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so Keegan Michael Key this week uh with his wife El key uh they've both done a
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lot in this business we call show uh Keegan is very fun uh fun guy to talk to
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funny guy to listen to I see him in a lot of Clips out there he's on so many things commercials and he and his wife
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put together a comedy book about sketches the history of sketch comedy
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yes and so we Deep dive into that was very very interesting um
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and Keegan uh and L have a very close creative relationship it's a it's a nice
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thing to see and uh he's in shadon shmon shmon is still out there
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yeah and uh I see him on so many things in some football commercials now but he's always working always uh he's very
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into character and sketches and in this book he dresses like characters in the
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past I think Charlie Chaplan all the way up I think Wayne's World you know yeah he he analyzed your uh bye-bye sketch
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the flight ATT did he oh yeah he did yeah we won't tell you what he said I'm not sure but it was it an interesting
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idea of a book uh to analyze the history of sketch comedy sketch comedy doesn't get awards no one thinks about sketch
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comedy in as an artistic in Denver the first
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um iteration of the babbi that didn't work as well was that everyone was getting on the plane and we
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were like hello hello it just wasn't as funny I remember
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when Lauren Michaels it was just a a word thing he didn't he didn't like I don't think we should really be calling
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it a skit he hates the word skit yeah it's a skit uh it's a sketch for some
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reason SK have you ever seen people that say you know this guy's stick is that he
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acts a lot of crazy characters like go you mean shtick I don't even know what shtick means but I know it's not stick
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yeah like a stick yeah anyway anyway let's listen uh we had a lot of fun with
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them as we always do so lot of laughs enjoy the episode thanks for listening
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fans fans I don't know I people are like that's a strong
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[Music]
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word wait have we started wait what oh we we've been on for 20 minutes we sort
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of just roll into it but we take out the fat and it winds up being about six minutes we don't take anything out but
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you can call us right after this and edit anything you want so say anything you want and then and we will take we
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will cut that [ __ ] thing out man you you can like syllables in a name yeah so
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I I met you two as a couple at the Oscars right yes with Mike with Mr Myers
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with Mike Myers yeah that was exciting yeah I actually I I text him this morning and I I let know that this is
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what we were doing today and um he just he Dana is a doll Dana is brilliant Dana
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Dana Dana Dana um by the way do you know that you Dana yeah she corrects him she's
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like no he keeps complimenting no I'm I'm Pro I'm protesting and also oh nice
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you know right wait for the next text it'll be all about me just give it a second he
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Ador you both I I'll I'll text him now um do do you know Dana that you are on
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the cover of our book yes I saw it and I called I'm not a big uh lawsuit guy I
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looked I I checked I am and you know what it's my gift to
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you that's I even told him this morning I said do you know this and he said oh
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yeah I love it that is the most insanely flattering so people who just joined us
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we're live um L and Keegan wrote a book about the history of sketch comedy and
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and have a podcast and on the cover of it Keegan is doing all these you're dressed as all these famous Arch typable
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charact through the history and there you are with Gar so I was absolutely flattered though I absolutely we did
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actually call Mike for per we called Mike for permission we didn't call you sorry but we we did call Mike and I I
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said I I want to do um Wayne or G from Wayne's World because it's so iconic and
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he said oh you should definitely do Dana do Dana oh is now that is silly because
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I always knew no matter what it's called Wayne's World you know it's not gar
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world I'm the guy next to the guy you know so but uh that's very generous
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we're you know when you get old older you get wisdom you you put your weapons down you get very nostalgic you tear up
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a lot you know you'll see you're too young you poop your pants well there's there's a bunch of images I can send to
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you later that ended up not getting used she's showing us on her
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phone is a funny look gu is funny Dana that's a good G does have that funny
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there is something always going on with the mouth there's there's always that you know there's that right we totally
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like that that like curled lip thing that which is always what was the money of the character to me and then dropping
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the rhythm you're like yeah I had a good time so he doesn't quite say time you
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know yeah I had a good time time and then all his tension is in his jaw I'm
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not really a method actor but yeah everything is just there God everything's there you guys are I mean
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looking at your resumes everything you've done and now the history of sketch comedy what gave you the reason
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to write that I mean it's very interest I was listening to the audible one last night and it's really fun and
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interesting as you go along and get into vaudville and stuff and all all how it all came together I don't know do you
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want to start there we can go anywhere start there let's start there so uh couple years ago I uh someone had asked
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Keegan about writing a book would you ever consider writing a book and um I
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Keegan Keegan and I had this conversation he's like God it's you know it's we know it's not easy to write a book it's a whole process and I was like
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well he married he married a writer director so I was like well I'll help write the book and he's like I'm not
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really interested in writing a book so I just said well you know what I'm going to just interview you for the next seven
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years and collect stories and information and I wrote and directed for
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a sketch comedy show in college and I worked Off Broadway and I've been doing things for years and when we got
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together I started writing for him and I said you know really think there's a fun way of you being kind of the the tour
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guide or like the host into all of these things and you're so accessible and and
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he's so easy to talk to and communicate with I just thought it would be really fun je that's so cool coming from a wife
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it really is isn't it that'd be more like a girlfriend that'd be like a girlfriend but a wife going W he's PR
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cool no it's very you read classic sketches you you do characters the audible book is incredibly entertaining
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I have a question right now though as you started this journey you're interviewing your husband both of you
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did you kind of as you went along more themes came up and more like this was the archetype of event he he kind of
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stayed out of it I feel like well I would say to him things like when did you hear about Second City when's the
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first time you heard about Second City and then he said actually he was reading an autobiography of John balushi by Bob
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Woodward and I was like that's an interesting story so I was like okay this is is going to be in a chapter somewhere is is how do you get into
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talking about Second City or schools of comedy and then I asked him when the first time he heard his father laugh was
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and it was happened to be watching Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live and that's the first I like he has all these good answers I know so I was like this thing
