New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Will Ferrell on Down Bad Buddy the Elf, Iconic SNL Audition & Ron Burgundy's Dating Advice | Ep 119

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

92%ers we are back with another incredible episode brought to you by American Express.Today we are joined by Buddy the Elf, Ricky Bobby, Ron Burgundy, Chaz Michael-Michaels, Frank the Tank himself…Will Ferrell!Will and the guys talk about everything from why Buddy the Elf was down bad at the LA Kings game, the time he kicked Shaq out of a Lakers game, his short-lived stint as a walk-on kicker at USC, and the back story behind his legendary “Cat Audition” for SNL.We also find out his favorite SNL character of all time, his hysterical take on Travis’ goal post dunk, which of his movie characters would make the best NFL QB, and Ron Burgundy gives some relationship advice to a 92% in need.We will return next week with reactions to Wild Card Weekend and maybe some more surprises!You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify....Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show:https://lnk.to/newheightshowCheck out our ‘Ultimate Fan Collection’ at https://homage.com/newheightsSupport the Show:AMERICAN EXPRESS: For full terms and to learn more about the Powerful backing of American Express, visit https://americanexpress.com/withAmexFARMER’S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping!ALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds.LIQUID IV: Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to https://www.liquid-iv.com/ and use code NEWHEIGHTS at checkout.AUDIBLE: Sign up for a free 30-day trial at https://audible.com/newheightsMINT MOBILE: New customers can get half off an Unlimited plan until February 2. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for FREE, go to https://www.mintmobile.com/NEWHEIGHTS.$45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Who doesn't want to hear relationship advice from a couple of knuckleheads. Would you like to help us on these? Oh, sure. For a first date, when you should know those red flags and when to look for the green flag? I don't know anything about red flag or green flag. Get yourself into position to look for the checkered flag. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen, a Wondry show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. And brought to you by American Express.

We're your host. I'm Travis Kelsey, my big brother, Jason, Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Cincinnati Bearcat Alums. Get the UC Bearcats basketball team back on the winning streak here. All right now, boys. Oh, yeah. Subscribe on YouTube, 100 plus or wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S. Jason, we got a good one.

You don't even have to tell them. I'll tell them we got a good one coming up. But tell them what we got coming up. That we do. We've got a great guest before the playoffs get started. Why don't we take a look right here? Our guest today from the University of Southern California, winner of six primetime Emmy Awards, two SPs,

an MTV Award, movie award, best kiss winner, and the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy. You can see him. It is critically acclaimed documentary Will & Harper on Netflix, as well as his up-and-coming comedy with Reese Witherspoon. You are cordially invited releasing January 30th. 92% is it's Buddy the Elf. Mugatu, Ashley, Ashley,

Schaefer, Ricky Bobby, Ron Burgundy, Chance Michael Michaels, 92% of strength to take himself. Will fail us here! Oh, my God! So epic. Best intro. Best intro ever. Best intro ever. I apologize if I just blew your ears out, Will.

No, no. That was soothing. I'm going to play that on a loop to fall asleep to. It's going to be like a sleep machine for me. Yeah. We are, if you can't tell, we are jazz to have you. I got to, right away, we saw this post on Twitter from the L.A. Kings. Buddy the elf is officially in hockeywood.

Look at the, can we pull this up, Brandon? This is so good. This is not the Buddy Elf I remember. This is just over the weekend. Buddy Elf has been through some shit. What's? Buddy the elf got laid off, I think. No.

From the North Pole. Sands are not. taking a swing. Smoking. He's having a pull from his beer, smoking a, smoking a sig. Yeah. Just having him time. That was just, I get these weird ideas every now and then.

They're golden, man. I told my wife, because we're seasoned tickets holders of the L.A. Kings, we have the seats right on the glass, which are amazing. I said, gosh, over the break, you know what I'd be funny if I just got like a buddy elf costume and didn't shave for like a week and uh and i'm just sitting there with like a candy cigarette it's just a candy cigarette and i'm just going to like sit there for a period and see what how people react and that was it yeah so reaction was insane we're like what is he doing is he promoting something is but occasionally i just like to do weird things like that just to stir it up

dude it's the best yeah it's the best or have you always been a hockey fan i knew i know i know you've been following the Kings for a while now, but... Yeah, I kind of, I was, uh, I, I, I remember there was, I grew up in Southern California and there was, uh, there was a kid who moved into my neighborhood from Connecticut who played hockey and we would play street hockey. We would play, this is sad one-on-one, one-on-one street hockey. Does that even exist? Are you kidding me? This is, this is all me and Jason used to do. Oh, okay. Of course, this is legit. We'd have ice. So we just with the little ball and it's running around a parking lot.

Oh, yeah. And then I, yeah, I was, I, I followed the Kings way back, way back when they had like the triple crown line of Marcel Dion, Dave Taylor, oh, yeah, Charlie Simmer. Anyway. So you've been in it for a while. Hell yeah. Yeah, I've been the, and then they, then, of course, they won a couple cups and that helped build the audience.

And now, now they draw really, oh, look at that. I got a little Wayne, great ski. Jason got me this for Christmas. But did you guys play hockey as well with everything else he did? Oh, yeah. We were, that was probably the first one that we both fell in love with, I would have, at least for me for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

No, same. It's a wonderful sport. It's fun. We both started it. Travis finished in high school playing basketball. I played hockey in high school. We used to play street hockey with that same ball you're talking about. Yeah.

And one of the elementary schools, Roxburgh Elementary, had cut down the basketball hoops. and you would think this would be a safety issue, but they left like the posts. They just cut the hoops down. And if you hit the post, it was a goal. So we played pickup hockey all the time, just trying to hit the post. And that's like how we played, yeah.

Yeah, kind of an amazing sport. And I'm not going to lie to you, there's some beautiful men out there who play hockey. Gorgeous. As long as they have their teeth in. Yeah, as long as they have the teeth in. You know, don't take the dentures out. But yeah, that was my, that was my,

My latest kind of public stunt. While we're on the public stunts, we got to pull up the shack at the Staples. We got to pull that one up. This is an all-time. Classic. Oh, my gosh. Look at that mustache.

