December 12, 2023 • 33 mins
Brooke’s hubby Chris Henchy makes his “Now What?” debut! The couple swap details about their meet-cute on the Warner Brothers lot, their parenting skills and favorite family traditions, and how Chris’ dedication to his Irish granny helped convince Brooke he was "the one." Chris also opens up about his journey from finance bro to comedy writer, and shares how he moved on from the failure of his first movie to one of his greatest successes to date.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
What do you do when life doesn't go according to
plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
is now What a podcast about pivotal moments as told
by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
with a guest to talk about the times they were
knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
(00:27):
Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all
are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice
answers one question. Now what Okay, so you're married to me?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Shall we get work off?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Do you want to shout out at something about can
you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Is it weird being married to me? Like I had
to tell you in the beginning not to beat up paparazzi, Like, okay,
what was it like in the beginning where you're like,
oh shit, I'm this is a pain in the ass.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, I was never the paparazzi was alive in the
early days.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What do you think of like y'all of a sudden
you're like, I know, no, here I don't want to
hear anything, but I know.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
People would like into restaurants very easily.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
My guest today is simply my guy. He's the man
of my dreams. Chris Henchy is my husband for more
than twenty two years. He is a wonderful father to
our two daughters, and he's quite possibly one of the
funniest people on the planet. He and I met on
the Warner Brothers lot back in the nineties. That's when
(01:48):
he was working as a comedy writer and I was
doing Suddenly Susan. And since then he's continued to write, direct,
and produce some of the biggest films and TV shows
of the past two decades, including Spin City, Entourage, I'm
With Her, Impractical Jokers, The Other Guys, The Campaign, Daddy's Home.
The list goes on. Chris is also one of the
(02:11):
founders of Funnier Die and has been instrumental in helping
a new generation of comedians get off the ground. I
adore him, and while I am quite shocked that he
agreed to do the show, I am not the least
bit surprised at how great his interview was. So here
is the wonderful Chris Henchy. All right, Henchy, thank you
(02:33):
for being here.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Have we started?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah? We started. I can't say I really did any preparation,
or I can say I did twenty two plus years
of preparation. I'm not quite sure years years. He hates
sitting down talking about feelings. He hates sitting down talking
about anything. You have the attention span of like a gnat.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, you're the one whose glasses are flogging up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right, I know, I get you know what. I'm
around you, Henchy. You still fog my glasses up. Okay,
So people have been asking all sorts of questions, so
I don't even know where to start. But I remember
the day we first met. Yes, take me through it.
What do you remember?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I was twelve, I just purchased a ticket for the lagoon, and.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I have here no jokes. Tell me, seriously, before I
could even say that, you started with a joke. Do
you remember, seriously? What do you remember?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I remember? I was I was at Warner Brothers on
the lot and why I was doing intelligence show there
and writing, and I went to the gym because I
work out, and there was a I was working out
and there was a dog in the gym, kind of
running without with a leash, but no, you know, like
nobody taking care of it. Real good foreshadowing. So I
(03:47):
go to pet the dog and was at least literally
went around the corner, so it was.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
She had the leash still around.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
At least she was around. She was around the corner.
It was a kind of pit mix. So I started
petting the dog and lo one hold around the corner.
It comes Brookshields and we just started chatting. Now what
I've told you once, I don't think you remember or
anything like that. I so Brooke was doing our show,
Suddenly Susan I was doing another sitcom. But you're on
a lot and there's just a bunch of other TV
(04:13):
riders running around, so you know, Andy, it's a small community,
so you know everybody. So I think I went over
to see somebody at Suddenly Susan and you were eating
lunch because there was other writers over there that we know,
and you guys were having Suddenly Susan cast was having
their lunch on one of the sound stages, and that's
where before the show on Friday night, they put a
whole spread of food.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And you like a good spread of food, like stray food.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And I walked through and I'm looking good. I'm in
shape from the gym. The hair's parted down the middle,
feathered back. I got, I've got clothes came back in
ninety six. I had clothes that I bought on lot
at the sample store from because you know the productions
when they would go out, they'd sell their clothes that
there was a market there, see you by actually kind
(04:58):
of cool clothes.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Cool clothes from Secon.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's like from old from Wardrobe Wardrob. When they wasn't used,
they were going to be used. They were used. Your
you're buying used clothes, but they're always really.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We got him as actors. We got him at half price.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And then we would go buy them after that. But
I was walking through, I was looking good, and you
did check me out in the story.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That is what you remember that you had.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Curlers in your hair, and I remember you just you
held the gaze. Yeah, you held the gaze for about
five seconds.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Really anyway, that was prior to the gym.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Prior to the gym. So a month later, do the gym.
You're in the dream world and then I go back
to my office and that was it. So but then
this was probably October like a week later, so I
get a call to come and write an NBC holiday
special and then they I said, who's hosting? And I
they said Brook. I go, oh, tell her the guy
she met at the gym a couple of weeks ago
(05:46):
as the guy who's writing the show.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So you know, it's like a hat.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, you have, hopefully what you think is a funny writer.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's funny because I remember going coming back from the
gym and calling my roommate from college and going, I
just met a really kind of cute guy. I like,
he's like a really normal guy, and I think you
should date him, and she goes, oh, well, I kind
of like somebody else. And so I never even knew
your name until they told me you were writing the show.
And then I increasingly got again foreshadowing more and more
(06:16):
and more pissed off at you because you never gave
me my material, right, and I wanted to get my
material and be the nerding Brook that I am.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, but they didn't tell you. What I told them
is I'm not going to get it till Friday. I'll
start writing, but I probably won't get all until Friday.
And you have Saturday's on teleprompters. You can do it.
You're pro and.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So I like highlighting and memorizing and underlining.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You have highlighted and made notes on our life that
you know I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Ye, well, got ready for a book, Okay, go back.
I mean, I know the answers to these, But a
lot of people don't know how you became a writer,
what your trajectory was. You didn't plan on being a writer.
You went to You were kind of an army brat, right.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes, we moved around a lot. Uh. I was born
in New York, but I went to college in New Mexico.
Wanted University of New Mexico. Uh. And I wanted to
be a comedy writer, but had no ties, no connections,
no no anything.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So I know you wanted to be a comedy I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I just would watch sitcoms. I'd watch Started Night Live.
Letterman seemed to be funny around my friends, and uh
and they seem to think so. But it was like, yeah,
you know, it was just let me try it. I said,
let me move to New York under the guys who
work on Wall Street because I didn't want to tell
my parents. After four and a half years, of college,
yes four and a half. Uh that I was going
(07:40):
to go to New York and be a comedy writer,
because they would just say no. So what I did
was no, that's not my family. Everybody wanted. My whole
thing with family was my grandmother. Everybody was get your benefits.
