Seth Meyers & Michael Che - Comic Relief

[Applause] thank you please is this is scary hi everybody how are you this is for Michael and I we have prepared the least but we hope it goes well enough that we'll be able to get reservations at any of the fine dining establishment there's anybody from Katz deli so I you know we've been we've been friends I guess for about five years now is that when you started messing but I we were talking a little bit backstage I'm on a two-week break you're on a summer break yeah I'm in week two of a two-week break so let me ask you the thing that people ask me every year I was on SNL is it hard being off when the news is happening or do you not care at all that you're off it's pretty easy I don't you know what like it sometimes see a headline and I just think oh thank God I don't got to do anything about that like Giuliani had like something weird today I will say the biggest difference for me from doing the show because we started doing it February of 14 the difference of what the news was like then and what the news is like now yes is over the course of even a weekend on Saturday you don't have to pay attention to the news because by Monday showed that's not the news anymore absolutely the news go it goes so quickly that it's like a hundred years that if you if you wrote comedy on Saturday for Monday it would be like reading an Us Weekly in your dentist office yeah well because I always say like doing s you know it's like planning a wedding every week because everything leads up to that one faithful yeah where you can either get it wrong or you get it right yeah and so like writing that Monday would almost be like doing a wedding for two people who fell out of love a long time it's like this relationship isn't even happened we broke up weeks ago but yeah getting a break is kind of fun I think I think for America too yeah you are we've shared the experience not just of SNL but now you're a Weekend Update co-anchor you're also a head writer on the show which were roles I also had how have your your stress dreams have changed since you became head writer yes they do well there's like for us how you get like these stressors everybody gets them where you always feel like you we work there's so much you work there's so much during the week that you always feel like you're late for something and sometimes you'll just wake up in a panic like I'm supposed to be on camera and you're just like storming out of your door and your underwear but now as head writer it's more like you know we don't have a cold open and we usually don't but you get them when you're not working which is almost like waking up for school and you don't have it's a little it's a little freaky but you don't get those anymore I don't I've retro actively now gone back to having stress dreams about being a waiter right after college like that's still having a table like having a table that needs something is still my stress tree but I would say like if a Cinelli think that's a great analogy of SNL is like a wedding every week well also not just a wedding but a wedding to a different person every week yeah because the host you have a host each week on SNL I have three guests every night on my show yeah guests affect the DNA of a show far less than a host right because ultimately it gets to be my show every night and they come in and I talk to them a little bit but a host can completely change the dynamic of the week well as to though on paper shouldn't work yeah whatever it's a terrible idea yeah it's like it's a prank yeah we need you to write 90 minutes of live comedy with a person that's never done cop never met him and he's got a lot of a fitness Oh how's that supposed to work ever I have always thought the key to SNL because you know people like you and I are tasked with coming up with ideas for the show and there's no there's no like a computer we didn't go to like we didn't have 40 years of writing experience before we got the job right basically like hey you guys are in charge of all the content you have to learn how to do it while working the great thing about SNL is every other department is literally the greatest people in the world it's insane how you know I think you said that to us too because we have like a orientation you were head writer when I came in at the time and I'll never forget you told us like as amazing as all the performers that you've ever seen on the show the crew is gonna blow your mind way more time just because of the speed of the show and anybody that we ever get tickets to they get to see the show live the speed of the show and the execution to the show is so insane and it gives you a different type of respect for it and I think like even that's like right or performing you're like oh my god I can't believe we got that off you know they're so good to speak of how inefficient the writing staff is how many weeks did you work at the show before you realize that you actually worked at the show maybe four I really because I remember I came in and you were watching I get you watching the game which I should clarify Mike was brought a guest writer which is something we do every now and then and we say hey we we and Colin Jost had seen you do stand-up and yes you came in and wrote for a couple weeks and then you left and then we brought you back and we all thought that every someone else had told you you've got the job I had no idea I work there and I remember I was talking to you about it was like after a table read and I was asking a question to something and you were watching the game and you looked at me go you know you work here right I was like no no one told me like oh we should have like a meeting us well you working I look great I'll call my mom oh absolutely how I found that so true but even like even when I came in as a guest right