Terry Gross

Today we continue our retrospective featuring some of our favorite interviews from 2025.

Though he's not often cast in leading roles, you'd likely recognize Richard Kind and his distinctive voice from his appearances in hundreds of movies and TV shows.

Last month he was celebrated at the New York Comedy Festival benefit, appropriately titled Richard Kind Everywhere All at Once.

In the series Only Murders in the Building, he was the neighbor Vince Fish, a.k.a.

Stink-Eyed Joe, with the highly contagious case of pink eye.

He played Larry David's cousin in Curb Your Enthusiasm, co-starred in Mad About You, was in the Michael J. Fox show Spin City, and earlier in his career was a cast member of the Carol Burnett show, Carol and Company.

In the Coen Brothers film A Serious Man, he was the deeply troubled brother.

His youthful ambition was to be in a Stephen Sondheim musical.

He's been in two.

He starred in a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts, and in the musical Bounce, he originated the role of Addison Meisner and got to work with Sondheim.

I interviewed Richard Kind in April.

We began our conversation talking about his current role at the time on the Netflix series Everybody's Live with John Mulaney.

Kind was the announcer on the show and also Mulaney's sidekick.

Let's start with a clip from an episode of Everybody's Live.

John Mulaney explains that Kind got hit on the head with a Kiss album, which left him with a traumatic brain injury, and now Kind thinks he is Gene Simmons.

He's dressed like Simmons, has hair like Simmons, and talks like him too.

After he says something vulgar to Mulaney, Mulaney starts to apologize to the audience.

Richard Kind, welcome to Fresh Air.

I have to ask you, because this question is as much about me as it is about you.

So when I interviewed Gene Simmons many years ago, he said to me, if you want to welcome me with open arms, you'll also have to welcome me with open legs.