-Our first guest is
a two-time Golden Globe winner,
and one of the most successful,
beloved movie stars on the
planet.
He's written this
brand-new novel called
"Memoirs and Misinformation,"
which is available now.
And it's awesome.
He's one of my
favorite humans ever.
Here is New York Times
best-selling author,
the one, the only,
Jim Carrey, everyone!
-Brother.
-Oh-ho! [ Laughs ]
-Oh, man! Supercuts.
-Come on.
-Supercuts is
the answer for you, buddy.
Supercuts and hazmat suits.
-[ Laughs ]
With garden shears from
a great distance.
-State of the art.
It's the best wig
you can get right now.
-I love it. I love it.
You look like you're in
the middle of
a bar-room brawl in slow motion.
-Which screams
midlife crisis more?
The blazer with the shirt
or the messy hair?
-Or the fact that
I'm free-balling right now?
-[ Laughs ]
Holy crap.
-♪ Free ballin' ♪
That's what that song
is about, man.
-Are you kidding me, man?
I'm a big fan.
I know all the hits, man.
-Yeah.
-No, this is true.
You are a New York Times
best-selling novelist.
-What an incredible thing.
What a state of affairs.
-How does it feel?
-My goodness.
It's a good sign for me,
a terrible sign for the planet.
-It is -- Does it --
Do you feel different?
Are you walking different?
-Well, my co-writer and me,
Dana Vachon,
are literally children
running around
right now like chickens
with our heads cut off.
We're very excited about it.
I mean, my gosh,
it's a dream come true.
-I will say, at first when
I got this, I go,
"Oh, my goodness.
'Memoirs and Misinformation.'"
I go, "It's just a celebrity
autobiographical memoir,
and I can't wait to hear
the stories."
And it is sort of that.
-Yes.
It gets to some real things.
There are real feelings in it
and everything,
but it's dressed up like
a kooky parade float,
and it goes headlong into some
crazy apocalyptic ending
that I think people will enjoy.
-I absolutely enjoyed it
and I loved it.
And there's certain things where
I would love to just go like,
"I think that actually might
have happened.
Nope. That one definitely
did not happen.
-It's just a monkey puzzle.
-It really is so many
good things in here.
-That's right. It's a labyrinth.
-It is -- But, I mean, so --
It's based sort of --
It's sort of true.
-Kind of?
-Yeah.
Well, it is true.
All of it is -- None of it
is true, actually --
or all of it is real,
but none of it is true.
I don't even know anywhere.
I'm so confused.
I'm like Donald Trump on a
prompter at this point.
-I will --
-No, it's -- It is --
It is madness.
It is -- You know,
Jim Carrey in the book
represents me and it
represents all the false ideas
everybody has
ever had about fame.
-Yes.
-So it's doing a lot of work,
and there's a lot
to be had underneath.
And you can enjoy it just
on the surface just as
a fun, crazy story of the
magic and madness of Hollywood,
but it's deeper than that.
The apocalypse goes within
in this one.
-I would expect
none less from you,
because you always do something
so memorable and creative
with anything you do.
And I go,
"Oh, this is brilliant."
'Cause you could have just
put out a book saying,
"Well, I was born
back in Toronto in..."
-Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. No.
I used to go up to
the Esso station
and jump up and down
on the bell and make it ring.
Yeah, that kind of stuff.
I was hit with a hockey puck
at 10 years old.
Never been the same since.
You know? But --
Yeah, no, I wanted to --
You know, Dana and I --
neither of us were interested in
logging the events of my life
in any kind of order.
I think memoirs is
a type of fiction to begin with.
We both felt that way.
You know, you read
most people's memoirs,
you know less about them when
you're done than when you began.
So, you know, it's kind of
a strange form, anyway,
that gets
altered and exaggerated,
and a lot of lying goes on.
So we just took
it a little further.
-Going through this writing
process, did it get emotional?
Did it get like, "I don't know
if we can do this"?
