Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Jesse McLaren

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' writer Jesse McLaren joins Mark Malkoff to discuss his path from 'Colbert Report'  intern and viral BuzzFeed creator to Kimmel staff writer. McLaren shares stories about getting hired off Twitter, writing Oscar jokes, producing celebrity sketches with Brian Cox and Jimmy Kimmel’s 2003 self, creating the wax-figure prank that terrified Kimmel’s cousin Micki, and turning internet obsessions—from Ariana Grande’s impossible stool pose to Hillary Clinton doing the Macarena—into viral comedy.

From late-nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Welcome to Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. On today's season finale, we talked to Jimmy Kimmel Rider, Jesse McLaren. Let's do it. Jesse McLaren, nice to see you. Nice to see you. So you've been a longtime Jimmy Kimmel Rider Emmy nominated. When you were in high school growing up in Long Island, you actually cut school to go to a

Conan taping, correct? Yes. What was that like? So late night was in your blood even back then. Yeah, I mean, that was a very formative. That was like the first time I really think I was sitting there in the Conan audience between, like after the monologue watching the producers go up to the desk and just like it clicked that that's a job that exists.

Like that's a thing you can do. And that was very motivating for me. Like from then on, I was like, oh, I want. want to do that. I want to be one of those people who get to be here. Yeah, 6A back then. That was magical. That was Letterman when he was at NBC and Conan and seen Frank Smiley and Jeff Ross and all everybody at the desk. And yeah, it was pretty amazing. Do you remember who was on the show? Do you remember anything from the specific taping or was it just to be there? Oh, no, I remember. I remember, uh, the guests were Kelly, the, this, the new fresh face Kelly Rippa. Oh yeah, it worked for her. She was really nice

lighting. It was like this new person who's going to be joining Regis. I think that was the, if that was the, how that worked. And then Tony Bennett, because it was Christmas time. Oh, wow. That was annual. That was that Tony Bennett. Oh, wow. Yeah. So he was the musical guest. And then there was like a child actor who forget who it was. And I also, I, the most exciting thing to me was that the person who did warm up was preparation H. Raymond. That's right. Yeah, Brian McCann was hilarious. Before him, Mike Sweeney was doing it. But yeah, McCann was a powerhouse, just really, really funny guy. But just the fact that you were there, was that 2001, maybe, 2002? Probably 2004. Yeah, because I really was in high school. So.

Yeah. I love the fact that you got to be there. And then when we met, I was working at the Colbert report and you were an intern. So another late night show, when were you an intern? I was an intern in the first, I guess, spring of 2008. Actually, during the writer's strike. Oh, wow. Yeah, I remember it was so interesting because the day that the writer's strike was over was the day I think I moved into IKEA. So I got paid for a couple months. We would just sit around.

We had baking contests. We'd go on set and watch movies. And there was literally nothing to do. When John Stewart and Colbert, thankfully, went to comedy center. and said we want our staffs paid. So we got paid just to show up. And then the first day back, I'm like, sorry, guys, I'm living and sleeping in IKEA for a week. But they let me do it.

And I appreciate that. But that's great that you got to be there. Fast forward. You blow up on Twitter. And how do you find out that Jimmy Kimmel and his writers and Jill Lederman, the wonderful Jill Leiterman, that they are actually been following your journey on Twitter and or considering in you for a writer. That was actually happened in an instant.

I had posted just one joke that did really well. It was like making fun of Mike Hockabee or something. Whatever we were making fun of that week. And I think, you know, someone retweeted it. Like, it was at that time when like a verified person, like it would think it was like Julie Louis Dreyfus or someone retweeted it. And then I just got like three notifications. in a row that were like, Jimmy Kimball's following you, and then two other names that were Jimmy

Kimball's headwriters and went, oh, so clearly something just happened in this five-minute span, maybe someone like texted it to someone else. And then that's when they started following me. So like, I saw it immediately. And that was when I started going like, I'm going to start tweeting more for like in hopes that, you know, they'll see this and try to reach out to me. I love hearing that and who DM'd you or reached out to you from the show initially. that was Molly Jimmy's wife and headwriter executive producer she messaged me just like oh we think you're funny and then like from then on I was like it was almost like I was like posting things for the show smart I would if I do like animation as well like not on the level of like say our team

but like I can do basically like after effects playing with news footage and doing and I remember like staying late at work at BuzzFeed at that time and animating Sarah Huckabee Sanders slowly sinking as she's saying there's no sink holes under the White House. And I remember just doing that going, I hope that they see this and go, oh, I wish we put that on the show tonight. And that's the very delusional thinking usually,

but in this one case of my life, it worked out where I think eventually they did see those things and annoyed them, yeah. When Molly reached out, did she say potentially we'd be interested in you writing for the show? I don't remember exactly. I think, I mean, I think it's just we think you're funny, and I know she's a writer.

Like, she's someone I was familiar with before she DM'd me because she's, you know, someone in late night. And so I think the implication was we want to hire you as a writer. A lot of these shows, like, you know, sometimes they might want you for a digital job or like on the web team or whatever. So I wasn't sure. But I think it was pretty clear, like, I hope that. next time they have an opening for a writer, I would be in the running for sure, yeah. You are one of the very few people, I think I can count them on one hand that was hired solely on your tweets. You never had to do a packet, correct?

I didn't. I've done many a packet on other shows before this. So this was like, you know, like by the time that I was trying to get a job at Kimmel, I was, are hoping to get a job at Kimmel, I was, you know, had done a lot of packets. And I was, I feel like I was kind of ready. like I was just there. I do think if I was asked to do a packet, it's possible I wouldn't have been hired because it's just packets are just so,

it's hard to know exactly what, you know, what's working and not. You overthink them. It's tough. You try to gear them to what you think they want. And I think I kind of treated my Twitter as a packet at that time where I was like, I know they're looking at this

and I'm going to just post jokes and just see, in hopes that they see it and think it's in the voice of the show. show over the period of like a couple of months, I think. And those packets sometimes take a week, if not more to do. And tell me if I have this right. You didn't ever get hired as a writer on other shows through submitting packets, correct?

No, yeah, yeah. I, when we're work, I was working at Colbert for a little bit as a field AP. And a really nice thing they did at that show was that if you were like, you know, a PA, an AP, just a researcher, whoever at that show, and you submitted a packet, the head writer would sit down with you and just be like, I'm going to give you an honest just critique

of this packet, which is so nice, they don't have to do that. It was Tom. Tom Purcell. Yeah. That's really nice. And that was, and just that experience was really helpful having someone just give you an honest, like he just gave you like, yeah, this is like,

I think he told me like, yours would maybe be in the top half of the pile at that time. And like looking back, some of the packets I wrote are horrible. I'm really glad that you got that with Tom because there was people, somebody at the Daily Show and somebody at the Colbert told me a report when I,

at least when I was there, there was an unspoken rule that they would not hire anybody as a writer that was on staff. And Jason Risha, the day show was the last person and they were done doing that. And I was at the Colbert report for almost four years. And it wasn't until, I think, six years into the run that maybe it was either Nate Charnie or Gabe Brownlee was the first person that was a staff member that was actually hired as a writer.

