Transcript

singers: [00:00:00] Knock, knock, hi! Knock,

Will: knock, hi!

Hey everybody, welcome to Knock, Knock, Hi! With us, the Glockenfleckens. I am Dr. Glockenflecken, also known as Will Flannery. 

Kristin: I am Lady Glockenflecken, also known as Kristen Flannery. I 

Will: got a little, like, confused for a second because I’ve been doing a lot of knock, knock, hi. I episodes. Mm. And so I was like, I forgot which one 

Kristin: we were doing.

I forgot. 

Will: It’s been a little bit since we’ve last recorded an episode together. Yeah. Just the recording schedule has been So what’s been going? I haven’t seen you in a while. 

Kristin: Oh, . 

Will: How you been? You’re looking good these days. 

Kristin: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Um, I’m glad you noticed. Yeah. I like your hair. Did my hair. You doing so different with 

Will: it.

Kristin: You know what, I had a really good wash day. Two wash days in a row now. I’m I think I might have like figured it out 

Will: I’m so glad you figured out how to bathe yourself at the age of 39 [00:01:00] 

Kristin: curly hair know what I’m talking about 

Will: Okay, 

Kristin: you sometimes you get a stinker. You all heard it 

Will: here It took 39 years for Kristen to figure out how to wash 

Kristin: I figured out how to make my curls do what I want them to do when I wash.

Will: I’m sure that’s a wonderful breakthrough. I 

Kristin: mean, you could use some tips. 

Will: Oh, I absolutely could. I don’t know. Um, I don’t do much. You 

Kristin: just let them go. Which, you know, that’s fine. That’s a whole vibe too. I’m a wild, 

Will: I’m a wild and crazy guy. I don’t know. Um, so We have a very special guest today. 

Kristin: We do. It’s a first of a category.

Will: Peter Jacobson. He, you all know him. You’ve all seen him. 

Kristin: Yeah. 

Will: Uh, he’s been, uh, uh, he’s an actor. He’s been in a lot of different, uh, TV shows and movies over the years and some stage work as well. Um, he. Uh, is best known for his portrayal of Dr. Chris Taube, Taube, I keep saying Taube, but it’s Taube, on the, on the Fox medical drama, House.

Kristin: Yes, we talk about this show a lot. 

Will: I [00:02:00] always talk about House. I love House. One of my favorite shows, the House and ER are like, like top of the mountain for me. Like they’re on the, my Mount Rushmore of medical shows in addition to, to Scrubs. Scrubs, Scrubs House, ER, like a lot of people would put Grey’s on there, but I never watched Grey’s.

What would be my fourth? 

Kristin: Don’t look at me. What is 

Will: it? 

Kristin: Uh, you like to watch things where everybody ends up miserable, so I don’t tend to watch things with you. That’s just 

Will: life and healthcare, okay? I guess so. Nash is a good one. 

Kristin: Oh, yeah, that’s got to be, that’s probably 

Will: got to be on there too. There’s some 

Kristin: more recent ones, but we haven’t really, um, gotten into like The Good Doctor and, um, Yeah, I’ve seen that.

Will: There’s The Resident. 

Kristin: The Resident, yeah. There’s, 

Will: uh, New Amsterdam. 

Kristin: And, um, Shahnti, help me out. Uh, uh, uh, Chicago. 

Will: Chicago Med. 

Kristin: Med. Is that what it is? Yeah, Chicago Med. 

Will: Yeah. Shahnti loves that, that show. Um, no, so we’re [00:03:00] talking to, to, uh, to Peter Jacobson and, and our, our first actor on the podcast. Um, and we would, you know, it’s what we’ve been wanting to, we talked to a lot of, of, of real life doctors.

So it was great to, to talk to, uh, one of my favorite, one of my favorite doctors. Uh, pretend doctors. 

Kristin: I refrained from asking a question that I really wanted to ask. But I knew you would, you would roll your eyes at me. It was, has he ever gotten to use the line, I’m not a doctor, but I played one on TV.

Will: Totally should have asked him that. See, I told, I knew 

Kristin: that that would be the reaction. Next time we have a 

Will: pretend doctor on, you’ll have to, one who played a doctor. I’m sure 

Kristin: they’ve never heard that before. 

Will: But uh, he’s a very accomplished, very accomplished actor. He went to Juilliard. 

Kristin: Mm hmm. 

Will: That’s that was it and uh, he played is a four seasons of house since we talked a lot about that his experience I talked a lot about about acting and like the differences between Trying to make it an acting versus coming up in medicine.

Kristin: Mm 

Will: hmm. Believe it or not. There’s some overlap [00:04:00] Yeah, we 

Kristin: found a lot of similarities actually and talking about the 

Will: differences. It was Yeah, it really was and then we decided by the end that I’m gonna quit Medicine and good acting. 

Kristin: Well, we’ll, I’m going to become 

Will: an actor. So anyway, should we get to it?

Kristin: Let’s go. Here we 

Will: go. Here is Peter Jacobson.

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience or DAX for short. To learn more about how the DAX copilot can help reduce burnout and restore the joy of practicing medicine. Stick around after the episode or visit nuance. DAX. That’s N U A N C E. com slash discover D A X.

All right. We are here with Peter Jacobson. Peter, I can’t tell you how excited we are to talk to you today. Thanks for coming on. 

Peter Jacobson: Thank you so much. It’s totally my pleasure. So at this point, we’ll see how it goes. 

Kristin: Yeah, we’ll see what you think when we’re done. I don’t want to 

Will: [00:05:00] jump. 

Kristin: That’s fair. 

Will: There’s a number of reasons why I’m very excited for this.

Number one is because we have a lot of real doctors like medical doctors on this podcast. Yeah, those. But you’re the first, um, pretend doctor that we’ve had on. Well, besides 

Kristin: you. 

Will: Well, yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, ophthalmology, you know, to give or take, I don’t know, you know, it depends on who you ask. Okay.

What I would like to do, before we jump into it, is, can I give people like a little bit of a short summary on who your character was? Can we talk about Chris Taub for a second? 

Peter Jacobson: I’d love to. I always love to talk about Chris Taub. Or have others talk about him. Are you aware? To my face. I love that. That’s what we’re doing.

Go baby, 

Kristin: go! You might be tired of it at this point. Yeah. Does it ever get old? No. I mean, you talk, I mean, you know, that ended, 

Peter Jacobson: it ended over 10 years ago. It was easily in the [00:06:00] top two of my favorite jobs ever, favorite characters ever, favorite experiences ever. And I’ve been doing this for 122 years now. So that’s saying something.

And, um, and so it’s, it was such a joy to be in it and to be it and just everybody involved. So. And I get feedback from it all the time. People literally, you know, especially in Utah, they’re like, what, what is, what are you doing here? Um, and they want to talk about it. People want to talk about the show for a million different reasons and it always warms my heart.

So go ahead. 

Will: Oh, good. So I’m just, just a few things. Cause I don’t know if you’re aware that there’s a very extensive Wikipedia page for Chris Taub out there. Are you aware of this? 

Peter Jacobson: I am not. 

Will: Okay. All right. Well, Just a few, a few things just for listeners who may not, may not be aware. Um, So, uh, and Kristen, you may not know some of these things as well, uh, so, uh, in, in high school, Chris Taub was, uh, the best boy of his high school [00:07:00] graduating class and class president.

Kristin: Oh, okay. Yeah. Wow. So no, overachiever. 

Will: He’s very smart. Very smart. He also, um, is a, a, a, a fair athlete. 

Kristin: Fair. 

Will: Fair. Not, maybe not like an, an, an overwhelming athlete, but he, he played a very competitive game of basketball against Eric Foreman 

Kristin: on 

Will: the show. 

Peter Jacobson: I thought you meant fair in that he’s balanced. He’s fair and balanced.

He’s not just like mediocre, which is how I hear it. He’s always, he’s never cheating. He never cheats. While he kicks everybody’s ass. 

Will: That’s right. That’s right. Exactly. Uh, also, um, uh, Chris Taub, uh, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Peter Jacobson: Oh. 

Will: That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s great. That’s 

Peter Jacobson: the one. That’s the one.

Thank you. Sorry. I was from the layman’s perspective. That’s I assume that’s the best one. 

Will: That is a high ranking journal. And so you got a lot of, you already got a lot of cred with all my medical audience here, uh, knowing that you’re. You’re the fake doctor [00:08:00] published in such a prestigious journal. Um, residency in plastic surgery, right?

Uh, and what I like about the character actually, that’s, uh, um, I think is, it holds up well is, is your non traditional status. Because that’s, uh, you know, you don’t, you don’t see that a lot in medical shows. 

Kristin: Right. 

Will: Of someone who had another career then went back and did more training. You know, as, uh, whatever, 

Kristin: whatever 

Will: fellowship program you want to call whatever it was on House MD.

Um, you’re an everything ologist is what, what I think you were. 