You know your bennies, So get a job that has benefits.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
So I am your grandmother from Ireland, from Ireland.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So I basically sort of used the Wall Street connection
or job had agree in finance. I should have studied
something more fun. But look, I'm here right now doing
my HEARTRITI here with my wife.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
But I but honestly, can I just tell you, I
don't know if you would be the kind of person
who then study creative writing and then go that way.
You're just you write the way you write, and you
write it instinctually, and you write instinctively, and you don't
like to.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would have gone to Santa Fe become a poet.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
If state seriously that would have that would have.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
No. So but I moved to New York and worked
at a big firm that has since gone under and
created a huge savings alone scandal. I had nothing to
do with it. But I, and it was it was
a fun job, and it didn't. I wasn't made out
for it. It wasn't going to last.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And did you like anything about No, I hate it.
I just liked the vouchers, the vouchers for.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Cars we go out to afterwards. That I had fun,
but it wasn't. It wasn't for me. I knew it.
So when I when Drexa was going under, they offered
me a job in LA which I turned down. And
it was then I said, if I'm going to write,
I'm getting a severance package from this company. Now is
the time to go rite. And I thought the severance
package would last a year. I thought it'd be six
(09:20):
months before I got a job writing, and I thought
my whole world was gonna be great. And none of
that happened. Well it was, I burned through the severns
in six months and no job within a year.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So what happened when you told your mom and dad?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I didn't tell my parents. I said, I'm gonna keep
looking for a job. I remember someone got me an
interview at Oppenheimer, which was a bank back then, and
I was just I was just not into it. I
was like, so what I my in my head was
this sounds horrible, like to your parents, just string them along,
just keep saying I'm looking for work. But it was
a race, and like everything's a racist with me. It's like,
(09:53):
can I can I make money writing before I have
to tell them the truth? I'm at this time writing
everything I can write them, learning how to write spec scripts.
You know television sitcoms.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Script is a script that you just write without getting paid.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
They call it on spec, and that has the idea
that you might get paid. At my level, You're never
gonna get paid. It's really just a writing sample to
get an agent, to get a manager, to get anybody
to look at your stuff. I was writing jokes for anything. Uh.
I was writ just writing everything that was on Tellivision
sketches and just constantly uh writing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And did you do any stand up at that time?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I did stand up. I was. I would immerse myself.
I was. I wasn't horrible, and I wish I kind
of It's one of those things I wish i'd kept
up because I wasn't. It was not great and bombed,
but I was like, oh I could this could be fun?
But it was such a I mean, every bar had
open mic night every and then you'd go in there
just you see the same people, and it was like
(10:52):
ten other struggling bad comedians in a room writing jokes
and writing like taking hustle that it was bad. It
just wasn't great. It was, but I just figured writing
might be the better way to go because the stand
up world seems so flooded.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So that's that era. Do you remember, did you sell
your first joke in New York City before the MTV situation?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Talk about so I So I would paper the city
with my made up resume, just try and pad my
resume with anything I did. And then I just write scripts,
a Murphy Brown scrap with a little red like like
it was produced what you lied? No, I wrote one.
It just wasn't the never just no one ever read it.
(11:33):
And then you know, stand up at these these four
clubs and writing for a comedian that nobody knew about
put anything down. But finally somebody at MTV picked up,
he said, yeah, these are good, and there it was
back when MTV actually had scripted content and shows. They
had a show called Remote Control that Adam Sandler was
a performer on it. And is this that I want
(11:53):
that's the I want my MTV days. But remote Control
was just like a Jeopardy for MTV audience. So I
would write sample questions and send those to those guys,
and finally they hired me to come write promos. So
I would come in and write a promo once a
month and sit and try to immerse myself and go, hey,
can I sit while you guys produce it just as
(12:14):
I can learn? And I made one hundred and fifty bucks.
And then there was a show they had on at night,
this kind of fake news show, and then they hired
me to write and then hire me. They would buy
your jokes at one hundred and fifty bucks a pop,
and so you would be lucky to sell two jokes.
So once a month I was making three hundred to
four and fifty dollars. And that's where I was able
to tell my parents, I'm a professional comedy writer. You
(12:36):
can't tell me no. Look at these checks that are
coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Talk to me a little bit about our beloved Gary Shandling.
How did you meet him and what was that like?
Was he a mentor?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I through that MTV show met a bunch of people,
and there wash there were three amazing basketball games in Hollywood,
all run by Gary's.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Pickup game, and uh, I thought that meant you went
and just picked up girls.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Come on. So anyway, a friend of mine said, hey,
you and I was starting to you know, like meet people,
and it's like, do you want to come up and
play at Channey's game. I was like yeah. So I
got invited to that game and it was like one
of the most amazing things. And it's been written up
in like ESPN dot com and stuff like that. It
was you were playing, I was playing, and and and
(13:40):
you know, I don't talk about that off because it's
kind of a private game. It was a private well
you had to get invited again, you had to be invited,
and you had to you know, like Gary curated that
list so that it was always great people, fun people,
and you know, people who can weren't going to dominate
the game, but just we're there to have, you know, uh,
two hours of fun basketball and then hang out for
two hours.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But they were funny people. We had Sarah Silverman on
the show and you know, she was one of the
only girls asked to couple.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You came and played, I didn't play.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I came in babysat to Covenany's kids.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You played a little there, yeah, very but but it
was it was, you know, it was what kind of
got me. You know, even those days I was struggling
because I remember, uh, breaking up with a girlfriend and
having what yeah, and having stuff and most of my
stuff in the car and go and play basketball instead
of trying to figuret where I was going to live
(14:32):
insteading of his house, going you didn't place to live.
I'm the only guy up here who's homeless.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And so were you just living at her apartment?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
We were living together, but I moved out.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Okay, it's good to know.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And then uh uh, so I moved out, so he
will move out and we'll move out, so uh and
then I went to a friend's house.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But then, okay, so that's like the that's the trajectory
part of it. One personal thing we do all get
back to. But one of the one of the things
that I want to just say is I remember one
of the ways that not the ways, one of the
reasons why I was so enamored with you. First of all,
on our first kind of date, it was all about
SNL sketches and we just laughed so much but when
(15:17):
you started talking to me about nanime and how you
used to go take care of nanime and buy her groceries.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
My Irish grandmother up in Yorkville, Yeah, Yorkville. What in
New York City?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
In New York City? Where did she?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
What was her?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Where was her apartment?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
She had eighty eighth and first and then she was
like a sort of housekeeper.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
We used to river dance.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I should go, I go entertain or take her to movies. Uh,
take her out to dinner every Sunday, loved or she
would cook.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
She had odd jobs even though she so.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
She worked for this guy who lived further down and
I would uh First Avenue and she would have me
come up there and help her take curtains down to
go to take me to the cleaner whatever. I'd help out.
And he would also go away for most of August,
and she used to watch his cat and he would
leave her enough money to buy fancy feast cat food.
