While most of Hollywood production has been shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, Joel McHale shares exclusively with Closer Weekly that he’s “never been busier.” 

From gearing up for the release of his new film Becky on June 5th and promoting his latest animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge to recording his podcast, “The Darkest Timeline,” with pal Ken Jeong, the 48-year-old actor says he’s also busy homeschooling his sons Eddie, 15, and Isaac, 12, with his wife Sarah Williams. 

“It just kind of makes life more frenetic and it’s harder to focus on one thing at a time,” McHale says. “I will look back on this and go, ‘I really got to spend a lot of quality time with my family,’ because I think I was supposed to be going to the East Coast six times during this pandemic and be gone a lot.”

Joel McHale and Sarah Williams
Rob Latour/Shutterstock

The Community star adds, “Fortnite and Call of Duty and Madden are a big part of our lives. Oh, and I’ve been playing baseball with one of my sons, and my other son, we swim a lot. We’re very fortunate because we live in Southern California and we have a pool, so that’s what’s been going on.” 

Luckily, McHale’s next gig will be hosting a gala — one that particularly holds a special place in his heart — from home. The Beastly Ball, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association’s most important fundraiser of the year, will be live-streamed on Friday, May 15, starting at 6:00 p.m. PDT.

“My older son really likes [the zoo],” the Soup alum shares. “He’s really always been into animals and that’s why we have three dogs and two rabbits, and I would definitely have more — so would he — but my wife would probably disown us.”

Prior to speaking with Closer Weekly, Joel had just wrapped a Zoom call for his upcoming CW show Stargirl, in which he plays a superhero, a role he calls one of his favorites. But, we think he plays a superhero at home as a dad just as well.

“If I was single you know, I don’t know I’d probably be bored beyond … but I’m not and I’m very thankful for my family,” McHale says. “You are with each other all the time [now] so it’s a good time. I mean I try to find something positive in such a dire time.”

For more information on how you can participate and join McHale on May 15th for The Beastly Ball livestream, visit https://beastlyball.lazoo.org/. There will also be some special guest appearances including Zoo Ambassadors Lisa Ling, Carolyn Hennesy, Julie Chang, Jackie Chan, Slash and Lance Bass.