-Our first guest tonight
is a Tony Award-winning and Emmy nominated actor
you know from his work
on "The Good Wife." He stars in "Schmigadoon!," which begins streaming
on Apple TV+ tomorrow. Let's take a look.
-I know it hurts right now, but that won't last forever. Soon, you'll forget
all about Josh and find somebody new. Somebody better. -It's not that easy. -I didn't say it would be easy. But it will happen. I'm certain of it. ♪♪ [ Foreign accent ]
♪ Somewhere, love is waiting ♪ ♪ For you ♪ -Please welcome back to the show
our friend Alan Cumming. [ Cheers and applause ] Hi, buddy! [ Indistinct chatter ] [ Laughter ]
Good to see you! -You, too. [ Indistinct ] -Oh.
-[ Laughs ] -Welcome. Its so lovely to have
you here back in the city! 'Cause you've been sort of
traveling the world. -I have been
globe-trotting, sir, yes. -Now, you were in Australia.
-Mm-hmm. -Early on, everybody was
jealous of Australia. -Yeah, well --
-And very sadly for our friends over there, it's not as good. -They're having this
sort of outburst. It's actually really
interesting. I was saying, a year ago
here in America -- Trump denying everything,
masks being politicized, numbers through the roof. And then, a year later,
it's incredible, the percentage of people
who are vaccinated. I saw you were talking about
that lovely girl encouraging young people
to be vaccinated. Whereas, in Australia --
who had it all going on and had the security
and the track-and-trace thing -- they just didn't get ahead
with the vaccinations. There's only 6% or 4%
of the population vaccinated. So, now, inevitably,
they're going to have -- And with the delta strain
and everything. So, one of the great
casualties was, my tour of Australia
had to be postponed. [ Laughter ]
-It was actually hard to get out in time, right? -Do you mean
to leave Australia? -Yeah. Well, I guess
you had an issue.
-I got burgled. I was the Artistic Director of
the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. So that was fun, and I'd been
planning that for a long time. And then, I went
and I quarantined for two weeks in a hotel. Then, I was gonna be in Adelaide
for a month for this festival. I was performing. I was doing
my Club Cumming thing. Blah, blah, blah. And the penis painter that we talked about one time
was there, too. I dunno why I mentioned that,
but anyway -- -I would like us to mention him
every time you're here. -Yes, yes. He's confident. He rocked Adelaide,
let me tell you. They did not know
what hit them -- literally. But, eh -- Thank you. Ehm, anyway, but I got burgled. And my passport -- -I'm so happy you said that
instead of "robbed," because I think "burgled"
with a Scottish accent is just tremendous to hear. -Do you know why
I don't like "burglarized"? You Americans say "burglarized,"
don't you? Why do you not
just say "burgled"? -Well, I'm going to from here
on out for the rest of my life. -It's a burglary.
You get bur-- I guess you could say burgl--
I don't know. -Don't immediately
back off your own -- -[ Laughs ]
No, I'm standing firm like Brent Ray Fraser. -[ Laughs ] The penis painter. -The penis painter.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for listening. -[ Laughs ] -So, anyway, I got burgled -- burgled -- and my passport
was stolen. So it was kind of a funny -- I mean, it's distressing,
obviously, 'cause it was
a burglary, and it was sort of
violent and awful. I wasn't there, thank goodness. But what was weird about it
was that I couldn't -- I had to get a new passport. Otherwise, I wasn't going to be allowed to leave Australia. And it was my American passport. I have a European one, too. Anyway, so there's three
American consulates -- in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. So I was like, "Oh, well,
I'm going to Sydney twice." Because my show sold out,
so I had to go a second time. Well, right as Adelaide's
festival was finishing, Sydney went into lockdown,
'cause they had an outburst -- a cluster, or whatever
you call it. And then, I was like,
"Oh, well, I'm going to Perth. Perth locked down, as well. So it was like, in the last day. It was like getting the last
helicopter out of Saigon. The Melbourne American Consulate
gave me a tiny, mean little one. It's not a proper one.
-[ Laughs ] Really? -You get this emergency one
with about six pages in it. -Oh, wow.
-I have to get
another one next year. Yeah, but I got out. But it was weird. It's not what I thought
was going to happen. And I felt bad 'cause there was
all these concerts that
I didn't get to do. -Well, hopefully, they will
get everything under control and you'll be able to go back. In the meantime,
they could enjoy, like rest of us, "Schmigadoon!"
