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Pete Holmes
Lemonade. You made it weird with Pete Holmes.
Valerie
What's happening, weirdos?
Pete Holmes
Wow. You almost put no pause between your keep it crispy and what's happening, weirdos?
Valerie
I know.
Pete Holmes
I mean, hard for Katie.
Valerie
Sorry, Katie.
Pete Holmes
No, no, no. She can do it.
Valerie
I'm sorry.
Pete Holmes
We're so.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
This is.
Pete Holmes
This is one of my faves. I know.
Valerie
I always say that this was a fun one. I start out by saying, let's have fun, and then we do.
Pete Holmes
We do. And there's no non dual talk.
Valerie
If no deep.
Pete Holmes
There's one guy sitting on a cushion that just turned it off.
Valerie
He's meditating. This is his meditation.
Pete Holmes
It's my practice. His practice is to, like, tolerate this podcast.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Like, just allow it. And he's enlightened. We're so glad you're here. This is. We made it. We. The Friday episodes where Valerie and I catch up and I love it. I also want to say, like, the first half, I'm not going to break it down by chapters, but I'm going to say in the second half, we talk about Mormon Saturday Night Live, which was very fun. So, yeah, don't. Don't skip out. Listen to the whole thing.
Valerie
Just listen to the whole thing. You're here already.
Pete Holmes
If you only have time for half, put on 2x and go insane.
Valerie
Oh, my God. We should try to listen to what's into X. This is somebody.
Pete Holmes
This is a 0.5 podcast.
Valerie
I was with a friend who. Did you ever. Have you ever listened to the Emerald podcast, Emeril? The Emerald is what it's called.
Pete Holmes
Oh, the precious stone.
Valerie
Yes, exactly. Anyway, somebody put that on a friend of mine on a road trip. And the other friend had, like, also listened to that podcast, but she was like, I listened to this on 2X and this guy sounds so differently. And it was the slowest talking person I've ever heard in my life. And I was like, wow, this is what 2x is for. It's for people like this.
Pete Holmes
It is what 2x is for. But this is not that podcast.
Valerie
No.
Pete Holmes
We're so glad you're here. Only a couple things to plug. Go to PeteHomes.com for my tour. Go to YouTube.com for silly, silly fun boy. We're almost at 800.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Oh, 800K.
Pete Holmes
May 27th is the next Largo. Shang Wang is going to do that one.
Valerie
Oh, that'll be fun.
Pete Holmes
It's going to be awesome. Oh, we're also going to drop
Sponsor/Ad Voice
silly.
Pete Holmes
No, I am not. For everyone. So silly, Silly Fun Boy is the new special but on Saturday, on Sunday, May 24, we're gonna do a live premiere at 10am Pacific of I am not for everyone, which was on a streamer that shall not be named, but it's now gonna be on YouTube for free. And I'm gonna be there commenting and streaming with y'.
Valerie
All.
Pete Holmes
So that'll be on Sunday, May 24, just to get all my specials on YouTube. Why not?
Valerie
Why not?
Pete Holmes
And then May 27 is Largo. Then we have Aspen, Denver, and all sorts. Who cares? And then spells to cast on your parents is available now. It's my children's book. The name says it all. It's a super silly fun time. Get it for your kids or get it for someone you know who has kids. Or just get it and read it. Read it like yourself, like you would read an academic textbook.
Valerie
Yeah, there's no shame in that. Just get a kid's book.
Pete Holmes
No shame.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
So we're so glad you're here.
Pete Holmes
Thank you, everybody.
Valerie
Valerie, get into it.
Pete Holmes
Amazon Pharmacy presents Painful thoughts.
Valerie
It's been a long, bumpy road dealing
Julie Louis-Dreyfus
with yet another bladder infection and driving
Valerie
to the pharmacy to pick up meds.
Julie Louis-Dreyfus
I went over a pothole and a
Valerie
little pee came out.
Julie Louis-Dreyfus
So now I get to stand in
Valerie
line with pee pee pants.
Pete Holmes
Next time, skip the pain and get fast free delivery. With Amazon Pharmacy, healthcare just got less painful.
Valerie
You know what? I just want to.
Pete Holmes
Hello.
Valerie
Hello. Hi. Hi, everybody.
Pete Holmes
You just want to what?
Valerie
I just want to have fun. I know I say this sometimes. This is one of those episodes where
Pete Holmes
I go like, oh, you don't want to be deep.
Valerie
No, we.
Pete Holmes
I love that I have a copy of my book to clearly read a highlighted passage.
Valerie
It's called clear your heart.
Pete Holmes
No, it's called clear ink your heart. I love that you dropped a very key word. Clear your heart is not a book I would read.
Valerie
It's a self help book.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, my brother gave me a book. I love my brother so much. And I actually really love the work that my brother has done. Like, you know, on him. On his. What do you say? Psychology.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Which is an incredibly brilliant and wise person. But he gave me a book called do the work or know how to do the work.
Valerie
Gave me that book. Yeah. Because we were talking about it and he's like, I could send it to you. And what are you going to be like? Nah, nah.
Pete Holmes
Especially a book called how to do the work. Yeah, yeah, but it's. We watch television every day instead of doing the work. Instead of doing the work. No, but our TV Is framed by books on a bookshelf. And the one that I always see is how to do the work. And I'm not even. Well, there's a lot of things at play. One of them is that my brother and I, we love talking. But if I send him a book, I'm pretty sure he doesn't read it. And it kind of goes both ways. Yeah, but he didn't send that to me.
Valerie
Who was telling us? Wasn't it maybe Adam, our driver. Not to be confused with Adam driver.
Pete Holmes
Adam, our driver.
Valerie
Our driver in Utah. The guy who was driving.
Pete Holmes
I'm like, we don't have a driver.
Valerie
No, no, no.
Pete Holmes
Have we talked about that yet?
Valerie
No, we got to talk about that.
Pete Holmes
What?
Valerie
So fun. I know. I told you, I just want to have fun.
Pete Holmes
So look, let me slide clear in your heart by John.
Valerie
No, you can read that. That's fun for you. That's your kind of fun.
Pete Holmes
As I've said a million times, being interested in non duality is like being a NASCAR fan. A NASCAR fan in Manhattan. And this is a name drop. But when I was starting comedy in New York with Nate Bargazzi, he felt that he would talk about that.
Valerie
Oh, really?
Pete Holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very sweetly. Just like, nobody here likes nascar. Like, nobody here is even interested. And he went from everyone being interested to literally, no, that's so cool. And he was just like, what is this? But I think he found some people. You can find anybody in Manhattan.
Valerie
Oh, yeah. That's the good thing about it.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you just want to have fun.
Valerie
We just want to have fun. He was telling us that Nate Bargazi. No, Adam, our driver.
Pete Holmes
I'm like an AI. You know how you can confuse an AI by being like three plums. And then I gave you two dirty plums. How many plums do you have? And I'm like, well, it's like three plums. Two the dirty. Like you can confuse me by another noun. Yeah, that's all it takes.
Valerie
I was kind of confused there for a minute.
Pete Holmes
Oh, thanks.
Valerie
I have that brain too.
Pete Holmes
You're really nice.
Valerie
Thank you.
Pete Holmes
You're nice to me.
Valerie
Thank you.
Pete Holmes
I appreciate it.
Valerie
I like to be nice to you. I like you. I told you right before we started recording that I was laying in bed doing the math of how long I thought you could live so that I can die with you.
Pete Holmes
Because we still have an old ass life.
Valerie
Yeah. Because we're 10 years apart.
Pete Holmes
Yeah. But we won't always be cryogenics. Well, you freeze my ass for 10 years. We're the same.
Valerie
Oh, my God. Freeze your ass for 10 years. Have a million affairs.
Pete Holmes
What? What? You have a million affairs?
Valerie
Yeah. For 10 years?
Pete Holmes
Yeah. That would be pretty exciting for you.
Valerie
And then. And then grow older.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
No.
Pete Holmes
I love you as mo. As much as a person can.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Love a person.
Valerie
Mm.
Pete Holmes
Like, if you were frozen for 10 years and you're just like, go live. I don't know, though. I don't know.
Valerie
On one hand, you'd be frozen.
Pete Holmes
No, no, no. Yeah. You're gonna go and do it.
Valerie
Oh, yeah. Oh. If I were for whatever, a year, and I am.
Pete Holmes
One of the ways that I'm very old school is that I'm like, sex makes you fall in love with people. Like, it's one of the ways that, like, you just physiologically.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Bond with somebody.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I know. I, like, I'm just owning it. I'm 47, and I am, like, a real knot in my backyard. I don't want these kids drag racing. I don't want kids doing wheelies through traffic on their e bikes. And. And I'm also, like, pretty ready to either keep it to myself or very gently imply that, like, sex is a lovely and normal thing and you kind of, you know, it can make you attached. Attached. That's all I'm saying.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Thank you. I'm not even gonna say fall in love. I'm just gonna say it just makes. There's attachment there.
Valerie
It does make everything complicated, at the very least.
Pete Holmes
Why'd you have to go and make.
Valerie
I like, this is what I think. I've maybe talked about this on the podcast, but this is what I love,
Pete Holmes
this AM Vibe we have today. Y like it.
Valerie
I like it too. My friend Lisa and I always talk about this too, because we both feel both ways, which I think you would too, where you're just, like. It feels insane that you can have a connection with someone, like a friend and then. And also be attracted to them and, like, you can just get to a certain point.
Pete Holmes
Is this you and Lisa?
Valerie
No, no, no. This is like, you know, other people. Like, if I were another, there was a man that I was attracted to that I also am friends with.
Brett Goldstein
Hello, Val.
Valerie
And, yeah, just hypothetically.
Brett Goldstein
I'm just running some bits. Pete says you're very good at bits. You want to help me with some of these? What's up with Kermit? Everybody knows he's got ping pong ball eyes. Why's he got those ping pong balls?
Valerie
You know? What about Kermit's eyes?
