Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Jack McBrayer

25 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?

0.031 - 2.073 Jack McBrayer

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

0

2.093 - 3.094 Unknown

Oh no, what happened?

0

3.174 - 8.098 Jack McBrayer

I don't know. You know the yips? We just had a guest on talking about the yips.

0

8.779 - 9.72 Dax Shepard

Oh, right.

0

9.92 - 21.851 Jack McBrayer

So athletes famously get the yips. And what if I got the yip that I couldn't say welcome, welcome, welcome? That's how crazy the yips are. I know. Take this thing you can do, you've done for decades, and all of a sudden you mentally can't do it.

21.871 - 27.836 Monica Padman

Well, that's such a ding, ding, ding, because I'm rereading a book right now called Art of Fielding that is this.

28.157 - 28.637 Jack McBrayer

It is.

28.657 - 29.818 Monica Padman

It's about the yips.

29.798 - 34.925 Jack McBrayer

Okay, so welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman.

Chapter 2: What insights does Jack McBrayer share about his upbringing?

1016.76 - 1020.188 Jack McBrayer

Fever-y, Jack, do you know? I don't use the word stole.

0

1020.208 - 1020.769 Unknown

What was it?

0

1020.749 - 1022.592 Jack McBrayer

I didn't try. You always say try.

0

1022.792 - 1024.315 Unknown

Well, because I thought you said it got stuck.

0

1024.335 - 1030.124 Jack McBrayer

I just wasn't able to liberate the coins from the thing once I got it into my apartment. But I did steal the parking meter.

1030.144 - 1032.588 Monica Padman

You stole a parking meter, but he couldn't get the coins.

1032.608 - 1046.771 Jack McBrayer

Lots of stuff. That's illegal. The point is, life's too fucking short to not steal a parking meter. Well, that too. But to have a version of myself I'm protecting from, quote, the broader world. Rebuttal?

1047.191 - 1047.913 Unknown

Yeah.

1047.973 - 1053.361 Jack McBrayer

So that's just where I come from. Great. And then, yes, I feel your reservation. I'm dying to know what it's all about.

Chapter 3: What was Jack McBrayer's experience auditioning for 30 Rock?

2782.491 - 2798.606 Unknown

It impacted me in such a way. So, of course, I wanted to do it. They did see me. You got to audition? I got to audition. I don't think they've seen the tape. No, of course it didn't happen. I auditioned the same day as Seth Meyers. Oh, you did? Yes. In New York? In New York.

0

Chapter 4: How did Jack transition from Second City to New York?

2799.026 - 2800.63 Unknown

It blew me out. Yeah.

0

2800.65 - 2800.951 Jack McBrayer

It was awesome.

0

2800.991 - 2805.42 Unknown

What was your nerve level? Oh, very high. Very high. Quite high.

0

2805.7 - 2806.702 Jack McBrayer

Very high.

0

2806.942 - 2829.913 Unknown

And it's one of those things where, of course, I was not fit for this show. But man, just to be able to be on that stage. For me, just being in an airport and having somebody hold up your name on a sign. Yeah. It's so cool. Take off my wig and throw it off. Yeah. But I got to be on 30 Rock. That is a show that is based on SNL. That is a show that is produced by Lorne Michaels.

Chapter 5: What unique experiences does Jack share about Zillow Gone Wild?

2830.093 - 2831.816 Jack McBrayer

And written by the previous head writer.

0

2831.876 - 2832.637 Unknown

I'll do that.

0
0

2834.018 - 2839.082 Jack McBrayer

When you moved to New York, did you already have something set up? Did you know you were going to start working at Conan? No.

0

2839.103 - 2861.122 Unknown

I seemed so enthusiastic. No. No. The reason I went to New York was Jeff Richman, taking care of his boy, Jack McBrayer, was remounting a show called Hamlet the Musical that he had originally staged in Chicago 100 years earlier. And he said, hey, I just heard you're leaving Second City. Would you be interested in doing like a three-month run of this show that we did in Chicago?

2861.162 - 2871.155 Unknown

And I was like, yeah. I got nothing else to do. So my final night was February 3rd, 2002. I was in a U-Haul with all of my junk in a car on February 5th, 2002.

