Ep. 63 - Ray Comfort's Audacity: A Review and Discussion with Actor Travis Owens
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I'm Hemant Mehta. And I'm Jessica Blumke. And you're listening to the podcast for FriendlyAtheist.com. You can now listen to all of our episodes and see show notes at FriendlyAtheistPodcast.com.

Recently, Ray Comfort, who you all know because he made a video about bananas and how they're the atheist's worst nightmare, and not too long ago he made a movie called 180 about why abortion is a totally horrible, horrible thing. Well, Ray Comfort just came out with a movie called Audacity.

And this is one of those video on demand. You could download it for 20 bucks. And that's what we did. Jessica and I both downloaded this movie. We watched the movie and we are going to discuss it with you guys for the first time.

And what we're going to do, we'll give you a synopsis of the movie and then we'll... We've been... We've watched it. We've taken notes on it. And we've said nothing to each other about it. No, it's been hard. We've waited until now to talk about it. I feel like disclaimer is in order. Don't rent this movie. Like, I'm sure nobody will, but don't. Don't. It's not...

Don't do it. I'll disagree with you. You should rent it, but you should do it with a big group of friends and then do it like one of those nights where you just want to laugh. I mean, like if you have a drinking game for it, maybe. Like I was not drunk when I watched this movie, which was the worst mistake.

And when should they take a drink? And by the way, this is an anti-gay movie. So this is one of those movies that is condemning homosexuality. When should people take a drink if they're going to do shots with this? Every time you want to punch Ray Comfort in his face. Because he does make an appearance, sort of. He does appear in the movie. Okay, I think we need to...

Okay, we'll back up. I'm going to make up the drinking game as we go. I'll write it down. Here's what we're going to do. We'll go through the plot. For those of you who may not see the movie, and I can't imagine why you wouldn't, we're going to go through the plot, and then we'll back up and talk about what happens. So it starts off, there's two main characters really in the movie. One is Peter, who...

As far as I can tell, I still don't know what he does for a living. Something on a bike. He's a bike messenger. He's a bike messenger. No, they're very illicit about he's a bike messenger. Whatever that means. Because I don't know what he delivers. He's on a bike. At some point he delivers a number. Anyway, he's on a bike. He's super Christian. Super Christian. But just became Christian like a year and a half ago, he mentions. And now he's fervent about it. But he has difficulty evangelizing to people. Yeah.

So he wants to talk about Jesus, but he doesn't really know how to. And when it comes to homosexuality, especially, he gets really tongue-tied about it. So, you know, he'll run into gay people. At one point, he runs into a gay couple, a lesbian couple, on an elevator. Yeah. And...

They're obviously together. And he wants to say something to them. Well, because the premise is they get on, he's on the elevator, they get in the elevator, they're holding hands and they're smiling. He goes, oh, you look happy because people talk to strangers on elevators in this universe, which don't do that. And the gay couple says to him, we're getting our marriage license. We're so excited. And he's like, oh.

And they do like a close up on his back jeans pocket. And he's like pulling out this gay, the Christian pamphlet on homosexuality. He just happens to have locked and loaded. Like at all. Like I like to imagine he has pockets for every scenario, like atheist, gay people, polygamy. And like, he's wearing cargo pants just to stuff them all in there. I was thinking like a, like a,

Like a trench coat with several different pockets. Anyway. That would be creepy. Yeah. So he's about to pull out the homosexuality pamphlet. And then decides not to. And then decides not to because he doesn't really know how to say it to them. And I'm going to forward. We'll come back to this scene in a moment. Yeah, yeah.

But this happens throughout the movie where he wants to say something, but he doesn't. Let's talk about this elevator scene because I want to talk about it now. He gets out of the elevator. I'm sorry. The lesbian couple gets off the elevator. Peter is still in there. And then all of a sudden... Well, they pass the guy in the suit who sees him holding hands and does this like, oh, brother, I...

Yeah, the lesbian couple goes to get their marriage license and this guy sees them and he's pissed off at their existence. Obviously. Which I will note that in a similar fashion to Left Behind, which we also watch for reasons, they do a really good job of making their party look like assholes.

Yeah. They're honest about how we think they would act in these situations. It's like they set up their own straw man on either. Anyway, so. So the lesbians go get their marriage license. Peter, who is played by Travis Owens, who we'll talk to in a little bit. So excited. Peter is still on the elevator. The elevator malfunctions and it's like the beginning of speed or something. Yes.

The elevator malfunctions. It's a slight malfunction. And eventually Peter's able to get off the elevator. No drama. Like it's stuck halfway between floors. And then like the doors are a little bit jammed. The doors are really opening. But he just, he opens them up after talking. Well, he hits a call button and he was like, this is what's happening. They're like, okay, try it now. And he's like, okay, it's working. I have to go. And the guy's like, from the call button, like, no.

You have to stay there to make sure nobody gets on. Right. So Peter gets out of the elevator and the operators like, don't leave because people will die. Yeah. If they get on the elevator after him, people will die. So he gets, he chews some gum, um, gets a piece of paper. It says danger. Do not use. Yeah. Cause he's not going to stick around. He has work to do. Whatever he does. I'm fine with this character development. Um, so he leaves suit guy with the shit face, uh,

Comes back. Sees the danger sign with the gum stapled to the elevator. And then hears the lesbians coming, question mark? Something like that. I think he hears the lesbians coming. And then he sees them. And the guy, as he's running past, what's his face? He's like, make sure nobody gets on there. You got to help me, dude. And the guy's like, okay. And then he hears the lesbians coming and he goes and he says, again, uses the words, if somebody gets on that elevator, they're going to die. Which I don't know. Anyway.

So the guy comes back, sees a lesbian coming, pulls the sign off the door, crumples it up, and throws it away and walks away and lets the lesbians get on the elevator. Which is really the Christian thing to do right there. Which, Jesus. And then...

Next thing we hear... The guy comes back. Our hero comes back, sees the elevator door closing with the... He's like, no! Like, literally, it was like the third... You failed to save the lesbians. It was like the third prequel of Star Wars when Darth Vader is like, for like 45 seconds. I've never seen Star Wars. That's fine. Wait, any of them? No, I don't think so. Like in the prequel? Okay, we're going to talk about that later. But yeah, he's like, oh no!

Oh, the lesbians. Dives onto the elevator. Can't stop it. And then you hear screaming and crashing, lesbians dead. And then smash cut, Travis wakes up in bed. Travis? Peter is the character. Is Travis the actor? Travis is the actor. Peter wakes up in bed. It was all a nightmare. Okay, so. Which I was, I don't, like the emotions I felt when he woke up in bed were both like horrified and relieved.

Because I was like, if this is the ride we're getting on, that people are dying in elevators, like, I'm a thousand percent on board for this movie. So, obviously, this is all a giant metaphor that the Christian was supposed to save the lesbians from impending doom. He didn't do it, and he let the lesbians die when he could have saved them. There's our heavy symbolism right there. Yeah. No, I mean...

I hate to grant this movie any merits, but it's after watching this movie, I'm like, if they actually feel that way, if they actually feel that like saving me from hell or whatever is like saving me from like crashing the elevator, like,

I mean, I get why they're like all up my ass about it, but... Because you have to save them, man, if that's how you feel. Because you have to, like, if they really go home feeling that guilty that, like, my friend is gay. Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller, he's answered this question. Someone's asked him, like, how do you act when someone gives you a Bible and they think he's going to be mad about it because he's an outspoken atheist? Yeah.

And he says, I appreciate it because I know that if they really feel I'm going to hell, I appreciate that they're giving me a Bible and reaching out to me like this because they want to help me. If the stakes are really that high, then like, of course you're going to do anyway. Okay. So he's in bed.

Wait, didn't it start in the comedy club though? Oh yeah. So there's a side story going on here where Peter, the character is in a comedy club. His friend is a standup comedian who is apparently funny, but I didn't catch any of the jokes. As someone who has done standup comedy, what'd you think of our standup comedian friend?

