And it’s that sweetness he’s bringing to his first kids’ book, What’s Scarier Than Thunder? “My secret goal is that it’s something that kids will think is funny, but that parents will, too.” The story follows Claire, who is afraid of thunderstorms. For future stories, Falcone sees many other things to be scared of: “Heights, first day of school, remember that one? Meeting someone new, auditions...” Another story he’s actively involved with is the podcast Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Fire, which he created with McCarthy and Steve Mallory. “There’s going to be a season two, so we’re excited.” And even though “the industry is clearly changing,” Falcone says he believes in comedy. “Melissa and I, our big goal is to try to be a very small part of the bigger push to get comedies back in the theaters. I think it’s so good for people to get together and laugh.”What inspired you to do a kids' book?I met with this really smart editor-slash-bigwig at Penguin Random House, Jen Klonsky, and she sort of said, "Are you interested in doing a picture book?" And I was like, "I do have one idea...about thunderstorms." I took her through it, and she liked it, and it just seemed like a really silly, fun thing for parents and kids to read together.<img src="https://cdn.magzter.com/1430147033/1742478403/articles/u_0fi1Fgo1742543541515/4344633242.jpg" alt="image">Were you a scared kid?I've just always been a little tightly wound, even though I was always trying to hide that with a mellow outer façade, and inside my blood pressure is just skyrocketing. I think the point of this book is to say, "We do all have worries. There are scary things in the world. But isn't it fun to get together with people that we love and that we like, and to sort of make fun of ourselves and to have a few laughs and have a good time?"Where did the idea for the Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Fire podcast come from?One of our old friends, Steve Mallory, during COVID he sort of pitched [this idea]. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and he was like, women don't get to do almost anything in the movies. And so, he said, "Wouldn't it be fun to do something, and we could make it like a radio play where Melissa and a bunch of women saved the day because the men screwed everything up." And I thought that was a really fun idea.

Ben Falcone

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