The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Paul Scheer

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

Comedian Paul Scheer (HDTGM, The League, Black Monday) joins Andy to share about how his grandmother got gifted a house in the Hamptons, his journey from underage improv lessons to breaking through on film and television, and the collaborative value of “trying it, having fun, and making the thing."

Hello, and welcome to The Three Questions. I'm Andy Richter, the host of The Three Questions. And I am talking today to a very funny, very talented, a man who has conquered multiple mediums. Paul Scheer, who I've known for a long time from early UCB days. Yeah, I was actually thinking about this the other day. I remember one of my first memories of you. Obviously, you are a successful person. You are hilarious. I've seen you on stage. But the one thing I remember, I don't know why this is so clear to me, was that you were practicing for Jeopardy on a video game of Jeopardy at the house. Do you remember that you had a video game version of Jeopardy that you were practicing on?

I don't know why that came into my head. Yeah, I can't remember exactly. But yes, I was. That was the first time I went on Jeopardy, which was probably like 95, I'm thinking, or something. It must have been later than that. 94? I don't know. I graduated college after that. I just remember going, here's somebody who is super funny, incredibly successful, and you're smart.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, I feel like whenever you go on Jeopardy, it's a flex. It is a flex ultimately to be like, you A, have enough confidence in yourself that you will do well. And when you do do well,

it's like, it's bragging rights for life. It's fun. It is fun. It is terrifying though. And I did well. And when you saw me practicing, that was also, um, we were, I did a remote for the Conan show, you know, cause every, in those days, if you went to the fucking dentist, you're like, well, let's take a camera crew and it'll be a

remote about going to the dentist. Um, so I was doing that and it was, you know, it's just such a high profile thing that, and our head writer at the time, Jonathan Groff had been a Jeopardy champion back, back before when they just limited you to five days, he was a five day champion. And so he, you know, he helped me, he tutored me on it. And there was a point, too, in the preliminary day and when we got there where I just said to the writer from Conan, like, I'm done working for Conan today. Like, to now I'm on Jeopardy. If there's something funny you want to get, you get it. But don't even talk to me about the Conan remote because I don't want to look like a fucking asshole. I don't want to look like an idiot. I'll tell you, I felt the same way I was asked to go on Nailed It. And obviously the stakes are way, way lower. I understand that. Nailed It is a cooking show on Netflix, you know, and it kind of highlights bad cooks. And they said, will you come on and

be a judge? And I was like, that doesn't sound like fun. I want to go on and do the cooking. sound like fun. I want to go on and do the cooking. And I know that the show is supporting bad cooks, but when I got there, I thought, oh, this is going to be fun. It's going to be easy. And then all of a sudden I was very clear with them. I was like, treat me like I am a straight up contestant. Put me in the corral with the contestants. I don't want any special treatment. I said, the only thing I want is someone to mat down my bald head so I don't look too shiny on camera. That was the only thing that I requested. And so I was in there with the contestants. I was there.

And then you go into that room and they march you in. And I'm being brought in as a contestant, not as a, you know, whatever, not as a friend of the show. And boy, oh, boy, my stomach dropped. And I was like, I have to do this. And I know I'm not going to be great at whatever I'm doing, but I want to be the best one of the worst. And, uh, and the smartest idiot. Yeah, exactly. And when that clock hit, whatever timer that we needed to do, and we had to make donuts. Yeah. I was, I was going to ask you like, do you actually cook or yeah. Yeah, I do, but I can't do anything that they make to do and we had to make donuts. Yeah. I was, I was going to ask you like, do you actually cook or yeah. Yeah, I do. But I can't do anything that they make you do on that show.

I mean, my final challenge was like making a Hanukkah bear and a giant cake. Like I've never done that. Like I'm not doing that, but I will make cakes. I will make cookies. I will do all that. But you know, the decorating is not my forte and I don't have a fryer in my house. You know, I'm not like putting, I'm not icing cakes, uh, all the time. So there was this like energy of how do I do it? And it's amazing. Like, like everything else in your life, you just like, you step up to the challenge. You kind of have to like, you really, you go into overdrive, uh, and it's, you know, and it's no matter how silly or you become smarter, you become better. You know, it's like that whole story about like, like when a car falls on a,

you know, a kid, the mother has a strength and she can like lift up a car, like that kind of, you know, energy just comes out to play. Which sounds like a really good, like a reality show set up. Like the kid wouldn't have to be really, but like fake it. So then the kid, it looks like they're pinned under a car and then let the mom out and then see if she can lift the fucking car. You know,

we actually did a sketch about this on human giant. Um, all right. So Tom Giannis, who was a Chicago guy, a second city guy, second city guy and writer and director. Yeah, super fun guy.

Worked on Tenacious D and a bunch of other stuff. He was our showrunner at Human Giant, which was me, Aziz Ansari, and Rob Hubel. And he loved that phrase so much that we created a sketch called Mother-Son Moving Company. much that we created a sketch called mother son moving company. And the whole way that the mother could move everything in the house was that she would drop the pieces of furniture on her kid. So like she, you know, you have to move a piano and we put the kid under it.

You knock out the leg, the piano falls on the kid and she lifts up the piano, like above her head. And it's Linda Cardinelli who played the part. And she was awesome. She was so good. And she's bringing it around. Cause she's about five foot two, two. So exactly. And it was the little kid from the middle who became the kid

from the middle. He wasn't there at that point. Yeah. So it was like a really interesting, uh, cast. And this is actually one of the craziest sketches that we did because, and I, this might trigger some people. So if you feel like I want to get into the triggering point, cause this is why we got in trouble. So at a certain point in the sketch, a bookcase falls on me and, um, and we're, help,

help. Paul's stuck under the bookcase and she, Linda comes over and she's trying to get up. She, I can't do it. You know, he's, he's not my son.

I don't have the strength. And then like Aziz and Rob are like, how about you adopt him? And, uh, and, And she's like, okay. And then we bring over a lawyer and we sign these papers and I'm still under the bookcase, you know, da, da, da, da.

And, you know, and the lawyer's like, okay, you are now, you know, legally his son, you've adopted him. And she tries and she can't, you know, get the bookcase up and, you know, and we're like, what's wrong? And then the camera kind of pans in on her and says, she goes, I guess I just don't love my adopted son as much as my real child. And the amount of letters that we got or whatever it was, internet comments at that point was, it was such a, and I think we had a PSA of like, don't adopt.