Brett Goldstein
So is it like, did Jim Henson ever, like, go like, oh, we lost the ball. Don't worry, I'll go dismantle Kermit. Is that. Is that anything?
Valerie
Uh huh.
Brett Goldstein
Why is it humid in here? Why is it vaginal? Humid? It's so moist.
Valerie
And all I can muster is a nod.
Pete Holmes
For those of you that haven't listened to every one of these 250 episodes. That's Brett Goldstein, my friend. And your secret crush.
Valerie
Not secret. That's why it's okay. Because I'm not keeping it a secret.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
I agree.
Pete Holmes
The people that I'm. And I'm only in the 5% attracted or crushed on anybody. I wouldn't. I don't even joke about it. But you're like, 98%. Like, you have to talk about it. Well, it's like somebody with, like, a arrow in their arm.
Valerie
Yeah, that's true.
Pete Holmes
You have to address it.
Valerie
That's true. I guess that's true. But I also do that for the health of our relationship. Just like, to keep it in. I think a secret crush is dangerous. I think a public crush is.
Pete Holmes
But none of mine. You're talking to a person who has to write down their friends.
Valerie
Oh. Oh.
Pete Holmes
You're saying, like, I can't even remember who I have a crush on.
Valerie
Oh, right.
Pete Holmes
And I don't. I don't have any crush. I. I mean, I'd love to.
Valerie
I'd love for you to have a crush. I. But to be fair, it's not like I get. Although maybe this is worse. I also am not attracted to that many people. Like, I. I don't get a lot of crushes.
Brett Goldstein
Well, yeah.
Pete Holmes
And. And Brett's, you know, different from me, but enough like me that I'm like, I get it.
Valerie
Yeah, totally.
Pete Holmes
I love. I love. He's a dreamboat.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
When I watched Ted Lasso, I was like, it's because of Dreamboat.
Valerie
Yeah. Yeah. But what I was.
Pete Holmes
And Brett, if you're listening, I'm sorry.
Valerie
I'm sorry that we keep talking about this. I know.
Pete Holmes
And Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson. I'm sorry.
Valerie
Yeah, I do have a crush on him.
Pete Holmes
Well, I know there's that. But we both have, like, talent. Admiration of Matt and get a lot of, like, inspiration, like, watching him on podcasts and stuff. And I'm just like, he's. It's like, it gives me a lot of life listening to somebody who's so lit up about stuff. So I have. I have a talent thing.
Valerie
Yeah. For Matt.
Pete Holmes
So apologies to Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson as well.
Valerie
What are we apologizing for?
Pete Holmes
Crushes and talent crushes.
Valerie
I think that that's something that makes people feel good. Is it not?
Pete Holmes
I guess that you and me.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
If I was listening to Brett's podcast
Brett Goldstein
and he's like, you know who's a piece of ass is Pete Holmes.
Valerie
The only reason I listen to Brett's podcast is to just see if he says that about me.
Brett Goldstein
There's one girl, her name is that. No, I shouldn't say it. It's called a Chaney. No, it's too obvious. Call it homes.
Valerie
That's not true. I do like. I like that podcast.
Pete Holmes
Can you not mention other podcasts? Do you know what it's like out there?
Valerie
That's what you get jealous of.
Brett Goldstein
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Yeah. That's so fun. So the feeling I got was stronger for you mentioning another podcast. That is.
Valerie
I know you.
Pete Holmes
So that was. We've been recording for nine minutes. That was a nine minute setup.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
In my opinion, a perfect joke.
Valerie
Also, though, to like this. Similarly, it was perfect when you said. When you were doing the bit about me helping Brett with bits, that crossed a line for me. I'm like, look, I might give him a smooch or something, but I would never help him with his bits. That's our thing.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, No, I get that. That's really sweet.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Really, really sweet. Okay, Can I enter? Will you keep a pin in what you're about to say?
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
Because we saw Nick Swartzen the other day.
Valerie
Oh, yeah.
Pete Holmes
Literally yesterday. And it was so fun.
Valerie
Yeah. He's so great.
Pete Holmes
And it made me miss hanging out with comedians. Gareth Live. Gareth Reynolds, who's one of the funniest people ever lives here. But I texted him to hang out. This is. This is Pete's man trying to have a guy friend.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
Trying to have a friend.
Valerie
Yeah, Pete's.
Pete Holmes
And I don't mean that in no disrespect. I love Conan to death. But his podcast, Conan o' Brien needs a friend. That's. That's funny gag. This is. This shit is real.
Valerie
Yeah, yeah. You want intimacy. You don't want just like, dinner. Bit dinners.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bit dinners. That's fine. But this is like, Pete Holmes needs a friend. And then in parentheses, like, for real. And the worst part is I don't think I need a friend. So it's, like, dangerous. I'm like a guy who only eats, like, drinks tab.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I'm like, I'm alive.
Valerie
And you're like, but you need water.
Pete Holmes
Water. And I'm like, no, I don't. So, like, I don't even believe in the conceit of this show. But anyway, I texted Gareth to hang out. For those of you who don't know, he's ISOs. All these ISOs. One of the funniest bits of all time.
Valerie
Yep.
Pete Holmes
What kind of triangles are these? I think about it all the time.
Valerie
Stall these isles.
Pete Holmes
I'll be ISOs. I just can't believe he doesn't.
Valerie
That a human brain thought of that.
Pete Holmes
And that a Dorito is an isosceles triangle was like the coup de grace. I don't know what a coup de grace is, but it made me.
Valerie
When somebody pulls up a term that you haven't heard since isosceles the eighth grade.
Pete Holmes
Look, I am a little defensive because it's such a great bit. I did. I was the one who brought it.
Valerie
Isles. Brought it soceli. Well, great. That's why I married you.
Pete Holmes
For my. There's a lot of fucking dandruff nerds that know the word isosceles that you could be on a boat and just remember when dandruff was, like, the go to. Oh, my God.
Valerie
Dandruff was such a big thing in our lives.
Pete Holmes
Dandruff used to be happening.
Valerie
Was that dehydration?
Pete Holmes
We figured it out.
Valerie
No, because I'm not doing anything differently than I did then.
Pete Holmes
But we never had dandruff.
Valerie
Oh, you're right.
Pete Holmes
Dandruff is for nerds. Okay. I'm kidding. That was a funny take. That was a funny take. The kids I knew in high school that had just the season for the flakes that don't melt. That was a Head and Shoulders commercial. They were. If I'm gonna be real, you don't. You don't have to clip this and keep me off snl. But there were a lot of Asian nerds. I knew they weren't all Asian, but they had the dark hair.
Valerie
Helps the spot you show. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Which means maybe I have it. I just have. Well, everybody has strawberry blonde flakes.
Valerie
Yeah, everybody has a teensy bit of it. But, like, that was. But that. I mean, it was also just in the zeitgeist as, like, a jokes, I guess, because maybe it was really happening more in the 90s, I think what we were eating. I bet it was what we were eating. I bet it was dehydration.
Pete Holmes
I didn't have a glass of water till, like, 1999.
Valerie
Yeah. I also.
Pete Holmes
And that was as a joke, like, imagine.
Valerie
Yeah. Like, our low quality soaps probably too.
Pete Holmes
We just didn't know what the fuck we were doing. Yeah, nobody knew what the fuck. Remember Noxzema? Like, no shade Noxzema. But, like, what we were washing our faces with just frying when you. It smelled like. It smelled like what cooked the Joker. Like, Jack Nicholson fell in a vat of Nagazima. Oh, my God, it was so chemical.
Valerie
Accutane is still a thing. People still do it. But, like, every. They were handing that out like candy,
Pete Holmes
and it made sounds like you just want acne, but more accurately, acne.
Brett Goldstein
You just.
Pete Holmes
You still want it, but you're like, I want it in clusters of my choosing. Accutane. That's accunet. That's awful.
Valerie
But we're just gonna sit in it for a minute.
Pete Holmes
No, I loved it. I have the Nick Swartzen joke queued up.
Valerie
All I was gonna say was, Accutane, like, would make teenagers, like, suicidal.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Like, oh, yeah.
Valerie
It was a no joke, bro.
Pete Holmes
Bro.
Valerie
It was insane, bro.
Pete Holmes
I'm so glad I didn't get smashed by acne, but some of my dear friends did.
Valerie
Huh?
Pete Holmes
And, like, remember, like, it also used to just be illegal to show commercials where you touches it with, like, a ionized metal and it goes away in 15 minutes. Like, that's. That's what it claimed. We bought that.
Valerie
I know.
Pete Holmes
For four payments in 1995. We wait six to eight weeks. You get it? You touch your zit. Now you're just a dork pointing out your.
Valerie
Wait a minute. I guess I don't know what this is. What are you saying? This is. What was it called?
Pete Holmes
Yeah. You would have bought this?
Valerie
I would have.
Pete Holmes
Based on. Leela and I were playing yesterday, two days ago, in the sink, and she found, like, a red light you shine at Pimples. And I was like, bro, get off the gram.
Valerie
The red light has been proven to work. The red light. I have the red light mask, too, and I've never used it.
Pete Holmes
You know who else has that red light mask? Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. I almost bought one because Diary of a CEO is like, I listen to my girl when she talks about skincare.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
AI is going to kill us all. But first, this mask. Yeah, that's my Diary of a CEO commercial. Okay, wait, but there's a lot of cooks in the fire. Let me.
Valerie
Okay, so what is the ionized metal thing?
Pete Holmes
It was this. It looked like tweezers that were closed.
Valerie
Okay.
Pete Holmes
That's pretty good, actually.
Valerie
Great.
Pete Holmes
Now we're going to wrap the metal part of the tweeze in, like, a White plastic, huh? So now it's just a white plastic handle. And at the tip is like some tweezer looking things, but they're closed. And it had a battery in it. And the ad was just like, it's negative charge and positive charge. And the problem with zits is that they're negative charge. And this floods it with whatever it is.
Valerie
Whoa.
Pete Holmes
And you. And both. I only got zits. Zits. I only got pimples. Let's pim. Zits is tits, by the way.