Peter Jacobson: One of the criticisms we get, one of the, the raised eyebrows from people in the medical community is, Oh right, you’re the, you’re this, the dermatologist who can also perform neurosurgery twice in one day. And we understand that you’re pushing the envelope, but I’ll take it.

Will: I love it. And I want to get back to the criticism here in a second, but I have one more line just about Chris Tobb’s [00:09:00] personality. Alright. Easily the most sarcastic and confrontational of the fellows, and always ready with a witty rejoinder when it is required. I think that sums you up pretty well.

That’s pretty good. I like 

Speaker 16: it. 

Will: You got to go back. You got to go and find this. This is like a house MD Wikipedia page. 

Speaker 16: All right. 

Will: It’s great. 

Kristin: Yeah. Well, it’s like, it’s on, it’s a fandom. 

Will: It’s a fandom. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s all your fans. All the many fans of Chris Taube out there. So, actually let’s start with, uh, the, uh, the perception since you mentioned it.

They got a lot of it. There’s a lot more that I didn’t read out, but I figured I wouldn’t want to waste time just reading your Wikipedia page.

Peter Jacobson: It’s very, it’s, it’s very satisfying. 

Will: So, Peter, are you When you were in it, and at the height of the house phenomenon, were you aware of the medical field’s perception of, [00:10:00] of either your character or the show? How did that come to you? 

Peter Jacobson: Well, not to, not of my character. Nobody ever came up and said, I don’t believe that you can do that.

Um, or God, you’re a good, uh, well, actually, that’s not true. Here’s, here’s a story that sort of, that’s on the one end of the spectrum of that. I was at, um, at the airport. And a man came up to me and was like, House, you’re Dr. Tao, right? And I was like, yes, and I was about to get ready for the usual, you know, Thank you, I’m glad you like the show.

Oh, Hugh Laurie is as smart and wonderful as you think he is. Um, that was about it. Um, and, uh, but then he goes, Can you come with me, please? Can you come with me? My son has a pain in his arm. And he was, I realized he was totally jealous. He was like, can, like, come over, we’re at this, we’re over at this gate.

And I was like, well, I have to catch my flight, and either way, you’re crazy, because I am not a real doctor. Um, thank you, but, but I can’t really help you. So then I try, I got out of it politely, but I [00:11:00] was like, oh, I, I shouldn’t be looking at his arm. He wasn’t joking, and I I am aware, you know, I know when someone’s joking.

It was a weird moment. I was like, wow. I mean, he didn’t seem like just an insane person. He was very enthusiastic and very sweet, but he really wanted me to look at his son’s arm. And I wondered if, if truly the show has You know, you never know how people watch TV. You’re in their living rooms and there’s a lot of heart in, in the connectivity between spectator or audience member in a show that is that big and is on for that long.

And people get invested. I do. We all do. That’s the beauty of, you know, TV and of what, on my end, it’s a lovely part of it that people really care. Um, but that was like, okay, wait a minute now. Um, that’s pushing it. That’s way out there. Um, but in terms of what the medical community, not crazy people in the airport, but other, whenever a doctor, somebody in the medical community came up and said, we love your show.

Uh, these, the reasons they gave were because that above among all the [00:12:00] other medical shows, like Grey’s, I think E. R. might have just, I think E. R. was gone by then, but Grey’s and House were sort of, you know, neck and neck for a while. They both started around the same time. Grey’s is like in their 35th season and obviously won the horse race, um, in terms of longevity.

Um, but they were the two big medical shows at the time. Well, that 

Will: might not necessarily be a really great thing to have that kind of longevity, but that, you know, that’s okay. 

Peter Jacobson: You know what? I, I, when we finished House, I was like, I’m ready to end, but at this point now you know, I’ve got different priorities in my life.

I would give anything to be in my 35th season, um, but that, that, that shifts as you go in your life. You know, I’ve got certain other, you know, financial responsibilities I wouldn’t mind to graze right now. Um, the, uh, but the point was that, that, uh, doctors, uh, often complimented us. Relative to a show like Grey’s, which felt more like a soap opera.

Um, to me, that read that there were more handsome people than me on the show. Uh, shocking as that might have been. That that was more [00:13:00] about the soaps than the love affairs. And House had its share of that, but we were the medical show. And I know we were out there and crazy, but I could tell, every week, the writers and the staff that we had, they were, like, they didn’t miss a thing.

Now, that’s, You know, I know we did miss a lot of stuff, but they were so serious about the medicine, and these were all really crazy, um, cases, but they were grounded in, in things that they, you know, they, they took real cases that they knew had happened, the research was there, and that just, and I, I know people, you know, you don’t prep for surgery in 20 minutes and then have it last 20 minutes and then do another surgery later that day.

I wouldn’t be doing the things that I was doing. All those given in terms of like the, what you’ve got to suspend in terms of having a TV show happen, but there was still this sense from, from doctors that they appreciated that we were getting a lot of the medicine right. And that there was some level of reality that we were dealing in that a lot of other medical shows didn’t [00:14:00] get.

Will: Well, and I didn’t know how you would that’s very that’s great I’m glad you got that feedback because I was going to defend the show as you know What doctors need to just relax a little bit and realize it’s generally it’s television, right? I guess it’s okay to suspend belief It’s alright, you know, yeah, nobody breaks into someone’s house just to get some information, like to take water samples from the roof, you know, that kind of thing.

Peter Jacobson: We knew 

Will: what we were doing was really pushy. But I, yeah, I, and, and it’s, I’m okay with suspending my story a little 

Kristin: bit. Yeah, because, you know, they’re not actually practicing medicine. Right, exactly. They’re telling a story, 

Will: so I feel 

Kristin: like we can give them some grace. 

Will: It’s so funny, because there are, there are certain things, there are certain things that Will just like trigger like a medical professional in shows like that.

It’s like the quality of the chest compressions 

Kristin: Oh, yeah, that’s one 

Will: that really like sets people off like oh, that’s not CPR Meanwhile, like [00:15:00] how are you supposed to like, you know do actual chest compressions on like an actor? I don’t know I don’t it’s hard to I think 

Kristin: the argument is like you’re showing this to the public So they’re gonna be thinking that that is what?

C. P. R. is not going to be effective if they ever have to do it, but 

Peter Jacobson: between me and the person watching in the living room I’m guessing that I actually know more about what i’m more medicine than they do not about an actual doctor But you know in the actor audience relationship We we can we can be believed 

Will: I wanted to ask you about that and like, what were the, how many consultants did you have working on the show?

Like how, what was that interaction like? Yeah, 

Peter Jacobson: what was your homework? Um, the homework could, I mean, I, I, especially in the beginning, the first, well, especially during the reality show, part of the, of the, of the, my first season when literally our jobs were on the line. And we were needing to, uh, needing to impress everybody, um, in the show and on the, in the studio.[00:16:00] 

And any actor’s work you want to, you know, if you’re good, I think you are getting as thorough as you can. And I had never had a role, uh, Um, where the, you know, what would the information that I needed to be expert at was so intense and, and so, um, expansive. So I, you know, I did the best I could to sort of know everything I could about what I was saying.

I mean, any actor wants to do that in any context. You just, you know, that’s, it’s, you’re, you’re playing a person who knows this and believes this. So this was information that I knew nothing about, um, but I would, I was pretty thorough in my in my studying it. And, um, you know, I wouldn’t go down the rabbit hole of every disease, but if I had a scene where I was talking intelligently about something, I want to, I want it to feel like that’s really the case.

So to the extent that I really had the time and could, you know, dig deep without going crazy, I wanted to show up as, uh, as knowledgeable as I could somehow. You know, for me, I think [00:17:00] the feedback I got was that somehow, me, this face, speaking medical terms quickly, was believable. I, you know, I don’t know.

I’ve said, I look like a doctor, as they say. And so, you know, um, and we all, you know, but all of our Well, 

Kristin: clearly that guy in the airport thought so. 

Peter Jacobson: Absolutely. But I mean, all the actors on the show were were really great at, I think, doing the research that they needed to do, and I believed everybody. Um, but, uh, in terms of the, the, the staff, we, you know, the writers, they just spent weeks develop, you know, develop, writing each episode, so they, I don’t know, You know, the extent of their, you know, the, the people on their staff, who they had, who, who was researching what, but, um, but they were thorough.

Um, so their, their research was good. Um, on the show itself, you know, what you guys saw, like me being able to do chest compressions relatively realistically, or, you know, the hardest one for me was drawing blood. Um, it’s, what’s one of [00:18:00] these, you know, I’m blocking, you know, you, you can, you know, You know, do a lot of different things as an actor.

Oh yeah. It’s the easiest to stand there with your arms crossed and just talk once there’s props and of, and things to do. The brain needs a little more time. And doing some of the medical stuff that was really hard, like, you know, pulling a tourniquet, getting it right and having it be real. That took me some time to get good at.