First of all, I was baffled by his existence in the movie. Because he doesn't fit into the plot line. He did not drive the plot anywhere. He's like a friend of Ray Comfort's who they wanted to just stick in the movie. I will say his impersonations, which is all his stand-up. Yeah, his stand-up is just impersonations. They weren't bad. Like, they're kind of...

funny but like I mean they weren't like they were spot on impressions they were good impressions but what the hell does that have to do with anything which the writing in this you and I are both human beings who make our living as writers right

how offended are you by the writing of this movie? Because I was like, my heart hurt by just like the, like, and I'm not even, I don't even write like write screenplays. I just, there was no plot to this movie. Right. That elevator scene we just talked about took about, let's say 10, 15 minutes altogether. Yeah. And then when they moved on to the next scene, it was, it's something different. So he, well, so, uh,

I want to just mention one thing about the, uh,

So this elevator scene, he gets so disturbed by it and he wakes up. So we'll keep going. He wakes up from the nightmare and he's like, I could not, I should not be letting that happen. I should have saved those lesbians from the elevator, even though that didn't happen in real life. And the next thing he does is goes online to search. How do you talk to people about homosexuality? And then he says, how do you even evangelize to homosexuals? And guess who he finds on Google? Rafe fucking

Comfort. Ray fucking Comfort. So he finds Ray Comfort videos and all of a sudden. And watches them in their entirety. We do a super cut of Ray Comfort talking to random strangers on the street, which is what he does. Oh my God.

Where Ray Comfort is asking random strangers about homosexuality. I was squirming in my seat watching this. It made me so uncomfortable because these questions that he's asking these poor people were just, were awful. And like, I wrote, wait, wait, wait. I almost forgot Ray Comfort is the worst. Because he is the, like, these like personal prodding questions he's asking strangers, which again, if he's...

I don't know. I don't, I just, I'm so offended by it. When he talks to people, he basically says, can I catch you on camera? I'm going to ask you a series of questions. And they always say yes. I mean, he has a really unflattering camera angle. Because he films like from a hip. But basically, the whole thing is he starts out like, are you born gay? And everyone pretty much is like, Except for one gay guy.

guy except for one gay guy who said I chose whatever but most of them are like yes you are born gay and then Ray Comfort kind of turns the tables where he's like well are you a born adulterer are you born wait okay I have a question are you a born fornicator is fornication this is I know this is such a softball question is fornication different from just having sex no

But I guess you can't say sex in a Christian movie. So fornication is the biblical word. I didn't know fornication was like having sex outside wedlock because he said... No, it's just sex period. But so they're saying all fornication... If you have sex, you're going to hell? I think the assumption is fornication is the bad kind of sex. Unmarried...

Oh. Sex. So, are you a born fornicator? And all these people are like... You're an adulterer. Well, no. You chose to commit adultery. You chose to have sex outside of marriage. You chose to cheat or do whatever. And then he says, do you think you're going to heaven? Everybody says yes. Everybody says yes. Although the one guy is like, if I don't repent my ways, probably not. And I'm like, all right, well, this guy can go. But he was like, okay, let's run through the Ten Commandments. And so he runs through all the commandments with every single person. Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain? Have you ever...

stolen and everyone says yes i've done all these things so you're telling me you're a liar you're a fornicator you're a blasphemer he loved blasphemer he said that a lot um tells everyone they're going to hell and cut it in such a way that everybody was like well thank you so much for telling me that yes thank you for saving me he always says does that make sense and they always says they always say that makes sense which i think ray comfort needs to learn the difference of

thanks because I agree with you and you helped my life and thanks, please leave me alone. Like, I don't know what to say to get you to stop talking to me. Here's my problem with this question. He basically says something like, you know, are you a born cheater? No, you choose to. Then he flips the table. Oh, so are you born gay? And they're all like, oh, I guess you choose to be gay. As if he made a point. By the way, there are videos online with him. Uncut?

uncut interviews. And you could tell that in the final product, he is editing these to suit his needs, which is his right to do, but it is kind of deceptive. But the problem I have with these random interviews is when you interview strangers who don't talk about this stuff regularly, you're going to catch them off guard. And it's, to me, it's unfair that you're using these people who have no business talking about this stuff. Like talk to experts. Right.

Don't talk to random strangers as if they are proving your point when they don't know what they're doing. To me, it's like the difference between saying, I'm going to like maybe talk to the Jehovah's Witness who comes to my house or I'm going to talk to like a pastor versus I'm going to like assault people outside of church and be like, do you really think that Jesus was real? Like, I'm not going to...

That's a shit move. And like, nobody comes out looking good. They're not the experts here. So for me to use their answers to prove my point, it's like, oh, you couldn't handle the big boys in a sense. And he kept saying, I'm not judging you, but... But God is. Yeah, which... By the way, when I did the sold my soul on eBay thing, I did an interview with...

I don't think it was Ray Comfort, but it might have been his co-host. In Bookstores now. They did the same interview with me where, are you a good person? Have you ever lied? So are you going to hell? Whatever. And, you know, you can try to finagle your way out of the questioning. It's a magic trick. There's a way to get you to admit you're a bad person. And Jesus has to see. The only way you can come out on top is saying, like, well, I don't believe in hell, so this is all non-consequential to me. Right. But, like...

Even then, I'm sure... I don't know. So Peter watches these videos in the movie and he comes away after watching like five minutes of Ray Comfort Supercut thinking, yes, I know how to evangelize now and I have to. He's like nodding his head as he watches. Oh, this is a little hard. And so all of a sudden, he goes to work where he runs into his colleague, Diana. What is their relationship? Yeah.

I think they're just colleagues at work. But at the end, it seems like they're like best friends. Yeah. Or like love interest. No. They never really... They never do anything about love interest. No. They just kind of keep it as... Because they'd be too interested. There's like tension there. But really, they're just coworkers. Okay. I do want to say this. I hated this movie. I did. I did not enjoy watching it. However...

I blame the writing and the direction. I found the actors kind of winning in this movie. Is that all? Like, I thought they were likable. Yeah. And, like, when they had little, like, moments of, like, bad jokes, it was tacky, but I thought

really winning. They did well with the script that they had. They did. And that's not just because we're going to be talking to the actor. I would be saying that anyway. I found them winning, especially the lady person. She seemed, I don't remember her name. Molly Ritter is the actress's name. Molly Ritter. She's not related to John Ritter, is she? No, I don't think so. And Diana is the character she plays. By the way, to his credit, Ray Comfort said explicitly he was not looking for Christian actors. He was looking for good Hollywood actors. They had a real casting call for this. We'll talk to Travis about that when we talk to him. I mean, I thought

But they found real actors and they were good. Diana, the character in the movie, she talks to Peter and basically he's talking to her about religion, which she's like, she wants to shy away from. She doesn't want to talk about religion with him. But at one point doesn't, don't they start that religion that he's mentioned? She's a Christian. And doesn't she say something about like, like goes right into like, how do you feel? Like, do you think gay people need to be stoned? Which like, like you jumped right there. Like,

When he says he's a Christian, she starts like, she gets a bad look on her face. Like, I don't like Christians because I know what they're like. Which she reacted in the way anyone would react if you knew Ray Comfort was going to talk to you. No, that's exactly right. But my...

This whole movie is based around like Christians and non-Christians, but the non-Christians in the scripted part of the movie seem to have never met a Christian before in their entire life. Like when somebody tells them they're like a Christian, it's the same way like you or I would react. I can't even think of...

to anything like dramatic enough to like for these people's reactions. It's always bad and it's always big. It'd be like if it was somebody my age who I worked with and I knew really well and all of a sudden they're like, I love Glenn Beck. I'd be like, wait, what? Like, do we have anything in common? But they're so appalled by like his mere suggestion of being Christian that- He didn't say, oh, you're all going to hell. No, he just said like, I'm a Christian. He's just a nice guy who says I'm a Christian. She was like, hey.

