Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - RE-RELEASE - Jason Sudeikis

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

On his 50th birthday we bring you a mega episode with Jason Sudeikis! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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dot CA to start getting the most bang for your buck. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N-R-A-R-A-K-U-T-E-N-Racketon. Here we go, Dana. We've got a, we got a re-release of Ted Lass himself. Jason Siddakis. Cidacus. Great dude, good-looking dude. Dude that was a lot of fun, came in, sat with us.

We covered a lot. We talked him for fucking ever. We got every SNL thing in there. We got a lot of his big movies in there. And then toward the end, we unpack the magic of Ted Lassau, which has a new season coming out. So it's a nice time to kind of revisit Jason because he was...

I think it's his 50th birthday also. Yeah, he's got it made. And, yeah, we went over Weir the Millers and Hall Pass, just stuff that we'd seen. We wanted to kind of have a few questions about. Yeah. And also, obviously, Ted Lassau, obviously getting into all the S&L stuff and all his buddies on there, that his run of there had a lot of great people. Yeah, a very hot time in the show.

And he talked about his love of pinball machines. There's a lot of personal inside info. So it was one of our longest podcasts in person. And so I thought I really enjoyed it. Yeah. You'll like it too. Here he is. We won't take it any longer.

Yeah, he has an elevator. It's time you learned. He only gets paid scale plus a million. So you did Joe Biden in the early days. Him 2012. Yeah. Where he's kind of a... Way in 2008.

I mean, I did him in the... I mean, the first time I did... The first time I did him was like when some Christmas episode of maybe 2007 or something like that. And I forgot. And then when Obama picked Biden as his running base. Fred Armisen texted me saying, congrats. I was like, well, for what? He goes, Biden. I go, I play Biden?

He goes, yeah, I played SpongeBob Square Pants. Like, it was like, yeah, it was a Halloween sketch. And I was like, oh, right. I was like, I guess that means I could do it? You already had it locked in. I mean, on intentionally, yeah. And then I got to do it and be, you know, who is the magician that went on after the Beatles on Ed Sullivan?

Basically, I lived that existence playing Joe Biden in the vice presidential debates. against Tina Faye's Sarah Palin. Oh, exactly. They look alike, they sounded like, it'll blow your mind. Yeah, yeah. And just everybody was clamoring for it and she crushed it. And, yeah, I had, you know, fun runs written by Jim Downey and Seth.

But everybody was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there we go. Here we go. Well, fine. There was a lot to do. He was full, sunglasses corvette guy. He was at Alpha at that point compared to, you know, he's older now. Yeah, no, yeah. So it was a different take on it.

Paternal, very, very grand paternal. Zah, zah, zah, that's all I got. That's kind of close, yeah. I don't know. Good Lord. So we have Jason here today. Yep. Kansas's own.

Now, you play basketball. Mm-hmm. I just, the only thing I ask, I'll ask this first, could you touch the rim? I could. Could you dunk a baseball? I could dunk a baseball, yes. I'd probably dunked a basketball ten times in my life. Shut up.

Never during a game with a referee. I was just talking about this yesterday. Any witnesses? There's basketball going on. right now. You know, a lot of basketball. So I'm just... Yeah, so you're six... Two or six one? Six one. What's your wingspan?

Oh, probably six one. Probably. Nothing spectacular. So you had a pretty good vertical to get a basketball. It was also adrenaline. I also had a lot of friends that could jump and so it's a little bit of peer pressure that way, too. Or it's just come on, just shut up and do it. But I do remember if I dunk ten times, six of them, six of those times were one day after playing basketball, like in between junior senior year, you know, I know, no, sophomore junior year, like during summer. That's unreal, dude. My dad put up a nine-foot hoop and it fucked all the kids because we were awesome on the nine-foot hoop and then we go to high school. What the hell is it doing? Air ball after air ball.

Yeah, exactly. I can get the net. I can dunk on the net. Nine foot is awesome. It's less of a big deal now. I feel like shooting threes off the dribble is what it's all about now because of, you know, Steph Curry and whatnot. But back when I was playing, dunking was the biggest deal in the world. I mean, that's the test market for those strength shoes, you know, that they're.

They, you know, that would kind of create. Yeah, I mean, I had a pair, for the legit reason, I would jump rope in them all the time. A lot of time spent on that. But, yeah. You know, when they do it now, it's, they go past half court. It's like one step, two step, shoot it. And you go, Jesus, how do you guard?

You don't even know what's happening. He changed everything. It's just one, two, boom. And then they make it 90% of the time. Yeah, I'm Caitlin Clark on the, you know, the women's college, you know, circuit too. I mean, it's all over the place, all over the world. Yeah, just shooting.

You play Sandler? Adam and I have played I think we may have played once or twice but not not enough to have a scouting report I hear he's good I know he gets into it he's competitive too Oh yeah yeah

What do you doing? It's all funny games till the game starts Exactly yeah Like get open I go you don't talk to me like that Jesus happy Gilmore I'm not funny He was checked the call sheet

I go all right You are not triggering financing out here buddy we are all the same no I but um but no he plays he's played in the game with uh my buddy sam jones that i've played in a few times and buddy brad morris but yeah i haven't played uh maybe once or twice i mean probably the best the most fun i'd had playing in the was was hearing the stories of gary shandling's game then getting invited to go play uh in that with sarah silver oh you do yeah and and before he passed and then and then a huge thing was when when gary was like hey you can come without Sarah if you want oh that's a big deal lovely like a lovely sort of because i'd read about

that game forever like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean who were the regular oh my gosh i mean mackay was there jimmy miller jimmy miller jimmy was when i when i went not early early early it is but i there was a run there when i went and i was no good and i sort of got pushed in the background yeah yeah just not the emails you know mugsy bogs out there i was i was like uh distraction whatever they Yeah, I just want you out there, like, on the side, just like, you know, chip in every now. We need a five to keep it even. You go out there and run around circles.

Or a spud web. I would have been a spud web. No, I got out of that quickly. I was, yeah, I was D basketball in high school, and our center was literally five-three. He controlled the paint. Yeah. That was when they had D basketball. Five foot tall, 91 pounds as a freshman.

What about you? Were you always a bearded stud in high school? Were you a late boomer? No, no. It was a beard of acne like any of us, right? Like, I don't think I could grow a beard until about an hour before I got here. How did you get rid of the acne? Because I had it bad too, and I bought all the products.

And then once I said, fuck it, I'm not going to put anything on it. And then within two months, it went away. Isn't that something? Did you do that? It was a little bit like it just kind of went away. Like a lot of things that have affected me or have fallen on me as almost maybe psychosomatic things, whether it be, you know, patches in growing a beard or back pain. Like so much of it, I think, is, yeah, where you're at mentally, and there's so much attention put on that.

And my mom, bless her heart, was always really more worried about it than I was. Because I'm not looking at my face all day. You know, we're looking at our eyes. And so she was really adamant. Yes, she had me going through all this stuff, going to, like, a dermatologist. And I think it did exacerbate the problem. I put stridex medicated pads. And every time I, and I realized later, it took me about a year to go,

it's just making it worse. Yeah, it just hurts. Stridex fucking dries you out and I didn't know it as a kid. And then the oil comes gushing in and then you know what's going to happen. Exactly, yeah. But I have a handful of, you know,

playing, you know, pseudo-dermatologist scars from trying to like get rid of things you know, preemptively versus just taking, learning the patients of just like letting it be. How the mind controls. Let's just not get laid this year and let's just ride it out. Take it and take it easy.

Were you in high school? Were you like captain of the team or you were kind of a funny guy with your friends? Or what was your lane? Funny guy. Like, I was the point guard. So, like, kind of a de facto, you know, captain in the sense that you're coming down. Varsity starter?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's big. As a junior. Yeah. Okay. So you were good. I was decent.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For my, for my area and, like, my skill level. Yeah, I was, I wasn't too shabby. But, but, yeah, I mean, I definitely, I mean, a lot of what we do on Ted Lasso was my experience of what it's like in locker rooms. You know, people joking around.

We were a very fun group of guys. I have very thoughtful friends, guys that I'm still, you know, very close with and friends with to this day. And we just, yeah, we joked around a lot, much of the chagrin, I think, of our, you know, our, you know, very athletic-minded alpha head coach who was lovely and playful as well, but more playful when we were listening and winning. We had the same situation with the cross-country track distance running coach. blood gut and hair real ex-marine all that stuff so were you kind of the funny guy on the team because i i was with a lot of guys who had great sense of humor and i think i kind of developed as a comedian in high school sports running oh 100% because they would laugh at everything i said yeah and also like i i always grew up around and gravitated towards funny people like i had

funny friends and they were funny in different ways so like my friend chris was more of like oh what if this happened and then another guy Like more like word play and another guy's like a guy you do character voices with another guy is the guy that we would do fake radio shows with or then when I got a video camera in sixth grade the guy that you'd make fake talk shows with you know and you know doing both of your guys stuff. You know being like an S&L You know fanatic at that point especially before you start going out on weekends, you know on Saturdays and having a friend that can drive like you know we did I did that all the time with with all these different groups and then my sisters did singing and dancing at like a place called Miller Marley. And so I was around all those type of, like, more overt theater folks, you know, the people that wanted to do musicals that did, you know, summer stock, you know, in Kansas City. Is this Kansas? And Kansas doesn't have a big comedy scene, right? It's just more, it was a theater improv situation.

It had, it, theater, yeah, I mean, they had stand-up clubs. And I assume you all did, like, Stanford's and songs and all that, yeah, and coming through there. I know I saw Dennis Miller do, you know, stand-up my, my, my, right before my senior year, me and my dad went to go see him in Casey. at a place called Stanford and Sons, yeah. And, but, but yeah, I mean, my focus was mostly mom taking us to go see touring companies, going to see my sisters do stuff during the summer, and then there was a place called comedy sports that was like sketch, or mostly, no, all improv, kind of like whose lines it anyway, you know, like short-form games. That's hard, actually.

I just love that. And it is hard. And if that's what you'd learn doing, you know, like we just constantly jump me through hoops, people setting you up to fail, like the audience and it's all baked into it. You develop a little bit of a thick skin. Improval is so fucking hard and stand-up is hard but at least you can get a head start

and think about it Yeah, because now when you're in high school There's a point where you go I actually think I could maybe do this as a living I didn't really think that when I was doing stand-up I just did it one day and just said I'll never do this for a living I just want to try it

Yeah, no for it wasn't until moving to Chicago I think I want to do this for a living At that point I moved after after I stopped playing basketball and college and stuff I was just like okay Quit doing that Started doing comedy sports

I was working at a grocery store, living in my parents' basement. And then I was like, I'm going to move to Chicago. I'm going to go to Chicago. You know, my folks were from there. My grandmother lived up there. I lived with her. My uncle George and Ann Bernadette had done Second City. You know, George Went, I think, I assume that you're doing research.

You had a place to land. I had a place to Luke. George Went is your father. It's your son. He's my son. He's weird. It's a genetic thing. I'll talk you through it.

It makes sense. Front and I've had to explain things visually. But yeah, like that was when I made the decision. I'm like, oh, I want to try this. All the rest of it was just about having fun. It was just wanting to do something that I saw and having the opportunity to do it. I assume it's the same. Did you have stage right?

Or are you pretty comfortable? No. Stage fright, no. I'd get antsy. I'd get excited. You know, I try to explain what anxious is to like my kids. I say it's excited plus nervous. So I was definitely anxious.

But I think there was something about. having an athlete's mentality towards it all. And it's something I still say today and something, again, we've used on the Ted Lassow show. There's no defense in the arts. There's nobody trying to actively, for the most part, when you're doing it, stop you from doing it.

Yeah, just, yeah, your own apathy, your cynicism, your ego, you know, your baggage. I tell my sense, there's no getting, your feelings hurt in show business. Yeah. It's like no crying in baseball. Yeah, yeah. It's a monolith.

It's not against you. It's not stacked against you. It's just a thing. And there's, how are you going to respond to it? It was made to make you feel bad. Did you, I just want to insert this because I've always been, noticed your voice. And did you get some voiceover offers early in in Chicago with your voice? Never, never, never in a million years.

He just noticed it was sexy a minute ago. Well, hey, look, I have a wife. It is very sexy, but no, no, no. It might be deeper right now just because of, you know. It seems like a good voice. Ford, mostly screaming in a holler. Like, yeah, like Arnette has like a GM. MC. I could never, yeah, I did, I did a voiceover thing for Applebee's, like a few years

in the S&L, which was, which was nice because, you know, they're headquartered back home and stuff. How did that sound? Did you put on a voice voice? Not really. It's just like, you know, see you tomorrow. Applebee's. Like in my, like, you know, feel like a pot pie. Yeah. Oh, the spaghetti you can eat. Tired of blooming onions, then come to apples. Sick of bread sticks. Fish sticks. But I do, I remember what, you know, and there was a big teacher, a big influence in my life. She comes up all the time. But this woman Sally Shipley, who taught speech and debate, had one of her students. She also taught radio TV. And one of her students was like, oh, we should do this thing. You know you should get to do the voiceover is

Jason Sadecas. He has a nice voice. And I was like, I do? Yeah, I don't, yeah, I didn't, I didn't know anything about that. I mean, I don't have a voice. I have, I don't have a face either. I say this. You barely talk. I'm like an invisible person, but you can put stuff on me or give me a voice. The silver screen. You're just, you are. I'm just, you are. I'm just invisible. I'm a totally neutral person. It's whoever you want to be. Yeah. You can put a nose on me, whatever. Give me an accent. It's a blessing and a curse, is it?

