Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Rob Corddry

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Rob Corddry joins Mark to share stories from The Daily Show, his old boss Jon Stewart, a strange Letterman appearance, & why going on late night shows is terrifying. Presented by LateNighter.com Follow Rob Corddry on X Follow Rob Corddry on Instagram Please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. For more episodes go to LateNighter.com/podcasts

Before we begin, please subscribe to Inside Late Night and on Apple Podcasts, rate it and leave a review. It greatly helps me in getting the word out about the show. Thanks in advance. My first interview with David Letterman was terrifying. Like, I've never been terrified for a light night appearance before. And those are stressful, man. Even if it's with Colbert, like who's a friend of mine, they're stressful. They're scary.

Hi, I am Mark Malkoff, and welcome to Inside Late Night, presented by Late Nighter.com. Today's guest is comedian and actor Rob Cordry. Rob discusses his time on The Daily Show, his former boss, John Stewart, his letterman appearances, and much more. Now, it's time to go inside late night. Yeah, the last time I saw you, you had glitter on your face. I don't see any. Uh, nope. my kids are above sort of a princess age.

Now I just, you know, marvel at their powers of reasoning and, and they're, they're so funny and savvy. They're savvy joke telling. You got them into comedy. I mean, I know that Johnny Carson,

one of his friends was Dudley Moore and they would be at parties and Johnny would be on the drums and Dudley would be on the piano. And I know Arthur is like your favorite film. I mean, yeah. And I know that you introduced a lot of comedy to your kids growing up. I don't know about Arthur. I mean, now it probably wouldn't fly as much. It's, yeah, still holds up for me. I haven't watched it, but it's utterly more. I mean, come on. I mean, such a funny, underrated guy. Yeah. John Gilgood, you have the straight man. It just, it really does work well. But you've seen

that close to 200 times, and I'm not exaggerating. Yeah, probably. My white, It's a thing. I haven't said it yet today, but at some point, somebody in the house will say, I have to go pee and I'll go, I'll alert the media. I quote John Gilgood all the time.

And I haven't seen the second one. Don't know why. I just, a lot of times with sequels, I've never seen Ghostbusters 2 either. I was just like, I just don't want it to be. And it could be better.

I mean, sometimes like the godfather. It's not. I saw Arthur, too, I saw Arthur won because it was just one of those movies that was on HBO incessantly. Like Silver Streak, you know, things just ran all the time. And I watched those, they weren't very good, but I just loved them.

Oh, I mean, whatever was accessible when we were kids, right? I mean, three, four channels and then you had like a little bit of infancy and cable and we're watching whatever we can. Even if we don't like it, we are watching it. Oh, my God. That's the definition of our generation, I think, you know? I'm so excited to talk to you. The first thing I wanted to mention, when you were hired at The Daily Show, this is February of 2002, I didn't know until recently that you and Ed Helms are hired together the same day.

The same day, yeah. Yeah, we were with a sauce and, no, the same audition process. We were hired out of that, I think the only two guys, but they didn't use me. for a while. I sat in an off. I sat in my office for like three weeks while he went out on a field piece. And so he kind of like got over the hard part, got over the hump and did one of those field pieces while I was just sitting there waiting. And I would sit there and I prepare for them. I would watch raw footage over and over. Yeah. I mean, I was about to say it was almost a gift because you were watching Colbert. Back then, it was a single camera for those field shoots,

I believe. Yeah. You were watching just everything behind the scenes and how things were set up and the visualization and Colbert, then doing the questions later when the person isn't there. Yeah, that was not surprised. Such an education and so smart on your end to take that time to really figure it out,

the process. I've always been like, I don't like, well, I can't say always. I love free time now. But, you know,

just sitting there in an office waiting is not my, kind of thing. No, I mean, you're getting paid, but you want to, I mean, wouldn't you get that higher in stuff? I mean, when you got the Daily Show, were you still a waiter at Jekyll and Hyde doing the Don Rickles insults to patrons? What was I doing? What was I doing? You know what? I don't think I had, I think I had been able to supplement my income enough at that point with commercials and voiceovers and things like that. Like when my wife met me, she said, um, she said, so what do you do. This was our first date. And I said, I'm an actor. And she goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what do you do? And I was like, no, I'm an actor. And this went on forever. And she, she stopped asking me because she felt bad.

