-Do you -- Like, how long did it
take you to come up with the title of your show? -Oh, it took me --
I wanted to wait until the episodes was done,
so it took me, like, kind of the whole time, but then
also a week right after, I was like, "Oh, this is what it
should be called." -So it's called
"That Damn Michael Che," but that wasn't your first
choice. -No.
-You put this on Instagram. This is a photo of
Tilda Swinton with the quote "That Black Ass
Michael Che." We should clarify that
Tilda Swinton never said that. -Well, not that I know of. -That's true.
-I don't know. -We can never -- We haven't been
with her, like, 24/7 or anything. -I haven't heard her say it, no. -So, what's the back story of
this? -Well, I wanted to call
the show, "That Black Ass Michael Che," because in my head, it -- let's
just say -- it's not going to win an award,
but let's just say it were to win an award, right? And then Tilda Swinton is the
presenter, and she has to open the envelope and say, "The
winner is 'That Black Ass Michael Che'." I just think that would be
fantastic and cool, and it would have been worth it. That's my -- That's a pretty
good Tilda Swinton, by the way. -Oh, it's very good. -That's what I did for
my audition. -I remember you auditioned as
Tilda Swinton. -Yeah, I did. -And I remember Lorne said,
"I don't know if he'll ever be able to
play her." -Well, you guys wouldn't let me
use makeup, so. [ Laughter ] -Speaking of "SNL",
Ellen Cleghorne and you have some great guests --
Cecily Strong, we saw Billy Porter in
the first episode. -Heidi Gardner. -Yup, man. Ellen Cleghorne was
great to see. -She was awesome.
She was so -- It was great. It was like, you know, that's kind of my era of
growing up, you know? I guess, like my first ever
seeing "SNL" was that early '90s cast, so it was awesome that she was
able to do it. She was really funny. -Colin Jost is going to be in
an episode. -Yes. -And is it very in line with
your relationship? Is it true that
you did not tell him what he was going to be playing? -He has no idea --
He had no idea what he was going to be doing,
but, in perfect Jost fashion, he showed up anyway,
about an hour late. -It's amazing how willing he is
to take chances, considering he's only ever in
his life landed on his feet. -It's -- I mean, I guess that's
why he takes chances. -Yeah, exactly. -What's the worst that could
happen? I mess up and
marry Scarlett Johansson? I'll take that. [ Laughter ] -He's just like a guy who's
just, like, wearing an invisible bike helmet to
protect him from all injury. -It's insane. It's like that --
You ever seen that cartoon with the baby that's just, like,
walking through a scaffold as the cat, like, putting stuff
up the whole time? Like, that's Colin. -Baby Jost. -Yes, Baby Jost. -That's a --
He was long called -- Like, sort of the first 5 years,
he was on the show, that's what a lot of people
called him, was Baby Jost. -It's amazing that it stuck. -You -- He was last here,
told us all about the birthday present that
you got him, that he was very impressed,
especially since it was at the height of the pandemic. -[ Laughs ] -He received a package and he
was very excited to open it, and, you want to let everybody
again know what it was that you gifted him? -Well, it was a
Minnesota State Trooper Uniform. [ Laughs ] In fairness, the George Floyd
thing had just happened, and I sent him a card that said,
"Dress for the job you want." [ Laughter ] It was dark, but I mean, you
know, that's -- Don't be friends with comedians
if you don't want dark jokes. -What about -- It should be
noted that this has been sort of a heightening warfare -- -Yeah, he sent me --
before that, he sent me a mariachi band, and --
for my birthday. Like, it's -- During the
pandemic, I'm in my apartment and the doorman is just like,
"Hey, Michael, you need to come outside, you have a gift." And I'm like, "Come outside?
What are you talking about? I haven't been outside
in 6 months. He said, "No, you gotta --
You gotta come outside." And I'm thinking somebody bought
me a Lexus with a red bow on it or something -- something
amazing, and I'm like, "Boy, Lorne's really done it
this time." But I go out there and it's
a full mariachi band singing "Happy Birthday" to me. And I -- Somebody's taking video
and they sent me the video, and I posted it to make fun of
Jost, and all of the comments was like, "We know your address!
Is this where you live?" And I'm like, "Oh no!"
And had them take the video right down immediately after. So it was a double burn. And that's why I sent him
the cop uniform. -Is it true that they sang --
they were singing it -- that it was from Colin, that's
how you found out. -Yes. It was a -- Well, once I saw the mariachi
band, I knew it was from Colin. Like, this is -- this is
perfect. It was good. That was maybe --
that was the best one, I think. He got me good. -You -- Oz Rodriguez,
did he direct all of the episodes
of your show? -He directed all of them. He was even at most of
the tables -- like, the writer's table, too. Because we was trying to
figure it out. We had such a short window to
get this show executed, So we kind of had to go for it. We had to produce it almost as
we was writing it. So it was a real crunch, because
like -- you know, like you said, we were doing it during "SNL". So, it was -- It ended up being
a lot of fun. -Did you have -- Are there other
guest stars that'll be coming? -Yeah, we got Method Man,
we got Omari Hardwick, we got Colin Quinn --
the good Colin, no. We got... [ Laughter ] We got -- Man, we got
so many people. We got Geoffrey Owens, we got --
Billy Porter's in it. -Yeah. -It was a lot of fun, man. It was really cool -- It was very hard to book people,
even, because some people were stuck
in L.A., some people couldn't do it,
but the people we got was pretty much all of
our first choices. It was dope. -Well, I can't wait to watch
the rest of them. Buddy, it's always such
a pleasure. Thanks for coming down.
-Thank you for having me here. -Have a great final 3 shows. -Do you like my baggy pants,
by the way? -I think they're great. -Yeah, I'm putting on
a little bit of weight, so I thought
maybe I'd fill these out. [ Laughter ] -Thank you for --
Thank you for asking. All episodes of
"That Damn Michael Che" are available to stream on
HBO Max on May 6th.
Was there hoopla?
Interesting to see he was filming during the off weeks.