It was very over the top, but it was still like, you know, stupid and not something that we believe, but I always love that sketch. Yeah. There's a, I, again, I don't know. I still don't know what the answer to all that is, is like, you know, the difference between people's sensitivity towards topics and making jokes about them. But I think we're finding our way, you know, pretty well for it. But like that one in particular, I just always feel like it's a joke, right? Like you do get like we're not like this is about a woman picking up pianos off her child.

Yeah. You're already putting the child in danger. We're not worried about that part of the story. We're worried about the child in danger. We're not worried about that part of the story. We're worried about, yeah. Yeah. I remember once when comedy bang bang was comedy death ray and they did a live show in Vancouver, I think. And I did a bit there and I just was like playing like a gross celebrity version of myself. One of them like ended up with me having an incestuous relationship with someone in my family like that

was one of the beats and that you know we're like oh gross and everything and then the next one i think john mccain was running for president and i wanted to get something to where i was having sex with cindy mccain was like that where the where the bit was supposed to be going so i said i went to a republican fundraiser and the whole audience went, boo. I was like, I just said I just had incest and that you were all cool with that. It's weird. Weird line. I was like, yeah, I'm not really a Republican, people.

I don't like it. It feels like I don't know. It's like sometimes audiences feel like dogs, like where it's like, no, I put the cookie under the bowl. Now let me do it again. No, the cookies under the bowl. Like, you know, don't you remember? I felt this way about, you know, I came up in comedy in New York City. Like I didn't go anywhere else. I started in New York City and I and then I kind of graduated very quickly to UCB when they first kind of came to town. And the way UCB brought comedy to New York, and this is my perspective of it,

and again, I'm not in the stand-up world, so I don't know that, but their sketch and improv did things that were so harsh or in your face or aggressive, whatever term you want to use. Or gross. That was like, gross, yeah. And it was like, you know, dildos were out and things. And I was like, whoa.

And it just felt like fun and edgy, but like in the good way. It wasn't like just gross for gross sake. It's silly. It's silly. Yeah. And I was so kind of taken aback by it. But I was like loving it. And then I got used to that kind of style of humor.

And we were doing that in New York. And we were doing our improv shows felt like that. And our sketch shows felt like that. And then when we came out to LA, the audience would be like, Oh, well, Hey, it was, it was such a adjustment of I'm offended or I'm looking around. Is anyone else laughing at this? And it was, I felt like there was a year or two in L.A. where we had to lay down with the groundwork of like this is jokes and this is funny and we can be on the same page. It was an interesting thing because New York, it was so it wasn't a thing because everyone was on board with it. But in L.A., it was a harder kind of a harder pill to swallow. Well, I think because in New York, you're doing it for the sake of doing it. And out here, everybody's looking for a job.

So they they're auto filtering. They're, you know, they're they're being the censor before they have a censor, you know, and looking to see, like, who else is laughing, you know, and is it OK to laugh? I'll tell you one quick thing, and I know we will get into the questions. I will say just doing like, yes, those are bits where we might offend people. I have also done my handful of just bad bits that haven't worked. And like you were saying, I'm not a person who has like 10 minutes of stand up. And we did improv and I did sketch and Stella, which was Michael Ian Black, David Wayne and Showalter.

They kind of had this offshoot. There's a live show that they did in New York and very funny and everybody went through there. Yeah, it was amazing. And they made these short films that were great. Awesome. They asked our group Respecto Montalban, which is like Rob Regal, myself, Rob Hubel. And we're like nervous. Oh, my

God, we're getting like we're getting called to the majors in a way like it felt like a big deal. You know, like they're asking us to do this show and everyone's there and you look out into the booths and it was all these famous people. And we did this bit. And Fez was right next to Blue Man Group, where Blue Man Group was in New York.

So we did this bit where we were dressed as Blue Man Group. We painted our fucking faces. We did the whole thing. And we had shot this video. So we were coming up on stage as blue man group acting all weird doing shit with marshmallows then we take two people from the audience and as we take them backstage and this is like our plants other people in our group um we take them backstage and then the video cameras come on because that was something they would do in blue man group and then we just fucking murdered them and it was like a really graphic way of like we just murdered backstage. And then we came out like covered in blood and still acting like really cute.

So we do this thing in the beginning where we are doing marshmallows. We bring them backstage. The lights go out, the camera goes on, but the video won't play. And now we don't know that we're backstage. We're dousing ourselves in blood because they're like, oh, we're going to come out for the reveal of this thing and the video's not playing and there's nothing happening, so all they've seen right now is goofy Blue Man Group guys walk out, take two people and walk backstage, and now we're covered in blood

and blue, and we don't know what the fuck to do, and we have to go back out on stage, but we can't talk because we're Blue Man Group, and they don't talk, and we didn't want to wreck the illusion, so now we're just covered in blood there was, like, it was just the most busted play of all time it was so i just remember like our one shot and it was like it just did not work at all just a terrible you just like go out and then just kind of stop and then like we just kind of came out on stage covered in blood and was and and just i think the audience is like this is we it was weird enough to be like huh i don't

know if i got it yeah i think they knew that there was some sort of mess up and and and the stella guys actually felt really apologetic that they they felt like they had a tech mess up so we did get a chance to come back and do their job that's good but uh but it was oh man nothing worse than eating shit at a show where you were like, and of course, we just wrote that bit for there. We were all prepped and we had too many props, too many props for a show. Yeah. And none of it made any sense. And we picked characters that couldn't speak. So when you couldn't even address it, like it was like, all right, we have we have destroyed all of this.

Oops. Now you're from Huntington, New York. Where is that? That is right. That is in Long Island. So yeah, my family moved around. Well, I mean, I've moved around Long Island, but it's all the same. I mean, I'm sure that people will say differently, but. Well, I mean, there's a difference in sort of per capita income on Long Island. That's for sure. Yeah. Yes, exactly.

Like, and I will say that, like, my grandma was, I mean, this is a whole other story. My grandma was gifted a house, gifted a house. And in the Hamptons. What? Like, just one sentence. Yeah. Okay. I'm trying to figure out how to basically,

my grandfather was the vice president of a bank that happened to be owned by the mafia. It was completely broken down. Those people all went to jail. My grandfather did not, but the man who was the president of the bank gifted my grandmother, a house in Sag Harbor and my grandfather as well. And it was before Sag Harbor was anything.