Yes. So they start talking about this and she asks him, she's like, oh, you're a Christian. I'm like, oh, so you think gay people are going to hell. Right. And he's, he says to her, basically, it's not exactly like that, but let me show you some videos I found online. So,

It was a very short scene, but he gets out his computer basically. He's like, let me show you these videos. Oh, look, another Ray Comfort supercut of him talking to people about homosexuality, which is exactly what you do on kind of the first time you bring up religion, I guess. Yeah, no, that's softball.

And at some point after they do this again, Diana tells Peter her brother has cancer. She's very upset by that. Obviously she doesn't know why it's happening. She's mad at God. And Peter says he's going to pray for her.

And then the movie takes a really weird turn. And this is what Jessica's talking about with the writing. Yeah. We just cut to a scene in a convenience store. Just in the convenience store. Out of nowhere. Trying on sunglasses. People, yeah, random people are in there. There's a gay couple in line. To try on sunglasses. I don't want us to pass this by. They're in a convenience store and there's a line to try on the sunglasses. I don't understand why that was where we land. This is what you do in a convenience store. You go there to hang out like you would a mall.

But he was by himself, just like trying to... Anyway. And all of a sudden...

Peter is picking... He comes to the store to pick up some stuff. And there's a shady dude. You know he's a shady dude because he's wearing hobo gear. And he has a creepy look on his face. And you know some shit's about to go down. Yeah, I'm trying to decide if I'm more annoyed that there are zero black people in this movie or so grateful that Ray Comfort didn't cast the one... The black guy as the bad guy? I just like...

Anyway, it was a white hobo, basically. He was a white hobo. So the white hobo. Long hair, like hippies. Decides to rob the store. Everyone's freaking out, understandably. Peter's stand-up comedian buddy, who this is his only purpose in the film, is in the car waiting for him. Yeah. Realizes this is happening. Like, oh, there's a robbery going on in the store and I'm in the car outside. Let me text Peter's co-worker, Diana, and tell her Peter's getting robbed. Knock, knock.

It's serious. There's a gun. Pray! Four exclamation points. Yeah, he's hiding in the car, by the way. He's not doing anything useful here. I mean, I want to think that he also called the police, but I think he text messaged first. Which is what you do. They're not going out, by the way. This is not his wife or his girlfriend. No, no. Just a random colleague at work.

But, I mean, she needs to get out and pray. Yes. So they're in the store. The guy is, like, going crazy. Like, the cops show up. And so it's Peter and then the gay couple. And they're, like, all on the ground. And this is all happening. And everybody's screaming and yelling. There's a woman. Robber is shocked, by the way, when he hears sirens. Like, who called the police? Who called the police?

I don't know, literally anybody? Yeah, right? This is what everyone's trying to do. So he takes a hostage. He takes the woman who's in the store, one of them, I think, takes her hostage, comes outside to the cops and says, if you come after me, I'm going to shoot her. But before, this is the excellent screenwriting. So before, when they drop on the ground,

Peter knocks a can off a shelf. And by the way, the sound editing, which I know isn't a thing I should care about, but I can't help it. Like, he knocks a can off the shelf and it makes zero sound. It just, like, falls into oblivion. Which I only bring up to say he looks at the can. Peter sees the can. We get a close-up of the can. It's spinach, by the way, because he brought up that he likes Popeye, so it has to be a can of spinach. Oh, my God.

Oh my God, I just got that. You're welcome. You're welcome. So he grabs the can of spinach. Wait, but before he says, shoot me, don't shoot her, shoot me, shoot me. Oh, right. So the hostage takes the girl and Peter says, don't shoot her, don't shoot anybody in the store, shoot me. Because you'll have to answer to God is his first thing. And then he says, shoot me. And then he gets a gun to his head. He's like, no, don't shoot anybody, which...

That's fine. I mean, I'm fine with that response. I would probably do the same thing. So anyway, robbers outside. Or don't shoot anybody. Or don't shoot me. So robbers outside, hostage. The police have no idea what to do. They're just standing there. They're just standing there kind of yelling. And then Peter gets the can, clobbers the guy along the head. He falls.

He falls. Doesn't clobber it. He throws it. He lobs the can at the guy's head. And a can of spinach knocks the robber out cold, apparently.

And that's it. Peter saves the day. Saves the day. And then the gay couple comes up to him afterwards. Oh, before we get to the gay couple, not only does the stand-up comedian friend in the car text Diana, he's okay, and she starts praying for him. My favorite part is Peter texts Diana, and he's like...

He's like, we got the guy. Or like the robber's down. And then sends like a series of funny clips of him. Selfies. He's taking selfies. With like, with the can of spinach. Like, I'm hitting the guy. Which like, that's a traumatic event. With the robber in the car.

He almost died and he's like, let me take a happy selfie with the robber in the car. And the cops let him. Yeah. Like this is the most normal thing ever. Which this is what I think when I wrote down, like, what is the relationship between these two people? Like, are they between him and Diana? Are they? In a better written screenplay, they would be going out by now, but we have not established that in the movie. It's just kind of assumed that they love each other. Kind of. I guess. Like the two attractive white people. That's what attractive white people do. Is it? I don't know. I'm not one. Um,

So at this point, the gay couple comes out to Peter. Yeah. They say, thank you so much for doing that. We want to bring you out to dinner. Yeah. And which is very nice. He's like, I'm going to drop my friend off. I'll meet you at this restaurant. And so they all meet at this restaurant, all three of them. And Peter,

I don't know. How does it come... He said I'm... He said... He brought up being Christian. I think the gay guys asked him, why did you do that? Why did you risk your life to save us? That's exactly what it is. And Peter said, it's because I'm a Christian. That's like what you do. And again, one of the gay guys is like, has the Ray Comfort reaction look like, oh, you're a Christian. So you probably hate the fact that we're gay. So...

And he does... Okay, so that guy's clearly set out to be, like, straw man bad guy. And, yeah, like, that initial reaction is kind of shitty. But, like, what's-his-face immediately begins, like, again, with the pamphlets. Pamphlets on pamphlets on pamphlets. Yeah, Peter has pamphlets on him. All over the place. And he, like, starts bringing them out. Like, again, it's not me who hates gay people. It's, like, you have to do this. God hates gay people. And so guy A is, like, mad and...

How dare you? Which like, yeah, I don't know if, if I'm there with my partner and the guy is also like giving me a pamphlet telling me why I'm going to hell. Thanks for saving me, but bye. Yeah. Um, and that's what he does. He leaves. And he does say to his, to his partner or husband or who they don't really establish that if you better not bring any of these pamphlets into our house, which I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm still on his side. I'd be furious. But the partner says, I will stick around and talk to Peter because I think I owe him that much in a sense. Yeah. He saved my life. Yeah. So Peter ends up evangelizing to this other gay guy. Yeah. And the thing is, like, they definitely do the thing where they show time elapsing, courses happen, pamphlets are read, and more pamphlets. And the best part is in addition to the pamphlet... Uh-huh.

when it comes time, I don't know if it's time to tip the waitress. He hands her, Oh fuck. He hands her a million dollar bill, which is really a gospel tract, which if you're a waitress, then it has to be the worst possible way to get a tip. Not,

Not if you're a waitress. When I was a waitress, that did happen to me. You got a Christian tract? And holy shit, I lost my mind. I was so... And in lieu of tip, which... In lieu of a tip. Not in addition. Not in addition to like... Oh, that would piss me off too. I've gotten a few pamphlets like in the book, but usually... But one time it was like the... Oh, I was God beside myself. I was so mad. And by the way, that pamphlet and the million dollar bill are all examples of product placement because you could buy them on Ray Comfort's website. Yes. I love that. But my...

