Bob Odenkirk, welcome to The Daily Show.
-Hello, Trevor. Great to see you. -Um...
-Good to see you. -Great to be here.
-Good to-- Yeah, good to be in the space. -At the round table.
Thank you so much for-for joining me,
especially to talk about a book that--
I mean, it's, like, part memoir, but, really, it's...
I feel like this is a how-to guide
for anybody who wants to just work and grind through life.
I hope so. That would be great if it had more than one use.
(laughing)
No, I feel like that's one of the biggest uses.
-That's what... -It'll hold the door open, too.
-Stick it under the door jamb. -We-- Oh, please, Bob.
-Um, but, uh... -Like, it's-it's a really good book
-about your life. -Thank you.
-It's about my career in comedy. -But I'd love to know why you...
-Yeah. -It's about showbiz.
It's about hanging in there.
It's about a lot of dead ends,
which, uh...
I-I only included about,
I'm gonna say, a third of the dead ends.
Because it's very hard to write about shows and things
that no one's ever gonna see or can see.
I-I...
I wrote the book for a number of reasons.
-One, you know, pop culture moves so fast these days. -Yeah.
And a lot of the things I did are smaller, cultish things.
I'm still very proud of them. Mr. Show.
-I was part of Get a Life. -Mm-hmm.
Um, helping with Tenacious D and Tim and Eric.
And-and...
But these things are all gonna get covered over
-by lots more... gloppy comedy and stuff. -(laughs)
All of these feel like the stepping stones
that got you to the world that we see you in now,
-like, the person that we see today. -Yeah.
I-- Like, I fell in love with you, obviously,
-like many people, from Breaking Bad. -Yeah.
You know, that's where I went, like, "Who-- This guy is..."
-Yeah, that's where I was... -I've never loved a lawyer
-who's sleazy, who's... -Became known. Yeah.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean? I feel like you changed
-how we even see "lawyers" in that way. -Lawyers,
-for some reason, love this guy. -(laughs)
Guys, he's a bad guy.
Y-You think-- Wait, you think he's a bad guy?
No, no, I think he's a good guy, but his guise,
his choice to be Saul Goodman,
uh, to put on this front,
to, you know, embrace situational ethics...
-Yeah? -I think is a bad choice. I don't like it.
-I don't like people like that. -Yes, I think it's a bad choice.
But in the end, in the end...
'Cause I know the end now.
We finished two weeks ago tomorrow.
-We finished shooting. -This is long awaited.
In the end, I like where it goes.
-Okay, okay. -So we will see, you will see.
When you read this book... I...
I mean, the title says it all-- Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama.
-Yeah. -I don't know your story.
A lot of people don't know your story. They just see a person
on TV. They go like, "This person's amazing."
Then we see you somewhere else.
"This person's even more amazing."
-We assume life has always been amazing. -Yeah.
-Then we see the grind. -Mm-hmm.
We see... Like, you say this.
Failure, feature, failure, dead end, dead end, dead end,
dead end. Moment of success? No.
Failure, failure, dead end, dead end, moment again.
And it feels like, throughout your life,
like Saul Goodman, you've been just trying
to get that grip on this world and this career.
Are you happy with where your life has gotten to?
-Oh, very much so. -Is this, like, a celebration of that now?
Very much so. Yeah, I... And by the way, I mean,
look, I've had unbelievable success in the last few years
with, um, Better Call Saul and this film,
action film Nobody played really well around the world.
And, uh, of course that informs it,
but I'm very happy with where I'm at.
But I also am happy with all the variety of things
that I did and have gotten to do.
And I think that that's a great quality
-to show business... -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
...is the different avenues you can go down over time.
'Cause this business loves people reinventing themselves.
-It does feed on the injured, you know. -(laughing)
If you're trailing blood, you will get eaten and spit out.
But if you can just regenerate yourself quickly
and go, "I'm back," the business is like,
"Oh, great. He's back." And that's pretty neat.
