Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Jena Friedman

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Jena Friedman joins Mark Malkoff to look back on writing for David Letterman, field producing on the The Daily Show, the two Conan appearances that led to major job offers, and the live Colbert election-night appearance that brought death threats. She also talks about her Oscar-nominated work on Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and her new off-Broadway show, Motherf*cker.

From late-nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Welcome to Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff for Late Nighter. Today, Jenna Friedman talks about her time working for David Letterman and John Stewart on the Daily show. Jenna Friedman, it's nice to see you. Nice to see you, too. How's it going? It's going well. Congrats on your third stand-up specials coming out at the Soho Playhouse, October 1st.

You launch. What is the name of your specials? special. Well, the Edinburgh show is called Motherfucker, and I love that title. But I'm also wondering if we do a title change. So I've got some other ideas. But I think the show is called Motherfucker. I think my favorite show I've ever done. Why would you change the title just to make it more commercial, you think? Not more commercial, but I think to make it, feel like it just to have it maybe make sense. I've never, I mean, I have had one show off Broadway. I wasn't in it. I wrote it.

It was a musical satire on American Girl. Yeah. American Girl, yeah. And so I have a little bit of experience, but I haven't like really done the, you know, stand-up show to off-Broadway thing that people are doing. So I'm trying to kind of figure out like how to, communicate what the show is to a different demographic.

Well, your show got rave reviews when you were in Scotland, and you've done so much in your career, and I'm really excited to talk to you. So after you graduate Northwestern, I know you start doing comedy, and then you were about to go to L.A., to UCLA to film school. This is around 2011. How did the Letterman people find out about you, and how did you submit and get hired? So I think what happened was I made a video with the Rent is Too Damn High guy, may he rest in peace, Jimmy McMillan. And I think that they saw that and asked me to submit. And I submitted a packet.

And I didn't hear back for many months. And then I started working with David Minor at Three Arts. And he rep the stangles. And I believe that I got his attention from doing either. a live show or something, or like a video that I made that I put on YouTube. And then they asked me to submit again. The second time they asked me to submit, I sent the packet in the next morning. I pulled an all-nighter and I submitted a new packet.

I want to mention normally it's like at least a couple days to a week for a packet and you did it in less than 24 hours. Because that's the job. I mean, that was the job. It's funny talking about late night now because there's so few jobs. that that was the job. It's not just being funny. It's being funny in a time constraint. So, yeah, and then I got hired right away. I wasn't sure if the New York Times, they sent you a cease and desist in 2010.

You did a parody of the New York Times, the wedding videos, if that got on their radar at all. It could have been that. I think it might have been the Jimmy McMillan video because I remember maybe the Stangles had mentioned it or something. So tell me about your interview with them. You go in, you mean, you mean, with the stangles. You are very unique at the CBS version because you met Dave, I think, on your first day. Oh, yeah, you've really done your research. Okay, so I go in. They had asked me if I watched the show. And what did you say? I lied and said yes. Because I used to watch Letterman, but by then Letterman just, you know, it was like he was phoning it in. We would joke that it was like, we'd get up Bernie's because he was just, he wouldn't come to rehearsals.

He just was kind of so checked out. The Stangles were doing rehearsals for him. He'd watch in his office. He would joke. Would he watch in his office? I don't even know if he watched. I heard he did. And during the warm up when I was there years before, he would joke with the audience and said,

Paul, when did we give up? What year did we officially give up? Please continue. So then they had said had you ever written jokes for anyone? And I had written a few roast jokes for Jeff Ross. And I just said, yeah, I've written. a few roast jokes for Jeff Ross, and they called him right away. And to Jeff Ross's credit, he gave me a ringing endorsement. But I realized, you know, I'd never, I never had had a formal

job like that before. And thankfully, I was able to write jokes for Jeff. I met Jeff doing stand-up, and he asked me to submit some jokes for him. And so that's really how I got the job. That's how I got the job. And then how do you meet Dave? Because there's people that were on that the CBS writing stuff for years that didn't meet, what was Joe's last name? Grossman? Yeah. Joe didn't meet Dave for six years. I met Dave on my first day.

I knew that he had had like a public sex scandal with somebody who looked like me a couple years prior. I've said this. I think Jason Zineman wrote about it in his book. But during my meeting with Dave, he had like asked me to tell him a joke. I told him like the roast joke. It was so stupid. But I told him like a joke, like an easy joke. I didn't tell him the jokes I was doing in standup were like all about abortion and AIDS.

