Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Jason Sudeikis on Season 4 of Ted Lasso

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

Emmy-winning actor Jason Sudeikis got together with Willie Geist to reflect on a career that has taken him from a decade at Saturday Night Live to creating and starring in the title role of Ted Lasso. Sudeikis details the inspiration that brought him back to the show and create a fourth season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another edition of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Really excited to bring you my conversation today with the man of the hour in Hollywood. He is Jason Sedakis as he returns as Ted Lasso for the show's highly anticipated fourth season on Apple TV. Jason and I got together at a bar in Midtown Manhattan called Jack Doyles. Why did we go there? It's an Arsenal bar, which is Jason's team of choice in the English. English Premier League. We sat down, we threw a few darts together in a nod to the famous

barbecue sauce scene in season one of Ted Lassow. If you're a fan, you know what I'm talking about. For season four, Jason returns as the head coach of AFC Richmond's women's team this time. Fascinating because it really felt like three years ago after season three that Ted Lassau was done. Jason believed that too. The arc had been finished, that Ted went home to Kansas City back with his family, and that was it, period, end of sentence. But then, as you'll hear in our conversation, over the next couple of years, some ideas start rattling around in his head, talked to his buddies from the show, his co-creators, and then kind of assembled this summit in Ohio, California, where they got together and thought, is there a way back into this? If so, what should it be? Is it worth doing?

We did it so well. It kind of lives where it lives. Should we bring it back? They decided yes and came up with this concept of his coming back from Kansas City to London to coach the AFC Richmond team. So you've got a lot of your favorite characters. Coach Beard is still around. Rebecca's still there, the whole gang. And now we introduce a new women's team, a new cast of characters. So a great conversation about this season of the show, but also of the phenomenon that was Ted Lassow when it debuted in August of 2020. So just in the thick of COVID, we needed it. We needed something to watch, but we also kind of needed that feeling of. togetherness.

And really, Ted Lassow's energy, that believe energy, comes through in the whole show and does again here in season four. We also get into Jason's upbringing, how he made the switch from being a basketball player in high school to finding his way into improv comedy. And of course, eventually to S&L where he was for 10 years before Ted Lassau came into his life. So I will step out of the way, sit back, relax, and enjoy Jason Sadekis right now on the Sunday Sit Down Podcast. Great to see you, Jason. I see you too. We're tight here. We're just talking about like, we're here.

We're in it. We're right. Yeah, it's like almost like this is a lie detector test or something. It's like, it's like, it doesn't feel like just an interview. It's like, I wouldn't have a hard to hurt, Willie. Like, okay, Jason, let's do it. Okay. There should be a cigarette in my hand, like a plume of smoke between us. Yeah. Where were you on the night of July 13? I'll never tell. You'll never know. See? I was at home. It's an intimate interview for those of you listening on the podcast. Congratulations on season four. Thank you.

I told you I got a little taste of it. Watch the first two episodes. If I told you, let's say, like three years ago when you're coming off season three, that you and I would be sitting here, even talking about a season four, what would you have thought? I was under litigation or something, that I missed something in the contract. And like, so the biggest company in the world is suing you. Like, what? Why are you telling me this?

That's actually why in here. Exactly. It's like, yeah, an artistic intervention of some sort. No, I would have, I mean, I would have been genuinely surprised. As I, as surprised as I've been numerous times throughout the process of this show, this former commercial. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have believed. I've been like, I know, but no. Back then, I would have been, I think.

But here we are. Yeah, I mean, because you're pretty clear. Three-season arc. Yeah. Ted's home. Yeah. He did it. He's back in Kansas City, back of his family.

That's it. Yeah. So in the intervening year or two, what changed? Exactly, yeah. I mean, it's going to sound weird, but I would say, yeah, for the six months after it finally came out, not just the six months of editing, even though we were editing and working. working on it up until pretty late in the post process. Six months probably, you know, just whatever, just life, parenting, et cetera.

Then the voice of the characters that I knew, I was just sort of like, ideas would pop up, or you watch something, go to a game, watch something on TV, hear something, think of something, and then I would just put it in my phone at the Notes app. And then you'd go on bed. And I would just hear these voices. I'd hear, you know, Rebecca, Keeley, Roy, you know, Ted, Higgins, beard. Like, I just kept hearing. And then I started hearing new voices like that were.

I was like, well, who are these people? And there were women. I was like, okay, all right. And then a couple specific ones, like, are the coach that you meet in the second episode, coach Alice, didn't know her name was Alice at that point, but I was just like, okay. Then having started, then started having images of certain things that I thought would be fun to see and need to see. And all these things, you know, to get them out, you sort of, you know, just, I'd tap them there. I used to keep a notebook on my SNL days,

but the phone's just more readily available these days. And that thing just kept getting longer and longer. The notes, you know, I don't date it or anything like that. It just, it would take that many scrolls. And then, yeah, that was just what was going on internally. Yeah. And then externally, you got to, when to go watch a whole lot of sports,

a lot of women's sports, starting with, you know, like Caitlin Clark's, you know, senior year run, that Iowa run, getting to watch all that, you know, with South Carolina and Yukon and LSU, just all those tremendous teams and those great iconic coaches. And then going to WMBA games, so me and my family, my sisters and I have season tickets there and sitting right next to the opposing bench. And so then you're just kind of watching these bad women, you know, coming off, because they walk right by us. If they have a timeouts called on that side of the floor, you know, they could be on a 12-0 run or they could be the recipients of a 0-12 run.

