Episode 459 - Andy Samberg
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:Are we doing this?
Marc:Really?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Are we doing this?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:What the fuck?
Marc:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Marc:What's wrong with me?
Marc:It's time for WTF!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:With Mark Maron.
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fuck in here is what the fuck nicks?
Marc:What are we, a week into the new year?
Marc:Things are okay?
Marc:I don't feel spectacular.
Marc:I had a big plan.
Marc:I had a big plan over the vacation that I was going to exercise and eat well and get my mind clear to start shooting the second season of Marin again.
Marc:That was my plan.
Marc:That did not happen.
Marc:I'm losing my mind a little bit already in the new year.
Marc:I can't tell.
Marc:I can't tell what is happening there.
Marc:You know, there's new things going on in my life, meeting new people.
Marc:I find I'm not really that sociable person.
Marc:You have an opportunity.
Marc:Hey, you want to go to a party, hang out, play some games, play some games.
Marc:I've never done that.
Marc:I've never been in a party situation where the game taboo is broken out and we break into teams and play a game with just some people hanging out.
Marc:It was a fun experience.
Marc:Why don't I do that kind of stuff?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:All right, I'm going to be honest with you.
Marc:I'm going to be honest with you.
Marc:When it's presented to me as an option, hey, what do you say we hang out with some other people?
Marc:Really?
Marc:Do we have to go somewhere?
Marc:Is there a thing?
Marc:I don't.
Marc:Andy Samberg is on the show today.
Marc:Okay, Andy Samberg, a well-adjusted, talented young man who works hard and things are working out for him.
Marc:So that's a tricky interview for me.
Marc:This guy's a young guy.
Marc:Things worked out.
Marc:He worked.
Marc:He focused.
Marc:Got a gig on SNL.
Marc:Did his thing.
Marc:Does his thing.
Marc:Popular.
Marc:Attractive person.
Marc:Very, very nice to talk to him.
Marc:So you listen to me and Andy in a second.
Marc:Jews.
Marc:I know some of you get annoyed with that.
Marc:The Jewish thing.
Marc:But the Jewish thing is the Jewish thing.
Marc:All right, so socializing.
Marc:I live a small life, my friends.
Marc:All the socializing I do is right here in this room for the most part.
Marc:Sometimes I go to events, this and that.
Marc:But generally, I keep it a small circle.
Marc:Just me and the cats.
Marc:I don't necessarily have a story other than the fact that I went to a party and I played taboo for the first time.
Marc:And I wasn't afraid to give clues.
Marc:It's interesting as a performer that when you get in front of people in almost any other context, you think like, well, I should just turn on the juice.
Marc:You got chops.
Marc:And then you're like, no, I'm petrified.
Marc:What if I don't do this?
Marc:Well, what if I don't do taboo?
Marc:Well, I did end up trying to give a clue that was clear.
Marc:To my team at this party.
Marc:It was watchdog.
Marc:That was the word.
Marc:We were there.
Marc:And my team, some new friends and some other people, they got guard dog, security dog, the other kind of dog.
Marc:Every other kind of dog but watchdog.
Marc:So in the middle of the taboo game, when it timed out, I called some relative strangers, people I just met.
Marc:I said, no, watchdog, you fucking idiots.
Marc:And that's how you don't get invited to a party again.
Marc:But fortunately, with the crew I was with, it was funny.
Marc:I felt embarrassed that my rage had revealed itself in that way to people that I was not in a relationship with of any kind.
Marc:But because of that, I think we had a humorous moment.
Marc:Getting into the present.
Marc:I'm going to be honest with you.
Marc:I am doing this broadcast naked.
Marc:And I know you're thinking like, well, that's an old radio trick.
Marc:That's a ha ha funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, I can do that.
Marc:Why would you believe me?
Marc:Well, there's nothing I can do to make you believe me.
Marc:But I'm telling you, I'm fucking naked right now.
Marc:And I've never done this.
Marc:So we're all having this moment together.
Marc:I'm scared.
Marc:Please hold me.
Marc:Don't know why I'm naked.
Marc:I think it's some part of me that said I am going to overcome my body shame by sitting here naked before you, my audience who can't see me.
Marc:Yeah, I'm just wearing some Ugg slippers.
Marc:I don't know where I got them.
Marc:I don't know why I didn't buy them.
Marc:They arrived somehow.
Marc:Ugg slippers.
Marc:They're not Ugg boots.
Marc:So I wish I were sitting here naked in Ugg boots.
Marc:because there's a picture oh yeah i mean you can picture the swippers too they're um they're just you know they got the fuzzy inside and their leather black leather slippers with fuzzy inside that's all i'm wearing right now because i want to be present i want to feel the awkwardness the the walk from house to garage naked not knowing if the neighbors are there exciting want to be in the present
Marc:I'll tell you, man, the amount of juice I got just walking from the house to the garage naked in broad daylight was fucking exciting.
Marc:How exciting would it be to drive somewhere with no clothing option?
Marc:Like just scramble to the car, get in, start driving around naked.
Marc:You know, baby steps.
Marc:I'm not going to go into a business because that might cause trouble.
Marc:I imagine if I got pulled over by a cop and I was naked, I would be arrested for driving naked.
Marc:But if I had shoes on, I don't know, would I be breaking a law other than naked in public?
Marc:I guess.
Marc:But baby steps.
Marc:Maybe just take a drive around the block, totally nude, with no covering available to see how that feels.
Marc:How does that present feel?
Marc:I think on some level we should walk through the world as if we're naked just to feel alive and unashamed.
Marc:I am clearly having problems that I am not getting at.
Marc:Naked day on WTF.
Marc:That's where I'm at.
Marc:Now, I should tell you right now that I was not naked during the Andy Samberg interview.
Marc:This interview was done previously, previous to me being naked.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:Look out!
Marc:I better not shit anything.
Marc:Naked.
Marc:Justcoffee.coop, available at WTFpod.com.
Marc:All right, let's enter it.
Marc:That's not a good thing to say naked either.
Marc:Okay, now I present you...
Marc:How's that?
Marc:I'm presenting things now.
Marc:And by the way, I appreciate everybody getting into first season of Marin up on Netflix now.
Marc:So I didn't realize how many people didn't have the IFC or don't know what IFC is or don't know who I am.
Marc:I don't have a big, grandiose idea of myself.
Marc:I know that just because I've been out in the world and on television here and there and doing this podcast and other things for the last 25 years that there are plenty of people in the world that don't know me.
Marc:Most people in the world don't know me.
Marc:But, you know, the first season of Mariners up on IFC and I'm getting a lot of tweets of people going like, how did I not know who you are?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:What's your dress?
Marc:I would have come over.
Marc:I'm naked.
Marc:Okay?
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So let's go now to my conversation with Andy Samberg.
Marc:Enjoy.
Marc:Is that too loud?
Marc:No, I can't hear anything.
Marc:You can't?
Guest:How about now?
Guest:Yeah, I can, yeah.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You can get right up on that thing.
Guest:Pretty tech savvy.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:You are.
Marc:You're the, you've redefined it all.
Marc:I get a lot of credit for what Keev and Yorm have done.
Marc:What, they were the brains behind the whole thing?
Marc:They still are.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The whole Lonely Island event has nothing to do with you?
Marc:Well, a lot of the comedy does.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you're the funny guy.
Marc:Well, we're all funny.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:They're just funny and smart.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I'm not smart.
Guest:You're the guy saying like, can you upload this?
Guest:Does this upload?
Guest:I'm the guy that when we would go into like a pitch meeting would make all the executives laugh.
Guest:And they're the guys that actually cut our thing and made it look professional.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So you do your little clown show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're like, no, these guys are going to tell you how it works.
Guest:My boys here are going to run it down for you.
Guest:I could tell you, but they know how to say it better.
Guest:No, I mean, Akiva especially.
Guest:Do you know of the group?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So Akiva is the one that sort of his idea in the very beginning was there's no reason why we can't make our stuff look good even though we don't have any money.
Marc:Well, that seems to be one thing that everybody should realize.
Marc:There's no reason for shit to look bad.
Guest:There's no VHS anymore.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:We would do things like Channel 101 and that kind of stuff.
Guest:I remember there were people who would be like, it's not fair.
Guest:Your guy's stuff looks pro.
Guest:We spend the same amount.
Guest:Akiva just knows how to work the camera really well.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But like, what kind, do you own your own gear?
Marc:Does he have his own?
Marc:He has his own shit now.
Guest:I mean, at this point, we don't because everything we do, we just use other people's stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But at that time, I mean, when we got hired on SNL, we were using a mini DV camera.
Guest:That was it?
Guest:Lazy Sunday's mini DV, yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:That's fucking insane.
Marc:That's the best.
Marc:Well, that's what people always ask me about podcasting.
Marc:Like, what should I do?
Marc:I'm like, well, just spend a little money on microphones.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You don't have to fucking, you got one thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're just talking.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Don't get a snowball or something that you set in the middle of a table.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Also willing, sorry to cut you off, but willing to finish something to the end.
Guest:I went to film school at NYU and I talk about this all the time.
Guest:There's kids in my classes that would spend thousands of dollars on a student film.
Guest:And then I worked on the editing floor part-time to make extra money.
Guest:And I'd be like, oh, when are you going to finish your thing?
Guest:They're like, eh, I don't like it.
Guest:I was like, why wouldn't you spend all the money?
Guest:Why don't you finish it?