Is that about right? Yeah, looking back, I don't know the late show staff as much, but as far as Colbert Report. That was for Colbert Report, yeah. Yeah, Nate is a good friend of mine. He's, I think, the funniest person on the planet. He is great. He's super talented and nice. He was, wasn't he in your intern group?

He was. So that's why we're so close. Nate were both interns together. His wife, Sasha, also is so funny and she's a comedy writer. And she worked for you as well, right? Yeah, we worked together a little bit. And then she worked with the person who replaced me when I left Colbert Stewart Nurek. But I remember Sasha. She was fantastic. And then she worked at Wilmore, right? Wasn't she a writer for Wilmore? Yeah. Yeah. And Gabe Grownley also, a good friend and a very, very funny person. And I think, from when I remember, maybe Gabe had left.

Sarah and Nikki, he wrote for Sarah Schaefer, Nikki Glazer show. And then he was in the running for, it was going to be the first person, I think, ever that they hired that was from the staff. And then he had left to work on that show. And then he submitted again and got hired. So that was like kind of a big deal. And then other people within the staff started to move up. And I'm glad they changed the rule or at least six years in started to do that. But that's great.

You got to sit down with Tom. That was such a gift. So fast forward, you get hired on Kimmel. Do you do an interview? Do you sit down with Jimmy and Molly? I did a Zoom interview with the headwriters. And it was also like, is this an interview? It was like kind of like, is this a date kind of thing?

Yeah. It's like, hey, we just want to meet you. Like, oh, okay. And so I did just kind of like a meeting with them. I think it's just a let's make sure this person isn't crazy, like, are that this person isn't, they don't know me. I'm just some guy from Twitter. Sure. Did it help it all that you were like kind of internet famous at this point from BuzzFeed? You had done some things that blew up. I mean, I'm not exaggerating when I say that. I mean, that word viral video is so

overused, but that's exactly what happened. Did that help at all? Were they aware of your previous work? Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I think that's why like once they, started following me. I think maybe they started seeing some of the other things I had posted, or I would maybe repost things that had done well a few years back. That would be in the voice of Kimmel maybe in the hopes that they would see it. Yeah. So I wanted to talk about a piece that you wrote, which was for, I think it was the 20th year anniversary where it's current Jimmy Kimmel in 2003 talking to Jimmy Kimmel who started in 2003. Can you talk about writing and producing that piece? Yeah, I think that was at that point where that was crazy, like the visual of being able to do that.

There's that weird window where like deep fake was a thing and it wasn't AI yet. And it wasn't at that point where like you were used to seeing just crazy. like your social media feed is full of you know like Adam Sandler posing with all of his characters like weird stuff like that so when that deep fake technology came out we're always looking for like what's a funny thing we could do with this

and it was like kind of a hard needle to thread and that was one thing that when we were writing ideas for the 20th anniversary just realizing oh we can maybe deep fake Jimmy because we own all the old footage of him to train the the deep fake and to obviously we have a million shots of Jimmy in 2003.

So it was just that perfect thing. And yeah, I believe, and I think I wrote that probably with Tony Barbieri. I write with him a lot. He's my office mate and good buddy. Oh, he's so funny. He was on with me. But Tony, were you the one that created or did you work with together this week in COVID history, ran every, I believe for a whole year every week.

That was you, correct? And Tony voiced it? Can you talk about that? Tony voiced it. I think I started it and we used a, like just a voiceover person, which we often do, like hire a voiceover artist, which is awesome. We get to work with them all the time. But like the second week or so, it was just clear like, this needs, like Tony is just funny.

And he's, his, one of his cranky guy. thinkers, puppets, Niles is like that kind of similar kind of a little bit leading it. Like you could hear that and go like, oh, he should be doing something like that. And Tony and I co-wrote that since. And that was a weekly, like that was, it was like a second job. It was so much work. But I think that is the thing I'm most proud of having worked on at the show. Yeah, it ran for a long time.

So when you and another writer come up with the idea to put Brian, Cox, who's going to be a guest on the show, famous from Secession. You're going to put him in Euphoria. Do you actually have to pitch Brian Cox, or do you have to get on the phone with his agent? And what was that like working with him? So that's, like, when we have a celebrity coming on, you pitch an idea, it like goes through a filter of a few people, and you're not directly pitching to them. It'll be like our talent team is just, that's their, they know how, they have relationships with these people. At this point, they'll know like, oh, this person usually will do something interesting or

this person, oh, they probably won't do it, but we should pitch it to them. And so, and I think I wrote on that with Blair Erskine, who I probably said her name wrong. She's my friend. But I think that was the thing where it's like, you have the idea, you pitch it. And that's like you pitch tons of ideas. Every Friday we would pitch ideas for the guests. Are we pitch ideas for the guests who are coming up? And then like they usually get filtered through like our team.

Sometimes there'll be a thing with like, that's really not doable logistically. So like even if your idea gets picked, it just kind of like. So even when your idea gets picked, it usually is like a maybe 20% chance or something that it ends up happening. And that one, I think he's just a game.

I think he's just he, that's why he's the comedy he does is great. Like he's done a lot of comedy like Super Troopers and he's so funny and Rushmore. Absolutely.

No, he's great. How much time did they get to, do you have with someone like Brian Cox? And what was that like producing him? That was really, from what I remember, it's all squeezing it into the day.

It's like he's going to come on the show. That's the other thing. That's the main thing that gets. in the way of these celebrity things. It's like usually not whether or not the person wants to do it or whatever. It's just like, yeah, there's no time for them to do that. They're going to come to the show, do the interview, and leave.

We have no time for them to sit in a makeup chair, get in this wardrobe, get us their information for wardrobe to make sure that their outfit fits. I think what I remember from him is he didn't want to be wearing a crop top was the only thing. And from what I remember that too, I think Jimmy added that he eats an apple.

insanely. Just because I think we wanted to see Brian Cox eat an apple. Why not? Yeah, he was really good. It got a lot of attention, that piece. Yeah. And I think, yeah, Blair watched Uphora.

I had never seen Euphoria. I just was known from the pop culture aspect of it, that that scene was parodied a ton. And, yeah. It was smart. Were there any of those that you worked with a famous guest and you produced a piece and it wasn't either they didn't want it to air or it never aired for some reason? I don't think so.

