Where talk shows fear to tread Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Shepard likes to talk, and he is apparently unfazed by raw emotional displays, hard truths, or — as his podcast’s tagline states — ”the messiness of being human.”
DAX Shepard arranged a visit from a sloth for his wife’s thirty-first birthday. Sloths are apparently her favorite animal, but when Shepard came into the bedroom to tell her of its arrival, video camera in hand, he found her weeping. His wife, the actress Kristen Bell, was having a full-blown panic attack fueled by too much happiness.
It was the sloth meltdown heard ’round the world: Bell discussed the event on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2012 and Shepard revisited it on the show in 2014. The couple, a sort of modern-day Gracie Allen and George Burns, are frequent guests on Ellen as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan, The View, and other daytime and late-night talk shows. And they are all over the entertainment press. Shepard, however, didn’t want to talk to local media about his podcast, Armchair Expert, a live installment of which he presents at the Lensic Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 20.
It’s not unusual for a celebrity to turn down an interview, except that he and Bell have built an empire on being in the public eye, from their series of Samsung commercials to discussing intimate details of their marriage and revealing personal struggles, such as Bell’s problems with depression and anxiety and Shepard’s challenging childhood and subsequent issues with substance abuse. Bell stars in the beloved NBC sitcom The Good Place, now in its third season, but is probably best known as the titular character of Veronica Mars (2004-2007) and for being the voice of Anna in Disney’s Frozen.
Maybe you don’t know Shepard, who arguably isn’t the same kind of mainstream star as his wife. As an actor, he tends to gravitate to “dumb guy” roles in minor comedies like Without A Paddle (2004), cult-hit Idiocracy (2006), When in Rome (2010), and CHiPS (2017), which he directed and co-wrote, based on the 1970s television series. He also played Crosby Braverman in the NBC drama Parenthood (20102015). He stars in a new ABC sitcom, Bless This
Mess, which premiered April 16. Perhaps it is counterintuitive that Shepard would host an understated podcast based entirely around heart-to-heart conversations, but it appears a natural fit: Shepard likes to talk, and he is apparently unfazed by raw emotional displays, hard truths, or — as his podcast’s tagline states — the “messiness of being human.” He hosts Armchair Expert in the attic of the Los Angeles home he shares with Bell. He asks probing questions during interviews with celebrities, relatives, and friends, frequently jumping in to add his own stories. His guests have included Katie Couric, Dr. Phil, Lena Dunham, David Sedaris, Ira Glass, and DeGeneres.
Armchair Expert revels in therapy culture, as if the self-actualization Shepard has found in Alcoholics Anonymous and countless marriage counseling sessions with Bell can be transmitted to the masses via the internet. There is, indeed, something invigorating about listening to a man — who is so open about his own mishaps and failings — getting others to admit to their problems.
“I’ll admit to anything,” he said in the first episode, on Feb. 14, 2018. Bell was his guest. He prefaced the interview by telling listeners that they were not getting along well because he was being far too controlling. Their argument? It was about why, when they were first dating, Shepard was under the mistaken impression that Bell had what they both refer to as “fake boobs.”
Here’s how it works on tour: The live audience has no idea who the guest is before the roughly 90-minute-long show starts. It could be a star like Ethan Hawke or Vincent D’Onofrio (2018), or maybe
Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn (2019). Whoever it is, the conversation is unplanned, allowing for all manner of confessional revelations.
Shepard has said from the beginning that his interviewing skills are on a learning curve. Sometimes he talks over his guests. Sometimes the conversation meanders. There can be a voyeuristic quality in that the podcast is a window through which to spy on celebrities and others in the shadow of Hollywood. Shepard talks a lot about his hardscrabble childhood and the benefits of 12-step programs, upon which he has relied to maintain his sobriety since 2004. Strong themes of the show are healthy relationships and communication.
In a statement released around the launch of the podcast, Shepard said that he finds “people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and shortcomings to be incredibly sexy” and that even more important than celebrating his guests’ work and successes, his podcast is about exploring the “challenges and setbacks that ultimately lead to growth and betterment.”
details
▼ Live Nation presents Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Live!
▼ 8 p.m. Saturday, April 20
▼ Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St.
▼ For ticket availability, call 505-988-1234 or visit ticketssantafe.org