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0:30

David, Seth Meyers. That's

0:33

right. Good guy. Seth Meyers on the show

0:35

this week. Seth Meyers was

0:37

a little after us. But

0:40

I hosted when he was the head writer.

0:42

That's right.

0:43

It was great to write with him.

0:45

He's really sharp. He's just

0:47

a very nice guy, very bright, articulate

0:50

young man. He is very articulate

0:52

and he seems like he has his act together. Worked

0:55

with some really good people and had

0:58

some funny stories about a lot of them. And

1:00

really good inside baseball about SNL

1:03

and his own talk show. And he's

1:06

done a comedy special or two.

1:08

He's done a pretty well for himself, this kid.

1:11

And if you look at his time on SNL, which we go

1:13

over his timeline, he really bridged a

1:15

lot of casts. And he was there

1:20

during that, there was sort of, I think

1:22

other people refer to it as the murderous row. But

1:24

he was a really good guy to have around.

1:26

Because he was around all those years,

1:28

either writing for everybody, performing

1:31

himself, or doing update.

1:34

And he did it solo for many years as well.

1:37

He has a big SNL career. So this was a good

1:40

guest for us. And we know him. And

1:42

I had fun reliving a story

1:45

that

1:45

I forgot about that when I hosted, that

1:47

we were in a sketch with Amy Poehler. Did

1:50

we talk about that with Seth?

1:53

Which one? Maybe we talked about with

1:55

Amy. But Seth was the director

1:58

of that. He played the director. We're

2:00

in a movie, me and Amy and Seth

2:03

is the fake director in the seghetch. Anyway,

2:05

I don't want to give it all away. Let's just let them hear

2:07

it. I know. I said something

2:10

that Greg won't be able to use, but it was on

2:12

a Zoom for this thing up in the

2:14

other house. I said, yeah,

2:16

I can do stuff from up here. Last

2:19

week I did Amy Poehler in the

2:21

barn. It just sounded sexy. That

2:23

sounds good. You

2:26

can cut that. I

2:30

don't think anyone believes that, but it's fine. It's funny. Okay,

2:33

so here's Seth, guys, and we're just had

2:36

a nice time with him. Seth,

2:44

non sequitur theater. So I did a gig

2:46

in West Virginia. Do

2:49

you want a sound check? Well, I'll ask you in a second.

2:51

Are you a sound check guy? No, no. Just

2:53

make it sound really good. Jay Farrow was there the

2:55

night before. So I said, just give me Jay's

2:58

sound. Okay, go

3:00

out.

3:03

And then just a huge slapback

3:06

echo.

3:07

Do I stop the show? But

3:10

maybe it's the room. But

3:12

that was so distracting because I would talk,

3:14

but I couldn't really. And then it talks back

3:16

to you? Garbled, yeah. So

3:19

like an echo effect. Seth Meyers

3:21

is our guest. Do you think that Jay

3:23

Farrow likes a big slapback echo?

3:25

Do you think that was on his writer?

3:28

Well, if you drop the echo and just go big slapback,

3:31

I have no idea. No, I

3:33

always do a sound check for this very reason. It's

3:35

so rare that it's a problem. I

3:37

mean, Nate Bergazzi, all these guys, I don't do

3:39

it either. Really? I will remember

3:41

to ask, is there a slapback echo?

3:44

Now you will. In this theater. It's

3:46

a combination of laziness and unprofessionalism on

3:48

my end. But I just don't want to

3:50

get there at three in the afternoon and go in

3:53

and I'm like, hello? And they're like, okay. Yeah,

3:55

I wouldn't be three. I would do. I tried to show

3:57

up earlier if they say be there

3:59

at six. I'm like what about six for a soundtrack?

4:01

Yeah, I wouldn't know what are you looking for you? How

4:04

meticulous are you like a little more bass a

4:06

little more bass nothing like that today? I have no

4:08

taste at all about music

4:10

or sound or light. They asked me what for

4:12

the lights I 100% have your

4:16

Take on it Dana, which is whatever the

4:18

last guy had but I just want to be

4:20

there in case something Right and you want

4:22

to be able to because people are coming in in a casino

4:25

And I you want to be able to kind of see them

4:27

and comment not brightly lit, but

4:29

just a little light Yeah, anyway, but

4:32

no no don't move on to these at the I think

4:34

I learned a lot from what do you do before? A stand-up

4:36

show so I'm happy to talk about this. It's it's

4:38

so riveting to the audience. So when I get on

4:40

they love my stuff Here's another

4:43

problem sets you get on and

4:45

there's like a fucking wind turbine on your side

4:47

of your face I go was Beyonce

4:49

here last because I don't want my hair

4:51

blowing to the side and now I have cotton mouth

4:54

and I go Hey, can we turn off AC unit 104

4:57

and then no one everyone already checked out once

4:59

you're on stage They all leave and go to smoke everyone

5:01

on the crew. Okay stand-up story question

5:05

if you ever Mistakenly

5:07

been chewing gum right before you go out

5:09

and then you realize that you have bit Your

5:12

tongue or the side of your mouth and you

5:14

are bleeding ladies and gentlemen, please

5:17

Welcome and your mouth is bleeding.

5:19

Anyone ever had that? No, I've never had that How

5:23

Seth how many stand-up dates? I mean, are

5:25

you have you been consistently doing stand-up

5:27

these last 20 years? Or

5:30

on and off. Yeah on and off. I I

5:34

did my special I taped pretty much right

5:36

before the pandemic So then it was

5:38

good. It was good timing that I didn't have an act

5:40

for the 18 months that nobody could do an act And

5:42

then I've sort of started after

5:45

your name pops up in my world

5:47

Sometimes like if I was that that's

5:49

what's here last week for the corporate ater Seth

5:51

couldn't make it. Will you do it? Yeah,

5:54

yeah, I hear a lot that you because

5:56

again, especially corporate things Dana you

5:58

hear about people bomb and I I always hear

6:00

that you have done very well. When I ask who

6:02

did it last year, I like to always, don't you always

6:04

go, how'd they do? First of

6:06

all, they're very difficult. James Austin

6:09

Johnson, the Trump

6:11

extraordinary, he called

6:13

me recently because he was doing some for the first time,

6:15

he was like, well how do you do these? Because you're just

6:17

playing to silence and they're having a steak dinner. So

6:21

what I do is I go online, I check the corporation,

6:24

and then I give a fake speech as

6:26

if I'm knowledgeable about their

6:28

economic data and I think we can see growth

6:31

in the third quarter. I just do a lot of tricks.

6:34

They love it, they love it. They love

6:36

it, what about you Zeth? I went to an event

6:38

in New York. I think Lauren asked

6:40

if Bill Hader

6:42

and I would do it together. And so Bill was Stefan

6:45

and I was me, and we did this charity event.

6:48

And afterwards Bill said, oh my God,

6:50

we bombed. And I was lucky enough to know,

6:52

oh no, that was great. For a charity event, we just crushed.

6:55

For this, yes. I always

6:57

come off, even if I bomb, I always

6:59

go, wow, that was a great audience. I had a great

7:02

time. Even if I'm dead silent,

7:04

you can hit it. And everyone looks around. They kind

7:06

of go, he thought it was good. He doesn't

7:08

know. I do like to do a meet and greet,

7:11

I have to. I like doing it after the show

7:13

because even if you thought it was rough, they will

7:15

often say that was so much better than what we usually

7:18

have. Right, oh yeah,

7:20

we had this guy named not to be mentioned.

7:22

And it was awful. Zeth, here's another

7:25

trick and then we're gonna talk about, I don't even know what. But when

7:28

I get off, they go, you can actually have

7:30

to do 50, let's say, or an

7:32

hour. And you go, fine. And

7:35

then it's bombing so badly, you get off at 51. I'm

7:38

supposed to do an hour. The first thing I say is, did I go

7:40

too long? And they go, oh no,

7:42

actually I go, oh my God, thank God. I thought it was like

7:44

an hour and a half. No, no, it was actually, it was a little

7:47

short. Oh, thank you, okay, good. And they're like, wait.

7:50

I did, well, they don't have to pay you. Well, sometimes they

7:52

get excited and they want your entrance to

7:54

be. And I go, that only buys me 10 seconds. This

7:56

is amazing. So it's a car show that

7:59

got me a go car. and I'm supposed to go through the

8:01

audience. I go, it's not,

8:03

and the music is like Metallica and I'm in the

8:06

car, whoa, you know. And then the

8:08

music comes down, I step out of the car,

8:10

and it's the biggest wall, wall. Now

8:14

what? Do you come on the music, Zeth? Ladies

8:16

and gentlemen, do you come out, just walk out? I

8:18

usually walk, they usually play, and again,

8:21

I just have no taste for this, they'll sometimes just

8:23

play like five seconds of the opening

8:25

credits for late night. I will

8:27

say, and if any corporate planners

8:29

are listening, nobody at a

8:31

corporate event wants more than 45 minutes. And

8:34

I know they want their money's worth and they think, give

8:36

us an hour. Nobody at a corporate

8:38

event, oftentimes we're going on, and

8:41

the next thing is they all get to have dinner and drinks

8:43

together and talk to their colleagues,

8:46

and it doesn't matter how red hot the comedian is,

8:48

an hour is too long at a corporate event. I've had

8:50

in the early days, they'd say 70 and

8:52

a 10 minute meet and greet, and then it got down

8:54

to some of them were 30 to 45 and

8:57

like a half hour meet and greet. It

8:59

became more about me being a museum piece

9:01

at this point in my existence on the planet. They

9:04

want to get the picture with the guy from the early,

9:06

late 70s. You're right, Seth, it's

9:09

hard to say you're paying

9:11

a lot. I'm telling you, even

9:14

30's a lot, but do 45, the

9:18

last 15 will be horrifying, but you'll do it. And

9:20

then all they want to do is, you're right, if they

9:23

have something after, or they just want to talk, they're drinking,

9:25

and if you're a surprise, and they're like, at

9:28

the end of your eight hour meeting, we

9:31

have an extra hour tacked on of someone

9:33

you, and they're like, I heard it was Gwen Stefani,

9:35

and I walk out and they go, what the fuck? And

9:38

then they go, oh, okay, and then

9:40

I do it, and they're like, they all rush to the bar.