The most, okay, in this horribly unrealistic movie, the least realistic part of this movie was when the, and it was like in a montage scene, the waitress came back with another waitress and asked for another million dollar bill because they're like, oh,

I love this pamphlet. We want to pass these around to our friends. Yeah, no, that's not going to happen. But like, and then they ended up with the guy kind of doing the like, oh, you have some good points sort of face, which. So yeah, as if the gay guy's gonna go home with a pamphlet. What's the next scene in that guy's life? Breaking up with his boyfriend, obviously. Joining a monastery. So at this point, the dinner is over. Uh,

Peter goes to visit his friend at the standup comedy club where he dropped him off before dinner. And Diane, uh, Diana rather meets him at the comedy club and tells him, I watched those Ray comfort videos. I am starting to believe they did like kind of a, uh, like a super cut of her. I think it was like in the midst of the pamphlet scene of her, like on her laptop in her dark apartment.

like watching these videos, which is so compelling. This is what you do in a dark apartment. So compelling to watch. It's like somebody clicking around on a laptop. So she shows up.

Comedy is happening. Oh, my God. Big quotation hands while you say comedy. And then she has an emergency. Emergency. Someone texts her. She has to go home. It's about... And you hear on the other side, it's her sister-in-law's brother isn't doing well. You need to come watch the kids. Right. So she runs. Takes her car, which has very little gas. Yeah. Starts to drive home. And at some point in the middle of this, whatever, few-minute drive to home, her car runs out of gas. But she passes a guy hitchhiking. Yeah, there was a guy hitchhiking. She passes him.

And stops on... She stops because the car runs out of gas, doesn't know what's going on. And... She starts texting people, like... I don't... I don't know. I need help, whatever. And crazy hitchhiker dude comes up. He's a clown.

And starts banging on her window like he's gonna assault her, basically. And she's screaming, trying to call, being the most reasonable human in the world, trying to call the police, doing whatever. Like, crazy man, just, like, trying to break into my car right now. The guy picks up a rock. The guy's lines, by the way, are like, oh, no, no, no. Yeah. Like, crazy.

In the script, it clearly said yell. Like muffled yelling, indistinguishable. The guy picks up a rock, breaks her car window with alarming ease. Like way too easy. Like it shattered like pain. It was awful. Pulls her out of the car. And it turns out she had been on a train track and somehow didn't know. And he was pulling her out to save her from the train. So you see Hammond.

She thought he was trying to be mean to her and thought he meant her harm, but really he was saving her. Yeah. You may not listen when someone's pounding on your car like that, and they may seem mean, but if you don't listen to those people who really have your best interest at heart...

You need, like, you're going to be in trouble. Which is so, like, I don't know if victim blaming is the right word, but, like, a person who's having a normal reaction, a normal response to a thing, but, like, little girl, you didn't know what was best for you. This guy knew what was best for you. That kind of, it gave me shades of

By the way, all of this that we're saying, this is not our interpretation of the metaphor in the movie. They literally had a news camera come on afterwards and they show a scene of like the news saying, you know, this man saved this woman from the train tracks. And then they, I wrote this down. They literally said on camera, I hope I'm paraphrasing this anyway, you may try to save someone and they won't listen, but you have to do it anyway because these things may not end well if you don't. They may not like you at first, but...

Those people who are being saved, but they will appreciate what you've done for them. Basically, they laid out the metaphor, threw it on you in case you weren't smart enough to pick it up. And we cut to the final scene. Diana wakes up in a hospital. Wait, I'm sorry. Okay, I know that's the final scene and I know that's a really important place to get to. But before we do that, when he's in, I just need to talk about when he's in the comedy club and something happened.

that the guy comes on and there's a, there's a premise at part of it. He was that the comedian friend said to our hero, when are you going to do standup? And he was like, Oh, maybe next week by that. I mean, never, which like, whatever. Right. So Peter is an aspiring standup, but he's never going to do it. He's afraid or whatever. So the guy comes out and said the host, the, the Australian imitation guy leaves the stage. The host comes out and was like,

Our headliner is late, so we don't have a headliner, which I hate. Which is weird. I have not been doing comedy very long and I'm not like prolific at it by any stretch, but that's not what happens. You're not like, we don't have a headliner. We're done. And then, and then offer free dinner to anyone who wants to come on stage to fill time. I mean, as soon as people were, as soon as he was like, Oh, the whatever, like there's no more show. People are like, how dare you? I want my,

I want my money back, which, like, I don't know. You didn't pay money to get into that show. You just bought drinks, first of all. So somehow Peter ends up on stage to fulfill a lifelong dream, which, like, why is this in this movie? And he's like, oh, I see you guys like imitations, because everybody has imitations. I can do an imitation of Russell Crowe. Russell Crowe. Russell Crowe. And literally he steps next to the microphone and goes, do not entertain!

Unquote. And that's his... That's it. And people lose their shit. They love it. It is the funniest thing they've... Which, like, I just... I guess I'm confused about many things in the movie. I just don't get his journey. Really, like, what is...

He's been thinking about doing standup comedy for a long time. When he finally gets his big break, it's a two second imitation. That's fine, but that's not a set. I just, I don't. Okay. What is this movie about? So we got a few minutes, but no, I need you to, there's, I can't give you an answer. There's no answer to the movie. The,

The Diana gets up from this hospital coma that she's in because the crazy man assaulted her. I don't actually know why she's in a coma because she was saved, but she wakes up from the hospital and Peter's there with flowers. What is the relationship? Yeah. And she tells him she's been reading the Bible. And by the way, we finally get a picture of her home. And it turns out there's a picture of Diana with her lesbian partner.

bombshell. It turns out she's the lesbian who needed to be saved all along. And all of a sudden she switches sexual orientation because Peter's in the hospital now, uh, to save her and Jesus saved her. And now they're all in a happy relationship. So I watch it through my fiancee.

And I don't know why he watched it with me. He's, bless his heart. And he just said, after when the credits are rolling, I'm just so angry right now. Yeah. Which I think is the only real response to that. Because it's not, like, it's not a fun, bad movie. It's the same thing as, like, Left Behind. It wasn't a fun, bad movie. It was just a... Although in hindsight, I feel like I liked Left Behind a lot.

There was a storyline in Left Behind. There was a storyline. Here was just a series of vignettes that weren't really connected, but they kind of were as long as Ray Comfort was your connecting thread. Baffling. Like no one will ever watch a Ray Comfort movie and then say, oh, homosexuality is a bad thing. I mean, it's cool. Who's going to do that? The thing is, that's not...

think that's his goal though. I don't think his goal, I think his goal is not to convince people that homosexuality is bad. I think his goal is to convince people who already agree with him to like go out and evangelize against homosexuality. Right? That's true. Because I don't, he's not changing anybody's mind. He knows he's not changing anybody's mind. Right? Right? I think that's probably accurate. You would hope he figured that out by now. I don't

Okay. So here's what we're going to do. Okay. Uh, yeah, you could tell the movie made us angry. Um, it's, we will say in credit and not because we're talking to him, the acting was fine. Like I said, they went through a real casting agency. They cast real actors. The acting was fine. They did the best with the script that they had the script weird. Um,

And so here's what we're going to do. We are going to talk to Travis and we're not going to talk about, I don't care about his opinion on the film. It's not his, I'm not asking the actor in the film to trash your film. Because importantly, Travis has since come out saying that he's not religious right when. Yeah, Travis is actually very pro LGBT rights. And so is Molly Ritter who played Diana, which is fascinating. Yeah, so I think that's the important thing here. Not necessarily.

Necessarily just that like he was in this. And that's why we wanted to talk to him. It's like you're in a Ray Comfort movie that's really anti-gay. I wonder what Ray Comfort's like. But you're totally for LGBT rights. And so is your co-star in this movie. Is that weird? That's what I really want to know from him. Yeah, I want to know what their conversations were on set. Right. We can ask him. So we will ask him that. All right. We'll be back in a little bit. All right.

