The Art of Manliness - Episode #38： Ron Swanson with Actor Nick Offerman

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another episode of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:00:20.240 Well, this week's edition is quite a treat for us.

00:00:22.300 I sat down with actor Nick Offerman, who plays the manliest character on TV right now,

00:00:27.100 Ron Effin Swanson from NBC's Parks and Recreation.

00:00:31.140 During our interview, Nick and I discussed what makes Ron so manly, mustaches, and Nick's

00:00:36.360 true passion in life, woodworking.

00:00:38.920 All right, well, Nick, welcome to the show.

00:00:40.720 We really appreciate taking the time to speak to us.

00:00:43.320 My pleasure.

00:00:44.340 Thanks for having me.

00:00:45.380 So, Nick, I know a lot of our readers and listeners are big fans of Parks and Recreation and your

00:00:52.140 character, Ron Swanson, you play on the show.

00:00:54.980 For those who haven't seen the show, could you kind of describe Ron Swanson and why Art

00:01:02.960 of Manliness readers would be interested in him?

00:01:05.320 Well, Ron Swanson is the director of Parks and Recreation Department in a small Midwestern

00:01:15.040 town, and he is an American man who has remained refreshingly unaffected by the information

00:01:27.040 age.

00:01:28.240 So, he lives a very simple life without the confusion of choice provided by the internet

00:01:39.600 and social networking and cell phones and all that, who's sort of a throwback to a more

00:01:48.920 of a little house on the prairie character.

00:01:51.520 Yeah, definitely.

00:01:52.820 I mean, he's got the mustache.

00:01:54.800 He's really into freedom and liberty and self-reliance that I think a lot of American men are attracted

00:02:01.760 to, and I think a lot of people know men like Ron Swanson.

00:02:08.020 That's what I've encountered when I've talked to people.

00:02:11.200 They go, I know a guy like that.

00:02:12.880 It's like my grandpa or like my uncle who lives out in Montana.

00:02:15.740 Well, yeah, I think it's something that, I think Ron's ideals are something that most suburban

00:02:25.420 or urbanite people in this country can only dream of because we are sort of necessarily

00:02:34.380 required by our businesses to take part in all of the modern technologies that Ron eschews.

00:02:44.460 Yeah, so, I mean, do you think that's why there's the appeal for him?

00:02:47.880 Because, I mean, since the show started a few years ago, the show has developed a really

00:02:53.340 great following, but Ron Swanson has kind of become this almost cult hero.

00:02:58.100 I mean, there's Tumblr blogs dedicated to cast that look like Ron Swanson.

00:03:03.000 I know, I've seen, like, these magnificent oil paintings of the character Ron Swanson.

00:03:08.820 I mean, do you think that's the appeal?

00:03:10.680 Like, people wish they can get back to that?

00:03:12.680 I think so.

00:03:13.400 Well, I mean, it's hard for me to say being behind the clown makeup myself exactly what

00:03:22.620 it is, but if I had to guess, it would be that, that Ron sort of represents what we all

00:03:30.780 idealize as a simpler time.

00:03:33.360 I mean, I mean, I myself don't do Facebook or Twitter.

00:03:40.040 I never have.

00:03:41.180 And it's all I can do just to keep up with my email inbox.

00:03:47.520 And it drives me crazy that we're now, that the part of me that wishes I could be more

00:03:55.120 like Ron is the part that has to answer 80 emails a day.

00:03:59.320 I was talking to my wife about it, saying, in the day of the telephone answering machine, what

00:04:08.140 would you think if you came home every day and you had 80 messages that you had to listen

00:04:12.840 to and attend to?

00:04:14.260 And it's something that I feel enslaved by or certainly caged by my obligation to the

00:04:24.600 information age.

00:04:26.420 And so I long for the freedom of Ron Swanson.

00:04:31.520 Yeah.

00:04:32.260 Can shrug and say, I care nothing for any messages on my computer.

00:04:38.160 So, you know, Ron is known for his kind of iconic mustache.

00:04:42.580 Is that something you keep when you're not shooting or is that just for just for the show?