And you see the same sort of like, just, you're just watching there. And I wouldn't take out the notes there. I'll just listen and just the vibe. You just kind of hear it. I'm sitting right as close as we are now, believe it or not, yeah, that intimate. And, yeah, it's just like, do, too, too, too. Then you'd go home and thinking about stuff, more notes. Then at some point I sat my buddies, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, co-creators of the show.

We, the same way back in 2013 when we brainstormed ideas for the commercial that this whole, character was based on, we got in O'Poole, a house that I rent in L.A. And I was just like, hey, I think, I'm thinking about, like, there might be more to do. You know, like, I keep having these ideas and stuff. And they were, they were enthusiastic about the idea and agreed. I think in a lot of ways, you're like, you know, dummy, you know, I mean, you'd have to ask them. But that's what it felt like to me. And then it was like, then we had a writer's retreat.

And I think there was early, I can't remember at this point. If that was early 2005 or O'F. It's just the famed Ohio. Yeah, of 24. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't 24. I should look this up. Yeah. And February 24. Something around there, yeah. And it was really just because me just having enthusiasm for it does not a show make, right? It's like it needs to spill over or better yet fill other people's cups that we can all then dump into a thing. So then it was, it was in about meeting. And it was, I think, eight of us, you know, a bunch of our, you know, producers, writers that had been, you know, from season one and one and two. And we, hung out and, you know, we watched movies. We had dinners. We did, you know, yoga. But we also spoke and talked. And my whole thing there was we're not, we're not trying to come up with content. Like, I would, the thing I can't was like, we're not trying to draw any pictures. I just want

to see if we can make crayons. And there were so many crans. People had so many fun ideas and so many silly ideas, but then so many, there's such a rich world there already was in the world of football slash soccer, but then you put it into, into the women's realm. And that was the idea at that point. It was like, well, it's definitely a women's team. If Ted's going back, it's going to be a women's team, or if we're coming back, it's going to be a women's team. We talked about other ideas, Joe and Brennan and I about, oh, maybe it's a, you know, men's team in America. Maybe Rebecca buys, like, sporting KC or something like that. But nothing really felt as, as, as gooey, as you know, what we sort of tease at the end of season three, where Keeley presents Rebecca with

that binder about the AFC Richmond women's team. And so then it was like, Okay. And then once you, then at some point you say yes, we have a great producer director at Boom Chicago who has this great quote of saying, you know, book the venue, then write the show. And so we said yes. I said yes. And then Warner Brothers and Apple holds you to that yes. You got to do it. You got to do it. Yeah. Similar to. Yeah. They really hold you to it. And it makes sense. And it's good because I do well with deadlines from at least meeting them, maybe not on time. but I like having something to shoot for. A little accountability. A little accountability. Yes, exactly. That's why we pay trainers, right?

To be like, you know, I don't want to let him or her down. Was there any hesitation, Jason, about we made this thing that was just about damn perfect, that the world received so well about going back to it? Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think that's part of it, but then that's also fear. That's like, then I got to look within and be like, well, what are you afraid of, man?

And it's not about trying to do. I mean, we have no control over the way people receive it. You know, it's about the, we have control over, you know, the more tangible things and, like, just doing it in the process of doing it and the stories we want to tell. And then it's like, well, what if I, what if we? And it's like, well, there's a lot of what ifs. You can spend the rest of your life in your house if you worry about, you know, what if I get it by a car? It's no way to live, you know, might be worth moving.

I don't know the traffic outside your house. You don't want to live on a highway, but, you know. That's important point. But that was a big thing, but that's, if you're a success, for a failure, I think everybody, you know, deals with that. But it was never about, wanted to have enough of a reason to come back.

Like, you know, beyond any sort of externals, you know, beyond even people, you know, wanting it, people, even the kind anecdotal evidence we have of people needing it. You know, like, those are all wonderful things. It has to be story first and character first for me. I mean, that's what makes it inconsequential. And if you're going to leave your situation or, you know, like even just dedicating the amount of hours, time, effort that go into making it both around,

but also without, you know, family and I'm lucky enough to do it with a lot of friends, that you want to be something worthwhile. Not, yeah, inconsequential, it's nothing I want to dabble with. Yeah, because the work you put it, I'm not sure fans even fully appreciate outside the industry, that you're in dreaming it up, you're writing episodes, up to the last minute sometimes, the night before to get it right, rewriting scenes and all those things. You're like, not only you're the face of the show and the star of the show, but you are in every detail.

