Office Ladies - Fly on the Wall with Jenna Fischer

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

This week on Office Ladies 6.0, Jenna and Angela chat about Jenna’s upcoming play, “Ashland Avenue” at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago! Afterwards, we play Jenna’s interview on “Fly on the Wall” with Dana Carvey and David Spade. Jenna shares her love of “Saturday Night Live”, they talk about “The Office” and even past cars they drove. This is a super fun interview, enjoy!  Check out Jenna’s play “Ashland Avenue” in Chicago: https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/ashland-avenue/ Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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only in theaters, August 29th. Get tickets now. I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate Office Lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0.

Hello, everybody. Hey there. Okay, so by the time you are. listening to this, I will be in Chicago. Chicago! I will be in rehearsals for my play, Ashland Avenue. Woo! Now, something we want you all to know is that we really did our best to record a bunch of Office Office Lady's 6.0 episodes and second drinks ahead of time, so there wouldn't be any kind of like big break in our schedule while I went to do this play. We truly did, you guys. We worked our butts off to make as many new episodes as we could. And here's the thing, Jenna, I feel like you need to

explain your rehearsal schedule for this play because it's so intense. And you were explaining it to me. And my first thought was, there's no way that you can be recording a podcast while you're in these rehearsals. Where are you going to do it? From the bathroom? Yeah, I mean, okay, so we rehearse six days a week. It's Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Are you loopy by the end? You are. Yes, you are. You only get one day off, which is Mondays. And that's true. when you're in performances as well. You do eight shows a week. Mondays are off. And of course, you know, when we're not in the room rehearsing together, you're expected to be like memorizing your lines, going over your work from that day, coming up with new questions for the next day.

There's also like press obligations to get the word out about the play. And of course, being a mom, all those things. And you know, at first I thought, well, I'll just, I can do it all. I'll just do it all. Because that's what we do. We all are like that, y'all. We're all like, we got this. Yeah. But when I physically was handed my schedule and I read it, I was like, oh, shit, basically. Not to mince words. Well, you know, I remember what it was like when I was doing my Hallmark Christmas movie.

It was all consuming. I mean, I had an hour drive. I got up real early, had an hour drive, got to the set. I was in every single scene. That's how you are in this play. You're in the whole thing. And then by the time I would get home, I would literally just roll right into bed. Yeah, I mean, the etiquette of doing a play is like if you aren't actively rehearsing, if you're not up there blocking, you sit and watch your other actors because you're all living and breathing the story of the play.

So, yeah, I think there's like one scene that I'm not in. I have to sit there. You have to learn the whole world. That's part of the process. So, yes, lady, when I showed you my schedule, you were wonderful. You were like lady? This is what we do for each other. We have to have a talk.

You guys move things around so I could go off to Vancouver and do that movie. This is what we do. And just another reason why I'm so thankful for this podcast in this office lady's family we've built. Well, you said, and I'm so grateful to you, you said, lady, you need to take this space. You need to press pause on some things and take this space. And I want to say a big thank you to you, Cassie, for working so hard to plan ahead. And Sam, thank you for all of our double recording weeks. Cassie and Sam, you've been doing all this extra editing.

Oh, my goodness. Okay, here's the thing. And I'm going to just get a little emotional. But you guys know that getting back on stage has been a bucket list item for me. And I kind of figured I would just wait until my kids, were up and out of high school before I took that next big acting project, you know. But after everything I went through, you just kind of realized that life is short and that things can change at any moment.

Yeah. And while I am not worried about kicking the bucket, I saw the bucket. Mm. And it really put my life in focus. And when this opportunity came along, I thought I want to do it now. So I'm very grateful to you guys to our office ladies community. for helping me take the space to do this thing that I really needed to do for my soul. Yeah.

Thank you. Of course. I mean, I think there's going to be moments in our lives, especially in our work-life together, where there are going to be those moments. Yeah. I know what this means to you. I know what it means to you. It gave me nothing but joy to make this space for you.

I gave it so wholeheartedly. You did that for me. Look, homework Christmas movie. I know some people would be like, oh, oh, it's something. a Hallmark movie. But I never got to be number one on a call sheet. I never got to have that, I don't know, sense of worth in that way to a huge project. Yeah. And you saw that I needed that and you made that space for me, but I would happily do it again. I would happily do it for Sam, for Cassie. Cassie, when you make the WNBA, I will come to all your games. I will be the mascot.

And Sam, Sam, I was just talking to Josh about you, and he was saying how much he enjoys whenever you pop on the podcast and what a great voice you have. What a great presence you have. When Jen and I went and did the SHRM conference, we mentioned you. The audience applauded at the mention of your name. Oh, thank you. And anyway, we're a team effort here. Yeah. And I'm thankful for it.

And we're so happy we could do this for you. Well, the reason that I just shared all of that today is that in order to help with this goal of giving me the space, today we are going to run an interview that I did with David Spade and Dana Carvey for their podcast, Fly on the Wall. And lady, I love these guys. I love them too. I follow their podcast Instagram. I love it. I love their podcast. And I was so giddy that I got to do this interview. Angela, you were supposed to do it with me, but you booked the AT&T commercial. I know. And I was so bombed. They asked me, me my availability, and I only had one day where I said I had a conflict, and that was the day

we filmed. I know. And so I missed fly on the wall, but I'm so excited for people to hear it. This is such a great interview, and it just sounded like you had such a great time. Oh, my gosh. Well, I've known David Spade casually for years. There was even this rumor for a little while that we had dated. But in fact, we had never met. And we finally did meet. And I was like, oh, hey, how are you, my boyfriend? And we laughed about this, and it was very, very funny. I was so wanting to ask him, there's a lore in my neighborhood, and I don't know if it's true. Okay. That David Spade once purchased my house that I live in.

What? Yes, for his mother. And I don't know if it's true or not. That's not who I bought my house from. But one of my neighbors told me, oh, yeah, you know, David Spade bought your house one time years ago. For his mom. I was so excited to ask him that, but, you know, next time. Well, you got to go on.

They're great. And, you know, I had never met Dana Carvey, but I just know how much Steve Carrell loved him. Because Steve worked on the Dana Carvey show. And Steve would tell us stories about how amazing Dana was. And so one of the coolest things was after this interview, Dana stayed on the Zoom with me for like 30 minutes. Get out. And we chatted. and I did not want it to end.

It's like a highlight of my life that I got to have this conversation with him. Yes, I mean, I'm a big Saturday Night Live nerd. I love all those guys. Me too. But listen, I really hope you enjoy the interview. We talk about all kinds of stuff. We talk about the office and Saturday Night Live.

