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today's guest David is uh probably one of the most influential producers of
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Television of all time especially right now Ted Sandos of Netflix who's in
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charge of billions of dollars allocated the shows and is also an incredible site
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live and standup comedy fan and he's a very good friend of David I know him
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casually but he's a really nice guy David I agree uh he knows SNL he knows the podcasts he listens and
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has comments all the time which is very nice for a guy who could not be more busy um we talked about his schedule we
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talked about all these shows he has to keep an eye on the pressures of being the boss
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um I always think of him up in those in the world of those uh guys that run
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companies like Bezos I think you were saying you know Ted's so normal he's not jacked and Juiced yet he's the most
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regular humble person you'd ever meet he has not gotten on a boat made a boat
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yeah he hasn't uh made a rocket ship yet but he's just a powerful guy that's very lowkey so I like that kind of thing very
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fun great laugher knows a ton about comedy and we get into different comic
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specials and uh he gets a lot of pressure sometimes when things seemingly
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go too far and what do you do about that and uh we had a lot lot of great lot of great talk uh with him and all his shows
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he's doing that are hitting and how do you know when the show all over the world you know what what what the squid
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game M meant to to these streaming platforms and one of the biggest hits in
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history and and the authenticity of it and why and so it it'ss really just about the future all this a lot of
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learning a lot of learning for me I usually think I know everything and I didn't shockingly yeah I tried to I I
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was a little pithy in the beginning Netflix Flex Flix what do you got you know and uh I I it was kind of yeah I
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said I but you know these live streaming shows and what they're doing and what the globalization the the monetization
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any other zations can you add it no I think those are the Z those good it's uh but it was a really fun talk and we
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laughed a lot and he loves comedy bada bing bada boom here he is Ted
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[Music] Sandos Ted Sandos what what is your
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official title right now because it seems to jump around chief executive creative I'm the co co-ceo of Netflix
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holy tomato so does Reed Reed HS has to worry about anything is any reason yeah
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Reed is kind of um he's the chairman of the board now and he just goes off he has other he's very focused on his philanthropy and ice fishing he's built
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this a ski mountain in Utah actually wow called he owns Powder Mountain powder I was going to do sounds
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like a Neil Neil Young song All to be on Powder Mountain sorry with the with the
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double meaning from the yeah oh I oh I don't about cannabis but oh yeah um so you
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don't have a jettison like if you weren't doing this what would you want to do I don't you know honestly next year
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I'm 25 years at Netflix and so my whole yeah so my whole career has been in home
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in either video stores or video distribution or Netflix yes so if I was not doing this I'd be probably doing
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much the same many of the same things because like I always thought if I didn't have to make money I would like
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operate a movie like a retrospective movie theater or something like that well you're like Quint Tarantino and
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that you both were steeped in movies from working and you managing Regional
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uh video stores and now you just said you'd like to have a vintage uh movie
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theater and Tarantino has one of those in La so do you mind if I call you Quinton for the rest of the interview
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pleas I will I will direct 10 movies in my lifetime that's right they just ripped one down by the Grove is that
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true Ted there was one on there was one on Beverly by The Grove in Fairfax Old School one I think they I think they
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didn't it closed down to remodel and just never reopened you know hopefully they're opening a Club Monaco or something important there so I'd like to
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leave with this because it might put a smile on your face so this is this is trending in these last few weeks the
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kids are talking about this well this is like media that covers companies Netflix
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won the streaming Wars does that make you smile make you go uh we got a lot of
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work to do or does that scare you in a way Netflix won the streaming Wars with
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260 million subscribers speak well two years ago they were writing bring in the
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paddles I think we lost them I know you're right it turned it once it just
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so I told I told everyone here don't don't take that headline seriously or
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take this headline seriously that implies that the streaming Wars are over it's it's the you know streaming is just
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the Natural Evolution of media it's what people want because it's on demand and
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it's in their control and they get tons of choice and the economics are so much better than the old payv model used to
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be so I just think it's where it's a natural course and it's very in early earliest days so the there's no war
