WTF with Marc Maron Podcast Transcripts

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Episode 261 - Mindy Kaling

Episode 261 • Released March 11, 2012 • Speakers detected

Episode 261 artwork
00:00:00Guest:Lock the gates!
00:00:07Guest:Are we doing this?
00:00:08Guest:Really?
00:00:08Guest:Wait for it.
00:00:09Guest:Are we doing this?
00:00:10Guest:Wait for it.
00:00:12Guest:Pow!
00:00:12Guest:What the fuck?
00:00:14Guest:And it's also... Eh, what the fuck?
00:00:16Guest:What's wrong with me?
00:00:17Guest:It's time for WTF!
00:00:19Guest:What the fuck?
00:00:20Guest:With Mark Maron.
00:00:24Marc:okay let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucking ears and what the fuck nicks let's keep it tight i am mark maron this is wtf thank you for joining me today on the show mindy kaling from the office yes that mindy kaling i will be talking to her but can we do a couple of things before those of you who are hanging in sticking with me want to hear me chat about some important things
00:00:48Marc:Important things.
00:00:49Marc:First, where am I playing?
00:00:51Marc:You ask.
00:00:52Marc:Hey, Mark, where can we see you?
00:00:54Marc:Well, how about this weekend at the Gilda Fest in Grand Rapids, Michigan?
00:00:57Marc:March 15th, I'll be doing a stand-up show.
00:01:00Marc:And March 17th, I'll be doing a live WTF with Drew Hastings, Tommy Johnigan, Kevin Nealon, Alan Zweibel, with hopes of Jim Gaffigan.
00:01:09Marc:You can go to laughfestgr.org for information on that.
00:01:14Marc:I will be at the Comedy Attic in Bloomington, Indiana, March 23rd through 25th.
00:01:20Marc:Go find that.
00:01:22Marc:Also, on the 27th of this month, we're doing a live WTF at the Tripany House, which used to be the Steve Allen Theater.
00:01:29Marc:TripanyHouse.org, T-R-E-P-A-N-Y-H-O-U-S-E.org.
00:01:35Marc:Might be sold out.
00:01:37Marc:Check that out.
00:01:38Marc:All right.
00:01:38Marc:Enough of that.
00:01:39Marc:Oh, can I also do this, please?
00:01:41Marc:Do you mind?
00:01:42Marc:Can you give me a second?
00:01:44Marc:My old friend, Rob Sacker, who used to own and run the Luna Lounge, which many of you have heard about on this podcast on the Lower East Side where we did the Luna Lounge, the original alt comedy shows in New York in the 90s.
00:01:58Marc:They also did a lot of music, but he's written a book called Wake Me When It's Over.
00:02:03Marc:And I recommend it, not because I'm part of the cover and there's some stuff in there on me, but because he wrote a book about a time that is no more.
00:02:12Marc:and was important to me and to many others.
00:02:15Marc:You can go to wakeme.net to get hold of that book.
00:02:19Marc:Now, what else is going on?
00:02:21Marc:A Day in the Life on Hulu, Morgan Spurlock's documentary program, premieres today on Hulu, and the topic is me.
00:02:31Marc:Marc Maron, documentary style.
00:02:34Marc:I know some of you are thinking, Marc, how much more of you do we need in our lives?
00:02:40Marc:How much more of you can we take?
00:02:42Marc:That's a question that was raised kind of clunkily by Steve Heisler a week or so ago in the Onion AV Club in his article, Are We Nearing Comedy Podcast Overload?,
00:02:57Marc:Well, look, I'm not going to shit on Steve Heisler.
00:03:00Marc:Certainly I'm not going to shit on the Onion AV Club.
00:03:02Marc:They've been very kind to me and I and I like their writing.
00:03:05Marc:The premise of this is basically that, well, if you've got a comedian that you like and he's got a podcast on once or twice a week and I go to clubs and I see him doing comedy.
00:03:18Marc:And and also I buy his comedy records.
00:03:22Marc:Why would I want to see that guy?
00:03:24Marc:All the the mystique is destroyed.
00:03:27Marc:It's not special anymore, because basically he's saying that he can listen to my podcast, hear me talk about something.
00:03:33Marc:And then he says he went to two different shows here in Los Angeles.
00:03:37Marc:Unpublicized shows shows that I was not publicized as being part of and I was trying to work out material.
00:03:43Marc:Sometimes, as you know, I think about things on this show out loud and I go to in the back of my head.
00:03:48Marc:I say, holy shit, that'd be I should explore that comedically.
00:03:53Marc:And then I start chiseling away at it.
00:03:55Marc:I just think it's a false premise.
00:03:57Marc:I think that if you're a fan of somebody's and you hear them talk and you like the way they think, why wouldn't you want to go see him?
00:04:02Marc:I'm sorry that Steve Heisler wasn't surprised when he showed up at two small shows and saw me working on the same bit twice because I was trying to get into shape for when I go out and play for publicized shows out on the road when I'm doing an hour and I'd like to have some new material.
00:04:20Marc:I'm sorry that this guy wasn't surprised or excited to see me go through the process of honing a bit from raw thought and raw talk into a stand-up comedy piece.
00:04:31Marc:Now, obviously, many of you know that, look, some of you don't like me at all.
00:04:35Marc:Some of you are annoyed with me.
00:04:36Marc:Some of you have grown to like me.
00:04:38Marc:Some of you think that I talk too much or I'm too honest about stuff.
00:04:41Marc:But I'm saving some things.
00:04:43Marc:I'm hiding things from you people.
00:04:46Marc:I want you to know that, that there are some things that I don't share.
00:04:49Marc:Some of you don't even know what I look like.
00:04:51Marc:I do shows and people come up to me and think and they say, wow, you sounded a lot fatter, which is always a great icebreaker with me.
00:04:58Marc:If you really want to win my heart over in that moment that we meet each other after a show, that is a good one.
00:05:06Marc:You sounded so much fatter.
00:05:07Marc:You're not fat at all.
00:05:08Marc:That's great.
00:05:09Marc:Why don't you hang out here?
00:05:10Marc:Sit with me while I meet other people.
00:05:12Marc:That's what will happen.
00:05:14Marc:But I understand the argument.
00:05:17Marc:Obviously, I chose to do... He quotes Chris Hardwick in this article, and he sort of takes the lead from another article that basically is talking about comedy records, because at some point, Hardwick said that podcasts are the new comedy albums.
00:05:30Marc:That's not what I'm doing.
00:05:32Marc:I'm not doing a comedy record here.
00:05:33Marc:I mean, right now, do you hear an audience laughing at what I'm saying?
00:05:37Marc:I mean, am I even saying something that's funny?
00:05:39Marc:No.
00:05:40Marc:It's a completely different...
00:05:41Marc:mode of expression a completely different medium and the problem i have with articles like this is podcasting is a small young medium we're trying to to grow it we're trying to bring more people into it obviously there will come a time where most all listening of radio product or audio product will be on demand but right now we're still struggling to get people to get past figuring out how to get a podcast
00:06:06Marc:There's still a lot of people like how do you podcast?
00:06:08Marc:Where do you just get on the computer?
00:06:10Marc:Yes.
00:06:11Marc:Are you a moron?
00:06:13Marc:I just don't know why the criticism.
00:06:15Marc:I mean, I think that he's preaching to a very small choir when he talks about any sort of mystique being destroyed by by comedians who are podcasting and whether or not we've hit some sort of limit with comedy podcasting.
00:06:28Marc:I think it's really just starting.
00:06:30Marc:And I also was a little upset that he diminished the process of working out a bit.
00:06:34Marc:That is part of our process because he showed up at two shows that I was anonymously on and and got upset that I wore the same shirt twice.
00:06:43Marc:I like the shirt back off.
00:06:46Marc:So needless to say, if you want to get more of me or see me in my house.
00:06:51Marc:or walk through a day with me, this Day in the Life on Hulu, which premieres tonight, I liked.
00:06:56Marc:And I don't like myself all the time, maybe half the time.
00:07:00Marc:Some days are better than others.
00:07:02Marc:But this thing was really shot well.
00:07:04Marc:I think it was an honest portrait of what my day looks like.
00:07:07Marc:And I thought it was compelling.
00:07:09Marc:And that's not because I necessarily find myself compelling.
00:07:12Marc:It was just interesting to watch.
00:07:14Marc:I'm happy there's not a lot of that out there, and maybe it'll surprise some of you.
00:07:18Marc:You know, I had a guy...
00:07:20Marc:Pitch a documentary on me.
00:07:22Marc:This guy, Barry Blaustein, wanted to shoot a full length documentary feature on me about a year or so ago.
00:07:30Marc:And I just couldn't handle it.
00:07:31Marc:I couldn't handle the idea.
00:07:32Marc:I couldn't.
00:07:33Marc:I believe it or not, felt like I would be intruded upon.
00:07:36Marc:And documentary filmmakers are like, no, we're just going to fade into the woodwork, except you're going to be right there when I wake up, except you're going to be sleeping in the bed with me and Jessica, which I find awkward.
00:07:46Marc:No, I know you say that.
00:07:47Marc:I'm not going to notice, but you're going to be in the bed.
00:07:50Marc:But I think more so than anything, I was sort of I actually have a part of me that I don't necessarily want to share yet.
00:07:58Marc:I mean, you can hear me on on sex nerd Sandra show.
00:08:01Marc:I walked away from that show thinking like, oh, boy, now there's more of me out there.
00:08:05Marc:I don't know if I needed people to know I have sensitive nipples.
00:08:08Marc:Was that important that they know that?
00:08:10Marc:But I was that was the context of the show.
00:08:12Marc:So I'm still I'm still got a few things that you don't know about.
00:08:16Marc:But I think in the bigger picture, I was frightened of doing a full feature length documentary because at that time I didn't know how it was going to end.
00:08:24Marc:And generally, documentarians aren't going to give you final say.
00:08:28Marc:So it could have gone either way.
00:08:30Marc:there's an underdog story associated with me because i tend to associate it with me because it is true but i don't know when i when i'm gonna fuck it up but please i i i encourage you to go uh watch day of the life if you like me and also i encourage you to come do to come to my stand-up shows if you like what i do because there's a difference between hearing me say this to you personally in this private moment we're having right now and
00:08:56Marc:for you to be sitting in a room full of like-minded people enjoying the crafted stand-up material.
00:09:04Marc:Yeah, I may share.
00:09:05Marc:Yeah, look, I've only got so big a life, so obviously I talk about things in both places, but there's a big difference in how they're presented, and that's the process, and that's why I don't think it's overexposure yet.
00:09:18Marc:I am running out of life, though.
00:09:20Marc:I need to do something.
00:09:23Marc:I need to, I don't know, mountain climb, bungee jump, something.
00:09:28Marc:You know, maybe take in a foster child.
00:09:31Marc:Wait, my girlfriend just moved in.
00:09:33Marc:All right, we're good.
00:09:34Marc:We're good.
00:09:34Marc:There's going to be new material.
00:09:43Marc:I got to tell you, the music on the show today.
00:09:46Marc:What are you kidding me?
00:09:50Marc:Hello?
00:09:52Marc:Why are you calling on this phone?
00:09:56Marc:I'm recording, baby.
00:09:59Marc:Are you coming home?
00:10:04Marc:Okay, I got to go get cat food and we got to pick up that dry cleaning, but I'll go do that and you go do what you got to do.
00:10:11Marc:I'll talk to you in a little while.
00:10:15Marc:Okay.
00:10:15Marc:All right.
00:10:15Marc:Do that.
00:10:16Marc:I love you.
00:10:17Marc:Bye.
00:10:18Marc:Okay, baby.
00:10:19Marc:I love you too.
00:10:20Marc:Bye.
00:10:23Marc:Bye.
00:10:23Marc:All right.
00:10:23Marc:Let's do this again.
00:10:25Marc:The music on the show today is by The Farthest Forests.
