Josh Peck | Happy People are Annoying
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Welcome to the Talks at Google podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with actor Josh Peck. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash talks at Google. Josh Peck rose to near instant fame when he starred on Nickelodeon's hit TV show, Drake and Josh.

But while he tried to maintain his role as the funniest, happiest kid in every room, Josh struggled alone with the kind of rising anger and plummeting confidence that quietly took over his life. For the first time, Josh reflects on his late teens and early 20s in his memoir, Happy People Are Annoying.

Raised by a single mother and coming of age under a spotlight that could be both invigorating and cruel, Josh filled the cratering hole in his self-worth with copious amounts of food, television, drugs, and all of the other trappings of young stardom. Until he realized that the one person standing in his way was himself.

Today, with a string of lead roles on hit television shows and movies, and one of the most enviable and dedicated fan bases on the internet, Josh Peck is more than happy. He's finally enthusiastically content. Happy People Are Annoying is the culmination of years of learning, growing, and finding bright spots in the scary parts of life. Originally published in March of 2022, here is Josh Peck, Happy People Are Annoying.

Hi, everybody. I am so excited to be here today for this talk at Google. We are talking with the one and only Josh Peck and his book, Happy People Are Annoying. Super excited. So Josh Peck, come on in. Join us.

Wow. Wow. Josh, so happy to be here with a fellow Josh. I was about to say, yeah, I don't think I've ever interviewed another Josh. And that's the thing. Now that I've hit this bar, I'm not going to interview anyone else. If I may be bold, may I ask how old you are? By all means, 35.

Okay, so I'm 35 too, and I'm currently working on a film with a plethora of Joshes, just a surplus of Joshes, a lot. They're all in this mid-30s range, and I have thought, wow, Josh was a hot name choice in the mid-80s. It's a hot name.

Hot for the Jewish parents who go, I need a name that's like cool, but kind of is an ode to the people. Let's do Josh. Yeah, it's just kind of like a wink. Like it's Jewish adjacent. Yes. And I want to ask this. I swear we'll get into serious questions, but are you technically a Joshua? Of course, you. Right. Me too, but I don't go by it.

No one does. I don't know what you're trying to prove if you do. Yeah, my mom goes, my mom the other day was like, you know, I named you Joshua. Apparently you won't let anyone else, but I did. I'm like, that's good. If I may ask, because I know we're all wondering this as people logging in, are you in your home or apartment right now? I am in, well, I'm in my kitchen in my condo. Yes.

Okay, so I am getting William Sonoma meets...

subway vibes and I'm here for it. And you are, I like the open concept, no more need for cabinets. Let's be honest. It darkens and closes off the kitchen. Am I right? It a hundred percent does. It a hundred percent does. I will be honest though. My, my girlfriend is regularly like I have bread and there was literally nowhere to put it. And I was like, put it up, put it out. It looks very nice. Just right out there. Yeah. Just buy the right sourdough loaf.

Which is what she buys. She buys a little loaf, which they call a bachelor loaf, and she can't even make it through that. Good for her. And no shade on being wasteful of bread. It happens. I'll let her know. She was going to say she's going to walk around being like Josh Peck said, I can waste bread. And sourdough, fun fact, is one of the most digestible of all breads because it's basically fermented.

I mean, I have major digestion problems, so that's very good to know. Well, are we part of the colitis clan? I mean, I'm not. I feel like I might as well be. Listen, you know, when you have any sort of like Eastern Jew in you, I don't think you can digest things well anyway. It's so true. I couldn't agree more. There's just certain things that I can't. You know, I try to do intermittent fasting because- Me too. Look at this. What are we? What are we doing here? We're the same person. I was going to say, people don't know this. We're in two different rooms in the same house right now.

Yeah, we share a home. Yeah, that's correct. That is correct. I feel bad. I want to jump in and talk about your book, even though I feel like I could talk to you for hours. I'm starting off with the strangest question, but as a native New Yorker, I have to ask it. You open your very, very beginning of your book kind of talking about the night of your conception. And it relates to Carnegie Deli and your parents going there afterward. Have you brought yourself to go to Carnegie Deli with that information in the back of your mind?

Oh yeah. I've been eating at Carnegie deli throughout my life, left and right, like pounding sandwiches, thinking about, you know, what was going on literally, you know, blocks away from this place, you know, sometime in February of 1986, because the first chapter of the book is called sex and deli, because I tell the story about my mom and my dad hooking up and my mom was, you know, just like a nice sort of like slightly innocent, uh,

42-year-old woman and my father was just like a nice, not so innocent, cheating on his wife, 62-year-old dude. Sure, as they all are. Sure. It was a brief separation between him and his wife. Let's call it hours. It seemed to correspond with an opportunistic romantic interlude. Are those the Golden Girls on your mug? Oh, gosh. Yes, this is a Golden Girls mug.

Josh, man, you're batting a thousand this morning or this afternoon. I'm so impressed. Listen, I'm here for you. I felt like you would also be a Golden Girls fan.

I am. But I, yeah, basically in the chapter, my parents, after they hooked up, went to the Carnegie Deli and I kind of give the Carnegie Deli some, that the bubbles of the cream soda or the dill of the pickles must have had some sort of procreation aid that helped to synthesize the icon sitting here before you. And sadly, you know, Josh, as I'm sure you know, the Carnegie Deli is no longer there. I know. I know.