And thank you all again. But wait, you have to tell everyone how to get tickets to your show. Oh, yes. Okay, you can go to Goodmantheater.org, and the play is called Ashland Avenue and Preview Start, September 6th. I'm going. You sure are. Yay! Thank you. All right, here is Jenna on Fly on the Wall. Summer is Tim's ice latte season. It's also hike season, pool season, picnic season, and yeah, I'm down season. So drink it up with Tim's ice lattes, now whipped for a smooth taste. Order yours

on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Risk is the podcast where people tell true stories they never thought they dare to share, like our episode After All, where Ken Cole and Tom Ballet share about the night their son had a psychotic break. And at that point, I didn't actually know I had been stabbed all over my arm. I was in shock. Find the Risk episode After All on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. David, Jenna Fisher.

Jenna Fisher, the lovely Jenna Fisher, who's pretty universally liked out there. I mean, very sweet, very talented, very fun and charming. Famous for the office. She's done a lot of movies and a lot of other things, but she was Pam on the office, the smash. For all 98 seasons. Yeah.

That show just kept. grinding it out and uh yeah there's a spinoff now we talk about um we don't only talk about the office of course we have she does plays she's doing a new one we're talking about she talks about i asked her about nick swartz and about will feral she loves SNL and uh i hit her up after the interview and uh you know i think she had what we had she's always like she's like exactly we say did we ask the right questions was i interesting was i fun and we always finish and going i think we did that wrong whatever but she's very sweet about it she wanted to do a good job she listens to the show she has her own show um the office ladies um and she uh she tells some really

funny stories interesting stories about her struggles before she got on the office and there's a whole arc of story involving molly shannon and that's a very interesting thing yeah and sometimes when that we finish the podcast we keep our laptop up open. So I ended up talking with her for a half hour afterwards. She's very easy. Well, she's easy to talk to. So anyway, I hope you enjoy this one. Jenna Fisher. I was just Aspire producer, and it's a profound question. When you're driving around, a long drive, two-hour drive, whatever. What's your entertainment? XM News, music, pop.

podcasting, or just wrap, phone calls to pay back. You have 10 seconds. Ooh, it's not music. I do not listen to music. My first car did not have a working radio, and I just got used to driving in silence. And it's my preference. But now I would say news, podcasts, or phone calls. So I love the idea that you literally could go like just the silence, two hours, three hours, just, Jesus.

Silence. Jesus, it's chasing. It's healthy, by the way. I don't know. I drove from St. Louis, Missouri all the way to California with no radio. Just open windows. Also, no air conditioning. My first car was really just, it just moved you from one place to another.

There was no luxury involved in the same. Not old, like air conditioning. But yeah, what year of car? I don't remember. I think it was like an 86. I mean, it had originally, when it was built, had these features. They just didn't work anymore. So you do the office, all those years, and then you buy a used Buick from 1988?

I mean, I'll talk to Corel if I have to. No. I'm going to call Greg Daniels. Okay, go ahead. No, no, no. So I had a Mazda 323 hatchback. And that was the car I drove across the country. Okay.

And then I upgraded to a Volkswagen Jetta, which was my favorite car maybe I've ever had. It was awesome. But then when I got my big office paycheck, I got a stupid car. Okay. Yeah, Rolls Royce. It was, I walked into a Mercedes dealership and they had a little sedan. They only made like seven of these. and it had like the engine of a race car

but in like the body of like a C-class Mercedes so it was like cute and compact but it I was a hundred percent an asshole driver like because I could cut around anyone I could it was oh it was great Did you keep it? I leased it and I gave it up after the lease. Lease.

And I went more practical. We all have that story. You want me to go first, David? Because it's similar to yours. Okay, got a little money, some movie, whatever, got extra money. Went to a Mercedes dealership. Oh, my God. A convertible little Mercedes-Coop, like, oh, wow, this is awesome.

Drove it for three or four days and realized when I had the canopy up, I was looking through a plastic windshield in the back. So took it back, traded it in for SLE or a 420 SLE. And then I started getting people paying attention. to me, I lived in the valley when I would go to like 7-Eleven or a gas station. So then I went to Honda. I just wanted a low-fied car. That's my story.

Well, the problem with L.A. is that you get this awesome car and then you can only go like 32 miles an hour in it because you're always stuck in traffic. So it's kind of like after a few years, I was like, oh, the best I can do is like whip down the on ramp. Yeah, 300 horsepower. And then that's, exactly. Yeah. When I moved out, I got something when I first paycheck and I went and I had no car. So I got a car. Dana knows this story. $6,000 Honda. I didn't go flashy. I only had six. And then I drove it to the improv and then I brought it out. I brought my buddy out to show him and it was stolen. What? So how long? You had it for like a night one day. You went one place.

And Kevin Neon. And drove a car, eerily similar to that. I'm not saying he had anything to do with the robbery, but it was kind of weird. But my first car was a Volkswagen bug. Are you going to go to first car or first car when you got an extra paycheck? Me? No, you are. We know your story.

We know my story. David, you got. Oh, I had my fair share because I do like cars, but I, my neck gives me trouble. So every time I get a car, I love, it just starts, it's just too painful. And like Jenna said, when you're starting and stopping all day, it's not like you live in the Midwest and you can floor it and there's big parking lots. Like when you go to Wendy's in Arizona, there's like 300 parking spots. And when you go here, there's one at Kmart. And you go, are we all sharing this?

You can't believe when you get to L.A. How little, there's some businesses have absolutely no parking. So I don't know what we're supposed to do. So that kind of threw me. And I realized they didn't need big fancy cars. I could just tell people I had them. I didn't really need them. My first car was also manual transmission.

Oh, boy. And my left foot would, like, truly ache at the end of, like, driving all day in L.A. Because there was, you were constantly just going, like, in and out of third and fourth gear. There was, like, you never made it to fifth gear in this car. God, no one has a stick anymore. No. It's a, you know, this was the cheapest car. Like, the manual.

transmission was the cheapest car. My dad's very practical. He was like, you'll get this car. I'll teach you how to drive it. This is all you need. You don't need any frills. Yeah. In St. Louis.

Yeah. You've been to St. Louis, I bet. I'm going to St. Louis to a show. Heather, what is the city call? In Mose Pizza in St. Louis? Let's see if she's heard of it. Inos pizza in St. Louis? No.

But I like it as a town. I like walking around. I like that stadiums are really close. close in, you know. Jenna, do you know what Chesterfield is? Chesterfield is where I grew up. Oh, is it really? Chesterfield is where my family lives now.

