Kevin James Forgets Who He Is While Eating Spicy Wings ｜ Hot Ones [OGCZXEtoOw4].webm.wav.txt

 Oh my gosh, Sean. Sean! Oh man. I don't know, I don't even know who I am right now.
 [laughs]
 [dramatic music]
 Hey, what's going on everybody? For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
 It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings. And today we're joined by Kevin James.
 He's an actor whose career in comedy touches everything from stand-up to massively successful TV shows and films.
 Check out the Kevin James YouTube channel as we quickly approach 1 million subscribers.
 And his latest project is The Crew, a comedy series set to release on Netflix February 15th.
 Kevin James, welcome to the show.
 Thanks for having me, Sean. I appreciate it. I am ready. I'm a little nervous. I'm not gonna lie.
 Because if anybody was built to succeed on this show, you would think I would be it.
 And I am to a certain point and then I'm not. I'm worried about the wheels coming off.
 But we're gonna get through it together.
 [dramatic music]
 I'm going to glove up. Do you mind if I do a, on one side just because I've gotten the stuff in the eye?
 No, I think that's very smart. Oppression.
 Okay. Alright, here we go. This is now what? This one?
 Yep, the classic.
 Classic. It looks sweet. It looks innocent. Red.
 Okay, yeah.
 That's a nice taste. Yeah, that's good.
 So I want to start by talking about your series The Crew, which is set in a NASCAR garage and focused on the characters who work the pit.
 And I've seen you grand marshalling race events since as far back as 2007. Has any of that boots on the track experience helped to inform this new role that you have as a NASCAR crew chief?
 It did. It's insane if you have never been to one of these events. I had no idea what goes on there. It's crazy.
 I mean, the whole tailgate party situation is on the inside. It's on the inside of the infield of the track.
 They got the racing going on, the pit crew, the teams are going, the military is there, the crowds are going nuts.
 It's an insane event and I become a fan and I'm trying to learn more and more about it ever since.
 Alright, here we go. Do I keep the lips out of it? Do you try to do that? Is there something to that or no?
 Well, I've seen everybody try everything, but it's like that Mike Tyson quote about everyone having a plan until you get punched in the mouth.
 I would say try to keep the lips off as long as you can, but eventually it's just a free for all.
 Yeah, yeah, I like this one. It's got a nice pepperoncini taste.
 So I want to compliment you on your YouTube channel, which has been on fire during quarantine with a mix of short films and sketches that have all the production quality of a major motion picture.
 And you know, oftentimes when celebrities go onto YouTube, they do YouTube things.
 But you with every upload, you've stayed committed to this storytelling.
 Looking back on now what is close to a year long foray, what have you gotten out of the Kevin James YouTube experience?
 You know what? I got to be honest. I got to give credit to this family of brothers.
 There's like eight of them, the Canaan's that they're insanely talented family of directors, editors.
 They do everything. They kept saying, let's just do shorts and quick little movies.
 And I mean, I fell in love with it. It's an amazing experience to do it.
 It was cathartic for me. And, you know, you're putting something hopefully funny out in the world there.
 And they're amazing. They were great.
 It's really one of the few avenues where you can do whatever you want.
 And there's nobody telling you what to put in, what to put out.
 You got to do this. It's for kids. It's for this or that. We got to add this in.
 So I was sold. I was I enjoyed doing that so much.
 You know, I enjoy movies, too. You know, but it's like there's so much more pressure with that.
 This we were just out having fun. That was it.
 OK, I wasn't good. Touched with this hand already. Not a smart move.
 I got no heat yet. Nothing. Do you? Yeah.
 Well, listen, I'm like a lab experiment over here, you know.
 Really good taste. Really good.
 So I think that it's safe to say that.
 Wait a moment. I spoke too soon.
 Yeah.
 Just a tinge.
 It just knocked on my tongue.
 What did you just say about me? Thank you, bud.
 So I think that it's safe to say that as a food lover, you represent the people's palate.
 You'd be much more comfortable with a lineup of burgers in front of you from an all-American drive-through
 than you would be with a 20 course tasting menu at a five star restaurant.
 So what I want to do is hit you with a few food headlines that have popped up in the news lately.
 And I'm just curious how you react to them is the people's gourmand.
 First one. This is this week from Eater.
 Billionaires Row Condo requires its residents to spend $15,000 a year at private restaurant.
 That's crazy. I am not. I would not like that. I would not live there.
 I would not do that because you're trapped with that type of food.
 Like down and dirty is better for me.
 From a diner to a mom and pop little crappy sandwich shop on the side of a highway.
 If it's good, it's good.
 You know, I can eat the higher end stuff, but I don't prefer it.
 This is from NBC Connecticut.
 Connecticut lawmakers propose making pizza the official state food.
 And this seemed to incense the rest of the tri-state area.