You got to go second ab at this point or cats is, I mean, you know, you got to pick one of the others, but I do miss it. It's not, not a lot of, not a lot of options. Cats is, and yeah, maybe Sarge's if you're like a Murray Hill guy. Which I'm not, but I appreciate that option. The other thing we have in common, by the way, not to get into too serious of a topic, but the other thing we have in common is, and I'm just going to warn everyone who's watching. I, in the questions I ask you, I pull a lot of quotes because for those that haven't read this book, there are,

You like want to ask questions, but there are a lot of great quotes in here. So I like pulled some out. And one of the quotes in the earlier part of the book, you were talking about how you became a comedian. And you said, if I could make you laugh, then perhaps you wouldn't make fun of me. That is something as I'm a stand up comic. I relate to that so much. Does that sentiment ever resonate with you today? Do you feel that still to this day? Any part of you?

Oh, I think so. I mean, to be honest, at 35, being through everything I've walked through in my life and

challenges and trials and great things too, undoubtedly. I am slightly in this place. I mean, there's certainly a people pleasing energy to me and I thoroughly want to be liked and I thoroughly want to do a good job. And yet right on the other side of that coin is like a realization of, listen, if you have something against me, I'm so little interested in it. And almost to the point now, and you can tell me if you have this too,

I have finally gotten to a place where I go, I've realized this about me, Josh. I'm going to say it. I'm a good hang. I'm fun. I'm funny to party. I'm interested. I like to learn. I want to know how you came up with that open kitchen concept. And thus-

Throughout my life, if I was like in an uncomfortable or an awkward interaction with someone, I, me jerk would always go, Oh, I'm such a loser. Why am I so awkward? Why, where was I not enough that that conversation didn't go better. Now, if that happens, I go, it's them. For sure. Right. I always tell people, I'm like, if I have a fumbling, awkward handshake with someone from afar, everyone will think it's my fault. Um,

If I can't get the high five down, I'm like, you look at me, you know it was probably me. But I hope to one day be like, it wasn't me. I do a good handshake high five, and that's the end of it. I'm sure you do. And for the high five, you just got to look at the elbow. You know what I'm saying? So I tried that once and accidentally hit someone's ear. It was a whole thing. I don't want to get into that. This is not my trauma. But no, I want to talk a little bit about one of the coolest, I mean, there were a

But one of the coolest things that I did not know is that you, the boldest man I've ever met, went up to the president of Nickelodeon and just said, I'd like to be on all that. Right. You just said, which is crazy. You went up to him, said that, and that got you onto the Amanda show.

Out of curiosity, that is one of the boldest things I've ever heard. Is that kind of fearless pursuit still a big part of you and when you pursue roles and things like that, kind of saying like, you know what, it's worth that question. I'm just going to put myself out there. Well, you know, the guts of that I think are maybe reserved. I always say that like,

You know, recently or not recently, but a few years ago, I did this thing for the Special Olympics because I'm an incredible person. You were so kind. And it was with this incredible athlete and it was kind of like this trade. So she was a skier. And so she and I had never been skiing before.

you know, city kid, Jewish kid from New York. And she was like, I will teach you how to ski and you can teach me maybe like how to write a script or do something that you do kind of okay.

So we went skiing and it was in that moment and I'm on a bunny hill. I'm like, this is ridiculous for me to start at 30. Sure. This is dangerous. I'm going to pop some sort of ligament in the knee. For sure. And, and I'm going to, and you know what? Microsoft is going to get my orthopedist spell. And so I, um,

And so I basically like, I think like certain things like that, dangerous things are reserved for the young. Like you got to get good when you're young, like skateboarding or whatever. And similarly to have the guts. I mean, I talk about in the book, I got my first movie at 12 years old for Nickelodeon doing this movie Snow Day.

And I'm on set. I'm in Canada, never been out of the country. And I've been doing stand-up comedy as a 12-year-old because I was chubby and ambitious. And for me, it was never going to be Little League.

And so I'm talking to this president and, you know, my dream was to be on this show, all that, which for anyone watching who doesn't know was like at that time, Saturday Night Live for kids. And my mom sort of being the great Jewish mother she is said, you know, that's the president of Nickelodeon. Tell him you want to be on all that. He obviously gets a kick out of you. And I did. And that turned into the Amanda show nine months later.

I just like, by the way, on a very quick side note, if you don't know all that, outside of the fact that all that was a great show, what an insane theme song that that show, that show had a theme song that slapped like very few theme songs did. It was truly amazing. It was truly slap worthy. It just had all the, yeah, it was a great show. And I mean, Amanda Bynes, Kenan Thompson, Nick Cannon, like there were some, there's some hitters that have come out of that show.

Yeah, I mean, and hitters that came out of The Amanda Show. So true. And speaking of all of that, I'm the king of the segue. Speaking of all of that,

I'm curious, you know, in parts of the book, you talked about how you and your mom moved around a lot. And even though you didn't feel it as a kid, at around age 12, you mentioned like that's when it really kind of started to sink in, I guess, a kind of an uncertainty as to where you might be at any given point. I'm curious how that uncertainty around kind of your residence and where you two were going to be maybe changed a little bit once you had the Amanda show or once Drake and Josh happened, you know, was there a really big kind of

tangible shift in how you felt about where you were going to be. Sure. I mean, yeah, you know, I had a single mom. I never knew my dad. And so, yeah,

We know that it's not rare for a single parent to struggle and to have financial hardship and challenges. I mean, earlier in January, I have a three-year-old son and my wife got COVID. So she was sort of quarantined in our bedroom for five days and I had him to myself. And I was like, oh my God, I just started calling. There's no worse feeling because you spend your, hopefully you spend your childhood and your teens quasi-suffering.

