Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - Heidi Gardner

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Meet Heidi Gardner, a comedian and actress best known for her work on Saturday Night Live. After 9 years working at a hair salon in LA, Heidi decided to pursue comedy and worked her way up through the Groundlings. She joined the cast of SNL in 2017 and has brought us many, many laughs since then. I had an amazing time chatting with her and I hope you enJOY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers, and more. This podcast tells more than just the brutal, gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the difficult, and all the nuance I can find. Because these are the stories that we need to know

to understand the intersection of society, justice, and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III and together with my wife, Andrea Waters

King and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. Welcome. My name is Paola Pedroza, a medium and the host of

the Ghost Therapy podcast, where it's not just about connecting with deceased loved ones. It's about learning through them and their new perspective. I think God sent me this gift so I can show it to the world. And most of all, I help people every single day. Listen to the Ghost Therapy Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yo, what up? It's your girl Jess Hilarious, and I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials because each and every Wednesday

I'm fixing your mess on carefully reckless on the black effect podcast network got problems in your relationship Come to me your best friend act and shady come to me thought you was the father, but you're not come to me I can't promise I won't judge you But I can guarantee that I will help you. Listen to Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Craig Ferguson Pants on Fire Tour is on sale now. It's a new show.

It's new material, but I'm afraid it's still only me, Craig Ferguson, on my own, standing on a stage telling comedy words. Come and see me, buy tickets, bring your loved ones, or don't come and see me. Don't buy tickets and don't bring your loved ones. I'm not your dad. You come or don't come, but you should at least know it's happening, and it is. The tour kicks off late September and goes through the end of the year and beyond. Tickets are available at thecraigfergusonshow.com slash tour. They're available at thecraigfergusonshow.com slash tour or at your local outlet in your region.

My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. My favorite cast member on Saturday Night Live right now is Heidi Gardner. She's professional, she's very very funny and she's very very good at what she does. And she's here! Let's meet her. Enjoy. Here's the thing, Heidi. I want to tell you this right now. I think Heidi is the nicest name for a girl. I've always thought that. And if ever I had had a daughter, I would have called her Heidi. And I wondered if you were raised in the Alps looking after sheep.

I wasn't, but I did have a good relationship with my grandpa, which I believe Heidi also had. Oh, that's right. I think Heidi... Did you read the book, Heidi, when you were little? Yeah, I think I've read different iterations of Heidi, but it always has to do with a grandpa, the alps, some sheep.

Some sheep. And I think there's a vampire in one of the episodes where Heidi meets Dracula. Yes, Heidi meets Dracula is my favorite version. Do you know, I'm in London right now and I just walked by Bram Stoker's house where he wrote Dracula. And now I'm a bit scared. Itoker's house where he wrote Dracula. And now I'm a bit scared. It's why it's on my mind. I would be excited. Yeah, I'm excited and scared.

It's a mixture of both. I'm skiccited. So Libby, are you in New York City? I am. I think I can tell by your fashionable bag hanging on the thing behind you. That might be the only thing I hear that's screaming fashion. Are you in production right now for SNL? Yes, we have the 50th anniversary this weekend.

Oh, congratulations. And may I say 50 years on television, you look great. Thank you. That's amazing. Did you see the movie? The new movie about the Saturday Night Live movie? No. Okay.

And it's only because I'm saving it till I'm not currently taping SNL. Because it's just a little too close. Yeah. It's funny. It seems like I've, over the years, I've run into a lot of people who have either, you know, current or past cast members of SNL. And they are, it is a kind of, you get to be part of a sort of elite. You're part of the elite now. Do you get like, is there a special roped off area of clubs of New York if you're an SNL? if you're an SNL? You know, if there is, I don't know about it and it's my own fault. I'm from the Midwest. Yes. I think we're humble to a fault. I have been

told by other cast members and I believe this like in their life and even former cast members that you that they can walk into any, in their life and even former cast members, that you, that they can walk into any restaurant in New York and get a table. And I just have never banked on that for one second in my life or that there's a secret section. So I'm always making a reservation. I'm never assuming I'm getting a special room. I think that's the correct way to go about it because that shows the correct approach

to show business, which is you never know where your next shock of humility is coming from. 100%. Yeah. But you're not even as old as Saturday Night Live. Did you grow up watching it? And who did you grow up watching? Who were the cast members?