Is that fair to say? Quite a bit, but not without help. I mean, that's the one thing that you learn by hook or crook at S&L is like you let the wizos, the wizards and witches that know their spells and how those, you just sort of walk over and just go, it'd be really neat if so-and-so could fly, and then someone figures that out. Like in the world of magic, you know, it's like you come up with the effect and then figure out the method later. Yeah. So it's like that's what I think I've been afforded the opportunity to do with the vessel I was born into,

but then also the places I've got to like, you know, roll around in that vessel. So, yeah, it's, I mean, major shout out to all the other people that I probably drive nuts by always thinking there's a little bit more to do or there's a little bit more we could get out of it. And, you know, I just, I think it's fun to try. And those amazing people find a way somehow. Just like at SNL, it happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, always. If anything, we, when you're, I started as a writer, you learned that you can do that.

They're like, they've done it. Yeah. At that point, they had done it for, you know, 35 years. Right. Right. Up to 50, some of those folks, especially behind the scenes. I mean, it's remarkable. It's like, so, yeah, then you find out, oh, I guess I can do this too.

And then you go anywhere else and you're like, you feel like, you know, like, you know, like, Daniel, Laruso. So, it's like, oh, I can, yeah, I can wax cars and paint fences, but I can also defend myself and, you know, and defeat the Cobra Cye. You know, I'm obviously using the can't. I haven't watched the newer series. I can't. I know, I think it's great. This is the Miyagi era. It's the Miyagi era. Sure. Right. Exactly. Right. Old school. To be clear. Yeah. To be clear. Yeah. What was unique and exciting to you about the idea of coaching a women's team that would be, it opens so many new possibilities for story and everything else in this new season. Yeah. I mean, I think again, some of this stuff is reflected.

The show, like sports is like so much of getting to be, it's just a metaphor. And so sports is like SNL. So to work at SNL and get to, that's there. And then we get to walk through it, right? And sometimes it goes with you a little bit. And whatever it is, like the audience, the attention, the heat, the fire of showbiz, whatever. But you're really just going to play for, you know, Lauren Michaels and hopefully are in a starting spot, you know, and get your time there. And yet, then you move on, and it stays put. And we all have our favorite generation, our favorite cast. And Lauren's, you know, theory, I think, is a lot of times, it's like in high school or a grade.

Like, he's spoken about that. And I agree with that because that's like, and it's neat to think that, you know, I'm part of one of those generations for some generation out there of the viewing public. So this to me was like, okay, how do you keep the format of, and the structure of like the brass, we call them, like Healy Higgins and Rebecca, but then also some, you know, lovable characters from outside, May, you know, Roy, Kent, but then focus on this new cast. And to do that, you sort of have to, unfortunately, you know, say goodbye to the other cast, not never forever, but just like, at least in regards to where we're going to point the camera. And so that is exhilarating. Because you get to rebuild, play back in that world, that structure that we've built, but then also character build and world build again

with these people that, you know, and again, the majority of our writing staff is people that have been with us from the get-go. So it's like we have a vocabulary there, but then we're bringing in some fresh blood too on that side of things. And it's just fun. It's just fun to do.

It's like, and then, yeah, when you start thinking of these characters and like, what does this mean? What does this mean? And none of them are just one to one. None of them is just like, here's what was in the notes, or here's what's in my thing, and that's what it is. Sometimes pretty close, but then that's just, it becomes even better and fuller and richer with,

when other people are dumping their own sort of experiences and metaphors for who these characters are and what this world represents into these characters. So we're all filling, like, this character cup with different things, and you're trying to keep an overall vibe to separate. but also recognize what's similar. So, yeah, it's just, it's a joy. And then the women's thing, then I come from the TED place

where it's like, oh, Ted's relationship with women, while not problematic, I would say, is troublesome in the sense that he doesn't necessarily know. So then here he is, you know, we've got to see, you know, probably him, you know, roll with like five female characters from the first three seasons, and now we're going to add 22 plus 23 of an assistant coach and see what the unit.

says and the women from that universe have to teach him. And for a guy that I think that is like we said in the show, I think curious, it's like he's always going to live on the questions. But I think he's going to have more questions and probably going to get answers he didn't expect. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Jason Sedakas right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Jason Sedakis.

I'm going to say as an audience member, it's exciting because the show still has all the things I love about the show that we love about the show. But then there's this new energy to it. Oh, who are the twins are beating each other. They're dating or what's going on with the assistant coach? Is you going to stay? She's going to go? That gives it just a fresh energy to the whole operation. And that's what it felt like to us on the inside too.

And that's what it felt like within myself. I was like, oh, this is, yeah, something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Yeah. The blue being Roy's language. Did you just come up with that? That was good. I did just come up. That was the phrase, initial phrase.