Valerie
Zits is tits.
Pete Holmes
Pimples is boobs.
Valerie
Yep, 100%.
Pete Holmes
And I got pimples.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I didn't get zits. And I'm not like, barking people into my baseball milk jug game at a carnival. I'm sorry, but those are the tits. Zits, people. She had zits on her tits. I still did her.
Valerie
Racne, we used to call it.
Pete Holmes
Is that real?
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I didn't know zit tits.
Valerie
Not zit tits, but like on the chest.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Acne, you know, you'd get about.
Pete Holmes
That's a really cute way to put it. I never liked bacne. I never liked bacne and arachne, which is Middle Eastern acne.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Is that anything?
Valerie
No.
Pete Holmes
I love your honesty. So anyway, I don't think you'd mind. It was earn. Ern and I were best friends and we had acne and we bought it. I think we might have even pooled our resources. This is something. The good part of what this is, is you have to wait six to eight weeks for this thing. And the. That's actually the best part. Between sending in the cash on delivery or the. The money order or the. You get a check. I don't know what we did.
Valerie
100.
Pete Holmes
You mail it. First of all, it takes two weeks for them to get the payment from you. Tom Hanks in the Postman. I'm sorry? Kevin Costner in the Postman is. Is a horse delivering your check to this company. And then they.
Valerie
And then you have to look that horse in the mouth.
Pete Holmes
You're very good. And then they mail it six. So that's why it took six to eight weeks. And believe me, that was eight weeks and you got it. And the best part was laying in bed being like, we'll see who's laughing when I'm ionizing.
Valerie
Everything is different.
Pete Holmes
When everything's different.
Valerie
I've had this.
Pete Holmes
So you're gonna go to school? Absolutely. Clear skin. And you know what? For me, it was too. It was being clear skin. But I've always been Like, I still am, like, a proselytizer and a sharer of wares. And I couldn't wait to tell everyone. Ivan, Poon buddy, let me. You can use ours. I don't care. Yeah, we could get the whole school clear in 15 minutes.
Valerie
I'm so enthralled, though. So tell me what the experience was like.
Pete Holmes
Got it. I believe, sent to Earn's house and he was poking his zits with it. Oh, zits. And absolutely, obviously, absolutely nothing happened.
Valerie
Does it hurt? Did it, like, electrocute? No. Okay.
Pete Holmes
I tried it too. It did nothing. Yeah, the modern equivalent. And I'm not. I'm going to put a clock on myself here. I'm going to give myself 40 seconds to talk about this nefarious. What is the word? Diabolical. The thing that is diabolical today is apps. My daughter will be like, leela, our daughter will say. Will say, can I play that whole game? There's a game called Holes IO or whatever, and it is fun. It's a fun game. You are a whole. And you swallow buildings and cars and stuff. And it's free. Every app is free. Every app says the three letters that I dread. Get.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Show me the price. Show me the price.
Valerie
Because then you know it's quality.
Pete Holmes
Even if it was $30, yeah, I would have bought it. But it's not. It's free. And that means every 45 seconds, it's not just an ad for another game comes. You have to play it. And I'm pretty savvy. I'm not like a ding dong when it comes to phones. I know how to, like, minimize things. I know how to close things. I know where the little hard to find X is. I can't find shit. I'm like, I guess I just have to play this game. I do. I win. It sucks. I hate playing this game because it forced me to do it. So I have this real liberty complex. I'm like, I'm playing holes. There's no home screen for holes. There's no settings. There's no. There's nothing to push that you can say, upgrade to ad free. There's nothing. So then I give it back to Leela. She goes, data, this is 40 seconds later, data did it again. She hands it back to me. It makes you play again. And then it goes to the app store for that game and it says, get. And I'm like, no. And I close. It goes back to the game. I'm like, the game I don't want to play. I play that app screen App screen. App screen. I did that for five minutes. The worst I was. I get really triggered by this. It. There was no way around it. The only way to do it was to download another game. That was the only way it was.
Valerie
I did. Look, I double checked too with my.
Pete Holmes
We asked chat GPT and stuff.
Valerie
Yeah, we did.
Pete Holmes
And by the way, all the. And we went on YouTube. It was like, here's how to do it. It all hinges on a menu screen. There is no menu screen. I was like, this is. I don't use this word a lot. It's insidious. It's actually insidious. And fuck you, holes IO Fuck you.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Really?
Pete Holmes
I wouldn't say fuck you to a lot of people, but I would fuck you in all your fucking holes. Fuck you. Fuck you. I would say to the good natured dork who sold his soul, who signed the deal that made his good game just a casino of. Of sales.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Of fucking. Do you know the children that are playing this, that are downloading shit that we don't even know what the fuck is going on? I would walk up to that thick glasses motherfucker, I'd say, fuck you, you fucking dandruff piece of fuck.
Valerie
Okay, sorry.
Pete Holmes
I hope she hears this. This is righteous anger. Let us buy your game. This is America. Yeah, I'm not in some fucking. I am too worked up.
Valerie
You're really.
Pete Holmes
I'm really worked up. But there is something about America. It's like we have Better Business Bureau. I don't know what they do. We have like, there's supposed to be checks and balances with the government, but with this too, there isn't. It's just buy get this game for everything. It's free. Tetris is free. Same shit. It's not as bad, but it runs an ad and it takes you to the app store to buy another thing. And if you give that to a kid that they're just pressing buy and you're just buying shit. And it's like. I'm sorry. It is a carnival. It's a carnival game.
Valerie
And the thing is, the games that kids play, it happens more, which is so evil because I play solitaire. And it happens once every time you finish a game. You have to do a lot of and you can close out of them. But for kids, it's like it knows it can get kids to buy all
Pete Holmes
this shit and download more fucking spyware, spamware. All this shit on your phone, clogging it up and they don't know any better. Where is the presidential candidate that's gonna run on this because I will be his killer. Mike.
Valerie
I'm so. Did you see that?
Pete Holmes
The new toys, did you get that reference? That was a great reference. Bernie Sanders. You're missing a bird.
Valerie
Bird. You're missing a joke.
Pete Holmes
You're missing a great visual joke. That's really, really good visual joke.
Valerie
I pointed out that he says really?
Pete Holmes
And now I'm 3%.
Valerie
This is Matt Johnson again. We're talking partner the band.
Pete Holmes
You're missing a great visual joke. That wasn't. That wasn't it. That was almost Native American.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Great visual. I'm not going to do it.
Valerie
It was native Canadian.
Pete Holmes
It was native Canadian. They were Americans too.
Valerie
Yeah, that's true.
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Pete Holmes
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Pete Holmes
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Pete Holmes
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Pete Holmes
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Pete Holmes
Go ahead. Okay, wait, I got the Nick Schwartz.
Valerie
You got Nick Schwartz in, so you should do that. I'm going. I'm going chronologically backwards.
Pete Holmes
And I'm sorry if I got everybody worked up, but, like, we got it. Apple. This is under your banner. Steve Jobs. He's not doing anything.
Valerie
Oh. I was saying I'm glad that the new Toy Story is about tablets.
Pete Holmes
It is.
Valerie
That's the new villain, is the tablet.
Pete Holmes
Well, I think. Color me aroused.
Valerie
I honestly think that's going to be the first. I was like, watching the trailer through my child's eyes.
Pete Holmes
There's a trailer?
Valerie
Yes. It looks great.
Pete Holmes
Big week for trailers. Matt Johnson's Tony.
Valerie
Oh, yeah.
Pete Holmes
Trailer.
Valerie
Yeah, The Anthony Bourdain.
Pete Holmes
I feel like it did, like, 60 million views in 24 hours. It's incredible. Yeah, it looks incredible. More. I'm such a fucking dork. Went right to the views.
Valerie
But I'm like, you do have a crush.
Pete Holmes
It's a talent crush.
Valerie
I know, it's cute.
Pete Holmes
Talent crushes. This is just Salieri and Mozart and. Yes, I'm Mozart. I'm just kidding. But.
Valerie
Oh, it's like, I was like, I think this is going to work on my kid. But then I also kind of got a little bit sad because she. I think it will be challenging to her. You know when you love something and then it's like you get the, like, you know, info on it. Like, if we were to watch a documentary about sugar, I'm like the guy.
Pete Holmes
Like, you know how Lucy in Peanuts set up a therapist booth?
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
For five cents.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I'm five cents. Ruin something you love. What do you got? Bacon? Sugar.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Alcohol? Weed?
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Anything. I've been ruined.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
If the. If the. The plebeians. What is it? The Philistines? You don't have to burn down the library anymore. Remember in the Dark Ages? You just have to kill me because I'm a whole library.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
Of those of just like, sugar is actually.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
By the way, please don't kill Me,
Valerie
I love the idea that somebody heard that. It was, like, started polishing a knife. And then you said.
Pete Holmes
They were like, oh, okay, okay.
Valerie
You were just. Yeah, speaking metaphorically. So. But I think she is so into her toys. Like, okay, this is a perfect example. This morning, I got Beau a stuffed giraffe toy. BO is our giant dog. And she saw it, and I said, do you want to give. It was in the Target bag. And I said, do you want to give this to Beau? He'll be so happy. And in the time it took for her to take that giraffe out of the bag and just walk to the back door, she had named it. She was cutting its tag off and saying, this will only hurt for a second. She had built an entire relationship with this giraffe to the point that when she gave it to our dog and he, like, started shaking it and running around, she was, like, crying a little bit.
Pete Holmes
Oh, my God.
Valerie
And I was like. And I said, look at how, like, Beau, our real live stuffy, who is alive, is so happy.
Pete Holmes
Oh, I heard you saying that.
Valerie
And she was like. She was like, but the giraffe, you
Pete Holmes
know, I had that big.
Valerie
And so she has that so much with her toys that I think I'm, like, nervous to present the idea and. And trust, you know what? In. In Pixar, I trust that they'll handle it well. But the idea that, like, her toys are feeling neglected by her iPad, she's gonna. That's gonna hit hard, I think.
