The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Chris Parnell

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

Actor and comedian Chris Parnell joins Andy to discuss growing up Southern Baptist, his journey from the Groundlings to Saturday Night Live, and more.

Well, hello, everyone. You are tuned in again to an episode of The Three Questions. And I am very happy to talk to someone who I don't know very well, but our paths have crossed numerous times, and we sure do know a bunch of people in common. But I have always very much enjoyed and respected his work and his dashing good looks, frankly. I'm here with Chris Parnell. Hello there. Of all your favorite comedy things. You've been, I mean, you are sort of like a ubiquitous kind of presence in so many different comedic things over the years. Yeah, well, I mean, certainly for people of a certain age, I think. I mean, I'm sure there are tons of young people, younger folk who have no idea who I am.

And older folk, too. Younger folk who have no idea who I am. And older folk, too. Well, that's what you're here for. Because this podcast is hugely popular with Gen Z. Awesome. I don't know. I'm not even quite sure what Gen Z is. When people talk about Gen Z versus millennials versus I don't even know what anything is anymore.

You know, my niece broke it down for me, but I think she's Gen Z, maybe. She's like 16. No, yeah, she's 16 now. So I think she's Gen Z. And then my son, who is seven, well, seven, and I've got another son who's four. They are Gen Alpha, I think, is the next one. I think. Wow.

But don't hold me to that. They should name them, like, pick women's names alphabetically, like hurricanes. Generation Brenda. Yeah, Gen Alma. Generation Alma. Generation Brenda. That'd be good. Well, where am I speaking to you today?

You're at home? I am at my house in Los Angeles. Yeah. Specifically the address, please. Will! How have you been? How's your COVID been? I mean, that kind of seems to be, you know, how is your pandemic?

Seems like the first question everyone gets to. You know, it was a lot better than it was for a lot of people. I'm thankful to say. We got our older son into an outdoor school called Everlasting Education. And it was just him and I think 10 or 11 other kids. And they just met outdoors in the wilderness in different locations and did schoolwork and hiked and learned about nature. And it was amazing. So he didn't have to be stuck in front of an iPad or a computer all day. And it was just a godsend. Was that in reaction to COVID or was it just a lucky happenstance? you know, a lucky happenstance.

Well, it was something that the founder of it, this guy, Michael Galano, who had worked at this place called BioCitizen, which is also still around, but that's more, that's camps. My son is going to BioCitizen camp next week. But he had wanted to start this kind of outdoor school and COVID sort of just provided the ideal opportunity for it.

So it's, it was great for him and it kept him outside and, you know, not on a screen. And then, you know, and then we all managed to stay healthy, thankfully.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the things, you know, LA, it is,

it can be a very silly place, but there are things like that option, you options that you couldn't have in Kansas City. There's probably no outdoorsy bio-challenge schools in Kansas City. I mean, nothing against Kansas City. Sorry, folks. I just picked that out of my hat. I mean, certainly during the winter, it would be harder in a lot of places. Yes, it would.

But you can pull it off in LA. Yeah. How old is he? He's seven. My older son's seven. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And will he do this throughout his schooling?

He was the first class, and they are going to also have a second grade class, which he is going to start in the fall. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. That's great. What happens if it rains? Do they all just rush to the van? No, they've got, you know, if weather's in the forecast, they meet at a place that has some outdoor covered space usually, and they just all wear their rain gear. Wow. Yeah. That's it seems crazy. It seems like it also might be fly by night. Like you're going to show up one day and it'll be a sting. They've actually been having your child do light manufacturing. Well, now you are a southerner.

Is that not true? That is true. It is true. Where are you from again? I am from Memphis, Tennessee, and then also from a suburb of Memphis called Germantown, Tennessee. Germantown. That's right. And I think there's, isn't that where the big golf course is that they play the?

Southwind is there. Yeah. Yeah. Because I played in a couple of memphis open pro-ams i don't know why those are the only ones i ever played in but i got to play golf professional with professional golfers in memphis so i got to sweat uh in front of some pros yeah it gets warm it sure does uh-huh um does. Well, what was your, were you part of a big household? Were you an only child?

No, it was me and my sister, mom and dad. My sister's two years younger than me. And my parents are still there in Memphis. And Cindy, my parents are still there in Germantown. My sister's in Memphis with her husband and daughter. And yeah, it was not a big family. We started out in Memphis and then moved to Germantown when I was about 13. But yeah, it was a good place to grow up.

Yeah. And was it pretty, just pretty normal? I mean, folks had jobs and everybody worked and... Yeah, it was pretty normal. You know, at least it felt normal in my experience you know i grew up in a neighborhood where we could ride our bikes around on the street and you know when i was young and not have to be worried parents didn't have to be worried about kids getting abducted and horrific things like that um yeah it was you know it was fairly idyllic

i guess you know yeah well Well, were you happy there? I mean, because I find that so many people that I talk to, because most of the people that I talk to are, well, I mean, it's mostly comedians that end up being on the show. And we try and sort of spread it around. But do you feel like there was a dissatisfaction in you to like get out of there or like, you know? Well, I, when I got into like seventh grade, I wanted to do the school plays. So I started doing that. And when I got into ninth grade, we was around with the time we moved and we, I went to go from going to a private Southern Baptist school to a public school, which was one of the best things that could have happened to me. Um, because the public school,

among many other things, they had this incredible theater program and, uh, a TV studio that was just launching at the time. It was Germantown high school. And so I got very into the theater department there and, uh, did speech tournaments and all that kind of stuff and plays and and was encouraged by my teacher mentor friend, Frank Blustein. You know, he said, hey, you could you know, you could do this for real if you really wanted to. And and so I knew that to do to do it for real, I probably needed to get out of town. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And do you think it was, were you okay with that? Or was that a daunting prospect?