No, yeah, that I've heard. But that'll be the last time I use it. That's for you only. This is an exclusive? It's off the dome. We got it. We got it. That's that SNL training right there.

Big improv moment. What do you love about stepping into the shoes of Ted Lassow? What do you love about being him? I appreciate his optimism. I really do. I think he's very sincere person. I think he's tremendously authentic. I don't think he has any ulterior motives.

You know, I think he accepts people where they are. I think it's a very lovely saying that he can find, he extends people to kindness of knowing that there's an exposition that he may not be privy to, but that they've had to get to this point, even if it's just in that specific moment, much less their philosophy, doctrine, integrity, however, that manifests,

but I think he doesn't mean he always agrees, you know? I think he genuinely loves people. I think he's deeply, deeply wants to be loved, you know, like any of us too. He feels very human to me, you know, just like, It feels very real. It's a fun way to view the world. It's a fun way to, it's a fun character to write. Very, very silly, sometimes clever, sometimes profound things can come out of that mind space.

I think, yeah, I sit with them all the time and had for many, many years, even prior, even before knowing he's necessarily named Ted Lassow. I'd be so curious for you to ask that question of people that get to write on the show because I think they probably don't sit with it as much. and certainly don't receive the same sort of assumptions that I am he and he is I. Right. But the thing that at this point, maybe sometime during season three, I was kind of like, man, like, I don't give a shit if, like, if I, it's not that I got to be Ted Lassar, people think I'm Ted Lassow like Jason is, it's like, I think it's like, any of us got it. Any of us, any of us can be this dude, you know, and then boy, girl, male, female,

anything in between, like, it's a, it's a switch. It's really, really moving to play. And I know I feel it personally from within my own sort of whatever this is when people come up to me. But then I've also seen other people that aren't even necessarily on camera, but are associated with the show, receive it out of, so people will come up to me all the time. Like if we're going somewhere and like, do you get every, does it ever get annoying? I was like, no, now this the people are. Like, just people coming up?

I was like, no. Because they're coming up with, like, they're meeting me straight up, and that thing, and have something to say about it and feel a certain way about it. And I've been, you know, fortunate in other aspects, you know, whether it be 10 years at SNL or getting to do films and stuff, and certain films more than others, you know, really resonate with people emotionally. But there's something about this show, man.

It's just like, it knocks me out time and time again, you know, and I, yeah. And that's not necessarily the reason why you go back and do it, not for those external reasons, but I know the way I'm talking, you know, even talking about now, the way I feel about it is like, it's really, really neat. It's like, and it feels like a tremendous responsibility, you know, and it's because it's bigger than me, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's what it is what it is.

I think also our world has become, or maybe always has been so cynical. Yeah. And there's no cynicism to him. Very, yeah. I think people sometimes are too self-conscious to be like Ted Lassow, and he's almost like giving you freedom. It's okay to move through the world this way. And I think maybe that's probably one of the things that I need to be recognized and checked all the time.

So, because, you know, his humanity is, I mean, he's cynical about therapy. He was cynical, he's cynical, you know. But I don't think that he, the cynicism doesn't drive him. Like, he moves from love, not fear. And I think cynicism can, and I don't, it gets the best of me, Jason, like, you know, when I'm probably a little bit fearful. Sure. Like, especially when it washes over me from other places, you know,

which we're all pretty, you know, could happen to any of us in this day and age, you know. It's like, you know, it could be your algorithm or your neighbors. Yeah. At some point, you know, the algorithm's going to hit you. And they're like, oh, what are you going to do with it? Like, you know, so. Are you able to tap into Ted a little bit in those moments in your real life? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. No, I think it's made me a better parent. Yeah, I think there's just a level of accountability that I think we love putting on the show. And look, this is me talking about it and, you know, water affects me. It gets you to get you a little. Because at the end of the day, it's just a silly fun show.

We're trying to do that. But I can't help but recognize the way it's mood folks. It means the world to me when people laugh at one of our jokes, especially something that's a little more subversive or a little bawdy. or silly, but then when a certain moment gets people and makes them feel seen or makes them, you know, want to try or view something differently, that's, I was, I think, partially raised, you know, all those kind of characters in movies, those, those, like, every men and women who were fighting for truth and good, or even just to try to get a day off of school, you know,

with a crummy principal, like, those were my older brothers and, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and older sisters, and it's kind of fun to think that Ted Lasson, the characters in the show are like that for other people. For sure they are. Yeah. I was thinking today that six years ago right now, so early August, 2020, it's not quite out yet. So a couple of weeks away from being released, most people didn't know who Ted Lassow was. Some had seen the videos from NBC. As we sit here six years later, with some distance, are you able to put into any kind of perspective or make any kind of sense? of what happened when that show came out, the way it exploded and the way it hit people? No, no, no, not at all.