Uh-oh. Yeah, I actually grew up in like Manchester slash Chesterfield in an unincorporated area. But yeah, Chesterfield, for sure. Why? Because that's where I'm going for my tour. And they said ICE was with Nikki Glazer this weekend. from St. Louis, and she goes, why don't they put on your tour St. Louis? No one, it's Chesterfield. I go, oh, I don't know. I don't even know what I'm going. I mean, if you're from St. Louis, you know what

Chesterfield is. Yeah, it's not like, yeah, it's not downtown. I mean, St. Louis is downtown. You're going to be in the burbs. You're in the suburbs. That's fine with me. And I think it's a great place. I've been there before. I think it's new. Anyway, we'll set up comps for everyone you know from high school. Other than that. Great. Great. Hey. Be careful what you say. My high school ladies are going to come out for your show. It's super fun. Dana and I had a question. First of all, I'll tell Dana a little pre-question that you don't know. All right. Let's try to keep our guests off balance. Like with questions, she's not asked all the time. Oh, yeah. We're here to watch. She's going to come out here to dizzy. I love it.

Great. Everyone loves that in an interview. I thought of doing this with Dana and then I called Jenna, right, Jenna? Do you remember this? Yes, of course. Yes. And you were very sweet. You took the call and you kind of walked me through how it works and what you did. And it really gave me a little boost to say this might be fun.

And if it has to be, Dana, it has to be. That's fine. Whatever. And so, and then Dana had a question of, do you really need a partner? Has it ever gone through your mind? I could have done this by myself and then the money doubles. Has that ever gone through it?

Or maybe Angela. But that... Dana and I think about that all day, every day. People always ask us forever why. You know, why us? Why now? Are you really friends? Do you get that?

I mean, you guys are famously really close friends. But Spade and I was like, what? The Tommy Boy guy and the Wainsworth guy? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, also because Angela and I were frenemies on The Office, our characters were not friends, and people are always very surprised to learn that we are best friends in real life.

I could not have done the podcast without her. I am all, like, structure and order and spreadsheets. My version of Office Ladies' podcast would be very informative, but also way less entertaining. So Angela brings all of the, like, fun. and all of the quirky and all of like the weird observations. So we're actually, we're a pretty good pair. Yeah, I think that's smart that you did that because there is kind of safety in numbers. Dana is way better at this.

And I don't think I could do myself. I think Dana really, really drives it and makes it easier to do it for me. But jokingly, it's fun to joke around with him too because he's a funny guy. obviously, and we have a good time with that. And I think you guys have a real friendship. So people like to hear that you're friends, even though it doesn't seem like it on the show. You guys, I love your podcast. Like you have no idea how excited I am to be on your podcast right now. I listen to you guys. I think you are so good together. Dana, I can't believe you're talking to me right now. That's kind of blowing my mind. I'm a huge Saturday Night Live nerd.

greatest part about being on the office and being on NBC was that I got to breathe the same air as Saturday Night Live people. This is like that we would have to be at the same corporate parties together. And I was a total groupie. That is who I gravitated toward. It was just the coolest. But that's going way back. I actually have a crazy story from my very early days in L.A. Let's hear it. And Saturday Night Live. Okay, so I made my living when I landed in L.A. as a typist and a transcriber. And you know how you'd have to go to those events.

They're called like the Television Critics Association and you would sit on a panel as a cast and you would introduce new cast members. This would be for any show. Well, my job was to go and sit in that room and take notes and then go back to a hotel room, a hot hotel room filled with like, 12 people and 12 computers, and then listen to audio and transcribe these, like, press events. Wow. These conversations, yeah. Yes. And if we got our work done on time by that evening, we were allowed to go to the quote-unquote

parties, which, as you know, are really just cast members of TV shows mingling with reporters who are trying to get sound bites. But we would get to go. We'd get to eat the food, drink the drinks, and just watch all the famous people. Well, all I wanted more than anything was to go to the Saturday Night Live party. I wanted it more than my little new heart in L.A. could stand it. And so I knew what night it was coming up. And I started planting the seed the day before I started pretending like I didn't feel good because I was going to make an excuse that I was sick so that I could. get off work on time and then sneak into this party. But I needed the hours, you know? So I planted that seed. The next day I was like, man, I'm still not feeling good. At 3 o'clock, I'm like, I'm so sorry.

I got to go. I got to go home. The guy was like, fine. I had planted a change of clothes in my car. I went, I changed into a cocktail dress. I sneak into the party. And I can't even tell you it was amazing. Norm McDonald.

I'm looking at him. in the flesh. I can't. My mind is blown. Then I see Molly Shannon and I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to go say hi to Molly Shannon. And I walk up to her. She's giving sound bites to the press. And I say, Molly Shannon, I am a new actress in L.A. and I just admire you so much. And I just wanted to tell you just what you mean to me. You know, the stuff you say. Yeah, sure. She looked at me, took me by the shoulders, looked me deep in the eyes. and said, don't give up. Whatever you do, don't give up.

It took me 10 years to get on Saturday Night Live. And my best advice to you is just know it'll happen eventually if you just stick with it, okay? Wow. Sounds like the Molly we know. Yeah, I was about to say she'll say something nice. Amazing. And I went and I had this encounter with her and then I turn around and my boss from the transcription room is standing. there along with everybody else who got off work on time and they came to this party and I was like

am I fired and he goes you are fired. I was like okay he fired me but it was fine guys because I met Molly Shannon and she gave me that advice and I went home and I told my mom and every time I had a hard day for the next 10 years my mom would say to me Jenna don't you forget what Molly Shannon told you she said don't give up she said it took you it took her 10 years you you guys wait for it 10 years later i'm at the premiere of walk hard the movie walk hard that i did with john c riley riley i shit you not guess who's at that party molly shannon molly shannon your boss and i got to go up to her and i got to say molly shannon here's this story you told me 10 years and she was like like, oh, look, it's 10 years later, and here you are.

And I got a picture with her. I made the photographer come over and, like, take a picture of us. Is that the greatest thing ever? Does Molly know, has she heard this story? Or did you just? Yes, I told her that night at the Walk Hard premiere. Wow. Unbelievable.

But now, yes, and I wrote about, I wrote a book, and I wrote that story in the book, and I have a picture in the book, too. Mm-hmm. Well, when I met David, he was 19, I said, you hang with this. And in six months, don't give up because in six months, no, David was out of the blocks fast. If it was a sprinter, he was like, boom. Dana said, you're going to move to L.A. And in six months, you'll get crabs.

And I go, okay. Police Academy, hello. He got a movie. Well, he's had a... I got a movie early on. 21 or something. That's the police guy movie that I made. I had $6,000 to buy the car that got stolen, so I was back to zero.

Wow. Yeah, great story. You still type 85 words per minute. That's nothing to sneeze at. I do. I do. 90% accuracy. It's all in the accuracy.

Anyone can type garbage. You're 90%, right? Yeah, I mean, right? You want to type words. Anyone can just type nothing. My father was high school. True. Teaching.