I don't know. I'm so tempted to talk about Ted Lassow. Do not. They told us. Do not. Oh, for real? I figure, well, they said 45 minutes in. He doesn't want to promote Ted Lassow. It says right here. The only one's talking about No Lasson. Working at Banana Republic. Great. Perfect.

And we want to spend an hour on how... And he's an insane pinball person. Have you been to the pinball place in Vegas? The Pimball museum off the strip there. The fucking monster right by the airport. It's unreal. Yeah, it really is. They write pinball big enough.

You know where it is. And I went in, bing, bing, bong, mong, ming, bing, bing, bing, bing, bong, bing, free game. But I did it. I went to there and went to meet kids. So, no, I went in there. I felt weird because I'm like, it's mostly adults. I go, who's weirder, you know? I'm in here.

But I played Galaxia. Yeah. Asteroids. Boop, boop, boo, boo. Asteroids. You don't find them everywhere, Dana. No. You don't go to shakey.

No, I did, guys, I'm from the 50s. I mean, we had a pinball machine at the lake. It was the devil's game back then. It was gambling. It was bad news. Don't put your quarters in there. Well, Guppie would, the guy who ran the, where's Gupy? Mercantile and Lake Ronan, Montana.

He was the king of that pinball machine out in the deck and there were goats. And we'd challenge him. I love him. Anyway. I fell in love with it. Well, after the fact throughout, it's always been there because growing up, you know, I was born in 75. So arcades were big as a kid and dad taking us to go those things. And I would play, you know, like, you know, dig dug or any of the other games, Tron, whatnot.

And then he'd always go over to these pinball machines. And that was the first time I saw a dude, like, you know, cradle the ball where it wasn't just luck. It wasn't, he wasn't just slapping it up there. I was kind of, oh, then kind of got away from it. Then one of the fellows that owns and created this theater called Boom, Chicago, and Amsterdam is a big pinball, you know, fanatic and knows a lot about the history and just how the games were made and the designers. And he had one and kind of taught me, and Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on the Lasso taught us kind of the, you know, the more nuanced version of that. And then 10 years went by and then I bumped into one again. And whenever, like, especially when you're with someone and you go do films and you're spoken for it, like to go out on the town can be like laborious, especially as you, as you, like, people knew me from SNL.

So me and my friend Chip, who I work with, we would go find a place. I found an app that was just like a pinball, yeah, where you found out where the pinball machine. were. And it's so great because it gives you a reason to go out, give you a focus on something. It's not just having a beer. Like, you know, we're not like, you know. Yeah, to give you something and to focus on. And also, as people maybe start to join us, you could kind of just include them.

It was, it was always, we'd always rent a pinball machine to wherever we were shooting a movie just to kind of learn and give ourselves something to do. Oh, that's like a Sandler movie. Actually, yeah, it feels like that. And Jerry's Deli. We've hatched a little, a little PG-13 on Netflix here, boys. Jerry's Deli in the Valley was a big place to hang out. I think it's still there, but maybe it's not.

Jerry's old. Yeah, but they had, so that was the old days of like Sandler, Drake, Sather, Schneider, they had pinball in their Fun House, a game called Fun House. Yeah, I love that game. And we would, just hours, just because there's nothing, with stand-ups in the day, bored off for us, go bomb at night, come back in. It's practical. It's practical.

It's not that bad. You get $10, if you can ride it out. And if a good, yeah, if you have a good game, it lasts 15 minutes, and then you're sort of competing against folks. Oh, you hate when someone's got a long ball, you're like, yeah. I'll come back. And then you do, you hear that knock. That's a good one.

It's very close to what it is. So you lived above a Burger King. Yeah. Yes, yes. So this is when is this? This is my first. Was there places above Burger Kings? It must have been in New York.

It was absolutely New York. I'm 46th Street between 5th and 6th. It was the first place. It was the only place I looked at. I moved in. They said had me at the Paramount. It's supposed to be two weeks. I ended up for the Paramount.

Yes. That's what I do. I go, really? Something's wrong with my room. It's two feet by three feet. I went down the front desk and they go, so, well, you got a king suite? I go, no, this is my whole room? No, I had to sleep in the fetal position.

It was so small. But literally, you couldn't stretch out. Oh, you, no, you could absolutely touch the wall either side. It's like, you know, but this was, this was at the paramount. This was the room that the hotel that they both do in. And they don't count on you bringing a suitcase. No, exactly. Because when you go in, they go in or the suitcase can go in or the suitcase can go in.

It's honestly, there's a, where's a suitcase. stand is on your bed it's so funny but i was there yeah i was supposed to be there two weeks i am extending it like six somehow uh and went to a internet cafe looked up a place on craigslist my sister christend already lived there for a few years so i had her come to the you know look at the place and it was and i could see the 30 rock out the back out the out the blinds because that was why i was here i figured i was going to get let go within at least whatever the writer's it's burned in all of us i know where just it all sound like fire me just why would they I argue as a writer.

They, did they see you perform, but then also liked your writing and said, let's just try them. That's the impression I get, yeah. I never asked, I mean, but that was the impression I got. I mean, it was a little bit like, like, I would have said, like, you know, I was kidding about, you know, Sandler wanting you around the game. You always hear that Lauren, like, he just wants funny people around. So even though I auditioned for it, and I auditioned the year after Tracy had left. And it was your Keenan got hired, a fellow named Fness Mitchell. And, yeah, I had a decent audition.

I had one piece in there where I play a senator who offends black people. And then when he goes to apologize to them, he then offends Jewish people. And then he offends when he's 2003. It was based on Rick Santorum. Like he compared homosexuality to bestiality and then in his apology, like just doubled down on it. It was like, what is going on? And so I did that. But it was nonpartisan.

And so they liked, you know, the writing of that because it was, you know, taken. I like those thought behind it. Steve Higgins was more vocal about why I got hired. Maybe you could give it to someone else. Steve Higgins was a champion for you. Yeah, him and Tina, and Tina, who I knew her and her husband from my second city days. And so, yeah, so then it was just a matter going out there. I go into that building, walk upstairs.

I was like, Chris, how is this? It's nice. Like, it's clean. Like, I go, and I don't have a good sense of smell. If any sense of smell So I was like Does it smell like burgers She goes

You can kind of smell the fries But it's gone by this floor Because it's like I think like three or four floors Walk up And the reason why I was on top Of the Burger King Is because a fellow named Lou

Our landlord owned Was a you know Franchise guy And he built these These things around on top of it And so I still thought we're doing SNL

But Yeah So S&L So as a little like Tater Teter Tess I was in you I always go to burgers It's the key

You know Will you if I pick you up Just come down What was your We always ask cast members, like, Lorne Michaels is this enigmatic. Of course. We've been doing Lauren, if you haven't noticed. His mind's a lot soft.

And this is like, please, everybody does it. But your relation with him, how did it evolve? Was it, were you standoffish at first? No, he was always really, like, nice to me. I think he wanted me to get out of my own way while on his watch, you know, a little bit. Like, I would say that, you know, the. part of him that, that, that, that hires people because he sees something in them or someone that he sees something and says that, you know, you should go after the, this person's got

something, um, like, I, I think he's seen all of us or are, our archetypes like a dozen times over at this point. So he kind of, it was like, okay, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you, you know, like, attach you to someone. I mean, I mean, I don't know, I've never asked him, but that's what it felt like a little bit, like, because he was auditioning, you know, who to, you know, um, you know, like, but he was always supportive. Like he was in any, it was always something I felt I could go up and, and speak to. I remember that after that first audition, you know, I talking to Horatio and, and Maya Rudolph, Horatio I knew from Second City, Maya, who I just met, but it was lovely. I went down to go, go downstairs, they're

not going to laugh. No one's going to do anything. Like, don't worry about it. And I went down and did it. And after I got done with my, my studio audition, the first one, Lauren came over and shook my hand. And I did not know what to make of it. Would not know it. Wow. Like where it doesn't, yeah, I still don't know what to make of it. He came over and shook your hand. He stood up, walked over.

Now, I walked forward and I was told that no one's going to laugh. People did laugh a little bit. It was only like five people. And then he's not going to say anything. And then he got up and did the opposite of that. I was like, I didn't go upstairs and try to make sense of it. I probably haven't really spoken much about it because it didn't. I was like, now I don't know if I didn't, I then walk out, go back to my dressing room,

which was, you know, Daryl Hammond's dressing room, I believe at the time. and he may have just walked out behind me and gone to the John. You know what I mean? So I don't know. Can you give me a piggyback ride? Exactly. But it is interesting how he will cast it

sort of almost like a sitcom in a way. You'll be Bill Murray and Bill Hader will be a Phil. Were you like a Phil type or no? No, I don't know if I was. I feel like he wanted me to be. The thing that really helped like sort of pushed me over the edge because I wrote for those first two seasons

was like I wrote when you came to home. You came back to host once, and I was on the cast when you came back to host once. But in those first two years, there was a sketch that we did when Tom Brady hosted, and I basically did like this, like the same dancing that I do in that, what up with that sketch? We wanted to talk about that. But I did that dancing because Beck was performing that week, and he had a guy that was doing the dancing, like kind of like, you know, off to the side. And so I just made the choice to do this.

And then it made a bunch of people laugh. and I remember Tina telling me that during during dress rehearsal when that sketch was going on he kind of looked at the screen and goes Dan Aykroyd Dan Aykroyd You know and then yeah Then we had the show Saturday

The sketch made it on As did the other sketch that me and my buddy Joe Kelly wrote For our man Tom Brady And then two weeks went by And during that break they hired Hired me into the cast So it was kind of like Well it's such a specific dance

And it always makes you laugh Even if you I watch it again and I'm laughing every time because it's so specific and you're playing it so earnest and so clueless so and what's up with that

you can't take your eyes off you and Keenan talked about how much you made that sketch you know I mean that's very sweet of him I would argue because you didn't have a line you're just what he called

it's got like a bicycle thing and then he would do the side hip thing is pretty hard to do and you look so stupid yeah and your wig and also I think in the Ted Lassow clip

where they say it looks like you're in the middle all the guys and it's like the first show So it's a hilarious dance. What's up with that? It's just funny anyway. It's just funny.

And it was such a joy. I mean, when people asked me my favorite sketches from there, that one is always top three. And not necessarily because of the effort I put into it or the way people respond to it, which is always lovely. But just it was the one that we did, my generation, where when they'd start to build the set, people would start to get hyped. And then it found that spot after update. So they'd tear away the update thing. Then they'd start putting up that. And the people in the crowd.

Oh, that's great. And everyone was in it. Everyone was in some weird. It's a gigantic cast. And you'd always have like Robert De Niro there or somebody like, you know, like some weird cameo. You know, Bill dressed as Lindsay Buckingham. We knew exactly where it was going to go. We're just slotting in all these things.

And it was great to get a cameo. It's great when people, even cast, want to be in it. Or a host comes in and says, I want to be in that. That's the best. And so for people don't know, what's up with that was like a Keenan was a game show, a talk show, a talk show host. And then he never got to asking anyone any questions. These long musical interludes and sing. Do you have background singers, I think?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then you dancing. And also athletically, did you get out, I mean, you did it for a long period of time. It was more of a magic trick. I would do it for a little bit of time and then we'd, we'd, I'd jump in to frame. Like, that was the thing that, I mean, the thing I always look at it is I've been doing that dancing since I was like, on basketball teams, like from the early 90s. That's just watching YOM TV raps with Fab Five Freddy and kid and play.

and house party and all those movies. And yet it was the same thing I made my 15-year-old friends laugh. The things that I, like, delighted in were, like, me learning the edge of frame and how to make it look like I'm dropping in off of something. Or taking a long exit, like, roundabout thing, doing, like, a Sherman-Helmsley, like, walk off, you know. And just trying to tickle, like, Keene and trying to make him laugh and just milk up as much screen time as possible just to make, like, Kenny Among in the booth laugh. And you were doing it different on air.

You try to switch up little things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we had a good spry group of people, my generation, that at some point you realize that if we make the boss laugh by making each other laugh, he'll love it. In a sketch that's funny with the sound off. Like there's no real joke. Once the melee starts and the party and the dancing and all the stuff,

you can just, the audience can really just laugh. Oh, it's great. Because they're not listening for any, you know. Yeah, yeah. Which is another one I wanted to bring up that you did with Keenan was the scared straight. Yeah. And he gave you kudos, too, as his partner in crime, you know, going, hey, hey, come on. I mean, that thing is really classic.

I mean, again, so fun because we'd always get, you know, the host would have something fun to do. But then, you know, Bill and Andy were in there, and Bobby Moynihan is who I picture for the third, for the third. And just, and Keenan, when you get Bill and Andy cooking and laughing and then Bobby, too, Bobby's so funny. and then yeah, Keenan would come in there just hollering whoever I'm trying to think I mean Like hollering

And were you writing On the show with four other people at that time Did you come up with this with Keenan or alone? That was probably him I'm guessing Brian Tucker Maybe somebody else Rob Klein potentially But no I a lot of times

I was just You know like Those two instances were Just I was merely a muse And who did you connect with as a writer Did you have someone you wrote with more regularly or would come to you with stuff? Yeah.