It was like we were going out there was there was no like there's no nightclubs and no, you know, rich Upper East Side. No, it was just a small, sleepy town. Yeah. So that was like so that like my grandparents seemingly had a lot of money. And then I just was showing a picture to my friends because you can look on Zillow, like, my grandparents seemingly had a lot of money. And then I just was showing a picture to my friends, because you can look on Zillow, like, you know, whatever address you want. And I was like, oh, that's where I used to live. And they're like, oh, that looks like a trailer park home.

And I was like, oh, I guess you're right. Yeah, I guess I like. So I lived in, I definitely had a lower income house. I didn't, until I looked at it, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, sure. Yeah, house. I didn't, until I looked at it, I was like, Oh yeah. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and then, and my dad, my parents were divorced and my dad, uh, lived in, uh, an apartment in Flushing Queens. So I, I kind of had like an interesting point of view through those three lenses, you know, like, uh, uh, you know, Sag Harbor garden city, that's my grandparents, this kind of weird area in Central Islip

where we had like dogs and horses in our backyard. But like, they weren't horses. Like we have horses. It was like, these are animals that we also have. And then my dad's like apartment, you know, one bedroom apartment in Flushing. Yeah, yeah. What age were your folks divorced?

Three. But they stayed together until I was five, or at least they pulled the wool over my eyes until I was five. They did an elaborate plan where I think, I mean, again, one sentence story of it, which would be my dad would leave after I went to bed and then get there before I got up in the morning

to create the illusion that my parents were still together. Wow. Yeah, for about two years. Wow, so weird. Yeah. I think they were just like, they didn't want me to be distressed. And so, you know, and so like, it was like, I think a process of them staying in that kind of stasis. I think they, they lived in separate rooms for a little bit, but I didn't really quite picked up on that. And then we sold the house and then, then they officially kind of got out of it. And so are you an only child?

I am. I am. My mom remarried a different man at one point and he had two daughters so there was a period of time where i had two stepsisters uh but again loose these are all loose i mean yeah yeah they're all transitory yeah exactly so yes oh but for the most part only child at points in my life yes there was like a stepsister in my life for like a solid year. But yeah, but not not of anything of note. Was were you happy when your mom got remarried? Was that a good thing? No, you know, it's weird. It's like, I think now I look at all this sort of stuff in an interesting way. Because I think any kid, well, I have a great relationship with my dad. I love my dad. He's very much a part of my life and was always a part of my life. So it wasn't like, oh, thank God she got rid of this guy. In many respects, my mom, who got remarried, married a guy who was like kind of like. I wish people could see your face right now.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out like how to describe him. He's just kind of like a scumbag. But like I think my mom didn't really like understand it. And now as I'm older, I'm like, wow, you know, he was a guy. He drove tractor trailers for supermarkets and would like come home with black eyes because he got like fist fights in like the yard. Like, you know, in the truck depot yard, you know, and like, you know, like multiple gun safes in the house and stuff like that, like that kind of a guy. Yeah, yeah. And then my mom got divorced from him and remarried.

Someone couldn't be more of the opposite of that, like a very soft-spoken, genteel psychiatrist who was a lot older than my mom and lovely, and a lovely guy. But again, you know, at this point, it's all, again, I had a good relationship with my dad. I love my dad. Love my mom. These other people were, you know,

interesting pit stops. She was dabbling in different types of marriages. Exactly. Exactly. Trying on different characters or character types. Oh, it's tough for these kids. It's tough for kids to go through that. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it in your heart? So what's high school like?

Are you always funny? I think I'm in a zone where in sixth grade, I remember getting in trouble for, I think being more outspoken and more, you know, like I wouldn't say like, oh, that was really funny, but I was doing stuff. I was making videos. I was, you know, convincing my teacher to let us like make movies, you know, like that kind of stuff. Like that would be a good class assignment. She's like, okay, great. You know, and, and having that kind of thing. And then my grades is like plummeted, you know, like that kind of a person. Like, and I remember like on a sixth grade field trip

where I set up my own movie theater, like basically I realized we went on a trip to Washington DC, which is, you know, just a short drive for us. And, uh, and, and we were all in the same hotel and we were all on the same floor and I was like, Oh, I can get pay-per-view and I could charge kids to come into my room. So like, we basically like, I remember that being like a big deal. Like I was charging kids admission into like this party into my room at sixth grade. And that was like, uh, and I did get in trouble for that too, but I like that kind of stuff. Like I was definitely mischievous. And then, uh, and then my parents were like, we got to get you out wearing a hat that said Cox on it. Like there was like one like college team, like the, the buzz Cox or the game. So it's like,

like that was that energy. So it was kind of more on the other side. And then, uh, got my dad to take me into the city on weekends to do this like improv group, Chicago city limits, which was, uh, a bunch of people from second city who came to New this like improv group, Chicago city limits, which was a bunch of people from second city who came to New York to set up their own kind of improv thing. So I started taking classes there and lying to them and telling them like I was a college age man, even though I was like a freshman in high school. But so that's where I kind of like, that's kind of like a little bit of my trajectory and that kind of got in that way to comedy. How did you find out about them? I mean, and I mean, what made you, what made you go like, oh, I want to take improvised

comedy lessons. All right. So my dad and I, yeah, exactly. Well, my dad and I, uh, would, you know, I would spend my weekends with my dad. That's what you do, you know? And, uh, my dad had a store in the Bronx. He had a small pharmacy, very, very tiny, uh, pharmacy, like a studio apartment size pharmacy. And, uh, and we would work there on Saturday mornings and we'd get the paper, the poster, the daily news, and you would see like, okay, here's all the Broadway shows that were available. And at that time, a Broadway show was like 15 bucks and you go see like Neil Simon's play or whatever. So we'd go see a lot of matinees. We'd go see play, you know, we'd go see plays, we'd go do everything. So at a certain

point it was sort of like, Oh, what's Chicago city limits. Let's go see that. That seems like it's comedy and was fun. So we went to like a church basement on 72nd street and saw Chicago city limits. It's like, Oh my God, this is so funny. Like, this is like what, like what, I didn't even know what improv was. And we were like, you know, and I was like, I want to do that. And at that time, like they were, they were kind of a hotbed of comedy. Like Robin Williams was showing up there and Jon Stewart was doing bits there. And so like, you got to see cool people. And I always remembered that. And like, I wanted to do comedy and my dad's like, well, why don't we take you take classes at that place that you like so much? And that's how I, I got involved, but I never had seen anything like it.