00:04:48.080 I throughout my career, I have had every possible iteration of facial hair and head hair.

00:04:57.260 I've done a Mr. T, a full on Mr. T, as well as an albino Mr. T.

00:05:04.060 I love everything from shaved head to long hair.

00:05:08.400 I love everything from huge full beard to, you know, mutton chops to clean shaven.

00:05:15.660 And so over the years, I have sported the mustache for different roles.

00:05:21.240 It is especially effective, of course, for cop or sheriff.

00:05:25.660 Yeah.

00:05:25.840 And, you know, for years, I would be told by casting directors, when you when you arrive

00:05:36.380 at your sheriff years, you're going to you're going to do very well.

00:05:41.800 And so so it was sort of one of the tools in my arsenal, one of one of the weapons I had

00:05:47.240 at my disposal.

00:05:47.980 And when Mike Chur and I began talking about Ron, that was kind of the first really the 0.99

00:05:57.340 first decision we made was, well, this guy has a ridiculous kick ass beefy mustache. 0.98

00:06:04.520 That's awesome. 0.99

00:06:05.380 And what does your wife think of the mustache? 0.85

00:06:07.000 Is she a fan or is she like, yeah, fortunately, she's a big fan of my weirdness, my whisker weirdness.

00:06:14.400 Yeah.

00:06:15.220 She not only is a big fan of the mustache, but no matter what strange thing I do to my

00:06:21.140 head, she usually comes down in favor of it. 1.00

00:06:26.020 Well, you're a lucky man because I know a lot of guys wish they could grow a mustache,

00:06:30.320 but usually their wife, wife says no.

00:06:34.640 But Ron Swanson would be like, I don't care what what my wife says. 0.97

00:06:38.260 Exactly.

00:06:38.840 I mean, I think it's I think it's a shame.

00:06:40.760 I know I know a lot of people in that predicament and I say to both of them, I think it's a

00:06:48.060 shame that you're so closed minded.

00:06:51.500 Whatever it is, you know, you're locked into whether it's your image of yourself or your

00:06:58.680 husband or if it's some sort of hygienic, you know, sometimes women are like, no, that's 1.00

00:07:05.480 gross.

00:07:05.800 Sometimes I don't want a bunch of crumbs or I don't know what.

00:07:10.000 But I, you know, I tell people it's a it's a really eye opening experience, at least try

00:07:18.940 it.

00:07:19.460 My dad grew a full beard and he was crazy about it.

00:07:23.300 I like it.

00:07:24.220 So how similar is Ron Swanson to you?

00:07:27.480 Because I've heard Jerry O'Hare who played or not Jerry O'Hare, Jim O'Hare, right?

00:07:33.140 Who plays Jerry on the show.

00:07:36.940 He's quoted as saying is that you are as manly or manlier as Ron Swanson.

00:07:41.680 And it sounds like you kind of have a very similar your approach to technology is kind

00:07:45.600 of Ron Swanson esque.

00:07:47.180 Is there any other things you've infused into Ron Swanson that comes from your just personality

00:07:52.060 and character?

00:07:52.640 Well, first of all, I should say that Jim O'Hare was speaking erroneously and he may have

00:08:02.640 been trying to avoid the glaring fact that he is very similar to Jerry Gergich.

00:08:11.620 Roundly detested around the set of our show and could not be more of an Eeyore.

00:08:19.020 Regarding his comments about me, it's funny to me and I think kind of sad that manliness

00:08:37.840 has become sort of this niche conversation, much like, you know, gourmet burgers or custom-made

00:08:52.500 selvage denim jeans.

00:08:54.840 And, you know, it sort of speaks to me about how soft our society has gotten that someone

00:09:03.840 would want to interview me about how manly he is.

00:09:06.340 And I think it's because I grew up, like, the men I grew up amongst, I'm the sissy in my family.

00:09:16.220 You know, I'm the artist.

00:09:17.540 My dad and my uncles and my grandfathers are farmers and firemen and these guys, these guys could crash

00:09:28.980 their tractor into a canyon and pull up their pickup truck and rebuild the tractor into a combine

00:09:37.700 and then drive it into a field and harvest enough grain to feed a small city and then drink a case of beer.