Yeah, that was another one. I had friends who gave me a Staples security guard outfit. And I snuck it into the building and then just pretended to be one of the security guys. So wait, that was not, wait, the Staples was not a part of that one either. They had no idea. And I was afraid, I stuck it in because I was afraid they would stop me and go, where'd you get that uniform?

That's contraband. Come with us. This is the vet. Yeah. It's amazing. I just stood on the, yeah. It turns out the other security guys, they were like, dude, I love it. Just don't stand on the court.

But you're good with us. You're good with us. And then I looked down and, Shaq happens to be at the game. Unbeknown, I just pick a random game. And I look down and there's Shaq in the corner. He's rolling. He's laughing.

So I stand up a couple times in between the breaks. And then I'm like, what else do I do with this? I don't know. And then someone taps me on the shoulder and says, you know, during the next break, Shaq's ready to leave the game. Do you want to throw him out? You don't throw him out of the game. So he gave me the idea.

He goes, yeah, just come over and then that I escorted him out. That is brilliant. The diesel. And then we had the biggest laugh. That is so good. I was like, I go, I go, Shaq, do you know how extraordinary that is that you're allowing me to throw you out of an NBA basketball game? He was like, are you kidding me? That is so.

And then it was so funny. All the, I found out from one of the heads of the security that he goes, hey, I have to tell you, everyone appreciated the shout out. All the security people appreciate the shoutout. I was like, oh. That's what I was going for. Yeah. Actually, I was kind of making front of you guys. You know, it was a shoutout.

It was a shoutout for sure. That is so fucking gold, man. You've done a lot of these. I got to know, I've been just so curious about this. When did you become a DJ? The video of you DJing at the. prep party might be one of my faith you've it you've now inspired me to want to become a dj and do exactly what you made that shit look so fucking fun i don't know i don't know if i don't know if you

want to i don't know if you want to a real peek behind the curtain or not but uh i don't know how to dj i was just all set up by my son and he was like dad can you come it's parents weekend can you come by the fraternity house and I'll just set it up and you just have to twist knobs and pretend like to push buttons. So I just acted the part, but I do not. No, look, that's insane. That's insane. I still, I still forget that people have cameras attached to their phones.

I don't know if you guys ever feel that way, but I'm like, I still sometimes, I'm like, So good. The fact that you could just turn that switch off, though, man, not care about it. That's the best. That's the best part. And that was, that made, I sent that to everybody that I knew. I showed up for 15 minutes. And then I went to the football game. I didn't think twice about it. And then Monday, it like blows up. And I'm thinking, what? Wait, what? Oh, right. All these kids were filming it. Anyway, so good. It's just, it's fun to just kind of, I just love kind of doing those kind of out of the box things, just to. to just to mingle with people. Well, we love it when you do it too, big dog.

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Thank you. Let's get it to your athletic career. Jason, why don't you hit them with it? You were an athlete growing up, kicker in high school.

Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, yes. So you were a kicker in high school. Did you ever try to play any other position? Or were you always like, I'm going for the kicker? Well, let's just say, freshman year at University of high school in Irvine, California, I dominated.

Okay. Yeah, baby. Starting free safety and wide receiver. Let's go. Two way player. Two way. It's a football guy right here. Co-MvP of the football team.

Oh my gosh. Basketball, freshman player of the year, freshman basketball. Okay. Then I played baseball. And it was downhill. Downhill from there. I was six one and a half as like a freshman. So you have some height advantage.

And then I think I, by the time I graduated, I was six three. So only grew up. an inch and a half more over the next couple years. But yeah, I'd never played football and I'd played a lot of soccer. And I also was, I also was doing, you know, the kicking. And then I got called up to, I made varsity as a sophomore as a kicker. Okay. They wanted me to play safety too, but I was like, you guys, I weigh 145 pounds. I pay 150 and I'm not. Oh my gosh. Something about, I never come, let's just say no one was looking at me for the proper tackling form.

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Just go somewhere. Boom. Something about getting your head in there. I'd end up like, my approach looked really good. And then I'd roll to the side and face mask you. I played defense one fucking time.

And it was safety. And I saw a guy running at me looking like, freaking Eddie George. and I made a business decision. That's what I did. I made it a business decision to not go in with the head, the hands, the proper technique, just going. I would, I went slide tackle. I would set up the right way.

You're like, oh, he's going to, Farrell's going to jack someone. And then I would go, no, that's okay. So, yeah, I made, I was like, you know what, I'll just kick. I'll just kick. And I was really hoping actually to be a college. kicker. We were a horrible football program. I think we were one, eight and one my senior year. I could relate. But I, but I was getting those, you know, I was getting those little form letters from, you know, University of Oregon, New Mexico State. New Mexico State. What was your longest, uh, field goal? Do you remember?

45, 45 in a game. In high school, that's big time. 50, 50 in practice. Okay. You can boot it. And then I tried walking on at USC. I saw, I was, my freshman year at USC, I saw in the athletic department that they were having a tryouts, walk-on tryouts, right? Yeah. But it was, it was, it was, it was in the fall. So obviously the team has already set. So I'm like, why not?

I showed up and they, we weren't allowed to kick on the field that actually had the field goals. It was just a big. And I was like, I was like really accurate, but I wouldn't say I was, you know, could boom it. So we just, I think we did, I think it did like five kickoffs. and then the guy just blew the whistle was like, okay, bring it in. We're good. And he was like, okay, huddle up.

I'm the special teams coach. We're pretty good. We're pretty good with our kicking situation right now, but if you didn't you guys want to play scout team, you know, running back or scout? And I was like, no, I've heard about scout team. No, no, not in college. In college, that's when it's no fun.

So that was the extent of my, my college athletic career. It sounds like you kind of wanted to be an announcer while in college. Yeah, I went to, USC had like, at the sports information program. I was, it's funny.

I, I always wanted to get into comedy, but I kind of grew up in the entertainment industry. My dad's a musician. Okay. And had played at, you know, in the best of places and in the worst of places.

