ian Black, who was Upright Citizens Brigade.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah. And many people think he's in Kids in the Hall.

[Brian Green]

That's right. They think he's in Kids in the hall, but he's not.

[Chris Hoadley]

I subscribe to his substack, and it's actually really good. I. I enjoy.

[Brian Green]

I just wait for the Daily Beast article to come out. I can't afford an extra substack.

[Chris Hoadley]

But no, it's free. It's a free.

[Brian Green]

Oh, it is? Yeah. Oh, okay. Let me go. Let me go.

[Chris Hoadley]

Subscribe to stuff for free on there, too.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Michael Ian Black, one of the more interesting conversations we've ever had. And I heard him on a friend's podcast. I won't mention that podcast, but I think we got off easy, if I'm being honest. I think we got off easy. I think. I think he liked.

[Chris Hoadley]

He can be sharp.

[Brian Green]

I think he Liked us. Because if he didn't like us. And I don't know what happened with my friend's podcast, but it didn't go over all that well.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay. Yeah. And I can see how he could be very snarky.

[Brian Green]

Oh, man. It was a train wreck from beginning to end. And I don't think my friend did anything necessarily wrong. I think he maybe, like, threw out questions that Michael had answered a whole bunch before. And I think Michael felt like he was getting the, you know, kind of the, like, Roll call type interview. Yeah. This is your life type interview. And I. He didn't like it from moment one, and it went from bad.

[Chris Hoadley]

Very strong opinions.

[Brian Green]

Yes, he does. If you have someone like Michael Ian Black on, you got to know what you're dealing with, and we didn't. But so I think we just got lucky.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

I mean, we don't do any homework, so I think we just got lucky. I think we just also also have learned to take a really open approach to every conversation, because when you prepare too much, you end up sounding like an idiot.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

If you.

[Chris Hoadley]

Too scripted.

[Brian Green]

Yes. If you prepare not at all, you end up sounding like an idiot. There's a sweet spot there where you review the bullet points. You have something to rely on if you need to, but then you literally let it flow. Talk to him about whatever. Like, you had met them at the bar, and they were just another schmuck.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, yeah. Because he ended up talking about his, like, time in Vegas. He was out there because he was in Vegas when we interviewed him. And so he was out there, like, doing some gambling, but he had just gone to his daughter's graduation.

[Brian Green]

And.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, it just flowed. It wasn't. So you did this and then that.

[Brian Green]

But we got there. We also did talk about Upright Citizens Brigade. We also did talk about some of the things that he had done in his career and as a Daily Beast opinion writer and all that other stuff. Listen, he's brilliant. He's one of the brilliant minds out there in media today. Oh, he's also doing that CNN show, too.

[Chris Hoadley]

He did. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

This just happened or it just happened?

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah. And they're doing a podcast with it now, too.

[Brian Green]

And Also Roy Jones Jr. Is on there, too, right? Yeah. Roy was another guest that we had that I really liked. There aren't too many guests that I didn't like, actually.

[Chris Hoadley]

True. I can just think of one.

[Brian Green]

And think specifically. I can think of one specific. Oh, you can think of two?

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

Okay. I'm gonna mute the microphones. Who's the second one. Oh, well, he never even came on the show. Yeah, he didn't make it onto the show.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, well, we nipped that once we saw the way he was acting.

[Brian Green]

Jerry. Jeremy Piven.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

There you go. I'll say it out loud. I don't give a shit. I don't know that guy a goddamn thing. Let's tell the Jeremy Piven story, because I don't think we've ever told it on air. Let's tell the Jeremy Piven story, and you be the judge. How's that? You be the judge, and I will tell it as honestly and as accurately as I can possibly remember. And at my age, it might be. Not 100%, but I will do my best. No exaggeration. And then we will see. Maybe someday there will be a Maya Copa. From Jeremy or to Jeremy.

[Chris Hoadley]

I doubt it.

[Brian Green]

Depending on. No, I don't think I would ever accept it.

[Chris Hoadley]

I think it's just in his personality to be a dick.

[Brian Green]

I agree with you. I think the rumors are true.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And unlike John Candy, there are plenty of people who have said shitty things about Jeremy Piven, and we. Therefore, we were reluctant to have him on the show.

[Chris Hoadley]

We were.

[Brian Green]

He was booked once, and for some reason, it didn't happen. And we said, okay, that's. I said, okay, that's fine, because I don't know if I really want to have Jeremy Piven on the show anyway. Was not the world's biggest fan of Entourage. I liked it. I didn't love it. I watched episodes with a friend who was really into it, and I thought, okay, it's serviceable television. I thought there was some good acting in there, but I. Jeremy Piven's character, it didn't feel like a character to me. Right. And so many people have said that out loud. There are a lot of people that.

[Chris Hoadley]

You even remember, too. Even, like the sheet that we got before the interview and stuff, it was like, do not ask about. And like, don't ask about this and don't ask about that, and da, da, da, da, da. I was like, okay.

[Brian Green]

In the hundreds of interviews that we have, that we did, in two and a half, three years of doing interviews, we only four times got a prep sheet or a. Or a note where it said, please do not. And two of those. One was because of a relationship, and they didn't feel like they wanted it. They weren't ready to talk about it. They didn't want to make it public about the breakup. Cool. Not even ever going to mention who that was. And number Two was his mother recently died. Please don't bring up his childhood. Fair enough. Right? And by the way, he brought up his childhood and we went there.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

So, you know, fair game is fair game. And I think we had a lovely conversation with him. Actually, we had him on twice. I'll let you guess who that was. All right, so why don't we do this? Let's take a break, because I know I'll run into it, and then people are gonna be pissed. They gotta listen to the commercial break in order to get to it. And let us talk about the TCB Jeremy Piven story from beginning to end. We'll give you the. The straight shit. And then I want you to tell us what you think. What do you think about that?