00:09:48.020 You know, I mean, these guys are like superheroes of manliness compared to me.

00:09:52.800 But I just happened to have ventured into the big city, you know, into a field that's made up 0.91

00:10:02.040 mostly of sort of simpering Shakespeare acolytes, among which I count myself.

00:10:13.820 I mean, I enjoy putting on a pair of tights as much as...

00:10:19.240 And the cod piece, right?

00:10:23.540 That's right.

00:10:24.320 Yeah, of course.

00:10:25.580 We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.

00:10:28.680 And now back to the show.

00:10:30.480 But there is, I think, one of the things that I learned watching the show, there was an episode

00:10:35.600 where Ron built a canoe, just like the night before.

00:10:39.840 I think he gave it a gift to somebody.

00:10:43.380 But you're actually a woodworker.

00:10:46.280 I mean, that's what you...

00:10:47.080 That's one of your, I guess, a hobby or...

00:10:48.580 It's almost like a, I think, a second career for you.

00:10:50.900 Is that right?

00:10:51.900 It is, yeah.

00:10:52.660 I mean, I actually am on the cover of the current Fine Woodworking magazine.

00:10:59.600 Oh, very cool.

00:11:00.700 On the stands right now, which is one of the...

00:11:03.460 Probably one of the proudest achievements I'll ever come up with.

00:11:08.140 I dreamed I would arrive there.

00:11:12.760 That episode you're referring to was actually shot in my shop.

00:11:16.520 And those were my canoes that I had built.

00:11:19.580 There were two of my canoes in that episode.

00:11:22.640 Yeah, that's the...

00:11:24.480 You know, again, I grew up using tools.

00:11:27.740 I framed houses one summer.

00:11:29.920 I spent a lot of my career building scenery as a supplement to my acting income.

00:11:39.020 And so, you know, it's not something...

00:11:41.820 It's not something I...

00:11:43.820 I also spent a couple summers blacktopping roads and driveways and parking lots.

00:11:50.320 Which are, you know, in hindsight, those are all things you might consider manly.

00:11:55.700 But I wasn't trying to...

00:11:59.700 I wasn't setting out to lay the groundwork for Ron Swanson.

00:12:04.520 Or trying to become a guy who could grow a good mustang.

00:12:08.240 Yeah, you're just trying to pay the bills.

00:12:10.240 You're just trying to pay the bills.

00:12:11.420 And my woodworking, it sort of speaks to this conversation in that when I got to Los Angeles and I saw, you know,

00:12:24.100 your average actor is often a very sad personality because they're so narcissistic.

00:12:35.160 And the business is so brutal.

00:12:40.340 And, you know, the actor has so little power over their career path that it's just incredibly emasculating.

00:12:53.500 And I got to Los Angeles and I saw all the folks around me suffering, suffering from terrible neurotic lives

00:13:01.680 where every day was, you know, filled with the ennui of what will become of me, what am I thinking,

00:13:10.860 should I move back to Kansas City and, you know, take that accounting position at my uncle's firm.

00:13:17.460 And so when I sort of saw that, my reaction was to make sure that I kept building things out of wood

00:13:29.840 while I was auditioning and trying to get acting work

00:13:34.040 so that I could just simply hold my head up around my family when I went home for Christmas.

00:13:40.920 Yes, I mean, I guess it's kind of a therapeutic thing for you then in a lot of cases.

00:13:46.380 Absolutely.

00:13:46.840 Yeah.

00:13:47.760 And is there a, you know, there's a website you have for your shop,

00:13:56.740 and you have just these really fantastic pieces, very beautiful.

00:14:00.580 Is there a particular kind of project you like to work on?

00:14:03.040 I mean, is there a piece you like to make all the time for people?

00:14:06.520 No, I mean, I've made a lot of dining tables that are just one slab of a tree

00:14:14.240 in the style of a guy named George Nakashima.

00:14:18.820 But, no, you know, I really just love making things out of wood.

