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David zth Meyers that's right good guy Seth Meers on the show this week Seth
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Meers was a little after us but I hosted when he was the head writer that's right
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and uh it was great to write with him he's really sharp he's just a very nice guy very bright
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articulate young man he is very articulate and he seems like he has his act together uh worked with some really
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good people and had some funny stories about a lot of them and really good inside baseball about SNL and his own
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talk show and he's done a comedy special or two he's done uh pretty well for
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himself this kid and if you look at his time on SNL which we go over his timeline he really bridged a lot of cast
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and he was really he was there during that there was sort of I think other
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people refer to it as the murderers Ro but he was a really good guy to have around because he was he was around all
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those years either writing for everybody performing himself or doing update and
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he did it solo for many years as well so he has a big SNL career so this was a good uh good guess for us and and we
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know him and I had fun reliving a story that I forgot about that when I hosted
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that we were in a sketch with Amy Poler did we talk about that with
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Seth which one maybe we talked about with Amy but Seth was the director of
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that he played the director we were in a movie me and Amy and Seth is the fake director in the sketch
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anyway I don't want to give it all away let's just let them hear it I know I said I said something that you Greg
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won't be able to use but it was on a zoom for this thing up the other house and I said yeah I can do I can do stuff
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from up here you know I last week I did Amy polar in the barn it just sounded
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sexual that sounds good you can cut that you can C anyway I
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don't think anyone believes that but it's fine it's funny uh okay so here's Seth guys and we're just uh had a nice
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time with [Music]
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him zth non secer theater so I did a gig in West Virginia do you want a sound
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check well I'll ask you in a second are you a sound check guy said just make it sound really good Jay faroh was there
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the night before so I said just give me Jay's sound okay go they off mic go out and
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then just a huge slapback Echo if had I like do I stop the show
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but maybe it's the room they can't but that was so distracting because I would talk but I couldn't really it came and
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it talks back to you garbled yeah so like an echo effect zth Meyers is our
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guest today hey do you think that J phoh likes a big slapback Echo do you think that was on his rider uh well if you
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drop the echo going and just go big slap back I have no idea no um you always I always do a sound check for this very
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reason it's so rare that it's a problem I mean Nate bergi all these I don't do it either really well I will I will
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remember to ask is there a slapback Echo now you will in this theater It's a combination of laziness and
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unprofessionalism on my end but I just don't want to get there at 3: in the afternoon and go in and I'm like hello
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and they're like okay see I wouldn't do great but I would do I try to show up earlier if they say be there at :30 I'm
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like what about 6 for a sound check yeah I would now what are you looking for are you how meticulous are you like little
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more base little more Bas little I have no taste at all about music or Sound or
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lights they ask me what for the lights I 100% have your take on it Dana which is
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whatever the last guy had but I just want to be there in case something right and you want to be able to because
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people are coming in in a casino and I you want to be able to kind of see them and comment not brightly lit but just a
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little little light yeah anyway but uh no no don't move on to Seth yet I think I learned a lot from what do you do
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before a standup show so I'm happy to talk about this it's it's so riveting to the audience so when I get on they love
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this stuff here's another problem Seth you get on and there's like a [ __ ] wind turbine on your side of your face I
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go was Beyonce here last because I don't want my hair blowing to the side and now I have cotton mouth and I go hey can we
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turn off AC unit 104 and then no one everyone already checked out once you're on stage all leave and go to smoke
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everyone on the crew okay standup story question have you ever mistakenly been
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chewing gum right before you go out and then you realize that you have bit bit
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your tongue or the side of your mouth and you are bleeding ladies and Gentlemen please welcome and your mouth
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is bleed anyone ever had that no I've never had that how zth how many standup
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dates I mean are you have you been consistently doing standup these last 20 years uh or on and off yeah on and off I
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I did my special I taped pretty much right before the pandemic so then it was good it was good timing that I didn't
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have an act for the 18 months that nobody could do an act and then I sort of started after your name pops up in my
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world sometimes like if i z zth was here last week for the corporate dator zth
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couldn't make it will you do it yeah yeah I hear a lot that you because again especially corporate things Dana you
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hear about people who bomb and I always hear that you have done very well when I ask who did it last year I like to
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always don't you always go how' they do how' they do first of all they're very difficult James Austin Johnson they
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Trump extraordinary impress he's he called me recently because he was doing some for the first time he's like well
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how do you do these because you're just playing to silence and they're having a steak dinner so what I do is I go online
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and I check the corporation and then I give a fake speech as if I'm knowledgeable about their economic d and
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I think we can see growth in the third quarter I just do a lot of tricks but they love it they love it they love what
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about you zth I was event in New York I think Lauren asked if uh bill haer and I
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would do it together he and so bill was Stefan and I was me and we did this charity event and afterwards Bill said
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oh my God we bombed and I was lucky enough to know oh no that was great for a charity event we just crushed for this
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yes yes I always come off even if I bomb I always go wow that was a great audience I had a great time even if I'm
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dead silent you can hit they kind of go thought it was he doesn't know I do like
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to do a meet and greet if I have to I like doing it after the show because even if you thought it was rough they
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will often say that was so much better than what we usually have right oh yeah we had this guy named not to be
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mentioned and it was awful Seth here's another trick and then we're going to talk about I don't even know what but
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when um I I get off they go you contractually have to do 50 let's say you know or an hour and you go fine and
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then it's bombing so badly you get off at 51 I'm supposed to do an hour the first thing I say is did I go too long