Typing teaching. my father for decades. Can you type, can you guys type with all your fingers or are you like two finger typeers? I can't do anything. If you see a non-taught young person like in their 20s, they're really fast. And I don't know if it's technically all using all their fingers, you know, we picked it up later, but I'm fast enough, but I don't.

Jenna, I have a good question that ties in the time of life. When you did Blades of Glory, you wound up getting to have sex with Will Ferrell, right? Yes, that's right. I had a sex scene with Will. That's one of the best all-time goats of S&L for sure. That was nuts. But also, by the way, Amy Poehler was in that movie. Oh, that's right, Amy.

So just playing my sister. Wowie. And Will Arnett was in that movie. Yeah, I mean, that was terrifying. That was terrifying. was so polite when we shot that scene because he had to like grab my boobs like several times. But what was crazy about it was I probably had on more clothes in that scene where I look like I'm just in like a nighty than I normally wear. Like they, because they put you in like spanks and then a corset and then a thing and they painted my body with makeup.

I mean, I felt like so covered. It was crazy. He has to go and grab your boobs through your stuff, but it's like that kind of thing. You can't even feel it because you've got 18 layers of... Yeah, it's like I was wearing body armor. So I was kind of like maybe like wink when you grab them because I can feel nothing. Nudge me.

This was predates intimacy coordinators. There was no one there. There was just... Okay. It was just like here's what we're doing. It was just a director going, let's do this. Yes. Exactly.

Was Swartzen in that? Do you know Nick Swartz and that? little fool. Yes. Yes, he was. Oh, my God. We are friends with Nick and, you know, it's a real rollercoaster, Jenna. I'll tell you that. It is. I found him lovely on the film, but what do I know? No, he's great. He's so funny. Hall pass. We haven't even gotten to the goddamn office. Look, you know, I've done so much stuff. What is it? The question is, is for you and your partner, re-watching all these episodes and talking about them. Yeah.

How is your perception, if it at all, changed about the show? What did you learn about the show or, if anything? Because it is now officially a phenomenon in the way it travels around and then explodes again. It's Evergreen. And it's a unique show. And yesterday I was watching the office with Ricky Jervais, very did. I mean, you know, you say it came from that office, but it went, it has its own complete original thing. Greg Daniels, one of the great writers. So what did you guys, what, what do you

feel about that thing after doing hundreds of podcasts? Did you, did you go through every episode at some point? Yeah, every single episode, all 201 episodes. And then a lot of interviews with cast and crew. Writers? Writers, exactly. My big. Takeaway from having rewatched it was that it's really good the whole time. Because I think there was this lore, especially among the cast and the creatives, that maybe we like hit our peak in season three or season four. And also this belief that like the two seasons after Steve left, we were just treading water and maybe they weren't as good. But when I watched everything, like some of my favorite episodes were in seasons eight and nine. after Steve had left, like there were still these amazing storylines. And also, I have to say now when I look back, some of my favorite episodes were also in seasons four through six. Like, dinner party was season four. Michael Scott Paper Company, that whole arc was in season five. And that's just great TV. And, um, but yeah, I think, you know, some of the award nominations stopped after

season three. So I think maybe we got in our heads and thought, oh, I guess we're not creating as great. I think that just happens, no matter what. Yeah, you're not the new shiny object anymore. That's a nice thing. I mean, when you're watching yourself and you're watching a thing and then you come on and stuff,

and it's something you did years ago, do you ever sometimes, because you sound like you're a normal actor, comedian that's sort of like a little self-critical, how was I? Do you ever kind of look at yourself in a scene and go, damn, I nailed that? Why did I feel insecure? care already or what's that like um i mean i have both reactions sometimes i watch it and i'm like i'll

never do work that good again shit that was great um but then there's other scenes where i just cringe where i'm like oh god i i remember how i struggled with that and i couldn't do it and now here it is for everyone to see and i guess i just have to move on so i've had both reactions and i don't know the complete specifics of this but you it's first all it was always an ensemble how great Corell is in that part is you know everybody knows that

but it always was an ensemble and so many people came out of it and now have these long careers but it's I forgot my train of thoughts sorry I was seen Steve Carell in my head Jenna when you can watch it and say

I was in the pocket because sometimes you watch it it and you go you're just in in the pocket of going this is a great scene this whole idea of this episode's working and they whip the camera back get a great look whip back to you perfect timing get a great look and when you see it you go because you know you can only feel the camera when you're shooting and you don't really know and then you go god they nailed that boom boom edited well everything about this is just that's why people really get uh enchanted by i mean and also just your face is so part of the office, and it's so cute.

They always cut to you, and you have these little storylines. It's really, I see why people get hooked on it. No matter when you turn it on, you can just grab any episode. I remember what I forgot, which was how much, if any, improvisation was there? Because it comes off very improvisational in totem, but I know there wasn't completely improvised. I know, that's a pretty cool word, right? So were you allowed to kind of go, you guys, could I try this? you know, do you mind if I do, you know, that kind of stuff?

Yeah, it was really collaborative and, you know, so many of the writers were also actors on the show. So they were with us and they would be sometimes pitching alternate jokes right there on the set. That's kind of fun, yeah. So that was neat. And we did a lot of improvising, but I don't know how much of it actually made the cut. We got to play and have fun, but I would say like 90% of what you see. on the screen was written on the page down to like they would write in ellipses for our speech

like so you knew to kind of pause because they knew they were going to whip the camera during that pause and so they could get back to you so there was a very elaborate choreography of whipping the camera a little too late so that it seemed and you'd have to get handles yeah so it seemed like they didn't quite do it right yeah yes exactly and so So a lot of times when we would do a rehearsal, they would say, Jenna, will you give a handle before your next line so we have time for that camera whip? So that would be we would add things like, well. They'd find you.

So that they could find you, like in the right timing. But it also seems very real. A lot of the nonverbal acting and those cutaways to a character that isn't saying a line, but just sort of nonverbally doing some kind of attitudes. stuff. It, it was immediately just felt so new. I'm not going to say fresh. David would use that word a lot, but immediately, I think for comedians as well, watching it going, this looks cool, this looks fun, this looks different and really funny. It doesn't push at all. You know, it's the Well, we had two camera operators with cameras on their shoulders, and both of these guys were

from survivor. So these guys had like walked through the whatever, the wilderness with the survivor people capturing survivor. So this is where they came from in the documentary world. And camera A, Randall Einhorn, who was also our cinematographer who went on to be a director and is now, you know, the executive producer of Abbott Elementary and all those things. Randall was our A camera and his job was to get all of the dialogue. and then Matt Sown he was our B camera and then his job was to get

all of those things you're talking about Dana all of the acting that was happening in the background so whenever a scene was happening we were all in the background of each other's scenes all day long on set the full 12 hours

Steve Corell included I can't tell you how many times Steve Carell had to sit in Michael Scott's office just to be in the background of Jim and Pam looking at each other because we get a piece of them yeah because we're going to to see a piece. We're going to see a piece of you. It's like something we could put on a mug.