And it was like, oh, it's not standup, but it's not like just sketch. It's like alive. And it's, you could change it and you could yell it out. Like, I think there's such a power when you see good improv and you're like, I'm a, I'm a part of that because I've participated in it in some way. Yeah. So that's how I kind of got involved. And it also can be anything you want it to be. You know, you can, like, you can do stand-up moments and you can, you can, if you want to be an actor or, you know, or... It's the most well-rounded, I think, if done well, it's the most well-rounded education in comedy you could possibly get

because you're directing, you're writing, you're acting. Like, I did, I worked on a television show once where I was just, I was just acting in the show, but the, I started to, and they didn't, at first they wouldn't like, they didn't have any interest in, cause there's such a strict division between actor and writer and so many sitcoms. Yes. Yeah. And they weren't really like, if I had suggestions for jokes and stuff, and I mean, I've been

on TV for years, you know, and produce my own shows and stuff. But I would say, yeah, exactly. You should be a value add because you can make these things better. Yeah. Well, for me, it was always like, wait, you guys are lifting things. I have a strong back. Let me pitch in. And I'm not going to I'm not going to like ask you to give me a medal.

Just let me pitch in. And I got I got signals early on, like, no, no, no. You know, like that. We're OK. Like I mean, my own shows, that doesn't count. Like, you know, I've done my own shows, but the ones that I've worked for somebody else, it's been such a collaborative experience. And it makes for, like, I always feel like, I think in features, you can be more of a visionary. You can have a vision. But on TV, because you have to do so much, and so much of you is in these characters, because it's not just a two-hour movie. It's years. It's seven years. It's five years. You do need to be a part of it. And I think the best showrunners I've ever worked with acknowledge that and are like, well, what can you bring? We brought you here because you're it. And I think the best showrunners I've ever worked with acknowledge that and like, well, what can you bring?

Like we, we brought you here because you're funny. And then there are other people who are in the more old school TV world, which is like, no, no, no, no. You're the puppet. I'm the, I'm Shakespeare. And like, let's go and do it. And it's a weird, I've never gotten that. I've never gotten, it's, it only makes the people behind the camera look better when the whole show is better. And they'll never know it's you or, or whatever, you know, it's like, it's, it only makes the people behind the camera look better when the whole show is better.

And they'll never know it's you or, or whatever, you know, it's like, it's weird. It's or not never know it's you, but it's like, I don't know. It's a weird, it's a weird thing. This was a network show. And I do think that they have some sort of like, it's just more uptight. There's just more uptight and there's more of a structure. And there's also people protecting themselves more and people being like. But but but a good person will then elevate those other people to like a good showrunner and not just hoard it and be like, oh, that's mine. It was mine. It was never yours. You know, it's like, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's yeah, that's a difference in that's a difference in character and also a difference in just self-confidence. You know, like you got it. You got to believe you can make more. You know, somebody else gives a good idea,

that doesn't mean that you're never going to have another good one. You got to keep going. Well, this is why I've always had an issue with the way the Emmys are done in the sense that television writing is, for all intents and purposes, a group exercise. Like the way that the late night gets out awards is like, yeah, everyone is getting that award because everyone's chipping in and it doesn't matter what episode it is. And I feel it the same way. It's like, yes, that episode was really good,

but it was broken in a room with a bunch of people and a writer's assistant and it was written up and it was approved. And yes, you may have written the fade in and fade out, but there's so many people along the way that are pitching it. It's a collaborative process. And it's always so funny, like, oh, that episode of The Good Place was written by this ex-writer. And that's why like you see like Matthew Weiner

put his name on like every Mad Men because he was like, I want to get the credit. Mad Men's going to win a writing award. And by the way, as a showrunner you are, but it's like, it's a weird thing that we single that out as if tv is written on an island it wasn't like wrote my script and i'll see you later you know it's like yeah it's a weird it's a weird thing but yeah well it is a weird thing and i think i've talked about it on here before but you know it's just it's because it's because of the way the guild doles out credits and money and you know if there's 12

people on a staff and you're doing 12 episodes everybody gets an episode because each one of those episodes represents 10 000 15 000 20 000 script fee so if you're that's just a way to make sure everybody gets their script fee but every one of those is written by everybody. Yeah. So it would make much more sense to give that writing Emmy to. The staff. Yeah. To the staff or make every, or just build 20 grand at everyone's salary and just have every episode written by everybody.

You know what I mean? Well, yeah. And it's like, you can take point on it and, you know, but it's a weird, you're right.

There's like all this weird stuff. Like you've ever heard this thing about directing. Like, so say you and I, uh, we directed something together and we had a great time and it was really successful, but then I wanted to go make my own thing. Um, and I go and make my own thing. I could not partner back up with you because in the DJ's mind, the only reason why we have worked together is because i am incapable of directing by myself so the minute i go off and make something by myself i have proven that i don't need a partner so i can't do it so it's like oh it's so weird you wreck collaborations because there might be a good collaboration like whether it's a thing oh yeah it's Once you break, that's why I think you don't see many teams breaking up. Because once they break up, they can't rejoin. So, for example, Seth and Evan, Seth and Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen. If they break up as a directing duo and one goes off and does one thing, they can't rejoin.

break up as a directing duo and one goes off and does one thing, they can't rejoin. And I think they're trying to figure out how to do that. But like the same thing with like Lord and Miller, the same thing with like, I think even like Kiva and Yorma, they directed separately, but then they came together for like pop stars.

So now they are tied. So they can't, you know, they, they have to be very careful about it. It's a, it's a weird thing. I think, I think the Coen brothers,

that's why they divvy it up between director and producer. You know, I think it's, I think, I don't know if there's ever a movie, you know, you know more about movies than I do. I just know that the, I just think it's a weird, it's these weird systems that are put in place and we should be able to embrace what makes the best artistic product. And we should be able to embrace what makes the best artistic product, not the, you know, not the, it's like, you know, you've ever heard like this arbitration thing where, you know, people sit down, like my wife wrote a movie one time and they hired somebody to rewrite her movie. And so the people who came in to rewrite her movie changed every one of the characters names because if the script went to arbitration, they can say, oh, they made X amount of changes.