No, it wasn't really. I mean, I went to college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina School of the Arts, which was not daunting at all. It was a country town kind of, I mean, a city, but not New York. Yeah. Yeah. Were your parents supportive? I mean, do they – I mean, it's nice that you have a teacher telling you – because it was the same thing for me. It wasn't so much that I was – or I mean, I don't know if it's the same thing, but I wasn't answering so much of an artistic calling.

I was seeing if I could make a living doing the thing that I liked and that I seemed to have an aptitude for. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't, you know, I wasn't Van Gogh. I was, you know, I was thinking like, I was thinking like, well, even if I don't become an actor, I could do props or something, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They were supportive. Yeah. Yeah. Well, my dad was a disc jockey for many years there in Memphis and then went on to have his own recording studio

with another cohort. And so that was, I would do commercials for him sometimes, voiceover stuff as a kid. And so he did feel a certain responsibility to warn me of the difficulties of the business. Yeah. From what he knew from people who'd gone out to Hollywood and, you know, come back. But once he, I think once he and my mom realized how serious I was about it, they were very supportive. Yeah.

Well, your folks are kind of religious, right? You said you had gone to a Southern Baptist school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up Southern Baptist and, uh, and, you know, and a believer and all of that. And, uh, slowly moved away from that through high school and college and to where I'm at now, which is atheism. But my parents are religious. My dad has dementia pretty far along, so he's not too much of anything anymore, sadly. But yeah, my mom still watches the church services on TV and things. Oh, wow.

And so you didn't get a lot of pushback from them when you decided to lose your faith? You know, it was strange. When it all came together for me in terms of figuring out what I believed and didn't believe, I had this pressing need to call them and explain it all to them, which I did. And I said, you know, I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God. I think he's a great teacher and there's a lot to learn from, from him,

but I don't, you know, I don't believe in all of that anymore. And, and they were like, okay, all right, well,

okay. You know, they, I'm sure it was, it was a bit of a gut punch on some level, but they accepted it pretty well. Yeah. Or seem to. Was there, was there kind of a gut punch on some level, but they accepted it pretty well. Yeah. Or seemed to.

Was there kind of like a loaded, theologically loaded guilt laid on you for behavior? Or was it more sort of just, did they sort of skip over that part of Southern Baptist kind of? Well, I sort of put it on myself. I mean, I, you know, I really, I really was a believer. I mean, I really believed in God and being born again and all of that. And, and so I prayed for forgiveness quite frequently, if I would do something that I thought in the eyes of God was a sin, you know, however minor, I was, I was always sort of, you know, in touch with a big man, I felt. Yeah. I was always sort of, you know, in touch with the big man, I felt. Yeah. And as, you know, as I got older, I just, like even in high school, I just couldn't put it all together.

I couldn't make it make sense. Also, this idea that my faith was the one true faith and my idea of God was the one right idea of God. Yeah. It just never meshed. It couldn't mesh. And I read and, you know, sort of looked around and tried to figure out what made sense. And then the idea of Jesus as a teacher, you know, a rabbi and not the reborn son of God, you know, was kind of the cornerstone of the Christian faith. And when you pull that out, it all crumbles, but everything suddenly made sense to me. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't have to crumble.

Lots of people pick and choose. You know, they only believe the parts that are convenient for them to believe. That's very true. Well, how was, I mean, going to college, was it tough to get out of the house? Were you happy to be out of the house? You know, I'm. I was happy. I was happy.

I wasn't. I, yeah, it was, it was great. It was a pretty tame college experience. I'd have to say, I mean, for me anyway, I was, you know, kind of a, I was still, I was still, you know, a believer and, you know, not too much of a crazy kid. I didn't drink and, uh, but you know, I made some very wonderful friends there. Couple of my, you know, best friends I made there and still see them. And, um, it was, you know, it was, it was good for, for me, for what I wanted to do. It was a conservatory kind of education. Yeah. Um, I got a BFA, Bachelor of Fine

Arts. So I don't, I can't claim to have a particularly rounded, full liberal arts education, but it was good for what I wanted to do. Now you being, you know, you're pretty, pretty straight down the middle, cishet male, going into a theater department? Were you off it? Was it always like, you're so straight that you're straight? You know, like, you know, that like, because when you combine it with, you know, Southern Baptist upbringing and still being a believer, I mean, were there people that were trying to corrupt you at every turn in the, you know, because theater, you know, I i mean that's for me when i was in high school i grew up in a small town but when i would go to you know there would be like camps

for speech team or things and that was where like all the out gay kids were and all the like you know like the really big theater kid personalities sure you know and uh and i were did there were the people like that in germantown that there were some there were and i remember in particular having a conversation not with somebody in the theater department but with somebody in my art class who uh you know we were talking he was talking about gay issues and things and i was you know i was talking to him about it normally and open and he was like are you gay i was like no but you know, I was talking to him about it normally and open. And he was like, are you gay? I was like, no. For whatever reason, it was just not something that ever, like, made me feel weird or put off.