00:10:29Marc:Go download their music for free at thefarthestforests.com.
00:10:34Marc:And if you live in New England, see them live at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on April 21st.
00:10:39Marc:That's thefarthestforests.com.
00:10:44Marc:What is this?
00:10:44Marc:A tongue twister?
00:10:46Marc:All right.
00:10:47Marc:Okay.
00:10:48Marc:That's that.
00:10:57Marc:is so cool dr cats yeah that is to be able to have that there that is really cool yeah i mean people are finding that stuff again you know i mean that's a long time ago and i think i'm on two of them and now people like they're available again that's the weirdest thing is when people come over to you i just heard you on dr cats i'm like were you time traveling
00:11:21Marc:Did you watch it when you were a kid?
00:11:23Guest:Yeah, I did.
00:11:24Guest:That's when I was kind of deciding I liked comedy.
00:11:26Marc:Really?
00:11:26Guest:Yeah, but it was so gentle.
00:11:27Guest:I mean, that's when Comedy Central could have a gentle thing like that on.
00:11:30Marc:That's a good point, though, that there was a time where Comedy Central was not all about aggression, profanity, shocking.
00:11:39Marc:Yeah, they don't do that.
00:11:41Guest:Well, that tone of a show I don't think you would see.
00:11:43Guest:So what?
00:11:43Marc:How old were you then when you watched Dr. Katz?
00:11:46Guest:Probably 13.
00:11:47Marc:Really?
00:11:48Marc:And that was part of your life?
00:11:49Marc:Comedy Central was?
00:11:50Guest:Yeah, it was that and the X-Files.
00:11:52Marc:Oh, really?
00:11:53Marc:Those were the two worlds you were in?
00:11:55Guest:Yeah, and I used to make my mom watch.
00:11:56Guest:Well, I talk about this.
00:11:58Guest:There was a time when Comedy Central was like, you'd be like, what is this?
00:12:02Guest:It's just like Porky's or weird old SNL compilation shows.
00:12:05Guest:So this was original programming that was good.
00:12:08Marc:So you grew up in where?
00:12:10Guest:I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
00:12:11Marc:Where?
00:12:12Marc:Where'd you go to school?
00:12:14Guest:I went to BB&N, a private school.
00:12:16Marc:Spark Street.
00:12:17Guest:Yeah.
00:12:18Guest:How did you know that?
00:12:19Marc:Dude, I spent a lot of time there.
00:12:22Marc:My cousin, my dad's first cousin, who I loved, they literally lived next door to that school.
00:12:30Marc:You know that gray house on the corner of Sparks and what is it, Huron?
00:12:33Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:34Marc:That house.
00:12:34Guest:Must be nice.
00:12:35Guest:It's a really nice neighborhood.
00:12:36Marc:Yeah.
00:12:37Marc:He was a teacher, but I don't know.
00:12:39Marc:They had the house forever, and I used to stay in the basement at that house.
00:12:42Guest:So nice.
00:12:42Marc:It was right next to that school.
00:12:43Marc:Mm-hmm.
00:12:44Marc:Where'd you grow up in Cambridge?
00:12:45Marc:Like, what area?
00:12:46Guest:Fresh Vaughn Parkway.
00:12:47Guest:Like, not the West...
00:12:48Guest:Cambridge, Nacy area.
00:12:50Guest:My parents moved when I was 18 to Weston, outside of which is- Weston, Mass.
00:12:55Guest:Yeah.
00:12:56Marc:Yeah, I spent a lot of time running around there.
00:12:58Guest:Really?
00:12:58Guest:Why?
00:12:59Marc:Because I went to college at BU.
00:13:01Marc:I was there for five years undergrad.
00:13:03Marc:Then I came out here and got all fucked up on drugs at the comedy store.
00:13:06Marc:Then I went back and started my comedy career there at Catch a Rising Star in Harvard Square.
00:13:11Marc:So I know that place.
00:13:13Guest:Yeah.
00:13:14Marc:I worked at the Coffee Connection.
00:13:16Marc:Do you remember?
00:13:17Marc:In the garage.
00:13:18Guest:Yeah.
00:13:18Guest:Cafe A, where I used to get pizza there.
00:13:20Marc:Oh, right, right.
00:13:20Guest:And now there's like a faux pas store.
00:13:22Marc:Yeah, yeah.
00:13:23Guest:Yeah, I got my ears pierced there.
00:13:24Marc:Really?
00:13:24Marc:At the garage?
00:13:25Marc:Yep.
00:13:25Marc:Newberry Comics was there?
00:13:27Guest:Yeah, that's like kind of where bad kids went.
00:13:29Marc:Oh, really?
00:13:30Guest:Yeah, there in the pit.
00:13:31Guest:That's like where you would go.
00:13:32Guest:And then you go to the Army-Navy surplus and buy pants and stuff, yeah.
00:13:35Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:36Marc:The pit, you mean that triangle where all the action was outside?
00:13:40Guest:Yeah, where you could buy weed is what we heard.
00:13:42Marc:And smoke, oh, what you heard.
00:13:44Marc:You were a good kid.
00:13:45Guest:Yeah, of course I was a good kid.
00:13:47Guest:What do you think?
00:13:48Marc:You were never tempted to cross over into the bad world at prep school?
00:13:53Marc:There were no bad kids?
00:13:54Guest:No, there were bad kids.
00:13:56Guest:They were bad kids, yeah.
00:13:57Guest:They were having sex at 13 and stuff like that.
00:14:00Guest:Obviously, those are kids I knew, except in art classes.
00:14:03Guest:I would take art classes with them, maybe.
00:14:05Marc:And there was ever any fascination with those kids?
00:14:09Guest:Yeah, of course there was fascination, but I wasn't friends with them.
00:14:11Guest:Yeah.
00:14:12Guest:I was normal.
00:14:13Guest:I mean, I wished I could be like that.
00:14:15Marc:You're saying this like it was just last year, the intensity of your... Also, my voice sounds like I'm 12 years old, too.
00:14:21Marc:You were like, don't associate me with them.
00:14:24Marc:They were not my friends.
00:14:26Guest:Well, I remember there was kids that were bad because they would want to like dine and dash at the Chili's in Harvard Square.
00:14:31Marc:Oh, that's bad.
00:14:31Guest:We would go on Friday nights and they would be like, we should dine and dash.
00:14:34Guest:I was like, I can't.
00:14:34Guest:That's too much.
00:14:36Guest:I can't do that.
00:14:36Guest:It's too stressful a situation.
00:14:38Marc:Oh, that was your fear of breaking the law.
00:14:42Marc:It's just too much anxiety.
00:14:43Guest:Yeah, bad kids.
00:14:44Guest:Yeah, exactly.
00:14:45Marc:How do you guys live with yourselves with that stress?
00:14:48Guest:No, it was never moral.
00:14:50Guest:But they did that or they were having sex.
00:14:52Guest:That's how you knew a kid was bad.
00:14:54Marc:You didn't even make out in junior high?
00:14:57Guest:No.
00:14:58Marc:Wow.
00:14:59Marc:When did that happen for you?
00:15:00Guest:God, this is embarrassing.
00:15:03Marc:No, I was late.
00:15:05Guest:Making out was end of high school and college.
00:15:09Marc:Really?
00:15:10Marc:Yeah.
00:15:10Marc:Now, where do you get this discipline or this fear?
00:15:13Guest:Oh, I didn't want that to be the case.
00:15:16Guest:Because when you're like a chubby Indian 13-year-old, it's not like there's a line out the door to make out with you.
00:15:23Guest:So I would have loved to.
00:15:24Guest:I mean, if you asked a 13-year-old version of me, I would have wanted to lose my virginity at like nine or something.
00:15:30Guest:But this wasn't an option.
00:15:32Marc:So you were socially awkward?
00:15:34Guest:I think I was actually socially fine.
00:15:36Guest:I was always just like there was like one really friendly, chubby, creative kid.
00:15:42Guest:Like that's what I was like.
00:15:43Guest:So I don't think I was all that socially awkward.
00:15:45Guest:I just wasn't like so the kind of girl you wanted to smooch or something like that.
00:15:49Marc:And when like your parents are first generation, they were born in India.
00:15:54Guest:Yeah.
00:15:54Guest:Born in India.
00:15:55Guest:Met in Africa and then moved to Cambridge.
00:15:57Marc:Met in Africa.
00:15:59Marc:Where in Africa?
00:15:59Guest:In Nigeria.
00:16:00Marc:How did that work out?
00:16:02Guest:They both moved to Africa for work.
00:16:05Guest:My mom is an OBGYN.
00:16:06Guest:She's a doctor and she was working at the hospital that my dad, who's an architect, was like building a wing for her.
00:16:11Guest:And so I think if you identify another Indian person, they're from totally different parts of India.
00:16:17Guest:Yeah.
00:16:18Guest:So they just spoke English to each other.
00:16:19Guest:Yeah.
00:16:20Guest:And so they met there and they kind of fell in love and got married and then moved to the US.
00:16:26Marc:A romantic Nigerian meeting.
00:16:28Guest:Is it?
00:16:29Marc:It kind of is.
00:16:30Guest:Yeah.
00:16:30Guest:I think it's very international.
00:16:33Marc:Are you that way?
00:16:35Guest:No, I hate leaving the continental United States.
00:16:38Marc:Do you still have family in India?
00:16:40Guest:Yes, a lot of family in India.
00:16:41Marc:So you go?
00:16:41Guest:No, I haven't been back there since I was 14.
00:16:43Marc:14 though, so you went.
00:16:45Marc:You did the one trip?
00:16:47Guest:Yeah.
00:16:47Marc:We have to go see your aunt?
00:16:49Guest:My grandparents and stuff like that.
00:16:50Marc:Really?
00:16:51Marc:They're all there?
00:16:52Guest:My mom's side of the family is all here, but my dad's side of the family is all still in South India.
00:16:57Marc:And what was the religious background?
00:16:59Guest:Hindu.
00:17:00Marc:Really?
00:17:00Marc:Mm-hmm.
00:17:01Marc:See, I find this fascinating.
00:17:02Marc:Really?
00:17:03Marc:Yeah, because I have a, at times, almost obsessive thing about India.
00:17:10Guest:Really?
00:17:11Marc:Yeah.
00:17:12Guest:Okay.
00:17:12Marc:It's all based on my love of the food.
00:17:15Guest:Okay.
00:17:15Guest:You love Indian food.
00:17:16Marc:I love Indian food, but I also love Ganesh.
00:17:19Marc:I like the elephant.
00:17:21Marc:I like, I have a few Ganeshes around.
00:17:23Marc:I was sort of obsessed with Ganesh, but I don't, it's not founded.
00:17:27Marc:Like I never was obsessed to the point where it's like, I have to learn more.
00:17:30Marc:I just like the colors.
00:17:32Marc:I like the food.
00:17:33Marc:I can generally in a sort of inverted racism way, say I like the people, but it's all based on my experience.
00:17:40Guest:Well, can I ask you a question?
00:17:42Guest:Mm-hmm.
00:17:43Guest:Are you Jewish?
00:17:43Marc:Yes.
00:17:44Guest:Okay.
00:17:44Guest:I have found that Jewish guys really appreciate Indian stuff in a way that I've always liked.
00:17:51Marc:Uh-huh.
00:17:52Guest:And I thought that was, I think it's cool.
00:17:55Marc:Really?
00:17:56Guest:Yeah.
00:17:56Marc:And that's something you've definitely seen?
00:17:57Guest:No, totally.
00:17:58Guest:I think that there's like, well, you know that saying that Indians are the new Jews?
00:18:02Marc:Yeah.
00:18:02Marc:I haven't heard that, but I will from here forward say that.
00:18:06Guest:Okay, good.
00:18:06Guest:I want you to start telling that to everyone you made.
00:18:09Guest:But yeah, I think that there's a lot of similarities kind of growing up.
