[ Intense music playing ]
-Hi.
You want some candy?
-You've got Reese's peanut butter cups.
-[ Singing ] Take a sip from your soul
On a metaphysical milkshake
-I'm really sorry, Joe,
that it is so hot in this van.
-Yeah, it's really hot -- -This is going to make
you look a lot less shiny.
- Thank you. Good.
Shiny. Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
-Puff. A little puff.
Wait, I think you missed a spot. -Thank you.
-Just there on the edges of your nose as well.
-Yeah, I dew out there.
I dew up around my nostrils. -Okay.
-Welcome to the back of my van. -Thanks, man.
-When's the last time you were in the back of someone's van?
-That's kind of a private -- private matter.
-Yeah. Right.
I know it's kind of a painful story for you.
I just thought we'd start the interview that way.
-That's cool. -If you could go anywhere,
where would you like to go?
-The Sahara? Does that make sense?
Since we're sort of sweaty in here.
-That makes total sense.
-You know, some of those sand dunes
are as old as --
-Human civilization?
-Older. -Camels.
-[ Laughs ]
-Camels freak me out. -Really?
-They're scary. -But they're so cute.
-They're not cute. They're like --
They've got matted hair and giant,
weird lips with mucus.
-Disney camels.
-I want Disney camels, yeah.
Is that so wrong? -Yeah.
-Life's big questions.
Is there such a thing as an original idea?
-As an original idea. That's a good question.
-Have they all been used up?
-My point of view would be that either every idea
is original or none of them are.
That all of us are completely unique people.
-Mm-hmm. -And so, anything
that you say or do is original,
and that it's unique to you.
-Mm-hmm. -And no one's ever
said it like you said it.
-That's true.
-And in that way, everything's original.
-Mm-hmm. -But in another way,
you're a combination of what you've heard.
You know, "Romeo and Juliet" --
Shakespeare didn't come up with that.
-So, he was doing remixes back in the 1600s.
-Everybody always was.
That's how, I think, creativity has always been.
Plus, I think people get discouraged a lot,
because they're like,
"I want to write something, but it's all been done before."
They're like, "Oh, I had this idea,
but it's too much like that."
And it's -- You can use it as an excuse.
-You can sabotage yourself that way.
-Yeah. So, every idea
has been recycled or remixed
or collaged in some way, shape, or form already.
-That's what I think. That's what I think.
-Sorry, dude. -No, thanks.
-So, tell me about Hit Record.
-I've been acting my whole life.
But I had stopped.
And I wanted to start again,
but no one really wanted to give me a job.
-Sure. You were coming off
of "3rd Rock From the Sun."
-And I was like, "I want to do" --
-So, they were like, "Oh, he's the goofy kid
from '3rd Rock From the Sun.'"
-Yeah. "We can put you in a pilot lickety-split.
You'll make millions of dollars."
I was like, "Yeah, but I want to do,
like, cool, little movies."
And they were like, "[ Laughs ] What?"
You know, no one really wanted to hear that.
And I sort of came to the conclusion
that I couldn't --
I had to take responsibility
for my own ability to be creative
and make stuff. -Mm-hmm.
-And I wasn't gonna just wait around
for someone else to tell me that I could.
-Mm-hmm.
-And so, I'd always played with little cameras
and four-track recording machines
and things like that when I was growing up.
And so, the symbol of that record button
became this metaphor for me
of me being the one to push it and start it.
Because that's, I think, oftentimes the hardest part
of any creative process is just getting going.
-Just starting. Just like
when you're writing, and you've got that blank page.
-Blank page, exactly, blank page.
My brother helped me set up
this little rinky-dink website called hitrecord.org.
We put a little pre-fab message board on there.
Where I just uploaded
a few Quicktime videos that I had made.
And soon, it wasn't just about the little videos that I made,
but people and I were sort of collaborating together.
I was like, "This is really cool."
-How do people collaborate on Hit Record?
Like, what's an example of that?
-We'll say someone posts a short story that they wrote.
-Mm-hmm. -Then I liked it,
and I'll go, "Oh, I like that.
All right, I'll record myself reading
a voiceover of their short story."
-Oh, cool. -Because everybody's allowed
to remix everybody else's stuff.
It's not like you put your own thing up
and you're like, "Don't touch this!
This is mine! Just admire it!"
The whole point of Hit Record is if you put it up there,
anybody can do whatever they want to do with it.
-That's awesome. -It's remix.
It's collaborative remix. -Mm-hmm.
All right, let's just take a little sweaty break.
Lightning round. What is your favorite candy?
-Chocolate.
-Who is your hero? -Rainn Wilson.
-Good. Do you pray? -Sure.
-What is your favorite word?
-Democratization.
-List five pieces of art that give you an artgasm.
-"Alphaville." That's a movie.
"Revolver." That's an album.
"Franny and Zooey." That's a book.
"The Matrix." That's another movie.
Looney Tunes. -Very nice.
Okay, YouTubers, Joe and I wrote down something
that we learned this summer that blew our minds.
Joe, what did you write down?
-Well, i was just watching "Planet Earth."
-Love that. -There are certain trees
in the California redwood forests, living trees,
that have been alive so long, individual ones,
that they are older than the Alps.
Older than mountains in the Alps.
-That's crazy. -Like, one living guy, one tree.
-I've been thinking about this one a lot.
I am more than my body, thoughts, and feelings.
And when I think about that,
it allows me to transcend just a little bit
my normal material,
corporeal existence. -Uh-huh.
-It gives me some real perspective.
So, one, two, three.
Aah!
Blew our minds. Get it?
Blew our minds. Okay.
YouTube generation, here's what you're gonna do.
Do the same thing. Write down something
that you learned that blew your mind
this summer on a balloon,
and pop that balloon into the camera.
Upload your video right here.
I'm gonna watch all of them.
I'm gonna get Joe to watch all of them.
I'd love to hear what you learned this summer.
"Older than the Alps." -[ Laughs ]
-[ Making distorted noises ]
Mother...that's loud.
-[ Laughs ]
That scared the...out of me.
-That should be, like, the bumper
that you use for this segment.