I mean, I think that's why these things go through so many steps because it would be really rare for someone to, like, there'll definitely be things where we'll try a joke and then we'll just be like, hey, we'll try it. And then they'll be savvy enough to go like, yeah, we don't like that joke. I was just going to mention because Justin Bieber at one point a long time ago when Jimmy Fallon Show agreed to do his sketch. and they put six figures into the budget. And he shows up and he's like, now I'm not, I don't want to do it anymore. And it's like, oh, goodness.

But I'm glad you didn't have anything like that. So you did this prank with celebrities on the red carpet. This was for Disney Expo. And you had people like Julia Louise Dreyfus, Christian Slater. Do you know in advance when you go to something like this that you have these famous people lined up that are going to talk to you? And can you talk about this specific piece producing it? Yeah. That was like, I think my superpower is that I just get these fixations on things and I want to learn everything about it.

That's why I did that like, you know, deep fake thing with Jimmy talking to his 2003 self. And this is a period where I was really into making filters for TikTok and Instagram for no reason. I just wanted to learn how they worked. And so I was like, oh, we should do a prank filter where so it's like people find out which Disney character they are. and on their head is like it flips through 25 Disney characters and then it always just lands on something weird, like a used band-aid or just like an old boot. Richard Nixon for Julia Louis Dreyfus.

But they have no idea. They think it's going to be something Disney-related. It's like a roulette type thing that's going to land on who they are. And then it's, yeah, something else. Yeah, and Julie Louis Dreyfus, you just mentioned. One, like I said before, I kind of, I feel like I owe her my career because she retweeted by joke about Mike Huckabee's colonoscopy and then Jimmy followed me right after.

What was the joke? Can you set that up for people? And that's great that you give her credit. What was the joke, the specific joke, if you recall? It was like Mike, remember Mike? I don't know if he's still doing it because I don't go on Twitter as much, but Mike Huckabee was like being funny all the time. He was like really going for hard jokes. Like he was like, sees himself as a comedian. And so he posted this joke that was like, like, he was like, he posted this joke that was like, like, he was like, like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he and so he posted this joke that was like, I don't remember the exact details. It was like, just woke up from my colonoscopy. They must have given me that Michael Jackson stuff because something, something.

And then just it was like just a joke about some Democrat. It was just like a, it's just a horrible joke. It was like trying to be like. And then so I replied, did they find this joke up there? And then that was it. And like it wasn't like I was, you know, I was just like on the subway kind of like angry because I it's like this is a horrible joke and it's upsetting me.

And then yes, you retweeted it. And then I remember that was the one. I was actually going to go hang out with Gabe Grandley and Nate. I remember I was at shuffleboard with Gabe and I was like, I think Jimmy Kimmel just followed me. And I think that Molly McNerner just followed me. And this other guy says he's Jimmy Kimmel's co-head writer.

And I was with Gabe when that happened. and so I feel like I owe her my career because of that one retweet and then that's all it takes sometimes true and when during the Disney thing I remember her laughing that was like a career highlight that she laughed that hard because I was like I just made Julie Louis Dreyfus laugh a real laugh I could tell that was a real laugh she was a great sport yeah but yeah with something like that it's all when you're pranking people who are in a controlled environment like that there's you know, like, you, there's ways to make it feel very controlled, which is like in that one,

it was just going into the publicist because it was the filter, just show it to them, just say, this is what we're doing, we want a real reaction, show them the filter, and they'll be like, okay. And like, you could also say, like, if you, if it's really that horrible, they're like freaking out, you could just be like, we won't air that. Our show is very, you know, if we interviewed someone on the street and they were really like, I'm so embarrassed, please don't air that. We just be like, okay, yeah. Yeah.

But it really worked out. I don't know if I've ever seen Jimmy Kimmel laugh harder than a piece that you came up with. I know you at least worked on, which was this was the wax statue. I mean, of Jimmy Kimmel, and this was the prank on a bunch of the staffers, but also his cousin, Mickey. Can you talk about coming up with that idea, pitching it in the execution? Yeah, that idea, that I think was probably by the numbers, probably the best thing I ever made for the show because it's still like, like it got so many views on YouTube and I just constantly see it pop up again on like random TikToks and things like that. And that one was very unremarkable and it wasn't any like real stroke of creativity.

It was more like, hey, the Madame Tussauds people have this like wax finger of Jimmy. We could do something with it if we want. So like we all kind of pitch some ideas and a lot of them are probably overlapping. And this one was just, yeah, let's set it up around the office and get people's reactions with a hidden camera. And I'm sure I'm not even the only person to pitch that. And I have to say the director's name. Jacob Reed was the director of that. We just were scaring people with it around the.

office. And it's not that people would be terrified of Jimmy, but you had worked at Colbert reports. Like if you walked into your audience area and you just saw Jimmy in full show makeup at like 9 a.m. just standing in the corner, you'd probably, you know, saw Stephen just, you know, standing there. You would be freaked out. So we started, uh, we did a few setups with it. And we noticed every time his cousin Mickey would be genuinely just terrified and screamed. And at a certain point, we're like, we just have to keep, keep just focusing this on her because doing it to everyone was just kind of like

repetitive. It wasn't that much of a payoff. But then as we were shooting it, we're like, okay, this has to change. Let's just do this to Mickey now. So we did in her office. We did it. And then we said, let's extend this throughout the entire day now instead of just a few hours shoot.

Let's like do this all the way through tonight. And then we just told Jimmy about it at some point. We think it would be really funny if you, and he was like definitely game. He loves pranking his cousin, Mickey. And that laugh at the end was just because it was 100% genuine. Like she. It was at a guest dressing room.

You put, sorry to interject, it was a guest dressing room. And she keeps seeing the Jimmy Kimmel wax statue around and it's freaking around. And she's surprised. And then she walks in and she just assumes that that's the wax statue. Yeah, I did a bad job explaining this bit. I just ran out. Oh, no, no, you did great. I just wanted to explain the payoff or if somebody hasn't seen it.

I'm sure that is. Yeah, so like in the bit, Jimmy's cousin Mickey is walking around the office and she keeps getting scared by this stat, this wax figure of Jimmy in the kitchen, in her office, in an elevator. And then it ends with, we did it one more time in the green room after the show, which is a time that nothing is happening. You don't have to be on edge that there's going to be any prank or anything. everyone goes home and then so we told her like hey you should take selfie with it just could we want to

just end this with you taking a selfie with the statue though did she know that was jimmy at that last one he was standing there posing in the same pose as his wax figure and she got up next to him and she like was you know booping him on the nose whatever she was doing just a hundred percent that it was a wax statue and just him turning to her like he didn't even have to have a funny thing to say it was just him moving scared her so deeply she threw her phone in the air. She like flung across the room. I was terrified she was going to like hit her head on the table. If you watch that, uh, if you watch it, you'll see she comes very close to hitting her head on a coffee table. And I've never seen Jimmy laugh that hard. That's what I'm saying.