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that's over but uh there's lots of battles and we're going to a nice comedians doing Saturday Night Live
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theme podcast War has not been declared over but we're in the we're in the
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conversation here's what my blink curious thing about you if you ever you guys have a show and you think it's
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going to be a smash and whatever metrics you're using billions and it just does it underperforms and like oh holy [ __ ]
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or the opposite okay well let's take a chance on that one I don't know and it's a
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smash yeah so squid game versus
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what was the biggest smash uh uh sort of surprise wasid squid games an actual surpr the most watched yeah it's the
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most watched show in the history of the company around the world including in the US and it was a surprise in that it
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was really meant like all of our local Productions are meant to be thrilling to the local population and I don't they're
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not meant to be engineered to be Global or anything so what we found is that the more authentically local a show is
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weirdly the more it travels because I think people see it as authentic you know it's more authentic and real yeah
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um so in that case it was a relatively expensive Korean television show uh but
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it actually just within about three days on Netflix it just exploded everywhere so not did you pick it up or did you go
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produce it and put it together so the director Wang who was pitching it had
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pitched it around the world for about 10 years as a movie and our Korea team
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which is incredible in our office in Soul met with him and said this is a pretty on the- noose Korean Cinema you
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know sci-fi uh story have you thought about exploring it and opening the world
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up a lot more and came up the idea of and he went off and rewrote the scripts and smart Korean Korean show I saw a
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picture on your Instagram Chad I don't follow many people this sort of I'm GNA hear I'm GNA hear this one um but uh he
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I think you're on the set of SC game two yeah season two and they're shooting right now um it was this place like
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three hours outside of Soul so it's like a a fun cultural immersion you know what
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they have in in Korea that's incredible the road stop the the uh rest stops oh they do you know ours are kind of scary
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in the United States or they're closed you know yeah they no yeah the ones here spotless clean in Korea spotless clean
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like have like Topline like very high-end food courts in them and all the regional foods like people like if you
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live there You' actually drive to the rest stop to get the regional food from that area of Korea go on dates go to the
00:08:02
it's a good date night it's a good date night you know so Netflix you you guys
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the red envelopes and the DVD that was a revolution at the time yeah then weirdly only only mailed our last DVD about four
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months ago that's what I heard about because there was something just nice about him the consistency of The
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Branding the red envelope and the ease of that so that was like you and Reed and your other people work with you yeah
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breaking something knew then of course watch on your computer can watch a movie on computer and I do think House of
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Cards was the first that I remember live streaming and my wife and I didn't even
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know about live streaming we had a bad Wi-Fi connection so it would stop every two minutes and we'd have to do this
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whole thing and we just thought well maybe it'll get better in the future but anyway that was a big thing like Netflix
00:08:54
you know your brand completely shifted with that decision did you I mean that was a huge huge moment for your company
00:09:01
right at that time 10 years ago yeah you know it was uh 2012 and the at the time
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we were building the business up to do streaming but what's interesting about it is Reed Hastings this incredible
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Visionary when I met him in 1999 he talked about Netflix just like
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this and all all digital totally Global
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um the only thing he didn't see in that Vision was uh doing original program pring he thought this would be a better
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distribution solution but you know we're a tech company we weren't a creative company like Blockbuster but you just
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pick one to goes out yeah that you're saying something like that yeah so for us I went and so we were just in a
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routine meeting with the producers of House of Cards who also produced a bunch of movies and they said this was going
00:09:48
to be their first TV package and do we want to look at it and I looked at the the package that they put in front of us
00:09:54
which was you know David Fincher directing television this Oscar
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nominated writer writing the scripts and Kevin spy when that was a good thing
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starring Robin Wright great yeah great actor great actor yeah re Hastings
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didn't have any uh psychic Visions about
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him but but when they brought it in I said look if we were ever gonna get into Originals this would be the one it's
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like the perfect package we had three scripts it wasn't like we had to do you know all the development work and and I
00:10:28
looked at I said I we green lit the show we kind of famously gave them a two season order which was pretty unheard of
00:10:34
at the time but mostly because there's no reason you would take a desirable show to Netflix back then um oh just to
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get ahead of it did you overpay what did you pay yeah yeah I mean we we paid basically was about a $100 million do