He's a piano player and, super talented and I just saw how unstable the entertainment business is. Sure. He would have a job at a, you know, at a, at a nightclub for for six months to a year. And then, and they'd be like, well, that's over. I'm like, what happened? It's like nothing. They just said, we're done.

Yeah. And he'd have to go back out and search and do all this stuff. And so I thought, well, I'm never going to do that. You know, I want like a real job. I didn't know what that meant, even though I loved comedy. I loved making my friends laugh. I loved watching comedy. I loved, you know, everything about it.

But I also love sports. And I played sports all throughout high school. And SC had this program that was like sports journalism. So I thought, oh, that's a, that's a blending of both. And, you know, Sports Center had probably just started. Let's see, I was in, I graduated 90. So that was kind of the beginning of ESPN. And then I want to be one of those guys, you know.

Yeah. And so I graduated and then was trying to get a job with local cable stations. And, you know, you have to like build a tape and send it out to these small markets to get hired as the, you know, the sportscaster in Yuma, Arizona. Those tapes got to be gold. They have to be. I don't know where. They have to be gold, dude. I should have held on to them.

But at the same time, I thought, you know what, this itch is not going away. I better scratch it about the comedy thing. So at the same time, I started doing classes at this improv theater in Los Angeles called The Groundlings, where I had seen tons of people had gone on to sitcoms, to Saturday Night Live, to film and television performers, writers, directors, everything. I thought, oh, this is a lot. they had a school I could I could kind of take all these classes at. And so I kind of was doing both at the same time. And I kind of found my, you know, you got to, as you guys probably know, you got to find your community.

You got to find your support group. And that place in L.A., the Groundling Cedar was where I felt safe enough to kind to kind of go for it. And I was there for three years. And then that spring of, spring of 95 was, when S&L was doing like a nationwide search for a brand new cast because they knew they were going to let go. It was going to be the last year for like Farley and Sandler and Dana Carvey

and that whole group. Man. So yeah, happened to be at the right place at the right time when they came and watched one of our shows and went through the audition process. And then, yeah. The audition process. We've all seen the audition video.

It is the most brilliant. the cat toy on the ground how how does that even how do you how do you know that that's going to be the one to get you the job like what the fuck well here's the thing it doesn't make any sense in my mind you've hosted the show right you've stood you've stood on that spot where you deliver the monologue yeah and your heart is pounding in your chest right yes yes but you're in front of a a full audience that's supportive and there and they want to see you have fun yeah I want us to yeah I I'm on the ground in that studio playing around like a cat. No one.

No one's in. Lord Michaels purposely had no one in the studio to like create the tension of late night tell. Like he wanted to create the pressure of what it's like to be on Saturday night, like live TV. So I'm in a void rolling around going, oh my God, I'm going back to L.A.

this is not like because because there's no one loud there's no one in the there's no one in the studio there's just a camera operator and a sound guy oh my gosh so good this is so this is my one of my favorites so it was almost like a prisoner torture technique i just had to like fight through it and were there were there any other audition like like bits that you had or were you like kind of juggling a few at the time? They basically had to do an audition that was anywhere from five to eight minutes long of any of the characters of your choice. Oh, nice.

Okay. So that was one of the did, one of the, I did another sketch. I did, I did Harry Carey doing a play reading. And so I did my Harry Carey impersonation. And I did this sketch that I think really got me the job, which was this dad at a barbecue yelling at his kids to get off the shed. And that piece I auditioned with later became the sketch that was in, I did in my

very first show. Oh, that's cool. As a cast member. So that's cool. So they brought that one to life. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome, man. But it was it was awful. I was like, I had no idea if I did well or not. And you just left going, oh, well, I guess they'll call me. I'll tell you what, Lauren is, he could be a stone cold dude. He can give you absolutely nothing. Yeah. And I'm sure that that left you confused is all get out, man. But he, uh, yeah, he can, he can, uh, it's funny. He's like, he can walk right by you. Or he can, or he can, or you can pump you up. But yeah, it sometimes, sometimes you don't know

where you stand with that guy. Oh, man. The S&L years were, we're definitely the beginning of, uh, of our fandom for you, big guy. Who do you remember as like some of your favorite characters on S&L? Like the ones that you really got excited to, to go out there and like perform? I never imagined that I would get to play the president. Wow. Because I wasn't, I wasn't known for doing political impressions or anything like that. So to get to do Bush for that law, like that was.

And like, you know you're going to be a go-to guy every week. Yeah. That was pretty heady. That was pretty, that was really fun. Nice. I loved, you know, I think about like doing the cheerleaders with Sherry O'Terry, sketches I got to do with Molly Shannon on a gas dire. We used to do this Bobby and Marty sketch where we were like middle school music teachers who would perform and the kids would hate them.

The Robert Gullet sketches were really fun. Man. Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond. And Harry Carey. I got to do Harry Carey to an audience that maybe didn't know. It was fun because people who knew Harry Carey from the Cubs as an announcer, obviously knew who he was.

But then other people would go, I love that mad scientist character you do with the crazy white hair. And I was like, well, no, he's a real person. They're like, oh, okay, well, whatever. It doesn't matter. I think it's so funny. I had a great seven years on the show, and I just, you know, I'm so lucky to look back. And there was probably, you know, I had fun like every single week doing that show.

Man. Yeah. Seven years is a crazy run, man. You obviously seven years on the show as a cast member, but you're, you remember the SNL five timers club as well. What's the difference between hosting it and being a cast member? Or what's the biggest difference? Yeah, I think, honestly, I preferred being a cast member because when you host you all the sudden, it was much easier to be a cast member and have your sketch get cut and be kind of shake

your fist, you know, like, ah. But when you're on the other side and you're having a hand in like, oh, I don't want to choose between, you know, right? I mean, you've been in that room. Yeah. And you probably had some choices where you had two or three funny things that could only go in the one slot because there is, there is a lot of thinking that goes into that show.

