WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1325 - Vanessa Bayer

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Vanessa Bayer knows her comedic talent comes from a decidedly unfunny place. Vanessa's teenage cancer diagnosis focused her comedy skills, which in turn allowed her to help people process, understand and laugh at horrible things. Vanessa and Marc talk about how her natural optimism guided her through this health crisis and also put her in a great headspace for the Saturday Night Live audition process. Vanessa also explains why she incorporated her real life medical history into her new comedy series, I Love That For You. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you self-employed? Don't think you need business insurance? Think again. Business insurance from Zensurance is a no-brainer for every business owner because it provides peace of mind. A lot can go wrong. A fire, cyber attack, stolen equipment, or an unhappy customer suing you. That's why you need insurance. Don't let the, I'm too small for this mindset, hold you back from protecting yourself. Zensurance provides customized business insurance policies starting at just $19 per month. Visit Zensurance today to get a free quote. Zensurance. Mind your business. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel.

To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening how's it going are you all right how's that thing did you clean it i mean is it is it good now is it gonna is it gonna work how's that did you get did you fix that thing in the car did you what did you do man what did you do how did you fuck that up jesus what the fuck happened i thought you had that under control happy birthday is it i'm sorry i'm sorry that sounds terrible, that's terrible. Where's, how's the doggy? How's the

doggy? Hey, look, I'm Mark Maron. Did I mention that? I'm in Madison, Wisconsin at the Barrymore Theater. That'll be a Wednesday, April 27th. That's this Wednesday. I'll be in Milwaukee at the Turner Hall Ballroom on Thursday, April 28th. I'll be in Chicago at the Vic Theater on Friday, April 29th. And then Minneapolis at the Pantages on Saturday, April 30th. I am a road dog. Damn.

You can go to wtfpod.com slash tour for ticket links and other info. Look, Vanessa Bayer is on the show. You know her from her seven years on Saturday Night Live. She's also from Trainwreck. She was in that. She has a new series on Showtime called I Love That For You, which is somewhat inspired by what she went through in her life

when she was diagnosed with leukemia in her teens. She's an odd duck, but I love her. I had a nice chat with her, So that's going to be happening. Let's go back. Let's take it back. The last time I talked to you, I was about to do the Tonight Show. Man, it's been a whirlwind. I did the Tonight Show on Tuesday.

It was great. I got Jimmy laughing. That's all you want to do on the Tonight Show. Get Jimmy laughing. Wake Jimmy up. Come on, Jimmy. Let's laugh a little bit. And got him I got in there I got him laughing and we had a good time it was funny though it was funny because they told me like

look we got a long time you got like eight minutes out there I'm like all right they're like yeah we cut a few jokes here and then we did something I'm like great so we're doing it and I set up to do the old head bit and I do a couple other bits but the idea initially was to call back the old head bit with the uh with the record store bit but he threw to the to the bad guys clip which is what i was there to promote it's fine and while the bad guys clip is going he's like good job man great and i'm like are we done he's like yeah i'm running the I'm like, we didn't do the record store with the old guy had a callback. And he's like, do you think they'll remember? I'm like, yeah.

I mean, it was like three minutes ago. I think they'll remember. And he's like, all right. And I'm like, why? You don't think so? He's like, no, let's just do it. And if it doesn't work, we'll just cut it. And then we did it.

We came back. We did that last bit. And I landed the call back he's like we gotta hit the show ended he's like you did you landed it you know how to land it i do i can i can land that fucker i can put this thing down on occasion so yes that was fun i went i took sam whipside up there and uh and then after this night show we went to the greek restaurant kiklides. I forgot to mention that before that, I woke up in New York City, and I'm like, fuck, I got to get to the Whitney Biennial.

I'm a Whitney member because I think it's important to support the arts. And I got up, and I got there at opening time. And I spent an hour at the Biennial, took it all in. Very eclectic bunch of stuff. A lot of different stuff. A lot of, it's just now i don't want to say a hodgepodge it's a carefully curated hodgepodge of things large things some very large things but i think that's the idea of the biennial you're sort of like wow this is a lot and i'm not sure i understand a lot of it but uh i'm glad it's all here i'm glad people are out there making stuff that I don't understand

because maybe someday I will, and maybe some people do, and maybe this is just a vision the artist had, and it's beyond understanding. Maybe we should just ride it to another plane. Wake up, man. And that night, I got tickets. My agent set me up with house seats over at American Buffalo with Sammy Rockwell and Larry Fishburne.

I know Sammy. We're in the number one box office movie right now. Sammy and I are in the number one movie at the box office today. So I watched him in American Buffalo, which I hadn't seen for years when I saw Al Pacino in it. And when Al Pacino did it at the Schubert in Boston, all I remember is Al Pacino center stage, walking around with his hands on his hips, yelling and they just gave him the full reign of the fucking play.

And this one, it seems a little more engaged. Fish Burns Donnie's up and around. Rockwell's moved around the junkie kids in and out. But Rockwell owned it as good as i as good as i've seen it and i've only seen it once maybe twice once on television but he did a great great teach worth seeing but it's weird it's not as heavy a play as i remember it because i remember it being much heavier but there is a there's sort of there's a there's a there's a comedic element going through it but it's also at the end it's not tragic it's just sort of uh

losers just uh amateur thieves and there's no follow-through to it it's kind of a ridiculous empty ending but that thing moves it's not a long play but jesus it was it was it just flew by and it was great to see sam afterwards i said hi said, hi, Clark, Greg was there. I said hi to Sam. I met Lawrence Fishburne, which was exciting. And then they all drove away in a limo and me and Sam were standing there going like, I guess we're done. I guess that's it for us. And Sammy went home. So that was the New York business. So then I fly from New York to Austin. I do Big Jay Oakerson show that night. It's just a dirty story show where I chose to make it dirty. For some reason, I get around Big Jay. I'm like,

I got to be filthy. Big Jay brings out the filth in me. What can I tell you? So I do that. And I go hang out, see a bunch of comics, had some food. And that night I did the Paramount. And it was great. It was great. Great crowd in Austin. Alejandro Escovito came out. I'd never met him before. Bruce Hills brought him and introduced me. He knew of me, said I was a good guitar player, said I'm a big fan of all the records, gave me his new record, hung out the show i believe chuck woolery came with uh with kristin who owns opies that happens you know he can handle it and uh what else was there my my uh ex-wife my first ex-wife lives in austin her and her husband came it was nice it was all good everything's okay i'm getting emotional i'm getting older i'm getting emotional. I'm getting older. I'm getting emotional.

I don't know how long it goes on for. I do not. Did I mention I had borscht at Veselka? I didn't mention that. In New York, I also went to Veselka. Took care of that business. Four pierogies, bowl of hot borscht, which is pretty fucking good. I think a little money gets kicked back to Ukraine from the borscht because it's a Ukrainian restaurant.

And I had some kasha with gravy I did the business I did the food business and now I'm pig pig fat because I ate a lot of pig fat and beef fat oh my god what am I talking about you guys Austin was great had a minor minor problem with a drunky woman and I was like what's the matter and and someone behind this woman points her to go she keeps talking and then the the drunkie woman goes well this bitch i'm like all right okay okay let's let's everybody relax let's pull it together get hold of yourself handle your liquor please please lady and she's looking at me like she was gonna cry and then I proposed.

It was, it was very funny in context. And from what I understood, she did cry. But one crying lady at a performance is that's the success. There could have been more crying ladies. And I wasn't even mean to her. That's how I know that maybe, maybe I'm evolving somehow. Maybe I'm evolving somehow. When I left that show, I was walking out and an African-American woman, middle-aged woman, maybe in her late 30s, not middle-aged. She stops me and she says, that was a great show. And I really appreciate you handling that woman empathetically, which I did. Because I could have just level leveled her and i've done that i could have just like just destroyed her you know with the with the horrible mean funny

but i just went with it like okay let's let's let's just behave like grown-ups let's manage the situation let's come on get hold of ourselves come on Maybe I'm not that guy anymore, but I don't know. I could have been. It just depends. But I think like the tone I'm taking is not that. And I went again up with no opener. It was spectacular. I don't know what it is.

Maybe I'm just, it's just the idea, like I'm pretty present and I'm actually, I'm actually fearless up there and I'm not pretending to be and I feel like I'm at the top of my game and and there's a lot of riffing and going on it's just there's something about owning it owning the whole thing and the work is good I because I I feel like at this stage of my life I can't look at it as just a job it's not a job it's something much more important to me and I think it's important what I do but I don't know if there's any indication of that necessarily in the you know in the bigger broader cultural sense but i don't know what relevance means in that sense anyways so i'm just sort of tempering the thing to understand and appreciate the audience i have and the skill

set that i have and the sort of creativity that i'm putting into it and trying to have a good time. And it's kind of working, he said, because he's had a string of good shows. Talk to me the next time I'm in a hotel room. Sadly, being in a hotel room, doing what one does, sadly, in a hotel room. Talk to me when that happens. So Vanessa Bayer, I had a lovely time with her. I like her. She's an odd, funny person. And her new series, I love that for you, is an odd, funny series.

It premieres this Friday, April 29th on Showtime. And I talked to her. I talked to her. I'm going to share it with you right now. Right now. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category.