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and they go oh no actually I go oh my God thank God I was like I thought it was like an hour and a half they're like no no it was actually it was a little
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short oh thank you okay good and they're like wait I did they don't have to pay you well sometimes they get excited and
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they want your entrance to be and I go that only buys me 10 seconds this amazing so it's a car show they got me
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go-kart and I'm supposed to go through the audience I go it's not and the C and the music is like Metallica and I'm in
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the car you know and then the music comes down I step out of the car and it's the
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biggest you now what do you come on to music zth ladies and gentlemen or do you come out just walk out I usually walk
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they usually play and again I just have no taste for this they'll sometimes just play like five seconds of of the opening
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credits for for late night I will say and if any corporate planners are listening nobody at a corporate event
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wants more than 45 minutes and I know they want their money's worth and they think give us an hour nobody at a
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corporate event oftentimes we're going on and the next thing is they all get to have dinner and drinks together and talk
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to their colleagues and it doesn't matter how red hot the comedian is an hour is too long at a corporate EV I've
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had in the early days they'd say 70 and a 10-minute meet and greet and then it got down to some of them were 30 to 45
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and like a half hour meet and greet could became more about me being a museum piece at this point in my
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existence on the planet so they want to get the picture with the guy from the early early late 70s you're right Seth
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it's hard to say you're paying a lot I'm telling you yes even 30s a lot but do
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45 the last 15 will be horrifying but you'll do it and then and they all they want to do is you're right if they have
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something after or they just want to talk they're drinking and if you're a surprise and they're like at the end of
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your eight hour meeting we have an extra hour tact on of someone you and they're
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like I heard it was Gwen Stefani and I walk out and they go what the [ __ ] and then they go okay and then I do it and
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they're like they all rush to the bar and it is true you're right because you want to say like I'm not I'm not saying
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this because I'm lazy I it's only minutes out of my day I can do it I'm just doing it for you and your people
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yes yes they get up at 6 the open bars at 5: they see me at 10
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that's you know anyway we don't I have a real question foring them let's start the program ladies and gentlemen aside
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from what Seth I have to say looks great and I whatever you're doing on Zoom I I
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need to do it I need your team out he looks tan he's
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clear I can hear him I look like [ __ ] pie I don't know I shouldn't even be on this Zoom I you got to have the camera
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up we're going to talk later but but zeth has a little bit of scrub yeah a little scruff let me ask you a qu
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so you've just been for someone who's been working non-stop for 20 years at an extremely high level so the strike hits
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yes was this your longest break I mean you had pandemic breaks but then there were Zoom stuff but this was probably
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your longest break in like 20 years or something I mean yeah definitely because the pandemic we immediately went back to
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doing the show so I was alone but I was working yeah oh and so this was the only
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thing that was close was the last strike which was 100 day and this was you know 100 almost 150 so
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this was not the difference between this time and last time is I have three kids so it didn't really feel like a break I
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would say that my time was used very well and I did try to get out and do shows because I liked being in front of
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an audience but it was a very very strange long break from being also my
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the entirety of my career is has taking place in 30 Rock so it was weird to not be in this building how long do you do
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you not this is a good one how long do you not tell how long do you not tell your wife and kids there's a strike so
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you can just leave at a certain time in the day and just go to wherever you want and then they finally go wait you're not even going to work anymore you go all
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right I think I mean I think I could have made it a full month before certainly none of them watch the
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show so it wouldn't that that's great yeah are you
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amazed because I assume it's accelerated I don't know what your childhood was like but just how integrated the parent
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is with the child in modern parenting um I think it's just systemic and it's it's
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just environmental but yeah it's it's not like your dad or my dad there were five kids and we barely saw them do your
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yard work and get the hell out that kind of stuff everyone knows that but when you're home with three kids are they
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because you have three are they have an ecosystem of entertaining themselves they they're still a little young but
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the two boys so it's 75 and two and so the two they're they're kind of uh
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entertaining themselves a little bit the it was both good and bad that the strike fell during the summer because it was
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good because you know obviously that's a better time to not be going into an office and it was bad because they just
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didn't have school so they were just around the whole time and that's why I started multiple podcasts just to have a
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reason to tell them to be quiet Daddy's working all right now you have your podcast you have you have one solo and
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then you have the five teners yeah so I do I do uh one with my brother called
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family trips at the Myers brothers and yeah then strike five which we'll be wrapping up the strike basically ended
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because people collectively decided they didn't want our podcast to keep was that fact in who thought of the who thought
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of the name because it does it's it's py I don't know what you would call Strike Force five I mean it is I'm gonna guess
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all John Oliver no it was colar I think it was colar and it was originally just
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the name of our text chain that we started in the runup to the strike because we did want to make sure we were all on the same page knowing that it was
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likely to happen and so uh that was the name of the text Jan and then Kimmel had the idea for the podcast and we uh
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realized that it was we already had a very good name and you're the only 12:30 in the
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bunch right I'm the only 12:30 in the also thank you for saying 12:30 when in reality now I think it's 12:37 which is
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even more embarrassing to say when you tell somebody you're on a show that starts at 12:37 it sounds like why does
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that happen for the regular viewer I think it's about the Affiliates and station breaks and stuff and the local
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news and all really thrilling things but yeah it's all gotten pushed back a little bit do I mean the um when I
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watching your stuff on YouTube and you have these gigantic amount of hits and stuff it seems like I mean obviously
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it's looser at 12:30 it see if all things being equal it seems better to be
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doing your show at that time as far as more fun I I don't know the the