Because I assume you grew up watching it, did you? Yes, for sure. And I remember my parents, and I'm not sure, you know, obviously this is before YouTube and where you could rewatch most things, but I think that my parents had some of the early VHS because they showed me, they definitely showed me Eddie Murphy as James Brown, the hot tub time machine. Like that was the first sketch I ever saw. And then I would start watching it on Saturdays with them. And the first time I ever made my parents laugh was doing, or that I remember, is doing an impression of Dana Carvey

doing an impression of Robin Leach. And so that was... Like, Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Wow. That is, I remember that. What's the, so are you from a show business family? Were your parents involved in stuff like that? No, they're definitely characters for sure. And they're like my greatest source of inspiration.

But my dad, my dad actually did do improv for comedy sports. And so when I was really little, I'd go and watch him perform. That I remember that comedy sports thing. That is that still a thing to people still do that? I do think it is. Yeah. Well, it's kind of like competitive improv. Is that what it is?

Yeah. And like they would wear ref uniforms is what I really remember from it. Yeah. But you were a, you're a groundlings alum now, right? So how did you get into that? How did you end up doing improv? Cause that's an LA based or LA and New York based, right? Yeah. So I moved to LA when I was 21 and I moved out there to do hair and makeup.

I knew I wanted to like work in pop culture in some way and I was good at doing hair. So I moved out there and I was working at a salon for about five years and made friends with a woman named Rachel who was in the Groundlings. And she said, you know, you should come to my improv show tonight. I'm performing.

And I'd heard of the Groundlings for sure. I mean, I was obsessed with SNL and pop culture and everything. I went and saw the show and I was like, that's the funniest thing I've ever seen. I can't wait for my family to visit so I can bring them to see it. And she was like, yes. But also I was hoping that maybe it would inspire you to,

you know, take a class here. And I was like, what? And she was like, I think you'd be really good at this. And I was like, I'm not an actor. And she was like, yeah, but you leave me like six minute voicemails in character. And they're funny. Yeah. I think.

Yeah. So that was kind of how that started. So you were, cause your hair is great. I didn't want to bring it up right away, but your hair is great. It looks like it's been done professionally. If you don't mind me saying. You know, it was done professionally this morning. Yeah. Yeah.

It didn't look like that. But, cause I, I did a movie once where I played a hairdresser in order to do it properly, I learned how to cut hair a little bit and I really liked it. That makes me so happy to hear that because my biggest grievance as a hairdresser is if you watch someone playing a hairdresser, they don't hold the scissors correctly. And so I love your commitment to the craft. Yeah, but you didn't see the movie, did you? I just thought...

No, you didn't see the movie. But in it... Now I'm going to. Now I'm going to. If you told me you did that, that is the best selling point. It was a movie called The Big T's. Nobody saw this movie. And it was about a Scottish hairdresser that goes to Los Angeles to take part in the world

hairdressing competition. Oh my God. At the high jinx in Sioux. to Los Angeles to take part in the world hairdressing competition. Oh my god. The hijinks ensue. But I learned how to cut hair a little bit and I really liked it and I thought I kind of wish I'd done this instead of getting into show business but by the end it was too late. Yeah. I mean I always think it's a good, you know, it's a good thing to go back to.

I really enjoyed it and it was also a place where I was meeting so many people every day, different types of people. But also was a good source of inspiration. And also, and also gossip in Hollywood. I mean, it is the absolute hive of all things. If you want to know anything, you would hear everything. I would. And you still went into show business?

You know, it's funny, when I told my clients, when I finally quit the salon, I never told them I had this like side, I don't even want to call it side hustle because I was doing everything for free. Just this side obsession with sketch and improv. And when I told them, you know, I'm leaving the salon and they're like, oh, well, what salon are you going to? If it's close, I'll follow you. And I was like, no, I'm going to pursue comedy.

And because I didn't consider myself an actor either. And they were like, are you funny? It's like, I think I am. And they're like, don't do this. Like you moved out here. You did the reverse of what people typically do. You moved out here like to be a hairdresser and you made it. Like don't now do the cliche thing. Like they very much told me not to do it.

I think the good thing about show business though is as a kind of as a place to work on one of the good things about it is the fact that there are no really set paths. Except maybe something like Saturday Night Live, if you're lucky enough to get into that, then that's kind of like you get the rubber stamp. It's like the Ivy League of comedians. How long have you been doing it? Like six years or something? Eight years. Eight years?

