SmartLess - "RE-RELEASE: Jenny Slate"
Episode Date: November 13, 2025Our lovely surprise guest Jenny Slate joins from a supply closet to give us the 5-day weather outlook, the difference between drop and dropper, texts about ‘the patriarchy,’ and so much more. Come... ruin your minds with us, here at Chateau SmartLess.This episode was originally released on 6/27/2022. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey guys.
Just kind of like a massive major workout.
My thighs are pumped.
My thighs are pumped.
Everything's pumped up so big.
I can't even, like, I pass a mirror and I'm like,
wait a minute, where did Sean go?
And he's right here.
So, but who am I kidding?
I didn't work out.
I never work out.
Welcome to SmartLess.
Smart.
I woke up this morning about the NASA thing.
Did you read this thing today?
No, what happened?
That the Voyager, you know, it's like 15 billion miles away.
Yeah.
And they don't quite know what's, there's something going on with it
where they're not receiving correct information,
but they're still receiving information.
And I'm interested in that shit.
Did I just lose everybody?
No.
Yeah, you don't want to try to stay away from just half stories.
Okay.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
I was going to say, like, I'd be interested
if you gave me actually anything interesting to think about.
Okay.
Well, I can tell you what happened with my,
I got my MRI back from my neck.
This I want to know about you.
Okay.
And what they say, it's a...
No, I got a better story.
It's a pain in the...
Ah, but...
Okay, so listen, so this is a true story.
As you can notice, I got my hair cut yesterday, right?
It's really, really short.
And I got a little color in there, too.
So Scevo, blah, blah, blah, joke, joke, joke.
Skevo, Greek, fantastic.
Oh, hang on.
Is that what we do now to fucking, the fuck is going on?
What do we have a kid's birthday party?
So I'm sitting there.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, you just glossed over the rinse.
You put a rinse in there, huh?
What was the name of the color on?
on that reds it's usually something like chestnut forever or something like that no that's my
profile on my on your weight is no it's two words chest nuts not no it's not on chest
right please not on chest dot com
da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da we really got to get a snare drum in here oh i got that i got that
swistle oh boy here it comes
Here we go, Shecky.
Go, Sheck.
There is.
So, listen, so wait, so I'm sitting there.
And you know Chris McMillan, who does your hair, Jason.
Sure.
So he's sitting on the other side and his station across.
And I go, Chris, get me something like a piece of candy or something.
I want, I wanted some sugar or something sweet.
And he goes back in the bag, he's like, I don't have anything.
You want me to make your peanut butter sandwich?
I was like, no, I don't want that.
So I'm sitting there and Scovus cut my hair.
And like 10 minutes later, he hands me a bag of chocolates.
He sent somebody out.
to get me chocolate.
It's full service over there.
Isn't that the nicest thing in the world?
Chris did or Skevo did?
Chris did.
That's pretty nice.
He's not the guy who owns the salon.
It's pretty nice.
I know, Chris.
I know for Tracy.
I can't believe you're asking them
for snacks in there.
Why's just go in there and behave yourself?
Also, there wasn't a pleas in there.
You were like, hey, Scevo, give me some candy.
You said, hey, Chris, give me some candy.
I know.
What is going on?
You're a tyrant.
He's so sweet.
I can't believe that,
that he actually sent somebody out to get me chocolate.
Also, who eats peanut butter in a hair salon?
The hair's going to get stuck in it.
Gross.
That sounds disgusting to me.
Well, anyway.
Listen, I don't want to keep our guest waiting.
I do.
Okay, listen.
So with all this momentum, this hilarious momentum,
let's go ahead and intro the guest.
I'm super excited about our...
Don't make me do it again.
Okay, I'm super excited about it.
It's just at arm's length.
So what's so weird, that little slide was, like,
I'd have to drive 10 miles to buy one of those,
and yours is just arm's length.
That's right.
I don't know what the search terms are for it.
I'm super excited about our sweet, kind, funny, cutest pie guest today.
I had the pleasure of thinning next to her as we both voiced characters
in that animated show I did last year, Q-Force,
and she made me laugh really hard.
She's the epitome of a workaholic.
She doesn't stop working.
And I'm not sure why she's on smart list
because she graduated valedictorian of her class
from Milton Academy before attending Columbia as a lit major.
She starred in films like Obvious Child and Gifted.
She's guest starred in Parks and Rex and Girls
and Everything Funny You Can Think of.
Earlier this year, she started with our friend Charlie Day
in the Amazon original rom-com, I want you back.
And she is, of course, the star of my favorite animated character
of all time, Marcel, the Shoe's on.
It's a wonderfully talented and hysterical, Jenny Slate.
Jenny Slate.
It was really great.
Jenny.
Hi.
Hi, Jenny.
Thank you for being here.
This is so cool.
Oh, my gosh.
It's so, I don't know if your guests say this a lot, but like the energy mounting waiting to be revealed and then I'll, like, it depends on all your personality is.
