The Doctor is In…voking the Fifth

We just had stand-up comedian, documentary filmmaker, and professional true teller W. Kamau Bell join the show where my own writers helped him destroy me. Why does this keep happening? Kamau is a new show too. Who's with me? Where he breaks down the current cultural and political dumpster fire and sits down with someone he genuinely admires to give them their flowers, asks the questions he actually wants answered, and land on something real we can all do to make this hellscape a little more livable. He's recently had conversations with Leslie Jones on turning pain into comedy, Robert Reich on the fight for democracy, and David Diggs on chasing creative projects. It's funny. And it's a reassuring pad on the shoulder for anyone who needs it right now. Watch new episodes of Who's With Me on YouTube or listen to the show wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Loving Live from Hollywood, I'm John Loving, and tonight I'm pretty in pink. That's on me. I think I put the emphasis in the wrong place, and tonight I'm pretty in pink. We've got a great show for you tonight, but first let's get into it. What a week. Any content is hearing on the origins of COVID-19 in the government's handling of a pandemic former national health official Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times. I'll just let this guy do the talking, said Fauci as he opened his bag and released a coughing Chinese bat into the hearing room. But first Fauci explained why he wouldn't be answering questions, saying this of committee chair Rand Paul. The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, quote, "behind bars," unquote. Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Damn, Fauci, 85 years old, and still administering jabs. Fauci's silence gave the Republicans an opportunity to do what they basically wanted to do anyway, which is yell at him for a while. Here's Josh Holley. You were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that you could, all because you wanted to be on TV, you wanted to be the sun god of science, you wanted to be the guy who was in charge of it all, you wanted to blambass Trump, you wanted to make sure that nobody else stole your spotlight, you wanted to be the guy. You had time to sit for in-style magazine, somewhere along the line, it became all about you. He became a narcissist and a megalomaniac and a liar. And you know what, Holley's right, having a lying narcissistic megalomaniac obsessed with the spotlight in charge during a pandemic was a disaster. Also, there's something about his tone that's like, like it's a mix of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park that's like, you're only obsessed if you could, you never stop to think if you should, plus he does a little bit of a like theater kid version of Tom Cruise, being like, "Fout you. You order the code red, you know?" Here's Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno. It was about six years ago today that I decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run through the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later, saying who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? For six long years, I have sacrificed and campaigned and fought to finally have the chance to sit in this chair across from you to say to your face what I've wanted to say since the dark days of the pandemic. Fuck you bitch! I yield my time. Moreno recounted a specific story about a mother who was arrested at her son's football game for not wearing a mask. If you're curious, it made the news at the time, it was from September of 2020. Of course, at the time Ohio's mask mandate was issued by the state's Republican governor Mike DeWine, and the guidance wasn't Fauci's alone, it came from the White House under Donald Trump. All of this is an effort to rewrite the past in order to turn Fauci into some sort of super villain, even suggesting Fauci was responsible for the virus itself. Here's Tommy Tuberville. And we're going to go after him with everything we've got because the guy killed or had something to do with killing nine million people, is it? It's an example. Yeah, we can't prove that, right? So, but that's yet to be determined. How many people are due to that? We can determine it. Now, we can determine it because he was in on the gain of function. You're saying you can determine it, we understand that, yes. You can always tell when the reporters over at Fox News attended that mandatory defamation training after the dominion lawsuit, she's like, I'm not going down for this. Now, if you're not a consumer of right wing media, you might be confused. You might think, I know they don't like Fauci, but I didn't realize they've decided he's a mass murderer, but maybe I ran out of free New Yorker articles. What gives? Great question. The answer is a little long, but I've promised the producers of this program that I can whip through it in about two minutes. Start the timer. The claim is that when Fauci was at NIH, his agency funded a research grant at an organization that in turn issued a grant to the Wuhan lab where some believe the virus emerged. And that grant funded a project in which scientists created a version of a coronavirus that was more infectious in mice, which could be considered the kind of gain of function research that Fauci denied was taking place. So far, not a great set of facts for Anthony Fauci, who, and this is neither here nor there, is not Jewish. But scientists believe this research cannot be the source of the pandemic, because genetically the virus in this study is just not closely related enough to COVID-19, which is certainly relief for Fauci, as is the evidence that points to the virus emerging from the nearby market and spilling over to humans from animals at least twice. At the same time, there is no question that the Chinese government had engaged in a massive cover-up. The only question is what they were trying to hide. Did COVID escape from a lab or from a nearby market? We may never know. But the experts who called it a conspiracy theory were wrong, as were the efforts to protect us from uncertainty and bad facts