Happy Sad Confused - Sarah Silverman

Episode Date: October 16, 2017

It's been an eventful few years for Sarah Silverman and all not necessarily for the better. One need only look at the three dedications on her latest comedy special, "A Speck of Dust" to realize she's been dealing with loss. But Sarah is nothing if not resilient (well, resilient and hysterical) and she's focused her energies lately on an abundance of exciting projects. This week on "Happy Sad Confused", the brilliant comedian discusses her new show for Hulu, "I Love You, America", acting in "Battle of the Sexes", and even an upcoming musical project! Plus, Sarah reminisces about the impact Garry Shandling had on her career, how she nearly died last year after a routine check up, and why she decided to speak up at the Democratic National Convention last summer.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's why the bankers at Merchins Bank are here. Ready with exceptional service every step of the way. Let's dream together. Visit Merchantsbank.com to get started. Merchants Bank is a proud member FDIC. Today on Happy Say I Confused, Sarah Silberman on stand-up comedy, her new film, Battle of the Sexes, and a brand-new TV show, I love you America. Hey guys, I'm Josh Horowitz. I love you America, just for context, is the name of the show.

I mean, I do love you America, but that's the name of the pool show. It can get confusing. Anyway, hi, guys, my name is Josh Horowitz. Sammy is not with us this week. She is on assignment. that doesn't really mean anything. I'm just saying it because it sounds cool. Don't worry, she'll be back soon enough. But I'm taping the intro of solo this week, just to give you a little context. This is with one of my favorite funny people on the planet, Sarah Silverman. This is a chat

that runs the gamut. We talk stand-up, we talk acting, we talk politics. Because Sarah, you know, her life and career have run the gamut. She's kind of, I wouldn't say, dipped her toe in many things, because it's more than that. Her acting career alone is, is very impressive, and Battle of the Sexes is her newest film. She is a key supporting player alongside Emma Stone and Steve Carell in that wonderful retelling of the Billy Jean King Bobby Riggs match. Make sure to check that out. She is, of course, one of the best stand-ups out there,

and her new special is on Netflix. It is called A Speck of Dust, rather. Check that out. And last but certainly not least, is a new show for Hulu. I confess, I have not seen the show yet, because as I tape this in advance, yes, I'm on vacation, guys, the show has not debuted yet. So you might have seen the show already. So if you haven't seen the show, check it out. It's called I Love You America. It is on Hulu. It is a weekly

series, 10 episodes, a mixture of field pieces and in-studio comedy. And to hear Sarah tell it, this is going to reflect very much her herself, which is that unique blend of smart, sincere and silly that I love, and sounds like a very much a passion project for Sarah. So I myself, and I'm curious about that, and if you're a fan of hers, you should definitely check it out. This conversation, we touched on a great many things, whether it's the health scare that Sarah experienced last year in which she, you know, it was one of these random things. She went into the hospital, not even went to the hospital, saw a doctor for like a random,

you know, thing at her throat and it turned into like going into the ER and being put into like a like a kind of a semi-coma. It was a pretty serious thing, and she's very candid about that, as well as the loss of her mom and Gary Shandling and Harris Whittles, three people that were very important to her in the last couple of years. So, you know, this can be a heavy talk, but a fun talk. She's always somebody that can kind of go back and forth between those two, you know, extremes. And I really enjoyed catching up with her. She's somebody that I've known a great many years and to talk to her about the, the many varied experiences of her career was really a lot of fun.

So without any further ado, I'm going to keep it brief since Sammy's not here to entertain you all and just dive right into this conversation with one of my favorites, Sarah Silverman. Are you in the middle right now of production on the show? Yeah. So what, okay, so give me a sense. I'm very curious about this. This is going to be a Hulu show. this is