So I didn't do any of those. And then he offered me a lollipop. I looked to, I believe it was Eric Stengel. Like, are you going to take a lollipop? Eric was like sweating. And he was just like, no. And then I looked to there. If someone else in the room, I'm blanking on his name, I believe it was like Dave's manager or agent.

And I was like, are you going to take a lollipop? And he shook his head. And I was like, what do you? You think I'm going to be like in my first meeting with you? Like, uh, uh, uh, what are you talking about? And I thought it was hilarious. And none of them like openly joked about. I'm like, we're comedians.

This is objectively funny that you're asking like a 27 or 8 year old to suck on a lollipop during an interview. And I wish I'd taken that lollipop. It could have been a test. Lauren Michaels has the Tootsie rolls. He has the popcorn. Mark Merritt took the candy and thought that that prevented him from getting hired. Is that what it is?

If you take the candy. See, I thought if I sucked on the lollipop, I would have been head writer by now. You never know with that. But did you know when you met with Dave on your first day that this was highly unusual for the writers? Or did you think that everybody that got hired their first day would sit down with Dave? I didn't know anything because I had never worked in comedy. Also, if you're working for someone like you should see, it's interesting that I really wasn't. That was like I met him like on three.

It was like one occasion, a formal meeting and then that had two weird interactions with him. Can you share those interactions? I mean, one just, we were in an elevator together and it was like awkward. Wait, he was in, he always takes that one the freight elevator. He was in the right elevator. And then another, I don't want to get in trouble for this, but it's funny. Like, it happened. I was at the Christmas party.

I was talking to Jeremy Wainer and my, I'm in cognitive decline after having a kid. My brain is broken. It was Jeremy and I can see his face. I'm blanking his name. and I'm facing them. Their back is to the wall. And I'm talking to them. And then they, like, off of their look, I look behind me.

And Dave walked by and he did like one of those like things where he like looks someone up and down. Like, whoa, you know, like. And I caught the end of it. And I was like, I guess he's just, it's like a physical, like I guess it was just like a time when he was just kind of like pretending to be. be like a cad or I don't know what it was but it was like a definite like look up and down and that was that was just like oh my god whatever and it didn't I was in a cardigan like I was not

like dressed to impress or whatever I was pretty I was like a cardigan like now but I just remember being like oh my god like and also it's not a big deal like to talk about this generationally speaking like you're like uh but you know when you came up in comedy in like unregulated work environment I talked about this in my... Well, please plug away. This is a galley's copy. I only have this up here because I was using it. Not funny. That's the name of the book, yeah.

You know, it's like you get all sorts of people acting all sorts of ways. It wasn't remotely threatening or it didn't diminish me or anything. It just was like, oh, my God, this guy. So I didn't really meet with him. But I did, when I was there, the jokes that I was getting on were like mostly top 10 jokes and things that he would read. If, like, if the paper was sent to him, I think our community. made extensibility

overlapped in like specific ways but yeah it's like it's hard to write for somebody if you're not if they're not

in the writer's in with you. I thought by that point Dave wasn't going to the holiday party was this when Steve Young had a party and Dave showed up

unannounced do you remember where it was at the office I mean it was like we were in the lobby of the office so maybe it was like not a holiday party

maybe it was like I don't know what it was I just remember being in the like the ground floor sure of the building and yeah we were just

Are you doubting my story? No, I'm not. I'm not. I just know Dave just for the holiday parties was MIA for many, many years. How long did you? I was there for one year. It was like 2011. And then I went to the Daily Show right after. What were the circumstances with you, with you leaving?

And did you say goodbye to Dave? Do not say goodbye to Dave. I was there for a year. And then a job opened up at the Daily Show and credit to White Sannack. It was like, there's a field producer job. I was like, I'm not a field producer. What does that even mean? And he's like, you'll be able to write and direct your own segments.

And so I was like, I'm sold. And so I left on good terms. Everybody was really nice. But it just like, it got to a point. I remember I was like nine months in when Dave had called for like emergency top tens. And I was in Jeremy's office and I like giggled because everybody was running around. Like, oh my God, we've got to get emergency top tens. We've got 10 minutes to go.