throughout the pandemic. And that is to me the most important lesson of all of this, that the Republican grandstanding prevents us from actually learning. And I'm sorry there aren't more jokes in this part, not every day can be Lindsey Graham's funeral. And public health officials were in an unprecedented emergency, terrified that the health care system would come apart, trying their best to communicate with a scared country with rapidly evolving evidence about a novel disease at a time when the president of the United States was spreading misinformation from the White House podium on a daily basis, lying about case numbers, about hydroxychloroquine and bleach, lying about masks, about the severity of the pandemic. Even so, many officials acted like pundits, gauging how much truth and nuance we can handle in order to elicit the best behavior from the public. That was because anti-vaxxers and right wing trolls undermined faith in public health officials and acted like basic steps to protect each other was the second coming of Mao, but it was also because of a lack of faith in the rest of us. It was true of public health officials and a lot of journalists who from a place of better safe than sorry downplayed their own uncertainty and preferred simple directives to ones that were clearly reflected the actual complicated evidence. It may have come from genuine concern, but there was a cost. This hearing is obviously part of a fucked up Republican agenda to smear an 85 year old doctor who devoted his life to public health so that they can perform for an audience that wants to be told that the pandemic and all that pain and trauma was really the fault of liberals, but that doesn't mean Democrats with all of our respect for experts and institutions aren't susceptible to a kind of condescension that is not only counterproductive but politically toxic, and if we fail to learn that lesson at our peril in the next pandemic and every election in between, stop the timer, okay. Now, thank you for bearing with me. Here's a joke about Lindsey Graham that I thought of after the show on Tuesday. Lindsey Graham is a lot like a Trojan horse. He loved to be filled by a bunch of Greeks before killing a bunch of civilians. Speaking of dead guys, Mitch McConnell has now been absence from Congress for over a month as he recovers from what he claims was a fall. For comparison, Lindsey Graham, who is dead dead, has missed fewer than three weeks. McConnell's office released this new proof of life photo, once again showing the Kentucky Senator smiling next to his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. This proves nothing. Any AI image generator could produce a comparable image with the prompt, quote, Elaine Chao pretending her husband is alive. The photo was accompanied by a statement supposedly by the Senator, which said, "I'm still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate," though a bad sign that the statement began with, as the late Mitch McConnell once said, "His office also released a statement from his physician saying that McConnell continues his recovery from a fall at home in June and that he is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office. Here's the problem. This statement might make sense if Mitch McConnell was a baseball player with a torn ACL or an astronaut with a bad case of eight lettuce." But he's a Senator. The job of the Senator has literally zero physical requirements. You just need to be conscious and able to communicate a yes or a no. You don't even need to be able to raise your hand in the Senate. Being able to raise your hand is considered showing off even Diane Feinstein was still physically at work. She didn't know she was there, but she was there. And speaking of elder abuse, newly released audio tapes appeared to show then vice president Joe Biden sharing classified information with his ghostwriter in 2016. I would say, though, from here on out, as long as Biden's problems are with a ghost writer and not a ghost buster. I think he's in pretty good shape. The tapes were released by a conservative group connected to the Heritage Foundation after Biden lost a legal battle to keep them private. You can see why. Said Biden in the tapes to the ghost writer who did not have a security clearance. And this is real, quote, "The next thing I have here is classified." You can hear Jill Biden yelling, "Jo, no!" And then what sounds like her squirting in with a spray bottle, but it was too late. Speaking of abuse by an elder, President Trump on Wednesday announced a $22 billion renovation of Virginia's Washington Delas International Airport at an Oval Office event alongside transportation secretary Sean Duffy. Thank you for being here as we unveil exciting plans for a major and long overdue renovation and reconstruction of Washington's really horribly thought of Delas International Airport. We are announcing plans to add more than 5 million square feet of new or renovated space. We'll replace the currency and decon courses, which are basic disasters all the while preserving the iconic original terminal. By Thursday, Delas was completely covered in algae. This guy moves fast. Here is the president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing war getting deep in the weeds of the planned airport parking garage. So we're going to have a magnificent garage. What would you say, Sean, how many, how many? 30, 32,000 parking spaces, 32,000. It'll be actually the largest garage in the world. 32,000 speak. Oh, boy, you could hold a lot of classified documents in there, said Joe Biden. The president, believe it or not, went into even further detail about the garage. Mostly above ground. We don't like down people don't like going down underneath. I guess Trump has gone his entire life without going down underneath. Usually that kind of crass stuff kills. But not today. It's a fisticated crowd. Here, the president continued. It's an impossible airport. You get off a bus. You go into a train. You get from train. You get onto another bus. It's a worse airport. He says this like he personally experiences airports. The last time Trump went through an airport, you could smoke in there with a gun in your carry on it and a full-size shampoo bottle in each hand. And look, we've had a lot of fun tonight. But here's the thing. Trump is getting rid of the Dolos Airport people movers. And I don't know if you're familiar with the Dolos Airport people movers, but they are terrible. And so I guess what I'm ending on is make America great again. All right, we've got a great show for you tonight. And we'll be right back with the beat digs. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Loveter Leave It coming up. Loveter Leave It is brought to you by Zazel. Gift giving can be tough for a lot of us. There's nothing worse than showing up with something generic that you're not even sure your gift you will like. That's where Zazel comes in to save the day. Zazel is a custom marketplace where you can basically take any product, a mug, a tote bag, a card, a phone case, and personalize it for yourself or someone you love. Browse millions of designs or create your own from scratch and customize the product your taste. Either way, you're the designer. Everything is made to orders who never have to worry about an item being out of stock. You can pick it, customize it, and you're done. 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We believe the answer to right-wing authoritarianism is a big, welcoming, fun, pro-democracy movement. So we've invited some exciting new people to join us at CrookedCon, a bunch of creators, a bunch of folks you probably know from YouTube, who make sense of the news with humor and just sort of pipe and hot takes. You'll be able to spot them at CrookedCon and meet them at Happy Hours and Q&As and workshops. Check out a few of the many joining us at CrookedCon.com. And you can grab your tickets there too. We will see you in DC. And if you're in LA, you can still get tickets to love or leave it at Crooked.com/events, where we're always adding new guests. Check out our lineup, including comedians, Elliott Glazer, Lisa Trigger, and California Congressman Ted Lu. All right. Please welcome to the stage, the Tony and Grammy-winning actor, rapper, singer, and objectively, a man who does not have time to be here. But we're glad he is. It's the V-Dix. [CHEERING] Hi, good to see you. Thanks for being here. So-- Hi. Hi. So I want to start by talking about the boys. On the final season, you're O-Father. You're nominated for the song you sing as the character. And the song is so fucking good. Yeah, it's a great song. It's cool when a silly song that you get to help create about like turning a superhero into God instead of God like ends up being a bot, you know? Were there any villains that you were inspired by? Were there any villains you loved growing up that you brought to this? How fun do you get to play a God-like super villain? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, what was interesting and I was sort of aware that he was going to be one of the villains on the show. But you can't think about your characters like that, right? So I really like actually just studied a whole bunch of Televangelists, which was a wild rabbit hole for a Jew to go down. It was super fun. And I'm really appreciating the performance aspect of that. It is like, I spent a lot of-- yeah, my YouTube algorithms got all fucked, man. Can I tell you something? I used to watch-- I used to be fascinated by Joel Olsostean. Yeah, yeah. He's genius. He is good. Yeah, damn. He links a lot. Yeah, he links a lot to really captivating. No, that's what I'm saying. And yeah, I mean, the performance-- look, it's not an easy sale. God. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, yeah. You got to get him. You got to get him. You got to really get people hype. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of good stuff. But what's funny about the boys is it's very silly, but the boys is an amazing show because it figured out a way to parody what's happening, even though it often feels like what's happening can't be parodied. I know, I know. And I imagine that's one of the reasons-- I mean, I was talking to some of the writers before the season started, and they were saying that how it was progressively getting harder as real life got more and more through the looking glass that like, you know, you don't want it to feel like a documentary, but it's pretty close. Yeah, without the kind of being able to explode people's heads. Yeah. Which I think is good. It's good. I think it's good that you can't do that. I think we couldn't handle it. If there's one lesson from the boys, it's good that we don't have these powers. Among other lessons. Right. And there are other lessons. But yeah, that's the main takeaway. So you're also in, I want your sex, which is directed by Greg Araki, who's on the show. Now, you are in between the-- Greg has strong feelings as a Gen X or about Gen Z. And what has happened because of them living online and being afraid of kind of discomfort. What was it like for you kind of navigating like what he was doing as a millennial? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm like the first millennial. Also, I was class of 2000, right? So I sort of skew closer to Greg's views anyway, I think. Oh, you think of your OC? Because I-- OK, do you feel like you're first wave millennial? But you think of a Gen X energy? Well, I just think I think if we're going to compare us to Gen Z, I'm closer to that side of it. And so yeah, so I definitely-- when I read the script, I was like, yeah, you're right. Why aren't kids having more sex? Why are we so hung up about this? Yeah, so I think Greg, what's so wonderful about him is just that he-- as a filmmaker, he is awfully concerned with the experience of the audience opposed to the film, right? I feel like sometimes you work with filmmakers and they're very fussy about the film itself. He is a genius and brilliant at structuring the film and all of that, but what he's super concerned about is like, I wanted to make this film really fun and I want to talk about sex in a really fun way. I want people to leave this film, like, having had a great time and maybe horny. Not so horny. Horny enough to get home. You know? You