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writes itself basically so then that that podcast that you that the audible
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series came about because when coid started I pitched my teams and agents
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this idea of I'm going to write this book on sketch comedy and I'm writing it as a kind of a love letter to Keegan and
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and my love of comedy and they said you know would you consider doing a podcast and I said sure and then I
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pitched audible this idea that if Keegan Michael Key was teaching an NYU course
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on sketch comedy and it was a 10-part class it would be a very very crowded
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class and it would be a lot of fun and fun start and where would it go and then
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I pitch in the idea for those of you who don't know there are no clips used in the entire podcast there's not one audio
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it's it's a two or to fource I might say it's all Keegan Keegan is every voice of every character in every sketch and um
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and I wanted to continue that with the book which is why I when I designed the
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cover I pitched audible this idea of what if instead of Keegan performing what if Keegan we dress Keegan up and as
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a matter of fact um ler helped me with all the hair and makeup who was on who's on Saturday Night Live does the hair and
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makeup and then uh I the the original idea for the book cover was you know the
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evolution of man like the chomat classic so when you open the book
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the first thing you see is all of those characters I'm still in there my God
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damn who's ahead of me what the [ __ ] they're showing Darth again I should be
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a and I don't have any I wantan to I love I'm I'm biased it's like you're only it is substitute the substitute
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teacher is ahead it's just only because the time well it's the I I did look up that 20 2113 million views on YouTube
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another two or to force as the substitute teacher on uh the Key and
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Peele show so that was classy what I loved about the book when you got into naming okay who was the lynchpin for
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television how did people adapt from vaud to radio I was into all that section which I found fascinating and
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how Milton Burl was kind of the first TV sketch comedy superstar that that was I
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I like all that stuff really cool I really like the variety TV I don't know
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how far you got into next I was a huge Donnie and Marie fan and then we started
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doing this deep dive of every single person we could find who was on a variety
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TV yeah it was it was it was nuts if you think about the fact that Howard coell had a variety show
00:11:03
called The Howard coell show no what and then it was Saturday Night Live right as well I think it Oh no you're right it
00:11:10
was called Saturday Night Live that's right that's that's and Lauren said he's not using it anymore whoops I think
00:11:18
Saturday live was called Saturday night for a while then Saturday night with Howard coell everyone had every musician
00:11:24
Glenn Campbell I mean yeah it's infinite right every everybody had one everybody had it was amazing right yeah and then
00:11:31
sometimes they're on ice skates right sometimes Don it was you know when I was
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watching those I of course I loved him growing up um and Captain andil it seems
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like if one hit song you get 13 episodes of a TV show anything like everyone they
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just threw them out there Johnny Cash had one uh The Brady Bunch The Brady
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Bunch um more that's right with David Letter and uh Michael Keaton
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yeah very shortlived really yeah yeah I didn't know that I've been on a lot of
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shortlived stuff but we can go into that later but short lived is is a very polite way of saying it lived but
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shortly wasn't a smash but so L you put all this together so you had to apply
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interviewing him and then kind of get this narrative and look up Milton burls and kind of expand and then Keegan would
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help me and then we'd figure out um it was a little bit of a challenge because the podcast and the book are are
00:12:34
different there's a lot of whps from the podcast that are kind of the through line but I also for the book was very uh
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fortunate enough that people like the brilliant David Spade gave me a few minutes of their time yeah so there are
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little what did he say was it wise and funny oh yeah did I say anything good
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yes of course of course you did nothing off the top of our head but he did say a lot of interesting so so basically the
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the um so Chronicle is the publisher and they asked they said do you think you could get a couple quotes from some
00:13:05
people in sketch comedy and because of all of the Goodwill and all of the people keeg and I have met over the
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years I ended up doing these little kind of mini interviews with about 35 people
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yeah give a list it's unbelievable yeah from Chris Rock Mike Meyers David of
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course um and then Carol Bernett who I did you reach out to me and I blew you
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off I don't remember being asked but I would have done it stone wall no no one can get near D I will
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never even though I'm the second in command on the on the
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cover long long before the cover I think it's because I'd only met you once and I think um other maybe I had a little bit
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more but right now live because we're going live globally today uh not really
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what would you have asked me we can just fill it in for so so basically what I did was try to figure out so there's I
00:14:01
kind of broke it down to 10 different sections 10 chapters and figure out what would make sense so we did talk to Kevin
00:14:08
nean and there a bunch of Julia Lou dfus so there are some people that talk like Kevin nean talks about uh Lauren
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Michaels he also does talk a little bit about you are I mean you are in a little he talks a little bit about he talks
00:14:20
about Hans and France Hans and France that was 100% me and Kevin we were like Hans and fron is in the book um so I
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probably try to figure out what what subject in the book and I would tell you
00:14:34
what they are that you had some kind of relationship to so for example you said you love the stuff about early the Early
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television yeah so then I would ask you about something that has to do with early television and then made a little
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sidebar in that chapter on your thoughts or some I'm you know on every level I'm
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fascinated by the history of Comedy I am fascinated by how the hell in the early
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60s with Bob newart and Bill Cosby and others their comedy albums were that
00:15:02
crackling because I'd sit in the dark with vinyl and I've never heard sound like that that present I was told they
00:15:09
would and they'd be in little tiny clubs like the purple onion and put One mic overhead or some reason they are so
00:15:16
Lively that fascinates me just the sound of it but yeah I have kind of a question
00:15:21
Andor observation because I have grumpy old men in my life like music ain't no good anymore and I go doesn't the music
00:15:28
just reflect what the culture is doing at the time and so with the the last 50
00:15:33
years of Comedy obviously it's gotten looser or whatever what is today's sketch comedy telling us about where we
00:15:40
are as a culture you have 30 seconds oh it's a good one D I I I was just I
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had nothing I was spitballing I'm talking too much that was my next question ke and Peele as an observer and
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a fan ke and Peele certainly came out of having an African-American president
00:16:00
came out of what was going on in the culture having two mixed race hosts yeah so maybe I think it's true I don't I
00:16:07
don't think I don't think we would have had a show if Obama hadn't become the president and it's one of those
00:16:14
interesting things where you look at the you look at his demographic and you look at our demographic and it's exactly the
00:16:20
same coming from single parent homes coming from interracial relationships
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but I think also the other thing about Kean Peele is there's something very
00:16:31
cinematic about the show that that a lot of the sketches tell stories they're not
00:16:37
like we don't we never did any like game show sketches which is one of my favorite things ever on Saturday Night
00:16:42
Live or game show sketches but you don't see them in Kean Peele which is interesting you see more storytelling in
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the sketches and also doing things very often that would be able to happen in
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real life and the reason I think that Dana is because so many people get their
00:17:01
comedy and derive their comedy nowadays from YouTube like watching a real
