Paul Scheer's memoir, “Joyful Recollections of Trauma,” is not only a collection of heartbreaking (and often humorous) confessions but also a reminder that to persevere, we must strive to maintain our passions. Scheer’s first loves manifest themselves in prose and also in his pair of podcasts: “How Did This Get Made?” with his wife, June Diane Raphael, and his friend Jason Mantzoukas, and “Unspooled” with film critic Amy Nicholson. Both explore Scheer's appreciation of Hollywood.
In Sunday Funday, the people of Los Angeles tell us step by step their ideal Sunday in the city. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
“When I was a kid, my getaways were movies and TV shows,” Scheer says. “I wanted to be in scenes with those characters. I don't even know if I wanted to be an actor as much as I wanted to live in those worlds. I wanted to be in the 'Different Strokes' apartment. I wanted to get on that train in 'Silver Spoons.'”
The former New Yorker, whose credits include “The League,” “Black Monday” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” gushes about a recent appearance on “Night Court” as a “coming full circle moment,” noting that the series original was one of them. he watched ardently when he was a child.
Nowadays, cinema greatly influences Scheer's downtime. While the Los Feliz resident notes that his Sundays focus primarily on his children, who are 10 and 7 years old, they are also an opportunity to share other aspects of his hobby with his family, particularly the sports.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7 am: a cold dip and pancakes
No coffee will do me as good as a good cold dip. I have an inflatable cold plunge. The first thing I do is turn on the chiller and lower the water to 50 degrees. I go in there for about six minutes.
Sunday is also a day when I enjoy takeout from my favorite restaurants. If I have my preferences, I would love to order pancakes Du-par's. I think they are the best. Even though I live far away from them, I will get them, put them in the oven and give them back their deliciousness.
7:30 am: Check the children's sports schedules.
I dedicate my weekends to my children. I go non-stop from 7am to 9pm but it's nothing anyone else can do. I'm at an AAU tournament in Seal Beach and then I'm driving to Beverly Hills to watch a soccer game. I'm coaching that team. It's cool, but not relaxed. It's not like we get a bagel from Courage Bagels and then figure things out.
8:30 am: Take the family on a “walk down the street”
We don't go to trendy places. We're not going up Runyon Canyon. We go on walks in our neighborhood: an urban walk, a street walk. We have our dog Bingo and we go for a walk down the street.
9:30 am: Pickleball in the driveway or bike to a tennis court.
Normally what we've been doing on Sundays (it's one of my favorite things) is my family has really gotten into pickleball. We play that in our house, or we're going to Vermont Canyonwhich is right next to the greek theater, and we will play tennis. We ride our bikes to the Vermont Canyon tennis courts after having navigated the impossible parks and recreation website to reserve those courts, and will play for about an hour.
eleven am: Go to a driving range
We are an active family. Neither June nor I are golfers, but we have drivers and clubs and we'll go to a driving range with the kids and hit balls. As a parent, this day is longer than you think. You need to have a Swiss Army tool on things to do. We are lucky to live nearby Griffith Park, which gives us a multitude of options. We have become active because children want to be active, which translates into finding themselves in Dave & Buster's on a Sunday afternoon because June really liked soccer and the children can play.
12:30 p.m.: I hope there is a Clippers game
If it's a perfect Sunday, it means there's a Clippers game at 12:30 p.m.; However, this [was] the last year of the 12:30 p.m. games [Editor’s note: The Clippers are moving into their own venue, and therefore will likely no longer need to schedule the early afternoon games that were a necessity when sharing an arena.] If you know anything about the Clippers, the 12:30 pm games are probably some of our worst outings as a team, but it's also the only time I can take the whole family to a Clippers game.
So I would trade in my season tickets to get these Sunday tickets and my family would go to Crypto.com — I have a hard time saying that name and stocking up on snacks and supplies. would hit me LudoBird. my children do it Pizza Blaze. Then we either watch an amazing two-hour game or leave discouraged, but no matter what happens, we'll walk away with some kind of merchandise we didn't need.
3 pm: Invite the children to watch a movie
I always try to get the family out to see a movie. He new beverly often has very fun family programming on the weekends, and the View It also does interesting weekend programming. I try to convince the family: 'We're going to see Fred MacMurray in 'The Absent-Minded Professor.' Sometimes it works very well. I showed them 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' for the first time one afternoon in New Bev and it was incredible. I showed them 'Jason and the Argonauts' and it wasn't that good, not even to me.
If we want to see a new movie, we go to the Alamo Draft. That's where my kids fall in love with movies because they eat like pigs for 90 minutes straight. As long as they have a smoothie in front of them, they're having a great time, but I'm trying to enhance their interests. I love programming Vidiots. They show amazing movies in the afternoon aimed at families. They're fun movies that you wouldn't necessarily think of. It's not necessarily 'School of Rock'. It is a little more to the left of center. I like to open my children's minds by watching old movies.
3 pm Have a backup plan: trampolines
If it's a rainy day or my kids are in a bad mood, there's a place we can go. A place that turns frowns upside down and is affordable for all families. Is called sky zone. It's a trampoline park. It's basically a world of trampolines. Trampoline basketball. Trampolines on the wall. You pass through foam pits. You fight with these swords that look like they're from 'American Gladiators'. Sky Zone is our favorite place for Sunday Funday. It's an accident waiting to happen. My pediatrician tells me, 'Don't go there.' I once went and tore my glute. But I keep coming back.
5:30 pm Look for new takes on chain restaurant staples.
The next big plan of the day is dinner and I like to take dinner seriously. I have to choose something that everyone likes. I can't go to a cool restaurant. I have to incorporate the whole family. I love this [pop-up] restaurant called Chain. He is a famous chef who prepares your favorite fast food dishes in an extremely delicious way. They will make a recreation of a Taco Bell taco with Wagyu. They just had a thing where they made old school McDonald's fries.
One of the best nights I've had there, they recreated the Pizza Hut pizza. They rebuilt the entire place to look like an old Pizza Hut, with a salad bar and sneeze guard. Chain is a hit with the family because you get great food but also food your kids want to eat. It makes me feel like a kid again. I love that vibe. For me it's like when my parents took me to Bennigan's house.
8 pm Relax with a cake
Often there will be a call for ice cream and some will stop on the way home. The children dictate it. But I'm lactose intolerant so I'm going to try it. magpies. I love their cakes. They make these amazing slices. We all eat our own portion of these frozen yogurt cakes. The strawberry one is incredible. We often sit in the car and all eat a piece of our cake.