00:10:45
commitment to the show I don't think anyone's even heard of that much money at the time I remember it was bold it
00:10:50
was full boat as they call it money so then all in so we did the move I came back I tell Reed that I made the deal
00:10:56
and he's like well I thought we don't do this and I said yeah go but for me it honestly it was if we if this show Works
00:11:05
um it will fundamentally change the course of our business and if it doesn't we'll have overpaid for a show which we
00:11:11
do all the so well if it was a race you got out you got out of the blocks first
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and everyone went whoa there's hit shows because the the the show of the moment
00:11:23
was on Netflix yeah and so huge people forget too we had before we did that we
00:11:30
had like 25 million people streaming on Netflix so if you start you know trying to if I tried to build the whole
00:11:36
business on our original programming over the last 10 years we would not be where we're sitting right now well well
00:11:42
the other thing I don't know if it's revolutionary but you re putting shows that like Arrested Development that get
00:11:49
rediscovered on Netflix has become another Lane in your your brand obviously the office was huge and so
00:11:55
forth and so on so you had to pay a lot for that those were gambles at at the moment right well remember at when we
00:12:01
were licensing at the beginning all those shows nobody really knew what this right was this the streaming rights for
00:12:07
a show it was either a home video right or a digital right and people didn't
00:12:12
really know different Studios had it all constructed differently when it came to um so television what we were able to
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license was shows that didn't have enough Seasons to get the syndication and we're off the air okay so weirdly um
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rest of development was off the air the year that we were going and so we had
00:12:34
the ability to do arrest of development and on DVD it was a very popular shows and we we knew that from our own DVD
00:12:40
rental data was that people love the show and I actually think that for Arrested Development was one of those
00:12:46
shows that was literally ahead of it ahead of its time yeah most people say that when they're trying to make you
00:12:52
feel good because your show bombed this thing really was ahead of its time like if you watched it you really had to binge it because the joke sets up up in
00:12:59
episode one and pays off in episode four uh and you really kind of have to watch it in one sitting to see that play out
00:13:05
and binging you know streaming on Netflix was a way to do that um so that's why I that one of our earliest
00:13:11
decisions after House of Cards was to reboot AR rest of development so it's sort of hunch Plus data yeah yeah and
00:13:18
plus you're a comedy fan and so you like good comedy and that's you're like this one's actually sort of a clever
00:13:24
interesting comedy people would appreciate and the fact they blow up you know really reinvigorates a lot of these
00:13:31
shows suit especially suit was crazy but that was you know in the earliest U Breaking Bad and Walking Dead we had all
00:13:38
those shows right after they were on right after the season after they Ed on television and they were small culty
00:13:44
shows that just blew up on because of Netflix yeah wow Breaking Bad you got into you you're into more live stuff now
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and uh we did the Chris Rock thing and you guys were part of that history with us yeah I was afraid to talk I just
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never I never felt more like a white guy in my life like I should just stay quiet
00:14:04
right now but I got to hang out with Jabar back stage and talk to him about so that was a thrill it was fun it was
00:14:11
fun you're going more into live is that just one area you guys haven't quite
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cracked or or what are you looking for in live what what is appealing live that you guys gravitate towards so I'm
00:14:22
looking for things that actually are creatively better because they're alive um but you know Saturday Night Live is
00:14:28
one of those things that people tune into to see what's going to happen and I do think part of the the liveness of it
00:14:34
is part of the pitch um Chris Rock Live was exciting one for us because you know
00:14:39
it had been a year that Chris had not talked about what happened at the Oscars and he was going to in that set and
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there was enough buil up you know people wanted to hear that story that the liveness of it really mattered so it was
00:14:50
the most watched streaming comedy special since they started tracking it uh and I know internally it was the most
00:14:57
talked about for sure of the year um because people so people were rushing home to watch the Chris what about the
00:15:04
after show how did that do in terms of numbers it was it was actually it held on it held on both the pre the pregame
00:15:11
and no it actually did it was fun to do because we want I mean talk about like doing working without a net we had never
00:15:17
streamed anything live and we actually did it in two different cities and Pitch back and forth and all that stuff so
00:15:22
hard teams were really chomping off a bunch are you getting are you ironing it all out now like every time you do it
00:15:27
it's a little easy what have you done since what are you you're doing a tennis thing yeah that's and then we and we
00:15:34
have and Saturday night we have the SAG Awards live on on Netflix as well oh oh this okay Saturday night yeah and then
00:15:40
uh and then we just announced we did this big deal with WWE so WWE Raw is going to be on every week on Netflix
00:15:46
starting in 25 um and the uh you got the tennis one coming uh and then we're going to do a
00:15:53
bunch of live stuff from the Netflix is a joke Festival this summer all right so you can sort of how how much lead time
00:15:59
sorry Dan how much lead time do you need if you say you know something's coming up it sounds kind of cool can we get in
00:16:04
there I mean remember we're not actually we hadn't been built for Liv so this is all technology for us so we probably
00:16:12
need 60 60 days or so to yeah get the resources like yeah that's the right answer thank you very good excellent
00:16:18
here's a here's a business question uh which I I don't know if you want to answer but the NFL the money that
00:16:24
they're getting and I don't know if I got this right but I believe Amazon Maybe you're a competitor I've heard of
00:16:29
them they paid a billion dollars for eight or 10 Thursday night footballs was
00:16:36
that right something in that area in that zip yeah BOS man that son of a gun
00:16:42
he's on the yacht [ __ ] I I think I think actually CHS you like the thing I always talk about I'm not like people
00:16:48
say oh Netflix is against live sports for some reason no we're not not not at all just that those Big League live
00:16:54
sports the demand for them is so great yeah that the whatever distributor is
00:16:59
doing it doesn't really bring much value to it so they don't get much margin for it they don't get much profit out of that and so we were able to over the
00:17:07
last 25 years build a gigantic company without having a lost leader product
00:17:12