And there was a woman whose name is Bob and Bergstrom, who was a, a nurse, a professional nurse, and she was there for all the medical stuff and she was the sweetest and the funniest, and she was just. lovely and she was so great at her job and I loved doing the medicine. So whenever she was, you know, whenever I had stuff to do and she was there and we’d go over it and I’d have to really work it and get it and often mess up, you know, you’re, you get the lines right, but suddenly, you know, you’ve jabbed the needle into his neck when it was supposed to be in his arm.

You’re like, oh shit, I blew that. Uh, but Bobbin was great. And so there’s always somebody there to make sure that we were. Getting it as real as we possibly could but [00:19:00] clearly chest compressions look bad So my apologies to the billion people who were. 

Kristin: No, not your chest compressions In general. Just yeah, that is often a 

Will: thing people will.

That’s more the weird idiosyncrasies with physicians Yeah, so it’s That’s totally, uh, that’s our neuroses, not, not a problem with you or your fellow actors. I 

Peter Jacobson: really want to get it right. So after this, if I were to play a doctor again and never had the chance to do a chest compression, this conversation would be having a big impact on, I would really be careful to make sure.

There 

Will: you go. 

Kristin: Well, I could teach you a thing or two. Yeah. Cause I had to do, I did 10 minutes of chest compressions on him. 

Will: That’s right. A few years 

Kristin: ago. She saved 

Will: my life. Yeah. 

Kristin: The key 

Will: is to try. It’s a whole thing, man. 

Kristin: It is. 

Will: Um, talk about a movie. Let’s, we could, maybe we could get Peter to play me. Yeah, there we go.

Kristin: You’ll have to get like a curly wave though, I think. 

Peter Jacobson: That’s right. Any hair will do. I, I could use it. [00:20:00] 

Will: Well, tell us about your, what was your, where were you at in your career? How did you feel about your, your, your acting career at the time where you, You got hired to do that show. What, because you had been around, you’ve been, you’ve been acting for, for quite a while.

To that point. 

Peter Jacobson: Um, well, I had, how sort of came on the tail end of a couple of years of, of getting, uh, some TV jobs, some miniseries, what back then there were rarely were there miniseries back then, but now everything’s a miniseries, but meaning it shows that, uh, that lasted more than one episode. I’d done a lot of guest spots.

That’s, you know, that’s how we make our money. You know, you do a guest spot here, a guest spot there, but the the Holy Grail is of course something that lasts longer, and I had done two mini series back to back. One was this weird sci fi thing called The Lost Room, um, uh, that was followed by a sort of, uh, Hollywood romance comedy called The Starter Wife.

Both of those were, you know, Playing characters over a period of time over some episodes and they got a [00:21:00] little bit of attention and I was so I was felt like I was maybe on the cusp of moving into more regular TV, which is what I was looking for. I started just doing theater and then smaller parts and, um, and TV and film.

But suddenly I was getting some bigger parts and then House came along. It was offered for me. as a, uh, a nine episode arc. So, uh, it was, and it was a massive hit at the time. Um, so already I knew like, Ooh, this is good. I will definitely want to do this. Even if it’s just nine episodes, I did not know until I think the seventh or eighth episode, you know, this insane reality show thing where, you know, I didn’t know that I was then going to become a regular.

So there’s sort of two stages. One was really, really cool to be on a show this big and to know that I had basically a season to play. And that’s the kind of exposure I had never had. Um, I felt ready for it just as an actor. I had sort of had my wheels, as I said, were sort of The machinery is beginning to sort of click in in terms of what it felt like to be on a show for a [00:22:00] while.

And, uh, and that’s, that takes some learning. Um, and, uh And it was exciting, but it was also weird as hell because I didn’t, I was literally auditioning every day. Um, but then when I got cast as the regular, when I was chosen along with Olivia and Cal, then things changed, uh, mostly in terms, well, they changed in that I was just thrilled to have a show that I knew was not going anywhere for some time.

Um, even though you get fired a million times, you know, I had an opportunity to really get to know the writers, and they got to know me, and, and that’s the kind of synchronicity that’s really wonderful as an actor, because we’re, we’re working for, with each other, and they’re writing for me, and I really felt as Taube went on, They understood me and what, where my strengths were and just what my sense of humor was and so the sarcasm and the stuff that you’re reading in the Wikipedia page, that doesn’t surprise me that that’s who they may, you know, they sort of took me in and developed him.

And, um, and that’s just a wonderful experience to have that kind of stability and that kind of creativity [00:23:00] with these amazing writers on a show that is loved. I, you know, I don’t expect it’ll happen again. It was a once in a lifetime thing. I hope it does. Um, but they were five amazing years and in terms of, I mean, my second and third season, I think House was the number one show on the planet just in terms of, I mean, it was never number one in the, it was massive.

The United States massive. It was usually the top 10, but like more pe it, it was like, I, like a billion people watch the show. ’cause I’ve had experiences with people from Wow. Everywhere. We’re like, Oh my God, you know, my son went to medical school because of your show, like a woman from Ghana came up to me and was, I was like, wow, this show really reaches the all corners of the earth.

And that’s an amazing thing. And so just the, the way that House lives on and now with streaming young people watch it. And I’m like, wow, these kids, that’s a, it’s a harsh show. I mean, and, uh, And the characters are, House himself is just, that’s, that’s a mouthful, that’s a handful. And, uh, so it’s neat. I just, it changed everything because, I mean, it [00:24:00] didn’t, like, my career has, I think, you know, been a lovely, lucky, um, blessing of, of, of a sort of steady movement and, and steady employment.

But I don’t think I’d be where I am without, without House, you know, for sure. Well, 

Will: hearing you, hearing you describe the, that sounds incredibly stressful to just, not know if you’re going to get work. 

Kristin: And so 

Will: I like, I have just hearing 

Kristin: opposite of going into medicine, right? Like one of the perks is finance or job security.

Exactly. We 

Will: have so much job security as like, once you get into med school, it’s like, You’ll, you’ll have a job. You’ll, you’ll, you’ll get to work. As long as you 

Kristin: don’t do something egregious, you’re fine now. 

Will: And so the pressure that you, yeah, you and other actors must face to like, not know, okay, like I, I might be a series regular.

And then, and then you have this, does it help you? Do you just relax a little bit at that point? Once you’re like, oh, they, they told me I’m [00:25:00] going to be a regular. I get two, two seasons or something, or two, you know, Yeah. 

Peter Jacobson: I mean, everything is, even if you have a guest spot that’s just a one off, unless your character is dying in that episode.

I mean, on any, a cop show, any show, there’s always in the back of your head, well, I mean, it’s an audition at all moments. You, you, you know, there’s people here you’re trying to impress, frankly, the producers, the writers. You don’t know when that writer’s going to do another show. They might love you enough and say, oh, that worked so well, we’re going to write other episodes for you.

It’s, it’s always that kind of a game. And frankly, the first 10 years of my career. That was just the biggest stress and the thing that makes, that was unhappy making was that I just found it hard to relax because it’s the constant, and that takes you out of yourself, which is the exact thing you don’t want as an actor.

You get taken out of just showing up and, and being, and being able to be creative because if, for me at least, if I’m trying to impress or worried about this, does he like me? Does she like me? Am I going to get fired? Which is, [00:26:00] Usually 30 percent of your brain is thinking that any moment as an actor and any actor tells you otherwise is full of it, um, at least in those early stages, that’s not the best, healthiest, easiest, most fun way to just flow and be creative.

So when, yeah, when they said nine episodes, I was like, Cool. That is a level of relaxation, but right away, so I get on set and I’m like, great, I got nine episodes. But then when I meet Hugh and everybody else, I realized, well, now I have to, I have to, I want to become a regular. So now that pressure’s on and it was, it’s better than one episode, more relaxing, but nothing is better than when they say you’re a regular and, and we like you, which is all that means, 

singers: which is 

Peter Jacobson: all I ever want to hear on any level.

And yeah, you relax into it. It’s, and that makes your work better. I believe it really does. It’s always hard to come in to a group that’s already like the home team and the, the cool kids and you’re sort of trying to make an impression. That’s just a tricky situation. So when you [00:27:00] become part of the team and you’re all, and you know, you’re there and you’re not thinking, am I okay?

You’re there to work. It’s a lovely, lovely, relaxing feeling. Now, you guys probably, as doctors, you’re like, there are moments when you wish you weren’t working, uh, because you’re just too tired or it’s stressful. I’ve never, ever had a moment of like, I wish I wasn’t working. And most actors are the same.

They’re just like, please God, give me another day. 

Will: It is interesting to, to, to know the differences as a physician. There’s one thing though, that I’m curious about. When you’re a med student, when we’re going through medical training, we learn about all these different diseases. And inevitably we think, Oh, what if we have, what if I have that disease?

Like, I feel like, Oh my God, I’m learning about this horrible thing. Uh, Oh, did my leg twitch funny? I think I might have this terrible thing that only one in a million people have. I must have it. Uh, did you ever feel that? 

