Speaker 1: This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast
Speaker 1: More What You Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
Speaker 2: Love having comedian, actor, television writer, author and musician Paul
Speaker 2: Riser on the last time we had him on, he
Speaker 2: was bringing his comedy show through Ada, and he's in
Speaker 2: a new movie called The Problem with People, and Paul,
Speaker 2: I guess it's the best described this new movie as
Speaker 2: a different kind of fish out of watertail.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yes, it's it's a movie I p okay.
Speaker 4: So I play.
Speaker 3: A guy from New York who gets a call out
Speaker 3: of the blue from a guy in Ireland who claims
Speaker 3: to be my cousin. He actually is, and the backstory
Speaker 3: is that we are the third generation of two guys
Speaker 3: who one hundred years ago two brothers who had a
Speaker 3: falling out, and the two sides of the family have
Speaker 3: had this unspoken feud and he reaches out to me
Speaker 3: to try and put an end to it and bury
Speaker 3: the hatchet and invites me over to beautiful Ireland to
Speaker 3: raise a glass in friendship. And it goes wrong, and
Speaker 3: it goes bad because we are flawed individuals, and that's
Speaker 3: why it's called The Problem with People. Because it seems
Speaker 3: no matter how well you're in you know what, however
Speaker 3: good your intentions are, we all find a reason to
Speaker 3: be suspicious of the next person. And so it's a
Speaker 3: really it's a really fun comedy calumni and myself and
Speaker 3: Jane Levy and a wonderful Irish cast and beautiful countryside
Speaker 3: of Ireland. And at the heart of the movie is like, Wow,
Speaker 3: why do we have to be fighting? Is there a
Speaker 3: way that people can perhaps not be as bad as
Speaker 3: we are?
Speaker 4: And so I I.
Speaker 3: You know, it seems to me people are really responding
Speaker 3: to that piece of it, which is very nice to see.
Speaker 2: When I first saw the title, I thought, is this
Speaker 2: another one of your books? Because you know that's what
Speaker 2: it sounded like. It sounds like another one of your
Speaker 2: Rye observations.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, people the phrase I realized I
Speaker 3: say that all the time. You know, you're driving and
Speaker 3: somebody cuts you off. What is the problem with this?
Speaker 4: Go?
Speaker 3: What is people? It's like, oh, there's the name the
Speaker 3: problem with people? Because we're never going to quite solve it,
Speaker 3: but we keep trying.
Speaker 2: As far as the ethnicity is concerned, I mean, this
Speaker 2: is you're you're as new York as New York gets.
Speaker 2: I imagine that I am New.
Speaker 3: York, but you know, New York is a very there's
Speaker 3: a huge Irish population in New York. Sure, And and
Speaker 3: and at the heart of the movie is one and
Speaker 3: the older guy, the grandfather in the movie says, you know,
Speaker 3: why do we fight. We're all the same. We all
Speaker 3: came from the Ultimately, we all come from the same place.
Speaker 3: If you go back far enough, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, you're gonna find. You know, you may
Speaker 3: live in different countries, you may have different beliefs, different religions,
Speaker 3: but like, really, are we that different? Not really, not really,
Speaker 3: So I've always had that belief in This movie is
Speaker 3: sort of a fun just dances around that that premise
Speaker 3: of like there's really no reason. We all want the
Speaker 3: same thing. We all want to live and be safe
Speaker 3: and have our children be safe. It's like, let's see
Speaker 3: if we can get together and stop fighting. So this
Speaker 3: is a comedic take on trying to solve the problem
Speaker 3: with people.
Speaker 2: Problem with people is the movie Call Meanie with Paul Riser,
Speaker 2: who is the actor, television director, and author and musician
Speaker 2: that is joining us. Now you've been at this for
Speaker 2: quite a long time. Do you ever find yourself turning
Speaker 2: into your dad or turning into the angry man across
Speaker 2: the hall?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, you know. And it's funny. One of
Speaker 3: the things that made this movie where cale Meani is
Speaker 3: a wonderful actor that some people, you know, you might
Speaker 3: not know his name, and you look at his face
Speaker 3: go oh yeah, yeah, I love that guy. And we
Speaker 3: had never met until we started filming. And one of
Speaker 3: the things that we got along so well, and we
Speaker 3: played together so off each other so well. And part
Speaker 3: of the thing is we're both kind of like the characters, like,
Speaker 3: we're decent guys, we're nice guys. We can both be
Speaker 3: charming and friendly, and we're both really cranky, and we
Speaker 3: both can be irritable and set off by something stupid.