They made 50, if they made over 50% of the changes and they would get credit or something like that. But by changing all the names, you are essentially like padding. Yeah. You're pushing the level up for credit. It's like, so there's these like weird, like these unions are built to protect you, but they also are kind of stifling some of those things that you like, you know, it's like making people like fight for credit and all this sort of stuff.

And yeah, it's weird. It's a weird, it's a weird world that we're in. It's in this great world too. The unions are great, but it's also weird. But I,

you know, I think that there are versions of that that happen in the auto industry, you know, like people taking credit for other people's work and stuff. Now, did you go to college or did you, because you were, yeah, you did. I went to college. I went to NYU. I went to the school of education, graduated with a bachelor of science, but I was, what I was doing at NYU was I was going, I was in Chicago city limits, which is that improv group. And we were touring around the country. So basically my NYU was always off Friday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to always be on the road and making what I thought was a tremendous amount of money. But I think I'd come home

sometimes with like $300 from a weekend and I'm like, wow, only 300 bucks. What the fuck? The road is expensive. That's for sure. Yeah. What the fuck? The road is expensive. That's for sure. Yeah. When I graduated from NYU, I had already gotten involved at UCB. Sorry, CCL is what I was touring with. UCB is where I got involved. And I remember that I graduated at Carnegie Hall in the morning and then I took pictures of my parents and then brought them all down to a five-floor walk-up for the old UCB that was like on 17th Street above a hardware store to watch me do my first Herald. So that was like a cool day for me. Your first Herald. Wow.

My first Herald. That's pretty cool. Wow. Yeah, on the first team. Like Matt Besser, who was one of the founding members of the UCB, put together like one of the first Herald nights. Matt Besser, who is one of the founding members of the UCB, put together like one of the first Herald Nights. And the first Herald Night happened to coincide with the day I graduated from NYU. And so my parents literally went from Carnegie Hall to a five-floor walk-up in a 25-seat theater and being like, okay. Yeah, yeah. I remember that room. It felt more like some weird classroom that did ceramics or something.

Yeah, it was such a bizarre little space. I mean, tiny space. Yeah, in a rickety old building. But yeah, I remember that being like a great day. I was like, oh, I could get to do these two things. Did you wear your graduation robe and border board? I did not. I did not.

Because I also didn't want anyone to know I was still in college. I mean, that was the other thing too. I was the youngest, you know, and I think sometimes you get labeled as like the youngest so quickly and I, you know, you're trying to, I was, you know, uh, I was able to drink at that point. Yeah, I think it was, but just barely, I was just like 21. Um, and, and that's fine. And people like you, but you become a novelty too. So it's like, it's like better, like to be vague about your age and, you know, and save that for later. You want to be younger, older, but then you get lots of people that want to take your virginity and you can give it away numerous times. Yeah. So what happens when you go to this,

you go to UCB and then it's like, well, Chicago city limits is nice, but this is more where I want to be. Yeah. Well, to me, it was like, I love the comedy there. I was really inspired by what they were doing and UCB didn't pay. CCL did pay. And I remember having this like come to Jesus moment for myself where I was like, I'm having more fun.

I'm with more like-minded people. I think I'm doing better work. I need to stop doing CCL and start doing UCB as much as I can. It was amazing. I re I always remember one moment there, Kirk Douglas was on the show and it was after he had had a stroke. Uh he just saw it was a staring contest day on Conan. And he just saw this hallway like, you know, I'm in a whale costume. Somebody else is in this. And he was like, look, look at these people. Look at these people. Come out, everybody.

I want to see everybody. And he just was like, this is entertainment. This is amazing. Like just like overwhelmed by like this old school, like vaudeville thing that is happening around him. It was like, it's, it's like the backstage that they try to create at SNL.

When, you know, Lauren Michaels is walking back there and you see something that you keep a banana costume or whatever, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And it was so,

I don't know that that moment always stuck out to me. It was just a cool moment to see like Kirk Douglas, so appreciative of like, this is insanity. I love this. Well, that's, I mean, because it happens sometimes, you know, on the Warner brothers lot where, well, especially like when I, when my first show here in LA that I did, uh, uher Controls the Universe, was on the Paramount lot and they were shooting Star Trek. So there would be fucking Klingons in the commissary. I would see Klingons or Ferengi or whatever the fuck they're called smoking cigarettes, talking on their cell phones. And it just makes you feel like this is show business. Like, this is like, wow, there's a cowboy and there's a spaceman and

there's a show girl. And, you know, and it's the Pee Wee Herman thing of like, when he goes through the studio at the end, it's like, it's, it's never not fun to walk around. And it's the same thing in Kirk Douglas as it is in me when I can still to this day, go on the Warner brothers lot and just be like, holy shit, look at this. I'm on a studio lot. You know, I got to go on the set of like a big deal, like huge budget movie. And this is, you know, pre pandemic, but 2020. And I was like, giddy, giddy, like to see Because I was also like, we also work in a certain level.

And every now and then we get to do something that's cool and maybe a little bit bigger. Yeah, yeah. That's a little, yeah, a little more showy or has bigger money involved. Yeah. Yeah, but I've never really been on the set of like a $200 million movie. And then you go on there and. I haven't either as far as I know. Yeah, no.

There is an energy, I feel like, too, when you meet people on those sets they're just like oh yeah come look at this and this cool isn't cool like it's like you're you're showing people around your work there is something really fun about that every i mean well i hope that everybody in show business is still still excited by all of Now, was Human Giant the first thing that you did that got onto television? You know, the first thing that I did that really seemed to be like the game changer for me, I guess, would be Best Week Ever. Best Week Ever is like a VH1 show, like a talking head show, where you would go on and, like, they had I Love the 80s, I Love the 90s,

where that was like a retro show. You talk about, I remember the Rubik's Cube, you'd have to turn it. Our show was literally pop culture cliff notes of the week. It was actually, I think, such a great idea for a show

because it's all the stuff that you're commenting on in the moment what twitter has become and that was a show that kind of brought me uh a little bit of i'd be walking down the street in new york city people like best week ever you know and that show was super super popular um and uh and that would that brought me like a little bit of a cachet which was great and unbeknownst to me and then then I started doing stuff with Aziz and Rob and for fun, again, nothing serious, but we made these short films and, and the short films, uh, led us to getting an MTV show. And it was a very easy, it wasn't even a pitch because we had made