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financial part of it but it does seem just loose that one hour later you just
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got freedom right well yeah I think it also helps that you're on after and I don't think that uh Jimmy Fallon's not
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having fun I think he's having a lot of fun too but I think the Network's paying a great deal more attention to his show than our show and so that just gives you
00:14:20
the freedom to do what you want especially after the coid break where we didn't
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have audience we were just doing a show for almost 18 minutes without a live audience and we kind of kept using those
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instincts as we uh got the audience back and so the show's been very loose and very fun to do it's one of the reasons I
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you know didn't go back to wearing a suit is it just seemed like oh you know I'm gonna let people know when they tune in that we're we have a little bit more
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of a laid-back Vibe about what we're trying to get done here you're the fetman of the fman I was the first guy
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there I was the first guy although fedman makes me look like I'm in a tuxedo [Music] [Laughter]
00:15:02
so the uh the the stress of being the headwriter at SNL and all that and then when you when they approached you you
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could tell if if you have a Lauren uh to do this show you know you're you're the
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host and is it four nights a week yeah is is it easier or harder or you're still figuring out how compared to being
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the headwriter at SNL and in being in a lot of sketches I will say this was very hard when it started but it's easier now
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because unlike SNL where each week a different host comes in and completely changes the DNA of the week you we know
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every week we're trying to make our show and everybody here is sort of rowing in the same direction whereas the thing
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about SNL and especially being the head writers it just never got easier I think you maybe got a little bit better at it
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but the headaches that would come up on any given week you just couldn't get out in front of them there was never a way
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to you know make it uh foolproof it's almost impossible that it gets it stays as hard as it does but
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it does yeah and and you're also you feel like you're in service to an institution and you you don't want to
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sort of bch its Legacy and you're working for Lauren you know having to uh
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see Lauren every day is just in general harder than not having to see Lauren
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every day you know yeah because he can't be everywhere giving notes to everything
00:16:26
yes I mean I well we're in a very nice position where I mean I think also you know you guys uh have spoken of
00:16:33
Shoemaker you know with me and Shoemaker working on the show like we're two people that Lauren's sort of turned to a
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lot in our tenure at SNL and so I think he has a lot of confidence in us and and so we don't have to he doesn't feel the
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need to check in with us on a day-to-day level and you know how he thinks yes slowly and H and how he talks yes like
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when you're when when I was there and you're the head Rider I just noticed how just and I with Jim Downey too but you
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were just in involved in every sketch basically and overriding and doing and
00:17:02
just a funny little anecdote from me when I was hosting earlier I don't know it 98 or 2000 Tina was assigned to do
00:17:09
Church chat with me because Lauren you'll do Church chat you know he just tells you all right and then she would
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do the church lady when we were in the office writing and then 10 years later I'm doing it you're going to help me
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with it and then you would do a church L impression when you were writing jokes as a church
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and uh I don't want to say who did it better uh you're both great but uh that was you had a you had a very good ear
00:17:36
for the lady let's put it that way that was a real I mean there are many surreal things that happen in your time at that
00:17:42
show especially if you're someone who grew up watching the show but that uh is very high on the list uh spending that
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week with you where you know not only do we get to work on a a church chat but also a Wayne's World that was a real
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that was a real trip where uh I was definitely pinching myself the whole time
00:18:01
[Music] when you went back to host that they they have things they want you to do or
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well I had a very different time at the show than you Dana in that well you had your your update segments and all yeah
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that's about all I had I felt I will say I have no proof except for how late they
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asked me I do get the sense that someone dropped out Fallout Boy and then you know cuz I was like usually I feel like
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we knew the host before this Sunday night and can you run over here and be
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in 30 sketches and I you know I was doing this show we had to cancel a week of the show which was no big deal and I
00:18:40
was very excited to host I'd been gone I only think about three years but there was literally nothing I did that anybody
00:18:45
wanted to see me do again other than update and you know I did start as a cast member and sort of worked my way
00:18:52
into being a writer and the guy on update so they had already tried me in sketches and it had been
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experiment I felt I felt for the writing staff the week I came in who had to figure out a thing that had already been
00:19:07
tried and not figured out I had a Wonder did you just do an player sorry
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that he he came in to host and just an hour of update you'll do update good
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night do you came in as a feature or a full fledged cast member no I was a feature I started uh with Amy polar uh
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then Dean Edwards and and Jeff Richards were in my class and we were yeah we were featured I was featured for two
00:19:34
years and I had a real either first or second summer I had one of those like you're
00:19:39
you were they're not they're not picking you up yet you know one of those I know that too where they
00:19:46
basically I mean they are saying not gonna they haven't decided on you yet what they're gonna do is look at every
00:19:51
other funny person they're doing a tour of Second City The Improv yeah as long as they
00:19:58
don't find one person they like more you're good and when did you uh accelerate when did you take over the
00:20:05
show essentially I will I mean I I definitely benefited from Tina's
00:20:11
departure but I sort of I would say really sort of gutted through the first five and a half six years on the show
00:20:17
but when Tina left and again I was you know I wasn't at the rewrite table I was just a cast member and then Lauren
00:20:23
called me in and asked me if I wanted to be a writing supervisor for Tina last
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year and that was mean that's sort of like a right underneath the headwriter
00:20:33
so but I ran a table I was one of the people who ran a table okay and that was
00:20:39
the first time I felt like I had added any value to the show that they couldn't go find elsewhere the thing for me and
00:20:46
again I'm not being hard on myself but when I I wrote a lot of things for group
00:20:51
sketches where other people would be in them and the longer I was there the more really funny people showed up like P
00:20:58
Samberg sedus Forte Fred and they were this kind of guys every one of them could do my best move better than me and
00:21:05
so as a writer I would rather put bill haer in my sketch than me and so if I
00:21:11
felt that way I certainly knew the rest of the writing staff felt that way too so that was why it was very nice for me
00:21:18
to find my waya head writer and then of course update longest running update until Colin over these two guys yeah
00:21:27
yeah BW out of the water these two so you were there 12 years 13 years yeah
00:21:32
SNL 12 and a half years and first five tough and then you became head and then
00:21:37
update guy extraordinaire well I mean I felt very I felt at home then in a way that I if
00:21:45
late night hadn't popped up I didn't have really an exit strategy I was very in a way that probably wasn't good I
00:21:50
became content at SNL does Lauren have all what what does he have there he has
00:21:55
your studio which is called what nine or something we 8G 8G he has 8h it's got to
00:22:01
be some expensive real estate there does he have anything else was that Conan's Fallon's downstairs he's six all
00:22:08
right is that what he is yeah I was I was in 6A in 1981 doing your show uh sitcom with
