Video: Josh Gad Is Telling All About His Tell-Some, In Gad We Trust

Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge

You know my guest, comedian and entertainer Josh Gad from Disney, Broadway, YouTube, and the Silver Screen

Well, he's just released his new book called In Gad We Trust, a hilarious tell some, and I caught up with him here at the Museum of Broadway

Wow. Oh, my God. Look at this! Andrew, looking at this right now, I actually start to get cold sweats

The idea of putting these hats on and doing what I had to do

it should be like a very, like, nostalgic experience, but instead it's like nightmare fuel

I'm so glad that they're behind glass and can no longer do harm to me. so much younger

so much hairier were you yeah look at all that head of hair right

look at that hair it's like a lufa on my head well Josh I am thrilled to be sitting with you

welcome to New York my friend it is so good to be home I call this place home

because it really does feel like it every time I come back and I see you I'm like oh god am I in a Broadway show again

I am currently not okay so this book in Gad we trust I sat here

and literally I wrote this one this is mine This is yours. This is my face

Well, I want to tell you, anybody who's ever dreamed about a career in show business should read this book

I love you. Thank you. Or anybody who just wants to follow a star. You know, Andrew Reynolds is one of your dear friends

Yes. And I sat with him and he said, Richard, what people don't realize is they look at all the great things you've done

But no one looks at the in-between. That is a great way of putting it

Once again, I'm angry at Andrew for saying something more eloquently than I could have done

But that's 100% accurate. This is a book about the in-betweens of some of those things that I'm known for

It's also a look at the in-betweens of very personal stories in between the cracks of my somewhat tragic upbringing when I found out that my father had another family at the age of six and how that sort of led me down a path in a career of trying to be funny

initially to try to make my mom come out of a deep depression and stupor, and then realize

oh, this is kind of a superpower. What if I invested time and energy into this

Okay, so early on growing up, Hollywood Playhouse. Is that where... Hollywood, not California, by the way, Hollywood, Florida

Hollywood Playhouse for the performing arts. I was about 10 around there when I started

I had an incredible teacher. His name was James Michael. A lot of people don't know

This talk about this in the book, but at the time I was going to this small children's playhouse

with a young Randy Rainbow and Seth Gable, who would both go on to become stars in their own right

And the three of us were being inspired by this incredible technician of art and drama

And this guy, James Michael, was sort of my first big mentor

And he really taught me about emotional truth. And, you know, I talk about this anecdote in my book of him talking about when he needs to cry on command

He always has one trigger word that sets him up. And that word is why

And I didn't understand it. I kept saying, why? And no tears would come

And it was only later in life that I understood the meaning of that

And it was such an unbelievable, like, lightning bulb realization. And for me, that why always comes down to the sort of tragic realities that we deal with in our life

And when you can sort of draw a line between that question and the connective tissue of your own sort of personal tragedies along the way or your hardships, whatever they may be, it becomes

something that is very honest, it becomes something that's very real, and it becomes sort of a path

for how to tackle these things on camera or on stage. So 10 years old, great, valuable lesson

You know, there's so much to talk about in this book, because, I mean, there's life lessons everywhere in this book. But between high school and college, did you go to Disney World to try

to get a job I did I went to Disney World in Florida I grew up in South Florida and Disney World has a casting center And so I went there

My senior year of high school, I was going to university school of Nova Southeastern University

and a very long name for high school. And I was like, okay, I've got a summer to kill

Let me try to apply for a job at Disney. So I sat down with this head hunter

or the casting person, I was like, I think I would be a really good

jungle crew skipper. And she looked at me and she said, no, that is not a job opening we have for you

But if you'd like to do concessions or janitorial work, we can arrange that

And I was like, that sounds really inviting, but I'm going to try my hand at something else

So I pivoted. I worked for an ad agency. It was fired after two weeks

My big ad that I wrote was it was 1-800 telematress and I had, my boss was like

I need something, any copy and I, thinking about it, I come back in two days later

and I go, I got it, and he reads, he takes a paper, he reads it out loud

and he goes, are you having trouble sleeping? Why are you telling me

1-800 telematress. And I thought it was brilliant. I was shown the door

So it's not very successful early on. Then went to Carnegie Mellon drama and was quite a class

Yeah. Mention some of these people who were in your class. It was crazy. Well, it wasn't even just my class