Well, I mean, those first two years, I really felt imposter syndrome of like as a writer only because I had only recently discovered like what I did, what I like writing for myself. But again, that virtue of having funny friends, it was like one of those things. And there are two, there are two, you know, sort of commandments, if you will, or like a piece of advice that Tina gave. One was like, you know, don't write anything that you feel like you can do yourself, you know, because it'll drive you crazy, especially if you're, if you did audition for the show. And now, now, and I did it once and she was 100% right. I wrote a Dr. Phil thing for Jeff Richards, like later in my first season because I just wasn't getting anything on. So I was like, well, write something that I know. And Jeff and I worked on it really well. And it didn't, it didn't go super great at the, at the readthrough. And I remember it's being unnatural.

upset like where it's just like that's well you mean you know how to play it you yeah but it doesn't yeah but but but when you when you give it when you hand it over it's like I'm okay I was I was okay doing that but but but I but people it's like it's like the it's like people weren't hot on on Jeff at that point in that room and and and he was doing it well it just it just like didn't get over that hump that Wednesday is good yeah yeah God I think when they hire you as a writer I think it Dana it's like a little scammed first of all it's a little cheaper it makes work harder. Yeah, sure.

I didn't want to be a writer. I didn't know how to be a writer. It's from Arizona. I just barely had 25 minutes of stand up. And Rob Schneider and I, we got the call together. And he goes, hey, it's great news. We're hired as a writer performs. And I go, no, no, that's great.

That's what Chevy Chase or someone was. I go, I don't know how to write for other people. I barely know how to write for myself. So you get in there and they would say, you know, write for Dane or write for Mike Myers, right for whoever. And I'm like, it's so hard. And also, I barely have ideas myself. And then you give them away and it kills you inside.

I know. And it's, and for me, what, what eventually happened was I did, I started pairing up with, like, Fred. Fred and I hit it off. And, you know, Fred's just a lovely fun guy. And, and what I couldn't, what I couldn't do was make up something for these guys, like on a blank page at that point. But what I could do is listen to what they did, do bad impressions of it, let my brain click into that and help with rewrites. Like, the rewrite table was, I loved. I still love it. I'd sit at any show's rewrite table. Like, you know, that's my ballback career. It's fun to help someone else's, yeah. Your ego's out of the way and you're just like, Like, oh, how about that? To get one line in, any of anything in? It's the best. It's like, and you feel like you're in the game. You're like, if I can compete, just be even with these guys. Or in the mix. Absolutely.

Like, like I, like, that I'm not taking up space here that I, that I do belong here. I have worth being here. They haven't wasted the other time. They're not rolling their eyes. Exactly. I told Dana this when he was there. I think when I, there was a sketch where he's played receptionist. I wanted to do it.

I hadn't been on much. And I was sort of teetering on every summer. They'd go, I don't know if we're going to keep them, you know. and I'm like, God damn, you know, how can I work any harder? Maybe I'm just not good enough. And then I, that one, I got on, and then David Bowie was a musical guest,

so I said, ask him if he wants to be at the end, and I won't know who he is. And then he said, yes. And then he wanted to call me, and then he asked if he could be my part and switch. And I said no, and it was so hard, but I go, I have nothing. I mean, I, and it made me think of what you said about,

you just want to get on. So even, like, one of your good sketches, you might just give to someone that you brought in. Yeah. just to get on to stay and then worry about it later, like, okay, I gave it one away. But I don't even know if that one was any good.

You just go, I want to do it. And he's like, oh, yeah, okay. And I was like, oh, my God, and I have to, I get to talk to David Bowie, and then I get to go sideways with him right away. He's like, yeah, okay, go fuck yourself. Good luck with your shit. I had that.

But he was nice, angle on that with Robin Williams, who I adored and was a really good friend, but he really wanted to do church chat, and this was in the early days. This was my golden ticket, and I was very careful. And I thought if Robin got so excited It would be like, oh, look, no tits, you know, you know, that kind of stuff

I was just afraid of it And he even called me Saturday morning at like 10 a.m. To be in it? To be in it, to be a guess. I would really like to play, you know. It was heartbreaking, but, you know, we got past that. It wasn't, but it was in those days, if your thing was very precious. You know, I wanted to keep it quasi real in a sense.

Yeah, yeah. But, you know, happens. Not, like, quote, unquote, sell out, like, by giving it to the, over to the show. I mean, again, I'm using this, you know, metaphorically, it's not selling it at all survival. Well, that was a lucky thing, because the cast, I had Phil and Jan and people in it. And it was a lucky thing. I didn't know, home base and then have the cast come and go and the host. So, Lauren loved it.

Yeah. Because I didn't have to score. Did you come in with characters? Not really. No, I did, like, no, not really. Did you write them down? I mean, was that a thing? Yeah, I did, like, three characters and, like, seven impressions at first audition.

And it was mostly that senator sketch that I had mentioned. And from what I heard, like, when you get to that point, like, how the heck did I get here? You know, like, at three years, once you sort of know, you're there. How did that make it? Whatever you did, you mean? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it was as much, like, the banter in between, like, dealing with, like, whether the piece played well or didn't, you know. But I was, I was, yeah, dubbed, you know, being funny.

So they just wanted me at the table because it did feel weird, getting, you know, being like, actor. I mean, I called my manager over at Brillstein, Jeff, and I was just like, maybe I've fucked up. I think I should just stay the acting. No, you're in showbiz now. I'm in showbiz. And he would say, you know, you, Sandler, Chevy Chase, Tina, you know, obviously at that point.

Like, I'll start his writers. It's like, you know, and I do sketches, you know, questions. Anything. It was great. You know, and yet it really took that relationship with Lorne and to, the one thing that I learned there that I feel like I would encourage folks do is like go talk to a person that can as if you can if you have the opportunity to find

audience with the person that can actually change the situation do that versus talking to everyone to the left and right of yeah you know and and and and and and learn was always open to that with with me um and you know that I think that when did two A holes come in because that that was one yeah fairly early on that was chris and I's first season you know Chris yeah so that that really you popped when I saw that yeah I mean I mean I mean, that was this magic Christmas episode that Jack Black hosted, Neil Young was the musical guest. We had our new sort of generation was, you know, pretty intact there. Like, I had come in at the, and last three episodes of the season prior, Bill and Andy got hired over the summer.

And then Kristen got hired about like five, six weeks into the season. And then Fred, a little later. Well, Fred had already been there. Fred was still there. Fred and Forte had already been there. Yeah. So that was, that was a, you know, a very fertile time on SNL. Yeah.

The cast was. But that specific episode was that they did Lazy Sunday. Day, the Digital, the Lonely Island guys. We did two A-Holes. Will Forte did the Spelling Bee sketch that he had submitted probably six times in the couple years, which was a groundlings trunk piece that he had. Everybody loved just never got over the hump. But Jack Black, who was the host of my very first episode as a writer that I got a piece on.

He was just like this lucky charm for me specifically, but I feel for a lot of folks because he was one of those hosts that would just support the piece. Like in A-Holes, he's straight up just a straight man. And just, and that was Chris and I, we were writing together every single week and we were just tired and we're just chewing gum and just started talking like that, hey, babe, and you know, and just how do we make this guy's life a nightmare? How would you describe that to people who are listening? It may not have seen it. It's like two cocky young people self-involved. Yeah, two self-involved people making a business transaction as difficult as possible for the people.

person trying to help. And you had a rhythm of, oh, babe, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of like, yeah, it's like chewing the gum. Yeah, babe, what do you want to do? Yeah. We want to go to Hogwarts. You know, and then Kristen was just like this kind of like,

and she was like, like, almost like a Paris Hilton type, but, you know, just vocal fry and just, I want to go in there. I'm tired. Sometimes at three in the morning, you go, is this even funny? Oh, 100%. You're just like, are we delirious? It's fucking funny. But also it's you two, which is already, you're halfway there because, you didn't

people want you, yeah, you know, at that point. I mean, maybe you weren't even that. Still emerging, I think, yeah. I mean, she was off to the races because Chris had so many, have so many good characters. I mean, the groundlings folks, like, blew always, consistently, blew doors off of us, second city folks, you know. Did they really?

Yeah, I think, like, in regards to characters, you know, and I mean, like, I mean, that's what I love about the, the, I'd say that, you know, Farrell and McKay are, like, bird and magic, like, just like platonic soulmates that were like the Hatfields and McCoys, who then came together, with these two sensibilities of these two amazing sketch, you know,

American, like, the comedy theaters, and then, boom, like, you know, we're off to the races once they decide to, like,

just, you know, harmonize with each other. We had more stand-ups back. You did, yeah. Yeah. A lot of us were stand-ups. Didn't have real theater up in San Francisco.

You, kneeling. There's no ground liens or, yeah. I would have been in it in a second. Grab a coffee and discover Vegas-level excitement with BetMGM Casino. Now introducing our honest exclusive,

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I wonder what it's like to be in the groundlings today, you know, because it's obviously such a feeder system. And now the Hall of Fame would love it and Phil and going, you know, must be very nerve-wracking. Because if you get in that and you're in the main company, people, you have a chance. I would assume so, but I think it's like, especially being out here, because that was one thing about Second City in Chicago is that you weren't, it was just about trying to do that well, like navigate like that. You want to be a good improviser, you want to be a good writer, you want to be a good actor, but like, you know, you wanted people to, you know, do a good job for the piece, but it wasn't, you weren't thinking beyond like the building you were in in a lot of places, you know, because I think it's because it's in Chicago, even though it has that same, you know, alumni. you know plus what 20 more years and you're kind of famous just doing it in second city right i mean that's a big deal already yeah and you're getting paid for it which i don't know i don't think groundlings gets paid i don't know what if things have changed uh over the past few years but can we talk about a few more of your really cool sketches you were i mean the commitment

may i watch the i don't know if david saw but the potato chip with will forte and the way you play that you both played it was such full-on sincerity and drama and then when you started to break I just thought, no wonder, he's so good at Ted Lassau. You know, like, you see the seeds of it. Sure, sure. It's comedy, but I really felt bad for the way you played it that you, first you were super defiant. You didn't need a potato chip. It's a complete theater of the absurd.

Oh, absolutely. With such commitment, I mean, Will Forteus, a freak that way he's on it. And then the way you decided to give it up and then the way you saw it. I mean, you must have known that was, because that's such a weird sketch. that it must, people like it must really mention it to you. Oh, 100%. That's one of those sketches. I'd be curious to know from both of you, what's the one that people can come up to you

and you know, like, oh, we would have been friends as kids. If you like, if you like that, then we're like friends for life. And you know, people say, what up with that? That's great. People dress out like that character for Halloween. Yeah. But I would say potato chip and main justice. Main justice is another.

Or two that if people come up to me, you know, I love potato chip. Yeah. Then I'm just like instantly have a soul connection with that person. Do you have one like that? Oh, yeah. Skin ads from Maine. which I love we both have a main sketch. I did it on the variety show with Colbert.

It was just a flight of fancy of a Petridge Farm kind of voice being a skinhead. You know, the weather's the only thing that the Jews don't control. You know, it was that level of him. That's funny. I remember that. And then, Clam, he goes, I hate stick for beaten Spaniards. And so it was skinheads for Maine. So when people at an airport come up, hey, man, our friends and I always mention that.

Yeah. Because we're skinheads. Exactly. Yeah. Thanks for making us What about you, David? It would be bye-bye. No, we did bye-bye twice.

The second one, the second one, but it's a very catchy catcher. It's a catchy one, yeah. I can't believe it was only twice. That's what we did, and then we went away for, I went to Los Angeles the next day and this flight attend said it. And then from then on, I probably, honestly,

I heard it maybe every day in my life for about 10 years. Because when you go off a plane, if they say anything like that, your head goes to yours. Yeah, and that's the easiest thing to say, and then they were told not to say that anymore, and then they show the sketch, because my friend's wife worked for America, and they show them and say, this is what they think of us. So we have to change our, I'm like, geez, we've ruined everything. We say good morrow. Now we say good morrow. We say, get fucked. Get fucked. Get fucked. I mean, they still hate you, whatever they're saying. Sorry about the legroom. Sorry about the legroom. Sorry about the legroom. Sorry about the plane's getting smaller. Now it is It bought me some street cred

With uh Sometimes they come by And like you're on the Southwest And they give you like a thimble of water And then they come by They go hey And they wink And they give me like

A two gallon jug And I go oh my God And then The person's next me Can I get another water? I'm like I'm water long I'm having too much I'm holding it like a baby

And they're like get fucked I have too much water That's mean I know They get mad of me Now what about this The main justice guy That's another really

Yeah I mean It's the same character, you know, really, yeah, which is, yeah. But it's such a fun. How do you describe that sort of gag, I mean, he's like got a little goatee. He's like Colonel Sanders. Yeah, like what's funny, and this is one of those things that I love, like one of the lessons, like showbiz lessons that, that it can almost extend into life lessons at S&L is the the potato chip sketch was done when I was going through a divorce. I was like, you know, like not sleeping well, like being pulled every which way.