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YouTube video of a person really last night what did you show me last night you were showing me oh the fireworks
00:17:13
thing yeah yeah like like a video where somebody set off some fireworks and the
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fireworks went arai across someone's front yard in the front yard goes under
00:17:23
the car goes under the goes under the car right exactly and blows up like the car andow and blows up heightening but
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it keeps heightening yeah it keeps height yeah and it was actually like a well done sketch because it always got bigger and then people start pulling
00:17:34
their kids away right right right exactly and and and it felt like it felt like you almost not that you have to but
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very often I think people are influenced by that and they start writing sketches like that so they don't they don't do
00:17:47
the high concept sketches as much as they do in life sketches but that is
00:17:53
kind of a choice I think when because Keegan and I write write together and Keegan was very specific on ke pill
00:17:59
about you go from a five like and we do talk about it in the book and the podast
00:18:04
you go from kind of a you started a five and you go to a 12 to an 18 to 27 then
00:18:10
110 like the I said [ __ ] sketch you know keeps heightening and heightening that's what I loved about Kean Peele
00:18:16
that the beginning was so real and and you had told me about your guy's
00:18:21
technique and uh you know Saturday Night Live had its Lane and so when you came out that show came out it was something
00:18:26
new you know very filmic and played very serious and then just go ahead finish
00:18:32
your thought H it just it's like a boiling a frog right it's like yeah even the teacher one it just I I wasn't even
00:18:38
sure where it's going and then it starts you're getting angrier and it just gets crazier crazier and CRA you know I
00:18:44
thought was a clever one was the auction because like I don't see where that's going and start doing you're like this
00:18:50
is [ __ ] hilarious and it's hilarious hilarious and it's over and so you don't start getting tired you don't start
00:18:55
going all right right [ __ ] and then we're just done we're just done yeah it's like good good joke good joke over
00:19:02
but part part of the reason why the the I mean how do you make a a slave auction something so serious and make it funny
00:19:09
but it's not about the auction it's about people's egos getting hurt yeah ex
00:19:14
that's the fun part about it yeah that's the actual theme of the of the sketch for people who haven't seen it
00:19:21
basically that Keegan and Jordan are two out of three spots on a in a slave auction and the first person who comes
00:19:27
up next to them keeps getting bit on and they never get bit on and at first they're like oh you can't I mean you
00:19:33
yeah you can't you it's like like you know good I'm glad he got sold because I don't want to be owned by another human
00:19:39
being you know what I mean I mean I ain't trying to get owned up in here you know and then every time a guy comes on
00:19:45
the lot and gets sold we're just like okay now that's interesting why are we not get
00:19:50
physically bigger than him I mean what's going on with lot a they're not buying anybody on Lot B or C I feel like I'm
00:19:57
taller than another gentleman I feel like I have more stamina than that gentleman maybe they can't see us from their angle right there always these
00:20:04
weird excuses of like why they're not kidding but shrimpy guy comes on and you're like now okay now it's too much
00:20:11
this is this a trick like this is ridiculous what they're looking for like I know that was very funny you
00:20:18
articulating and the way you two played it kind of just casual dudes talking you know it was just against the whole
00:20:25
darkness of the situation each back and forth Dana like the last minute is like joke he does a joke like on top of each
00:20:31
other but each one is a quality funny thing to say and then it was over I was like oh that was great my biggest flaw
00:20:37
is I'm a perfectionist right exactly right I know magic um when they got on
00:20:44
the boat I put up no fuss here's how I did I jumped on they were like I was like right I was I didn't bump in anyone
00:20:50
I jumped right on it's like it's so funny so funny so good so those are like you could watch those you know I'm sorry
00:20:57
to interrupt but I'm I'm I'm going to do a 40 minute question so stay close so um
00:21:02
and then you'll have 12 seconds at the end to answer but you but when I when I
00:21:08
wouldn't see as much ke and Peele when it's out maybe out of jealousy but you know I would see it here and there and
00:21:14
then with the Tik Tok and and Instagram I start seeing it and when I watch a few
00:21:19
now more come up and so it's a whole probably another world of fans that is great yeah it's got to be it's it's it's
00:21:27
insane it's incredible because now we see we'll be walking down the street and there'll be like a 15-year-old and a
00:21:32
15-year-old is like oh my God I love I love you're bake you're yeah you're bake
00:21:37
and I go wait minute you're 15 I'm trying to do the math in my head I'm wait a minute you you were four when our
00:21:43
show came out or or even we we do talk about it a little bit because someone's like God I love your YouTube show and
00:21:49
King is like what oh oh all right sketches from 10 years ago that are now
00:21:55
on YouTube that are now on YouTube and on Tik Tok they think they think that those sketches are new sketches what was
00:22:01
it originally was it Comedy Central it was on Comedy Central yeah it was on Comedy Central and we started God they don't do that kind of stuff anymore
00:22:06
doesn't seem like it's YouTube is the place man I mean because Comedy Central you're inside Comedy Central now you
00:22:12
you're potentially have five billion people digitally everywhere and your sketches were by and large Evergreen
00:22:19
right I mean yeah by and large Evergreen because the writing process took so long we couldn't do we couldn't do topical
00:22:25
stuff which which worked out to worked out to our advantage yeah yeah one one
00:22:31
show on TV doing it live having topical I think is enough it's not easy yeah you're right you're right well also
00:22:37
shooting filming editing and then coming out with a release date you know it's like too hard to figure out like what's
00:22:44
going on in the news that week it wouldn't even make sense no I I love I love the excessive celebration can I talk about that one the football one
00:22:50
sure that probably wound down as hard as I'd seen anything wound down starting out with just people I guess it's
00:22:57
started with the idea that you can get penalized for celebrating too much if you touch get a touchdown if the if the
00:23:03
ref says that's too much and you take it to such absurd lengths and build it I do
00:23:09
you want to talk about that was a huge one for you right I mean that was a huge one in fact it it it was also because it
00:23:15
got emulated by actual football players oh they actually did some of the moves yeah yeah actual football players in
00:23:22
real life would do the moov like that so yeah and they get fined for it yeah and they would get fined yeah and so we I I
00:23:29
think that part of what it was um is is is that once again it goes
00:23:36
back to that theory of starting as real as possible starting at that three or that five and then just building and
00:23:43
then that one doesn't go to 600 million or anything like that that one just goes to like 48 but it's still it kind of
00:23:50
exists real enough that it could it's like you could see a player and their ego doing that in real life and really
00:23:58
it really it really was it was so much fun and um we did I we did actually I
00:24:05
did at the Pro Bowl a few few years ago we did a video that L directed and
00:24:12
created that was really funny the NFL we we're both football fans the NFL we've been doing a bunch of things and I um
00:24:18
was a headwriter for the NFL Honors that Keegan hosted last year and wrote a musical silly number for him with
00:24:25
singing in the audience with gron and Roger Goodell so at the pro bow they asked us if we would do something with
00:24:31
touchdown celebrations and um they' asked if we could make up a character
00:24:36
that's like a touchdown celebration coach so I pitched Keegan and and Roger
00:24:41
and the NFL this idea that his name would be uh Jim light brown after Jim Brown that's
00:24:50
funny silly so they wouldn't go with Jim Le brown but they would they wouldn't do
00:24:56
it they wouldn't do it see seems like sort of in the middle you could get away with that maybe yeah so so um I happened
00:25:02
to be born in the Bron so I was like okay what about boogie boogie down Brown so we came up with this character boogie
00:25:08
down Brown and we did a couple of videos and they're online they're easy to find where Keegan is
00:25:14
teaching very seriously very heartfelt teaching players the most important part
00:25:20
of a football game which is the celebration after the touchdown and we did a bit with the Detroit Lions with
00:25:27
Matt Stafford when he was was quarterback over there and a bunch bunch of people the Lions and so I had to come
00:25:33
up with a bunch of touchdown celebrations that were teaching them along the way and uh it was around
00:25:39
Christmas time so I actually taught five or six of the Detroit Lines how to do a Rocket's kick line you like kick that
00:25:47
would look funny in the video and that weekend they scored a touchdown and did a Rockets oh line
00:25:55
wowro chain it was it's why it's so fun it's fun that there were a couple of
00:26:00
those sketches that actually the were influenced not influence that's the word
00:26:06
I'm looking for they morphed into real life people are called a I mean we I was
00:26:13
saying we were at a Yankee game and Aaron judge be like a Aon everyone loves
00:26:18
that the fact that they are now a Aon especially to tell Keegan their story my
00:26:23
name is Blake and everyone call me he's like I can guess I cousin Jake quellin
00:26:29
now and we don't call her jacqulyn anymore we just call her Jake right you know what was the girl Denise she's like
00:26:35
Denise Denise Denise Denise it right say it right Den ni just goes wham wham wham
00:26:42
wham then she finally goes den oh there you
00:26:48
go could you relate to this I I kind of I I hard to articulate but sometimes I
00:26:53
think the most absurd sketches have five questions you know like interesting why
00:26:59
is this guy a substitute teacher wouldn't he have been fired the first day why can't he articulate the names
00:27:05
why are the students reacting that way they're not just leaving there's three well when you get to five it's sort of
00:27:10
like that's at maximum absurdity it seems to me like churchly why do she have that why is that person in drag or
00:27:18
not who is this person why does she go on the show and torture people what does she think to gain from the show who are