you know, liking your parents, maybe like maybe not less than your teens, but as a kid, you like them teens. You're like, Oh, I really don't like them. Twenties. You're like, I do like them again.

early thirties, you're like, I like them, but with a caveat, cause they're actually ruthlessly human and they kind of messed me up in some ways. For sure. And then you procreate and you have those five days I had and you realize, oh my God, I could never have done what she did. And I like was literally calling my mom being like, yeah, you really provide it for me. Oh,

- Oh! - Yeah, it was emotional. So yeah, I think a lot of my life was in some level of financial insecurity that some kids have to deal with, many don't. And I think that really weighed heavily on me. We moved like 11 times before I was in middle school. And sometimes we left in the middle of the night. And so when I got, we moved out to California,

Los Angeles basically was a cheaper lifestyle than New York City. And we were able to like, dude, I remember I was 14. I'm making a couple grand a week off of Nickelodeon. And we move in to an Avalon community, a 1100 square foot two bedroom, the biggest apartment up until then I'd ever lived in. This place had a pool.

A gym, a racquetball court. I don't mean to brag, but we were living high on the hog. And this was like...

Yeah, and I basically, between us and the entire Google community, I lived there till I was 29. Listen, it's better than the Oakwood Apartments. Do you know what I mean? It's Oakwood adjacent. It was one mile down the road. Sure, sure. Yeah, but it was, I was like, this is $2,200 a month. Like our apartment that was 400 square feet in New York was 3,000 a month. So I just couldn't believe that I was having this life.

Yeah. I can't even imagine. Yeah, that's the trick is coming from New York where it's like, you know, everything is insane. It's like, here's a cup of coffee for $17. And then you come over to LA and it's only $16. And it's like, what a good deal. Yeah, in LA, you can sort of like, it's just more in New York, if you were to live in like Queens or Staten Island or something like it's hard to get into the major arteries of the city, right? Like you got to take a ferry, right?

Like, you know, you, you literally have to be on a boat or you have to have the special Staten Island pass for the Verrazano, which is just like, you know, which allows you half price on your easy pass. But, um, this is the most New York conversation we could possibly have, but yeah, go on, go on. I love it. Listen, this is, this is for 11 people. This is for 11 Jews. Yeah, that is correct. And you can all go to Murray's bagels. It's on 12th and 6th. Yeah, go ahead.

But shout out, Ricky. Ricky, you watching it? I just talked to my friend, Rick, where are you going tonight? But I yeah, so basically, we come to LA and it was possible to have like, what was this really comfortable middle class life? And from that moment on, I was like, oh, I'm going to do everything I can to protect this.

Yeah. I mean, I love that. And I think that the, there's going to be a theme people are going to see throughout a lot of the questions I ask, which is, um, there's a fearlessness with which you make a lot of career choices that I really, really admire, um, immensely. And I think one of the first ones, well, there were a thousand, but one of the ones other than your Nickelodeon president story was the interesting thing. You know, you talked about when Drake and Josh was ending that the two of you, you were like, we're going to go on our own paths. Um,

Was there any sort of anxiety or fear in you about kind of like, I have been kind of a two-person act for, I think it was eight years. I was a two-person act and now I'm going solo. Was there any kind of anxiousness around how to re-identify yourself as Josh Peck versus as the second part of Drake and Josh?

Well, I think at that time, there wasn't the model of someone like Miley Cyrus, right? Who really had this perfect transition into young adulthood, super mainstream. And so basically, if you were leaving a kid's show, you knew you had your work cut out for you.

Because it was this blessing and you had made people happy and it was this great thing, but that you would always be sort of relegated to that kind of television, that kind of stigma, unless you really superseded that and broke the mold. And that was just rare because for every Miley and Zendaya, there were a thousand other people that perpetuated the stereotypes.

So I think it just was like Drake and I, when the show ended, I think I can't speak for him, but I think for me, there was just this idea of like, got to get to work. There's, there wasn't a clear path to like, it wasn't like we got offered some, you know, movie deal together or our next three things were, were sort of spelled out. It was like, no, no, you are now entering the ranks of every other 19 year old actor trying to make it in LA.

And you're public and you have like a little bit like you might be able to get like a reservation at a cool restaurant, but you're not jumping, jumping the line at an audition. That's for sure. So I think we both sort of wrestled with that a little bit. Well, the interesting thing about when you I mean, I think this is probably through your whole career. But when you started going out on your own, there was again, I told people I was going to be bringing in quotes and I'm bringing in a quote.

There was a quote that really sucked to me, which was, funny thing about taking your life into your own hands is once you have it, there's no one to blame. It's now solely your responsibility to make something happen. And if it falls apart, well, that's on you. That quote really resonated with me because I,

It is a very interesting balance of drive and passion. But at the same time, that is a boatload of pressure for someone who's not even 21 to be putting on themselves. How did you navigate the idea of being driven, being focused, and at the same time, not kind of buckling under the pressure you were putting on yourself, regardless of what the outside world was doing?

I think, you know, it is the road less traveled. And we make this sort of agreement with the universe and the world where, you know, there are the jobs that we...

that we sort of hold in the highest regard in our society, right? Jobs with high barriers of entry, lawyer or doctor or something like this. And like, while it takes an extreme amount of dedication and that I don't think I'd be capable of, like it's a little bit, the path is, if you can stay on the path, it's sort of clear that on the other end of that will be a certain level of security and lifestyle.