John Solomon and Will Forte, who were writing buddies, went to UCLA together. et cetera, and, you know, created all this stuff since Last Man on Earth and Grewber and whatnot, they write potato chip. And the reason they write that thing is because I had done a sketch a few weeks earlier, the first time we did, went up with that actually, when Gerard Butler hosted, and I had just seen Cool Hand Luke, and I was kind of like, oh, it would be funny to do a Cool Hand Luke sketch, but Cool Hand Luke tries to get out of eating the eggs by just being like, you know, are these free-range eggs?

It's like he says, I bet I can eat 50 eggs. And then I wrote myself as like the George Kennedy part. So I'm doing all that kind of old boss here, come on now, you know, doing all that. And it did well, but it didn't get picked. So you, you, and that's the beauty of like Wednesdays. It's like that's when you write one for them, one for you, and you do something. And then your friends, you know, like hear the things or your co-workers hear, oh, Jason can do this voice.

And so then they write potato chip and write me in that voice. And so that, and so it comes from that. And so they're just right from this really crazy, still the place, which is literally just me doing a bad George Kennedy from Cool Handel. It's a loud, bombastic, cocky, high energy is fun to do in that studio. Yeah, and just picturing an outfit, you know, whatever. You know, again, one of those great things that I think, Kristen is such a perfect example that the ground these folks had. Like, they could see these characters that could just be transferred on the television. Oh, yeah.

With, like, wigs and just like the slight, like just a couple, you know, props and wardrobe. And boom, they're, you know, off they went. So then with Maine Justice, there was an idea that I had had first year for Horatio Sands. And it was more like, Texas justice. And then we just like added some layer of absurdity to it. We just make it main. And I mean, I've told the story before, but like, Lauren and Seth hated it because there's no logic whatsoever. It's not really a Maine accent.

Yeah, it's not Maine. It makes it like, why are they talking like this? What is going on? Yeah. Why are you talking about, you know, crawd ads up in Maine, you know, and not lobster, blah, all this stuff. Yeah. And myself and Mike O'Brien, who was my office mate and a good friend, we wrote together a lot. and I'm trying to think who else was on there.

Oh, I think Rob Klein as well, who was a Harvard kid, you know, like, so like, you know, super clever and silly. We were just like, you, what are you talking about? What was the logic behind Toon's is the driving cat? You made us this way. You, like, it's your fault, yeah. I blame you, Dad. So that's why, like, two thirds of that sketch,

we just go through the list, like, we're like Bobby Moyano's character. It's like, what the hell is going on? And then I just go through just the exposition. Like, oh, maybe this happened to have a hook and Katrina. Maybe it is a time or a war, you know, like a, like whatever. It's just this weird. It's just to satisfy the box. Sub story of where does this guy?

And then we just push on through. But yeah, that's one of those ones that you just, you know, I think it was probably from the one, yeah, the Kuland Luke, but then also being a fan of Harry Conn Jr. Like in when New Orleans folks would, you know, get real, real comfy and just start talking. Real cubs. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, when you were just cool and Luke, what were the things that blew your mind as a kid? like with movies or TV and stuff.

Oh, yeah, yeah. They inspired you. Was it Kuland Luke one of them? No, I mean, the first one comes to mind is Beverly Hillscott. Seeing Beverly Hillscott in the theater. Yeah, all of it, yeah. Do you guys have to pay for the rights for that? Well, no, and then we just laid out on it.

We could do six notes. You could do six notes and then we're like, fucked. You can do it for the repeat. Marcy, get Tina, Jason. Anyway. But that was a big one. I mean, SNL was huge. Huge. Like, you know, that was, that was, that was certainly.

When were you in high school? When was us now? Yeah, 90, 94 was like 90 to 94. I know. I know, yeah. But I would say, okay. Up until, up until sophomore year, until my friend Matt Bale got his driver's license. Somebody you got a car and then you're out. And then you're out every Saturday night? What were you doing? I mean, you're on 1130.30. Like bowling? I mean, I probably didn't do too much. I don't know.

What's the case? We're on 1030. 1030 in K in Kansas City. You guys ready. Oh, we were on 1030. Yeah. Super. Damn. In Arizona, it's like on a nine-thirty-old. Do you want me to do any of my sketches you may have missed? I mean, boy.

Well, there's a map. No, I got to ask him about. No, back. Where's it on Peacock now? Everything's on Peacock. Do they have to name the network? It's a swear. Peacock.

You can't really put on an art piece on the peacock. We're the Miller's, horrible bosses. Stop me if you're in any of these. Horrible bosses to. Who were you told by this? You can do whatever you like. About the age. group of, you know, when you're a certain

age. I know. We just do this. I love, I love looking at the ones like Dick Fuel crime scene. Well, I thought that guy was fucking awesome. I just too. I thought that was so fun. That character. Dick Fuel, it's just me doing like a bad Stallone

but also like with Beat Diesel. I'm doing Vin Diesel. So you've got a really good bald cap on. Like a super short crew cut. Yeah. You're coming in. What was his? Yeah, he's just, he's supposed to take a hit from Jeremy Renner. Yeah, and he flinches. Yeah, he's just a stunk guy.

And he just flitches every time. Yeah. And he fights back. It's so silly. It's so like, but yeah, I did that for the MTV movie awards when I hosted. That's fine. You can look at this if you want. It's just.

Okay. So crime scene. Crime scene is one of my favorite. We did that with Charlie Day. Yes. So now. That was another great one. But that's written by Joe Kelly, who's one of the co-creators, one of my dear friends who co-created

Ted Lassow. That was a scene that he wrote for a sketcho after he didn't get asked back. He had a killer year at SNL. Didn't come back, went on to go do great work at how I met your mother, a handful of other sitcoms. You know, he co-created Detroiters, et cetera. That was a scene that I saw him do in the sketch show. It was all about cops and magicians. Right.

So he does this thing. And I'm like, this is a humding. Like, I just love the writing of it. It's so clever. And so, like, it reminded me of, like, in that space of, like, the audition sketch from, like, Mr. show or, you know, the dead parrot sketch, you know, Monty Python. You know, like, one of those, like, where it's just, like, the writing is just super clever. And those are two of the all-time great sketches.

Right. And just very quickly, it was like he's kind of doing sort of a quasi-Colombo, investigating a murder. Yep. And then he doesn't relate to anything you mentioned. No, not baseball. He doesn't know what baseball is. Doesn't know what World War II is. Excuse me. I never watch television.

Yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, he's just like this cop who was just kind of a TV snob. Very Monty Python. I mean, 100%. And so then when Charlie hosted, I asked Joe if we could, you know, if we could do it. He's like, absolutely. Charlie and I were doing it. I was going to play the part Charlie was playing.

And then Charlie was like, what if he switched? I was like, yeah, let's do that. Because Charlie and I had done horrible bosses one and two. I'd been on it's always sunny. I think he's as smart and lovely and funny as they come.

And so I was just like, and trust his instinct and his gut, like crazy. And I was just like, yeah, let's do that. And that sketch, I love the pieces.

And it's just one of those things that, similar to like doing the George C. Scott, or I'm sorry, George Kennedy voice is like, just because you do it like there and it dies, like doesn't mean it's dead. Like just because it dies doesn't mean it's dead. Like it can come back around and find some other place

or inspire some other thing that then finds the right host and the right timing. Right home. Same thing with Cal Bell until walking came in. Yeah. Yeah, because then they do it a few times.

They did it and it just never landed. Someone said they did it as the host. Who is we talking to? They said they did it and they said didn't work. It didn't work. And then they got a Fiva. You see crazy walking. I mean, you can't.

It's one of the greatest rhythms for thing. And then Will, who can lower his IQ, which we said in, like, five seconds. So Calvill, he does this thing with his eyes where he's really stupid. He's so committed. So the two together. It's a magic sketch. But this one I watched, God, damn, that was funny.

Yeah, that's Joe Kelly and Charlie Day, and me just trying to get in where I fit in, you know. Damn. Dan, I want to ask about horrible bosses because. Well, we should because people on our staff were mentioning. I saw it. I love horrible. No, I saw it. And also the Millers, that one was another smash.

Can you have Aniston and both of them? Yeah, she's in all three. What is she like? I've seen all these movies. Wait, she's in them? I don't remember one thing. You go to her parties and you don't even know what she's spending? He cares about her as a person.

No, I like, you're going to get disinvited. I like thinking, did she need coaxing to be super dirty? And I think that was the Horrible Bosses one. Yeah. Or is she like just ready to just break it out and be funny. Well, she played a stripper and the millers and then both. Yeah, she's, I didn't get the impression she needed to be coaxed into it at all. So she reads horrible bosses where she's filthy, you know that one, Dana.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's trained crotches. Yeah, yeah, she talks dirty and after, not too far from friends after that, right? It was pretty, at least she was like America's sweetheart. 2013 we did it. Or no, that was like 2010, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So she, yeah, same years' grownups, you remember that. Throwing a wig on, you know, putting a wig on too.

I mean, that was definitely her being, you know, I would assume her having fun with The assumption that people make, yeah. I mean, it was kind of, you know, the second one, I really liked the second one. It was, it was like our homage. I mean, I think the world, like I said, of Charlie and of Jason Bateman and of their partners, like, it's such a fun group to roll with and do even press together, you know.

And we, golly, if I could, if I could like have one thing, one do-over, I would have put out that Horrible Bosses 2 movie, maybe more in the summer, because they did it. Warner Brothers, New Line released it from what I understand, as, like, counter programming for Thanksgiving. And it was like, you know, because that's usually we put out Oscar movies and, like, family movies. And it's like, and they just, I think they miscalculated, you know, people wanting to go see a movie with their grandparents where Rachel from Friends is wearing a cock ring, like, around her, around her neck. Like, she's riding a Sibby in for most of the movies. Somebody somewhere had that idea in a room.

Everyone's, yes. Let's do that. There's plenty of those sappy dog movies. We'll go with the cockering around the neck. I'd love to be on the side. They're just like doing a scene. They're like one more. Jennifer, maybe say, yeah, eat your pussy.

Okay, rolling. And she's like, wait, what am I doing? Just to get to yell out, bark out alternative jokes. Yeah, that's how all those movies work, though, but they just run in jokes. That's the fun ones when you do comedies. I love it. It's funny people. I want them just to keep doing it, like, almost like the Marks Brothers.

Like, just, you know, the next movie we're going to do is like a, Prison Break movie. Like, just keep doing genres, but it has the three, these three goofy, like middle-aged dudes and just gone through it.

If it works, yeah, when it works like that. Your attitude, I mean, I hear people say this a lot. Like, they don't make comedies like that anymore.

Or like Tropic Thunder or, you know, just, it feels like we're in a different place with comedy films. Like, like balls out, funny R-rated comedies.

Yeah. I guess they're out there. I don't know. I'm a shut in. Yeah, I don't watch all the Ted Lassel. I think sometimes they, from the top,

you get down like I don't know if I do that you can do it but you know it starts to you start to lose jokes even in specials it never was you censor yourself kind of stand up they start cutting stuff they start saying yeah and you're like oh because it used to be just say whatever in live or die by if you're going to get in trouble it's you yeah and now they blame Netflix or amazon and that's that makes them nervous so it's just hard to get out do whatever you want podcasts we're not really dirty uh Dana's filthy but we're not really dirty um loves work So you can't, so, but this is one of the last places, if you want, you can sort of say whatever you want.

There's not really a boss. Yeah. And we have editing capabilities. So if you said, kill all, whatever. We're going to take 90% of this out. We'll have to be more specific. We're going to start in one minute. We're going to start.

This is such a good, this is our best warm out. I told Dana, I did one the other day and I was doing my fucking gross bits of hoy. I was like, ba, ba, ba, ba, bids, ba, bits. I walked in coming in a high, it about five minutes and they go, that's great. All right, let's roll tape. And I go, you're fucking joking. And then they're like, we're here with David's. I go, you guys, it was rolling.

Everyone's fun. Always rolling productions. You want to shoot the rehearsal. Hit the red button and let her rip. We covered George Wend. We did a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did a little bit of win.

Oh, you did Hall Pass. I did do Hall Pass. Dana. With Owen Wilson. Hey, how's gone? I think we should go there. I knew a guy who had a real hall pass with his wife. Like literally.

band who was i don't know if he ever paid it off but it was like they both married his virgins together and she said you you got you got one so when this movie came out i go damn they made a movie about yeah yeah yeah it's a good title good idea good i've been a hall pass for a couple people have you starting to get it that's my catchphrase i was uh i was in vegas at the meet and greet and they were like i say that to love it's all the time starting to get it now here's is go ahead come against home oh yeah should i do one a couple of those for them Yeah, go ahead. I try to come out with the worst hacky redneck comedians.

Sure. It's called Red Rednecky, the Redneck comedian. I married my sister, only because Mama took me down, come and get some. Got to catch right. I asked my mom what's for dinner. She said, Roadkill. I said, what kind? She says, I got to take a drive.

Come on get some. It's all come and get some. It's in the jokes. And you're like, oh, is that after the joke? Come on get some. I got mine is rack. It's your cigar pole, like, you know, burns. It's hard to come up with a catchphrase.