She thought she was insulting me. So at that point, I believe I was, I was just doing commercials. That's great. And I know you're doing some Conan stuff. And I want to point out what a gift was also that you and Ed Helms knew each other from UCB. this was like the infancy at UCB to go in with somebody that you knew. I don't know if you were friends or not, but just to be able to have that experience. I think he worked in the office at the time to supplement classes. You know, we would just see each other and say hi, but like, and people would be like, oh, that guy's really funny. I didn't really, I came in before him.

I didn't really know him that well. I never, never performed with him at the UCB theater. I remember seeing naked babies, which was your sketch group. I remember you all dancing to journey every, every way that you want it. That's the way you wanted. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was like some sort of like, yeah, it was really fun, the four of you. And then, I mean, you guys started to take off.

It's pretty amazing. So, you know, the SNL audition is so, and you didn't do SNL, but it's legendary for people that are going in, they know that no one's going to laugh and it's just going be this can you handle the pressure but when you do daily show it's not like that john is there and it's really easy going so that must have just right away you hear the laugh and just gave you that confidence just i mean you're auditioning all the time but um to hear the laughs was um unexpected yeah i um that and my audition was what my final audition was with john at the desk and to make him crack up was i still i think it's the best laugh i've ever gotten to this day that when i got

that audition for the daily show i was like i can do this i can do this thing and there were five auditions until i got to the desk five callbacks or something i just was like i practiced that so hard i put the script against the wall and pretended i was reading a teleprompter and you know did the whole news voice, which apparently some people can't do. Luckily, I could. Yes, that's the one requirement for that job. It's the one requirement. Like, Weekend Update would not play on Saturday Night Live with somebody they couldn't, they'd have to be able to be a broadcaster on the news. It's a cadence, yeah, that you can at least, and it's fun. It's really fun, that sort of rhythm. Yeah, you had a great run. And then, I mean, I'm looking at.

your appearances on late night, and you've done so much, but I mean, you were already, I guess, eight years in on the Daily Show when you get booked your first time at Letterman. Did you grow up watching Letterman? Was this a big deal? What stands out about your first Letterman appearance? So, of course, yeah, Letterman is a big deal. I didn't grow. I thought I grew up watching Letterman, right? Until I met other comedians and comedy writers who grew up watching Letterman. like they breathed Letterman and and I was like oh I know I don't have that kind of knowledge or experience so but I had enough to be so very intimidated my first interview with David Letterman was terrifying I like I've never been terrified for a for a

light night appearance before and those are stressful man even if it's with Colbert like who's a friend of mine it's they're stressful there they're scary you make it look easy and that's the job of a professional. But when you went out, because the thing with Dave is you want it, you want to score and also you want to be asked back, which you were and most people aren't. So from the time that you, I bet you're guessing with Bip Henderson backstage until he says your name, what stands out? Did you bring people with you? Do you remember that? No, no, no, no, never. Never bring someone with. I never ever bring someone with me. I mean, my, sometimes my publicist will be there now. I didn't have one back then. I don't think it. And they'll be in. And they'll be

the green room. So I just want to be alone. And that's true for pretty much everything I do. I don't like visits, set visits. But that moment that you're talking about standing in there with Biff, I'm sure it happened. I don't remember like I went into a zone. I've heard that before from people that were at the show. Yeah, really? Yeah. It happens a lot when you go on to a talk show because it's like a sink or swim kind of thing. And you can't really prepare. People say, oh, you got to prepare for those things like we can't really i mean you have the pre-interview but dave would deviate from the pre-interview all the time i mean yeah could you tell that it was working right away or was it one of those things where you just could you enjoy it with dave the first

time so my first time with david letterman was not only terrifying it ended up just being so very confusing how because i think i got i got a weird you know there's many dave letterman's and when I was walking up, I shook his hand, and I was wearing these awesome, mind you, like Alden wingtip shoes. And he goes, where did you get those shoes? Those shoes are fantastic. And I was like, oh, thank you. And then we sat down, everybody stopped clapping. And he went on for about a minute or two on the shoes, asking me where I got them. He was going to get a pair too. And then I, I kept trying to make jokes, you know, to like, this is what you do. And he went, no, no, no, don't, don't joke. I'm just, I'm talking about the shoes. I was like,

I blew it. Because you want to go out and be as entertaining as possible. That's your job as a guest. And Dave, yeah, yeah, there were some things. I'm talking to Spike Ferrisdon later today. And there was a moment when he was at the show that I'm going to bring up where Spike signed up for a go-kart race for the show. And Dave was so into this and told Spike, I don't want you to write any more for the show today. I want you to go work on the go cart. Spike was working on top tens. And it was like, Dave, the day of the go cart race was calling every half hour to see how the go cart was. And it was like, you have a show. It's a show day. And I guess if Dave is into something, he is into something. You know, and I guess he's just so comfortable up there now

that when he's into something, he'll indulge that. Like, You know, because my second appearance was vastly different than my favorite. How so? Oh, it was great. Like, we didn't talk about my shoes. So he was a big fan. The reason I got on there in the first place is he was a fan of Children's Hospital, the show I was doing at the time.