9:43

And it is true, you're right, David, because you want to say,

9:45

I'm not saying this because I'm lazy,

9:48

it's only a few minutes out of my day. I can

9:50

do it, I'm just doing it for you and your people.

9:53

Yes, yes. They

9:55

get up at six, the open bar is at

9:57

five, you see me at 10. That's

10:01

you know, anyway, we don't

10:03

have a real question for let's start the program Ladies

10:06

and gentlemen aside from what

10:08

Seth I have to say looks great.

10:11

I know whatever you're doing on zoom I need

10:13

to do it. I need a helicopter Your

10:16

team out. Mm-hmm. He looks tan. He's

10:18

clear. I can hear him. I look

10:21

like fuck pie I don't know. I shouldn't be on this

10:23

soon. I you gotta have the camera

10:25

up We're gonna talk later but but

10:27

that has a little bit of scruff. Yeah,

10:31

let me ask you a question So you've just

10:33

been for someone who's been working

10:35

nonstop for 20 years at an extremely

10:37

high level So the strike hits. Yeah,

10:40

was this your longest break? I mean you had

10:42

pandemic breaks, but then there were zoom stuff

10:44

But this was probably your longest break

10:46

in like 20 years or something. I mean, yeah, definitely

10:49

because the pandemic We immediately went back to

10:51

doing the show. So I was alone

10:53

but I was working. Yeah Oh, so this

10:55

was the only thing that was close was the last strike

10:58

which was a hundred days and this

11:00

was you know 100 almost 150 so

11:02

this was not the difference between this time and last

11:04

time as I have three kids So it didn't

11:07

really feel like a break I

11:09

would say that my time was used very

11:11

well and I did try to get out and do

11:14

Shows because I liked being in front of an audience

11:16

But it was a very very strange long

11:19

break from being also make

11:21

the entirety of my career has taken

11:23

place in 30 Rock So it was weird to not be in

11:25

this building How long do you

11:27

do not this is a good one? How long

11:30

do you not tell how long do you not

11:32

tell your wife and kids? There's a strike so you can just leave

11:34

at a certain time in the day and just go to wherever

11:37

you want And then they finally go wait, you're not even going to work

11:39

anymore. You go I

11:42

could have made it a full month before None

11:47

of them watch the show so It's

11:51

Great. Yeah. Are you amazed

11:53

because I assume it's accelerated

11:56

I don't know what your childhood was like but

11:58

just how integrated the parent

12:01

is with the child in modern parenting. I

12:04

think it's just systemic and it's just

12:07

environmental. But yeah, it's not like your

12:09

dad or my dad, there were five kids that we barely

12:12

saw him do your yard work and get the

12:14

hell out that kind of stuff. Everyone knows that. But

12:16

when you're home with three kids, are they because

12:18

you have three, are they have an ecosystem

12:21

of entertaining themselves? They're

12:24

still a little young, but the two boys, so it's seven,

12:26

five and two. And so the two. Oh,

12:28

yeah. So they're kind of entertaining

12:31

themselves a little bit. It was

12:33

both good and bad that the strike fell

12:36

during the summer because it was

12:38

good because obviously,

12:40

that's a better time to not be going

12:42

to an office. And it was bad because they just didn't have school.

12:45

So they were just around the whole time. And

12:47

that's why I started multiple podcasts, just

12:50

to have a reason to tell them to be quiet that he's

12:52

working. Oh, right. You

12:54

have one solo and then you have

12:57

the five tanners. Yeah,

12:59

so I do. I do one

13:01

with my brother called Family Trips at the Myers

13:03

Brothers. And yeah, then strike five,

13:05

which will be wrapping up. The

13:08

strike basically ended because people

13:10

collectively decided they didn't want our podcast

13:12

to keep. Who thought of the name? It's Pithy. I

13:15

don't know what you would call it. Strike

13:19

Force Five. I mean, it is. I'm

13:21

going to guess all John Oliver. No,

13:23

it was Colbert. I think it was Colbert. And

13:26

it was originally just the name of our

13:28

text chain that we started in the run up

13:30

to the strike because we did want to make sure we were all

13:32

on the same page knowing

13:34

that it was likely to happen. And so

13:37

that was the name of the text chain. And then Kimmel had the idea

13:39

for the podcast that we realized

13:41

that it was we already had a very good name. And

13:44

you're the only twelve thirty in the bunch,

13:46

right? I'm the only twelve thirty. But also, thank

13:49

you for saying twelve thirty when in reality now, I think

13:51

it's twelve thirty seven. Which is even

13:53

more embarrassing to say. When

13:55

you tell somebody you're on a show that starts at twelve thirty

13:58

seven, it sounds like why does that happen?

14:00

for the regular viewer. I think it's about

14:02

the affiliates and station breaks

14:04

and stuff and the local news and all

14:07

really thrilling things. But yeah, it's all gotten

14:09

pushed back a little bit. I mean,

14:13

when I'm watching your stuff on YouTube and you have these

14:15

gigantic amount of hits

14:18

and stuff, it seems like, I mean, obviously

14:20

it's looser at 1230. If

14:22

all things being equal, it seems

14:25

better to be doing your show

14:27

at that time. As far as more fun,

14:30

I don't know the financial part

14:32

of it, but it does seem just

14:34

loose. That one hour later, you just

14:36

got freedom, right? Well, yeah, I think

14:38

it also helps that you're on after, and

14:41

I don't think that Jimmy Fallon's

14:43

not having fun. I think he's having a lot of fun too. The

14:46

network's paying a great deal more attention to

14:48

his show than our show, and so that

14:50

just gives you the freedom to do what you want,

14:53

especially after the COVID

14:57

break where we didn't have an audience. We were just doing

15:00

a show for almost 18 months without

15:02

a live audience, and we kind

15:05

of kept using those instincts as

15:07

we got the audience back. And so the show

15:09

has been very loose and very fun to do. It's one

15:11

of the reasons I didn't go back

15:13

to wearing a suit, is it just seemed like, oh,

15:15

I'm going to let people know when they tune in that

15:17

we have a little bit more of

15:19

a laid-back vibe about what we're trying to get done

15:21

here. You're the fetterman of the strike force. I'm

15:24

the fetterman. I was the first guy there. I was

15:26

the first guy there. Although, fetterman makes me look like I'm

15:28

in a tuxedo. So

15:33

the stress of being the head writer at SNL

15:36

and all that, and then when

15:38

they approached you, you can tell if

15:40

you have a lorn to

15:42

do the show, you're the host,

15:45

and is it four nights a week? Is

15:47

it easier or harder, or you're

15:49

still figuring out how compared to

15:51

being the head writer at SNL and then being

15:53

in a lot of sketches? I will say this was

15:56

very hard when it started, but it's easier

15:58

now because unlike... SNL where each

16:01

week a different host comes in and completely changes

16:03

the DNA of the week.

16:06

We know every week we're trying to make

16:09

our show and everybody here is sort of rowing in the

16:11

same direction. Whereas the thing

16:13

about SNL and especially being the head writer

16:15

is it just never got easier. I think you maybe

16:18

got a little bit better at it but the

16:20

headaches that would come up on any given

16:22

week, you just couldn't get out in front of

16:24

them. There was never a way to, you

16:28

know, make it foolproof. It's

16:30

almost impossible that it gets it stays

16:33

as hard as it does but it does. Yeah

16:35

and you're also you feel

16:37

like you're in service to an institution

16:40

and you don't want to sort of smurch

16:42

its legacy and you're working for Lauren.

16:44

You know, having to see

16:46

Lauren every day is

16:48

just in general harder than not

16:51

having to see Lauren every day. Because

16:54

he can't be everywhere giving notes to everything.

16:56

Yes, I mean we're in a very nice position

16:59

where I mean I think also you guys have spoken

17:02

of Shoemaker.

17:04

With me and Shoemaker working on the show, we're two people

17:07

that Lauren sort of turned to a lot in our

17:09

tenure at SNL and so I think he has a lot of confidence

17:11

in us and so we don't have to, he doesn't

17:14

feel the need to check in with us on a day-to-day level. And

17:16

you know how he thinks. Yes, slowly.

17:18

And how he talks. Yes. Like

17:21

when you're when I was there and you're the head writer

17:23

I just noticed, just and

17:25

I remember with Jim Downey too but you were just in

17:28

involved in every sketch basically and

17:31

overriding and doing and just a funny

17:33

little anecdote from me. When I was

17:35

hosting earlier, I don't

17:37

know it was 98 or 2000, Tina was assigned

17:39

to do church chat with me because Lauren,

17:42

we'll do church chat. You know he just tells you. All

17:45

right and then she would do the church

17:47

lady when we were in the office

17:49

writing and then 10 years later I'm doing

17:51

it, you're going to help me with it and

17:54

then you would do a church lady impression

17:56

when you were writing jokes as a church lady. And

17:59

I I don't want to say who did it better. You're

18:03

both great, but that

18:05

was, you had a very good ear for the lady,

18:07

let's put it that way. That was a real,

18:09

I mean, there are many surreal things that happen

18:11

in your time at that show, especially if you're someone

18:13

who grew up watching the show, but that

18:16

is very high on the list. Spending that

18:18

week with you where, you know, not only do we get to work

18:20

on a church chat, but

18:23

also Wayne's World, that was a real, that

18:25

was a real trip where I was definitely

18:27

pinching myself the whole time. Fly

18:30

listeners, listen, this is the holiday season.

18:33

So I want to talk to you guys about Etsy.

18:36

If you're like me, you're on a mission to find handcrafted,

18:39

affordable gifts made by independent

18:42

sellers. You can get anything, Dana.

18:44

You, I mean, honestly, if you're searching

18:46

for custom home pieces,

18:49

you know, cutting boards, linens, throw

18:51

pillows, I

18:52

mean, that's something you would pepper on your house, right?

18:55

One of your mini houses. Yeah. I mean,

18:57

I always feel pressure when I get a throw pillow. Should

19:00

I throw it all the time or is this?