00:18:13Guest:So I've always, for whatever reason I was, and obviously because I'm a comedy writer, I meet a lot of Jewish guys.
00:18:17Guest:But yeah, Jewish guys seem to just love...
00:18:20Guest:Indian food.
00:18:22Guest:I've always felt that I've been really interested in the culture and Hinduism and Judaism are compatible.
00:18:28Guest:We both have a common hatred for Muslims.
00:18:30Guest:It's like there's a good... Do you know what I mean?
00:18:32Guest:We're a good match.
00:18:33Marc:But it's also compatible in the sense that there's this weird kind of centuries-old tradition that may be sort of weird and not quite knowable when you're younger, but you still are part of it.
00:18:43Marc:Absolutely, yeah.
00:18:45Marc:Is that the way you grew up?
00:18:46Marc:I don't know what a religious service in Hindi is, but...
00:18:49Guest:no i don't i don't either i mean because i grew up just speaking english like a lot of my other indian friends they spoke another language too but no and i mean for religious stuff i mean we both my brother and i knew that we were hindu but we didn't do a lot of like we didn't go to like there's not like you know hebrew school or whatever on sundays or church and hindu's the blue guy no that's krishna yeah no are they the same are we in the same ballpark
00:19:14Guest:I know so little about my religion.
00:19:17Guest:I'm sorry.
00:19:18Guest:I didn't know that this is what it was going to be about.
00:19:20Guest:No, I really, I would have brushed up a little bit more.
00:19:22Marc:No, but you know who Ganesh is, right?
00:19:24Marc:Absolutely, yeah.
00:19:24Marc:Of course, and he's an elephant head guy.
00:19:26Guest:Yeah, that's like Hinduism 101.
00:19:27Guest:Of course I know who, like, you can have a very cursory understanding of Hinduism and know who Ganesh is.
00:19:32Guest:Right.
00:19:32Guest:The Simpsons like talks about ganache.
00:19:34Guest:OK.
00:19:34Marc:All right.
00:19:35Marc:All right.
00:19:35Marc:So that's where.
00:19:36Marc:OK.
00:19:36Marc:Back to watching TV and watching comedy.
00:19:38Marc:No, I'm just sort of fascinated with it.
00:19:39Marc:Did you.
00:19:40Marc:OK.
00:19:40Marc:Did you eat at Old Calcutta?
00:19:42Marc:Old Calcutta in Central Mass Ave in Central Square?
00:19:45Marc:Old Calcutta?
00:19:46Guest:No.
00:19:46Marc:Down towards the end?
00:19:47Guest:If we were going to go out, we didn't have.
00:19:48Guest:We didn't usually go for Indian food.
00:19:50Marc:Does your mom cook really good Indian food?
00:19:51Guest:Yeah, but she has like six recipes, and she's a doctor, so she's pretty busy.
00:19:58Guest:So I love my mom's cooking, but I know that it's not the way that a lot of other Indian moms cook, but I like it.
00:20:06Marc:Like, what's the favorite dish?
00:20:07Guest:She makes samosas from scratch, which is a pretty big deal.
00:20:10Marc:Yeah.
00:20:11Guest:But she does it in like, it's like only for your birthday and only even then it's like the 16th birthday or like a 24th, like only like a big deal birthday.
00:20:19Marc:That samosa day?
00:20:20Guest:Yeah.
00:20:20Guest:And you like hear about it for months after about how she like made the samosas.
00:20:23Guest:So, but it's worth it.
00:20:24Guest:They're awesome.
00:20:25Marc:I know how to do that is what she's saying.
00:20:26Guest:I can do that.
00:20:27Marc:I have that skill set.
00:20:28Guest:And then, yeah, she makes like a goat curry, which I love.
00:20:34Guest:I love goat meat.
00:20:35Guest:Yeah, it's good.
00:20:36Guest:It is good.
00:20:36Marc:It's like pungent lamb.
00:20:38Guest:Yeah, it's awesome.
00:20:38Marc:And it stays with you.
00:20:39Marc:You sweat goats.
00:20:40Guest:Yes, you do.
00:20:41Guest:Yeah.
00:20:42Guest:So we have that like once in a while.
00:20:43Guest:So she has like, you know, four recipes.
00:20:45Marc:So where did you end up really starting to do comedy?
00:20:51Marc:I mean, how did that evolve?
00:20:53Marc:I mean, you're obviously you had you had a nice life.
00:20:55Marc:You had good parents.
00:20:57Guest:Yeah.
00:20:57Marc:You know, you grew up, you know, not really wanting for anything.
00:20:59Marc:And you chose this career path.
00:21:03Marc:When did that first hit you where it's like, I'm going to do comedy things?
00:21:06Marc:What was it?
00:21:08Guest:I was always a comedy nerd, you know, like I had I was always into kids in the hall.
00:21:15Guest:I would watch things like Dr. Katz, but like much more than like other friends who also like knew the shows.
00:21:20Guest:Like I needed to know who was in the credits, you know, like that kind of really like I watch like SNL and I actually care about who was on the writing staff.
00:21:28Guest:really just because I wanted to like see what they were like or like what they're and this is before like internet right so it was very mysterious world that it like isn't right now did you write things down and oh yeah yeah I mean I used to print out I used to transcribe like a like sketches on Saturday Night Live that I like loved by the way I didn't have like good comedy taste but I I loved comedy like I took everything in you transcribe sketches yeah like I would transcribe like a gap girl sketch on Saturday Night Live really just to see what the structure was and like how many lines each person had and that kind of thing and what age were you
00:21:58Guest:I mean, I started watching SNL.
00:22:00Guest:That was even younger.
00:22:01Guest:That was maybe nine or ten.
00:22:03Marc:Do you remember what the cast was or who the players were or which ones first made an impression on you?
00:22:08Guest:Yeah, Dana Carvey was a huge influence on me in terms of loving comedy because he was one of those SNL guys who I loved, my parents loved.
00:22:17Guest:His characters were just very simple with a high premise, and I just loved him.
00:22:22Guest:Also, I had a crush on Dana Carvey.
00:22:24Guest:I thought he was gorgeous.
00:22:25Marc:Have you met him since?
00:22:26Guest:No, never.
00:22:26Marc:Do you want to?
00:22:27Guest:Yeah.
00:22:28Guest:Love to meet Dana Carvey.
00:22:29Guest:He's awesome.
00:22:30Marc:And OK, so what was the first active engagement with like doing something comedic?
00:22:37Guest:I think probably wasn't until really college.
00:22:42Guest:Yeah.
00:22:43Guest:Yeah.
00:22:43Guest:And then I started writing sketches and would write these short plays and things like that.
00:22:48Marc:And were you part of a sketch troupe?
00:22:50Guest:Oh, it wasn't.
00:22:51Guest:Yes, I was in an improv troupe, but I wasn't in a sketch troupe.
00:22:54Marc:In college?
00:22:54Guest:Yeah.
00:22:54Marc:Where'd you go to college?
00:22:55Guest:Dartmouth.
00:22:56Marc:Fancy.
00:22:57Marc:It is fancy, right?
00:23:00Guest:Like moderately fancy.
00:23:01Guest:It's so, it's like in the middle of nowhere.
00:23:04Marc:Isolated fancy.
00:23:06Guest:Isolated fancy, yes.
00:23:07Marc:Off the grid fancy.
00:23:08Marc:It's Ivy League school, right?
00:23:10Guest:Mm-hmm.
00:23:10Marc:That's fancy.
00:23:12Marc:Well, what were you majoring in?
00:23:14Guest:I was a classics major.
00:23:15Marc:Which means?
00:23:16Guest:Latin.
00:23:17Marc:Really?
00:23:18Guest:Yeah.
00:23:18Marc:Where did that come from?
00:23:19Guest:I'd just taken Latin since I was in seventh grade.
00:23:22Marc:So you just thought that was the next step?
00:23:24Guest:Kind of.
00:23:24Guest:I mean, I was like a Latin whiz at my high school.
00:23:27Guest:Like that was my big thing as I was good at Latin.
00:23:30Marc:Can you still do it?
00:23:31Guest:Do it?
00:23:32Marc:Latin.
00:23:34Guest:Translate it?
00:23:35Guest:Yeah.
00:23:36Guest:I feel like your persona in this is like, you're fancy, so I won't even say translate.
00:23:39Guest:I'll say, do you do Latin?
00:23:42Guest:You knew that the word was translate.
00:23:44Marc:Well, no, I got in trouble once because I had asked somebody if they spoke Latin because I had another guest who I think it might have even been Chris Hardwick.
00:23:53Marc:Okay.
00:23:54Marc:And then someone was like, no one speaks Latin, but they do in Catholic.
00:23:58Guest:Ancient Rome.
00:23:59Marc:Right.
00:23:59Marc:Yeah.
00:24:00Marc:In ancient Rome and Catholic services.
00:24:02Guest:You're right.
00:24:03Marc:I mean, it's still used.
00:24:04Guest:Absolutely.
00:24:05Marc:So someone made me feel like an idiot.
00:24:06Marc:So instead of say, speak Latin, I got jumbled and I just went with do one way or the other.
00:24:11Marc:Yeah.
00:24:12Marc:Like I thought that would cover speaking and translating.
00:24:14Guest:I shouldn't have picked any of that.
00:24:15Guest:That was dumb.
00:24:16Guest:I'm sorry.
00:24:17Marc:Oh, no, it's all right.
00:24:17Marc:I can handle it.
00:24:18Guest:I can translate coins and things like that.
00:24:21Guest:In buildings, they have lots of... Latin shows up in the weirdest places.
00:24:25Marc:Like the first impulse I had in that moment was like, I'm getting a coin.
00:24:29Marc:But I didn't do that.
00:24:31Marc:But you seem like such a sort of career-minded person now around what you do.
00:24:36Guest:Really?
00:24:37Guest:What does that mean?
00:24:37Guest:Yeah.
00:24:38Marc:I mean, people I knew when they started comedy, I think when you were growing up and once you started to get involved with show business, and I'm projecting this, that it became clear that it was possible.
00:24:51Marc:That there was a series of steps that you could maybe take to get what you wanted.
00:24:55Guest:But you didn't feel that way?
00:24:56Marc:No, no, no.
00:24:58Marc:But there's no way to judge.
00:24:59Marc:I mean, I just wanted to be a stand-up comedian.
00:25:01Marc:It was very limited, and it was based on the fact that I didn't seem to have to do much.
00:25:05Guest:Okay.
00:25:06Marc:You know what I mean?
00:25:07Marc:If I could just figure out how to be funny in front of a microphone, that it'd work out.
00:25:12Marc:But like I've become sort of fascinated and less judgmental of younger people in the industry who somehow or another at a younger age realize like, wow, there are these steps.
00:25:22Marc:And there's, you know, if I work on this and I do these sketches and I, I mean, again, I'm projecting a whole life onto you, but you did improv in college.
00:25:31Marc:Didn't know where your parents like, no, you must stay with Latin.
00:25:35Guest:No, I'm lucky.
00:25:39Guest:My parents, they loved me doing theater and stuff like that.
00:25:43Guest:Really?
00:25:45Guest:Yeah.
00:25:46Guest:They didn't know that.
00:25:47Guest:They didn't come from that world at all, but they really appreciated it.
00:25:50Guest:I grew up where my parents...
00:25:54Guest:liked Seinfeld more than me.
00:25:55Guest:Do you know, like they loved, they would watch Dr. Katz and stuff with me and they really love comedy.
00:26:01Guest:And so I think they were excited about it.
00:26:04Guest:You know, and then when I could make a living doing it, that was nice for them.
00:26:07Marc:So you have memories of that?
00:26:08Marc:They really like, they were comedy fans.
00:26:11Guest:Totally.
00:26:11Guest:Yeah.
00:26:12Guest:My mom is like an incredibly funny person.