Because you're just doing it, you're just doing it, you're just trying to make, you're just trying to make, I'm just trying to make something that makes me laugh. It makes it, like this invisible sort of, I've spoken about this sport, like this sort of this Greek chorus of heroes and friends and family and co-workers and people who I consider brilliant. I know they're, like, around me,

but none of them are saying, you can't do it. They're all saying, come on, go, go. It's lovely. It's, like, lovely. I want everybody in the world to have that. They don't have to have mine necessarily. They can have whoever they are, and I think we all kind of do.

I don't necessarily think they're all living. I don't think they're all real. But I couldn't have, no, there's no way. There's no way in a million years. That would be too much pressure to have to sit there. All those folks are saying is, like, that's funny. Like, if you do something that's funny, or you hear like an audience.

You know, I think that's, like, even, You know, even in editing the show, I probably still edit from a live performance perspective. That's where I've spent the majority of my hours. You know, I've only done, you know, 40, at this point, 44 episodes of television, you know, in regards to the, like, this specific, you know, format. But the live show, you can hear those laughs, so you kind of hold for those laughs. But you feel them when you're, when you're writing, or when I'm reading other people's scripts. I'm like, oh, that's really funny.

Like, I'm not with a clock, man, that will be a .5 laugh, you know, or whatever. It's nothing like that. It's just a feel, but. Yeah. So, no, that's all I'm thinking about. Anything that it's been received as and the tattoos and the belief signs and places that never in a million years would have thought, it's, it's crazy. That my imagination is not that good. And it would almost feel, it would even assume that it will happen again or that you can do that.

I think if maybe if this all would happen when I was like 25, oh, horrible. It would be horrible. I think I can do this anytime I want. You know, that's not, I mean, yeah. I mean, I got, like, could you imagine me in Orson Wells? Like, that would be how cool and how hard that would be? Or, like, any of these, like, youngsters. Like, I think about that with Bieber all the time.

Like, to be, to have that all in you and to be able to give that to all those people at that young age. No, I'm glad it showed up at 45 or, you know. And, but I couldn't have, it would have spook the muses. I'd be too scared to, like, that all those people would just be like, this prick. Like, just turn away and be like, we're going to go somewhere else. I don't know.

Now I'm here on my own. Yikes. So, yeah, I even, never. I don't know if I'm even been answering the question. No, you are. I'm just trying to think about that. Like, you never sit there and, you know, trying to do, you know, trying to make, you know, parents have a easier way to encourage their growing child to go to therapy. I was just trying to make jokes.

I'm just trying to think, like, what's Ted going to do with these panic attacks? They're inspired by panic attacks that I've had. It's like, right what you know. And I'm like, right what you feel. what you wish. There's all sorts of things you can write. And I think we had an amazing opportunity to get to do that within those first, you know, that first season. That's all it was. We didn't know we were going to get another one. We had no idea. And then those two got ordered quick. And yeah, it was crazy. You could never have anticipated what it became, of course.

But how did you react when it did start to become? Because you're locked down. It's 20, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're seeing this thing happen that felt like everybody was watching. What did that feel like? Had it been incredibly gratifying. That was slow to realize because we were all in lockdown. You know, the same way I used to feel back at S&L, like you'd walk around on Sunday. You know, you wouldn't get out of the house until our apartment or rather until like 2 to 4 p.m.

Because after like the after parties and whatnot. But you walk around and people would be like, maybe the first few times, once on camera, because people wouldn't necessarily know if I was writing on the show the couple of years. It was like, great show last night. I was like, oh, you were there? They're like, no, it was on TV. Oh, go right, it's on TV. Yep, it's on TV.

That's right. It's not just a couple hundred people in there and then the crew and everything. Right. Same way I kind of fell about this. And, I mean, I've told the story before, but I remember taking, like, the trash out and someone just driving by and go, hey, the show's great. I love it. I was like, oh, thanks. Because I wasn't really active on social media.

I never have been. And then I started going on and looking up. And I was like, oh, if you look up a hashtag Ted Lassel, there's a lot of people saying, really, nice things and like really getting into it and also you know finding all these fun little like little nuggets or or just leaning into the characters and it was like whoa and it was it was a little i've never fancy myself or found myself to be like a critical darling or or sort of i don't think you never necessarily court that maybe you can't but regardless it it was a little strange you know um didn't didn't quite believe it and then i mean i remember and i can't where it was in the process of

after a couple weeks, but Brennan and I doing a Bray Brown's podcast and her sort of, not only sort of explaining some of the stuff from the show from her, you know, her wisdom and her, you know, incredible scholastic, you know, reach, but, but then also explain how the show was resonating with folks that she was getting from like, you know, just in her own circles. And it was like getting the eavesdrop into someone else's cul-de-sac that are all watching your show. And we had, yeah, it was nuts. And then by the time we started doing the next the next season,

then awards started, you know, nominations started coming in. It was like, what the heck is going on? Yeah, I still never really accept the premise of it all because, again, you're just,

that, when you're on a laptop and you're sitting in a room with folks or you're sitting in a scene with someone, like, no, that stuff matters. It's like, it can't be there with you because it's not really there.