But if you're like, oh my gosh, what if I'm like a bad surprise and no one cares or, and then you guys are so funny and I was laughing and I didn't trust the mute.
I was like maybe like maybe I'll laugh so hard.
I'll bust through the mute.
As the youngest of five children, I'm a bad.
surprise.
So...
Oh, there it is.
Sean, don't you hear you.
You know what, Jimmy?
I'm so sorry.
First of all, hi, nice to meet you.
Hi.
You've never met.
You get the Lego Batman movie together.
Oh, wait.
We've met brief.
But we didn't record.
I think we briefly in passing, but this is our first
conversation.
We've never had an actual dialogue.
So, yeah.
Double snub.
What about no chatting at the craft service table?
Did you guys not
They didn't have one
Sean tell Tracy what a craft service table is
Craft Service is where they feed the cast
off the side like with a line
I'm just food on tables
It's a snack table
It's a snack table for everyone
Easily said
Yeah
Wait I read somewhere Jenny that you are like
Because I'm looking at where you are right now
I'm not in my home
I'm not in my home
That's what I was going to say
Okay so that's what I was going to say
Listener it looks like she's in a supply closet
Do you run in a travel agency
What's going on?
I'm in a supply closet
Okay
Look I'm in a supply closet
That looks like you got last night's dress
hanging on a hook behind you too.
There's a toilet underneath me.
There's a toilet.
I hope so that's where you want it to be.
Are you on a boat?
Are you in the head on a boat?
Are you just suffering from colitis right now
and you just want to stay ready?
You know, I don't feel safe.
I don't feel like myself unless there's a toilet
truly screwed in with full-on plumbing
into just whatever space I'm in and I need that.
Even for podcasts.
Directly under you.
Yeah. So I live for most of the year in a small town in Massachusetts by the ocean and I live on a little peninsula and we have Wi-Fi that is like internet that my mother-in-law put in there in like, you know, the late 90s, I want to say. And no one has ever decided to improve upon it. And so when it's raining, literally it's like raining today, it's not, there's not even really a breath of wind. But the internet becomes very bad. And so my husband owns the general store.
So I came up here with my computer and my like power cord trailing like a little tail and was like, can I use it?
Jenny, this is crazy.
Can you, I know there's not a breath of wind.
Can you, what's the five-day outlook?
I'm going to tell you what, well, we're going to get into the high, the high 70s is what I heard.
Now, Jenny, this sounds like an ideal life you live.
Tell us slow about this peninsula and what did you say most of the year.
The general store.
Does he wear an apron?
Here's the thing.
In ideal life, still have the same personality that I had in L.A.
So I'm waiting for the adjustment to kick in for that chillness.
That chillness to get right.
Maybe you need to move to Chillmark.
Come on.
Hang on a second.
Sean?
So whereabouts keeping your safety in mind so you don't need to get too specific.
Whereabouts are you in Massachusetts?
Sure.
I can see Martha's Vineyard from where I live.
I'm in...
Are you in Woods Hole?
I'm not in Woods Hole.
I'm in what they call South Coast, Massachusetts.
And I'm from Massachusetts, and I did not know that this area existed.
And my husband and I were kind of...
Oh, yeah.
Where are you from, Jenny?
I'm from Milton, Mass.
No shit, huh?
Matter of fact, I used to know a kid...
No, he's from fucking.
He's from Bill Ricka, but...
I knew this other kid from Milton.
Fucking good kid.
You should see this dude.
What's his name?
His name is Sully, obviously.
Oh, yeah, everyone is.
Yeah.
But he lives, he lives, he lives, he lives, he lives, he lives, he lives, in Milton, and he works in Pibati.
That's where my cousins live.
Are you shit me in fucking Peebittany?
I'm not kidding.
Do they work for the Edison?
What's that?
Like the Edison, like the.
Yeah, the fucking power company.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, you know.
Jenny Slate, how did you, so did you just stumble into this general store one day
and you say, hey, handsome fell in an apron.
No, ding, ding, ding, and the bells went when she opened the door.
I don't see a ring on that finger.
What about we get a malt?
Yeah, yeah.
Listen, it's not how it went.
I wish that that would be really nice.
that's so romantic.
But in fact, I met my husband in...
Online?
Well, in the Arctic.
In the Arctic.
Oh, really?
In the Arctic.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
It's like it all just sounds like, you know, those people who try to have stuff
to make them more interesting, but they're actually like basic, so they say stuff like this.
This is a great pitch.
Keep going.
So you guys meet in the Arctic.
Uh-huh.
What happens?
So she's in the Arctic.
Yes, she's in the Arctic.
She's an artist
She's in the Arctic
She's there for art
But what she does find is love
By the end you realize that love is art
And art is love
And she's standing on the end of a peninsula
With a toilet underneath her
Yeah
Can I just say that we love this
We'd like to take this off the table
We'd like to take this off the table now
Truly
First time I've ever sold anything in the room
Wait wait so you met in the Arctic
What were you doing in Arctic Norway
I was making a movie there
and my friend wrote the movie
and her now husband
is best friends with my now husband
and so they
and I was there and they invited him to come there
and like hang out to Norway
Was it a setup or just a visit?