00:14:24.740 I mean, I've made two canoes.

00:14:27.680 I'll probably make a couple ocean kayaks.

00:14:30.780 Wow.

00:14:31.100 I have some ukuleles coming up, which I'm making in preparation to then try some acoustic guitars.

00:14:43.300 And I think, I don't think I'll ever become, you know, a canoe shop or a guitar shop.

00:14:49.820 I think I like making a couple versions of something until I'm like,

00:14:55.840 okay, that is a kick-ass table, that is an awesome cabin,

00:15:01.360 that is a canoe that I can keep for the rest of my life.

00:15:05.200 And then I sort of keep, then I look for what's next.

00:15:08.720 I like keeping it fresh.

00:15:11.620 I have a couple helpers at my shop, and they are the same way,

00:15:16.780 but they also, they kind of head up the operation

00:15:21.460 where if somebody wants us to reproduce a table or something,

00:15:24.760 they jump in and get their hands dirty.

00:15:28.300 So your shop is a commercial shop.

00:15:30.300 It's not just something in your house.

00:15:32.560 It's like an actual working shop.

00:15:34.280 It is, yeah.

00:15:35.480 And we actually, coincidentally, just yesterday,

00:15:38.320 we put up, we finally got my website re-upped

00:15:43.360 after a few years of dormancy.

00:15:45.220 So it's now, there's now some little items you can get on the website

00:15:49.860 because we were getting a lot of fan traffic.

00:15:53.280 And so, you know, there's still not, there's a T-shirt and a cap, you know,

00:15:59.280 because a lot of fans were coming and saying,

00:16:02.340 hey, I live in Ohio.

00:16:05.620 Is there anything I can buy from this shop that's not a $500 footstool?

00:16:11.660 And so we got a lot of that kind of traffic,

00:16:16.400 so we put a few things up, you know.

00:16:21.620 So what's the address for your webpage for your shop

00:16:23.980 so people can go check it out?

00:16:25.720 Oh, it's offermanwoodshop.com.

00:16:28.380 All right.

00:16:29.220 I'll make sure to put that in a link in the post

00:16:31.800 so people can check that out.

00:16:34.400 One of the things, you know,

00:16:36.660 woodworking seems like a really involved trade.

00:16:38.760 So, I mean, how do you balance that with your acting career?

00:16:45.040 I mean, is it, like, you only can, like,

00:16:46.460 do you keep doing it year-round

00:16:48.200 or are there, you know, seasons where you're just acting

00:16:50.940 and then you're doing,

00:16:51.920 then your other times you're doing just woodworking?

00:16:54.900 Well, it used to be, you know,

00:16:56.860 I used to get less acting work,

00:16:58.960 so I spent a lot more time woodworking.

00:17:02.560 And the last few years, my shop time has been cut into considerably

00:17:08.940 by Parks and Recreation.

00:17:11.960 But even so, acting is not the most grueling schedule on the planet.

00:17:20.900 Even when we're going full speed on the show,

00:17:25.220 I'll have a week off every month or two.

00:17:28.180 And, you know, I get days off when I'm not in the story

00:17:31.920 that they're shooting that day.

00:17:33.300 So I still get into the shop with some frequency.

00:17:39.700 And, you know, I definitely am doing less work now,

00:17:43.840 but I'm looking forward to continuing to work with my hands

00:17:49.820 during my downtime.

00:17:53.000 Definitely.

00:17:53.240 So, Nick, last question.

00:17:55.320 I know a lot of guys, like, have, like, the,

00:17:59.240 like, woodworking is like their fantasy hobby.

00:18:01.180 It's like, oh, I wish I had a good shop in my garage

00:18:03.620 and I would build a table out of a slab of wood.

00:18:07.660 But I think a lot of guys don't take it on

00:18:09.540 because they just seem kind of intimidated by it.

00:18:12.060 Do you have any suggestions for those guys

00:18:13.740 who want to get started but don't know how?

00:18:15.920 Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to have a really firm foundation

00:18:22.640 in just tool skills when I began what I would call fine woodworking.

