-Our next guest is a talented actor, director,
and former professional wrestler.
He is creative director of the Empire Circus,
now in performances through January 30th
at Empire Stores in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
He also stars in the new installment of "Scream,"
which opens in theaters January 14th.
Please welcome to the show David Arquette.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
How are you? -I'm good. How are you?
-Good. It's wonderful to see you.
And this is a bit of coincidence.
Benedict Cumberbatch played Sherlock on the BBC.
Quite famously. -Amazing.
And I actually played Sherlock Holmes, too,
believe it or not.
-When did you play Sherlock Holmes?
-Onstage. It was a comedic interpretation.
It was a bit of a stretch, I must say.
[ Laughter ] -How did it go?
It was not received...? -I had a full breakdown.
We can't talk about it. -Okay. We won't talk about it.
We'll move on. -Oh! PTSD.
-Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up.
-It's okay, no, no. It's quite all right.
I love him on that show. -You, um --
This is very exciting that there's a new installment
of "Scream." -Yes.
-And I imagine this is something where it's very important
not to let the plot leak to the public
but also to the cast, to some degree.
Did they keep it secret from you?
-Yeah. There's different scripts
and different things they shoot.
Yeah, it's really -- it's a wonderful opportunity
to be part of something for 25 years.
I love playing the role of Dewey.
He's such an iconic character. -Dewey is awesome.
And I did not realize this. So, Dewey was supposed to die
in the first "Scream," and, basically, you were just
too much of a hit. -[ Laughing ]
-Well, Wes Craven was mean enough to say,
"Well, David, we're gonna put you on a gurney.
We'll roll you out, and we'll see if you make it or not."
And then, the second time we did it, he said,
"Okay. This time, just give a little thumbs-up.
I don't know if I'll use it or not."
But thank God for Wes Craven, 'cause I got a baby out of it.
Yeah, now, this is -- -I mean, not Wes Craven.
Thank Courteney Cox, but... [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, that made it sound like the cast gift
was that Wes Craven gave everyone a baby.
[ Laughter ] -No, no.
-So, you met your ex, Courteney Cox,
on the set of "Scream." -Yes.
-And you guys had a daughter. -I'm sorry if that was weird.
[ Laughter ]
-Yes, we have a daughter, Coco. She's 17 years old now.
-So that must be nice, 'cause you can always remember
exactly how long ago "Scream" was because you just
look at your daughter and you work backwards, right?
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, it was a few "Screams" in there, but, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, it wasn't the first "Scream."
-No, the first "Scream," we were falling in love.
The second "Scream," she hated me.
[ Laughter ] I think by the third "scream,"
we -- we had -- -That's so good that there
were sequels, or else there would be no Coco.
-Yeah, exactly. [ Laughter ]
Wes craven sadly passed away in 2015,
but I was lucky enough to meet people who knew him
and loved him, and he just -- It's just funny,
because you associate his name with horror and terror,
but it sounds like he was just the sweetest man in the world.
-Yeah, he was an avid birdwatcher,
which most people don't know.
But he was this incredible professor,
and he's just so soft-spoken and had a wry sense of humor.
He'd say things like, "David, that was unusable."
[ Laughter ] I was like, "Okay, Wes.
Well, you got any direction for me?
What -- What do --"
"Do it again, do it faster, and do it better."
[ Laughter ] -Very humble, very humble note.
-I miss him. I love you, Wes.
-This is very exciting, because I feel like
not a lot of people think that circuses are coming back,
but yet you are physically doing that.
You are bringing the circus back.
-Yes, we're bringing the circus back.
-So, how did this happen? -Oh, Randy Weiner is an amazing,
uh, I don't know how you'd say it.
Like, place thrower? [ Laughter ]
He works with a company called Remarkable Entertainment,
and he did "Sleep No More" in New York,
so he does these incredible venues.
And this is -- yeah, and this is going to be
an interactive circus like you've never seen.
You know, circuses need to, like, come back.
We need joy and happiness, and, you know,
and that's what it's about.
I recently bought the rights to Bozo the Clown.
-So, that is amazing to me... -Yeah.
-...that the rights to Bozo the Clown were available.
-Yeah. It's really hard.
It took me 15 years to close the deal.
I'm not kidding. It was hard.
-So, you own -- You are the man who owns --
-I own Bozo the Clown! -Congratulations.
That's a big deal. -Yes.
-And clowns need rehabilitation right now,
you know, especially in America.
The scary clown has, like, taken over.
-That's true. It was not be helpful.
-I just want them to go back to Halloween.
Yes, it was not helpful.
-Your dad dressed up like a clown a lot?