like three short films. And this guy who had seen the short films like live just brought him to his boss and the boss was like, yeah, let's make a pilot. And we did. And the boss was this guy, Tony DeSanto, who was responsible for the Hills and Andy Milonakis. So like his tastes were incredibly diverse. Like you go into his office, he had a replica of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre chainsaw and an autographed poster of Jersey Boys. So he was like a guy who you couldn't quite figure out where he was. And I loved him. He was like, I think he had more of the MTV aesthetic than anybody I ever met. And so he let us go make this thing. And we didn't even really think that much about it. I remember sitting with Aziz and saying to him, like, we were eating at the original Shake Shack,

which was in Union Square, not Union Square, Madison Square. And we're sitting there and we're just talking and he goes, do you think that the show will go? And I was like, never, never in a million years. Look at me, you and Rob. Like that's not MTV. Like no one makes sketch shows. No one's going to make a sketch. I was like, I was never, never, never. And then like literally that afternoon we got the phone call, they picked up our show. And we were sandwiched between 3-6 Mafia, who did a song on Hustle & Flow. 3-6 Mafia had a reality show, and it was us,

and Nick Cannon wilding out. That was the sandwich that we were in. We did great, and it was super fun. Was that one season? Two seasons. We shot in New York and L.A LA and we were picked up for a third. But what had happened was the only issue that we really had was that MTV at that point was such a girl or a female friendly audience. Like they were basically their main audience was 18 to 24 year old women.

And our show was bringing in in aggressive 18 to 34 year old male demographics. So they were like, your demo is amazing, but we've already pre-sold all of our ads to 18. So they cut hard cut out of like a guy like, you know,

fucking a whale into a Noxzema skin commercial. I was like, oh, these things are not colliding. But anyway, they were still supportive and they were like, let's do a third season. And at that point,

Greg Daniels and Mike Schur had reached out to Aziz and said, we want you to be a part of our new show. And that show was going to launch at the Super Bowl. Parks and Rec was going to launch at the Super Bowl, but then Amy Poehler got pregnant, and they kind of pushed it back. But we were kind

of under the impression that we wouldn't have Aziz if we were writing it. And, and in a very, like, if I look back on it now, I'm like, we're fucking idiots. And Aziz was right to say it too, at that point too, because it's like, we were like, well, we don't want to do the show in a way that we feel like would be compromised. And if Aziz can't be in the room, that's what the other show was written. The show was very much a communally written show. And we had great people there and we were like, we don't want to do it if we can't do it exactly the same way. if aziz is going to be busy we should have just said fuck it let's try it and if it doesn't work it doesn't work but we should just do it because we were we were getting

hot and figuring out how to do our show in a better way that second season and uh and we just we pulled the plug out of like artistic like no we leave on top uh or you know and and we don't sacrifice and and if we would have done it we would have no problems because Aziz didn't start shooting Parks and Rec for much, much later. Yeah, because I didn't I didn't know. I mean, I don't remember the chronology of it, but I because that's what I wonder, you know, because he did kind of pop out of that. You know, I mean, that became kind of a breakout thing for him. And I wondered if that was what caused the end of it. And I guess it did, but it didn't need to. As a matter of fact, Greg Daniels,

I remember saying to us, I will make room for him to do this. I'm going to fight for him to be able to, like he was very, like he understood that he was taking somebody from. Oh, that's good. Something that we were doing and was very conscious of saying,

no, no, I want to make sure that he can still slot into whatever you guys did. So there was no animosity. There was no, like, we hate each other. We can't do another season. There was no infighting in many respects. I'm glad we ended the season, the show after two seasons, because we left on the highest note that we could possibly have had. Um, and then, uh, the one fun side note to it was Ben Stiller had reached out to us to make a movie and we were very excited about this and we, and we kind of broke down this whole movie and we wrote it and we worked on this for like a couple of months and we had this whole thing.

And then, uh, Jason Walner was all on Jason Walner's, who was our director and also one of our, uh, writers. He directed Borat too. Uh, he, uh, we were on vacation working on this thing and we went out for dinner and our house was broken into. They stole his laptop, which had all of our notes for like two months on it. And we were like,

they stole our movie idea. And like, not like they stole it, like they're gonna do anything with it. Right, right. No, they literally stole it. And we were like, and we don't know what to do because we didn't remember. And then it was like a lot of like trying to remember what we had come up with and nobody wrote it down anywhere else yeah so we just all fucking bailed on it yeah yeah you know i think in that one year in between it

was a tricky moment because it's like that was before i got on the league and that was like okay well what am i gonna do now you know and you're watching Aziz go off and do his thing. And Rob, I think, was like, all right, what am I going to do? And we both were able to find our own things. But it was, I'm glad that it ended the way it did. Because I also could see a version of it that could have ended badly, I guess. And, you know, so who knows? And also, like you say, it's nice to have a show, and on a strong note, rather than peter out, you know, where you watch episodes and you realize everyone's quit. You know, they're still making the show, but they've quit.

Well, this is, yeah, this has been my, like my MO. And for better or for worse, like I did NTSF for four years on Adult Swim. And at the end of the fourth year, Karen Gillan had just gotten Guardians of the Galaxy. Kate Mulgrew was on Orange is the New Black. Martin Starr just got

Silicon Valley. June just got Grace and Frankie. And I was like, fuck. Like, that's our whole cast. I can come back and do this show and try to work around everybody's schedule, but is this show going to be as good

if I try to get new people in? And if I try to get new people in, will it be like, it just like became this thing of like, I don't know if this is possible. And so I said, I don't want to do any more of that. And with the league, we all made an agreement. We had done seven years of the league and FX was like, come back, let's do another season. And like, we did it. We did seven years. Like, what else do we got? You know, like we want to do other stuff. And, uh, at that point, Nick was doing a little bit less of the league cause he was working on the Kroll show. And, and the last season they were all working on, um, the house that will Farrell Amy Poehler movie. So it was like, Oh, I could see this thing. And yes, like, and you look at somebody like always sunny, who's still like year 14 and putting

out shows that people are, did you see that episode of Always Sunny? So they're like, it's able to happen. But we, I have had a tendency to always like plan to pull the plug on something a little bit earlier. It keeps the gene pool stronger. If you, if there's less shows, it just keeps it stronger. I mean, like, you know, Fawlty Towers, as iconic as that show is, how many, it's like 10 or something. If there were more,

it might it might have gotten tedious. You know, it's just like, well, look, even Chappelle shows like what three seasons in the state was like two seasons. Ben Stiller show was one season. You know, you look at all these shows that I or at least I remember Mr. Show was like four. Like, you know, you're looking at these things and it's like, oh, they're not going on for nine years. Not mash. We're not mashing these things, you know, you know, um, your wife, uh,

June Diane Raphael is a very talented, um, actor and writer. Yes, she is. And I'm sure people have asked you this before, but I mean, is that,

does that add extra wrinkles to your marriage to have you guys be both in the same, uh, fucked up industry? You know, I have to say there's something really great about it. Yeah. We try not to like make ourselves a duo or a pair.