And it's hard. And everybody was awesome on the cast. So you're sitting there like, I don't want to take her off stage. I don't want to take him off stage. I don't want to take that bit. That bitch, they kill it in that bit. And I'm just. And that you're thinking, oh, but I really love doing the one thing.

and so I was like, oh, I hated, I hated like determining the fates of who was going to be in the show and who was not. Also, too, you realize like the times I've come back to host, that thing is, that thing is like a track meet. You forget what kind of thing. It is a well-oiled machine. Physical shape you're in, comedy shape you're in. And I all of a sudden felt like I was in an NBA basketball game and I, the ball just kept hitting me in the face. when I, like the last time I came to host. And I remember, in fact, I remember sitting with Lauren at the after party.

And I was like, God, man, Lauren, I can't believe I used to do the show, like, not even think twice about doing the show every week. And he was like, I thought he was going to give me the, you know, adder boy. Like, like, you know, you were, no, you were great. You were wonderful. He was like, no, it's a young man's game. He didn't give me anything. I'm like, was I that bad? It was like, oh, no, no, no.

But no, it's a young man's game. I'm like, geez, all right. It all rolls fast, though, man. It happens so fast. And, man, I was the luckiest guy in the world to even get a chance to do it, knowing how big of a fan I was of it and how big of, you know, opportunity it is. Jason, you're next. Jason, he's been, he's been on the list.

I'm trying my own thing. Listen, I was up there able to watch Travis host. Yeah. That was, it's, and we've talked about it before, but it's just so impressive the amount of people that are involved in that thing and how it all happens. And I couldn't imagine the hosting itself, like in watching, because I think I got there maybe Thursday, Trav. So I got to watch a little bit of that process of learning it every day. And I was just blown away, absolutely blown away. It's a real piece of living.

history in terms of television and in terms of uh in terms of like american comedy because it's when you're sitting at home and you just you know dvr it or turn it on at 1130 you have no idea during those commercial breaks that there's a hundred people run around moving those sets and it it absolutely it is it is such a i i mean i hope they never cancel that show because i don't think they'll ever do that type of show ever again. No. It's just, it's an art form the way they,

they put on that show. And it has, and it's surprisingly, it's, it is surprisingly funny with how many things that can go wrong and, and the fact that they only,

they write it in a week. Yeah. It's crazy. It's, it's hit or miss for sure, but it, but it lands on its feet more often than,

than not. And, uh, it's, it's pretty impressive. The whole week, you're seeing the, the construction workers, putting together sets and you're just your your mind is just blown away and you're just like what and then

some sets get canceled because they just don't fit in the time frame you're just like what how do you do this week in week out it just blows my mind and you really have to have to be a part of it you have to have thick skin as a cast member because uh uh i remember uh when i was my first year on the show kevin nielan uh who was a big fan of kevin neelan uh came back to kind of see a show and say hi to us. And it was towards the end of that my first year on the show. And he was like, you're really funny. Like great job.

And I was like, I was like, thanks, man. And he was like, let me give you some advice. Like, you don't have to score every week. Just keep that in mind. It's like if you can look back on a season and count on you. Like if you've done 10 funny things, then you've had a good year. And so it took the pressure off of. of like having to have a great show every week.

It's like it's like hitting 300 in baseball. You know, if you get 300, you're going to be in the Hall of Fame. And if you could hit, well, 30% might be a little low. But if you could be funny 50% of the time, you would have a great year. That's a good batting average. Yeah. Yeah. So I took that to heart.

But yeah. Let me ask you this because we are doing, I'm doing this late night thing on ESPN. I just started it. And we're trying to incorporate some scripted bits and some funny, like, I guess what do you think is the biggest thing to performing a sketch or comedy live that you wouldn't tell anybody who's just starting out into that world? Because quite frankly, I've never done anything like this where there's like a live audience and you're trying to do this while it's being recorded. Yeah. Forgive me if this is a loaded question, but I were remiss if I didn't ask you pointedly if there's anything that you can like fast track my ability to. be funny on.

No, you're screwed, man. Sounds like you got to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. No, you know,

I, the thing that I always lived by is because, you know, I, I was like, look, I'm going to meet,

I'm going to, I'm going to watch people perform who I think I'm funnier than. I'm also going to watch people who are way funnier than me. Yeah. And I'm going to have to be okay with that.

But the one thing no one will ever beat me at is how hard I commit to something. Sure. You've got to commit sketchwise to whatever the premise is. Yeah. And just go for it. And if you lock in that way, all the apprehension will just melt away. And then the audience will be on your side too because they'll just be like, he's going for it.

Dude, this makes sense. Exactly. And hopefully, hopefully it's a funny premise to begin with. But even if it's not, they'll just be like, God, Jason is going for it.

I'm on his side. And that's, that's all you need to worry about. That's brilliant. And to not, because I've seen people, you can't have one foot in and one foot out. Because in the audience doesn't believe,

doesn't believe your intention. Absolutely. And so that's, that's just the main thing. Dude, you send it better than anybody, man. Before we get out of this SNL bit, we asked Bill Murray this question and he said Ray Charles,

but who is the one SNL host that just blew your socks off? Like, man, I did not expect this person to be this damn good or this funny or this awesome that you, maybe when you were a cast member. Just so you know, we asked Bill Murray this and he said it was Ray Charles because he just really, he was amazed at how well he remembered all of his lines. Oh, my God. Didn't have to use any Q cards. Yeah.

We had a similar, we had, I remember Jackie Chan posted with us. What? He didn't, he didn't read English. Yeah. We couldn't use the cue cards. So we had to do the whole thing memorized. There we go. Jack, Chan.

Yeah, yeah. And he was on fire. But I think there are, they're like varying degrees. Like we, I remember. remember, one of our best hosts was Derek Jeter. He just committed to everything, regardless of how stupid we put in. And also, that's how I got to know. That's how I met Shaq for the first time.