-Yeah. My dad dressed up as Butter the Clown.
And he would come to my birthday parties,
and then he'd leave, and then my dad would show up.
I said, "Dad, you just missed Butter!"
[ Laughter ]
-So, he would actually trick you into thinking
that a different person had showed up.
-Yeah, one time, he got an opportunity
to get a free photograph at a bank
if he opened a bank account.
And he made us all dress up as clowns,
and he dressed up as Butter the Clown.
-So, is the bank photo? -I should've known at this point
that, you know -- -Is this the bank photo?
-Yeah, that's the bank photo! [ Laughter ]
-That's really funny. -Yeah.
-I should note, I think, is that Patricia Arquette?
That's your sister Patricia, Rosanna Arquette?
-No, no, that's Richmond Arquette,
and that's Alexis. -Oh, that's Alexis.
-And my mom. -That's fantastic.
Very nice. -Yeah, Rosanna had already
moved out to Hollywood to start her career.
-That's right. She didn't want to come back
for the clown picture? [ Laughter ]
-No, she didn't. No, she didn't.
-And is this -- is this you clowning it up right here?
-Yeah. So that's me in Butter's vest,
and, yeah. So I'm learning how to clown
with my creative director partner, Gabe Dell,
who was a former Cirque du Soleil clown.
So we want to bring joy and happiness back.
-And it's interesting that you say that you're
learning how to do it, because clowning is a very --
You know, professional clowns take that very seriously,
and there's a way to do it right,
and there's a way to do it wrong.
Do you feel like you're naturally inclined
to be a good clown? -You tell me.
[ Laughter ]
-I think you're gonna be all right.
I think you're gonna be all right.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I mean, I have a clown teacher. There's teachers --
Misha Usov is this incredible Cirque clown, as well,
and he's my teacher, so you learn certain clown stuff.
-Now, is clown school or clown instruction,
is it serious or is it -- -Oh, of course it's serious.
Are you kidding? I'm serious!
[ Laughter ]
-Very good. Very good. I mean, you're a natural.
[ Both laugh ] [ Cheers and applause ]
Now, it should be noted that, before clowning,
before you started your clowning,
you were a professional wrestler.
-Yeah. -So, this is sort of recent.
-Wrestling's a lot like clowning, to be honest with you.
There's a lot of laughs, but it hurts.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I would imagine clowning hurts less than wrestling did.
-Well, that just -- it depends on what your act is.
There's a lot of painful -- clowning can be --
There's stunts, and there's -- They're so -- There's so many
beautiful clowns that the world doesn't know about.
So I really just -- You know, Bozo used to say,
"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."
-Oh, that's very good. -And we want to make
kindness cool again. -That's really -- all right.
-Well, we're gonna leave it to Bozo for that.
-All you Bozos! [ Laughter ]
-Now, your professional wrestl-- This is your --
Will you tell everybody the name --
your professional wrestling name before I show the photo?
-Well, this was a specific one, but I'm a certified
Bob Ross instructor so... -Okay.
-...I can teach you how to paint like Bob Ross.
-Now, who certifies you for that?
You have so many -- Your teachers
are the weirdest teachers in the world.
-Yeah, I know. -Like, the Bob Ross guy
shows up, and the clown guy leaves.
-You go to New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
It's a three-week course. You can all do it.
-So you went to Florida to become a certified
Bob Ross instructor. -Yes.
-Okay. And then, you used that to create --
-No, no, no. I wrestled as Rob Boss.
-Okay. Wrestling, pro wrestling.
-Okay. So you were -- Now, it's very funny.
When I think of wrestlers and I think of
wrestling characters, I would never think,
"Oh, a Bob Ross wrestler would be what people
would want to see. -Rob Boss.
-Rob Boss -- I'm sorry. -I think we're tiptoeing
around an I.P. right now. -It's very clear.
You own Bozo but not Bob Ross. That's coming across.
-Rob Boss is who I wrestled as. -Here's --
Now, I'm gonna be honest. I'm not a professional --
-But I used the official Bob Ross materials.
-I'm not a professional wrestler, but I would not be
the most intimidated I've ever been
if I stepped into the ring with Rob Boss.
[ Laughter ]
-Well, he didn't put you in a sharpshooter, did he?
-I don't know. I don't know what any of these words mean!
-I was supposed to get RJ City on a talk show,
and I haven't done it.
That's why he tag-teamed with me, so I'm sorry, RJ.
-All right, RJ next time.
Thank you so much for being here.
You guys, that's David Arquette.
Empire Circus performances run through January 30th,
And "Scream" opens in theaters January 14th.