The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Fortune Feimster

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

Comedian Fortune Feimster joins Andy Richter to discuss living up to her name, getting stage fright on “CONAN,” working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, her path to “Chelsea Lately,” trying to stay healthy on tour, and much more.

Hey everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm Andy Richter, I'm your host. Today I am talking to the very hilarious Fortune Feimster. Fortune is a comedian, actress, and podcast host. You can see Fortune live right now on her live, laugh, love, with an exclamation point, tour, or check out her podcast, Handsome, with Tig Notaro and Mae Martin. Fortune joined me live in the studio. Here's my conversation with Fortune Feimster. Fortune Feimster, hello. Hi, Andy. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. What are we catching you in? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. What are we catching you in? What's your days like right now? Right now, I'm in the thick of my tour. Ew. I know. Do you like that? Do you like touring? I love the shows. Right. The shows are amazing. It's like this electric, positive, joy-filled room. Yeah. I love that. The traveling is gnarly. Yeah.

Because at the end of this tour, I'll have done 100 cities. Wow. But that's, I'll have also, I'm working on another special. It'll be, that'll be three specials in five years. Oh, wow. So it's a lot. Yeah, that is a lot. Yeah.

It is a lot. So it's a lot. Yeah, that is a lot. Yeah. It is a lot. And because I only did in between the Tonight Show and the TBS show, there was like, I don't know, a period where Conan couldn't be on TV. So we went on tour, which was fun and timely. But I mean, truly, mainly a way to keep the band paid. Right, right.

Because there were lots of people that were still kind of under contract. Like, I was paid beyond The Tonight Show because it was whenever my contract ended. Gotcha. But the band, you know, you hire a band and you've got to fucking pay them for the rest of your life. That's why I've not hired a band. Or not, yeah, yeah. life um that's why i'm not or not yeah yeah but so we went on tour and i just i realized like oh my god if i was on tour i would be 800 pounds and just booze it is so hard so hard to be healthy yeah i had lost a bunch of weight last year because i was filming this crazy big action series uh with arnold

schwarzenegger and i was like i can't be a slob yeah yeah around arnold i know i know i pulled it together which i was pretty proud of and literally as soon as they were like cut that's that's a wrap i was like cheeseburgers and went insane it's been just been a big car built like a cheeseburger that you got into and drove away from the set on. It felt like I did that metaphorically. But yeah, I just went off the rails and went right back into tour. And that does not help. So we're going to be doing a season two.

And my wife's like, you might want to pull it together and i'm like but i love cheeseburgers um so the control stick back yeah you're in a dive two weeks ago yeah right at the holidays the perfect time i know i know i started trying to pull it together yeah yeah see i lost a bunch of of – I got divorced, which is a great weight loss technique. Yeah, I bet. It was – but, I mean, you know, there was just so much emotional turmoil that I didn't eat for a long time. And then I kind of was like – you know, it's like when you get the stomach flu for a week. Yeah.

And you can't really eat. And you look at the scale and you're like, oh, I lost about six or seven pounds. I might as well kind of lean into this now. This is not bad. I got a headwind here. And I lost like 40 pounds. I was feeling better about myself than I had in ages. And then COVID hit.

And I just was like, I don't know why I thought like, no, no. Yeah, there's sort of like societal rules that have shut down, but nutritional rules haven't changed. Yeah, true. They're all the same. Like if you eat every fucking carb in the house. I know. You know? But when you felt like the world was ending and you didn't have to put on pants with a button on it.

Yes. Those two combos aren't great. Yes, yes. I know. I know. Like I even clock on it. Yes. Those two combos aren't great. Yes, yes. I know. I know. Like I even clocked it. I think it was, I went like months and months

without putting on socks. Yeah. Like just because it was like, why the fuck would I put on socks? Oh, I need these. Yeah. I don't need these things. And they're all the way down there.

I got to put them on. They're way down there on the property. I know. And when your belly's hanging out, I can't, it's harder for me to get down there and put the socks on. know and and when your belly's hanging out i can't it's harder for me to get down there yeah that's what i was getting at it's wild though because we do feel better when we're when we reeled it in so it's i mean i know

everything there is to know yeah about being skinny and being fat and eating and nutrition. And, you know, I occasionally will get people online. There was one I posted. There was some kind of special about late night comedy on CNN. And somebody put a clip of it on. And I didn't even see it. But I put it on Instagram and then some guy came on and he was like, dude, your weight is out of control. You seriously got to stop. And then said something like, call me.

I'm a trainer. Oh, nice. Which I just was like. Problem solved. Yeah, yeah. like yeah yeah yeah and it was but i was just like i was just astounded at somebody that thinks it's okay to say to a total stranger my god you're alarming your physicality is alarming to me i am i'm hitting a siren right now because of the way you look that's the entire internet it's like fucking crazy and then to think like oh and by the way you can pay me to spend

more time with me like the guy that just said you were alarmingly fat want to hang out with me you can pay money to do it i would love to employ this mean person yes exactly this guy that makes well right off the bat he made me feel shitty about myself so i was like please give me more more of that and i so i mean whenever anybody's like you know you know it's like when you know when i used to smoke cigarettes right gotta stop that yeah yeah i'm aware i'm aware i'm aware it's not so you know my daughter, my son has a terrible procrastination problem. And my daughter doesn't. Right.

And she's like, why doesn't he just do a little bit of his homework every night? Yeah. And I was like, that's saying like, why don't people not murder? Right. Like, you know, we're all driven to do something. You know, I'm saying I am equating my son's procrastination with murder. With murder. Yeah.

So anyhow. Well, so you're on the road and the shows are fun. Yeah. And when you're doing – like I'm always interested to just like from like a – I've never – I mean I've done like dabbled in standup, but I always wonder that, that sort of ratio of material that you're working on for a new special versus just kind of stuff that kind of fills it out for a while while you're touring and, you know, you're going to Lincoln, Nebraska. And like, is that, that night, is that like all stuff for the new hour or is it kind of

a mix and let's see in the beginning it's very much a mix um because you have no idea like what's gonna stand the test of time because something that could kill for like three months suddenly just does not work yeah and you're like oh that's unfortunate because you really worked on it but you just have to always kind of be shifting the material it really is like a puzzle piece i remember my last hour i was i was rewriting transitions day of i mean it it you're like punching stuff up constantly right now i have um i'm really trying to nail it down so that from january to when i film in april it's like this is going to be the best version of this that i can have and are you going to make a text is there going to be like a very specific text or it'll all be kind of oh wow

yeah do you always work that way i do because i i am i'm a writer so i i have to write it all out and i i'll add things like kind of off the cuff if it in the moment the crowd's giving me something that inspires me to take it one way or another but i always know where we're going yeah and where you know the journey that we're on because my i tell really long stories i've really leaned into storytelling yeah so my stories are like eight to ten minutes. It's hard to kind of just let's see what happens. Yeah, yeah. What you do in the beginning, but not once you're working on that special.