And I laughed. And I was like, you guys are like pretending this is brain surgery. like he's got like a hundred he's got like 50 or 100 top tens from us already like he's more than 100 actually like he's got enough top tens i don't know why we have to scramble and then jeremy was like you're or like why you he's like i was like i was saying like this like you guys are all or so i said something and jeremy's like you we you're part of us you're you're in this thing you're with you're up you're here with us was at this point when you were there was it still the 12 hour days for so little comedy for so little comedy that actually got in because you had

Mahal and Barry on the West Coast writing the opening remarks, Bill Schaft, and then there was so little comedy. 12 hours, what do you do for those hours? You're writing. You're really, really, like, pitching and writing. Dave's rejecting. You're alone in a room. They would slide, like, notes under the door of what you need to do.

It was, it was funny. It was, like, funny because even as I was there, I was like, this is nuts. And then the funniest part was, it was like at the beginning of Twitter, and I had a Twitter account where I would just, you're in L.A. or New York? I'm in New York. Is there? Did you feel an earthquake shaking?

I just felt some shaking, but it could have just been my arm. It could be. I'm in Astoria. You're where? I'm in L.A. and I have a glass death. Oh, you're in L.A. That would be, make sense that there would be an earthquake where you are. Well, okay, this is a side note, but there was an earthquake when I was at Letterman. I was on the 14th floor. It was, I remember the week that there was a,

a fatwa issued against Dave from making a joke about like Al Qaeda or something. Dave made a joke. There was a fatwa against him. And then we had an earthquake. And when it was an earthquake, I thought that something happened that there was like a bomb

because the building shook. It was like that same week. And I went out to the hall like, ah, and everybody was just like in their office, like, whatever. So I'm glad that you're okay. So then from Letterman, you leave the show, you go over to The Daily Show and I know that you worked closely with Sam B

who's phenomenal. One of the most interesting pieces I can think of is you're with Samantha Bian, it's a piece, there was a ban, the military ban on women in combat. And as you are filming this, what happens?

Your research is so extensive. I'm really impressed. So, Leon Panetta had lifted the ban on women. serving in combat. So there was all this talk about, like, should women serve in combat zones? And I felt that it was a civil rights issue.

And I didn't know a lot about women in the military prior to doing the peace, but basically women were already on the front lines. The front lines were Afghanistan. And when you prohibit women from certain combat positions, you create a culture where women are second-class citizens, like, if they're going out on a tour, like, they're going out on a mission, like they would have to have, like, women come back at certain times or whatever just to try to adhere to these, like, artificial policy policies regarding women in combat. And so I thought it was a civil rights issue and I pitched the piece and so did Sam.

And then in the middle of production, Panetta actually lifted the ban on women in combat because the government felt the same way. Can you imagine the times that we were living in? And because the story actually changed in the middle production, we had to kind of scramble at the last minute to produce a piece that fit the new news story. And thankfully, we had such a great team with us. And Tim Greenberg was my boss and was instrumental in helping make that segment what it was. And because Sam and I just were having fun in the field, we came up with, when we were talking to this like real kind of old school misogynist,

I remember having a card that had like bromance question mark and I handed it to her and we got all this coverage just about how women disrupt romance in the military. And the piece really ended up striking a chord and we got it out like that Monday. And I think that was my first real piece of the show. And the field department was all men at that time. There had been women working there before. but I got to really insert a lot of like the kind of feminist comedy that was starting to pop up. Man, I'm nostalgic for that era. But, and we put it in this segment.

Like there's this one moment where one of the soldiers was telling Sam of all these like horror stories of women in combat. And Sam's just like eating ice cream, like having like girl talk. And she's like, how do you even have girl talk in Afghanistan? Your ice cream would melt. And, you know, we did like the little, we just kind of like leaned into like the girly stuff. like those little like, I figure what they're called, like the fortune teller kind of origami things. We like, were like, should we, I forget the joke, but it's like, should women be in combat?

Like, pick a number one through five. You know, like, we just got to play with all these like girly tropes and we made a really cool piece. What was your biggest takeaway working with John Stewart working for John? I mean, I loved working for him. He was one of the best bosses I've ever had. I think the biggest takeaway. is that you can make anything funny,

just as long as you're coming from a place of, like, humanity. And also that you really have to just, like, fact check, like the journalistic standards of the daily show were the same as any news organization. I'm so haunted by this piece. We did a piece on, like, free market economics. And the piece was jaw-dropping for a lot of reasons, but one of the graphic, I'm throwing, well, it's myself,

because I should have caught it, but when we had a supply and demand chart and the S and the D were just switched because I didn't catch it. And this asshole who we got on camera saying the R word, Sam was like, described to me someone. He was like, markets determine wages. Okay, so described to me someone worth $2 an hour. And he said, I don't know the PC term for R word. And he said that on camera.

