The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Sam Richardson

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Actor Sam Richardson talks with Andy Richter about splitting time between Detroit and Ghana growing up, the power of live improv, pitching Detroiters with longtime friend and collaborator Tim Robinson, and why niceness can be both an asset and a trap.

Hello, Internet. This is Andy Richter, and you are listening to The Three Questions, which is a podcast, which you probably, you know all this. I don't even know why I'm wasting your time. But I mean, considering that there's a pandemic on, you probably have lots of time. I know I do. I mean, I'd rather be doing something else.

I'd rather be outside living my life. Well, anyway, I got Sam Richardson here. I'm very, I'm kidding. I'm very happy to have you here. I'm very happy to have a here. I'm very happy to have a fellow Midwesterner Ghanaian citizen like yourself here. Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. Do you have Ghanaian citizenship? I just sent in for my dual citizenship this week.

Nice. Yeah. And timely. Oh, yeah. It's definitely like looking for that ripcord if need be. Because, oh, boy. Yeah, no, because, I mean, for people that don't know, your mother's from Ghana, correct? Your mom? Correct.

And Conan did one of the – Conan that his uh conan without borders yeah yeah whatever the fuck he went to ghana and so that was that must have been pretty fun you know it really was i hadn't been back to ghana in years and years over 10 years oh wow yeah and so that was a chance for me to get back and then they could do it with with uh conan and like a full crew i felt like a big shot coming home yeah yeah now you're legit people think you know he's real showbiz they can tell i wore sunglasses the whole time and i mean yeah it's and it's always nice to have somebody foot the bill for you to go, you know, like. Yes, it is.

To get to like a trip that has the personal side, you know, side benefits. And did you stay longer then or did you kind of come and go with the Conan crew? I came in with the Conan crew. Yeah. kind of come and go with the Conan crew? I came and went with the Conan crew. Yeah. I had to get back to a movie that I was filming.

So I had to like... The timing worked out perfectly. I'm also a big shot movie star. I know, I know. You get to say like, I would love to stay Aunt Doris. But Hollywood calls. I have a movie. I would love to stay, Aunt Doris.

But Hollywood calls. Yeah, I have a movie. Yeah, because if I went home to see my folks, I think about three days I'd be left alone. All right. I mean, I got to go home and watch a movie. What did you say? A movie? Oh, it's a movie.

Movies exist, so I have to go back to L.A. Yeah, yeah. Do you have a good relationship with everybody back there? I do. It was like we jumped right back on track. Some family members I hadn't seen in so many years. We got there, and it's like we didn't skip a beat. We were just right back to everything.

It was really great. That's really and does your does your mom live there uh my mom is there like essentially like half of the year so in fact she's there right now uh my dad's in detroit right now but my mom is in ghana uh and so she's she's back and forth all the time and they're still your folks are? Yes, my parents are still married. Well, that keeps it fresh when mom goes away for six months. Yeah, exactly. I was certain that my parents, when I was a kid, I was like, maybe they're in the CIA. I was like, maybe.

And they're just not telling me. Yeah, you go to the kitchen junk drawer and find a silencer. Like, what's this thing? Like, it's a straw. It's a straw. Don't worry about it. How did you folks meet? How did a Detroiter, and we'll get to that later.

That's the name of one of Sam's shows. I'm really good at interviewing. And a Ghanaian meet meat was she going to school or something uh no i'll get i'll give you the shorter version so it doesn't take up the whole podcast time i got i got time i don't have anything else to do yeah me either honestly uh well so my dad uh worked for uh the burger king corporation uh and then like it was uh he retired from burger king after like he set up like a the first burger king in harlem like in the early 70s wow and then moved back to detroit bought a house with his like uh uh like whatever severance earnings whatever his earnings with his cash,

a bag of cash. Yeah, yeah. His BK cash. His BK cash. They were like, you're the king for the day. And he bought a house in Detroit. And then one day his phone rings

and he answers it. And this woman's like, hey, is Karen there? And he's like, Karen, yeah, I just landed from Ghana. I just got back from Africa. I just got back from Africa. And this is the number I was supposed to call to come pick me up. My dad's like, Karen, yeah, I just landed from Ghana. I just got back from Africa.

I just got back from Africa, and this is the number I was supposed to call to come pick me up. My dad's like, Africa? And then talked on the phone with this woman for an hour, and then was like, you know what? I'm going to come pick you up. And so he goes to the airport, picks her up from the airport, and then she's like, you got to go to Ghana. You got to go to

Africa. Trust me, Africa's amazing. You go, you got to look for this guy named Mr. Wiafi. He loves Americans. Just go to Africa. My dad's like, okay. So he flies to Africa. Is the woman from Africa? No, she's a U.S.

She's a woman from, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so he flies to Africa, travels all over West Africa, and then ends his time in Ghana. Looks for Mr. Wiafi. Goes to Mr. Biafi's office, goes for a meeting with him. And he's busy, but starts chatting up the secretary. And on his way out, Mr. Biafi's like, why don't you meet me for dinner? I'm busy right now, but I'd love to see you here for dinner.

And so he's on his way out. He talks to the secretary. He's like, hey, I'm in town for another week or so uh why don't we get some dinner and so she's like yeah for sure yeah he goes to dinner uh and he's led into mr riafi's house uh sits at the table and mr mr riafi's sitting there his wife his uh kids uh two of his daughters one of whom is a secretary and that was my mom oh wow spent the rest of their time together the two of his daughters, one of whom was a secretary, and that was my mom. Oh, wow. And so they spent the rest of their time together, the rest of his

time in Ghana together, like every day, then went back to Detroit. They would rendezvous in London, and then back in Ghana and Detroit. Wow. Then London, back in Ghana and Detroit. Then London again, then they both moved to Detroit. That's like a hallmark.

Truly it is. How many kids did your folks end up creating? Only me. I'm my mom's only child. My dad had three kids previous. From a previous? Oh, okay. Yes.

So you have half siblings. I have half siblings. Yeah, yeah. Did you grow up with them in the house? No, not exactly no not exactly uh like there's at least 14 years difference between uh all of us but between between me and my sisters close to my age and my brother's uh 16 years older and my other brother's 21 years older than me wow so yeah yeah not not a lot of uh wrestling the backyard. Yeah. Yeah. Now that. Yeah, that's yeah. That's like having you know, they had they had a.

I don't know. It's did you did you have that situation where you like you were an eight year old uncle? Yes. Yeah. Yes, I had. I have. There's in my family. There's some of that where like my cousins, like this little kid would come over and my cousins would be like, that's our uncle. Like, wait, that seven-year-old is your uncle? Yep. Okay. It sure is. I got to put my uncle to bed real quick.

He's having a temper tantrum. Yeah, yeah. And you lived in Detroit your whole life then? Yeah, my. And you lived in Detroit your whole life then? Yeah, I lived in Ghana for like first and second grade. I lived in Ghana just fully. Oh, yeah. And I would go back and forth sometimes like twice a year before that and after that up until high school. And then in high school, I couldn't go back and forth as much as my parents would go, but I would, you know, cause it's, it's hard to like take a work packet for high school and then be gone for like two months, you know?

Uh, so I wouldn't go as often or I wouldn't go hardly at all. I maybe went twice between from when I was in high school to like full adulthood. to like full adulthood uh and then i went for my cousin's wedding when i was 20 no sorry when i was when i was no yeah when i was 20 i went for my cousin's wedding uh and then i went last year yeah yeah but now when you when you were when you went in grade school and were and were went to grade school there were your was your dad still in detroit did they kind of split time he would come back and forth yeah but so he didn't like live he had businesses to run and things here yeah i see and then my parents ran a tour uh company so they would bring tourists from detroit uh to ghana oh nice uh and Detroit to Ghana. Oh, nice. And take them around. Yeah, it's called Lifestyle Tours.

Lifestyle. Yeah, I know. It sounds like a swinger thing. Like a swingers. Oh, my God. Wait a minute. The dots are connecting. That's why they were all so sexy.