(16:12):
And that's the expensive that's that's nobody uses a phrase anymore. Well,
that's the Cadillac of cat foods. It's the flat mignon
of cat foods. Back in the early nights. I'm sure
there's much better. It was fancy feast, and he would
leave you know, a dollar can. He was gone for
forty days. He'd leave her forty bucks and tax. But
my grandmother would go to the grocery store and buy
(16:36):
the Grand Union Grand Union brand three four dollars and
pocket the twenty five bucks. And it was a big bargain.
And I would be in the living room watching television
on a Sunday and she's cooking dinner. But she'd go
feed the cat, and I'd hear from the kitchen and
that brog that it'd be no fancy feast for you tonight.
Tonight is Grand Union Jesus man trying to make a buck.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's enterprising. And in the Bible, by the way, there'll
be no fancy fast for you. No, But the cat
didn't know the difference.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, the cat wouldn't be for three days, and she's
like soon enough. I heard that.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I was like, good God, okay, so cut to you.
You start working, you start making you have you've I mean,
whenever I mention you, like especially if we're like in
a party situation and there's like young guys there, I'll
go over to them and I'll say, like, do you
know who that guy is. And they'll say like no,
and I'll say, well, he ran on an entourage, she
(17:36):
wrote Spin City, The Practical Jokers, the movie. And then
then once I get to the campaign, the other guys
or Daddy's home, they start like absolutely palpitating because they
they they they'll come up and quote quote things about
the baby punch from the campaign, or they'll start quoting.
(17:57):
So how did you was it Gary Shanling that kind
of started, you know, the.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Gary Shanling and I I was lucky enough to get
hired to come and write sitcoms. And then Gary David
Goldberg read something, and then Gary David Goldberg, Gary David Goldberg,
and he and I wrote a couple of sitcoms together
that lasted this season. But he was just an unbelievable mentor.
And then I went to Spin City and Gary Goldberg
had the other great Hollywood basketball game. So I was
(18:23):
playing a Gary's game on during the weekend, Challey's game
on Sunday. So I was and I'm still not a
great player, but fun uh, I.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Was, okay, make some good screens or what.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I said, screens. So you to start, well, it was interesting,
like you like I never thought past writing for sitcoms,
like being on staff. That was as far as my
dream went. And now I was creating a couple of
sitcoms I wrote. I wrote a movie land Lost, and
that was finished writing that, and I'm laying in my
office trying to figure what to do next. In my
phone writing was my manager mentioned that Will Ferrell and
(18:58):
Adam Kay want to start a company. And I done
some punch up on a couple of other movies like Anchorman
and uh Elf. And we used to do round tables
where they would get a script.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Play what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, they'd get a script, and before they would start shooting,
they would want to bring a few comedy writers in
and we'd all sit around the table. They'd throw some
food into the room like we're animals and shut the
door and uh and.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We're all still kind.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Of and we would write. We'd go through the script
and give alternate jokes and stuff like that. Really, it's
just a great time. And managers said they want to
start a company. They keep saying somebody like CHRISSCENTI, would
you consider writing less and running this company? And I said,
let me talk to my.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Wife, And what did I say?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
You said yes for sure, So I.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Went and agents weren't keen on it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, my agent wasn't too keen on it. And because
he was like, it's going to take you out of
the writing game, and I ended up just writing more At.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The time, I said, are you nuts associated with those guys?
It's it's comedy mecca and you'll kick yourself if you
don't do this and like that you can't make is okay?
Let me ask you this. Do you think that you
can't make safe moves in Hollywood? Like do you have
to risk things like that to to kind of keep moving?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
For me? Yeah, exactly, because you always hear the safe
it's like fishing or gambling. You this. You hear the
safe movies that pan out. You don't hear the safe
moves that don't.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I call the show now what because it's like those
moments when you're like, oh, fuck, now what do I do?
Like I didn't see that coming and then all of
a sudden something happens and you have said that Land
of the Land of the Lost wasn't now what moment
for you?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Why? Well? It was, you know, it was.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It was so funny.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It was funny. It was the movie was like, it
was just not what people wanted.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But was it what you wanted?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, we wrote a funny movie. Maybe another time it would.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Have been now it would be really well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
People do come up to you occasionally talk about how
funny it is, less so than back then. But it
was just it wasn't the time for it. I guess
I don't know. It just wasn't what people wanted.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And how do you know what people want?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We took a swing and it just didn't work, and
or it didn't work then I think it. I'll stand
by it, and I'm proud of proud of it, and
I will come beyond. I'll watch I go this is
there's some funny stuff here and.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Wouldn't you rather take a swing at something big and
kind of lose? Then?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
But so the crazy thing was and when you I Go.
It came out the same weekend as The Hangover, and
it was it was like six weeks before, you know,
people start tracking movies and I remember, my age is
going and I'm like I'm feeling common, like I'm so
naively like this movie's gonna be great and it's gonna
(21:49):
do great. People and love it. How they not love it,
you know, And six weeks out, you know, this hangover movies.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Track tracking track, it's the worst word you can hear.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Its like five weeks this hangar movie is really growing.
Like like three weeks out, this Hangover is gonna be
a monster. And then it just was the biggest phenomenon
and it's opening weekend and we I was in New
Orleans writing here's the crazy. I was writing the other
guys in New Orleans and working on a small movie
we did down there, and just sitting in a hotel
(22:20):
room getting hourly reports on Friday on projections, and they
kept going down and hangovers kept going up, and then
getting on a plane and my wife and my daughter
and I'm just sitting there staring at My daughter goes,
what's wrong? Dad? She's like, that is I learned a lesson? Yeah,
don't tell your kids everything about your career. What's wrong? Well? Yeah,
(22:43):
And she knew about land loss and she's probably she's
like six years old. I go, well, daddy's movie is
not doing so well. And she's like, oh no, why
she all got super protective and upset. I was like,
I stought that it was gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The thing was because I can picture you're talking to
a six years listen to the protections are the box
office well, and it's underform.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
The worst thing was is outside of our apartment was
a billboard for the Hangover.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
We were in downtown and soho. At that point we
had two children.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I was on lipstick younger, I think, and every time
I got in a cab that weekend, it was it
was the Sandy Canyon movie moment, and.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
He'd go, Sandy Kenyon.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Canyon is a critic in the city.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, Sandy Kenyon does the TV critic, movie critic in
the cabs.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Right, the cabs, So you get it every time, like
Sandy Kenyon with the movie, and he'd rave about the
un about the Hangover, and uh uh. Then he'd go,
h On the other hand, lad you you couldn't You
couldn't get to that X to mute it and shut
(23:54):
it off quick enough, kind.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Of like a little bit of a loop. Even now
it's hard to mute.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And it was just like, oh, my first movie was
a kind of a public failure.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And so that happens, and how is it? And now
what moment?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
What do you? What are you? Just like you say, wow,
I am I going to get another at bat.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, you get talking about this and I, like luckily
was writing the other guys, and we kind of rushed
that script a.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Little bit and was that already going to be made?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It was not green lit, and.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
They could have not green lit and then.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Then you're under a magnifying class. But and we almost
like the movie almost didn't get green lit, and they
were like, you got a week to get to figure
the script at out, and McKay and I knuckled down
over July fourth weekend and fixed the script.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Then came came the campaign then, which he wrote.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Them with the campaign with Will and Zach Galvinakis, and
that was a blast.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
One last thing about Land of the Last. Do you
think that there's something about like if you're ahead of
the curve, it's not good, and if you're behind, Like
if you're ahead of the wave, it's not good. If
you're behind the wave, it's not good. You have to
be right on it, and who could know when you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I don't know if these days.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Is it like that? Was it like that then? And
not like that? No?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
No, it's just it wasn't a curve. It was just like, uh,
it just was the wrong time, and I think it's
I do think it's aged.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Well, talk to me about a very very serious, very
important project, bruddies, what is it? Explain what buddie's is.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Uh. So I've done several movies with Ben Falcone, who
I love, and Melissa McCarthy and Steve Mallory, who's were
always together on a lot of movies, and Mallory and
then and I just have a text shame we're working,
you still have it all the time, and you're still
jackasses about all all the times. And we arted with Mallory.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
We go, and Steve Mallory is also.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So we were saying how we are very stilted texts
like we are buddies and uh, and I wrote back
to Ben and Malories on there, but we're not including him.