know? You guys, maybe not. Who cares? Look, let people have a good time. I don't know. Yeah. This is all part of the problem. Why aren't we doing it in the theater? Yeah. That's part of the problem. Hey, you do-- you-- you people might not know this, but you have a hip-hop group called Clipping. I do. And that you've been part of basically longer than anything else forever. I know. For anybody here know this band. You're about Clipping. Oh, shanzo. Clipping. That always makes me very happy. So you have to be kind of a weirdo to be into that band. I think it's cool. I am a weirdo. Yeah. You check. You'd be part of it. Yeah, it makes sense. Let's check out a clip rather than explain. I want to show people a clip from the tiny desk concert you did. That looked like fun. The fuck is fun when a war ain't done. If the war ain't done, then the war ain't much. You swore to a pole to the pillars of the federation. So that's all you do. So for people listening, that is the tiny desk concert. And you've taken a bunch of objects like a mug or ball bearings or other things. And there are these mechanisms that are basically turning them into drums and backing instruments. Why do you do that? We've been fans of the tiny desk series since it came out, but it's gotten so big, right? They used to happen maybe once every couple of months and now there's four or a week or something. They've gotten huge. And as they've expanded, we were like, this is great. I love all of these, but there's not enough desk for something called tiny desk. So we were always like, if they ever invite us on, we're going to use as much desk as possible. And we start like the actual desk in there, and we would always joke about this idea of trying to program little MIDI-controlled robots to like play junk, like their own, their coffee mugs and their little awards, whatever statue, whatever was on their Missy-S desk. We were going to try to convert our beats to be played by that stuff. And then they invited us on and we were like, oh shit, all right. We got a chance to do this. And it was way too much work. It was really, really hard to do for a one off for everyone involved. I mean, we had to sort of, Bill and Jonathan, my bandmates, really had to spend like, a lot of time trying to figure out how to program those things. And then the whole staff of tiny desk, they usually don't, you come in for a few minutes before the show and they do a sound check. We had to, we forced them to all come to work the night before and stay there until like midnight like. It's a build all these things. Build them and then they have to mic all of that crap individually. You know, so it was a much more technical undertaking than they were ready for. But they asked us to do the fucking show, so you knew what kind of band this was. Yeah. There's something about like, I feel like they're part of the reason tiny desk, because I feel like I think part of the reason it's so fun to see you kind of just manipulate these real objects and make something cool and imperfect is we're all like the, like what do humans do? Like, what are humans up to these days and like kind of proving, kind of proving our, are like, hey, you can't do this with us, you can't do this yet, you're robot freak, you know? But also just like the, like the kind of the ingenuity and kind of DIY, like creative process as like what that adds to it. Yeah, yeah. I love, one of the things I love so much about this band is we're always trying to do something new. And it is, it is experimental music in the sense that like, we don't ever know if it's going to work or not when we start doing it. And so every single idea is like, let's, let's see what happens and we're in a, what we've gotten really good at is we know when a thing is done when we've completed the idea. We don't always know if it's good or not, but we know we've completed the idea and usually we'll put that out. So yeah, I like that. What doesn't, what, what, what have you been like, you know what? This didn't work. Everything interesting and actually we learned a lot and if you don't ever miss a flight, you're getting to the airport too early, but nevertheless that's not going out. There's only, there's only maybe two, so the rule is all three of us have to agree to put it out. And it's only really, there's only really two songs that we like argue about that two of us are like, this is done and one of us is like, absolutely not, we can't put this out. And so what that means is there's not a ton of bad catalog, which for our fans is sometimes upsetting because it takes us a long time between albums to be about, but yeah, and it's just this process is slow. But yeah, there's not like we have a ton of songs we're sitting on, most of them are already out. What's like a district, what are you disagreeing about on a current song or two of you want it to go out and one of you's like, no, it's not ready. Like, you know, to get that, what is something that is, what are you, what are you disagreeing about? That one is, it is lyrically and sonically referencing like a really specific and very, very brief trend in like Chicago gangster rap music and if it's not, if you're not from that scene and also which none of us are and if you're not now, you know, nine years ago, it sounds silly. It does sound like goofy, but it was a real thing at the time and we, and we, I think mimicked it pretty well, but I think it's mostly one of us is like, you waited, we waited to, this had to come out then and even then we shouldn't have been the ones doing it and he's not wrong, but I still think it's a really good song. So I'm not the one who doesn't want it to come out. Isn't it? There's something interesting now about like, I think about it with movies and whether they get a release in the theaters because I obviously will never see the Godfather in theaters or or any of the movies that most movies spend every every every day after a movie is out of the theaters is another day will live in the world and never being the theaters again, but there's something that matters about when it happened and what happened when it happened, right? Because if that song, if you