The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Behind the Show | Al Madrigal on What Makes a Great Field Piece | Replay

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Originally Aired February 10, 2025. Longtime Daily Show editor Mark Paone sits down with former correspondent Al Madrigal to unpack some of their favorite segments. They talk how to make a great field piece, the Stephen Colbert advice that gets handed down to every new correspondent, what he would do differently, and how a Senior Latino Correspondent can get away without speaking Spanish.  -- Dose - New customers can save 35% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/TDS or entering TDS at checkout. -- The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Stream full episodes on Paramount+ Follow TDS: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I should say one of your favorites, one of my favorites and senior Latino correspondent. That's right. Comedian, actor, entrepreneur, Renaissance man. Yes. Al Madrigal. How are you? When you say long time, exactly how long have you been here

because I know you keep track. I started season two. That's insane. And this is season. 797 was my first day. Because for a while, I think you would call, as a joke, all jokes, we'd call John the new guy. And he had been here for like 16 years.

Yeah. And we became, I mean, as you do in the field department, which is where I did a lot of work when I was here. Because I was here from the years of 2011. I believe I started full time at the beginning of 2012, shared an office with Jessica Williams, who was just crushing it. I'm so happy for her. It's kind of cool to see everybody go on and do things. but I was here from 2012 to 2000, end of 2013 full-time, and then another like half-year, or half-year, like on and off part-time until John left.

And then I dribbled into Trevor's. Just dribbled a little dribbling. So how did you get the gig? I don't remember. I got the gig because. And this is a be nice to everyone you meet thing. I got the gig because a guy hit me up to do a guest set on a show in Miami at the Coconut Grove Improv, which was an insane comedy club. Go around the country from 2005, 2004, until 2010, that's how I made a living primarily.

I was acting in some TV shows, but I would do stand up on the road. And people hit you up for guest sets. The guy that hit me up was Adam Lowe it, a comedian from Florida who's going to be there at the time, who was also a producer at the Daily Show. He went on to be an executive producer. He's done many incredible things. He's in L.A. now? In L.A. with two wonderful children and his wife. And we're still close and stay in touch.

But he hit me up for a guest set. Then he hit me up for when I was in New York for another guest set. Then he hit me up for another guest set. So this is like guest sets over. years. And then finally when we're at Caroline's in New York, he said, you know, I think it was, my act was sort of skewing this way. And he goes, you'd make a great Latino correspondent. He was, I know just how to pitch it. So we waited for a dark week, which the show has weeks on and weeks off. It's very difficult to do a daily show like they do. It's sort of, you know, it's amazing that John did it as long as he did. And, um, We're going to do it the Thursday of a dark week when he's in. Like working dark week, yeah. A working dark week.

So we have Hallie Hagelin, who is a newish writer at the time. She's gone on to be EP of things and rose to the ranks here and some very, very funny. So Hallie Lowe and I, we write this piece on Debbie Riddle, who's a congresswoman from Texas, who won it, and it's amazing how this is in two days. 2011 and nothing has changed. Right. She wanted to establish a group of non-U.S. citizens, like a second class of citizen that could work as home care workers.

So nannies, gardeners, chefs, and, you know, anyone else that you'd want, some sort of Latino taking care of your things, so that they could work without employment laws. right so you wouldn't have to pay them minimum wages or anything like that and then this was in Texas so we did that piece that got changed so we rewrote it and I auditioned and it went well John took me over here where I was sort of waiting in one of these little side guest rooms and said congratulations and get ready for a lifestyle of women and drugs I'll never forget that No. John Oliver, he always used to give you a great impression of people at Daily Show Convention. Mr. Oliver. The piece that you did on Australian gun reform.

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And we're not moving them. I flew back and forth. My nine-year-old or whatever he is at the time said, I said, we got a great job. And I got a great job and it's going to be a good money for the family, a good opportunity. I said opportunity and he didn't get it. And then I said, good money. It can lead to other things. It's a great job.

and I said we might need to move to New York and he just got into a new school and made friends and he was at that age where friendships really started form and he really did look at me and he goes, what if you went and we stayed here and that's what happened for two and a half years is I flew back and forth and back and forth and then I'd go do field pieces.