It was the damn school. Like seniors when I was a freshman, Joe Magnello, Matt Bomer, Cody de Pablo

you know, there were, like in every class, there were would-be superstars

And then in my class, you had people like Leslie Odom Jr., Roryl Malley, and one Josh Grobin

who literally left as a freshman to go become capital, Josh, capital Grobin, leaving us all behind

But it was unbelievable. It was an amazing opportunity to be surrounded by people who were so much more talented than I was

and to be able to learn from them, you know, even underclassmen, Megan Hilty was the year younger than me, Patina Miller

It was really crazy. You were just surrounded by glorious talent. But you applied to three schools

Yeah. Well, I applied to more than three schools. Okay. I applied to way too many schools

My parents were like, do you know how much we're spending on applications

And really, I was hedging my bets, Richard, because I didn't think I was going to get into any of them

But my top choices, Northwestern, number one. Juilliard, number two. That was it

If I could go to those places, I was set. They did not see it that way

they sent me what people call a rejection letter Julia didn't even bother to send the letter

Oh no they did they did I have that letter I kept that letter

They were very kind to also let me know in the room that it was gonna work out

They did a little bit of both Northwestern was great because I was in a class of 99

Nine students applied to get into Northwestern Eight got in Can you guess who the ninth was

Rhymes with job Ashkad. I did not get into either school. So my backup was Carnegie Mellon. And I bamboozled my way in. I

Trojan horse my way into the school. I looked at the fine print and I saw that if you applied

as a director, you had to audition for the program, which I thought was very odd. But I was like

okay, all right. So I applied as a director, going, the head of the directing program

Greg Lehane, takes a look at me. I do my piece. It's Marty by Patty Chayevsky

And he looks at me and he goes, are you sure you want to be a director

And I go, yeah, I mean, I guess I could be convinced

to do something else. What are you thinking? He goes, I'd like to bring in the head of drama

the head of acting. This guy Tony McKay comes in and he goes, why do you want to be a director And I was like well you know what guys I young Maybe I just pivot here and do acting and set And so I got into the acting program

Where I did not exceed expectations was in my musical theater audition

So I was flatly told, no, we don't think musicals are quite for you or in your future

You have to give them this book. Oh, yeah. Planning on giving them a copy to them when I see them next

No, it all worked out. I wouldn't change anything. To be fair, my dance audition was tragic

So I understood why I didn't get into musical theater. I want to ask you about your S&L audition

Oh, do you? Yeah, no. It's tough. I mean, you can't ask me about it? No, can I ask you about S&L

Yes, absolutely. Only because of who directed your S&L audition tape. Or who was in it

Yes, who is in it. Yes. So I, as one does when they graduate from a four-year conservatory and drama

thought I should audition for Saturday Night Live. Usually people do improv or stand-up

I decided to do a conservatory program. So I send an audition tape

and my friend, Bryce Dallas-Haward, I somehow convinced her that her dad

the legendary director, Ron Howard, should open the video for and with me

So Ron, at the beginning of this audition tape, goes, live from your V

This is my Ron Howard impression. He goes, live from your VCR, it's Josh Gat

It was so dumb, and it was so wonderful. And much like Juilliard and Northwestern, S&L felt not quite ready for prime time

So I, you know, I sort of struggled with, what do I do

What is my place? I was bouncing back and forth between New York

York in L.A. It was Rory O'Malley who actually said to me, you got to find a place to anchor yourself

You're untethered. And only when you anchor yourself in one of these places, will you be able

to ground yourself and take the next steps? Because I wasn't getting work. I was really

struggling financially. And so I did just that. And I tethered my

myself in Los Angeles. I did a black box theater show at the small theater

called The Elephant Asylum, and I met my then girlfriend, would-be wife

And off of that, I just sort of started getting like little jobs here and there

And eventually that would lead to Spelling Bee. Yeah. Okay, because we're running out of time

Favorite memory of doing Spelling Bee? Favorite memory of doing Spelling Bee was probably

my first night on stage. I, it was my first time ever on Broadway

Yeah. And being there surrounded by this incredible cast in this Tony Award winning show was electric

Except at the end of the show, I forgot to spell the word that Barfay spells in order to win the championship

And I just remember Jesse Tyler Ferguson collapsing, laughing at my pain and trauma