2871.455 - 2880.086 Jack McBrayer

So you quit before knowing you were going to New York? Isn't that crazy? That is. Why did you even decide to quit? My skin felt tight.

2880.106 - 2889.979 Unknown

It was time to go. Wow. Listen to your gut. Well, surely y'all have had that where you just, you know, something either feels very right or you know something feels not very right. Yeah.

2889.959 - 2911.798 Jack McBrayer

Yeah, but I've never had that conundrum while one thing was a safety net, right? That's fair. I've had that sitting in Detroit going like, I got to get out of this city within hours or I'm going to wake up and be 50 and an alcoholic. Like I could just feel where it was all heading. But I wasn't giving up something fantastic or any safety or something I'd worked seven years to achieve.

Chapter 6: What were the highlights of Jack's early career?

5658.574 - 5663.103 Jack McBrayer

I was like seven and a half billion. That's not it anymore. We're well above eight billion.

0

5663.464 - 5672.041 Monica Padman

Now, are you worried about what the heat of the protein powder in the bar? There's protein in there, right? It's a protein bar, right?

0

5672.361 - 5678.425 Jack McBrayer

It is, which is unconventional for me because I don't prefer it. It is vegetable protein.

0

5678.566 - 5679.227 Monica Padman

Plant-based.

0

5679.387 - 5685.137 Jack McBrayer

Plant-based protein. So I do think it'll melt better than like, say, whey protein. That's what you're worried about.

5685.217 - 5692.95 Monica Padman

Yeah, I just feel like I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen consistency-wise when there's protein in there.

5692.981 - 5698.248 Jack McBrayer

Maybe I'll microwave one tonight to see what happens when it gets hot.

5698.268 - 5698.368 Monica Padman

Okay.

5698.388 - 5703.676 Jack McBrayer

You're right. It might turn hard, but I think it's going to get runny and yummy. You're pessimistic.

Chapter 7: How does Jack feel about public perceptions of him?

5810.463 - 5812.946 Monica Padman

In the case of Dakota Johnson, vice versa.

0

5813.467 - 5815.149 Jack McBrayer

Okay. Was that a film she was in?

0

5815.49 - 5818.033 Monica Padman

No, no, no. She just went blonde to brown.

0

5818.173 - 5818.694 Jack McBrayer

Okay, great.

0

5818.914 - 5824.622 Monica Padman

Yeah. And it still looks natural. You could have been born with that hair color.

5825.002 - 5825.503 Dax Shepard

Right.

5825.905 - 5836.905 Monica Padman

Now, if you have brown skin like me and black hair like me, I could not have been born with blonde highlights or blonde hair.

5837.266 - 5837.887 Jack McBrayer

I got you.

5837.967 - 5841.633 Monica Padman

I could not have. So it is just so obvious.

Chapter 8: What is the significance of personal relationships in Jack's life?

5955.218 - 5956.5 Jack McBrayer

You're looking at me super intensely.

0

5956.52 - 5965.971 Monica Padman

Well, I do have hard conversations with you that I do think a lot of people would avoid. And that's where I keep it. I keep it in my hair.

0

5965.991 - 5967.112 Unknown

I got you.

0

5967.132 - 5976.512 Monica Padman

So I'm not willing to. Well, and one time I got my hair cut. When I was really little. Well, my mom did it. And it was a mushroom cut. And it looked horrible.

0

5976.753 - 5979.24 Jack McBrayer

Yeah, mushrooms cut. Very few people can pull off the mushroom cut.

5979.26 - 5986.339 Monica Padman

She didn't mean to make it a mushroom cut, but that's how it turned out. Yeah. And so I just cannot, you know.

5986.42 - 5988.947 Jack McBrayer

You're kind of reacting to a little bit of hair trauma.

5988.967 - 5997.813 Monica Padman

A little, I guess, a little. And I do think if you can have long hair, I mean, not for everyone, because it's hard to maintain, I guess, like do it.

5998.094 - 6000.14 Jack McBrayer

You did just bring up a grievance I have.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.