Like, Letterman would laugh during, um, when he would do those Rupert remotes when he'd be in a van telling Rupert what to say through a walkie talkie. Rupert and other people told me it was the own, one of the only times they ever saw Dave Letterman genuinely laughing really, really hard. Not that Jimmy doesn't laugh, but I've never seen, I don't think, anything like that. So, I mean, that was so much fun. You did a great job. Another piece that you did that did really, really well. And just talking about the production and how you put this together was it was a Mike Pence piece.

You used actual footage of Pence speaking. And you put him in a 1960 space series called Space Pence. Yes. You did an amazing job with research because you're just hitting the things that I would have trouble remembering is the things I'm most proud of from the show. But these are all... I appreciate that. Yeah.

Space Pence was... Do you remember there is a vice president named Mike Pence? In my research, it says somewhere, yes, there was somebody named Mike Pence, yes. Almost as obscure as this bit now. He was in charge of Space Force, which was a funny thing for a very long time. Now, we never talk about it. I keep thinking we're at war now, but we still don't know about the Space Force. Force, you would think that this is when the space force would be really active.

But so Mike Pence was in charge of Space Force, especially when Space Force was like a purely a joke because they didn't even figure out what it was at that point. It was just, you know, and he was giving these speeches about it. And he had to use, he was using his like very serious Mike Pence. And he said, like, we need American dominance in space. And he was like really trying to like hit those. Like the way he said everything was so declarative. like, we need to use laser technology to dismantle.

Like, it was just crazy. And then so we just rotoed him out of that and put him into a 1960s spaceship set. We hired some actors. And we just used those lines as he said them. It looked good. It looks seamless the way you put it together. It was really impressive. I loved it.

And a shame about that as I wrote like five more based on just that one speech. I had just so many different storylines and they got approved, but then, like, you know, they tried to hang him and then he was gone forever. I wanted to ask when you were writing for the Oscars. You did this when Jimmy Kimmel was housed in. What are some things that just stand out about writing for the Oscars and being in that space and what did what you observed? Yeah, that was like, for me, just the most exciting, like just a high throughout the entire day of just working on it, the process. Yeah, I'm like the most genuinely just still enchanted by show business things more than a lot of our other writers. Like Jesse Joyce, I think you talked to him. I love Jesse. He's yeah, my former historian neighbor.

Yeah, he's great. And Jesse's just seen it all. But like for me, my first Oscars, I was like, wow, we're at the Oscars. And just for me, the getting even one joke in the monologna. analog, like, was about a celebrity. Like, I think I got a joke about Steven Spielberg. And I was just knowing like, oh, like, it feels like anything you write in the Oscars is then, like, somehow part of history.

Sure. Entertainment history for sure. And Spielberg is sitting there hearing the joke. That's a huge accomplishment. Yeah. And it feels like you're like at the Super Bowl almost because it is like, you know, television ratings wise. It's like those are the only two things that get ratings at this point.

yeah, it's just super exciting and just so positive. And I think I came into it when our team has done them before. So this is when my first one is maybe our third. So everyone was just like it wasn't, you know, it was like running like a machine as much as it can for something like the Oscars. But just so well produced and like, yeah. I would talk to people that work for Johnny. Carson that were writers for Johnny Carson.

And they said that they never saw Carson nervous except before he hosted the Academy Awards. And back then, a lot more people were watching. It's still a big deal. But, you know, Jimmy normally is just like, you know, he's ready to go to do the show. And there really aren't many visible nerves. Before he hosted the Oscars, did you see him nervous? Was there a change from, like, him just hosting the regular show? Was it visible?

No, I've never seen him nervous. I don't think. I think he could have a piece of his brain is broken, maybe that I'm the most nervous. I'm nervous for this podcast right now. I appreciate you doing this. I know you don't do a lot of things. You turned down the view, GMA. Places have asked you to be on things.

So I am honored that you accepted this. We've known each other for a long time, but I really appreciate that. So yeah, I mean, Letterman would get nervous before this show. Stephen Colbert would tell me, Mark, I am nervous. Because I'd say to him, you never look visibly nervous. He's like, Mark, trust me. It was a good poker face, but he would be nervous. But Jimmy, I don't think was ever nervous from what I would hear.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that he is because he is still, you know, a human being. There must be something in there. But he's, and I think he's also just so involved in the writing of it that he's confident, too, very confident. Yeah. Yeah, I think similar to, I think Colbert's too, like just more, just like so connected to the material. His concern is more like, is this order of the jokes, right,

et cetera, not like his performance, I think. Yeah. They both have a fearlessness. I remember after the correspondence dinner, which really made Colbert a household name, yeah, just like the response from some of the media, and he was just so, like,

I did a good job. I was happy and not, like some comedians would be bidding themselves up getting criticized. But, yeah, he was a remarkable guy. I'm really glad that we both got, to work with him. During the pandemic, you also got a lot of attention. It was tough. People aren't doing their, the late night host aren't doing their shows. What do you do to make money? And NPR interviewed a bunch of people. And you came up with this idea. And I want to know if you

had any experience whatsoever doing this, but you buy a 3D printer and you start making custom snow globes. These are customers or people that give a photo of their, is it their house? or their neighborhood, and you would do these custom snow globes. Did you have any experience in snow globes? And do you have any expectations that you would be in demand? And this would really take over your life. No. I mean, well, first of all, it was the, the rare strike.

It was. Okay, I thought it was the pandemic. It was writer strike. Okay, please continue. Or research. Yes. I am human sometimes, barely. Yes.

No, that was, I had made, because, again, Tony Barbieri, legendary writer and a good buddy had let me use his cabin. He has his cabin and I think it was even during the pandemic. Like, hey, you need to get away. You can use the cabin. And we've had a lot of good times up there.

