Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Alex Edelman

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

The brilliant comedian and writer Alex Edelman visits Ted Danson to talk about how he landed a job with the Boston Red Sox in his teens, working with Greg Daniels on “The Paper,” his reverence for comedy history, writing about NASCAR, getting feedback from Steve Martin on his Tony and Obie-winning Broadway show “Just For Us,”  and more.  All episodes of “The Paper” are streaming on Peacock, and the show airs Mondays at 8:30 pm ET/PT on NBC.  Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The laugh of an audience discovering that what they're watching is actually for them is a different laugh. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Alex Edelman is a brilliant Emmy and Obie and Tony winning performer and comedian. He currently stars in the paper on Peacock, which is a spinoff of the office, playing the report. Porter, Adam Cooper. He's also part of the writing team. Just a couple of nights ago, Mary and I watched Just for Us, and it's brilliant. I'm very excited for this conversation. So let's get into it. Here's Alex Edelman.

Some of the research always includes, is there a connection between me and the guest? Then this was no, no connection. But I beg to differ, because we do have Boston in that you were the real deal, and I am just a major disappointment to the city of Boston. No, I am. I don't know if we can curse so early on this podcast, but that's such bullshit. You are so associated with you. You're such an ambassador for the city. Yes, but still. Okay. You know, I'll give you Boston, but not the Red Sox. Because I made the bad mistake of saying, oh, no, I was always picked last playing baseball. I can't play baseball. I know nothing about baseball. You must have thrown out a first pitch at Family Park at some point. No. Never? Never.

And the reason is, because they realize I'm just a phony L.A. actor pretending to be a baseball player. But here's my question. If you were invited to throw out a first pitch at Vine Park, would you go? If you could do it underhand. My shoulder's fucked. My shoulder's gone. You can do it underhand. Seriously? Yeah, you can do it. You can toss it like a, like a, I'm sure you, I'm sure you could do it underhand. Wait, how's your, what fucked up your shoulder? Well, all right. Born without a chest muscle on my right side, more than you want to know. But every time I'd go up for rebound, playing basketball,

some bigger guy would push my shoulder the wrong way. So by now, it's just kind of bone-on-bone. Well, you know what? I could help with the logistics of that because I used to work there, which I'm sure is in your notes. I know. At age 15, though, right? I mean, I was even younger than that.

But, yeah, I grew up, I was the biggest Red Sox fan in the world, and I loved it there. So, yeah, I got to work there. It was the coolest thing on the planet. So you went there with your dad, the heart specialist? My parents didn't really like baseball. My parents, my father, once I brought him to a ballgame and he brought Tom Clancy's Hunt for the Red October with him

and sat there reading. And I remember going up to the commentator's booth. And I'm not kidding, he had good seats because they were the employee seats. And I brought my dad to the ballgame as opposed to vice versa. And they're making fun of them on the air. I remember being like, there's a guy down there. We were reading a book. You know, and dark low goes into the stretch and, you know, it was crazy.

Lean the other way to get out of the two shots. Oh, my God, I was like, Dad, I got to go work. But he would sit there, read a novel. It was hysterical. Baseball, I like it, though, was more of a background noise thing. It's a good day out. It's a really amazing day out. And I'm still kind of a fan, but more than anything else.

I just like to go to the game and, you know, hang with my friends or whoever I'm dating. It's like a delightful thing. but all right so we just took it for granted not at you know at age 15 or earlier you and no one took you to the game so how did you I would just show up I'm not kidding are you were you busable or walkable I'm embarrassed to say this I would rollerblade I would rollerblade to the park which is you know what a what a why is that embarrassing I don't get that I'm impressed I don't know that I don't know that roller blades have have aged in the mind as well as you'd want them to, but I was a little kid and I would rollerblade and then I would stash my rollerblade somewhere, sometimes behind a bush near the medical center and I'd walk with my stuff the rest of the way. But now you had to have money to get in. I mean, how did, before you became known and please come up to the booth stuff, how did you, how did this all happen?

So there was a guy there named Al Mooney who was, who was, who was, who was security guard. There was very, who was old when I was when I was a kid, and sometimes he would leave his post. And I could literally sneak into the ballpark through Al Moonie's abandoned post. And one day, actually a couple times in a row he caught me. And he got to know my face and I was in trouble. And there's a woman named Colleen Riley who worked at the Red Sox, who I owe so much. much to because I think I was like 13, 12, 13 years old. And I'm not kidding. She was leaving Fine Park wearing an employee and she was identifiable as a Red Sox employee. And I think she was

going to lunch. It was a daytime. And I like went, excuse me, Al Mooney won't let me into the park. Is there any chance you would like give me a tour, I'm writing an article about for my school paper. I just felt like pulled to Fenway Park. There was something like, you know, I'm not very woo-woo, but some places have a good end. Yeah. And Fenway Park has that energy. Maybe it's because it's got the, you know, like, it's a, like, hold, it's the only place Bostonians can access emotion.

So maybe it's got the entire, it's got all of Boston's emotion. It's in one little seating bowl. And this woman brought me to Fenway Park. And I don't want to make, I don't want to tell a story. It's too long. I do want you to. Not too long. Just perfect.

Okay. But she gives me a tour. And, uh, and she brings me up to the. offices for a second before she's going to release me back onto the street. And she says, wait here, don't move. And she left me outside the office of this guy named Larry Lucina, who was the president of the Red Sox. And I went into his office.

Wait, wait, not being asked then. You, when she left. And I was, I don't want to say the guy's name, but I went, you got to trade. It was a relief pitcher I'll tell you his name later It won't matter But he didn't have a long career On the big leagues

But I went, you gotta trade Persky He's killing us He's got no curveball He's more of a cheerleader In the clubhouse or anything else The guy sucks You know And Lugino went

First of all, he's a curveball specialist Second of all He's induced a couple of really important Double Play Second and third of all Who the fuck are you And why you in my office? and so Colleen comes back

and she's like Colleen comes back and I don't know if I've ever told this story the full extent of the of the bad of my own entitlement but but Lucina goes who's this kid

and she's like you just wanted a tour of the park and he's like okay hysterical nice to meet you and I went give me your business card because he had a whole bunch of

and he's like what? And I'm like give me your business card he went yeah sure here's my business card if you have any questions or complaints, you'll send me an email. And he was kidding, I think,

but I took him seriously, and I sent him an email with what I thought were the five most important things that new ownership should know. And to his credit, I think he was tickled by it, and him and this guy, Charles Steinberg,

they kept me around. And literally, they just found odd jobs for me. And then, but a year later, they called me. They called me at home. It was like, you know, and Charles went,

we're starting a kid's newsletter. And do you want to write it? And so I wrote this kid's newsletter for a couple years. And then they actually started to trust me with one or two things. They wrote some speeches, press releases. This is like 2003. Age. 14, 15.

That's dumb. So, and you know, the funny thing is that Boston, I think a lot of cities in America are like this, or we're like this. It was like, It wasn't the biggest city in the world, which made it the perfect place to grow up,

meaning you could, like, I could get home at midnight. My parents were kind of okay with it. And also, like, I wish there was a book about this, but, like, a lot was happening in this city. Like, it was weird, it really felt like the center of the world, or maybe that's just because I was 14 and 15. When you're 14 and 15, everything feels like the center of the world in a medium-sized city. But, like, they had the DNC. We had a Republican governor who was very well liked before. for Romney, ran for president.