Well they it was just a visit
I guess there wasn't a lot of pressure put on it
so you didn't know it was a possible setup
did he know it was a possible setup?
He must have to like pack your bags and fly all the way
For what?
There's this great girl here.
He must have had some sort of carrot there, right?
Did he know?
Well, he lived in Amsterdam, so we didn't go that far.
You know, it's not like he came from Massachusetts.
That would be, like, totally.
Is he from Amsterdam?
No, he's from Massachusetts, but he was living in.
No, he's originally from Mass, too.
What town is he from, too?
Oh, let's revisit this joke.
We live in his childhood home.
Oh, right.
Sorry, I forgot.
No, no, it's Will's fault.
It's Will's fault.
No, I should let her run his course.
Yeah.
You know what?
You know what Bateman, fuck, yo.
Shut the fuck up, Beaman.
Oh, my God.
Jenny, you, the reason why I asked about where you're sitting right now
because it does look like a utility closet.
I'm in the closet, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Pause.
Anybody?
Hang on, oh, let me just do it in advance.
Does anyone groundball?
Just to bank it.
Just to bank it.
I came out of there years ago.
Okay, there you.
Okay.
So,
but you've ever seen Vaudeville?
Because Sean would love to walk you through some of the...
Every time on the set of Will and Grace,
they all did that to each other.
I read somewhere once that you were like a massive
OCD clean freak,
because I am a little bit of that too.
I am.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've got a problem.
I'm not.
You do?
What's it like for, what's happening for you?
Like, did you have a messy childhood, Jenny or something?
Sorry, Jay.
Yeah, I did.
I did have a messy childhood.
Wait, Jenny, don't drop your voice and get real real with us.
I did.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, I did have a messy child.
I think I was more like me adjusting in my jeans.
I did.
I did have a messy childhood.
Hi.
I did.
I did.
I had a messy childhood and but very clean grandmothers like tidy houses and there was just like a big obvious like, oh, I'm way
less stressed out at both of my nana's houses than in our house where it's like crazy.
It's like crazy.
I'm the same way.
I grew up like an amazing.
So then your OCD comes from trying to create order and cleanliness as opposed to trying
to avoid germs.
Yeah.
I don't think I have.
I mean, obviously I'm kind of like at the COVID level of afraid of germs that maybe
most people are.
But for me, a tidiness means like untidiness means like an unsettled mind.
and it like makes me feel crazy
and there are like little things that
like I don't understand why you would ever leave anything open
like why you would leave a cabinet open
the dishwasher a jar that's crazy to me
with a toothpaste tube
for me it's not for me it's not
it's more I'm with you on the people who can leave
a cupboard that much open I'm like
it's crazy close it I was just my friend Eli
what else are you leaving open right
what?
Because if you leave those things open
What else are you leaving open?
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Right, right.
Hey, wait, Sean, you're not a...
First of all, Jason, the term OCD is we ever used.
It's not OCD.
Just to be clear, it's not OCD.
So nice try.
It's the same way that everybody says that,
I don't know, we just use a lot of these terms
that are just, you know, a little overhead.
Sorry, man, I'll work on it.
Yeah, okay, thanks.
I'm a little intense today, Jenny, because my...
We interrupted him right in the...
the middle of it. What were you blasting by's
and what was today? No, just doing it, just doing
a little boxing, bro. Oh, right on.
Right on. Were you winning or?
I hope so because I was up
against the bag.
All right, so Eli.
But Eli would, he would
go, when we were in Atlanta and I'd
come to the kitchen in the morning and there'd be
four glasses, some cups and whatever
stacked next to the sink
and I'd go, and stuff open
I'd go, at least
forget I get you're not going to put it in the dishwasher
can you not put it at least in the sink
it is how much it's easier
gravity would take your hand down even further into the sink
and run some water in it
and run some water in it and just leave it and he literally
at one point just kind of like he goes yeah I don't know
yeah
because you got a deal on this roommate huh
yeah yeah Scotty can't handle when there's
actual like pieces of food in the sink too
like if I just put a plate down
he has to rinse it out
Yeah, I always clean the food, make sure there's no food in the sink,
but I don't really put the dishes in the dishwasher.
He likes to do that.
He likes to do that.
Oh, that's nice.
And now, a word from our sponsor.
And now, back to the show.
Jenny, I don't know if you're like this.
I like things to be orderly and stuff.
And at the same time, I'm not like a, I'm not a germaphobe.
But I just like things as certain to be kind of clean and sort.
And sorted.
Yeah.
I like that, too.
I like to display my kitchenware like it is sort of a useful art installation.
When people, like, move the bowls around, I'm like, okay.
But, like, I know it's not okay to be unchill about that.
But then when sort of the people are gone, I'll put it back.
But I mostly I'm just like, yeah, I like to, I think it's about respect.