19:03

Why do they call it a throw pillow? Put it in the

19:05

corner on the couch pillow.

19:07

Look at the seasonal jacket. You

19:09

can't see Dana. No, get out of town. Listen.

19:12

Well, that's another one I love, a seasonal

19:14

jacket. But what if it's a

19:17

summer jacket and you're wearing it in the winter?

19:20

Well, Heather, what have you bought on Etsy lately? Just off

19:22

top of your head. Oh,

19:24

everything. Everything. That's a good answer. They

19:27

have so many things, correct?

19:30

Jewelry, clothes, all the time.

19:32

See? She buys jewelry

19:34

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20:52

When you went back to host, did they

20:54

have things they want you to do? Or were you kind

20:56

of free? Well, I had a very different time at the show than you,

20:58

Dana, in that. Well, you had

21:00

your update segments and all that. Yeah,

21:03

that's about all I had. I felt, I

21:05

will say, I have no proof except

21:08

for how late they asked me. I do get the sense

21:10

that someone dropped out. Fallout,

21:13

boy. Yeah, and then, you know, because I was like, usually, I

21:15

feel like we knew the host before the Sunday

21:17

night. And

21:21

before, can you run over here and be

21:23

in 30 sketches? And I, you

21:25

know, I was doing this show. We had to cancel a week

21:27

of the show, which was no big deal. And

21:29

I was very excited to host. I'd been gone, I only think, about three years. But

21:32

there was literally nothing I did that anybody

21:34

wanted to see me do again, other than update.

21:37

And, you know, I did start as a cast

21:39

member and sort of worked my way into being

21:41

a writer and the guy on update. So

21:43

they had already tried me in sketches,

21:46

and it had been a failed experiment. You went backwards.

21:50

I felt for the writing staff the week I came in,

21:52

who had to figure out a thing that

21:54

had already been tried and not figured

21:56

out. I had a wonderful, what,

21:59

did you just do? hour-long He

22:04

came in and to host an hour of update

22:06

you'll do updates You

22:09

came in as a feature or a full-fledged cast

22:11

member. No, I was a feature I started

22:13

with Amy Poehler

22:16

and then Dean Edwards and Jeff Richards

22:18

were in my class and we were Yeah,

22:21

we were featured. I was featured for two years and

22:23

I had a real either first or

22:25

second summer Yeah, I had

22:27

one of those like you're you were they're not they're not

22:29

picking you up yet, you know one of those. Oh,

22:31

yeah I know that

22:34

to where they basically I mean they

22:36

are things I'm gonna they haven't decided on you

22:38

yet. What they're gonna do is look at every other

22:40

funny person And

22:44

tour of Second City the improv.

22:46

Yeah, as long as they don't find one person

22:48

they like more you're good and

22:51

When did you accelerate? When did you take

22:54

over the show essentially? I Well,

22:56

I mean I definitely benefited

22:58

from Tina's departure

23:00

But I sort of I would say really sort

23:03

of gutted through the first five and a half six

23:05

years on the show But when Tina left and again, I

23:07

was you know, I wasn't at the rewrite

23:09

table I was just a cast member and then

23:11

Lauren called me in and asked me

23:13

if I wanted to be a writing supervisor for

23:16

Tina's last year and That

23:19

was a mean that's sort of like

23:21

right underneath the head writer So but I

23:23

ran a table. I was one of the people who ran Okay,

23:27

and that was the first time I felt like I had added

23:29

any value to the show that they couldn't go find elsewhere

23:33

the thing for me and again, I'm not

23:35

being hard on myself, but when I I wrote

23:38

a lot of things for group

23:40

sketches where other people would be in them and The

23:43

longer I was there the more really funny people

23:46

showed up like Hater Sandberg Sudeikis

23:48

forte Fred and they were this kind

23:50

of guy every one of them could do my

23:52

best move better than me And so

23:54

as a writer, I would rather put

23:56

Bill Hader in my sketch than

23:59

be and so So if I felt that way,

24:01

I certainly knew the rest of the writing staff felt that

24:03

way too. So that was why it

24:06

was very nice for me to find my way into head writer

24:08

and then of course update. Longest

24:10

running update until Colin

24:13

took over. These two guys. Yeah. Yeah.

24:17

Blew me out of the water these two. So you were there 12 years, 13

24:19

years. 12 and a half years.

24:23

You were the first five tough and then you became

24:25

head writer and then update guy

24:27

extraordinaire. Yeah. Well.

24:30

I felt very, I felt at home then in a

24:32

way that I, if late night

24:34

hadn't popped up, I didn't have really an exit strategy.

24:36

I was very, in a way that probably wasn't good,

24:38

I became content at SNL.

24:41

Does Lauren have all, what does

24:43

he have there? He has your studio, which is

24:45

called what, nine or something? We're 8G.

24:48

8G, he has 8H. It's got to be some

24:51

expensive real estate there. Does he

24:53

have anything else? Was that Conan's? Fallon's

24:55

downstairs. He's 6G. Oh, right. 6G?

24:58

Is that right he is? Yeah. I

25:00

was in 6A in 1981. Oh, doing

25:03

your show? Sitcom with Mickey

25:05

Rooney and Nathan Lane, one of the boys. Oh, right.

25:08

And I was in 6A in Rockefeller

25:11

Center for six months. What a bummer there's

25:13

no sitcoms in 30 Rock anymore. That would

25:15

be such a fun thing to have. Was 30 Rock

25:17

the sitcom in 30 Rock? No.

25:20

30 Rock was it a? For a cup? Yeah,

25:23

that's right.

25:24

Is that in Queens? Yeah.

25:26

We own a piece of that David. If you're

25:28

from Queens, I'm from normal parents. Someone's

25:31

act. That

25:33

was crowd work when I was doing stand up. So

25:39

when you, I could ask you a

25:41

lot of different questions. One is how did day

25:43

drinking come about? I mean, because that

25:46

is unbelievably. Not

25:48

your day drinking, but the sketch. Day drinking the

25:50

segment where Zeth goes

25:52

with celebrities and they

25:55

get kind of drunk. It's

25:58

incredibly entertaining. It's

26:00

like to watch. Yeah.

26:03

The interesting

26:06

thing is, I think having the late night show and

26:09

having watched a lot of Conan certainly

26:12

when I was in college and the man on the

26:14

street stuff that Conan did, I aspired

26:17

to do that as well. I had so

26:19

much anxiety being in public

26:22

doing the show and that lack of control and

26:25

knowing you had to find it as opposed to

26:27

have it planned ahead of time. It's all edited.

26:29

You got to shoot eight hours to get one segment.

26:32

Yes. For every funny person you find, what

26:36

the audience doesn't see is the eight weirdos where

26:38

it was aggressive or strange

26:40

or just dry. With

26:42

day drinking, I drink

26:45

away my anxiety about it, like anybody

26:47

with social anxiety. It

26:51

becomes a lot more fun and we actually don't have to cut

26:53

it down as much as you think. But the first time

26:56

I did it was with my brother and we just thought it would be

26:58

a fun thing to do because I like doing stuff with my brother. It

27:01

was Retta, the wonderful actress,

27:03

comedian said, I want to do that. We

27:05

never thought it'd be a thing we would do with guests, but

27:07

because Retta did it and it was so much fun, we

27:10

got more people signed on. Now, people

27:13

ask all the time to do it and we try to be a little,

27:19

what's the word, cautious with how often we do it.

27:21

Because I am drinking an amount that

27:23

as I get older, I probably should not do

27:25

often.

27:27

How do you keep up with some of these guys? There's a couple of guys

27:29

I won't say who, but I'm sure they could

27:31

drink you under the table. No,

27:34

the only person who I think left

27:37

me in the dust was Rihanna, because

27:39

at the end of that, she definitely

27:41

was going out. That

27:43

was the beginning of her night and it was most

27:46

assuredly the end of mine. Nobody's

27:50

driving because it's New York. It's New

27:52

York. Everybody's safe and sound. Yeah. That's

27:55

a weird bit that I can't believe people do and it's

27:57

a great idea. What's that hot sauce one on YouTube?

28:00

You do hot sauce hot ones. Yeah,

28:02

you guys done hot ones. I Will

28:05

not that's a compelling. I

28:07

did hot ones. I think it's wonderful I think that

28:09

guy's a really good interviewer and I think the

28:11

hotter the wings get the less

28:14

you're capable of editing your own

28:16

answers So it's very it's very smart

28:18

because you're in pain. And so the anxiety

28:20

is a planet with with agony genuine

28:24

pain Yeah, I don't

28:26

I it's funny cuz most my interviews. I just want

28:28

to like have a nice time I You're

28:31

very you're an outlier Weird.

