-Our first guest tonight
is a talented actress. You know her from her work
on shows like "Parks and Recreation"
and "Legion" and films like
"Happiest Season." Her children's book, "The Legend
of the Christmas Witch" is available today.
Please welcome back to the show, our very good friend
Aubrey Plaza, everyone. [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Aubrey.
[ Cheers and applause ] I feel like
you did something different to your look over the pandemic.
-No. This is how I always dress,
Seth. -Are you sure?
It's not a haircut or something? -No.
[ Laughter ] -This is very exciting.
First of all, it is great to see you.
-You too, man. -And -- And now you have this
book, "The Christmas Witch." -Yes.
-Now, I have not -- I was not familiar with witches
in the Christmastime. What -- What gave you --
[ Laughter ] What gave you this idea?
It shouldn't be -- It's "The Legend
of the Christmas Witch." -This is "The Legend
of the Christmas Witch." [ Light laughter ] She's always existed, Seth. And just now,
we finally get her story. -Oh!
-Yes. -Have you always been drawn
to Halloween as a holiday? -Yes. Halloween has always been
kind of my thing. -Uh-huh.
-And through the past couple years, I've been doing
this performance kind of art, witchy thing on Halloween,
where I scare all the kids in the neighborhood.
[ Laughter ] I don't have children,
so it's extra weird. [ Laughter ]
And I -- Yeah, I dress up like a witch,
and I do this thing with them, where I, like, throw candy
at them, which they like, but then I also
try to scare them and freak them out,
which they don't like. But it really gets them
all riled up. [ Laughter ]
And they come back for more. They can't get enough.
And I -- I throw it and scream like,
"I don't want to be doing this!" And they're like,
"You don't have to!" [ Laughter ]
And I'm like, "Yes, I do!" And it goes back and forth
like that all night long. And -- yeah.
-Do you feel like you intimidate the other neighbors,
in that they feel like they're not putting the same
energy into the -- the spirit? -I mean, Hank and Linda...
[ Laughter ] ...you got to up your game. -And you sort of do it
from your front steps? Is that where you --
-Yeah. I create a whole kind of
graveyard scene... -Okay.
-...in my front yard, with -- I hide behind the tombstones.
[ Light laughter ] I actually put the bowl of candy
with a spotlight on it, and I hide,
and so then the kids walk up, and they all know, "Okay.
There's candy in there," and they all discuss,
"All right, you go. You -- You put
your hand in there." And they all are scared,
and then one brave little kid does it,
and the minute he reaches in, I -- I attack.
[ Laughter ] And they cry.
A lot of them cry. -Sure.
-It's disturbing. -That's great.
-Yeah. -And now you've made them
a children's book. -Yes.
-This same person. -[ Cackling ] Y-e-e-e-es!
[ Laughter ] -So, now, where did you get
this idea of a Christmas Witch? This is sort of --
Is it based on anything? -First of all,
I get sad after Halloween. -Yeah.
-And I -- I had to hang up my witch hat and broom,
and I -- and I always get sad. So, a couple years ago, I said,
"You know what? I'm not gonna do that this year. I'm gonna carry it through
to Christmas." -That's great.
-And I'm gonna -- I'm gonna dress up like a witch
at Christmas. And instead of throwing candy,
I'm gonna throw presents and see if I can get
the same reaction. [ Laughter ]
And I did. -Yeah, I would imagine.
-So, I -- Yeah, I kind of developed this
Christmas Witch character just out of boredom, really.
[ Laughter ] And I just -- I tried it out
on my manager. I put a sack of presents in --
in a bag or something -- I think in a garbage bag, maybe.
[ Light laughter ] And I put a witch costume on,
but I gave it a Christmas flair. I think I had some bells
on my head or something. And then, I told her, "I'm gonna
come scare your son, Max. So, tell him the -- tell him
the Christmas Witch is coming. See how he feels about it.
Tell him he's gonna get a present,
but it's gonna be very scary." [ Laughter ] And Max was kind of
my guinea pig. And I -- And I basically just
went there, hid in the bushes, and I worked out my shtick.
[ Laughter ] -I want to point out, like,
I think sometimes kids' books are, you know, there are sort of
a few words on each page, it's a little simple.