right and I think Sports generally Big League Sports tends to be a lost leader for television so at some point you know
00:17:19
I'm pretty I'm very confident we can be twice as big as we are today without doing that but who knows beyond that are
00:17:25
you talking a half billion subscribers if run the numbers right in my head you have you you've rounded you've rounded
00:17:31
down you've done the math pretty well you're at 260 and you can double it wait dan what about that Paramount plus
00:17:37
[ __ ] when they try to throw that in there I hate those guys that drove me nuts I like Netflix I don't like those
00:17:46
par I don't like them listen I'm in my hotel trying to hook my
00:17:51
phone up to my laptop to my TV and I got a a antenna on the ceiling I'm like how
00:17:57
do I get parent I just want to come home watch the goddamn game but if that's the future I you're oh you're talking about
00:18:02
peacock peacock did that peock forced for the playoff game you had to join peacock yeah yeah anybody yeah people it
00:18:10
tells you like again 26 million people or something watched it and they went from nothing to that so it's it's the
00:18:16
big people like Football turns out sure but it was it was sort of a forc situation I didn't love well to your
00:18:23
point it's live you don't know what's going to happen there's a huge gambling component and then very much Swift
00:18:28
effect of like Millions fanty Fantasy Football Fantasy Football and millions of young women now like are interested
00:18:36
in football gamble yeah and gamble they like to gamble too you're right d they want him in to gamble they can come lose
00:18:43
and play Fantasy Football when I lose very it's very addictive losing I I saw
00:18:48
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put in a pitch for this for them but I I saw a a product that the NFL is working on that
00:18:55
basically incorporates all your fantasy of football picks your gaming and everything so you're watching on an you
00:19:01
pull out your iPad and watch the game through the lens of as it's a l like it's almost like a like a screen where
00:19:07
it's also all that [ __ ] while you're yeah I'm sure the future is like I'm surprised states don't have gambling
00:19:12
everywhere because everyone's willing to lose everything just to gamble and it just it seems to be everywhere some
00:19:18
states I land I can't play it on my phone some I
00:19:25
can Ted from Arizona Dana just so FYI I remember you guys arizonians arizonian
00:19:33
Danny you met some of my high school buddies that I did I was it was it was interesting because I have a lot of the
00:19:39
same friends that I had in high school in college and so it was neat that all your friends were just just knew you
00:19:47
when and just completely real regular people you haven't dumped them yet it wasn't like an Oscar party there I mean
00:19:53
Jason baitman was there it was cool to meet him David Spade was there Mr Chappelle was there yeah oh yeah that
00:19:59
was a fun M that was a fun night by the way with Chappelle I got two stories for Chappelle just to interrupt you yeah one
00:20:06
he's really good at it one is just first of all I think it's nice that you're you're you know I've known you as a
00:20:12
comedy fan for years and years and so that's truly who you are so when you back people when they do a special or
00:20:18
you have to come out and get in front of something and say I do back a comedian saying what they want doesn't mean you
00:20:23
agree with it doesn't mean just mean let let people talk I think that's commendable especially we Comics so of
00:20:29
course we like that definitely it's a big bookstore you you can open any book
00:20:35
you want or not you know and people like to think about all kinds of diversity
00:20:40
except for diversity of thought and and I think comedy is one of these places where you should have a pretty open
00:20:47
playground y to figure out you know ideas and ideas you know have to live
00:20:52
through conversation and I think comedy is a great place to start the conversation right and some people don't agree some do and it's under the guise
00:20:59
of a joke sometimes it's it's it's in the title it's a joke it's in the title it's not my stock and trade but I do
00:21:06
think the comedic mind you're not supposed to say this makes you want to say it you know you can say all these
00:21:13
things up but not that thing you're like well wait a minute you know if it you immediately got to you immediately want
00:21:18
to crack that puzzle right yes right I mean watching comedy you sometimes people like that when they say oh he
00:21:25
went pretty far I don't agree with that but yeah they're stuff it's not the same six jokes that everyone's allowed to use
00:21:31
I think it's funny I think that people like you know when they talk about comedy and try to put it into camps and
00:21:37
like well some people talk to work blue and some people don't and one's better than the other I actually think it's
00:21:44
they're just it's an art form that has a lot of different shapes and if you some people like if you do shock comedy the
00:21:50
hard thing I I'm watching a lot of Comedy over the years like the art thing is getting the audience back so it's actually just a different kind of art
00:21:57
when you want out and got because it's not just a cheap laugh you have to actually reain the audience back in too
00:22:02
so it's an you have to be able to master a lot of different things and you also have to have a clever angle I mean if you want to keep a crowd if you're going
00:22:08
to do these things if you have an interesting angle or something that comes out of nowhere I think it makes it
00:22:14
smarter and there's it's more fun to listen to but you're also more of a connoisseur you've been doing it all
00:22:19
your life and now you're seeing every special and then you've got Hannah you've got the different ranges of
00:22:24
people then people get mad at you and then person back and do a special again and you're like okay well I think down
00:22:32
deep they know you're letting these things go on so they go oh this is the place to do it yeah and I think it's a
00:22:39
hard thing for me too that you know the to keep in mind that we try to do a lot of variety because just like Netflix
00:22:45
itself people like some shows I don't like go that's why we have so much to watch on Netflix because tastes are really diverse and it's certainly within
00:22:52
comedy so to with you know for the point I was trying to make when people got angry was this idea that you know if you
00:22:59
don't like that idea switch it and find another one find one you do like it seems pretty simp choices yeah yeah and
00:23:05
what about Chappelle when we when when we had your party the other
00:23:10
night and he has all these people over the Grammy Chappelle's up for one thing W syes maybe maybe Aziz was up for one
00:23:17
and Chris Rock Sarah Silverman and Sarah silver yeah so Ted Ted went around first
00:23:23
of all it's the most fun Dana you were invited you couldn't come but you you're obviously invited I heard all about it
00:23:28
it's so fun so he's got two tables it's pretty much only comedians we all have a play setting and so you sit out and then
00:23:36
Ted walks around and it's pretty hard to do this Ted stops at each person Sarah
00:23:43
Silverman's here and she's done this and this and we all know her from this and this and then he was and I go oh my God
00:23:50
he's doing it to everyone and it's so hard he had to keep us entertained know the credits know something about the
