KPCS: Kev's Fav - Bill Hader

[Music] my first question for our guest today mr. Bill Hader your allergy to peanuts real or fake welcome sir there it is yeah peanuts real or fake what's going on fully real so the peanuts in the cup we should told you beforehand not slow-burn what is the worst reaction you've had to date actually I had a reaction on that movie skeleton twins what happened was where if you watch the movie there's a scene in a rock climbing wall I mean Luke Wilson yes I was given a chocolate I said I have a nut allergy and the person said do not worry there is no nuts in this in this Hershey almonds yeah and I ate and I had a but just a tiny bite of this chocolate and you can is Philip peanut butter and this went right down my throat and I went this is peanut butter in it my person well you said no nuts yeah I've been dealing with this my whole life just a collection of [ __ ] yeah you just go this happens all the time where you say I have a nut allergy and they go oh here you go well that's pine nut sauce so it's different then you go no that is that is made out of nuts I will die if I eat that so I had to be rushed to the hospital so it just closes up yeah my throat started closing up and I start going into anaphylactic shock so it's dressed like Milo I have like all the things on and I brought in and and the and so when you watch that scene Luke Wilson is all shot in December and when it cuts to me that's all like late January February we got one day so the whole rock climbing scene is us talking to each other like two months apart yeah that my friends is movie magic that is movie magic fence yes I'm sure you know this peanuts are not technically a nut they're a legume well whatever it is that I was thinking who's like there's no nuts in there no nuts as their bill but you're gonna be fine yeah whatever it is kill turns out he's also allergic to lagoon also whatever it is it kills me no but yeah so yeah and it happens it happens all the time so yeah when I was at SNL especially on Saturdays I ate I was like nothing that could possibly maybe have nuts yeah she wouldn't ever go show night yeah show night you would just it was like all apples and like just wrong me wait for me get that away from me I get just a lot of very like a king yeah yeah I was like froze lot now in doing the prep work I came across a character you played for the James Franco roast and not only did it instantly become one of my favorite comedy characters in history but I stay away from the roast as a rule now because most of them are just awful that one was incredibly personalized they actually had people that knew him and that yeah them most of them they get a bunch of comedians who don't know the person right and they're just doing [ __ ] you jokes yeah so my first question is had you done the president of show business before no did you co-write it with someone yeah that was written actually myself John Mulaney and Rob Klein and John solemn and also threw in a lot of stuff it was especially some of the [ __ ] with on James Franco I know specifically the line James Franco your movies from tricking off next to a boulder to sucking a gun like a dick you were truly the Jimmy Stewart of today that was John Solomon I remember getting that in an email and being like all cut pays that's going in but a lot of it yeah was John Mulaney and I you know just talking [ __ ] out on the phone and yeah it's writing stuff out but it took forever that was one of those things where I you know Seth Rogen called and said would you you know you do this and it was in the funniest way possible of like I don't want to do this but we have to do this most apologetic like will you just help me out like I've been thrown under a bus it's such a like and but it was he was having a lot of fun because I want to bring it back to what you said like that old-school like we all know each other and it's not just I want to bring people who know James on and he actually was working really hard at it which I was impressed with it wasn't like huh yeah he was just wanted it to be really good and and so I said would you be comfortable if I did a character and he said do whatever you want yeah so yeah it was a the president of Hollywood cuz I thought it was funny that when we looked at the dais John Elaine and I were just talking about I was like how the [ __ ] are all these people movie star like I think it started with the Seth Rogen joke of I put you on a movie poster and I said deal with it you know it was kind of that it was like well maybe that's kind of the theme for the whole thing of like you're welcome you Jonah you [ __ ] you know whatever and but the nice thing about doing it as a character was I could bag on myself yeah and then I didn't have to bag I don't know like Sarah and Natasha very well and I didn't feel I know Izzy's more but I don't know Nate Crowe so it was like I didn't want to go like if I don't know you it's just I felt I didn't feel good like doing that but as the president probably probably wait I didn't I didn't go after Sarah or Anna Tasha or Nick Kroll but I went after everyone I kind of knew well and then I got to hit myself hard yeah and it was like and then I got to get out on that so that was nice yeah I highly recommended people check out the video because it really is and also it's really it's harder to write those jokes I think than people realize it's impossible that was the thing that has they've all been done if you were backstage at that what's something that seems so kind of on the face of it kind of just fun and like disposable you know it was people were flipping out yeah some people I won't say we're worried about what was gonna be said about them I didn't care about that a lot of us were just wanting our thing to work because that is a room full of comedy people and they've all heard the jokes so you gotta like it has to work it has got to play like I remember zzzz running his thing over and over again just yeah all of us were just like this hat and trying people were yeah I'm as a birthday party the night before and people's like I just saw Sarasota was running her rose set over it you know I heard a roasting you know they're people going up and doing it and working on it so it was I was like I was like a real yeah and I hadn't run mine and from an audience yet when we weren't shopping then workshopping all their stuff and I was like I got that track suit in that wig [Laughter] well Vernon Chapman twos a good friend he gave me one last yeah he gave me a coat joke or two as well I remember but it was it was a fun thing where you go uh it was a great email to send out to friends going I'm doing a roast here's what I got so far you got anything and then it was like everyone just like they they also got the previous ones that I stopped watches they got filthy for the purpose of just getting filled yeah and then the the remarkable thing was if you go back to the early ones yeah in the 50s and 60s yeah when when being filthy was actually audacious mm-hmm because Rickles told me an early the most audacious line from a roast that he had ever heard and it doesn't sound tame now but it it sounds a little tired let's say we're roasting I don't want to pick anybody I know now who what when are you looking for God I every one I'm thinking of is I don't because you have to tack the person's wife and now I don't actually want to do though okay that's how I'd say Dean Martin yes we're roasting Dean Martin tonight this is a beautiful venue that we've chosen not the original choice the first choice to hold tonight's festivities was inside Dean's wife's vagina but it only seats 300 from the mid 50 came in late comedy alertness comes in all right you all I had that my ears are burning Oh God I always liked it when a Don Rickles would tell people was over yeah married Oh Milton Berle it's over congratulations it's over that's all you would say I like I would lose my mind like yeah I love you darling wait did they have it you're doing stand-up and stuff it was it was that I don't know was it the Dean Martin roast and then they came back and Comedy Central yes way later but during the time 80s 90s all those things that anybody have like even like in backroom the fryer saying fry but did you guys weren't bit televised right yeah writing that at the Rob Reiner one that was another that was that you got Monsieur did you guys there did you ever do anything without know what that company that's why I thought it was kind of brilliant to hide behind a character yeah because then it's it it not only disassociates you but allows the crowd to laugh even harder because this is not a real person saying these off yeah yeah so it's kind of hard sure it's a right yeah it was awful what we were doing it I was there yeah it was awful oh but it was so great though I thought people every time it would cut everyone will go I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I remember I was closer to the stage I can hear you guys apologizing to each other and they cut out what must have been 15 total minutes of Seth Rogen going I don't know what I'm making that joke I love this guy yeah the best joke John Mulaney gave a Nick Kroll great joke on set though where he's like Seth says Hogan's partners Evan Goldberg because how hideous Taz Evan Goldberg have to be to look to make you the face of a monster is this Evan Goldberg person you're the poster child of the operation that made me laugh speaking of Mulaney what the [ __ ] is it even fair to everyone else how absurdly talented this guy yeah he's one of the funniest guys in the world and like out of the gate was hilarious like when he came to SNL I remember very vividly his first not writing night one of his first writing nights we were writing a Vincent Price sketch he's Vincent Price sketches on his own and and the original writer had left and so Seth Meyers and I were writing it ourselves and then they said and said goes we wanna bring that new guy in and I was like yeah sure and so we're like we got seventeen year he looks like he's 12 and I remember he was doing this with his hands which is a nervous tic he pulls his hands like this so he was like hi who are you noting it like and riding and he was kind of quiet as Seth and I were doing stuff and then I'm and then we got to a part in the sketch where you're like yeah then a Fred Armisen played Liberace in the sketches and Liberace and Vincent Price always fighting with each other and course and Liberace said something and I go oh and Vincent Price should say something back like um and then John Mulaney from the backroom goes he should say save your sassiest sides for your windowless bars Seth Meyers guy always like new guy you sit down at the keyboard that was a perfect joke you're riding this whoa holy [ __ ] you know we were like so impressed with it and then after that it was like literally just the economy in which he can write a perfect job just off the top of his head the economy that he has is just astounding yes has that that brain that can just go oh it's bump and you're like that's it I'm walking out yeah that's a gift that so rare you're born with that see the comedy matrix yeah I don't know how he does it we're all like it but by the end I mean everyone was you know just in awe of of John you know early a lot of course has been said about you guys coming up with Stefan and how he would [ __ ] with you by changing the card yeah right before you would go the it seemed like the one sketch you guys wrote that that never made it to air was the kc and JC Kasem which as it was described in the research just you know just being paraphrased yeah let's fall down hilarious yeah the audience isn't into it at all it was me and Dana Carvey Dana's doing Casey who he has been doing some Cavor 15 and the sketch was Dana Carvey was I was staying in we were like we got to do we want him to Mickey Rooney who I'm due to Casey Kasem's we wrote two sketches want me to Mickey Rooney which turned into kind of a I forget what happened by our I think I kind of changed and it turned it kind of more of an impression parade thing right but it was just fun game to see him do Mickey Rooney because it makes me laugh and then yeah and he did it at the table and I was like like one of those girls in the Beatle videos I was like lift me out and then Casey Kasem and so we had this sketch that we wrote and it was the hardest I think John and I laughed writing something we were crying we were laughing sorry which was it was Casey Kasem it's at night it's the facade of his house and he hears something like a crash in the trash cans and it comes on his Dana in a bathrobe and he goes who was out there I'm Casey Kasem and then I come out and go dad it's not a burglar or a raccoon it's me your son jay-z jay-z and he goes son I want nothing to do with you dad hear me out John it was the idea that yeah we have been estranged for a long time and he goes he goes I was always asking you questions like when are you gonna get a job when are you gonna move out and what recording artist has more number-one hit my Carrie was 17 seriously dad there's a drug dealer after me a Mateo dad why won't you why won't you let me in the house and he goes here's a letter Casey your son and his boyfriend Jonathan you said in his boyfriend Jonathan told me five thousand dollars in cocaine money it was like okay you know and he goes well Jonathan if you touch what anybody folds it up and goes well in your dress he goes well Jonathan if you touch a hair on my boy's head off like you like a Lebanese torpedo and we laughing like on the floor I remember sitting down writing that sketch because we were just cracking up did it at the table on Wednesday and it blew like I mean everyone was losing their minds right and we were like this is a this is gonna be great and we did it at dress and it was just like like we started tripping up it was that thing where you expect you'd only known it to kill creates the Riddler that regret and that the whole rhythm went off cuz we did it at when we did it during blocking the crew was dying losing them on everybody did it and it just died and we both were going but tripping and oh this is the worst yeah and it and we just went and I walked over and John was you know under the bleachers with Lauren and he was just like I I have nothing I have no idea why that just happened that was crazy you know and so yeah it's just it was a good lesson you just have no idea like the audience was just like no resoundingly Founding no but you you gave an insight into the audience the live audience versus the folks at home who are tuning into in millions and that's where the show's success and the big picture comes from but it's what gets on the show success from dress to live is solely in the hands of those people in that live