Pete Holmes
Wait, not buy her iPad because of her iPad?
Valerie
Well, the iPad in Toy Story, the iPad is alive and is the villain that the toys are, like, being neglected because now Bonnie has.
Pete Holmes
Because of it. Yeah, but not buy it.
Valerie
Yes, but in Toy Story, all of the toys are alive, including the iPad,
Pete Holmes
but the toys aren't wanting the iPad to play with them.
Valerie
Yes. Okay. I see what you're saying.
Pete Holmes
I'm glad I died on that hill. It was worth it. There's some people listening that are like, get her. Get her. Like, they're fucking. That was their wrestling. They're like, yes, Val, I know that they're personified.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Okay. But I also know that the toys don't want to be played with by the iPad.
Valerie
Okay, sure.
Pete Holmes
By the way, I know what you mean. But, like, Lila's, you know, Lord knows we're pulling some boners as a parent. Like, there's. There's some stuff we're doing wrong. She's not an iPad fiend.
Valerie
No.
Pete Holmes
What do you mean?
Valerie
I mean, she's a Screen fiend A little bit.
Pete Holmes
She watches a lot, but she's not an iPad fiend. What are we doing? This is like, I did that interview for Wired and it was about my screen time. And they. It was about, like, tech use. And they're like, what's your screen time? And I couldn't wait. It was like the best day of my life. And I got to tell somebody my lowest screen time. And I guess they didn't believe it because then they emailed me and they said, no, we need your screen time for, like, across all your devices, including your computer. And I was like, what? You just moved the goalposts?
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Screen time means phone.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And not my zooms. I have like three zooms in a day and now I have three, four hours of screen time.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
That's screen time.
Valerie
It is a little bit different than comparing it to, like, because she's either watching on the bigger screen or she's watching on her itch.
Pete Holmes
Disagree.
Valerie
Those are the same.
Pete Holmes
Disagree. The thing we're talking about, the. What is the word? Insidious.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Holes. IO. That's iPad time. Go to the airport.
Valerie
You mean games?
Pete Holmes
Games, apps, bullshit. She barely does that.
Valerie
She doesn't do that.
Pete Holmes
You're what I'm saying.
Valerie
But she.
Pete Holmes
That's different. It's a different level of engagement, I guess. But she's a cinephile.
Valerie
You just will never see her clearly. And I love that. I. Because you don't. Because you don't see me clearly.
Pete Holmes
7 year old is a cinema she loves. I love what? I just watched Go with Lila this morning. That's right. This morning.
Valerie
On a Friday morning.
Pete Holmes
Who gives a shit, bro? We're fucking smoking it. We're smoking up life.
Valerie
That's true.
Pete Holmes
And we watched and it was great. I thought it was Chris Rock. It wasn't. It was the kid from Stranger Things.
Valerie
I know. Isn't it Steph Curry.
Pete Holmes
Steph Curry's in it.
Valerie
Oh, okay.
Pete Holmes
But the lead goat.
Valerie
Oh.
Pete Holmes
Sounds a little bit to my ear, like, Chris. And it was this guy, this child, younger person.
Valerie
That is crazy. They're like 40 years apart in age.
Pete Holmes
I. I was like, how did Chris sound so young? I thought he was pitching up his voice.
Valerie
Oh, okay.
Pete Holmes
Anyway, that was a snooze. Was it? I love everything we say. I'm gonna listen to this one. I can tell it's a good one.
Valerie
Well, okay. We gotta go backwards.
Pete Holmes
I just wanted to say that when we watch, it's active. We were sitting together, we're talking about what's Happening. We're talking about the art. We're talking about the voice actors. Patton Oswald is the coach. And I go, that's Remy. She's like, I recognize that. I love it. Anyway, you're right. You and Leela can do no wrong. Yeah, that's how I like it.
Valerie
That's nice. That's nice.
Pete Holmes
Are we at the Swartz and thing?
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Okay.
Valerie
Do you remember what it was?
Pete Holmes
Well, yeah. There's a couple things here, though. Gareth Reynolds, who I want to be friends with.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
I texted him and what was really funny. And Gareth. No, no shade here. He just assumed I was asking him to do the podcast. I've been chasing him to come back on the podcast. I was like, I'll be back, then we'll pot it up. And I said, you showbiz phony. I was looking to hang out with you. And then like, two Frankensteins at the beach going, like, what?
Valerie
How do we friend?
Pete Holmes
He rolls the ball to me crudely. Ball and roll it back. We pan away slowly, back away, sunset. Everyone's crying. But I was like, let's hang out. And he was like, how's the first week of June? That's in. That's in. That's in three weeks. And we're scheduling it like, ain't. No.
Valerie
But that's what you do.
Pete Holmes
It is, yes.
Valerie
This is what being a friend is.
Pete Holmes
Can we try it again without the tude? I'm trying to learn your ways from. I'm not actually upset. I just can't. I wouldn't have guessed that you were planning things.
Valerie
Oh, my God. Cons. I just planned something for. Well, I guess that's a week from now. But, like, especially with friends who are not in town all the time.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
I think what you see is the friends that are in town that I see every day.
Pete Holmes
Yes.
Valerie
That is more spur of the moment. But even that where, like, I. You know.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, you're right. You plan hikes and stuff.
Valerie
Yeah. It's like Jill texted me today and said, do you want to go to this weight class? And I said, I can't go to this one, but I'll see it. I'll do it with you on Monday. Like, where there's always, like, little planning things that happen.
Pete Holmes
Remember we were talking about that? I was like. I was acknowledging that there might be something kind of mid lifey about this experiment, even though I wouldn't call it a crisis. It's a. It's a Midlife DEFCON 1. Isn't DEFCON 5 the worst?
Valerie
I think It's.
Pete Holmes
I just think it's informed by being midlife. I'm just sort of going, like, okay, I've lived forgive and forget. But, like, I love my life. What a great life. There's one kind of folder that you like a manila, and you open and there's just dust in it. Like.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
It's like my friendship.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Other than, you know, my comedian friends, which are like, you know, we've talked about this. Neil Brennan. I'll talk to Neil once or twice a month. But it's real connection. We really connect and we really bond and we really love each other.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But, you know, a phone call. I feel like Will Hunting, where he's like, do you. Robin Williams is like, do you have any friends, Will? Who are your friends? And he's like, got a lot of friends. K.
Valerie
Icebox.
Pete Holmes
K A God.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
What's Icebox?
Valerie
I. Oh. Oh. I was thinking. I didn't realize you said, like, can't. I. Because I say can't. So I. I thought you were, like, naming, like, Boston type, like, nicknames of friends.
Pete Holmes
Like, Can't. Like Hunt.
Valerie
No, just like any. You know how, like, there's. I think there's an even, like, a Matt Damon, or maybe it's been Affleck SNL sketch where he's, like, naming his friends and it's all like, one of them is like, Squeeze Box or Icebox. So it's like, just naming, like, the Boston type nicknames. I didn't realize it was the.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, everybody's go to Sully.
Valerie
Okay. Yeah, exactly.
Brett Goldstein
Yeah.
Valerie
Okay, so.
Pete Holmes
But he's saying he was naming all the people that he reads.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And he goes, well, you can't. You can't really have relationship with him, Will. Not without smelling salts in a space heater, which I don't even know what that means. I guess you, like, trip out.
Valerie
I guess so.
Pete Holmes
But it might not be smelling salts. Anyway, okay, where were we? Plans.
Valerie
Yes. So you're trying.
Pete Holmes
Okay, so Gareth. I'll hang out with Gareth in three weeks. But then I saw Nick Schwartz and. And really, what? We saw him in town, and I was so happy to see another comedian, as were you. It's fun to see funny people. And we talked to him for a while, and he told that story that specifically made me go, like, he said this. Do you remember? He goes, this is a funny joke if you're a comedian. And he told, like, a famous road story. We were talking about how weather affects the mood and how, like, we're in such a sunny place. And everybody's so happy. I was like, I really think that's like one of the things. And he's from Minneapolis and talking about how, you know, when I was in Minneapolis, I was asking somebody if they ever thought about living in California or if they ever would. And they were like, no, there's earthquakes. And I was like, you guys have a winter every year. Yeah, I've been here for 20 some plus years. You can deal with it. Like, you guys have a natural disaster that recurs annually.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
For months.
Valerie
It's a given that it will happen.
Pete Holmes
It will happen.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Look. Which is fine. Maybe you really are afraid of earthquakes. That's fine. I'm just saying we were talking about the places there were. Well, that was a Covid thing. Like places where there was less sunlight, they could track. Covid would spike harder.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Different things like that.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Anyway, sunlight and people's. Well, being very linked. And we were talking about that. And then he was like, there's this famous story about this comedian who's touring up through Canada and like back down through the Midwest in like February. And like halfway through the run, he goes, he just killed himself. And we all had a good laugh. That's very dark. And he just goes, and that's a great joke if you're a comedian.
Valerie
Yeah, yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I was like, look, I'm not saying it's exclusive to comedians. I think there are a lot of people that have an appreciation for very dark stuff like that. But it did make me go like, oh, I'm gonna text Gareth. I could see him saying something like that to me.
Valerie
That's what made you. So wait, hang on.
Pete Holmes
The point of that story goes, what? Comedians live near me.
Valerie
Oh, yeah.
Pete Holmes
And maybe I could try and be like, you said this, you said instead of starting fresh, which I have a couple fresh fires.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
You were like, why not just try and deepen something that you already have?
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
And then I started thinking about, like watching Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie, and how they like play Super Nintendo. And that's like their go to sign of male friendship is people you watch movies with and people you play Super Nintendo with. Then that got me unpacking. Like when I was a kid, I played video games by myself.
Valerie
Yeah, but see, this is. Well, that's.
Pete Holmes
I find that to be such a key.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Where I'm like, go ahead.
Valerie
No, you're right. But I do think that is. That's a real good secret to fostering friendships, is finding some. It's just like when you're A kid, but just finding a mutual thing that you like to do and then that becomes your person that you do that with.