I really do.
And I like how it feels to, like, close the circle.
like when I make dinner every night
and like while the thing is
I was just saying this to a friend
like I guess this is a big thing
I love a clean station
and when whatever's on the stove
getting you know having its final
you know moment on the stove
I do all the dishes I can
yeah yeah I love it
I feel so good to me
I get that you know what I'm gonna share with you guys
a story that I haven't really told you before
tuck in which was I think I was kind of messy
when I was younger
I went to all boys boarding school
And when I was there, I was in seventh grade, I was 12.
And hang on, it gets mildly, mildly interesting.
Okay.
And I, one day, and the guy who ran the house kept telling me,
you got to clean your room, got to clean your room.
Finally one day I came back, and my shit was everywhere.
And I came back, and all my shit was gone from my room.
And I go, where's my stuff?
And he goes, come with me.
And he'd taken all my stuff and put it in garbage bags
and put it in the back of his car.
And he drove me six miles away.
And I had four garbage bags full of stuff,
and I was a little 12, you know, and these big bags of stuff,
and he was like, put him down, and he said,
hopefully now you'll learn to clean your room, and he drove away.
And so I had these four huge bags, and six miles,
and I thought, how am I going to do it?
So I started doing, like, two bags, 50 yards, go back at the other two bags,
so they were too big.
Are you kidding me?
No, I swear to God.
And at a certain point, I thought, like, I'm going to fucking break.
Like, what's going to happen here?
And I was like, you know what I've got to do?
and I just opened and I started putting everything on
in jackets and whatever
and I managed to get most stuff on
and then just had a small bag left of stuff
and I walked like a Michelin
true story and I walked back
and I came I remember crossing the first soccer field
towards my house and him seeing me
way sooner than he thought he was going to see me
and I was carrying the shit but I was wearing everything
and I felt like a fucking king
and I was like fuck you I figured it
it out, you dummy.
And then did you just throw it all over your room again?
But you know what?
Last lap on me.
From then on, I was much better.
I was much better about cleaning my stuff.
This was a boarding school?
Yeah.
This was 1982.
Wow.
Wow.
I remember when my dad got blasted drunk one night, which was very, very often, he came home.
What?
And the dishes weren't done, so he's really furious about that.
Did he take it Uber, do you think?
They took all the dirty dishes, and we had linoleum tile on the floor in the kitchen.
floor and he put a dirty dish on every single tile so you couldn't walk on the kitchen floor
oh so he was a psycho too he was a little bit of a psycho yeah god darn we've really got to find him
for a very special christmas episode of smart list we're gonna that's he's gonna be my miss this is a recurring
theme jenny just so you know by the way um and also sorry sorry jenny we'll get back to you in just two
seconds oh no oh i got to get shit is that my dad jennie can you bring the fucking bounty up to the front
I mean more fucking bounty.
Got the phone, Jenny.
God damn it.
Jenny, answer it?
We're the fucking trashmacks.
Answer it.
Let's see what it is.
If it's an order for some milk or something.
Somebody answered it.
The machine got it.
Somebody answered it.
What if you answered the phone?
The person said, you get off this fucking podcast right now.
You shut your goddamn computer and you get off the fucking podcast with your Hollywood friends.
So wait, Jenny, I want to ask you, you've done a million voiceovers like, and you're
regular.
Big Mouth and Bob's Burgers, right?
Yeah, and the Great North, it's on Fox.
And the Great North on Fox.
I mean, it's so, why voices?
Like, when did you learn, like, you could do all of these different things with your voice?
I honestly feel like I didn't know that, I didn't know this could be, like, an actual
job that you can do a lot.
And I don't know if you guys feel this way, but, like, I think it is the most fun.
It's so, it's like, it's challenging creatively, but it's really also really easy.
Not that I'm showing up in my PJs, but, like, do you?
You hear these, do you hear these ladies behind the door?
That's good, it's good, it's good at Mo.
No, we haven't asked, are you in the supply, are you in the supply room of the general store?
Yeah, between the groceries and the books.
No, are you really in this, like, is that true?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
And right now, it's, so it's 131 there, so you've got the lunch rush.
So is Ben slapping together a bunch of pastrami sandwiches and, you know, who's number 35?
Yeah.
So he owns the store, but he doesn't, like, work here every day.
He and his brother.
So his great grandmother used to come to this store.
His family has lived in this town for a really long time.
And during the pandemic, he and his brother bought the store and, like, did a little work on it.
And they put a bar in here in a bookstore.
And so he's kind of like, he's like the store owner.
And then he comes here every day to do, like, little things for the store.
But there's a lovely woman named Marianne, who is the manager.
And she is letting me be in her office.
Can you still do all your book?
voiceover work, given the Wi-Fi limitations out there?
I can, but sometimes it's really bad.
Like, I do it in the linen closet between my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom, and I have a little baby.
Yeah, she's 17-month-old.
Oh, congrats.
That's so amazing.
First of all, I thought of the name for your autobiography, if you ever want one.