28:35

Oh You know, I saw

28:37

Dana. I'll tell us that feel like this. I

28:39

did a show at Town Hall the other night When

28:42

this airs in 2026, right? What to

28:45

say? It's right, but I did Town

28:47

Hall. It was great and Whose

28:50

food comes back Kenny Ammon. Did

28:52

he really? Yeah, isn't that great? He

28:55

was in the audience I I Think

28:57

I was talking about something we talked from

28:59

the show We mentioned him a lot and then I emailed

29:02

him and then he said I heard you coming to town David

29:04

and I said Yeah, yeah, I'd love to come with the wife. So

29:07

I got him in half price took care of him and

29:09

uh, He came in and

29:11

then he came back after he was hesitant

29:14

to he said he wouldn't bother me and then he came back He's

29:16

exactly Kenny among super

29:18

fun. We talked about that Sinead O'Connor thing Yeah

29:21

that I said I said how much of what I say

29:23

on the show is a lie What do you think what's the percentage

29:26

and he said you got this and ain't no kind of went a little wrong

29:29

And I go, oh he still has the picture Yeah,

29:32

now I will I will admit David when I heard you

29:34

tell that on your show I knew you were a

29:36

little wrong because Kenny had told me that story So I'm telling

29:38

you I you know, you remember something back

29:40

whatever it wasn't that far off So we talked

29:43

about so there was she did rip

29:45

up the picture that part was true. I saw that

29:48

And then I walked out I

29:51

picked up a piece. That's true. I Kept

29:54

it. He never got it back for me. His one

29:56

problem. He said he said he brought me in

29:58

and said I heard you have peace And I said yes, because I was

30:01

bragging to the office. And

30:03

then he said, we're going to need it back. And I guess

30:05

I didn't give it back. And then he, there

30:07

was a legal problem. He tried to get it back from a current

30:10

affair and then he got it. And then he said,

30:12

then he kept it. He had it for Joe Pesci

30:15

monologue. I guess they still

30:17

didn't have my piece. I don't know what I was thinking. I was terrified

30:19

of my job. Why? Why on God's green earth

30:21

did I not bring it back in? And he said, it wasn't

30:23

a very important piece. It was a lot of like, white and

30:26

I go, okay, relax. It's important. It

30:28

was a good solid piece. And then he

30:30

has it now. And Lauren asked him for it. He

30:32

said, no. Yeah. Lauren

30:34

asked him for it for that touring sort of SNL

30:37

museum exhibit they were doing. And

30:40

good old Kenny shot him down. And I will say, you

30:42

know, who shot him down? That's

30:44

the thing. And by the way, Kenny

30:46

got, you know, Kenny had to bear the

30:49

brunt of Lauren's whimsy

30:51

for the entire run he was

30:53

at the show. The amount of time I sat there when we

30:55

would do picks on Wednesday night

30:57

and Lauren wouldn't be able to choose between two. And

31:00

he'd look at Kenny and say, you know, can we do both? And

31:02

Kenny would be like, we don't have the space, Lauren. We

31:04

physically don't have the space. And Lauren's like, you'll

31:07

figure it out. And just like poor Kenny would have to

31:09

like go. Of course. He did so.

31:12

I mean, such a nice guy, but he's great.

31:15

His eyes were wide open. He was on the move

31:17

during show week. You could tell that he

31:20

was trying to figure out. He was the guy getting everything done.

31:22

He was the guy getting everything done. But I will say,

31:24

because he did look like he's the

31:27

way you wanted a guy in a control

31:29

room for a live TV show to look arms

31:31

crossed. You know, just worry lines.

31:34

But when a show was over and Kenny took you aside

31:37

and told you he loved to

31:39

sketch you done, that meant more

31:41

than almost anybody because you realize

31:44

that for it to actually break through his wall

31:46

of anxiety and bring him any joy, it had

31:48

to be a genuinely funny piece

31:50

of company. And he's seen 2000 million

31:53

shows. What was the hardest thing you ever felt

31:55

that you landed there? Would

31:57

it be a certain update piece or

31:59

a. sketch or? I wrote the Amy Tina

32:02

Palin Clinton sketch and that's the hardest

32:05

anything played in the room you know

32:07

and and that was great because I didn't have any performance

32:09

anxiety about it I had sort of written

32:11

this thing that was then in the hands of these two

32:14

incredible performers so that is one of the few

32:16

times in my run at the show where I just

32:18

sort of stood on the floor knowing

32:21

that it would go great and

32:24

just got to sort of bask in that reaction

32:26

the other thing about it because it was just

32:28

an in-one you know I think sometimes

32:30

when you write something on the show your

32:32

fear after it plays great address

32:35

isn't it the actors will get it wrong but

32:37

maybe Lauren made you cut something you're just worried

32:39

about the shot being late because again yeah

32:42

it's not the director's fault but they're calling you shots

32:44

so fast and I was always

32:46

so frustrated when a sketch went great address

32:48

if anybody wanted to make a change because

32:51

the audience was tough you don't know what's

32:53

gonna happen or it's not following something

32:55

in something for some reason it steps on some

32:57

jokes you're like oh my god I never saw that if

33:00

you get something kills address and then it

33:02

bought a line of yours in an ensemble

33:04

piece and then later on you find out

33:06

that you didn't step into the light or it was turned away

33:09

so the camera wasn't on you yeah

33:11

and you realize there what wasn't my fault you

33:13

know yeah that's the torture

33:15

of us no but when it works like did

33:18

you sit with Tina

33:21

did you know she had a really great impression

33:23

and rhythm and also sort of a look-alike

33:26

element did you sit with her a little bit and then write the

33:28

sketch or you just assumed she would do

33:31

I think that was that was the first

33:33

one and in the subsequent ones we

33:36

we worked on a more together but she was doing 30

33:38

Rock at the time so there wasn't like

33:41

there wasn't a lot of free time in her schedule I think people

33:43

forget that she wasn't a full cast member at the

33:45

time she was actually juggling those things

33:48

and then once it became what it became I mean

33:50

again I think we only did six but I think we did you

33:52

know six and sort of a nine-week period

33:55

she and I both had this fear that they would get

33:58

worse and and somebody would say

34:00

they were getting worse. So we kind of

34:02

redoubled our efforts to keep it good.

34:06

And that was where, you know, not just Tina as a performer,

34:08

but having Tina as a writer on those was,

34:10

was invaluable. I can

34:13

see Russia from my house.

34:15

But now I got to own it up. You know who wrote that

34:17

line? Lauren? Shoemaker.

34:20

Shumaker. Shumaker, really? Oh,

34:23

that's a great prop to give Shoemaker.

34:26

Shoemaker, it was heartbreaking because we were,

34:28

it was Saturday morning

34:31

and we're all at the update table where

34:33

we're sort of picking the jokes. So we get in, we

34:35

would get in, I think at 1130 on Saturday

34:38

morning and start going through the update jokes. And I

34:40

had the sketch out and we're just

34:42

going through it one last time and sort

34:44

of asking the room for

34:46

jokes. And Shoemaker

34:48

said, I could see Russia from

34:50

my house. And it was just

34:52

you immediately knew, oh, that's the best line and

34:54

that'll be the one forever. God damn, what

34:57

a short concise. Oh, good for him. It's

34:59

perfect, perfect comedy writing. The

35:02

thing about political impressions

35:04

is that the audience still is

35:07

coming on to the person. So like Sarah

35:09

Palin walked out the Republican convention first

35:11

time everyone saw her. I don't

35:14

know how soon after you guys did

35:16

that, but it seemed like as the season

35:18

went on, she kept doing

35:20

Meet the Press or whatever she was doing. And so

35:23

the audience was getting more and more familiar. It's feeding. I

35:26

remember them all landing really hard.

35:28

At least that's of the, Palin

35:31

was like Ross Perot. I always say to people,

35:33

fully form comic character

35:38

just coming right out of the box. You didn't have to go not

35:40

got to do it or try to find a way to make it funny.

35:42

And so it was, it's great

35:45

when great writing meets a great performance.

35:48

And then the moment for

35:50

Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, it's

35:52

like a peak moment on the history of SNL.

35:55

Very true. Yeah. And then

35:58

there are other times where it's, it's It's

36:00

me playing John Kerry where none of those things

36:02

happen. There

36:07

was no way. I mean, John

36:10

Kerry just that, you know, it's

36:12

not that much there. Tough to get a hook. Yeah.

36:16

I had a line, he looked like the

36:19

tree from the Wizard of Oz. So I would

36:21

just do that and say that's John Kerry. Or

36:23

he was saying my apples don't, you know, that I

36:26

just make up something. But

36:28

no, he was good. Which is like, that's a very

36:30

good like stand up approach. But with

36:32

this, when you have to do a guy for six

36:35

sketches, it just you run out of moves.

36:37

I mean, you start with no moves and you run out. And it's

36:39

funny because I remember during the Palin

36:41

year, there was a lot of press around

36:43

SNL and I would do interviews and people would

36:45

say, it just seems like every election year

36:48

SNL comes alive. And I would say not every.

36:52

Not every. Gary, I like you start with nothing

36:54

and it runs out from there. Also,

36:57

you know, George W. Bush was funny and

36:59

Will was Will there in 2004 still or someone else

37:02

took it over. Will. No, Will was

37:04

going to his work forte was doing. But that

37:06

was a funny and he and I could find

37:08

no purchase at that point. That was I mean, I

37:11

think six, five people did

37:13

Bush after Farrell

37:16

left. And again, you're following a guy

37:18

who because his his Bush

37:20

was almost as much Farrell as Bush.

37:23

Right. Because once somebody identifies

37:25

the hooks, then yeah, it's hard to stay

37:28

away. And election Bush

37:31

was sort of a more likable

37:34

Bush before you're doing, you know, Iraq,

37:37

you know, Iraq war Bush, which is

37:39

then like people don't like him. And they also miss

37:41

Will Farrell. There was a lot stacked up against you

37:43

when you were trying to do it. And then you come in

37:45

with Kerry. Did anybody Jim down?

37:48

Downie give you any kind of catch. He was

37:50

down. He was helpful. And I

37:52

mean, downie and John Kerry.

37:55

I mean, I don't have a clue how to do that. Daryl

37:58

Hammond was also. would come

38:00

and try to help, but it wasn't,

38:03

you know. That's like, it's a weird, like, Daryl

38:06

Hammond trying to help somebody like me with an impression would

38:08

be like, LeBron James trying

38:10

to teach me how to dunk. Like, you dunk like this. You'd

38:13

be like, yeah, but I don't have any of those parts.

38:16

Yeah. Well, wait a minute, your Hugh

38:18

Grant. Passable. Yeah,

38:21

but passable Hugh Grant. Also, you have a passing resemblance

38:24

to Hugh Grant. Well, that's what helps. The guy

38:26

to do- I'm passing. No, but you had, I know-

38:30

Well, it's a podcast. You could do it or not, but I think you

38:32

have one of the best ones out there.