And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Death is in our air.

This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. Will I die here? You'll never leave Japan alive.

FX's Shogun, a new original series, streaming February 27th, exclusively on Disney+. 18-plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. How? exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Oh. All right, let me see if I can actually turn off all my bells and ringers. I don't know how to turn the one off on here.

It's the weirdest thing. Like, I can, okay, I'll turn the phone off. That's done. But where's the volume on this new, I don't understand what's happening. You're due, I use Assure on my podcast and I feel so professional. You do? Yeah. Do you use that do? Yeah.

Do you use that one? No. Mine's not as cool as this, but it makes me feel like I'm doing something right. Well, okay. But I mean, like, you know, they make all of the microphones. I didn't know that. I mean, they make every one. Do you use like something that looks like a stage mic?

Actually, it might be this. It's like this, except it's not attached this way to this thing. Oh, it's on a stand? Yeah, it's on one of these things. Okay. Yeah, so I guess... Oh, I see. So it's probably this mic. It might be.

What's your podcast? I just started it with my brother, who's also a big fan of yours. It's called How Did We Get Weird. Oh, really? Yeah. And what's the angle? We talk about nostalgic stuff. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. Like how far back? Like pretty far back. But your lifetime, not before that. But if our guests want to. Oh. Yeah. So you have someone come in.

Yeah. Who have you had on there so far? We just had Michael Showalter. He just came out. That came out yesterday. Oh, it did? Yeah. And that's the first one that was no that was the 30th one i think okay yeah so but pretty new showalter yeah

i know that guy yeah he directed that movie he's directed a few movies yeah directed the the tammy faye baker movie i know she was so fucking good in that. I know. I got to see it. You didn't see it? Well, it's one of those weird times where I didn't pay that much attention to the Oscars, although I was watching. But I was like, she's got to win. Yeah. I mean, it was-

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd heard she's incredible. It was that crazy. And she's so good. Yeah. She is. Do you know her? I don't know her.

No? No. Do you live here? I moved here three years ago. Really? Yeah, from New York. And how's it going? How's the transition? I love it here. You do? Yeah. I really love it. Do you ever think about New York?

No. How did they ever do? Once I left New York, I was like, it's so hard to live here. Yeah. Like right before I moved that I was like, I got to get out of here and I never come back. Really? I mean, I like going back to visit. It's fun. Yeah. But it's just so hard to live there. It's so easy to live here. I guess, well, yeah, if you're acclimated suburbanly. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess. If you're used to having a driver's license. Yeah. And stuff like that. So a lot of people come out here, they're like, I don't know how to drive. And I'm like, well, you got to leave. Right. Just know you're not going to make it here. I still, I hadn't driven.

When I moved here, I hadn't really driven regularly since high school. But you have it in you. Yeah, I have it in me. Yeah. And you grew up where you had to drive. Yes, exactly. I guess most people do, but some people it's kind of odd and they kind of gravitate to the one or two blocks that remind them of New York.

Yeah. Everybody moves here, moves over there by the Gelson's and the, you know, over on Franklin. Right, right, right, right. There's a little strip there with a bookstore. That's what I did. How many times did you walk over there to the Gelson's? I mean, I moved to Larchmont, so I could be, yeah, same thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you can walk out and then you know that one or two blocks really well. Yeah. And everything's there. My eye doctor. You know what I mean? So you live there now? Yeah. Okay. And I love it. It's a little New York there. Like Larchmont Village. Yeah.

You got the bad bagels. And the good bagels. Oh, is there good bagels now? I think that, well, there's Noah's and Sam's. I don't know what Sam's is, but Noah's is okay, right? I mean. I don't eat a lot of bagels. I don't.

Who eats bagels? Well, we did when we were kids. Yeah, right. I mean, it was important. Yeah. When I lived in New York, that place, what was it? B&B or H&H or there was one. Yeah, yes, yes.

You remember that one that had those like heavy, dense bagels? Yes. And you had to go downtown to get them? Yeah. I ate so many. When I was on SNL, I would order in a bagel sandwich every, I would sleep in and order in a bagel sandwich. Yeah. The next them. Yeah. I, I, I ate so many when I was on SNL, I would order in a bagel sandwich every, I would sleep in and order in a bagel sandwich the next day. Yeah.

And then I would order in something else for dinner. Bagel. Yeah. I mean, where'd you grow up? In Cleveland, a suburb of Cleveland. For real Cleveland?

Just suburban, like Shaker. Like now I'm actually not from Shaker, but that's like a suburb near me that everybody knows. Yeah. I don't, I don't know if I understand Cleveland. Was it alive when you were a kid?

Like, did your family be like, we're going into the city to eat. I mean, the thing is, when people say they're from Cleveland, they're usually from a suburb. And they're really nice suburbs. Sure. And there's like, you know. I think Ohio's a pretty state. Yeah. Yeah.

And there's nice restaurants and stuff to do, but you rarely go downtown, especially when you're a kid. Yeah. I have friends that live there now as adults. And when you live there as an adult, you say, you go, you should see what they're doing there now. Everyone in Cleveland is always like, Cleveland's really doing it now.

It's really coming around. There's three blocks that are great. I mean, it is, has Michael Simon restaurants. Yeah, I know. I mean, when is, has, you know, Michael Simon restaurants. Yeah, I know. I mean, when I used to play over there at whatever that. Oh, yeah. The Laugh Stop. What's over there?

Nick's, I forget the name of the. It's a nice comedy club. Yeah. Now it's going to bother me. Well, there's an improv there. No. Which I did a very. And then there's a.

Hilarities? Hilarities. Yeah.ities. Hilarities. Yeah, yeah, Hilarities. The improv, you did, you. I did a standup show there once, and like all my friends and family came. Oh, so when you were younger? It was really nice. Yeah, it was probably 10 years ago.

Oh, so not kid young. Not kid young, but yeah. The big return. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's coming home. She's working the club. Yeah, yeah. Oh, but. She's coming home. She's working the club. Yeah. Oh.

But yeah, Michael Simon's restaurant there. And his sous chef had a restaurant there that I loved. But he closed it. Greenhouse Tavern, it was called. Okay, okay, yeah. It was right down the street from the one on that area. Yeah. That block.

Of Cleveland, where there's like cobblestone stuff. And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Have you been there? I have gotten there. Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. It's nice. It's nice. I saw, you know, yeah, I mean, if you like that stuff,

I mean, of course. The costumes in the basement. I'm not going to be a dick about it. It's nice. You know what I mean? I like seeing all the outfits and the guitars. Also, Clevelanders are very nice. I think so. It's my experience. I haven't had any bad times in Cleveland. I went to that weird corned beef place.

There's a corned beef place. It's like if you do radio in the morning, they're like, let's go get corned beef. I'm like, for breakfast? Yeah, it's at this place. I forget what it's called. Do you know that place? I don't know about the corned beef place. You don't?

Come on. Well, there's like Davis Bakery and Corky and Lenny's and stuff. Well, that sounds like Jewish world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, this, hold on. This is like a- When is corned beef not part of Jewish world? When it's part of Irish world.

Oh, got it. Right, right, right, right, right. That's a really, really good point. Slimon's. It's called Slimon's Restaurant and Deli. This is something that I'm sure my brother and my parents know about. Sure. It's all corned beef.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Got it. It sounds like it's Jewish. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Got it. It sounds like it's Jewish. Sleiman sounds Jewish. How Jewish were you? Well, we went to like a reformed temple, but my brother and I both got bar and bat mitzvahed. Reformed temple?

Yeah. Was there a guitar? That's so funny. Guitar playing rabbi? Yeah. No, not really. Was that a character you almost did on the set up? I wish I had. That's so funny. Guitar playing rabbi. No, not really. Was that a character you almost did on the set up? I wish I had.

I really wish I had. But we actually were more religious than, like my brother and I have talked about when we think back, like we went to temple every Sunday. And then we both, I think, at least I got confirmed. So I got bat mitzvahed. And then I did like Monday nights until I was like 16. Yeah. So you did it. But Sunday, that's a red flag.

You went to temple every Sunday. Well, every Sunday. Yeah. That's a little weird. Is that weird? Right. Because there's Saturday. It's Friday and Saturday, right?

Friday night, Saturday. Well, that's funny because my dad was like, I used to go on Saturday. We went on Sundays. Was there a there a choir no i wasn't like i wasn't that involved in it but i just had adam ray on here and he grew he was a reform in pacific northwest and he's like there was a choir and i'm like did you believe in jesus too or no and then someone just wrote me it's like there's many choirs in the jew or whatever i yeah choir field yeah we didn't have but you went on sunday but we went on sunday but then but then when i was like after i got bat mitzvahed i'd go on monday night or before i got but until i was

like 16 i went on monday nights well but but i think that probably has to do with the fact that like it's a big part of your social group well it was interesting because i feel like it's a big part of your social group. Well, it was interesting because I feel like it was the time that I felt like I could kind of act out. Like they would give us, I would talk during Monday night temple and then they would give us homework and I'd be like, what am I going to do? Fail temple? I'm not doing this. Where I was like such a, I was so studious in regular school.