[Chris Hoadley]

I think we should.

[Brian Green]

That's a good way to kill 20 minutes right there. I can stretch it out to 20 minutes. It felt like forever.

[Chris Hoadley]

It felt like we in the moment.

[Brian Green]

Oh, my God. It's crazy. Okay, yeah, let's take a break. If I can find. Why do I always have to find?

[Chris Hoadley]

I don't know. You get.

[Brian Green]

Well, now that I'm live producing it, it's just a little bit. It's. I don't like to do all the post production, so I try my best just to make it all clean and tidy. And people are streaming, so when they're streaming, they don't want to hear all the spaces and places. She's here for the. Hey. Okay, we have. Hey, everybody. In the streaming universe. We have some people. They say they're here for the tea. We'll give it to you. We'll be right back. Hey, listen, all that time we spent interviewing people, and we really only got two good stories, Two, like, groundbreaking stories out of it. One is the Jeremy Piven story, and the other one was Bad Bunny's producer. Bad Bunny's producer, Jimmy Jam, whatever his name was. And neither of those.

[Chris Hoadley]

Nicky Jam.

[Brian Green]

Nicky Jam. And neither Nicky Jam story came out. He told today's show before he told us.

[Chris Hoadley]

He told us first.

[Brian Green]

He told us first.

[Chris Hoadley]

We couldn't put it out until after he had told us.

[Brian Green]

We got an embargo. Please embargo this story for 90 days. 90 days. And then he told the Today show and then every other podcast in the world, and then whatever. Okay. And then the second story, the really good story that we got is Jeremy Piven. There is a third celebrity, which I will not go into. I've said it before on the show that he was my least favorite interview, but I won't go into why? Because I think that may have just been him and I not getting along. Like, we just didn't rub each other the right way.

[Chris Hoadley]

He also was just. I think it was just his personality.

[Brian Green]

He had sharp elbows also. That's what he's known for. Right. But he is a world class writer and producer and standup comedian and we were glad to have him on the show. But he and I did not rub each other the right way. And that was clear from almost the beginning. Well, actually, the beginning was great. And then it went sideways all of a sudden when I tried to retell one of his jokes. Okay. But then it never recovered. It's just like the plane crashed and we were all like, ah, okay, well, I guess we gotta go. Talk to you later.

[Rachel]

Bye. Bye.

[Brian Green]

Okay, all. So anyway, let's get in. Everyone wants to hear about Jeremy Piven. So let's hear a commercial and then we'll be back in two and two.

[Astrid]

Okay. You're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at tcb. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid, too? You know you do. Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-4333 TCB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show, too. Just call and say something, anything. Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise. Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker, and we must abide. You get the point? Follow us on Instagram hecommercial break and watch all the episodes on [e-mail] TheCommercialBreak Best to you and Astrid. Especially Astrid.

[Rachel]

Hey, Jackie Beans, you're an edging man with your flannel shirt and your wild.

[Brian Green]

Grin.

[Rachel]

We'Re rocking out feeling the vine at the Hilton show. We come alive, raise your hand, sing it out Jacket Beans, stand out in the crowd Jacket Beans, steal the scene laughing Jeans jacket, you're the king pill dream With a spice of bright and a heart of free Screaming loud Just you and me Raise your hands, let the music flow Jackie Beans, your star of the show. Lost in the rhythm feeling alive with.

[Brian Green]

You by my side all right. I love me some Jackie Beans.

[Rachel]

Pearl Jam show.

[Brian Green]

Some weird way that he says it. Yeah, the AI singer. Okay, so let's be clear about something first. First, let's be clear about something. This is, this is the straight shit from Google, which is always right, Jeremy. And when I put Jeremy Piven is a dick, this is what I get. Jeremy Piven has faced public, professional and personal scrutiny regarding his behavior, acknowledging in 2015 during an interview that he has moments where he needs to calm down and check his own behavior. Additionally, he was accused of sexual misconduct or appropriate behavior from multiple women in 2017 and 18. The public perception is that he can be a jerk at times, and he agrees that he often has to check his own behavior. The allegations started early in 2013 and they have gone on ever since. And he had a show, if you remember. And I don't remember this. Wisdom of the Crowd. No, don't even remember this. Right. But he had a show and there was a lot of flying out of there about him.

[Chris Hoadley]

What was the show about?

[Brian Green]

I don't eat Wisdom of the Crowd.

[Chris Hoadley]

Was it like a talk show?

[Brian Green]

No.

[Chris Hoadley]

Or he involved the crowd. It was a sitcom.

[Brian Green]

It's probably a Seinfeld like show where he, you know, he does.

[Chris Hoadley]

He was on an episode of Seinfeld.

[Brian Green]

Wisdom of the Crowd show. He was, I do remember that. And he was good. He was good.

[Chris Hoadley]

Listen, early days.

[Brian Green]

Yes. Wisdom of the Crowd is a CBS crime genre that aired in 2017 and 18. Jeremy Piven is a tech innovator who creates crowdsourcing platform called Sophie to solve crimes. Sounds absolutely, absolutely like a show I really want to watch. Crowdsourcing. Okay. All right. Okay. So Jeremy Piven has a well understood reputation for rubbing people the wrong way. Now, I have never, I, I, I gave him a chance because I also saw about, during the pandemic, I saw Jerry, Jeremy Piven, give a rather lengthy, unedited Maya copa about his behavior, saying that he was trying to do better, that he understood that he rubbed people the wrong way, that sometimes it was hard for him to separate his own Persona from the one that he played on Entourage.