I'm throwing in crowd work right now because that's kind of the thing. Yeah. People are enjoying. Well, that's the thing that stand-ups that are stingy with their material share. Exactly. Because it's all one-offs and they don't have to yeah that and that's the thing people are consuming so much content right now and comedy is very popular yeah that if i i can't put my acts on tiktok then what am i gonna be putting on netflix you know uh so crowd work is kind of the way to solve that. Well, here's some funny interactions.

But when I started stand-up, crowd work was very much frowned upon. It was like a sign that you didn't have material. Right. And people were like, oh, they're doing crowd work. They clearly don't have an act. Right, right. But I started an improv at the Groundlings. So I was like, crowd work to me is fun.

Oh, crowd work works the best yeah yeah you're just making stuff up when i first got on the conan show some you know they i got like an extra way to make money was like go do college talks yeah and i would do i had like a presentation that was kind of just about like showbiz questions and stuff. But by the time I stopped doing it, I would be like, here's 20 minutes of plant shit. Now let's get to the Q&A. For sure. Yeah, let's talk.

Yeah, it's a mixed bag right now, but come January, it'll be headed towards that very tight hour. Yeah. Do you find that, because being a stand-up is, by definition, you're not really playing with others. You know what I mean? You're kind of, you're the only game in town for that moment. And is that, do you like that to the exclusion of working? I mean, you said you started at the Groundlings, so you're used to being on stage with other people.

Yeah, I mean, I interact with the crowd quite a bit. to being on stage with other people yeah i mean i interact with the crowd quite a bit i mean even if i'm in my um in my story i'm making eye contact with people like you know what i mean man like yeah yeah i like that sort of thing i think the thing a lot of people have felt with me um because i started my career uh at with chelsea lately so yeah you probably have this too where you're in people's well i know you have this too you're in people's homes yeah late at night they're going to bed watching you yeah they feel like they know you yeah so i have a very familiar uh rapport with audiences where we're just like high-fiving what's up bud yeah yeah but it's i mean it's a horse and cart thing too because you're also your personality yeah i mean that's part of it and that's why you were good on chelsea

lately and chelsea lately is why you you know yeah it's like you don't know where one starts and the other end well because i'm you know from this tiny town in the south 8 000 people yeah the idea that i could a live in los angeles uh longer than a year seemed like that that'll never happen and then to make it in this business just seemed like you're crazy that is not no i know attainable goal i know so i i think i just have this thing of like i can't believe i'm here yeah so i'm just like a little golly shucks sometimes right right right yeah and that's why and it's like that's i always find too there's a in terms of like being approachable and being nice and stuff because i mean i get the same thing because i you know people I guess my persona is fairly likable, approachable, normal person, which I am that, but not as much as, you know, not like come bellow at the end, interrupt our dinner, you to get in the mix a little bit? Because it's like, I mean, there's a lot of like, who am I to be a big shot?

There's a lot of that. Yeah. Well, I think that's probably the comedian in us, the self-deprecation. I'm like, you want to take a picture with me? Yeah, yeah. That kind of thing. Although there's a lot of comedians. That's true they're

like oh you want a picture with me can't you tell my love's a girl are you the only girl in your family i am i grew up in a troop of boys yeah and, two older brothers. And you're the youngest? Yeah, you're the youngest. Wow. The baby. And were you always kind of the baby and the center of attention? I mean, I guess it depends on who you ask. Right, right. You know, my brothers would probably say yes. Yeah. I don't think so.

I mean, my parents split when I was 12. Okay. So they kind of had, my brothers got to have sort of the nuclear family thing you know like we were we were trying to be a family that like sat down for dinner and like uh you know they there were certain things that come with being uh all together that went once i was 12 my parents were like oh this is hard you get you're good right and i'm like they kind of they they both had a moment of like trying to just like recover from that you know yeah and i was sort of like hello hi guys hello so probably my uh lack of attention is probably what led me here. Yeah.

And so I got a lot of validation from being the overachiever. School for me was like, oh, this is my place. Yeah. I'm going to be good at academics and I'm going to play a lot of sports and I'm going to be on a lot of clubs. And this is the way I'm going to get those pats on the back. Yeah. Yeah. And that was all motivated by you.

That wasn't like your folks pushing you into it. Yeah. No, I just always was like, I'm such a dork. I had like perfect attendance for like six years. I just wanted to achieve. Yeah. And I do think it came from just like wanting attention wanting someone to say good job and was was home unhappy I mean because that I

think because I know definitely yeah some of my school years I was doing stuff just because it's like yeah I gotta go back to that place yeah Yeah. It wasn't, you know, there were plenty of happy times. My mom always was like, it was happy too. Yes. My mother said that. If you talk about the family, at least say something nice. Exactly. Yes.

You know, to balance it. Yeah. So, mom, there were plenty of happy times. We were well fed. Yeah. She's like, I have to roof over your head. Because there were so many other kids sleeping in fed. Yeah. She's like, I have to roof over your head. Because there were so many other kids sleeping in yards. Yeah.

So I appreciate that. But yeah, it was not always the happiest place. There was a lot of fighting and a lot of just chaos. A lot of chaos at that time. So yeah, for me, school was the escape. Like, get me out of here. This is not the place i want to be and and my parents god bless them did the best they could um but just were kind of yeah like i

said just sort of who am i now yeah they were married for 23 years and you know fell apart and they both were just like yeah what now yeah um and as a an adult now i can see yeah that would be pretty devastating as you know adults to be going through that but as a kid you're just like yeah guys i'm gonna need y'all to pull it together yeah yeah yeah so i was kind of the like little adult yeah i was the like yeah the one that was just kind of like i'm gonna figure this out uh my oldest brother is seven years older than me so when they got, he was going off to college. So he was kind of already on that path being an adult. My other brother was 16.

So he could at least drive and get out of there and do whatever. And I was just like, oh, my God. You're stuck there. Yeah. But my grandmother lived around the corner and was my real anchor. And the person that kept me from being a real turd in what sense in what sense because i think like you were going to be boosting cars or something if you weren't for grandma i don't know that i had that in me yeah but i you know i my friends were starting to dabble with drinking and partying. And I just always had this sense of responsibility towards I don't want to disappoint her.

I don't want to bum her out. I just had that from a very early age of like, oh, what would my grandmother think? She just had such an influence on me from such a small, such a young age that that um i just kind of yeah i think i i don't know that i would have been like jacking cars but you know at least a little bit more of a party girl yeah and she kind of kept me responsible and then she got cancer my senior of high school at a very pivotal time where i was starting to drink and like am I gonna try this cigarette and and I had like a whole I like a gym bag of like you know boone's farm uh these malt liquor drinks yeah yeah um and and when I found out she got sick they gave her you know a timeline

I remember I took that bag and tossed it into a into a um dumpster wow and that was that and i i really after she died uh the day after i moved to college like we kind of always um i know this sounds like very hippy dippy but my family felt like she kind of waited to see me off to school. Oh, wow. She was such a believer of mine and such a cheerleader of mine and always wanted to see me succeed and told my mom that, you know, I'm going to see her off to school. And the doctor had given her like two weeks to live. She ended up living like three months. Wow.