I completely, for that audience, misspell the world. And still one, because I had to, plot-wise

Book of Mormon. Book Mormon, favorite memory had to be the night I got to perform the show for one of my

legends, Robin Williams. You know, Robin was an inspiration to me. As the genie in Aladdin, he inspired me to one day, take the mantle, play a comic relief

character in a movie called Frozen. And having Robin not only in the audience, but then come up to me after to my dressing

room and gush about something I had done when it very much should have been the other way around

was, it stayed with me for the rest of my life and was true inspiration

You have a letter from him, don't you? I have a letter. It's in the book. It's a beautiful letter, and I treasure that memory

and that gift that he gave me. And the journey of Frozen, because so many things, maybe

Olaf was going to melt and wasn't going to be in the movie. I mean, there was so many things

Olaf had a very troubling history. leading up to his presence in that movie

And for a while, I was not going to be involved in it

And for reasons I explained in the book, but the movie disappeared, then the character disappeared

then I wasn't able to do it because I was doing something else. And it was a crazy journey that all came together

And you know it is a movie that I thought was going to be really quite excellent but nobody knew that it would become what it became not a person especially not me

Yeah. Yeah. Being a dad. How is that changed how you look at your life and how you look at your career now

Being a dad is my life. Being a dad dictates my career

Anything that I do now, the question that... I ask myself is what does that mean in terms of my sacrifice as a father and what does that

mean in terms of the benefit to my daughters. So it guides every decision I make

While COVID was a really difficult time in my life and everybody's life, the silver lining

was it reset my priorities. Being with my daughters in the morning through the evening, getting to literally teach them

learn with them, grow with them, experience with them. them. That was a gift. And it pivoted, you know, the way that I look at life, the way I look at

everything. One day, they'll read this, I hope, and will get a little bit more insight into me

And a part of that was, you know, I didn't have the dad I needed, the dad I desperately wanted

and I wanted to be all of that for them and more. And in a way, that was a gift, is having

perspective from loss was something that inspired me to be the best father I could be

Yeah. Gutenberg, you returned to Broadway with Andrew Reynolds. I did. I returned to Broadway with Mr. Andrew Reynolds, who's now cheating on me on Broadway with

Lynn Manuel Miranda. Don't think I haven't read about that. Andrew, I would read the phone book with Andrew

He is the Jekyll to my hide. He is the Martin to my short

He is the father figure I never had and always want. No, he's not that

But he is so many things to me. We have the best comic chemistry together

I love that man. Gutenberg was one of the great thrills of my life

And just doing a show with nobody but Andrew was such an exquisite experience

And one that I'm greedy to do again sometime soon. Yeah. You always return to the theater

Every decade. Yeah. And what's really great about that is because of the success you've had with like frozen and everything else

you're bringing a whole new audience to the theater and they're like, oh my gosh, they do this live

Yes. What that means to you. Theater is my everything. Yeah. It's my great equalizer

And I talk in the book about how at least once a decade in my life, I must, I mandate that I come back

on stage. Yeah. And the reason is, is you can't cheat, you can't fake it

You have to be there every second of every moment, eight times a week, regardless of how

your knees feel, regardless of how your voice feels, you just do it

Yeah. No excuses. People paying a premium and you in return are getting a gift that you otherwise never get

which is this communal, holy experience. Yeah. A one-of-a-kind experience every night that is never the same

always different, albeit small differences, big differences, whatever they may be, it's always different

And I love that. And I feed off of that. And so my hope is that it won't be another 10 years before I come back

My hope is that I will very much be back sooner rather than later. So finally, what are the proudest of this book, which has just come out

The proudest thing about this book is how Svelte, the editors made me look on the cover

this is not natural. As much as it looks like me, there was a little digital magic

in thinning some of the lines of my face. So that is the greatest achievement

Otherwise, it's the ability to share stories that I hope inspire everyone

You know, I talk about my career, but I also talk about important things

like my struggle with anxiety, my struggle with weight, my struggle with body image

I hope that's an inspiration for people who read the book. I hope they see an ally

they see a friend, they see a person who's been through everything they have

and has come out the other side of it, still struggles with it

But hopefully, you trust me and you have a great experience in the process

I'm so excited about this book and I'm so excited for people to read it