And because it is very sort of Letterman-esque, letterman-esque at times. It was very absurd. It's an absurd show. And so he just, that's the kind of thing he would like. And so he talked about that a lot. And I got off a couple good jokes and I made him laugh. And that I was like, oh, I recovered. I finally, finally recovered.

And I never saw him again. To make that guy laugh is not easy. Well, he's that mysterious guy. I mean, there were people that did Johnny Carson show only once or let Herman show once. And it's just like what happened, who knows. But the fact that you got two in and he retired three years later. So if he was still doing the show, I mean, you've done so many shows, but in terms of being loose, it seems like James Corden has

this thing, because you're out there with other people, a looseness that I don't necessarily see anywhere else. Is that? Yeah, it's built in. It's definitely built in, for sure. So you could feel that and you felt really loose? Yeah, because like, you know, like you said, they do a pre-interview for all these shows. Even that pre-interview was kind of perfunctory. They were like, this is not anything, you know, we don't have to get to any of this. And they always say that when you're there on the show. They're like, just go wherever he goes. But they really mean stick to the cards, stick to the pre-interview.

But with Corden, it was very, very, so very loose. And you had two other people usually to bounce off of. It was fun parents. What was that thing that you did musical shares instead of chairs? It was, it was chairs, but it was. Musical shares. What was that? It was you and Tigg,

Nisaro, and it was... Malali. It was Megan Malali. That's right. That's right. So we were wearing chairwigs, I believe. That was... Yeah.

And Gordon. I don't know, man. It was fun. I love a bit. I love doing a bit. So you're all dressed as share, and it was musical chairs, but musical chairs, they called it.

Yeah, he was really, really a strong host in terms of his likability and just terms of getting his... guests relaxed. What was it like doing the Conan's because were you doing Conan background work before you were even a guest? Yeah, yeah. So you knew people over there. So you must have been really comfortable. Yeah, but no. Never, never comfortable. I guess to go from that one, because there's there's clips of like Rob Riggle and all these people doing the background, Andy Daley and stuff. And yeah, to go from that to actually be sitting down next to him and

Andy. The group of the UCB theater down at like the alternative comedy scene at the time in New York City, the UCB theater was known, was derogatorily known as, as Conan's Farm Team. It was Michael Delaney was in every episode. He put his kids through college with that background money. Yeah, he was always good, but I'm like, Michael Delaney, that's so funny. The first time I was on that show, they. I played, I had so much fun doing that.

I played an astronaut whose space helmet fills up with P. Was that for the staring contest? Yes, yes, yes. I was like, this is for me. I feel at home here. But when I went to sit on the couch for the first time, I was terrified because I really revered Conan and revered that show, still do. Like, I think, I think he's one of the best at it ever, if not the best.

You did his podcast as well. Oh, yeah. He's, he's so great, man. I won't do anything that guy tells me to do. And you know what's so great is that, like, after one or two times on the show, he's very familiar. You know, he'll, he'll talk to you backstage like Corden does too, but a lot of, some of them don't anymore, like come backstage and, and chat with you. Letterman, for sure. I mean, Letterman was like, six.

save it, save the, no pre-show chat with Letterman. Yeah, he learned that from Johnny Carson, because Carson would maybe see somebody in makeup and say hi, but he wanted to say that the first moment and that energy, which is different. Leno, you did a bunch of times and Jay is just hanging out backstage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, because, see, that's kind of what I do. Like, I, if I had a talk show, that's what I'd probably be doing. Like, I keep my green room open, my door open, and I,

go out in the hallway. I don't want to be stuck in there, like shut the door like all these other. Like, there's a lot of actors just slam the door and that's it. They are, because they're scared terrified. I mean, yes. Yes, I don't, I'm not blaming them. I'm not blaming them. But I'm just trying to force myself into sort of a talking mood. Yeah. But whatever your process is, and then to put that stuff together with entertaining stories and make, make it worse, And then just to be able to have women, you did so much improv. I mean, you were Shakespearean trained actor and you're doing that for years. And then you do the comedy and you have these skill sets that a lot of people don't have where you can go on that.