00:18:31.480 I had several years of being a professional scenery

00:18:35.480 and prop builder under my belt.

00:18:37.140 But regardless, in general, I think the best advice I could give anybody

00:18:44.520 is to start subscribing to Fine Woodworking magazine.

00:18:50.280 That's what I did when I got hooked on actual, like, fine woodworking.

00:18:56.740 That magazine was just my grad school and my Ph.D. program.

00:19:00.920 It's really incredible, and I'm not affiliated with it.

00:19:07.100 I mean, I just had an article published in it,

00:19:10.540 but I'm simply a huge disciple of the magazine.

00:19:16.520 And the thing you'll discover is there's stuff in there

00:19:21.000 for woodworkers on every level,

00:19:23.500 and there's all kinds of different things you can try and tackle

00:19:26.700 that don't take up as much room

00:19:28.960 or don't take as much of an initial outlay financially.

00:19:34.300 You know, you can get a little small lathe

00:19:37.220 and turn, like, anything from pens to lamps to candlesticks to, you know, bowls.

00:19:44.200 There are certain things that take up less space

00:19:46.700 if you find something you can specialize in.

00:19:49.400 But, you know, it's like anything that requires a little bit of gumption. 1.00

00:20:00.000 You just have to get off your ass and try. 1.00

00:20:03.820 Yeah. 1.00

00:20:04.540 That's the most important thing.

00:20:05.960 I mean, I still make mistakes all the time,

00:20:09.140 and I love, I read a quote that fine woodworking masters,

00:20:17.940 they say, you know, the greater your mastery celebrated,

00:20:22.700 it just means that you're that much better at covering up your mistakes.

00:20:27.780 And it's really true.

00:20:29.200 Like, I read an article on fine woodworking many years ago,

00:20:33.520 and the article was how to cover up your dovetails that you've screwed up.

00:20:42.260 And I said, oh, you can screw them up and cover them up?

00:20:46.100 Well, then I, you know, I was completely scared to try dovetails.

00:20:50.260 But once I read that article, I was like, oh, well, now I have permission

00:20:55.300 because I can mess it up.

00:20:56.400 And I made a really beautiful shaker blanket chest with a ton of dovetails in it.

00:21:04.040 And, you know, I probably messed up 5% of them, and no one will ever know.

00:21:08.620 Well, very cool.

00:21:09.280 So just get out there and try it then. 1.00

00:21:11.260 Yeah, get off your ass. 0.99

00:21:12.480 I mean, that's the, you know, that's, I think, I think that's what, 1.00

00:21:17.280 that's what this side of people who admire Ron Swanson, 1.00

00:21:23.640 and I think that's what they're craving to hear, is get off your ass, 0.99

00:21:28.220 go get it, put down the, you know, video game controller, 1.00

00:21:33.900 and go look at a tree.

00:21:38.380 Get a shovel and dig a hole.

00:21:40.160 You'll be amazed at the power you can wield.

00:21:43.960 Well, those are some wise words and wise advice from you

00:21:48.120 and from the life of Ron Swanson.

00:21:50.180 Well, Nick, I know you're busy.

00:21:51.660 Thank you so much for taking the time.

00:21:53.260 It's been a pleasure.

00:21:55.080 Oh, my pleasure.

00:21:55.940 Good luck with everything, and I'll see you around campus.

00:21:59.700 Our guest today was actor Nick Offerman.

00:22:01.600 Nick plays Ron Swanson on NBC's Parks and Recreation,

00:22:04.780 and you can catch Parks and Rec Thursday nights on NBC.

00:22:08.020 And to find out more about Nick's woodworking,

00:22:09.620 you can check out his website at offermanwoodshop.com.

00:22:14.980 Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:22:18.280 For more manly tips and advice,

00:22:19.840 make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com.

00:22:23.540 And until next time, stay manly.

00:22:26.520 And until next time, stay manly.

00:22:45.360 Thank you.

00:22:45.860 See you.

00:22:46.140 Bye.

The Art of Manliness - April 04, 2014

Episode #38： Ron Swanson with Actor Nick Offerman

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