Are you going to kick me out of the religion? Yeah. I was like, what am I going to get an F in temple? Guess what? I don what i don't care yeah so a lot of it yeah it was kind of where i was i guess it was where i was my coolest yeah well yeah i made i actually i remember making at least one hebrew school teacher cry because i was such a pain in the ass i was so hilarious you get to really test out your comedy she couldn't control me any of your like your like best bits that you did in temple no i just know that i would hijack the the situation i don't i can't even i don't know really fully what a terror i was you know really up until like five years ago

like i can't i don't i i don't think my brain does it. Yeah. I do remember the teachers clearly. Yeah. And I just remember, I don't know if I was funny or just completely disruptive. Yeah. Right, right, right, right. I mean, I don't know if the rest of the kids were like, Jesus, what's wrong with this guy? Yeah. Why don't his parents do something about this?

Yeah. Do you remember your bits? I just remember. Did you do characters? Not in, but like, I just remember we would talk all the time and, and just, I think my main bit was, I kind of already did it for you, which was we would get homework assignments and I'd be like, guess what? I'm not going to do that.

Yeah. The rebel bit. I bet to the teachers I was like probably pretty. Okay. Fine. Yeah. But to me, I was like, I'm being a real piece of work yeah what what'd your parents do my um my dad was uh he worked at like a hoist and crane company when we were younger

and then he started his own small business like a packaging company really that my brother's friends would like work at over the summer and stuff. Yeah. Packaging. Yeah. Like UPS store. Like, um, like shrink wrapping stuff. Oh really? Very specific. Yeah.

Yeah. Kind of shrink wrapping and do, and putting like tat, like, like just really specific little jobs that, um, so how many, how much stuff did your brother shrink wrap for fun?

Yeah. Like total, like he and his friends would just like mess around and like, yeah, totally shrink wrap. Yeah. You could get into a lot of trouble there. Yeah. Yeah. They, friends would just like mess around and like, yeah, totally shrink wrap. Yeah. You could get into a lot of trouble there. Yeah.

Yeah. They would really mess around. And that was a good business for him, the shrink wrapping? Yeah. He actually just kind of finally sold it all off, like very recently. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

What a weird niche. Like, I don't understand these. I don't know what a job is, really. When I really think about the idea of having one, like a real job, and then opening a business and deciding that's something that specific, that there's a niche for this,

like there's a gap in the shrink-wrapping world of packaging. And then is that a passion? I guess it's like the difference between doing what you do because you're passionate about it or doing what you do to be successful at it so you can do your passions elsewhere. Yeah, yeah. I don't understand. Well, I think he had a similar thing where he was sort of, when he opened his business, I think he was sort of done having like a boss.

Right. He never really had a, and he was like, I can't, he didn't have to dress up for any, and so he just, yeah, I think he just, he opened this business. And then his employees were like, you know, some of them were like in and out of jail and they were sort of like borrow money from him. And it was like a whole, it was like a real like. He specifically hired. Specific. Ex-cons.

I mean, there was some. That was his world. There were some ex-cons there. And I remember remember was that charity or just sort of no one wanted to shrink i think it was sort of both i think it was sort of both and um and yeah we my brother and i always wanted to um start like a reality show of his um work because we thought it was so interesting but just the logistics of it, especially because we were both in New York. How would we have gotten the production going? Yeah, to document the ex-cons

of the shrink wrapping business. So I watched a new show and I didn't really realize at first because I'm not great at homework until like day of. But I mean- I get it. So hard to do homework, isn't it? No, I mean, look, I wasn't worried about you.

I mean, I'm reading all of Harvey Fierstein's books because I didn't want to go into one of the biggest guys in modern theater and be like, so what do you do? Yeah. But I watched the episodes they sent me of I Love That For You. Oh, great, great. Yeah, and it was funny and it was weird because you're funny and weird. Thank you.

In a good way. No, I know I'm very weird because you're funny and weird in a good way. No, I know I'm very weird. How long have you been weird? Forever. I think I've been weird. Yeah. But the whole back, the sort of background of the character is that she had cancer when she was a kid. Yeah. And then I should have known that you had cancer when she was a kid. Yeah. And then I should have known that you had cancer when you were a kid.

Yeah. So this is sort of like you created this out of your own experience somehow. Right. That you decided the world would be the Home Shopping Network or whatever, whichever, what is it called? Is it the Home? Ours is called SVN, but you know. It's based on basically the celebrity world of the Home Shopping Network.

And this is your aspiration and your hook is you had cancer yeah right and that it's back yeah but it's not back yeah i'm lying but it's like does it help when you like because this is something you could do i like when i did my show the last season was not you know i'm i'm a recovered alcoholic drug addict person but in the last season i relapsed and it was weird. Yeah. So when you do this based on the fact that you did have cancer, do you feel horrendous about it or scared in a way? No.

A couple people have said to me, like, are you worried that you're like tempting fate? And I'm like, not really, but maybe I should. I don't know. Well, not tempting fate, but there is a, like, you know,, you could because you come from that, you could really do that. Yeah. And it's like it's a horrendous lot. Well, it's something that like when we started doing it, I used to do. Now, I feel like a little silly talking to you about when I used to do stand up more because I feel like you're such a stand up and I'm done like two shows.

You got out. You're lucky. But look, you found a way. But I used to do it about the fact that like when I was a sick teenager because I was diagnosed when I was 15, I used to like use it

for all kinds of things. Like I would come into school late all the time and like, you know, our attendance woman was really strict and she would just give me

a complete pass and she was like, take care of yourself and I would be late because I was like watching TV. I was like doing normal teenage things but she just you know and then like i said i told someone i couldn't go to like the homecoming dance with them because i had to get chemo that weekend and then like i just like you and my dad like almost got a speeding ticket once and then he just said he was thinking about his daughter like we all used you know what i mean so i feel like

that was such a like perk of it and of course it's like you know there were also very difficult moments of it but it's like i got so much out of it in in a positive way that it was like working people's feelings but i truly think that like if someone is going through a traumatic time they've earned that you know what i mean and it's like i think like you you get to like use it for as much as you can kind of and then and then i think this character is like misses that and is like i want that stuff back like well yeah you establish that pretty well i thought in you know with the kid version of you right right like even the nurses don't like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean? They're just working everybody because of the cancer. Yeah. So you got it when you were 15? Yeah, I was 15. I was diagnosed over like spring break of ninth grade. What were the symptoms? I kept getting this like headache in one side of my head, like by my left eye. Yeah.

And I was like like just had sort of like cold and flu symptoms but they weren't going away and so at first they thought it was like an eye infection and then i it just i took like prednisone steroids you know and it went away and then it came back and they and that's always the first course these days what's with the steroids i know i don't remember them growing up but now now like, you know, let's try steroids on that. Yeah. Because they think everything's inflammation.

When I was, when I first moved here, I didn't have like a, like a doctor, like a general doctor and I would go to urgent care if I was sick and they would just

always give you steroids. I know. It's the weirdest thing. I don't remember that ever being the case. It's, they're very anti-inflammatory. Well,

that's the thing. Everything's inflammation they decided. Like five or 10 years ago, it's like, that's probably inflammation. Yeah. You got to eat this so you don't have inflammation. Of what? Yeah.

Everything's inflamed. Yeah. Everything's inflamed. Okay. So they give you steroids. They don't work. They work for a minute. Yeah.

And then what happens? And then it came back and then they figured out. And you're 15. And I'm 15. I know. And they figured it out and it was leukemia. And then I missed the rest of ninth grade. And then I was treated for like 10 months with like very intense chemo.

They figured it out. You're telling me that they kind of got childhood leukemia. So they kind of have it figured out. I mean, it's like it's compared to other cancers. It's a pretty high cure rate, especially what I had, which which is all which is like the more common kind of leukemia but they but it's one of the first ones that they learned how to sort of cure but they would give kids chemo for like two or three months and then it would come back so they do this thing now where they treat you intensely for like 10 months to a year and then and then you do like two years of maintenance chemo where you basically like

you basically like take chemo pills and and all that and do all this like stuff that's like less intense. So you missed school the whole year? I missed the fourth quarter of ninth grade and then I went back to school in 10th grade, but I missed something like 40 days or something like I kept having to miss. Were you terrified? You know, I'm I'm pretty optimistic. Well, were you terrified? You know, I'm, I'm pretty optimistic. I really, what I really was like, I really felt like I would get through it.

I was more sort of worried for my family. Like I was, I remember right after I was diagnosed, this is gonna make me cry. I felt so scared for my brother to have to like go into school and like interact with people. Why? Just because they were going to be asking him about it. Yeah. Whereas like I'm the one with cancer. I know it sounds insane. So you felt like you'd be a burden on him?

Yeah. I just didn't want him to have to deal with it. And did he? Yeah. And he would come home from school and he'd be like, so, and then it turned very quickly into this thing of like me being like, Jonah, who asked about me today in school? And he'd be like, so-and-so asked about you. Is and so asked about you he's two years older older yeah and and i was in so i was in ninth grade and he was in 11th grade when this happened so it quickly turned into me just getting a report

from him of like who asked about me why'd you want to know because you because here's the other thing that i think is like a bit of like something that we address on my show is like, I also always loved attention. So like, which is probably why I do what I do. Yeah. But it's like, I, there, something, there was something fun about being like. The victim of cancer. Yeah. The attention of it.