00:22:16
Mickey Rooney and Nathan Lane one of the boys all right and I was in 6A in in
00:22:21
Rock aill Center for six months what a bummer there's no sitcoms in biry rock anymore that would be such a fun thing
00:22:27
to have was 30 Rock the sitc common 30 Rock no 30 Rock was it uh silver cup
00:22:33
yeah that's right oh is that in Queens yep we own a piece of that David if are
00:22:39
you're from Queens I'm from normal parents from someone's act um that was
00:22:44
crowd work when I was doing stand up that was a good line so when you um I could ask you a
00:22:52
lot of different questions one is uh how did day drinking come about I mean cuz that is that is
00:22:58
unbelievably your day drinking but the sketch day drinking the segment sketch where zth goes with celebrities and they
00:23:06
get kind of drunk it's incredibly entertaining it's like to watch yeah it
00:23:15
is you know it the interesting thing is I think having the Late Night show and uh you know having watched a lot of
00:23:22
Conan uh uh certainly when I was in college and the man on the street stuff that Conan did I aspired to do that as
00:23:29
well and I had so much anxiety being in public uh doing the show and that lack
00:23:34
of control and and knowing you had to sort of find it as opposed to have it planned ahead of time it's all edited
00:23:40
yeah you got to you got to shoot eight hours to get like one segment yes and you have to talk to and for every funny
00:23:46
person you find what the audience doesn't see is the eight weirdos where it was sort of aggressive or strange or
00:23:51
or just dry and uh with day drinking uh I sort of drink away my anxiety about it
00:23:57
like anybody with sort of a you know social anxiety and it becomes a lot more
00:24:03
fun and we actually don't have to cut it down as much as you'd think but the first time I did it was with my brother
00:24:08
and we just thought it would be a fun thing to do because I like doing stuff with my brother and it was Retta uh the wonderful actress comedian said oh I
00:24:15
want to do that and we never thought it would be a thing we would do with guests but because Rea did it and it was so much fun we kind of got more people
00:24:22
signed on and now well you know people ask all the time to do it and we have to be a little bit we try to be a little uh
00:24:30
uh what's the word cautious with how often we do it because it is I am drinking an amount that as I get older I
00:24:35
probably should not do often how do you keep up with some of these there's a couple guys I won't say who but I'm sure
00:24:41
they could drink you under the table no the only person the only person who I
00:24:47
think left me in the dust was Rihanna because at the end of that she
00:24:52
definitely was going out like that was like the beginning of her night and it was a most assuredly the end of mine so
00:25:00
nobody's driving because it's New York so there's no it's New York so everybody's safe and sound that's good
00:25:06
that's a weird bit that I can't believe people do and it's a a great what's hot sauce one on YouTube you do hot sauce
00:25:12
hot Ones hot you guys done hot ones I I will not do hot ones that's a compelling
00:25:18
uh I did hot ones I think it's wonderful I think that guy's a really good interviewer and I think the hotter the
00:25:24
wings get the less you're capable of editing your own answers so it's very it's very smart because
00:25:30
you're in pain and so the anxiety is supplanted with with Agony genuine pain
00:25:36
oh yeah I don't I I it's funny because most of my interviews I just want to like have a nice
00:25:41
time you're very you're an outlier I'm so weird uh oh you know I saw Dana I'll
00:25:49
tell Seth you'll like this I did a show at Town Hall the other night when this airs in 2026 uh we'll just say but I did
00:25:58
Town Hall it was great and um who's who comes back Kenny aong did he really yeah
00:26:04
isn't that great he was in the audience he I think I was talking about something
00:26:10
we talked about in the show we mentioned him a lot and then I emailed him and then he said I heard you coming to town David and I said yeah he go I'd love to
00:26:17
come with the wife so I got him in half price took care of him and uh he came in
00:26:22
then then he came back after he was hesitant to he said he don't want to bother me and then he came back exactly
00:26:28
Kenny aong super fun we talked about that Shen Connor thing that I said I
00:26:33
said how much of what I say on the show is a lie what do you think what's the percentage and he said you got the C
00:26:38
kind of went a little wrong and I go oh he still has the picture yeah now I will
00:26:43
I will admit David when I heard you tell that on your show I knew you were a little wrong because Kenny had told me that story so many I'm telling you I you
00:26:50
know you remember something back whatever it wasn't that far off so we talked about it so there was she did rip
00:26:56
up the picture that part was true I saw that yeah and then I walked out uh I
00:27:02
picked up a piece that's true I kept it he never got it back from me is one
00:27:07
problem he said he said he brought me in and said I heard you have piece and I said yes because I was bragging to the
00:27:13
office and then he said we're going to need it back and I guess I didn't give it back and then he there was a legal
00:27:19
problem he tried to get it back from a current affair then he got it and then he said uh then he kept it he had it for
00:27:25
Joe peshi monologue I guess they still didn't have my piece I don't know what I was thinking I was terrified of my job
00:27:31
why why in God's green earth did I not bring it back in and he said it wasn't a very important piece it was a lot of
00:27:36
like white and I okay relax it's important it was a good solid piece and then he has it now and Lauren ask him
00:27:43
for it and he said no yeah Lauren asked him for it for that touring sort of SNL uh Museum exhibit they were doing and uh
00:27:51
and good old Kenny shot him down and I will say you know who shot Kenny probably but that's the thing and I by
00:27:57
by the way Kenny got you know Kenny had to Bear the brunt of Lauren's Whimsy for
00:28:03
the entire run he was at the show the amount of time I sat there when we would do picks on you know Wednesday night and
00:28:09
Lauren wouldn't be able to choose between two and he look at Kenny and say you know can we do both and Kenny would be like we we don't have the space
00:28:15
Lauren we physically don't have the space and Lauren's like you'll figure it out and just like poor Kenny would have
00:28:20
to like go of course he did seem an I mean such a nice guy but he didn't seem
00:28:26
his eyes were wide open and he was on the move during show week you could tell that he was trying to Fig he was the guy
00:28:32
getting everything done he was the guy getting everything done but I will say cuz he did look like he's the way you
00:28:38
wanted a guy in a control room for a live TV show to look arms crossed you
00:28:44
know just worry lines but when a show was over and Kenny took you aside and
00:28:49
told you he loved a sketch you done that meant more than almost anybody because
00:28:54
you realized that for for it to actually break through his wall of anxiety and bring him any Joy it had to be a a
00:29:01
genuinely funny piece of comic and he's seen 2,000 million shows what was the hardest thing you ever felt that you
00:29:06
landed there uh would it be a certain uh update piece or a sketch or I wrote the
00:29:12
Amy Tina a Palin Clinton sketch and that's the hardest anything played in the room you know and and that was great
00:29:19
because I didn't have any performance anxiety about it I I had sort of written this thing that was then in the hands of
00:29:24
these two incredible performers so that is one of the few times in my run at the show where I just sort of stood on the
00:29:31
floor knowing that it would go great and just got to sort of bask in that
00:29:36
reaction the other thing about it because it was just an inone you know I think sometimes when you write something
00:29:42
on the show your fear after it plays great at dress isn't that the actors
00:29:47
will get it wrong but maybe Lauren made you cut something you're just worried about the shot being late because again
00:29:53
it's not the director's fault but they're calling these shots so fast and I was always so frustrated when a sketch
00:29:59
went great at dress if anybody wanted to make a change because well the audience was tough you don't know what's going to
00:30:04
happen or it's after following something and something for some reason it steps on some jokes and you're like oh my God
00:30:10
I never saw that com if you if something kills a dress and then it bomb a line of yours in in an ensemble piece and then
00:30:17
later on you find out that you didn't step into the light or it was turned away so the camera wasn't on you yeah
00:30:22
and you realize later well it wasn't my fault you know yeah it's that's the torture of no but when it works like did
00:30:29
you sit with um Tina did you know she had a really great impression in Rhythm
00:30:35
and also sort of a lookalike element did you sit with her a little bit and then write the sketch or you just assumed she
00:30:41
would do it I think that was that was the first one and in the subsequent ones
00:30:47
uh we we worked on them more together but she was doing 30 Rock at the time so there wasn't like there wasn't a lot of
00:30:52
free time in her schedule I think people forget that she wasn't a full cast member at the time she was juggling
00:30:58
those two things and then once it became what it became I me again I think we only did six but I think we did you know
00:31:04
in sort of a n week period um she and I both had this fear that they would get
00:31:09
worse and and somebody would say they were getting worse so we kind of uh redoubled our efforts to keep it um good
00:31:17
and that was where you know not just Tina as a performer but having Tina as a writer on those was uh was invaluable um
00:31:23
I I can see Russia from my house but now I got to own it up you know who wrote
00:31:28
that line Lauren Shoemaker Shoemaker Shoemaker really Shaker oh that's a
00:31:35