And died the day after I moved to college. And so I just had this new look on life. Because my mom's boyfriend at the time was a cancer doctor. And they studied her cancer. She had a skin cancer. She was 86. It wasn't like she was like a tanning bed kind of gal. She had skin cancer here.

And it went inside. And it wrapped around her head, her brain and her spinal cord. Now, for three months, she never once said, ouch, this sucks. You know, I'm hurting. She just was as lovely as ever and held on for all that time and pain to see me off to college. Yeah. And she was conscious and yeah until like very end when i say goodbye to her she was unconscious and and i thought this person made that sacrifice

for me she held on to see me make something of myself yeah how can you be a turd yeah you know what i mean so she just really influenced me in a way that was very meaningful at a very pivotal time in my life yeah well that's great i mean that's really it's a you know everyone should have a dying grandmother that sends them off to school yeah guys get on that get on that everybody She is the reason I have the name Fortune. It was her mother's maiden name. Oh, wow. And she always wanted that to be my name.

My mom thought it was such a big name. She thought it's too big that I would have to. She literally said she'd have to be Miss America to live up to a name like that. Yeah. Which, how dare she not think I could do that? name like that yeah which how dare she not think i could do that um so my grandmother's always was like she's fortune she's fortune and my mom was like no she's emily um and my so my middle name was fortune uh and then after she died i started using fortune as a nod to her um because she really did instill a sense of purpose yeah um but i i think i'd always thought well i can be emily in life and fortune on stage and it just

doesn't work like that no i quickly was like fortune everywhere such a fortune emily was like but even when i was going by my first name and when i was young, no one called me Emily. They called me Feemster or Feemy or Feemer. So it just wasn't me. It was the version my mom wanted me to be, the quintessential little girl in dresses. And my grandma was like, no, this little dyke's name portion. Do you think your grandma was hip to that? I don't know know truth be told i didn't come out until i was

25 and she was she died i was 18 so i'm sure i i mean it's so hard to know at that time period like what someone her age thought of gay people like or did they think about them i know she said the word queer a lot but in the term of like that's weird yeah yeah and and not and and in no regulation or thinking of gay people in any way so she wasn't like some homophobe um i just don't think she thought about it right but you know she probably saw me you know playing soccer and in umbros all the time yeah i thought well, this is going to be hard to nail down a boyfriend. She's a tomboy. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, in air quotes. She really wanted me to marry my neighborhood friend who was just the gayest boy you could imagine. There's a tear. These two like each other. They're naturally having affinity for each other interesting yeah we're like each other's prom dates like you'll do this with me right that's so funny i'll make muffins

yeah i mean it's uh you know uh it is just so funny because the old, like my ex-wife's mom is from Louisiana and very Catholic. Yeah. And my ex-wife would tell me, and I saw it in action, that, you know, there were different priests and brothers and, you know, there was like a, you know, whatever the monastery. A parish? Yeah, monastery. Oh, gotcha. whatever the oh monastery parish yeah monastery yeah so there were like lots of different you know religious clergy coming in and my ex-wife told me that whenever she would say like oh you know father patrick is so holy yeah it just meant gay oh wow when she'd say oh he's so holy

just got this holiness about him yeah and then later on she figured oh no that just means they're gay because so interesting we went to mass once and like then the priest was he was really yeah he was pretty gay as far as you know yeah yeah he's so holy yeah holy i mean it would have i i'm always curious what would she have thought i mean i know she would have loved me and accepted me no matter what. Right. But it would have been weird to have that coming out conversation to my 80-something-year-old grandma. Well, it's always weird.

I mean, I still, like, sometimes feel like a little kid. Or you think about, like, it just seems like, from my perspective, and it's a very childlike perspective it's like nobody had sex before 1940 and no you know and like gayness was invented in the 60s right because no one ever talked about it you know but you know that like yeah there were people living in small towns and they knew that like oh the pharmacist is a homosexual yeah they just knew it and it's like i don't know if it wasn't kosher to say anything about it or, you know, if there was judgment about it.

I think people just didn't talk about it. At least in my hometown, there were people who were gay and they would be married in a heterosexual relationship. But the town just kind of like, oh yeah, he's pretty gay. Yeah.

And this is his wife. He's like, this, yeah, he's pretty gay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is his wife. He's like, this is my wife, Pam. Yeah, wow. Pam's like, hey, what's up? Hey, what's up? He's like, don't touch me, Pam. Ew. Well, were you, I mean, were you always, you obviously like being a good girl.

And you, and to me, it's like when you said something about like in school, like I can understand because it's all very clear cut. Yeah. Like you do this, like, and if you can do it, do this reading and take these tests. Yeah. And then you'll get, you'll get a big you know good a good feeling at the end and everyone will say good job and um so it is kind of like a natural thing but then there is kind of usually with comedians like kind of a class clown kind of aspect right a little bit subversive and a little bit like i mean i speak for myself to you know the

only trouble i ever got in was because i couldn't not say something yeah you're like i've got a witty retort hold on i know this is gonna be getting me in trouble but here we go especially if it's a good one for sure get that zinger out there i had a little bit of that uh but mine came in waves um i was pretty shy growing up um but would have moments of like oh like all of a sudden i'm dancing in front of a bunch of people and they're like where'd that come from yeah uh probably that that the younger days were just being self-conscious about being a chubby kid and um you know just not not having the confidence to say the joke uh but as i got older and got into high school i started feeling better about myself and started gaining some confidence um to the point where i would start cracking jokes i wasn't

unruly where it was like here she goes again right um but i definitely by the time i was like a senior i think people were like oh she's funny yeah um but again not to the extent especially in my small town she's gonna go to the big city one day right right right and be an old hollywood yeah i don't think anyone could have guessed that. But I definitely I would watch like SNL or I would watch, you know, people doing the big characters and being silly. And that always resonated with me where I would like watch Will Ferrell or some somebody or Molly Shannon and then go to my tennis team at practice and do like Mary Catherine Gallagher. So I would, you know, use their bits to make people laugh. Right, right, right. Yeah.

That's, I think, the standard, yeah. And did you start to think like that you wanted to be kind of part of that world at this time? I mean, when do you start thinking – I mean, what are you thinking you're going to do with your your you know yeah how much kids think about like what what's my career yeah um i really didn't know i i did discover theater in college which um i had never done before and i i got to be in a couple plays but i had terrible stage fright um where i couldn't i was big i was more of the class clown in college like very

i had reached way more confidence and i was um made a lot of friends and they and and my my theater professor could never understand he's like you're so confident out here and then as soon as you step on the stage it's like deer in headlights and i could not explain where that came from or why so i didn't have a lot of success in the theater we also weren't doing comedies you know i was like i mean i'm like a i'm like this southern girl trying to do shakespeare yeah and my accent was like 10 times worse than this i was like wherefore thou you know you're like we don't want that we don't want that for me out pal yeah so um i think it was also just kind of discovering i hadn't discovered comedy well actually that's not true

i went to a what are they called improv olympics yeah remember that yeah yeah i was in them oh you were yeah so they had one of those in i went to school in Raleigh, North Carolina. Oh, that's probably comedy sports. Oh, yeah, yeah. That one, that one. And I had never seen improv before. I thought it was fascinating. I loved it.