I love you America is the title I don't know much more about it than that and nobody does and it's so funny because every time I see a write-up about it I'm like wrong but I also don't know how to explain I don't know how people are going to infer it

but I can tell you what it is to me that's a starting point let's go there it's a half hour okay I guess late night show but you can watch it any time you want I do a monologue. It's not like three jokes. It's like I just write a, it's a kind of a long,

a somal stream of consciousness, but specific. There's a reason for it. And then that usually goes into something ridiculous. And there'll be a field piece, either by me or by like Tig Notaro does, one, a partner and uncharlet does one, like a lot of cool people. And it's, I don't, I wouldn't say that it's political. I think it's like social politics. It's about like the division of this

country. And it's not about like what happened today at all. It's not totally evergreen, but it's of this moment in time for sure. So I'm curious about the development of a show like this like were you looking to develop a show and then this this come in the wake of of 2016 and all the the fun election stuff or were you already kind of hard at work on this idea i wanted to do this like the last acty acting pilot i did i was like oh man this isn't what i want to do like i do love acting but i don't want to be on a show that just as goes on indefinitely and uh takes up all my time like we want to do other things I like, I want to dip my toe into the acting.

Right. I like doing that. But I, oh, hey, thanks. But I really want to just do whatever I want to do. Yeah. And. And this lets you scratch a few different type of inches. Yeah.

He, they, they've given me only very thoughtful, helpful notes, but nothing. Like, it's crazy. Yeah. It's rated R. Mm-hmm. It's anything I want. Definitely I'm seeing, like, feeling my boundaries and, you know, is that make for better comedy? Not necessarily, but it's, I'm into it, you know.

It's everything I want it to be, but I don't know how to explain anything other than maybe you could say it's a social politics served in a big, bready sandwich of aggressively stupid. Right. Which is my favorite. Yes. Because you've always had a, and I love this about you, a true, unabashed love of poop humor and really just silly, stupid stuff. Yes, I love, like, just aggressively dumb. Yeah. So is that unique in your family, or is that a Silverman family trait?

Do the others look down upon you for your embracing of poop and? No, not at all. No, we're, the Silverman clan is pretty. on the same page comedically. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. So does this one, I mean,

did you ever have interest or aspiration of like, to think like the more traditional late night? No. No. That was never something that, like, you want to. I've been asked about it before, but I've seen the, I know the inner workings of a late night talk show

and it's magical, I'm in awe of it. Yeah. But it's just not the lifestyle for me. I mean, this has been, this show's been all-encompassing, and we're doing ten of them, you know? Right. It's just like every waking hour, my day is working on it, but I love it. Yeah.

But like with a talk show, you're working all night, all day. You finally shoot the show. You get that feeling of like completion for about eight seconds, and then the stress of the next show kicks in. and that's just not really the, my optimum happiness. Are you working with Gavin Purcell?

Yeah. I know Gavin because Gavin, we tried to lure Gavin when we were developing, I was developing a show, like a movie talk show, and he was very nice. He's always been very nice about my work as well, so I know he's given my best.

He's so positive. He is. Yeah. Which probably fits in well with you. I consider you a positive person. Yes, I am. Yeah. I mean, I have my moments,

but I am able to keep myself in check. Yeah. Fairly well. And this was a good option. In the field pieces you got to travel, I would think, a lot throughout the country. Yeah, I went to Shalmat, Louisiana and Miniola, Texas. A lot of, like, Trump country places just to be a, you know, connect on a human level. And, like, I had family dinner in Shalmet and with a family that all voted for Trump and had never met a

Jew. And it was great. It was really fun. Now, do you, do you find that, like, your comedy kind of transcends the state? Like, can you play any state and find a welcome audience? Or do you feel, oh, here comes the mail? There's a mail outside. Should we open my mail? No, it's not. Do you want to get your mail? No, I don't want my mail. It's probably, it's crappy swag. You see next to you? This is all the... Crappy swag. Yeah. Yeah, we don't want that. It does kind of become a burden.

Except for the slinky. The slinky, I consider, that's, like, great swag. It's fun to for a girl or a boy. I like slinkies as an adult male. Sorry. No, I guess just like playing anywhere throughout the States. Is that something enjoyable? Or do you know where you're kind of like bread and butter is and where any...

I guess like I'm at a point where when I have a show in some town, people who are interested in seeing me come. It's self-selective. They know. You know, but I do. I mean, that is something about, you know, and politicians use that Hollywood elite, you know, marker,

it's, first of all, I feel it's just a sneaky A little code word for something else. For Jews. Yeah, obviously. But there is where there is like liberal bubbleness, I do believe,

and I've been a part of that, and I can be a part of that. I did want to get out of that. But also, as a comedian, you get this kind of other life where you're traveling the country, and your job is to make, entertain people. Sure. And they're all sorts of different people all over the country.