great prop to give shoe taker Shoemaker was heart it was it was heartbreaking because we were it was um Saturday
00:31:41
morning and we're all at the update table where we're sort of picking the jokes so we get in we would get in I
00:31:47
think at 11:30 on Saturday morning and start going through the update jokes and I had the sketch out and was just going
00:31:53
through it one last time and uh sort of asking the room room for jokes and uh
00:31:59
Shoemaker said um I can see Russia from my house and it was just you immediately
00:32:04
knew oh that's the best line and that'll be the one get going forever oh godamn what a short concise perfect it's
00:32:11
perfect perfect comedy writing the thing about um political Impressions is that
00:32:16
the the audience still is coming on to the person so like Sarah palen walked
00:32:21
out the Republican convention first time everyone saw her I don't know how soon after you guys did that but it seemed
00:32:28
like as the season went on she kept doing Meet the Press or whatever she was doing and so the audience was getting
00:32:34
more and more familiar so probably they I remember them all Landing really hard at least that's of the the pal Palin was
00:32:42
like Ross perau I always say to people a fully formed Comic
00:32:48
character uh just coming right out of the box you didn't have to go not got to do it or try to find a way to make it
00:32:53
funny yeah and so that it was it's great when great writing meets a great
00:32:58
performance and then the the the moment for Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live
00:33:03
it's like a peak moment on the history of SNL I think very true yeah and then
00:33:09
there are other times where it's it's uh me playing John K where none of those things happen there was
00:33:17
no there was no way I mean John Cary just that you know there's not that much
00:33:24
tough to get a hook yeah um I had a line he looked like the the tree from The
00:33:31
Wizard of art so I would just do that and say that's John Cary are you saying my apples don't you know that I you just
00:33:37
make up something but no he was which is good which is like that's a very good like standup approach but with this when
00:33:44
you have to do a guy for six sketches it just you run out of move I mean you start with no moves and you run out and
00:33:50
it's funny because I remember during the Palin year there was a lot of press around SNL and I would do interviews and
00:33:56
and people would say it just seems like every election year SNL comes alive and I would say not
00:34:02
every not every you 20 start with nothing and it runs out from there well
00:34:07
also you know George W Bush was funny and Will was will there in 2004 still or
00:34:13
someone else took it over will no will was gone so was Will Forte was doing that was a funny so NE he and I could
00:34:19
find no purchase at that point that was I mean I think six five people did Bush
00:34:25
after uh and again you're following a guy who his
00:34:31
his Bush was almost as much feral as bu right once you once somebody identifies
00:34:36
the hooks then yeah it's hard to stay away and election Bush was sort of a
00:34:43
more likable Bush before you're doing you know Iraq you know Iraq war Bush
00:34:50
which is then like people don't like him and they also miss will frell there was a lot stacked up against you when you were trying to do it and then you come
00:34:56
in with with Carrie did did anybody Jim j Downey give you any kind of catchr yeah Downey was Downey was helpful and
00:35:03
uh I mean Downey and and and I'm John KY I mean I don't have a clue how to do that Daryl Hammond was also would come
00:35:11
and try to help but it wasn't uh you know that's like it's a weird like like
00:35:17
Daryl Hammond trying to help somebody like me with an impression would be like um LeBron James trying to teach me how
00:35:22
to dunk like you dunk like this he' be like yeah but I don't I don't have any of those Hearts yeah well wait a minute
00:35:29
you're Hugh Grant passable also you you have a passing
00:35:35
resemblance to Hugh Grant that's what helps passing no but you had I know well
00:35:41
it's a podcast you could do it or not but you I think you have one of the best ones no no frankly frankly
00:35:49
sorry that was it that was just a guy could but I did audition with it I I did audition with hug Grant so I have a a
00:35:56
special place in my my heart uh for you just do that much and you get Applause and that's about that was in and out
00:36:01
people don't know that you get a sign like their Spade you're going to be this and this and then you've got like an hour before R but it doesn't mean you're
00:36:08
doing a good impression it's means you're going to rely on hair makeup and an outfit and then get something close
00:36:15
and just get through a [Music]
00:36:21
sketch whose idea was Dylan and Tom Petty for you guys uh us was that you I
00:36:28
did Tom Petty when I was in I did Dylan at update he'd done a concert he had the
00:36:33
hat and he was I think Bonnie Turner might have and Terry may have suggested that I
00:36:39
think probably because they knew can't believe someone remember it it was a
00:36:45
very memorable it sort of seared in my mind the uh the cut to the two shot of you
00:36:51
because you had such that your facial position for Tom Petty was so funny he
00:36:57
does stand so he owned that he was already sounds weird he sounds like
00:37:03
Dylan a funny two shot just a look the look again that's a classic example a look is funny well they were it was also
00:37:09
the sort of uh it was Apex Petty look right those like little glasses a lot of
00:37:15
hat work was going on for both guys so I had I took that hat from who worked the
00:37:21
valet at the Marriott Marquee in downtown and it was a I had
00:37:26
that half forever D Dylan was easy to do a hacky Dylan but you know I Don't Have
00:37:32
you listened to Dylan lately on his albums and stuff which I love old Dylan
00:37:38
but it's very different soon after midnight I have a date with the fair Queen you know but then it was just hey
00:37:46
you know all that 60 stuff uh not my best moment but thanks for bringing it up zeth do you know have you seen that
00:37:52
photo that floats around the internet every year uh that posts of photo of the traveling wibes and how old they were
00:37:58
when they were in the traveling wildberries and it's heartbreaking how like just so young I think Roy Orbison
00:38:04
was the oldest and he was maybe like 42 42 I know they say that Golden Girls
00:38:09
were all 26 that's true that's true a lot of there a lot of hair makeup working there
00:38:14
Carol o Conor when he did All in the Family was 15 he looked like [ __ ] there were two
00:38:21
other guys there were two other guys in his suit said I did it my way he was
00:38:27
I go little early Frank okay live a little more life before you go everyone
00:38:32
everyone's living longer and everyone's getting it's not so
00:38:37
terrifying to be I guess I mean you always think you look like [ __ ] and then 10 years later you're like oh I looked
00:38:43
great back then yeah it's you just know however bad you look now it's going to be great yeah we're we're stacked like a
00:38:51
decade apart without putting numbers down so it is kind of funny if they Side Story
00:38:57
it's 10 years later and then it's 10 years later and then we go to but I look to Keith Richards you know quit smoking
00:39:04
at 80 and he feels great um you know a lot of my heroes like uh Heroes whatever
00:39:11
you know Jack Nicholson Redford all these people Jane fond are in their mid 80s
00:39:18
now it's the weirdest I mean of those guys you just said it is um Jane Fonda
00:39:23
looks outstanding yes and uh I do want give a shout out to how well um that uh
00:39:29
that that person is aged just exception as a performer Frankie and gra was so really yeah I just did something with uh
00:39:37
Christy Brinkley and unsurprisingly she's stunning yeah 69 don't people want to
00:39:43
instead of would you rather have someone say oh uh he's he's looking really good for his age or he's hot would you like
00:39:49
to be called hot still David oh Spade he's hot but from a woman I never got
00:39:54
that ever so yeah I'll take [ __ ] any scraps you got how would you like to be described Seth Seth is I reached the age
00:40:01
and this is not this has not come from a place of self-doubt but I have reached the age where if someone said I was hot
00:40:07
I would think something is wrong with them you know what I mean whereas good you look good for your age I could take
00:40:13
as a sort of value judgment that I can put in my pocket and feel good about but you look hot I think what most people do
00:40:20
is compare themselves to the stepdad on stepdad porn and just see how you look you know compare just looks wise not
00:40:26
wiener wise anyway we're going to look at a clip stepdad porn I knew I just won $1,000 that was going to be mentioned
00:40:33
during this thank you know I was getting into it going I gota I don't shouldn't I do
00:40:39
that I shouldn't do also I'm I'm almost certain no one searches for it by that
00:40:44
you know I think they might I think I would imagine you lean in the stepdaughter when you in the search bar
00:40:50
but that's that's nether here uh you know what mother daughter porn is not mother daughter I mean in a perfect
00:40:57
world but it's uh it's actually just actresses they have an anenu and a grizzled vet anyway let's look at a clip
00:41:05
by the way uh who also that grizzled vet probably younger than Roy orbon or grizzled vet in porn is like 36 they're
00:41:13
like i' I've done three million films uh did you guys ever do a porn related
00:41:18
sketch because nean and I did one ridiculous I think it bombed the porn related sketch on SN uh oh man I there
00:41:27
were definitely some in my time I'm trying to think if I worked on any of them but I don't think so Neil and I
00:41:33
were like in barber chairs with our shirts off and we were porn stars and people were working on manscaping or
00:41:42
Cur and it was like yeah put a little fence down there make it nice for the people fluff it up it was all this
00:41:48
abstract that's all we had it bombed here and it bombed then um the one that was great uh in my
00:41:55