00:27:24
her followers what does she do after the show I don't know it just kind that sub you have to have the wrong answer to every one of those questions
00:27:30
and then it's a sketch like well we can't prove all these so
00:27:36
it's a sketch so it's a sketch yeah listen listen Barbara it's Barbara I
00:27:42
said Barbara you know it's just that who is that guy does he know he's
00:27:47
insane right right I don't but more piss can can I ask you about like um Matt TV
00:27:55
was sort of its own lane I don't know if it's it's still on was on for a long time you're on it for 5 years and it
00:28:01
seems like there's the SNL crew and then there was the Matt TV crew and just learning that you were the only former
00:28:07
Mad TV which kind of surprised me player to host SNL so do you think there's a is
00:28:14
it a Coke and Pepsi it is a yin and yang what is the sensibility of Matt TV
00:28:19
versus SNL or the or the aesthetic there there was I think the aesthetic is that
00:28:24
a Lauren question that might be a Lauren might Spell aesthetic first I want to
00:28:30
see if you could do that it starts start with me starts with a name yeah it's
00:28:37
interesting I think the biggest difference um was there was a really
00:28:44
Unapologetic naughtiness about Mad TV that that I think almost yeah it was
00:28:51
very body and runchy and I think because it was flying under the radar a bit more
00:28:57
there was that sense of that we're really we really are going to push the envelope as much as it was Underdog yeah
00:29:03
it was very underd doogy and very we can do whatever we want and rough around the edges and there was this sense of also
00:29:10
like you know we would get to do those 10 to one sketches in earlier in the show like so
00:29:17
for those people who are listening like uh you guys can help me with this you guys know a 10 to one sketch is a sketch on Saturday Night Live that would happen
00:29:24
10 minutes before 1:00 a.m. or 5 minutes before 1: a.m. which will be one of the experimental sketches or experimental
00:29:30
videos or really super absurdist sketches yeah or or sketches that got
00:29:36
very few very few laughs during the dress show as well during the dress during during the dress yeah but they do
00:29:43
like they're Sometimes the best you know yeah the best yeah right exactly and I think usually Comedians and and sketch
00:29:50
performers love those sketches like adore those sketches and and we used to
00:29:55
get to do that we used to fight a lot with our executive producers on Matt TV but they would often let us do those
00:30:01
sketches smack dab in the middle of the show you know you always sa those credential sketches for the beginning
00:30:06
but but they would let us do that and um so that was to me the biggest that was the biggest kind of difference between
00:30:13
the two shows is how body it was and also that they were pushing pushing kind of an ethnic envelope too because there
00:30:19
were at one point in time there were four of us there were four African-Americans on the show at the same time and that was something that
00:30:27
you you weren't seeing as much don't think that happened on SNL no no yeah not for it once we also had In Living
00:30:33
Color I think Dana probably that was more when you were on when that was pretty huge and it was trickling into us
00:30:40
cuz Chris Rock when he left went to a Living Color and uh but it was like the final year it was sort of had its Heyday
00:30:47
was winding down but man they were doing uh it was that they were blew up so big
00:30:53
doing so much crazy [ __ ] I think we were jealous on us and now you're like I wonder if we could get away with with that and but we really it wouldn't have
00:30:59
been our brand right then and there it was like it would have been copying cuz they blew up and then you've got that then Mad TV was always bubbling under
00:31:06
with a good sketch here and there you'd hear about and then they went up against SNL I think on Saturday was that for a
00:31:12
long time or yeah it was most of the time that so we would you guys would start at we'd start at 11 and then all
00:31:19
programming at 11:30 is like you never wanted your sketch to be on at 11:30 because SNL was about to come on oh they
00:31:25
might switch Yeah and people would switch over but you guys weren't live right were you pre-taped or you live we
00:31:31
weren't live we were not live no no no no we were we were taped because my theory about SN I'd like your opinion on this is that it maybe accidentally went
00:31:39
in became a reality show that people love and that you got a football player or an actor trying to do Live sketch
00:31:46
comedy that's so because for me sometimes if SNL has a bad show it's still fascinating if the host is awkward
00:31:54
and reading off the card so there's it's a bit of a train wck it's a Highwire act so it that element is always there but
00:32:01
why you guys just wrote the book in the history of sketch comedy why do you think it's lasted fif a half
00:32:07
century you don't have to David no they're
00:32:12
thinking thinking they might have the right answer I think one element is that and
00:32:18
second is that Lauren Michaels he was not there for a few years but he's resisted changing the the iconic brand
00:32:24
because there were years of Saturday live dead ret tape it for an hour Matt TV is where it's at change the theme lot
00:32:31
of pressure and it we've interviewed all these cast members and David and I are like we're we're there everything is
00:32:38
exactly the same as far as how it's done ADH maybe that's part of it I don't know
00:32:45
I I think part of it is the the sporting event of it I think what you're saying about the there's some there's chaos of
00:32:51
it you're you know and being backstage watching Keegan get ready for it was pretty fascinating MH like you are you
00:32:58
are about to go on it's like a Broadway show you're you you have to go on whatever happens happens and there's
00:33:04
nothing else like it and when a sketch dies at least on the East Coast it dies
00:33:10
on television which is interesting yeah absolutely yeah yeah I think I think what you just said L is a great way of
00:33:15
putting it sporting event like it's because it's it's a live watch in live you want to watch it live right exactly
00:33:22
yeah and it it's rock rock and roll you get how did you like so there you are
00:33:27
live on SNL and so it's kind of rock and roll energy it's just a different energy
00:33:33
than really cool films you were making on Kean Peele so how did you how did it
00:33:38
how did how did you find it I I I well having been on second having been at the
00:33:44
Second City for six years so you've done it yeah so so I had to remind myself remember you've done this before you've
00:33:50
done this before you did this six straight years and then and the other thing I had to remember to do was just
00:33:56
play to the A audience in the room don't let anybody I try to avoid anybody talking
00:34:02
to me about hey you're on TV you're live in front of millions of people it's I so
00:34:08
I try to play to like the 200 people in that room that you're just in that room
00:34:13
with them having a great old time with those with that audience and everyone's watching so you just get they get to see
00:34:19
because it's more real if you're playing here instead of like you know out to the rafters right right exactly what do cuz
00:34:27
if I thought what was really happening and in those days 20 million or something it would really you know but
00:34:33
El since you you know ke Keegan so well were you there along the week with him
00:34:39
just sort of kind of going yeah I amum I mean they they knew um everyone knew
00:34:45
that I've been Keegan's writing partner for a while so I I actually uh was given
00:34:51
an opp I don't know if I'm L sry I was given an opportunity to pitch some SC that's very that's cool I got I got I I
00:34:58
pitched a few I pitched a few ideas like keeg and I together we're on the phone with with with everyone and and
00:35:06
uh Higgins Higgins yeah Steve Higgins know him well Steve Higgins so we were
00:35:11
on with Higgins who also of course is friends with Mike so Mike they knew that this was we were GNA throw out some
00:35:18
ideas and um uh one it it it was a really really
00:35:24
interesting process I was able help cut a few things and trim a few things and
00:35:30
there the Muppet sketch was fantastic I mean not mupp the the keret the Frog yeah the Muppets yeah I I thought I
00:35:38
thought that that's a like an alltime sketch I it hit me so hard the concept
00:35:43
of security yeah we talked about this before I think how great it probably came up but I it's something about that
00:35:49
sketch I think is is like a like a Hall of Famer it's fun because he's he's not playing The Substitute Teacher but he
00:35:56
still gets to to play the guy who's extremely when they start beating the [ __ ] out of the puppets and stuff it's
00:36:02
so it's again it escalates nicely and it it's just a it's a beautiful I did so
00:36:08
one of one of the lines and and you might tell me if I if I did wrong here but uh I was able to cut so when they're
00:36:15
beating up the like they're about to beat up the Muppets or they're really upset G to beat up you know the the guys
00:36:20
in the in the balcony on the sketch it was like you know don't you know you're
00:36:26
going to kill him like you killed that teenage boy or something there was some line like that that I was like I think
00:36:31
beating up the Muppet is enough yeah it was well it was already in the chaos
00:36:37
didn't you say oh they must be veterans that lost their legs or something that's already that's already edgy enough right
00:36:43
there I don't think yeah I don't need they he also killed a kid I I would agree with that trim personally okay
00:36:49
thank you thank you yes um and so so one of the things I I pitched them they ended up using a couple weeks later in a
00:36:55
different kind of version which is which I learned oh that's that's flattering um yes I was told that's it
00:37:03
is flattering told it's flattering the other one she was told that was flattering
00:37:10
right right that's what someone said when they used one of my jokes in there act they go that's flattering I go oh okay I was looking at it through the
00:37:16
wrong lens yeah so what was this sketch they did they did sketch they did well
00:37:21
I'll tell you the one they they actually went to dress with a sketch that I had pitched and it was after two years of
00:37:27
coid so Keegan and it's in the book too Keegan was in a Renaissance Festival when he was younger he got to perform
00:37:34
and do bits and AC you know acrobat stuff and run around the Renaissance an actual Renaissance festival and I
00:37:40
thought wouldn't it be great with all of the hashtags and PC and how politically
00:37:46
correct and sensitive everybody is to everything what if there was a sketch about a a a Renaissance Festival that
00:37:55
had been shut down for the last two years for coid and now they're back so
00:38:01
they're back and they're going to start like welcome back it's been two years so you know we haven't had a festival in a couple years and we're back and we're