They looked like they were having the best time. And they go, oh, and you can be a part of this, too. We have a free class. And I went to the free class, loved it. And they were like, oh, well, now if you want to continue, it's like 600 bucks. And I was like, I don't have 600 bucks. And that was the end of that. So I knew early on there was something there for me.

I just didn't have the money to do it. So I eventually, I think I thought I would be on a more academic path, like go to grad school. At one point, I think I thought I'd be a lawyer, which now seems insane to me because I could not want anything less. But I just didn't know what was available to me. And then got a couple opportunities to speak, do like big public speaking things. Like I spoke at my college graduation.

Is that just because you were a good student? It was voted on, I believe. my college graduation. Is that just because you were a good student? It was voted on, I believe. Oh, wow. Yeah, this is who we want to be our speaker. And just that reaction from the crowd, I made people laugh in the beginning and then had some Milton Berle quotes and tried to say something. Even though you're 22, you don't really know what you're doing yourself. I just remember that feeling of it being an amazing feeling of how

can I do this? But again, that doesn't seem like a career path. So I just didn't, I didn't have money and I didn't have connections and I just didn't know like what could be. And then I got very lucky. I got an opportunity to do like a PA job in LA. And I was like, oh, that could be like a cool life experience. And went out to LA to do that. What was it on? It was for an actress. She was the commencement speaker at that graduation.

Yeah, so we hit it off. Emily Proctor, right? Yeah, and she was from North Carolina. She needed help, and I was like, well, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. So I just went out to work out here for her and was a terrible assistant, terrible PA. I mean, I can't put my own life together it all sounds really weird too like a commencement speaker and then like hey you know it sounds either like you like climbed into her luggage and stowed away with her she just was like

i'm here shopping for an assistant you there i don't i think that that whole thing was so like an accident i think it was an accident yeah someone told me she was looking for one and and i ran this is so random started babysitting her best friend's kids because i was um and this is all after the whole this is all after graduation and her friend was like wait did you just figure your graduation i was like yeah how did you know that? And she's like, I'm Emily's best friend. And I'm like, oh, my God. It was all these weird coincidences.

And that was back when you would call a house phone, which seems crazy. And people would pick up. People would pick up. And she was called the house phone. And when your baby's sitting, they want you to pick up because it could be them. And it was her. And I was like like someone told me you need an assistant and she was kind of like um i guess so i don't think she really was so i think it all happened whenever you pick up the phone tell the person i hear you need an assistant so i truly

think it was a total accident yeah but just kind of how i operated that time i went through life very naively yeah yeah like i'll do it and she's like okay and then just ended up there at some point and i did that for about a year and a half and she were you living in her house no okay no she wouldn't wanted that and i wouldn't want that yeah and it was listen it was the thing that got me out here thank god i'm very grateful for that but that was not the job for me yeah and she probably got much better help after me right um but i started um writing for a living after her neighbor wrote for the LA Daily News and the New York Daily News. And again, this freaking commencement speech. She's like, I heard you can write.

I've heard about your commencement speech. Do you want to write for me part time? Go to premieres and interview people on red carpets. I'm 23. I'm like, yeah, I want to do that. I'm cleaning up you'll pay me to do that of course i want to do that and um so i did that part-time and it led to a full-time gig so for seven years i was an entertainment journalist covering red carpets

and for like la times or so it was um this this uh journalist named marilyn beck um who was very popular on the west coast i know that name she was very legendary in the journalism of entertainment journalism world not like liz smith not gossipy like that but the sort of west coast yeah i'm sure i probably talked to her because like i say that name is like oh yeah i've seen that name on emails and stuff i'm certain um and that and and she was kind of retiring but her the the person she uh trained stacy was running it and we so we were right at that cusp of like compu serve and aol put it blasting news out to everyone's computer right our stuff was all over people's homepages when they were just now discovering homepages yeah yeah so we were on the early trend of that and

then like uh we were in like a hundred newspapers it was but it was all very like um i uh i just interviewed people about their projects and i got to be kind of entertainment adjacent and i visited set so it was a great way for me to learn about the business uh while i was doing groundlings at night yeah and it was probably all like short little punchy kind of stuff yeah yeah yeah but i i got to there's there are a lot of people i've worked with now where i'm like i'm like you'll never remember this in a million years because all of us talk to people on the phone. If you don't see their face, I'm going to talk to you for 30 minutes. In 2005, I'll say to somebody. And they're like, oh, my God.

I'm like, I know. I went to Sarah Silverman's set when she was doing her Sarah Silverman project. Her program, yeah. Yeah, and I was not in stand-up yet. So I'm like, you know, these people I'm friends with now, I even run into publicists on the red carpet from those days or photographers, and they're like, look at you. I'm like, that's trippy. Oh, that's fun. That's really fun.

Mm-hmm. can't you tell my loves are grown so when did you start i mean when did it start becoming you know i don't want to be reporting on it i want to be making it in terms of the entertainment world so i i kept going through the groundlings program and as i got higher up into that getting knocked back down i know it was so was so competitive. My goal was SNL. Yeah. You know, that was the path. That was the dream. I started stand-up.

I started my own sketch group as I was doing Groundlings because at the time they did not have a lot of opportunities for the students to perform. Yeah. And I remember going, how do we get better if we are not actually on stage? This seems impossible. So I started my own group with some friends from these classes.

Just would play wherever. Yeah, we would do improv in the back of bars. Our friends would pay five bucks. God bless them. Yeah. Then we started renting theaters and writing sketch shows. And then someone came to that sketch show and they're like you're a stand-up why are you not doing that i'm like it sounds very hard and they're like just take a class just do

it so that academic part of me was like oh i'll take a class all right i can do that yeah so i started the comedy store up in the belly room and and so i was doing these two roles simultaneously and just comedy was starting to be like oh i love all of this yeah this is what i want to do and but you know it's a hard business to break into to make money at in 2010 was kind of my um crossroads the the newspaper business was plummeting um the company was like we can't you know we we're losing we're hemorrhaging money yeah we gotta let you go it sucks but it it gave me that like okay i gotta figure this out so i did last comic standing that year and i tested twice for snl they flew me out two summers in a row and i got very close but

yeah no cigar but you know yeah now that where i'm at, I'm like, it wasn't meant to be. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, and it's, yeah. You know, when you look at just how many people have been through SNL, it's not necessarily a guarantee that things are going to go great. No, not at all. And it's a hard environment. Really hard, yeah.