So in that way, I think we're kind of good people to be the connective tissue in such a divided country. Yeah. So give me a sense, well, first before even the election, I was curious. You made that great speech at the Democratic Convention, which had to be a moment for you. And like, it was a big moment in terms of appealing to you. terms of appealing to the Bernie crowd, which some were, you know, not ready to kind of make the switch.

It's just, I don't under, it was, it's so odd to me. I still everyone's all like get people angry. You're ridiculous, Sarah. You're being ridiculous, you know, whatever. I'm like, all right. You know, I mean, if you love Bernie so much,

then you would vote for Hillary. That's what he's asking you to do. He wants an ally in office, you know? I mean, I spoke at that DNC, because he asked me to, you know. I love Bernie, you know, I did it for him. And I, you know, and obviously I voted for Hillary. But it was, you know, you don't see what I'm seeing standing there. It's just an ocean of mostly bananas people that go to, you know, with their styrofoam hats and a thousand pins on them.

And they were, the Bernier bus. people which are just it's weird if you love Bernie then why don't you want to help him and so odd it's like a very weird kind of misplaced passion and anger but they were just in the Hillary people's faces screaming and it was just you couldn't even hear yourself talk I know I was at home you could hear me yeah um were you surprised that that that level of I mean you well that's first of all we had set our parts and then we were supposed to introduced Paul Simon and then the stage manager was like stretch

and we're on live TV I had so much I wanted to say that I had to cut out of my speech for time and then of course none of it was like available in my brain and then after a while I told Al I was like I just literally in my mind just posed for still pictures like I just looked as pretty as I could for a few beads and then it was just so insane in front of me that I was like look, you guys are being ridiculous.

I mean, I just, I meant it the way, you know, and so many Hillary people were like, that was amazing, yeah. And I'm not saying I'm not a Hillary person. My whole family is, only my mom and I were Bernie people. But obviously I wanted her to win and I voted for her. But it was just like, I didn't do it. I did it because these people in front of my face were being ridiculous.

Right. That wasn't on the agenda. It was a reaction more than an actual. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So what was your, you know, we've had months of analysis now post-election on, like, what it all means. And I think we feel like we're going to still be, like, talking about this for decades to come. Like, what the election of Trump meant in terms of, was it?

Well, I think it's... What's your take on it? I have a... I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Aw. That was rude, Sarah. Let someone finish a sentence.

I had nothing. It's okay. I have a couple takes on it. One, I think as Democrats, we need to look. look inward. You can't expect change to happen without you looking inside yourself on a micro and macro level. I mean, look at the weeks leading up to the election. We were all like, well, the Republican Party is going to have to really figure out who they are. They're having such an identity crazy. And then the election happened and we realized we were looking in the mirror.

You know, we got our smug smiles wiped right off our faces. And if we don't use, use that as a learning moment, you know, then we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're being silly, you know, and um, and, um, and in terms of Trump's popularity or him getting elected, however legal or illegal that was, he, he, um, he really is just the, the whitehead that has accrued over you know decades of the right um behaving in a very short term um band-aids on things making the rich richer uh wealth addiction i mean it's spread all over the country where people are raised children are raised to respect rich people at any cost no matter how they got their money right i wasn't raised that way and i i i

don't think that that's healthy you know and i think it's created a country and a mentality of um of respecting rich people because they're rich and then there are rich people billionaires there are great ones look everyone likes money that's fine it's about addiction in my view like it's there are rich people like bill gates or whatever who want to make the world a better place they still enjoy their wealth but what i they but then there are wealth addicts and i think trump and the people he surrounds himself with are codependent wealth addicts no different than crack cocaine they are so addicted to to to wealth to to money more and that can blot out reason well what do crack heads do it when they're addicted to to

crack. They sell their, they'd sell their grandmother for more crack. That's what they're doing. They're selling the health and well-being of American citizens in pursuit of what, something that is just an unfillable hole of wealth, of money.

So, yeah, what I mean by addict is they lose sight of any morality in pursuit of more money that will do nothing for them. and hurt the people, their constituents.

