Paul Rudd’s got a secret … bar in his basement. The Living With Yourself star was a guest on a recent episode of Netflix’s “Present Company” podcast and told host Krista Smith all about the clandestine locale.
When Smith, asked Rudd, 50 about his go-to karaoke song, he revealed way more than his favorite tune to sing along to. “I have a whole setup in the basement of my house and I’ve had many karaoke parties,” he explained.
“It’s a whole pub,” the New Jersey native added. “It’s a fully functioning Irish pub in my house that’s where I have that karaoke system.”
As Rudd noted, his parents were both from London and the pub stems from his roots across the pond. In fact, once Rudd’s father built a pub in his own home, the actor realized he wanted one too. “There’s something great about having a pub in your house, even if you don’t drink,” the Ant Man actor said. “It’s such a social hang.”
Rudd went on to clarify that his watering hole, which he refused to reveal the name of, is way more elaborate than an ordinary basement bar. “[It’s] a house built over this pub,” he said, noting that the unusual locale brings him great joy.
“It’s cool because you don’t expect to be in that setting in somebody’s home,” he added. “It’s one of the great things in my life and that’s not an exaggeration. It’s really fun.”
Though Rudd’s children with screenwriter wife Julie Yaeger — 15-year-old son Jack and daughter Darby, 10 — can’t enjoy the bar quite yet, the duo was very impressed by their dad’s recent stint on Hot Ones, a YouTube series in which celebrities eat chicken wings coated in increasingly spicy hot sauce.
“When I did Hot Ones, my kids were really, really excited about it,” Rudd recalled. “I brought all of the bottles of hot sauce home because I knew my son would want to try them and he and a buddy of his came over to the house and they did their own Hot Ones challenge.”
While the Friends alum faired pretty well on the show and made it to the last wing covered in Da Bomb hot sauce — the “really intense” spiciest offering — Jack had a bit more trouble with his at-home challenge. “He felt awful for three days, he also drank a ton of milk; I didn’t drink any milk or any water,” Rudd said. “But my kid drank a ton of it and I don’t think that did him any favors.”