Yeah. So it's like, yeah. It's funny, I've heard, as many actors and actresses that I interviewed, never can anticipate or expect because you think maybe you've come up with something good, but who knows how it's going to land? At some level, it's out of your control. So to have it land like this beyond the, oh yeah, it's funny too. It's funny and there's some deep truth in it

that we're all kind of feeling together. It's incredible. It's nothing we invent it. I feel so fortunate to have grown up with the media that I grew up with because I go back and I watch things, especially over this last three-year break, show my kids all sorts of movies, you know, things maybe they shouldn't watch or whatever. And I'm like, I'm like, golly, this movie is all over. Like, when I watched my buddy Ezra Edelman's documentary, Magic versus Bird, I was like, oh, oh, that's, that's Ted and Rebecca. That's, those are two platonic soulmates that were brought into this world at the same time,

around the same thing with the same skill set, same size, from two different walks of life, two different ways of living life. And I was like, oh, that's where I got that from, you know. You know, I know Pete Maravich's, you know, mother committing suicide was, you know, part of the Patis for Ted's father's situation, watching Searching for Bobby Fisher. I was like, holy smokes, this, you know, rewatching the West Wing after the 25th anniversary. I was like, golly. I was like, this is, and we never spoke about any of these comps.

We spoke to Bull Durham, you know, Major League, different sports movies for sure, and all sorts of different movies, musicals and whatnot. But these things that as I rewatched, I was like, golly, these are, this is where this is all coming from. It's embedded in there over the years, you're subconscious almost. Yeah, I had this really neat moment. It was such a funny, like, I don't know her well well, but Esther Perel, right? You know, it's brilliant, brilliant thinker, really, and one of those gifted people that can take a bunch of ideas and then be like this.

And you're like, oh, and rattles you. I was sitting next to her at a fancy dinner, and she hadn't seen the show, but she had heard about it. Because we had named checked her a few times. And I was like, you know, people like it. Like, you check it out, all good, is there for you? You know, like, I'm never like, you're, you know, you're going to love it. You got to watch anything like that. And she asked me, she was, well, how long are going to take you?

you're right. She was, it seems very personal to you. How long do I take you to write? I go, oh, season one was like three months, season, I think it took us like five months. She was in the end of the show. She was, no, no, no, no, Jason, I can't do her accent. It was like, Jason, the answer is all your life. I was like, yeah, Perel. Perfect. So perfect. She said, yeah. I know, that's what I thought, too. I was like, I don't mind. I don't mind at all. Thanks for a better story. Peril. Exactly. Exactly.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Jason Siddakis right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Jason Sadekis. Sports obviously is a theme throughout your life. You grew up Hooper, a little college ball. Community college. Yeah, you played. Yeah, you played in college. When does performance come into your life?

Was that happening in some casual way? were you funny when you were young and all that? Or when did you decide I'm going to go get up on stage a little bit? First time, like, choosing to do it. Wow, audition for stuff as a kid. I mean, I always loved going to theater. I love going to a very funny family, very funny friends. Like, I mean, very eclectic in my friend's sense of humor too.

Like, you know, I have certain friends that are fun at premises. Certain friends that are, you love doing, like, mime with. Getting a video camera, like, in sixth grade was a big thing because then you can make these home videos. and like, but then choosing, I mean, I auditioned for like a couple things like Oliver, you know, anything that there was a kid or like music man, my mom would take me to the Jones store, which is like Macy's in Kansas City. And, you know, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't necessarily, you know, want to do it per se. But then I remember going to this Jesuit All Boys High School in Kansas City called Rockhurst. And that was the first time you were really good at, you know, Kansas City, you know, very close to Kansas.

the Kansas and Missouri, right? And the Kansas side and the Missouri side. But the Missouri kids all had different, you know, they went to different stuff. And I remember this fellow that I was school with named Cam Lynch was like this thing called comedy sports. And I was like, what is that? And I've been to second city in Chicago that my aunt and uncle did.

My folks used to go there when they were younger. But I didn't know that we had something like that in our own hometown, right? And so I go to that. And they're playing like short form improv games like theater sports or whose lines it anyway. And I was like, well, this is fun. And then came audition and got in. And I would just pest room all the time.

We're in the next audition. Where in the next auditions? And eventually, you know, took a workshop there and got in. So that was like the first time of choosing to do it. And, you know, you didn't have to, it was all, you know, improv, no, basically just joking around. All the stuff that I would get in trouble for, like in class and get demerits for. I was like, well, I get paid once a month, you know, like $50 a show or whatever

we were getting paid to do that. And I just loved it. I made a tremendous, like, friend group there. It was the first time I'd had that experience outside of sports, but it's similar to sports where it was like, here's someone I look up to, maybe even a hero. Here's someone I'm going to learn from. They become a co-worker.