In 2012, I think I tied a record for John Olley, Oliver Field Pieces and mine was in a non, like, I guess I, because that was a convention year, but I tied a record for field pieces. I was out on the road constantly. So when I wasn't flying home, I was flying for the show. And I mean, John Hodgman and Loew and I would go out and do stand-up. I've got to text John Hodgman. He's one of my favorite people.

So I would go on the road with Hodgman and just had the best time. but I was missing my family terribly, and I was missing so many of the kids' functions. Yeah. You know, it's such an important time in their life. And I was, you know, if ever had to go two or three weeks without seeing them, I was just absolutely devastated. And I was sleeping under my desk because I would take red eyes,

which is the worst. The absolute worst. You'd never want to take a red eye ever. If you can avoid it at all costs, It sets me back for like two days after that. So I felt like during my time here, I was never really operating at 100%. And I was, you know, it's like one of those regrets thing. I probably should have just moved everybody out.

I also did it something really stupid. And I moved to Dumbo in Brooklyn. I could have just walked to the show. That would have been the smartest thing. I had my buddy who I grew up with who had a place and that seemed to make sense to me. but I never should have committed to anything. I should have lived a block away. I should have been here for every single morning meeting.

Like the dad in me talking to my son who's now 22 living in San Francisco. It's like first guy there, last guy to leave. Like I didn't know any of that. And here I'm a 40-year-old man. And I know my work ethic is amazing and I do a lot of things. But I should have been here very first thing. And I also was given bad advice from the existing correspondence. because like Monvee rolled in at 1 p.m. every day.

Jones and like I was we were getting advice from people that had just been here. Yeah. Barely were in the building. Right. And I should have just been at that morning meet. I had nothing else going on. I didn't have a kid. I was trying to get ready for school or anything like that.

There was no excuse for me not to be here showered with a pen in my hand ready to go. Right. And that's what I was. would have done over again. It would be a different situation, but again, I just, I love, love, loved my time here even considering. But at some point, it came to an end because a lot of celebrities and famous people come to this show. And I remember Rory, who was the EP and John's, you know, right hand person at the time. And Albany's, he pawned on Jason Cadams and Kathy Cadams on me.

And Jason Cato's from Friday Night Lights. And we were maybe with you editing a piece. The correspondent goes and sits in the edit. And I was showing them how we did a piece. I believe it was the bridge to nowhere, the Canadian bridge thing that I did was burger. I was going to bring that piece up, the Ambassador Bridge. Great, great piece. piece. And it really was fun. Yeah, that was really fun to cut too. Yeah, so we are doing that

and he comes in. I meet Jason Cadams. He has a TV show called About a Boy and cast me in it. I'm pretty confident that NBC, like he just insisted that I was in it. He was, I auditioned four times. Like, are you sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy just gave me. this great gig so then I got to I went to John I'm like who had kids I think has kids exactly my children's age and I went to his kids are like 22 19 something like that 22 and 19 yeah yeah yeah so I went to John I go I miss my children terribly and I need to go and I really wasn't here for very very long you know I was always telling right and then they would use you sporadically after that but I was always telling new correspondence where they came in

because I had a little bit of crossover with Roy and with Ronnie and Desi and definitely Clepper and Hassan. I would always tell him, like, stay on the show for 100 plus episodes. That's where you start to really get recognized and I just couldn't. I couldn't. I was desperate to hang out with my wife and kids. I'm not good on the road. I love stand-up. That's why I got in this.

I just don't love flights with connections. I don't love hotel soaps. That's what I bonded with John Stewart over. Yeah. I was, I think. John had that in his background. I think, let's think about it. Am I the only?

I know there's been other stand-up comics, but why it was more alternative. John Oliver was a little bit more skewed, more alternative. I'm like the only club comic other than John Stewart. Ronnie doesn't count. Roy. Roy Wood Jr. Wait,

why doesn't Ronnie count? He's the Australian. Who knows what's going on over there? What are they doing? Roy, yeah, Roy. Roy definitely has been on the road. Oh my gosh, Roy. Roy is, he's one of the best people.