Come on get some. I had to look it up. I couldn't have been the first one to say, come on get some. I remember who's the guy that would do Shucky Ducky, Quack, Quack, it was on deaf comedy. Oh, a lot of comic? Shucky Ducky. It might have been called Shucky Ducky.

Oh, it might have been his name. Yeah, Shucky Ducky. I think Louisiana. Well, there's millionaire influencers that just have a catchphrase. I like hot sauce. They have a catch filter. That's a meme. coffee cup.

I don't know. I'm not a grumpy old man. I swear to God, I'm not. I like with this movies, I just say what movies he's in. You were in Hall Pass? Correct. Yep.

Okay, what else? Do you? I was in, like, most of it. I did like Hall Pass. Masterminds. Masterminds, yeah. Mastermind was that? It's a cartoon one.

No, that was with Kristen Whig and Galaphnackus, Anna and Wilson again. Yeah, I played a little, like I said, a hitman. And it showed up there for a couple weeks. hired gun you know you come in you screw together your sniper rifle and then you went back and host it was that kind of doing that it was yeah yeah i'd been asked prior but at the time it was was was off and it was i went back and played you know um uh Biden a couple times oh you didn't yeah that's right yeah but but at that

point i'd never i hadn't had the chance to host and yeah there's perfect timing um yeah it was nice I mean, it's, it's a surreal experience. The one thing that was different was that was post-COVID. So, like, you know, the table read was, which I loved. You know, like Wednesday was like a little theater show for everybody, you know. Oh, yeah, 55 sketches. I just loved it. And, and just the marathon, like, it's insane.

It's insane. Just the B.O. in that room alone. Everyone's so nervous. Yeah. And also, and also everyone there has seen the best of the best of the best. Like at least a third of that room has been there from the get-go. So they're just kind of like, okay, yeah, we saw this. We've seen this, you know, a hundred times over.

Yeah. But regardless of all that, the opportunity for the first time ever, like, yeah, because during my time, there's between 45 and 55 sketches, like when we're working there, the 10 years I was there, I'd probably on a good week be in 12 to 17 of those sketches. So the most time you're watching, read, and read through. Yeah, read through and read through. So then to show up and go back and to be in 95% of the sketches. You're going to read cold read over 50 sketches, over four hours.

Sickening. Like, I loved it. I try to read them, you know, you make little notes. You try to do it and then just give it, give it your own. There's no way you could do it all. Are you a good reader? I'm like a cold reader and stuff. Some people are exceptional and then some people are good or if you're okay with it.

I am okay with it. And it did make, and it's something I say to anybody that is currently working in SNL or ever did, like, or will. Like, if you get really good at doing SNL, you go, you then need to find, you need to then leave. like during the off weeks or the summers go play with other people that don't do S&L and you'll be like you'll feel like Daniel Laruso

like the karate kid where it's like oh I didn't know I learned how to do this You're faster because you're in this all-star team and you lose perspective You're thinking of a joke Bunker mentality into your relationships Seems like you have Dubtale into Ted Delasso

You seem to have a lot of wisdom around SNL like what would you say to a cast member who just got hired and you had 30 seconds with them. Yeah. Like, I would say enjoy the process of creation and destruction on a, you know, weekly

basis. Just enjoy it. Like, like make shit, eat shit, et cetera, repeat. Like, and don't judge yourself for when it sticks or what it doesn't. Because, like, I've never said just because it dies doesn't mean it's dead. I've never said that before, but that, that makes total sense to me. Oh, yeah. You know.

And there's timing. Where is the set in the studio? Who are you following? What sketch are you following? you're following and what's the vibe of that audience the moment. Sometimes I can just tell when I'm doing stand-up that there's a dead spot and I see an open micrower coming up. I go, no chance. Yeah. Five minutes ago, probably were a road away. Right now it's just dead. So there's a lot of whimsy. Yeah. Yeah. I've been, you know, Jerry Miner, who is a friend and was a guy that I

looked up to, you know, when he was at Second City when he was on one of the stages there, he came back to guest write. And I asked him the same question. What would you, you know, if you had to do it all over he was there for like maybe two, three seasons. He was, I had more fun. If you could, the, the sooner you can make S&L, your recess versus your school, the better. It's easier said than done. It's so hard. It's so hard.

But that, but, and yet, if, like, if, if you're able to do that. Well, I feel like it builds like you're, unless you're a savant, like certain people, just immediate. But you're trying to fight nerves. Try not to try. Try not to be too funny. Get the card. Here's the guest. Look around.

Land the laugh. Be there. And then the audience, eventually you land enough, the audience kind of see, you can feel the vibe. They're liking to see you. And then you get more confident and they like you more. And then I can see this happen with Cessly Strong. We were watching her evolution on the show. Absolutely.

And you can't rush it, but it's nerve. Norton tried to expedite in a kind way. He asked me to do the warm up before the show, like probably after my first or second year in the cast. And I'd, again, never done stand-up. What would you do? I would just do like old-school jokes. You know, raise your hand. If you've never been to a TV taping before, all right, but another show of hands,

who's at a TV taping for the very first time? A lot of the same people, you know, stuff like that. My son mentioned you yesterday because he was at that show. And he goes, I go, we're going to interview him. And he goes, oh, man, he's a really good standout. Oh, no, no. Because that's all he saw you coming out. I mean, that was Lauren just wanting the audience to have a better sense of who I was before

Shepness. Yeah. Before you get out there. Yeah. And he would be, you know, Norm used to do it. But like Norm, Natalie would say. So I'm going to be in the sketch. I'm going to come out.

When I come out, really let them have it. Let me, let them hear it, you know. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it'd be great if you could, like, stand up and apply, right? That'd be better in any of that. Lauren's like, Norm, let them not like you ahead of time and then go to your update where they're going to hate you. Don't you love when, Lauren, Lauren, you always use this one name. Chevy did it.

Danny did it that way. Billy liked it. No, he's just, that. There's only one, Lauren. I love, I love it. Towards the end there, like, on Tuesdays, where it's the host dinners, did you guys have those?

Like, where you, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love them because it was like, it was a little bit like the part of me that wouldn't do homework and then we tried to talk about current affairs or current events before, you know, we started talking about, you know,

like, I didn't read bail off, but I can, I can talk about them, TWA. You know how to a four-hour boozy dinner and then go back and write the show. Yeah. I did it to avoid writing when they go, we're trying to gather people. You want to go to spay?

And I'm like, yeah. I love to just to see Lauren, like, get loose. And I learned through repetition, so hearing stories that he may have told before, like, it didn't bother me at all. I just kind of, like, play his Ed McMahon or just like, or just, I was always, like, I loved when you came back to the host, you, I feel, I felt, I always had fun making Lauren like my straight man. Like, during pitch meeting on Mondays, I would, I would, I have, for years since my, even Chicago, I still carry him, like these little tiny notebooks. And I just sit there with this little notebook and it would be like, all right, Jason.

And I'd go, hey, Lauren, you still. I still need, you, you ran out at karaoke last night without paying you, you owe me a hundred bucks. He's like, I'll get you, okay. You said that like, you know, like whatever. And so then, you know, whomever, you know, ludicrous or Ben Affleck doesn't know what my relationship is with this guy who's an icon. And it's just me like, you know, just giving him guff. But he always, like, we would always laugh about it because it was always like respectful. It was never being a dick to him.

But it's just kind of like acting like he was just one of the, one of the bros. One of your boys. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, hosting is scary. One time I went back and host, I got sick during dress, and I had to lay down. And Marcy, I don't know if you were there when Marcy Klein is if she was, of course, dramatic anyway.

And then freaking out, pounding on my door. I was in that little dress room off of 8-H, the host and the music are right there. So I was laying on the ground, and I threw up. And then it was mid-dress, toward the end of dress, and I missed two sketches and I just went in, and then they go. So those got cut.

Yeah. The writers were like, fucking awesome. And then it's the worst. Oh, man. It's already got a stink on it if we try to bring it back next week for Michael Keaton. A little bit of bar flex. Yeah, a little bar. And then I got up.

I mean, Hero is a strong word. But I got up and I did the show. But, um, no, hero. It was, like, you're flinging. I was flugging. I went out there and did a real C plus episode. I hosted twice. I don't know if anyone was better if you could consider that.

I remember Adam was in my monologue once. And then he, Waterboy, open, and he had to fly back to L.A. And I was, and Lauren goes, just do stand-up. And I'm like, it's not that fucking, I never even go on anymore. So I had to go do cold stand-up of like, dogs are funny. Do you know he made me do, or he made me, he asked me to do the warm-up for the fucking 40th anniversary. Oh, sick. Because I had done it for eight years, that one that I was telling you.

And again, just straight up, just being goofy, you know, I mean, Don Pardo would introduce me and here, Jason, today. And I go, give it up for Don Pardo, the man. the myth, the legend, the only person in this building that was quoted in the Bible, you know, just doing old jokes, God said, let there be light, he flipped the switch. You know, like the corneous, hackiest, whatever, but just having fun, right? But the audience is, and then they're all cast. That's what I said to him. Like, he has Eric Kenorn, who was a buddy, he was producer on the show, was, you know, a writer guy

that we wrote together all the time. And I was like, what are you doing? Like, Sarah Sillman's in the house. You know, Chappelle, Spade. I mean, I'd name check. I was like, these guys would all kill. Like, why me? You just, would you just do it?

You know? And so I do it. And it is, I eat so much shit. Like, it's not good. No one's listening. It's like 10 minutes before it's live. And you're looking out there. And what I've said is like, it looked like the gatefold of like Sergeant Peppers, the cover.

Which is just everyone. Every person was famous. Every person was famous. And then famous on top. Famous was talking to famous. At some point, I was like, you know, said to Keith Richards, who was talking to Jack Nicholson, you know, Keith, Jack, I think if you guys sit down, people will start to follow along. And it's just nothing. Nothing.

And I'm like, so, I'm not bummed. I'm just laughing about it. I look out in the crowd, Gallifanacus is crying with laughter about how much shit I'm meeting. Lauren then comes up to me, says, says, you know, do you want me to like off mic? Do you want me to introduce you, settle them down? I was like, yes, please. I go, yeah, man, like that would help. And he starts to go up to the mic.

I go, hold on, let me introduce you. I go, ladies gentlemen, really quick, let's give it up for the man. None of us would be here without him. The one and only, please put your hands together for Mr. I make that joke. And as I do that, Bill Murray walks right in front of me, looks up and gives me a little thumbs up. Like that part of the boss and I was like, that's why you say yes to this gig. I'll take that. And so the Lord says, you know, everybody quiets down a little bit. And then I got about 30 seconds to just say, hey, everybody have fun tonight, you know,

like before they got loud again before the real show started. That was just mayhem. I didn't have a dressing room. I think I was just hanging out in the hallway or so. Yeah. My mouth gets dry, just thinking about it right now. She's stargazing. Every we turn into it is like somebody, somebody's. I got to meet Eddie Murphy that night. I got, like, it was like a to do. Chappelle asked me, where can I smoke a cigarette? Yeah.

I wasn't sure. Go to stare well. I don't think you can. What about a vape? He goes, I don't like them. Yeah, well, all right. I know. But it was wild.

Bradley Cooper, can I get a picture with you? Yeah. Sure. It's something else. For one night. I know. All right. Let's talk about Ted Lassow.

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Volvo Fall Experience event. Condition supply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explorevolvo.com. Ted started as a video. As a commercial, yeah. Very well. There was a guy with a beard in that, and then who made that call? I mean, there you go.

Because is it the same? Same guy? It is the same guy? Yeah. Because I was watching this morning going. Brendan, I don't know if they brought him over. No, no. Your guy's chemistry and patter.

Yeah, we're pals from way back when. I'll just set the table, David. Yeah. So I hear about Ted Lassow. Everyone's talking about Ted Lassow. I'm watching stuff. So eventually my wife and I get to Ted Lassow. Like everyone else are like, holy shit.

It's sort of mandatory at this point. Yeah. And then it became like, this is lightning in a bottle. Yeah. And you've heard everything. And you actually, you can talk to it, but you've heard from famous people, right, that just had to tell you what they thought. Can you want to mention them or no?

Just famous people. Well, I mean, the ones that stick out, we're like, you know, finding out that Brad Pitt, like, the show, finding out that, you know, Frank Oz writing a lovely letter, you know, at the Emmys last year, sitting next to, you know, Brian Cox and his wife and, you know, we were at a table with some of the succession folks, and then him be able to love the show. Like, just. Oh, man. If you get it, you love it.

It works on so many different levels. It's very, the, the pop culture patter, how fast you all do it around the room. Talking about Giulia Andrews' movies. It's all thrown away. Julie Andrews sent Brett Goldstein a very nice headshot. Oh, did she? Her own appreciation for him. So, yeah, another example.

Roy Kent guy, who's, oh, these cock suckers are going to kill him. So it's like, it's almost like Andy Griffith at times. It's so earnest and sincere. And then the likeability factor of Ted Lassow, you know, the country bumpkins, that doesn't know what he's doing. He's smarter than everyone. He has no ego. When the guy tried to take you down, that actor would be Muhammad. Muhammad, yeah.