Here we go.
Sure, let's go.
Closets, because you have a lot of closets in your life.
You've got to get the slide flew out, Sean.
Or just my life in closets, you know?
It's really clever.
Yeah, thank you.
So who was the tougher transition from you
from living single and having all your stuff
in an orderly way?
Was it harder for you to get used to living with Ben
or the 17-month-old?
What's been the bigger transition?
Great question.
Thanks, ma'am.
That's a really good question.
Take your time.
It does come down to the neat freak thing.
I think it was harder with the baby.
Because also, like, Ben, you know, understands what I say.
And so when I'm like, I don't like when that's like that,
He doesn't just be like, you know, like he...
He can understand a threat when he hears one.
Right, that's right.
Yeah, whereas the baby just doesn't understand my threats yet.
Isn't that amazing how you cannot negotiate with something that doesn't speak your language?
Like, that was a big, big lesson for me.
Like, I can't just say, well, you're not having, you know, dessert tonight or whatever.
Like, they don't care.
For the first couple of years, you've got to just deal with it.
Yeah.
So, Jason, what was the age that your kids finally were able to understand?
I'm going golfing today.
Like, what was the...
Because for a while, they just...
You know what I mean?
Yeah, that was...
They were 12.
But wait, so, Jenny, so you have a 17-month-old daughter.
Yeah.
And you guys...
And now you're firmly living back in Massachusetts,
and Ben and his brother have opened the general store,
and you're there, and you've kind of...
Are you done with the West Coast?
Are you done with L.A.?
Are you done with New York?
Are you just like, I'm going to, this is where, for now, in your mind,
are you like, this is my life now living here?
I like it here more, but we still have my house in L.A.
On the east side.
On the east side.
Zoe said?
Here's the thing, on the east side, on the east side, in Silverland.
By the way, that's a Massachusetts thing to say, by the way,
which is like, oh, must be nice.
Must be nice.
Yeah, it must be nice.
What does Ben think about Los Angeles?
He likes it a lot.
He, I mean, we had two years there before the baby was born and he was like, whoa, I can't
believe you just pick an orange off the tree and you go for hikes and it's like very chill.
I mean, we don't have like a, I don't know, like a super flashy lifestyle.
So I think he was like, this is vacationy.
Like, this is pretty vacation here, which it is.
And my best friends live all around us and everything.
but I will say about our house in L.A., like, it's a beautiful, small old house.
I bought it when I was single, and I was, like, a heavy stoner, and, like, the refrigerator is not even in the kitchen.
It's in, like, a tiny room off the kitchen.
And at the time, I was, like, I was single, and I was, like, it's, like, under the Tuscan Sun.
Like, I'm just going to buy an old house and just live in here and have all my shirts, and, like, this will be very romantic for me.
And then he came, you know what I mean, like, just like, oh, my blouses, like, it's just,
me and my blouses, and I just don't give a hoot anymore about anything.
I'm just living in my old home.
And then Ben came to live with me, and I was like, oh, my God, it's so messy in here all
like, with two people even.
It's crazy.
And Ben's like, where are all these shirts from?
He's like, what?
You never told me that you had so many blouses.
We need to open a general store, yeah.
Right, totally.
Just drove him to that.
So anyway, so I was like, oh, I love this house.
Then he came, and I was like, oh, there's kind of a lot of stuff in here now with two people.
And, but I felt like it was fine.
And then now with the baby and also we got a dog during the pandemic, like a beautiful, large border collie mix, that house is like, it's just really hard.
It's way too small.
And the stairs are really loud.
You're okay, well?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Take a minute, man.
Sorry, you're open your mouth.
Clean the microphone a little bit, I guess.
I'm sorry.
Jesus Christ.
I was like my favorite, favorite truly will never.
have a better joke than burping.
I mean, sorry about that.
Sorry about that, you guys.
Welcome to Barstall Sports.
So, but you guys have decided we're going to,
what is your child's name?
Her name is Ida, IDA.
So you guys said, let's, we're going to raise Ida in Massachusetts.
Not out here in L.A.
Yeah, good, good choice.
Tell me what's happened.
They were like, where do you want to live?
And she said, I don't know.
Or Idaho.
Oh, you got it.
Thanks.
What happened to your weed, your weed addiction?
Did you, did you crack that while you were pregnant?
You got rid of all that?
Or are we back into?
No, no, no, no, she doubled down when she was pregnant.
What do the fuck do you think?
Yeah, I went straight to mess.
I'd like to go wide with that.
I'd like to go wide with that on a podcast about how I doubled up.
You're fine.
Nine months of the babies here.
I got to just do all the drugs.
Yeah.
No, I.
Is it legal in Massachusetts like it is out here in California?
I think it is.
I think it is now.
I think it is.
I actually, I had like a bad moment of, like, I don't know if it's possible,
but I kind of think I overdosed myself on weed.
You know, like, when it was not with a joint or anything.
Like, I used to smoke a lot of weed and I could smoke as much as possible, I guess, it seemed like.