Guest:And Akiva took that even further where he'd be like, don't just finish it, but finish it to as perfect as a thing as it can be always, no matter what.
Marc:Well, I think that's challenging for, and I think that's the difference between like a professional or a, an artist willing to take risks and somebody who's just like, no, I'm going to do a thing.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Because I think sometimes, and I, and I, I'm sure you know this to be true that, you know, midway through a thing, a lot of times you're like, yeah, this,
Guest:fucking awful yeah but there's some party that goes like that's it's good enough good well it's certainly not going to get any better if you quit on it that's right yeah and and so you just got to work with what you have and then release it it's also easy to lose track of why you thought an idea was good halfway through i mean i think everyone who works on anything creative gets that feeling at some point
Marc:I think on SNL, I sometimes don't know how people decide that.
Marc:How do you know?
Marc:Some sketches, and I'm older, but I'm not a moron.
Marc:Some sketches, I'm like, I'm not sure I get this at all, really.
Marc:Half of it is about commitment.
Guest:Yeah, I would say so.
Guest:I mean, look, SNL from the beginning has been a show, in my opinion, where, and I think most people agree, including Lorne, where, you know, you try your best every week and usually there's some stuff that really works, some stuff that kind of works and some stuff that doesn't.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And...
Guest:The cool thing about working there and getting feedback is learning the thing you think didn't work for somebody else did work.
Guest:Yeah, you got to detach.
Guest:There's no way to give a proper review of an episode of SNL.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because you can do it like, oh, I'm the guy who writes for Splitsider.
Guest:These are the ones I liked.
Guest:Generally, it's the thing that it was on at 5 to 1.
Guest:Yeah, that's the guy who writes for Splitsider.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right, which generally, by the way, is what I agree with.
Guest:I do enjoy.
Guest:So it's your favorite online publication.
Guest:I just mean like, you know, places like Splitside or Videogum or something that like the weirder stuff for people who work in comedy.
Guest:You're bored with something that's a little more basic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And on the other hand, you look at like a Yahoo review of SNL and generally they're going to like the big flashy, you know, Miley Cyrus twerking pop culture thing at the top of the show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which for guys that work, guys and girls who work in comedy, frankly, is like, yeah, we knew that was going to happen.
Marc:So they had to do that.
Marc:It's like Mad Magazine.
Marc:They had the movie parodies.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then you got to the weird shit.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:So, I mean, and I think both of them should and need to exist on SNL.
Marc:Let's go back.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:Let's process my feelings about you.
Marc:I'd love that.
Marc:When he first came on the scene, I think it was not unlike many of my peers in my age group.
Marc:I think the consensus was, who the fuck is that kid?
Marc:That annoying hair.
Marc:Yeah, who's that Jewish kid?
Marc:How often is there a good looking Jewish kid?
Marc:What does that happen?
Marc:Maybe that was just me.
Marc:I can't speak for my peers.
Guest:I hope that it was more than just you because that makes me feel really good about myself.
Guest:That you're a good-looking Jewish kid?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You want to be the good-looking Jew.
Guest:Well, you are the good-looking Jew, right?
Guest:I thought it was Max Greenfield.
Guest:I don't know who that is.
Guest:He's on Girls.
Guest:He's very handsome.
Guest:Oh, is he?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's funny.
Guest:Oh, I think I know who you're talking about.
Guest:He's a nightmare, that guy.
Guest:But that's freakish.
Guest:He's like nice, funny, and handsome.
Guest:And Jewish.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's freakish.
Guest:If he's not Jewish, he needs to change his last name.
Guest:I would say so.
Guest:His full Max Greenfield, it's like the Jewish name ever in my life.
Marc:That's a good one.
Marc:But I always assume just projecting a life onto you based on my own experience.
Marc:You're like some Long Island kid who just made his way over to New York.
Marc:He lived in Great Neck or something.
Marc:Not at all.
Marc:Do people think that about you?
Guest:Everyone thinks I'm from New York, yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:I have a good friend.
Guest:My friend Chester's from Great Neck, actually.
Guest:And my father is from Long Island.
Guest:And my mother is from Manhattan.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So I got it right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They just ran away because it was too Jewy.
Guest:They were hippies who moved to the Bay Area in California in 1970.
Guest:Oh, real hippies.
Marc:Yeah, for realsies.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you grew up with that?
Marc:Or no, you were born in when?
Marc:You were born in 94?
Guest:I was born in 70, 78.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I'm 35.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I feel older than I did last year, I'll tell you that.
Guest:You got brothers and sisters?
Guest:Two older sisters.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, so that helped you out.
Guest:It definitely made me want to get attention.
Marc:Yeah, get attention, understand women.
Marc:There's a lot of pluses to sisters.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Do you have sisters?
Guest:None.
Marc:No, I have a little brother that took a lot.
Marc:Little brother.
Marc:Yeah, he got it.
Guest:So you were the oldest and you didn't have any sisters.
Guest:No, just me and him.
Guest:You had to figure out life basically by yourself.
Marc:Yeah, I wouldn't say that I figured it out.
Marc:I'd say that that's an ongoing challenge for me.
Marc:I feel like oldest kids have it fucking hard, man.
Marc:Well, you know, you're special.
Marc:And then the next kid comes.
Marc:You're like, who the fuck is that guy?
Marc:And that lasts you a lifetime.
Marc:And then you have to deal with that.
Marc:And you feel like you're in charge of taking care of your folks.
Marc:Yeah, I cut them off.
Marc:Yeah, they misbehaved.
Marc:Right, right.
Guest:They're being punished.
Marc:Yeah, I owe them nothing.
Marc:It hasn't been easy for me.
Marc:But do you feel protective over your brother?
Marc:Yeah, me and my brother get along pretty good.
Marc:Are your sisters, did they beat up on you?
Marc:Yeah, but as much as sisters do, it was more like... How much older?
Marc:Three and six years older than me.
Marc:So that's kind of reasonable pacing every three years they had a kid?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:but when you say hippies i mean were they like so your grandparents are live in new york so you had you had like because my family moved to new mexico so you you always had a connection to the east coast yes we would go visit there right and that's a big deal right absolutely yeah you know new york i'm very comfortable and connected to right yeah because like what so your grandparents actually lived in manhattan uh yeah on my mom's side and my father's was long island
Marc:So you, so like, you know, like through your whole life, you're like, you're going to New York.
Marc:You're going to go stay with grandma and grandpa.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Although we, we ended up starting out of Florida naturally.
Guest:Cause that's where, that's where they ended up.
Guest:What part of Florida?
Guest:Uh, Sarasota.
Guest:Oh, I don't even know what that's like.
Marc:It was very quiet.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But nice, nice and warm.
Marc:I grew to like Florida.
Marc:It's a frightening place for most practical purposes, but it's crazy, man.
Marc:Miami is fucking bananas.
Marc:It's like, what is happening here?
Marc:Everyone's naked and dancing fast.
Marc:Yeah, and from countries you don't understand.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:I don't know what's happening here.
Marc:It's got nothing to do with me.
Marc:This whole idea that it's nothing but Jews is not true.
Marc:No, no, not anymore.
Marc:No, it's crazy.
Marc:And then there's like this weird mixture of Latino culture, old Jewish culture, and then these French and the Germans vacation there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then there's like this sort of weird southern element.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And then in... Oh, yeah.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:But it's fun.
Marc:It is fun to go to Florida.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So, okay.
Marc:So you grew up with hippies.
Marc:What does that mean?
Marc:What'd your dad do?
Guest:My dad was a photographer.
Guest:He worked for the Oakland Museum.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And a bunch of other stuff.
Guest:Like artsy guy?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Had his own studio and took photos.
Marc:So you grew up in an artistic household.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my mom was a school teacher.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:She just retired.
Guest:She had her own preschool in her house for a while.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Then she worked at schools.
Guest:And then for the past, God, I want to say 10 or 15 years, she's fluent in sign language.
Guest:So she worked with special needs kids at a school in Berkeley.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You grew up with well-adjusted people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Good people.
Guest:I'm very lucky.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I have a great family.
Marc:Yeah, because when you were coming over here, I'm like, when am I going to get out of that guy?
Marc:He's not fucked up.
Marc:The fucked up thing hasn't happened yet.
Marc:There's still time.
Guest:Bill Hader always talks about how we're like a well-adjusted generation of comedy.
Yeah.
Guest:I agree with that.
Guest:It trickled down from- Fathers me.
Guest:I think Jack Black and Farrell kind of kicked that off.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Then trickled down into the Polars and the Seth Meyerses.
Guest:I'm just thinking of SNL generations.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Well, I don't know that Jack Black is necessarily well-adjusted.
Marc:You don't think?
Marc:He's nice.
Marc:That's what I mean.
Marc:He's very nice.
Marc:He's very intense.
Marc:But he doesn't seem jealous or angry about anything.
Marc:Well, I mean, after a certain point, you're like, why should he?
Marc:Okay.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:Has it been rough?
Marc:But who was there?
Marc:Well, let's get there slowly, though.
Marc:So you grew up where?
Marc:In Berkeley?
Marc:Yeah, I grew up in Berkeley.
Marc:Went to Berkeley High School.
Marc:Tell me about the Jews of San Francisco, because it's not the same.
Marc:uh the san francisco versus berkeley you're saying well no just talking about the bay the bay area jewish community oh got it because like you know you go to new york and so you're in cultured east coast sure that's where your heart is sure but there's not that same thing in in the bay area there's not that same identity there's not that same like how are you you know like right
Guest:Everyone is not a Sandler character.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Everyone in Berkeley is just different.