00:38:06
very excited but um we are going to make a few small changes to to uh the
00:38:13
festival for example um we're not going to be using the word wench we've decided
00:38:19
that wench doesn't work for this and that you know so the joke bucket was how many things
00:38:26
can do and then say Oh and you know what we're not going to do oh oh you know the other thing too is we're going to cut
00:38:31
you know Keegan whatever Keegan's character's name is is um he's not going to get chased by the cops and get beaten
00:38:39
up you know chased by the sherff by the sheriff and get beaten up in front of everyone while the kids throw fruit at
00:38:45
him or whatever it was and he's like wait but that's my like that's the best part my that's
00:38:50
my all I do in this they're like yeah we just feel that maybe Keegan you know getting beaten up by sheriffs in front
00:38:57
of small children probably is not the best look and then I was like and then you could say well what if we use
00:39:03
someone else they're like okay who would we use and then like use Bowen definitely not we're not
00:39:10
using Bowen We're not gonna beat up Bowen the cops areen gonna beat up the only Asian guy in the cast so so anyhow
00:39:16
so that was and they ended up it ended up they ended up writing a sketch and we pitched jokes for it and and it made it
00:39:22
to dress rehearsal and I think it somehow in dress rehearsal just kind of ran out didn't click just yeah yeah it's
00:39:31
sometimes funny when it's funny at like read through an rehearsal and then you get to dress and you go what am I
00:39:37
missing here something either start off on the wrong foot it change it changed a lot over the LA over the few days oh is
00:39:43
that what happened they were tweaking as you two would know being there where it was in the studio was important if it's
00:39:49
if it's sort of cerebral in that sense I don't know if it had a if the sound broke it would still be funny escalation
00:39:56
think it got very I think it got very stretched out so that wasn't it wasn't
00:40:01
the the the timing of the jokes and um and ke and I when we first when we first
00:40:07
met and talked about working together um we had a lot of conversations about jokes and turns and where you think it's
00:40:15
going and why things are funny and hey have you heard this joke like just like
00:40:20
the science the science of comedy and the science of hard jokes and L has an encyclopedic
00:40:27
knowledge of jokes like she has she knows jokes like you you can't even believe well what's one that pops into
00:40:33
your mind I no I don't want to put you on theone like joke like hard joke jokes um well the first the first joke I told
00:40:40
Keegan was and and forgive me if anyone's heard but there's a little kid and he's smoking and this old guy comes
00:40:47
up to him and he says kid you know you really shouldn't smoke it's it's not healthy it's really bad for you and the
00:40:52
kid says 'w my grandfather's 95 years old the guy goes wow and he's a smoker
00:40:58
and he goes no he Minds his own [ __ ] business there's the turn yeah so where's the you know that that joke and
00:41:04
got a good turn the the shortest the shortest joke that that the like all
00:41:09
those I I happen to be Jewish from New York so I remember every old lady old couple joke there is but the short one
00:41:17
that Keegan loves is the old woman yells downstairs to her husband and she says
00:41:22
Morty why don't you come upstairs and make love to me and he says fine but I can't do
00:41:30
both I've got a pretty quick one ready quick we hate people that don't laugh
00:41:35
they just do their joke next um that's me uh okay so it's a good beginning uh a
00:41:42
5-year-old and a child mon start walking into the woods at night and you've heard
00:41:48
it and so I've not heard it I just the 5-year-old goes mister I'm scared and he goes you're scared after this I got to
00:41:54
walk out of here by myself right there you go I we're GNA go to a commercial is
00:42:01
that is that do you two write those kind of like I I'm terrible really thinking
00:42:06
of jokes like I would have to you know I do this bad bad redneck character you
00:42:12
know uh red red necki the redneck comedian and it's intentionally bad I've never gotten it to work very well but
00:42:18
you have it works on here you ever fought so loud dog two stay away go what
00:42:24
that come and get some because the come and get some is the
00:42:29
funniest it's a come and get some come and get some you ever crap so big you don't know going to get down that toilet
00:42:36
come and get some I mad my sister only cuz Mama Told
00:42:42
Me Down come and get some but mama turn me down M come and get
00:42:48
some I told M I said to Mama what's for dinner she said roadkill I said what
00:42:53
kind she says I got to take a drive coming get some so those are the I could write in
00:43:00
that character a little bit but they're intentionally really bad but really good Twisted jokes I don't have that SK good
00:43:07
turn on a joke is a one do you have another one another short a short joke
00:43:12
do you have I don't hard to think of them got just great I just great jokes I
00:43:20
an x-rated one that I don't know if it's that funny someone told it to me but if
00:43:25
you take it sometimes people go o what is going how do you get a dog to stop pumping your leg pick him up and blow him pick okay
00:43:34
all right we can I love that someone told it to you he's like I didn't make it up I didn't make it don't blame the
00:43:45
messenger we're back here with L and Keegan so what makes you to laugh the
00:43:52
most right now like you go to movies you go to YouTube
00:43:57
um this podcast so so I'm very fortunate uh
00:44:04
Christopher Guest also was someone I spoke to who's in the book and he become someone we we uh we we adore and um he I
00:44:14
think King and I have fun playing the gym game which is do you know the gym game no uh I guess it was chrisopher
00:44:22
guus and uh who else was har she and Harry Shear so we're on we're on sun
00:44:27
project together I don't know if it was Final tap or something else or SNL
00:44:33
yeah I don't know maybe it was around SNL it might have been SNL time could have had that one year together I think
00:44:38
was Billy Crystal and yeah so they have a a game that they play called the gym game that I actually heard through a
00:44:45
friend and then I had when I met Christopher I asked him to to back up so I've heard about this gym game it's
00:44:51
basically that the the concept oh there was a a there was a TV commercial with
00:44:57
Jim amichi years and years ago that was Don Ami's brother younger brother and he
00:45:03
says hi I'm Jim amichi and then he sells whatever thing he's pedaling and they
00:45:11
thought this this idea that every famous person has a younger lesser known
00:45:18
brother named Jim so if you see if you see someone that looks like Brad Pit but
00:45:24
you know it's not Brad pit you go ah Jim pit there's Jim pit so so Keegan and I
00:45:31
have had uh fun even even to even yesterday I was like but but Chris would
00:45:36
be very upset because I I try to make it as easy as possible is i' say the full name of the person because you can't if
00:45:43
you say Jim Smith you don't know who you're talking about yeah so and please forgive me Christopher if you hear this
00:45:48
but I it's not the Jim it's not the official gym game I apologize but I say Hey look it's Jimmy Brad Pit so if I say
00:45:55
jimm Brad Pit he look around the room and see who I'm talking a little bit PR
00:46:02
that's pretty good so yesterday we saw someone and I said uh Jimmy John Goodman Jimmy John Goodman and he looked very I
00:46:09
mean really uncanny like John he looked like John Goodman look big or skinny John Goodman so so uh so so we do we
00:46:16
play the gym game but uh I I told I told Chris that I was with Keegan and we were
00:46:22
in California and we were somewhere like south of LA and I saw this really beat
00:46:27
up hotel by the beach and I said look Jim shutters yeah that's yeah shutters is a
00:46:35
beautiful hotel I used to I think Michael Keaton had a bit of like Hitler's brother be like Biff Hitler or
00:46:40
you know everyone's done bits like like Ed Eddie Eddie Eddie Lincoln Eddie Lincoln Eddie Lincoln Eddie Lincoln you
00:46:47
know those are word I like that also like a shortening names when you I'd watch talk shows as a kid and they
00:46:54
they'd say so I I was I was talking to John Carson and Eddie McMahon that's fun
00:47:00
everything is always slightly changed John Bobby Bobby
00:47:05
Mitchum and Robbie Redford whatever anyway but the gym game's fun because if you see someone and someone else knows
00:47:13
I'd be like Jim Jimmy barbarand it's a good code you just gotta your eyes have
00:47:19
to Dart but you have to be very kind of non-descript when you're doing it not conspicous but you can also in conversation be like someone or they
00:47:26
were rude and be like what just happened you know Jimmy Jam Franco whatever whatever you know whoever it was just by
00:47:32
maybe perhaps you'd see me and they'd say uh Jimmy Billy Mummy from Lost in Space some people
00:47:39
think Jimmy Billy mmy Billy M he was from Lost in Space 1969 sorry I'm dating
00:47:46
myself but I didn't tell so so John malushi has a brother named Jim Tom Hanks has a brother named Jim there are
00:47:52
actually famous people have younger brothers and I think that's how you win by the way is if you see a younger
00:47:57
brother of a successful actor and his name is Jim I think you win the game no that's it you know I think uh guys I
00:48:03
think that when I was doing the Improv at the beginning [ __ ] I was like 21 I think
00:48:09
Tom's brother was a waiter there and Jim Hanks I think we should have asked Tom
00:48:16
because I think what he did is he was a waiter and then he get up on stage and try standup and he once said he' wear
00:48:24
his waiter uniform which is funny and he would say you know Tom Hanks is my brother and I think one of his jokes
00:48:30
that I liked was people say you're a waiter and he's a super big movie star why doesn't he just give you a million
00:48:36
dollars does anyone know why I don't know why why doesn't he give me million
00:48:44
dollars he said why doesn't he I don't know why doesn't he would be so easy for him a good way to own that cuz it's yeah
00:48:50
that's a tough position yeah at least people are thinking it so you just throw it out there but I guess he was a stand I I don't know but it's tough I mean to
00:48:57
be super famous like that by the way Dennis Miller our friend his his little brother is Jimmy Miller who used to used
00:49:04
to make french fries yeah the manager great manager yeah who talks a little
00:49:10
bit like Dennis just laid back Richie and Jimmy yeah they you ever run into
00:49:15
Jimmy he's got you in a headlock within like a minute come here he's get he's yeah that guy loves a noie he loves or
00:49:22
grab your he'll grab your hand and like twist your hand he likes to kind of but you're a big guy but with me he's sort
00:49:28
of Jimmy please you know I get picked up way too much with Dave David people just
00:49:35