But I took a CBD gummy that my friend was like, oh, you.
need to activate it with the THC dropper.
And she was like, but you, and it was like, because I had like a back issue.
I don't think CBD is really real, but that might be controversial.
Either way, she was like, if you want it to work, you have to use the, yeah, the THC dropper.
And she was like, but you smoke so much weed that, you know, it says between one and three droppers, you should probably take three droppers.
So I was like, cool, I'll take three droppers.
And then.
You had to call your mom.
I took the three droppers.
And I just, I mean, it was like,
I think it was like the worst experience of my life
during which I tried to watch the movie Amelian
couldn't figure out what language it was in
and was just like, what is this?
That movie's so good.
Oh man, yeah, I'm trying to work it into stand-up now
but it's still like a little scary that this happened.
You know, it's like it's not exactly funny yet
because I actually think I did almost die.
And I threw up like outside of my bathroom
because I like couldn't figure out how to get over the threshold.
Like just crazy shit.
Went to bed with all my clothes on, my boots.
Like some like little zipper up booties, like got in the bed that way.
I need to call for help.
I need to call for help.
And then it's too late, Jenny.
It's too late.
And then I looked.
It was 6.45 p.m.
And I was like, oh, it was just, it was so bad.
And it was truly like, oh, my God.
I really was like watching Amelie being like, when did this movie get so fucking scary?
And what language is this?
What is this?
Like, I don't know.
I used to love this.
Her hairstyle.
was so great and everything just looked crazy.
But anyway, so then
the next day, my friend,
you know, it was Jane Levy. Do you know her?
Yes, so, no. Yeah. So she
gave me the THC thing. Anyway, so
she was, she called me and she was
like, I got all your texts about
the patriarchy.
Uh-oh.
And I was like,
uh-huh.
And she was like,
I, Jenny, I'm so
sorry. It wasn't
one, not one to three droppers.
It was, it was, I misspoke.
It was one to three drops.
And so I took like, like, 120 times the dough.
Yeah, and I like ruined my mind.
And then, and I was like, I guess I'm off weed.
And like a couple months later, I thought I'll just take a little hit and try and get back in.
And it was like, it went right back to where I had been that eating.
So I'm just done forever.
Yeah.
I'm not going to try it.
Oh, my God.
So she saved you.
She saved you.
Yeah, in a way, she saved me.
Wow, that's so crazy.
And we will be right back.
And now, back to the show.
Jenny, speaking of, like, getting freaked out and stuff,
you know, your Netflix special called Stage Fright,
you know, which is so fucking great.
I loved it so much.
You talk about, I love the way it was shot, by the way.
It's so cool.
But anyway, you talk about, like, fear and how you hate it,
and you love it, and it motivates you and how people say,
just be yourself.
And you were like, that's the worst advice
because there's a million people in my head.
How do you choose?
Right, Dick.
So how do you talk about like the love
and the hate of performing live?
Like what is it you?
What freaks you out about it?
I like it so much, but it must be like what like
adrenaline junkies are like, I guess.
I mean, I don't know.
But not the guy that does the free solo.
I actually think that, I sound like an old woman,
but that really makes me angry that he does that.
There's another one.
There's another one that makes him look like...
There's the one that he talks.
about the other guy, the Canadian kid.
Wait, what?
Yeah, isn't it called the alpinist?
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that one's really sad.
The alpinist.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A man, oh, man, what a document.
Yeah.
Most of them don't end with, like,
don't have amazing endings.
You know what I mean?
No.
They're not, like, a lot of times back in the parking lot at the end.
Oh, you mean the guy who climbs the ice waterfall at night by himself with no ropes?
Doesn't end well?
Oh, the guy with the bears?
The guy who did all those cute movies of the bears?
That one I still need to see.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Also, I got busted on not seeing The Revenant the other night at dinner with my parents and my husband
because I said that a snuggie was like that guy in the Revenant who wears the bear suit.
Leo DeCabre.
Yeah, like, truly everything.
Everyone is like, what are you talking about?
You're talking about Leonardo DiCaprio, like the, you know, Oscar winner, the actor, the guy.
He's not the guy.
He's Leonardo DiCaprio.
He doesn't wear a bear suit.
Like, I guess he gets attacked.
I didn't see it, I was too afraid.
It's stunning.
You should just see that one scene.
Or just watch the YouTube special
on how they shot that scene.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
That seems like at a safe distance.
Oh, my God.
There's also a video,
a YouTube video about the guys
getting prepared to shoot the YouTube video
which is amazing.
That seems like a safe enough.
It's mainly just in the parking lot
and putting on Patagonia's and shit,
but it's good.
No, I need to be pretty far afield,
I think of the central experience.
I don't really want it.
Wait, go back to the fear thing.
Oh, well, yeah, I think the fear is that people don't like,
that they won't like me and that they won't think of,
like, yeah, that I'll be wearing a Patagonia jacket and I'll be like.
They're great jackets.