Guest:It's more hippie-ish.
Guest:I mean, it's hyper, hyper liberal, obviously.
Guest:And we weren't raised particularly Jewish anyhow, although now my family has become much more Jewish.
Guest:They panic towards the end.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A friend of mine, Simon Rich, do you know him?
Guest:He was a writer on SNL.
Guest:He writes books and stuff.
Guest:He had a quote that made me laugh so hard.
Marc:That's the Frank Rich's kid?
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:He's a really funny guy and he worked at SNL for a while and his quote that I loved was, I'm so relaxed in my life and I can just take any interest I want and care about whatever I want because I know as a Jewish man that as soon as I turn 50, all I'm going to care about is Israel.
LAUGHTER
Guest:Like I've made my peace with it.
Guest:You know, it's great.
Guest:So like now I'm like, oh yeah, girls, movies, writing, whatever.
Guest:It's like the day I turn 50 on a dime, everything I talk and think about it will be about Israel.
Marc:I do sort of a long bit about that in my comedy special about the sort of like this pushing of Israel, Israel consciousness.
Guest:It's such a crazy thing.
Guest:All of a sudden, I don't know what it is.
Guest:Have you been there?
Guest:I've been there a couple of times.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Why?
Guest:To visit my sister.
Guest:Your sister lives in Israel?
Guest:Yeah, she lives there.
Guest:Is she doing that whole thing?
Guest:She's made Aliyah, she's married to an Israeli, and they have two kids there, yeah.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So is she on a settlement?
Guest:No, no, they just have a house.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:Up north, yeah.
Guest:And they love it there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What's your feeling about it?
Guest:It's intense, but it's incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, going to the Wailing Wall is incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Do you know what you do there?
Marc:You just sort of stand there awkwardly until you sort of like, okay.
Marc:Well, you write a little wish and you stick it in the cracks.
Guest:I just wrote help.
Guest:I'm not sure it was answered.
Guest:And you got the album Help by the Beatles.
Guest:I did.
Marc:It was delivered to me a week later.
Marc:It was weird from an anonymous... Probably from Yahweh.
Marc:Yeah, Yahweh sent me help by the Beatles.
Yeah.
Guest:but did you find uh did you feel a connection uh i felt that it was a very intense place the energy there was really palpable not necessarily jewish either just sort of like whoa yeah it's beautiful but you know we did like mount masada and sure dead sea climb mount masada floated in the dead sea yeah and put mud on yourself the basics
Marc:Yeah, the basic package.
Marc:Yeah, you went to Jerusalem, you went to Haifa, you went to Tel Aviv, you went to a kibbutz and ate the food there, right?
Marc:And then you went to the Golan Heights, but you were sort of like, oh, so this is where it is.
Marc:And then you buy a t-shirt that says Coca-Cola in Hebrew.
Marc:Yeah, of course.
Marc:And then you take off.
Marc:And then you're done.
Marc:See you next time I come.
Marc:I actually went down into Jordan and the Sinai.
Marc:I went to the Sinai.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:My folks did that.
Guest:They did?
Guest:They went down into Jordan and said it was incredible.
Marc:Did they go to Petra?
Guest:Is that the- The city in the rock?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:They went, right?
Guest:They went.
Guest:They said it was absolutely crazy.
Guest:It's fucking crazy.
Guest:It's like Indiana Jones, right?
Marc:That's where they shot it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's where they shot that one thing.
Marc:The best.
Marc:You got to choose the old goblet that looks like wooden.
Marc:Again, I made the wrong choice.
Guest:I'm not- You chose unwisely and this is where I left you.
Marc:That's why I'm working out of my garage.
Marc:It could have been worse.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, it could have been a lot worse.
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:So you weren't brought up with a lot of the religion.
Marc:Not a ton, no.
Marc:Bar mitzvahed?
Marc:Not bar mitzvahed.
Marc:Oh, so you're really not a good Jew.
Guest:Not a great Jew.
Guest:But now my family does Shabbat every week and they do high holidays.
Guest:I fast on Yom Kippur.
Guest:You do?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I have friends that think I'm crazy.
Marc:Well, I mean, I was born on the eve of Colnidra.
Marc:I was born.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:So I get a pass.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I'm like special.
Marc:Congrats.
Marc:Thank you very much.
Marc:So you went to high school in Berkeley.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And were you focused on show business at that time?
Guest:I knew that I wanted to be involved in comedy, yeah, from a really early age.
Guest:Like, what made you realize that?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:Not a movie, not a guy, not a thing.
Marc:I mean, I started watching SNL real early.
Marc:Do you remember who the cast was at that time?
Guest:Yeah, it was Lovitz, Hartman, Hooks, Carvey.
Guest:Good one.
Guest:That cast.
Guest:That's when I first got into it.
Marc:So you were like me.
Marc:You were like, your parents would you stay up kind of thing?
Guest:I snuck up.
Guest:I snuck past them.
Guest:Really?
Guest:They thought I was asleep for the first year or two of watching it.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I really liked it.
Guest:But it started because I was into WWF wrestling.
Guest:Tell me about that.
Guest:Well, there was the thing called Saturday Night's Main Event, which was on like every fourth Saturday.
Guest:It was a wrestling special.
Guest:And I knew about it, but I didn't yet know how to look at the TV guide or whatever in the paper and learn which night.
Guest:So every Saturday I would be like, just in case it's on, I would sneak past them, past their room to see it.
Guest:And then SNL was on when it wasn't on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I just started watching that by default and then started loving that more.
Marc:You were a wrestling kid?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was really into it, yeah.
Guest:Did you go to a- I never went.
Guest:Ah.
Guest:But I got my parents one time pay-per-viewed WrestleMania for me.
Guest:It was a huge deal for me.
Guest:Really?
Guest:It was the one when Andre the Giant fought Hulk Hogan at the Pontiac Silverdome.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's when I learned the word pandemonium.
Yeah.
Guest:It's pandemonium at the Pontiac Silverado.
Guest:It was like my favorite.
Marc:What did you like about it?
Marc:The spectacle of it?
Marc:Yeah, and the characters.
Guest:But you always knew it was a thing.
Guest:I learned pretty quickly it was fake.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But when I first watched it, I was eight.
Guest:I didn't know it was fake.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But then we had my dad's best friend, my godfather.
Guest:He was really into it too, but ironically.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he loved that his buddy's kid was into it, so we would talk about it all the time.
Guest:And he knew all the shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My dad's friend, Mark Cohen.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He's a good dude.
Marc:But the whole wrestling thing is spectacular.
Marc:I mean, I wish I was involved with it.
Marc:Because it's like, if you can just suspend your disbelief and have a good time with the... It's really funny.
Marc:And you knew all the scripts and everything?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, now it's still... Will Forte did a thing with them as MacGruber.
Guest:They went and did an in-the-ring fight at MacGruber to promote MacGruber.
Marc:Is he also a wrestling fan?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I had CM Punk in here.
Marc:He's a pretty big wrestler.
Marc:Is that right?
Marc:Yeah, and I feel like such an idiot.
Marc:Because like 90% of the time, I don't know what anyone does.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that's completely, you know, so it's just one of those interviews.
Marc:So I'm like, so tell me, like, it's fake, right?
Marc:You know, he starts there.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And is he not allowed to say, right?
Marc:No, of course he can say.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:But that's not the issue with them.
Marc:Got it.
Marc:You know, the thing is, is that whatever it is, it's hard work.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it's an entertainment.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And, you know, we take it very seriously.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:Well, I buy that.
Guest:Well, no, it's obviously true.
Guest:It's like if you ask any touring stand-up.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They'd be like, so it's all fun all the time, right?
Guest:Because you're telling jokes.
Guest:You'd be like, no, it's fucking drag.
Marc:Let's look at the list of things.
Guest:dead comics the list that the road destroyed but you never did stand-up i did do stand-up oh i did stand-up for seven years on and off before come on yeah i never did the road though so i don't consider i mean where did you do it
Guest:I started when I was at NYU.
Guest:I would do The Cellar and I would do what was then Boston Comedy Club in Gotham.
Guest:How did I miss you?
Guest:Stand Up New York.
Guest:When was this?
Guest:I was super low level.
Guest:I was doing like bringer shows and stuff.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:So late night at The Cellar?
Guest:yeah i mean whenever yeah whenever there was a show i could do i would do it and you know uh at boston comedy club for about a month or two i worked the door to try and get sets yeah comedy yeah comedy that was that guy yeah um and that was when i was in college yeah so that was 98 something like that what was your act it was meta it was goofy uh-huh my uh kiev and yorm used to say i was like the gary larson of stand-up because all my jokes were like far side cartoons
Guest:So nothing personal, just kind of weird writing.
Guest:Not a lot of observations.
Guest:But I will say, when I would do observation stuff, it was the strongest.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, good people have something to hang on to.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:So you go to high school.
Marc:Did you do sketches and plays and things?
Guest:I didn't do plays.
Guest:I did home movie stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:My parents bought a home camcorder, and I had a couple buddies that I would shoot dumb stuff with.
Guest:And I had a buddy, James, that I would record silly raps with, too.
Guest:So you were doing that?
Guest:Already in high school, yeah.
Marc:So you were a rap kid?
Guest:I was into hip-hop, yeah, but I was in a lot of music.
Marc:But that's the weird thing, is because you've done a few rap videos.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And it's kind of infused into your style of comedy.