Yeah, I'm in my eighth season. Do you still like enjoy it? Yeah, I do. I love playing characters so I can't really imagine a world where I'm gonna get to do this to this degree again. Right. I will say the only thing that I've started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue or idea fatigue in the way that at this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long,

I'm like, I've written a lot of sketches. And you know, you just get scared. And it does happen some weeks where I'm like, I do not have an idea for a sketch, a game or a character. And then, you know, luckily we have amazing writers at the show that will be like, but I have an idea for you. That's the only thing that has gotten a little tough. How does the week get put together for Saturday Night Live?

Do you start on a Tuesday or something? Is that right? Yeah, we do go in on Monday. It's just for a couple hours. You meet the host. You pitch them a joke sketch. It's just kind of an icebreaker. And then Tuesday is writing night.

Wednesday, table read. Thursday, Friday are the rehearsals. And when we tape, the pre-taped sketches. And then Saturday, rehearsal day, dress rehearsal show, after party. The after party is part of the day. Is you have to go to the after party. You know, you don't have to.

But I think out of respect for the show and the party and the thing you just created that week, it's good to let off some steam with everyone. Occasionally, I've not gone. And then I regret it because it's like you have so much adrenaline pumping through you that if you just go home and try to go to bed, it's not going to happen. That's funny. I kind of, I used to always party after a show or do something after a show and now I'm like, I can leave a theater.

I'm out the theater before the audience and in my bed in a hotel half an hour later lights out, socks on, pajamas and sleeping. It's funny because adrenaline I always thought as a performer I thought you needed it and now I think it's the enemy. I hate adrenaline on stage. I don't like to feel kind of nervous. Do you still get kind of charged before you work? I get charged, but you know to tell you the truth, the charge is all adrenaline and anxiety and untruths. You know, it's just even when if I'm going to perform, you know, I'll perform at like a local theater or do a show at a college. And all suddenly before I go out to this new crowd of people think that they're going to hate me. Yeah, I think that's normal.

Yeah. And it is it's just adrenaline and anxiety and you know, and so I'm used to just like having that thought saying this is how you think but it's probably not true and you're a people pleaser so you're still gonna go do this yeah yeah it's also it's funny I remember working with an old comedian it's not that long ago actually and I was working with an older comedian who you would know and I was like pacing up and down backstage and all that stuff. And he was like sitting in a chair and he was like,

he said, what are you doing? I said, you know, I'm just kind of getting myself ready. But for what? Who's this for? What's all that? All this posturing backstage is just going to make you speak too fast. And it kind of does.

It's true. I stopped doing it. And I feel like in the past few years, I've gotten much better at the job because I just like I just go and And if they hate me, well, that's fine. I'd be surprised though, because they know I'm there so they could avoid me Yes, they didn't have to buy the ticket didn't have to buy the ticket they know They know who you are. They've come to see you, and they've come to see you probably because they like you. I'm not saying there might not be a crazy loner in there somewhere who hates you and

that's why they're there, but I don't think there's that many of them. Maybe I'm wrong. Yo, what up? It's your girl Jess Hilarious, and I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials. Because each and every Wednesday I'm fixing your mess on carefully reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network.

Got problems in your relationship? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Thinking about cursing that one stank auntie out at the next family gathering? Do it. But come to me before you do because I cussed all mine out before.

You wanna fight your coworkers? Come to me. Baby daddy mad because you got a boyfriend? Come to me. Thought you was the father but you not? Come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you.

As a daughter, a sister, a mother, and an entrepreneur, I've learned a lot in life. So I'm using my own perspective and experiences to help you fix your mess. Send me your situation and let's fix it as a family. Listen to Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Each week, we'll sit down with inspiring figures like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter.

And they're plus one, they'll ride or die, as they share stories never heard before about their remarkable journey. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There was a moment that should have broken me, but just because of how I was raised and

my bullishness and arrogance to want to be great hardened me. It gave me a platform to be so singularly focused on greatness. We all have moments like this. Something happens that's supposed to break us. But it's in these moments that we discover what we're really made of. I promise you, if anyone knows this, it's me. I'm Ashlyn Harris. The way that your generation is now with performance, though there's much more connection, I think, with the audience in digital form than I, people of my generation. And even, you know, I kind of separate myself from that a little bit. I mean, I have social media, but I don't do it. Someone else does it. And I occasionally will go on and look at it and go, uh, and go away.

