i'm going to write me seriously send us an email and i'll go. get may know is this and then i'm going to run then she'll get the data should it be theo i know there's no shuttle. yeah use on the shelf approach. hoping to go much better if you have a lot of them behind. bars on those she just had a car she didn't need to yet another shouldn't. get within a mile into his before he died of this not to show the this got to be but i mean. he. gets to live it up was.

on larry king john michael higgins the first three tina. tina fey and it was interesting because i was doing scenes with with her and she's she's a obviously that sort of communicating as some sort of but she's also my posts. that i do my lines that day which is a real inconvenience by the time we shoot it kind of looks like a script but it just doesn't have dialogue and i'm so it's like scene sixty five hotel lobby day stuff on and it was michael scott the arrival hotel. good luck every actor that i know at least to be doing it for their life like this convinced that whatever they're currently doing is the last job. because who

on earth would hire them plus person you'd trade places with for a day to keep her. a fine enema is very common all next on larry king. welcome to larry king now my special guest is john michael higgins he's been a comedic fix year for decades leaving his mark on everything from pitch perfect to best in show to bad teacher john stars as chuck pierce in the n.b.c. comedy great news now in its second season airing thursdays at nine thirty pm eight thirty central chart piers has been described as a blowhard and you agree with that absolutely that's why they got me you played blowhards before i have done a lot of blowhards why do you think that is well you know larry i can't figure it out no it's. i don't know i have always had an ear for blowhards and i do

like i kind of get them i'm not sure why is that the thing you know what it must be because i'm one myself i mean what's the other is there another explanation why would i be swayed why would i be so good and you could play the president salute people in the present there are people who do much better potations with him how did this come about not tina fey's executive producer that she cast yes i mean i'm sure that that would be the final say in the casting short of the network who has to approve everything you've done so many things out of this country you know it's hard to say i think that you know the script crossed my desk and i responded to it immediately because the page one after the title page. i you know i had three laugh out loud not that usual with naomi i do a lot of comedy so it's all sort of business to me is like that's a good joke that's a good joke and this one i was and. literally fought you know and i thought ok well

that's interesting and and the pedigree is good as it gets tina fey and robert carlyle can mean you know thirty rock and critics raved about it the ratings have been so so you think you're in the wrong time slot what do you think i don't i don't care much about the ratings because i think the landscape is strange now that you know it wasn't long ago i feel like it was like eight years ago that they would cancel a show with an eleven or so only the out and now it's like you're jumping up and down the aisles if you get a one you know because everything's so you know defunded channel exactly so i think ratings in you know they have to base their decisions on something but thirty rock also took some time sure did as a lot of great comedies did you know some sort of true did you think great news or drama yes i do. well as a performer it's i find it dangerous i do

a lot of comedy and it's it's a danger to not to take your characters very seriously particularly in a comedy strangely tony ramel said comedies is serious business it sure is it's the best drama but you don't play it comedically you know shut believes them so absolutely and his fears which are the funny part have to be absolutely credible to the audience they have to see them and recognize them and say even to the point of that's me you know i'm playing this ridiculous character but they're like that's what i would do you know and i think when they when they recognize themselves they start laughing or there's a second season story well we the first then we were no no no worst we're right in the middle of it so i i think we just finished shooting the fourth episode. the first three had tina in them tina fey so she's she's come and done of very funny arc for us. and it was interesting because i was doing scenes with. with her and

she's she's obviously a sort of comedic genius of some sort but she's also my boss so. that i do my lines that day which is a real inconvenience your best known do you think because perfect i don't know people stop me i've had a very i'm a character guy so i'm in a lot of different things and people will spot me on the street and now i never quite know what it's going to be pitch perfect it's easy because there will be an eleven year old girl and i'm like ok she's she just watched this perfect last night there's another world and best in show that that's the movie is twenty years old i have to talk about it every day in the growth of that movie was genius or that i mean it was every character everyone i know who came up with that right that was chris christopher guest to unbelievable he's fantastic and he had been associated with him for many years and you know he called me we had a we did a thing together which didn't didn't work out it was a television thing but then he called me right after and says hey you want to do

this movie about dogs and then coover i'm like dogs and he says yeah. all right let's go it's so you know when you never know you never know what's going to happen pitch perfect three it's an interesting picture i have to say it's it's it's bold there's yeah it's a very bold picture there's it has elements of other types of john resented like action and yeah it's definitely a big musical picture with the the women there are all they're all there and they're of hilarious and they're great singers and dancers and so you get all that but you know there's explosions i can't tell you more so in funder shoot it's always fun to shoot. it's fun maybe in the wrong way i don't work very hard in those movies and i like it that way everyone you know work well you know the distance thing into did say they have to go to boot camp for months on that i show up for i work by. one day on pitch perfect one and yeah i was doing something else