[Chris Hoadley]

Ari.

[Brian Green]

Ari. And that's what people expected and sometimes that's what he gave them. And that there was a lot of him in Ari. There was this whole thing. And I thought, well, at least he's self aware, right? He still came across like a dick even on that interview. But okay, whatever. And then I've watched a lot of other places where Jeremy seems to just have sharp elbows. That's it. He, he, he, he can be a little bit Brady, I guess is the best way to put it. Okay. We got asked early last year, 2025, if we could, if we could have Jeremy on the show just in support of his new tour. We said, after weeks of being asked the same question over and over again, which is how it happens sometimes, and I was just delaying. I said, okay, we'll have him on. He canceled. He canceled because the tour got canceled. His mom passed away. Right. Okay, this is another situation. This is one of the things we weren't supposed to talk to Jeremy about. He. Well, we weren't supposed to talk about his mom. It was well known knowledge that his mom passed away. His mom passed away, date had to move. He was canceling his tour. He was going to do it again. Okay. Late summer of last year, we get asked again, will you do Jeremy? He's getting ready. He's gearing up to do that tour that he had to cancel. Is it okay if he comes on now? We said, okay. The time, which I don't remember exactly, but let's just say was 1pm Eastern Standard Time. And Chrissy and I, as we often did, got in the studio early to record a regular episode of TCB, which is what we were doing at 12 o'. Clock.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yep.

[Brian Green]

When at 12:15, we get frantic test text messages and phone calls from not only our booking agency, but his agent and Astrid, who always helps. It was like our clock. She's our schedule. She will tell us when we need to be somewhere. She's like the executive producer. She hustles us up and says, you got that interview today? And I'm like, oh, an interview in 10 minutes. I should research that. So we're recording and all of a sudden the phones start buzzing because I have my phone off, but if one of those people calls, it will ring. And I stopped the show. I answered.

[Chris Hoadley]

We were like, what's going on?

[Brian Green]

What's going on? And Astrid says, jeremy is on the platform. The Riverside? Yeah, Riverside. The ISDN platform. He's on the ISDN platform right now?

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And we said, well, he's not until 1 o'. Clock. And she says, I know, but for some reason he's on there. He's been waiting for 15 minutes. And we say, okay, well, we'll do our best to shift gears and get in there as quickly as possible. Now listen to this. Astrid comes flying in the door and she's like, his producer is texting me right now. His agent is texting me right now. What do I say? And I said, well, you gotta tell him we need a few minutes to shift gears.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, well, we'll stop the show that we were doing.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Chris Hoadley]

And now try and get in, get logged into the platform, get everything set up.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that's right. And so the producer says, well, I'll do my best to get a hold of Jeremy. And we're like, what do you mean, do your best to get a hold of Jeremy? If he's in the thing, don't you know how to get ahold of him? Isn't this the guy who said, well, I don't know his phone number.

[Chris Hoadley]

She didn't have his number.

[Brian Green]

He didn't have. He did not have his own client's cell phone number. He didn't know where to find him. But he knew enough that he was inside the Riverside platform, because I think.

[Chris Hoadley]

The other guy had logged in too, as a lot of the times the agents do the logging.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Chris Hoadley]

He was logging in.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Sometimes the agents are watching from afar from like a waiting room that they can watch and not talk. Yeah. How do you have an agent that doesn't know where the fuck to get a hold of you?

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, it was just by email only. We were like, what?

[Brian Green]

Okay, go ahead. Email your client who's. Who's. Who needs us to do an emergency stop on all other things. To be an hour early for an interview that has clearly been marked on our calendar for 1pm it's not our mistake. I even went back and checked the confirmation email which said 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time. And I said, okay, well, we're going to deal with it and we're gonna. So we switch gears. Takes about 5 minutes to switch gears, change this, do that, hook up, get in the thing, do the thing. And we get there, and Jeremy Piven is on a flip phone from 1922 with his flip phone camera outside on a patio.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, he's in like, some hotel in.

[Brian Green]

Patio in Colorado where he has terrible Internet reception.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And he's smoking, whatever, a cigar or a cigarette or whatever he's smoking. The smoke is everywhere. And there's this terrible picture and we cannot. We.

[Chris Hoadley]

We go, well, he's like, hey, oh, hey. Yeah, hold on, guys.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And then.

[Chris Hoadley]

So he has us then hold well like this. He.

[Brian Green]

I go, hey, Jeremy, man, really sorry. Hey, hey. Hey, guys. Hey, Jeremy. Really sorry about the miscommunication. We thought this was supposed to be at 1:00pm yeah, yeah, yeah, hold on. Okay, yeah, we can hold that. Take your time. Yeah, hold on. And then this is what we hear.

[Chris Hoadley]

Well, he puts his phone down and we're just looking at like, the patio ceiling.

[Brian Green]

The.

[Chris Hoadley]

The fan. Ceiling.

[Brian Green]

Fan on a patio.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And this is What? We hear. He's on a speakerphone call in the other room.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Where I think he's talking about us. What jerks we are that we left him waiting like this. And we sit there for a good ten fucking minutes.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

And Chrissy and I are looking at each other. What. What is going on?

[Chris Hoadley]

Cause I was like. And we turned off our microphone. So we're talking. Brian and I are talking to each other. I'm like. I think he's, like, talking to somebody else in the other room. And, like, what is going on? What is he doing?

[Brian Green]

What is he talking about? Who is he talking to?

[Chris Hoadley]

It was very confus.

