Josh Peck, HAPPY PEOPLE ARE ANNOYING
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now
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[0:58]Josh Peck is the author of happy people are annoying
[1:02]Josh Peck is an actor comedian
[1:04]podcaster and social media star who has lead roles in iconic television shows like Drake and Josh on Nickelodeon as well
[1:12]As grandfathered with John Stamos on Fox and now turn her in hooch the series on Disney plus
[1:18]He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their son
[1:20]Thanks for coming on moms to have time to read books
[1:23]Josh author of happy people are annoying. I can't wait to discuss this book in your career and
[1:29]And all the good stuff with you
[1:32]Also, she would tell me if I did not say this right away
[1:34]But my daughter who is just about 15 is a huge fan and is watched like all your shows and was like could not believe
[1:42]I was talking to you today. So anyway, you can do with that what you will
[1:45]I appreciate it. Thank you
[1:48]Okay, happy people are annoying gosh. I have them not too happy today
[1:52]I'll try to tone it down. I'll try to be as depressed as I can get to make things better
[1:58]Why write the book? Why now? Why did you do it? And how did you decide to make it so conversational?
[2:03]Which I loved but it was like you talking to a friend or just
[2:08]Sometimes more stream of consciousness and just super personal and friend of friend ish
[2:13]Um, yeah, thank you. I I think I
[2:16]Shouldn't be the book deal at the start of the pandemic. So it seemed like a good way to use my time and
[2:22]Also, it just seemed like a perfect time being 35 and at this inflection point in my life
[2:27]I didn't want to write a memoir or something, you know from the finish line
[2:32]I didn't want to write some self-help up from someone who was all better
[2:35]I wanted to write from someone who was a working progress
[2:38]Just use from the halfway point something accessible for people so that they didn't have to feel like the person talking to them
[2:45]Couldn't truly relate like I wanted it to feel like an older sibling or someone who was just a couple steps ahead
[2:51]Giving really good recon from the front line. It's interesting. I love it
[2:57]You know one thing I related to very much was your love of food
[3:01]You said early on
[3:03]When you were talking about your your your weight and your mom here out
[3:07]Can I if I could read this little paragraph? Is that okay with you?
[3:10]Sure
[3:12]He said
[3:13]Dr. Blue and fell the great guy shout out Dr. Blue and fell to actually shout out every pediatrician
[3:18]I had who had tried to put a 12-year-old on cholesterol medication before their bar mitzvah
[3:22]And why didn't no one have these conversations about me present?
[3:25]I guess the truth is for every conversation. I did hear there were probably two more
[3:28]I didn't I'm sure there were plenty of opinions being tossed in my mom's direction of how she could best intervene in my
[3:33]Pop tart habit send him to fat camp. I heard that a lot. I said Jeremy there last summer and he got home
[3:38]I barely recognized him Jewish mothers. I by the way
[3:42]Am a Jewish mother and have a Jewish mother so FYI
[3:45]Jewish mothers love to send their kids off the camp to heal them from the food issues
[3:48]They implanted themselves when they wouldn't excuse us before we finished our plates and while I like tick bites and canoeing as much as the next kid
[3:56]I'm not sure expensive sleep weight camp is going to get in the way of me and my pesky habit actually it wasn't a habit
[4:01]It was love my first love
[4:04]Brilliant
[4:06]Thank you
[4:08]Okay, talk to me about that. Why was food your first love?
[4:11]Tell me about how you used it and how it has served you over time and what how you feel about it now?
[4:17]I mean, I know you write about this a lot, but where is your relationship with food these days?