listening to his friend of mine she's producer of the pictures calls me as michael come on down we need to improvise for you for a day i do that kind of thing and we did it it was like a day and a half and he's so talented so the best and not pretty at all yeah well that's a you know it's a burden for is your name john or michael whatever you're throwing the hardballs. my name is john michael higgins and i go by michael he'll have to talk to my parents screen and says john my i know don't read the screen this is a big problem or did you a father called you he calls me mikey mikey and your mother like goal michael why do they mean you john why do they even do john if they warrant going to call your job i think you should talk to them about it i will give you their phone number it's hard to know they need. it's i have i think what happened is this i

think they named me after kennedy oh that was a big fixture on household irish catholics democrats the whole thing and so i was named after john kennedy and. but my brothers were irish and my brother's name is patrick and if you're irish if you have a patrick the other ones might pat mike and what happened my dad his my dad was my mike is nowhere in his name. i get it the higgens are an interesting lot not not so much interesting now just ok christopher guest movies yes or why is he the master of mock human terry's well he kind of invented it. and this was back in spinal tap days that movie was made by rob reiner and christopher was in it but it was a real team effort and there were ideas about mockumentary before there are some examples but as far as an all improvised documentary style so i call that sam a machine as he let you do. he doesn't let us do we have to do it there's no script

no one gave me the lines if they wrote them i mean i was not didn't meet my paygrade like curb your enthusiasm yeah just give you an outline yeah we have another to tell you let's say well you know by the time we shoot it kind of looks like a script but it just doesn't have dialogue on it so it's like scene sixty five hotel lobby day and it just says. you know stuff on and it was minus scott there's a messenger arrive at a hotel. good luck. so it's a lot of editing that oh yeah yeah that it's hard for us the performers to actually watch these pictures because all of our babies are gone you know i mean you really all that's left all day or the only thing it's time there's time for for the others the story just so so when you work with a script is that hard for you it's a relief actually you are hers the day. you do your lines that day you learn them i

learn them in the makeup chair before going on to the because i'm one hundred forty seven years old i'm afraid that i will for if i learn them for they'll be gone so i remember. you know like great news the lines are brilliant and they're tightly written so i don't have to improvise which is great but cram them lines in while they're like putting my eye makeup on and and then i'll go out there and say them and they'll but they're gone they're like on flash paper good you went to amherst i did reach school it is i know why they took me but there i was good drama major knew i was literary theory even started theater i was a theater child actor really yes theater actor only as a child home alone nine or play all of them. have been in everything we did i did hundreds of plays and musicals i did four or five plays you know a year of professional broadway eventually in my twenty's. i moved to new york after amherst incidentally the amherst education was pointless because i don't i

don't use it at all there's no you know the people i work with people all the time who didn't get out of high school and they're doing exactly as well as i'm doing you got one hundred thirty credits to your name really yeah. how do you decide i will do this or is it just i will do it if they give it to me almost look i'm a character guy it's really job to turn turn down things i do now i know i'm in a position where i turn down things just because it's usually it's because it's something i've done already in other words i've already played that type of character i've already played that problem is what i usually think because i'm an actor i play problems and it's like oh i thought it's a problem already i'm not interested or a worker an actor i am a working actor and we funded told me once and not to name drop a but henry fonda told me and drop it if he didn't have a script in his hand he was nervous it's interesting i know what he's talking about it's every actor that i know at least who's been doing it for their life like i

have. this convinced that whatever they're currently doing is the last job they'll ever do because who on earth would hire them as an insecure business yet it's a blimp it's an industry full of imposters and you think you're one too this is probably a misgiving you probably you're probably not if you have lasted that long in other words you've probably got something but you're convinced that they're going to find you out at any moment we got mad at marlon brando when he called it lying for a living yeah it is lying but it's you know the terrible philosophical problem is that the the reality part is just as much of a lie as you like to have done more dramatic roles i did a lot before film and television my whole theater career was mostly dramatic roles and i was longer than my film and television gritty of want to go back to theater yes. all the time but i have children and it's very hard to do you know they're young when they get older i think i can probably do go to broadway sure what isn't

bad the actors biggest game yet live theater yeah i heard an opening as the director's gone yeah that's for sure the tough part about theater is if you're in a commercial production which lasts you know could last a year or something that's very difficult you're doing eight shows a week and you have to figure out how to not go perfectly mad which happens i did i've done shows the last two years and i'm out there in the middle of the year one in the house and it's a wednesday afternoon and i'm literally snow by blind or like i can't remember who i am or what i'm supposed to do people or i tell each other on stage it's on. you know the. crazy. comedy in a couple of months more with john a michael who would move back to higgins after the break. mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them for that could be why america