audience and you sort of broke down which I don't want to bastardize and we'll ask you to this he gave an analogy as to how that's almost the anti comedy audience that comes in there for the live taping because of the tourists and in other words they didn't pay to come to a comedy show yeah and our have been longtime fans with specific yeah things yes sometimes well I'll say this to clarify I it is the dress the dress audiences who really that decides the show which is a crazy thing as our dress audience and it was that because sometimes a live audience you would really feel like the minute you would come out as a specific like character like it you know christum go out as ghillie or something everyone would go bonkers because they watch the show and they lose Stephan in but um yes sometimes it you know what it was what I was really it was you you come to SNL only playing you know at UCB or I came from second city LA and and all these other places and most of the time that people in the audience are like comedy fans and comedy or your friends is the people you know they've come to specifically see you and this is more like I always said I remember saying to because Amy Poehler I mean when I started she goes she gave me a good piece of advice she's like do not do the show for your friends because your friends will not don't be like where is the weird thing that you did up you know on the small theater in the small that kills right why and I go it doesn't work here you know because the audience to me it felt like if you were like at the gate at the airport and then you just turn around and said alright everybody here's a funny thing what do you guys think of this and everybody at the airport has to turn over giggle oh yeah you have to make like those people laugh you know cuz that's kind of what it is it's not necessarily people primed for it yes interesting and an hour before it covered the show they were at the Empire State Building going this is [ __ ] right yeah yeah now we're here at SNL and siding which brilliantly written sketch yeah it's an interesting thing but the thing is that you can't I don't think though that they're bad or wrong or anything like that it's just it's an it's just the difference for the performers it was a thing that Steve Higgins we always talk about like when I started like you're the Venn diagram of like here's what works at SNL and here's what you find funny and you have to find where that crossover is and there's certain people like John Mulaney and Kristen Wiig it's like the same diagram it's like there is no crime they just came in and they're in what they instinctually found funny it was like it just worked but I know I had to work really hard to find that overlay and that was kind of the thing it was like I was so used to playing for like it's comedy nerd you know and then you're going oh you got to play for like your neighbors it's like playing doing a show for like your neighbors like 9 your parents friends it's like people who are like you're not and you kind of barely know and you're going like what do you guys think this is funny so it has to have more of a broader appeal but in the case of something like Casey and Jay she spelled Jay a Cey like Casey where it destroys in front of the most cynical comedy writers in the world it destroys it in front of the most cynical camera crew that works on a comedy show in the world Lauren has to know the power of this particular sketch based on all of those numbers those real-life numbers and then that dress audience stares like and makes a sound of crickets and it's deemed not worthy I guess that goes into that percentage of every year there's gonna be 17% that's great and we know it's great they're not gonna do it yeah well it also depends on what else is in this show and it was Dana's show so the top half of that show was all of his greatest hits right do you know what I mean sure so then like the second half of the show is us and then there was probably so it's like four sketches and there's probably four better sketches that play better than that and so Lauren's pick in the show and he's going like well we have to have church lady Wayne's World yeah you know we have to have all these things so then the guy loved it but it's got to go right but then there's times we'll he'll fight for something that dies that Warren just is like [ __ ] you that's funny like there's one sketch if you want to find it and I don't know if it's a funny sketch but Will Forte and John Solomon and I wrote a sketch well Forte and I played these characters named Jerry and Carl there used these gruff businessmen hello Jerry hello Carl good to see you I'm sorry Jeremy and and it was called fart face and it was with Josh Brolin and it was a very serious scene where we were called like he calls Josh a fart face and we're in a business setting it's in an office yeah and he was acting like a real fart facing is when I really don't appreciate you saying that I'm not a fart face and I don't like you calling me that and and they and it just escalates to this place where he starts crying and then we make threats that we're gonna tell her but he cried in our office which to me 14 I thought was the funniest threat that you could possibly give someone like we're gonna tell everybody you cried and then he leaves and we start doing it and and we we did it at the table Lorne for some reason lost his mind he laughed so hard his face was red he thought it was so funny and then we did it at dress and it played like like a weird Mamet play it was a silence it was just possible businessmen just chewing up scenery and you can hear our footsteps you can't hear me like plays like listen I mean you can hear everything and the audience was just like oh and Lauren we went in and we went in and not only do you say [ __ ] it he moved it up in the order and it was the Sarah Palin episode where she came Josh Brolin hosted with Sarah Palin game is the most-watched episode in SNL history up to that point and the sketch after update was fartface and we were like I cannot believe we came in and you heard an audible like like everybody was like and so when Lauren got to that he kind of was like I think there was no lack of commitment in that sketch and he was really into it and goes there you guys really committed to it and it was great and then he had the great note which was I had a so notes I had a boom shadow in fartface I had a boom shadow in fartface which made us all that and then at the end then a good night so I went over to Sarah Palin and I said did you like my sketch and she goes which one was that and I go who's called fart face and she went oh no with that respect before you very honest she went oh no like no one like that so that was yeah fart face oh my god it was fun I feel like the Casey and JC Kasem sketch would have eventually gotten on the air were it not for the fact that Dana was hosting yeah I'm so necessary to the character yeah maybe yeah cuz I mean I know other sketches that have killed in the room and diet dress and then a few weeks or months later they'll bring him back yeah that does happen I mean happen with Stefan you know Stefan was a thing that was a sketch first and then it didn't work and then we kept bringing it back as a sketch and it never really worked and then Doug Abel's who was running update at the time said do you want to do an update and for some reason it worked it's that thing like you have no idea why like why is this working now when it was the thing that by the time he said do you guys want to do on an update I remember Mulaney coming in I'm going do you want do you want to write one and update and I was like I've just all I've known is like these great stories just doesn't work you know and he was like let's try it you know and I give John John deserves a lot of credit for that stuff working because the wordplay in the language of it so much of that is John you know if anything I'm kind of just like more of like an editor and I will throw in a joke here and there you know but most of the weird wordplay is just you give him like an area and then he leaves and comes back and I'm like I where did this come from they there with her herb Welch is another one the old reporter guy that was another one we would laugh really hard at yeah write that in the room together and we would laugh right at that one because it's just old old phrases make us laugh yeah well the joy also I think for the audience and fans of Stefan is the sketch actor in this case you gets to completely lose themselves in a fake persona that becomes real as well as anything on the show everyone then wants Stefan to be real they want this insane person not character to be in their life it was one of those transcending characters I mean you must have had and still do people come up to you and oh yeah in your face about it yeah the thing I always appreciated a guy come up to me one time and said I love Stefan and he was a gay guy and he said I like that the joke wasn't that he is gay and that really made me laugh that made me that made me laugh because I was so happy and I said oh but that was that was a very much a conscious effort on John and I his part was like usually the joke is that they're gay and it's like he just happens with the joke is that he's not doing his job right and it's the thing that I will always find funny which is a very smart person being very patient with a crazy person I always will find funny this scene in lost in America with Garry Marshall which is like give us our money back and you're much like I can't I can't do that right and here's why I can't do it very step-by-step like explain why the dumbest idea in the world won't work I will always find funny so people is think I mean I'm I am I mean John would trip me up but initially why I would start laughing was sets patience would make me laugh with him going okay no Stefan like that would always make me laugh because it was just like he just isn't doing his job right and anybody else would be like get out of here get out of here but he's like look the desserted I I was very clear with you like that stuff always always makes me laugh yeah well we thought enough time had passed and you might actually miss Stefan mm-hmm and all you might be lacking was some cue cards for Stefan to come back to us so we asked our very own what have you got there oh look at that it's a script what's ahead those are cute cards yeah let me see we like to this is our very own core 11 oh I get to play I get to be the with the Chinese you knew you're just around the corner tourists are going to flocking to the city to celebrate and who better to tell us about all the best hotspots than our own City correspondent Stefon hi have you been thank you for that so tell us Stefan what's a good place for ringing in the New Year of the goat you know something with a little Asian Flair perhaps a little bit of Asian food what you're looking for Chinatown hottest club is built on the backs of million Egyptian slaves this rolling blackout is the brainchild of shutterbug party promoter Jeff Bridges of Madison County the bouncer whereas an old leather football helmet there's no password but he's extremely racist this place has everything tuffet skirts way and Obamacare and a human hockey pucks I have to ask what's a human hockey puck it's that thing when a [ __ ] curls up in the fetal position and you hit him as hard as you can with a stick yeah yeah Thank You Cory we're all gonna get sued now nice job yeah yeah NBC is gonna come part of you guys yeah can't wait I'm down hard but yeah yeah yeah that's a funny one the [ __ ] ones those were the ones that were always the hardest to get through yeah our to figure out you know because they usually couldn't be like too degrading they couldn't be sure yeah that was always a tough one oh and also you're not allowed to say [ __ ] that was a big deal was like you couldn't say [ __ ] yeah and we would just do it anyway but they would say like standards and practices would come up it was like you cannot say [ __ ] they weren't kidding yeah and they said to John the woman said oh thank you well-built water sure sure the woman said that you can't we were walking out to do I think the first one and she said you can't say [ __ ] on air that's like saying the N word Brian John said no it's not because you just said [ __ ] yeah you just said [ __ ] so clearly it's not we did it what a fascinating good point tease me why did you hate pitching sketches on Monday so damn much I was never that good at it it was always I felt like I was not very good at writing like just straight jokes that's why I was always amazed by guys like John I just worked with Amy Schumer she's the same way like just has that brain where she goes go goof and just has that like that economy of late right there's like perfectly you know and very simple right joke I just never had that so I was always like the king of just lame fake pitches like get past me real quick and also I had this weird thing it's like I had like if I had a good show on Saturday it was kind of nice to go in on Monday and the pitch meeting fall on your face cuz it brought back your like humility and you're like yeah I got to work for this ya know like my [ __ ] does sting you know you know you had but I never did it him I actually would it never seemed like I was trying but I was trying to write good pitches and they never worked right yeah if something you and John worked on you felt more comfortable game yeah always I leaned heavily on the writers oh I mean I always respected people at Kristen Fred Armisen and you know these people would just write stuff on their own like fred would write some of the funniest sketches and they were just by him it was just hit and he just wrote it by himself and I were hilarious I did not have that the the skill or the confidence to do something like that I always wanted to go in with you know I would go in with a writer and say okay here's you know Benny vedecci here's his voice I have like this character and maybe it's a talk show maybe it says I don't know what it is and then we work on it together and figure it out you know well you say that was a voice you just had that was a voice I had it's one of the most memorable ones for us I remember talking to will 14 20 here was here a few weeks ago him saying yeah I love that sketch because I would they would just cut to me and I was eating mm-hmm I was always hungry he would eat spaghetti he just had to eat spaghetti the whole time and that made us laugh that was like my favorite thing in the whole sketch was that we made will get in the costume they had to buy all this stuff for him and then and then he just ate the whole time he never said he never even looked up I never even looked up you just have his head