[4:22]Yeah, I don't know why it was my first love
[4:24]I think it was the first thing that I had access to that gave me a little bit of a head change and
[4:30]Whatever you find whatever your thing is be it food or alcohol or spending or smoking or relationships
[4:37]You know, it doesn't it can take so many forms. It's like all those things are the medicine that helps life go down
[4:44]You know
[4:45]The or the sugar that helps life go down. I should say so you know, it's our first foray
[4:50]It's not specific to Jewish kids
[4:52]Although it was kids who grew up in a Jewish household and just like what a focus food was
[4:59]But we all are rewarded as soon as we can remember with cake and sugar and sweets
[5:05]So I think it's sort of the first easiest indulgence. I you know, it's funny
[5:10]I am like a slightly triggered even though I know it's my own stuff
[5:14]And so I never obviously voice it
[5:17]But when I go to you know, I have a three-year-old now and I'll go to
[5:20]One-year-old's birthdays and they'll be like
[5:23]There's this thing now the smash cake where you have your one-year-old get their own cake for them
[5:29]That's not for the party
[5:31]They just have that it go nuts eat it grab it and it's
[5:36]Extremely cute and adorable, but I also just like the smallest part of my brain goes like uh-oh
[5:44]Because I know what it did to me so I think it was my first sort of foray into overdoing things
[5:49]But I just did it differently than my fellows and
[5:54]And today I have a much different relationship with food. Thankfully
[5:57]Well, you wrote you wrote about the period of time in which you lost weight
[6:01]But you also talk about your dependence on other things and how
[6:06]You had to navigate your way through that and
[6:08]You had this one scene where you're almost pulled over. I can't miss somewhere in LA
[6:12]I can't remember exactly where but anyway, you narrowly escaped
[6:16]And you know, you have
[6:18]Many of these hitting bottom moments where you decide to regroup and go off in a different direction
[6:25]Have you do you feel like you solved that fundamental thing?
[6:28]It doesn't almost matter what the thing is if it's food as you were saying before like is there a thing
[6:33]You turn to now that maybe is a healthier outlet like or not
[6:38]I think we certainly develop healthier sort of tools throughout our lives ideally
[6:43]You know the easy things are
[6:46]Exercise and then it becomes relationships and doing the things for other people and as steamable acts build self-esteem
[6:53]And so I'm certainly more equipped today
[6:56]But I think the most significant part of it is that I know that it's a practice
[7:00]And so last night's meal will keep you fed and I just know I'll never be all better and sort of my level of
[7:09]Peace is predicated on
[7:12]My spiritual maintenance. So it's like what am I doing to stay in good spiritual shape? Oh, I love that. That's very I love that
[7:22]Um, back to the Jewish thing for just a second and again not to say this is only in Jewish households
[7:27]My husband is Italian and I feel like they have some similarities in terms of food worship and all that and how central it is to everything
[7:35]I feel like I feel like the Jewish shaming has a particular
[7:39]Recognizable tone. You're supposed to eat your grandmother's amazing child role
[7:45]But I forbid wait on because of it and I feel like at least for me and I don't know
[7:50]I mean anytime I would see a grandparent or anybody would always be about my weight like how is your way?
[7:55]Okay, your weight. Let's say it there's so much focus on it and I think part of it
[7:59]Maybe it was generationally, but I don't know as a Jewish mom
[8:03]How do we make sure not to do this to our kids and have to still enjoy all these amazing foods that are part of the culture and the family and all that
[8:10]Like how have you saw that I you know, I wonder what I love to like think about the constant effect of what the deep-seated sort of
[8:19]Beginnings of why things are the way they are and I wonder if it's just that we are a people who are hard on themselves
[8:27]Because we've always had to self-govern and persevere and so it's sort of
[8:31]Manifesting itself and to some and to these less than healthy views on body image and and look we're you know
[8:39]Again, I don't mean to make a somano that they're overly generalized
[8:44]But we're a people known for our minds and and our contributions to science and the arts
[8:50]We're not necessarily known for our physical prowess. So maybe that's
[8:55]You know, I'm not sure but yeah, I think you're right
[8:59]When it comes to my son and I'm thankful that I have a wife who had a different experience
[9:04]But certainly, you know, she it was great
[9:07]What I've been for my wife is Irish Catholic and a volleyball player and seems to always have had a perfect body is that
[9:15]She's still super
[9:17]Cognizant of what she's eating and mindful of it
[9:20]So even people who
[9:21]In theory from far away you could say like what did they have to worry about?
[9:25]They were certainly thinking about food and sometimes in an obsessive way
[9:30]But I think I think I might hate your wife
[9:34]No, I'm kidding
[9:36]I know what you mean, but like my wife and she has two sisters who look just like her and it's it
[9:42]They are not free of it that that's what I've come to know
[9:45]You know, we can chalk it up to metabolism and all these things
[9:48]But it's not actually the case maybe for a very small percentage
[9:52]But I think even people who are in great shape their whole life are getting a lot of thought to what they're putting in the body
[9:57]But certain things that I've learned
[10:00]my son of like finishing your plate is a bad habit. We could all stand to not finish our plate.