00:26:14Guest:And she, I mean, curb your enthusiasm.
00:26:17Guest:I mean, she loves, loves comedy.
00:26:19Guest:She watches so much comedy now, too.
00:26:21Marc:So was there a point where they were afraid or frightened of your desire to get into it?
00:26:26Marc:Like, because I know most parents, mine included, are like, that seems crazy.
00:26:30Marc:I mean, how does anyone make a living at that?
00:26:32Marc:Like, it seems like a long shot.
00:26:33Guest:I'm sure I'm sure they did.
00:26:34Guest:And it does probably seem like a long shot.
00:26:36Guest:But they always just I mean, like my parents just like think I'm perfect.
00:26:40Guest:You know, like I just I'm like Kate Middleton to my parents.
00:26:42Guest:Like I could do nothing wrong.
00:26:43Guest:And so they for the long time I had tough parents.
00:26:45Guest:I was scared, scared of them, really scared of them until I was like 15 or 16.
00:26:49Guest:But they were so supportive of me.
00:26:52Guest:They just thought I could do anything.
00:26:53Marc:So tough in what way?
00:26:55Guest:um when i said i'm scared i was scared of my parents like i was scared of them they weren't like my pals you know growing up i didn't have one of these houses where uh you know people you know i get like have a glass of wine to like the 16 year old at dinner you know um i my parents told me i remember my mom told me she's like i don't want you to be having sex until you go to college like these are things that were like expectations um
00:27:18Marc:Oh, that was good.
00:27:18Marc:Not married, but college.
00:27:20Guest:Yeah, of course.
00:27:21Guest:I was like, no problem.
00:27:23Guest:That's not going to be an issue here.
00:27:25Guest:It's kind of flattering, Mom, that you think that.
00:27:27Guest:And I had to do my homework, and I couldn't go out on school nights and things like that.
00:27:33Guest:I mean, I like structure.
00:27:35Guest:So for me, I've always liked it, even now.
00:27:37Guest:So I didn't mind that.
00:27:38Marc:You like structure.
00:27:39Guest:Yeah.
00:27:40Marc:Because then you know where you're going and what you're doing.
00:27:44Guest:The worst thing to me would be like to go and like the sandals commercials for vacations where you're supposed to just like lay on a beach with some hot guy or something like that and look at the water.
00:27:53Guest:That's the worst thing to me.
00:27:56Guest:I don't think that seems so boring.
00:27:58Marc:So do you go on vacation?
00:28:02Guest:I like it.
00:28:04Guest:Theoretically, I like it.
00:28:05Guest:I went to Buenos Aires two years ago, and I thought that was an amazing trip.
00:28:08Guest:I had a great time, and there's a lot of history there.
00:28:10Guest:But, like, I could do that for, like, a long weekend.
00:28:13Guest:And then by Monday night, I would want to go back to work.
00:28:16Marc:Yeah, let's get back to life.
00:28:17Guest:Yeah.
00:28:17Marc:Yeah, and enough of this.
00:28:18Marc:Yeah.
00:28:20Marc:When you travel, do you do, like, you know, like, I've got to know the history of this place.
00:28:23Marc:I've got to find out.
00:28:24Marc:Yeah.
00:28:24Guest:That's usually the most interesting thing for me.
00:28:26Guest:I love like true crime.
00:28:27Guest:So when I went to Buenos Aires, I, the thing that was most interesting to me was like the disappearings, you know, like I wanted to see like the political stuff and I took like a bus tour.
00:28:36Guest:Like I didn't, I wasn't.
00:28:38Marc:The disappearings bus tour.
00:28:39Guest:My disappearing bus tour.
00:28:42Guest:Yeah, kind of, kind of.
00:28:43Guest:Actually, we drove around all the main places where different people had been kidnapped.
00:28:47Guest:I mean, that's an amazing city.
00:28:51Guest:But I wasn't interested in the tango as much.
00:28:53Marc:Or like the party.
00:28:55Marc:It's in Buenos Aires, a big party area.
00:28:58Guest:Interesting.
00:28:59Guest:It could be.
00:29:00Guest:I'm thinking of Rio.
00:29:02Guest:Rio is nonstop.
00:29:03Marc:Rio seems like just an immoral hellhole of debauchery.
00:29:08Marc:My brother lived in Buenos Aires, really.
00:29:10Marc:And isn't there sort of a weird kind of like, you know, renegade Nazis after World War II went to Buenos Aires?
00:29:16Guest:Yeah.
00:29:16Guest:No, so this is speaking of truth.
00:29:18Guest:I mean, all I'd want to do, yeah, Buenos Aires, you know, Bolivia.
00:29:21Marc:Right.
00:29:21Guest:Just to me, the idea, like when I was walking down the street, I was like, any 90-year-old man that I see right now could have been in like in Buchenwald's like doing orders.
00:29:30Guest:I mean, that is incredibly interesting to me.
00:29:33Marc:The walking down the street and going, I wonder if he was the dentist.
00:29:36Guest:Yeah.
00:29:37Marc:Right.
00:29:38Guest:The Nazi hunter.
00:29:40Marc:Yeah.
00:29:40Marc:Wiesenthal.
00:29:41Marc:So I'm in Wiesenthal.
00:29:43Marc:Yeah.
00:29:43Guest:He was largely... I was obsessed with him for a while.
00:29:45Guest:He was unfortunately kind of discredited later in his life.
00:29:48Marc:Was he?
00:29:49Marc:I didn't realize that.
00:29:50Marc:Yeah.
00:29:50Marc:For what?
00:29:51Marc:For making up Nazis?
00:29:52Guest:I think he's exaggerating.
00:29:52Guest:Which, by the way, if you were hunting Nazis, wouldn't you embellish a little bit?
00:29:56Guest:I would.
00:29:57Guest:Right.
00:29:57Marc:What's your fascination with... Do you have a sort of...
00:30:00Guest:BJ Novak, who you know, has said about me that I'm like obsessed with justice.
00:30:05Guest:And I think that's really true.
00:30:06Guest:And I think that the thing about thing about Nazi hunters is that I mean, that's just, that's like, obsessed with justice writ large.
00:30:16Guest:I mean, that's just like, and it's also very dramatic and continent hopping and things like I find it.
00:30:22Guest:Yeah, I find it interesting.
00:30:23Marc:So if you're obsessed with justice, is there a sense on a daily basis that things aren't fair?
00:30:29Marc:I mean, do you fight some sort of good fight in your mind?
00:30:33Guest:Yeah, I think so, yeah.
00:30:35Marc:Yeah?
00:30:35Marc:Yeah.
00:30:36Marc:When political things like Occupy Wall Street or any of this stuff, does that resonate?
00:30:40Guest:Yeah.
00:30:40Guest:Oh God.
00:30:41Guest:Okay.
00:30:41Guest:So now it should.
00:30:43Guest:If I was like a better person, more politically minded person, it would.
00:30:46Guest:Right.
00:30:46Guest:But I'm talking more about like why parking meters don't accept pennies.
00:30:50Guest:I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?
00:30:52Guest:You give us pennies.
00:30:54Guest:Right.
00:30:54Guest:The government, but they won't accept them because they also hate them.
00:30:57Guest:Like that to me, like I hate that.
00:30:59Guest:But just the tiny things and the historical things.
00:31:03Guest:But in any kind of like.
00:31:04Marc:The practical sort of fighting the powers that are unjust in society is like, I got to work.
00:31:10Guest:I know.
00:31:11Guest:It's exhausting.
00:31:12Guest:It's bad.
00:31:13Guest:That's bad.
00:31:13Guest:No, no.
00:31:13Marc:I'm the same way.
00:31:14Marc:It's not.
00:31:14Marc:I don't think that like I like to say I'm not apathetic.
00:31:16Marc:I'm inactive.
00:31:18Marc:And.
00:31:19Marc:Okay, well, tell me about this true crime thing, because I'm dating a woman who's fairly obsessed with it.
00:31:24Marc:Oh, yeah?
00:31:25Marc:Yes.
00:31:25Guest:In terms of what?
00:31:26Guest:Does she love reading true crime?
00:31:28Guest:Oh, yeah.
00:31:28Marc:She reads the blogs, murder blogs.
00:31:32Marc:She watches the murder shows, the crime shows.
00:31:36Guest:So can I ask you a question?
00:31:38Marc:Yeah.
00:31:38Guest:When I read that, I get very scared.
00:31:40Guest:I'm not deadened to it.
00:31:41Guest:I'm very scared by it.
00:31:43Guest:Has she ever thought you were trying to kill her or anything like that?
00:31:46Marc:No.
00:31:47Marc:No.
00:31:47Marc:Okay.
00:31:47Marc:I think she likes the unfolding.
00:31:50Marc:She's involved in reading blogs of cases that are still kind of trying to be solved.
00:31:55Guest:Okay.
00:31:56Guest:Okay.
00:31:56Guest:Oh, oh, oh.
00:31:57Marc:And she likes sort of the process of how they're going about trying to find the murderer and what the murderer did and how to protect herself from possibilities.
00:32:07Guest:Have you seen The Staircase?
00:32:08Marc:No.
00:32:09Marc:Oh.
00:32:10Guest:She'd love it.
00:32:10Guest:It's like a nine-part documentary about a couple and a woman fell down the staircase and died.
00:32:18Guest:But it was unclear.
00:32:19Guest:There's so much blood at the scene of the crime.
00:32:21Guest:They weren't sure if the husband had actually been killed.
00:32:23Guest:the one who murdered, and it unfolds, and there's so many twists and turns.
00:32:27Guest:I really recommend it.
00:32:27Marc:And it's true?
00:32:28Guest:Oh, yeah, it's true.
00:32:29Guest:How about in North Carolina?
00:32:30Marc:Is there closure?
00:32:31Guest:Yeah.
00:32:32Guest:Yes.
00:32:32Guest:But the what you learn over the course of the documentary about each of them is so unbelievable.
00:32:36Guest:Great holiday present.
00:32:38Marc:Oh, really?
00:32:38Guest:Yeah.
00:32:39Guest:The staircase documentary.
00:32:40Marc:I'm going to write it down.
00:32:41Marc:Really?
00:32:42Guest:She likes true crime.
00:32:42Guest:Oh, my God.
00:32:43Guest:This is it.
00:32:44Marc:And outside of justice, what do you think is because it seems like that's more than just justice.
00:32:48Marc:Do you like the menace and the morbidity and the like, you know, knowing finding out about people and what they're capable of?
00:32:55Guest:You mean in just true crime and stuff?
00:32:56Guest:Yeah, yeah.
00:32:57Guest:Well, I go to truetv.com sometimes to read about crimes because one thing that's very scary to me is that if something is too grisly and too disturbing, you simply won't hear about it, which is, to me, the worst.
00:33:08Guest:Like if there's a 9-11 photographs, like when people are jumping out of the building, you didn't see it because it was considered too disturbing.
00:33:15Guest:And there are certain crimes that have been committed, like the Wichita massacre and things like that, where you don't hear about it because it's too disturbing.
00:33:22Guest:But that's, to me, the wrong way to think of it.
00:33:24Guest:you should be hearing about just the worst ones.
00:33:27Guest:I live alone.
00:33:27Guest:I'm like, I'm a single woman living in West Hollywood alone.
00:33:30Guest:I feel like I should constantly hear about weird break-ins and like, you know, home invasion situations because I've never set my alarm on.
00:33:38Guest:My doors are always unlocked.
00:33:40Guest:So, um...
00:33:41Marc:Now, those are two things you seem like you have some control over.
00:33:45Guest:Yes.
00:33:46Guest:I did make it sound like that just happened to me.
00:33:48Guest:Like, I can't.
00:33:50Marc:Right, right.
00:33:50Marc:There's nothing I can do to lock my door.
00:33:52Marc:And the alarm, I don't know what it does.
00:33:54Guest:No, but I do like it because it's grisly.