So Republicans would come, and Democrats were there, and Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen King lived locally, and were sort of the centers of their scenes. And also, in a way that is just the way narrative works, the Red Sox were on this Sisyphician journey of trying to win a World Series, which I hadn't done for 86 years, and people would come to Funway Park for these events, like, you know, Obama. I remember, like, going into the,

owner's box and like Obama's in there. And like, you know, you know, the different, Doris Kearns-Gudwin wrote like a college recommendation letter for me because she was just always around. She was a season ticket holder. So I'd see her and her husband, Dick Goodwin, and it was just like a great place.

The world would come to you. There was a professor named Charles Ogletree. It was sort of at the center of like, you know, the civil rights movement and scholarship around it. And so, like, you would just meet people. you would never otherwise, I sat next to Justice Stephen Breyer at a game once for an entire ballgame. It was Ray Mavis, the Secretary of the Navy, because, like, they, they, I was sitting with my bosses and these guys, they really saw something in me. And I learned a lot. And I left, and I took it really

seriously. I started, I assumed I was just going to have a career in baseball. And after we won the 2007 World Series, Charles Steinberg, who was my boss, called me. into his office and he said I'm going to leave and I'm going to go to the Dodgers and you should come with me. I was like, what are you talking about? We just won the Second World Series in four years. It's an incredible accomplishment and he went

there's only one way to go when you're at the top of the mountain and it isn't up and he was you know, he left, went to the Dodgers but the Dodgers was I guess if we're being candid, it was not a fun time and

for him, for you, both. For both of us, the owner was a guy from Boston named Frank McCourt who I just didn't like very much. And his wife, Jamie, was a little more simpatico, but they got a really ugly divorce and everybody got fired, including me. In the least noticed firing in history, everyone else was like, they hired like 40-something people from Boston because they were Bostonians when they bought the team. And then when they got this very messy divorce, they had to sell the team. They fired all of the Bostonians, except for two or three, very nice people that were still there.

And I went to the Brewers for one year, but my heart wasn't in it anymore. The last thing I actually did in baseball was pretty cool. I went back to the Red Sox in 2013, the day after the marathon bombing. And Charles and I sat there and wrote the pregame ceremony for the first game back after the bombing, which is a really big civic event

because David Ortiz cursed on the air. He said, this is our fucking city, and he did it live on ESPN. I remember being like, oh, no. My boss was like, it's fine, people will love it. And he was right, but that was the last, like, my last year in baseball was 2013. And the Red Sox won the World Series

is that year, too. So I've always loved baseball. Sorry, it's such a long story. No, no, no. It's not. And it also demonstrates something about you that I just found even though my knowledge of you is very superficial compared to what I'm hearing coming out of your mouth, which is

You have astounding curiosity. So just backing up a second. How did you get so curious and so bright so quickly? I had amazing, amazing people that gave me a break all the time at every step in my life. But only curious people understand that a break is coming their way. I don't. It's not, it's not, I do think there's a little bit of privilege in being, or a lot of privilege, and just showing up.

Like, not a lot of people know they can show up. And also, not everybody's welcome to show up. And I think if you, but also, I was really, a lot of people were really annoyed by me because they were like, I'm a 20-something-year-old employee working hard at a job. I basically had a kill to get. I'm making $38,000 a year because baseball employees don't make very much. And this teenager literally just comes walking through the front door and goes in the president's office and they're like, well, keep.

But, you know, some people, so some people were not psyched, but like, people like Larry and Charles and Colleen, like, and they're a woman who worked at the Red Sox, who still works there actually named Sarah McKenna. Like, they literally were like, Sarah pulled me aside once. She's like, do you know how to shake hands? And I was like, what do you mean? And she's like, you just hold your hand out like this. That's not how you do. You have to actually, like, they had to teach me to shake hands. and, like, not look at my shoes.

Like, sometimes I remember Larry the Kino had a friend named Jay Emmett, who is a long, fascinating history that would take a really long time. But he was actually at some point the president of Warner Brothers in the early days. He ran the company for the Werner's, and Jay Emmett once pulled me aside, and he went, kid, you look at your shoes like you owe them money. It was so fucking funny. But, I mean, it was a hysterical. It was an amazing environment.

It was an amazing place to work. It felt like you were witnessing history. And also, I was watching an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the 2004 Red Sox. And I paused it. And I'm like, that's me. like they cut to a crowd thing at some point and there's a guy there and he's got his hands like this he's a kid and I'm like oh and I'm like

wait shit that's me like I got to be around I just took for granted I got to be around all this stuff but yeah I mean like I have gotten good breaks you know Brian Eno the musician Brian Eno he's like he's a big producer he produced a he's big on like

minimalist music, experimental stuff, but he's also produced a bunch of, like, U-2 albums, I think. And he talks about this thing called Seenius, which is, like, the genius of a scene, like, where a Mill You has some genius. And, you know, like, in the sort of, like, midnight and Paris way that, like, everyone who's involved sort of catches accidental stray bolts of lightning.

Right. And, like, the Red Sox, there was a bit of seigness to that. after college when I started going to comedy in New York and London there was some seniors to that I guess to answer the question like

it was just wanting to be around certain people and witnessing their competence and brilliance that made me just keep showing up and when people are really brilliant and competent they're not so insecure and they'll just like give you some patience or leeway

or education and like I think they know they recognize kindred spirits, too, I think. I want to back up on... Please. Talk about myself for a second. Because I shouldn't undercut Boston or, you know, say that I don't have any claim to it

in any way. You know, cheers wouldn't, I don't think have been cheers if it weren't for Boston. Baseball clearly was a huge part of it, Sam Malone being a relief picture. Oh, my gosh. The fact that there were colleges, the fact that

Boston is this kind of melting pot that didn't exactly get stirred perfectly, I'll have to admit. Especially. I love your opening line. Boston thing. Anyway, but I, Boston, and I

was conceived at Cambridge, so come on. Wait, what? Yeah, yeah. My dad was getting a Pee. in archaeology, anthropology, and there you are. No kidding. Yeah. I did not know that.

Yeah. So Boston's huge in my life. Did you visit when you were doing cheers? Did they ship you out there, M.C. for promotional stuff? Yes, a lot. And we'd shoot maybe, you know, one week out of every season. We'd go there and shoot. No kidding.

Walking in and out of buildings, essentially. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the cheers bar on the, you know, it was one of those things. Bull and Finch. Yeah, of course. It was one of those things that you. everyone's like, no one goes to the cheers bar

and then you'd walk in and see those same people. You're like, what do you have? It kind of turned into a t-shirt shop. It kind of did, but it's a really, it was really, I mean,

I remember I started watching it because I was local kid and it was kind of the done thing. And then I discovered cheers backwards. I discovered Frasier first. Yeah, yeah. And then someone was like, I remember falling in love

with specific jokes on Frasier. I've always loved jokes. But like, there were a couple of jokes on Frasier and then there are a couple of jokes on cheers that are like oh, in the Hall of Fame roster of best jokes ever. Or even

like, it was in the writer's room on a show and we were discussing the We Will Rock You thing. Yeah, wasn't that amazing? How do you even come up with it? Like, seriously, someone comes to someone come into the writer's room and they're like, okay, so someone starts banging their glass, and then

somebody else starts banging their glass, and then everyone starts banging their glass to the baseline you know what I'm talking about it's the baseline or we will rock you yeah I mean like it's a brilliant small beautifully shop beautifully I mean Jimmy Burroughs or something like that yeah yeah yeah amazing what was it was it was it the angels some baseball team used it that clip during games to get people you know the stadium rocking that's great yeah truly amazing so it was amazing and I do claim it and love it the talent the talent the talent on that show in front of the camera behind the camera.