Yeah. Yeah, Roy, Ronnie's, you know, actually a major comic with three Netflix specials. I'm just talking about, like, in terms of, like, American clubs coming up, I think it's just me, Roy and John. Yeah, and a lot of the others did like came from like improv and improv acting.

Yeah. Yeah. I still have Rob Riggle gave me his Colbert notes to come in. Right, the famous Colbert notes. Well, I would pass those on then to every single person. I think I was just texting with Costa and Ronnie. Was it 14? How many?

It was like a... I just texted it to these. guys I'll read them to you right now. These are, so I was on a TV show with Rob Riggle called Gary Unmarried. He played Jay Moore's brother. I've been on so many sitcoms. You have no idea. That's the other thing.

Let's see, Ronnie and Costa. Okay. This is the list. So this is from Rob Riggle. This is email that I- This is the original Colbert notes. That he passed on. He gave to Riggle.

I asked Riggle for. He gave him to me, and then I've since passed him to Ronnie, Roy, Klepper, and then they've gone and passed him on. I know Desi has him. Amazing. Yeah. And they still hold up. Hey, Al. So I found Colbert's notes for me on things to think about when doing a field piece.

Number one, do we want to be saying this, do you? Burn tape. Tape is cheap. Keep talking and keep them talking. Two, break up questions. and still let them see where you're going. Three, play the silence. Four, match energy with subject. Five, discover things in the moment. Be aware of when those discoveries happen. Six, always be asking yourself, what's my point of view on this subject? Seven, you have to think it's funny.

Find a way to make that happen. Eight, get clear on three to five things you want your subject to say and don't let them leave until you get them. That's very important. Nine, understand the real point. What's behind? all of this. What are you saying? And that was like when I was here on the show, I think there was a shift. It's like we didn't want to just be making fun of things. It's easy just to shoot down. You want to also post solutions. And then 10 characters key, understand your point of view on the issue and you will be able to react spontaneously in the moment. That's it, bro. These were the tips. important one that Colbert told you was leave your soul at home oh yeah gave me when I started

and they helped hope they help you all the best Riggles yep so that's it and then I learned a couple other ones I remember Riggle told me whatever you do don't let Stu Miller drive and then these guys don't have cars we go out there and they're got a rental car and they're in Manhattan I'm like what are you doing this is like an eight point turn just get out of the car that's hilarious none of them know how to drive and then if they're in Manhattan without a vehicle it's crazy so it's just like give me the keys I'll drive yeah I'm not going to do this yeah and then what was the other one that was just hilarious it was check your soul of the door um oh john oliver grabbed me this is day one he goes I'm going to tell you the only thing you really need to know

He goes, always live in the edit. Yeah. So you could be sitting there. If you think of something witty, that was from 15 minutes ago. Just do it. Just do it and we can put it in. So, you know, good field pieces are made when I say something, they say something, and then I say something back.

That's funny. Right. And so there has to be this exchange and back and forth. or you're always searching to cobble together as many of those moments as you possibly can. That's what I'm for. That's what I do. You're the cobbler.

Yeah, I mean, you'll, I mean, I've always said that to correspondents. It's like, just remember, you can start over, you can do anything. You know, it's all just think about that it's not happening live. It's not happening live, you know. But you feel like it's happening live, but remember that, you know, I would because I can you know we don't we never we never misrepresent people but no we will take you know I'll take like a stronger yes you know to a question you ask I might you know what I mean like that sort of thing I might I'm not asking people to say any things that they haven't said yes

they've already said it yeah they've already said it and then we we're not misrepresenting them at all but I like to create what seems like a seamless conversation in a piece, even though the sentences might be coming like 10 minutes apart. I remember sitting down with everybody I sat down with. I always was a nice guy. I know some correspondents had different strategies when approaching a subject. Like Jones barely talked to him. Yeah, he would not engage until the camera's rolling.