All right, you just heard our review and analysis of the film, and now we're fortunate to have Travis Owens with us.

Travis Owens is an actor and comedian who stars in Ray Comfort's new movie, Audacity. The movie is about the horrible things that will happen to you if you're gay. Travis plays Peter, a very devout Christian who wants to spread the good word, but sometimes hesitates because it might be awkward. Because he hesitates, bad things happen. But what's really interesting to us is that Travis is actually very supportive of LGBT rights, which makes his appearance in this film really interesting to us. So, Travis, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How did you first hear about this film? Like, how did you get involved with the production in the first place? You know, the shortest timeline that I have on letting you know exactly how I kind of came upon it was my manager contacted me, said, hey, I got a role that's a lead role in a pretty well-produced feature.

And, of course, you always say yes, and then you kind of look at everything, and then you do the audition. And I didn't have too much information on the film besides just the fact that it was faith-based. I'm not religious whatsoever, even though I was raised very, very religious. But, you know, I just went to the audition. It wasn't unlike any other audition I'd been on and just kind of went from there.

I think that's one of the questions people might have about this film. I mean, we talked about this earlier, but...

of the many criticisms we have of the movie, one of the things we actually thought was pretty good was the production, was the acting. I mean, this looked in a lot of ways like a real movie. And that's, I mean, you know what I mean? When you talk about a faith-based film, that's not always the case. And you're telling us that from your experience as an actor, this really was the same as any other audition you would go to. It wasn't like weird or different because it was a faith-based film. Yeah.

Yeah, it actually wasn't at all from the point that I got into the casting room. I mean, the casting director, from my knowledge, is not a religious casting director whatsoever. So they even hired outside the church with the casting director, all the crew, to my knowledge, because I've worked with many of the other guys on my projects after Audacity to get everything kind of running. And I know for a fact that they're not religious, so...

The one thing I can commend them on is they actually went outside the church to do this because it's excruciating to see any faith-based film, to me, as an entertainment lover in general.

So they actually did the right thing there. And I commend them for that. And we did speak to Ray Comfort before doing this interview. And Ray Comfort said he did that on purpose. He did want to find the best people to put together this film because he, I think, is sick of the same production quality or lack thereof that we often see in 50s productions. Yeah, nobody's seeing them. Nobody's seeing religious things because if you're not religious, it's just a beating. Right.

Right. Like they put their message beyond quality of writing, quality of production, quality of acting. Everything is all about the message. It's so heavy-handed. Oh, God. It's so heavy-handed and you can be watching the best scene in the world and when somebody says Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, immediately you're offended and out of the scene. So –

At what point during this process, I mean, you know it's a faith-based film, which fine. I mean, they're doing really well lately. But at what point do you actually figure out, oh, this is what the movie's about?

You know, towards, I think that I got the complete script about a week before filming after some kind of rehearsals of scenes. And I knew that the only thing that I knew is that the goal, the mission of the movie was from the beginning to open up the conversation between religious people and gay people. And that to me sounds like a great starting point to something. Right.

And that's as basic as it was. So I was like, I am interested in that kind of topic of discussion. And then it started to kind of form and evolve. And there were so many scenes in the movie that were even taken out because Ray himself even knew that they were

too heavy handed. Uh, so it was, yeah, it was, they had to add on scenes after, after the fact. And, you know, they did a lot of, um, what did they did a lot of, uh, uh, study cases of, of, you know, mixed, mixed people as far as religion, beliefs, everything like that to kind of give their, um, reviews of the movies, just the general population and,

As when they showed people drafts of the film to get input and then revise stuff. Right. I'm really curious now what was kind of added in at the last minute.

You know, the restaurant scene was one scene that was added in, which I think was a great thing to do. The one that you were in? Right, that introduced my character to the gay couple. And we had that discussion where you kind of see both sides of it, although it's –

I believe, honestly, that it's still a bit heavy handed. But again, I'm not a religious person whatsoever. Right. But we talked about this. We talked about this earlier. This was a scene where the two guys that you saved in a convenience store treated you out to dinner. And there's a discussion between you and one of the gay guys about religion and homosexuality and a nice musical montage with the million dollar bill. Yeah.

Which I said in the earlier one, I've gotten one of those as a tip, and I did not react the way your waitress reacted. I did not enjoy that. You know what? I was a server at one point, and if I would have gotten one of those, I would have crammed it back into their mouth. I couldn't deal with it better than I did. As far as product placement goes, that's pretty ingenious because they are selling those bills on the Living Lawyers website.

So you don't actually know the necessarily the full scope of the film or what angle it's taking until kind of close. I mean, it's way too late for you to back out at that point. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you're contractually obligated at that point to to finish the job, which it wasn't. It's never it's never a thing about legality to me as an artist. And that's the unfortunate thing about an artist and what we do.

worry about and what we consider with, with the job. It's not, am I in some hot water here? Am I treading thin lines here? It's if you're an artist, hopefully you are, you know, hopefully you are making people think and hopefully, you know, it, it sounds funny, but hopefully, you know, I have Christians because I, the interesting thing was is after it finished, um,

I had Christians that came up to me and just were like dumbfounded at the fact that I wasn't religious. And I was just like, no, man, no. It's called acting. Right. Gay people didn't see that I was an actor. They're just trying to act. They always had an excuse that I was just some horrible money-mongering entertainer. And even Christians were like, I'm really, really disappointed that you don't share –

And you guys were actually the only ones that wanted to have a discussion about it because Ridley is fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think – I mean I'm a writer for a marketing company and I can 100% – like I've written things that I wouldn't necessarily ascribe to. Granted, my face isn't attached to it. But like it's your job. You're a professional actor. That doesn't – you can't be expected to always do like these perfect –

politically correct role. Right. And you told me this a little earlier too, which is that as far as acting goes, this is like almost 180 degrees different from who you are as a person, which makes it a fun, challenging role in that sense. And you're

It's not all. Yeah, it's, it's not almost, it's 180 degrees of me. I mean, I, my, my little brother's gay, my best friend's gay and my sister's gay. And the first thing I did is, is took this project to them and said, Hey, this is what it seems like I'm doing here. And they were, they were excited for me. They were genuinely excited because a, um,

they know that they want to see me do that role because they're like, that is so opposite of you that I'd be interested in even seeing you play that role. And I'm a comic. This is not a role that...

is strictly for a comedic actor. So that's the one thing. It's a dramatic role, yeah. And we brought this up a little earlier too, which is that, yeah, you are an actor, but you are a stand-up comedian. And this is one of the things we talked about because one of the things we were discussing earlier is it seems like the stand-up comedy aspect of the movie seems to come out of nowhere, but it does play to your strengths. And I think your colleague's strengths, who is also one of the stand-ups in that movie,

Right. Well, the funny thing is I would love to – actually, I haven't asked Ray this for whatever reason. Maybe I just keep forgetting. But I would love to see if the reason that I was cast is just because I was a stand-up comic because Ray himself is a very –

very big like practical joker on set and what have you so I don't know if he was like kind of fascinated with that about me or not but it was it was weird kind of the whole time but they there was a lot that was improv in the movie by me that I think that they wanted that aspect to be there just to kind of lighten the mood of the movie yeah I really wish they had done more with like you doing the stand-up at the end because especially right come from a

comedy background. I was like, you got up there and I'm like, oh, I'm going to see some Christian stand-up comedy, which I am really, really excited. Well, it's really funny that you said that because the whole room was set up to do stand-up and Ben Price, who is a very, very religious comic in Australia, has a set that is kind of catered toward

like a G-rated audience. And I go up every night here in Los Angeles at the biggest clubs out here that are definitely not G-rated. But I would label myself a PG to PG-13 comic. So when they came to me and they were like, hey, do some comedy. And I was like, okay, and got on the mic and they would like panic.