Oh, they weren't playing volleyball. I don't even know what that means. It's because they were all sweaty and covered in sand. Well, I mean, were you always a funny kid? Or was it a funny house? Are your folks funny? My folks aren't really funny. But I was a funny kid i didn't even

kind of realize it because i would always do kind of bits and jokes but like with my family they would always like not really get it and so they i would always like do a joke and then i'd get like a lecture on like why it wasn't like true what i said but I was like well yeah I'm kidding here you know but my cousin Dwayne would always get my jokes and he would like just fall out laughing and I'm like oh thanks Dwayne but every time I was like but like it was lectures

and lectures your parents are like early internet trolls nagging internet trolls that's not real i know uh yeah now do you think that split your time back and forth between detroit and ghana like did it like was it hard to assimilate either or as you're kind of switching back and forth it was and i think that's also like part of where my funny came from. Yeah.

Because, yeah, I felt like when I would come to Detroit or back to Detroit or whatever, I was like the African kid. And when I would go to Ghana, I was the American kid. Yeah, yeah. And like my accent was like kind of like a mix between the two for a while. Uh-huh. Like I would say like waste bin and strawberry and like, you know, or rubbish. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know? And in like Ghana, my cousins and my aunts, everybody would make fun of me because I would be like, oh, butter. And they're like, oh, what? It's butter. It's stupid. Yeah, yeah. like oh butter and they're like oh what it's butter stupid yeah yeah so like it was always like a uh between like straddling over two fences but like yeah sitting on it but do you think i mean is there is there like a tangible difference and just kind of like in what schools like like what the group i mean are a group of kids the same anywhere you know a group of kids are pretty much the same anywhere i in ghana i

went to an american school i went to a lincoln community school and so there was kids it was an international school really but it was like established by americans and so like my best friends were kind of from everywhere like my best friend Parshant was Indian my friend Alex was from Canada my friend Gert was from uh was was Dutch you know I could say uh my friend Sophie was French like so I had like a whole world of people and then I'd go home my family was all Ghanaian like everywhere was Ghana so I got like a real you know view. Yeah. Even if it's from kids. It's an enviable experience. You know, it's like I think that it's probably, you know, you might have been a complete asshole otherwise.

Yeah, exactly. And I still was because I was like, this is international, but this is my territory. So you all are visiting my home. Yeah, yeah. Take it easy exactly gert jan meyer pay me dues um did you have a preference when you were little when i was little i was all about coming to america i was like yeah the movie and like the life uh i i was i was it was was the things that were most important to me were the ninja turtles mcdonald's and just like summertime in america like i that's why i was like it's gotta i will that's all i want and yeah it's kind of yeah it is like uh it is like American culture does kind of – it does big stuff right.

Yes, it does. It's like, yeah, fucking hamburgers and Coca-Cola and Steven Spielberg movies. They're all kind of undeniable in all this. Nothing you can do about it. Yeah. Well, did you – growing up, did you have an idea what you kind of wanted to do with your life? Did you have an idea, you know, did you feel pushed in any way? Honestly, no, I really didn't.

I thought I was going to go into like business, you know. My grandfather was like a big business man. He like industrialized a lot of Ghanaana and like west africa oh okay and he was uh he was like a member of parliament in ghana and and he was a chief and so i was it was like oh i think maybe i'm gonna go into it seemed like the thing and i and i always love money so like it seemed like that was the thing so i was gonna go into like business and i was like i'm gonna make a corporation i'm gonna be like a big time businessman with like a suit on and like a briefcase full of money yeah but then i'm like also like very lazy so like

yeah so i didn't really start getting into the idea of actually acting. Like, I loved comedy, and I loved, you know, I loved singing, and I loved theater, and I loved all these things. But the idea of doing theater didn't, like, really hit me until my dad took me to see the show Dreamgirls was touring, and it came to Detroit. And so he took me to see that and I was blown away. Really? Because like the music was amazing. They did these quick costume and set changes, which even talking about right now, I get like goosebumps

because like it was like in a snap, it was a whole nother set. And I was like, this is fully magic. Like I was enthralled. Did it have any of the big names? Like was Jennifer Holliday or anybody? Or was it like support yeah yeah like a touring cast he's a touring cast yeah and i guess this would have been in probably like

95 oh yeah of course yeah so it's it's a revival in at any rate yeah yeah exactly yeah it's like before the movie and like well after the actual play yeah so it's like hey keep dream girls alive and i'm glad they did uh and like i i didn't like really consider it like a thing that you could do i went to a very small middle school they were like maybe 16 kids in my graduating class you know so like we didn't have like a theater program or anything uh like one time like the music class did like hms pinafore with like all the classes and all the grades and it was just like in the commons it was like a very small thing but i was like yeah sure whatever but i got to high school uh uh there was a theater program and i i was i didn't realize

it was like a thing i went to end up going to an all high school, and I didn't realize it was all boys until a couple weeks before. Who keeps that information from you? Your folks? My folks, essentially. Again, my parents were going to move to Ghana, and I was going to go to boarding school in London. And then last minute, they were like, no, we're going to stay in Detroit. And I had taken the entrance exam to u of e jesuit high school uh and i was gonna ask is it catholic yeah it's catholic yeah yeah are you are you i am not oh and your folks aren't yeah uh my my mom was but now my

parents were episcopalian oh. Oh, okay. Catholic light. Catholic light, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Diet Catholic. Yeah. So I'm sorry, but anyway, so you get to high school and you have... I get to high school and then I'm at football practice and a bus pulls up to my school and it's full of girls. And I was like, what?

And they go into the commons. So I'm like, I got to go find out what's going on. They're just like, what is everybody here for? They're like, play auditions. So I auditioned for the play, and then I got in. And can you do football and play at the same time? I couldn't. So I dropped out of the football team immediately.

Good choice. Yeah. You know, like, from there to here, I definitely wouldn't, like, have a Super Bowl ring. Right. But probably many concussions. So what, when you start doing theater, well, first of all, in your school, is the football to theater transition frowned upon in any way? Not really, because I went to an all-boys school. So a lot of the posturing that comes from co-gendered or, you know.

Co-ed, yeah. Co-ed, yes. Yeah. From co-ed school isn't there. So, like, everybody was just like pals, you know. Yeah, yeah. So you do the play and be like yeah sure yeah football team yeah sure and like even later on honestly like our our uh our director of the musicals was a man named father ron torrina uh and he was the foot he was

a he was the high he was the uh college guidance counselor or the college counselor and he would oftentimes suggest to members of the football team that they should try the musical out to help diversify their resume, their transcript,

their applications. And so we'd get football players on there and they would fall kind of fall in love with it because it was like a fun thing, you know? Yeah, yeah. And of course we would always accept and then like, but like it was never like a transition

like in the movies, like in, what's the, like in 21 Jump Street, you know know where like they get separated and one goes to the football team one goes to the play it was never really that yeah yeah yeah

but also too you're like in a you're in a city and like we were in the country and football it was a big deal you know it was I mean I didn't watch a lot of friday night nights but or friday night lights but it was kind of like that where it was a big big deal yeah and and and like you know and like there were kids that like if i've talked about this on here before but

like if you're big and you didn't play football it was look like what what whoa why would you you know as if yeah you know it's just a full waste yeah it's like as if you were like wasting food or something yeah why are you not doing and it's like you know i ended up i just ended up quitting when there was a we got a new varsity coach who wanted us to come in five nights a week for two hours to do weight training and run wind sprints. And was like, now it's optional because it was illegal to force kids to do that in summer. He said, it's optional. And I think you all know what optional means. And I was like, I went home and I told my mom and my stepdad and god bless him they're like

oh you're gonna quit aren't you like it's just like i'm not giving my summer to you you know like yeah man five days a week yeah yeah and there again like i did not have what it took yeah i got a job at the grocery store instead. See, there you go. Yeah, yeah. In my head, I also imagine a guy who's got a clipboard and is just huffing and puffing to get up and down the field. It's like, you guys got to do sprints nonstop. Cough, cough, cough.