And I also, it never made sense to me that in the eyes of God, that could be wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Going and then going away to college. I don't know. It was just, it was the best thing was just seeing people who were out and free and able to be themselves and, and, you know, having a great time and loving it. Yeah. Now in, in college, were you, what were you thinking? You'd be an actor? Were you thinking you'd be a teacher? You know? No, I definitely wanted to be an actor. And, you know, I kind of

thought I figured it would go a little more of the dramatic way but it sort of sort of discovered in college that comedy was something that i was stronger at um and uh and yeah but yeah no i always i always hoped to be able to make a living at it somehow it took a long long time but what when when you started was it you noticing you were better at comedy or was it other people noticing you were better at comedy? Well, in my sophomore year was when we first started doing little performances. It was just all classes freshman year. And the sophomore year, you do these sort of abbreviated versions of different plays. And we did this restoration

play called Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter. And I got cast as Sir Fopling Flutter. And I just took to it. And it just, it was a very silly part. And, you know, the other students were the only ones who saw it, like in the different grades, and they just responded so well. And then the dean of the school at the time, Malcolm Morrison, you know, called me in and gave me the dean of the school uh at the time malcolm morrison you know called me in and gave me the the nod of like he really did a fine job with that and his his professorial british accent yeah yeah so um so that were you happy that that came that way or was it yeah yeah yeah oh yeah absolutely i mean there wasn't like you don't still you don't feel cheated that you're not, you know, in your jerker parts or, you know.

Well, it's funny, you know, I'm just I'm in the on a break from working on this movie in Atlanta called Senior Year. And it's I play Rebel Wilson's father, both her as a younger woman and then as her current age. Yeah. And it's there is some of that those kind of scenes in there you know more emotional stuff and uh so i i feel like i do get to do that you know i haven't traditionally gotten to do that a lot but it's it's there enough that i you know i i hope i hope that i can hold my own doing that stuff too you know yeah I hope that I can hold my own doing that stuff too. You know?

Yeah. Why do you, why do you think it is that you responded more to comedy than you did to drama? Well, you know, I, you don't know this, but I was always,

you know, class clown kind of kid. I always wanted to make people laugh. And so that just came naturally. My older son is the same way well actually my younger son is too but they uh i you know i i like to get attention and try to make other kids laugh and got in trouble a lot for it went to the principal's office many many times many paddlings um oh yeah paddlings yeah it was was that like that for you yeah we yeah there were paddlings i don't i don't

think i ever got a paddling but there was definitely uh a paddle that hung behind the vice principal's desk and the it seemed like the the role like the the job description of vice principal was like you know torturer like the muscle you know um but like you'd go in and i think he was a football coach and you sit down and there was like some kind of something that i whether somebody made in shop class or something some paddle that had holes drilled in it so there's less wind resistance and i'm just you know and it probably had some name you know like had like justice written on the handle or something like that um but yeah but no i was i was a just incurable smart ass uh just always i mean teachers just would get furious with me

because i just couldn't shut up and i couldn't you know just that just I mean now I know how to be quiet but but in those days like it would just be like they'd say you know they'd I'd I'd you'd be already like three exchanges into the I'm in trouble and then they'd say something and that just something really would good would occur to me as a good response and i i just had to spit it out and then it was like all right i'll go down i'll go down to the office but other than that you know but it's funny because that was that was the sort of beginning and end of my rebellion especially like when i was young like i didn't like didn't i did not want to get in trouble. The notion of getting in trouble, which whatever that meant, like, I look back on it and

I think, what did I, what was I, did I think someone was going to like cut off a limb? Like, what, what was I so terrified of? And I, but so I didn't do, you know, kids that break into the school at night. And I was like, no way. Oh, no. I am not. You know, or climb power lines just to kind of, you know, climb power, you know, the power towers, the power lines around. No, no, no. Well, you probably also just had a fair amount of common sense, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. But no, but there definitely, yeah, there was the common sense sense but there was also just the fear of getting in trouble yeah and just and i don't like i say i don't even know what that was i just i don't know whether it was like you know tumultuous home life just meant like i can't i can't take any more i can't take any more stress and conflict out in the world, so I better keep my shit together. So when you get out of college,

I saw that you went to Houston as like an apprenticeship, right? Yeah. They had this, that may still have it, something called the Sharp Young Company. Sharp, not like, oh, they're so good at what they do, but named after somebody named Sharp. Yeah.

And yeah, it was like we understudied roles on the main stage at the Alley Theater in Houston there. And, and which was cool and fun. And then we also did our own plays, which we sort of toured around to the elementary schools and high schools and things. And it was a good sort of segue out of college, but it also ended up making me kind of disenchanted with the whole theater acting world because I was expecting hoping to get asked to stay on and sort

of be a member of the repertory even though there wasn't officially one but they had a core of actors there in Houston they like to use and yeah um one of my other one of my peers in the young company sort of did get asked to be around and be in the next production and I was just like I'm I'm I'm at least as good as he is yeah yeah but he was much more he was much more social he played the game a lot better and so yeah I was I was I sort of took a break from it for a bit yeah and did you go back to Memphis then I did I went back and taught high school for a year oh wow uh in Germantown under under Mr. Blustein my my teacher and I taught acting and introduction to film and video classes that I had taken because I just he had had another student do it a few years before.

And as long as you have a major in what it is you're going to teach, you can do that for one year in Tennessee. And then if you're going to do it further than that, you have to get like accredited or whatever you get. Yeah, your education degree. Yeah, right. Right. were you yeah your education degree yeah right right but um well how how was first of all was that hard when you made this decision because that that houston that's the step of going to houston must have been now's the beginning of me uh you know chris Parnell, professional actor, and then to kind of have it peter out, was that rough, you know?

It was, but I don't think, I don't think at that point, I think somewhere in me, I knew that I wasn't like giving up on it entirely. I just, I was picturing myself going into the regional theater world, you know, and performing in regional theaters around the country.