Yeah. Right. Jimmy shot a bunch of those. Most, all maybe except 30 or something. You know, I was... Can I give one shout out? Bob Broder, who was the agent, a manager agent of Leson Glenn Charles and Jimmy Burroughs, the three of them created

Cheers. And he just passed away a couple days ago. Oh, did he? He was the gentleman at the very end, the last scene of Cheers, when somebody comes comes to get in and Sam turns and says, we're closed. That was Bob Broder because they figured it would break his heart the most financially. Anyway, he was an amazing guy, and I just wanted to say much love to the family and all that. Those writers were like, I, my first, the first show I ever worked on was a show on CBS called The Great Indoors.

It was one season, but it shared a lot with superior donuts, which Jimmy Burroughs was shooting. And Judd Hirsch was on and I was going through, I was at like a flea market and I'm flipping through like some box and the box had clearly come off the estate of a guy who had hosted family feud or not family feud. His name was Dawson, Glenn, Glenn, something like that. And he was, what? Yeah, I think it was Richard Dawson. And there was, in there randomly was a humanitas prize for an episode of Taxi, just like it discarded, like it was a bowling trophy. So I bought it.

It was like a buck. And I brought it down to the lot. And I'm friends with the couple people that work on Superior Donuts. And so I was like, I just dropped in. And I was like, Jimmy, do you mind? And it was for an episode called Blind Date. And he starts cracking up. And it's an episode apparently where Judd Hirsch goes on a date with a woman.

this is a very old sitcom, I mean, like, premise, I guess. An episode of Taxi where Judd Hirsch goes on a day with a woman, it's a blind date, and she finds out she's overweight. But lo and beholds, she's still a person. That's the, you know, that's the sitcom. And I bring it down to Jimmy Burroughs, and I'm like, you won't remember this. He's like, oh, yeah, it's the first episode we shot that had three cameras instead of four, and it was a pain.

And he was like, it was a pain in the assy. And he calls Judd over. He's like, you remember this episode? And Joe goes, oh, man. and the first three camera once. Like, they both knew it. And they're like, and Jimmy goes, maybe I shouldn't say this.

You can edit this out if you want, but Jimmy goes, starts laughing. I'm like, what's so funny? He's like, ah, we told the actor she could come back

if she lost 50 pounds and she only lost 48, but we let her come back anyway. And I was like, the things you don't. Okay. Gotta go. Back to mine's the cop. But it was really.

Let's keep it in. Yeah. Oh, my God, please. Taxi has the best. I was talking with another. comedy writer the other day, we're going back and forth with our favorite jokes, period. I know it's, is it, not slower, but slow, slow, dude, set it up. I can't remember it.

I can't remember. Do you guys know where this is going? Oh, my God. It's never set a taxi. James Brooks was here just the other day and called out the exact same joke. Yeah, so tell it, tell it. So I think Christopher Lloyd's character has never taken a driving test, which is weird because he's a driver for the taxic company they discover. He's never taking the test. So he goes down to take the written

portion of the test and everyone's there as moral support. And at some point, he looks over at them while he's taking the test and they're like, what? And he goes, what does a yellow light mean? And they go, slow down. And he goes, what does a yellow light mean? And they're like, slow down. And he goes, what does they do it like five times he goes slower every single time it's amazing what an amazing joke it's so good

such a brilliant character and he he was just astounding I saw James Brough like I love writers so I saw James Brooks walking down the street in New York the other day and I noticed because he had a Gracie film's head on and I was walking my friend Adam who's a musician

and Adam just saw me go white and he went, what's wrong? And I'm like, that's James Brooks. And James Brooks went, yes? And I'm like, Sarvizsbrugs, I'm just a huge fan. And James Buck went comedy writer. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm coming. And like, we had a nice, like, five-minute chat

next to my befuddled friend. But I'm like, this is one of the great writers of all time. Like, we live, television is so crazy because we live in a time where they're like, to me, like, people sometimes, I'm doing this, obviously I'm doing a lot of press for the paper and people are like, what made you want to be a part of it? I'm like, Greg Daniels, Greg Daniels.

Like, to be a writer under Greg Daniels, like Greg Daniels were alive at the same time as Mike Schur, who's also like one of the great comedy writers of all time. Of course. Whatever. I will go anywhere with Mike Shore and I am. I mean, I discovered Mike Scher because he had a baseball website. Oh my God, that's right.

And I was a big Mike Scher fan. And he and I both love. David Foster Wallace in the same way. And there's a law that if you're a white man of a certain age, you have to love David Foster Wallace. So he's, but like Mike Scher, him, I mean, like, all the different writers

have written on the office, but like Jim Brooks, all the Simpsons guys. There are so many amazing comedy writers, Bob Daly who wrote who wrote Frazier. I mean, like, we're alive. The fact that you got to work with the Charles's is like... Don't you love that you're part of this

heritage, that you're part of this lineage of funny people. It's so cool to be alive at the same time as like Melbrook. It's so cool to be alive at the same time as like, I got to... Norman Lear. I hosted Norman's 100th birthday special.

I mean, not remember, but I heard that. It was like to get to meet Norman Lear and also like, you know, I didn't grow up around Hollywood. I grew up around academia, which is its own own

sort of luck. And I'm sure you had the same thing with the educated. Except my curiosity level was like zero compared to where you were. It went over my head. What did your parents,

like did you have a passion, though, that you shared with your parents? Was there a thing that you and your parents connected over intellectually and emotionally? No. I don't think so. I mean, they were so supportive of anything creative.

My mother wouldn't, hated guns, would not allow guns in the house. would not allow toy guns, but if I carved them out of wood, that was creative and she was all for it. Anything creative, she celebrated. Wow. So yes, creativity. My father was kind and wanted to make people laugh, even though he was an archaeologist. If he laughed in a restaurant, he wanted to make sure the entire restaurant was, you know, laughing to. So there were things, traits that we were similar, but not really passion. Did they take you to dig sites ever?

Always. Every summer for a month and a half, I was scrambling at a young age and they used to call them the trash pits where whatever tribe it was you know, 100 years back or 200 years back, they would throw their broken pots or whatever in a pile.

Sure, of course. So that would be part of the dig. But as soon as you came across an arrowhead or a piece of turquoise or a bone, you were plucked out of it and the archaeologists, real ones would show up. That's so cool. Like, I was always, I loved archaeology growing up.

Like, I always, I had, like, Sutton Who posters and stuff like that, you know, like, there was a time where my, like, party trick was like, I could name any trove over a certain size and a certain part. Like, my parents were really big into, I think my father loved antiquities. So we always had like, we always had like, you know, Edith Hamilton mythology reading sessions and stuff like that.

But I think the luck I had with my parents was that they told me that I was going to make my living with my brain, which was tricky because I was like one of those ADHD kids. And it's not like, oh, everyone from that generation could diagnose with ADHD. I am like the most ADHD. Like, it's crazy. Do you live with or Medicaid or? I don't medicate.

I should. I know I should. I know I'd be... Should because it would do what for you? I think I'd be more productive. Sometimes I look at my work, my individual work, my solo stuff, and think it would be a little more.

I would have done more if I hadn't sort of taken this way to it and could take a way that's a little more linear. But yeah, I mean, I live with it. Also, sometimes I... Sometimes I leave. my few weeks ago I left

in New York I spent time I've been here in New York and in New York I live with a couple of people friends who are both creatives brilliant creatives

one's a songwriter one's a chef and I get in the elevator and the songwriter and I'm like, shit you know like that's

I'm like I can't help with a little bit of medication I think a little bit of medication. When I remember my shoes, you know? It's a crazy thing that forget. But I speak time with lots of other creative people. So I think it may not seem so crazy,

but when I'm with non-creatives, it really makes it so clear. You're making me want to talk about myself, which is embarrassing. You asked me something about my parents. And I mean, did we share passions and all of that? I mean, there was human traits. that we shared and they imbued in me, you know, kindness and stuff like that.