Yeah. Sit down. This guy was not that. No. This guy was like a – he had been kind of a he had played kind of big time college ball but he threw out his knee i see so he he ended up being a coach and uh and one one really fun aspect of him was that he in college as a you know like he and he would openly say it like he took badminton just as like a blow-off course and fell in love with badminton and then

and then in gym he would like like i would say 30 of your gym year was playing badminton badminton yeah and i mean i played tennis and i was good. And my best friend was a really talented athlete. So the coach would he would insist that he it was like it was like we would keep him entertained. Me and my friend Dave would play him and this and he would he picked this kid that that had learning disabilities and probably would in today's world would have been at a different school. probably would in today's world would have been at a different school but it was like the coach picked jeff and then dave and i would play and we played every day he would just play with us and he'd get really mad because dave and i both knew uh if you hit to his backhand side he can't turn because that's his bad knee yeah so it's like it's like, it was like we just kept hammering the thing that kept him from glory. Ruined his life. Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have let us know about that. And we'd hit it to his backhand side and he'd go like, oh!

Like just so mad because he knew he couldn't get it. Never show weakness, coach. I know, I know. Now, did you feel like you were a standout in in the theater department of your school and did you get acknowledged as such i did i like i i i i did like the kids the other students would always be like man yeah you're funny i was like also a funny kid in class and like yeah you know so take that to the theater thing they like my friends would come to see the play is just for me and stuff.

And I guess like a kind of like a standout there. So, yeah, I kind of get a knowledge. And at the same time, I was also taking classes at Second City in Detroit. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. In high school. When I was 16, I took my first Second City classes.

In fact, I turned 16 while taking classes. Wow. So, yeah, I was. like second city classes or in fact i turned in fact i turned 16 while taking classes wow so yeah i was uh so i was like already kind of into the getting into it yeah now can second can second city put you on stage at that age or is it just it's just purely for yeah for class just yeah purely for classes uh and like every now and then i'd get up and i'd do like an improv jam you know yeah but like also trying to hang back i'm like i'd get up and i'd do like an improv jam you know yeah but like also trying to hang back i'm like i clearly i know that i don't know some of the like if you get into a scene about an office i'm fully guessing what adults do at work yeah so like it will be to no one's benefit were you treated like you know having doing you know getting into things beyond class

were you like treated like a mascot a second city kind of mascot and stuff or uh uh not entirely yeah uh i i uh i i was just like kind of start and at that point i just kind of started classes i got into them real heavy when I was in college. And, and then I was like old enough to, you know, I, I seemed like an adult. I think I did.

Yeah. And I, I also like, I was like a mainstay at the bar from like age 18. Really? Yeah. Yeah. No one was questioning.

Did they serve you? Oh, that's sweet. Yeah. Oh my God. 18 and you got a bar that Did they serve you? No one was questioning. Did they serve you? Oh, that's sweet. Yeah, that was back in the day. 18 and you got a bar that they'll serve you. That's pretty great. I was a full-on regular. I would go there.

I would spend like three to four days a week at that bar. And then I had my 21st birthday there. And the owner was like, happy birthday, Sam. How old are you? was like i'm 21 george and he's like you son of a bitch he was so mad oh that's great that's great can't kick me out now that's really great so so you i mean it's not a it's not a uhfetched thing for you to start to think about doing this professionally since you're so kind of immersed in it, which is a unique experience. Yeah, truly. In fact, I dropped out of college because I was doing shows at Second City.

I was about to be in understudy. I was doing shows at second city i was like i was about to be in understudy i was doing shows at second city at that time and i was doing shows at the theater called planet ant theater which is like in hamtramck which is a small city oh you know hamtramck yeah yeah so i was there's a theater called the planet ant and it's still there uh where i was like doing shows and it got to be the point where i was having a hard time managing both college theater and like professional theater and second city. So I was like,

well, I'm going to leave college. Right. Uh, and, uh, it was definitely, I was like scared to do that,

but yeah, I was just having so much fun and I could like really see a path. Like there was was a real you know uh that that there was a an objective that i could clearly see and i was like oh i want to be on the main stage of second city detroit and like from there i want to be on uh the main stage in where i want to be on the vegas main stage and then i want to be on the chicago main stage well these things seem like very far-fetched but i was like you know but at least it was like a path i could see you know and then were there people in detroit who you knew like that had gone on and were making their

living at this yeah yes uh keegan uh there was a group called the 313 it had keegan michael key in it naima funk uh larry joe campbell uh like a bunch of of detroit uh yeah yeah expats would come and they would do shows in in uh in there because they were all second city alumni and then they were they would come back to detroit and do shows and like and they would sometimes like do workshops and stuff so i could like clearly see them in that path and then i could do that and stuff. So I could like clearly see them in that path. And then I could do that. And there was something at, at second city calls.

It was like belovedly called by, by, by the black cast members and things. We call it the Jerry C minor underground railroad. Because. Jerry minor. Yeah. Yeah.

Cause we, cause you knew that if you were a black cast member in detroit could which had like a lot of black you know performers yeah that they would need diversity in chicago so you would kind of go from there and kind of get fast-tracked through the chicago system yeah uh so i went from detroit uh i got hired to do a cruise ship. So I worked on a cruise ship for a year for Second City. Oh, wow. And then they took me to Chicago to do the touring company.

Yeah, yeah. And then I did two years in the touring company and then the main stage for two years. And, I mean, that's not to say that I just went through because I was like, oh, easy peasy. Oh, no. I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's the same thing.

I mean, for my, well, when I was doing improv in Chicago, coming up through Chicago, because I was from there, I just had the benefit of being from there. And then my skill set was sort of suited to it. It was just geographical happenstance that worked out really nicely. But it was, you know, it's all a bunch of white guys named Mike, you know, I mean, it was, it was a few Chris's. Yeah. Yeah. It was just, it was fairly white men. So what would happen is that, is that women would kind of get the, a kind of, uh, like you say,

a fast track, like a woman coming through ImprovOlympic who is talented, would kind of get put on a team faster than, you know, a sort of equally equally promising guy, which always. But, you know, but if you suck, you suck. You know, like you might. They need. Yeah. it's not anyone's fault well that's arguable i was gonna say it's not anyone's fault it's mostly white men it's society's fault but you know but i mean but it's like the the you know sharna helpers and dell closer giving classes it's not like they're turning away right anybody it just it's like yeah no it's the point is is that yeah

you can you know because of needing something other than white men on stage yes you're not a white man you you might get there but you got to stay there you know you staying there is is on you yeah yeah exactly and like just uh if you have to actively, like, like there's so, it's, it's so difficult to flourish. You know what I mean? Like I would like, like even playing on improv teams in, in Detroit and in Chicago, well, you know, you'd get an improv team and you'd be with seven white guys and they'd always just try and like unconsciously or subconsciously or whatever they'd be like oh well the the tone is is typically white guys are regular and everything else is a little something extra you know and i'm like i don't live my life like i'm not gonna call myself a white person with a bunch of extras you know what i mean right right yeah you're not yeah you don't like walk around all the time being like i'm black you know what i mean right right yeah you're not yeah you don't like walk around all the time being like i'm black you know i'm a black person what's going on you know like

comedy comedy definitely does that where it happens in improv is like an improv in an instant you have to be able to be anything yeah you know what i mean and like they wouldn't let you do that so so it'd be like in an improv scene it's like all right well we're three guys in an office but he's the office black guy and i'm like well all right that is its own scene but there's so many things it shouldn't always just be relegated to that like i'm able to play a plethora of things and like also that it comes with what your assumption of what black culture and black world means. So I'm, I'm improvising with three people.

You, they don't know what actually it is. So everything they put on me is an assumption or a, like a stereotype or some sort of thing that could be true or could be, you know, something they've completely made up. But now I have to spend the scene either justifying or kind of like trying to like curve it to not be that. And so I'm like doing three times the work to make sure that I show up and not just be relegated to whatever their idea was.