And when that happened at the Alley, and the Alley was great. I had a great experience there overall. I just sort of took that away. I was like, oh, I have to, I need to figure things out here. And you just kind of went, and was going back home difficult? Did you live at home? Did you live with your parents again i did i did how how was that um you know what it was it was it was pretty fine

actually it was not what's what's wrong with you people i had to do a version of that after college and it was awful was it yeah once i was out for two years and then i transferred to a commuter school in chicago and moved back in and it was just it was a bummer years and then I transferred to a commuter school in Chicago and moved back in. And it was just, it was a bummer. It was a bummer to like, to have kind of spread my adult wings and then to kind of, not that any,

you know, it was an oppressive atmosphere, but it was just, it was, it was just again, my family back, you know, with my younger brother and sister,

my older brother and all of us back under the same house and no one being particularly happy about being there. So, well, that's nice. I mean, was your sister there too, or was she already out of the house too? No, she was already out. She was already out. And yeah, I mean, I don't, listen, I'm not going to pretend like it was the happiest time of my life, you know, I mean, but I was able to be involved with the theater and television programs at the high school yeah in the same way that i had been there but overseeing things now and i i loved all of that the regular teaching i was not cut out for at all i did not enjoy that in what way impatient or i just wasn't i didn't have the confidence to be an authority figure. Oh, I see.

I didn't, I wasn't ready to be Mr. Parnell at the age of 24 or whatever I was, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I just, I had a hard time maintaining discipline in the class. And yeah, I just wasn't, I don't, I think I'm too selfish in some ways to be a good teacher. You know, I just, I don't, I don't care enough. Yeah. You know. Yeah. You have to be a good teacher. I just, I don't care enough. Yeah. Yeah, you have to have a flair. Like there is, there definitely are people who,

there are teachers in my family and they, it's just in them to, you know, to talk to a group of kids and to sort of think about things from their perspective and how they're going to hear things best. And yeah, I don't, I don't think I could, I just, like, that's why I said impatience. I just don't think I'd be patient enough. Yeah. When I, you know, I mean, my kids are older now,

but just being in school with kids, I was always like, how do you do this all day long with all these kids? You know, it's a lot. It is a lot. So what happens to sort of keep you going? Like when do you bust out of Germantown? Well, I realized I, you know, I did not enjoy the teaching, so I wasn't going to continue that. And I thought, look, going to the alley in Houston to try to make a go of it doesn't

really count as making a full go of it. So I've like, I've got to either go to New York or LA and, uh, and LA just sort of pulled me more largely because I had people out here that I knew from high school. Okay. And, uh, and it just seemed less business or doing other things in show business, not acting, but like in the production end of things um and it was you know a lot less intimidating than new york too which i love new york but you know it was easier to a lot easier to move to la yes yeah no it it is um especially when you're coming from somewhere else there's a lot of la that is like somewhere else you know there's

a lot of la that's like oh this could be this's a lot of la that's like oh this could be this could be schaumburg illinois or this could be you know the suburbs of st louis or this could be the suburbs of atlanta uh because it's just a giant suburb but there's nowhere like new york city i mean it's it's it's very much itself and you either like it or you don't. Um, so you came out to LA and just with a, you know, step off the bus, cardboard suitcase. I moved out with one of my good buddies from college, Matthew. Um, and so, you know, we got a place together and that, and that, you know, that also made it a lot easier to, yeah. How did you know where to live? How you know you know because that's so it's such a sprawling place

uh i think we just thought oh we should live in hollywood you know yeah yeah we're out here to be in the biz and that's where it's happening yeah we should we should live in hollywood so we did we lived on el centro just north of santa monica um yeah and. And some other people that I met when I got here gave me some really good advice. And they said, you should take classes at the Groundlings and you should do student films. You should take workshops. You should just do everything you can, just get into it. And I did. And, you know, the Groundlings was what sort of led to everything else. Right. Was that your first experience doing improv and sketch? Um, sketch. Yes. I would say improv a little, little tiny bit at college. Um, but, uh, yeah, mostly that,

but coming from, you know, this drama school background, I felt like I was so far ahead of the majority of people taking classes there because a lot of them had never even had stage experience. Right. And so I felt comfortable on a stage. And I don't know that the confidence of years of improv that made me feel like, well, I can just fake it. Right, yeah. in a cable movie and I had no idea what was going on. I just showed up and like, just basically waited until I was pointed in the direction I was supposed to be. And just, you know, because they, you know, that's not even in, I went to film school and I did take some theater classes, but nobody ever said, when you show up on a movie set, this is what the first thing they'll do to you and then you'll do

this you know and then in the actual shooting i mean i've said this on before but like they did the the they shot it was with actually with beau bridges and swoozie kurtz was my scene with the two of them and they shot their singles first you know their, their side of it. And then they're like coming around. And I just was like, what is that? What is coming around? What is that? Oh, wait. Oh, now they're going to shoot me. Okay. I see. Yes. Coming around. Of course. You know, well, even if, even at, you know, at drama school, they don't teach you that either. I mean, they might, they might now, but back then i had no instruction

whatsoever about television or film you know yeah yeah yeah so there was no film acting in in the conservatory at all it was just strictly stage at that time they now have a film school there that's quite established and so i think there's some crossover yeah yeah yeah but not not not when i was there yeah was that difficult i, just as as just like as a side note here, as we go down the biographical memory lane. But was that difficult? Like when you started to work in film, were you do you feel like you were being stagey? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. I hadn't worked in theater professionally, hardly at all, you know,

just the alley and that was, didn't really count. So I had, I'd never sort of developed that side of my performance and the stuff we did at school, you know, it was, there was enough of an interest focus on being believable and real and naturalistic and all that, that it wasn't all about projection. And even though we had boys classes and all of that, but I don't, I don't think it messed me up that way. At least if it did, I wasn't aware of it. And did you take to the ground links right away? Was that kind of, that was the place where you felt like, okay, this is my feet are on the ground and I'm getting some traction here.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I really, I took to it very quickly. And part of, like I said, part of it was being comfortable in front of other people and all of that jazz. And, yeah, I had some great teachers and I, you know, made some of my best friends there at the Groundlings too. But, yeah, I found a lot of confidence from doing those classes and starting to perform. And that made a big difference. At that point, did you have a concrete goal?