I we are brothers. I go, And then we were
we are more than buddies, but we're less than brothers.
We are bruddies, and uh we laughed. Then we go
and we told Steve, I go the show's bruddies, just
(26:27):
go write it. He's like, what are you talking? It
writes itself, bruddies. And so Steve the next day comes
in with like three pages of of something. It's pretty
fucking funny. It's Ben Frampton and Chris Henley, so they're
slightly based on.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Us, Ben Falcone and Chris Henchy.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
If we were badass mercenary soldiers, which just and we
do a lot of eater handshakes, and I would rewrite,
then Ben would write. Before long, we had like seventy
pages of something called Bruddy's and we took it out
and we had an animation company come with us, and
like we took it into some studios and like, wait,
(27:10):
what do you want to do? Or like they're they're
eight minute scenarios. There's very little plot. It's mostly just
all those scenes. It's it's a Michael Bay best of
animated and it's just jackass dialogue. And and then we
realized we need a little story. So we ended up
(27:30):
like the guy, uh, the guys at Tripper, Like we
kind of love this, Why don't why don't we just
do it? Because they're going to start a streaming platform.
We're like, all right, great, So we got paid to
write Bruddies and we put together a great cast, which
would be it has most of McCarthy, Ben Falcone, Joel McHale,
(27:52):
Reno Wilson, Richard Grant, Octavia Spencer, George to Kai and
you're why what oh so we are working together? Yeah,
and brickshields.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Can we talk a little personally?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
No, I gotta go.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
You know you're not going yet. You were talking about
having lunch. So I get ten more minutes with you. God,
you're you're the worst, the worst.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
We have two children, seventeen year old and a twenty
year old. What do you think our biggest strengths are
as parents?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
But but the I think we're relatively normal tradition, even
though we're untraditional traditionalists, Like we what.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
It is traditional?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Like you mean, well, we don't. Like there's certain things
we do every year, you know, like are Thanksgiving generally
as a tradition. And if we go on a road trip,
we don't eat at a chain restaurant. My dad always
drives off and sometimes it could take twenty minutes for
me to find the mom and pop restaurant, and they
would used to sometimes get mad, but then they were like, god,
he always finds the grayst restaurant, Like like somewhere from
(29:00):
grilled soup tomato place. I just found, like it looked like,
you know, sometimes I'm sneaking on my phone like yelp review,
like oh here it comes a good place, it feels good.
But generally were and those are things they've taken away,
Like you know, you went to go see Rowan at school,
and she had her her local restaurants, and that's what
(29:23):
mom and dad avoid like and whenever we were checking in
hotels for a movie or whatever, we would find our
local coffee place. We'd find our you know, and and
and get to know them.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Food is a big food, a big big thing.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I think our kids realize that Dad says hi to
most bartenders and ends up becoming friends with them. And
you can see that happening with our kids too.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
How you doing great. I love it when the bartender
nurse your daughter drink a choice. I also think we
have a lot of laughter we you know, food is
really important to us, like that kind of around the you.
I just want to go visit Rowan and Italy, where
she's studying abroad. And Dad made up two trays of
(30:07):
enchiladas that he learned how to make in New Mexico
with Hatch chili green chili, and I traveled on the
plane with frozen enchiladas, and it was a huge hit
with all of her college friends and things like that.
You know, we we do create our own traditions. But
really quickly the first time that Chris asked me if
(30:27):
the girls could be in one of his movies, was
it the other the other guys? I said, oh, sure.
So he brings both girls down and of course he
treats them like their actual cast members, and as they were,
they were actual well I know, but they had a
little trailer, a little honeywagon, which never happens, and both
they had hair and makeup and.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
They were tiny.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Was three three three or.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Rowing was six two thousand.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, so three three and six. And so they come
back home and I said, oh, how'd you like it?
And they said, well, they couldn't do it because they
lost the light, so they had to go back. Well
they went.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Back full hair and makeup again, full hair.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And makeup again, full outfits, little honeywagon got to go
to craft services. And then at the very last minute,
Greer says, well.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
They yeah, it was it was. I was in the scene.
It was a dad and his two daughters getting in
a cab and Rowan comes out smiling, ready to go,
and she's got a little wardrobe bomb Greer's hair for
some reason, it's real boofontie, like big, and she's got
a purse and stuff like that, and she sees three
she sees everybody went nope, bus and just start crying.
(31:38):
And then Greer goes home and Mom says, how her?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I said, what would you do? She because I did
not do it? And I said why because I did
not want to? And I said why didn't you want to?
And she said I did not want to? And I said,
wait a minute. I said, you went through hair, make up, wardrobe,
got snacks at the craft table. I said, you never
intended on doing it? Did you not want to do
it from the beginning? You just wanted hair and makeup?
(32:03):
And she said yes. So she went through hair and
makeup and wardrobe, just knowing full well that she was
not going to do it, but she wanted the hair
and make it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
She wanted to be there, but she wanted to.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Be pampered and she wanted to get hair and makeup.
And she's still like that anyway. What do you want
to do next? What's not on the horizon for Chris
Henchi next divorce.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I am now, I'm just I'm out. You know, the
hustle never sleeps. A couple of movies. I got a
couple of movies out there and talking and to one
to direct, a couple to produce, and uh.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
One to write, Well, Henchi, I love you, love you.