And then you did your press conference and turned it. So what, so you got, you do the NBC thing and I watched it again and you're a fish out of water. So then you guys get in a room, they get the order. Yeah. And so when did you know like, hey, holy shit, we got a real hook for this now? Because you cast all these other characters. Yeah. How does that come together?

It's like, you know, it starts and stops. Like, because we did the first commercial in 2013, the second one in 2014, we got to do because the one in 2013 was well received. It's sort of well received just by your friends. They hear it. Yeah, but we also hear about it from the football, you know, because it was made to bridge the gap between American football fans and, you know, soccer fans. And Brendan, who plays Coach Beard and Joe Kelly, who was one of the creators of the commercial. And we're all friends. and we're kind of like Goldilocks.

I know nothing. Joe knows a little bit about both, and Brendan knows a lot about both, but mostly, and more importantly, soccer. And so we tried to do that with the first commercial, and it hits like this weird Venn diagram

of football fans like it, soccer fans like it, comedy, folks like it, and the advertising, you know, like the business people like it. And so we get to do a second one. They don't want to give us the same budget, meaning they don't want to fly us out to the UK. That's okay, all right?

We'll make the commercial about how Ted got hired and fired in three days and loved, fell in love with soccer, fell in love with the UK. And so that's where like all the enthusiasm and like not the eagelessness that, you know, to a lot of degrees, you know, came out. So then in 2015, Joe and Brennan and I meet in Brooklyn, my partner at the time was like, you know, you guys all really enjoyed doing that. You should do so. I was like, yeah, but what? So we sit out for a week and we're like, is it another commercial?

Is it a movie? Is it this? And we sort of modeled it after the British office, you know, six episodes, one. season, six episodes, second season, then like an hour and a half special for the third season. And we just, we just, just all these story ideas and characters just dumped out of us in, if that was a week, we worked on three projects that week. I'd say four out of those seven days, like, we're just dedicated, and we just filled up these pages. Then it goes away for a couple years.

We have, Olivia and I have kids, Joe. A couple years. A couple years. Yeah, we didn't do anything with it because we, because kids, Joe and three other buddies created the show called Detroiters with Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson and our buddies at Can. And that was on Comedy Central, so that was taking all Joe's focus. I was doing little things with, like, Forte and movies here and there. And then Bill Lawrence approaches me about doing a project.

We talk about that. That doesn't quite, you know, we don't end up doing that, but he's like, if you have any ideas, and I have like this stack of, like, 50 pages, like a, you know, a first draft, rough draft of a pilot, but then all these different breakdowns of episodes and ideas and whatnot. and you want to take a look at this. I sent it to him. She gave it to Bill. Yeah, give it to Bill.

And so that's, so to answer your question, it's when someone that knows that much about television looks at and goes, oh, there's something here. Oh, yeah. You guys could do this. You're probably 90% there with that. To a certain degree, yeah. I mean, a lot of it, but not that Bill's influence wasn't immense and super-duper helpful.

And really was the gas that got this sort of pre, like this old jalopy. Show runners are big, big in this town. Huge. They almost are more important than the idea or the stars. Yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's, and he provides. it all that. So he really

got us moving. And I looked back through the text recently, kind of remind myself of like our own origin story. And it really took, you know, a good calendar year for just, you know, the business. He had other things going on. We had other things going on. You know, and, you know, navigating the deals with, and I mean, it was

you're talking about NBC on the rights. Warner Brothers is where Bill's deal was a show for Apple. And that was once Apple came on. Because we pitched it to everyone, but Apple was the only one to say, we'll take it. We'll take a shot at it. And then, you know, then all the deal making after that once. Takes a while.

So other places, you went in with a pitch and they said no thank you. Yeah, Netflix passed, you know, Amazon passed. I mean, it makes, like, I get it. Like, because it. Well, until you see it. Yeah, no one believes until you see it. I mean, but you did have proof of concept. All you need is one.

But the commercials are pretty broad, and I understood that. Right. All that can't sustain. And yet, we did do our darned us to pitch the tone of what it was. And yet, yeah, nobody was buying. And I don't begrudge anybody really. No, no. It's just, yeah, Tim Cook.

Who cares, but yeah, nailed it. Timmy Cook. How did you write the British characters, though, like this? The woman who plays Rebecca is so good. I mean, all the British people are so good. How did you put yourself in how they would react to the Americans? Because they're so well-written, too. A little bit was a good fortune of Brennan, Joe and I all getting to work in Europe, you know,

even though we did theater, you know, for varying degrees. Like, Brennan for, like, off and on for five years. Joe, off and on for, like, two, three years, me off and on for a year. like we're just writing archetypes, you know, and, and just of like the American, you know, whatever spirit, you know, and the assumptions being made. And we'd made jokes about all those stereotypes and assumptions while at Boom, Chicago, you know, taking the piss out of ourselves. So we kind of had that to a certain degree. And, and I mean, Brits are like, you know, in a fun way, you know, one other thing that I feel like I learned when doing stuff at Boom, Chicago was how, that were more similar than we, than we like to think, regardless of flag or, or, you know, age or race, gender, all those things, those, those complicated, amazing things that make the human jambalaya, like, at the end of the day, you know, we like salt, we like sweet, we like, you know, we're like, you know, we're like, you know, kissing. Yeah. But, I mean, even across everywhere. So if there's, if there's an archetype of someone that is too positive, we, I think any of us will assume like, oh, they're not, they're a nightmare or, or something that's bad, it's going to happen. And he just sort of played against those, those things, you know, 75 years or however many years of sitcoms, you know, have us thinking that these things are supposed to go this way, these things are supposed to go that way, and we just try to, like, twist them or just turn them just a little tiny bit. Like nothing, again, nothing that we thought was.

So you don't see everything coming. You know, some people are smart. They think they see everything coming. Sure. And then you go, oh, it's a little not what you think. Yeah, exactly, yeah. And I remember feeling that way when watching the documentary about Mr. Rogers being like, oh, boy, here comes the dark turn at minute 50 and then it doesn't. And then you're like, okay, oh, they're going to wait until an hour and 10 minutes in, then it doesn't. You're just like, oh, he was just a decent man who was trying to make a difference in children's lives and also adults. Oh, wow. So there's people like that. That's cool.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. What do I do about that? I mean, obviously, like Ted Lassow, the first season, there's a lot of failure. Yeah. and the way, and then just the fun of watching how he navigates it. Yeah, and how he encourages other people to do it.

Like, for me, it also, it always reminded me of, like, highway to heaven or, you know, touched by an angel, like, this idea. Uncle Landon. Yeah. Like, like, that this person would come in and, you know, sort of act this way and people would go, what the hell is going on here? Right. It was like, you're right. You know, like, just subconsciously, I didn't realize at the time, but a big thing was about his eagelessness. Like, if you don't.

No ego. No ego. If you don't put any, if you just play it without any of that. He's not, he's not trying to get over on people. He's not trying to trick anybody. And it's still 100% consistent regardless of people thinking that it's, it's, it's, it's, that's, I talked to someone the other day who went on some psychedelic trips with ayahuasca and or mushrooms or whatever. And it was really all about getting rid of the ego. Yeah. Because once the ego goes away, then something has changed this person. So it's interesting, and you mentioned, Ted has no ego. Yeah, that book, How to Change Your Mind, but Michael Pollan was a big influence on me. And the times that I had done, you know, mushrooms, you know, in my Amsterdam day. Oh, the Amsterdam episode, I saw that a couple weeks ago. That is a little hard. Oh, yeah, no, that's something you have to see.

That episode, you got to watch more than once. Yeah, there's a thank you. But the whole show has so many levels to it. It can be slap sick. It can be funny and silly, and then it can be very real. It's like when you're playing dart. you, Ted. Yeah, sure.

And you go, something about, I'm just curious. Yeah, be curious, not judgmental, yeah. People mention that to you. A handful, yeah. People have asked me to write that on their arms, and they get a tattoo. And it's not his, and I don't even know if it's Walt Whitman's. I mean, we say it's Walt Whitman's because it's sort of apocryphly. It sounds like, it sounds like that.

Yeah, your character is casually always quoting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Robert Frost, but it's always thrown away. Yeah. You know. Trying to be, yeah, like, because it's not too, yeah, he's not too, he's not too, palms up and pat himself and pat himself. You shepherded it like a sketching way. I know you have your three other partners.

By the way, there is so many producer credits on the show. It's amazing. I don't even know. I just watch the show. Am I a producer? I don't know. You're on it, David. You might be.

You might be after the other. You're co-executive. But do you treat it like, so you're probably someone else is technically directing, but you're just going to be an overriding creative force in it. Just like shepherding a sketch. Yeah. I mean, the way I can, it's a little bit like, it's a big old cook out. Everybody brings a dish.

I just sort of help put things on the plate. But the sensibility has to stay wherever you want it to be. Well, I'm sure something sounds false, you can stay, say, I don't, this doesn't feel like that. Yeah, yeah, that's been afforded to me from the get-go, yeah. It's done now, right? So you're going to miss it up, sure. I will, yeah. I mean, we're still, you know, like, I still watch cuts for, like, you know, music stuff or something like that.

But for the most part, yeah, but all the editing's done, all the writing's done. And now, yeah, we have the final four episodes being rolled out and then, you know, a handful of press here and there, which is joy to do because we all get along, actually. In the editing bay, so they call it. So it's sort of, there's so many choices in there. And so I would assume coming from all those years of sketch comedy and other things that, and you may have people there on the same sensibility, but sometimes you'll know, I assume you're going to know, well, we have to go to that reaction shot a little sooner. Yes. To get to laugh. Yes.

So there's all that mathematics in there. And so this show is landing it so consistently. That stuff's hard to do. I assume it's either a few people that are right on the same frequency or one person that says, guys, I think we should do it this way. Yeah. But there's a reason why it's so brilliant. I mean, I think it's just the best idea of winning.

And yeah, there's a certain level of harmony in it. And it is something that I learned in that same karate kid way that I was talking about with S&L where, you know, by the time you were there and by the time you were there, 20, 15 years later, all those same people were. still there, building those sets, making those props, building those wigs, you know, and they're all great at it. They've done their, they've done 10,000 hours times, you know, just are three generations, much less the two prior and then the four cents or whatever. And like, I was like, okay, I'm going to, my sketch got picked. I'm going to go into that room with the heads of each department and just

let them know what the sketch is about from my perspective, without pontificating, without, you know, being condescending, and just let these geniuses do whatever they want to do with it. And then you just, we have done that with this show. Like where you, and if you leave a little space for the people to create behind the camera and in the office and in marketing or whatever to lean into the show, the same space. And Grace, we want to afford the audience as well. I think a lot of people get, you know, feel more ownership over it. Yeah, they're good in their job and you let them do their job. And if you hire good people, I like to not worry about something.

I like to kick at someone and say, you know what you're doing way more than I do and you come in there. It's nothing like someone handing you some great material, and you get the credit, basically. And I get the Robert Spiegel was. that for me and Bonning Terry Turner. You know, in terms of, it's such a difficult word, art or whatever, it seems like there was some, and you can talk to this or not, an autobiographical tinge is in the third season based on you, potentially, your private life, it was, you can speak to that or not, but I couldn't help it notice, and I thought it was so wonderfully done, because I've been

on the road at times, miss my sons and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, those are very poignant scenes. Thank you. Yeah, what's interesting is that my relationship to my life, like, I'm, I'm, it wasn't there from the very get-go, like, even when the initial idea of doing a show is like, well, why would he go there? Because a guy like my age would have, most likely have a child, at least one child, and probably be in a relationship. If he's not, there's some, there must be a reason why. And so that's why the pilot ends the way of pilot. I mean, like literally the second it was, it was thinking about it in the long.

form of a television show. I was like, I knew that that was the ending of the pilot, was going to be, okay. So, so none of that was autobiographical. And then his life sort of marched on, the only thing that in my life that helped inform the playing of things and maybe even the, the notion of a story point when breaking the episodes was having a father. And so what that's like to be away from, from your child. Because, you know, Otis and Daisy were, you know, the season two and season three were, you know, the season two and season three were. were in London. So I wasn't away from them, you know, with, you know, the way we, we split our time with our children, it's a week on, week off. So, um, but I was always, you know, they don't do overtime in the UK. So I was home. I was able to be home for, for real. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, they literally afford to the opportunity to make a living. I know, right? Yeah. And so, so I didn't have to, but I, but to, I, you know, my, luckily my, I've never had a parent take their own life. So you just kind of like have to do the acting thing of like empathize with someone that is gone through that or has been forced to go through that based on the decisions.

And so, yeah, it's, it's, I understand people conflating the two. Oh, no, it's a good answer that it's not, not maybe people are reading in a bit more. Well, it's a place to go anyway. Yeah, it's, it's what would naturally happen in these things. Because so much of it for me is like, is like, what happens when, you know, if you, if you haven't broken up with someone and you haven't been broken up with, then there's a whole bunch of music out there for you once you do. There's a whole bunch of movies and TV too, like whether you're on either side of that

thing. And boy, you think you like songs now. They're going to get you through things and make you want to jump off of a roof and think you can fly or the opposite. It's a compliment to your acting too, you know, when you have that little soccer field, the Lego set. Yeah, yeah. You're missing your, you know, or just the little references to FaceTime or my son's here

right now. or there's where his flight is, all that detail is so. I mean, that's just also having friends that, you know, go through all these things. And he's just, yeah, just keeping those things in your head, heart, and soul and letting them bang around there. Then at some point, when they come out, they come out. But, you know, I think about, watch the, it's not usually conscious. Like, I watched the audio commentary for Godfather, I think it was either one or two just

recently. And it was talking about how he made Godfather one. And then everybody loved it. And he's like, do Godfather two? I don't have a godfather, too. He goes, but I forget the line the studio head had it had for. It's like, you found out the formula for Coca-Cola and you won't make any more bottles? Like, it's such a great line.