It was cool just to get to do it. And the way I got to do it originally was the first audition was insane. It was, I never thought in a million years, again, from my tiny town that something would come full circle. But a girl I grew up with was like sorority sisters with one of the producers. And she goes, you know, I asked her, you know, how do you audition and i'm like yeah right like that's not gonna happen she goes no she said send a tape i go wait what and she's like send a tape she'll watch it and i go oh and all these years i'm in la trying to find any in yeah

and it's my freaking friend from home her Her producer friend watched it and sent it up the ladder. Wow. And they called me 3 o'clock on like a Wednesday and they said, we want you to audition, but you got to get on a plane tonight and audition in New York City this morning. But I think in a way that audition was better than my next one where I had time to think about it. Yeah.

was better than my next one where I had time to think about it. Time to think about it. Yeah. Yeah. I totally would. I would definitely rather just have it thrown at me because I'll fuck it up. I know. You overthink it. Yeah.

And then you start to be calculated about like, well, what do they want to see? Which is always deadly. Like you've got to do what you do. You can't do what you think they want to see. And that's why I did the second one. I would try to be more doing bigger things. And I did this dance at the end where in the original dance, I danced to donuts, but I didn't have access to that. So I was like, I'm going to dance to carrots.

So I'm going to change it up. And the carrots flew out of my pants. And I'm like dancing, like picking up carrots. I'm like, this is a disaster. But it was such a cool thing to get to do. And then six months later, after my second audition, I got the opportunity to work at Chelsea. And Chelsea is where people really started to get to know you. Yeah.

I mean, that whole show really saved my butt. I was like a year into not doing journalism anymore, not making money. I literally had no money left. I was done. And I would have figured something out. I would have gone to Starbucks, whatever. I would have waited tables tables whatever i needed to do but i had no money and i submitted a writing packet to be a writer on the show just from a

friend or yeah they were doing like a wide like yeah cast uh writer call like everybody that's a writer they got like 300 submissions yeah and uh was that through an agent or through somebody that you knew through uh yeah oh through an agent yeah and um because so often it happens in the beginnings of shows like that where it's just it's all and i mean and people would be frustrated by this because the conan show is like that yep there were i mean there were definitely people that were hired off of resumes but then there were other people that were known by somebody that was already in. And people, you know, they'll get like, well, you got to know some. It's like, no, you got to know somebody, but you got to know somebody and be funny in front of them.

Yeah. For a long time. If they're funny and they, you know, you got to gain their trust. Right. That you know what you're doing. Stick their neck out for you. And I always look at it, too. It's like if you're going to open up like a sandwich shop, you're going to be in that sandwich shop 12 hours a day.

So why not hire somebody that you know you can spend 12 hours a day with? Yeah, for sure. You know, that's a big factor that plays into it. Yeah. And, you know, my voice could not be more different from jelsea sure which is what i'm sure she had a sense to yeah i like that yeah i still remember writing like harry potter jokes like for her like food jokes i don't know how i got my that my foot in the door there but somehow it went up the ladder and uh had you ever met her prior to that ever i was actually trying to get on the round

table yeah and was being told i was too low energy oh i love that you just never know where you know and uh met with her and now that i know her i am grateful that i was the first one up of like the first of like maybe seven meetings that day and 10 minutes into my meeting with her she just got up mid out of you know mid-sentence and was like thank you and I was like oh I blew it and she just decided that's that'll do and didn't want to meet the other seven people and so I'm like thank god I was first so they sent the rest of them home I guess yeah oh my god so wow because that was that and I was first. So they sent the rest of them home? I guess. Yeah. Oh, my God. So.

Wow. Because that was that. And I got the job the next day and it changed everything. Yeah. Yeah. That is the show that everyone was telling me no back then. That was when back then was being unique was not in your favor. No.

They did not know what to do with me. And even they would tell you, we want you to be unique. And then once they get you in, you're there. It's happened to me so much. Yeah. We love you, we want you to be unique. And then once they get you in, it's happened to me so much. Yeah. We love you. We want your voice. Yeah.

And then you get in. It's like, could you be more like other stuff that actually is working already somewhere else? For sure. And she was the first person that was like, you're different. And I like that. Yeah. And she was. So her saying yes to me made other people finally say yes to me.

Yeah. So those doors finally got opened from that show. And I have been working ever since. Yeah. Thank God. Now, were you hired mainly as a writer? And then the on-camera stuff started to happen just sort of organically from being around? Yeah. I was hired as a writer but they

put me on the show like a week into it really yeah because i was doing the grounding simultaneously still i was in their sunday company uh so her producers had come to see me perform sketch and knew i could do a bunch of characters and stuff and they're like just so you know we're gonna like come up with an idea in the morning and you're gonna have to shoot it like an hour later and i'm like great yeah i do that like all the time like the groundlings is such intense training that was like there's nothing you can throw at me that i'll be like oh yeah this is hard yeah yeah um and that's the beauty of improv is that it really does make you feel like oh well shit well, shit. Yeah. Wait, there are lines? Yeah. You already wrote the lines?

Oh, that's easy. Yeah. Which is what helped me get over that stage fright, improv. It was the tool I needed that got me out of my head. Yeah. And so, yeah, so they were just like, oh, just have fortune do it. They just started popping me in all these things. Right, right.

Nice. And then I was on the round table like maybe a month in. Wow. So, yeah, it was nice because I never, even though I am a writer and you have to write to do what we do, my goal is always to be a comedian. Yeah. Once I got into comedy. Yeah, yeah. So I was really happy.

Do you still get stage fright? Are there still situations where you still? When I'm filming a special, I definitely feel those butterflies. Anytime a filming is involved, the butterflies come into play, which reminds me, one of the biggest time I ever got, the biggest stage fright I have gotten since being a professional comedian was doing my stand-up on Conan. Oh, wow.

Yeah. And that was like 2014, something like that? Something like that, 14 or 15. Yeah, 2014. Oh, was it? Yeah, yeah. So I never get stage fright with live shows because I'm like, if I mess up, you just keep going.

Nobody cares. But if I know it's being filmed, the butterflies, I feel them right away. And so I knew my five minutes and that was my debut stand-up for late night was with you guys and um so you kind of owe it to us yeah you guys pretty much did all this and they go do you want cue cards and i said um i go yeah well you know why not because just in case these butterflies come up it'll be good to just have like something that. Outline.

Yeah, that gets me out of it. Bullet points. So I do my first joke. It goes great. And then the OCD in me is like, I'm going to just take a glance at the cue cards. And I look over at the cue card guys sitting on the ground with the cue cards on his lap and i'm like oh no oh no hey fucker so so the rule follower in me is like wait the the cards are supposed to be up so i can't get i can't call it my next joke. So I start going, um.