I was really touched by you sharing parts of your story
and how, you know, you grew up one of seven siblings? Right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. -You know, and-and your dad was a--
was struggling with alcoholism... -Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Walked out on the family, etc. [stammers]
It feels like that really changed a lot of how you wanted
to be a dad. Like, in the book, there's this really beautiful
part where you go, "I don't want to do Better Call Saul.
because I want to be a better dad. I want to be at home."
And then it's your kids who say, "No, you gotta go do the show."
-Yeah. -Did your manager call the kids?
How did this happen?
[laughter]
I-I don't wonder too much about it,
but it does seem a little magical, because my kids
were 13 and 15 at the time... -Yeah.
And then-- When they first came to me and said,
-"We are gonna do-- We want to do Better Call Saul." -Mm-hmm.
It was a joke at first. The first scene I did
with Bryan Cranston on the set of Breaking Bad, in the office,
as soon as we were done with the take, one of the camera crew
-said, "Can I get a job on the sequel?" -I love that.
And everyone laughed.
And then it became this kind of running joke.
"There's got to be a sequel. They should do a show
about Saul." And then Vince Gilligan came to me--
more than once-- "You think there's a show in there?"
"About Saul? I think there is."
But when they said, you know, it's shot in Albuquerque,
I looked at my kids and I thought about our life,
and I, and I did think of all-- my own dad and...
he did not prioritize his family at all.
And I-I just said, "I can't do it. I can't leave yet."
-There's too much work here at the house. -Mm.
And, uh, the kids overheard that,
and I hung up the phone.
And my son was standing there across the room,
and he... he goes, uh, "So you're not gonna
do that show, huh?" And I go, "No, no.
It's not-it's not time."
And he goes, "Well, you're gonna disappoint a lot of people."
And, uh, and then we carried on talking, and he said,
"We'll help out at the house, Dad.
We'll make it work."
So I let it go, and then my daughter came to me,
and she had talked to my son.
And, uh, and my daughter was more like
a kid who grew up in Hollywood, with questions.
"Wha... What would it be like? Would it be hard to do?
Uh, do you think people would like it?"
And then she said, "If it's bad, how bad would it be?"
Real manager type.
-Yes, it sounds like it. Yes. -This is a 13-year-old.
And I go, "It wouldn't be bad.
"It would be an interesting experiment.
That's the worst it would be."
And she goes, "Well, you should do it."
-I love that. I love that. -And, so...
Before I let you go, how's your heart,
-by the way? You-you had a heart attack, right? -I'm great.
-I did. I did. -You didn't just have a heart...
-'Cause that's-not that's not the book. -On July 25.
You know, I finished the book long before
I had the heart attack. Um...
Uh, I did, I had a-a heart attack.
And I was very lucky to have it on the set,
and there were some pros around who immediately gave me CPR.
And, everybody listening, take a CPR class.
Brush up on it. They saved my life.
You-you don't remember any of this.
I don't remember any of it.
The next day after the surgery, I woke up.
My family was there. And I was like, "Hey. Uh..."
I was like, "I got to go back to work."
-(laughs) -And they were... I'm in a hospital gown.
And they go, um, "No, you don't.
You had a heart attack."
I'm like, "Well, no. No. What? No.
I was... I was at work."
And they go, "How did you get here?"
And I go...
And my brain did this all on its own.
"I dr... I drove here,
-and I parked on level two." -Wow.
"And then... 'Cause I knew you guys were here.
-And-and then I came in here." -Wow.
And my wife goes, "So, you came in here,
and you got in that bed, and you put that gown on?"
And I looked down, and I'm like...
"Yeah."
-Oh, man. -Yeah, like, my brain made up a little story
about how I'd gotten there. Totally weird.
-But I'm great. (laughs) -I'm glad, man.
I'm glad. I'm glad you're great.
I'm glad we get to celebrate the final season
-of Better Call Saul with you. -Better Call Saul.
I'm glad we cele... we get to celebrate the book with you.
-Um, congratulations to you. -Thanks, my friend.
-Congratulations on your life. -Thank you so much.
-And, um, say hi to the kids. -I will.
-Thank them for all of us as the fans. -I will.
We really do appreciate them.
-Thanks. -All right, people, Bob's book
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is available right now.