38:35

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, sorry,

38:38

sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, that was it, that was just

38:40

a guy couldn't- That was it, that was it. But I did audition with

38:42

it. I did audition with Hugh Grant, so I have a special

38:45

place in my heart for life. You didn't do

38:47

that much, and you get applause, and that's about it. That was

38:49

in and out. People don't know that you get a sign like,

38:51

there's spade, you're gonna be this and this, and then

38:53

you've got like an hour before we do, but it

38:56

doesn't mean you're doing a good impression, it means

38:58

you're gonna rely on hair, make up, and

39:00

an outfit, and then get something

39:03

close, and just get through a sketch. David,

39:08

I know that you usually, well, at least

39:10

what I've heard, you cook your own meals

39:12

every night, sometimes it'll take a couple hours,

39:15

but often you feel like maybe getting

39:17

some delicious dinner delivered to

39:19

your door. Well, DoorDash

39:22

is something I gotta do, because especially

39:25

with this new DashPass, DashPass

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become a dash pass member today Whose

41:00

idea was Dylan and Tom Petty

41:02

for you guys? Was

41:04

that you I did Tom Petty when I was I

41:07

did Dylan at update

41:09

he'd done a concert He had the hat and he was I

41:11

think Bonnie Turner might have and

41:13

Terry may have suggested that I think

41:17

Probably because they know I did that anyone

41:19

remembers it. It was

41:22

a very Memorable

41:25

It sort of seared in my mind to the the

41:28

cut to the two shot of you because you had such that Your

41:31

facial position for Tom Petty was

41:33

so funny So

41:36

he owned that he was already Right

41:39

sounds weird. He sounds a little like Dylan

41:41

a funny two-shot just to look the

41:43

look again That's a classic example. A look

41:45

is funny. Well, they were I was also the sort

41:47

of a it was apex petty

41:50

look Right those like little glasses

41:52

a lot of hat work was going on for both guys

41:55

So I had took that hat from my remember

41:57

that finally worked the valet

41:59

at the Marriott

41:59

Marquis in

42:02

downtown and it was a, I had that

42:04

half forever. Dylan was easy

42:07

to do a hacky Dylan,

42:09

but you know, I don't know if you listen to Dylan lately

42:11

on his albums and stuff. I

42:14

love old Dylan, but it's very different.

42:17

Soon after midnight, I have a date

42:20

with a pair of queens, you know, but

42:22

then it was just, hey, you know, all that

42:24

60s stuff. Not my best moment,

42:26

but thanks for bringing it up, Seth. Do

42:28

you know, have you ever seen that photo that floats around the internet

42:31

every year that posts

42:33

a photo of the traveling Wilburys and how old

42:35

they were when they were in the traveling Wilburys? No.

42:38

And it's heartbreaking how, like just so young. I think Roy

42:40

Orbison was the oldest and he was maybe

42:43

like 42. I know.

42:45

They say that Golden Girls were all 26. That's

42:48

true. That's true. A lot of hair

42:51

and makeup working there. Carol O'Connor when he

42:53

did All in the Family was 15. He

42:58

looked like shit. They were two other guys. There

43:00

were two other guys in his suit. It is funny. They

43:02

go, the sector is pretty good. The doctor said I did it my way. He

43:04

was 27. I go, I see. A little early, Frank.

43:07

Okay. Live a little more life

43:09

before you go down that road. Everyone's living

43:11

longer and everyone's getting, it's not

43:13

so terrifying to

43:16

be, I guess, I mean, you always

43:18

think you look like shit and then 10 years later you're like, oh,

43:20

I looked great back then. Yeah. You

43:23

just know, however bad you look now, it's

43:25

just going to be great. Yeah. We're

43:28

stacked like a decade apart without putting numbers

43:31

down. So it is kind of funny. I'm doing Zoom,

43:33

by the way. 10 years

43:35

later and then it's 10 years later and

43:37

then we go to, but I looked at Keith Richards,

43:40

you know, quit smoking at 80. He

43:42

feels great. You know,

43:45

a lot of my heroes, like heroes,

43:48

whatever, you know, Jack Nicholson,

43:51

Redford, all these people, Jane Fodas are in

43:53

their mid 80s now. It's

43:56

the weirdest, I mean, of those guys you just said,

43:58

it is. And Jane Fonda

44:01

looks outstanding. And

44:03

I do want to give a shout out to how well

44:07

that person is aged. Just exceptional. And

44:09

as a performer, Frankie and Great, so really,

44:11

she's wonderful. I just did something with

44:14

Christy Brinkley and unsurprisingly, she's

44:17

stunning. Don't

44:20

people want to be, instead of, would you rather someone say,

44:22

oh, he's looking really good for

44:24

his age or he's hot? Would you like to be called

44:27

hot still, David? Oh,

44:29

space, hot. But from a woman. I never

44:31

got that ever. So yeah, any

44:34

scraps you got. How would you like to be described?

44:36

Seth is not really what he wants. I have reached the age

44:39

and this is not, this does not come from a place

44:41

of self-doubt, but I have reached the age where

44:43

if someone said I was hot, I would think something

44:45

is wrong with them. You

44:48

know what I mean? Whereas good, you look good

44:50

for your age. I could take as a sort of value

44:52

judgment that I can put in my pocket and feel

44:54

good about, but you look hot. I think what

44:56

most people do is compare themselves to

44:58

the stepdad on stepdad porn and just see how

45:01

you look, you know, compared just looks wise,

45:03

not wiener wise. Anyway, we're going to look

45:06

at a clip. Stepdad porn. I

45:08

knew I just won $1,000 and that was going to be mentioned

45:10

during the stop sign. Thank

45:13

you. I was getting into it going, I got

45:15

it. I don't, shouldn't I do that? Also, I'm

45:17

almost certain no one searches for it by

45:21

that. You know, I think they might,

45:23

I think I would imagine you lean into stepdaughter

45:26

when you did in the search bar, but that's, you

45:28

know, step, you

45:31

know what? Mother daughter porn is not mother daughter.

45:33

I mean, in a perfect world, but it's, it's

45:36

actually just actresses. They have

45:38

an ingenue and a grizzled vet. Anyway,

45:41

let's look at the clip. By the way, who

45:43

else in that grizzled vet? Probably younger than Roy

45:45

Orbison. Grizzled

45:48

vet in porn is like 36. They're

45:50

like, I've done 3 million films.

45:53

Did you guys ever do a porn

45:55

related sketch? Because Neelan

45:57

and I did one. Ridiculous. porn-related

46:00

sketch on SNL. Oh

46:04

man. I w there were definitely some in my

46:06

time. I'm trying to think if I worked on any of them,

46:08

but I don't think so. Neil and I were,

46:11

I can barber chairs with our shirts off and

46:13

we were porn stars. And people

46:15

were working on manscaping

46:18

or curating bar. And

46:21

it was like, yeah, put a little fence down there,

46:23

make it nice for the people. Fluff it up. It was all

46:25

this abstract. That's all we had. It bombed

46:27

here and it bombed then. The

46:31

one that was great in my era that I had

46:33

nothing to do with was Vanessa Baer and Cecily

46:35

Strong were former porn stars who

46:38

would do commercials for like Swarsky,

46:41

Swarsky Crystals. Yeah. And it was

46:43

always, they would always pronounce the

46:45

name wrong and they were really

46:48

dead-eyed. Their performance was

46:51

charmingly dead-eyed. Charmingly porn-ish.

46:54

Yeah. And then they're both just

46:56

such funny performers, but that was, those sketches

46:58

really, were really familiar. Yeah. There's so many.

47:01

Does that answer your question, Dana? Well,

47:03

Keenan had the best answer about

47:05

who's the greatest

47:07

cast member. You know, everyone likes to make rankings

47:10

for albums and everything.

47:12

And he said the women. All

47:14

the women. Because when, when

47:17

Nora Dunn was there and Jan Hooks and Victoria,

47:19

it was much more male dominated.

47:22

Uh, some of it is because of men

47:25

in politics and so forth. Julia Sweeney.

47:27

But then it seems starting with Cheri Oteri

47:30

or Vanessa and others. And

47:32

then it kept building into,

47:34

you know, just

47:37

Tina and Amy and Maya.

47:41

Yeah. We had Tina, Amy, Maya and

47:43

Wig. That's like crazy

47:46

to have those four in a cast

47:48

together. Yes. And

47:50

Dratch was there for some of that. Always,

47:53

always funny. Yeah. There

47:55

was, um, yeah, there was a real

47:57

sense that, um,

48:00

In those era, that era,

48:03

there was literally nothing they couldn't do,

48:05

and sort of late in

48:07

the week. And then you add Bill Hader

48:10

and Sudeikis and Fred Armisen

48:12

and Will Forte. That

48:14

era that you straddled, I don't

48:17

know. We had a killer run.

48:19

I would say that too, when we're talking

48:21

about the sarah panel and stuff,

48:23

the cast at that time

48:26

with Tina sort of coming back and popping in,

48:28

was definitely the strongest

48:31

top down. And it was small. One of the things,

48:33

and I feel bad, I'm obviously

48:36

happy for them that they're all on SNL, but sometimes

48:38

when the cast gets to 20 people, it's really hard

48:40

for people to break through. And

48:43

we were only about 10 or 11 at one

48:45

point, and that was really nice. That's

48:47

rare, because we got big in hours, and to

48:50

have it go backwards is very rare. They just usually

48:52

add. We add seven.

48:55

So everybody got to be on the show

48:57

a lot. All the birds got fed. How do you get

48:59

relaxed on the show? How do you get good on the show without

49:02

being on the show? So you're right, when it's 20 and

49:04

you have cast members, don't blame them.

49:07

Why leave something that you're brilliant at staying 10, 12,

49:09

13 years? People

49:12

are on the junior varsity for so

49:15

long, but I guess it's just the

49:17

way it is. Because

49:19

I think part of it is you

49:22

do sometimes just need to get assigned

49:25

a thing or two a week where

49:27

you get the rep without

49:29

having to necessarily kill. Those

49:32

big political sketches where you get thrown some

49:35

senator at a panel, you have a few

49:38

hours. But you just get in front of the camera,

49:40

and you get to learn cards, and other people

49:43

are going to have the big laughs. People

49:45

watching at home want to find those

49:47

new people they can root for, and they have

49:49

to see you in order to root for you. And

49:52

you get the butterflies out of the way because they always

49:54

come, but at least you get a feel for how sickening

49:56

it is to actually walk 10 feet

49:59

on camera. and turn to face the

50:01

cameras, you go, oh my God, this is horrible.