Peter Jacobson: Well, I am a hypochondriac, [00:28:00] so it’s a totally legitimate question. And you would think that given that, that house would have just Freak me out at every step.

But you’re, you’re like, the blood is sticky blood and the, the technology for making it real is technology. And the people who are on the, the, you know, being operated on, to me, it was just funny to, you know, they’ve got six hours of lying there and they would often fall asleep and we’d have to wake them up and to watch an actor wake up.

Thinking, oh shit, I was asleep on the job, literally, those things always, I found humorous and the tech, it’s like, I just shot a horror film recently and when you’re in it, it is the least scary thing imaginable because it’s, you know, you’re just, you’re making it happen. So same thing with medicine. There was, I thought I would be, um, hypochondriacal and worried, but it was, if anything, it just made me just sort of.

I don’t know, I just became more comfortable [00:29:00] around, um, around science, around medicine, and uh, you know, not that I knew anything. So you’re not, 

Will: you’re not talking, you’re doing lines about a patient with a worm in their brain, and you’re not thinking, oh man, like, the symptoms I’m talking about, I Do I have that?

Oh my god, that maybe I do. I, I ate a questionable taco the other day. I don’t know. Like it’s possible. Well, there are some 

Peter Jacobson: episodes that have changed my behavior, like there was one where the loof scrub was the culprit because it somehow, there was some kind of all the bacteria, something not, yeah, some bacteria that got into a brain and it caused, maybe it caused a bizo, which was some, I don’t know.

Will: Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. 

Peter Jacobson: Anyway, it was the loofah was the culprit, and I, I don’t look at loofah scrubs the same now, so that’s just a little perk of having been on House. But that’s, I’m not walking around worried that I’m gonna get attacked by a loofah scrub. I have, I think, a reasonable, intelligent avoidance of the loofah scrub.[00:30:00] 

Will: It’s ruined. How else is ruined lupus grubs for you? That’s, that’s unfortunate. Um, but 

Peter Jacobson: there’s so much of the medicine, like one of my, the, like a typical one was, I remember Janelle Maloney, who is from, um, the West Wing. Uh, she’s a lovely actress. She was the, the patient in one episode and, um, she had breast cancer behind her knee.

And, um, I, it was just, and I guess that’s happened. Counterintuitive. Oh, I remember that. But I remember thinking, that is so nuts. And, and, it was that kind of nutsiness that was sort of par for the course. So, it was always sort of like a little bit removed from anything too real. Loofa was about as real and normal as it got.

Kristin: Yeah. That’s great. 

Will: Let’s take a, let’s take a short break. We’ll come right back.

Hey Kristen. Yeah. We got to talk about infectious disease. 

Speaker 15: Why? What’s wrong with you? 

Will: Oh, not me. 

Speaker 15: Oh. I 

Will: want to tell you about Precision. 

Speaker 15: Oh. 

Will: This is great. It’s the first ever EHR [00:31:00] integrated infectious disease AI platform. 

Kristin: Very cool. For 

Will: any specific patient, it automatically highlights better antibiotic regimens.

Kristin: So helpful. Helps 

Will: with burnout. It just helps you save lives. It’s great. To see a demo, go to precision. com slash KKH. That’s precision spelled with an X instead of an E. So P R X C I S I O N dot com slash KKH.

All right, we are back with Peter Jacobson. And another question I have, you’ve been on a lot of You’ve been on a couple different medical shows, right? It’s I think you’ve done like a one off episode or or a few episodes On some different shows, but you’ve also done a lot of work on crime shows. 

singers: Mm hmm 

Will: What what what do you prefer if you had a choice?

Yeah, you had to if you’re gonna 

Kristin: What do you 

Will: gravitate to 

Peter Jacobson: Matt, I thought you were going to say legal shows, [00:32:00] because that’s the other one. I’m usually a lawyer, a doctor. Oh, yeah, that’s true. Legal shows. Maybe that’s what I meant. Okay, three boxes. I think right now I would go for a crime show, just because it’s a little bit outside my, you know, my range.

Well, I mean, you know, playing a detective or playing a cop or, you know. So you have more chance of playing a badass if you’re on a, on a, you know, unless I’m the, unless I’m the perp himself, but even that’s more, you know, that’s fun. Um, you know, it all really depends on the, on the show itself. I don’t have, I’m not predisposed towards something.

I would love to play Richard III, you know, at the Royal Shakespeare Company or have my own Netflix series where I’m, you know, some romantic God, but those two things aren’t going to happen. So of the shows that. That I’m likely, I find myself on a detective show or a law show or a medical show. It really just depends on what’s the smartest, best show written and whether the character is interesting.

I’ll play [00:33:00] somebody interesting anywhere in any context. 

Will: Do you like, do you, do you like pushing your boundaries still, you know, at this, at this stage of your career? Do you, do you just feel comfortable in certain roles or do you, do you like the idea of, of, Getting outside your comfort zone because I’m comparing it to being a physician and we we really get set in our ways Imagine if you 

Kristin: had to go be a whole different kind of physician or just 

Peter Jacobson: Opportunities for that I mean 

Will: well there are opportunities Yeah, there are.

You have to 

Kristin: go through like 14 years of training. You 

Will: can’t, you can’t switch, switch specialties. But you do have opportunities to, right, you have, you have opportunities to adopt new techniques and new things that, that are potentially like outside your comfort zone. So is that, is that a similar feeling with, as an actor that you’re like, oh, I’ve never done that kind of role.

I don’t know. It seems like a lot of work. 

singers: It 

Will: seems, that seems a little difficult to like, to talk about. You know, [00:34:00] you know what I’m saying. Does that, do you ever feel that? 

Peter Jacobson: Um, I, the only place where I feel like, oh, I’m not really game for that push would be interesting. Something like where it’s just harder for me to remember like synesthesia, like, or to say it like the, the medical jargon that, and the, the reams of it that I had on house.

I just think I had was a little more deft. I, I just had a younger brain 15 years ago. Um, so saying, so synesthesia doesn’t come as easily, um, but for me as an actor, um, it’s always been about, um, what’s, you know, the joy is what can I do that’s not really me? Even if it’s something that feels close to home, what are the places that I get to go that, that I don’t necessarily know that don’t come as easily?

I always, I do love a comfort zone and I think probably as I’ve gotten older, I’m Maybe a little bit more enamored of like, oh yeah, I know that, but it’s also how do you distinguish between that and also just I’m better at [00:35:00] it. I just, it takes less effort. I just am more confident as a, as a human. And I just sort of, um, plus I, yeah, I just, I’ve been doing it long enough now that I’m just more confident.

So my comfort zone. feel, I don’t even notice it as much. So, but, but to your point, I really, really, I would, I would think that the day I stop being interested and intrigued by something that makes me uncomfortable or that’s, that I’m not sure about, or that would take me to a scarier place, the day I’m not interested in that, I should just hang it up.

Cause that’s, that’s, that’s the love for me. 

Kristin: Yeah. It seems like that’s, that’s, that’s, It’s the job of an actor, right, is to be outside of your normal experience, you know, as opposed to a doctor where you’re really trying to become an expert at one particular thing. 

Peter Jacobson: But you can also, when I finish an audition, sometimes I get frustrated because I’m like, well, that character was me.

I just got that. That’s so me. And then I don’t get the part. And I’m like, well, wait a minute, 

Speaker 16: I want to do this thing and 

Peter Jacobson: I’m really [00:36:00] good at being me. So why can’t I do that? What do you want? As want to get the part that’s you and then 

Will: push 

Peter Jacobson: it. 

Will: How do you get over that rejection? Because, 

singers: well, I mean, 

Will: honestly, because I think, I think, uh, fear of failure, fear of rejection.

It’s something that a lot of people in healthcare, in medicine can, can relate to because there are so many. Really high functioning, very smart people in medicine that haven’t felt failure very often. And so when it comes, it can be, 

Kristin: it 

Will: can feel very like just turning your world upside down. So maybe 

Peter Jacobson: that’s a huge amount of pressure.

That’s a whole different level of pressure that you guys are experiencing than anything I could ever, ever experience. I mean, I don’t know. I mean, do you, I mean, you’re talking about like, oh, well, I blew it. Well, I’m not so much. I didn’t save somebody here. 

Will: Yeah, well, um, you know, that’s, that’s part of it.

Kristin: But I feel like there’s also like a, a saving face element, right? Like there’s the [00:37:00] life and death stuff. And that is obviously like its own very objective. You saved a life where you didn’t. Uh, but then there’s also the, like, you want to seem like the smartest med student in the room, right? So the attending will think, you know, more or whatever, you know, that just like goes on throughout each stage of your career.

Will: It’s the. You know, obviously we’re all, we’re all like have some form of perfectionism in medicine. And that’s, that’s a whole other issue, but even, even the little setbacks, like not getting into the med school or the residency program that you want, or being passed over for the job, for somebody else. And, and, and that can, uh, that can be just a really It can be a really damaging thing to your sense of self worth and, and it’s, it’s, sometimes it’s hard for people to overcome that.