Yeah. Like I was like, I guess I'm inspiring everybody. So, so that, so this is your optimism, you know, it's all about me now yeah so that's good yeah yeah it was sort of like i mean it was obviously very difficult but like the things that i remember are those things yeah you know right how did the other kids treat you when you did go back to school everyone was so nice to me i mean the thing is I was always someone who was sort of like friends with everybody. Yeah. And I was very open about, you know, like I was like, I mean, people were so nice to me.

And I truly, it's funny because at my 10 year high school reunion, I remember this one woman told my friend, like there was someone who she was like worried about seeing because she was like, he used to bully me so badly and whatever. And I was like, oh, my God, he was a bully. Like I like nobody bullied me because everyone was like, I got to leave her alone. Yeah. Yeah. But but and then I was like prom queen and stuff like everybody. It's like if you don't vote for me, you're kind of a monster. Yeah.

But you're not going to vote for cancer girl. What kind of monster? Yeah. Who's not going to vote for Cancer Girl? But I also, the thing that I think sort of also was really like influenced me was that like my dad was always joking about it. And so we would always just like joke about it in my house. And I would joke about it with my friends and it put them at ease, I think. Like what kind of jokes?

Like, you know, like. Like this is a bad joke, but it's the one that I always remember is that I'd say to my friends, like, you guys think you're so cool because your hair is real. Because I was always wearing like a wig. Yeah. And like, you know, look, you're a stand up. It doesn't feel like this is like the highest level. It's important.

But it was like the joking made everybody put everybody at ease. And I kind of think that's why I went into comedy, because it was like it was like that. It was like this language not to be like whatever. But it was like this language that like made everyone feel like okay right we're like it's fine yeah okay i think that's true i think that like you know part of our our jobs as comedy well comedic actors or comedic people or comics is to frame things that are that are terrifying or menacing in a way that makes them palatable. Yeah. Or at least, you know, gives you some control over it. I mean, I think that's why.

Yeah. Like, I never forget, Harry Shearer said to me years ago, that the reason people do comedy is so they can try to control why people laugh at them. Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Right? laugh at them yeah oh that's so interesting wow yeah yeah right so like but there is something to

the fact that it's a it's a skill set that enables you to present things to people that could be anything and can be truly horrible yeah in a way that they can process yeah and laugh even totally that's the whole agenda of it and i think there's also something when someone gets sick you sort of i think it can be scary for people and you think there's also something when someone gets sick you sort of i think it can be scary for people and you think they're like a different person now but they're like terrifying yeah they're like the same person so i think it was like a way to remind my friends that like i was still the same person right well they feel i don't know it sort of ruptures the social patterns and expectations because you don't really know what to do.

It's scary. And it immediately implies the possibility, the impossibility that you could die. Yeah. Yeah. The other person. That's true. It's like, you know, as soon as especially if something's tragic. Yeah. You know, all of a sudden everyone's sort of like, well, death is here. Yeah. And and and a lot of it's selfish. They're freaking out. Right, right, right, right. But I guess it's interesting that you are the same person, but people all of a sudden really don't know.

Yeah, it's like a reminder. It's like a way to show people, like, I'm still the same. So you lost your hair pretty quick? I lost my hair pretty quickly. And I got a wig that was like, it was really funny because, you know, obviously my hair is curly quickly and i got a wig that was like it was really funny because my you know obviously my hair is curly and i got a wig that was straight and i was always straightening my hair before that like this is i guess i was really optimistic i mean i was just like now i don't have to straighten my hair you know like i was just

like and it was so funny because like especially like the boys like all thought it was my they were like she didn't lose her hair. Boys are so dumb. But yeah. She didn't really have cancer. Yeah. So, but yeah, I got this wig. And I also, I went through high school.

I lost all this weight because I was sick. But I wasn't like skeleton thin. But I also was like, got to be a teenager who didn't have to worry about her weight wow yeah so these are all the perks there are some perks and that's how i think i framed i think i truly do think because i was framing it that way in my mind um again loved being skinny it like it was like i uh it helped me get through it because it was like you know i'm going through this thing but i have all these but you were you were self-centered and funny before the cancer right i think so i think so or at least i loved attention yeah right love detention right i'm sorry self-centered love detention you know whatever it's all different yeah i don't know How'd you do on your bat mitzvah?

Did you kill it? We went to Israel. Oh my God. I got bat mitzvahed on Masada. A reform? No. Yeah. Oh my God.

I know. I know. What the fuck is that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing that was- So you guys were pretty Jew-y for reformed Jews. Well, here's the thing is that-

It's a package deal? Well, you go with other kids and then you get to split up a Torah portion so my Torah portion that I had to learn was so short it was like three lines yeah it was like pretty sure I mean it was like how many other people were getting bar mitzvah probably seven of us seven of you well one kid got the English part like got to read like the whatever is in English I can't remember what that is but the rest of us you know memorize sounds and sure yeah I was just singing the Haftorah, the pre-Haftorah, the setup, you know. Yeah. Yeah, like I was just doing it with Adam Wright the other day.

You guys had a very Jewish. Yeah, it was Jew-centric. It's been a while since I did the Jew-centric talks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. Yeah, thank you. Sometimes I'm concerned about the Jews running away from the comedic arts. Right.

It feels like it all used to be Jewish. Yeah. I'm not complaining, but it used to be you'd be on a bill. Sometimes I'm the only Jew on an evening of comedy. I'm like, what's happened? Where have all the Jews gone? Yeah, yeah. When I got on SNL, it was like me and Andy Samberg were the only Jews.

And I was like, what's... Well, how was it? Did SNL... But SNL, if you think back on it, who is Jewish in the original cast aside from Lorraine? That's a good point. Well, Franken's Jewish. I mean, the writers were probably a little more... Yeah, yeah.

There's some Jews around. Yeah. But there was this idea, I guess, back in the... I actually have a theory that once antidepressants took hold of culture, it was harder for Jews to become comics because who would tolerate all the complaining? It's like, well, maybe you should just take some medicine. Right. I always used to think about that with Richard Lewis.

I'm like, you know, when I see him now, and I love him, I'm like, nothing's gotten better. Yeah. I mean, it's been 50 years. Nothing? Yeah. Yeah. But I guess it's, I don't know why but uh but i guess it's i don't know why that is but uh but yeah i miss the jews but then you got crow and you got people that are

yeah oh they're doing enough work for two or three jews yeah he's doing he's doing he's carrying at least three jews worth of that comedy nick crow is yeah yeah so all right so the cancer is going on so that's why well then you got you got confirmed in your cancer. Then I got confirmed. I had the cancer. I was I think I was almost done with treatment then. And I had very short hair. And I remember my brother told me like, like when I was like getting confirmed, he said that like a woman in the audience was like, she's got very short hair. That's very daring for like a teenager. That's very rare. Fashion forward. That's very fashion forward. Yeah. Like daring in a positive way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so weird that I remember my brother telling me about that. Yeah? I just thought about it. You just thought about it? Yeah. Well, you were cutting edge. Yeah, I was cutting edge.

It also like, it did, I think, kind of by that point look like it was a choice, which was really nice for me. Yeah. You were able to appear kind of like um you know artsy and yeah like actually do you know the Coventry area in Cleveland do you know that area it's sort of like um I know two blocks of Cleveland okay Coventry is sort of like it's sort of like a hippie area that was like I'm making this up but I think it was like very big in the 60s and 70s. And like, they have all these, like they have like smoke shop,

like it's just sort of like very hippie. And I remember going there like with my friends when my hair was short and just being like, let's go in this, in this, like just talking to the person at like the weed store or whatever and just being like, yeah, like what kind of like bowls do you have? Even though like I never smoked weed, but I was just like, I have short hair and I look like yeah like what kind of like bowls do you have even though like i never smoked weed but i was just like i have short hair and i look like i've it's like

yeah like people thought that i was cooler than i was because my hair was short and i felt like i could and because my brother was always in these punk bands and stuff like i would go to his shows and just be like i guess i'm just like someone who listens to punk you just have to wear a t-shirt yeah why is yeah part of it. Yeah. And really, so he's a punk rock guy. I kind of saw that when I was looking around. Yeah.

But he's like a big punk rock guy, right? He was in this band most recently. His most recent band, this band UN. Yeah. Jeff Rickley was a singer who was in Thursday. I don't know if you know those bands. But yeah, he was really into that stuff. I think the generation of punk people I know is older. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you know this band, but yeah, he was really into that stuff. I think the generation of punk people I know is older.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. He's like a new punk. But all punk, I feel like all punk people know each other in some way. Yeah. It's like connected like the comedy world.

That's probably true. Yeah. Because it's pretty specific. Yeah. You know, and they all come from kind of the same place. Yeah. Yeah.

Like whenever I- I don't know all the comics anymore. It's thousands. Oh, doesn't it make you feel old too? Yeah. Yeah. Like whenever I- I don't know all the comics anymore. It's thousands. Oh, doesn't it make you feel old too? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I am old.