And so I just wanted to like thank him. So I made a snow globe of his cabin. So what started it was I bought a 3D printer during the pandemic. Okay, I got that part right. Yay. And I was like just trying to learn. I learned some 3D programs. I was just trying to figure out, like, what can I,

like, create myself in 3D print? And houses were just, like, common sense, because they're just so geometric. It's not, like, making a person or something. And I, and, like, for a friend moving and really loved his house. And so I was like, oh, I'll make, like, a little plastic house of his, the house he's moving away from. So I did that. And then I was just thinking, like, it's such a shame all the work I put into designing this house every little window, but it's just this little piece of plastic. I wish it felt more like expensive or like fancy. And so when I made Tony's cabin as a way to thank him, I was running through that. I was like, yo, I should make a, I should make a snow globe because I was there in the winter and it's kind of a winter cabin. And that would like

solve that problem of you wouldn't, it doesn't matter that it's a little piece of plastic in there. So then just trial and error learning how to paint something tiny, figuring out how to put the snow globe. It has to be on like a little mound so the house is kind of in the middle of the sphere to be really up or else it just like is kind of just sitting at the bottom and you lose half of it. And just trial and error. And the learning how to like it was just very slow. and then making Tony's Snow Globe that was maybe a year before the writer's strike and he had it on his shelf

and noticed like oh it hasn't fogged up the paint hasn't come off the plastic hasn't disintegrated so these things last at least a year and then when the writer's strike happened I had also made one for my mom she was moved away from our child at home

like right before that and I just made an Etsy and said I'm going to try to sell a few of these and then Jesse Joyce, who I mentioned before, who's a roast writer and a very, very sweet man. Funny man, yeah, nice guy. But also his comedic voice is very, like, he's like, I know some dipshit selling snow globes.

Like in an interview he did about, there's an article about like writers going back to stand up, I think, because of the writer's strike, something like that. He's like, yeah, I know some guys selling snow globes. And then I think the writer of that article was like, wait, is that true? He's like, yeah, yeah. And so that writer reached out to me.

They decided to kind of build off that R. Just include me in an article about people doing weird, writers doing weird things to make money during the pandemic. The writer's strike, I'm sorry. And once that got published on NPR, it was like I could have sold as many as I wanted, the amount of people that reached out to me. People tracked me down.

Like my Etsy shop, I closed it after, I was like, okay, I'm going to do 12. 12 is I could do 12. I don't know how long this writer's going to last, but I do it too. And then just kept going. You know what? This was $299 a piece. And according to Etsy, you sold $139 and you could have gone a lot higher, but you were like,

I'm done with this. I don't want this to be my full time job. But it was for a while, right? Yeah. I don't know if I sold 139 because I sold some other little things like 3D glasses and stuff like that over the years. So it counts as like what I sold. But I do think overall, I've made about a hundred of them now. How long does it take you to make one on average if you had a guess? It's really tough because here's the thing about making snow globes. We could be just talk about

this the rest of the podcast. Snow globe podcast. It's a yeah, spin off. Okay. A snow globe of your house looks a house that is just a simple like cabin or cute little like whatever like just ranch house. looks so awesome in a snow globe. It just looks nice and it's whatever. And you have these people who have like these mansions who started that that became like a big, you know, because I was charging a good amount for them. Sure. And like, yeah, $300 or whatever. And then so some of the houses were just massive.

And I was totally doable. And like, but it takes way more time because you're like, some of them are like McMansions where there was kind of like just like, They're like 12 houses shoved together looking. And so like to make sure I'm getting every peak and every roof tilt and every just takes so long. And because it's scaled so much, you don't really see the windows when it's finished. And so it's like the smaller the house, the better the snow globe and the less time it takes me. I could do it like an hour. It's a much better product.

But some of the big ones would take me like, you know, a couple days. Oh, and I can't create the snow globe an hour, but designing it. like just creating the yeah that was fascinating that became your thing and it and it blew up on a writing day i know that you're in the morning um as i'm guessing it's a writer's assistant will give you premises um around what time does that email get uh to you and how many jokes do you average on on a day would you say that you sit you write into the show that you send to jimmy and the headwriter uh well yeah when we get it around seven a m and we submit them like a couple hours later.

And I think, yeah, I think it's like this will probably just add up across like any interview with most, I feel like late night writers over time. Like it's probably about like 25 in the morning and then throughout the day, maybe another 25, maybe 50 throughout the day, like joke jokes. And then a good day is you get two or three on.

Yeah. If there's some late breaking news 20 minutes before showtime, can you just put some, put something up and give it to Jimmy and just it might get in at that point or is it something everything locked yeah definitely but it's also like you have to sometimes our monologues are really thought out in terms of the flow of it it's not just a list of jokes you know um it's like we have to transition to this topic and sometimes it's like that this topic is just like to get in that topic just isn't going to work but it will still be a huge topic tomorrow or

and you know I'm not like you know I you just kind of see that over the over the years of when is it worth actually saying we should do this um for me because I did a lot of that animation stuff oftentimes I'll think if there's a video that it's going around everywhere and I'll have a funny like I think if we we can edit like this into like um we did something once that was like I think Heg Seth being sworn in on a um a creative Mike's Hard Lemonade or something and it was like a we can edit like this into like um we did something. I was like the way his hand is positioned, I'm confident that we could have this done in an hour and a half. And it's like, all right, well, we're trusting you with it. And then working with the graphics team to make that happen. But yeah, we don't do too much late in the day stuff. Who are some people at Jimmy Kimmel Live that you wanted to go backstage and either get something signed or do a photo with before the show guestwise? That's a good question. I kind of having worked in TV for a while,

like I also worked on a lot of like daytime shows. And I just kind of like don't do that just because. What daytime shows did you work on? I didn't, I wasn't sure about that. What day time? Oh, I have some mugs I could show you. Yeah, I worked on some daytime stuff too.

The Rachel Ray Show. Oh, yeah, sure. Then I went to the Nate Berkus show, which was Oprah's interior design. I remember. That was done at CBS at the, um, on 15. 57th straight, right? Yes. Whatever it was, yeah.

I remember. And then, which is I think like Oliver now, maybe. And then I did a little bit of freelance stuff for like, I did both Anderson's show. Anderson, remember Anderson could have a big team show. No, I do. I remember. I knew some people that worked over there. Yeah, I didn't know that you were there.

That's, wow. I called it Anderson 180. But that was like, I just went in for like they would hire me for like when they needed an extra. I was just doing field producing for all of those. So I'd be like coming as a field producer. And then I did one thing for the view once. and Katie Couric show is the last daytime show I worked on, Katie.

So you were all over the place. I did notice that you had a photo on your Instagram with Bill Clinton, I think maybe one of Ian McKellen. Colbert, did you do the photos with people? People at that show would, I would see it all the time, check with either Emily, Lazare, Amy Schwartz, and it was usually pretty okay to do it. Did you do that at all at Colbert or not really?

No, the only times I would ask for a photo with someone was just if it was natural if you're working on a bit with them. Like especially in the field department. It's like we all just did this bit for the last hour and it usually is a pretty natural thing. Like, oh, can we get a picture really quick before we go or before we like, yeah, something with Clinton for, I don't even remember what that was for Colbert. But it was with Nicole Savini. Yeah, Nicole's great. Yeah.