down the whole time eating yeah and it was wonderful Bobby Moynihan as the kissing son yeah that's from Miller's Crossing that's that little kid from Miller's Crossing that we were you know yeah when he slaps me because there's somebody hit you papa papa look what the sisters gave me why I shouldn't get hit yeah that made us yeah John and I were like so what at Bobby I remember that yeah that was with Simon rich and I wrote that and we were like what if Bobby was the little kid from Miller's Crossing we started laughing really hard he smoked cigarettes yeah I remember but yeah if that one was that one was a lot of fun that was a hard one for our director Don because he's watching the sketch live and he's reading along with the script and on this line we cut to this and on this line we cut to that well that was all gibberish so he didn't know where to cut you're speaking German I'm speaking gibberish right so he's just watching me instead speaking lines I'm going the puffs we're gonna look up on bass Rondo and he's going when I cut so if you watch it I will gesture a lot it was like he was looking for a gesture really I was going on that go to the wide there's all this weird timing thing he puts down the cigarette that means good you know Oh Fred you know go to Fred you know this or whatever but you could kind of tell because it would be like you would yell a fake phrase to somebody and then it would end and then he would cut the friend right yeah but it was also a breakthrough moment I think you said something about it took you maybe four years to really feel comfortable and be able to enjoy the experience yeah and there was a breakthrough a moment when Julia louis-dreyfus was on yeah Vinnie yeah is the first one that was we sort of earmarked oh [ __ ] that was fun yeah yeah that was I did that at the table and I remember I had a dry spell and it was one of those things where at SNL you're like anybody noticing that I haven't really been on the show for seven shows or whatever like I've been does anybody notice like is this just me that I've haven't been in anything like I've been customer number two or the second cop through the door kind of you know right and and then we wrote Vinny vedecci for the Julia Louie Dreyfus episode and I we did at the table and it got an applause break and Paul Appel patted my back and I was like oh everybody noticed everybody noticed that I needed that you know I'm a pozzolan anybody hater really needed that you know and so it was it was very sweet yeah like and then it was a moment of like oh okay you know not every but not wasn't like a giant round it wasn't like the movie Rudy or something but it was Warren Beatty hungry or Ned Betty but I was I was it was just like people were like hey good job with that and it is a weird part of the experience that I've heard from others where it's almost like a mathematical phenomenon mm-hmm you'll be top-heavy for five weeks in a row and then a ghost for what a number of weeks especially your first couple of years you don't you're the minute you think assume it's a red flag for being fired 100% yeah you're just like what did I do wrong right what did I do wrong and my my feeling was like instead of I think I'm gonna like how do I be the breakout guy or whatever not that even I didn't even enter the place that way it was more like okay this is like the a-team what is my specialty and I figured quickly was impressions and yeah then it was like hey what look I went to Warren and I was like what do you bob odenkirk gave me a great piece of advice he's like just go in and talk to Lauren don't don't be afraid of him like just go in and talk to Warren right and he was so right and I just went in and talked to my god what can I do because I've been like it's nothing I haven't done anything you know and he was like oh no like you're doing great yeah if you want to try it you know do impression pieces like that that would be a good thing to get from you and now that I know the show better it that thing it's like what is each person bringing to the table and how does all of us together make an ensemble and so you were the impressions guy in the a-team yes I was like that I was like well maybe if I just start focusing on impression pieces that would be good even and that's the other thing I learned I would do an impression piece like I had to I just like just dumb [ __ ] like Ricardo montalban's book club and like III did a thing with John Malkovich doing something but they were not funny but it was it told the writers hey I can do this right and everybody went that wasn't funny but a hater can do Malkovich great right we'll put that in something you know yeah and I read somewhere where you weren't aware until then that you were the impressions guy it was something that was sort of yeah there's when I did that Al Pacino thing in my first show that that people were like hey you do impressions and I was like oh yeah I guess I mean I didn't do impressions before my SNL audition Naomi Odenkirk my manager Bob's wife and I had a meeting with her Megan Mullally saw me recommended me to Lorne Michaels and had this meeting with Naomi because I knew a friend of mine worked for her and she was like so what do you do like what's a character you do I don't have any characters she was due to impressions I was like no she was like what did she see and I go she saw me in like a improv show like you know me against the back wall I'm like running and join scenes and going you know and improvising and she was like well don't just you know not and be nice and just have a nice conversation with them you know and so I met Warren and that's what we did and then and then Naomi ended up helping and working with me and being like okay like well what are things you like she gave me a nice piece of advice which is like don't try to do things you think are popular like just do things that you are actually attracted to right and that's why I did Vincent practice I love old movies so it's like all those people that I like everyone does you know like my audition was actually pretty icky it was like James Mason Al Pacino Peter Fogg like all these things that everyone very happy know everyone does but I mean no but it's like it wasn't like whoa he's pulling out some crazy it's not Malkovich or dare I say alan arkin yeah you know you do want a stray you only those are always the ones that made me laugh yeah some of this guy Dave ghee did impression of Warren Beatty yeah and specifically came up behind me when he gets Jack warden in the headlock and heaven can wait and says God had to pick me you know and it just that was a weird little lispy thing that was in whisperin was like who the [ __ ] thought to do Warren man or like Jim Downey told me there was a guy that did Bruce Dern really well doing Rick Overton yeah yeah Shane Lee was insane he's that did an insane Bruce Dern and you're like yeah right that's the [ __ ] of course that's a thing first guy first people you see do Goldblum or James Spader yeah and you go a course there's well there's that thing that Jim Downey would totally like handles like impression like certain people have real handles on them and certain people don't right and those old movie actors had such big handles on and we could just go oh James Mason it's so clearly what you play or whatever so it's just kind of like well I'll just grab people that I find funny and just have big you know have handles on them but the people that I was assigned a lot of times didn't it was like I hope the hair and makeup is really good yes I can't like how do you do Robert Pattinson I don't know how to do that yeah and then you did and I did with with a lot of makeup yeah I don't know if I put it in the book or not but I did tell the story about how I was on the phone with Dana Dana and I came out of San Francisco stand up around the same time so when he got a sign it I said no we would talk every now and then on the phone and it was like a Tuesday that earlier in the week and I said who do you have to do this week and he said Ross Perot and no one had even thought about doing Ross yeah and I said what are you gonna do and I think had a tape of him on Larry King and by the end of the conversation he and I both had a flawless Rock bro I'm just [ __ ] around of course Dana is always the best at finding that one little and his of course was canopy nation yeah Larry can't finish or whether it was George Bush yeah you know yeah that's a handle thing that's what John's talking I was like that thing that you can and I think Dana when he hosted that he told me what I couldn't put my finger on it but he goes well yeah it's all rhythm yeah and I was like that's what it is their music it's a rhythm so you go okay when you're like find the rhythm and I remember he said that to me and then I went the next thing I was assigned I think was James Carville and I go okay let's find the rhythm and then I watched him like on a Larry King type thing and you go oh there's the rhythm it's right there is like the left they laugh and like the way you kind of like will kind of wind up into something was really funny but yeah that one kills destroys us the Carvelli my favorite Carville thing was Rob Klein Rob Klein wrote on those with Mulaney that was rock climbing Mulaney they also wrote those great David Paterson pieces for Fred where he was the blind that was made me laugh harder than anything in my life just getting really close to the camera yeah where he would just wheel out that's the hardest area seen Lorne Michaels laughs my whole time s until the first time Fred rolled out Michaels lost his mind he was laughing so hard he goes come on I'm like an X what do you say they come on I'm like a X uh like crackers now the I'm blind X cracker and how the Governor of New Jersey is like it's like the plot to a Richard Pryor movie but he robbed client would have the best jokes for Carville and he's and Rob's us very like kind of calm like Harvard Lampoon guy real like a man but he had that one or it's like it's saying that there's a difference between the Republican and a tea party's like I have midgets standing next to a Smartcar tall [ __ ] you just clever you just come up to you in the hallway and give you that and you're like whoa yeah for the île thing the whole thing about car videos I think Carville maybe was raised by eels with the thing just come up yeah maybe eels this is like alright to say hello to my mother real quick if I may yeah that's all right Rob Klein kind of deeply hey man but that's why I mean that kind of mind that confidence that kind of come up with something like that I was always yeah but I I felt like in that same 18 way like in a you know I would work on that stuff but I realized I was like oh I can really perform this stuff and and finding laughs so there's no laughs that was always really fun yeah especially like I'm like oh wait I played a hundred game show host yeah you know and that was so much fun to like find the mundane find the mundane thing but fine where the game show host we might one of my favorite sketches I ever did at SNL was one that John Mulaney Simon rich America so I wrote called what's that name where it was I was a I don't remember this whereas people come on it's like now what's that name you know and it's like okay and as a picture of you know Daffy Duck there's Daffy Duck $10 for you congratulations and then the next picture is like you know Mariah Carey and it's like all right Kelly $20 for you now tell me I will give you 1 million dollars if you could tell us who this person is and it's like hey it's Kenan I'm the doorman then your doorman for 20 years your son avi like space I know everything about your family what's my name and it was Paul Rudd he's like and it was such a fun little figure it was a game show but they allowed me to make the game show they were the first people to write the game show host as like a [ __ ] that he was like usually game show host was a straight guy right but in those sketches they were like no you should be like the smarmy [ __ ] like you know so Paul's like I don't like it because the Paul at one point goes I think this game stinks and I go well I think you stink I think it's a giant laugh because everyone was like they've never seen the game show focus just become an [ __ ] to the contestant out of the blue like it was like whoa like you're hearing from the audience really why is he turning up right well I think you stink anyway yeah yeah it's hard in the Jeopardy stuff with Will Ferrell how it was great yeah you know as hard as he gave it as Sean Connery talking about his mother it was ultimately will fighting back a little yeah that made it just you would just run it out you round it out you needed that and it was so much fun to make who is this game show host that was this yeah that's what we were like who is this guy I don't have an [ __ ] like is he fund yeah what's that but what's that name we had a backstory that that he he was independently wealthy and he funded this game show himself just to like call these people out for being [ __ ] but he purposely would have these people on air just we were laughing so hard gods like yeah I think I think this guy's just independently wealthy this isn't being broadcast anywhere free sometimes the presentation just for him to be like I hate you people I just what is mr. Pappas ID I grew up in Tulsa Oklahoma correct continue and where did you grow up gives the name now the code name Sapphire mean anything to you no every school did you apply to before choosing the obvious one of Scott's day I went to a college preparatory school like a Rushmore Academy type school all my friends were going to like Ivy League schools and I just had terrible grades sure but I was lucky that I had teachers there that were like you're not doing drugs you're just not interested I was really just more of a movie geek yeah and so they had like this video journalism class that was kind of like whatever class and they said you want to take this over and every one every Thursday one Thursday a month you can have your own show that will will broadcast you know on the thing I don't great so it was like my own like weird little daily show yeah that I was the anchor and I did everything and we had there's a thing called channel one that we always had to watch every Thursday and so we did like a flip like a parody of it right and so it's very lucky that I went to that school and so in a weird way it was great but another way was backs I still had shitty grades so then I got out of that thinking everyone was and then I mean I couldn't even get into like a state school I remember I remember coming home and my mom going you didn't get into oh you it's like I hate that now now what yeah and it was that heart sinking feeling of all my friends