pick him up like a puppet what are you yeah they put me in their shoulders and we walk blocks and I go put me down
00:49:40
blocks blocks all right ke Keen again uh you don't know this but you are in Hotel
00:49:48
Transylvania and you play The Mummy I think because I do play The Mummy I do
00:49:53
play now is this but you did you replace CEO green is that my possible recollection I was yes CEO was in the
00:50:00
first movie and then I was in uh two two three four four yeah yeah uh I think
00:50:06
also for all those uh Buffs of Hotel Transylvania Dana is one of them I was
00:50:12
in I did a character but it wasn't even a character I was in one of them I can't remember I love it I don't even remember
00:50:18
that I don't I didn't get to watch Really T yeah I was I you know my I can't even remember my voice but I I
00:50:24
knew that it was a it was a no nonstarter you said I'm a vampire when your blood come and gets
00:50:33
home I remember that guy I don't even know if you if your
00:50:39
character and my character have ever interacted with each other I think we hang out in the movie A little bit like in a
00:50:45
pack hang out in a pack pack Frank but I I got to come alive I'm only glasses cuz
00:50:52
I'm invisible Dana this is you might want to get a pen I only invisible in the first three but this one we reverse
00:50:59
and we turn back into yeah that was a good one they do a good job with us by the way I think
00:51:05
they're funny as [ __ ] can I ask you guys a random question because because if you're doing animation stuff people ask
00:51:11
me what do you what do you get paid for one of those kind of things you know so for either of you what you don't
00:51:18
have to say what it is but there's certain things you kind of get paid more than you think you would or other things are maybe you're getting checks in the
00:51:25
ma what have been some home runs for you financially in a surprising way like I I
00:51:32
did a thing for cat and dogs and it got I did it to an actor they didn't like what he was doing and they tried to get
00:51:37
me to dub his voice so they didn't use it it didn't work because the animation was already done I got checks for 20
00:51:44
years oh that's awesome trying to think what what what what what was the easiest
00:51:50
job for the most money you know kind of yeah have 10 seconds did you ever
00:51:55
write anything you got a big writing [ __ ] that those are good residuals I remember Nick schwartzon wrote Bench
00:52:03
Warmers with Sandler I guess I guess I came out of I came out
00:52:09
of so when you produce an independent film you kind of learn every single job
00:52:14
you could possibly learn on a movie or project so when I started getting jobs
00:52:21
that actually paid I was like oh well I'll I can write it and I'll edit it and
00:52:26
I'll do the storyboard for it and I can do all these things and people are like oh no no you don't have to do that you could just write the commercial or
00:52:33
direct the campaign and then I was like well I have an idea for the campaign what if I pitch the idea for the
00:52:39
campaign to the client which I don't think happens that often that no it does
00:52:44
they consider a director they say Hey you know we we've done a whole bunch of campaigns together they say then I'll
00:52:50
write and direct them and Keegan is the rasat Taz and and uh and so I
00:52:56
I ended up getting getting to a place where people would stop hiring wouldn't use their
00:53:02
Agency midd use us for everything so between the two of us we've we are kind
00:53:08
of a you know we have package deal One Stop what would be your dream as a couple do you have a sense of maybe
00:53:14
doing an indie film together or not well not an indie film but I'm I'm gonna
00:53:19
direct a teer next year I'm directing a a grown-up film yes is your husb is it
00:53:27
or he is in it um I I like to say that I um he was he was cast as a supporting
00:53:33
role and then he married me and now he has the upgrade I've given him an upgrade the Le so where Le long game
00:53:41
what so it's a Sci-Fi romantic adventure so three auditions open on the SP I know
00:53:48
my I one of our one of our publicist is on the is on the call it hasn't hasn't been announced yet but um it's going to
00:53:54
be a kind of cop action movie with Keegan as the lead okay let's guess what
00:54:00
the title is for a second David what do you think the working title it's an action uh gangster type New York action
00:54:06
New York action um I'm gonna call it 10th Avenue 10th Avenue not bad all right I
00:54:15
okay 10th Avenue I'm taking notes I'm taking notes but but it's been this would be
00:54:21
the biggest money maker of my career if I name this thing and get little residual check if I live to 105 I'll
00:54:28
tell my kids it was that 10 Aven go ahead David actually actually it's I
00:54:34
don't know how funny a story it is but when I I first wrote the script we were we it was years ago I first wrote and I
00:54:41
wrote it as a straight drama and I put um one of like I have an Uncle Joe my
00:54:48
dad's best call a real Uncle Joe I have an Uncle Joe Joey saladino so I call him
00:54:55
said look I wrote this script I'm going to send it out to a bunch of Agents a bunch of producers and I don't want to put my name on it I don't want them to
00:55:02
think a woman wrote it I I put the name Frank saladino as the writer I like it
00:55:07
and that is how I sent the script out and I took a whole bunch of meetings and they're like Frank salentino did he work
00:55:13
on the wire I think I knew Frank see Frank Frank Frank's great right I you
00:55:20
know I think I've heard of Frank I think I knew Frank when he worked on NYPD Blue did Frank and and people he has no IMB
00:55:28
page he does not exist and people think Frank go I like it better that a guy
00:55:34
wrote this Frank saladino wrote this smart if You' made it Frankie saladino would have even been you could be a
00:55:41
Frankie I actually it was my nickname in college believe it or not was was Frank Frankie Frankie is ajason Frankie is a
00:55:49
official like Robin or Dana or whatever it's a switch hitter name a woman can be Frankie right and it's not a problem
00:55:55
so I still have friends who call me Frank I went to Syracuse and I it was a joke freshman year and it and I became
00:56:02
Frank for all of college so I was like okay I'm calling it Frank saladino and that's how I sent it out to the world
00:56:07
and then uh then my agents at UT were like you know there aren't a lot of women female writer directors in the
00:56:13
genre at all so they said it's no I'm trying to think of on it so Harlem
00:56:18
ajacent opens well we got to shoot it har Harlem adjacent okay we have 10th Avenue we have Harlem Harlem adjacent
00:56:26
okay tth Avenue put in the mix it's not titles are not are not I've got I've got
00:56:32
one a little more dramatic because I just see a picture of ke you know playtime's
00:56:40
over and that's his catch raise right before he he kills the entire neighborhood play PL times what if
00:56:47
you're still in your medieval costum and it's sir Lance shot and you've got a gun this time what if you're The Substitute
00:56:54
Teacher but you're back in heat yeah if you don't pronounce your name right there's going to be hell of a pain you
00:57:00
got a big bull whip school's back for the summer so so you know you know Keegan's
00:57:07
Talent you live with him and you know how much he's done with when you direct this film or you try to tease out
00:57:13
something he hasn't been able to show off seems like he's done 900 things the research is
00:57:18
unbelievable all the sketch shows and movies and television if you get if you
00:57:24
get a chance to see the the opening of the NFL honors last year that was got my uh my baby and NFL honors on YouTube
00:57:32
yeah and I wanted Keegan I I was like I want Keegan to rap in it I want Keegan's gonna tell jokes he's gonna sing by the
00:57:38
way his beautiful voice which um I learned he has a stunning stunning voice
00:57:44
and I I made him I inspired him to sing at our wedding and our agents were like
00:57:50
you sing hean how come you didn't tell us this like can I ask Keegan a
00:57:57
question Keegan what can't you do CU I could do a lot of things but I really
00:58:02
can't sing I could fake sing but I can't sing so you're doing all this sketch stuff all these characters all these
00:58:09
Impressions and now you can sing is there anything that's a little bit difficult for you can you dance kid can
00:58:16
you dance I'm not I'm not I let's say this I I think I can move I'm not a
00:58:23
dancer but you know that's a thing that people say is like like he can move he can move but I'm not right I would say
00:58:30
like I can swim I can get from one side of the pool to the other side what in shadon don't you have to
00:58:36
have to dance or no the point is they never give me any dancing in shadon you just watch it he's the guy who doesn't
00:58:42
like music I'm the guy that doesn't like musicals so the thing is love them in real life which is the thing is I
00:58:47
absolutely love them in real life you can watch Dancing that's another thing you've got I here inside baseball thing
00:58:55
well on this subject I found interesting I know someone who works with Jimmy Fallon and when Justin Timberlake would
00:59:01
come on and they're doing this very Advanced choreography and Justin's obviously super talented but Jimmy could
00:59:07
you'd show it to him once and he's got all the steps down you know he just has that skill set of really being able to
00:59:14
doph dancing he's good at it I mean God half his show is pre-tapes I wouldn't be able to do that it's so hard anyway and
00:59:21
then pre-tape after learn a dance pre-tape learn this go to con island with JLo it's like
00:59:28
every time there's something going on anyway enough about him sorry to answer
00:59:33
your question Dana I definitely try to say I I know that Keegan wants to do
00:59:39
more action and things like that so I wanna so I write I'm writing for him
00:59:45
really fun things for him to do so I'm writing for him things that I want to see him do that I know he can do I love
00:59:51
the genre I I do like Revenge movies I like Kick-Ass mob stuff you know I love
00:59:57
Sopranos I love the Scorsese stuff Good Fellas so it' be fun to see Keegan in an
01:00:03
environment like that you know so that was a very long long answer of yes this
01:00:08
is this is something that we want to do it's very intriguing this movie I took the I took the drama out I took a lot of
01:00:16
the drama I made it more uh well one of one of our both of our favorite movies is um is midnight run that's what I was
01:00:22
G to ask you oh my god oh my God so in it's an action movie and it but we say
01:00:28
it's a comedy but the bullets are real is kind of the way we I think if you put as someone who can operate in all these
01:00:34
different comedy frequencies SS very intellectual someone like Keegan and you put them in a world that's heavy you
01:00:42
know I'm not saying Taxi Driver level but there there's big laughs to be had there with the out of seriousness always
01:00:49
always always
01:00:55
I was curious about this is what I'm curious now seeing all this and listening to you guys as a