I read a piece. I was doing research on you and they, a newspaper published a photo that you took. I think it might have been in Maine. And it was this field piece in Colbert where I think you and Nicole, might have gone. And it was like, I'm getting this probably wrong, but I think it was somebody that was a fisherman that had all these fish guts in a bucket. And they put it when they thought it was their car, but it got into somebody else's car. And it was all this mistaken identity. And it made the news. And then you went all and got the original part of people to do a reenactment. I don't

know if you have any, if you remember that at all. Oh, I remember everything about that. But also, I had trouble explaining Jimmy has a wax figure scaring a person. So I don't know. But, You know what I want to do ask you about is when you would go to D.C. for Better Know a District, which were my favorite, favorite pieces. What was that like just sitting there watching Colbert do his thing? And did any of the people that he was interviewing or any of the Congress people get it all visibly upset or worried? So yeah, that was the most interesting part of my job at. And that was one of the most interesting jobs I ever had. I was a field AP at Colbert. So I was an intern for a while, left. to did a bunch of daytime TV and then came back as an AP in the field department. Kind of because I was like, hey, I've been a field director on a bunch of morning shows. I've known, you know, what you're saying about, like kind of gave leaving as a writer somewhere else.

And then they're like, okay, we could hire him as a writer here. Yeah. It felt a little like that. And so with that, for the better know districts, I would be sitting there every day calling congressman. That was part of my job. And it would be a thing like you don't do that all day, but you'd be like, hey, I got an hour, I got nothing going on. I'm going to just sit and call some guys. And we'd help me and Megan Geerhart, the other AP at the time. Oh, yeah, we love Megan. Yes, just great. I'm going to have these books and we would just flip through them. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to start on Alabama. And you know, like, oh, you're not going to get anyone in Alabama. I know. And you call the office and you say, hi, I'm calling from a Viacom television show that has this many viewers. And our host would love to sit down with your congressman. okay, what show is it?

Well, it's with MTV networks, but if you guys, I could send you the information. And then, like, you slowly get there, still get there. Yeah, it's with Stephen Colbert and then click. Especially at that time, Stephen was just this character. He wasn't who he is now. You had people like Nancy Pelosi,

that's my recollection. And somebody else is telling Democrats, you might probably don't want to do this, the show. At one point, at least, they said that. So, there was definitely some out there. I mean, the amount, The success rate. And then when it succeeded from me to Stephen, I remember in meetings, he's like, why are they doing this? And then we'd all be like, like at that point, what did they get out of this? But some of them were just great sports. And I- Most of them were. There were only one or two people that were not thrilled as my recollection. But please continue. But that job was such an adventure like the better know a district specifically. It was like, my job was just all the logistics. It's like, so you have to organize a meeting with Stephen in the field, producers and read through the jokes the writers wrote about this congressman and his district

from the research that the researchers did. Stephen will go through because I like that, I like that, and he'll make everything funnier or add something just because he's such good improver. And so one thing would be like, I remember there's a Seattle congressman, I believe Jim McDermott. We're reading and we're talking about one of the jokes about Pike Place. And we always try to do something physical. So it's like, oh, we should throw him a fish.

That'd be funny. And then as we're leaving the office, Stephen was like, and then I take a baseball bat. He throws the fish and I take a baseball bat and I just slam it like a 30 pound salmon and just guts everywhere. And we're all like, ha! And we go into the hallway. And then we're all just still laughing about it. And I was like, all right, anyway. So I'll get the, I'll figure out how to get a fish.

And then they're like, yeah, and the baseball bat. I was like, you want the baseball bat? And like, yeah, if it made us laugh at Stephen's office, you're doing it. You're getting it. It was pretty fearless. Yeah. In terms of doing those type of things, yeah. Yeah, and it was like that was an early thing in that job

is learning the difference between like, no, if we laughed at it, no matter how ridiculous, that's what we're doing. So part of my job was getting the most insane items into the buildings of Congress. I had to get a switchblade in there, a butterfly knife. How did you do that? How did you get that in with a metal? Every time it was just the most, we had to find creative ways to do it.

So here's how to get a knife into this. into the into Congress no um it would be like uh every single one like we had to do cocaine swords uh uh i think there was a gun once it was like but it wasn't like we snuck them in it was just a way that you we can get it through security and they would be okay with it so for instance the butterfly knife um the joke was for some reason stephen was going to be just flailing a butterfly knife around his face and the congressman's face. I don't remember why. And so we found like a ninja play set for kids.

It's like, you know, $5 at like a bodega or something. And it had like a ninja star and a mask and a butterfly knife. But it looked convincing enough that if you took the plastic, once you took it out of the plastic, it very clearly is a toy. But when you take it out of the plastic, the brilliant props person at that show, Brandon. Oh, yeah. Um, he, uh, um, Hurley, uh, Brendan Hurley, um, he, uh, figured out a way that I could do it in the bathroom. So he's like, if you take this paint and it's not a spray paint so it won't smell up the room and you do this and then you wipe it and then you polish it, it will look like a knife.

So like I had to like get, go through the thing. We bought some other toy sets. So it's like a ninja toy set. A, uh, a clown one or whatever. We're like, oh, we're talking to the congressman about some of these products or something for kids. And they scan them and make sure they're safe, make sure it's actually plastic, make sure that there's no danger. We had to work with the Capitol Police. And then once they get in, I had to run to the bathroom, open it up, take out paint and make it look like a real knife so that Stephen could do this around a congressman's base and it would be funny. Did you ever feel that you were closer in danger of possibly being arrested for anything that you? you did with the field department.

At Colbert. Yeah. Or Kimmel. Yeah, I mean, the last better know district we did, it was kind of like, let's burn all our bridges down here. What happened? So we, the last bit was with the first, Jack Kingston, I believe. He was the first, he was a Republican.

I remember his, did his daughter intern at the show? Oh, maybe. I thought so. Was he Georgia? I know. I don't know who's Georgia, but he was the first Better Know District.

So that's why we're like, okay, like we're trying to get someone and they said, no, I forget who it was, but it was like, okay, well,

we need to figure out this last Better Noah District. This is a big deal. It's like, okay, let's go with the first guy. And he's leaving Congress like the day after.