Marc:For sure.
Marc:And I didn't grow up with any of that.
Marc:No, yeah.
Marc:I mean, that's something you grew up with.
Marc:I didn't have it.
Marc:For sure.
Guest:I mean, one of the things, I mean, Keev and Joram obviously both did, too.
Guest:We went to high school together, so we've known each other a long time.
Guest:um and one of the things you know that we generally i i think we we all agree that you know doing raps for comedy if you're a white person is a very slippery slope why because it's not really your place yeah you know and also because most uh people who try it aren't good at it they just don't sound good so what so what what problems do you have to solve in order to make it okay to do that
Guest:In our opinion, it's to A, make it sound legit, B, have a genuine knowledge of that world and respect for it.
Guest:So it's not just the joke of like, yeah, like all those rappers do.
Guest:Like the black guys.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I feel like every time we do it, it's coming from a respect and a love for that culture.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, yeah, definitely.
Marc:You watch your videos and you're like, this is well produced.
Marc:Well, thanks.
Guest:That certainly is what we hope people think when we watch them.
Guest:But even then, sometimes we're like, I don't know if we should be doing this.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Sometimes.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Just because, you know...
Guest:Out of respect for the fact that we're not from that culture, we're fans of that culture.
Marc:But if you really think about it, black music in general has always been enjoyed immensely by white Jewish guys.
Marc:For sure.
Guest:Specifically.
Marc:And white Jewish guys historically go on to emulate black music, either performing it or writing it.
Guest:It's the truth.
Guest:And I will also say hip hop on the whole and R&B have become much more the popular music of this country in general and the world.
Guest:Did you ever get flack?
Guest:No, I think we've done it right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The number of times I've met or worked with people who really work in the world of hip hop and gotten the handshake and the nod.
Guest:A complicated handshake?
Guest:Nope.
Guest:Totally just straight up.
Guest:But I'll tell you this, if it was complicated, I could do that.
Okay, go for that.
Guest:You know all the shakes?
Guest:I'm familiar, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I know it all, yeah.
Guest:You just follow the lead?
Guest:You're like, this is what we're doing?
Marc:Very intuitive.
Marc:Yeah, good for you, man.
Marc:I'd be lost immediately.
Marc:I didn't know what a fist bump was.
Marc:Till when?
Marc:No, no, I know what one is now, but the first time it happened, some guy held his fist up, I grabbed it.
Guest:You grabbed the fist?
Guest:Sure, I did.
Guest:Sometimes when I'm sick, but I'm in a situation where I have to meet a lot of people, I'll try and fist bump and be like, hey, I'm sick, I'm sick.
Guest:I'll give him like a Bash Brothers.
Yeah.
Marc:I felt so embarrassed.
Marc:I went back and got the guy, and I'm like, I know now.
Marc:And you gave him a bump.
Marc:Yeah, I gave him a bump.
Marc:I love it.
Marc:So stupid.
Marc:But you had jelly on your knuckles.
Marc:Yeah, I'm like, oh shit, I should have wiped my hand.
Marc:I'm just not doing this right.
Marc:But, all right, so you don't, okay, you didn't get any plaque.
Marc:All right, so you're shooting videos with the guys that you're still with in high school.
Guest:uh no not shooting videos and it was a different buddy of mine that i was doing that with my friend james was in high school we but you're just fucking off yeah but you know for we found it very fun right did you edit then too no no uh i went to i did a little of that shot videos that were just sketchy stuff with buddies not kiev and yorm though what you re-hooked up with them
Guest:After college.
Guest:So I went to NYU my back two years of college to film school.
Guest:Akiva went to Santa Cruz and studied film.
Guest:Jorma went to UCLA and studied theater.
Guest:What do you mean you're back two years?
Guest:I went to Santa Cruz my first two years, UC Santa Cruz.
Marc:You went to UC Santa Cruz?
Guest:Yeah, and then I transferred.
Marc:In that weird-ass fucking town?
Marc:It's the best.
Marc:Two years is perfect there.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:That's some weird hippie shit there.
Marc:I'm coming from Berkeley.
Marc:It wasn't that big of a difference for me.
Marc:It is weird, though, right?
Marc:Am I wrong?
Marc:I mean, I'm not talking about the school, per se.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I have some weird belief that there's witches in the mountains.
Guest:The weirdest stuff I encountered was more locals hating the college kids.
Guest:And that goes on forever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Until someone has a bike race and there's a choir.
Guest:And then they have a begrudging respect for one another.
Guest:Hey, you're all right, college kid.
Yeah.
Guest:You biked well.
Guest:Yeah, that movie.
Marc:So that was the only tension you felt in Santa Cruz?
Guest:Yeah, pretty much.
Guest:I mean, a bunch of friends of mine from Berkeley and Berkeley High School went to Santa Cruz, so we were all sort of hanging out there together.
Guest:Yeah, Jesse Thorne, he's a TV guy, or a radio guy.
Guest:He went to Santa Cruz.
Guest:Oh, really?
Marc:He's got a radio show over there.
Guest:Maya Rudolph went there, too.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Were you friends with her?
Guest:No, she was a couple years before me.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:But we're friends now.
Guest:You are?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:You could just call her up and go, hey, what's up?
Marc:We talk all the time.
Marc:Tell her to come on my show.
Marc:Okay, I'll tell her.
Marc:She just came out the other day, and I'm like, I don't know how to get hold of her.
Marc:She's a dear friend.
Marc:Yeah, she's funny.
Marc:She's super funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I saw her at the festival.
Guest:We were just talking earlier.
Marc:Holy shit, I could have went in backstage and schmoozing it up.
Guest:It was pretty great.
Guest:Her and her friend Gretchen do this Prince cover band.
Guest:It's pretty awesome.
Marc:So who was there?
Guest:Dave Cross, Bob Odenkirk?
Guest:The whole Mr. Show experience was what it was called.
Guest:Are they touring with that?
Guest:I think so, yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Mighty Boosh did a set, which apparently is very rare nowadays.
Guest:I think they live in England, don't they?
Guest:They do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I think even in England, they don't really do live that much anymore, but they did it for- Was it packed out?
Guest:Yeah, it was huge.
Guest:9,000 people.
Guest:Was it hot and gross?
Guest:We went on with Tenacious D at the end, so it was cool.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:It was nice.
Marc:All the Lonely Island guys did?
Guest:Yeah, we came out and played with them and their band.
Guest:It was awesome.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Jack asked us.
Guest:We were just like, absolutely.
Guest:We've been huge fans of them forever.
Marc:Okay, so you go to Santa Cruz for a while, you get, what are you studying?
Guest:Film, but like film history, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they have production courses, but you don't get to really do them until your second two years.
Marc:Like film history, like who are your guys?
Marc:That I was learning about or that I like?
Marc:Yeah, I mean, like, because I took some film history classes, and there's certain things that you learn, you're like, oh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I took, like, a class on film noir and, like, learned about Hitchcock and, you know, all that stuff was awesome.
Guest:Western class I took.
Marc:Oh, yeah, the Western genres.
Guest:It was cool.
Guest:And I wrote papers, you know, final papers for film noir.
Guest:My paper was about how Metropolis informed Blade Runner.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Because Blade Runner's like my favorite, right?
Marc:It's not too big a stretch.
Marc:No, yeah.
Marc:That seemed like a reasonable paper.
Marc:I got a B. Okay.
Okay.
Guest:Although I didn't.
Guest:I got what was inferred as to be because Santa Cruz didn't have grades.
Guest:They had write-ups at the time.
Marc:There you go.
Guest:Just got evaluations.
Guest:That's the best.
Guest:Some good hippie shit there.
Guest:That's the best hippie shit to my heart.
Guest:Hey, look, you tried.
Guest:You had a couple points.
Guest:The words were on the page.
Guest:And then the Western class, it was just an 18-page paper about blazing saddles.
Guest:Oh, you went that way.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you probably spent like, what, six months on Shane and the Searchers?
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Watched a lot of that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:True Grit.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And Stagecoach and all that stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Once Upon a Time in the West, which we watched.
Guest:That's the best part.
Marc:Is that the Henry Fonda one?
Guest:yeah that's crazy him is a heavy and great crazy right and we learned all that they were like you know before this movie henry fonda wasn't exactly right in these parts and you're just like how could he ever not that fucking pure hate in his eye yeah and the soundtrack to that movie is so great that sergio leone right yeah i went and bought the soundtrack on cassette at amoeba music uh-huh did you learn anything yeah i learned about movies yeah um is that is that knowledge that you find you draw upon other than in conversation
Guest:Definitely with comedy I do, because, you know, especially for the kind of stuff that I feel like I and Lonely Island has done, you know, there's a lot of genre spoofing stuff.
Guest:It's a lot of like, oh, it's like that moment, but we're making fun of it.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:And a lot of my favorite shorts we did were that and stuff we put in the movie we made and stuff like that.
Marc:Where you're aware that you're homaging or parodying.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Tropes, really.
Guest:Tropes, good word.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Tropes.
Guest:If something's been done a bunch of times, we like to point that out.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that's tropes.
Marc:Tropes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Film tropes.
Marc:Have you used tropes in a rap song?
Marc:No.
Marc:You should.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:It's a good word.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Tropes.
Guest:Tropes rhymes with heck of other words, too.
Guest:Does it?
Guest:Popes.
Guest:Hopes.
Guest:Ropes.
Guest:Ropes.