I gave that up at an early age because I just knew that like I was good at this thing that basically if it worked out, I was going to have I was going to be really overpaid. I mean, my life today at 35. Sure. I mean, not just overpaid financially, but just like.

I can't believe how lucky I am in some of the opportunities I get to do, or even, you know, even when you work a super long, you know, you know, Josh, you're an entertainer, you're a comedian, like,

Are there moments for you, I would redirect the question and ask like where you're going up at the cellar at 11 o'clock at night at a standup club and there's a little part of you that thinks like, wow, like I basically like hung out today and now I'm gonna go work for the next hour and I'll crush it. And then, but like, look at my life. Like I'm glad I didn't have to sit behind a desk, right?

Well, I balance both of those. But yeah, I mean, definitely, you know, a couple weeks ago I was doing shows in the Bay and someone came up to me and they were like, oh, we waited all week to see this. And I'm sitting there being like, really? Like this? I don't think so. So, yeah, I hear you.

Yeah, it's an interesting balance, I think. I'm just lounging with you. I'm like, oh, yeah, sure. No, I think like, but you get it. Like we're both artists and you take that risk. And, you know, listen, for a lot of it, there were, I don't think, you know, I still at 35, there's a lot of data to support that I'll hopefully be able to make a living doing this for some time to come. Sure.

Still, at 35, I go like, oh, I don't have a degree. I don't know how to weld. I've never soldered anything. I can't fix anything. If it hit the fan tomorrow and I couldn't do this, I go like, well, what would I do? But that was the risk I took, sort of accepting that it was all going to be on me. It's truly entrepreneurial, right? It's not just artistry. It's like...

If you're willing to be your own boss and take on that risk, there's a big upside, but it can be scary. Yeah, I did want to just tell you, I talked to all of your agents. Everything's being canceled and they need a welder and someone who solders. So they're rebooking you completely. Can you handle that?

Dude, I think about that constantly. I mean, I'm not sure my agent would help me get welding jobs, but seriously, I have very few skills. I don't know what I would do. I could teach yoga, but I would have to get accredited and that takes money. It does. It does. It does. I think it's all a pyramid scheme, to be honest. Yoga or welding or both?

Don't get me started on welding. No, I feel like because whenever you – I don't know. I take a fair amount of yoga and I feel like they're always pitching us like the next step to your practice is getting accredited as a teacher. And they're like – and for the low, low price of $2,200, I'm like what? Yeah.

I'm like, I know that I'm going to get paid 20 bucks a class once I become a teacher. It's going to take a long time. You only have to teach like 200 classes. But if you spend another $50, you get a case of Herbalife. And how cool is that? That sounds outstanding. I just want as much athleisure wear as possible. Listen, I was going to wear athleisure today and I felt you deserved better. So I didn't. It's kind of you. I'm a sweet soul. Another theme that runs throughout your book is,

is a lot about looking for a father figure, which put a lot of George Michael in my head. But there's a lot of that theme that runs through. And you talk in the first half of the book about how you were looking for a father figure. And toward the second half, that kind of falls off a little bit. I was curious if there was a particular moment where you kind of made that shift of finding that search from maybe productive to destructive, or where you kind of felt like this is not serving me to look for this figure.

Instead, I'm going to kind of forge my path away from that. Was there a moment or was that kind of a slow shift? Well, I think like I threw logic in the face of emotion and in my heart, knowing that like I didn't grow up with a dad and that was impactful in ways I never could have imagined because I just thought you can't miss something you never had, but you surely can. And so at a moment, you know, like I remember at 17, 18 years old, I was like, all right, enough already. Like,

having a dad wouldn't have served me because I certainly didn't want some pragmatic second voice in the equation telling me like, maybe, maybe you should go to college. Maybe you shouldn't move to California. Maybe this is crazy. Maybe you should weld. Yeah. Yeah. Have a trade, learn how to repair refrigerators. And, and so all those things combined, I was like, you know what? He didn't want me. I don't want him. This seems like a fair trade, but it was like,

I think I say in the book, it was like the embers of a poorly put out campfire. Like it probably won't set your tent on fire or it might ignite the entire forest. You know, you just don't know.

And so I think for me, there were these moments throughout my life where I could see myself like setting men up in my life for failure because I was making them these like surrogate father figures or just like these bad patterns that I had accrued because I never faced the dad stuff. So look, I'm still like my, one of my biggest father figures is my father-in-law. Like, because he's just-

Yeah, dude, he's like a real man. He can weld the shit out of something. It's always welding with you. We're always going to come back to welding. Yeah. He's got so such welding skills, but I like, I,

I like finding apostles in all forms. It's, it's genderless. It's professionless. It's like, I don't care your background. Like I think the apostles in my life have come in every single form, but I certainly think that you could see a trend of, of me, um, collecting father figures to this day. Definitely. Well, uh, you kind of just teed up our next question. I don't know. I didn't send you these in advance, but you know, um,

So I want to touch on the apostles section, small section of the book, because, again, I warned you all there were going to be quotes. And here we are. You would ask Ben Kingsley for advice, which, by the way, that sentence is terrifying right there. You ask Ben Kingsley for advice. I'm like, oh, no, can't. But what he said to you, which I love and I want to relay this because if people don't have a chance to read the book, which you should, this quote really resonated with me.