I'm 58. I don't know who the fuck is doing anything anymore. I know. And I used to think I was so on top of it, but I'm reading about this British comic and I'm like, I don't know who that guy is. Yeah, I don't know who anybody is. And he's got like three Netflix specials. I'm like, should I have watched it?

Yeah. Yeah. You should have. Maybe. No, you don't. It's okay. Sometimes I specials. I'm like, should I have watched it? Yeah. Yeah. You should have. Maybe. No, you don't. It's okay. Sometimes I watch it. How could you keep up?

You can keep up, but sometimes I'll watch comedy specials. I'm game to laugh. Yeah. I laugh more now as I'm older. That's great. That's so nice. Yeah. I don't know when it happened.

I guess I got less defensive. I didn't see every funny thing as a threat. Yeah. Like, well, you think that's funnier than me? Is that funnier than me? Maybe it's funnier than me. Why can't I be that funny? Yeah, yeah.

That's how I used to laugh. That's such a common thing with comedians. That's how it sounded when I laughed. Oh, man. Shit, I should have thought of that. So when do you start realizing that you're a funny person? Well, you've asked a question that anyone who knows me who's gonna listen to this is gonna know exactly what i'm sorry i didn't do enough research no yeah please please please i was in an all-female sketch comedy and musical

parody troupe called bloomers in college in college where'd you go to college you pen so wait tell me first before we leave this area yeah Yeah. Is that the good pen? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's never been asked of me that way. But, you know, like people who went there are so crazy about that. They're like, if you think it's Penn State, you better take a hike. No, the smart pen. It's a smart one. You pen, right?

Right, right, right. How does a cancer cure, like how does that land? how does a cancer cure, like how does that land? So I was, so then I, I finished all of my treatment by the end of, all my maintenance and everything by the,

by the summer before my senior year. So are they testing you all along or is it sort of like, you know, you finished a treatment and they're like, let's see if we did it. Oh, so here's, so you, so you get treated for like 10 months intensely.

Like I was in tech, like remission is like when it's under, I'm sorry to give you all this medical, but remission is when it's under 5% leukemia blasts in your blood because it's cancer of the blood. And so I was there after like week two, but they keep treating you so it doesn't come back. That was the thing. So I had like intense chemo for 10 months.

And then for two years after that, I had like this maintenance chemo where I would take these pills and I'd go in once every three months and stuff. And during that time, like your hair grows back and you sort of like things are a lot more normal. Right. Did you just hear that? Yeah, I did. I don't think that was me. No, it was me. It was in our earphones.

And I don't know how to stop it. That's okay. It won't make me. I just like, it doesn't matter. It's fine. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah.

So you're taking the pills. So yes, taking the pills. And then things were more normal. And then the summer before my senior year is when I stopped. It was when I finished my treatment completely. And then I had like an end of chemo party that summer. Okay. And then your blood's completely clean yeah your blood's clean and uh it actually it was always

in my bone marrow it never made it out to my blood when i was diagnosed it was still in my bone marrow which i guess i guess like so technically they caught it early but it's like once it's in your bone marrow it's kind of like everywhere like that's how blood you know right but um but everything was clean yeah and wow yeah and that was it yeah and that was it and then like they have no more special treatment for you yeah no more special treatment for me it kind of extended it through senior year but uh once i went to college with the cure with this sort of like um i'm good oh my god yeah yeah yeah well it was it was interesting because i yeah then i went to college and nobody knew about it. And I was like, okay.

Oh, starting from scratch. It's all based on you now. Yeah, yeah. You got to succeed with your own personality. Exactly. But did you kind of do it? It's like, well, I had cancer. No, I really did.

I really didn't. And you know what's interesting is because I, I mean, I'm sure I told people about it all the time, actually. I don't know why I said no. But what was interesting was I think when I was in high school, people sort of knew me as being really nice. Like that was kind of my thing. And then when I went to college, because I was in bloomers and stuff, people more knew me for being funny. Well, what did you go to college for? Did you know?

What a great question. No. Yeah. I went for communications. That's that vague, weird, like noncommittal. Especially at my school. It was like communicating in spaces. Yeah.

Communicating in spaces. That was one of the classes I took was like space and communication. Wait, what does that mean? I know. It was real. My brother went to Ithaca College and he did communications and they learned like a lot of hands-on stuff. Like what?

Broadcasting? Yeah. And like all that kind of stuff. Whereas like communications at Penn was more like, how do we, you know, although there How do we integrate the many voices of diversity when you're on a conference call? Yeah. Although there were some stuff about, there were classes about children's media and stuff that I really, I really liked.

That's what you get with Ivy League is that you get all these thinky things. Yeah. And like the regular college is like, here's a camera. Yeah, exactly. It was very thinky. It was very, very thinky. Yeah. Yeah.

So did that start to wear on you? Well, I, I mean, I don't know. I don't even remember. I was so into my comedy group. Okay. So you did that freshman year you got into the comedy? Got in freshman year. You auditioned. Auditioned.

It's a pre-existing improv group at UPenn. It's a sketch comedy and musical parody, Mark. Oh, sorry. No, that's okay. Not even improv. Not even improv. You're writing and singing. We're writing and singing.

And it's been there for years. And you know- Is it old? Is it still there? The Bloomers? It's still there. Right, sure. And it's been there for years. And you know. Is it old? Is it still there? The bloomers? It's still there. Right. Sure.

And it's been there for years. And I also auditioned. I went to the freshman performing arts night where they were like, all these groups acted like they needed new people. So I also auditioned for that along with two acapella groups and a hip hop dance group. What'd you do for your audition? I was, well, with those you like i i for my acapella groups i sit oh you went with an acapella i went no no no no sorry i auditioned for

these really kind of like famous acapella groups that i thought genuinely needed people right and i auditioned with like give my regards to broadway because i hadn't yeah and everyone i didn't get it and then the hip-hop dance group i was like, again, I was like, if they need people, I'll audition. Like, it sounds like they need. And then like, there were so many people there and they taught us this dance. And I was like, how is everyone remembering this dance? And that's because that's what dancers do. It was like, but then the comedy group, it was like, oh, here's where I belong.

It's a little bit of like a Goldie. But man, those other two auditions, I would like to see those. They would be so funny. I remember. They should have been all you did in the comedy group. There's this group called Off the Beat that was like such a big deal on campus. And I remember going to audition and I was like, okay, I'm going to do Give My Guards a Broadway. And this girl that I knew was, she was like, I'm going to audition with like a prayer.

And I was like, okay, I'm going to do Give My Regards to Broadway. And this girl that I knew, she was like, I'm going to audition with Like a Prayer. And I was like, okay, that's weird. And I remember signing the sheet and being like, oh, that's weird. There's 100 people on this sheet auditioning. And then, yeah, it was just like, I'm sure they were like, what the fuck? Didn't your confidence diminish by the time you got out there? Or you really thought that you just gave it your all? I just gave it my all. Really?

No fear? I think I put myself in this position where I was like, I hadn't auditioned for anything since middle school theater. Yeah. And I was like, I was like, just, I was, I felt like good about like, just like, you know, like making myself do this scary thing. Yeah. But it was like, I'm sure they thought it was so funny. Like they were probably like, who the fuck is this?

I have such a paralyzing fear of being embarrassed. That's surprising because in comedy it's like. I know. It's why I do it. It's really this lifelong goal to overcome the fear of embarrassment. Yeah, good for you. Yeah, but it wavers.

Yeah. Even like yesterday, I did a band practicing. I'm playing some music. And it's a fairly new thing for me to do it publicly. And I recorded it. And I watched it. And I'm like, I can't do this.

This is terrible. I know. And then I watched it again. I'm like, it's OK. Yeah, I'm sure it was great. I don't know if it's great, but it's OK. But yeah, all right. So you're doing the bloomers.

I'm doing bloomers. And you realize this is it is it and i was like this is what i should do because i love doing it so much and you guys were writing original material and stuff yeah we were writing original material original sketches and song parodies um and i was like it was like i finally felt like i was like good at something not Not that like, I was very good at studying. I was good at school, but I just like all my friends growing up were like athletes and stuff. And I was like, I'll never know what that's like to be like good at a sport.

And I was like, Oh, this is something that like, I really feel like I get it. Yeah. And I just like loved it. And I, it actually made me feel like I didn't have to worry as much about like my grades and stuff.

Oh, you were really hanging your life on it. Yeah. I mean, my grades were still like good. Like I was still, you know, but I. But you just knew this was your future? But I was just like, yeah. I was like, I have to just do this. And you did it all through college.

Yeah, I did it all through college. And you graduated college. And I graduated college. And then I moved to Chicago. Yeah. Because I did some internships in New York. Like i interned at conan really how old when are you i was probably like 20 or something after college during college oh was i over the summer you might have been it was the summer of 2003 oh it's just a summer thing yeah summer so only a

few months yeah just a couple months and and it just felt like a lot of people were like getting their starts in chicago but you so you were standing in that hallway at conan at nbc where like you know like there's a hallway next to the studio where all the dressings were oh yeah it just always seemed to be a very crowded almost never got to go to that hallway almost always had to be up in the offices it was like heavily heavily carpeted offices oh yeah yeah yeah but got to go to the set once in a while but very rarely got to be up in the offices. Those like heavily, heavily carpeted offices. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but got to go to the set once in a while, but very rarely. Got to be in one sketch.