Guest:Nopes.
Guest:Cantaloupes.
Guest:Cantaloupes.
Guest:Antaloupes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Antaloupes.
Guest:From antaloupes to cantaloupes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's the name of our new podcast we're going to do together.
Yeah.
Marc:Antelopes to Cantalopes, a discussion of tropes with Andy Samberg, Marc Maron.
Marc:So you go to N.Y.A.
Marc:Film School, and that was the mind blower?
Marc:That was it?
Marc:Yeah, I was very happy there.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was just all day.
Guest:It was the first time I started really working.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And what was that work?
Marc:When did you sort of lock into the process?
Guest:Pretty early, as soon as they gave me, like, even a crew of three people and a camera.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'd go shoot whatever you want.
Guest:And it was like, oh, this is the thing I've been waiting for my whole life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And when did you start shooting?
Guest:Just sketches, straight out.
Guest:I mean, pretty much.
Guest:That you were writing?
Guest:And short films, yeah, that I was writing and starring in.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:i didn't want to be a director i wanted to be a comedian and i knew and you were doing stand-up too yeah started doing stand-up my first year my buddy murray miller who's a writer uh and did stand-up for a long time also he's a writer on girls now um he convinced me to transfer uh because he had done it and he loved it and we lived together with a couple other buddies and where uh on bleaker street and near sullivan right right near the cellar uh-huh
Guest:First time we did stand-up, we walked from our apartment to the Boston Comedy Club to do a bringer show.
Marc:That was the place.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I did shows there.
Marc:What year was that?
Marc:98.
Marc:Yeah, I was gone.
Marc:Or was I?
Marc:No, I was still there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You were around.
Guest:I liked that room.
Marc:Yeah, it was good.
Marc:It was fine.
Marc:Still to this day, Cellar, I think, is my favorite place this year.
Marc:So it was a great place in New York, definitely.
Marc:Boston Comedy Club, once they, like I had been playing there back before it was Boston Comedy Club, but once they put the couches in, it was like not the same place.
Marc:It was all one level, and then they had that back level.
Marc:I slept in there once.
Marc:I had some trouble.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah, I slept in that room.
Marc:Nicely done to let you.
Marc:Yeah, I just kind of hang out.
Marc:I was...
Marc:It was in a bad place that day.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It happens.
Guest:Sure it does.
Guest:I remember working the door there one night and I watched a lot of comedy on TV and Jeff Ross showed up dressed like a pimp and it was like the highlight of my life to that point.
Guest:He walked in and he was like, hey, how you doing, man?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Gave me the nod to it.
Guest:Right, yeah.
Guest:Jeff Ross.
Guest:And then I just did that roast with him, and I was telling that story, actually.
Guest:Which roast?
Guest:The James Franco one.
Guest:That was kind of an interesting roast.
Marc:It was.
Marc:A little awkward.
Marc:People were pretty diplomatic, I thought.
Marc:People were, me included.
Marc:It was a little overly diplomatic.
Marc:Wait, oh, that was the best moment of the roast, was between you and Seth Rogen, during the credits.
Marc:He told me he was going to Burning Man.
Guest:Yeah, going to Burning Man.
Guest:He said, I'm going to Burning Man.
Guest:You're like, are you serious?
Guest:Seriously?
Guest:I love that you got that.
Guest:I couldn't believe they put it in.
Guest:I was like, what's the point of this?
Guest:I thought that was the most honest moment of the entire world.
Guest:Two grown men and you're like, no, you're not.
Guest:It wasn't even a joke.
Guest:It was just pure like, you're rich.
Guest:You can do drugs at your house.
Guest:That's exactly how I read it.
Guest:That was my point.
Guest:It's disgusting up there.
Guest:Have you gone there?
Guest:I've never been.
Guest:Oh, God, I can't imagine it.
Guest:I have a lot of friends who go and have gone.
Guest:Santa Cruz people?
Guest:Berkeley people?
Guest:Berkeley people, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, I mean, I've heard all about it.
Guest:Like, guys set up, like, shower tents.
Guest:Yeah, I just, I mean, I didn't like camp.
Guest:I can't imagine.
Guest:These girls that I was friends with told me they went, and there's shower tents that are run by men, and the guys go, hey, ladies, if you want to come take a shower, come take a shower.
Guest:It's free, but we get to wash your hair.
Guest:Like straight up.
Guest:And they're so filthy and not want to shower so bad.
Guest:It's like olden times where they're like, yes, you can stroke my hair, strange man.
Guest:It's a barter.
Guest:So that I can wash off my body.
Guest:And hopefully come down from this ecstasy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It blows my mind that people would choose to enter that scenario.
Marc:It's messy.
Marc:I mean, that's the reason.
Marc:It's the same logic with me in festivals.
Marc:I'm like, I can't.
Marc:Yeah, they're classified.
Marc:The idea of a porta potty, 90% of the time, I'm like, oh, I can't do it.
Guest:And I pee a lot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, you got to do it.
Guest:Especially if I'm going to perform in some way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's a lot of fight or flight.
Guest:Really?
Guest:You have nervous pee?
Guest:Pee almost every time before I perform, yeah.
Marc:That's better than shitting your pants or throwing up.
Marc:Way better, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, peeing.
Marc:I never even heard that one.
Guest:really yeah i think it's like pretty sweating shitting vomiting peeing peeing yeah that peeing's a new one i'm the p1 yeah things are working out for you you know it seems like you've had a pretty smooth sail it could have been shitting yeah it could have been shitting or vomiting yeah although i did throw up the night before my snl edition you did i did good for you yes yes i was you paid your dues man
Guest:Never hit the road as a standup, but I did barf that one time.
Marc:Well, how did that come about?
Marc:So were you still at NYU when you started doing the YouTube thing?
Guest:No, that was graduated, went back to Berkeley for the summer to figure out what I was going to do.
Marc:What were your options?
Marc:Were you like, you know, this is all bullshit.
Marc:I'm going to... I knew... Self-taulises.
Marc:No.
Guest:No.
Guest:I knew I wanted to do comedy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I figured maybe I would, like, get a job as an assistant editor or something and sort of start slowly figuring it out.
Guest:Had you done some editing in college?
Guest:Are you a confident editor?
Guest:I mean, what do you... I thought I was, but I was terrible.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And especially after meeting Akiva and now Yorma.
Guest:They're both, like...
Guest:really good second nature yeah yeah self-taught just incredible yeah um and i'm a sloppy mess yeah who's in love with the footage yeah yeah we can't lose that yeah that's the best part is that long pause before the line that's not working
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was like, let us fix this, please.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, you guys made me look so good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, so I just randomly bumped into Yorm on the street, I think, in Berkeley.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were still friends and in touch, but...
Guest:He finished out at UCLA.
Guest:At UCLA.
Guest:And he had been in Akiva's student films at Santa Cruz.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so we kind of hung out one night and showed each other all the stuff we had made.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we were like, oh, we all want to do the same thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, we're into the same kind of really goofy comedy stuff.
Marc:But it wasn't music yet.
Guest:necessarily no no okay definitely not um it was much we were all doing kind of sketchy genre-based comedy though right um and very very zany yeah right zany tropes yeah zany tropes that would have been the name it's a sketch group high bra sketch group um so the three of us had a meeting at yorm's mom's house yeah um did she have cookies and stuff or she might
Guest:about cookies yeah there was definitely refreshments oh good uh maybe even a brew at that time wow you guys were old enough yeah not yeah we're grown-ups now graduates college graduates yes we have a beer um and we were like we definitely want to work together let's do just make it like a real meeting yeah we're making an
Guest:agreement yeah it was super official business yeah yeah and we were like our choices are we could uh live real cheap in berkeley maybe even like in the basements of our parents homes and start shooting stuff and putting it together yeah or we can move to la and know that we'll struggle for a couple of years if not forever if not forever but but with the idea of making things and sort of be absorbed into the system a little bit and hope that you know something caught so we decided to go to la
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we moved down here.
Guest:I immediately started trying to do stand-up as much as I could, and we started shooting stuff and writing stuff, and we all worked super shitty jobs.
Guest:Where'd you work?
Guest:We temped a lot for the first year.
Guest:I worked the night shift at a film coloring house called Company 3.
Guest:And then, you know, on the weekends and in our time off, we would write stuff and shoot stuff.
Guest:And we started putting together a website.
Guest:And Akiva's brother, Micah, was way ahead of the curve on web stuff.
Guest:So he helped us out a lot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And helped us get, you know.
Marc:Was it called Lonely Planet or Lonely Island still?
Guest:Yeah, basically from the beginning, when we decided to make a website, we called it thelonelyisland.com.
Guest:And yeah, kind of just went from there, slowly got better jobs.
Guest:I kept doing stand-up.
Guest:We kept shooting stuff, fell in with Harmon and Schraub and did Channel 101 for a while.
Guest:At the beginning?
Guest:Yeah, pretty much.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, they had been doing it as like this sort of just their friends at a house thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then when they expanded it to actually like at a restaurant, it was at the place, Koi?
Guest:Is that the name of the restaurant?
Guest:Koi on Vine?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was like a Thai food restaurant.
Guest:That's where it started before it moved to on Hollywood.
Marc:But how'd you meet Harmon?
Marc:I mean, that must have been sort of a- Through our agent.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Jay Gazner.
Marc:So you guys, you were represented.