And they would run to me and be like, keep it clean, keep it clean. I was like, I am clean. That is about as clean as it gets in LA. Right. I was like, what do you want me to do? I'll keep it clean. I'm not an idiot. In the movie, you do an imitation of Russell Crowe. I'm wondering, was that part of a longer set and they just cut it down to that? Because that's the fastest stand-up set we had ever seen. But the audience loved it. And the audience loved it in the movie. The quickest victory of all time in stand-up, yeah. You own that room.

Yeah, exactly. No, it was just a little – I can't remember. I think it was –

In the beginning of that script, it was just like, it was a little, hey, Peter does an impersonation or something like that. And I kind of ran some stuff by him. And I ended up doing the Russell Crowe bit. And I, you know what, I think it was, in the script, it was a Russell Crowe impersonation. And then I improv the Russell Crowe line. Awesome. So they just wanted something Russell Crowe, but that was my realm to be in. So you're right. They were really into Russell Crowe.

this script just keeps getting better and better like i don't know if you know guys but i know all of lame is right i'm into this no just you guys like god's spell did you did you have any uh personal discussions with ray comfort uh on the set

You know, there was only, this was really funny because I, I'm smart enough to know with religious people, especially evangelists, where I am in my beliefs, which are not really something that I'm confused about daily. Um, where I am, it's like, I, I wanted to kind of keep my distance and not talk about that just in, in the, in the, in regards to professionalism. And, um,

I think there was one time where we were outside where he started to just kind of ask some questions. And it wasn't really – it wasn't too intrusive at all. And he kind of like had me rate my level of belief. And I was just – I was pretty honest with him. And he just started just one-on-one kind of talking. And it wasn't really – he wasn't preachy about anything, but he kind of –

I guess he had wanted to have that conversation with me for a little bit, but he kind of restrained or didn't. That is sort of what he does. I mean, that is him. Is that legal? Can he ask you what your religious beliefs are?

I don't know. He's not hiring or firing him based on it, so I don't think it would make a difference. Well, I mean, that's a good question, though, Jessica, because I was thinking about this today, like how offended everyone is by anything these days. And I guess I'm just not from the place where I get offended by...

like things that, that people say to me in like a one-on-one situation. So when he brought it up, I was just like, Oh no. And I was open about it and I didn't really, you know, say, I don't want to discuss this or anything like that. But, um, it was pretty cordial. I mean, it was as casual as it could have been. Was he really involved in the process? Uh, of the process of the movie? Of filming the movie? Like was he on set? Yeah, he was on set. Um, he wanted to, which is, uh,

He was on set about every day. He was doing a lot of behind-the-scenes footage. He was really, really good about letting everybody work, letting everybody have their space. So the cinematographer and the lights and sound and everybody like that, he would kind of just check in and say, hey, do you mind telling me what's going on here so I can get some behind-the-scenes footage? And everybody was pretty cooperative. So he just kind of liked to be around and check it out, and he wasn't really –

He was never a bother, actually. How much did you know about Ray Comfort before the film? And at what point did you realize, oh, so that's who Ray Comfort is? And did you see the banana video? Gotta ask about the banana video.

You know, before the audition, my manager usually does a due diligence on what projects I get on. And she represents a lot of clients, so she does as much as she can as far as the surface level due diligence on anything as far as the legitimacy goes.

So she looked at that. I didn't really look at much besides like street interview stuff. But the street interview stuff I looked at was really like, I don't know what other people think of it, but it's kind of what I've, I come to expect from somebody that says like, they're very, very religious. So if you were to tell me, Hey, this guy produces a, a faith-based film and he owns a faith-based production company. I would expect to find some videos online of that guy doing some soapbox pre

preaching somewhere so I didn't really but he's got so much content out there that I I can't sit down for three hours to find what I'm gonna be offended by not like you know what I mean yeah though your character is watched quite a bit oh sure yeah it's on the back of my eyelids when I sleep so yeah but um yeah so it was I mean it was really really towards the end of filming once I got like

a whole aspect of, you know, like what, what he did, what his stance on things were. That's, that's about the time I knew that he did one 80, um, those kinds of things. So banana video, yes or no. Cause that's part of it. It's a very important question. I did see that. I did see that video, but the video to me, like,

I didn't know if they were kidding. Do you know what I mean? Join the club, my friend. Nobody knows for sure. He maintains that it was a joke. Yeah, Ray Comfort says it's a joke. However, it's not a joke. I don't know if it's a joke. I don't know. If it's a joke, it's weird because if it is a joke, it's almost like there's a hidden genius there. Yeah.

Because it was so dry. It's made to go viral. Do you think Ray Comfort is Andy Kaufman-ing us all? Yeah, it's got to be. It's got to be Jesus and Andy Kaufman. Here's my theory about that, and it is founded on nothing but my own ramblings. But my theory on that is that he made it in seriousness and then saw its reaction and then pretended. Sure, it's a joke. Oh, you know, it's like The Room by T.C.

Oh my god. I can't think of his name. Anyway, have you ever seen The Room, Travis? Yeah. No, you know, I haven't. Tommy. Tommy. Tommy Wiseau. It's just like this movie that was, it's notoriously bad and it's been like shown in midnight shows and like gained this cult following. This is so off the point. But it was made in a very serious way. In a very serious way and then he realized that people were kidding about it. He's like, oh, I was totally in on the joke. We're like, Tommy, no you weren't.

Well, I can say, I can tell you, and you can use this to the best of your knowledge for yourself. He is a very broad sense of humor. So I don't know. I don't know if that helps with anything. No, it does. It does. He's not your Ricky Gervais of subtlety. So just know that. I also want to point out that when we asked Ray Comfort about you, because...

You and your co-star, Molly Ritter, he did say this, and I want to quote this to make sure I get it right. Ray Comfort said this, knowing that you guys are pro-LGBT rights. Travis and Molly are both excellent actors and wonderful people. They are also extremely professional, and we really enjoyed working with them and getting to know them, what they believe is their business, which I thought was a real...

That's a classy thing to say. Yeah, it's a very classy thing for Ray Comfort to say. So kudos to him for going for merit instead of trying to find other Christians. Yeah, and I did see that. And a lot of people, especially within the last two weeks, especially like gay people with...

The ruling and on how they know how Rey stands on the ruling and things like that, it's like you do have to give credit where credit's due. And you really have to applaud someone that says something that is bigger than what you thought they were. And I do – honestly –

I'm telling you just person to person about Ray. He's a really, really nice guy on set. He always asked me if I needed some water, anything to eat, if I got enough to eat, how the day is going. So I really do have to credit the fact that he's a really nice, genuine, giving guy that just –

Yeah.

But he is a good guy. Yeah. Which, that's kind of what you hope for. Well, and haven't, wouldn't you say you and I have had this interaction time and time again where, Travis, on this show, we try to get people from... We've talked to people who disagree with us on a lot of things. And we think that's really important is to get different points of view. And I will say, without fault, I don't think we've ever interviewed anybody who, like, we flatly disagree with. And there have been several who I wouldn't go get a beer with after the podcast. You know what I mean? And I... Yeah. Yeah.

I think the way people stand is, I don't know. It's yeah. Yeah. The one thing that was really, really interesting to me, if I, if I can add was after I, after I met him, like, so you go into something and you find out information on somebody and you find out some past experience with somebody and their beliefs on something and

And towards the end, like the ending day of filming, it's like familiarity is such a strangely powerful thing. You know what I mean? When you're constantly interacting with somebody, when you're running into somebody, when you're having –

One-on-one discussions with somebody, when you're sharing something with somebody, it's just so crazy how you look back on it and you're like, I'm supposed to hate this person. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? The familiarity is a crazy, crazy thing that a lot of us discount. Well, and I think, and not to get too broad about it, but you saw that all the time when sort of the dominoes were falling in terms of LGBT rights of these like hard and fast Republican senators or whatever, all of a sudden their son is gay and all of a sudden –

I understand homosexuality is fine because it's there. It's not it's not some abstract other. Exactly. Does this change? Was your working on this particular film? Does that change how you may approach projects in the future? Like, are you more willing to step outside your comfort zone?