[Brian Green]

Very confusing. So then Jeremy. So after 10 minutes, which is an entire lifetime, when you are. When you live and die on the clock of the. Of the podcast universe. Right. It is eating into everything else we need to do, including his intro outro, his actual interview, which now, if the schedule is correct and we have an hour with him, we've got, like, 17 minutes left. It's like, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't even know how I'm going to talk to the guy in 17 minutes. You've heard me talk. Takes me 17 minutes just to say, hello.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

I mean, come on. It's frying green. Jeremy comes back, and here's Jeremy.

[Chris Hoadley]

The police are with him.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, Jeremy, Everything okay over there? We're just. We're just waiting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't see you guys. Well, Right.

[Chris Hoadley]

And meanwhile, the Internet's cutting in and out, too. His Internet.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. He's like, I can't hear you, guys. I can't hear you. Can you hear me? I can't hear you. And I'm like, yeah, Jeremy, we can hear you, but it's a little spotty. Yeah, yeah. Well, you'd think, you know, in the year 2025, that you'd actually be able to get a program that would. We'd be able to, like, talk to each other. Okay. Without all this interruption. And I was like, yeah. And he's like, I mean, we might as well just do a phone call at this point. And I'm like, listen, Jeremy, it's okay. Do you want to just, like, go into another room and see if you can.

[Chris Hoadley]

You can do that service?

[Brian Green]

And he's like, I guess. I guess I can do that. Yep. I guess maybe I just send a carrier pigeon. Maybe I. That would be better. I'll write a letter and send a carrier pigeon. And I'm like, okay, all right, Whatever you Feel comfortable doing, Jeremy? Now I'm getting sassy. Now I'm like, okay, whatever you feel comfortable doing. Yeah, I guess I'll just find another room. So he's walking around with the phone. With the phone in hand, going like this. Yeah, right. Walking all around. We're getting seasick over here because he's sending us all over the place. And I'm like, yeah, I can see you. And, you know, he's like, hey, can you hear me? And I'm like, hey, listen, Jeremy, we can hear you just fine. So why don't you just put the phone down and let's do the best that we can and we'll get through this somehow, some way. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how this is gonna work, guys. I don't know how we're gonna do this. I mean, you have another system that's better than this. I mean, you'd think with the Internet these days, this would be better. And I'm like, you'd think so, Jeremy, but I don't think it's really working. So I'll tell you what, we have one of two choices at this point. Point. We can either reschedule the interview, or you can just put the phone down and we can do the best that we can. And he goes, hold on one second. And then he puts the fucking phone down again. Yep. And Chrissy and I are left there waiting for another three or four minutes while he again is on the fucking phone with someone else in another goddamn room. At this point, Chrissy and I are like, what do we do here?

[Chris Hoadley]

Right?

[Brian Green]

Do we bail or should we stay or should we. How did this end? Because. Did we just hang up on him?

[Chris Hoadley]

I think we told him. Well, it feels like we just hung up on him, but I think we told him, hey, let's. Let's all close out and come back in.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Hoadley]

And then we decided to never come back in because of technical issues.

[Brian Green]

Jeremy comes back at some point from his third phone call with someone else during our interview time. Time, Leaving us hanging and staring at a ceiling somewhere. He comes back now, we've wasted 40 minutes of our life on this, guys. 40 minutes of our life on this. We have no usable content, and Jeremy is just being a dick.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

For what reason? I don't know. Sorry your mom passed away. I can only imagine how difficult that must be. But you don't have to treat everybody else in the world like a complete. Because of that. And you could just, you could just say sorry about the scheduling issue. Apologize first. I'm sorry that my manager scheduled at a time that I, I, I, I, whatever the sorry about the snafu. And I'm not getting good reception here in this dark tunnel in Denver, Colorado. So I'm going to let you go and we'll reschedule. But that's not what he did. He left us hanging. He put the phone down for minutes on end, and then he had the audacity to take other phone calls while we were supposed to be interviewing him.

[Chris Hoadley]

It was very bizarre.

[Brian Green]

Bizarre behavior.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

So when he comes back and he's like, what about this? Is this better? I said, hey, Jeremy, listen, let's do this. Let's close out and then we'll come back and we'll see if it works.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Because I know exactly what we're going to do. We're not coming back. Right. I'll leave you hanging. How's that? You can stare at my screensaver. And that's exactly what we did. And his agent starts calling and texting and freaking out. Jeremy's back on, what's going on? And I said, oops, sorry.

[Chris Hoadley]

Technical issues.

[Brian Green]

Technical issues. We're going to have to reschedule at some point. And for a month, this agent desperately tried to get us to reschedule this interview because the agent knew that it was his fault that we were all in this kerfuffle in the first place.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah. This time, yes.

[Brian Green]

Jeremy Piven was a complete dick. He. He chose violence when he could have chose kindness. And that's all you have to say about somebody. He doesn't know us. We don't know him. When we learned that there was a problem, we did our best to quickly address the problem. Get on. Even though it wasn't our fault, even though we absolutely had the right to say, we're scheduled at 1, we're in the middle of something. But we didn't do that. We wanted Jeremy to. We wanted to respect Jeremy's time. We understood there was an issue. And by the way, it wasn't the first time in the commercial break history.

[Chris Hoadley]

Actually, with scheduling changes. When people are on the west coast these days. Happens all the time.

[Brian Green]

They scheduled it at 2, it's really at 11. They scheduled it at 4. It's supposed to be at 3. Whatever. And we always did our best to be accommodating because who the fuck are we? We're the commercial break. Thank you for coming on. We really appreciate it. We're not Divas, we don't care. We never felt like we were above anybody, and we never felt like it. We felt grateful to have people's time and that we got to talk to somebody else. Jeremy. We did our best to meet Jeremy with kindness and meet him where he was. And Jeremy did his best to swing his dick as far and wide as he could. And so, you know what? You, Jeremy, you.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, it was a bad experience, and.