Some people cannot deviate from or the guest from the pre-interview. I mean, you. Right. I've heard that. You can tell sometimes. But you could always just kind of ride a wave, which was a lot of fun. What about going on with Ferguson? he's another one that seems to throw away the card

and it just seems like a conversation which is not with all the host did you have that experience or not exactly I did I had a great time doing his show but because I got I felt like I nailed it and I really had a great time I felt like we had a great rapport and I got a lot of laughs

and then I heard from my publicist later that he didn't want me back on the show because you were too funny do you think I guess so I guess so I guess I didn't I guess he didn't like that it's such a strange thing they would have these um after every show and John Stewart would do this Colbert where they were just post-mortem and they would talk about how the show went and I know it Johnny Cart with Carson sometimes the guest would absolutely kill in Carson's like I don't want the person back on and it's like why who knows see that's like old school it's old school you know today it's so loose and all of those shows I, you know. Yeah, going on with somebody like Seth Myers, who I'm sure you know in doing, I saw like, what else?

You did Fallon and Carson Daily a bunch of times. You've done Colbert's CPS show, like something like eight times. Yeah, yeah. I did Kimmel once, and that was great too. Yeah, it seems like you're a veteran. Seems like you've gone on everything. But going on Colbert, since he's a friend of yours and you overlapped it, a daily show. Yeah.

I think he is underestimated in terms of. his interviewing skills and just his connection and stuff, well, there's some hosts that are just so caught up on the whatever is the pre-interview and whatever is on the cards. Not as much, but I think Seth doesn't do it. And I think Stephen doesn't do it. They're improv comedians. Yeah. That's a, I mean, that's an excellent point. I mean, they can really have a conversation, which is great. You mentioned, and this has to be really hard. And maybe it's not, when you were at The Daily Show. You just give your soul to these field pieces. Everything is edited in the way that you want that you see. And then John Stewart gets to it and he starts making cuts. I mean, it's basically

you called him, I think, a surgical, John is surgical with the jokes. Yeah. Which has to be tough. How long did that take you to get used to? Could you go to him and challenge him? Maybe this doesn't work. And was he right most of the time? He was always right. Really? Yeah. I can't think of a time when he wasn't right. And maybe this is just a kind of hero worship on my part. I don't know. I could be guilty of that. But like,

he's so good at that thing, what he turned that show into, that he knew where the joke was. And even though something was, like I learned a lot on the, like how to kill babies, basically in terms of like, that's a funny joke,

but it has nothing to do with the plot of your field piece. You know, but John's note, note sessions were stressful because he's while he is uh insightful he he's also like um he's also like a very vague he goes his very it was very he was famous for saying like um so just uh yeah do the um do the do the the thing with the thing and we were like okay so the thing you were just talking about or the the the thing is there is there a reference to a thing. but just do that thing with that thing.

What is the adrenaline level like to be there in the studio, the studio audience when your field piece plays and it scores? Oh, it's great, man. Those, I mean, I got it. My field, the field pieces are so hard. They're so, so hard. You made them look easy, I mean. Oh, wow.

I mean, it's not, guys like Jason Jones had an easy. your time with it, maybe John Oliver because those guys those guys were John once said there was a new correspondent that came in that didn't last too long and they just didn't get what John wanted on a field piece so he killed it

and then Jason was by the door and he said don't bring a shovel to do the work of a sledgehammer or to do the work of a steam shovel or something like that because you know Jason Jones was terrifying and he he enjoyed like ripping the people apart whereas i was it was just hanging like colbert said you got to hang your soul up at the door a little bit i can't imagine the one that

you did because um it wasn't until you got there probably but there was a you were doing a piece it was about children our future and you'd find a guy that was working with children's charities and the joke was going to be. He's in it for the to meet celebrities. Yeah. So, so you go into and you know that this guy is not going to be in the celebrities. You walk into his, his office and he has a children's charity. And what do you see everywhere on the walls? His wall is covered with pictures of him with celebrities. It was exactly what you did not want. And he was, he was illustrating the joke. This is an irony killer. And also he just, we tried it anyway and he kicked us out. No, after just, he just, there was no reasoning or?

No, no, he would, no, he was just like, nah, I'm like, because I think the jokes didn't work, first of all, with him because they hit too close to home, so he took them kind of personal. It's better when they're like, we just want them to say, no, I'm in it to save children's lives, you know, that's all we want in a nutshell. When they try to be funny or they try to play along with the ridiculousness of questions that It doesn't work a lot. That usually is gone, yeah.

