Paul W. Downs can't help but, even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and hosts with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and his friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the embattled manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs' days off, he can often be found at his previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.
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.
Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act in) the New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple lives in Los Feliz, where they enjoy spending time with their young son.
“I love Los Feliz because it's a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but it also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “It's also very important to my friends in the East and my agents in the West.”
And if you had to live in a local mall, like Ava Daniels' character did in the third season of “Hacks,” which one would you choose?
“I would be the americanobviously.”
This is how you would spend a perfect day in Los Angeles
10am: A late rise and a small barista
I sleep in if I can, which I can't because I have a toddler, but let's say I can sleep in until 10. That would be crazy.
Then I'm making coffee at home. I'm doing it with my 4-year-old son because now he likes to make my coffee. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it alone. I'm still there to supervise, but he does a lot of things.
I make beer in batches. I'm doing brio coffee that I'm grinding there and then I make four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but recently I got a Just good coffee. There is no plastic, it is all glass and metal.
11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone
We're heading to Pasadena and we're going to [Artisanal Goods by] CARWhich is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don't just think about Los Angeles, I think they are better than Paris. I'm going there with my wife and son and I'll have another coffee and some pastry. We are asking for three [chocolate croissants]. We are not going to duplicate ourselves.
11:45 am: The family business
We headed to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There is a place called T.L. Gurley. We actually filmed “Hacks” there. Not only in season 1, but also full circle in season 5. Let's shmay around and look at antiques. My son will want to play an old pinball machine. Let's go find a little piece of art for the house or whatever. It's not necessarily that he's on the hunt. It's to pass time and have fun. If I could do something and have a quiet day and stop thinking about work, that's what I'm doing.
People love interacting with my son when he's there. We're really training him to evaluate things from a young age. My parents are part-time antique dealers. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It's kind of a family business.
1:30 p.m.: Baguettes and books
We're going to drive to Larchmont and get a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wines, Spirits and Cheeses. I'm making prosciutto, mozzarella and basil on a baguette.
So let's go Chevalier's books. The sad thing is that many times I don't look for leisure material. I'm looking for something I'm interested in learning more about or writing about, or that's becoming a show I want to audition for. But we are also doing Little golden books for my son. He is obsessed. We don't have a lot of screen time, so we really encourage book buying.
2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party
We will have fun as a family in the pool and we will do it until night. We invite people all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season in ““The Rooster” and she often writes for shows in Los Angeles, so she's usually here and invites a couple of friends over. I know this sounds like a PR piece or something, but we're literally going to have Hannah. [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” will come swimming. Jen, our “Hacks” co-creator, is coming.
6:00 pm: Family dinner
Sometimes we order Gra to the house, which is a pizzeria in Echo Park: excellent sourdough pizza. But if we don't, an ideal evening is to have an early dinner at All the time at Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We are ordering the ceviche and my son eats it all and doesn't share it with anyone at the table.
8:45 pm: An exciting end to the day.
After I put my son, my wife, and I to bed, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven't done this in two years), we'll watch something together we've been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we want to revisit them or we haven't seen them and we need to see them.
We don't watch many comedies. It's a dream to see a “Black Bag” or a little spy thriller. We really like that because it's very different from the things we work on during the day.
Often the things we see are things we admire. We like to deconstruct it as film and television fans. We like to talk about how it was made, but it's less of a critique and more of a list of things we appreciate about it.
10:30 p.m.: no work tomorrow
And then we make love until the morning of a perfect Sunday. If it's a perfect Sunday, there's also a free Monday.