[Brian Green]

Then it was a terrible experience. I mean, Listen, it was 15. It was like 50 minutes of our lives total. And I very rarely do I think about it ever. It doesn't. Like, it's not gonna keep me up.

[Chris Hoadley]

No, but when we think about interviews that. That didn't go well. That's one of the ones top. Top of mind.

[Brian Green]

That is one of the. That is definitely one of the top ones. And there. And I will say this also is that a couple weeks later, that fucking suit commercial. Oh, right, that he did comes out. That 15 minute weird suit commercial where he, like, sets on fire and he's the devil or something. And I thought, that's perfect. That is Jeremy. He's not. He's not playing anybody else.

[Rachel]

Else.

[Brian Green]

He's playing himself. Is he walking through the office calling people, you know, ugly? Yeah, yeah, he's being a dick. That is Jeremy. And there's lots of videos out there, by the way, of him out in the wild. There's like a guy that was trying to, like, videotape something with him while he was smoking a cigar on a patio. And he. Jeremy just was a total knocker. If you have an opportunity in your life, if you have the honor of being famous and rich and. And loved for a character that you do, even just one, you should really, really be grateful for that, in my opinion. You did one thing that stuck in people's craw. You did one thing that's memorable to a lot of people. You should be grateful that that happened to you. But I think Jeremy is the opposite. I think he's a miserable prick who just cannot find a way to be happy about anybody or anything. And does he have a girlfriend?

[Chris Hoadley]

I was just thinking the same thing. I don't think so. All right. Because we were some kind of prep, too, before that day, looking at some of his standup and he was talking about how he had just broken up with somebody or something.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, listen, he. Yeah, stand up is no great accomplishment either. I don't even think.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, stand up was not good.

[Brian Green]

I don't even think that tour happened. I don't even think that tour happened. I think he did like two dates and then he had to cancel the rest of the dates. Listen, I'm not. I'm not calling the kettle black here. We also canceled some tour.

[Chris Hoadley]

We did.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Yeah. We had some last minute kerfuffle this.

[Chris Hoadley]

Week that was a medical emergency, though.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that's true. I had to get my neck taken out.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Let's see if he's still. Is he still on tour? Jeremy Piven tour. Oh, he's got 20, 26 dates. No, that can't be true. Oh, Chrissy. He'll be here in the city winery on April 18th for a 6:30 and a 10:30 show. 6:30 and a 10. And he'll be at Zany's in Nashville. Yeah, listen, I also guess I have to think about life from his standpoint. He's an actor. He has a couple of, you know, roles that are meaty roles and dramas and comedies. He did all those comedy movies back in the, you know, early 2000s. Remember he was part of like that zany crew of National Lampoons. Whatever. I mean, Jeremy's done a number of things.

[Chris Hoadley]

He has. I mean, he's obviously most famous for Entourage, but.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. What else did Jeremy do? I don't know. We knew.

[Chris Hoadley]

He's never played the. I don't remember ever as like a main character.

[Brian Green]

No, he was always like the buddy. Oh, you know what? I will say this. Jeremy is in one of my favorite movies of all time. Favorite love stories of all time. Serendipity. He's the. He's the sidekick in Serendipity and he did a fucking fantastic job as the sidekick to John Cusack in that movie. Movie. He was so good. He was like, practical and pragmatic and he played a straight. He prayed this. He prayed. Played the, like the wingman perfectly in that movie. And I love it. And so now every time I'm like, I watched it over the Christmas holiday, as I. As I do, but it's hard to get out of my head that Jeremy left me on a phone call forever and ever. Entourage. Mr. Selfridge. What was that?

[Chris Hoadley]

I don't know.

[Brian Green]

Primitive War. Oh, Primitive Roar was like Jurassic park knockoff from last year. Yeah, it. Where it was like really bad CGI that everyone was making fun of. Serendipity, Smoking Aces, which was a pretty good movie. Old school. That's right. He was an old school. He played like the Dean, didn't he? Perfect for him. Spy Kids. Can't say I saw that. He was in Rush Hour 2. I'm trying to think. I'm just picking movies where I think you might gross. Point blank. That's right. He was in the performance, which was. Okay. I saw that. He was in heat. He was in heat.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah. I mean, he's had a career. He certainly has had a career.

[Brian Green]

Larry Sanders shows. He was. He was the. One of the writers in the Larry Sanders Show. He was good in that. I'll have to give him that. Yeah. So. Oh, Astrid's calling me now, but we don't have an interview. So anyway, that's the Jeremy Piven story. Jeremy ended up being a real nudnuk. And we were.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah, we had to fa. We had to get out of it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chris Hoadley]

I mean, I felt it was just. It was very bizarre. It was. And, yeah, he was not nice.

[Brian Green]

It was a super bizarre interview. It was a super bizarre 50 minutes of our life where we couldn't make heads or tails of why Jeremy was treating us the way he was treating us or what exactly was going on.

[Chris Hoadley]

I couldn't figure out what was going on.

[Brian Green]

I couldn't either. I really couldn't. After a while, I knew what was going on. He was. He was giving us the pain that he felt waiting for us for 15 years. Yeah, but that is an extraordinarily childish thing.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

That's like Pam Bondi type. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, Good old Pam.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, God.

[Brian Green]

I've never seen a display like that, by the way, as I did yesterday with Pam Bondi. That. That was incredible. That. That was. That's the person who leads the Justice Department, by the way. Leads our Justice Department. And she can't be bothered to act like an actual adult.

[Chris Hoadley]

Crazy.