00:23:56
person and he's going down down up and down remember this Ted yeah you're heading and he gets and so our C Hall
00:24:04
was outside you remember this so he's outside Ted has already thanked Dave Chappelle you know all all the people
00:24:11
actually up for Grammy for the dinner and he does this whole thing about Chappelle very nice then Chappelle
00:24:17
standing behind me for some reason and so when Ted gets to me right when he gets to me to just fawn over me for I
00:24:24
was about to fawn fawn and he was really just working his way to to the main event which is me and then so here so AR
00:24:33
goes do Dave Chappelle's hiding behind you and you're politely like well I did
00:24:38
talk about Dave but you know I'll say a few words again and and Dave takes the
00:24:44
mic there was a mic okay what was there a mic no no mic he just took the okay
00:24:49
he's but he's got a voice and he says uh I can't believe I'm here with all my
00:24:55
favorite comedian he's so nice and then he starts going to each person and I'm like wait is he doing what Ted's doing
00:25:01
and so now just do that so now we're all I'm staring because I've got uh there's
00:25:07
a little Shrubbery on the tables but I've got um Ali Wong and Bill hater right in front of me so and rock is
00:25:13
behind so I'm next and Ted's just waiting to keep going and jaelle did probably 15 minutes he did like a set
00:25:21
and then he stopped and then Ted's like and David's face he had to get right he
00:25:29
yep it was like and the professor and MaryAnn he kind of wrapped it up uh he's like oh there's Chris Rock and blah blah blah blah but it was pretty hilarious
00:25:36
because everyone uh was waiting I'll tell I'll tell you a very short story
00:25:41
about Ted because I do think it speaks to your Vibe Ted's character um of
00:25:48
someone in your position I would just say I you you don't have an ego around it at all and that informs you all the
00:25:54
time uh CU we know um heads the big things in Hollywood you know there's a
00:25:59
lot of you know hey kid and you know all that kind of stuff and you're the opposite so Mike and I Mike Myers and I
00:26:06
Wayne's World um 280 excellent inflation adjusted 400
00:26:12
million um 100 quillion inflation adjusted so we're sitting in a table and Ted comes over there's no
00:26:20
chair around so Ted takes a knee uh beneath Mike and I and talks to us for
00:26:27
15 minutes as a fan of all comedy and everything I mean it was the most you know and then sounds about right I said
00:26:34
well Ted you're you know very nice yeah that's very polite oh thank you yeah it's like uh he goes this was my
00:26:40
favorite moment of the Oscars and he leaves and I said my wife well that's the guy who runs Netflix you know she's
00:26:46
like what she go who's that who's that joker who comes over so anyway I just wanted the audience to know that about
00:26:51
you and that's why people come to your house and U you're you're popular uh for a guy in that position you're in uh you
00:26:59
wear it very well that's all I'll say well thank you man I look I think probably I I came to this completely as
00:27:05
a fan and I think you know a lot of my lot of folks in my role work their way up from the mail room or from the you
00:27:13
know from the junior development positions and those kind of things got grinded down and grinded down to a place where they don't really like the thing
00:27:19
they do anymore and I I love it and I love Creative people I love what you do
00:27:24
for the world and for me it's like I think it's really it it's what makes me bounce out of bed in the morning because
00:27:29
I feel like I'm doing something that matters to people and really it's what you do and it's enabling that is the
00:27:35
important part it sounds overwhelming to have so much on your plate because I
00:27:40
don't even know if you still sit in Pitch meetings or but it it's probably there's probably too many things going
00:27:45
on but just the global the markets and what's going to be a hit what's you to
00:27:51
love it because the hours suck oh my God just the fact you go to the set and and
00:27:56
go to to go to that just that's three days out of your life just for one thing
00:28:01
and Dana you probably know this too but I when I say I came to this as a fan growing up in Phoenix it wasn't that
00:28:07
easy to be a fan of entertainment didn't really come to Phoenix that wasn't bumping no and then David I I remember
00:28:13
because I used to in Arizona I grew up you could the drinking age was 19 so you
00:28:18
could start sneaking into bars when you're like 16 17 and uh all my all my
00:28:24
friends went to the different dance clubs and that kind of stuff and I didn't dance so used to go to the comedy club and and I would see a young David
00:28:31
Spade you know early and by the I was thinking about this the other night what I when I was seeing David do his his
00:28:37
standup this is like Anderson's Fifth Estate NFL Chuckles Chuckles fny bones
00:28:43
um David would get up and do something that was I couldn't put my finger on because I W hadn't yet seen enough
00:28:48
comedy I think to understand how different what you were doing was in Arizona um you were doing like a New
00:28:55
York brand of Comedy that I had not seen before and I know and I know it wasn't you're not from New York so it wasn't
00:29:01
that right but it was that level of kind of and I when I finally realized what you were doing is at Chuckles one night
00:29:07
I went to see Belzer and I go oh that is what that is the vibe that's this the Rhythm that's
00:29:14
the that the sarcasm the whole bit of it like that to me is the the clearest line I could see from someone else to what
00:29:21
you were doing at that time was was Bowzer oh that's not you know when I when I started I only knew people from
00:29:28
the tonight's show you know I'd only watch that so I was sort of luckily not so influenced by if I grew up on the
00:29:35
East Coast you're seeing 10 comics a night at the clubs you know they're all pretty smooth and so not knowing as much
00:29:42
I'm doing weirder bits because I don't know what's right or wrong you're just trying stuff that's funny to me and my friends and that sort of helped me and I
00:29:49
only really got into at The Improv when I came out I think I was 19 or I was 20 because I just looking back I had a
00:29:56
different look I had a kind of a a clever act not a ton of material but I was blond hair everyone else was bser it
00:30:01
was Leno bser all those guys but it was the confident it was the confidence level that Belzer has on stage that's what I saw and and it was very
00:30:08
interesting to see it in a very young guy yeah and there's really no confidence
00:30:14
there f it till you make it I I saw I saw beler catch a rising star in the 70s
00:30:20
I think and he was doing yeah he was the ultimate just Powerhouse cocky and he
00:30:25
was doing a bit about a toy bit you keep keep keep out of my ass okay here's a 20
00:30:31
stay out of my ass and then you know obviously he was an influence on Dennis Miller who then took it to his own his
00:30:39
own place but that kind of sarcasm and specifity I see a lot of Dennis uh in
00:30:45
David at times and also calling back quickly uh words and references so yeah
00:30:51
and I think that this the idea that um if something didn't work it wasn't the it wasn't the end of the set end of my
00:30:57
day it's like you had to right just flow right into something that make fun of the audience for not laughing right yeah
00:31:03
