Some issues are simply at all times a deal with. Ice cream on a heat summer season night time. A protracted weekend. The primary day of sweater weather. And a few individuals are at all times a deal with, together with comedians Mike Birbiglia and Higher Name Saul’s Bob Odenkirk. So when the 2 acquired collectively on the previous’s Working It Out podcast (one other deal with, PS), I knew it was going to be enjoyable… however I didn’t count on to get teary listening to Bob Odenkirk talk about fatherhood.
Odenkirk joined Birbiglia to debate comedy writing (earlier than making a reputation for himself as a dramatic actor, Odenkirk was a revered author on Saturday Evening Reside, Conan O’Brien, Mr. Present and extra), appearing, and the way anger and comedy can meld collectively in a given piece. But it surely was when Birbiglia requested who Odenkirk was jealous of that issues took a form of bittersweet flip.
“Anyone who’s nonetheless acquired little kids at home rising up,” Odenkirk replied. “There’s no query: I knew what I used to be doing once I had youngsters rising up. I used to be being a dad. I imply, that was my job, and I didn’t should ask myself ‘What am I doing right here? How can I be part of this world? How can I be significant at the moment?’ I didn’t should ask that query as a result of the f*cking reply is ‘Choose up all the things between right here and the door and ensure they get to highschool and have fun with them.’ Life was-… I understood my objective.”
Birbiglia, who has a 10 year old daughter, quietly praised this because the “finest reply” and… yeah, we agree.
Odenkirk then famous that whereas performing in Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway earlier this 12 months, his costars Kieran Culkin and Invoice Burr are each dads to kids beneath the age of 10.
“I envy them,” he continued. “I envy them, as careworn as they’re, as a result of they’ve to do that job and it takes them away, [but] who you might be while you go away right here. You completely know who you might be. You’re a dad.”
Excuse me… I believe my allergy symptoms are kicking up. That’s why my eyes are watering. I’m not crying. Shut up.
Odenkirk has two grownup kids, Nate and Erin. In 2023, he and Erin revealed a kids’s ebook — Zilot and Different Vital Rhymes — which was impressed by the poems Odenkirk wrote for and along with his youngsters after they have been small. Erin, a graduate of the Pratt Institute, illustrated.
“About 25 of those poems have been written after the children have been grown up, however I had written many of the poems with slightly child by my facet, sitting in my lap, the place the child would write a line or the child would counsel the poem,” Odenkirk told Romper in 2023. “And so [to write the new ones] I actually wanted to attempt to suppose again to what youngsters are fascinated by and feeling and what’s of their day. … In the long run, it’s outlined by these two youngsters, Nate and Erin, after they have been 4, 5, 6, 7, and eight, serving to me to consider how they noticed the world.”
Appears like they did a great job coloring how he noticed his world, too…
Watch the complete interview under.
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