But I realized later in life, and my father saw it in me, and I never quite knew if he really witnessed me. And one day, I was in my late 30s, and there had been a traumatic day where a friend of his had died while we were climbing a cliff, and he was 75, and they're both the same age, and we had to sit around with his body. until a park service could come get them. So it was really impactful day, but... Where are you? In a Box Canyon, I think, either northern Arizona or...

Southern Utah? Yeah. Yeah. Half moon, something. Anyway. So it was full of deep kind of real conversation. And he said to me once, I've always known that you wanted to know what it was like to be the other person.

And I was so startled that he saw it. Because that is, I think, if I have anything in my brain, it's not your brain, my brain looks and goes, what makes you, who are you? How do you be you? And I want to be you. I want to experience what that feels like. When you're playing someone like in a role as diffuses, like Sam Malone or like the captain in Banda, not Bannab, not Bannab, brothers. I'm saving private robbery. Right, right. Like, that's a fictive person, right? Like, St. Malone, you maybe, do you, are you one of those actors who interrogates the idea of what

it would, like, do you talk to old relief pitchers? Do you speak to World War II veterans or, you know. No, I mean, if I, if there's something that I need to know, because how to do, if there's a doing, I don't need know how to do in real life. I will practice that till I can do it. I will do that. I will do that kind of thing, but I don't know if I'm like a particularly lazy actor, but for me it's like now it's the written word. If you're working with somebody, if you're lucky that you're working with good writers. Yeah. And I have been very lucky. I let the words kind of wash over me like musical notes until they start to inform me of and the doingness of that, saying those words in that way kind of informs

whatever character work I do. That's so interesting. That's a really that's a lot of trust in the material. Yes, and which means I can be really bad in things too. There's some actors that make any material great. I'm not.

But see, you're a writer. I've got some notes on your performance in Becker now that we, now that we... I love that you said people who came to you you and watch your what is that shit i watched it two times just for just for us just for us that you would ask writers or comedians or friends i got a lot of feedback from people i got a lot of feedback oh yeah i would i would seek it out hunt it down you know i'm a feedback expert i love feedback i think it's a really um i don't take all of it but i i think hearing it is really good because there's

always a note behind a note even if you're witnessing the other person right if someone's giving you a note because of a political opinion they have or the thing in their life they have felt or a relationship to something you're talking about that they have a different relationship or the same relationship to. It's really useful to take it. But from a craft perspective,

if a brilliant comedian came to the show or a brilliant writer, I'd be like, do you have a joke for me? Do you have a note? I mean, just for us had jokes in it from like, Steve Martin. That's right. Steve, by the way, when I was like,

do you have anything, do you have any feedback? And he went, and you know how laconic Steve is. He was like, no, no. And my heart was breaking because I'm not going to push Steve Martin. He goes, I have a tag for you, though. You want a tag? Just like a little punchline after a punchline. And I was like, please.

And he gave me the tag. And the funny thing is my first thought was like, ah, I don't know. I don't know about that. It's not quite right. Yeah, this guy, you know about going. And then I tried it. On stage. I tried it on stage a few nights later with.

tweak, and it was like one of the biggest last one of the show. I'm like, oh, maybe Steve Martin knows some shit about comedy. I mean, like, he's on my also, by the way, being a fan of people has helped me with like, I got to do a little bit of, I didn't sign an NDA, so I think I can say this. I've done a little

bit of work on Space Balls, too, that Josh Gad is shooting. Right. And like, when I was in that room, I was like, oh man, this is sort of the role I've been preparing my entire life for because I'm such a Mel Brooks fan. then I'm just doing Mel Brooks fan fiction. So it's not that hard because it's just like,

you're the jokes I wish I could put in space balls. It was so much fucking fun. How much was this at the writer's room? There's a little writer's room. I mean, like Josh and two other brilliant writers, Benji and Dan, they, Sam Bennett Hernandez,

they've put together this amazing script, but they do this little table read where you get little feedback from people and getting to do that. Actors, table read, or writer? You do, and I mean, actors, I got to remember. read Rick Moranis' role. I got to read...

That's great. It was so cool. It was really cool. That is public that Rick is coming back for it, right? I'm not just, I'm not breaking a huge story here. But like... But it was so cool to just like... And by the way, Rick's daughter, Rachel, is my downstairs neighbor. So, like, I've only met Rick through the auspices of like, this is a weird bit of crazy trivia. On my desk on the paper, there are baby pictures, me holding children, because my character... as children. And one of the children is Nina Moranis, who's Rachel Moranis' daughter. So

Rick Moranis' granddaughter, in heavy air quotes, plays one of my children on the paper. I mean, like, it's really tiny. The world is so small. I love that. And that's so great. But, but yeah, being a comedy fan was great for that because they would come. And then you got to marry your love of comedy and also your practice of the craft of it. So, like, sign, Feld gave great notes. No one gave a bigger note than Billy Crystal, which was really interesting because I remember Billy Crystal was the first.

Did you ever see 700 Sundays? No. It's this beautiful piece about his relationship to his father and baseball and jazz and growing up. And he did it on Broadway to great acclaim, deserve it acclaim. And he brought it to Boston in like October, November of 2005. And I went because I was a baseball fan, and I walked out a much bigger comedy fan because it's this gorgeous piece.

And Billy came to the show very early on in the downtown run, because Alan's Weibel, who's another comedy writer, genius comic writer, brought him. And Billy, I was like, I'd love a note if you have it. He's like, I don't know nothing. But I knew he actually had something. He was just being polite. and a couple days later is why Bell called me and he's like, do you want Billy's note? And I was like, oh wow.

Yeah. And he's like, use a headset. I was like, what? Because I was using a handheld. I read that, yeah. And he was right, it just opened up the show. I really didn't want to do it. This was on Broadway or before Broadway? This was way before Broadway. Way before.

But Billy, um, Billy had a like, it was a brilliant insight. It was a thing that like, you forget sometimes, sometimes people forget that famous comedians are really good at comedy, genuinely, because they become a sort of prism through which people see other stuff,

political stuff, daily life stuff, a persona or a personality that reminds them. I think people behold, like, Sebastian Manascalco more as, like, you know, an avatar for an archetype than just like a brilliant writer and performer. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm not explaining it well, But at some point, famous comedians belong to audiences in a way that's a little bit depersonalizing.

You can cut this out. No, no, no, no, don't. What do you mean by the depersonalizing? Meaning people see comedians and they see the type of comedy they're doing. People look at Nate Bargazzi. I'm just using a comic like Nate as an example. They see like sort of clean comedy or sort of like an echo of frontier. like southernness that characterized

actually a lot of America's early comedy stuff was like Will Rogersie, Mark Twainey. And they put them in a box and don't really get the person? What do you mean by the deep personal person? They put him in a box where when you become so massive, I think it's hard for people to see the smallnesses that make brilliant comedy brilliant. I think it's a real challenge.

Not everyone struggles with it, but like comedy, once it elevates to arenas, something is lost in enormous spaces. That's why, like, some comics won't play big arenas. For a comic like Nate, it would be almost irresponsible to not play big arenas because the demand is so much higher than the supply that he can provide. But, like, I think with really big comedians, and I've written for a few.