[10:08]And why do we want our kids to finish our plate so that they can be rewarded with more food,
[10:14]with more dessert, like no dessert until you finish your plate. So I think it's being mindful
[10:19]of these things that we're probably born out of need and necessity because, you know, food is
[10:25]scarce but now have a negative connotation because it would be playing in my son to say,
[10:30]do you have it? I need to overeat to satisfy my dad. And I should say also that obviously this
[10:37]whole issue is an issue of privilege and that so many people struggle to even get food on the
[10:43]table and especially during COVID and everything. So these sort of what was me problems. I don't
[10:50]to harp too much on but I just, there is this sense of relatability where I feel like I was like,
[10:55]oh, I totally know what this guy is talking about. Oh my gosh. So anyway, just wanted to flag that.
[11:01]I also, I found it so interesting. For the first time ever, you really broke down the misperception of how
[11:09]they're rolling in dough. You were, you are as a sitcom star and you took the actual amount that
[11:15]you were earning and you broke it down by episode by here and everything else to make it seem
[11:22]more like another job. So tell me a little bit about the fact that people believe one thing about
[11:29]you and that yet reality perhaps is another and how being a working actor does not necessarily
[11:35]mean you can never worry about money the rest of your life. Yeah, when I was writing that part of
[11:40]the book, I hadn't intended to talk about money in a specific way. I wanted to obviously get
[11:47]the theme of what I was trying to say across, but I didn't necessarily want to talk specifics
[11:52]because talking about money usually is gross and luckily I had this brilliant book advisor,
[11:59]a buddy of mine, Holliday, who said, oh, you must say exactly how much you hate him. And I
[12:05]said why? He said because until I'm really new to you, I'm one of those people who believe
[12:12]but not everyone knows you the way I do. So it's important and it wasn't out of, you know, when
[12:19]I talked about this in interviews, of course, the clip fade or the title of the articles where
[12:26]you know, Josh Peck feels like he's part of a generation of kid actors who got screwed like
[12:31]that's not the headline. I mean, I certainly feel like it could have been more compensated,
[12:35]but what it was more about was to your point correcting the misperception because that's what I found
[12:42]annoying, which was that when you finished a show like that, people assume that if they saw you do
[12:47]anything other than like a blockbuster movie or the biggest elas thing that you had blown your
[12:53]money that you were irresponsible, that you were slumming it when in reality, you know,
[13:00]we were just doing things to be able to pay our rent and to have a middle-class lifestyle because
[13:05]that show, you know, we made for five years what was a middle-class income, but like most people,
[13:12]if you turn off that spout of income, you only have been smart when you're money a year, maybe 18
[13:18]months of our life and then you need to make a living. So I felt the need to sort of make people
[13:24]understand that there was a sign of it perhaps they hadn't fully understood. Yes, but I mean,
[13:30]this was probably the first time I've actually spoken about money on the podcast and any
[13:34]in any direct way either, I, you know, I mean, it's telling me, I'm like, you just don't talk about
[13:38]that, you know, but I agree with you because I wouldn't have assumed something far different,
[13:44]even being, you know, aware of what goes on in the world or whatever. It's like, I don't know,
[13:49]this cold culture of celebrity is, I mean, you really don't think that celebrity, people really
[13:54]don't think celebrities are regular people. I mean, that's why these like, us weekly,
[13:58]something gas, people are shocked. I mean, it is sort of funny. So I think it's nice to just
[14:03]be like, you know what, not only is this a look inside my entire life and end my head, but also
[14:09]my bank account just to say, like, I'm not that different and like the things that I go through,
[14:14]maybe not being on screen for many, many years, but are not so dissimilar to whatever you are
[14:19]struggling with. I think so. I think we're all looking for, you know, we looked up throughout,
[14:25]you know, the last millennia or two, you know, we looked up to the aristocracy because it was like
[14:30]this idea of a way out of our circumstance and I think celebrity, you know, whatever the version
[14:36]athlete, you know, actor or even a reality star, they afford us at this sort of escapism to
[14:43]say they have like, oh, if I had their house and those cars and that opportunity, I'd be all better.
[14:49]When in reality, they're probably having a very similar experience to you as far as spiritually
[14:56]and mentally and emotionally, just with their particular set of circumstance. I just will say that
[15:03]getting better is certainly easier when you when you don't have to worry about like,
[15:08]it affords you the opportunity to seek more help. And when you're having a grind it out on a day-to-day
[15:13]basis, just to make ends meet. Right. First. Interesting. So now that the book is in the world and
[15:23]everything and you're, you know, talking about it and has there been things that have come up
[15:30]that you were not anticipating or passages that you were like, you know what, I kind of wish I
[15:35]had not put that in. No, I think that it's a great question. You know, I was recently on my friend
[15:44]Shawn Avery's podcast and for anyone who doesn't know, Shawn Avery was a all-star, you know,
[15:50]player in the National Hockey League and played for 12 years had a really successful career.