So it was a perfect like, so it ended with Stephen like, I'm leaving my show. I'm leaving Congress. Hey, let's go. have some fun and it was this montage of them running around DC on a two-seat bicycle and when they're on the two-seat bicycle Nancy Pelosi blows a whistle and reveals that she's on it and makes them put on

helmets but then she uh she's reveals to be on a BMX and then we had a stunt person do a bunch of BMX tricks dressed as Nancy Pelosi and I remember Stephen going like she's that we had Nancy Pelosi in the bike is jumping into the fountain she has to ride and jump into the fountain and the capital place. I was like, yeah, you cannot do that. No one can go in the fountain. That's not happening. And then I just remember it being a thing of seeing like, this is our last time here. She's jumping in the fountain. I remember either Steve or one of the producers. It was just one of those things we're running around and it was like different teams were left behind. It was like whoever's left behind with Nancy Pelosi. He had a shot of her getting in the fountain. And if we get in trouble,

we get in trouble. And then I think eventually on the late show, they did get in real trouble. but at that time it was we left a we made a bust of Stephen's head and we left it in one of the halls of Congress and like they got on each other's shoulders and put it on the on a ledge that was there for weeks

like we did a lot of stupid things in the halls of Congress that we shouldn't have done yeah that show yeah the Comedy Central show I was such an honor to be there it was a lot of fun I just remember it's just

no accident that you, I mean, you worked really hard and you were such a go-getter, the fact that Emmy nominated writer, Jimmy Kimmel and you've done so much. I remember, you know, when I worked at the show, we would have, sometimes I would have an audience interns and they would be like, you know, I really, one of my, they'd be in college and they're like, one of my goals to be an NBC page. And I would say to them, like, well, what have you done? They're like, well, I applied online. I'm like, are you going to do anything else? And they would just look at me like I had two or three heads and they're like, like, what? I'm like, you could call NBC and I asked to be transferred to the page office and talk to them. You could write a letter to your page coordinator. And I just remember

you walking in at one point being like, yeah, I just had an interview with the, with an NBC page. I didn't get the gig, but I talked my way and I called them. And I'm like, yes. This, so I wasn't surprised that you did, that you, that you succeeded well like that. But a lot of the interns just that was not, either they weren't comfortable doing that or it just was not in their nature. But that did happen, correct? Yeah, I, as an intern, I had like, being at Colbert, again, like, just enamored with, oh my God, I'm in like a real TV show, like, building. It was exciting to be there at the time, especially when the show really did blow up.

And I still feel that at Kimmel, like on good days, but mostly I feel like that. Still, like, years and years working in TV. I just love working on the night. But at that show, I remember just, I was an intern, so I was sorting mail to go to the executive producers and writers and et cetera. And I just remember thinking any time a letter came in that was like over my delivery and it was for a producer, you just assume like, yeah, just put that right down on their desk. Like, don't just put that in the mailbox. Like make sure they get that quickly. And so I just looked up, I called the NBC building, called 30 Rock just cold, said, hey,

I was just on the phone with a producer, a person from the page department. They're like setting up an interview and I got disconnected. And do you at least have their name so I could write them a note or something? You know, and they gave me the name. Once I had the name, I sent an overnight letter 230 Rock addressed to that person. And then in that overnight, the letter was just like, oh, I'm interested in the page program and in my resume and et cetera. But that got me an interview. and then my personal presence in the interview didn't get me the job.

Just the fact that you got in, I mean, it's harder to get into the NBC page program than Harvard, but just the fact that you even got an interview, 99.9% of the people that apply don't even get that. But just the fact that you did that, I give you a lot of credit. You know, I was just looking into some of the things that made national news. I don't remember what year this was that. You might have been at BuzzFeed at this point, but when you put on Instagram, The Ariana Grande, she did this album called My Everything, and she's posing on a stool. And it looks very, very hard that someone would sit on a stool like this.

So you try to recreate this. You put this on Instagram. You do not have much of a following on Instagram at this point. And your phone just starts to blow up. I mean, what was this like? Can you set this up? And this really put you internationally. And I'm not exaggerating that.

Yeah, that was the first thing that I remember. my mom was at a salon and saw my name in Touch magazine she was reading. It was just that that album cover was kind of iconic at that time, but it was like a few years old. I had an observation that her legs, the way they're sitting on a stool, don't make physical sense. Clearly there was some kind of like Applebox or something or it's just Photoshopped.

So I recreated it. And that was one thing at BuzzFeed. Like our job was to make things that go viral, that get shared a lot. And it just felt like that was like engineering that going into it knowing that like, oh, this is one of those things that anyone can recreate in their house because everyone has some stool like this. And it's kind of like a funny juxtaposition of like putting a photo of yourself in your like messy bedroom or whatever in a blurry photo next to this pristine photo of Ariana Grande.

And so like I even, I remember setting up that photo, just making sure there was no weird personal things in the background or like, before taking the photo, I was like aware they're like, I think this could like do really well. And I posted that. It did really well. And then remember they were like, it became like a challenge, like the Ariadne Grande Stool challenge.

And they were doing it worldwide. And this thing got like 45,000 likes on Instagram really quickly. Your phone is blowing up. And yeah, all the TV shows internationally are covering this. asking you one. And then how soon was it that Ariana Grande actually responded to one of your tweets? And did you think it was her at first or did you think this might have been a fan account? No, that was at the time when people were verified when Twitter actually made sense. And I was like, oh yeah, that's a verified. That's Ariana Grande. I know that. But yeah,

that was like at that time, like, I was, I just got something out of just trying to get, you know, tweets to do really well and that kind of thing. It was like, just a hobby and a fun thing to do. So when she did it, it was just, when she like made a joke about it, I think it just, that gave, uh, that made it just go further. That gave shows like license to say like, and she commented on it. It just gives another thing to make the story interesting. And you were initially a little bit nervous if her fan base was going to turn on you,

but it was such a positive thing. They loved it. So you, that anxiety was unfounded, but you just weren't sure initially, correct? Yeah, I don't remember what Ariana Grande's fan base looked like at that time because it was like 10 years ago. But yeah, I possessed you to watch the entire 1996 Democratic National Convention. You watched the entire thing. And you've found something very obscure and it blew up. It was a Hillary Clinton meme, the Macarena meme.

But why did you watch the whole thing and how long was it? And did you know you would see anything that would be worthwhile? That was, again, my job at BuzzFeed, so after Colbert, I ended up at BuzzFeed for a few years, which was a really fun job at that time. It was a point in the tech bubble where it was just like, you get paid to make things. How does that make money? I don't worry about it. So that was like my job was just making internet content. And I think I just started, you know, what a lot of people do now is just really,

realizing that there's so much stuff out there that no one actually looks at. Even though Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, that election was just like, constant wall-to-wall conversation and news, that no one actually sits down to do the really boring things of going back and finding. And we had at BuzzFeed, a bustling news department at that time, who did those kind of things for serious reasons and looking for like what people have said about policy. etc. in the past. And Hillary Clinton's such a big public figure. I just remember sitting down going like, I'm just going to look through weird things to see like just what comes up that other people

probably aren't looking at. And it was right around the DNC at that time. So it was like the week before. It's like I wonder if there's like old, Hillary Clinton has been at so many DNCs. And those are just when you look on C-SPAN like six hours of footage usually. It's just like I wonder, I bet there's just a funny cutaway or just something worth watching. and when everyone started doing the macarena, it was just mind-blowing. Like, how have we not seen this with the amount of just mind-numbing content that has come out of this election?