they're like hey you want to come in and guest at SNL and I'm like okay yeah I'd like a I gonna get like bagels or something I thought I was like interning I didn't know that I actually had the right sketch in that week yeah literally they just put you in a room like okay what you got kid so with the title of this of you and I talking right now is called comic relief which brings me to this question do you approach do you ever think of your comedy is providing relief to people uh well I try not to think about it that way because I guess it does but you don't think of it that well you know I always feel like as a comedian you have to start like here as far as what your act like what your thinking your grand plan is as far as what you're thinking the audience thinks of you right yes never feel like anything special like I never feel like coming out here and be like hey guys this is a relief time yeah you're all going on a vacation with your friend Michael Chang it's always like oh god please just don't hate me you're still there oh my yeah you just did cluster fest in San Francisco which is a comedy festival I think it's only the second year you took a red-eye from San Francisco you did stand up in front of 8,000 people yeah on Saturday yeah and so abjectly is it terror when you walk out what are you feeling cuz I will say we're speaking about relief they're still never a time where I walk out on stage where I until I hear first laugh I don't feel like a like giant emptiness yeah like I just hear like the sound of wind through a canyon yes yes absolutely right no idea that first laugh is everything then after that you feel like all these people are cool but yeah but it is a strange it is a strange kind of proposal that I'm gonna walk out onstage for all these people and they're all looking at me and I'm gonna make them laugh at the same time they don't know each other you don't know what I'm gonna say but they're gonna laugh and that's if I read that I would never tried yeah but somehow it will work sometimes you can't think about it but yeah you think about it the more you and I just thinking about it now and I only even considered it because of this being called comic relief but I only ever think when it show's over and it went well what a relief I internalized early yeah it's my relief which is you know nice do you still look at like a show could be going great and everyone's laughing but you'll see like one lady this is how do you when you do stand-up because obviously uh I'm gonna shoehorn a lot of references to hospitality lighting is a key part um what do you I like a good candle do you uh do you like to see their faces or would you have I'd like to see their faces see I don't like to see their faces really I can be so thrown by the thing I went I did a show in Boulder Colorado and there was a girl like I would say like 16 and the whole show she was like this and I was so mad at her and I was so mad at who would bring a 16 year old this is a true story after the show she comes backstage she's my dad's cousin's daughter and she had that face because she was so she couldn't believe she was gonna meet me so that whole show is like you [ __ ] oh my god it's so great to meet you and I'm like oh my god you got to get a better face for happiness that's hilarious I was I was at a talent like it was like a this show that Keenan does Kenan Thompson from SNL he hosts his great show where he brings a lot of comedians from all around the country to kind of give them a break at Caroline's and he was hosting it and you know me and Leslie came to support and Sam Shay and Roy Wood it was like a lot of you know a lot of people that we know whatever that you know everybody was like kind of you know cool anyway long story short he's bringing up one of these comics saying he doesn't know he doesn't know all these people but you know he's giving him a shot he brings up this comic and you know he's kind of got like this cool walk and he's got like this this lady that's like kind of escorting him up so Keenan immediately comedic instinct is to make fun and he was laughing you know it's kind of funny and he and the guy gets up they go that's right I'm legally blind [Laughter] [Applause] she's helping me and then goes on to kill this guy was like super funny and he had like just seven minutes of blind like Jenny's like immediately starts ripping him up you know handshake so tough for me literally one of his young feels great and then when he gets off kenan still a host thinking about that because legally blind would have loved to have that information before oh yeah I just apropos of nothing I've been a tell Kenan Thompson story because Kenan one of the great oversights of the television Academy is that Keenan's never been nominated for an Emmy instead Heenan's been doing sketch comedy since he was probably like 13 or 14 years old yeah he did all that and then he was done SNL and he's been doing that so now now the longest-running cast member of all time yeah like maybe 15 16 years yeah and it exactly the same yeah look yeah I'm gonna say which is the key because if he looked like an old man it would not be going great Tina and I were once doing stand-up together a University of Rhode Island this is probably about 12 years ago and I said to Kenan oh we should just do Amtrak it's great because I like a train and I wanted to show Kenan the romantic idea of taking a train up the Seacoast together we get to Penn Station trains cancelled like we don't have a lot of time now like when you're trained like there was we were kind of timing it to get there so we go to get a rent-a-car we got to rent a car in like Times Square at the time I did not have a driver's license so I'd let my driver's license lab and Kenan did not have a credit card who we walk in and I'm like Kenan don't