Absolutely. It definitely does. I love the work that I did on the film. I never get to see the work until the edited project, albeit a few parts. I was very, very happy with my performance. I think that I said some things that I never thought that I would be able to pull off on camera, and it worked. And that's honest. It's a funny, funny thing, but it's really honest how I look at

Yeah. And I will say, and I said earlier when Hemant and I were talking, and it's not just because we have you on the show, but I thought you and Molly were both really winning. Like your performances were good. Yeah.

Great. The move me wasn't my favorite thing I've ever seen. Sure, sure. And there may be some things I would have changed. But no, I think that you guys... The performances were great. You guys showed up every day and I commend you for that. Have you gotten more shit after the movie came out? Have you gotten more shit from gay people mad at this project or from Christians who realize you're not the character you played in the film? You know, it's...

And specifically to answer that question, I've gotten more from gay men that are like, you know, like who the fuck do you think you are? With like me doing the role and it's like I'm in a weird spot because like it's –

Like some of my gay friends, it's like it makes them more mad when I try to defend myself as an artist. And I'm like, you guys know how I feel. So why – I mean I don't get what this is coming from if you know that I support and you know that I retweet. And it's like I didn't promote the movie. I wasn't legally obligated to promote the movie and it's not something that I ever did. But –

It's a lose-lose. It's like the first lose, really big lose-lose that I've ever been faced with until you guys actually wanted to have a discussion about it, which is great. And I mean – and to be perfectly frank, if I didn't know – if Hemet didn't come across your tweets, I would have assumed you were part of that like movement, that conservative anti-gay movement because –

what else would we have to go on? But on the flip side, I don't at all fault. I have tons of friends who are working actors and comics. And I think if any of them got the chance to be a lead role in a movie that you know was going to get marketed and promoted, there's not a lot of people. I mean, it's easy to talk when that offer's not on the table. I don't know a lot of people who would say no

I don't know. My friend was in Mamma Mia for two years. She had to sing Dancing Queen every night. Sometimes you do things. I did do an audition in college. I auditioned for a role and they were looking for brown people. I'm like, I'm in. Oh, that's you. You're brown as fuck. I had to read lines saying I'm a terrorist who wants to blow up the Trade Center. There you go. No. And the only thing stopping me at that point was I have a test on the day of filming. I can't do this. But I thought about it for a bit. You're an actor? Yeah.

I really wasn't, and that was kind of the problem, too. But I know what you're saying, Travis, about... I mean, this was a good role. It's a challenging role. And I think, especially for you being from the comedy world, here's a chance to do what so many comedians want to do and show off your acting chops in a dramatic role. That's a hard thing to stay away from when it's on your resume. Look, I do comedy. Look, I do drama. That looks really good for anything in the future. And I'm also...

That said, I get where your gay friends are coming from. Yeah. No, I completely do. And I get, I feel for you, Travis, that you are in kind of a, you're definitely in a rock slash hard place situation that I'm not super ambivalent. Oh, I want to talk about your relationship with Molly. Not your relationship, but just kind of when you guys were on the set together, when did you figure out you were, or did you figure out that you were kind of like, oh, this is a little out of my element.

And are we in this together? What were those conversations like? Right. Well, this is what's funny because it's like it turns into like Sherlock Holmes. It's like a detective like on set. You're like, which one of you is the dark one? As you're like navigating through the set. So you start to slowly, slowly like find out who you can say offensive things to. Ah!

So Molly was one of the first people that I was like – I got some kind of subtle hint from her that she wasn't very religious. And we were open to kind of like have whatever conversation we wanted to have. And so I kind of just – oh, you know what? We carpooled one day to base camp and that was where we kind of like started talking about everything. And even then it's like –

We both kind of agreed to... It's not really... I mean, what do you really need to say to somebody that's religious that's like,

you don't want to offend them because why, you know, what's, what's the, what's the reason if you can just kind of be professional and kind of work in the same environment for the, for the greater cause, you know, for. We should teach her atheist handshake. That'll help next time. If you come to Chicago, we'll teach you the handshake. It's really important. It was funny because when you watch the movie and you listen, like early on in the film, when your character says he's a Christian, um,

The character Diana that Molly is playing comes right back with these questions that I've heard so many times before from other atheists, which is just the, oh, that face, followed by, oh, like, so you hate gay people, so you do this. And I'm watching Molly portraying that character. It's like, she's really good at this. Like...

I don't know if that's in the script or she's improv-ing, but like, she's had that conversation before and that's one of the parts, I mean, for all the criticism we might give the script, that was pretty dead on in terms of the reaction, I think. I mean, it's,

It's exaggerated. Exaggerated in some ways. But yeah, I kind of I've seen that reaction before. So I was like, it's like both parts were exaggerated. How it's like aggressive, atheist, cool Christian. It's like those both of those. They were totally like polar opposites of of like the extreme versions of those things, which is I don't know. You have to dramatize it, I guess. So subtly, I guess that's what they did.

Okay, here's the really big question him and I discussed a lot. What is the relationship between Peter and Diana? What is the relationship? Because at first it was like they're just co-workers and then... Then you're bringing her flowers while she's in a coma or something. And then she's getting a text when you're in a convenience store.

I can give you an exact – because this was – funny enough, this was never really discussed. But I can tell you one piece of information and you can create your whole world out of it. All right. So on set when we were doing a scene in the comedy club when she comes to sit with me when I'm watching Dead. Toward the end of the movie. Yeah, exactly. When we're going to hug –

right before the take, because I didn't really know either what that relationship was. The director right before the take was like, you're going to get up and hug her a little bit more than a friend hug. But that's as far as it went. So you grabbed her ass. Right. So it's a little more than a friend hug. That's the status of your relationship, which is very, that's not an option on Facebook. That's where babies come from. It's not historic from that.

Oh my God, I just snorted on the podcast for the first time. Have you had a chance to talk to Molly since the film came out? I don't want you to speak for her or divulge anything she said to you in confidence. But you can if you want. But have you talked to her since the film came out and has her...

uh, reaction and the, the reaction that she's gotten in her personal life. Is that similar? Do you think to your own or has she gotten a different sort of perspective on this? We haven't, we haven't discussed it too, too much. I just remember after, after the film got released and we didn't really start like, um, like an open dialogue, uh, uh,

consistently until I started getting tweets and then she saw it. And so she was like, wow, really blowing up here on Twitter. And then so we started just going back and forth because she, I mean, she supports LGBT too. And so we just, we already knew that about each other. So we didn't have to sit there and defend our stances on that. But it was just pointing out like, wow, really things are really heightening on, on Twitter right now. So that that's about as far as we went.

Cool. And what are you going to do now? What's in your immediate future now that this film is kind of done with?