50:04

The other thing, Danny, you know when you do it, and especially

50:07

at the beginning, you just do your

50:09

bit, it gets laughs, and you walk off,

50:12

and everyone's doing their job, and you're standing in the hallway going,

50:15

did like five million people just see that? I don't even know,

50:17

I'm just, yeah. I never really would think about

50:20

it. It went out live, it's over. So,

50:22

Zeth, I wanna ask you two things, in a minute, whether

50:24

you would ever become

50:26

the executive producer of the show, because your name's

50:28

been tossed around. And one

50:30

is, my theory's about the longevity,

50:33

and there's probably 10 metrics to this, but one is,

50:36

when you see an athlete or an actor try

50:38

to do live sketch comedy, you're watching a reality

50:40

show, and then when you see people

50:43

who are, never heard of them,

50:45

never seen them, they're just coming on SNL, and you're watching

50:47

them get their big break, is another

50:50

reality show. So, I don't

50:52

know if it's whoever thought of the show,

50:55

but when SNL has a bad show,

50:58

like say a football player is bombing or whatever,

51:01

it's still really compelling. And

51:04

that's kinda not, I mean, a bad show

51:06

for me, watching it is pretty compelling, because

51:09

watching the cast member know it's bad,

51:11

but holding up the, you

51:14

know, some of my, why do you think 50 years,

51:17

I'm sure you're asked all the time, I am. Well,

51:20

I- It's interesting, because I think

51:23

that even though it's compelling, people would still criticize

51:25

the show for being bad the week that an

51:27

athlete was bad, or an actor

51:30

ate it. But I will say, a few years after

51:32

I left, there's this really funny writer

51:34

on the show, who's not there anymore either,

51:37

Mike O'Brien, and Mike and I were back sitting

51:39

in an office, and the current

51:41

writers were complaining about how

51:43

bad the host was that week. And

51:46

it was a major movie star, who was

51:48

sort of being impossible, and they

51:50

were all in such a bad mood, but their stories

51:52

were so funny about this person's behavior.

51:56

And we said, look, the good news is this,

51:58

like when you leave this show, You

52:00

will talk about the disaster week so

52:02

much more than the week that we're great.

52:05

Because it's just so much funnier to

52:07

remember how terrible someone was. So even

52:09

though I feel bad for the audience when they watch a terrible

52:12

week, just know that the writing staff and

52:14

the cast will be able to dine

52:17

out on that week for years. Yes.

52:19

In a good way. I mean, Marcy Klein,

52:21

when she was on, I guess at times she

52:23

had to like the host was having a nervous breakdown

52:26

at like 11.15. I can't

52:28

make it. I can't do it. She had to go

52:30

talk to it. It's too much. She didn't want to give us names

52:33

because, you know. But the

52:35

drama behind that show, forget

52:38

the funniness, just the drama. I

52:40

don't know how many nights I'm sure you had this experience

52:42

that's what, I don't know if it's going to make

52:45

it tonight. It seems like such a shit show. And

52:47

now it's like almost 11 when

52:49

we're going into Lauren's office. 50 of

52:52

us jammed in to get notes. And

52:54

we're on in 28 minutes. And

52:56

you keep your bald cap on. It's like a Fleeing-esque

52:59

thing. People have their cold opening

53:02

fake nose on. It's just, it's

53:04

surreal. I feel so, I retroactively

53:07

feel so terrible about, you know, because I think being

53:09

a writer on the show, you sometimes

53:12

forget how human the cast

53:14

is. Because Lauren will give

53:16

you, you know, again, like you said, at 11.20, Lauren

53:19

finally lets you out of the office and you're making

53:21

changes to a cold open that's going to be on TV in 10

53:23

minutes. And then the times that I would run up

53:26

to somebody like Bill Hader, who the minute

53:29

he started on the show, we started

53:31

leaning on him for things like impressions, you

53:34

know, hosts of new

53:36

shows, which would often be the framing

53:38

of the cold open. And so here's Hader

53:41

doing an impression of somebody he didn't even know existed last

53:43

week. And you're running up to him at 11.24 saying, hey, this line

53:45

is different, this line is different, this

53:47

line is different. And you just, you're treating him almost

53:49

like, you know, a computer program and

53:52

assuming he's going to be able to like process the information

53:54

and deliver it, because that's how it looks.

53:56

Because ultimately, he was so good at it, he would always

53:58

make you have a good time. more confidence

54:01

in him week after week after week and then you forget all these

54:03

years later oh my god the anxiety we were putting

54:05

on that person who had to actually be

54:07

the one who was on camera doing that job I mean you had

54:09

to do it your whole time on the show Dana like the amount

54:12

you probably started the show with cold opens.

54:15

Um I can't I had a weird

54:17

trajectory because I came in with Phil and

54:20

Jen Hooks and Kevin Neeland

54:22

and so forth and then I was just happened

54:25

happened to be in the first sketch Madonna

54:27

did the cold opening on my first show

54:29

apologizing for the 85 season

54:32

like it never existed. So then

54:34

it was me Phil Hartman, Jen Hooks in

54:36

a game show where I was a game

54:38

show psychic I knew the answer before Phil

54:40

would ask the question you know that kind of thing and

54:43

then and that killed you know because

54:45

Phil was so great and Jen I was riding

54:47

that wave and then I I did church chat

54:50

with Sigourney Weaver up and

54:52

I did Chomp and Broccoli so I came in I

54:55

had so much shit

54:57

my ex-manager went to the stars

54:59

Brad Grey came into my office at

55:02

like 11 20 same kind of thing

55:05

and he talked like this he goes

55:06

I don't know why I don't know why but

55:09

it's just show

55:10

it's just show tonight I don't know why it

55:12

happened but just laid out that way

55:15

and uh it's very true it can go any

55:17

way but what you're forced

55:19

into that and I was using things for my

55:21

stand-up which was helpful I

55:23

knew where the hooks were but the nerves handling

55:26

the terror and the nerves like your

55:28

first would you remember your first

55:30

time you're like really crazy nervous

55:33

because a sketch was leaning on you or

55:35

you're doing something an update because an update you're

55:38

talking and then the your

55:40

chair pivots when you're a guest on update and

55:42

you're kind of thrown out there that's an interesting

55:44

vibe as well yeah I was lucky the

55:46

first update I did that landed I got

55:49

to talk as myself I

55:51

got to be Seth Meyers and I was talking it

55:53

was uh I was a Red Sox fan which is

55:55

true and so sometimes when you write from truth

55:57

it's a little bit easier and it was

55:59

about how I hated the Yankees my whole

56:01

life, but because of 9-11, I

56:04

was rooting for the Yankees to win the World Series, but

56:07

since Red Sox fans never get what they want,

56:09

I had to root against the Yankees in order

56:11

for them to win the World Series. And so it was just, it

56:14

made sense to me, I had written it myself, it

56:16

felt like a piece you would do to stand up, and

56:18

I remember that went great and I walked

56:21

off, and not to keep calling back Shoemaker, but

56:23

Shoemaker met me, and I've been giving him shit

56:25

about this for 20 years, he goes, it'll never go that well

56:27

ever again. And it was like,

56:29

hey, I thought I'd take a victory lap,

56:32

but he was, you know, the reality is he

56:34

wanted to remind me, and probably, I

56:36

don't know if you felt like you needed that reminder, because that's

56:38

such a monster for a show, that

56:40

Scorny Weaver show, like it must have been crazy

56:43

the second week where you realized, oh, oh,

56:45

it doesn't get, no, like the

56:47

last week doesn't lead to the next week. No, no, I was

56:49

barely in the show, I think I did Casey Casem

56:52

for 30 seconds, and I think Lauren saw

56:54

me at the party and kind of patted on her shoulder,

56:57

it goes up and down week to week, you just

56:59

keep calling. Brad Grey, 1120, this isn't your week. This

57:02

isn't your show, it's the only way to call yourself.

57:05

I wanna, just because he mentioned her, I wanna tell

57:07

my favorite Marcy story, which is the promos,

57:09

you know, the famous S&O, like,

57:12

hey, this week, I'm the host, and you're gonna be

57:14

seeing. And Marcy,

57:17

I had to go with Marcy into the host's room

57:20

to tell them about the promo, and

57:23

she handed this stack of promos, and the host

57:25

read them all and said, none of these are funny, and

57:27

Marcy just took the whole stack and said, well, in that case,

57:30

I'll throw them in the garbage,

57:34

and just drop them in the garbage in front of the host and

57:36

walked out, and I didn't know we

57:38

were allowed to drop it out like that. I

57:42

was in charge of promos for two years, it's the

57:44

roughest job, it's the most dangerous

57:47

garbage job. But you get to meet

57:49

the host. Yeah,

57:51

Shoemaker has a few

57:54

promos that Farley wrote, and his office,

57:56

that are really funny. And

57:59

on YouTube, It will not surprise you they're unusual.

58:01

Yeah, I think I was there for those and they come

58:03

down and David I wrote them because he go they

58:06

sometimes go up the writing room and go everybody kick in

58:08

a few fucking promos stop for a second. We

58:10

need something and then I'd gather them and go down and

58:12

then there's a couple of stink

58:14

bombs in there from Farley. I think he'd write himself in

58:16

some of them too.

58:18

But they would also throw in Casparino they say hey

58:21

bring Chris down or bring in you know whoever

58:23

they

58:23

thought was funny that week to do a promo with the

58:26

host. My worst host dressing

58:29

room was Mick

58:31

Jagger wanted just a first joke

58:34

in his monologue and

58:37

so Mulaney and I

58:39

had a piece of paper where we'd written 15 jokes

58:42

that we collected from the writing staff about

58:44

that he could say is his

58:46

first joke and our plan was just to go back and

58:48

forth and

58:51

I, Mulaney read

58:53

the first one and Mick Jagger

58:55

didn't laugh. I guess what's the next one and

58:57

Mulaney handed me this his paper and I read him the second

59:00

one and he didn't laugh and he goes what's the next

59:02

one and I handed it back to Mulaney and there were

59:04

very clearly 15 on it and John

59:06

goes

59:07

that is all we

59:09

have

59:10

because we just realized we

59:12

put our favorite two first and the fact

59:14

that we had broken apart we're like it's

59:17

only gonna get worse let's just embarrass all

59:19

the embarrassment. And then you just kind of walked

59:21

out or see you later Mick. Yeah we just kind of walked

59:24

out and said you know let's just go back to the

59:26

drawing board I think it's very clear that we don't

59:28

have the answer on these pages. Did you ever

59:30

find something that he landed? Did you remember it?