-Yes, "Schmigadoon!" -A wonderful show
that sort of plays off 1950 Broadway musical tropes. Wonderful cast --
Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong,
Kristin Chenoweth, and our own Fred Armisen.
-Fred, yes. I'm gesturing to the drums,
but he's not there, of course. But, yes. When we were shooting it,
it was so funny because we were in the same
hotel -- me and Fred -- and Kristen was
my next door neighbor. That was hilarious. And Fred would always
have to go off and record his little bits. -For this show?
-For this. For you, yeah. So it was hilarious. I loved, like -- He had this
other secret life. Secret drumming life that he
would have to rush back and do. -It's a very funny thing
to keep that a secret. Like, "Are you also
a band leader right now?" -How does this work?
-[ Laughs ] Barely. -And what was weird was,
I adore Fred. I think he's just such a darling
and hilarious. And we've done three films
together before this one -- well, it's not a film;
it's a series -- and we had never met. -Oh, wow.
-Isn't that funny? -'Cause he refuses to be on set
with other actors. -[ Laughs ]
He's always drumming. -Yeah, he's always drumming, so he has to shoot
his stuff separately. You get to play the mayor. -I do.
-It's really a fantastic clip. I think that gets across exactly
how much fun this show is. -Yes, and it's sort of like
those Hollywood musicals,
you know? It's kind of parodying
and a homage at the same time. -Did you know those films
and those musicals well? -Seth, I'm a bad
musical queer person. -Oh, wow. Thank you
for admitting that here. -I'm not -- I don't -- Like, I've been in "Cabaret"
and "The Threepenny Opera." Those are the only two musicals, which are basically
the same show. Do you know what I mean?
They're like [Indistinct] -- Ooh, nasty, sexy things. And those are the only ones
I've ever done on the stage. I've done a couple of films. Everyone thinks you know
more about it. -I would have thought
you know that, yeah.
-Yeah. It'd be like,
do you know everything about talk show hosts? -No.
-See? So it's the same thing. -Yep. -So, I was being educated. As we were doing the show --
shooting it -- I was going, "Oh, so, which musical is this
we're parodying?" And Aaron Tveit plays
sort of the boy by the carousel. And I was like,
"Is that like in 'Carousel'?" And they were like, "Yes. That's why
it's called 'Carousel.'" It was things like that. Actually, I'm not quite sure
where Menlove's from. There's always a mayor
in these things. -Now, Kristen Chenoweth,
she does, I would imagine, have that knowledge --
or is she like you? -No, she's much better
than me -- in all ways. And, actually, I'm going to
tell you this hilarious story that I think is the best story
about Kristen Chenoweth. 'Cause we hosted the Tonys
together a few years ago. And that, obviously,
you have to kind of -- you do sort of jokes
about musicals. And, again, I wasn't
up to speed. But I get by. So, we were hosting the Tonys. We were laughing because
we both won a Tony a long time ago
right about the same time. And there used to be this lovely
lady called Isabelle Stevenson, who was the head of the
American Theater Wing. She was this older lady
and very glam, And they wheeled her out,
and she was like... [American accent]
"The American Theater Wing
is delighted to" -- -[ Laughing ]
-She was absolutely charming. She was a lovely lady. But she was quite old,
and that's the point getting to the next stage
of the story. So, Kristen told me this
when we were hosting the Tonys. Her assistant came
to her and said, "Isabelle Stevenson is being
honored at some event. Would you like
to send a message?" And Kristen was doing a thing
with muffins at the time, so she said, "Why don't we
send her a basket of muffins?" Right? So, she sent
a basket of muffins. Then, a week later,
Isabelle Stevenson's son called up Kristen and said,
"Thank you so much. It was such a thoughtful gesture for you to send
a basket of muffins to my mother's funeral." [ Laughter ] And she was --
And so, there's the coffin and all these
bouquets of flowers, and then muffins from Kristen. [ Laughter ] And I said to her, "Oh, my God.
did you say anything? Was there any message on it?"
And she went, "Yes. 'Congratulations, Isabelle!'" [ Laughter ] -I think we could all use
just a quick little break, and then we'll be right back
with more from Alan Cumming.