 Yeah, Connecticut's you know what?
 I think they have a few places. I don't want to name names.
 And I think they think they're in the game with New York and Jersey.
 It's just to me. I don't know.
 I think they should stick with you know what?
 They got the original hamburger up there I think in Connecticut.
 I think that's what they made. Be happy with that. Stay with that.
 Unless you prove me different, Long Island is pretty badass for pizza.
 This is from the New York Post.
 Vegan bodega now serving meatless takes on classic New York City sandwiches.
 The place is called the Vodega and it serves options like a jackfruit Cuban and a seitan Philly cheese steak for around $14.
 No. Nope. Just no.
 No, no, no, no.
 That's like no.
 And a Philly cheese steak and you're going to do it vegan?
 It doesn't work. Just stay in your lane.
 That's fine. Say you can't eat meat and you don't want to.
 Go ahead. But I'm letting you know I'm eating double to make up for what you're not eating.
 I will eat.
 This isn't a headline, but I think I should bring it to your attention that there are internet lists of the greatest breakfast sandwiches in the country
 that do not include a single bacon, egg and cheese from Long Island.
 Does that invalidate all rankings in your opinion?
 It absolutely does. You can't say something else when you when you degrade a breakfast sandwich from Long Island, a deli.
 Anything else you say is there's no there is no truth in.
 OK, got on the lips already.
 I like this one.
 It's good. A little more of a kick for sure.
 Yeah, nice. So in addition to playing a teacher turned fighter and here comes the boom, I know that you've been a day one UFC fan sitting ringside at events way before that was a cool thing for celebrities to do.
 Can you give us one Hollywood trade secret when it comes to the art of the fight scene?
 It's clear from watching your work that you have a deep appreciation for the craft.
 Oh, I love it. And it was funny because I got in shape for the boom, but I wasn't in the greatest shape still.
 Like I wasn't completely fit and I should have gotten better shape, you know.
 And I realized that when we were shooting because I was getting so gassed and a lot of these fighters that I were fighting with, they don't know.
 They've never acted before. Like a couple of times I go, hey, hey, hey, whoa, we're acting here.
 These guys don't have that speed. Once they're in the fight and they're kind of throwing energy, they're not going to throw their punch to the right.
 They're going to, you know, they're trained to hit you in the chin. And I got wobbled a couple of times, but it's fun.
 It was it was I'm glad I got to do it from that angle, too. It's a nice way to almost get props for fighting without fighting.
 And then my favorite Kevin James fun fact is that you were on the same high school wrestling team as WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley.
 Could you see his wrestling potential back then when you guys were teenagers?
 No, you know, I was I played football. I was a running back on the team and I never wrestled really before, but they needed a heavyweight and another heavyweight to go with Mick.
 So they brought me over and we used to have some battles. I would kind of throw him around a little bit.
 I was I think I was in better shape than him back then. But he started that's where the demented mind was developing.
 I remember him jumping off his roof into like cardboard boxes and he was just doing these weird things.
 And he's the nicest guy ever. I mean, he's incredible, writes children's books and he's sweet, does more for charity.
 He's just a great, great guy. But he's a little off. He's definitely a little off.
 Jimmy Fallon once described you as great at falling. How, if at all, has your background in sports and mixed martial arts influenced you as a physical comedian?
 I love being physical. I love physical comedians, big ones, especially.
 I mean, you know, Jackie Gleason to me is the greatest of all time. And he was a big guy who could dance and move.
 And I love that. You know, so I love the physicality of not only comedy, just acting and moving and action movies.
 And, you know, so it's it's always been in there. And I've always you know, I always try to bring it.
 And it's get it gets harder as you get older. But it's still there.
 Can I say something? I got a little residual from the last one. This is yours.
 Yeah, this is you make this one. But you know what, Kevin, if you don't if you don't like it, don't don't lie to me. Don't lie to me.
 Trust me. Trust me. One thing I'm not shy. That's fantastic. I mean that.
 High compliment. All right, Kevin James, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram where we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
 So I'll show you the picture. You tell us the bigger story.
 First things first, how big a deal was it for you to meet Joe Namath? And then how do you cope? Do you have a hack for coping as a Jets fan?
 Yeah, it's just I mean, I'm so used to it now. It's like you with the wing sauce. It's like, how do you how are you doing?
 You know, and everybody says that. How do you deal with the jet sucking? It's like I've been doing it since I was, you know, forever.
 Joe Namath was awesome. It was awesome. I was at a jet game and got to meet him. I had met him once earlier when I was literally, I think, four years old.
 And he was at the Smith Haven Mall in a fur coat. And, you know, it was the day heyday of Broadway Joe.
 And I got to meet him then. And it was very cool both times. So that was a dream come true.
 That's very cool. I think that you have used your fame to get into more sort of like fantasy camp exhibitions than anybody else I can think of off the top of my head.