That was my love, Chris, Henchi, Chris babe. Thank you
for doing the show and thank you for creating such
a beautiful life with me. That's it for us today,
talk to you next to.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
What with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research
and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive
producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Vahid Fraser.
What do you do when life doesn't go according to
plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
is now What a podcast about pivotal moments as told
by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
with a guest to talk about the times they were
knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
(00:27):
Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all
are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice
answers one question. Now what Okay, so you're married to me?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Shall we get work off?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Do you want to shout out at something about can
you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Is it weird being married to me? Like I had
to tell you in the beginning not to beat up paparazzi, Like, okay,
what was it like in the beginning where you're like,
oh shit, I'm this is a pain in the ass.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, I was never the paparazzi was alive in the
early days.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What do you think of like y'all of a sudden
you're like, I know, no, here I don't want to
hear anything, but I know.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
People would like into restaurants very easily.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
My guest today is simply my guy. He's the man
of my dreams. Chris Henchy is my husband for more
than twenty two years. He is a wonderful father to
our two daughters, and he's quite possibly one of the
funniest people on the planet. He and I met on
the Warner Brothers lot back in the nineties. That's when
(01:48):
he was working as a comedy writer and I was
doing Suddenly Susan. And since then he's continued to write, direct,
and produce some of the biggest films and TV shows
of the past two decades, including Spin City, Entourage, I'm
With Her, Impractical Jokers, The Other Guys, The Campaign, Daddy's Home.
The list goes on. Chris is also one of the
(02:11):
founders of Funnier Die and has been instrumental in helping
a new generation of comedians get off the ground. I
adore him, and while I am quite shocked that he
agreed to do the show, I am not the least
bit surprised at how great his interview was. So here
is the wonderful Chris Henchy. All right, Henchy, thank you
(02:33):
for being here.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Have we started?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah? We started. I can't say I really did any preparation,
or I can say I did twenty two plus years
of preparation. I'm not quite sure years years. He hates
sitting down talking about feelings. He hates sitting down talking
about anything. You have the attention span of like a gnat.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, you're the one whose glasses are flogging up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right, I know, I get you know what. I'm
around you, Henchy. You still fog my glasses up. Okay,
So people have been asking all sorts of questions, so
I don't even know where to start. But I remember
the day we first met. Yes, take me through it.
What do you remember?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I was twelve, I just purchased a ticket for the lagoon, and.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I have here no jokes. Tell me, seriously, before I
could even say that, you started with a joke. Do
you remember, seriously? What do you remember?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I remember? I was I was at Warner Brothers on
the lot and why I was doing intelligence show there
and writing, and I went to the gym because I
work out, and there was a I was working out
and there was a dog in the gym, kind of
running without with a leash, but no, you know, like
nobody taking care of it. Real good foreshadowing. So I
(03:47):
go to pet the dog and was at least literally
went around the corner, so it was.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
She had the leash still around.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
At least she was around. She was around the corner.
It was a kind of pit mix. So I started
petting the dog and lo one hold around the corner.
It comes Brookshields and we just started chatting. Now what
I've told you once, I don't think you remember or
anything like that. I so Brooke was doing our show,
Suddenly Susan I was doing another sitcom. But you're on
a lot and there's just a bunch of other TV
(04:13):
riders running around, so you know, Andy, it's a small community,
so you know everybody. So I think I went over
to see somebody at Suddenly Susan and you were eating
lunch because there was other writers over there that we know,
and you guys were having Suddenly Susan cast was having
their lunch on one of the sound stages, and that's
where before the show on Friday night, they put a
whole spread of food.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And you like a good spread of food, like stray food.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And I walked through and I'm looking good. I'm in
shape from the gym. The hair's parted down the middle,
feathered back. I got, I've got clothes came back in
ninety six. I had clothes that I bought on lot
at the sample store from because you know the productions
when they would go out, they'd sell their clothes that
there was a market there, see you by actually kind
(04:58):
of cool clothes.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Cool clothes from Secon.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's like from old from Wardrobe Wardrob. When they wasn't used,
they were going to be used. They were used. Your
you're buying used clothes, but they're always really.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We got him as actors. We got him at half price.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And then we would go buy them after that. But
I was walking through, I was looking good, and you
did check me out in the story.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That is what you remember that you had.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Curlers in your hair, and I remember you just you
held the gaze. Yeah, you held the gaze for about
five seconds.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Really anyway, that was prior to the gym.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Prior to the gym. So a month later, do the gym.
You're in the dream world and then I go back
to my office and that was it. So but then
this was probably October like a week later, so I
get a call to come and write an NBC holiday
special and then they I said, who's hosting? And I
they said Brook. I go, oh, tell her the guy
she met at the gym a couple of weeks ago
(05:46):
as the guy who's writing the show.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So you know, it's like a hat.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, you have, hopefully what you think is a funny writer.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's funny because I remember going coming back from the
gym and calling my roommate from college and going, I
just met a really kind of cute guy. I like,
he's like a really normal guy, and I think you
should date him, and she goes, oh, well, I kind
of like somebody else. And so I never even knew
your name until they told me you were writing the show.
And then I increasingly got again foreshadowing more and more
(06:16):
and more pissed off at you because you never gave
me my material, right, and I wanted to get my
material and be the nerding Brook that I am.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, but they didn't tell you. What I told them
is I'm not going to get it till Friday. I'll
start writing, but I probably won't get all until Friday.
And you have Saturday's on teleprompters. You can do it.
You're pro and.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So I like highlighting and memorizing and underlining.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You have highlighted and made notes on our life that
you know I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Ye, well, got ready for a book, Okay, go back.
I mean, I know the answers to these, But a
lot of people don't know how you became a writer,
what your trajectory was. You didn't plan on being a writer.
You went to You were kind of an army brat, right.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes, we moved around a lot. Uh. I was born
in New York, but I went to college in New Mexico.
Wanted University of New Mexico. Uh. And I wanted to
be a comedy writer, but had no ties, no connections,
no no anything.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So I know you wanted to be a comedy I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I just would watch sitcoms. I'd watch Started Night Live.
Letterman seemed to be funny around my friends, and uh
and they seem to think so. But it was like, yeah,
you know, it was just let me try it. I said,
let me move to New York under the guys who
work on Wall Street because I didn't want to tell
my parents. After four and a half years, of college,
yes four and a half. Uh that I was going
(07:40):
to go to New York and be a comedy writer,
because they would just say no. So what I did
was no, that's not my family. Everybody wanted. My whole
thing with family was my grandmother. Everybody was get your benefits.
You know your bennies, So get a job that has benefits.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
So I am your grandmother from Ireland, from Ireland.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So I basically sort of used the Wall Street connection
or job had agree in finance. I should have studied
something more fun. But look, I'm here right now doing
my HEARTRITI here with my wife.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
But I but honestly, can I just tell you, I
don't know if you would be the kind of person
who then study creative writing and then go that way.
