-Our first guest is a two-time Golden Globe winner,
and one of the most successful, beloved movie stars on the planet.
He's written this brand-new novel called
"Memoirs and Misinformation," which is available now.
And it's awesome.
He's one of my favorite humans ever.
Here is
the one, the only, Jim Carrey, everyone!
-Brother. -Oh-ho! [ Laughs ]
-Oh, man! Supercuts. -Come on.
-Supercuts is the answer for you, buddy.
Supercuts and hazmat suits. -[ Laughs ]
With garden shears from a great distance.
-State of the art.
It's the best wig you can get right now.
-I love it. I love it.
You look like you're in the middle of
a bar-room brawl in slow motion.
-Which screams midlife crisis more?
The blazer with the shirt or the messy hair?
-Or the fact that I'm free-balling right now?
-[ Laughs ]
Holy crap. -♪ Free ballin' ♪
That's what that song is about, man.
-Are you kidding me, man? I'm a big fan.
I know all the hits, man. -Yeah.
-No, this is true.
You are a
-What an incredible thing. What a state of affairs.
-How does it feel? -My goodness.
It's a good sign for me, a terrible sign for the planet.
-It is -- Does it -- Do you feel different?
Are you walking different?
-Well, my co-writer and me, Dana Vachon,
are literally children running around
right now like chickens with our heads cut off.
We're very excited about it.
I mean, my gosh, it's a dream come true.
-I will say, at first when I got this, I go,
"Oh, my goodness.
'Memoirs and Misinformation.'"
I go, "It's just a celebrity autobiographical memoir,
and I can't wait to hear the stories."
And it is sort of that. -Yes.
It gets to some real things.
There are real feelings in it and everything,
but it's dressed up like a kooky parade float,
and it goes headlong into some crazy apocalyptic ending
that I think people will enjoy.
-I absolutely enjoyed it and I loved it.
And there's certain things where I would love to just go like,
"I think that actually might have happened.
Nope. That one definitely did not happen.
-It's just a monkey puzzle.
-It really is so many good things in here.
-That's right. It's a labyrinth.
-It is -- But, I mean, so --
It's based sort of -- It's sort of true.
-Kind of? -Yeah.
Well, it is true.
All of it is -- None of it is true, actually --
or all of it is real, but none of it is true.
I don't even know anywhere. I'm so confused.
I'm like Donald Trump on a prompter at this point.
-I will --
-No, it's -- It is -- It is madness.
It is -- You know, Jim Carrey in the book
represents me and it represents all the false ideas
everybody has ever had about fame.
-Yes.
-So it's doing a lot of work,
and there's a lot to be had underneath.
And you can enjoy it just on the surface just as
a fun, crazy story of the magic and madness of Hollywood,
but it's deeper than that.
The apocalypse goes within in this one.
-I would expect none less from you,
because you always do something so memorable and creative
with anything you do.
And I go, "Oh, this is brilliant."
'Cause you could have just put out a book saying,
"Well, I was born back in Toronto in..."
-Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. No.
I used to go up to the Esso station
and jump up and down on the bell and make it ring.
Yeah, that kind of stuff.
I was hit with a hockey puck at 10 years old.
Never been the same since.
You know? But -- Yeah, no, I wanted to --
You know, Dana and I -- neither of us were interested in
logging the events of my life in any kind of order.
I think memoirs is a type of fiction to begin with.
We both felt that way.
You know, you read most people's memoirs,
you know less about them when you're done than when you began.
So, you know, it's kind of a strange form, anyway,
that gets altered and exaggerated,
and a lot of lying goes on.
So we just took it a little further.
-Going through this writing process, did it get emotional?
Did it get like, "I don't know if we can do this"?
-Yeah, it's super-emotional.
It's super-emotional, especially when I do anything
about my father, you know?
Anything about my dad will open me up.
You know, it's a matter of time before, you know,
the string gets pulled and I become a living example of
Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings."
♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪
You know? -It starts coming.
-You go, "Okay, I need two seconds."
-Exactly.
-Was your dad the first person
to introduce you to comedy clubs?
-Yeah, he was the guy that said,
"Hey, there's these places called comedy clubs.
And you've got to stop doing this in your living room."
[ Both laugh ]
-Would he perform at parties at your house and stuff?
-Yeah, every time people came over, I was the show.
You know, they would be greeted by an 8-year-old
throwing himself down a huge flight of stares, at their feet.
And they would be aghast.
And then I'd get up and say,
"Let's see that again, in slow motion," like that.
And I'd go back up and I'd come down...
and do every step in slow motion.
So I was the show. I was the show. Yeah.
-That was my move, too.
I would fall down the stairs with a paper plate
and pretend I was Chevy Chase and say, "Live from New York..."
And then my parents would give me 50 cents or a dollar
or something to do Rodney Dangerfield impressions
for the party.
-Oh, nice.
-And I know Rodney's in the book, too.
-Rodney's in the book. Rodney's roaring back.
-Yeah. -Roaring back.
His essence has been sold, and he will be seen again.
-What was his first experience with you?
Was it "Young Comedians?" No.
-No, I wasn't on that. I wasn't on that.
I was touring with him, like,
at Caesars Palace and all these places
where people were just scratching their heads
'cause I was experimenting.
And he would say, "Man, they're looking at you
like you're from another friggin' planet," you know?
And he just loved my greenness.
He would laugh openly out of nowhere
and just look at my face and start laughing.
And he'd ask questions like, "Hey, kid,
have you ever been in love?"
You know? And stuff like that.
-I love him. -Yeah.
But I got a great e-mail from Joan Dangerfield.
She was so excited about the book.
She read it in two sittings.
And she said just, "Rodney would be so happy."
You know, when he passed away, she sent me this beautiful box
with his favorite shirt and his pot pipe,
which is -- You know, If you knew him,
that's pretty much the grail.
It's the grail. -Is that right?
-Rodney's pot pipe is the grail, man.
-I started flipping out because, you know,
I read the dedication first.
And then the first quote in here is Marshall McLuhan.
It said, "For the name of a man is a numbing blow
from which he never recovers."
And I go, "That's interesting."
I'm trying to think of what that -- Interesting."
I didn't even think about that.
And you kind of get into it in this story about becoming --
-Right. -It gets deep, man.
-The self.
You know, the construct of the self,
the thing that you create to
negotiate your way through the world.
The face that you leave in a jar by the door, you know?
I mean, that's really what it's about.
Your soul doesn't stop at the edge of your skin.
It's one big soul, and we're all sharing it.
-When did you figure that out?
-I've been pounded by the universe several times.
So, you know, every time you get hit,
you know, T-boned by life, you're dragged to the bottom of
the Mariana Trench again.
And when you survive that, sooner or later,
you're kind of -- you're an experienced person.
And if it doesn't kill you,
if you don't let it, you know, make you bitter
or disillusioned about life and you keep your faith,
you eventually become a real son of a bitch.
-Wait, wait. What?
-No. I'm kidding.
No, you eventually -- [ Both laugh ]
You eventually get to a place where you're realize,
"Oh, God, well, that's --"
You start too see things for what they really are.
This is experience. It's not who I am.
None of this is who I am.
And you're stronger from it,
you enjoy things more,
and you get glimpses.
I get glimpses every once in a while
of that feeling of freedom --
you know, actual freedom from self,
freedom from the ideas of you.