00:33:59Guest:No, but in our writer's room, too, I'll, like, go on people.
00:34:02Guest:That's been a fixation of mine for a long time is, like, true crime.
00:34:05Marc:Yeah, even just last night, we were walking back from a party, and she was tired of her heels, and she took her shoes off and was walking down the street.
00:34:11Marc:And she goes, this makes me nervous.
00:34:13Marc:And I'm like, why?
00:34:13Marc:And she's like, because that girl that got kidnapped and disappeared, she didn't have shoes on.
00:34:18Marc:And I'm like, well, I'm here, and we're in Los Feliz.
00:34:22Guest:Which girl, J.C.
00:34:23Guest:Dugard?
00:34:23Marc:The one at the college campus.
00:34:25Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:34:26Marc:You know which one that is?
00:34:27Guest:I think so.
00:34:28Marc:She got picked up by a truck and there's all these people who are friends and they don't know what happened to her.
00:34:32Marc:I think it was like in Wisconsin or somewhere, maybe Madison.
00:34:34Guest:Oh, yeah.
00:34:35Guest:This is the one who's like on Twitter, right?
00:34:36Guest:Like all the time they're tweeting about it.
00:34:38Marc:About her sister.
00:34:38Guest:Please help.
00:34:39Guest:Yeah.
00:34:39Guest:God, so sad.
00:34:41Guest:It was her boyfriend, though.
00:34:42Guest:It seemed very clear.
00:34:43Marc:But how have they not solved that?
00:34:44Marc:See, that's the other thing that scares me about that shit is that the sad thing about police shows and procedural shows and all the fiction is that there's closure.
00:34:52Marc:It's got to be like 80% of the time they don't figure it out.
00:34:56Guest:I thought the statistic was the other way around, that 80% of the time you do figure it out.
00:35:01Marc:Okay, I just winged the statistics, but there's a big chunk that are unsolved.
00:35:06Guest:It's...
00:35:06Marc:Don't you like the cold crime stuff?
00:35:08Marc:I love that stuff.
00:35:09Marc:I don't watch it, but the idea that they can find a tooth now and track it down.
00:35:14Guest:Yeah, that's awesome.
00:35:15Marc:Okay, so when did you move to Hollywood?
00:35:17Guest:2004.
00:35:18Marc:And was that on, did you come on a deal or were you completely just like... Did I come on a deal?
00:35:24Guest:No, no, no.
00:35:25Guest:I came, I was doing an off-off Broadway play here called Matt and Ben, which I wrote and was in.
00:35:32Guest:And I did that play here for, I think, a couple months.
00:35:35Guest:And then Greg Daniels, who hired me in the office, he saw that.
00:35:38Marc:And that was it?
00:35:39Marc:That changed the game?
00:35:40Guest:That changed the game.
00:35:40Marc:Where did that play start and how did it end up in L.A.
00:35:43Marc:?
00:35:44Guest:I wrote the play in New York with my best friend and we were, uh, she's my best friend from college and she's still my best friend.
00:35:49Guest:And we, we wrote it, uh, the year I graduated college.
00:35:54Guest:She's a year older than me.
00:35:55Guest:And, um, yeah, we just, the plays about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and I play Ben Affleck and she's Matt Damon.
00:36:02Guest:And it's just a, it's a one, it's a one, it's an hour long, really absurd comedy play where, um, she's Matt Damon and I'm Ben Affleck and, uh, yeah.
00:36:11Guest:Yeah.
00:36:11Marc:And where did you put it up in New York?
00:36:13Marc:Were you involved with UCB or anything like that?
00:36:16Guest:No, I wasn't.
00:36:16Guest:No, it was at the Fringe Festival.
00:36:19Guest:We submitted it to the Fringe.
00:36:20Guest:We saved up our money and submitted it to Fringe Festival, and then we did it there.
00:36:24Guest:And after Fringe Festival, we won Best Play there, which helped us get to do a show at PS122.
00:36:32Guest:Oh, yeah.
00:36:33Marc:I've done the shows there.
00:36:35Marc:It's nice.
00:36:35Marc:Big room.
00:36:35Guest:Yeah, it's great.
00:36:36Guest:And so we did it there for a while, and that's when it started getting attention.
00:36:39Guest:Yeah.
00:36:39Marc:But so it was just a spontaneous thing.
00:36:41Marc:You didn't come out here like, you know, a manager said you should do it.
00:36:44Marc:You were just like, let's do it.
00:36:46Guest:Yeah.
00:36:46Guest:I mean, the producers for the show were like, put it up and got us.
00:36:49Guest:We subletted a place from, you know, whatever.
00:36:52Guest:And we just, yeah, that was it.
00:36:53Marc:And it was just that organic.
00:36:55Marc:You were not connected in any way.
00:36:56Marc:And it just happened.
00:36:58Guest:Connected anyway, meaning like.
00:36:59Marc:Like there was not like a huge amount of buzz that drove you out here.
00:37:03Marc:And people saying like, oh, we've got to, you know, this is it.
00:37:06Guest:Okay, so when it was at PS122, that is when it was like Rolling Stone and different magazines were writing about it.
00:37:17Guest:Oh, okay.
00:37:17Marc:So you did get a little heat.
00:37:18Guest:That's what kind of made them feel like it might do well in L.A.
00:37:21Marc:And what was your like when you when you did the show?
00:37:24Marc:I mean, because Greg Daniels is a big guy and he's, you know, he's a smart guy and he saw something in you.
00:37:29Marc:But when you did the show, what was what did you have any sort of idea where it would go or where it would head?
00:37:35Marc:It was just this funny thing that grew out of a college kind of like this is funny.
00:37:39Guest:We didn't, I mean, I think we both knew, like, this wasn't, like, this couldn't be, like, a show.
00:37:43Guest:Like, I'm not going to play Ben Affleck, like, professionally.
00:37:46Guest:And so I, we just thought, I don't know, this is a good, Andre, to maybe somebody, maybe wanting to pay us to write something else that was more.
00:37:54Marc:Okay, right, right.
00:37:56Marc:So you, you're, there was part of you that was like, I want to have a career as a writer.
00:37:59Guest:Oh, yeah.
00:38:00Guest:I mean, I knew that since it was like 10 that I wanted to write.
00:38:03Marc:Since you were transcribing SNL scripts.
00:38:05Guest:Yeah.
00:38:06Marc:And the acting thing was secondary, really?
00:38:08Guest:Yes.
00:38:09Marc:And when did you figure out that you were funny?
00:38:13Guest:Like when in my life did I figure out?
00:38:14Marc:I mean, like when you were doing sketch and stuff, I mean, like, was there, uh, were you afraid to go on stage?
00:38:19Marc:I mean, when did that start happening where you were performing a lot?
00:38:22Guest:Um, well, live performance and like doing the show are, as you know, like incredibly different things.
00:38:27Guest:Like when I started doing standup, like 25, you did straight standup.
00:38:32Guest:Yeah.
00:38:32Marc:Really?
00:38:32Marc:Where'd you start that?
00:38:34Guest:Um, I would do it at, well, I saw BJ who I met on the office.
00:38:39Guest:I would go see him do standup around town differently.
00:38:42Marc:Here.
00:38:42Guest:Yeah.
00:38:43Guest:He would even do like open mics at like places and like coffee shops in like the Valley.
00:38:46Marc:No, I remember seeing him at those.
00:38:47Guest:Yeah.
00:38:47Guest:So, um, I started signing up to do open mics and, uh, cause I didn't like have a lot of friends.
00:38:52Guest:I didn't have a lot to do here cause my friend moved back to New York and I only had my friends from the office who weren't really my friends yet even.
00:38:58Marc:So you're already doing the office when he started doing standup.
00:39:01Guest:yeah but you did sketch in college yeah okay yeah so bj kind of coaxed you into it or like he like he didn't discourage me or encourage me i just went to go see him and i remember one night i saw him perform that it was um it was like just before the ucb it's where scott and bj used to do comedy death ray i forget what at m bar m bar yeah and i saw i think it was at
00:39:26Guest:Louis C.K.
00:39:28Guest:and was it Bob Odenkirk where they're doing like a show they were doing like stand up together really yeah for like seven seven minutes ten minutes and it was the coolest I couldn't believe that how cool it was yeah well I'm really drawn to that I mean one of the reasons why I thought he's so great or
00:39:44Guest:you know even bj is that they are their style of comedy is so different than mine i mean like that's just like the that's that's it shows so much restraint as comedy and i think that's so uh impressive well he's like bj like when i first met him i could not it was very hard for me to decipher who he was or what his personality was absolutely yeah and that there was an incredible will and and focus on joke writing yeah and
00:40:13Marc:And it was pretty amazing that he could get the response that he was getting, and I had no clue of where it was coming from.
00:40:23Guest:Remember what it was like?
00:40:24Guest:I mean, when you're a very open person the way I am, and it's almost to a fault sometimes, I think, and you're very generous with the details about your life, when you see something like that, and also if you just know him personally, he's just so like, you could know him, you could pet him 10 times and not know what he's really like.
00:40:42Guest:I mean,
00:40:42Guest:I know him extremely well, and he's a very warm, gentle, sweet person, but I think that's so cool.
00:40:47Guest:I mean, that's the definition of cool to me.
00:40:49Guest:But then there's other people like Chris Rock or Louis C.K., where you know so much about their life and their observations, but they're completely letting you into their world, which is also so admirable.
00:41:04Marc:So how was your first stand-up experiences?
00:41:07Guest:uh like mortifying bad i mean ultimately i mean this is this is a terrible reason to ever be inspired but i think more often than not i am inspired by this like you see stand up and it's so bad that you're like why i can't i please let me do this i mean that's not a very pure way to go about it i know that's right spite you're right yeah
00:41:26Guest:And at that time, I'd go to see stand-up, and I was like, it'd be like a girl playing a ukulele with no jokes, no point of view.
00:41:35Guest:And I was like, what?
00:41:36Guest:This is considered the best person, the best woman comedian or whatever it is?
00:41:41Guest:And obviously, I wasn't seeing the people that were really great, like Sarah and Tague and all those people.
00:41:47Guest:But the people that were the exciting up-and-comers just made me so angry.
00:41:51Guest:Or they would just do this cathartic, very X-rated stuff about...
00:41:56Guest:had they been raped and you're supposed to like laugh about that or something.
00:41:59Guest:And I was like, this is terrible.
00:42:01Guest:This is awful and embarrassing.
00:42:03Guest:I should be doing this.
00:42:05Marc:Really?
00:42:05Marc:So you have, it's interesting you use the word X-rated.
00:42:07Marc:I like that.
00:42:08Marc:It's sort of nostalgic in a way.
00:42:11Marc:So do you find that some, especially female comedians who clearly have a certain investment in shocking, using rape and child abuse and whatnot as launching points for humor, do you have an issue with that?
00:42:31Guest:I don't think it's not my cup of tea, but I do think, and this is not just for female comedians, it's for all comedians, it's like, I don't, I mean, you know, like the power of shock.
00:42:45Guest:Sure.
00:42:45Guest:It's like an amazing thing.
00:42:47Guest:Yeah.
00:42:47Guest:But it is so anybody can do it, like any person can do it.
00:42:52Guest:You don't have to be like a skilled person.
00:42:53Guest:Right.
00:42:53Guest:You don't have to be like an artist to shock anybody.
00:42:55Guest:Right.
00:42:55Guest:And so when people are, when you make jokes about abortion or you even say the word abortion, you get people's attention in a way that I just am like, that's any person can do that.
00:43:06Guest:And so I don't have a like a like a real political issue with it.
00:43:10Guest:I just think it's like just not kind of my cup of tea.
00:43:12Marc:Cheap.
00:43:13Marc:Yeah.
00:43:14Marc:Easy.
00:43:14Guest:I think so.
00:43:15Guest:Yeah.