You're just you write the way you write, and you
write it instinctually, and you write instinctively, and you don't
like to.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would have gone to Santa Fe become a poet.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
If state seriously that would have that would have.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
No. So but I moved to New York and worked
at a big firm that has since gone under and
created a huge savings alone scandal. I had nothing to
do with it. But I, and it was it was
a fun job, and it didn't. I wasn't made out
for it. It wasn't going to last.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And did you like anything about No, I hate it.
I just liked the vouchers, the vouchers for.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Cars we go out to afterwards. That I had fun,
but it wasn't. It wasn't for me. I knew it.
So when I when Drexa was going under, they offered
me a job in LA which I turned down. And
it was then I said, if I'm going to write,
I'm getting a severance package from this company. Now is
the time to go rite. And I thought the severance
package would last a year. I thought it'd be six
(09:20):
months before I got a job writing, and I thought
my whole world was gonna be great. And none of
that happened. Well it was, I burned through the severns
in six months and no job within a year.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So what happened when you told your mom and dad?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I didn't tell my parents. I said, I'm gonna keep
looking for a job. I remember someone got me an
interview at Oppenheimer, which was a bank back then, and
I was just I was just not into it. I
was like, so what I my in my head was
this sounds horrible, like to your parents, just string them along,
just keep saying I'm looking for work. But it was
a race, and like everything's a racist with me. It's like,
(09:53):
can I can I make money writing before I have
to tell them the truth? I'm at this time writing
everything I can write them, learning how to write spec scripts.
You know television sitcoms.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Script is a script that you just write without getting paid.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
They call it on spec, and that has the idea
that you might get paid. At my level, You're never
gonna get paid. It's really just a writing sample to
get an agent, to get a manager, to get anybody
to look at your stuff. I was writing jokes for anything. Uh.
I was writ just writing everything that was on Tellivision
sketches and just constantly uh writing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And did you do any stand up at that time?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I did stand up. I was. I would immerse myself.
I was. I wasn't horrible, and I wish I kind
of It's one of those things I wish i'd kept
up because I wasn't. It was not great and bombed,
but I was like, oh I could this could be fun?
But it was such a I mean, every bar had
open mic night every and then you'd go in there
just you see the same people, and it was like
(10:52):
ten other struggling bad comedians in a room writing jokes
and writing like taking hustle that it was bad. It
just wasn't great. It was, but I just figured writing
might be the better way to go because the stand
up world seems so flooded.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So that's that era. Do you remember, did you sell
your first joke in New York City before the MTV situation?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Talk about so I So I would paper the city
with my made up resume, just try and pad my
resume with anything I did. And then I just write scripts,
a Murphy Brown scrap with a little red like like
it was produced what you lied? No, I wrote one.
It just wasn't the never just no one ever read it.
(11:33):
And then you know, stand up at these these four
clubs and writing for a comedian that nobody knew about
put anything down. But finally somebody at MTV picked up,
he said, yeah, these are good, and there it was
back when MTV actually had scripted content and shows. They
had a show called Remote Control that Adam Sandler was
a performer on it. And is this that I want
(11:53):
that's the I want my MTV days. But remote Control
was just like a Jeopardy for MTV audience. So I
would write sample questions and send those to those guys,
and finally they hired me to come write promos. So
I would come in and write a promo once a
month and sit and try to immerse myself and go, hey,
can I sit while you guys produce it just as
(12:14):
I can learn? And I made one hundred and fifty bucks.
And then there was a show they had on at night,
this kind of fake news show, and then they hired
me to write and then hire me. They would buy
your jokes at one hundred and fifty bucks a pop,
and so you would be lucky to sell two jokes.
So once a month I was making three hundred to
four and fifty dollars. And that's where I was able
to tell my parents, I'm a professional comedy writer. You
(12:36):
can't tell me no. Look at these checks that are
coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Talk to me a little bit about our beloved Gary Shandling.
How did you meet him and what was that like?
Was he a mentor?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I through that MTV show met a bunch of people,
and there wash there were three amazing basketball games in Hollywood,
all run by Gary's.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Pickup game, and uh, I thought that meant you went
and just picked up girls.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Come on. So anyway, a friend of mine said, hey,
you and I was starting to you know, like meet people,
and it's like, do you want to come up and
play at Channey's game. I was like yeah. So I
got invited to that game and it was like one
of the most amazing things. And it's been written up
in like ESPN dot com and stuff like that. It
was you were playing, I was playing, and and and
(13:40):
you know, I don't talk about that off because it's
kind of a private game. It was a private well
you had to get invited again, you had to be invited,
and you had to you know, like Gary curated that
list so that it was always great people, fun people,
and you know, people who can weren't going to dominate
the game, but just we're there to have, you know, uh,
two hours of fun basketball and then hang out for
two hours.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But they were funny people. We had Sarah Silverman on
the show and you know, she was one of the
only girls asked to couple.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You came and played, I didn't play.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I came in babysat to Covenany's kids.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You played a little there, yeah, very but but it
was it was, you know, it was what kind of
got me. You know, even those days I was struggling
because I remember, uh, breaking up with a girlfriend and
having what yeah, and having stuff and most of my
stuff in the car and go and play basketball instead
of trying to figuret where I was going to live
(14:32):
insteading of his house, going you didn't place to live.
I'm the only guy up here who's homeless.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And so were you just living at her apartment?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
We were living together, but I moved out.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Okay, it's good to know.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And then uh uh, so I moved out, so he
will move out and we'll move out, so uh and
then I went to a friend's house.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But then, okay, so that's like the that's the trajectory
part of it. One personal thing we do all get
back to. But one of the one of the things
that I want to just say is I remember one
of the ways that not the ways, one of the
reasons why I was so enamored with you. First of all,
on our first kind of date, it was all about
SNL sketches and we just laughed so much but when
(15:17):
you started talking to me about nanime and how you
used to go take care of nanime and buy her groceries.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
My Irish grandmother up in Yorkville, Yeah, Yorkville. What in
New York City?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
In New York City? Where did she?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
What was her?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Where was her apartment?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
She had eighty eighth and first and then she was
like a sort of housekeeper.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
We used to river dance.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I should go, I go entertain or take her to movies. Uh,
take her out to dinner every Sunday, loved or she
would cook.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
She had odd jobs even though she so.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
She worked for this guy who lived further down and
I would uh First Avenue and she would have me
come up there and help her take curtains down to
go to take me to the cleaner whatever. I'd help out.
And he would also go away for most of August,
and she used to watch his cat and he would
leave her enough money to buy fancy feast cat food.