Yeah, because they've told you what you are and that's not what you're supposed to do and then for you to make it about something more it like you say it's it's extra work and for me the basic thing is you know one of dell closest things i think his thing was i think it was the third choice like you'd say like there's the like when you're presented with something you get an obvious choice and then the second choice is just sort of the 180 of that choice and it's in the third choice that like the discovery starts yeah and and being on stage with a black person and going like hello black person that's like first choice that's just like first choice and and it's just like it just it's boring let's get to something new and different you know and you know and also we're supposed to be living in a in a society where everyone

gets treated the same you gotta live it to do you know you gotta treat you can't just like you know it's like you know like hello woman or you know hello gay person or you know it just right how about hello person you know exactly and because because i'll say like like black like my blackness dave spiel's blackness like our blackness is it it is who we are and it is our identity you know it it it is like how we live in and view the world through this that that that the the circumstances that happen as a black person, what the world you see as a black person, how the world treats you.

These are all the truths. So as a performer also, it's important to, you have to tell that truth. But I think the hard part, I guess the difference for like a stand-up and improv is like through committee improv is through committee and so everybody then gets a say on my blackness in an improv scene yeah and i'm like you don't know you know what i mean yeah yeah so that's uh that that so that that is definitely uh there's no escaping the image that a person sees of me when I'm performing an improv scene.

You know what I mean? And escape maybe is the wrong word. It's not to say like, oh, what a terrible thing. I wish I could hide it. No, I'm not saying that. I know what you – yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's definitely – I am able to perform in improv scene.

I can't do this in like a movie or like a – maybe I can do it in voiceover. I can be – in improv scene, I can be anything. If I want to be a robot, if I want to be an alien, I can be an alien a french woman yeah yeah you know a french woman hi so they're more able to accept the idea in a scene that i am a robot from planet xenon but not that i'm a black ceo of a company you know what i mean yeah like why is that the the point where it's it's you know what i mean i know yeah and like that's not you know what I mean? I know, yeah. And, like, that's not. Well, and I also, I mean, I can sit here and say, you know, why not make it about something other than blackness?

And it's, like, easy for me, whitey, to say, you know, like, you know, can it be about something else? And it's, like, totally not for me to say, you know, based on a black performer or even like a show like chapelle show me going like couldn't something be couldn't it be about something other than blackness you know well what the fuck do i know it's not it's totally not my perspective and i'm just and i and i you know i think in my mind, I'm saying it as a comedy. He should be free to say whatever he wants.

Right. As a comedy professional and television producer thinking like, how can we always be doing something new and interesting? Because for me, the, you know, the kryptonite is boring. Just don't make it boring. Don't make it something I've seen before. And so it falls into that you know like like but but there again it's like it's more than just like the fact that it's it's a it's a trope you know it's yeah yeah and and also too it's like it's suck it's like you're

making blackness a trope you know what i mean like you know the way that you're making it like the fat guy's a fat guy it's like no it's it's like it's a little more a little weighty dare i say uh than that so um yeah and also too it's it's i mean i've seen this repeatedly especially and in in comedy spaces even you know forget chicago out here you know they're white spaces they're frequently white spaces and you can just yeah you can just see like like the thing it's just like like the white writer when the black writer is hired and comes in the white writer that just can't just just can't shut up just just oh fuck man don't don't say it don't say it you know don't say like just like just the you know the dopiest kind of you know like like talking about hip-hop or

something it's just you know exactly it's like i know how to connect yeah yeah yeah and because you just you just know that like there's just like the guys with like that in the same room as a black person are just like there's like in their mind going he's black he's black he's black he's black he's black you know what do i say what do i say i don't want to do this wrong. I don't want to make a mistake. You know, which is exactly that. And I think that is the key. Right. Because they're like, oh, he's black.

He's black. He's black. He's black. I better treat him. What do I how do I treat him instead of being like, OK, he's black. Great. I'll just be conscious of like, make sure that I'm not I am not making assumptions on him that are my own. And I'm not hindering him because of these things.

Yeah. But, you know, you got to, yeah, you got to acknowledge, you know, like you got to acknowledge a person's sex, a person's sexuality. You got to acknowledge their history. You got to acknowledge, history you got to acknowledge you know there's things you acknowledge but then you just you know yeah yeah exactly just be normal folks i guess that's what we're saying i think that's the that's the headline here be normal be normal you weirdos can't you tell my loves are growing so then how does i mean do you end up oh you well you were on the cruise ship and then you come back to main stage and are i mean do you start to feel like i i gotta push more i gotta do more i gotta well yeah like like so i i came back uh and i i moved from the cruise ship to chicago for the

for the touring company and i'm like oh this is great i'm having fun i'm having fun but even on the cruise ship i was like i like i got what i needed out of second city i'm gonna move to la and then they're like oh why don't you join the they want you understudy the touring company and i was like no i'm gonna move to la they're like join the touring company? And I was like, no, I'm going to move to LA. They're like, join the touring company. So then I was like, okay, okay. You're like, I do like riding around in a van. So maybe I will join the touring company.

That sounds great. I do like high school gyms. So did you do any high? I didn't mean, I don't know what tour company is, but that's, yeah. Yeah, we would do like all, we did high school gyms. did you do any i didn't mean i don't know what tour company is but that's yeah i uh uh yeah we would do like all we did high school gyms we did uh casinos one time we did a uh there was a marathon and they made us like a booth like a like a a stage on a stop on the marathon oh and it was

like the worst show i've ever done in my life. Oh my God. I can't even believe that. Yeah. Like you're talking about like, how are you able to establish a scene when people are literally running by you? So you are like, who's going to get the setup and punch. If you're like either you're hearing,

you're hearing 15 second clips and it was clips and uh it was a mess and also it was a mess here no one can probably hear you at all no one can hear we were outside the sound was just going straight up into the heavens it was the sloppiest messiest thing i've ever been a part of yeah although that at a certain point becomes freeing because you're just like, well, I mean, you know. Yes. And you're just laughing. Yeah. It's like the house is on fire.

I guess I'm going to burn and then I'll just move on. Exactly. Let's make ash angels. From Turco, I mean, was that fun? Did you enjoy it or did it get rough? I did. I really love Turco because, I mean, I've been to every state now except for Alaska. Oh, wow. And, I mean, I didn't go to Hawaii with Torco, but I...

You've been to Hawaii. I've been to Hawaii. I shot a little movie called Mike and Dave, New Wedding Dates. You know what? Just say you've been to Hawaii. No, well, it might be the way to say it. A hit movie came out in 2016. But no, it really gave me the opportunity to like, first off, the cruise ships gave me the chance to perform in front of a big audience

on a consistent basis. Because you would have like 1,500 people sitting in that theater. Oh, wow, really? And we would do the shows. Yeah. Yeah, wow. Huge. The entire cruise ship, people watching you.

And then you kind of, like, get your reps in front of big audiences. And so then what touring company did for me was it gave me reps in front of different all kinds. So we'd do something in a black box theater we do something at a in an opera house you know and like in all these different kinds of audiences where we do something in you know we perform in like uh like a big like a big city that we perform in let's say we perform in a big theater in detroit you know then we would go and do a small tiny theater in fayetteville arkansas you know like it was like all such a diverse experience of audiences and like performing to scale then it was like invaluable to learn that yeah and especially audiences it's not just the the

sort of uh you know demographics of the audience it's their familiarity with what the fuck improv even is you know yep like you're doing this particular kind of comedy that requires patience and understanding and cooperation because it's like sometimes you need the audience to just sit tight until you figure out what's going on until you figure it out yeah and that yeah that was something that gave us a so us from detroit like me and tim robinson and folks we would perform in detroit and like the like it's certainly not the same audience as it is in chicago yeah so you're talking about like a lot of blue who, like, kind of spent their lives, like, either I'm going to go see a movie or I'm going to go see this thing. What is this?

