-Welcome to "The Tonight Show."
Thank you for coming on. -Thank you for having me.
-It's great to see you. As a former senator,
I was wondering what are your takeaways from the State of
the Union last night? -Well, I thought Biden was
especially good on Ukraine. -Yeah. -He's put together this amazing
coalition of nations to stand up to Putin. And he actually brought together Republicans and Democrats
last night. They were standing, you know. It was really heartening to see
Republicans standing when he called Putin
a menacing dictator, especially when a few days
earlier, Trump had called Putin a genius. And so, you know, obviously the
situation there is really dire, and you just have to give credit
to the people of Ukraine. Our hearts are with them.
-Absolutely. Yeah. -And the unbelievable leadership
from their president, from Zelenskyy,
who is incredibly brave. You know, he was a comedian. -Yeah.
-Yeah. And as you know, comedians are
the bravest people in the world. [ Laughter ] Especially Jewish comedians
who went into politics. [ Laughter ]
-Wow, yeah. -That's me and Zelenskyy.
But anyway. -But anyways, back to me. [ Laughter ] -It was really palpable last
night in the chamber, I thought, the emotion about Ukraine. -You've been to a number of
State of the Union addresses. What is it like to be
in the chamber? I mean, is it kind of --
-Well, it's amazing. I first one I did --
went to was Barack Obama. And it's just so moving. To be part of this democratic --
the democracy, it's just unbelievably moving. -It makes you proud,
yeah, to be an American. And what was it like
when Trump was president? [ Laughter ]
-Um... -Take your time. [ Laughter ] -Not so moving. [ Laughter ]
-Okay, alright. -You know, the first time
he spoke to the joint session, we have a --
we had a caucus lunch. I mean, the Democratic senators
meet for lunch. And a couple of my colleagues
were saying like, "Do we really have to
stand up and applaud when he says something like,
you know, hackneyed like, 'Under Donald Trump, America will be the strongest
nation in the world.' Do we have to stand up?" And Chuck Schumer goes,
"Yes, we've got to be -- we've got to be polite." [ Laughter ] And we didn't like it. And I said, "Well, you know,
we could stand up and applaud, but we could do
the slow sarcastic clap." And you know that as a comedian. But none of my other colleagues
are comedians, you see. And so I had to show them
what it was. And it's basically,
you know, this. Trump says, "Under Trump,
every American will be able to put food on the table,
roof over their kids' heads and send them to college." And then it's just like -- [ Laughter ] And so a number of my colleagues
wanted to do it. But Chuck said, "No, we can't.
We've got to be polite." -You got to be polite. But before you got
elected senator, you had an amazing
comedy career. You become a senator. Do you feel any pressure
not to be funny? -Yeah. You know, I won by 312 votes
in my first election and I got there late. And my team said to me,
"Don't be funny. Do not be funny. Don't be funny on the floor,
on a floor speech. Don't be funny in hearings. Don't be funny to the press." I said, "I got it.
Don't be funny." They said, "Don't be funny." But I really didn't
internalize it. [ Laughter ] So, the first day I'm there,
I get sworn in. I go right to my new office.
I hadn't been there. I get this slip of paper
on my desk, and I learned that one of my duties is to write congratulatory notes
to my constituents. And the first one is Ruth
Anderson of Marshall, Minnesota, who's turning 110. -Wow. -So, I get my official
stationery. I write down, "Dear Ruth,
you have a bright future." [ Laughter ] -That's very funny. -I thought so. And so, my new assistant
picks it up and takes it to
my new chief of staff. And he's in like in two seconds,
"What is this?!" -Yeah.
-I said, "It's a joke." And he goes, "Uh-huh. You think Ruth Anderson
will find it funny?" And I said, "Well, I don't know,
she's 110." He said, "Well, you think her
family will find it funny?" And I went, "Oh, yeah," and I started thinking about
her 90-year-old son. [ Laughter ] -Yeah, he might be bummed out,
yeah. [ Laughter ] -"You've got a bright future"?
Well, that's kind of mean. [ Laughter ]
But it's funny. -And you've done stand-up. You've done tours I know
with Tom Davis. Is this your first
solo comedy -- -It's my first time
doing it solo. I started -- I love stand-up. You know.
You're a great stand-up. -I love stand-up.
-And how much fun it is. So I worked up a -- I have a --
I'm great. It's really hilarious.
[ Laughter ] I did 15 cities in the fall,
and I was booked for 16 more. I'm going to Portland, Maine,
this Sunday. -It's a beautiful place. And also, are you enjoying
the podcast? -I love doing the podcast. The podcast is really
public policy, politics but also comedy. So, we've had guests like
Steven Schmidt, Anthony Fauci, Sarah Silverman, Conan O'Brien. Michelle Obama.
-Wow. -Well, not Michelle Obama
but guests like her. [ Laughter ] -Can you say that in your promo? Guests like Michelle --
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Yeah, of course. -Just like.
-It's very good. It's informative.
But I got to say, it's funny. You're so funny.
-Thank you. -You can't not be funny. I'm so happy that you're here
on the show, and good luck with
the rest of the tour. -Thanks for having me.
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you, everybody. -That's Al Franken, everybody. Go see Al on tour. Go to alfranken.com for tickets.