Then they become a friend. Then they become like a collaborator. And it's like that journey I've had numerous times in my life, and I recognized and felt familiar through the sports aspect. So my transition from sports to comedy was comedy sports, ironically. And it was, yeah, because I dropped out or left college. my 20th birthday. I remember the coach brought me in community college,

and he was like, I think we're going to redshirt you. It was how, you know, I was like, how do you think you're playing? I go, I think you're starting point guard it. He goes, I agree, but we're worried about your grades because I'd been ineligible, second semester of my freshman year, ineligible at a community college, which my dad is like, Jesus Christ, Jason, you have to try. I was like, I did, I tried, and I was very good at not trying.

And I was like, yeah, I think I think I'm only starting point. I agree, but we're about the grace, so we want to register you. And I was like, we're probably about the close as we are here now. And I was like, I think I'm done. And I'm mad at him, not like, hell with this, but I was like, that's all right, that's all right. I think I'm done.

And at that point, because I knew in my bones, like, I have something else that I love. Yeah. It's kind of like that moment at the end of, like, the sleep's in Seattle when like Tom Hanks might be over there. And Bill Pullman is like, well, golly, dang. I don't want to, get over there, kid. Like, I love you this much that I want you to have that love.

Right? And so, like, there's something in some, I'm excited me. Maybe some of these turkeys behind me still being like, get out of here. So I'd finish up the semester. I'd stop playing basketball and then auditioned for the musical, which was the Fantastics, and I did that. So my scholarship, which was probably about 75 bucks, you know, was like went from basketball to drama. And I did, yeah, I did the fantastic. Then I moved home, moved to my parents' basement, worked at a grocery store, worked at Blockbuster Video, and was still doing comedy sports on the weekend. I bought a drum set instead of a car.

red flag central. My folks, they got so funny, I'm accommodating, they were living in the basement, furnished basement, luckily, but they did that

because, you know, they bought a house in the 70s. And, yeah, and then just hung out there until, and then I, then the absolute decision was, I'm going to move to Chicago,

I want to try to be an actor. And that was, and that was it. And luckily, I come from a family that I could live on the south side with my grandma. My uncle George had a car

that he would take to Lake Michigan and we used it. there so I got to use his car, sleep at her house, not pay rent, worked a banana republic on Michigan Avenue. But that was when I was like, I want to try to be an actor. Sorry, I was so rambly, but I'm just like to try to piece it together. Because it gets you from the point guard to where you are sitting here right now. Yeah, yeah. It's the bridge. And it is. And it's all these people around, both the invisible ones, but boy, boy, tremendous ones out in front. Yeah. It's, none of it exists without it. And including, I think, some of the ethos and

philosophy behind the show that it does, I really do believe we're all here to sort of mix it up. And, like, and yeah, it's going to be, we're going to have this every now and then, but every now we're going to have that and we're going to have that and we're going to have that. It's all sorts of stuff, you know, but you need both, you need two hands. Yeah, all the hands and someone else. Yeah, exactly. I mean, come on, you can't tell me that there's not something magical when, you know, a couple people work together. I mean, you're Simon and Garfunkel. Yeah. It's like, you know, all this. It's all that. But then the harmonies. What we get out of it, right? third voice that you never that it would be impossible without without you know on your own so that's right

then you get to s&l you know which is the ultimate from what you're doing anyway yeah for this in the sketch world yeah the schedule you're there you're playing yeah it's playing for the celtics playing for you know the yankees it's something else yeah had all these memorable characters fan favorite all those things did that feel like you'd reach a mountain top no when you got there no because you're grinding I thought you're talking about someone else like not me no I got to work come on man like I'm okay with it I got to work with like I'm so proud of of our generation. I'm so proud to be a part of that generation. I love just trying to keep my head above water.

When you got like Kristen, Andy, Bill, like, Forte, Fred, like, Seth, like running the whole thing, like, Keenan. But then behind the scenes, you got Jost, you got Malaney. You know, in my first year, like, Michael Schur, you know, Tina, Amy. I mean, it's like, it's insane that I got to sort of be there. And you're just, you're suffocating. And then because you don't know, because you're like, everybody in that, everybody in that thing is the best of what they do at some place. And then you come here and it's like, it's like, starting.