[Brian Green]

That was insane. When she started talking about the Dow Jones. Did you see that part? You didn't. I'm gonna show it to you on the break. I'm not gonna show it to you here, but I'll show it to you on the break. Anyway. Anyway, Jeremy, I welcome you to write us an official apology later. And then at some point in the future, Chrissy and I will consider talking nicely about you. And then if things go well from there, we'll think about taking you out of time, out from the commercial break. Think about it. Think about it. Listen, I could be the bigger man. I could be the bigger man, but we're going to address that first. That's the first thing we're going to talk about. And if you give me answers that I don't like, there's going to be another technical issue. Where we're all going to refresh. And you know what happens after that.

[Chris Hoadley]

Jeremy, you know, we're gone.

[Brian Green]

We're gone. Ride like the wind. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be back.

[Rachel]

Okay.

[Astrid]

You're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at tcb. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid, too? You know you do. Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-4333, TCB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show, too. Just call and say something, anything. Or text us, and we'll text you. Right? Promise. Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker, and we must abide. You get the point? Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and watch all the episodes on [e-mail] the commercial break. Best to you and Astrid. Especially Astrid.

[Brian Green]

Best to you. Best to you. Best to you. Best to you. Sam. Oh, sorry. I just. I accidentally just ended it. Sorry. If you're looking for the end of the song, I'm sorry. Yes, we'd love to buy more viewers. We're gonna do that soon. It's funny how those bots just jump right in there.

[Chris Hoadley]

They just know immediately.

[Brian Green]

They know immediately that you're online, and they're like, best viewers ever. Best viewers. Call zamboo.com. zamboo. Okay, I'll call you immediately. Zamboo. I'm on my way. Bitcoin is crashing.

[Chris Hoadley]

No, again.

[Brian Green]

Bitcoin is crashing. I think this time it feels a little different, actually, and I'll tell you why. And smarter people than I told me this, and I'm repeating it just to let you know. So I'm not giving no financial advice. Do not buy or sell bitcoin based on what you hear here. And I need. I, I, I, I need to say that because there are people like me, other podcasters who went in and talked all about how wonderful, you know, all the. The cryptocurrencies were, and then they have been caught up in cryptocurrency, scam after scam, crash after crash, bullshit after bullshit. And I am not one of those people. I'm not encouraging you to buy. I'm not encouraging you to sell. I'm telling you what I feel. I. And for the sake of transparency, I no longer have any, any altcoin whatsoever. I have sold it all because at the low, I sold it yesterday.

[Chris Hoadley]

The old, the Brian Green method.

[Brian Green]

Buy low. I mean sell. That's the way you do.

[Chris Hoadley]

I sell low.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Cryptocurrency is actually the only thing I have ever. Not only thing, but pretty close to the only thing I've ever gotten. Right. Business wise, I don't know. I have a feel for these things. And I actually sold my bitcoin was at $119,000. The high was 125. So I sold it pretty close to the high.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Because I had to because I was out of money. I need some cash. I bought a bunch of ripple, which is what they call a stablecoin. I bought that many years ago for three cents and I sold it at two and a half dollars.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Now I bought a ton of it, like a lot of it. But this was years ago and I was like, oh, I'm rich. And then it all went away. As it does, as it does, as it tends to do, the altcoin market right now is evaporating right in front of our eyes. It was at $125,000 earlier last year.

[Chris Hoadley]

Like per coin.

[Brian Green]

Per coin, per Bitcoin.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Which is am balls when you think about it. Because there is nothing backing that bitcoin, right? There's no actual product, there's no actual anything. It's a weird, unusual investment. It almost can't be used anywhere. It's an investment vehicle that simply relies on supply and demand. That's it. But there is nothing to supply, there is nothing to demand. It is just a fictitious in your head. The, the currency is not accepted in most places. It mainly is not used. You know, it can be used for as, as a trading vehicle.

[Chris Hoadley]

I saw that they were starting to do some bitcoin stuff on a real estate show that I was watching about New York.

[Brian Green]

Yes. In New York there are some real estate attorneys that will now take bitcoin to buy and sell transactions. And there have been houses that have been bought and sold with bitcoin. But think about how volatile that is. That'd be like buying a house with stocks like Disney stock that you have. It could go up, up one second later it could go down, right? And then you have to bring more cash to the table. You have to bring more bitcoin to the table. The person who's accepting the bitcoin as a method, method of payment could be out 30. You could sell a million dollar house and be out $300,000 by the time you go to cash it the next day. Because that's just the way that the market is. It's really weird to buy a house with a stock. Essentially a very fluid, risky, volatile thing. The dollar is not. The dollar goes up and down. Yes, it does, but not like that. Doesn't ever go up, down like that. Like.00,0001% over the course of a day, maybe. Yeah. So we're seeing a crash, and that crash is different than the crash last year. Why is that? Because as soon as Trump came into office, he started signing executive orders to loosen regulations around Altcoin.

[Chris Hoadley]

I remember saying all that.

[Brian Green]