had released that song, when it was at the time, it would still be now. Yes. And as relevant now as it would be now, we're released today and yet it feels wrong to not release it today because it didn't exist then, but if it was now, it wouldn't matter what happened then because there's only now. You know? Isn't that an interesting thing? It is. Or is it? It, if I were a little more high. No, it is, and I actually think music is is one of these things that they are, it's, it's very particular to music because everything is a time capsule of the, all music is, is this is what we were thinking right now, they are like, and I think in a way that even movies aren't because it just because we're watching people and we still have relationships with those people, but something about having this captured audio, your voice was only this way, this time when you recorded it on this take and you only this person mixed it and this all of these things only happened that one time and I do find albums, people don't care about albums anymore, but in particular like albums tend to be these time capsules that I find really fascinating and yeah, yeah, so it is, it is this constant battle of like, did we miss the boat on that and does that matter? But I think in some ways it does I think because it's no longer what we're thinking about, right? So we should have, it wouldn't be part of the same time capsule, I don't know. I'll tell you who's not thinking about this. Claude. Thank you David Diggs, go see I want your sex in theaters today July 31st, then maybe have sex if you want. Do it. But only if you want, David will be joining us again at the end of the show and we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere, there's more of Love It Or Leave It coming up. I don't believe it is brought to you by bomb us outdoor season is in full swing, whether you're heading to the park, lounging at the beach or firing up the grill, bomb us makes your go to summer essentials for all day comfort, tackle every activity with high performance, activity, specific socks, engineer for golf, yoga, gym training and running, made with breathable sweat-weaking fabrics to deliver all day comfort from start to finish, compression socks usually scream hospital, but bomb us completely changed the game. 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Visit drinkagone.com/loveit to get a free A G one. travel case with seven free AG1 travel packs in your welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order while supplies last. That's drink AG1.com/lovin. And we're back. You know my next guest from coming of age movies, but you're about to know him from coming to the stage right now. Please welcome Anthony Michael Hall. Good to see you. Yeah, that's great. Nice to meet you. You know, we were talking about you. That's what you have to do to get ready for a show. It wasn't weird or anything, but that you managed to transition from nerd to jock. Any tips? Just eat good. Eat good. Yeah, and I don't know with no tips. It just took a while. You know, I've I've went from being too young in the industry to now I'm a guy who's 50s. You know, so it's interesting. It's been a long run. No tips really. No. I don't really have any tips. What was that period like when you were like no like you're no longer young? But they're not seeing you as an adult. You know, there's there's kind of a trope of like for like Disney stars. They do something super sexy to prove that they're that they're like that's like the Hollywood thing like they like have to do their sexy or they could be that but like something that's like I'm no longer Disney. I'm a trope. Prior trope. Like it's I'm no longer Disney. Yeah. All right, I'm an adult now. I've made the switch. But what was it like for you? Honestly, just decade by decade. It's it's always been a challenge. You know, I I chose a business that gives you no guarantees. Of course, as we know, right? So I've just had to scrap at a decade by decade. You know, so in the 80s, I was a teenager. You know, my 20s, it was more challenging, I think, to get work and then you just keep going. You know, you have to have a thick skin in the industry for sure. So I'm just grateful for the journey. You know, I've had a long career and I enjoy the work that I do. But yet, truly, it comes with no guarantees. So you got to really want it and just kind of keep scraping away at it. Was there ever a moment because a lot of people don't don't keep at it? They say they get they say, I've had enough. Yeah. Did you ever have a moment where you're like, you know what? I'm going to become a lawyer or you know what? I'm going into market. Whatever. Now, where I made that decision, but certainly that self-doubt can creep in for any of us in any industry. Absolutely. So that's part of what you battle, I think, you know. But I think at a certain point, you just have to decide to become unstoppable. So that's how I felt for myself. Because again, with no guarantees, there's no company to fall back on. There's no team. There's no, you know, so Shope is interesting in that regard, but I'm just grateful. I think I'd have had a creative life and had been able to, you know, persist and keep going. So I think it really requires a certain to nasty, though, for sure. But to, to, to consider yourself unstoppable. Yeah. That's just always such a nice sort of like kind of, well, because you deal with so much rejection, I think, in a lot of different aspects of the industry that are tough to deal with. And a lot of that, you know, sends people packing, I think, a lot of times, you know, to, to, to deal with that sort of, to outlast uncertainty to some degree, I think, is important. Did anybody ever tell you to stop? Did anyone ever say, like, that's enough, Anthony Michael Hall, you gave it a good run, but it's over for you. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Maybe they could have helped me. No, no. No, I just, you know, I just, I love what I do, and I've, I've learned to, you know, I appreciate the work at the same time. It doesn't define me who I am. I'm still my person outside of all the work that I've done. I don't know how to agree. Yeah. That's okay. So, so you're on Nate. How did you start writing speeches in Washington? That's what I want to know. Oh boy. Is that a long story? No, hey, they, well, what, I was trying to be a comedian. Or yeah? And that's something where, boy, a lot of people have told me to stop. And yet I won't. But no, but I was, I was, right, I was doing stand-up. I was thinking about being a lawyer. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I ended up interning on the carry campaign in 2004. And there had been several hurricanes that year. And they needed somebody to write statements about the hurricanes, like our thoughts go to the people Louisiana. Sure. And so I did those. And that led to a job. And then I ended up writing some jokes for Hillary Clinton when I was in DC for a roast of Barbara Walters. Interesting. And that was the thing that kind of got me in the door to start writing speeches. And it becoming hired as a very junior speechwriter. And then I was off to the races. I was off to the races. Very cool. Now, you're on, I'm trying to think of a transition. But, but, but speaking of Washington, DC, you're on nation's dumbest on Fox, in which celebrities compete in a series of challenges and try to be eliminated first. Like I said, she'll, but this can be rough at times. You know what, to be honest with you, John, this really took me by surprise. I'm a happily married guy. I've been married for five years. And as we know at home, you got to, you got to have more than one TV. So I'm not someone who loves reality shows. My wife loves a lot of the dating shows and a lot of reality space stuff. So this was really kind of funny for me. When I first heard about it, I was like, wait a minute. I don't know if this is me, but I started hearing about the people that are involved. And I just really embraced it. I just kind of reframe my thinking and went up to Toronto and shot this a couple months ago. And I had a great experience with all these people. I really did. You know, it was really fun. It was an interesting cross-section of people. We all got along great. And it was really fun and goofy. And Fox paid me a boatload of money. But anyway, nice. I didn't get that much for being on Survivor to be honest. So, but I wasn't there very long. So yeah, the day rate was not great. Given how much time I spent getting ready to go and then being stuck there because I got out so soon. We call SEC. They're nearby somewhere. Yeah, I don't think that they wouldn't help me. Now, did you have a mindset like, it has to be strange to all of a sudden find yourself on our reality show. You're very comfortable in front of cameras, but you're traditionally a character. And it gets edited after. It's a little bit more. No, it was. It was awkward because typically I have to prepare something and have a role, you know, and I have worked to be done before I get to the set. And this was just like come as you are, you know, and it was really kind of funny getting to the set. And there was about literally an army of cameraman. There was about 25 to 30 people and the cameras and the hallway and the whole thing. But honestly, it was very well produced and thought out. It was a show that was, I guess, a hit Norway and some other countries in Europe. So it's sort of a proven model. And we had a great time with it. You know, there were about four challenges per day. Everything from, you know, trivia to math, science, all kinds of stuff, some physical stuff. It was really a lot of fun. So I really enjoyed all the people. And that was a real nice surprise for me. I didn't expect it. And you're saying, it's fun as I did. And you were saying backstage that you were bullied by Jojo Siwa. But that iced-tea and Carmen Electra and Andrew Yang came to your defense. Very funny. No, you know, it's like the things that you learned about someone like iced-tea, for example, right? You know, at some point he's shared some stuff with us. We're just amazing. You know, he's like, you know, I never did a drink or drug in my life. But I was robbing jewelry stores and see a he's, you know, so, and then he was also an army ranger. You know, interesting things you could learn about someone. So, and, you know, Dr. Drew, I'd been on one of his shows in years past. Steve O's a great guy. I had a lot of fun with Steve O. All these people were great. And they were surprises from everyone. You know, everybody surprised me with their sense of humor and knowledge. You know, it was a lot of fun. It was really cool. What's the dumbest thing you did this week? Agreeing to the show. No, I'm kidding. No, the dumbest thing I did this week, well, let me see. I put my sweater pads in the fridge. Really? Well, I have a three-year-old, so we're just kind of exiting the, the potty training thing. We're just trying to get into potty training now. It's tough. It's tough. I've been changing diapers for three years straight. I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. What's it like having a three-year-old right now? Oh, he's kicking my ass. It's a lot. It's a lot of work. It's incredible. Because I mean, you're, you know, look out, you're in your 50. You're a little old. You're an older dad. I mean, if I become a dad, I'll be an older dad. I know that. I'm thinking about that. Life cardio is what I'm, is what I'm getting out of it. Because when we were getting ready for the show, I bent down in front of the desk to talk to Sarah and Rahman about a joke, and then I realized I was just stuck down there. Very nice. Because I, because I occasionally get my body into the position of someone in their 20s, but getting up, I'm in my 40s. You can sit like you're in your 20s, but I get up in my 40s. I agree. So, was it like getting down to get a pick up of three-year-old? How's that back doing? A lot of work. Got to do, got to get a core. Got to get some core going. Definitely do. Part of the fitness thing we were talking about, about being a jock. Good thing you're not a nerd anymore. We might have some problems. You're a jock dad. A jock dad in his 50s. That's it. That's it. But it's a lot of fun. I mean, my kid is great, you know. He's all Google and