Um, he said to find your apostles, the people who support you to be what you want to be, who push you to be your very best. And if you find yourself in a room with someone who doesn't make you feel that way, leave immediately. Um, that really resonated with me a ton. Um,

You mentioned some of your apostles that you found in your life from your mom and Paige and Rami. Do you feel as though as you continue to progress through your career that you are still, I mean, I don't want to say collecting, but finding and anointing new apostles in your life as you continue to progress?

Absolutely. I think like finding apostles throughout your life is a constant thing that I don't think ever goes away. And I think your apostles shift to the place in which you are in your life at that time, like people that can speak to the expertise of your experience. And I found for me, if you're wondering if you have an apostle in your life, think about the last person who was willing to hurt your feelings to better you.

And, uh, whenever an apostle says something to me that I know is right, I have this immediate reaction, which is screw them. I'm the worst. They're probably right, but it's too late. Oh, screw it. I'll just do it. And, and that's it because.

An apostle has to be telling something you couldn't have come to on your own. And that might be painful to face in that moment. But on the other side of that, if you walk through it, if you face it on life on life's terms, for me, it's almost always been met with an extra level of serenity or just some reward on the other side.

Yeah, I am curious, and this is maybe a harder question to answer. Do you feel as though

You have been declared or anointed an apostle to someone else. I better be. You're one of mine. How's that? That's what I like to hear, Josh. I want to be, you know, of all Josh, I want to be an apostle to Josh's everyone. That's and I think you are, especially because you're on it. I think it was a movie, I think, or television show. I don't remember. But with multiple Josh's, that's a great place to be an apostle for all the Josh's.

Josh's. Yeah, I'm working on a film right now and there are like plenty of Josh's in the movie and we were just saying beforehand like, you know, early on I just, it's a hot name in the 80s. It was killing it.

I'm telling you, I'm hoping that Duhamel and Hartnett are on this movie. It's just a Josh parade from the 90s, early 2000s. Yeah, I just if there could be a movie with Duhamel, Hartnett and Gad and Peck. Can you imagine? I'm already I'm I already bought a ticket and this movie doesn't exist. I've already purchased a ticket just now.

- Gad and I, obviously brothers. - It has to be, it has to be. - Yeah, can't play our brother, that's for sure. Dumel, no way. - The really good looking next door neighbor. They're both on either side of you, just really attractive next door neighbors. - Maybe we're competing brothers. - Oh. - Oh. - Okay, so let's abandon this interview. We're gonna write, I have the afternoon free. We're gonna get this down. And it's called "Josh the Sequel," though there wasn't an original.

So I want to touch briefly on the fact that I didn't, what I knew of you before reading this book is that, you know, I knew that you were a talented actor. I knew that you had done some social media stuff. One of the things that I did not know were some of the hardships that you went through.

And you talked about how kind of after Drake and Josh had finished that you started, I don't know if dabble is the correct word, but you dabbled with a little bit of drug use. And one of the things that you had said, is that a fair description, by the way, dabbling? Am I good with that? Yeah, dabbling. A little dabble. You took a little dollop. But you talked about the first time that you had tried cocaine and you talked about the rush that you had felt. It was a different rush you'd ever felt before. Yeah.

Earlier in the book, you had talked about a rush that you had felt the first time you got laughs at the dinner table, a rush that I am very familiar with as well. Did those moments feel similar in the sense that it was filling up a part of you that maybe hadn't been tapped before? I think that's a great question. So the reality was, was that like,

Oh, I guess this is a good answer. I'm thinking about the answer before I say it. It's going to be great. I already love it, personally. I have this quote in the book where I say, you know, funny people are usually funny for very unfunny reasons. And so I was overweight since I was, you know, since I can remember. And then I got extremely overweight sort of while I was on Drake and Josh. But

I was overweight. And being overweight can be the manifestation of a lot of things. It can be the manifestation of a love of food and dining and experience. And it doesn't come with anything negative. And I used to grow up watching other kids who would have a belly, be able to whip off their shirt and jump into the pool as I'm like putting on my second turtleneck, deciding what part of the shallow end I was going to hide in. And

For me, being overweight was a manifestation of a lot of insecurity and discomfort and things that I needed to face. So when I found comedy, it allowed me to not feel like I was at a disadvantage walking into situations, that people weren't going to make a snap judgment about me because I was going to win the mover with my wit and intellect.

And similarly, you know, so then when I lost all the weight, I figured I would be like delivered and I would have been like all better. But of course, I was just the same head in a different body.

And so what I found in drugs and alcohol, especially being 19, and I just wanted to be typical. You know, I didn't want to be the kid actor. I didn't want to be the ambitious young man. I just wanted to be young and stupid. And I think that was what was attractive to me about that kind of experimenting was like, oh, this is typical. This is what I've seen in movies. This is what kids do.

not knowing that it would have the effect that it did on me. But similarly, it was me using, like me eating was born out of discomfort and needing kind of like a medicine to relieve me of that. And unfortunately, all of that stuff had incredible diminishing returns. Like it worked well, but then it became problems quickly. And then it was just problems. Yeah.

Yeah, I totally understand that. I mean, not to compare our lives, but man, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was like, I think a little ice cream is going to make me feel better. And then like, you know, 30 pints are in my freezer and I'm like, I don't feel better, but it tastes great. What do we go with? What's our, what's our brand? So I am a diehard salt and straw fan. Diehard. Do you know, you don't do salt and straw.

You know what? Salt and Straw is a little, what's the word? It's like bougie is not the word. I like it. I thought you were going to say that. I like Salt and Straw. It's just a little bit fancy for me, to be quite honest. Interesting. It's a little artisanal for me. It is artisanal. It is artisanal. Fair.

