Is this the first time that you're playing somebody that you actually were or are?

Actually, no. Shockingly, uh, this is an interesting...

I'll, I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest version here, but, uh, the movie 12 Strong, I play Lieutenant Colonel, uh, Max Bowers, who was the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group commanding officer.

Uh, I play him in, uh, the movie 12 Strong.

Interesting story.

When the movie 12 Strong ends, they take Mazar-i-Sharif.

That was the whole goal, take Mazar-i-Sharif, which was the biggest city in northern Afghanistan.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jimmy Stewart didn't wanna just be a, uh, publicity stunt, right? He begged, pleaded to go into service as, or in, deployed in, into combat like you did, as opposed to just being a publicity guy, correct?

[sighs]

They haven't been warmed up.

They're expecting stand-up.

I'm coming out doing impersonations and, and characters that they don't know anything about.

So you know, I'm hitting code red on the panic button.

[laughs] You know, I'm like, "This is not good.

I hate this." So you go up, you do your...

[laughs]

Is this the first time that you're playing somebody that you actually were or are?

Actually, no. Shockingly, uh, this is a interesting...

I'll, I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest version here, but, uh, the movie 12 Strong, I play Lieutenant Colonel, uh, Max Bowers.

He was the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group commanding officer.

Uh, I play him in, uh, the movie 12 Strong.

Interesting story.

When the movie 12 Strong ends, they take Mazar-i-Sharif.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jimmy Stewart didn't wanna just be a, uh, publicity stunt, right? He begged, pleaded to go into service as a, or in- deployed in- into combat, like you did, as opposed to just being a publicity guy, correct?

Nonetheless, Rob, uh, tell me about the Jimmy Stewart movie.

Yeah.

It's a, it's a great biopic about, uh, an American hero that, you know, I don't, I, I want a new generation, uh, even my generation really, to, to learn the story of Jimmy Stewart.

He is, uh, truly a rare individual.

Um, there are not many like him anymore.

There's a few.

There's a few, but not many, uh, who choose, um, service over self.

Is there a way to get back there? What would that look like?

Nonetheless, Rob, uh, tell me about the Jimmy Stewart movie.

Yeah, it's a, it's a great biopic about, uh, an American hero that, you know, I don't, I, I want a new generation, uh, even my generation really, to, to learn the story of Jimmy Stewart.

He is a truly, a rare individual.

Um, there are not many like him anymore.

There's a few, there's a few, but not many, uh, who choose, um, service over self.

Uh, this guy won an Academy Award in 1940, a year before we got into the war.

Uh, and then still volunteered to go serve and not, uh, he didn't take an easy path.

[laughs]

Everyone's got a streaming

show.

Well, I've got a podcast.

Are you the only guy not being paid by Apple? No, I don't have a streaming show.

I have a podcast.

Okay.

That I do with Darren Leder, who is an amazing musician and now lives in Kansas City as well.

Here's the

You went and did sketch comedy

...

I did.

I, um, I, I was so disheartened that I gave up flight school to go pursue comedy that I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

And I was like, "What was I thinking coming here and giving up flight school on a, on a, something I'd never even tried until I got there?" And I was so dumb, and I was beating the hell out of myself.

And, um, so I, uh, a, a friend, a friend of a friend basically said, um, "Hey, I know somebody who was just on Saturday Night Live.

Maybe you should talk to them." So I was like, "Oh, okay." And, uh, Dave Koechner-

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

That's it.

I didn't know him at all.

But, uh, through a friend, um, he knew I was in, uh, my friend knew I was in New York, and, um, you know, she, uh, said, "Well, you ought to talk to Dave.

You know, Dave's f- he's, he just got off Saturday Night Live.

He just did a year there.

He's, he does improv in Chicago, and he did all this stuff," and he's, you know, I figured he'd been on SNL, you know, the guy's pretty dang good.

Yeah, yeah.

And what was the show like? What was in the show?

We just, we slapped together a show.

Um, I, uh, I kinda did double duty.

So I grabbed Paul and Rob 'cause we had done improv and for years.

And, uh, Horatio also had done a lot of improv with us, and I'd been on SNL with Horatio and, and we got along really well.

So I would do some standup in the beginning, then we would do a couple of, of s- you know, sketches or bits that we'd kinda written up.

Then, uh, Horatio, we'd do a, we would do some stuff with the audience, so we'd get the, you know, some, some of the troops to come up and join us for, like, a dating game m- parody where, uh, Horatio came out and played Carol, you know? And, and she was the bachelorette.