I go, hey, how are you? I'm Al. This is going to be a piece of cake. Now, I'm funny. You're not funny. I go, so I just need to keep it straight. So if you're going to make a joke, I'm just going to have to stop and have to redo it because I'm not going to use it. So I just would love you to speak in nice, concise chunks and just say what you're going to say.

Straight answers. If I tell you to tighten something up, I'll need you to tighten it up. So you'll see me do things three or four times. I'm going to have you do things three or four times. Then the other thing is if I ask you a question, you need to respond with the question and the answer. So I've asked you what my favorite color is. You say my favorite color is blue. Okay, so you have to use it later.

Yeah, I guess I have to use it later without me in it. And, yeah, then I would go on and there was a couple more. And then at the end of a piece, we'd always go, okay, just a couple wild lines. Can you say these for me? Right. Maybe. Right. I just, yeah.

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So let's talk about your field work. Oh, shit. Yeah. What was your favorite, your favorite piece of all that you've done, you did? I think the, just because of how it magically came together, when you do a field piece, you go and you have a joke session, you're I anticipate what people are going to do. I did a lot of fun. I mean, top five, definitely Latinos in Austin, Texas.

All these, by the way, still hold up. Where my second one was Tucson Michael Hicks, who's a past way that... Tucson was the book ban? That was Chicano Studies ban. Yeah, yeah. That was a great one. That got national news. and that was my second piece.

Across the country, public education is failing. But in Arizona, lawmakers have found the solution to the biggest problem facing their schools. Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, just approved a bill banning ethnic studies classes in public schools. And using this new law, the Tucson School Board banned the K-12 Mexican-American Studies Program. School Board member Michael Hicks.

My concern was a lot of the radical ideas that they were teaching in these classes, telling these kids that this is their land, the whites took it over, and the only way to get out from beneath the gringo, which is the white man, is by bloodshed. When you sat in on these classes, what types of... I chose not to go to any of their classes. Why even go? Why even go?

I base my thoughts on hearsay from others, so I based off of those. So the school board in Tucson banned Mexican- Chicago studies. Right. And you spoke to a councilman there. I spoke to the school board member named Michael Hicks, and he said, what was it? Well, the best part about was you asked him,

what about African-American stuff? And he said, yeah, that's fine. And you said, well, I'm a black kid. Teach me about Africa. Yeah, teach me about slavery without being like, yeah, he just dug himself in such a major hall. He was a perfect person. Because you, I remember you asking him, am I three-fifths of a person?

He goes, I think you're more a quarter of a person. Yeah. I'm a black kid. Try to teach me about slavery without me feeling resentment towards white people. How am I going to teach you about slavery? Slavery was... How did I end up here? Slavery was a...

I got to figure out of how. Okay. The white man did bring over the... African... And what kind of jobs did we do? The jobs that you guys did was basically slavery jobs. So after we were freed, we got to vote? Yes.

You got, well, you didn't get to vote until later. And we were equal? Almost equal. What? We were like sort of a half or three-fifths? My personal perception of it, I would say you're probably a quarter. It was insane. insane. And that was my... And that got a lot of attention.

That was national news. He got in trouble for it, if I remember. Yeah. Do you remember chicken boxing? Oh, I had chicken boxing was ridiculous. In 2008, Louisiana came to its senses and outlawed the barbaric sport of cockfighting. And the chickens of that state finally had some peace. State Senator Albert Guillory. We've outlawed cockfighting. Those blood sports no longer attractive in Louisiana. I'm not a fan of cockfighting, but I'd love to go and watch some chicken boxing. I'm going to stop you right there. You just said chicken boxing?

Yes. Chicken boxing in Louisiana is still not legal, but we're fighting to make it legal. You meant to say chicken boxing. I meant to say chicken boxing. Human beings put gloves on and box. Chickens can put gloves on and box. Chicken boxing was in Appaloosa with Burger, and they were trying to ban,

they did ban, they did ban cockfighting. And now guys were trying to introduce chicken boxing, and they made little gloves. And I went out to the park here. Yeah, and they had an arena. The guy took you. I took a arena, and I go to this guy. We're deep.