Pete Holmes
Right.
Valerie
So it's like even like Jill, one of my closest friends, she and I would hang out. We have a lot of overlap. We would hang out anyway. But the thing is, is like there's only so many hours in a day. There's only so many hours where your kid isn't with you that like, you kind of have to multitask. We can't just sit and have coffee for two hours every day. So we hike or we exercise together.
Pete Holmes
I know.
Valerie
So that we're taking care of two of the things we have to do or, you know, taking care.
Pete Holmes
So funny how sensitive I am on this. And I go, okay, then I'm out.
Valerie
But, but see, but that's what I'm saying is you can find something that you enjoy to like doing with a friend so that it doesn't feel like such a. Like. And now I have to try to make time for this two hour lunch
Pete Holmes
or I'm not trying to be funny. What do I like to do?
Valerie
Well, that's the thing is. And so that's why I think there it is a little bit more difficult is like a lot of the other dads here are like going on long hikes together or mountain biking or because it's Ojai. So a lot of the dads here like to be like outside. But you would do a hike. You like hikes. But it's not a big. Yeah, I know.
Pete Holmes
I just. You know what comes up for me when you say that is like the problem. And we'll move on from this because we've talked about this a lot. There's a Pete that likes hiking and he shows up for about 15 seconds every day. There's a 15 second window where you can ask me to go on a hike and I'll say yes.
Valerie
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And that's what's so hard. And that's why I don't like planning. I don't know which Pete we're planning for.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
That's why I really stick to the things that I always like. And a lot of those things are, you know, stand up. You know, I don't always.
Valerie
But that's what I was going to say. That is the original point of me saying that is. That's why I think it is okay for you to be friends with comedians because you like doing bits. They have the same sort of neuro spicy features as you. So they understand because that's the other thing is I'm like, you can be in different moods. Like, I made this point, I think, last week again, going back to Jill. The reason I can be close. I can be. I already mentioned her earlier.
Pete Holmes
Like, nobody clocked out.
Valerie
Yes. Okay. That. That she is the same as me when it comes to, like, I'm gonna make a plan. And then around. If I make a plan for 7:30, around 5pm I'm going to really be like, wishing I hadn't made that plan because I'm starting to wind down. And she's the same. So it's an easy person for me to be like, I'm not doing it. I'm not going out today. And she's like, great. Yeah. To rest. Like she. So all of that is to say, like, find somebody with the same neuroses as you so that you don't feel like you're being judged or that you have to have a version of yourself.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Specifically that version has to come out when you're with this person.
Brett Goldstein
I see.
Valerie
And also. Yeah, but also, I do think probably the hardest thing for you with finding friends is that you want to talk about non. Dual stuff and you just got to find. We got to find you somebody who wants to talk about that.
Pete Holmes
Is that true? Well, Tatiana, my. Yeah, My friend built exclusively almost on that so I can be very close with somebody if that's all they want to talk about.
Valerie
Yeah. That's Gungies.
Pete Holmes
Michael Gunger.
Valerie
You do have friends like that. But you seem to be wanting a friend in town that seems.
Pete Holmes
Tatiana lives in San Francisco. Gungies lives in fucking.
Valerie
Whatever that Nevada City.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, whatever that shit. I'm just kidding. I love Nevada City. I just couldn't remember the name of it, so I got defensive and then I made it stupid because I can't be stupid.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay, Moving on.
Valerie
All right.
Pete Holmes
Nobody cares.
Valerie
The.
Pete Holmes
I mean, we all care.
Valerie
I actually kind of remembered the two threads that I had, which never happens on this podcast. We always just abandon ship. Especially what's. But I'm gonna go back.
Pete Holmes
Especially with my stuff.
Valerie
No, I was gonna say especially in the beginning.
Pete Holmes
Okay. I defend your stuff, I hope as much as my own.
Valerie
Yeah. Which is close to none.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, that's right. I have not much regard for my own threads.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But go ahead.
Valerie
Okay. This is one little short thing that now doesn't make feel worth it. But it.
Pete Holmes
That's how I felt about the Nick Fortune joke. It. That wasn't that great. And then he killed himself. That didn't seem that great, and I had to deal with that. And then he killed himself. And then I was just standing there. You could hear like a drip from the ceiling.
Valerie
In your defense, I. And I will.
Pete Holmes
He told it better.
Valerie
No, I laughed way harder when he told it. I think there was a little part of me when you were about to tell it that I was like, is this okay?
Pete Holmes
It's a very dark joke.
Valerie
Yeah, it's dark. It's gallows humor. Anyway, I. When I was a kid, I wonder if you relate to this or if you have anything like this. You know, when you're a kid, you just don't know that much. You don't have that many associations. You haven't seen that many things.
Pete Holmes
Yes.
Valerie
So I vividly remember. I must have been pretty young. You mentioned Kermit's eyeballs in the. In the voice of Brett Goldstein.
Brett Goldstein
He's got that sort of like cumberbund. What is that? It's like a star shaped felt cumberband. Val, help me.
Valerie
So. So. Boyfriend. Brett.
Brett Goldstein
Boyfriend.
Valerie
Boyfriend.
Brett Goldstein
We hit friend.
Valerie
Boy.
Brett Goldstein
Girlfriend. Boyfriend. It's different.
Valerie
Which one is which? If you say. If you emphasize friend, you're British. Ah. So. When I was a kid, I remember seeing Kermit's eyes. And you know how his. Can you picture the shape of his pupils?
Pete Holmes
It's a line with a circle coming half up to sunrise.
Valerie
I remember thinking that looked like the tags that are on toys to help you hang.
Brett Goldstein
Stop it.
Pete Holmes
Say less.
Valerie
You got it. You already got it.
Pete Holmes
The thing you punch out on a Ninja Turtles toy.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
So that they could hang them in the store.
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
And the collectors, I think, have a term for that because they want that piece in there that's like real.
Valerie
Oh, cool. Okay. They should call it a Kermit's eye.
Brett Goldstein
And the Kermitai is. Is it in or is it out? Mate.
Valerie
I'll be your mate. Okay. Anyway.
Pete Holmes
Wow. Wow.
Valerie
Then the other thing was, which led to this and is now relevant because of that impression was the, like, freezing your you for 10 years and. And sex being attached. Okay. And then Lisa and I always talking about how you could have a friend and be attracted to them. And then there is just a certain line. And it's kind of different for everyone. But there's especially, like, if our genitals merge.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
If that will ruin our lives, like, for so many people. It's like if you're married or in a monogamous relationship and that happens with someone else.
Pete Holmes
This is why men and women can't be friends. Sex Always gets in the way.
Valerie
But is it, like, can't you get both in the position of, like, that is absurd. That just that one thing could ruin lives? And also. Yes, it does.
Pete Holmes
I hear that. Like, and it happens.
Valerie
And it does.
Pete Holmes
There's a. There's a slice of cake so delicious that people don't see their kids anymore.
Valerie
Yes, exactly.
Pete Holmes
Like, oh, no, exactly. I didn't have a bit about that. I can't find that bit. There was a bit where I was like, I wouldn't cheat on my wife, but I will. Like, pizza is my thing.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I'll eat, like, a sneaky pizza, but, like, that's better. Pizza doesn't call the house. Is. Is Pete home? Who's this? Put them on. Yeah, you hear the sound of molding cheese. Put them on pizza. But then that'll find that bit.
Valerie
But to go back to your. Like, it complicates everything, even that. So, like, even taking, like, cheating out of the way, it's like the second that happens where now I. I care if you call me most of the time, you know, like, it's like, well, you put your penis in my vagina. So now I really need you to call me the next day. Next day. And, like, we need. I need to know where this is going. And we need to be. You know, like, it is so weird that something that. Yeah, like, just. I'm just watching my mom's dog, like, humping my daughter's arm constantly. And it's like, there is an argument to be.
Pete Holmes
The bonobos. Argument.
Valerie
Yeah, exactly.
Pete Holmes
But I don't mean the clothing line.
Valerie
But I'm not. To be clear, I'm not making that argument. I'm just so fascinated that I can.
Pete Holmes
This is right out of my. Right. It reminds me of another bit I had where I was like, having a penis is weird. It's weird being attached to something that can get you arrested.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Like, you take boobs out, everybody's like, hooray. That's an exaggeration. But, like, my. My wiener comes out. Jail.
Valerie
I know.
Pete Holmes
It's my body.
Valerie
I know.
Pete Holmes
Which is it? Body shame.
Valerie
I know. That's.
Pete Holmes
Talk about body shame.
Valerie
I know.
Pete Holmes
You can't have that out, sir.
Valerie
That is so.
Pete Holmes
I'm writing that down.
Valerie
It's so complicated. It. Isn't it wild? Like, this is where we really get a look at the unique predicament of being a human being, where we are animal and. And soul and psyche all mixed in one.
Pete Holmes
Kings and donkeys.
Valerie
And we're trying to, you know, if we're healthy. We're trying to get all of our parts, you know, alive and represented, but it can't be too much like we have to be.
Pete Holmes
Well, I'll agree with one of the reasons I have no close female friends. I mean, I know I mentioned Tatiana, but I only see her at the Rupert retreat. And Jamie Lee, I would consider a friend of mine, but I never see her.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And that's not dragging either of us. It's just how our lives are. Ariella, I love Ariella.
Valerie
Yeah. That's probably your closest.
Pete Holmes
That's my close. Thank you. See, this is why I have to write them down.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But Ariella, we always hang out as couples, for the most part.
Valerie
Yeah. But she is the one friend that you would probably.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Hang out with on your own.
Pete Holmes
I like that. I'm glad. You kind of broke my argument and I'm glad.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Because I would go to lunch with Ariella.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I just think she's. And she'll love this.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I just think she's exceptional. I think she's really very funny and smart and fun.
Valerie
Yeah. And capable, which is something that you need for a female friend.
Pete Holmes
She's incredible. I'm dead. I'm dead just even at the word capable.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Like that. I'm like, I don't worry about Ariella. Ariella worries about me. Like, I'm just like, she's together.