 When you think back on all the celebrity softball and soccer and golf and tennis and NASCAR and I could go on and on and on.
 Do you have a single sort of crowning athletic achievement?
 Yes, it was beating Tiger Woods at a short mini golf tournament we had for way back in the day when he had a charity event.
 He's competitive. He lost to me. I beat him at golf and it was amazing.
 I like to leave out the fact that he was only allowed three clubs. That was his.
 So he chose a driver, I think a five iron and a I think a wedge.
 And he used he putted with his driver. But I beat him. I drained a putt, I think.
 And Tiger, he was a little off on it, but he was cool. I'm taking that with me. Charles Barkley was there. They all know. They know who won it.
 Tears of the Sun, private reserve. Is this a private reserve? I don't want your if it's just a regular reserve, I'm not going to do it.
 Only the finest top shelf for Kevin James. Private reserve.
 OK, OK. This is the first one where the heat came in with it, like the taste, taste was getting in and it was like he was like, hey, what's up?
 I'm here, too. It's like I'm what they kind of hit at the same time.
 A wave, a real wave of heat with this one. They didn't wait. He didn't wait in the parking lot and say, I'll bring you in later.
 He's in there now. That's good, though. That's a good one.
 So I've heard you say that you try to connect with the everyday, every guy, and a lot of your most iconic characters reflect that salt of the Earth sensibility.
 You'll often hear politicians or marketers talk about the everyman with at least a professed reverence, while cultural critics, it's almost used as a disparaging term.
 Do you clock that? How do you think about that duality?
 I forget someone said it, but like there's a reason you watch James Bond, you know, when he does a movie, because it's something you would never do.
 And it's exciting. He lives a life that you don't have. That's not why people watch me.
 People watch me because I would do that exact thing that that guy would do, hopefully.
 You know, like that's what you want to do. Get connecting with with, you know, husbands and wives where they're just like, we are just like you and, you know, your wife in the show or this or that.
 It's tough for a career, too, because every time you do a movie, especially if you do one that works out well, half the audience wants you to do that again.
 They're comfortable with that character. So they want to see that again.
 So they're like, put something out like that again. And then you do that and then you lose half your audience where they're like, well, we already saw that.
 You know, what else you got? You know, so it's like and if you do something different, they're not as thrilled.
 So it's that constant battle of trying to please and ultimately, I just try to throw the widest net possible and catch as many people as I can.
 But you can't you got to be who you are. And that's why, again, the YouTube channel for me is just just do what I think is funny.
 And that's it. Have fun. Don't worry about it. Let everybody else catch up.
 I see a woman. She's got the glasses and a sword. OK. Yeah.
 Yep. Hello. I'm just talking. That hit. Yeah, I hit them. All right.
 Wow. OK. Yeah. Let's play. Let's play. You know what? That's that's a good one. OK.
 All right. So, Kevin James, I wasn't aware of this, but Hitch is a big hit with the Hot Ones crew.
 The 2005 highly quotable, highly rewatchable film that to date is still the third highest grossing rom com of all time.
 And that iconic dance scene with Will Smith where you're making a pizza and tossing out a Q-tip, you can almost see Will holding back a smile.
 How much of that scene was improvised? A lot when we were going back and forth, we were just working, throwing things back and forth, trying different things.
 He says, you have anything? And I go, you know, I don't know what I have.
 So I would just start thinking of items around me, things in my bathroom, whatever it was.
 And that's where, you know, make the pizza and the Q-tip and all that stuff. Just being stupid.
 I had no idea. We shot a bunch of stuff. Will was cracking up. I'm like, if I'm making Will laugh, you know, that's all I got to do right now.
 And I was so happy how it came out. Wow. You guys have really designed it well that way.
 You know, it's just a you know that feeling when you're taking off and you just go right above the clouds.
 You got a little and then you're just up. Yeah. OK. You got me worried now.
 Wow. Wow. That is that is that is so.
 So bad, by the way. That tastes like frozen dog poop with hot sauce on it, like that is literally there's no joy to that.
 Oh, my gosh. Sean. Sean. Oh, man. I don't know. I don't even know who I am right now.
 That changed everything. Yeah. We'll never be the same. Kevin will never be the same.
 I know I will be. Sean, I love you. But right now, I want to put your face in a bag and punch it.
 I just want to. For my money, your most underrated project is making the cut.
 The road to Pebble Beach, which followed you and Ray Romano on your quest and the days leading up to the pro am.
 Is there a shot or moment that still haunts you to this day when you think about missing the cut by only two strokes?
 Yeah. On 17, I remember I remember. Oh, my gosh. I think it's 17 or no, maybe 18.
 I think I went to drink. I forget where it was. I remember I went in the drink a couple of times.
 So pissed off. But you know what? Ray went on. He didn't make the cut. Did he? He missed it by one stroke.