[15:56]And then once he finished in his mid 30s, he sort of pivoted now and he's a pretty successful
[16:01]actor. And he talked about writing his book, which he had written, right? And she retired from
[16:06]the NHL. And he said, you know what, I was putting that guy like, it was like the final chapter
[16:12]of who that Shawn was. Like I was putting that guy to bed. And I said, that's exactly how I feel
[16:19]with this book. For so long, I wanted to erase my origin story. I never wanted it to be, you know,
[16:26]in the annals of history that I was a hundred pounds overweight or that I had done performance
[16:31]as I wasn't necessarily proud of or any kind of thing that, you know, now I look back on me,
[16:36]I might get the normal cringe. We all get looking at video of ourselves a decade or two ago.
[16:42]But I think what the great byproduct of it is just that like by putting it all out in the book,
[16:48]by how excited it might experience, you know, I don't have to make a case for myself anymore.
[16:54]It's sort of like that was it. And I encapsulated it in the way that I wanted to. And now,
[17:00]you know, going on 35 forward, like I wonder what the next, you know, 20 years will be like.
[17:07]Interesting. Well, I'm glad I gave you this sort of sense of closure.
[17:12]Yeah, on the chapter of your life and everything. That's great. So what is next for you? What's
[17:18]on the decade in terms of like all areas aside from your child?
[17:24]Well, I mean, professionally, I'm on this show how I make the founder on Hulu and I have a small
[17:31]part in the new Chris Snowland movie coming out next year and oh, and I have this movie where I
[17:36]play a rabbi funny enough called in this movie cup 13, the musical that'll come out August 12 on
[17:43]Netflix. So that's really fun. It couldn't be more pleased to be a part of that. And yeah,
[17:50]and then just like being a good dad and we're moving into our first house this year, which is a wild
[17:56]prospect because I just, I'm not great with spiders or anything. We're molding manly.
[18:01]So the idea that it's going to fall on me to like fix things. That'll be an interesting new
[18:06]experience. But yeah, I feel very, you know, I'm very proud of sort of everything that's
[18:13]gone on thus far and I'm excited to see what's next. Amazing. Wait, tell me more about 13.
[18:19]13. It's based on the musical 13, which is about a keep going through his bar mitzvah,
[18:24]and it was on Broadway in I think the early, you know, 2010s and now they sort of updated it
[18:33]for Netflix. And it's like a cast and it's incredibly, you know, talented young singers and dancers
[18:41]and then there's people at Debra Messing and reaffirming in it. And me as the grown-up supporting
[18:47]these incredible kids. Amazing. That's awesome. My husband is a producer, as company is morning
[18:54]moon. And he's been trying to get this film made called the Mensh about a guy who never had his
[19:01]but mitzvah, but like, oh, it was a bunch of money when he's older and decides to go back and have it so
[19:05]that he can earn the money. That's a great idea. Oh, my God. I love that. You know, I feel like you should
[19:13]do it with it. I know. That's pretty brilliant. That's a really funny idea. Yeah. It's good. Okay.
[19:21]Anyway, thank you so much. Happy people are annoying. I disagree, but I'm kidding.
[19:30]I just said it to let people know about you. You did a really job of that and allowed people to
[19:36]connect with you and learn more about you. And it's just great. It's like the gift of intimacy
[19:43]when in one person shares another. It's really nice. So puzzle dove. I appreciate it. So
[19:49]so nice to meet you and I'm so happy to be in your pond. And you know, that's to your point. It's
[19:54]like my life has been so benefited by people being willing to be transparent with their struggle.
[20:00]their life experience. So if anyway, I can be helpful to others with mine. I mean, I can't
[20:05]get away with it. My awkward teenage years are in reruns. So I might as well editorialize.
[20:12]Might as well. Why not? Thank you, Zibi. Really nice to be here. Take care. Bye bye, Yitza. Bye bye.
[20:22]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[20:26]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read
[20:30]Books. Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and
[20:35]meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound
[20:40]for the Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and
[20:45]now trim music.