You did? Yeah. That was the big bonus? And I emailed like everybody. I was in this like senior society at college and I emailed like everybody about it. Or it was like a junior, senior thing. Like I was like, I'm going to be on Conan.

And then like they didn't air it. And then like I was like, oh, it's's gonna come out tomorrow like like i emailed like 70 people that wasn't in it and then like they it like aired randomly like a week later and i was like well if you guys saw it last night that's the that's those weird lessons you learn in show business yeah i was like why did i tell everybody yeah yeah yeah yeah well yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I've seen, you know, it's funny. I've seen back in the day when the road comics were around more, there were guys that just would use a movie credit, even if they had one line. Yeah.

Forever. Yeah. Years. And people would be like, what were you in that movie? You remember this guy? Hey, look out. That was me. I'm one of those people.

I'm almost famous. I'm the Lock the Gates guy. But I don't use it as credit. Oh, yeah. Well, now you have a lot of credit. I have a few credits. Yeah. But still people now because of it.

And we're in a movie together, I think. Yeah. Are the DC super pets? Yeah. I know. We didn't get to work at all. I'm Lex Luthor. What are you?

I know. I'm PB Pig. Good times. When does that come? When it's animation, I have no sense of how big a movie is. But like, I just saw like, yeah, I'll go. It's nearby. I gotta drive to Burbank.

I go. And then it's like, it's gonna be this huge DC movie. Yeah, it's so fun. It'll be end of July, I think. I'm another animated one that's opening this month. Really? Yeah, Bad Guys. Oh, great.

Yeah, I'm the snake. You're the snake. It's me and Sam rockwell and oh that's craig robinson oh how fun yeah i mean but it's weird with animation because you have no sense of anything it's so um it's so crazy because it's like um i don't know if you've done any well i shouldn't but any of the press for that for the movie but there was like i i was doing some press for it and they were like asking like who in the cast is most likely to like do this, this and this. And I was like, I don't know.

Who else is in it? I think The Rock is in it. He is. He is. Yeah. I don't know. I have no idea how it's going to all come together. They haven't asked me to do any press. Maybe I'm not in it anymore. No, I'm sure you are. I'm sure you are. I think it's going to be great. I think we're going to be great. I think you're going to be great. But I think the major press push hasn't happened yet, probably.

No. No. No. Because it doesn't come out for- Until July. Yeah. Huh. Yeah.

Well, we'll see. We'll see. So you move to Chicago? Moved to Chicago after college. Do something like that? Yeah. I did IO and I took classes at Second City. You did?

The Annoyance. Yeah. The Annoyance. Who was in it when you were there? Anyone we know? Who was in- At the Annoyance Theater? At the Annoyance? like that yeah i did io and i took classes at second city you did the annoyance yeah the annoyance who was in it when you were there anyone we know who is the annoyance at the annoyance or io who are well you know i'm that's how i became friends with ad bryant she and i are very close how's she doing she's doing great yeah she's so funny yeah you guys are funny she's a good friend of mine and when she got on snl we were i had been there for two years and she was one of one of my really good friends even before she got on so she was in ao with you got she was she we did stuff at the annoyance what is the improv olympic oh at annoyance yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and were there other people that we know um from chicago which is so weird there's

hundreds of you like yeah you're working you There's like 20, 30 people around. Yeah. And then it's sort of like, well, you know this one person. Like, what are those other people doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, 80 is the big, I mean, she and I, like, yeah, it was the most fun thing in the world when she got on SNL. So you did the classes and you did the, how long were you there? I did the classes. I was there for six years. Oh my God. So that was it. So that was your life. Yeah. You were working jobs. Well, I did the classes. I was there for six years. Oh my god. So that was it. So that was your life Yeah, you were working job. I did

Yeah I worked at an I worked at a production company and then I worked at an ad agency like I worked at like a real you Know Chicago's a big like ad town Yeah, and I worked at like a real ad agency for like a year and a half I know what I was in the traffic department So I was like the liaison between the account and creative team. So sort of like a therapist for the account and creative people. Was there a lot of people losing it?

Yeah. Oh, yeah? Well, it was just sort of like the account people thought the creative people were never doing their jobs. And the creative people thought the account people were never doing their jobs. And it was sort of like mediating a little bit. So the account people sold the the business yeah to uh we got this account yeah it's it's uh it's it's the whatever the your dad shrink wrap business yeah you guys get us some stuff they did more of the business side of things yeah and then

we're sitting around shrink wrapping their hands what? In a shrink wrap way, that's exactly how it worked. Yeah, yeah. And it took a while to get the right thing. But the account people are always sort of like, what's with these fucking artists? But it was interesting because it was like, I was such an achiever. But it was like, I was so weird because I knew I wanted to do comedy. And I was doing that at night and on the weekends and i was like so had no ambitions to like move up at this ad agency where it's like everybody else at an ad agency is like you know they're they're switching to other

ad agencies to get a bigger title and they're switching back and they're like it's all like a game and i was just like i don't know yeah i don't like i don't understand any of that it's all for me it's all like fuck that guy's funnier than me it all comes back to that he knows how to do it how they figure it out yeah i had no idea of what show business was until like you know three years ago but um i didn't know he had a you know plan and stuff so you're just there doing that i'm there yeah yeah and i was and i was um and then Second City hired me. This was a big thing that 80 and a bunch of people have done. Second City hired me to work on a Norwegian cruise ship to perform on some version of the touring company.

Yes, exactly. It's like a it's like a four month thing that you do and you do like a show every it. So I worked on this cruise ship for four months. You get nauseous. No, I it was fine. Huh. It was really fun. And that was when I stopped working like nine to five jobs.

What'd you see? Like, were you? Yeah, we went to Miami to the Caribbean. We did these one week trips. Oh, so it's just, so you weren't, you had nothing to do with going to Norway and stuff. No, then we did, then we did. No, Scandinavia?

New York to Bermuda. Some people did like European ones. Those ones to the Caribbean are just like that's what everyone does. The Bermuda one was I thought

way better. I went on one man. I went on one with my grandmother. They're so stressful, aren't they? Yeah, but they're just sort of like

everyone get off and go. Well, that's the thing that's stressful is like you got to see everything in one day. If that, most people just go

where they're told and there's like within a hundred feet of the one day. If that. Most people just go where they're told. And there's like within 100 feet of the boat, there's people selling things. Well, we learned that a lot of older people go, like elderly people, because they just stay on the boat the whole time and have like a great time. And actually a lot of. So many eating. So much eating. Yeah.

The food was. Yeah. And but a lot of older people actually, I think, die on those boats. They die on the boat? Like they kind of go there and they just... Did someone die in the boat when you were there? I think maybe one person. But it's like a great... It's like they're...

Do they just throw them overboard? Well, there's a morgue on the boat. Yeah. I know. There's also a jail. Yeah, Igue on the boat. Oh, yeah. I know. There's also a jail. Oh, yeah. I kind of knew that. Yeah.

I guess I assumed that. It's like a little city. Yeah. It's like a... It's a police force. Yeah. Yeah. A mayor.

Yeah. It's a little town. Yeah. All right. Maritime law. Yeah. Yeah. So you did...

So that was fun. You did one show. I did. We did like... It was so was so easy like we there was also like i learned like more recently people were going on those boats and having to do like shows every night like stuff during the day we had to do like one we had to do like two shows a week one sketch show one improv show maybe two improv shows and that was it wow that was really easy it's fun and then but you just then you're on a boat and you're with the audience yeah but we got but we got to go on the islands and stuff yeah sure but what about the people that are so like oh there she is from this well

here was the greatest thing was that we started the cruises on sunday and we didn't have a show until thursday night that was our first show so we went around kind of anonymously the whole yeah and then all of a sudden people were like you remind me of my daughter yeah i think we had it the best of any of those performers because we of the performers for sure but also we got we had like we had like dual citizenship so we were like considered crews so we could go to the crew bar but we also were considered guests so we could go on we could at, but we also were considered guests. So we could go on. We could at the same time as the guests go onto the islands and stuff. We didn't have to wait for them.

It was for the other crew had to like wait and like do work. Yeah. But you can mingle. Yeah. And eat both places. Yeah. Eat both places. So is that where you auditioned for SNL?

On the boat? So not on the boat believe it or not there wasn't but this was a big shift for you because you were working for a living in a way yeah exactly it was like how it was making my living and then i came back and i was probably in chicago for maybe another year i started like doing more commercials and stuff like that oh yeah for what that stuff oh okay i was in a commercial for yeah what was it for like doing more commercials and stuff like that. Oh yeah? For what? That stuff. Oh, earnest commercials? Okay, I was in a commercial for... Yeah.

What was it for? I don't know. Blue Shield of California or something. Did you talk? Yeah, yeah. Just like a... Did you say I had cancer? No, I didn't need to at that point.