You know, we do our podcast together. She was on NTSF, but we try very hard to have a separation of church and state just because I think that that's healthy. And, you know, I think there's something really amazing about having someone who is comedically funny. We can talk to the same language. You can say that is funny. That isn't funny that you're doing too much there. Pull it back. Like we can kind of have those conversations. So she becomes an ally and a help for me as well as I think I do for her. It's also tricky because sometimes if you're putting somebody on tape for an audition, you're like, I think that's too big.

Then you're like, wait, I'm a terrible actor. We're also parenting. We're also working weird hours. We are on shows and, and, you know, and, uh, it's, it's not a struggle, but it's always a conversation. It's like, we went away to Canada for, uh, four months, like a year ago when June was shooting long shot. And that was, you know, tough for me because I had to be out of LA. I couldn't see my friends and I was in fucking freezing cold, uh, Canada, which Montreal is beautiful. It was amazing city. People were lovely there, but I wasn't home. I was in an apartment. I was with the kids all the time. And, uh, it made me, you know, but like, you know, it was like, and it took me, and it took away all the things that I could even do here. Like I was more effective.

I'd be a more effective parent in LA when I know what the museums are and I can get, you know, it seemed like in Montreal, there was nothing for kids. Like it was almost aggressively like there was like one museum that kids could go to and like one playground park, like indoor park, like 40 miles away. It's like, besides that, we're just walking around Walmarts and targets, you know, like, all right, let's, let's go here again. And your kids are like four and six. Your kids are little, right?

Like a hundred percent. And back then when we were in Montreal, they were younger. It was like four and two, or maybe it was like, you know, or, or three and five. And it was worse. And I remember it was so fucking cold out. That was a thing. People always say like, why are you in Montreal? It's so cold.

It was like, it was, I was out. That was the thing. People always say like, why are you in Montreal? It's so cold. It was like, it was, I was like, what the hell is this? And so we were basically having, we had like, we, I bought them a bike at a,

like, you know, the Walmart, it was like, you know, $70 bike. And they were riding their bikes up and down the hallways in the apartment building. Cause it was too cold.

They didn't even do it outside. And that didn't make us any friends. Uh, but you know, uh, they also had a pool that was not heated and not that i'm like i'm not sure but like that's all my kids wanted to do is go in the pool and you have to be in a pool with these kids so like i'm free like i think i was

like just trying to get in the pool convince them of the beauty of the hot tub at this like with this condominium complex but that non-heated pool oh that made me so angry i had to be in that cold pool so many days in a row oh it was awful awful yeah yeah yeah now you um you've got lots of irons and lots of fires i try to keep it busy yeah do you is that just something is that sort of what your your personality is suited to that is it something that you do on purpose? I think so. You know, I would say it all actually, I want to give props to the Upright Sisters Brigade because I came to them as like a creative baby, right? I always feel like that's my grad school. Like I went there for my comedy education.

And I remember like Matt Besser, who was like my first teacher there, really preached this idea of you gotta be in it, you gotta write it, you gotta direct it, and you gotta produce it. And that idea of you gotta do every part of it. We would go out to Union Square, we'd pass out flyers during the day,

then we'd go to rehearse, and then we'd go do a show, and then we'd do it all again. And it was like meeting up for hours to do all this sort of stuff. And what is the title of a show gonna be? And how is a show title provocative? Like Adam McKay produced a show,

it was like George Bush is a motherfucker. Like, was the show really about George Bush? No, but it was a provocative title. You know, it was like burn millionaire burn when like who wants to be a millionaire? It was like all that kind of shit where you're just like, how do I make people come here? Because I'm not a name.

I'm not a thing that people want to come see. But if you like the title and you laugh at the title, will you come? So there's this idea of like, do it all. And then I think what I realized, maybe this is partially after the human giant of it all was what you have to have multiple things in the fire because you never know what's going to hit. And the times in my life when I have put one thing, all my attention on one thing, put all my money down on one thing, it's an incredible letdown

when it doesn't work out the way that you want it to or it ends before you thought it was going to, right? So you are like, and so I think there's a mechanism of me keeping myself upright and going, okay, well, if that falls apart, I got this other thing. I can go over here. And I, and I like exploring new mediums and trying different things. So like we did podcasts before that was a thing and doing this Twitch show. Cause it's like, well, why not? Like just playing around and keeping the energy of like,

let's just try it. Let's have fun. Let's just make it. Uh, cause I'd rather make something than not make something. And maybe you don't get to make it for the money that you wanted to, but you got to make the thing. Well, and you also you you collaborate with good people. I mean, like Jason Manzoukas and June, you guys do how did this get made, which is a I got to do once, which lends itself so well to a live forum, too. It's so fun. I got to do a live one of that what's your dream thing i mean what's where what's your sweet spot that you'd where you'd really like to be at and is it is it is it doing lots of stuff at once or if you could find one you know like

if you could become martin marty scorsese and robert de niro all at once would you want to just make your own, you know, mafia movies? Yeah. I think to me, there's a part of me that really loves, uh, the idea of making a great mafia movie.