This motherfucker who looked like such an asshole came after us just because like our supplying, the S and the D on the supply and the demand. curve were switched. But in a sense, you know, even though he was on camera saying something horrific, and he perfectly illustrated like everything wrong with quote unquote free market economics. It's like it's devoid of humanity. It's not actually practical. You know, like the markets don't determine wages because these companies pay people so little money and are able to exploit like, you know, a lack of a social safety net to do it, yada, yada, but because we had one tiny little mistake,

it discredited us to some degree. We were able to fix it before we put it back online. Every major newspaper has corrections. I mean, it's going to happen. No, I know, but that one haunted me. So then everything I've done since from my adult swim show to my true crime show, I am like obsessive with details. I wanted to ask you about going on Conan.

Your appearance on Conan over a million views. What was that like going on? You did so well and it got a lot of attention. I've been on Conan twice. I love Conan. I love Conan. I love Colbert, too. I am so heartbroken that those shows don't exist anymore.

I can't believe Conan let me say what I said. Like both times. About the Nazis? Well, the Nazis. And then I did this true crime one where I did a cop joke. I did a Jeffrey Epstein joke in like either 2019 or whatever it was. Like, it's not like he killed himself. Like Conan just let me say whatever I wanted.

I was going to ask you. because I know at Letterman, they were very controlling over what you could do as a stand-up. And I know that JP Buck over at Conan, I'm guessing, just said, do what you think is funny. What were you going to say about Letterman? JP's the best. The thing that I got cut off from earlier myself, I cut myself off telling you the story about the Fatwa and the earthquake. But so in 2000 and whatever, I mean, it was 10. I had a Twitter account.

Dave, there was like a running joke where Dave had a Twitter account on the show. and there was always like a camera on his Twitter page. But the only person he followed was me. And all of my tweets were like absolutely profane, nothing you would ever have on the show. But they ended up on the show. And there would be like these like panic moments. Tell Jenna not to tweet. Tell not to tweet about date rape about abortion.

Like tell her not because it's like showing up on the show. His show, I mean, I never really have talked to him since probably because I go on shows like this and just like still tea. But I mean, obviously Dave is like a living legend. But I do remember one time, and I've said this before, there was like a top 10 list where it was like, top 10 reasons this lady lost for cool. And one of my pitches was it was just that time of the month. And I remember getting called into the headwriters room. And they were like, just reprint this out, take this off. And I was like, what?

That's funny. And they're like, we know we don't want you to get fired if Dave sees a period joke and just doesn't want you working here. That was for the guest. they were told over and over again, at least twice, no bathroom humor. I know Johnny Carson was like that, too, but that's interesting that is just from a writing standpoint that they, I guess they protected you. Oh, the headwriters absolutely protected me, the stangles. I'm glad to hear that. So you go on Conan, and that is completely different than going on Letterman, where they're a bit controlling with somebody set.

But JP basically said, do what you think is funny and let you do, let you go. And both of those sets, I got real jobs after them. So Roseanne saw my first Conan set and hired me to write on her show. And then the first day I was hired on her show, she tweeted that stupid racist tweet about Valerie Jared. And then her show got canceled. And then my second time I was on Conan, I was literally making fun of true crime with jokes like, you know, true crime. It's the only time the entertainment industry will take a chance on an unknown female lead, just making fun of the whole industry.

And then AMC Plus actually hired me to make a true crime show off of that Conan appearance. You know, there's this outlook on late night TV in the last like 10, 15 years that nobody ever went on those shows and nothing ever happens. But the fact that that did happen for you is wonderful. My two times on Conan, I got major jobs. I got a lot, I got major work off of those two appearances. If you could be funny, Norm MacDonald, I mean, they showed his letterman from, I think it was 92 or early 93. They showed that to Jim Downey and he's like, we're hiring this guy as a writer.