You know, I'm always doing stand-up around L.A. I don't tour much because of acting here, but I have a comedy sketch that I just shot with John Rohde, who was the cinematographer on Audacity. So we immediately hooked up and did a really, really dark comedy sketch that's going to be out really soon. It's based on two hillbillies that have...

horrible, horrible information and think that they know what's wrong with the world these days. So like real hillbillies. Right. Well, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's two very, very big hillbilly characters that are discussing how they think that what happened on Mortal Kombat X is exactly what kids are doing to each other on the school ground. Tale as old as time. Right. So they're like freezing each other and sticking spears through each other and turn into sorcerers. And it's just,

Yeah, so that's my world is comedy and characters and things like that. So I'm doing that right now. And one last question. What do you hope people who watch the film, what do you hope they take away from it? That's a really, really good question. And I don't know if I have the most amazing answer right now because –

I didn't think that many people would see the film. So it's not really, do you know what I mean? So it's not really something that you really concern yourself with when you know, it's not going to reach a huge audience. You know, it's like a film is going to do, it's like, this is what people on both sides don't realize that are atheists that are Christian, that are gay, that

The film is going to do exactly what it was going to do anyway. It has a limited audience. It's like atheists weren't going to see it. Gay people, a few gay people were going to see it and try to show their friends and they were going to stop watching five minutes through. Christians are going to love it because it's like the first thing that they've done. It's like very, very well produced, albeit a few projects. So it's not really, it doesn't really have the power to like,

a lot of people in a big, big way. It's like, I don't know. With Christians, the best answer and the obvious answer is that I hope that it does show them that, you know, I mean, gay people, yeah, they're different than you, but,

I would love for it to say, hey, leave them alone, but it doesn't. I would love for gay people to be like, hey, Christians don't hate you, but gay people don't believe that anyway. You know what I mean? It's like they don't. Gay people don't believe that Christians hate them. It's like you have Christians and you have assholes, and then you have gay people that are understanding, and then you have assholes. It's like –

they're not directly a part of the community. They're just an asshole. Yeah. Let me add to that and not putting words in your mouth, but I would, we said this earlier, like, should you watch this film or not? Jessica doesn't want people necessarily to, to buy the film off of Ray's site. No offense, Travis. Yeah. I, I think they should. I hope you're not getting residuals. I feel really bad then. I, I think they should in some capacity. And I would say that for the same reason I've visited and paid for admission to the creation museum twice, which is,

which is that it's an educational thing as an atheist to see what the other side is saying. And I think it's worthwhile to see it firsthand from their perspective instead of through someone else's filters. And I think it's important to know what someone like Ray Comfort thinks about gay people, how he argues, how he does the heavy-handed metaphoring and all that,

And there's a value to that. Yeah, this is – I can – listen, I can exactly see where Jessica is coming from. I really do because I'm an emotional person that acts on emotion and I get it. I totally get it and I'm totally empathetic. So I definitely understand where you're coming from. Now, as far as what you just said, Hemant, is I love –

I love the fact that you said that you should go buy it online because of this. This is the only reason why. And my girlfriend is a therapist, so maybe this is her talking. But you reward good behavior with a person that's going, look, this is what you need to be doing. And this is what Ray needs to be venturing into is, hey, let's try to understand each other. And let's try to have a conversation with –

an understanding of, hey, look, we understand that you think like this, we think like this, let's have a discussion about it. So in a way, rewarding good behavior on making a project that is a little less heavy-handed

Maybe good, you know, so I agree. And I think it is important that, you know, both sides too. It's so easy and I've seen it through atheists and I've definitely seen it on the other side. It's always very easy to create caricatures and stereotypes of straw men of what the other side has to say.

It means a lot more. You are more effective in terms of advocating for LGBT rights when you can say, here's what the other side did. I know it because I saw it. I experienced it. This is their own words. We've spoken on this podcast before with the right wing watch. And like, why are they, in my opinion, why are they so effective? Because all they do is take the...

right-wing people in context and they just say this is what their actual words are, you don't have to say anything more. So I think there's some value in saying, look, this is how Ray Comfort argues, so if you want to combat that vision, you should know exactly what they're doing. No, and I did mention earlier, and I will concede that...

The scene was, oh my God, it was so heavy handed. But like with the train tracks and the car and the guy pulling out of the car. Like when the guy- And the newspaper, news reporters explaining everything to you. Oh my God. This is my brother and this is-

I did say this is the – if that is – if really, really, really, really, really Ray Comfort thinks that we are all so in danger of going to hell that if he doesn't like proselytize to everybody he finds that it is like letting people get hit by trains. If that's really what they believe, that was a good way to put it and it makes me slightly more empathetic. It will not make me want to talk to people in the street. I will not. But –

I get it. That brings up a good curiosity to me. I'm glad that we're talking because now I'd love to ask him if like

I wonder if that feels like a burden. Do you know what I mean? Like, I wonder if he feels burdened by the fact that he has a quota that he constantly is like thinking about, like, cause his, I think that his motto is at least in his emails is, is, uh, until the nets are full, which is like, sure it's poetic, but like there, there's gotta be a lot of burden there. Do you know what I mean? And I wonder if he feels that and is willing to admit it, you know, I don't know.

Yeah, it's just what we were talking about earlier. I don't think anyone doubts Ray's sincerity with what he's trying to do. I mean, it doesn't mean he's right. It doesn't mean you have to like it. Right. But I don't think he's, like, playing a character. I will give him that. I think he's genuinely serious about... I think he really does believe if you are gay, you are falling down that elevator shaft and someone has to rescue you. And, yeah, the way he presents that idea is maybe funny, but...

But, I mean, I think he really does believe that. Wait, I'm sorry. Are we going to finish this interview by saying, like, Ray Comfort is the good guy? Like, I feel like 3A... No, that's fine. We'll splice this... That can't be the end of this interview. We'll make sure the banana video part of this comes at the end of the interview and it'll all be okay. No, yeah, I mean, just because... Here's what I would like to leave it on because I will not let this finish this way. I...

Just because he thinks that doesn't – just because that's his sincerely held belief does not mean it's right and it does not mean it's okay to legislate and rally against gay people. Sure, and I agree. I'm from the camp of who gives a shit. Do you know what I mean? Like if it doesn't have anything to do with me, it seems really, really dismissive. But if – and it's just like with Christians, like –

Like if it doesn't have anything to do with you, I think it's not – I think it's a stepping ground that you couldn't – you shouldn't be allowed onto. Do you know what I mean? It's like worship within yourself. Right. And I think that's, Hemant, why you found success in –

on your blog is because you're not going around shitting on Christians for no specific reason just because I believe something I have very specific reasons yes but you and when I write for your blog it's this is what's happening and this is the lens through which we're viewing it we're not like this person believes in God let's remind everybody why that's probably dumb like that's

kind of not your jam. No, there's a reason because it's legislation. Right. When it's affecting people that I care about, I get mad. If you just believe in God, I disagree, but I don't really care. Right, exactly. And I think, Travis, that's what you're getting at too. Like if Ray Comfort believes this stuff, so be it. But if he's trying to push to ban gay marriage, then we have a problem. Right. And that's a different issue altogether. Yeah. Of course. So, Travis, where can people find you? Where can they watch your sketches? Where can they find you online?

You know, I'm opening up a channel pretty soon that will be on Twitter. Twitter is the best place to follow me. It's where I promote everything. T. Owens Comedy. Travis Owens, just T. Owens Comedy on the Twitter handle. Facebook, don't really do a lot of action on there because no.

But yeah, Twitter, Twitter is the easiest place. I update shows where I'm at. Um, and I love to talk about religion in my shows. So if you can't get enough, swing on. Maybe for the bumper for this episode, we should have the audacity cover, but rainbow fide on face, like on Facebook. I'm down. Sure. Go ahead. There we go.

You can be in charge of that. All right. Travis, thanks so much for your time. Good luck with your career. And thanks for being willing to talk to us because, trust me, this is not an easy thing, I think, for a lot of actors to do. And I don't think a lot would have done it. So thanks. No, I appreciate it, guys. It was a lot of fun. And keep up the good work. Thank you. Thanks, Travis. All right. Bye. All right. We'll see you later. Thanks so much again. We really appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to the podcast for FriendlyAtheist.com. This episode was taped at Cinnamon Sound Studios in Aurora, Illinois, and the music was written and performed by Brad Chagdas. If you like what you're hearing, please consider making a contribution at patreon.com slash Hemant, that's he-man-t. We appreciate your support. I'm Hemant Mehta. And I'm Jessica Blumke. We hope you'll join us next time.