He came on and did, I think it was Kelsey Grammer was the host, but they said, hey, Shaq's in town. He wants to do some sketches. He destroyed. He was so funny and natural to the point where, one of his sketches got cut because he had a funnier show than the host. You had to reel it back. He had to reel it back because we wrote this sketch where all the cast members were picking on me

and making me cry and Shaq came up. He's like, what's going on? And I'm like, Shaq, everyone's making fun of me. And he's like, come with me, Will. And we walked to home base there. And he picked me up in his arms. And we proceeded to sing a duet called, no one's going to hurt my little man

and he was shack cradling me and he did this whole but that got cut and it like destroyed oh my gosh but then I swear there was like it was a lot of times it was actors that you like Steve Bishemi

oh you're nice insanely good I remember a lot of times dramatic actors who were so excited to you didn't always see him in the comedy world exactly and and they that thing of like they would just commit to the premise they weren't even trying to be funny and it they subsequently got twice as many laughs yeah i love it but yeah that's amazing you just remember you just reference billy bob thornton and made me think of that bad elf at the top

of the show maybe there's a bad elf bad santa remake coming down the line where yeah yeah maybe yeah a lot of people will be be distraught by that combination but maybe that's why we need to do it Yeah, exactly. By the way, speaking of football, I got to bring something up. All right. I happen to be watching during the holiday break, Travis, you guys, the Pittsburgh game. Yeah, yeah. And when you scored, when you scored, did you just have one touchdown?

Yeah, I just had one. I just had the one. And you went to go dunk the football. You missed the dunk. I'm just going to tell you. I did not talk. You missed it. You hit the rim.

And I, I remember, I remember thinking, oh, I want to bring that out. I know I'm going to be talking to you guys. I'm like, God,

Travis, he doesn't have the same hops. I don't. I don't have the ups anymore. I used to. The football just kind of hit the bar and just spilled over. Right. But you still try to celebrate.

Like, I just dunked it. I was like, no, no, no. I gave him my best Tony Gonzalez. He was known,

he was known for dunking. And I had just, I had just declipsed his, touchdown record. Yeah, maybe finger roll next time. I should have. What I did was, you remember when you first started trying to dunk and you would just go up and smack the backboard?

That's true. To what I was doing right there. It wasn't a full dunk. Maybe if I get the, if I get it earlier in the game, I might be able to, the explosive I have been thinking about that since that moment. I've really been stewing on that. Nice. Well, I've been thinking people might have forgot about it.

Perfect. Before we move on, I got to ask this. Have you ever dunked, Will? Can you dunk? I dunked. I remember having like a breakaway and I was like, I'm going to dunk this. The ball slipped out of my hand. I got right here.

I got like rim. Yeah. And then the ball just fired off the backboard. And coach was like, what was that? It was like, you told me, try to dunk it. If I have a break, he's like, okay. I could dunk a tennis ball, but now. You're not basketball?

Yeah. My, Travis has seen me. No joke. Over an hour in a gym. At least. Just trying? Just trying. Repeatedly thinking I'm getting closer and repeatedly failing.

If I just get the technique right, I can do it. I'm there. I'm right there. It's going to happen. I know. You're 300 and 10 pounds. You're not going to dunk the ball. Gravity.

is working against you. Exactly. All right. Let's get to this segment. We're going to try this out. This is the Will-Farrell character football draft. Oh, right? Okay.

So we're going to try an attempt to draft a football team with your characters. We're going to have you do this. We got round one, we're going to do quarterback. So if we're picking a Will-Farrell character, what character would be the quarterback of this football team? I think the quarterback, not that he would necessarily, Not necessarily he'd be good, but he'd be very commanding would be Ron Burgundy. Yes.

You know it. Yeah. You know Ron's he's commanding. He'd get the plays wrong. He'd call the wrong cadences. Yeah, he'd mess up constantly, but he blames someone else. It'd be a fun ride. We got double right, Dorothy Man-Tooth on 2.

Dorothy Mons 2. Exactly. Baxter left So good Go right Swordfish Ron, that's not a play Yes it is

Let's run it It is now It is now Second round we're going Running back Who you got for running back Running back with pro I'm going to say Frank

The tank from old school The tank He's breaking some tackles You know it Because he's got that name The tank He's going to break some He's also going to be inebriated enough to where he won't feel any pain.

That was my next question. Is he inebriated in this? Yeah, he's definitely. He's definitely. He's streaking all night if you give us some beers. Well, yeah, he may take a couple plays fully naked. Yeah. Yeah.

That nobody wants to tackle him. Right. Man, he just, great strategy, Frank. He's untouched into the insublished. zone. So good. All right. Round three.

Wide receiver. Maybe because he's he's kind of, I think he's, I would say, very flexible and live. The word live. Buddy,

I'd say Buddy the elf. Buddy the elf. Nice. I got to swore you were going to go Chas Michael Michaels, like jumping up. Oh, okay. Leaping over the middle.

beautifully very graceful that's a better I like Buddy the elf I'm not that's a better call that's a better call Buddy the elf

just the happiest disposition ever why does he was eat a lot of candy too yeah they do Skittles yeah I'm telling you round four

who's a coach coach would you know because I think he he probably did I'd say Jackie Moon from semi pro yeah

He was a player coach. Yeah, that's a good one. He had to run it all. And he knows how to manage people. Owner. Where are we thinking? Round five, owner. Who's the owner of this football team?

I don't know if he's the right owner, but I just haven't, I forgot to throw him in. But let's just say Ricky Bobby's the owner. Dude. You already know. He's running. He's running the show. That'd be the best, the best Hail Mary, our baby who aren't in heaven. Yes.

He would lead the team in the baby Jesus prayer before every game, whether they wanted to or not. Sweet, baby Jesus. Yeah, yeah. No, Ricky Bobby, he'd be a good, he's got like kind of a little Jerry Jones in him. I can see that? Yeah, for sure. My pals. They're definitely friends.

How about, have you seen the clip of Jerry Jones? with the chops. He's acting now. He's in a TV show. No. Yeah. I was actually pretty surprised. I was like,

man, he's speaking kind of better than he has in the interviews he gets. Wait, what show is he in? This is a good question. I don't know. I only came across it. Landman with Billy Bob Thornton.

Oh, Landman. Yeah. So you're definitely one of those Paramount Plus shows. You know it. actually watch some soccer on Paramount Plus. The old futa ball, huh? You got a, you got a premier team that you root for?

I don't really, but I'm part of the, a small part of the ownership group of Leeds United, which is the second division. Nice. Very cool. And so I've been out to one of their matches, which was awesome. And so I'll keep tabs on them. Heck yeah. I see you at a lot of sporting events.