It's stand-up. And you had to learn to get that audience on your side off the bat. Like, you couldn't. There was, like, no time to, like, kind of, like, work your way through something. Like, you just kind of learned. And we would get something you know but we would learn how to get there fast hard funny and then get that audience to trust us so quick and then like you know within that like you start you start finding like these like beautiful nice elaborate things you can like start weaving these webs but we'd come to we'd move from

detroit to chicago and they would it was like we had a superpower we'd get on the stage like boom boom boom and then we're in the scene and the audience is laughing and on board and all of a sudden the audience follows every move we make. Yeah. We knew that in Detroit you had to make them trust you so early.

Yeah. In Chicago, it's academic. The idea of improv is like, well, I know that this is what a scene is, and this is, but in Detroit, you had to have the academic, but you had to have that hard freaking like you know you got to hit a hard laugh you know you learn tricks that aren't necessarily like i'm going to tell this same funny joke or i'm going to be this same funny character but you do know the kind of energy and the kind of pop that you need to give it and i would say even in even in chicago when i you know it's chicago and we would do improv shows and people would come up to afterwards and and say like, so wait, that's really all made up?

Like they still didn't, couldn't believe that. Like, I mean, it's like, it's also like, I would, when people would say that, it'd be like, okay, we're good at what we do. And that was kind of fun. I would think this, we're good and it's funny, but it's still a fucking mess. You know, it's still a mess. and it's funny, but it's still a fucking mess. You know, it's still a mess. Didn't you notice like the scene that didn't make any sense at all

and that we bailed on real quick? Like if it was, if we'd written, why would we write that? You know, why would we write all those mistakes? So, and that, I mean, that also like makes me, it goes to the idea that like improv is such a live thing. Watching a tape of, if you watched a video of an improv show, you'd be like, no, this is lame.

Yeah, yeah. But in the moment, you feel like you're part of, you're watching those moments. You're a partner. You're a partner. And they're going to forgive everything else. If you get that big pop, that big moment that big moment they're like wow that's brilliant and they'll forget about all those fumbles and all those kind of like nowhere nothings as long as you get to that moment and it's like yeah it's the magic of that moment but if you were to like just record that and then just

like show that same audience that exact same show on a screen they'd be like nah this is i've always i've always like i remember years ago sitting on a panel at the the the first ucb in like the first permanent UCB in, in New York, uh, on 22nd street. And I was on a panel talking about improv. Like it was just like a sort of, you know, like it was like a, for improv students and stuff. And, but I can't remember what I think was part of a comedy festival or something, but Amy Poehler was on stage with me and a few other people. And I said something about like, well, I don't think improv will ever work on tv because the remote is its biggest enemy because you're you're not going to sit there and wait for people to figure things out you when you got the remote and you got 8 000 other choices and i said yeah

and i and i said something like and because improv sort of inherently apologizes for itself. Like it's saying to the audience, give it, cut us a little slack here. Cause we were making this up and that's kind of cool. Right. So don't, don't be like not funny. Like right off the bat,

you gotta give us some, give us some space. And Amy was like, no, no, no, it does not. It's like,

it's a viable art form and it can be on TV. And I was like, okay, but I don't think so It's like, it's a viable art form and it can be on TV. And I was like, oh, okay. But I don't think so. I mean, yeah. You know,

cause even like the supposedly like improv shows that are on TV are not really, you know, it's actually, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're kind of like they're,

they're freshly written, but they're not. Yeah, exactly. And there might not be, it might, might not be on a script but they're you know somebody they had some time to think about it so exactly and like like and and

like there there's definitely tracks because like to do like a full show like to do uh curb your enthusiasm which is improvised oh but on your track like it's an outline yeah yeah that you you follow like if it was just improv, you'd never be able to have set. You'd never have locations and sets in order. Because like in true improv, you can go anywhere at any time. You know, like in improv, you're like, oh, man, let's go to the firehouse. You're like, oh, firehouse. Now we have to find a firehouse to like film.

Like it'd be impossible. Right. film like it's be impossible right and you know just you know uh well and i want to ask i want to ask about that just so that people can know what that because you've been on that show but you know to me the thing that people are always like oh you know you probably you know being in a will farrell movie you probably guys probably get to like really fuck around and do whatever you want it's like yeah but the thing is is you're only lit in like this four foot circle and and you can't like you can't just like i'm gonna run across the room because the cameraman doesn't know you're gonna run across the room and they gotta follow you and somebody's

gotta change the focus on the lens you know you can't and you're gonna run in front of a light improv on film is basically like you there's a I mean you can do a whole you know you can make up the words if you're going to sit and stay in one place yeah but usually my experience with improv on film is is you can rewrite a joke like there you know like you get to a point and then you know like and would, I mean, I've been on a few Will Ferrell movies and certainly that was the thing. Like, let's run a few others. And then that becomes a DVD extra, you know, like. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. And it's always, like, I always love doing it because it's, like, there's nothing more fun to me than surprising the person you're doing the show with. Like, coming up, you know, like when you can surprise somebody and make them almost laugh, it's the best. Like if you can make the other person fuck up and laugh, it's the best. It's like such a charge and you feel so great and it just feels so silly, you know. But tell me, what is working like? What is Curb like when you go there?

Like do they just – is there any kind of script? Do they just give you a? No, you just kind of like, no, you get like a paragraph kind of, I hope it's not like it was going to get me in trouble for explaining how the sausage is made. But like, you get like a paragraph of like what. Nobody listens to this. I'm sorry to tell you.

Oh, oh, let's go ahead and wrap this thing up then. No, but you get like a paragraph and you're like you kind of know what's happening in the episode and like essentially it's just a scenario that you're given in the script like uh so it it is improvised but you know that like in my episode i knew i was with mary holland we were a married couple and she was pregnant. And we knew we were coming to Larry's house and that I was going to give him my watch. And he was going to make an uncomfortable question about which... It's an interracial baby. Which side do I want to be on?

Do I want to be a little darker or be a little happier if he's a little lighter? And so that's the Larry thing. And so we knew that was coming. So we improvised on that. But we knew where it had to begin. We knew that it had to hit those beats. And then we knew it had to end with me giving this watch and then getting out of there.

So we would go. And then we just improvised it. And the first time through through and then go back and like re-improvise it, kind of like knowing what to hit, what to miss, kind of what to what to like kind of focus on. Because that's the thing. Like also the cameras, you have to adjust the cameras and then do it again. You couldn't like do a completely different scene because then it wouldn't match at all. You know?

And if you say something good, when they shoot Larry's closeup of it, he's got to react to that thing that you said that was good. And you've got to say it again. And I imagine they tell you that, like, say that again. We're going to keep that for sure.

Yeah. Yep. Exactly. And you can tell, like they're just taking notes to make sure that what is good stays and what you know you know uh and what tracks for the story so you're uh so yeah so the improv gets narrower and narrower as you go because you found it and now then you're uh just trying to match it so that it matches in the scene, you know? So I think that maybe is like the most improv-y TV thing I've done.

And I think that like exists, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like very much, it's more on rails than you think. But as an improviserer it is more loose than I'd expected I can see that I mean the point of this is like why the fuck haven't I been on curb that's why I had you here

who the hell do you think you are blah blah blah yeah I know no not really I've done plenty. I have plenty in my life. So when you're, are you folks, are they, are they behind all of these, these, you know, as this ride?

I mean, they're not like, don't you want to, you know, learn dentistry, you know? No, they're very proud. And they're very into it. They've always been very super supportive. That's great. My dad's always been into the arts. He's very involved in the opera scene in Detroit. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So theater has always been, like, great for him. And my mom is just always 100% supportive no matter what I want to do. Oh, really? That's great. I was like, Mom, I want to try crack. She's like, okay, I'll get you some. Yeah, yeah.