Would that make, sorry, can I jump in? No, please, please, please save me. I know it's like, no, no, no, not at all. I mean, it's like, it's probably not. But when you said it, my brain went, it's like the Beatles with everyone screaming so loud because of their fame and all of that, you no longer hear the lyrics. 1,000%, yeah. They belong to like, you know, the funny thing is that I was reading a, I was reading

an article a couple months ago called Frank Sinatra as a cold, which is this great article by a guy named Gay Talese about Frank Sinatra. And in it, there's some really colorful language about how Sinatra felt about the Beatles. but like Sinatra was like something something so personal about Sinatra he was very small he was like one man and you would see Sinatra in a theater not like huge arenas because it felt like

if you read reviews of Sinatra in bigger spaces like something feels wrong and when you imagine Sinatra you imagine him in like a little club with smoke and a cigar a cigarette and like a drink of some kind like when you And, like, so think of the mathematical inverse of that. Like, what's Frank Sinatra like in Madison Square Garden? Like, you might still get the crooner, but you're missing something really essential that makes Sinatra, Sinatra.

And the same thing happens to comedians. I got it. Comedians have, like, and some comics can really transcend that, but, like, there's a reason Jerry Seinfeld does the Beacon a lot instead of doing Madison Square Garden, which he could do at will if he wanted to. Like, comics communicating their, like, communicating the essentialness of their craft at a small level and at an enormous level, they're two different skill sets. And sometimes it can be hard to do both. Give me your extremes. I mean, I've seen, you know, video of you in small clubs, but what's the opposite? Was Broadway the biggest?

Probably was great because it was really intimate theater with lots of comedy history. It's where they shot a bunch of my favorite comics. Central Presents from when I was a kid, but the most, the biggest thing I've played is, I used to open for musicians, I opened for Beck for a little while, you know, the musician, yes, I do. So I'd go on the road with Beck

and sometimes crowds fucking hated it. Like, I mean, they, uh, like, they'd announce me to the stage. You were in the way of? Of Beck. They were there to see Back. They're like, back, back, back. I open for, for like, Earth, Wind, and Fire or something at a festival in Scotland, and the crowd

was like, boom, boo! Bo! It was like, it was, I think I, I, uh, I took a sip. I brought a beer on stage with me to seem cool. And I took a sip of it and someone in the crowd went, half a fuck another mate. And they just threw a beer at me. And then a whole bunch of people were throwing beers and they had to be us or not.

It was like 30 seconds. It was like, fucking that. But yeah, playing big festivals, um, there are big festivals in England where I, where I've performed outside. And those are, those can be tough gigs. But yeah, opening for Ricky Jervais of the Dolby, that was a pretty, which I did a couple of times, that was pretty, those were large crowds that were, that were there to see Ricky. But we're actually okay.

I love a tough gig. I know it sounds nuts, but. For real. For real. For real, for real. Not that you know, it's good for you. You enjoy it actively. The two are so connected.

Also, you know what's weird? Some of my favorite jokes don't work in front of big audience. and some jokes. I have a set that I can do for 30 minutes in front of a huge crowd that's never heard of me that will do well. But that set hasn't changed a lot in like eight years. I don't know why, but like I think I wrote it

as like a survival set. Yeah. And if I had some, if I had more guts, I think I would would experiment with it. Do you know what I'm saying? Like I wrote a 30 minutes that worked in front of, to perform in front of musicians in like 2017, and I haven't changed that set a ton.

So, like, a better comic than me would do that. But, yeah, I like a tough gig because it's almost, the pressure is kind of off. Yeah. Like, the expected return is, like, if you're not supposed to do well, then if you don't do well, you don't do well. And if you do do well, then, like, what a result. Like, sometimes I'll open for bands.

afterwards, he'll be like, that was great. And I'm like, well, yeah, because you expected nothing. Because even you can see that this is a really tough gig. Because part of you is like, wait, there's a comedian opening for Beck. But like, it's when you do okay, or the first time people laugh, and I'm not famous, I'm not famous, but I have a little more notoriety now. So I don't get to perform as much for audiences that have. absolutely no idea who I am.

Because if I'm doing comedy club, it's the one place. Ironically, people probably know who I am. But like when you, the laugh of an audience discovering that what they're watching is actually for them is a different laugh than a laugh of people seeing the person they came to see. And like, they're both great laughs.

But does that make any sort of sense? Like an audience being like, oh, okay, we're not going to hate this. Because we could hate this. Like, if this guy comes out and, you know, ruins our night, we don't want. want that. And so the first laugh where an audience realizes they're going to save hands, really fun laugh. And that can be really infectious. Like the front of the room

laughing, sometimes you do a gig opening for musician, and the front of the room is the only part paying attention to you. Yeah. But then like five minutes in, you have the whole room. And that's a totally different thing. That must feel very powerful. Feels so great. It's a really, last time I opened for Beck was a couple months ago. He was doing a show in New York right around SNL's 50. A thing was just fucking around. on stage. And he's like, you want to open the show? And I'm like, sure. In about 30 seconds in, and I, like, sort of mentally put on my old armor because I haven't done it in a little while. And I'm like, okay, let's see how this goes. And 30 seconds in, this woman in the front row

faints. Like, and they do that thing that they do at concerts, which I've seen before, and it's heart wrenching for a couple of reasons to watch from the stage where people are like, can we get a doctor down here? Is there a time? And you've got to stop the show. And you just like, And I'm like, hold on, someone's ill. And about, you know, they pulled me off stage for about 10 minutes. And they brought me back on stage. And I think the audience was like, okay, buddy, what are you going to do now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

You know, it's fine. It went okay. But it's like, yeah, I don't know. And the lady? Do we know? Her husband sent me a message on Instagram. He's like, she's fine. She appreciated.

I said, I, like, I hopped in there and gave her some water or something. And he was like, She appreciated that you didn't make fun of her afterwards. And I was like, what kind of asshole? This lady, forgetting to drink water. You know what I mean? Come on, lady. Hydrate.

I have to back up because I'm a, uh, when it comes to talent, I'm a, this full-on sick of it. I just, um, just for us is brilliant. It is so good. I was so smitten by how smart, bright, your physicality, the character you did adopt. I'm now sitting next to you know for a fact that you adopt. This was character acting as well as was just amazing. And what happens to me when I, if I go to a museum with brilliant art or a ballet or symphony

or stand-up or whatever, I want to go be creative again. You made me feel like, oh, I have to go be creative. I have to, you know, reinvigorate my creativity. And that's a really lovely thing. Besides making people laugh, you inspire them to go be creative.

That is so nice. I mean, like, I'm so, that blows me away. I'm really, I'm good at ending conversations. This isn't the end. Yeah, I know. Certain compliments just. go all right no no i'm not what are we going to talk about look as other it was a lot of other people's input genuinely not being like faux humble like i had really when a thing goes for a long time and

you're solicitous of feedback and you get really good people and to look at it mike berbiglia who's one of the great solo show artists ever was one of the producers of the show Alex Timbers, who's one of the great directors of theater and stand-up. Alex Timbers has directed me, Malaney. He did, oh, hello. He's done a bunch of, he did Moulon Rouge on Broadway for which he received a Tony, did a show called Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which is a small but dedicated following. And a bunch of other stuff, Beetlejuice.

And like, at some point, I'm not going to be able to get him anymore. because people will realize that everyone, everything he directs makes money or wins he a bunch of awards. He did Peewey's special on Broadway. I mean, like, there's really amazing people that worked on the show. Some were really great.

My best friend Adam Brace, who was like, he was a direct, yeah, yeah, I'm sure. That when he passed, it was hard for you to go on. Yeah, it was tough. My best, one of my closest pals was a director

who I worked with for like a decade. And Adam died right, like two weeks before we started on Broadway. So that was pretty rough. But he had a huge effect on the show, huge. And he kept coming to see it. Adam probably saw it just for us like 60, 70 times. And we'd give notes after every performance.