Did you have an imaginary picture of your dream of dreams coming true? I don't know that I did. coming true i don't know that i did i it was just more the the idea of of making a good living as an actor you know um it's somewhere along the way you know when i started getting little guest star parts in sitcoms um i thought man this would be great to have a regular gig on a sitcom and and honestly still that's one of my ideals you know yeah they're pretty goddamn sweet i'll tell you that much yeah yeah they are they are um and what what did you do for a living while you're i mean yeah you don't make any money at the groundlings really do no no you do if you teach but i wasn't in that place at all um i worked at fao shore's Toy Store in the Beverly Center. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Yeah. And made almost nothing.

Very little money. So I kind of lived off my credit cards and, you know, to maintain a certain, not very high, but a certain standard of living so that I could order pizza when I wanted to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. FAO Shores, was that any fun or was it just just another retail job? No, it was fun. You know, I I happen to know about the Beverly Center from a visit previously to L.A. And so I just thought, oh, I'll go to the Beverly Center and see what's you know, if I can find any jobs. I mean, I was very naive. Yeah. Yeah. I'd never waited tables.

So I had no experience with that and wasn't going to lie about it. And so I went up there and I saw FAO Schwarz. I was like, oh, I knew it from New York. And I thought, oh, that could be a fun place to work. I like toys. I like toys, yeah. And, you know, if you're going to work in retail, it was a pretty good place to work. I would think. It's better than, you know, folding pants at the Gap or whatever.

Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So what did you start? Was it commercial work that started? Like what made you be able to go into FAO Schwartz and say, goodbye, see ya. Uh, well, you know what, what actually happened was things started to get really bad with, uh, we, we got an awful manager who came on board and, uh, he was, you know, he was just a task master and he wouldn't lift a finger to do any work himself. And previously I had great managers and it just everybody was soured to this guy.

And and, you know, I'd done a little commercial work. I'd had a little work, but not enough to live on. And so I went to the theater that night. I had a rehearsal or whatever for either the Sunday show or the main show and said, hey, if anybody knows of anything, I'm looking for a job because I've got to quit this. And Deanna Oliver, who was directing the show at the time, said, well, you can you know, I need an assistant if you want to come work for me. I was like, absolutely. And so that's what I did for until I got on SNL. Oh, wow. That's great. Oh, wow. That's great.

Well, I mean, being an assistant can be great or it can be awful, depending completely on the person. Yeah. Yeah. No, she's Deanna's great. So it was it was it was very nice. Wow. That's great. Yeah. And so when does SNL happen after like how long after you've been in L.A.? Does SNL happen? Like, how long after you've been in L.A. does SNL happen? Well, I moved to L.A. at the very beginning of 92, literally like New Year's Eve of 91 going into 92. And I got onto SNL in 98.

Oh, okay. That's when I started. And did you have any regular gigs, any regular showbiz gigs in between? I had, you know, I'd done a number of guest star parts on, you know, the popular sort of sitcoms at the time. And I had what was just started to become a recurring part on this show called Conrad Bloom. I had done the pilot and I liked what I did as a guest star. They brought me back for the next episode or something. And, you know, there was reason to believe they were going to keep having me on. But in between the time of the pilot and that first episode, I ended up booking SNL.

So, oh, wow. What was Conrad Bloom? Mark Feuerstein was the lead. I, you know, I can't remember too much more than that. Close enough. I mean, you know, no know no well it obviously was a big hit uh and you you really missed out i think it was on a season or season and a half you could be the guy from conrad bloom but that's not conrad bloom though you know it's the other guy um well how how was i mean did uh lauren come see you did Did you go to New York? Did, you know, was it just sort of the, you know, the seasonal call of groundlings that, you know, that happened where they just sort of came and plucked people? You know, it started, it hadn't happened in a long time. I mean, you know, Lorraine Newman was from the Groundlings and Phil Hartman was from the Groundlings and other people here and there over the years.

But it was a big dry period where nobody from the Groundlings was on SNL. And it restarted with Will Ferrell, Sherry O'Terry, and Chris Kattan, and then on to Gasteyer. And so, you know, I remember going back to the back office between scenes to watch those guys do their sketches on the show and even their first show was very exciting you know yeah yeah and uh and yeah so then you know i think from then on there was maybe more of the the talent

scouting happening at the groundlings and they they asked for tape for my agent at one point, which was sent in and nothing happened from it. And I thought, oh, well, that was my SNL shot, you know. And then later on, it happened again, none of which I didn't know about any of it. I didn't know anybody was there watching. I didn't know that they'd asked for tape. And so I only knew when my agent said, hey, they want to fly to New York to audition, which was kind of the best way for it to happen. You know, it's so much better to be ignorant for me anyway of all that stuff. I believe, I think so too, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, better to not know that you're being tested. So what was that? I mean, is it the standard? I mean, I've never done it. Do you ever audition for SNL? I never auditioned for SNL just because there was always Conan, you know. Sure, sure.