And the people who voted for him, he lied to. And they wanted change. And they weren't being paid attention to by the Democrats. The Democrats are supposed to be the party of the people, the party of the working class. And they haven't been for a long time. And that's something that has to change when the pendulum swings the other way. It's happening in the UK, too, at the Labor Party. They're not representing the working class.

they do all this globalization without the knowing they know what's going to happen people are going to lose their steelworks jobs they're you know they're mining jobs that all these jobs that are American factory jobs with no backup plan on how to subsidize them so there's so much to be like my show isn't about this no I know if it is it's just a little taste served with a big sugary well I mean that is the show in some ways for you personally kind of an antidote to kind of like the negativity

and the way we can, I mean, I find myself wallowing in all of this stuff day to day and you're trying to find on a human level on a personal connection level maybe not a silver lining, but ways to kind of like talk about this stuff and maybe not like a granular level

but more of a I don't even know, sociological level. Yes. Yeah. And I do hope to connect with people that are not just preaching to the choir. You know, there are so many shows, and there's shows that I am huge fans of

that are brilliant, but they're not changing minds. Now, I'm not saying my show's going to change minds. But what I have learned doing this is facts don't change people's minds. Facts, polls, this, that it's never going to change someone's mind.

Arguing, making point after point, that doesn't change people's minds. It just gets their porcupine needles up. And then they're paralyzed and they're not open to change at all. They double down on this house of cards of their beliefs. And we all do that, right? So the only thing that makes people change is feelings. As corny as that sounds, you know what I mean?

And I always say the same thing to the writers in the writer's room, even with talking about the most ridiculous silly things, that if it's mentionable, it's manageable, that's what Mr. Rogers says. says. And it is really true. And so I love saying anything I want, words, nudity, all the stuff on the show, and just exploring what it does to us emotionally. I want to talk about also. I just watched the stand-up special. I was a little late to the game, but it's a great one, a spec of dust on Netflix. And you dedicated to three people you've lost in the last few years. So it's been a couple. Three people in two years and almost myself.

I was going to say, it's been a lot. It's been a lot. Lots happened. And probably the last time I spoke to you was like for, I smiled back, which was in the midst of like losing your mom, as I recall, time line was, right? So that had to be. I was Harris and my mom. Pre-Garry. Yeah. Crazy. So, and then, yeah, you went through this crazy random health crisis last year. You have to come out of all of that. Each of those things is a traumatic event, yet let alone four of these traumatic events, if you include your your own health issues, um, with some differing views on mortality, I don't know, your place in the universe, just like priorities. Do you feel like you, you've kind of shifted?

I've been, yeah, I'm changed. I get not easily changed, but I like to let myself be changed. This really took the steering wheel and changed me in lots of ways. It's funny because when my mom died, Gary told me this Buddhist quote, you know, grief. teach me what I have to learn, you know, and also another fun fact thing that I think people can hear and go, whoa, is like my sister, Susie, my oldest sister, the rabbi, after my mom died, she didn't cry for like two weeks and she just didn't know what was wrong with her that she didn't cry. She was so ready to and we all were. And then she got an email from a friend of hers that said you don't think you're grieving but you are and like that made her burst

into tears not that that was the antidote to that but just you you cannot control what form grief takes in your body and you know I started to learn like listen I'm just going to live my life I'll still you know maybe laugh in a few minutes I might you know forget for a moment I might all these things but you know yeah you're going to be like in line at vons when it hits and there's nothing you can do about it. So was it a quick recovery after, it was like an abscess, I guess. Oh, for me? For you, yeah, in terms of that.

And, like, where did you put your priorities or, like, life in the weeks after that kind of hit? Well, first of all, I went back to work way too soon. I did an episode of crashing three weeks out of the ICU. But you know what? If you're going to go to work way too soon, do it with, like, your favorite people and your, you know, I was. like behind the scenes and in front of the camera all my some of my closest friends and they were literally i mean one of the producers dave rath who have known forever was like because they say like hold someone's hand grab someone's arm when you walk because you're not better you know right

and um i'm so healthy right now but it yeah it takes so it took a you know i mean then like five weeks after out of the ICU, I was I died in pregnancy during pregnancy on a TV show and just lying there and having like the hospital noises was just it's very haunting but