That'd actually be a great cast gift. Yeah. And so he would grab and push in on all of the, you know, anyone who was in the background of a scene and get their reactions in real time. It was such a cool way to work. Yeah. And you have to stay alive though. You do. Every scene. But it keeps your energy up. Yeah. You know, because that's the hardest thing for me about acting in movies is like, They had long amounts of downtime between when you're actually acting. It's just like, oh, God, I got to ramp up again. Yeah, and it's just, you know, I don't know if this is the correct way to say it. But if you feel like if you're discovering something new in the moment, it's really nice.

It does keep your brain alive. And in traditional movies, what I was doing, you know, you do the three masters at seven or eight a.m. or whatever. And then by five or six o'clock, you start. and, oh, don't you, and the master eight hours ago, your left elbow was up and you open the car door at this point. It's the antithesis of what you guys had, at least the way it felt, it popped, it felt real, you know? For sure, and we did not have marks, you know, those that for people out there,

like you put tape on the ground and then you have to stand on it because that's how you're going to be in focus. But we had no marks. And if the boom dipped in shot, we just kept it in because, you know, It worked in the world. And when I finished, when I, you know, going back to Blades of Glory, Blades of Glory was the first big movie I did after being cast on the office. And I repeatedly kept looking down the barrel of the camera.

Like I would do a scene with Will and Amy. And then I would like give a look to camera. I'd be like, fuck, I can't do that. And also I suddenly had to hit a mark. And I was so stiff. It was really stressful because I'd been in this other. world. You can watch when people on movies sometimes

have you ever watched someone looks down when they walk and look for their mark and then they look up. I love it. It's so horrifying. I want to say also, I was going to say this show is fresh, but it's funny that the term fresh is stale. But also I'm going to bring it back.

The office was fresh and the new one called the paper on Peacock. Have you seen that? Do you know much about it? Okay. I haven't seen it, but I got to go to the set. Angela and I got special access to the set and got to talk to all the actors. We got to see it. It's really cool, but we're not allowed to say anything. Oh, yeah. I think it's in the can. Like they finished it. It comes out in September. Oh, interesting.

Oh, September on where? Peacock. Peacock, right? So with John Cresents, like the Jim and Pam narrative became such a big thing. I talked to some people in the early 20s a day told him I was going to review you and on the office. They go, I go, she was Pam.

Oh, Pam, you know? This is like a famous character. And Jim and Pam. I'm just kind of curious because John Krasinski, I find it really, really interesting how he came up with that horror film. The Quiet, what was it?

The Quiet. A quiet place. Quiet place. And it's interesting when actors just all of a sudden you see them, they're like, wow, this guy can really direct. And did you see any seeds of that in him intellectually or just the way he was around? Was that a surprise to you when he came out directing? It was a surprise to none of us.

Oh, I didn't think so. John, I would always say to John, I think you're going to be like our Tom Hanks. Like, remember how Tom Hanks did bosom buddies? And he was like a very famous successful TV show. But like when you think of Tom Hanks, you don't think of bosom buddies. You think of everything else Tom Hanks has done. And I was like, I think the office is going to be your bosom buddies. Like you're going places.

It's very clear. And did he look down at the ground and go, oh, shucks, Jenna? Or how did he did? He's very, yes, he's very humble in that way, you know. Like that would be, if I say that to him, that's very embarrassing. to him, you know, like, he doesn't want to be, like, fussed over like that. But I was like, no, it's true, Mr. Well, it's a Herclian task to direct a movie.

I mean, just physically and mentally. But Dana fusses over me all the time. Fusses? Yeah. You fuss over me. I want to hear more about you being a telephone psychic when you got. Yeah. That was.

She worked as a car wash. I did work at a car for three summers, and that was my best. job. I worked at Long John Silvers. That was my first job. I worked at an ice creamery serving ice cream. And then I got the job at the car wash. All of those were on this road called Manchester Road in St. Louis out in the suburbs. And I got fired from Long John Silver's. I got fired from the ice creamery. And my dad would say, oh, you're just looking to get fired from every business on Manchester Road, I guess. But the car wash stuck. And that was great. They was great money. I was outside, just drying off the cars, you know. How big are tips in that

world? Because I try to tip well, but. Okay. This is like, like back then. Well, and by the way, they would always make me give the gentleman back their cars. Oh, the keys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to stand at the car and wave. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, and your little shorts and your little cutoff shirt and like your car's ready. Um, and I'm talking well. I'm sorry. I would, I'm not, you know, not to brag, but I would get a five sometimes. Nice. Fiverr. Mm-hmm.

But then I had to put it in like the group bucket. Oh, no. Pooling tips? Pooling tips. Yeah. You're in your. I mean, a few of them made it into my pocket. I'm not going to lie.

Now, how, what percentage of you is really a psychic? Do you think some of you? I would say zero percent. But do you believe in the potentiality of psychics at all? Or do you think it's all just... They creep me out. Like, I don't want a psychic to tell me what's going to happen to me. I like to believe I have free will, you know?

I don't want to have that. That just will give me nightmares. I saw one psychic one time and it still haunts me. Yeah. It will change what you'll do. The second they tell you something, you'll make a different decision. That's what I feel. Like, you will do this and this.

They go, okay, as they'll say, oh, random example. You'll get married with the next 10 years. So you meet someone and maybe you give him a different chance than you would before. You're like, I think this is the guy I'm going to marry. That's exactly right. It's weird. Every little thing changed a little bit so you can't really get the same outcome of the field. I went to a psychic in college and my big question for her was, am I going to marry this guy I have a crush on?

I was obsessed with him. I'm going to marry him. She said, no, you're not. You're not going to marry him. She said, but you're going to be famous one day. I said, I am. I want to be an actress. I'm going to be famous.

She said, you're not going to be famous for acting. You're going to be famous in the world of religion. Hmm. Yeah, she said I was going to be a famous religious leader. She had it with acting. She should have stuck with that. Here's a review. Here's a review that I brought.

Office ladies is a religious experience. This was from the St. Louis Dispatcher. No, I've made that. Dispatch. Dispatch. If you want to have fun You have a play, by the way You've done plays

It looks like from your prep here You've done plays But you have another one coming up Ashland Avenue Ashland Avenue World premiere At the Goodman Theater in Chicago Yeah, I'm heading out there

In August for rehearsals And then the play opens in September Tickets going to sale in June on 27th Now doing a play Dave and I were just talking about this for you came on Doing a play Is it more exciting or is it just something?

