Billy Eichner On: White-Knuckling Through Life, Hollywood Bulls**t, and the Two Pieces of Advice That Changed Everything
6/5/202654 min
A hilarious chat about therapy, doomscrolling, being typecast in your own life, and finding yourself in middle age.
Actor, comedian, writer, and producer Billy Eichner burst onto the scene in 2011 with Billy on the Street, a satirical TV game show he created and starred in, where Billy walked the streets of New York City asking people to compete in pop culture trivia challenges. The show has not only become a dominant force on social media with hundreds of millions of views but remains one of the most beloved and respected comedy acts in the industry.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why Billy refuses to call his memoir a self-help book
- His complicated relationship with meditation
- Why he only started therapy in his early 40s
- Acting class as accidental therapy
- The real Billy vs. the Billy on the Street character
- How his parents shaped his confidence and career
- A bar mitzvah breakdown and his mom's advice
- And much more
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDan Harris· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hey, welcome to the 10% Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Today, we're talking to Billy Eichner, who you probably know from Billy on the Street, Parks and Rec, Bros. Uh, he's out with a new audio memoir. It's called Billy on Billy. Billy Eichner right after this break. A few things before we hear from our sponsors. If you haven't already checked out my new-ish meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris, I would love for you to do so. Many people fall prey to the myth that taking care of yourself is somehow self-indulgent. One of the big aims of this app is to disprove that, to make the argument that actually taking care of yourself is a public service. As I sometimes say, there's a geopolitical case for you to get your shit together because it unlocks an upward spiral. The more you work with your own mind, the more you train your mind, the better you will be, uh, w- in your relationships with anybody who crosses your path, and that, in turn, will make you even happier, and then your relationships will improve even further, and up you go. The whole point of this app is to walk you through the unlocking of this upward spiral. If you sign up, you'll get ad-free versions of this podcast. You'll get a growing library of meditations from many of the world's greatest teachers, a growing library of courses from many of those same teachers, and we do weekly live video sessions where we meditate together. It's a chance