And, you know, I mean, if you're funny and you have a unique point of view, what was it like thing going on with Colbert? You were there for election night, correct? I love Colbert too. Colbert is another person that, you know, he, I am always like, he's going to be. going to censor me and he doesn't and he I just love him so much um yeah I was I was on the show on election night uh it was my first time back at the ed Sullivan theater having worked for dave I never thought I you know the comedians always say like can you believe I'm back to where I started and it was

you know we all thought Hillary was going to win um I was like I had talked to a producer earlier that day and I said, what if Trump wins? And we both nervously laughed. And it was like, don't, don't think those things. And then, yeah, we came out. Like, we, I don't know if I got cell phone reception there. So I, I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I'm, but my friends who are following closely were texting me or like, I think I had heard like, you know, this isn't looking good. And then we get out on stage. And then like the camera is on us. It's live TV. and I just, I mean, I ate shit. I said, I have very little filter sometimes,

as before we started taping, you might have guessed by my interview with a New York Times journalist about a project I just worked on. And, yeah, I got a lot of shit, and I've talked about this a lot for what I said on that election night show. Why do you think that people

why you got that. From both sides? No, no. For saying, I said, get your abortions now because we're going to... Oh, that's, oh, yes. We're going to have to live with it.

Yeah, no, I just got like a lot of like, quote unquote pro-life, because they're not pro-life. They're not pro-life. But anti-choice people send me death threats, which I've said before also feels like progress when people who pretend to be pro-life threaten years.

But yeah, they were, they... It was an interesting lesson because in that moment, I mean, I said what I said. I believed what I said. And then look, you know, Roe was overturned. So I wasn't wrong. But it didn't like help my career. So I think it didn't like maybe how, Stephen said something in that moment. He was like, you know, this is porn for Trump supporters watching. Like they love you breaking down. And I think like in a moment like that, maybe you do want to reach across.

the aisle a little bit without not compromising, you know, your beliefs, but just maybe saying something softer or something less, less feeding fodder to the right-wing media ecosystem. I feel like I said them a gift. I feel like it was like, you know, I think Dinesh D'Souza or someone had a documentary where like, my sound bite was like featured in it. And I was like, ah, I fed into their bullshit. What was it like the mood when the show went off the air and you're all there and no cameras? it felt so again i've said this before but i like i wasn't in new york on 9-11 but the vibe it was so somber and so sad

we're so um we're like frogs in boiling water now like the water's boiling and we're just acclimated to it but back then uh trump's win really just did feel like uh just devastating devastating for everybody, like the kind of beginning of the end. I was going to also ask you, I know that you went on with Colbert at least two times. You were set, and I don't know if I got in the TV listings at this point, but you were supposed to do James Corden's late show. And you got canceled. Okay. So this was a little misrepresented or something.

What happened was I was working with the producer to do like a five-minute set with my six-month-old attached to my body. And I was really excited to do it. Also, I was kind of a mess. I mean, after giving birth, a lot of women, it's a lot. I didn't have postpartum depression because my mom had died six weeks prior. So I had like pre-partum, like depression. I was just a total mess. So he, the producer, he did me a solid.

He was like, I think you're really funny. And I want to put you on the show. Let's work on a set. And so I had a set. And because I couldn't take my top, at the time, you know, baby around to open mics with me, I was like putting a purse around my neck and being like, just imagine there's a baby here and running the set. Because to do a late night set, you really have.

to like run it many, many times. And, and he's like, send me a tape and I'm like, I know this is going to work having done late night. The tapes are just a little weird because like I'm, I have a purse around me. I'm like, I'm like doing alt shows because this is the only ones I'm getting out. Like it's just a little cumbersome. I can't like, I just, my schedule because I was a new mom wasn't as flexible to be busing my ass singularly focused on producing a great late night. set. The set was good, but the tape was just like, you know, so he's like, send me whatever. And I sent it to him and then the note was just like, you know, this is going to bum. It was funny. I promise you was funny. I bet it was. This is going to like bum out our audience. The jokes were like, a friend of

mine said she had post-partum, I think she has post-partum depression. I told her it's not postpartum. I was like, no, I have to now make the joke good. Sorry. The joke was like, yeah, a friend thinks she has post-partum. depression and I was like it's not postpartum depression you're just right you're just picking up what our society's throwing down like this shit's that's not you know the funniest joke but that was like the the extent of like the you know bummerness probably came from a joke like that um and then he was like he sent me a letter that was like this is too much of a buzzkill for our audience or something but I had like busted my ass off on the set and it was a good set and I knew it would work because

I knew it would have worked because a lot of those jokes worked in, like, I've done them as a stand-up. It just didn't, like, the audio just didn't, like, wasn't, like, boom, because, again, I didn't have my baby on me. I had a purse on me. And then, so I didn't have, like, a date set up that I was going to be on the show. It was just something that we were working towards. And then the show was ending. And he was, like, the email that he sent me was, like, this is going to bum people out or something.