(16:12):
And that's the expensive that's that's nobody uses a phrase anymore. Well,
that's the Cadillac of cat foods. It's the flat mignon
of cat foods. Back in the early nights. I'm sure
there's much better. It was fancy feast, and he would
leave you know, a dollar can. He was gone for
forty days. He'd leave her forty bucks and tax. But
my grandmother would go to the grocery store and buy
(16:36):
the Grand Union Grand Union brand three four dollars and
pocket the twenty five bucks. And it was a big bargain.
And I would be in the living room watching television
on a Sunday and she's cooking dinner. But she'd go
feed the cat, and I'd hear from the kitchen and
that brog that it'd be no fancy feast for you tonight.
Tonight is Grand Union Jesus man trying to make a buck.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's enterprising. And in the Bible, by the way, there'll
be no fancy fast for you. No, But the cat
didn't know the difference.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, the cat wouldn't be for three days, and she's
like soon enough. I heard that.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I was like, good God, okay, so cut to you.
You start working, you start making you have you've I mean,
whenever I mention you, like especially if we're like in
a party situation and there's like young guys there, I'll
go over to them and I'll say, like, do you
know who that guy is. And they'll say like no,
and I'll say, well, he ran on an entourage, she
(17:36):
wrote Spin City, The Practical Jokers, the movie. And then
then once I get to the campaign, the other guys
or Daddy's home, they start like absolutely palpitating because they
they they they'll come up and quote quote things about
the baby punch from the campaign, or they'll start quoting.
(17:57):
So how did you was it Gary Shanling that kind
of started, you know, the.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Gary Shanling and I I was lucky enough to get
hired to come and write sitcoms. And then Gary David
Goldberg read something, and then Gary David Goldberg, Gary David Goldberg,
and he and I wrote a couple of sitcoms together
that lasted this season. But he was just an unbelievable mentor.
And then I went to Spin City and Gary Goldberg
had the other great Hollywood basketball game. So I was
(18:23):
playing a Gary's game on during the weekend, Challey's game
on Sunday. So I was and I'm still not a
great player, but fun uh, I.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Was, okay, make some good screens or what.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I said, screens. So you to start, well, it was interesting,
like you like I never thought past writing for sitcoms,
like being on staff. That was as far as my
dream went. And now I was creating a couple of
sitcoms I wrote. I wrote a movie land Lost, and
that was finished writing that, and I'm laying in my
office trying to figure what to do next. In my
phone writing was my manager mentioned that Will Ferrell and
(18:58):
Adam Kay want to start a company. And I done
some punch up on a couple of other movies like Anchorman
and uh Elf. And we used to do round tables
where they would get a script.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Play what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, they'd get a script, and before they would start shooting,
they would want to bring a few comedy writers in
and we'd all sit around the table. They'd throw some
food into the room like we're animals and shut the
door and uh and.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We're all still kind.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Of and we would write. We'd go through the script
and give alternate jokes and stuff like that. Really, it's
just a great time. And managers said they want to
start a company. They keep saying somebody like CHRISSCENTI, would
you consider writing less and running this company? And I said,
let me talk to my.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Wife, And what did I say?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
You said yes for sure, So I.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Went and agents weren't keen on it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, my agent wasn't too keen on it. And because
he was like, it's going to take you out of
the writing game, and I ended up just writing more At.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The time, I said, are you nuts associated with those guys?
It's it's comedy mecca and you'll kick yourself if you
don't do this and like that you can't make is okay?
Let me ask you this. Do you think that you
can't make safe moves in Hollywood? Like do you have
to risk things like that to to kind of keep moving?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
For me? Yeah, exactly, because you always hear the safe
it's like fishing or gambling. You this. You hear the
safe movies that pan out. You don't hear the safe
moves that don't.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I call the show now what because it's like those
moments when you're like, oh, fuck, now what do I do?
Like I didn't see that coming and then all of
a sudden something happens and you have said that Land
of the Land of the Lost wasn't now what moment
for you?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Why? Well? It was, you know, it was.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It was so funny.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It was funny. It was the movie was like, it
was just not what people wanted.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But was it what you wanted?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, we wrote a funny movie. Maybe another time it would.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Have been now it would be really well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
People do come up to you occasionally talk about how
funny it is, less so than back then. But it
was just it wasn't the time for it. I guess
I don't know. It just wasn't what people wanted.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And how do you know what people want?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We took a swing and it just didn't work, and
or it didn't work then I think it. I'll stand
by it, and I'm proud of proud of it, and
I will come beyond. I'll watch I go this is
there's some funny stuff here and.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Wouldn't you rather take a swing at something big and
kind of lose? Then?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
But so the crazy thing was and when you I Go.
It came out the same weekend as The Hangover, and
it was it was like six weeks before, you know,
people start tracking movies and I remember, my age is
going and I'm like I'm feeling common, like I'm so
naively like this movie's gonna be great and it's gonna
(21:49):
do great. People and love it. How they not love it,
you know, And six weeks out, you know, this hangover movies.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Track tracking track, it's the worst word you can hear.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Its like five weeks this hangar movie is really growing.
Like like three weeks out, this Hangover is gonna be
a monster. And then it just was the biggest phenomenon
and it's opening weekend and we I was in New
Orleans writing here's the crazy. I was writing the other
guys in New Orleans and working on a small movie
we did down there, and just sitting in a hotel
(22:20):
room getting hourly reports on Friday on projections, and they
kept going down and hangovers kept going up, and then
getting on a plane and my wife and my daughter
and I'm just sitting there staring at My daughter goes,
what's wrong? Dad? She's like, that is I learned a lesson? Yeah,
don't tell your kids everything about your career. What's wrong? Well? Yeah,
(22:43):
And she knew about land loss and she's probably she's
like six years old. I go, well, daddy's movie is
not doing so well. And she's like, oh no, why
she all got super protective and upset. I was like,
I stought that it was gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The thing was because I can picture you're talking to
a six years listen to the protections are the box
office well, and it's underform.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
The worst thing was is outside of our apartment was
a billboard for the Hangover.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
We were in downtown and soho. At that point we
had two children.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I was on lipstick younger, I think, and every time
I got in a cab that weekend, it was it
was the Sandy Canyon movie moment, and.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
He'd go, Sandy Kenyon.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Canyon is a critic in the city.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, Sandy Kenyon does the TV critic, movie critic in
the cabs.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Right, the cabs, So you get it every time, like
Sandy Kenyon with the movie, and he'd rave about the
un about the Hangover, and uh uh. Then he'd go,
h On the other hand, lad you you couldn't You
couldn't get to that X to mute it and shut
(23:54):
it off quick enough, kind.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Of like a little bit of a loop. Even now
it's hard to mute.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And it was just like, oh, my first movie was
a kind of a public failure.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And so that happens, and how is it? And now
what moment?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
What do you? What are you? Just like you say, wow,
I am I going to get another at bat.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, you get talking about this and I, like luckily
was writing the other guys, and we kind of rushed
that script a.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Little bit and was that already going to be made?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It was not green lit, and.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
They could have not green lit and then.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Then you're under a magnifying class. But and we almost
like the movie almost didn't get green lit, and they
were like, you got a week to get to figure
the script at out, and McKay and I knuckled down
over July fourth weekend and fixed the script.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Then came came the campaign then, which he wrote.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Them with the campaign with Will and Zach Galvinakis, and
that was a blast.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
One last thing about Land of the Last. Do you
think that there's something about like if you're ahead of
the curve, it's not good, and if you're behind, Like
if you're ahead of the wave, it's not good. If
you're behind the wave, it's not good. You have to
be right on it, and who could know when you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I don't know if these days.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Is it like that? Was it like that then? And
not like that? No?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
No, it's just it wasn't a curve. It was just like, uh,
it just was the wrong time, and I think it's
I do think it's aged.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Well, talk to me about a very very serious, very
important project, bruddies, what is it? Explain what buddie's is.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Uh. So I've done several movies with Ben Falcone, who
I love, and Melissa McCarthy and Steve Mallory, who's were
always together on a lot of movies, and Mallory and
then and I just have a text shame we're working,
you still have it all the time, and you're still
jackasses about all all the times. And we arted with Mallory.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
We go, and Steve Mallory is also.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So we were saying how we are very stilted texts
like we are buddies and uh, and I wrote back
to Ben and Malories on there, but we're not including him.