01:01:01
artistic whatever capital a couple uh steeped in all this creativity you know
01:01:07
what are the things this the tent pole movies that you share or movies or tele
01:01:13
or streaming or stuff you watch together and look at each other and go holy [ __ ] you know or or movies that you
01:01:19
touchstones that you might watch every other year or or cartoons I don't know I'm just curious about how you consume
01:01:26
all this uh your own uh your own habits consuming art the the show that we both
01:01:33
just are an olive is Barry I think Barry is phenomenal I never got no it's brilliant I real bullets there you go
01:01:40
that's that that balance of comedy and and drama is uh Anthony what's Anthony
01:01:47
Corgan Anthony Corgan oh the bad the Russian bad guy NOK no ho Hank no ho
01:01:54
yeah it's just he never makes going to Choice yeah I'm sorry no I'm I'm being
01:01:59
ridiculous but that what do you love about it Choice it's like he always makes the 18th choice and it's perfect
01:02:07
yeah he does surprise you with his rhythms what you're saying the way he reads the line it's always a little what you're not expecting yeah exactly yeah
01:02:14
and and and and that nice balance between the the the comedy and the drama and and there is absurdism in the show
01:02:20
as well yeah that but but but it's always based in something grounded it it it
01:02:28
really I I just thought that bill did such a great job Bill and Alec did such a great job with you know I just thought
01:02:34
that show yeah one one of my favorite cinematic moments is is the first Indiana Jones when Harrison Ford has
01:02:40
been fighting all these people and this guy has you know his KN his sword and and Harrison Ford takes out a gun and
01:02:46
shoots him he's so tired it's like that that's kind of that feeling of of Barry
01:02:52
just being like oh God now I gotta kill this guy really I gotta do this yeah yeah oh yeah when someone won't stop
01:02:59
attacking and fighting like oh [ __ ] you're dead what about when he tells the girlfriend how he would make his make
01:03:06
her friend go insane if he went in her house and changed things around the girl's just staring at him
01:03:12
and he makes it sound so normal and she's like are you out of your [ __ ] mind dude he is like but he says it so
01:03:18
earnestly goes this is actually pretty easy um I just break in every night I just change your furniture around just
01:03:24
make her go insane quietly and she's like dude what are you talking about right right right right just got it's
01:03:32
it's just well done overall yeah without getting into one of those great shows what about movies you have five seconds said
01:03:40
midnight run is midnight run midnight run is okay that's something yeah that's just one of those movies I love That's a
01:03:45
classic midnight run is one of those films it's just there's everything's
01:03:50
right about it yeah even just Joey Joey pants on the phone and the guy next to
01:03:56
him trying to punch him in the gut while he's on the phone like oh the two guys in the two guys out in the in the the
01:04:02
two guys out in the uh in the desert in the in the um foam Booth every every little thing like just every small Well
01:04:08
there's almost no one like Charles Groen out there yeah any when John when Austin
01:04:13
is Austin yeah when the when the when he's smoking a cigarette and he goes to buy a ticket at the airport and the
01:04:20
person says would you like smoking or non-smoking goes what are you think with
01:04:25
the cigarette with the cigarette in his hand and it's just just small little jokes that are jokes but aren't jokes at
01:04:32
the same just throwaways yeah throwaways that work and just beautiful behavioral
01:04:37
stuff that movie is so that's the thing you can get in film you know I I love it
01:04:42
too as a I've never been in a good movie really I've been in a broad comedy but you can get those little moments in film
01:04:48
it's so much fun digital cameras editing all the tools are so much cheaper um oh
01:04:54
yeah midnight run so Charles grow he was funny when God Rest us saw one of our greats in the 90s remember when he did
01:05:01
his MSNBC show he was a he was a talk show host for a while I don't know if
01:05:06
you remember that no I don't remember I I came on and he said I want you to do the whole interview I I used to do in
01:05:12
perfect I couldn't get it now I do the whole interview as Johnny so I had to stay in Johnny Carson for 20 minutes
01:05:19
with Charles Groen and it's exhausting is a rare talent that we
01:05:26
don't have one like that I don't think we don't have yeah you're right we don't have another Groen run well um uh what's the I'm
01:05:36
sorry do not blame Street Whispers uh Defending Your Life
01:05:44
Albert Brooks Brook but he's not been as busy lately Albert that's pretty close where
01:05:50
are you are you listening Albert def defend your life was one of my favorites oh yeah is great love
01:05:59
that's not the casino one is it that's a different one that's across America or something Defending Your Life is the one
01:06:05
with him and Merl Street where they're in kind of a Way Station you'll be thinking of movies after we stop the
01:06:10
podcast it is sort of like I'll say Stanley kubri Martin scorey uh Quinton
01:06:18
tantino uh who did Alien sorry and Gladiator rley rley SC
01:06:25
James Cameron James camon romance True Romance R Christopher
01:06:31
Walkin is that where he has the speech about he has the speech one of the greatest scenes in
01:06:37
cinematic history that that scene did that in that trailer oh my God I you
01:06:42
give me chills because I've watched that and I've shown it to people just that scene as far as just sort of a perfect
01:06:48
scene with Christopher Walkin being Christopher Watkin Dennis especially when you watch the whole movie and you ramp up to it you hit it it's like oh
01:06:55
and when the guy knows he's going to die and and gets the cigarette and stuff uh it's beautiful I may watch it after yeah
01:07:02
yeah um I also love the the first born movie uh I'm a huge Doug Lyman fan oh
01:07:08
yeah Jason Bourne with with Maddie Damon yeah the first the force burn identity is so simple and it's stuned so well the
01:07:17
first one oh the first okay I like any meme that has some kid doing something
01:07:23
stupid and ran falling down and then you cut the guy going Jesus Christ that's Jason
01:07:28
B oh yeah it's so funny we we um what we are we are a little obsessed with the
01:07:34
wrong Miss there you go David I told you there is there is a place in the wrong Missy has a very special place in our
01:07:40
heart the cliff when she goes off that Cliff oh [ __ ] [ __ ] three days of shooting her wiing on that
01:07:46
Cliff my God that was so good that movie just popped it's great I've recommended
01:07:52
the wrong Missy but when I do it I apologize when I recommend it but it I go it's you will laugh out loud it is so
01:07:59
good and then you're going to be mad that you laughed out loud yeah the opening scene because it's it's very a hard R movie the opening scene we're on
01:08:06
a date I'm this kind of nerdy guy Dana and she goes she starts going quit I [ __ ] me and I'm like I'm not and
01:08:13
she's like no this dick behind you and it's like this huge wrestler guy and he goes I'm not doing [ __ ] and she goes
01:08:19
[ __ ] you my boyfriend's going to kick your [ __ ] ass I'm like this is the first day of shooting because she was
01:08:25
supposed to say some of that and then like just keep going keep going and to keep it within reason but every take
01:08:32
we'd start laughing and I'm like godamn and it was It was kind of hard because I was a straight man and it's hard to be a
01:08:38
straight man and it's so funny to watch her go nuts so everyone would just try to help feed her stuff like just because
01:08:44
she's so good on her own she doesn't need anything but it was such a fun movie because that that was the first day of shooting so you start to go oh
01:08:50
this might be good because it's if we can keep doing this kind it is insane
01:08:56
have you seen it have you seen the wrong Missy oh yeah he's going to oh yeah I've seen it yeah I just thought it she was
01:09:02
brilliant in it I mean it was like a two I've said two or to fource three times on this this is the third time the third
01:09:08
that's a true like stars born I mean and Jim Carrey asked you know the physicality and her commitment and the
01:09:15
staging of it and everything about it it just worked also out of nowhere like no one plus it's a movie when I'm in it
01:09:22
they're probably looking to to be like oh how funny is he going to be in this and then she's right next to me killing
01:09:28
it you're like no this is where you look in this you know what I mean they're like in this one in this one I was like
01:09:35
intrigued by the script because I go oh this is kind of like Meet the Parents where I'm the Ben still or everything's happening around me Nick schwarts and's
01:09:41
weird everyone's weird and I'm trying to hold it down and that's a fun thing to play like Jason baitman does it a lot
01:09:48
you know Kean and shadon he's not part of the yeah it's fun to go
01:09:54
it's that's an important job too I keep telling myself and um so to watch it all
01:09:59
unfold and have it do well was was a lot of fun can can we do a shout out to cesal strong before you know yeah and
01:10:07
you you and her and and Shaun I mean when the second season is out or where
01:10:12
are you at second season's out yeah second season is finished so you can watch that whole you your person could
01:10:17
binge That season if they want to they call it shago shago the [ __ ] out of it also to sum up
01:10:24
P I want to say Keegan is from Southfield Michigan I'm from Bloomfield
01:10:29
Hills uh he was adopted as a child I was told I was adopted we have a lot of
01:10:35
things in common um uh and what are you reading
01:10:40
that's all we have in common that's it one last thing also had for him okay go ahead one last one last thing we can
01:10:46
take a break and come back um your experience playing uh Obama's anger
01:10:51
translator just that White House correspondence there what that must have been sort of a out of- body kind of gig
01:10:58
I mean how' that come about it was a weird one it was uh I remember I had I I had spoken to one of his Junior speech
01:11:05
writers and they were asking if if we wanted to do something sometime and I was like yeah that that would be
01:11:10
wonderful wow and they got in contact with my manager at the time and he was like do you think it' be possible for
01:11:17
you to go to the White House correspondence dinner and and do this thing and I said yeah let me let me talk
01:11:22
to the speech writer so I spoke to the speech writer he wrote the speech he wrote the scene for us and um
01:11:30
and it was it was it I I remember rehearsing it so much that I knew Obama's lines and my lines that was it
01:11:38
was it was it was so important to me to get it to nail it because I figured he's got other things on his mind right he's
01:11:44
not just thinking about spech the president it's the president he's got other stuff going on he wants to jump in he's like oh this is next do this but