Do you have all that? Do you have all the, the Instagram and the Twix and everything? I have an Instagram, but you know, I run my Instagram the same way. Even saying run my Instagram, I just do my Instagram the same way I did it before SNL, which was just like posting pictures and stories for my friends, for the most part. And I think I did come around right before it was more of like a necessary thing to post so much content. I think if I hadn't gotten SNL, I would have needed that release 100% and would have done that more. But I am able to get a lot of stuff out on the show. And I just have never found my gear on a social platform in a way where I want to be that vulnerable. Yeah. I think also what happens is SNL is famously produced,

but I don't know if it's still on a day-to-day basis, produced by Lorne Michaels, is it? Yeah. All right. Because Lorne is like one of the great comedy producers of all time. And I think that the thing that people suffer from on social media, on the phones and stuff like that is that they don't have a producer. They don't have someone saying, you know, what would be better about this joke

is if you didn't do this joke and maybe did a different joke that wouldn't make everybody mad or make you look like an asshole or something like that. Do you know what I mean? It's like, I feel like the role of the producer is removed. The creative producer is removed

from a lot of people's Instagram. And I think the people who are successful in social media are people who have a producer's instinct themselves. They understand, you know, I'll do this. Like, if you look at influencers, even like that, like the royal family of the Kardashians, they're all producers. They all think like producers. They all have a kind of... Do you have that, do you think? Do you censor yourself or think about it or do you let the show do it and relax into that? I mean, I assume you trust Lorne and give you the right advice. Yeah, I do trust his advice. And at this point, I feel like, yes, I know how to self-edit.

I know typically what the show's going to respond to or not respond to, even to just get it onto the show, like table read. What I do like is the freedom of once the new part is the live audience. So once I'm performing it live in front of the audience and on TV, I do like that that feels like, you know, I'm just like, belts are off and I'm just going for it. I love that. But because we've had rewrite tables and we've edited it so much up to that point,

I'm like, oh, I have, I have the time to be a little crazier, you know, or to take my time because we've already cut it down. The only thing I will say is, I totally agree with that point that you're making, but I was at a concert recently where the performer brought out another act and what I was watching was certainly something that had not been rehearsed, you know? The woman performing was just pretty loose in her dance and singing, and like,

and even the other dancers were like, they weren't sure where to stand or catch her. And I thought, I was like, oh my God, I would never be able to go up there and do, I can tell this, like someone went out and like marked this for maybe two minutes, but they were fine. And the audience was fine and they still had confidence. And I was like, that's interesting. Cause I don't trust that at all. And I could never do it, but it was nice to see someone just be experimental.

It didn't really work for me, but I was like, that's cool to have that confidence, because now I'm so produced. Well, you make an interesting point, because when I work, I don't have a rehearsed show. Even when I was doing Late Night, I didn't have a... I would turn up, honestly, in last like four or five years of it. I'd turn up like 15 minutes before and then we'd go.

And then that was it. And, you know, and I would look at some ideas. But I think that's repetition of, I know what I do. So you experiment within the parameters of what you do. Like, I know the robot is over there, the horse is over there. I know if I say fuck, they're gonna get mad, but if I say asshole, they won't get that mad. And you know, it's like you build a kind of,

that little box that you can experiment within. Yes. I think what would be difficult now in that environment, I mean, Lorne clearly knows how Saturday Night Live works. I think if I were doing a show now, I'd be like, I don't know what the rules are now. I don't know that the joke that I said last week might be annoying. Everything moves very quickly. And you can, you can step over lines that are still, the paint is still fresh. You know, that you're like, I didn't know that was a problem. Why is that a problem? And it has to be explained to you.

And I, do you find that in the time you've been on the show that you have, I mean, presumably you've learned to speak the language of the show. You know how to get a sketch on the show. You know how to make a sketch work in the show. But do you think it's boxed you in in any way creatively? Is it something that you'd like to experiment away from the show. But do you think it's boxed you in in any way creatively? Is it something that you'd like to experiment away from the show?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's definitely boxed. It's weird to say this, and I'll probably have another point to it. But it's boxed my confidence in a little bit because I so want to be, I so want to get something on the show. I want to be accepted by the show and I want to thrive on the show and I'm so in this world and I'm there, you know, six out of seven days out of the week. And it's my singular focus when, you know, we're filming. And so I'm like, if I'm not getting stuff on,