Amy used to say it was like, we start every Monday with this giant boulder trying to roll it up, sketch mountain, and then it gets to the top and it rolls down. You're like, and you can slide down. That's the after parties, you know, and Sunday walking around, waking up before. And then you do it again. You do it again. And it's the hardest, best, worst, most everything job ever. And it takes, it demands everything of you.

and owes you nothing. And that's like, I mean, that's a, if you learn that, if you really, like, learn that and accept that, I mean, I don't think there's anything you can't do, certainly, not in the show business at least, it's a remarkable, you get to, but yeah, but I, you know, so I reject the premise of, like, you know,

fan favorite or, or memorable character, I mean, you know, the fella in the running man, you know, you know his name, it's Vance. No, nobody know that, no, but. No hair, no the tracks seat. Exactly, yeah. Yeah. And it's, but like, but boy, I, I, I, I loved it. I loved it. I love watching old discussions, old, old episodes with my kids, whether I'm, you know, in the sketches or not,

I just love, you know, getting to go back and even just to watch, you know, a friend the 50th was, I mean, to be, like, I have a photo from the 40th at Good Nights of, I don't know if they'd met before, but these are my two, these are, like, two of my favorite of all time in anything. Like, just on earth, Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy. Like, Satan and I, you know, I went like that. The two of them just talking about, you know, then 10 years later to be in a sketch, the scared straight sketch that Joe wrote all the years with Canaan. And I get to be in the sketch with him.

I get to be the straight man, which is like, what? Like, I get to do my dumb little hop on the bench, but like, I mean, come on. You know, it's like. And the part you're leaving out of that now, everyone's, oh, he's Ted Lassow. He's got his thing. Sure, sure, sure. He's that guy, you know? So everyone looks at each other in different ways.

It's so great. I mean, again, that's one of the things. We say this every now and they're all being the first, to say that. It's just our generation again left, like what we got to do on that show, but then also I'm just so proud of all those folks. I'm proud of it.

Counting among 50 years of it, but much less our, like, you know, our little, you know, eight-year pocket and seven-year pocket that, you know, it started with, like, you know, I came in when Tina and, Amy were kicking butt and taking names and Maya and Rachel Dratch and then to be there for, you know, I mean, you know, Kristen's just, you know, brilliance and dominance and like, it's neat.

It's like, I think getting that experience and also being an older brother to, to wise, funny, silly, authentic, heartfelt women, well, then girls, now women, is baked into. to like the enthusiasm for doing this, this new season. Not to make it, to be convenient, but that is, that is a loop I've closed in my head and accepted where it's just like, oh, I was just like, like, I know how, I know how kick-xed. You know, like, I know how kick-a-girls are, having one of my own, but also, you know, growing up around a couple. And then I know how bad ass, you know, female leaders are.

My mom's like one of the all-time great travel agents. She used to be on the Today Show back when like we were kids. You know, she would be doing spots with Jane Pauley. She'd be quoted in USA Today. And it's like, you know, my mom, that's my mom who knew she wanted to be a travel agent from a little girl. Yeah. A sister knew she wanted to be a dancer since she was a little girl. So like, it's like, yeah, that's one of the most new things.

So I think about that too in relation to all the metaphors that pulled out from my experience of getting to work at SNL. I think also being around during that time of just that. where it was no longer a quote-unquote boys club. But it was like, it was just, people just, everybody's kicking ass regardless of whatever they're, or trying to at least, regardless of where they came from or what vessel they've been born into. And they're in the great chorus.

The old soldiers, big time, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't put them next to each other because I don't want them talking during class. I put them on the side. But when they look at each other and they like, no, I mean, no, I mean, I carry those women with me. Always.

Near the best. Before we throw a dart, because I know you've got to run, the future of Ted Lassau now. Do we see multiple seasons of this? Are you not even there yet psychologically? Not there yet psychologically, because we still got to land this plan of this one. But, I mean, I wouldn't have gone to, gone back into it without, you know, I think in threes, you know, for better or worse, like beginning, middle, and, you know, past, present, future, in whatever way, I think. You know, schoolhouse rock put it best. It is the magic number.

And so I think there's enough there to do more. There's enough, but is there enough here to do more? That's always, that's the question. Because I don't want to die from doing it. It's been so love-giving and life-affirming that the only way to leave it is and operate within it is from that space. So it's like it's not about. So that's not, is that a sufficient answer?

Yeah, I don't know. Also, let's not rush along to the next season. Let's enjoy this one. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was the crazy thing. Even during season two, people asking if there's going to be more. And I was like, I was like, what are you? Like, we had just, I think we had, I remember correctly, we had just won the Emmy for the second season while we're making the third season.

So it's not too far off. But it was like someone asking about it. I was like, what? It's the closest I'll ever feel to like a professional athlete or a real coach. It's like when they get out, like, one game at a time. Right. And it's like, that is not hokey. That is not a cliche.

That is a mindset. And it's like, I appreciate folks that have other deadlines and other, get paid for other things, asking the question. But from within, yeah, you got to go. You got to go on time. I knew the first go-round you thought it was a three-season artist, so maybe that's somewhere in your head for this one, too. But we're just going to enjoy four for now.

Thank you, man. Congratulations. That's good to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. My big thanks to Jason for a great conversation and to Jack Doyle's Bar in Manhattan for hosting us. You can watch Ted Lassau on Apple TV Season 4 is out and streaming now with weekly episodes. And my thanks as always to all of you for listening again this week.

If you want to hear more of my conversations with all of our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your own two eyes. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. You know,