sometimes when I first went on a Chuckles at a at an amateur night my literally first night the guy said uh I
00:31:10
think I told you this day when he I get off just some guys he's the manager he doesn't probably give a [ __ ] about comedy but I go hey man how was it
00:31:18
knowing I bombed and uh and but I wanted to come back even though it's probably free to do four minutes and he goes I
00:31:24
don't know it was all right he goes actually what you said between was funer and then he walked away and I was like
00:31:31
and then that's my whole life that's my whole life self deprecating you knew what to do yeah throw away jokes this
00:31:36
kind of thing and then it just turned into that yeah you were the opposite of please love me was maybe I was in that
00:31:42
mode at one point come on everybody in those Phoenix days Dan I
00:31:47
saw you at the Celebrity Theater oh did you see that SNL show with Kevin neand
00:31:53
Dana and was it me Dennis and Kevin that's unreal I saw that I was that was
00:31:59
the Swatch tour I think I just went to watch yes I wasn't on SNL yet and I was like holy [ __ ] I think they were getting
00:32:05
six grand a night I was [ __ ] I couldn't believe it well I remember that
00:32:10
show because it was the three of us and I I I don't know I think I came back and then someone I'm on stage and someone
00:32:16
had a big stock of broccoli and threw it as hard as they could hit me in the back
00:32:23
BR I went back with Mike Myers there actually and he opened for but that was uh that's a cool theater I
00:32:29
mean in the round is can be tricky but I remember did a special L it was an
00:32:35
embarrassment of riches for comedy because it was drivable from La so all the who that can go and work on the
00:32:41
weekends in Phoenix well always great audience is the Improv and stuff like uh sophisticated but not cynical you know I
00:32:49
was to be terrible audiences because it was hot so people be working outside and a little bit drunk and H tired from
00:32:56
being hot but the audiences always were great yeah you know what's funny is is uh Ted's my same age Dana and uh I think
00:33:04
right Ted so when you when you grow up in Arizona I was like so into Gilligan's Island and
00:33:11
you know Happy Days and and working Mindy and it's funny that you can laugh at those and be so and love them so much
00:33:19
but later you go that's a little corny or that's a little not what I do it's hard to steer because you're told that's
00:33:26
funny you know all those shows they were funny though yeah I don't know what about it but it it wasn't totally my
00:33:32
style but at the time I was I couldn't get enough of those shows were you into those shows oh yeah but that that for
00:33:39
comedians there was there were tropes I mean one thing you would do this is a old reference but you you get the
00:33:45
microphone cord you go up and You' wave the microphone cord and go rolling rolling rolling keep them doggies
00:33:52
going you know there was a a lot of those little
00:33:58
closer don't tell everyone that that's but yeah do all that stuff you know I
00:34:04
haven't seen him around a while but Tim tomerson remember that guy he yeah we did All Stage Coach and John Wayne St
00:34:10
well we're going over the hill papy and all the sound
00:34:19
[Music] effects I mean I do like the assortment pack of standup I do like that there you
00:34:25
know the kenison can come or Carrot Top you know Kennis not anymore obviously but in the day it was a lot of different
00:34:33
styles of Comedy do you think this is a good question for you where are we right now in the world
00:34:39
of standup are are are they mimicking each other is is Shane the newest kind of different type of guy I mean how do
00:34:47
you how do you see it yeah I think it's in you know I think comedy always comes in waves so and I think there's this
00:34:53
interesting wave right now with with uh with like Nate yeah and and Shane too I think that has
00:35:00
but basically there's a group of folks who appeal to a to an audience and then they can get it Broad and then another
00:35:06
one someone come out they make it broad so I really feel like like like no other time you kind of really have to pay
00:35:11
attention to who's out there and what they're doing and Tik Tok can give you a funny read on things uh for the most
00:35:18
part what you want to see is just somebody the way an audience really reacts to to to the comedian which you don't see at all on social media well
00:35:25
that's the yeah that's the Revolution for for people of my age group it's like comedians are not household names sell
00:35:32
out Arenas they either have a podcast or their Netflix special I I was on B
00:35:37
Chrysler shows super nice great and he was flying he was gonna go to Europe the next day and he's playing he's gonna
00:35:44
headline Berlin and uh Edinburgh it's like amazing one of our early specials
00:35:49
we did with Bill Burr and I remember bill called and said hey are you guys in like other countries I go yeah he goes
00:35:55
yeah because I just sold out shows in Denmark and Norway and so it really I think that that Netflix special is the
00:36:02
thing that's kind of at the center of you definitely need it because the the formula now Dana and you know this and
00:36:09
Ted knows this is like these guys that are you work on your hour everyone talks
00:36:14
about their hour they're getting together it's always like it's insinuated it's for Netflix but they're they're not buying them all but they're
00:36:20
like I'm working on my hour I'm doing my special doesn't mean Netflix is paying for it some people are just too new and
00:36:26
they're not good enough but they the idea is to get an hour to hopefully get
00:36:32
on Netflix and then that's a big calling card around the world and then you go tour you have to sort of come up with a
00:36:39
pretty new hour go out so you bring a crowd out Nate is great at this Nate
00:36:44
botsi did this and it just got bigger every time and then you get more fans and you go out live and they see you and
00:36:51
then they go look for your new hour and then you what and Bert did that and you know seora and Bill Bur all these guys
00:36:57
are and you have to be good and then they show up and then you just keep and
00:37:02
no one was playing theaters like Ted back in Scottdale Leno maybe played
00:37:07
gamage Auditorium or celebrity but or Seinfeld maybe I think you I think I S
00:37:13
ran into you at the Seinfeld show at gamage and I oh wow I don't remember who
00:37:18
I was trying to think of it the other day whether was Leno with him maybe because they did it was definitely
00:37:24
Seinfeld you were sitting like two rows ahead and we sh you know and that was hard to fill a theater and you know I I
00:37:29
when I do clubs during SNL or just shoot me or whenever I would always just go
00:37:35
book even if it's Irvine Improv you do even seven nights it's a big room but yeah I never thought about jumping to
00:37:41
theaters and then uh my manager was like why don't you just ever just book a theater tour you never if you're filling
00:37:48
out this many seats in the yeah and so I go do people do that like everyone's doing that I was really late to the game
00:37:55
I I think I heard ber C should describe like the whole business of how to book clubs and how to do the Netflix special
00:38:01
what to do after that and he's like it's a very he's super tuned into to the business model for sure and he has a pod
00:38:07
and he has Clips out and like Bobby Lee Theo like these guys that I know the younger generation really loves them