I couldn't even imagine you wrapping my head around the full script that you have to memorize. Does that take days, weeks? Are you good at that? It takes weeks. I think I'm okay at it. Plays are my favorite thing. I was a theater major. There's no money in doing theater.

But it's where my heart is. And what I love is that you get to tell the whole story and go on the characters complete journey every night. You don't have to like prepare it and then you shoot it out of order. And I also just love that it like, it lives and breathes with the audience. And each play can only be seen one time. Like each performance is slightly different. And you have it. And then just like only the people who were there got to see it. It just is like really magical to me. And I love it. It's all I want to do moving forward. I want to just be a theater actress.

It's interesting. I've gotten more into plays the last 10 years just in London. I'm not an intellectual in New York and stuff. And it's interesting, the curtain call. And then they stand and there's a standing ovation. And then you can tell by their body language how they felt, especially when they're walking off. Like sometimes they're slumping and sometimes you see someone literally twirl around almost. Like we've or high fiving.

We nailed it. You know that you saw one that. had that chemistry. Like you said, they're not always at that level. That's why you have. Right. They're like fingerprints. Dana, I think you'll agree stand up is, you know, I go on the road, going mostly to places Jenna lived. But when I go on the road, you do a show and everyone goes, oh, I saw your show, I saw your show. But you remember that city and you go, oh, that one went pretty well. Even though it's just microscopically different. Yeah. But you know, sometimes you get off and you go, I could not get going perfectly. And sometimes you're like, from the second I went out,

it was perfect. I said everything right. I had the right attitude. And so plays are like that where whoever comes is going to see that night's experience and it will be a hair difference. The audience is the partner in many ways? Is it, is it a drama? They steer it. It is a comedy, but it will also break your heart into a million pieces. So what it's about is it's about a guy who owns an old like TV shop in Chicago on Ashland Avenue. And he's a guy who used to have a dozen TV shops in Chicago. But, you know, mom and pop shops have gone away for the big box, you know, places. And so, and so he's being honored by the city of Chicago for being a small business owner. I play his daughter. And basically, it's a play about this man dealing with being in his 70s and basically life is kind of telling him, we don't, we don't really need what you have to offer anymore. He's like dealing with his own relevancy. Like the thing that he's good at is owning this TV shop and selling people TVs. But it's like, you know what? We don't need that anymore.

And so what do you do with that when the world is kind of done with your skill? And so it's kind of heartbreaking, but it's also a comedy. And then as his daughter, who has grown up, just being in this TV shop as well, and it looks like it's going away, like I have to decide, well, I'm kind of getting a chance here to do something else with my life and strike out on my own. And what does that mean to me? Do you feel like they, the audience is, obviously, they're familiar who you are from the office. And then they want to come see you. And so. So how different is this character compared to Pam? This character is different from Pam, for sure.

And that's something like, you know, that's my whole career since Pam, is that most people just want to see more Pam. It doesn't totally bother me. But I think I'm going to be, I think you'll be able to go on this journey even, you know, I think it'll be okay. I would say, you know, because I, an audience, I'm doing standout, they do want to see characters that I did on SNL and I just totally, of course, I'll do them. They're my hits. The only thing worse than not than having hits or a hit show is not having a hit show. So it's just. There it is. That's right. Yeah. So it's a good problem to have. And I think that from reading your prep, guest prep, you know, you've just done a lot of stuff since the office. So it certainly was a star. starting point for you. Do you still just love it? Do you just love performing? Like you? I do. I do. You know, I think I'm a mom now. I have two kids. And one of the things that was really hard, though, was just the amount of focus and frankly, like, self-involvement that is necessary to be an actor or a performance artist or you know but it's true like like you you you don't want to go all the way into

narcissism because that's a real bummer but there is a there is a type of selfishness and self-involvement that is necessary for being an artist because that's how you create that's how you get in the space to create and um but that is that lane is not compatible with the kind of parent i want to be um i want to be a you know a kid focused kid-centered type of parent. And so I have changed the things I've said yes to or the things I do acting wise since I had kids, mostly so that they were kind of like more softballs, you know, like things I could do without getting too dark or self-involved or selfish, things that I could completely leave at work. I wasn't bringing anything home with me that was going to like bleed

into their lives. Oldest time. Oldest show business. All this. All this show business. All all those kind of conflicts. And one thing that occurred to me recently, why it's sort of emotional or personal, like I have a lot of good friends who maybe real estate agents or different type of jobs. But we are our product,

our physicality, our voice, who we are. And so it's a personal thing. You're out there doing the play. And if it's not going well, you didn't feel like I had enough time to prep. It's just personal. So I think it is really common and difficult to balance the emotion

with the family versus just how personal it is as a performer and artist it's like and when kids come along you're just now suddenly it's their world and you're you can't even help it it just goes away you're like now I'm lasered on this and I can't be like I was you know that's exactly right that's like in part of your life where it changes there are some people in showman I think Beyonce has her daughter touring with her who's like 12 there are some people just take do that kind of lifestyle but who's richer than me. That's different than giving your kids kind of a stable, old-fashioned lifestyle.

Well, I remember I talked to a family therapist, like, early on because I like therapy, and I was talking about wanting to have kids and trying to figure out, how am I going to balance that with, you know, being an actor? And she said something that really stuck with me. She said, well, there's kind of two types of families. You can have parent-centered homes or child-centered homes. And she's like, and there's no judgment, which one you want to pick. But in a parent-centered home, if you have a career, your children will orbit around you

in your career. And if you go to a movie, you bring them with you and you have tutors. And they sort of like just go into your life. She's like, but in a child-centered home, you know, you center it around the children. And if you need to go do a project, she was like, imagine like your family is flowing like a river. And rather than diverting the whole river to the movie, you just, you take a little stream by yourself. You do the movie and then you rejoin the river later. But the goal is to keep the river doing its thing.

And I really liked that. And I thought, yeah, I want to do that one. Could you, I don't know if you want to do it publicly, but could I get the number of that therapist or? I think you gave us solid bullet points. That's a pretty good little. What do you call that? an analogy, a metaphor. I don't know.

It's one of those things. It was great. It was great. She also said like, you know, something that's hard, though, is she said when you, she said when you pick the person you want to have kids with, she's like, you're going to want a person who agrees with you because there's nothing worse than one parent who wants a parent-centered home and another parent who wants a child parent, you know, a child-centered home. And then she also said people who have grown up in parent-centered home. have a very hard time creating kid-centered homes because they're like, hey, wait a second, I'm the adult now. It's my turn.