And it was almost like they were in a different class in the same high school, you know. I mean, it was, which was fun, you know. It was fun to have you guys, because you started in 98 and I was only on Conan for another two years after that. But it always was fun to be able to kind of we were on nine we were on nine our offices were on nine okay yeah but so we would but we could go down the back stairs and come in the back door to 8h because it was it was always open and on thursdays when they'd rehearse music we could just literally come down a stairwell you know that like where the original cast used to smoke smoke weed and do cocaine you know and

and go in and watch whatever you know watch paul mccartney rehearse and stuff it was it was pretty special pretty amazing time to well i mean it's always just that building just to be able to have worked in that building is is pretty amazing it is can't you tell my loves are growing did so did you have to do uh like the impersonation kind of thing were they gonna were they looking to you heavily for that? Well, they asked for three characters and three impressions. And thankfully knowing Sherry Oteri a little bit,

I was able to talk to her. And I think I talked to Ana as well. And they sort of gave me some feedback and said, look, you know, she's like, I did this, you know,

I had like two impressions and I did four characters or whatever. I was like, Oh, okay. Okay. So I ended up taking. You know, I had like two impressions and I did four characters or whatever. I was like, oh, OK, OK. So I ended up taking one of the things I had sort of done better at at the Groundlings scene wise was writing monologues. And so I was able to take some of those characters and cut them down and make them, you know, into audition material. And then I I had discovered somewhere along the way that i could do brokaw kind of and uh so i did him and then there was this mtv vj at the time named jesse that i decided to try to do that jimmy actually ended up doing the the impression on the show but uh so i'm not sure that

that was very good but but the scenes that the little scene lets i did the seem to seem to go over well you think that was what what got you the job is those little scenes yeah the characters and the craziness of it one of them was just a dance piece but uh yeah i think they really responded well to that so and did any of those make it into the air or onto the air they you know they uh made it to dress rehearsal some of them made it to dress rehearsal a few times yeah yeah never made it to air oh that's too bad yeah well what was that like to that whirlwind of yes we want you do you fly back to la and pack everything up and yeah um yeah figure out a place to live uh i went and looked for an apartment um and didn't

find anything i liked how soon do you know do you go back to la and then find out or yeah oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah but i mean they even after my audition they had asked me to sort of hang out a little bit and talk with everybody and meet lauren and talk to some of the writers and like mike shoemaker and and you know and talk to some of the writers and like Mike Shoemaker and, you know, and the other guy Higgins. And so I had a sense that like things had gone well. And Fred Wolf, who was the outgoing head writer at that time, was like really kind and complimentary just about my audition.

And so I had a good feeling about it. But, you know, you never know. So it was it was probably about a month at least until I really knew for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And what is – I mean, because everyone has a different perspective on what the atmosphere is like, on what the sort of – you know, whether it's a – because for years it was a bit of a – know it seemed like isolated at least this is you know from the scuttlebutt isolated factions sort of working against each other in secret you know was there some of that or did you find it more to be because it it seems like then it also has had

its periods of you know just a fun-loving frolicky all for one kind of place. And it can sort of alternate from one to the other. I, for me, and perhaps it was naivete, but I, I felt like it was more the latter. Yeah. You know, I mean, there's the, there is the degree to which everybody sort of groups off and writes together. But most people, when it came time for the table read on Wednesday, Um, but most people, when it came time for the table read on Wednesday laughed and it was only, it was only later on when I was on the show that I became aware of like certain writers who deliberately wouldn't laugh at other people's sketches because they wanted to make sure their pieces got on. And, um, but the cast by and large were, were pretty good laughers, you know, supportive of each other. It felt like. That's good.

Yeah. Yeah. laughers you know yeah supportive of each other it felt like that's good yeah yeah yeah that's that's the flip side of the hollywood version of that which is writers that laugh at everything exactly and the fourth run through and they're still guffawing at the jokes that they wrote i know i feel so bad for them i know but i do that i personally feel like that's some way the the industry could be reformed no you're right you know when i was working on sitcoms i would have writers say like you're uh you're like a really tough laugh and i'm like no not really but i mean i just i'm not gonna laugh at something that i've heard five times right just because i mean well snl was like that too you know i mean that was a hard

room but if you made people laugh it was generally it was a genuine response you know yeah which is a good feeling i think yeah because i think also there was well i mean conan culture was had you know elements in its dna of of snl culture from roberts michael and had, you know, elements in its DNA of of SNL culture from Robert Smigel and Conan, you know, from them sort of, you know, and Jeff Ross, our executive producer, worked for Broadway Video, had produced Kids in the Hall. So it's all kind of from the Lorne camp. But, you know, it's we weren't breaking off into into factions. It was especially right at the beginning. It was just so we felt so pressured that we all were kind of in it together. But.

It was it was I forget the point where I was bringing it up, but but it's laughing. Oh, the laughing. Yeah, it's the laughing. That's what it was, because, yeah, it was the same thing laughing. Oh, the laughing. Yeah. It's the laughing. That's what it was because yeah, it was the same thing. There was no fake laughs at Conan. Yeah. And, and then I came up to LA and there's so much fake laughing and it just, I just feel like it can't be good.

It can't, you know, it just, it's, it's, you can't, you know, like if a, if a gear isn't a gear, all the grease in the world, isn't going to make its cogs fit into something else. And if something's not funny, just laughing at it, doesn't make it funny. I know. I feel like, I guess my take on that is that the writers, producers, um, producers, they have a certain, if they're good, they have a skill that allows them to over-acknowledge a joke that they think is funny. Yeah. And if they don't think it's funny, they don't laugh as much. And obviously it's worked because you've got so many multicam shows that have worked on that model over the decades.