Make sure it's good crack. Make sure it's good crack. And it's going to be the best crack then, okay? I know somebody that I'll call a friend of mine. crack then okay i know somebody that i'll call a friend of mine um well uh so how does that end up be it you know how do you how do you get out of that midwestern turn like how do you know what what brings you to la or was it la or was it new york uh la yeah la uh it was truly like the path of my path in my head was i will go to second city detroit hopefully i'll go to second city chicago then i'll go to snl you know and then that'll be that's like the path i see yeah and uh i i did detroit then went to the cruise ship did chicago

touring company then i was i going to quit the touring company. I was like, I've been touring for two years. I'm going to move to LA. And they're like, all right, join the main stage. So I did the main stage for two years. And then through there, I auditioned for SNL twice. Did like two screen tests. And it was, I was going to, the only reason I was going to do another year at Second City

would be to audition for SNL again and I was like well you know what I can do either you're going to hire me or not and it was very much like a yes but there's not a space for you yet and I was like well I don't know what that means and that's okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

But then I'd, I'd been auditioning for things in LA for like pilot seasons, but sending tapes in and I would get very close on things. I'd be sending in like multiple tapes in the same parts, but like it would always go to somebody in LA. Cause it's impossible to like viably make a, a television or film career from Chicago just by sending in tapes. And like working in Second City, I couldn't fly out whenever I wanted to.

I was like didn't really have an understudy. So it was – It's really – it's still really hard to – I mean if you live in Chicago and you get a job in LA you move to LA I mean unless you just want to do that one job and the only people that don't live in LA who work in this business either uh you know haven't really gotten started or are so established they can live wherever they want wherever they want to yeah yeah because I know I it would just the p it was it just it doesn't it doesn't work that way you know i mean unless you've got some kind of gig in chicago you know like uh like for your there's a guy a guy named david pesquise that people pesquise i was gonna i was gonna bring

up pesquise he's an amazingly talented uh comedian actor and he's been in some stuff he's currently doing he's an amy sedaris's show is the the knife guy yeah he was on veep as yeah oh right right selena's husband yeah and he um he you know everybody you know like he was gonna be the guy like uh like when i was a freshman in improv you know yeah and he stayed in chicago because he he made a nice living doing voiceovers he did he had like the mcdonald's account for a million years so he was like the one anomaly of the look if you want to make a like if you want to make more than four or five hundred dollars a week you gotta you gotta You got to get out of Chicago, you know? Yep. Yep. So you come out here. I came out here. Yeah.

And I'd gotten representation because of the times I'd gone to audition for SNL. Oh, nice. You know, that puts your name on, like, a radar. So I moved out here with representation. so uh i moved out here with representation and i had uh and one of my visits i had met with allison jones who's a big casting director out in la and she had come to see my show in chicago oh wow and so she was like well when i got here she was like i'm going to get you working you know and i was like oh that's great okay got me on yeah sure if you if you'd like yeah uh but she got me on arrested development in the office and then from there like i kind of

and then it was also through allison jones that uh she cast veep so i went in and i had her trust going into the veep audition yeah and then i got it from that that's great so you know did you ever have to have a side job when you were out here uh no uh i was a lucky motherfucker oh yeah yeah i was very lucky i put some money away uh from chicago yeah and was able to like to live for a while and definitely it was was a frightening grind for a while there. Because you're like, ah, you mean jobs pay $700 and then that's it? Yeah, yeah. Like, oh, my rent is three times that.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I moved to L.A. to be in the movie Cabin Boy. And that was like, all right, I got uh be in the movie cabin boy and that was like all right i got a part in the movie and i here we go and it was like and it was like a month of work you know but like you know it's like how you work it's like two days a week then one day a week then all five days a week and i was like yeah that that cabin boy money is really going to be my nest egg. It's like, oh, my nest egg is tiny. And then it was gone. And then I was actually looking for jobs when I got hired on Conan.

In fact, the day that Robert Smigel called me to hire me to tell me I got the job on Conan, roberts michael called me to hire me to tell me i got the job on conan i also had gotten a call from a movie theater that i had applied for like to be the assistant manager of and then calling me and saying like we'd like you you know we you know come on back in i i don't know i don't know if i got the job but it seemed like you know i got the job and i was so terrified too that like i was going to be assistant manager at the theater when cabin boy opened and that i would be in the lobby and on the screen at the same time but i was able to say like no i'm going to replace david letterman or at least you know yeah so yeah but no it was yeah it was it was the same thing like i thought yeah i'm in a movie and

it's like yeah you're in a movie but there goes the money you know it's not like you exactly yeah and and like coming back to detroit after having been on the office for a few episodes the assumption is that as soon as you're on tv or in movies you are a millionaire you know yeah you know i went to this i went to a bar and my friend was was like hey you didn't buy me a drink i mean you're on tv i was like bruh i am making ends meet you know like i was on tv that means about like 600 bucks maybe you're exactly yeah exactly and hopefully i can count on residuals for a long time. Right, exactly. And there's money taken off the top for representation and stuff.

Yeah, no, that's if you if you Google Andy Richter net worth, the number that you see is hilarious. Hilarious. There must be another Andy Richter because that that motherfucker's rich it's not me i can tell you that much yeah i know my i did the same thing i was like oh is is there is there like an account i don't know about yeah yeah yeah this guy's holding out on me i'm holding out on myself um now, with Detroiters, was Tim already out here? Was Tim Robinson already out here? You guys were friends. He taught you in improv, right?

He taught you. He was my level A teacher. He was like my, when I was 18, he was 21. And it was like, one of the reasons why I was able to sneak into the bar is that we would just kind of barrel in. Yeah, together. And then once you have a beer in your hand, then you kind of like, the method was,

you'd kind of sneak in, barrel in with two or three guys who were regulars, and then barrel in, and you get a drink in your hand. As soon as you get a drink in your hand, then you make friends with the bouncer. Yeah. And you're like, yeah. And so then he recognizes your face and the drink, then you make friends with the bouncer. Yeah. Then you're like, yeah. It's like he recognizes your face and the drink.

So you're like, you're good. Yeah, yeah. And then you tell the bartender, another one. Like, you obviously sold me this first one. I'll have a second one of those ales, please. So is Tim already here? Does he? Yeah.

No, no. Tim was in New York. He was working at SNL. He was. Oh, OK. Oh, that's right. That's right. He wrote there. Yeah. And he? Yeah. No, no. Tim was in New York. He was working at SNL. He was. Oh, OK. Oh, that's right. That's right. He wrote there.

Yeah. And he was on. He was on. He was on the. He was on camera his first year. Yeah. As featured player. And then went to the writing side and wrote there for four years.

That was. Was that his choice or did they kind of say like. I think I think it was a it was it wasn't his choice at the time but i think it was really good for him yeah uh because then he got to kind of flourish his comedic voice without you know the politics of right takes me on snl yeah and like you know like the disappointments and like it's certainly you're not just able to on that show just like use your voice and like do your thing right you know uh so uh at that time so he was writing at snl and i was on veep uh i was guesting on veep at that time and our friend jason sudeikis who

we'd both met through second city in chic Chicago because he would come and do shows and we became friends. He was working with Tim at SNL and was like, you guys should do a show together. New York me in LA we pitched Detroiters just as an idea being that it was uh the two of us were best friends such best friends it's ridiculous and it's set in Detroit that was like that was like our whole goal was like it's gonna be this yeah you know uh and so uh we came to the idea of it being ad guys like later on into the pitch. At first we were going to be, I think originally, originally we're gonna be two guys who were working in a parking lot,

a tenant booth. And then like this guy going to live life out in the street, in the world, like there's two idiots. And then like we come and like, we do this, this job. But then we,

we kind of got to the idea of them being admin because we like to us uh such a feeling of home is like those commercials those old detroit commercials or like local commercials which is true for like everybody has like their local commercials for us those detroit ones like were just so important to us like what if we were the guys who made these you know well that's what i that's what i love about the show because i am a like a connoisseur of local advertising i fucking love it and like when they pop up on on twitter or you know and i just i cannot get enough of them and i remember like like my dad's my dad is lives in southern indiana and uh there there was an indian apple a guy on it that sold guns and used to he had a gun store in indianapolis and he was just fucking terrifying and like his

his tag because he taught and he would it would be like you know smith and weston 357 it's only 89 dollars or all this stuff and he'd get to the end and he kind of looked like carl perkins he kind of looked like a rockabilly an old rockabilly guy and he would say his tagline at the end was uh with prices this low you might think i'm crazy but i'm not crazy i just love to sell guns with a laugh it was terrible i don't know if they exist on the internet but it was fucking terrifying and then you know in chic you know, there's like auto dealers, Solosi, Ellison, like just like the great accents and stuff. In fact, when I watch, when I watch baseball, like I have the bit,

you know, the thing on my cable where I can watch like Cubs games and other games. And I'm now on spectrum and they don't show the local ads. And it's like, for me, that was like 60% of the fun of watching the Cubs games was getting to, you know, getting to see the Menards ads. Yeah. Oh man, save big money at Menards. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, but so yeah, no, I mean, that's like, and it's such a, it's such a, like the thing I love about things about advertising and you guys do it as

well as that, like, it's kind of creative, you know, like it's, it's a creative endeavor, but's kind of creative you know like it's yes it's a creative endeavor but like not really you know and it's just and it can just be inherently so funny you know yeah exactly and like with it there was like a parallel to sketch writing yeah you know yeah yeah uh that we so we didn't have to make ourselves likeians or – it didn't have to be autobiographical to a degree. Right. Of course, turned up to whatever. But it didn't have to be that we were writing comedy.