And I was just like, yeah. And so I talked to Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast. and then Crack picked it up and made it more of like a they canceled her and they didn't Are you going to be going on any of the light night shows with your third special coming up in at the Soho playhouse? There's like only one late night show that uh Seth I would think would be Seth is doing stand up uh Seth I guess not and he's off for two months Fallon I would love I would love to go on Seth Myers are you friends with him you tell him to book me I would love I have not met him I know some people over there they'd be lucky at

have you, I would think they would be lucky to have. I have to ask you, first of all, about your Instagram. You have a big following on Instagram, some clips, very entertaining. I have to ask you about two things on Instagram. One, is that really you as a two or three-year-old with Ronald Reagan?

That's a cardboard cut out of Ronald Reagan. See, I couldn't tell. And people in the comments were like asking, I couldn't tell. It looked like it could have been a real because I know somebody that got a photo with him is an, in, So I wasn't sure.

Second one is comedy seller 2017. Madonna takes the stage. Were you there for that? Yeah. What was that? Like I can't even imagine. Now the comedy seller, you have, you know, Chappelle shows up, these comedy legends. But somebody like Madonna, like that is like so fish out of water.

How, what was the mood like in that room? Oh, it was cool. I mean, look, like, I think there is like a mutual admiration between like rock stars and comedians like, you know, all rock stars want to be funny and all comedians want to be rock stars. And I think someone like Madonna gets on stage and everybody loves her. But if she tries to tell a joke, you know, like you can't just force people to laugh even if they love you for the most part. So I think she has, I don't know, Madonna can't speak for her. But she got on stage and she was funny. I mean, she wasn't like Chris Rock, but she was funny. And it was a cool,

it was a cool. I mean, that's also the thing about the comedy seller. Random people pop by all the time. She was with Amy Schumer, correct? Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't. And John Mayer back in the day, I know used to do some of the clubs pop in here and there and friends with comics. How did you end up working with Sasha Barron Cohen and get nominated for an Academy Award for a BORAT subsequent movie film? I believe Nathan Fielder had seen my adult film show and forwarded it to Sasha. And then I started working with Sasha and his roundtables. And then my bits just kept getting in the script. And to Sasha's credit, he gave me a writing credit.

What were those like when you're with all these other comedy writers pitching? What was that experience like? I think because I had been a field producer at The Daily Show, I knew how to pitch, like, docu-style live-action pranks. I just knew what would work and what wouldn't because I had done so much of that. So I think that gave me, like, a competitive edge over other comedy writers who hadn't also been, like, field producers or producers of that type of comedy. Were you on set for any of the filming? What was that? What stands out as like one or two moments that I can't believe I'm here and this happened?

Well, there was one woman in the scene where Maria is talking to all the women, the business women or something. There was one woman who showed up and she was like, ugh, last time I went to one of these, it was for that Borat guy or whatever. She'd been, she was in the first Borat. So there's this one woman. She kind of looks like Angelica Houston a little bit, not as like beautiful, but. There was this one woman who, she was in both Borat movies, accidentally. Because when Sasha goes to film somewhere, he does, he'll do all this market research of, like, you know, where this character is recognizable. And so there's a lot of filming in places where Borat's not as recognizable because you don't want people who recognize the character to be in the audience when you're doing this.

So it was like back to the same place. Either that was like Oklahoma City or Oklahoma area or Texas. It's one of those. It was pretty funny. That was pretty funny. And then all the stuff with Maria, I mean, she was so fearless and incredible in that movie. There's their comedic bits with her, like, in the period dance, there's a whole scene where she's like, I don't know why it got cut, but there's a whole scene where she's like doing somersaults around him with bloody underwear. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.

My niece was recently visiting us and she's going to school. She's a senior in college and she did a paper based on you and your show Soft Focus. She was a huge fan and we were watching when she was here, your interview with that. Can I read that paper? I can give her, I can tell her to email you. Yeah, she is such a huge fan. And I said, you know, I've met Jenna before and my niece, Elizabeth, was. So I got I was the cool uncle for five seconds.

But yeah, we were watching about it was the New York City police officer that was convicted of conspiracy, right? It was for it to kidnap, cook and eat a woman. It was the cannibal cop. When you sit down with one of these people, one, why do you think that they agree to sit down with you? And are they able to tell when you're interviewing them that the joke is on them at all? And are they okay with it?