Gaga over mom, and then he just comes over and promptly like Swift kicks me in in the nuts or, you know, drop kicks me in the shins. It's a lot. It's fun. It's a great time. All of some love and being a parent. It's being a combat. You're on SWAT. Transitions for 800. Now, on SWAT, you play a badass. A nation's dumbest, you ever thought about, you know, throwing Jack Whitehall, the host into a patty wagon or something, really kind of like make, you know, really kind of like, be a crossover rep or something. Hey, you know, I had a lot of fun with Jack. I, you know, there was a lot of people that I didn't know much about them. Like Jojo, for example, I'd heard about her for years. I knew she kind of grew up in the reality space. Jack turns out as an actor on top of being a stand-up comic. I'd seen his series that he did on Netflix with his father, which is a lot of fun. But he was really cool too. He was really invested in the show too. You know, he was really kind of going through the motions with us, and he was really in there in the trenches. It was a fun shoot. It was honestly, we did it in 12 days, and each day represented like one episode, and there were like four challenges, each episode. It was a lot of fun. Now Anthony Michael Hall, you've been in this industry. Yes. A very long time. Yes. You've been popping around L.A. since you were but a boy. We have to imagine, you know, a lot all the ins and outs of this town. And so we want to know them too, which is why we're going to pick your brain for our best of the better. and a rapid-fire segment, we're calling Anthony Michael Hall of Fame. All right. First up, where do I get the best sandwich in Los Angeles? I go to a place called in New York, Pizzeria in the Marina. Pizzer place, and I get a nice sub over there. It's not so healthy, but I don't know what you're thinking. Whatever to the advice. Oh, man, there's a lot of great sandwiches in LA. LA's a great sandwich town. Is it? It's becoming a great sandwich town. What's your fiatta is great? I love the sandwiches there. Uncle Paulie's Deli. Uncle Paulie's. Those are great. There are a lot of great sandwich options. Who is the best director you've ever worked with? I've worked with some good ones. I'm Christopher Nolan. I had a small part of the Dark Knight years ago. He's pretty good. And he's pretty good at that Nolan. He's pretty good Christopher Nolan. He is. He's pretty good. Boy, he's good. When I worked with David Gordon Green, I did a film Halloween kills a couple years back. He was great. He was a lot of fun. That was with Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeah. She was great to work with. But David Gordon Green reminded me actually a lot of John Hughes. Very loose and very easygoing, very collaborative fun guy to work with. Cool. Yeah. Who's the best actor to be stuck with for a long day in which you don't have much to do? Hmm. Do you have a good hang with over the years? Well, down a years ago, we worked on a bunch of stuff together. It's been a long time since our work with Robert. He's a lot of fun. Yeah. He went through a phase where he was too much fun. And now he's the right-- Yes. And then the right amount of fun, you know? Right, right, right, right. That's part of it, too. What's your favorite-- Come back is Dr. Doom, I guess. Yeah. Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom. What's the best movie theater in Los Angeles? I'd say the Centorama Dome. I think it's coming back. Yeah. Coming back. Coming back. How exciting is that? Yes. What's your favorite movie theater snack? I'm a popcorn guy. Even if I've eaten lunch, you guys have some popcorn. Got it. I'm popcorn with the burger. I'm not going around it. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good in popcorn every goddamn time. Yeah. You know what I'm doing? I'm buying a Reese's Pieces. I'm throwing them on top. Night, you go there. Just put them in. What's the best restaurant for a power lunch? An old school power lunch. Power lunch. I never have power lunch. I ate a-- I had a-- I don't have a lot more of my desk. Yeah, nice. I don't have too many power lunches. But I've had some interesting, you know, sort of business lunches. The grill's classic. Ah, the classic. Beverly Hills, yeah. Wow. You with the grill. And a power lunch. Yes. That's so cool. See Anthony Michael Holland, Nations Dumbest on Fox, Hulu, or Disney Plus. You can also watch, uh, watch SWOT exiles this September on stars. Yes. When we come back, we have a golden egg. OK, let's do it. There's more of Love It Or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Please welcome back to the stage to be digs. Come on back. Good to see you. Good to see you. Good to see you. We're back. Come on through. All right, great. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us once again. It's time for the Egg of Truth. We Egg of Truth. It's too long. Too long a sting. Still going fuck. Here's how it works. We have a collection of, uh, conversation starters, dinner party cocktail conversation starters that we've made up. Uh, and we're just going to, uh, uh, ask them and we have to answer them honestly, because it is the Egg of Truth. First up. Uh, when you feel a pain in your elbow, where is that pain? Is the pain in your elbow in your brain or does it not have a location? I actually, I was at, I was at the doctor today, because I'm a hypokondriac. And the, um, and I do, I was complaining about elbow pain. My, yeah, mine was like on the, on the inside, but it would sometimes rotate to the outside. Anyway, my doctor definitely told me it was in my brain, like most of us. That would have been my guess too. You think the brain? You think the brain? But it's not. Because it's in our elbows. Yeah. But then it's also in our brains. So maybe it's nowhere. Does it, the shit hurts? Right. But where is the hurt? Where is the hurt? It's societal. Yeah. Next question. Would you rather lose your sense of smell or have a sense of smell so powerful that you're basically in a perpetual smell prison? I'd rather lose my sense of smell, I think. Yeah, I think that's probably right. I think you agree with that. It would be bad. It would