I think we've all said that.

Your story is at ground zero.

Yeah.

Well, I was in my reserve unit in the Marines, was in Manhattan.

And I think we were, if not the only, we're one of the only reserve units in Manhattan proper.

So after 9-11, they closed the bridges and tunnels.

Yeah.

And we got activated.

Yeah.

Your story is at ground zero.

Yeah.

Well, my reserve unit in the Marines was in Manhattan.

And I think we were, if not the only, we're one of the only reserve units in Manhattan proper.

So after 9-11, you know, they closed the bridges and tunnels.

Yeah.

And we got activated.

Really?

Right

...

if I could have a coffee with you." And he said yes, and it was in New York, and so we went and had coffee, and he took the time to kind of let me tell my story, like, "I'm trying real hard, and I don't know what to do.

And what do you suggest? And I'm taking class, and I, I just tried stand-up, and I hated it.

It's not what I thought it would be." And, and he was like, "Well, let's figure this out." And he kind of said, "Well, I've got some friends who just moved here, Amy Poehler and Matt Besser and Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts, and-...

they're kind of the, the UCB from Chicago, and they're doing long-form improv, and you might like it.

Check the show out, and tell them I sent you." And so they got- he got me pointed in that direction, and then when I went to UCB, I really enjoyed what they were doing.

Yeah.

That's exactly what it was.

Yeah.

So for whatever reason, uh, you know- Hollywood is in a weird state.

I don't know how to describe it.

It's, the paradigm has shifted.

It's all upside down, so it, things don't work like they used to, and no one can explain it.

It's really inexplicable.

Yeah.

Yeah

... dot org, because, uh, uh, I'm gonna be the race starter for the Pat Tillman Foundation.

They have a big race in Tempe, Arizona, on April 11th.

Oh, wow.

4.2-mile run.

It's gonna be awesome.

They raise a lot of money for veterans and for their families.

It's awesome.

Okay

... which is in its 22nd year.

Um, and it's down at, uh, Tempe, Arizona on April 11th.

Uh, you can go to patsrun.org or just ptf.org to learn about the Pat Tillman Foundation, to learn about the run, to learn about the good work that the foundation does, which it really does.

I mean, they've got over 1,000 scholarships they give out.

They have a, a bunch of, uh, uh, work that they do to make the lives of veterans, of veterans' spouses, uh, uh, better.

Um, you know, Pat, to me, he, he personified sacrifice.

Indoor.

Fascinating.

And, but it, it had a name.

It was called improv.

So, so he, he got in my ear at the right time, and, uh, I, I remember I was, I was at, down in flight school in Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.

And, um, I had just finished primary and intermediate, and I got helicopters, and I was going back to Pensacola, and I was gonna start doing that.

And, uh, um, I, I decided that I, if I switched to the ground side, became a ground officer, I would no longer have to, uh, that, that long of a commitment, and I could actually go move to Chicago and study Second City and, and try this thing.

So I finally kinda got the cojones to do it.

Yeah

Yeah.

Uh, no, I, I was in the, uh...

Again, Reader's Digest version.

I was in the Marine Corps.

I was flying planes down in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I had a friend of mine who was up in Chicago doing improv and he said, "Riegel, this is what we did in college, only it has a name.

It's called improv and I think you're good at it.

Do you have advice for veterans who are having trouble with that, like, adjustment back to civilian life?

Bear Grylls, who wouldn't?

Yeah.

So I said yes.

And he goes, "Okay, great." And then I looked at the schedule and it was during the AFC Championship game.

So cut to, I'm in Iceland on a glacier in the middle of the night.

Uh, on the far side, Reykjavik is down here, and we were way out in the middle of nowhere.

And we had these little shelter habs and I'm, I'm laying there freezing my ass off, but I have my phone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we just remember.

They still have ways of making recruit training incredibly tough, incredibly harsh, and brutal.

You know, the Marine Corps, we actually, when other branches of service during our latest Afghanistan-Iraq thing, a lot of services were reducing their boot camp by a week.

to try to get more people out there or to entice people.

We actually added a week to our boot camp.

You know, it's a head scratcher.

Yeah.

Explain what it is because it's pretty cool.

Big Rig.

(laughs) It's unbelievable.

What? Yeah! It's the best team ever.

He made it.

Ah! He made it! Yeah! (laughs)

(laughs)

So first of all, you, we, we're fighting the clock.

We're fighting the other team.