Yeah. So it's right, right? Like you grew up, like revolving around your parent. And then if you revolve around your kid, you're like, when was my shot? Yeah. I thought it was, it was just so much to chew on, right? Yeah. Well, the 60s was so different, you know.

I guess it was a parent-centric. It was, you just were so much more independent. Like I was walking to school at age five, you know, and there were no helmets. You know, you know, for sure. And so it's become very child-centric, you know. It used to be children should be seen but not heard. And now it's adults should keep their mouths shut when we're watching, you know. And Dana, you wear a helmet now, though, when you go to the mailbox.

But that's his own choice. That's my own choice. It's a fashion choice. Jenna, two more things before we let you go. But one, I thought when you do a play, I think of this when I do stand up on the road. When you do a play, I think what would scare me is you have to feel good every day. Like you have to go there and prep yourself. It sounds stupid, but to stand, to sit, to go through, to be fully alert for those two hours or whatever.

That's kind of a hard thing. Does it ever even cross your mind or you're always just kind of positive? to it. No, I mean, I have a bunch of like rituals and superstitions that I do. Oh, yeah, you do? Yeah, do you guys? I have like, I have like a vocal warm up. I have like a body warm up. I have a meal that I like to eat because I know that it's not going to make me feel too full or too hungry. Or sick or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Like, no, I'm definitely not experimenting with any kind of new food. Yep, yep. Do you have that? Yeah. I mean, Dana and I were just talking last week, like before we went on stage, I get an eyelash in my eye once in a while. It happened last week again,

Dana. And anything can happen right before you walk out and you're like, I can't pee, I can't eat, I can't do anything. I have to feel good for the next hour straight. There can be no distractions. And it's very weird because your life, you can always poke at your phone, you can look at this, you can go rest through, and you go this. And it plays even longer. And just to feel like you had a grumbly stomach or your back hurts or something, you're like, oh shit, can I do this? Do I call in somebody? You know, so weird. I had a shooting pain in my left leg, kind of inside my left leg. And so all of a sudden, my left leg was inoperable.

I was playing in front of 2,000 people. And I was in a, and I'm like, okay, got to go with this, you know, incorporated into the act, you know. And then it worked itself out. What I was interested in also, besides, we all do that, and I think it's great. You have the certain show day prep. But the gentleman who is playing your father, what is his name? Fran Geinen. So Larry David was just talking about when he does usually whatever he's doing.

I don't know if he does stand up or whatever. It's just the fatigue goes away once there's the audience, you know. And then I think in a play, you're holding on to him. He's holding on to you. And that connection can hopefully make the part of your brain going, how am I doing? How's it going? All that go away at times, right? That's the electricity of it.

If you get so involved in the scene with your partner, that it feels exhilarating, right, when you know you're connecting and the audience is with you. That's what you live for, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the dope of the whole thing, of live performance. I mean, that's the thing we're chasing. That's the high you're chasing every time. And even if your prep doesn't go as well as you want or you ate too much, you still always have that possibility of that happening.

happening. Yes. Yes. And also, if they get something wrong, the audience doesn't know this. They could miss a line. You cover for them. There's little things that are like teamwork things that are fun to do that you get through the end and someone's like, hey, you save me. I spaced out. And the audience doesn't really know what's going on, but you guys, you forgot a prop. There's little things that keep it alive. But that's kind of the fun teamwork of it all, like in a show also. That happened to me during a show. I did a a show off Broadway and me and this other actress were on stage. And we're only on stage for like four lines because we don't like each other. And we're waiting for the same guy. We like

the same guy and we're waiting for him to walk in and break the tension. And he didn't come on stage. He didn't come. He just missed his entrance. And so I started improvising, which then the playwright was like, oh my God, I can't believe people thought I wrote those lines. That was just It's like terrible improvisation. I'm like, what were we supposed to do? We're just sitting there. No one was coming on. It's an art piece of you sit in silence for 12 minutes waiting while they find the guy at the deli next door.

I like it when someone's didn't silence their phone or it's talking to the phone. And then the actor in the Broadway show breaks character. He's in some kind of clown suit or dresses a bear. I will kill you, motherfucker. You know, it's just that clown suit. It's live. Now, Jenna, my last thing for you is I like that when you audition for the office, Allison Jones, as a casting director, we probably all three have run into along the way. The best.

Said, dare to bore me. I think that's interesting. Yeah, I read that. I like that because most people are trying to give you the biggest pizzazz of a lifetime in an audition. Well, I had been auditioning for Allison for about five years before the office. I got my first speaking role on a television show. It was Spin City, the Charlie Sheen Years, and I had three lines as a waitress.

And then I would, she would bring me in for other little things. Sure. And finally, when it was time for her to cast the office, I had a good enough relationship with her that I could say, hey, Alison, do you have any advice? I really want this one. And she said, yeah, my advice is don't come in, Don't come in looking hot.

Like, don't come in all done up. And by the way, usually the note was, okay, you're playing a pediatric nurse but like hot. Or like you're playing a school teacher, but like really hot. So like usually the note was look hot. Mortician, but hot. But super hot. Like she's really, really hot. And I'm like, okay.

So she was like, don't come in like looking hot. Don't come in with a bunch of makeup. Overdone, yeah. We want real people. And then she said, we're going to have you improvise during the audition. And my advice is dare to bore me. And I was like, okay, great. So I went in and I read the scene.

And then Greg Daniels said, okay, we're going to improvise. I'm going to just ask you some questions as if I'm a documentary filmmaker. And I had that note in my head. And he said, do you like being a receptionist here? And I just paused and I said nothing. And then I said, no. And that's all I said. That's funny.

Because I thought it would be funnier to watch me think of all the things I wasn't going to say than to say any of them. And then also, though, she's like a deeply honest person. So she can't lie and say she does like. ticket, but she's also not going to say anymore. And I think that's what got me the job. Greg told me that's what got me the job. That is so cool. Dare to bore me.

That was... Dare to bore me. It was so scary. It's so scary to... Oh, because you want to just go for the fences. I know. It's so hard to just have restraint. That's like, for me, the hardest thing about acting is just holding in silence.

And then on the office, you really are working with people that are all doing it, and it's so fucking funny. It's amazing. It's just an amazing, amazing thing to have been a part of. It just, I still can't believe it. And just what it means to people, too. Like, that's so cool. I know that the office has gotten people through hard times in their lives. And, you know, once in a long ago, I fell down a set of stairs in New York at BudaCon. It was during like an NBC event. I was there with Fred Armisen, actually. actually. And I fell down this set of stairs and I broke my back in four places. And while I was recovering, I watched the Larry Sanders show. And it was like better than any pain medicine. So like the fact that I can like I can be part of something that is that for other people, like I know what it means to have a thing that like gets you through something. It's really cool. Wow, that's full circle because I believe that Ricky Jervais felt like he was influenced by the Larry Sanders show.

