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You might not think of John C. Reilly as a romantic \u2014 he\u2019s best known for starring in comedies like \u201cStep Brothers\u201d and \u201cTalladega Nights\u201d \u2014 but these days, the actor is leaning into that side of himself.<\/p>\n
His new vaudeville show, \u201cMister Romantic,<\/a>\u201d came from a moment of deep reflection.<\/p>\n In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.<\/p>\n \u201cThree years ago, I was looking around the world thinking, \u2018Man, it\u2019s getting really divisive out there,\u2019\u201d he says. There\u2019s a lot of strife among people. What can I do? And I thought, \u2018Well, you can sing and dance, tell people you love them,\u2019 and that\u2019s how \u2018Mister Romantic\u2019 was born.\u201d<\/p>\n With a quartet of musicians behind him, Reilly takes the stage as Mister Romantic, his alter ego who has no memory of the past. All he knows is that he must perform \u2014 and if he\u2019s lucky, he\u2019ll find someone to fall in love with him by the end of the night. The stage performance, which makes a stop at L.A.\u2019s Palace Theatre<\/a> on Oct. 10, follows the release of Reilly\u2019s debut \u201cMister Romantic\u201d album, a collection of love ballads he gathered and reinterpreted over the years. The result is part crooner, part cabaret \u2014 with clear nods to Frank Sinatra and Old Hollywood romances.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re taking this message of empathy and love out to the world and having a lot of fun at the same time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Reilly used to live near Pasadena, but after losing his home in the L.A. fires, now resides \u201call over.\u201d With his children grown and most likely \u201cdoing their own Sunday things,\u201d his ideal Sunday is spent with his wife and other important people in his life.<\/p>\n \u201cSunday is kind of like this safe space,\u201d Reilly says. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to just check in with someone who might need a little company.\u201d<\/p>\n This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n 7 a.m.: The joy of pajamas <\/b> I usually wake up about 7 o\u2019clock, but it takes me about an hour and a half to even get anything going \u2014 I\u2019m a very slow riser.<\/p>\n 8:30 a.m.: Pick up pastries in Pasadena<\/b> One thing that my grandfather used to do when I was a kid: Sunday would be the day he would come over with stuff from the bakery. If you want to be like the most fun uncle out there, you can also just go to a friend\u2019s house with baked goods.<\/p>\n 11 a.m.: Take a hike at TreePeople<\/b> It\u2019s one of the great hikes of L.A. It has these paths that kind of crisscross back and forth. It\u2019s very peaceful.<\/p>\n It has this mission of not just preserving the trails but also teaching people about ecology and why trees are important. We definitely need some trees after all this fire that we\u2019ve had in L.A. Trees are a really important part of the city.<\/p>\n 2:30 p.m.: Afternoon at Moonlight Rollerway<\/b> It\u2019s like a throwback kind of roller-skating rink. It reminds me of the places I used to go when I was, like, 11 or 12 years old, in the late \u201970s in Chicago \u2014 and it really looks exactly like that. I don\u2019t think they changed the concession stand since the \u201970s.<\/p>\n I really love roller skating. During COVID, we started this gang called the Rebel Skate Rolling Club, and we would just go to parking lots, like the Target parking lot at 11 p.m. Everyone would descend with matching jackets and go roller skating.<\/p>\n Moonlight Rollerway is always there. It\u2019s always air-conditioned. It has beautiful wooden floors, so if you fall, it\u2019s not the end of the world. I\u2019m a big fan of it because you don\u2019t drink. There is no alcohol served there. It\u2019s good clean fun, is the way I would describe it. You can have a hot dog at the concession stand.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something really cool and energizing about roller skating \u2014 it\u2019s the closest thing to flying that you\u2019re gonna come across without sprouting wings.<\/p>\n 5 p.m.: Bike to dinner<\/b> There are a lot of cool restaurants all along Mission Street in Pasadena <\/a>\u2014 that was adjacent to where we lived, and it was easy to bike there.<\/p>\n 8 p.m.: Catch a show at Largo or the Elysian<\/b> <\/a> <\/p>\n
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I want to encourage everyone to get into pajamas. I\u2019m a big fan of pajamas. I like the traditional kind with stripes. You know, like the old dad pajamas from the 1950s. So you\u2019ll see me in my pajamas if you come to my house on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I usually like to hit a bakery early on because it\u2019s a fun thing to have on a Sunday morning \u2014 some fun bakery items. There\u2019s this bakery I love in Pasadena called Seed Bakery<\/b><\/a> that has all the hits. It\u2019s this amazing couple, just the two of them \u2014 they make all the amazing French stuff that you\u2019re familiar with and killer ham-and-cheese croissants.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
There\u2019s this great place called TreePeople<\/b><\/a> that I love that is up at the top of Coldwater Canyon. It\u2019s a famous conservancy started by this kid in the \u201970s \u2014 he was a teenager who was concerned about pollution, and he heard that trees and plants can help take pollution out of the air.<\/p>\n
I love the Moonlight Rollerway<\/b><\/a>, an amazing roller rink in Glendale. I\u2019m a longtime patron of the place. I\u2019ve filmed in there a couple different times. We shot some of \u201cWinning Time<\/a>\u201d in there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Me and my wife love to get on our bikes while it\u2019s still light out, and ride our bikes to a fun restaurant near us and have a nice meal, maybe a couple glasses of wine, and then you\u2019re riding back on your bike in the dark. It\u2019s so fun \u2014 it feels like an adventure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
There are two places that I have a really strong connection to that are theaters in L.A. One is Largo at the Coronet<\/b><\/a>, where you can see so many amazing comedians, but I love going there for the music. I can\u2019t tell you how many nights of extraordinary experiences I\u2019ve had at Largo.<\/p>\n