be bad. But it's, it's the absence of something versus the presence of something. I know. But do you, do you also lose taste, right? You lose a whole bunch of taste? No. You can't smell things. That's, I don't know. Maybe I'm taking smell prison. Wow. I don't know. I, I, I should ask my dog about it, right? That's how they live. There's an area. Yeah. You seem sorry with it. Right, right. But they are a bit confused sometimes because they're like, I smell a neighbor, you know? Right. He also eats poop. So. Right. Right. That's, that's an important part of it as well. I was once on an airplane and it smelled really bad and so I put earplugs in my nose. And then I sucked up one of the earplugs into my sinus cavity. And then I thought I was going to have to tell them to land the plane. But I couldn't bring myself to do that and so I went into the bathroom of the plane. And I, with every fiber of my being, did a kind of fma, like a fma, like holding one side, like jumping up in the air and falling and screaming out of my nose as hard as I possibly could. And it flew out of my nose and hit the mirror and fell down. And if you could bottle the relief, you could be a billionaire because that was the greatest fucking feeling in my life. Because I went from, I need to tell the pilots to land to nothing's happening. It was terrible. I knew people on the plane too. It would have been horrible. I was in agony. We were still taxing. That's something that happened to me once, Anthony, Michael Hall, that I did to myself. What do you do to go back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night? I've started, I've started listening to podcasts. Really? Yeah. Not this one. That's a compliment because you're not trying to fall asleep when you listen to the show. Yeah, no, no. You're laughing too hard, getting adrenaline from all the jokes. I listen to a podcast that I do really like, but that I like. I listen to like sports podcasts that tended to use a lot of numbers. You know? That seems to do it for me. Yeah. I like it. But it also puts me right out. I used to do C-SPAN for that. I would put on C-SPAN and just have the droning of the floor noise and that helped me fall asleep. Just to quiet the demons, Anthony, Michael Hall. I actually turned on like the ocean wave sounds from my son and my wife and my son is sleeping with us for the last few months. So that helps when I'm up. When the guys saw it, that's good. One thing I saw in TikTok that I've been stealing and doing is trying to like get my brain in a sleep mode by saying random words, by using the first letter and the last letter. So like you'd be like, "Abacus, September, wrote a dendron, November, two months, I fucked it up already." That works for you though? I think so. I feel like that's just how I write my next song. Probably like that's a "I'm Up Forever" was a start thing. Final question. Do you eat food off the ground? Of course I have a toddler. What do you mean? I don't want my own kitchen. It's occasionally. Yeah. If something falls, we'll see. Yeah. I think my own kitchen. I just don't know how I would know. It's better. Because he-- That's a good rule. He is constantly giving me the end of something. The crust of something that he doesn't want. And I've just-- I'm just at the point where I'm just eating it. Whatever it is. It's because there's so much just waste. But how would I know? He drops shit all the time and picks it back up and starts eating it. Like, I don't know. I didn't even think about it until you asked that question. Kitty, a kid will pick a penny up off the ground and put it in their mouths. Yeah. I eat off the ground. Not a bit. But not outside. And not if either the ground or the food is wet. Oh. And we'll be right back. And we're back. And we've now arrived at the end of the show, which means it's time for second thoughts. Here's how it works. We've all been laughing it up. My producers have been keeping a meticulous list of everything they wish I hadn't said are done during tonight's recording. Occasionally, and it clearly hasn't happened today, I can also receive a rare kudos. None today. None today. So that's sad for me. And I welcome anything that you might regret from tonight's show that you want to express. Fauci isn't Jewish, but to be clear, we'd be happy to have him. I got mad at the audience for not laughing at a joke about Trump not going down on women, which does force you to picture Trump going down on a woman, which means you guys were right. Oh, one regret that they think I should have it to about my conversation with you to eat is my question was, about your tiny desk concert, why did you do that? It seems appropriate. And so I probably could have come up with a better question. No, no, no, I liked it. I didn't ask Anthony Michael Hall if he liked my pretty and pink joke. I wasn't in that film, but I didn't take offense either. It's 16 candles. It was kind of like the same. You know what? I'll tell you what happened. But you do look pretty in pink. Thank you for saying that. I have a new regret. Here's what happened. Five minutes before the show, we deleted the joke there because it wasn't working. And we were like, we just, it was like an off the cuff like, pretty and pink. John Hughes, get it in there. I did also admit to inhaling an air plug, air plug through my nose into my sinus cavity and then having to force you. it out in the airplane restroom. I'm just gonna be laughing about that story for a long time, so I think. Any regrets, Anthony Michael Hall? Other than not asking more questions about what this was. [ Laughter ] I'll take the fifth and leave it there. And that's our show! Thank you so much to Beat Diggs and Anthony Michael Hall. There are 95 days until the midterms. Have a great night and have a great weekend. Love and Relina is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Kendra James, Bill McGrath, Kelsey Gantay, and me, John Loveett. Our production team includes Halli Keefer, Sarah Lazarus, Roman Borcellino, Peter Miller, David Toll's Claudia Shang, Jay Banks, Gavin Purcell, and Matt DeGroat. And our staff is proudly unionized with the Writer's Guild of America East.