It happens all the time. And we sometimes have to stop recording and be like, you just sometimes to a point where we even have to explain it to him. Like, listen, you're the bad guy, all right, even though you're the good guy. Do you get it? There were people that you obliterated that you would think would be upset with you when the thing aired. But instead, they were just excited. You would hear from them. They were just excited to be on TV.

can I take you out to lunch? Can I be your friend? Yeah. Oh, Ed Helms interviewed this. We were sharing an office and he told me he interviewed a, I think it was a politician probably who was so anti-gay. And Ed destroyed him. And he would just call Ed all the time and ask him to death. Like, it was almost kind of gay. Wow. Would Ed have dinner with him? No, Ed wouldn't have dinner with him. Okay. I didn't think so. I didn't, I didn't. didn't think he would, but that's, um, you wouldn't expect that I wouldn't expect that. But I mean, you know, what's the, the whole cliche is like any publicity is good publicity and they hear from their friends and. Yeah. People just want to get on the TV is essentially, essentially the motto there. When you did the 2004, it was, um, vote and die. It was, um, basically people were going to vote to vote. Can you set this up and were you, were you nervous for it at all? I mean, it went really played really well. No more nervous than I was for any of them, which was, you know,

a certain degree of being nervous. But voter die was the saying on MT, popularized by MTV at the time. And we said that's both really vote and die, meaning we will find fecal matter in the voting booths. And we did. And we had a doctor. He was gold, this guy who actually said, as a speech, We are literally bathing in human waste. And this is a real doctor. Where's Miami? Yeah, just the level of where you would go, but just to have a gift like that of a doctor like that is so funny.

Yeah, it makes your job a lot easier, especially when, like you said, we had one camera and it was... Did you ever see a photo of Joe Franklin's office before? covered with stacks of pieces of paper and books the late Joe Franklin. I mean, it was just ridiculous. I didn't know this. I was reading an interview you did, but John Stewart gave Joe Franklin a little bit of a run for his money. I mean, John Stewart's desk, you said, was just, I mean, it was piled and stuff. Oh, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. Did he acknowledge it that it was ridiculous? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Every time I went in there, I'd go into his office and sit

down and he'd be like um so i just cleaned up like it was just a mess i was just going to say a lot of books because he would read the books from people that were going to be there and it was just everybody oh he read books he didn't want to read yeah he and i caught him once and he was embarrassed i walked into his office without knocking because that's cordy way of doing things and uh he had a book in front of him and he was reading it like this Oh, he's like a speed reader. Yeah. And he comprehends it and digests it.

He's a very fast reader. He's such a smart dude. He's intimidating. Him and Colbert, both of them. I mean, I had a day job at Stephen for almost four years. And I always, it was hard for me to be myself around him sometimes because he was so smart. I know you don't. It was when I was on the show.

It was hard for me to be, I mean, you know, John Stewart was really intimidating when I was on the show. Now he's like, it's like, I'm, he's like, my uncle. Johnny Carson was a speed reader. He took a class. So John was embarrassed just that you knew he was a speed reader. Is that what his embarrassment was? Yeah, that he caught, that I had caught him being smart, you know. He's so verbal, too.

I mean, yeah, his turn of phrase, just off the cuff is amazing. I wanted to ask you this for the longest time because there was a script that was going around Hollywood and here in New York, and I got a copy. And it was almost this underground script by Ricky Blit called The Winner. And it was like when I read it for the first time, I mean, I was laughing out loud. I couldn't stop. And then I talked to somebody in L.A. And they're like, no, Mark, this is everywhere.

This is people are obsessed with this script. Oh, wow. And then you get the lead. And then I, it was Julie Haggerty and the pilot? And then. Yeah. And the whole show. Well, she did the whole show.

Okay. Six episodes. But it was one of those things where it just, at what point in the process, Did you know about all the hype around the script? And at what point did you kind of know, discover maybe this doesn't, isn't working? I thought it was working. I think my, this was my introduction to working in Los Angeles, like in Hollywood. And Seth McFarlane as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Seth is so easy going, but the guys behind the curtain, like, they, I think at one point realized, because I played a 35-year-old. old chutton whose best friend was a 14 year old boy they at some point realized that they they're making a show about a possible pedophile i never i never got that in the pilot no no the stuff that i've seen it was just that's what my i think because the as we went on they kept like making it a little safer they got you could see them getting more nervous and ricky getting angrier and and then finally it was it was gone i don't even know Also, I don't think anybody watched it.