We were writing commercials. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're dealing with the clients versus dealing with the guests, the SNL guests that week. Right, right. And it's refreshable. It's just like every week exactly yeah yeah yeah no yeah yeah yeah and and did that did did detroiters like did they end it or did you guys just kind of you got busy doing other stuff and sort of uh they ended on

yeah they ended it and was there is it like was it not doing well or you know i mean they they said it wasn't doing well and it's a certainly a bone of contention that i have still and probably the more i talk about the more i'm going to make sure that it doesn't come back because i'm like they screwed it but yeah they were definitely like uh they changed our our premiere from uh The show premiered in January. And it's original. Season one premiered in January. We filmed season two, and they pushed our premiere from that next January to

June. And they were like, we're going to do this, but we're going to put so much money behind advertising that it's going to make your head spin. So we were like, okay. I remember on the phone, I was well no it's this is so bad for a show you shouldn't do this yeah yeah uh here comes june july a billboard to a commercial yeah yeah our numbers were like half of what they were by the end of the first season yeah and uh, but then the thing is,

nobody knew the show was back. You know, no one knew. Everybody thought, I thought it got canceled when it didn't come back in January and then had heard nothing about it for the second season.

We rebuilt our audience. Yeah. By like the fourth episode, we were back to where we were by the end of the 10th of season one right but they were like oh well it's just we wish you could do better i'm like you guys made every decision to hurt it listen i yeah i've been there i've been there yeah yeah man one of the one of the art one of the uh arguments or excuses they told us was like well we don't want to compete with

sports was like it we figure it don't want to compete with sports. We figure it should be on in the summer because there's not sports in the summer. I was like, what are you talking about? First off, who is deciding between what to watch and is only watching live television and saying, well, I can either watch baseball or this comedy show. It's a binary. Like, yeah, there's like the only other choice to watch you guys is a sporting event. Yeah. That's.

You know. It's just the bullshit that they tell you. And you almost wish like, just be honest. Tell me. Just be honest. You just don't like it or whatever. Or you're trying to make room for something else. Or you're trying to get more 14 yearyear-olds and you don't like,

and 14-year-olds aren't into it. You know, I just. Yeah, like whatever that may be, you know, and like the way the politics of that work, it's like, you know, you get a new executive and whatever the things that existed there, they're looking to hack and slash so they can be at the helm of a new hit show. Yeah.

So they're going to try and make room so they can start a, they can bring a new show and it's a hit and they're like oh guess what i brought this new show in yeah that show does well it doesn't matter to them because like it's just before i have i was a victim of that a couple of times and i always refer to it as you know how in the wild when there's a new alpha male and he kills the offspring of the previous alpha male exact same thing like there's no point there's no point in having a a hit show that somebody else said yes to first like what is how does that how does that help my ego and it's it's the dumbest thing in the world you know but uh you know it's tv can be the dumbest place in the world it really can yeah it really can but we're so

happy that we got to at least make those two seasons well you should be it's such a funny show and and and really a nice chance to you know you know a lot of people get that opportunity to make a show with their friend and they don't get as much chance to make it as much their own as you guys got to you know what i mean it seems fairly uncompromised in terms of i'm guessing it really it really was like the the compromises we made were very minimal you know uh and like when we would fight on insisting on like like some things on the tone uh they would they would back off pretty well, which I appreciated. Because like one of the things

that's so great about the show that we love about the show is that two of those guys are like on each other's teams no matter what. Yeah. And like their first note was like, they should be more fighting with each other.

I'm like, that's not what it is. That's like... I never liked that. I never liked that. Like people that like shows... I just like i never like that like people that like shows that i just like i like to watch people get along and then have it and then as a team like the the conflict comes with them in the world you know i don't exactly i get so tired of movies where everybody's always trash talking each other it's like oh fucking shut up just yeah what's next what happens next yeah yeah like why would you

all the time hang out with this person if you are enemies truly yeah and i i i get like like like loving like like little jabs here and there yeah but but the reality of it your friends are who you get along with the most yeah and i think that they just they have these prescribed things that like yeah everybody's got to be you know there's got to be two jokes a page and those pages are you know most of those jokes are put downs and like no no that's and there again that's it gets back to my that's boring that exists everywhere why are you doing exactly and like cynicism is like king like everything has to be cynical and everybody has to be depressed and sad yeah in the comedy and i'm like well okay yeah that exists and that is real as well people are but like it's not the only thing that exists you can't snuff out

joyful laughter yeah yeah yeah well i mean the show obviously you're now you've got a bunch of movie stuff coming out tell me like are there things that you know it's a podcast might as well plug some stuff yeah let's plug let's plug a route uh i there's a movie that i filmed last year that uh i'm not sure when it comes out now but because of all the yeah of everything but it's called the tomorrow war and it's like a big action sci-fi movie that i shot with with chris pratt uh wow it's really fun and i got to do like an action movie so i'm like really excited for that yeah i've never gotten to do one of those really and i've always kind of like just wanted to be on one of those big juggernauts of special effects and shit.

Yeah. Yeah. It was really, it's like my dream. And I really got to do it. Like, a $150 million budget movie. Oh, awesome. I'm, like, beside myself. I'm really excited for that to come out.

And I did a movie called Super Intelligence. Melissa McCarthy and James Corden movie that comes out on HBO Max. I think I'm not sure when either. I think September. I think I saw on a list of things. I think it's September. Oh, great. Yeah, yeah.

I think late September. Yeah, yeah. I'm not exactly sure, but that sounds right because I know. Yeah, I think that's right. Well, that's good. I mean, you know, you're getting to, you're getting to kind of live that life now. Is it, is it hard? Like, do you, because the movie life can really be, it can be consuming, you know, like you kind of, you get a gig and then you're just gone. It's like working on an oil rig. Yeah. I mean, is that okay?

I mean, it seems like, you know, it seems like ungrateful to complain about it. But it is like you do have a, you know, it's like being in movies is fun and making movies is great. But it's hard to keep a regular life going in that way. Yes. Yeah. going in that way yes yeah yeah like you know like uh i last year i was home maybe like two months wow you know the rest of the time i was like either at atlanta or uh upstate new york right and which is great and i love it very much it's a blessing yeah but but you know by humans we need to nest.

We want to be at home to some degree. And it feels so bratty to be like, oh, I want to be home. But everybody wants to be home, no matter what you're doing. You know? And most, you know, if you're... I would say most people, the key to their happiness is through relationships.

And for relationships, you need consistency. And if you're bopping all over the place from hotel room to hotel room, that consistency is hard to find. Yes, truly. I think for myself, I am able to handle it partially because of my upbringing. My growing up was kind of here, kind of there. Between Ghana, between Detroit, my mom was gone or my dad was gone. So it doesn't – I'm certainly not broken by it, but it certainly does drain. But I think I have – my battery capacity is a little bit bigger than most.