59:33

No. I bet if we go back and watch the monologue

59:35

from that show the answer is no. There

59:40

is that thing which I know is a bummer

59:42

to hear which is sometimes you just

59:44

it's sometimes it is hey

59:47

it's so great to be here like you just have to start

59:49

saying words and let the audience know.

59:51

Yeah. And that's the show.

59:54

I mean the first update joke is very rarely

59:56

the best update joke almost because you're

59:58

just trying to like pull the focus. and

1:00:00

get people to pay attention. I think that

1:00:03

the guest hosts that do Q&A

1:00:05

from the audience is maybe one of the more fail-safe.

1:00:08

I love a Q&A

1:00:10

from the audience. You have all those different flavors.

1:00:13

And you get that cast to act like

1:00:15

they're in the audience.

1:00:17

I think I wrote one for

1:00:20

Walken where he had written

1:00:23

questions he wanted the audience to ask him. That

1:00:26

was my... Where

1:00:28

do you buy your pudding? Read

1:00:31

the one I told you instructed you to

1:00:33

read before. He

1:00:36

exposes it right away. Monologues,

1:00:39

solo venture. That's

1:00:41

why they call a mono one.

1:00:44

Just making a single. I wrote a sketch for

1:00:46

him my first or second year and I was

1:00:48

a sketch called Pranksters, which I'm still pretty proud

1:00:50

of. And it was one of those sketches that

1:00:53

killed at the table and then we got in the

1:00:55

rewrite room and because it had killed at the table

1:00:57

everybody had a lot of ideas. Sometimes

1:00:59

you can overwrite it. Then

1:01:02

we bring it out and we're rehearsing with

1:01:04

Walken and we get like two pages

1:01:06

into the new version and he just stops. He

1:01:09

goes, you ruined it. He

1:01:13

goes, you got to go back to the way

1:01:15

it was. And we did. It

1:01:17

worked great but he was right. It's that thing of sometimes

1:01:20

you can overwrite. You can joke on

1:01:22

a joke on a joke. No good.

1:01:26

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1:01:28

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All right, before we let Seth go, Dana,

1:05:12

ask him. Is this normal? Is this a normal

1:05:14

amount of time? I don't want to cut you short. No, I have just one question

1:05:17

for him. But do you have one, David? Well,

1:05:19

I was going to see who he thinks might

1:05:21

want to take over, who could handle that job, if

1:05:23

anyone. I don't think anybody can handle that job,

1:05:26

and I'm being genuine. Don't you think it's a one

1:05:28

man, it's a one man, there's only one man, there's only one

1:05:30

man for the job. If

1:05:32

you really think about the lanes

1:05:35

that Loren has to fill,

1:05:38

it's pretty big. And how he

1:05:40

resisted, oh, it's got to go

1:05:42

to one hour, or it should be more

1:05:44

pre-tapes, or you need a new theme for the

1:05:46

band. So this was decades. Anytime

1:05:49

there was a dip in the show, he had

1:05:51

the corporate trust,

1:05:53

whatever, Universal now, whoever

1:05:56

he had to talk to, and he

1:05:58

held it steady. And now you think, God,

1:06:00

isn't it brilliant that it just stayed branded,

1:06:03

identical? That's why everyone we've talked

1:06:05

to on this podcast, everyone's

1:06:08

had the same experience, the same tiny room,

1:06:10

the 8-H, all of it. So,

1:06:12

yeah. I mean, it

1:06:15

also, I think it's

1:06:17

different. No, I think the

1:06:19

other part that people forget is that Lauren's

1:06:23

status as an icon is

1:06:25

incredibly important based on every host

1:06:27

that go through those doors, because

1:06:30

everyone knows who he is. And

1:06:32

because of that, everyone

1:06:34

from all walks of entertainment or politics

1:06:37

or sports trusts

1:06:39

him. And it only works if the

1:06:42

host trusts him. And if it was somebody else,

1:06:44

you know, look, it could be, you know, it could

1:06:46

be somebody who maybe worked on the show before

1:06:48

or maybe was a successful producer somewhere else,

1:06:50

but no one's going to have that cultural currency

1:06:52

with every single person who comes in there. And

1:06:55

also they don't act up the host because

1:06:58

they go, this is a guy, just

1:07:00

the respect of 50 years. And

1:07:02

so if it's someone new, they know they sort of outrank

1:07:05

them. Yeah. Like they

1:07:07

do in a movie set or something so they can sort of get away with

1:07:09

their shenanigans. Yeah, because he knows everybody's

1:07:11

seen it all. And that unflappable Lauren

1:07:14

character, which he cultivated

1:07:16

as part of his comic persona, that

1:07:19

he would never panic. And in the first year he

1:07:21

was out there with my first few shows,

1:07:23

he'd had a glass of Chardonnay on 8H. This

1:07:25

show's going on in between sketches. Oh,

1:07:28

this has to breathe. So I

1:07:30

guess he has a calming effect to a host.

1:07:34

You'll do this and it'll be great. You're

1:07:36

going to be happy at the party. You know,

1:07:38

he's very good at public relations.

1:07:40

It's also, I think when I host

1:07:42

it, and at this point I feel like I knew

1:07:45

Lauren as well as you can

1:07:47

know him. And I

1:07:49

remember right before a sketch, he sort of walked over

1:07:51

and I thought,

1:07:54

oh, this is going to be this new experience with

1:07:56

Lauren. I'm going to find out what is it that he says

1:07:58

to hosts right before. Sketches

1:08:00

start because that's the one thing i never been privy

1:08:03

to despite all the time and he walked over and he

1:08:06

said some version of. Just

1:08:09

walk to literally barely a word. I

1:08:16

was like that is part of his you know part

1:08:18

of his enduring. You

1:08:22

know talents in this field is sometimes

1:08:24

knowing when not to say anything

1:08:26

and i think very few people have it in in

1:08:29

in power in show business very people know

1:08:32

how sometimes saying less is more of this

1:08:34

sketch has to breathe. That's

1:08:37

right before your start let's not

1:08:40

fuck this up. I do

1:08:42

want my last show because i stayed

1:08:45

through about halfway through my

1:08:47

last season before i left and i wrote

1:08:50

it was the super bowl episode and i wrote a sketch.

1:08:54

I'm elissa mccarthy where she ordered

1:08:56

a bunch of wings for super bowl party and

1:08:58

they was very obvious there is no one

1:09:01

in her house but she was pretending she was pretending

1:09:03

to yell at people off camera to explain why she

1:09:05

had these like three trains. And

1:09:07

i was under the bleachers with lauren and

1:09:10

it just it just

1:09:12

played the silence and

1:09:15

and lauren when it was overlooked me goes. And

1:09:18

again this is my last show and i'd been there you

1:09:20

know 12 and a half years in a long time and he looked

1:09:22

at me goes what am i going to do without

1:09:24

you. Yeah.

1:09:33

I also my favorite i think my favorite

1:09:36

under the bleachers it's a love it story

1:09:38

when you hosted Dana love it came to the. Yeah

1:09:40

yeah yeah you need man

1:09:42

he was it was a he

1:09:45

was such a dream in the

1:09:47

same way that it was a dream to spend a week

1:09:49

working and writing. With

1:09:51

Dana and also let me let me know

1:09:53

Sean Penn celebrity roast was a sketch

1:09:56

I wrote when you were there that

1:09:58

I own Wilson you were a. Rowan Wilson, that

1:10:00

is a real feather in my cap as well.

1:10:03

Great one, great one. It was a great one. But

1:10:06

Lovett walked underneath the bleachers

1:10:08

right before the show started

1:10:11

shaking all their hands. John Lovett, John Lovett,

1:10:13

John Lovett, and then he turned to Lauren and went, and you are?

1:10:16

Yeah. Perfect. He loved

1:10:19

his favorite thing. Dinging Lauren. And

1:10:22

when you would pitch ideas for

1:10:24

an hour on Monday and the host is sitting there and

1:10:27

everyone's pitching, and then

1:10:29

at the very end, John would always go, Lauren,

1:10:33

what are your ideas? I

1:10:35

go, John, why are you trying to disturb

1:10:39

our body? I

1:10:41

was there for Will Ferrell's

1:10:43

final show because we overlapped for

1:10:45

one year. And the last

1:10:48

pitch, Will brought in an old

1:10:50

typewriter. And

1:10:52

every time while people pitched, he

1:10:55

was typing as if it was his job to write them

1:10:57

all down. And it was this really loud

1:10:59

typewriter. So people would pitch and be like,

1:11:03

and you know, there's so few laughs in pitch. So

1:11:06

it's just this really loud

1:11:08

and he would go and Will went last

1:11:11

at pitch and it went all the way around.

1:11:13

And then Lauren says, Will? And

1:11:16

Will just basically like rolls

1:11:18

up the paper on the way you do on typewriters. And

1:11:23

then he just very quietly reads through everything

1:11:25

he typed. And he said, no, I think we're good.

1:11:29

I never got that comfortable

1:11:32

to do something. But I love that Will

1:11:34

has that looseness to him to just

1:11:37

do that. The

1:11:40

show always had some anxiety to

1:11:43

it. Yeah, that

1:11:45

idea. I've never, yeah, a bit

1:11:47

in Lauren's room

1:11:49

in front of the host you don't know. Yeah,

1:11:53

that would be hard. So Zeth, you're going back.

1:11:57

You're going to do the show. Yeah, I know.

1:12:00

I don't know when this will air, but we will be back

1:12:02

doing shows again. I'm gonna start in

1:12:04

a couple of days. And it's the craziest, just for

1:12:06

a second, the craziest political

1:12:09

environment ever, I think.