yeah it takes a while they had to they put so much opioids in my body because I couldn't be put to sleep so they had to just medicate me into a semi coma and tie my hands down. And so every, I looked, you know, they say every hour you're on opiates, opioids? I think the latter. Heroin, basically. It's heroin. For every hour you're on it, it's a week

before it can get out of your system. So I've got another like year and a half before that, you know, seven days of being on so much heroin that I didn't feel them cutting my throat open. I mean, that stuff is obviously necessary to what you needed. Like what was your attitude about kind of like, were you sketched out by the fact that they had to like load you up on those kind of... I had no choice. It all happened so fast. I went to my doctor for a sore throat and the next thing I knew I was in the emergency room

and they were prepping for surgery and drugging me just for that part. So it poor my on again, off again lover, Michael Sheen and my manager, Amy's V, they were the ones. who were told, you know, she has a 50, 50 chance of making it out of this surgery alive. I was fine. I had no idea.

Can we talk about Gary for a little bit? Yeah, please. Talk about money addicts. He's the one who turned me on to that. He's the one who said that it was like... Not for himself, but stuff that he saw around him. He was talking about the government. This is like a year before the bank crisis.

And he said, our government's being run by money addicts by addicts you know and he said um and and so we can't be surprised you know it's as if we're giving a bunch of cocaine addicts a mountain of cocaine and saying distribute this evenly among your people yeah and i always remember i always remembered that and i it just every day i think about it more and more just how right on he was so it's fair to say his influence was beyond just comedy for you yeah i mean was the first interaction was that for on larry sanders or had you know him even prior to that i met him uh my friend dave rath who i who's arm i held when i did crashing um he's an old friend for forever and uh

he was playing basketball gary's this was i was 24 and he took me there at kind of I play basketball, and I had played with wrath, so he took me. And Gary right away was so nice. And for the next 21 years, I played basketball in Gary's every Sunday. It's funny. He was, he's 21 years older than me. So it was from the day I met him to the day he died, I went from he was 45 when I met him, and I was 45 when he died.

Oh, wow. Are you part of, I was just talking, I just saw Jud Apatow recently. Yes. He's working on this, like, insane documentary. I assume you're part of that. I am, and it's funny. I mean, it doesn't matter. The documentary is going to be amazing,

but the day I went in, I still was so not in touch with my grief. I didn't want to go back and look at emails between us. I didn't want to. I mean, it's really hard because Gary is so supportive. You know, I know that Judd told me, Sasha Baron Cohen said the same thing, where Judd said, will you share? emails he's written and I thought about it and you know I normally would but they're all so

complimentary and praising and you know like because that's who he was that's what that's what he did for so many people he give us all confidence until we were actually able to do the things he believed in us that we could do you know so it's just I was embarrassed you know it's just it's It looks obnoxious. And Jed said that's funny. That's exactly what Sasha said, you know, because he was so giving emotionally. You know, he was so supportive and watched everything I did, you know, more than like my family. I mean, just watched.

It's just, I remember Sasha, we were at a party not long ago. And Sasha said, who's going to be our Gary? And I said, um, no. No, we have to be other people's Gary. You're the cheerleaders now, you're the coaches. Do you have a sense of that? I mean, having now, you know, I was looking, and I think it's been 20 years this past July,

was your late night comedy debut on Letterman, I think, according to scattered records, July 97. Does that sound right? On Letterman, probably, but I had done Conan. Had you, that was your first of the... Yeah, Conan was like, the first time I got recognized was like, because I was doing. Conan a lot. He just had me on. He never made me

do stand-up on the show. I always just did my stand-up from the panel. And he had me on so many times. And so it was like, were you on Conan? I was like, it was the first time I was recognized. It was always from, yeah, from Conan. So he, I mean, he's more of a contemporary, like age-wise, he's a little older, but like he's... Conan, yeah. So was it, is it a different deal when you do someone like a letterman back then? Yeah. Terror. I would think. Total terror because I worship him so much and just he gave, he added so much to my life and my interest.