-Yeah, it's super-emotional.
It's super-emotional, especially
when I do anything
about my father, you know?
Anything about my dad
will open me up.
You know, it's a matter of time
before, you know,
the string gets pulled and
I become a living example of
Samuel Barber's
"Adagio for Strings."
♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪
You know?
-It starts coming.
-You go,
"Okay, I need two seconds."
-Exactly.
-Was your dad the first person
to introduce you
to comedy clubs?
-Yeah, he was the guy that said,
"Hey, there's these
places called comedy clubs.
And you've got to stop
doing this in your living room."
[ Both laugh ]
-Would he perform at parties
at your house and stuff?
-Yeah, every time people came
over, I was the show.
You know, they would be greeted
by an 8-year-old
throwing himself down a huge
flight of stares, at their feet.
And they would be aghast.
And then I'd get up and say,
"Let's see that again,
in slow motion," like that.
And I'd go back up
and I'd come down...
and do every step
in slow motion.
So I was the show.
I was the show. Yeah.
-That was my move, too.
I would fall down the
stairs with a paper plate
and pretend I was Chevy Chase
and say, "Live from New York..."
And then my parents would give
me 50 cents or a dollar
or something to do
Rodney Dangerfield impressions
for the party.
-Oh, nice.
-And I know Rodney's
in the book, too.
-Rodney's in the book.
Rodney's roaring back.
-Yeah.
-Roaring back.
His essence has been sold,
and he will be seen again.
-What was his
first experience with you?
Was it "Young Comedians?" No.
-No, I wasn't on that.
I wasn't on that.
I was touring with him, like,
at Caesars Palace
and all these places
where people were just
scratching their heads
'cause I was experimenting.
And he would say,
"Man, they're looking at you
like you're from another
friggin' planet," you know?
And he just loved my greenness.
He would laugh openly
out of nowhere
and just look at my face
and start laughing.
And he'd ask questions like,
"Hey, kid,
have you ever been in love?"
You know? And stuff like that.
-I love him.
-Yeah.
But I got a great e-mail from
Joan Dangerfield.
She was so excited
about the book.
She read it in two sittings.
And she said just,
"Rodney would be so happy."
You know, when he passed away,
she sent me this beautiful box
with his favorite shirt
and his pot pipe,
which is --
You know, If you knew him,
that's pretty much the grail.
It's the grail.
-Is that right?
-Rodney's pot pipe is
the grail, man.
-I started flipping out
because, you know,
I read the dedication first.
And then the first quote in here
is Marshall McLuhan.
It said, "For the name of a man
is a numbing blow
from which he never recovers."
And I go, "That's interesting."
I'm trying to think of what
that -- Interesting."
I didn't even think about that.
And you kind of get into it
in this story about becoming --
-Right.
-It gets deep, man.
-The self.
You know,
the construct of the self,
the thing that you create to
negotiate your way
through the world.
The face that you leave in a jar
by the door, you know?
I mean, that's really
what it's about.
Your soul doesn't stop
at the edge of your skin.
It's one big soul,
and we're all sharing it.
-When did you figure that out?
-I've been pounded by
the universe several times.
So, you know,
every time you get hit,
you know, T-boned by life,
you're dragged to the bottom of
the Mariana Trench again.
And when you survive that,
sooner or later,
you're kind of --
you're an experienced person.
And if it doesn't kill you,
if you don't let it, you know,
make you bitter
or disillusioned about life
and you keep your faith,
you eventually become a real
son of a bitch.
-Wait, wait. What?
-No. I'm kidding.
No, you eventually --
[ Both laugh ]
You eventually get to
a place where you're realize,
"Oh, God, well, that's --"
You start too see things
for what they really are.
This is experience.
It's not who I am.
None of this is who I am.
And you're stronger from it,
you enjoy things more,
and you get glimpses.
I get glimpses
every once in a while
of that feeling of freedom --
you know,
actual freedom from self,
freedom from the ideas of you.