Like a really nice little, like, mini Madison Square Garden. It was, like, amazing that arena. That was crazy. And I was out with these guys on, Clearly they were training roosters due to cockfighting. And it's horrible. They put razor blades on their claws and they're vicious. They're like training pit bulls or anything like that.

And I go, hey, man, to the side. I go, if this was real, which one of these roosters would? And it goes, if it was real. Like, it is real, like an idiot. And then, me and Berger were on, in traffic on a way to the cockfighter. ring and this dude looks at me and I'm a Latino in a suit in a rental car and looks at me, looks to me in the eyes and starts running at the car. And I go, burger, burger, go, go, go.

Like that. There's been a couple moments where I've been like, we're going to die right now. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. In times you felt in danger. Richmond, Virginia at Barack Obama announcing his, he was going to run. again, I think. You mean for the second time? Yeah, for the second time.

Oh, the Cinco de Mayo piece. I remember that one. I almost got beat up because everyone was drunk. Yeah. You think you can keep this enthusiasm off until November? I think I can't because I'll drink Corona like it's water. Drink blood light like it's water. Drink vodka like it's water.

Tequila like it's water. Can you keep it up until November? Oh, absolutely. Are you kidding me? I come out all the time. I'm fired up. Are you pumped up because you think? I think Barack Obama will finally be able to not worry about this combative Congress and he can actually be progressive in his theoretical second term.

I smell weed. Those those misdirect. Yeah, the misdirect. You go in. You set it up. You think it's, you, you set it up to our audience as like, I'm going to this young people's Obama rally that you think it is. And it's a Cinco de Mayo party. And it turns out these Obama supporters love Latina.

Yeah, and you're like, and just as much as they love drinking. Like that. Yeah, we used to do that with the St. Patrick's State Parade. Like on a yearly basis, we'd figure out, or like a suit, like when the Giants won the Super Bowl, we'd go down there and think, you know, we'd think it was like, we'd act like it was for something else and talk to the people. There was a time that I went out with Stu Miller to Phoenix and the guy we lined up wouldn't speak to us. Oh, we bailed at the last minute. at the very last second. Yeah, that's happened a few times.

And we're like, he's not coming. And then we just had to improvise and we joined a rally. And I remember riffing a, John, my Spanish is a little rusty. But what I think he said was, you know, it's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I cut that one. I cut that one. I remember that.

The guy says, does his own speaking Spanish and then you just. Guy speaks, he says heartfelt in Spanish to the camera. It's a political rally. We're hardworking people. And we just, and this is a. be 1070, right? It was like, yeah. And he said, we're hardworking people. We really, you know, don't deserve to be villainized. You know, my family's here. And we don't have the subtitle. So if you don't speak Spanish, you don't know what he's saying. Yeah. And then I go, John, my Spanish is a little rusty. But I think what he just said was his, his girlfriend. Yeah, like, that he was upset. He was like, he's, sorry, baby. And the guys just look at you. It was so good. Well, that's another little, a little side note for the listeners. You don't speak Spanish.

Spanish is no good. I remember, like, early on when you were at the show, at some point we're like, oh, we can do this piece and we can do it in Spanish. Because over the years, we've done a couple of pieces where it was entirely in Spanish. We did one with Dulcee Sloan. And we did one way back when with Mo Rocca where they did the entire show was, the entire piece was in Spanish because they went somewhere where everybody spoke Spanish. Oh, yeah.

I've been places where everyone's most Spanish. There was a point with you, I remember at some point when they were like, oh, yeah, this will be great. We can actually, we could do the piece in Spanish. And then you're like, I don't speak Spanish. You're like, wait, what? Second generation, half Mexican from San Francisco. And I think, you know, when you look back at all the pieces, which was a lot, a lot of them unfortunately still hold up. I think I did a good job of representing the fact that no one.

can represent all Latinos because I've said that multiple times. So going on and saying, there's no one reppping all Latinos. That person doesn't exist because we can't agree on anything. And that is very true to this day. So, you know, they make funny if you don't speak Spanish, but then when you don't do speak Spanish and you don't pronounce things properly and you're really fucked, like, because there's no winning. So I think I was very clear about that from day one.