Yeah. It's also one of the reasons why I feel a little more comfortable performing in single camera shows because there isn't that that laughter, you know, it's it's written a different way. It's shot a different way. And yeah, you know, yeah, I don't multicameras. I mean, they're good for many things and people like them for many reasons. But I don't prefer them because you are handing over the keys to the timing to a group of people that many of them are just there to see a show, not your show. And you have to – all your timing is based on waiting for people to stop laughing or laughing in the first place. for people to stop laughing or laughing in the first place. So, well, also, and I just found it, it makes such a difference, the degree to which they know who you are. Yes. And if they're a fan, like if you're a regular on the show, then you get a very different

response. Then you've got to be brilliant as the guest star to actually get a response from the audience. Yeah, exactly. Here's your big entrance. Hey, we don't know that guy. Who's that guy? Exactly. Yeah. Well, what was it like for you were on for eight years on SNL? I mean, what was the experience like generally? And also, like, as your personal life goes, like, did you get married during that time? I mean, did you start a family during that time?

start a family during that time or no no that was i was i was a single guy and i you know i had girlfriends that i would date for a period of time um and with the show i mean i started out with not a lot of self-confidence i was very i was pretty intimidated by it all i felt comfortable i felt comfortable performing and taking scripts that other people had written and bringing those to life as best I could. And the writing for me was a challenge. And it wasn't until I sort of, you know, found some other writers on the show who I could team up with and we could, you know, flesh out an idea that I might have together that they had for me. Yeah. And, you know, as I got to about my third season, I started to feel more confident, and then I got fired.

My contract didn't get renewed, so that sort of pulled the rug out from under me, and I was fairly devastated, but kept hearing that I might be coming back. Lauren didn't shut the door completely, and finally, sure enough, in my fourth season, I came back on the 12th or 13 episode in and then got brought back for five six seven and eight what the hell happened there do you think i don't know

did you ever find out or i've never found out there was there was a word that they were one of the nbc executives that wasn't a fan of me um that was the closest to an answer that I ever got. Um, and, uh, yeah. And Lauren, to his credit, when he brought me back said, uh, you know, I made a mistake and, uh, which is not something you hear Lauren say very often. So that was very, I was very gratifying. Yeah, sure. But it still took a while to get my, you know, start to try to get my confidence back and everything.

I bet. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, and especially, I mean, it's not like you can exactly come in and be, you know, you've been battered, you know,

it's like, you've been sort of, you know, you've really been rejected and then re-accepted. And the re-acceptance is never as good as the first acceptance, you know? Well, you know,

the thing that made a difference was was the outpouring of support from the cast and the writers you know i i think everybody was genuinely surprised by it and so people were going to bat for me that's good yeah and and there was enough of that going on that i heard about and, okay, okay. I wasn't the only one who was blindsided by this. Right, right. And it's an indelicate question, and I'm sure it's showbiz knowledge, but I'll ask it. Did you leave on your own accord or after the eighth season were? No, you know what? At the end of that time, I was ready to go, but I said, look, this is a great gig. I'm not going to walk away from it. If they'll have me for more seasons, I'll stay, but they didn't. And you know, it was me and Horatio and Rachel Dratch that, that got let go that, that summer. And so I felt like, well,

I'm in, I'm in a pretty great company. You are. Yeah. Those are very talented people. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all three of you are rock solid. So it's I don't I mean, that kind of the calculus that goes into that decision on that show is. I don't know how it's made, you know. Well, it's one of the things that I feel like they Lauren has maybe gotten wiser about because, I mean, it's got a huge cast, but I feel like he's keeping people around for longer now, you know, obviously Keenan, you know, and wisely. So, yeah.

Yeah. So when you, when you, do you go back to LA immediately after, after that you'd like, you know, was New York just there because of, were you just in New York because of SNL?

Well, I was initially, but I really, you know, I grew to love it. I mean, it was, I mean, I'd always loved New York just there because of, were you just in New York because of SNL? Well, I was initially, but I really, you know, I grew to love it. I mean, it was, I mean, I'd always loved New York, but living there and after I got rehired, I bought a condo and I sold that after a couple of years, bought a bigger place in Soho, which I loved. And I was going to stay there because I loved it. But, you know, there was like a table read going on in L.A. for this comedy. And there was this going on in L.A. for this that you kind of needed to be around for. And so I was just like, I think I think I got to go back to L.A., which was OK, too, because I love L.A. Right. Right. Did you find was there like a.

Because I found this when I left the Conan show the first time, it seemed like everybody had to talk to me or get me in something. And then it drops down to normal. You know, like it's like, like the demand for Andy Richter got shot up really high. And then it calmed down in a few months to be just like regular Andy Richter demand. And it was something I'd seen like from friends that had been correspondents on the Daily Show

and then not. And it was like, oh, we got to get Rob Corddry. You know, we got it. you know, all these different people. Was it that, did you get that sense after SNL? You know, I don't think I left SNL as big enough of a star to kind of have that response. I mean, it definitely opened doors for me. And I think as time went on, things got better.

But also what helped me a lot, honestly, was doing 30 Rock, you know, because Tina and Robert brought me on for that, you know, recurring character. But I was actually flying back to New York then to do Dr. Spichemin. And I think that sort of brought me on people's radar in a way even that SNL maybe hadn't or in a more prominent way which i think helped a lot that that character also too is kind of uh an essence of so many of your characters which is like a completely insane straight person you know like this like you know and i don't mean straight you know straight versus gay but i just mean like like the straight man in a sketch. But this guy, you know, is is completely nuts. And is that what do you think that's fair? Do you think that that's something that, you know?

Yeah, I do. And I think, you know, Tina and Robert wrote the part with me in mind, apparently, you know, having seen what I've done on the show. And and yeah, it was just it's amazing to have a part like that. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's amazing to have a bar like that. Yeah, yeah. Well, now, what have you got? You say you're working on this movie.