going up to college and I'm just kind of like I was working at my dad's office just going like I don't know what I'm gonna do and and but my parents you know we're like you you know you want to do this stuff they were always very supportive like you want to like you know get into movies and everything so Scottsdale Community College really was like there's a thing called art at Art Institute International which had these like there was one in Phoenix and Dallas and everything and I just like literally went okay I'm going to Phoenix like we're just gonna go to Phoenix and so I went to Phoenix and I was there for like art in it but the artists to Phoenix for like four months and then a friend said oh that it's got community colleges actually shoot stuff on film and there's like the late 90s one like that was the thing before a video looked like it does now sure it was like oh we could actually shoot on super 16 in 35 and they had avid's and all this [ __ ] so we I went there and then in my first year oppression clap my first film production class i sat next this guy Nick Jassa Novik and he's like one of my best friends and Nick guys know it directed a movie called paper heart with Michael Cera and he's directed tons of commercials he's directed broad city and Delocated and stuff so we all and then we just moved to LA and piayed yeah it's the PA portion of you're in the research that seemed chalk filled mm-hmm I mean you moved Los Angeles with dreams of being the next PT Anderson or Wes Anderson according to one of the interviews I just see you walking down the street God if you're listening please make me a film making Anderson yes yes Bill Anderson how does one become the personal assistant to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of collateral damage is it that you were working on the film and you were assigned yeah it kind of slowly became that over but come and it was were this woman named Christina Peterson was the the ad at base camp she dealt with him but then slowly it just became like you just want to go get Arnold bill do you want to go over there you know and I was in collateral damage in that group of six movies in a row that was the end of his career he knew it was dope and because that means we almost crossed paths because I did end of days with Arnold oh yes which was right after collateral damage okay before wasn't it I think was before I think dear Lord that's how close it was yeah well I he so I saw the big top circus men she's on a camp his whole camp there was just semi filled with workout equipment and I would walk by eating chocolate cake and making him and we would have to well that workout equipment that thing was out like in these coffee plant fields in Halawa Mexico sure we're in the jungle and that's where it was like this giant you know Arnold village that that was right that was my that was my job was going out there and every morning we could get up there like 4:00 in the morning and these guys where we wait don't go out don't go out don't bend these guys would go out with pitchforks and they would get rid of the snake it out get rid of snakes we just sit there with our coffees watching them thanks for base camp where we were supposed to go work and I was like do you think the snakes would want to come back yeah it's like they're just gonna stay the Sun they don't like the Sun right I was awful and as you sit there and everybody knows one of the things as he walked it from each trailer and I accept our normal just be like this is what we showed predators very nice we need some flown in it he told me that you talked about ivanishin it's all flown absolutely oh that's great I love it and then I remember one time he came up to me you know the first time I met him he came up to me news what is Jeff and Peter that's his hair and makeup guys don't even remember them I do remember the tall Jeff Jeff Don his dad you know their grandpa Jack Donovan and then a little Peter as well as Jeff and Peter and I go I'll look for him you know my Mike I'll look for him and it was find them show me a leadership capabilities 20 by going like right there right there show me leadership capabilities yeah that was that was better than that I barely and then he would play chess and he would just play chess and they would I remember there was a scene in the movie where this village had been decimated there's fires and there's bodies everywhere in the shot is like they had seven cameras on this helicopter coming in with Arnold it lands he gets out and kind of surveys this damage and then has a scene with somebody but it was the big scene of him landing and then we're gonna go in tighter for coverage for the actual see it took four hours to shut up but no you can't get him out of fire and now he's playing in there like we're ready for him is that awful thing here on the mic light him up yeah there we go and you see smoke like over look there's a helicopter like right next to me and I'm like he's playing chess guys and they're like we'll get him out and on my they're ready for you and he's like as I wrote on a piece of paper lose the guy he was yeah I gave it to the guy and he read it in the normal one let me see this we play another game never had to go out and tell a helicopter like to like turn it down like we're not gonna like I was doing like he's not he's not getting out he's playing by the way if I may fires down fires down put out the fires you showed leadership qualities by thinking - right lose I thought I was pretty smart enough we get to as a pilot who I'm sure wanted to be over with yeah he was nervous it was acting coach yeah and yeah and he was like yeah what do you mean to finish the W's I'm saying I mean the visa w-what do you mean he was but you know other than that it was that was actually a blast just working on that shows was a giant yeah giant circus and it was 20 years old and you're out in the jungle and shooting and hanging out and weird parts of Mexico with like all these like crew guys and they'd all been there before like I was here on Romancing the Stone I'll say some crazy [ __ ] and I'm like yeah I'm good I'm alright yeah so yeah but that was a blast that was a good time but that's yeah that's how I I worked on that and then a spider-man I worked on a little bit the same rainy one but then I mostly was a PA on like really really low budget movies actually I was a PA for one one day I'm a movie k-pax really and I got fired because we're at La Center studios and there was supposed to be a Jeff Bridges hailing a taxi and was supposed to be in New York I think that there's La Center studios and they were shooting Planet of the Apes on the other side and I blew my lock up but which lock up means you're full of it wait wait we're shooting you know you hold people and while he was doing two Apes walked by everybody and everyone laughed and everyone thought it was funny and it was all nice and everybody thought it was a really funny thing and it was like I mean it was like okay whose side of that come from okay bill bill you're fired you know and it was like oh [ __ ] and the guy who fired me was the second ad and then he was the first ad on Superbad and I showed up and I was like remember me he gave me [ __ ] the whole movie my favorite part of that means that somewhere is it as footage of a scene in [ __ ] k-pax where Jeff just walks down the street a New York taxi two weeks yeah to apes walked by it was two guys to be told that they were like the heads were off they didn't have like they were like two guys walking by and they went whoa like and they walked out to be fair to paid a more accurate picture but it was a thing where I was like oh and but when I showed up on Superbad and then he gave me [ __ ] like it was like I was still you think that's happened to me twice now where I've run into ADEs that was a PA for and I go hey I was a PA for you and then that just sticks that they're not impressed like Oh awesome now I can treat you like [ __ ] you know and Scott there's a scene in Superbad where I have to stop a car at the end of it stop and it's it's the hardest thing in the world yeah I got an exact mark yeah looking at the thing that looking at a mark and it's like the focus is just right here to stop on the mark and we I had to do it like 20 times here and he was like come on man got like you know there's you've never seen an ad talk to an actor like that like I'm [ __ ] idiot come on all right back come on everybody keep it rolling he's gonna get this [ __ ] idiot come alright let's go and I'm like hot do you think you can do it yeah it's like God what is it [Laughter] it's your speaking of getting fired it's your story of getting fired from the theater because the sorority girls Oh Titanic if he wouldn't mind because what you said to them the way you spoiled I don't give the set up first why was working at Centerpoint movie theater in Tempe Arizona this is 1997 or early 1998 and I at the time had very very long hair and a beard and I would tour tickets at the movie theater that bowtie cummerbund everything and the sorority had rented out the theater to see Titanic and they were just kind of like congregating in the front there and I was going like hey you guys got to move and they were just being [ __ ] to me like you know like we're waiting for our friends and like you know just I just I just didn't the just sucked you know and I'm sitting there staying at them and they were being rude so then finally all their sorority was there and they're like alright let's go everybody and so they come in and as I tear they take let me enjoy the movie leo dies at the end the boat sinks and I just gave it away the whole and you think he's past that now yeah they go they go Leo doesn't die and I go no II think he's sleeping but he's frozen and the old lady that's Kate Winslet she's got the diamond that real passion is looking for and at the end she throws up at the [ __ ] water enjoy the movie [ __ ] you like and then I remember my manager came over and he was like he was this guy is kind of like ever and he was like did you just tell them the end of Titanic I go yeah he goes oh I have to fire you like a half man's like oh I have to fire you I was terrible at that job I remember one time I was just because you're not allowed to bring food in that was a big but you can't bring food into the theater contraband we call it yeah contraband and you can bring food into the theater and then pay attention and a guy there's no joke a guy brought a wedding cake and then everybody was like one to see he got game the guy was like I had time to kill you have a freezer for this and the people at concessions were like no take it home go see the 4:30 showing like you don't need to see he's like had time today because I had time to kill I live out and like Gilbert and I don't want to like dry bagging like all this stuff and so yeah he wanted to see he got game and he had and and they're like bill and you just tore his tickets like he paid I don't know that was my first job in a movie theater and I constantly got in trouble I worked concessions and I was always getting in trouble for not upselling like for three or four Oh what's the worst don't you feel you feel like a jerk doing is I feel like I've taken is I'm like you know what you want and it's like and I always and I hate when people do it to me cuz well then you have to be like no thanks I just want the small and then so I that's that's why how I got fired like I did it too many times in a row and they're like get out I was the same way I had a really hard time upselling people it bothered me I felt right like I felt like I was imposing yeah and also you know somewhere in your mind that the theater doesn't need to steal like this no it's like I see it on the look on the people's face like it Barnes & Noble or something it's like do you have a Barnes & Noble card and I'm like no you don't have to say this yeah we don't have to say did you get an email from you you know yeah but they just look like I have like I would got into my head I had him say that wrong number please what's your social security can you give me all your information yeah when I studied the gold from your teeth can I scan you read a real quick to get these resonates can i scan you remember speaking of raisinettes was it that the theater where a very young shaky nervous michael yeah Michael Bay came up to me and he was the first test screen of Armageddon he was very nervous and he bought I think Raisinets yeah that was at concessions and I was like hey and then he was like I hope this goes well pretty soon yeah yeah I remember seeing him once this is a fight so I met him then and then years later to the Lonely Island guys got invited to the Playboy Mansion sure and one of them didn't go he couldn't go or for some reason and so Andy was like do you want to go and I turned to my wife and she was like you got it you got to go to the Playboy [ __ ] and like that's hilarious you know go okay and so we went to the Playboy Mansion and Playboy Mansion we went there and it was like some party and it was literally me and akiva schaffer drinking coffee over in the corner talking about the at what aspect ratio he was gonna shoot hot rod in like if they'll go in a morphic man you should shoot anamorphic it looks [ __ ] awesome yeah yeah Wow but we were so like not you know yeah and then um I saw a friend there and he introduced me to Michael Bay and he was like hey it's Michael Bay and why should I throw up and he was like hey and he goes this guy is a new guy on SNL everybody who's you know look funny oh my god like out of the gate and I go oh what and I just played stupid I go are you an actor or what do you do he was like and he honestly went I'm a director and I was like aw cool what did you direct and he goes come on but I I was like right on man and then like all right that he kind of like just then he he was very nice and kind of said the movies that he directed and everything but it was a funny moment where you just like come on like you [ __ ] know who I am you can't work in comedy and not know why yeah but and then we actually had a nice conversation but it was a funny like even look funny it was like out of the gate yeah there must have been some surprising moments over the years about who was you thought was gonna be a [ __ ] and wasn't and yeah those people surprise you on both sides of that I opened up with talk about skeleton twins and now we've taken forever to get back to it the film opens September 8th I want to say at a theater near you yeah we do ask people to hurt me perhaps at the outset to write in tweeted earlier about offering up some questions or one of the versions of questions we have here is a series of five rapid-fire questions that are specifically designed for you by the audience