 He missed it by one stroke. Chris Berman sunk that putt. Yeah.
 So this goes insanity. So it goes up to insanity and then it says that's not good enough.
 Beyond it.
 That's a nasty little fat bottle bitch right there. Look at that.
 Cheers, bud. Cheers.
 OK.
 It doesn't feel as bad as the bomb. Is it coming?
 Ultimately, if you take on the bomb, I feel like it almost scorches the earth in your mouth.
 Yeah. Yes. The bomb crushes everything. So now there's no feeling. There's no love. There's no hate. There's nothing.
 We're playing with house money, Kevin. We're playing with house money.
 We did it so far. Right. Can I go for another one?
 All right. Come here. Salute. Yeah, I like that one.
 So I want to open this wing with a little story about Bill Gates, who credits his early success with the fact that he grew up next door to the University of Washington,
 where he had access to some of the best state of the art computer labs in the world.
 Does anything about that little Bill Gates story resonate with you when you think about coming up in that prolific Long Island comedy scene and Minervini's East Side Comedy Club?
 That was back in the day. It was absolutely a product. It's where I started. Richie Minervini was the greatest because as a stand up, when you're first starting out,
 and even to this day, I think the most important thing is stage time, is getting up on stage, trying to find who you are.
 Your jokes will change and everything will change, but just finding a persona that you can roll with.
 Richie Minervini was the best because he would just give you time to just say, just go and just do it.
 And you would suck, he'd say, but suck, stay up there. And you build a presence, you know, and you learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable,
 which is a really good tool to have in stand up. Is my mouth fulling up with water?
 So it's like having guys like Eddie Murphy and all these amazing stand ups come in and out of there. It was always the best place to grow up for me for stand up.
 You know, that is a legendary stage that helped launch the careers of people like Eddie Murphy or Jim Carrey or Ray Romano.
 When you first started, who was like Kevin James's comedian's comedian?
 I mean, I loved Robert Klein. Robert Klein was always the one, you know, he just he was the one I saw his HBO special that just floored me.
 And I loved his style of comedy. I remember Richard Lewis was funny, too. He was great.
 You know, you take on these guys and you love them and you try to mimic your acting, you find your own voice.
 But through them, those are the ones that really inspired me to become a comedian.
 By the way, we did all this with no drink. Yeah, no reflexive drinking until we roll credits, Kevin.
 OK, what do I do with this? Just a little extra on the last wing. You don't have to if you don't want to.
 Oh, ceremonial. That's a lot that went in there. That's good. Fireworks show to to close things out.
 Cheers. Cheers, Kevin. Thank you for getting me through this so far.
 But going back in. Kevin James, man of the people.
 Kevin, here we are at the closing credits of our spicy wing journey together.
 We've talked about your films, your new show, the plight of being a Jets fan.
 But I want to close with your abiding deep love for pizza.
 You've compared the pie scene in Long Island to heaven.
 And one of the most circulated Kevin James quotes is, "There's no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap."
 What makes Long Island pizza better than all other pizza? And don't say the water.
 It's the standard of which I know pizza. Long Island pizza is even different in the city.
 It got hot. It got hot. But there's just a different there's just a feeling I knew I grew up with.
 That's it. It's Long Island pizza. And it's basically in every strip mall.
 Every strip mall on Long Island, you'll get a good one and a decent one anyway.
 But that's that's it. That's the marker for me. I've been to Italy, tried everywhere. I keep coming back.
 Grandma's slice or Sicilian? You know what? That's like telling you which one of your kids do you like better?
 You know, so it's like I'm always good. I love the grandma slice, but I'm a Sicilian guy, but I'm also classic always.
 Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good.
 And then finally, which of the hot sauces that you've tried today do you think would pair best with the next day reheat slice?
 This is the one, the Apollo. I like it the most.
 Honestly, I really do, because it's got the heat. I like the heat, but you can blend it and you can kind of you put it.
 I would also put it in a Sunday sauce.
 High compliments for Apollo. We'll take that, Kevin James.
 And look at you, my man, taking on the sauce, the king of Queens and the king of hot sauce.
 Now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you, Kevin James.
 This camera, that camera, probably just the one you're looking at. Let the people know what you have going on.
 All right. I'm all over the place. Here we are. Netflix, The Crew. Check it out. February 15th.
 Man, this was unbelievable, Sean. I'm a huge fan of yours. I thank you for interviewing me and talking me through this.
 I felt safe the whole way, like a baby in a mother's arms. OK, that was awesome. Thank you.
 And no drink, by the way, nothing. And I'm not going to get one. And I'll go in for more.
 I'm going to go in for more. They're really good. Thank you. That's the one.
 Standing ovation from Steven and camera guy Bill in the studio.
 I love it.
 I get...
 Woo! I can't do it.
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