1:12:12

I mean, they say it every time, but say kind

1:12:14

of the craziest. So how are you

1:12:17

gonna look forward to it? How are you gonna manage

1:12:19

it? I mean, you do the closer looks, you do your comedy.

1:12:21

Yeah, I mean, it's really nice because the

1:12:23

closer look is this thing that we sort of built

1:12:26

that can kind of hold anything. And so

1:12:28

we don't need any one kind of

1:12:30

news to know we have a show. We sort of have

1:12:32

this bucket that we can fill with whatever we

1:12:35

want. And I would certainly rather

1:12:37

live in boring times, don't get me

1:12:39

wrong, but it is

1:12:41

processing the anxiety is easier

1:12:43

with a show than just walking around

1:12:45

muttering to myself in the streets. So I'm happy to be back

1:12:47

with other people that

1:12:50

also think it's fucking crazy. One

1:12:52

of my writers, Sal Gentile, who

1:12:54

writes a closer look, described our show

1:12:56

as a written for and

1:12:59

by the formerly sane. And

1:13:01

we try to keep that as the way we approach

1:13:03

things. How are you, I mean, cause everything

1:13:06

is like, we have these two horses in the race. Trump,

1:13:09

and he's got his indictments and he's Trump. And

1:13:11

then we have Biden, who even

1:13:13

in the Washington Post, New York Times, they're kind of going,

1:13:18

hello, is everything okay over there? So

1:13:21

how do you navigate that? Have you done a

1:13:23

closer look on

1:13:25

current Biden? Cause when he first came out, I

1:13:27

didn't really know how to get an angle on

1:13:29

him at all, but now

1:13:32

he's more interesting. Yeah,

1:13:34

it's really, it's sort of day to day, but

1:13:36

I think that as we get closer, we get

1:13:38

more into, you know,

1:13:42

debate stuff. Who the nominee is. Yeah,

1:13:44

I mean, obviously it kind of goes without saying, it'll

1:13:47

be him. And so there won't be a situation where

1:13:49

we have, you know,

1:13:51

it's obviously not going to be a democratic primary

1:13:53

season. And it was interesting for

1:13:55

us last time, but then fascinating how quickly

1:13:57

it became a Biden show. to

1:14:00

have 10 Democratic candidates and it would go on

1:14:02

until the very, you know, I certainly thought it would be a

1:14:04

Super Tuesday situation. It was nuts that it was sort of over

1:14:06

by South Carolina. So we have

1:14:09

that sort of then takes your focus on it because there,

1:14:11

you know, Biden, other than, you

1:14:13

know, the general, he hasn't been a part of a horse

1:14:15

race for years. And back when he was

1:14:18

in horse races, he was never close enough to

1:14:20

be considered, you know, a front

1:14:22

runner. It's funny how little he even

1:14:24

appeared. I guess 88 when who was playing

1:14:27

who played Biden in your era and 88

1:14:30

I, I wonder,

1:14:33

I was assigned Bush. I don't know

1:14:36

who would have done him. He may have dropped out

1:14:38

soon enough that we didn't do him. Yeah, I never had

1:14:40

to. I mean, I just remember the doctor.

1:14:42

Aka's did him in 2010. Oh,

1:14:46

really? Yes. I used to write those for

1:14:48

such as it's funny because you

1:14:50

know, we call them. Yeah. But he had a

1:14:53

very fun. I, you know, I would

1:15:00

do this on stage that I think that when

1:15:02

again, I didn't think he was going to be the nominee that like

1:15:04

when he ran for president in 2020

1:15:08

that Obama must've thought you, wait, you

1:15:10

thought my vice president wasn't the last job

1:15:12

you were ever going to have. You thought it

1:15:16

was a stepping stone job. Joe,

1:15:19

Joe, you don't have to do this, Joe. Joe,

1:15:22

you don't have to do it. No, no, no, no, no, no.

1:15:24

But I, I, what I did was I looked

1:15:27

at the town halls because I looked at

1:15:29

him in 2012 and his debate,

1:15:32

uh, vice presidential debate with, with

1:15:35

what's his name? Oh, Ryan. And, uh, you

1:15:37

know, he was, he was pretty, he was, he was

1:15:39

pretty strong. You know, he was, he was, and

1:15:42

then, uh, the town halls, he just

1:15:44

had different stories,

1:15:47

a different kind of attitude, but,

1:15:49

um, it's very interesting. It's such

1:15:51

a hot oven out there and I, my

1:15:53

style is to do, I do both. I'll

1:15:55

do Trump and my Trump, I think all of our Trumps

1:15:58

got a little better because of James. Dawson

1:16:00

Johnson, who made it into like

1:16:02

jazz. I mean, he's

1:16:04

got breathing techniques. I mean, his

1:16:06

Trump is crazy brilliant.

1:16:10

And your Trump has

1:16:13

gotten really, really good. Because I saw

1:16:15

recently. Thank you. And what is- I

1:16:18

try not to think about it at all. I try to just let

1:16:20

Trump speak through me. Which

1:16:23

I feel like- What's your hook into Trump? Do

1:16:25

you have a, cause I always, mine is

1:16:27

that he always sounds like he's pitching a family vacation.

1:16:30

We're gonna be going things where you won't believe

1:16:32

we're gonna do it. And people say no, but we're gonna do

1:16:34

it anyway. You know, all that kind of stuff. I

1:16:37

like the one that we keep coming back to is that

1:16:40

big guy, strong guy, tears

1:16:42

in his eyes. Like that, you know,

1:16:44

these makeup stories about sort of, it's

1:16:47

always a, you know, vague amorphous

1:16:50

people, but they're always very big, very

1:16:52

strong, and very, very

1:16:54

emotional about how much they miss him. I

1:16:57

love, there's so many hits that he has. He's

1:16:59

a stone cold loser is a

1:17:01

great one. I like a lot of

1:17:04

people are saying, I haven't heard anything. What

1:17:06

a beauty, not a 10, not a 10, she's

1:17:08

not my type. I mean, he has like a million-

1:17:11

He's deeply funny. Praise him. He is deeply,

1:17:13

deeply funny. The Biden thing, the only thing that

1:17:16

made me laugh was when he does the whispering.

1:17:18

Cause the rich, okay, for sure. And then he goes really

1:17:21

loud. He's like, I know how to be down. And

1:17:23

says, I can't believe it's not butter. So

1:17:26

that whisper to the yell was

1:17:28

the hook that got me- That was really

1:17:30

good. You can- The first time I saw you do

1:17:32

the whisper thing on Colbert, it

1:17:35

was a real like, ah, that's it.

1:17:37

My dad, that's his job. No

1:17:39

joke, not getting around here. No joke,

1:17:41

no joke. Number one, the two part, number two, three, right. But

1:17:43

you know what? We're all in this ecosystem,

1:17:45

so run with anything. I'm just- I

1:17:48

remember 2012 that you mentioned the

1:17:51

vice presidential debate, and in

1:17:53

those years- Paul Ryan, yeah. Paul Ryan,

1:17:55

I would write, I

1:17:57

would write sort of a template debate sketch,

1:17:59

but- then everybody would pitch in based on having watched

1:18:02

the debate. I remember my phone rang and

1:18:04

it was Downey, the aforementioned Jim

1:18:07

Downey, former head writer,

1:18:09

legendary SNL staff

1:18:12

member. He had this bit that made it in,

1:18:14

which is my favorite bit of that debate, which was how

1:18:18

Biden kept talking about Scranton and

1:18:20

how he's from Scranton, but made Scranton sound like

1:18:22

a super shitty place. It was just like,

1:18:24

I'm from Scranton. This is a backwater.

1:18:27

These are hard Scrabble people. You

1:18:30

drive through Scranton, roll up your windows. It

1:18:32

was just a really funny Downey

1:18:34

observation that Biden talked

1:18:36

about his hometown, both from a point

1:18:38

of pride and also like never fucking go

1:18:40

there. Well,

1:18:44

he tells a story recently, I think it

1:18:46

was funny that he, I'm

1:18:49

eight years old and

1:18:50

I see two men on the street, Scranton,

1:18:53

Pennsylvania, they're kissing.

1:18:54

I asked my pops, what's that? My

1:18:57

pops says, that's love. That's just love, son.

1:19:00

A teamster from 1953 talking like that. It

1:19:03

feels very woke. I don't know. But

1:19:06

God love them. God

1:19:08

love them. God bless America. Thank you,

1:19:10

Seth. Thanks for coming on. You're

1:19:13

a key piece of Saturday Night Live history.

1:19:15

This is where I go into my

1:19:17

amazing run on Saturday Night Live. One

1:19:20

of the very few people is just, where are you going

1:19:22

to work? Rockefeller Center, which is a

1:19:25

magic building. Imagine this

1:19:27

place. Lucky. It's where Kenny Among

1:19:29

worked. Oh yeah. The great Kenny Among.

1:19:32

Shoemaker, please say hello. And

1:19:35

congratulations on just having a cool

1:19:37

show to go to. Thanks, guys.

1:19:39

Come back, come visit us soon. Now that we're going

1:19:41

to be back. I'm going to come in that hot seat again. I'm going to get in

1:19:43

the hot seat. Get in the fucking hot seat. And

1:19:46

I'm going to just go crazy. I'm going to go completely

1:19:49

just like- Unusable. Unusable.

1:19:52

No, no, just go super high energy and

1:19:54

just rather than kind of lean into my age.

1:19:56

I'm just going to like get some five

1:19:59

in and just go. nuts. I'm just telling you now.

1:20:02

Can't wait. Okay. Good

1:20:04

to see you, buddy. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for

1:20:06

having me, guys. This

1:20:10

has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13.

1:20:12

Please listen, then rate, review,

1:20:14

and follow all episodes. Available

1:20:17

now for free wherever you get your podcasts.

1:20:20

No jokes, folks.

1:20:22

Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13,

1:20:26

executive produced by Dana Carvey and David

1:20:28

Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13,

1:20:30

and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment.

1:20:33

The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production

1:20:35

and engineering support from Serena Regan and

1:20:37

Chris Basil of Cadence 13.