Is that, is that like your kind of like your hobby? You just love to get some live-to-active action sports? No. A little pathetic, right? I'm like living through you when I see you at the. I'm like, dude, I want to do what Will's doing. I've got way too many tickets. Let alone the baseball the baseball bit you did where you played at all the teams and everything.

Yeah. No, we have, because we're part of the L-AFC soccer team out here in L.A., which is MLS. We're part of that ownership group, too. So we go to those games. Nice. I have tickets to the Lakers every now and then, the Kings. USC football and somehow in the year that they won the World Series, I went to zero Dodger games.

No way. No one year. I should have gone. No, no, I went to one. I went to one. No way. I know. We go to a lot of sports.

But, I mean, sports is a huge part of my life. It was kind of the way, and I'm sure, I know you guys can relate to this. It was the way I was able to make friends. It was the way it just, I loved playing team sports. Yeah. I mean, maybe it's something where athletes just want to do comedy and comedians just want to go to sports because I went to a UCB out in L.A. I went to Albright Citizens Brigade.

Yeah. It was so much fun. It is amazing watching people in improv just take something from nothing and make something funny instantaneously. It is so impressive. They're an incredible group. UCB is one of the best. Right on.

We have an idea here for this next bit. Trabb, do you want to explain it? Yeah, we got relationship advice, voicemail. So something we do on the show is answer voicemails from our fans. And we've asked them to call in asking for relationship advice, because who doesn't want to hear relationship advice from a couple of knuckleheads? Would you like to help us on these? Oh, sure.

You want a job, man? Let's do it, man. Here's the thing. You could answer some of these questions as one of your characters, maybe. Okay. Nice. Yes. Oh, I'm so excited.

Brandon? Brandon. Uh-oh, Brandon. Hey, Travis. Hey, Jason. Big Chief Sand. Three Pete coming. Just wanted to know your advice for a first date when you should know those red flags and when to look for the green flags.

Go, Chief. Red flags, green flags. When to look for the red flags, when to look for the green flags. Oh, that's. Uh, let's see. Ricky Bobby. would say, look, I don't know anything about red flag or green flag. You just got to get yourself into a position to look for the checkered flag.

Because, I mean, there's only one thing you need to worry about because, I mean, if you ain't first, you're last. Yeah, baby. I would just tell that young lady to look for the checker flag. You got to find your way to the finish line, guys. I don't know if that's good advice or bad. It sounds like bad advice. I think it's kind of metaphorically, it makes sense. You got to find your way to the finish line.

You know? I loved it, man. That shit was fucking gold. That was so good. So good. That could have gone any better. All right. Here we go.

Next one. What we got? All right. Jason and Travis. So what do I do? Whenever I bought this girl tickets to a concert for Christmas. And she dumped me the week before. Now her best friend wants to go with me.

Do I take her or no? Do you take the best friend after the tickets you bought for your girlfriend? She dumped you. Wait, I want to make sure I understand. Do you take the best friend of the girl after? Yes. Yes. So the girlfriend dumped him and now the best friend wants to go with. Well, Ron Burgundy would say,

of course you take the best friend because you teach that young lady a lesson you're not going to be some horse's ass you've spent $1,200 going to I don't know, whatever concert,

whatever music you listen to nowadays, I don't know if it's Kaja Gugu or Duran Duran or whatever it is but you send a signal to that young lady that you're not messing around and then you

you you take photos of you and the best friend making out and send it back to the old girlfriend and say that's how I do it

that's how you roll right there baby that was fucking gold man that's why you're the greatest of all time dude oh my goodness

oh man do we got one more in us you want to do one more that was we can move on too well that was gold That was so good. I think we're good to roll, man.

Let's get this thing going. We end all the conversations with. We got to ask. You don't have to answer. We got a bunch of questions that's going to rattle off at you. Ready go? Okay, ready.

Lightning round, baby. That's right. Feel free to tell us to fuck off. All right, here we go. Before you made it, what was your worst job? Definitely a bank teller. I was a bank teller. Oh, that's what's Donna Kelsey.

That's our mom was. Really? She started off with the bank telling. Work the way up to some higher up positions, but yeah, she started off as a teller. Customers would actually complain as to how bad I was. So I'd break out and flop sweat. Your mom can relate to it. When you're starting out, you're handling people's money, it was awful.

That's too funny. As long as your register wasn't short, you're good, man. I was short like my first two days out. I wasn't even pocketing the money. That's great. Excuse me, manager. manager, I'm trying to deposit money and your teller is like

playing with a ball of yarn and he won't respond to me? What's wrong with this guy? In fact, I remember I was putting up flyers in the break room to try to get people to come to my stand-up comedy show. Oh.

And I was so quiet as a bank teller because I was so nervous all the time. And I had this manager go, I saw your flyer. you do stand-up comedy? And I go, yeah, she's like, I'd like to see that. And just walk away. Your father of three, what is the secret to being a cool dad?

The secret to being a cool dad. I think constantly, lovingly make fun of them. Nice. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. It's the best. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect answer. Why don't they make R-rated comedies anymore? I think they do. Actually, I have one coming out at the end of this month. Here we go. We're cordially invited on Amazon.

Perfect. Which is like an old school R-rated, fantastic movie. Reese Witherspoon and I are, we have two competing weddings booked at a destination location, and we have to kind of duke it out to see who's going to be the, wedding that gets to take place. But yeah, it's an interesting time. I think people are making it. I just, I don't know why they're not kind of going to the theaters to see them. I think we have, I think we kind of have so many options now that a lot of people would, you know, would rather go, oh, I'll just, I'll just catch that at home. Yeah. There's nothing like going to the theater,

though, man. I know. It's when you sit and watch a comedy with an audience, you're reminded as to how much more fun it is. Right. I'm trying to get that back. I'll happily see this new one in theaters for you, bud. Even though it's not in theaters. It's in Amazon. You did just say it was Amazon.