And Barbiglia saw it a bunch. And Timbers obviously did too. He stepped in after Adam passed away and directed the special. So, like, I'm not being faux mod. And besides all, all the comedians that we've talked about giving things. When you do a thing a lot, different unsanded corners start to pop up

and you sort of sand them down. And then other things pop up and you sort of sand them down. And before long, your thing's a little, is very aerodynamic because you spend a lot of time on it by degrees, by doing it again and again. So like, I'm very proud of it. And also part of the reason I'm super proud of it, is not to steal an analogy from you.

It's like a trash pile. It's like, I'll be like, oh, there's Steve Martin's joke. There's the thing that Seinfeld mentioned. There's Adam's joke. There's my friend John, Nick, David, Morgan, Chloe. There's the thing that person said to me after a show in San Francisco. It's got a comet's tail behind it of all these different memories and advice and feedback. And I think that's sort of textured

stuff to play off of stops you from getting bored and makes you a better actor. Right. And it makes it also there's a patina to it. There's an age to what you're doing. Yes. That's the perfect word to describe it actually. Yes. That's a really... That is

the advantage of theater that you don't get necessarily when you're on TV because you don't have a history of rehearsing it and finding moments and getting it richer. Do you ever wonder what Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if everyone had to rehearse their movie five or six times before they did it. Do you know what I mean?

World's better. Probably. Yeah. I think so. Although maybe sometimes, you know, when I was on set for the paper, we do a thing the first time and then we do it the second and third time. I'm like, first time was good. Yeah. Just because it had the newness of it and there was the pop and weirdly like the cold reading of it almost sort of helped.

And everyone's being real. And they haven't, they're not, like, reacting the way they think they should react. You know, like, it's a really, the alchemy of making that, of making, like, a scene work the best is something. Yeah, right. And so cool. So let's, let's stay here for a second. Were you hired on the paper to write? Both.

But at the same time, they ask, come right back. He's like, what do you, Greg was like, what do you want? I was like, well, you know, Greg's had this. All right, back up one more step. Yeah, yeah. How did it get to the point where Greg says, what do you want? Oh, Greg Daniels, as you said earlier, is like... Greg's the best.

Yeah. Greg's a really cool guy. Greg, for those who are listening who don't know, Greg Daniels didn't just do the American version of the office. He also stunned King of the Hill and Parks and Rec and a bunch of other really wonderful television shows. And underneath him, there have been many really... In terms of...

He's a pretty good vampire. He's, like, bit a bunch of other people who have become big fan posts. Mike, sure, Mike Scher, who did The Good Place, which, by the way, I won't leave here until we talk about the Good Place, please. The Good Place, Justin Spitzer, who did Superstore, Mindy, Kaling, BJ Novak. You know, he's one of a freaking collaborator with Mike Judge. He lived with Conan when they were both young writers in New York. They both worked on SNL. They were both Harvard Lampoon.

Greg is a really brilliant individualist. And how did he find you? He saw just for us. And then I auditioned. I got an email from my agents being like, hey, there's an untitled Michael Coleman, Greg Daniels comedy. Michael Coleman's another television writer who's written some great, some of the best comedy last 25 years with Nathan Fielder and Conan also, actually. Just give shoutouts to the building we're in. And I read the pages, and it was hysterical.

And I was set in Boston, I was like, this is great. It was like about like, it was a small town politician or something like that. They were dummy sides and I had no idea. So I auditioned and I sent it off. And then I got an email from my agents a few days later being like, Daniels and come want to meet you. And I'm like, holy shit. And so I went out to LA and we had brunch and they were like, we're putting the show together.

It's going to be like in the universe of the office. And I'm like, what? They're like, we're going to do something in the universe of the office, but it's not a sequel. It's not even really a spin-off. There's one character who's coming back. I think it'll be Oscar. And do you want to be involved?

And I was like, yes, please. And also, they were just such cool guys to be around. They were so funny. And I was like, I want to just be around these cool guys. And so I, but also want to learn how to write and act from two guys who have fostered some really incredible talent. I've always been a bit of a... I've always been a bit of, like, a teacher-seeker. Like, maybe that comes from my Judaism, but I've always looked for people I could learn from.

Even if they're peers, even if they're, even if they have mentor capacities within them, like, and I'm an eager student. So, like, I've had really great, like I said, I've had really great professors in Greg and Michael are probably two of the latest. But Donald Gleason, who's on the show. Yes, he's wonderful. It's a great actor. He's a really good actor. Donald comes from this great Irish acting family, Brendan Gleason's his dad.

Have you worked down in? No, I mean, it'd be a dream come true. I mean, he's so good. Unbelievable. Sometimes I'd sit there in my ADHD brain being like, you're not just watching Donald. You're also acting in the scene with him. You're not just like, and sometimes I remember I came in one day

and I hadn't had a lot of sleep and I was a little grumpy. And I was like, oh, this is the first scene where you've really held your own a little bit because you're not like, you're not like, oh, wow, it's Donald Gleason. You're just like, oh, fucking we just got to get to lunch, you know? Yeah.

Got to get to lunch so I can nap in the trailer. But yeah, it was a really cool experience. And I think at some point, I'm worried someone will tap me on the shoulder and be like, fantasy camp is over. You have to go home now. Like, you've been at fantasy camp for like 20, years. They're doing this comedy thing.

You're just like a, you know. I love what you said. Sorry, one of the things you said you love about the paper is you retired already after five years of being a solo animal to be part of a family. Yeah. It is wonderful, isn't it? I think if I'm being honest with myself, I think Adam dying had a lot to do with that, which is that I realized I was a sharper instrument with other people to sort of like other people as a wet stone and so I was like maybe I find a good wet stone and I didn't and I think I took it

wanting other people but I didn't expect to like them as much as I did and so that was a nice surprise. But I think if I'm being totally transparent, I think when you do a solo show for a long time, it's made much more bearable by the presence of other people. And I had people after Adam died dozens, literally dozens of people showed up for me, my crew, my friends. Knowing your relationship and how much it was a loss for you. You know, the reason I live with those two guys, I had a place in New York. I was living on my own, but after Adam died, the songwriter, Benj Pasek, who's a brilliant songwriter, Bench wrote all the music for, like, La La Land and Dear Evan Hanson and Greatest Showman. He basically showed up my house and was like, hey, I don't know that you can be like alone while you do this.

I think you're going to need help getting through it, so you should come stay with me for a little while. Wow. And so I had people like that in my life who I never, you know, wouldn't have, would have thought of that as a good idea. I had a place. Who gets a roommate at like 34 years old? But it was 35. But it was really, really.

But yeah, I think I was looking, but Benj is a songwriter. He's not a comedian. Right. Even though he's very funny. And we got to write the Tonys together this year for Cynthia Revo. Like Benj is a really... Ben is a very busy guy, so asking him to sit in a writer's room

would not have suited. And so I think there was such a relief of getting back to crafting stuff with people at a table and then acting that out on a set that was so different from getting moral support from people while you go on stage and do a thing by yourself.

That was a really nice thing. Maybe that answer is a bit Maudlin, sorry, but Maybe I'm being Mopee or something like that, but, you know. Genuinely? You mean that? No, come on. That's great.

I am the definition of modeling. But like, yeah, it was very nice to be, it was very nice to be on a show. I mean, I think that I'm, I don't think, I don't know if I'm a unique animal in this way or a very typical one in this way, but I need a balance of stuff for myself and stuff with a group. and I'm not just one or the other. I can't just be making stuff by myself. And I can't just be doing stuff in an ensemble. I need both. Otherwise, also, the two inform each other in a really brilliant way.