is so divided because people have been fed fake news paid for by corporate interests they beat you down until you relieve their fairy tales well here's a story. it's called the big and it's full. fiction. i think the average viewer just after watching a couple segments understands that we're telling stories that are critics can't tell and you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell. true artie's able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there

to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical big kills people when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. with john michael higgins i like john michael great news airs thursdays at nine thirty pm eight thirty central on n.b.c. you said i get great news character that you've been left behind to some extent by the culture you know what do you mean well checked here's this anchor that i play is in a panic that basically that the cultured no longer wants you know some bloviating old white guy to tell them what happened and what to do about it and that the that the culture has been split up over all these outlets and outlets and other types of

outlets and then he's not needed anymore and he has no more credibility you know your costar bridget yes said of you he doesn't overthink stuff he doesn't apologize for stuff he speaks up when he needs clarity on stuff and he just takes big swings he takes big swings and it is so cool to watch and you make a. that's lovely. i think that's right i think basically why the reason that is is the long long years have a lot of miles on the tire and i don't waste a lot of time i'm not rushed or tough about it i just think i don't treat the thing like the beginning and end and the end of the world every time the camera starts rolling i'll tell you something about you it's a compliment when people see you they smile something about your face your hair attitude it's the irish is the blue eyes but. there's

a smile about you oh no that right that's very lovely maybe it's just blarney you know i'm an irishman it's lovely to have a comedic idol yeah i think the the guys who were. walked the border between acting out you know drama and comedy i'm talking about jack lemmon and art carney walter mouth out certainly those were huge influence as and then a lot of the english guys who were stage geniuses just before richards and gil good those guys burton they all could do it yeah they're all brilliant comedians and they're because they're smart and they were good actors we play a little game of if you only knew who was your childhood sorby crush harold lloyd. he was a funny actor funny but you had a crush on him i did i thought he was a great talent my secret talent shoeshine shoot you could do shoot bridge esquire

boot polish i yes but listen i don't want to make claims for myself i'm i don't think i can call it a talent it's an inability and i'm not bad at it you use the thing good yeah i can do this i can do that or shine other people's shoes when they let me person you trade places with for a day zookeeper. i like a fine animal's very calm and guilty pleasure well all of my pleasures i should feel guilty about i don't think there's a single one that is popular interesting to other people i mean generally so throw it all age old k. because you bet last time you were star struck i met the one of the first chair clarinettist in the los angeles film mark you're a weird guy. that's what they say where are you. you want to be a clone as i do can you play the clown that no. best compliment you ever got.

larry king asked me on the show you the head oh that's all of them i you know what i'm a comedian so basically if you had a picture of all the things i've been and i've been dressed as grapes and babies and i mean it just goes on there all weird given have a job not acting before acting no i don't i was i was a child actor and i was not so the whole life and the role of every paycheck without ever waited on a table or anything favorite device mention ice cream maybe chip ice cream something you wish you were better at. acting. is all the. strangest fan encounter i i was at a restaurant once and the waiter came up and we finished the meal it was fine and you know he was very respectful and he says i'm a big fan thank you and the pull of shirt and tattooed onto his forearm was

a line that i said an improvised line that i said in one of the christopher guest movies was you know something that popped out of my mouth on the set i was on i don't i can't even repeat it because i can't quite remember it but it but my character's as if every day he careful of actors you never there and i name four different weird animals a bear a tiger a jackass and something else and and the you never know which one's going to show up or something like that and it was on his own it was on it was tattooed onto his arm. that's a that's maybe that's the maybe that was the greatest compliment i would say don't say go for it what's a luxury you can't live without good ten minutes in a chair just sitting there. i try to take those but they're a bit of a luxury is there something you long believed to be true but realize wasn't that people are thinking about me and that it matters what i thought you know i think

people are generally misguided about that or something people don't know about you . i don't well they all know about the theory background generally and they just did a lot of it yeah that was the largest part of my career the whole film and television it's like you said if a play runs a long time. are you bored with it. yes or so i'll quote fonder again he did mr roberts yes three years yeah but he couldn't wait to be him a really every nice course he was so unlike him that's interesting as to roberts was a perfect person yes he's the perfect man and i couldn't wait to be him so that would be three in the afternoon and he wished it was eight o'clock to be millicent robbers i've done many of those plays where i felt like i can't wait to get on stage and be this guy again it's so exciting he's so much smarter than i am and he's so much more you know interesting but those never ran you know for some reason it was the duds that that for me as

a nerd for you yeah i mean sometimes the plays were good but the part was great or something but they kind of dug it out on me but those are the ones i was having a bit what was the most what was the longest running player and. that was probably a play called. jest which was a lot of jazz it was yeah but it wasn't the french foreign legion that you're thinking about it was that there was a part of the it was a parlor comedy that was that ran forever off broadway and then did a long run a show called jeffrey in the early ninety's which ran for aunt and that was fun all before some social media questions your sister calls you smedley the sheet. and where did you get that piece about these are genius produce should look where is where did you get that has left the building. there she has. got holes in her jeans does she described as to us horrible and we should pair more smedley all right smedley you wouldn't believe me if i told you i'll believe all right. ok i