00:38:13
yeah it's great and it can put you I mean like you said if it's a great hour it can definitely change the trajectory
00:38:19
of everything and you can build on it and build on it and it's a recurring thing it it's been working out for years
00:38:25
and it could be and for me been back to the diversity part it might be something as big as 50,000 people at Dodger
00:38:31
Stadium for Gabe a glacias yeah or or nor McDonald's last special he just did it shot it like this in front of a
00:38:37
webcam actually less than this remember we watch we watch it we watch it
00:38:43
together we were like oh okay so this I mean but you know what it's the it's the material everyone worries about the
00:38:49
backdrop and [ __ ] yeah are you funny or not it really you can look through all the Clutter and Norm was funny just
00:38:54
talking uh and the guys that play Dodger Stadium are funny how how many do you do do you do one is it up to one a week now
00:39:02
or not there's a there's a b there's ones that we film there's some that we license so between all that there's
00:39:08
probably one a week that'll come out yeah it was funny the uh when when I first signed Chris to do his first
00:39:14
special on Netflix Chris goes you got a lot of ordinaries not a lot of
00:39:21
specials well it used to be a really a big a huge deal but I mean for you
00:39:27
personally it must be kind of satisfying especially somebody who's kind of treadling along sort of their first big
00:39:32
break and then it's happening on your platform and then their dreams come true kind of a fun part best it is the best
00:39:38
because you think about again kind of this is that technology internet would have brings to things like what it would
00:39:44
have taken for a Bert kryer to turn into a Bert kryer you know without it it
00:39:49
would have been really tough and long and it's been hard Ali Wong really did that pregnant one it was great yeah
00:39:57
and then and then you start Rippling across the things like she just now she just won all the awards for beef and you
00:40:02
know did made a really great movie for us a couple years ago so I think there's the cool thing is because we do so much
00:40:08
the platform is so open you can you know D David has done three great movies for Netflix and a great couple great Netflix
00:40:14
specials and well what was the uh billions of minutes that world Missy got I love the metric of billions of minutes
00:40:21
watch for world the wrong Miss it's getting up there but you you always always mentioned R Missy but I think the
00:40:28
doover is another oh the do well I I have to give that a little bit to Sandler um because we did so he gets
00:40:37
some credit but I I always say that whenever his name is mentioned on but I did father of the year yeah uh
00:40:45
which was for Tyler who wound up directing wrong Missy but father of the year I think I talked to you guys after
00:40:51
it and maybe Scott stuber said hey this did really well for us we're going to keep looking for another one I'm like oh
00:40:57
it came out like it was when you didn't know how well it went because it just came out and people would say hey I saw
00:41:03
father of the year and you go great but by the time wrong Missy came out there was numbers at the bottom yeah and when
00:41:09
it said number one that means something now it's like looking in the paper and
00:41:14
saying what was the number one movie this weekend so you go one of you guys uh you told me it was doing well then
00:41:19
you said it's number one then he say number one in the world yeah and then it was still and then it just kept going so
00:41:25
luckily the wrong really was another generation of people that have a big
00:41:30
movie out that they talk I get talked about every day so it's fun I talk to filmmakers all the time and they and I
00:41:36
do think that they really like you know the idea of the movie going through the traditional release and all those things
00:41:41
because that's what they grew up on yeah but the truth is they all say the same thing which is when my movie premier is on Netflix I hear it from the world and
00:41:49
I it used to be that I would be screaming it to the world that my movie's out now the world tells me my movie's out yeah that's true that's true
00:41:56
true because it could be the next day you can hear about it yeah yeah and it was unfortunately during covid so I had to throw myself a little party by the
00:42:02
way I was going to I was wondering how much you know I love this this podcast because it's all about SNL and because
00:42:08
David knows I love SNL stories I love listening for you guys and I was I heard your Bill Simmons I go because what
00:42:15
what's going on in that guy's life that he knows every single thing that ever happened on SNL I was like Ted's the biggest fan I got nervous Ted hits me
00:42:22
when he hears almost every podcast he knows he's listening somewhere so yeah that's was one of the reasons we thought
00:42:28
it'd be fun to have you on and then Bill Simmons really a fishan auto he really he had some deep cuts and he didn't want
00:42:34
to talk about anything Sports we had all these sports questions for him he was that that's encyclopedic that's pretty it was spooky listening to I I was
00:42:41
stunned when I said okay what was the sketch of the night on the when Michael Jordan host it oh that was steuart SMY
00:42:46
yeah and if you'd given me 15 minutes I might have come up with that you're good enough I'm gonna also when Michael
00:42:53
Jordan was the um we were the all white basketball team in the 50s and we didn't
00:42:58
want him on our team even though he was it was like all of us were the were the shitty players and we're like we don't
00:43:04
we don't like this guy I was thinking about like what he said something interesting about like his age when the show started and all that he's two years
00:43:11
younger than or did he say 68 or 69 I was born in 6 that's when he was when he was born oh yeah when he was
00:43:18
in like grade school in the high school it was perfect time yeah so me I'm a complete TV nerd I grew up like the
00:43:25
reason I think that my direct line to why I love comedy so much was I I didn't sleep a lot as a kid and I used to watch
00:43:30
all the old TV shows Burns and Allen and Jack Benny who were doing standup essentially and then acting out the
00:43:36
shows and then and so it was a real natural then to Carson and so when SNL came on I was a 10 I guess I was 10
00:43:43
years old I was born 64 so 11 yeah and loved would not miss an EP you know an
00:43:49
episode and then an album they released a comedy album The Best of SNL it just
00:43:55
played like a comedy album and I play it nonstop so I remember all those bits by line you know word for word the word
00:44:02
association with Jeffy Chas oh yeah I got in trouble I got in trouble in school for repeating it um oh yeah of
00:44:10
course you did but like even like the dumb things like U remember the the singing group with Gilda and Jane
00:44:16
curtain and um Lorraine Newman that's the tribute to chvy chase song they did
00:44:22
yeah chvy we love when you fall down each on my TV but so just that kind of being
00:44:29
able to memorize and watch over and over again and see it and that's before the internet you know so the idea that it's
00:44:34
been that incredibly socially and and relevant uh and we nothing I think will
00:44:41
ever touch the relevance of Lauren and SNL in in Show Business history no I
00:44:47