You know what, though? Here's the thing. I like their flavor. I swear we'll get back to questions in a second. I like their flavor choices. The other thing I will say is one of the creators, her name is Kim Malik, and I just love what she's doing. She's just she's out there. She's just doing her best and trying to make something and support local business. And I'm about it. So this is an advertisement for free. Go get salt and straw. What are you going to eat? Out of curiosity, and I swear we'll get to questions. What ice cream are you eating?

First of all, shout out my mom. One of my good friends' mom's name is Kim. So shout out Kim's everywhere. I love a good Kim. You know what? I'm going to go on a limb and say we support all Kim's, no matter what. Karen's less. Kim's less.

Yeah, Kim's steak. Don't rock it, Karen. No. But if I'm eating ice cream, okay. Okay. I like like I'll eat a Haagen-Dazs. Okay. Yeah, I'll do a Talenti perhaps. I mean. I'm not a Ben and Jerry's guy. I'm not a – I'll do a Breyers and or a Dreyer's.

Sure. Is there Myers? Let's just round out the threes. I don't know. I'm not sure. I love how everyone is watching. It's like I wanted to hear about Josh Peck and we're hearing about Iceberg. This is way better. Trust me. Oh, good. Okay. Excellent. Well, so I'm going to start shifting a little bit.

You had an incredible resurgence on an app which was unfairly taken from the world, which was Vine. The interesting thing... Yeah, I know. Peace and love. The interesting thing that you talk about, as someone who ended up having such a wonderful run with Vine, you talked about how you were a little hesitant at first to dive headfirst into Vine. I'm curious...

Was the hesitation about a new medium? Was the hesitation about feeling like, would this invalidate my acting, how I'm viewed? Kind of where was that hesitation coming from?

I think in 2013, there was no data or there were no case studies like we have today of that the separation between social media and traditional TV and movies is infinitesimal if there at all. Like it's just, it's ever evaporating. And to do one without the other is to spite yourself. It just...

But in 2013, Will Smith didn't have a channel on YouTube and Jack Black and The Rock and Kevin Hart and all these people. You're good friends, yeah. My homies. Man, yeah.

Look, I did a YouTube video where I ate everything The Rock eats on his cheat day in a day. And it was an incredible experience. You know, 800,000 views. Great vid. I know. Thank you. I'm still reeling from that. But, you know, I think I just...

was under the impression that we were still in the 90s where it was like an actor's life had to be perfectly curated and what you showed the world had to be very calculated. And maybe that's still true for Timothee Chalamet, but it's not for me. I mean, certainly there are those people like Timothee, like DiCaprio, like Tom Hardy, who are such undeniable movie stars that they're living a different existence to me. But

I think, yeah, that was my reticence. But as soon as I saw the reaction and that I was able to access an audience and see what they liked and see what they didn't like. And up until 2013, look, it was the reason why I was afraid of YouTube. YouTube had been around five plus years at that time, but I knew that it required a lot of work. Like you had to have a camera, you had to be able to edit, you had to have like this big setup that was intimidating to me. But

of shooting myself on my camera and uploading in an instant that that I could do. So I think that's why Vine really spoke to me at that time. What's interesting, though, is I mean, you mentioned the YouTube piece, like one of the things you said about YouTube as someone who was or is incredibly successful on YouTube, you said you were doing well, but it was not the well that you wanted. So I'm kind of curious to hear more about that and kind of how the idea of

you kept running into success, but maybe on a consistent basis, it wasn't the success you hoped for. Certainly. I mean, I think like, I just, I think it was, you know, in my career as an actor, like I knew that, that people look at, at something like Drake and Josh or whatever, and you have sort of this apex thing that means so much to so many people that if you don't sustain that level, it's considered like you failed or that you had a misstep.

I knew that that's public perception, but that who I was was a journeyman actor who went from job to job and that maybe it would happen in my 30s, maybe it would happen in my 40s, maybe it would never happen. But there was enough time and data to support that I still had some chances.

But what I didn't have at 25 was security and consistency. And I was always at the behest and at the mercy of the gatekeepers. And that was starting to drive me a little crazy. So that's why with Vine and then eventually, you know, Instagram and YouTube, I was like, oh my gosh, finally, I'm seeing a direct ROI, like a return of investment from the hard work that I put in. If I really...

Stay consistent and I continue to produce content. There's more opportunity. There's, you know, more great feedback from the audience and there's more, you know, sponsorship. What's interesting though, and I, because there's a, there's a piece that I found super fascinating and it's very admirable about you. And I want to make sure it doesn't get lost in the greater book.

You talked a little bit about toward the earlier parts of the book, how after Drake and Josh was done, you were making, I think you said probably a couple movies a year and you were not feeling, it was not necessarily enough money that you were feeling financially secure. You actually, there are a lot of people in this world that don't really understand how agents and managers and PR people and lawyers all take percentages out, but you were explaining how like you get paid X, but you're really getting Y. And you talk about some of that stuff and how you maybe weren't 100% financially stable.

I am curious as to how you found the strength

to then make these pivots because these pivots are fine. If you're super financially secure and you pivot to Vine or you're super financially secure and you pivot to YouTube, it's not that hard because you have a lot of backing. You specifically were making pivots in the face of not as much security. And so I wonder where that strength came from. Again, this is a theme. This fearlessness came from where you were like, I'm going to make this pivot and I'm going to take this risk and it's going to be what it is.