Valerie
She's got her shit together.
Pete Holmes
Savings and Plan Bs.
Valerie
She's really smart and really capable.
Pete Holmes
Working. She's in demand. Different companies want her. She's really kind of aloof in that cool way where she's like, I might leave. I might leave.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I'm like, you work at Anthropic. And she's like, I'm out of here. That's a fake example.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But yeah. I was gonna say, though, I don't know why this isn't true with Ariella, because I do have more of a sister vibe with her.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But you have to either remove the. The sex thing, meaning one of the reasons. And this is funnier. Before you, Brad and Ariella, I was like, I'll never be close friends with a woman. I'll never go to lunch and dinner. I'll never hang out and watch a movie.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
I never will. Never. Because here's the joke reason, but there's some truth to it. We're not going to just do this the whole way.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
What? We're just going to smell sandwiches together, eat the sandwich, go all the way.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
You love each Other go all the way. I mean, there's this thing that you could do.
Valerie
Okay, so that's why I like dudes.
Pete Holmes
I don't. I don't want, like, look, I'm not trying to be. I'm from the 80s. There's a way that you make it where you're like, ew. I'm not saying, you know, saying. That's not my orientation.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And that is. So that is why I will ice plunge and hot tub with. With Sam. And we've done drugs and, like, cuddled. You know what I mean? Like, great.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
That's.
Pete Holmes
That's as far as we'll ever go. Yeah, but I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that with a girl. And I. I like this about me. I am pretty all or nothing. And I don't want this like, halfway half measure thing.
Valerie
But see, I love. And I love the half measure. Like, I love the tension of it. So that's what it comes down to is like, you know, you love smelling sandwiches. I love smelling sandwiches.
Pete Holmes
I want to fudge up sandwiches. I want to eat.
Valerie
I want to fuck up sandwiches too.
Pete Holmes
I know, but I can't tolerate.
Valerie
But this is. But it all comes back to this. Okay?
Pete Holmes
No sandwich.
Valerie
This is.
Pete Holmes
You're just in a room with us. By the way, women are not sandwiches. That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about.
Valerie
No, I'm talking about as men. As sandwiches. We're talking about.
Pete Holmes
I know, but men aren't sandwiches either. And I need to be well heard on that.
Valerie
Okay, but your little buns look like a burger. Okay?
Pete Holmes
I would love to bite my own butt.
Valerie
I know. Um, but I. But, oh, this is a perfect example. So I had. Of how we're different in the same exact way. This is exactly smelling sandwiches. I had chocolate, the Trader Joe's, chocolate covered almonds in our pantry.
Pete Holmes
This is smelling sandwiches.
Valerie
And I love those things so much. And look, I have a food addiction. Like, if a pizza is in a room, I can't think about anything else.
Pete Holmes
That's right.
Valerie
Even if I've had like, four.
Pete Holmes
That's how I think the American government is with war. I don't mean to be political, but it's pizza. Like, that helps me understand, like, why do we just keep starting wars?
Valerie
Can't stop.
Pete Holmes
I just love pizza. Like, whoever the Secretary of Defense is. Is it Rumsfeld? Keep going.
Valerie
That was the last time you checked Condoleezza Rice.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
I haven't checked since Rumsfeld.
Pete Holmes
I'm giving a speech In Congress. But every standing ovation. I don't even know who you people
Valerie
are, but checks in Drumsville, Condoleezza, are you there? Anyway, I have the. I, I like to get that. The almonds. And I like to. During my afternoon crash where I really want some dopamine and I really am going low energy, I like to take a couple of those, those chocolate covered almonds and just like have them around 2 o'.
Pete Holmes
Clock. I know. And the image in my mind as you're saying this is the Incredible Hulk, not Bruce Banner. The full Hulk.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Ripping phone books in half and smashing sinks in a public restroom. It actually upsets me.
Valerie
Yeah, I know.
Pete Holmes
And I'm a little full of it today. I feel, I feel I've been feeling pretty great for the past couple of weeks. Who cares? I shouldn't have put a clock on it because then that makes me go like, is it going to get away? I'm just saying it's been a very nice pocket and I love it. Yeah, I like this about me. And one of the things that Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson talked about on Stavros's podcast, which I do recommend. I thought it was a great episode. Really, really funny. Really, really, really. One of the. Really, really. Matt talks about playing board games or something with his friends and that he'll eat three large pizzas.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Over the course of four or five hours, but he'll just eat. And he goes easily. Easily. Easily 4,000 5,000 calories. Easily. Oh, easily. That's pretty good.
Valerie
Oh, that was good.
Pete Holmes
Easily.
Valerie
Yeah, yeah.
Pete Holmes
Oh, and you'll say something like, you enjoy. Oh, I don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy it. See, I thought you were going to say that you don't enjoy it because I don't like.
Valerie
Yeah, yeah, I know. He does do that.
Pete Holmes
He'll answer and forecast where he thought it was going to go. Yeah. You got a big old.
Valerie
Oh, man, I spilled coffee in my white shirt.
Pete Holmes
Sorry, bro.
Valerie
I can never wear white.
Pete Holmes
Anyway, the reason I mentioned being feeling myself and all that is like, I like that I'm the kind of person that will up pizzas like Maddie J. Yeah. And can't un. It like, actually sort of upsets my. You know how the worst thing you can be in my family and the lore of my family, my mom, dad and brother and me, was the worst thing you could be was boring.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
No one in my family is boring.
Valerie
That's for sure.
Pete Holmes
For. And I, I, I'm really feeling a lot of love for my family when I say that, like, we all ace that test. We're all a little nuts, but we're all. None of us are. And I don't like this word. It's a mean word, but none of us are duds.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And if you're just gonna be like, I have to. You're not the. This way, obviously. But, like, I remember hearing Larry David, who's, like, a health nut, I. I imagine in like a Woody Allen sort of fear of death way. And he's very, very strict about what he eats. And he goes, an indulging snack for him is eight cashews.
Valerie
Oh, my God.
Pete Holmes
And I'm like, you know, yeah, you'll extend your life. And for what? Yeah, it's like you have more pieces of paper in the book, but what the fuck is written on them? Eight cashews.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Chapter 98 cashews for my birthday. Well, but this book fucking sucks.
Valerie
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, totally. I. Yeah. And I. And I. I like that about you, too. I want to be clear.
Pete Holmes
Oh, I know.
Valerie
I'm attracted to that.
Pete Holmes
And I'm not even. I'm. I'm attracted to that in people. Like, I like voracious people.
Valerie
Yeah.
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Pete Holmes
It's beautiful.
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Pete Holmes
I thought that was cute.
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Pete Holmes
Bang.
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Pete Holmes
Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts why
Julie Louis-Dreyfus
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Pete Holmes
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
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Pete Holmes
But I also admire and whatever. I I wouldn't change a thing about you, obviously. But like, yeah, I even like that we're together and that you had to say to me, can you stop eating all my almonds? And I'm just like, why do you have them? We did that with A chocolate bar.
Valerie
Yeah, same thing.
Pete Holmes
We were taking little nibbles, and I just take it out. I open it up.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I leave it on the counter, and I'm like, that'll be gone in 30 seconds.
Valerie
Because I love it. That, like, it's just the form that my food addiction takes is that I. I want to savor it. I'm. I'm already playing the tape out to when it's gone, and I feel sad, so I'm just trying to make it last as long as possible.
Pete Holmes
Yeah, I get it.
Valerie
Like, so it's. It's the same route. It's not like I'm healthier. I'm not ate. Cashewsing it. I'm, like, having a love affair with it. No.
Pete Holmes
No, you are not. Eight cashews. I just wrote down eight cashews. I'm like, that's got to be a bit.
Valerie
That's great.
Pete Holmes
You know what's great? I've. I've. We've been kicking it. That's part of what's been so great.
Valerie
You've been really kicking it.
Pete Holmes
Really kicking it. A lot of days where there's, like, nothing going on, and I've been Dracula dead and loving it. And I also notice, like, I'm sort of the rest meter so full that I have to be careful. Like, two days. Two days ago, I was, like, years and years ago, Rich Summer from Mad Men, and I talked about maybe doing a Mad Men podcast, but obviously that logistically, that's very difficult for both of us. But I'm so rested. I was like, that's how I know I'm rested when I'm like, I should. I should tell Rich. We should, like. We should do it.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Because, like, but what I've learned, and this is almost over, but it's a real snooze, is, like, you just have to embrace that you're just in a recovery pattern.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
But don't make no. No big moves.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
When you're in the recovery pattern. Because I am very close to giving my life to almost anything.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
You know what I mean? It's like, do you want to host the new Fear Factor? I do say, yeah, move over, Knoxville.
Valerie
You do. But it's also the opposite, because I used to said this many times where you, like, make the agreement, you agree to do something while you're up, and
Pete Holmes
then you fall through a window. I think that's one of my great contributions to society. Is that quote.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And as I get older, I'm like, the. The one that's Sort of replacing that is. It's not mine, but if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And then I. I add to that, though. I go, but there's so many things that I go, yes. And then I do them. And that we. We don't have to go on and on. But I did Studio C, which is. We jokingly called it Latter Day. Latter Day Night Live, because it's Salt Lake City, it's BYU tv, and it's. It's exactly like SNL and Rain Wilson did it and a bunch of other
Sponsor/Ad Voice
great people did it.
Pete Holmes
But Rain told me that he was like, you should do it. It sounds crazy, but you should do it.
Valerie
Yeah. Because it's so fun.
Pete Holmes
It's so fun. And I went. And that wasn't. I wouldn't say that was a hell yes.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And that's a good example. I was like, it was a yes. It wasn't like, If I had $100 billion pa pa. That would ruin our lives. Like, it's so great to have a need to work. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do that. And then I get there, and it was just a joy from start to finish. And Leila got to see me. So it's just like snl. They write these sketches for you. You're the host. You don't do a monologue. You just do four, five sketches. You rehearse them on one rehearsal day. They're all great. All the writers and all the performers are all, like, top tier, hilarious, funny, and also just, like, really good people. The showrunner, Jake and I, like, really hit it off.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And like, he felt like a family member.