We'll go rent a movie theater out. And we're going to play. Yes. Okay. I'm calling everyone in the neighborhood. They're coming over. You're cordially invited to watch cordially invited at the movie theater with us. Is there one idea for a movie,

that you haven't gotten to make yet. Oh, gosh. Because you want to steal it. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to pass on that because I'm afraid you guys will steal it. No, no. No, we wouldn't do something like that.

No, I don't trust you guys. I don't trust you. No, I don't know. I am, I'm trying to think if there's anything. It's funny. Ideas usually pop into my head in the most random way. But no, I don't have an exciting answer. that. Sorry. Let me ask you this. When do you know an idea is ready to be made a movie? Because I would

imagine you think about stuff constantly. Yeah. Like, how do you know when it's like, okay, I'm going to make this movie about an anchorman name, right? Like, where does that even like, at what point you're like, yeah, this could become a full motion picture. Yeah. I think it's, I think you just get a sense of something that, you know, if it's an idea, that you can kind of spit out in a sentence that it's got a good chance. You know, it's like, you know, I remember when we were pitching Anchorman,

which at the time, we got rejected. I think we got like rejected 20 different times from various studios and things. Wow, it just blows my mind. Like no one could kind of wrap their head around an ensemble comedy that took place in a newsroom. They kept hearing the news part. And we're like, no, no, no, it's going to be, you know, Austin Powers wasn't about us.

Wasn't about the spy game. It was about a really funny character. Right. Our character's going to be funny. And then I remember, I remember thinking, gosh, this is so hard to get off the ground. We should maybe pick a topic that everyone's talking about. And at that time, NASCAR was at its height. And I was like, for instance, what if I'm just me as a NASCAR driver?

Yeah. And we pitched, we sold that in like two, two. seconds. That's crazy. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's an exact formula for it, but it's just something that I think grabs the people who have to pay for it. There you go. There we go. All right. What's your welcome to Hollywood moment? We all have welcome to NFL moments that just, I don't know, it's usually a big hit or somebody that were extremely, you know, fond of or we're big fans of growing up that we're finally going up against. What was your welcome to Hollywood moment? I mean, one of my welcome to Hollywood moments was

was getting to be the first, the first member of a brand new cast on Saturday Night Live, and I got to say the first, the first lines of our opening show. And I'm sitting there and they're counting down the show and I'm looking out. That's crazy. My folks are in the audience and friends and family,

and I'm like, I can't believe I'm here. and I'm about to say whatever line, which a little trivia here, I mess up my line. The first time I speak on camera on the show, I flub it. No way. Of course.

And I felt, and you know, Travis, you know how you do the full dress rehearsal, and then by the time you do the live show, you're like, piece of cake. I got it. I got it, yeah. And so I did the dress rehearsal. I was like, this is going to be great.

But I'm sitting there in the chair and the enormity of the moment hits me. and I start to get a little bit emotional thinking about, wow, this is the thing I've always dreamed about. And then it was like five seconds. And then I had to do my line. I was like, oh, come in a. And I was like, and Lauren came back.

He's like, are you okay? I'm like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I just said, I don't know what happened. So, you're a stroke? Yeah, exactly. It was incredibly uplifting. lifting and incredibly grounding all the same time.

It was like, don't ever take anything for granted. And yet, I can't believe I'm here. There you go. That's awesome. Hypothetically, you see two guys that look like us coming at you on the sidewalk. What movie do you think we're going to quote at you? You guys are going to say, you're my boy, Blue. Yeah.

Yeah. Old school. You're going to go old school, I think. Or you might. You might say. milk is a bad choice. I don't know. If it was a hot day,

I'm definitely going to go to the bad choice. I was in Wisconsin and I had a whole wheel of cheese. I'm like, whole wheel of cheese. I'm not even upset. Yeah. Milk was a bad choice.

By the way, I improvised that because I was literally trying to tell the director in that moment. Like, why did you give me a carton of milk as we're shooting in L.A. on like a 98 degree day? And I literally was like,

Milk was a bad choice. I'm like, I'm having to drink hot milk in this scene. That's the worst. The fucking worst. You were spot on with that one. This isn't on this, but do you ever get tired of people quoting your movies?

Like, are you like, yeah, I get it. Like, it's got to happen just constantly. I wouldn't say, uh,

yeah, I mean, sometimes there's, there are moments where, uh, I'm getting this weird kick here. Sorry. Got nice.

Got the light. Yeah. Look at that light. It's coming in real nice. Wow. That's nice. I don't know how to fix this. Well.

Well, whatever. Here we go. We're rolling with it. Like this. We're rolling. Yeah, sometimes someone's something and you're just like, you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I said that.

And most of the time. it's it's fantastic but then there's about 20% of the time where I don't pick it pick up the queue oh wow I mean it's a lot of fucking classics that you've been in so I get it someone yelled at me uh why are you so sweaty and I go oh because I was just on a bike ride I'm like no from stepbrothers after the drum set why are you so sweaty you're supposed to to say because I was watching cops. Like, oh, right, sorry. And she got so pissed and walked away.

That's fucking hilarious. So, ruined it for me. I've ruined it. So I do ruin it for a lot of people because I don't pick up my cue. That's funny and shit. Yeah. What's your comedy Mount Rushmore throughout your life? Who's your top four?

You're throwing on your Mount Rushmore? I'm going to put Steve Martin. Nice. I'm going to put. I'm probably going to put Bill Murray up there. I'm going to put Eddie Murphy. So good. And let's just say the original cast of Sarah Nye Live.

Nice, yeah. Throw them all over there. That counts. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's great. That's awesome, man. I love that list. Do you have an actor you've wanted to work with that you haven't yet? Stephen Seagall. Shut up. No, no. No, God. Go ahead. That would be the funniest goddamn thing.

I don't know. I don't know why. You talk about doing something totally unexpected. No, that would be, yeah, exactly. I don't know why I just pictured you dressed up with the slick back as Steven Stegall. I don't know why that's what popped in my head. I don't even think we could track him down. I don't even know where he is on planet Earth these days.