But I would dare say, like, I don't know if pivots are born out of security, right? Like, I think- Okay, that's interesting. You know, as a diehard Shark Tank watcher-

I can't to see where this is going. Yeah, let's go. When a company is having success, early success, you'll always see one of the sharks will ask like, and what salary are you taking? Right. And if it's anything more than the amount that they just need to live and survive,

you know, a lot of times that'll be a red flag because they'll be like, oh, you're getting too comfortable. Like I need someone who's hungry. And, or if, or if someone just comes from very sort of comfortable, you know, like they made a lot of money in a traditional job in finance or whatever, and then they had a great idea. But, you know, a lot of times these sharks will look at them and they'll be like, at your age, with your level of comfort, I'm not sure you're going to be hitting, you know, the pavement every, every day and every night.

And so for me, like, yeah, I was born out of,

you know, I say like, if I was Leonardo DiCaprio or something like what I have tried social media, hell no. Just be like, Scorsese, you want to get lunch? But yeah, do Shutter Island too. Yeah. But I, um, I think I just really wanted, I, I was looking for something. I was looking for another Avenue. I wanted to find some more security. I wanted to find an outlet to be creative where I didn't have to ask permission, you

You know, I always, I say in the book, like I, I've always been jealous of the musician or the writer who could sit in front of the typewriter or behind a guitar and do their art in a realized way. Cause you can't really do that as an actor, unless you go to acting class or maybe call a buddy over and you want to rehearse the scene you need.

you need permission to do it. And so, yeah, I just, you know, in going where it was warm and allowing myself to feel like, wow, like every time I lean into the social media stuff a little bit more,

it seems to meet me more than halfway. I'm going to try this. Like I don't, you know, if, if movies and TV was like the hot girl that never liked me, like social media was like, just like the nice person who liked me for me. And that's what we all hope for. I think, um, I, I'm going to ask you one more question that I want to jump into Q and a, because we have some interesting stuff in there. Um,

My last question, and I don't want to, I'm not trying to spoil the book for anybody. So still 100% worth a read. You talk about in the closing of the book, how you spent your life searching for happiness as if it were a destination. You actually categorize it as if it were a Byzantine place, I believe is what the exact term was that you used. And you went on to say you've discovered in all of your journeys that happiness is overrated.

I would love for you to elaborate on that for the folks that are listening, because I found that that part really, really interesting.

Well, I think it, I became less interested in this idea of happiness, which is just sort of this transient state of mind and being that happens temporarily, usually sprung on by either like things that are very valuable or just things that are totally like superfluous, shallow, happy things like, oh good. Like, you know, the new episode of Housewives is on the DVR.

But for me, it was about getting something closer to contentment and realizing that the universe demands balance.

And that too much sun brings about a desert. And that the bad times are here to teach us and the good times are here to remind us what we're fighting for. And that each of those things will come in and out of our lives, like basically, you know, in a cyclical way until the end of time. So I try now to not become too attached to the good or the bad and just kind of seek the

that, that, that middle. Yeah. The one, one great piece of advice I want Scott is, um, happiness doesn't mean anything if you don't have sadness to contrast it with. Um, great one. I know. I know. I don't remember who said it, but let's say it was me. Um, Josh, you are wise. This guy. Um, I'm going to hop into some questions cause I want to make sure that people, uh, get some of these questions asked. I'm probably going to butcher this pronunciation, but I believe it's Heba. Uh,

asked a great question. She said, did you ever struggle with your identity or have others challenge your identity in a positive or negative way? And if so, how did you work through this as you moved from childhood to adolescence to adulthood? Oh, thank you, Iba. It's so nice to meet you.

Look, I talk about in the book, like my identity was really wrapped up in this profession that I started at nine years old. You know, I became an actor at nine. And I remember thinking in times of insecurity, professional insecurity, a lot of those that people saw because I would talk about it on YouTube. Then I was like, if I am not this, then who am I?

And allowing the anomaly of my adolescence to inform everything I did going forward instead of

being ruthlessly human and being okay with this idea that I can be 30 and not know what's next for me or be unsure that I've done all the right things. That's allowed. And I don't have to be perfectly driven and sharpened to the tightest point just because I had a good amount of success as a kid. So I think, yeah, letting go of a lot of that identity stuff

You know, it was a form of ego death and it hurt. And it was like and sometimes I was like, I don't know how I'll ever be able to fully let this go. But in every turn when I was like, I got to let this go to have access to happiness. I got to let have to let this go. So it's not haunting me. Every time I just felt like a new sense of freedom.

Yeah, there was a great, again, go read the book, but there's a great section where you talk about a woman who was kind of walking through a lot of things in a longer section of a meeting you were in and talked about how you kind of have to be willing to let it all go. And I felt that incredibly, found it incredibly motivating. All right, on to the next question. We have a great one from Shannon, which you can take this any direction you want. What's your best piece of advice?

Shannon, thank you so much. Boy, what's my best piece of advice? Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, couple top line things. In your car, you should have in your door some kind of antacid. I'm a Tums guy. Papsid, but yeah, go ahead. Great. Some sort of anti-inflammatory. I like to have Tylenol and Advil on deck.

And as some kind of allergy pill, you know, a Zyrtec perhaps, an Allegra if you're so bold. You know, this is just good. You know, it's kind of like buying toilet paper. You know, it's like you're never going to not need it. It's just a matter of when. And then here's some other advice. Do nice things for other people all the time as much as you can.

At the very least, at the minimum, you will just feel better about you by being of service to your friends, family, coworkers, even in the Jedi level as if you can do something nice for a stranger. But in a professional sense, it really, you start to accrue good karma and goodwill so that when people have opportunities to return the favor, you're top of mind.