But I remember doing press for the movie Night School with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Addish. And it was me, Fat Joe, and Kevin Hart doing Miami Press. They're all expecting you to speak there. Kevin Hart looks at me and he goes, wait a second, you don't speak Spanish? He goes, it's the only reason you're here. It's the only reason he started cracking up. He thought it was the funniest thing. He's like, I speak more Spanish than you do.

I'm like, yeah, well. You think I'm going to turn down a free trip to Miami to hang out with Fat Joe and Kevin Hart? No. I'll be here. Another piece. That was a really, really fun piece and really like a feel-good piece in a lot of ways. They let me do some very silly weird shit. But this was actually a real, it was a really solid piece, last gay standing.

was called. Alabama and Mississippi. So who's it going to be? Cletus or Baitis? It was time to see which one of these backwoods-in-bred homophobic states will swim the longest against the tide of history. First, let's meet some locals to see whose state has the intolerance edge. In this corner, from the state that still has segregated sororities, Alabama lawyer, Doug

Jones. With regard to same-sex marriage, Alabama will be the last state to ratify if we ever ratify. And in the other corner from the state with a Confederate flag, inside their own state flag, Mississippi columnist Slim Smith. Mississippi will be last and we'll get there kicking and screaming all the way. I wish it weren't true, but it is. So the whole premise of the piece is, you know, all these states are legalizing gay marriage. Who will be the last state? What are the last five states?

And he goes, well, I think it's going to be the deep state. The deep south. And the deep state. I think it's going to be the deep, you'll cut that out. I think it's going to be the deep south. So you go. And it was hilarious because you were like, because they both were defending their state

in to be the last one. They both were. I think it'll be because the irony was really, because they were both like, yeah, we'll be the last one. I mean, the newspaper guy is like, come on, We still have, like, we still have segregation laws on the books. And then you ask him about sodomy, and he goes, well, it's a, it's a, I think he said, Doug Jones says, it's a misdemeanor, and you cut to the other guy and goes, oh, sodomy's a felony.

Yes, that's right. And they're all trying to outdo how shitty their state is. That's hilarious. So we were in Birmingham and we were in Jackson. And that was the thing is that had we been in this deep, so I'll cut you off, but we were in those two cities and that affected the peace and we had no idea. But keep going. Right, because then you went out.

To Waffle Houses. All right, that's it. We'll settle this the old fashion way in a Waffle House. Y'all I want everybody to know we met two years ago at a Waffle House and I just want to say, would you, Michael, would you marry me? This is our anniversary and I just wanted to know if you would do this because this is very special to me. Yes.

Yes. Was that clapping? Okay, Mississippi, last chance to bring some authentic anti-gay redneck venom. I want to say in front of everybody, I want to ask you, sincerely, would you marry me? Yes. Yes? Yes. Yeah.

Seriously? These are the two gay estates in the union. No, but the point of the whole thing was everywhere they went, nobody gave a shit. Everywhere they went, no one cared. No one cared at all and actually in... In the Waffle House, they applauded when he proposed. They applauded and a little boy said, you can't do that here, but not yet, but you can do it here, here, here, here, here. And he rattled off all the states where you could get legally married as a gay couple.

Oh, I didn't know that. And then they would applaud. And then I had a very interesting conversation with a guy next to me who I was waiting in the Waffle House because I'm in this was in when Obamacare was coming out, but he told me his wife was a waitress. He was waiting for her to get off her shift. And she made $2.67 per hour. And then they let her keep her tips. And then he was anti-Obama care.

But they didn't have health care at the Waffle House. I'm like, but you see how this can help you. And it didn't. So I just remember that. And I remember. But the nice thing about the piece was it kind of. It just reminded you, it reminds you of like a lot of these issues, people don't care. It's all the people in power and in the government that make big issues out of these things.