01:11:51
You' rehearsed so you're ready exactly right yeah so I had to be ready and he was a hell of a straight man he was so
01:11:59
yeah he's funny know he really he gets comedy like he gets comedy and it was
01:12:04
really really fantastic and and but I remember not thinking about the
01:12:10
magnitude of the moment until literally seconds before I walked on stage I mean seconds because I had just been
01:12:15
rehearsing rehearsing rehearsing rehearsing csing and then all of a sudden I'm backstage and I hear him go
01:12:21
uh I'm going to bring in my anger translator Luther and then I start
01:12:27
to enter and as I enter freak out I'm like I was like yeah I'm in character
01:12:32
but my heart all of a sudden my heart was trying to catch up to how nervous I should be when was your first laugh was
01:12:39
did your first line get a big laugh and then you kind of I mean right right away intro probably got a laugh yeah first
01:12:45
there were there were people in the audience who knew the character the majority of the people in the audience did not know the character but there
01:12:51
there were people in the audience who knew the character and so that kind of calmed me down when I heard people go yes yeah you know what I mean and I was
01:12:59
like okay all right we're going to be all right and then the first joke came out it murdered first first joke
01:13:04
murdered and so then I knew I was gonna be okay then you calm down just look over and he was just he was just killing
01:13:10
it as the straight man killing it it was really pretty good can I ask one more
01:13:16
question sorry we keep ending but so you guys have been married four years and now I've gotten to know you as a five
01:13:22
years you've been married five years I think it's four I checked but anyway no um how do how do you um resolve
01:13:30
conflict or do you go to therapy marital or is it is it you have such a flow at
01:13:35
this point in your lives you know with each other or how's the marriage going you seem very happy but sometimes
01:13:42
there's a lot of tension underneath I'm kidding I think I was
01:13:47
like this is your last question the work stuff is is easy which is which is odd because I
01:13:54
feel like people are always like God I couldn't work with my wife or I couldn't work with my husband and they go how do
01:14:00
you do that I so well we were friends and we were working together and figuring out how to work together before
01:14:07
the other stuff before you became romantic yeah exactly yeah oh okay I didn't know that that's a big big
01:14:13
difference so you're friends yeah go ahead yeah so we were friends like similar sense of humor we um know what
01:14:21
what is it that we uh well we we we've you know we we're we get along really well our minds are kind of work as one
01:14:28
it's it's amazing we really do we it's like we finish each other's sandwiches sandwich sandwiches those sandwiches can
01:14:35
I can I share a romantic romantic a romantic question because I've never had
01:14:40
that experience I've been married for 71 years of it we're happily married but uh it's uh this idea that you're
01:14:48
friends and then maybe at some point one of you realizes subconsciously
01:14:53
consciously well this feels like more than friends than me like I'm really physically attracted so there's this
01:14:59
moment where you're just friends and then you start making out what's that like do you laugh about it like CU
01:15:07
you're just ped for how long you're scared that the other person might it might ruin everything go what the [ __ ] I
01:15:12
thought we were friends I mean I think I think we both because we we didn't meet
01:15:19
until we were in our 40s um and Keegan was uh SE was separating and didn't have
01:15:26
children but they were he was going through his separation and I was kind of
01:15:31
like look you know I want to stay away from all of that you you go do what you
01:15:36
gotta gotta do yeah yeah I think basically the big thing was is what is a
01:15:42
partner and what is a friend and what does a friend mean and what does it mean to be a good partner to someone and
01:15:48
partners are people who Inspire each other they support each other they Pro provoke each each other they try to
01:15:54
bring out each other's strengths I mean ideally that's that's what you want in a partner and when we were friends and I
01:16:01
knew Keenan Peele was going to be ending soon and I actually was lucky enough I was able to go to a couple tapings of
01:16:07
the show and I brought some friends to see him and see the show and um it was really phenomenal to be there and see
01:16:14
those interstitials before the end um I said to Keegan if you could do anything
01:16:20
after Keegan Peele ends anything in the world you had a silver platter and you put anything on it and you didn't have
01:16:26
any story standing in your way about what you could do you didn't have a story standing in your way what would
01:16:32
you do and it was a really like it was a question that really him it was
01:16:37
difficult to answer and then and then eventually he said I want to do Shakespeare and I want to be Jason
01:16:44
Bourne and I was like so you have theater agents you could you can talk to
01:16:50
your theater agents and you can fly to New York and meet with everybody and tell them you want to do theater and
01:16:55
within a year and a half of that conversation um Keegan was at the public theater uh with Oscar Isaac in Hamlet he
01:17:04
uh Doug Lyman who and and and I have become friends over the years I said I can introduce you to Doug Lyman and Doug
01:17:11
put Keegan in an action sequence in TV show and I was like you can do any of these things you're the only person
01:17:17
stopping yourself from these things you're the only one standing in your way and I think that kind of
01:17:23
I think that that shift was kind of where Keegan and I where Keegan was like well hey wait a second don't
01:17:30
leave can you stay around for a minute like how are you able to figure out or forever you know it's good to have
01:17:37
someone you trust right there I mean there lot positives to it can can you do that again how did you do that what can
01:17:43
we do next how do we how do we what do we do and I like well how do we you know as long as you keep asking the universe
01:17:50
or things and find a way to share and give back the universe keeps giving you things so I was like well what do you
01:17:56
want to do and how do we share and how can and and one of the the things on a
01:18:01
side note is that when I write for Keegan for comedy which we didn't get into and I know you're gonna they'll cut
01:18:08
stuff down later when you need oh no these these can go pretty long don't worry is that we talked a little bit
01:18:13
about this at we were at the milin conference a couple weeks ago in La is they asked what we want to talk about and I said I really want to talk about
01:18:21
you can be mean with hum or you can be inclusive with humor and make people laugh and for the last
01:18:27
couple years anything I write for Keegan if you see he does not make fun of people he does not punch down he's not
01:18:34
mean to anyone I was like I want anytime you tell a joke in public or on stage
01:18:39
you can be funny and also you can lift people and be inclusive you can be
01:18:45
self-deprecating but we've done a bunch of TV shows together where I give the writers a really hard time I said you
01:18:50
are not allowed to make fun of Keegan Keegan can make make fun of Keegan but you should not be we're not making fun
01:18:55
of the other people on the show anyone on a panel we're not even even for the NFL honors thing I called grank and I
01:19:03
said grank these are the Jokes which joke do you want to be part of and which
01:19:08
joke do you feel comfortable with and how do you want us to tell it so that you're in on it like I want you to be in
01:19:14
on it and I I think you know that that there's something about the fact that
01:19:19
the two of us together can do more good in the world than either of us could do if we were a part so oh I'm so glad you
01:19:26
got to say it was bigger than answer that's really really interesting well Keegan uh obviously as a performer has
01:19:33
an extreme likability quotient is sort of a gift I I think Colin joose did a
01:19:38
his book he called it a punchable face but Keegan is joyful in when he's performing I mean you can tell he's
01:19:44
having a blast even when he's being you know doing whatever he's doing so that's cool so you guys have a it's a very
01:19:50
mature relationship when you get together you already had life under behind you you know in their 40s so I
01:19:57
guess it's very mature so you know all the tricks of the trade all the ditches all the stuff so it sounds like um I'm
01:20:04
going to say this is a good relationship I'm going to give it five stars we're come on the couch in your
01:20:11
place tomorrow and we'll talk about other things but it is someone you trust and respect which you both have for each
01:20:16
other which is great and says stuff to you it just it's it's like therapy which
01:20:22
I started when I was 60 but that's another story but um it's great in that context like you well do that it's very
01:20:28
interesting how we get in our own way as performers why won't I do it action well do do one what you you know and and now
01:20:35
I'm I'm like well I'll you know I'll write one for you let's just do that yeah and you'll write one for me we were texting during the podcast I'm sorry but
01:20:42
ell and I oh yeah yes you guys are gonna do Harlem adjacent too I'm doing loaded and locked so I
01:20:49
have a bottle of booze and a gun on the Lo loaded and locked loaded and locked
01:20:55
Lance of shot I think I wrote down okay good those are all good they're all usable good you you I'm I actually I
01:21:03
don't have a title for it but I've been trying to come up with the name like his character the name of his character has
01:21:09
more than one meaning I love those movies like that I love it too Keegan Michael Key and L key have been our
01:21:16
guests today uh love seeing you love getting to know people on these podcasts really fun and I hope we run into each
01:21:22
other or as I like to say see you around campus the campus of show business andun
01:21:29
is everywhere I recommend it to anyone especially you don't not exclusively love Broadway musicals it really rocks
01:21:36
you and cesley are great in that all right bye guys all right have a good day take care bye take care guys bye bye
01:21:43
awkward leave this has been a podcast presentation of cadence 13 please listen
01:21:49
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01:21:55
your podcast no joke folks flying the wall has been a presentation of cadence 13 executive
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produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade Chris corkran of cadence 13 and Charlie finan of brillstein entertainment the
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show's lead producers Greg Holtzman with production and Engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of cadence
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