And, and so I don’t, maybe it seems 

Kristin: like it’s trial by fire for you guys. So you have to figure out some strategies in a world, 

Will: in a world like acting where [00:38:00] there’s, there is so much rejection, right? There’s so much, you know, you’re doing all these auditions. 

Peter Jacobson: You, uh, for. To be rejected or to have a moment, uh, you know, what is, you know, the level of devastation or upset or rejection or blowing it, that’s, that’s a whole different drama for you guys.

And hopefully there are few, you know, few and far between. I’m sure you remember those and they stay with you. If I was to hold on to the rejections that I go through, I, well, I, I would have quit long ago. And that is a, The average actor must have resolved that to some extent, psychically, early on, or you will quit, or you’ll go crazy, and you’ll just be an unhappy person, because, and it just depends on my mood, but I, I have gotten, you have to have, you have to start out with a skin, a really thick skin, as you guys have too, just a different kind of, Skin, um, but both of them thick.

Um, because [00:39:00] I, I mean, it’s, it’s 99 percent of the time it’s no, no, no. And some of those are ones you come really close to and then you see it becomes a hit and that’s not you or ones that you really believe you should have gotten and you didn’t or ones that your best friend got that guy or that guy who continues to get them or one that you just had your heart set on for whatever reason and it happens over and over and over again.

And I’m lucky. I’m one of the lucky ones. I have worked a ton and continue to work a lot and and I I was count, alright, I’ll be honest. I like I at this age, I get up a lot in the middle of the night, you know, to to pee. And I think you guys could tell me why. I think it’s a prostate thing. I don’t know. I think it happens for men.

Anyway, at least my fellow Male friends of an age, and so I have trouble going back to sleep a lot of the time, and my mind will go, and literally this morning, trying to get back to sleep, if it’s not counting sheep, or trying to remember, like, the Super Bowl winners from 1989 to present, whatever will [00:40:00] slow my brain down.

This morning at 4 a. m. was how many jobs did I book in the last three years? Just going to go back, because part of me is being anxious about the fact that I, you know, when’s the next one coming? So my mind will go there, but it actually put me to sleep because I was able to go back. But, but before I fell asleep, I went through certain levels of Strain and upset about, well, shit, that was not as many as I wanted.

And I remember losing that one and not getting that one. I only got that one. It’s been six jobs over the last 18 months. Like, what is that? Making yourself go crazy. Yeah. It’s nuts. And it, and every actor goes through it and you just have to learn to let it go. If I, if, if you hold onto it, I, it’s more like an athlete.

I think you guys have a whole different level of what you have to deal with. Yeah. If you’re an athlete and you get the ball stolen, you know, it’s those, it’s those, that basketball player who you just let it go and you’re onto the next. And that’s [00:41:00] really in the moment. I mean, that’s happening within seconds.

And the impact of that is shown at the other side of the court, whether or not you’ve gotten past it. You know, I usually have anywhere from 24 hours to 24 days between auditions. Either way, whatever that space is, I hope that I have gotten past it and forgotten about it. The problem is that it’ll come up, you’ll turn on the TV a year later, like, oh, there’s that guy playing my part.

Will: What I’m, what I’m hearing from you is that you’re just, it’s, it really does. It irritates you to know that Tom Hanks just keeps getting roles over you. 

Peter Jacobson: You have no idea. I know, you know, you think you’re joking, but Tom, Tom, and I did actually lose a role to Tom Hanks’s son recently. I was like, I am so right for this part.

I was like, it was like a, it was like a period piece about the Nuremberg trials. It was like this sort of, it was described as like a, like a short Jewish doctor. I’m like, Okay, hello. I have my glasses, [00:42:00] 1947. I was interviewing gerbils. It was like, it was talking about like people from my family who had died.

It was like this, I’m getting this part. And I was like, I really, it was like, you know, oh, they liked you. They liked you. Then like three weeks later, they were like, yeah, Tom Hanks has some kind of, I’m like, oh, 

Will: okay. 

Peter Jacobson: Oh, 

Will: come on. 

Peter Jacobson: And that’s, he’s a, Colin Hayes, a lovely actor. I’m sure he’ll do a fabulous job, but that’s the kind of stuff you’re like, you know, that’s just for me to figure out why, you know, there are things about it that felt like me, but it’s a very confusing business and, you know, I’m sure 

Kristin: there’s so many factors too that go into the decisions, like every decision.

Peter Jacobson: That’s the thing you have to let go of too, is that like however right I think I am, there’s a million reasons and other decision makers and things that have to happen that I have zero control over for me to actually be the guy who’s getting the offer. No idea. 

Speaker 15: Right. 

Peter Jacobson: That’s how 

Will: much time do you have between like getting a, like, is it like an audition?

Kind of like, you know, an audition’s available. It’s like within eight hours, you’re, you’re [00:43:00] auditioning for something. Like, how much lead time do you get? Well, 

Peter Jacobson: that’s, I mean, things have changed drastically since COVID. Um, it used to be that you would, you could get a call, um, the night before. I’ve had calls that day.

That’s usually because some emergency happened. A part got written. An actor fell away. That can happen. And so my, Skills as a theater actor, I think, came in handy then because a cold reader, you know, being able to, you know, play readings, you just like, here’s a script, here’s sides, you know, I can make a choice and go and make it seem real.

That’s no preparation time. That could happen occasionally. Usually you had at least a couple days, sometimes even up to a week. Um, but since COVID, everything is done remotely. There’s no such thing as, at least in terms of film and TV, there’s no, um, auditioning in front of anybody anymore. You do it in your own, with your own equipment.

And, um, and so since the actor, actor strike that just was resolved, uh, not that long [00:44:00] ago, one of the issues was that because actors are doing this on their own and they have their own equipment and they have a preparation that on them now. It used to be I’d just go to the casting office and you just have to show up.

They have the camera, they have everything. Now it’s my camera, it’s my lights, it’s my, you know, so now there’s a rule that you need, I think an actor is, gets 48 hours minimum. You can’t ask an actor, you can’t give him an appointment in less than 48 hours to have his tape prepared. Oh, interesting. So, and I can, and you know, I’ve gotten, you get good at doing it quickly.

Um, you hope it’s not 10 pages of dialogue, you want it memorized. Um, but I would say average, but it’s not less than two days, it could be as much as four, five. 

Will: You mentioned, um, obviously you went to Juilliard. And, and so you’re, I guess, is that what you would consider like a classically trained acting, like theater acting, that’s, that’s kind of what your priority was learning in Juilliard?

I mean, you’re telling me [00:45:00] because I’m not 

Peter Jacobson: No, you’re right. I am a classically trained actor. I’ve never been to Juilliard. I don’t know. You haven’t? I played the violin in Juilliard. No, I’m kidding. Um, I, uh 

Kristin: I bought it. You’re a very good actor. Has anyone ever told you that? 

Peter Jacobson: It’s amazing. I should go now. Um No, I did, um, I graduated from college and for lack of really knowing what, you know, what else to do.

Um, I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I got in, I auditioned for and got into Juilliard. And so I had four years of acting school, which is all theater. And that was what I had done. I didn’t know anything, but acting in school plays and loved it. And, um, so my, Head was around, I’m going to be a stage actor, but then transition to film and TV.

I want to do it all. So you 

Will: knew, you knew you wanted to eventually get into TV, like that was part of the plan for you. It was since I was 

Peter Jacobson: little and knew I loved it. Um, I had never done TV or film, but I knew that that looked really super cool too. And I just loved [00:46:00] all of it and wanted to do it all. Um, but that was the best way to start for me.

Um, I got in and training as an actor was the thing. It seemed to me to be the right steps to take there. Most actors don’t go to graduate school. Um, and you can be, you know, you don’t need it to be a good actor. I don’t think it made me a good actor. I think it took what I had and helped mold it a bit and set me off in a certain way.

But my expectation was I would get out in New York and, you know, hit the pavement and hopefully do a lot of plays. And, Get TV and film soon. The TV and film didn’t come for some time. Um, and that was frustrating. Um, but yeah, the, the, the training was all, you know, when they say classically trained, they mean that means you’ve had a fair amount of experience learning the, you know, Shakespeare and I, and the classics meaning, you know, Shaw or Chekhov.

And, uh, and I think all that stuff helps me doing any kind of theater that, you know, I’m not being snooty about it for [00:47:00] me, Drawing on all that and having that actor experience and then doing plays has informed me in a good way for, uh, film and TV, because it’s always the same question for any character you play.

Who am I? What am I doing? What’s my relationship to this person here? It just comes in different contexts and the experiences. between theater and film are completely different, but the questions are the same. An actor is an actor. 

Will: You made, you made a, uh, an offhand comment about, uh, having to read lines very quickly and, and, and be able to, I guess, memorize them.