They're great jackets.
They're expensive.
Well, they're expensive, but if you're a size large, they're great.
They're great.
Sorry, I just had to put that out there.
They're telling just what you need to tell, yeah.
So that fear of when you're up there on stage and they're not going to like you,
if you play that out in your head,
is it like that, oh, my God, I have no place to go.
I can't hide.
Right, because you still do it.
Yeah, I mean, it feels like a social thing.
I like it, that I'm going to have to be up here
and they're all going to see me, like, just, like, choking and floundering
and being out of control and all the things that if I succeed at,
they'll see me as a master of, like, you know, the moment and, like, chaos and power or whatever.
Not that I see it that, but I think that would be the other.
side of it. Not that I think I'm like the master of chaos. I would imagine that you'd have to find a
place of like the perfect combination between sort of an adversarial relationship with the audience,
right? So that you you feel sort of puffed up and strong like a worthy adversary and you can
defend yourself. But then also kind of be a teammate with the audience too. You want to try to find
that connection with them. I bet that's a really, that's a real challenging place for stand-ups.
I don't think I'd ever have the spine to do it. But it's like a date.
Terrifying.
I think of it like a date.
Like, you're like, the person could think.
I actually think you don't have the balls to do it.
It's fine.
Or the spine.
No skeletal structure whatsoever.
Or sack.
I don't think you have the sack.
I don't think you have any of the undercarriage to do it.
Sorry, Jim.
Look, I don't have that undercarriage either.
And I, it's okay.
You do.
How often are you still getting up there and doing stand-up?
Well, in L.A., I was going, so I usually go up at Largo.
and I was trying to go like twice a week while I was there
because I want to make a new special.
And that's harder, obviously, like when I want to put the baby to bed
and, you know, and I like it when Ben sees my sets
because especially after having the baby, it's like,
oh, I guess I'm just this person who like complains about like almost everything
all the time.
I really want him to see me as someone who other people think is like
literally in the cheapest way, like popular.
Like I would like him to, you know, like everything's fine.
But I'm just like, that's such a good, I think it's such a good look, you know, up there on stage.
If they're liking you, it's like, oh, right, I forgot that there's this powerful person and it is nice.
But it's also really scary.
And, but I have to do it.
Do you make him the butt of any jokes, either intentionally or unintentionally?
Well, like when you're sharing your stuff about home and the kid and adjusting to that, the new life in your house,
house like did you do you back into sort of throwing him under the bus at all i used to do that on talk
shows with my wife and then she she's straightened me out did you ask permission or would you just like
i didn't and then i got my snout smacked uh and then i started asking for permission and then she
started saying no and then i started looking for different material sure sure sure yeah jenny i want to talk
about i want to leave you with marcel the shell because it's so good i watched the movie last night
it's so good here's what i need to say i've been a fan of marcelle the shell as she was on
forever. I know it's been like over 10 years
or something like that, right?
Yeah. And I used to watch this videos all the time.
And what I love about it is if you haven't seen it,
all you need to know about it is in the title.
It's literally Marcel, a shell, and he has shoes on.
And you literally play a shell named Marcel.
And he, how the voice, like, how the voice, why the voice?
Are you sick of the voice?
Tell us all things about Marcel because how did you think of him?
And are you kind of like done or more, more, more?
because I can't get enough of them.
Oh, thanks.
Thanks for saying that.
Like, wait, sidebar really quick.
I loved when Marcel played taps from his horn,
which was a piece of hollow spiral macaroni.
And he sleeps in his bread room,
which is a bedroom made out of bread, which is fantastic.
Bless him.
And when he plays taps, he plays taps,
that is, um, that's like my favorite part of the,
that like sort of, it's a sad part.
Yeah.
It's sort of like a eulogy part.
And it's so funny.
And it's also so terribly sad.
Macaroni.
Yeah, it's like a shofar.
In my culture, we call that a showfar.
Yeah, for sure.
A lot of secret Judaism put in there.
I'm not sick of the voice.
I love doing it.
It feels like a, you know, like, I don't know, like a soothing thing.
I do it by myself a lot.
I like it.
It came up one weekend when I was like in a hotel room,
sharing hotel room with like five friends and everyone was like broke
and we were all sharing a hotel room.
and like every thing you could sleep on was being used.
Like the cot and the two beds and like someone on the floor or whatever.
And they were just like all men.
And I felt like tiny and that it was like so messy and cramped in there.
And I started to talk to like sort of rib people in that voice.
And then my partner at the time had like promised that he was going to make a video for a little show in Williamsburg.
He hadn't done anything yet.
And he was like, could I interview?
that voice and like maybe there will be a character and I'll um you know make something with it so he
interviewed me in that voice and then he made Marcel's body and then we just like
oh cute that video it's so cool so is he still a part of all the stuff going forward yeah Dean
Fleischer camp he's um he's the director and um we co-wrote it together with our friend Nick
Paley and yeah yeah he's uh he did everything I love um when there's a million one-liners but
you know what Marcel uses for skis are men's toenails.