then I'm like, I'm not funny. I'm not doing my job. And that has been the thing that then is weird when I go do another show and I'm so like, oh my God, I'm nervous. I haven't done like live shows like when I was doing Groundlings a lot. And, but then you go and you do a show or you just do an improv show and you're like,

oh my God, it's fine. And people are not judging me as harshly as I'm judging me. And even the show isn't judging me as harshly as I'm judging me. It's just suddenly I got this standard. So there's that. And then also, I know whatever I do next, which I'd love to have a show that I co-star in and co-write, and it's a character, and it's a world,

and it's a character I get to live in for a while and explore more would be. What would that character be? A hairdresser maybe? No, but I bet they'd have big hair. I think, look, you already know how to hold the scissors. You're halfway there. Yeah. I think that the idea of working,

because I used to like avoid playing Scottish people all the time. I was like, but I'm Scottish, I might as well. Like if you got offered a part being Scottish, go all right. I presume that if you get offered a part playing someone from Kansas, that would be okay. It would be totally okay. I mean, I love like Kansas, Missouri, where I was raised. I love the people. I get the people.

I love Midwestern and all the different levels of it. So like that world, I'm in on that. I was always surprised that when I went to the Midwest, like because I got to know America from the coasts in, so I knew New York and LA that when I started going to America in the middle that, you know, cause I learned that you go, Hey, how you doing? And people go, Hey, how you doing? And that's it. But if you that you go hey how you doing and people go hey how you doing and that's it but if you say hey how you doing in Kansas people tell you how they're doing. They will. I'm okay but my sister had to have an operation and you're like oh my god is she okay? Well she's doing okay now but and you find yourself in conversations. Yes, yes. I worked with a great

improviser from the Midwest who played the character of Mimi on the Drew Carey show, which is a show I was on in the 90s, Cathy Kenny, who's from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, which is about as Midwest as I can think of as maybe nearly as much as Kansas. Yeah. They're very funny people, but there's a real darkness. as much as Kansas. They're very funny people, but there's a real darkness. There's a weird undercurrent to it that I love. Yes. Oh, I totally feel that. I mean, so much of my stuff at Ground Leans and even sometimes at SNL, like, you know, a note I get is like, it's a little too dark or, you know, like play up the joy. You know, you can play, you know, at work, they've told me before, like, you can play a loser,

like, but you have to be loving your life as a loser. Like the audience, at least our audience here at SNL does not want to worry about you. So like you are having fun, all of this information that's painting the specificity of your weird down and out life, like you need to be loving it. And I get that for a while I was like, but this was my life. Like, you know, like even talking about like being in debt or something like just things

that happened throughout my childhood, you know, or I was like, well, this was funny because this is how we dealt with it. Or this is what my parents did to, you know. And they're like, yeah, but a lot of people think like, maybe that's something you should talk about in therapy. Just be careful. What do you think that the sketch format doesn't allow for it? It can't really, if you're doing a sketch, you can't go

hugely complex with the character if you've only got three or four minutes to do it, right? And that's like the exact thing that producers tell hosts, especially hosts that are like seasoned dramatic actors who want to get into their character. And I get it because I love characters and I like to go a little deep. But you'll just get lost in it for three minutes and it I've never seen it serve someone

very well to go too deep and take it too seriously. It's always about just like yes the voice you're doing is great like we don't need to think about what they had for breakfast. Like you're good. Do you have a favorite, I won't ask you names or anything, but do you have a favorite type of host? Is there a type of person that is easier to work with and you get more out of it than another? Yeah, so there's a couple. One of those being really amazing,

I'll say, I should just say actors, but I like to say dramatic actors because it catches me off guard. Because when someone, I remember my first season, I think it was my first season, Sterling K. Brown hosted and he did a sketch where basically he was just at a dinner table, just saying Shrek is the best, like DreamWorks movie or

something and someone else was like, no, I think it's How to Train Your Dragon. And there were jokes in there, but he was never going for the joke. He was just playing it as a man who earnestly believed this and had his moment to say it. And he never went for a joke or a silly face. Like anyone in the cast would have been like just going so goofy say it. And he never went for a joke or a silly face. Like, anyone in the cast would have been like, just going so goofy with it. And I was like, I left that table read being like, is he funnier than me? Like, is he funnier than all of us? And I see that, see that a lot with really good actors. I'm like, you're just a good actor. And like,

you're doing, I'm sure what you learned in school, just playing the truth of the character and it's fully working and the writing's good. So I love that. And then, you know, I'm a big sports fan, so I love when athletes host because personally, I think the expectations should be super low. There are fish out of water. This isn't what they do. So if they are just fine, it's like, yeah, that's fine. Like he's a linebacker. It's like, we didn't expect him to be the best. But when they kill it, it's like, oh my God, like there's this hidden talent in there or something they always had that they got to have floor.