And I remember I looked at Conan. I looked at you. And you guys were just kind of politely like, okay. Yeah. And I kind of stumbled back into my set. And afterwards, the JP runs over. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. it was a jp it was yeah jp runs over oh my god i'm so sorry i didn't like the it somehow it got lost yeah yeah yeah pipeline that about the cue cards and um it was edited and you would never

know but i think of that all the time when i'm like when someone's like do you get staged for it i'm like it can happen you just never know. Well, cue cards are a dangerous thing, too, because you either got to use them. I've found, like, because I've been in situations where I'm half-memorized, and I'll be like, you want cue cards just to help out in the big game? Yeah. Sure, yeah. And just to refer to them doesn't work. You either got to read them all or not have them at all.

Exactly, yeah. Because the in-between just doesn't work. Yeah, and now, because you get the option for that when you film a special. Yeah. And I opted not to have it last time because I was like, you know what? It doesn't – at that point, you should know your stuff. Right. You've been doing it so much.

It really can just mess with you because you're not thinking about the joke anymore. You're like, what's on this thing? So it was a good lesson for me. But you guys were so lovely. Oh, thank you. But I just remember thinking, this feels like three minutes of ums. I know. You and Connor just both smiled really.

Yeah, no, it's amazing. TV time is so strange because it can seem it can seem like forever and then it can also seem like no time at all you know like you do i doing interviews and stuff like there's so many people would be you know because it's like seven or eight minutes yeah especially in the middle of the show they'd be done they'd be like what that that was that was eight minutes yeah yeah that was funny it's funny get the fuck out yeah get out um was it i mean now that you now that you're i mean you're happily married now i'm assuming happily yeah i mean unless you want to break any let's ask her we've got it right here come on out jacks um you're married now the so you know i think

going on the road it you know it's not as much but but was it hard to maintain a relationship as a touring comedian yeah for sure yeah i mean just trying to have a dream yeah is hard to to have a big dream and to also try to have a life yeah don't always go hand in hand together so before jacks i was not having much luck with dating and having a relationship and i really wanted one um but just was not meeting you know quality people or the ones that made sense at the time. So I did dating and things, but I was always. Were you doing app type stuff or was that still a little early? It was still a little early for that.

I think I. Because you guys have been together like nine. Nine years. Nine years. Yeah. I think I went on one of those apps right kind of like six months before I met her. And I had two experiences. I wrote two girls, and they both happened to be dating each other and had not told each other that they were still on this app.

And I was like, what are the odds? Like, oh, my God. I have a type that was so do they wild and uh so that went nowhere um and of course those two broke up eventually yeah um and then another one was like it was too much i like we chatted for like one tiny conversation and the next day she was like i'm in a hot tub i'm like sounds promising with my family not promising and like she's like she's inviting me to like go hang out with her family in a hot tub i'm like i don't know you what family like her mom and dad or her husband and children no like mom and dad and i'm just like i don't know you and i cannot

go be in a hot tub with you and your family right right right um so especially a hot tub i know which i guess i'm getting the boiling cauldron with us for sure all that all those germs strangers and so i think i deleted the f like right then and there. But yeah, it was just hard to, I was always working at it. Like I was at the growlings or at the comedy store with my own group. And so my focus was always on that, like the dream. And it didn't leave a lot of room for the other part. And so I had to date some duds, you know, and then kind of just thought I was in my early 30s and just kind of like, I don't, this is too hard. I'm not going to focus on trying to meet somebody.

And that old thing that people say that you think is a load of crap, you'll meet somebody when you least expect it. Right, right. It really didn't happen i i went to pride in chicago and she literally walked up and i'm just like it can't be that easy after all these duds you know after all these failed connections is it really gonna be this easy yeah and it was and what was i mean what was she just like hi i'm here to fulfill your fantasy she did say that which is pretty great wow no um she her friend was used to watch chelsea lately oh really and wanted a picture and jack is like who cares like just go ask her like she's right

right because and no one knowing my wife now she's not very it takes a lot to impress her yes and being on shelves did not yes yes what else do you have to offer that's great but also like what else and also that's i mean i speaking for me too like somebody that's unimpressed like that that's so attractive yeah for sure what oh i don't matter to you very i don't rank very high on your oh baby come on let's get started yeah so i had i uh i assumed they were together and then 15 minutes later they came back saying the picture didn't turn out and i go sure it didn't and uh i left an earring i kind of got i got some some false confidence because I really did not have a lot of confidence. With women, I came out late and kind of had to learn all those dating mistakes in my 20s that people got to make when they were 16.

So I got this false sense of confidence. They're like, oh, maybe you're trying to talk to me. So like, oh, maybe she's trying to talk to me. And we just kind of like started talking and get running into each other all night. And ended up hanging out a lot that weekend and did the long distance thing. We're like, oh, maybe there's something here. Because you were in L.A. and she was still in Chicago. Yeah. And then just realized, oh, this is my lady.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So a year into it, she was a kindergarten teacher. And I was touring. So we would meet on the road. And I was exhausted. She was exhausted. Yeah.

So like a year into it, we're like, something's got to give. Yeah. We're either doing this or we're breaking up. Yeah. So she made that sacrifice to move to la yeah give up she gave up a lot but you know she gave she gave up nothing compared to what she got she gave up nothing so yeah what is she teaching out here does she teach she did it first yeah um she loves chicago because uh she taught in in these these areas that really needed a lot of help,

and she felt like she could make a difference. And she was amazing at it. And then got to L.A. and, you know, taught in places she didn't feel like she could make as much of a difference in. And she was tired. Thirteen years of teaching 24 five-year-olds. She would come home and, like, pass out at, like, 6 p.m. And my career started getting busier

and busier and crazier and crazier and my tours started amping up and we're like we'll never see each other if you know live together yeah and so she ended up um going into subbing uh she stopped full-time started subbing and then the pandemic hit. And then she's like, well, I'm not going to teach five-year-olds on Zoom. So that was kind of that. Now she's like a jack of all trades, helps me a lot with my career. Oh, good. Is a producer on my specials. Oh, nice.

We're always running ideas, and we're just like a team now. Yeah, yeah. And that doesn't cause conflicts, you know, like a work slash personal. Yeah. She used to tour with me a lot and that was a lot of time together. Like, well, we're seeing each other a lot. Yeah. Uh, and I did so many.

Your best. And right. Yeah. Eating the worst food together. Yes. Um, that this tour, she's like, you go do your thing and I'll see you in three days. Right. And that's been, I think, the better thing.

I think so, too. Yeah. You know, I still, I, you know, like I just recently had a job that we moved into. We bought an old house, renovated, half renovated it. It's still moved in. And then like the next day I got a job in Atlanta for 10 days. Oh, yeah. And there was a part of me that was like, yes.

Yeah, for sure. Like, there's a house full of boxes. Leave this poor woman behind with our daughter. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Hotel room. That's right.

Room service. Yes. I know. Same with her. There's been a couple instances where there's been a big task. Yeah. And I'm like, I got to go film. Sorry.

Sorry. Yeah. And then she's at home and she gets bored and she's like, fine, I'll just do it. And I'm like, oh, you should wait for me to get home. And she's like, you fuck off. Oh, that's hilarious. But she's pretty great. She holds our life down.