And he had this, separately, he had this idea about a father and son story where you show the father and son contemporaneously when they're at the same age. And then that, like, came down. He remembered that and that became godfather too, you know. And so these things going on in the world and life are one thing, but it doesn't necessarily. So, I mean, it's their time to show up. You know, Christopher Walken hasn't showed up to say the lines yet, you know. And so you're kind of like, all right, well, here it is all this time. So is it because one of our lorneisms that we remember is he said to me once, never leave a hit.

No. So with Ted Lassow, is it in your mind? Is it done now? This story is done. It sounds like such a political answer, but it's the truth. It's like we only conceived what, you know, these three. Then this thing became this, this big whole thing. I mean, how much content is the three seasons?

If you think of it as a movie or, I mean. Oh, gosh. I mean, it's 10 episodes, 12 episodes, 12 episodes. But this season is probably twice as long as the first season. The episodes are just, you know, just as long as there's more. Yeah. It could go back to being an NBC promo. Yeah, exactly.

You know what I think you could do? It's a natural. The Doppler effect. I know what, you know, how this is some of flight effect. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Interrupting. I'm cross-talking.

Tarantino wrote a book after Once Upon Time in Hollywood, which I loved so much. It feels like Ted Lassow, if there aren't going to be more television, that that character, people would want to hear. Have you thought of that? 100%. Oh, good. We thought about writing a novel about him. Whether it's that, whether it's, you know, doing podcasts about the episodes to sort of, you know, offer those audio commentaries, which I was so lucky to grow up in a day and age of DVD. DVDs just to sort of talk through things and the themes and the people that have, you know, expressed interest in the show and also explain the show in a much more cerebral, cerebral, a way than I ever would have, you know, been able to, you know, explain it to anybody. And even when they're off or wrong, you know, it's still interesting. But, but, but yeah, I mean, you know, there's opportunities, I think, for spinoffs. The way people have gravitated and cared for these characters and seen themselves or their friends or their family in these characters in these situations is, is, is.

you know, we were hoping people would do that. We didn't expect it to be like this. When did you kind of go, holy shit? Halfway through the first season? Or when you won all the 18 Emmy nominations? At some point, you went. Even winning the Emmy, or even the nomination for the Emmys didn't, I think it, I don't know, man. You know, it came out during quarantine, so we didn't know, you know, because I'm not too active online.

And less so then, I just, a guy would, drive by the house and I'm taking out the garbage and hon. Hey, I love the show. Oh, right. And it's a little bit the same way I felt S&L days. You know, you walk around on Sunday and people are like, great show last night. You're like, oh, right. People watch the show. Someone's watching. You know what's terrifying. You know what I'm trying. You can get a feel for what works and what doesn't sometimes just out in the real world. Yeah. Oh, 100%. Yeah. And it's, and it's usually very different. And it's, and then you're, like, slotted with it. And then you're like, that was a big difference. That was, that probably is from a business side of things. understanding that they have access to metrics and information that they don't share was it premiered on a Friday. We had already started our writer's room for season two, like, you know, just kind of just in case, just in case. Then Monday calls the heads of Apple call and say, hey, so we'd love to pick you up for a second season. Then two weeks after that, we'd love to add, can you do two more episodes?

That gives you the chills. Then two weeks after that, we'd love to get you for a third season. And you're like, something has changed. They know something that I don't know in the intersinct. Yeah. But that anecdotal thing of walking around. like became more clear you know because season two we're

in lockdown up there in London you know so so you know we started going to things later yes we were winning these awards but then you feel like oh is that just inside the the bottle or the bull in the showbiz box and which is lovely and flattering and also a little something

you keep I don't know about you guys but I keep a little bit like well you don't get a lot you're gonna kill do season four it'll crush exactly yeah you don't want to spook the muse And so by the time we're going back there to do this past third season, all of 2022 and getting to take, you know, the kids to, like, football matches and stuff and have people calling us coaches and being excited to see us.

And, like, that, I would say, you know. And hearing Brad Pitt loved it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's always nice. You can tell. Miss Piggy and Yoda, come on. No matter what you do, Dana, like, you've done it, we've done it. You hear from the streets, like, I could tell you the top movies that they like the top TV,

because it's just in order. You just hear this one the most. Yes. And they probably only really like, probably 40 of my movies. Like really, really love. I like them all. I want to ask you a question. So this is, so you're, you come off.

Why did I add that? I don't know. We have editing capability. Get rid of anything I say. This is what's curious to me is because I came off like a rocket. I've never had anything because of this 30 years later. I'm having a little bit of a moment in Hollywood. Nothing that anyone would know about, but I'm getting more things coming at me.

So you come off S&L, you're doing all these movies, Pandemicus, whatever, you do this. And now here you are, you're the bell of the ball. Hollywood loves you. So now you're wiser, more mature. What's coming at? Like movies, would you do a potato chip commercial if the price is right? 100% with Forte and Solomon. Yeah, you got to dance with the ones that brought you.

You know, I couldn't do it alone and Blake lovely. Now that you have this heat and that the audience loves you, the world, you know, you're in this moment. And so I just wondered how, because now it's happening a second time. Here it is again. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it from the inside. Maybe that's my own just sort of like. Are things coming at, you know, like. To a degree, but like there's a little bit of like, what are you going to do.

What do we do? What do we do with the TV show? It'd be probably scared to go do one right away. Like you want to sit for a second. Unless it was a complete, you know, about face. I mean, there's a few ideas out there. Like, I was really, really wanted to do this play on Broadway. But just with family, it's tough to, I'm still trying to navigate those real-life things.

And also just where my, you know, head, heart, and soul are at. And there's also a great desire to, like, get a little bored because I... Take your time. Yeah. I would say, if anybody was advising, I would say, just don't be in a hurry. This thing's going to, this thing is still, you know, it's still landing. People are discovering it today, which is lovely. I tell anyone who hasn't seen it, start.

Yeah, it's, it's, it, and I believe, you know, I, I, I believe in that wholeheartedly. I, I, what I truly love is seeing the way, um, all these great people behind the scenes, uh, in front of the camera, the way that their lives have changed from it, in a way that I was afforded in an early glimpse of that with being hired by S&L. You know, that, that's, that, that changes the way folks that maybe weren't supportive of a child taking a pass. and the arts, mine were luckily, but it changes the game there

where it's like, you know, my son, you know. It just works on a, yeah, just anything on a, especially if one of their first things is a hit. Like, it's also scary because some people like, we used to talk about when you go on friends and your young actor and you're on friends and you don't, as much as you tell yourself, you don't know how hard it is after that.

It can't be like this all the time. You know, everyone treats you like a certain way on anything that does well. You look back, It's always going to be ups and down. So, yeah, it's kind of like what you bring to it. Like, I, like, I know we work just as hard on, you know, any of those movies that you, that you named as I did on this.

I was charged with more responsibility and being like, you know, like from the writing side, producing side being the final like tube for, you know, decision making and, you know, tone cop and whatnot. That's, that's all lovely. But at the end of the day, what I'm putting out there and what I want to put out into the world is and how I go about trying to do that. Been doing that is, you know, from any of these sketches. you know, from the sketches that weren't on SNL that I did with, you know,

all my buddies back in Kansas City up to now. Or you're very tight friends. As long as that's coming from that area, then it's probably going to be good. Unless it's, I don't know, if Quentin Ternetor, or whoever your favorite director, Scores hazy, but in lieu of anything else, if it's coming from you, it probably is in the shape. It feels authentic. And all I've done is added to the people that I want to make laugh

and be proud of what I'm doing and then how I'm going about doing it. So it is those guys that I played basketball with, you know, those guys from my, you know, quote, unquote, cross-country team. But then I acquired everything from my, you know, Days of Improving Kansas City, Chicago, boom. And so it's just like this, that same gatefold, that same, you know, that I saw on the 40th. Like I have that many people, you know, behind me. And they're not looking over me being like correcting my work or making me second guess. They're just encouraging me. And you just want to kind of be able to look back there metaphorically and be like, yeah, have them, you know, doing that nod.

Just like, yeah, do it. Yeah, that's good. Keep doing that. You know, be, you just want to be proud of you. You know, you want to, and you also want to feel getting to come through sketch and improv and a whole community like Chicago could have happened to 10 dozen of the people that I got to work with. You know, just different time. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Never got a total break. Yeah, brilliant. And you want to do right by them, too, because it's, it's, I don't know. There's so much whimsy to this game. And so they're above the grace of God, go, I mean, you have to stay humble and go, I love Paul Newman for that. He was my favorite celebrity. Because one, one, they would go, oh, you've raised $500 million from your spaghetti sauce.

He goes, I wish I'd kept the money, you know. He didn't want to be put on a pedestal. And the other thing, how did you do it? How did you? I could give you a thousand answers. Just plain dumb luck. Yeah. So just those two things.

You asked about movies that were huge influence It's not a comedy by any means But a big one that shows up in Ted Lasz all the time Was Color of Money Like in 1986 So like between my age of 9 and 11 I watched these movies that I'd go to theaters With my dad

Things are R-rated You know like movies are everything They like everything That the mental Excuse me the the male mentoring in that movie Like of you know Color of One And Tom Cruise is like

And Tom Cruise after you know Ladies and Gentlemen You know Top Gun Tom Tom Cruise, you know, well after risky business and all the right moves and all that. But, like, now he's, like, a bona fide, like, and he's incredible. He's like... That's when you don't hear enough about color money was a killer. It's because Scorsese has so many good ones.

Yeah, I guess. Like, I love that movie. I was talking about the... Ed Norton and I saw him recently. We were talking about the movie, and I thought I was going to get laid into when he started talking about Scorsese because that guy knows, the guy's done the thing and forgot more about movies than I'll ever know. Yeah.

Like, and he brings up color of money. I go, I was so ready to geek out. That's my favorite Scorsese movie. And a lot of it has to do with the way I saw it, but then also those performances. I recommend people to see that movie. And then if you love it, then go back to watch The Hustler as like a prequel. Jackie, is that Jackie and Paul Newman? Yeah, where he plays Fast Dedy Felson the same character.

You know, same guy that wrote the novel Walter Tevis, you know, who wrote both books. I like Poole Hall movies. I do, you know, rackham. We were going to call this podcast, Rackham. That's good. That's a real. Yeah. Have you to a pun time to go.

Rackham. Rack him. There's a transition with the sound of the balls. Because there's a mystique, there's a mystique to people that can play the piano really well as adults that you've never seen play piano that are really good at Jeopardy, you know, and pool. Like, if someone's good at pool, especially if they didn't grow up with money, they didn't grow up with a table in there. Like, how do you get good at pool? The way they do the chalk and the way it goes perfectly on their hands. The math of it.

They made it look cool. It's so complicated, fool. But, you know, the dramatic movies affected me in 2001. I wasn't everything watching John the Winters and stuff. Those things, I don't, I wouldn't say, could I do that? It was just like just blew my mind as art and the Beatles of course

Pink Floyd Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton movies like where they're just where they're funny 15% of the movie but it's like they're carrying this dramatic narrative Like Mr. Mom

Michael Keaton is incredible Mr. Mom is a fine that gets his do I love that He has just a magic as an actor Yeah You know Gung Ho I love that was a movie

My Uncle George I have a gung ho post of My Aunt Nancy gave me in my basement And that was like But again Michael Keaton like Was so

He's great I mean, him and Tom Hanks. Like, just, they were these, these modern versions. Tom Hanks and big. Yeah. John Hanks, what did you guys think of punchline? Interesting. I mean, that was your world.

We knew someone who trained him. Barry Solvo. Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought Tom did a great idea. I mean, he did a great job. Yeah. It's such an interesting, like, having, I guess one that we could talk about altogether is, like, you know, Studio 60. Like, when they, when someone makes a film or television show about your,

world. We're very blessed to have a bunch of the football, soccer community having, you know, taken us under their wing and embraced us in a way that, again, we weren't, you know, jockeying for, but the fact that we got it authentically and organically, like, really, really floats our boat. Yeah, we're very, very pleased about that.

It's hard to make a movie about stand-up, you know, and I think distance running, there's never been, chariots of fire, not really, difficult to capture that. I think usually there is the meltdown, and then the mic, the mic, the mic feeds back. Yeah. And the comedian

has a meltdown which score Tom Hanks as a brilliant actor played it perfectly but I've never seen that in a club Well they also have locker rooms In terms

and then there's a squeak And wasn't there a locker room? Yes there was Yeah I think he would Taylor Mayeron Dressed up as I go none Or so he did it for the show Yep

It did it as well as anyone's done it But it's hard to do it Like if someone They talk about doing a dramatic show about a sketch show Yeah Like Studio 60 When they did

I love the pilot And then Studio 60 Yeah it's just tough Tough to capture that. That was all I watched, yeah. It is. It's very, it is.