Yo, what up, it's your girl Jess Hilarious and I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials. Because each and every Wednesday I'm fixing your mess on carefully reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Got problems in your relationship? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady?

Come to me. Thinking about cursing that one stank auntie out at the next family gathering? Do it. But come to me before you do, because I cussed all mine out before. You want to fight your coworkers? Come to me. Baby daddy mad because you got a boyfriend? Come to me.

Thought you was the father but you not? Come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you. As a daughter, a sister, a mother, and an entrepreneur, I've learned a lot in life. So I'm using my own perspective and experiences to help you fix your mess. Send me your situation and let's fix it as a family. Listen to Carefully Reckless

on the Black Effect Podcast Network, I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives.

Each week, we'll sit down with inspiring figures like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. And they're plus one, they'll ride or die, as they share stories never heard before about their remarkable journey. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast

The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was a moment that should have broken me, but just because of how I was raised and my bullishness and arrogance to want to be great hardened me. It gave me a platform to be so singularly focused on greatness.

We all have moments like this. Something happens that's supposed to break us. But it's in these moments that we discover what we're really made of. I promise you, if anyone knows this, it's me. I'm Ashlyn Harris. So if you're a big sports fan and you're from Kansas, yeah, you probably is not the greatest weekend you've ever had, was it? It wasn't the greatest weekend. It, you know, I've had like so many great Chiefs years recently, a lifelong fan. So I am like grateful to a fault, grateful to that they went to the Super

Bowl. The only thing that's hard as like what I consider to be like a sweet fan who has been through wins and losses and all sorts of different season and I know what it feels like when like another team is raining. It doesn't feel great. The only thing I don't like is just that there are some stories that are like, well, the Chiefs didn't show up. They didn't try. I'm just like, no player out there who made it to the Super Bowl didn't try, Eagles included. I mean, Eagles tried so hard and they blew us out.

I just find some of these narratives so insulting. Actually, I was talking to someone recently, I was like, I fail all the time at work. Like I write sketches, three sketches a week usually, cause I like wanna have good numbers to maybe get one in. And usually I get zero in, like I fail and I lose. It's just that, and I think that's a loss because I didn't get it on, but I'm like,

oh, I'm kind of protected because no one saw my loss live because it never even went, they didn't see me lose. And so I'm just like, they have to go lose in public. Like, but they try, like no one's not trying. It is an odd thing, but I think around sportscasting, especially when you think about it, it's not you can't rehearse it. You know, so if you're, I feel like the people who are actually commenting and live on the

game, I have a great deal of sympathy for that because you have to keep talking and you're going to see a lot of bullshit that people are going to get mad at. But I think afterwards the idea of yeah, they didn't try. Somebody analyzing the game saying they didn't try. It is a ludicrous idea that you would get up in the morning of the Super Bowl goal and go, eh, all right, well, I'll go. But really, I mean, I'm more looking forward

to going out later on in the day. I don't think anyone goes to it like that. No, no. So thank you for letting me get that off my chest. That's the most trash talk you're going to get for me. I'm glad you got it off your chest. And I'm glad... It is an interesting thing, though, but I think when pop culture...

Very famously with the Chiefs right now, pop culture and sports culture are intersecting at, you know, light speed. And I think people that normally don't pay any attention, the Super Bowl is always like this. When people that normally pay no attention to sport, suddenly it's the day where they're gonna sit down and watch sports all day and have opinions about it. And I think the thing about sports,

a little bit like performance, is that everybody's kind of an expert. You know, you can say things like, wow, he didn't do that because of this. And no one can prove you 100% wrong. No one, if you say, oh, Travis Kelce, he didn't try. You went, well, he did, but no one can prove you wrong and say he didn't, but he did, he tried. But it's the same thing when people say that's not, I mean, I'm interested when we talked right at the beginning, we talked about improv sports, that sports improv thing.

