Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Millennial-loving comedian Iliza Shlesinger!

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

We chat with American actress and comedian Iliza Shlesinger about proudly showcasing her fan art, her outrageous love of seafood, and why she's feuding with New Zealand over bagels!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Jono, Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to HelloFresh, your home advantage for delicious midweek dinners everyone will love. What is it, like 3am next Christmas there? What time is it there? You're only going to see one of us on camera. There is other cameras, but we just thought we'd say hi. So sorry about that. Oh, hi. That's so sweet. Thanks. Okay, there you go. You're stuck with the ugliest one on the camera, mate. I was going to say, please let it be the ugly one. I need to feel good feel good now you look like you are in the world's most adorable room you're surrounded by art that is held up on the whose art is this eliza people think it's children's art but it's not it's fan art

i was gonna say your fans are incredible right they make you all sorts of stuff and bringing it along to your shows. They do. I mean, I'll show you. Not Pictured is the wall of, like, oil paintings. Wow. And artwork that they've made. Up close, it's all very well done.

Oh, that is a beautiful dog with a flower. Yeah. It's kind of Spanish looking. Do you ever get any and you're like, that's definitely not going up on the wall? Oh, yeah. Oh, sometimes, you know know you always say thank you and i was like this is a beautiful expression we'll hold some space for that but this is go we're gonna leave this at the hotel so pretty much every time your kids my kids bring home something you're like oh that's really cute sweetie and then it's like when they're not looking in the bin for sure i mean my daughter has drawn one picture of me to

date so i did save it but anything else that she comes home with i'm like oh my god the garbage you'll never know you drew we're very excited about you coming back to new zealand again performing in april you've been here a couple of times performing traveled around the country what's one thing that pops into your head when you think of new zealand okay i'm gonna give you a pro and then i'm gonna give you a con oh okay great i'm gonna fuck you and then i'm gonna kiss you gently okay oh i like it we'll start with the kissing um i love i love the culture in that like i love when i was there even white people felt very part of like the maori culture like it feels like we're all out

and we all it just felt very unified and very open-minded i don't know i just as an american we struggle with that and i i was let in on a lot of very unique cultural things because i did your country from russell to bluff so i saw the whole thing in verkarl included you guys don't have bagels and it's almost a hate crime what you do with them yeah we do we have taken creative liberty with the bagel you're right we're putting a lot of stuff on there yeah if there were any part of your history that you should shed off it would be like the british take on food because you're surrounded you're on this tropical island and you're like oh yeah we put

lemon curd on our bike like what are you talking about? That's a good one. That should be like a national horrific secret. What do you put on bagels then? What do you mean to put on them? Everything other than lemon curd. I had a great time. We got to go to a salmon farm

where you guys have like fresh lox, smoked salmon. Some of the food was truly a national embarrassment, but you guys really hit the nail on the head some of it was good you should see what we've done with spaghetti bolognese oh man i don't even want to know i think it's i think it'll be a hate crime i don't even want to know good liza with us uh coming to new zealand uh very shortly do you travel the world doing your job obviously do. Do you notice different reactions from audiences in different countries? I only go to places where the crowds are going to be good. Unrelated, I'm going to actually do Eastern Europe because if there's one thing

they're known for, their sense of humor. But I think across the board, everybody wants to laugh. Like no matter what the propaganda about a government has told you about the people, everybody sort of deals with the same interpersonal conflicts, relationship issues. We all do the same weird things. And so getting a chance to do that act, to do my act in front of new audiences, just reaffirms like genuinely how similar we all are. And I like Kiwis. You guys have an incredible sense of humor about yourself. Like thing about new zealanders is that you name your dogs really normal names and we don't like in the states i'm like this is buttons this is nothing and in new zealand like this is richard no this is donald you're probably right very good point now what's something I found really incredible I was reading last night about you?

Obviously, your work ethic is incredible, but you sometimes do three shows a night, often 20 minutes, and you're not writing a lot of it down. You're just remembering key words, and you're doing it multiple times. So how amazing is your memory? It's not great, I'm going to be honest with you. And ever since having my second child, it's really mostly muscle memory. I mean, thank God for repetition, because I'm not positive how I got on this call this morning. You're not doing great.

You've actually spoken about mom brain, which I appreciate. But you said it's a scientific fact that your brain actually shrinks. I said it. It's true. When you become a mom, your brain shrinks. So that's why you can't remember the star of any movie. You mix up your kid's name, the dog, everybody. And it shrinks to make way for the part of your brain that actually gets bigger,

which is the part that knows how to reflexively care for a child. So it's like, good news. I can't remember who starred in any John Wick movies, but I know my daughter's like poop schedule you've lost some valuable information there you do because I do remember mum like in a fit of rage trying to yell at me but naming everyone in the house apart from me yes so just know that your mother has been operating on half a tank since the day she gave you life so we all owe them an apology and maybe like a spa day and some flowers okay I'm gonna'm going to put you to the test right now, see if this works.

I'm going to start one of your jokes and you can see if you can complete the punchline. All right? Okay. Hopefully these are yours because they didn't look that hard on Google, okay? Oh my God. The weekend. The weekend represents the 48 hours. 48 hours that you have to fuck up the life you worked so hard for all week.

I love it. Okay. That's a great line. Okay, guys like to get barbed wire tattoos. What does that say? I'm barbed wire. I love it. Okay. Okay. Guys. I like to get barbed wire tattoos. What does that say? I'm barbed wire. I'm a badass.

What? Why? Just one on one arm. Oh, and then isn't it something like, but it's only halfway around the arm. Cause we don't do it on the inside. Cause it's how we,

like no one does like the tender meat on the, these are very early two thousands jokes, by the way, the material has evolved. Okay. Sleeping beauty was saved by the way. The material has evolved. Okay, Sleeping Beauty was saved by the prince. Do you remember that one? Terrible morals.

What do we take away from that? That you should kiss a woman while she's sleeping. Yes. Something like that. Practice upheld on most fraternities. That's why there's never been a live-action Sleeping Beauty. And one more. We'll go one more.

Guys, next time you see a girl in a pair of heels, ask her how tall she is. She'll give you two numbers. Oh, like is it without heels and... Yes. What we should start asking is how much women weigh before and after dinner. That's how you know if you're really here. That's what we want to know.

I should go back and change that joke. Liza, this has been very funny. Lovely seeing you again. And can't wait to see you in the flesh as well when you're here on tour. I made that sound very weird. Sorry. That was a weird choice, but maybe it's like a Kiwi colloquialism.

No, it's a Jono thing. Sorry. Can I ask, because obviously tickets, you want people to come along, but there's tickets I noticed. There's the VIPG tickets. Now, what's that? The very important party Goblin package. Very important Party Goblin.

My fans are Party Goblins. You also get to meet me after, and I give you a small parcel of laundry, and you do it for me, and you bring it back. Wow. I will have been on tour for about two weeks. I'm going to get drawing my fan art for your show again. Oh, that's what. Yeah, use your left hand so that it matches all of the drawings.

Tell you what. How about we come along, we each draw fan art for you, and you at the end of it, we can give it to you. You judge which is the worst. Yeah, it'll be like a Rorschach test. Yeah. I look forward to that. We'll get drawing that.

We can't wait to have you in the country. Coming soon in April. Love to catch up with you, Eliza. Thanks, you guys. I'll see you guys soon.