I we are brothers. I go, And then we were
we are more than buddies, but we're less than brothers.
We are bruddies, and uh we laughed. Then we go
and we told Steve, I go the show's bruddies, just
(26:27):
go write it. He's like, what are you talking? It
writes itself, bruddies. And so Steve the next day comes
in with like three pages of of something. It's pretty
fucking funny. It's Ben Frampton and Chris Henley, so they're
slightly based on.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Us, Ben Falcone and Chris Henchy.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
If we were badass mercenary soldiers, which just and we
do a lot of eater handshakes, and I would rewrite,
then Ben would write. Before long, we had like seventy
pages of something called Bruddy's and we took it out
and we had an animation company come with us, and
like we took it into some studios and like, wait,
(27:10):
what do you want to do? Or like they're they're
eight minute scenarios. There's very little plot. It's mostly just
all those scenes. It's it's a Michael Bay best of
animated and it's just jackass dialogue. And and then we
realized we need a little story. So we ended up
(27:30):
like the guy, uh, the guys at Tripper, Like we
kind of love this, Why don't why don't we just
do it? Because they're going to start a streaming platform.
We're like, all right, great, So we got paid to
write Bruddies and we put together a great cast, which
would be it has most of McCarthy, Ben Falcone, Joel McHale,
(27:52):
Reno Wilson, Richard Grant, Octavia Spencer, George to Kai and
you're why what oh so we are working together? Yeah,
and brickshields.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Can we talk a little personally?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
No, I gotta go.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
You know you're not going yet. You were talking about
having lunch. So I get ten more minutes with you. God,
you're you're the worst, the worst.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
We have two children, seventeen year old and a twenty
year old. What do you think our biggest strengths are
as parents?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
But but the I think we're relatively normal tradition, even
though we're untraditional traditionalists, Like we what.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
It is traditional?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Like you mean, well, we don't. Like there's certain things
we do every year, you know, like are Thanksgiving generally
as a tradition. And if we go on a road trip,
we don't eat at a chain restaurant. My dad always
drives off and sometimes it could take twenty minutes for
me to find the mom and pop restaurant, and they
would used to sometimes get mad, but then they were like, god,
he always finds the grayst restaurant, Like like somewhere from
(29:00):
grilled soup tomato place. I just found, like it looked like,
you know, sometimes I'm sneaking on my phone like yelp review,
like oh here it comes a good place, it feels good.
But generally were and those are things they've taken away,
Like you know, you went to go see Rowan at school,
and she had her her local restaurants, and that's what
(29:23):
mom and dad avoid like and whenever we were checking in
hotels for a movie or whatever, we would find our
local coffee place. We'd find our you know, and and
and get to know them.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Food is a big food, a big big thing.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I think our kids realize that Dad says hi to
most bartenders and ends up becoming friends with them. And
you can see that happening with our kids too.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
How you doing great. I love it when the bartender
nurse your daughter drink a choice. I also think we
have a lot of laughter we you know, food is
really important to us, like that kind of around the you.
I just want to go visit Rowan and Italy, where
she's studying abroad. And Dad made up two trays of
(30:07):
enchiladas that he learned how to make in New Mexico
with Hatch chili green chili, and I traveled on the
plane with frozen enchiladas, and it was a huge hit
with all of her college friends and things like that.
You know, we we do create our own traditions. But
really quickly the first time that Chris asked me if
(30:27):
the girls could be in one of his movies, was
it the other the other guys? I said, oh, sure.
So he brings both girls down and of course he
treats them like their actual cast members, and as they were,
they were actual well I know, but they had a
little trailer, a little honeywagon, which never happens, and both
they had hair and makeup and.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
They were tiny.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Was three three three or.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Rowing was six two thousand.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, so three three and six. And so they come
back home and I said, oh, how'd you like it?
And they said, well, they couldn't do it because they
lost the light, so they had to go back. Well
they went.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Back full hair and makeup again, full hair.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And makeup again, full outfits, little honeywagon got to go
to craft services. And then at the very last minute,
Greer says, well.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
They yeah, it was it was. I was in the scene.
It was a dad and his two daughters getting in
a cab and Rowan comes out smiling, ready to go,
and she's got a little wardrobe bomb Greer's hair for
some reason, it's real boofontie, like big, and she's got
a purse and stuff like that, and she sees three
she sees everybody went nope, bus and just start crying.
(31:38):
And then Greer goes home and Mom says, how her?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I said, what would you do? She because I did
not do it? And I said why because I did
not want to? And I said why didn't you want to?
And she said I did not want to? And I said,
wait a minute. I said, you went through hair, make up, wardrobe,
got snacks at the craft table. I said, you never
intended on doing it? Did you not want to do
it from the beginning? You just wanted hair and makeup?
(32:03):
And she said yes. So she went through hair and
makeup and wardrobe, just knowing full well that she was
not going to do it, but she wanted the hair
and make it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
She wanted to be there, but she wanted to.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Be pampered and she wanted to get hair and makeup.
And she's still like that anyway. What do you want
to do next? What's not on the horizon for Chris
Henchi next divorce.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I am now, I'm just I'm out. You know, the
hustle never sleeps. A couple of movies. I got a
couple of movies out there and talking and to one
to direct, a couple to produce, and uh.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
One to write, Well, Henchi, I love you, love you.
That was my love, Chris, Henchi, Chris babe. Thank you
for doing the show and thank you for creating such
a beautiful life with me. That's it for us today,
talk to you next to.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
What with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research
and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive
producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Vahid Fraser.
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