And I was always fascinated by that because the idea that somebody can be more funny than somebody else seems an anathema to me. It doesn't seem possible to me that because it's so subjective there are some things that people laugh at I'm like I just just don't get it and I'm not funny I get fucking Emmys and Peabody's and shit I know I'm funny I've made money so what why do I not get that and the reason I don't get it is because it's like all are. It's subjective. Yeah. And I mean, but sport, you kind of have to win. Yes.

And I think that... Well, you're just so much more vulnerable, in my opinion. It's just like, there's just a winner and a loser, and you're putting it all out there. And like with what we're doing, it's like, you're funny, And maybe some people think you're not. But a lot of people think you're winning. Like even the most like subversive, like left of center stuff, you know? But also the thing is as well, that if you don't make people laugh, they get angry at you.

The same as if your team doesn't win, they get angry. You know, it's like, and that's an interest. I've never understood that. Like, that guy doesn't make me funny. He's it's like and that's an interest I don't I've never understood that like that guy doesn't make me funny he's an asshole why is he it just it just doesn't make you laugh no he's an asshole that asshole doesn't make me laugh and I think that there's a thing that somebody said to me when I started late night it was always kind of haunted me which is he said the first two weeks maybe the first couple of months

are going to be rough because they're going to have to forgive you for trying to make them laugh. And I was like, oh my God, that's a weird thing to hear. Yeah. Do you go out on the stage now on a Saturday night? Like when you go out, because presumably the first time you perform the show, that's when we see out, because presumably the first time you perform the show, that's when we see it, right?

Do you go out there now thinking, fuck it, I know I'm funny? Or is there still doubt? I do think it's like, fuck it, I know I'm funny. And I think I'm funnier when I'm confident and having fun. Definitely. Yeah. Which is still hard to do if you are trying a completely new character or idea,

which we are for the very first time. So to have all that freedom is like, and you have like, it's your baby, and you have hopes, and you have expectations for it. But you know, I am trying to lean a little bit more into just the fact, it's like the same way that you were like, if people have bought a ticket to see you, like, probably there's not gonna be one in the audience

that hates you. And I'm trying to believe that, like, I've been at the show for a while now. I still have the job, the audience. I'm just trying, it's even hard for me to say right now. I'm trying to be like, the audience does love you and they might not love something you do a sketch one night, they might not get this character, but it's not like they're like, oh, I hate her now,

you know, I'm trying to just trust that the more I can be myself and have fun. I'm good. Yeah, I think that's right. I think the proof is that like if you've been on Saturday Night Live for eight years, you're funny. You just wouldn't have been on for that amount of time if you weren't. Enough people love you and think you're funny. But it's an interesting thing that I wonder sometimes, I don't think you have to be the funniest person to succeed in comedy. I think you have to be the person that people like. I think it's more about like than funny. Yeah. You know, I think it's about some weird empathy thing rather than just ha ha ha.

It's a weird thing. Who makes you laugh? I mean, as far as who I work with, at the table read, I sit next to Mikey Day and I've known him for a long time now. And because we sit next to each other at the table read, it has felt like I am just working with one of my brothers. I have two brothers. And just like the familial sense there, it really makes me laugh. It's like at this point, we can like mess around about anything.

We have like a secondhand, our own kind of language. That makes it, he makes me laugh a lot. Ago at the show, like her characters and her improv. She's so quick. And I've done some improv shows with her recently where it's like when she gets to be unscripted, it's amazing. And then my all time favorite comedian is Jack Black. Oh, right. Yeah.

Now that's interesting because Jack's very anarchic and wild and, and this is, do you know Jack? I haven't. Well, I know him. I just haven't really ever gotten to like meet him, but I've, you know, he's sent me incredibly kind messages about my work and like, I mean, he's my dream host. I was a Tenacious Steve fan and I love what you just said about him, like when I'm totally like when I feel myself like on

Weekend Update just free, I feel like I have a moment of like what Jack Black is able to conjure all the time. And I think that and the way he does it and it works is so singular and like such a specific thing that... And so it's who he is as well. I've known Jack for 15 years. He still thinks I'm Irish. I'm not Irish.

I'm not Irish. I've said to him, Jack, I'm not Irish. And every time he's like, oh, how's the old... I'm like, and I thought he was fucking with me, but he's not. He just, he decided early on when we first met, I was Irish and I've just stayed Irish. I got annoyed about it for a while. And now I really, I would miss it if it wasn't there. Yeah.