Like, you know, my solo shows have gotten better because of my time in writers' rooms, like the emphasis on story and character, things that comedians would never think of, sharpened my comedy a little bit and so like that's a really nice side effect of it so i'm also psyched to like write a show after this and see you know what comes can i i want to read something please verbatim which i just touch me hugely um well i'll just read the whole thing you say i always think the worst is going to happen but i always think we can do something about it but i never give up on people. No one is beyond connection, no matter what. And I found myself in lots of situations they don't necessarily belong in. And I have found connection and community in those places. And I mean,

that is for me, what infuses just for us. That's what comes across. But it's also so perfectly said for this time that we're in. You know, we're doing this. Was I okay to quote that? Yeah. I mean, it's like a defining, it's like a defining moral value. And I worry that for very valid reasons,

it's disappearing, like this idea of, like I sometimes describe myself as like, a radical centrist like believing that not that the right answer is always in the middle of two things but that

that finding a productive result comes from a very careful calculus of like of empathy and accountability and I think finding that balance comes from like listening to other people

so like I've spent a lot of time in, even when I was very young working at the Red Sox like I was an Orthodox Jew I was wearing a Yamika and I was going to as you said Boston is a melting pot that weren't

not everything got melted and so watching watching the way white Bostonians and wasps and you know Larry Lukino my mentor was like this very hard scrabble Italian

who had gone to Princeton on a basketball scholarship and then Yale Law School and then ran the Orioles and the Redskins and the Padres and then the Red Sox. And along the way he had worked for this highfaluton Washington Trialer and Edward Bennett Williams. And he was still always

like an Italian kid with a chip on his shoulder, but he had learned upper crusts so much that that was sort of the environment he existed in and fostered a little. So, like, early on, as someone who didn't even know how to shake a hand, I'd figure out how to, like, be myself, but also navigate a world where I wasn't, like, totally welcome. And so, like... And you knew that.

It was explained to me. But it was explained to me in ways that were, like, verbal and nonverbal. But, like, but, yeah, I mean, I spent a lot of time with people... I've spent a lot of time in environments I don't necessarily. feel welcoming, environments that are political, environments that are social, environments that are, you know, a little bit, a little bit, I'd say dangerous is too strong a word, but like, going to that meaning of white nationalists, like, there is a true thing that it's based on, and then there's lots of other life experiences mixed into that.

And like, and given what's gone on with like Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel, and the political environment that's been fostered by like the Trump administration and you know other political figures like I don't know if people are in a in a kumbaya mood right now so I worry I worry all the time that like no one's going to want to listen to anyone from other environments because they have such genuine and in some cases very deserved moral injuries. And so, like, what does that do to have to ask people to listen to one another? But I also think that that's, like, the only way stuff gets done. So a tough, a tough thing. And I wish I could figure out a way to, like, I figure out, I wish I could figure out a more

concise way to put it. But just for us was really fun for me and really meaningful for me because I think, like you said, at the heart of that story is that message. And so I think horsing that into people's homes via comedy was like a really nice aspect of it. Sorry, it was very long-winded. No, no, it wasn't. And that's what I'm, I'm, I'm not a political animal except when it affects the work that I do. Of course. For oceans and the environment and growing up in a scientific background, I'm happy to go toe to toe with anybody when it's science-based. I wrote this piece of that. NASCAR for a magazine. I love you. I don't know. Who are you? No, no. How could you write an article about NASCAR? Well, they

didn't like the piece very much. It got killed. But I love writing for magazines. I just wrote a review of the Oasis show in New York. You know, the band Oasis. Yes, I know I should, so I'm going to lie. You don't know. You got to get them some oasis. It's just a review of it. I wrote a piece for Rolling Stone about this band. Yes. And people

feeling they were broken up for 15 years or doing some big reunion tour. It was really special. But I went to see this NASCAR race because I had never been interested in NASCAR. But there are millions, tens of millions of Americans, hundreds of millions even that have between a passing and fanatical interest in NASCAR. So I'm like, well, I've got to go see what that's like. And like, I went to, they do this thing called motor racing outreach. They do these, they do every Sunday, and Saturday, there's church services. And so I go to the service. And it's one of those things where I could not be less, I'm not a NASCAR fan.

I barely understand what's going on. They're going left. That's all I know. These guys seem to be really dedicated going left for a long time at very high speeds. And I'm not a Christian. And also, there's something there that's funny because Reverend Billy Malden, who runs motor racing outreach is like thanking God for like good year tires and like it'd be so easy to be like oh brother but like but also I was there and in the front row was this guy Joe Gibbs

who's a great old football coach and now owns a bunch of motor sports teams and I flicked through his Wikipedia and Joe Gibbs it turns out has lost quite a few friends and family members in motor racing accidents. And actually, motor racing accidents, besides just Dale Earnhardt, Sr., who was killed very prominently at, I think, Daytona, it's a fact of life for these people. And so it kind of makes sense that they would go sit in church and pray that the tires work and thank God for people that make sure that.

the tires work before they race at hundreds of miles an hour run a track. And if that works for Joe Gibbs, it's both funny but also really serious and meaningful to that. And like, I guess maybe I should really listen when I go into the church. And like, even though the church is literally going to be a caveteria 20 minutes after the service sentence. And so, like, I think stuff like that, that stuff that, um, that unexpected thing,

that unexpected meaning or that unexpected connection feels really precious to me because if I went to like, if I went to like a Holocaust memorial, that's obviously meaningful to me. My family or survivors, all that stuff.

But if you find, like, Norman, Leah was very, very fond of saying, I'm just a different version of you. And his comedy was, like, I think it really informed, like, Norman, there couldn't be more different from, like, Sanford and Sun. But there was something so human and connective.

And all the best comedy comes from this, like, core empathy. Yeah. Where you tap into something, like, really universal and big in a really different way. So, like, I don't know. I'm, I'm proud of it. But you know what I'm, do you know what I'm getting at? I do. And I, but what we are talking about is.

Finding a commonplace. Yeah. And that there is hope. You know, you've discovered. You're hopeful because you've experienced it. I really, because. I've been the recipient of a lot of grace, but I also like, yeah, I don't know. I'm an optimist, but like, it's harder and harder to be an optimist for every, like,

but you know, you don't read a ton of good news, but like they're cleaning up the Pacific garbage patch. Like, there's like. There are a lot of good news stories. Yeah. They don't make good drama, which doesn't sell, so it doesn't sell stuff. Yeah, yeah. And there are hard stuff.

There are hard things happening. Of course. Freedom of speech is a huge thing. The Kimmel thing is so crazy. It's like, I don't know. That's a real. I don't talk a ton about current events because, I talk about strains of current events,

but not specific ones. You know the famous thing about, they asked Chen Kai Sheck about the effects of the French Revolution on southeastern Asia. Do you know about this? No. They asked Chen Kai Sheck, they asked him in the 1950s.

or something like that, what's the effect of the French Revolution on South Eastern Asia? And he goes, it's too soon to tell. And I'm always like, it's really funny, but it's also really true. You never know what's going to be revealed or what's going to be. So sometimes, I don't know, but like, yeah. I know. That's why I have trouble weighing in

on stuff. Even science changes. You know, you do keep learning more, but there seems, yeah. That's my dad's big thing, too. My dad's a really, my dad's a public health person in Massachusetts and a really brilliant, as you mentioned earlier, heart specialist, cardiologist.