She is the boss of all our things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let somebody else do that. Yeah, yeah. I'm useless. I got one skill. It's on the stage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's it. Well, I just always have had to be, you know, I've gone through a lot. Like I've always said, too, like me being a sidekick is not a coincidence. Like I'm, I don't want to be number one. Yeah. You know, like I like being number two because like number one has a lot of bullshit. That's a lot of work.

Yeah. It's a lot of work involved. So I'm always kind of been like, no, you know, okay, you decide whatever we do. And then, you know, and like even in, in relationships and stuff on vacation and, you know, like, well, okay, what are you guys going to do? Okay, that's fine with me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But then, you know, the backside of that is like, is the, you know, once every six months, how come I never get to decide anything?

And I have to answer, well, because you never step up. Right. You know yeah you're weakling well no you're just like chill you're easygoing i know i know i know but then there's there but they they could never tell the difference between like hey i actually would like to do that thing like yeah right like we're gonna listen to what you want forget it i'll have an opinion too yeah yeah um is there anything you you've left undone like are you you got any oh i mean i there's a lot of things i'd like to still do i mean i've been lucky to do a lot of acting after chelsea i i did uh three seasons of the mindy

project which oh right it was really amazing. Mindy's helped really propel my acting part of my career. She opened a lot of doors for me there. Was it on-the-job training, or did you take a lot of classes? Yeah, because that's what I find. If somebody pays you to do it, you learn

at a tenfold the rate that you do at class. Yeah, I had done some guest spots on some sitcoms or whatnot, but most of my acting training was the ground legs. I didn't really do, I did some acting classes, but I always found them sometimes. They're stupid. I was like, I can't, because people take themselves so seriously.

Yeah, yeah. And the comedian in me was dying. Yes. Dying. And so, yeah, I learned a lot of stuff working for her and on that show. Yeah. And the writing was like so good that I never had to worry about any material. Right.

Being embarrassed or being in something shitty. I just got to learn. I had three seasons of just learning a lot of stuff. So the acting part of my career really started then. So I've gotten to do a lot of projects, a lot of stuff. So the acting part of my career really started then. So I've gotten to do a lot of projects, a lot of acting projects, but my next big goal would be to be a bigger thing. Like Food Bar with Arnold,

I got to do a lot more there, but I'd really love to be a bigger part of a movie, to be one of two or three leads in a movie. And I write movies i have like four um just sitting there that i'm like trying to get you should show them to be you know what you see if you want to see a movie um me and uh my best friend is jillian bell who's hilarious we we have a movie that uh we're trying to get off the ground we're close and we hope that something will come of that um and that would be a huge like accomplishment yeah if i could get

that would you be happy to sell a script that you're not in yeah if that was the case um i would love to yeah because why not it's there if nothing's gonna happen to it with me why not um but this particular one that we're doing like we both believe in it so much that we're just like, just let us do this. Let us be in it. And so I would love that process of writing something and taking it all the way creatively from the producing and the writing to the acting to like it's up there. So that would be the next thing. And just, you know, continue to try to grow my standup.

I've been growing it slowly piece by piece from like, you know, little clubs to like, you know, meeting every single person after each club, trying to like grassroots grow that standup to now I'm in these really beautiful, amazing theaters.

And I, I keep seeing that grow. I would love to just, you know, keep seeing where stand. I would love to just, you know, keep seeing where stand-up can take me and evolving that part of my career. Yeah, but I'm pretty happy with a lot of the stuff I've done. I mean, maybe write a book at some point.

I don't know, you know. But the goal ultimately is longevity, trying to do this as long as they'll let me yeah and as long as i can keep creating ideas and there are times where i'm like even at this point in my career where i do feel like there's a lot more to do i'm like what else can i possibly say you know you have these moments of like, I'm not interesting. Yeah. I got nothing for you. Oh, my God.

Tell me about it. And you just have to dig deeper. Yeah. What else is there? I mean, I got projects. And, you know, especially right now, it's, you know, with the strikes just being over and having plenty of time on my hands. But there's a lot of, you know, like, I got to really, I got to put an iron into a fire here somewhere.

So I'll sit down and there's just some days where like, because a book is something that's on my radar to do too, is to write a book. And I'll be like, all right, today I'm going to focus on the book. And then it's just, it's a day where I feel like I'm an idiot and I don't know anything. And I'm garbage and everything, you know, all the nice things people say to me are just out of pity. You know, it's like, no, no, this is not the day to write the book. I was like, go write that day. Yeah, maybe I should work on something else.

Oh, no good. I know what I'll do. I'll order things off the internet that I don't need. I think hosting something would be fun too, like a game show. Oh, yeah. I'd love to give people a car. I have been. And I mean, I've done that kind of work.

And that's like, you know, honestly, if I, you know, I mean, I'm not going to be, but, you know, a big regular game show, especially. I'll go away. Yeah. You put me on a game show and that's all you'll ever, you know, and that's all you want to see me on. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, sounds fun. And I love game shows.

I really do enjoy them. The only thing I don't ever like is when I work on, when I've worked on game shows where they're not, they're like, the game doesn't really matter. I know. It's really about, I'm like, well, then what the fuck are we not, they're like, the game doesn't really matter. I know. You're like, what are we doing here? I'm like, well, then what the fuck are we doing? You know, like the game matters. That's right. Damn it.

You know, like you can't just give out points willy nilly. There has to be rules. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I love that stuff. Or like one of those, can I host a show about cake? I want to have a cake. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, some kind of sweets uh yeah that i think that would be a fun thing to do too just because i like interacting with everyday people you know and and getting out of this bubble that that we're in a lot of times being in la and in hollywood i like just like let me just yeah let's play for a washing machine or let me see you bake a cake. Whatever it is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that would be fun at some point. Yeah.

Well, what do you, I'm sure that people, you know, ask for advice or sort of, you know, look to you to like, you know, because you've had, like, you know, you said it yourself, you're coming from what could definitely be called left field to get to where you are today. You know, in North Carolina, nobody was going to be like, you know, you're going to be selling out theaters. Yeah, right. And I, you know, which I relate to very much. And I'm wondering if you have, if that's given you a perspective on it that you'd like to share.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, it definitely taught me that there, as cliche as it sounds, there really is no dream that you can't at least try to accomplish. Yeah. Or even get to an approximate, you know, kind of accomplishment. Yeah. You could at least be in the orbit, you know, like, to think like, oh, that's impossible. I mean, it's maybe, like you said, won't require that certain thing, but you can get close or you could get a lot of other cool things on the way to trying yeah uh so i'm always like why not why not you know like casey casem said shoot for the stars right right if you miss you at least land among the i don't know

um and uh yeah so i'm always a proponent of that have it the dream be as big as you want it. You do have to work hard. Yeah. You know, my follow-up would be, well, it ain't just going to land in your lap. There's a lot of hard work that goes into this. And I've been out in L.A. for 20 years, working steady for the last 14 of those. But it required sacrifice, time, effort, and even in success, that workload doubles. So you have to be willing to do the work.