00:43:15Marc:Yeah, because obviously you like blue comedy.
00:43:17Marc:I mean, you like Louie.
00:43:19Guest:Is he considered blue, would you say?
00:43:21Marc:No, no.
00:43:21Marc:I mean, I'm saying a lot of your jokes will end in masturbation or some form of... Yes.
00:43:29Marc:If someone's coming on somebody, I would say that there's blue.
00:43:33Marc:He's a great all-around comic, but he's a dirty boy.
00:43:37Marc:Yeah.
00:43:38Marc:So it's not dirty that bothers you.
00:43:39Marc:It's just it's cheap laughs based on like the thing that you find appealing about about B.J.
00:43:45Marc:is that the discipline of creating jokes and and performing, you know, in a way that requires some thought and some craft.
00:43:54Guest:Right, like you could see one of BJ's acting, you never know that if his heart had ever been broken or if he ever had any like issue or hang up.
00:44:01Marc:See, that bothers me because I gravitate towards people who can't hide themselves.
00:44:05Marc:And like I've talked to BJ, I've had him on a live show.
00:44:09Marc:And he always, I always found him, like he's clearly, you know, very focused and he's got a lot of ambition and he's, you know, he works hard.
00:44:18Marc:But I would watch him do stand up and I'd be like, who is that kid?
00:44:22Marc:I get that he writes, but what's he been through?
00:44:25Guest:But isn't that the great thing?
00:44:26Guest:There's lots of different ways to be funny.
00:44:28Marc:I like him.
00:44:29Marc:It wasn't easy for me to like him.
00:44:32Marc:It took a while.
00:44:33Guest:No, I get that too.
00:44:34Marc:And what kind of jokes were you talking about when you did your stuff?
00:44:38Marc:Were you just blasting away at your personal life?
00:44:41Marc:Or did you write jokes?
00:44:43Guest:Oh, yeah.
00:44:43Guest:No, I definitely wrote jokes.
00:44:44Guest:I mean, especially since I'd come from these, like, seeing comedy, like, largely, like, joke-less sets that were based on the fact that you were adorable.
00:44:53Guest:Like, that was sort of what I was responding to is, like, when I would see that.
00:44:56Guest:So I wrote, like, I definitely wrote jokes.
00:44:59Guest:But I think that...
00:45:01Guest:And I moved with a lot.
00:45:03Guest:I was going to colleges.
00:45:04Guest:I was touring and doing 45-minute sets and spending the weekends at all these random towns across the country.
00:45:09Guest:And I was doing it, for real doing it.
00:45:12Guest:But I found that I didn't have the time that you need.
00:45:18Guest:You really do need so much time to go up and find out the thing that you have the most to say about.
00:45:24Guest:I wasn't sure.
00:45:25Marc:So you got an opportunity because of your visibility on the office to sell some tickets.
00:45:29Marc:Right.
00:45:30Guest:Well, no, and also because I was funny.
00:45:32Guest:No, no, I think you're funny.
00:45:33Marc:But I'm just responding to you didn't feel like you had gone as far as you could go with stand-up.
00:45:39Guest:No, I didn't.
00:45:39Guest:And in order to do it more, I would have to spend more time.
00:45:43Marc:And did you tour alone?
00:45:44Marc:Did you have an opening act?
00:45:45Marc:Did you tour with BJ?
00:45:46Marc:How did it work?
00:45:47Guest:No, I toured alone.
00:45:48Guest:I did a couple shows with Craig Robinson.
00:45:51Guest:But I think that was before he was on The Office.
00:45:54Guest:And he would, I mean, he just plays the piano and he sings these songs.
00:45:57Guest:He's so funny.
00:45:57Guest:I mean, he kills in colleges.
00:45:59Guest:Yeah.
00:45:59Marc:He's so funny.
00:46:00Marc:I saw him the other night.
00:46:01Marc:He just showed up somewhere where I did some guy's show in Santa Monica.
00:46:05Marc:I just all of a sudden, Craig Robinson's in the back of the room.
00:46:08Marc:So how did it evolve when you first got the gig on The Office?
00:46:12Marc:You were just cast, or was the deal originally to write and perform?
00:46:16Guest:It was originally to write, and then I started acting in the second episode.
00:46:21Marc:Oh, so it was, oh, really?
00:46:23Guest:He had a, Greg had put us on writer-performer contracts.
00:46:26Guest:So that first season, all six of us ended up kind of being on camera in one form or the other.
00:46:32Marc:So you were sort of like, it was kind of like being in the reserves.
00:46:37Marc:Like you knew you had a contract that would enable you to perform, but you didn't know when you would be called to duty?
00:46:41Guest:Yeah, it wasn't until he decided to put me in the show that I said, okay, well, we'll have to figure out some, and he was like, it's actually already in your contract.
00:46:47Guest:Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
00:46:48Marc:How long did it take for you to sort of integrate?
00:46:51Marc:Because it's an ensemble show, obviously.
00:46:54Marc:So how long did it take for you to feel confident?
00:46:56Marc:I mean, when you first started performing, I mean, what was that?
00:46:59Marc:What were your fears?
00:47:02Guest:My first scene I ever did in the office is I had to slap Steve Carell.
00:47:06Guest:That was like the entire scene.
00:47:07Guest:So that was very, I was incredibly nervous then.
00:47:11Guest:It took a while.
00:47:12Guest:It took like maybe two years for me to really feel like I felt comfortable holding my own.
00:47:18Marc:is it still a blast?
00:47:21Guest:Yeah, it's still fun.
00:47:22Guest:I mean, like anything else, like as you, as I've gotten done the show more and I've become more like senior, it's everything just becomes more fun when you like feel more powerful.
00:47:32Guest:Yeah.
00:47:32Guest:So that's, that's, yeah.
00:47:34Marc:And do you, is there like any, is there any fear that in yourself, like when, when Corral was leaving and things were changing was, is there ever fear that it'll get stale or that you're not going to be excited about it?
00:47:47Guest:uh uh no i mean i i i don't i don't feel that way no i know other people do yeah for sure and i know plenty of magazine articles think that or whatever but i um love steve steve is so great um so fucking funny so funny and like i just but the rest of the people that are still in the cast is like they're if you if you said to a network hey i want to do a show with like john krasinski rain wilson ed helms craig robinson
00:48:16Guest:whoever else, they would be like, that sounds like the best show in the world.
00:48:18Guest:So if I think about the show that way, in terms of like, guys, if we were just a pilot, how fucking awesome would that show be?
00:48:25Guest:And I just, that sort of makes me feel excited about it.
00:48:28Marc:And how many episodes have you written on your own?
00:48:32Guest:23.
00:48:32Marc:Really?
00:48:33Marc:Yeah.
00:48:33Marc:That's amazing.
00:48:35Marc:Thanks.
00:48:35Marc:And how does that work since I'm not, I've never been a television writer.
00:48:40Guest:Is that something you really want to know, how a TV show was written?
00:48:43Guest:That's like something that you think is interesting?
00:48:45Guest:Right.
00:48:45Marc:No, because I for myself, it's when I had I had I've written a script before for me.
00:48:52Marc:Okay.
00:48:52Marc:And the job of being a writer.
00:48:55Marc:I don't I'm interested in it, though, because literally there's part of me that just learned that when you're a writer on the show that you are sort of given, you know, you're going to write this episode.
00:49:06Guest:Mm hmm.
00:49:07Marc:And then you, then everybody sort of takes a crack at it.
00:49:10Marc:Is that generally how it works?
00:49:11Guest:Like you write the episode and then if it requires sort of group mind, you, it goes up on a screen and a room and everyone, you go through it and people give suggestions for jokes and things.
00:49:20Marc:Yeah.
00:49:21Marc:That's, that's interesting to me.
00:49:22Marc:It's not my life.
00:49:23Guest:Yeah.
00:49:24Marc:When you get an episode, is there a moment where you're like, Oh fuck.
00:49:26Guest:Yeah, no, I mean, so there's, you know, 22 episodes a year and Paul Lieberstein has to get through them.
00:49:31Guest:And if you show an attachment or if you've pitched a lot of good jokes for like an episode, oftentimes you kind of know that he's going to assign it to you.
00:49:39Marc:And is that like a dread thing or are you excited about it?
00:49:42Guest:Sometimes you're like, God, I hope I get assigned that up.
00:49:44Guest:It's like I love writing the Christmas episodes and I've written those for the past couple of years.
00:49:47Guest:And I'm so that's the one I want.
00:49:49Marc:So a lot of times the general pitch of the show is, you know, like, you know, so-and-so gets this.
00:49:55Marc:The plot points are already kind of laid out.
00:49:58Guest:Yeah.
00:49:58Guest:It's like we have a bulletin board that we've put cards up on.
00:50:02Guest:And once it's carded, which means that you have, like, the first act, second act, third act, then that's the point where Paul has to tell someone to go do an outline, which is, like, the extended version of that.
00:50:12Marc:Right.
00:50:12Guest:And so at that point, once you're doing the outline, you pretty much know that you're going to write the episode.
00:50:17Right.
00:50:17Marc:And because you're on, you know, you're now, you've been in the cast for so long and you've been around these people, you know, you're writing for very defined characters.
00:50:25Guest:Yes.
00:50:25Guest:Yeah.
00:50:26Marc:Like when you write, do you, cause I'm, I'm like, I'm have a book deal and I'm writing a book and you just wrote a book.
00:50:32Guest:Yeah.
00:50:33Marc:Is everyone hanging out without me?
00:50:34Marc:Is that a real fear?
00:50:35Guest:Yeah.
00:50:36Marc:Yeah, me too.
00:50:37Marc:I hate it.
00:50:39Marc:But there's a lot of dread involved in my process.
00:50:41Marc:I don't find a lot of joy.
00:50:43Marc:And the wrestling with a script or anything else is like, ugh.
00:50:48Marc:And it really, when it starts to break through, it's exciting.
00:50:53Marc:But I think given the opportunity, I would not do it.
00:50:56Guest:Not write the book.
00:50:57Marc:Any of it.
00:50:58Guest:Can I say something?
00:50:59Guest:Because I've now written scripts and I've written, obviously I wrote my book, is that the book was the most daunting thing I've ever had to do.
00:51:06Guest:Because the script is like a script for a TV show.
00:51:08Marc:It's a puzzle.
00:51:09Guest:And it's a puzzle.
00:51:10Guest:It's 32 pages long.
00:51:11Guest:Right.
00:51:11Guest:You can read that in a night.
00:51:12Guest:In fact, you can read five of them in a night.
00:51:14Guest:You can be fine.
00:51:15Guest:My book, when I'd go back and be looking for my book, I was like...
00:51:18Guest:I can't.
00:51:19Guest:Fuck.
00:51:19Guest:I'm not going to be able to get through this tonight and look at it as a whole.
00:51:22Guest:So you always have a certain amount of uncertainty.
00:51:23Guest:Right.
00:51:24Guest:And so, I mean, luckily my book is made up of smaller pieces.
00:51:27Guest:I could kind of tackle those.
00:51:28Guest:Right.
00:51:29Guest:You know, I didn't even have, like, Microsoft Word on my computer because I just use our... Final draft.
00:51:33Guest:Yeah, the script writing program.
00:51:34Guest:Yeah.
00:51:34Guest:So I did, like, buy Microsoft Word and then install that on my computer.
00:51:39Guest:It was really, like, expensive.
00:51:41Guest:And then sat there in front of, like, just a blank page.
00:51:45Guest:Yeah.
00:51:45Marc:But you had the discipline in place.
00:51:47Guest:No, I didn't.
00:51:48Guest:I didn't start writing my book until about, I think, probably five or six months after that.
00:51:51Guest:I was still sort of like had the glow of having sold a book and felt like that was fun.
00:51:56Guest:And then it took about five or six months to really start getting into it.
00:52:00Marc:So when you had about five or six months to write it, that's when you started.