What are the movies you revisit now? Pulp Fiction is a big one. Like, I think Diehard is perfect. Early Quentin. Why did you say the second one? Die hard? I think die hard. I think movies you can watch again.

Like my wife and I, it's, you know, we watch a lot of Redford. Yeah, yeah. All the presidents men. We watch three days of Condor. Which casting Sundance can and I showed to my sons six months ago. Yeah, unreal. This is awesome. You know, it's really fun.

You have all that ahead of you. How old are your kids? Otis is nine, Daisy, seven. Yeah, so you're, is he asked for Save it Private Ryan yet? No, no, no. But I do show them, I mean, I remember my dad taking me to see Beverly Hills Cop in the theater. I saw that movie in the theaters with my dad, not supposed to, F words all over the place, you know, nudity. You never forget that.

And never forget it. And it made me, like, I wanted to be Eddie Murphy's so bad. So bad. So bad. I, like, you know, and more so than, than, like, Chevy Chase and Flood. I loved Chevy Chase, but, like, but Axel Foley really, like, knocked my socks off in a way that still does when I, when I rewatch it. And they're coming out with a new one, right? Or is that?

I guess, but, you know, we'll see, see what happens. Yeah. But at least we got the, I love Animal House is my R-rated one. They showed the girls T-I-T-S. I know. I know. It's heavy duty. And it was pretty great.

What is that mean? In the middle of the movie, I go, I have a boner. It was so illicit, so nasty. And Monty Python. Monty Python was huge. I was pretty young. Clocker Gorenge. Yeah.

That scared me. Saw the longest day when I was seven in the theater in the Black and White World War II film. Yeah. Showsy, but I was a little broken German there. Did you see the Fableman's, the Spielberg one? I haven't watched it yet. I watched it on the plane ride. What do you think?

I loved it. Really? Yeah. I mean. It is Spielberg telling, you know, autobiographical, like his story, but just his love of movies and having children that are falling, you know, in love with story. telling and getting to see their mom and dad do it. And, and, you know, so much I feel of, of, and I understand the laments of over nepotism,

but so much of it is seeing someone do it and see them enjoying it or seeing the way people enjoy them. Yeah. I, you know, nothing that I've purchased or have been given on a plane will move Otis towards wanting to do what I do for a living more than him probably seeing people give me as many high fives as they do when I go to, when we go to a soccer game. Or you're happy or anything, yeah. When they're happy to see, when people are happy to see,

they're being polite and begin because of the themes of the show, they're like, yeah, I mean, it's something that we, I mean, how often have we had the opportunity for people that work in comedy to have people tell them, take them aside and be like, I, I discovered this, I watched this when I was going through this

that helped me. That's the thing. It's like, if you were famous, I don't want to pick on Porky's, but it's something like that, like a hard-ar, weird old movie that everyone loved. But with Lassow, TL.

Teddy. With Teddy, you know, the people are going to be emotional about it because it touches everything. Yeah, Hannah gets that a lot. Who plays the woman who plays Rebecca, just the amount of women that come up to her and just say, you are playing me. Yeah, she is a force of nature, obviously.

So the thing I was going to say earlier about the writers, you know, we let all the Brits anglicize things. Every now and then do we push back where it's just like car park versus parking lot or saying tie instead of draw. And some of those things drive people. crazy and I understand that, but that's just, you know, this is the phrase that I would always use just so folks in Kansas can get it. So you're trying to like to get too much in the weeds of like the politics. You don't want to lose. Yeah. Because I think if if you're dominating emotion is confusion, then you're that much further away from either being happy or sad. You talk like Ted Lasso sometimes. Say that again. If your dominant emotions are. I like your. Confusion. If you're dominant emotion is confusion. You're you're that much further away from me making an audience. If the audience is. If the audience is. If the audience is. If the audience is, confused, then they don't know whether to laugh or cry at a given moment.

So, yeah, you kind of try to give them breadcrumbs without. That's me during tenant. And that's nice. Exactly. Juno. At most, my domino's anger. Yes, ma'am. It's great.

I just got to go through the list. Well, no, I just, I like all these two actresses, especially are great. Obviously, Britt Goldstein, just the way he stands all the time. Oh, yeah. You know. Like a gunslinger. Yeah. He's just funny.

He's just funny, funny, funny voice. I'm sure. Someone's going to do them on S&L. I know. I'm surprised they haven't yet. I'm really surprised. It's such a funny character. But that's all him, you know, it's fun to hear him talk about it because it's him doing Bill Sykes in his mind from Oliver.

He's just trying to be Bill Sykes. You know, just like, yeah, when I'm doing like rewrites or where you're breaking stories, just like the same thing at the rewrite table at S&L, just doing bad impressions of all these, like, very specific, you know, authentic people. I'm just, you know, talking like this with Rebecca and doing like that. And I'm doing bad. I can't do any of these accents. Right. but you're just hearing them. You're just hearing the rhythm and the cadence of it

and trying to draw from what they're, you know, would you... And when did you decide? I just... Sorry, one more question. One last one. When did you decide that you would use R-rated language? Was that pretty early on? Yeah, because you kind of use it, you don't lean on it,

but all of a sudden it's like, these fucking coke shotguns, mostly from him. Yeah. But that's an interesting dynamic. I 100% didn't want to use it myself. I didn't want him to be, you know, all those moves that you... You know, I sort of got, and I mean, I was making these choices, you know, for the reasons I made them. You know, the movies that I was doing and the characters I was playing.

A lot of them were cads, you know, guys on the make, you know, like trying to get girls and whatnot. Like Dick Fuel. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like, he just wanted respect. You know, he just wants respect and a paycheck and a good lunch. But like, but then, so I knew that lay on for me. I didn't want to be bawdy and I didn't want him to swear. If he did, it was only, you know, I think he's done it once every season.

and but everybody else it's like yeah that's just the world you know as as it is so we just wanted to it just works yeah apple never fought it they didn't want us to use the c word um so we there was a monologue we had season too and it's thrown around in england more i mean it's like and that was the whole premise it was like you know we were even ready to beep it you know but it was may the the you know the woman who owns the the bar uses it very casually and and and in reference to to ted And just Ted and Beard's reaction to, whoa, hey, you know, and she's like, what? What's the big deal? You know, and just her going, no, you can use it in a bunch of different ways.

And she goes through a bunch of different ways. You know, it reminds me a lot of, like, when we, it ended up not being able to use it because Apple was like, you know, we can't use the C word. I was like, you know, we can't use a C word. Dude. Yeah. Is that that great, that idea of. I like that you remember that.

Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a year on that special, too, I think. Dude, is that all the young comedians? Yeah. That thing got a lot of play. You're in a closet with a knife. Dude. Yeah.

Talented. Yeah. Rob has some. Dude. Dude. Oh, no war. I mean, come on. Didn't know it was B-Y-O-T.

I didn't say it on a ticket. Hi, Rob. Bye. No, that's my joke. Calm down. Is it? He's doing me at the U-2 concert. Oh, what is it?

Bono's yelling. No war. No war. I'm saying no more. You're saying no more. What is you saying war? Sorry. I go, I don't know.

I didn't know who the fuck is singing. I'm supposed to read his list. Am I boogun you? Am I boog in the boogun? And my boogun you didn't need the boogia. That's a bad bottom. What's your brain candy? When do you want to calm down?

What do you do? Take a walk. Do you watch the best of David Spade? Yep, still. Do I have one? If you don't, you do now. I do, I mean, I'll play the last few years has been, pinball was one for a while, but those are tougher to move around, right?

So playing video games, like playing, you know, night with like friends and just you know turning my brain off and just focusing on that and then a thing that I got into over the last like I mean I'd always been into it but over the last you know six years basically uh was like magic like just shuffling cards like just I just find a very meditative and and a lot of times when in situations where I have to do as much you know listening and thinking as I do talking I'll usually have a deck of cards on me because it'll keep me from you know pulling out my beer you know just practice shuffling yeah yeah or just kind of like you know doing like little slight of hand moves.

And I don't really perform magic for anyone. I just, I'll do it for, like, friends after a couple beers or, like, my kids, if there's just, like, a deck laying around. But I've never been one to be, hey, you want to see a trick? What's your time to relax, David? Yeah. I don't know, actually. I haven't been relaxed in 30 years.

See, I envy that. I wish I could. I know before I die, I know I will dedicate more time to, like, trying to play the piano. I've done it throughout my life and then something always. but it's just that desire to want to run before I can even crawl. Yeah, piano's tough, you know. I have an electric piano too. I'm just banging on it all the time, but I don't, you know.

But the guitar, if you get nylon strings, get a small guitar, just learn. Because it doesn't rip up your fingers. Yeah, before you get the calluses. So you get a clear note, rather that's all mushy. Learn five chords, G, C, D, E minor, and then you can play a hundred songs. No, but it's really simple. It's mostly the right hand. Is smoke on the water?

Is smoke on the water still the go-to one, or is that too old? That aged you so hard, spade I don't even know what it is No, that's a Dean Purple, isn't it? I'm young. Don't act like you don't know with smoke on the line. Don't make me the old guy.

You probably know what it's about too. I would do Come, don't, you know, Nirvana. Come get some. As you, come, come as you are. I mean, I've always loved Nirvana. I was right in the sweet spot. Yeah, well, me too.

And I was older, but still thought they were random. to them a ton before doing this season for one reason or another and I got and Otis was learned you know playing guitar him and Daisy take these these like lessons through this thing out here called

Kid Row. It's lovely it's like school of rock but they just call it a different name. When you're young you learn so much better. And and I bought a I'm left handed even though I don't play guitar but I would play I air guitar left hand so I bought yeah exactly or Kirk Cobain so I bought like a guitar and Otis and I took a lesson together

he was already better than me and I was slowing him down, and I'm just like even playing smells like teen spirit, so hard, so difficult. And then even if you play the simple version of it, like it hurt my fingers, I couldn't, like drums are much more natural fit for me. I have better limb separation.

You could also get a maple neck strat and have them put the bird. David, this is inside face. It's a strat. Oh, castor. The nylon strings was a mind blower here because I was like, oh yeah. But you can hear also a very light

weights the strings on an electric guitar you could play bar chords of that really simple. But it's still hard Yes. It's like, it's like Teddy. It's impossible. Even people that don't, that just do it noodling around make it look so easy. It, it's

look, well, next time we hang out I'll show you. I'll show you a couple. I'll show you just a D chord and then a bar, just bar three notes. I'll bring a pinball machine. And then you'll be like, I'll take a nap. We have a little farm up north and I want a room with pinball machines in it. It's worth at least having one.

There's a kid. They were huge. I've not played it in a while, but in a pool table. Jason Sadekis was our guest today, and he, in summation, the left brain. Lived at Burger King. He's one of Kansas's favorites. He's got a very small room at the Paramount Hotel. A small room.

We don't normally sum up. His next thing is going to be something with low pressure. He might remake the Godfather or something. Our guest has been Jason Sudeikis. You were great. The time of life is murdered up. out, by the way. Not bad, you know?

Yeah, not bad guy. I wanted to look, yeah, like a Batmobile. It looks cool. SNL All-Star, movie star, and now a global live streaming star. I don't know. That's a new one. I mean, I said Star three times. It sounds like a nice resume.

I just wish you all the best and take your time and have fun. And I'm one of those people that was really affected by this show and just love it. Thank you. It also makes me laugh. By COVID, you were. We're going to work on you. David's work in progress. No, I'm not.

Look at it. I took notes. No one works hard than David. What's your name? Justin Thoreau has been our Jason, yes. Billy Sedakas was here today. Neil Zedaka. Tedworth, Liso.

I think Bill Sadegis was, wasn't he like a baseball player? Sudecars, is that Greek or what's a Lithuanian? Lithuanian. Lithuanian. Lithuanian. Lithuanian. Lithuanian. Lithuanian.

Lithuanian. But yeah. I'm throwing this away. David, I want to hear your old past. story. Yeah. You didn't, you didn't finish that. I dated a girl in Hallpack.

No, that's not your Hall Pass. The girls that come up to at the end. You dated. He likes the other story better. Oh, um, oh, in Vegas. The girls that, they go, you're my, you're my whole pass. You get the meet and greet.

And I go, first of all, they're all nervous. They hands drenched, like a sham well. I'm like a, and then I go, and they go, I'm your whole pass. You're my whole pass. I go, oh. And they go, that's where I get. I go, no, I know what it is.

I'm a hard pass on my side. You're a hard pass. You're my hard pass. Yeah, you're my hard pass. Hey, guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app. Give us a review, five-star rating, and maybe you can share an episode that you've loved with a friend.

If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. We're on video now. Lion on the Wall is presented by Odyssey and executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Maddie Sprung Kaiser, and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey. Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman, and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweet Tech. Booking by Cultivated Entertainment. Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Mora Curran, Melissa Wester, Hillary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kurt Courtney, and Lauren Vieira. Reach out with us any questions to be asked and answered on the show.

We can email us at fly on the wall at odyssey.com. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y-I-com.