But, uh, yeah, whatever he's at. I mean, I'd love to do something weird with, like an actor like Daniel Day Lewis or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Just gets really enthralled and into it. Exactly. Try to get him to do like a like something weird. Yeah. That's fun. What about the best sporting event you've ever been to? Oh my gosh. I'm going to say two. I'm going to say the women's World Cup final at the Rose Bowl. Ooh. For women's soccer. Nice. where they beat China, they finally won the women's world.

It's the famous Brandy Chastain taking the top off. Yeah. Fuck yeah. That was incredible. And then I'll say, even though my team lost the game, the national championship game, again at the Rose Bowl, USC, Texas. 2005. Yeah. Yeah.

That was an amazing back and forth. It's a great game. You just made. Whoever had the team, the ball last was going to win that game. It just ran out. You have no idea how his microphone is muted, but our head producer, our intern Brandon, our head producer, is the biggest Longhorns fan you've ever met in your life.

He's screaming like a child off camera right now. He's going to lay into me right now. It's the reason he went to Texas, I believe, is because they won that game. And I sat in the same row with Matthew McConaughey. and his buddy and they wanted to talk shit the whole get like every time Texas you know of course

like Texas guys love to be like okay here we go and then you can score right away and I'd be like what? What happened? What happened? Yeah what happened? What was that? What was that? And it was so back and forth but I have to say at the end of that game everyone just shook hands.

Oh it was one of the best ever. We just watched one of the yeah so anyway but I've been lucky I've been to a bunch of fun stuff but Those two pop into my head. Yeah, that game, Vince Young's, like, performance towards the end of it, especially. Like, he was just, it was like. Crazy. Yeah.

It was like somebody just caught fire and, like, could not be stopped. And there is a classic photo of Vince Young scoring that last touchdown. Yeah. And one of the SC cheerleaders jumping up in the air thinking it was SC that had scored. No. Really? Yeah. Oh, I need to look at this. I have not seen that.

That's amazing. He got to know who's got the ball. No, she. She was not the sharpest tool in the show. Becca, I'll tell you, I've been to the Rose Bowl one time since he played UCLA out there. When I tell you, it is one of the coolest atmospheres. Like, I can only imagine that place packed to the T for that game and seeing highlight after highlight after highlight for the biggest game of the year. man, I can only imagine what that felt like, man.

Both those teams with guys who went on to the league, like on both sides of the ball. And, yeah, it was an insane environment. Yeah. So cool. Well, shout out to my former teammate Vince Young, awesome game. And shout out to you, Will. I mean, listen, before we end this, we always give our guests. Do you have any questions for us, like, or do you just, like, want to go about your day?

That's fine, too. I don't want to put you on the spot. Let's see. What time is it? you got the sun hunting you down over there i know i'm trying to i'm trying to help your producers out here by not getting blasted but i do have a question for you guys how much how do you compare doing getting to do things like this like obviously you you live you're living out you got to be pro athletes this thing you dreamed about your whole life oh yeah now getting to

to this other side of stuff. Is it as much fun? Is it more fun? Is it a different kind of fun? Yeah, I'll take a hack at this. So me and Jason, we started this thing because we just wanted to show our brotherhood and have fun catching up once a week. And it was a magical year where we both went to the Super Bowl

and got to talk about both of our seasons throughout it. And in retrospect, after about three years, the coolest part is getting to interview guys like you and just getting to shoot the shit with you. over the course of an hour and get to pick your brain on the profession that you're in and what got you there and things like that. Like that's all been so fascinating to me. And it kind of hit me like a blind side because I just got on here to have phone with my brother.

And now I get to do cool shit like this. So that's definitely the ups for me. That's awesome. I would say like Travis said, being able to just talk to Trav once a week, we have a dedicated time. And before we did this, there'd be like months sometimes in the middle of a season. and especially where you like fall by the wayside. So that combined with interviewing really successful, interesting people or friends is awesome. But I would say the other thing that's, it's very similar, you know, when you get ready to play a sport,

you practice and you work and you prepare. And then the game day happens and you, you know, get to express yourself as a player. And that's something very unique as an entertainer as well where, you know, you, work at it and you try to like, you know, think about how can I do things or what can I do that'll be interesting or take a creative idea from scratch. Yep. And I don't know, bring it to life. And it all is like just really rewarding when that happens.

Yeah. That I think that's similar in terms of like getting out there. And he worked all off season. We've put in all these new plays. Let's go out there and see what it looks like. Yeah. And then you get blowing out. by 40 points you're like

fuck we're out of it boys back to the drawn board but that's I think there's a lot of parallels between team sport and getting to do a lot of things entertainment because the same thing can like I think that's why I love

working on films it's a team of people it's a crew of people I love Saturday Live because of the ensemble because it was like we all like if if, you know, if we all pull for each other,

the whole show does well, and we all do well. And the same sort of thing. You can, you work hard, you're working on something. You, you film something for 50 days. It takes a year to come out. Yeah. And you lay a big fat turd. And you're like, oh, audience didn't think it was funny at all.

Oh, well, we thought it was hilarious. Yeah, there you go. And then you're like, well, I'm still glad we went for it. You know, what are you going to do? Yeah. So. I'm taking your advice and I'm full sending everything I ever do in the entertainment world, man. Full sin.

I appreciate that advice, man. Yeah. Will, thank you so much, brother. You're unbelievable. Can not wait to see everything you got coming up and appreciate the time, man. Thanks, you guys. All right. That was fun.

All righty, that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Unbelievable. Thank you to our guest, Will Farrell. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. make sure you are subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever each podcast. Remindy, you can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, if we didn't like mention your favorite Will Ferrell movie, I think, I think we want to do a blind ranking of all of Will Ferrell's classics, no matter what they are.

Any genre of Will's throughout the past here. Why don't you go ahead and throw us some, and we'll have some fun doing a blind ranking of all of Will's best next week. Once again, New Heights, a Wondry show, produced by Way, Sports, and Entertainment, and brought to you by American Express. Ooh. The Express. Follow the show on all social media.

New Heights Show with OneS for fun clips throughout the week, and thanks to our production and crew for always making us look better than we are. and to the 9-2-percenters. Hope you had fun tuning in. We'll see you next week. Peace.