I’m assuming that you said that came from, from doing theater. How is that? Why, why does that exist? I guess you, you just have to, there’s a shorter turnaround time in terms of performance. Um, 

Peter Jacobson: actually, what I mean is, I mean, there are, there are actors who’ve never set foot on stage who are great at memorizing.

That’s just every individual, you know, their own rehearsal process. In TV, at least, the memorization has to happen faster. So I did learn how to do it quicker [00:48:00] because, you know, you might have, um, three or four different scenes in a week, and you’ll get the script only, you know, three days earlier, and you’ve just got to learn a lot faster.

You don’t want to be the guy who doesn’t know his lines and is keeping the crew from getting home that night because you’re not getting it right. Um, so it’s a different kind of memorization. The theater memorization is actually much more luxurious because you have hopefully four, five, six weeks in which you’re, there’s no pressure because you’re learning it and the rehearsing and the integrating of the lines is happening in the context of a fully fleshed out rehearsal process, um, and discussion and that kind of rehearsing.

You can ask for it and I ask for it more now as an, as a more experienced actor and I feel like I’ve earned that a little bit. Um, I don’t want to slow down any production, but I’m, I’m just more comfortable on a TV set or a film set saying to the director, or the actor, other actor, I look, can we talk about this?

Let’s, let’s do that. But you never get to do it for very often on a TV or [00:49:00] film, but in terms of the why, uh, why might be, I might be more adept at doing a cold reading is, um, part of my life as a, And, um, I think the thing about being a theater actor in New York was, you know, you do plays, hopefully you do as many plays as, you know, as you can.

But, but what’s, um, what you wind up doing a lot of are stage read, play readings. That’s sort of the stuff that fills in the time. There’s millions of projects being developed in New York at any moment. Plays, workshops of plays. So there are a lot of different lower levels of production that happen, um, other than the plays that you would pay money to go see.

So I might have a reading, you know, get asked to do a reading. You know, of a play with, you know, the same day or a week. And either way, you’re, you know, you’re, you’re up there on stage with a, uh, you know, with a stand and the script in front of you, but you’re doing sort of performance level, but you’re, you haven’t had weeks to rehearse it.

So you’re, my brain got good at sort of making good heart choices right away and, and reading, you know, and, and. and being true to a [00:50:00] script and, and making my way through it. And, you know, in a performance with a script, those are certain sort of physical skills that stage actors, I think are particularly adept at.

That makes sense. 

Will: Yeah, it does. And it’s so interesting. One of my classmates was an actor in meds and who, who left acting to go to med school. And at first, For a long time, I was like, there, there’s just no overlap there. Like there’s, 

Kristin: where’s the connective tissue between those two? Where’s the 

Will: overlapping skills?

And to be honest, 

Kristin: there really are some, the 

Will: more we’ve talked to you, the more I realized, Oh, there’s, you know, some of the things that you’re talking about, you know, are skills that can translate between even two disparate fields. 

Peter Jacobson: Yours are more. Like, they can be life and death and all that comes up to that, but, but you need to be on your toes.

Well, you keep saying that, but remember, remember, I’m 

Will: an ophthalmologist, Peter, alright? There’s no life and death in ophthalmology, alright? It’s one or two, uh, three or four. What kind of, you know, I [00:51:00] was trying to build you up, man. If 

Peter Jacobson: you want, you know, I was giving you a platform for some serious Cool shit, but okay.

Anyway, but I’m saying that you are, the stakes are higher regardless because somebody is in your care and you, there is a certain level of, of presence and improv, like you, and nimbleness of mind that you need. Look, there are a million careers where that is true, but, um, I like to think that, that, you know, actors have something in common with doctors in that regard.

Will: Yeah. And who’s to say you can’t someday save someone’s life with Shakespeare. I don’t know. It’s possible, you know? 

Speaker 15: Crazier things have happened. Exactly. 

Will: I’m guessing you’ve seen it. I want to do, uh, one more thing, uh, before we let you go, Peter. And, and so you are an actor who has been a fake doctor. Okay.

A pretend doctor. Play one on 

Peter Jacobson: TV. 

Will: Pretend doctor. I am a doctor who pretends to be an actor. Um, [00:52:00] I have this social media, uh, you know, do the Dr. Glockenfleck and things. So I like talk to myself, uh, on TikTok. He puts on 

Kristin: costumes and records himself talking to himself as different characters here in our house.

Will: I’m not sure how you how familiar you are with medical TikTok accounts, but um, but it’s I do a lot. I 

Kristin: need to note for you that this began after I was married to him. Okay, 

Peter Jacobson: because you wouldn’t be sitting there if it hadn’t been. 

Kristin: Yeah. So 

Will: what I thought we could do is, um, is maybe I could ask for a couple of questions about being an actor.

Like the Physically how to do it. And, and if you have any questions about medicine, you know, that’s maybe you’re, you’re, you’re afraid to ask. It 

Kristin: sounds like you might have some prostate questions. Yeah. I’m happy to talk to you about the prostate. You know, 

Will: I got, I still got a little bit of that knowledge.

And we could, we could exchange some information here. All right. So unfortunately, no exam is 

Peter Jacobson: possible at the moment, but yes,[00:53:00] 

Will: we can do a lot of things virtually these days. All right. All right. Here’s my first question for you. Um, how do I make myself cry? Oh God, like, can you give me just a quick, like a tip here? Because there’ve been a couple of times where I’ve talked about the U. S. healthcare system that I really wanted to drum up some tears.

Peter Jacobson: Well, that’s a, it can be a long process, um, you know, you, you have, I, the, the technical way to do it, which is sometimes done on film or television, there, you, there’s a, a certain chemical, some little thing that, that can be squirted, it’s like an, I guess it’s menthol, I’ve, I’ve seen or had for myself.

menthol squirted in my eyes right before but I don’t know how if you’re in the middle of a healthcare speech you’d have to be like some find some way to get it without anybody noticing maybe pretend to scratch your eye and actually squeeze it into both eyes That’s the technical way of bringing it about.

I don’t think you’re gonna be able to do that. The [00:54:00] rest is you gotta, you gotta study acting. You gotta do the Stanislavski. You gotta go back to the great method acting where, um, you have to learn how to recall something very sad in your life. Uh, uh, the death, a death, something, whatever brings up, you know, Tears, at least that you remember bringing up tears.

Spend some time on your own in, you know, whatever room you can be away from. You guys don’t want to be together when you’re doing this. And, uh, just, you know, get, get in it. Remember it. And, and, uh, hopefully in the moment during that speech, you, you know, when you, you find some sort of trigger that reminds you of Your dog’s death and, and you’re there, but it’s a, it’s a long process.

I think I’ll 

Will: go with the mental and the eyes. Yeah, 

Kristin: I was gonna say, this is where you can’t be a real actor, is because you would have to be in touch with your emotions. Oh, good. Now that I know 

Peter Jacobson: who we’re dealing with, then just, yes. I suspected that you were sort of zombie like [00:55:00] in that way. I thought you 

Will: were going to say maybe like, you pull a nose hair or something, you know, like, 

Peter Jacobson: well, that was my medical question for you was why does one cry when you pull a nose hair?

Will: That’s a good, that’s a great question. 

Kristin: Yeah. Is it attached? Yeah. 

Will: So there’s a, there’s a nerve. It’s like the, it’s the nasociliary nerve. And so when you pull, when you pull an, uh, a nose hair, it just activates this nervous system that’s attached to your. Your tears, your, your lacrimal glands. And so you produce tears from that stimulus of the nerve.

It’s actually, it’s actually a, it has been a treatment for dry eye. Believe it or not. There is a device that, that, uh, not surprisingly, it never really caught on. It’s got, it’s a, it’s a two prong device. You stick up your nose. And it basically electrocutes your, your, your nerve. Nose hair? Your nerve up there.

Peter Jacobson: Now, [00:56:00] wait, now. If something that extreme, would it then bring on tears that could be lasting in any way? Because it’s sort of an extreme 

Will: Well, I mean, it does last for a bit. How many nose 

Kristin: hairs do you have? 

Will: That, 

Peter Jacobson: that I will 

Will: not. It does your, hopefully your tears do last a while, uh, but it does require repeated applications, which is a reason why, um, it didn’t catch on, I think.

Peter Jacobson: Okay, well, I’m just saying that did you try, you didn’t try it in the entertainment business. I’m wondering if the menthol thing has maybe had a say, if you and I now have. Like, I don’t know, maybe that’s the next, that’s the next, you know, 

Will: I think that, that stimulator, that intranasal stimulator actually would work great on a, on a, on a set.

Kristin: Would you as an ophthalmologist prefer that to people putting menthol in their eyes? 

Will: I would, that would, that seems, it seems more comfortable, yes. Although, I don’t know, 

Peter Jacobson: let me ask, the main question for actors who are, you know, not the toughest dudes in the world, does it hurt when you do this? Because this is only, 

Will: um.