And I, yeah, edited it together. And I remember, I think I showed it to the, I did it for BuzzFeed, just for my job. And they were like, yeah, I don't know. It just feels like, are we trying to make fun of her? I was like, okay, do you mind if I put it on my own Twitter? Like, if you want. and then it did really well.

And then they're like, can you like write an article about it and just think your Twitter, just so we have something to BuzzFeed because they realize like, oh yeah, we should have just posted that. Your Twitter following is like something like, or X now, like almost like a million followers. From working at BuzzFeed and having that be a job and a muscle, like it is, there are certain things I do know, like this will do really well, I think. At that time, now, like I kind of don't use Twitter as much anymore. It's harder. There's so much noise.

And yeah, you know. And like I'll see very, obviously very intense political things are like even like white supremacist content or something. And then I'll notice the tab at the top says for you. And I'm like, that is not for me. Yeah. So I just kind of really don't use it much. In 2017, your sister was doing an engagement photo. She had got an engaged.

And you edited the photos and put Pennywise in the background of did she know you were going to do this? And this was another thing that really blew up. This was for BuzzFeed? That was like my sister asked me to take her engagement photos. I took them and I was doing post processing, like just taking, you know, they're just making someone look nice and changing the lighting around.

And I put Pennywise the clown just in the background of all the photos just for fun. We're in Maine, I think. And I think we were maybe watching it or we put it on at that time. And then I did put together a post. And again, like made sure I blocked everyone's faces. because like I asked her beforehand like,

hey, can I post this that I did that to you after I revealed it? She's like, yeah, just don't put in my face. So we did that. And then, uh, because she's a private person. And then that blew up. And the Australian Good Morning America asked us to be on. And then I remember talking to her.

She's like, yeah. And then it got closer to the day. She's like, I don't, I don't want to do that. Don't want to do it. Yeah. And so I had to tell them and they had to talk to just me. And it was like the worst interview ever. It was like, we're talking.

to the brother of the couple, I guess. It's just like, all right. So what was it like doing that? Yeah. Did you ever hear when you were at BuzzFeed doing some of this? Did you ever hear from some of the people that you were a kind of skewery? For example, you know, Tucker Carlson on, I believe at this point with CNN or I don't know where he was at Fox.

And he is interviewing various guests while they're eating mayonnaise straight out of the jar. And this was obviously the guest you superimposed this footage. But talk about that piece. And did you ever hear from some of these people directly? Yeah, that was something where I had to engineer something that would do well. It was something I just thought about for a while. I always thought about Tucker Carlson looks like he's grossed out when he's watching his guests, especially like when they're talking. He's just like that.

And so we have launched a new, we're launching a Twitter news show. point I moved to BuzzFeed News. I was just in the news division. And they were launching what they were trying to make like an entertainment morning show called AM to DM. And they had all this money behind it and they were trying to, it needed its own Twitter. So they needed to have a new Twitter account that was going to get as many followers as possible. So it was like planned like what should the first tweet be. So I had like come up with like something that I think would do really well and get people to follow the account and kind of set a tone for what we want it. So I use that. idea. We put a bunch of yogurt into mayonnaise jars and had a bunch of the staffers eating it slowly, like the hosts of the show and the producers. And yeah, I remember that got like that got us to like 20,000 followers off the start. Like that was the whole. That's huge back then. I mean, it would be huge now, but yeah, like to get that many. I have to thank you for doing this. I know you don't do many interviews, so I'm grateful. I mean, you turned down huge outlets. So thank you so much, Jesse. I'm so excited. thrilled for your success. You've worked really, really hard. And it's been fun to see you as a Colbert

intern, make it make it really, really big, and you're still doing it. So congratulations. Of course. Yeah. And yeah, obviously, there's one other thing I want to mention from you. Please, please. You got me a really cool late night gig that I didn't know if you'd remember. Yes. Oh. I think I was an intern and you said, an S&L writer named Tom Davis just wrote his book. and they need someone to like watch the door basically. And so I, from what I remember, you're like,

would you want to do that? Like it would like, you know, like, oh yeah, sure, why not? It's like money.

So like after Colbert like went over to some bar Manhattan. And it was a book lunch for Tom Davis. That's right. I was friendly with him. I was friends with him. Tom asked, I said, could I do this for you?

And yeah, forgot about that. Yeah. And it was just like, it was like, oh, I'll do that, not really thinking much of it.

And then it was just like a who's who of these like comedy, legends walk in. I was like, oh, this is so cool. It's like Lauren Michaels. I'm taking his coat and stuff. It really was nice. Tom was so excited, like a little kid after it calling me. He wanted to try to pay me money. I'm like Tom, we're friends. We've had dinner together. No, I was happy to do it. Yeah, I was so glad that you got to do that and get to meet some of the people. But it was like, it was really fun. Saturday Night Live people that I remember Tom Schiller was there. I remember that then Seth Myers came with Steve Higgins. It was, I think, a

night at that point. And then Lauren shows up. And this was near the end. And that was one of the, I met him briefly a couple of times, but it was really nice. I remember vividly. It was the second, Jimmy Fallon, when he was at 1230, it was the second night because he was telling, I got some FaceTime with him, and he was telling me it went a lot better than the first night and was just really nice. But Tom was like a little kid, just so excited. I remember the ice sculpture that Tom commissioned of Lauren Michaels' face for him. Lord pulls out his phone to take a photo. I'm like, No one's ever going to see this. And of course, Susan Morrison book, Lauren, that photos in there.

It's really nice. But I'm really glad that you got to do that. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, and his book is great, too. I recommend to anyone who's interested in Lightenheim. Yes, Tom had to do a lot of emails and phone calls to Al Franken to kind of remember. Because isn't that part of the book title, short-term memory loss? Yeah.

Some things here and there. But Tom was a really great guy. I'm glad that we- Franken was running for Senate. And I think that night he talked about it. I think he was a little salty. Maybe he was just like, oh, it's so many good stories that I had to leave out.

He had to wait until Franken was actually elected and things were going well before. Yeah, I think he did anything with some of the stories. But yeah, I'm so glad that we got that in. And Tom was, yeah, so much fun. He actually came over to Colbert, the Colbert report. I had him once as a guest. And I told Stephen he was in the audience and Stephen wanted to meet him. So that was really nice that they, yeah, Stephen was always such a big fan of S&L.

Tom Schiller was another friend of mine who came over, original Saturday Night Live that Stephen wanted to meet. So yeah, Jesse, so thank you for reminding me, that that was a really fun day. That was at comics, which is a comedy club that doesn't exist anymore. But that was a really fun night. Paul Schaefer, I remember coming out was there as well. So yeah, thanks for making that memory. And thanks for doing this.

Yeah, of course. This is great. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you, never miss an episode on Apple Podcasts, 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.