Marc:You got agents pretty quick.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:uh i want to say three and a half to four years of living in la and then you meet like this this uh drunken genius yeah who like that i can't i couldn't think of two people more sort of physiologically and emotionally different than than you two oh me and harman yeah
Guest:Yeah, but we loved him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Loved him.
Guest:Him and Shrod, we got along so well.
Guest:Still do.
Marc:The weird thing about Harmon is like, you know, you meet a lot of people in your life that are creative people or people call them geniuses, but within about 10 minutes, you're like, oh my God, this guy's like, he's doing like that, that three level chest in his brain about everything.
Marc:His brain is on fire.
Guest:yeah it's insane yeah like it's just insane so for us it was like and also seeing the work he was doing even just for channel 101 yeah you know like a laser fart or something you know where you're like but it has perfect story structure and is like nailing all these things that we recognize as really smart so that's what you learn from him
Guest:Yeah, and also he was just a little bit older than us and super jaded, but also encouraging.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He was like, I hate everything and I like you guys, you know, and you have something and encouraged us a lot and, you know, took us into the fold of both of them, Rob too, into the Channel 101 fold.
Guest:And we...
Guest:You know, it was like you described like a young man or woman getting their first job and getting like a jingle in their pocket.
Guest:It makes you sort of roll and you get a little confidence.
Guest:It was sort of creatively that for us.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Where we were like, hey, we're screening these things.
Guest:We're seeing audiences react positively.
Guest:We're getting good feedback even in these little like message boards and stuff like that.
Guest:It's just a good way to build your confidence and learn what you're good at and what you're not good at.
Marc:Validation is helpful.
Marc:It is.
Marc:For any animal.
Marc:100%.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Even plants.
Marc:Yeah, plants like it.
Guest:A little water, good for you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:keep going don't die yeah then we through the agents started going and pitching ideas for shows to comedy central and cable networks and stuff and you're like what 28 younger 20 because i was 27 when we got snl and that was 2005 so yeah like 24 through 26 right um
Guest:Young energy.
Guest:The people like it.
Guest:Bring the kids in.
Guest:What are the kids up to?
Guest:What are the kids up to?
Guest:What are they doing?
Guest:What is this internet?
Marc:So how do I get it?
Marc:On the computer?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we always tell that story is that we had a website, but we still had to give everyone VHS tapes because no one would.
Guest:Isn't that amazing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was just right before.
Marc:No, but this is, it happened up until like three or four years ago.
Marc:I mean, really, to get them to get out of that paradigm where it's like, you have a thing, something I can look at, on your computer, on your desk, you go on the internet.
Guest:You want me to watch it on my computer?
Guest:I'm watching on the TV.
Guest:I think it's going to look worse.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Made for the computer.
Guest:And then there was a big transition where we were like, hey, we got to give people DVDs.
Guest:So we got, you know.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You got to get a tower with a DVD burner on it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That was the next phase.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you're like, hey, we made a menu.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We have like a proper menu.
Guest:You can scroll through.
Guest:This is some high tech shit.
Guest:One trope, two trope.
Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So then what happened to the, how'd you do the, how the SNL thing happened?
Guest:Well, we had done a couple of pilots that didn't happen.
Guest:For what?
Guest:Full length pilots?
Guest:One was a presentation for Fox, but we made it full length.
Guest:What was that show?
Guest:It was called Awesome Town.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was a sketch show.
Guest:It was a Lonely Island sketch.
Guest:It was basically the digital shorts, the show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's how I would describe what it would have ended up being.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So none of you were trying to do half-hour scripted or anything like that.
Marc:It was always sketch-driven.
Guest:We had an idea for a show that we pitched to Comedy Central basically twice, which was essentially just our Lonely Island version of the Tenacious D show or what would then become the Flight of the Conchords show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which is just comedy, music...
Guest:About guys who live in a very low income situation and are trying to like, you know, go through weird adventures.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then it kicks into music videos every now and again.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that was not to be.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then Awesome Town was a sketch show that had videos in it also.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then, you know, everyone almost did it and everyone passed.
Guest:And then we were just doing anything we could.
Guest:So my same buddy, Murray Miller, who asked me to move to NYU and asked me to do stand-up with him the first time,
Guest:and said I should move to L.A.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Got us a job writing for the MTV Movie Awards.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Which was at that time produced by Joel Gallen.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the first year we did it was Lindsay Lohan, and we wrote for it and did pretty good.
Guest:Split one writer's $500 fee a week three ways.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Um, and then the next year they asked us back and it was Fallon.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Fallon hosted.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he brought with him Mike Shoemaker, Steve Higgins, a ton of SNL writers.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we were there and we just hit it off with all of them.
Guest:It was so much fun.
Guest:And we were part of writing two of the pre-tape pieces, which are a huge deal.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, it was like a Star Wars spoof and a Batman spoof.
Guest:So we ended up hanging out with those guys all the time, shooting, and they had invited us over and we hung at the hotel and got wasted and were laughing and having a great time and the show went great.
Guest:And I had just done premium blend stand-up.
Guest:Short set, eight minutes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Cut down to five.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we had like stuff for them to check out because I think the word basically that we got later was they like us.
Guest:Jimmy likes us.
Guest:Mike and Steve like us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What do they have?
Guest:So they looked at it and they were like, you know, we should recommend these guys to Lauren.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So because I had the premium blend and the standup experience, I think they saw me as more of a performer.
Guest:So I went first.
Guest:I found out I was going to audition.
Guest:I went out and did it.
Guest:Keevan Yoram helped me write an audition.
Guest:What was it?
Guest:I mean, I didn't have impressions or characters.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So a lot of it was stand-up.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then a lot of it was just shit that was kind of goofy that we made up the week before.
Guest:What does that mean?
Guest:Like I was, I didn't have impressions.
Guest:So I was like, okay, I'm going to do an impression.
Guest:This is Alan Rickman and die hard.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then the whole thing was just McClan.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:You know, like, like meta bitty stuff like that.
Guest:And a lot of it was sort of the in between of it.
Marc:So how many hoops did you have to jump through?
Marc:So you did the audition in a club and then the studio straight, no straight to the studio.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:did it went pretty good i was like figured i would not be asked to do anything more right and then you got to do the learn meeting no the then i was told that they wanted to meet audition again yeah in a month okay or three weeks or something
Guest:And also that they were going to offer Akiva and Yorma auditions.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And Akiva didn't have any interest in being a performer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yorma did.
Guest:Yorma auditioned with me the second time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Akiva had a Lorne meeting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think all of them went well.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I did then fly out to have the Lorne meeting to be told I was hired.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And I flew with Bill Hader who already knew he was hired because Marcy Klein had told him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I didn't know.
Guest:Also had told him that I was hired.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But no one.
Guest:But no one had told me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I'm sitting next to Bill on the flight out to New York to have this meeting being like, man, I wonder what's going to happen.
Guest:Like, are they going to hire us both?
Guest:Or do you like have to impress him in the meeting and then you find out you're hired?
Guest:And poor Bill was sitting there knowing we were both hired, but was like, I didn't want to be the one to tell you that you were hired.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You want to hear it from someone at the show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because then you'll be all confused and blah, blah.
Guest:So he was very sweet and did not tell me.
Guest:He didn't tell you.
Guest:Didn't tell me, which I'm grateful for.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I went and I had the meeting with Lauren, which basically was like, so do you think you can do this?
Guest:And I was like, yeah, definitely.
Guest:He's like, and you're okay living in New York?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm like, yeah, I've lived here before.
Guest:I love New York.
Guest:He's like, cool.
Guest:And would you be willing to cut your hair at all?
Guest:And I was like, yeah, I'd shave a bald if that's what you want.
Guest:uh and he goes okay well we're all gonna go out for dinner after this so you should come and i was like okay cool and i walked out and i was like i still don't know if i'm fucking hired yeah and i didn't know until uh did you go out to dinner no i knew right after because people who worked in his office uh jen danielson and lindsey shook us and some people who still work there uh were giving me these look like so yeah like
Guest:aren't you so excited and i was like am i hired you're like yes you're hired yes and at that point i didn't know until they told me um so then went out to dinner and with lorne with lorne and bill and there was some cast too i think finesse mitchell and maybe some other folks that were in town where'd you go to dinner this place latanzi uh-huh
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I remember when we were leaving, Conan was there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like obsessed with Conan my whole life.
Guest:And I got to meet him and be told like, hey, this guy just got hired on SNL.
Guest:And he's like, oh, congratulations.
Guest:Very good.
Guest:And I have a picture of me and Conan like the night I found out I got SNL.
Guest:You were obsessed with Conan?
Guest:Yeah, for sure.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Because his show was insane.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I loved it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I still love it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's super funny.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And, you know, also knew he had worked on The Simpsons in that time when The Simpsons really changed my brain a lot.
Marc:So, like after dinner, did Lauren go, see you later?
Guest:Yeah, kind of.
Guest:He doesn't say congratulations.
Guest:He doesn't say welcome.
Guest:It's just like, okay.
Guest:I think his attitude with everyone he hires is, you know, I'm not going to ever let you know that I'm excited because I'm not until you prove that you're doing it well and making the show good.
Marc:Did he ever show his excitement?
Guest:Uh, there was a point it reached while working there where he would say, that was really funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or like, hey, really nice job tonight.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Stuff like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, but not a lot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because if he does, it's like, you know, he's like the dad with 50 kids.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they all want his approval all the time.
Guest:If he's too positive, then everybody's just...