00:52:03Guest:I had like seven or eight months to write it, but I didn't do anything for a long time.
00:52:09Guest:But maybe I needed to do that.
00:52:10Marc:I don't know.
00:52:11Marc:Well, that's a good question.
00:52:13Marc:I mean, I'm driven by panic.
00:52:15Guest:Are you?
00:52:16Guest:Yeah, absolutely.
00:52:17Marc:And you like structure.
00:52:18Marc:So once you know the structure is there, you just sort of panic and then just panic.
00:52:21Marc:Dump that energy into the structure and that's it.
00:52:23Marc:But like TV scripts, it's interesting in my limited experience of it.
00:52:28Marc:You do sort of move things around, you know, when things are supposed to turn and when something's supposed to happen.
00:52:33Marc:The reason I'm fascinated with the office around this stuff, and I really don't talk to a lot of people about the process, is that you want to believe a lot of that is improvised.
00:52:42Marc:You know, that the nature of the show and the way it's shot, like I always want to believe that it's completely natural and it just happened organically.
00:52:54Marc:How much of that happens?
00:52:56Guest:A pretty small percentage, especially now that Steve is gone because he's like a masterful improviser.
00:53:02Guest:But yeah, I think a pretty, pretty small percentage.
00:53:06Guest:I mean, if you'd ask Ed or Rand, they might say more, but I think it's like five percent.
00:53:11Marc:Really?
00:53:11Marc:Yeah.
00:53:12Marc:And when Steve was there, like, you didn't know what he was going to do sometimes?
00:53:16Guest:Yeah, no, Steve would improvise more, maybe it was more like 10% of the time.
00:53:20Guest:But, you know, for the most part, like, actors want that same structure too.
00:53:25Guest:Like, they don't, you know, they improvise, but only after like seven takes of it getting it scripted or whatever.
00:53:31Guest:But with Steve and with Rain especially, their improvisations have really helped episodes.
00:53:40Guest:Yeah.
00:53:40Guest:Like, I mean, what they've improvised was incredible.
00:53:44Marc:Do you have a specific moment in mind where you were just sort of like, oh, my God.
00:53:49Guest:Yeah.
00:53:50Guest:It was an episode called the injury second season of the show.
00:53:53Guest:And Rain improvised a line when he's going getting into the van.
00:53:59Guest:It's Meredith's van.
00:54:00Guest:Meredith is like the drunk.
00:54:01Guest:And they borrowed the van.
00:54:03Guest:And John's character, Jim, is driving Rain to the hospital because he got into an accident.
00:54:09Guest:And he's a little delirious.
00:54:10Guest:And Michael and Jim are telling Dwight not to act up so much.
00:54:15Guest:And he goes, I don't know.
00:54:17Guest:I'm not saying – it doesn't sound so hilarious now.
00:54:19Guest:But he says, I don't work for this van or something.
00:54:23Guest:Because Michael was his boss.
00:54:24Guest:And I just was extremely funny.
00:54:26Guest:And it just –
00:54:28Marc:It was one of those moments where it's like, oh.
00:54:31Guest:Yeah, it was so great.
00:54:32Guest:Where did that come from?
00:54:33Guest:Yeah, it was awesome.
00:54:35Marc:Yeah, I mean, you get an amazing opportunity to work with some pretty spectacular comedic forces, you being one of them.
00:54:42Guest:Thank you.
00:54:43Marc:Okay, so you're doing some movies.
00:54:45Marc:You've been in a few movies.
00:54:47Marc:The book is doing well.
00:54:50Guest:Yeah.
00:54:50Marc:And you're happy with it.
00:54:52Guest:Super happy.
00:54:52Guest:Number six, The New York Times.
00:54:54Marc:But I mean, outside of that, you don't... Just the success.
00:54:56Guest:I can only think about the success.
00:54:58Marc:Yeah?
00:54:58Guest:No, it's fun.
00:54:59Guest:I like it.
00:54:59Guest:It's the first thing I was saying.
00:55:00Guest:It's terrifying because it's the first thing that... The Office is great and my episodes of The Office are great, but it's such a group of people who put it together and do it.
00:55:08Guest:But the book was the first time where if it was succeeded or failed, it would just be me.
00:55:13Guest:It's kind of the purest expression of what I'm about or what I want to write about or what my sense of humor is.
00:55:19Guest:Right.
00:55:19Guest:So that was really, that whole week beforehand, I was like, why am I so anxious?
00:55:24Guest:And I think that's the reason.
00:55:26Marc:In the book, is there anything that you felt was emotionally risky?
00:55:29Marc:Or do you, in retrospect, think like, why did I put that in there?
00:55:33Marc:Or why didn't I put this in there?
00:55:34Guest:Yeah, there's some personal stuff in there that I am always nervous about.
00:55:40Marc:Like what?
00:55:41Guest:Um...
00:55:42Guest:I will say I was pretty confident going into it that nothing in there would offend anybody or anything.
00:55:49Marc:In your family or in the general population?
00:55:52Guest:I think both.
00:55:52Guest:I have a thing where, like anybody else, I've had traumatic things happen to me and I have stories that I could talk about and have battles with lots of demons and things like that, but I'm not as interested in writing about it.
00:56:08Guest:And
00:56:09Guest:I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have parents and I don't want them to be shocked or made sad or whatever.
00:56:20Guest:And I think there's a lot of artists who can write stuff and they don't necessarily think about that or their parents are just so cool that it wouldn't do whatever.
00:56:29Guest:But I have this thing where I want to be a good role model and not talk about...
00:56:35Marc:sex or you know drugs and that kind of stuff as much but um i don't even know if i'm answering your question no you're answering my question i i mean i think what you're saying is that you wrote a line you know out of respect for yourself for your family and out of public perception that you thought that you know instead of not unlike your reaction to shock comics that there there was something how you wanted to present yourself you had control over that
00:57:00Guest:Well, and also, I mean, it wasn't that hard.
00:57:03Guest:I haven't lived this life where I've had so many, like, addictions or, like, these humiliating sexual experiences.
00:57:08Marc:You don't have a sordid path.
00:57:09Guest:No, I don't have that.
00:57:10Guest:So it's, like, not the place where I draw a lot of inspiration from.
00:57:12Guest:But some people have had incredibly interesting lives.
00:57:15Guest:Really colorful stuff happened to them.
00:57:17Guest:And actually, some people can write about things like depression or drug addiction, like, really well.
00:57:22Guest:And they can find a lot of good stuff out of it that's actually entertaining.
00:57:26Guest:But I don't have that.
00:57:28Marc:Well, what are your demons?
00:57:29Guest:What are my demons?
00:57:31Marc:When you say you've struggled with demons, it's not in the book.
00:57:35Marc:I mean, I'm just sort of curious because I can't, you know, talking to you and and seeing where you came from and what you've done.
00:57:39Marc:There's part of me that thinks like, you know, what could be her problem?
00:57:43Guest:Like, what are my issues?
00:57:45Marc:Well, I mean, what sort of plagues you?
00:57:47Marc:What are these battles if you have demons?
00:57:51Marc:I don't think I've ever asked that question in such a general and straightforward way because you said, like, you know, I didn't put my demons in there.
00:57:58Guest:I know, I know.
00:57:59Guest:What are they?
00:57:59Guest:Maybe I haven't sat and thought about them that much.
00:58:04Marc:I mean, are you inordinate?
00:58:06Marc:Are you like hard on yourself?
00:58:07Marc:Do you like, you know, what would you say?
00:58:10Marc:Like, what are your biggest sort of obstacles on a day to day basis in your mind?
00:58:13Guest:Again, you know, I would say that as much as I love this podcast, I'd probably not use this as a platform to talk about all of that necessarily.
00:58:24Marc:I'm not looking for all of it.
00:58:24Marc:I was just looking for one, just a tip of the iceberg.
00:58:27Guest:I guess I'm, I think I'm, I don't know.
00:58:33Guest:I'm like a very competitive person.
00:58:35Guest:I'm like incredibly impatient.
00:58:37Guest:I mean, those are things that I would change about myself.
00:58:40Marc:Like competitive, like do you have that sort of like, oh, fuck her.
00:58:43Marc:I'm going to show them.
00:58:44Marc:I mean, are you driven by a certain amount of spite and the desire to win?
00:58:48Guest:Yeah, I'm definitely driven by like a desire to win for sure.
00:58:52Guest:Yeah.
00:58:52Marc:Have you won?
00:58:54Guest:I don't know.
00:58:54Guest:I probably will never think that I'm doing fine.
00:58:57Guest:I'm doing fine.
00:58:58Guest:I'm doing okay.
00:58:59Marc:You're in the race.
00:59:00Guest:Yeah.
00:59:01Marc:And in terms of, so no sordid drug pass.
00:59:03Marc:Okay.
00:59:04Marc:I mean, I'm not trying to press too much.
00:59:06Guest:I don't want you to think of me as that kind of person either.
00:59:08Guest:I want you to be like, oh, Mindy Kaling, she was like a daisy.
00:59:10Guest:What a great girl.
00:59:12Guest:Like, you know.
00:59:13Marc:No, I don't think that.
00:59:14Marc:I think that you seemed honestly to me, you seem very focused, very driven and very capable of handling your success and ambitious.
00:59:27Marc:And, you know, those are all good things.
00:59:29Marc:But if I just tweak that knob, I could see them as.
00:59:31Marc:A little bit demonic.
00:59:35Guest:It's interesting because you have this thing where, you know, focused and ambitious, you know, that where I know you don't mean it in the pejorative.
00:59:42Guest:I know that you mean it as or maybe you do mean in the pejorative.
00:59:45Guest:I don't know what you mean by pejorative.
00:59:46Guest:But there's a way of someone that's funny.
00:59:50Guest:When someone is funny, it's almost like it's a gift because you don't understand it or where it comes from.
00:59:58Guest:It flows out of them in a way that's magical.
01:00:01Guest:And the thing about when you have your shit together, largely...
01:00:03Guest:and you don't sleep till noon and you take vitamins or do whatever else, you know, and you're Indian, Indian American, you go to a good college is that I think there tends to be this thing where it's like, well, the fountain must not flow as, as magically from her.
01:00:18Guest:Cause she's more in control of her life.
01:00:20Guest:Like if I were to, you know, if I was like Mitch Hedberg, right.
01:00:25Guest:Total brilliant guy, secretly kind of out of control and,
01:00:29Marc:Kind of secret until the end.
01:00:31Marc:Yeah.
01:00:31Guest:Well, I mean, I didn't know.
01:00:32Guest:It was secret to you who probably were friends with him.
01:00:34Guest:But like that you envy that because I'm not like that.
01:00:38Guest:You know, like I am I don't have that thing that's out of control or whatever.
01:00:44Guest:And I think that there's this thing where you're like, man, if I was if I was a little bit more that way or more like if I had that, then maybe.
01:00:52Guest:people would think like the comedy people like they'd be like oh well you know she's the real deal she's the real deal or like she's extra funny because of it and i mean you know that's not something that bothers me a lot but it's something that like i think about so okay so you thought that i was like you know yeah it was sort of demeaning for me to say those things because you think that yeah you're not like my first thing you notice about you you're fucking funny you're awesome you tell it how it is you're like
01:01:18Guest:What a focused, punctual person you are.
01:01:20Guest:And I'm like, what?
01:01:21Guest:That's not how you describe a great.
01:01:23Guest:No, I'm fine.
01:01:25Guest:I'm OK with it.
01:01:25Guest:But I do think that's I think that's interesting.
01:01:29Marc:Well, no, I've had to, you know, as I do this podcast and as I talk to people that are significantly younger than me in the industry.
01:01:36Marc:Mm-hmm.
01:01:57Marc:I have a slight envy, and I'm certainly not being condescending, in the fact that there are people that are funny that realize they're funny and realize how they're funny and how to sort of capitalize on that personally and as a career fairly early on.