this they've come in through the chat room and Jamie has forwarded them to me these five rapid-fire questions are called a tweet five thank you Dave Koechner this one from Francis Kelly hey these are Coco Pepsi no correct answer okay it's designed for you Jonah Hill and Michael Cera Oh exactly Sophie's Choice gun to their head oh I love them both yep I gotta say Mike J now because I haven't seen you in a while okay so he's dead James Carville or John Malkovich James Carville Meatwad or frylock anyone come on what are we talking about South Park of The Venture Brothers Oh South Park profession professor impossible or the flying squid I like professor impossible yeah people are through the research fascinated with you landing at South Park because of the documentary I think that was the first time a lot of people found out that yeah you've been working there so let's go to a piece of that that people may not know that I saw in the research that I was instantly fascinated by which is the South Park retreat because it sounded like the most chill environment possible to break stories for a new season yeah it's kind of it's like yeah a friend of mine says like comedy Mensa camp or something it yeah like for me going to that place like I said before with the writing you know it was a you know it's like jokes you know there's one thing but structures another thing I wanted was trying to learn right like how to structure these things and they're like the geniuses at it the man traitor absolute geniuses at it and learning how much it is just instinctual and but there are rules that they kind of will apply logic how much like logic plays into it how much emotion plays into it was really fascinating to me you think South Park and you just remember like the big jokes but all they talk about is the emotion of things connection connection and like no but the emotion of that we're dealing with here is he wants this or someone is you know feels bad about vlogging or whatever but yeah those retreats are a blast specifically example I thought of that was the way you explained the way Matt read an article about the n-c-double-a and how the players weren't paid and yet the NCAA makes a gazillion dollars from video games now so the sketch was Cartman wants to own slaves the way that the NCAA does things to them for advice yeah he goes the he goes to a college yeah and he was like oh and and the thing that me and Vernon chat and I think pitched that was that he's like you should go as a plantation owner right like I understand you got some boys here and he's got like a fan and he's looking at the basketball team but the way it happens is like Matt stands at one thing it just goes this is [ __ ] I just watched a frontline on it and he's just going off right and trey is kind of trait paces and circles around us so we're all sitting and Trey's pacing like De Niro's al capone and no but he's kind of pacing thinking and then and then he sees the matrix and then yeah it just it's like this mental Tetris thing about and then he goes okay so Carmen wants slaves so he goes to college so it's just this logical thing so you go to a college to get slaves no they turn them away so then crack babies the crack babies the correlation which is like it's think of like crack baby football okay what's crack baby football he needs the rules for clarity but you know and it's just this long thing and you just watch Trey kind of go off and you're like whoa and then and then Vernon Chapman is kind of like the quiet assassin genius that ever the whole room is kind of just plain to him because he's very quiet but he's like so smart and perceptive that if he laughs or he's like yeah that's it then it's like we're all like it's like okay let's go we're good now but Vernon we the first episode I think I worked with on South Park was the Kanye West fish stick episode where he thinks people the joke about fish sticks and then Kanye doesn't get the joke and he thinks people think he's a gay fish and there is a part in the episode where we were riding it and I remember is that the retreat where we go okay so there was a fish sticks joke everyone knew it was a joke except Kanye West because we were like he doesn't have a sense of humor and so it was like he actually thought people thought he sucked fish dicks and and he's like I'm not a gay fish I'm not a gay fish is [ __ ] go find out who made this joke about me and so that people come back and I go we found the guy I made the joke and so we were all kind of going okay so they found Cartman because Cartman made up the joke okay so they go downstairs and there's Cartman and they come in and then Bernie goes well instead of Cartman was Carlos Mencia we all went and then Vernon just went off because he was known for stealing jokes so Carlos see and he was going like dig don't work man I'm like cause this [ __ ] and they beat him up and everything and we that's like what Vernon does like that is like that percept like he just quietly listens and goes this is what it needs it's like the John Cleese thing of what Graham Chapman would bring to like the parrot sketch initially was about a car you know I like this car doesn't work well in he goes what if it's a parrot instead of a car like that guy in the room who just makes everything go oh now it's like really memorable you know that's Vernon now we've punched through the ridiculous yeah now he got to this thing and he's yeah he's a he's I think an unsung hero and comedy I know you didn't two seasons did you do the one that's about to start again yeah I've done actually I've been I've been doing retreat since 2008 right um and then last season I worked on the whole season as a writer and then this season no I haven't because I've been seeing a movie yes how much of a transition from the way that the president of Hollywood made fun of Bill Hader so eloquently it was the line he says you come in to the movie and then he said that yeah he's great if you need a friend at the exposition question in the movie yeah this is wait so what you're not just gonna follow her to Hawaii are you yes bill now [ __ ] off for the rest of the book but I imagine skeleton twins so I there's your head explode when you see how real and authentic of a person you're being asked to portray and and having done mostly arch or mm-hmm silly well is something that I always wanted to do you know it was a thing like how it kind of started was I asked my agent I was like I would like to do a drama and and he said I don't know another funny person who wants to do a boy yeah yeah I and I said I like to do drama he said well you know what no one yeah great idea he said no one can see that way because they only really know you from SNL and movies like these movies so what if I go to casting directors and you go to a casting director and they'll do it the casting director will do a table read for a movie that isn't doesn't have funding yet producers just want to hear it right out loud right and I'll find a casting director is doing a drama and you go in and do some table reads and that'll show these casting directors you've got you can do this and that's great I did it was a great idea and and the first one I went into was a V Coffman casting director having come in and it was a drama to remember what the movie was but it was Kate Winslet Bradley Cooper Paul Dano and Greta Gerwig and me and I was just like hi it was like Kate Winslet was very uh you know I was just cool getting to like sit across from a table from her and watch her just read cold read a script and she's you know amazing but from that table read 80 Kaufman and just doing skeleton twins and then they were going out with names for Milo and she said you know who's like a real weird offbeat choice but he just came in here and was really good in this table read and it was me and Craig Johnson was like really you know the director and so Craig and I met each other and he just was like yeah yeah what a cool idea this is a cool idea he had a totally different totally different way of going with it and and so I signed on in 2010 and then two years later we had another actress attached she fell out the money it was that thing of two years of emailing like what's going on skeleton twins it's like we have the money we have the money it's like money just fell through we have the money we don't have the money it would initially the whole movie took place in Santa Fe and they're like now it's gonna be an upstate New York I said that's great whatever and then they said Kristen what about Kristen for your sister and I was like what will she do at bridesmaid it just came out I think she's you know and Kristen called me and said I would love to do this movie if you'll have me only if you'll have me know like are you [ __ ] kidding yes you know and so she agreed to it and then once she came on it was like it's like we got the money everything's ready to go or shoot like in two months you know it was like that fast suddenly everything started moving really fast I don't know drama like that before either yeah well she did hate ship love ship and then she did girl most likely which had some dramatic stuff in it right but she I felt very lucky coming into this experience and doing this movie with her because she very vulnerable with her and I never you know you know it was just a new thing it was a totally new thing for me you know but kind of the way you know you show up at SNL and when I learned at SNL like being very pragmatic about stuff and kind of just not getting it I get ahead of myself and kind of like then I get lost you know it was like let's just take this step by step and just see you know and well how do you how did you feel organically about the alessa's more or less is more because it is at times and unbelievably small nuanced performance yeah they they have a couple of performance pieces without giving anything away which you look and you go okay well that's gonna be that and then these unbelievably quiet moments where you just have to be yeah so I mean for me with no formal acting training whatsoever those moments where you just have to be I actually found to be the most comforting yeah cuz as it turns out that's all I can do yeah it's not Act yeah waiting on you for 20 years yeah to learn how to be present yeah and not get caught acting yeah and I'm thinking why I can't act so this will be easy yeah I'll just but for people who have thrived on such a giant stage like you have or will we talked about Nebraska those in he's loves the silly and the crazy as we talked about before the the notion of just of just being just being still yeah did that come easily were you able to get out of your own way yeah yeah actually I really relate to what you just saying is that it was um it was comforting right and and I loved it was a thing that I kind of just happened naturally I was very lucky that on this movie the first three days of shooting was with Ty Burrell and those scenes are pretty intense right and and he you know he's very classically trained actor and having at the end of the first day him going what you're doing is really great just meant the world to me sure it gave me so much confidence he was like I see what you're doing it's really great he was probably surprised he was like he was like this is really good and what we're doing is is great you know these scenes feel really good those things they had to be nailed it's interesting that they were the first that was the first thing out of the gate and we have like a very weird relationship in the movie and he but we would do this thing where you would kind of start improvising stuff before like before we wrote like I was more actually yeah right before action that always was really helpful where they would say all right here we go and then you know was a clapper goes up you're already kind of doing the scene and you're kind of talking of it and then you would just kind of roll in and then he would say the first line and then we're into it and then so is this kind of very easygoing thing where you're like it's like this buffer of getting out of your head and like the crew kind of goes away and everything you're just talking with somebody and then it just kind of happens and it was just like that like I was like oh that's cool like this feels really nice and so that kind of carried I started you know just little things like that that I was like learning from from people like him and things Kristin was doing that was really great you know it was just it was really and also kind of like you know going into a scene and you know the character that type plays in the movie is essentially my first love in my life my characters the first love of his life was Ty's character and and that was always but I was like oh but it was like a high-school romance you know and it's like that Delaney you know it's like you would have so those scenes if you watch them it's kind of like a high school romance but it's two grown men talking to each other so it's like they stuck in this kind of thing and Ty and I would talk about that you know what I mean and it was like those kind of conversations and those kind of and that kind of work I just was loving I was coming home every day going like oh my waking my wife up going like we just had the best day cuz you know there's a you know just I was just so excited you know to be doing that kind of work yeah it was fun it was make it it was just different and also I was doing the show while I was shooting the movie Jesus which was hard so I was like coming in and dressed up as like a game show host you know being like oh we shot my suicide attempt today no we did think Martin Short where I was the Kate Middleton's gynecologist we were rehearsing that screen we rehearsed that scene the day I shot my suicide attempt which is the opening of the movie and it was and Martin was like you did what today you know it was like oh my god I have to go upstate and give him two hours of power and that's what he said to me where were you I was upstate giving him two hours of POW and then I he's one of the funniest guys no room yeah but uh but anyway yeah so yeah that it was that it was a weird it was a weird experience it was definitely a it was hard but it was very very gratifying I was like I don't know how this movie's gonna turn out but man that was awesome well all the newness and the freshness of the and the challenge of stepping outside of your comedic comfort zone into a whole brave new world is exhilarating and exciting and informative and and unlike anything you've done so personally it's so incredible and fantastic that there's no way to step back and say oh this whole movie works yeah there's no way because you're going through your own tunnel layer of awakening yeah this sense at Sundance which was that was at