Yeah, toenails from a man.
Toneil clippings, not the actual toenail, full toenails.
Yeah, just the clippings.
Did I see a trailer for it that's coming out?
Yes.
Yeah, it's coming out June 24th through 824.
What?
And you filmed it like over a year ago, right?
It took seven years to make.
Wow.
Jesus.
Yeah, we finished it.
I want to say in the winter of...
Why did it take seven years?
Well, because it's stop motion and we weren't, you know,
we were like fully funded by Cinerich.
It's like a, it's not a studio.
It's like basically like getting arts grants, basically.
And which also gave us total freedom.
Yeah, which is really great.
And it took a long time.
The film was improvised off of a long treatment.
So we would like record, like improvise.
And then Dean and Nick would go back and call through
all the audio and start to make a script off of that
and then write things that we should say
and go back into more improvising
and that process itself took about
a couple years. And then you would do the
stop motion. Yeah,
then I think the order was
we locked like the audio play
like everything that Marcel and his
grandmother is the only other character besides
Dean, grandmother
played by Isabella Rossellini, who is
incredible. Nice. She has a beautiful
voice. Yeah. And so we did
and she let us go to her farm to improvise, like when there's the farm?
It's in New York.
Yeah.
City?
Yeah, it's in this city.
It's so weird because I'm 56th Street.
So, wow.
Yeah, so strange.
It's just a farm, and what do they, they just raise improvisers?
That's amazing.
Yeah, it's called yes and farm.
Oh, my God, that's amazing.
Yeah, I just love that.
I love that about her.
Anyway, yeah.
Yeah, so we recorded it all
and then they filmed the live action
because, like, Marcel is, you know,
like he's in a physical house
and obviously Dean is the real person
that you sometimes see, like his hand
or him walking away.
They filmed all the live action
the whole movie's worth
and then they filmed the stop motion animation on that.
It's so good. I love it.
I loved it so much.
Please go see it if you haven't seen it.
June 24th.
June 24th.
It's my sister's birthday.
Is that right?
Happy birthday.
Well, two of them, because they're twins.
Oh, perfect.
Both of them, then.
What are both their names, well, quick.
Tannis and Chandley.
Good.
And what about your brother?
Chuck.
Wow.
Wait, why do we test me on this all the time?
Jenny, it's such a pleasure.
Thank you for being here.
Jenny.
Jenny.
You're hilarious and a delight.
You really are.
You really are.
You really are.
This is really, really fun.
Next time you're out in Silver Lake,
Come by the Smartless Studios.
Oh, that'll be nice.
They don't exist.
Oh, they don't.
You don't have to know.
We're building a whole compound out there to rival Isabella Rossellini's Yes and Ranch.
Yep, yes and ranch.
Top of the Rock.
You can't miss it.
It's gorgeous up there.
Stop of the Rock.
She's up there, hoeing.
Anyway, honey, thank you.
We love you.
I'm so proud of you.
And I'm excited for the movie.
I hope it does really well.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jenny.
Please say hi to Ben.
And Ida, tell her I miss her.
I will.
Bye, Jenny.
Bye, bye, bye, honey.
Goodbye, goodbye.
Okay, I'll go.
I go now, right?
Yeah, you go now.
You go.
You go.
I go now.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
That's Jenny Slate, y'all.
Yeah, I love it.
She is great.
Slate's a killer.
She's a real killer.
I know.
Everybody knows her voices, right?
But they don't know that she probably does all them because they're all so different.
I did a, I did a,
I did a small movie with her.
She was on camera, not just the voice, the face, the whole acting.
What was the movie?
She's very, very good.
I believe it's called The Longest Week.
It wasn't a large film.
But she was in it and she was great.
I really had a good time with her.
She's real fun.
She's super fun, cute, funny, just adorable, super talented.
Oh, my God.
Great, great energy, great vibe.
She should teach improv and voiceover stuff.
because she'd...
I know, it was pretty good.
Well, Will, so are you going to go back workout and finish that now?
No, I was just finishing up, and I'm really rattled.
Now I'm so hungry, obviously.
Well, go get something to eat.
And then I've got to go, I got to go meet Jason.
We got a meeting.
Yeah, we got a lunch meeting.
Hey, so what are you going to eat prior to your one o'clock lunch?
I am fucking...
What's it going to be, though?
Is it going to be a protein show?
Are you going to ruin all the work you've done this morning?
Punching that dumb white.
bag.
There it is.
My energy is really plummeted in the last ten minutes.
It's sugar.
Yeah, no, I've noticed.
All right, well, why don't we let you go?
I think you're coming today.
We're huge fans.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, and do I just slam shut?
Yeah, you just slam shut.
If you're feeling a week, just go grab something that looks like it's got a lot of
carbohydrates in it and just take a big bite.
Bye.
Smartless.
Smartless.
Smartless.
Smartless is 100% organic
and artisanly handcrafted by
Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarf, and Bennett Barbico.
Smart.