And then he does the British office and then you go to the American office and then you break your back and then you're watching Larry Sanders. I don't know where this keeps going, but it's something kind of cool about that. That was a show that's magic. We were both on it. Were you on it, David? We were on Larry Sanders. Also, we all worked with Greg Daniels, who is a shout out to him, who is a great writer that obviously. S&L.

I remember when Greg Daniels and Conan O'Brien walked into the offices at S&L, fresh out of Harvard, looked like they were sophomores in high school, little haircuts, kind of nervous, looking around. Yeah, great. Yeah. And they were roommates, too. I know. It's amazing, really.

And those SNL years, you liked, it's like we were propped up by guys like that and Bob Odenkirk and Smigel. downy and frank yeah there's so many good writers it's kind of nice when and i'm sure you just do that you're not trying to get kudos about it but if someone says to you later because not everyone is really friendly when you walk into an environment like that and they'd say oh you were so nice to us i go really i was i think i was just like how you guys doing or something but some people were like more competition we don't need you you know it's a little it can be a little cold at s andl no one's really telling you where you should stand or what you should even do

That's what we learned. A lot of people were like, they didn't even know. No one told them anything, you know, about the show. And they just had to figure it out for themselves. But anyway. Well, it's an interesting environment. I got to be on the show as part of Steve Kroll's monologue once. And I was, I mean, again, like I told you, I'm a Saturday Night Live groupie nerd.

And so this was, I don't even remember what I had going on. like 24 hours notice, do you want to come fly in? And I was like, yes. I came in on a red eye. I was like anything. And to be in the bowels to like get to be there for the rehearsal. And then how like, oh my God, it really does change from the rehearsal. That was nuts.

And just it was so scary. And my line changed. And then the cue card changed. And then how we all went into Lauren's office. And you're like sitting on the floor like waiting to hear like what things. made it and what didn't and I couldn't believe I was invited I was like I'm just the I just have like one sentence in the opening monologue but I was like privy to all of the inner workings it was so awesome it is and then that night at the after party I I held Lauren Michaels focus for 30 solid

minutes. Whoa. And I still, to this day, it is one of my, my best, like, small talk moments ever. Because I'd met him many times. I had come and I saw when Christina Applegate hosted and when John Hamm hosted, I came as their guest and I would sit and I would run into it and shake his hand and all this sort of stuff. And, and, um, but for whatever reason at this particular after party, I got in a whole chat with him about how I like to prep for the apocalypse. And he was very interested in this topic. And we spoke for like a solid 25 minutes. And I wanted to keep talking to him.

I wanted to keep going. But I knew that I had to say goodbye. Yeah. And I did it. I left at the right time. And I'm so proud of myself. That's interesting. And now I never want to speak to him again.

will never speak to him again. I will not ruin it. Six years there, I didn't get 30 total. It was, I'm telling you, I'll never, I never, ever want to run into him again. That was a good subject matter for him. Something that he would be like, just doesn't talk about every day. You first have to make sure that you procure a fair amount of water in the event of apocalypse. I put Triscuits down there. I mean, did he respond at all? I mean, you really talked about your preparation for the apocalypse like for 30 minutes straight. For a good amount of time. But then we also talked about the movie The Edge, which is my favorite movie. And, you know, it's

a survivalist movie. I love movies where people have to survive things. I've seen it at least five times. And that's a movie. And we told Alec Baldwin that, that friends come over, a relative is, oh, let's watch a movie. And once in a while, I go, if you've seen The Edge, they go, no, I go, it's just kind of a surefire great entertaining film. No one cannot like it. Dana, what one man can do, another can do. That's from the movie. What one man can do, another can do. I'm telling you, that's gotten me through, like, big life moments. I love this movie.

And so we talked about The Edge, which ended up leading into survivalist stuff, into prepping. And he was really interested in my currency plans. Like, what were my plans for currency during the apocalypse? Did I have gold bars? And you know what? To be honest, I hadn't thought of it. I hadn't gotten as far as currency. Funny, when I was there in the fall doing Biden, just behind his decks, I saw this whole duffel bag, you know, it's really big, you know, and then when he left to use the bathroom, it was just all this survival stuff in there.

He goes by and he pushes a wall and it spins around. He disappears down a slide. I want to be ready. He was influenced by my, by my prep. Tony Hopkins had that line, right? One man can do, another man can do. Is that Tony Hopkins? Yes, correct.

And Al, Al Bald. One was Al Ball one was great and that. So was Tony. I love people changed names. Jen, Jen was great on our pocket. Jen Fisher. Does anyone call you Jen? No, no one's ever called me Jen. Well, get ready for it. We have a lot of followers. By the way, people may not know. We're on the same network. It's almost like television now. So that's kind of cool. This is jury duty for Jen. And I just for people who are watching this or might want to see it. So are you in a studio somewhere? Yeah. I'm at your New York studios. Yeah, I'm here in New York this week. And so I came into the New York studio. And are you and Angela usually in different places when you do the podcast and sometimes

together or always? No, we're usually together. Odyssey, our company that we both work for has a studio in Hollywood and we usually record there in person together. You guys are all set up at home. Like, you guys have cool setups. We don't go in person. We've been going in person. I kind of feel I need a background or something. It changes a lot. When I was not doing SNL, I was just in a hotel room doing it.

That's one of the advantages of this is that you can do it remotely if you have to. But David has a little studio. I just have this stupid mansion, yeah. But Jenna, thank you for joining us. Tell Angela, hello. and we appreciate your time. Oh, guys, I don't want it to end. I love you.

I love you both. I love your podcast. This is so cool. This was a highlight for me. Well, everybody. Keep your eyes open for her play. I just enjoy talking to you. I just find I kind of thought.

You're always sweet and fun and just like you would think. Podcasters, actresses and all kinds of things you do. But if you do this, well, I think you do get a little more adept. at doing it, you know, conversing and letting it go where it needs to go and asking questions. So usually we have a podcaster on, it's an easy show, you know. Yeah, right? Because you know what you're hoping to get when you're doing it yourself. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be electric every moment.

You don't have to push it. It just, it just is what it is, you know. If we seem rusty, it's because we've only done 2,000 of these. Okay. Ashleyne Avenue is the play and she's doing it in Chicago And it will be tickets on sale

June 27th And it starts when in August you said? I think September 15th Okay September 15th All right Thank you very much Bye sweet art

Bye bye bye Thank you guys Don't hang up This has been a presentation Of Odyssey Please follow subscribe Leave a like a review All this stuff

smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts. Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbicoe. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton. Thank you.