I mean, I don't think it was promoted that much. I don't remember seeing many promos. It was six episodes. David Kekner, very funny man, said that he gets mistaken. People go up to him all the time and they think that Kekner's you. Do you get the same thing sometimes? Yes, all the time. I will, not recently, but I will whenever I do text, he'll text me sometimes and be like,

oh hey somebody thinks you're great and hot tub and i'll be like hey this is just do you think you're awesome at anchor man it's so strange it seems like whenever i talk to somebody that's famous like yourself they have stuff that i would never think of like marklin baker gets griffin done a lot and vice versa and i'm just like hey i can let you see that i can see i mean kekner i i was scrolling through because i prepared for this show i'm looking through my appearances and I was looking through the videos on Google and one of them was with Kekner and I thought it was me and I had to read it and see what show I was on and it was like, oh my God, that was Kekner talking about how he was like me.

Do you have a favorite talk show appearance that you did? By the way, like a certain one that stands out? Yeah, I think maybe the reunion show on Colbert when it was Stan B and Ed Helms and John Oliver and John Stewart and myself. That was fun, man. Guys were rock stars. I mean, to look back, it's like the Yankees, like the best dynasty and stuff. And it was so cool. The fact that all of you were propelled into this amazing stardom, whereas, you know,

SNL still was launching people, but for a while, it was like the Daily Show was really launching those careers. Yeah. I got in there at a good time. I really did get in there at a good time. John just had just found his, you know. Yeah, he found his voice because when he got there, it took a couple years or something. Yeah.

The audience to accept him. I always go back that people when he first got the gig, all I would hear people being like, I miss Craig, Kilbourne, I miss Craig. Yeah. John wearing a suit was very different than what people were used to. Yes, he did not like wearing suits. Yeah, he would always, he would wear the ball cap. He would wear, was it thermal, like a thermal?

Leather jacket and a turquoise-ish, a muted turquoise t-shirt. Oh, once I went into his office and saw a stack of about 20, like, muted turquoise t-shirts on his desk. And I said, hey, you're branching out, huh? And he was caught. It's funny watching him caught. It's really funny. I was so inspired by Children's Hospital for so many reasons that you just pulled this thing off,

And it was such a head. It ran forever. And there's very few times in show business where you, the creator, can go out on their own terms and they're not canceled. And you did what you wanted to do. But the thing that really I got to me, and I need to read this book. My dad actually sent it to me is this really came out. And a lot of creative people are not like this. You were taking some time.

You were kind of down and you were reading. I don't know if self-help book is the right thing. Productivity. productivity yeah and you get to david allen get things done yeah i changed your life creatively i mean it just it was so when i read about this i was like i have to bring this up what what exactly happened yeah it gave me i found out there was an actual structure for the way i vaguely did things anyway so it sort of propelled um my productivity and and and once you're productive you want to work more like you want to create more and your brain is sort of free and empty

and able to sort of accept ideas and so really I felt like I was firing on all cylinders and since then it's the same I do the same thing but I I've modified it to a point where it's very analog now because a lot of creative people minds can be turbulent and it got you to the point where because you were so productive and you had stuff that you needed to do file in certain places you could that you had that tranquility in your mind and that's when the idea for children's hospital came to you when you were the most relaxed exactly right i was uh well not relaxed so much because you know i had just been i just was driving my daughter home from children's hospital after hurting her elbow but uh i my definitely was in a place where i could

accept that particular idea and I don't think I would have been able to had I not been reading about this stuff. It's a great thing. It's a great get things done. It's so simple. It's not self-help 20 degree. I need to read it. I just get overwhelmed very easily and stuff, but it's not. I would listen to podcasts about it like, you know, Merlin Man. Yeah, there's people that swear their whole lot. I've talked to some people that admit that I take it too far. It's easy. to jump, like, to have it control your life. Like, anything is too much and stuff. But I know people that swear about it.

So I definitely want to check it up. So you're doing Children's Hospital. Then you start working on ballers with the most famous movie star maybe in the world. Yeah. At the same time, you're doing these crazy hour days in Miami because it's a single cam show. You're out on location. You're probably really hot, 13, 14 hours. And then you have to go.