Artificial hearts, or was that part of a... It's part of a bit, but he does stents, which are drug-eluding stents, which is a... So I used to talk about stents, and then it was hard, so I was like, yeah, artificial hearts. An audience is like, can we get it? I was, like, try to explain what a stent was, and I couldn't find a good enough joke,

so I was like, it's artificial hearts. So, yeah, but my dad was... my dad sometimes was like some science would come out and be like I don't know about that or like I remember once a famous person got neck surgery my dad's like hey shouldn't have done that I'm like why he's like he's at much higher risk for a stroke and I'm like then the guy had a stroke three years later passed away and I was like dad he's like famous people get really bad health care sometimes because you know because they can afford to make big mistakes yes that's a really is a really good way to put it. I'm going to bring that up to them. But yeah, that's a, yeah, they can afford to make big

mistakes. They deviate from the playbook. My father sometimes says, you know, it gets the worst health care. I'm like, hell, he's like, poor people. So you know who gets the second worst health care? I was like, no, you went presidents. I think you're really bad health care. Extremely famous people. We get really bad health care. The presidents have gotten some really, really awful health care. So, rising out, we're at heart trouble. And his cardiologist's were like, you need more time snuggling with your wife. Maybe Eisenhower, famously affectionate, you know, or something like that. Yeah.

Sorry. God, Mary's father, my wife's father, had eight heart attacks when she was like. Eight heart attacks? Yeah, yeah. Eight years old on. What was his job? Lightning Rod? What do you do?

He was a train conductor and worked the railroads and all that. But back then. The point is, back then, it was cut out everything you love. You know, don't make love. You can have bacon. Don't get out and play golf or exercise. Just watch more TV. You know, all these things that you...

Bad advice. It used to be if you had a heart attack and you went into a hospital. You had a 50% chance of never coming out. And now you do it. You go home the same day, hopefully. But it's a really, it's a profound. profound medical advancement that obviously I only um I don't know my dad was very my my dad is a huge influence on me I never talk about it but he's really you know his thoughtfulness is

religious and we both love the good place by the way for the it's the most brilliant show ever it truly is I mean if I who knows that's what faith's about what it's going to be like when one passes over but it should be that I mean, the best part about that show, for me, from a TV writer's perspective, is that every show, every sitcom ultimately has character growth in it, which is, by the way, why sitcoms are inherently, like, liberal. Action movies are inherently conservative, because no one wants to see an action movie where they, like, talk it out. Yeah. But, like, hey, maybe we can get to a table and come to an agreement before we get to violence. John Wicken is like, you know what?

My dog meant a lot to me, and the guy's like, I'm so sorry. You know, like, that works. But sitcoms are inherently liberal. liberal, right? No one ever meets a homeless man in Act 1 and Act 3 is like, you really ought to put yourself up or your bootstraps, you know, like they, but so character growth is an inherent part of every story engine, but the good place made that character growth part of the plot. So the story engine was never sweaty. Do you know what I mean? They had to grow for the story to move forward. Right. So you're watching something that was so

organic and so brilliant and Mike sure's so good and like his writing is so with the sense of authorship sometimes I'd see a joke and be like and also like great writers on that show like core jefferson and demi and me and Megan and like it's just the writers room and the actors on that fucking show were so i mean like i i saw every episode of that show at least once it's so so so good okay magic wand where do you go 10 years from now 15 years now what do you want to what's your life i love to make really i know that sounds like a real cop-out i love to make really um weird specific stuff hopefully the paper like i loved working on the paper in the sense that like it's nice to do to be involved in what i think is the best version of what that could

be which is a show that's original and also as a foot and something people love so that's been really nice. It's been picked up already. For a second season, yeah. The funny thing is that I was obviously nervous, but not really. Like, Greg and Michael were so it really, when I saw the cuts, our cuts

were coming in heavy. They were coming in at like close, they were coming along. And then once Greg and Michael got into the editing room and I saw the cuts, I was like, oh, the show's going to be great. It's going to be really good. People are going to really like it. And it just sort of

smelled right. And so hopefully I get to work on stuff that is like I'd love to write musicals. I'm doing a little more acting, which is really fun. I'm going to be in a couple of movies and small movies and like other stuff. And I'd love to act in a way that's really I'd love to do more bizarre stuff. I'd like to write more bizarre stuff. I'd like to write stuff that. Bizarre stuff means boy, I didn't see that coming bizarre stuff? Or what do you mean? I mean like. Can I just do one more. compliment. I think any audience member loves when they don't see it coming. You know, wow, that surprised me is what delights you and makes you giggle and laugh. You are full of, wow.

I want, did not see that coming. But I want to make stuff that no one sees coming. Like, I've been working on, I'm working on some really weird, working on a comedy about the Dalai Lama. Like, that's, it's like the Dalai Lama, but it's Veep. It's surrounding. by this really indifferent staff, and he's just like, God, fucking damn it. And so, like, these types of things are their long shots. And, like, I'd love to do more long shots. Like, just for us felt like a long shot.

Yes. It was like a thing I did for a comedy festival. I didn't think it would win an Emmy or go to Broadway. So, like, I'm really attracted to long shots that work. And so, by the way, even the paper was a little bit of a long shot. I was like, am I really going to work on a, you know, a like a very broad, a broader, more fun comedy? But like, it feels like it paid off a little bit. I love a long shot.

I love a thing that doesn't feel like a sure thing. The 15-year-old writing. What? The 15-year-old at Fenway. Yeah. That's a long shot. But they're the most rewarding. That's when you say, do you like a tough gig?

I'm like, I like the long shots. Like, how many years does anyone get? right if you're lucky maybe you get to work for if you're melbrooks you're still working barachashem like melbrooks gets to work norman gets to work but like am i really i've got one life so it's got to be some crazy stuff so magic wand 10 years from now i've done like three or four more or two or three more long shots where i've made the best versions of or i continue to do like little things where, like, I've been really additive.

Like, I'm really proud of the Tonys this year. I wrote all of Cynthia's stuff for the Tonys. And Benj and Justin and Mark Schaman and Scott Whitman wrote the music. But, like, I'm really proud of the job we did on that. I don't know that it will mean a thing to a billion people, but, like, Broadway people seem to really like it. And hopefully I get those, hopefully, I guess I just get more of those opportunities. I get to really bring something special, acting or writing. But, like, yeah,

I'd love to do more solo shows. I'd love to write plays and movies and TV. I'd really love to write a big, stupid television show that's, like, very, a really off-ball premise and, like, and, yeah, that's, I'd love to, I'd love to write a television show or a movie that feels like a long shot and really lands. That's what, that's what would be, would be, really fun for me. And to meet nice new collaborators. Conversation Ender, but you are so good at what you do and so creative that you also stimulate other creative people to go out and, you know, be creative some more. And that's a lovely gift. I'm very grateful and I'm so cool to get to do this with you because you've been

such a big part of so much of the stuff that I love and feel really informed by and And also, I'll admit to have listening, have listened to this podcast a bunch and watched you speak as Ted Danson. And it seems like a very big stroke of luck for me that I get to experience that one-on-one as well. So, like, thanks so much for having me. This really is like, I'm very grateful. But thanks for having me. Much appreciation. Please.

Yeah. Thank you, Alex Edelman. You can catch him in the new show, The Paper, streaming on Peacock Now. And be sure to watch his one-man show just for us on HBO Max if you haven't already. That's it for this week. Special thanks to Team Coco. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you like watching your podcast, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube.

visit youtube.com slash team cocoa see you next time where everybody knows your name you've been listening to where everybody knows your name. You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me,

Nick Leow, our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer, engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Graal, talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Battista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gen, Mary Steenbergin, and John Osmore.