I didn't need to bring it back yet, but... I just thought they were asking you to do some real work. Yeah. Bring yourself to it though i didn't need to bring it back yet but i just thought they were asking you to do some you know real work yeah bring bring yourself to it yeah but then snl came to chicago chicago they would come every summer and i like got real town got lit up right they're like they're coming well people were especially in that world like in the comedy world right right right yeah and i had taken like a workshop a year before they came to like, right when I,

to like work on characters and impressions for us. Like. They have one? Where, at Second City? It was this director. No, it was just like this separate thing

that he would do out of this casting. I'm blanking on his name. I wish I could tell you. Specifically in Chicago to prepare for SNL auditions. Well, it was like to do characters

and to like work on your characters and impressions and snl well it was like to do characters and to like work on your characters and impressions and stuff and it was like this thing that not very many people i think i was in like the second group of people taking this class yeah and you basically did characters and impressions in front of this class yeah two weeks later you'd come in and he'd put you on tape doing like your new set of characters impressions giving the classes notes or whatever so i did that and i sent i had i gave the tape to like a bunch of different theaters and my agents at the time in chicago and stuff and nobody really did anything with it and then a year later sharna and io let us audition for her to be in the showcase and i basically watched my tape that i had given her a year before and i just did it for her and i got in the showcase. And I basically watched my tape that I had given her a year before.

And I just did it for her and I got into the showcase. Wow. And then... Who came from SNL? Well, it's funny because it was like Lorne and Seth and a bunch of writers

and the first night that we were supposed to do it, it ran long. And so I didn't get to go. And I was like, oh my God. What does that mean? Oh, long. And so I didn't get to go. And I was like, oh my God. What does that mean? Oh, you were waiting. I didn't get to audition.

And then we found out they were coming back the next night. And so I did it the second night. And Seth wasn't there anymore, but it was like a lot of the writers and Lauren were still there. And then I found out, then they flew me to new york studio two weeks later yeah to do that weird laughless audition yeah in front of the camera yeah and what which

characters that you did then lasted i did a version of the bar mitzvah boy named austin who loves um crystals and stuff and and rocks who like collects rocks and i did um i did miley cyrus and i did uh my poetry teacher yeah who says like a lot and um i think those are the main ones that like made it onto the show that's pretty good yeah yeah yeah were there how many did you do i think like six and i kept it to five minutes you You know, most people don't. They tell you to do five minutes. And I really did keep it to five minutes because I'm a rule follower. Yeah.

And it was interesting when we were talking earlier about how when I was sick, I was really focused on the perks of it. Yeah. When I was auditioning for SNL, I was so excited to be there that I got myself into this headspace where I was just like listening to music, just like excited to be there. And I remember they come in and have you sign a contract like before. And I remember the guy coming in and being like, you're in a really different headspace than like most people. Because he was like, he was like, I need you to sign this. And I was like, great. How are you?

And they made me I was the second to last person to audition. Yeah. So I was there for hours. But you weren't even thinking like, how are you? And they made me, I was the second to last person to audition that day. So I was there for hours. But you weren't even thinking like, who the fuck was this? I was just like, I'm so excited to be here. And it held? I'm able to frame, I was 28. I was 28. And I was just like, this is cool.

I get to be here and do this. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And so you did the audition, then you had a meeting with Lauren? I did the audition, and I thought it went well. And then. Did you go back to Chicago? I went back to Chicago and then they flew me back like two weeks later to meet with

Lauren. And. How long did you wait for that? Probably two or three. Hours. Hours in his office. And it's where, it's where I met Taron Killam, who's now like such a good friend of mine. Yeah.

And I remember people. Who's he? Taron, he was in the cast with me for six years. Oh yeah. He's on that show. now like such a good friend of mine. Yeah. And I remember people, Taryn, he was in the cast with me for six years. He's on that show. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's funny.

Yeah. He's so funny. And he, and he, I remember being, I still remember like, you know, his wife is Kobe Smulders and she was on how I met your mother.

And people were like asking about his wife. And I remember being like, I guess what I'm saying is just that like something that was so interesting about SNL was like, it brought you together with all these people from like such different like I remember being like Taryn is so Hollywood yeah yeah and just being like oh my god I'm waiting with this Hollywood guy who knows what he's doing I'm coming from the Midwest I don't know anything right you know and then like we both waited there for like however many hours I waited with uh Tracy Morgan oh Oh, really?

Yeah. When I was auditioning. And all I remembered is like how shiny and perfect his hair looked. Yeah. It just looked like ready. That's how I felt about Taryn. I was like, he's so, he's like, this guy's got a great personality. He's so at ease here.

Like he's done Hollywood. Like who am I? Yeah. I felt that way too. I'm just like, and I'm stoned. I'm like, who am I yeah I thought that way too I'm just like I'm and I'm stoned I'm like why am I but uh but so did did Lauren what did he say did he ask you if you were comfortable with wigs and you're like I had cancer I know I shockingly didn't bring that up in my meeting I

probably I heard he brings wigs up all the time. Did he bring them up with you? What I do remember is that my first season, he said to one of the hair people, and they told me later, that I look very good in wigs. Or that my face really transforms in wigs. Which I think it does. Sorry. Yeah, no, it's good. Brag. It's good. Huge brag.

Weird thing to know about yourself. No, it's good. But he was kind of explaining to me how the show works. And he asked me if I had any questions for him. And I couldn't, I remember, I kind of wanted to ask about Chris Farley because I've always been such a huge Chris Farley fan and my family, we all are like huge Chris Farley people.

But I was like, I don't know how to ask about him in a way. Like, what would I, But I was like, I don't know how to ask about him in a way. Like, what would I, it would be like, remember when Chris Farley did the Chris Farley show, it would be like that. Or I'd be like, so you work with Chris Farley.

Yeah. Was that cool? But anyway, so, so, and then he said, well, we'll let you know within 24 hours.

Huh? And then 24 hours later, of course, I hadn't heard anything. My parents stayed up for 24 hours they were like he didn't you know and i was like i was like you guys based on how long we've been waiting for everything else i was like i don't yeah i don't think 24 hours i was like i'm not that worried about it it's just like such there's such an on purpose mind fuck that goes

you know and everyone almost everyone speaks so positively about it. And they just sort of take it as sort of like, it is what it is. Like, they fuck with your head from the second you audition. I know. For as long as you're there. Yeah. But it's like a great experience. Yeah. Well, then I found out a week later.

Yeah. When they had said, you know, he had said 24 hours. Yeah. So, you know. But yeah, it's a week. Yeah. Yeah. It's never, it's always a story that causes stress

yeah of course and insecurity and like but you know but everyone frames it as sort of like either just the way it is or some sort of great training for what you're about to enter well the thing is then you like it's so funny because now when i'm working and they're like you know we're gonna have to give you like a you're gonna have to take a penalty tomorrow and come in like you know we're not going to be able to give you your 12-hour turnaround so you're gonna have to take a penalty is that okay i'm always like yeah what is that i don't even know what that is also you're gonna pay me for that i'm still not sure i'm used to like losing my like yeah yeah like they're like we're gonna go a little over time and we're probably going to go into I'm like, I don't.

Yeah. That's something the crew cares about deeply. But I find that when you're performing, you're just like, what does that mean? Yeah. I've been sitting around for six hours. Yeah, exactly. They're like, sorry you had to wait. I'm like, that's really, that's so nice.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you did that for a long time. Yeah. I was there for seven years. That's about right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And then you did that for a long time. Yeah. I was there for seven years. That's about right. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. And then you left on your own volition. Yes. Yeah. That's the best. Yeah. It was nice.

It was really nice. And then you just started doing all the TV and stuff. Yeah. I mean, then I started working on that. Yeah. Then I did this movie Ibiza right after that. And I got to go not to Ibiza, to Serbia and Croatia and then a lot of movies I guess all through it huh yeah I did some movies through it yeah Trainwreck was my first movie

yeah yeah and that's when I met Amy and I love her yeah yeah I was doing a lot while we were working on this show I love that for you I was I was doing some bits some little bit some little episodic bits what's going on with tim robinson oh i mean i knew him from chicago and then he got on snl he's he would love him he's so he's the best yeah he's just so funny so nice yeah i just kind of learned about him like this year and i'm like and i'm just sort of yeah kind of learned about him like this year. He's so, yeah. I'm just sort of kind of fascinated with the guy. He's great. I mean, he was in Second City, Detroit when I was doing Second City, Chicago.

And then a bunch of those Detroit guys, him and Sam Richardson moved to Chicago. And we were like, all of us doing Chicago comedy were like, oh, the people coming from Detroit are so much funnier than us. Really? Yeah, the Detroit people, I think because Tim kind of explained it to me once i'm probably misquoting him but like because they i can't remember the places where they used to perform were so much less like cushy than where the chicago people would perform we come from a city of rubble we come from an abandoned city yeah that like they really had to like be funnier to like get laughs. And so I remember when he and Sam and stuff came to Chicago, it was just like, oh, there's no comparison.

These guys are just like the funniest. Well, they just had to. Right. That's interesting. Yeah. To have to do shit gigs. Yeah. You had to transcend more.

They were just like. You had to deliver the goods. Yeah. They were instantly like they were just so funny. Wow. it was just like it was like where did the yeah and then they got came to chicago and immediately were like hired for stuff because they were just the best yeah yeah yeah maybe tim will talk to me at some point i'm sure he would love to i don't know if that's true i don't know how much of this he does i think think he would. The talking. Yeah, I think he would. I think he would.