01:02:11Marc:I never had that.
01:02:12Guest:Yeah.
01:02:12Marc:And I'm certainly not condescending in the sense that I cannot say my way is better or anything else.
01:02:19Marc:I'm a little envious of it.
01:02:22Marc:I'm not putting you into some place.
01:02:23Marc:I mean, you're very funny and you do great work.
01:02:26Marc:But I do know that you have your shit together and I don't.
01:02:29Marc:So it's not coming from a place where... Oh, interesting.
01:02:33Marc:I'm not sitting here saying, look, my system's better.
01:02:35Marc:I'm in my garage and you're on a brilliant TV show.
01:02:39Guest:No, but I mean, it's interesting.
01:02:41Guest:Like you're more like you're like more of an Alexander Payne character than like I would be.
01:02:45Guest:You know what I mean?
01:02:46Guest:That's true.
01:02:46Guest:And it's nice.
01:02:47Guest:And I mean, that is a compliment.
01:02:48Marc:Well, I like hearing that you have a slight envy of that, that you in a way you sort of struggle with like.
01:02:54Guest:Yeah, when you're an Indian woman who wants to do comedy and you're trying to, like, do stand-up and go to M-Bar.
01:02:59Guest:Like, I have grown accustomed to being underestimated.
01:03:01Guest:Different people have different chips on their shoulders, right?
01:03:03Marc:Some people, it's that they were... Or maybe they're expecting you to be Indian.
01:03:07Guest:Yeah, or they want to talk about... Be a caricature.
01:03:09Guest:Exactly, talk about Indian stuff.
01:03:11Guest:Or if it's not, then it's like being a woman and, like, what kind of, like, girly things am I going to talk about?
01:03:16Guest:And...
01:03:17Guest:So I always, like, you know, everyone has a chip on their shoulder, and I think that's probably mine, maybe.
01:03:23Guest:I don't know.
01:03:24Marc:That people pigeonhole you before you even open your mouth.
01:03:27Guest:I think so.
01:03:28Marc:Uh-huh.
01:03:29Guest:Yeah.
01:03:29Guest:But I do that to other people, but I'm always, I love being surprised.
01:03:32Guest:But, um...
01:03:33Marc:So that was something you had to transcend is like in a way that you made an assumption, you know, from experience that people were waiting for you to go, oh, hello.
01:03:43Marc:Or they were waiting for you to be hackneyed as a woman.
01:03:48Guest:Or like, yeah, like do you, my mother's like make some observations about like, yeah, and do my parents accent and do like what it's like being.
01:03:55Marc:The ethnic format.
01:03:57Guest:Yeah.
01:03:57Marc:Yeah.
01:03:57Marc:Yeah.
01:03:57Marc:My mother.
01:03:58Marc:Yeah.
01:03:58Marc:Right.
01:03:58Guest:Right.
01:03:59Guest:Which is like so like gross to me.
01:04:01Guest:I mean, it's just like super.
01:04:03Guest:Yeah.
01:04:04Marc:Is that the main grossness?
01:04:07Marc:Yeah.
01:04:07Marc:And you think it's sort of demeaning for someone to do that?
01:04:10Guest:Yeah.
01:04:11Guest:I mean, I think it is demeaning.
01:04:13Guest:And I have this thing with my Indian-ness or whatever, that I have this thing where I feel like I don't deny it and I don't want to rely on it.
01:04:21Guest:And when it's interesting, then I'll do something about it.
01:04:24Guest:And if not, then I forget I'm Indian most of the time.
01:04:27Guest:I think I identify as like a Jewish male because that's the people I spend time with.
01:04:31Guest:No, really, like, I will go out to lunch with our writing staff.
01:04:34Guest:I'll go to lunch, and I'll be walking by, like, a window or something.
01:04:37Guest:And I'm like, fuck, I am Indian.
01:04:39Guest:Like, I don't look like these guys at all.
01:04:41Guest:And I'm not like Indian.
01:04:42Guest:I'm like a dark-skinned Indian woman.
01:04:44Guest:I'm not like this guy named Ruben from, you know, Great Neck.
01:04:47Marc:You're not pudgy with a beard?
01:04:48Guest:No, but I'm like, that's how I feel.
01:04:50Guest:Like, I mean, you just start feeling, I think, like everyone that you work with.
01:04:53Marc:Oh, that's hilarious.
01:04:55Guest:Well, I found that to be the case.
01:04:57Guest:But, um...
01:04:58Guest:you know i'm very impressed with uh with your your career and your output and i think you're great and i hope it wasn't uh i hope i didn't see no no no i i am i'm so i mean i love this podcast i think it's so great i mean i've listened to so many of them and the way that you talk to someone that you came up with yeah i mean we obviously didn't come together we don't even have like the same jobs did we meet once
01:05:21Guest:I don't know.
01:05:22Marc:I don't know if we've even met.
01:05:23Marc:I feel like I know you.
01:05:24Marc:That's a weird thing.
01:05:25Guest:Really?
01:05:25Marc:Well, only because it's one of those situations where I love your character.
01:05:29Marc:So there's part of me that I have to fight a certain fanboyness with certain people where I'm like, I just can't.
01:05:36Guest:Who's been the most fanboyish person?
01:05:38Guest:Who have you gone on the show and you've like, I'm so, this is awesome.
01:05:41Marc:Well, there's comics that I love talking to, and I have a lot of respect for Richard Lewis, Jonathan Winters, Odenkirk, McDonald.
01:05:49Marc:A lot of them are my peers, and a lot of people I came up with or I kind of knew.
01:05:54Marc:But like Jon Hamm, I had a very difficult time separating him from Don Draper.
01:05:58Guest:You know, he's stymied by his good looks.
01:06:01Guest:No, that.
01:06:02Marc:But, like, I can't get past the character.
01:06:05Marc:And same with Cranston.
01:06:06Marc:It's usually with actors.
01:06:07Marc:Where Cranston's character in Breaking Bad, like, I'm a little obsessed with both of those characters.
01:06:13Guest:Fuck, Breaking Bad is so good.
01:06:14Marc:So good.
01:06:16Guest:Okay, cool thing about Jon Hamm, he drinks Budweiser.
01:06:18Marc:Sure.
01:06:19Marc:That's great.
01:06:21Marc:Yeah, there's a lot of cool things about Jon Hamm.
01:06:23Guest:Can you believe that?
01:06:24Marc:Yeah.
01:06:24Guest:If I was Jon Hamm, I'd never be within 100 feet of a Budweiser.
01:06:29Marc:Oh, you know, you build the loyalty.
01:06:30Marc:You grow to rely on something.
01:06:32Guest:You believe in it.
01:06:32Guest:No, you get famous and then you just ditch everything that you came up with.
01:06:36Marc:Budweiser's Budweiser, you know what I mean?
01:06:38Guest:That tastes like shit.
01:06:39Guest:I feel like he's doing it to be like, I'm still this normal guy.
01:06:44Guest:And you're like, you're not.
01:06:45Guest:You're Jon Hamm.
01:06:45Marc:Maybe it does the job.
01:06:47Guest:It does, certainly.
01:06:48Guest:Yeah, it's true.
01:06:49Marc:Here, I had these fortune cookies left over.
01:06:51Marc:Let's open them.
01:06:54Marc:And then I'll let you go because I know you've got to be somewhere.
01:06:58Guest:When is this from?
01:06:58Guest:What is this?
01:06:59Marc:I don't know.
01:07:00Marc:They're from a Chinese restaurant.
01:07:01Guest:From how long ago?
01:07:02Marc:No, they're edible.
01:07:04Marc:They're not too old.
01:07:05Marc:What's your fortune?
01:07:07Guest:You are open and honest in your philosophy of love.
01:07:11Marc:Is that true?
01:07:12Guest:It doesn't seem true to me.
01:07:15Marc:Do you have a philosophy of love?
01:07:17Guest:Well, philosophy of love is like, I'm not open and honest.
01:07:20Guest:I fully believe that girl thing of like, can't ever ask a guy, can't know anything about you, to be really demure and all that stuff.
01:07:27Marc:Oh, you do?
01:07:28Marc:Yeah.
01:07:28Guest:That tends to work.
01:07:29Marc:Right.
01:07:30Marc:But for how long?
01:07:32Guest:Listen, I'm not looking for a husband.
01:07:33Guest:I mean, I'm talking about this is, but this is, this is not, maybe this means like long term, like deep down.
01:07:39Mm-hmm.
01:07:40Marc:I got good things are coming to you in due course of time.
01:07:43Guest:That's great.
01:07:45Marc:Yeah, it's taken a while.
01:07:48Guest:I like that one because it's out of your hands.
01:07:49Guest:You're like, great, perfect.
01:07:51Guest:Takes no introspection.
01:07:53Marc:Is yours in Spanish on the other side?
01:07:55Guest:Oh, yeah.
01:07:56Marc:That's hilarious.
01:08:03Marc:Hmm.
01:08:07Marc:All right.
01:08:08Marc:Can you do that in Latin?
01:08:09Guest:This one?
01:08:11Guest:No, no, I'm not going to do that.
01:08:13Guest:That's nerdy.
01:08:15Guest:Even I know.
01:08:16Marc:Could you do it, though?
01:08:17Guest:Could I?
01:08:17Guest:Yeah.
01:08:18Guest:Yeah, I think so.
01:08:19Guest:Tu est expando et sacrum in philosophia et amora.
01:08:29Marc:Nice.
01:08:31Marc:Thanks, Mindy, for coming.
01:08:32Guest:Yeah, my pleasure.
01:08:33Guest:Thanks for having me.
01:08:39Marc:Thank you, Mindy.
01:08:40Marc:Lovely conversation.
01:08:42Marc:I enjoy talking to her.
01:08:43Marc:And thank you, people, for listening.
01:08:44Marc:If you need anything WTF-related, of course, go to WTFPod.com.
01:08:48Marc:Get your apps.
01:08:49Marc:Get your premium episodes if you'd like to purchase those.
01:08:53Marc:Get on that mailing list.
01:08:54Marc:Kick in a few shekels.
01:08:55Marc:Buy a T-shirt.
01:08:56Marc:Do whatever you got to do.
01:08:58Marc:Leave a comment.
01:08:59Marc:Even though some of them leave little to be desired.
01:09:03Marc:Is that how that saying goes?
01:09:05Marc:Justcoffee.coop.
01:09:07Marc:Haven't done this in a while.
01:09:08Marc:Let me kick it.
01:09:10Mm-hmm.
01:09:11Marc:Pow!
01:09:12Marc:Wow, I just shit my pants.
01:09:14Marc:JustCoffee.coop, available at WTFPod.com.
01:09:17Marc:If you buy the WTF blend, I get a little on the back end.
01:09:21Marc:Get a few shekels in the deal I made with the coffee folk up there.
01:09:24Marc:I hope you're okay.
01:09:25Marc:Come out and see me this weekend in Grand Rapids or come to Bloomington if you'd like.
01:09:30Marc:What day was that?
01:09:31Marc:What did I do with that piece of paper?
01:09:34Marc:How come I can't?
01:09:35Marc:Why would I take that piece of paper off and now I'll not be able to find it?
01:09:39Marc:What is wrong with me?
01:09:40Marc:What's wrong with me?
01:09:42Marc:Hold on.
01:09:43Marc:Where's that piece of paper?
01:09:46Marc:Found it.
01:09:47Marc:Yeah, Indiana.
01:09:49Marc:March 23 through 25.
01:09:52Marc:Or you go to LaughFestGR.org for the Grand Rapids Gilda Fest.
01:09:57Marc:That's the 15th and the 17th.
01:10:00Marc:And Hulu.com for a day in the life.
01:10:01Marc:Alright, alright.
01:10:03Marc:Okay.
01:10:04Marc:Alright.

Episode 261 - Mindy Kaling

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