Nobody gets a shit about. And that's why I just really wish we could have some sort of secure nationwide voting on major issues like that. Referendums. Let's talk about guns. Like, all right. Who wants, you know, rifles? to exist for hunting, and then let's get rid of automatic weapons. Right, right.

Do we need those? We don't. Yeah, even gun owners want to get rid of that stuff. It's like 80%. Yeah, it's nuts. I guess we can talk a little bit about more about the bridge piece. That's right. People of Michigan are going to have to pay for the entire...

Wait, what did he just say? Michigan will pay nothing for this bridge. To find nothing. Zero, zero dollars, zero, zero. outlay zero risk, zero liability. Define zero. No cost to Michigan at all. Absolutely

nothing. Define nothing again. But nothing probably means something, especially when you consider how many times America has been burned by slick-talking Canadians. Look, when politicians tell you that this isn't going to cost you

nothing, grab your wallet, grab your money, and run. Break wide, dude. The Canadians are saying they're going to pay for this bridge, but I don't trust him. And they say a lot of things sometimes in French. And they buy our milk at Sam's because the Canadian milk is very expensive. True story. What does that have to do with this?

Nothing. Canada is offering a Trojan horse. Oh, you think they're going to hide a bunch of Canadians in there and they're just going to jump out and attack us once the bridge is complete? No, it's not going to be Canadians, it's going to be Chinamen. Yeah. I just want Americans on that bridge. I don't want a Trojan horse delivering China Steel and Chinaman. Just FYI, I don't think anyone was using Chinaman anymore.

That was one of the best. That was a great piece. And the people that you talked to were so funny. I had a guy say, I remember the Tea Party guy? No, the ex-Black Panther guy who pulled out, who was like, in my town. I run this town. And then when you tell him,

who, that when you go back to all of them to tell them that the bridge is owned. I don't want to tell you how to run your black venture business. But the bridge is owned by an individual, like a family that owns the bridge. And this is why...

Maddie Maroon. And he goes, yeah, I know that. And he pulls on it. He goes, it goes all about these politicians and I just, I'll never forget this image. He pulls out this ginormous... And I just go like this ginormous wad that's like, It must be four inches thick of cash and you waste it around going, it's all about the cash.

That guy's got like thousands of dollars in cash. He was so big. And he was a giant. And I go. And he's like, I run this town. Yeah, I know that guy owns a bridge. So what? I don't want to, they had paid them off.

Yeah, yeah. We were in a. And the woman, do you remember the housewife? Yeah. And the milk prices. And they come over here, you know. You know, they come over here to buy their milk. You know that right?

Canadians, shifty. And I go, what does that I mean? I don't know, but. And then there's a guy. The guy, the tea party guy who goes, he said, China man. And I go, hey, just F. I don't think they're calling up China anywhere. And I go, and they prefer, I think this got cut out.

I go, they prefer Oriental. Yes, that did get cut out. Because I remember that was a joke that we all wanted to keep. Yeah. But they cut it out as we went alone. They were like, yeah, that's a little too much. Yeah, that was funny. And then we got to do that stylized Clint Eastwood,

Chrysler 300 piece with the steam. I drove around in Go-Pro's, with the pros attached to the car. Then I, we did the bridge section. It's like, yeah. The M&M thing, the M&M like, yeah. If I remember you found a toll booth. We couldn't shoot. But you faked it.

Oh my gosh. The toll booth, number? Yeah. You keep, you keep, because we have you driving. You can't shoot on any, because of Homeland Security, you can't shoot on any bridge. But in the piece, you keep driving on the bridge and trying to talk to the, to the toll booth collector. I'm here to talk to Maddie Maroon. The guy who owns a bridge.

475, sir. Thank you. So, yeah, the guy who owns a bridge is named Maddie Maroon. It's sort of a monopoly. I'll be back. Hi, it's me again. As I was saying, I want to talk to Maddie. Oh, they're fine.