Guest:uh you have to live in fear a little bit i think sure or a lot yeah well depending on how it's going who was there when you got there it was a huge cast my first year was will ferrell still there no he had left and jimmy had left tina was still there but she was on maternity leave half the season there's like 20 people there when you were there i want to say 16 wow uh
Guest:But the craziest thing that I always talk about is my first season was the female cast that was there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Tina, Amy, Maya, Dratch, and Wig were the only... Those were the girls.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Where I'm like, oh, that's five all-time best... Funniest people, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then on the other side, it was, you know, me, Bill, Jason, and Wig, or sorry, because she came in with us, but...
Guest:Parnell, um, finesse Keenan forte Fred.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, Horatio.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Um, maybe that's all of them.
Guest:Seth.
Guest:Uh huh.
Guest:Um,
Guest:Who was doing an update?
Guest:It was... Polar still?
Guest:It was Tina and Amy.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And Horatio did it when Tina was out.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Horatio Sands?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My first ever update on the first episode, Horatio was filling in for Tina.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Guest:Which was... It was cool.
Guest:It was super weird.
Marc:Now, when you were there, were you conscious of how it was supposed to work?
Marc:How did you learn how it worked?
Guest:Uh...
Guest:The best friend we had in that department was Mike Shoemaker.
Guest:He was someone who would actually talk to new people and be like, hey, don't get down about this.
Guest:This is pretty common.
Guest:You might want to steer things more this way.
Guest:That usually works.
Guest:But also the thing about SNL that everyone says and really is true is there's no one right way to go about it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it turned out to be incredibly true for us because the way that I succeeded there and the way me, Keeve, and Jorm together succeeded was by going and taking the initiative and shooting our own stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because it's so much easier to show somebody that something's funny than to tell them.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you were creating complete pieces.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So like, here's your piece.
Marc:This is the right time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And to their credit, they encouraged us.
Guest:We had shot a bunch of stuff before we worked there.
Guest:Keev and Jorm had shot an idea we had had and showed it to them and said, would you ever air this?
Guest:And they said, if it had cast in it, yes.
Guest:Because there's so much cast right now.
Guest:We just have to make sure cast is in the show.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Easy adjustment.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So the first one that we did was me and Forte called Lettuce, where it was just us sitting on a stoop having a really emotional conversation and then taking huge bites of heads of lettuce.
Marc:Not a music.
Guest:Not a music.
Guest:Like a melodrama parody.
Marc:So it's sort of like the Albert Brooks model in a way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Closer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Definitely.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then the second one that aired was Lazy Sunday, which was the Parnell.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then it was like, okay, these guys keep making them basically.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So you were able to sort of carve out your own little production company within SNL.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's very, very unique situation.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But also, like, there was a shift going, like, I mean, I remember some of the press that you were getting around that time was that there was a self-starting element that, you know, because you were with these guys that were hip to the technology, that you guys could just go do it.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And it was a huge advantage for me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Incredibly.
Guest:I mean, I can't put enough emphasis on it where the ideas that we got away with would not have worked in the live setting.
Marc:Right, but you didn't, so how long before you were integrated fully into the live setting?
Guest:I want to say like my fifth season.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Out of seven.
Guest:Because there was also like, I got much better at it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But coming in, my strength was not in sketch.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or characters or impressions.
Guest:You know, along the way, I ended up finding a lot of impressions that worked for me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But that wasn't why they hired me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, and that wasn't what people wanted for me that were watching the show, especially after we started doing the shorts.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And I'm looking across the table at people like Hater and Wig.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Who are like born for SNL Live.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like no one can do it better than that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, and Fred, you know, all of them.
Guest:They're incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So...
Guest:I was happy that I had a niche thing.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Because my sensibility was much more driven in that direction anyway.
Marc:And it was also like it was the new direction in a way.
Marc:I mean that these guys could just do this thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because it was like it changed the texture of the show.
Marc:I mean, they would have their commercial parodies or whatever, but I mean, you could tell when one of your pieces came in that it was this fully produced thing in a way that they didn't generally produce things.
Guest:In general, yeah.
Guest:I mean, in my opinion, we were in the...
Guest:The same lineage as, you know, the Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And the Albert Brooks stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, the McKay stuff that he did before he left.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And even, you know, Eddie Murphy used to do a bunch of pre-taped stuff.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So there's a place for it.
Guest:The white like me thing was huge for us.
Guest:We love that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, but to do it so on our own and so slick, I think was a new thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:did you use the uh facilities at nbc uh not at first and then it became a thing where we started using a big crew through the show right so initially you were still doing it like you know on the computer with you and yeah running the guys i mean the first few i think we just edited in our office right and excluding songs that we made for our albums we recorded all the songs in our office we wouldn't even go into like a studio
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, we have pictures of, you know, so many incredible people just in our office on this freestanding shitty mic.
Guest:You know, like Justin Timberlake and Tom Hanks and Natalie Portman and Rihanna.
Guest:You know, it's the thing about that show that's cool.
Marc:Well, it's the thing about even this, that you realize that because of how advanced technology has become, you can kind of just set up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like it doesn't require- As long as you have something that's interesting or funny to listen to or look at.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, completely.
Guest:It's the best thing about the time we're living in for entertainment.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And what was the biggest one?
Marc:The Justin Timberlake one?
Marc:I think Dick in a Box is the... Yeah.
Guest:I've said before and I'm fine with that that's the thing that will be in my obituary.
Marc:Dick in a Box?
Marc:Just in quotations?
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:That'll be on your gravestone?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I'll take it.
Marc:So... Now, when...
Marc:When you left, you won an Emmy for that, right?
Guest:Yeah, Music and Lyrics Emmy.
Guest:That's hilarious.
Guest:It says dick in a box on it.
Marc:Now, do you own your publishing?
Guest:We own the stuff at SNL.
Guest:I'm not even sure how it ended up shaking out.
Guest:I think a part of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you're in a blanket deal with NBC at that point.
Guest:They own all the content.
Guest:Yeah, but partly that was why we made a record deal.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So at a certain point, we turned around and we started bringing songs we had made over summers on our albums into the show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And doing videos.
Guest:So you already own the songs.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So they could own the video.
Guest:And at the time, a big part of wanting to do that was so they could be on YouTube.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Just so they could be available and freed up.
Guest:Yeah, and not even in reaction to not wanting them on Hulu or NBC.com.
Guest:Right.
Guest:In reaction to them being able to be online anywhere at all.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There was a long time where they were just not anywhere.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because they were like, no, no, no, we have syndication deals that can't go on the internet.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that was the initial argument.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then it became a thing of like, hey, we have like international...
Guest:people watching youtube that want to see these and they can't see it on hulu and they can't see it on nbc.com and eventually with the record deal we got it so it could be on our own youtube channel but it also at a certain point hulu started showing the digital shorts internationally because we wanted it so bad
Marc:Yeah, but ultimately, with the music releases, the albums and the songs themselves, you have complete control over that now.
Guest:Yes, the ones that we made for our albums.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you still make songs.
Guest:We do.
Guest:We just put out an album.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And it does well?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, we have...
Guest:For comedy records, we sell really well.
Marc:And when you left SNL, what was your impetus?
Marc:What was your plan?
Guest:To sleep more.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I didn't have a specific idea of what I wanted to do.
Guest:I just knew that I was...
Guest:You want to do movies?
Guest:I did and still do.
Guest:I love movies.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Definitely wanted to do more album stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Maybe tour.
Guest:We're still talking about maybe tour.
Marc:But that's all within your control.
Marc:Now, your experience with movies has been what?
Marc:Has been like in which part of it?
Marc:Well, I mean, it must be a bit of a struggle, because I just know that when you have a thing that you have control over and you really dictate how it goes, I mean, coming out of SNL and being in that type of environment, and then sort of carving out this niche for yourself where you can sort of make a living and generate creatively, and then entering mainstream movies, even with Adam Sandler in a project, that the burden of expectation and investment is much different.
Guest:Yes, and also your own level of control is diminished.
Guest:Completely.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What's your experience been with that?
Guest:It's been a mixed bag.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I think anyone who's tried their hand in the movie business would say that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The frustrating thing about movies is you work so fucking hard on them.
Guest:Months.
Guest:A year plus.
Guest:And if you include for an actor doing press, oftentimes that's multiple months of press, which is something no one ever talks about because you're not supposed to complain about having to do press because your life is privileged.
Guest:Right.
Marc:yeah recognize that right but it's still something you have to spend your time on oh yeah so everywhere you go you want to do the morning show and the thing right what is it is it radio or tv it's local tv it's like oh really yeah no yeah the studio would really like it if you did it you're like okay now i know what that means i'm doing it we do a radio show at a mall i don't know there's this thing where kids just throw eggs at you okay is it gonna it's big in the area
Guest:But, you know, you do it because, you know, they pay you and it's a movie and you want it to do well.
Guest:And you don't want to seem ungrateful because you're not.
Guest:You appreciate how big a deal it is.
Guest:And they're putting your face on billboards all over town and shit.
Guest:It's fucking awesome.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But the things that dictate whether a movie does well or not now are so...
Guest:seemingly uh random right like the number of comedies especially that come out they just eat shit yeah and then 10 years later people go like i actually like that you know like it's like all of them yeah where were you yeah it doesn't count now so you know we had a really good experience in the making when we did me keeping your you know put together that movie hot rod yeah
Guest:which making was incredibly fun because we really did have control and we really stand by that movie as a weird, interesting sort of comedy experiment movie.