Well, with him, you know, nothing's worse than what happened to him. So the public shame he's already experienced is worse than any interview. And I think people just want their stories told and everyone feels like they're a hero in their own story. And a lot of that comes down to how we pitch ourselves to him. He's a creepy guy. He was a creepy guy. I think the reason I wanted to interview him is because I saw that he was like dating again. And so I was like, oh, people need to know this story.

This guy can't be allowed to just like date. date random women not knowing what happened. Has anybody ever walked out of an interview in the middle? So I had one walkout and I got it on camera. It was during my true crime show. I talked to this process. I put it on Instagram. I talked to this former prosecutor in Rivard County, Florida.

There's this guy, Gary, what's his last name? I'm so bad right now. He's still in prison. This is a piece. This is a segment. I think episode one of season two, of our true crime show. But his first name is Gary,

and he's still in prison off of, like, faulty testimony of, like, dog sent evidence convicted him, connecting him to a murder he didn't commit. So this county was just, like, trying to get, you know, convictions, and they were using dog sent evidence. It was, like, junk signs.

The dog smelled the murderer on you or some shit. It was totally fraudulent. And so I talked to, The guy who was really responsible was dead, but then there was another guy who was a prosecutor in that department who we had got to talk to us on camera about the department during that time. And, you know, he just, it's a really interesting interview. And he walked out and he was pissed. And I joked to the camera, like final question. It's not like he, like, I was like, he doesn't have a gun on him, like as a joke because we were in Florida, which is like a gun country.

And the guy doing sound, who was a local hire, because we were a small production with a small budget, we had to have local hires for a lot of the crew. He was like, oh, yeah, he does have a gun on him. And I ended up, because we're like, we don't want him to come back and shoot me in the face because he's pissed. So I ended up literally hiding in the kitchen and then just like going out the back. I mean, it's a level of paranoia, but I just, if I pissed someone off to the point, where they angrily walked out of an interview, and then I find out that they have a gun on them. I'm like, I don't want to be in his line of fire.

I don't want him to see me again. I'm getting out of here. So I don't think I would have asked his hard-hitting questions if I knew he was like packing heat. I mean, yeah, how were you supposed to know? What was it like sitting down with John McCaffery? You know, he was running for president. He's very eccentric.

You point out that you're sitting down with him and he has four guards. I'm guessing they also probably have. had guns. Also had guns. He had a gun on him. I had asked my like dear crew and again like these projects were so like low budget but in this moment I'm like so thankful we had any budget to make them but like you don't you don't really have a short hand with a lot of your crews like they're like your first time working with them. So I had asked the crew and I don't know if they knew that I was directing but I was like get me footage of the gunmen and I think they were afraid to

point their cameras. So we have very little footage but there were four gunmen surrounding me and Mac if he had a gun. And yeah, I mean, that was, I was probably a little dumb about it because I'm really seen guns that big. So I just, they almost look like props to me. So. What was your takeaway from talking to him? He seemed just very relaxed and chill, like kind of slouching as he drank.

I mean, no one takes me seriously. So at least in my early 30s and 20s and maybe late 30s. But so I was able to get away with a lot of this stuff. You mentioned that the New York Times was just reached out to it and you were talking to them. You mentioned to me before we were recording. Amanda Knox recently contacted you because she's doing a show in Edinburgh. How did that happen? How did she reach out to you and what are you helping her with?

So she's doing a show in Edinburgh. She asked me to consult on it. Are you going to? I did already. I mean, I did already. I've been to Edinburgh four times. It's pretty brutal, but nothing compared to what she's been through. And, yeah, I mean, like any, I also consulted a little bit on Otska-Ocatska's Edinburgh show when she did it.

And so it's pretty standard for people to reach out to comedians to get feedback on projects. So what did you tell her just that the crowds can be a little bit rough? you just kind of were warning her? Or punch-ups on her material at all? Just trying to, less punch-up and more just kind of like, like helping her kind of figure out like what her thesis is and how to, you know, perform it in certain ways. I'm not directing it.

You know, I just wanted to help her out because I think what she's doing is really, I don't want to say balzy, but got to see. There's been major press that has mentioned your name and said, why doesn't she have a late night show? If you did have a late night show, what would be your point of view? And would you want a platform like that? I don't even know if there are late night shows anymore. I think, I mean, I love soft focus. That was like my dream show.