But even then, it still gets depleted. Yeah, yeah. Are you doing anything right now? I mean, is there anything that you can do? I'm doing a lot of VO for animated shows. Yeah, yeah. Do you do that from home or do you go to studio like sterilized studios mostly home but like now it's it's been uh sterilized studios yeah uh which is it's nice

to get to to get out i've been yeah i've been to a couple a couple of because i do animated voices too and i got one next week where it's like they made a bit you know they're like we we thoroughly sterilize the studio and if you want you can do it from home and i'm just like get me out of the house i don't care you're gonna have yeah fucking coat the place in covid i'll be fine i'll just i'll wear a mask i'll wear you know just let me come somewhere you know let me be somewhere yeah let me look in another person's eyes. Well, now, I mean, you know, things are going well and stuff. I mean, what is, you know, I always like to, you know, throughout my thing, at least like, you know, now I'm kind of, you know, I'm older and kind of, you know,

you know, I'm on the downside. I'm older and kind of, you know, you know, on the downside, I'm kidding. No, but you know, but I always, I always felt like I wanted to trade it up, you know, like kind of take the, take the good, good fortune that I had and kind of see how I can just take another step up, whatever. And I don't mean ladder, like in terms of like money and fame, I mean, like just in my own development. And, and what do you see as the next step for you that like where you want to go? Well, I mean, I like truly I want to have like a viable and like a real movie career like and like be a like like art the generation of movie comedians is like fewer and

fewer because i feel like maybe comedy movies aren't being made as much as they aren't and when they are it's always like oh hey how about you see john cena as this like i'm like well let's see you can be in all those things, you know what I mean? Like, like what about the people who've like worked at comedy their whole lives? You know, like, like the door close at Steve Carell, you know?

Well, and also even, even within the people that they hire in comedy, it's the same eight or nine people over and over because, because it's such a, it's such a, there's so much money involved. It's such a it's such a there's so much money involved it's such a long shot if there's not a superhero in it the people that give you money it's like

i gotta be able to bank on somebody and i can't bank on you know i can't bank on somebody that was like that is like oh yeah did a pilot and was really funny and is great but i mean nobody knows who they are they need to hear jonah hill you know jonah hill yeah yeah yeah to hear seth rogan you know and and it's like you know i i mean i i know why it happens but i think that it does kind of it stagnates you know yeah yeah you know uh so i hope to make that like 10 the 10 names and like mine is one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'll shut the door behind myself and make sure nobody else. Pull the rope up, as they say.

Pull the rope up. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, chumps. Well, is movies sort of where you're focused now? I mean, would you care about having a TV show of your own? I definitely definitely I love television and you know hopefully

when things come back I'll be able to work on some stuff and I'm trying to create my own another show for myself so we'll see if that pans out if the world can support this

if you can leave the house to make it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, that's good. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's an, especially now, like it's a, I honestly feel like TV has more sort of diversity of opportunity than movies do i think movies are very you know like i said and i mean i know people love them but like superhero movies have really narrowed what movies get made because they gotta be these special effects extravaganzas uh or there's some tiny indie that gets VOD release and that's it. Yeah. So, you know, good luck, I guess. You know, whatever. Yeah, man.

Yeah. We'll see. Well, now, of the three, these are three questions. And the third one is what have you learned? And do you think like there's, I i mean that takes the form of advice that takes the form of like oh should i you know if i i wish i had known this before i started this path uh what what do you what's your answer to that one uh i i maybe it's like a philosophy in life that i've kind of like learned over time. It's like that people take kindness for weakness,

but that itself is a weakness, you know? Like, because like, I think myself, like I'm very affable and very nice and, you know, and I have patience to a great deal. But I certainly in my life, there's frustration when people just like you can see when somebody like makes a decision to like oh this chump and i'm like buddy yeah i'm not nice because i have to be nice yeah yeah you know i'm nice because i'm choosing to be yeah uh but that helps me now see what people are you know i i think my niceness is not

a trap but it works as a trap sometimes right because i can then because i'm nice but i can be mean also yeah yeah it makes people reveal it draws out the people that are willing to take advantage of you and it reveals their character exactly because like i think i think the feeling of any nice person said oh they're a back back country rube that kind of like oh pollyanna dum-dum but i'm like it's no i'm i just have patience i have yeah yeah yeah a lot of patience so i think in my life like also like the anger of somebody being rude or dismissive or you know kind of making assumptions

on my niceness or trying to take advantage that has I've stopped letting that make me mad I instead just calculate and I then go okay well you're this person right right you're not going to talk to you anymore or whatever yeah or I put you in this category and you think you're this person right right you're not going to talk to you anymore or whatever yeah

you know or i put you in this category and you think you're using me and uh and i'm i'm playing a game of survivor here and i'm going to vote you off the island that's a lot of survivor well you're in hotel rooms what else are you going to do yeah exactly yeah no i vote i you know throughout my career started to realize realize that the one thing that was working against me just in terms of like my time and the way people chose to take advantage of my time was the thought of, oh, he won't mind. Andy won't mind. You know, he's like, he's laid back about stuff and you and so then there are people that like you know they get they they they put a priority on all the other pro on all the squeaky wheels because if you're a well-oiled wheel they just forget about you so sometimes forget about

you yeah i learning to say no to things was like a huge step for me and and and it doesn't i mean you yeah don't be a dick but there are definitely times when i learned that saying no it's almost better for everybody like they know like yep it they don't like don't ask him that kind of shit again like don't you know like yep He's not going to do that. And also you can sometimes, when you say no to something, you make the people go like, oh, yeah, right. I probably shouldn't have even have asked you that. Yep.

Just because it's, yeah. But that takes time too. You start out so eager and so willing to eat shit just to be there that at a certain point you gotta stop you know it's like i always i always you know as you know doing press for things is the part you never thought about like you thought like wouldn't it be fun to be a comedian and wouldn't it be fun to be in movies and then you realize like such a huge part of that job is advertising it and advertising it is saying the same thing 50 fucking times a day and i you know like i i just always

have have felt like i i forgot my point because i but uh it's like it's like you you can't train for that and you know and so and you you know and and so that's kind of where the starting to say no stuff takes you know slides in because you're like okay enough's enough like you know like exactly yeah and as people get big as people get big they don't do that shit anymore. Like, you never see fucking Robert De Niro on a junket. On a fucking full junket. Yeah, yeah. You never see Tom Hanks. Well, actually, Tom Hanks is actually probably an exception

because he's nice like a – what an idiot. So, yeah. But, yeah, that's great. It is true. It's like kindness to a point you know to a point you know and i guess the second half of that is like the phrase i always use is know your worth you know that's like what that's one of my catchphrases know your worth yeah and it's up to you to decide what to do with that knowledge but anybody is going to come at it with their own you know uh agenda you know so

a favor here a favor there great but if i'm even doing you this favor no this favor is worth this much you know i mean and that's not to say that it's like yeah i do this for you now you owe me it's just that hey i'm this. I'm not doing this because I have to. I'm doing it because I want to share this with you. Yes. Yes. And also know your worth is not just about people undervaluing you. It's about people overvaluing you, too. You know, sometimes you have to tell yourself, you know, you get you get high on your own supply a little bit. You're like, well, I mean, you know, who am I? You know, I can do that. You know. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's always it's the middle. It's this Midwestern thing. It's like not too much of one or the other, just kind of right there in the middle is usually what works. Yeah. Yep.

Well, Sam, this has been a real delight, and I appreciate you taking your time. And I hope to see you on campus one of these days face-to-face. Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. This is really great. thanks for having me oh i'm i'm so happy and i mean and i really you're such a i mean you you just represent so much uh goodness and and what's right in show business in the world that i'm just it's it's nice to see

you enjoying it and it's nice to see that the world enjoying you so you know anyway you're welcome you're welcome and thank you all out there for listening uh to another episode of the three questions we're going to be back next week uh with somebody not as good as sam but i mean what can you do i mean i can't yeah i can't book winners all the time. All right. Thanks very much. Bye-bye. 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 Zahayek, 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. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.