All right. I mean, I'm bringing him up enough. He should know. But at this point, if he doesn't know. I hear that he's just like a nice guy, though, in real life. He's the nicest. Yeah. He's so.

And, you know, he created that show, I Think You Should Leave. I know. That's where I saw you. Yeah. Oh, got it. With Zach Kanin, who is like a Harvard Lampoon guy. And that's kind of what I'm talking about. They're from totally different worlds,

and they came together at SNL. And that's one of the coolest things of working at SNL, or probably any place like that, where that's what I always think. It just brings people together from different... Yeah, like how I met Hollywood Taryn. And talented people and people that kind of relationships that last forever, both business and personal. Yeah, exactly. There's definitely a family to it.

Yeah. There's benefits to it. I talked to Anna Gasteyer about, you know, being part of this. It's almost like a a club yeah right but you can always go back to yeah in a way yeah there's always a home for you in some respects just not necessarily on the show yeah through the resources of the show yeah exactly exactly but I think I'm sure a lot of places are like, you know, it's just like anywhere where you're working those long hours and you just, yeah. Yeah. You just become.

But a lot of times if it's just a TV, a lot of times you go away from it and you're away. Right. And then you don't see those people like, oh yeah. Yeah. Remember we were best friends for three months on that shoot? Yeah. Yeah. Remember we were almost married and now we don't even talk to each other.

Whenever I do movies, I think it's really sad. It is sad. Because at the end you're like. Okay. I whenever I do movies, I think it's really sad. It is sad. Because at the end, you're like, okay, I guess I'll see you guys later. But yeah, you talk,

but you know, after doing a certain number of them, you're not going to hang out with those people. You know, whatever. It's just not going to happen. Depends.

Really? Making friends on movie sets? I'm making friends left and right. Just kidding. I don't know. I don't talk. I was on a show with like 15 women i know you're great don't talk to any of them really no they they text occasionally but we're not pals but then again i have two friends i'm not complaining i don't know it's

exhausting to have more than that isn't it i i i mean no you probably have a lot of friends because you have you you don't uh depend on them emotionally completely well so well how why uh how did now we discussed a new show a bit about your personal um relationship with the character with the cancer but why this world why the world of yeah shopping so i i really when i was little used to watch a lot of qvc like i really was very into it like as a when i was pretty young and um i always kind of wanted to do something about it because i always think it's so interesting it's still there's it's still like really popular yeah and um i always just really loved it.

And so I was wanting to write a show about it. And then my friend Jeremy Beiler, who I used to write with at SNL, he was a writer at SNL. He, like we had brunch one day and I had been looking for like a writer to work on this with. And he was like, I like was like, I have always loved it too. And I was, he had written like some kind of outline for a show about it too. And so we were like, well, we should work on this together. And then the thing of it being about like being sort of somewhat autobiographical came kind of later.

Cause we were like, what's like kind of the hook into this. And it's interesting because at other times in my life i've tried to write stuff about when i was sick and stuff and it didn't it wasn't that wasn't part of this idea initially then we were like that would be a really interesting it would be really interesting to to kind of combine those yeah well it works for the hook i I mean, I don't, how many did you shoot? Eight. So, like, I don't know, like, because it's already pretty pressing. Yeah.

You know, by the end of the second episode or third or however many I watch where it's sort of like, how am I going to live with this lie? Yeah. But is that all eight?

I mean, I'm not going to. I can't tell you. No spoilers. Okay. No spoilers. All right. Okay. I didn't spoil it, really.

No, I don't think you did at all. No, it's just a set up. No, they'll figure it out. you. Okay. No spoilers. All right. Okay. I didn't spoil it, really. No, I don't think you did at all. No, it's just a set up. No, they'll figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. They'll figure it out. You know. Yeah.

All right. Well, I got to watch the rest. What's it on again? It's going to be on Showtime. Right. Yes. Sometimes I get these screeners. I don't know where they're from.

Yeah. Oh, of course. Yeah. There's so many places. I know. There's a ton of places. It's crazy. Yeah.

Like, you know, no one's watching the same shit anymore unless something's on fire or there's so many places. I know. There's a ton of places. It's crazy. Yeah. How, like, you know, no one's watching the same shit anymore unless something's on fire or someone gets slapped. Yeah. There's a war barely been, that doesn't even bring people in anymore. Yeah.

It's really hard. Yeah. How do you, how do you, how do you create the same juice? Yeah. Well, that's,

I hope that, I hope that this show is, is. It's fun. It's good. The juice of the. It's emotional. And, and it's odd. Well, I hope that this show is... It's fun. It's good. The juice of the... It's emotional. And it's odd.

I like the weird things you do when you kind of... You do things when you're talking that's, you know, you say more words than you should or something. There's like tics and things that you decide on. I don't remember what the ones this character has. What does she do? There's a lot of them. It's almost everything you say doesn't make sense.

Oh yeah, you just keep talking. Yeah, I make little sounds. And that's like a decision? How do you figure out those little quirks of characters? They just happen? Yeah, I think that there's, a lot of times they're sort

of how I am anyway. And so it's just kind of exaggerating that stuff. This is about the time where knowing that your assistant's on the porch, where I'm like, I don't know if she has to go to the bathroom. I didn't give her bathroom instructions. I don't have to go to the bathroom. Oh, my assistant? Yeah, yeah.

She might have to go to the bathroom. She might have to go to the bathroom. You don't have to go? I mean, you guys are both carrying around half-gallon jugs of water. We're carrying around huge water bottles. I know. She got me into these water bottles. Is it, what kind is it?

It's got all the little. Venture Pal. Venture Pal? Yeah. But it's got on the other side of the measurements, it's got the, keep going. Yeah, good morning, hydrate yourself, remember your goal, keep chugging. Yeah. Do we really need that much?

No, I don't need those statements, but the straw is the thing. But do you feel better that you're drinking that much water every day? I really think you should get one. In fact, I will get one for you. I'll get one. I'm going to write it down. Venture boy? Venture pal.

I like ordering things on Amazon. The only thing is you're going to have to pee all the time. I have to pee all the time anyway. Okay, great. I mean, usually at night though, because I'm an old man. But during the day, I manage my pee. But at night, I'm up. It's such a bummer, isn't it?

Do you get up to pee? When I first started using this water bottle. You got to cut yourself off, right? Yeah. Well, I sometimes have two of them. That's a whole gallon of water in one day. I mean. What are you supposed to drink?

Someone told me. That you're supposed to have a gallon? Is it a gallon? No, I don't think so. This is like, I think this is the equivalent of like four water bottles. Yeah. Well, we could do the measurement equivalent of like four water bottles. Yeah. Well, we could do the measurements. It's a half gallon.

So that's two quarts. And that's right. Isn't it? Right. Two quarts. Yeah, because there's four quarts in a gallon. I think so. Yeah.

Right. Well, how much is a pint? Is a pint a half a quart? 32. 64. A pint. I don't know. Wow.

A pint of ice cream. That's good. How many of those are you half a quart? 32, 64. A pint? I don't know. Wow. A pint of ice cream. That's good. How many of those are you eating a day? How many do we need of those? That's all I could think of. Measurements are... They're so hard, but so knowable. Even when I know them, I have to look them up.

Yeah, because you don't believe it. That can't be wrong. Yeah, I know. All right. So I'm going to let you go. What kind of big press are you doing you're appearing on the tv shows are you gonna go on jimmy show did you do it already i'm gonna do it yeah when you do it i'm jimmy kimmel oh no fallon huh were you and fallon work together did you work together no but he would come to set Yeah, he hosted once. He hosted once. Yeah. That was somebody else. Why is he asking me questions?

All right. Enough with this phone interruption. I got to fix that. There's so much that has to be done. I have to tell you. I understand it. I don't know how to fix that stuff. It's alerts. I feel what you're feeling. I have to find the alerts and turn them off on the computer. That's what I have to do.

Don't yell at me. Sorry. Where are you going now? Where are you going now? We're going to edit. Oh, the show? Yeah. This is all the press today?

Oh, no, no, no, no. We're going to edit the show. Like, no more press today. Like, I'm... This is it. We're still editing. Oh. Because it comes out so soon.

When does it come out? It comes out... Probably right when we're putting this up. Oh. Because it comes out so soon. When does it come out? It comes out. Probably right when we're putting this up. Yeah. Whenever that is. Well, I'm glad we know all the dates and stuff and how many ounces are in a quart. Yeah, exactly. All right.

Well, I hope everything, I hope, you know, I hope it's a big hit. Thanks so much. Nice talking to you. Thanks. So nice talking to you. That was it. That was it. Vanessa Bayer. I hope everybody's okay.

WTFpod.com slash tour for the big dates coming up. There's still a lot of them. I'm tired. I'm tired. Here's some guitar. Here's some guitar. I'm tired here's some guitar here's some guitar Thank you. boomer lives monkey the fonda cat angels everywhere Boomer lives. Monkey. Lafonda.

Cat angels everywhere. Cat angels everywhere. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations,

how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com.