Valerie
Well, it's fun. It was funny. There were a couple people there that look like. Looked like you. Like, they could have been a home.
Pete Holmes
Well, I've always joked that, like, when I go to Utah, I feel like Muhammad Ali, when he went to Africa, which the reason I stopped saying that is it sounds racist. Like, even as I say it, it sounds racist. I just meant Muhammad Ali, for those who don't know, when he went to Africa, had, like, an emotional experience. He was like, oh, my God, this is where I'm from.
Valerie
That's all.
Pete Holmes
I mean, I. I go to Utah and I'm like, these. These whites are my whites. Like, I'm like, they're so. I don't know. They just look like me. They look like me. It's that simple. And then my dad did ancestry.com and it turns out we have a ton of Mormons in our. In our blood. So I'm like. Which is great, because if I ever want to do a deep dive with the LDS ancestry app, we'll be covered.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Because the record keeping is second to none. So, anyway, long story short, loved everybody. I want to name check as many as I can, but Alita, Naomi, Jason. Now, I'm going to feel bad if I forget somebody. Garrett, Everybody was great. If I forgot somebody. Everybody was great. I forgot some people.
Valerie
The LDs, Oscars.
Pete Holmes
Claire. See, I can't remember if it's there. Claire who got sick. Wasn't it Claire who got sick? Yeah, but she was so funny.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Anyway, what was great about it, we
Pete Holmes
were doing these sketches, and, yes, they are family friendly. And during rehearsals, I was swearing a little bit and joking around, and Jake was like, it's fine, but just know the crowd will turn on you. Like, I've seen it happen.
Valerie
Wow.
Pete Holmes
Like, if you say ass. Because one of the lines was like, I'm back to regular hot Pete Holmes. And I. And I went back to regular hot Ace. Pete Holmes. Even Ace.
Valerie
Wow.
Pete Holmes
Don't say it.
Valerie
Wow.
Pete Holmes
You'll lose them. And then we do it. And it was very much like performing at my old Christian college. Like, it was in a similar sized theater, and it was like, kids. Not a lot of kids, but there were some kids. And Jake told me, the audience isn't children. It's like a lot. It's millions and millions of people watch this. And it's not children. They have the metrics. Anyway, what I got to do was these sketches that Leela could watch me do.
Valerie
Yeah. And it's funny you said that because at one point. Because we watched the dress rehearsal.
Pete Holmes
That's right.
Valerie
And at one point she leaned over and she was like, is this show for kids?
Pete Holmes
So even she doesn't know it isn't. As a.
Valerie
No, no, no.
Pete Holmes
Some of the sketch is more.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Shareable.
Valerie
Well, that's what's great. It's like, family friendly. Everybody can enjoy, everybody wins. And she loved it. And it was so fun.
Pete Holmes
She kept quoting parts of it and after every.
Valerie
Because it was the dress rehearsal, which was so much, I think, so much better for her to sit through than the performance because we got to, like, take little breaks after each stage, and
Pete Holmes
I could check in, I could wave at her in the middle of the show.
Valerie
Yeah. And during the sketch or after the sketch, she would run down and you would, like, let her hang out on the set and take pictures and touch stuff. And they had a little, like, log ride. Thing for one of the sketches where they pulled you in a log ride, and.
Pete Holmes
And then she got to ride in.
Valerie
She got to ride in it, and it was so sweet. They're just pulling her around a log. It was so sweet.
Pete Holmes
It was so fun, and I. I can't wait to do it again. And I loved it, and it was awesome, and it was great to have you guys there. The thing that I wanted to say was there was this one sketch. There were three that were light lifts that I just didn't think twice about. The writing was there, and it was easy. And then there was this one sketch, and it won't ruin it. To step it out a little, I play a billionaire with eclectic taste. And they ran the script by me, and I had some pitches and stuff, which actually made me even more beholden to making it work. But the joke is, I'm a billionaire. I'm dating this woman. This other couple is meeting me for the first time at a restaurant, and I'm just weird. I order weird stuff. I like weird stuff. Everything I say is weird. And we did dress rehearsal, and I'm in this ridiculous bald cap where it's, like, patchy bald. And then I have a toupee on top of it wearing a. Like a. Like a jacket with a cape. And it looks like on the Fresh Prince where Will turned his prep school jacket inside out. It's like that. Like, red wallpaper as a cape. And I have. I literally have a top hat and a cane. And we did the dress, and look, everybody was tired by that point, but it didn't do well. Like, I was doing it, and I was like, oh, no. And it's me. It's hard to explain. It's like, the joke is me. Jake even said he was like, this is a heavy lift. Like, it's all on you.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I lost sleep over that. You and I talked about it. You directed me big time. We were, like, literally having conversations about the pitch of my voice. Like, should it be higher? And you're like, I think it should be higher. And this, I hope, for the comedy fans or just people interested in things will be interesting. I was doing it kind of like a hello, hi, wonderful media. And I was like, if you do that big of a voice, the audience unconsciously knows you're stuck in that character.
Valerie
Right.
Pete Holmes
And they unconsciously want to watch you fail. Like, they don't know it, but there's nothing funnier than watching a guy that's like, well, wonderful table, four legs, and it's not working. The funniest thing that can happen is watch this guy sweat. So we pitched up the voice, made it more like my voice, which I thought was brilliant because it was like, no, this isn't that different from my voice. So if this doesn't work, I can just be me. Like, I'm savable. I thought that was psychologically really helpful
Valerie
to me also, though. And I didn't think about this until after. Cause we didn't watch. We just recently watched the Martin short documentary, which is so good. I highly recommend it.
Pete Holmes
Which talk about someone who can commit to a character.
Valerie
And he said, says even when he's playing all these ridiculous characters, he always finds something human about them.
Pete Holmes
True. Yeah.
Valerie
And true to connect to. So that. That's also what you're doing by making it similar to your voice.
Pete Holmes
It's funny that you said that because it wasn't in the script. But I went out and I'm wearing this ridiculous outfit. I had this cane and this top hat. Neither of which I want. They're both cumbersome. They're just awful. So the first thing. You haven't seen this yet. I just threw the cane.
Valerie
Yeah. I love it.
Pete Holmes
Which I thought was, like, really important to be like, this guy doesn't care about canes. Also, I'm an enneagram4. I love showing off. I love being weird. And he reminded. This character reminded me of my mom a little bit, too. This sort of like, I don't drink. Like, she won't drink well, vodka. She's like, Tito's. Tito's Martini. Like, she loves specialness. So I tried to find some truth in this guy. I gave my top hat to Jason. I was like, that's for you. I realized I told Leela about this. I walk out and I'm all, walk, walking, wacky. Like it's a wacky walkout. Then I turned and I went, shasta. Like, which is the dumbest. But I was like, we gotta go hard.
Valerie
Wait, why? What's Shasta?
Pete Holmes
I think it's a type of soda.
Valerie
Oh, yes.
Pete Holmes
But I just went, shasta. And it got this laugh. And I realized in the script, this character never says his name. So the first thing I did, I went up to them, the other couple, and I went, hi, I'm Philip. But I spell it with the number seven. And they don't know I'm gonna say that. So they're kind of. You know, they're enjoying it. I mean, the cast members. And then I said the thing that unlocked the whole thing for me, which is Have I shocked you?
Valerie
Yes.
Pete Holmes
As I went. I spell it with the number seven. Have I shocked you? And have I shocked you? Because this is boring or it's almost over. That became the sketch. I just kept doing the weird things that were in the script. The writers did a great job. And then I would go, have I shocked you? Because that's what rich people are doing.
Valerie
That's what they want.
Pete Holmes
They're like, I have a giraffe. Have I shocked you?
Valerie
Yes. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And then I think I said it five or six times again. It was my anchor. And this is the lesson that everybody can relate to. That's. I'm done micromanaging that sketch. I remembered the feeling when it went well, and it went really well. I really enjoyed it. I went, oh, right. There is no feeling like this without the fear. There's a whole room and a whole tier of feeling, good feeling, joyful feeling that is only unlocked when you go, I think this is gonna tank.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And you go out and you. And you turn and you go, shasta. And you're like, if they don't laugh at Shasta, we're toast. We're toast. And then afterwards, in the afterglow of.
Valerie
Were you ordering?
Pete Holmes
No, bro. It was just no sense. Because this guy says Shasta instead of hello. And that is the Martin short of it. That was me being like, I know what is. I say, party on to people. People I. I love. It's not that that's weird, but I don't want to say what people say.
Valerie
Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
So once I figured out that, I'll be excited to share it when it comes out. It's utterly.
Valerie
I love it. I mean, it sounds great, and you're very talented.
Pete Holmes
It was so fun.
Valerie
Yeah. I can't wait to see it.
Pete Holmes
Anyway. Yeah, that was Latter Day Night Live.
Valerie
Latter Day Night Live. And Leela, the. Oh, the thing about, like, the fear makes it better. Leela, our daughter, is about to. She's. She just finished tech week. She's in performance weekend or. Yeah. So she has four shows this weekend of 101 Dalmatians. She's lucky. And a boxer. So not to brag, but she has two parts. She woke up this morning because tonight's her first performance, and she was like. The first thing she said was, I'm so sorry. Scared.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
And I said, everything worth doing is scary.
Pete Holmes
That's right. And I've been saying a lot to her, and this is something we all need to remember. I go, the. The fear is part of the fun.
Valerie
100. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And. And Rob Bell has 101. 101. He has that same thing where he goes, butterflies are good.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And it. It doesn't mean you're going to like them, meaning in your stomach. It doesn't mean you're going to like it. But I had. That weekend was a reminder, like, if I thought that sketch was gonna crush, and it crushed nothing. If I think it's gonna tank. And it does. Well, everything.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And Leela's nervous, and I'm like, good. The only thing I've made this point a million. So I'll make it real fast. The reason why standup comics are so close and why we're so defensive of our. Of what we do is because they're so. So much fear and pain paid into it, literally. You could take the amount of time I've been anxious, afraid, nervous about my job. It would be weeks of my life if you. If you compounded it, it would be weeks and weeks and weeks of my life. And that's why when I meet Andrew Santino, you're immediately. It's like meeting somebody who shares this very specific microtrauma that you just. It's spaced out over 10 years. Yeah.