What about standups? Is there any, is there any standup that you would would see, male or female, who you think that's... Because that's a slightly, it's a different kind of discipline to the character work. For sure. I mean, lately, and stand-up's always been something that I love, but also intimidates me. It's like when I have to do a live show for the last few years, I've been a little bit like, well, I do characters and that doesn't feel as embraced in this arena. So, you know, I've started trying to dabble and stand up,

but still very scared of it. I mean, what's been really cool is the last two seasons, Nate Barghetti has hosted. And, you know, he's, I believe he's from Nashville or Tennessee, but it's like just close enough to where I'm from that like his observational humor feels just very spot on for the people and places that I grew up in. And I just love this simplicity.

It's so not simple, but it's like there is a simplicity to just like what you're saying that feels so relatable to me. I've been loving that. I loved, I love Nikki Glaser, but I love what she did at the Golden Globes. Like that's such a thankless job, but I feel like she won it back. She's an amazing woman.

She used to do, I knew Nikki back in the day. I still know her, but I haven't seen her recently. Because I used to say to her, and I used to do this radio show and she would be on it a lot. I used to say to her, it's too much. You're freaking me out. I'm scared for you. You're telling me too much stuff. And she's like, don't worry about me. I'm fine. And she would... The bravery in which she would just unload. I'm like, I don't have that. That's incredible. She's something.

She's a force of nature. I'm delighted for her. Me too. But I also, I still fear for her a little bit. I think there is a type of, and I think you know this from doing sketches, you get to build an invisible kind of protection shield. If you have a character, you got some protection. Even if that character is, this is who I am when

I'm doing stand-up or this is who I am when I'm doing a late night show. But it's not really me. I don't really behave like this. But I think some stand-ups, that's who they are. You know, But I think some standups, that's who they are. You know, it's just, they get up and start talking in a machine that makes their mouth louder and that's it. Yeah. I don't go searching for comments, but sometimes just someone will actually tag your specific name and a hateful comment about you.

And so you can't kind of miss it. And I've seen one come up a few times that's like, oh, at Heidi Gardner, I hate her voice. I hate her voice. I hate her voice. And I think about that as well. That is who I am. I genuinely can't change that. And I do get to hide behind that sometimes in a character, but, you know, it still comes out.

And, yeah, thinking about being a, if this, if I was just doing this all the time, I would get that a lot more. It's scary. Yeah. I think though that the thing really, I'm really speaking to myself, you can't look at the comments. You mustn't, you mustn't, mustn't, mustn't look at the comments because you don't know where anybody's coming from. Some can have a, somebody can have a horrible life and a horrible thing and they just want to get some hate out. And I get that. I understand it, but I don't need to let it take me down. No. So, you know, the only time I've responded to a couple where I'm specifically called out. They're sports related. And it's someone teaching me,

it's a man teaching me about sports or telling me like, you know, it's football or something. And it's me like just sarcastically being like, oh, thank you for teaching me or something. That's like the most I'll do, but for some reason I feel compelled to do it. But then the person always writes me back and is like, oh, I didn't realize you'd write back.

I'm a huge fan. And I'm like, I thought you were being so mean to me. And then I start to see behind the curtain and the computer. And I'm like, I get it. I get what this all is. It's just about anonymity. But listen, it's been lovely to talk to you. I'm so delighted to finally kind of meet you

in this odd digital post-COVID way. But I am a big fan of what you do and I wish you continued luck. I had no idea you were such a talented hairdresser. And that just adds to your mystique, as far as I'm concerned. Because I'm impressed with that artisanal skill. Well, we could probably someday open a salon,

even if we were just open for a month. Don't even say it as a joke! Don't even say it as a joke! You're like, that's my dream! Stars with shears or something. It's like our way of... That would be a come on in, we'll tell you about our show business lives and give you a great do. Yes.

All right. It's been lovely talking to you. Thank you so much for being here and continued success on that TV show that you do. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Hedy. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is My Legacy. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers, and more. This podcast tells more than just the brutal gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the difficult, and all the nuance I can find. Because these are the stories that we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice, and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories

about women who are not just victims But heroes or villains or often somewhere in between Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Welcome my name is Paola Pedroza a medium and the host of the ghost therapy podcast your podcasts. and show it to the world. And most of all, I help people every single day. Listen to the Ghost Therapy podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Y'all, what up? It's your girl Jess Hilarious,

and I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials because each and every Wednesday, I'm fixing your mess on Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Got problems in your relationship? Come to me.

Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Thought you was the father, but you not? Come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you. Listen to Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network.

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