era that I had nothing to do with was uh Vanessa beay and CES strong were former porn stars who would do commercials for
00:42:02
like sworski sparski crystals yeah and it was always they would always pronounce the the the name wrong and uh
00:42:10
they were really deaded their performance was was charmingly dead eyed charmingly
00:42:16
porish yeah and and they're both U just such funny performers but that was those sketches really were really M me yeah
00:42:23
there's so does that answer your question Dana well Keen had the best answer about who's
00:42:28
the greatest cast you know Everyone likes to make rankings for albums and
00:42:34
everything and he said the women all all theen answer because when when nor Dum
00:42:40
was there and Jan Hooks and Victoria Jack there was it was much more malale dominated uh some of it is because of
00:42:47
men in politics so forth and so on J Sweeny but then it seems starting with Sher o Terry or Vanessa and others and
00:42:55
then it kept building into you know I just Tina and Amy and
00:43:02
Maya yeah we had Tina Amy Maya and wig that's like crazy to have those four in
00:43:10
a cast together yes and dra was there
00:43:15
for funny yeah there was um yeah there was a real sense that um in those era
00:43:24
that era there was there was literally nothing they couldn't do and and sort of
00:43:30
late in the week and then you add Bill haer and sedus and Fred armers and and
00:43:35
Will Forte you know that era that you straddled um I don't know killer I would
00:43:42
say that like to that when you know we're talking about that uh you know the Sarah pal stuff like the cast um at that
00:43:48
time with Tina sort of coming back and popping in was uh was definitely the strongest top and it was small you know
00:43:55
one of the things and I feel bad you know I'm obviously happy for them that they're all on SNL but you know
00:44:00
sometimes when the cast gets to 20 people it's really hard for people to break through and we were only about 10
00:44:06
or 11 at one point and that was a really nice that's rare because we got big in ours and and to have it go backwards is
00:44:13
very rare they usually add yeah we had seven so everybody got to be on the show
00:44:19
a lot the birds got fed how do you get relaxed on the show how do you get good on the show without being on the show so
00:44:25
you're right when it's 20 and you have cast members don't blame them why leave something that you're brilliant at
00:44:31
staying 10 12 13 years people are on the junior varsity you know for so long but
00:44:38
I guess it's just just the way it is you know that because I think part of it is
00:44:44
you do sometimes just need to get assigned a thing or two a week where you
00:44:50
get the rep without having to necessarily kill you know those big political sketches where you get thrown
00:44:57
you know the you know some Senator at a panel and you have a few hours but you just get in front of the camera and you
00:45:03
get to learn cards and other people are going to have the big laughs and people watching at home want to find those new
00:45:10
people they can root for and they have to see you in order to root for you and you get the butterflies out of the way
00:45:16
because they always come but at least you get a feel for how sickening it is to actually walk 10 ft on camera and
00:45:22
turn your turn the face of camera you go oh my God it's is horrible the other thing Danny you know when you
00:45:28
do it and especially at the beginning you just do your bit and get some laughs and you walk off and everyone's doing
00:45:35
their job and you're standing in the hallway going did like five million people just see that I don't even know I'm just yeah I never really would think
00:45:42
about it went out live it's over so zth I want to ask you two things in a minute whether you would ever uh become the
00:45:49
executive producer of the show because your name's been tossed around and one is my theories about the longevity and
00:45:56
there's probably 10 metrics to this but one is when you see an athlete or an actor try to do Live sketch comedy
00:46:02
you're watching a reality show and then when you see people who are never heard
00:46:07
of them never seen them they're just coming on SNL and you're watching them get their big break is another reality
00:46:13
show so that's I don't know if it's Whoever thought of the show but it when
00:46:18
SNL has a bad show like say a football player is bombing or whatever yeah it's
00:46:24
still really compelling and that's kind of not I mean a bad show for me watching it is pretty compelling
00:46:31
because watching the cast member know it's bad but holding up the the you know
00:46:37
so why do you why do you think 50 years I'm I'm sure you're asked all the time I
00:46:42
am well I it's interesting because I think that even though it's compelling people would still criticize the show
00:46:48
for being bad the week that a athlete was bad or you know an actor ate it but
00:46:53
I will say a few years after I left there's this really funny writer on the show who's not there anymore either Mike
00:46:59
O'Brien and Mike and I were back sitting in an office and the current writers were complaining about how bad the host
00:47:07
was that week and it was a major movie star who was sort of being impossible
00:47:12
and they were all in such a bad mood but their stories were so funny about this person's behavior and we said look the
00:47:19
good news is this like when you leave the show you will talk about the disaster week so much more
00:47:26
than the weeks that were great because it just so much funnier to remember how terrible someone was so even though I
00:47:32
feel bad for the audience when they watch a terrible week just know that the writing staff and the cast will be able
00:47:39
to dine out on that week for years yes in a good way I mean Marcy Klein when
00:47:44
she was on I guess at times she had to like the host was having a nervous breakdown at like 11:15 I can't I can't
00:47:51
make it and she had to go talk to didn't want to give us names because you know
00:47:56
but um the drama behind that show forget the funniness just the drama I don't
00:48:03
know how many nights I'm sure you had this experience thatw I don't know if it's going to make it tonight it seems
00:48:08
like such a [ __ ] show and now it's like almost 11 when we're going into Lauren's office 50 of us jammed in to get notes
00:48:16
and we're on in 28 minutes and you keep your bald cap on it's like a feny ass
00:48:21
thing people have their their cold opening fake nose on I mean it's just it's surreal I feel so I retroactively
00:48:29
feel so terrible about you know cuz I think being a writer on the show you sometimes forget how human the cast is
00:48:37
because Lauren will give you you know again like you said at 11:20 Lauren finally lets you out of the office and
00:48:43
you're making changes to a cold open that's going to be on TV in 10 minutes and then the times that I would run up
00:48:48
to somebody like Bill hater who the minute he started on the show we started leaning on him for things like
00:48:55
impressions uh you know hosts of news shows which would often be the framing of the cold
00:49:01
open and so here's hater doing an impression of somebody he didn't even know existed last week and you're running up to him at 11:24 saying hey
00:49:08
this Line's different this Line's different this Line's different and you just you're treating him almost like uh you know a computer program and assuming
00:49:14
he's going to be able to like process the information and deliver it because that's how it looks because ultimately he was so good at it he would always
00:49:22
make you have more confidence in him week after week after week and then you forget these years later oh my God the anxiety we were putting on that person
00:49:29
who had to actually be the one who was on camera doing that job I mean you had to do it your whole time on the show Dana like the amount you probably
00:49:34
started the show with cold opens um I I can't I had a weird trajectory because I came in with Phil
00:49:42
and Jan Hooks and Kevin nean and so forth and then I was just happened
00:49:47
happened to be in the first sketch Madonna did the cold opening on my first show apologizing for the 85 season like
00:49:54
it never existed so then it was me Phil Hartman Jan Hooks in a game show where I was a game show
00:50:01
psychic I knew the answer before Phil would asked the question you know that kind of thing and then and that killed
00:50:07
you know because Phil was so great and Jan and I was riding that wave and then I I did Church chat uh with Sigourney
00:50:14
Weaver up and then I did chop broccoli so I came in I had so much [ __ ] my ex
00:50:21
manager went to the Stars Brad gray came into my office at like 11 20 same kind
00:50:26
of thing and he talked like this he goes I don't know why I don't know why but
00:50:31
just show it's just show tonight I don't know why it happened but it just laid out that way and uh it's very true it
00:50:39
can go any way forced into that and I was using things for my standup which
00:50:44
was helpful I knew where the hooks were but the nerves handling the terror and
00:50:50
the nerves like your first would you remember your first time you're like really crazy nervous cuz a sketch was
00:50:56
leaning on you or you're doing something an update cuz an update you're talking and then the your chair pivots when
00:51:03
you're a guest on update and you're kind of thrown out there that's an interesting Vibe as well yeah I was
00:51:09
lucky the first update I did that landed I got to talk as myself I got to be Seth
00:51:14
Meers and I was talking it was uh I was a Red Sox fan which is true and so sometimes when you write from truth it's
00:51:20
a little bit easier and it was about how I hated the Yankees my whole life but
00:51:25
because of 911 I was rooting for the Yankees to win the World Series but since Red Sox fans never get what they
00:51:31
want I had to root against the Yankees in order for them to win the and so it was just it it made sense to me I'd
00:51:37
written it myself it felt like a piece you would do stand up and I remember that went great and I walked off and not
00:51:44