People think this is so glamorous. you go to where you're staying and you have to edit the day's not done yeah you are at doing children's hospital one outlet called you a one man band i mean you're starring and it very similar to what shanling did you know with larry's energy you're starring it you're writing it you're editing you're supervising all of it how how hard was that and then you have a family what was that like well i want to give credit to the producers because you know i mean the editors who did do the actual editing. But, you know, they would give us cuts. And that's what I was doing after work, is reviewing those cuts and giving notes. Yeah, I don't know. I enjoyed Ballers so

much and I enjoyed Children's Hospital so much. None of that. I never look back on that as being difficult or feeling like work. How hard was that too? And who was your very first phone call when you decided you wanted to stop Children's Hospital? Again, not many performers ever get the luxury of being able to do that. Yeah. I think, like you said, I like doing a lot of different things and Children's Hospital as I was wearing three hats, you know, in that show. And I sort of just wanted to do other things.

That's all. It was really a selfish choice on my part because all these other guys, my friends in the cast were like, it summer camp. They used to call it summer camp for them when we'd shoot. That's to have that experience, you don't get that how special that is for... I know, and I ruined it. You gave them employment for seven years or something. Because I wanted to do Hot Tub Time Machine 2.

Well, you know, the first one I saw in the theater when you first did Hot Tub Time Mission, and that was the very first film you did not have to audition for, correct? Yeah, I think that sounds about right. That must have been just this amazing feeling because, like, I mean, I think, You were so defined by then anyways, what you could play and beyond and stuff. But a lot of times, they still make you audition, but that must have been just the cast that you were with. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, I was like, I'm also, I enjoy auditioning as much as someone can enjoy auditioning.

I am good at it, I think. I really worked hard at it when I first started out acting. I learned how to do it. So I'm a good auditioner, and so I'll tell my agents all the time, like, I know, you will look like a bad agent if I audition but I please tell them that if it comes down to it I will be happy to audition I don't need just an offer because there are some people I'm not going to mention you would think that they would just suck up the pride in audition but they won't and it's people you would be very surprised it's it's um I understand it because

it's not it's not pleasant but they should just get better at it. They should feel more confident about it. Now it's difficult because you know, you're self-tapping and that's a whole other animal. When you, what 8.8 million people on average were watching ballers. I mean, on network television,

I mean, to get even something numbers like that, but at HBO and this cult thing like, what was that like? I mean, could you tell the difference when that got on the air? Did things just change in terms of you walk into a restaurant and you're traveling on an airplane or not really?

I don't know. I don't really remember. I wasn't really conscious of it. I mean, it is probably the show I'm most recognized for even today. But it is a great show. I don't, I don't really know. I didn't, I don't remember there being a dramatic shift. I just remember how much press it got. I mean, you've gotten so much press over the years and some great interviews. I was doing research. What was it like the day, the day. you're over at the Daily Show. I'm guessing it would have been, I guess maybe Jen Flans or whoever goes up to him and be like, Rob, guess what you're doing tonight? You're guest hosting for John on no notice. What was that day like?

Oh, it's terrifying. It's fucking terrifying. How much notice did you get? About that much. About less than, you know, eight hours. And I was like, I know.

Absolutely, I am. Let's do it. Let's do it. And first of all, there was an author, a very dry author on as the guest. My first job as host was to say, can we, can we not interview him? Can we interview someone else? Because I'm not really, I'll blow that one. And they were like, yeah, absolutely. How about Will Arnette? And I was like, perfect. And so, yeah, just give me a fun interview, please, and not one of these dudes, because I don't, nah, I read the book, I ain't gonna. You did great and you looked so natural. If there were nerves, you couldn't tell it. And there was something about this audience. They, you know, they wait forever to see John Stewart. And then, but when you come out at the same time, they're like, they realize the significance of a correspondent hosting the show and there's this energy in the room. Could you feel that energy that people were rooting for you? I guess I knew that people were just inherently disappointed, who were there, right? But sort of, I think the secret, the success of hosting, co-hosting that show or guest hosting is to just do as much, just do what John would do. You know, just like do your imitation of John, essentially. And he's so comfortable up there. I literally knew the movements.

Like, I knew the, like, tapping your pencil and the papers that mean nothing. There's nothing on those papers. I have some of the papers when I worked at Colbert Jack. Remember Jack, the security guard? Yeah, sure, sure. And it would be like, John, just doing doodles. Yeah. I mean, on the blue paper and stuff.

Yeah, I don't know. He'd come up and he'd just be, the camera would come up to him, and he'd be, yeah, doing doodles. and that was it. Yeah, there was nothing. He was not writing insightful notes at all. I know. I didn't do that part, but he looked good. It was very funny.