And I mean, staying up to watch Letterman every night was like my reason for living. That sounds, you know, trite, but truly, like could not wait until 1230. Yeah, and I feel like a lot of people have felt this, much like John Stewart missing in the last year. I feel like we all missed the kind of Dave in terms of just beyond the comedy. He was just, he became this elder statesman that kind of like was just speaking truth to power

in a really profound way. Yeah, and I love that. That's when he's at his best. Yeah, when he's riled up with a Bill O'Reilly, et cetera. Like, yeah, or like, I mean, in the old days with GE. Yeah, yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about the acting side, which you said, you know, you had done,

you said you had done a pilot a couple years ago. No, yeah, and it was great. I loved it. And I've done a myriad pilots. Yeah. And I, you know, it's funny. I do want to do it. It's not like, you know, I did like,

but then I thought each time I'd go, oh man, it really takes up all your time and that, you know. Especially a series like you're saying like that. A series does. Like I love doing a part in a movie, four days on this, you know, and a little arc on this or, you know. You know, I like all sorts of the mediums and everything, but I just don't think I could ever.

Like, I'm in awe of, like, Mariska Hargatay. I mean, she's given decades of her life to Law & Order S to you. And it's probably, like, nine or ten months a year doing it, like, just 22 episodes a year. Those one-hour shows, and it's all her, like, that's just not the life I can live. I mean, I think she finds happiness in it, and she's figured it out, and she is, I mean, a relationship. and children like I can't even imagine how to do that I still I'm old and I still look at my like spare bedroom and I go okay so if I had a kid I would put like a bed in that and I'd buy it clothes and I'd buy it food and I would like um find a school for it right and I'd just like love it I'd clean up its shit and stuff but it I really like it it's I'm in awe of how that comes so easily to people I I don't know I love kids. Do you have a dog now?

Yeah. You're a dog person, I know. Yeah. So is that the ideal kind of lifestyle, your on again, off again, lover, a little ways away. A little bit of a long distance thing. He's back in Wales, right?

Yeah. Oh, he's actually shooting in London. He's doing the Neil Gaiman. Oh, yeah. John Hamm's now a part of it. Yeah, they were just together. That's amazing. Yeah.

Which of the underruled films made you fall in love with Michael Sheen? I saw the one, his origin story won in Spanish one night. And I don't feel like I missed much. No. Because it's really just about his shiny abs and his like kind of dreads, I think. And Kate's tight weather. That tells the entire story.

Totally. He is, though, one of the finest actors out there. Yes, he is. Know how I know he told me. You remind you every night before bed. By the way. I'm one of the greatest actors of our time. A soft whisper in your ear.

Well, sometimes at night I'd go, say Shakespeare. And I go, I'm not your monkey. I go, no, I know. You must not remember it. It's a lot. And he goes, he's so easy to manipulate. I love it sometimes, he got mad at me recently, and he said the funniest thing. Sometimes he just, I don't know what.

He goes, you're fake news. I know. Cut you to the core. He's the cutest thing I ever heard in my life. He called me. fake news. It should be noted though on the acting tip

you're in Battle of the Sexes. It's a great role and a great film. So that kind of fit I mean that's a no brainer you're working with some talented directors playing a real person. Is that your first time

have you played real people before? No. That's something. That's different. I love that because Billy Jean was like you were exact you were gladys

and I was like oh I'm so glad because I had nothing to go on but like a picture. Oh really? Yeah. And I met her daughter. That's amazing.

Yeah. So I'm somewhat surprised, though, in the wake of, especially I Smile Back, which you've got such great reviews for, and it's a great film of people haven't seen it. I mean, it's a tough, well, it's a tough sit, but it's worth checking out. Yeah. Like, did you find that there were? We should add, like, a laugh track to the DVD of it. You should.

Is there a blooper reel on it? There should be. And I'm like crying and masturbating next to my sleeping daughter's bed. Like, the boom comes into the shot. Oh! this guy everything's funny or when you add

a fart noise a fart track do you have the app um um pocket studio audience no tell me you love it so much I think it's self-explanatory

that's amazing um but did did new opportunities not come about after that did you not find that there were some interesting uh yeah no they did

um I just I did a couple movies yeah I just I really I didn't want to do, I'm so proud of that movie, but I have no desire to do anything like that again. As satisfying as it was, it wasn't necessarily.