It’s like it’s just kind of like getting [00:57:00] buzzed with like a like a fake like hand buzzer, you know Like a it’s a bit of a jolt. 

Peter Jacobson: Okay, 

Kristin: so it’s not like

Will: Electrocuted I’ve 

Peter Jacobson: needed I’ve needed you know menthols not worked for me in the past and I wasn’t able to sort of get there emotionally so And I’m serious. I, this is, this is, we’re on to something. 

Will: This is something, I have to see if, uh, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll look into see if we can find any on eBay. 

Speaker 16: Okay. 

Will: I mean, it doesn’t come 

Peter Jacobson: with a machine.

It’s not like a machine, is it? 

Will: No, it’s a little handheld thing. Yeah, it’s got two prongs on it. You stick it in your nose and buzz it. And then you start tearing up. How 

Peter Jacobson: about that? What do you think? I’m not joking. Okay. Alright. There 

singers: you go. 

Peter Jacobson: At 

Speaker 16: least patent it for Christ’s sake. Yeah. Really. 

singers: Oh 

Will: man, the company that makes it, I’m sure they’re all doing something else at this point, but you know, maybe they’d be interested to know that the acting community could really benefit from their product.

They just 

Kristin: tried to [00:58:00] put it in the wrong spot. They should try acting. 

Will: Alright. Here’s another question I have for you. Alright. Alright, so, you know, I record these videos and I’m, um, it’s all in my face, like, I mean, TikTok video, I don’t know if you’ve been on TikTok on your phone? I don’t, but I’ve seen it occasionally.

Yeah, yeah, good for you, by the way, it’s a big waste of time. You saw how hard it was to even get 

Peter Jacobson: this set up, I was not good. 

Will: So, um, as, as I age, uh, I find myself in certain times, Feeling like maybe I could benefit from a little makeup. So I don’t, I mean, I’m sure you probably, you have people that do this for you, right?

Like getting you ready for a, for a scene. Are there any like very basic like tips you have for me from like a, like a acting makeup standpoint? 

Peter Jacobson: Boy, that’s really in the wilderness on this one. Um, I, I mean, it depends on the person. I mean, he’s 

Kristin: starting from literally zero, so [00:59:00] you can only go up. 

Peter Jacobson: All right.

No pressure. Then I’m a pro. All right, listen to what I’m about to tell you. Um, I can tell, although I can tell from here on Zoom, you seem, both of you seem to have lovely Somewhat, I would say, not swarthy, but more olive complected, like myself, um, um, that I’m just seeing that you don’t, you’re, neither of you are particularly pale.

So that means, so, so there’s not a lot It’s definitely 

Will: the lighting we have, because Kristen is very pale. I am a bit more what you described. You’re a bit more olive. 

Peter Jacobson: I have, myself, I have olive skin. My point is, is that I don’t usually require much. Where I tend to need most makeup is in my, Deep canyon like eyes, where they start like eight inches back.

So the lighting, I need to We call that a prominent 

Will: brow. We have a prominent brow. It’s 

Peter Jacobson: fighting with a prominent nose. So there’s a lot of prominence going on. The result is my eyes get lost. I can’t, I don’t, it doesn’t look to me like your eyes will get lost, but this is an area where a little bit of [01:00:00] base, you, you’d have to find your color base.

Obviously, I have no idea what color your skin actually is, because I blew it. 

Will: Yep. 

Peter Jacobson: Um, so you want That, that is the 

Will: area. It, it does get a little, a little dark. Yeah. 

Peter Jacobson: Okay. So just want to do that. That’ll, that’ll bring you up. You don’t want to look like a raccoon. You want to, uh, subtlety is the key. Um, I don’t think you, you don’t have the wrinkles that I do.

If you were getting on stage and I wanted to really hide this, I would, but you know, I play my age. I don’t care. So a little bit around the eyes, a little bit there, but, but make sure that that’s the right color. You got to find your right skin color. 

Will: Kristen, you can help me with that. Oh yeah. Find my color.

Okay. All right. Good. Um, all right. Let’s talk about your prostate. 

Peter Jacobson: Well, I was gonna ask you, what, what is the actual, how many years between colonoscopies am I supposed to have? 

Will: Oh, oh my goodness. Do 

Kristin: you know this one? I feel like this one’s updated. 

Will: If, uh, oof, it’s um, it’s definitely more than three and five.

I, it used to be, when I was going through med school, it was, it was [01:01:00] like every ten years, but you started at like five. When I first started, it was 50 that you started, but I think it’s even, they’re recommended 45 earlier now. I think it’s 45 now. One 

Peter Jacobson: eight mean, I know I’m already past that age. I mean, how many times am I, I’m 

Will: supposed, yeah.

How you mean? How often? How often? How often are you supposed to, yeah. Um, I think if you have like zero risk factors, like you’ve never had any polyps or anything, anything, um, uh, unusual show up. And I think it’s like eight to ten. 

Speaker 16: Oh, okay. Okay. All right, now I’m ready to talk about it. If you have risk 

Will: factors, if you have a personal history of any abnormalities or, or family history, then it’s sooner than that.

It’s like three to five. So yeah. And then, uh, after we’re done talking, I am going to search this. I just 

Kristin: did that for you. 

Will: And uh, I might have to issue a correction at the end of this episode. 

Peter Jacobson: Was I, I wasn’t supposed to ask that question. Uh, 

Will: no, no. I’m not supposed to put you on the spot. No, it’s, it’s good.

No, you’re, that’s good. Uh, it stretches, again, I’m an ophthalmologist. Yeah, this is why we have the little 

Kristin: disclaimer on this podcast that none of this is medical ed. See, you’re talking, I don’t know [01:02:00] what ophthalmology is. So, I don’t know what it’s eye surgery. 

Will: It’s eye surgery. It’s eye surgery. See, he’s 

Kristin: a very good actor.

I know. God, look at that. I can believe, I can believe anything you say. Every time. I know. 

Will: Our producer chimed in here. The American College of Gastroenterology recommends waiting 10 years between screening colonoscopies if you’re over 50 and have an average risk of colon cancer, but your doctor might recommend earlier, depending on risk factors.

So I was, I was right. Yeah. All right. All right. My last question for you. Okay. Should I quit medicine and become an actor? 

Peter Jacobson: I, I thought you were going to ask that in the first five minutes of the interview, I’m surprised you waited that long, but we all knew it was coming. Um, and I have the answer prepared right here.

Hold on. I said to get my notes. Um, uh, um, yes. I, well, at least should you? That I can’t answer. There’s nothing that’s happened in the last, 64 [01:03:00] minutes that has screamed at me, this guy should stop what he’s doing and be coming after. Now that’s, I’m not insulting you. I’m not saying that you wouldn’t be great.

I’m just saying that it’s not like, oh God, you’ve got to do it. My, if you feel you must, if you are at a point in your life where it’s what, then I would say go for it. It is a you. It’s, it was, aside from all the difficult stuff we talked about, which I enjoy talking about because that’s what, it’s there, and so I don’t think we should avoid it, it can, it is a lovely, wonderful, fabulous time.

I love the shifting of people, it’s a new job means a new, new family, um, the new, new this, new that, new characters, alongside the hell, the unmitigated hell that it is, it is a lovely, beautiful, wonderful career to have and I wouldn’t have changed it for anything but. You gotta get lucky. So I don’t know how patient you are.

You know, there’s, you know, you bring, you bring intelligence and there’s very specific set of [01:04:00] knowledge. Um, I don’t know what, you know, how, uh, how thick your skin actually is. Well, we did talk about that. Take that back. You’re, you’re an ophthalmologist. You have very thick skin. I got a bit of it. I got a bit of it.

Go for it. 

Will: Go for it. I got a bit of skin. What did you want? You want? 

singers: Uh, okay. 

Will: First of all, she’s never gonna let me do that. No. And I think, uh, in my, in my romanticized thought idea of, of like, you know, 

Kristin: Yeah, the reality of a career in it is different than your fantasy. Yes, 

Will: this seems great. I would love to do it.

But, uh, um, you know, I think I’ll maybe I’ll stick with social media. I don’t know. I 

Kristin: mean, look, if I had met you recently, might be different. But I went through med school and residency. Like, I was married to him while he was doing all of those things. So, I’m not about to just 

Will: We’ll put a pin in it, Peter.

We’ll, uh, we’ll come back to that. Have you ever 

Kristin: played a marriage therapist? 

Will: Is it too late? Is it too late for me? I’m now almost 40. It is never 

Peter Jacobson: too late. Oh, please. No, it’s never too late. Never too late. I really don’t think so. I think it’s never [01:05:00] too late. Um, and if it’s a passion, if it’s a fire burning in you, then you go for it.

Will: I do think that’s true. I appreciate that. That’s great advice. That really is. Um, all right, Peter, we’ll let you go. What do you, anything you want to tell our audience about? Anything you’re working on? Do you have anything you want them to go see? 