That's great. I mean, let me say something really broad spectrum of advice over here, but both were great. One is pretty much like, hey, here's how you make your car a medicine cabinet. But this other one was really, really great to both I'm into.

All right, there's some great questions, so I'm gonna keep on going. I hope I'm pronouncing your name right. I believe it is Shamit. Shamit asked an interesting question 'cause I didn't get to talk to you about "Mean Creek" 'cause there wasn't a lot of time. But Shamit's question was, what was the decision-making process like to be involved in a project like "Mean Creek," which was a hard pivot from Nickelodeon? And did you ever expect it to become the cult classic that it is today? - Shamit, thank you so much.

Well, I'll tell it with a bit of a story. I'm 14. I'm in California. I'm doing the Amanda show. Eventually I'd be doing Drake and Josh six months later. I went to performing arts high school in New York, but that was kind of like all my only training.

So that when I got to LA, I had this manager who would send me on auditions and the feedback for a while was nice kid can act. Oh yeah. I wish it had been the other way around. Like the kid's a jerk, but what an actor. That's what I think about you. Yeah.

So she was like, you gotta get an acting class. So I started going to this acting class in the San Fernando Valley with a couple actors who were also 14 named

Evan Peters and Evan Rachel Wood and Mae Whitman and Penn Badgley and like all these insanely talented kids, Dakota Fanning. - A bunch of losers, yeah. No talent hacks over there. - And me. So obviously I've named us all in sort of order of success. - Sure. - And I fell in love with acting. And I also knew being as heavy as I was at that time, that like,

I was always going to be relegated to the bully or the best friend because, you know, we've done such great work with body positivity and all sort of like the strides we've made. But at that time in the early 2000s, that was like not existent.

So then a movie like Mean Creek comes around and for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's this indie movie I was in when I was 16. And it's about these kids on this boat trip. And I played a bully, but he was like this deeply tragic figure who desperately wanted friends and had like a learning disability, which sort of hindered him from connecting. And you really like grow to love this like sadly tragic kid. And I just like,

I was like, this is the kind of stuff I want to do. And it helped instigate me losing weight because I knew that another opportunity wouldn't come like this for maybe another decade. So I think that was the impetus for that movie. Oh, that was a great answer. And then I think it played in Eccles, didn't it? It did. It probably played at the Eccles at Sundance. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And there's a great story about that, which I'm not going to tell you all, but you should read the book because it's in there. All right. I'm going to try and fit in two more questions because I know that we're coming up on time, but there's some interesting stuff in here. The first one is going to be from Carrie Cassidy. And the question is, who do you look up to in the industry? Carrie, thank you. I mean, he's not an actor per se. He probably could, though. I love Pharrell. He has been my hero since I was like...

19 and he's he continues to be just because of his level of excellence in everything that he does like you know fashion apparel music he just and what i liked about him and and you can see it now almost he's like reverted back kind of when i used to say this it was when he was kind of just like the producer who would guest on stuff and then also he had nerd which is my favorite band

But I was always like, you want to be Pharrell. I was like, because there ain't a restaurant Pharrell can't get into. And I said, and he's very wealthy. And he knows, and he gets to work with like the most elite people, but he could probably walk down the street. This was like, you know, 15, 17 years ago. Before the big hats. Yeah. Then he wrote a little song called Happy and it was all over. But like-

I mean, he's, but yeah, he's still, I'm watching the Kanye documentary on Netflix now and he makes a great appearance in it. And I'm like, Pharrell, you just do it right. I mean, he wrote happy and you say happy people are annoying. So I'm just going to put this out for all the tabloids. Josh Peck said Pharrell is annoying. Do we have that? Do we have that headline? But that song was huge and money makes me happy. So maybe...

Sure. Obviously. Listen, money makes me happy too. Afterward, if anyone just wants to Venmo the two of us, we're just going to roll around in it. Yeah. Just go at the Joshes. Yeah. That is our Venmo. We have a shared Venmo. People don't know that. All right. Let's get one more question in here because there are so many good ones. This last question, I think this is the perfect last question from Lauren Daly, is what's up next for you?

Oh, thank you, Lauren. I, you know, when I interviewed Neil Brennan on my podcast, Male Models, shout out, uh, uh, Male Models. I, I, uh, he, I remember he said, you know, you'll probably get everything you always wanted, uh, just not in the way you expect it. And then he took a beat and said, actually, you'll probably get what you'll probably get what you always wanted, but by the time you get it, you won't want it anymore.

And that's always sat with me. So I'm really lucky. I have this incredibly small part in this Christopher Nolan movie that I'm doing right now that I can't believe I somehow snuck my way into. That's great. Thank you. So I'm doing that. And, and I've got this little movie called 13, the musical about a bar mitzvah coming out for Netflix at the end of the year, I think, or sometime. And then, and then we'll see what's next.

Oh my gosh, what a great answer. And by the way, love musicals and was bar mitzvahed. So I will be watching that. I love that.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, please at your homes, give a round of applause for Josh. The book is Happy People Are Annoying. I don't say this lightly. I flew through this book in probably three days. I absolutely, absolutely adored it. And what a good hang you are. Thank you so much for coming today. Josh, please, everyone, round of applause for Josh. What an incredible moderator and comedian. And thank you so much for doing this. I love chatting with you. Awesome. Well, thanks and come back again.

Awesome. Sounds good. Thank you guys.