Yeah. Tell me again what it was. It's called Senior Year. It's a parallel Netflix venture. And yeah, it's got a really good cast. Mary Holland, Sam Richardson is in it. And,

and gallery rice, who is this amazing young actor. And that's, it's been great. It's been so much fun. And I'd go back for another 10 days of work and a couple of weeks. And then, you know, it's a lot of the animated stuff,

Rick and Morty and Archer. Yeah. And I do recurring thing on family Guy and some, you know, just various things like that. And the occasional guest star on a TV show. Do you like that kind of freelance life where you're sort of, you know, doing lots of different things as opposed to just one consuming thing? I do. I do like it as long as as they're coming along with enough frequency yes yes yes um but having said that i would i would prefer even

more to have a great sitcom gig you know that was around for forever yeah that's what children do to you that children yeah children say i don't care. I remember Alec Baldwin being interviewed once and saying, you know, how he was a high-minded artist and he would only take certain roles. And then, like, the day after his child was born, he was like, get me a Jell-O pudding pop commercial. Like, immediately. After the kid shows up, you're like, oh, my God, I need money. Somebody get me some cash. Yeah, you want some stability. Yeah, yeah.

Well, what are you looking forward to? Like what if things, you know, if you can choose what your future is going to be, what do you think it would be? Well, you know, hopefully the, you know, the voiceover gig will. I mean, I know Rick and Morty is going to keep going for a while. And I hope Archer is as well. And, you know, more of that. And then. Eventually landing on a on a sitcom would be fantastic.

But, you know, I love getting to do the occasional movie thing. It's it's only hard because it's in atlanta and being away from the family yeah it's also it also makes it easier because i can get as much sleep as i need to and i have to worry about being up with the kids and all that um but it's it's hard to be away for a long stretch you know but yeah if i could kind of keep doing what i'm doing and add a series regular on a sitcom to that. Yeah, yeah. That would be great.

That would be nice. Is there any kind of role that you're not getting that you wish you were doing? Any kind of work that you, like, you know, like we talked a little bit about drama or anything. Or are you, you know, because like I always, like for me, it's always like I i want to i really want to play somebody evil and they always i'm always you know the word that i've heard forever and it's a lovely word to hear is likable so i i i really want to play a dick like i really wanted to you know play like somebody kind of evil and i you know i've gotten to a couple of times but not to the extent that i'd really like to see how evil i could be because it's just so much fun. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, there is that, but I almost feel like I would want it to be in the context of an evil villain in a comedy. Yeah. Because I got an audition amazingly for Homeland one time, a Showtime show. And it was this extensive monologue. And I worked on it really hard. And I felt like I did quite well at it when I did it in the room. But it also made me realize, like, Jesus, this is hardcore.

This is serious, heavy shit. And there's a lot to memorize. And then I sort of became more aware of the procedural shows and things. And I was like, oh, my God. If I get the gig, I'll take it for sure. But I'm so happy that I'm in comedy. And I can go on a set where people are trying to make each other laugh. And it's not this heavy, you're going to die, Mr. Johnson.

Yeah, I've worked on very little drama, but some dramas and some TV dramas as a guest spot. And yeah, it's a different atmosphere. It's like, I came in like, so we're ready to have fun, right? And everyone was like, no, what the fuck are you talking about? Fun? No, no. That's not what goes on here.

Yeah, this is, we're doing legal drama, sir. Well, do you plan on, do you see yourself living in L.A. for the long term? I think so, yeah. I think unless I hit some level of success where I can be where I want to be. But I love L.A. Yeah. And I like what. Um, yeah. And, and I like what it has to offer.

Um, yeah, I think I'll, I'll probably mostly be here if not always, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well,

that's good. It's nice to be content, you know? It is. Um, well, what do you, you know, you, you, uh, we were a teacher, a literal teacher for a minute.

And I'm sure that, you know, as many people who, you know, are established and are known, they get asked kind of like, you know, what's the point of this? What's your advice? What do you, you know, what can you share with other people? I think that they could learn from, from your path. Not a lot, Andy, not a lot at all. All right. Well, thanks for listening, folks. I don't know.

You know, it's that, it's, it's that fine line of, of doing the thing that you love and, and want to do. that you love and and want to do um and then also uh being honest with yourself about what your strengths and weaknesses are um for me i don't even know if this is the question you're asking but i got enough sort of um confirmation along the way it was you know it's quite a road i mean it took a while but i was getting enough sort of, there were enough flags, signposts along the way that said, yeah, yeah, you can, you can do this. There's a reason for you to keep at it, you know. People you trust telling you you're good. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's, that kind of kept me going. And then, you know, once, once I got on SNL, that was a big confirmation, obviously. And then I've been able to make a living from just doing acting ever since

so yeah um i i don't know you know it's like you gotta you gotta figure out what you really want and what's important to you and um and try to do the thing that's going to make you the happiest while also you know supporting yourself and yeah you gotta be practical and yeah i don't know yeah well that all sounds very reasonable i don't know why people are against you. I mean, so many people, you know. No, nothing. Nothing. What?

No. This is actually, this is half of a point counterpoint. This is the pro Chris Parnell part. And then there's like, oh, my God, people were lined up to do the anti. Virtually so many people you know. Oh, okay. Can't wait to hear it. Probably really elucidating.

I probably need a little bit of humbling here. So I guess that's good. All right, Chris. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me and telling you know and and telling your story uh and uh and i wish you continued success and uh you know maybe um you know maybe we'll both get hired on that sitcom that would be amazing it would be although i i am a lot of trouble like a diva like diva trouble oh well it's just that like if if you can ingest it or shoot it or snort it, it's in me. Oh, that kind of trouble.

You name it. You know, you kind of have that written all over you. So I think everybody knows that going into it. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me, man. Oh, sure. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And we will get back at you next time, listeners. Thank you very much for listening to The Three Questions. We will get back at you next time. Listeners, thank you very much for listening to The Three Questions. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Earwolf production. It is produced by Lane Gerbig, engineered by Marina Pice, and talent produced by Kalitza Hayek. The associate producer is Jen Samples, supervising producer Aaron Blair, and executive producers Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf.

Make sure to rate and review the three questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.