-Mm-hmm. -This is -- You're --
You're world-building here. -I am.
-I just want to show that, like, whenever you see a map
on the first page of a book, you know that you're --
you're getting your bang for your buck in here.
[ Light laughter ] Yeah, that helped.
That was very helpful. -Oh, sorry.
Um, yes. So Julia Iredale
is our illustrator. She's a -- She's a -- an amazing
illustrator from Vancouver. And we -- we talked to her
about having a map, because, yes,
we are world-building. We're going to have
an amusement-park world, a little section
of the amusement park, the Christmas Witch
amusement park, and little kids
are gonna grow up knowing, "Oh, the Christmas Witch
is coming. And -- And we know where
she came from, the Black Forest. [ Laughter ]
And then she got in the boat with her peng-- She has penguins
instead of reindeer." -Great.
-"She's on the South Pole instead of the North Pole."
You get the idea. [ Laughter ]
And, um -- -I mean,
I get that there is an idea. -Anyway, it's all in the book.
-Yeah, right. [ Laughter ] Now, I want to finish
by remarking on some exciting personal news.
-Okay. -You were one of the people
that I think -- I think it's really sweet --
during the pandemic, during a very difficult time...
-Yeah. -...you got married.
Congratulations. -Thanks.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Imagine --
Imagine a smaller ceremony. -Yes. It was just a joke
that went too far. [ Laughter ] It was our --
It was our anniversary and -- Yes, we'd been in lockdown,
as everyone was, and the quarantine kind of --
and we were just like, "You know, it's our anniversary.
We should do something special." And I was like,
"Why don't we just get married? How about that?"
[ Laughter ] And then, he was like,
"Well, I don't think we can. It's probably not possible to do
it on a Sunday like this." And I was like,
"Well, I'm gonna google it." [ Laughter ]
And I did. And I found a website
called 1hourmarriage.com. [ Light laughter ]
And I called the number, and I said, "Can you get us
married in an hour, like -- like you advertise?"
And they said, "I don't know. We're in Alhambra,
so how about tomorrow?" And I said, "No, I want
the hour thing that you do." And then,
silence on the other end. Then he said,
"How about two hours, and it's an extra
hundred bucks or whatever." And I said, "Sold."
And then, a very nice man, yeah, from Alhambra, came in a
Hawaiian shirt with a briefcase. I, uh --
I was, you know, saging. -That's how you know it's legal,
when the brief -- when there's a briefcase.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [ Laughter ] I created a love altar
of our love objects. [ Laughter ] And I smoked it out,
you know, in the yard. -Yeah.
-And then, there is a witch -- This is an entirely --
has nothing to do with the Christmas --
-A separate witch. -There's a separate witch thing,
where there was a witch that was living across the
street during the quarantine. Her name was Dandelion.
We became friends. -Now, did you --
Did she have to tell you she was a witch,
or did you know? -Oh, she -- that's pretty much
the first thing she says when you meet her...
-Yeah. -...that she's
a fourth-generation witch from Tennessee.
-Gotcha. -I kind of became
her apprentice. But anyway, she -- We --
[ Laughter ] You know, this was, like --
the wedding was like, "Aah! We're doing it in an hour,
two hours." So, I just went over
to her place, and I said, "I think we're gonna
get married in the yard. If you could do a spell
or tell me if this is, like, a good idea, you know..."
-Yeah. -"...cosmically, astrologically,
that would be great, or whatever you want to do..."
-I would imagine when you're an across-the-street
witch, that's your dream... -Oh, yeah.
-...that somebody comes to you and asks for information
like that on the fast. -I mean, we were meant
to be neighbors. [ Laughter ]
100%. -Had she signed off
on everything? -Oh, yeah. She went,
"I have just the thing." She went into her house,
literally cackled. [ Laughter ]
I could hear her from outside. And then brought me
this rosemary crown that I wore in my hair
while I got married. And, hopefully,
it's not a curse. -Well, so far, so good, right? -So far, so good, right, honey?
[ Cackling ] -You guys, that's Aubrey Plaza!
[ Cheers and applause ] "The Legend of the Christmas
Witch" is available today!