to keep calling back Shoemaker but Shoemaker met me and I've been given him [ __ ] about this for 20 years he goes it'll never go that well ever again was
00:51:52
like Hey I thought I'd take a Victory lap but he was you know the reality is he wanted to remind me and probably I
00:51:59
don't know if you felt like you needed that reminder because that's such a monster for a show that scorny Weaver show like it must have been crazy the
00:52:05
second week where you realized oh oh it's it doesn't get like the last week
00:52:10
doesn't lead to the next no no I was barely in the show I think I did Casey kasm for 30 seconds and I think Lauren
00:52:16
saw me at the party and kind of patted in her shoulder it it goes up and down week to week you just keep Brad gray
00:52:23
11:20 this isn't your week this is your showard fell I want to uh just cuz you
00:52:29
mentioned her I want to tell my favorite Marcy story which is the promos you know uh the famous SNL like hey this week I'm
00:52:35
the host and you're gonna be seeing and um Marcy had I had to go with Marcy into the host room uh to tell them
00:52:43
about the promo and uh she handed this stack of promos and the host read them all and said none of these are funny and
00:52:50
uh Marcy just took the whole stack and said well in that case I'll throw them in the garbage
00:52:55
and just and just dropped them in the garbage in front of the host and walked out and I I didn't know we were allowed
00:53:01
to talk to the host like that I was in charge of promos for two years it's the roughest job it's the
00:53:08
most thankless garbage job but you get to meet the host yeah um uh Shoemaker
00:53:14
has a a few uh promos that Farley wrote in his office that are really yeah that
00:53:21
are really funny and unusable it will not surprise you they are unusable to there for those and they come down David
00:53:27
I wrote some because he go they sometimes go up the writing room and go everybody kick in a few [ __ ] promos stop for a second we need something and
00:53:33
then I'd gather them and go down and then uh there's a couple stink bombs in there from Farley I think he'd write
00:53:38
himself in some of them too but they would also throw in Casper you know they say hey bring Chris down
00:53:44
or bring in you know whoever they thought was funny that week to do a promo with the host my my worst host
00:53:51
dressing room was uh Mick Jagger wanted just a first joke in his
00:53:57
monologue and so Melanie and I had a piece of paper where we'd written 15
00:54:04
jokes that we collected from the writing staff about that he could say is his first joke and our plan was just to go back
00:54:10
and forth and uh I uh melany read the
00:54:15
first one and MC Jagger didn't laugh and he goes what's the next one and M handed me the his paper and I read him the
00:54:22
second one and he didn't laugh and he goes what's the next one and I handed it back to meany and there were very clearly 15 on it and John goes that is
00:54:31
all we have because we just realized we put our favorite two first and the fact that the
00:54:37
had broken like it's only going to get worse let's just us all the the embarrassment and then you just kind of
00:54:43
walked out or see you later man yeah we just kind of walked out and and said you know let's just go back to the drawing
00:54:48
board I think it's very clear that we don't have the answer on these pages did you ever find something that he landed
00:54:54
and you remember it no I bet if we go back and watch the monologue from that show the answer is no God yeah so there
00:55:02
is that thing which I know is a bummer to here which is sometimes you just it's
00:55:08
sometimes it is hey it's so great to be here like you just have to start saying words and and let the audience know yeah
00:55:15
that this show is we would I mean the first update joke is very rarely the best update joke almost because you're
00:55:20
just trying to like pull the focus in s and get people to pay attention think that the guest hosts that do uh Q&A from
00:55:28
the audience is maybe one of the more fail safe uh I love a Q&A from the audience
00:55:34
you have all those different flavors and you get you get the cast to [ __ ] act like they're in the audience I think I
00:55:40
wrote one for uh Walkin where he had written
00:55:46
questions he wanted the audience to ask him that's funny that was my where do
00:55:51
you buy your pudding sorry read the one I told you instructed you to read before
00:55:57
he exposes it right away monolog solo Venture well that's why they call him
00:56:04
mono one just making it up I wrote a sketch for him my first or second year and I
00:56:11
was a sketch called pranksters which I'm still pretty proud of and it was one of those sketches that killed at the table
00:56:17
and then we got in the rewrite room and because it had kill the table everybody had a lot of ideas sometimes you can
00:56:22
overwrite it and so then we bring it out and we're rehearsing with Walkin and we
00:56:28
get like two pages into the new version and he just stops he goes you ruined
00:56:34
it he goes you got to go back to the way it was and and we did and mean it was
00:56:40
and it worked great but he was right we got it's that thing of sometimes you know you can overwrite you can think you joke on a joke on a joke it's no
00:56:50
good all right before we let Seth go Dana ask him is this normal is this a
00:56:55
normal amount of time I don't want to cut you short I have just one question for him but do you have one David well I
00:57:00
was going to see who who we who he thinks might want to take over who can handle that job if if anyone I don't
00:57:05
think anybody can handle that job and I'm being genuine yeah don't you think it's it's a oneman it's a onean there's
00:57:11
only one man there's only one man for the job if you really think about the lanes that Lauren has to fill um it's
00:57:20
it's pretty big and how he resisted oh it's got to go to one hour
00:57:25
it should be more pre-tapes or you need a new theme for the band so this was decades anytime there was a dip in the
00:57:31
show he had a um you know the corporate trust whatever Universal now whoever he
00:57:37
had to talk to and he held it steady and now you think God isn't it brilliant
00:57:42
that it just stayed branded identical that's why everyone we've talked to on this podcast everyone's had the same
00:57:49
experience the same tiny room the a ag all of it so yeah
00:57:56
it also no I think it's different no um I think the other part that people forget
00:58:02
is that Lauren's status as a icon is incredibly
00:58:07
important based on every host that go through those doors because everyone knows who he is and because of that
00:58:15
everyone from all walks of entertainment or politics or Sports trusts him and it
00:58:21
only works if the host trusts him and if it was some body else you know look it could be you know it could be somebody
00:58:27
who who maybe worked on the show before or maybe was a successful producer somewhere else but no one's going to have that cultural currency with every
00:58:34
single person who comes in there and also they don't act up the host because they go this is a guy just the respect
00:58:42
of 50 years and so if it's someone new they know they sort of outrank them yeah
00:58:48
like they do in a movie set or something so they can sort of get away with their Shenanigans yeah because he knows everybody's seen it all and the unlap
00:58:54
able Lauren character which he cultivated part of his comic Persona
00:59:00
that he would never panic and in the first year he was out there with the my first few shows he'd had a glasses
00:59:05
Chardonnay on ADH this Show's going on in between sketches oh this has to breathe so I guess he has a calming
00:59:13
effect to a host you'll do this and it'll be great you're going to be happy at the party and you know he's very good
00:59:20
at public relations it's also I I think when I hosted at this point
00:59:25
I feel like I knew Lauren as well as you could know him and I remember right
00:59:31
before sketch he sort of walked over and I thought oh this is going to be this new experience with Lauren I'm
00:59:37
GNA find out what is it that he says to hosts right before sketches start because that's the one thing I'd never
00:59:43
been privy to despite all the time I and he walked over and he said some version
00:59:49
of and just walked away like literally barely a word just just a sort of a
00:59:56
nod and I was like that is part of his you know part of his enduring uh you know talents in this
01:00:04
field is is sometimes knowing uh when not to say anything and I think very few people have it in in in power in Show
01:00:11
Business very people know um how how sometimes saying less is more uh this sketch has to
01:00:17
breathe that's right before you're starting Seth let's not [ __ ] this up I I
01:00:23
this is one of my my last show because I stayed through about halfway through uh
01:00:28
my last season before I left and I wrote it was the Super Bowl episode and I wrote a
01:00:34
sketch uh for Melissa McCarthy where she had ordered a bunch of wings for Super Bowl party and they it was very obvious
01:00:41
there was no one at her house but she was pretending she was pretending to yell at people off camera to explain why she had these like three trains chcken
01:00:47
wings and um I was under the bleachers with Lauren and it just it just played
01:00:54
to silence oh and uh and Lauren when it was over looked at me goes um and again
01:00:59
this is my last show and I I'd been there you know 12 and a half years was a long time and he looked at me and goes
01:01:04
what am I going to do without you
01:01:09
just that's it great yeah I also my favorite uh I think my
01:01:16
favorite uh under the bleachers uh it's a love it story when you hosted Dana love its came to the show do you
01:01:22
remember that yeah you need me and uh he it was it was a it was such a dream uh
01:01:28
in the same way that it was a dream to spend a week working and writing uh with Dana and also let me let me note uh Sean
01:01:35
Penn Celebrity Roast was a sketch I wrote when you were there uh SP that was I own Wilson you were Owen Wilson that
01:01:42
is a a real feather in my cap as well great one it was a great one but um love
01:01:47