don't know if you've heard this quote I I Steve Higgins told me that Lauren wrote wrote the
00:44:52
Constitution of of Saturday Night Live and then he lets each cast and the writers kind of own it in their own way
00:44:59
and he's sort of a guiding person there it'd be nice if there was if Jan was in
00:45:05
that sketch you know I mean he sort of moves the sketches around very
00:45:14
subtly any any Lauren story before we got to let you go yeah no a couple I mean my connection to the show only only
00:45:20
is Mo is mostly fandom uh going to see the show live to me is still the most
00:45:27
thrilling thing to do in the world um I never tired of it the first time I got invited um I got Lauren invited me and I
00:45:35
got that seat like right in the center above the week you know the center stage oh right on top of the yeah which I said
00:45:41
they go this is the best seat in the house yes and right after the monologue
00:45:47
his assistant came up and said hey Lauren would like to know if you wanted to come down underneath and watch a show with them and I go um will he ever
00:45:54
invite me back if I say no know because I really want to see how it works this this is incredible vantage point and he
00:46:00
goes she goes yeah sure he'll understand sure and uh he he did I didn't go down and he did invite me back but one so I
00:46:07
think it was Cameron Diaz was hosting that night and my buddy Isaac who you guys met um text me during the show to
00:46:14
say are you at SNL because you could hear me laughing uh M was right above my head um yeah but
00:46:22
they had but the then every time I've gone back though it's just I Marvel that it just feels to me like exactly what TV
00:46:27
was like you know 50 70 years ago even at the beginning of Television that R mad rush between breaks for all the
00:46:35
changes and um so for me that's amazing our our history with SNL is that Dave
00:46:41
Chappelle uh actually signed his Netflix contract the night he hosted SNL after the election and we had been talking to
00:46:48
him for well over a year and he said at the show we went to this to the and they said uh my uh my contract is uh signed
00:46:56
and sitting on the seat so he just signed it set it on the seat and went out and hosted the show that was a pretty changing that's funny very cool
00:47:03
yeah and then uh and then for and Lauren and I've gotten to know Lauren over the years and I'm just I hugely admire it's
00:47:09
hard to say that you get to become friends with someone you were so idolized like that um but I I I count
00:47:15
him as a friend and we uh we were going to last year be co-h honored by the this
00:47:21
organization called pen America and because of the Writers Guild strike it got kind of nasty and yeah uh they had
00:47:27
threatened to boycott it and all that kind of stuff so I went to pull I pulled out of it but in between hand there was
00:47:34
all kinds of controversy about whether or not Dave Chappelle could introduce me at this thing and on and on so um I sent
00:47:40
him a note and says hey I'm sorry I can't be there I didn't want to ruin it for you blah blah and he he calls me and
00:47:45
says the you know T Ted the hard part of thankless job say nobody thanks
00:47:50
[Laughter] you
00:47:56
that's a solid very very La that's a surprisingly good Lauren didn't you think David that's and that's a good law
00:48:03
Lauren has uh we call him Lorn isms there's there that's We'll add that to the bunch he's quite a character around
00:48:09
the worst part of thankless jobs yes no no one thanks you the minute the minute you you are huge you'll feel yourself
00:48:16
being less huge
00:48:22
under underestimate water I think that was all my favorite underestimate the value of water as he's
00:48:28
pouring a giant thing I think I got I think he said it to M too and he always always drinking a lot of water uh
00:48:35
everything out of his mouth is you know what he is is that type of per is that type of person that takes a really big
00:48:40
idea and distills it down yeah which is a sign of intelligence I think I think
00:48:46
too the guest GNA you think going to the show and then staying at the party after till and for 50
00:48:52
years [ __ ] I can't do that I can't ganic highlight for me with the show was 25
00:48:58
years ago me and that same group of buddies that you guys had met we went to Aspen for The Comedy Festival HBO Comedy
00:49:05
Festival and you guys did the 25 year of SN oh wow that was the it was which felt
00:49:11
like an SNL convention there was so many SNL people yeah and that's the first time I ever met
00:49:16
Farley first time I ever met Sandler wow wow that was that was the original cast
00:49:23
all the way up to Will Ferrell's cast were up in like the bleachers is that where I did Bert Lancaster and Kirk
00:49:28
Douglas yes yeah you killed him then night yes yes sorry that was a funny I can't imagine was like to try to get a
00:49:34
line in on that stage oh I don't think we talked far by the way Farley had a rough go with it on
00:49:40
that he was it was oxygen problems I think Norm needed oxygen and
00:49:46
uh it was a tough it was Remember That Awkward Moment sorry to interrupt remember David the moment where Mike
00:49:52
where it's that lead discussion he goes it's like being shot I always said it I he said I said it SNL is like being shot
00:49:59
out of a cannon that was the analogy and then of course Norman nor brilliant so well I don't know you
00:50:07
have to be shot of a can to know the difference I don't know I don't know if it's exactly like being shot out of a
00:50:13
Ken more like people pretending to be other people or something like that you know and Mike turn
00:50:19
redm very Norm we miss them but uh you know I miss Norm no one else in my you
00:50:25
know most people people go through their whole life trying not to look crazy and when Norm got sick he went out of his
00:50:31
way to make you think he was crazy instead of sick yeah wasn't funny I got mad at him
00:50:37
I look at my old text I'm like I was going Norm you can't say you're coming to dinner and then just flake out he's
00:50:44
like David there's Co I go we've gone over I'm sitting 20 feet away from you in my house it's you we already agreed
00:50:51
it's fine then he goes it's an epidemic I go and then a week later when are we
00:50:56
having dinner I go why are you keeping this your episode of with with Norm on his old Netflix special his Netflix show
00:51:04
is it's an act of jazz it's not even it's not even a conversation it's amazing I [ __ ] I don't know if I told
00:51:10
you that I've never seen it but I heard that whole year I heard about that and I was like what did we do on that show
00:51:16
that was so funny I think you were there and I think uh you kept asking is this a tou is yeah
00:51:23
because the crew was like walking in front of you guys with cres and stuff
00:51:29
right this this thing goes by beep beep in front of the camera I'm like are we
00:51:34
on a construction site anyway Ted let's let Ted go he's got to get the re-shoot
00:51:39
and coming on thank you we podcast a fan of both of you love you both love you
00:51:45
both see you soon hopefully miss you bu thank you take care this has been a
00:51:51
presentation of Odyssey please follow subscribe leave a like or review all the
00:51:56
stuff smash that button whatever it is wherever you get your podcast fly on the wall is executive produced by Dana
00:52:02
Carvey and David Spade Jenna Weiss Burman of Odyssey Charlie finan of brillstein entertainment and Heather
00:52:07
Santoro the show's lead producer is Greg
00:52:15
Holzman