the first public as first put you were at the very first public screening of it yeah yeah I mean I couldn't help but stand up and yes I announced who I was to draw attention to myself for a few seconds but I asked a genuine question which was of the director Craig Johnson Johnson how he could trust that you were the right choice for this it's always went because it's a lead it's not just well let's let's move you in into the dramatic acting world gradually yeah well I was fortunate enough to yeah and he said here's a guy who's a big [ __ ] gun in the history of Saturday Night Live whether you're aware of that or not that's something that Craig Johnson is acutely aware of and I'm gonna put the comedic lead of a very nuanced performance in his hands and so I just had to ask him how and when did you know yeah that was very sweet that was like the highlight of my whole Sundance experience I have you know that but when you said that my wife started crying because I I just to give you a sense my that morning I I had like a bit of a panic attack it was like this thing hit me when I woke up and I was like people are gonna accept this like what what if people don't accept you know it's like you get to Sundance and then suddenly there's a weird stage it suddenly hit me seen everybody there and everything it was like oh oh people don't accept this I'm we were gonna know immediately in a big way in a big way and I normally don't watch I don't I don't like watching myself I don't like that's just like it's like I've watched things once and then I go okay good I can talk about it now I see what made the cut I'm gonna like not watch because I get I can't see through the stuff and so I I I was like III just from nerves and then our driver got lost it was like those those festival drivers are like hey man from Salt Lake we're calling it like we're starting in five minutes where are you and he's like oh no where are we going and Jamie how many of those did we have the drivers Oh [ __ ] way around no it was Sundance oh it was it's just really difficult to get in and out of but I think my biggest complaint was also Jenny Slade's biggest complaint you never got to eat you never you are we starving constantly go to these parties and they would plow you with alcohol but we're like okay where's the floors of who start yeah we I I remember I had Clif bars am i I was which is from consent like movie theaters all because but you were so I crushed in and they were like we're starting screen right now anyway you know and then I just ran out and went across the street and just sat with one of them with to my agents so you didn't sit to watch the audience's react now but then my wife texted me going get in here it's killing and I went it's killing it's not funny it's not like a funny movie and then she was like it's killing like all caps like get back in here and did you know I was too nervous but I walked back slowly and very tentatively like kind of like walk up the stairs and then the owner of the theater came down and went congratulations it walked past me and I was like well and then and then the doors open and the first two and I saw Luke Wilson he was also outside and he was like yeah I've been heard a lot of laughter in there I think we made a comedy it was kind of like people are dying laughing in there and I was like huh and then and then yeah I was very sweet paying like then going up and doing the Q&A and then you saying that may it just was like 2010 to that moment like my own like fear of not I don't fear it but yeah not knowing like how people are gonna accept you and you saying that into getting an applause thing just meant the world so thank you for that you not wrong to be fearful because there are giant examples Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler when these great comedy stars try to do what they want to do in their heart which is meaningful performances meaningful stories their audience are basically like angry not just unaccepting yeah but protesting in the streets yeah I mean the thing is like I love comedy and I mean I just did the new jet Apatow Amy Schumer movie which is a big comedy like Capitol's he comedy it's really funny but I love drama too you know it's like you can swerve I mean if you know if you like you know if you want if you if you can afford to if people accept you well now you can skeleton twins is the gateway drug to whatever you want to try next because yeah I don't know how many reviews come from Sundance like that I imagine a small handful but yeah your your your people certainly must feel like you're very happy you're all in the press I remember James ponsoldt who direct to the spectacular now which I really liked he we were still in the theater and he texted me and he was like whoa twitter is blowing up about skeleton twins oh it's like we were like in the middle of the Q&A like plants down I was like Jesus this is fast yeah but it was a nice thing being a part of the conversation of that fest of that year of it was whiplash skeletons or like people were talking about both those movies a lot and and that was that it was I was happy for Craig too cuz he's such a good guy and he's so and you know the journey he had been through yeah he had been working his ass off to try to get this movie made and I had never seen someone with such a tight schedule no money and being so kind of like yeah guys like it just so great with the actors and the crew and we had such a great crew on this movie read or DP was just phenomenal and everyone was so respectful and like fans of the movie hmm that's what was cool is being all right feeling really small crew like that like Kristyn and I we have a scene at the very end of the movie that the it's kind of you know this argument and our sound guy was crying during really emotional cause he was so wrapped up Ruby and he was like this is so sad you guys like go you know and you know it's just it was you know it was really nice to have because usually how that you know it's Teamsters holding a doughnut waiting for the yeah next break oh you don't crying Nancy go put on your skirt please braces get some lipstick for the Nancy over know that he he no but Craig was so he was such a like a like a you know kind of like a boy scout leader kind of come on guys just gonna go it's gonna be fun and there's a scene in the movie where I'm stoned and I walked through all these pigeons and they fly up in the air that are probably ducks and they all fly up in the air and I remember it was such a semantics of the movie so they all flew away and then we're like we do a take two and everybody on the crew and the cast all got bread and we all like threw it out to trick it ducks to come back to do another take and there's this great picture of everyone out there throwing get the done they all came back and they're like quickly quick do another take and we did another take of me walking through they all flew up again and it was it was just a very a great great feeling making that one out of fun trainwreck is the Adam Judd Apatow Amy Schumer yeah he's the real deal man yes she is she's she's like a classically trained actor who did stand-up and so that's what I learned a lot from her making that movie too she was so good I mean from the rehearsals you were like whoa yeah you know I mean she's I think she's really gonna surprise people she did a scene in this movie where after it ended Tilda Swinton's in the movie she was on off Cameron Tilda Swinton was like we're all crying I'm just like what the [ __ ] like I did not know she could do that and right so I think she made such a presence has made very quick presence of brash honest comedy from a woman's perspective then yeah you don't know there's acting chops now she has it and she's a hard worker again it's that thing that I always say that Steve Martin book born standing up if I had read that when I was 15 I would have gone in a comedy way earlier because of like the logical way of just approaching this and him saying kind of like I don't have any special skills I just like worked really hard at these things yeah Amy Schumer would writing producing starring in this movie very much involved with everything and I'm and on the weekend she would go up at the cellar like three spots at the cellar you know Friday and Saturday night and and I remember going out and hanging out with her one night and she before she goes she has her DVD from last week and she puts it in and watches her set and writes notes down like just trying to get better like and just like well maybe I'll try this note right and yeah she's like she's going on the road right now she just busts her ass and I was like yeah it takes a lot of [ __ ] work put in you tend I don't know you gotta you got to just keep working at it and it's just she's a total testament to that but a lot of people that you know I get stopped all the time you know by people going oh how do you get into this stuff and I was like you just have to like work really hard just get up a lot you know and never stop work and not be like it'd be very easy for her to be like I have my own show on Comedy Central I just started a jet Apatow movie I'm good you know what I mean yeah and she doesn't she's like just honing her stuff all the time is she was really really everyone that was a talk on that movie was how impressed everyone was with her well yes it is a matter of not being satisfied for a moment and for some people it becomes a little bit of an illness mm-hmm but it is the only way to stand above everyone else yeah how did you do it I just worked harder yeah and and the way they say a writer writes well that's just to improve yeah really yeah you have to keep doing it because then you want to hit some weird breakthrough you go oh oh here's a very interesting question at one tack or catch KAC ate a person still pissed off right now it's Koch one of our t5 bots I own Twitter from Twitter I often have to invent creative words when I want to swear because of my daughter do you create around your kids you get creative around your kid no I curse you just say [ __ ] you yeah yeah and it's bad yeah and it's spreading yeah like god [ __ ] damn it like I'm just probably in this morning my four-year-old sick right now and in the two-year-old once they play with the four-year-old and so it's like keeping them apart so the four year olds like quarantine so I'm sure there's been a lot of cursing this morning you know no your sisters puking she's puking [ __ ] god dammit you know it's all that yeah so you read them go the [ __ ] to bed yeah really go [ __ ] to bed is like one of the funniest it's like why was that not around when I was a kid like that's such a again it's like such a funny idea I'm so simple I like that yeah okay so I know you're not on Twitter have you purposely avoided the whole world with the yeah I mean I think because I think I would become like a drug to me like I would just get really into it and I I would I found okay I went to John mulaney's wedding and a woman came up to me and said oh I follow your you all your fan tumblr things and cyah sites and I was like what what are you talking about and she's like yeah I'm on [ __ ] yeah Bill Hader this thing called [ __ ] yeah Bill Hader and I was like oh so I went to check that out and it's like it's really funny they gave me a lot of [ __ ] on it but it's actually hilarious and it's you know worthy and stuff so that's probably closest thing I have to a Twitter said : like this girl's fan site and I'll look at it and go oh where'd that picture come from but yeah I don't yeah I don't really do I was probably closest and I don't think I'll probably back there again I just checked it out of John I was like did you see this and he's like yeah did you see the one about there's another one about how badly I dressed I talked about that on Conan I don't know if you've seen that bill hater needs new clothes no it's wonderful is this a website dedicated here just a Twitter account it's a tumblr tumblr it's a whole tumblr but they cough up photograph how I basically just wear the same thing in every interview and it's so true and here no Jason Mantzoukas Jason Mantzoukas wears the same outfit every day he does yes every day white jeans white collar dirt white shirt jeans every day he's the Mark Twain yeah the Albert Einstein then offered Hitchcock eight outfits Sam Raimi Sam Raimi yeah only wears those suit right now bill hair yeah and so I always have the same thing on and so yeah but I yeah that's probably the closest any sort of like me on the internet that I've like dipped my toe and was kind of looking at that going no right and then I kind of go away from it now we believe here at the chat show you don't have to be on Twitter to enjoy the game that's sweeping the nation since you've played game show host as you pointed out a number of times we're curious how you do as a contestant for this perhaps historic version well you just did up over here i knees and it's like am I on that yeah it's a waterboarding game saying tell us how it works okay you said sweeping the nation we were doing this five years now this [ __ ] has swept the nation thank you yeah at least call Evers Boulevard it's past tense time so the game is who tweeted and it's exciting okay here's how the game works you're gonna be playing against Kevin okay heads up fight to the death I'm weird one can I make a phone some phone calls one at a time I'm gonna read a series of eight tweets and all of these tweets were written by one of three people and the three people that Jamie has gone with today are all three people that were lampooned on South Park during your tenure though okay so today we'll be dealing with the tweets of Jim James Cameron great Vince McMahon genius and the aforementioned Kanye West okay so you're gonna read he's gonna be a tweet yeah and when you feel like you know who wrote that tweet you ring in by saying your own name I'll point to you and then you will have three seconds to say either James Cameron Vince McMahon or Kanye West okay and they're carefully chosen by Jamie so that it's not this one was a pretty I did a little extensive research on this I was very excited about the thing I am bad at games don't worry this is from the best I can tell from the ones we're going with you're mostly going to be guessing the both of you okay she tries to make them not obvious okay so you're ringing you get it right you get yourself five points you bringing you get it wrong you lose three and once someone rings in there's no second chances you either get it or you don't and at the end of eight tweets unless there's a tie the winner will be walking out with that $20 with a standing one piece of paper with twenty dollars that sin sane we don't [ __ ] around here did you get any additional points for being