Guest:And that's the one I get the most when I go out.
Guest:Comedy people and comedy fans are like, hey, that movie Hot Rod, me and my buddies watch it and we quote it and blah, blah, blah, which was our intent.
Guest:We wanted to make a Billy Madison, Wet Hot American Summer kind of a movie.
Guest:Right.
Guest:However, the studio wanted it to be Wayne's World.
Guest:They wanted it to be a big summer movie.
Guest:And once that engine starts churning, they will market it the way that they want it to be received and the way they want it to perform.
Guest:And they're not wrong and we're not wrong because they are like, we spent X amount, we want to make X amount.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think we were naive going into it, you know, not understanding exactly how important that difference was.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We were just trying to make each other laugh.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Business was not really a... No.
Guest:We were, you know, it was the summer after our first season of SNL we shot that movie.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we were incredibly green.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Were there consequences?
Yeah.
Guest:I mean, you know, I like to pretend like, you know, your movie doesn't make a lot of money.
Guest:Your career doesn't get colder.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But it does.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, in terms of that.
Guest:The cool thing at that time was we went back on to SNL the next season and the first show we did this digital short called I Ran So Far with Adam Levine.
Guest:that is in my opinion one of the best we ever made yeah and all these news outlets picked up on it and everyone was like oh shit that was great yeah these yeah these guys are still good oh good you know so you get that second lease on life when you have that home base to go back to sure um and you know now like i said people who i care about their opinion tell me that they really like hot rod
Marc:But now, have you had this experience again, though, like with the Sandler movie or anything else?
Guest:The Sandler movie, you know, was something I was dying to do because he's one of my heroes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I grew up watching him.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are two of my favorite comedies ever made.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I read this script.
Guest:and i was like i get to play sandler's son yeah you know how could that be bad how could that be bad i've met him a few times at this point he's been so kind to me um he called me just cold at snl to tell me great job like yeah in the first season i was there oh that's you know he's just a great guy yeah and i thought the script was funny and i get to work with sandler right i knew that it wouldn't be something where i was like controlling
Guest:the tone of it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I knew it was going to be funny and it was going to be him being crazy, which excited me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, and I had so much fucking fun making that movie.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I don't, there's not even a cell in my body that regrets doing it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And now he's a friend and you know,
Guest:I think that movie was very funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's definitely tonal things that are Happy Madison things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That are not the same as, like, a Lonely Island thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Where, you know, they appeal in different ways to a different audience.
Guest:But that said, you know, I went to that premiere and all my friends were there that work in comedy and everyone was like, dude, that movie was fucking funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nice job.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I, as a fan of Sandler, seeing him play a fucking maniac, you know, his character in that movie is...
Guest:crazy yeah it's the craziest and dirtiest he's been since those early movies or those early albums sure so to get to like sit there and watch him do that every day on set was like fantasy camp yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i do think you know obviously the expectation on a sandler movie at this point is it makes 100 million dollars yeah but it made i don't know like 40 something like that and for me i'm like that's pretty good it's four times more than what high rod made
Guest:And it'll be on cable forever.
Guest:And there's people that all the time on the street stop me and go, hey, that's my boy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Love that movie, man.
Guest:That was super funny.
Guest:And I'm like, yeah, I know.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:You just got to take your cuts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Is there a type of movie you want to do?
Guest:Just whatever I think would be fun to make and will end up being interesting.
Guest:Are you working on one now?
Guest:No.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:I did one with Rashida Jones that was like an indie called Celeste and Jessie Forever.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And that one was funny-ish, but also like slightly dramatic.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I just liked the part, and I liked the script.
Guest:It was a good time?
Guest:Super fun.
Guest:I mean intense, because it was acting for real, and I didn't know how to do that, but...
Guest:Are you working on that?
Guest:I worked on it then for that.
Guest:You took classes and stuff or you worked with a coach?
Guest:No.
Guest:Yeah, I met with a lady like one time and she sort of was like, so try and like think about what the character would feel at this moment.
Guest:Like, you know, basic stuff that you would think.
Marc:Was that an hour well spent?
Guest:i think so you know like the same way like seeing a therapist is a good idea because it just makes you acknowledge things a little bit yeah but you know like yeah i knew that yeah you always know but sometimes you just need to like get it it's one of those things where you just i think you got to do it and keep doing it and you know you got to just take whatever opportunity you can obviously yeah in the position you're in the pressure is a little more intense you can't sort of like i'm just gonna do whatever it takes for me to act and you just watch your pay grade go down
Guest:Sure, but at the same time, I've already done more than I ever thought I would do.
Guest:I really mean that.
Guest:I was going to be happy just doing stand-up.
Guest:I love comedy.
Guest:It's all I've ever cared about.
Marc:I can tell you right now, that would not have happened.
Marc:You would not have been happy just doing stand-up.
Guest:Some people, well, yeah, I mean, everyone eventually.
Guest:If you're so good at stand-up and so successful at stand-up, you end up doing other stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, no, I mean, I think to be just a stand-up is, it's definitely a noble undertaking, but I think that you were, you know, your vision is different.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:I'm very, very happy I'm doing what I'm doing.
Guest:How do your parents feel about your life?
Guest:They couldn't be more thrilled.
Marc:Oh, that's great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And by the way, one more thing about the Celeste and Jessie thing.
Guest:I did that just sort of because I trusted Rashida in that script.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I thought it would be an interesting experiment.
Guest:And now I'm doing this show Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Mike Scherer.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:With Chelsea and everybody.
Marc:I wanted to talk about that.
Marc:It's doing well, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's doing, yeah, it just got picked up for the full season.
Guest:Mike Schur told me, I've always found your stuff funny, but we were thinking of who we would want to be the lead in this show.
Guest:And because I saw Celeste and Jesse and saw you play things slightly more real in pockets, I thought, oh, hey, there's a guy who could handle the responsibility of both.
Marc:And that whole show, you're sort of like the center of a duo?
Marc:It's you and the chief?
Guest:It's more of an ensemble.
Guest:It's like Parks and Rec or The Office, but we're detectives.
Guest:But yeah, Fox has put it out there as me and Andre Brower more, because that's the sort of contentious relationship that drives it in the beginning.
Marc:See, I feel like an asshole.
Marc:I've got to watch it.
Guest:No, it's all right.
Marc:No, no.
Guest:It's TV.
Marc:It's not all right.
Marc:It's on the DVR.
Marc:Let me beat myself up.
Marc:They count DVR now.
Marc:Okay, I'll go watch all of them.
Marc:Can I do it on demand or whatever?
Marc:I bet.
Guest:I bet it's on Fox.
Marc:Can we sit and watch him with me?
Guest:Yeah, I'll hang out.
Guest:You want me to give you like a DVD commentary?
Guest:Oh man, he was sick this day.
Guest:Listen to his voice, you can tell.
Marc:Oh my God, she does not know how to hold a gun.
Marc:So you're working.
Marc:That's good, man.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And you just got picked up for the rest of, for a whole season, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah and you got married i got married yeah about uh three or four four weeks ago just now five weeks how long were you with her uh six years oh so it's time it was time where'd you get married in big sur at the post ranch yeah of course yeah it was great i stayed across the street at ventana yeah yeah uh one time we were staying at ventana ventana the first time i ever went to post ranch we went there for dinner right that's what we did yeah and we were like oh we got to switch over
Marc:But it's like twice as much, right?
Marc:Yeah, it's crazy.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:That restaurant, it's like, is it going to fall?
Marc:No, it's the best.
Marc:It's really stunning up there.
Guest:It really is.
Guest:And what does she do?
Guest:She's a musician.
Guest:Her name's Joanna Newsom.
Guest:She plays harp and piano and sings and writes songs.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:She's fantastic.
Guest:Like a classical musician?
Guest:Uh, it's kind of, she's got classical influence, but it's generally categorized more as like folk singer songwriter, but it's not, I mean, I wouldn't put her in the same category as most people who are called that.
Guest:It's very unique.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So you have that in the house.
Guest:She's the best.
Guest:It's crazy.
Guest:Her music's incredible.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I can't talk it up enough.
Guest:I met her at her concert.
Guest:I'm a super fan.
Guest:That's nice.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That sounds like it's going to be good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm very happy.
Marc:It's going to take a lot for you to fuck your life up.
Guest:It's going to be a lot of heroin.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, don't get started too soon.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Thanks, man.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:That's our show, folks.
Marc:I hope you enjoyed that.
Marc:I...
Marc:I'm still naked.
Marc:This is the bookend.
Marc:And Andy was a pleasure to talk to.
Marc:Please go to WTFPod.com.
Marc:Get the app, the free app.
Marc:You can upgrade for a few bucks and stream all 458 episodes of WTF.
Marc:You can leave a comment.
Marc:You can...
Marc:Get on the mailing list and I'll send you an email every week.
Marc:That it's actually thoughtful in person.
Marc:I'm not a big plugger.
Marc:I'm not a plugger of things.
Marc:God damn it, I gotta do some new stand-up.
Marc:I'm not doing it naked.
Marc:I don't have that kind of courage.
Marc:I can do this naked, but I can't do that naked.
Marc:They had a show where people did naked comedy.
Marc:I don't know if I'm in... I guess I do have some body issues.
Marc:I mean, it's not like... Oh, God, just the thought of being on stage naked is horrifying.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I'm okay.
Marc:I'm okay.
Marc:Okay?
Marc:You okay?
Marc:I'm okay.
Guest:Boomer lives!