No, the, uh, the, uh, but like of, of really, um,

I am obsessed with having like a production company to be able to help make ideas with people that I really am passionate about. And it's something that I've done in the past, uh, which is like help people get their ideas out. And I feel like, uh, I've been very lucky in this business to get helping hands given to me. Uh, and I like to, I'm not even doing it. I'm not doing it like, well, I, I just feel like that's part of what this world should be. Like we should all be helping everybody using our good relations. And I, I still benefit from that. I just did a documentary for Disney plus, and I work with this amazing team at supper club who do

chef's table. And they taught me so much about making a documentary film forever. Grateful to them, you know? So, so like, there's a part of me that's like, I definitely want to make sure that's a part of it, but where I'm the most happy is in when I did stuff like Human Giant and NTSF and this Disney doc where I'm like on camera, I'm behind camera, I'm writing. It's like it's like it's yes to what your point is. I guess I'd like to be doing the full service thing. I think like, you know, if you look at like Bill Hader with what he does with Barry or like, you know, you look at the way even Seth Rogen kind of like creates this. I think his production company is an amazing example of that stuff. So I just like collaboration, finding the right people and going like that. Let's work on that. And I've been lucky enough

throughout time. And if I look at the last year of the people I've worked with, I've worked with complete strangers because we've had a similar idea and that's actually paid off really great dividends. And I've worked with different people. So it's to me, it's always like follow the good idea and don't worry about where it's going to be successful or fail. Just have fun doing it because I think good work begets good work. And like a show like I'm on right now with Black Monday, which is with Don Cheadle and Regina Hall. And it's so fun. That's a crazy show. That's hilariously it just, it takes place on another planet, which is one of the things I love the best.

But what I love about that show is working with that group of people, David Kasp and Jordan Cahan who created it. They're so open to ideas and working on stuff. So that to me is incredibly fulfilling. The League was improvised. Incredibly fulfilling. So I'll take it wherever I can get it. Like, I just like being heard and being involved, you know? And I think that that, yeah. And like, and I think about like that idea of what you were saying too. It's like, you're working on something. I'm putting 110, I'm putting 110% of myself in it. So let me be,

can I get in it? Like, can I please like, like, you know, offer up some, I have things to offer. So I just, I don't like not being a part of the process. I feel like being a part of the process, you learn so much about how to make yourself even better. I think long answer. Sorry. No, that's okay. Well, because, but it kind of, you know, glide, it elides into the next question, which is

like, you know, what's the point of it all? And it sort of sounds like that's, that's your point is to keep busy and keep working, collaborating. Do good work with good people. And by the way, it doesn't always have to end in success. The minute you lose that, and I always look to people, look, I look to you, I look to people like Will Ferrell, I look at people like Seth Rogen. Like you see that everybody kind of is popping up.

Like, oh, I want to do that. Yeah, cool. Fun people, let's do this thing. Like, you know, it's the people that I'm worried about that are like, Oh no, I can't get on stage. I don't, I don't do that. I, you know, it's like, you still got to take those chances and you still have to feel alive and see what's going on. And, and, uh, and eat shit every now and then too. I mean, by the way, eating shit is fine. Like, you know, none of it really matters. Ultimately, you know, that's the thing I always it's all i mean yes it there's

money involved and yes it's your life and yes it's your job but ultimately you know like it's it doesn't matter just like and also too you got to just believe you can keep doing it you keep moving forward you got more absolutely you know somebody early on and early on in my career somebody did a bit that i used to do to audition to get on a TV show. But when no one had gotten any work yet and people were so offended on my behalf and I was like, I can make more. That's fine. God bless him. Go get a job, whatever. You know, this little bit that I didn't, you know, he probably did it better than I did anyway. But it's like I can make more. It doesn't matter.

Well, there's something that like this is kind of off of that, but I think in the same realm, I did a movie with Harold Ramis and I'm loved Harold Ramis, right. You know, just to be like, I am a huge Ghostbuster fan. And that was like a seminal movie for me as a kid. So Harold was one of the nicest, best guys I had ever really interacted with in the sense that he gave a shit and would sit down every night and tell you a story. Like, and it was the best stories of all time. It was like all the people you wanted to like, he was not shy about his legacy and what he had done. Uh, so cool about it. And, you know, he said, you know, the problem sometimes in this business is people think that fame is finite. And he's like, and it's not. And once you understand that, you can be a happier person. And it's and there is a truth to that. Like you look over and you go, oh, what they're doing that. I wish I could do that. Or they took that away from me. I didn't get to do that. And, you know, it's not as if, well, it's a limited resource, like plenty to go around. Yeah. I mean, if you told me 10, 15 years ago that the dad from Malcolm in the Middle would be,

you know, this now seminal actor that everybody is trying to get, like, like the way that people's careers take it, It's, it's Bob Odenkirk. Yeah. Fucking Bob Odenkirk. It's wild. And, you know, and like the whole thing with, I remember like, uh, what was it like? Oh man. It was, I remember like hearing stories and you hear like these missed opportunities and

you think like, oh, I wish I would've gotten that when I didn't get SNL. I was so upset. Like I didn't get SNL. God damn it. And, uh, and I auditioned there for three times, but if I got SNL, I would never gotten human giant. And I guarantee you, I grew more and I learned more and I did better work because of human giant than I ever would have done an SNL. No knock on SNL, but when you can control the whole project and everything is your voice, it's a bet. It's good. It will be a better experience, even if it isn't coming with a cachet

of SNL. Cause I think there's a cachet where it's like, well, he was on SNL, she was on SNL. So we got to put him in this movie. But anyway, so yeah, so I think it's you're right. It's just like, pick it up, figure it out. And you never know what is going to hit with the thing that I always think I'm like, well, that may work. Like, I didn't know about the league, the league, the tremendous success of the league has been mind blowing to me, I would never have. Like, sure, maybe, but you don't know. You don't know what hits. You don't know what people remember you from. And no one does.

No one has figured it out. If everyone had, then they will have only, you know, there'd be no failures. And the biggest people have failures. Well, it's time to wrap it up and say, thank you so much for doing this, Paul. It's been great to talk to you. My pleasure.

As I've been said to other people, this is like one of the things during COVID that I like about doing this is that I get to talk to somebody, you know? Oh, thank God. I know. Right.

Doesn't it feel amazing? Like I sometimes feel so cooped up here just with my wife and my kids. It's like, I'm just dying to like go out of that realm. I talked to grownups today. Yeah. All right, Paul. Well, thank you so much. All right.

And God bless. Thank you so much. And keep up the good work and tell June I said hi, but don't say a word to those kids. I will. I won't say a goddamn word to them. All right. And all of you out there, thanks for listening.

And we will be back next week with more Three Questions. I've got a big, big love for you. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Earwolf production. It's produced by me, Kevin Bartelt, executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Chris Bannon and Colin Anderson at Earwolf. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, associate produced by Jen Samples and Galit Sahayek, and engineered by Will Becton.

And if you haven't already, make sure to rate and review The Three Questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. Yay! This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.