it uh walked underneath the bleachers right before the show started goes started shaking all the hands goes
01:01:53
John Lovitz John litz John litz then he turned to Lauren and went and you are that's perfect he loved his favorite
01:02:01
thing dinging Laur in the you know when you pitch ideas you know for an hour on Monday and the host is sitting there and
01:02:08
everyone's pitching and then uh the very end John would always go Lauren what are
01:02:14
your ideas you know I go John why are you trying to disturb our our boss my uh
01:02:22
I was there for will final show cuz we overlap for one year and the last pitch
01:02:29
will brought in an old typewriter and every time while people
01:02:35
pitched he was typing as if it was his job to write them all down and it was this really loud typewriter so people
01:02:41
would pitch and like and you know there's so few laughs and pitch on some so just as really loud
01:02:49
and he would go and will went last um at pitch and it went all the way around and
01:02:54
then Lauren Show's will and will just basically like rolls up the paper on the
01:03:00
way you do on typ and then he just very quietly reads
01:03:06
through everything he typed and he said no I think we're good and uh see I never
01:03:11
got that comfortable to do something but I love that will has that looseness to
01:03:17
him to just do that you know yeah I I was just the show always had some
01:03:23
anxiety to it yeah that idea I've never yeah a bit in
01:03:29
Lauren's uh room in front of the host you don't know yeah that would be hard so zth
01:03:36
you're going back um you're gonna do the show it's yeah I don't know when when
01:03:42
this will air but we will be back doing shows again I'm gonna start in a couple days the craziest just for a sec the
01:03:48
craziest uh political environment ever uh I think I mean they say every time
01:03:55
but say kind of the craziest so how are you look forward to it how are you going to manage it I mean you do the closer
01:04:01
looks you do your comedy yeah I mean it's really nice because the closer look is this thing that we sort of built that
01:04:07
can kind of hold anything and so we don't need any one kind of news to know
01:04:12
we have a show we sort of have this bucket that we can fill with whatever we want and I would certainly rather live
01:04:18
in in boring times don't get me wrong but it is processing the anxiety is easy
01:04:24
with a show than just walking around muttering to myself in the streets so I'm happy to be back with other people
01:04:29
that uh also think it's [ __ ] crazy one of my writers s Gentile who's who
01:04:35
writes a closer look described our show as uh written for and by the formerly Sayan and we try
01:04:43
to keep that as as the way we approach things how are you I mean because everything is like we have these two
01:04:48
horses in the race Trump and he's got his indictments and he's Trump and then we have Biden who even in the Washington
01:04:55
Post New York Times They kind of going um uh what's uh hello uh is everything
01:05:01
okay over there you know so how do you navigate that have you done a closer look on current Biden because when he
01:05:08
first came out I didn't really know how to get an angle on him at all but now
01:05:13
he's more interesting yeah it's really it's sort of dayto day but I think that as we get
01:05:18
closer and we get more into you know um debate
01:05:25
yeah I mean obviously it kind of goes without saying it'll be him and so there won't be a situation where we have um
01:05:32
you know uh it's obviously not going to be a Democratic primary season and it was interesting for us last time but
01:05:37
then fascinating how quickly it became a Biden show I thought that we were going to have 10 Democratic candidates and it
01:05:43
would go on until the very you know I certainly thought it would be a super Tuesday situation it was nuts that it was sort of over by South Carolina so we
01:05:49
have that sort of then takes your focus on it because there you know Biden other than um you know uh the general he
01:05:56
hasn't been a part of a horse race for for years and and back when he was in horse races he was never close enough to
01:06:01
be considered uh you know a front runner it's funny how little he uh even appeared I guess 88 when who was playing
01:06:09
who played Biden in your era in 88 I I boy I wonder if I was assigned Bush I I
01:06:15
don't know who would have done him he may have dropped out soon enough that we didn't do him yeah never had to I mean I
01:06:22
just remember did him in 2010 oh really yeah Suds I used to write
01:06:28
those for SS Suds was a great it's funny because SS you know SS and we call them Suds yeah uh but SS fun bid very fun I
01:06:39
you know I I would do this on stage that I think that when again I didn't think
01:06:44
he was going to be the nominee that like when he ran for president in 2020 that
01:06:49
Obama must have thought wait you thought my vice president wasn't the last job you were ever going to have like you
01:06:56
thought you thought it was a stepping stone job Joe Joe you don't have to do this
01:07:02
Joe Joe you don't have to do it no no no no no no but I I what I did was I looked
01:07:08
at the Town Halls because I looked at him in 2012 in his debate uh vice
01:07:13
presidential debate with yeah with what's his name Ryan and you know he was
01:07:18
he was pretty he he was pretty strong you know he was he was and then the town
01:07:24
halls he just had different rhythms different stories a different kind of attitude but um it's very interesting
01:07:32
it's such a hot oven out there and I my style is to do I do both I'll do Trump
01:07:37
and my trump I think all of our trumps got a little better because of James Austin Johnson who made it into like
01:07:43
jazz I mean it's he's got breathing techniques I mean his Trump is crazy
01:07:49
brilliant and so and your Trump your Trump has gotten really really good
01:07:55
because I saw Rec and what did what I try to I try not to think about it at all I try to just let Trump speak
01:08:02
through me uh what What's your hook into Trump do you have a because I always
01:08:08
mine is that he always sounds like he's pitching a family vacation we're going to be going things like well you won't
01:08:13
believe we're going to do it and people say no but we're going to do it anyway you know all that kind of stuff I like
01:08:18
the one that we keep coming back to is that uh big guy strong guy tears in his
01:08:24
eyes like that you know these makeup stories about sort of U it's always a
01:08:29
you know vague amorphous people but they're always very big very strong and
01:08:34
very very emotional about how much they miss him and I uh I love there's so many
01:08:39
hits that he has like he's a stone cold loser is is a great one a lot of people are saying I haven't
01:08:46
heard anything no what a beauty not a chen not a chen she's not my type I mean he has like a
01:08:52
million deeply funny the Biden thing the only thing that made
01:08:57
me laugh was when he does the whispering cuz the rich don't pay the first share and they goes really loud because I know
01:09:03
how to be down say Can't Believe It's Not Butter so that whisper to the yell
01:09:09
was the hook that got me it was really good the first time I saw you do the The Whisper thing on coar it was a real like
01:09:17
Ah that's it my dad lost his job no joke not getting around here no joke no joke
01:09:23
one the part number two three but you know what we're all in this ecosystem so run with anything I'm just I remember uh
01:09:30
I remember 2012 that you mentioned the vice presidential debate and in those years I would Paul Ryan I would write uh
01:09:38
I would write sort of a template debate sketch but then everybody would pitch in based on having watched the debate and I
01:09:44
remember my phone rang and it was Downey the AFF forementioned Jim Downey yeah uh
01:09:49
but you know former headwriter uh legendary SNL uh staff member and he had
01:09:54
this bit that made it in which is my favorite bit of that debate which was how Biden kept talking about Scranton
01:10:01
and how he's from Scranton but made Scranton sound like a super shitty place and it was just like I'm from Scranton
01:10:06
hard this is a Backwater These Are Hard Scrabble people you you you you drive through scant and roll up your windows
01:10:13
and it was just a really funny dowy observation that that Biden talked about his hometown both from a point of Pride
01:10:20
and also like never [ __ ] go there
01:10:25
well he tells a story recently I think it was kind of funny that he you know you know I'm I'm eight years old I see
01:10:32
two men on the street scram Pennsylvania they're kissing I asked my Pops what's what's that and my pop says that's love
01:10:39
that's just love son a Teamster from 1953 talking that it feels very woke I
01:10:46
don't know but you know God love him God love God God love him why God Bless
01:10:51
America thanks for coming on on you're a key piece of Saturday Night Live history this is where I go into my um you know
01:10:58
an amazing run on Saturday Night Live and you know one of the very few people is just where you going to work
01:11:04
Rockefeller Center which is a magic building and a magic Place lucky it's
01:11:09
where Kenny aong worked oh yeah the great K uh shoe maker please say hello
01:11:15
and um congratulations on just having a cool show to go to uh thanks guys come
01:11:20
back come visit us soon now that we're going back Hot Seat again I'm going to get in the hot seat [ __ ] hot seat and
01:11:26
I'm and I'm going to just go crazy I'm going to go completely just unusable
01:11:32
unusable unusable no no just go super high energy and just you rather than kind of lean into my age I'm just gonna
01:11:38
like get some five in and just go nuts I'm just telling you now just can't
01:11:44
wait good to see guys pleasure thank you thank you for for having me
01:11:50
guys this has been a podcast presentation of Kaden 13 please listen then rate review and follow all episodes
01:11:58
available now for free wherever you get your podcast no joke folks fly in thewall has been a
01:12:05
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01:12:12
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