early not tardy as a guest we'll see at the end we will see at the end always you will get one bonus point for any answer you ring in and give as a beloved character from your past 0 number one oh there's a bonus for both of us if we answer as the has some beloved characters here we got a new addition yeah I was mixing it up tweet number one I'd like to address the false stories and noise that have been engineered by the media Kevin Kanye West yes mister walk in the districts five six technically six tweet number - huh that's right I got a point for doing walking all right six I wasn't in Brazil for fun I was there to help tribal people fight the dams that are going to destroy their homes and forests bill James Cameron yeah it's kind of forgot the role as it was and just a reminder because I know that it's James Cameron Vince McMahon kind of just wanted to remind you a good mess we're dealing at the third okay all right tweet number three partying with at I am Diddy partying well it seems painfully obvious but that's Kevin I'm gonna go a little off the beaten path here it some reason no I'd say it's it's Vince McMahon at a wrestling party because of some special vodka that he was promoting mr. Arkin oh there you did technically violate the three-second rule but I'll allow it because you're very remembers [ __ ] name you're very old and you're a living legend all allow thank you it helps to think of it like Stone Cold Steve Austin and say it to add Vince McMahon Thank You tweet number marketing genius NBA puts Twitter handle on basketballs but you can't see it not exactly a marketing genius oh my god all three should be ashamed for writing that I have they'll it was that Kanye West no I'm so sorry that was Vince McMahon yeah it doesn't make sense that doesn't mean anyway that's a tough one sorry just watch their history oh so straight its loss column it's a very close game right the win right so we can do this there's only 17 more yeah Nora it's fine tree number five yep I dread the glare of red carpets but it's not all bad Kevin I'm gonna do Al Pacino as an old black blues player which I believe he has become let's see I'm say Kanye way oh sorry no [ __ ] you James Cameron James Cameron mr. Pacino did become a black blues player at some point right at Carlitos way I think I found myself yesterday at the grocery instead of talking to myself as myself Al Pacino why doesn't the comic have the barbecue [Laughter] because I know I'm the lunatic talking to yourself but I'm doing it as Al Pacino and now it's comfort here I highly recommend I highly recommend it I see the guacamole why don't they have this barbecue dueling Pacino's tweet number six I never tweeted before because I'm a long-winded blowhard and they don't allow enough characters Kevin McMahon oh so sorry you also James Cameron what yeah hard to believe look at that six two three I was just about to say it's a three-point game it's anyone's game right now like it is not say [ __ ] do it Sam doesn't add up movies wait for somebody else to answer I hate that you clearly do not listen to the show do you always say name the movie they never and I never say name that movie I have [ __ ] people who use that strategy oh wow never yeah I know that it once Italy saw him do it alright one time yeah number seven two two left this is not another robot movie oh boy oh boy robot is in quotes this is not another robot movie well it's again it's really obvious but it's probably not what is that bill was it was a con us the microphone I was that was my heard well now you're suddenly a head no it's 996 oh this is so exciting because it was her Welsh yes yeah boy well right now the eighth and final tweets gonna is gonna play large if if you ring in and get it you were the winner if you ring in and get it you're the winner if you ring in and miss it it's a tie to tie and if you were you gonna miss it bill went bill win snow this is it this is it and I gotta tell you guys it's a great eighth and final tweet work hard play hard let's have a party Kevin now I don't mean I really do hate to be tacky what and I don't mean to bother can I just say Vince McMahon that is correct how you play who tweeted it's ridiculous he accosted me once in the produce section at Ralph's that's right tonight said how do you do that with your eyes I understand but how do you think okay friends I used to do him and from like women of the influence like you know she would do that stuff yeah yeah why cannot thank you enough for spending some of your Sunday was it just a chance to get away from the sick no actually I I love this show and I appreciated what you said at Sundance so much I really meant a lot of man so thanks oh thank you yeah you said you'd seen the Phil Hendry episode Phil injuries one of my comedy idols so that was like heroes if you mentioned something but before we got going which was because I had notes in here about your first encounter with Bill Murray and I was gonna ask why is he the most beloved in the history of SNL and and there's 19 reasons they're all correct yeah but he surprised you adding another reason he loves Phil Henry he like Jim Downey called me and said come over to the half King the bar in New York thethe avenues they come up because I live by their and went over there and it was just him and Bill Murray watching a baseball game in the back and introduced me and I was like eh and and and and that's how you said hey hater loves Phil Henry and he goes oh god Phil Henry in the end uh and then his sons were there and we all started talking about so Henry yeah just he's obsessed with I mean I guess it is either Bill Murray or his son as a giant hard drive just filled with like almost every fill Henry episode right and they just go on road trips and just listen to him and I and I really I mean I I was a fan as a PA driving around I was like you know just listening to all time and I became an assistant editor at this place and Sherman Oaks and where I worked was two floors down from where he recorded his show did you ever sneak in and I tried to go up there and never I worked the night shift and I would try to go up there and I never worked but I smoked at the time and you go out and he would be smoking and it was the same we're like it was like seeing I'm you know I don't know it was just going it's not mandatory in American Graffiti that's a perfect example we were like looking at going like before we a lot of people knew what he looked like yeah and I just was staring I'm like holy [ __ ] and he would sit there be talking with somebody and just bullshitting or whatever and I I just was obsessed and then that's another thing about the South Park room we start talking about Phil Henry our play until Henry the whole day shot everyone just you know we'll just sit and play but all you can eat Negro when he lost it you heard that one where he completely loses it on air we start laughing it's unbelievable look at all you can eat negro where he's a old african-american woman is his nephew died and she doesn't you know a Catholic priest calls in and was like well we believe you know me the body of Jesus you know oh my god that's a blasphemy you know you Mackin on Jesus know and Phil Henry starts making himself break and it is hilarious because you hear him laughing a bolt like the whole illusion is broken and and it's an illusion he'd been so prideful day one week he cut himself off and gotten cut himself off and he can do all these things and when the illusion is broken it is like one of the most joyous things you've ever heard because you've been listening forever and I think Matt heard it live matt said he was in his car and heard it live and was like oh my god the world just [ __ ] a word the world just shift that he broke and he heard of them but you hear it on the phone line and I'm the live studio mic him laughing and it is like it's amazing it's so cool but no man like herb Welch that came from me and John Mulaney being obsessed with herb Sewell his character herb Sol who's like the he's like a child monster he's a guy he shoved his wife out of the car on the freeway and when I shoved her out of the car her mouth was still moving about somehow she saw in la Kenyatta when he's always gang on jail for doing some awful thing he does very little jail time and his people call this guy you know I'm a very enthusiastic and prolific child molester and you know you're just awful person any laughs like do you imagine like that's what was so funny is it was so clearly Chris Morris kind of does the same thing we're so clearly fake but people don't see it and it's just it's hilarious to me I find that so funny that people would just buy it you know also at the Bill Murray first experience for you you were thoughtful enough to ask if Strother Martin had chopped yeah I chopped I never used that word before in my life and it was a great moment of trying to impress somebody I don't know if you're trying to relate just belong and you're just like I want to belong with Jim Jim Downey arguably the greatest writer and s-snow history probably the greatest writer in SNL history and I certainly swore that he the smartest funniest human being like ever and and and Bill Murray talking and I'm in between them like this talking about how he got Strother Martin Jim Jim is like you did the most amazing thing ever in the 70s you got Strother Martin to host you convinced [ __ ] to get Strother Martin to host cuz Bay were obsessed with Strother Martin they just thought he was the best yeah and and I said did Strother Martin have chops did you instantly recall my god immediately and they didn't pick up me and he's like oh yeah bill Martha oh yeah I know he was great he was really funny but in my head I was like I think Sudeikis was there at that point as I texted him like I'm with Bill Murray who's like you might have been there so he might I was like kind of be cool yeah yeah and that's the thing you want to be present yeah you want to not forget anything that comes out of their mouth yeah the only thing I may hang out yeah you want to contribute and you and then you end up saying the worst most banal dumbest [ __ ] ever and I just was like chops and I remember going on my wife I asked him if he had struck Martin had chops and she goes what does that even mean nein nonsense we do get a chance to see Christopher Walken on stage and McDonagh handing in Spokane know a Sam Rockwell so I weaseled in backstage we went to walk into the dressing room afterwards and he's taken off his makeup in the mirror while I try to make small talk hmm Christopher long hmm so has it been an easy run of the single worst yeah tourist pedestrian everything's shy of what makeup remover yeah exactly exactly and he was one word answers yep and we are bent time together or there's no reason for me to be that guy and I just had nothing do you remember them any I don't remember anything he said yeah because he was instantly yeah nothing yeah it was nothing memorable yeah I I was that way yeah I was I was at any time I met a new like one of the older cast members on the show I remember my third show I went to the after party and Steve Higgins was like I'm a man someone wants to meet you and he was really excited and it was Dan Aykroyd and Dan Aykroyd he's talking me and I was the same way where I was just like so that's pretty pretty awesome like just saying the dumbest like you know I can't drive motorcycles so well how did you come up with the name house blues that's cool all I remember from that was that he was telling me I needed to get a business manager and that I needed to pay him a flat rate not a percentage uh-huh you need to play not like it was like a flat rate not a percentage bill listen to me just how you do to like he was very and then it was just funny like Lauren was thing as a right I'm telling him you should pay a businessman a flat rate not a percentage of Laura Nicole no no yeah you want to play flat rate because you get a percent and I was just like third show in like business you know I've been living like you know check the check but it was a he was he was very sweet but but it's a weird moment in time because I remember Laraine Newman saying how by Midway into the first season of that first year she saw one day during rehearsal she said me and Billy or not Billy John and Danny Danny we're talking about what we're gonna call our loan out yeah like having to come up with the name and and it was more important to be clever than to accept the fact that we were going to now have to be a business yeah it is a weird crossover moment it is yeah it was a strange thing yeah but he was very much like dan aykroyd map that that my third episode he told me essentially what my whole experience and I was gonna be right he like nailed it mapped it out mapped it out 100% he's like he was gonna happen he's like the first three four years you're gonna be like Lauren's gonna fire me and then you'll feel better and then you'll be the senior and everyone will you know you'll you'll hit you'll hit your stride and you'll be really happy with your work and then you'll be clocking in you'll be just punching it punching in and then when it hits that when you're punching in you should leave and that's exactly what happened it was like you'll need punch any other thing news leave and then he was there my last season oh and he goes how are you doing and I was like I think I'm in that like I'm think I already told Lauren I was leaving but I go yeah it's that kind of thing where you're so you just know how the show works so well and it's not that you're not grateful and I don't want to give that you every show was hard you know wasn't like it became easy for me but it is kind of like you know exactly how it works it's just like it's just you know as far as you know what you need to do all my games your hoes all right you know oh you I have to win Julian Assange you know I remember showing up he was Julian Assange to learn it you know and before I flip out and now okay you know and you go work on it I go I'm at that place you know by oh I'm leaving he's like okay good good you know like he totally remembered our conversation he's like I told you you know so it's very sweet it was very sweet yeah we've had people sit here and talk about the trepidation of having that conversation with Lauren yeah how was that I was awful yeah yeah I I just told him in February I told him way early what you put yourself through before the conversation yeah that's the awful part yeah it's kind of like there's a week's as a month it was well we decided say we I mean my wife and I sat down and I said well we want to live in LA she had directed a movie and then she was getting offers direct stuff and like TV and she directed episodes of that show Silicon Valley and some so she was like