worry I'll handle this oh hello ma'am we seem to have a situation I don't have a driver's license but I have a credit card and my friend has a driver's license but he doesn't have a credit card and she's like you can't rent a car I was like huh and I was like just nothing I'd been on SNL for about six years at the time no red nothing's Red Rock burn Kenan by the way couldn't care less he's kind of feeling like well obviously the school will have to understand yeah and give us the money anyway so uh anyways I go can i but maybe what are the only times in my life I've actually said these words and meant it I was like can I talk to a manager anyways a woman comes out of the Avis back room literally walks out registers us and just goes hey Kenan where's kill five minutes later I so here's I think there's a thing about the biggest difference I've noticed between doing SNL and doing my show now there's when people come to see my show view we have an audience about 180 and there's an expectation of what Late Night with Seth Meyers is and because I have more control over it than you have it a show like a so now I think we can hit the target or get near it most nights right some audiences are you know a little bit hotter than others some are a little bit worse but I think there's it's far more consistent I think SNL is like it's so hard to get a ticket to SNL yeah it's like the impossible ticket and so audiences are there and they have way higher expected to be the best SNL they've ever seen that's true so you also do warm up before the show starts yeah can you explain just what that's like walking out and trying to clock what that night's audience is like well okay so that's kind of that's a that's a very good question I'm not the others weren't good question well I know I'm seeing that in particular well because I like it and I don't I like I have a love-hate relationship with doing warm-up because I I don't like doing it because it just takes time away but you know like we're literally right up-to-the-minute we're going on air sometimes you have to check cute cards and you have to make sure the actors know what's going on so you're literally grinding the whole way then you gotta make sure updates good and make sure the changes in the cues all right so taking five to seven minutes or whatever out of the beginning of the show is a lot you know yeah and it's on a show like that but what I do like about it is getting out there I could kind of feel who the audience is there to see I get to say everybody that's on the show when you hear where the pops are coming from you hear if they're a little bit high-pitched you're like okay maybe they're more here to see Bruno Mars maybe you know whatever you could kind of you can kind of tell what the audience is that you can base it on and I could kind of you know come back and be like all right they're really hot or they suck they're kind of cold don't you know put too much stuff you know which happens I mean like every orders you never know who you're gonna get it show like that like people want tickets for different reason I might want to see the band they might want to see the host they might want to see there might be a bunch of agents and I you never know like who's in the audience so it's good to kind of have that barometer so you can kind of feel all right this is kind of the ceiling probably and this is it might dip off after music or am i right it might be no I should know there's nothing you can do about it that nothing we can do yeah nothing you can do yeah but it's just for your internal brain to know like this is this could I could be hitting 100% and it'll be quieter than last week's hundred percent exactly like if one direction of the musical guest and it's a bunch of screaming young fans and then we got to do jokes about North Korea you can't expect all those references to go over the same way they would if maybe I did one tonight yeah that's that's like the one good thing about being able to do warm-up is you kind of get a feel you you know you kind of test the water a little bit okay I see what's happening here I go out and say hi to the audience every night before the shows I have two different interaction points for the audience that I like when I go out in the beginning of the night same reason I basically say hello and I make five soft jokes the exact same way just to just like kinda set that line yeah I'm not don't try to do anything new it's and I feel so bad for my band and all the people who have to hear the same five jokes every night but it's so helpful for me to be like okay see you there and then in the end of the night before the last act and I started doing it out in necessity when we have a band it takes a little bit longer to get through commercial break because they're setting up a band and lights right so I would go over the audience and do with QA and I started liking it so much because what I realized was when you start talking to the audience you realize that thing that I realized with my sour-faced cousin which is they some people just like are quieter but also had a great time yes and so engaging with them there as again it it looks like I'm providing them relief but I'm doing it for myself a lot of that is the key to this is it's all selfish that's so funny because I learned that in in doing shows like overseas I can in the UK I would do these like kind of theatres any small theatres and the audiences would be quiet and you think I would be sweating up their thing that I'm bombing because they're just used to seeing shows so they're polite they're listening right you know like they're not when you're when it's quiet in New York you suck like if you ever watched a New York comic that's why their sofas hey how are you guys we're trying to get you to react so we can understand how much time