Speaker 3: It's like, that's what these characters are. These guys, they're
Speaker 3: not bad people. You're rooting for both of them, but
Speaker 3: oh why why are they at each other's throat so quickly?
Speaker 3: And that's just how we are. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: the New York and Irish thing. I grew up in
Speaker 3: New York, and frankly, when I write something, I don't
Speaker 3: know how to write myself anywhere else. I've tried to
Speaker 3: write set something in Los Angeles, where I live. I
Speaker 3: don't understand it. I go back to New York and
Speaker 3: you know, and the story is. The backstory is that
Speaker 3: their great grandfathers were two brothers who were finding their
Speaker 3: way from Eastern Europe on their way to America, stopped
Speaker 3: in Ireland to get a boat, and then one of
Speaker 3: them meets a pretty girl and says, I'll catch up
Speaker 3: with you, and then he never does. So one of
Speaker 3: the brothers goes to America, one of the other one
Speaker 3: stays in Ireland, and that's how the family got split,
Speaker 3: and the brothers were both angry with each other for
Speaker 3: not being together. And so yes, so I think if
Speaker 3: you trace us all back, we all do come from
Speaker 3: the same place. We all have so much more in
Speaker 3: common than we have differences. And this is a funny,
Speaker 3: hopefully funny, sweet movie about those differences and the problems,
Speaker 3: the problems with people.
Speaker 2: The problem with people is the movie. And it also
Speaker 2: stars Paul Riser. Call Meenie. I mean, when you need
Speaker 2: angry irishmen, when you need drunk irishmen, when you need
Speaker 2: quintessential Irishman, you need to cast call meanie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is the guy. And Amos said, how'd you
Speaker 3: get call Meenie? I said, you know, you call Ireland. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he picks up the phone. That's how that's how big
Speaker 3: he is.
Speaker 2: He's the guy and he does it so well it
Speaker 2: doesn't seem to mind it. Yeah, no, you know.
Speaker 3: And he's walking around Dublin with call Meani. It would
Speaker 3: be like walking around you know, the Bronx with janiro Hey.
Speaker 3: Everybody knows them. Everybody feels they own him. They're they're
Speaker 3: not own and that their family.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: There's just an easy going this So it was a
Speaker 3: thrill to to to be with, to have him, you know.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that made me so happy
Speaker 3: is as a writer, he said, you know, whenever I get.
Speaker 4: A script that's written by an American and writing Irish
Speaker 4: countryside or Irish movie, he goes, it's usually every cliche,
Speaker 4: you know, the top of the morning to you, he said,
Speaker 4: and leprechauns, he goes, and you didn't go anywhere near that,
Speaker 4: And it.
Speaker 3: Sounds like actual people in Ireland and that made me
Speaker 3: feel I was very proud of that. It's like, okay, great,
Speaker 3: we we missed every minefield we could have stepped on.
Speaker 3: And uh, the fact, the fact that it felt authentic
Speaker 3: to him meant the world to me.
Speaker 2: So you had you had a hand in writing it
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wrote, Yeah, there was this a movie. I
Speaker 3: had this idea a long time ago, and uh, and
Speaker 3: I would periodically pick up a pen and start writing it.
Speaker 3: And I thought maybe I should write it with somebody.
Speaker 3: I found this young writer named Wally Marzano Lesnovitch, the
Speaker 3: longest name, I'm not even fit on a jersey.
Speaker 2: And very Irish too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, non Irish guys writing in Irish movie. But
Speaker 3: that was part of it, Like we weren't claiming to
Speaker 3: be Irish with like, yes, I'm getting my character gets
Speaker 3: himself to Ireland with no idea why or why he's there.
Speaker 3: But what was the question?
Speaker 2: See, we were talking about writing and get here anyway. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: all right, yeah, but see what happens when that's one
Speaker 2: of the problems with people. We just start talking with people.
Speaker 3: And it's in theaters now and you can watch it
Speaker 3: at home. You can watch it on your Amazon and
Speaker 3: Hulu and your Apple TV, and you can enjoy it
Speaker 3: in the comfort of your own pajamas.
Speaker 2: Paul Riser, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Speaker 1: Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live
Speaker 1: weekday afternoons from five to seven. An iHeartMedia presentation