He did look good, but... That was one of the most fun things I've ever done on television. Didn't you do it twice or was it just once that you guys hosted? Just the ones, yeah. You know, one of my favorite things, because I had friends over there, and I would go over the Q&A with John, and I'm glad they're taping it now, which they never did. I mean, back every day and when he would come out.

And they do that with Stephen on this show. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm so glad he's back. I mean, even if it's a, you know, once a week, it's still. I can't believe it. I mean, when I heard he was back, I was like, no, that's not true. He would not do that. If they asked you to host a show like that, like a variety,

either like a talk show or something, you're behind the desk, what would you say? Because it is the hardest gig to keep doing that. no thank you i would say uh no thankful respectfully no thanks uh because i'm not that kind of guy that i know it's not it's a grind too i i could fake it that one time i'd take it pretty well but i can't i i couldn't imagine how letterman and carson did that for all like oh what a slog you know i mean yeah i mean it was it was ridiculous last question if if somebody gave you a studio like 50 million dollars do you have a dream project that you would want to do that you've

always in your head that you want to make what do you mean like um just whatever you wanted like an idea for a movie idea for whatever that like you're like here's your money to surprise that's what you want to make well i always wanted to play and this is for you know for years i've wanted to play i had it written on a post-it note um i wanted to play um an athletes uh or baseball player a baseball player a superhero or villain and what else did I want to play oh and like are a hit man or an assassin or an FBI CIA agent and that's what I do I'd combine them all and I'd be like CIA baseball superhero assassin I'd be in the theater for that one final question is I did this on my Johnny Carson podcast I would ask a similar question I just asked Robert Smigel

the same question about Lauren Michaels, but for you, who was John Stewart and what did he mean to you? What does he mean to you? Oh, man, I, um, it's hard to even put into words because I look up to that guy so much. I, I treasure my experience there and that guy and what he taught me. And it's hard to even put it into words, but like, and I love now that I could probably call him and just have a conversation with him, like buddies, and it took a long time to get to that point. But he, I just, there's probably not a guy in show business. I mean, he and Colbert are probably right up there who I respect more.

I mean, they're smart. I mean, the smartest guys. They're smart. They got it all. They got it all for that. And John is a leader. He would come over to Colbert sometimes at the report and just talk to all of us. And you're like, I want this guy.

to be our leader he would produce yeah what's up that's he was the producer right or still it yeah so he would actually that's cool I didn't know that usually those guys like not their hands off usually yeah they should take the title but no he would

get the money he went over to the CBS show too when the first year when you know still trying to find the boys and talking to the staff and stuff he yeah yeah he's great real deal is there anything you want to plug or social media handles or anything. First of all, I'm so honored you would talk to me that you do this. No, what are you talking about? You, uh, you came over to my house. I was rude to you. I was rude to you when you came over to my house. Some people thought that was real and I'm just like, you know,

we were good. You and I, we were good. We made a good team. You were a good. Yeah. It was amazing. I loved it. No, you were so damn fun. That was a lot of fun. So no, I just, I thought you were a good guy. Thanks. Rob, I just hope everything's well. I can't believe, like, do you have kids in college now? Just got accepted to college, yeah, one of them. Oh, wow, where, if you're allowed to say? Hampshire, yeah, I'm allowed to say.

Hampshire College in Massachusetts, which is part of the five college system that UMass is part of where I went to school. You must be, when you go back to school, they honored you when you were on the daily show at your old school, or your high school, you must be a rock star when you go back. I mean, you're a rock star anyway. I mean, I went back, the one time I went back to UMass, I went back with, and I was there with Jeffrey Donovan, so we both sort of, it was sort of diluted. It was divided between the two of us. We were, thank God.

No, I don't really know. I don't notice. It's all just very like a sort of pleasant and constant sort of thing with people coming up to you and people like that, and especially at those places, I have a very comfortable level of fame is what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, you've worked so hard. I mean, I just love reading the early interviews with you just about, you were saving money. You'd save like $25 a week to sleep in a van instead of like when you're doing the Shakespeare stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I know you beyond paid your dues. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. And now I'm done. I just want to be

You know, I want to, come on, can we just retire in this business for God's sake? It would be nice to be able to just, yeah, it's hustle, hustle, hustle. Thank you for doing this. I hope you, how was this? Was this okay? I know you don't do a lot of these. It was great. Yeah, of course.

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I'm going to be. Thank you.