yanked off the stage but like over there they're listening they don't listen to your story and then they'll clap afterwards know wait for the next one so after the show they would be like oh that was such a great show why don't you actually listen but yeah but like I guess like for TV audience they're paying attention like their listeners a different type of reaction all that stuff factors into the way you're dictating your set though yes the it does strike me that in stand-up you have so much more control as far as how you adjust your pace based on the audience at SNL you're kind of know yeah the dice has if you spread a minute they'll yell at ya a minute longer than it was supposed to be right and it was dying but if you spread I mean you know at least in my show now I can I'm only spreading it I can only the time I'm taking I'm taking for myself right like there's that thing about SNL like when you spread somebody else's thing the other night yes absolutely I just speaking about the differences in audiences I for a couple years did improv comedy in Amsterdam yeah and Dutch audiences are the Dutch were very honest I don't have you know this about them and I remember once after a show going to the bar and a guy came every old time yeah a guy came over and said yeah hey I just saw the show I'd like to buy you a drink and I was like oh great cool did you like it it was like no just like curiosity why why would you want to get me a drink it is like I don't dislike you nothing there's something like at its core very lovely about that it hurts even more because if he hated you like oh this guy just sucks yeah I like you you you're just bad at know my heart was open and hopeful for you I was on your behalf what I thought we could talk about perhaps other professions so you so let's talk about obviously SNL we call them hosts but their guests what makes a what what do you want from a host when they show up at us now and how quickly can you tell if you're getting it uh well I always feel like comedians are the hardest people that are gues because comedians know why they're funny and they've if they've gotten to the point of guesting on SNL they they know exactly what they're doing and to just trust a team of writers to just come up with what they got to do or you know live a little bit less trusting so a little bit harder to convince I always feel like comedians are tough of battle but somebody like Charles Barkley yeah who's like man you you write it out read it that's all you want yeah then it's like they're just trusting you like I'm not gonna write this just do whatever well that's Berkeley I would say like the very similar is Walken Christopher Walken yeah because not only are they like game for that part of it but everyone knows their voice yes so you when you walk down the hallway at SNL on a Berkeley week or a walk in week through every door you just hear like B - Christopher Walken Christopher Walken read a bedtime story this is all those types of things yeah I always loved those types of hosts like anybody that's like a by Blake Shelton oh he's just gonna do it he's not gonna yeah also the thing about Barclays or Blake Shelton's even if it's bad they don't lose their jaw like you know what I mean nobody's like all right you're not in country music any yeah the best thing about athletes is they were never nervous cuz they [ __ ] I'm the best in the world at a sport I remember this is because again and this seems awful to say but because some hosts come in and have really good ideas uh-huh but I remember somebody said to uh I like walking it hosted a bunch of times this is early in my time at SNL but we have this pitch on Monday and everybody went around the room and pitched and then it uh it finished and Lorne never does this but he's like Chris is there anything you want to do and there's this long beat because I walk and goes bears a funny [Laughter] maybe something that bears the other great thing was taking a side turn now we wrote a sketch called the the Christopher Walken family which was a-walkin family reunion which played off the fact that everybody knows a lot of the walkers yes and what I really liked about it was walking said he goes you know this is I'm not doing how I talk in this one I'm doing the way you all think I talk and it sounded exactly I was hoping you had like a British act we I don't a name names but we this is an example of like sometimes hosts Eileen it's hard I get it because like they are giving you so much I don't think people feel II appreciate that you know you're doing a press tour when people come on my show you know they basically show up at 5:00 in or out of there by 7:00 yeah they can do press all day but SNL it's a full week a full week and it's like a stressful week because you know Saturday is coming it's a deadline so it's almost more stressful when you have more time for it yeah because if it's just a day of you're like all right well whatever happens happens but to prepare for a week to get this thing right once this is a lot of it could be very stressed and I that is what I from my own personal well-being that's the biggest difference in my life right is that you there's no time like you have to do a show and completely move on to the next right whereas they're still like seven SNL's and I'm upset about from like eight years ago but uh so Oh like so host come in and they give you a week so you want to be polite obviously but sometimes they think they have to have a moment in every sketch yes sometimes bad at service right and right yeah like just sometimes you need them to be a straight man yeah sometimes you just gotta say I don't know man that seems weird no we wrote a sketch where someone wanted to do it as Woody Allen like a Woody Allen voice and it was real jarring to the premise and it was a it was hard