Bitcoin. I'm the bitcoin president, by the way. The Trump coin, the Melania coin, the Eric Jr coin, the whatever coin, all of those have crashed also. But they crashed this, like, within days of of them actually being out there on the market. Because that's what happens. People on the inside know what's going to happen. They buy the second it comes out, or even previously, or they're given that, and then they sell it immediately because they understand that's the highest it's probably ever going to be. It's a novelty coin. It's a meme coin, literally based on a meme. Bitcoin is Bitcoin ripple, Ether, excuse me, Ethereum. Some of these are like, they're known to have some kind of functionality and they're like the big boys in the market. But the truth is, it really still relies on people's brains and their excitement to drive value. The more people that are buying it, the higher that it goes. The more people that are selling it, the lower that it goes. Simple supply and demand. But there's nothing there. It's just right. It's a digital transaction. That's all it is. It's a ledger. It's a digital ledger. And in very short order, it went from 115, $110,000 to now around $60,000 today. That's insane. Think about that. You put $10,000 in Bitcoin the summer of last year, toward the end of last year, and now you have less than $6,000. That's what happened. You lost almost half of your, your money in a very short amount of time, and now you're trying to sell so you can stop the bleeding, get some of your cash back, and this is what happens. And it's compounding. There's also now ETF and all kind of financial products that have Bitcoin wrapped into them. So now, unlike before Trump Came in office. Now there are legitimate financial products that have bitcoin as a part of their portfolio. And so now many people who, who, who really weren't ready for the risk, didn't like the risk, didn't want the risk, but they've been sold this and you get in on it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now they're exposed, closed. And this could be very, very problematic. AI and bitcoin too, very problematic things for our economy. Trust me on this. And AI and bitcoin is the first one that I think will take it on the chin. And I'm not sure if it'll. It will. It might recover over some period of time. I'm not a progn. I don't prognosticate about these things. It might go back to 125,000, maybe a billion, I don't know. But the truth is, is that a lot of people, people are going to lose a lot of money over the next couple of months, weeks, days. I promise you this is going to be start. People are going to start talking about this a lot. The news is going to start focusing on this a lot because a lot of people are losing a lot of money right now. And they're losing money when they were invested in what they thought were traditional financial products sold to them by the big firms like, you know, blackrock and Smith Barney and all this other stuff. This is going to be a problem, Chrissy. It's going to be a problem.

[Chris Hoadley]

Why is it different? You were saying? Because it is wrapped up now and.

[Brian Green]

A lot more because they loosened the regulations. Before there were regulations that bitcoin could not be traded like a security. It couldn't be a part of it. It couldn't be securitized, it couldn't be split and diced and wrapped into portfolios this way or that way because it was an unregulated cryptocurrency essentially. It was not part of. It wasn't allowed inside of those marketplaces. Trump broke those walls and now he broke those walls mainly to enrich himself with his Trump coin and his bullshit. And now it's all taking a shit in the floor. And so people who would normally not be exposed to this type of things, companies like BlackRock and Smith Barney and JP Morgan Chase, who are now holding billions and billions of dollars worth of bitcoin because they also, you know, got wrapped into the hype, right? They are exposed also. So pay attention here, kids. Pay attention. This could be a big problem. I told you that one of a guy that we Know a guy that I know who I would not even have placed $1 bet on him graduating eighth grade.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, you've talked about him.

[Brian Green]

I think he can be a very nice human being, but he is a real fucking nudnik. I mean, a real nudnik, like the king of nidniks, right? And everybody knew it. And God bless his soul, but he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shop shed. He started mining bitcoin weeks after it came out. Weeks after it came out. And for years we all looked at him. I mean, I didn't know him back then, but I'm. I'm. But one of my. Somebody I know very closely did know him back then. And every. He said everyone was like the are you doing? You're buying computer software and driving up your electricity bill to mine a coin that's worth six and a half cents. What are you doing? Well, he ended up mining like thousands of bitcoin and he is now a multi, multi millionaire because of that bitcoin. But every time I look at that bitcoin going, wait, down into the ground, I think about him. I'm like, oh my God, he's losing millions and millions and millions of dollars. Every $10,000 this knocks down now, I still think he's going to be okay. He got it at like 6 cents, right. I think he's going to be okay. But I'm just saying it's. This is a. This is a sticky wicket.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah. It's a roller coaster.

[Brian Green]

Yes. I wonder what the Trump coin is at. Let's. Let's take a look at that. By the way, we didn't talk about the Melania. Doc, did you have a chance to see that?

[Chris Hoadley]

I did not.

[Brian Green]

Why not?

[Chris Hoadley]

I'm not interested.

[Brian Green]

You're not? Okay. I think we're all going to be forced to watch it when it slides into our downloads on Amazon prime like that U2 album. Album did that one time on Apple.

[Chris Hoadley]

Right?

[Brian Green]

Yeah. It's going to happen. Mark my words. We're all going to find that. It's. It's in our, like in our library.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And we're going to be like, I didn't download that shit. And Jeff Bezos is going to be like, yes, you did.

[Chris Hoadley]

Right.

[Brian Green]

The Trump meme coin is now down 96% from its high. God.

[Chris Hoadley]

What was the high and what's it now?

[Brian Green]

The high was. Crypto market has been volatile. Bitcoin Trump coin this morning, or as of Monday stood at $3.39. And the Melania coin. Oh, it stood at $3.99. The Melania coin, which once traded as high as $13.73, is now at 12 cents.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, my God.

[Brian Green]

Oh, my God. And the Trump coin saw a 96% slide over the last year. 96%. Great investment. Think about all of those people, all of those people who had, like, $5,000.

[Chris Hoadley]

Sitting in the bank, or our listeners of the. The YouTube album is still music. I think it's still in mine, too.

[Brian Green]

It's probably still in mine, too, because there was no way to delete it.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes, there was. That time that you kept getting into your car and it kept playing over.

[Brian Green]

And over and over again. It was driving me up a wall. This happened. Simcoe fm. This is years and years ago. And it kept playing and playing and playing, and I just wanted to throw that fucking thing out the window. I was like, God damn, I do not want to hear this new U2 album. I haven't listened to U2 since Rattle and Hum. That was the last time I liked U2, and I love them. I love it. Rattle and Hum. Joshua Tree. Two of the best albums ever made, hands down. But that. All this fucking new shit where he's got a globe in his penis and he's like, come on. Come on with your radio. Shuckabooky do. I don't care about all that shit. My Bono saving, you know, kids from starvation. That's what I like. Go out there and do that Bono. But I. However, however, now that we're totally off subject, I did see Bono over Christmas vacation. Was in an Irish pub singing with or without you.