It was, it was an amazing experience, got it. Check it off the list. I mean, it was an amazing experience, and I'm so proud of it, but it was, it's bleak as fuck, you know. I don't, I'm not dying, I'm not, you know, look, I'm 46. I'm not, like, looking to get discovered. I love acting, I think I'm good at it But I don't want to spend all my time doing it

Because I have a million other things I want to do You know? Well, it's interesting because I feel sometimes it's imprisoning If it just goes on forever, it's like 14 hours a day And I can't even do stand-up because I'm so tired I'm going to race home to this is not me complaining obviously It's I'm living the dream But right now when I'm working all day all night

And I'm exhausted Then I check in with myself like a no I'm living that this is the dream because I love this show well and also I mean going back to standup I mean I have a feeling if we talk in 20 or 30 years you're still going to consider consider yourself first and foremost a standoff that's what you wanted to be that was the dream I mean Joan Rivers I you know she said she didn't feel like she really came into her own as a standup until she was 70 and that's my hope you know I want to always be changing and

and do you feel like you're on like the right kind of like cycle in terms of like like, I don't know how often you try to put out a special. I never think about it. It's not like every two or three years I need to put up. Between my first and my second was 10 years, and that was just because it never, I just, I'm not built to like make money or generate momentum. I just, I would have just kept my head down and done.

There probably could have been three specials in between there, but I just do stand up. And then someone, Netflix or, no, HBO at the time, they were like, you want to do a special? I go, oh, I do have a special, yeah. I didn't think about it. And then a few years later, Netflix and I was ready again, but I never have pursued it or have been like,

I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to challenge myself and write one this year and book it at the end of this year. So I have to, which is admirable. I just have never, I never, I don't plan anything out. I mean, how does a special then, whether it's on like a specific time frame, or it sounds like it's not come together? Like, are you kind of constantly?

just trying new shit out and at some point it kind of coalesces into like a bit of a narrative or like how to... Yeah, I just do stand-up I do spots whenever you know, in L.A. And then New York

and then if I go like, oh, I think I might have something. Say someone goes do a special and I go I think I do a special. Then I'll like come to New York or even not if I have a chunk of time a month, two months, I'll just come to New York and be a comic because I don't like being both. I like to either be

sleeping in the day and up at night or up and working in the day and sleeping at night because I need at least 12 hours of sleep where I'm not myself. Okay, but at least seven. When you think back to the first days of doing stand-up, is that kind of like a romanticized time in terms of like how great it was kind of like that, you know, getting into that weird kind of lifestyle and finding your friends and finding your peer group. Totally. So special. Friends for life. Those are people that I'm almost all of them. I mean, so many of them I'm still just as close with. And is that just literally time of your, because it was that time in your life when we kind of like grab onto people and don't let go? You meet your, you know, it's like you're like

a freshman. Yeah. You know, and you meet all the other friends. You know, Todd Barry and I used to, like, sit in the back of the Boston Comedy Club in hopes that somebody would cancel and they need us to do 10 minutes or, you know, just in case. Did the people that you thought were, like, the most talented at the time end up becoming the successes that you thought? Is there a correlation between who you thought was, like, the most talented that have experienced the most success? Yeah, I mean, some that were everyone's favorite, you know, became not famous.

It's, you know, it's... And when you look at that, is that luck or just like, or is it... I think it's, we hold ourselves back sometimes, you know. And when everyone is your biggest cheerleader and you're a little, people can get paralyzed of time, you know. I don't know. Did you ever feel like you were kind of stuck in one place? Because it seems like throughout your career,

you've always, as you said, kind of like, tried out acting for a bit and kind of kept coming back and forth to that and developed TV shows, some that worked and some that didn't. It feels like you've always been, I don't know. I've just always been pretty open to, like, opportunities when they come up, or like, I get just as much, I love making videos on my couch straight to camera just as much as, you know, being in some hoity-to-to-y movie or something. How does social media treat you? What, are you constantly having to block and mute people? Have you noticed an uptick in?

Oh, I will mute. people sometimes. I try not to block people. The only person I've ever blocked is Donald Trump. Are you still DMing Ivanka? I get response back. Did I tell you that I DM'd Ivanka? I think you told Chelsea.

