EPISODE 33: JASON MANTZOUKAS
JASON MANTZOUKAS
On touching the void, achieving intimate connectivity, and the controversial phrase, ‘meant to be.’
Jason Mantzoukas is an actor, comedian, writer, and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series The League, and as one of the three co-hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made? alongside Paul Scheer and June Diane Raphael. Mantzoukas has also appeared in the films The Dictator, Sleeping with Other People, They Came Together, Conception, and John Wick: Chapter 3. He has had recurring roles on Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place and so many more. He also voices characters in the Netflix animated series Big Mouth, The HBo series, Close Enough, and so many other series and films. He’s also a revered regular on the improv comedy scene.
Jason Mantzoukas on IMDB
QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE
1:18:46 ~ "I think the distance between my want, my understanding of my want, and my exercising that want - twenty years ago [there was a] very long distance between those poles... To have a want, to be able to execute it on stage in a scene, to be able to heighten it, to be able to communicate it effectively to a scene partner - all of those things felt very far apart. To me now, twenty three, four years later, they are synchronous. They all happen at the same time. So only now am I able to see, in my mind... A larger piece of the field. I don't feel like everything is right in front of my face. I feel like, when I'm on stage, I can see the forest and the trees."
1:20:55 ~ “Being a good improviser isn't an intellectually knowable thing.”
1:25:52 ~ "Kindness, a willingness to listen, a willingness to understand, a willingness to be present - all of the things that if you exhibit on stage will lead to a better show, might also lead to a better relationship."
1:29:44 ~"The bedrock of good improv is really the bedrock of any good relationship. It is predicated entirely on open, transparent communication, listening and agreement."