And if you're in comedy, the writing is essential. I never knew writing was going to be such a big part of my career. And I would suggest people write notes. I use my iPhone, the notes section. If something funny happens or I see something, I just jot it down right there

that I have it. And then if you want to be a stand-up comedian, you got to get on stage. There's no other way around it. You just have to. You can't. And one show a week is not enough i i mean i have stand-up friends that i have to say that to or still or like this is not enough yeah and um so you you have to just have the dream have the vision of what you want like it and and and be working towards specific goals yeah um and and that

helps to to kind of just be flailing about it's hard like i was lucky to find comedy because i was like well now i know what i'm working towards yeah i i always hate it for when people don't know well i don't even know what the goal is i I mean, right there, that's like, how do you, what do you do then? You know what I mean? Then you are just kind of like flailing about. But if you're like, I like this really thing. I'm going to work towards this thing. I think it's very helpful.

Yeah. So. When you say like that, you know, like once a week stand up isn't enough. What are you talking about so that you can sort of make, you know, like get acquire intangibles? Or is it just like, is there just a commanding of the stage that, you know? Well, I just think that stand up is a profession that requires a lot of hours put into it. People have that 10,000-hour rule with anything. So to do it once a week, you're just kind of dabbling in it.

I see. And I had my roommate sat me down where I thought I was working really hard in my 20s. And he was an assistant director on a lot of these films. Like, he was working his way up. He went from PA to AD and all these things. And he was working with very successful people. And so he was kind of clocking, like, what are they doing that's different than the people that aren't in their position?

And it was that they were putting in all this work, and he sat me down, and he was like, listen, do you really want to do this? And I was like, yeah. And he goes, then you're not working hard enough. He goes, I'm watching all these very successful people, and the one thing they have in common is that they are working their ass off, and what you're doing is not enough.

And it was like some tough love that I needed to hear. And after that, I just was like, shows all the time. But it made me better. Yeah, yeah. I got better at the craft. Yeah. So, I don't know. Well, I think that's plenty for these people.

You people out there, that's enough. Now go be comedians, all of you. This is not one of those acting classes, TED Talks. Right, right. You got to pay for that. Yeah, exactly. This is free shit. Of course, it's not going to be very useful.

Yeah, I'll teach you nothing. Well, Fortune, thank you so much for coming and hanging with me today. It was great to see you. You too. You are now in your – this is the plugs part. Okay. You are currently touring around North America. Pretty vague.

Well, you know. For your Live, Laugh, Love show. That is the name of it. That's very nice. Thank God somebody's finally taking live laugh love seriously i'm bringing it back baby yeah it's not just gonna be on my mom's wall it's gonna be part of my act i'm also going to europe what i know that's they didn't say that they didn't say that london and amsterdam oh that's sweet oh those are both really fun towns

yeah yeah i'm all over the place have Have you ever been to Amsterdam or London? Oh, yeah. I have, yeah. I've performed in London, but not Amsterdam. Yeah. I was going to do this big whole European tour, but my schedule just got too crazy. Yeah.

So this is, I wanted to do something over there. But yeah, and then I'm going to film my next special in Seattle. Yeah, we're gonna um have that in the spring so people want to see a netflix taping will it still be called live laugh love or i think i'll usually my tour name and my special name are different i'll probably come up with something different all right you also co-host the podcast handsome with tig notaro and may martin where they feel where you guys field a question from a friend each week and try to answer it together yeah and is it is it ever useful information or

is it no it's completely useless yeah that's what i figured it's been this very um unexpected uh podcast tig wanted to do a podcast with us and and we were all just kind of like, yeah, sure. Yeah. Tig's like the queen of podcasts. And we went into it just kind of like, well, this will be a fun thing to do. And we're like almost at 5 million downloads. Wow. Like three and a half months in. And how often do you do them?

Or is it weekly? It's once a week. Wow. And it has just taken off in a way that we did not expect. That's amazing. So it's us giggling for an hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah.

We kind of, the beginning part, we just sort of catch up. And all of us know each other and are friends, but we don't know each other well. Yeah. So we're getting to know each other as we go, which is kind of fun. It is fun, yeah. To see. And then we have someone ask us a question. It can be anything. Yeah. And we go which is kind of fun it is fun to see and and then we have someone ask us a question it could be anything yeah and we go from there um that's the second half of the podcast and then

that person also answers that question so just something something fun and and like i said very unexpected yeah yeah no that's great it's like you know, it's like what radio used to be. Well, like good radio used to be. Yeah. Interesting, funny people. Yeah. Just talking about stuff. Just chatting.

So one person was like, what's this podcast about? I'm like, does it matter? It's about an hour. It's free. You didn't pay for it. You also, because you're just greedy, you got another podcast called Sincerely Fortune. Yep.

That one's my own, but that one's kind of taking a little hiatus because, yeah. Oh, really? I'm just busy. Just busy. And would,

well, I mean, but you just put it out there or is it you got a contract with somebody and they're like, give us more. No, I had done it on my own. Yeah.

So I was the, I wanted to be the boss of it yeah because i wanted it to do it as long as it made sense and then when i couldn't do it you know scale it back it might come back at some point my mom was on there a lot with me yeah people really like her because i also do a radio show with tom papa oh nice and uh for netflix it's called uh what a joke and it's on sirius xm and that's two hours a day for four days a week no shit you're doing that oh wow i was unaware of that yes uh yeah come on we'd love to have you and i love tom we just talk about comedy yeah

talk about comedy and and life and whatever's going on in your world. And we're on, yeah, year four. Wow. I do a lot of talking. I guess. Now you know why I'm like, what can I possibly say? How can you manage that? I mean, do you do it remotely sometimes, like where you're in a motel room? Yeah, yeah.

We used to do it live at SiriusXM pre-pandemic. We were waking up at 5 a.m., which, you know, for a stand-up comic, is like a nightmare. And then the pandemic hit, and we're like, are we really going to wake up at 5 a.m. when the world's ending?

Right. So we started taping a day ahead. I see. At 10 a.m. Yes. And it is a lot more easy to do and now we have equipment that we take on the road oh so we're always in some place with some headset that looks like we're taking your order at arby's

and you also have a new netflix move oh no. Yeah, it's out already. Mm-hmm. Called Family Switch with Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms. Yeah, I just have a little part in it. I did this family movie yesterday with Jennifer Garner, and it was the same producers. And they said, do you want to come do another fun little part where you act ridiculous? And I said, absolutely. All right, yeah, sure. So, yeah, it's a fun family movie that's that just came out that's uh anybody can watch well you can i mean people can apparently watch or

listen to you uh all the time just it's never ending i know i got i got two specials on netflix uh good fortune and sweet and salty if you want to if anyone wants to check out that. I don't know. Check it out. Well, thank you again for coming. Thank you, bud. It's great to talk to you. Yeah, and thank all of you out there for listening. I'll be back next week with more three questions. I mean, it's the same three questions.

The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Dougherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddy Ogden. Research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you

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