Valerie
It's like when dogs see each other.
Pete Holmes
Exactly. I always go to Pirates, but I'm just like, yeah, yeah.
Valerie
They recognize something in each other.
Pete Holmes
That's right.
Valerie
Yeah. It makes. I mean, it makes so much sense to me. And even, like, the teensy bit of acting that I've been dipping my toe in.
Pete Holmes
I watch Val's short film, and it's so good. Yeah, she's still working on it, but it's so good.
Valerie
Yeah. Right. But that was like. I felt so nervous to show you that so much more than anything else that I've, like, written or directed, because I.
Pete Holmes
Good sign.
Valerie
Because it's so. It's so vulnerable to act.
Pete Holmes
I know.
Valerie
And so. Yeah, but that's what I told Lila, too. And I just said, all you have to do is take everything one thing at a time today, and then by the time you're on that stage, you'll know exactly what to do. Yeah, but it's. Yeah, it's cool. I'm. I'm so. It makes me so happy to see our kid. And obviously it makes me happy that it's performing and that it's theater, something that I love.
Pete Holmes
But I know we lucked out.
Valerie
We got. We lucked out. But just. Even if it was soccer or even if it becomes something like that.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Just seeing her have the. The process of being so lit up after rehearsals that she can't sleep.
Pete Holmes
Three, four hours rehearsals.
Valerie
She's so excited.
Pete Holmes
I said, this weekend we're gonna have a party. This is such. This is maybe cringe parenting. But I was like, lee, you found your thing. And I was like, it's so hard to find your thing.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And this isn't the last final reference to Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson, but he talks about looking for things that animate him. And I was like, right, I can get into that rut of, like, what can I do? What should I do? What are people asking me to do?
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And he, like, literally is, like, looking for that feeling that Leila gets when she goes to theater rehearsal.
Valerie
That was also a great thing in the Martin Short documentary where he says, if you are shooting something and you're having a miserable time and it does well in the box office, where's the success? Actually, like, because you were miserable the whole time.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
And then he's like, if you done something and it showed footage of Captain Ron, he's like, that was a blast to do, and it doesn't do well. Like, that's your success because this is your life.
Pete Holmes
It's funny. Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson adamantly makes the opposite. The opposite, opposite point.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Because he's like, I'm miserable the whole time.
Valerie
Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And I'm not trying to host a party. And we're all sweating it out and grinding it out and doubtful and not sure. And he goes, I just want to make something I'm proud of the rest of my life. And I love Martin Short. And no, I'm not even gonna finish that thought because I don't even know what it was. I'm just saying, like, I see both sides.
Valerie
I see both sides, too. And I do think probably somewhere in between is right, because, yeah, I, I get the value in making something you're proud of. And I really do have, like, high standards and want to do that. But if I'm miserable doing it, there, there has be to to be. I know there is a part of the process that he's not miserable doing. I'm sure he's just, you know, maybe he's miserable on set, but, like, after or before or there's a part of the process that he is lit that is animating him.
Pete Holmes
I, I, that's an interesting thing. I think if you said, are you animated during the process? He would say, yes.
Valerie
Okay. Yeah. So people's idea of miserable, and to me, miserable is not. You can't be animated and miserable at the same time.
Pete Holmes
But I don't know. When we were talking about your short film, I think that was uncomfortable. Uncomfortable for both of us.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
And it's actually because we were so animated.
Valerie
Yeah, I guess that's true. We're engaged.
Pete Holmes
Very engaged.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Like having, like a very. Like, it's almost like the air becomes cold. We're talking about something so seriously. And frankly, I don't love that feeling, but that's why I'm not a director.
Valerie
But that's what I'm saying is that feeling. I know it's. It's awful. And I know it's a necessary part. Like, throughout the process of making something, you're going to have that feeling a few times. But if it was all that feeling, I would not be interested in it at all. But, like, when I making it, it's so fun.
Pete Holmes
So. Yes.
Valerie
You know, and when I'm writing it, I love it. And when I'm editing it, it's like, the most fun.
Pete Holmes
Another thing that I think I relate to Matt is like, we're not even the authorities necessarily on how we feel about things.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
We're so on to the next thing.
Valerie
Yeah.
Pete Holmes
Because I've also heard him be like, writing is the best part. It's so fun. But then, like, the shooting, you have to completely forget the writing. And then the editing, you have to completely forget the shooting. And it's just like you're just on to the next, onto the next, onto the next. And then you don't even. And watch it. You're just onto the next, onto the next. So obviously there's something that he loves and that we. We love.
Valerie
Yeah. Also, that is such a seven. An Enneagram seven.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Thing. And everybody works differently.
Pete Holmes
And every director is a seven.
Valerie
That's what they say. But I don't care for that quote because I'm a nine and I love directing, but I do throw it like a party. Like, I do. I am the type of director that is really trying to make sure everybody is. Do it feeling safe enough to be.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
So creative and good at their job.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
So everybody does it differently.
Pete Holmes
Totally.
Valerie
That's the lesson here.
Pete Holmes
Well, Wes Anderson is a one.
Valerie
Yeah. Probably.
Pete Holmes
So we can relax.
Valerie
Yeah. All right, everybody, there's a podcast for you.
Pete Holmes
Put it in the podcast. Coffers.
Valerie
Coffers.
Pete Holmes
Fill up your coffers. And I'm not just doing this to fill up my coffers. All right.
Valerie
Oh, my gosh, Leela. Coffers has started. She's, like, certain she can do a really good British Accent. And she can do a pretty good one.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
Where she's like, mommy. And I told her once I heard a British kid in the bath or my dad heard a British kid in the bathroom at a urinal say, daddy, I require more privacy. And so I told her that. And so now she likes to say, mommy, Daddy, I require more privacy. And she's like speaking in, I'm walking here. Does she? Yeah, yeah. I love that.
Pete Holmes
New York, too.
Valerie
But we had a whole breakfast where we spoke in British accents.
Pete Holmes
Well, I've already seen 101 Dalmatians with a different cast. So after you see it, you'll go, there's a very specific way that only children are wrong in their British accents.
Valerie
Yes, I know.
Pete Holmes
Can't quite like.
Valerie
Because it's like. It's like they don't know how to do it because she'll do that. She says sister, but she'll be like, sister.
Pete Holmes
There's certain words that British people say exactly the way we do, but they'll change every word.
Valerie
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pete Holmes
Like, hello, my name is.
Brett Goldstein
Hi.
Valerie
So they're trying to do British accents in this play.
Pete Holmes
Yeah.
Valerie
I'm so excited to see it.
Pete Holmes
Are we watching it once today or twice?
Valerie
Once. Once today, twice tomorrow, once on Sunday.
Pete Holmes
I can do that.
Valerie
It's only 40 minutes.
Pete Holmes
I'm.
Valerie
Well, I'm so excited. I feel like as excited as if I were going to see Maya, Rudolph and Omari right now.
Pete Holmes
Look, I'm excited to see Leela, but I would lower them expectations.
Valerie
I know you said it wasn't as good, but Peter Pan. She was in Peter Pan. And that was fantastic. I loved watching that. Four times.
Pete Holmes
It was pantastic. And I'm just saying this is a play for little kids.
Valerie
Okay?
Pete Holmes
There's no. There's no opera. Look, this is so boring. There's no opportunity for anyone to score big. There's no moment in the story where anyone could score big. It's just Cruella De vil scattered out seven times through a 40 minute play. Seven times.
Valerie
Well, there's a reprise, I'm sure. So the lyrics are.
Pete Holmes
Changing is just another word for a bad composer.
Valerie
That's not true. All musical.
Pete Holmes
It's a reprise. Is it reprieve or reprise?
Valerie
No, it's. It's. It looks like Reprice, but it's reprise.
Pete Holmes
Reprise.
Valerie
Anyway, we probably should have. We should have ended this a couple minutes ago, but go ahead.
Pete Holmes
And I disagree.
Valerie
Keep it crispy. You made it with. You made it with.
Pete Holmes
You made it with.
Valerie
Oh, yeah.
Pete Holmes
You made it with.
In this lively and candid episode, Pete Holmes and his wife Valerie settle in for one of their signature "We Made It Weird" Friday catch-up conversations. Less focused on deep non-dualism or spirituality, the duo keep things light, funny, and deeply relatable, riffing on marriage dynamics, nostalgia, childhood embarrassments, modern parenting, and the weirdness of everyday adult life. The back half highlights Pete’s recent experience hosting a "Mormon SNL" (Studio C), tales of friend-making in adulthood, and comedic reflections on relationships, food habits, and creative fear.
This episode is a rich window into the Holmes household: equal parts weird, warm, and wise. With a deliberate focus on fun and relatable, honest talk about relationships, parenting, aging, and the creative grind, listeners are in for an engaging ride that veers from laugh-out-loud bits to surprising reflection.
Highlights:
Time | Theme / Segment
--- | ---
00:02–03:58 | Banter, set-up, intention: “Light and fun!”
07:00–13:00 | Attachment, monogamy, relationship quirks
13:30–25:54 | Adult friendship, nostalgia, '90s childhood shame
25:54–31:32 | Rants about kid apps and digital parenting pitfalls
34:00–44:01 | Toy Story, empathy for toys, parenting a ‘stuffed animal empath’
46:00–56:00 | Defining boundaries in male/female friendships; sexual tension
60:00–66:42 | Indulgence vs. restraint, food rituals
68:44–83:41 | Pete’s Studio C story: fear, creativity, performance process
83:41–end | Parenting a theater kid, Martin Short vs. Matt Johnson on creative joy, playful wrap-up
Keep it crispy, weirdos!