I think I'm probably maybe too polarizing. I didn't think I was too polarizing. But I think like, you know, it's interesting. Like 20 years ago, I would have. been maybe too polarizing with my like feminist politics, but we're in a moment where like everyone and everything is too polarizing. So I don't know. Like, um, yeah, I mean, all comedians want to be able to do their thing a little bit more. Um, I think we're in a different moment than even when I was doing the kind of gonzo like feminist journalism. We're still kind of a,

we're in just a different time. Um, but yeah, I would love to keep doing this. I do have a project that I've been, that I pitched that, um, uh, um, uh, um, uh, um, um, uh, um, um, um, uh, I'm, um, um, um, um, uh, I think the thing that I'm really interested in now is tech. I went to TED. I did a TED talk. I think that, you know, tech is unfortunately shaping everything rapidly and in a way that's just like really anti-democratic and scary. And I think that there's a lot of material there to mine. I wanted to ask you a follow up, 2018 with Roseanne Barr.

When you found out she liked your stand-up, did she reach out to you personally? Do you have any interaction? No, she didn't retouching me, but her people did. And did you actually show up to the studio for day one, and you found out at the studio that I found out driving on to the lot. I was in an Uber because I'm not a good driver, New Yorker. And I was, I read on Twitter, I saw her tweet and I was like, yikes. And then I saw the news that, you know, she hadn't gotten fired until I was in the office with everybody.

But I read her tweet, driving, literally driving in. did a lot. So you're with all the writers together and you all find out collectively? Most of us. Wanda Sykes hadn't come in yet. She was, her office was supposed to be next to mine. And I was like, okay, if Wanda's here, then like, you know, my whole thing is like, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, you know? So it's like you want to be in those rooms. Like, I don't begrudge anybody for taking like any job, you know, as long as you hold true to your principles while you're there, you know, you don't acquiesce. Like, work for the Trump administration, but like, keep doing your thing. Has anyone succeeded in that? I don't think so,

you know? But I do believe, like, if you can get in those rooms, not comparing Roseanne's show to the Trump administration, I'm just saying I, I'm just saying if CBS News asked me to be a correspondent on 60 minutes, I would take it in the heartbeat. All my segments would get cut, but I would try, you know. When the show was rebranded to the Connors, did you, did you still write for that show? I did What was that like? I mean, it wasn't the show I signed up for. I think me now, having gone through grief, would have been a way better fit. I think back then I really just wanted to do like political stuff.

I was doing my adult swim stuff. I really wanted to write for like Roseanne as like a Trump supporter with like prior feminist, anti-racist, bonifides. If you saw her old show, they were tackling themes about race and class and gender before anybody was. Her show really was radical, the first version when it came out. So I wanted to, like, get in the room with her and write, like, you know, for her and the characters around her. I thought that it was a really interesting time to be writing, like, a family comedy with people with different political points of view.

So I was, like, thrilled to take that job. And then when it became about grief, it just wasn't really in my wheelhouse. Everybody was really nice, but it just wasn't, like, a job that I kind of wanted to. I mean, I felt so lucky that I got that job because it was a really hard job to get. But, yeah, I, you know, then I went, I got to work for Borat, which was like so much more in my wheelhouse. So, you know. Work for so many amazing people. And congrats on your third stand-up special come in.

You're going to be off-Broadway, Soho Playhouse, October 1st through the 11th. Are you working on that in the city? Or you go into the clubs right now and running the show? Or do you, is everything pretty much ready to go? So I'm in L.A. I'll be in New York for some other stuff in August. And I'm going to be doing a couple of spots when I'm back in New York. And then, I mean, the show's always evolving.

I told Amanda Noxas, you know, it's like evolving until you tape it. So, yeah, I mean, this show is about a particular moment in my life, but it's also universal. I'm trying to make it about this moment in American politics also. So it's like a dynamic changing show. And I love it. I hope people get to see it. Great reviews in the name of the title. Motherfucker.

It might or might not be that by the time this is. See, they're going to be like motherfucker or like American. mom. I'm not exactly sure yet. My first hour was American cunt, so there's something funny to me about American mom, even though nobody will make that connection but me. But I do think motherfucker is also so succinct, and there's so much in the show connected to that word. Jennifer Friedman, thanks for doing this. And I'll reach out to my niece and forward you her report. I didn't ask her if she

got a good grade on it. She better have. Is she the first person, to your knowledge in college, that did a paper on you? I don't know. I think so, yeah. Success. Well, thank you so much for talking to us, Jenna. I'm really excited for your show. And yeah, congrats. Cool. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. On Apple Podcast, please rate it and leave a review.

Be sure to go to late-nighter.com for all your late-night TV news. And you can find my podcast at late-nighter.com. forward slash podcasts. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.