Oh, yeah. No, she never responded. I don't think she handles her own Twitter account. But I don't really look too much at mention. chins or anything. I try to just, I've gotten pretty good if I look at all

to skim, you know, I can tell by like the eagle or the death mask or the, you know, South Park character. God bless South Park, but it just tends to be a thing.

And, yeah, I'm mostly exit only on the social Twitter and Facebook, I can't even I've never been on Facebook I only know how to post stuff. So I don't know, I never see you know, like I had to get security

like a bunch of my last tours but I would have never known to except my manager looks at that stuff and she was, they, I had to, you know, who's, you know, not Britney Spears so it like sucks to have to hire security at my own cost when I'm doing tours because, you know, you just, you know,

financially it's a burden but I bring it on myself. I do understand that. Is it more, is it a nice even split and breakdown between misogyny and anti-Semitism? Or is it? Yeah. I mean, I remember early on, I spoke to even before I got to MTV. And I remember I published an interview with you and that spawned.

I got like a fair share. Sorry. No, it's fine. My shit sticks to people. But I find it fascinating. I mean, I don't get much of it. So I just, I, you know, I multiply that by a thousand. I'm sure is what you, frankly.

I mean, it's either, it's, I would say, misplaced anger. I like to think that is manifest into, you're a woman, you're a Jew, you're a liberal. You've got the trifecta. In a lesser, less kind words. Yeah, exactly. Well, let's end on a positive note, which sounds like it's going to be your show. I'm excited to see it. So, I mean, you've been banking like all the field pieces, but you do like the live, not live to tape.

Yeah. shoot, starting a week from tomorrow, we shoot on Tuesdays and they get posted, you know, air on Thursdays. And studio audience in L.A.? Is that what you're doing? Yeah. Nice. Just like 70 people. Small, intimate. Amazing.

It'll be slightly funnier than Handmaid's Tale on Hulu. Oh my God. Did you watch it? Yeah. It's so that. It's amazing. And it was my entry point into Hulu. You know, every... Me too. I got Hulu so I could watch it. Yeah. And now they've got, not

just my show, but like J.J. Abrams has a show with Stephen King, and Seth Rogan's got Future Man. Oh, I'm excited for that one. Speaking of stupid, that looks nice and stupid for me. Yeah. Excellent. And, uh, yeah. So a lot going on, just

to list the amazing material. Speck of Dust, still out there on Netflix. Battle of the Sexes. Now in a theater near you, hopefully, or if not, it's expanding still. Yeah, right. It's a great piece of work. And I love you, America. I'll be there watching it myself. I can't wait to see what you've got in store for us.

Tomorrow we're going to release a little promo song video. Of course. Have you ever done a musical? You like to sing, don't you? I do like to sing. I'm actually about six or seven years into working on a musical that's about a year away. Is that right? And I can't believe the end is in sight.

So how's that going to manifest? Where's the, like, what's it going to be? We're developing it at the Atlantic. Amazing. And it's based on my book, The Bedwetter, but it's just one year when I'm 10. So it's like a kind of R-rated musical that's mostly kids. That's amazing. I love it.

As a former bedwether myself, I'm looking forward to it. Until how long? It was sleepaway camp for me. Oh, God, me too. That was really the trauma. And I feel like until 12, it was late. Yeah. Sleepaway camp for me too.

Yeah, it was rough. But, like, probably to like 15. Oh, really? I hated Sleepaway Camp. Oh, I hated it so much. They made me swim twice a day. I hated the swimming, too. It made me cry.

It was so scary to me. I wasn't the kind of boy that wanted to take a shirt off. It was just not fun. Oh, dull. Let's not end there. I love you, America. I love you America.

Is that how you say it on the show? At the end of the show, I say, good night, America. I love you. There you go. It's always good to see you, Sarah. Like God. with the show and uh the end we did it do do do do do do and so ends another edition of

happy sad confused remember to review rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts I'm a big podcast person I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from The League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies, and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like, Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't.

He's too old. Let's not forget that Paul thinks that Dude, too, is overrated. It is. Anyway, despite this, we come together to host. Unspooled, a podcast where you talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, musts season, and case you miss them. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night.

We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks. We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of like Ganges and Hess. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button. Thank you.