Peter Jacobson: There’s an HBO show called Girls on the Bus that’s, I believe, still running.

It just did drops, uh, or it’s in the process of dropping. I’m in that, and that is a terrific show about a group of female journalists on a presidential campaign. Um, and it’s on Max, I guess is what they call it, HBO Max. And it’s got a great cast and I pop up. Now and then on that, in that show, um, I’m in a movie coming out in July with, uh, Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson called, uh, Fly Me to the Moon.

It’s sort of a comedy about the, uh, period piece about the moon launch in the sixties and those two are great. And um, I just finished doing a, uh, the sequel to the movie, uh, Smile, that [01:06:00] crazy horror movie that came out. Oh yeah. They’re doing another one. Yeah. And that was a 

Will: phenomenon. That was, that was big.

Peter Jacobson: It was great. And, uh, they’re doing a second one and it’s going to be bigger. And, uh, that’s in, uh, that, that comes out, I think in the fall. So I don’t know. I don’t like to push myself, but my agents got to 

Speaker 16: talk about 

Peter Jacobson: it. 

Speaker 16: That’s 

Peter Jacobson: good. 

Will: All right. Well, uh, really appreciate your time. Thanks as a, it was great to meet.

It was great to meet, uh, uh, Dr. Taub, so. You guys were 

Peter Jacobson: terrific, and it was lovely and fun, and, uh, I hope you got what you wanted. It was great to talk about this. Yeah, it was great. As always, in awe of anybody in the medical field, you guys, uh, have my undying respect, so. All right, take 

Will: care. Thanks, 

Peter Jacobson: bye bye, 

Will: guys.

Hey, Kristen. Yeah, you know what I have? 

Speaker 15: What? 

Will: A box full of eyelid mites. 

Speaker 15: Oh, you shouldn’t have. Look at these little 

Will: guys, look at their cute little, their cute little, uh, legs in there. [01:07:00] 

Speaker 15: And the ribbings. 

Will: Yeah, look at this. 

Speaker 15: I 

Will: want you to just be able to experience all of them. Look at that, we got so many, we got so many.

You know what these guys will do? They cause a disease called demodex blepharitis. 

Speaker 15: That doesn’t sound fun. 

Will: So if you’ve ever had red, itchy, irritated eyelids, It could be because of this, 

Speaker 15: you know, like 

Will: crusty, flaky buildup on your eyelashes. 

Speaker 15: Yeah, that sounds uncomfortable. No, 

Will: it’s, it’s, I mean, look, but I mean, they always look really cute though.

Look at the little beady eyes. 

Speaker 15: Well, 

Will: don’t get freaked out by this. Why 

Speaker 15: not? It’s, it sounds awful. Just get checked out. Oh, that does make more sense. You 

Will: gotta, you gotta, yeah. You gotta get checked out for this to find out more. About demodex blepharitis. You go to eyelidcheck. com that’s E Y E L I D check.

com to get more information about these little, these little guys and demodex blepharitis.

What’s your favorite [01:08:00] character from house? 

Kristin: House. 

Will: House himself. No. You, Lori. 

Kristin: I, uh, he was a good character though. 

Will: I, you, you were not as big of a fan of, you didn’t watch as religiously as I did. I think 

Kristin: I That’s always been true of any show, . Yes, 

Will: that’s true. What an is so awesome to talk to. It was really cool.

Cool. Yeah, 

Kristin: he’s, he was so nice and just like he was full of fascinating information. I 

Will: want, I want more, I want more advice. Yeah. Acting advice. I want him to just. Teach me just maybe like, I want to be like his apprentice and, and, and then go into seamlessly go into an acting career. Without struggling.

Can I, can I have, can I, can I have that? 

Kristin: Well, the first step is, um, you need to close your eyes and go to sleep. Go to sleep. 

Will: And then I can make it happen. 

Kristin: Yeah. 

Will: Oh no, that was a really fun conversation. Yeah. And, um. He 

singers: was great. 

Kristin: No, I really did like his character on House. Um, because, [01:09:00] because of the sarcasm and stuff.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, people can probably tell by now we appreciate some good sarcasm. 

Will: Yeah, he was a good character and I love the way he, the whole, uh, uh, house MD having basically a reality show to find who’s going to be the next part of their team. Uh, you know, part of me kind of wishes residency selection was still like that, but it would be a little bit stressful.

Kristin: That would be the worst. And 

Will: very unethical. Yes. So, anyway. Um, alright, well, let us know what you guys thought of that episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts. And our first actor, it’s very exciting. Alright, we want to, maybe we’ll have some more fake doctors on the show. Yeah, I like that idea. I know. Um, let’s see, what else are we going to talk about?

Oh, we got our, we’re on tour. 

Kristin: Yes. 

Will: The, uh, wife and death. Glockenflecken tour. We’re going all over the place. Get your tickets now. Go to Glockenflecken. com slash live. 

Kristin: Yes, and if you don’t see the city that you’re looking for, just let us know where you’d like us to go. We’re [01:10:00] looking into further dates as well.

Don’t despair. 

Will: We’re gonna be moving this into 2025. See, I do still occasionally have to see patients. This is 

Kristin: the problem. 

Will: So I can’t, I just, I wish I could do like a 50 city tour over the course of six months, but uh, It’s, it doesn’t work. So I do, I’m doing the most I can and we’re doing the most we can, but, uh, so 2025, there’ll be more.

There’ll be more. Um, yes. 

Kristin: Glockumfuckin. com slash live, uh, to see our tour schedule and buy tickets. 

Will: And lots of ways you can reach us. Email us knockknockhigh at human content. com. We can visit us on our social media channels. Hang out with us in our human content podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at human content pods.

Thanks to all the wonderful listeners leaving feedback. We love those reviews. If you subscribe and comment on your favorite podcasting app or on YouTube, we can give you a shout out like at nab dash RK4OB on YouTube said you two are so cute. 

Kristin: You’re so cute 

Will: too. We’re so, we’re so cute. Like I’m a little cuter, but [01:11:00] whatever.

Um, full of video episodes drop every week on my YouTube channel at DGlockenfleck and lots of cool perks, bonus episodes, react to medical shows and movies, hang out with us and other people in our little community, our little growing township. We’re active in the community as well. We’re there Interacting, talking, doing stuff, early ad free episode access, interactive Q& A, livestream events, much more!

Go to Patreon. com slash Glockenplekken or go to Glockenplekken. com. Speaking of Patreon community perps, let’s shout out the Jonathans, shall we? Let’s do it. Patrick, Lucia C, Sharon S, Omer, Edward K, Steven G, Jonathan F. Mary, W, Mr. Grindady, Caitlin C, Brianna L, KL, Keith L, G, JJH, Derek N, Mary H, Susanna F, Ginny G, Ginny J, You 

Kristin: do it every time!

Will: Ginny G, it sounds Can I just call you Ginny G from now on? Mohamed K, Aviga, Parker, Ryan, Mohamed L, David H, Jack K, David H again, Medical Meg, Bubbly Salt, and Pink [01:12:00] Macho! Patreon roulette, random shoutout to Eleanor F for being a patron! Eleanor. Eleanor! And thank you all for listening. We’re your hosts, Will and Kristen Flannery.

Also known as the Glockenflecken. Special thanks to our guest, Peter Jacobson. Our executive producers are Will Flannery, Kristen Flannery, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Editor in Chief Jason Portizzo. Our music is by Omer Ben Zvi. To learn about Knock Knock High’s program, disclaimer, and ethics policies, mission verification, licensing terms, and HIPAA release terms, you can go to Glockenflecken.

com or reach out to us at knockknockhigh at human content. com with any questions, concerns, or fun medical puns. Knock, knock, hi is a human content production. Knock, knock, goodbye. Hey Kristen, you know what 

singers: these

Will: little stuffed Dax co pilot dragons make me think of? 

Kristin: What, these little stuffed animals? 

Will: Jonathan! 

Kristin: Oh! I 

Will: need to get Jonathan a little hat like this. Yeah, a little co 

Kristin: pilot hat. And 

Will: what if he had wings too? [01:13:00] 

Kristin: That would just be a game changer. Yeah, I’m surprised he doesn’t already have wings. You should have thought of that.

Will: Fixing burnout anywhere he goes. Well, that’s what you get with the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience. Did you know that? 

Kristin: That’s pretty awesome. 

Will: 80 percent of patients actually say their physician is more focused with the DAX Copilot. 85 percent of patients say their physician is more personable. And conversational with the DAX Copilot.

It really does make a huge difference in patient care. 

Kristin: And in that patient physician relationship. 

Will: Absolutely. You just get to focus on what got you into medicine in the first place. 

Kristin: Right. You 

Will: know, not documentation, taking care of the patient. To learn more about the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience or DAX Copilot, visit Nuance.

com slash Discover DAX. That’s N U A N C E. com slash Discover D A X.