was in the navy family we used to move every year my brother and i said you know what i love this house and our dad said we might move back to this house because i may have to make it station back here. and they said no that would be too good too to believe and my brother said well maybe it be proof of a higher being if we but that the higher being hurt us if we took something and left it here and it was and it and if years later we returned here it was still here. i don't know how he thought of this but that he did and the only thing we could find in that we could come up with was in the cabin it was a can of canned beets. the company was smedley's smedley's canned beets so we put it in the back of one of the cabinets up high shut the door and five years later returned to the house and went right to the cabinet we were really supposed to return to this house that really did happen by happenstance we were in

and they and the beats were there and ever since that moment really it's my brother's a big old smedley hole it was his idea just as the clothes you should still and many many people in my family do smetters meddling where was that but as a maryland right outside d.c. and i lived in d.c. for digital i love d.c. don't you out of a station of the sure he was he actually were downtown at the he was he was in the pentagon at that point so he was he worked as a naval officer so if you live in a lot of places you know every year kay hagan's on social media what's your favorite shakespeare play it's koori a lioness if you played it i haven't played it it's really strange that it is the one i've really dying to do and i've never done that but maybe that's why i like it so much have you done a lot of yes why is he the best to do well because he's the great he really is he's he's on everybody he's a bust on pianos for really good reason he simply better at writing dialogue and

character than anyone else is and what that means is he has no judgment on the character he simply presents it full bore and there's no commentary and it's really it's sort of takes over your body when you're doing it i don't know how it's very hard to explain it's very. but his the interactions are always on fire any time characters speak to each other they're full of information and incident and most writers like work and work for act you know all of i want to get one of those moments and he delivers that line after line after line after line it's like running on a hot rod you don't need to do much you just need to member. is that you go for the ride and the hen menendez song old five how do you balance family life with your career not well i mean children he had to. they're thirteen eleven started a little late i'm only twenty six years old oh my gosh i knew it and it's amazing

that i got you started in. you know. i actually tried to. most of my time is spent with my family know when i'm not working so that's what i was in l.a. yeah i live here one of a and a gregory i understand you have a vocal group and i think we'd all love to hear more about it how it started the members whether you still have time for well there's a lot of of. but of the harmony had myself and i always have been so i did that in college and and i've done movies where it shows up a lot like the pitch perfect movies which they don't let me sing and surveillance probably wise and and the break up which i have a famous thing on. but i i have i've had groups in basically i sing with people i do musical nights where i invite people in and i'll write up a chart and make everybody align it it's sort of a. party game on your great guest thank you larry great meeting thank you so much

thanks to my guest john michael higgins great news is thursdays at nine thirty eight thirty central on n.b.c. can always find me on twitter at kings things i'll see you next time. you're watching. the mission of newsworthy is to go to the people tell their side of the story our stories are well sourced we don't hide anything from the public and i don't think

the mainstream media in this country can say that i mean average viewer knows that r.t. america has a different perspective so that we're not hearing one echo chamber that mainstream media is constantly spewing. we're not beholden to any corporate sponsor no one tells us what to cover how long the coverage or how to say it that's the beauty of our tea america. we give both sides we hear from both sides and we question more that journalists are not getting anything get in your way and bring it home to the american people. mark twain said it's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled that could be why america is so divided because people have been fed fake news paid for by corporate interests they beat you down until you believe their

fairy tales well here's a story for you it's called big and it's full of facts fiction. i do not know if the russian state hacked into john podesta scheme ailes and gave them to wiki leaks but i do know barack obama's director of national intelligence has not provide credible to support his claims of russia i also know he perjured himself in a senate hearing planned three months before the revelations provided by edward snowden he denied that the n.s.a. was carrying out wholesale surveillance of the the us. the lady corporate media has once again proved to be an ethical government claims that cannot be verified you would have thought they would have learned something after serving as george w. bush's useful idiots in the lead up to the invasion of iraq. it is vitally

important that the press remains rooted in a fact based universe especially when we enter an era when truth and fiction are becoming indistinguishable. tonio when this is america's lawyer the united states is still healing from the mass shooting that took place in las vegas on the beginning of october with fifty eight people lost their lives while investigators are still trying to find a motive for the shooter the rest of the country is on edge while the victims of this tragedy and their families are looking for ways to boost their lives back together as the national shock and terror of this event begin to subside important legal questions have begun to rise as to who can and should be held responsible for the death and destruction that took place on the streets of los vegas tonight we'll look at the lawsuits that are.