Denise, don't you think that's a little odd that one man owns a bridge? You need to stop fucking around. Go and watch this piece again. We found a New Jersey Six Flags and made their ticket booth look like a toll booth. It was great. Even had cars going by in the background?

It was such a brilliant production. And then I remember John. coming in the edit bay and he goes how did you do this is amazing and we looked at each other and we're like movie magic do you really want to know yes tell me and then he goes no he walked out and he walked back in and he goes fine just tell me what you did he can't shoot on any bridge so that's kind of a reenactment at a New Jersey six flags and if you look at closely the same production van drives through three times faking traffic It's all sound effects for the horns.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a fun. That was a really fun piece. And she was a great actress, too. Yeah. The last one on my list of my favorite series is, of course, tanks, tanks, tanks. Oh, I got to drive tanks. Tanks, tanks, little tanks, big tanks.

Does your country need tanks? We got more tanks than we know what to do with. And Big Al's Western Tank Emporium. And they're not just for attacking Africa. They can do it all. Juicing. Printing, packing, navigating traffic. You will not be undersold because I'm out madrigal about tanks.

We may invade you with a ground war and destroy the tanks we sold you in the first place. There's a place in Casota, Minneapolis, where you can drive a tank. I think I've shot machine guns so much on the show. I shot a Tommy gun in there that didn't even make the piece. Do you want to go shoot a Tommy gun? I'm like, yeah, sure. I don't know, I'll shoot a time again. And then I got to drive these tanks, but the things, there's such a weird place.

So the piece, for the listeners, the piece was they were, there's a. The United States government is still buying tanks. There's no way. Well, there's a factory. The story was, there's a factory in Ohio, I think. Some of the details. That's manufacturing tanks. Manufacturing tanks.

Talk about government ways. And it's all, it was all part of some pork from. some Ohio senator. Yes, that's coming back to me. This was Miles Khan. Yeah, Miles. And so this factory keeps, and you talk to a general, if you remember, a retired general.

It's like, we don't need any tanks. We don't need any more tanks. We got plenty of tanks. That was up here. Yeah. And so they keep building, there's like, and the factory has like 80 employees. It wasn't like a ton of people. But this guy makes a big stink about like,

we can't shut down the factory, we can't lose these 80 jobs. And so there's all these extra tanks, and they just put them in this. graveyard out in Utah. There's a tank graveyard with, they all cost a ridiculous amount of money. So then we end the piece with you like a used, well you like a used car salesman trying to sell tanks. Don't I get...

And you get in a tank and you start crushing, you got to get a tank, it's like the bed and then you crush like toys and stuff. They had me crush two Saturns. Oh wait, you crush cars. I crush cars. I crush cars driving a tank. It's right. This job was so amazing.

They bought some beat up old used cars and you crushed them. And I got, but there was a lady. Tanks, tanks. This place has a woman, like they have these attractive woman in a bikini that was like, is supposed to like rub your shoulders while you drive the tank. I don't know who wants this. I don't remember that. No, she didn't make the piece, but that's what this place was.

Yeah. It was like chicks in, you were seeing Vegas with like a chick with an automatic rifle? Was it in the Carolinas? Where was it? Minneapolis. Oh, wow. At like an hour and a half outside minute. I think it was like Casota, Minnesota or something. Yeah. All right. So I guess we're running out of time here. Yeah, I've got to go rehearse. Yeah. Great seeing. You are doing, you're now on Lopez Lopez versus Lopez. Yeah, I'm on George Lopez's sitcom, which is the best gig ever. I play his daughter, Mayan, and I play a stoner on a multicam, which is the best gig ever. And I also write. So I have a CBS overall deal, so I write TV shows and develop stuff for CBS. And then I'm back on the road doing stand-up. So please come out and see me do some stand-up comedy.

I think I have a bunch of dates, Austin, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison. I should put things on a website. You're going to be the only people who know. So please come out and see me do stand-up, and it'll be fun. Glad to have you back in the building. I love being back in the building. Yeah. I need to come more often. Sure. Anytime.

If only there were Latinos were in the news. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. On Podcasts.