to talk it can you say what the schedule idea no well then laid out like with a retro actively work backwards I could tell I can talk about my favorite sketch we wrote together that I thought should have done a lot better oh yeah which was a Jay Pharaohs idea yes that you like and that's so weird like that's what you were head writer at the time and that's like kind of what I was telling you it's so cool that you would do you would find somebody would just say it nugget that everybody haha and then you'd be like no no no I feel like we can actually do that and then we get it done that way like that it was really fun you me and Jay wrote it it was a Jay had an idea called twelve days not a slave yes there's a very based on the noise are making this speaks to the level of difficulty of this idea but I still and and and the audience never quite they could they did not forgive themselves to laugh I'm not saying we executed perfectly I think we did yeah but the idea the idea was the J it was twelve days after slavery yes and she was just loudly celebrating that racism was over he thought white people would be happy about it like good game kind of thing and they was they were still a little shaken up so in a lot of j-jane all-white tavern yes like being very frustrated by it like how slow the service was in a great mood but uh yeah you can't go a bartender okay I stand by it it's good yeah sometimes things are just good in the audience's wrong it's okay yeah well we were talking backstage about how you obviously watch the show for years before you're on it as I did and it's jarring sometimes to go back and watch because we have a server on all our computers can go back and watch old sketches which is the main thing you do when you're procrastinating yes somebody will walk in and be like have you ever seen this from dress it's fantastic yes and things that you remember as a kid loving oftentimes bombs so hard I mean yeah I just think that I remember writing that I was like yeah that kills and I rewatched I'm like wow why do I still work here it is I was saying backstage I heard nor McDonald on a podcast once say it is still like my show every talk show sitcoms any live TV show there's there's like an idea the warm-up comedian kind of comes out and explains that the idea is for it to be a lot of fun and remember to laugh and that is not you that is not what you do in your warmup no you can't because you got to pick the show from that yeah like you got a you need an honest reactions because you have to present this to America so if you're laughing at something that's not funny that doesn't help us at all yeah we got a nowhere to fix it and we're the dips are you know but it is still because of that which is why it's really thrilling to work there and why I'm glad I worked there and why I'm relieved not to work there any report you can genuinely bomb at SNL like you cannot bomb on television Oh big time yeah yeah it's one of those bombs were like your family calls and says hey you okay you need money my last SNL I wrote a sketch that was the last sketch of dress rehearsal and it was before it was the show before the Super Bowl and Melissa McCarthy had ordered this this is the entire premise of sketch a tray of 300 chicken wings and was pretending to the delivery man that there was a party in the other room again that audience was wrong they were wrong but it was really funny because there was something like very sweetly emotional about it because I was underneath the bleachers which is where you watch dress rehearsal with Lauren it is a very stressful place and I spent 12 and a half years under there and it was so there was something really wonderful about realizing that I'd been working there for twelve and a half years and my last act was to just [ __ ] bomb yeah under the bleachers with Lauren is a very stressful thing because like especially dress rehearsal you're watching the sketch with him and this is what kind of determine okay we need to fix this or whatever like you know we got cut this maybe if it's shorter or change the start or whatever it is this is like where you get your notes if the sketch should make it on air and I remember me and Tim and Zak wrote the sketch for Jim Parsons where he played a boss that there was a lot explosion in the office in an office building and the boss was in the elevator because he [ __ ] his pants and he's holding his underwear in a bag and one of one of the people that work for him come in and they're like hey boy did you hear that loud explosion he's like yes sir did and we and he's like yeah I jumped on top of Megan's to shield her from the blast what you do is like well I you know I talk for cover and it turns out he's just like riding with his underwear he's has to pretend so at the table for tape for copywriters very funny yeah this is a four minute long poop joke no one's mad at that if I say it played the radio silence of via Jim and watching Lauren's face during it he burns us immediately he's like what's what's wrong with his look why is he looked at old and and I go that was the writers choice and he goes oh there's writers on this we're like dude it was funny through the feed and I remember the best burn he ever said to someone I was on up day doing something on update like doing a bit we're like a new bit where I do a British accent during update and he took off his headphones and looked at a head writer Alex Bayes and now my head writer hideous one burn the tapes [Laughter] [Applause]

Channel: The Welcome Conference

Views: 896,181

Keywords: alice tully hall, welcome conference hospitality, restaurants, michael che, leadership, seth meyers, hospitality, WC18 Complete, welcome conference, lincoln center

Id: Sjy6OdNrpeU

Length: 32min 49sec (1969 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 19 2018