well I gotta go out to LA and we have two kids I really like to have a yard you know like that was more space and I was like yeah Kristin and Andy have left I know I have a feeling Fred might leave I don't know and so you know seems like my tenure Mullaney at left like it was like everyone was kind of leaving so like all right I'm gonna leave and I remember calling my agent managers saying there's gonna be my last season and then going alright we gotta go - Lauren can't do that for you guys like look cuz it's the it's the maker yeah it's breaking up with your dad it's like breaking up with your dad it's like going in and being like I don't want you I'm leaving yeah and it's not just dad I'm going off to college yeah it's like it's dad I don't need you anymore yeah it was tough thanks for the opportunity yeah to change my life yeah thanks for all that yeah it was very it was hard yeah it's very cats in the cradle it was very catching the great yeah it's very like real though you so I went in and I said like and I think my agent had prepped him that Bills Bills looking it I had houses in LA he kind of like my agent heads up heads up like bills coming in Tuesday it's just so you know they're looking at houses in LA that he wants to come in and talk to you Tuesday so he came in and Lauren was very long and he started talking about something else you started talking about something going on with somebody else and just I just mm-hmm and then he went so you're looking at the house and I like I go yeah I'm gonna move to California and Yanomami just want like that you know and then you went well we're good we'll always be good how's that you know we'll be good and he goes and you'll always work it was the sweetest conversation ever right and and a lot of people say they cried I remember Kristen going oh I bawled and Andy was like I started crying and I didn't cry I honestly thought I was gonna pass out it was like the whole room it was like this weight kind of either fell on me or lifted I didn't know which was happening but it was like I was like uh-huh like I just got really lightheaded just was like okay great okay all right great and then it was like really quick but he was like we'll always be good and you know don't yeah he was unbelievably sweet and he said I remember you did say wear it for a while like you know let's not tell anybody let's wait wear it for a while and then you know um you know okay so change your mind you see protecting you yeah but Lauren always knows he can like get you to change your mind or you'll change your mind he's had a lot of people go I'm leaving and then over the summer they go I'm gonna come back and then it's just awkward thing so he he definitely wanted me to you know wear it for a while as he said and then and then I did went to David's Coughlin's New York Times and and so yeah I'm gonna tell you I'm leaving it you know we do a story on that and that'll be my announcement the Tuesday of my last week and Lauren was usually weird about this like like he goes I got a quote from Warren and that was really touching that like actually really meant a lot to me more and was like gave a nice quote and everything and so it was it it could not have gone better I've known other people that like will tell Warren like right before the air show the last show or like I'm leaving like that you don't it's it's a the conversation you try to avoid and I just remember thinking like I'm just gonna like I have to like make myself do it but I knew it was gonna be like the day it was gonna be a week ahead of time and I was sure awful yeah I just knew it and I knew he kind of knew so we'd see each other in the hallway and was bad it was bad but it he was really nice he was awesome yeah well it has to happen yeah and he I will say my time there I had no I just had the great great experience with Lauren I have everyone know I people have different experiences with him I had he was nothing but just crazy helpful might like one of my first shows the first Vincent Price we did I remember he called me in on a Friday night before the air show Friday night like you know 11:30 and said with the writer and said I'm going over this Vincent Price sketch this is our holiday sketches Thanks show and we're doing this Vincent Price thing the joke initially was that Vincent Price was Vincent Price from the kit from the characters from his movies like he was kind of evil he was being mean to everybody and it was like very much like put-down humor of people as they came in and and stuff and lauren said why would anybody go on this show if he's gonna just be mean to them and we were like it's just funny you know and he goes this has no logic to it at all he goes what would work better is if he wants to have a good show and these people come in and they're [ __ ] and they're drunk now you're being funny and they're being funny you're letting the other people be funny and now everything's good so you have a logic to it and he walked me through he goes no there should be two jokes per page this says this whole page is no jokes so I mean you just want where's the laugh on this page just show me where the laugh is on this page you know and and and I kind of read and I couldn't tell him where the laugh was because it was all attitude right you know it was such a huge learning experience and the writer I was with was a little late and they were he was kind of pissed off but I was like it was like just gate and open it was like oh I get it now he's like no and things have to have a logic to it there can't you can't just like go in and just [ __ ] around it's got to have this logic and so structure and structure and I remember him saying he's like yeah sketches aren't a j XZ it's ABCDEF you got to like take people through their paces and you know and it's a sketch it's not a painting it's not a perfect thing it's a sketch so just like hit these things out make it broad nice strokes and get in and out and I was like okay yeah I know that makes total sense and just I'm telling me that we went back to my office and we wrote that for we full-page rewrite in like less than an hour just bank it out like I immediately knew what he was talking about so I saw it and got it and like when did it and so that's why I mean like he's he I we always had a really good relationship gonna be here yeah I think also I just didn't like bothering that much must have been it I think that must hit you I never heard yeah I was never like can you give me some money didn't John hand ham end up doing the James Mason on wonderful that was a great thing he was Dean Martin and at dress and and and Lauren brought us in and said he brought me in before he goes now I think if you're gonna do Dean Martin you have to like kind of kill it is the Martin and John and I've been talking and his Dean Martin is not that great so could you do maybe James Mason and I go can you do James Mason and John was like yeah but yeah I think yeah yeah I think so so if you watch it as James Mason doing Dean Martin jokes it's because we didn't have time to rewrite it so it's him talking about being drunk and pissing himself in the car and if you watch that and imagine it's set as being Martin it makes like a little bit more sense but we took out like the Rat Pack references and things like that but we didn't have chance to like fully rewrite all the jokes so it's him basically doing gay Martin jokes but Jon Hamm talked about being thrown into a situation and he [ __ ] just nailed it right fearless was like all right just went get it it was awesome yeah and now everyone has their it's funny when you meet new people and they're like everyone has a Loren impression I was like are like the you know the maintenance people do Loren like everyone at an eighth floor and 17th floor everybody the woman like you know cleaning up our trash absurd services like Lauren was just Lauren was just here and he was like do of the coffee with you know everyone does Lauren we were doing a bit I know I did on another thing we we keep doing a bit of warrant name-dropping serial killers did hear that because Lauren John song and I started doing this and we were laughing so hard because Lauren he named drops a lot well all the stories involved yeah he's like Paul and and Mick and also we were like I didn't they me and Alec and Marci flew to and oh there was a thing who's that was that a Fred Armisen had a great point about more and is that before he doesn't name drop he wrote he takes his glasses off and he rubs his eyes put out he's put out catch do I have to tell you this so he we were doing this it was like I me and Alec was at me and Alec and Marcy flew the Kansas City to try to get BTK killer off death row they brought him in and they said here's BTK and I go you know his name's Dennis we were doing that I was at Natanz II with Paul Simon and Jeffrey Dahmer and a little Filipino water boy and he walked away and Jeffrey said I have to go to the bathroom I said oh no of course you do shows up later two hours that laughing so hard and yeah that was the bit that we keep that yeah everyone has a Loren bit but that was the one the last season that all season we were just trying to think of new serial killers and you awful people that he would name drop yeah that was fun alright again can't thank you no thank you man we'll just do two more hours oh great then hi man you've got to go now the last thing we do on this show I don't know if it was in the Phil Hendry or the other things you watch the guest is asked to play the Larry King game and it is a simple sign off we have you reenact that wonderful moment when Larry hosted his own show on CNN and before he would go to the phones sometimes he would stare down the barrel the camera and share something about himself that no one needed to know utterly worthless information about Kings things why he liked Oreo cookies whatever the thing [ __ ] Monday in it better but it's always very personal and everyone was just instantly dialed out that's our favorite family moment as designed by our head writer Jamie so I normally ask the guests for three things the first one is a bad Larry King impression if you happen to have whatever Larry King impression you but I do normally prefer a bad boy okay because that is what makes me laugh the hardest and then if you stare down the barrel and as Larry share something about Larry and then the last thing is when you go to the phones if the name of the city is funny-sounding it it won't suck it won't hurt at all so when you're ready there's your camera so just a mundane thing like anything at all anything it's about Larry and then go to the phone when I go to Dillard's and I look for a different type of footwear the best kind of footwear fit on a nice Argyle sock argyle socks on my favorite kind of socks it have been since I was a little boy and I deceive him my stocking on Christmas morning are down sex can't really beat them Jhansi vo now you see the beauty yes an existential hole you fall at a party going around in a circle and each person doing a Larry can you'll be shocked how much fun it actually because people will drift you know I remember my first ride on a pterodactyl what you know yeah it's yeah we beat Paul Rudd had a thing like that we had a thing if I was called Edie burns grillboys we're head burns movies how they always liked it was always guys in a bar talking and I love that Bernie's a very nice guy but we always built-in as always us like like on a grilling burn these things like all that girl and box will pop lay there right okay know who had the double cheese to order and that was the end of your thing and so Paul and I did that at a barbecue at the Lonely Island guys had we did that for three hours and it kind of became a thing and then everybody went away and it was just me and Paul alone doing that we're the we will kill we will drive a bit into the ground quicker than anybody if you were just like it was like you know lightning bugs around everyone's gone inside and we're still Eric King when I was good man Oh fun all right man thank you so much for coming to sit there uncomfortably for 45 seconds while I wrap this thing up you all right Ken take a knee everything [ __ ] out we're gonna take next week off and then come back with to complete the the the trifecta let's start with Bill burr which beget Bill Hader which baguettes Jon Heder oh oh I saw what you did I'm very excited okay so that'll be on the August 29th 6th sure what fifth no 4th no no when we come back with him that'll be the 24th 31st 24th we're taking off no we're taking the 17th off what's today the 10th yes we'll be back on the 24th you should go [ __ ] yourself let's try it those of you wondering did he just have a stroke to each and every one of you you you had it two years ago you try to see the calendar after a stroke see if the calendar comes down in front of you I just want to look at the month huh see how that works out [ __ ] hole I want to thank Kenny Chen I want to thank Cory 11 who dropped in with a Stefan that was [ __ ] awesome Sam Levine Jamie Foxx of the Ambridge foxes how about a hand for our guest I did appear Jimmy he was not prepped that there would be Stephane ahead of time no he wasn't no and three cheers to you sir for not bad it was okay thank you well I figured after all the cold reads that Mulaney had slipped in the NCIS yeah yeah I know you're not wrong no I'm very impressed we're missing our Jason McIntyre today who's in the Pittsburgh got the word missing I missed him he's missing we're without it lamenting Josh Negron out there Angie Johnson on makeup Danielle overland media maven and David Mandel everybody's favorite intern oh boy just all the old first impressions ever could be coming Mitch McConnell yeah by the way I tell you the my first time on tonight's show I was bumped because Sammy Davis jr. sang for song three songs had never been done on The Tonight Show with Carson never been done three Sammy did for I'm kicking the walls in my dressing it first time ever is I know there are 65 people I have to call and say don't watch tonight it not on waited my whole life for this and Sammy that [ __ ] and I'm in the [ __ ] skull [ __ ] him I'm gonna pop out his good eye and he stops in the dressing room and says I am so you've changed with the whole [ __ ] can't could come that's a quote and he became my hero there forever more you kids with the whole Chicago chicken coming yeah all right John heater the 24th until then and as always get out of my face [Music] you

Channel: kevinpollakschatshow

Views: 337,199

Rating: 4.5736041 out of 5

Keywords: kevin pollak, bill hader, stefon, snl, saturday night live, trainwreck, barry, chat, talk, podcast

Id: S18HnyC3KH0

Length: 136min 19sec (8179 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 05 2018