[Chris Hoadley]

Nice.

[Brian Green]

In a karaoke bar. Like, a live karaoke bar. Like, there was a band behind him, couple guitars and a drummer, and they started singing with or without you. And Bono starts, like. Someone in the crowd is, like, recognizes. And Bono gets up on stage and starts singing, and it was brilliant. It's snowing in the background and it's like, you know, I don't.

[Chris Hoadley]

I've seen a couple of the musicians get on. Get on karaoke, like just randomly, you know, kind of slide in. Anonymously, Anonymously.

[Brian Green]

Anonymously.

[Chris Hoadley]

Unanimously.

[Brian Green]

Unanimously, yes. They unanimously, anonymously go up there and do their thing. Yeah, But I loved it. I was like, that's good. That's Bono. That's good. You're at that age where you just sit back and go do karaoke. I mean, they got the biggest music. They get the biggest contract in music history. Yeah, R.E.M did, and then YouTube usurped them by, like, $30 million. They got like for their catalog. Yeah, well, no, for like the next albums. They did like a seven album deal, I think, with UMG or something like that. It was a big deal when it happened. And, you know, then they started putting out albums like, you know, Rocket Cock or whatever, and it was like Rocket Cocktail. They still do big tours. I mean, they did, you know, a number of years ago. They still do big tours, but they got paid like, I don't know, like $620 million.

[Chris Hoadley]

They were the inaugural people at the Sphere.

[Brian Green]

Oh, that's right.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Fish is going back to the Sphere. I see. Fish, Fish. Fish will be there. That's good. You know, the Sphere is also another one that's financially in trouble. It's. It's not doing so well because it just can't make that Vegas in general. Vegas in general. Another gambling facility that is just doing terribly, terribly Vegas. Like, the occupancy rate sits at like 67 right now.

[Chris Hoadley]

Well, I mean, I was reading that a lot of that is because of international travelers. I mean, the travel market here in the US People don't want to come.

[Brian Green]

No, I wouldn't want to either. I don't want to be here. I want to go somewhere else. Yeah. Just to get away from the news. I was talking, I wasn't talking to you, but I had a friend, I'm talking to social media. I had a friend who's on social media and he's got a pretty big following and he was stating that he's been over in Japan for like the last month or something. He's doing something over there the last month and he put out this, this reel where he said, hey, I just want to pop on here and let you know I'm in Japan. I've been here for a month. I really haven't been posting a lot because I realized that over here in Japan, I'm not being inundated. My social media isn't being inundated with all the divisive content. My news feed isn't inundated with all the divisive content. It's actually quite nice. Yeah. He's like, I'm getting puppies, kittens, anime, and, you know, the occasional kid falling off his bike. He's like, that's really what I'm getting. He goes, maybe, maybe once every six days. I've seen something about Trump or ice or whatever. Not my feed.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Unbelievable. What are we gonna do, Chrissy? How are we gonna save the world? That's my.

[Chris Hoadley]

I need to come up with a Plan.

[Brian Green]

Okay. You. You put together a PowerPoint.

[Chris Hoadley]

Okay. I'll put together a proposal.

[Brian Green]

I'll follow your lead. I got other things to do. I gotta go raise my children.

[Chris Hoadley]

Yes. And you were telling me you had the sweet fathered song daughter dance on Friday.

[Brian Green]

I love them. I did. Let's. We'll talk about it more on Valentine's Day. But wait, when's Valentine's Day? Is on Saturday. Saturday.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

But we had a lovely, lovely time. So we'll talk about it next week. But it was just lovely. Yeah. So it's getting around that time for Valentine's Day, my wife back in July booked me. We've been waiting three years to do this because all three years it's sold out. And in July, she got online and she found some tickets to go to the Daddy Daughter dance at the local rec center. And it was. I'm so in love with my daughters. I know.

[Chris Hoadley]

I remember Jeff going to those with. With our girls and. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

So fun showed up at the front door.

[Chris Hoadley]

Oh, yeah. You take them on a date?

[Brian Green]

I took him on a date. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of creepy. I didn't say date. I said, can I, can I, I. Can I accompany you to the dance? Yes. And we just, we had a. We had a grand old time.

[Chris Hoadley]

I bet you did.

[Brian Green]

They were dancing and jumping and hugging and kissing. It was a lovely evening. And then, you know, they were crazy because they had all this sugar and I had to get to sleep. And Astrid was going to a party that night. It was a big night. It was a, it was a long night for daddy. I was like, God damn, I'm tired. But that's what you did do when you're a girl dad. Right?

[Chris Hoadley]

That's right.

[Brian Green]

Okay. All right. Okay. So, yeah, so now we're three days a week. I'm gonna try and push it to four days a week with the TCB Classic. If you have an idea for a TCB Classic, let me know. Go to at the commercial break on Instagram DM us. Let us know which episode you would like to hear. I would love to hear from you. Or you can drop us an email if that's your thing. Go to tcb podcast.com you can go to the contact us button. Drop us an email. You can also get your free sticker. Still available drop down menu. I want my free sticker. Give us your address and away it will go. What else? YouTube.com the commercial break for all the episodes and audio and video. It's all available on the website. We love you. We love you, we love you. Thanks for sticking with us. And like I said, a shout out to Michael at All City. Thanks, buddy. Really appreciate it. More to come on that. Okay. I guess that's all I can do for right now.

[Chris Hoadley]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

Tell you that I love you.

[Chris Hoadley]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

I'll say best to you, best to you in the podcast streaming audience. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say we do say and we must say goodbye.

[Rachel]

Sam.

[Brian Green]

5:30.